As 2011 draws to a close our debate for Game of the Year is heating up. And one of the games we'll be seriously considering as the victor,Jetpack Joyride[$.99], is now free on the App Store. Jetpack Joyride is fantastically good; we're big fans of its irreverent style and its simple, yet stunningly engaging flying action. That's why we're considering it, and why we're endorsing you giving it a free download right now.
If you're a TouchArcade merit badge holder, you're more than aware that we posted about the game once again last week. Halfbrick has continued its commitment to updating the flyer consistently and often. The latest update sees the introduction of seasonal stuff, like Christmas tree-themed jetpacks and festive clothing. Get that now, if you haven't.
Back in November, we took an early look at SummitX Snowboarding [99¢] from Com2uS and Free Range Games. Since then, the game's been released, so now the rest of us can hit the virtual slopes for $99¢. After investing some time into the final release of the game I've reached the same conclusion as our preview: - I like what see.
There's six different mountains to conquer, including 36 different multiple-branching down-hill runs. The first slope is 'Glacier' which has six runs and you can unlock the other peaks - like Mt. Payne and Angel Peak - by winning medal points (3 points for gold, 2 for silver or 1 point for bronze). You can choose which valley to enter and each route contains different gates, with blue for time bonuses and red for a score multiplier, so it's worth exploring.
After choosing to be male or female, you start with $1000 and can earn money in the game, which is handy for buying tricks, such as the ability to tilt the device for air-control. There's a decent assortment of tricks available, such as flips, rolls and tail grabs. Doing tricks earns time bonuses and points as you fly down the mountain towards the finish.
When you leave the ground, six new buttons conveniently appear on-screen for performing tricks. You can press one button for a simple trick, two buttons for a trickier trick or hold and slide your finger to extend the move, for the trickiest of tricks. Two landing buttons appear when you're about to hit the snow and these can be pressed to level-out the board for a safe landing, or to stop a spin, roll or flip. These trick buttons only appear when needed and then disappear to keep the screen uncluttered, so you have a clear view of the terrain.
The main navigational controls are rather unusual. A two-thumbed split steering-wheel is used to turn left or right. For example, to turn left sharply:Â The left thumb moves down, while the right right thumb moves up simultaneously like using a virtual steering wheel of sorts. This control scheme wasn't immediately intuitive to me, however, I persevered and after five minutes I was carving the snow quite happily. So, potentially be prepared for a little practice time at the start.
Some highlights of the game include finding massive jumps on the side of the course or jumping off a cliff, onto a small snow-coated plateau, then immediately off a ramp for some big air. There's also caves and a deep rocky ravine to jump across, with a turning landing required on the other side. These "hell yeah" moments really add to the experience and make this game a lot of fun.
You can spend your game money on a variety of snowboards, for improved performance. There's six decks, ranging from the entry-level "basix" up to the "pro board". Each board has different attributes for air-time, air-control, acrobatics, speed and toughness. Plus, there's over 20 skins to buy: Perhaps you want a zombie ape on your deck, a tiger shark or a stylish green cyclops.
Your runs are scored based on tricks performed and time taken. SummitX connects to the Com2uS gameHub, but pleasingly, it also supports Game Center for leader-boards and 15 achievements and games are automatically saved to iCloud. The music is great, featuring over 20 licensed rock soundtracks, which play in a slow-motion effect when you're aerial. Alternatively, you can pump your own iTunes playlist. There are in-app purchases (IAP) available, to unlock features, however so far it hasn't felt intrusive or necessary which is good as Com2uS have been criticized for heavy-handed IAP in the past.
SummitX Snowboarding only has one game mode and I haven't seen any other boarders to race, however, this is a cool looking and sounding snowboarding game, with peaks, runs, boards, skins and tricks to unlock, plus a variety of routes down each run, which ensures there's plenty of replay value. Unfortunately, after downloading their update v1.01 and installing it on both devices, I lost my medal points and progress, which has dented my otherwise positive impression. If you're downloading the game for the first time, this obviously won't be an issue for you.
This is probably ancient news for the biggest of big fans of Catan [$4.99 / HD] in general, but check this: USM, the same dudes responsible for the App Store port of the popular board game, are putting out a port of Rivals of Catan. This morning, actually, we were told that the "first version" is currently in testing, and USM is inviting its users into a beta to give it a spin.
Rivals of Catan is a card game adaptation of Catan proper built for two players. In brief, it's all about expanding principalities and scoring points for various things in a fairly rapid-fire fashion -- players roll dice for bonuses and draw cards each round, some of which activate a special event or allow general improvements. You can read more about it here, if this is tickling you in any special way.
And by the way, that Cities & Knights expansion is still coming to Catan. A beta test is planned to start at the beginning of the year, and DSM hopes to release at some point around February or even March. Cross-platform multiplayer is also still scheduled to hit at some point after this update, FYI.
Attention: if you're particularly fleet of finger, you can grab PopCap Games's new-fangled Bejeweled [$.99] for the price of $0. Apple is continuing its crazy promotional program via Facebook, and this week it's giving away Bejeweled while supplies last. All you need to do to claim a free copy is hit this link, mash a few buttons including a "Like" or two, and then you can download the game for free, like a boss.
We recently gave Bejeweled a spin and came away thinking, "Yep, this is Bejeweled." That isn't a complaint, either -- this new iteration is as good as any in the franchise, and that means it's really good. Especially in bursts. Give it a shot.
Also, get ready for a bunch of crazy deals in the near future. Ninety-nine cents off is going to be baby stuff compared to what we're going to see later this week.
In the interest of full disclosure, I have to get something off my chest: I'm a huge sucker for stop-motion animation, and especially when it involves clay. In fact, one of my all time favorite games is Platypus [$2.99/Lite] not only because it's a solid horizontal shooter but mainly because all of the game's assets were painstakingly modeled out of clay. It just gives the game a look that's unlike anything else that uses pixels, polygons, or other types of visuals.
Coming early next year is a new game that's taking the "made entirely with clay" approach. It's called Clay Jam, and it's being developed by Fat Pebble. The premise sounds pretty simple: you're a small pebble rolling uncontrollably down a hill. You'll want to roll over things that are smaller than you, while avoiding things that are larger than you. As you roll over tiny monsters they get stuck on your pebble, increasing its size and allowing you to roll over even larger objects and creatures, Katamari-style. You can control your pebble's path by drawing trenches into the clay ground, guiding the pebble left or right around objects you're trying to avoid.
You can get a pretty good idea of the kind of gameplay in Clay Jam with the following preview trailer:
You have to admit, while the gameplay itself looks mighty simplistic, it does look pretty darn fun, especially digging trenches in the clay using your finger. Plus, the creatures and objects created out of the clay and the way they're animated look downright awesome. I love the little behind the scenes peek you get on how they make and animate their clay models. According to Fat Pebble, Clay Jam is on schedule for a February release, and I'm really excited to check it out. Look for more on this squishy little title in the coming months.
Most iOS gamers are familiar with Zombie Gunship [99¢], Limbic Software's awesome take on the AC-130 gunship scenes from recent Call of Duty console games. Zombie Gunship quickly rose through the ranks of the App Store's top charts, and was easily one of the nicer surprises from games released this year offering great visuals, frantic shooting, and upgrades galore.
Something I could have never for the life of me expected, however, is that developer Code-Monkeys is currently in the midst of creating a game in the similar vein to Zombie Gunship, except it uses a holiday theme. It's called Santa's Giftship, and it looks totally twisted. Code-Monkeys is not shy at all about their inspiration, and the following trailer gives me that deja vu feeling from when I first laid eyes on the Zombie Gunship trailer:
As you can see, most of the grittier aspects of Zombie Gunship have been replaced by a much more sugary Christmas theme. Your ammunition consists of candy canes and snowballs instead of bullets and bombs. Rather than plowing down the undead hordes, you're plowing down... nutcrackers and elves? It all seems so very wrong, and yet, so very right. Santa's Giftship should be hitting in time for the holidays, which basically means it will need to come out this week if it wants to make it in time for Christmas. We'll take a closer look at Santa's Giftship when it finally hits the App Store.
As far as premises go, two dogs that are tied together by the tongue is a bit of an oddity. But on a platform that regularly sees us flinging birds at pigs or feeding candy to monsters, it's best not to ask too many questions. Besides, Tongue Tied's [$1.99] adorably vacant duo Mick and Ralph are so much better together than they could be apart.
Their predicament sets them up for all sorts of physics-based platforming challenges. You can slingshot them off each other, or send them flying in circles. One can hang by the tongue and swing below while the other walks. It's your job to shoot them over hazards or into tasty bones and keep them from harm, because they'll just keep on walking inexorably to their deaths. These dogs are really, really dumb. The game's developer Mojo Bones, on the other hand, is a very smart team. They've created a game that's both charming and challenging, packed it with replayability and promised a year's worth of free updates. Hard to say no to that.
During GDC this year, Team Phobic released Undead Ocean [$1.99], an action platforming title built from their experience with the excellent Bounce On series and a healthy nod to classic action platformers from the bygone 16-bit era. We liked Undead Oceanquite a bit when it initially launched, especially due to the fantastic level designs and copious amounts of hidden areas. It really felt like the kind of game I would have gobbled up back in the day on my SNES.
Originally, Undead Ocean was built with expansion in mind by way of adding additional islands with new levels via updates. It might have taken a while, but the first major addition to Undead Ocean has hit the App Store. This update includes a new island with 15 brand new levels, new enemy types and boss fights, new powerup items, new story cutscenes, and of course something that any good island adventure needs: a huge volcano. You can see most of these new goodies in the following trailer:
Undead Ocean is one of the better action platformers available on iOS, and today's update practically doubles the amount of content from the original release. If you're looking to try before you buy, you can grab Undead Ocean Dojo [Free], a free spinoff title that features an intro level not contained in the regular game which should give you more than a good idea whether or not you'll be interested in the full, and is a pretty cool game on its own merits as well.
Back in July I had the pleasure of welcoming one of my favorite shooters of all time, Cope-Com's excellent Battle Squadron, into the App Store in the form of a native iOS port of the original Amiga game. Today I'm happy to bring news of a new, lower-priced iPad-only release of the title featuring two-player, split-screen action and Game Center achievements as well as an update to the original, universal release.
The new iPad-only release, entitled Battle Squadron ONE 2-player [App Store], allows two players to face off on the same device, thanks to a new split-screen, portrait play mode that lets you and a friend share in the action (for those equipped with a friend). In this mode, each player is able to choose their own control configuration, and gameplay is as smooth and fast-paced as it is in the one-player mode. What's more, two-player network gameplay is planned for a future update.
A number of other improvements have arrived in this new release, as well. The game features 36 Game Center achievements and a new super-tough "Air Commodore" difficulty level (get it?) with a particularly intense level ending. Cope-Com has listened to player feedback and has tweaked every control mode and rolled-in a new one. The main user complaint was that it was "tedious" to have to move a finger all over the entire screen to control the ship. To address this, a drag control mode with 2x the movement vs. finger rate was added (with the original 1x control still available). Additionally, the joypad and tilt control modes have been adjusted to allow movement in all directions (analog) as opposed to the earlier release's 8-way (digital) movement.
This week on The TouchArcade Show, we power through topics like Jack LaLanne's juicer to bring you the latest, hottest, and radicalest in iOS gaming. At the top, we discuss the upcoming iTunes Connect freeze. Later, we dig into new games such as Sin or Win, Sonic CD, and Kinectimals, and much later, we give a few lucky fan e-mailers their moment in the spotlight. Overall, this was a wicked show to do, so we hope you love it.
If you'd like to give us a listen, do so via the handy-dandy links below. If you like what you heard, consider subscribing to us -- The TouchArcade Show is on iTunes and the Zune Marketplace for your convenience. Want our shows the second they hit the net? This is how to go about that, folks.
WOW! This week, or actually, the last two weeks have been insane. We've been pulling some crazy hours here getting everything up, and as a result, the front page of TouchArcade has been moving at about mach 3. I'm pretty sure Brad, Jared, and I all Tebowed at one point this week in hopes that the emails would stop coming.
Anyway, here's a reverse chronological recap of the stories really worth checking out over the past couple of weeks, in case you missed anything! If you've already read everything I'm linking here, congratulations, you just earned your TouchArcade holiday season merit badge.
Our ratings for games we reviewed in November are now in place, and we now present to you the ones that are on the top of the heap. Each game reviewed receives a 1-5 star rating relative to the other games from that month. Generally, a three-star or higher is considered a "good" rating.
A couple of weeks ago, Tough Guy Studios released their first iOS game called Time Ducks [$1.99], and I'm going to be honest, I bought it based solely on the fact that it was called Time Ducks. I figured with a name like that, there was no way I could go wrong. As it turned out, Time Ducks ended up being a pretty fun and unique take on line drawing games, and it sort of sat on the back burner as something I'd been planning on writing about.
iPhone controller accessories have been generating a good bit of news, here lately. More and more existing iOS titles are gaining physical control options via updates, and just last week we detailed the upcoming Gametel Bluetooth controller that will soon become a game-enhancing iOS controller option, alongside the iCade and iControlPad. The more the merrier, true, but long time readers may recall yet another controller we covered over a year ago that has been off the radar ever since. Does anyone remember the GameBone?
Microsoft, via Xbox Live evangelist Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb, has just announced the immediate release of the company's first Xbox Live iOS app, My Xbox Live [Free]. It's a free app that basically acts as a mobile companion to some of the more important aspects of the service. You can read and send messages to anyone on your Friend's List, manage that list or invite new people onto it, edit your profile, gander at all of your hard-earned achievements, or even mess with your Avatar's apparel.
At E3 back in June of this year, we got an impressive hands-on demo of the OnLive service running and playable on the iPad. In case you're not familiar, OnLive is the cloud-based gaming service that allows you to play from a fairly large selection of console and PC games by way of streaming them to an OnLive client running on your computer or a specially designed set-top box that connects to your TV. In simpler terms, it's a lot like instantly streaming movies over NetFlix, except it's video games, and you get to actually play them in real time with minimal lag if you're internet speeds are up to snuff.
Holy jeez! We're pretty used to the typical Wednesday onslaught of new releases in the App Store, but today has been a truly insane undertaking. Between Batman making a surprise drop from the shadows and into the App Store with Arkham City Lockdown, the exciting OnLive iOS client finally seeing the light of day (soon anyway), and the normal barrage of new releases we usually see every week, it's been a wild roller coaster ride of iOS craziness. To top it off, Eli is out in Finland hobnobbing with The Mighty Eagle, ensuring that Brad and I are up to our ear balls in busy work.
Dragon Shout [Free] has cleared the certification hurdle and it's available now at the low, low price of $0. What it does, it does well, and it proves a point. Games as deep as Skyrim should be embracing mobile companion apps across the board. Dragon Shout is an app that not only makes Skyrim better, but down the road, it might add an entirely new layer to the experience: social.
Hey guys! Here's a surprise, Chrono Trigger [$9.99] just came out of nowhere. Well, not entirely out of nowhere, since Square Enix had mentioned that it was coming this month… But after the rampant delays that Final Fantasy Tactics saw, my hopes that they'd hit this release window could be best described as "cautiously optimistic."
If you're new to iOS devices, or haven't been following the scene as closely as you should have been over the last year, Apple's year end feature App Store Rewind 2011 has an incredible amount of must-have games and apps that, in my opinion, you can basically just blindly download as they did a great job of picking out the cream of the crop.
Earlier today I got a live demo of Ovelin's WildChords [Free], an edutainment musical game that never really had much reason to be on my radar. But using nothing more than an iPad, any kind of guitar, and some technical wizardry on their end, WildChords can teach you how to play the guitar.
Earlier this week, Warner Bros. and Mortal Kombat developer NeatherRealm Studios surprised everybody by dropping Batman Arkham City Lockdown [$5.99], an iOS spinoff of the critically acclaimed console series, into the App Store.
Kinectimalson Kinect is an experiential game that does a solid job of luring its users into forming an emotional bond with its assortment of on-screen, rascally pets.
If you've been sitting on a massive emergency food supply waiting for the right occasion to open the first gallon sized can of preserved potato chunks, this might be it.
The only way I can start this review is with a little history lesson, both for people who aren't familiar with Sonic CD, as well as those of you who might not have been reading TouchArcade since the summer of 2009. Let's start at the beginning, so everyone can truly appreciate just how wonderful the very existence of this game is.
Prior to Grand Theft Auto III I'd say I had fun messing around in Grand Theft Auto games, but never really enjoyed myself. The top-down view felt incredibly claustrophobic, and, at least for me, made getting immersed into the game world incredibly difficult. I don't think it's hyperbole at all to say that GTA 3 changed everything.
American Laser Games's so-awful-it-ends-up-being-good FMV shooter, Mad Dog McCree, is coming to the iPhone and iPod Touch this December 20, according to caretaker Digital Leisure. This is a port of the original arcade release of the game, so don't expect anything too fancy, however the team is noting that it has converted the game's silly footage for phones and even added an "all new casual mode" for those without hardcore gunslinging skills.
In April of last year, iOS gamers scored big when longtime Japanese developer CAVE decided to task their mobile division with bringing some of their classic shooter titles to the Apple App Store. All of these games – Espgaluda II, Dodonpachi Resurrection, and Deathsmiles – received critical acclaim from media and gamers alike, and set the benchmark for what we should expect from our bullet hell shmups on the App Store.
I told you it has been a crazy couple of weeks! I only cherry picked the really good stuff that we posted for this list too! Now, it's time for a beer and a weekend away from my inbox…!
Our all-seeing eye is fond of artistically gifted games, and Catch the Princess is the latest to be caught in its steely gaze. Imagine, if you will, a side-scrolling puzzle game that tries to capture all the essence of rustic fairy tale imagery, and then pairs that with deliciously crafted Cut The Rope-style play. That's the pitch for Catch the Princess in brief, and we're thinking this is something you'll want to look out for, too.
As you'll see in the reveal trailer, Catch the Princess is dark and gloomy in all the right ways, and appears to have the mechanical might to match its inspired tone and art direction. The game launches next week for the iPhone and iPad and will boast around 60 levels filled with rusty chains, bellows, soft lighting, and princess-saving action. Get your eyeballs on these screens:
In case you wanted to know, this is being crafted by Robots and Pencils, an outfit based in Calgary. If you're big into Minecraft World Explorer [$.99], then you already know these guys. We've been told that we'll be hearing a lot more about this studio in the near future, and provided Catch the Princess rocks, we'll pair some ears with our eye. Somehow.
We've all been in a mind-numbingly tense "Oh, god, Super Crate Box is about to release" state for a bit since hearing about its submission to Apple, and, sadly, we'll have to survive with this burden a wee bit longer. Developer Vlambeer has just announced that Super Crate Box won't appear on the App Store before Christmas as was expected. Instead, it'll launch this January 5th on the platform.
That's not too bad as far as release date pushes go. And besides, it's not like you'll have trouble finding something to bide your time with while you wait. As you've noticed by the look of our page the last couple of days, there are a lot of games, and a lot of new updates, to dig into. Go get'em Cowboy!
Toxic Blob's puzzle-meets-strategy game Sin or Win feels like it has some issues with its actual execution, but it's ultimately an entertaining-enough game that presents a really cool idea: moral choice as a viable, fundamental game-changing mechanic.
In games like Mass Effect 2, for example, its moral choice system boils down to being a space jerk or a space saint -- the difference between booting a dude through a window or getting chatty with him. There are other constructs that flesh out these decisions, but you don't change the way you fundamentally shoot stuff because of what you've done.
Sin or Win, on the other hand, incorporates two unique play styles and introduces basically two different kinds of puzzle games depending on your moral choice: sinning or winning. With a stroke of your finger, you can become the savior of its physics-enabled cavemen, or you can masterfully bring them to their individual fiery dooms. Each route has a unique kind of scoring and its own strategies. The choice, then, changes play.
In April of last year, iOS gamers scored big when longtime Japanese developer CAVE decided to task their mobile division with bringing some of their classic shooter titles to the Apple App Store. All of these games – Espgaluda II, Dodonpachi Resurrection, and Deathsmiles – received critical acclaim from media and gamers alike, and set the benchmark for what we should expect from our bullet hell shmups on the App Store.
In between two of those releases, CAVE decided to branch out into something different, and brought out an iOS exclusive game called Mushihimesama Bug Panic. It was a departure from their typical offerings as it was a dual-stick action game, but it retained the frantic nature of their bullet hell games extremely well and was equally adored amongst critics and fans.
Now we have CAVE’s latest release, which kind of brings things full circle. Mushihimesama is a vertical shmup released in Japanese arcades back in 2004. It’s seen a sequel with Mushihimesama Futari, and a spinoff title called Puzzle! Mushihimetama. Bug Panic on iOS is actually based in the Mushihimesama universe, featuring the same female main character and insect-based enemies. Now the original Mushihimesama title is available on the App Store as Bug Princess [$4.99].
As 2011 draws to a close our debate for Game of the Year is heating up. And one of the games we'll be seriously considering as the victor, Jetpack Joyride [$.99], is now free on the App Store. Jetpack Joyride is fantastically good; we're big fans of its irreverent style and its simple, yet stunningly engaging flying action. That's why we're considering it, and why we're endorsing you giving it a free download right now.
Back in November, 
This is probably ancient news for the biggest of big fans of 
Attention: if you're particularly fleet of finger, you can grab 
This week on The TouchArcade Show, we power through topics like Jack LaLanne's juicer to bring you the latest, hottest, and radicalest in iOS gaming. At the top, we discuss the upcoming iTunes Connect freeze. Later, we dig into new games such as Sin or Win, Sonic CD, and Kinectimals, and much later, we give a few lucky fan e-mailers their moment in the spotlight. Overall, this was a wicked show to do, so we hope you love it.
Our all-seeing eye is fond of artistically gifted games, and 
