Surprise! Supergiant Games has been working on an iPad port of Bastion. It’ll launch a little later tonight, as international releases worm their way across the globe. If you have played Bastion before, on either XBLA or in your browser or on PC, you’ll feel at home with this version. While it does contain some minor tweaks, it’s functionally the same game that you should have, and probably have, checked out before.
For those of you not in the loop, Bastion is an action RPG that tasks you, as The Kid, with restoring a floating island to its former glory. In the process of rebuilding, you learn a thing or two about a beautiful world gone wrong. You’ll also kill tons of weird bad guys, like, say, floating blobs and deformed blue things with scythes.
The game’s most engaging aspects is its story-telling. Bastion doesn’t beat you over the head with cut-scenes or loads of dialogue. Instead, a gravely voiced narrator delicately dispenses context as you explore the game. He’s restrained with it, too, leaving some mystery in the air that gently prods you forward.
This narrator, dubbed The Stranger, is also dynamic. As you pick up weapons, rebuild certain parts of the Bastion, and even fall off ledges, he’ll comment. It’s a neat touch that lets you sorta feel like The Kid instead of just his puppeteer.
Another thing Bastion does right: combat. It’s two weapon system is deceptively deep, thanks to the dozens of possible combinations coupled with a customization system that allows you to bump up speed, strength, and ammunition.
Nuts and bolts wise, combat can be boiled down to simple button mashing, but you can exploit deeper systems. If you’re carrying the hammer, for example, you can get much more out of it by holding an attack to unleash a more powerful one. You also get the option to straight-up dodge attacks or use a shield to block them.
This iPad version and the other versions of Bastion do differ. For starters, this one packages in the game’s DLC. Also, some combat and upgrade mechanics have been tweaked, too, presumably balancing out the limitation of the touch screen. It also seems like health potions drop more regularly, but this could be just us not remembering Bastion as clearly as we should considering how good it is.
If you’re wondering, Bastion does have two control methods. One is a point-and-click kinda interface. The other is a traditional virtual button layout.
One thing you’re sure to notice as you watch us play is that this game is gorgeous. Like Enslaved, Bastion‘s post-apocalyptic world is flushed with color. The art has sort of a rustic quality to it, which really bolsters home game’s overall vibe and production elements. The soundtrack, by the way, is amazing.
If you haven’t played Bastion yet, do it. You need to. It’s a great downloadable game — it’s inventive, it’s fun, and it manages to do so much within the confines of its relatively compact framework.
We’ll keep giving the iPad version a go, and we’ll get back to you with a full review in the near future. Stay tuned!
I'd love to see garou: mark of the wolves and last blade 2 come out, with icade support.. maybe even neo turf masters. It's actually too bad that they couldn't do something similar to the turbografx emulator and just give us a neo geo front end since all the games used the same base hardware :)
also, forgot to say, great work DotEmu, you guys are doing a great job on these emulations :)
Yup, was underwhelmed the original releases, but with extra support DotEmu has put into updating their games and responding to fan feedback, they've become superb ports. A+ work, really great stuff
Completely unimpressed with the control changes - I'm not interested in playing 'cheat mode', the speed of your ship is part of the design of the game, changing it is a bizarre.
Meanwhile, they've not bothered fixing is the pad controls which, on an iPad at least, have a deadzone the size of a small county and are utterly unsuited to playing the game - this is really odd.
I'd intended to ask for a refund on the basis of the controls but I'd hoped, from what they said, that they'd fix them. It appears they decided not to bother - last title I buy from them - simple as.
Hi John. We understand your concern but at some point we need to make a choice and 95% of players were asking from "Fast" touch controls (plus this is an option so you can revert to "original" controls). You are the only people asking for a tweak of the D-Pad so far but we take this into account. If you really want to have a perfect user experience of emulated games on iOS there is no other choice than to get your hands on an iCade or similar.
If you have some detailed tweaking suggestions we are open to hear from you. You can reach us either on Twitter, Facebook, email etc;
The problem is that the pad controls 'as released' are awful on an iPad - awful as in "no-one can possibly have tried playing this on an iPad" awful.
The 'deadzone' in the pad is massive, you have to move your finger a LONG way to move your ship. Ironically, the touch movement is even worse on an iPad as your entire HAND is in the way of the screen. That also suggests no-one bothered trying the game on that platform.
Talking about 'priorities' is insulting at this point - I'm not asking for a new feature (which the 1:1 moving system you've added certainly is) - I'm asking for the game 'as released' be made to work properly on an iPad (e.g. offering a smaller DPAD with tighter controls).
If actually making your game work as it should is a lower priority than listening to people asking for a fundamental change how the game actually works (removing ship speed limits to allow near-instant touch movement) then I think you have a weird idea of the term 'priorities' - and no grasp at all of the 'Emu' bit of your name either!
DotEmu responding to your question civilly and respectfully and you come off as a petulant child. Just letting you know in case you are worried about karma or something similar.
How is my pointing out their hypocritical position making me the petulant child? Is it just because I'm not part of the "we asked for the game to be made easy and got it - WOOOOO" club??
I was cheeky enough to ask for the game to be made PLAYABLE - and they ignored that request...So I post to highlight my disappointment - that they chose to listen to a lot of people asking for the game to be fundamentally changed (made easier) but ignored perfectly reasonable requests for it to be made PLAYABLE (on an iPad at least).
I cannot understand how anyone could describe the difference between changing game mechanics and fixing bad design as being a 'choice'
Well - perhaps if you are going to rely on 'how loud the users cry' to determine your actions - as opposed to testing your games on the platforms you're selling them on...
Incidentally - I'm not really interested in buying third-party controls to make a game playable - but I thought the iCade was a portrait device and this is a landscape game?!?! :)
Wow John, you do realize your talking about a lousy $2.99. It's a great game regardless and the price can't be beat. They addressed the masses with the update. Your a small, ungrateful minority which they even addressed you personally. Customer service is almost non existent these days.
I'm extremely grateful and truly appreciative of what great work these two SNK games show. Please keep them coming. Despite what a few ungrateful gamers say, we the majority are THANKFUl beyond words!
John, dotemu told you they were ok to hear for your suggestions, and the only thing you do is crying like baby ... I'm also playing this game on iPad and i have no problem. If you want the very original gameplay buy a neogeo with blazing star cartridge, but this cost you more than 2.99 ...
Then ask for a refund and be done with it. I'm pretty sure they would rather give up the two bucks they got from your sale to not have to listen to your rude demands.
The game plays just fine on my iPad, you're the only person I've ever heard complain about it.
'Blazing Star' updated with Pussy Mode
It doesn't need these concessions, just a way to amplify the player's input. The ship speed is half the strategy, but I'd like for the ship to make its way across the whole screen while only moving my finger about 2/3 of the way across. Add a drag sensitivity setting to adjust that, and it'll be perfect.
DotEmu, I've been having a blast playing this game on my iCade, but there is a slight bug: when you start a game, the iCade controls don't work at first; you have to exit the game to the Home Screen and open the game back up, then the iCade works fine. This happens every time a new game is started. Can you please look into this issue? I am playing on the New iPad (3rd Gen).