So far, the top note on my "Things I Didn’t Expect To Hear This Morning List" is this: Grand Theft Auto 3 is coming to a smattering of high-end tablets and handsets later this fall. No, really -- I have a list and, yeah, Rockstar Games announced plans to port its once-technical marvel to touch devices at some point in 2011 in celebration of its 10th birthday.
We don’t know anything about Grand Theft Auto 3 for mobile, including what it’ll look like or what price it’ll launch at. The blog post announcing this ‘big deal’ bit of news is strangely focusing more on a new and limited run of $150 12-inch Claude toys with “30 points of articulation” instead of the game. But, hey, pre-orders for the toy are open now!
I’ve got a fantastic and equally unfulfilling love and hate relationship with GTA3, just as I do with every other GTA title. I love the bluster, the scale, and a good deal of the content, but the controls and general technical wonkiness of Rockstar’s open worlds drag everything down. It’ll be interesting to see if this tenth anniversary edition on handhelds will debut with an improvement or two. I guess we’ll see.
Oh! And here’s the devices you’ll have to have in order to play it:
Apple iOS Devices: iPad 2, iPhone 4S Android Phones: Droid X2, HTC Evo 2, LG Optimus 2X, Motorola Atrix, Samsung Galaxy S2 Android Tablets: Acer Iconia, Asus Eee Pad, Motorola Xoom, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1
Madfinger Games is continuing to tinker with Shadowgun [$4.99] after its shaky late September debut on the App Store. For starters, the game is cheaper. For a limited time, you can grab it at $4.99 instead of its usual upper tier price tag of $7.99. It’s also less buggy. An initial patch run has sealed up its iPad 2 crashing issues, the Driller bug in the fourth level, and ‘optimized’ memory on lower-end devices.
These things combined present an interesting value proposition for anyone who read our review of the original build and remain on the fence. While we loved its technology, we weren’t too big on its level design or a handful of its mechanics.
Here’s a snippet:
If Madfinger can fix the crashing and save-game deletion issues with a patch, they're still left with a repetitive, but lovely looking shooter. There are hints of true quality in the boss fights and some minor sections of the campaign, but the majority relies on a simple, corridor design that's hard to find engaging for very long.
We’ve seen Madfinger say that it’s continuing to work on the game post-release and that’s great news. Its also still planning for an Android release later this month. We’ve been told that the Android iteration will support anything with a Tegra chip in it, so make sure you’ve got the right hardware for the job if you want in.
Mediocre’s Sprinkle [$.99] got a little bigger and presumably a smidgen more controversial with its fans this afternoon. In a new update, the studio added Game Center support and tacked on two new levels to Sprinkle’s initial world. It also added a new juicy 12-level world to the core game, bringing the level count up to a healthy 60. In a strange twist, this update also packs in a separate six-level content update exclusively for those who grabbed the game’s IAP back when it was available.
If you haven’t been keeping records at home, Sprinkle came under some fire after its initial release for offering level unlock functionality via IAP. Medicore removed the IAP, but kinda left those paying owners a little high and dry in the process -- until now, at least. We just wonder how that same crowd who let their feedback be known will respond to this move. (more...)
Don’t count out the possibility of a handset version of Botanicula. In a chat with Pocket Gamer, Czech dev Amanita Design said it was at least considering the idea of bringing the mind-meltingly gorgeous point-and-click “exploration game” to phones. Fleshing that comment out, it cautioned that Botanicula for phones is “still just an idea and we need to carry out a few experiments before we can talk about it seriously.”
Botanicula was revealed earlier this month and is currently slated for a release at some point in early 2012 across the PC and Macintosh. Its premise goes a little something like this: five bug-like friends go on a journey to “save the last seed from their home tree which is infested by evil parasites” and, apparently, spiders.
"Mind-meltingly gorgeous" is probably an understatement on my part, by the way. Botanicula is... just, wow. We sincerely hope a touch version will prove viable for the studio.
What does a good-looking, yet buggy and monotonous game like Shadowgun [$7.99] really need? It needs extremely ambitious multiplayer, apparently. Madfinger Games has announced that it’ll launch bits and pieces of the game’s slated competitive online component in waves. First up: cross-platform team and regular deathmatch. Next up: more exotic, though still un-announced modes.
Love or hate the game, you have to appreciate the scope of what Madfinger is working within as it continues to try to raise the bar with Shadowgun.
What’s kinda striking us as funny is that there’s no ETA on this update. Generally speaking, that’s a bad sign. We rarely see iOS game competitive components release after launch and if they do, they launch a long, long time after initial game release. Hold on to your butts, in other words.
Minecraft is coming to Android really soon -- like, September 29 soon. Earlier this morning, creator Mojang announced that the portable version of its eternally in-the-works tunneling / LEGO game is hitting capable Android phones just before the month closes. Previously, the title was shackled to the Xperia Play as part of an exclusive.
Oh! And it also showed off how the game will control. Basically, movement is confined to two virtual interfaces: a huge d-pad and a disappearing reticule. The d-pad is responsible for walking and strafing, while the on-screen reticule (which will be activated by flicks) is how you’ll alter the first-person perspective. All other core actions, like, say, breaking blocks, is managed by direct touch interaction with that object. Here's a little explanation in video form:
Minecraft - Pocket Edition looks like a fantastic Twister experience, so we’re stoked to get our hands on it. Pocket Gamer reports that the iOS version still doesn’t have a date, but it’s slated to get out of the door before 2012.
On the heels of the “Nintendo should move to mobile” investor talk and other related drama, Meganoid [$1.99] creator Orange Pixel decided to do something huge: develop a phone game the way it believed the publisher would if it ever bothered to enter the sector. Stardash, a super simplistic and obviously retro-inspired platform game, is the end result of this experiment, which hits later this week across the iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, and Android.
“Using GameBoy style graphics and sounds for extra memories of old-school running and jumping. It’s a little experiment to see if I could create such a game in the way the big N would do it,” Orange Pixel wrote on its blog. “A lot of care has been put in the level-design and the simplicity of it all,” it said.
Outside of the look and feel, Stardash's multi-faceted progression seems to be the place where Orange Pixel is really attempting to crib and build on Nintendo's secret sauce -- you can clear levels by beating levels within their time limits, by collecting coins, or by finding hidden keys that open up secret levels. Stardash will launch with four worlds containing nine levels each. And while the goal of every level is as simple as “run to the right until you see a balloon,” every level will have its share of challenges and secrets.
I don't think anyone is seriously expecting a level of Nintendo refinement (read: budget and time) from Stardash, but what a neat and challenging way to approach a project, huh? We’re definitely down for giving it a go as soon as possible and we’ll bring you our thoughts when we do get our grubby little hands on it.
So here we are, a couple of days out from Square Enix’s recent Tokyo Games Show press event and we’re still scratching our heads about an announcement it made. Cutting to the chase, it seems as though the publisher has confirmed that Chrono Trigger will be indeed be making its way to Android and iOS, just as it seemed to suggest it would via a teaser page from forever ago.
That’s huge news considering how well-loved, how fun, and how well designed of this game is, but the translations and breakdowns of the event we’ve read are seem to be missing bits of information. With this in mind, we’re actively being cautious about this announcement, as Square could have easily just announced a normal mobile version of the game. We’re still working on trying to get some stone-cold confirmation, so stay tuned on this one.
As an aside here, one little interesting tidbit that’s still emerging from this conference is the Square Enix Market, a portable “store” for all of Square Enix’s mobile games on Android. As of now, it appears it’s strictly tied to Japanese carriers, so don’t get too hyped up if you live elsewhere in the world. I'm going to go ahead and tease you with this though: apparently, games like Final Fantasy I and II, Chaos Rings and Crystal Defenders are all slated to arrive via this portal.
Anyway, supposing that Chrono Trigger is actually coming to smartphones -- how cool is that?
Hey, cool! Square Enix is preparing an iOS and an Android port of Final Fantasy Legends: Hikari to Yami no Senshi for release in 2012. From all accounts, Legends is a very traditional RPG in the Final Fantasy vein, but it’s also a special one since it’s episodic. Legends first graced Japanese mobile phones back in 2010 as an exclusive, similar to how Final Fantasy IV: The After Years was treated before it was re-released on Nintendo’s WiiWare and then later re-combined as a compilation on the PSP.
So, what do we know about this particular version? Not much as usual, and that’s the running problem with TGS coverage in general -- this stuff is coming out fast and dirty and we don’t have any native Japanese speakers on staff (we'll update this story if we discover anything is funny). We do, however, have these two images from the Square Enix event where the port was announced. It looks pretty!
Anywho, for you FF freaks out there, rest assured that this particular title borrows a lot from its elders -- Active Time Battle, the ever-popular Job System, and all the usual tropes are in this thing. In English, Legend’s subtitle translates to something like “Warriors of Light and Darkness,” which should give you an indication of what to expect from its story: two small group of youths from the light and dark-side respectively come together to fight and save the world.
As soon as we get more information we’ll update this story.
Last week we reported on rumblings that GameStop was going to get into the iOS device buying and selling business. We also briefly discussed this on our last podcast, and the TouchArcade hive mind thinks it makes sense, as currently GameStop is a company with a business model based entirely around physical media that's facing the cold hard reality of a physical media-free future thanks to devices like the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Without some kind of strategy, GameStop could potentially be the next Blockbuster Video, with a business made totally obsolete by advancements in convenience technology.
According to Kotaku, taking iOS devices on trade in isn't the only thing GameStop has up its sleeves. Apparently, they're rolling their own touch-based hardware platform… This, oddly enough, doesn't seem that far fetched either. There are a bazillion Android OEM's out there desperately trying to sell their various reference designs with hopes that they catch on in some meaningful way. And GameStop needs to figure out what it's going to do in the new frontier of app gaming as the bread and butter of their business is taking a game on trade-in for $6 and re-selling it for $60-- Something you can't do with virtual goods.
From the looks of it, GameStop will likely be taking an existing Android device (I'm guessing something based on the Tegra family) and branding it as a "GameStop certified gaming platform." This would potentially also allow them to run their own proprietary Android storefront, that they'd have complete control over, and could then sell virtual goods in stores via downloads codes quickly and easily. (Assuming this catches on, of course.)
What will be interesting to see is if GameStop attempts to weasel in some kind of wacky trade-in mechanic into their store, or what else they could possibly have in mind to make them think that something like this would take off in any meaningful way. Just branding something a "GameStop certified gaming platform" doesn't change the fact that Android's gaming library is largely filled with old ad-laden ports of iOS titles, and if you're standing in a GameStop, I'm not sure why you'd choose a GameStop tablet with Shrek Kart over an iPad with… everything else. Unless of course, the way GameStop is going to choose to compete is on price point, which hasn't exactly worked out for any Android tablet save the HP TouchPad which was liquidated at a massive loss.
Looks like we were right. Kairosoft’s next English iOS release will indeed be Grand Prix Story, the racing simulation game that hit Android devices earlier this year. According to a small blurb on the studio’s page, it’s heavily suggested that it’ll see a September 8 launch, which gives it exactly four weeks worth of breathing room from Mega Mall Story[$3.99 / Lite].
Previously, we reported on the game’s launch on the Japanese App Store and speculated that, since the English translation work is already done, it would be the next release. Word on the street was that this specific version also included an English language toggle, so no wonder we’re receiving it so soon.
Grand Prix Story thrusts you in the role of a manager of an auto racing team. As such, you’ll be expected to gather sponsors, drivers, and develop new cars and their respective parts. The app description on the Android market says that no formal racing knowledge is needed, just like how you don’t need to be a hot spring owner to really come to grips with Hot Springs Story[$4.99 / Lite].
Obviously, we’ll be all over this when it hits. As a personal aside here, I’m ready to explode from anticipation. Kairosoft makes my gym time that much better.
[Thanks for everyone who sent this in - via App Advice]
Before Mega Mall Story and Pocket Academy, we were pretty sure that Kairosoft’s next big US iOS release would be Grand Prix Story. It seemed like an educated stab since the game was ported stateside to Android phones, translated, and had the appearance of being just as solid as its other titles. We were wrong, but now the developer seems poised again to bring its car themed managing simulation to iOS in the states. As you read this, fans in Japan are getting hands-on with the game for the iPhone and iPod Touch, which leads us to believe that it’ll hit here next, as all it requires is a translation pass with already-translated text.
We could be totally, horribly wrong, and hilariously, we kinda invite that. Grand Prix Story, a game that puts you in the role of a racecar manager, is a known property now. We’d rather get another surprise (or Game Dev Story 2) -- whichever will sate our taste for simulation.
Communication with Kairosoft is something we’re still struggling with at the moment, but we have fired off an e-mail to see what’s up. While we wait, we’re drawing up Excel spreadsheets for Grand Prix Story in preparation just in case.
Word Fighter is a cool upcoming -- wait for it -- word fighting game from the wonderful dudes over at Feel Every Yummy. We went hands-on with an alpha build earlier this year at GDC, and now you can see the game in its more finished glory. Feel Every Yummy has just released a new look teaser showing off its next-level Street Fighter-Meets-Scrabble action and also a few of its new-look characters. Depressingly, none of them are TIME-award winning Brad Nicholson, but what can you do, eh?
In case you missed our earlier coverage, basically the game goes like this: you spell a word from jumbled letters on a 5x5 grid over the course of three timed and turn-based rounds. Letters have point values, so the more points, the more possibility that you’ll live through the man-on-man conflict. (more...)
Augmented-reality games are weird. They hardly work and even when they actually do operate as intended, the game experience is usually lacking and centralizes entirely too much around the whole augmenting gimmick. I’m also not too sure if there’s even a market out there for these kinds of games. But, I probably shouldn’t be so dismissive, especially when there’s a new, apparently solid-looking SDK out in there in the wild.
According to TechCrunch, Qualcomm has released its ARG SDK, which was originally intended for Android devices with Snapdragon chips, for iOS-compatible devices. This initial release has support for, specifically, the iPhone 4, iPad 2, and even the fourth-generation iPod Touch.
If you’re in the dark on augmented reality, it’s a pretty simple concept. You point your device’s camera at something real and then the game turns that into something interactive. A lot of card games, for example, like to incentivize their physical, branded cards by allowing you to scan them into their respective games and then use digital versions of them. Other games just incorporate real-world settings on top of existing mechanics, like this Star Wars game here:
Having an SDK at hand that actually works with a target platform organically should really empower those studios out there who have good augmented reality ideas, but don’t want to spend the research and development costs of getting the core technology that makes the "augmenting" work. This is a good thing for all of us because, hey, who knows? Maybe we will get that game that completely changes my jaded perspective on augmented reality games in general. (I hope so.)
In a move that makes a lot of sense, PopCap Games has announced that it has penned an agreement with Sony Ericsson that will see its titles pre-loaded on the Xperia Play mini and the pro later this summer. News of this comes mere days after EA’s acquisition of the casual games developer and subsequent promises to further its reach. This will be the first time PopCap Games’ games have been available in Europe on Android.
Chuzzle [$2.99], the lesser-known puzzle game from PopCap, will be pre-loaded in its entirety on new Plays, while trial versions of Plants vs. Zombies [$2.99 / HD] and Peggle [$2.99] will round out the offerings. A healthy amount of native Play games at the moment are PSOne titles, so this is a welcome shot in the arm to an aging line-up of downloadable titles. On the other hand... I suppose these games have been available on a billion other formats for several years, too.
If anything, take this as a sign to come from PopCap as it starts expanding what it can offer under the wings of EA and its larger, consumer-facing bandwidth. “As the Android ecosystem matures, PopCap is committed to providing best-in-class game experiences for Android game players,” a rep said in a statement. Fingers crossed for Peggle Nights!
In somewhat related news, Sony Ericcson also wrapped up an exclusive with Mojang. The platform is, at least, trying to be competitive. And really, the best thing that could happen for iOS gamers is for Apple to see some serious competition, especially if you buy into the idea that competition breeds innovation.
So far, the top note on my "Things I Didn’t Expect To Hear This Morning List" is this: Grand Theft Auto 3 is coming to a smattering of high-end tablets and handsets later this fall. No, really -- I have a list and, yeah, Rockstar Games announced plans to port its once-technical marvel to touch devices at some point in 2011 in celebration of its 10th birthday.
Madfinger Games
