A couple months ago, NimbleBit (creators of Pocket Frogs [Free]) revealed their upcoming Universal freemium title, Tiny Tower. Since then, I've had a chance to get hands on with the game, and so far I really like what I've seen.
Your role in Tiny Tower is part building developer, part elevator operator. You're responsible for the lives of the Bitizens that live and work in your tower, and you're also responsible for building a tower that brings in the big bucks. Tiny Tower is still in beta, so just about anything could change before release, but let me run down how things work currently.
The tutorial walks you through the basics of building. For each floor you add on to your tower, you can choose from hundreds of different production and residential designs. Residential floors hold your Bitizens, production floors employ them. Whether a production floor is a coffee shop or a hair salon, it needs Bitizens to stock its goods or services.
Back in March we posted an exclusive hands-on with a pre-beta version of the Universal title Battle Squadron ONE, an iOS port of Cope-Com's excellent Amiga vertical-scrolling space shooter Battle Squadron. Even in its relatively early state, the game was playing just great on the iPhone and iPad. We're happy to report that Martin Pedersen and Torben Larsen of Cope-Com have recently shared a close-to-final beta of the game with me to put through its paces. And I definitely like what I'm seeing, here.
The biggest difference between the two pre-release versions we've been given is the controls. The earlier, pre-beta version they provided us with offered both swipe and tilt controls. This new release features entirely revamped swipe controls (at two sensitivities), as well as tilt (also at two sensitivities), and an onscreen D-pad. I'll say right off that the last is the weakest. The best control scheme -- by far -- is the more sensitive swipe control scheme which breaks the shackles tying it to the Amiga ship movement speed and lets you zip your craft around the screen like nobody's business. This method would absolutely make the game too easy at the Amiga difficulty level but, happily, there are three difficulty settings to choose from. Jacking the difficulty to the roof and going with the sensitive, fast swipe is absolutely the way to play this game on an iOS device.
As a retro enthusiast I'm pleased that the graphics from the Amiga version were maintained. They're so faithful, in fact, that one might think it's an extended emulation title -- but it's not. The iOS version is a line-by-line C/C++ adaptation of the original Amiga 68000 assembly code. Impressive.
According to the guys at Cope-Com, the only thing left to add before release is Game Center integration. And, based on the gameplay I'm seeing in this near-launch beta, that's just fine with me.
Battle Squadron ONE will be followed up by Battle Squadron TWO which offers a two-player, cooperative game mode for those with friends. Battle Squadron TWO will be free for those who purchased the initial release.
We'll give the heads-up when this lands in the App Store. Stay tuned.
Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP has been on our collective minds here at TouchArcade for over a year now. The first time I saw the game, I called it "the most amazing game I've seen at GDC". Blake was sitting nearby for the initial demonstration of the game, and later offered his own remarkably positive impressions. A year passed without much news on Sword & Sworcery aside from the Superbrothers team popping up for air every now and again to deliver some new screenshots, a brief video, or vaguely mention a potential release date. We caught up with them again at this year's GDC where we were let in on the terrible secret of Sword & Sworcery's development.
It turned out that what we were shown of Sword & Sworcery was all that was actually even completed at the time, and we had fallen in love with what amounted to little more than a prototype. This unconventional development approach actually allowed Superbrothers to follow the community feedback on what people expected the game to be, implementing quite a few of the suggestions along the way. In comparison, typically when we're given a game preview the title is finished or close to it. At that point, there's not much a developer can do with major community complaints aside from attempt to address them in updates. Superbrothers turned this process on its head, and it shows when you're playing the game.
Before I continue with this preview, there's something you should know about Sword & Sworcery. It's as much of an experience as it is a game, and at times it's more of an experience of pixel art and music than it is an actual game. This makes determining what is and isn't technically a spoiler very difficult, as discovery is such an important element of this whole experimental project that Superbrothers is conducting.
Back in January we gave a heads-up on the first gameplay video of Cope-Com's upcoming shooter Battle Squadron ONE, an iOS recreation of one of the very best shooters ever to appear on the Amiga, in the form of a Universal application for both iPhone and iPad. This weekend, Cope-Com CEO Martin Pedersen provided us with a pre-beta build of the game to try out. And, that's something I've been doing a lot of today, and have a video to share that should whet the appetite of those who've been waiting for this one as anxiously as we.
For those who enjoy(ed) Battle Squadron on the Amiga, I can tell you that the iOS version is exactly the same game -- original graphics, original music -- but with various new options and an iOS-appropriate control system. It's so close to the original that I had to re-confirm with the developers that it is not, in fact, running under emulation. While the original Battle Squadron was written in 68000 assembly, Battle Squadron ONE for iOS is a line-by-line C/C++ rewrite, based on the original source code (which Pedersen had stored on floppies in a box in his basement these long years). It's likely the first entirely recoded Amiga game to land on the iOS platform.
For those not familiar, Battle Squadron is a top-down, vertical shooter where you blast your way through a variety of scrolling alien landscapes, taking out turrets and dodging enemy lasers and missiles on a mission to rescue commanders Berry Mayers and Lori Bergin who have been kidnapped by the evil Barrax empire, a ruthless species with one thing on their mind -- ruling the universe. And, it's no light task. The action here is intense -- there's so much dodging that I'd probably call it a bullet hell shooter, although it's milder than some I've seen come out of Japan. That's at the "Amiga" difficulty level, anyway. There's also an "Easy" and a "Hard" mode, in this version.
Early last month, noted gamemaker Jeff Minter released Solar Minotaur Rescue Frenzy [App Store], the first title in his Minotaur Project, an effort to release a series of new games in the style of the hardware of days long past, but without any of the limitations of the original platforms. Over the past weeks we've noted with anticipation (and some fear) Jeff's tweets, providing hints at the progress of the second game in this effort -- at least, we seriously hope that's what allthosetweetswereabout... In any case, Jeff has just given us the best hint of all: an exclusive preview build of the game, known as Minotron: 2112, which turns out to be an enhanced iPhone / iPad (universal) remake of his 1991 shooter Llamatron: 2112.
Llamatron, which was originally released as shareware for the Atari ST, was a shooter inspired by Eugene Jarvis' Robotron: 2084. The game plays more or less like a single-stick version of Robotron -- wander about the playfield shooting baddies and not getting killed, but you're a llama instead of a superhuman and its beasties instead of helpless civilians you're rescuing. Minotron plays basically the same, but this time around, you're a minotaur, and things have gone dual (virtual) stick, so what you get feels a whole lot like Robotron, but on acid (which is a phrase that could be used to describe a great many of Jeff's creations).
Minotron offers four modes of play: Normal, which is the standard "dual stick" mode with lots of power-ups to be had; Assisted, where you are assisted by an indestructible helper droid and less power-ups are available; Simplified, where the player only has to move and avoid being killed, aiming and firing are automatic; and Hard, where only the power-ups from the original Llamatron are available.
The game's control system features temporally separated movement and aiming touches; the first thumb to contact the screen becomes the movement thumb, and the second becomes the aiming thumb, which provides a nice bit of control flexibility. (The developer suggests players may find that the use of an occasional swipe to alter the firing direction, as opposed to a constant touch to the "stick," is the better way to go and minimizes thumb obscuring screen.) And, in any playmode, the trippy visuals provided by Llamasoft's new Neon 2 engine are in full effect, as is the amusing cacophony of explosions, blasts, and bleats.
See our brief gameplay video of just the first few levels of the game.
As mentioned previously, the game is not quite finished; Jeff indicates that about a week or two's worth of finishing touches -- level balance tweaks, new enemy graphics, leaderboards and achievements, etc. -- should get it in order for submission to the App Store. And when Minotron: 2112 lands, unless one of the last minute tweaks is to scrape off all the awesome that's smeared all over this preview build, retro fans and arcade shooter fans alike are in for some serious, white-knuckle beastie saving.
Regular readers have seen us mention the classic Amiga platform in various capacities over the years. An extremely influential gaming platform, the Amiga outperformed all of the consoles of its day and delivered to users the best home gaming experience that could be had (not to mention robust general purpose computing, to boot).
I'm happy to report that another Amiga classic is about to make its App Store debut as a native iOS title: Cope-Com's vertical shooter Battle Squadron, one of the very best Amiga shooters ever developed and a particular favorite of those of us here at TouchArcade that have spent time in front of an Amiga.
We've been in talks with Martin Pedersen and Torben Larsen of Cope-Com for weeks regarding their soon to be released iOS title. We've been tracking the game's progress and have just gotten the heads-up that it's now complete -- start to finish -- with only menu and transition elements left to be put in place. And, in celebration of the new year, the developers have given us exclusive access to a brief demonstration video showing a bit of in-game action from the iPad version.
I've been gaming for 30 years now, and can honestly say that Battle Squadron is probably my favorite 2D shooter of them all. It's a sequel to Cape-Com's Amiga shooter Hybris, which will also make its way to the App Store sometime later this year. I can't wait to get my hands on both of these titles and share reactions with our readers. Stay tuned.
Indie development studio Manomio, whose proud motto is "in retro we trust," first grabbed our attention last summer when their Commodore 64 for iPhone [link] emulation app was rejected by Apple, putting some of the App Store's boundaries under the spotlight. Happily, though, C64 eventually got the green light and has been warming the hearts of retro gaming enthusiasts for just over a year, now. It's beautifully executed and is a favorite here at Touch Arcade.
Early this year, Manomio let us know that they had a whole lot more retro heart warming in store and shared details of their upcoming Amiga emulation system, now known as iAmiga, that would allow them to license and release various classic Amiga titles to be faithfully rendered on your iPhone screen. On hearing this we were -- readers and editors alike -- thrilled at the prospect of enjoying some of the true gaming gems that sit among the vast library of Amiga releases. A short tech demo video was provided in short order, showing two games in play, that served as quite a teaser, making us very anxious to get our hands on the studio's latest.
I'm happy to report that, yesterday, Manomio CTO Stuart Carnie was merciful enough to finally put an end to our suffering and provide us with an exclusive early build of the iAmiga system, packed with a bundle of sample games, to put through its paces. Yea, it's dirty work, but somebody's got to do it.
After spending some serious time with the iAmiga system, I can tell you that, for an early build, it is truly impressive. While it's true that a few of the games that I tried glitched at some point, the vast majority ran perfectly and buttery smoothly on my iPhone 4. I'm talking about totally accurate sound, flawless graphics, glass smooth animation -- just as if the games were being played on the standard config Amiga 500 that iAmiga emulates. Right now there are keyboard, mouse, and joystick input systems that can be activated with a tap, but (especially in the case of the keyboard) they are quick and dirty solutions that will be replaced with much more refined components before anything lands in the App Store, Stuart assures me. The overall portrait / landscape control mechanics, like those found in the studio's C64, will be preserved, however.
As for what's under the hood of the iAmiga system, Manomio has taken the UAE4All Amiga emulator and tied it to Stuart's own ARM assembly optimized, emulated 68000 CPU core. In the name of performance, the core relies upon the ARM7x architecture and, as such, only iPhone 3GS / 3rd gen. iPod touch devices and up can play. iPad support is coming, as well.
The original plan was to take this emulator and wrap it around various licensed Amiga titles and release them as stand-alone games. That's still part of the plan, but as certain App Store restrictions have loosened a bit of late, there will likely also be a sort of Amiga shell app released that that allows the stand-alone games to be played in a richer Amiga emulation environment that may offers things like OpenGL ES 2.0 shader effects to add scan-lines, CRT glare, and even TV-out and iPad play using a tethered iPhone as a controller. Just the kind of things that make die-hard retro nuts rather weak in the knees.
Stuart has given the okay for us to record and share sample gameplay footage of his emulation system, and so I've put together a fairly lengthy mix of 10 Amiga games that you just might remember.
The games shown in the video are the following, in order: Defender of the Crown, Battle Squadron, International Karate +, R-Type, R-Type II, Speedball, Stunt Car Racer, Shadow of the Beast, Virus, and Xenon 2: Megablast. It should be noted that this list does not represent the list of games that will necessarily be coming to the App Store through the iAmiga system -- these are games simply used to test the system in its developmental state. (In fact, some of these I added from my own collection of Amiga disk images.)
As far as what we will be seeing in the way of iOS Amiga releases, Manomio has licensed various titles from Cinemaware, so Defender of the Crown, It Came from the Desert, Wings, and others are on the way. The studio is currently in licensing discussions with several other IP holders to secure additional titles for iOS release, including Factor 5 (Turrican I, II, III), The Bitmap Brothers (Xenon II: Megablast), Magnetic Fields (Supercars), Cope-Com (Battle Squadron), and Archer MacLean (IK+). Additionally, they are in talks with an unnamed major mobile publisher that's very interested in putting Amiga classics in the hands of today's gamers.
As you can see from the video, what we're in for is a wave of excellent games that are retro, true, but not so retro that they lack mainstream appeal. (Yes, the Amiga was that advanced 25 years ago.) This is big news, not only for iOS gamers, but for mobile gaming in general. In my personal experience, Amiga emulation has been quite a bit more difficult to manage than other age-old platforms on proper Macs and PCs due to the complexity of the original hardware. The thought of having easy access to these games in a tap-and-go fashion -- even standing in line at the bank -- is just amazing. I call this some of the very biggest news in iOS gaming that we've ever covered and can't wait until all of you out there get a chance to enjoy these great Amiga titles on your iOS devices, as well.
For readers unfamiliar with the Amiga, it is a 16-bit computer released by Commodore in 1985. A far more complex system than the C64, the Amiga featured a powerful central processor (the same found in the early Macintosh), various custom co-processors, and a multitasking operating system that, together, enabled audiovisual feats previously unseen in a consumer system at that point in time. While it did not see enormous popularity in the United States, it was wildly popular in Europe and is considered by many to be one of the very best game platforms ever created. InfoWorld called the Amiga the "third milestone" in computing after the Apple II and IBM PC.
We'll be tracking Manomio's iAmiga project closely and will pass along any further details that emerge, as we get them.
UPDATE: The developer has indicated that iAmiga will gain AGA support sometime after the first version is out the door. AGA (for Advanced Graphics Architecture) is the third generation Amiga chipset that brought a 24-bit color palette and more overall graphics horsepower to the platform. (Many of the most recent Amiga games are AGA-only.)
We're big fans of Dinofarm Games / Fusion Reactions' arcade-style dungeon crawler 100 Rogues [App Store]. The game, which we reviewed back in May, is a re-imagination of the typical Rogue-like formula. It features the typical elements of the genre -- near-certain death, randomly generated maps and loot, and a foray into the depths of an enemy-riddled pit -- but delivers it in a way that makes you feel you are playing something else entirely. In our initial review, we found it to be pretty brilliant.
In that review, we spoke of the long list of planned features that the developer had in store for the title. Here, half a year later, it's clear those weren't empty promises. The developer released all of nine updates to the game through October, and two weeks ago released version 2.0, a massive update that enhanced the gameplay in a great many ways.
Some of the enhancements that came with version 2.0:
Hell! Another world, with new levels, music, monsters and maps to explore, has been added to the end of the game, appropriately situated between the Dungeon and Satan
New Boss: A new, Dungeon-themed boss has been placed between the Dungeon and the new Hell world
Amafyst: The Fairy Wizard's basic projectile skill now leaves behind Crystal Caltrops upon impact, each lasting 10 turns dealing damage and slowing monsters that walk on them. Each skill point in Amafyst creates a higher number of more damaging crystals
Easy Mode now spans all three game worlds
Map Generation: Each map is now comprised of a mix of handcrafted and randomly generated rooms
Mob Clustering: Monsters now spawn more tightly in groups, and only spawn in mobs within rooms, reducing the incidence of difficult encounters in hallways.
Game Center can now be disabled via 100 Rogues user preferences in the Settings App
Stability improvements throughout the game
And the continuing evolution of 100 Rogues is showing no sign of slowing down. The version 2.1 update has been submitted to Apple and should go live later today or tomorrow. And it's a pretty significant update.
A partial list of what version 2.1 will bring:
Two new weapons
One new armor type
End Cutscene now rendered in-engine (Apple's movie player has been entirely removed from the game. Enjoy the greatly reduced update size!)
New Bandit Hole 1 music
Custom Playlist support via Options Menu
iOS 4.2 support (Game Center / Multi-tasking on iPad)
Load Times improved throughout the games
Many various bug fixes
In addition, a new, third player class will be released by December 15. This new class is known as the Skellyman Scoundrel, which lead designer Keith Burgun describes.
In terms of character, the Scoundrel is a member of the Skellyman race, a race of Skeleton-People created by magic many generations ago. This means that they actually reproduce and have baby skeletons which grow into adult skeletons - they're not undead and they don't come from humans. The Scoundrel in particular happens to be an undead Skellyman, however, as she was killed by her lover in life - he stabbed her in the back of the head with a dagger. She now keeps it in her skull (and it ends up looking like a fashionable ponytail because of its tassle) and stalks the dungeons looking for greater and greater kills with which to satisfy her thirst for revenge. When you get enough backstabs, you can deliver the ability SKELLY VENGENACE, a skill which makes the skellyman pull her lover's dagger from her skull and plunge it into a target. This skill can do *MASSIVE* damage, like you've never seen in 100 Rogues.
This Leap Attacking, Skelly Vengeance-dealing new class is all about stealth, mobility, speed, and dealing great damage to singular targets. It should mix up this already heavily-updated title rather nicely. Hats off to the folks behind the game for so admirably keeping the ball rolling with 100 Rogues, as well as for providing us these exclusive details and (inset) design sketch.
There are literally dozens of dual-stick arena shooters available on the App Store, and with this in mind developer Grumpyface Studios decided to put an interesting new twist on the formula with their inaugural game Wispin. In Wispin, you'll take on endless waves of enemies, only rather than mindlessly blasting them away with loads of ammunition a strategic use of color serves as your weapon. It's a novel idea that works quite well for this type of game, and is complemented by a wonderfully cute art style and excellent production values. Grumpyface recently sent me a near-final build of Wispin, and I was really impressed by how much I enjoyed the unique brand of action in the game.
The character movement in Wispin is controlled by tilt or with a virtual stick in the lower left corner. Where the right stick would normally be in a typical dual-stick shooter there is instead a color wheel with red, blue, and green buttons. The enemies, called Bloopers, come in various sizes and one of these same three colors. Pressing a color on the wheel will change your character to that color, and if it matches that of an enemy you merely run into it to attack it. In addition to this melee style attack, there are also bombs and arrows to use against the Bloopers, which they can use against you as well. A few different special items are also available to aid you, like a hunk of cheese that will cause one particular color of enemy to be drawn to where you place it or a rainbow colored bomb that will blow up enemies of any color within its blast radius.
The concept of Wispin sounds kind of weird on paper, but it's actually a total blast to play. The action gets frantic as more and more enemies enter the fray, and having to negotiate enemies while worrying about changing your color constantly pulls your brain in two different directions (in a good way). Another aspect to keep in mind is that you are invulnerable to enemy attacks of your same color. So if you find yourself suddenly standing next to a big red bomb that's about to blow, quickly turning yourself red will save you from the blast. All of these different game elements come together beautifully in Wispin, creating a gameplay experience that requires fast reactions and a strategic eye.
On top of the core gameplay in Wispin is a nice multiplier system. With every enemy you kill, a meter in the upper left instantly fills and starts to rapidly decrease. Every enemy that you take out before the meter empties adds to a combo multiplier. Getting a combo of three same color enemies in a row gives your character a temporary speed boost, and if you can get the multiplier up to 20 you'll enter into a frenzy where you fly around the screen taking out enemies of every color. The multiplier system adds a risk/reward element to the game, as you can try to play fast and loose going for huge scores by getting kills in rapid succession, but this also increases the chance that you'll make a harmful mistake. Game Center leaderboards are used to keep track of a number of different kinds of high scores in the game.
Barring any unforeseen problems, Wispin should be released in the App Store this Thursday. It will come with two different maps to play on with plans to add more maps, enemies, items, and modes in future updates. In addition to the Standard Mode of play that pits you against increasingly difficult waves of enemies, a Super Intense Mode can be unlocked that brings a constant stream of enemies gunning towards you. Since the Standard Mode starts off pretty slow and each game can last for a while, the Super Intense Mode is perfect if you want to just jump right into some action. More information including some funny character bios of the enemies can be found in the thread in our forums. In an overly saturated genre of dual-stick shooters, Wispin does something decidedly different from the norm, and ends up being a whole lot of fun because of it. We'll take another look at Wispin when it releases hopefully later this week.
Last month we posted aboutSarien.net, Martin Kool's home built tribute to a wide array of classic Sierra Adventure games ranging from Space Quest to Leisure Suit Larry. Currently, all of these games are completely playable via any modern web browser just by navigating around the site. Since we last spoke with him, Martin has been hard at work customizing and tweaking Space Quest to run on the iPad. We were given a hands-on preview of the game, and it didn't take long to come to the strange realization that they really feel like how the games were meant to be played... nearly 25 years later, on a device that the original developers likely couldn't even imagine.
Playing the game on the iPad is effortless. Installing it is as simple as navigating to a (secret) URL, at which point the game tells you to go through the sequence to add the URL as a home screen icon. From there, you tap the home screen icon and the game loads completely seamlessly without any additional work. It's crazy just how fast and easy the whole process is. The first time you load it up, there's a small load time, but as soon as mobile Safari starts caching parts of the game it's just like playing the actual computer game. There's even multiple save slots, and accessing them is as simple as rotating the iPad in to portrait mode.
The version of the game we were given access to seems complete, and playing it is simple. You tap in the game world to move there, and text commands are entered via a menu tree of sorts represented by buttons on the bottom of the screen. Instead of typing, every command is only a few taps away. It works really well, and I suspect will make the games much more approachable to people who haven't experienced them before as the available commands usually at least nudge you in the right direction by hinting at what you're capable of doing.
What makes this all that much more impressive is the technical wizardry taking place behind the scenes making this all possible. Space Quest is built entirely with HTML, CSS, and Javascript and once they've been cached on the iPad you can play them in their entirety offline. Also, to preserve the classic retro blocky graphics, Kool had to jump through quite a few hoops since modern browsers love to scale things with bicubic filters. This makes photos and other images look good, but turn these ancient pixels in to a blocky mess. Due to this, each of the games on Sarien.net will need to be hand-tweaked to run on the iPad. Space Quest should be finished within a week if everything goes according to plan, and after that Martin has his sights set on The Black Cauldron, King's Quest and Leisure Suit Larry.
As huge fans of retro adventure gaming, we're following this very closely. As soon as Space Quest is ready to be made public, we'll let you guys know.
Late last month we covered John Carmack's announcement on the Bethesda Blog regarding his plans with future iPhone development. It turned out that he wasn't planning on making a full-blown RAGE port like we originally suspected when he demonstrated RAGE on the iPhone 4 at Quakecon, but instead is bringing a more iPhone-friendly game that takes place in the RAGE universe.
This game world is based on a post-apocalyptic future, following the Apophis asteroid smashing into Earth. (A plausible future, given there actually is an Apophis asteroid which at one time scientists believed had a 1 in 42 chance of hitting our planet.) In the full PC and console versions due out 9/13/11, you play as a member of the Eden Project, a government program that placed important members of society in underground "arks".
The goal of all this, much like the vaults in the Fallout series, is to be able to restore society after the nuclear (or in this case, asteroid) apocalypse. Unsurprisingly, the ark system doesn't work as well as was hoped. You are the sole survivor of your ark, and with all the other members of your group dead, you awaken to a very different future in a world that has long since forgotten about the Eden Project and the existence of the arks.
It isn't really clear whether you're playing as this same protagonist in Mutant Bash TV, but the basis of the iPhone game is that you are a contestant on a weekly game show where people are pitted against an onslaught of mutants to win fabulous prizes. It works well, and I'm sure I will appreciate it more once RAGE is actually released and I get more of the tie-ins with other elements of the RAGE world.
Mutant Bash TV plays surprisingly similar to DOOM Resurrection [$6.99]. The entire game takes place on rails, and even the controls are laid out similarly. Tilting controls the camera and your aim, and you have buttons to dodge, fire, switch weapons, and reload. The main difference is just how much faster everything is in Mutant Bash TV. Mutants pop up everywhere, and while you're dealing with them there are bags of cash to grab and bullseyes to shoot. Your overall performance is graded at the end of the level, at which point you can either move on to a new level or replay the last one for an even higher score. Four difficulty settings are included, ranging from easy (where it's seemingly impossible to die) to nightmare (which is incredibly difficult).
In the preview we were given, only the first level was playable, which takes place in the mutant tenements. These tenements look a lot like your typical broken down corridor-heavy graffiti-covered first person shooter level, but you hardly have time to look around at the scenery because there is no downtime. You're always either shooting or quickly moving to the next area.
The graphics of Mutant Bash TV are amazing, and really make me look forward to the future of iOS gaming. The demo we were given was on a 4th generation iPod touch, which consistently ran at a high framerate throughout all parts of the game we had access to regardless of how much was going on at once. Mutant Bash TV looks so good in motion that the screenshots barely do it justice, especially when you add the pixel density of the Retina Display into the mix. While you might notice some jagged edges or low resolution textures if you were to carefully analyze the screenshots on your computer, none of this is apparent at all when you're playing it.
I'm sure there will be people out there who are disappointed to find out that Mutant Bash TV is a first person shooter on rails, especially with the backlash we saw surrounding our DOOM Resurrection review. However, after playing the demo level over and over, I really thought that the automatic movement was basically exactly what I'd be doing if I was actually controlling my character. Instead I didn't need to have a third of the screen obscured working two virtual thumb sticks. In any case, due to the level design it doesn't seem like there's anywhere else you could go if you controlled your movement in Mutant Bash TV. Since this was just a brief demo, it's hard to get a real idea of what the rest of the game will entail.
It's incredibly exciting to see industry giants Id and Epic going head to head in releasing their next-generation graphics engines on the iPhone. Id's Mutant Bash TV should beat Epic's Infinity Blade to market, as currently Id is shooting for the end of November for the release of Mutant Bash TV. Meanwhile, Infinity Blade is still set for a vague holiday release. Pricing hasn't yet been released for Infinity Blade, but Mutant Bash TV is launching at 99¢ for non-Retina Display iPod touches and iPhones and $1.99 for Retina Display-equipped devices and the iPad. After being amazed by Epic Citadel [Free], looking forward to Infinity Blade, and now getting my hands on Mutant Bash TV, I can say with the utmost confidence that this is an incredible time to be an iOS gamer.
For the lot o' ye landlubbers readin' this post, I first be tellin' ye today be International Talk Like a Pirate Day. All ye squiffies not knowin' this a'fore ought be keelhauled off me vessle! For the rest of ye buccaneers, enjoy the sweet trade 'till the sun be settin'! One lot o' scallywags that would ne'er be missin' this great, grand day be the scurvy dogs o'er at Cyan Worlds, thar in the far nor' west. And how timely it be for 'em to bestow such booty upon yer bold and mighty scriber (that be me) as a pre-release build of their latest 'ware, Stoneship: Curse of a Thousand Islands! (And I be not talkin' about the dressin', yer can be sure!) </piratespeak>
Indeed, never quite able to findenoughways to properly celebrate this fine holiday, I must thank Cyan Worlds for providing us with an exclusive preview build of their upcoming title, Stoneship. It has made my day of festivities that much richer.
As Cyan indicated to us earlier, Stoneship: The Curse of a Thousand Islands represents "a lighthearted new direction" for the studio. Cyan describes the game as a casual, top-down, turn-based, strategy puzzle game. That's quite a string of adjectives. After spending a bit of time with the game in its current form, I can say that each of those descriptors indeed apply. And, as such, it's something of a difficult title to nutshell for the uninitiated -- but I'll try, and in two different ways.
I will first give a rather general characterization of the game "on paper," is it were. Stoneship sets you and your first mate on the high seas, charged with exploring, controlling, and protecting vast oceans and islands, under continual threat of pirate sieges and tangles with ghastly monsters from the deep. The game is played by moving about any given level, uncovering obscured blocks of both land and sea in an attempt to discover ports, and temples (and, as a result, weaponry) as well as rafts of men lost at sea who will join your forces, as well as the location of any pirate ships that make your forces necessary in the first place.
Once you find a port, it becomes your own...as well as a target for pirates in the area. Each level has a set number of moves you're permitted to execute before the inevitable pirate onslaught ensues. Multiple ports can be linked together to allow resource (battle-ready men) sharing, which is all about shifting men from port to port in the 10 second count-down before the pirate attack comes. Of course, you can only set things up to your advantage here if you've uncovered the location of the lurking pirates in your set number of turns. If not, the pirates come from one of the remaining hidden blocks on the map (which is pretty much a bad thing).
The core play mode is Campaign, which is a round-to-round push through the eighty three included levels (with additional levels to come later via update). A Challenge mode is also offered, which is a sort-of pick and choose affair.
Stoneship is not a complicated game -- really, it's not. But it sounds like it might be, described thus. And so, in a move not typical for our demo videos, I've recorded nearly the entire tutorial session, which explains the gameplay by example, far better than I can with words alone. The action in the video steps up towards the end, after the tutorial, but forgive what must necessarily be somewhat of a slow-paced, if highly informative, overall glimpse of the game in action.
It does take a little while to get the hang of, but after a few rounds, it ends up feeling quite natural.
The pre-release build we were given feels quite close to complete, with the minor issue here and there that should be addressed prior to launch. Stoneship is expected to soon make it's App Store appearance, and an update will shortly follow, bringing with it various enhancements including Game Center support.
Stoneship: The Curse of a Thousand Islands is a casual and interesting mix of ingredients from a number of different formulas that come together to make up a rather unique title. We hope Stoneship marks the beginning of a series of new iOS releases from MYST-maker Cyan.
A few weeks ago we showed a new trailer for an upcoming gravity-based puzzle platforming game called GravBot from Team Phobic. They have since sent us a near-final build of the game, and after completing nearly all of it, I'm thoroughly impressed with just about everything that GravBot has to offer. Team Phobic has already proven that they know how to bring cute, colorful graphics and excellent level designs with Bounce On [$1.99/Lite] and Bounce On 2 [$3.99/Lite], and those skills have translated well into the creation of GravBot. The levels start out simple enough and ease you into the different elements in the game, but as you progress GravBot will really test your puzzle solving skills and force you to look at each level from every angle.
In GravBot, you'll play as a tiny robot who must collect all of the batteries on each perilous level. In order to accomplish this, you can spin the entire level either 90 degrees left or right or entirely upside down to change the direction of gravity. Your robot can travel left and right on its single tire, and will fall towards whichever way happens to be down at the time. Levels are filled with hazards like spikes, enemies, and lasers which will kill instantly if not avoided. The batteries can be tricky to get to, and a color-coded system of trapdoors, elevators, and various other obstacles will need to be triggered by switching a lever or pushing blocks onto buttons - all in the name of snagging every last battery on a given level.
While just completing each level is sufficiently challenging and fun, the real hook to GravBot is trying to obtain gold medals for each one. The game keeps track of how many times you switched gravity to complete a level, with bronze/silver/gold medals awarded for using it efficiently. What is really satisfying is when you figure out a way to win gold using fewer gravity switches than is required. Due to the physics engine in the game, you can sometimes make it to a hard to reach area without changing the gravity and instead gliding through the air or just barely catching the edge of a platform and hanging on. These types of moves can be risky however, and if you don't pull one off just right you can easily fall to your death. If you do happen to beat a level using a ridiculously low number of gravity switches, you will be immortalized in leaderboard form thanks to the Plus+ network, and there are a number of achievements to obtain as well.
GravBot looks and sounds absolutely great, with Retina Display enhanced graphics and catchy music and sound effects. I especially love the little blips and bloops that your robot will spout out during the game, and he has a ton of personality for essentially being a TV set with a wheel. GravBot has already been submitted and Team Phobic is shooting for a September 30th release. The game will be free to download and comes with 12 levels, with two additional 20 level packs available as in-app purchase for 99¢ apiece. The 12 free levels aren't terribly difficult and serve mostly to get you familiar with the game, but the additional level packs contain some seriously challenging stuff that should keep you busy for quite a while. Make sure to head over to the upcoming thread in our forums to check out more about GravBot, and we'll take another look at the game when it hits the App Store later this month.
We recently posted screenshots and details of the upcoming turn-based strategy puzzler Stoneship in an exclusive granted us by Cyan Worlds. Today, the studio pointed us to a brief video they have posted that provides a look at the game in action.
The upcoming Stoneship: The Curse of a Thousand Islands represents "a lighthearted new direction" for Cyan Worlds, the studio indicates. The game is a casual, top-down, turn-based, strategy puzzle game "with a bent toward the whimsical," we're told. Stoneship sets you and your first mate on the high seas, charged with exploring, controlling, and protecting vast oceans and islands, under continual threat of a pirate siege. There are eighty three included levels to play through, with additional levels to come later via update.
Cyan tells us that the game is nearly complete, but that they are considering slightly delaying its release in order to integrate Apple's GameCenter functionality, what with the iPhone-maker's recent announcement that we will see its arrival in the upcoming iOS 4.1. If GameCenter integration does not make it into the initial release of Stoneship, it will join a planned update that includes additional maps and other gameplay features.
Stay tuned for a close look at Stoneship: The Curse of a Thousand Islands we'll be posting as soon as we have the game in hand.
Last week, in a post featuring new screenshots from the upcoming iPhone version of Riven from Cyan Worlds, we pointed to clues of a new, previously unheard of forthcoming title spotted on the studio's website. At the time, all we saw of Stoneship (named after an age from Myst) was an ad banner commanding, "Never let your timbers be shivered!" and a tiny screenshot. Today, Cyan shared with Touch Arcade exclusive details and screenshots to help give readers a feel for what Stoneship is all about.
The upcoming Stoneship represents "a lighthearted new direction" for Cyan Worlds, the studio indicates. The game is a casual, top-down, turn-based, strategy puzzle game "with a bent toward the whimsical," we're told. The game sets you and your first mate on the high seas, charged with exploring, controlling, and protecting vast oceans and islands, under continual threat of a pirate siege. There are eighty three included levels to play through, with additional levels to come later, it appears.
Granted, there's still room for gameplay specifics and other details on this one, but what we've got does paint an overall picture. And the screenshots provided us should help flesh out that picture, further.
Cyan plans to submit Stoneship to Apple in the next few weeks and, as well, confirms that Riven for the iPhone is still on track for a release this fall. We expect to post a full review of Stoneship coincidental with its release in the App Store. Stay tuned.
A couple months ago, NimbleBit (creators of Pocket Frogs [Free]) revealed their upcoming Universal freemium title, Tiny Tower. Since then, I've had a chance to get hands on with the game, and so far I really like what I've seen.
