When Sega first started releasing its emulated games like Sonic the Hedgehog [$5.99], Golden Axe [$2.99] and others, everyone wondered where Sega's array of classic RPG's were. Sega responded by releasing Shining Force [$2.99], leaving commenters and forum posters happy, but asking for the Phantasy Star series next... Which is exactly what Sega is delivering this Thursday.
Much like Shining Force, Phantasy Star II is a turn-based RPG that works marvelously with Sega's emulator. Text entry is a little dicey, but otherwise navigating the game world and engaging in battles works wonderfully. The emulator also does a great job of saving the game state when you quit the app, making Phantasy Star II surprisingly workable as a pick up and play game.
I still need to spend more time with Phantasy Star II, as like most RPG's the game is quite epic, but so far things are looking very good with this classic Genesis game on the iPhone. Just like Shining Force, all the down sides of Sega's emulator fade away when you're playing a game that doesn't require precise control or high frame rates. Stay tuned for a more comprehensive review when the game arrives on the App Store this Thursday.
As mentioned in our review of Ecco the Dolphin and Space Harrier II, we're glad that Sega is bringing these classic games to the App Store, but action packed platformers and arcade games of days of yore combined with mediocre emulator performance on older devices and touch controls is not a good mix. Today Sega gave us a sneak peek of their upcoming classic RPG Shining Force running in this same emulator, and it is amazing how much the entire experience is improved when you're not playing a game that is based on quick reactions, high frame rates, or precise controls.
Shining Force is a tactical RPG with turn-based battles that take place on square grids. Originally released in the USA in 1993, Shining Force is about as classic as you get when it comes to a Sega RPG. Not only has it been included in various classic game collections that Sega has released on numerous platforms over the years, but it also saw a remake in 2004 for the Gameboy Advance. This is the original Genesis version of the game, set in the land of Rune where you play a silent protagonist who recruits allies to the Shining Force to ultimately prevent the evil Darksol from resurrecting a Dark Dragon, destroying the world, and doing all those other things which have since become entirely cliche for RPG villains to do.
While Shining Force may seem a little basic if you haven't played it before and your first exposure to turn based strategy games was Final Fantasy Tactics or later games, Shining Force has everything it needs for a great old school RPG. Each character has their own class (and personality which is often revealed throughout the story) along with special abilities. As you battle your units level up, and my favorite feature of Shining Force always was that there never really is a game over. If your party falls in battle you retain all your experience earned and just try again. Of course there are all kinds of items to buy, treasure to find, gear to equip, and everything else you'd expect as well.
According to Sega, Shining Force is set to be released this Thursday. If you've been looking for a game to supplement the two Final Fantasy games that were released not too long ago, look no further.
Proud to be indie developer NimbleBit leaked some vague details to us this afternoon regarding their next iPhone game, Pocket Frogs. The story of Pocket Frogs starts back with their previous game, Dizzypad [iPhone: $1.99 / iPad: Free + DLC], a simple jumping game that we loved in our review which recently received an update adding in iOS 4 fast app switching and Retina Display support for the iPhone 4.
Figuring they'd make the various Plus+ awards a little more fun than just increasing your overall Plus+ gamer score, NimbleBit linked these awards with unlocking differently colored playable frogs. The unexpected side effect of this for NimbleBit was it turned out that for many players, the goal of playing Dizzypad for them was to unlock every frog rather than shooting for high scores as originally intended. NimbleBit released several updates to the game which added even more frogs, so when searching for inspiration for their next game, it seemed only natural to make a game with the sole purpose of collecting as many frogs as possible.
Pocket Frogs is a game of raising, breeding, and trading frogs. Each of your frogs will have three specific genetic traits that they inherit from their parent frogs, which according to NimbleBit will result in "many thousand possible emergent species." There are going to be multiple customizable habitats to raise your frogs in, and players will be responsible for keeping the frogs healthy, happy, and well fed by taking them out to explore the Pocket Frog pond.
Aside from breeding frogs, players will be able to get new frogs by ordering them in-game as well as trading frogs with friends via Plus+. There are also plans to have various challenges to breed certain frogs which rotate on a weekly and monthly basis and the frog store will rotate on a daily with new frogs to buy with in-game currency. NimbleBit is still hashing out plans on exactly how they're going to monetize Pocket Frogs, but have assured me that players will be able to access absolutely everything in game for free and whatever in-app purchases they finally decide on will be intended for serious frog breeders and otherwise entirely optional.
One of the core features of Pocket Frogs that NimbleBit feels has been missing from some many of these free social games is a full featured offline mode. If you're an iPod touch user, you will be happy to know that you can play Pocket Frogs without ever connecting to the Internet, you just won't be able to buy any of the in-app purchases or participate in frog trading while offline. Otherwise, you can breed your own little frogs to your heart's content, buy new frogs, and even participate in all the breeding challenges.
Pocket Frogs is currently being developed for all iOS platforms and will include Retina Display support. NimbleBit isn't getting specific with release dates yet, and instead have just told us to "expect to have a handful of little frogs this summer." We've yet to hear whether or not players will be able to release their army of frogs on unsuspecting virgin ecosystems, but for what it's worth, I've got my fingers crossed.
In early May we first posted about Crescent Moon Games getting involved in the development of Aralon: Sword and Shadow, an RPG by Galoobeth Games that had been in development long before Crescent Moon even started on their previous RPG, Ravensword: The Fallen King [$4.99 / Free]. In essence, Aralon had been the project of two developers who were extremely passionate about building an immersive RPG with levels of detail seldom seen on mobile platforms... But neither of them were artists. Aralon was filled with what amounted to mediocre character animations, place holder art, and 3D models that were beyond basic.
Crescent Moon saw the potential this game had if the graphical front-end could be brought up to par with all of the various subsystems powering the game world that Galoobeth had spent so much time working on. With artist Mark Jones, Aralon had the last piece of the puzzle it was missing to be the game it needed to be.
This is what the world of Aralon was going to look like:
And this is what Aralon will look like now, running at the Retina Display resolution of the iPhone 4:
The night and day difference continues through the rest of the screenshots we were provided:
The time that's being put in to the complete artistic makeover of the game has allowed Galoobeth to add even more to Aralon than they were originally even planning on launching with. For instance, the game now has a complete pet system where any NPC (even a human) can be charmed and serve as your pet. The game now includes well over 30 hours of gameplay, what has been described to us as a "massive" world that players can completely explore, hundreds of items, mounts, four playable classes across three races, and other gameplay mechanics such as faction systems, herb gathering, crafting, and more.
Aralon: Sword and Shadow is planned for a fall release, and if they manage to deliver on the things they're promising, Crescent Moon and Galoobeth games will likely have a hit on their hands. For more on Aralon, take a look at our previous post on the game or the thread on our forums. If you like seeing these kind of drastic before and after shots, swing on by this thread on our forums where other developers are posting shots of their placeholder art compared to their final release art as well.
We first heard about Crescent Moon Games'Ultra Kid: Mystery of the Mutants back in late April of this year. Back then we only had a few screenshots and were told the game was inspired by classics such as MegaMan, Kid Icarus, Super Mario Galaxy and others. It's not hard to see elements of those games coming together in the following teaser video:
A new set of screenshots have also been released:
Ultra Kid is still in development, and the guys at Crescent Moon are shooting for a release this fall. We enjoyed their other game, Ravensword: The Fallen King [$4.99 / Free] quite a bit, and are expecting some great things from Ultra Kid.
Deadly Dungeon is a new 3D dungeon-crawling hack 'n' slash game for the iPhone and iPod touch. It seems to be somewhat Diablo-esque in the way the dungeon is presented, the real-time enemy combat, and loot collecting. It doesn't appear that there's much in the way of weapons or gear to equip on your warrior, but there are two playable main characters with a female warrior able to be purchased with in-game gold. The graphics and animation shown in the video are really impressive, with huge enemies and nice lighting and magical attacks.
Details from the developer:
8 levels
3 enemy types: Skeletons, Ogres and Goblins
Collect gold to unlock extra playable Female Warrior and extra swords
4 magic spells per playable character
Great 3d art/animations, music and sound effects
OpenFeint achievements and leaderboards integration
While we're certainly impressed with the visuals portrayed in the video, we do have some reservations about the game. First, it doesn't appear that there's much variety in the dark dungeon setting. Playing through 8 levels of the same environment may get monotonous. On that same note, only having 3 different enemies seems a bit lacking, although those huge ogres are pretty cool. It may just be a bit too basic for gamers who are normally into this type of game, although that remains to be seen until we've actually played it. Still, it has a great look to it and a lot of potential. The magic attacks seem interesting and the ability to play as a female character is a nice addition.
Deadly Dungeon was submitted on Sunday for review from Apple. Barring any unforeseen complications, we should be seeing the game arrive in the next week or so. The price is said to be at 99¢ or $1.99, with the possiblility of being free at first release for early adopters. Due to the graphical intensity, it's recommended for newer hardware (2nd generation iPod touch and above). We'll be taking a closer look at the final version when it's available.
One of our most highly rated games on the App Store, Meteor Blitz [$2.99 / Free] by Alley Labs, is getting an iPad specific HD version. If you have some how missed this game completely since its September release last year, here is a recap of a few of it's succeses:
And if that is not enough to convince you on how good of a game this is, we highly recommend trying the 3 level Lite version of Meteor Blitz [Free]Â to see for yourself.
There is a lot about the game that we liked from the iPhone version like near-instant load times, auto-save, real-time high score rankings, and great controls that we look forward to playing on the larger screen.
Meteor Blitz HD includes new features such as an extended remix soundtrack, separate high score leaderboards from the iPhone version, a larger playing field, new effects, including slow-motion blur, and more intense particle systems, an option to enable or disable the automatic gravity gun, and all the features from the original, including auto-pause, auto-save/resume, smooth gameplay and controls.
Here is a gameplay video from the developers of the iPad version of Meteor Blitz:
Meteor Blitz HD will be $4.99 and has already been submitted to Apple, so we should expect to see it soon on the App Store. Our impressions on the HD version should be out shortly after this hits the store. We haven't been huge fans of dual-stick controls on the iPad with previous titles, so we'll have to see how one of our iPhone favorites makes the transition.
The developers of Sally's Spa [$2.99] and Hottie Hookups [$.99] are about to release their newest game, Sigma. Entering a new category of games, BigStack Studios has created a marvelous looking match-3 game.
Using multi-touch, you can independently spin two columns of blocks on either side of the screen. Tapping either side of the screen sends blocks back and forth across the screen. Once a match has been created, you'll have a couple of seconds to tag additional blocks on to the cluster before the whole thing explodes. Overall, it reminds us of an enhanced version of Unify.
The goal is to create huge blocks of the same color to earn the most points, get power ups, and increase the point multipliers. There will be three different modes in Sigma; Sectors, Time Attack, and Multiplayer. Playing in Sector mode allows you to unlock up to 10 different themes, each with their own music track. Time Attack mode has three time lengths to score as many points as possible before the time runs out. And go head-to-head in Multiplayer mode to compete against your friends over local wifi or bluetooth connection. Sigma will also have the online social network Plus+ included in their game with awards to unlock and leader boards to submit your high scores and compete against the world.
Sigma should be available soon, look for it on the App Store in the near future. And to better see how Sigma will be played, check out this gameplay video:
We'll take a closer look when it arrives. The developers plan on submitting the game to Apple as early as today.
Back in 1989 now-veteran UK game developer Jamie Woodhouse released a lively little puzzle / platformer called Qwak for the 8-bit BBC Micro home computer. Not long after, he joined forces with Team17 to develop an enhanhced, two-player Amiga version of the game, which was released in 1993 and featured faster action and more frantic gameplay. The rather well-reviewed title (Amiga Computing magazine gave it a "Gamer Gold" 92% rating) later made its way to the Gameboy Advance as well as the Mac and PC.
We're pleased to report that Jamie recently got in touch with Touch Arcade to give us an exclusive look at the iPhone version of Qwak he has just completed and will be shortly launching through the App Store.
In Qwak, you control a duck (get it?). Your objective is to guide this green duck through level after level of platforms, fruits and gems (worth points), bouncing enemies, power-ups to help demolish said enemies, and keys to unlock goodies as well as the level's exit gate. Your duck can run, jump, and fire volleys of egg projectiles to knock out the baddies. Grab a bonus item and watch a hail of colorful fruit rain down upon you. Take too long on a level and meet a hail of spikeballs. In a nutshell, I call it frenetic, fun, and rather fruity (to be alliteratively wanton).
I've spent some time with the prerelease build of the game Jamie provided us and it's been lovely to play. It's a touch-controlled affair with a left / right control in one corner and jump and egg-fire controls in the other. The vibrant visuals move about the screen as smooth as glass on the iPhone 3GS test device and a very Amiga-sounding score accompanies the action. It feels both retro and highly polished. It's a game platformer fans won't want to miss.
[ NOTE: Our original video embed ran at half-speed for some reason, the video has been replaced with a speed-accurate version. Have another look. ]
Additional details, I'll leave to the developer to provide (after the jump), as he was kind enough to grant us an interview along with the exclusive ad hoc build.
Limbic Software has announced that TowerMadness HD has been submitted, including 8 new maps, new single player campaign mode system, and a unique multiplayer system.
TowerMadness HD is an open-field or fixed-path tower defense game where you can create your own path to defend off the enemies (Aliens) from reaching your base (herd of sheep). The game has full 3D graphics with pinch-to-zoom capabilities to view the game from any angle, all the way down to first-person viewing of the action. You can check out our full review of the iPhone version of TowerMadnesshere.
One of the most intriguing new features coming to the HD version is the split-screen multiplayer mode. The way it works is that each player is controlling different games, but they are fighting the same linked waves of aliens, allowing each player to have their own strategy. Sending waves in early will result in both you and your opponent having to fend off the incoming aliens. So if your confident in your defenses, you can overload your opponent with waves and win, but this could also result in your own demise if your not careful. There are also new multiplayer specific features, like 'Panic Your Opponent', where you can accelerate the aliens on your opponents side for a little while to hopefully get past their defenses. Another one is a new character called 'Robosteal', who will travel down your opponents path and steal a sheep if he reaches them, and give it to you.
Look for TowerMadness HD on the App Store soon as it has already been submitted.
It's kind of crazy to think how much has happened since November of last year when we had the guys from Crescent Moon Games on the fourth episode of our podcast just before the release of their first iPhone game, Ravensword: The Fallen King [$4.99 / Free]. They've since released the game and it became both a critical and financial success. Following the coattails of Ravensword comes several ambitious projects.
Aralon: Sword and Shadow actually has a great story behind its development. It turns out, the game has been in the works by Galoobeth Games since before Ravensword was even started. The two developers, Jason and Sam, have built the framework for an insanely impressive RPG, but neither are artists. The models were rough, the animations were mediocre at best, but if you looked past all of that, you could see something amazing.
Crescent Moon Games along with artist Mark Jones, famous for his work on everything from the Elder Scrolls series to Arkanoid for the Amiga, are giving Aralon the sprucing up it badly requires to turn a great RPG with bad graphics to what they're hoping to be the best 3D RPG on the App Store.
Aralon: Sword and Shadow is going to sport a feature list that is going to be difficult to beat. They're promising over 30 hours of gameplay, a faction system, crafting and gathering skills, and hundreds of items to equip your character with that also will change your appearance. In addition, there will be four character classes: Warrior, Ranger, Rogue and Mage, each with a unique play style in three playable races: Humans, Elves, and Trolls.
A primary quest will send you through every part of the Kingdom of Aralon, with many optional side-quests to add even more depth to the game. Different enemies will use different battle tactics, and you'll even be able to acquire mounts to quickly travel.
In talking to Crescent Moon Games about Aralon, I've asked them multiple times if they really want to promise all of these things. According to them, almost all of this is already programmed and all they need to do is spend the next four months or so making the game look as great as it plays.
As a fan of RPG's, it's hard to not get excited when developers promise epic gameplay experiences filled with deep stories, tons of character customization, and everything else. We're going to keep a close eye on all of the projects Crescent Moon Games has cooking, and I'm hopeful that Aralon: Sword and Shadow will be just as awesome as it has been described when it finally launches.
Dicework Games, creators of the steampunk puzzler Diceworks [99¢] in collaboration with Crescent Moon Games, the developers behind both Ravensword: The Fallen King [$4.99 / Free] and the upcoming Ultra Kid: Mystery of the Mutants are nearing the finish line in releasing the first of what sounds like a series of turn-based roleplaying games for the iPhone.
Rimelands: Hammer of Thor is going to come loaded with multiple classes to play as, each customizable with talents. The game world consists of both pre-made and randomly generated levels in a game world that is said to be light-hearted and adventurous while still supporting more epic and serious undertones.
The Rimelands web site is absolutely loaded with information about the game, including lore to set the scene of the Rimelands game world. So far everything we've seen from this new partnership between Diceworks and Crescent Moon has been extremely impressive. The art looks great, the Rimelands universe sounds cool, and the brief gameplay shown in the above trailer has really piqued my interest.
Needless to say, we're going to be following Rimelands: Hammer of Thor very closely.
Just don't expect the update to hit in the immediate.
According to developer Martin Pittenauer, The Coding Monkeys haven't started work on the larger version of the game. Instead, they've focused their efforts on the iPhone and iPod Touch versions slated for release in May.
"The iPhone version will be released this month and we plan to start work on the iPad after that," developer Martin Pittenauer told us via e-mail.
"We poured a lot of love into the game already and feel the iPad version deserves the same level of attention, so it's hard to make promises for a release date right now. But we plan to have the game universal later this summer."
Universal updates allow handheld Apps to run natively on the iPad, which avoids creators from having to juggle two similar Apps on the Store at the same time.
The Carcassonne update will be free for purchasers of the App, but the price of the whole package will be raised from its initial $4.99 price point once the update goes live on iTunes.
"Once the app is universal we will end introductory pricing and sell the game for $9.99," Pittenauer told us in a later e-mail. "So, if you buy early, you essentially get a discount on the version that runs on iPhone, iPod, and iPad."
At GDC 2010, one of the games we got a secret sneak peek of was Imangi's upcoming dual stick shooter Max Adventure. Imangi is finally ready to start revealing some details about their most ambitious project to date.
While Max Adventure is yet another dual stick shooter, Imangi's Natalia Luckyanova promises it brings more to the table. She writes, "There will be plenty of the action-packed survival shooting that you expect from a dual stick shooter. But unlike other dual stick shooters, Max Adventure will also have open exploration in non-linear levels, diverse missions, puzzle elements, and story-driven progression."
They've released this epic trailer which shows some gameplay towards the end:
We played an early build of the game at GDC and were pleased to find it capture great controls with a fluid feel. This smooth dual-stick "feel" is something that games like MiniGore have gotten so right while games like Garters & Ghouls have gotten so wrong. Max Adventure is targeted for release at the end of summer. Imangi has started an upcoming discussion thread for the game.
We first saw the beginnings of Freeverse's Flick Baseball at WWDC last year, and I can only imagine how long it had been in development before then. Much like the recently released Warpgate [iPhone: $4.99 / iPad: $7.99], it's immediately evident that a lot of time and effort went in to this game.
Flick Baseball is a full 3D baseball game that looks and plays a lot like a fleshed out version of Com2Us's Homerun Battle 3D [$4.99 / Free] with 3D players, tilt to aim batting, and some extra features such as being able to control your runners and where your outfielders throw the ball. Since Homerun Battle 3D is still one of my favorite iPhone games, I'm really happy with how Freeverse seems to have captured a very similar batting mechanic that works extremely well.
I've barely begun to scratch the surface of Flick Baseball, as we'll be saving that for our in-depth look in our full review, but this is a very complete baseball game. You can play both 3 and 9 inning baseball games in two different difficulty modes, and the entire game is driven by this crazy subsystem of player statistics. Some players bat better than others and as such have a much larger hit zone when they swing, and others require your aim to be practically perfect when batting to hit. There are tons of other stats that control every attribute of each player of your team.
34 teams are included, and you can build your own team with a custom name, lineup, uniform color, roster, stats, and everything else. You could likely spend hours doing nothing other than building custom teams in this game if you wanted to. There are full 11, 33, 66, and 165 game season modes with all kinds of stat tracking, a playoff mode, and the games even change from night to day depending on the actual time of day it is in the city you're playing at.
Here is a video of me playing a couple innings, which features a lot of strike outs and a beginner's luck home run:
Flick Baseball should be available May 3rd, so keep an eye out for a full review and another video of me (hopefully) hitting nothing but home runs with my tricked out custom baseball team. So far I'm really enjoying the game a lot, and look forward to getting deeper in to it.
When Sega first started releasing its emulated games like Sonic the Hedgehog [$5.99], Golden Axe [$2.99] and others, everyone wondered where Sega's array of classic RPG's were. Sega responded by releasing Shining Force [$2.99], leaving commenters and forum posters happy, but asking for the Phantasy Star series next... Which is exactly what Sega is delivering this Thursday.
