Gangstar Rio: City of Saints, $4.99 - Gameloft is offering up a couple of freebies this weekend on two games which have never been free before. First up is Gangstar Rio: City of Saints [$4.99], their take on the whole Grand Theft Auto open-world sandbox game. We reviewed Gangstar Rio when it released back in late 2011, and despite some typical Gameloft-isms like terrible voice work and a paper thin story, we thought it offered up a fairly robust open-world crime game experience.
It's been pretty regularly updated too, adding in new content and most recently widescreen support for the iPhone 5.
N.O.V.A. 3 - Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance, $6.99 - The second game being offered up for free is N.O.V.A. 3 [$6.99]. Previously, the N.O.V.A. series had been mostly a riff on the Halo games, but this most recent entry more closely resembles something like Crysis. Either way, expect lots of sci-fi first-person shooting action and impressive visuals. As with most Gameloft entries, there's a robust online multiplayer offering in N.O.V.A. 3, and as such we gave it its own review back when the game released in May of last year. We also reviewed the single-player campaign, which is pretty excellent as well.
Gameloft has been flirting more with free-to-play games as of late, but both N.O.V.A. 3 and Gangstar Rio are premium-priced games that you can snag for zero dollars right now and through this weekend. Don't miss out.
It's kind of a weird week this week, there's a lot of games coming out at least compared to previous weeks but quite a few of them aren't spinning our proverbial clocks- At least in first impressions. Regardless, we look forward to spending more time with these titles to see how many of them grow on us. Also, if you've got an iPad just stop what you're doing and scroll down to Frozen Synapse.
All Glory to the Pixel King!
iTunes Description:
Exciting news citizen! Our glorious King has passed a new law, specifically stating that 'The King's castle must at all times be at least 42% grander, cooler and shinier than those of his enemies.' The time has come for you, brave citizen, to fight for, and almost certainly die for, your King's noble dream to one day have his own private waterpark!
Build an awesome fortress, stuff it with soldiers, catapults and whatnot, and lead your army into battle against other players' castles in devious turn-based combat!
In case you hadn't noticed, Chillingo had taken a short hiatus from their normal weekly release pace, but are back this week with – wait for it – a physics puzzler. It's called Bombcats and being a fan of both cats and explosions I took it for a quick spin this morning. It's cute, plays well, seemingly has loads of content, and it's also somewhat unremarkable.
Challenge your aim, hone your precision, and push your puzzle-solving skills to the next level in this insanely addictive game. This installment takes the critically acclaimed Can Knockdown series to all new heights- the physics-based carnival gameplay you know and love- and adds unique puzzles, adrenaline-charged challenges, and even more explosive action!
Defend your castle from the evils that lurk below in this unique strategy game! You will need to dig deep into the earth to uncover treasures and destroy the enemies threatening your castle.
- Challenge Yello fans from all over the world!
- Race against your friends in real time!
- Endless number of random tracks!
- Avoid the obstacles and catch all the power-ups to get to the finish line first!
Fire & Forget: The Final Assault is an arcade post-apocalyptic racing game that's set to debut tonight alongside a bunch of other new releases. You can catch a look at it below, but you should probably avoid the actual product. It's not good. The driving feels super floaty, the car-to-car combat is bland, and the production elements aren't stellar. That isn't to say there aren't some neat ideas buried in it. After all, who doesn't like the idea of driving around a laser-equipped car that can spontaneously morph into a fighter plane? But, the execution isn't great, making it a pretty forgettable game as a whole.
Frozen Synapse on iPad is one of the few notable "core" kinda releases this week, and it is what you think it is: a pretty straight-up port of an imaginative PC title that got a bunch of awards and praise. This version sees the addition of one-tap touch controls, as well as cross-platform play.
The original Gravity Guy [Free / Free (HD)] popularized the whole "gravity flipping" mechanic on mobile back in 2010, but the long-awaited sequel does away with that entirely in favor of a more traditional – though still innovative – endless runner formula. Gravity Guy 2 won't have you frantically switching between running on the ground or the ceiling in order to get through its puzzle-like levels, as in the original.
Last year, Jordan Mechner teamed up with Liquid Entertainment to create a modern remake of his 1984 beat 'em up classic, Karateka. The modern, 3D recreation of Karateka [$1.99] (which we reviewed in December) does an excellent job of conveying the tragic tale of the poor, imprisoned princess Mariko and the bold quest to rescue her to today's gamers using modern visuals, an original score, and unique, new fight mechanics. Another thing it does is give old school gamers a real itch to go back and play through the 8-bit original. Happily, as of tonight, that itch is easily scratched.
Run, jump and slide from ropes, dodge rocks! Not enough? There is much more in Manuganu. Avoid swinging hammers and jump over moving ice blocks. Don’t get burned and jump between walls to collect coins and medallions. Break stone blocks and activate platforms before you fall into fog and much more...
...That's what caught my eye about Nikko RC Racer from Paladin Studios, who you might remember as creators of the awesome Momonga Pinball Adventures [$2.99]. This is an official Nikko-endorsed racing game featuring 10 actual RC cars from across the company's 55 year history. The download itself is free and comes with 2 cars unlocked and 1 unlocked via "Liking" a Facebook page. The other 7 cars are 99¢ each to unlock or you can unlock the whole bundle for $2.99. You can also get a promo code to unlock cars by buying an actual Nikko RC car in real life, so there's that too, I guess.
I actually spent a bit of time with this today, and while this game is going to be hard to write about in a "full" article, it's free, and driving around with any kind of precision in a semi truck is actually surprisingly difficult- Particularly while backing up.
Just a quick heads up that a very neat game is currently free, and worth checking out even if you miss out on the freebie. It's called Floris [Free] by Ox & Coon, and it takes similar matching inspiration from games like Tetris and Dr. Mario and blends them into an audio/visual treat that feels equal parts art and game.
To be perfectly honest, Floris seems pretty simple on the surface but it actually can get quite complex and strategic as you go. It's also one of those things that's hard to explain, but will eventually "click" after you play for a bit and from that point on Floris really begins to shine.
Floris is based around a center point with 12 extensions branching out from it evenly, like the numbers on a clock. At any given time two of the extensions are pointing towards the top of the screen, and two sets of colored dot-like petals travel down them towards the center. Buttons on either side of the screen allow you to spin then entire shape around, changing which extensions are pointing up and receiving the dropping petals. Another set of buttons allow you to swap the position of the dropping petals, and touching the center of the Floris causes your petals to fast-drop to the center. It's easier to see in motion in the following video.
Matching five of the same color on one extension will eliminate the petals in that extension, but the real fun lies in making entire circles of a matching color around the entire Floris. Again, it's tricky to explain and I'm even still trying to wrap my head around the game, but suffice to say there is a lot of strategy involved in the mechanics of Floris. You'd do well to read the developer's guide which does a great job of explaining things, as there really isn't an in-game tutorial to speak of.
There's so much more to Floris than the basics that I've covered here, and it's worth the effort to read up on and learn its ways as it really is a clever and visually striking little game. Players in our forums seem to be really enjoying it ever since its release a month ago, and you'd do well to snag Floris during its freebie sale.
Whoa, it's Wednesday again, which means exactly one thing: I have an appointment to get my hair cut. Oh, and a bunch of new iOS games are coming out. As of this posting, all of these games should be available in all regions including the USA. So, without further ado, here's the games you can sink your proverbial teeth into this week:
Sometimes taking a sport and axing out pretty much any sort of realism is the key to making a fun arcade version of said sport. With Crazy Monster Bowling, as you can probably guess just by the title, this is about as far from simulation bowling as you can get.
The game begins with you bursting onto the rooftop of the bank and leaping to the building next door. It's here that you'll make your escape, and you do this by literally pounding through the floor of each, well, floor of the building. A swipe downward smashes your thief through the floor, and a swipe upward makes you jump. Your character auto-runs so these are literally the only controls in the game, and it works brilliantly.
Snark aside, you play as an aspiring archeologist in a fast-paced puzzle game with a strong nod back to games like Qix as the way you both dig up new artifacts and deal with enemies in the field is by controlling your guy to draw boundaries for the areas you're digging in. Completing levels involves managing bad guys, collecting treasure, then digging deeper
Go Home is a pretty standard tower defense title with a couple of notable twists. For one, you don't just place turrets, you control an autonomous one that you can move around a level freely to cover any defensive gaps. For another, the level design sorta resembles a puzzle game's. Turrets are shaped like jigsaw pieces, basically, and you can only put them where they fit. Finding the perfect spacing and locking the right pieces into each other is an essential part of the late-level strategy.
Kevin Ng's upcoming Impossible Road has the look and feel of an everyday mobile arcade game, but it's definitely not. In it, you guide a ball down an infinitely winding neon stretch of track, collecting points as you rocket through the numbered gates that line it. It's a simple, breezy task where death comes fast because the track twists, turns, and falls into itself. As you play, though, you start noticing gaps in the system. For instance, the ball doesn't need to follow the track linearly. You can let it fall off and land onto a stretch that's deeper down. You can also skip gates, too, and earn the same amount of points that a person that managed to hit them all would. Also, the ball doesn't even need to roll down. If you're a bad enough dude, you can just keep throwing it off the track and controlling its ricochet off of the curves.
In the jungle, only the strong survive. I guess that's true in ponds, too. In Tasty Tadpoles, the first solo iOS release from developer Mark White, strength doesn't mean being bigger or stronger, but rather being faster and more clever than your enemies. If you aren't, you'll find your cute little tadpole becoming nothing more than an afternoon snack.
Rockstar Games brought a surprisingly playable touchscreen port of their classic Grand Theft Auto: Vice City [$4.99] to the App Store back in December, and for the first time since release they've dropped the price of the game from $4.99 down to just $1.99.
Vice City is the second iteration of the fully 3D, open-world sandbox GTA games and was released way back in 2002. It goes hard with its 1980s, neon, Scarface-meets-Miami Vice theme and follows your protagonist as he starts out as a low-level thug and works his way into the crime boss of Vice City.
For its 10th anniversary Vice City was released on iOS with some cleaned up visuals and some subtle tweaks to certain missions and difficulty levels. While the original Vice City is designed for the many buttons of modern gaming controllers, the virtual buttons actually work surprisingly well on iOS and we really enjoyed the touchscreen conversion in our review.
If you're a GTA fan that for whatever reason hasn't picked up Vice City for your iOS device yet, then now is your chance to grab it for more than half-off. It's fun for what it is, and it's kind of a miracle a game like Vice City can be carried around in your pocket nowadays. As always, more information and discussion of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City can be found in our forums.
Hey, do you like Angry Birds? And do you have friends? Well you can finally combine these two major aspects of your life in one handy iOS game. Yes, as we've talked about previously, Rovio has just taken their ultra-popular Facebook social game and brought it to the App Store as Angry Birds Friends [Free].
Here's the thing, though: as snarky as I might try to be about yet anotherAngry Birds game, Angry Birds Friends is pretty darn fun so far. First and foremost, it uses Facebook to do pretty much anything meaningful, so if you're not down with that then you should probably just move on now.
If you are down to plug your Facebook into the game, Angry Birds Friends will pit you against your buddies in weekly high-score tournaments. A different set of 6 levels will appear with each weekly tournament, and you can play and replay each one trying to get the absolute best score you possibly can. Your total score for all levels is the bar used to measure who wins at the end of the week, and then the whole thing starts over again.
While there's nothing mind-blowingly different going on in Angry Birds Friends, it's still fun to have a smaller subset of players to compete against rather than the billion or so people who are playing the other Angry Birds games, and with a rotating set of new levels each and every week it should provide some variety if you've played the other games to death already.
I'm not crazy about having to use Facebook, and the connection to the social network seems kind of slow at times, but for a free download you don't have anything to lose by checking out Angry Birds Friends if you're looking to add a more competitive aspect to your bird-flinging.
It's Wednesday again, which means a slew of new iOS games have been releasing into the various international App Stores all day, and have finally arrived in the US App Store right… now! Or in the next few minutes, at least. These things take time, ok? The long, long, looonnngggg awaited Star Command will likely be the most buzzed about release this week, but as the day has gone on there have been a decent number of new titles popping up to flesh out this week's offering. Following is a collection of relevant information and links for all the new releases from today and even a couple from the past few days.
In Better Than Portal, you control a kid with whacky hair and a portal gun across a host of chapter-based levels that range from a reactor to an underground lab to a forest. In each level, the goal is to reach a purplish orb thing, usually tucked well and away from the kid. Getting to the orb requires use of the portal gun, which when used, can create tears in the universe allowing for easy teleportation of the kid and other objects such as, say, boxes. As the game ramps up, it introduces obstacles like laser grids, which you'll need to turn off by, generally, finding a box to drop onto a switch.
In a nutshell, Dark Avenger is another crack at a mobile version of Diablo. They were beaten to the App Store by Gameloft's recently released Dungeon Hunter 4 and I'm super curious to see which will end up being the champion of this proverbial dungeon crawling cage match.
Impressions on our forums generally seem to be positive, although multiple members have mentioned that the game feels a little flat. That echoes my experiences as well, although admittedly I'm very curious to see if/when the game opens up at all to anything more than mindless monster mashing.
"Emilly In Darkness" is an old school action-adventure game in which on one hand the character shoots, sets traps and learns new skills, but on the other hand the character must navigate a gloomy, complex world with a twisted and unpredictable plot, highlighted by cut-in animations and conversations with NPC's.
"Emilly in Darkness" tells the story of Emilly who, for reasons unknown, wakes up alone in a dark forest, and after a few moments is fatally gunned down by an unseen assassin. However, she does not die, at least not in the traditional sense of death. Instead, Emilly finds herself suspended in a grim and odd place, not so different from hell. She is lost, alone, surrounded by demons, and oddly enough, other forlorn people, people whose intentions are not always clear. This is just the beginning...
Out of the pages of Valiant’s smash-hit summer crossover event and onto your favorite mobile device, Harbinger Wars: Battle for Las Vegas is a first-of-its-kind gaming experience that mirrors the events of the ongoing Valiant comic book storyline by Joshua Dysart, Duane Swierczynski and Clayton Henry.
Developed in concert with Storm City Entertainment and Gameshastra, Valiant’s first mobile game comes complete with an all-original 8-bit soundtrack, a wide array of Easter eggs for longtime gamers and Valiant fans, and gameplay that emulates some of the most well-remembered console classics of the 1980s.
Collect, recycle and test your skills as you traverse the galaxy in your own interstellar garbage scow.
FEATURES:
-Dead simple one touch controls
-Awesome original soundtrack
-Tons of levels and junk
-Endless High score mode featuring Game Center leaderbaords
-Collect Legendary junk and unlock a Game Center achievement for each one.
This isn’t your standard matching game. It is a beautifully designed game that has achievements, high scores, penalty cards and power ups. It is your childhood matching game meets action puzzler. Work your way through levels unlocking achievements and gaining power up points to purchase power up cards to assist you in the levels. Game Center support for High Score and Achievements.
*Exciting Ninja Actions!
*Original touch controls for Ninja Actions!
*10 more items!
*20 more Enemies!
*Retro style pixel art and chiptune music!
*Game Center support!
*Japanese Ninja world!
- Real-time online multiplayer Death Match, Team Death Match and King of the Hill.
- Fast pacing fun hack and slash.
- Five different heroes with ten unique skills.
- Various cooperative and competitive strategy among teams.
- Simple and easy to learn, hard to master.
Paper Titans is a 3D puzzle platform game. In it, you "make" a bunch of odd-looking paper creatures and then search for stars and postcards across a host of same-y, or even recycled, levels. Each one has three stars that you can collect, but the card is the end goal for whatever reason. Monster movement is handled by a line-drawing mechanic similar to the one in, say, Spy Mouse. Just tap the monster and drag a line to where you want him.
Sorcery! plays like a gamebook mixed with a board game. The actual chunks of text glide elegantly into view with the various options for you to choose presented at the bottom. As you make your choices, more of the story glides in with even more branches to choose from. In between the reading, you'll direct your character around a gorgeous 3D overworld map, again making choices on which path to take through the terrain.
The game does a great job at hinting towards what might await behind each choice you make, whether it's clueing you in on the demeanor of the intimidating stranger you meet in a tavern or what sort of perils (and possible rewards) await you if you choose a given path through the countryside. Being that I'm not exactly a gamebook aficionado, I've found Sorcery! completely approachable so far, and I'm hooked enough on my current adventure already that I can't wait to see it through.
At the top level, Star Command is a sci-fi simulation game that focuses on the real guts of an interstellar ship -- you know, the people, the facilities, and the technology that makes travel and battle possible. As far as feel goes, it's something of sci-fi slugfest where you find yourself limping out of every battle in a charred ship that's being staffed by a skeleton crew because everyone either (a) got sucked out of the hull, (b) got incinerated by phasers, or (c) died in a fire. I'm not really sure that this is the feel that creator War Balloon was ultimately looking for, but this is how it came across to us for the first couple of hours. And, spoiler, this is a pretty cool thing.
Gameplay is similar to the first, placing you on a little dirt bike and tasking you with making it through a series of jumps and obstacles as you motor towards the finish line of each level. Simply touch the right side of the screen to accelerate, touch the left side to brake, and tilt your device to rotate in the air. It's the same formula used in plenty of these kinds of games, and it works just fine.
One of the coolest features of Stick Stunt Biker 2 is the ability to unlock new kinds of bikes, like a burly Chopper, a Police Motorcycle, or the hovering Future Bike. Each new vehicle comes equipped with their own unique set of attributes and physics behavior, giving you a bit of a different experience playing through the levels with them.
Armed with hatchets, roman candles, and even a chupacabra, you'll trace a path with your finger and watch your weapon hurl through these immortal enemies. Each level requires timing, strategy and precision to complete the Sugar Skull Missions and rescue your friendly animales before they become brain-eating Zoombies themselves. Collect golden pesos to earn Especiales upgrades like slippery Guacamole, La Bomba, and stampeding Elefantes to thwart the unending hordes of Zoombies!
Long, long time Mac developer Pangea Software was amongst the first to really go full-steam into iOS development and the new App Store back in the early iPhone days. Because of that, some of their titles will always stand out to me as absolute classics for the time that they were released. Games like Cro-Mag Rally and Enigmo. Pangea has also always been really good at adopting new technology and features, often being first out of the gate to implement things like Retina Display support and Game Center online multiplayer.
So, Pangea is a solid developer with a great history, but the iOS App Store in particular has been really good to them. In an effort to thank all their fans, they've made their entire much of their iOS game catalog free for the next 24 hours. Here's a list of what's on offer, including their games which are free to begin with.
This isn't the first time Pangea has had a freebie blowout like this, in particular they did this a couple of years back for their third anniversary on the App Store, but there are some quality titles on offer here for zero dollars so if there are some games listed above which you haven't discovered yet now is a great time to check them out. Also, if you like being alerted to freebies like this be sure to have the TouchArcade [Free] app installed to get notifications when time-limited sales like this go into effect.
If you haven't noticed by the explosion of new game posts today, it's Wednesday, which arguably is the best day of the week for iOS gamers as we're teased with the new releases which start in New Zealand and slowly trickle across the rest of the planet until we finally see them stateside at 11:00 PM Eastern. There's a surprising amount of really big name titles this week, so it'll be interesting to see what gets love from Apple during tomorrow's App Store featuring update.
Graphics in Gun Commando are really simple, with blocky environments and textures, but it has a really cool stylized look that makes it feel like you're playing an '80s cartoon. The levels are simplistic and are all really bite-sized, which is well-suited to mobile. You aren't likely to get lost working your way through them, but there are 3 trophies to search out and collect in each one and plenty of little secret areas to find that give you additional goals to shoot for.
The game is broken up into three different "movies" which each contain four levels and a boss fight at the end. The initial download gives you the first movie, Papa's Palace of Pain, as well as a locked second movie Ballistic Trauma. You unlock that second movie merely by playing through the first, but the third movie, Naked Terror, must be purchased for a $1.99 IAP. I don't mind so much having to pay for additional DLC levels in games, but on day one in a paid game that already only comes with two chapters it feels a bit weird.
Nearly a gig installed, Iron Man 3 is a behind the back endless runner flyer where you control Iron Man blasting down a highway (and other locales). The game starts by asking you not only if it can send you push alerts, but also if it can have access to your contacts, and the free to play stuff just gets stranger from there.
If you liked the iOS versions of Lego Harry Potter then chances are you'll dig this latest Batman incarnation, as it seems to be in the same vein. Or, if you just like Batman and other DC heroes, you'll probably get a kick out of it too.
There's not a really tidy way to categorize Chillingo's Madmonster. It's not a runner, even though it does task you with guiding a tiny monster dude around a world from left to right in an endless charge. It's not a platform game, even though its core mechanic revolves around that monster bouncing up and down and smashing various objects. It's a game that sits in the middle between these two genres, satisfying neither's conditions as neatly as I want it to. And while I'm being wishy-washy: it's not a thrilling game, either, though it is a competent arcade-y game.
The original Random Heroes was pretty cool, but Ravenous is hoping to ratchet things up in the sequel with new mechanics, new enemies, and plenty of hew heroes to play as. Check out the latest trailer to see the new game in motion.
This one does depart in a few key areas. Most likely, folks are probably going to latch onto the new unicorn customization component and the systems that revolve around it. As you run, you collect metallic tears. With these, you can buy pieces of equipment or parts for your robotic unicorn. Want a flaming mane? Sure, it's in there. How about a new sternum? Yup, you can grab that, too.
Rewinding a bit, Talisman Prologue on mobile is a fantasy-ass fantasy RPG. In it, you play as an adventurer tasked with doing hero-y deeds. As a Barbarian, for example, one of the quests charges you with saving a princess from a duo of ogres and taking her back to the castle. The first Monk quest has you looking for a cross and delivering it to the Chapel because looking for artifacts is pretty cool. Other adventurers have more... narratively adventurous quests, but you get the idea. Also, all the production design in the game is traditional; it has that rugged, old-school pulp fantasy book look that extends all the way to creature design and into font.
As we told you back in February, the folks over at Ravenous Games are prepping the release of Random Heroes 2, the sequel to last summer's action platformer Random Heroes [Free]. The original Random Heroes was pretty cool, but Ravenous is hoping to ratchet things up in the sequel with new mechanics, new enemies, and plenty of hew heroes to play as. Check out the latest trailer to see the new game in motion.
Today Ravenous announced that Random Heroes 2 is approved and set for release this Thursday, which is actually Wednesday night here in the US. In equally exciting news, to celebrate the impending release of Random Heroes 2 they've just dropped the price of their other platforming sequel League of Evil 2 [$1.99] to free for the next week. Here's the trailer for League of Evil 2 in case you want to see it in action first.
If you like fast-paced platforming with quick, bite-sized levels then you should jump all over League of Evil 2 while free, if you don't own it already that is. It's been on sale before, but this is the first time that I can recall it being completely free, so it's definitely noteworthy. Grab it while you can and keep your eyes peeled for Random Heroes 2 to drop later this week.
Late last year the original AppShopper app was removed from the App Store due to some conflicts with Apple's ever-evolving app approval guidelines, but the companion app for our sister site is now back and better than ever. It's called AppShopper Social [Free], and it leverages the power of AppShopper.com with a friends list system so you can constantly stay up to date with what friends of yours are downloading, and things they want to download. Keep in mind, this is a totally different app, so if you've still got the O.G. AppShopper app on your phone, this new app won't conflict with that at all. The new version retains all the core wish list functionality, while adding loads of discovery potential for new and cool things and there's even in-line reviews from various app/game review sites.
If you like the TouchArcade app [Free] be sure to give AppShopper Social a try. Also, if you're looking for friends to add in the app, add the user "TouchArcade" to have games pop up in your feed as we review them. Neat, right?!
Landlubbers take notice: Johnny Two Shoe's awesome swashbuckling adventure Plunderland [$0.99] is currently free for a limited time. It's a side-scrolling affair that sees you controlling a group of pirates in a God-like manner as you travel the seas going port to port and pillaging everything you encounter along the way. There are tons of neat interactive elements in Plunderland, like being able to pick up people in the game and fling them about or set them on fire, swipe enemy cannonballs out of the sky, and discover treasures by tap-digging on islands.
Plunderland is unlike practically anything else on the iOS platform, and although it launched nearly three years ago it still holds up incredibly well to this day. It was even updated last fall to include some modern features like iPhone 5 widescreen support and Retina Display graphics for the iPad, in addition to some tidying up of menus and other optimizations.
You can check our original review of Plunderland as well as the details of a huge update which added a new campaign, or check out the lengthy thread in our forums for player impressions. Plunderland has only been free once before, and while we're still waiting extremely patiently for Johnny Two Shoe's upcoming epic Prevail, there's no reason you shouldn't jump all over it right now for some free plundering in the meantime.
We've had a crazy day of getting deep into all of the latest iOS releases as they hit the US store, and as of this posting they should be available everywhere worldwide.
You may have noticed we changed up our format today. Instead of posting a single roundup story, we've gone more in depth with the various Thursday releases to give some first impressions of these new games before they hit worldwide. This gives you a better feel for the quality of the games that are coming out.
Also, don't miss out on other new releases that had already come out, but that we were also impressed with today: Vendetta Online, They Need to be Fed 2, and forum-favorite Fangz.
New Releases
Here's our final summary roundup which includes all the games from today.
Ark of Sinners Advance
Set in the Anima: Beyond Fantasy universe, the meat of the game seems to be action-oriented platforming, rampaging from area to area brawling with gated fights where you cannot progress past a certain area until you've killed all the dudes on screen.
A solid follow-up to the original Cut the Rope and Cut the Rope Experiments that offers more of the same rope-cutting, monster-feeding shenanigans that managed to strike a chord with folks.
We've extensively covered the game in the past, but here's the gist (again)- Imagine skipping stones in a constantly changing ocean that's directly linked to the weather in game, only instead of stones you've got a variety of fish that each have slightly different abilities such as being able to fly extra far or being able to skip across the surface like mad.
To my knowledge there aren't any other games that let you play as a giant ninja fist with legs who must use their fist-shaped body to fight off various brightly colored enemy ninjas who are all hellbent on breaking your heart.
Robots have decided to fight back against sleep by the only way that makes sense: attacking the sheep that we count when we need to catch our 40 winks.
I think the easiest way to describe R.I.P. Ralley is to take the vibe of those arena levels in Twisted Metal, throw in a dash of Smash TV, replace all enemies with zombies, then apply a heavy glaze of free to play on top.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Rooftop Run is one of tonight's bigger ticket releases because of the branding, but it's also one heck of a runner that nimbly mixes combat with scaling and jumping, as well impressive QTEs.
I just got the call from fellow carb-free buddy, all around nice guy, and honorary King of Australia: Halfbrick's own Phil Larsen (who was also actually on a recent podcast) to tell us that Fruit Ninja [$0.99] as well as the iPad counterpart Fruit Ninja HD [$2.99 (HD)] are both free. Originally released in 2010, Fruit Ninja quickly ascended to "classic" status along side App Store staples like Doodle Jump [$0.99] or Pocket God [$0.99] with an incredibly simple premise and controls that even your grandma can get a hang of.
It seems silly to explain the premise of Fruit Ninja, as I'd hope anyone who reads TouchArcade would already know about it, but the basic idea is fruit gets tossed up on the screen of your iOS device of choice, and you swipe it to slice it while avoiding slicing bombs. Through a variety of updates they've added new game types, fruit to slice, and have even released the movie-themed spinoff Fruit Ninja: Puss in Boots [$0.99].
I figure there's a good chance most people around here already have Fruit Ninja, but still, if you don't now is a great time to snag it. Similarly, if you're a TouchArcade regular chances are you're also "that guy" who all your iPhone-owning friends ask for game recommendations, and, well, Fruit Ninja for free is a pretty solid one.
Still dealing with the post-GDC craziness on some level, it seems like the weeks have been flying by between these Wednesday releases. In non-game related news, if you're in the market for a cool status monitor-like app, you really should give Panic's Status Board a look. I don't know what, if anything, I'll use it for, but I feel like there's got to be a niche audience about there who are just going to go crazy over something exactly like this. Anyway, just figured it was worth a mention. Like all previous weeks, all of these games should be available at 11:00 PM Eastern, or potentially way earlier.
AlieNation, Free - Forum Thread - A strange looking shooter-ish physics destruction game with a cell shaded art style. It's free, so no harm in checking it out.
Blue Toad Murder Files: A Touch of Mystery, $2.99 - Forum Thread - Solve a mysterious murder in the village of "Little Riddle" with this English humor-packed puzzle game. It's got 36 puzzles included through the adventure, and the developers mention AirPlay as a feature which makes me wonder if they've got a cool implementation of the tech.
Bottle Cap Blitz, 99¢ - Forum Thread - Forum Thread - Proving that we're really scraping the bottle of the barrel for concepts that haven't been done before on the App Store is this game from Big Pixel Studios where you, well, flip pop caps at ice cubes.
Enemy Strike, Free - Forum Thread - A first person shooter with (seemingly) quite a bit of content between 250 different missions, 15 weapons, and 5 different game modes. People in the forums seem to be enjoying it as well.
Garden of Fear, 99¢ - Forum Thread - Horror games are really hard to do on mobile devices, since so much of the effect has to do with more immersed you can get in the game. Regardless, there's a free lite version to try to see if this one jives with you.
GolfStar, Free - Forum Thread - I got a look at this back at GDC, and really liked what I saw. GolfStar is a online golf game with good graphics, and some neat gameplay modes. Now we've just got to wait and see how the actual free to play mechanics shake out in the actual release version of the game.
Gemini Rue, $4.99 - Forum Thread - We've been following this game for a while, and I'm totally stoked that the iOS port is here. Joseph described it as "a gritty, futuristic detective story about a spacecop" which sounds totally up my alley.
Heavy Sword, 99¢ - Forum Thread - This super-colorful platformed is giving me all sorts of warm nostalgic feelings, it all comes down to how those virtual controls work out.
Lumber Jacked, 99¢ - Forum Thread - We caught a glimpse of this action platformed from Everplay back at GDC, and really liked what we saw. Pixel art, tons of levels, and more worlds on the way? Sounds great.
Mighty Dungeons, 99¢ - Forum Thread - The latest title from Forest Moon Games combines board gaming with dungeon crawling, reactions in the forum seem very positive and I'm excited to give this a spin as that sounds like a great mash-up.
Mr. Crab, 99¢ - Forum Thread - A surprise release from Illusion Labs, Mr. Crab puts you in charge of playing as a crab rescuing other crabs. As a total Illusion Labs fan, I'm totally checking this out.
