Mobile game developer ToySpring has released their iPhone port of Bike or Die 2 [App Store]. Bike or Die 2 is an “physics-based bike simulation” with over 2500 levels. Features include:
3D biking levels and environments
Challenging level design
Zooming effects
Customizable bike appearance
Record and replay your best games
On-line Hall of Fame with Time Trial and Freestyle Competitions
The $2.99 price is described as a “limited time price”.
The first news of upcoming zombie-based FPS Zombie Mansion broke early last month. We were frankly surprised to see in the comment and forum posts just how fond readers are of zombies. (”Woo! Zombies! I’m buying this one! The game could be watching zombies watching paint dry, i’d buy it.”)
Well, zombie fans: get ready. Fuel Industries has just submitted Zombie Drive to the App Store and it should be available in a day or two.
As the developer frames it,
It’s called Zombie Drive, and it centers around you, the protagonist being left behind in a quarantined zone sectioned off by the army. If you’re doomed to get nuked, you might as well take out some zombies on the way—by driving them over.
Aspyr Media, noted Mac game development house and owner of 60% of the Mac gaming market, will be launching its first iPhone game, Buggled, sometime next week.
Put your finger dexterity to the test in this fun and active game of multi-touch finger twister. Ladybugs attempt to escape your nimble fingers in this game filled with charming visuals and curious sounds. So keep all of your fingers on the ladybugs or you will get Buggled!
Features as listed by Aspyr:
Multi-touch game of finger dexterity
Beautiful visuals and sounds
Smooth progression of skills and puzzle complexity
Play alone or with a friend on the same screen
Beat your best time
Become a Buggled expert and send challenges to your friends
We’re excited to see Aspyr lending their talent to the iPhone platform. Stay tuned for more details on Buggled as well as other forthcoming iPhone releases from Aspyr.
In 1987, Casady & Greene published a game by Patrick Buckland known as Crystal Quest for the Apple Macintosh. Ths first game to support color on the Mac, Crystal Quest was a simple affair where the player used the mouse to move a sphere around the playfield, dodging enemies and collecting crystals in order to unlock an exit gate a the bottom of the screen. While a very basic game, it worked very well with the mouse and offered some rather frantic gameplay in the higher levels. Anyone who used a Mac extensively in the late ’80s surely encountered this title and it likely holds a special place in his or her heart. Crystal Quest was later ported to the Apple IIgs, Commodore Amiga, Nintendo GameBoy, and Palm OS devices. Much more recently, an updated take on the original appeared in the Xbox Live Arcade, published by Buckland’s own Stainless Games (who announced iPhone support back in July).
And thanks to Hands-On Mobile’s recent App Store release [link], the iPhone can be added to the list of ports of of this classic action game.
Quite similar to the Xbox Live remake, Crystal Quest for the iPhone offers both a modern play mode, featuring updated graphics and audio as well as mild gameplay enhancements, and a classic play mode that stays true to the original’s simple color graphics and controls. The most notable gameplay enhancement in the modern mode is the ability to shoot at enemies in any direction by tapping in the enemy’s vicinity. The classic mode only allows shots to be fired in the direction that the sphere is traveling, like the original mouse-controlled game. The game’s option screen allows the choice of accelerometer or swipe control (or both) as well as sensitivity settings for each.
While the mouse is probably the perfect control mechanism for this game, the iPhone’s control systems do a decent job of approximating the feel of the original, especially the swipe control mode (which is shown in our demo video).
True fans of the original should find the $4.99 iPhone version much to their liking. Those unfamiliar with the game: don’t be fooled by the easy first levels–the pace quickly heightens and before long will be more than you can handle. Crystal Quest is a classic that is worthy of a look.
Crystal Quest is a remake of the 1987 classic Mac action game, very similar to the recent Xbox Live remake from Stainless Games. It’s simple “pick up the gem” action, but the pace quickly becomes frantic. Fans of the original should love this outing.
IUGO Mobile Entertainment released Zombie Attack! [App Store] tonight. Zombie Attack! is the third title from IUGO after Toy Boy Diaries 1 and Shaky Summit.
Priced at only $0.99, Zombie Attack! is billed as an “addictive 3D tower defense game with a scary twist.”
Your mission: play as a survivor from the ultimate Zombie Apocalypse, protect your shack and stay alive. Choose from an array of zombie-blasting weapons including, flame throwers and cannons. Kill zombies, earn points and cash to upgrade your weapons and bolster your fire power. Easy tilt and touch-screen controls make ZA! an instant iPhone exclusive favorite.
Tower Defense is a genre of strategy game in which your goal is to stop the enemies from crossing the map by building up your tower defenses. IUGO’s entry into this arena appears to take an original approach to the standard formula. Forum member NotYoudescribes his first impressions:
It’s not at all a normal tower defense game. It is tower defense, technically, but it’s a whole different take on it. Instead of just placing towers strategically, you have to actually run around and plant them. If a zombie is in your way, you might not be able to get where you want. This way there’s a lot more action to the game and it’s not purely strategy.
I still don’t know what it is about Mr. Papi that makes us so happy.
Is it the awkwardly translated Japanese? Maybe. The laughably simple graphics of the title character? Perhaps. Maybe just good gameplay? Probably.
But we’re not alone in our love of Sunflat’s Papi franchise, as they seem to have developed quite a following. At first glance, the latest installment from Sunflat, PapiJump Cave [App Store], appears to be another solid game. I’ve only been able to play through the first few stages, but stopped so I could deliver this gameplay video (and I kept dying) which may help you decide on getting the game yourself.
The game is a traditional 2d platformer in which you control Mr. Papi. On screen buttons provide left/right and jump movements and the goal of each level is to clear all the hamburgers (Mr. Papi is hungry, it seems). In your way are “spiky balls”, trampolines, moving platforms and green blocks that give way when you jump on them. The controls work reasonably well and the early levels are fun and do seem to ramp up in difficulty pretty quickly.
Sunflat describes the game as having 25 levels, broken into stages. The final (5th) level in each stage (except the final one) is a bonus level in which you collect as many hamburgers as possible for bonus lives.
The video shows the entire first stage and part of the second:
Once you reach a new stage, you can start back at the 1st level of that stage. While tilt controls for character movement are offered, they are not recommended. Like other Sunflat games, there’s a level of unpolishedness/simplicity to the game menus and there does not seem to be any way to resume a game if you are interrupted. At $1.99, however, this is still an easy game to recommend even after our brief playtime.
Everyone’s lovable “red ball guy” returns for the latest installment from Sunflat. PapiJump Cave [App Store] is described as a “full-scale jump action game” with 25 different levels.
Mr.Papi (red ball guy) was hungry, so he began to explore the cave of hamburgers! He moves, jumps, and falls to eat all the hamburgers in the cave.
This time Sunflat delivers a 2d platformer using left/right and jump buttons for controls.
We’ve only played the first few levels, but it seems to deliver a surprisingly good platform experience. Who needs Mario with Mr. Papi?
Disney has released a free game called RhinoBall [App Store] for the iPhone and iPod Touch as a promo for their upcoming animated film Bolt.
The game is an accelerometer based game in which you control the character of Rhino (a hamster in a ball) to find Bolt (a dog). Naturally, you tilt your iPhone to collect the lightning bolts as you race to the end of the level. The game is somewhat simple, but does serve as a good tie in to the movie.
It’s a fun diversion with some amusing clip scenes, though be warned that the clip scenes + trailers bring this app up to a chunky 94.4MB size.
Namco has released a free trial version of Pac Man [App Store].
The free version of this classic game offers only the first stage, which might be enough for many fans.
We previously looked at the controls for Ms. Pac-Man which shares the same system as Pac Man and found that the swipe control is the best.
It appears Namco is exploring ways to boost sales. The company previously dropped the price of both Ms. Pac-Man and Pac-Man from $9.99 to $7.99. We’re not sure if a Lite version is going to really capture people, however, since it may provide many with just enough Pac-Man for them to realize they don’t need the full game.
Ngmoco has released two of their new games to the App Store for very reasonable prices.
Topple ($0.99) - Stack and balance a family of mischievous & dysfunctional shapes using multi-touch controls to slide and rotate them into positions. Build your way to victory but remember to keep your balance by tilting the screen to prevent your teetering tower of blocks from Toppling to their doom. Video available at topple.ngmoco.com
MazeFinger (Free) - Penetrate a seemingly endless collection of challenging mazes and race to the exit before your energy runs out! Video available at mazefinger.ngmoco.com
The games claim to only be compatible with the iPhone and iPod touch (2nd generation) but it’s not clear why it would not work with a 1st generation iPod touch.
Update: Ngmoco has said that the iPod 1st Generation incompatibility is simply an error in the submission process and will be corrected quickly.
The first news of upcoming zombie-based FPS 
In 1987, 
