Origin8 already has a library of good games on the App Store, including both Sentinel and Sentinel 2, two of my favorite tower defense games. They're heading in a new direction with their latest title, Robot Rampage, a seemingly endless survival game where you play as a gigantic robot armed with a super laser.
Your massive robot is controlled with a variety of touch gestures. Tapping on the side of the screen causes the robot to move in that direction, holding a finger down on the screen fires the laster in that direction. The robot can also punch and stomp by tapping on either side of the robot's torso to punch, and tapping its legs to stomp. As you destroy your surroundings, a gauge in the top left corner fills up. Once full, you can tap and hold the robot to charge up a massive attack that clears the screen.
The following trailer released by Origin8 goes over the controls and other features:
Gameplay is fairly simple, and involves little more than destroying everything in your path and continually moving right. The difficulty ramps up nicely as the forces of Earth increasingly their efforts to stop you by deploying more soldiers, tanks and other defenses. Every ten blocks you clear restores your health, and when you finally die your score is submitted to OpenFeint.
Robot Rampage is set to launch for $1.99 as soon as its approved by Apple. The graphics are just as high quality as the rest of the Origin8 games and the whole thing is dripping in awesome cheesy B-movie Sci-Fi charm. Keep an eye out for Robot Rampage in the not too distant future if you're a fan of giant robot destruction.
Last week we got a sneak peek at Indeeo Games' recently released line drawing game, AirStrike Defense [App Store]. Featuring three modes that the game hops between with each mission, AirStrike Defense asks players to control ships and/or planes in a variety of different combat scenarios.
Regardless of which unit type you're controlling, both naval and air forces are maneuvered by drawing lines originating from the ship or plane. Both are capable of boosting their speed for a brief period of time, and handle much differently depending on the unit. For instance, massive battle ships move and turn extremely slow, while smaller ships move much faster, and your jets move even faster.
Gameplay is structured through a series of mission, each with slightly different objectives. Some naval missions ask you to navigate a fleet of battleships through an ocean full of mines, or avoid bombers trying to sink your ships. Air missions involve bombing enemy ships, and there's a combination mode where you're managing your air offensive while protecting your naval fleet.
The sea missions are fun, but I found the various bombing missions to be the most enjoyable by far. As you progress through the game, you'll need to take out entire fleets of enemy battle ships with your bombers and your performance is graded by your overall bombing accuracy. Achieving a high accuracy score is easier said than done, as it takes quite a bit of skill to precisely drop bombs on enemy fleets filled with a variety of ship types that all behave differently.
Where things went south for me was when AirStrike Defense has you managing both bombers and ships at the same time. Instead of having everything take place on a single screen, you hit a button in the top left corner that switches in between the screen with your air forces bombing the enemy fleet and the screen with your fleet avoiding the enemy bombers. It's confusing and disorienting constantly switching back and forth between both battles to manage all your units at once.
While I wasn't crazy about the combination missions, AirStrike Defense does a great job at mixing up the objectives enough to keep gameplay fresh. The line drawing controls work great, and there is a ton to work towards in the game as you slowly get access to different types of ships and planes. AirStrike Defense is definitely worth a look if you've enjoyed line drawing games in the past, and want something a little more involved than Flight Control and similar spinoffs.
What do you get when you cross line drawing with a pack of hungry lions? Lion Pride [App Store], of course. As OpenFeint's free game of the day, you really don't want to miss this strange warthog munching simulator.
The premise of the game is simple, you control a pack of lions and need to gather food for the rest of your pride. Thankfully, in this corner of the African savanna there seems to be a constant stream of warthogs, gazelles, and other beasts to munch on. Similar to Draw Race, you control the speed of the lions by how fast you draw lines from them on screen. Sneaking up on animals is important to keep them from running off, so you start by moving your lions slowly, then quickly go in for the kill. If something starts to get away, tapping twice on them will briefly stun them.
As you get further in to the game, you get more lions to control and tougher prey which needs to be attacked by multiple lions in order to be brought down. Lions need to be positioned to work as a team to all strike at once, and if any wandering hyenas come on screen they need to be scared off to prevent them from disrupting your food supply.
I really liked Lion Pride when we first took a look at it, and since then they've added additional game modes and all kinds of OpenFeint functionality to give the game tons of replay value through achievements and friends challenges. There's even fun facts about lions in game, how can you go wrong?
Gamevil's latest entry into the App Store arrived last night with Vanquish: The Oath of Brothers.
This Three Kingdoms based game offers side scrolling hack and slash gameplay with a striking ink & wash art style. The game is reminiscent of their previous title Hybrid which was a side view action RPG which we were luke warm on, though the general reaction was divided.
Here's a video showing the game in action:
Early reactions to Vanquish have been mixed on our forums.
Indeeo Games gave us some early details on their upcoming iPhone game that they plan on submitting to the App Store within the next few days. AirStrike Defense seeks to blend familiar line drawing controls with an RTS element, allowing players to take control of a variety of naval and air forces to engage in full battles where you attack the enemy fleet with your air force while you defend your own fleet from theirs.
AirStrike Defense comes with three game modes: Air attack mode, where you attack the enemy fleet with your planes, naval defense mode where you defend your fleet, and and all-out battle missions which combine both game types.
With how quickly the App Store approval process has been lately, if Indeeo Games follow throughs with their plans and submits AirStrike Defense in the next couple days, we could have the game in our hands as early as next week.
We're not entirely sure what to make of this, but here's what we know so far:
Sega has been teasing the reveal of "Project Needlemouse" since September of last year, which we found out tonight was officially an episodic sequel to Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles to be released on WiiWare, PSN, XBOX Live Arcade, and a yet to be revealed mystery platform. Sonic 4 is abandoning the 3D platforming that has plagued recent Sonic games and going back to its 2D roots as you can see in the following trailer:
Where things get crazy is when it comes to a few details which will be unlocked when a few different timers hit zero on the Sonic 4 web site. According to SonicStadium.org and a post on NeoGAF, finding out what lies behind promo1_locked.png and promo2_locked.png on the web site was as simple as removing the "_locked" from the URL. Of course these files are nowhere to be found now, but here are the two images that allegedly were found on Sega's servers:
Now, it's entirely possible we're being pranked here, but, at the same time, Sega is revealing a fourth platform that the game will be on soon. Episodes of Sonic 4 are obviously being distributed digitally, and aside from the Wii, PS3, and XBOX 360, there really only is the DSi, PSP, and iPhone left that Sega would even conceivably release the game on… So, if nothing else, we've got a 1 in 3 chance of seeing Sonic 4 on the App Store.
Storm Basic has released their hack and slash game Tehra Dark Warrior which we previewed just a couple of weeks ago.
Early feedback is rolling in our forums noting high production values with a core hack 'n slash gameplay mechanic. From squarezero:
Having played for about half an hour, I can't disagree with the gist of Gabrien's impressions. That said, I'm probably enjoying more than he is. It's a middle-of-the road hack 'n slash action game in a platform that has very few of them. The production values are very high, the controls are nearly flawless, there's a real story (nothing new, but it does give some context) and the addition of spells does add some variety to the gameplay. There are some nice environments to explore (without a Gameloft-style arrow telling you exactly where you need to go) and as far as I can tell right now, there's quite a bit of content.
The game features both magic and combat skills, leveling up, and even special visual effects on supported 3rd generation hardware:
When I think of Mechs, I don't think of the MechWarrior of old as I used to. Instead, a more immediate memory comes to mind– that very awesome scene from Matrix: Revolutions where the Zion Mech platoon were (albeit briefly) holding off the entire squid machine onslaught. Maybe it's the John Woo fanatic in me, but I've always wanted to play an ambidextrous Mech; both weapons firing all over the place at a horde of surrounding enemies. It seems Brisk Mobile had similar thoughts, as 2360: Battle for Cydonia [App Store] captures that dual-wielding mechanical mayhem brilliantly.
2360: Battle for Cydonia differentiates itself from similar games with its great use of the iPhone's multitouch feature– allowing you to navigate the battlefield and shoot both weapons at foes from different directions all at the same time. It can sometimes be an exercise in dexterity, but there's something too damn cool about holding off forces from two flanks with a range of machine guns, shotguns, rockets and eventually even high powered lasers. It's effortless to orchestrate your one-man-war too; you direct your Mech by dragging your finger around and fire your weapons by tapping on enemies, your Mech swivelling its two arms where needed to direct its barrage.
As the story goes in 2360: Battle for Cydonia, you are part of a rebellion fighting to claim their fair share of the Mars colonization. The story isn't anything revelatory, but it's definitely appreciated as a means of tying together the various missions and give them a sense of purpose– something that we were critical of in our recent review of a similar title, Heavy Mach 2. There are 21 missions on offer, some of which are quite lengthy and challenging, even on the normal difficulty level. Missions aren't just your run-of-the-mill collect this object, destroy this target– though there is a fair bit of that, 2360: Battle for Cydonia also throws escort and base-defence into the mix, as well as a few others to keep things interesting. In order to keep up with the enemy's firepower, you'll have to invest in a sizeable range of upgrades for your Mech; from the traditional armour, speed and weapon upgrades, to more interesting upgrades such as one that improves your mech's swivel action, or the various auto-weapons on offer that can target tank shells.
It's fortunate that 2360: Battle for Cydonia looks and sounds great too. All the artwork is crisp and detailed, though for the first half of the game you will be encountering a number of similar-looking spider and tank enemies. Thankfully, the latter half really showcases Brisk Mobile's artistic efforts though, with a number of terrific-looking flying and Mech enemies thrown at you too to turn up the heat. The weapon effects are very satisfying, each distinguishable on your mech itself, and each very capable of leaving a trail of impressive explosions. There's really only one area where 2360: Battle for Cydonia seems to drop the ball, and that's in the environment art; the same grey floor texture seemingly repeated each level, and only improved upon in the latter missions. It's no big deal though, and it can help to identify your foes quicker. Aurally, 2360: Battle for Cydonia delivers a lot of punch for each weapon, and has a good selection of energetic music to keep you engaged.
If you're a fan of Mech or tank combat, then 2360: Battle for Cydonia should really be a no-brainer. There's a couple of hours worth of content to get through, and it's not for the faint of heart either. 2360: Battle for Cydonia does a great job in keeping its Mech combat fresh, be it through a huge range of interesting weapons and items to unlock, or its engaging mission objectives, and will undoubtedly be a staple on our devices for a while to come.
Be sure to check out the trailer above and our 2360: Battle for Cydoniadiscussion thread where impressions from our readers have been overwhelmingly positive and the developer has already indicated at an upcoming survival mode.
During episode #9 of the TouchArcade podcast, Kepa Auwae of Rocketcat Games let us in on some details regarding the successor to Hook Champ [App Store], a game currently dubbed Avalanche Game. This morning MTV Multiplayer posted some new tidbits, including a image comparing the art style of the two games and the evolution from "8-bit" to "16-bit" graphics:
As we discussed during our podcast, Avalanche Game is going to be a randomly generated never-ending game, building on the fun the developers had with Canabalt. Gameplay is said to remain similar to Hook Champ with new abilities to master and items to collect along the way. We loved Hook Champ, and needless to say, are going to be closely following the development of Avalanche Game.
According to the Ubisoft web site, a new game that takes place in the Assassin's Creed universe is coming soon, exclusively to the iPhone. Assassin’s Creed II: Multiplayer will utilize a WiFi connection to hunt down three other assassins online in some type of strange top-down stealth-oriented deathmatch.
Assassin’s Creed 2: Multiplayer, an exclusive game for iPhone & iPod touch and the first game in the series that allows you to compete against your friends.
The game is said to have three different environments that are all inspired by the italian cities of Assassin's Creed II along with six different power-ups for players to utilize when mowing down their opponents. The feature listing also includes mention of a notoriety system, which sounds like a fancy online leaderboard of sorts, and of course, the game comes loaded with its own set of achievements.
Last month, news broke that Ubisoft had plans for a multiplayer Assassin's Creed game and when we spoke withAssassin's Creed II: Discovery producer Ben Mattes, he did say to expect some "super-cool content" coming in the following weeks and months, and it seems this is Ubisoft's followup to that commitment.
Assassin's Creed II: Multiplayer is "coming soon", and as soon as we have more details we will post them.
Origin8 already has a library of good games on the App Store, including both Sentinel and Sentinel 2, two of my favorite tower defense games. They're heading in a new direction with their latest title, Robot Rampage, a seemingly endless survival game where you play as a gigantic robot armed with a super laser.
What do you get when you cross line drawing with a pack of hungry lions? Lion Pride [
