Robot Entertainment told us that it wanted to support iPad with a Hero Academy [Free] update, and it wasn't pulling our collective tail. This morning, the talented developer announced that a Universal update is coming "soon."
In even better news, a new team called the Tribe is coming soon as well. Robot describes these guys as brutes: "powerful and ruthless, the Tribe are aggressive warriors that are always on the attack," the announcement reads. A convenient class-by-class breakdown of this upcoming team is available on Robot Entertainment's blog. We're most impressed by the Warrior. This little green sweetie can instantly KO any wounded enemy unit under 50 percent health.
If you've been whining for an extra bits update in 1-Bit Ninja [$1.99 /Â Lite], you can stop now. DogByte Games has you covered on that front, as its new ninja game, creatively titled 8-Bit Ninja, has SEVEN MORE BITS. That's, like, a lot.
Seriously, though, you should check this out. Taking place in a world where ninjas have tournaments that don't involve men with metal plates stapled to their heads, you play as a variety of tiny ninjas tasked with evading fruit after a demonstration of ninja-ness goes sideways. We've got some footage just below:
We still don't know a lot about this version, which seems crazy since this it's one of the most anticipated releases in 2012. We do have a few more interesting tidbits for you, though: the game will rock an enhanced version of the game's original Infinity Engine, and is set to sport a new character and adventure. The Tales of the Sword expansion is also a part of the package from the get-go.
We'll be talking with Overhaul games soon, so feel free to drop any questions or comments you have under this post. We proudly accept all froms of "what" and various statements containing disbelief, excitement, or extreme nerd-ery.
What's the next thing on Ravenous Games' plate? Spoiler: it's not another League of Evil. Allow us to introduce you to Burger Cat, a side-scrolling 2D puzzle / platform game that'll revolve around an unnamed cat and his epic quest to find "his delicious destination." Ravenous says the title, which is nearly done and should launch as a Universal app some point this April, features 60 levels and several different kinds of puzzles: tools such as decoys, springs, and even umbrellas will see you through.
We've included the images in this post that Ravenous dropped on our message board, but you might want to swing by that thread anyway. The studio is asking our community to help it name the cat, and you're more than welcome to throw a suggestion its way. We've been screaming "Dr. Meow Meow" at our screens for the last hour. It might not make sense, but c'mon.
The iPhone and iPad port of Interwave Studios' endless runner rComplex [$1.99] hit the App Store with a tremendous thud last week, as it failed to provide its users with the tools to succeed in the game's artistically gifted world. On top of needing powers that Professor Xavier would find fascinating just to avoid the game's obstacles, players had to deal with slow animations and bogus collisions. These problems have been addressed, however, in a hip, new patch. And, hey, the game's is totally playable now.
Version 1.2 of rComplex, which cleared Apple certification on March 24, pulls the game's camera back a notch so you can see what you need to avoid without fancy psychic powers. Also, the jump animation has been improved alongside the game's collision detection. In all, these fixes make rComplex a substantially better, and enjoyable, game. If the early reception kept you from taking the plunge, consider re-considering. Or something.
This is huge: Beamdog has revealed plans to bring Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition to iPad this summer. Enhanced Edition is a revitalization of the long lauded BioWare RPG. Expect new code, new content, and new, and presumably more modern, assets when it hits both PC and now iPad in the coming months. Talk about a surprise, right?
IGN Wireless has the first hands-on with a build, which apparently is fairly complete. Highlights from that write-up include points about a friendlier camera specifically for iPad, and its lack of technical oddities. Check it out.
The little things matter in flight games. When you crank up an engine, you want the jet exhaust to grease up the screen. You want to hear the thick, thunderous crack of a sound barrier break. And you want to feel like the world is insignificant as you slice through the air at 1500 MPH while a song that vaguely sounds like the one from that weird Cruise flick pounds in the background. Namco Bandai's Sky Gamblers: Air Supremacy [$4.99] nails a lot of these little things, and while the premise sucks and it occasionally doesn't look so great, few iOS games deliver as consistently as this one.
Backing up, Sky Gamblers is an arcade flight game that feels pretty similar to the Ace Combat series. It plays it loose with things like, say, physics and reality, but doesn't try to pretend to be anything else other than an insanely fast-paced, action shooter in the air. It's really good at leveraging these aspects, too: the sense of speed is fantastic and the maneuvering and shooting components feel blessedly fluid. These things define the experience.
On the heels of the release of Canabaltacross PSP, PS Vita, and PS3, Semi-Secret's Adam Saltsman is asking fans if they are interested in a possible 2-player mode for the phone versions of the often celebrated endless runner. "Would y'all be interested in seeing a 2-player mode in Canabalt [$2.99] on iOS and Android," he asked, simply, on Twitter.
Speaking with us, Saltsman says that he's trying to gauge if such an endeavor would be worth it. He wants Canabalt, which debuted in 2009, to stay relevant, but he also understands the risk involved with post-release feature additions, no matter how simple they are to implement. The time it would take to do this, for example, is time that could be spent on another of his fresher projects. He says that any input into this matter is invaluable. He also says that he has other ideas for content, and if this stuff takes minimal effort, it'll probably be worth it.
For what it's worth, we're screaming "yes" to everything at our monitors right now.
Work with me for a second. Forget that The Hunger Games: Girl on Fire has a connection to the Hunger Games fiction. Instead, let's just look at is as if it is a normal, everyday product that isn't being bankrolled by a major movie studio. Let's do this because, even in this vacuum, it impresses. Provided the final build is as good as the one we've been paying, it's the kind of game we'd recommend without pause: it's conceptually solid, it has a fantastic look, and it brings some new ideas to a genre that's hopelessly clotted.
You could argue that Girl on Fire is a spiritual successor to Canabalt [$2.99]. It's an endless runner that revolves around a daring escape, but it boasts some key points of iteration that change up the play in strong ways. For one, Girl on Fire boasts a regenerating health system. If you take a hit, you lose your momentum, but not the game. As a result, you get get married to sessions, and the overall runner experience doesn't feel as hollow as it usually does.
I have to admit, I wasn’t sure what to think about Picnic Wars [$0.99 / HD], a castle crusher showcasing the epic feud between vegetables and fruits (which somehow takes place during a picnic). Yet, despite the absurd story, what follows is a decent take on the genre with a good amount of gameplay variety that unfortunately suffers from a lack of content.
In Picnic Wars, you take the role of either fruits or veggies as they seek to destroy the fortresses of the other. You accomplish this by flinging various units at the castles, causing as much mayhem and destruction as possible. Truthfully, I have no idea what picnics have to do with the story, but seeing how zany the concept is I didn’t bother thinking about it.
The Walking Dead season two finale put a big, fat dent in our love of the property in all of its forms, but just like that, Telltale restored our faith. Late this afternoon, the studio posted the first teaser trailer for its series based on the grim and violent world Robert Kirkman has built, and boy, is it awesome.
There's still a lot of stuff we don't know about the games, like, say, how they'll play or when the iPad or iPhone versions are due out. Word on the street is that we should be expecting the games to release across iOS in April, perhaps a little after the XBLA, PC, PSN, and Macintosh versions launch. Fingers are crossed on that, for sure. Stay tuned to us as this stuff gets hashed out.
Depending on how much you relish your DotA (If the acronym made you raise a puzzled eyebrow, don't worry. We'll get into all that shortly), you may either find Plants War [Free] an unexpected treat or a moderately competent RTS. It could go either way. Best described as a heavily diluted, single-player version of the world's favorite Warcraft III mod, Plants War will have you leading Dryad Forest's local vegetation in a struggle against some encroaching… animals? Global warming definitely screwed up the environment here.
Gameplay-wise, Plants War – Gamevil's latest freemium title – works something like this. Before you begin each stage, you'll be asked to elect an upgradable hero (the first you get for free, the others you'll have to earn through extensive grinding or buy as an in-app purchase). After that, you'll be at liberty to select the troops you want to deploy in the upcoming onslaught. Yet again, only the first one comes free.
Adam Saltsman and Semi Secret's moody and atmospheric daring escape runner, Canabalt [$2.99], will soon be available for download across the PSP, PS3, and PS Vita in the US. The studio, in collaboration with The Beatshapers, have launched a PSP Minis version of the game in Europe. A US version of the flash-turned-iOS-turned-Minis game will follow later this week, Saltsman has said on the Twitters.
We've been enjoying Canabalt on touch platforms for what feels like eons at this point, but that doesn't put a damper on our desire to check it out on other devices. Canabalt and its infinite action is as timeless and as fast as a vampire with track shoes. Here's a few screens and a trailer of this version:
It was just this past Friday that we took an in-depth look at Digital Tales' Battleloot Adventure, a new action-focused RPG, and really enjoyed what we saw in our preview copy. The game had been submitted to Apple and we were hopeful that the final version of the game would be available sometime this week. Well, the Apple approval gods must have been shining down on Digital Tales, as literally the very next day Battleloot Adventure [99¢/HD] appeared in the App Store.
Our preview of Battleloot Adventure should give you a pretty good idea of what to expect based on our limited time with the game, but we'll definitely be curious to see how the experience holds up through the entire game. We'll be putting Battleloot Adventure through the ringer to test out that very thing, but all signs seem to point to a quality offering with a stellar art style and presentation, wonderfully simple combat mechanics, and the usual character leveling elements that come with an RPG. You can grab Battleloot Adventure from the links below, or check in on our forums for even more impressions.
If you're anything like me, the idea of a remake of a game you dearly loved when it was originally released comes as very good news. As much as I adore new games, there's just something about playing something tried and true. Add HD graphics into that mix, and you're really tempting me... which really should have been the case with Prince of Persia Classic [$1.99/HD]. I was hoping to be having so much fun with this game that it'd be hard to put the phone down to write this review, but unfortunately, that was not quite the case.
Prince of Persia Classic is far from all bad. If you played the game in its original form as a downloadable console title a few years back (or heaven forbid, even further back on the Apple II), you'll recall that it had its charming parts... and its annoying ones. Still, there's no denying that some of us spent countless hours navigating the prince through death traps, spiked pits, and all those things that make a game a proper adventure.
Robot Entertainment told us that it wanted to support iPad with a Hero Academy [Free] update, and it wasn't pulling our collective tail. This morning, the talented developer announced that a Universal update is coming "soon."
The iPhone and iPad port of Interwave Studios' endless runner 
The little things matter in flight games. When you crank up an engine, you want the jet exhaust to grease up the screen. You want to hear the thick, thunderous crack of a sound barrier break. And you want to feel like the world is insignificant as you slice through the air at 1500 MPH while a song that vaguely sounds like the one from that weird Cruise flick pounds in the background. Namco Bandai's Sky Gamblers: Air Supremacy [$
On the heels of the release of Canabalt 
