RetroVenture has released a port of the old 1982 Apple II game Transylvania. Originally developer by Antonio Antiochia, RetroVenture has collaborated with the original author to bring this classic game to the iPhone.
In Fall 2009, Roe Mobile Development will release Transylvania for the iPhone. Transylvania is an adventure game that was originally released for the Apple ][ in 1982. Back then it was quite successful and spawned two sequels (Crimson Crown and Vanquish the Night: Return to Transylvania). The iPhone version is a joint work between Kenneth Roe and Antonio Antiochia who is the original author. The iPhone version will add a new touch interface and sounds.
If you ever played the original version, here's your chance to get it again for free. Even if you miss the Halloween sale, the game will be available for only $0.99.
EA recently release a cute point and click adventure game for the iPhone called Mystery Mania. It's a charming adventure game that was originally released for mobile phones before it was ported to the iPhone.
The game offers 27 puzzle rooms throughout which you unravel the mysterious storyline. You play the role of F8, a robot with amnesia who must figure out what's going on. Touch controls offer the ability to interact with your environment and you must perform tasks in the correct order into order to solve each room. The game as been relatively well received in our forums with mostly positive experiences.
The only real criticism for some has been the relatively short length and ease of difficulty of the game, though it appears to be a good time during. Here's some of the Lite gameplay recorded by AppBank.
Two things, however, may convince you to give the game a shot. First, EA offers a free Lite version that gives you a taste of the game, and second, they have temporarily dropped the price of the game from $3.99 to $1.99 for the next 24 hours.
While we announced the release of the classic point and click adventure Beneath a Steel Sky for the iPhone, we never took a closer look at the release.
Originally released for the Amiga and DOS in 1994, Beneath a Steel Sky is a graphical adventure set in Australia in a dystopian future. The original game received very high praise at the time of its release and is widely considered to be one of the best adventure games ever created.
The iPhone port of the game has since received rave reviews in our forums. Unlike, LucasArts' Secret of Monkey Island, Beneath a Steel Sky has not been completely re-rendered for the iPhone version, but that's not to say it doesn't have its share of notable improvements.
The iPhone game offers new animated cut scenes, re-sampled voice work and higher quality music. As well, an extensive hint system that will prevent you from getting stuck. Most importantly is that the traditional point-and-click interface has been revamped to the iPhone's touch screen. Rather than controlling a virtual pointer, you can touch and drag your finger across the screen. Items of interest light up with a small blue circle. Tapping on that circle then brings up contextual icons that let you act on that item. An eye, for example. lets you look at the item, while gears allow you to manipulate an item. Meanwhile, inventory items can simply be dragged over to items of interest to activate them. In this regard, the game is a notable improvement over Secret of Monkey Island, and plays much more like a natural iPhone game.
We've recorded some of the animated intro scene as well as basic gameplay elements in this video:
The game's story and dialog remains enjoyable and immersive and the iPhone port does justice to the classic title. While the PC version game has been available for free over the years, the iPhone version is a worthy conversion for fans and newcomers to the series.
Back in July we reported that Revolution Software would be bringing its cult-classic graphic adventure Beneath a Steel Sky to the iPhone through its newly formed mobile group. We're happy to report that the game is now available for download in the App Store [link].
Originally released for the Amiga and DOS in 1994, Beneath a Steel Sky is a sprawling graphical adventure set in Australia in a dystopian future. The story goes like this: the protagonist, Robert, crashed in the Outback as a child and was raised by a group of natives. After growing into an adult, storm-troopers sent from Union City by its all-powerful computer, LINC, kidnap Robert and kill his tribe. After entering the city dome, the helicopter transporting him crashes and he escapes into the city with his robot companion, Joey. Robert's mission is to find out why he was wanted and what to do next.
The game, which is notable for its excellent illustrations, drawn by famed comic artist Dave Gibbons, received very high praise at the time of its release and is widely considered to be one of the best adventure games ever created. PC Gamer gave it 91% and called it "a must-buy for all serious adventure fans." CU Amiga gave it 95%, calling it "one of the greatest adventures ever," while Simon Byron of The One gave it a 93%, saying, "I could sum this game in one word: Superb."
The iPhone adaptation, which has been ported to the ScummVM engine, uses touchscreen controls and dispenses with the on-screen pointer typical of Scumm games and, instead, uses blue dots to highlight points of interest. The game's artwork has been enhanced with the iPhone release, which also features a high quality soundtrack and a new, integrated hint system.
See a video of the original version to get a feel for the game.
See the original game's five-minute intro video here. Those wanting to try before they buy can have a look at the 2003 shareware release, playable on most major platforms.
Cyan Worlds recently released a free version of Myst that will allow you to relive some of the 1993 classic adventure game. While technologically rather simple from today's standpoint (mostly static images), the game's graphics and soundtrack were remarkably immersive. The game starts you on a strange island where you must explore your surroundings, solve puzzles and figure out the backstory.
The free version of Myst allows you to explore Myst island while the full has 5 additional ages to explore. Removing that additional content shrinks it down to 124MB, so still a sizable download. Meanwhile, the full version has dropped $1 to $4.99.
If you've never experienced Myst, here's your chance.
When I saw the Zombieland game iZombieland [App Store] show up in my RSS reader, I couldn't help but groan. Historically speaking, movie games have generally ranged from bad to mediocre with a few rare diamonds in the rough. Movie games ported to the iPhone so far have been leaning towards the "bad" side of the spectrum, so naturally I wasn't expecting much of iZombieland. (Especially with the "i" prefix plastered on the front.)
Much to my amazement, the game is actually a lot of fun and seems slightly reminiscent of 16 bit side scrolling gore-fests like the Splatterhouse series. Of course, like all movie games, iZombieland attempts to introduce the plot of the movie in to the game, but these giant blocks of scrolling text add very little and are easily skippable to get to the next level with even more zombies to mow down with the various weapons at your disposal.
iZombieland is controlled with a set of virtual buttons on each side of the screen. Instead of any kind of D-Pad, the right and left side each have their own corresponding buttons to shoot, move, or kick in that direction. When zombies are in range to shoot, targeting reticules appear on the available targets. If a zombie is too close, you won't be able to shoot its head off. In that case, kicking usually pushes them away enough to get a headshot.
If a zombie grabs you, a button will appear along the bottom of the screen that can be tapped to break free. As you kill zombies, a meter slowly fills that allows you to unleash a devastating attack that can clear the entire screen of zombies.
A variety of ranged and melee weapons are included in the game. Ammo is plentiful and is found in barrels and crates that can be broken open along with health packs and other weapons. The one slightly irritating side to iZombieville combat is dealing with melee weapon durability. There are few things more awesome than cutting down entire zombie armies with a chainsaw in each hand, but that fun quickly comes to an end as your chainsaw's durability runs low.
To replenish your weapon's durability, you have to break open crates and barrels to find another one. This can sometimes lead to annoying situations where you need to replay levels because you burnt through your melee weaponry too quickly and eventually come across a room that is too tight to use your guns because you will be mobbed by zombies before you have time to reload.
Here is a video of the most awesome weapons in the game, the dual chainsaws. The percentage that is constantly decreasing is the durability of my chainsaws, so you can see how fast it decreases:
If you like killing zombies and having the screen of your iPhone filled with zombie blood, chances are you will enjoy iZombieland. The game doesn't feel like it's trying to cash in on the movie, and actually could stand alone as a fun sidescroller if you removed the Zombieland references.
Pixel Mine Games has released the Chapter 2 update for their action RPG Underworlds [$2.99]. Chapter 2 adds more than 2.5x the content that was in the launch version of Underworlds. Features include:
Visit a new city
Level cap raised to 50
Repeatable dungeons
Thousands of new items
New quests and creatures
Revamped Interface
Quest Log
Mini-Map
World Wide Agon Rankings with Facebook and Twitter support.
One area of major improvement in the game is an interface overhaul which improves the screen layout and character controls. While we very much enjoyed the first version of Underworlds, the new features seem to address any complaints we had.
This video walks through the many interface changes in Underworlds:
The Chapter 2 is a free update to existing Underworlds customers, and the full game is available for $2.99.
Wandering the halls of the Austin convention center we ran into InMotion Software, creators of I Dig It [99¢ / Free] and got to talk about their upcoming sequel to the game, I Dig It Expeditions that is due out this holiday season.
We don't have any screenshots yet aside from a few promo images like the one above, but they did give us some details that I Dig It fans can look forward to. If you haven't played the original, I Dig It is an exploration game that we greatly enjoyed in our review:
On the surface, I Dig It is a simple dig for treasure game, but it's not until you play it for a while that you start to appreciate the strategy involved in choosing your upgrades and intelligently planning your dig routes. On top of all that, you're constantly faced with the threat of overheating, hull integrity, and you always need to make sure you have enough fuel left to make your way topside.
Digging deep is key to maximizing profits, but also comes with the increased risk of not making it out alive.
Screenshots from the original I Dig It
Since our review the game has had a substantial update, adding a second campaign and even more things to collect underground. I Dig It is currently on sale for 99¢, and will be for a few more days.
I Dig It Expeditions is going to take absolutely everything that was great about the original and add features suggested by the userbase along with some substantial upgrades to the gameplay, new levels, and more. The entire consumable and cargo system has been completely overhauled. Consumables like different kinds of dynamite are now much cheaper, and you have more room to hold them. The trade off is, for every item you're carrying, that's one less slot available for diggins to bring back up to the surface. Aside from different types of dynamite, power ups are also available that will point you in the direction of valuable diggins or provide other useful effects.
The emphasis on these new consumables will make them a much larger part of the game, and additional upgrades for your digger will allow for even greater customization of how you play the game. The idea behind Expeditions is that you've successfully paid off your farm (The original motivation for you to go digging in the first game.) and decide to take your digger worldwide. Locales include the arctic seen in the above promotional image along with rain forests, or even underwater among others.
The whole game has a very Indiana Jones-like feel to it, with different archeological treasures you will be seeking in each of the various locations. Of course different upgrades will also be available on each level. For instance, while underwater, you will have access to improvements to your digger such as air tanks to allow you to stay submerged longer.
One of the coolest features included in I Dig It Expeditions is a mini map to show you where you've been digging along with a way-point system. The mini map has the same art style as the I Dig It interface with your path being drawn on what looks like a green and black oscilloscope screen. There are numerous other improvements both in game and in the works that InMotion isn't ready to discuss yet.
Something interesting that came of the conversations with InMotion that many people likely are not aware of is that it's a father/son operation with a small handful of other people with AAA industry experience from companies like id and Midway.
I Dig It Expeditions is currently in development and will be released during the holiday season this year. In the meantime, try out I Dig It or I Dig It Lite.
For those who haven’t closely followed Showtime’s Dexter, the series is based on novels written by Jeff Lindsay. I remember reading his first book “Darkly Dreaming Dexter” years ago, and the intelligent, yet macabre storyline has kept me reading the novels and watching the show.
Coincidentally, I had just finished the latest book “Dexter by Design” when Dexter arrived on the iPhone/iPod Touch platform. Happily, the intelligence and spirit found in the books and TV series carries through into the game. For fans of Dexter, the game will not be a disappointment with good variety, engaging play, and humor with an element of guilty morbidity. However, non-Dexter fans may find themselves disoriented and will want to first familiarize themselves with the TV show or books first.
Dexter is a psychopathic serial killer who was taught his policeman father Harry how to channel his killing urges. When Dexter was younger, his urges, also known as the Dark Passenger, were released by killing animals. Instilling his own special killing code, Harry decided to focus Dexter’s talents on criminals who had gotten away with murder in the eyes of the law. In Dexter the Game, you play through the eyes of Dexter and must collect enough evidence to ensure that Dexter is killing someone rightfully deserving. Of course, the catch is that Dexter must also maintain his cover as an unfeeling psychopath.
The game focuses on the first TV season consisting of 5 cases: Mike Donovan, Dear Dexter, Coke Head, Jamie Jaworski and Robert Marelli.
The cases are presented in a simultaneous fashion with Dexter moving back and forth between the different victims each with its own set of mission objectives. This type of format lengthens the game significantly because you’re managing several cases at once with each at different levels of progress.
The game incorporates voiceovers from Dexter actor Michael C. Hall, expertly used throughout to create that Dexter atmosphere. Unlike other games, Dexter follows a steady, slower pace as you identify and stalk your victim and incorporates a mix of timed and untimed mini-games, performing and meeting task-oriented activities, and interacting with other characters. This is where the game shines because the variety of challenges keep everything moving.
Through the use of 3D graphics which run smoothly on my iPod Touch 2G, the game makes liberal use of cut scenes that show Dexter performing his actions to give it an almost movie-like quality. The characters representations can look somewhat strange, however. Dexter’s sister, for example, is not nearly as sexy as she is on the show, although the character of Sergeant Dokes looks pretty good. The various locations, however, such as Metro Police Station or a victim’s home really do show the high production values that were put into this game.
The game offers three levels of difficulty—easy, medium and hard, and the level of difficulty primarily determines the amount of available of time to complete timed puzzles and activities. You can play either in third-person (behind Dexter’s back) or in first-person mode, and choose from several types of controls—double joystick, accelerometer/tilt, single joystick, and an on/off option for strafing.
This video shows some of the controls and environments, but does carry strong language so is not safe for work:
Contextual action buttons will appear in the appropriate situations such as Examine, Open, Talk and Climb among others. Items that Dexter can interact with are highlighted such as doors, tools, and files. Use of the Talk button brings up text-based dialogue boxes accompanied by voice acting. You are then presented with three response options. The responses range from aggressive to passive and each choice affects Dexter's "Dark Passenger" score and "Mask" score. You need to strike a balance to avoid exposing yourself, while still fulfilling Dexter's inner darkness. If the Mask white bar ever depletes down to zero, the game is over since Dexter will be no better than the criminals he stalks.
The game also provides several tools that help you complete missions. The Journal located at the top of the screen keeps track of case progress and also tells you want you need to do. And since Dexter needs to travel from place to place, accessing the GPS will show different locations. By tapping on a location, the game takes Dexter instantly there. In that, the 3D environments offered are discrete locations rather than one contiguous open world.
Overall, the developers did an admirable job creating a game incorporating a relatively engaging storyline tied together through a variety of different mini games. The initial task usually involves stalking the victim without being seen, and you maneuver Dexter in a game of hide and seek. As the story progresses, you also have the bigger task of investigating an unnamed serial killer who freezes victims before chopping them up. Other tasks involve picking locks, gathering evidence, and executing the final judgment on the victim.
While you can move Dexter in any direction you want, the goals can feel very pre-set rather than providing a free-roaming alternative choices. For example, entering someone’s house involves picking a lock, but then a dog prevents you from entering so you’re left with breaking through a window. Or in another, while stalking a victim, there is only one way to accomplish the recon rather than having several options.
Dexter the Game has high production values that incorporate a good variety of challenging tasks and mini-puzzles despite the point A to point B task progression. Understandably, with this type of game, the replay value is limited, but what is there should take a while to complete. If you’re a Dexter fan, the game is a solid adventure game that admirably captures the spirit of the series. For others, however, first watching the show or reading the books will go a long way in the actual enjoyment of the game.
After having been in the works for over a year, the Dexter iPhone game has finally arrived in the App Store [$5.99].
In the game, help Dexter choose his next victims while always protecting his identity. Analyze crime scenes, uncover evidence and use stealth tactics to stalk your prey. Is the case best served by the courts or the Dark Passenger? The outcome of every choice and action revolves around the Code of Harry: only kill the guilty, maintain the mask, and above all, don’t get caught!
We've had hands on time with early versions of the game at GDC and E3. The game has been notable for its impressive 3D engine. This gameplay video is from a build back in March, so aspects of the game may have changed from that time, but it gives you an idea of the feel of the game:
Game may have changed since this video was shot
Also remarkable in our discussions with the developers has been the efforts to stay true to the Showtime TV series. The game features a storyline written by the series producer as well as voice acting from Dexter actor Michael C. Hall.
Early reactions are being collected in our forums and we'll provide a closer look after we spend some time with the title.
The whole game has a very Indiana Jones-like feel to it, with different archeological treasures you will be seeking in each of the various locations. Of course different upgrades will also be available on each level. For instance, while underwater, you will have access to improvements to your digger such as air tanks to allow you to stay submerged longer.
