We've already posted a TA Plays on NimbleBit's upcoming snake-like NimbleQuest, and could totally write up an extensive preview article detailing even more about the game for its upcoming release. But, really, what's more fun? Reading what we think about an upcoming game, or just playing it yourself? We're thinking the latter, so we're trying something new here. NimbleQuest is made in Unity, and among the other magical properties of the engine is the ability to build the game into a format that's playable in your browser.
All you need is to do to play it is download a tiny browser plugin and mash the image below to load the game up and give it a spin:
This online preview is only going to be active through Monday night, so if you want to check out NimbleQuest before it launches on the App Store, be sure to do it before then. As far as when it's going to launch, NimbleBit isn't ready to get official on the release date, but their fingers are crossed that we'll see NimbleQuest before the end of the month. Enjoy the game, and feel free to post any tips or strategies you come across for maximizing your score in the comments.
Also, let us know what you think of this style of game preview, as we'll try to do more of them in the future if people enjoy it. It obviously wouldn't work for every game, but NimbleQuest is a perfect example of a title that plays just as good in your browser window with arrow keys as it will on your iOS device with swipe gestures.
We've got one last bit of content on Ridiculous Fishing [$2.99] that we think you'll dig, even if you've been cranking away on its core play loop since the game hit last night. Below, is a TA Plays "Bonus" in which Rami and JW from Vlambeer join us for a quick session of the game. They drop some mad knowledge about its creation and mechanics, and do a decent bit of chiding over my inability to fish all that well. Even if you've read the reviews, checked out our latest podcast, or got swept up in the pre-release buzz, this is a video that's worth the watch since we've got two of the creators with us.
In case you didn't know, by the way, Ridiculous Fishing is insanely good. It's quirky in all the right ways and has an amazing amount of production value. From art, to sound, to controls, this thing sings on the iPhone and iPad. Give it a look if you haven't yet:
The iPhone 5 and 5th generation iPod touch have been out for a while now, and slowly but surely many of my favorite games have since been updated with widescreen support. I still maintain a short list of ones that haven't, though, and a small part of me wakes up each day with a glimmer of hope that I'll be surprised with an update waiting for me in the App Store for one of them. Today was one of those days as Simogo's brilliant Bumpy Road [$2.99] had the red notification badge lit up on my App Store app this morning, and there was much rejoicing.
I guess it's not totally accurate to say this update was a surprise, as Simogo had mentioned recently on Twitter that it was in the works. But I wasn't any less excited. I know, I know, it seems silly making a big deal about such a tiny thing, but owners of the widescreen devices know how frustrating it can be to run unsupported games in the old aspect ratio with borders. It can sometimes mess up your control as your finger moves off the edge of the playable screen, and it just makes a game feel "out of date" with your current device.
That's no longer an issue in Bumpy Road, but actually this goes even beyond simple aesthetics. Bumpy Road itself is now wider, meaning you have a better chance to see what's approaching, or a bit more room in the terrain behind your car to capture a missed item. The game being wider actually makes it an even better playing experience. I've already broken my previous high scores, in fact. Here's a few widescreens of the game for you to check out.
Bumpy Road launched way back in May of 2011, and is arguably the game that really put Simogo on the map in the iOS world. We loved it in our original review and have recently been reminiscing about it with a TA Plays Rewind of the game. It's just flat out one of my favorite video games of all time, so I'm glad to see it refreshed and ready for my iPhone 5. And, not to sound greedy, but I am also holding out hope that Simogo's other previous titles, Kosmo Spin [$0.99] and Beat Sneak Bandit [$2.99], can get a similar treatment at some point down the line, too. (Yes, that is an official not-so-subtle request, Simogo.)
Games like this are always somewhat sparse on narrative, but let's just say our beleaguered pink protagonist must have done something terrible, because we find him in the room from hell. An inescapable rectangle filled with spikes, missiles, buzz-saws, lasers, and fiery flying heads, this chiptune thunderdome offers only one choice: survival. Luckily, some idiot left an anti-gravity device lying around, allowing you to zip to the top and bottom of the screen collecting gems on the way to safety. Why gems? Because…because high scores. Somewhere along the way, this "make up a story" thing really fell apart.
If your cravings for behind-the-back runners somehow still isn't satiated, or you've felt the genre was lacking in the social engagement area, then Zynga is hoping to woo you with their newest title Running with Friends. You can probably guess exactly what it is by the title alone: a Temple Run-like endless runner decked out with the social trappings that Zynga's games are known for. Running with Friends was briefly launched in the Canadian App Store back in January, but if you blinked you would have missed it. It appears they weren't quite ready to hit the market, but are taking another stab at it today according to an article at VentureBeat.
The plan is to launch Running with Friends in the Canadian App Store again as a soft launch, with a worldwide rollout happening about a month from now if everything goes smoothly. Right now, in fact, a version of the game is available in the Canadian App Store called Running with Friends Free [Free]. As with many other Zynga games, I'm thinking there might be an ad-free pay-up-front version at some point too.
As for the game itself, Running with Friends is set at the famous Running of the Bulls event in Pamplona, Spain. That's a pretty darn great setting for a Temple Run-like game, I have to say. Mechanics appear pretty standard, with plenty of swiping, jumping and sliding, though there are sections with breakable objects to smash through and occasionally you'll actually be able to hitch a ride on an actual bull. There are also 3 playable characters: a ninja, a ballerina, and a zombie. Here's a couple of App Store screens.
With Zynga's reputation of borrowing a little too liberally from the design book of other popular games, Running with Friends will no doubt take some heat. The truth is though, there's no less than one zillion Temple Run knockoffs in the App Store, and if anything I'm surprised it's taken this long for Zynga to put out their own game in the genre. I'm also curious to see how playing with other people works out, as it might end up being pretty cool.
If you're Canadian or have access to a Canadian App Store account, you can check out the game for free with the link below. Keep in mind that it's iPhone or iPod touch only, no iPad support. You can also drop some comments in our discussion forum and keep your eye out for a worldwide launch of Running with Friends in the near future.
Last week we got our first big taste of Super Stickman Golf 2 with a new trailer showcasing the various new features of the upcoming sequel to Noodlecake Game's physics golfing extravaganza. The release of Super Stickman Golf 2 is fast approaching too, and to celebrate this the original Super Stickman Golf [$2.99] has gone free.
We've previously talked about how much fun the online multiplayer is in Super Stickman Golf when it first arrived via an update to the game almost two years ago, but the single-player portion is not to be dismissed either, and provides a fantastic challenge and loads of content that will keep you busy for hours on end.
Super Stickman Golf has been free before, and ridden the rollercoaster of price drops that most games endure in the course of its more than two year lifespan. However, if you somehow have managed not to pick it up yet, I just can't recommend it enough and it should be a great introduction as to what to expect in Super Stickman Golf 2. We'll have more on the sequel as it nears release, but definitely don't slip on picking up the original for free while you can.
Sir Pussington is my favorite cat—hackycat? He's just so dapper with his little top hat and monocle, and his mustache gives fellow hackycat Mustachio a run for his kitty treats. Both of them bounce nicely when I kick them, and their little feet paddle the air as they fly.
Hackycat [$0.99] isn't kind to these animal denizens. The little kitties just fall to pieces if they touch the ground. It's up to you to save them, to keep them up and away from that tragic fate as long as you can. Like Hacky Sack, this means a lot of bouncing things off your feet, your knees, or your head. Unlike those more humane games, these things meow piteously when you bounce them. It's a tough gig, but what are you going to do? Let the little guys explode?
It works because Hackycat takes itself ever so seriously. This is a right proper game of kick-ups, one with a steep climb to insane heights on its leaderboards. You'll learn to manage three, four, five balls at a time, never blinking, never letting one drop—only the balls are cats and you adopt new ones with cheeseburgers (or tofuburgers) and it's all completely and utterly silly.
You start with a single cat. It can be bounced up, then bounced over and over without a miss for a combo. A ribbon of cheeseburgers appears, and you bounce your kitty over to collect them. When you collect enough, a target appears. Anything tapped inside that target can be launched right out of the game, never to be seen again.
After a bit you find yourself with two cats, and you juggle both the same way. If you can hit both in one tap you'll get a bonus. Then a third parachutes into the mix. This might be when you start to hope for that superkick target to show up. If not then, your moment of need will come. There are always more cats to kick.
Doesn't that sound just horrid? But Hackycat makes it work. Perhaps you have a fundamental moral objection to depictions of violence against animals. Otherwise, the game does a fantastic job of alleviating any guilt there is to be had. The cats look disgruntled when you kick them, and positively high when they get cheeseburgers. Each power-up you unlock gets them even higher, until you can be fairly sure they'll just float away. Even failing, their limbs scatter bloodlessly in little piles of ex-hackycat. It's all adorable, except the meowing.
Along with high scores, your kitty kick-up adventures are rewarded with cheeseburgers. You can spend them on a whole list of adoptable kittens, each one cuter than the last. Those get cycled in randomly as you play. There's also a bonus character to unlock, and bonus stages to play in. None of these things makes a significant difference to your high score but they're all exceptionally desirable. It's a good carrot, and there's no stick to be seen.
All that crazy stuff sits on top of a strong foundation, so it's not like Hackycat is only for fans of the absurd. It's legitimately challenging to keep the cats all up for any length of time, and it takes skill to corral hits into major combos. Risky moves earn the big points, after all. You also have to be cautious and aware, or you'll tap the occasional bird that shows up to mess up your groove.
Hackycat is a solid game of kick-ups wrapped in a pretty delightful package—and hey, if you're going to kick cats, make it these ones. They need the help, and you need the cheeseburgers if you're going to kick 'em all.
Heads up: Ridiculous Fishing is in submission. Creator Vlambeer still hasn't announced a firm release date yet, but it'll definitely be in your hands pretty soon.
We're bringing this up because Vlambeer just wrote an awesome blog post about the game's journey to iPad and iPhone and all the work, the controversy, and more work that it took to make this port possible. Here's a snippet from the article:
We almost killed the project, but we couldn’t give up on it either. So it lingered and lingered in the back of our head. We spoke about the dangers of cloning at conferences, we gave interviews to newspapers and television. Ridiculous Fishing wasn’t moving forward, but it was always there. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Ridiculous Fishing nearly ended Vlambeer.
As you'd expect, a lot of the reason why Ridiculous Fishing has taken so long to get to iOS stemmed from the Radical Fishing cloning controversy. Vlambeer is ready move on from that subject, though:
So, this is it. No more talking about clones: Ridiculous Fishing is something we’re too proud of to be discussing its value in terms of another game. It’s time to focus on what we made: Ridiculous Fishing has been submitted. We’ll be back with more news as soon as Apple approves the game.
Give that a read if you've ever wondered how hard it is to bring a game to market. These guys took a lot of risks to get Ridiculous Fishing this far. The good news is that it's an awesome game. We'll be bringing you a lot of content about this thing as it gets closer to release.
I don't think any of us in the TouchArcade crew expected much when we picked up Backflip Madness [$0.99] last week, but somehow this truly strange game has captured our hearts in a pretty big way. As we talked about in our review as well as our TA Plays of Backflip Madness, this game has no business being as fun as it is. It has this really disjointed art style and a wonky physics engine, but despite that (or possibly because of that) it completely nails the "one more try" compulsion in your brain.
It's so simple to play on the surface but hides a subtle complexity that drives its hooks into you. The folks in our forums seem to agree too with similarly good vibes towards Backflip Madness, so I don't totally think it's just us being crazy. It's actually just a stupidly fun game, and today we've got one more interesting little bit of backflipping fun for you.
Backflip Madness has actually been out on Android since last October, and developer Gamesoul Studio posted a video back then that shows a couple of very cool hidden features. First off, if you choose the Free Play mode on any level you can tap the screen 5 times to turn on "Lunar gravity" which, as you might expect, allows you to jump super high into the air. There's lots of crazy fiddling around you can do with the different levels a newfound ability to do half a dozen flips in one leap or entire cross-map jumps. It's almost a game in and of itself just dorking around with the crazy physics engine in the game.
The second little hidden feature is the ability to touch and drag many of the objects around a level, including your player, after a failed backflip. This makes for a sort of ragdoll physics toybox as you drag your guy around and slam him into objects, sending them flying all over in chaotic fashion. It's strange, slightly sadistic fun, and it works in both Free Play and Normal modes.
Hopefully you're having as good a time playing Backflip Madness as we have been, and maybe these tricks will open up a whole new avenue of goofing off in the game. They certainly have for me. I'd love to see some new levels for the game in the future, or maybe even a level editor as I've seen a few people request, but even after beating the initial eight levels these little hidden features have given me a new way to play Backflip Madness, and extended its shelf life on my device for the foreseeable future.
There's a ton of endless arcade action games on the App Store, but few have the sense of style and speed that Solipskier [$0.99] does. Ported from its humble flash beginnings by creator Mikengreg to the iPhone in 2010, it's a psychedelic and frantic skiing game that has you making the mountain that your avatar blazes down. A great run isn't just about speed; it also has a lot to do with your ability to pull off sick tricks as well as guide your guy into various gates.
In our original review, we talked a lot about this game's originality. What we couldn't discuss was its staying power, which has been amazing. Solipskier has managed to have a home on all our devices throughout the years. That says a lot.
If you haven't seen this game yet, give our Rewind video a look. You can grab it now for 99 cents on both iPhone or iPad, if you're interested.
The original Hardland threat, and the main antagonists from the first Minigore, have made their return in Mountain Sheep's sequel Minigore 2: Zombies [$0.99]. Yes, those lovable, cuddly, but oh so deadly Furries are the newest enemy to be added to Minigore 2 in the game's latest update. And, not to be forgotten, a new Zombie Merchant makes his debut as well.
The Furries and Zombie Merchants also come bearing a new level, the Desert Arena, which reminds me of some sort of gladiator arena. The enemy waves come fast and plentiful here, and it's an excellent place to earn lots gold and experience quickly. Also, since it's an arena style battle, there's a counter up top that keeps track of your number of kills, and next to that is the kill count for whatever friend is above you in the global Game Center leaderboards. Once you've set a high score for the Desert Arena you'll need to exceed that to again start chasing leaderboard folks. So you've always got a nice competitive goal to shoot for in the Arena, I love it.
Oh, and did I mention that a Furry is the new playable character in the game? Because yeah, you can actually be a Furry with a chainsaw. It's great. You'll need to be at least a Level 23 to unlock him (or her?), though. There's also a new weapon in this update, the Super Shotgun, which puts out a huge amount of damage.
The content of this update is solid, but the actual update itself may not be. After a buggy version of the update was accidentally uploaded and approved, which caused the game to not spawn any enemies at all, a fixed version was rushed through submission and is now the update that is currently available on the App Store. At least through that bungle we learned that Minigore without any enemies is the most boring thing of all time.
However, even this updated update seems to be causing some weird issues for people in our forums, and some people even lost all of their progress by deleting the game and trying to reinstall it in an effort to fix the first bugged update. If that was something you did, then I regret to say your progress is gone unless you have a recent backup and feel like restoring your device from it.
Anyway, if you're the cautious type you might want to give it a couple of days before updating to make sure no other issues arise. On the flip side, the new content is sweet and the problems I've seen reported seem to be of the minor variety. It's your call, but I for one am having a blast with the new goodies in Minigore 2's newest update and haven't noticed any problems on my end, for what it's worth.
One of today's more notable releases is Fallon's Fury [Free], one of two (count 'em) upcoming iOS game tie-ins for Jack the Giant Slayer, a film that seeks to take the whole Jack and the Beanstalk tale to the next level. Boil it down, and it's just a silly little adventure that revolves around breaking stuff. In the game, you're put behind the wheel of a lumbering two-headed giant and are tasked with killing dudes, smashing buildings, and eating cows. Every time you do one of these things, you earn points. Points are a good thing, we think.
Fallon's Fury only has one level and you can push through it pretty fast. In our play session this morning, Eli and I managed to "beat" game twice in about ten minutes. So, take that as you will.
If you'd like to check out, give the following a look. I should also note that our second run was a pacifist run. Ever heard of a non-human killing giant? We're flipping the script over here!
PinWar [$1.99] isn't a game for the pinball aficionado. The tables lack the (literal or figurative) bells and whistles of other pinball games, and the physics aren't right at all. No, PinWar is pinball for the masses. It's fast, it's fun and it's fiercely competitive—assuming there's another pair of hands nearby to enjoy it with.
Unlike your typical pinball experience, there's no real scoreboard to dominate. There are Game Center leaderboards, but they're for things like "Levels Reached" or "Medals Earned." The competition in PinWar is of the playground variety—just you and a friend across the table, duking it out for bragging rights. Or not. PinWar also has its strong points of the single-player variety, they're just not the ones you might expect.
The game's biggest surprise is that there's no way to just sit back and play pinball. Either you battle against a local opponent or a less-than-impressive AI, or you complete single-serve missions on gimmick boards.
While a lot of attention is paid to iOS games that seek to replicate and modify the experiences of dedicated gaming devices, one area that has little competition to the mobile scene is the casual genre. Relic Rush [$0.99], from Forest Moon Games, is the latest title from the casual-minded producer and hits a lot of the right notes for a simple gameplay experience. While Relic Rush is a bit short on content and lacks some features that are expected in this day and age, it's still a fun, simple platformer worth checking out.
Simply put, Relic Rush can best be described as Donkey Kong on auto-run. Players take the role of an explorer searching for lost relics. Relics are obtained by taking on missions, with each mission consisting of eight single-screened stages. Each stage puts the explorer at the bottom of an enemy filled setting and tasks him with maneuvering past all the baddies to get to a door at the top of the stage. Reaching the door leads to the next stage and so on (until you get to the last stage with the relic). Getting hit by an enemy forces the explorer to start the stage again from the beginning.
Meanwhile, a timer at the top of the screen keeps track of how long you've spent on the overall mission, with your final ranking being based on the timer's position. When you combine the old-school graphics and music with the above gameplay, Relic Rush feels like a multi-layered retro platformer inspired by the arcade hit mentioned above. While this isn't a bad thing, I did find the gameplay to be incredibly formulaic, with the game's different worlds and enemies only doing so much to add some variety.
Where Relic Rush differs is in the auto-run controls. Your explorer is constantly moving and the only control afforded to you is to stop him (which can be done by simply touching the screen). Enemies and platforming elements are always in motion, so the entire goal of Relic Rush becomes a balancing act of timing your explorer's movements, avoiding the enemies, and getting past the stages in as fast a time as possible. It's an incredible simple system but it still offers room for timing and tactics.
Thankfully, Relic Rush gets a lot of things right in making sure that its simple control scheme succeeds. The hit detection is near perfect, meaning that you (hopefully) shouldn't be frustrated by errant enemy attacks when it looks like your explorer wasn't touched. In addition, while the difficulty certainly ramps up in later stages, the challenge is never overbearing. I'd argue that Relic Rush is a little too easy, but considering its casual undertones, I'm not too going to complain too much.
Considering what Relic Rush gets right, there are a few missteps and omissions that I thought would have helped improve the overall experience. For example, Relic Rush lacks any Game Center support. While I don't care much about the achievements portion of Game Center, I think leaderboard support would be a very nice add, especially for a game based on completing levels as fast as possible.
Of course, in order for leaderboard support to be meaningful, it'd help if Relic Rush also featured an actual timer for keeping track of how long it takes for you to complete missions. Currently, the only indicator is a bar that slowly depletes and changes color, letting you know when you've fallen down a relic tier. While this simplified method of tracking progress works with the rest of the game's motif, I still would have liked something more detailed. This and leaderboard support would have gone a long way towards adding some replayability, an important consideration since Relic Rush currently only has twenty missions (with each mission featuring eight levels).
While the above concerns are important for players looking for some longevity, others looking simply for a casual title with an incredibly approachable control scheme and a cute retro-inspired theme need not look any further. Relic Rush may not have the length or variety to propel it to the upper tier of iOS casual games, but it's still worth a shot for folks looking for a simple platformer to try.
Remember when Hacky Sack was a thing? No? You didn't attend school during the Jurassic period? Well, mash this into your Meat File Directory: Hacky Sack was a game that cool kids played during or between classes back in the day. It was like an intimate take on catch, except played with a beanbag, a group of people and, exclusively, the outer rim of your feet. The goal was to kick the bag back and forth for as long as possible. I'm not so sure what was so cool about it either, but I'm not Judge Awesome. Anyway, there is a neat new game on the App Store that riffs on Hacky Sack. It's called HackyCat [$0.99] and we played it this morning. As you'd expect from the titling alone, it's a quirky game that has you kicking digital cats and keeping them in the air for as long as possible. It's a rad game, which is something I'm actually qualified to say, I think.
On top of nailing the core back-and-forth juggling, HackyCat absolutely kills it in the art and sound departments. This thing has the most adorable, almost excruciatingly cute, style. Also, it has a pretty sharp progressive unlock system that lets you grab new cats with rad powers as well as a very special new character.
This was one of this week's Sleeper Hits, so make sure to check it out. Luckily, we've got some moving pictures to give you an even further heads up on this:
We've already posted a TA Plays on NimbleBit's upcoming snake-like NimbleQuest, and could totally write up an extensive preview article detailing even more about the game for its upcoming release. But, really, what's more fun? Reading what we think about an upcoming game, or just playing it yourself? We're thinking the latter, so we're trying something new here. NimbleQuest is made in Unity, and among the other magical properties of the engine is the ability to build the game into a format that's playable in your browser.
