Last year, Jordan Mechner teamed up with Liquid Entertainment to create a modern remake of his 1984 beat 'em up classic, Karateka. The modern, 3D recreation of Karateka [$1.99] (which we reviewed in December) does an excellent job of conveying the tragic tale of the poor, imprisoned princess Mariko and the bold quest to rescue her to today's gamers using modern visuals, an original score, and unique, new fight mechanics. Another thing it does is give old school gamers a real itch to go back and play through the 8-bit original. Happily, as of tonight, that itch is easily scratched.
As word of the Karateka remake hit the news towards the end of last year, Mechner began hearing from lots of these gamers expressing a desire to replay the original game on their modern devices. And, so, he teamed up with Olivier Goguel of FTA to bring the original Karateka to iOS (and Android) by way of Goguel's Apple IIgs emulator, ActiveGS (which we first highlighted back in 2011). (more...)
Crescent Moon Games's big hitter this week is Monkey Boxing, a game about monkeys that can -- wait for it -- box like humans do. With gloves. And in a ring. In clothing. It's sort of weird at first or, really, even thirteenth glance.
With two button controls, you're tasked with beating the crap out of opposing monkey boxers. One button is just a simple punch command, the other a block. When you land a bunch of punches, they automatically string together into combos. But when you time a block just right, you break these combos and leave a big enough opening to start back into your own in kind. You'd figure this would be overly simplistic, even for a boxing game starring monkeys, but the timing component kinda makes it. Matches have a pleasant push-and-pull feel to them, as you and your opponent take turns drilling each other and countering. Also, ultimately the person with the best rhythm and timing wins the match.
The single-player component has some neat RPG-ish that allow you to put new eye ware and trunks on your monkeys as you progress through the campaign's ladder. You can also train up your monkey between matches, leveling his strength, endurance, and speed.
If you're feeling froggy, you can take your monkey and use him against a friend via the game's same device multiplayer. On iPhone, the need for the UI elements and two monkeys on-screen make this a little too hard to play comfortably with someone else, but on a big old iPad this mode of play feels just fine.
Monkey Boxing is certainly slick little arcade game, maybe perfect for those who don't want the complexity of a Punch-Out but wouldn't mind punching something every now and then. It's kind of a no-frills title, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Look for it tonight when it hits.
Monkey boxing should be available on the US App Store at 11:00 PM Eastern, or potentially much earlier if you're in a region east of the USA. To be alerted when the game is available, open this story in the TouchArcade App [Free] and add it to your watch list. A little after 11:00 PM tonight you'll get a push alert with the download link.
Earlier this afternoon, Joseph and I spent some time with The Gods: Rebellion [$0.99]. If you couldn't tell by the name, this is a video game. Specifically, it's a character action game that tasks you with beating up lots of fantasy dudes with combos, special attacks and two mean-looking axes. As you'd imagine, the game offers an extensive campaign, as well as a bunch of persistent upgrade systems that'll keep you grinding away.
Also, it uses virtual buttons extensively courtesy it's old-school combat design, which has you bashing away between three different moves to chain up combos and counter-attack. Oh! And it's an Unreal Engine 3 game, so it looks pretty sick.
If you'd like take a look, put your eyeballs on the following. It might click with ya:
2012 had a lot of cool surprises and good games, as you've probably noticed. But not all of those good games could be neatly categorized. This post is for the weirdos, the games that straddled too many genre lines or are members of genres that have too few rad games to sufficiently flesh out a "best of" post.
You'll see some oddities in this listing -- games that really stretch the meaning of game or apps that just have stupendous gaming elements. There's also titles that can be firmly categorized, and would have been, if there was more to celebrate.
It'll be interesting to see what 2013 will bring. Will we see way more card games than we did this year? What about open-world god games? New trends might have us re-thinking the way we categorize and the lists we bring to you.
For now, though, here's our best of the best of the rest of 2012.
Topia World Builder, $1.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Topia World Builder has the creation and the emergent systems we look for in a solid god game, but shrugs off messy scenarios. In the game, you can build valleys, rivers, trees, and animals. Then, you can watch world you've created work. It's kinda wild.
Hatchi - A retro virtual pet, $0.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Hatchi is a spiritual successor to the Tamagotchi. In the game, you hatch a pet monster and then care for it, subtly changing the way it grows and forms as you do so. The retro visuals and simplistic mechanics might be a drag for some, but for those of us who had a pet monster on a keychain, they struck the right chord.
Magic 2013, Free - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013 is a brilliant follow-up to a rad series that not only show you how to play Magic the right way, but allows you to jump in without plunking down dollars for cards. It's also nice that the core action of Magic is front and center throughout. This is truly a joy.
Zombies, Run!, $3.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - If you like jogging, but hate the tedium that can sometimes come along with it, consider giving Zombies, Run a try. It measures the distance you run and all of that jazz, but it also tells you a great survival story in the process. The audio has some neat hooks in it that gets you running faster, as well as systems that reward you for the effort.
Shufflepuck Cantina, Free - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Shufflepuck Cantina is what happens with adventure game meets sports game. Presented as a "space western," Cantina tasks you with dominating a bar's shufflepuck table, while also learning about the world's creatures, characters, and mysteries. It's weird, but we think you'll dig the game's commitment to seeing its premise through.
Organ Trail: Director's Cut, $2.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Organ Trail is an awesome little satire that rips on Oregon Trail. In the game, you play as a survivor of a zombie apocalypse on a journey to get his friends to a so-called Safe Haven. Along the way, you'll have to hunt for food, as well as repair your car's tires and mufflers. This is one you shouldn't miss.
Micro Miners, $1.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - This is a weird one. In Micro Miners, you control a horde of little miners and are tasked with collecting every possible scrap of resource as a screen scrolls eternally downward. Solid controls bolster the experience, while a great art style really sells it.
Skee-Ball 2, Free - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Skee-Ball 2 is, oddly, a big favorite around here. It's a Skee-Ball game through and through, but it feels remarkably good, boasts a ton of lanes and balls, as well as a good amount of collectibles to obtain as you rock out.
Over the summer at E3, Capcom unveiled a mobile version of their console fighter that pit Street Fighter characters against those from long-time rival series Tekken. They looked to up their game over their previous iOS fighter Street Fighter IV Volt [$4.99] by including fully 3D character models and backgrounds, as well as backgrounds that actually animated rather than the lifeless still shots used in Volt. For the most part they succeeded with Street Fighter X Tekken Mobile [$2.99], though a severe lack of characters and an annoying token system for online battling brought down the experience, things we noted in our review.
Since the game launched in September, Capcom has updated Street Fighter X Tekken with online improvements, and have run several different multiplayer token promotions to give players more chances to battle it out online and level up their profile. Last week, the latest update hit that has added even more technical improvements, but also addresses the tiny roster by adding Rolento from the Street Fighter world and Heihachi from the Tekken world as two new playable characters.
Today I sat down with the World's Strongest Game Journalistâ„¢ to play a couple rounds of Rage of the Gladiator [$2.99], a brand new Infinity Blade clone that first released in March 2010. Wait, whaaaa? I hear you saying, "But Bearded One, Infinity Blade didn't come out until December 2010, this cannot be!" And you are spot-on my dear reader. You always were the smart one in the family.
Rage of the Gladiator was actually originally a WiiWare title that released about 9 months beforeInfinity Blade. We see so many Infinity Blade clones come and go around these parts it's sometimes hard to keep it all straight.
Anyway, Rage of the Gladiator originally used the Wii controllers to simulate fighting, and that translates quite well to the touchscreen. It actually feels a lot more like Punch-Out!! than Infinity Blade, and its style reminds me a lot of Beast Boxing 3D that came out on iOS a couple of years ago. It's also a whole lot of fun so far in the hour or two I've put into it, with sky-high production values and an incredible cast of unlockable characters to face.
If you're a Marvel 'Avengers' fan, but have been on the fence about dropping the dosh for the Avengers Initiative [$6.99] iOS game, then this news is pointed directly at you. Marvel has just released Avengers Initiative Lite [Free] to give those fence-sitters a taste of the action for free. If you're staring blankly wondering what the heck I'm talking about, Avengers Initiative is an Infinity Blade-esque brawler featuring The Hulk as the main protagonist, with future episodes planned that will feature additional Avengers members (all signs point to Captain America being next in line).
It's fairly uninspired, as it takes a bit too liberally from its inspiration Infinity Blade, but it sure is pretty and full of Marvely-ness. You can watch us play through some of Avengers Initiative while simultaneously and purposefully skewering the lore of the Marvel Universe in our TA Plays video, or you can read our full review of the game where we dig deep into just why this game isn't super great. Well, to be fair, some like it better than others, especially big-time Marvel fans, so keep that in mind.
If you're one of those who isn't quite sure, give Avengers Initiative Lite a try. All you've got to lose is the time it takes to download the roughly half a gig file. If it turns out you like it, you'll be able to transfer your progress over from the lite version into the full version, which is nice. Also worth noting is that for some strange reason Marvel's press release states that Avengers Initiative Lite will only be available for a limited time, so it's possible that this might be your only chance to check it out for free if you're interested.
Boxing is all about endurance. A truly great fight is a demonstration of that endurance; the fighters’ stamina, the punches they take, getting up from the mat, and their ability to still deliver a hit when they’re so exhausted that even their earlobes ache.
But endurance isn’t an easy quality to replicate digitally. That’s why most fighting games rely on quantifying your dexterous skill, rather than your stamina. If it takes a lot of stamina to play a game, it’s generally conceived as being a laborious task that doesn’t easily translate into entertainment.
Real Boxing [$0.99], therefore, is quite unique amongst other games in its genre as that’s precisely what it’s all about; endurance. It captures that quintessential essence that turns a brawl into a sport. It tests every fiber of your endurance while remaining solid entertainment, leaving you quite breathless after a fight; fatigued by defeat or euphoric from triumph.
When developers Madgarden and Rocketcat Games teamed up to create an iOS game, it seemed like a match made in heaven. Mashing together their collective skills in pixel art, humor, game design, and randomly generated levels resulted in Punch Quest [Free], one of the silliest and most satisfying action games to grace our touch screens.
It was also probably the most generous free-to-play title we've ever seen, offering a tremendous amount of fun to players and never rattling the change jar in your face in an obnoxious manner. We even noted in our review that we felt somewhat guilty getting so much for free, and were worried the developers might not see very much profit at all since the game's freemium structure was so hands-off. I mean, it was difficult to even find where the button was that let you buy in-game coins through IAP, which didn't bode well for Punch Quest.
One of the most high-profile and popular games on the entire App Store is Epic and Chair Entertainment's Infinity Blade II [$6.99], the sequel to 2010's gorgeous gesture-based sword fighting RPG. Unsurprisingly, Infinity Blade II was even more gorgeous than the original, and fleshed-out most of the mechanics from the first game to make for an even bigger and better experience.
However, since the iPhone 5 launch last month, and subsequently the new iPod touch devices shipping several weeks later, Infinity Blade II has been one of the games that I've been dying to see updated for the 4-inch screen of those new devices. After all, such a beautiful game deserves to occupy the entire screen.
Today we finally get our wish, as Infinity Blade II is now widescreen compatible. As we've been doing previously, below are some screens comparing the older 3.5-inch screens with the new 4-inch wide screens.
As expected the widescreen view of the actual combat gives you a slightly larger view of the action, but interestingly the cutscene portions that used to run letterboxed on the 3.5-inch screen (probably to let you know that hey, this is a cutscene) now run in full 16:9 on the new devices.
It makes sense, but I've sort of grown used to seeing those black bars drop down, letting me know to just kick back and watch for a moment. Keep in mind I'm not complaining at all about this, as I think it's a more cohesive design decision, but it is kind of interesting that the non-letterboxed cutscenes in the updated version of Infinity Blade II actually show less than on the previous screen size.
Either way it's a welcome update for new device owners, and if you haven't yet jumped in on the Infinity Blade II fun just yet be sure to check out our review as well as the forum thread for everything you'll ever need to know about the game.
Just over a month ago, Avengers Initiative [$6.99] from Marvel and Wideload Games made a surprise debut on the App Store. We were initially quite intrigued by the shiny comic book characters, but after taking the game for a test drive in a TA Plays video, we came to find out that Avengers Initiative was essentially Infinity Blade with a Marvel Universe re-skin and The Hulk as the main playable character. Not necessarily a bad idea on paper, actually, but the extent of the similarities to Infinity Blade made Avengers Initiative feel extremely hollow and uninspired, and kind of boring as evidenced in our review.
Anyway, I don't want to totally be a Negative Nelly about the situation. Since its source material was already a great game, that means that Avengers Initiative wasn't that bad for what it was: an uninspired Infinity Blade clone where you play as The Hulk. I mean, there's got to be some value in smashing on bad dudes as the big green fella, right? Well for the original price of $5.99 that might have been a harder pill to swallow in the iOS game world, but right now you can nab Avengers Initiative for half price, making it a much more attractive prospect if you're a Marvel fan looking for something shiny to play on your device.
Punching stuff is fun. Endless runners? Pretty fun, too. That's why we're so stoked for Rocketcat Games and Madgarden's upcoming endless puncher, Punch Quest. We've had our eyes all over the thing since its initial announcement. And soon, we'll be able to get our hands on it, too. Punch Questhas been submitted to Apple and should see a release later this month on October 25. Neat!
If you haven't been following along at home, Punch Quest is about punching things. Like, all sorts of things -- treasure chests, bats, skeletons, basically anything that needs a solid one-two gets it in Punch Quest. In fact, punching is the sole way you move and interact with the world, which is pretty incredible if you think about it. Also, this game has hats in it.
We've got a trailer of the game just below. It really highlights the game's pacing and its sleek retro look. Here's hoping October 25 gets here fast.
Capcom delights in updating each Street Fighter at least three times before hunkering down to create a new version. Diehard fans rationalize the updates, touting new special moves and under-the-hood improvements. The rest of us shake our heads and hold out for the inevitable next version, or open our wallets and migrate with the rest of the herd. Street Fighter X Tekken [$2.99] marks the third Street Fighter to land on mobile devices, but unlike the previous and most excellent second release, Street Fighter IV Volt [$4.99], this one's not so easy to recommend.
Like the flagship console version, SFxT for iphone is a two-on-two fighter. Each player chooses two warriors and lays waste to other tag teams using a flurry of combos, special moves, and tag-team attacks. The roster is one of SFxT's weak spots. Volt currently offers a staggering 22 fighters from which to choose. SFxT includes 10, leaving fans of either series with a mere five familiar faces and an anorexic roster. To be fair, Capcom added to Volt's roster over time and they'll likely do the same thing for this game. Or, more likely, you'll have yet another release to add to the army of Street Fighter icons littering your Home screen.
As in previous mobile iterations, SFxT players duke it out using a simplified interface: One punch, one kick, an X button to swap fighters, and a Special button for special moves like fireballs. The streamlined interface benefits both the novice and the pro player looking for on-the-go action away from his fight stick. Novices can tap buttons arbitrarily to string together moves, while veterans can still outperform button mashers by relying on precise execution to pull out longer, flashier combos, or disable simple moves and input specials using the tried-and-true mix of joystick movements and button presses.
Besides tag-team play, SFxT throws a few more elements into the mix. After choosing their team, players choose a Pandora's Box, a powerful but temporary upgrade that sacrifices their partner and a compelling risk-reward mechanic for desperate situations. Gems, another new addition, are awarded in a random roulette-style game triggered when players perform a tag move. Depending on where the wheel stops, you might receive a boost to an in-game stat such as attack, or nothing at all. You're not punished for missing out on a power-up, so the off-chance of netting one is a good way to reinforce using tag attacks, maneuvers that experienced players will want to weave into their strategies.
Technically, the game makes a few minor improvements. Animations are as fluid as ever, characters boast significant detail and crispness. Unlike Street Fighter IV Volt's frozen-in-time environments, all SFxT backgrounds are animated, injecting some liveliness into fights and taking mobile games one step closer to providing a full-on console experience.
SFxT deviates from Volt in other, less fortunate ways. In Volt, players can enter ranked or unranked Wi-Fi matches. SFxT features only ranked and Bluetooth battles, forcing players to put their win-loss record on the line if they want to challenge opponents outside their living rooms. Crippling lag lowers ranked mode's stock even further, as matches outside your home country are often unplayable. More significantly, partaking in ranked battles requires credits. If you want to throw down online, you must either wait for the timer in the upper corner of your screen to expire and grant you a single credit, or buy gold as an in-app purchase and put it toward more credits.
SFxT's most egregious in-app purchase might be a deal breaker for hardcore fighting fans: At any time, players can buy gold and use it to upgrade their Pandora's Box. Honest players can swear off the store and earn points toward upgrades by playing the game, but inevitably they'll run up against players who dropped a Ben Franklin on upgrades. Pay-to-win upgrades don't break the game; skilled players can and usually will come out on top. But their mere existence does tip the balance away from Street Fighter's traditional reliance on skill (and spamming fireballs).
There's no denying that SFxT is a fun game. Like its predecessors, it runs smooth as butter, features a fighting system responsive and robust enough to nearly emulate playing on a stick, and it's a helluva lotta fun to look at. But Capcom's nickel-and-dime multiplayer decisions and the paper-thin roster make it an appetizer to Street Fighter IV Volt's seven-course feast.
So earlier this morning, a sleepy Jared and an especially sleepy Brad sat down with a new fighting game with politicians in it. This one is called Fightocracy 2012 [$0.99]. Unlike Chair Entertainment's Vote, this election season game doesn't seem to be too concerned with signing up potential voters or, really, even the whole satire angle. Instead, it's just a traditional 2D brawler that has you beating up past presidents as either Barack Obama or Mitt Romney. Because, politics. Or something.
Also, the actual fighting mechanics aren't so great. As far as we can tell, there are no combos, no juggling, no nuance. There's just two normal attacks and one special that you can activate when a bar fills -- that's it.
This is a weird one, so definitely give it a look. It's funny for about five minutes, or until you start thinking about what you're actually doing in the game.
POST VIDEO NOTE: You can totally pick different presidents to fight as in the game's "free mode." So, that's a thing.
This morning, Jared and I checked out Street Fighter X Tekken Mobile [$2.99], the latest Street Fighter iPhone and iPad title from the series' developer, Capcom. If you've been playing these mobile versions of Street Fighter for a while, you'll feel at home with this one, as it rocks similar controls and some familiar faces and game modes.
Of course, the Tekken mash-up is a strong point of differentiation. Veterans will notice some creative changes to the actual fighting mechanics and systems that make for a fresh game. Guys like me won't have the time to see much in the way of this since we'll be too busy getting destroyed by the AI or an actual real, human opponent.
We'll have more on this game in the near future, but if you wanted to peek, go ahead.
Last year, Jordan Mechner teamed up with Liquid Entertainment to create a modern remake of his 1984 beat 'em up classic, Karateka. The modern, 3D recreation of Karateka [$1.99] (which we reviewed in December) does an excellent job of conveying the tragic tale of the poor, imprisoned princess Mariko and the bold quest to rescue her to today's gamers using modern visuals, an original score, and unique, new fight mechanics. Another thing it does is give old school gamers a real itch to go back and play through the 8-bit original. Happily, as of tonight, that itch is easily scratched.
