New missions are coming to Angry Birds Star Wars [$0.99 / Free / $2.99 (HD) / Free (HD)] "soon," creator Rovio Mobile is teasing, and they'll likely start up from where the last set left off: Hoth. Over the last couple of hours, Rovio has been blasting out concept art of the Millennium Falcon idling in a space rock. On the side of the image, the number 19 is clearly shown. The tweets that come along with the image note that the content is hitting soon. That's neat.
Angry Birds Star Wars hasn't seen an update since November. That update added 20 levels and the Princess Leia bird. We kinda doubt we'll see a new bird in this update, but new levels definitely seems good enough. Here's that teaser image:
Something new, and maybe interesting, is coming to Bad Piggies [$0.99 / Free / $0.99 (HD) / Free (HD)]. Earlier this week, the official Bad Piggies Twitter account dished out a bit of promotional art showing a bad piggy racing while clutching a checkered flag. The words "Road Hogs" and "coming soon" appear on the image, too, clearly indicating some sort of DLC is in the works.
What Road Hogs is exactly, Rovio isn't saying. It might be just another level pack. But it might also be a new type of build for vehicles, a new mode, or even a new theme. It's hard to tell from the little bit we've seen so far. Here's the image if you'd like to take a crack at the mystery:
Regardless, we certainly welcome any new content. Bad Piggies is a tremendous game with some really rad mechanics and physics. We'll take any excuse to jump back in, you know?
The App Store, being an entirely digital space and with Apple playing the gatekeeper, can be a tricky place. We've seen some sticky situations in the past when publishing deals expire and there's no easy way to transfer the rights to someone else so that a game can continue being sold. Sometimes that means a game simply gets pulled, never to be heard from again. More frequently, at least in my experience, is that a new publisher or the developer themselves will go ahead and put the game out again, but since there's no way for the App Store to recognize who bought the game already under the previous publisher your only option as a customer is to buy it again to ensure you have the newest version.
So really, the only good option in that scenario is to re-release the game for free for a brief initial period, and let your previous customers know that they should replace their current version with the new one while it's temporarily free. That's exactly the scenario we've currently got with Gesundheit! [$1.99 / $2.99 (HD)], an award-winning puzzle game developed by Revolutionary Concepts in conjunction with the fantastic artist Matt Hammill. Gesundheit! originally launched in July of 2011 and was published by Konami. At some point it disappeared, but today Revolutionary Concepts has re-released the game under their own name, and is offering it for free for a very limited time.
The happy side effect here (well, for the gamers anyway) is that even if you didn't have the previous version of Gesundheit! you can still take advantage of the freebie and grab it right now. And holy moly should you ever grab it. Not only is the art style and music incredibly charming, but Gesundheit! is also a clever puzzler that will tax your brain. It's also got a lot of snot, which is cool. You should give our original 5 star review a look if you need some more details, and you can always check out our forums for more impressions and discussion.
Whatever the case, everyone should definitely download and at least try Gesundheit! while it's temporarily free, and owners of the previous versions should grab this newly released one which will be the one that's maintained and updated going forward into the future.
It's that time of week again when the deluge of new releases finally land on the US App Store. It looks like a pretty decent week based on what's in our weekly Coming Tonight post, and all those games are now available with the links provided there. As we usually do, we're highlighting what is the most noteworthy release of the bunch and this week that game is Might & Magic Clash of Heroes [$4.99].
Clash of Heroes is a match-3 RPG hybrid in the loosest sense, and is wrapped in a massive single-player story-driven campaign. Typical RPG tropes are at play as you follow along with a ragtag group of young heroes as they try to save the world from certain doom.
Battles are centered around the matching style gameplay, and as we've talked about previously in our preview coverage of Clash of Heroes, this is the game's biggest strength. There are layers upon layers of depth to the fight strategies and mechanics, and while the story and presentation are key components if Clash of Heroes was nothing but battling I wouldn't complain one bit.
That's sort of what the multiplayer is there for, though. You can play against AI opponents, battle real-life friends locally, or take on the competition online in asynchronous bouts. The single-player campaign in Clash of Heroes should keep you busy for quite a long time, but the multiplayer options are what really give it long-term legs.
Might & Magic Clash of Heroes originally launched as a Nintendo DS title back in 2009, and was re-released and enhanced in HD for home consoles in 2011. The iOS game is based on the HD release, and because of that the file is nearly a full 2 gigs, so just a heads up. Other than that it appears to be a fairly decent touchscreen translation of an absolutely phenomenal original game, so check out our forums for more early impressions and watch this space for more on Clash of Heroes in the near future.
Earlier this afternoon, Jared and I gave Traal [Free] a spin. It's a top-down horror slash puzzle game that tasks you with solving the mystery of a dungeon while avoiding its various inhabitants and spike-y obstacles. Don't let the simplistic, almost retro-y visual design fool you: this thing requires some serious patience and wits.
Look familiar, maybe? Traal first appeared as a flash game. You can play it here with a keyboard. That page, by the way, notes that Traal is the end product of a 48 hour dev cycle, which is kinda blowing our minds.
Anyway, if you're in the mood for something different on iOS, this might be it. We love the ideas and themes, even if bits of the scenario design are a little wonky. Give it a look below:
Earlier this afternoon, Jared and I spent some time with Candy Crush Saga [Free] in a valiant attempt to get inside its head. It's a cutesy, candy-themed match-three that has been making some waves on the App Store charts. After inspection, it seems like the game's campaign is the likeliest reason why it's clicking with so many folks. It's big and it isn't afraid to keep delivering new twists on the core matching formula.
This might not be your cup of tea. We realize that. But it's healthy to see what people are up to and what makes popular games tick. In this case, the game is pretty good. You should check it out:
Breach Entertainment's Shardlands [Free] now has a free version on the App Store. And get this: this version includes three levels that aren't in the full game. So, even if you've been up, down, sideways, and otherwise all over the original release, there's a reason to try the free one anyway. Kind of a weird strategy, right?
Shardlands, if you didn't know, is billed as an atmospheric puzzle game and that feels pretty true to what's going on. In the game, play as a person who wakes up in some sort of magical cave and is tasked by a talking spirit with collecting shards that, for some reason, have the power to transport you to other caves. Shards can also give you magical powers, like say, telekinesis, which comes in handy whenever you need to construct makeshift bridges out of platforms. Give it a look:
This is a pretty big deal: Rovio, creators of the Angry Birds franchise and future world dominator, has just dropped the price of one of their games to free for the first time ever. Even cooler is that it's for both the iPhone and iPad versions. The game in question is Angry Birds Rio [Free / Free (HD)], a tie-in with the 2011 movie called Rio and one of the very few movie tie-in video games that doesn't absolutely suck.
Angry Birds Rio brought more of the same bird-flinging action that we all are quite familiar with by now, but also threw a couple of new very welcome twists into the formula. First and foremost are the boss fights, which were a first for the Angry Birds series and have you squaring off against the main antagonists from the Rio movie. The game also utilized more advanced graphics and recently was updated with tons of new power-ups and support for the widescreen of the iPhone 5.
You can read our original review if you're stuck on the fence for whatever reason about downloading a free game, but chances are you're familiar with the whole Angry Birds formula and the Rio edition is more of that with enough twists to set it apart from its many other variants. And I mean hey, it's free, just download the dang thing would ya?
Fans of the Myst series should clear their plans for this weekend as Riven: The Sequel to Myst [$3.99 / $5.99 (HD)] for iPad just hit the App Store. We posted recent details from Cyan on this enhanced version last month. Also, in the event that this is also news to you, Myst [$4.99] has been available on the iPhone for quite a while as well as realMyst [$6.99 (HD)] for the iPad which abandons the slideshow nature of the game in exchange for a real fluid 3D world.
Forum user Candykiller dug up this really awesome "Making Of" video which I hadn't seen before of Riven, and really, this serves as a fabulous introduction into the game even if the video quality is a little low. Check it out if you're into what went into developing these classic games-
Riven is a huge game, clocking in at over 1GB for the iPhone and 2GB for the iPad once fully installed, so if you've got a smaller device you might need to clear some room.
Hey, it's time for your weekly Angry Birds content update. Ok, so maybe the games are not actually updated ever week, but there's so many different versions of the game and they each receive such frequent updates that sometimes it can feel that way. Today's update is for Angry Birds Space [$0.99 / Free] and Angry Birds Space HD [$2.99 (HD) / Free (HD)], the, uh, fourth main games in the Angry Birds series.
The update includes 30 new levels set in a water galaxy, dubbed the Pig Dipper, with unique water physics and some Bad Piggies patrolling in boats. There's also 3 new power-ups: Flock of Birds, Space Egg, and something called the Pig Puffer. Alrighty then! There's also a new underwater boss level and a few new bonus levels if you can achieve some 3-star scores on this new pack of levels. Also, if you check in with the game everyday you can score a free power-up.
Angry Birds Space is yet another Angry Birds game, but that's not a bad thing. It introduced the gravity slinging mechanic that's also made its way into the latest game Angry Birds Star Wars, and the way that Rovio is constantly updating the whole library of Angry Birds games means that your buck or three should go pretty darn far in terms of providing entertainment. You can check out our original review of the game for some more insight, but if you aren't familiar with Angry Birds by now then I just don't know what to tell you.
The iPhone 5 and the 5th generation iPod touch, with their lovely 4-inch widescreen Retina Displays, have been out for a while now, and we've kind of wound down on covering every single game that gets updated for the larger screen. I mean, the vast majority of new releases are supporting widescreen from the gate, and the newsworthiness of older titles getting updates for it has pretty much faded. Except when it's Mobigame's Edge [$2.99] and follow-up Edge Extended [$2.99]. Why? Because it's freaking Edge, that's why. These games are masterpieces, and have been on my list of games that I really hoped would get widescreen support. As of now, those hopes have turned into reality.
If you're wondering what this "Edge" thing is and perhaps have been living under a rock for the last four years, you can read our 5 star review of Edge Extended which pretty much covers the bases of both games. Also, if you're into legal drama, Edge has a notorioushistoryfull of drama because of its chosen name. Spoiler alert: the good guys wind up winning in the end. Anyways, both Edge games are basically required playing for any iOS gamer and now with widescreen support it's an even better experience for those on the newer devices.
The ridiculous amount of fun I've had blasting through Rovio's Bad Piggies [$0.99] has really left me looking for more contraption building games on the App Store, as I really enjoyed how you not only needed to build a working contraption but also do something with it. Rigonauts was actually released on Steam before Bad Piggies hit the App Store, and judging from the trailer, is going to tickle the same parts of my brain that Bad Piggies did:
Essentially, players are put to the task of building various contraptions piloted by your goblin-like "Hobs" to fight an "assortment of strange and dangerous foes." So, in essence, Bad Piggies but centralized around an actual combat mechanic instead of just making it to a finish line or collecting as many stars as possible. Rigonauts is currently available on Steam for $9.99 , and requires Windows to play. It sounds like the iOS port is in the final stages, as they're actively beta testing right now. Either way, this is the exact kind of game I need on my iPad.
Hundreds [$4.99] could almost get away without an explanation. Here's how the first level plays: you put your finger down on a circle. It starts growing, and a number counts up. When it hits 100, you win. You will never need a tutorial—anyone can learn to play.
Audaciously simple, no? Of course, Adam Saltsman and Greg Wohlwend are both old hat at making amazing things from simple beginnings. Canabalt, anyone? Puzzlejuice? Don't go thinking Hundreds is just any old thing. The pair, along with composer Scott Morgan and developer Eric Johnson, have teased out every possible bit of complex fun one can have counting circles up to 100. For a hundred levels and beyond, Hundreds lives up to its pedigree.
The game never lets its players grow complacent. You master counting up with one circle, then more. You learn that if you're pressing on one circle when it hits anything else on screen, you'll fail. You then find variations—circles that need to be pressed in pairs, circles that shrink when you release them, spikes that kill your circles and ice-crystals that freeze them. There is never a time in those hundred levels that Hundreds feels low on ideas.
ZeptoLab makes charming games. It's kind of their thing, judging by Cut The Rope's eminently marketable Om Nom. The studio's latest, Pudding Monsters [Free / Free (HD)], is certainly charming—it practically oozes character. It just lacks a little something else, a bit of the fun factor.
Aside from the flavour, you might have heard this one before. Pudding Monsters is a puzzle game about sliding pudding into other pudding until it forms one massive blob of eyes and goo. Ideally said blob will wind up sitting on top of three star tiles, thus achieving the coveted three-star ranking. There are variations, there are challenges, but it's all a bit by-the-numbers. Still, if you're looking for a game about sliding pudding into other pudding, you probably can't do better.
After all, I wasn't kidding about the character. The big, bouncy puddings are dressed up with giant moustaches, sleeping caps or snail hats. They slime and jiggle and wiggle their way around the screen. They babble in nonsense language, and the music jingles happily. One could go so far as to call the whole thing sprightly.
It looks like we're off to kind of a slow start in 2013 in terms of weekly releases. That's not to say there weren't a few interesting looking games in our weekly Coming Tonight post (and all of those games should be out in the US App Store now, by the way), but I guess it just doesn't have the same impact as the usual onslaught of new games that typically hit in the weeks that aren't so close to the holidays.
However, I think the most notable new release has to be the puzzle game Hundreds [$4.99]. It's notable for one just by being the collaborative effort of Canabalt [$2.99] creator Adam Saltsman of Semi Secret Software and Greg Wohlwend of Solipskier [$0.99] and Gasketball [Free (HD)] developer Mikengreg. Both are well-respected indie developers and basically anything they're a part of is something to be interested in. Beyond just good game developer pedigree though, Hundreds is also fantastic. I spent the better portion of the day playing the original Flash version, and became completely hooked. Adam and Greg have spent the last year improving on that initial version for Hundreds on iOS, adding new mechanics, modes, and more.
It should be a winner, and although I've literally only spent a few minutes with the just-released iOS version of Hundreds I can already tell it's head and shoulders above its Flash counterpart. If you're on the fence though, give that Flash version a go because it should give you a good idea of what you're getting yourself into. It's the kind of game that once it "clicks" there's no turning back. Check it out, and give our forums a look too for more impressions from early adopters of Hundreds.
New missions are coming to Angry Birds Star Wars [$0.99 / Free / $2.99 (HD) / Free (HD)] "soon," creator Rovio Mobile is teasing, and they'll likely start up from where the last set left off: Hoth. Over the last couple of hours, Rovio has been blasting out concept art of the Millennium Falcon idling in a space rock. On the side of the image, the number 19 is clearly shown. The tweets that come along with the image note that the content is hitting soon. That's neat.
Earlier this afternoon, Jared and I spent some time with Candy Crush Saga [
