The iPhone and iPad version of Snuggle Truck [Free / Free (HD)] has added "Brony Mode" via DLC. For $1.99, you can transform all of the snuggly, warm creatures in the game into Little Pony style plushie characters. Yes, this is an actual thing that's happening.
“We love the brony community,” Owlchemy Labs' Alex Schwartz said in a statement, “we began design on Brony Mode in response to fan requests. We wanted to make something to give back to the community. Snuggle Truck’s 'cuddly-with-a-hint-of-badass' humor lends itself well to the stories and characters of the brony universe," he explained. Picture of the mode in action below:
This isn't the first DLC pack for Snuggle Truck, if you're wondering. For the same price as Brony Mode, you can transform all of the game's characters into Pandas. You can also buy different styles of trucks, level packs, and boosts.
We've had Snuggle Truck on iPhone and iPad for a while, but a Steam version of the game is also available, too, if you'd like to Snuggle it up on your computer. This version of the game, by the way, gets Brony Mode for free.
If you're anything like us, you've been treating your iPhone 5 like a jewel. You scrub the screen with only the softest of cloths. You put it to rest in its box instead of on a harsh surface like a bedside table or, gasp, desk. You look at it too much, admire its lines and curves maybe too often. Also, your friends think you're wicked weird.
New hardware does funny things to enthusiasts. It makes us protective. It also makes us want more things that'll work with it, that'll show it off in all of its glory. On that front, it's been slow going, but more games have been getting updated since the phone's arrival. Here's some of the growing list of old games made new again, courtesy iPhone 5 support.
Below, we've also included comparison shots of the new widescreen versions versus their old, standard 4:3 versions. Click any image to see it full size.
Slingshot Racing, $0.99 - [Review] - Slingshot Racing is one of the cooler racing games we've seen on touch devices because it doesn't try to be shoehorn console-like controls into the experience. With a single touch, you "sling" the game's cars around a track. This is preferable to acceleration and break buttons, which on a phone, usually look and feel kinda silly to the user.
Slingshot also features multiple modes of play, and obviously, it has a creator willing to keep updating the game. This iPhone 5 update sees a larger screen area to mess around with, though you probably won't feel much of a difference.
Death Worm, $0.99 - [Review] - Deathworm is the "original" worm game about a giant worm that eats stuff. In the game, you'll control a gigantic, face-sucking worm on a quest to obliterate everything from UFOs to helicopters. Deathworm rocks over 50 levels, and has a mini-mode for those who want to consume on the go.
The iPhone 5 version of the game, strangely, feels much the same. While we were playing, we didn't notice a huge difference, though we suppose the virtual buttons now have a teeny tiny bit more breathing room.
Ring Fling, $1.99 - Ring Fling is one of those super simple casual games we find ourselves falling in love with over and over again. It's a little like air hockey, except with tons of eye candy. New modes are consistently being introduced and the game itself is seeing more polish via updates as its creator rakes in feedback
The iPhone 5 update sees the game space expanded. In this case, we noticed a little difference. It might just be in our heads, but Ring Fling on iPhone 5 just seems more... pyrotechnic than it is on iPhone 4S or below.
The Bard's Tale, $2.99 - [Review] - The Bard's Tale is a classic ported to iPad and iPhone. At its core, it's an RPG, but it's also a parody starring a protagonist that just... doesn't want to save the world as much as he wants money.
Bard's Tale is a top-down game that already played pretty well on touch devices, but the increased screen space is definitely a good thing. You'll notice you've got more play area to mess around in and better virtual button spacing. The thumb-over-action problem is certainly less pronounced.
Ancient Frog, $2.99 - [Review] - Ancient Frog is an ancient game on the App Store, so it's kind of a surprise to see it receive iPhone 5 support. But, hey, it happened. This is a puzzle game, by the way, in which you'll be tasked with moving a frog from the top to bottom of the screen so it can catch a juicy bit of food. It's frustrating sometimes, but can also be oddly soothing.
Not much going on with this update, as Ancient Frog continues to feel the same.
Anyway, we're expecting a lot more games to be updated in the coming weeks as developers get their hands on iPhone 5. We've got your back if you want to stay in the loop. Expect regular updates and a few round-ups of new iPhone 5 supported games as the adoption rate ramps up.
Gameloft's Asphalt 7 [$0.99] is among the many games that have been updated to support the iPhone 5. It doesn't play a whole lot different from its smaller-screened counterpart but once I was recording video of it the immensely faster load times became increasingly obvious. In loading the game from the springboard to getting to the menu as well as loading from the menu to the actual game is twice as fast on the iPhone 5.
Performance inside of the game actually seems fairly comparable, both have high frame rates although the iPhone 5 offers a completely solid framerate while the iPhone 4S drops frames every so often. It's a little more difficult to compare actual gameplay performance, but you really can't argue with those load times.
In our experience testing other games today, load times seems significantly faster across the board, making the iPhone 5 one heck of an upgrade.
In January of last year, Turborilla released their arcade-style two-wheeled racer Mad Skills Motocross [$0.99 / Free], a game we thought was pretty darn fun, and last month they released a pseudo-sequel of sorts called Mad Skills BMX [$0.99]. The new game retains the same basic concept of its forebear: 2D side-scrolling, one-on-one racing with time-trial style tracks and an emphasis on speed running levels.
Where Mad Skills BMX really differentiates itself is in the use of a smart new gesture control system that feels much more native to a touch screen than the previous game’s virtual buttons. They work great and feel intuitive, but they don’t necessarily make for an easy game. In fact, Mad Skills BMX is hard as nails.
The pinpoint timing needed to be successful in the game takes a lot of practice to really get to click, and it can be hard to demand that kind of patience from a mobile gaming audience. Once it does click, however, Mad Skills BMX opens up to become a fantastic speed trials game that should resonate quite well with competitive leaderboard chasers. The problem is, you need to be all plugged into Facebook to get in on that fun.
Top-down arcade racers seem to do well on iOS, and it's really not too hard to see why. Combining quick gameplay with simple controls and fast reflexes is a good formula for approachability. Maciek Drejak Labs successfully implemented that blueprint once before with Vs Racing [Free], and now with Vs Racing 2 [$0.99], the developer returns for another try. While Vs Racing 2 certainly offers some refinements and more of what made its predecessor fun, the exceedingly simple focus is sure to disappoint some looking for a bit more depth.
Like its predecessor, Vs Racing 2 focuses on fast-paced arcade racing with little in terms of fluff. The singe player campaign pits you against multiple opponents (or head-to-head occasionally) with the sole goal being to finish in first. Coins are awarded for beating the opposition, as well as for doing in-race goals such as drifting, hitting other cars ("grinding") and passing up opponents.
The iPhone 5 is taller, faster, and an actual real thing, Apple revealed this afternoon at its much-anticipated event. And to our delight, Fire Monkeys' Real Racing 3 shared some of the spotlight, giving people in the audience a practical glimpse at the power of the device's new A6 processor and the look of an app in wide-screen 16:9.
On-stage, Rob Murray from EA called Real Racing 3 "full console quality," and the photos we've seen backs that up. This thing looks beautiful, and it's rocking at least one exciting feature, courtesy the A6: rear-view mirrors that actually project what's going on behind you in a race.
Details on the game's features are still slim, but one other cool thing came from the event. According to Murray, Real Racing 3 will have asynchronous multiplayer, which we expect, in practice, to work basically work like time trial ghosts. Neat!
Earlier this morning, Eli and I dug into VS Racing 2 [$0.99]. It's a sleek top-down racer that, naturally, tasks you with racing fast cars around increasingly convoluted tracks. One of its most notable features is its accessibility: smashing into dude and shredding corners is a breeze, courtesy its one-button steering interface. It's also a looker, and appears as if its slated to get a lot of new, game-changing car content down the line.
The original VS Racing was a pretty big deal, and VS Racing 2 picks up right where that game left off, as it sees the return of a lot of that game's systems and features. Fans of VS Racing 2's predecessor won't be disappointed with this one, in other words. Go figure, right?
Anyway, check it out below. We recommend it. As long as you don't stare into the game's Matrix for too long, it's easy to get swallowed up by its simplicity and action.
When the original Reckless Racing, hit the App Store in the fall of 2010, it captured the hearts of gamers with its over-the-top arcade physics and its silly backwoods theme. But, after such a long development cycle and so much built-up hype and anticipation, Reckless Racing still felt a bit shallow and a bit light on content. It was a lot of fun, but it felt like it could have been a whole lot more.
Fast forward to February of this year, and development partners Pixelbite and Polarbit took everything they learned from the first game and fleshed it out into the sequel Reckless Racing 2 [$1.99]. It traded in the country theme for a more professional racing tone, and the crazy physics were taken down a notch too to give the game a slightly more realistic feel while still maintaining a sense of arcade-style handling.
Super Mole Escape [Free] just nails every aspect of what a casual mobile game should be, in that it's fun to play with much to unlock while you play it. It also helps that it has a little extra something that's often forgotten in these types of games: multiplayer.
In Super Mole Escape, you play as one of many mole convicts that are out to steal gems hidden deep underground. You have to tilt the device to control your mole further and further down, collecting these gems and bolstering through obstacles as you go, making it more and more challenging to continue on.
What makes the game particularly exciting is when you are given chase by trailing police officers that want to throw your mole in the slammer. At that point, the game hits a point of chaos that is intense and thrilling because every gem you collect may just be your last. There's little time to think in these situations, so every gem collected from that point on is an achievement in and of itself.
Your only saving grace when the chase is on is the different boosts and power-ups that you can use to break away. Boxes scattered throughout the trails have random items such as hammers for breaking rocks, speed boosts and missiles for taking out enemies. Using these items is as easy as tapping on the screen, but the decision of when to use them can be quite the dilemma. Boosts that can be attained by grabbing a whole row of gems are just as helpful, and tend to be more common than boxes.
As in many other games of this sort, you can use the gems collected while playing to make your character better, faster and stronger. The cost of upgrading these items seems fair, and can make a huge difference as you progress through the underground. Additional characters and more effective power-ups can also be bought, but do seem much less important.
Where Super Mole Escape breaks off from the pack of other endless runner types is its addition of a great multiplayer mode that compliments the style of play perfectly. Using Game Center, you can connect to anyone and race to the finish amidst even more chaos than before. Opponents can steal potential power-ups and gems from you, making it even harder to escape the cops, all the while making sure they're at the finish line long before you.
Without the addition of multiplayer, I'd find it easy to dismiss Super Mole Escape as yet another endless runner with more flash than substance. This multiplayer mode not only makes the game more chaotic and fun, it also adds substantial longevity to the game as well. Superb real-time multiplayer isn't seen much in the mobile space these days, and that's what makes the inclusion that much more special.
Super Mole Escape knows what it does well, and exploits it to its fullest. If you decide to take on the whole dollar it takes to download the game (and you should by the way), then be prepared for chaos and enjoyment because it has plenty of it.
Earlier this morning, Eli and I buckled up and spent some time with Racing Legends [$2.99], a new racing game from Ikaro Racing dev NuOxygen. To be more specific, it's an over-the-top F-1 game with an ambitious campaign that spans five decades of racing, from the 1960s all the way to the 2000s. On-screen controls keep the action simple, while sketchy AI and physics ensure you're rarely out of the lead.
It's hard to take Racing Legends historical accuracy seriously, since there's not much that separates its "modern" racing from its take on the past. Literally, the only spot of difference we're finding are in the colors and size of the cars through the years. That's weird considering how this game is being positioned.
But while that and its AI are a wash, we're thinking the game does having something to offer fans of the genre. Namely, fast things that go fast. Check it out for yourself:
Back in May Crescent Moon Games and Snowbolt Interactive teamed up to release one of the more unique iOS titles I’ve played in some time, called Slingshot Racing [$0.99 / Free]. It’s a top-down racer with a steampunk style that uses a brilliant single-touch control mechanism that’s a perfect fit for the touch screen. The way it works is that every track has an anchor point built into each curve, and touching the screen shoots a grappling hook from your vehicle and attaches it to the anchor point. It’s then a game of timing as you hook onto each anchor point and sling yourself around the curves.
It’s totally fun, and we really felt Slingshot Racing redefined what a racer could be on the iOS platform in our review. One of our only real negatives towards the game were that it felt perfectly suited to an online multiplayer mode, just to spice things up with some real world competition. Well last month we learned that an asynchronous online mode was indeed heading to Slingshot Racing, and today that update has gone live.
Firemonkeys' Rob Murray just announcedReal Racing 3 at the EA Summer Showcase press conference, and in the process, showed off a really awesome looking trailer. Well, that trailer just hit YouTube. Give it a look:
I wish we had more details on the game, but, it's coming this year... So, hopefully, we won't have to wait too long.
If you're unfamiliar with the Real Racing series, and you own an iPhone, I've really got to wonder what in the world you've been up to these past few years. The original Real Racing [$2.99 / $6.99 (HD)] knocked our socks off when it was first released in 2009, and Real Racing 2 [$4.99 / $6.99 (HD)] continued the tradition a little over a year and a half later. Since then, Real Racing 2 has been on the cutting edge of iOS technology, and was among the first games to support 1080p out on the iPad 2 as well as being one of the first off the line to take advantage of the iPhone 4S. So, there's very good reason to get excited for the just announced Real Racing 3.
Rob Murray took the stage, and showed off this screenshot:
He then went on to show off a video of the game (which we'll post as soon as we get our hands on it) and mention the game will have real tracks such as Leguna Seca, real cars with Porsche, Audi, and Dodge. It'll even have 22 cars in each race.
Earlier this morning, Eli and I spent some time with Mutant Roadkill [Free]. It's a behind-the-back endless runner with a cool twist: you control as a derby car of sorts, instead of a dude. Oh, and the game's currency is zombies; smack a zombie, get a coin. Smack a lot of zed in rapid succession, and you'll build up a modifier that boosts your coin count.
With these coins, you can buy all sorts of stuff, including power-ups and vehicles. You can also throw real money at the game to buy its fake money if you want.
This game looks like it has a lot going for it. The core mechanic is fun, even though it is a tad bit derivative. Also, its RAGE-y theming is really cool. You don't get to drive around many bombed-out and dusty post-apocalyptic worlds in mobile, at least. Check out our video below:
We have been eagerly anticipating the long-hinted at Universal update for True Axis’s sublime racing platformer Jet Car Stunts [$1.99 / Free], and just as the weekend kicked off the update finally popped up in the App Store. I won’t bore you with too many details, but go ahead and feast your eyes on these gorgeous screenshots from the Retina Display iPad.
It’s easy to see that Jet Car Stunts looks beautiful on the iPad even 3 years after its initial release, and it even plays quite well on the larger device despite using tilt, which I’m typically not to keen on in iPad games. Here, it actually feels like the larger device gives me more subtle control over my vehicle.
But as good as it looks and plays, the truly remarkable thing about this new update is the 60fps it runs on the two newest iPads and the iPhone 4S, along with some additional graphical bells and whistles. It really needs to be seen in person to be truly appreciated. As a minor aside, due to OpenFeint’s transition to GREE, leaderboards and achievements are now disabled for 1st generation iPhones and iPod touches with this update.
If you own Jet Car Stunts and an iPad, then get busy downloading the latest update to see the new version in all its beautiful glory. If you haven’t joined in on the Jet Car Stunts fun train yet, then check out the lite version which has also been updated with the new enhancements.
The iPhone and iPad version of Snuggle Truck [Free / Free (HD)] has added "Brony Mode" via DLC. For $1.99, you can transform all of the snuggly, warm creatures in the game into Little Pony style plushie characters. Yes, this is an actual thing that's happening.
If you're anything like us, you've been treating your iPhone 5 like a jewel. You scrub the screen with only the softest of cloths. You put it to rest in its box instead of on a harsh surface like a bedside table or, gasp, desk. You look at it too much, admire its lines and curves maybe too often. Also, your friends think you're wicked weird.
