TipCat Mobile just released a very nice side scrolling shooter called Cell War [App Store].

The $2.99 game offers a beautifully stylized side scroller that places you as the pilot of a nano machine whose mission is fight off viruses and save the humans from disease. Designed for the iPhone, the game has some nice touches with a good variety of level design and power-ups that seem to keep the game interesting. Three levels of difficulty are provided over 9 different stages, and the game also provides online leaderboards.

The game is controlled primarily through the use of the iPhone's accelerometer allowing you to move the ship with tilt controls alone. This can be calibrated in the options so you can choose the neutral position. Your primary weapon is fired automatically and can be upgraded multiple times. Beyond this, the game also offers a nice touch targeting system for missiles akin to Space Deadbeef — simply touching on the enemies will lock on your missiles.

Here's the game in action:

The developers have also released a fully featured Lite version that provides the first two stages of the game, complete with all 3 difficulty levels. There really is a lot to like about this game, and the production values are outstanding. My only real issue with the game may simply be a personal one. I've never been a fan of the use of the accelerometer for ship movement in 2D iPhone shooters, and I much prefer touch (which is not an option). If you have no such hang ups, this game is definitely recommended, but even if you do, the Lite version provides you with a great sampling of the game.

App Store Link: Cell War, $2.99, Cell War Lite, Free

We felt somewhat obligated to review a game as huge as Eliminate Pro [App Store]. Following its epic development cycle, it's hard to think of many other games which were as highly anticipated among our community. But it's not just Touch Arcade forum members who have been waiting for Eliminate, as countless other developers have all been anxiously holding their breath to see how successful the microtransaction-powered gameplay is from a business perspective.

If it wasn't apparent by now from reading our other coverage on the game, we really enjoy Eliminate. The classic four player deathmatch gameplay is enhanced with an RPG-style progression system which adds a great deal of depth to an otherwise simple game. Power-ups littered throughout the maps spice up battles, and when it's working as intended, the matchmaking system seems to do a decent job of making sure the game you get thrown in to is reasonably matched.

While we did feel obligated to review Eliminate Pro, since you can download and experience everything in the game for free, there isn't much reason for me to dwell much on the gameplay. Instead, I'll try to clear up some common misconceptions I've seen in comments and in forum posts, along with offering some helpful tips and hints for new players.

(more…)

Namco's Garters & Ghouls made its way into the App Store last night and is the latest twin stick shooter to arrive on the scene. You play as the freshly reanimated Marie Dupois fighting against an evil force known as "Thrum" who has caused the dead to rise under its control. It's your task to close the portals of the underworld that spawn the various zombies, werewolves, and demons that are rampaging across the countryside.

The game plays a lot like iDracula and other similar games, with two virtual joysticks that control your movement and shooting. Along the way you come across different weapons and powerups, and throughout the land are shops run by the "Steam Queens" where you can buy upgrades for your character's health, movement, weapon damage, and other things.

The main content difference between Garters & Ghouls and similar iPhone games is that the gameplay is structured around 25 distinct and large levels and framed in a slowly revealing storyline.

The task for each level, however, remains the same throughout: you must destroy the enemy-spawing portals strewn across the map. Still, going into a level with a specific number of portals to destroy gave me a greater sense of purpose than other pure survival shooters. There is some very light planning involved in avoiding getting caught in the crossfire between demon-spawing portals, and there are a variety of enemies which do get more difficult as well as a number of weapon upgrades.

The game's difficulty, however, ramps up slowly, so it can feel like you are just grinding your way through the game. And if you listened to our last podcast, you would have heard that Eli Hodapp's issue with the game was the repetitive and lengthy nature of the levels. While I don't believe its any more repetitive than many of the existing survival shooters we've played before, I had also hoped the levels would provide more variety in gameplay.

Meanwhile, a number of other factors keeps the game squarely in the "good, but not great" category. The controls and animations are adequate, though not especially smooth, and the targeting of the enemies and portals requires you hitting just the right spot. This gives the enemies a 2 dimensional feel. The 1.0 version also suffers from some occasional crashes, though if this occurs only your in-level progress is lost and you can resume at the beginning of the level.

Further discussion and opinions of the game can be found in our forums

App Store Link: Garters & Ghouls, $4.99

TouchArcade Rating:

Along with tower defense and line drawing games, it seems like the twin stick shooter genre has an amazing representation on the App Store. We just got exclusive word from Angry Mob Game that they're ready to show the world what they've been working on for the last six months: Guerrilla Bob.

The game takes the standard survival shooter format we're all familiar with by now and structures the gameplay through various levels that take place in canyons, deserts, and urban environments. There also is an exploring element to the game, with new weapons and secret items to be found. While on your quest of mowing down everything that moves with your arsenal of weaponry, you will encounter bosses described as "epic" as well as "elements of depth and complexity never before met with any iPhone games of its genre" according to CEO Bogdan Iliesiu.

The recently released trailer and screenshots are required viewing for anyone interested in dual stick shooters:

Guerrilla Bob is still in development, but Angry Mob Games is hopeful to have the it submitted and ready for release in early December. In the meantime, feel free to stop by the Official Guerrilla Bob Thread in our upcoming games forum.

Oddly enough, the App Store has no shortage of hunting games. Quite a few of them have flirted with positions high up on the overall sales charts, but none (until now) have come from such long-standing hunting game franchises as the Big Buck Hunter arcade machines and the Deer Hunter series of PC and console games.

---

Real Deer Hunting, 99¢ – The eighteenth installment in the Deer Hunter series offers a fairly in-depth hunting experience that takes place in the woods of Indiana and the plains of Texas. The game is packed with all kinds of deer luring actions, along with the choice between a shotgun, scoped rifle, and compound bow. Out of all the hunting games I've tried for the iPhone, this one seems the most technical, although having never actually hunted deer I can't say for sure how accurate the developer's claims of ultra-realism are.

---

Big Buck Hunter Pro, $2.99 – We extensively previewed this game last week following the Big Buck Hunter World Championship in Chicago where the game was originally unveiled. It's a fantastic port of the arcade machine, and provides a remarkably similar experience, only without the plastic shotgun. Big Buck Hunter machines are becoming as much of a bar staple as Golden Tee in my area, so if the iPhone game can tap in to the existing fan base it should be a huge success. However, if you've never drunkenly pumped quarters in to the real Big Buck Hunter game, the iPhone version likely won't have much appeal.

We first heard of Data East's plans to bring Cobra Command to the iPhone last month, and just got word that they plan on submitting the game to Apple this week. Originally released in 1984, Cobra Command was one of the first games to overlay computer generated graphics on top of Laser Disc footage to create arcade games that were unlike anything else available at the time.

Here are some screenshots from the latest build of the game:

Update: A new gameplay video was just released:

For comparison, here is a video of the original running inside of the Daphne emulator. This latest version of the game for the iPhone will have the following improvements over the game from 1984:

• Full motion widescreen video, fully restored and presented in H.264 running at 60 frames per second.
• Vastly superior graphics and effects to match the on-screen action. Including an all new Cockpit, guns, missiles, and sound effects.
• Redesigned precision multi-touch controls.
• Accelerometer-based tilt steering! You really are in command of the worlds most awesome combat machine.
• Instantaneous seek time, providing a seamless experience where on on-screen action unfolds uninterrupted in real time.
• Unlockable Bonuses. Including Arcade Classic, and Expert Modes.

If Cobra Command is submitted this week like they're planning, it should be available on the App Store sometime in mid-November.

Touch Arcade forum member Rozgo has been posting for around a month now on the progress of his currently untitled 2.5D sidescroller that already shows a lot of promise. In the two videos he has posted we see multiple weapons, using missiles to break things, a grappling hook to solve physics puzzles, and many other amazing things that have come out of this one-man wolfpack of iPhone development.

This game looked impressive in screenshots, but seeing it in motion is something else. As a huge fan of both MegaMan and Metroid, these videos have me amazingly excited to have the game in my hands.

Alex Rozgo's game is still in development, which you can follow in his thread on our forums. According to his posts, he's optimistic to have the game submitted in early November to hopefully see it released on the App Store a few weeks later.

I spent a good amount of time yesterday playing through a preview copy of Namco's upcoming shooter Garters & Ghouls. You play as the freshly reanimated Marie Dupois fighting against an evil force known as "Thrum" who has caused the dead to rise under its control. It's your task to close the portals of the underworld that spawn the various zombies, werewolves, and demons that are rampaging across the countryside.

The game plays a lot like iDracula and other similar games, with two virtual joysticks that control your movement and shooting. Along the way you come across different weapons and powerups, and throughout the land are shops run by the "Steam Queens" where you can buy upgrades for your character's health, movement, weapon damage, and other things.

The main difference between Garters & Ghouls and similar iPhone games it that the gameplay is structured around 25 distinct and large levels and framed in a story that slowly reveals more about Marie Dupois, Thrum, and the other intricacies of the Garters & Ghouls world.

Each of these levels are laid out differently, within varied environments such as graveyards and churches. The goal of each level involves closing all of the evil minion spawning portals, and making your way to the exit. The portals can be seen on the on-screen radar, and making your way through the large maps can take some time. This is notably different than games like Alive 4 Ever and iDracula that keep you relatively contained in a very small area.

The game can get a bit monotonous at times, but the same can be said for all of the games in the same genre. Here's a gameplay video of me playing through the fourth level and a little bit of the fifth:

[ Full HD version | Low Bandwidth version ]

Garters & Ghouls is still in development, so the video likely will not be entirely representative of the final version. In particular, your shooting directions felt a bit too discrete, though we heard that this may still change. We'll post more information on the game as we receive it.

Last weekend was the Big Buck Hunter Pro world championship held in Chicago, IL and aside from thousands of dollars of prize money that was given away, they were also giving people the first look at the upcoming iPhone game.

The iPhone version is based on the series of Big Buck Hunter arcade machines which originally debuted all the way back in 2001. Since then, there have been several spin-off machines that have you hunting things like big horn sheep, elk, and even antelope. The arcade game is played using a shotgun aimed at the screen to shoot whatever it is you're hunting and often can be found at bars right next to the Golden Tee machine.

The iPhone, obviously lacking any light gun accessories uses your fingers to do the shooting. This mobile version of the game plays remarkably similar to the arcade machine, although quite a bit of the allure of Big Buck Hunter has always been playing it while you're out drinking with friends and there isn't much the iPhone can do the emulate that.

In the following video I go over all the functionality of the game including shooting deer, the bonus stages, online leaderboards, and even the ability to use your GPS coordinates to find the nearest arcade machine:

[ Full HD version | Low Bandwidth version ]

Big Buck Hunter has an absolutely massive following, and it's great to see an iPhone port of the game that is actually fairly representative of the original instead of a quick cash-in on the series. Big Buck Hunter Pro is expected to be available soon, and while no price has been announced yet, I'm sure the iPhone game will be much cheaper than a single night of pumping quarters in to a real Big Buck Hunter machine.

We first got a look at Sniper Vs Sniper: Online [App Store] back at PAX, and it was clear then that the game had as much potential as their previous online multiplayer title, Homerun Battle 3D [App Store] once it went live and the online community started to grow.

The most succinct way to describe Sniper Vs Sniper is Where's Waldo? with guns. The gameplay involves scanning various buildings with binoculars to scout out enemy snipers, quickly switching to your rifle, and taking them down before they take you down. It's a fast paced hybrid between a sniper shooter and a hidden object game, playable online against other players.

The online component consists of two game modes, 1 on 1 sniper battles and cooperative levels. When playing against another player, you will both be randomly positioned in opposing buildings at the start of each round. As quickly as possible you tilt your phone to move your viewpoint around to find the person you're playing against, who will likely also be looking around with their binoculars. While you're doing this, you will be able to choose from a series of ridiculous taunts which all play different quotes like "What would you like on your tombstone?"

Once you find your opponent, you need to take your rifle out and shoot them, but there's more to it than that. Both of you have life bars, and the match is over when you run out of life. Like most video games, head shots do more damage so accuracy is key when it comes to actually firing your rifle. Once you damage your opponent, a new round starts and you both get new positions in the buildings.

The catch is, if you shot your opponent in the previous round, they get a hint showing where you are in your building. Winning online matches usually requires being fast enough at scanning the other building to be able to find the other sniper before they (much more easily) find you.

If competing against other players in the 1 on 1 mode isn't your cup of tea, the cooperative mode will pit you and another player against a building loaded with snipers. Whoever shoots more of these AI controlled snipers wins the round. This is also how the single player mode of the game is played, although given how full featured the online component is, single player feels significantly less entertaining in comparison.

Just like Homerun Battle 3D, online play is ranked on global leaderboards and you have a list of friends that you can challenge. There's even a lobby you can chat in between games. Com2Us also deserves some kind of merit badge for being one of the only game developers that includes a toggle in the game's options to disable the intro movie.

Sniper Vs Sniper is such a strange combination of gameplay elements that put together just work. It's part hidden object, part shooter, with a rich online component that is rivaled by few other games on the App Store. If the community takes off like it has with Homerun Battle 3D, I could see myself getting far too involved in competing online in Sniper Vs Sniper.

App Store Link: Sniper Vs Sniper, $4.99

TouchArcade Rating: