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:
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:
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.
We finally got our hands on the demo version of Ace Combat Xi that was shown at the Tokyo Game show last month. The early impressions from this build were positive, and after seeing it first hand, I can confirm all the great things that were said about the game.
Overall, it just looks and feels like an Ace Combat game. They did a surprisingly good job at capturing the essence of the console games, and the tilt controls work great. This development version of the game lacks any kind of sensitivity configuration, so there were times where I felt like I was tilting the phone a little too much, but other than that flying a jet in Ace Combat Xi is a ton of fun.
In the right hand corner of the screen are a series of buttons to fire your various weapons and switch targets, the bottom left side of the screen controls your throttle. The rest of the screen is framed in a somewhat cluttered but really cool looking heads up display showing other information like the location of enemies and how many there are left.
This version of the game is very limited, but even as a brief demo, the overall experience of the Ace Combat console games is absolutely thriving on the iPhone. The constant radio chatter, the great texturing of the ground and sky and the sound of your afterburners rumbling all come together to create one of those "Wow, this is running on an iPhone?" moments.
For increased immersion, you can switch in to first person view and fly your plane using nothing but the HUD. I found this to be a little disorienting, but your visibility is definitely improved without your jet taking up the bottom third of the screen.
Namco hopes to release Ace Combat Xi this winter and we will continue to post preview information as it's revealed and while this version of the game is little more than a mid-development preview, it is remarkably impressive.
Lazrhog Games has just released a fully free version of Kento Cho's classic shooter Noiz2sa. A $0.99 version [App Store] has been floating around for some time, but the developer of that version allowed Lazrhog to release this much-modified and optimized version for free. [App Store]
The game is a classic kill-everything dodge-everything shooter adapted to the iPhone and iPod Touch:
Control the small red ship with your finger from any point on the screen and destroy all the aliens. Use multi-touch to direct your shots anywhere on the screen. There are 10 limited duration levels, and 4 endless levels to attack your high scores.
This one's 100% free. If you like the game and want to support the developer, you can check out his other games [App Store]. Lazrhog was also responsible for iPlutoid.
In our first Best iPhone Games column for September, we placed Meteor Blitz at the top of the heap with 5/5 stars. And, if for some reason you haven't already gotten the game, here's your chance to do so.
Alley Labs has introduced a 3 level Lite version of the game last night which gives you a sizable taste of this wonderfully executed space shooter. In contrast, the full version of the game includes 30 levels across 6 different worlds as well as an endless survival mode.
There was a lot we liked about the game including near-instant load times, auto-save, real-time high score ranking and great controls.
As a further incentive, Alley Labs is dropping the price of the game from $1.99 to $0.99 for this weekend.
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.
We first got a look at Sniper Vs Sniper: Online [
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.
