I don’t know about you, but all I can think about when I mow someone down or blow someone away in Payback² [$4.99 / $49.99] is Jesse Ventura as Blaine in the movie Predator throwing back the cover of his minigun, spitting out his chewing tobacco (real nasty habit he’s got there) and delivering that immortal one-liner, “Payback time!”

It makes you feel tough, big and clever, and it fits Payback²'s action like a boxing glove. I mean, this game’s got to be worth playing for that reason alone, right?

Clearly this is a GTA clone, and makes no real apology for that. Nor should it, given that the GTA franchise took off in a very different direction after the second installment. Payback² borrows – admittedly very heavily – from the original, and not the third-person 3D versions that came later. You decide whether that’s good or bad, but from my perspective it's a wise decision. The bird's-eye-view format clearly still has a lot of life left in it.

GTA chose to tweak the series when it went fully 3D by dropping you into the world of organized crime. But what was so great about the first two games is that they were all about disorganized crime, and that sweet, reckless, chaotic flavor also permeates Payback².

This certainly can’t be accused of being a slave to its inspiration, however. Instead, it makes use of somewhat randomized game modes, so each new mission – or level, or however you want to label the independent vignettes of action – throws you into quite a different arena. For example, you start out in a tank, surrounded by enemies in need of destruction.

Being a tank you don’t have to worry quite so much about self-sustained injury, crashing or enemy gunfire, and you’re free to trundle around blasting like crazy and blowing things up. It’s an intro that demonstrates the rampant destruction Payback² actively encourages, after which it’s time to head out on foot for a team-based death match.

And so it goes from there, with most any kind of shooting, driving or multiplayer-based game structure you can think of haphazardly piled on top of one another as you climb the criminal ranks. It’s true that this dog pile of unsystematic violence might feel rather unstructured as has been noted on the forums, and that’s because it is. Personally I’d appreciate more story and less cherry-picking of game styles, but it’s hard to criticize Payback² too much for committing to the chaos. Disorganized crime probably shouldn't be too constrained by a deliberate plot sequence, but it can also feel quite jarring how the game schizophrenically  flips between events. Mini-game fans will find this quite endearing, while GTA aficionados will feel like they're splashing around in the shallow end of the crime-game pool.

At least you’re never lonely when playing through these mentalist missions, as the city is a very busy place. The place is littered with pedestrians and motorists – who provide the vehicles you’ll make considerable use of as weapons and escape options – along with your own AI-controlled team members and a huge number of enemies. On top of this are the cops, who seem fairly oblivious to the carnage until you commit a crime right in front of their faces, when you suddenly find yourself fighting a gang war on two fronts. Escape is your best option when the filth are after you, and considering this robs you of valuable time needed to complete your objectives, you soon learn that it’s better to avoid their involvement by any means necessary.

This adds the same enjoyable aura of anarchy that GTA harnessed so expertly, and gives you something to care about when firing wildly into a crowd or jacking car after car. Keeping your eyes peeled for the peelers is an important obstacle that gives the game a bit of much-needed depth.

And if all these game modes still aren't enough, Payback² comes complete with extensive multiplayer options. The online gaming is quite simple, really; replacing the AI characters with other real-life players. They can be on your team, as members of another gang or every man for themselves, depending on the game mode – of which there are many.

Jump into the matchmaking option, pick your game and get into the blood-soaked action. It’s simple and effortless, once the initial matchmaking wait is over and the round is ready. The delay doesn’t seem to be because of an underpowered multiplayer system, so much as shoring up the number of players, but it’s worth it once the pandemonium is in full swing. Also, even this early on in the game’s life, there seems to be a lot of support for multiplayer games, so there’s usually a queue waiting that you can jump straight into. Custom games can be hosted by you that other players are then invited to join in with, but they're just a way to ensure you're playing the event you want without having to find someone already hosting it. A nice option, but it wouldn't be a deal breaker if it wasn't included.

The controls don’t ask too much of you, and switch depending on whether you’re on foot or in a vehicle. Running and shooting is easy from the top-down viewpoint, with one analog stick for movement, and the other for strafing. It’s a great system that means you can run in one direction and shoot in another, and since you’ll be dead in seconds if you stand still and take careful aim, you’ll make good use of it. Armored vehicles, such as tanks and choppers, also use this control method, while cars free up your fingers for accelerating and breaking by employing tilt-controlled steering.

We tested the Payback² HD version, by the way, which includes support for the iPad as well as iPhone and iPod touch. If you’re definitely only going to play this on an iPhone or iPod touch, the standard (and slightly cheaper) Payback² version is for you. It still supports small screen Retina, but isn’t iPad-native. However, both games are identical in every other way.

Admittedly I’m a little torn between the absolute absence of story– which leaves you feeling hungry even after wolfing down the rich feast of violence – and the guilty pleasure of random acts of destruction. Payback² would land itself an extra star if it had found some middle ground between the two, but there’s still a lot to enjoy and it requires very little commitment on your part to play. Load it up, go mental with a machine gun during your coffee break, turn it off and forget. Sounds like pretty good escapism to me.

I distinctly remember playing Zaxxon in the arcades, although I’m now a bit shocked to discover it was 1982. What I remember most about Zaxxon isn't so much its amazing graphics, but rather a vague sense of bewilderment as I tried to wrap my head around its pseudo 3D controls.

This was the first game to introduce isometric graphics, which is how we used to have 3D games before the third dimension was discovered. Zaxxon’s visuals perhaps weren’t so much amazing, actually, as they were clever. Impressively clever, mind you. Whoever figured out a method of fooling our senses so simply was definitely underpaid, no matter what sort of wage they were on.

Now we don’t need anything too clever to give us a 3D-looking game; just a bucket full of polygons, an iPhone and thirty years of game development to deliver Zaxxon Escape [$0.99].

The isometric flight through an outer space obstacle courses is now a fully-3D run through endless tubes, which raises the first and most prominent question about Zaxxon Escape, and I expect  it’s one that the developer Free Range Games knew the iPhone world would be asking: how exactly is this Zaxxon?

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I suppose it’s hard not to attract comparisons to the Aliens franchise when you pit a futuristic gun-heavy Marine against mindless, scurrying xenomorphic drones. The latest ad- and IAP-supported title from French studio Bulkypix revels in this comparison, though. It dives head first into oozing pools of acidic alien blood and splashes around playfully while shooting a pulse rifle in the air and yelling “Let’s rock!” over thudding gunfire sound effects.

So if you’re an Aliens fan (who hasn’t yet hung up your facehugger over the nonsense of Prometheus) Soldier vs. Aliens [Free] should probably be the next place you choose to land your digital drop ship.

Okay, that’s enough Aliens referencing for now. At least until we get started on the inevitable Spunkmeyer jokes as we approach the bottom of the pop culture barrel.

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So, we've been thinking about Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour since its "leak" and subsequent actual reveal. And we've go some new details. Most notably, it will support iPhone 5 and its taller screen at launch. Presumably, the extra real estate will make a difference in a control sense, as the added width will give the virtual buttons more breathing room.

But if you don't have The Big New Thing, don't worry. Gameloft tells us that Modern Combat 4 is also going to support other stuff. The game, which launches this fall, will be a Universal app. Also, it's going to carry a premium price tag.

As with most super anticipated release like this one, meaningful game details are going to come in chunks. Multiplayer, for example, has seen some enhancements, but Gameloft isn't quite ready to talk about what specifically is being tweaked.

That's all we've got for now outside of the new screens you're seeing above, but we'll keep you up to date as the marketing campaign continues to plug along and, hopefully, eventually get our hands on this thing.

So, that Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour "leak" was the real deal. The footage was from the official trailer for the game, which should see a release across Android, iPhone, and iPad later this fall. We know this because a sleeker version of that trailer recently appeared on YouTube. And by "sleeker" we mean that this one is an actual, HD version of the trailer and not some weird shaky cam captured footage abomination.

If you'd like to see the trailer sans shaky, just look below.

According to the trailer, Modern Combat 4 (what a name!) will revolve around the kidnap of a president. Presumably, as a gruff soldier type, you'll be tasked with killing a lot of dudes in an attempt to rescue him. Stay frosty, folks. Or something.

Almost a year ago to the day, at last year’s Tokyo Game Show, Square Enix announced a card battling game called Demon’s Score. Well, at least that’s what we thought at the time, but thanks to some sketchy translation issues that wasn’t actually the case. Square Enix WAS working on a card-battling game, and in fact it launched just last week. It’s not called Demon’s Score, though, it’s called Guardian Cross [Free] and it’s free to download and check out for yourself, or you can see what people have been saying about it in our forums.

Now, Demon’s Score [$4.99] is actually a thing, too. In fact, back at E3 in June we got our hands on an early version of Demon’s Score, and thought it was pretty cool in our brief time with it. Visually, the game plays out like an on-rails shooter type of thing, but the gameplay is based mostly around rhythm-tapping, similar to Elite Beat Agents and many other titles. Demon’s Score is also built using the Unreal Engine, so it looks pretty darn good. You can check it out in this trailer, though I’ll leave no comment about the music.

So hey, just a head’s up that Square Enix has been on a roll as of late. First they released a brand new RPG called Drakerider [Free / Free (HD)] earlier this month, then it was Guardian Cross last week, and now Demon’s Score this week. What’ll it be next week? I don’t know, but I’m hoping it’s something. At any rate, we’re tearing through these games as we speak, but you can check out our forums for even more impressions and discussion on Demon’s Score.

Earlier this afternoon, Eli and I spent some time with Apocalypse Max, an upcoming side-scrolling shooter that tasks you with slashing, exploding, blasting the undead across a variety of gloomy locations. As you kill zombies and smash crates, you'll pick up coins that can be used to upgrade your equipment or buy new guns for future use.

We're digging Max. The production elements are off the wall good, which helps. But more importantly, we're clicking with its action. Solid pacing keeps you moving, while sharp level design keeps introducing interesting choices. And even though the game uses a ton of virtual buttons to control the action, each one feels pretty responsive. Neat, right?

Apocalypse Max is set to hit this Friday for iPhone and iPad, by the way. We'll have a lot more then.

You know what? I like this whole ‘DotEmu porting old SNK NeoGeo titles to iOS’ thing that’s been happening recently. First we get Metal Slug 3 [$3.99], a fan favorite in the series and a game we truly enjoyed in our review, though we did wish for an auto-fire option and a way to not cover up the action with our thumbs while we played. Then, about a month later, DotEmu releases an update addressing both of those exact things. Thanks for listening, DotEmu.

Now today an update has hit for another NeoGeo port called Blazing Star [$2.99], a side-scrolling shooter that we also really liked but felt it had a couple of minor issues. Namely, lack of auto-fire and a sluggish feel to your ship’s movement. Lo and behold DotEmu is here again with an update addressing those very issues.

The new options are available right there on the mode selection screen so you can toggle them easily. With auto-fire on your ship just constantly fires, and you can hold down the button to charge your attack like before. The new control option is called Fast Touch, and makes your ship move at just about a 1:1 ratio with your thumb movement. I can’t even tell you how much of an improvement this is, I finally can enjoy the game without worrying about cheap deaths due to my ship reacting so slowly.

Listen up, DotEmu and SNK. Keep this up. It’s clear that you have the technical prowess to bring these ports to iOS with flawless performance, and your willingness to listen and act on player feedback is totally appreciated. And there’s a huge backlog of great NeoGeo titles, so get to work (please). And while I’m at it, this really gets me even more excited for the Raiden Legacy collection that's coming to iOS soon, also handled by DotEmu.

There are a lot of great first- and third-person shooters on the App Store, but easily my favorite pure shooter is the recently released Trigger Fist [Free] from Lake Effect. By actually stripping away some of the features that have become commonplace in shooters nowadays, Trigger Fist manages to remain more focused on the action of the firefights themselves and doesn’t get bogged down with cumbersome control issues.

Trigger Fist just feels like the perfect little shooter to have on the go, something you can play for a couple of minutes at a time or for hours on end, online or offline, and it’s always guaranteed to serve up a good time. There are more robust shooters on the App Store, and they do what they do well, but Trigger Fist is the game for those who never got quite comfortable with the others and just want some fun fragging on the go.

Yesterday, the guys at Lake Effect "pulled the trigger" on a freebie promotion for Trigger Fist, and as of right now you can grab the game for free. It launched at $4.99 less than a month ago, but some Game Center issues affecting game saves and matchmaking have caused an otherwise fantastic game to stumble out of the gate. Subsequently the online pool of players could definitely use a shot in the arm. 

This is a great opportunity for any fence sitters to jump in on the game and fill out the online lobbies. Some of the kinks in the game have been worked out with recent updates, and the team is dedicated to fixing anything else that pops up as well as adding new content to the game.

As with any sale Trigger Fist can go back up in price at any time, so definitely give the game a download for free right away if you're interested. You can also refer to our original review of Trigger Fist or our TA Plays video if you need a closer look at the game, and our forums are where you want to be for discussion and to find some online competition.

Game creator Retro Dreamer has flipped the sales switch on its radical vertical shooter Velocispider [$1.99] once again, though this time its in celebration of the scariest spider find ever recorded in history. In a cave in Oregon, scientists have discovered a raptor-like, sickle-handed spider -- a velociraptor spider, if you will.

It's such a unique spider, actually, that a new family of spider has been created. But more importantly, a video game is now two dollars cheaper starting today. Velocispider is one of our favorite shooters, so definitely give it a look. If anything, its action will help put you get your mind off of the pictures of the spider in this article.

Our dreams will forever be haunted by this, by the way. Thanks, science!

News of an upcoming retro classic-gone-iOS has recently landed, and it should put a smile on the face of gamers that have been around for the long haul. Famed Amiga-era game studio Cinemaware has announced that King of Chicago, originally released in 1986, will soon be coming to the App Store.

The game, set in the 1930s, is an action adventure that puts the player in Capone-era Chicago on a bid to become the mob-boss of the city. Gameplay involves plenty of illicit activities such as gambling, payoffs, bombings, and gang-land drive-by shootings. The iOS title is being put together in-house at Cinemaware and consists of the original Amiga version of the game wrapped in Manomio's iAmiga emulation system.

Cinemaware has also been in the news lately for their recently launched Kickstarter campaign to develop a complete HD remake of their highly popular 1990 action game Wings. The campaign is targeting a set funding goal of $350,000 to develop Wings: Director's Cut, at title to feature actual 3D models, completely redone visuals, and a re-scored soundtrack, to iOS, Android and Windows PC. Cinemaware notes that if higher funding levels are achieved, they will additionally add "new missions, new diary entries and story elements, new landscapes, more & better animations, additional music tracks, and maybe even more combat sequence mini-games..." The studio is offerings a wide array of swag for many different levels of funding, but it looks like they've got a good way to go before hitting the minimum funding level by the deadline of Sept 11. And we would remind readers that, as with all Kickstarter campaigns, there's a chance things may not go quite to the funders' liking, as the project organizers modify their pitch to try to generate more interest and hit their goal.

Cinemaware's Kickstarter news prompted me to check in with the man behind iAmiga, Stuart Carnie of Manomio, who put together last year's release, Defender of the Crown for iOS [$2.99], in conjunction with Cinemaware. We knew that Stuart was working with the studio to bring the original Amiga version of Wings to the App Store, utilizing the same core features of his iAmiga technology that were used in Defender of the Crown. Stuart assures us that classic Wings is still on the way, as a separate item from the Wings: Director's Cut effort.

We will keep readers in the loop on these coming titles, with more details as they hit the App Store.

iOS gaming has come a long way since the humble beginnings in the homebrew community with the original iPhone and the official App Store launch following year. Mobile phone gaming has long since been considered a throwaway activity, with tiny games designed to eat up a spare few minutes of free time.

That hasn’t necessarily changed, but with the advent of smartphones and hardware that is getting more powerful with each new handset generation, those throwaway experiences are being flanked with deeper, more visually and mechanically advanced games that easily rival dedicated handheld gaming systems and even approaches some console and PC offerings.

In fact, “console-like”, a term that gets thrown around a lot, has really just come to mean “a deeper gaming experience than you’d normally expect from a phone game.” For mobile developers targeting this kind of experience, the more “console-like” they can make their games the better.

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The dudes at Radiangames have been busy, it would seem. Aside from releasing some all around great games, they've been consistently updating them and releasing other bonus content that fans should enjoy. First off, we had some readers who were (understandably) bummed out when our Slydris [$1.99] review hit and they were met with the dreaded "for iPad" in the title. Well, good news, it's now universal. If you've got a smaller-screened iOS device, get on that now.

Additionally, they've released the soundtrack for free, and it sounds like it'll remain that way until they hit their free download quota on Bandcamp. Also, Inferno+ [$2.99] (another game we really liked in our review) also had its own update hit recently. It adds a time attack mode that they're calling "Scorched Mode." For a limited time, the game is on sale for $1.99. Their other games have seen minor updates as well, but these consist of simple tweaks like adding volume controls.

With so much good news comes some (vaguely?) bad news, but it seems for the time being Radiangames is shifting gears away from being so iOS focused. Per their blog:

After today, I probably won’t have a lot more to say for a while about iOS development/games. I need to buckle down and get my big project more playable and polished so I can show it to publishers.

But when Steam Greenlight goes live, I’ll hopefully have something to say about that.

Needless to say, we've been huge fans of the things that Radiangames has released so far, so, even with a platform shift we're still excited to see what they come up with next.

Update: Radiangames have clarified via Twitter that their next "big project" is actually for iOS as well. The Steam Greenlight chatter is in regards to bringing these titles to the PC. Awesome!

In the mid-90s SNK released the first game in one of their most revered series, Metal Slug. The run and gun platformer had become a staple in arcades of the 80s and 90s, and nobody did it with more panache than SNK did with the Metal Slug games. Beautiful hand-drawn art, incredible animations, and buckets of personality were the hallmarks that set Metal Slug above the huge pack of similar games. And of course, the ‘Metal Slugs’ themselves – a variety of vehicles you could hop in and lay waste to everything in sight.

The series was a big hit with gamers too, and it’s typically the third game that is considered the fan-favorite. Like any good sequel it iterated upon previous games by making all the good stuff bigger and better while trimming any fat and adding some new ideas. It was also the last Metal Slug game to be released by SNK in their original form, so there was a sense that they threw everything but the kitchen sink at it to go out big. Indeed, Metal Slug 3 [$3.99] is truly an awesome game that’s been ported all over the place since its release in 2000, and it’s finally arrived on iOS in all its glory. It has the typical control issues you get with a game like this on a touch screen, but with a little forgiveness towards that Metal Slug 3 has easily shot up to one of my favorite action games on iOS.

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You miss a lot of video games when you're a twelve-year-old kid with a paper route. You miss even more games when you have a mother who insists on sticking half your paycheck in the bank, leaving you roughly $30 a month to divide between Batman comics and cartridges for your Super NES that ran between $60 and $80 apiece. (In fairness, Mom's lesson stuck with me. Did I appreciate Street Fighter II after three months of chucking papers at customers finally earned me a trip to KB Toys? You better believe it.)

It could have been worse. I could have set my sights on the Neo Geo AES, or Advanced Entertainment System, a home console based on Neo Geo's arcade hardware, giving literal meaning to the term "arcade perfect." (If you're too young to know what that means then get out of my article and off my porch. I also propose a haircut.) The $650 AES was a jewel for wealthy collectors, but unattainable to a humble paperboy. Plus, the cartridges went for $250 each. Each. No wonder Neo Geo's mascots never caught on in the living room like Super Mario and Sonic. Fast forward to today and you can splurge on an AES and must-haves like Blazing Star [$2.99] for... well, right around the same price. Or, iOS gamers can snag the game from the App Store for three bucks. Welcome to the future.

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