It's expensive to buy and maintain a real horse, but now you can download a virtual one instead from the App Store-- What a world we live in. My Horse [Free] from NaturalMotion Games and MunkyFun is a realistic horse simulation game, which allows you to groom, feed and reward your very own horsey, without ever leaving the couch. Although the true cost of the virtual horse depends on whether you choose to invest in the optional in-app purchases.
The developers goal was to create a horse which is realistic enough for the player to form a bond with. And they've managed to successfully achieve this as the horse graphics and behavior is pretty realistic. It flicks it's tail, grazes, looks around, trots, bucks, walks backwards and neighs. There's no obvious repeated animation loops, or cartoon graphics. You're caring for a real-looking virtual horse.
I think at this point it's safe to say that Backflip Studios has embraced the free-to-play market. From the acclaimed Army of Darkness Defense [Free] to iOS classic Paper Toss [Free / HD], most of its titles have gone free and are now supported by ads or premium currency options. DragonVale [Free] is something a little different, though. It's built from the ground up to compete in the crowded freemium marketplace that have you managing zoos, pet stores, restaurants or, in this case, dragon parks.
Just between you and me, dragon parks are pretty rad.
I can't help but want to think that Calibre Games' Hunger Calls [99¢ / HD] is meant as a metaphor for fast food culture. The purpose of the game is to shove as much food into people's mouths as you can, as quickly as possible, then after they overeat, you have to either hit them with some Alka-Seltzer or they die.
At first, I thought Hunger Calls was just going to be some kind of resource management game in the vein of Diner Dash, then after a few minutes, I was worried it might be a clone of the Flash game, Sweatshop, but it's neither -- the only way I can think to describe Hunger Calls is as a reverse tower defense game.
On the heels of another great release in Grand Prix Story [$2.99], the simulation gurus at Kairosoft have dropped its SimCity-lite offering, Edo Town, in the Japanese App Store. Putting English-based speculation on the back-burner for a moment, Edo Town has you play the role of a city manager charged with putting together a thriving town complete with businesses, facilities, and utilities. No doubt, you’ll have to walk the line between citizen happiness and overall revenue, which can make for some compelling play, as Maxis has proven time and time again.
Now, for the tea leaves -- if Kairosoft keeps up with its current model, there’s a good chance we could see an English version of Edo Town as early as next month. If this happens, Edo Town would be the studio’s next US release following it's racing simulation game. Localization is not an easy process and Kairosoft has said before that it has a special release schedule for the rest of the world, however, so let’s keep anticipation in check for the moment.
For what it’s worth, we’re doing our best to independently confirm if we’ll see Edo Town in English. We’ll definitely bring those details when or if we get them.
Fresh off another heavily physics-based sports title, Natural Motion Games is going to hit us with a My Little Pony-like game. No, seriously -- Venture Beat has the exclusive on the studio’s My Horse, a horse simulation game that’ll feature radical horse physics, radical horse visuals, and radical horse grooming, feeding, petting, and training.
In addition to this, it’ll feature an RPG-like progression system and IAP functionality. And while the visuals on display are pretty hip, it seems pretty obvious that this is a game for the casual crowd and not us hardcore, push-it-to-the-limit types.
Venture Beat reports that each horse in the game will move and act in different ways, and all the horses will be differentiated in terms of look. It’s probably important to note that this is an outsourced project -- Natural Motion is using MunkyFun for the actual development of My Horse.
As silly as it sounds, I’m all about this. I plan to maintain the nastiest horse this side of Shadowmere in My Horse, provided it allows me to create an undying, fast-traveling horse with red eyes and an ugly demeanor. I guess I’ll know for sure when the game launches in the next day or so on the App Store for the radical price of $0.
Nimblebit’s Tiny Tower [Free] [Universal] has been update, roughly, a billion times since our original review and we haven’t covered them all, but the latest strikes us as special. Starting now, you can share those hours you’ve spent meticulously upgrading your tower on the world wide web via an option from the game’s main menu. This seems like a sure-fire way to make mom and dad, sister or brother, or even loved one proud, if you ask us. Neat!
Additionally, this latest update adds new floors, new costumes, new settings for audio, and rolls in a staggering amount of crucial bugs, including ghost-painting and a crash bug that triggered when you viewed certain neighbors. The entire list of fixes, if you’re really into this sort of thing, is available right here.
Despite its free-to-play model, Tiny Tower has managed to wiggle its way into our hearts. I think a big part of that reason is the fact that its balanced non-aggressively and isn’t what I would dub “pushy” about taking your hard-earned coin. Give our review a read if you’ve not bothered with the tower simulation game quite yet.
King of Dragon Pass [$9.99] originates from what I consider to be on the tail end of the golden age of PC gaming, where developers focused more on depth and originality instead of texture resolution and polygon count. In fact, King of Dragon Pass is a fantastically extreme example of this as there's no polygons to speak of, and the graphics only really consist of a assortment of hand-drawn illustrations to accompany whatever event is taking place at the time. I think the easiest way to describe what the game is all about is to call it a largely text-based menu-driven mash up of a Civilization game and a Choose Your Own Adventure book. If you're the kind of person who requires flashy graphics, fast action, rock-bottom pricing, and online multiplayer, stop reading now. This is not the game for you. If, however, you can barely even fathom a more glorious conglomeration than Civilization and Choose Your Own Adventure, prepare to absolutely lose yourself in King of Dragon Pass.
The game is set in the fantasy world of Glorantha, created by Greg Stafford, and used in several other traditional roleplaying games, literary works, and even a board game. The universe was originally imagined in 1966, and is chock-full of things which have since become standard in fantasy-based worlds. The people of Glorantha are the pawns of an array of both new and old gods who offer various benefits in exchange for worship. Magic and supernatural occurrences play an important role in the world, and aside from the typical races found in most fantasy worlds like elves, dwarves, etc, Glorantha is also home to strange humanoid hybrids such as anthropomorphic ducks and scorpion-men.
Kairosoft’s Grand Prix Story [$2.99] feels more like Game Dev Story [$3.99 / Lite] than any of the other studio’s subsequent releases following the launch of the overly-cutesy and absorbing simulation game about making games. In both games, there’s a lot of overhead before you can see any practical applications or meaningful progress. There are also a ton of hidden systems and mechanics to find and discover as the game moves you along with its forty foot stick with a dangling carrot on the end. Also, in both games your race to be the best is often determined by the time you put in being the worst. You have to click with and then master both games’ mechanics in order to see profit and, yeah, that can be a tall order for mobile.
Grand Prix Story specifically is a painfully slow-burning simulation with a familiar set of problems that plague almost every Kairosoft release -- lack of feedback, too many hidden or unexplained systems or mechanics, a bad tutorial, and a steep difficulty curve -- but it’s also a fun title that hits all the notes that it needs to. Its systems are deep and defined enough, the racing is oddly entertaining even though its just a conglomeration of dice rolls, it’s burst-y, and the overall atmosphere, action, and theme play well off each other. (more...)
Before I explain what A Sharp’s King of Dragon Pass is and comment on the fact that an iOS version has been in the works and will release in September 2011, take a gander at some of these images and tell me that this doesn’t have the potential to be the greatest thing to ever grace the App Store this side of, oh I don’t know, Doodle Jump [$.99 / Free].
The three underneath shots are taken directly from the forthcoming iOS version. The first image is from the 1999 PC version. It's by far one of the best out-of-context video game screenshots I’ve seen in a long time. Dinosaur mounts, guys! Wow! (more...)
Looks like we were right. Kairosoft’s next English iOS release will indeed be Grand Prix Story, the racing simulation game that hit Android devices earlier this year. According to a small blurb on the studio’s page, it’s heavily suggested that it’ll see a September 8 launch, which gives it exactly four weeks worth of breathing room from Mega Mall Story[$3.99 / Lite].
Previously, we reported on the game’s launch on the Japanese App Store and speculated that, since the English translation work is already done, it would be the next release. Word on the street was that this specific version also included an English language toggle, so no wonder we’re receiving it so soon.
Grand Prix Story thrusts you in the role of a manager of an auto racing team. As such, you’ll be expected to gather sponsors, drivers, and develop new cars and their respective parts. The app description on the Android market says that no formal racing knowledge is needed, just like how you don’t need to be a hot spring owner to really come to grips with Hot Springs Story[$4.99 / Lite].
Obviously, we’ll be all over this when it hits. As a personal aside here, I’m ready to explode from anticipation. Kairosoft makes my gym time that much better.
[Thanks for everyone who sent this in - via App Advice]
We've recently been given an exclusive heads-up on two interesting looking upcoming titles from Digital Concepts, who brought us the early iOS pick-up RPG Loot Master [iPhone] as well as the space age tower defense title Starfall [iPhone, iPad].
The first bit of news Digital Concepts' Douglass Beck shared with us should be of interest to all the Minecraft junkies out there. Doug is working on a game that started out as something of a "pet project," but is now evolving nicely and should make it to both App Stores (Mac first, then iOS) sometime down the road. The as-yet-unnamed title is a single- and multi-player Minecraft-like game that is already quite functional in its early state of development.
That's about all we can share right now in the way of media and details on the studio's Minecraft-alike, but we'll bring more before the game goes live. (more...)
We had nothing to go on when EA announced its intentions to port Bullfrog’s theme park simulation game, Theme Park, other than “Hey, a Theme Park game is happening.” As usual, the big ticket marketing machine over at the publisher covered up some of the holes at an event. Earlier this week, EA debuted the title at gamescom in Cologne, Germany, revealing that it’s a full re-make of the original game, complete with a new payment model, new look, new mechanics, and new rides involving EA franchises like Mass Effect and, somehow, even Dragon Age.
Digital Spy grabbed the first image we’ve seen on the Internet, and also had a few specific details. Take this one for example: not only will you be able to build your theme park with in-game money, but you’ll also be able to purchase more in-game money with real-life money. Also, the rides you build will apparently be interactive; the report cites being able to move around pirate ships or prod air-filled castles. I have a feeling the interaction will be strictly limited to basic animations, but hey, I guess we won’t know until we see a full build in some shape or form.
Speaking of builds, the game won’t see a final release until this holiday, but it’ll come with all that fancy Origin stuff we heard about earlier this year. Right now, it’s slated to hit a $0, which makes us think that the F2P stuff is going to roll a lot deeper than in-game currency.
Well now here's something you don't see every day, especially from a company like EA, and especially from a series that among other bragging rights includes the best selling PC game of all time…! The Sims 3 World Adventures [Free] is free today, as part of a particularly confusing promotion as historically speaking Sims games have had absolutely no problem selling like crazy on the App Store. World Adventures is sort of the odd man out of the bunch on the App Store, as instead of focusing on typical Sims-like activities of decking out your house and simulating the various mundane tasks which you yourself do every day, it sends you off to several exotic locales to complete various goals.
Before Mega Mall Story and Pocket Academy, we were pretty sure that Kairosoft’s next big US iOS release would be Grand Prix Story. It seemed like an educated stab since the game was ported stateside to Android phones, translated, and had the appearance of being just as solid as its other titles. We were wrong, but now the developer seems poised again to bring its car themed managing simulation to iOS in the states. As you read this, fans in Japan are getting hands-on with the game for the iPhone and iPod Touch, which leads us to believe that it’ll hit here next, as all it requires is a translation pass with already-translated text.
We could be totally, horribly wrong, and hilariously, we kinda invite that. Grand Prix Story, a game that puts you in the role of a racecar manager, is a known property now. We’d rather get another surprise (or Game Dev Story 2) -- whichever will sate our taste for simulation.
Communication with Kairosoft is something we’re still struggling with at the moment, but we have fired off an e-mail to see what’s up. While we wait, we’re drawing up Excel spreadsheets for Grand Prix Story in preparation just in case.
Firemint sales used to be a much more rare occurrence, but they still have an electricity to them that other creators can’t capture with their own price-slashing parties. I’m guessing it has more to do with the quality of the wares, than it does with dramatic price shifts. While I pointlessly ponder this, go ahead and grab Real Racing and Real Racing 2 for the iPhone or iPad. All four games have been dramatically reduced in price for this weekend in celebration of… well, nothing that we can discern. Still! They’re cheaper!
Real Racing 2 is, we reckon, the best racing game Firemint has produced. That doesn’t mean the original Real Racing is a slouch, though. Fans of simulation racing games can and will enjoy both; it’s just that Real Racing 2 is a fantastic iteration on that original foundation. If you want to know way more about either of these titles, we’ve got your back. You can check out a review of the follow-up here and a review of Real Racinghere. Non-spoiler: they’re good.
It's expensive to buy and maintain a real horse, but now you can download a virtual one instead from the App Store-- What a world we live in. My Horse [Free] from NaturalMotion Games and MunkyFun is a realistic horse simulation game, which allows you to groom, feed and reward your very own horsey, without ever leaving the couch. Although the true cost of the virtual horse depends on whether you choose to invest in the optional in-app purchases.
I think at this point it's safe to say that 
I can't help but want to think that Calibre Games' Hunger Calls [
Nimblebit
King of Dragon Pass [
Well now here's something you don't see every day, especially from a company like EA, and especially from a series that among other bragging rights includes the best selling PC game of all time…! The Sims 3 World Adventures [
Before 
Firemint
