I've been a fan of the Homerun Battle series since the first (originally titled Baseball Slugger) title, Homerun Battle 3D [$0.99], launched in early 2010. Nearly two years later, Homerun Battle 2 [$0.99] hit, and while it's a little more IAP-oriented than I'd like it to be, it still retains all the fun instant online match ups of the original.
Anyway, starting this week Homerun Battle 2 is going to behaving weekly competitions. For an hour every Friday starting at noon Pacific time (So, 1:00 Mountain, 2:00 Central, 3:00 Eastern) if you beat a Com2uS employee you'll win $5 worth of the IAP currency. It sounds like all you've got to do is add the user "com2ususa1" to your friends list and spam them with challenges. Also, during this time there should be tons of normal players on to play with while you wait to jockey for your free in-game currency.
Win or lose, it's a good excuse to re-install the game if you haven't played in a while. I've always kept Homerun Battle 2 on my phone as it really caters to that whole "I feel like playing something and have exactly 45 seconds to do it" niche that mobile games fit into so well.
Oh, and there's also Homerun Battle 2 Free [Free] if you want to fiddle with the game without any kind of financial obligation.
When a developer like True Axis, creators of the iOS classic Jet Car Stunts [$1.99 / Free], announces a new project, you take note. That's why when the studio announced back in February that they were working on a skateboarding simulation called True Skate, it shot right up into our most-anticipated games list. Well, it did in mine, anyway. I've been skateboarding for the majority of my life, and have really been waiting for a killer skating app to come to iOS.
Well, it's finally come, as True Skate [$1.99] is exactly the kind of skateboarding game that I've always wanted. Rather than being heavily mission- or story-based like the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series or EA's Skate series, True Skate is more of a sandbox toy that lets you shred around a well-designed skatepark doing whatever you feel like. There's a short list of missions to complete, and there's plenty of potential to flesh out the entire experience further, but on release True Skate is simply an excellent physics-based skateboarding simulator that's only real limit is your imagination.
Earlier this morning, Jared and I checked out NFL Pro 2013 [Free]. If you're not in the loop, this is an American football game published by Gameloft. For the most part, it's functionally Madden system-wise. In the game, you pick plays, run them, hope for the best, and then pick some more. Where it differs is in the passing game: for some reason that we can't figure out, passing plays force a first-person perspective.
To be perfectly clear, this is a terrible game. Even at its generous price of zero dollars, it's not worth the download. Animations are clunky, the physics are bad, and its free-to-play mechanics come off as gross. For instance: you'll be asked to buy a couple of important offensive and defensive sets.
We've got some video of the game in action just below. On top of all the aforementioned, take note of the rosters. Someone at Gameloft didn't get the memo that a new class of players came into the league this year. (They might just be one-year-old as opposed to two; the Colts roster wasn't shaken up for a bit.)
When I was a kid, all we had to entertain ourselves with were 8-bit computers. None of your new fangled on-the-line multi-gamer consoles. Handheld game systems only had blurry black and white screens, but we were thankful for them! Oh yes.
We still had to use our imagination to see shapes in the piles of house bricks that we called pixels, but we didn’t complain. We could build entire worlds out of those colorless 2D platforms, and we were never bored. Never!
So, anyway, I look down at my iPhone ere three decades hence, and what do I see? Big blocky pixels, green-hued monochrome screens, scanlines that look like a farmer’s field and single button controls. But this isn’t technological stagnation, of course. It’s a raging river of retro regression from iPhone mini-game compendium Recess Riot [Free].
Earlier this afternoon, Eli and I spent some time dribbling down the pitch and shooting touchdowns in NBA 2K13 [$7.99], the follow-up to last year's NBA 2K12. As you'd expect, it's a lot like last year's version of the game, except with updated rosters and some iterative touches that sports-stupid dudes like us aren't really going to notice but are probably still really cool.
If you'd like to see NBA 2K13 with your own eyes, check out what we've got. We played a full game of 14-on-14, complete with fouls, hoops, and basketballs -- the thought being that you'll get a good feel for the game, if you're on the fence about it.
NBA 2K13 is out now, by the way, as a Universal build, across iPhone and iPad.
In our review of Shufflepuck Cantina [Free], we felt that the game's primary flaw was a brutally steep challenge curve. Many players were likely to give up after a few punishing games, and others would find the high speed on the relatively short table to be impossible to adjust to.
Well, if you're a shufflepuck wuss, like me, help has arrived. A new update adds "Training" difficulty to duels. It's worth nothing that Training mode is only for standard duels (first one to five points), and not the high-stakes Betting mode or Survival mode. Also, in Training difficulty, rewards are reduced and you can only win bronze or silver medals, not gold (even if you play a perfect game).
It's clear that Agharta considers "Training" to be just that, a way to get players acclimated to the game. For me, it represents A New Hope of actually enjoying the game rather than banging my head against it.
They've also added the option to turn off the game's music, which is a boon in itself, as the game's sound is high-quality but the music is on a short loop.
If you deleted the game, this might be cause to reinstall it: despite the beautiful graphics, Shufflepuck Cafe is a mere 40 megs, a testament to Agharta's in-house engine. There's another good reason to leave this app on your device: while real-money items (like the Duraniam card) can be restored, unlocks you purchased with Credz will be locked again if you delete and re-install the game, and any Credz you paid real money for are gone.
That's not particularly evil of Agharta, it's just how free-to-play works. In this case it stands out, because everything you can buy with Credz in Shufflepuck Cafe is a "permanent" unlock.
EA’s newest iteration of its soccer franchise, FIFA 13 [$4.99], has hit the App Store to coincide with the release of the console versions today. You might remember we briefly checked outFIFA 13 at E3 this year, and EA showed off even more of the game’s features at their media event last month.
Sports titles are known for being slightly upgraded iterations from year to year, and this year’s big new feature in FIFA 13, and a first for the series on iOS, is the inclusion of online multiplayer. Sadly it forgoes Game Center for EA's own Origin service, but I think I'll survive. Another big addition is the Skill Move button that lets you easily perform several different kinds of moves by using simple flicks. There's even the ability to record replays and upload them directly to YouTube, so you can share your finer moments with the world.
As any yearly release should, FIFA 13 also looks a lot better than its predecessors with fluid animations and Retina Display graphics, even on the new iPad. It supports the new 4-inch iPhone 5 screen as well, and it’s a Universal app, which is something EA has been more prone to doing this year and I’m certainly a fan of it.
Player impressions in our forums have been largely positive so far for FIFA 13, so chances are if you dug previous installments you’ll probably want to check this one out too. Just as an FYI: the file size is a whopping 1.36 GB so make sure you can spare the room on your device.
I am the worst at pretending to like sports. I can usually muster up the enthusiasm to cheer on my hockey team when they're in the playoffs, and I watched at least a couple hours of the last winter Olympics here in Vancouver. Summer sports, though? Before this week, the best I could offer was resounding "ugh."
But I was wrong, faithful readers. Best of British: Summer Sports [Free] has shown me the errors of my ways. Yes, it's a dull name, but it's not a dull game, not at all. Why didn't you tell me about competitive moonwalking? Who was holding back on gymnast tossing? Now the London Olympics are over and I'm going to have to wait four more years to see Viking rowing in action. At least I have this rad microgame collection to tide me over.
The story of Best of British: Summer Sports is pretty great. "Best of British" refers to the developers, an immodestly named collective of British game devs. You probably recognize some of the names. Greenfly Studios, the folks behind Ski Solitaire. Moo Yu, maker of Ring Fling. Big Pixel, who made Off the Leash and Piyo Blocks.The developers of Greedy Bankers, Hard Lines, Home Sheep Home 2, Moshi Monsters and several more. They all got together back in July, and gave themselves 48 hours to come up with something terribly fun and inspired by the London Olympics.
The good folks at Agharta Studio have done something completely insane: they released a free-to-play air hockey (holographic mag-lev hockey?) game set in an immersive and silly setting best described as "Star Wars by way of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."
Far cheaper, less sweaty, and more bizarre than any real-world miniature golf course I've played on, Wonderputt [$0.99 (HD)] is a polymorphic putt-putt painting brought to life by the charming design of Damp Gnat.
Easily observed in the trailer, Wonderputt contains a ridiculous amount of creativity in its 18 holes and the way the course transforms between each hole. Playing on a cubic river optical illusion, a farm mowed by hyperactive cows, lily pads on a lake, or a hill from a fresh avalanche keeps the golf game fresh with unique obstacles.
Wonderputt's biggest flaw is that it penalizes players' scores for the time spent completing the course. How can I not get lost in its visuals?! Maybe by the 5th or 10th playthrough I'll be less distracted.
That said, Wonderputt has only one golf course in the whole game and is the only other let down here. However, in the second playthrough, it becomes much more fun and manageable with the Wonder rainbow collectibles littered across each course. These collectibles seem arranged in a way that the most geometric of players can connect in one shot. It certainly helped me earn two hole-in-ones.
I had actually played Wonderputt online for free last year, but my iPad experience was definitely more memorable. I recall giving up on the pull-back-and-release gameplay with a mouse. Thankfully, the tiny golf ball feels easier to putt with my finger.
Feeling so familiar, I cheated a little and asked developer Reece Millidge what was new to the iPad version. He said it contains a larger canvas than the Flash version, HD graphics for retina display, and a triple-length soundtrack. As for why I played slightly better on the iPad version, he says he made the holes slightly bigger to help with the inaccuracy of fingers compared to the mouse.
Wonderputt has Game Center leaderboard integration, but it offers some homemade achievements that I think add more to the replayability, asking players to eventually hole-in-one everything. Also worth noting, music and sound effects are light but fitting for the game. I'd rather they complement but not overpower the striking visuals.
Wonderputt joins a number of other great mini golf style games on the App Store, and I can see several casual and hardcore players wanting to explore this eccentric golf course from end to end at least a few times. If you're the guy or gal with the fancy iPad 2 or 3, Wonderputt is one of those sharp apps you just have to show everyone and will definitely earn a few cool points in doing so.
An excellent premise is more than enough to carry a game.
Two years removed from the launch of Solipskier on iPad and iPhone, Mikengreg has crafted another sport-inspired game into something that barely resembles its source material. Gasketball [Free (HD)] is basketball meets puzzler, a funky Frankenstein cobbled together with these genre's constituent parts, each glued to the other by the will of Gasketball's creative vision and interesting visual oddities. It's so good, you guys.
Gasketball's creativity and execution don't always extend to its puzzle design, but you forgive its larger missteps because it gives you something new -- a cohesive, quirky shot-for-shot matching game that plays it loose in the best sense possible.
Most basketball video games are about the thrill you get from hard-court wizardry -- the feel of sliding between players or setting up the perfect pick, or drilling a shot as a clock winds down or jamming a ball into a shooter's face as he glides to the net. Other basketball games don't do any of this. Like Gasketball, for example.
Gasketball is the second iOS release from Mikengreg, the two-man studio behind an arcade skiing game called Solipskier. Like that game, Gasketball is tonally quirky and it plays it loose with its sport. In fact, it's more of a physics-based puzzle game than it is a basketball game, much like Solipskier was more of a runner than a serious slope skiing game.
During the conference crunch of back-to-back E3 and WWDC last month, I’d find myself with a few minutes to kill in-between meetings or demos or whatever. Seeing as the influx of tech-heads at a conference pretty much brings any sort of WiFi connection to its knees, that pretty much limited the kinds of things I could do to pass these moments of downtime.
Now, there are thousands upon thousands of ways to kill a few minutes using your iOS device, the App Store is chock full of them. But I consistently found myself going back to the same thing over and over: Taiso [Free]. With the London 2012 Olympics in full swing (wait, am I allowed to say Olympics?), we figured it was the perfect time to bring Taiso to the masses.
This is why we love the App Store. The other afternoon, developer Tantrum Solutions shot us a note announcing that it has released a Dennis Rodman video game in 2012. Rodman FT [Free], as it's called, puts you in the shoes of "The Worm," and has you shooting free-throws as fast as possible across four different arenas. Mechanically, it's more similar to one of those physical arcade basketball games than any game-game we've seen.
Oh and check this: the game's "photorealistic" Rodman looks like he is being rendered from a bunch of pre-recorded video files. That's right -- we have a brand new FMV game on our hands. We've got a video of the game in action below. In it, you'll learn a lot more about the game's pay structure and get some general commentary on Rodman FT. Check it:
Fernando Sanchez is Virtua Tennis Challenge’s [$4.99] Rafael Nadal doppelgänger. So whimsically named after barely winning out against Brafael Nadalf in an interoffice poll, Bizarro Nadal quickly became my player of choice in the iOS version of Sega’s classic tennis series. Sanchez, like Virtua Tennis Challenge, is a pretty good facsimile of the real thing. He’s fast and has an incredible two-handed backhand, but he’s a facsimile all the same. A half-hearted attempt at greatness, poor Fernando’s Plasticine mullet and vacant zombie eyes are analogous to the lack of care Sega has given this, the newest entry in one of its most revered franchises.
Jarringly, disappointment and confusion set in from the get-go. Tennis games thrive on the simplicity of input, the best examples (Top Spin, Mario Tennis, some game called Pong) being the classics that make the simple act of swatting a ball back and forth enjoyable. What better platform then, than one that lets you accurately swipe your finger through the ball, right?
I've been a fan of the Homerun Battle series since the first (originally titled Baseball Slugger) title, Homerun Battle 3D [$0.99], launched in early 2010. Nearly two years later, Homerun Battle 2 [$0.99] hit, and while it's a little more IAP-oriented than I'd like it to be, it still retains all the fun instant online match ups of the original.
