Guys, Christmas is right around the corner. Real Racing creators Firemint delicately reminded us of that we're zeroing in on the holiest of holidays with one well-positioned holiday-themed update to its awesome puzzle game, Spy Mouse [$.99 / HD].
Starting now with an update, World 1 in Spy Mouse and Spy Mouse HD have been turned into winter-y paradises, complete with snow, candy canes, and other decorations. The team has also turned the game's icon on its head with a bit of Christmas cheer and even added a new challenge to Agent Squeak's backpack.
Flight Control [$.99 / Lite] for the iPhone and iPod Touch have also been updated, though not with anything Christmas-related. These two versions now have a new level featuring a vicious thunderstorm with lightning that can damage your planes. The HD version [$4.99], on the other hand, now rocks a "Moon Base" map with asteroids and four new vehicles: land shuttles, satellites, rockets, and UFOs.
Interestingly, all three versions of Flight Control now have a "rewind" feature, which allows you to, er, rewind time in order to, say, avoid a collision. The catch? They need to be purchased.
You wanted it, and now it's here: The Game Bakers's beautiful real-time strategy RPG, Squids [$1.99], is now on the iPad. The team dropped the support as Universal, which means if you already own it, you can now play the game on iPad for $0. Otherwise, you can pick up the iPad and iPhone version for the usual $1.99.
During review, we got a chance to see Squids on the big screen, and even that non-optimized state, we were really impressed with how it looked and technically played. But here's some things we didn't get to see: the new 3D "anaglyph" version of the Halloween map, which has been rolled into this update on top of screen rotation functionality, new bug fixes, and new localizations including Russian, Japanese, and simplified Chinese.
If you've got some of those silly 3D glasses, give the Halloween map a spin and tell us what you think. We're currently digging around in TouchArcade's toy box, but we've been coming up empty.
The week of weird PR shenanigans continues with Ubisoft's surprise release of Assassin’s Creed Recollection [$2.99]. We've been posting about the few details that Ubisoft has been leaking out, specifically how the game boasts things like "deep tactical gameplay" and "challenging political battles."
Now that the game is finally released, we'll get to see just how challenging these political battles are. Hopefully my opponent doesn't use the "reveal 13 year long affair" ability. We're downloading the game now and hope to have a review up shortly!
You don’t have to be an app hipster to be a little affronted when your favorite app hits the big time and everyone starts playing it. Really, are there many things more annoying than logging into Facebook only to see that your 11th grade lab partner has posted five hundred achievements from what was previously your favorite game? Instead of making passive aggressive comments on their status updates (“Wow, at least being unemployed gives you the opportunity to really master Angry Birds!”), channel that righteous anger into downloading Princess Punt [Free], a game that you are certain to be the first (and perhaps last) person on the block to be playing.
Before getting into the game itself, a warning is in order. There are plenty of things you will hate about this game. Endless popups after every level urging you to post every inane achievement to Facebook and Twitter, the out-of-place slot machine minigame that’s basically an in-app purchase cash grab, the agonizingly long loading times. Oh, and the eleven (eleven!!) in-game updates that have to download before you can begin (lord help you poor saps using a 3G connection to download them; wi-fi is definitely recommended!). Also, the default language is Japanese, so keep an eye out for the language options after installation—not that it really matters, because the loading screen text and tutorials don’t make any sense in English, either.
Long story short(ish): It’s confusing and difficult to get into. Why, then, is it worthy of a review?
If you don't own an iPad 2 and you're about to skim past this post, let me interrupt you for a second. You can play most of Rebuild [$2.99] right now for free, as the Flash game Rebuild 2. And you really should. While the iPad 2 version comes with a few extra bells and whistles and plays gorgeously on a touch screen, this is a game that everyone should play whether they have the newest, shiniest gadget or not. Just be prepared to lose a few hours of your life to it when you do.
I don't wave around non-words like "unputdownable" often, but Rebuild deserves it. Though it's not an especially deep strategy game, it has the perfect mix of exploration, danger and difficulty to hook anyone for at least an hour or two, and maybe much longer. And yes, yes, we're up to our necks in zombie games, but this is a zombie/strategy/city builder and that's not something you see every day.
Tower defense games are a dime a dozen these days and Wild Defense [99¢/$1.99], in spite of its zesty-fresh tropical flavor, doesn't bring anything really new to the table. Still, that doesn't stop it being a moderately entertaining affair. Less a game for the casual enthusiast and more for the hardcore fan, this one is for those who just have to have another tower defense game on their phones.
Functionality-wise, Wild Defense will be rather cut and dry for tower defense aficionados. Your objective is a simple one: protect your fortress from the enemy waves. To accomplish this, you'll have to drag and drop your units onto strategic locations in the map, all the while trying to maintain a proper composition of troops to ensure that you can deal with the various enemy types. In addition, you'll also have to do things like purchase weapons for your army, work with bombs, cast spells, defeat bosses and occasionally play the Wild Defense equivalent of Russian Roulette.
I've seen a few strange hybrids in my day. Many of them have been described in sentences that end with "... meets Angry Birds," but I'm not complaining. Some of the most interesting games on the App Store have taken unusual inspirations and combined them. Still, I'm not sure what inspired developer Phil Hassey to create a version of Galcon [$1.99 / Lite], his 2008 galactic strategy game, that replaces the planets and ships with chickens and nests. A joke that went a bit too far, maybe?
But while Chickon [Free] may have started as a joke, it has ended up as an interesting alternative to Galcon. It isn't a game for big Galcon fans -- you'll probably find it far too simple if you've already spent time with its older sibling -- but for folks who like freemium games, barnyard animals and a bit of light strategy, it's not a bad choice.
Thunder Game Works' Trenches [99¢/Free/HD] was originally released on Christmas Eve of 2009. It had all the core components of a solid side-scrolling field battling game, though the challenge was a bit out of balance and the campaign was a little too short. Over the next year or so, Trenches received an insane amount of update love, adding new modes, additional campaign elements and length, and robust cooperative and competitive online multiplayer modes through Game Center. What started as a good core concept that lacked finesse blossomed into a feature-rich strategy game with a near-cult following.
Over this past summer, Bungie had everybody guessing as to just what exactly they were up to by trademarking both the "Crimson" and "Bungie Aerospace" monikers. In late August, we learned that Crimson was actually Crimson: Steam Pirates [Free], a new strategy game developed by Harebrained Schemes in conjunction with Bungie. Bungie Aerospace would actually be the name used for publishing the title on the App Store, and we would assume, future titles as well.
With that mystery finally solved, Crimson: Steam Pirates launched for the iPad on September 1st. It turned out to be a pretty decent strategy game too, if not a bit too linear in its progression. It came with a very generous 8 levels as part of the free download, with an additional 8 levels in a Chapter 2 expansion available as an in-app purchase.
Yesterday, Bungie Aerospace launched Crimson: Steam Pirates for iPhone [99¢], a smaller-sized version of the iPad game. The game appears to be identical to the one on the iPad, but the pricing is structured a bit differently. It's 99¢ for the initial download, but it includes both the original Chapter 1 levels and the expansion Chapter 2 levels for the price, which is half of what it initially cost on the iPad. Additionally, a brand new Chapter 3 has launched with the iPhone version, and can be purchased from within the app for another 99¢. Chapter 3 is now available within the iPad version too, also priced at 99¢.
If you are sans iPad and have been interested in Crimson: Steam Pirates, or you're just looking to have a more portable version for your iPhone or iPod touch, then now is a good time to check out the newly released Crimson: Steam Pirates for iPhone.
Fresh off the heels of releases on XBLA and PC, Robot Entertainment is turning to iOS for its next release. Earlier this afternoon, Robot announced Hero Academy, a "head-to-head tactics" game that has you, and hopefully a pal, moving fantasy characters primed with spells, stabby things, and countermeasures across a virtual board in an attempt to destroy each other's home base crystals.
Hero Academy's core play will be asynchronous like, say, Words With Friends, and launch with all sorts of fun features, including Push notifications, in-game chat, and down the road, IAP options for "heroic teams, avatars, and add-ons." Oh! It also looks cute, too.
Generally speaking, most people are pretty pleased with Robot Entertainment's Orcs Must Die and Age of Empires Online, so we're pretty stoked to see what it has up its sleeves for us. The wait won't be too long, either: Hero Academy is set for a "winter" release.
It's the little things that matter. You know what I'm talking about, right? It's not the bacon that he brings home, it's the breakfast he wakes you up with. It's not the fact that Ravenmark: Scourge of Estellion [$2.99] is probably going to be one of the definitive names in turn-based strategy for the iOS, it's the way the commanders bellow at their troops to merit their wings.
Food metaphors aside, there's a lot to like about Witching Hour's debut title. If you're anything like me and have spent some amount of time bemoaning the paper-thin worlds that populate the App Store, Ravenmark: Scourge of Estellion is going to make your heart beat faster. The setting is exhaustive. Every character has a detailed biography, every unit type a set of statistics and a matching description. There are social hierarchies, self-serving matriarchs and imperial ranks. There is history. There is substance.
The day is almost here, folks: game creator extraordinaire Phil Hassey's chicken-themed successor to his award-winning strategy game Galcon [$1.99] hits this November 16. Hassey shot us a kind note this morning confirming the release of Chickon and fleshing out what we know about the game. According to him it's "very much like" Galcon, but paradoxically "very different" and, as you'd assume, sillier.
As you'll see in the assets we have below, Chickon replaces Galcon's planets with nests, it's ammunition with chickens, and its enemies with, uh, robotic chickens. There's also a ton of special abilities you'll be to utilize in battle, including bombs and nuclear warheads. You'd think radioactivity and poultry don't go together, but stop by a KFC sometime. You'll learn things. Hard things.
There's something particularly apt about the timing of the iPad release of Greed Corp HD [$4.99]. While Occupiers around the world freeze and protest sociopathically greedy behavior by major corporations, Greed Corp explores the ultimate end of that behavior. What happens when you're so bent on profit that you'd destroy even the ground under your own feet to keep the other guy from getting it? Greed Corp has the answer.
It's a turn-based strategy game that encourages players to engage in something one step shy of mutually assured destruction. You destroy the lands you harvest, and firing on your enemies crumbles away the ground beneath them.You win as long as you have at least a single unit on a single hex and your enemies don't. This brutally aggressive game first made its debut on Xbox Live Arcade and the Playstation Network in the early months of 2010, but it's hardly aged in the time it's taken to arrive on iPad. It's also extremely well done for the most part, offering a natural touch interface and both single and multiplayer content.
This always happens! We've been hitting spacebar all morning, but didn't see this next-level move coming. Indie developer Mode 7 has announced plans to bring its deceptively clever simultaneous turn-based strategy game, Frozen Synapse, to the iPad in 2012. It hit the PC and Mac earlier this year to oodles of well deserved media praise.
No worries if you're unfamiliar with the title. It's an isometric, team-versus-team strategy game that plays similarly to an X-COM. It's hook is its simulation mechanic that allows players to see how their tactical moves will fare against each other. The catch is that you're free to change up your moves in-between these phases. All your careful planning and tweaking can nightmarishly go heads up whenever you hit "end turn."
“Despite my lumpen, sausage-like digits, I am particularly excited about Frozen Synapse coming to the iPad,” Mode 7 Joint Managing Director Paul Taylor said in a statement. “I look forward to flicking my little green men around the place with wanton abandon.”
Mode 7 says Frozen Synapse is currently enterting into a beta state on the iPad and final details, including price and firm release, will be announced next year. You can bet your right hand that we'll be going hands-on and speaking with the development team before release, so expect some news in the coming weeks. In the meantime, get comfy with this launch trailer of the computer version of the title.
Blosics [99¢ / HD] is a casual object-flinging game like Angry Birds, but this is no clone, as it feels fresh and unique with plenty of different features to unlock. FDG Entertainment, the makers of Cover Orange [99¢ / HD], advise that the online version of Blosics has been experienced by over 40 million players, which is quite a lot of people, but personally I prefer to play my games on iOS devices. Thankfully, that is now possible with the arrival of Blosics in the App Store.
The idea is to throw balls at unfriendly colored blocks, which are often stacked into piles or structures. The grumpy blocks have little faces which are always frowning as they mutter comments like: "Yada yada" , "Nom nom nom", "Watch it!", "Hey!" and my personal favorite quote: "Blurgh!" No wonder people throw balls at them.
Guys, Christmas is right around the corner. Real Racing creators Firemint delicately reminded us of that we're zeroing in on the holiest of holidays with one well-positioned holiday-themed update to its awesome puzzle game, Spy Mouse [$.99 / HD].
You wanted it, and now it's here: 
Thunder Game Works
