Touch Arcade » $0.99

$0.99 Madness: Enigmo 2, Beneath a Steel Sky, Ground Effect, Loopy Laboratory and a Freebie

arn — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:45:37 +0000

Black Friday discounts appear to be coming early as a number of excellent games have just been price reduced to only $0.99.

At that price, we highly recommend picking up every one of these titles.

Enigmo 2 ($2.99 -> $0.99) – Pangea's sequel to their incredibly popular Enigmo puzzler. $0.99 is a steal for this 3D puzzler which we reviewed when it came out in September.
Beneath a Steel Sky ($4.99 -> $0.99) – A classic reborn, this point and click adventure holds up well over the years and the iPhone-specific changes make it a wonderful adaptation. We reviewed it and found it to be a really great adventure game for both fans and newcomers.
Loopy Laboratory ($4.99 -> $0.99) – Now this is a blast from the past. We reviewed this game back in October and really enjoyed it. It's a Chip's Challenge-type puzzle game in which you must escape each level by manipulating objects. The game was fun to play and had excellent controls. My main criticism at the time was it stayed too easy for too long, but for $0.99, it's really a winner.
Ground Effect ($3.99 -> $0.99) – A very recent release that we really enjoyed. While a little rough around the edges, the sense of speed and stylings kept us coming back. An easy pick up at $0.99
Aves ($2.99 -> Free) – And here's a freebie. We described this as more of a tech demo but an impressive one. It uses binaural audio and an impressive animation technology called BioReplicants.

A Few to Consider: Chuck Norris, Implode, Snowy's Christmas Pinball

arn — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:29:29 +0000

Here are a few releases that have snuck by us over the past few weeks that are worth considering. Each game has its fans and both the gameplay video and forum threads are linked so you can dig deeper.

Chuck Norris: Bring on the Pain

Chuck Norris arrives on the iPhone with an over-the-top side scrolling shooter. The controls aren't great, and the game reminds us of an old school side shooter, but Chuck Norris fans seem to be enjoying it. It's only $0.99 and you can join the discussion thread for more impressions.

App Store Link: Chuck Norris: Bring on the Pain!, $0.99

Implode

Demolition fans may enjoy IUGO's latest physics puzzler in which you place your quota of dynamic to see if you can level each building. There are 60 levels in all drawn in chalkboard style. The game is available for $1.99, comes with online leaderboards and new levels coming in the next update. Join the discussion.

App Store Link: Implode, $1.99

Snowy's Christmas Pinball

Fans of Matmi's beautifully styled Monster Pinball will be happy to see their latest pinball creation: Snowy's Christmas Pinball. The game is set across 3 distinct interconnected tables with various mini-goals per table. The game is a little early for the Christmas season and is available for $1.99. Join the forum discussion here.

App Store Link: Snowy's Christmas Pinball, $1.99

Couple of Physics Games: 'Smashed' and 'Tiki Totems'

arn — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 07:06:13 +0000

Smashed

A physics-based destruction game where you can demolish blocks with a tap of your finger. The game offers several different scenarios set to a silly story line where you are a new employee of DDD Demolition. The game has generated a following with its nice graphics, enjoyable physics and over 60 levels. Levels offer specific and varied goals to keep it interesting. A lite version is available and further discussion can be found in our forums.

App Store Link: Smashed, $2.99, Smashed (Free), Free

Titi Totems

Tiki Totems is a more traditional physics block dropping game that we've seen before in the App Store. Tap on blocks one at a time while trying to keep the totem from hitting the ground. But Tiki Totems manages to do it with more style and enjoyment than most of the others we've seen. Special blocks including bouncing blocks, indestructible blocks and vanishing blocks try to keep things interesting.

Early customers are also really enjoying it with the main criticism being a relatively short play time to make it through the 60 levels.

App Store Link: Tiki Totems, $0.99

Konami Drops All Games to $0.99

arn — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 05:49:51 +0000

Konami is having a massive sale discounting every single one of their games to $0.99. No matter what your take on the games, there's definitely deals to be had here.

Power Pros Touch ($3.99 -> $0.99)
Krazy Kart Racing ($2.99 -> $0.99)
Silent Scope ($2.99 -> $0.99)
Metal Gear Solid Touch ($5.99 -> $0.99)
Dance Dance Revolution S ($4.99 -> $0.99)
Silent Hill ($4.99 -> $0.99)

There's no indication how long the sales will last, but it's safe to say that despite any shortcomings every game listed above is worth at least $0.99.

'Snow Moto Racing': Upcoming iPhone Snowmobile Fun

Blake Patterson — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:00:50 +0000

Resolution Interactive, who brought us the enjoyable iPhone racing titles Dirt Moto Racing and Aqua Moto Racing, has announced that they will soon be bringing the first iPhone snowmobile racer, Snow Moto Racing, to the App Store.

Experience the thrill of high-speed snowmobile racing while carving your path through beautiful winter landscapes.

Perform stunts to trigger speed boosts that will give you the edge when racing against your opponents.

Challenge your friends and race head-to-head for glory in the new multiplayer mode with up to 4 players.

Features listed by the developer:

6 Unique Race Tracks
Easy-To-Use and responsive controls
Dynamic Opponent Difficulty
Local Multiplayer via Bluetooth
14 Achievements to unlock
Hidden Bonus Game Mode
Download directly to iPhone via 3G

See Resolution's preview video for a look at the game in play.

[ Full HD version | Low Bandwidth version ]

We here at Touch Arcade are fans of Resolution's earlier Moto racing installments and are anxious to get our hands on this upcoming release. We'll take a closer look when the game goes live in the App Store.

Snow Moto Racing has been submitted to Apple for approval and will launch at a price of $0.99.

Totemo Lights Up the App Store

Windburn — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:40:31 +0000

Puzzle games have been wildly popular in the casual gaming market, a fact that has inevitably, for better or worse, resulted in a saturation of the genre on the AppStore. Because of this, it's a wonder that Totemo [App Store] can still inject a great deal of life and charm into the genre.

The basic premise behind Totemo is somewhat similar to block removal games like Mental Blocks [App Store] and the countless other games where you're removing pieces from the game board. Each level in Totemo, of which there are over 60, poses a different arrangement of "spirits", which you must release into the nethers by binding them to the totem ever present on the left of the screen.

Each spirit you select will light up one part of the Totem with a fully lit totem removing them from the playing field. Spirits can only be removed by selecting those in the same row or column, and so the unique twist lies with finding the correct order for discarding your spirits and clearing the level of them entirely- a feat that gets surprisingly challenging by about level 20. Without perfect execution, you will find yourself with only one or two spirits remaining, unable to bind them completely to the Totem and thus encouraged to renew your attempt.

The source of this encouragement is an endearing totemic spirit guide who walks you through the gameplay features at the beginning of the Story Mode and gradually narrates the tale as you progress through the levels. His charm is an embodiment of the excellent presentation and overall feeling of Totemo. Each level is gorgeously crafted, with different animated backdrops for each chapter of the story and lively matching objects that are introduced to ramp up the challenge.

Extra touches such as how the eyes of valid spirits focus on the player when another is selected, and how a level can be instantly restarted by shaking the device, really show off the care that has gone into Totemo's development. Together with an interesting if quirky selection of tribal and electronic tunes to accompany each level, Totemo sports a great deal of polish for a puzzle game.

For those who are finished with the Story mode, there is also a Survival mode that has you breeze through the levels as quickly as you can on a timer, additional time being added on completion of a level. The competitive types will be pleased to note that a comprehensive online leaderboard records your scores in Survival mode, sortable by Daily, Weekly and All time scores.

Here is a teaser video released by the developer that doesn't show any gameplay, but will give you a good idea of the atmosphere to expect in the game:

For $0.99, it is hard not to justify a look into Totemo at least, particularly if you consider yourself a puzzle fan. There is even something there for the action puzzler, with Survival mode getting quite frenetic as you race against the clock. Visit the discussion thread for more opinions about the game.

App Store Link: Totemo, $0.99

'JellyCar 2' Launches in App Store

arn — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 22:53:23 +0000

The followup title to the extremely popular (and free) Jelly Car game has finally made its way into the App Store. The original Jelly Car was released back in October 2008 and has since developed a pretty massive following. The game is a driving/platforming game in which you drive a squishy car through squishy worlds, trying to reach the exit.

The sequel is being published by Walt Disney and comes with more than 30 new levels, new power-ups, and three new modes. The original free version remains in the App Store if you never tried it.

App Store Link: Jelly Car 2, $0.99, Jelly Car, Free

Three Great Word Games: 'Guess the News', 'Word Spin' and 'Words with Friends'

Eli Hodapp — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:01:36 +0000

While this week has been filled with news and reviews of fast paced games, I've always had a weakness for word games on the iPhone, even though I'm fairly terrible at them. Here are three recently released or recently updated word games that are all worth checking out–

Guess the News [99¢ / Free] – Surprisingly enough, the news is good for more than material to auto-tune. Guess the News pulls news stories down from various RSS feeds, and turns them in to puzzles to be solved. You're given a brief description of the article, then need to guess the headline from the pile of letter tiles on the game board. Puzzles are broken out in to several categories such as health, sports, and even "odd stories". For instance, I recently played a few games in the technology category that had me guessing the titles of Engadget posts. Guess the News features three difficulty levels which control how much of the headline is already completed at the start of each puzzle, and with the dynamic content fetching provides infinite replay value.

Word Spin [$1.99] – As seen in the above trailer, this game has two parts to it, the first stage amounts to rotating and positioning the various wheels loaded with letters to line up as many words as possible. You then tap the top of the screen to lock the wheels in place, then find every word you possibly can as you rotate the locked set of word wheels searching for valid words. Once you get good enough, you can compete both against friends by sending email challenges where they will play against your exact configuration of the word wheels or by submitting your score to the global online leaderboard. The gameplay mechanic is solid and provides an interesting spin (See what I did there?) on the word hunting game formula.

Words With Friends [$2.99 / Free] – Everyone who owns an iPhone or iPod Touch should have either the free or paid version of this game on their device. Words With Friends takes the game of Literati (a variant of Scrabble) and adds excellent asynchronous online multiplayer with recently added push notifications that alert you when it's your turn in any of your active games. The free version is ad supported, but otherwise fully featured, and according to a recent presentation by the developers at GDC Austin, Words With Friends and Chess With Friends [$2.99 / Free] has 50,000 active users daily.

I've had numerous Words With Friends games going for months now with nearly every friend of mine who owns an iPhone, a clever in-game search function will search the Words With Friends player database for friends of yours you want to start a game with, and if the game can't find them it will offer to send them an email invitation. Everything about the game is implemented so amazingly well that you owe it to yourself to at least try the free version if you're even remotely interested in word games, especially with the recent update adding push notifications. If you need people to play with, stop by the Words With Friends thread on our forums.

Pirate Platformer 'Wheeler's Treasure' Released

Eli Hodapp — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 05:48:40 +0000

Following an extremely positive preview earlier this week, Wheeler's Treasure [App Store] was released this evening. Wheeler's Treasure is a pirate themed high scoring game with randomly generated levels, so no two play-throughs will ever be the same. Packed with items to discover, treasure to collect, and bad guys to stomp on, the game brings a surprising amount of replay value to the table which is only enhanced by the inclusion of online scoring via OpenFeint.

The goal of the game is to see how many yarrds (get it?) you can accompany a wheel through a sidescrolling environment filled with all kinds of obstacles. You can use the wheel to shield yourself from enemies, avoid hazards, swing, jump, and more. Your character is moved using simple swiping gestures, and buttons in the bottom corner of the screen control the use of your items.

The game has a feel of part mini-game and part platformer when you first start playing, and is certainly one of the more original games we've seen in the App Store. It takes more than a few tries to learn the game's unique gameplay mechanic and how best to utilize your character's jumps and equipment to make it further along each time.

What makes the game really stand out from just another "make it further" casual game is the ability to unlock up to 16 different pieces of equipment that can be equipped prior to your gaming sessions. Each of these items give you a special ability that can aid in your run. For example, the standard pirate hook lets you hold on to the top of the wheel to avoid ground obstacles. Meanwhile, this video shows an unlockable Voodoo Pocketwatch which slows time down:

Choosing which equipment to use obviously dramatically changes each gameplay session. This keeps the gameplay evolving and makes you come back for more.

The developer plans on supporting Wheeler's Treasure with free content updates, and has already been polling our forums on what to include next. The game may suffer a bit from being a bit too different, as it doesn't really fall into an easily recognizable category. But I still adored the game in our preview and all the initial reactions from forum members in the game's thread are overwhelmingly positive.

App Store Link: Wheeler's Treasure, 99¢ – Introductory sale ends Monday.

Physics-Based 'SpringFling' Bounces into the App Store

Blake Patterson — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 01:25:17 +0000

One of the first must-have iPhone games to appear in the App Store was PapiJump. Not long after, Doodle Jump took the simple, accelerometer-controlled concept of ascending a wall of platforms to the next level. Since then, many other takes on this addictive play mechanic have appeared in the App Store, the vast majority of which are really not worth your time. Happily for fans of these games, another such title has just appeared in the App Store, and this one brings a twist.

GTProduction's Spring Fling [App Store] is a jump-up-the-platform-wall game where you take on the role of a spring. Being a spring, it's not just a matter of tap to jump straight upward — you can compress the string and set the angle of your jump by way of a tap and drag mechanic. And the integrated PhysX engine makes the experience rather convincing. Choose an angle to shallow or severe and it's a platform miss with a plummet to your end.

Each jump uses up a supply of Power that doesn't get recharged until the next checkpoint. So, the game is a more deliberate physics/power management game than the fast paced action of other platform jumping titles.

Along the way rockets, balloons, parachutes, and pogo sticks help you scale the wall. The game includes five different worlds, some static and some downward scrolling. And achievements, online leaderboards, and Facebook / Twitter integration provide incentive to reach the highest height.

See the developer's gameplay trailer for a look at the action.

App Store Link: SpringFling, $0.99

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