Dragons Odyssey Frane [$11.99] has the distinction of being the only game that makes me want to reach out and pinch its metaphorical cheek. Not only is it kinda adorable, it's also all sorts of loveable. Like the fawning, mud-encrusted niece that is never short of questions about unicorns, Exe-Create's port of their PC-based action-RPG title has a way of making you tilt your head and go "D'awww".
Actually, before we get any further, the whole 'action-RPG' bit needs to be clarified a bit. Those expecting an assembly of eccentric party members, a varied set of skills to manage and all of the other traditional tropes may be a touch disappointed. Dragons Odyssey Frane doesn't actually have all that, per se. In some ways, the game bears more of a resemblance to a laid-back shoot 'em up than anything else.
In January Namco Bandai released an excellent iOS version of their classic 3D fighter SoulCalibur [$14.99]. A a fan of SoulCalibur on Dreamcast more than a decade ago, the faithful iOS port was a great way to re-experience the game. The virtual controls worked well, the graphics were crisp and high-res, and the finely-tuned mechanics withstood the test of time.
However, as good as iOS SoulCalibur was, it was strangely devoid of any kind of multiplayer, a key component for a fighting game. Over the weekend, Namco Bandai looked to rectify that omission by releasing a new update that adds Bluetooth multiplayer to SoulCalibur. The new versus mode works just as well as you’d expect it to, and squaring off against an opponent face-to-face is just as fun as it was back in the day. It really is crazy just how well SoulCalibur has aged after all these years, especially as a competitive game.
One important thing to note though is that multiplayer isn’t compatible with the iPod touch. SoulCalibur is a pretty technically demanding game anyway, and even upon release required at least an iPhone 4, iPad 2 or 4th generation iPod touch to run. It is likely the lower amount of RAM in that iPod touch device that is the reason multiplayer is a no-go.
If you’re a SoulCalibur fan in the iPhone or iPad camp then get to updating your game and go search out a worthy opponent. Believe it or not, SoulCalibur is actually on sale right now to celebrate the update, down from its normal price of $14.99, so if a lack of multiplayer caused you to pass on the game before now is not a bad time to finally pick it up.
Back in the arcade fighting game heyday of the ‘90s, 2D heavyweights like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat had to contend with a new brand of brawler on the block: the 3D fighter. Games like Virtua Fighter and Tekken forewent 2D sprites and single-plane gameplay in favor of 3D polygonal character models and a full range of movement within the combat arenas. Happily, it turned out that there was room for both kinds of fighters to coexist, with gamers enjoying 2D and 3D fighting games in harmony.
One of the most popular 3D fighting franchises to come out of this era was Namco’s Soul Edge, and more prominently its sequel SoulCalibur, both of which were noteworthy for their focus on weapon-based combat. SoulCalibur hit arcades in 1998, and was then ported to the Sega Dreamcast to launch alongside that system in 1999. The Dreamcast version was remarkable, featuring even better graphics than the arcade version and a wealth of additional modes and characters. In 2008 SoulCalibur was again resurrected for Xbox Live Arcade, boasting a high definition makeover but lacking any sort of online play.
Just before the new year, we caught wind of Taito's plans to bring one of its classic properties to the App Store. Originally released as RayForce in arcades in the early nineties, it made its way to the Sega Saturn with its name intact but due to trademark issues was released in various other international markets under different names, including Layer Attack, Gunlock, and Galactic Attack.
Now it's once again been resurrected yet again as RayForce [$11.99] for iOS devices, and is now available.
Taito is touting this as a pixel-perfect adaptation of the arcade original, which while being true to the original also looks like it hasn't been enhanced visually for the much more advanced iOS hardware. However, it does feature original arcade controls for purists as well as an easier iPhone control mode made specifically for the touch screen. Also, there are plenty of customization options so you can suit the play to your own particular style, and there is full Game Center support for leaderboards and achievements.
Since I never played much of the original RayForce back in the day, I'm really stoked to be able to finally give it some proper attention on my iPhone nearly 20 years later. Also, it will be interesting to see if Taito will bring the next installments in this trilogy, RayStorm and RayCrisis, to the App Store as well. As we dig into RayForce to see what it's all about, you can grab the game with the link below or check out some player impressions which are trickling into our forums.
Final Fantasy Tactics [$11.99] on iPhone and iPod Touch has inspired numerous, uh, passionate e-commentaries since its release earlier this year. One of the components we've seen the most bickering about has been addressed: Tactics' latest update zeroes in on the port's decidedly unspectacular visuals on retina devices and supports the screen.
To be clear, the text is still tiny on iPhone 4S, for example, but it's apparently much less blurry overall. Also, the UI is noticeably sharper, and various assets like facial graphics and icons have been updated to mesh with the retina support. This update also rolls in some nebulous "bug fixes."
Off-topic, here, but we definitely want to note that Tactics is available at the lowest price it has ever been since its August release: as of December 19, it's $11.99 instead of $15.99. Still steep in comparison to other App Store games, but better.
If you already own the game and choose to update, note that you'll lose your auto-save data in the process because, reasons.
Late last month, we detailed an impending update to CAVE’s bullet hell shmup Deathsmiles [$11.99/Lite], and over the weekend that update went live in the App Store. It includes a screen shifting option to give you more room to control the game on either edge of the screen, unlockable costumes for Tiara in iPhone mode, brand new background music hidden in the game, and a number of new DLC items including weapons from past CAVE shooters Guwange and Dodonpachi Resurrection [$11.99/Lite].
You may also remember us mentioning that CAVE was broadcasting a preview of the Deathsmiles update over UStream last Friday, and hinted that there would likely be other surprises in store as well. It turns out that there were a couple of pretty big announcements during the stream.
Today, CAVE sent over some details for the first major update to their latest iOS bullet-hell shooter Deathsmiles [$11.99/Lite]. In case you missed it, we reviewed Deathsmiles earlier this month and found it to be quite the bee’s knees. Really, my biggest negative about the game wasn’t even something that was the fault of the game itself. By nature, controlling your character causes you to block part of the screen with your thumb or finger, and with enemies approaching from either side of the screen, this can create some problems.
There are 3 screen size options already which do a good job of alleviating this issue for some folks, but CAVE is trying to take it a step further with this update. You’ll now be able to push the screen to the right or left, giving a much wider border edge for placing your digit to control the game. You can see an example of this in the screen below to the left.
Another new feature coming in this update, seen in the above right screen, will be the ability to unlock different costumes for the main character of the iPhone mode, Tiara. These costumes will become available by completing specific tasks in the game. Pretty much sounds like another form of achievements, but with a tangible reward for completing them. CAVE hints that some of the costumes will look familiar to fans of their other games, so it will be interesting to see just what that means.
Speaking of CAVE’s other games, one of the coolest new features in the update is the addition of new weapons based off of their previous titles Guwange and Dodonpachi Resurrection [$11.99/Lite]. These new weapons will be available as paid downloadable content, which based on a screen from their press release look to be about $2.99 apiece. The pricing has yet to be confirmed, though, so we might just have to wait and see.
Other items in this impending update include a brand new BGM track that is only unlockable using a special trick. CAVE can be devious with their secrets, and for this one they only offer up the hint: “Flash flash? Tap tap!”. There is also a new mini-game being added that has you earn jigsaw puzzle pieces by completing armor sets (not including DLC items), and then putting the pieces together to form an illustration by one of the game’s artists. Finally, they’ve added new items that will increase the drop rate in the game, which right now is fairly infrequent, which should make collecting items quite a bit easier.
There really is a number of cool new things getting tossed into this upcoming Deathsmiles update. The plan is to release the update a week from tomorrow, on August 6th, but you can get an early preview if you check out CAVE’s UStream channel on August 5th at 11am GMT. They also note that they might give away a few tricks during the stream, like how to unlock the hidden BGM, and tease that another surprise announcement could go down too. Whether you’re waking up at the crack of dawn (in the US anyway) to check out the live stream or not, be on the lookout for the new Deathsmiles update hitting next weekend.
For more than a year now, CAVE has had a reputation of releasing high quality shooters on the App Store that featured hefty amounts of action, depth, and replay value. Their bullet hell shooters Espgaluda II [$11.99/Lite] and Dodonpachi Resurrection [$11.99/Lite] are two of the finest shooters around, and they proved they could translate their particular brand of manic gameplay to a more traditional action game with Mushihimesama Bug Panic [$6.99/Lite]. CAVE’s latest title, Deathsmiles [$11.99/Lite], furthers their reputation of offering top quality shmups and us yet another excellent shooter to add to our collection.
Like the aforementioned CAVE shooters, Deathsmiles consists of a mode that mimics the arcade version of the game as well as an iPhone-specific mode with exclusive features. The arcade mode features 4 different playable characters and 8 total stages to play. The underlying gameplay mechanics are fairly straightforward. Your character automatically fires, and a button in the bottom corner toggles firing to the left or right. There’s also a button to toggle between a regular shot and a laser shot, and a third button that performs a lock-on shot.
Let's get this out of the way, Square Enix's Chaos Rings Ω [$11.99 / HD] is identical to the original Chaos Rings in more ways than one. In fact, its differences are so few, it's hard to differentiate the two and considering Chaos Rings Ω follows the original by a full year, that's going to be a bit disappointing to fans of the first game looking for something new.
By the nature of the narrative in the first game, there is little in the way of expanding the Battle Royale style storyline, which pits you in a fight to the death against a random collection of couples abducted to an arena for the sake of proving their battle-worthiness. Even though this is billed as a prequel, it's still not the "first" time this the tournament has gone down and it's clearly not the last.
Late last month we learned that Square Enix was readying two new entries in the Chaos Rings saga. The following day, we saw the Japanese trailer for one of those games, Chaos Rings Omega, which is a prequel to the well-received iOS exclusive RPG Chaos Rings [$3.99/HD] which released last year. Today, Chaos Rings Omega [$11.99/HD] has officially launched in the App Store.
We’ll be bringing you a full review of Chaos Rings Omega once we’ve worked our way through the game, but chances are that if you really enjoyed the story from the original and want to learn what happened 10,000 years prior then picking up Chaos Rings Omega should be a safe bet.
One nice thing is that an iPad native version is available right now, rather than having to wait months for one to release like the original Chaos Rings. Also, the game supports both Retina Display and iPad resolutions right off the bat, and there is an ambitious update roadmap detailed in the game’s description, which should give you something to look forward to post-release.
There are early game impressions rolling into our forums which you can check out, and we’ll be back soon with a full review of Chaos Rings Omega.
Update: To celebrate this release, Square Enix has put the iPhone and iPad versions of Chaos Rings on sale for $3.99 and $4.99 respectively. The sale will last until May 27th, so be sure to check out the originals at this discounted price. Links have been added directly below.
Much to our surprise, Assassin's Creed II Discovery [App Store] popped up for sale on the App Store this evening, following a mysterious development cycle leaving everyone in the dark regarding the game's progress following the initial announcement at an Apple keynote in September of last year. We presumed the iPhone version would be released along side the PC and home console game, but that date came and went without a peep of news regarding the iPhone game. Whatever the cause of the delay was, the game is finally here, and so far it seems fairly impressive.
We will be providing a full review in the not too distant future, but in the meantime initial impressions are being collected in the thread on our forums.
Update 1: We got word from Ubisoft that the version of Assassin's Creed II on the App Store may not be the final version, might include bugs, and is incorrectly priced. It is currently in the process of being removed from the App Store. If you don't care that the game might have a few bugs and/or you might pay a couple extra bucks now instead of waiting, grab it quick... Otherwise we will have more information on the correct release of the game sometime soon.
Update 2: Assassin's Creed II has been removed from the App Store.
Update 3: We were in full gear to review Assassin's Creed II, which is now on hold pending its official release. In the meantime, check out this gameplay video of the first couple levels--
Dragons Odyssey Frane [$11.99] has the distinction of being the only game that makes me want to reach out and pinch its metaphorical cheek. Not only is it kinda adorable, it's also all sorts of loveable. Like the fawning, mud-encrusted niece that is never short of questions about unicorns, Exe-Create's port of their PC-based action-RPG title has a way of making you tilt your head and go "D'awww".
