As little interest as I personally have in hunting simulation games, I can't deny the appeal of the genre which has seen the ongoing App Store success in John Moffett's iHunt 3D [App Store]. Well, today Glu has entered the market with Deer Hunter 3D [App Store] which promises to be "the most realistic hunting simulation."
Features listed by the developer include:
Virtual hunting simulation with realistic 3D visuals
3 Worldwide locations with 27 different shooting locations
Use your scope to zoom in for more precise and devastating kills
Developer your hunter's skills in accuracy, reflexes, endurance, and tracking
View your best kills and achievements in the trophy room
Unlock new weapons, skills hunts by bagging the biggest animals
When one loooks back on the truly classic handful of video games that set the stage for what was to come and made a real mark with a simple, solid gameplay mechanic, one does not forget Namco's Dig Dug. Released in 1982, Dig Dug challenges the player to eliminate level upon level of underground-dwelling monsters. In a unique twist, Dig Dug arms the player with an air pump in order to inflate enemies to the point of exploding. It was scads of fun.
And, now, that's fun you can carry around in your pocket. Namco has just released Dig Dug REMIX [App Store], an iPhone port of the '80s classic, to the App Store.
Dig Dug REMIX for the iPhone features a graphically updated version of the arcade classic that strives to bring the dig / inflate / explode game mechanic into the 21st century. Happily, a classic version featuring the original graphics and audio is also included.
Famous enemies, “Pooka” and “Fygar” also appear on the scene. Dig through the dirt while destroying all enemies using an air pump and rocks! With all the cool new features, this game is sure to deliver countless hours of digging fun.
Dig Dug REMIX offers two methods of controls: swipe-and-hold as well as a virtual D-pad arrangement. In my time with the game, I found the swipe-and-hold method to be superior to the virtual D-pad, which is rather small and, as such, suffers from inaccuracy for anyone with human-sized fingers. Niether control method is perfect, but at least swipe and hold presents a respectable chance of coherent control.
Whether you're a nostalgic arcade button-smasher or completely new to the game, you really can't go wrong with this new take on the classic known as Dig Dug.
We first reported on Cyan's iPhone Myst port back in August of last year. The game was released to the App Store tonight for $5.99. [link]
For those not familiar with Myst, the game was first published for the Mac in 1993 and was both a critical and commercial success. While technologically rather simple from today's standpoint (mostly static images), the game's graphics and soundtrack were remarkably immersive. The game starts you on a strange island where you must explore your surroundings, solve puzzles and figure out the backstory.
The interface is entirely point-and-click driven. Switches, clues and other hints are explored by tapping on interesting items on the screen. There are also many puzzle elements that must be solved in order to complete the game.
I've included a video of the iPhone version of the game. Rather than going straight to the gameplay itself, however, I've started the video at launch, as the Cyan logo animation itself brought back many a memory. Video of the game itself starts around 2 minutes 25 seconds in. (Note that subsequent launches bring you straight into the game.)
The game naturally uses the touch-screen as the interface which seems perfect for the game. Back in the day, simple mouse clicks were all that was required to play.
It's hard to predict what gamers without any Myst background will think of the game, but I'd like to think the iPhone version of the game will breath new life and interest into this ground-breaking game. A 1994 Wired article describes the phenomenon:
The reason for all the success was stunning in its simplicity: Myst was good. Myst was better than anything anyone had ever seen. Myst was beautiful, complicated, emotional, dark, intelligent, absorbing. It was the only thing like itself; it had invented its own category.
Note that the game is 727MB in size due to all the artwork, video and sound effects.
Perhaps of interest to Myst veterans as well as those new to the game is Cyan's "Making of Myst" video, which was part of the 1993 CD-ROM release. See the 13-minute video in two parts: part 1, part 2.
Last week Touch Arcade visited Gameloft's Manhattan offices to preview a few new titles, one of which was the iPhone version of the mobile top-down airplane shooter Siberian Strike. Today, the game landed in the App Store and is available for download at a price of $5.99 [link].
When you fly at the speed of sound, you have to think at the speed of light… Discover the fastest-paced shoot'em up with hours of aerial action and fun!
1940s. You are Elliott Freeman and your mission is to track and destroy an evil soviet cyborg that is threatening to invade Europe.
Features as listed by Gameloft:
Fast-paced action, intense combat and 4 difficulty levels to keep you constantly challenged
Unique gameplay mixing shooting and insane piloting missions that test your dexterity
Choice between Accelerometer and Touch controls that let you steer and target enemies like a real pilot
Join your friends in frenetic local Wi-Fi Multiplayer to experience a crazy adventure
Gigantic boss fights and memorable moments with immersive 3D animations
12 amazing levels to explore across varied environments: Canyons, secret bases, tunnels, and more!
While I only spent a short while with the title at Gameloft, I found the overall flow of the onscreen action to make for a great shooter experience with a real arcade feel. Siberian Strike impressed me as one of the best shooters I've encountered for the iPhone.
We will be posting a much closer look, with video, shortly.
Konami's arcade classic Silent Scope has arrived on the iPhone and iPod Touch [App Store].
The $5.99 game brings the original 1999 arcade sniper game to the iPhone. The game puts you in the role of the world's top sniper who is trying to rescue the President and first family from terrorists. The game includes 9 stages and 2 gameplay modes: Arcade and Training. Arcade features Story, Shooting Range and Time Attack.
The game is as expected — a tap to shoot game. The sniper mechanism involves double tapping on the screen to activate your scope and single tap to fire. Dragging your finger on the screen moves your scope to find additional enemies. Konami has also added the ability to aim more precisely aim by holding one finger down while swiping. This moves your scope slowly so you can line up your enemies.
This gameplay video shows a couple of the stages:
While the stationary sniping seems to works fine, the "boss" stages seem very difficult using the swipe to aim mechanism. As you can see in the video, your ability to target a moving enemy while in motion can be very difficult — at least in our early testing. Other first impressions from our forums echo similar sentiments.
Fishlabs' has updated Galaxy on Fire [App Store] to version 1.1.0 addressing many concerns from the 1.0 release.
The list of changes include:
Graphics wobbling bug fixed
Difficulty level adjustable
Some meshes and texture enhancements
Accelerometer controls improved
Touch controls improved
In-game loading times reduced
Lead (aiming ahead) support
Save/load games screen enhanced
The game is an impressive space commerce shooter that takes place in a massive galaxy with hundreds of planets and space stations. Galaxy on Fire is said to offer over 20 hours of gameplay.
The original version of the game generally received positive reviews with the exception that some users found the certain levels far too difficult ("impossible"). The developer has addressed this issue by providing an adjustable slider that can bring the difficulty from 0 to 100%. The 1.0 release was set an equivalent of 60% difficulty while the new version is set to 50% by default.
Yesterday we reported that a lite version of Namco's Galaga REMIX appeared in the App Store [link], ahead of the full, paid release. Early this morning the full Galaga REMIX [link] joined the lite version in the App Store.
"Galaga Remix" offers play of both the original 1980’s arcade game, and an enhanced remix version with extra features including intense boss battles, 9 power-ups types, and a variety of background images illustrating your fighter’s journey from Earth to the Galaga system.
Namco's preview video shows the REMIX side of the game.
Last week we spoke with Namco's mobile group who shared details of the iPhone version.
One game release that slipped through the cracks during GDC week was Fish Labs' Galaxy on Fire [App Store].
The game is an impressive space commerce shooter that takes place in a massive galaxy with hundreds of planets and space stations. The game has generated a lengthy discussion thread since its release with a mixed reaction from fans. Many gamers (including our reviewer) had issues with the high level of difficulty in the story mode of the game which must be completed before moving onto the "open galaxy" portion.
Some other 1.0 issues appear to have crept in as well, including some display and control bugs. The developers have been quite responsive and have various fixes in the works for a 1.0.1 release which is pending.
As a result, we are holding off on a full review until we have time to test that version. The overall game is very impressive for an iPhone game and we've quite enjoyed what we've seen so far, but it's hard to recommend the 1.0 release due to these issues.
A 1.0.1 release is due to be submitted and should address many issues brought up by our forum members.
I-play and Firemint have released a new Fast & Furious [App Store] iPhone game to the App Store this morning. This racing game is a tie-in to the Fast & Furious movie that is also opening today.
The game is more of an arcade racer than a traditional sim racer. It ties in with scenes inspired by the actual movie and offers a story mode that takes you through the different races. The game offers 36 different vehicles, 18 levels with 4 unique environments.
Most interesting, however, is the fact that Firemint seems to have developed the game with some of the technologies that are also coming in Real Racing. For example: Fast & Furious integrates the CloudCell technology, allowing players to compete against others in online and upload replays of your races to YouTube.
A sample replay video is embedded here. No other cars are shown since you are simply trying for the best time to rank on the leaderboard against others.
The game also offers local Wi-Fi multiplayer races alongside the online leaderboard competitions. As an arcade racer, the controls are somewhat simplified as compared to more traditional racers. Controls are accelerometer based with automatic acceleration. Braking can be performed by tapping on the screen. The game also adds a "nitro" boost to provide that extra bit of acceleration.
The game revolves around specific racing missions that mix up gameplay. These include chasing down other cars and taking them out, checkpoint ("GPS") racing, drag racing, drift racing, and more. Beyond story mode, each mission can also be played in a "Quick Race" that lets you practice whatever race you'd like.
The game ran smoothly on my iPhone 3G, and is visually appealing. Compared to many of the other racers out there, this one offers much more of a "fun" arcade feel.
This gameplay video shows the first mission (with full cut scenes which can be skipped) and a drag race in a tunnel. Beyond these, there are more traditional street races against multiple cars where pink-slips are on the line.
We have come such a long way from Steve’s iPhone SDK announcement in late 2007. Even before the official SDK was released, developers were writing simple games. Simple games evolved in to pick up and play examples of gaming perfection like Flight Control [App Store] and Scoops [App Store]. Ambitious developers have even released some great 3D games. But last weekend, Gameloft’s Let’s Golf [App Store] raised the bar to a whole new level in providing what can best be described as a remarkably console-like 3D gaming experience at the very reasonable price of $5.99.
Let’s Golf features several game play modes, briefly outlined in our first impressions review. The first of which is Instant Play, which is pretty cut and dry. Upon selecting your golfer, you’re thrown into a random selection of three holes–Complete them all, hopefully under par, and you’re done.
After breezing through the included tutorial and getting a handle for the controls, most players will probably want to skip the Instant Play mode and head straight on over to Tournament mode to tee off against several AI golfers for fame, fortune, and most importantly…unlockable clothing and accessories!
In your first tournament, you only have access to two golf courses in easy mode with 1-9 hole, 10-18 hole, 1-18 hole, or 9 hole shuffle options. As you win trophies, more courses are unlocked, as well as additional difficulty levels, items, and golfers. While Let’s Golf only features four available golfers, they can each be customized with clothing, headwear, and golf balls. These seem to be randomly rewarded, as I won a dress for Elena while playing as Vincent.
Character attributes are measured across four different statistics: power, accuracy, recovery, and putting. Equipping different unlocked items provides an opportunity to increase these stats. For instance, the “school girl suit” provides +1 to recovery, making it easier to accurately hit the ball in the rough. Another noteworthy bonus of unlocking these perks is: any benefits gained from equipped items are also present while playing in Instant Play, Free Hole and multiplayer modes. The final single player game mode is Free Hole, where you can play on any of the four courses and any hole set by yourself, on any difficulty
Let’s Golf would be an excellent game with just these play modes, but Gameloft takes it one step further and includes not one, but two ways to challenge another player to a round of golf. In Hot Seat both golfers play using one device, passing it back and forth, depending on whose turn it is. If you find another person who also owns Let’s Golf, you can challenge them to a local WiFi match where each player uses their own device to compete. In my testing, both multiplayer methods worked great. Playing over local WiFi has a small amount of lag, but nothing that would ever be noticeable unless you have both screens side by side.
Let’s Golf has two available control methods: Classic and Advanced. Classic mode plays like most golfing games where you press a button to start your swing, again to select your power, and a third time to select your accuracy. Classic controls also provide an indicator on the swing power selector to show how strong your swing should be to end up in the estimated landing grid. By moving this grid around, different clubs are automatically selected depending on the distance. Also like most golf games, the grid indicates the elevation of the terrain using a red to blue gradient, and the incline using small dots that move across the grid, downhill. While putting in Classic mode, you choose what direction your character is facing and the strength of your putt. Even though the game gives you an estimate of how hard you need to hit the ball on the green, putting on an incline or from a long way away can still be pretty challenging.
In Advanced mode, while clubs are still automatically chosen, you are given no indicator for how strong your shot should be. Instead of the three-click method, you move your finger in a semi-circular pattern to swing. While some players may prefer this control method, I didn’t really feel it added to the difficulty of the long game at all and, instead, artificially inflated the difficulty of the short game. While classic controls help you determine the strength of your swing, it doesn’t take into account the wind, and shots that are perfectly lined up rarely land dead center in your targeting grid. Putting in advanced mode, however, is truly something else. Without any real idea of how hard you need to tap the ball, getting it in the hole once you’re on the green in advanced mode can be extremely brutal.
With both control methods, you can add English to the ball after the ball is in the air by dragging your finger across a representation of the ball that appears in the lower left corner of the screen. If there's one thing I'd really like Gameloft to tweak, it would be how this works. There's only one speed that you can spin the ball, and it never really seems to be enough to make that big of a difference.
Let’s Golf plays remarkably similar to the Sony PSP’s Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee and does a great job in duplicating all the fun things about the Hot Shots series. The graphics are superb for an iPhone game and the only noticeable frame rate dips are minor and only seem to occur when the camera pans out quickly. One complaint I have with the title is the fact that the indicators used to swing your club are tied to the frame rate of the 3D components of the game. Small frame rate hiccups have caused me to miss a few perfect shots as the power gauge stuttered for a tiny fraction of a second.
Another negative is the fact that there’s no option to listen to your own music while playing (and the included track gets somewhat repetitive). Let’s Golf also doesn’t respect the state of the ring/vibrate switch on the iPhone, playing all music and sound effects regardless. Also, I would love a way to see replays, and ideally somehow save replays to show unbelievable shots to friends, later.
Gameloft provides a very complete golfing experience for the iPhone in Let’s Golf at a fraction of the price you would expect to pay for an identical game on a "real console". Our forums have been going wild with praise for the game, and as of this writing, Let’s Golf is sitting at a comfortable 4.5 stars in the App Store. If you liked the Hot Shots series, you’re doing yourself a disservice by not picking up this game. Something to keep in mind though is the fact Let’s Golf is an arcade style sports game, so if ultra-realism is your thing, you might want to hold off to see what Tiger Woods PGA Tour ’09 has to offer.
Let's Golf is an iPhone game that can stand up against almost any console golf game, a hard claim to make for many other titles. 63 holes combined with multiple tournaments, unlockables, and multiplayer make for an great value at only $5.99.
This review was written by Eli Hodapp, a guest contributor at TouchArcade.
Dig Dug REMIX for the iPhone features a graphically updated version of the arcade classic that strives to bring the dig / inflate / explode game mechanic into the 21st century. Happily, a classic version featuring the original graphics and audio is also included.
Last week Touch Arcade visited Gameloft's Manhattan offices 
Yesterday 
One game release that slipped through the cracks during GDC week was Fish Labs' Galaxy on Fire [
We have come such a long way from Steve’s iPhone SDK announcement in late 2007. Even before the official SDK was released, developers were writing simple games. Simple games evolved in to pick up and play examples of gaming perfection like Flight Control [
Character attributes are measured across four different statistics: power, accuracy, recovery, and putting. Equipping different unlocked items provides an opportunity to increase these stats. For instance, the “school girl suit” provides +1 to recovery, making it easier to accurately hit the ball in the rough. Another noteworthy bonus of unlocking these perks is: any benefits gained from equipped items are also present while playing in Instant Play, Free Hole and multiplayer modes. The final single player game mode is Free Hole, where you can play on any of the four courses and any hole set by yourself, on any difficulty
By moving this grid around, different clubs are automatically selected depending on the distance. Also like most golf games, the grid indicates the elevation of the terrain using a red to blue gradient, and the incline using small dots that move across the grid, downhill. While putting in Classic mode, you choose what direction your character is facing and the strength of your putt. Even though the game gives you an estimate of how hard you need to hit the ball on the green, putting on an incline or from a long way away can still be pretty challenging.
