We’re finally starting to see a trickle of online multiplayer gaming coming to the iPhone. A couple of new updates are starting to offer this feature to some popular games.
Tap Tap Revenge
The 1.5 update to this free rhythm game offers online play against friends and those you live near you. Multiple people play the same song at the same time and are ranked based on performance. Nothing motivates you more than head-to-head competition.
This update is not yet available, but a Polarbit representative posted details about the pending update. Version 1.0.3 of Raging Thunder will contain online, real-time, internet multi-player racing.
We’ve received *a lot* of e-mail from gamers about Raging Thunder - the majority of it very positive. The one feature that people seem to have missed is online multiplayer. Nice guys that we are, we’ve taken these words to heart and included it in the latest update at no extra cost. Remember though that this first release is a public beta. There might be issues still in there, and we’d really appreciate if you report these to beta@polarbit.com
In order for the online multi-player to succeed, users are asked to download and setup individual servers for people to play on.
Remember: the more people that host servers, the more servers there are for people to choose from, and the more people will hang around looking for someone to play against! For this thing to work, it kinda hinges on you guys actually getting some servers up out there around the globe. It would be really cool to see a fat server list once the game goes live in a few days. We’d also recommend you to include the name of your country or something in your server name – instructions to configure are enclosed with the server package.
Raging Thunder happens to be on sale now at only $3.99 (from $7.99). We previously reviewed the game and found it enjoyable. Certainly, online multiplayer could take it to the next level.
Armado is a port of an existing Mac and PC game which the company has “completely reworked” which we reported just the other day. The game is a platformer in which the main character runs, rolls, jumps and smashes his way around enemies and obstacles.
IUGO has released the second episode of their popular iPhone game Toy Bot Diaries. We at Touch Arcade were huge fans of the first episode.
Your favorite robot is BACK! Join Toy Bot in his latest and greatest adventure: Toy Bot Diaries Entry 2. Toy Bot begins where he left off, climbing out of the dingy sewers and into a whole new world of challenges in the sky. Entry 2 gives you more levels, more content, more graphics and maximum fun! See why Toy Bot has been called one of the best games exclusive to the iPhone. If you liked Entry 1, you’ll LOVE Toy Bot Diaries Entry 2!
We found the first episode to be a particularly polished and immersive experience and we still highly recommend it.
If you like shooters, you should just get this game.
It’s funny how we frequently get more excited about the simple games than the high profile efforts. In the end, however, it’s all about the gameplay.
John Kooistra’s Defend! [App Store] is a $0.99 iPhone shooter with relatively simple graphics and no sound. The controls of the game, however, are remarkably well suited to the platform and already feels like a “classic” iPhone game.
You are defender of a planet with a population of 6.7 billion people. You job is to fight off an oncoming barrage of enemies. Each enemy that gets past you takes out millions of lives.
Controls are dead simple. You continuously fire straight up, and tilting the iPhone left and right adjusts your aim. The game also cleverly shifts orientation between levels, requiring you to turn your iPhone around or into landscape position. The video shows it best:
Progressive levels are increasingly challenging and provides a good amount of gameplay. Normally, we frown upon games without sound, but for $0.99 and an otherwise fun game, we can overlook it.
posted November 12th, 2008 1:05 PM EST by arn in News
Apple is continuing to recognize the gaming potential of the iPhone and iPod Touch and seems to be increasingly positioning it as a mobile gaming alternative.
Apple’s Vice President of Hardware Product Marketing Greg Joswiak was recently interviewed by Stuff.tv and suggested that there is a lot of potential for iPhone and iPod Touch gaming:
I think you’re going to see a wide variety (of games on the App Store). And they range all the way from casual to big time action games. This is where we are, less than four months into it. Squint your eyes and imagine where we will be in six months time, or a year. The graphics capablity is greater than the DS, we have multitouch, the screen is larger and there’s an accelerometer. And we have the App Store. I think it’s the future of gaming.
Even more significantly, a Wall Street Journal article quotes Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs about the mobile gaming market:
“I think the iPhone and iPod touch may emerge as really viable devices in the mobile games market this holiday season,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive and co-founder, in an interview.
The WSJ article reports that over a quarter of the App Store’s 200 million apps distributed were games. A few notable iPhone developers are quoted, but the most revealing quote comes from id Software’s John Carmack who reports that they are working on two iPhone games at this time.
Carmack had previously revealed in July that they were working on one exclusive title for the iPhone, but little has since been heard about the project. id Software is the developer who has been responsible for the Doom and Quake franchises.
TrickySoftware, the developers behind the iPhone port of EA’s Spore, have announced their first independent title for the iPhone: Armado. Armado is a port of an existing Mac and PC game which the company has “completely reworked”. The developer reports that the engine, artwork and controls have gotten a complete overhaul.
The game is a platformer in which the main character runs, rolls, jumps and smashes his way around enemies and obstacles. While it is set in a 3D environment, it does not appear you have free range of movement, and must follow the defined track. Still, it may be just what many have been hoping for on the iPhone.
Tilt controls adjust forward and backward movement and also allows for a slight pivot of the camera angle left and right. Meanwhile single and double screen taps provide differing degrees of jumping.
posted November 11th, 2008 7:12 PM EST by arn in $0.99, Simulation
We’re generally suckers for an original concept, and Sapus Media’sSapus Tongue [App Store] fits the bill.
Described as “Hula Hoop for your wrists”, the game takes advantage of the iPhone’s accelerometer to spin your character as fast as possible before launching him into the sky. The goal of the game is to propel your character as far as possible with the right combination of twirling and angle.
Priced at only $0.99, the global high scores and novel gameplay make this an amusing distraction:
We reviewed Oliver Pasqualini’s cave-flyer G Force [App Store] a few weeks back and liked what we saw but found the game severely crippled by an odd “extended hang time” physics / control quirk. This is just a quick update to let everyone know that Oliver has not only ironed out the issues with the game’s control system in the 1.1 update but has also dropped the App Store price from $3.99 to $1.99.
We can now strongly recommend G Force as a title well worth its price that every iPhone gamer would do well not to miss.
In 1987, Casady & Greene published a game by Patrick Buckland known as Crystal Quest for the Apple Macintosh. Ths first game to support color on the Mac, Crystal Quest was a simple affair where the player used the mouse to move a sphere around the playfield, dodging enemies and collecting crystals in order to unlock an exit gate a the bottom of the screen. While a very basic game, it worked very well with the mouse and offered some rather frantic gameplay in the higher levels. Anyone who used a Mac extensively in the late ’80s surely encountered this title and it likely holds a special place in his or her heart. Crystal Quest was later ported to the Apple IIgs, Commodore Amiga, Nintendo GameBoy, and Palm OS devices. Much more recently, an updated take on the original appeared in the Xbox Live Arcade, published by Buckland’s own Stainless Games (who announced iPhone support back in July).
And thanks to Hands-On Mobile’s recent App Store release [link], the iPhone can be added to the list of ports of of this classic action game.
Quite similar to the Xbox Live remake, Crystal Quest for the iPhone offers both a modern play mode, featuring updated graphics and audio as well as mild gameplay enhancements, and a classic play mode that stays true to the original’s simple color graphics and controls. The most notable gameplay enhancement in the modern mode is the ability to shoot at enemies in any direction by tapping in the enemy’s vicinity. The classic mode only allows shots to be fired in the direction that the sphere is traveling, like the original mouse-controlled game. The game’s option screen allows the choice of accelerometer or swipe control (or both) as well as sensitivity settings for each.
While the mouse is probably the perfect control mechanism for this game, the iPhone’s control systems do a decent job of approximating the feel of the original, especially the swipe control mode (which is shown in our demo video).
True fans of the original should find the $4.99 iPhone version much to their liking. Those unfamiliar with the game: don’t be fooled by the easy first levels–the pace quickly heightens and before long will be more than you can handle. Crystal Quest is a classic that is worthy of a look.
Crystal Quest is a remake of the 1987 classic Mac action game, very similar to the recent Xbox Live remake from Stainless Games. It’s simple “pick up the gem” action, but the pace quickly becomes frantic. Fans of the original should love this outing.
Raging Thunder
We reviewed
In 1987, 
