It feels like in the past year or so we’ve seen a ton of really old iOS games get modern updates out of the blue. It’s a great thing too, as the entirely digital medium of iOS gaming can feel a bit expendable when iOS updates can break games or new screen sizes and hardware features are released and the developers of classi games are no longer around to do anything about it. It’s crazy to say “classic" and actually mean games that are 5 or 6 years old, espeically when I have some NES games that are 30 years old that still work like the day they were released (with a little blowing into the cartridge or wiggling it in the slot, of course). Anyway, it warms my heart when I see an old game get new life and find a new audience by way of being updated, and that’s exactly what has happened with the classic dual-stick shooter Circuit_Strike.One ($0.99).

To give you an idea of how old Circuit_Strike.One is, we first posted about it January 8th, 2009–nearly 7 years ago to the day. By May of that year it was announced that the hot new publisher Chillingo would be publishing Circuit_Strike.One for developer h.grenade. We got some hands-on time with the game at E3 that year in early June, and just a few short days after that Circuit_Strike.One launched in the App Store for the bargain price of 99¢. The game received a couple of updates in the months following its release, but essentially has been untouched for 6.5 years until an update unexpectedly hit about a week ago.

So what’s new in this updated version of Circuit_Strike.One? To be honest, I have no idea! I haven’t played this game in years, so it’s hard to spot if there’s been any significant additions like new modes or new ships. I’m currently playing through it all over again from the beginning, which is incredibly fun, and I’ll make a note if anything big and new jumps out at me. One thing I do know is that iPads weren’t even around the last time Circuit_Strike.One was updated, so the Universal iPad support is new, as is the support for larger iPhone screens. Circuit_Strike.One has a really awesome hacker aesthetic and pumping music that flows right along with the gameplay, making it a hypnotic and challenging experience. I would have never dreamed it would receive an update, but here we are. Good thing too because I’m sure there’s a massive audience of mobile gamers who have never even heard of it.

If you really wanted to relive some history the lengthy original forum thread is still in effect, and in fact that’s how this update got my attention as our forum members are always great at being on top of stuff like this. So if you like arcade shooters and crazy hacker themes, I’d definitely recommend Circuit_Strike.One for a buck, and you might as well just pretend it’s one of this week’s new releases!