I got some serious deja-vu when I saw Temple of Spikes: The Legend ($0.99) appeared one the App Store this morning. It turns out that, almost exactly a year to the day, Tigrido announced the debut of the Temple of Spikes (Free) series on the App Store with what was a rather entertaining little arcade game. They may share a similar title, but Temple of Spikes: The Legend couldn’t be more different than its predecessor in both gameplay and scope. Now a hardcore twitch platforming title, Temple of Spikes: The Legend takes influence from its speedrunning peers like the excellent Mos Speedrun 2 ($0.99), and the promise of 30 levels and a frankly ridiculous 50+ hours of gameplay underline the game’s credentials as Tigrido’s first major App Store premium release. After much anticipation, Temple of Spikes: The Legend is available to download for $5.99 today on iOS.

I’m incredibly impressed with what I’ve seen of The Legend so far, as while it keeps the previous game’s cutesy pixel art aesthetic, it really takes a huge step forward in terms of the complexity and depth. As well as the abundance of traps and obstacles you’d expect from such a title, The Legend features neat features like the ability to slowdown and rewind time, which could create some particularly interesting conundrums across the game’s lengthy duration. 25 characters with unique abilities is also a nice change from comparable adventure titles that normally focus on one core protagonist, and will hopefully create some interesting debate amongst the speedrunning community. However, the promise of a hot-seat multiplayer mode is perhaps the most enticing addition to The Legend, as I can’t really think of anything more suited to both the replay-ability of twitch platformers, and the natural portability of iOS devices. I hope Tigrido create a cult hit with this daring premium release – if you’d also like to delve into the world of Temple of Spikes: The Legend, head by our forum thread for more discussion.