On this week’s episode of The TouchArcade Show, we battle through discussions on farts*, beards, and Dredd in order to bring you the latest, greatest, and best in iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch gaming. At the top of our games section, the guys roast the latest Final Fantasy game while I struggle with why it’s not hitting me as terrible. We also discuss Temple Run 2 and its iterative design. Later, we dive back into The Blockheads, as well as Zenonia 5. Lots of game talk this week.
After the break, we hit up some news. We talk about Minecraft, what makes it special, and how many units it sold in 2012. We also get into some racing game design theory, of all things. Weird, right?
Anyway, if you’d like to listen just bang one of the links below. You can also subscribe to us on iTunes and Zune (yes, that’s still a thing, believe it or not). iTunes is the easiest way to get us since downloads are automatic, so consider a subscription.
Also, if you’d like to rate our podcast, we’re still offering games in return. Just drop your TA forum user name in the written review, and we’ll get in touch. It’s a cool deal.
iTunes Link: The TouchArcade Show
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Direct Link: TouchArcadeShow-087.mp3, 36.4MB
And here are your show notes:
GAMES
- Temple Run 2 – (Free) [TA Plays]
- Final Fantasy All The Bravest – (Free) [TA Plays]
- Zenonia 5 – (Free) [TA Plays]
- The Blockheads – (Free)
- Momonga Pinball Adventure – ($1.99)
FRONT PAGE
This week’s episode of The TouchArcade Show is sponsored by Kumobius’s Time Surfer.
Time Surfer, $0.99 – Once upon a time in a galaxy far away / Chronopi would rewind time and keep danger at bay. He surfed across space all day and all night / dodging spikes and pits for sport and delight! Living forever is a blessing yet a curse / his fate was to encounter the end of the universe… A new endless runner from the creators of Bean’s Quest! / so visit time surfer game dot com, it’s all for the best!
That's probably one of the only times a trailer has almost pushed me into impulse-buying a game before seeing a gameplay impressions video first.
Holy crap, that animation was gorgeous. If the game doesn't work out for Eckert, he should go into the short-film business.
Okay, so I bought it and just got through the tutorial. Here are some early impressions:
While the central swinging mechanic seems a bit odd at first, it's easy enough to get used to and then it feels natural. The swings are tilt-controlled, but in a really non-obtrusive way.
The visuals are incredibly polished; simple and charming without feeling gimmicky or overly-cutesy. The music is great, and the writing in the tutorial alone was wry, witty and hilarious. Best snarky, play-by-play learning the game commentary I've seen since Puzzlejuice.
I can see myself playing this one for a while to come. Grab it; it's a steal at a buck.
Any word on this going universal? I do all my gaming on my iPad Mini lately.
depends on how well it does. (i don't even have an ipad mini, yet)
Bought as a vote for universal support.
Well, sir, the trailer got me. Here's to one day. For now, I will enjoy on the phone.
Bought it only to find out it's got no ipad mode. And my 3GS cannot run it.
that trailer just sold me
its only a 1$ so its not a huge deal and beside the art is amazing good job Marcus
Yeah, got halfway through the trailer before going "a dollar? why the hell not?" and clicking purchase. I'll check it out later tonight, but that trailer is really something special.
Great,no gamecenter. Seriously, not having gamecenter integration is like a ps3 game not having trophies at this point.
Bad analogy, cause I find trophies just as useless heh.
Then wouldn't that make it GOOD analogy?
Your Kung Fu is good.
I'll probably give this game a go. It was a nice trailer and nice detail and good designs and if what the article say it's true i like a game that has care with details.
Only thing is that it could be universal and the app store page description of the game is kinda bland. Should be more attractive.
Incredible trailer. Bought the game, hopefully it's as polished as that trailer.
I like the art, and I commend the devs for giving us something so pleasing to the eye. But with this game, as well as the just-released Wave Trip, sometimes things get so stylized that I don't know what I'm dealing with - what's good, what's bad, what I should be doing, etc.
Of course, I'm judging based on the trailers alone. I imagine that after spending time with these games I would learn to discern what I'm looking at. And they do look cool.
OK one bad thing and really annoying it really needs a option to rotate the screen, i like to play with the home button to the right side right now with the home button to the left i'm putting most of the times my hand in the speaker, this is only good with you are playing with the headphones
And no i dont have auto rotate lock
Gave it a go: it has amazing design and style for sure, but I still can't figure out the mechanics (and I've had to watch the tutorial twice). I'm not a huge fan of tilt mechanics either, but regardless, I can't get a grasp on the roping. Am I missing something? After I tap him up into the air, it seems impossible to get the rope to come out at the right angle, and then if you do hook a cloud, you're stuck holding onto the screen and then tilting your device... and then praying that your next rope comes out at the right angle again while he's spinning madly lol.
I'm in love with the art and sound design but I really can't figure this game out. I've already put more time into than I do with a lot of iOS games but I still never feel nearly as in control as I'd like to be.
I played it. The visual style is amazing. But the control are bad.
you have to mix tilt and tap. You through your rope anyware with the hope to touch a cloud.
Even after 10 minutes of play I still didn't master it (I improved a little).
The tutorial is way too long. And the mission, touching circle, is not very fun! Maybe it's better after, but it takes too long to enter in the fun part.
Visuals style are beautiful so.
Not a good game. It's beautiful to look at, but that's about it. The mechanics suck, totally frustrating, and not worth the buck IMHO.
Couldn't agree more, the actual gameplay sucks pretty badly...
Agreed. Fantastic style, super polished graphics, witty commentary in the tutorial - but the gameplay is incredibly frustrating. Partly because everything is so stylized that the clouds barely stand out against the background, partly because the controls are just plain confusing, and partly because the mission (hitting circles to make them explode) doesn't feel at all satisfying.
Looks great, that much has been established. The mechanics however are a bit wonky. You have to tilt or rock your phone to gain momentum once on a rope. What I find frustrating is it's hard to aim your rope while doing so. In fact I'm not entirely sure you can. It seems to extend from the same point of the hedgehog, so if he's spinning in the air it's really hard to line up the next shot. It's also a bit too wordy. I get the trying to be cute and clever but I really just want to get to the game after a while. I'll stick with it some more and see if I'm just not doing it right... but I'm a dev and I've been playing video games for over 30 years. I'd hate to think it's me.
Really excited about this game because of the screen shot and the trailer. Booted it up and fell in love with the art and sound of the game. When the gameplay started I said to myself, Simple enough. I was wrong, gameplay isn't as polished as the art style at all. I was playing this in the car while waiting for my girlfriend and I had to constantly tilt my phone just to gain momentum to swing and surely I would look silly doing this in a crowded public place. If you love the art of this game purchase it. But I got too frustrated at the gameplay and controls to actually enjoy the game. Hopefully updates fix it.
I appreciate the style of the game but I don't think telling people to buy it because they like the art to be a good idea. The game is all flash and then just a bad execution after you get past the design, at least according to everyone here. While I think a person who puts a lot of effort into something like this should be rewarded they need to remember the fact that these are games and are meant to be fun and playable and not just pretty looks.
I feel like way too many games slip by real criticisms because people want to claim that true art exists in video games. You can look at games like Fez getting tons of coverage and great reviews for what amounted to an average platfomer because gamers want to legitimize their hobbies' artistic merit.
I don't like the gameplay of Wide Sky. It's a beautiful game but, i don't know when the rope can to grip the clouds . I always miss the objective. Use tilt control it isn't a good idea for this game.
More hipster trash, great. Stop being in love with yourselves and your "godly" creativity hipsters, please.