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So, there you were. Looking at our upcoming games list and getting psyched about Smash Cops. And then the game was pulled before you could buy it. Good news: it’s re-hitting the App Store this week, and reviews should be follow it on January 19th or so. Yay!

What was up with the delay? Licensing issues. In a statement sent to us at the time of the postponement, developer Hutch explained soberly that it hoped to “get [its] forms straightened out” and get back into the App Store this week. And, hey, it did — but not before about 5,000 lucky dudes purchased the game.

If you still haven’t been introduced to Smash Cops, check out its trailer. It’s a Burnout-style game with an fresh virtual control scheme that should, actually, make for something special. We’re definitely stoked to get our hands on a final build.

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Galaxy on Fire 2 [$9.99 / HD / Lite] is receiving its second add-on in Q2 of 2012, the studio behind the outer space adventure game announced earlier today on its blog. The new stuff sounds cool, too. The add-on, a 10 plus hour adventure dubbed “Supernova,” will incorporate new mission types, new stories, better visuals, and even some fun callbacks to the series’ more memorable characters, like Khador.

Supernova takes place immediately after events in the last expansion, Valkryie. Here’s a blurb that explains what’s going on in Supernova specifically:

“After the unravelling of the Valkyrie conspiracy, daily routine has returned to the Deep Science space station. Carla dreams of a quiet and idyllic life with her sweetheart Keith, but the restless space war hero is not ready to settle yet.

Hence the desperate plea for help of an old friend comes right in time: A gigantic supernova, which seems to be of unnatural origin, threatens to destroy the whole Mido sector and its inhabitants.”

Political strain, and what happens when things get real, seems to be what this expansion’s content hinges on. We’re hopeful that we’ll see Game of Thrones levels of paranoia and betrayal. We’d be alright if Fishlabs passed on any, uh, delicate brother-sister relationships, though.

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We were all over Shadow Era [Free]. In a nutshell, it’s a cross-platform free to play collectable card game which still has a decent following in our forums. Well, a while back the guys from Wolven put up a preorder page for a physical version of the game, and so far demand has been fantastic. They’ve already even received a few of the decks and they look great:

If you’re a big enough fan of the iOS game to want to delve into the physical version, there’s tons of pre-order bonuses to be had. Anyone pre-ordering now gets a ton of shadow crystals to use in game, foil cards, and they’re on the cusp of offering free play mats with every order. That’s a pretty sweet swag haul, if you’re into Shadow Era.

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Push Panic [Free] is a fast paced (and fun) puzzle game that up until recently was published by Appular. According to Push Panic’s developers in our forums, Appular is getting out of the publishing game and has taken all of their published titles off of the App Store. So, in response, Push Panic has been re-released and made free for a brief period of time.

Check out the trailer:

Keep in mind, if you ever downloaded Push Panic before, you’ll need to re-download it again during this freebie promotion. With Appular removing the original Push Panic from the App Store, you’ll effectively be locked out of any future updates and being able to re-download the game. Push Panic is a neat game too, so even if you didn’t own the original, you should download it while it’s free.

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Hey developers, it’s that time of year again. Macworld is happening in San Francisco next week, January 26th-28th, and this time around they’ve added a brand new moniker to their conference: iWorld. Since the advent of the iPhone, iPad, and App Store, Macworld has expanded beyond just Macintosh development and now includes lots of iOS type stuff as well. Their new Macworld|iWorld branding is to reflect this greater emphasis on both Mac and iOS development.

Typically Macworld isn’t a huge conference for us in terms of iOS gaming, but we do always end up booking a good amount of appointments with developers who are in town for Macworld and want to show off an upcoming game project. With the new iWorld title, I’m expecting that we’ll have an even bigger turnout of iOS developers at this year’s conference.

If you’re planning on attending Macworld|iWorld 2012 and have a game you want to show off to us, shoot an email to tips@toucharcade.com with the subject line “Macworld 2012″ and we’ll get back to you about scheduling an appointment time. Since our manpower is limited, and I’m not too sure how big of a response we’ll get, it’s probably best to email us as soon as possible if you’d like to set up a meeting. We’ll be looking forward to seeing some of you there next week!

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Numberlys [$5.99] is an interactive story from Moonbot Studios, which is promoted as a story, mystery and game. It started out as a short film, but when the iPad was announced they changed direction and eventually created this lovely visual experience for us to enjoy.

We don’t usually review interactive stories or children’s games, but Numberlys caught our eye due to it’s stylish artistic quality …and, for the record, it does include mini-games.

In a colorless world filled with numbers, five of the citizens wanted a change and set about inventing the alphabet. The story is told through beautiful black and white animated graphics which are clearly inspired by the classic sci-fi film Metropolis, but with a modern touch.

It’s a children’s story, but adults can enjoy the wonderful presentation, music and sound effects. Text cut-scenes are displayed, like old-fashioned subtitles (just like Metropolis) and the story is also conveyed verbally by a narrator, who has the perfect voice and accent for this particular tale.

During the animated film, items appear in red if they’re interactive. For example, touching a red light-bulb above a character will make them say their line. Or pressing a red button might trigger the next piece of animation. Sometimes you turn or swipe an object, to help construct the next letter of the alphabet. There’s only one pathway through the story, so your actions don’t really change the outcome. However, although the interactive component is limited, it does help you to feel involved.

There are eighteen “mini-games” to play, like tapping the five main characters to create the “ayyyyy” sound of the letter “A”, but there’s no passing, failing or scores (which was an intentional design decision). It’s more about interacting with the characters and story world. The mini-games are easy and can generally be completed within a minute, but again, they’re not intended to be challenging or drawn out. It’s more about the experience.

Other mini-games include brick-breaker and whack-a-mole variants and aim-and-shoot games, which all sounds quite cheesy, but they’re actually presented with a stylish quality that’s consistent with the rest of the app.  Although, some of the mini-games are repeated, with the jumping game appearing a few times.

I watched Numberlys in a quiet room, on a comfy couch and enjoyed the 28 scenes within an hour. Afterwards I watched some of their behind-the-scenes footage, from which it’s clear the development team are proud of their work.  I’ve enjoyed and savored Numberlys, but like any film, I probably won’t watch it again for a while, but it could be a recurring treat for a young child.

TouchArcade Rating:

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Zombie Wonderland 2: Outta Time! [99¢] has everything a good zombie game needs: guns, girls, guts, green goo and a generous amount of cleaning equipment. Oh, come on. Don’t raise that eyebrow at me. You know it’s true. Every good shoot-out tends to leave an inevitable mess and Zombie Wonderland 2, unlike so many of its peers, is not afraid to acknowledge it.

Here, in this goofy little defense/time-management/real-time strategy title, you’ll have the dubious pleasure of playing as the redneck stereotype Chuck. Being the responsible Zombie Cleaner (and someone totally oblivious to the idea of job security) that he is, Chuck will stop at nothing to rid the world of the cannibalistic undead.

As you might have guessed, this isn’t a particularly easy task. You’re going to have to do everything from bringing a vegetarian vampire his lactose-rich treat to protecting pet goldfish in Medieval Japan.

Silly, eh? If that description hasn’t scared you off just yet, this might spell the beginning of a wonderful friendship. Much like the story itself, Zombie Wonderland 2 is a fair bit of mindless fun, the kind that can easily rob you of a few hours of your time. If what you want is a simple, silly hybrid of the aforementioned genres, stop reading and go download it already.

However, if you’re an Apple App Store connoisseur, this may be where you sit down and ponder the direction of your dollar a bit more. Like a serving of fast food, Zombie Wonderland 2 is both satisfying and unfulfilling all at the same time.

Gameplay here is relatively straightforward. Each stage consists of you being told to defend a certain item from zombies for a number of nights. Of course, as a Zombie Cleaner, you’re also going to have to do your best to ensure that there is no unnecessary gunk on the floors at the end of the night, something easier said than done.

To accomplish this, you’re going to have to make use of your trusty shotgun ‘Betsy’, cleaning implements, turrets, wooden planks, unusual bullets and a peculiar assortment of limited-use weapons. Controls are exceedingly simple. To attack a zombie, you touch it with a finger. To board up a window, you tap it with a finger. To summon your infant Death Worm, you – you get the picture.

Sadly, though, it isn’t quite as exciting as it sounds. Your nightly escapades will mostly consist of you boarding up windows and playing ‘whack-a-mole’ with the festering onslaught. Regardless of how many you purchase, you’ll only get access to one turret at a time. One. Uno. Satu.

To make things even worse, your turrets are about as impervious to zombie attacks as cookies are to the Cookie Monster. More often than not, you’ll find yourself attempting to fix it while corralling flaming cadavers. It’s the same with the limited-use weapons and the various bullet types. Sure, you might have a dozen but you’ll ever get to use one variety at a time.

All said and done, however, Zombie Wonderland 2 is still an enjoyable piece of work. The over-the-top silliness and the bright, colorful graphics feel reminiscent of an old Saturday morning cartoon. The game’s just difficult enough to make it challenging and simple enough to engage in without requiring too much of a forethought.

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Urban Crime [Free], the newest game from Gameloft, is the latest title attempting to take a traditional genre and infuse it with free-to-play elements. In this case, it’s the open world third-person shooter made popular by the likes of Grand Theft Auto III that gets the freemium makeover. Normally, these types of games are treated as forums discussing the merits of freemium and whether the gameplay and overall presentation outweighs whatever hooks are put into the game. In the case of Urban Crime, that discussion isn’t necessary as the game has so many issues (freemium and otherwise) that you really should just avoid it completely.

In Urban Crime, you’re thrown into a world run by a multitude of gangs and are told to conquer it territory by territory. You’ll accomplish this by running randomly generated missions until you fill up an arbitrary meter that allows you to take out a rival gang leader. Eliminate said leader and you earn a piece of territory and you start over again. Completing missions also earns money and experience which is used to level up and unlock random rewards. Missions are divided into standard subtypes ranging from assassinations to drag races to escort missions. While I didn’t particularly have any issues with the missions, I found them becoming repetitive rather quickly.

One of the big differences in Urban Crime compared to similar titles is its complete reliance on freemium. To put it bluntly, the switch to freemium is poorly implemented and gets in the way of a lot of elements that are staples for this genre. As an example, let’s take carjacking. Imagine running from the cops and spotting an awesome sports car to aid in your getaway. You get close, press the button to highjack, and get a message saying you don’t have a high enough level to steal this car. Of course, you can buy diamonds (the in-game premium currency) to let you steal it instantly, but that would be ridiculous. I could understand clothing, skillsets, and even weapons tied to the leveling system, but being able to steal certain cars? That’s just silly.

The above example is just the tip of the iceberg in regards to freemium. Gameloft’s notorious energy system also makes a return. It doesn’t go as far shutting the game down when you run out of energy, but if you do run out, you will not be able to play new missions until your energy recovers. You can do this by spending your premium currency to recharge, waiting awhile for it to naturally build up, or by gaining levels. Granted, the first hour or so of content seems to be relatively stable as far as energy is concerned (since you continue to gain levels and thus energy at a steady pace). However, once you get to the point where you have to do a lot of missions to even gain levels, you’re going to be bottlenecked very quickly.

Another area of Urban Crime that I’m disappointed in is the sacrifice of an overall story in favor of the strict mission based gameplay. Sure, Gangstar wasn’t particularly known for its epic storytelling, but at least there was an overarching tale that sought to bring you in. Urban Crime simply puts you in the city and tells you to take it over for no other reason other than that. Outside of the initial prompt at the start of the game, the only story found lies in the fragmented mission texts which offer nothing of value and are just an excuse to go out and cause more havoc. What’s worse, since this game reuses the assets of Gangstar: Miami Vindication, you won’t even have the pleasure (what little there is) of exploring a new world if you’ve played that game before.

There’re a few other elements within Urban Crime that I haven’t addressed yet, but might factor in your choice to check this out. The visuals look like they came from a game made a few years ago (which they are) and do not compare to any games recently released. Despite this, I still encountered a lot of obnoxious pop-up and frame rate issues, even on the most recent iOS devices. The controls are probably one of the few areas of the game that are adequate, with a few different schemes that give you the option of touch controls or the accelerometer. However, when you combine any control method with the poor frame rate, most gamers will probably be frustrated regardless.

I’m really not sure what Gameloft is trying to do with Urban Crime. Yes, it’s a freemium game and the whole point is to attract folks under the guise of free play and eventually get them to shell out with IAP. However, in order for that to work, you have to actually want to play the game in the first place before you even think about spending money in the game. With its complete lack of narrative, boring mission structure, antiquated visuals, spotty controls and monotonous gameplay, I don’t know who would want to play this, much less eventually spend money within it. If you’re looking for a free-roaming third-person shooter on your iOS device, go pick up GTA 3 [$5.99] if you haven’t already done so. Otherwise, just stay away from here.

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Games like Monkey Quest: Thunderbow [$0.99/HD] disrupt the feel-good media narrative we like to tell about the App Store. It’s a low-risk way to capitalize on experimental games like Sword & Sworcery [$4.99], a place where Andreas Illiger, the one-man dev team behind Tiny Wings [$0.99], can sell thousands of copies. It’s also where a giant corporation like Nickelodeon can sell us an Angry Birds [$0.99] clone to advertise its kid-friendly MMO, Monkey Quest.

It would be easier to find Thunderbow distasteful if it weren’t so radical, born out of the same  mid-90s fever dream that brought us anthropomorphic turtles who were also ninjas. The hero of the game is a nameless monkey who carries a bow-and-arrow. After you beat the 30 available levels — more are, supposedly, coming soon — you can play a few bonus rounds with a girl-monkey who shoots lightning bolts out of her electric guitar-bow. It’s incredible.

My favorite thing about Thunderbow (that name!) is how self-aware and understated it is (those aren’t adjectives people generally use to describe licensed games). Children’s media tends to be overblown and moralistic, full of uplifting melodramas or cautionary tales, but there’s not a word of dialogue or narrative in Thunderbow, only beautifully illustrated storyboards introducing its next enemies.

That same type of restraint carries over to the game design itself. Even the MMO overlay — after completing certain achievements, Monkey Quest players can collect new gear — is unintrusive, and Thunderbow seems fully-realized despite the ancillary tie-in. There are no frills here, just one monkey on a quest to squish scorpions with his thunderbow and physics-enabled exploding carrot-arrows.

Our primate protagonist accomplishes this by shooting a variety of ammunition — pineapples that explode like cluster bombs, bundle of mosquitoes that splinters into individual kamikaze dive-bombers, etc. — at exploding barrels and supporting structures. It’s all standard stuff for the physics-slingshot genre, but Thunderbow is so refined and enjoyable that it never feels stale.

More specifically, the levels feel smaller and more compact than the ones found in, say, Angry Birds — none of them are larger than one screen. With the smaller scope comes a focus on precision — lining up Monkey’s shots isn’t a matter of swiping as much as it is small, discrete adjustments, complemented by razor-sharp controls.

As a result, player intent is never compromised — you can see exactly what you need to do, and Thunderbow provides the necessary controls to pull it off. The game rewards patience, precision, and attention to detail, and the levels are compact enough that two or three well-placed arrows will bring the whole house of cards down. With top notch visual and aural feedback, the simple act of crushing a screen full of scorpions with boulders can be very satisfying.

The flipside of Thunderbow’s precision is that it skews toward being a little too easy. The tough part is finding the chink in each level’s armor, but the execution of your Rube-Goldbergian air-strike is generally straightforward. The levels were tough enough to give me pause — especially because players must collect bananas (three per level) to unlock content — but I never felt frustrated or stumped. It helps that Thunderbow is relatively short:  I plowed through the game in a few hours, before the mechanics and bright colors lost their luster.

During each level, light butt-rock is pumped through your speakers while a monster truck derby announcer growls catchphrases like, “Unstoppable!” and “Mass Destruction!” This isn’t a criticism as much as it is an example of the game’s aesthetic as a whole. It’s the type of game a nine-year-old on a Surge bender would design, but Thunderbow is vivid, imaginative, and well-executed, even if its conceits are well-established by now. It’s simultaneously childish and childlike, but it’s so pure in its vision that I couldn’t help but enjoy it.

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Blogger and DIYer Paul Rickards wrote about an awesome discovery today: he figured out how to rig an NES controller, via USB, to his iPad. Even better, he made it work like an iCade does, which theoretically opens up the support of his homebrew controller to every iCade-enabled game out there. He hasn’t posted the code yet, but he did go over the story of how he made discovery and linked to some pretty important literature.

Like most of the world’s greatest inventions, this was the result of an accident. While playing in iMAME, Rickards accidentally pressed some keys on his homebrew Commodore 64 USB keyboard. The app then said it was enabling iCade mode. Cue the “A-ha!” moment.

From here, Rickards manufactured another USB keyboard utilizing Arduino, but instead of using a keyboard matrix, he used his NES gamepad. A couple of legos for casing and two jacks later, he had a working NES controller for his iPad. Sweet!

We’ve asked Rickards if he intends to do more controllers in the future because this is pretty exciting news. Think about it: someday, you might finally be able to play an iPad game with the Duke, the ultimate gaming controller.

Well … that is, if every game plays nice. Atari Greatest Hits [Free] collection and iMAME are the only games he’s tested so far.

[via biosrhythm]

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