TouchArcade.ru

Already excited for the release of N.O.V.A. 3? Well, try this new trailer on for size. It focuses on the multiplayer component of the game, and looks downright impressive. I can’t wait to see this running on my iPad:

The release date is still a vague “May 2012,” and it hasn’t been spotted yet in tonight’s roundup of games on the verge of releasing… So, fingers crossed for next week?

[source]

If you rewind the App Store clocks to around a month and a half ago, there was absolutely nothing out there hotter than Draw Something [$1.99 / Free ]. OMGPOP went from some Flash portal social game company I’d never heard of to releasing a game that even the most extreme non-gamer type friends of mine were relentlessly harassing me to take my turn. Draw Something’s popularity was so explosive, that I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s mentioned in several GDC talks this year as other developers try to divine the secret sauce that caused the game to go so incredibly viral.

What almost instantly followed the success of Draw Something was $210m acquisition by Zynga, spawning all sorts of entirely too predictable Zynga hated across the internet. You’d think that the might of the Zynga empire backing the game would only cause its popularity to grow, but Develop did some digging into some figures published by AppData, who believe that Draw Something’s popularity is in a steady decline, already losing five million daily active users.

Even after this decline, I’m not sure you’ll find too many game developers out there that’d complain about retaining ten million daily active users. What about you guys? Are you still playing Draw Something? Did you delete it after the Zynga purchase? If you’re still playing it, do you notice as many of your friends still at it?

[Develop via VG24/7]

[source]

Ah. Werewolves. One of the three components in the holy Hollywood trinity of monsters. They ordinarily come in two flavors: loud, ravenous and incapable of anything but wanton violence… or dark-eyed eye candy. The transmogrification-happy lupine of MacGuffin’s Curse [$3.99 / Free ], however, is neither of those.

Indie development studio Brawsome has MacGuffin’s Curse billed as a ‘comedy puzzle-adventure’, an appropriate description if there ever was one. Operating from a top-down perspective, MacGuffin’s Curse is rife with all the switch-flipping, block-moving, barrier-removing goodness that is standard of the genre and the silliness of a Terry Pratchett novel. Here, you play as the charming Lucas MacGuffin, a red-haired thief who dwells in a considerable destitution with his young child and elderly mother. He has something to say about pretty much anything and everyone, a peculiarity that may either have you rolling your eyes within the first ten minutes or chuckling away in appreciation. Take your pick. Either is applicable.

The game opens with Lucas on his latest heist. In order to pay the rent, you’re going to have to retrieve a certain amulet from the extremely lightly-guarded depths of the local museum. As you might have guessed already, one thing leads to another and you eventually find yourself bound to the cursed jewelry and gifted with the ability to transform into a powerful, red-maned werewolf whenever you choose to. No, I don’t know how this really is a curse either.

This, of course, is one of the game’s primary gimmicks. Each of your two forms has a different set of abilities and limitations. As a human, you’re capable of doing delicate things like operating doors and squeezing through windows. As a werewolf, you’ll be able to manhandle safes, blocks, enormous battery packs and dig for buried treasure. Most, if not all, of the puzzles will require you to make use of your dual set of talents.

Speaking of the puzzles, let me reassure those who have played through the lite version of one thing: they do get harder. While the game’s collection of mind-benders don’t really deviate from the standard ‘push this block here, activate that switch there’ formula, there is enough variety in the mix to keep you playing (even if you have to do it in chunks). I’m especially fond of one of the earlier ‘boss’ battles. Instead of doing the standard werewolf act where you charge headlong into your enemies and rip their hearts out, MacGuffin’s Curse will have you maneuvering from room to room as you attempt to close the distance by circumnavigating your enemy’s attempt to stall you.

Though best played by those who enjoy the idea of a combat-free Zelda, MacGuffin’s Curse is still something I would recommend to those who don’t. Well, if you enjoy the whole comedic narrative thing, at any rate. It’s true that MacGuffin’s Curse tries just a little too hard (it doesn’t so much nudge you in the ribs as it does grind them into a paste with its hypothetical elbow) but it does have heart. You see it in the details – in the way the comments change depending on the kind of skin you’re wearing, in the over-the-top characters, in how the game lets you slowly build up a half-decent apartment for Lucas’s family and the details of the setting. There’s a fair amount of side quests for you to indulge in as well, something that helps flesh out the Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere-esque undertones of the world that Brawsome constructed.

The only thing that I didn’t really like about McGuffin’s Curse is, perhaps, the controls. In order to move, you touch a finger on the screen and drag it in the direction you want Lucas to go. In order to push or pull blocks, you’ll have to use two fingers instead. Now, there’s nothing wrong with this and, for the most part, it works out decently well. Nonetheless, because of positioning, you sometimes find your fingertips blocking out vision, a phenomenon that makes me pine a little for a virtual d-pad.

Is MacGuffin’s Curse worth purchasing? Yes. Definitely. It may not extract the ‘Oh, god! This is ingenious!’ sort of reaction with its puzzles, but the relentless humor, intriguing setting, adequately-designed puzzles and faint Tim Burton vibe will make it a delicious addition to anyone’s collection of crate-puzzles.

TouchArcade Rating:

[source]

We just learned this week that one of the pioneering forces of both the freemium pay model as well as real-time online multiplayer, Eliminate, will be closing up shop later this month. Well according to RockBandAide.com right on the heels of that news it looks as if EA Mobile will be giving the same treatment to the original Rock Band [ $4.99 ] iOS game, which we thought was pretty good when it launched towards the end of 2009.

The original Rock Band was usurped by the superior sequel Rock Band Reloaded [$4.99 / $9.99 (HD)] in December of 2010, so it’s not totally surprising that EA would want to focus on the newer version. However, for a game that many people have likely spent a good chunk of cash on by buying new songs through IAP, not to mention that it launched at $9.99 to begin with, it seems sort of crazy that EA would flat out make the game inoperable.

At the very least you would think that EA would be able to just leave the original Rock Band alone, so those who bought it and paid for IAP songs can continue to at least use it even if future updates aren’t in the cards. Perhaps there’s a reason for this, like a licensing issue with the music, but at any rate if you’re still a fan of the first Rock Band on iOS you’ll have until May 31st to continue enjoying it.

Servers being shut down and dropping support for games isn’t a new phenomenon, but in the increasingly more digital age of video games you’ll just have to keep in mind that the experience might be finite unlike physical copies of games which will last for eternity as long as you have the hardware to play it.

Note: I’m leaving the links for both Rock Band games in case you already own the original and want to re-download it for safe keeping, but obviously it won’t work after the end of the month. If you want a Rock Band game for iOS go with Rock Band Reloaded (for the time being, anyway).

[Via RockBandAide.com]

[source]

Jason Citron was among the very first game developers for Apple’s App Store when it launched all the way back in 2008, and most people associate him with founding the groundbreaking iOS social gaming network OpenFeint. Well, about a year ago, OpenFeint was bought by Japanese gaming giant Gree, and several months later Jason left the company to pursue a new challenge.

We’ve gotten the first word on what that new challenge is, as VentureBeat reports that Jason has announced his forming of a new gaming venture called Phoenix Guild. Right now the company consists of just Jason, but the current plan is to raise a round of funding to hire a team and get off the ground, and he thinks Phoenix Guild will be able to ship their first game sometime this year. In fact, he’s already started coding the project on his own.

For some insight into what kind of games Phoenix Guild would be interested in creating, Mr. Citron had a choice quote on the matter

“All of the gaming today is casual or mid-core. There is a huge bunch of gamers who can’t frigging stand this crap, myself among them.”

Sounds like the focus of Phoenix Guild will be towards meatier kinds of titles like those that you would find on home consoles, and given the background with OpenFeint a social aspect will also be a high priority. The studio will also be focusing development on “post-PC” devices, so tablets, smartphones, and similar devices.

We know Jason Citron is capable of great things given his previous work, and although this is just the very beginning stages we’re eager to see what will come from his new venture Phoenix Guild.

[Via VentureBeat]

[source]

I’ll be honest, I’m wary of any games I download onto my phone these days that promise any sort of physics-based fun. I’m burned out on that scene, plain and simple. However, I do like cats, as you may know from my past reviews, and I like the idea of forcibly launching a cat out of a cannon (in safety gear, of course, folks). So I caved for Cannon Cat [ Free ], and I admit, now I’m really glad I did.

Cannon Cat has a flimsy premise, as most iPhone games do — something about skyfish being imprisoned in bubbles by a guy named the Evil Emu. I think that it’s cute fluff, but I didn’t pay it much mind before I jumped headlong into the game. We’re not here for deep stories, after all – I came here to put a cat in a cannon and rocket him across the skyline. I mean, who doesn’t want to do that?

Good news: that, my friends, is exactly what you are going to do, over and over. Cannon Cat is diced up into into two worlds, Kapalua Islands and Cedaria Reef. Apparently a third world called Stratos is coming soon as well. Each of these worlds holds roughly 40 levels to work your way through, which sounds like a lot, but if you factor in that each level takes you less than a minute to play, you could finish Cannon Cat in just a couple of hours. And I found that mildly frustrating, because I wanted to play more.

Each level contains a series of cannons, and your job is to guide Cannon Cat from one to the next, collecting the skyfish along the way. As you can imagine, this starts simple and becomes challenging with the addition of obstacles. Each cannon moves when you are inside of it, so you can choose the directions to send your cat flying in. Choosing alternate paths may mean collecting all the level’s fish, so you don’t always want to go in a straight line, as you could be missing out. You go through a ring at the end of each level to complete it.

When you finish each level you’ll be ranked on whether you got all the fish, and if you didn’t, you lose out on bonuses that would have improved your score. You also have a handful of cool powers at your disposal, such as a shield, an option to use “cannon time” (which causes slow motion), a boost that makes the skyfish bigger so they are easier to pick up along the way, and an autosave that automatically zips you back to the last cannon you were in before you failed.

These are all optional power-ups, and you can use an in-game currency called sparks to buy them. At first you’ll have some free ones, but if you use them all, you’ll need to spend some real life money to get more. It’s not at all necessary to enjoy the game, though.

I think the best way to appeal to a gamer who grew up in a time period when games were at their most challenging is to use some of the same structure in current games. It hooks us, and I admit that little touches like that really work on me. Cannon Cat is not radically unique, in fact it’s very similar to another iOS title Land-a Panda [$0.99 / $1.99 (HD)], but there’s something about the structure of it that also reminds me a bit of golden era platformers like Mega Man and Sonic the Hedgehog.

That’s probably because like those games, Cannon Cat is precise and easy to play, it’s fast, and it’s a lot of fun. Also, it’s free, and it looks like the developers plan to expand on it, so it’s well worth your time to grab this game and spend some leisure time sending your feline friend in search of flying fish.

TouchArcade Rating:

[source]

Last December Frontier Developments released their critically acclaimed WiiWare title LostWinds [ $3.99 ] to the App Store. Despite the source material being of an incredibly high quality, we had some difficulties with the controls in our review, something that was thankfully rectified via an update about a month later.

Now it looks as if the sequel, 2009’s LostWinds: Winter of the Melodias, will be making the jump from WiiWare to the iOS App Store as well. The game will have some graphical enhancements over its WiiWare counterpart, some of which are on display in this short teaser released by Frontier.

No word yet on when LostWinds: Winter of the Melodias is scheduled to hit, but we’ll be keeping an eye out for any new information. Also, in case you were unaware, the original LostWinds has recently received partial Retina Display support for the new iPad, and after the previous big control update is an easy recommendation if you haven’t checked it out yet.

[Via AppAdvice]

[source]

This day of crazy deals just doesn’t seem to want to stop. Chair’s amazing sword fighter that has since spawned a whole series of games Infinity Blade [ $0.99 ] is on sale once again for 99¢. So, if you missed the last 99¢ sale that took place around a month ago, here’s another chance. Also, we’ve got a review of the game if you want to check that out first.

On the Infinity Blade II [ $6.99 ] front, an update just hit the App Store which addresses some issues people were experiencing with the new ClashMobs add-on. If you were having difficulty claiming rewards, that should be fixed along with “several other” mysterious issues that Chair wasn’t too specific about in the patch notes.

Aaaand if you’re looking for an Infinity Blade II review, it’s right here. Alternatively, if you’ve already got the game and are looking to find some dudes to join your clash mob, we’ve got that too.

[source]

I’m not sure exactly what the occasion is for this many great freebies available at one time, but, hey, whatever. Here are sixteen games that are all free for a limited time. Because of the potentially volatile nature of pricing on the App Store, you’re probably better off just going down this list and mashing the download button instead of waiting for later in case they go back to being paid:

• Baby Monkey (going backwards on a pig) [ Free ]
• Commander Cool [ Free ]
• Dawn of the Dead™ [ Free ]
• Deadlock: Online [ Free ]
• Final Freeway [ Free ]
• Ion Racer [ Free ]
• Jaws™ [ Free ]
• Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim [ Free ]
• Reflexions [ Free ]
• Rinth Island [ Free ]
• Scarface™ [ Free ]
• Time Ducks [ Free ]
• Towers N’ Trolls HD [ Free ]
• ZDAY Survival Simulator HD [ Free (HD)]
• Zombie Caves [ Free ]
• ZombieRunnerZ [ Free ]

Don’t miss Time Ducks and Final Freeway, which are my two favorite games from the list. Heck, don’t miss any of them. Be sure you grab The 7th Guest too.

[source]

If you’ve been on the hunt for an incredibly elaborate fantasy-centric free to play sideways version of something along the lines of Bust-A-Move [ $4.99 ], the guys behind Pro Zombie Soccer [$0.99 / $1.99 (HD)] totally have your back. As it turns out, that game description sounds totally up my alley, and something tells me, after watching the trailer, you’ll be sold too:

The guys from Super Awesome Hyper Dimensional Mega Team are very active in our forums fielding questions, but what we know so far is the game will be universal, sport 15-20 hours of gameplay, feature cooperative multiplayer, and tons more. They’ve described the free to play system as being similar to games like Jetpack Joyride [ Free ] which sounds great to me.

The developers aren’t getting any more specific with release dates than “soon,” but I’ve got my fingers crossed they mean “coming soon” as in, “very soon.”

[source]