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We’re back with another BONUS episode of the TouchArcade Show. This week, Phil Larsen from Halfbrick joins us in an hour-long discussion. Unlike our previous bonus episodes, this isn’t a strict interview. Instead, Phil, myself, and Eli talk about whatever floats into our heads as we gently move from topic to topic. I think Pokemon, actually, ends up being the thing we stick on for the longest, but we also dive into Machinegun Jetpack, free-to-play versus premium, Microsoft’s Kinect, our fake iOS-centric E3 idea, and Australian beer. Like I said, this isn’t a traditional bonus episode.

Want to give it a listen? Fantastic! You can do so just below via direct download or by stream. If you’d like to subscribe to us on iTunes or Zune Marketplace, you can also do so. Heck, you could even rate us there if you want!

iTunes Link: The TouchArcade Show
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RSS Feed: The TouchArcade Show
Direct Link: TouchArcadeShow-Bonus-004.mp3, 34MB

In previous episodes we’ve featured music from Jim Guthrie and then music from the developer we’re speaking with. This week is strictly Jim Guthrie. The theme song is "Audio Pepsi" off the album A Thousand Songs. You can buy the entire album or stream all its songs on Guthrie's Web site. Guthrie is also responsible for the Sword & Sworcery [$4.99] soundtrack, which we used in this episode to break up some of the talk. You can give Halfbrick a visit at its official Web site here or via Facebook and Twitter.

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For quite some time now we have been tracking Manomio's upcoming iAmiga emulation system for iOS, designed as a sort of wrapper or delivery vehicle to bring licensed Amiga games to the App Store. At the end of last year, we posted an exclusive preview of the in-development system, including a demo video showing a number of classic test titles running quite well on an iPhone 4. One of the titles we played with back then was Cinemaware's classic 1986 strategy game, Defender of the Crown. I'm happy to report that this well-loved, fully-licensed title will be the first iAmiga-powered game to land in the App Store, and that Manomio CEO Stuart Carnie was kind enough to grant us exclusive access to a near-release build of the game.

First, let me say a little bit about the game, for those that may be unfamiliar. Defender of the Crown is a strategy game set in medieval England. The player takes on the role of any of four Saxon knights in a bid to defeat the Norman invaders and fill the vacant throne of England. The original game manual, which is packed with historical information, tells the story well.

IT IS A TIME OF LEGENDS. A time for heroes. A time of bitter strife, when great men rise above their peers to perform great deeds. A chapter of history is in the making.

Your liege the king is dead, the throne vacant. Britain enters a season of destruction, a winter of killing that can end only when the last brave Saxon knight lies dead or the castles of the Normans lie in heaps of rubble, emptied of the foul oppressors who have enslaved your people.

It is a time when foreign invaders shall learn truths administered by the shining blades of Saxon swords. It is a time when heroes are made, and legends are born.

The game is centered around a Risk-style map of England on which the player builds and deploys troops in an effort to defend home territories and take land occupied by the Normans. The struggle involves field combat, castle raids (with catapults, even), jousting, rescuing damsels in distress, and the like. While some of the action is quite involved — jousting is a first-person affair, for instance — other portions of it are more high-level strategy, i.e. click attack, watch the stats columns update. The whole thing is laid out like a very interactive board game, as opposed to something more intricate and vast, such as the more recent Warcraft III or Starcraft II. It is 25 years old, after all.

Even though Defender of the Crown is now 25, the pixel artwork of the talented and renowned Jim Sachs is still lovely to behold — and I don't think I'm talking through my retro blinders, there. Given that, I wanted to share an excerpt from Brian Bagnall's excellent book On the Edge: the Spectacular Rise and Fall of Commodore, to help convey just how actually jarring an experience it was to see the game for the first time back in 1986.

[Amiga co-creator R.J.] Mical saw artist Jim Sachs push the Amiga to its full potential. "Jim Sachs, what a God he is," marvels Mical. "Jim Sachs is amazing. These days everyone sees graphics like that because there are a lot of really good computer graphics artists now, but back then, 20 years ago, it was astonishing to have someone that good."

The final game was a landmark in video game production values. As game designer Bob Lindstrom recalls, "The shock of seeing Defender for the first time was one of those experiences that changed the gaming stakes for all of us."

Compared to other video games of the time, Defender of the Crown established a new level of quality. IBM had Kings Quest by Sierra On-Line, a decent but primitive adventure game. The Macintosh had games like Checkers or Backgammon, or board games like Risk. Defender of the Crown had richer graphics than any computer, console, or even arcade game could boast in 1986. It was a revelation.

That's not to say that the game shined so brightly on every one of the numerous platforms to which it was ported. While the Amiga original is unquestionably the most visually impressive of the lot, there's room for debate as to which version looks the worst. And, happily for iOS users, it's the Amiga version that will soon be landing in the App Store.

Being a faithfully emulated version of the original, Defender of the Crown for iOS brings with it the Amiga's mouse-based controls, and Manomio has done a good job of making that work with the iPad's touchscreen. In order to interact with items on the screen or aim the jousting lance, the screen becomes basically a large trackpad, with a pointer that can be dragged or clicked (tapped) to get things done. As a full-time user of Apple's large Magic Trackpad, I very quickly got accustomed to the interaction, there. In a number of situations, a direct tap on this or that item on the screen would be preferable to dragging the pointer about, true, but I think it's important to remember that this is an emulated title that is being made available to iOS gamers thanks to the iAmiga system. A ground-up rewrite of a classic from years past — and the likelihood of that occurring — is an entirely different proposition, from many angles. I think there's much to be enjoyed about Defender of the Crown on iOS, just as it is.

Have a look at a bit of gameplay on the iPad 2 from the latest build of the game.

Stuart indicates that right now the game is feature complete and all that's left is to finalize the in-game documentation. Defender of the Crown for iOS is a Universal application supporting the iPhone 3GS, 3rd gen iPod touch, iPad, or better. It should arrive in the App Store in about two weeks and we'll be sure to let readers know when they can start to have fun storming the castles.

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A new studio founded by a duo of veterans responsible for titles like XCOM as well as a smattering of other originals like BioShock, Fallout: Tactics, and Freedom Force, have announced its first game, Epoch. It’s an arena-based, gesture-controlled cover shooter built with Unreal 3 for iOS devices. As you’d imagine, it looks beautiful — in that weird, post-apocalyptic desolate kind of way.

The premise of Epoch revolves around the mystery of civilization’s demise. You play as a robot soldier who reboots to find its world in shambles and, of course, patrolled by other robots who’d like nothing more than dig into your metallic innards. The official site for the game describes the combat as a mix of “intuitive finger swipes” and fast decision-making. I’m not sure how either of those things will translate to what we're seeing so far, so I’ve gotten in touch. Regardless, Epoch doesn’t appear as if it’ll come off as anymore casual than Infinity Blade [$5.99].

The game is set for a release later this year and, apparently, precise information on that is coming down the pipe. We’ll be keeping our eyes out for that information, as well the IP as a whole, as development continues.

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As of yesterday, the App Store has been online for three years. Crazy, right? I remember downloading my first apps on my O. G. iPhone standing in line outside of the Apple Store for the iPhone 3G which launched the following day. I'm not entirely sure what the first thing I downloaded was, but I'm pretty sure it was a solitaire game– Mind blowing, I know.

Anyway, as I've mentioned on our podcast, iOS developers seem to use any holiday, anniversary, of vaguely related event to hold a sale. Pangea Software is using the third anniversary of the App Store to… give away all their games for free. They've got an awesome catalog, and this seems substantially more appropriate than say, Father's Day sales.

The best thing to do is to head over to the Pangea Software listing on iTunes. I'd say it's safe to just download everything but be sure to grab Enigmo 2 as it's my favorite game of theirs. After 8:00 PM Central tonight all of these games are going to go up to 99¢, which is a good deal, but obviously not as good of a deal as free.

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It feels like a long shot, but there’s a chance we could see Octodad 2 on the iPad. The Young Horses, an incorporated branch of the original Depaul Game Experience crew, has revealed that it’s working on a follow-up to the original, and depending on how the funding fairs, we could see  additional projects like a motion-controlled console port, a booth for gaming conventions like PAX, and a possible iPad port.

Octodad is a curious third-person PC and Mac adventure game that has you, as the eponymous character, masquerading as a human and constructing a mannequin so you can avoid having dinner with your wife. The overall goal is to never be suspected as anything less than a loving, human husband, which is harder than it sounds. Movement in particular is abstract. You use a combination of thrusts and button presses with the mouse in order to plant on foot in front of the other recreating, somewhat, the gait of a human.

I’m… cautiously optimistic about how the movement mechanics in particular will translate to the iPad, but I’d love to see it despite the questions that I have. The Kickstarter page for Octodad 2 features the following video that teases some of what you’ll see in the sequel.

No firm release date for Octodad 2 has been noted. You can bide your time with the original, for free, at the game's official web site.

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Back in March, I felt luckier than a field of four leaf clovers when I was among the first to see Fruit Ninja [$.99 / HD] creator Halfbrick’s latest side-scrolling title, Machinegun Jetpack. It’s a mix of infinite runner and shooter like Monster Dash [$.99 / HD]. Heck, it even stars that game’s hero, Barry Streakfries. Where it departs is where it draws its namesake: during the entirety of the experience, you’ll be strapped to a jetpack that spews bullets.

Back at the event in San Francisco that March, I was told that the game should have been out about… well, right now. I have an update on that: Halfbrick says that the target is now late August, and it’ll definitely hit within the next two months. The team inside Halfbrick on the game is doing a final critical pass, adding in features and tweaking the existing ones for the best possible experience.

I’ve also been told — and you’ll hear this later in the podcast this afternoon, if you’re into our audio — that Machinegun Jetpack will support IAP. As you play, you’ll receive coins that you can exchange in “The Stash,” which is a place that operates as an item and upgrade shop. With IAP, you’ll be able to buy more coins with real cash or, if you want a little bit more of a challenge, buy a machine that doubles the coins you collect organically.

Before you jump out of your seat, Halfbrick realizes that IAP can shred game balance, so it's designing the game for people who aren’t going to purchase coins from The Stash. The IAP is just a way people can earn and use faster. Think of it like a cheat code of sorts — a cheat code that costs money.

Anyway, Machinegun Jetpack will still debut as a Universal app with Game Center at 99 cents. I'm still trying to figure out what I'm going to do with myself until it hits.

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Last year, Capcom raised the bar for traditional fighting games on the touch screen with Street Fighter IV [$4.99], and a couple of weeks ago they upped their game again by releasing Street Fighter IV Volt [$6.99] with online multiplayer. To a lesser degree, we’ve also seen Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 [99¢/HD] on the App Store, and although quirky and rough around the edges it still offered up a decent portable experience for fans of that series. With SNK Playmore’s recently released The King of Fighters-i [$7.99], we now have all the major players of the mid-90s 2D arcade fighter rivalry once again battling it out with each other, this time on the App Store.

While SNK’s various fighting franchises all had a pretty dedicated following, it was always the Street Fighters and Mortal Kombats of the world that stole the mainstream spotlight. Now here, more than a decade later on iOS, SNK Playmore has brought their A-game for a shot at the iOS fighting crown. And true to its namesake, The King of Fighters-i takes that crown by elevating touch screen fighters to the next level. It’s missing the marquee feature of online multiplayer that Street Fighter IV Volt can boast about, but when it comes to control responsiveness, speed, performance, visuals, animations, and approachability, The King of Fighters-i tops the competition.

The King of Fighters-i is based off of the newest entry in the franchise, The King of Fighters XIII which hit arcades last Summer and is slated for a home console release this October. The game comes with 14 playable characters, and anybody who knows the King of Fighters series knows that that is just a fraction of the monstrous roster of total available fighters. But it’s a decent start, and all of the included characters are interesting and fun to use. Plus, SNK Playmore states in the game’s description that 6 additional characters will be coming by October in free updates, most likely in time to coincide with the console release of the game.

The meat of The King of Fighters-i lies in the 4 single player modes. First, there is the traditional arcade mode lets you engage in the 3-on-3 team battles that are a staple of the series or regular 1-on-1 matches. Then there is an endless mode which is your typical game of survival as you face off against as many consecutive opponents as you can using just one gauge of life, which gets refilled slightly in between rounds. Finally, there is an excellent training mode which not only lets you spar against a computer opponent with many adjustable parameters but also features a fantastic combo training section that will teach you how to pull off some of the extensive combos in the game, some of which are incredibly elaborate.

As for controls, The King of Fighters-i is set up very much like Street Fighter on iOS, right down to the virtual controls which can be placed anywhere on the screen that’s to your liking. Despite the similarities though, The King of Fighters-i controls come out on top, and feel a notch above Street Fighter in terms of overall responsiveness. There's a punch and kick button, a button for evading, one dedicated to simplified special moves, and a fifth button used for entering a hyper state when one of your special meters is filled. These special meters also allow you to do super and EX moves. All of this is explained well in the tutorial that gets you off an running with the basics without much hassle.

The one big feature I love about the controls here is the inclusion of simplified special moves. This allows specials to be pulled off just by hitting a direction along with the dedicated special moves button. For someone like me who isn’t as intimately familiar with each character’s move sets, this allows me to use any character on a whim and not have to worry about constantly checking a move list in the pause screen and trying to memorize their special moves. It really encourages using and exploring different characters rather than the ones I’m normally comfortable with, and also makes the game a bit more playable with virtual controls.

At this point, the bones of The King of Fighters-i seem fairly comparable to other entries in the genre, but it’s in the overall execution where the game really outshines its opponents. The first thing you will notice is that The King of Fighters-i is much faster than other fighting games on the App Store. The action can get really fast-paced, but thanks to the excellent controls it’s not a problem to keep up. Also, I’ve never ran into so much as a stutter in frame rate while playing, and load times are lightening quick.

Graphically, the game is pretty incredible. It contains static backgrounds similar to Street Fighter IV, which is kind of a bummer, but the backgrounds in The King of Fighters-i are much crisper and more vibrant than the drab, fuzzy ones found in Capcom’s offering. Where the game really stands out visually is in the amazing hand-drawn sprites which are animated so fluidly it almost feels like you're watching a cartoon. The character sprites are a bit jagged around the edges, but you’ll hardly notice once you see them in motion. The animations, to me, are what make The King of Fighters-i feel the most like an actual console fighter as opposed to just a mobile version of one.

With all the things there are to love about The King of Fighters-i, there’s still one big thing missing which is the lack of online multiplayer. This might normally have been forgiven on a platform like the iPhone, but since Street Fighter IV Volt just proved that it’s possible to pull off and will likely only get better in the future, it’s something I’d like to have in a fighter. There is a local Bluetooth multiplayer mode, but in my limited testing the  performance seemed fairly sluggish. Still, I appreciate its inclusion and hope that SNK Playmore will explore more options for multiplayer in the future.

As a single player experience though, The King of Fighters-i has a lot to offer. The several arcade modes and combo training alone will keep you busy for some time, not to mention the Game Center leaderboards and achievements, but there’s also a really great collectible component to the game. Coins can be earned while playing the various modes and then spent in an in-game shop on things like concept and promotional art as well as collectible character cards. There are also different pre-fight dialogues for every character matchup in the game, which is a cool little detail if you have any vested interest in the various story elements of the characters. Luckily, it can also be disabled in the options if you choose so as not to slow down the matches starting.

I really can't find much fault in The King of Fighters-i apart from a lack of online multiplayer. If that ever comes into the picture it will just be icing on what is already a very delicious single player cake. Players in our forums have been raving about The King of Fighters-i since release, and as far as iOS fighters are concerned it’s raised the bar significantly against the competition, including the mighty Street Fighter.

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Way back in early to mid 2009, we were at the height of top-down dual-stick Geometry Wars-style space shooter releases. It seemed like every week or two there was another new one to check out, and although they each had their own sets of strengths and weaknesses, the vast majority offered up pretty compelling arcade experiences that were perfectly suited to the platform.

Among the many great dual-stick shooters available was Occurro! [Free] from developer Acceleroto. Occurro! was released in July of ’09 and one of the things that set it apart from similar titles that were available at the time was its excellent controls, something that we noted when we reviewed the game.

Then about a year ago, the release of iOS 4 brought a sound problem that affected Occurro! and the developer pulled the game from the App Store with the intention of solving the problem. Well, additional projects and pesky “real life” got in the way and kept pushing the bug fix farther down the original timeline. At long last, the sound engine was reworked and last week Occurro! was officially re-released along with a bunch of other improvements.

First off, the old leaderboard system was ditched in favor of both OpenFeint and Game Center support for online high score and achievement tracking. The game also now supports multitasking and has received a decent graphical improvement in the explosion and particle effects department. The maximum number of enemies onscreen has also been increased for even more action, and many other minor tweaks and fixes have tightened up the overall experience.

Best of all is that Occurro! is now entirely free to download and play. There are no ads, no in-app purchases, and no plans to increase the price in the future. Acceleroto just wants to put the game out there for people to enjoy and hopefully spread the brand name around for a possible future release. As my mother once taught me, you never look a gift game in the mouth, and for the price of free you should definitely give Occurro! a try if you fancy a solid dual-stick arcade game.

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This week in another splendid episode of TAS, we discuss a lot of different stuff. Puppies and big quads leads off the discussion, as Jared paints us a word picture of his visit to EA HQ in Redmond, CA. Later, we dive into the games he saw at the event and the news that broke during it, and we also find the time to talk about beards, F2P, rat infested trees, and the hottest games on our minds.

Captain America even rears his red, white, and blue head in a podcast that tends to go off the rails at the oddest of times.

You can listen just below, of course, via direct download or stream. You could also give us a listen via the iTunes podcast aisle or the Zune Marketplace, as doing so awards more experience points than streaming it especially if you rate us. (And very well might be part of the iTunes podcast featuring voodoo!)

iTunes Link: The TouchArcade Show
Zune Marketplace: TouchArcade.com Podcasts
RSS Feed: The TouchArcade Show
Direct Link: TouchArcadeShow-007.mp3, 50MB

Need some show notes? We got your back. Below you’ll find all the relevant links to our discussion topics, including reviews to some of the games we talked about. Convenient!

GAMES

• Swords & Soldiers [$2.99 / HD]
• iCade, The Dungeon Saga [$1.99 / HD]
• DeathSmiles [$4.99 / Lite]

FRONT PAGE

• Origin for iOS Revealed
• Realm of the Mad God On Mobile? It Could Happen
• Pokemon Coming To The App Store
• F2P Revenue Overtakes Premium In App Store

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If you're anything like me, you've been wondering, "When in the world is Rocketcat Games going to release something that doesn't rely on a swinging mechanic?" Don't get me wrong, HookChamp, Super QuickHook, and Hook Worlds are all fantastic games, but I doubt I'm alone in looking forward to what Rocketcat would release outside of the hook and swing world. We're getting a first real glimpse at their next game today, Mage Gauntlet, which seems to be a beautifully pixelated homage to the classic action RPG games of yore.

Check out some screenshots:

The real awesomeness is contained inside of the trailer:

Details are a little vague right now, but Mage Gauntlet is built around a "more action, less grinding" quest philosophy centralized around the main character, Lexi. You're looking to become a wizard's apprentice, and your journey starts out with a quest to prove yourself. Equipped with a magical gauntlet, Lexi is able to absorb and launch magical energy. The spell system involves destroying "certain objects" to power-up your gauntlet with a completely randomized spell. You can hold four at a time, and these are accessible through a menu.

There's a full loot and leveling system complete with character customization through three different stats that you can build your character with. 50 levels will be included with release, along with an unlockable additional game mode. More levels and modes are planned after release. Oh, and there's boss fights, loads of different enemies, and lots of secrets and achievements. Scoreboards aren't initially included, but the future game modes I mentioned will introduce them.

Mage Gauntlet will be priced at $2.99, with an initial $1.99 sale. Like other RocketCat games, early buyers will get a pack of hats to customize your character with as well as a in-game pet that follows you around. We'll be following the release of this game closely, and hope to have a full preview in the next couple weeks.

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