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Swordigo [$1.99] shouldn’t be as refreshing as it is. We were playing through better hack and slash adventures twenty years ago. But the genre has stumbled en route to the App Store, and we’ve been left waiting for a classic of the mobile era. Swordigo might just be the one.

Touch Foo is building a reputation for impressive games. Soosiz [$1.99 / HD], the studio’s first release won our hearts with a combination of novel design and great controls. Swordigo has all the things you’d expect from a good hack-n-slash: boss battles, sword combat, spell slinging, character upgrades and a ton of exploration. We’ve seen it all before. So why is it so utterly satisfying?

Scarcity is part of the reason. But Touch Foo has done more than create a game in an under-represented niche. It’s done an outstanding job of building it in the process.

From the controls to the upgrade mechanics, nearly everything in Swordigo works better than you might expect. On-screen directional controls are so often awkward, but they’re flawless here. In the eight hours I spent with the game I only bungled one or two jumps with my hand out of place, a better than reasonable margin of error. And that eight hours of content? That’s just for the main game. If you’re inclined to hunt down every last treasure chest (and earn the related Game Center achievement), expect to put in more time.

The art might be a problem for some. I’ve never been comfortable with Touch Foo’s style. The critters and character design in Soosiz grated on me, and the transition to 2.5D hasn’t helped. The environments are decent if repetitive, but it would be generous to say the character models have the detail of a Playmobil figure. You might be inclined to skip the game because of that. Don’t. The hero looks better as the game goes on, and you won’t notice the look when you’re knee deep in rock-solid gameplay.

You also shouldn’t look to this game for an original story—Swordigo goes well beyond nodding to Link and his crew. I’m not saying that like it’s a bad thing—it’s a charming homage, and it’s also unobtrusive. Touch Foo clearly spent its time elsewhere, designing an impressive platforming experience and a fun set of customizable upgrades. Some of the latter can be bought with the not-rupees dropped by enemies and unsuspecting bushes. Others are found tucked away in secret treasure chests.

Early on, there isn’t much to do. You’ll have a sword and a jump button and can only do so much with the combination. But your toolbox expands as the game’s four spells are introduced. Three can be used against enemies, and all four let you interact with the environment in new ways. You can shoot switches with your magic bolts or blow up hidden walls with bombs. Boss fights take advantage of those abilities, and there are unique challenges in nearly every new area. Because of this, Swordigo stays novel for its entire length, never relying on familiar tactics for long.

If a challenge can be defeated using spells or objects from the environment, the game plays beautifully. Sword combat, on the other hand, is a bit stiff. Your attacks run in a pattern, and you’ll often need an overhead swing at just the moment you slash forward. Enemies seem designed to exploit that weakness in the most frustrating ways, firing just over your sword’s reach or swooping down and hitting you in the face. Thankfully death is rarely a problem—falling takes you back to the last ledge with a sliver of health lost, while anything more permanent drops you at the most recent checkpoint. You can also teleport between checkpoints, so it’s trivial to take a trip back to town to shop or heal.

So while there are frustrations and a handful of small bugs, they’re blips in a solid eight hours of entertainment. Whether it ends up as a hidden gem or a genuine hit, Swordigo will have earned its place in any number of hearts. Touch Foo may be treading familiar ground, but it does so with great skill. If you’re up for a good old fashioned adventure, this is where you want to be. You might also want to be in our forums—it’s dangerous to go alone.

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If you’ve been whining for an extra bits update in 1-Bit Ninja [$1.99 / Lite], you can stop now. DogByte Games has you covered on that front, as its new ninja game, creatively titled 8-Bit Ninja, has SEVEN MORE BITS. That’s, like, a lot.

Seriously, though, you should check this out. Taking place in a world where ninjas have tournaments that don’t involve men with metal plates stapled to their heads, you play as a variety of tiny ninjas tasked with evading fruit after a demonstration of ninja-ness goes sideways. We’ve got some footage just below:

8-Bit Ninja will be free and it’s due out at some point next month. We’re going to bring you more on it in the near future, for sure.

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There’s never been a better time than now to jump into Kode 80’s 1-Bit Ninja [$1.99 / Lite]. A free Lite version of the game is now available on the App Store, giving users a taste of the full arcade-oriented, perspective-jostling experience. Specifically, it rocks five of the game’s first levels.

Here’s another reason: the game’s first major content update since its debut in 2011 is now out, too. The newly-introduced World 5 picks up right where World 4 had left us wanting more, and, as a bonus, this update also packs in a nifty custom checkpoint feature. Kode 80 says this takes the edge off some of the trickiest sections. I’ve been having trouble in the first level, so, uh, here’s to finally seeing that one through.

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Talk about radical news: Beamdog and Overhaul Games‘ Baldur’s Gate Enhanced Edition for iPad will support multiplayer. Also, publisher Beamdog isn’t looking to kill your wallet. Kotaku is reporting that it’ll launch this summer for under $10.

We still don’t know a lot about this version, which seems crazy since this it’s one of the most anticipated releases in 2012. We do have a few more interesting tidbits for you, though: the game will rock an enhanced version of the game’s original Infinity Engine, and is set to sport a new character and adventure. The Tales of the Sword expansion is also a part of the package from the get-go.

We’ll be talking with Overhaul games soon, so feel free to drop any questions or comments you have under this post. We proudly accept all froms of “what” and various statements containing disbelief, excitement, or extreme nerd-ery.

[via Kotaku]

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Finnish studio Futuremark Games Studio has a new owner: Rovio Mobile, the creators of Angry Birds. In an announcement today, Rovio announced the acquisition of FGS, but it didn’t disclose what the studio will be doing for its new owner. It also didn’t talk about what it paid, though that’s pretty standard.

This is an interesting buy on a couple of levels. Futuremark was once a two-studio company. One was a 3D benchmarking studio, the other made passable games like, say, Unstoppable Gorg [$4.99 / Free]. Rovio has acquired the latter as opposed to the former, and its allowing the main arm retain all of its game studios’ known IP. Futuremark will be able to make sequels, then.

The PC version of Unstoppable Gorg.

In a press release, Rovio says that this is all just a part of its “rapid expansion in entertainment, publishing, animation, and retail.” Rovio plans to “continue to focus on seeking out the world’s best talent to join its team.”

Futuremark, by the way, will continue with benchmarks. In a statement we received, Futuremark says that it will churn out a new version of 3DMark this year that will “allow a direct comparison of gaming performance across” various OSes and form factors. That sounds… fun.

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Here’s a story that has multiple layers of coolness, or, as Shrek would say (Yeah, I’m going there.) it’s like an onion. It all started back in September of last year at the 360iDev conference. 360iDev, in case you haven’t heard of it, is a great get-together for iOS developers because it’s still small enough that you can attend it and actually have a pretty good chance of meeting everyone there instead of just falling into the sea of people that show up for a massive convention like GDC. One of the things they seem to do at every 360iDev is a game jam, or, a marathon game development session where developers crank out workable games from start to finish overnight.

TUAW’s Mike Schramm attended the last one, but, instead of covering it for the site he decided to jump right in and build his own game. He blogged the whole thing, which I’ve found to be incredibly interesting to see what it’s like when a blogger jumps to the other side of the fence, so to speak. At events like these, we’re used to just showing up, hanging out, pestering whoever we can, and saying peace out… Not actually slogging through the whole gam jam process and coming out with an workable product entitled Antithesis [ ].

Original concept sketch on the left, final screenshot on the right.

The concept for the game is cool too. It’s a Pong battle, so to speak, where you control a black paddle and defend against a stream of black balls, while an AI-controlled white paddle does the same. The line in the middle shifts back and forth between both sides depending on who is playing better in a series of waves. Like most game jam titles, it isn’t the deepest game in the world, but it’s really cool reading the whole process and seeing the game in various stages of development then finally playing the end product.

Game Jam photo courtesy of RetroDreamer.

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What’s the next thing on Ravenous Games‘ plate? Spoiler: it’s not another League of Evil. Allow us to introduce you to Burger Cat, a side-scrolling 2D puzzle / platform game that’ll revolve around an unnamed cat and his epic quest to find “his delicious destination.” Ravenous says the title, which is nearly done and should launch as a Universal app some point this April, features 60 levels and several different kinds of puzzles: tools such as decoys, springs, and even umbrellas will see you through.

We’ve included the images in this post that Ravenous dropped on our message board, but you might want to swing by that thread anyway. The studio is asking our community to help it name the cat, and you’re more than welcome to throw a suggestion its way. We’ve been screaming “Dr. Meow Meow” at our screens for the last hour. It might not make sense, but c’mon.

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At the beginning of February, the team behind the action platformer Terra Noctis [99¢] announced their new iOS project called Spellsword (no relation to Rocketcat’s upcoming game). After dishing out scant details for Spellsword in our forums, the team has been quiet for the last month or so while toiling away at the project. Today they’ve sent along the first video for Spellsword that finally shows the game in action.

The core gameplay in Spellsword is arcade-style action platforming similar to Super Crate Box [$1.99], but with lots of cool upgradeable items like hats, rings, amulets, and special powers. It will also be more structured and goal-oriented than SCB with 90 missions slated for the release version as well as unlockable endless arenas. It’s looking pretty sweet so far, and it sounds like Spellsword is very near its completion, so expect to hear a release date sometime in the near future.

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When Hunters: Episode One hit the scene almost a year ago, we were impressed with its solid gameplay and daily mission structure. With Hunters 2 [$4.99], Rodeo Games looks to expand on the success of the original with additional content while attempting to address some of the shortfalls of the original. While Hunters 2 has its share of nagging problems, there are more than enough improvements to the core gameplay to make this sequel worthwhile.

As expected, gameplay in Hunters 2 is comparable to its predecessor. Players still deploy and guide hunters through a variety of environments (complete with fog of war), taking out opposing forces in furtherance of hitting mission objectives (which typically involve defending an objective, reaching a marker or just taking out all forces). Both the leveling and equipment systems return, offering a variety of different ways to upgrade your hunters. Also making a return is the daily mission hub, offering new contracts with different maps and objectives every day. At this point, Hunters 2 offers more of a ‘tried-and-true’ approach to turn-based strategy, leaving little to error or imagination.

While the gameplay is mostly similar, Hunters 2 does add a few new elements to the mix. In addition to fighting against other hunters, the game introduces a new alien race that has its own attack style. The aliens play a role in the new campaign mode, which finally offers a story experience to the Hunters world.  Hunters 2 also combines the previous Health/Armor system into simply Armor, streamlining weapon damage. A new crafting system also allows players to customize a wide variety of weapons (at a premium price). Permadeath also makes its debut, offering genre fans the opportunity for a more hardcore experience. Finally, the sequel overhauls the talent system, providing a great deal more customization for individual hunters.

This new upgrade system is at the heart of the Hunter 2 changes. Hunters are assigned two of six possible talent trees, which provide perks ranging from additional benefits while guarding to increased weapon damage and armor protection. Players can hire new hunters with different talent trees, although only a limited amount of hunters are available to hire at any one time (hunters for hire cycle every few hours with the rest of the in-game shop).

Level design has also improved in Hunters 2, with a bit more variety in environment and size. However, I still noticed that some of the tile sets appear to be recycled from the first Hunters. Visuals are also well done, with fast, fluid animations (although I think retina support for the new iPad would have been a nice addition). However, I did encounter a strange lighting bug that would completely wash out the environment colors and make the game very bright.

One feature that is sorely missing in Hunters 2 is the inclusion of iCloud support. Considering the amount of investment you can have with building up your team in terms of loot and stats, I really would have liked the ability to move saves between different iOS devices. This is especially true since Hunters 2 plays great on both iPad and iPhone.

Despite its inclusion of a story-driven campaign, plot is still somewhat lacking in Hunters 2. The number of set missions is incredibly small and the tale being told lacks any kind of narrative punch to serve as motivation for continuing the campaign. Granted, some gamers will undoubtedly not care about a story, but I just found it a little disappointing.

Still, despite my above complaints, Hunters 2 continues to do a great job preserving the core gameplay mechanics of Episode One. The leveling system and large variety of weapons keep me coming back  to play missions simply to earn more gold and experience to refine my hunters. Also, the loot system and daily mission structure do a great job promoting replayability. As mentioned above, there’s nothing new or particularly innovative, but it’s still implemented well.

It goes without saying that fans of Hunters: Episode One will have a great time with Hunters 2. The tweaks to the leveling and upgrade systems do a great job streamlining gameplay while the inclusion of an actual campaign and additional difficulty options are welcome additions. While the incremental upgrades probably won’t win over gamers that weren’t fans of the original, Hunters 2 still offers a compelling turn-based strategy experience.

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Just a quick heads up to let you know that Noodlecake Games has made two of their iOS titles free for a limited time. First up is Lunar Racer [Free], a side-scrolling 2D racer that feels like a mashup of Excitebike and Mario Kart. The physics are crazy, due to being on the Moon and all, and Lunar Racer is a frantic arcade experience due to just how easily the tides can turn during a race.

There’s also a whole host of unlockable items to trick out your ride with, as well as 12 different lunar tracks to race on. Finally, there’s a local multiplayer mode over Bluetooth or WiFi that is a total blast if you have a friend handy with another copy of the game. You can read about that and more in our review of Lunar Racer, but since it’s free you might as well just go grab it anyway and find out how it is for yourself.

The other title Noodlecake is currently offering for free is the excellent Super Stickman Golf [Free]. It’s been free a few times before, but that is definitely no reason not to grab it if you haven’t already. Super Stickman Golf is what happens when you combine the trajectory-based mechanics of an artillery style game like Worms with the rules of golf. The results are spectacular. Super Stickman Golf offers a crazy amount of single player courses to play through, and a bunch of special “power-up” golf balls to use that give you unique abilities like sticking your ball to a surface or causing it to stop suddenly and drop right out of midair.

Despite all of this single player goodness, perhaps the biggest draw of Super Stickman Golf is its fantastic online multiplayer mode, which we covered when it first hit. It’s a ridiculous amount of fun and is easily one of the finest real-time multiplayer experiences I’ve had on iOS. Needless to say, make sure to grab both Super Stickman Golf and Lunar Racer while they’re currently free if you’re a fan of not paying anything for good games.

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