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Spy vs. Spy originated as a comic in Mad Magazine back in the ’60s, it was created into a home computer game in 1984 and subsequently ported to just about every console imaginable. And now, according to the ridiculously vague teaser image that made its way into our inbox, it appears that Spy vs. Spy is heading to the App Store. It doesn’t explicitly say as much, but the developer attached to the project, Robots & Pencils, is a known iOS developer, so it sure seems like a pretty safe bet.

The original Spy vs. Spy game offered an interesting 2-player same-screen gaming experience that saw each player trying to catch the other in different kinds of booby traps carefully hidden amongst the various rooms of an embassy. I can definitely see this being a ton of fun on the iPad, especially with that big screen and touch controls. There is really no other information on this potential iOS Spy vs. Spy, but I’d expect that we’ll be hearing a lot more about it in the near future.

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The iPhone and iPad port of Interwave Studios’ endless runner rComplex [$1.99] hit the App Store with a tremendous thud last week, as it failed to provide its users with the tools to succeed in the game’s artistically gifted world. On top of needing powers that Professor Xavier would find fascinating just to avoid the game’s obstacles, players had to deal with slow animations and bogus collisions. These problems have been addressed, however, in a hip, new patch. And, hey, the game’s is totally playable now.

Version 1.2 of rComplex, which cleared Apple certification on March 24, pulls the game’s camera back a notch so you can see what you need to avoid without fancy psychic powers. Also, the jump animation has been improved alongside the game’s collision detection. In all, these fixes make rComplex a substantially better, and enjoyable, game. If the early reception kept you from taking the plunge, consider re-considering. Or something.

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As if you need another reminder to download Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP [$4.99 / $2.99 ] if you haven’t already, nominations for the 2012 Canadian Videogame Awards were just revealed and Sworcery was nominated for basically every category that even vaguely applies to the game. This includes game of the year, best game on the go, best downloadable game, best game design, best visual arts, best writing, best indie game, best original music, and… innovation award.

I have no doubts that the game will soak up at least some of those awards, which is just extra crazy when you look at the list of other games that were nominated. In your wildest dreams back when the App Store launched in mid-2008 did you ever think that four years later an iOS-exclusive indie-developed game would be standing toe to toe with massive budget AAA console titles for awards?

What a wild time to be a gamer.

Oh, and if this somehow is the first time you’ve heard of the game (really?) check out our review.

[via Gamasutra]

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Hey Daniel Johnston fans, there’s another Johnston-centric game on the App Store. Daniel Johnston’s Space Ducks [ Free (HD)] joins Hi, How Are You [$2.99 / Free ] with another look into his art and music. This time around, it’s much less of a game when compared to the puzzle elements of Hi, How Are You, and instead could be described as an “interactive comic book experience.”

Space Ducks is free, and as you play through it you slowly unlock all the songs from Johnston’s upcoming album. If you’ve never heard of Daniel Johnston, Hi, How Are You is likely a much better gateway drug than Space Ducks (Check out our review of Hi, How Are You.), but, either way, I dig these sort of gamified comic book apps.

Getting access to new music early (and for free) is just icing on the cake.

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Following the release of Portal 2 on Steam and home consoles came Geoff Keighley’s “The Final Hours of Portal 2″ [ $1.99 (HD)] which, as mentioned in our news post on its release provided a really cool highly interactive look behind the scenes of the game’s development. Well, Keighley is at it again, this time with the recently released Mass Effect 3. “The Final Hours of Mass Effect 3″ [ $2.99 (HD)] follows the same interactive magazine article approach as its Portal 2 predecessor, and provides a really cool behind the scenes look at the game’s development.

If you’re a Mass Effect fan, and you haven’t completely written off the series following the horrid ending of Mass Effect 3, you should give this app a look. New iPad owners should be aware that like most magazine-like apps out there right now, “The Final Hours of Mass Effect 3″ has yet to be optimized for the Retina Display. Some text looks pretty pixelated compared to the ultra-crisp text found in Retina-ready apps.

Seriously though, that ending. Yeesh.

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Sega’s Phantasy Star Online 2 won’t cost you a dollar — unless you’d like an item or two. Sega has announced that the upcoming sequel to the everyone’s favorite “light” MMO, Phantasy Star Online, will roll with the standard MMO free-to-play model, and charge users for select item transactions from its in-game store. Also, an iOS and Android version has been confirmed. Both are slated to hit at some point in “winter 2012,” according to Andriasang.

Keep your expectations in check, though: Sega has said that the phone versions of the game are simpler and will feature “social game elements,” on top of a basic character creation mechanism, and controls. These versions will be able to loosely communicate with the PC and Vita versions of the game, but the experiences won’t had across these platforms won’t be measuring up to each other.

Images via Andriasang.

The available intel on PSO2 still isn’t fantastic, as it seems like Sega is keeping its marketing efforts for the game contained to other regions. However, we do know that PSO2 will continue to offer the franchises’ specific blend of shooter-meets-brawler combat and offer instanced-based content. Oh, and Mags are totally coming back!

Footage of the Vita version.

[via Andriasang]

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In case there’s still a person out there who is shocked by the runaway success of the Angry Birds series, secure your monocle and try this news on for size: According to a recent tweet from Rovio, Angry Birds Space has been downloaded over ten million times in three days. Now, before you go multiplying that ten million by ninety nine cents, consider that Rovio has been historically vague with the platforms their download figures are from. Angry Birds Space launched as a 99¢ iPhone version, a $2.99 iPad version, and a free ad-supported Android version. Free versions of anything seem to be downloaded exponentially more than apps with a price tag, so it doesn’t seem that far out there to assume that a hefty chunk of those downloads came from the Android side of the fence, but still.

If you still haven’t downloaded Angry Birds Space for whatever reason, check out our review. The game is seriously just phenomenal, and as I’ve spent more time with the game I’ve been having an absolute blast attempting to three star the 99¢ IAP “Danger Zone” ultra-difficult levels. If anyone from Rovio is reading this, please keep releasing level packs like this. Heck, make ‘em more difficult, I dare you.

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At GDC earlier this month, one of my favorite upcoming games that I had a chance to play was Get Set Games’ Mega Run. They’ve taken Redford, the adorable main character from their hugely successful previous title Mega Jump [Free], and have dropped him into an auto-running game.

But, this isn’t just any boring, old auto-runner. Instead it’s literally bursting with items, power-ups, and enemies, not to mention its colorful visuals and loads of personality. Plus, it has incredibly well-designed levels with multiple pathways and tons of secrets to discover. It really is something you need to see in motion to appreciate. Which is fortunate for you, as Get Set has released a new gameplay video of Mega Run in action.

Mega Run is still in the final stages of development, and with any luck we should be seeing the title hit the App Store within the next month or two. After getting my hands on the preview version at GDC, I really can’t wait to spend some quality time with the final game. Keep your eyes firmly planted on this space and we’ll let you know just as soon as Mega Run gets a firm release date.

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Back in January, developer Spry Fox released Triple Town [Free], an iOS version of their immensely popular Kindle, Facebook, and Google+ matching game. Triple Town was widely loved by gamers and gaming critics, including our own 4.5 star review, and it was great to see a developer that was able to innovate so heavily in what has become a stagnant match-3 genre.

Since its release, Triple Town has received several updates, but they have mostly amounted to maintenance type stuff. Over the weekend, another new update was released, this time adding some very welcome new gameplay maps.

First is the City on a Lake map, which you can see in the screen below. This gives you the standard 6×6 grid found in the original mode only this time there is an L-shaped body of water smack dab in the middle. Obviously this is going to affect your strategy by limiting the amount of space you have to make matches, since the water is unusable space. It puts a nice challenging spin on the regular Triple Town formula.

The second new map is called Peaceful Valley, pictured below, and is a much friendlier, casual experience. It gives you a 5×5 map grid to work with, but here there are no bears or ninjas to muck up your carefully planned town layout. This is another nice departure from the original mode like City on a Lake is, only instead of being more challenging it’s actually much less challenging, and really lets you concentrate on thinking ahead and making smart matches instead of dealing with those pesky bears.

Aside from the big addition of two new maps, there are some minor tweaks in this update as well. High scores are now saved locally in addition to online through OpenFeint, and can be viewed from the options screen. There is also now an in-game orientation lock for people like me who like to get their game on while laying in bed. Finally, there are even more optimizations and bug fixes.

There is one tiny catch, though. The two new maps are only available for those who have paid to unlock unlimited turns from within the game. If you aren’t one of those people then there’s some good news for you: to celebrate the new update the unlimited turns IAP is on sale for $2.99. I paid the original $6.99 for Triple Town when it first came out and felt it was completely worth it, so from where I stand 3 bucks is a fantastic deal for one of the finest match-3 games available, even more so after this latest update.

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Bandai is looking to fuse the world of smartphones and virtual pets in a big way with their just announced “smart pet”, as reported by Macotakara. Some details are a bit fuzzy due to translation issues, but from what I can tell the smart pet sounds like a pretty interesting idea. An app is downloaded to your iPhone or iPod touch, and that acts as the face of your virtual pet. Your device then sits inside a robot dog body and connects to it through the headphone jack, allowing the two pieces to act as one so you can interact with the smart pet.

The smart pet uses the front facing camera on the iOS device to recognize and react to certain gestures, and there will be over 100 different kinds of expressions that the pet can make. There will also be support for importing your own photos of your pets (or whoever you want, really), and there will be some sort of Bluetooth connectivity to allow multiple smart pets to interact with each other. And, perhaps most important of all, your smart pet comes equipped with the ability to sneeze. Sounds adorable.

The smart pet app is on course for release in Japan on March 31st, and will be a free download. With just the app you’ll still be able to begin training and interacting with your virtual puppy, and it sounds like it will be a complete Tamagotchi-like experience all on its own even if you don’t spring for a plastic robot dog body. If you must have the full experience, the smart pet body will be available about a month after the app, but no details on pricing as of now.

Neither the app or the body have been confirmed for US release just yet, but we’ll keep an eye on the situation for our own curiosity, and so we can be prepared once the robot dogs decide to turn against humanity (you know it’s bound to happen).

[Via Macotakara]

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