TouchArcade.ru

One of our long-time favorites around the TouchArcade offices is Adult Swim’s Robot Unicorn Attack [99¢/HD], and to a lesser extent its siblings Robot Unicorn Attack Heavy Metal Edition [99¢] and Robot Unicorn Attack Christmas Edition [99¢]. I say “to a lesser extent” not because we don’t enjoy the gameplay as much in the latter two titles, mind you, but because it’s a scientifically proven fact that humans are incapable of enjoying any game more than one that runs Erasure’s Always on an endless loop as its soundtrack, even if the gameplay is identical in each game. You can’t argue with science.

Anyway, Adult Swim Games has just released new updates for the regular Robot Unicorn Attack as well as Heavy Metal Edition which add Retina Display optimized visuals into the games. This is something I’ve personally wanted ever since the release of the iPhone 4, and I’ve heard many requests from other users since then as well. But, it appears that it wasn’t as simple as just flipping a switch to enable Retina Display in these games. Much of the artwork looks to have been redrawn and reworked, which could explain the delay in bringing these updates to market. You can see before and after examples in the screens below (click to enlarge):

At any rate, they both look fantastic now. It’s a huge step up from the blurry, jagged visuals Retina Display device owners have been enduring for the past year or so. The Christmas Edition version of the game has not been updated, and it isn’t clear if there are any plans to do so. But, with Christmas looming next month, perhaps Santa has a graphical update waiting in the wings for our Rudolph-costumed unicorn? We’ll have to wait and see, but in the meantime, be sure to update your copies of Robot Unicorn Attack vanilla and Heavy Metal Edition and enjoy the new eyeball-scorching crispness.

[source]

Luke Schneider’s awesome take on Space Invaders, Super Crossfire [$.99 / UHD], is now bigger than ever thanks to an early November update. Version 1.1 specifically adds a new “dark mode” that includes 150 harder waves complete with new backgrounds and a “new perspective” on the game’s story. Super Crossfire is also now more stable than ever; Schneider went back and dropped in some performance improvements for older generation phones, nipped a nasty save bug, and addressed several minor problems.

The most exciting addition for us is the one that couldn’t be noted officially: Super Crossfire HD now supports the iCade. Just switch to “ARCADE” in the configuration and you’re good to go. It’s nice to see some new iCade games out there, eh?

Oh! And if you’re particularly interested in the HD version — and you should be since we’re huge fans of it and are never wrong about these things — know that its price has been reduced. For a spell, the game is being offered at $.99 instead of its usual $2.99. Neat!

[source]

It’s sort of a slow news day, and it’s no secret around here that we love cats, so chew on this: Halfbrick’s movie tie-in follow-up to Fruit Ninja, Fruit Ninja: Puss in Boots just had a solid update land that you should totally wrap your proverbial claws around. We thought it was great in our review, and the new bandito mode makes Puss In Boots well worth the price of admission:

Bandito mode is new, and very cool. Fight your way through a gauntlet of randomly chosen challenges. The challenges are all about slicing, of course, but they mix the situation up. You may need to slice 15 apples in amongst an intricate and ever-changing pattern of bombs, or 20 lemons while a giant bomb bounces around the screen. There’s quite a variety. Each challenge is on a tight time limit — fail or hit a bomb and you’ll lose one of your three lives.

Those lives need to keep you through 12 challenges across three areas that also serve as difficulty levels. Each challenge you complete adds to your score, ranking you on speed, precision, and just how thoroughly you can obliterate your goal. Your total score for the mode hits the leaderboards when you finish the final bonus challenge, which a cute departure from the game that I won’t spoil here.

Aside from some bug fixes and additional customization options (new swords), the meat of this update is 10 new challenges in bandito mode. Bandito mode was already our favorite addition, and seeing such a massive content boost for it is always welcome. If you were holding out on picking up Fruit Ninja: Puss in Boots to wait and see if Halfbrick was going to give it their normal update love, I’d say it’s safe to download now.

[source]

It was just last week that we were singing the praises of Mika Mobile’s Zombieville USA 2 [99¢] in our review and discussing it further on our latest podcast. But already, Mika Mobile has released an update to the game which fixes a few bugs, makes some adjustments, and adds a new playable character.

The first major improvement is to the control wheel. The touch radius has been increased significantly, which means that should your thumbs slide beyond the visual boundaries of the control stick circle, then you will still continue to move in the direction you are pushing. Previously, if your thumb went beyond the control stick your character would stop dead in its tracks, causing all sorts of trouble.

Another chief complaint about the initial release of Zombieville USA 2 besides the control stick was the lack of loot drops from enemies. The times that a zombie would drop off some coins for you to collect in the release version of the game was few and far between. A much more reliable place to gather loot was in the destructible objects peppered throughout each level. This led to some people actively avoiding killing zombies in favor of running through more of each level in order to run into treasure producing objects.

Seeing as killing zombies is a major facet of the game, Mika Mobile has balanced out this issue by making sure that zombies will drop money much more frequently now. They’ve also increased the overall rate that money is earned, and have double the amount of cash that drops on a level during co-op play to compensate for the extra player.

Joining the already impressive lineup of playable characters in Zombieville USA 2 is the new Tycoon, a dandy looking gentleman who resembles a 19th century philanthropist. Word is that the Tycoon is planning on opening up several businesses in Zombieville, but must first rid the streets of the actual zombies to make room for a railroad, bank, and oil rig.

Finally, Mika Mobile has found and rectified a couple of rare but nasty bugs that might have lost your iCloud date or caused the game to crash. It’s nice to see these various issues addressed so quickly after the release of Zombieville USA 2, and I’ll be looking forward to what’s in store with future updates.

[source]

Ultimate Shuffleboard [$.99] is a boldly branded product for a good reason: it’s definitely a cut or two above the rest out there. Peak Systems, a self-described “full service” firm based out in Seattle, have puzzled out a way to link multiple iPhones to a single game of its shuffleboard title. The end result, as shown in its demo trailer, is pretty hip.

The story behind this is pretty cool, too. In a developer blog post, Peak said it wanted to figure out a way to get That One Guy in their real-life shuffleboard group off his phone and into the game. The easiest way to do that, apparently, was to make a game that required and included his or her phone.

Utlimate Shuffleboard requires at least two phones and it seems pretty easy to set up. A host makes the match, others join, and then you put the phones together end-to-end.

We’ve seen a developers dabbling in using multiple devices in their games, but sticks out to us as a really implementation of the technology. Plus, it practically requires its users to be social while using it, which is something we don’t see a lot in this space in general. Neat!

[source]

Ultimate Shuffleboard [$.99] is a boldly branded product for a good reason: it’s definitely a cut or two above the rest out there. Peak Systems, a self-described “full service” firm based out in Seattle, have puzzled out a way to link multiple iPhones to a single game of its shuffleboard title. The end result, as shown in its demo trailer, is pretty hip.

The story behind this is pretty cool, too. In a developer blog post, Peak said it wanted to figure out a way to get That One Guy in their real-life shuffleboard group off his phone and into the game. The easiest way to do that, apparently, was to make a game that required and included his or her phone.

Utlimate Shuffleboard requires at least two phones and it seems pretty easy to set up. A host makes the match, others join, and then you put the phones together end-to-end.

We’ve seen a developers dabbling in using multiple devices in their games, but sticks out to us as a really implementation of the technology. Plus, it practically requires its users to be social while using it, which is something we don’t see a lot in this space in general. Neat!

[source]

I’ve been searching for a new asynchronous multi-player game for a while, so when I saw Poker Pals [99c / Free / HD] released by Chillingo: a poker-based  game with asynchronous multiplayer mode, my eyes went wide. What I didn’t anticipate was that within a few hours I would be snatching up my iPod every couple of minutes to make my next turn, juggling several games at once, like a crazed poker addict. (Thank goodness there’s no real money at stake, just bragging rights.)

Poker Pals is not a regular poker game. There’s no chips in the middle of the table, no antes and no calling, raising or bluffing. This is actually poker redesigned as a board-game and it resembles a mixture of poker and Scrabble, which works really well. It’s reminiscent of Sword and Poker 2 [$3.99 / Free], which also presented poker as a board-game, but included RPG elements.

The idea is to lay down poker hands, like a three-of-a-kind, straight, flush, etc. But as in Scrabble, you can only play your cards if they interconnect with one or more existing card(s) on the board. In Scrabble, if your tiles form two new words, you score points for them both, and Poker Pals works in the same way. So when you slam down a full-house, you might also intersect with existing cards, forming a pair and a straight at the same time, scoring combo-points for all three, which is super satisfying.

The points range from a lowly pair (10 points) to a royal flush (90 points), plus a 10-point bonus for each card you placed. Although a pair of threes scores the same as a pair of kings, as it’s based on the hand type, not the face value. Anything less than a pair doesn’t score. It would be even better if the face value of cards was taken into account when scoring, as occurs in real poker.

In the four corners of the board, there are wildcard jokers. If you place your cards against these, the joker defaults to the most valuable card for your current hand. For example, if you have two aces it might become an ace, giving you a three of a kind. The game continues until the 7×7 play-field is fully populated with cards, at which point the highest scoring player wins. And the games are often close and exciting.

The game modes include single player (against the computer AI, with 3 difficulty levels), online multiplayer, which includes an option to play a random online opponent. There’s also a “pass and play” option for sharing the device with your family at home, although you should probably let them complete the in-game tutorial first.

The free lite version contains all of the game modes, but you’re limited to three simultaneous games in progress. If a fourth person invites you to play, they must wait for one of your three active games to end. However, once upgraded, you can play unlimited simultaneous games as well as freeing yourself of in-game ads and unlocking a higher single-player difficulty level.

Leaderboards and achievements are handled by Crystal, with Game Center also storing the achievements, except a bug is currently stopping the Game Center achievements from appearing correctly. Overall I’ve been having a fantastic time with Poker Pals, I just wish it were a little less cumbersome to switch between existing games and it really needs in-game chat functionality.

Poker Pals delivers a fun interpretation of poker, with desirable asynchronous play and random match-ups for people without many online friends. It has a high replay value and should come with a warning about time-consumtion, due to the constant, but pleasurable interruptions when it’s your turn. After trying the free version initially, upgrading to remove the ads was an absolute no-brainer.

TouchArcade Rating:

[source]

Growing up, I had one of those grandfathers that was obsessed with gold and keeping money out of the banks. He used to show me these little pieces of gold he had and would be like “If you work hard, all this can be yours.” (In other news, my grandfather may be Scrooge McDuck.) As such, I’m sure he would be a superfan of Colorbox’s Peak Gold [$.99/UHD], a fun little hooking game dedicated to the pursuit of gold.

Peak Gold might be lacking in coherent tutorials (sample text: “Reach 1000m depth and collect Big Diamond to PEAK GOLD!”), but it makes up for it with cutesy graphics, fun hooking action and challenging levels. Seriously, for being marketed as a casual game, this sucker is difficult. The premise is simple enough; tap the screen to grab gold and other goodies while avoiding bats and rocks before running out of time.

You play as a cute little miner (not to be confused with minor, just so we’re clear) in control of a crane that shoots out hooks. Gold, rocks, and gems pop out of a little hole in the wall and fall onto a conveyor belt at varying speeds, which pick up as you progress. As you successfully hook gold and gems, your ore meter fills up. Once that’s full, your energy bar (a timer, for all intents and purposes) slightly refills and you go down to the next depth, in search of the fabled Big Diamond. If you run out of energy, the game is over.

The gold you accumulate over your games lets you buy upgrades, which is the only way you’ll be able to progress over time. These upgrades are incredibly helpful and can double your time per round, increase your hook’s speed, and increase the amount of gold available to you, among other things. I personally was unable to get past depth three without upgrades. The aiming is difficult (though the controls are good!), the objects move by really quickly, and picking up things like rocks slows you down significantly.

If you’re lucky enough to get several good objects in a row, you might activate FEVER mode, a temporary mode where all objects are turned into gold and you’re given an extra hook in order to score even more gold. However, activating FEVER is no guarantee that you’ll pass a level, and it can be tricky to get enough combos to activate it in the first place. No one ever accused mining of being easy!

There are relatively few complaints to be had, and most have to do with personal preference. For example, some players may find being forced to return to Depth 1 over and over again a bit annoying, as there’s no way to select levels even after you’ve beaten them. So if you’re particularly bad at Depth 4, you’ll have to replay the first three depths just to try it again. If you’re playing over and over again it would probably get a little repetitive. Personally, I found myself picking this game up when I had a few minutes here and there, so it didn’t get too boring for me. Additionally, there were initially some slight audio issues, though those appear to have been fixed recently.

If you’re a fan of hooking games, this one is as good (if not better) as any. It’s fun and challenging without any of the dangers associated with real mining (except perhaps mesothelioma, though I’m not sure there’s a connection between it and Peak Gold). I would certainly recommend it to fans of hooking games, my grandfather, and any hooker with a heart of gold.

TouchArcade Rating:

[source]

Saving Moo [$0.99 / HD], one of several recent offerings from ClickGamer, is the latest addition to the elusive genre of Cow Defense. If rescuing our four-legged brethren suits your fancy (or if you’re a fan of certain classic tower defense games), then Saving Moo’s weird story and presentation, combined with solid tower defense gameplay elements, should work for you.

Saving Moo puts you in the role of a farmer that acquired psychic powers after an alien abduction. In order to prevent future abductions, you must use the farmer’s newfound powers to telekinetically place weapons on your cows to ward off the impending UFO invasion. Even though the story is mainly told through a short introductory cutscene, I still found it hilarious and absolutely befitting for the sort of offbeat attitude that Saving Moo offers.

The quirkiness in Saving Moo also extends beyond its story. The art style has a dark cartoonish vibe that looks great on both the iPhone and iPad (separate versions are available for each platform). Also, I really enjoyed the writing, although that may simply be because I’m a sucker for puns (trust me, there’s a lot of them in this game). One minor criticism is the lack of variety in regards to the level environments, but it’s understandable considering there aren’t too many places for cows to graze in the first place.

Even though there aren’t a lot of basic tower defense elements, Saving Moo plays very similar to one in some respects. Each level starts out with several cows that graze and produce “Moo Sacks” that are collected by being tapped on. Once you collect enough Moo Sacks, you then cash them in for weapons that you attach to the cows. You can also spend Moo Sacks to bring more cows onto the pasture, which let you place more weapons onto the field (and also generate Moo Sacks faster).

Complicating the matter is the fact that there are three different types of bovines, and only certain weapons work with certain cows. Of course, the best weapons require the most expensive cows on the pasture, so you’ll have to decide if saving those extra Moo Sacks for different cows outweighs the benefits of having more weapons out on the field faster.

Alien UFOs come in waves, and the goal is to use your weaponized cows to destroy each invader before they successfully abduct your cows (the game ends if you lose all your cows). Successfully hold off the aliens, and you’re rewarded with a new weapon for the next round.

If some of these elements sound familiar that’s because Saving Moo closely mirrors Plants vs Zombies in a few ways. Everything from the Moo Sacks to the Weapon Selections to even the “Moo-pedia” has that familiar vibe to them. However, one thing Saving Moo does not emulate from Plants is the lax difficulty. Once you get past the first two ‘days’ of levels, Saving Moo becomes much tougher, and your weapon choices and timing become that much more important.

While Saving Moo’s core gameplay certainly borrows some of its elements from previous successful titles, its light hearted foundation and overall wacky presentation puts it above the rest of the pack. Also, the wide variety of weapons, coupled with its progressive difficulty means that folks looking for a challenge will certainly be satisfied. This is a game that combines successful elements from previous games with its own style and succeeds in pulling it off. Simply put, if you’re looking for a pseudo tower defense game with an eccentric approach, I highly recommend Saving Moo.

TouchArcade Rating:

[source]

Contre Jour [$.99 / UHD: now with more. Courtesy a new update, Mokus' beautiful puzzle game boasts a fourth world called "Moonlight" that contains 20 additional stages to play in and a few new mechanics including "moving pulleys and tentacles." Interestingly, Moonlight also features a slightly off-kilter visual style that sets it apart from the rest of the its content. Everything in it looks rendered in negative, as if the art dude(s) at Mokus hit the wrong button on Photoshop or something.

The results are pretty cool. Check out these screens publisher Chillingo blasted us this morning:

Smaller device woes aside, Contre Jour holds up. It's a beautiful game with some really challenging puzzles that'll keep you testing and delaying that endorphin-pumping "a-ha" moment whenever you figure out how to reach the exit of a level.

[source]