TouchArcade.ru

New Potato, who brought us the Jackpot Slots [App Store] game / accessory for the iPhone, has just released another such bundle for the iPhone and iPod touch — but this time around, the game in question is pinball.

Pinball Magic is a gaming accessory that is intended to transform your iPhone or iPod touch into a realistic pinball machine, albeit a rather diminutive one. The pinball table-shaped accessory sports flipper buttons, a ball-launching plunger, a credit / select button,an animated LED backbox display, and foldable legs for easy transport. The device mates with your device's 30-pin dock connector and delivers a pinball experience by way of New Potato's free Pinball Magic [link] app.

Game features, listed by the developer:

• Multiple classic and unique playboard layout
• Advanced multi-level and multiplayer competition
• Four possible multi-ball modes
• End-of-ball and replay bonuses
• Tilt detection, tilt warning and activation
• Ball saver

Pinball Magic is currently available from Best Buy, online and at certain retail locations at a price of $39.99. And don't bother downloading the game app if you don't have the accessory — it won't play at all.

[ via ChipChick ]

[source]

Treehouse Ltd. has just released a new take on the top-down aerial shooter formula in the form of 1951 – World War One [App Store] for the iPhone. The game takes place in an alternate history where, on June 28, 1914, Gavrilo Princip's gun jammed, letting Archduke Franz-Ferdinand live to see another day.

With this single mechanical failure the seed of First World War was never sown, and without the humiliation of Versaille's there was no wind to fan the flames for a second one. Adolf Hitler had to make his living as a mediocre marketplace artist at the streets of Vienna instead of becoming the dangerous, dictatorial dreamer he would otherwise have been. But without two global wars to drive the technology forward the world of 1951 remains much like the world at the turn of the century – colonialism upholding imperial economies and withering alliances cemented with royal marriages. It's Imperialism iced with biplanes and rock'n roll!

It's a rather interesting premise and — who knows — it might not be too far off the mark in that particular "what if" scenario. What I can tell you is that this game is definitely right on the mark as far as a title that's absolutely worth its 20MBs on your device. This game is just great.

1951 is a top-down aerial shooter something akin to the arcade classic 1942, but with such striking graphic realism that's it's something of a flawed comparison. The game places you high above Europe in a biplane with the simple goal of kill-or-be-killed. The scrolling landscape far below and the clouds and other artifacts of the varying weather patterns look amazing and the 3D aircraft (and the plumes of smoke that they'll soon be streaming) render in very nicely. It's a definite looker, but there's more than looks that set this one apart.

The game's entire system of control, response, and damage is much more of a realistic affair than something like 1942, which is a more "standard" shooter. Incoming enemy aircraft, which are marked with a directional star at the edge of the screen when they're out of view, do not hang about in an ever-present swarm. Rather, you need to seek them out and chase them, and it takes work to stay on their tail. It also takes work to shoot them down. Rather than simply shoot-hit-boom, in 1951 you must fire volleys of shells, smattering the target with maybe 10 to 15 direct hits before smoke gives way to flame and an earthward death-spiral.

And, of course, the enemies are shooting back at you all the while. But, I find you're much more likely to be done in by direct collision with incoming enemy aircraft than by way of their shells. As they fly onto the screen, they're usually headed straight for your fixed, centered position and it takes some maneuvering to avoid a crash which, depending on severity, inflicts a range of damage to your biplane. What's more, you need to contend with the barrel-rolls and Immelmann maneuvers the enemy pulls off mid-battle. Luckily, as you level-up, you too can acquire these special abilities, among others.

1951 features two single-player play modes: Wave Mode and Survival. The former, as the name might suggests, moves you through wave after wave of enemies, each larger than the one before, while the latter sends you on a bid to simply stay alive as long as you can. Success here is tracked via OpenFeint. The game uses tilt controls to rotate your craft left and right, with tap controls for fire and activation of certain special abilities such as repair and a sort-of auto-destroy weapon. A throttle slider to the far left regulates your speed, and successfully avoiding collisions requires frequent adjustment, here. The onscreen control response feels very smooth and precise as opposed to a "twitchy" affair — and it's a good thing too, as precision is what it takes to track an enemy and fill him with 15 pieces of lead.

1951 – World War One is a very nice variant on the 1942 shooter formula that's extremely well put together. It's visually quite impressive and works you a bit harder than a more typical fire-and-forget shooter. Bear in mind that a twitch-shooter, this is not — it's much more about precision and accuracy. I'd urge all the shooter fans out there to take a good, close look at this one.

[source]

In a completely unexpected turn of events, Apple seems to have authorized FedEx and UPS to begin delivering iPhone 4's early. Some people are lucky enough to have their devices out for delivery today or in some cases even already delivered. Also, Apple has confirmed that other preorders will be arriving tomorrow, an entire day ahead of the original launch date. It's hard to say whether or not Apple is just throwing ravenous preorderers a bone, or if they're potentially attempting to defray the nearly inevitable launch fiasco experienced with the iPhone 3G when AT&T's servers simply could not handle all the activations on launch day.

Yesterday the developers of Carcassonne [$4.99] mentioned on Twitter that they've already got 1.1 submitted which contains high-resolution artwork for the iPhone 4, and if you own either Flight Control [99¢] or Real Racing [$4.99 / Free] updates are already on the App Store that take advantage of iOS 4 and the Retina Display of the iPhone 4.

One other thing that has us raising our eyebrow is that Real Racing just added full gyroscope support, which presumably means they've been testing on an actual device. This makes us wonder what other developers have been blessed by Apple with actual iPhone 4 hardware that will also have enhanced versions of their games appearing on the App Store shortly.

In the meantime, I've created a thread on our forums for any other confirmed iPhone 4 enhanced games that I encourage everyone to post in if they stumble across any other updates that mention anything to do with taking advantage of the iPhone 4.

[source]

One glance at Little Metal Ball (by Debacle Software) will immediately elicit comparisons to to the ever-popular Labyrinth, but LMB sets itself apart from other games in the app store by applying its ball-rolling gameplay in a fun adventure/platformer setting. With 40 levels, controls that are tuned to perfection, and gameplay that encourages limitless high-score chasing, LMB is a great little game that demands attention.

The 40 levels included in LMB are spaced out evenly across 4 different areas (jungle, ice, fire, and "techno" themed). Progression is made by completing the first five levels in each area, which unlocks the next area. The difficulty ramps up at a pretty reasonable pace over the course of the game, but I recommend that most players play the last five levels in each area only after beating the first five in all of the areas, as these are generally much more challenging and will demand a total grasp of the game's controls in order to get a gold ranking.

In each level in LMB, the goal is to reach a little checkered sphere that marks a finishing line of sorts. To get there, players will have to navigate narrow platforms, hard-to-avoid-bumpers, and various inanimate obstacles that threaten to send the little metal ball into the abyss. In each level, there is a time limit, but this time limit is usually quite generous. Most levels can be completed in 2-5 minutes, although there are some more difficult levels later in the game that can require either a lot of skill or a little more time. The time limit is not intended to make players fail; it's a way to encourage high-score chasing and improvement of best times.

A bit of needed variety spices up LMB through the use of several powerups, all of which are activated by jumping (which can be done by tapping on the screen for a short hop or holding and releasing for a larger jump) while on a purple powerup location. Powerups include a smaller ball (which allows passage through tiny gaps), a giant ball (to roll over otherwise dangerous holes), or the activation of nearby moving platforms. Those moving platforms play a large part in some of LMB's levels, forcing players to react swifly to avoid oncoming obstacles while avoiding falling off the edge and tumbling to a time-consuming doom.

Every moment of LMB's action requires a mental balancing of the risks vs. the benefits of pursuing nearby stars. On the first run through most levels I ignored stars, collecting them only if they were directly in my path. On second playthroughs I often got more risky with my star collecting, taking dangerous jumps to get to a blue star in hopes that the few extra seconds earned would pay off in a gold medal. Aside from the usual "race" levels, there is a fair share of bonus levels in LMB that ask players to collect all of the stars in a level as quickly as possible. These levels are generally less linear than their not as "bonusy" counterparts, and do a lot to help improve the game's pacing.

Unfortunately, there are no online leaderboards in LMB, but Debacle Software has confirmed in our forums that they (and tilt calibration, another omission from the first release) will be coming in an update. Another small complaint that users in our forums have expressed is the seemingly low-resolution of the artwork, which is otherwise fantastic.

While there are some key features that needed to be added via update to Little Metal Ball before it's a truly great game, I have no qualms about recommending it in its current state. LMB is good, simple fun, and is great for quick pick-up-and-play sessions. For those who like Labyrinth, Little Metal Ball is a great game with a similar feel, but expanded and unique adventure-style gameplay.

App Store Link: Little Metal Ball, $0.99

[source]

It's been a long four months since we first got word that Namco would be bringing Pac-Man Championship Edition to the iPhone, but at long last, it has arrived.

Pac-Man Championship Edition was developed by the original Pac-Man designer Tōru Iwatani and released for the Xbox 360 through the Xbox Live Arcade in mid-2007, to rave reviews. Joystiq called it "the first true sequel to Pac-Man since Mrs. Pac-Man." The Xbox Live version features high-definition graphics, surround sound, and a wonderful future-retro feel that brings to mind Geometry Wars.

Unlike the original Pac-Man, all mazes and playmodes in Pac-Man C.E. are set against a timer. The goal is to score as many points as possible within the allotted time. But there's a balance to be struck in order to unlock consecutive levels and move through the game as the game speeds up the better you are doing. For example, I had a hard time moving past the Challenge level of the game because I was gobbling power-pellets and going too aggressively after ghosts early on. My score jumped so high so fast that the action became too fast to handle and I couldn't actually make it to zero on the clock — and the only way to unlock the next maze is to successfully ride out the timer.

Each maze is basically divided into two halves, left and right. When you eat all the dots on one half, a bonus item (fruit) appears on the opposite side of the maze. Once eaten, the opposite (empty) side of the maze gets re-filled with dots, and so on. To drive the pace of the action, the arrangement of dots laid down upon eating a fruit, as the timer approaches zero, may change. In fact, the actual layout of the maze on a given side may change, as well.

And now for the big question: How are the controls? The iPhone with its multitouch display and accelerometer controls presents a unique opportunity for game developers to bring forth wholly new types of games that would be impossible to deliver on other platforms. That's the positive, and we've seen that in many of the better App Store releases. The negative of the iPhone's control systems is the lack of a physical D-pad or stick for classic arcade style games of old. Pac-Man and its derivatives are just those types of games. Happily, I can report that Namco has gone to new lengths in providing a variety of control mechanics that allow Pac-Man C.E. to translate very well to the iPhone platform. Pac-Man C.E. offers four (well, really three — but I'll get to that in a moment) different control options:

• Type 1: D-pad — This mode, which I find to be the best of the lot, presents two virtual D-pads at the bottom of the screen, one for the left thumb and one for the right. This allows for real "twitch" style control of our yellow dot-eating friend. A single D-pad is one thing, but dual D-pads are the key to the beauty of this control mechanic. This allows players to divide the direction controls between two fingers in the most comfortable particular fashion for each individual. For instance, I find myself using my left thumb to trigger motion to the left while my right thumb controls up, down, and right motion. It takes a little bit of getting used to, but once it's familiar, it offers superb control.
• Type 2: Directional buttons — This mode, which is the most awkward of all the control modes in my opinion, sections off large regions of the screen as directional buttons. The majority of the upper portion of the screen, in this mode, is an "up" button, while the lower, center area is a "down button," with the lower left and right corners being "left" and "right" buttons. I can't imagine most getting too comfortable with this mode, honestly.
• Type 3 and Type 4: Thumb swipe and Pointer-finger swipe — These "two" modes are represented differently as far as the on-screen control graphics, but are, in fact, the same. This is the same control mode we were favored in Namco's earlier, classic Pac-Man and Mrs. Pac-Man release, where a swipe anywhere on the screen sends Pac-Man in the desired direction. This mode, in my opinion, is bested by the D-pad mode.

Control considerations are a key point in this iPhone adaptation, and I can tell you that all of us here at Touch Arcade are very comfortable with the control options Namco provided in this release and feel that they really could be done no better on the platform and are a non-issue as far as playability is concerned.

The sequence and selection options — as well as pricing — of the game's various playmodes differ somewhat from the Xbox 360 release. The Xbox 360 version is available for download in a rather limited, free demo version, with activation of the full game available for $10 USD. The iPhone version of Pac-Man C.E. offers 15 Championship mazes, but only five are available in the base version. As well, only a small subset of the game's 120 Mission mazes are available for play in the base version and none of the game's 15 Challenge mazes can be accessed. So what's all this "base version" business? In order to fully unlock the game, the $3.99 DLC Expansion Pack must be purchased. So is Namco asking you to pay $2.99 for a demo and another four bucks for the full game? Pretty much, yes. Is that a rather poor way to present the iPhone version of Pac-Man C.E.? Pretty much, yes.

That said, is the game worth it? I'd say yes, it is. The iPhone version of Pac-Man C.E. is impressively similar to the excellent original Xbox 360 release. The graphics, though rather scaled down in resolution, are very much on par with the original, and as far as I can tell the audio is taken directly from the Xbox 360 release (though in stereo rather than surround, obviously). Notably absent in the iPhone version, however, is any sort of global high scoring system, so you are left trying to best your own score each time. While Namco seeds the local high score table with presumably attainable goal scores, there isn't even a system to compete on the same device. That means no names recorded with scores or even a pass-and-play two player mode, which does impact long term playability.

Overall, Pac-Man Championship Edition actually succeeds in making this brilliant arcade formula seem fresh and new once again. And that's a truly impressive feat. So, if you can get past the principle of this pay-for-the-rest-of-the-game packaging, it's really a great game. Namco, however, would have done wonders for their customer satisfaction by just charging the full amount outright than playing the DLC game.

App Store Link: Pac Man Championship Edition, $2.99 (sale) + $3.99 (extra content)

[via]