TouchArcade.ru

It's hard to believe it's already WWDC (and E3) season already. The always-accelerating fast-paced nature of the App Store (and mobile devices in general) have made this year absolutely fly by. Anyway, if you're unfamiliar, WWDC is Apple's event which falls around the same time every year and is usually kicked off with a keynote address by Steve Jobs. While this event is entirely Apple-centric, E3 is all about video games of all kinds. Unfortunately, these two events fall on the same week this year, which is going to make covering both events pretty tricky, to say the least.

To determine which days I'm going to be spending at which events, I really need developers to get in touch with me! Think of this as an iOS-specific battle of Team Edward versus Team Jacob. Which event corresponds to which Twilight heartthrob I'm not entirely sure of, but it's important you get in touch with me all the same.

There are two ways you can contact me to set up a meeting at either event:

1. Solve this CAPTCHA to get my Google Talk name (which is also my email address, hence the anti-spam captcha) and shoot me an instant message. Assuming I'm around, I'll be able to get you booked into a meeting slot and collect all pertinent pieces of contact information very quickly
2. Send an email to tips@toucharcade.com with either "E3 2011 Meeting" or "WWDC 2011 Meeting" in the subject line so I can filter your message properly. Include what days you're going to be at the event in question, contact info, and anything else you feel is relevant to booking a meeting with us.

I can't wait to see everyone at both events. Also something to keep in mind, I'm local to the Los Angeles area now, so if you're in town for E3 and are going to be staying an extra couple days so we don't necessarily need to meet up specifically during the event, that will help me out considerably to know that!

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The movie 'Kung Fu Panda' introduced us to the animated characters of Po (a food-loving panda with a heroic destiny, voiced by Jack Black) and his trainer, Master Shifu (voiced by Dustin Hoffman). In 2011, the joke-cracking panda returns in 'Kung Fu Panda 2'. To tie in with the soon to be released movie sequel, THQ has released the game Kung Fu Panda 2: Be The Master [99¢].

A first glance, this game is extraordinarily easy to describe. It (currently) contains two games, each of which is described as a "scroll" which Po must complete as part of his on-going training. The first scroll, named 'Paws of Power', provides endless Fruit Ninja type gameplay whereby you swipe objects propelled onto the screen. The second scroll is named 'Feet of Fury' and involves Doodle Jump type gameplay, with tilt controls being used to maneuver between platforms in order to jump higher. Refer to this gameplay video to see the obvious similarities to these popular titles:

Both of the games are skinned with Kung Fu Panda graphics, which likely will appeal to kids and fans of the movie. Whereas Fruit Ninja swipes are directed at pineapples, watermelons and apples while avoiding bombs, Paws Of Power takes aim at bowls of noodles and training dummies modeled on Po's foes, while avoiding bee-hives. Likewise in Feet Of Fury, the power-ups include bowls of noodles, bamboo stilts and chairs with rockets attached. In the background is the "Waterfall of Agony". High scores and 42 achievements are maintained via Game Center.

The game advertises that two additional scrolls (games) will be released in future upgrades. Any developers with popular games must be wondering if their titles will become the inspiration for scrolls 3 or 4. One TouchArcade user jokes in the thread that we'll see 'Angry Pandas' in the next update, referring - of course – to Angry Birds.

At the end of the day, I only have two minor gripes with this game. The screen orientation changes abruptly between landscape and portrait when you switch games and I felt this transition could have been implemented better. And the "Trophy Case" menu does not explain how to obtain trophies and lists "Kung Fu Training Master" without any explanation of what this means. Presumably unlocking these achievements involves the other two scrolls being accessible, but there's no way to tell for sure right now.

Kung Fu Panda 2 delivers two games which, although not as good as the originals, are well implemented casual games, which are fun to play. By the time four scrolls (games) are provided, assuming the next two are of a comparable quality and provided free, this title will be pretty good value for a dollar. If you for some reason don't already own Fruit Ninja and/or Doodle Jump and are totally stoked for the impending release of the Kung Fu Panda 2 movie, this is the game for you.

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Earlier this year, Ten One Design released the iPad joystick accessory called the Fling. The brilliantly designed Fling is a conductive joystick nub set inside a plastic spiral, which itself is set inside an outer plastic ring. The spiral design allows the joystick to move within the outer ring which emulates the feel of an analog stick on a regular controller.

The whole device attaches to the screen of an iPad with two tiny suction cups, and allows you to replace many of the virtual analog sticks that are used in iOS games with an actual physical joystick that provides a tactile feel. If you are the type of person who has never quite gotten comfortable with virtual sticks, then the Fling is an ingenious alternative that can improve your experience with a lot of games.

In just a few short months since release, the Fling has gained a ton of popularity and has proven to be hit amongst many iPad gamers. Apparently they are a hit with the folks at Apple too, as you can now purchase the Fling Joystick at Apple Retail Stores nationwide.

This is actually a pretty big deal, as Apple usually doesn’t get behind accessories that get in between the user and the touch screen, since part of the “magic” of iOS devices is that you can do everything so well using just your fingers and thumbs. In the case of the Fling though, I think Apple realizes that some games are just better suited to physical controls and the Fling is a simple, portable, and cleverly designed product that can help with that issue.

If the Fling joysticks sound like something that interests you, then be sure to check out our extensive Fling review where we tell you how well the joysticks actually work and what types of games do and don’t work best with them.

If stumbling out of your dank apartment and into the real world to make the trip to an Apple Store doesn’t sound appealing to you, then you can still order them online from the Fling product page on the Ten One Design website. They run $19.95 for a single joystick or $29.95 for a pack of two, and come in three different colors – clear, black, and purple.

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In 2009, Total NonStop Action (TNA) Wrestling was released. Surprisingly, it was a turn-based strategic wrestling game, with RPG elements, enabling your wrestler to "level-up". That game later disappeared from the App Store, with players in the thread suggesting their license expired. Now, another TNA Wrestling game has been released by Bight Interactiveand Namco Bandai.

TNA Wrestling iMPACT [$4.99] opens with bright lights and an electric guitar soundtrack, which introduces the entertainment spectacle that is modern wrestling. It's a good introduction, and perfectly sets the scene for just how over the top this kind of wrestling is.

Career and exhibition modes are offered, with three levels of difficulty. Career mode let's you to play as either your favorite TNA superstar, or a custom made character. There are three career tournaments to play, including TNA heavyweight, X-division and tag-team. Winning matches in career mode improves your wrestler by enhancing their power, toughness, speed and/or charisma. Winning all three tournaments will unlock Hulk Hogan. In Exhibition mode, there's six match types, each with different win conditions, namely: Standard, Submission, Falls Count Anywhere, No Disqualifications, Cage and Tag-Team. Multi Player is available locally via bluetooth or wifi, or online via Game Center.

The game features 24 TNA wrestling superstars, each with their own entrance, costume and signature moves. Alternatively, you can create-a-wrestler, customizing the name, fighting style, signature moves, physical appearance, costume and attributes. Each wrestler is either a brawler, powerhouse or high-flier, which determines their fighting style and special moves.

Wrestling fans will be pleased to know there's a variety of moves available, including: Body Slam, Suplex, DDT, Piledriver, Spinebuster, Facebreaker, and the Backbreaker. Finishing moves include: Blackhole Slam, Border Toss, Running Leg Drop, Olympic Slam and Chaos Theory to name a few. You can also pick-up objects like bats from the crowd, or chairs, as weapons.

The controls consist of a virtual D-Pad, with buttons for attack, grapple and run. Additional special context-sensitive buttons appear when required for finishing moves, pinning the opponent, climbing (turnbuckle or cage), entering / exiting the ring, taking weapons or tagging your partner. Completing attacking moves successfully fills up your "impact bar", which makes your special finishing move available.

High scores and achievements are integrated with Game Center, with over 25 achievements. Extra content, such as outfits and alternative ring themes can be accessed by installing and starting certain other games, to earn the "TNA Stars" necessary to make the purchases.

I'm sure this all sounds amazing if you're a wrestling fan. Really, TNA Wrestling Impact offers a lot of features; but given the dubious history of wrestling games on the App Store, is this one awesome to play? Sadly, the answer is "not really". It's okay, not superb.

The first disappointment occurs during the introduction, when the characters speak without voice overs. With games like FIFA 11 and Fight Night providing quality commentary and other voice work, it's disappointing to see the wrestling characters communicate via subtitles, while their animated mouths flap endlessly and the same hand gestures loop over and over. It's difficult to convey the energy, showmanship and bravado of wrestling via sub-titles.

Once the match begins, the wrestler's movements feel slow and cumbersome, rather than smooth and exciting. Opponents occasionally fall over without any contact being made. Graphical glitches occur regularly, with the opponents boots disappearing inside your body, body parts being obscured by the ring or one wrestler walking straight through another. Brushing against a barrier outside the ring causes your superstar to collapse. The pumping music at the start disappears during gameplay, leaving the unrealistic sound of the crowd, who appear to be related to each other. At least, the same figures, in the same clothes, appear repeatedly. Interestingly, from some angles the audience are all facing away from the ring.

The game sometimes surprises by busting out a new move, like pummeling the opponent while standing on the ropes and pinning them in the corner. There's also satisfaction to be had from pulling off moves successfully, especially of the aerial variety, but overall the wrestling gets repetitive quickly. Overall, TNA Wrestling Impact seems to have a lot of potential, but ultimately fails in overall execution, which seems to be par for the course for most wrestling games– Especially in the mobile world.

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This massive bundle of Wednesday release bundles has so many awesome games in it that I'm just going to order them alphabetically since I'm not even sure which game I'd want to list first if I were ordering them in order of which I want to play first. I think I want to play Bumpy Road the most, which works out well, because it's also first when sorting these games alphabetically!

If this is your first Wednesday as an iOS gamer, here's how this all works: Developers can either set their games and apps to be released the moment they're approved by Apple, or they can set a future release date. Since the App Store is a global market, games with a release date of 5/19 are released first in the first place in the world where it's the 19th. In this case, that's the New Zealand App Store. All of these games will slowly be available as it becomes the 19th in your area of the world, or, if you're in the USA, 11:00 PM Eastern tonight.

Bumpy Road, $2.99 – Forum Thread – Every now and again a developer comes along with gameplay that centralizes around a control method that makes you say to yourself, "Why didn't someone think of this before?" Bumpy Road is a platformer of sorts that is controlled by touching the screen which manipulates the ground which, as the title suggests, creates a bumpy road for a car to travel down. By creating these bumps, you're able to make the car bounce to other platforms. It looks really clever, and I can't wait to give it a try. Oh, and to make things better, it's even universal.

Candy Train, Free – Forum Thread – What's better than a PopCap game? How about a free PopCap game? Candy Train seems to have similar gameplay to a lot of other train routing games on the App Store, but if there's anything PopCap is good at, it's taking established gameplay and making it impossible to put down with a thick payer of… PopCap magic. PopCap has had such a great track record of awesomely fun games that I'd blindly download this game even if it weren't free.

Casey's Contraptions for iPad, $2.99 – Forum Thread – I've been anxiously anticipating this game since we first got a look at it at GDC. Since then, it's been a difficult wait as my Twitter feed has been filled with horribly teasing tweets from beta testers. Casey's Contraptions is a cartoony physics puzzle game that asks you to complete various puzzles with elaborate Rube Goldberg contraptions. Aside from a level creator, you can also see how your friends solved puzzles, as there doesn't seem to be a single solution for any of the included 70 levels.

CHAOS RINGS Ω, $11.99 / HD – Forum Thread – Square Enix's continuation of the iOS-exclusive game Chaos Rings. Aside from the irritating to type "Ω" character in the title, Chaos Rings Ω also comes packed with a whole new story which actually takes place 10,000 years before the previous game. Squeenix has a whole array of updates planned too, which are all outlined in the iTunes text. 7 monthly updates are scheduled, most of which add a "secret boss" and up the level cap.

Draw Jump, 99¢ / HD – Forum Thread – A jumping game by EA, which according to the iTunes description, is totally green. Instead of your character being powered by fossil fuels, he's apparently completely carbon neutral since he jumps using trampolines that you draw on screen. It seems like a weird angle, but I can still sink a stupid amount of time into jumping games.

Ink Ball, 99¢ – Forum Thread – The art style of this puzzle game is really cool, and I can't wait to see it in motion. Gameplay revolves around funneling the ink on screen back into a inkwell. It seems like you're able to draw lines on screen to modify the flow of ink on screen, and doing well involves using as few of these as possible.

iQuarterback 2, Free – Forum Thread – A free game that revolves around tossing footballs, as you might have guessed from the game's title. By earning fame in-game you can unlock a ridiculous amount of things ranging from items for your character all the way to full stadiums. A bunch of different game modes are included too.

Kung Fu Panda 2: Be The Master, 99¢ – Forum Thread – So what do you do if you've got what will likely be a mediocre sequel to a movie and you want to release a mobile game based on it? Apparently incorporate both Fruit Ninja and Mega Jump. Two shockingly familiar mini-games are included in the initial release, and it looks like two more will be coming with updates. I wonder what Jack Black thinks of all this.

Orions 2: The Deckmasters $2.99 / Lite – Forum Thread – The sequel to the original Orions is here. The first game had a considerable following on our forums, and it will be interesting to see how much of that transfers over since as many thought a significant amount of the changes and additions in the sequel were going to be updates to the initial game. Regardless, Orions 2 is a similar card-based battle game. There's full online multiplayer, hundreds of cards, and even a full single player campaign.

Storm in a Teacup, 99¢ – Forum Thread – Sure, there might be a lot of platformers on the App Store, but how many of them have you piloting a magical teacup around? None that I can think of! I'm digging the art style of this game, I just hope it controls well.

TNA Wrestling iMPACT, $4.99 – Forum Thread – To say that wrestling games on the App Store haven't been that great would be a bit of an understatement, but there's always time to turn things around, and TNA Wrestling iMPACT could be the wrestling game that fans have been craving. It's got the ability to create your own wrestler, and then enter a career mode with that wrestler… but why would you do that when you can just play as Hulk Hogan doing these crazy kicks like the above screenshot!?

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Eli and Jared are Hurdle Turtle [$.99] fanatics. It’s a documented love affair beyond that of mortal bounds. And while the either of the duo would love to be the one to pen this blockbuster of a post, they can’t. They’re… unwell after a botched duel to the death over the rights of authorship. It’s with a leaden heart and a rejuvenating tinge of anticipation that I bring you this Hurdle Turtle update news: competitive multiplayer is coming soon.

Version 2.1.0 of Hurdle Turtle will usher in real-time, actual competitive multiplayer to the core game using Game Center as its service. The creators of Hurdle Turtle tell us that you’ll be able to play against friends, foes, or random dudes alike via the support, which should be coming very soon since the update is in Apple’s hands right now.

As you’d expect, Hurdle Turtle multiplayer will support friends play as well as auto-matching, and it plans to make this easier on your end: after picking a match, the game will assign the match a random level where you’ll be able to select your character before it begins in truth. No flashiness, just raw-dog Hurdle Turtle action.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must tend to Fearless Leaders’ wounds. Jared’s Beard of Woe is a powerful weapon indeed.

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Burrito Bison is one of the thousands and thousands — if not millions — of web-based games available on the Internet. You can try the popular “fling” game now with a mouse for $0, or soon you can give it a go on your favorite Apple handheld for a price.

My eyes gloss over when I peruse flash game libraries. There are a lot of games with great ideas, but rare is it when you stumble upon a title that has the mega important hallmarks of a solid game: coherent vision, polish, and sharp execution. I can count on my fingers the number of titles that fit this bill.

Burrito Bison is etched on fist. It’s a solid, realized game that I’m excited to see come to a platform and a wider audience. I got into contact with game creator Juicy Beast late last week to talk about the inspiration behind the title, as well as some specifics about the iOS port, which is slated to come later this summer.

One nugget from our conversation in particular sticks out — Burrito Bison was once a side-scrolling action game similar to Monster Dash [$.99], one of its key inspirers.

“The game actually started out as a ‘run & jump’ type of game, similar to Monster Dash by Halfbrick,” Juicy Beast told us in an e-mail. “We really wanted to give it an interesting twist, so we tweaked it over and over until we were happy with the results.”

“The thing is that it took us around two months of prototyping before we felt like the game was really fun. As you can see, it changed a lot from its original ‘run & jump’ [vision]. “Most people probably think that it started out as a ‘throwing’ game, like Toss the Turtle or Berzerk Ball [$.99], but it didn't, even if the final results are far more similar to TTT than Monster Dash,” the studio explained.

But where did the Mexican wrestler theme come from? I’d call it an accident. As for how gummy bears got involved… well, let’s just say that candy doesn’t make the same kind of mess that humans do when its squashed.

“As I mentioned, the game started out as a ‘run & jump’ type of game, and the theme was supposed to revolving around ‘Heavy Metal.’ We had our kickass metal head guy (kind of similar to the Brutal Legend dude) and the direction was pretty set at the beginning. While sketching some stances for our hero, J-P (our lead illustrator) started dressing our little guy as a Mexican wrestler (which was really funny),” Juicy Beast said.

“Later on in the development process, when the game wasn't a "run & jump" anymore, we decided to switch the theme to something that would fit the actual gameplay better. We then remembered the Mexican wrestler and decided to go with that instead.

“The gummy bear theme came from the idea of literally smashing people without having actual gore elements popping everywhere (blood/guts,etc). We then though of gummy bears, since they can be brought to life easily, and yet still die in explosion without any gore stuff! No need to mention that we usually end up with some pretty twisted stuff regardless of this kind of ‘guidelines.’ “

Juicy Beast says that Burrito Bison was built with iPhone in mind the entire way. Juicy made the fact that it would hit flash markets first a challenge: it wanted a game that could do well in both markets, despite the lead platform.

Mission accomplished. Burrito Bison is simple enough to play in a browser, while still offering the depth that iOS users expect to have come this summer when the game hits virtual shelves. Much like Berzerk Ball, Burrito Bison offers a suite of upgrades that you can purchase with in-game cash earned from playing the title.

Summer 2011 is as close as we can get to a release date. Nothing is set in stone quite yet and that includes the price. Juicy Beast tells us that while it doesn’t know what it wants to charge, it does plan, however, to make Burrito Bison a Universal game.

And there will be new “stuff” in the iOS version, however, you may not be able to get your hands on what will be added at launch:

“The current Flash version is currently being ported by Ravenous Games, but we're working on some potential new features at the same time (as well as finishing some other games we're working on). We're not sure yet if the new stuff will be available at launch, but there will definitely be some new content in the iOS version.”

As for what’s next for Juicy Beast, the studio wouldn’t divulge. One foot before the other, though, right?

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Back in December 2010, Telltale Games released the first episode of its Monkey Island 'Tales' [$6.99] series on the iPad. No further releases have seen the light of day since, but it’s not like the studio doesn’t want to push the rest of the games out — it still does.

At least, up until this April the studio was making its intentions clear. In an official forum posting, Telltale staff member Alan Johnson said more Monkey Island episodes, as well as Back to the Future, were in the pipe. BTTF Episode 2 [$6.99] released last month on the iPad.

Other staff members backed him up in this thread, stating that other, later Tales episodes have been ported to the iPad and are now in some sort of testing phase.

It was a concern of more than a few MI fans after the release of the first Tales game that Telltale would abandon the series. It’s a valid thought; the studio has since admitted to dropping the Sam & Max [$6.99] and Wallace & Gromit [$6.99] series’ ports after their initial debut on the App Store. I think you could argue that MI clicks more with the iPad adventure crowd, though.

Interestingly, a wrench appears to have been thrown into initial release plans. In February, Telltale said the second episode of the Tales series would hit in March 2010. It didn’t. Nor have the rest of the four episodes been released this month as was said they would.

Perhaps it’s not all the studio’s fault — when confirming that the episodes would indeed see releases in 2011, Telltale senior vice president of marketing Steve Allison told Joystiq that that releases “all depends on the Apple process."

I’ve independently asked Telltale what the deal is. And while I’d appreciate candor, I suspect I’ll get something similar to what Pocket Gamer did when reaching out to Alan Johnson:

“We’re planning to release the remaining four episodes of Monkey Island and the complete series of Back to the Future on iPad, but [we have] no announcements to make at this time in terms of a release schedule,” Johnson told the site.

I wouldn’t be surprised if it all comes down to bandwidth. If you didn’t know, Telltale has become quite the busy bee of late. The studio plans to unveil its Jurassic Park, The Walking Dead, and its King’s Quest series at E3 this June 7. That’s, like, a lot of games.

[Via Sir Awesome's TA forum thread, thanks!]

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I figured I'd take a break from our regularly scheduled programming to discuss a game that completely changed the way I look at free to play games: League of Legends. Originally released in late 2009 by Riot Games, League of Legends is a free to play game available for the PC. (There's also a very beta OSX client that takes a considerable amount of witchcraft and wizardry to get running.) Gameplay is very similar to Defense of the Ancients in that you play in teams, either 3v3 or 5v5, and have control of a single champion unit that behaves a lot like the hero units in Warcraft III. You can level up various abilities, buy items in a shop to enhance your character, and engage in some pretty wicked player vs player combat as each team attempts to destroy the opposing team's base. It's a ton of fun, and with 76 available champions (as of this posting, more are added constantly), each game is always vastly different.

But what does a PC game have to do with the App Store? Well, in October of 2009, Apple changed the way in-app purchases worked on the App Store. Previously, only apps that customers paid for were able to have in-app purchase. With this shift, Apple effectively opened the flood gates for freemium games on the App Store. The first major title to employ this purchase model was Eliminate, followed by a tidal wave of others.

The vast majority of these freemium iOS games all focus around the same style of gameplay, although some hide it substantially better than others. Developers craft a game world, and put you in charge of a farm, an office, or other settings where you're able to slowly build up a customized representation of yourself within the game. These types of games have had an (understandbly) terrible reputation among our community because often they don't feel like games as much as they feel like potentially costly time sinks.

Why League of Legends is important is because of how differently it presents the free to play model. Each week you're given a selection of 10 of the 76 champions which you can play for free. From there, you have full access to the game and are at no advantage or disadvantage regardless of whether you've spent nothing or you've paid to unlock absolutely everything. The only restriction is the limitation of playing as one of those ten champions.

It's absolutely incredible how much this shifts the player's spending compulsion. For instance, in Smurfs' Village [Free], or other similar games, I begrudgingly buy Smurfberries to bypass irritating time sinks, essentially exchanging my money for a feeling of progression in a game that I have very little personal investment in because the endless limitations never make me feel like I have any kind of ownership.

Alternatively, League of Legends has no time sinks, or limitations. Instead, you're essentially given a weekly free and unlimited test drive of a selection of champions. If you find yourself really enjoying one, you can permanently unlock it, as well as buy customized skins for it. It's just incredible how much more fun I have playing a game like this, and how much more willing I am to spend my money on microtransactions. Instead of plunking money down on something I feel obligated to buy to progress, I'm buying something I want to because I like it.

It gets better though, as these items you're buying can either be unlocked with Riot Points which are purchased with money or Influence Points, which are earned by simply playing the game– Although at a substantially slower rate. This freemium model has been ridiculously successful for Riot as well, who is scrambling to find additional employees to ramp up all aspects of their company as League of Legends becomes more and more successful by the day.

I would absolutely love it if iOS developers looked to Riot's League of Legends for inspiration on how to build their future free to play titles. I think the caustic attitude that many members of our community have towards freemium games would vanish if they employed a similar free to play model where players feel like they're buying something they want, instead of just a in-game currency that is slowly drained by skipping time sinks which only exist to give players a reason to buy said in-game currency.

I doubt League of Legends will ever make it to iOS, as the interface is simply far too complex. However, nothing is stopping iOS developers from taking a good hard look at League of Legends and applying what they learn to future iOS titles. In fact, if you're an iOS developer who is even remotely debating dabbling in freemium, you owe it to yourself to at least give League of Legends a shot. Similarly, if you're the kind of person who incessantly posts about how much you dislike freemium games, you really need to try a game that nails the business model perfectly just to see what's possible if developers break free of farming games.

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You may recall back in November when Beeline Interactive (formerly Capcom Mobile) released Smurfs’ Village [Free] into the App Store. It was a Farmville-like freemium sim game that was themed after the popular 3-apple high blue folk many of us remember from our childhood. We actually quite liked Smurfs’ Village in our review, noting that it did incredible fan-service to fans of The Smurfs and had gorgeous Retina Display graphics that brought everything to life.

Unfortunately, the freemium aspect sucked a lot of the joy out of the Smurfs' Village. Crops would wither and die if you weren’t constantly attentive of them and purchasing the IAP Smurfberry currency was basically required to obtain some of the cooler items in the game.

The IAP currency didn’t just suck the joy out of the game, though, but also sucked the money out of many unhappy parents’ bank accounts. The IAP system in Smurfs’ Village allowed you to make multiple purchases with just a few clicks, and in the weeks following the game's release Apple had a huge number of requests for refunds by parents whose younger children had accidentally bought hundreds of dollars of Smurfberries in the game.

Part of the problem was the loose way that Beeline had implemented the IAP functionality, and the other part of the problem was that Apple’s own iTunes account system would keep users logged in for up to 15 minutes after entering a password and making a purchase in a game. This led to parents entering their password for one reason or another and then handing their device off to their kids who would fire up Smurfs’ Village and click away recklessly buying Smurfberries.

Apple was not very pleased with Beeline over the uproar of angry customers, and it turns out that the government wasn’t very pleased with Apple’s in-app purchasing system either, and launched an investigation into how that system works this past February. This led to Apple changing how IAP is handled on devices, requiring a password to be entered every time a purchase is being made from within an app as of the iOS 4.3 update.

Now Beeline is taking this a step further with their latest update to Smurfs’ Village. There is now a cap on in-app purchases which only allows a max of 5 to be made within a 15 minute time frame. I’m curious to know whether Apple required Beeline to add this type of restriction in or if it was of the developer’s own volition, as I haven’t yet heard of any other case where Apple limited how much can be purchased through their IAP infrastructure.

At any rate, there are also a few new items and additional levels to earn in this new update. If you’re a fan of Smurfs’ Village, update your copy of the game and take comfort in the fact that at most you’ll only be accidentally spending $500 every 15 minutes on Smurfberries.

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