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Firemint’s Spy Mouse [$.99] probably won’t spawn a billion copycats like Flight Control [$.99 / HD] and it lacks the jaw-dropping 3D prowess of Real Racing 2 [$4.99 / HD], but it’s a mechanically solid and visually pleasing game that, in addition to being flat-out entertaining, breaks down a lot of stealth game barriers of entry. Basically, I'm just saying it's really good.

Stealth games are notoriously fickle things; genetically linked to arcade stock that treated players like quarter-pumping cattle, stealth’s central conceits have revolved around failure, punishment, and the gaming of its systems instead of things like fun and rewards. Spy Mouse mitigates a lot of the not-so-fabulous parts of its mechanics by being pretty up-front about its moment-to-moment stealth: it clearly shows you enemy pathways, its top-down perspective quickly gives you a handle on what you can do and when, and it’s mechanically simple, which eliminates execute grand schemes or interact with complicated systems in second-long bursts.

In a couple of words, it’s strikes me as a ‘balanced’ game. It isn’t super action heavy and as forgiving as the new Splinter Cell title, but it’s also not as stringent as an early Metal Gear or a Hitman. It’s challenging without being stupidly hard; its AI is predictable but capable; its level design provides allows for autonomy but doesn’t sacrifice vision; its boss battles are tough while simultaneously entertaining; and it gives you just enough information to succeed without overloading you.

It’s also pretty pure. This is a game about a mouse grabbing cheese underneath cats’ noses. The cats patrol on highlighted pathways, while you move around similarly to how you draw a plane’s path in Flight Control. It’s indirect, but it serves the game well and keeps pacing on an even keel, ensuring few stealth "Oh Crap, Get Behind The Wall Quick" messes.

There are times in which I really, really want more direct control over my character, but those are few, and frankly, it’s because I’m approaching situations in stupid ways. Just like Flight Control, Spy Mouse is all about economy of movement and good planning; it’s not about dancing in front of cats and stumbling away in the nick of time, even though you can, if you want, do just that.

What strikes me as odd is that the core mechanic in this joint isn’t its biggest draw. I’ve been having more fun with the situational content that you apply movement to, as opposed to drawing raw joy from stalking around behind corners. For the better, Firemint has loaded Spy Mouse with oodles of levels, all of which have something fun or strategy-light to offer. It even throws in a bunch of power-ups, side cheese, and hidden areas into the mix, brightening up and differentiating the overall offering, while still maintaining a cohesive feel.

And, sure, while Spy Mouse does a great job of tossing out a lot of stealth game garbage, trial and error are still very much a part of this package. The catch is that it does a fantastic job of putting you right back in to the action in a snap, Super Meat Boy-style.

Artistically and visually, I love what I’m seeing. I’m not the kind of dude who usually reflects on this stuff, but it’s hard to deny the appeal of the soft, Disney-like overall aesthetic. It oozes character without beating you over the head with it, and, you know, its colors and contrasts also look pretty sharp on ‘HD’ devices.

If you couldn’t tell, I’m pretty pleased with Firemint's latest offering. It’s a neat change of pace from a talented development house, and more importantly, it’s a fun and good game. Give it a try, especially if you're into stealth without a lot of the mess.

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Here's one I'm so anxious to share that I'm fumbling over my fingers here at the keyboard. Brandon Williamson over at Nyarlu Labs just sent me the heads-up on some major updates to one of the very best games I have ever played in my entire life, on any platform. The game in question is the modern retro title Forget-Me-Not [App Store] that easily got a five-star rating in my March review (which I urge the unacquainted to read, to get an idea of what the game is all about).

Brandon, yesterday, made a post to his blog announcing the release of a Mac OS X and Windows version of Forget-Me-Not that can be downloaded from his website. And it's freeware! It's not just some dumbed-down, redheaded stepchild build of the game, either — no, no. The free Mac and PC versions of the game are, in fact, the latest, most full-featured versions of the game, bringing many enhancements over the current iOS version.

Some of the new features found in these new versions:

• New enemy: "Thief" guys (pink and green monster) who usually hunt down the key, and when they get it, try to run away from the player. They don't attack anyone and no one attacks them (except for when they get exploded or whatever).
• New enemy: White ceramic square guys who sit there charging up power, then "dash" in a random direction until they hit a wall, instakilling everything in their path. They're indestructible while dashing, and have really high health. The only way to really kill them is squishing them while they're sitting still.  A later variant charges much quicker so is almost constantly dashing.
• New enemy: Some kind of diamond thing that reminds me of diamonds in Boulderdash. If anything hits it, it multiplies. That's all they do, apart from making annoying loud noises. If you're not careful they can quickly fill up all available space. Basically they just hinder you. If you're charged up, you can bash through them and also grind off them at the same time, so you can keep up a steady level of charge.
• New enemy: A stone variant of the spotted "pudding" enemy (the ones which clone when you shoot them). After a certain number of generations, a stone pudding is born. They're indestructible and don't attack, they just plod around slowly blocking the way.
• New enemy: The "floppy disk" enemies now have two kinds: the normal kind which just start moving towards anything that goes past their line of sight, and the new kind which moves around in unpredictable patterns, and sometimes homes in on the player.
• Tweak: Extra lives are increasingly difficult to get
• Tweak: Health potions are more predictable
• Tweak: You now start speeding up as soon as you start wall-grinding, making the whole game play a lot faster
• Tweak: Once the hurry-up ghost appears after a certain amount of time, when the time limit for a level runs out, the lights go off and you can only see a small area around yourself, in pseudo-roguelike style

Fans of the iOS game need not feel left out, however. All of these changes are headed to iOS in a coming update, along with full iCade support! Brandon tells me that the controls have been rewritten for eight-directional joysticks (which the PC version supports, but not yet the Mac) and he feels the game will work quite nicely on the iCade. Touchscreen controls will, of course, be maintained in the iOS version, but with a few speed tweaks to prevent things from getting too fast to play.

Have a look at the iOS game in action:

If you happen to own either a Mac or a PC, there is no excuse for not grabbing this free game, immediately.

Mac download: Mac OS X
PC download: Windows

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I'll cut right to the chase here, as there is no reason to beat around the bush when it comes to a game this awesome: Jetpack Joyride is one of the best iOS game I've played in a very long time. It's typical Halfbrick from top to bottom. If you're not familiar with their previous titles, I'll quickly outline what makes them so good, as all of this applies to describing Jetpack Joyride.

Halfbrick seems to have a nearly supernatural ability to take a genre on the App Store that's totally flooded, tired, and jam packed with stale iteration from way too many developers attempting to get in on that particular craze and make it incredible. They do this by nailing the core gameplay in every way it could possibly be nailed, applying their flawless pixel-art, deploying Barry Steakfries, and adding all kinds of hooks to keep you playing.

In the case of Jetpack Joyride, Halfbrick has taken the cave flyer formula which has been done to death and via their seemingly trademarked Australian majicks created a game that I simply cannot put down. In fact, just writing this article is proving to be difficult because every time I go back to the game to add something to my notes, I find 15 minutes has flown by as I've endlessly sent Mr. Steakfries to his doom via lasers, missiles, and zappers.

The controls are rock solid, and work via the standard tried and true single button approach where you touch the screen to power up the thrusters of Barry's jetpack, and release to send him falling back down. Powerups are plentiful via vehicles that you can ride in that all behave very differently. These vehicles serve as a temporary shield of sorts, and will allow you to, for instance, take a missile to the face without ending your flight.

Jetpack Joyride has a fabulous atmosphere to it, and really reminds me a lot of Shadow Complex, Chair Entertainment's incredible Meroidvania Xbox Live Arcade Game released before Infinity Blade. You fly through a mysterious underground lair, and pass through various sectors that all have a distinctly different feel to them. You'll pass by Indiana Jones-like warehouses filled with mysterious crates, underwater tunnels, Scrooge McDuck-esque gold bins, laboratories, and more. The amount of variety is incredible.

Speaking of laboratories, Halfbrick seems to be on the forefront of scientific advancement when it comes to injecting replay value into their games. Jetpack Joyride has all the replay value of your typical randomized endless runner/flier along with three separate systems that have succeeded in making me play for hours.

First off, for whatever reason, this underground lair you're flying through is loaded to the brim with coins. You collect these coins to spend on a plethora of unlockables ranging from single-user power ups to cosmetic add ons like new jetpacks or clothing. There's no shortage of stuff to work towards either.

Secondly, the mission system gives a otherwise random game with no real objective aside from "see how far you can go" a purpose. You'll always have three missions to accomplish, and there is similarly tons of variety to them. Early on, many of these goals will be fairly simple and ask you to do things like travel 1000 meters, which is tallied across multiple runs. Later on though, as you rank up in the game, they get ridiculously challenging and attempting to beat a particularly brutal mission gives a whole new purpose to the game.

Last, but not least by any stretch of the imagination, is the spin token system. Also flying through the game are tokens which you can fly into to collect that are used after you finally die. Each token allows you to spin an in-game slot machine which has minor effects such as rewarding some coins to blasting you forward a little bit. If you're really lucky, you'll hit three hearts on the slots which will bring you back to life right where you left off. My favorite though, are the boosts to your next game where you can potentially get a 750 meter head start and/or get double coins. And really, if you just scored double coins on your next run, there's basically no way that you're going to put the game down without one more go.

I could gush about this game for hours, but, I've got to save something for our review which I can safely sum up for you right now: Jetpack Joyride is amazing, it's a dollar, it's universal, and as soon as it's available it should be on whatever iOS device(s) you own.

In other news, check out the latest developer diary where Halfbrick goes over some of the things I've already mentioned here, but you can see them in action:

Jetpack Joyride will be available this coming Thursday, September 1st– And really, if you've got a time machine, you need to fire that bad boy up and fast forward to then because you simply need to play this game.

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Back in July of 2009, mine, yours, and everybody else’s lives were changed forever when a little game known as Enviro-Bear 2010 [99¢] recklessly drove its way into the App Store. More than just a video game, though, Enviro-Bear 2010 may quite possibly be the most important artistic work of our time. It’s also hands down the most accurate and fully featured bear-driving-a-car simulator available anywhere. In short, I am who I am today because of Enviro-Bear 2010 and its influences on my life, and I know I’m not alone in saying that.

We let the world know about Enviro-Bear 2010 in our review, and the game went on to see a crazy amount of popularity following shortly after, including being featured on G4 TV’s Attack of the Show and landing a spot on our Best of 2009 Buyer’s Guide. In all seriousness, it’s easy to get wrapped up in the so-bad-it’s-good nature of Enviro-Bear 2010, what with the complete absurdity of the premise and its lovingly crafted MS Paint quality graphics. But, there’s actually quite a bit of depth to the gameplay with the purposely awkward controls and the level of interactivity with the various objects in the game. Doing well in Enviro-Bear 2010 actually takes a decent level of skill and tons of practice.

Enviro-Bear 2010 hasn’t seen a ton of updates in the past 2 years, I mean, it was pretty near to perfection when it first launched. Still, there have been some interesting new features added into the game like a magical mushroom which transforms the cartoonish world into something more shockingly realistic, or the elusive golden fish which has only been discovered by a select few dedicated gamers. Today, Enviro-Bear creator Justin Smith has dropped another unexpected update to the game, adding universal iPad support, tons of different language translations, and no doubt some other hidden goodies.

Playing Enviro-Bear 2010 on the large screen of the iPad is a glorious experience, to say the least. With my iPad comfortably propped up in my lap, both hands are free to man the controls of the car as well as deal with the many hazards that drop into the car’s interior, including that mischievous badger who seems dead set on harshing my mellow. I hate you with all my being, badger. Also, grabbing items using Enviro-Bear’s single huge paw has been made easier, which is extremely welcome when there is a ton of crap piled up in the interior and you need to accurately grab something under pressure with Winter bearing down on you.

If you’re somewhat new on the iOS scene and this is the first you’re hearing of Enviro-Bear 2010, then just a cursory glance at any of these screenshots should tell you if it’s the sort of game for you. It’s extremely difficult, mostly due to the purposely terrible controls, and it has a visual style that only a Mother Bear could love. But, for those that can appreciate these sorts of things, there is no finer bear-driving-a-car simulator available, and now you can enjoy Enviro-Bear 2010 from the comfort of your iPad as well.

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When I first heard about Match Panic [$.99], I had the same reaction to it that a lab ape does to a banana attached to an electrical current. Its super casual conceit and its ridiculously cute aesthetic are as sweet as banana juice, but there is a price in succumbing to cutesy and simple in the form of credibility and overall well-being. In this delightful scenario, I’m referring to mental health, as opposed to physical health which our dear lab ape would be short of if it happened to be really, really hungry one afternoon.

As flat-out stated in our original review, the core play boils down to this: moving a cartoon object to one of two columns with a matching object. There's a gentle escalation of action as the columns fill up with more objects to match, but that's it. On the iPad or iPhone it feels great since all you’re doing is flicking, so this isn't the kind of game that begs for iCade support. Still, a torrent of surprise drizzled me when I rigged it into my device and gave it a go.

Match Panic when played with an iCade uses two buttons, both on the far side of the lower layout on the machine — there is no joystick support. The far left-hand button puts the center object in the left-hand column, while the right-hand button puts the center object in the right column. It's pretty straightforward, but because developers can’t really document these kinds of things in their official app notes due to Apple being nuts, I had to stumble around and figure this out myself. I just threw you a bone, here.

It’s hard to express exactly how the game makes me feel with ThinkGeek’s ridiculous little device, but when I play, I enter into that weird zone that Pavlov discovered — you know, the one where you drool whenever you hear a bell because you really, really like food? That one. Match Panic is a super simple, visceral kind of game designed specifically around rewarding and dazzling you for matching. With buttons and that tactile feedback the iCade provides, these feelings it inspires multiply in a scary, drool-inducing-dog-hears-a-bell sort of way. It's wild.

As a result, you'll catch yourself spending way too much time with it happily matching shapes. I got to the point where I forced myself to unplug, just like how I have to yank myself out of Pac-Man Championship Edition DX, which has a similar style of rewarding.

If you don’t own Match Panic, you probably should. And if you have an iCade, you definitely should. Match Panic nowhere near as complex as other titles that the platform supports, but it’s a grade A example of why the iCade is so cool and how it can flesh out experiences in new, and in the case of this, dramatic ways. I’ve been having a blast at least.

Previous games we’ve covered in this series: Mos Speedrun / HungryMaster. Check out our list of iCade titles here.

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An expansive new update is now available for Red Nova [$.99], the super-sleek survival-based space shooter that had us going gaga way back in the year 2010. Naturally, the headliner of the new stuff is a brand new episode (Mercy) that’ll have you repelling waves of enemy fighters in a vehicle dubbed the “Raven Heavy Transport.” This very vehicle has also been added into episode one of the game, too, if you’re really into big ships. A new turret power-up, the Gun Pod, has also been added for big destruction opportunities.

This update also throws in your traditional tweaks and fixes. Specifically, load times have been improved and so has the performance of the rendering engine. The HUD has also seen some additional scrubbing, alongside the radar markers, which now scale for distance. Menu fixes have been introduced, too. Neat!

If Red Nova is alien to you, you can check out our review. Also, take note that the game’s creator is definitely into supporting his title. This is the second big update that we’ve covered thus far, and I’m fairly confident it won’t be the last.

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Normally, multiplayer updates are celebrated by the fans and community surrounding a title, but in the case of Uno [$.99 / HD / Free] fans are bitter over the whole ordeal. According to the 50 plus one-star reviews (and counting) that the game has raked in post-update, Uno has become a bad, crash-riddled title filled with ads, bugs, and broken gameplay. We didn’t see this one coming.

Alongside multiplayer and new leaderboards, several new issues introduced via the update are rubbing people the wrong way, and none more than the bug that keeps the game from launching after its updated, which is a pretty rational reason to throw a bad review the game’s way. Unfortunately, when it does work, paid users are now being served ads, which again, is a pretty rational reason to drag the title under the bus since ads weren’t a part of the original deal.

Users are also complaining about IAP cards leading to bad play. Apparently, you can purchase special cards in the game that can be pulled out whenever, including even in multiplayer. If this is the case, well, wow — that’s definitely not good.

On the bright side, it’s hard to believe that Gameloft won’t answer these concerns in some meaningful update down the line. When that’ll be though is anyone’s guess. We've put in a word to the publisher to see and will update if / when we hear back.

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One of my favorite genres is the adventure genre, since I was brought up on games like Shadowgate, Zork and Myst. So I admit that before even starting Cryptic Keep [$1.99], I was already rubbing my hands together in anticipation over the idea of it. A deserted castle? Stubborn puzzles to solve? Mysterious music? Why, maybe there would even be the useless combining of items that make no sense together! Wait, what's the appeal of this genre again?

All jokes aside, though, Cryptic Keep looked like a possibly watered down, but still interesting adventure title. You begin the game at the doors of a great castle which was locked down by a royal old dude named King Telvonus, but of course, the Sword of Ire is inside (why he would leave it there instead of taking it on his journey for protection is anyone's guess), and its up to you to get it. Ah, flimsy iOS stories, how do we love thee? Or rather, how do we ignore thee as we barrel past you in favor of the gameplay.

Cryptic Keep is first person, and it operates in traditional adventure style. Rather than clicking a mouse to explore your surroundings, a tap of your finger will get you where you need to go. The game has no NPCs at all, so all of your travels will be solo. However, this lends to the mysterious feeling of the game, and I rather liked it. Now, of course no keep has unlocked doors, so to even get inside you'll have to start solving puzzles right off the bat. You have a small inventory bar on the bottom of your screen where items you pick up will go, and you'll need to decide how to use these items in your environment to make progress. What do those runes on the anvil mean? Why is there a frozen skeleton standing in the courtyard? All this and more awaits you as you wander this castle and wonder why Telvonus ever left in the first place.

One thing that bears mentioning is the load screens. It sometimes taks five seconds or more once you click a direction for the next screen to load, and let me tell you, for an iPhone game, that seems long. This is one of the downfalls of Cryptic Keep, and I admit it got under my skin after a while. There's no way those three footsteps took that long, you know?

The other thing about the game that I wasn't crazy about was that the puzzles were rarely a real challenge (although I did mention I cut my teeth on much harder game in this genre, so maybe I'm a harsh critic). The game itself is very short, and finishing it in one sitting is a pretty straightforward task. The developer has promised more puzzles in a future update, but it's good to know before you buy that your $1.99 may buy you an hour of gameplay, maybe two at most if you're not much of a puzzle solver and you get stuck here or there.

Cryptic Keep is good, but not great. For adventure fans looking for a fix, it may provide some entertainment, but there's something about it that feels a bit generic. That being said, I can't say I didn't enjoy going back into adventure mode to solve some puzzles and make my way into the heart of a mysterious castle. Perhaps it's just nostalgia knocking at my door, but despite its flaws, I felt that Cryptic Keep still had a good amount of fun to offer.

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I’d imagine it’s gut-wrenchingly frustrating when a Flash game creator discovers that one of his game's ideas, mechanics, or even overall aesthetic has been cribbed by another party and then monetized on the App Store without his permission. Most notably in media circles, it happened with Halfbot and its fantastic title, The Blocks Cometh [$.99], and it’s possibly happening right now to Andrew Moorish, the creator of Super Puzzle Platformer. In a strange twist, various games web sites are reporting that the 'company' that made a victim of Halfbot is also the same one responsible for this specific and supposed theft.

The game Moorish claims is cribbing his title is I Hate Puzzle [$.99]. DIY Gamer reports that the games are, basically, mechanically the same. As you’ll see, they also definitely resemble each other in a profound way. In the following image Moorish tweeted, the game on the left is Super Puzzle Platformer, while the one on the right is I Hate Puzzle. Take note of  how the assets are flip-flopped or toned down between these two titles:

The developer listed on I Hate Puzzle is Domi Games, the same house that, according to a GameFront report, lifted the Flash game Tiny Hawk in the past. According to the reporting in that specific article, Domi Games is a new name for Edison Game, the company that started The Blocks Cometh brouhaha.

There’s a lot of loose ends here, but it strikes us as odd — provided these theft reports are indeed accurate — that Domi Games is still allowed to distribute on the App Store. On a platform as closed as this one is, you’d figure something like a ban from Apple wouldn’t be out of the question. I wonder how this will shake out.

[Via GameSetWatch, DIY Gamer, @int_main, and Gamefront]

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