TouchArcade.ru

For all the remarkable games we are seeing nowadays on the App Store, we are blessed with very few epic RPGs. It seems that developers are still unwilling to invest in the content heavy, quest-driven adventures that many other platforms routinely enjoy. Publisher Nate Games has thoughtfully identified this gap in the market and have given us the next best thing– a direct port of a critically acclaimed 2009 title for the PSP– Crimson Gem Saga [$9.99] by Atlus Games.

As the name would suggest, Crimson Gem Saga is indeed an epic by definition, weighing in at a satisfying 30-40 hours of story-driven, turn-based combat and exploration of a colorful, mythical world. Crimson Gem Saga makes no delusions, drawing strongly from the tenets of the Dragon Quest series in doing little to crack the molds of the genre, but focusing instead on bringing that traditional RPG experience in as fine a package as possible.

The wrapper to that package comes by way Killian, a tightly wound chevalier graduating from military academy and ready to embark on a new life in the big wide world. It's a setting told ad nauseum by RPGs, a factor that Crimson Gem Saga doesn't shy from. Wholly self-aware, Crimson Gem Saga instead colors that grey backdrop with a surprisingly well written, often humorous dialogue and a host of jaded protagonists alway at each other's throats– an interaction practically unheard of in JRPGs.

To look at Crimson Gem Saga, one would have to agree that it delivers abundantly in eye candy. The game is portrayed with a mixture of highly detailed and diversely animated sprites (for both characters and world objects) and painted, layered level design. In many ways, Crimson Gem Saga aspires to the likes of Star Ocean, with the same colorful and richly populated world and detailed anime dialogue sequences rounding out the game's visual spectacle.

Undoubtedly the meat of any RPG is in its combat system, where you'll be spending the majority of your time over the length of the story. And combat remains largely derivative in Crimson Gem Saga. You won't find any complex limit system or interwoven skill trees to get your head around; but on the iOS devices, that is actually a blessing. The most difficult concept to master is the eventual use of linked attacks, where certain powerful skills are only made available if particular characters have consecutive turns. Otherwise combat is straightforward but constantly challenging, maintaining its lustre throughout the game.

Where Crimson Gem Saga falls short is in its seemingly lazy port; something of a curse of crossing the platform barrier. The on-screen buttons are just plain ugly, something that could be forgiven (though we wish there was an option to hide them entirely) if the implementation was otherwise acceptable. But this is not the case, with the menu system providing a saga of its own to overcome. Context sensitive areas on the screen aren't readily understandable, and the swiping mechanic is backwards and overly sensitive. Granted, hours of playing the game does eventually train you to negotiate the UI's hitches, but do expect initial frustration.

Compounding these issues are a few major bugs encountered; from a game-stopping cutscene crash we experienced on our first play through (fortunately, not on our second), to a widely experienced upgrading item crash. And voiced dialogues are terrific when they do work, but also intermittently cut out and seem to arbitrarily skip sequences. The silver lining to all this is that the developer has already responded to complaints on our forums with a patch being worked on to address some of these problems.

Notwithstanding the above, Crimson Gem Saga is a well-rounded title whose whole certainly exceeds the sum of its parts. Its traditional approach to RPGs meshes well with its witty dialogue to deliver a surprisingly engrossing adventure. Though combat is simple, even the average encounter is never a push over and so remains fun and engaging. The characters too are infectious and constantly at odds with each other; giving rise to some very funny dialogue and pop gaming culture references. If you can endure the clumsily ported menu system, then Crimson Gem Saga will reward you with a notoriously rare, epic RPG on the iOS platform.

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Frogatto is an open source platforming game available on the Mac/PC that was released to the App Store last month. We took a close look at the game when it came out, and though our impressions were mostly positive a couple of issues stuck out in an otherwise excellent retro-styled platformer, most notably the somewhat finicky controls and a lack of a save state when exiting the game. Both of these issues have been resolved in a new update, and Frogatto now features much tighter controls (especially when navigating underwater portions) and the game saves right where you left off when interrupted. In addition, other tweaks and optimizations have been included, as detailed in the update notes:

• Significantly improved controls, both functionally and graphically.
• Fixed auto-saving on iOS4 where multitasking is supported.
• Fixed bug where a dialog could repeat forever.
• Fixed crash in world map when you hold down while entering it.
• Added music and sound volume controls to pause screen.
• Added half-hearts.
• Minor level changes.
• Updated music.

If any of these issues have held you back in purchasing Frogatto before, now is the time to grab the game as not only have these problems been addressed in this update but the game is also on sale for 99¢ for a limited time (down from $4.99). I've played through this updated version and can confirm that it's quite a big improvement from the initial release, and Frogatto stands as one of the better platform games available for the iPhone.

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The Hero places you in the role of a superhero tasked with preventing crime and catastrophic events from befalling various cities in the world, all while maintaining a positive public image and keeping collateral damage to a minimum. You control your hero with a virtual stick that allows you to fly in any direction through the air, with a button for speeding your flight as you rush to save citizens from the many hazards in each city. These can be robbers in the street, bombs or fires in the buildings, rescuing falling babies, and of course defeating zombies. When not saving the citizens, you're dishing out high fives to them as you fly by, which increases your various special move gauges and promotes fame and good will.

A new update to The Hero adds 3 mini-games to the 15 level campaign and 4 level survival mode, as well as minor artwork/storyline tweaks and a revamped scoring system:

• A Fully revised gameplay and scoring model
• 3 Brand New minigames: Asteroids, Bomb Run, High-Fiver
• Levels are now packed with even more action
• New super bonus from high five streaks

The Hero was released back in March, and we really liked it in our full review, but for some reason it has flown under the radar since then and we haven't heard much of it in the past few months. Hopefully this new update will rekindle interest in this underrated title, and to help with that The Hero is also on sale for a limited time for 99¢ (down from $1.99). If you missed it the first time around, it's definitely worth checking out with the addition of more content and this temporary price drop.

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Retro overlord Stuart Carnie of Manomio contacted Touch Arcade to let us know that after months of work, the C64 for iPhone v1.7 update will shortly be arriving in the App Store. This is a major update that brings numerous enhancements as well as a nice list of additional games available through the app's integrated game store.

Control Improvements:

• Corrected dead area at side of screen in landscape, rendering controls unresponsive for a small strip
• New fixed-mode joystick in landscape mode, automatically selected for specific games
• Option on the settings screen to force fixed-mode joystick in landscape mode for all games
• File-based disk support for multi-disk games. Does not work for those games requiring true 1541 support. (No virtual swapping of disks)
• Option to adjust dead zone / sensitivity of joystick

Updates Fixes:

• Upgraded to OpenFeint 2.5
• Removed bottom bar in full-screen landscape to prevent obscuring screen in games like Wizball
• Reimplementation of control layout system, to support the complex controls scenarios for games like The Last Ninja and Druid
• Borders are correctly drawn in landscape (Wizball looks better now)
• Hi-res icons added for retina and iPad displays so C64 looks better on your home screen

Usability Improvements:

• Display OpenFeint notifications at top rather than bottom
• Added grouping to In App Store to separate downloaded / purchased titles
• Shop now separates downloaded games

14 New Games:

• Armalyte
• Buggy Boy
• Druid
• Eliminator
• Heatseeker (FREE)
• Hunter's Moon
• International Karate
• Snare
• Summer Camp
• The Last Ninja
• The Last Ninja 2
• The Last Ninja 3
• Bozo's Night Out (FREE)
• Iridis Alpha (FREE)

Stuart indicates that, despite this major update, C64 is not the studio's only focus, by any means. Their brainteaser-style game Nerve Jangler – a NinjaDoodle license that's been played over 22 million times – will be complete and out the door in the next few weeks, and then it's all focus on the Amiga games. We hope to have some early ad hoc builds of a few Amiga classic nicely packaged up for the iPhone in the next few weeks. Stay tuned!

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Earlier this year we took a look at Ynth [$2.99], a puzzle platformer that never really seemed to catch on which we ended up enjoying quite a bit in our review. In the game you play as a small red bug who has to cross a deadly swamp using nothing more than an array of oddly shaped boxes that you're able to rotate about using touch controls. Completing Ynth required a surprising amount of brain power, and from the looks of it, the sequel looks even more challenging.

We don't really know much more about Beyond Ynth, other than it's coming in September, but hopefully posting this trailer generates some interest for the original game as I'm sure quite a few people missed it the first time around. Beyond Ynth will support the Retina Display of the iPhone 4, as well as the iPad along with the rest of the iOS device family.

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One Man Left has been hard at work improving Tilt to Live [$2.99] since its initial release earlier this year. Tilt to Live is a tilt-controlled survival game where you must avoid and/or eliminate an endless onslaught of red dots. We loved the game in our review, and since then there have been two substantial updates to add even more content in to the game. The previous update included code red and gauntlet mode, and the latest update added the new frostbite mode.

When playing Tilt to Live in frostbite mode, red dots fall from the top of the screen but they're frozen as if they had been hit by one of the freeze bombs. You must run in to them to shatter them before they hit the bottom of the screen and are thawed. This new mode also introduces a new power-up which will allow you to shoot a wall of fire across the screen and burn any dot that floats through it. The latest update includes an array of various tweaks and iOS 4 bug fixes as well.

If you have yet to pick up Tilt to Live, now is a fantastic time to do so. I fully recommended this game when it was first released and only included the classic mode. With three additional game modes thrown in to the mix since then along with some new power-ups to play with, I really don't see Tilt to Live ever getting deleted from my phone.

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Jet Car Stunts [$1.99 / Free] by True Axis is without a doubt a favorite around here, and last week we posted about the recent update which not only added a DLC level pack, but also threw in a load of iOS 4 enhancements including antialiasing on newer devices as well as fast app switching support. True Axis had intended this update to also include Retina Display support, but a last minute bug prevented the game from running at the glorious 960×640 resolution. This was quickly fixed, and an updated version was submitted to the App Store which was just approved mere moments ago.

Check out how awesome Jet Car Stunts looks on the iPhone 4:

If you're an iPhone 4 owner with Jet Car Stunts, don't waste any time before mashing the update button in iTunes. The game looks fantastic on the Retina Display, and still runs at its sky high frame rate even at the higher resolution. If this is the first you've heard of Jet Car Stunts, take a look at our review. We liked the game so much we awarded it five stars, and from checking out the quotes in the iTunes description, we're not alone.

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When playing games or watching films, I'm not typically the type to get scared. Those surprise moments that are designed to make you jump don't even draw a flinch from me, and horror movies in general usually elicit more laughter than fear. So I was certainly taken aback when I found that a little iPhone game, Prisoner 84 from Hidden Games to be exact, actually had me on the edge of my seat with paranoia due to its unsettling atmosphere. As far as gameplay is concerned, there's nothing utterly mind blowing as on a whole it's rather simplistic, although certainly above average. But based on the overall feelings Prisoner 84 can invoke and how well suited to the iPhone it is, it's an experience that really captures your imagination.

The game takes place on an offshore prison where you play as prisoner 84. You awaken in solitary confinement to find that everyone in the prison is either dead or has become some form of undead. Gruesome and disturbing images wait for you around every corner. Your goal is to escape the prison, and along the way find out about your past and why exactly you've been sent to this prison. If you were to judge the game based on screenshots alone, you would likely not be impressed. The character models are blocky and lack detail, but for good reason. Every enemy has a complete skeletal structure underneath their outer skin and clothing. So blasting away at them will slowly chip off pieces of their flesh, exposing parts of their skeleton until they're finally put down for good. It's a really satisfying and neat effect, but at the expense of detailed character visuals.

The environments are a different story, and are what really makes Prisoner 84 shine. The standout feature is the lighting system, which creates a stark contrast of shadows throughout the game. Every light source reflects accurately on prisoner 84 as he makes his way through the maze-like prison, and the lighting does wonders to make you forget that the character models are less than stellar. Of equally high quality is the sound design, and while there's no music playing during the game, the soundtrack is comprised of haunting audio effects that fit the game perfectly. Distant moans or mechanical banging will come out of nowhere, and footsteps change from sharp and echoing to sticky and gross as you walk through a trail of blood.

This exceptional atmosphere that Prisoner 84 creates would be nothing without gameplay to go with it, and the game delivers fairly well on this front. From a third-person perspective, you control 84 with a small d-pad for movement and swipe the screen to aim. The d-pad is serviceable, albeit kind of funky, but the swipe to aim is nearly flawless. 84's movement is deliberately slow, but a quick double-tap of the forward arrow makes him move at a faster pace. There's a single button for firing your weapon, and a context sensitive button that will appear if you are next to something in the environment that can be interacted with. An inventory button resides in the upper corner and takes you to a screen where you can keep tabs on the puzzle items you've obtained and the weapons, outfits, and other collectible items that are in the game.

One of the things that really draws you into Prisoner 84 is the minimalist approach to the UI and other traditional game elements. There's no aiming reticule, rather where the barrel of your gun points is the direction you'll fire. Also there isn't any life indicator other than your character's diminishing appearance as he has damage inflicted upon him. Other nice touches really make you feel as though you're playing the game through 84's perspective, like actually touching and dragging a security card through a terminal or placing a key in the keyhole and turning it to unlock doors and lockers. Some may call this gimmicky, but to me it's a refreshing change from the by-the-numbers approach of similar games, and shows some ingenuity on the part of the developer for making the most of the touch screen interface.

With all my praise for Prisoner 84, it certainly does have drawbacks. I can accept the low poly characters since it allows for the skeletal damage system, as well as ensuring the game runs smoothly on all devices, but they do stick out like a sore thumb. The puzzles in the game are really basic, mostly consisting of collecting an item that has an obvious use later in the game. And as far as enemy AI is concerned, well, it barely exists. You can be blasting away at a baddie, with another a mere couple feet away that stands like a statue as if nothing were going on right next to him. But the game's focus is squarely on exploration and discovery, with the combat and puzzle elements taking somewhat of a backseat. In this way Prisoner 84 still succeeds as an enjoyable experience in spite of the negatives.

In regards to the horror game genre, Prisoner 84 really nails the important points, which is mainly a bone chilling atmosphere. It's certainly not the greatest action or puzzle game there is, but the exploration factor is truly compelling. As such, it certainly won't appeal to everybody, and I know for a fact that some people just don't dig these types of slow paced games. But for me, it's one of the most interesting and unique experiences I've had on the iPhone, and the comments in our forum are overwhelmingly positive. The fact that the entire game was created by a two man development team makes it all the more impressive, and they obviously have a very clear vision of what games like this are supposed to be like. Quibbles aside, Prisoner 84 offers a great amount of entertainment for the price, and proves that you don't need a big screen or a big budget to bring a scary good time to players.

Note: There is a known crashing bug at a couple points in the game when inputing a 3 digit security code into a computer by way of sliding each number in place for 3 seconds. The game has a tendency to crash during this event, but since the game automatically saves each time you enter a new room, you won't lose much progress. Repeating the code entry will get it to eventually work, so it shouldn't impede your progress, and the developer is already working on a fix for this.

[source]

When playing games or watching films, I'm not typically the type to get scared. Those surprise moments that are designed to make you jump don't even draw a flinch from me, and horror movies in general usually elicit more laughter than fear. So I was certainly taken aback when I found that a little iPhone game, Prisoner 84 from Hidden Games to be exact, actually had me on the edge of my seat with paranoia due to its unsettling atmosphere. As far as gameplay is concerned, there's nothing utterly mind blowing as on a whole it's rather simplistic, although certainly above average. But based on the overall feelings Prisoner 84 can invoke and how well suited to the iPhone it is, it's an experience that really captures your imagination.

The game takes place on an offshore prison where you play as prisoner 84. You awaken in solitary confinement to find that everyone in the prison is either dead or has become some form of undead. Gruesome and disturbing images wait for you around every corner. Your goal is to escape the prison, and along the way find out about your past and why exactly you've been sent to this prison. If you were to judge the game based on screenshots alone, you would likely not be impressed. The character models are blocky and lack detail, but for good reason. Every enemy has a complete skeletal structure underneath their outer skin and clothing. So blasting away at them will slowly chip off pieces of their flesh, exposing parts of their skeleton until they're finally put down for good. It's a really satisfying and neat effect, but at the expense of detailed character visuals.

The environments are a different story, and are what really makes Prisoner 84 shine. The standout feature is the lighting system, which creates a stark contrast of shadows throughout the game. Every light source reflects accurately on prisoner 84 as he makes his way through the maze-like prison, and the lighting does wonders to make you forget that the character models are less than stellar. Of equally high quality is the sound design, and while there's no music playing during the game, the soundtrack is comprised of haunting audio effects that fit the game perfectly. Distant moans or mechanical banging will come out of nowhere, and footsteps change from sharp and echoing to sticky and gross as you walk through a trail of blood.

This exceptional atmosphere that Prisoner 84 creates would be nothing without gameplay to go with it, and the game delivers fairly well on this front. From a third-person perspective, you control 84 with a small d-pad for movement and swipe the screen to aim. The d-pad is serviceable, albeit kind of funky, but the swipe to aim is nearly flawless. 84's movement is deliberately slow, but a quick double-tap of the forward arrow makes him move at a faster pace. There's a single button for firing your weapon, and a context sensitive button that will appear if you are next to something in the environment that can be interacted with. An inventory button resides in the upper corner and takes you to a screen where you can keep tabs on the puzzle items you've obtained and the weapons, outfits, and other collectible items that are in the game.

One of the things that really draws you into Prisoner 84 is the minimalist approach to the UI and other traditional game elements. There's no aiming reticule, rather where the barrel of your gun points is the direction you'll fire. Also there isn't any life indicator other than your character's diminishing appearance as he has damage inflicted upon him. Other nice touches really make you feel as though you're playing the game through 84's perspective, like actually touching and dragging a security card through a terminal or placing a key in the keyhole and turning it to unlock doors and lockers. Some may call this gimmicky, but to me it's a refreshing change from the by-the-numbers approach of similar games, and shows some ingenuity on the part of the developer for making the most of the touch screen interface.

With all my praise for Prisoner 84, it certainly does have drawbacks. I can accept the low poly characters since it allows for the skeletal damage system, as well as ensuring the game runs smoothly on all devices, but they do stick out like a sore thumb. The puzzles in the game are really basic, mostly consisting of collecting an item that has an obvious use later in the game. And as far as enemy AI is concerned, well, it barely exists. You can be blasting away at a baddie, with another a mere couple feet away that stands like a statue as if nothing were going on right next to him. But the game's focus is squarely on exploration and discovery, with the combat and puzzle elements taking somewhat of a backseat. In this way Prisoner 84 still succeeds as an enjoyable experience in spite of the negatives.

In regards to the horror game genre, Prisoner 84 really nails the important points, which is mainly a bone chilling atmosphere. It's certainly not the greatest action or puzzle game there is, but the exploration factor is truly compelling. As such, it certainly won't appeal to everybody, and I know for a fact that some people just don't dig these types of slow paced games. But for me, it's one of the most interesting and unique experiences I've had on the iPhone, and the comments in our forum are overwhelmingly positive. The fact that the entire game was created by a two man development team makes it all the more impressive, and they obviously have a very clear vision of what games like this are supposed to be like. Quibbles aside, Prisoner 84 offers a great amount of entertainment for the price, and proves that you don't need a big screen or a big budget to bring a scary good time to players.

Note: There is a known crashing bug at a couple points in the game when inputing a 3 digit security code into a computer by way of sliding each number in place for 3 seconds. The game has a tendency to crash during this event, but since the game automatically saves each time you enter a new room, you won't lose much progress. Repeating the code entry will get it to eventually work, so it shouldn't impede your progress, and the developer is already working on a fix for this.

[source]

It was just a couple weeks ago that we were previewing the iPad version of the iPhone hit Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor. At the time, developer Tiger Style had yet to submit this enhanced version of their critically acclaimed game. Well, good news Spider fans, as since that preview the game had been submitted and approved, and is now available for download from the App Store. As mentioned, this version includes some extra features that set it apart from it's iPhone counterpart. From our preview:

Like similar HD releases, Spider HD is little more than the iPhone game with the resolution of everything cranked up to fill the screen of the iPad. This allows you to see much more of your surroundings, making clues regarding the secrets of Bryce Manor much easier to spot than on the iPhone version, where your somewhat limited viewpoint could result in missing certain things if you weren't properly exploring some levels. Also, like most games built around fantastic art, the entire game experience is so much better in high resolution.

All four of the game modes from the iPhone game are included, as well as a brand new two player "sidekicks" game mode where two spiders are on screen, and each spider is controlled by the finger nearest to it. It's actually a surprising amount of fun, as like most games played in cooperative mode it's entirely up to you whether you want to help each other build webs, or simply race all over the screen trying to munch up bugs before the other player.

This developer video demonstrates the high resolution visuals, larger play area, and iPad exclusive same-device multiplayer:

If you're an iPad owner who's never played Spider, then now is the best time to become familiar with the franchise as Spider: Bryce Manor HD seems to be the definitive version of the game.  Besides the additions mentioned above, it also includes all the Director's Cut content that was added to the iPhone version towards the end of last year.  As always, further impressions are being collected in the game's forum thread.

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