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Games that tie in to major properties are sometimes, shall we say, a little lacking. So you might be tempted to think that Assassin’s Creed Recollection [99¢] is just your average cash-in, perhaps a standard collectable card game with images of franchise heroes Altaïr ibn-La’Ahad and Ezio Auditore da Firenze slapped on the cards. You can stop thinking that right about now, because this game is something far more interesting.

That’s not to say it’s without its problems — Ubisoft has been chasing down some big-time bugs since the game was released — but Assassin’s Creed Recollection is more than just another coat of paint on the traditional CCG. It takes the formula real time, pitting you and your opponent against the clock as well as each other.

Once you get past the game’s peculiar jargon (cards are Memories, decks are Sequences, creatures are Agents, mana is Gold — it’s all very Assassin’s Creed), you’ll find a CCG with several creative tweaks. Turns are gone, period. Instead, everything is measured by day. You get one new card in your hand each day, and summoning agents takes half a day. You and your opponent do everything simultaneously, something that would get messy in your average CCG but is handled elegantly here.

You see, you aren’t playing directly against your opponent, who has no health or tokens to speak of. You’re sending your agents out to campaign in regions that dominate the play field. To win, you need to control the majority of those regions at the same time. If one of your agents finishes a campaign in a region without being opposed, you earn that agent’s attack power in points. Ten points and you control the region. So off you go, slapping down agents, throwing them in front of your opponent’s agents and claiming regions until one of you is victorious.

There’s quite a bit more to it — you can place Sites on each region that earn points every day, and you can also throw down Actions, which are used to interrupt enemies or boost your own cards. And you have to control your income, the amount of gold you earn each day, because every card has a cost and most of those costs are steep. It’s a bit complex, but Assassin’s Creed Recollections does a great job of walking you through the basics with a thorough tutorial.

Unfortunately, you come out the other side of that tutorial and slam directly into a wall. The first real mission in the single-player campaign pulls exactly no punches, and your default deck is more than a little lackluster. So, in a move that should come as no surprise to CCG players, you’ll probably need to buy some boosters.

To Ubisoft’s credit, they don’t start you off with a paywall. You’ll have quite a few credits by the time you emerge from the tutorial, enough to buy quite a few packs if you’re thrifty. They don’t do such a good job of explaining the difference between the inexpensive Templar packs and the rather pricey Assassin’s packs. As it turns out, they give cards from separate pools, and the Assassin’s cards are not so much stronger as they are targeted to advanced play styles. So go for the Templar packs at first.

The cards you’ll receive from these booster packs are sure to delight any Assassin’s Creed fan. They, and the game’s story, are largely pulled from Assassin’s Creed 2, and they feature plenty of familiar faces. The cards cover everyone from Rosa the thief to Rodrigo Borgia and every Assassin, Templar, courtesan and scholar between. They’re separated into factions, and while each of your decks can only contain two factions and the unaffiliated gold cards, you’ll collect plenty of each in your booster purchases. You can’t currently complete your collection with single-card purchases, but the upcoming Auction House sounds like it will address that problem.

The single-player campaign, which has you winding your way through fair Italia as an inexperienced Templar, will take skilled players a couple hours, and CCG newbies a fair bit more. It has limited replayability since you can’t continuously earn extra credits or experience by replaying old missions. At that point, if not before, you’ll need to move into multiplayer, where you can stomp friends and strangers alike.

Overall, I’m more than satisfied with the core game. The rest of the trappings are a bit less impressive. The out-of-game interface is governed by a confusing mix of swipes and taps, which is compounded by a lack of responsiveness in certain menus. Miss the fact that you can access the menu at any point by swiping down with two fingers (mentioned once and otherwise never indicated) and you may end up wondering why there’s no way to pause or forfeit a match. There are Game Center achievements, several of them, specifically for buying credits with IAP.

More damningly, there seem to be issues with the purchase of booster packs. If the Ubisoft servers are down when you buy a booster, you may not be able to open it until they’re back up. According to some folks in our discussion thread, this may sometimes result in lost cards, though we haven’t been able to confirm the problem. I’m sure the server check-in cuts down on cheating, but it also cuts down on players’ ability to access the content they’ve purchased. Add to that a crash bug effecting existing players that was introduced in the current patch and I grow wary of recommending this game before these issues are ironed out, though a just-released patch looks to address some of this. Also, the game is currently on sale for 99¢, which might make it a worthwhile deal for putting up with some bumps in the road during post-release updating.

If you’re a CCG lover who also happens to be a fan of Assassin’s Creed, though, Recollection really is worth a look. It doesn’t add much to the mythos, but it makes great use of the IP. As a bonus, the short film Embers is included, along with a gallery of concept art for Uplay users. But Assassin’s Creed Recollection isn’t just for fanboys — it’s a genuinely engaging card game with a surprising depth of strategy. Hopefully Ubisoft will be prompt in fixing the bugs, but the core game is intact in the meantime. Just go easy on the IAP.

TouchArcade Rating:

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Hello. My name is Cassandra and I have a problem. I’m a recovering trading card game-holic. I used to play them obsessively – just ask my wallet. But I’ve been getting better. I’ve been clean for a while but I have doubts that it is going to last. There’s a new game in town and it’s smart, sexy and exotic. Meet Cabals: The Card Game [Free], ladies and gentlemen, and kiss your productivity good-bye.

Developed by Finnish Kyy Games, Cabals has all the necessary hallmarks of the genre: exceptional artwork, warring factions, creatures to summon, resources to manage, booster packs – you name it, they’ve got it.

The world of Cabals: The Card Game is a familiar one. It’s our own, after all. The key players here are the Cabals, secret societies comprised of witches and steam punk magicians, of Russians and alchemists and faerie pigs. As is often the case with anything eldritch in nature, these Cabals don’t get along too well. This, obviously enough, is where you come in. You’re one of the vanguards and you will fight for the glory of your faction. Or something like that.

One thing I really liked about Kyy Games’ new title is the exceedingly robust cross-platform online gameplay that it provides. I know, I know. This isn’t anything new, per se. We’ve had cross-platform games for ages. But bear with me. Most games have limitations. With Cabals, things are a little different. Not only will you be able to take on players on the iOS platform, you’ll also be able to challenge everyone from Mac Users to Android-wielding associates. In short, if it runs Unity, it will run Cabals and it will run it beautifully. (Facebook and Windows 7 versions are apparently in the works too.)

So, we’ve got kick-ass online services and a delightful urban-fantasy setting checked. What else has Kyy Games brought to the table? A lot, I would say. Cabals: The Card Game is a somewhat nontraditional take on the idea. More a TCG/board game hybrid than anything else, Cabals will not have you safely seated on your side of the metaphorical table as you work on whittling your opponent’s health down to zero. No, sir. Things are much different here.

In Cabals, you’re going to have to either storm the Stronghold (it’s usually the tile furthest away from your own and marked with a little castle-like symbol) or acquire 60 Domination points (this usually entails conquering approximately sixty tiles) in order to win. Your choice. Just be forewarned – it’s not as easy as it sounds. Units can only be brought into play through your Stronghold or a ‘deployment location’ that you control. Does that mean you should rush towards those hot spots? Not really. It depends on your playstyle. Can you afford risking the possibility of being flanked? Can you control your opponent’s wanton expansion in the mean time? What about your Stronghold? Do you worry about it or do you charge for the other guy’s Stronghold first?

But before you get into all of that, you had better damn well make sure you have enough resources at your disposal first. Do you finance spells or units? Do you go for quality or quantity? And if that wasn’t enough to worry about, you’re also going to have to take positioning into account as it is far too easy to maneuver yourself into a corner should you be careless.

As for the rest of it, it’s all pretty straightforward. Movement is accomplished by dragging and dropping a unit onto an adjacent square. Combat is performed when two units are within range (and by dragging and dropping one onto another). Damage is determined by the power that a unit has and occasionally by certain special attributes. Spells work pretty much the same way as units – their individual effects can be found on the cards themselves.

Sometimes, a laborious dance worthy of the grandmasters of chess and sometimes, a mad rush for control, Cabals is easy to grasp and surprisingly deep for something that can, at times, feel like a distilled version of the genre. It currently operates on a freemium model so you’re going to have to spend some real world cash to purchase more cards. Fortunately, you won’t get assaulted by constant demands to spend money so that’s always a plus. As an added bonus, the amount of influence points (which is their name for in-game currency) that you receive when you register yourself is actually fairly hefty so chances are, if you’re going to make this a casual experience, you’ll probably never find yourself reaching for your wallet.

TouchArcade Rating:

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Back in late October we posted an update on Elite Systems‘ coming Elite Collection (iPhone) and Elite Collection HD (iPad) apps, which will offer a bundled collection of classic Commodore 8-bit home computer games, as well as an in-app game store for purchasing additional singles and bundled arrangements of games. At that time, Elite indicated that these applications would be delayed due to a trademark complication. We’re now happy to report the studio has informed us that the titles will land in the App Store on Friday, December 16th, and at a one-week promotional launch price of $0.99 each.

As we detailed earlier in October, the Elite Collection apps will come bundled with the following titles:

• Elite Collection Vol. #1:
  • featuring ALTERNATE REALITY: THE CITY and also including
  • Black Magic
  • Alternate Reality: The Dungeon
• Elite Collection Vol. #2:
  • featuring URIDIUM and also including
  • Buggy Boy (a.k.a. Speed Buggy)
  • First Samurai
• Elite Collection Vol. #3:
  • featuring BUNDESLIGA MANAGER and also including
  • Denaris
  • Enforcer: Fullmetal Megablaster
• Additional 8-bit “Singles”:
  • Battleships (a.k.a. Battleship)
  • Frank Bruno’s Boxing
  • Batty

In addition, at launch, there will be 16 more titles available for purchase through the in-app game store. We will provide full details of everything that’s available, as well as a closer look at the collection itself, when the apps land this weekend.

But, for now, know that some of the particular stand-outs include:

• Datasoft’s Bruce Lee
• Palace’s Cauldron
• Gremlin’s Monty on the Run
• Alternative Software’s Skool Daze
• Thalamus’ visually stunning Creatures 2: Torture Trouble

Elite mentions, in their release, that they are committed to improving and furthering the apps in the months ahead, as well as adding to the titles available in the in-app game store. A few of the titles they name as planned / hopeful additions are Archon II: Adept, Stunt Car Racer, Mercenary: Escape from Targ, and M.U.L.E. At the time of the October delay announcement, The Bards Tale (I, II & III), Wasteland, Dragon Wars, and Neuromancer were also named as titles likely to become available through the Elite Collection.

Many of the titles in the coming Elite Collection apps are also being released as stand-alone games. Their most recent round of releases consisted of Denaris, Paradroid, and Alternate Reality: The Dungeon. All of the Elite Collection games feature the studio’s customizable “iDaptive” control system, and iCade support is said to be on the way.

Elite Systems also offers the ZX Spectrum: Elite Collection for the iPhone as well as the iPad, which are collections of ZX Spectrum games along with an associated in-app game store.

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Rovio Mobile is celebrating the second “birthday” of Angry Birds [$.99 / Lite / HD / HD Lite] in style. Of course, the app has been updated with new levels — specifically, 15 birthday-themed levels, complete with cake and candles and hats. But Rovio is also taking the celebration to the streets. Starting at 11AM, Barnes & Noble stores around the country are holding exclusive events complete with prize raffles and Mighty Eagle scavenger hunts.

As we revealed on Twitter, Barnes & Nobles at The Grove in Los Angeles is probably going to be the best place to see this party in action. Rovio’s North American GM will be there, and he’ll apparently be carrying tons of swag with him. If you’re going to go, send us some pictures. We’d love to see that “Birds & Noble” sign in particular.

Love it or hate it, Angry Birds is huge. And it’s huge enough to score a re-branding partnership with a popular retailer for a good chunk of a Sunday afternoon. While it seems silly, this kind of thing does wonders for our favorite phone and tablet hobby, so here’s to hoping the momentum continues.

[Via VentureBeat]

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Earlier this week, Warner Bros. and Mortal Kombat developer NeatherRealm Studios surprised everybody by dropping Batman Arkham City Lockdown [$5.99], an iOS spinoff of the critically acclaimed console series, into the App Store. Batman Arkham City Lockdown is a streamlined take on its console big brother games, placing you in the role of Batman as he faces off against a stable of Gotham City’s infamous villains in one-on-one battles. The presentation and overall “Batman-ness” of the game are absolutely fantastic, and although the combat is a bit rigid and flat, Arkham City Lockdown offers a fun mobile version of The Dark Knight’s superhero escapades.

Immediately upon starting up the game, you’re thrust into a fight with one of the Joker’s thugs which acts as a tutorial in the ways of combat. The controls are fairly straightforward: Tapping the screen allows you to dodge an incoming blow, swiping the screen left or right throws those respective punches, swiping up does an uppercut, and swiping down just when an enemy is about to strike does a deflection move resulting in a dizzied opponent.

The responsiveness of the controls is pretty good, and it’s easy to piece together some nice combos using the swiping gestures. However, it really just feels like a second rate attempt at Infinity Blade-style combat. A couple of additional elements do spice things up though. There is a counterattack mechanic where tapping circles that pop up on your opponent’s body will result in Batman doing various types of counters, most of which look pretty sweet. The problem with this is that you feel very removed from these moves, as you sit back and merely watch these canned animations after simply tapping some circles. Enemies can also go into a “rage” where your offensive efforts do nothing, and instead you must concentrate on dodging their incoming attacks until they cool down and you can get back to pummeling them in the face.

My main issue with the fighting mechanics is that they really lack depth. Most fights can be easily won by simply timing a deflection, dizzying your opponent, and swiping back and forth furiously to unleash a combo on them. Of course, if you make the effort to mix things up by doing different combos, using your arsenal of special gadgets, and utilizing counterattacks, then you will be rewarded with a better rating and more experience points when the battle is over. But, if you’re stuck on a particularly hard fight, the motivation isn’t really there to prevent you from taking the cheap and formulaic route to a victory.

While the actual combat mechanics feel simplistic, Arkham City Lockdown does offer quite a bit in the way of content. After your first tutorial fight, you enter into the Batcave where you can access a map of Gotham City which allows you to choose from a selection of battles. Only a portion of the city is unlocked from the start, with a few entry level fights for you to choose from. Each fight contains multiple opponents that you’ll face off against one right after the other, utilizing the same health meter for all of them to add some challenge. When oh when will villainous thugs learn to all attack at the same time?

After completing each of these battles you’ll unlock the boss battle for that area, the first being Two Face. He’ll send some goons after you at first, and in between bouts a new gameplay element is introduced. When Two Face tries to pop a cap in your behind with his tommy gun, you toss out your trusted Batarang. Here you get a third-person view from right behind the Batarang and you actually control it by tilting, directing it into Two Face and knocking his aim off kilter. As gimmicky as this sounds, I actually thought it was a pretty cool little diversion from the regular fisticuff action. After tearing through the thugs and tossing a few Batarangs, you’ll square off against the man himself, Two Face.

The first boss battle with Two Face is tough, and he handily kicked my ass multiple times in a row. This brings me to another aspect to Arkham City Lockdown, the character progression of Batman. Beating up bad guys earns you experience which will level up Batman and his attributes. You can also earn what is called Waynetech points which can be poured into upgrading your various gadgets, armor, combat skills, and more. If you want to speed up the process, you can get additional Waynetech points via in-app purchase, though so far it seems like you’ll naturally earn enough to trick out your Batman adequately during the course of regular play.

Aside from the regular campaign missions and storyline, there’s also some cool extra stuff like unlockable character bios, Batman wallpapers, a viewer for checking out a selection of included Arkham City digital comics, and several additional skins to outfit your Batman in. These can be immediately unlocked via IAP (and they’re all pretty sweet), but unfortunately there’s no way to earn these alternate costumes through normal play, which would have been a cool incentive for playing through the game or accomplishing specific goals.

In the case of Batman Arkham City Lockdown, my feelings towards the game are mixed. I’m not terribly excited over the simplistic fighting mechanics, but I absolutely love the character progressions system and bonus unlockable items. Plus, the combat system did end up growing on me, and as long as you’re not expecting something at the level of Infinity Blade II [$6.99] then you might actually have a good amount of fun making your way through all the fighting missions. Also, the game’s visuals look absolutely fantastic, not surprising given the use of the Unreal Engine. It definitely feels like a very authentic mobile spinoff to the console titles.

Whether or not you should pick up Batman Arkham City Lockdown will likely boil down to what your expectations are from the game. If you want a comparable experience to the console titles that you can carry around in your pocket, then you will probably end up disappointed in this effort. If you want a gorgeous looking Batman title filled with all sorts of nice fan service and simple combat that won’t bust your brain with strategic depth, then Arkham City Lockdown delivers this really well.

It will be cool if the developers support the game post-release, as there are only a few bosses to battle in the game and it all goes by fairly quickly. It’s pretty fun replaying through the game though, especially if you don’t mind forking over some extra cash for the alternate costumes which add a bit of a different experience to additional playthroughs. Overall Batman Arkham City Lockdown is a really well made title that I’ve ended up enjoying more than I initially thought I would, and if you’re a big Batman fan and can accept some of the combat limitations, then it’s definitely worth a look.

TouchArcade Rating:

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The adorable Om Nom from ZeptoLab’s Cut The Rope [$.99 / HD / Lite] franchise is cutting loose from the confines of his brilliant puzzle games. Earlier today, the studio put out a fantastic animated short starring the adorable monster in a live-action setting. The core story revolves around Om Nom’s desire to get candy wherever, and the conflict is one between him and a playful tabbby. I can hear The Bearded One moaning in delight from over here.

Cut The Rope is certainly popular and has seen its fair share of merchandising. I think I like this, though, way more than any plush toy or bit of apparel. Make sure to check out the video whenever you have time. It’s awesome (and embedded).

[Via MacRumors]

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Dragon Shout [Free] has cleared the certification hurdle and it’s available now at the low, low price of $0. What it does, it does well, and it proves a point. Games as deep as Skyrim should be embracing mobile companion apps across the board. Dragon Shout is an app that not only makes Skyrim better, but down the road, it might add an entirely new layer to the experience: social.

In a way, a third-party Dragon Shout shouldn’t even exist. Bethesda or someone in its family of studios should have made this happen.

Who cares if Bethesda made it or not? Hopefully, Bethesda won’t. One of the more soul-sucking things we’ve considered while evaluating Dragon Shout is if Bethesda will act and get it pulled from the App Store. We’d rather see apps blessed by the people who okayed a game’s creation to avoid future heartbreak.

We asked the creator about this very thing. He doesn’t know how Bethesda feels about the product because it hasn’t responded to his attempts to reach out. “I did my best to avoid any conflicts,” he adds, though. “I had a map custom made. I looked up US trademarks for the city names and Dragon Shout, and didn’t find anything by Bethesda.”

“Here’s hoping they don’t issue a C&D.”

That stuff aside, as we previously covered, Dragon Shout is an ambitious map app for use with Skyrim. It provides the game’s map in glorious detail, and then gives you the tools to mark and annotate anything you want, anywhere you want. See a cool dungeon on your way to an important mission? Mark it with a touch on Dragon Shout, provide detail if you want, and continue on to your more pressing matters without fear of forgetting about it.

One of the coolest things about Dragon Shout is that it’s free-form. It gives you a gaggle of markers to choose from and the ability to place them wherever. If you’re hiding 100 pounds of dragon bones somewhere or just like the look of a certain waterfall in the middle of nowhere, you can mark it for safe-keeping on Dragon Shout. You can also sort the map by markers if it starts getting too cluttered.

If you grab the app, you’ll notice a lot of different hooks; in the future, Dragon Shout will allow for in-app chat, parties, and community marker sharing via an IAP.

As a companion piece, we have a feeling Dragon Shout will be at its most useful to a new player just starting out on his or her grand Skyrim adventure. It makes the world much more manageable. For current players with big saves, there are still uses, as we all have to leave somewhere or something behind from time-to-time.

And that’s not to mention the gaps it covers. Dragon Shout does everything that you wish Skyrim’s map did — marking, annotating, and eventually sharing — and puts all of that into the palm of your hand. It’s a powerful tool that fleshes out the exploration experience, and it’s great because of that.

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Did you love shooting galleries as a kid? Ever pretend that you were a Wild West sheriff? Have you ever rationalized killing hundreds of people by pretending that they’re just plywood target practice cutouts? If you answered yes to at least one of the above, you are going to love McGyro [99¢]!

McGyro is a first-person shooter that utilizes your device’s internal gyroscope to aim at bad guys. You play as Sheriff McGyro (originally leading me to hope that this was some kind of Blazing Saddles/MacGyver hybrid; alas, no), a small town Wild West law enforcement officer who can’t handle the idea of killing actual living things, so he envisions them as plywood cutouts instead. (Kind of like when people tell you to imagine the audience is naked before you give a speech, but with more murdering and less nudity.)

While a solid argument could be made for the case of this dude being some kind of sociopath, the good people of his town somehow justified giving him a gun and tossing him out into the world, despite the fact that he sees everyone as potential targets (even busty saloon girls whom he also appears to be romantically interested in, which does not do much for trying to disprove the theory that he is probably a serial killer).

The whole game feels a lot like a real-life shooting gallery. Bad guys pop up left and right and you have to take them down before they shoot you (OK, not quite like a real shooting gallery in that respect). The game throws additional challenges at you the further you go, such as projectile-flinging enemies and progressively faster-moving targets.

You tilt your screen to aim and tap the bottom right of your screen (where your gun is) to shoot. You automatically reload after six shots, but reloading takes a little time and a poorly-timed reload can give the bad guys enough time to get in a few shots before you can take them down. If you lose all of your sheriff badges (which is like health, but more Wild West-y!) before the round is up, you’re finished.

The nice thing about this game is how well thought out it seems. Not many people play first-person shooters for the story, but McGyro has a good one if you’re interested in that sort of thing. The fact that your enemies are all cardboard cutouts means that there’s no blood, and the whole thing has a very light tone, making it appropriate for most ages.

The pacing is just right, and the controls are more or less perfect (though I’m kind of terrible, so sometimes the gyroscope is too much for my bad aim!). You can even turn the gyro off, though I found that it’s difficult to get the hang of the slide and swipe aiming in that mode. With 15 levels, the amount of content feels right for a 99¢ app, and there’s a slot for an as-yet-unreleased multiplayer mode. While it hasn’t been implemented yet, the eventual addition of multiplayer puts this already-solid game in the “glad I purchased” category.

TouchArcade Rating:

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Today, 5th Cell and Warner Bros. unleashed an update to Scribblenauts Remix [$2.99], the iOS port of the popular franchise from the Nintendo DS. The big new feature in this update is something they’re calling Scribblespeak. Scribblenauts is a game where you’re able to type in just about anything you can think of, complete with descriptive adjectives, and it will be created for you within the game. This is intended to be the way you solve the many puzzles in the game, as you can create objects that you need to complete the tasks that allow you to pass a level.

However, while that’s all well and good, the serious fun in Scribblenauts Remix is just thinking up the craziest objects or creatures that you possibly can, and then making them fight each other. At least, that’s how I get my kicks, and that goes for just about everybody I know too. This sandbox-like aspect of Scribblenauts Remix is the thing that ensures this wonderful little app will never leave my device.

Anyhoo, what the Scribblespeak update allows you to do is utilize the voice recognition functionality that powers Siri in the iPhone 4S and just blurt out whatever whacky thing you happen to want to conjure up in the game. It’s a pretty cool idea, and although it doesn’t really change the nature of the game a whole lot, it does make it feel a lot more personal, especially if you’re hamming around with friends while playing the game, as the Scribblespeak trailer will show you.

Also part of this update is a holiday theme, hence Maxwell wearing a Santa hat in the updated game icon. So cute. You also get a holiday themed sandbox level, decorated with snowy Christmas trees and gingerbread houses, which is basically the interactive start screen that let’s you just create things to your heart’s content. You can switch to the normal sandbox level at any time if you wish, if the holidays aren’t your thing. Finally, Scribblenauts Remix now supports screen orientation flipping, for those of you who like to play your games while doing cartwheels (or something like that).

The new Scribblespeak feature is a pretty cool addition to an already stellar game, so if you own an iPhone 4S be sure to update and give it a try. I’m also pretty down for the holiday theme, since like, Christmas is practically just a couple weeks away. I should probably start my shopping soon, thanks for reminding me Scribblenauts Remix! Oh, and for Christmas, I want new levels. Not that I don’t appreciate the update you just gave me, I just thought I’d let you know.

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