TouchArcade.ru

Back in March we sat down with the guys from The Binary Mill to check out their upcoming shooter, Assault Squadron. It's a "bullet hell" shooter that's particularly striking for the insane frame rate at which it runs; the developers insist that it sticks to a solid 60 FPS even on the first-generation iPod touch.

We're happy to report that Assault Squadron [link] has appeared in the App Store and is available for download at a price of $2.99.

The twist of Assault Squadron comes from the two gameplay modes the various levels alternate between. While playing through the game, you'll go through a level where it plays like a vertical shooter with your phone held in portrait mode. Following that, the game might alternate to a horizontal side scrolling level. With each transition you see different sides of both your ship and enemies, and the game.

The game has a lot to offer. There's a crazy scoring system with multipliers galore (and online leaderboards via Crystal), four different ships that all handle differently with their own unique weapon systems, upgrades everywhere, and best of all – control options that should satisfy everyone between the on-screen touch controls, a virtual joystick, and tilt.

Frantic shooter fans might want to take a close look at this one.

App Store Link: Assault Squadron, $2.99

[source]

Backflip Studios, who brought us Ragdoll Blaster and the recently-released Strike Knight, has joined forces with Team Phobic (Bounce On, Bounce On 2) to shortly bring us Tunnel Shoot, a … tunnel shooter … somewhat reminiscent of Boost 3D, but with a little more neon glow.

Gameplay involves zipping down a series of tunnels festooned with obstacles and enemies bent on your destruction.  Don't crash, don't blow up, and hold onto your hat.

See the developers' gameplay video:

Tunnel Shoot looks like fun — we're anxious to give it a try when it makes its App Store debut in mid-June.

And, while we're talking Backflip Studios, have a look at Ragdoll Blaster 2 [App Store],  which is on sale this weekend for $0.99 (down from $2.99).

[source]

Agharta Studio released the sequel to their 1112 series last month, 1112 episode 02 [$4.99] for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Following up the original, 1112 episode 01 [$4.99 / Free], that came out back in November 2008. And now the iPad version 1112 episode 02 HD [$7.99] has hit the App Store.

If you never played episode 1, we recommend you try out 1112 Episode 01 Lite [Free] to get some background and hands on with, to find out what the type of puzzle game that the 1112 series is like. For the less inclined, episode 2 offers a short summary video to get you up to speed on the story line from the original.

The goal is to help your character, Louis, discover why he has ended up in New York. Through the use of multitouch, you'll be looking for objects and solving puzzles, including some sudoku puzzles, to find your way to completing the mystery of 1112. The game is made up of awesome hand drawn environments to navigate through and admire along the way. Episode 2 includes a multitude amount of new content to interact with;

• All new advanced graphical design and artistic direction
• 25 new larger than life environments
• 14 new characters
• Various puzzles, each with a specific gameplay
• An incredibly responsive Multi-Touch user interface
• Original score
• Elaborate interactive narrative
• Totally redesigned game engine

Despite the larger screen and redrawn graphics in HD, the game doesn't play very differently between the iPhone and iPad version. The storyline and gameplay is the same between the two. In fact, aside from the pixelated text, the game plays quite well in pixel-doubling mode. The graphics don't take a major hit at all and look very good still. Because of that, we don't recommend upgrading to the HD version if you already own the iPhone version, as you won't gain much. But if you held out for the HD version, or haven't picked up any of the episodes before, you won't be disappointed by going with the iPad specific version.

The overall consensus in our forums discussing episode 2 seem very positive. The developers have already updated the iPhone version earlier this month to fix some bugs and say the iPad version ships with the fixes already included. With users reporting gameplay length between 3-7 hours long, depending on how long it takes you to solve some of the puzzles, the game offers a fair amount of content. We are already looking forward to episode 3 of the series, so be sure to get your copy of episode 1 and 2 to keep up with the intriguing story.

App Store Link: 1112 episode 2 HD, $7.99

[source]

The release of Denki Blocks! [App Store] and Denki Blocks! Free [App Store] sees the critically acclaimed Gameboy Advance puzzler by Denki finally in our hands and well on its way to turning our grey matter to mush over the last week that we've spent with it.

The concept in Denki Blocks! is simple: join all the like-colored blocks together each level. The solution is far less straightforward however, requiring you to navigate the blocks around each level– easily done by the tap of a finger in any direction– in an attempt to force them together. All the blocks on-screen move in the same direction simultaneously unless they are blocked by a wall or obstacle, a mechanism that is paramount to get them to meet.

Once they have done so, they'll stay fastened together, allowing you to focus on the next block and the next, and so forth. In many ways it's like lego; only, there's no instruction manual, and you can't pull the pieces apart if you place them incorrectly (well, technically you can, as there is an undo option and you can restart each level if you're really stuck) . It's a devious formula that starts off easy but ramps up to become very challenging.

To further add to the difficulty, each level has a Master Challenge for you to tackle, and it's usually not for the faint of heart. Whether tasked with completing a particular shape or finishing in only a set number of turns or seconds, these master challenges will require lots of forward-thinking and less reliance on that undo button (which takes up time). Fortunately, your efforts do go rewarded, unlocking bonus levels when 12 of these Master Challenge stars have been collected (though we're not sure your brain will thank you after being reduced to paste only to be given additional challenges!).

There are over 100 levels in Denki Blocks!, making it the equivalent of Disney Land for puzzle fans. The levels and blocks are all rendered in colorful and vibrant hues to keep the game visually stimulating, and the soundtrack is appropriately light-hearted to encourage healthy synaptic firing. The level designs themselves have a lot of character too, some appearing with a maze of obstacles to negotiate, and others as locking mechanisms or contraptions completely enclosing your blocks.

We were a little disappointed that Denki Blocks! doesn't include online high score tables right off the bat, as we couldn't think of a more fitting model than the time and score challenges offered here. Perhaps it's something to look forward to in a future update (take note developers, if you're reading this).

In any case, Denki Blocks! has enough content to keep your puzzle needs satisfied for a very long time. We're confident that even the puzzle prodigies amongst you will be challenged by Denki's formula (particularly the Master Challenges) but we encourage even beginner puzzlers to give it a go as there is a ton of levels to see and not all of them need to be completed to progress.

At the very least, check out the Lite version of Denki Blocks! (link below) for a hands-on preview of the gameplay and to see for yourself what all the fuss is about.

App Store Link: Denki Blocks!, $4.99, Denki Blocks! Free, Free.

[source]

One of my favorite trends in iPad development is the awesome amount of single-device multiplayer game modes so many developers have come up with. The iPhone had a few single-device realtime multiplayer games but the size of the screen really never made them that much fun to play. On the other hand, the iPad fits perfectly on a table between two people and with the massive screen allows for more than enough room for two people to be touching it at once while still being able to see what's going on.

NimbleBit's Omium [99¢] hit the App Store recently, and unlike other games that might just have a multiplayer mode in addition to a single player experience, Omium is a 100% two player game. It has three game modes, all with slight variances on the core gameplay element of one player spawning the "bad guys" on one side of the screen while the second player controls a ship and shoots them down on the other.

The different game modes are detailed in the following video released by NimbleBit:

Omium is as much fun as you make it, as the idea behind the game is that players take turns playing as each side to see how long they can survive. To prevent spamming of bullets or bad guys, each side has a resource meter which slowly refills to add some balance to the game. But, in the end, the bad guys always win. If you're looking for another game for your iPad with local multiplayer, give Omium a spin.

[source]

Earlier this year we posted about both the Fighting Fantasy and Gamebook Adventures series of interactive adventure books. Since then, Tin Man Games, developers of Gamebook Adventures 1: An Assassin in Orlandes [$4.99], has released a surprising about of news regarding the future of the series.

Like other interactive fiction, Gamebook Adventures is filled with challenges where you will need to do in-game dice rolls to determine the outcome of various events in the book. This adds a really fun element of randomization to the story, and really give you incentive to read through them multiple times to see how the plot would have changed if you would have rolled a certain way.

The two upcoming Gamebook Adventures games are as follows:

Gamebook Adventures 2: The Siege of the Necromancer: "Set in the coastal town of Myr, you have returned home after a long Summer in the mines of Durath Tor to find your hometown besieged by strange creatures. A dark presence has taken over the town and you are the only one who can rid the stronghold of Erid Buul, the mysterious new Lord and his ghastly cohorts."

Gamebook Adventures 3: Slaves of Rema: "Cruelly taken from your homeland of Orlandes, you find yourself in a far off land at the mercy of a gladiatorial arena. Somehow trying to find a way to escape overseas, can you also unravel a potentially dangerous mystery that puts two nations on the brink of war?"

Also, posted on the Tin Man Games blog are some details on their upcoming iPad versions of the games. As someone who really likes the interactive fiction on the App Store, but doesn't really like reading for long periods of time on the iPhone, I can't wait for this. They provided the following comparison shot of the game running on the two devices:

Fans of interactive fiction have a lot to look forward to, and I can hardly wait for the iPad version of these games. Gamebook Adventures 2: The Siege of the Necromancer started beta testing earlier this month, and the third installment, as well as the iPad games are all still in development.

[source]

Double experience point weekends are commonplace these days, as big traditional developers like Infinity Ward, Epic Games or Treyarch award their hopelessly addicted, and often most demanding, players with free points. But even the mobile folk are getting into the game. Take, for example, ngmoco.

Starting this afternoon, the developer is awarding "double credit compensation" in its free-to-play competitive shooter (with a newly added cooperative mode), Eliminate [Free].

Until Monday at 12 PM PST, players eager for progression will earn double the points in deathmatch. The official Eliminate blog notes that the double credits don't extend to cooperative play. The blog also threw down this dandy quotable immediately following the note: "A stronger employee is a better employee, two stronger employees working together are an insurance liability."

Users on the Touch Arcade forums still seem to be digging this game quite a bit, and now seems like the best of times to jump in.

[source]

One of the most interesting phenomenons that have sprung up from the App Store is how game engines like Unity have empowered so many first-time iPhone developers to create games with full physics simulation. There are a ton of silly little physics games already on the App Store, many utilizing a similar bike riding and ramp jumping mechanic, but one simple thing sets Mr Onions [99¢] apart from the rest: A basket full of groceries.

In the game, you must help Mr. Onions get home from the grocery store, riding his bike across various country roads, all of which are home to hazards such as ramps, tires, floating logs, windmills, and many other things that should never be on any kind of roadway. Mr. Onions can distribute his weight to tilt the bike forward or backward by tilting your iPhone, and pressing the right side of the screen makes him pedal while touching the left side makes him brake.

This is all pretty standard, and the controls will come naturally if you've ever played games like Bike or Die 2 [$5.99 / Free], Moto X Mayhem [99¢, or many others. What sets Mr Onions apart is that the goal of the game is not only to get to the other side of the level, but to get there with what appears to be a loaf of bread, hunk of cheese, and tomato all still in the basket of your bike.

This is so much harder than it sounds, especially in some of the later levels. Keeping three tiny little objects inside of the basket on the front of your bike requires extremely precise control, always being sure to land as gracefully as possible while keeping your speed reasonable. (Your time is also recorded, adding some replay value as you go through levels again to try to beat previous times.)

The simple graphics of the game are silly enough, but few iPhone games have ever had me cackling like such a maniac. The incredibly ridiculous stunts you need to successfully pull off, all while keeping your lunch in your basket, are really something else. Also, there's nothing quite like flying off a windmill as your loaf of bread flips out of your basket, you catch it by powering in to a wheelie, only to just barely lose your tomato before crossing the finish line.

The main down side to the game is how little time it will take you to beat. 20 levels are included, and are slowly unlocked by collecting stars which are awarded by making across the finish line with your entire load of groceries intact. In the future, I'd love to see more levels, or even some kind of online leaderboard integration.

If you've enjoyed these kind of physics games in the past, or just really want to know what it's like trying to get home from the grocery store in the world's most dangerous neighborhood, you really should give Mr Onions a try. I've had a bunch of fun with the game, even though I swear that tomato has something against me.

Note: There has been a high level of debate amongst the TouchArcade crew regarding the actual contents of the basket. I firmly believe it's bread, cheese, and a tomato as that makes the most sense for a sandwich but other things have been suggested including a box of Arm & Hammer as well as an orange, grapefruit, and/or many other things. Perhaps part of the magic of Mr Onions is wondering what he's going home to prepare with the three mystery items.

[source]

Croquisoft, creators of Castle Fantasy [99¢], recently dropped the price of their other game, Finger VS. Finger [Free], to free. While it may not look that impressive from first glance if all you're looking at is screenshots, Finger VS. Finger is actually a surprisingly clever turn-based game that can both be played with AI opponents along with a full suite of multiplayer options to play with other people.

The object of the game is similar to playing ringer with marbles in that players take turn knocking the opposing marbles off the game board. You have control of which marble you shoot, along with its direction and velocity. Aiming and shooting your marbles is just a matter of tapping on the screen, and winning games usually involves intelligent use of environmental obstacles to protect your marbles from your opponent.

These obstacles include two kinds of bumpers that both have a different effect on how hard your marbles bounce off of them. There are also black holes that completely swallow your marbles, as well as warps which look like little worm holes that you can shoot your marble through to have it come shooting out the other similarly colored hole in the game board.

While playing against the AI opponents in the 32 different included levels is a pretty good time, the real killer feature of Finger VS. Finger is online multiplayer which seems to work equally well over both 3G and WiFi. Also, I'm not sure if the developers have bots to play against online or if all the opponents I've faced have been human, but I've yet to have much of a problem finding a match with another player.

The one down side to the game is that the online functionality is limited to random matchmaking. The only way to play with a friend is to simply use the local single device multiplayer. But, at the current price of free, it's hard to really get too worked up over the omission of private online matches– Especially when the random matchmaking works so well.

Forum member TheProxy shot the following gameplay video for the Finger VS. Finger thread:

Croquisoft hasn't mentioned anywhere that I've found how long Finger VS. Finger will be free but since App Store pricing can change at any time, you should really snag this game as soon as possible.

[source]

The developers of Sally's Spa [$2.99] and Hottie Hookups [$.99] are about to release their newest game, Sigma. Entering a new category of games, BigStack Studios has created a marvelous looking match-3 game.

Using multi-touch, you can independently spin two columns of blocks on either side of the screen. Tapping either side of the screen sends blocks back and forth across the screen. Once a match has been created, you'll have a couple of seconds to tag additional blocks on to the cluster before the whole thing explodes. Overall, it reminds us of an enhanced version of Unify.

The goal is to create huge blocks of the same color to earn the most points, get power ups, and increase the point multipliers. There will be three different modes in Sigma; Sectors, Time Attack, and Multiplayer. Playing in Sector mode allows you to unlock up to 10 different themes, each with their own music track. Time Attack mode has three time lengths to score as many points as possible before the time runs out. And go head-to-head in Multiplayer mode to compete against your friends over local wifi or bluetooth connection. Sigma will also have the online social network Plus+ included in their game with awards to unlock and leader boards to submit your high scores and compete against the world.

Sigma should be available soon, look for it on the App Store in the near future. And to better see how Sigma will be played, check out this gameplay video:

We'll take a closer look when it arrives. The developers plan on submitting the game to Apple as early as today.

[source]