Archive for the ‘error’ tag
Choose Your Own Adventure with Choice of Games’ Library of Interactive Fiction
We've posted a few times about the Fighting Fantasy, Gamebook Adventures, and Sorcery! series of interactive fiction and have gotten a surprisingly positive response every time. Those books are like the Choose Your Own Adventure novels you may remember reading as a child, with an element of randomization thrown in by needing to complete various dice challenges throughout the books to determine which way the story forks. abandons this dice-based gameplay model for a much more traditional (and in depth) multiple choice system for each decision that I actually enjoyed quite a bit.
Under the hood of all these games is something Choice of Games calls "ChoiceScript". ChoiceScript allows for works that are much more complicated than your typical two decision fork that leads off to two different pages as it supports things like variables in the story. These variables not only allow you to sometimes name characters yourself, but are often used as character statistics, with some decisions leading to gaining a particular stat which could potentially open up areas later in the book.

Choice of the Dragon in Mobile Safari on the left, Choice of Broadsides app on the right.
The coolest part about all this is that Choice of Games has a guide on , and it's actually quite simple. If you've got the time to invest in to building a piece of interactive fiction in ChoiceScript, they'll even host it for you on their and App Store listing, sharing 75% of the profits.
The presentation of these games is very bare bones, and are little more than black text on a white background with UI elements that just consist of basic form components. They play the same both in the browser on as they do in app form, so if you've got constant internet connectivity you can just make a home screen bookmark for the game you're playing. If you've got an iPod touch or a non-3G iPad, the apps are totally worth downloading if you find yourself getting in to them.
Just like the other interactive fiction we've posted about, these works are completely independent of each other and reading one isn't required to enjoy the rest:
Choice of the Vampire, $1.99 Begin your two-hundred year journey as a vampire in New Orleans, 1814; choose whether you will seek love, power or redemption as you negotiate the growing-pains of the young Republic.
Choice of Romance, $1.99 Play as a young courtier who catches the monarch’s eye. Will you find true love? Gain a crown? Lose your head? A text-based multiple-choice game of romance, deception and court intrigue.
Choice of Broadsides, Free Multiple-choice swashbuckling naval adventure, in the spirit of C. S. Forester’s Hornblower or Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin books, with a dash of Jane Austen.
Choice of the Dragon, Free Play as a fire-breathing dragon who sleeps on gold and kidnaps princesses for fun. Dominate the local kingdom, loot and pillage, and inspire terror in the hearts of your enemies!
Paranoia, Free By Kie Brooks. When you think your doctor may be trying to kill you, life gets complicated. Survive this multiple-choice game if you can.
What Happened Last Night?, Free By Kie Brooks. “What Happened Last Night?” is a dark but occasionally humorous action murder mystery multiple-choice text-based game.
The Nightmare Maze, Free By Alex Livingston. “The Nightmare Maze” is the story of a 19th-century Bostonian plagued by strange nightmares. Lose yourself in the depths of a tormented psyche and try to find the logic to the night terrors in this haunting text-based multiple-choice game.
Popcorn, Soda … Murder?, Free By Pauzle. “Popcorn, Soda … Murder?” is a thrilling text-based multiple-choice murder mystery. Can you find all the clues at the murder scene and piece together who must have done it and how?
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‘Puzzle Agent’ Review – New Point-and-Click Adventure from Telltale Games
A couple of weeks ago, we had a chance to get some hands-on time with the iPhone and iPad version of Puzzle Agent from . The story of FBI puzzle detective Nelson Tethers was coming together nicely for the iOS devices, and now the game is finally available. Puzzle Agent succeeds beautifully in the art style and story departments, but falls a little flat with the actual gameplay offered. If you go into Puzzle Agent expecting a robust puzzle game with a lot of content and replayability, you'll likely be disappointed. However, if you're looking for an excellent mystery to solve with humorous characters and an interesting plot, you'll find a lot to enjoy about the overall experience of Puzzle Agent.
The game starts with Nelson sitting at his desk in the FBI headquarters. You can tell he doesn't see a whole lot of action, as he is surprised to receive a phone call asking him to go on an assignment in the field. The eraser factory in Scoggins, Minnesota has ceased production, and thus been unable to supply the White House with their required allotment of erasers. All inquiries as to what the problem is at the eraser factory have resulted in odd puzzle-related responses from the townsfolk in Scoggins, making Nelson the perfect candidate to have investigate the situation. You'll travel to Scoggins to question people, solve puzzles, and uncover a twisted tale of what has gone awry at the eraser factory.
Puzzle Agent functions similar to other point-and-click adventure games, giving you a scene with various interactive elements to investigate. A circle will emanate from wherever you touch on the screen, and an icon will show up within that circle if something can be interacted with. I love this mechanic as it allows me to easily check an entire area for clues without tapping on every square inch of the screen. Talking with characters in the game is definitely the high point of Puzzle Agent. Each character is fully voiced and has multiple points of conversation to engage in. The amount of personality and humor that the characters exude through the dialogue is phenomenal, and playing through Puzzle Agent is analogous to watching a well crafted animated film. The art style is also very pleasing, featuring the minimalist hand drawn style of Graham Annable who created the comics and animated shorts.
iPad screenshots (click to enlarge):
The actual puzzles you'll be solving in Puzzle Agent are a mixed bag. Some are interesting, intuitive, and fun while others are just plain awkward and frustrating. Many times it's just not clear what you are supposed to be doing in a given puzzle. A hint system is in place in case you get stuck, so it never really prevents you from progressing, but it can be annoying to spend time trying to solve a difficult puzzle with trial and error when you are immersed in the story. Another frustration with Puzzle Agent is the controls. The game is designed very well for touch screen, but the actual responsiveness when touching or dragging items is not so great. It feels like the game is optimized for the mouse and cursor of the Mac/PC version, and using the larger surface of a fingertip doesn't afford the precision needed to perform some of the basic actions in the game.
There also isn't much reason to go back and play the game once you've beaten it, as the puzzles and story don't change. One important point to bring up is that Puzzle Agent looks far better on the iPad than it does on the iPhone. Many of the textures are blurry and show signs of artifacting, and are a far cry from the App Store screen shots that look like they are optimized for Retina Display. This leads me to believe that it's just a bug with the release version that doesn't allow it to display the game in the proper resolution, although I have yet to confirm this. It doesn't completely ruin the game, but it is a significant distraction. The iPad version doesn't seem to exhibit this problem, and hopefully the issue gets rectified with the iPhone version soon.
Even with these issues, Puzzle Agent is still a really enjoyable experience. And that's what it really boils down to – it's better served as an exceptional entertainment experience rather than an exceptional game. The art style, music, voice acting, and story are incredibly well done, but the controls and puzzles are pretty hit and miss. If you're looking for something akin to an enjoyable interactive movie, Puzzle Agent serves this purpose really well.
Puzzle Agent, $4.99
Puzzle Agent HD, $6.99 (iPad Only)
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‘R-Type’ Review – The Classic Shooter Arrives on the App Store
Originally released in 1987, R-Type [$1.99] is almost as classic as it gets when it comes to arcade shooters. Since its initial release, the game has seen many sequels, as well as ports to nearly ever platform ranging from the Amiga all the way up to the XBOX 360. Like most arcade games of the era, the game is framed in a vague story with the player piloting the space fighter Arrowhead to defend humanity from aliens. The original R-Type (and competent ports) have been well received by almost everyone, as the gameplay and level design are still considered by many to be among the best the genre has to offer.

If you've never played R-Type before, you might be in for a surprise as the game's notorious level of difficulty has landed it in lists such as IGN's . The levels are crafted in such a way that you likely won't have much luck playing the game in a reactionary manner, and instead, will need to beat them through trial and error, learning the levels as you go. R-Type plays like what we now know as a typical shooter. You need to kill everything that moves, avoid bullets and enemies, fight massive bosses, all while collecting a wide array of power-ups on the way.
As far as the port is concerned, from a technical standpoint it's great. To make things easier on new players there's an unlimited mode with never-ending lives, as well as the standard normal difficulty and an unlockable insane difficulty. Three control options are included, touch controls which work like most other shooters where you drag your finger around the screen to move the ship along with tilt controls and even a virtual D-Pad. The virtual D-Pad is actually surprisingly cool too, as it changes the perspective of the game to look more like an arcade cabinet so your fingers don't cover any of the action. Auto-fire can be enabled or disabled, and you can move the on-screen buttons to the right or left side in the options.

The developers really did everything they could do to bring a faithful port of R-Type to the App Store, but I'm really torn on how I feel with it. R-Type reminds me of last year's Earthworm Jim port in that it's hard to imagine a better port of the game, but the control constraints of the platform almost feel like it's holding it back. Using your finger often obstructs the screen. Tilting feels off because your ship just moves at one speed regardless of how much you tilt. The virtual D-pad is good, but only as good as a virtual D-pad can be.
If you have fond memories of the original (or any of the ports), you'll likely love having the game on your phone and will be able to make whichever control option you prefer work well enough to get through the game. Also, at $1.99 it likely is the cheapest way to play the game, since it would cost at least that in quarters at the arcade to make it through the first levels. If this review is the first time you've heard of R-Type, you might find yourself frustrated with the way things used to be with brutally difficult arcade shooters designed to extract every quarter from your pocket. In that case, you might be better off checking out some of the other more forgiving shooters that feature modern day conveniences such as checkpoints.
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The ‘Fighting Fantasy’, ‘Gamebook Adventures’ and ‘Sorcery!’ Series – Now With Even More Installments
The interactive fiction section of the App Store has grown quite a bit since our original post on both the Fighting Fantasy and Gamebook Adventures series of RPG eBook apps. If this is the first you've heard of them, these game books are an evolution of sorts on choose your own adventure books that you may or may not have read as a kid. Instead of simply choosing between two forks in a book and turning to that page, they have you roll dice to determine the outcome of the story. For instance, the main character might lose his footing, at which point you're faced with a dice challenge to see whether or not you fall in to some treacherous pit or manage to grab on to something and pull yourself out. The random nature of these game books make them a lot of fun, and give them quite a bit of replay (reread?) value as the story forks a different way with each reading.
These game books all play similarly, but I've found myself leaning towards adaptation of the Fighting Fantasy series, as they're universal and look great on the iPad as well as existing previously as published game books. Definitely look in to Fighting Fantasy if you're planning on playing the books on an iPad, as pixel doubling works on the others, but isn't a very good experience.
Fighting Fantasy: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, $2.99 Deep in the caverns beneath Firetop Mountain lies an untold wealth of treasure, guarded by a powerful Warlock – or so the rumor goes. Several adventurers like yourself have set off for Firetop Mountain in search of the Warlocks hoard. None has ever returned. Do you dare follow them?
Fighting Fantasy: Citadel of Chaos, $2.99 The Citadel holds a dark and dangerous peril for anyone foolhardy enough to venture through its gruesome gates. And yet venture you must for your mission lies at the heart of the Citadel, with the dread sorcerer, Balthus Dire!
Fighting Fantasy: Deathtrap Dungeon, $2.99 Countless adventurers before you have taken up thee challenge of the Trial of Champions, but not one has survived. Devised by the devilish mind of Baron Sukumvit, the labyrinth is riddled with fiendish traps and hideous creatures of darkness to trick and test you almost beyond the limits of endurance!
Fighting Fantasy: Creature of Havok, $2.99 You begin this adventure not knowing where you are or who you are. All you know is that you are some kind of creature of instinct, understanding little. During the course of the adventure, it may be possible for you to begin to control your bestial nature, to find out more about yourself, and even to learn your destiny. But even if you know all this, success is by no means certain, for the traps and terrors of Trolltooth Pass are many … Are you ready — to become the Creature of Havoc?
Next are Gamebook Adventures by , a completely original series written by S.P. Osborne and illustrated by Pirkka Harvala. I like the presentation of the Gamebook Adventures series a lot, and I really hope they're eventually updated to be universal.
Gamebook Adventures 1: An Assassin in Orlandes, $4.99 Set within Orlandes City, nobles are being systematically murdered by a ruthless assassin no-one seems able to catch. Finding yourself thrust in the middle of a large conspiracy, you must make decisions that may put yourself and one other most precious to you in great danger. Can you locate the Assassin in Orlandes before it is too late?
Gamebook Adventures 2: The Siege of the Necromancer, $4.99 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.
And last but not least, brought the first installment Steve Jackson's Sorcery! series to the App Store. Jackson is one of the original authors of the Fighting Fantasy books, and wrote the Sorcery! series along side them targeted at an older audience as they're much longer and more complex, even offering a choice of class to play while reading the book. Unfortunately, this isn't universal either.
Steve Jackson’s Sorcery! The Shamutanti Hills, $2.99 The Shamutanti Hills is Book One in Steve Jackson’s Sorcery! series. Your epic quest will take you across the mysterious hills to the cityport of Kharé, but only if you outwit the creatures, traps and wizardry you encounter along the way.
Since all of these game books basically play the same, you can pretty much just choose whichever one(s) sound interesting to you based on their description as reading previous installments in the series to enjoy later ones isn't required either. As mentioned, if you intend on reading them on an iPad, I'd gravitate towards the Fighting Fantasy books, but any of them will be highly enjoyable to any fan of fantasy fiction.
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‘Escape from Nom’ Review – Blobs, iAds and In App Purchases
Glu Mobile's latest foray into the App Store is a cheeky physics puzzler featuring what is essentially, traditional pinball mechanics à la Peggle. What Escape from Nom [App Store] does differently though, is that it supplements its standard levels with a comprehensive level editor and allows your creations to be shared online — but with a few deal-breaking catches.
The core gameplay in Escape from Nom involves getting Alan, a colored blob at the top of the screen, to the pool of colored goop at the bottom. Key to this endeavor is that Alan must be the same color as the goop when he touches it (or the level fails), and he has to avoid being eaten by the evil Noms along the way. To help Alan are a number of tools either fixed on the level already, or able to be dragged onto the level from your expandable toolbox at your discretion.
Continuing the pinball theme, bumpers, paddles, shunters and teleporters make up the range of tools at your disposal; each gradually unlocked as you progress through the game's paltry 30 levels (with a further 20 levels and the teleporter tool purchasable In-App for $1.99). Taking a leaf from Peggle's book, Escape from Nom also allows you to fine-tune where Alan is dropped through a scroll wheel at the bottom of the screen. In this way you can set up your drops precisely (aided with the help of a double-tap zoom feature) and line Alan up perfectly– a necessary feat for some of the more complex levels.
Compounding the difficulty are the Noms themselves, large creatures that can be static or motionary, but are always hungry. The only way that Alan can get by them is by either avoiding them entirely, or by touching a bumper of the same color as the target Nom– changing Alan's color and enabling Alan to pass through the Nom without harm. The need for particular colors, precision bounces, avoiding obstacles and eventually Portal-esque teleporting, equates to a routine of trial and error gameplay as you experiment to achieve the desired outcome. The colorful graphics and catchy jingles in Escape from Nom all serve to add to that fun-factor.
Unfortunately what wasn't as fun were the in-app ads that pervaded each level's loading and result screens. From my understanding these iAds will only presently show up for U.S. users, so whilst not all users will experience them, for those that do they are an eyesore that I'm certainly not happy about in an app already paid for. That doesn't appear to be the worst of it, though.
Possibly Escape from Nom's most exciting feature was the level editor; a simple but powerful tool that enables users to fully re-create any of the included mission packs. It's easy to use and testing and saving your levels is a breeze, though uploading them does require Facebook. So why Glu Mobile chose to further monetize their most anticipated feature is beyond us– yes, you have to pay to download other users' creations. For $0.99 you are given 30 credits, which allows you to download 30 levels that others have made. And there is no way to preview each level either. After purchasing a level, it can be rated and recommended to other users, but the simple fact that you are largely in the dark about your purchase is still unnerving.
Ultimately, what Escape from Nom amounts to is a baffling corporate experiment that has tarnished an otherwise fun action puzzler. Beyond the initial purchase price, asking users to swallow pervasive iAd in-game advertising, an initial level offering that can be finished in an hour or so, a further 20 level expansion pack for $1.99 and then still charging them for user-created levels seems absurd.
Note: To add insult to injury, the game has dropped to Free from $2.99 for the day, successfully early adopters who paid full price in that early launch window.
(In-App Level Purchases, In-App Advertising and Paid User-Creations)
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You Want Some Lites to Try? Here is a Veritable Smorgasbord…!
We haven't done a roundup of recently released lite versions to try in quite some time now, which means there is more than a heaping helping of them to download. I'm only going back through the past month or so of releases, and cherry picking the more interesting lite versions of games we've already mentioned in one way or another, but to see everything that has come out that is free, . Anyway, here is an alphabetical list of lite versions that you should try as all of these games are pretty awesome:
A PHYSICS GAMEBOX FREE, Free We thought Physics Gamebox was a great fit for the iPhone in our review, and now not only is this pair of physics puzzlers , but there’s also a lite version on the App Store. If you liked Ragdoll Blaster at all, make sure you try Physics Gamebox.
Cubed Rally Racer Lite, Free The full version of Cubed Rally Racer is one of my favorite racing games, as it combines RC Pro-Am style retro racing with a fantastic random track generator and OpenFeint to send and receive ghost challenges between your friends. To see me gushing over the game even more, check out our review.
Daredevil Dave: Motorcycle Stuntman! FREE 2, Free There’s already one free version of Daredevil Dave, but this one adds another two jumps to try. This is basically a trial and error based trajectory game, but you hardly even notice because it has so much personality. Take a look at the trailer in our review to see exactly what kind of punishment is in store for poor ol’ Daredevil Dave.
Flick Fishing HD FREE, Free If you own an iPad and you’ve been looking to try Flick Fishing HD, here is your chance. The iPhone version has been downloaded millions of times and is almost constantly being featured in various “best of” and “most downloaded” listings on the App Store. The iPad version features high resolution graphics and slightly modified controls like most HD-ized games.
Giant Moto Lite, Free If you have fond memories of Excite Bike for the NES, you should give Giant Moto a try. It’s a little basic, and desperately needs some kind of randomized track and/or track builder mode since even the full version is a little light on content… But as we mentioned in our original post on the game, it’s hard to not see the potential for this game to be really rad with some updates.
iHook Lite, Free I thought the full iHook was cool when it was first released, but the unconventional control scheme was a little hard to describe, and since that’s such a main part of the game I’m glad they finally released a lite version. Gameplay involves shooting out grappling hooks, attaching to pylons of sorts, and releasing once your trajectory has been altered enough.
Infect Them All Lite, Free Previously known as Infection:Zombies, Infect Them All is a cool tilt based game where instead of killing zombies, you play as a zombie trying to convert as many humans as… humanly possible. I thought the premise of the game was neat when it first came out, but the lite version might just be enough for the novelty factor of turning humans to wear off.
Max Vector LITE, Free As mentioned in our mini-review, Max Vector is fairly basic like most Game Salad games, but the developers more than make up for this with heaps upon heaps of old school retro charm and fantastic chiptune music by . If huge pixels are your cup of tea, you should at least try the lite version of Max Vector.
Meowcenaries Lite, Free Yet another crazy game from Adult Swim, this time you play as a platoon of cats much like the classic game Cannon Fodder. Meowcenaries is loaded with tired memes and lolcat jokes, which will either amuse you or annoy you. We posted it when it first came out with a few other weird games if you like this one.
MrOnionsLite, Free If you’ve ever enjoyed one of the many physics-powered bike jumping games on the App Store (of which there are many), you really need to give Mr. Onions a try. The art is cute, the gameplay is fun, and the odd twist of needing to not only make it to the finish, but make it there with your basket full of groceries is awesome. For more details, read our review.
NAMCO GAMES PORTAL, Free Namco bundled up Pac-Man Lite, Ace Combat Lite, Galaxa Remix Lite, Dig Dug Remix Lite and Time Crisis Strike Lite in to one app. I guess the one download is convenient, but looking at these games side by side just kind of makes you realize how lackluster Namco’s efforts on the App Store have been so far.
Need for Speed Shift FREE, Free Both Need for Speed games on the App Store have been awesome, and believe it or not, Shift actually feels a lot like the console versions of the game. It doesn’t have all the content of the 360/PS3 game, but it’s just as much fun. Take a look at our preview for some gameplay video.
PREDATORS™ Lite, Free From the guys behind Guerilla Bob comes this fully licensed Predator game which bucks the trend of terrible movie games and actually is quite a bit of fun. We have a fairly in depth review, but if you like dual stick shooters or the Predator universe you can just skip straight to downloading this game.
Psychoban Lite, Free This clever twist on classic Sokoban drops you in a hospital ward where you’re forced to solve a series of puzzles after going through a “procedure”. The controls work well, although at times the camera perspective can get a little wonky. We liked it in our review, and if you like puzzle games you should totally snag this lite.
X2 Snowboarding Base, Free If you have even a vague interest in snowboarding games, you need to have X2 Snowboarding on your iPhone. We explained how awesome it is in our review, and this is a game I’m still playing months later.
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‘The War of Eustrath’ Review – Tactical RPG for iPhone and iPad
There are a lot of options for turn-based and real-time strategy games on the App Store, and plenty of quality role-playing games too. But if you're looking for a combination of the two, your choices are sorely limited (unless you want to count the Sega rerelease of Genesis classic Shining Force [$2.99] that just came out). That changed yesterday however with the release of The War of Eustrath [$2.99] for iPhone. iPad owners have been enjoying this title for almost two months now, since The War of Eustrath HD [$7.99] has been available since early June. Now that the iPhone version has arrived, owners of both devices can enjoy tactical turn-based battles wrapped in an intriguing anime storyline.
Since I missed the iPad version of The War of Eustrath the first time around, I was really excited to engage in some tactical battles with the iPhone version. What I wasn't expecting is to actually be engrossed in the storyline that accompanies the action. It certainly has some cliché elements, but the anime style character portraits and feelings of emotion they convey do a great job of keeping you interested in what's going on. The only major issue in this department is the many grammatical errors that plague the written text, but it's never to the point that you can't follow along or misunderstand what is trying to be said.
Besides the surprisingly good story, there are some excellent tactical battles in The War of Eustrath. Your team of characters in the game control giant mechs called GEARs which can be upgraded and leveled up as you play. Each GEAR can have elemental tendencies such as lighting or air that give them additional special abilities. Battles take place on an overhead grid in turn-based fashion, and engaging with enemies shows the battle play out in a zoomed in side view of the GEARs. The different terrains you travel to during the game are varied and play a big part in choosing your strategy for each battle. It's all pretty standard stuff for games like this, but is well done and enjoyable.
What's really nice about The War of Eustrath is that the UI has been built lovingly around the touch interface. Accessing menus and moving your team around the maps works really well, and the extra screen real estate of the iPad provides an even less cluttered experience (although at a substantially higher price). Things feel a little cramped on the iPhone, but not overwhelmingly so. There's also a ton of content in the game with over 50 campaign missions, some of which can play out with multiple results, altering how the story flows. Players in are loving the game, as iPad owners have for the last couple months in . If you like tactical turn-based battling, giant upgradeable robots, and compelling storytelling, take a look at The War of Eustrath for either iPhone or iPad.
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Yoot Saito’s ‘The Tower iPad’ (SimTower Sequel?) Coming Soon
It seems that even though Apple rejected Yoot Saito's first attempt at an App Store game for being "unpleasant", Saito is ready for another go, but this time for the iPad. According to sketchy information from his blog in poorly machine translated Japanese, it appears The Tower iPad is coming soon.
Yoot Saito is known for innovative game design. His first major game was and it's sequel which was later remade for Gameboy Advance, and the Nintendo DS. Wikipedia describes the original SimTower:
SimTower: The Vertical Empire is a construction and management simulation computer game developed by OPeNBooK Co., Ltd. and published by Maxis for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS 7 operating systems. It was released in November 1994 in the United States. The game allows players to build and manage a tower and decide what facilities to place in it, in order to ultimately build a five-star tower. Random events take place during play, such as terrorist acts that the player must respond to immediately.
Here's a video for The Tower DS (in Japanese):
And that's all we know so far. We'll keep an eye out for it, and hopefully we'll see an international (not just Japan) release.
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‘Mummy Panic’ Review – ‘Chu Chu Rocket’ Meets the Undead
It seems like nearly every classic video game mechanic in existence is represented on the App Store in one way or another, either through blatant clones, lovingly inspired homages, or something else in between. Mummy Panic [$2.99] lies somewhere near the "lovingly inspired homage" side of the spectrum, with gameplay reminiscent of Chu Chu Rocket, graphics that remind me of the dungeons found in Zelda: A Link to the Past, and a load of other video game and movie references that will either go completely over your head, or leave you smiling.
In the game, you must guide a set of mummies to open crates of loot, where they hope to go un-noticed, get boxed up, and finally escape the pyramid they've been trapped in for so long. Hitting a button in the bottom right corner of the screen puts the mummies in motion, and they'll walk forward until they hit a wall or other obstacle, turn right, and keep walking. You can change their direction by placing arrows on the floor, and each level has a limited number of arrows you can use. Later levels introduce traps to avoid, and explorers to evade. There isn't any penalty for goofing up on a level, and you can either play the game via careful analysis and planning to get the mummies in their crate in one shot, or just keep moving arrows around and guide them there with trial and error.

Three difficulty levels are included with over 50 levels. It would be nice to be able to skip forward a few levels if you get stuck like you can in similar puzzle games, as getting stumped and being stuck on a level is really the only down side to Mummy Panic. Either way, I'm a huge fan of any game with sprite based art, and the developers of Mummy Panic have done a great job at emulating the look of an old 16-bit game, much like Super QuickHook.
They've also put together a gameplay video which serves as a bit of a tutorial, walking through the first two levels and going over the mechanics of the game which I've already mentioned:
If you have fond memories of the Dreamcast (and Gameboy Advance) game ChuChu Rocket, or just like the idea of a puzzle game where you're helping mummies escape, give Mummy Panic a try.
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