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In late March we first caught wind of Warblade, an impressive looking vertical shooter that has already lived a long life on the PC. (Starting originally with the Amiga.) The plot of Warblade is extremely simple, an alien race is invading Earth and you must stop them by shooting up every enemy ship that crosses your path. While the game likely won't win any awards for story telling, the recently released gameplay video really looks great:

The graphics look awesome, and they even go through the shocking number of weapons you can buy in game while playing through quite a few levels. Also, as mentioned in the description of the video, Warblade will come loaded with 100 levels along with 15 time trial levels and boss fights. The game also runs at 60 FPS, but it isn't clear on which devices.

According to the EMV Software Twitter, the free version of Warblade was recently submitted. The last mention of the full version of the game is from May 6th, where a new beta version was sent to testers.

I was excited for Warblade when I first heard about the plans to bring it to the iPhone, and after seeing the game in motion, I can't wait for it to get here. Hopefully the free version comes with a decent amount of content to hold us over while the paid version is finalized.

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Visceral Games (formerly EA Redwood Shores) never ruled out the possibility that its upcoming third-person horror title Dead Space 2 would come to the PC. Strange as the non-committal attitude has been — the original Dead Space hit the PC, after all — there's little doubt now that the game will be, at some point, mouse and keyboard friendly. It also appears as if it could be swipe, flick, and shake-friendly in the near future, too.

Dead Space publisher EA released an updated version of its blockbuster title release schedule (via Shacknews), seemingly confirming that Dead Space 2 is headed to the PC. Interestingly, it also includes a mention of the iterative title hitting "handheld / mobile."

Rumors swirling around Visceral's last Dead Space title, a Wii-exclusive on-rails FPS sub-titled Extraction, have long suggested that the critically praised, yet financial underperformer, could be making its way to the Xbox 360's and PS3's respective download services. More recent rumors have also pegged Extraction as an iPad title, which we thought was absurd until seeing EA's recent release schedule.

Of course there's a chance by "handheld / mobile" EA only means a PSP release, but given the fact that the recently iPhone-released FIFA 2010 World Cup is also labeled "handheld/mobile", it seems very possible.

This is the first we've heard of Dead Space 2 hitting a mobile platform, so naturally there's no details. We'll ask a few questions and try to get some answers. In the meantime, keep thinking those happy thoughts. You know, the ones that star big multi-armed monsters? Those. Think those thoughts.

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It was little more than a week ago that we were lamenting that Starcraft 2 would not be coming to the AppStore any time soon. Unbeknownst to us, indie developer Pixel Stream has been working on the silver lining to that news for almost 8 months, with the release of their Starcraft-esque real-time strategy game, Armada – Galactic War [AppStore].

Firstly, let's dispense with one important fact early– Armada is a no-nonsense, online-only RTS, at least until a promised future update releases offline play too. This means from your very first game you'll be facing real competitors over your WiFi or 3G networks and won't be charging through a pre-scripted, story-based set of missions. Fortunately, you aren't thrown entirely in the deep end, as a brief page-by-page tutorial offers an introduction to the game's mechanics and features.

Each Armada army, of which there are 3 — the Humans, Cyborgs and Aliens — has 4 distinct classes of units. There are no buildings to concern yourself with, so the scope of your campaign is entirely in considering whether to deploy your Mechs, Tanks, (flying) Ships or your solitary Mothership. Unit effectiveness is determined by a loose rock, paper, scissors formula, where Mechs are effective against Ships, Ships are best against Tanks (who are the only units that can't attack air units) and Tanks use their splash damage to chew through Mechs. Each unit class (with the exception of the Mothership) is further broken down into 3 units of increasing strength and cost. The Mothership is the hub of each team, a goliath of a ship that is both your source of units and a competent fighter against all the other classes. Its destruction serves as the overall objective to achieve victory in Armada.

Your entire army is funded by sending your Mechs to harvest the green crystals scattered across the map (sounds familiar?). Selecting units and ordering them to a task is ingeniously simple in Armada. You enter select mode by holding one finger on the yellow square at the top left of the screen and can either drag a box around your units, or tap them individually to select them. Releasing the select box allows you to then issue commands by tapping on-screen, such as sending Mech units to mine crystal.

It's a wonder that many developers have cited difficulty in translating traditional mouse controls to the touch interface as the major reason RTS games aren't featuring on the AppStore (just read the comments from Blizzard above). Pixel Stream have managed to come up with a control scheme that feels both intuitive and responsive and allows for a surprising amount of micromanagement too. That's not to say we were completely satisfied with the control options, as we would have liked to see a way of de-selecting units and assigning control groups (to on-screen buttons perhaps?) or selecting all units of the same type to better co-ordinate your army in combat, but the basis for a successful system is certainly in place. A few tweaks could make it really exceptional.

We were very impressed by the online service provided via Pixel Stream's Zing Network. Private matches were simple to setup and the matchup system found opponents nearly instantly, or would revert to an AI player if players weren't available. Games played on WiFi naturally ran very smoothly but we were surprised to find that 3G connections were just as capable. Armada's netcode and graphics performance also appeared to be in peak form, as we piled scores of units on screen at once, upwards of 30 or 40, and noticed no perceivable performance hit on our 3GS device. Our 2G Touch device skipped only a few frames too, but combat certainly remained playable.

The 5 maps initially available in Armada can be played in any configuration from 2-4 players, with 4 player battles being a (manic) highlight in our time with the game. The maps all have different configurations and slightly different themes, though their function is more strategic than aesthetic, as each has a number of crystal farms for you to expand to in order to gain a leg up on opponents. The units themselves are crafted in simple 3D; they are evidently low-poly with low resolution textures. That's not to say they don't look nice though, as they are all easily recognised on the battlefield and get the job done. Each race has a completely unique style individual to their personalities too (for example, the Cyborgs are clean-lined and shiny, whilst the Humans are more rugged looking).

Armada also features an underlying upgrade system called A.R.M.S in-game, which we are admittedly on the fence about. 10 customizable upgrades (in total) can be applied to your profile, each one boosting the abilities of 1 particular unit in your arsenal. For example, a Mech 1 speed upgrade will boost the movement speed of any 1st tier Mech that you create by 30%. There are hundreds of upgrades to choose from covering the whole gamut of attributes for each unit (and the mothership too). Upgrades are purchased by credits which are awarded for playing matches, with wins and larger scale matches equating to larger returns.

The A.R.M.S system was intended to offer an additional layer of strategy, but it ends up playing out more like a ranking system on FPS games, where players that stick with the game have a significant advantage over those who play infrequently. To give an example, one player on our forums, backtothis– who is currently on top of the leaderboards– claims to have upgraded his level 1 Mechs to the point where they can destroy level 3 Tanks. This costs an exorbitant amount of credits to do however and won't be an option available to the average player for quite some time. We sincerely hope the developers will keep an eye on this, as the upgrade system could be a major source of serious imbalance issues in future match-ups, something that is far more detrimental to RTS' than other genres.

Armada makes serious inroads into capturing the essence of popular real time strategy games on a portable device. It is clearly influenced by the greats such as Starcraft, and in some ways actually manages to distil the epic unit-to-unit match-ups and combat strategy that made that game a hit. Its focus on unit management over building management ensures a narrower scope of battle that is well suited to shorter, more intense matches. It already has a tight control setup in place (which could still use some tweaking) and a match-up system that works– and works well. Our major concern is with the potential abuse of the upgrade system, the effect of which largely remains to be seen, and whether the developers can keep up with the inevitable balancing updates required.

At this stage though, we're ultimately impressed by what 3-man developer Pixel Stream have done; they have catered for RTS fans in a way that other larger developers had thought too difficult. With the promise of offline play in the near future, Armada is an effortless recommendation to any RTS buff looking to test their APM on the touch devices in a competitive environment. To check out the gameplay for yourself, take a peek at the developer's trailer above or hit up our forums for other readers' impressions.

App Store Link: Armada – Galactic War, $0.99 (Introductory Sale Price).

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There is something special about skin-tight spandex and inverted underwear that positively warms our hearts. Chillingo and Traplight Games have captured the essence of that specialness and synthesized it for the iPhone, with the release of The Hero [AppStore].

The Hero is a largely understated title for a game that puts you squarely in the rubber shoes of a top-heavy, Mr. Incredible-esque crime fighter with a penchant for destruction derby and loop-the-loops. Our brave hero zooms in from space, taking it upon himself to fly around each gorgeously crafted city to complete a number of tasks (by ramming them with his head) to keep secure his charges (the fair citizens), whilst causing as little damage as possible to the surroundings itself.

Of course, asking our Hero to go about his duty of catching falling babies, putting out fires, culling down the army, killing giant insects or downsizing orbital laser-barraging satellites (to scrape but the surface of his repertoire) without the occasional high-five would just seem rude. If The Hero has started to sound absolutely insane, that's only because it is. That simple fact can also be credited with why collecting High Fives from the town's citizens is the fuel source for your three super powers — Freeze, Blast or Zap– each of which help cut down your foes when you're feeling overwhelmed.

And overwhelmed you will be, as though The Hero starts of at a very relaxed (almost boring) pace for the first 5 or so levels, those who stick with it are rewarded with a manic adventure that will test your digit reflexes. The Hero has two control options to direct his flight, a virtual analogue stick or a tilt option; your Hero handling much more like a bi-plane than a Batman. This may seem frustrating at first, as you attempt to wrest your Hero into pulling tight turns to little avail, until you realise that the controls more closely resemble games like MiniSquadron, requiring you to loop to turn around. You attack enemies by simply ramming them, assisted by a boost button or by letting loose with one of your superpowers, which are gradually unlocked in the Campaign mode.

The Hero measures your progress each level by your ever present Fame meter. If you fail to stop the incidents being brought to your attention or if you receive damage yourself, your fame will decrease. If your fame reaches zero before completing all the assigned tasks it's "Fame Over", and you have to restart the level, something you'll see quite regularly as The Hero is certainly no walkover. The Campaign levels pose their own individual challenges too, tied together in a very loose but very funny storyline. There are 15 Campaign levels to complete on both Easy and Hard difficulties. There is also a Survival mode with 4 increasingly large and challenging cities that are gradually unlocked, where your Hero faces all manner of obstacles to build up the best score possible.

It's hard not to recommend The Hero simply due to its terrific style and over the top humor. Whilst some may find the airplane-like handling of The Hero to be counter-intuitive and awkward, those open to the gameplay will undoubtedly enjoy cannonballing through an army of enemies, including a number of challenging boss archetypes too. The open-ended Survival mode will whet competitive appetites and potentially add many more hours to The Hero's already substantial content. Oh, and did we mention you get to fight Zombies?

Be sure to check out the gameplay trailer above for a further look at The Hero. Impressions from our discussion forums are flowing in thick and fast, and are overwhelmingly positive. And a heads up to you lucky 3GS owners, there's an easily overlooked option which switches on a 'high' 60-fps mode.

App Store Link: The Hero, $1.99.

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We sat down with the guys from The Binary Mill late Friday evening at GDC to check out their upcoming shooter, Assault Squadron. The most immediately noticeable feature about the game is the insane frame rate it all runs at, and the developers insist that it even runs at a solid 60 FPS even on the 1st generation iPod touch. These performance levels are important, especially as the game increases in difficulty and you find yourself in "bullet hell," as the developers put it.

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 gameplay feels slightly different as well.

Other than that, Assault Squadron comes with everything you could possibly want in a shooter. 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 yet– Control options that should satisfy everyone between the on-screen touch controls, a virtual joystick, and tilt.

Take a look at the recently release gameplay trailer:

The developers have mentioned they still have balancing a bug fixing to do, but hope to have Assault Squadron on the App Store sometime this spring. For more information on the game, take a look at the thread on our forums which is home to quite a ton of Assault Squadron media.

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Last week we noted that an iPhone port of the PC classic Rise of the Triad, which we first caught wind of back back in July, had been made official and would soon be hitting the App Store. We're happy to report that the game has gone live [App Store] and those wanting to take on maniac cult leader El Oscuro and his minions on the iPhone are in luck.

Apogee / Mobila Interactive's iPhone port of ROTT brings all there is to like about 1994 PC original to our favorite mobile platform. The game features 32 levels, a choice of five characters to play (each with unique attributes), five different, customizable controls schemes, and the original game's full soundtrack. A notable feature of the original at the time, the player can look both up and down — up to 45 degrees in either direction — to better take in the surroundings. And the original's horde of minions, comprised of ten digitized enemies (Apogee employees at the time), is fully represented.

I've spent some time with the game and can say that, while the standard formula of mouse + keyboard is definitely the ideal control method for an FPS such as this, the variety of control options offered in the iPhone port of the game, which utilize combinations of both touch and accelerometer controls, should make it easy for most players to find a system that they are comfortable with. It's not perfect — I'd like to see a sensitivity setting for the left / right swipe view controls, for instance — but it works well enough. And it's great fun to get back to this title I enjoyed so many years ago.

Back in 1994, ROTT was a nice alternative to DOOM. And, just as there's certainly a place for DOOM on the iPhone today, so is there a place for Rise of the Triad. For fans of the original, this is an automatic buy, and for anyone else who still enjoys an occasional round of DOOM on the go, Rise of the Triad is a nice alternative that may well be worth a look.

App Store Link: Rise of the Triad, $4.99

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Brothers In Arms 1

Touch Arcade recently had the opportunity to visit Gameloft's Manhattan offices to preview a number of forthcoming iPhone titles. Among them was the sequel to the studio's late-2008 iPhone release, Brothers In Arms: Hour of Heroes.

Set to make its App Store debut in the next week and a half or so, Brothers In Arms 2 is a title developed specifically for the iPhone that is designed to run smoothly on all iPhone platform devices. Unlike its iPhone predecessor, which featured an over-the-shoulder, third-person perspective, Brothers in Arms 2 delivers a first-person shooter experience.

The game features six different play environments — the Pacific, North Africa, Italy, Normandy, Germany, and Ardennes — across 16 levels, each of which offers 25-30 minutes of playtime (6+ hours total, estimated), basically double that of the iPhone original. While much of the combat is carried out running, dodging, and ducking through the various environs on foot, airplanes, motorcycles, and tanks are also thrown into the mix.

I spent a brief period with the game in the studio, playing through the test build's early stages and found it to be a rather well done, graphically impressive work that ran glass smooth on the 3G iPod touch demo unit. And, while I only put the initial weapons through their paces, the game offers much in the way of munitions. The list includes a bazooka, fixed minigun, iron bar (–whack–), flame thrower, a Thompson, sub machine gun, and grenades.

Coming from Gameloft, a comparison to the studio's highly popular space-based FPS N.O.V.A. [App Store] is inevitable. While the core controls between the two games are are similarly arranged and responsive, Brothers in Arms 2 definitely has more of a duck-and-cover mechanic to it than N.O.V.A., which feels a bit more "brute force" / barrel through the enemy. And, while both are quite visually impressive, due to the nature of the environments, Brothers in Arms 2 probably gets to strut its stuff a bit more, as far as laying down distant polygons in vast surroundings.

If the campaign gameplay grows tiresome, there's a local WiFi multiplayer option available that features an in-game text chat system (to help dole out the smack). The option to override the in-game audio track with music from your iTunes library has been provided, as well.

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Early last week we reported that the C64 for iPhone emulator [App Store] would soon be getting global leaderboards and achievements for in-library games via the OpenFeint network. These features were rolled out yesterday as part of the v1.4 update.

The final list of these updates is as follows:

• Jupiter Lander: leaderboards and achievements
• Lemans: leaderboards and achievements
• Arctic Shipwreck: leaderboards
• Uridium: leaderboards
• Nebulus: leaderboards
• Paradroid: leaderboards and achievements when you own the 999 droid
• NOTE: High scores are recorded only when trainer is OFF

As the in-app games themselves were changed to facilitate these enhancements, they must be "purchased" again from within the application before the global network features can be utilized (at no additional cost to the user). The developer also indicates that the emulator environment received certain performance enhancements that allow iPhone 3GS and 3G iPod touch units to run all games at a solid 50fps for smoother gameplay.

Manomio indicates that the upcoming v1.5 update will be focused on usability and playability; controls and the UI will get some work. Details on these will be forthcoming on the developer's blog.

Another very interesting bit of news comes from forum reader killy billy who spotted seven new games listed in the C64 in-app shop yesterday but, as yet, unavailable for purchase. The list of games he saw follows.

• International Karate
• Microprose Soccer
• Jumpman
• Druid
• Wizball
• Trailblazer
• Elite

We grabbed the update and took at look at the app's game shop, but the indicated games were not listed, presumably pulled until available for actual purchase. Let's hope they reappear with full global network integreation — and soon. What a superb list of titles it seems Manomio has in store for us. All are highly playable, but Archer MacLean's International Karate, a C64 favorite, and David Braben and Ian Bell's seminal space trader Elite, considered the best game ever written by many critics, are particularly welcome.

We'll let readers know when these games appear for purchase within the app and will pass on further news and information surrounding this great emulator as we get it.

App Store Link: C64 for iPhone, $4.99

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Back in October we highlighted an upcoming 2.5D sidescrolling puzzle platformer that drew inspiration from classics such as Metroid and MegaMan.

Original Teaser Video from October

The game was originally planned for submission in November, but after all the feedback he received in our forums, the developer decided to bring on more people to try to take the game to the next level. Two additional team members were added to work on artwork, sound and level design.

New screenshots are provided:

The latest developer update promises a well rounded and complete game:

We followed community feedback and as many suggested, we are taking the time to make a nice polished game. I can give you a hint at what to expect, +60 rooms (+30 unlockable with free updates), all filled with platforming action, physics-based puzzles, battles or all 3 Several ecosystems with nice artistic treatment and painted sceneries. Custom music tracks and sounds fxs. I know you will love the bosses and the story. The game is filled with hidden rooms, secrets and rewards. And as promised, full 60fps of pure gameplay response (we will even let you see the fps on screen if you want; its a geek thing)

The developer is working on a new gameplay trailer which should be revealed shortly along with the actual name of the game. We'll let you know as soon as we do. The developer is continuing to participate in the upcoming thread in our forums.

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It's no secret that the iPhone has a lot to offer retro gaming fans out there. One example is Manomio's C64 for iPhone [App Store], which lets gamers have some serious 8-bit fun on the go. But, while such games offer a great deal of white-knuckle action, they lack the online competitive aspect of modern XBLA and PSN titles.

Manomio is in the process of rectifying the situation.

Many of us remember playing C64 games, vying for the high score and undoubtedly reveling with our friends when we grabbed the top score in Uridium, Paradroid or whatever happened to be hot at the time. Perhaps you were the best at your school, club or even town….but, are you the best in the world? Now's your chance with Open Feint integration for select games.

In the forthcoming v1.4 update to C64 for iPhone, Manomio has begun integrating online leaderboards and achievements for the classic, C64 titles the emulator supports. To start, they're delivering the following enhancements to C64 favorites by way of OpenFeint integration:

Arctic Shipwreck

• Leaderboard for high scores

Lemans

• Leaderboard for high scores
• Achievements
  • Lemans Bronze Medal (5 OF points): Scores 10000+
  • Lemans Silver Medal (8 OF points): Scores 25000+
  • Lemans Gold Medal (10 OF points): Scores 50000+
  • Lemans Elite Driver (20 OF points): Scores 100000+

Jupiter Lander

• Leaderboard for high scores
• Achievements
  • Jupiter Lander Trainee (5 OF points); Scores 10000+
  • Jupiter Lander Astronaut (10 OF points): Scores 75000+

Nebulus

• Leaderboards for high scores
• Planning to support achievements as you complete each tower (future update)

Uridium

• Leaderboards for high scores

Paradroid

• Leaderboards for high scores
• Achievements
  • Command Cyborg 999 – Pwnd!
    Achieved when you transfer / take control of the 999 unit, most powerful droid on the ship.

These enhancements really take these classic games well beyond their original incarnations. What's more, Manomio CTO Stuart Carnie assures us that, for the iPhone 3GS and 3G iPod touch, all games will run at a "buttery smooth" 50fps.

This really is a superb turn of events for retro gamers, and we're anxious to see what other enhancements to the these classics the studio will bring down the road.

App Store Link: C64 for iPhone, $4.99

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