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So, Mass Effect is returning to the iPhone. At a recent EA event, the publisher passed around a pamphlet announcing Mass Effect Infiltrator for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and the iPad. In a nutshell, it’s a third-person shooter featuring universe’s trimmings, and it will apparently tie into Mass Effect 3’s Galaxy At War component.

EA also announced a companion app called Mass Effect Datapad, but revealed nothing about it except its platform: iPad.

On to what we know then. In Infiltrator , you’ll “help free prisoners from a hostile Cerberus base” and receive rewards as you gather evidence of Cerberus’ crimes. All your rescues and your discoveries will feed into Galaxy At War’s ”Galactic Readiness rating,” which informs events in the game’s single-player.

As if the latter wasn’t enough to get you to check it out, the app will also offer users exclusive weapons to use in ME3.

Infiltrator’s announcement is pretty hot off the presses, so the details are pretty vague. On the other hand, it seems like it is passing through certification as we write this — if EA is using the term “soon” in regards to its release traditionally — so, the wait to see what’s actually going on should actually end shortly.

UPDATE: Fun fact: this is being developed by Dead Space iOS devs Iron Monkey Studios. This can only be a good thing, we think.

UPDATE 2: IGN has nabbed the first screenshots for Mass Effect Infiltrator:

[Via Shacknews, Joystiq, IGN]

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Like sweat and weights, the two men behind Riverman Media complement each other. Jake is an idea man and a talented art dude. Paul is a designer and a programmer who figures out how to translate Jake’s off-the-wall ideas into familiar game structures. Together, these guys have released several games, but none as complex, trying, or as absolutely bent as their next.

In our interview complement to our regular show this week, we talked with Riverman about this project, which is called Pizza vs. Skeletons. One of the most fascinating things we discovered is just how well Jake and Paul Stevens mesh. They’re brothers and business partners, and a tic to the other’s toe. Audio just below:

iTunes Link: The TouchArcade Show
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Direct Link: TouchArcadeShow-Bonus-031.mp3, 20MB

“Paul and I really have a back and forth,” Jake told us. “I’m kinda like the crazy idea guy and I don’t think very practically. Paul’s always the rational one who tries to pick gameplay element out of the ideas I throw out.”

Jake let us in on a great story. At the beginning of the development of Pizza, Jake had a flash of inspiration that spilled into an e-mail. He wanted players to be able to ski, scuba dive, and even rescue puppies as a 10-foot-tall pizza. Paul? Shocked and presumably overwhelmed by the strangeness, took awhile to respond.

Jake says he’s more concerned about what sounds fun. He’s not concerned about interesting decisions or anything else initially — he just wants people to be intrigued by his scenarios.

“At the beginning, Jake had a bunch of ideas that were not really related to each other in anyway,” Paul told us, chiming in. “They were just completely separate things you could be doing as a pizza. Most of them had nothing to do with skeletons — in fact, only one or two of them did.” This is where the fun begins.

Paul explained that he takes Jake’s ideas and then brainstorms different angles. One of the first things that he had to do was remove the theme and ask what was fun about the idea of controlling a gigantic circular character. From there, he was able to lay out what could and couldn’t work, what should and shouldn’t be emphasized.

Objectives had to be molded, too. In the puppy saving levels, for example, the game’s camera and its technology prohibited a lot of traditional systems and functionality. So, Paul devised levels with two different phases: the first is rolling to the right and absorbing puppies, and the second is rolling back to the left and taking them back home.

Solid game design hasn’t been the only thing on Riverman’s mind. Pizza’s development has stretched over a year. Most of the duo’s games take around a month. It’s scary.

“By far the most work of any of our games went into this one,” Jake said. The premise has been evolving for over a year, and a lot of prototyping work had to be done. This was a full-time project, but also a particularly challenging one, which is part of the reason why Riverman decided to do it.

“We were pretty scared about it at first, and we still are,” Paul said. “It was a year-long investment and our previous games were closer to a month or a month-and-a-half with the thinking that we could make small titles with high quality — you know, there’s some luck in which ones get seen and which ones don’t — they did pretty well for the time it took to make them.”

“But to invest twelve times that amount on one game was really scary to us, and still is and probably will still be until the day it actually comes out and see if anyone likes it.”

Pizza is due out later this month on February 16, and we’ll have some hands-on coverage later this week. To avoid anything other than modest scrutiny, we’ve held back on what we’ve seen, but it does look good. We’re thinking the risk paid off. And we’re also of a mind that this is a studio-changing product. Riverman is evolving alongside the work.

“When you’re a small studio, you have an inclination to do things that are safe,” Jake said. “You want to do things that you think will appeal to a lot of people, that will impress a lot of people.”

“We’ve been doing this for seven years now and I would say slowly we’re peeling away that inclination and getting more and more towards the game we really want to make and the games we really want to play. Even if they are a little more risky, even if the audience is smaller, they’re more close to what we want to look at and enjoy,” Jake said.

Our audio interview includes a lot more from these two dudes, so feel free to give it a listen. Topics other than these include pizza customization, Riverman’s desire to break out and possibly do titles on other platforms, and Eli’s battle with bread.

We’ll be back with you next week in another “bonus” podcast.

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Last week we talked about the massive update to last summer’s quirky platformer Bean’s Quest [99¢/Lite] that added a ton of brand new levels and fleshed out the storyline with appropriate intro and ending sequences. Basically, Bean’s Quest was originally an incredibly short game, featuring just 8 levels. That was the chief complaint in our original review, though we did enjoy the game a lot while it lasted. In about 6 months time, Bean’s Quest has expanded to 50 levels and is finally the full and complete game it was always intended to be.

For today only, you can grab the full version of Bean’s Quest for just 99¢. If you’ve always admired Bean’s Quest from afar, but weren’t sure if its “constantly bouncing” gameplay was the right fit for you, then a recently released lite version can help you make up your mind. I would urge all platformer fans to give the lite version a spin, and if you’re into it, then definitely grab the full Bean’s Quest while it’s just a dollar.

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Remember League of Evil [$1.99]? It came out early last year, and the best way to describe it is the title of our review: “The closest thing to Super Meat Boy on iOS.” League of Evil controlled great, making difficult Super Meat Boy-style platforming surprisingly fun. They even eventually added iCade and Joypad [Free] support, giving two more awesome control options.

Check out the recently released trailer for the sequel:

I’m digging the new art style. February 15th can’t come quick enough.

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Depending on how you look at it, my weekend was either a complete success or a disastrous waste. Asides from my daily ablutions, I’ve done nothing but sit on my derriere and play Capcom’s Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective [Free]. It’s true. I’m not ashamed.

I would be ashamed if this was a cheap rip-off stemming from some copycat’s attempt to cash in on a popular indie title somewhere but Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective isn’t that sort of game. If you had to liken it to a gender-unspecific trophy spouse, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective would be a 6′2″ Scandinavian model with a degree in rocket science and a part-time job as a professional comedian. You won’t be ashamed to be caught with this one.

The only problem here is that not everyone likes a talker. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective’s only real flaw (which is also, paradoxically enough, its strongest quality) is the fact that it is extremely heavy on the narrative. More than half of your time in the game will be spent reading. Sorry guys. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective doesn’t come with a voice pack either. If you’re the sort who thinks that actions are louder than words, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is probably not for you. (I still recommend giving it a whirl, though.) As for everyone else, why are you still here? Get the game already!

What? No? Fine. I see those raised eyebrows and I’ll raise you with a more thorough explanation. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is the long-anticipated port of an adventure game Capcom developed for the Nintendo DS. The titular character in this eccentric little delight is, as you might have guessed already, sort of dead. Sissel is also sort of awesome for an amnesiac red-suited ghost with a bad haircut.

Unlike most of the recently deceased, he has to navigate between the Land of the Living and the Ghost World. Sissel can also traverse telephone lines, perform minor feats of telekinesis, communicate with certain living beings (we’ll get to that in a bit), and go back four minutes in time to avert untimely deaths. (Sadly, that’s only applicable for everyone but himself.)

Incidentally, you’ll find yourself using that last power a fair bit. The supporting cast is somewhat uniquely skilled at dying repeatedly. At least, one of them is.

Meet Lynne. She’s a somewhat bombastic little redhead of a detective, the sole witness to your murder and – according to the helpful desk lamp (yes, a literal desk lamp) you meet in the introductory sequence – the key to deciphering the circumstances behind your posthumous condition. Needless to say, you will spend a lot of time rescuing her only to watch her barrel headlong into yet another humorous tragedy.

Along the way, you will also meet the rest of the highly memorable crew. From an unbelievably adorable if loud-mouthed Pomeranian (To quote our very own Mr. Nicholson, “Just wait until you meet the dog, man!”) to a shotgun-wielding assassin (His name is Nearsighted Jeego. He never misses his target if they’re in range.) to a slow-witted prison guard who dances when distressed, every entity you encounter in Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is, uh, unique, to say the least. The development team definitely went all the way with the character design here.

(For those of you curious about how well Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective survived the transition to the iOS, I’m happy to say it looks pixel-perfect. While I’ve never played the original, I’ve seen the videos and if the videos are any indication of how things were, well, Capcom did you proud.)

Humor-wise, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is about as off-kilter as the menagerie that populates it. Facepalm-inducing moments are in abundance. The actual plotline, on the other hand, is deeper than what the initial twenty minutes might implicate. How so? I can’t tell you. Games like Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective are kinda like Fight Club. You don’t talk about Fight Club. You don’t talk about games like this either. At least, not in the context of the plotline, the actual dialogue and whatnot. Not unless you want to peel away some of the magic. The only thing you’re getting out of me on this front is the assurance that when the bleaker moments of the game hit, they will hit hard.

Of course, a good story’s not much without decent gameplay. Though marketed as an adventure game, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective feels more like a puzzler sequestered away in a visual novel. When you’re not otherwise thumbing through conversations, you’ll be in what the game calls ‘Trick Time’.

To make this a little easier to understand, we’re going to use an example here. Let’s say you’re inside a flag and you have to make your way across the room to get something. In order to accomplish this, you’re going to have press the ‘Ghost’ button, switch to the Ghost World, and then draw a line from the flag to, say, a pitcher of water. Sissel will then do the rest. Interacting with objects is just as easy. For example, if you’re inside a candle and the words ‘burn brighter’ are present on your side bar, all you need to do is switch to the Land of the Living and hit the ‘Trick’ button. Once again, Sissel will take it from there.

The puzzles themselves are a lot more complex and likely to leave you going, ‘Wait. So, how am I supposed to use two suits of armor, a set of curtains, a globe and a framed-up sword?’. To complicate matters even further, there is often a time limit associated with these puzzles. Luckily for you (and everyone else in the predicament), Sissel can rewind time as many times as he likes, something that makes Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective nicely balanced between the realms of ‘forgiving’ and ‘why would you do this to me?’.

While we’re on the topic, here’s my only other infinitesimally tiny issue with the game. It’s too linear. I know, I know. This isn’t some sprawling, open-world sandbox of an action-RPG. However, they’ve done such a superb job at developing the environments that I kind of want to spend some time away from the main storyline. Ahem. If you haven’t guessed it already, I think Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is the bee’s knees and with the first two chapters available for free you should definitely give it a shot. Following that, you shouldn’t have too difficult a time parting with the cash to unlock the rest of the game.

TouchArcade Rating:

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When I think about possible themes for tower defense games, a tale about space pirates attacking a futuristic Earth in search of highly sought after ‘Spice’ is probably the last thing I’d think of. Yet, that’s exactly the premise of Spice Invaders [Free], a new freemium title from Chillingo. While the game itself is a nice take on tower defense, the bulk of the conversation unfortunately turns to its freemium elements which distract greatly from the actual game.

As a tower defense game, Spice Invaders plays similarly to Fieldrunners [$2.99 / HD]. Players are charged with defending one (or more) bases in open-field maps. Enemies come in waves from a variety of different entrances, forcing you to build towers in such a way as to prevent them from taking out your base. Since the maps are open (with some featuring random barriers littered throughout the map), you can do this by surrounding your base, forcing the baddies into long paths made of towers, and so on.

The core gameplay isn’t particularly innovative, even the tower types are pretty standard (machine gun, missile, anti-air, e.t.c.). The game does have a pretty mean difficulty streak, since the AI adapts to tower placement and tries to find the path of least resistance to your base. The end result is a game providing a decent challenge for folks that aren’t used to complex tower defense strategy.

Where Spice Invaders differentiates itself is in its overall presentation and execution. The visuals are crisp and vivid and do an interesting job portraying a futuristic (and bleak) Earth. This is also reflected in a good level design, as Spice Invaders takes you through a tour of the various continents. The music is catchy and adequately sets the mood. Even the menus, in-game tutorial and story cutscenes are done well. In fact, based on the above I’d argue that Spice Invaders has all the core elements of a great tower defense game. That is, until you get to the pay wall.

Yes folks, after seven missions in South America (the first continent in the game), you are unceremoniously informed that in order to move to the next continent you must either reach level 20 or pay-up 42 spice. When I reached this point, I was barely level 13, so you can imagine my surprise at making the level cap that high. Also, since I was upgrading my towers on a regular basis (as I was taught), I had very little spice to try and get past the level cap using that method.

I understand the strategy of utilizing freemium as a revenue source, and as far as I’m concerned if it’s done right I’m all for it. I thought Spice Invaders did an adequate job balancing spice rewards with tower (and upgrade) unlocks. I even thought their idea of making costumes for your avatar cost tons of spice wasn’t a bad idea, as it was purely cosmetic and didn’t change the gameplay much. I was even fairly tolerant of the screen-filling ads that you’ll randomly get when starting levels.

But, putting a pay wall into the game after only seven levels forcing players to either grind out for a while on already completed maps or pay up in IAP to access enough space to pass is not a good idea and just seems to go too far.

Now, before we all get our pitchforks and chant about the downfall of freemium, there are a few things you should know. First, it costs only a dollar in IAP to purchase enough spice to pass this pay wall (if you shell out for the $2.99 pack the ads even go away). Furthermore, if you read  this review, you now know you can simply keep 42 spice in your inventory for when this first pay wall hits so you can continue right on playing (you’ll earn more than enough with just leveling).

Finally, while grinding to level 20 does take a decent amount of time, it’s not too hard to simply save up the spice you earn from redoing missions and leveling up to move on (that’s how I did it). If you’re willing to put a little effort into grinding, these sorts of barriers aren’t horrible.

However, in this instance it’s really the principle of the thing. Artificially restricting progress in this manner is not my preferred way of implementing freemium mechanics. It would have been far better to add more towers/upgrades/perks and expect players to eventually shell out spice purchases to explore those (the game does this as well). I have no problem with encouraging players to spend some cash on premium items that are not necessary for normal gameplay. The restrictions in Spice Invaders do not fit that example, especially since all these design choices are solely made to encourage folks to spend money (rather than designs that encourage fun).

It really is a shame, because other than the freemium issues Spice Invaders is a really great addition to the tower defense genre. While the gameplay didn’t offer anything particularly new, the artwork, music, and all around presentation and gameplay implementation were well done. I just really wish there was a way for players to just pay one hard fee that would get rid of all pay walls and basically treat the game as a normal paid title. Unfortunately, that’s not the way freemium typically works.

If you’re in the mood to explore a new, tough TD game and you don’t mind the freemium grind (or shelling out cash), then check out Spice Invaders. If not, well, I already know what you’re going to be doing.

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Our ratings for games we reviewed in January are now in place, and we now present to you the ones that are on the top of the heap. Each game reviewed receives a 1-5 star rating relative to the other games from that month. Generally, a three-star or higher is considered a “good” rating.

Our final scores are not the product of any traditionally objective measures such as graphics or sound, but simply reflect the games we would most recommend to others. Keep in mind, this listing is comprised of games we reviewed in January, and not necessarily games that were specifically released in January.

5 Stars

Super Crate Box, $1.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Vlambeer knocks it out of the park with this ultra-frantic crate collecting game. With great virtual controls, and gameplay that is great for pick up and play mobile gaming sessions, Super Crate Box is a game you shouldn’t miss.

4.5 Stars

Blockwick, Free – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – A really slick puzzle game that you can try for free. After that, level packs of increasing difficulty are sold in bundles of 60 for 99¢ a pop. Don’t let the initial pack it comes with turn you off, think of it more as a really long tutorial.

Hero Academy, Free – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – This multiplayer tactical game by Robot Entertainment has become incredibly popular amongst our community, and even was the topic of a recent Penny Arcade comic. If you’re looking for people to play with, hit the forum link and you’ll find tons of people looking for a game.

Run Roo Run, $0.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – From the creators of Scribblenauts comes this super-fun mini-level jumping game. Most levels will only take a few moments to complete, but thankfully, there’s a ton of them. Clearing a world unlocks some really difficult levels that’ll really put you to the test.

Smash Cops, $2.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Not only does Smash Cops have great graphics, but it also has a new control method that we haven’t seen before for controlling your cop car. You use your finger to “push” the car where you want to go. It sounds strange, but it works great.

Triple Town, Free – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – There’s a definite learning curve to Triple Town but once you get over that hump and come to grips with how the mechanics of the game works, you’ll be building amazing towns and cursing at bears in no time. Argh, those bears. They ruin everything.

Windosill, $2.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – This iPad exclusive puzzle game originally started its life as a Flash title. It’s aged incredibly well, and feels like a perfect fit for the iPad. Multitouch adds so much, even if you played the original, it’s worth trying again on the iPad.

The rest of the game ratings can be seen in their respective rating categories (also found in the sidebar navigation): 5 Stars, 4.5 Stars, 4 Stars, 3.5 Stars, 3 Stars, and 2 Stars.

As always, we expect there will be some debate about relative scores, but keep in mind that everyone’s personal ratings may vary based on individual tastes.

For more of our favorite iOS games, check out our “Best iPhone Games” category which includes all of these monthly posts as well as other special compilations of the greatest games the App Store has to offer.

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I love Halfbrick’s Jetpack Joyride [Free], and if you like good iOS games, chances are you like Jetpack Joyride too. In fact, I’d like even more Jetpack Joyride, which, oddly enough, is where Big Pixel Studios’ Off The Leash [Free] comes in. You’re likely thinking to yourself, “But it seems obvious from the name alone that Off The Leash has to do with dogs, what does Jetpack Joyride have to do with anything?” I’ll explain.

You know how we raved about Jetpack Joyride’s mission system, its hefty in-game store full of customizables, and other single-user consumable perks? Well, Off The Leash does an incredible job of utilizing incredibly similar underlying systems to keep you playing game after game while feeling entirely new and fresh. In fact, in light of the recent NimbleBit cloning drama in the past week, it’s seems particularly important to tip our hats at games like Off The Leash that utilize these mechanics that work so well, but only as part of building an entirely new game experience.

In Off The Leash you initially control a single dog. It almost has a Mega Jump [Free] feel to it in that coins are everywhere, and you tilt your device to move your dog around to collect them. There’s also food to eat, and various power-ups to snag.

The premise of the game has you running from the police, as apparently dogs have been banned. This lends itself to my favorite gameplay mechanic, the dog rescue system. Since the cops are out in force to catch you (and presumably, all other dogs), you’ve got to snag every other dog you come across and recruit them into your coin collecting food devouring feral dog pack.

As you collect more dogs, you run in what could be best described as a massive canine swarm. Your dog friends you’ve picked up form behind you in a almost bird-like flying V formation which greatly increases the amount of coins and food you can pick up since any dog running into any coin or food product counts towards your total.

It’s not that easy enough, as there’s obstacles which make you lose dogs as the errant corners of your formation bumps into them. Thankfully, touching the screen makes your dogs form up in a line, but doing so greatly decreases your speed, which is really counterproductive since the game ends when your dog pack fails to make it through a checkpoint before you run out of time- Sort of like an old school racing game.

Like most of these games, you quickly find yourself in a rhythm of tilting tilting and tapping and the whole game melts away into this crazy dog pack management experience as you’re trying to go as quickly as possible without losing any of your puppy pals. There’s power-ups you can collect too such as your standard speed boost, time extension, a familiar coin magnet, and my favorite: DOUBLE DOGS. Collecting this power-up instantly doubles the dogs in your pack, which can result in a silly amount of dogs on screen.

Just like Jetpack Joyride, Off The Leash is totally free to download and play, with no ads or other restrictions as far as I can tell. Instead, it’s monetized through selling coins that are then used to buy cosmetic upgrades, better power-ups, and golden whistles which basically act like extra lives to keep playing if you fail to make it through a checkpoint. There’s also a similar permanent double coins add-on for 99¢, which seems to be a good place to start if you like playing the game since you can just earn coins for everything you’d want to unlock anyway.

I’m really sort of shocked by how much I find myself enjoying this game. The difficulty curve seems great, Jetpack Joyride already proved that this payment model works, and I love how they take the foundation that worked so well for Halfbrick but created what feels (and, really, is) an entirely new game around it. For the low, low price of free, you really shouldn’t miss Off The Leash.

TouchArcade Rating:

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Regardless of whether you typically buy things with iTunes gift cards or if you’ve just linked your credit card up to your iTunes account and forgotten about it, Best Buy has a pretty great deal going that lasts until 7:00 PM Eastern tonight. iTunes gift cards are 20% off, and they’re available in values ranging from $15.00 (for $12.00) all the way up to $100.00 (for $80.00). Better yet, these gift cards are delivered digitally. So, if you’ve got a way to funnel money into the Best Buy web site, they’ll just instantly email you a discounted iTunes gift card code. How’s that for convenience?

Mash this link if you’re interested in taking advantage of the deal. You should see all the available gift cards. If the link isn’t working for you, just search their site for “iTunes (Digital Delivery)”. These 20% off deals aren’t anything to scoff at either, as buying $100.00 worth of credit for $80.00 could potentially net you nearly 20 free 99¢ games out of the deal depending on your local tax rate.

How much are those of you who are taking advantage of this dumping into the deal? I know people who buy stupid amounts of iTunes credit when these 20% off sales roll around, as that’s not only about as cheap as iTunes credit ever gets, but it’s also definitely a “the more you buy the more you save” kind of thing.

[via 9to5Mac]

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After spending some quality time with a preview version of Int13’s new bullet hell shooter Shogun: Rise of the Renegade [Free] last week, we were eager to get our hands on the final version to see how it all came together. And sure enough, earlier this week Shogun quietly snuck into the App Store.

It was interesting that Int13 was departing from their typical augmented reality based games, like ARDefender [Free], and trying their hand at an established and nuanced genre like arcade-style manic shoot ‘em ups, especially with veteran shmup developer Cave basically cornering the market with their stable of high-quality ports. However, Int13 has surprised me with just how right they got Shogun, and while it might fail to totally impress the more discerning bullet hell enthusiast, fans of shmups in general will find a lot of action and fun brimming from the game.

The very first thing that pops out at you about Shogun are its graphics. The environments are done up in 3D and give off a great feeling of depth as you’re scrolling by in your ship. It’s also Retina Display ready, meaning it’s razor sharp. Enemies are your standard alien-type of spacecrafts, and there are some rather interestingly designed mid-boss and end-boss fights that will give you a run for your money in terms of challenge. On the whole, gameplay in Shogun doesn’t divert too far from your typical bullet-hell shooter formula, but it executes the components of that formula extremely well.

However, Shogun does show some more innovative signs in a couple of areas. One is the method in which you change your weapons. Your ship comes with 3 weapon types: spread shot, laser, and homing. Whenever you lift your finger off the screen, the game slows down bullet-time style and a small menu pops up above your ship that lets you choose from the 3 weapon types, as well as trigger a screen-clearing EMP or choose to add small wingman ships for added firepower. It’s nice that the action slows down to allow you to concentrate on what weapon you need to pick, but you can still take damage in this mode so you’ll still need to stay alert.

The other thing in Shogun that I found very interesting is the system for filling and using your shield meter. You have the ability to scrape bullets that pass you by, which basically means getting your ship extremely close to them without actually getting hit. With each consecutive bullet you scrape, you build a multiplier, and this adds to your shield meter above which can go past the 100% full mark. Every time you fill up your life meter completely, it fills one of the 6 reserve tanks above the meter.

Now, these reserve tanks can be used for various things, like setting off the aforementioned EMP blast or adding one or more sets of the satellite helper ships to your own ship (which VASTLY increases your firepower, I might add). Also, when you do get hit by enemy fire, the game will automatically clear the screen of bullets and shield you for a brief moment while giving you a refilled meter, but it will cost you one of your reserves.

The scraping and usage of reserve tanks aren’t totally new ideas in the shmup world, but they’re done well and add a ton of strategy to how you go about being the most effective in Shogun. It’s in your benefit to scrape as much as possible and always strive to keep your reserves well stocked for particularly challenging sections and boss battles. But, you can’t concentrate too hard on just scraping, as inevitably that will lead you to take damage if you aren’t paying enough attention to killing the enemies as well.

While the graphics are gorgeous and the underlying mechanics are sound, about the only thing I don’t like about Shogun is that it’s pretty short. Featuring just 4 levels to play through, it comes to an end pretty quickly, but it’s a satisfying and challenging ride while it lasts. The pay model is also pretty accommodating, allowing you to download and play through the entire first level for free. The remaining 3 levels are accessible as well, but you can only play them for a brief minute – just long enough to get a taste. Each full level is then unlockable separately for 99¢ each, or $1.99 to unlock them all at once.

As a big fan of Cave’s shooters, I find it hard to really get into most of the other shooters on the App Store. They really did set the bar that high. But Shogun is a game that instantly drew me in with its visuals, and then backed it up with a ton of solid action. It even Universal and has iCade support, to truly complete the arcade experience. As a free download, there’s really no reason not to give Shogun a try for yourself.

TouchArcade Rating:

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