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On this week’s episode of The TouchArcade Show, we power through conversations about smart gyms and wearable heart monitors in order to bring the latest, greatest, and the best in iPhone and iPad. At the top of the show, we dive into oral reviews of a bunch of cool games, including Brainsss and King of Fighters 2012. Later, we ponder if the free-to-play market is about to collapse and dig into the realities of development in a market that only wants 99¢ stuff.

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Direct Link: TouchArcadeShow-050.mp3, 42.7MB

Here are your show notes:

GAMES

• Brainsss [$2.99]
• Flight Control Rocket [99¢]
• The King of Fighters-i 2012
• Tower of Fortune [99¢]
• DreamWorks Dragons: TapDragonDrop [$1.99]
• Junk Jack [$2.99]

JARED’S KITTY KORNER

• Cat Sliding [Free]

FRONT PAGE

• ‘Draw Something’ Is Losing Dudes Like Whoa
• Tiger Style Reveals Lifetime Sales Numbers
• Jason Citron Forming Games Studio

The original Soundtrack by Jim Guthrie (of Sword & Sworcery fame) for Indie Game: The Movie is available for pre-order now on Bandcamp and iTunes. The 24-track album featuring music from the award winning documentary chronicling the journeys of independent game developers by filmmakers James Swirsky and Lisa Pajot will be released in full on May 15th. It will also be available on double LP exclusively through Bandcamp. Pick up a pre-order copy of Indie Game: The Movie: The Soundtrack today on Bandcamp and iTunes.

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Zombie games are still a big deal and it continues to blow my mind that this is the case. What hasn’t been done in a zombie game? Think about it. We’ve shot zombies and we’ve cut zombies. We’ve set zombies on fire. We’ve run over zombies and cured zombies and beat zombies with baseball bats. We’ve even participated as part of the horde in games like Valve’s Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2. Over the last few years, there’s not much we haven’t done to or with zombies across multiple genres, including puzzle and even tower defense. This thought has crossed my mind several times: what can a brand new zombie game even offer outside of a slight twist on what we’ve done before?

And then Brainsss [$2.99] shambles along and shatters this idea in my head that zombie games are lame because there’s just nothing left to do in them that we haven’t done trillions of times in a billion different games. Brainsss offers something new in the space, and its core action is rich enough for me to give it a solid recommendation, despite cooling on this zombie … craze we’re still in.

Brainsss is a top-down strategy game where you control a horde of zombies on quests to assimilate people into your horde. In order to do this, you’ll need to treat the ever-growing horde like a fleet, splitting it up into pieces so you can trap victims spread across the game’s myriad of labyrinthine levels, which are often brimming with helpless survivors who are ready to bolt the second they see snarling beasts approaching. As you convert more people, you’ll be able to meaningfully split your horde into even more groups.

There are a few change of pace design elements that compliment the strategy. The “RAGE” meter in particular is hip. As you do damage, you’ll be able to enter into a berserk mode that ramps up your horde’s speed and intensity. On the other hand, the mission design is sharp, too. In one level, you might be stopping survivors from feeling to a helicopter. In others, you’re chomping on scientists who were incredibly fleet of foot before running into your horde. Another neat twist: Brainnsss also rocks NPCs that can harm your horde, like police officers and backyard pugilists that you have to disarm in specific ways.

Brainsss biggest problem is probably its habit of skewing casual. You’re not going to feel like you’re the smartest undead general ever while trapping dudes. The controls can be a bit spotty as well. To split your horde, you need to “paint” over part of it, and then point to a new location in the level. Grabbing a specific amount can be a hassle if your horde is bunched tightly. Otherwise, the point-and-paint controls are bliss: this is a game that feels like and operates like a game designed for iPad and iPhone.

If you’re still into zombie games, or just need to check another thing you’ve done with zombies off of your mental checklist, feel free to check this out. Brainnsss strategy and action feel pretty unique in a space that’s been done to undeath, and they probably really pop outside of this vacuum. I can dig it, at least.

TouchArcade Rating:

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The Binary Mill’s Mini Motor Racing [$1.99 / Free / $3.99 (HD) / Free (HD)] was initially released late last year, and we liked it quite a bit in our review. It’s a slick little top-down arcade racer with some great visuals, an excellent soundtrack, and tons of content to play through.

In our review, we mentioned how much we hoped that the multiplayer mode, which initially was local only, eventually went online. Well, this recent update adds not only complete online multiplayer via Game Center, but also an entire new championship to race in. New cars have been added, a few tracks have been “remastered,” and there’s a number of other tweaks they threw in as well.

If you already own Mini Motor Racing, make sure you snag this update. If you were waiting on online multiplayer, well, it’s here, so get on it.

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Do you like tacos? How about star fields, spaceships, and throwback games that trade polygons for pixels and full orchestras for beeps and bleeps that hearken back to the glory days of the Atari 2600? Developer Taco Graveyard serves up generous helpings of those elements and more (even the space tacos) in Omegapixel [ Free ], a fast and furious action game that throws in a fair bit of puzzle solving to keep you on your toes.

The first time you load a mission, Omegapixel might remind you a lot of Geometry Wars [ $0.99 ]. Using a virtual stick, you control a small space rig that zips around the cosmos and battles enemy ships. Unlike Geometry Wars, though, you barrel into enemies kamikaze-style instead of blasting them with lasers. While you’re floating like a butterfly and stinging like a battering ram with thrusters, enemies pour onto the screen in greater and greater numbers.

Enemy ships come in several varieties—some that make a beeline for you, others that converge on the pixel. On one stage, I flew around smashing into red ships that targeted the Omegapixel while blue pyramids followed my space vessel in tireless pursuit. Suddenly a vertical yellow line came sliding across the screen like a barcode scanner laser. If the line touched the pixel, I lost a life. Ignoring the red destroyers and blue pyramids for the moment, I flew to the far side of the yellow wall and tapped the lower right corner of the screen, which instantly swaps your location with the Omegapixel’s and vice versa. Teleporting put the pixel safely on the far side of the wall, but right in range of the red ships I’d let live to deal with the wall.

The key to victory lies in shielding the pixel from its enemies, while using it to shield you from yours. To get rid of the blue pyramids that zero in on my ship’s location, I had to lure them into the pixel’s fiery maw by either putting the pixel in between me and them, or waiting for them to draw close enough to touch before teleporting, which dumped the pixel right where I’d been drifting a second before. Easier said than done, especially with bouncers knocking the pixel every which way, red ships spiraling toward it, new purple walls that harmed me instead of the pixel sliding into view, and asteroids that, while harmless, distract you by stealing your attention away from real threats.

It’s stressful, but the kind of stress that leaves your senses crackling from adrenaline. Cobbling together a plan and pulling it off in a matter of moments never failed to invite a thrill of accomplishment. The game almost becomes more of a twitchy puzzler on later levels, forcing you to remain aware of the pixel’s location at all times and pull each enemy type from your memory log the moment it comes into view so you can react to the new threat appropriately.

As you play, you’ll collect credits you can use to deck out your ship: explosive teleports, extra armor plating, defense mechanisms for the Omegapixel, a line of energy that flares between you and the pixel when you teleport, incinerating anything it touches. You can earn credits the old-fashioned way by clearing Story and Arcade missions, picking up credit packs that randomly appear during play, or just drop real money on IAP credit packs and splurge on upgrades.

Like all games that control with virtual sticks, Omegapixel’s controls suffers from minor virtual-stick touchiness, but my fried reflexes cost me more missions than occasionally spot controls. Other than said spottiness and grating music (the sound effects are the right kind of bleepy retro, but the soundtrack, which you can disable, sounds like an 8-bit game that froze right in the middle of a high chord) Omegapixel is a ton of fun, and especially shouldn’t be missed at its current price of free.

TouchArcade Rating:

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It was in July of last year that SNK Playmore brought their classic fighting game franchise to iOS with The King of Fighters-i [ $4.99 ], and it was the only game that could really stand up to the then current standard for touch screen fighters Street Fighter IV [ $4.99 ], and in many ways it even exceeded it. Which series you prefer is largely a personal preference thing, but I always felt that The King of Fighters-i edged out Street Fighter IV in overall quality and playability.

The problem was that by the time The King of Fighters-i hit the App Store, the superior sequel to Street Fighter IV had already been out for a month. It was called Street Fighter IV Volt [ $6.99 ] and it came packing everything that made the original game so great plus additional characters, new features, and most importantly online multiplayer. The online matchmaking worked surprisingly well in Volt, and despite The King of Fighters-i being absolutely fantastic it was still just a single player- or Bluetooth multiplayer-only game, and online battling was the new hotness.

Now nearly a year later SNK Playmore is taking a page out of the Volt handbook with the just-released The King of Fighters-i 2012 [ $6.99 ]. This latest entry in the iOS KOF series contains everything from the first game that was great in addition to – much like the release of Volt – new characters, new features, and online WiFi multiplayer. Since basically everything from the first game is included in the 2012 edition, you might want to read our original review of KOF-i as well as the details of its extensive update to get the nitty gritty on the game.

As for what’s improved in The King of Fighters-i 2012, for starters the roster has been significantly expanded from 20 playable characters to 32. Art of Fighting, Psycho Soldier, Kim and Ikari are the 4 new teams of 3 that make up the new additions. Also, there are 2 more characters – Nests-style Kyo and Classic Iori – available as DLC for $1.99 each. These are alternate versions of existing characters, and they’re certainly entirely optional purchases, but it will be interesting to see if more characters end up coming down the road and if they’ll be paid or as a part of free updates.

The single player part of the game includes everything that was in last year’s version: an arcade ladder in 3v3 team battles or 1v1 flavors, an endless survival mode, and an excellent training mode. The lengthy Challenge mode from the original game returns, with some new challenges thrown in for good measure. A brand new single player addition to KOF-i 2012 is a Time Attack mode. Here you must battle through 10 straight opponents as quickly as possible, with a Game Center leaderboard tracking your best overall time.

Time Attack is a nice addition to an already great single player offering in The King of Fighters-i 2012, but that’s not why we’re here. We came for the multiplayer. Naturally, the Bluetooth local multiplayer mode from the original game made its way into 2012, and remains a fine option for squaring off against a buddy in your same vicinity. However, the real draw in the new online WiFi multiplayer mode.

The online portion for KOF-i 2012 works about how you might expect if you’re familiar with Volt – that is, it’s pretty good but not great. Naturally there is a bit of lag at times, but nothing too earth-shattering. Finding a match can also take a long time but I imagine that will clear up a lot as more people get the game. When talking about real-time multiplayer on a mobile device like the iPhone, it’s hard to expect perfection. For what it is the online matchmaking in KOF-i 2012 is really fun for people who get tired of fighting against the CPU all the time. With the right expectations, it really is a killer feature of the new game.

So, with a large portion of The King of Fighters-i 2012 being nearly identical to last year’s release, whether or not you should buy this new edition will hinge on how important new characters and online play is to you. With a whopping 12 new fighters added to the roster, I think it’s worth upgrading just for that, and people in our forums are totally digging the new version too. Along with a decent online offering and KOF-i 12 is likely a worthy upgrade for fans of iOS fighters. One thing is for sure though, Street Fighter IV Volt now has some serious competition, and it looks like the future is pretty bright for fighting games on the App Store.

TouchArcade Rating:

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Contre Jour [99¢] and its Universal HD brother, Contre Jour HD [$2.99], has always been a looker, but it’s now even more impressive on new iPad. Thanks to a late (but welcome) retina update, the HD version puzzle game is fully embracing Apple’s new high pixel density screen. As you’ll see below, this version is sharper and crisper and cleaner than it ever has been, which is saying something since it looked great pre-update anyway.

No update for a puzzle game is complete without new levels. A brand new jungle-themed chapter has been added to both versions of the game, ushering in some twists on the game’s pre-existing moveable tentacle and platform mechanics. Also, a new “bonus” ending has been added for those who can collect the game’s (now) 300 lights. Sounds like you’ve got some work to do, guys.

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Riverman Media is making good on its promise of content updates to its bizarre side-scrolling action game, Pizza vs. Skeletons [99¢, Free]. A complete chapter, filled with a total of ten new missions, was added this morning alongside a festive topping and even some new iPad tweaks, which ratchet up the game’s visuals for users with Apple’s new tablet.

The selection of content present in these new levels is dizzying. In the first, you’ll be flying a WWII-era biplane. Later, you’ll fight skeleton rabbits in an arena, destroy a cloud city, bowl through skeletal cricket players, and fight a boss on a suspension bridge who uses new “gust” ability.

In celebration of all this new content, Riverman has slashed the price of PVS. Through this weekend, you’ll be able to grab it at 99¢ instead of its usual $1.99. It’s a steal at this price, and all of these skeletal rabbits aren’t going to kill themselves, so consider acting on our glowing recommendation.

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If you rewind the App Store clocks to around a month and a half ago, there was absolutely nothing out there hotter than Draw Something [$1.99 / Free ]. OMGPOP went from some Flash portal social game company I’d never heard of to releasing a game that even the most extreme non-gamer type friends of mine were relentlessly harassing me to take my turn. Draw Something’s popularity was so explosive, that I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s mentioned in several GDC talks this year as other developers try to divine the secret sauce that caused the game to go so incredibly viral.

What almost instantly followed the success of Draw Something was $210m acquisition by Zynga, spawning all sorts of entirely too predictable Zynga hated across the internet. You’d think that the might of the Zynga empire backing the game would only cause its popularity to grow, but Develop did some digging into some figures published by AppData, who believe that Draw Something’s popularity is in a steady decline, already losing five million daily active users.

Even after this decline, I’m not sure you’ll find too many game developers out there that’d complain about retaining ten million daily active users. What about you guys? Are you still playing Draw Something? Did you delete it after the Zynga purchase? If you’re still playing it, do you notice as many of your friends still at it?

[Develop via VG24/7]

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Ah. Werewolves. One of the three components in the holy Hollywood trinity of monsters. They ordinarily come in two flavors: loud, ravenous and incapable of anything but wanton violence… or dark-eyed eye candy. The transmogrification-happy lupine of MacGuffin’s Curse [$3.99 / Free ], however, is neither of those.

Indie development studio Brawsome has MacGuffin’s Curse billed as a ‘comedy puzzle-adventure’, an appropriate description if there ever was one. Operating from a top-down perspective, MacGuffin’s Curse is rife with all the switch-flipping, block-moving, barrier-removing goodness that is standard of the genre and the silliness of a Terry Pratchett novel. Here, you play as the charming Lucas MacGuffin, a red-haired thief who dwells in a considerable destitution with his young child and elderly mother. He has something to say about pretty much anything and everyone, a peculiarity that may either have you rolling your eyes within the first ten minutes or chuckling away in appreciation. Take your pick. Either is applicable.

The game opens with Lucas on his latest heist. In order to pay the rent, you’re going to have to retrieve a certain amulet from the extremely lightly-guarded depths of the local museum. As you might have guessed already, one thing leads to another and you eventually find yourself bound to the cursed jewelry and gifted with the ability to transform into a powerful, red-maned werewolf whenever you choose to. No, I don’t know how this really is a curse either.

This, of course, is one of the game’s primary gimmicks. Each of your two forms has a different set of abilities and limitations. As a human, you’re capable of doing delicate things like operating doors and squeezing through windows. As a werewolf, you’ll be able to manhandle safes, blocks, enormous battery packs and dig for buried treasure. Most, if not all, of the puzzles will require you to make use of your dual set of talents.

Speaking of the puzzles, let me reassure those who have played through the lite version of one thing: they do get harder. While the game’s collection of mind-benders don’t really deviate from the standard ‘push this block here, activate that switch there’ formula, there is enough variety in the mix to keep you playing (even if you have to do it in chunks). I’m especially fond of one of the earlier ‘boss’ battles. Instead of doing the standard werewolf act where you charge headlong into your enemies and rip their hearts out, MacGuffin’s Curse will have you maneuvering from room to room as you attempt to close the distance by circumnavigating your enemy’s attempt to stall you.

Though best played by those who enjoy the idea of a combat-free Zelda, MacGuffin’s Curse is still something I would recommend to those who don’t. Well, if you enjoy the whole comedic narrative thing, at any rate. It’s true that MacGuffin’s Curse tries just a little too hard (it doesn’t so much nudge you in the ribs as it does grind them into a paste with its hypothetical elbow) but it does have heart. You see it in the details – in the way the comments change depending on the kind of skin you’re wearing, in the over-the-top characters, in how the game lets you slowly build up a half-decent apartment for Lucas’s family and the details of the setting. There’s a fair amount of side quests for you to indulge in as well, something that helps flesh out the Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere-esque undertones of the world that Brawsome constructed.

The only thing that I didn’t really like about McGuffin’s Curse is, perhaps, the controls. In order to move, you touch a finger on the screen and drag it in the direction you want Lucas to go. In order to push or pull blocks, you’ll have to use two fingers instead. Now, there’s nothing wrong with this and, for the most part, it works out decently well. Nonetheless, because of positioning, you sometimes find your fingertips blocking out vision, a phenomenon that makes me pine a little for a virtual d-pad.

Is MacGuffin’s Curse worth purchasing? Yes. Definitely. It may not extract the ‘Oh, god! This is ingenious!’ sort of reaction with its puzzles, but the relentless humor, intriguing setting, adequately-designed puzzles and faint Tim Burton vibe will make it a delicious addition to anyone’s collection of crate-puzzles.

TouchArcade Rating:

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