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Earlier this July, League of Evil [Free] creator Ravenous Games bumped the price of League of Evil back to its normal-ish tag of $1.99. The studio has once again fiddled with the price, though I’d imagine the new one won’t be the cause of too many e-groans. For the next 24 hours the game is $0. Free, guys! Free!

For those of you not in the know, League of Evil is the App Store’s rough equivalent of Team Meat’s imaginative, but sadistic action platform game Super Meat Boy. Boasting tons of levels, an fantastic lo-fi presentation, and a lot of challenge, League of Evil was an easy recommendation for us to make. At this price, it’s sorta a steal.

We contacted Ravenous on the Twitters to hear exactly why it decided to cut the cost of the game. I mean, who knows? Ravenous could be celebrating a staffers’ birthday over there and if so, we want in on the back-slapping and cake. In the meanwhile, though, I guess we'll accept the free game.

UPDATE: Shucks, looks like it's just a chart move. "We are just looking to get some more exposure," Ravenous told me via Twitter. "Indies are getting buried when lacking marketing even though the game is good!"

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A huge update for Kard Combat [Free] wormed its way through Apple certification today and is now available for all owners of the premium version of the delicious card game. The tentpole addition is the four new mages: Demon, Chaos, Deception, and Arcane. Each deck adds a special a slew of special spells and new cards to use, and each is free for owners of the game. Two new modes of play, Challenge and time multiplayer, have been added as well, shoring up a suite of options that were already pretty satisfying to the player base. The former mode, by the way, is a basic riff on the Tower, while the latter should make for some much, much quicker online battles.

An update wouldn’t be an update without fixes and tweaks, right? New visuals, new sound, and new animations have been added in addition to multiplayer slot, mana counter, and several other bug fixes. Also, you’ll now be able to switch the difficulty of the game mid-campaign instead of having to start over.

If you bothered with the full game unlock for $9.99, all of this will be free as soon as you grab the update. For others, these decks and modes are available via IAP, much like several other options in the game.

We dug Kard Combat in our initial look and that review still stands. In brief, it’s a flawed game with personality and depth that make up for its weak spots. Updates like these certainly make for a stronger offering.

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We’ve been hearing for a while that a mobile version of Battlefield 3 will launch alongside the PC and console releases later this fall. While we still don’t have confirmation on that, we at least have some additional confirmation that Battlefield 3 is coming to iOS. EA confirmed this to Pocket Gamer, though left any other meaningful details out for the time being.

If Bad Company 2 for mobile [$2.99 / Free] was a solid indication of future direction for the mobile versions of DICE’s shooters, chances are BF3 for mobile will follow the events of its source material. BF3 proper is set in Iraq during 2014, just as an earthquake ravages the region. It follows the story of Henry ‘Black’ Blackburn and his five-man squad deployed in the region at the time of the quake.

In other EA upcoming game news, Bullfrog’s ridiculously good PC theme park simulation game, Theme Park, is also set for a release on iOS. No details have been offered quite yet, but I don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility that this will just a straight-up port of the cutesy task manager.

We’ll give you more on these just as soon as we can.

[Via Pocket Gamer]

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Emberwind [$0.99 / HD] is a delightful 2d action adventure side-scrolling platformer with fantasy themes, published by Chillingo and ported to IOS by Innogiant. It was originally released on PC / Mac by TimeTrap, waaay back around 1996.  Thats …umm… about fifteen years ago. And yet, it's still a wonderful game to play today, on our fancy new hi-tech iOS touch screens.

This platform game has a fantasy storyline.  The city of Grendale has been besieged by gremlins led by the demon war-lord, CandleFinger. And the King has suddenly gone missing. As the local watchman, 'Kindle' the heroic fire-gnome bravely sets out to investigate. He rides into each level on a giant white snow-owl, called 'Wick'. His adventures unfold through cut-scenes and in-game dialog with the characters he meets as you unlock  the world map. While there's a storyline, you can still replay levels for better scores, or just for pleasure.

The game involves running, jumping, collecting acorns and diamonds for points, and collecting food for health – all as you'd expect from a platform game – but you also mash the attack button to fight nasty gremlins with your 'Cane of Justice'.  When confronted by a particularly large mob of gremlins, the button mashing sometimes feels excessive, as they require multiple hits to dispatch, but if you chain together several hits in a row, you'll earn a power burst which blows them all away. Problem solved!

As you progress you gain additional attacks and abilities, like bowling over enemies with a dashing death-roll. Little creatures named "brownies" can be found who gift you special-attacks, like shooting fireballs from your cane, which is rather handy. I've seen some comments online that the game is too long and that the gremlin fighting eventually becomes repetitive, but I'm still enjoying it and there's boss-fights and levels where you fly around on Wick, to spice things up.

There's heaps to explore, with locations underground, indoors, underwater, on sailing boats and even amongst the clouds. You can roam quite freely and there's more than one route through most levels. Houses can be found and rescuing the villagers inside from house-squatting gremlins earns extra points.  If you look hard enough, you'll find hidden areas and treasure chests, perhaps even some golden apples. Three small fireflies follow you on your travels and glow when secrets are nearby, so it pays to keep an eye on them.

This game has many nice touches to enjoy.  If you ignite the fireplace inside a house, smoke pours out the chimney when you return outdoors. Also, animations occur on the world map to tie in with the story being told. If you ignite a streetlight, it kills any gremlins nearby and becomes your re-spawn point if you die, so you don't need to re-start from the beginning each time. Once a level is completed, Kindle must return to Wick, the big white bird, to soar off to the next level, although if you're lucky you might stumble upon a short-cut back to the start.

Emberwind really feels like an epic fantasy adventure, with layered backgrounds, a suitably dramatic music score, and gameplay which can be downright challenging; there's always something going on.  It may have originated over 15 years ago, but it doesn't feel dated. In fact, Emberwind compares favorably against most modern platform games, so I'm surprised it hasn't received more attention. It looks, sounds and plays great on my iPad, so although some iOS ports are not particularly successful, this old platformer from the last millennium has definitely still got it.

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It's pretty rare to see an iOS strategy game that not only has a captivating story, sound gameplay mechanics, and challenging difficulty, but also manages to accomplish all this while not being a tower defense derivative. Companions [$4.99 / Lite] manages to achieve all this and more, and leads to a great experience for those iPad owners looking to try out a real strategy game.

Companions offers two game modes: a quick play 'Single Map' mode that has you pick from a set of maps and jump right into the fray, and a campaign mode, which is where the vast majority of content lies. The campaign mode is a fixed story that follows your adventurous group as they take on hordes of enemies while trying to save the world. I actually found the underlying campaign story compelling, as the game’s writing does a great job explaining why each of your individual teammates ends up in this fight against evil. Also, it's refreshing to see each party member actually have a personality and want to accomplish the end goal for their own personal reasons.

Companions controls almost like an RTS — players tap on individual team members and then tap on the enemies you want to attack. In addition to this simple attack mechanism, each party member also has special skills that are activated manually and are on a cool down. There are no auto-abilities, and your characters will not attack unless they are in range of the enemies (and facing the right direction). This requires you to constantly stay on top of the action, as a lapse in attention could mean the death of one of your four companions, which ends the game. Since death can happen quite suddenly, I would suggest quick saving as much as possible (although the game does auto-save at certain events). It’s important to note that while the game can be difficult, it is certainly not cheap – good planning and management of your party almost always leads to certain victory.

One of the things that I think Companions absolutely nails is the variety of classes you can have on your team. When you start a game, the races of your four team members are always static (Minotaur, Elf, Human, and Dwarf). However, within each race are three different classes that not only bestow different physical stats, but also have different skill sets as well. While all the classes for each race follow an overall theme, each class can result in drastically different play styles. The variety in each class affects not only the way each adventurer plays, but how they interact with the group as a whole. It's a very well done system.

Companions also includes a comprehensive inventory system with (mostly) randomized drops, as well as an experience/leveling structure. This all leads to a higher likelihood of you wanting to start a new game to see how different classes interact with each other. The only thing I really wish the game incorporated was some kind of currency or item shop, as you’re going to be finding a lot of equipment, and it just seems a shame that you’re going to leave the vast majority of it on the ground since there’s nothing you can do with it.

Gamers that have never played a deep strategy game or those that may be hesitant to try a title that is actually challenging need not worry — Companions features a somewhat comprehensive tutorial that does a good job explaining the general controls as well as providing a broad overview of each of the races and potential classes. While I thought the tutorial was well-done and should be mandatory for anyone just starting out, I did find it a little odd that the tutorial culminated with a survival-esque battle against monsters in which the player can never win. I imagine that it could possibly demotivate those newcomers looking to learn the mechanics. Then again, folks like that probably shouldn't be playing a game like this.

As evidenced above, it's pretty obvious that in order to survive in Companions decent micromanagement skills are almost necessary. That's why it's somewhat disappointing that the controls aren't quite as responsive as I would like. I found myself on multiple occasions trying to tap a particular character and not having it register. Also, while I am thankful for the group formation and party-wide controls, I wish I could have the option to only select part of my group, rather than the current "one or all" scheme. Admittedly, the 'tactical pause' (an in-game pause that allows you to stop the action while you plan things out, but only for a limited amount of time) does a good job of alleviating most of the control issues, making these concerns not as big an issue as they may be in other titles. You can check out this developer video for an explanation of how the tactical pause works.

Despite these minor complaints, I found Companions to be an enjoyable experience, and one that does the adventure strategy genre proud.  Furthermore, the developer has been quite active in our forums, addressing concerns and implementing bug fixes and suggestions on a regular basis. If you’re looking for a good strategy adventure with some real depth, look no further and take the plunge into Companions.

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Just last week, we were filling your juicy brains with the knowledge that Kairosoft, the preeminent developer of cutesy mobile simulation titles including the highly lauded Game Dev Story [$3.99/Lite], was getting ready to release their latest title on US soil. We were fairly certain that his next title would be Mega Mall Story, as we spotted a banner for the game on their official website. And in fact, as of right now, our suspicions have been confirmed, as Mega Mall Story [$3.99] is now readily available in the US App Store.

Gameplay appears somewhat similar to the popular Tiny Tower [Free] where you are tasked with populating a fledgling mall building with various stores, staffing them up with qualified employees, and creating a successful and profitable mega complex of commerce where everybody wants to go to shop.

We'll of course be putting Mega Mall Story through its paces over the next few days, and will bring you a full review with our verdict. But, as is the case with any Kairosoft release, there are enough of you out there that have absolutely no problem picking up one of their new games sight unseen, and we totally support this reckless style of game purchasing by providing the App Store link for you below.

If you need some more input on what the game is like before our review, however, swing by the forum thread where our members are leaving their early impressions.

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Trainyard [$.99 / Free]creator Matt Rix is working on a new update to Trainyard. Over the weekend, Rix was posting images of an upcoming level editor that will be included in an update dubbed the “Engineer Update.” From the images we’ve seen so far, we can tell that you’ll be able to create and share your own user-created puzzles, as well as download others’ creations. It appears as if there will also be some sort of ratings feature, too, as a promotional “Features” button figures prominently on this piece of UI in particular.

You could already share your Trainyard experience from the get-go by uploading videos to the game’s official Web site. This, I suppose, is sort of a natural evolution of that side of the puzzle game’s experience. In our review in particular, we lauded this additional element, but sadly, we haven’t seen many games attempt to do the same thing.

Trainyard, by the way, is a wicked awesome game. If you’re in the mood for a laid-back puzzle title, check it out. We don’t think you’ll leave disappointed.

[Via @MattRix]

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If you're not familiar with Venan Entertainment's Space Miner [$2.99], let me get you up to speed. In a nutshell, the game is incredible. So incredible in fact that it was our 2010 iPhone Game of the Year. It's an awesome modern spin on the Asteroids formula with light RPG elements, a lovable game world, and upgrades out the wazoo for your ship. Additional difficulty modes (including a super-difficult perma-death mode) add a silly amount of replay value, making Space Miner one of the few iOS titles I've ever replayed from start to finish multiple times across multiple difficulties. In other words, you need to check it out.

This weekend Venan released the game design document for the game, and while it doesn't really reveal anything new or exciting that we already didn't know, it's really cool to take a look at what was the foundation for one of our favorite iOS games. It's also totally worth a read if you're an indie developer, as a solid game design document like this can really ease development as it serves as such a fantastic reference point to keep everyone on the same page throughout the pre-release life of the game.

We're still torn up over Venan announcing that a Space Miner sequel was being shelved, but we've got our collective fingers crossed they eventually pick the franchise up again.

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Late last month, we detailed an impending update to CAVE’s bullet hell shmup Deathsmiles [$11.99/Lite], and over the weekend that update went live in the App Store. It includes a screen shifting option to give you more room to control the game on either edge of the screen, unlockable costumes for Tiara in iPhone mode, brand new background music hidden in the game, and a number of new DLC items including weapons from past CAVE shooters Guwange and Dodonpachi Resurrection [$11.99/Lite].

You may also remember us mentioning that CAVE was broadcasting a preview of the Deathsmiles update over UStream last Friday, and hinted that there would likely be other surprises in store as well. It turns out that there were a couple of pretty big announcements during the stream.

The first is that CAVE is bringing a version of their Japanese cellphone title Castle Creator to iOS. Castle Creator allows you to build up your own little empire in medieval Japan and then test out its durability in skirmishes against other peoples’ empires. It sounds like there will be social and location-based elements built into the gameplay.

There’s a second game based on Castle Creator coming as well, though currently it’s only going to be for folks in Japan. All we really know about this game is that it will feature slot machine style gameplay, but more details on both of these Castle Creator titles should be coming out this weekend when CAVE holds a press event in Japan.

The second big announcement during CAVE’s live stream was that an iPad specific version of Espgaluda II [$11.99/Lite] is currently in the works. The game will feature enhanced graphics over its iPhone counterpart, and will be tailored towards the extra power of the iPad 2. TouchGen has captured a video from the stream of CAVE showing off the iPad version, though they seemed to have some zooming issues during the demo and it’s hard to tell how drastic the differences will be over a video:

There’s no release window announced for Espgaluda II for the iPad, but we’ll hear more on Castle Creator during the CAVE press event next week, and just maybe they’ll throw us some new nuggets of info for the iPad bound shooter as well. We'll keep you posted.

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This past June at WWDC, we sat down with the folks from Illusion Labs to dish on all things Touchgrind [$4.99] related, and the team revealed to me that their original iOS mega hit would be coming to the Mac App Store this Summer. Illusion Labs showcased a proof-of-concept video in January of 2010 showing Touchgrind being played on a MacBook Pro using the multi-touch trackpad, which led to our speculation that the game would come to the Mac with the announcement of the Mac App Store last October.

It may have taken a while, but Touchgrind has indeed launched in the Mac App Store, and it’s currently completely free. The game controls well with the multi-touch trackpad, though it definitely feels different than the iOS touch screen and does take some getting used to. The view is nice and zoomed out, similar to the iPad version Touchgrind HD [$7.99], which makes it a whole lot easier to tell where you are going while cruising around the skatepark.

If you’re a trackpad-equipped Mac owner, there’s really no reason not to head on over to the Mac App Store and grab Touchgrind while it’s free.

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