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Blanket statements are usually reserved for the uninformed, but I can safely say that I haven't liked a single boxing game in the App Store up to this point. Some of them have admirable qualities, but the vast majority either make me long for Super Punch Out or Fight Night on the PS3. It turns out that all I was waiting for was EA's masterful Fight Night Champion [$4.99].

What makes Fight Night Champion so satisfying is that it never strays too far from its console roots, but at the same time does a great job embracing the touch screen technology for combat and the accelerometer for movement. Like the console, the control system in Fight Night Champion works by splitting the control system into quadrants. Where on the console you pop the stick up to do a high jab, here you just have to tap the upper half of the screen. The same goes for the low right hook, where all you have to do is swipe from right to left on the lower half of the screen. Every punch, grab, and hold, from the simple bob-and-weave to each boxers signature punch is done via easy to follow gesture controls, and once you get a round or two in you'll be ready to punch with the big boys.

In addition to the slick fighting, Fight Night Champion comes loaded with 20 boxing legends, from Mohammed Ali to Manny Pacquiao, and also lets you create your own boxing fantasy in the Legacy Mode. I don't know about you, but taking down the amateur hour fighters in record speed with my ripped heavyweight doppelganger sporting American flag shoes ranks right up there with fried PBJ's and Thin Mint cookies. Hop on a multiplayer match over bluetooth or local WiFi and you'll find yourself in iOS gaming bliss… which I guess would taste something like an A1 Thick 'n Hearty Burger.

As killer as the game is though, there's always room for improvement. My first complaint (and this seems to be echoed frequently in the forum) is that the parrying system is unnecessarily hard. I've nailed a few counters in my play, but my fights tend to become brawls with very little blocking (not that I play any different on the console version). I would also love to see the Legacy Mode flushed out a bit with some interactive training sessions and maybe a cutscene or two, or perhaps a pre-fight Rocky montage to really pump me up.

The bottom line is that if you are a boxing fan, and especially a Fight Night fan, Fight Night Champion is a must have app. The controls are outstanding, the boxer selection will please any boxing fan, and the ability to create your own boxer and start your own career is gold. If you ever find me in a restaurant or airport and want to take me on in a bluetooth match, you're on. As Drago would say, "I must break you."

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During GDC this week, I met with developer Booyah! to check out their upcoming game Nightclub City DJ Rivals. DJ Rivals is a hodgepodge of many different gaming ideas, but essentially it boils down to a rhythm-based game with RPG elements. Booyah! has previously brought the casual social game MyTown [Free] to iOS and are responsible for the mega popular Nightclub City game on Facebook, which DJ Rivals is loosely associated with.

Typically, I’m not really a fan of casual social games or Facebook gaming in general, so it would be very easy to dismiss DJ Rivals because of that. But one of the great things about an event like GDC is that I was able to sit down face to face with Booyah! and actually try out the game myself, and was really surprised by how much I enjoyed it.

In DJ Rivals you will choose locations throughout a city to partake in rhythm-based battles against rival DJs. These locations can be culled from Google Maps information and will actually populate the buildings in the city with the actual locations, which I thought was a fun touch.

Each location will have drone DJs which you can battle to level up your character and earn money. You can then purchase a ton of different items like new DJ tables, clothing items, and special moves. You can also become the “House DJ” at a location by continually winning battles there, much in the same way you become the “Mayor” of a place on Foursquare. Other players can then challenge you for House DJ and will battle a ghost of your character that contains all the stats and moves you’ve accumulated, and you can battle and take over House DJ status from other players as well.

The actual battle mechanics are quite fun in DJ Rivals. You will unlock 50 moves over the course of the roughly 30 quest storyline, and can equip 3 of these moves at a time. Choosing a move will trigger a rhythm-based sequence where you tap to the beat on two lanes of notes and scratch a record when prompted. How well you do during this sequence determines the damage you will deal for that particular turn in the battle. This continues until you or your opponent’s life bar is depleted.

With all the different elements in Nightclub City DJ Rivals, there should be plenty to do for people who enjoy leveling up and building a character, collecting tons of items, and playing rhythm-based battle sequences. I really liked being able to import real life locations from anywhere in the world into the game, and thought the battling mechanics were really fun.

While I might normally have glossed over DJ Rivals as just another casual social game, after actually playing it I’m actually looking forward to putting some time into it when it launches next week on March 10th.

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So, earlier at GDC in San Francisco I went hands-on with an upcoming puzzle title called Daddy’s Dojo. Don’t read into that playful, unconventional name — it offers more depth than you’d figure, but also offers the ease of play that it should.

In a nutshell, Daddy’s Dojo is about moving pegs to their appropriate holes. The catch is that each space a peg has previously occupied becomes a space that can no longer be used by future pegs within the same level. And as the progression ramps up, more unusual obstacles will meet you: elemental pegs that can only travel and land in certain places and also arrows that allow you to teleport across the board.

So, yeah, it’s a traditional type of puzzle game. Here’s a video of it in action starring the sultry tones of one of the developers who showed it off to me. You’ll get a better sense of the game when you check this out:

A couple of things to note: the target release date is April and the team plans to throw it out on the App Store for a penny shy of a dollar. An HD version is in the works too, and while it’ll cost a bit more, it’ll also offer some different content on top of the iPod touch and iPhone stuff you see above.

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I’m not a huge fan of posting about proof of concept demos. Games evolve during the design phase, and mechanics, whether promising or not, tend to disappear. But I have to share what I saw earlier last afternoon, an ambitious puzzle / adventure game dubbed MacGuffin’s Curse. It smells like the kind of game I’ll be able to dig for long stretches, and it definitely has a fun art style.

The concept art I’ll share below, unfortunately, won't give you a taste of the action. But in a nutshell, MacGuffin's Curse is a top-down puzzle game in which you’ll be tasked with moving a special object within the confines of a singular, locked room. Think: older puzzle games. In this specific case, though, you’ll be moving around batteries as one of two different characters: a man and his werewolf alter ego — the dynamic here is a weak, cunning character versus a strength-based avatar. You'll be able to switch to the wolf when the sun goes down.

What I saw this afternoon was early, so nothing really feels “confirmed” to me, but the devs, Brawsome, told me that the game would support a rich hint system and over 150 rooms to figure out, and that includes side-missions. Look for the game later this October at a premium-ish price point on the iPad.

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Earlier this morning we caught up with Graeme Devine at GDC. Recognize the name? He was a co-founder of Trilobyte and had a huge hand in the original The 7th Guest [$2.99 / HD], The 11th Hour and worked on other games like RTS Halo Wars and FPS Doom 3. Our conversation was all over the place — we talked a bit about native design for the iOS, subscription models, his departure from Apple, and even a little bit about his future as an iOS developer.

Devine has two projects in the works with his daughter. He left Apple to work with his family, and you’ve seen the fruits of that partnership in the form of his card game, Full Deck Solitaire [Free] for the Mac App Store. The two are currently throwing around ideas for an item shop game. It’s early, so there’s a chance this specific project might never see the light of day, but we’ll definitely keep our ears and eyes open for more details as production progresses.

We think Devine's overall story is pretty interesting. Dude built his reputation on "core" type of games, but here he is now, working on family-friendly casual titles with his family. Very cool stuff, and, obviously, we're excited to see what's next.

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This week at GDC we had a chance to sit down with Gamevil to have a look at what's in their pipeline — and pipeline chock-full of games it is. The Korean studio has been quite busy of late, and this year they expect to release more than twice as many iOS titles as they did last year. Gamevil, who caters to both the featurephone and smartphone markets, has restructured to enhance their focus on the latter. And, while they have so far strongly established themselves as an RPG maker, in 2011 all types of games will be landing in the App Store, as evidenced by the titles they shared with us here at GDC.

Zenonia 3

The third member of the popular Zenonia RPG series, Zenonia 3 brings notable enhancements along with a new story to play through.

The story goes like this: The world of Zenonia was divided into the Heavenly Realm and the Earth Realm until a war between the Divine Tribe and the Devil Tribe caused the creation of the Midgard Realm. The main character of the original Zenonia, Regret, appears to his son, Chael, the hero of this story. Chael, shortly thereafter while walking in a wood with his fairy friend Runa, disappears into the mysterious Midgard Realm. Your goal, as Chael, is to help the Divine Tribe get back to the Heavenly Realm and return yourself to Earth.

Fans of the earlier versions of the game will appreciate the dramatically improved, razor-sharp Retina graphics and lovely onscreen animation.

Chalk n' Talk

Chalk n' Talk is a multiplayer draw-and-guess game something akin to Charadium, but with the addition of social dating elements. The game allows up to four online players at once to join a room and participate in a game of drawing a scene and trying to guess what it is.

Seeds and flowers are given to players that solve the puzzle, which represent the game's basic currency. By default, the canvas is represented as a chalkboard, but other backdrops can be acquired, both by spending virtual currency as well as via in-app purchase, to mix up the look and the finished drawings can be shared and liked by others. (Some of the existing works I was shown were pretty impressive!)

Players setup Gamevil live profiles that track their progress and allow groups of friends to connect. The profiles contain a self-photo which others can see and, if interested, reach out, send virtual gifts, request a game session, etc. It's a social mechanic that's proven quite popular in the original, Korean version of the game.

Chalk n' Talk will be submitted to the App Store this week and launch in Canada and various countries abroad around the 20th of this month.

Skipping Stone

The original Skipping Stone was apparently the first "one button" game for mobile phones and was IGN game of the year in 2005. The game is basically a simple timing / rhythm title where you to skip a stone across a scrolling field of water as far as possible by timing your taps to the the leaps of the stone. A tap precisely when the stone hits the water keeps the next leap at the same height, while missed taps result in smaller and smaller leaps until your stone sinks. Along the way, dolphins and such may jump out of the water to give your stone a helping nudge upwards.

Skipping Stone will be submitted to the App Store in late March or early April and will be available for both $.99 and free, with ads. (See gameplay in the video, below.)

Mr. Penguin

A simple, pick-up-and-play title, Mr. Penguin (tentative title) is an entirely tilt-controlled game where your goal is to help a cute little penguin make his way along the vertically scrolling field of snow and floating slabs of ice. On the snow, it's an exercise in dodging obstacles as you slide along through the snow, while on the floating ice you must use delicate timing and tilt skills to bounce your penguin from slab to slab and on the backs of turtles, without falling in — all while avoiding the sharks.

Game Center and Facebook integration drive your progress along the way. (See a gameplay sample at the end of the video above.)

Soccer Superstars 2011

Gamevil is following up last year's Soccer Superstars with the new Soccer Superstars 2011, an evolved installment of the title featuring a significantly upgraded game engine with much more advanced player AI. The game allows players to select team countries like the original, with the added ability to choose from among a roster of (fictional) club teams. The title is graphically similar to last year's release and maintains its special players and special shots, while bringing with it most of the peripheral features of the Baseball Superstars series.

Soccer Superstars 2011 will be submitted to the App Store in late March or early April.

Kami Retro

We've just had the opportunity for a bit of hands-on time with the amazing looking Kami Retro, developed by Paw Print Games. The game is a platform puzzler that combines elements from Jet Set Willy, Rainbow Island, Mario, and Lemmings.

Gameplay involves flick-guiding a series of "Kami's" from start point to end point across colorful 2.5D, blocky retro playscreens. There are five stages with 13 levels each — 65 screens in all. In addition to fixed platforms, the task at hand involves positioning movable platforms, utilizing upward-blowing fans, and the like. Game Center integration keeps the gameplay competitive.

Ever since we first got word of this one, we've been eagerly awaiting its arrival — and the wait is almost over. Kami Retro is set to launch on March 10th.

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We've got some seriously good news from GDC 2011 for our retro game-loving readers out there. A pile of Bitmap Brothers Amiga classics are on the way to iOS from two different developers.

This morning we spoke with KavCom games who demonstrated an iOS version of Z, a real-time strategy game that was originally released in 1996. The game consists of two armies of robots battling for control of a series of planets. We captured a bit gameplay video of a pre-release build on both the iPhone and iPad. The video won't mean much to those unfamiliar of the series, but should show existing fans a taste of the upcoming iOS version.

Z was highly rated and very popular game during its time. We'll have more information and screenshots about the game shortly.

And, if that's not enough…this afternoon we met with John Hare of Tower Games who developed the iOS port of the recently released Bitmap Brothers cybersports classic Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe. Among other titles (which we will detail shortly), Tower Games is planning to bring a many other Bitmap Brothers classics over to iOS, including Xenon 2 Megablast, Gods, The Chaos Engine, and Magic Pockets.

Hare was also associated with Sensible Software, creators of the Sensible Soccer series. He indicates that Tower will be bringing forth a soccer title that utilizes the Speedball 2 engine.

There is no specific timeline for these coming, at present.

This is outstanding news for both retro fans as well as iOS gamers that never had a chance to experience these landmark titles. We'll bring more news on all of this as we hear it.

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Many of you should be familiar with SuperMono Studios from their wildly popular MiniSquadron [99¢/Lite] games and most recently from their RPG experience bar-laden to-do app EpicWin [$2.99]. We liked EpicWin when it was released, but that was way back in August of 2010, and you may be wondering what the two man SuperMono development team comprised of Tak Fung and Dave Ferner have been up to since then.

Well, basically they have a couple of new games in the works, but for the past 7+ months they have been carefully crafting themselves a high end engine to use for these games. There is all sorts of technical wizardry going on in this built-from-the-ground-up engine, but in terms that even a laymen like myself can understand, and in SuperMono’s very own words, it “makes everything look completely rad”. Have a look at the trailer for the tech demo that shows off the nifty effects of the engine:

For those who understand technical jargon, this engine uses something called deferred rendering which allows for up to twenty dynamic colored lights to be in motion at once, complete with bloom and reflection effects, and run really smoothly the entire time. In many ways, this is SuperMono’s way of saying “we don’t need no stinking Unreal Engine” and prove that they can do advanced graphical effects on their own.

The video of this tech demo doesn’t really do it justice, and in person it’s really impressive. As such, SuperMono is considering releasing this demo for free on the App Store for people to check out and toy around with. You can swipe around to change the view of the car or turn on and off the various effects, and it’s actually pretty cool.

Eventually this engine will be put to use in a new racing game, which despite the street racing style of the demo will be really unlike most typical racers. Also, a MiniSquadron 2 will be coming sometime down the road, using this advanced engine for 3D graphics while retaining the same 2D gameplay. We’ll have more on these SuperMono developments as work continues on them.

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It’s not often that I hear about a game and feel the insatiable urge to play it that very second. Even the most heavily hyped games can be put aside for things like food and sleep, but Kairosoft isn’t your average app developer. Their first app, Game Dev Story [$3.99 / Lite], not only sucked the life out of me, but caused me to lose three pounds after not eating for a good day/ day and a half. I lived Game Dev Story. I breathed the fiery air of creativity. It was a taste of something wonderful. (Read our review if you don't believe me.)

Instead of pumping out a sequel using their tried and true formula though, Kairosoft felt that a little change was in order. They decided that instead of creating a new game development sim, they would jump way across the zen garden and create Hot Springs Story [$3.99], a full on sim in the realm of Sim City. Gone are the zany people that you could hire and fire; the people are now just customers that come and go at will.

My road down nostalgia lane isn’t precluding a bad game though, as Hot Springs Story is quite possibly the most soul sucking game (in the best way possible) that I’ve played since… Game Dev Story. Like a typical building sim, Hot Springs Story lets you build “rooms” in a new, up in coming spa. You build rooms to sleep in, spas to steam in, little restaurants to eat in, Panchinko rooms to gamble away all your money, etc. Being a Japanese style spa though, the challenge of the game comes with creating a zen-like environment for your customers. Certain items will get boosts when placed next to certain items, while others items need to be placed next to natural rocks and pretty plants to succeed. Try to get cutesy and western with blocks of this and globs of that though and you’ll create yourself a hot springs disaster. Don’t you dare ruin it for the locals.

What makes a Kairosoft game really great, aside from consistently solid game mechanics, is their ability to make a gluttony of options seem accessible. In addition to just building your zen paradise, it’s up to you to buy add on booster items for different rooms, buy new rooms altogether, invest in different companies around the city for various reasons, advertise to different target groups, and submit to different magazines for spa rankings. Winning first place in the hot springs magazine isn’t quite as awesome as having the creepy bear mascot from the trade show in Game Dev Story, but the larger than life trophy you get is a nice prize indeed.

While fans (and superfans… there are plenty in our forum) of Game Dev Story will undoubtedly be thrilled with Hot Springs Story, newbies to the land of Kairosoft will probably cringe a bit at the less than perfect graphics and the initial chaotic nature of the action. There’s a lot going on at once, and until you really get the hang of what everything does it can seem daunting. Stick with it though and you’ll definitely be rewarded with some of the best gameplay in the App Store. Just think of Kairosoft as that band that was tough to grasp but eventually rewarded you with some kind of religious experience. You’ll thank me later.

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Yesterday morning before the keynote I met with our friends at Firemint who were excited to discuss their upcoming game, Agent Squeak which was announced earlier this week. We mentioned the premise before, but you play as a mouse who collects cheese and must make it to his mouse hole on each level. Gameplay hinges on a really clever and fun stealth/avoidance mechanic where you control the mouse using your finger to draw his path.

Obstacles not only include a wide variety of objects that you need to avoid, but also an array of cats who want to eat you. The time I was able to spend with the game was somewhat limited, but it was really clever how Firemint combined both a stealth and avoidance mechanic with their familiar line drawing control method that was perfected in Flight Control. They weren't willing to let me shoot any video or provide any screenshots just yet, but I got a look at an early cut of an upcoming trailer that showed an amazing amount of variety later in the game.

On the subject of Real Racing 2 HD, the inevitable upcoming iPad version of Real Racing 2, Firemint assured me it was still coming and the extra development time has been spent on truly optimizing the game for the iPad hardware. Also, yesterday's announcement of the iPad 2 threw an interesting wrinkle into RR2 HD's development that Firemint explained they were already anticipating:

While we were not aware of the specs for iPad 2 before the keynote, we made some educated guesses about where we thought the hardware might head, so for many months now we have been developing a much more graphically intensive version of Real Racing 2 HD to take advantage of the anticipated performance improvements. Real Racing 2 HD has been significantly enhanced beyond what could work on existing devices, and our efforts have definitely given us a head start on iPad 2.

We're excited to see what's coming from Firemint, and I can't wait to post the inevitable Agent Squeak trailer. Will it be the next Angry Birds? It's hard to say, but it's hard to argue the fact that Firemint has had an amazing lineup of games on the App Store.

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