TouchArcade.ru

A lot of studios are turning to the casual market to expand their base and diversify portfolios speckled in viscera and splatters of crimson. League of Evil studio Ravenous Games is doing just that with its side-scrolling puzzle game Burger Cat. The result is unique: Ravenous is undoubtedly delivering something that feels like a Ravenous joint, but it’s appropriate for our little ones and game-challenged family members.

It accomplishes this by removing the barrier of entry, while maintaining the vibe and the high-level production we expect from a Ravenous product. In the game, you play as a cat on a quest to find hamburgers. Functionally, this adventures boils down to a bunch of instanced quests where you, as a maestro of landscaping, have to alter the 2D world the cat inhabits in order to get him to a burger. The movement is automatic, but your ability to add and remove blocks of land or introduce an item that changes the way the cat interacts with its world is manual.

For example, in the game’s first level, you’ll need to add a block of land to the corner of a hill so the cat can scramble up the hill as if it were a stairway. In the next, you actually build a similar stairway with three blocks of land, two of which will need to be stacked on top of each other. As the game progresses, you’ll get much more imaginative items: a mouse that re-directs the cat’s attention, a spring that rockets the cat into the air, a pick-axe that removes pieces of the environment, and so on. Actual obstacles that add repercussions, like spinning cogs with blades, are added steadily. The items you’ll receive have a hard cap in each level, and I had the most fun really playing with what I could do with the least amount of stuff, though creating conga lines of items has its simple pleasures, too. In fact, Burger Cat seems to encourage experimentation, as it often gives you way too much.

It’s a different game from the folks who made League of Evil, but it feels similar from a production standpoint. The art is bright and bubbly like the new visuals in League of Evil 2, and the animation work is on par. Music, on the other hand, is exceedingly epic. It almost rewards you before you do anything. Excuse me, but I want my Ode To Joy when I get my hamburger, and not before.

If this looks familiar by the way, it’s because it existed on Flash before. Burger Cat is a new-look port of a WobblyWare title you can play for free right now. In this shot of the original below, take note of how smooth this new iteration looks: no more grids, a less clumsy UI, and less mess in general.

“We updated the graphics to be more cartoony and made some design changes to make another one of our polished iOS releases,” Ravenous told TouchArcade. “The game just felt more suited to touch screen controls and has a lot of potential with the casual market.” And it does play exceedingly better. This game is a breeze to control with your fingers. I’ve zero complaints with what I’ve played so far.

And that’s the thing: we haven’t seen everything Burger Cat has to offer, so stay tuned as we obtain a final build and deliver our final thoughts. My gut says, though, that this is something we’ll be pretty happy with, even though we’re not its market. Look for this to hit April 12 across iPhone and iPad.

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Penny Arcade On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness Episode Three, the long-awaited follow-up by Cthulu Saves The World developer Zeboyd Games, is coming to the iPhone and iPad, according to a recent Joystiq preview. This version will hit this summer alongside the PC, Mac, Xbox Live Indie Games, and Android versions of the game. These guys have all their bases covered, right?

If you’re not in the loop, Episode 3 is a… change of pace. It has the look, and what seems to be the feel, of an old-school RPG. In a chat with Joystiq, Zeboyd said that its major influencers were Final Fantasy V and Grandia, so go figure.

Zeboyd says this will continue the story Hothead Games and Penny Arcade set out to tell before things didn’t pan out, but it’ll also operate as a stand-alone title, which is a great thing for us. I mean, we didn’t even see the previous two games on our tablet and phones of choice.

We’ll definitely keep our eyes on this as it nears release, but you should definitely go read what Joystiq has to say. Episode Three sounds pretty hip.

[via Joystiq]

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As more and more third-party controllers enter the mobile market, the wicked small base that wants something physical in their hands as they play games becomes steadily more fractured. It’s through this lens that we view the latest controller to catch our all-seeing eye, the Bladepad. It’s an NES-like controller with an admittedly cool hook: it’s thin, slide-out design theoretically makes it possible for you to carry around the phone with the controller firmly attached. Other products, including ION’s upcoming PSP-alike shell, obviously don’t embrace portability like this does.

How it works is explained on its web site:

Bladepad’s case fits around your phone and a razor-thin gamepad slides out from beneath the case. The gamepad can also be removed from the case for enhanced mobility and convenience.

No word on when this will be released, or if it’s even actually in some sort of production phase. The page does mention that the company behind Bladepad is actively looking for developers to support the device, so get ready for some weird splintering or a lackluster show of support upon release.

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Late last year Wild Chords [ Free (HD)] knocked my socks off. In a nutshell, it’s an edu-tainment game that utilizes the microphone on the iPad to pick up the chords being played on a guitar. It works great, too. I was more than a little surprised that in a few hours of playing the game I went from never having touched a guitar before to actually being able to play a few (admittedly very basic) tunes.

Piano Dust Buster [ Free (HD)] seems to accomplish the same thing, with two significant differences: Obviously, per the name, the focus is on the piano instead of the guitar. Additionally, the game features a virtual keyboard of sorts, so unlike Wild Chords where you need a guitar to play, you don’t really need a piano to jump into Piano Dust Buster.

I think these music-centric edu-tainment games are seriously just fantastic, and really wish they would’ve been around when I was a kid. I couldn’t even guess how much money my poor parents dumped into sending me to piano lessons when all I wanted to do was slam my head (and heinously under leveled party) against Gurgu Volcano in Final Fantasy. Had there been some piano gamification to be found in the 80’s, well, I could be a world famous concert pianist right now.

Piano Dust Buster is free, and I’m really curious to hear back from anyone out there with young kids and a piano to see how they take to the game.

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I’ve never really been able to figure out what Square Enix’s deal is with the App Store. They go from releasing full iOS-exclusive titles like Chaos Rings [ $12.99 ] to flat-out weird “games” like Voice Fantasy [ $2.99 ] (among other zany titles). The just-released 774 Deaths [ $0.99 ] seems to come from the same “why does this exist” department as Sliding Heroes [ $0.99 ].

Billed as a “murderously difficult action platformer” 774 Deaths, according to Squeenix, is “certain to chew up and spit out even the world’s best gamers.” The format of the game goes a little something like this- You play a pixelated little dude going through rooms filled with locked doors. To progress through the doors, you need to complete the mini-games that each room has to offer you.

So far, I’ve been given the choice of four games, each with the same basic principle of navigating your guy to the end of the level while avoiding what appear to be blood covered blades. Each “game” has a different control method. There’s an auto-runner style game where you tap the screen to jump, a platformer style game with virtual controls, a vertical falling game controlled via tilting, and a similar tilt controlled top-down maze-style game.

None are particularly interesting, and I really can’t quite decide if the game itself is difficult, or if the controls are just terrible. Either way, you beat two of the games inside the room you’re currently in, the next room unlocks, and you repeat the process. Admittedly, I’m stuck on the third room right now, but there hasn’t been much variation to speak of yet. Per the iTunes description, there are 9 rooms in all.

I’m reluctant to call this a “review,” since, as mentioned, I’ve basically reached a stopping point in the game right now. With that being said, I haven’t really found what I have been able to get through to be that enjoyable, and like way too many things that Square farts out on to the App Store, 774 Deaths just has me wondering why an iOS port of Final Fantasy VI doesn’t exist. I’d buy that at a high price. (And I’d even say that in the same tone of voice as the merchant dude in Resident Evil 4.)

For what it’s worth, people in our forums seem to be enjoying 774 Deaths. So, if you’re a glutton for punishment, give it a shot…?

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If you’ve been a PC gamer for the past dozen years or so, and you’re into military-themed strategy games, chances are pretty good you’re familiar with the Combat Mission series. Known for its attention to detail and realism, the Combat Mission series has spanned several titles since the first release in 1999 and has allowed gamers to reenact both real and fictitious battles from throughout history.

Yesterday, series developer Battlefront.com teased an iPad version of Combat Mission on their website. Given the date of the announcement, we were taking the news with an incredibly enormous grain of salt. However, despite the looming possibility of an April Fool’s joke, it turns out that Combat Mission: Touch [$4.99] is a real, actual game, and it’s available in the App Store as we speak.

One of the hallmarks of Combat Mission is the way it handles its turn-based gameplay. It employs the “Wego” system, which basically means that both sides in a battle set up all of their moves at the same time during a planning phase, and then they both sit back and watch as everything plays out during an actual combat phase. This makes for a great 2-player experience, and Combat Mission: Touch boasts online multiplayer as well as the ability to battle solo against an AI.

We’ll have to sit down and spend some quality time with Combat Mission: Touch to see how the iOS version turned out, but if you’re a fan of the series then you’ve probably already dropped the $4.99 to check it out for yourself. Just keep in mind, it’s only compatible with the iPad 2 and the newest iPad if you’re considering picking it up.

[Thanks Christopher!]

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It’s hard to believe that it’s been more than a year since Epic Games and Chair Entertainment released Infinity Blade [99¢], an Unreal Engine-powered sword battling RPG that redefined what we could expect from visuals on the iOS platform. They released the sequel, Infinity Blade II [$6.99], this past November, and basically improved upon everything in the first game. However, the original Infinity Blade is still really great, and I still find myself playing both titles regularly.

If you’re one of those people who haven’t dived into the whole Infinity Blade thing yet, now would be a good time to check out the series yourself without much risk, as the first game is on sale for its lowest price ever at just 99¢. Even if you don’t think the Infinity Blade style of game is for you, you at least owe it to yourself to drop a buck on it and find out for sure. I really didn’t think much of the game when it first came out, if truth be told, but I continued playing and somewhere along the line something just “clicked” and I found it almost impossible to put the game down ever since.

You can read our full review of the first Infinity Blade if you need some more insight, and if you like it and want some more, you can check out our review of Infinity Blade II as well. This sale is advertised as an April Fool’s sale, so be sure to grab it quick as there’s no telling how long it will last.

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Last October, indie developer Bertil Horberg released Helium Boy [$1.99], a colorful 3D platformer about a boy and his balloons. Helium Boy was a pleasant surprise with its cheery visuals and gameplay that revolved around filling up balloons in order to float the protagonist around each of the game’s levels. Unfortunately, an awkward camera made it difficult to properly navigate the terrain, which led to us being hesitant about fully recommending the title in our review.

Still, Helium Boy had flashes of brilliance, and we really wanted to enjoy it more. Now, Bertil is taking another stab at a platforming game with the upcoming Gunman Clive. This time around he’s sticking with a more traditional 2D side-scrolling gameplay while still retaining 3D visuals. Gunman Clive also has a really interesting sketchbook-style look, which you can see in the trailer (it’s also pretty darn funny).

Bertil says his main influences for Gunman Clive were Megaman and other classic platformers of that ilk, and he’s aiming for a more straightforward platforming and shooting game as opposed to the kind of gameplay that was in Helium Boy. I’m pretty much a Megaman fanatic, so hearing this really has me excited to see how it turns out. Look for Gunman Clive to launch with the usual slew of new releases later this week.

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It’s really tricky covering anything that happens on April Fool’s Day, so take this news with the caveat that tomorrow it’s entirely possible that Team Meat could just reveal that they were trolling. Anyway, what makes me think this might actually be real is that it fits in with recent news. First that Team Meat would “probably” be making an iPhone game then via a tweet-storm later mentioned that a Super Meat Boy prototype was in the works.

According to Team Meat, they’ve just started working on the game, and they’re sure a lot will change in the development. However, they’ve clarified that this isn’t a port, and instead is a total feature-length touch-controlled total remake specifically designed for touch-based devices. It doesn’t sound like they’ll use any virtual controls, and Super Meat Boy: The Game will be “a brand new game with new art, new sound, everything.”

I can’t wait to see what they come up with.

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It’s really tricky covering anything that happens on April Fool’s Day, so take this news with the caveat that tomorrow it’s entirely possible that Team Meat could just reveal that they were trolling. Anyway, what makes me think this might actually be real is that it fits in with recent news. First that Team Meat would “probably” be making an iPhone game then via a tweet-storm later mentioned that a Super Meat Boy prototype was in the works.

According to Team Meat, they’ve just started working on the game, and they’re sure a lot will change in the development. However, they’ve clarified that this isn’t a port, and instead is a total feature-length touch-controlled total remake specifically designed for touch-based devices. It doesn’t sound like they’ll use any virtual controls, and Super Meat Boy: The Game will be “a brand new game with new art, new sound, everything.”

I can’t wait to see what they come up with.

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