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It’s never a good time for iPad and iPhone developers to talk about the games that have influenced their upcoming products. There’s a fine line between iterating and outright copying, and a lot of iOS studios and consumers don’t seem to understand the difference.

Making matters worse, Zynga and Glu Mobile made some waves earlier this month by straight-up ripping off Tiny Tower. The proximity of this wretched news makes influence conversations even more touchy than usual.

And so our conversation with the three guys behind The Other Brothers, Thomas Pasieka, Matthew Davey, and Bjorn Hurri, got off to a shaky start. In an attempt to glean what the visually gifted game actually mechanically was, I decided to ask about its obvious influences. I was met with pretty guarded responses.

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Here’s what it takes from, though: there’s a little of Sonic and Mario, of course, but there’s also an alluring amount of old-school SCUMM titles; the look of games like Maniac Mansion and Secret of Monkey Island have had varying amounts of influences on the art style.

“Everything in the game is almost a culmination of all sorts of other games that we all enjoyed growing up,” Davey told us. “It’s almost like we’re shouting out to every game developer that we know and have played their game.”

“It’s really not one specific thing that we’re going for or are doing. It’s just a culmination of everything.”

If you look closely, you’ll notice everything in The Other Brothers has a slight bend or bow, almost as if the art dude, Hurri, is plainly torturing everything in a given scene or level. This treatment turns creates an overall funky look that calls back subtly to the LucasArts titles the developers love and respect, but it’s also a style that Hurri hopes will appeal to kids.

“I really didn’t want to have it strict. I wanted to have it playful and approachable for everyone,” Hurrie said. “So, even kids will like it. Kids like funny shapes and bright colors,” he added. While The Other Brothers is something we’re all interested in, it’s being designed from top to bottom for everyone — the casuals, the kids, gamers.

A lot of the “influence” part of the interview ended up on the cutting room floor. Podcasts tend to have feeling out periods, and we jumped into it too fast. In hindsight, I see why we had such a tough time sizing up each other. This is an amalgamation of a lot of games and it’s a project that was conceived specifically to satisfy a lot of wants and desires from all three developers.

There’s another, much more compelling reason. This project is a passion project; The Other Brothers dear to these guys in a lot of ways, so they’re OK with being fiercely protective.

You see, Hurri, Davey, and Pasieka are all contractors. They work on game assets or very specific points of design and rarely, if ever, have any meaningful creative input into the things they create or manufacture. Hurri is a lead artist at an outsourcing studio; Davey worked on educational and government games, as well as MMOs; And Pasieka is a 3D modeler for Disney and Warner Brothers.

The Other Brothers represents a chance for these guys to do their own thing, to be able to put their own spin on a project with no overhead and no-one to tell them that it what they want to do can’t be done because of budget or time or whatever else. This is their game, their creation, and it’s very special because of that.

“Most of us have worked on other people’s projects and have had very little creative direction or creative control or even, in my case, programming control,” Davey, the code junky, told us.

“So, being able to just sit down and spew ideas and say, ‘Hey, wouldn’t it be great if we did this?’ Just knowing it’s just three of us making the decision, that there’s not someone above us going ‘well, you know that’s going to take an extra week of work; we can’t afford that’ — it’s freeing as an experience.”

“It makes us happy to do what we do.” Pasieka also described this as a “freeing” kind of experience and Hurri agreed, too.

So, how do these guys work together? This is a collaboration, and they all have jobs, so there are no meetings or set times. They message each other constantly, sometimes poking and prodding about Feature A or Feature B or Mechanic C or Mechanic D.

“We are all doing this in our spare time,” Hurri said. “I’m a family man, so I’ve got to sit and work at night while everyone is sleeping. There’s bound to be funny ideas and stupid thoughts because you’re sleep deprived and doing work.”

“I just want to make a really fun game for everyone — for me to play, for my kids to play, and everyone I know to play. It’s pure bliss to sit and noodle on it.”

Passion, more so than time, plays such a huge role in this project. No-one summed it up better than Davey in the interview.

“It’s nice to have a game that’s our own — a lot of the time we can’t talk about the games we work on because most of us are just contractors — it’s really nice,” he told us. “It’s just a very blissful feeling.”

“Having my son look at my game and go wow, I want to play this is a neat feature, a neat moment as a developer.”

The Other Brothers is due out at some point this summer. iOS isn’t the only platform it will hit either, though we’re guessing it’s obviously the lead.

We’ll hopefully be talking a lot more about this game as it gets closer to release. If you want to listen in on this podcast, definitely do so via the links at the top. Other topics we cover include the media frenzy over the game, how this isn’t a point-and-click, and a lot of other cool stuff.

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Tim Tebow is a starting NFL quarterback who throws just about as well with his hands as he does with his feet. But he wins games, and he wins them in some of the most dramatic ways you’ll ever see on a football field. His fourth quarter heroics resonate with people. USA Today correctly called him a “one-man cultural blitz” this season.

He also does this thing called “Tebowing,” which probably has a larger hand his cultural blitz-dom than his game-winning drives. Basically, whenever Tebow accomplishes something awesome like, cap off a game-winning touchdown drive or successfully put Gatorade in his mouth, he gets on one knee and bows his head. It’s turning into the new planking, basically.

Since Tebow is so hot and so different at the same time, we suppose it’s only natural that he’s now been further immortalized in an iPhone and iPod Touch game. Developers Ethan Dunlap and Kenneth Kunkel recently debuted Tebit Time [$.99], a game that seeks to capture the essence of Tebow with four in-game mechanics or less.

Yep.

It’s an endless runner that stars a Tebow look-a-like and prominently features a looping 8-bit rendition of the FOX Football theme. With a touch on the screen you can hurdle over an object or opposing player, stiff-arm, or even take a moment to Tebow on the field. Doing this at specific times adds a modifier to your overall score. There is no throwing mechanic, which is probably a good thing.

This is an exceedingly simple game played entirely on a cutesy lo-fi field with a seemingly infinite amount of opposing players and NFL junk to jump over. Scoring revolves around yardage; the more you get, the better. Our best score is 128.

In a lot of ways, this seems like more of a gag than a game. But in a conversation with us, Dunlap seemed genuine about his admiration for Tebow when we asked, simply, why Tebit Time is a game on the App Store.

“I have been in athletics for a great portion of my childhood, football in specific,” Dunlap told TouchArcade. “Despite being on a rather good team, we never managed to win a championship. We made it every year, but always suffered a heartbreaking loss. Even now in my college years a close group of childhood friends and I play in a flag football league and struggle to achieve success, our record is currently 0-8.”

“At first I didn’t buy into the whole Tim Tebow buzz, but after watching a few of his comebacks he started to appeal to me. I saw a player struggling to be successful, but his desire kept him going. After watching him beat Pittsburg on the first play in over time, I knew that I wanted to do something to pay tribute to him.”

“And that is pretty much where the idea came from. I was already working on a runner and just needed to switch a few things and get the graphics in place. Besides, who wouldn’t want to “Tebow” in a video game?”

Who wouldn’t? Whether this was its purpose or not, Tebit Time is worth your time for the laughs alone. On the other hand, it’s also not so great in the most important places; the hit boxes on players and on-field obstacles need some work, and the menus freeze randomly. Buy knowing this.

Also, we can’t shake the feeling that this project is probably destined to earn Dunlap and Kunkel a cease and desist notice. Here’s to Tebit Time flying under the radar in a very un-Tebow-like fashion.

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About a week ago, EA announced two potentially hip, upcoming apps for Mass Effect fans with iPads and iPhones. The first was a third-person shooter called Infiltrator. The other was a straight-up companion app dubbed Mass Effect Datapad. One problem: EA didn’t have much to say about the latter title. Like, at all. Talk about a bummer.

We said we’d update you, so here we are. In an interview at the event, Giant Bomb nabbed some details on Datapad from Mass Effect 3 lead writer Mac Walters. In brief, Walters confirmed that it’ll at least carry the game’s codex entries.

From the interview:

WALTERS: Probably the most inclusive thing on the Datapad app is the codex entries, which of course are available in the game. The ones in the game will be tailored to your experience and open up as you play the game. While we wanted to add other ways to access the universe, we didn’t want you to necessarily feel like you HAD to have them. They had to be optional, but they also had to feel useful in their own right, and fun, just like the Infiltrator game, which is amazing.

This series’ codex entries are well produced. In fact, they make you want to hang out with them in a comfortable place, instead of just glancing at them in-between missions and action-y content. If Datapad has a half-way decent UI, it’ll make snuggling up with Mass Effect 3’s codex, natively, totally possible. We’re stoked.

[via Giant Bomb]

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Munch Time HD is another heart meltingly cute game headed for the iPad “soon,” according to the game’s developer, Gamistry. From what we gather, Munch Time is a family-friendly puzzle game split across 40 levels, all of which will task you with swinging on multi-colored flowers with the game’s protagonist, Munch the chameleons’, Gene Simmons-esque tongue.

Different flower types “react” differently to being tongued. But also, each flower color will require the chameleon to match it by finding “special” color-turning flies. This is what the puzzle part of the game hinges around, though to be frank, it looks like Munch will be heavily weighted towards kids. Don’t expect Braid here.

The “HD” part of the titling convention has convinced us that this will also see a release across iPhone and iPod Touch, too. While we investigate the pricing model check out a real-time video of the game in action:

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Diggin’ Dogs [99¢] from Soap Creative and Chillingo is already being compared to Disney’s popular release Where’s My Water? [99¢],  since both games use the same “swipe-to-dig” mechanism. But the inspiration for Diggin’ Dogs actually came from Soap Creative’s online Flash game Truffle Hunter, which you can try on your computer. Personally, I didn’t think much of that Flash game, but I’m diggin’ Diggin Dogs with its noisy little puppies.

The easy-to-use controls involve a mix of swiping, tapping and tilting. You drag to dig burrows for the dogs to clamber down and swipe to make the dogs jump. Tap to activate and deactivate objects (such as changing gravity orientation), and tilt to make the dogs, coins and various in-game items slide left or right. If you’re not a huge fan of tilt controls (like me), don’t worry your fingers do most of the work.

To keep the dogs safe (and alive) you must make sure they avoid various enemies and objects, like wailing pirate ghosts, wasps, bats, poisonous toadstools, icicles and – perhaps most harshly – steel gin-traps with sharp teeth. You can also use the traps against your nasty enemies as you clear a path downwards. But don’t dig too enthusiastically, because once the screen scrolls downwards it never scrolls back up, so any objects you leave behind are unreachable.

Power-ups come in the form of hats with special powers. Like a magnet-hat that attracts coins through walls, a mushroom hat which transforms toadstools into collectible coins or a spray-can hat for easy pest eradication. Sometimes the dog with a specific hat must assist the other dogs to pass through a level, so you’ll need to split the dogs into their own tunnels.

The five chapters (Forest, Snow, Junkyard, Jungle and Volcano) are unlocked by collecting enough bones, and they deliver 60 levels in total. Each setting has different graphics, sound effects, cinematic music and enemies. Alternatively, you can purchase the “golden bone” as an optional in-app purchase to unlock all levels.

Scoring is based on the number of dogs that remain alive when you reach the golden boot at the bottom of the level, plus the number of golden coins collected. Your score is converted into a gold, silver or bronze medal and can be stored in Chillingo’s Crystal rankings, but there’s no Game Center integration provided this time.

Chillingo have a track record of publishing cute and entertaining casual games and with Diggin’ Dogs they’ve done it again. Although surprisingly, it’s not Universal and there’s currently no iPad native version (but you can play it in 2x mode). For iPhone and iPod touch owners though, Diggin’ Dogs is as entertaining as Where’s My Water?, which is a pretty big compliment.

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The weekend is finally almost here, and before you settle in to listen to our podcast later today (you DO all listen to our podcast, right?) I thought it might be nice to roundup some of the significant sales that are currently going on so you can spend your couple of days of leisure time buried in some iOS games. Unless you work on the weekends, in which case it’s even more important to load up on some games to survive your laborious obligations.

Crescent Moon

• Aralon: Sword and Shadow – $6.99 → $2.99
• Gears – $2.99 → 99¢
• Pocket RPG iPhone Edition - $2.99 → 99¢
• Evertales – $2.99 → 99¢
• Siegecraft – $2.99 → 99¢
• Ravensword: The Fallen King – $2.99 → 99¢

Godzilab

• iBlast Moki – $2.99 → FREE
• iBlast Moki HD – $4.99 → 99¢
• iBlast Moki 2 – $2.99 → 99¢
• iBlast Moki 2 HD – $4.99 → $2.99
• Stardunk Gold – $1.99 → FREE

Telltale Games

• Back to the Future Ep 1 HD – $6.99 → FREE
• Back to the Future Ep 2 HD – $6.99 → $2.99
• Back to the Future Ep 3 HD – $6.99 → $2.99
• Back to the Future Ep 4 HD – $6.99 → $2.99
• Back to the Future Ep 5 HD – $6.99 → $2.99
• Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space Ep 1 – $6.99 → $4.99

Konami

• Ash II: Shadows (Silver Edition) – $2.99 → 99¢
• Ash II: Shadows (Gold Edition) – $4.99 → $2.99

Sega

• Sonic CD – $4.99 → $2.99
• Sonic The Hedgehog 4 Episode I – $3.99 → $1.99
• Sonic The Hedgehog 4 Episode I HD – $4.99 → $2.99
• Super Monkey Ball – $2.99 → 99¢
• Super Monkey Ball 2 – $2.99 → 99¢
• Super Monkey Ball 2: Sakura Edition – $2.99 → 99¢

Miscellaneous

• Mad Chef - 99¢ → FREE
• Ticket to Ride Pocket – $1.99 → FREE
• Anthill – $1.99 → FREE
• Time of Heroes – $2.99 → 99¢
• Rebuild – $2.99 → 99¢
• Order & Chaos Online – $6.99 → 99¢
• Dodonpachi Resurrection – $7.99 → $5.99
• Containment: The Zombie Puzzler – $4.99 → $2.99
• AWESOME Land – $1.99 → 99¢
• Cut the Buttons – 99¢ → FREE
• Cut the Buttons HD – $1.99 → 99¢

These are the ones that stuck out to me, but of course there’s always more sales and freebies to check out at AppShopper.com or on the free AppShopper app. For instance, EA is having one of their frequent sales on a bunch of games in their library. As always, sales can end just as quickly as they begin, so it’s usually best to move quickly and make sure the prices are still in effect if you choose to buy.

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Last month Namco Bandai treated us to an excellent iOS port of the original SoulCalibur [$14.99]. It was based off of the superior Dreamcast version (or more accurately, the high resolution XBLA remake) rather than the arcade version, and came equipped with just about everything that made it a classic back then, barring a couple of significant things.

First was the baffling lack of any sort of multiplayer, as well as a few missing modes that had been in previous versions. The second big thing was the frame rate. See, one of the things that was so memorable about SoulCalibur on the Dreamcast was just how crazy smooth everything moved. The frame rate rocked a solid 60fps, and it elevated the visuals way beyond anything that was on current consoles, and rivaled much of what was popular in arcades at the time.

In our review of SoulCalibur, I definitely found the game quite attractive. The high resolution art assets popped on Retina and iPad displays, but the frame rate wasn’t quite there. Don’t get me wrong, it still ran really smooth, but it was probably only halfway to the coveted 60fps mark. But that changes today, as Namco has released an update that will lock the game at 60fps on iPhone 4S and iPad 2 devices. And let me tell you, the difference is dramatic.

When I saw this update, I played through the game a couple of times real quick before updating so it would be fresh in my mind for comparison. After quickly syncing the update I jumped right back into the game and was blown away by what a difference the increased frame rate makes. It was totally the thing that was missing from SoulCalibur on iOS that really completes the nostalgia trip for owners of the Dreamcast version like myself.

It may sound like a minor thing, but the 60fps was a key element of SoulCalibur and I’m happy Namco Bandai took the time to add it in to the iOS version. Now I can focus all my attention on bugging them for some sort of multiplayer mode, but if you have an iPhone 4S or iPad 2 make sure to check out the ultra smooth new update to SoulCalibur.

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Bacon. Cat videos. Zombies. There are some things in popular culture that just don’t get enough attention. Luckily for us, however, the undead are getting a second life thanks to Zxh Games’ Shoot Many Zombies [Free].

Shoot Many Zombies is pretty much exactly like it sounds. In this side-scrolling shooter, you shoot zombies. A lot of zombies. It’s mindless, attractive zombie-killing mayhem, at a perfect pace: not too fast a pace to be frustrating, not so slow that you’ll try to strategize your way through it.

You have your choice of three characters to play as, which mainly depends on your playstyle. You can go damage-heavy but slow, damage-light but quick, or a balance between the two. Once you begin, you have your basic weapon which can be upgraded as you work your way through the game. You can also buy new weapons altogether, so you can customize your zombie-killin’ experience.

For a pretty straightforward concept, some things are needlessly complicated. Upgrading weapons is a necessity, but the menu doesn’t make it easy. For example, you don’t know the price of a particular upgrade unless you tap “buy,” so if you don’t have enough cash to tap “buy” in the first place to receive the confirmation, you’re not going to know approximately how much money to save up in order to get the upgrade later.

Things are repetitive and sometimes annoying. For example, there are various objects and safe rooms you tap in order to get items. It’s pretty dull popping into safe rooms in order to grab stuff, whatever it is – on an iPhone or iPod touch, the screen is too small to easily read what you’re picking up – and you have to do it a lot. There are other things that feel off too, like annoying sound effects (just wait for the shopkeep/gangster dude when you first start a new game and the “eeeeeee” noise upon reading a new diary entry) and sometimes piecemeal-feeling graphics.

Fighting specialty zombies feels a bit cheap in the sense that you need to have upgraded your weapons several times in order to have a chance. Of course, you can easily upgrade your weapons via in-app purchase (was there any doubt?), but you can also go back and replay levels to pick up more money and items.

Normally, the idea of repeating levels in order to progress would make me pretty miffed, but since every level is basically the same mindless zombie-shooting anyway, it pretty much just extends the gameplay. Additionally, I found that the in-app purchases were pretty much unnecessary because the random loot from killing zombies and exploring was often pretty good, and I never seemed to run out of cash too easily. If you feel like purchasing, however, the options aren’t bad, ranging from unlimited ammo to special (though not necessary) weapons.

There are lots of little added touches that are a nice surprise. When you upgrade a weapon, it actually changes the appearance of the weapon in-game. There are diary entries to pick up (though if you’re looking for Shakespeare, you’re going to be disappointed) that add to the overall story of the game, and it’s nice being able to choose which character best fits your style.

If you want to mindlessly mow down wave after wave of the undead, Shoot Many Zombies is a great option with enough good points to outweigh the bad. If future updates were to include Game Center, cat videos, and/or bacon, my friends, we might even have a bona-fide hit on our hands.

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