Archive for the ‘iPod Touch’ tag
Trism 2 Teaser Trailer Released
Originally announced in mid-2008, it sounds like Trism 2, the sequel to the early iPhone smash hit Trism [App Store], is one step closer to seeing the light of day. Demiforce released the following teaser trailer, mentioning that Trism 2 is not only coming for the iPod touch and iPhone, but also the iPad:
We got in touch with developer Steve Demeter to get some more details on what to expect in Trism 2. While he's not releasing any screenshots just yet, he did mention that Trism 2 is being overhauled from the ground up, and apparently looks quite a bit nicer than the first. The sequel will also have multiplayer, but is implemented in "a really fun way that you might not intially suspect".
Demeter hopes to have an iPad optimized combo app that also will run on the iPhone or iPod touch, but isn't ready to make any promises yet because of how important he feels being under the 10MB 3G download cap is. The sequel of course will also include a "classic" mode that will play like the original where players tilt their device to alter gravity while sliding rows of triangles to make matches.
For more information on Trism check out our review.
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iPad Hands-On First Impressions Rolling In
Media who attended the Apple keynote are now being allowed some hands-on time with the iPad, and so far the first impressions make the device sound pretty awesome. describes the iPad as "…substantial but surprisingly light. Easy to grip. Beautiful. Rigid. Starkly designed. The glass is a little rubbery but it could be my sweaty hands. And it's fasssstttt." While confirms the speed of the CPU, they described the iPad as "…not light. It feels pretty weighty in your hand."
provides some details on gaming with the device. The iPad features a "2X" button which scales any iPhone app to full screen, but of course this comes at a graphical cost. Much like upscaling Gameboy Advance games on the Nintendo DS, or Sony PSone classics on the PSP, games are said to look noticeably upscaled. They felt that Need for Speed: Shift actually controlled better with the larget screen, as tilting the device had less of an effect on the screen.
Also, as we expected, the sheer size of the device makes it impossible for your thumbs to obscure most of the screen as you're playing games like NOVA. According to an Apple representative at the event, iPad-optimized games will have their own section on the App Store, although the SDK allows for apps which will run equally well on both devices.
With the SDK for the iPad available today, we expect to hear quite a bit from developers. We've already heard from the people at OpenFeint who are pledging their full support to the platform, and Firemint just dropped us an email announcing an optimized version of Flight Control for the device. They are also "working on some incredibly fun and exciting games that will look amazing on iPad and take full advantage of its features, as well as working brilliantly on iPhone and iPod touch."
Jon Kromrey, GM of the Apple games divison of Namco network also dropped us a note saying how excited they are to create AAA games for the device and feel "the iPad will play a significant part of our goal to reach any player, anywhere at any time."
Photo courtesy of
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Apple’s "Our Newest Creation" Event – iPad Starting at $499
‘C64 for iPhone’ Gets Global Network, New Games Spotted
Early last week we reported that the C64 for iPhone emulator [App Store] would soon be getting global leaderboards and achievements for in-library games via the OpenFeint network. These features were rolled out yesterday as part of the v1.4 update.
The final list of these updates is as follows:
- Jupiter Lander: leaderboards and achievements
- Lemans: leaderboards and achievements
- Arctic Shipwreck: leaderboards
- Uridium: leaderboards
- Nebulus: leaderboards
- Paradroid: leaderboards and achievements when you own the 999 droid
- NOTE: High scores are recorded only when trainer is OFF
As the in-app games themselves were changed to facilitate these enhancements, they must be "purchased" again from within the application before the global network features can be utilized (at no additional cost to the user). The developer also indicates that the emulator environment received certain performance enhancements that allow iPhone 3GS and 3G iPod touch units to run all games at a solid 50fps for smoother gameplay.
Manomio indicates that the upcoming v1.5 update will be focused on usability and playability; controls and the UI will get some work. Details on these will be forthcoming on the developer's blog.
Another very interesting bit of news comes from forum reader killy billy who listed in the C64 in-app shop yesterday but, as yet, unavailable for purchase. The list of games he saw follows.
We grabbed the update and took at look at the app's game shop, but the indicated games were not listed, presumably pulled until available for actual purchase. Let's hope they reappear with full global network integreation — and soon. What a superb list of titles it seems Manomio has in store for us. All are highly playable, but Archer MacLean's International Karate, a C64 favorite, and David Braben and Ian Bell's seminal space trader Elite, considered the best game ever written by many critics, are particularly welcome.
We'll let readers know when these games appear for purchase within the app and will pass on further news and information surrounding this great emulator as we get it.
App Store Link: C64 for iPhone, $4.99
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‘Crosswords’ Announced as First Game for Unannounced iPad
The entire internet seems to be in a frenzy today regarding the unannounced Apple Tablet. Between the CEO of publisher McGraw-Hill and Daily Finance on things they don't like about it, speculation, rumors, rants, and questions which won't be answered until Steve takes the stage tomorrow are running rampant.
This morning, Inc announced their intentions to bring Crosswords [$9.99] to the rumored Apple tablet device. While they may be jumping the gun a little bit, announcing a game for a device which hasn't even been officially announced, Stand Alone does have a fair amount of street cred' in tablet application development. They were a major developer for the now defunct and authored an impressive library of software for the Newton, .
Crosswords is among the better crossword games available on the App Store, and is one of the few games which has lived on my phone since its initial release in 2008. If the Apple tablet does run the iPhone OS as many are speculating, and it has either its own associated App Store or operates off the existing App Store, we expect this will be the first of an avalanche of announcements of software coming to the device.
Apple's keynote begins tomorrow at 10:00 AM Pacific, and will be covered live by nearly every tech-related web site. We will be providing live updates with anything that pertains to gaming, regardless of what is announced, and if Apple's tablet does end up serving as a gaming device, expect tablet game coverage to supplement our existing iPhone and iPod touch coverage.
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‘Tall Bike Joust’ – A Strange Game Based on a Strange Sport
According to my city dwelling friends, my suburban lifestyle filled with SUV's and chain restaurants often leaves me woefully unaware of things that take place outside of Costco– I admit, this is one of those situations. Tall Bike Joust [App Store], a game which apparently has been in development for five years, was released this evening and brings the sport of tall bike jousting to the iPhone and iPod touch.
When I first saw this game I thought it was yet another ragdoll punishment game with a crazy premise, but after some research (and some help from forum moderator and bike expert VeganTnT) I've come to realize it is anything but. Modern are usually home made and built from spare parts by taking two (or more) bike frames and welding them together. After some other modifications to move the seat, handlebars, and drive train around you've got yourself a tall bike.
Bikers couldn't just stop there though. Somewhere along the way the Black Label Bike Club came up with the idea of instead of just simply riding these tall bikes, why not arm two cyclists with lances and send them barreling towards each other in attempt to score points by knocking the other rider off? And with that, tall bike jousting was born.
The sport translates as well as I imagine it possibly could to the iPhone– With each joust you and your opponent start at opposite ends of the arena, you peddle as fast as you can by dragging your right and left side of the thumbs down the sides of the screen in an alternating motion. Tilting the phone aims your lance, and as you get within striking distance tapping the screen causes your rider to strike.
After winning matches you earn attribute points to make your cyclist more powerful, and you're even awarded different items you can equip for stat boosts as well as different components that you can combine in to upgrades for your bike. Jousts take place in six different post-apolcalyptic locations, each with different environmental hazards to deal with.
For such a strange game based on such an odd sport, an awful lot of effort went in to the development process. Ryan Doyle, who holds the title of "official tall bike jousting champion of the world" did some of the illustration for the game as well as all the motion capture for the movements of the cyclists. They even use real music, featuring tracks from Matt and Kim, Japanther, and Altaer, and there's even .
Tall Bike Joust is a game that will likely have massive appeal amongst avid cyclists and people who are interested in custom bike fabrication. If you fall outside of those groups, the game might not do much for you aside from make you aware of the existence of tall bike jousting– Knowledge that could lead to spending entirely too much time watching people knock each other off tall bikes on YouTube if you're anything like me.
App Store Link: Tall Bike Joust, $2.99
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EA and Other Developers Producing Apple Tablet Games?
The Apple rumor mill has been going absolutely wild with speculation lately on what could be in store for us at Apple's event on the 27th where some form of Apple tablet is expected to be revealed. From a gaming perspective, there have been several hints that App Store gamers could be in for a treat, with the reporting that Apple has been working with EA to show off the gaming capabilities of the rumored tablet device.
Considering the mysterious delay in the release of Mirror's Edge, a game we got a preview of last month, with this recent news it may not be that far fetched to expect to see it as part of a demonstration of the tablet's array of games. Other developers have also been asked by Apple to produce versions of their games that are resolution independent, allowing them to seamlessly scale up to the presumably higher resolution display.
To make things even more interesting, and several other general gaming sites have also been invited to the event, along with representatives from quite a few popular iPhone game studios. Of course trying to discern what Apple is up to by reading between the lines of rumors and event invitations is open to all forms of interpretation, but it seems the stars are aligning to a serious gaming announcement on the 27th.
We will have live keynote coverage of the event, and if the Apple tablet does turn out to be a gaming device, you can expect to see reviews of any noteworthy tablet games to supplement our existing iPod touch and iPhone game focus.
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‘Assassin’s Creed II: Discovery’ to be Re-Released February 1st
Following the unexpected release and somewhat confusing removal of Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed II: Discovery, we managed to get producer Ben Mattes on the phone to discuss the game, but more importantly, the future of Ubisoft's involvement in the App Store.
We were able to clarify what most people have been wondering about, and found out that an updated version of the game will be re-released on February 1st for $9.99, a price that Mattes described as "more than a good value". If you were lucky enough to purchase the game when it was available for a few hours, it appears the updated version shares the same iTunes app ID, and you should be able to download the update following the re-release without issue.
Prior to Assassin's Creed II, Ubisoft utilized their partnership with sister company Gameloft, allowing them to take Ubisoft properties and run with them on the App Store. H.A.W.X. was the most recent product of this partnership, and Discovery represents Ubisoft's first foray in to serious iPhone development.
They've taken the Nintendo DS version of Assassin's Creed II: Discovery and revamped it in nearly every way imaginable from higher resolution graphics, higher bitrate audio, additional game modes, and other goodies such a story designed to supplement the "full" version of the game on home consoles while creating an experience strong enough to stand on its own if you've never played Assassin's Creed II on the XBOX 360 or PS3.
Going forward, Ubisoft plans to treat the iPhone and iPod touch as a serious gaming platform, with games that draw from their extensive library of popular gaming franchises with the same gameplay quality that you would expect from a big-name game studio. Ben Mattes was reluctant to go in to any more detail, but did say to expect some "super-cool content" coming in the following weeks and months, with some of it announced sooner than later.
Mattes foresees multiple iPhone development teams working at Ubisoft for many different games that will spread the gamut of gaming experiences and price points– With everything from cheap and simple casual titles to "premium" games like Discovery.
He assured me that Ubisoft is committed to coming to the App Store in a "big way", but admitted that they have a lot to learn, and quite a bit of information to digest before determining how to best utilize the massive pool of game development resources that Ubisoft has on hand. Ben explained that they're interesting in exploring as many opportunities as possible with the iPhone and iPod touch, which should excite any App Store gamer.
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‘Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars’ Review
Back in 1997 when the first Grand Theft Auto hit the PC, I doubt anyone at Rockstar (known as DMA Design at the time) expected it to spawn a series that would span ten different games and four expansions over the next thirteen years. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars [App Store] for the iPhone is an excellent adaptation of a game previously only available on the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP. These prior versions of the game were met with universal acclaim, and according to Chinatown Wars for the DS holds the title of for the platform. On the PSP, , beaten only by God of War: Chains of Olympus by a single point.
The recently released iPhone Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars seems to be a hybrid of both the , with graphical quality that lies somewhere in between the two games, tutorial elements that reference PSP buttons, as well as some of the cell shaded graphics and all the stylus mini games from the DS. The main difference is how the controls have been adapted to the on-screen virtual joystick and buttons of the iPhone. Like other games that use a similar control scheme, there is always an inherent lack of precision without physical buttons that take a little getting used to, but this didn't hamper my enjoyment of Chinatown Wars in the least bit.
While on foot, a virtual joystick controls character movement, with a button for using whatever weapon you have selected (or your fists) as well as buttons to kick and leap over short fences. When you approach a car, a button appears on the bottom of the screen that you can touch to get in. If you're stealing a parked car, this will often trigger a timed touchscreen mini game where you need to turn a screwdriver in the ignition, twist some wires together, or even insert a PDA and crack the car's security system in order to get the car running without triggering its alarm.
These sequences are pretty neat the first few times you do them, and do an excellent job at adding suspense to police chases as you hastily hotwire a car before the cops converge on your location. Once you're in a car, one of five in-game radio stations start playing and the on-screen controls switch to buttons for accelerating, braking, firing your gun, and by default two buttons to steer right or left. Also available is an analog stick for steering, configurable in the game's options.
The biggest control hurdle new players will come across is learning how to cope with Chinatown Wars' driving assist system, which will automatically keep your car going straight down a road. This can be disabled, but without it perfectly lane splitting on a motorcycle seems to be nearly impossible. I've found myself preferring the default steering buttons over the optional joystick because very little control is required when driving. You really only need to hold a direction to turn, or just tap a direction to make minor adjustments to your position on a road. It feels a little strange at first, but after you make it through the tutorial missions you will be flying through Liberty City without issue.
The plot of the game is classic Grand Theft Auto, with an asian spin, made obvious by the game's title. You play as Huang Lee, the son of a recently murdered Triad boss who comes to Liberty City and unsurprisingly enough winds up knee deep in gang drama. Initially you complete tasks assigned by your Uncle, but it doesn't take long for you to meet other contacts who also require your services. The game continues like any GTA game with missions that involve killing people, stealing cars, driving people around, and other often illegal activities.
Of course, like other games in the series, once you complete the short array of tutorial missions you can disregard the main storyline entirely and instead spend your time roaming around the city, completing the various submissions, seeing how long you can survive with a high wanted level, and dealing drugs to increase your net worth.
Chinatown Wars is packed with a surprisingly fun and full featured drug economy that is highly reminiscent of the Texas Instruments calculator game Dope Wars (Originally a DOS game released in the mid-80's.) that I spent an embarrassing amount of my teenage life playing. As you drive around the city you will meet drug dealers, who are all selling or buying various drugs at different prices. Prices change depending on whose turf you're in, but you have to exercise caution because if you get busted with a car load of coke, you lose it all.
Drug dealing is just one of the many other activites that exist inside the game. Of course Chinatown Wars also has the standard taxi, ambulance, firefighter, and other driving games along with tons of secret items and locations to find. There are scratch off lottery tickets you can try your luck on, and random encounters with pedestrians who will also have various things to ask of you. The amount of depth in Chinatown Wars is unbelievable.
Since the inception of the App Store, quite a few developers have tried their hand at making an open-world crime game. Without much serious competition, most of these games seemed quite good– But even the best pre-Chinatown Wars iPhone games pale in comparison to a real Rockstar Grand Theft Auto. The level of depth is completely unmatched, but most importantly, Liberty City feels alive.
Games like Gangstar are far too sterile, with spotless city streets, stereotypical characters with no personality, and very little to make the environment the game takes place in feel like anything more than a basic sandbox. The streets of Liberty City are filthy, filles with cars, pedestrians, trains, people fighting, and emergency vehicles racing through the streets responding to randomly spawned traffic accidents. The mood and lighting of the city changes with the clock in-game, and even though the story and characters you come across aren't really anything revolutionary compared to other Grand Theft Auto games, the people you meet are usually amusing and of course the game is absolutely loaded with expletives and other racy material that the GTA clones haven't dared come close to.
There are a few issues with Chinatown Wars, the most serious being the lack of a solid targeting system. When you hold down the attack button to shoot or punch, you simply attack whoever you're facing. There isn't a way to cycle through targets, and the only way to stay locked on one target is by holding the attack button which often results in quite a few wasted bullets. It seems like there is a lot of lost potential in not having a touch-based targeting mode.
Chinatown Wars also doesn't have any kind of save state system to save your progress if you get a call or need to answer a SMS when you're in the middle of a mission. Instead the game just quits, and the next time you launch it you're back at your apartment. This can be annoying, but thankfully Chinatown Wars was designed to be a portable game, and as such the missions are usually never more than a few minutes long so the amount of progress you lose is fairly minimal.
One of my favorite things about Grand Theft Auto games is the soundtracks, but the radio stations in Chinatown Wars are fairly limited and it seems that all the pedestrian chatter was also cut. However, once you get sucked in to the game these problems fade away as you immerse yourself in Liberty City.
Chinatown Wars is a massive game, so much so that the few things I've mentioned in this review barely even scratch the surface of what there is to do and all the different features that help you to do them. An excellent in-game GPS system guides you around the city, periodic email messages tip you off to new missions and other things to do, safehouses scattered around Liberty City can be purchased once you're wealthy enough, and there's even multiple save slots so more than one person can play the game on a single device.
Performance on my iPhone 3GS is absolutely outstanding, and according to forum members, Chinatown Wars also runs without issue on the entire iPhone and iPod touch product line. The game is restricted and won't install on the first generation iPod touch, but apparently can be played just fine. Something worth mentioning is while the download itself is only 188MB, Chinatown Wars requires a little over 600MB free on your device to install.
There is so much to do in Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars that completing the whole thing will likely necessitate a trip to to consult the various guides and maps to find every hidden object and complete every mission– A task that will likely take days of concurrent playtime. For $9.99 App Store gamers can get their hands on a game that sells for two to three times as much on other platforms, representing a substantial value even at a price point reserved for "premium" games on the platform.
Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America's vice president of sales and marketing described Chinatown Wars' sales on the DS as "", and sadly the PSP version didn't perform any better. In less than 24 hours following its release on the App Store, Chinatown Wars is already the #1 top-grossing app– Something that hopefully other giants of the gaming industry are noticing, as I doubt I'm alone in hoping even more of these "full" console games make their way to the iPhone.
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If you're at all interested in open-world crime games, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is by far the best available on the platform and simply cannot be passed up. The sheer amount of content, the amazing graphics, and gameplay that will keep you coming back for more whether you choose to follow the story or rampage through Liberty City on your own is absolutely fantastic.
Now, if you'd excuse me, I've got $50,000 worth of heroin to unload.
App Store Link: Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, $9.99
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‘C64′ Update to Bring Global Leaderboards, Achievements
It's no secret that the iPhone has a lot to offer retro gaming fans out there. One example is Manomio's C64 for iPhone [App Store], which lets gamers have some serious 8-bit fun on the go. But, while such games offer a great deal of white-knuckle action, they lack the online competitive aspect of modern XBLA and PSN titles.
Manomio is in the process of rectifying the situation.
Many of us remember playing C64 games, vying for the high score and undoubtedly reveling with our friends when we grabbed the top score in Uridium, Paradroid or whatever happened to be hot at the time. Perhaps you were the best at your school, club or even town….but, are you the best in the world? Now's your chance with Open Feint integration for select games.
In the forthcoming v1.4 update to C64 for iPhone, Manomio has begun integrating online leaderboards and achievements for the classic, C64 titles the emulator supports. To start, they're delivering the following enhancements to C64 favorites by way of OpenFeint integration:
Arctic Shipwreck
- Leaderboard for high scores
Lemans
- Leaderboard for high scores
- Achievements
- Lemans Bronze Medal (5 OF points): Scores 10000+
- Lemans Silver Medal (8 OF points): Scores 25000+
- Lemans Gold Medal (10 OF points): Scores 50000+
- Lemans Elite Driver (20 OF points): Scores 100000+
Jupiter Lander
- Leaderboard for high scores
- Achievements
- Jupiter Lander Trainee (5 OF points); Scores 10000+
- Jupiter Lander Astronaut (10 OF points): Scores 75000+
Nebulus
- Leaderboards for high scores
- Planning to support achievements as you complete each tower (future update)
Uridium
- Leaderboards for high scores
Paradroid
- Leaderboards for high scores
- Achievements
- Command Cyborg 999 – Pwnd!
Achieved when you transfer / take control of the 999 unit, most powerful droid on the ship.
- Command Cyborg 999 – Pwnd!
These enhancements really take these classic games well beyond their original incarnations. What's more, Manomio CTO Stuart Carnie assures us that, for the iPhone 3GS and 3G iPod touch, all games will run at a "buttery smooth" 50fps.
This really is a superb turn of events for retro gamers, and we're anxious to see what other enhancements to the these classics the studio will bring down the road.
App Store Link: C64 for iPhone, $4.99
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