Archive for the ‘iPod Touch’ tag
‘Devil May Cry’ Hits $.99, Has New Devil Trigger Mechanic
Capcom’s ‘alright’ iPhone and iPod Touch take on Devil May Cry 4 has received an update alongside a price reduction. For a limited time, Devil May Cry 4 Refrain [$.99] is (obviously) $.99 instead of its usual $4.99. The coinciding update adds an unlockable “Devil Trigger” for both of the game’s characters. The catch? It’s only available after completion.
If you’re sitting there wondering what a Devil Trigger is, enjoy this academic breakdown of the mechanic by the dudes who run the . They take their jobs very seriously:
“Devil Trigger (often abbreviated as D.T.) is a special technique possessed by demons and half-demons which allows them to release their full power. While in Devil Trigger, the user will assume their true form. In this form, many of the character’s attributes are amplified, and the character may have access to upgrades or even additions to their normal abilities like flying or hovering.
When playing on higher difficulties, enemies can enter a Devil Trigger-like state[1] after a certain time limit (which is fixed for each enemy). This causes enemies to strengthen their attributes as well as making them attack more often and more powerful.”
We took a good, long look at Refrain earlier this year and it’s probably in your interests to check that write-up out before you click “buy.” It’ll help get your expectations in line, at the very least. Spoiler: Refrain is a competent re-make of the original game, featuring simpler combos and a few core issues due to its mobile nature.
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Best iOS Games October 2011
Our ratings for games we reviewed in October are now in place, and we now present to you the ones that are on the top of the heap. Each game reviewed receives a 1-5 star rating relative to the other games from that month. Generally, a 3 or higher is considered a “good” rating.
Our final scores are not the product of any traditionally objective measures such as graphics or sound, but simply reflect the games we would most recommend to others. Keep in mind, this listing is comprised of games we reviewed in October, and not necessarily games that were specifically released in October.
5 Stars
Bring Me Sandwiches!!, $0.99 – [Review] – [] – Adult Swim is batting 1000 lately with fabulous iOS games, and Bring Me Sandwiches!! keeps that tradition going strong. It’s a cross between the collect-everything-you-see gameplay of Katamari Damacy with a platformer game. Additionally, tons of control schemes make the game great to play no matter what your control preference might be.
Mage Gauntlet, $2.99 – [Review] – [] – Almost too many games lean on pixel art and chip tunes just because it’s in style, but Mage Gauntlet draws inspiration from that era and allows it to permeate every aspect of the game. If you have any fond memories of Super Nintendo-era action RPGs, don’t miss this game.
Scribblenauts Remix, $4.99 – [Review] – [] – Originally released on the Nintendo DS, Scribblenauts is a game that’s so unique that you simply must play it. Remix combines the best elements from both of the DS games along with 10 iOS-exclusive levels. In addition, it’s even universal and boasts complete iCloud save syncing support.
4.5 Stars
Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nation, $6.99 – [Review] – [] – Gameloft has had two solid entries in the Modern Combat series so far, and the third is somewhat expectedly the best one yet. A heavily scripted single player campaign is supplemented by online multiplayer with oodles of maps and game modes.
Fruit Ninja: Puss in Boots, $0.99 – [Review] – [] – Movie games are almost universally terrible, but I don’t have a problem getting behind this trend of taking a great existing game and adding a layer of movie tie-in on top. It worked for Angry Birds Rio, and works just as well here. Bandito mode is a ton of fun, and would be fun regardless of the Puss in Boots tie-in.
Whale Trail, $0.99 – [Review] – [] – Most games you can plot along a line graph with “gameplay” on one end and “presentation” on the other. The best games wind up somewhere in the middle, and Whale Trail definitely sits deep into the “presentation” side of things. Still, the game looks fantastic, and the incredibly vibrant graphics almost make you forget the gameplay is so simple.
Forever Drive, Free – [Review - ] – This clever racing game, as the title suggests, allows you to drive forever in community-created tracks. It has a cool atmosphere, and a great spin on the freemium model where paying truly feels optional, something I wish we’d see a little bit more.
Dark Meadow, $5.99 – [Review] – [] – Atmospheric horror is a game genre that never really seems to translates to portable devices very well, but Phosphor Games did a great job of it with Dark Meadow. Set in a creepy hospital, and utilizing the Unreal Engine, the game looks and sounds great. A repetitive combat system drags down this otherwise fantastic title.
Slam Dunk King, Free – [Review] – [] – The best part of NBA Jam was always the ridiculous dunks, and Slam Dunk King distills that formula even further to a ultra-casual sports game that focuses solely on wicked dunks. It’s even free, and similar to Forever Drive, paying feels very optional.
The rest of the game ratings can be seen in their respective rating categories (also found in the sidebar navigation): 5 Stars, 4.5 Stars, 4 Stars, 3.5 Stars, 3 Stars, and 2 Stars.
As always, we expect there will be some debate about relative scores, but keep in mind that everyone’s personal ratings may vary based on individual tastes.
For more of our favorite iOS games, check out our “Best iPhone Games” category which includes all of these monthly posts as well as other special compilations of the greatest games the App Store has to offer:
- So You Just Got an iPhone 4S… Here’s What You Need to Know!
- So You Just Got a Verizon iPhone… Let’s Get You Up To Speed!
- – An App Store Gaming Guide
- Best iPod Touch and iPhone Games: 2010 Buyer’s Guide
- 2010: TouchArcade Staff Favorites – Eli
- 2010: TouchArcade Staff Favorites – Blake
- 2010: TouchArcade Staff Favorites – Brad
- 2010: TouchArcade Staff Favorites – Jared
- Best iPod Touch and iPhone Games: 2009 Buyer’s Guide
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‘Flick Tennis: College Wars’ Review – Swipe Based Tennis, with Comics
When was released for the original Xbox, I became an instant fan of tennis games. I would crank up the difficulty to max and give myself bad stats and play the top players, just to make it more challenging. But until recently my iOS device had no tennis games installed, even though there’s a few out there.
Flick Tennis: College Wars [99¢ / HD / HD Free] by has come to the rescue, providing me with a challenging touch-based tennis game to conveniently carry in my pocket. The iPad version was released in August, but this review is based on the iPhone version, which has just come out. And I’m really enjoying it, because although it starts out pretty easy, the later matches are challenging and can be real nail-biters.
Three modes are provided: Story, exhibition and head-to-head multiplayer. Unfortunately, there’s no tournament mode, which would have worked perfectly with this game, although story mode does tie multiple matches together in a sequence.
In story mode, you play the role of Kevin Adams, a talented young tennis prodigy who wants to succeed on court to make his wheel-chair bound father proud and to be selected for the college / university team. Kevin’s story spans 11 episodes, with 35-pages of comic-based cut-scenes between episodes (ie: about 3 pages worth per episode.)
Comic-strips and tennis are not an obvious combination, but the simple storyline works nicely enough, painting Kevin as an under-dog and explaining his motivation to win each particular match. If you’re not interested in the storyline, it’s easy to skip through the comics quickly to focus on the tennis. The story episodes include both single and multiplayer matches of increasing difficulty. By playing through the episodes, you unlock players, courts and subsequent episodes.
Exhibition mode includes singles or doubles matches. The doubles matches include an AI-controlled partner for you to play with. This introduces the additional challenge of ensuring the court is always covered by the two of you. In multiplayer mode two players square off on the same device, taking turns at swiping. I didn’t try this mode with another player, but it would probably work better on the larger iPad screen.
The AI opponents play intelligently, with four different styles of play (Defensive baseliner, aggressive baseliner, volleyer and all-court players). The help screen explains the traits of each style and lists some real-world examples, listing Pete Sampras as a volleyer and Roger Federer as an all-court player. The opponents also have a skill level, ranging from beginner to professional. There are 11 courts (including grass, clay and synthetic) starting with practice courts with bird noises, to sports stadiums with an appreciative applauding audience. And an umpire announces the score verbally, which adds to the tennis atmosphere.
Flick Tennis is totally designed around swipe controls, so there’s no joystick or buttons cluttering the screen. You can do four different shots by swiping your finger. The basic ground-stroke is done by simply swiping upwards in the direction you want to hit the ball. The accuracy of the shot depends on how close you swipe from the position of the player and the timing. If you swipe too early, the shot will be inaccurate, but swiping too late will cause you to miss the ball entirely. Swiping downwards does a drop-shot, which is effective if the player is hanging back at the baseline.
The other two shots require two-finger swipes. A slice is done by swiping two fingers upwards. While a two-finger downwards swipe lobs the ball, which is useful for hitting the ball over a players head when they’ve cheekily approach the net. But be careful, because if you lob to a player at the baseline, he (or she) might SMASH the high ball back at you. Likewise you can smash it if you receive a lob in the right court position. Each of the four shots is drawn on the screen in a different color, to confirm your chosen action.
The one finger swipes are easy, but it took a little practice to nail the two finger swipes. Once you recognize that the first finger to touch the screen will draw the line, it’s a lot easier to play accurate shots more consistently. Plus, there’s an interactive tutorial which introduces you to the four different swipes. It also explains that you can tap the screen to walk in that direction, however the player will automatically run to the ball by default, allowing you to focus mostly on the shots unless you specifically want to run to the net, baseline, center or sides. One cool feature is that if you’re running, it has a bearing on the shot, so if you draw your line early, you need consider where you’ll be standing by the time you swing. Often it pays to aim a little in-court just to be safe.
A few general observations: Firstly, when two players are both at the net, the ball is sometimes hit backwards and forwards several times rapidly, with multiple sound effects in quick succession, which never occurs in real tennis and ruins the otherwise tennis-like atmosphere (only happens rarely). Secondly, there’s no leaderboard or achievements, which is desirable in a competitive sporting title. My skills deserve some recognition! And lastly, the lack of tournament thing I mentioned earlier.
Flick Tennis: College Wars is a welcome addition to my iPod Touch and won’t be deleted any time soon. The controls work well once you’ve mastered them and it’s a blast to swipe a variety of shots, making the opponent run around the screen, just like I used to on the Xbox. Or some of the time I’m getting thrashed, but either way, I’m loving it. The game is currently on sale through today only, so don’t hesitate to grab either version of the game for 99¢ before they return to their normal prices of $1.99 and $3.99.
Flick Tennis: College Wars, $0.99
Flick Tennis: College Wars HD, $0.99 (iPad Only)
Flick Tennis: College Wars HD Free, Free (iPad Only)
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‘ARDefender’ Updated with Halloween Theme, HD Graphics, and More
With the proliferation of camera-equipped smartphones that also double as mobile gaming systems in the last few years, the amount of augmented reality apps and games has surged. While there are a ton of ingenious non-gaming ways to use AR on your smartphone, the vast majority of the games that used the technology boiled down to slapping some graphical assets onto your device’s camera view and calling it a game, with little regard for how the augmented reality portion actually affected or enhanced the gameplay.
One title that bucked that trend and changed how I feel about most AR games was last year’s ARDefender [99¢] from French developer . ARDefender had you printing out a special diagram from the (or as we’ve come to find, just displaying the diagram on a separate device or computer screen) which would then be read by the game using the camera on your iPhone or iPod touch. The game would create a tower on top of this diagram, making it appear that it was actually there in the space where your camera was pointed. Then enemies would come after this tower in waves, and you’d use an assortment of weaponry affixed to the top of your tower to fend them off.
Essentially, ARDefender was nothing more than a tower defense game at the most basic level, but the augmented reality portion was so convincing and the technology worked so well that it really became quite a little showpiece for what was possible on an iOS device. Plus, while simplistic, the actual gameplay involved was also pretty darn fun, which didn’t hurt either.
Now, just a little over a year after release, and ARDefender has received a fairly substantial update just in time for Halloween. First of all, the AR engine used in the game has been upgraded, and ARDefender now runs at a solid 60fps on an iPhone 4 or iPad 2. Also, it now has high resolution graphical assets for the iPad and Retina Display devices. The game looks incredibly sharp and ultra smooth now, as these improvements have really made a big difference.
Additionally, in celebration of the holiday today, ARDefender now has an entire Halloween theme. Your tower structure now looks more like a sibling of the Bates Motel and the enemies who will be swarming the tower include skeletons, pumpkin heads, laser-shooting Frankenstein’s monsters, witches, and more. It’s all quite well done, but if Halloween isn’t your thing then you can easily switch back to the classic theme if you want.
Besides the technical upgrades and Halloween theme, ARDefender also received some other really nice improvements in this latest update. There are now new towers to unlock and use, as well as a couple of new upgrades like a defense drone that will fly around the battlefield and assist you by blasting away at approaching enemies. You can now save your game’s progress, and there are also 22 achievements to unlock, but unfortunately they are just in-game and not tied into Game Center. Finally, a host of smaller gameplay tweaks and optimizations rounds out the update.
ARDefender is definitely my top augmented reality game for the iPhone. It would be nice if the developers expanded on the solid foundation with more game modes or some sort of campaign, but what’s here now is still a lot of fun. With this new update it’s an even better experience overall, and if you own at least a 3rd generation device or higher that’s equipped with a camera then ARDefender is a dollar well spent for both a fun gaming distraction and something cool to show your friends.
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‘Foodies HD’ Review – Clever Physics-Based Arcade Game Arrives on the iPad
Back in May, we reviewed a clever little game called Foodies [99¢] from developer . It featured a rotund little creature named Sam who was in love with his best gal Pam, and proposed marriage to her. Unfortunately, Sam wasn’t quite rotund enough for Pam’s taste. She gives Sam exactly one week to eat everything in sight and gain enough weight to appease her before she would agree to marry him. Ah, unhealthy eating and forced obesity, the signs of true love.
While the story is certainly silly, and the graphics and presentation are appropriately adorable, the thing that really stood out in Foodies was the clever mechanics and controls. Each level in Foodies is littered with different kinds of food items, and the goal is to bounce Sam around the screen to collect them all. This is accomplished in an intuitive way by placing both thumbs on the screen which creates a bouncy platform in the space in-between them. You can change the size and angle of this platform by adjusting the placement of your thumbs, and the whole system just works incredibly well as you bounce Sam around the levels in the game.
One thing many players were asking after Foodies was released was whether or not an iPad version was in the cards. The developers responded that if they could find a way to make the game work on the larger screen, then they would look into bringing the game out for the iPad. Well, it appears that they’ve cracked that particular nut, as Foodies HD [$1.99] made a surprise appearance in the App Store this week.
One of the things that made the original Foodies so great was that it just felt perfect in regards to where your thumbs went when holding an iPhone or iPod touch. Very natural. It was hard to imagine how that could translate to a device that was more than four times the size, but I think Nano Titans has pulled it off about as well as you could expect. I still prefer to play the game on the iPhone, but it’s still quite successful on the iPad, and if that’s the only device that you own it’s well worth checking out Foodies HD.
One nice feature of Foodies HD is that it can be played in either portrait or landscape mode. In portrait, you can somewhat get away with using your thumbs to play like you normally would, though you still have to stretch them pretty far to do so. Still, it works pretty well. The sacrifice for this is that the game is then rendered on only the bottom portion of the screen, with the top portion being filled with static game artwork and your current score and online leaderboard position, as well as the top online score overall. I’m not a big fan of having games rendered in a smaller window within the screen of the iPad, but it isn’t too bad here, and at least they put the empty space up top to good use.
(Video from the iPhone version)
However, in landscape orientation, the game plays in full screen, and it looks especially crisp and vibrant on the iPad. The trouble here though is that it’s basically impossible to play with your two thumbs with any degree of proficiency, and instead the game recommends that you use your two index fingers to play. This of course means you’ll need to lay the iPad down in your lap or onto a table in order to have both hands free. I experimented with using the thumb and index finger of one hand to play while holding the iPad with my other hand, but it was just too awkward to really be of any use. Still, with a properly positioned iPad, I felt that using two index fingers and having the larger screen actually helped me play better than I normally do on the iPhone, which is pretty cool.
So, the bottom line is that Foodies is a clever, intuitive, and unique experience on the iPhone, and that all remains fairly true with Foodies HD on the iPad. As long as you know the sacrifices that need to be made with the larger device, then you should have a great time playing through the many levels in Foodies HD, and every iPad owner should definitely check it out. If you own the game on the iPhone or iPod touch already, then you aren’t really missing out on anything by just sticking with that version.
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‘Crazy Escape’ Review – Why Penguins Should Not Have Driver’s Licenses
Fall 2011 is the unofficial season of anthropomorphized penguins. Don’t believe me? Between the and the release of Happy Feet 2, adorable penguins are everywhere. Now, a third entry into fall’s penguin lineup is here in the form of BulkyPix’s super-cute new game, Crazy Escape [99¢]. And this one answers the question on everybody’s mind: Can penguins drive tiny penguin cars, and if so, is it extra-adorable?
It’s a story as old as time itself: Two penguin buddies have to take to their Jeep (err, low-emission 4×4 of indeterminate branding, I should say) to save their sheep friends from being kidnapped and eaten by wolves. As these penguins race along the winding road, they must collect sheep, stars (ostensibly because penguins like shiny objects?), keys (to unchain locked-up sheep, of course!), and avoid stationary wolves, roaming wolves, chasing wolves – basically wolves of all kinds, all right?! You can run into fences (good) and trees (bad!), and the less road you cover to complete the level, the better.
Your finger acts as a simultaneous road-creating device and penguin-steerer. You drag your finger across the screen to create the path your penguins take. Ideally, you devise the shortest route possible to collect your stars and sheep friends, as this results in the highest score.
At first, it’s not particularly challenging because there’s no element of speed involved. However, as the game progresses, wolves start out on the road behind you, following your every movement, and if you dawdle too long you’ll be busted for sure. Additionally, things like oil slicks and trees get in your path which, if hit, cause you to swerve (at best) or force you to restart the level (at worst). Here’s hoping everyone was wearing their seatbelts!
The levels go by lightning-fast, so it’s perfect if you have a short attention span or a short period of time in which to play. The graphics are also pretty cute. However, as it’s a line-drawing game, the most important part is the drawing element. The worst part of so many drawing games is an imprecise, over-sensitive or otherwise less-than-ideal drawing mechanic.
Luckily, that’s not the case with Crazy Escape. The drawing was perfectly in-sync with my finger; at times, perhaps a little too in-sync, as I have shaky hands (particularly when being chased by hungry wolves). My only real complaint is that on an iPhone or iPod touch screen, it’s hard to see what you’re doing. My chubby fingers kept blocking my view, which made it difficult to navigate around the increasingly challenging obstacles the game threw at me as I progressed.
Still, despite my fat fingers, I found this game to be extremely fun. For only a buck, there’s really no excuse to not download this one. You get a seemingly-endless number of levels and a fun diversion, and it’s Universal to boot. Besides, you don’t want to find yourself ill-prepared for the fall penguin craze, do you?
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‘Super Crossfire’ Review – The Ups and Downs of ‘Space Invaders’
The arcade shoot'em-up Crossfire was released for Xbox in July 2010, followed by Crossfire 2 a few months later. Now and their publisher, , have released Super Crossfire [99¢ / HD] for our iOS devices. This game plays like a colorful version of the classic 1978 game , with one key difference: When a wall of bullets and lazers rains down on you, leaving you boxed in the corner and about to be destroyed …your spaceship can flee to safety by warping between the top and bottom of the screen.
But warping to the top of the screen doesn't necessarily ensure your safety, as the aliens can shoot upwards too. Some enemies have shields and can only be hit from one side, which necessitates warping up and down to get a clear shot. By collecting the gems dropped by destroyed aliens, you can charge up segments of your super-fire meter, then briefly shoot anything, even if it's shielded.
The warp drive is an interesting twist, as it forces you to pay attention to both parts of the screen. The developers mentions that they once considered having enemies move like another classic arcade game, , but they decided against this as it interfered with the warping. Still, it would be nice to see some different movements or perhaps a boss appear. That said, the game throws 19 enemies and more and more bullets at you, until it almost feels like a bullet-hell scenario, which works really well.
Periodically, a UFO flies across the screen, which is another familiar concept from Space Invaders. The flying saucer drops a power-up when destroyed. For example, it might drop a bubble shield or slow-down the enemies movements. To collect a pick-up you simply warp across it. Unfortunately the pick-ups aren't super exciting and it doesn't announce what they are when collected. Although the bubble-shield is very handy amongst all those bullets.
The game has a fast and exciting pace, with wave after wave of vector-graphics style enemies. There's a camera tilt effect which displays the entire game on an angle which changes each time you warp. You can select high or low angle tilt, although I personally found the angled perspective off-putting and turned this option completely off, so it's great that these options were included.
After every five waves of alien attack, your ship is repaired and you're given the opportunity to upgrade it using the points you've acquired. The upgrade system works really nicely. There are ten upgrade categories, including: Armor, speed, shot frequency / power, firing rate, shot spread / speed, super power, super segments and gem magnetism. You can also downgrade these categories mid-game and re-allocate the points to different abilities. An auto-upgrade option is available, but it's fun to customize it manually.
Super Crossfire offers hundreds of control options (or to be more precise: 9). This includes 3 button, 3 tilting and 3 slider lay-outs, with additional options for multi-touch. Unfortunately, none of these control options felt nice on the iPad, as the left and right buttons are too far apart. If you're going to put that much effort into controls, it's probably better to let the user customize the button positions themselves. Fortunately, it's far more comfortable, enjoyable and cheaper to play on the smaller iPhone or iPod touch screen, where the buttons are closer together.
The main menu has an "Unlockables" section, listing nine items to unlock with earned victory points. For example, the "doubler" makes enemies and gems worth twice as much, "Musician" enables the music-player option on the main menu, with sliders for tweaking filter and pitch, while "perfection gives you extra victory points for each perfect wave. The most expensive unlockable is "Super Blast" which gives you a wider superfire. You can also use your victory points to unlock chapters early. And you can buy victory points as in-app purchases.
There are five chapters to play through, with 150 unique enemy waves and three difficulty levels to unlock. The leaderboards are managed using Chillingo's Crystal as well as Game Center, along with 16 achievements. There's high score tables for 1-life and composite scores, plus a leaderboard for each of the five chapters. When you die, you can continue an infinite amount of times, without needing to restart from the very beginning, thankfully.
Personally, I didn't enjoy playing Super Crossfire on the iPad as the main left / right controls are too far apart. However, after switching to the smaller iPod screen, it was an enjoyable classic-feeling arcade experience. After 33 years, shooting space invaders is still fun! The developer advises the first update will include the "Dark Chapters", delivering some even faster-paced action and offering higher upgrade points, with an alternate background color scheme. The first update will also include additional leaderboards and achievements.
Super Crossfire™, $0.99
Super Crossfire™ HD, $2.99 (Universal)
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GDC Online 2011 In Four Words: Graeme Devine is Right
One thing that I do quite a bit of for TouchArcade is attend various conferences. We always hit the big ones like E3 in Los Angeles, along with both WWDC and GDC in San Francisco as well as several smaller conventions throughout the year that often don't amount to a lot of coverage– But where it's still great to meet people and have a presence at them. These events (even the mega-corporate ones like E3) have a vibe about them that's really difficult to describe unless you've been to one.
I think the best way to label the feeling would be "inspirational." You're surrounded by game developers who have all travelled from the farthest corners of the Earth with goals to both promote their existing games, as well as improve their future titles. I've seen amazing things come out of game jams, partnerships spring up over coffee, and game ideas being refined via a form of incredibly open peer review over beer and pizza. The whole process is great, and leaves you feeling lucky that you even had the chance to play your small role in witnessing it.
Attendees of these various get-togethers likely know exactly what I'm talking about, and this is wholly the reason why I always encourage developers to attend conventions whenever possible. Sure, they can often times seem like an unnecessary business expense, but can you really put a price on the value of one piece of random feedback that takes your entire project to a whole new level?
Anyway, not having attended GDC Online since 2009 (It was GDC Austin then) I was beyond stoked to take part in the conference. Not very many developers that I've worked with in the past were going, but that was OK– the best part about conventions is meeting new people and being absolutely awestruck when they show you what they're working on.
Sword & Sworcery amazed us at GDC '10.
GDC is split into several different sub-categories that they call summits. Of particular interest to me was the Smartphone and Tablet Games Summit, which historically at other events has been fairly interesting with compelling panels and speakers covering a wide variety of topics. Looking back at my last visit to Austin, TX I heard a talk from Imangi Studios on their tips for success as well as the guys from Tiger Style detailing their whole creative and business process. These sessions were educational, and while they both cited specific things they did, the advice was all general enough that everyone could take something away to improve their games or how they make their games.
Somehow, over the last two years, GDC Austin Online seems to have shifted to a convention where you go to learn how to be a better game developer to a convention where you go to learn how juice the absolute maximum amount of money out of your player base. Sessions where you listen to developers give newcomers incredibly useful tips and inspirational advice have been replaced by representatives from large free to play development outfits talking about the chilling precision their in-depth analytics package allows them for real-time tweaking to encourage in-app purchasing rates in their farming games.
Panels on utilizing the touch interface in unique and clever ways have been shifted to presentations on the importance of monetization, and everywhere you look it seems like there's a different middleware provider anxious to tell you all about their new virtual currency, metrics package, or captive pool of freemium players that they're willing to sell you if the price is right.
I felt something was off for the whole convention, until I attended the "Smartphone & Tablet Developer Rant" panel, where said what I imagine quite a few people (myself included) were thinking: GDC Online isn't a game developers conference, it's a data miner and metrics convention. "We're not game developers here," as a response to the pressure from every direction to monetize every possible avenue in your game where a player might have the opportunity to earn you money in one way or another.
Following the rant, I had quite the discussion with Devine about the current trends in iOS gaming. We both fondly looked back to that initial experience of powering up the original iPhone. According to Graeme, inertial scrolling and pinch to zoom felt "magical," and I'm in complete agreement. We've gotten to the point where this 30+ year veteran of the gaming industry has no qualms describing iOS devices as the best gaming platform, as the potential that the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch have borders on limitless– But the direction that many iOS developers are taking them couldn't be more depressing.
"Metrics are great," says Devine, referring to the ability of always-on and always-connected devices like the iPhone to constantly report all forms of analytics. Now developers can easily tell when you play, how long you play, when players fail, and much, much more. For a game designer actively looking to improve their game, on the iPhone it's easy to see that too many players are falling into a pit in your platform game that you never intended to be a challenging obstacle, for instance. That hazard can be easily tuned, and quickly dispatched via an update. Even though metrics can certainly have a spyware-like feel to them, they can also be instrumental in building a substantially better game. Especially a low-budget iPhone game that likely doesn't enjoy the benefits of a vast army of play testers.
Unfortunately, the way developers are using these tools, and the way far too many business-types are encouraging them to, is to fine-tune revenue streams. Remember, if you're not buying a product, you are the product– With the success of the free to play model on the App Store, projects are now being built from the ground up with maximum monetization in mind. Developers are evolving their business to even stray from in-app purchases as their primary revenue sources, realizing that there's just as much (if not more) value in the larger portion of their user base that never buys anything who can be sold and traded with other developers for cross-promotion deals.
Graeme argues that the word "monetization" shouldn't even be in the game designer's vocabulary, and offers examples of previous creative works that would never have existed in today's metrics-hungry world of live tweaking and over-analysis. He proposes a whole host of ridiculous changes that would've been made to a game like Pac-Man if power pellets could only be obtained through some kind of in-game credit system. These kind of things would have changed gaming history, and it's sad to see how thoroughly similar creativity is being stifled in the name of scientifically extracting the most money possible out of the audience.
As a life-long gamer, I find this trend to be incredibly unsettling. I realize the cold hard reality of the business of video games requires developers to turn a profit, but I just hate thinking that the developer who might have come up with the next Sword & Sworcery or Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor has eternally relegated that project to the back burner in exchange for spending time pouring over analytics and tweaking their latest freemium time sink for optimal average revenue per user.
I suppose it's only human nature to try to assign blame for this latest turn of events in the ever-evolving saga of the App Store, but when you think about it, whose fault is it? The ad networks, the virtual currency systems, and the people behind all other forms of metrics-hungry middleware are merely fulfilling a heinously profitable demand. New companies wouldn't be springing up on a seemingly daily basis offering the next big thing in free to play monetization if there weren't a pool of developers hungry to hop on board. Similarly, these developers wouldn't be pulling out all the stops to become fully invested in the free to play model if the money wasn't there from an ever-growing user base eager to pump proverbial quarters into these games to speed a progress bar.
At the end of the day, it's the customer base that is driving developers down this road. Just like middleware providers, they're similarly fulfilling a demand. Since the launch of the App Store in 2008, the value proposition of your typical iOS title has continually sliding towards offering more and more for less and less. Simple games like launched at $5.99, slid to $4.99, and settled at the rock-bottom price of 99¢ in less than two months. 99¢ became the expected price for games for the next few years, and now– Even 99¢ is too expensive. The talks of GDC are also just reflecting this demand, as the entire event agenda is set by an advisory board who is well tuned into all aspects of the gaming industry.
So what can we do to change this? For the first time, I'm really not sure. This is normally where I'd champion the premium priced "full" game experiences with fabulous production values like Infinity Blade and encourage people to actually try to support developers at higher price points in attempt to stop the toxic "I'll wait for the 99¢ sale" mentality. But, this problem is far bigger than that. The people driving this market are the ones who've never read TouchArcade, who don't follow gaming, and are just downloading the next free to play sensation because the carefully tuned viral aspect of friend recruitment drove them to, they saw it on the charts, or a million other reasons that'd never put them in the same room as someone who cares about a long-winded editorial on monetization as a part of game design.
I think I'd just really like to meet the person who launches one of these games, does their daily in-app purchase to buy a load of in-game currency, spends that all in the course of five minutes, then feels satisfied enough with their purchase to do it again and again and again.
My question to this person is, "Why?"
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Relax… ‘GTA III’ Won’t Be A5-Only Forever, New Gameplay Video Surfaces
Last week, we told you the (somewhat) surprising news that Rockstar would be bringing the classic Grand Theft Auto III to iOS and Android platforms to celebrate the franchise's 10 year anniversary of entering the world of 3D, and thus changing the open-world sandbox genre forever. At the time, Rockstar noted that the game was only planned for dual-core processor-based devices, due to the strain that running a huge open-world game would have on lesser mobile hardware. On the iOS side of things, that meant that only the iPad 2 and the brand new iPhone 4S would be able to run GTA III thanks to their dual-core A5 chips.
Of course, there are far, far more GTA fans than there are A5 device owners, and there was quite a backlash from gamers with older devices who were understandably upset that they wouldn't be able to get their carjack-on without upgrading their kit. However, over the weekend Rockstar has been showing off GTA III for mobile devices in playable form at the New York Comic-Con, and in fact they have that the dual-core processor requirement will only be a limitation at first, and that they're planning on having the game be compatible with single-core iOS devices sometime after launch.
Now, before you go getting too excited, they don't specifically state which single-core devices they intend to target. It may just be the iPhone 4, since it's the only other device with 512 mb of RAM, which could be a deal breaker for the iPhone 3GS and 3rd and 4th generation iPod touch. We really don't know at this point, but at least the compatible device listing will be increasing in some capacity, which is a good thing.
Speaking of GTA III at NYCC, one adventurous attendee decided to muster up some courage and take a little video of himself playing the game on an iPad 2 demo unit. So far, it looks like the GTA III that we all know and love from 10 years ago:
Chances are pretty good that this video was not taken with the permission of the Rockstar reps on hand at the convention, so don't be surprised if the video ends up disappearing sooner rather than later. But for now, it's a nice glimpse into what GTA III will be like on mobile. Also, though it's hard to tell from this shaky video, various other outlets' hands-on impressions of the demo build so far all state that the visuals have been given the high-res treatment, or at least as high a resolution as a 10 year old game can have. This leads me to believe that the GTA III we end up getting on iOS is based off of the superior Xbox version, though that's just a bit of speculation on my part.
GTA III is scheduled for a Fall release, and if it's anything like their launch of Chinatown Wars on iOS, we may be seeing the game incredibly soon, as that title popped up just a few short days after they were showing off preview builds to the media. That's more speculation on my part, but I remain hopeful. Until the game actually does launch, feel free to where GTA III: 10th Anniversary Edition is getting a healthy amount of discussion.
[Via and ]
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So You Just Got an iPhone 4S… Here’s What You Need to Know!
Why hello brand new iPhone 4S owners. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Eli, I'm 6 feet tall, brown hair, blue eyes, and love long walks on the beach… Wait, wait, wait, wrong introduction. Err, anyway, let's assume you've just unboxed your iPhone 4S, peeled all the plastic off of it, and are currently waiting for it to do its first sync. You looked up "" trying to figure out what you should downloaded, and that landed you here.
[Note to current readers: This guide is written for people who just got their iPhone, or are stumbling across TouchArcade for the first time today trying to find games for their new device. If you're a close follower of this site, chances are high that you're already aware of the things I'll be discussing and the games I'll be linking, but you never know, you might learn something!]
TouchArcade is the largest iOS-specific gaming site on the internet. We've got a whole staff of writers dedicated to finding and reviewing the coolest games available on the App Store, and are widely regarded by iOS developers as the place to be to discuss iOS gaming. Come back often, and I promise we'll always have new and exciting things to check out every time you do. We've even got an app in development which will make TouchArcade-powered game discovery even easier.
Every month we'll do a "Best iOS Games" roundup post that bundles up all the best games that we reviewed in a particular month. These articles are the best place to get started if you want a quick glance at all the best games that have come out, accessible via the Best iPhone Games category link in the far right column. (Or by clicking that link I just dropped.)
We've also done more substantial "best of" roundups at the end of each year, as well as when new devices are released, much like this post. Here's a list of those:
- So You Just Got a Verizon iPhone… Let's Get You Up To Speed!
- – An App Store Gaming Guide
- Best iPod Touch and iPhone Games: 2010 Buyer's Guide
- 2010: TouchArcade Staff Favorites – Eli
- 2010: TouchArcade Staff Favorites – Blake
- 2010: TouchArcade Staff Favorites – Brad
- 2010: TouchArcade Staff Favorites – Jared
- Best iPod Touch and iPhone Games: 2009 Buyer's Guide
Also, we record not one, but two iOS gaming specific podcasts that we do on a weekly basis. The first, which generally lands early in the week is our "Bonus" show where we'll interview leading iOS developers on their games, as well as their past and future as game developers. Every Friday evening we release The TouchArcade Show proper which is an hour-ish long recap of the games and news of the week. There's four ways you can get our podcast:
- iTunes Link: The TouchArcade Show
- Zune Marketplace: TouchArcade.com Podcasts
- RSS Feed: The TouchArcade Show
- Embedded Streaming Flash Player: TouchArcade "Podcast" Category
Also, if you're new to the App Store, you'll likely be delighted to find out about the incredible culture of sales, freebies, and other promotions of great games. While even new release "premium" games are never anywhere near as expensive as traditional portable console games, if you're careful with following and tracking sales, you can get an unbelievable amount of titles for either free or 99¢. I've written up a handy dandy guide on how to use our sister site , as well as the AppShopper App [Free] to basically never need to pay full price for anything– As long as you're patient. With the release of the 4S, and developers scrambling for your dollars, the "" section of the site is particularly active lately.
I think that's everything you really need to know to be on your way to being a savvy iOS gamer. And seriously, I can't stress enough how much you really should . Our forum community is crazy enthusiastic about iPhone games, and you'll find threads posted for newly released titles before anyone else has posted about those games being available and threads for the best deals, often moments after dropped prices appear on iTunes. It's really pretty incredible.
So now that I've blasted your head full of knowledge, here's some iOS games that'd be a great fit for your brand spankin' new iPhone 4S, or really, any brand new iOS device. Keep in mind this obviously isn't a list of every game you should have, for that check out the previously mentioned Best iPhone Games listing, or stop by the " thread on our forums where people can recommend exactly what you should check out if you post what kind of thing you're normally interested in.
Graphical Showpieces
Probably the best place to get started is on games that'll truly stretch the legs of the iPhone 4S's dual-core A5 processor. These games are packed with eye candy.
Infinity Blade, $5.99 – [Review] – [] – ChAIR's amazing gesture-based swordfighter which utilizes the Unreal Engine was released last year, but it's still the best way to show off what your iOS device can do. Incredible graphics are paired with a great gesture-based sword fighting system, and constant updates have kept the game fresh. There's even a sequel coming on December 1st.
Dead Space™, $0.99 – [Review] – [] – "Console quality" is a phrase that's thrown around a lot to describe portable games, and really, it's a fitting title for this iOS-exclusive version of Dead Space. Playing in a dark room with headphones makes for an incredibly creepy experience, as EA totally nailed the sound design that has made previous Dead Space titles so awesome.
Real Racing 2, $4.99 – [Review] – [] – A marvelous sequel to Firemint's original Real Racing, which improves upon the first in every way imaginable. A career mode, licensed cars, and 16 player online multiplayer are just a few of the new features. If you've got an AppleTV, it'll even stream wirelessly to play on your TV, among other cool things.
Anomaly Warzone Earth, $1.99 / HD – [Review] – [] – Who knew that turning tower defense in reverse would make for such an incredible game? If you're even vaguely interested in anything to do to tower defense, Anomaly: Warzone Earth needs to be on your iOS device. The mechanics are solid, the atmosphere is cool, the graphics are incredible and it'll leave you wanting for a sequel.
Dark Meadow, $5.99 – [Review] – [] – A wonky combat system is the only thing that has stopped us from fully recommending The Dark Meadow. If you can deal with that, you'll be in for a treat as the atmosphere and story of the game are absolutely phenomenal. If you're a fan of creepy atmospheric games, you'll likely love this one.
SHADOWGUN, $4.99 – [Review] – [] – This game is an entirely formulaic third person cover-based shooter that feels a bit more like a tech demo than it should, but it's still an incredible display of what the Unity engine is capable of. A multiplayer update with no ETA is on the horizon, which would be a welcome reprieve from an otherwise repetitive (but great looking) title.
iOS Classics
On the opposite spectrum from the graphical showpieces are the iOS classics, games which are so casual your grandma could play 'em that are still fun as heck even for stodgy "hardcore" types– And have sold millions of copies.
Angry Birds, $0.99 – [Review] – [] – Chances are you've already heard of Angry Birds, unless you've spent the last year of your life living on Mars in a cave with your eyes closed and your fingers in your ears. It's ridiculously popular, and for good reason: The game is incredibly fun, very simple to play, and updated often. I'd start with the original Angry Birds, but be sure to check out the other flavors, Angry Birds Seasons [99¢] and Angry Birds Rio [99¢].
Doodle Jump – BE WARNED: Insanely Addictive!, $0.99 – [Review] – [] – Before Angry Birds' rise to power, Doodle Jump was king of the App Store. This simple tilt-based jumping game became a party of early iPhone pop culture, getting mentioned in sitcoms, name-dropped on various talk shows, and even appearing on stage at a Lady Gaga concert. A recent multiplayer update made this game even better.
Canabalt, $2.99 – [Review] – [] – While I'm not sure that Canabalt was responsible for bringing the endless runner to the App Store, it did it the best. A great soundtrack is paired with pixel art graphics and gameplay that basically begs for one more play through. If you want a similar game that's fleshed out a bit more with goals and unlockables, Halfbrick's Jetpack Joyride [99¢] is one of our recent favorites.
Fruit Ninja, $0.99 – [Review] – [] – In this game, you pretend your finger is a ninja sword and you slice up fruit. The premise is simple, but the gameplay is basically perfect for these types of touch-based portable devices. Play sessions can last anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes, and multiple game modes offer something for just about everyone.
Flight Control, $0.99 – [Review] – [] – Single-handedly responsible for popularizing the "chaos management" genre, Flight Control also made "line drawing" a popular control mechanic that's used in a ridiculous amount of iOS titles now. For some additional variety, you can also pick up Harbor Master [99¢] which provides similar gameplay, but with different levels and a nautical twist.
Free to Play
Love it or hate it, free to play games have taken the App Store by storm this year. These games are a little more fun than your average Farmville clone, mostly because they feel like more of a game and less of a money-vaccuuming compulsion loop:
Pocket Frogs, Free – [Review] – [] – In this game, player control a habitat of cute little frogs– Endlessly breeding for new varieties, mutations, and more. Aside from collecting 'em all, Pocket Frogs offers other in-game goals such as a daily challenge to breed a particular frog. Once you get a handle on how the breeding mechanic works, you can have a frog-breeding super-lab up and running in no time.
Tiny Tower, Free – [Review] – [] – From the same developer as Pocket Frogs, this time you're put to the task of acting as a building manager for a sky scraper filled with pixelized citizens (or "bitizens"). Gameplay focuses on building your tower, as well as managing the various businesses and residencies that exist inside your tower.
DragonVale, Free – [Review] – [] – Mixing many of the elements from other popular free to play games, DragonVale is the latest from Backflip Studios who already have an impressive free catalog on iTunes. You create dragon habitats and breed your own colony of dragons, on the search for the legendary rainbow dragon, a rare breed of dragon that is driving players on our forum mad trying to find.
Tiny Farm by Com2uS, Free – [Review] – [] – Similar to DragonVale and Pocket Frogs, Tiny Farm has a great breeding mechanic which seems to add a lot more depth to the game. There's a hunting system to get mega-rare animals, a super-cute art style, and there's even plans for crazy seasonal ghost animals coming up for Halloween.
Asynchronous Multiplayer
One of the best part about the iPhone is its always-on connectivity which has allowed for the miracle of push notifications. These games all rely heavily on the push notification infrastructure, sending you an alert when its your turn:
Disc Drivin’, $1.99 – [Review] – [] – People around here are absolutely obsessed with this game. Imagine a racing game with shuffleboard-like mechanics, tons of power-ups, and push alert based multiplayer. That's Disc Drivin in a nutshell. There's also a ad-sponsored version available, Disc Drivin' Free [Free].
Words With Friends, $0.99 – [Review] – [] – Since we first covered Words With Friends, the game has grown to an absolutely -massive- scale. You now can play cross-platform with Android and Facebook players, and the developers have been acquired by Zynga in the process. If their take on Scrabble isn't your cup of tea, Hanging With Friends [99¢] offers up Hangman-style gameplay and what Chess With Friends [$1.99] provides should be fairly self explanatory. All the versions of these games also have free ad-based versions, but you're better off just buying them as the interstitials can be pretty annoying.
Puzzle Games
The App Store is home to a serious amount of puzzle games of all shapes and sizes. Here are a few of our favorites:
Dungeon Raid, $2.99 – [Review] – [] – As mentioned in our review of the game, with the number of fish in the match three sea, it takes a lot to make one that's just as fun (if not more so) than the match three staples like Bejeweled 2 and other classics. Dungeon Raid accomplishes this by distilling the Puzzle Quest formula down to its basics, and providing match three gameplay that retains its simple nature while offering a shocking amount of depth via random equipment and character upgrades. Also, there's much more to matching than just high scoring, clearing each type of block has a purpose, and the order you clear them in can mean life or death. This game has stolen hours of my time, I can't recommend it enough.
Puzzle Quest 2, $4.99 – [Review] – [] – If you want even more depth than Dungeon Raid has to offer, check out Puzzle Quest 2. It's a great sequel to the original in every way, and it even has a multiplayer battle mode. Multiple character classes add some serious replay value to the game, making this something you can sink days of your life into if it sucks you in.
Monsters Ate My Condo, $0.99 – [Review] – [] – Adult Swim and Pik Pok joined forces to bring us one of the craziest matching games we've ever seen on the App Store. The game requires matching similarly colored floors while appeasing nearby color-coded monsters, each with a more ridiculous super-power than the last. Also, you can score billions if you're good. Billions!
Helsing’s Fire, $0.99 – [Review] – [] – Helsing's Fire sends you on a quest to destroy Dracula, placing you in 90 randomly generated, dungeon-like levels across three different worlds. The challenge is to eliminate said beasties by moving your torch about the screen, which casts brilliant beams of light and dark shadows about the play area. It's one of the most unique puzzle games we've played, and several updates has made it even better than when we first checked it out.
Drop7 by Zynga, $2.99 – [Review] – [] – This game came out all the way back in 2009, which is ancient in App Store terms, but I've found myself playing it again and Drop7 is as fun as ever. It's a numerical puzzle game where you've got to drop numeric discs into rows and columns, and when that row adds up to that disc, it disappears. There's all kinds of different tricks and nuances you start to notice as you play, making Drop7 almost perfectly fit the "easy to play, difficult to master" mega-cliche game description.
Other Great Games
I'm not really sure what to categorize these as, but they're some of my absolute favorite games the App Store has to offer:
Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, $4.99 – [Review] – [] – If you only ever install one game on your iOS device, let it be this one. Sword & Sworcery is an amazing experience from top to bottom. The best pixel art I've ever seen is combined with a custom-tailed soundtrack to create an iOS title that's as much of an experience as it is a game. The "full" version is universal, but if you don't care about that, you can save a couple bucks by picking up Sword & Sworcery EP Micro [$2.99]
King of Dragon Pass, $9.99 – [Review] – [] – No lie, I've spent more time playing this game than all the other games that we reviewed in September combined. If my exhaustive review wasn't clear enough, here's all you need to know: If you like simulation games, you needed King of Dragon Pass on your iPhone yesterday. I've still got my fingers crossed for an iPad version, but I'm more than happy managing my clan whenever I've got a few seconds to spare on my iPhone.
Space Miner™, $2.99 – [Review] – [] – Looking back on the game releases of 2010 trying to pick what we thought was the best lead to us continually coming back to Space Miner. We loved the classic Asteroids-style gameplay, the clever storytelling, and the degree of customization that kept us coming back for more through multiple play throughs. Depending on how you load your ship out, the game plays much differently. For instance, you can be a glass cannon prioritizing asteroid-pulverizing guns, or take a more slow and steady approach prioritizing shields and cargo space for huge hauls of ore.
Carcassonne, $9.99 – [Review] – [] – There are many board games that have made their way to the App Store, but Carcassonne is by far the finest. Online asynchronous multiplayer, Retina Display graphics, universal compatibility, and classic gameplay. It doesn't get much better than this.
Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor, $0.99 – [Review] – [] – We choose Tiger Style Games' Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor for our 2009 Game of the Year first and foremost because it's a great game, but also because it perfectly represented the promise of iPhone gaming. A clever method of story telling only provides the player with as much depth as they're willing to get out of it. You can chose to play as a spider, just completing objectives… Or let your human curiosity take control and try to unravel the mysteries of Bryce Manor.
Game Dev Story, $3.99 – [Review] – [] – At first glance this appears to be an abysmal port of a J2ME game… Then you play it. A few hours later you will be looking for your charger to keep playing. In the game you run your own game studio, managing staff, making games, and even releasing your own console. Once Game Dev Story sucks you in, it's impossible to put down. I think this is their easiest game to get engrossed in, mostly because of the familiar subject manner. If you like this style of gameplay, check out Kairosoft's library of games on the App Store for tons more.
The hard part about putting together lists like this is that for each game I've included, I can think of at least ten (actually, way more than that) titles that are easily worthy of being on any must-have list for a new iOS device owner. So, instead of leaving the typical "Argh! Why is _______ on the list but _______ isn't?!" comments, I'd like to invite everyone to leave comments listing off their favorite games. Imagine a friend of yours just got an iPhone 4S, and asked you what do get. What would you tell them? More importantly, why do you recommend each of these games? A list is nothing without some context as to why they're so amazing!
So, congratulations new iPhone 4S owners. I'm glad you've discovered TouchArcade. Regular readers, I hope you learned at least something new. If nothing else, the launch of the iPhone 4S makes the pool of iOS devices even larger, which only benefits the iOS community as a whole.
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