Archive for the ‘iPod’ tag
‘Ticket To Ride Pocket’ Goes Asynchronous In New Update
Ticket to Ride Pocket [$1.99], the iPhone and iPod Touch-specific version of the wonderful board game translation, has received a huge update. Starting now, users can now rock out online for the first time in a new asynchronous mode that allows up to four games per user. Less excitingly, local play has received a few tweaks: games no longer just quit out whenever there’s a disconnect, and an AI or two can now join in on the fun.
The patch notes also mention a lot of bug fixes, including memory leaks. Hit those up if you are really, really into the nitty-gritty of a splendidly comprehensive patch that adds functionality that we’ve all been waiting for. Here’s to down the line, too.
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Freebie Alert – ‘Babylonian Twins HD’ for the iPad
Originally developed for the Amiga, Babylonian Twins [99¢/HD] never made it to market but found life nearly 17 years later on the App Store. This platformer that has you swapping between two different characters, each with different abilities, in order to solve the many puzzles and progress through the game. It’s a lengthy and satisfying trip too, and currently you can grab the iPad version for free for the first time ever.
You can read our thoughts on this Babylonian Twins reboot in our full review, and you can learn even more about the amazing history behind the game finally being finished and released. To summarize: Babylonian Twins is an excellent game and it’s practically a miracle that we’re able to finally play it. Suffice to say, if you own an iPad and have even a passing interest in puzzle games or platformers, you should download Babylonian Twins HD while it’s still free. For iPhone and iPod touch owners, you should also consider dropping the 99¢ for the small version if you don’t have it already.
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‘Puzzlejuice’ Review – A Mashup of Tetris, Match-3 and Boggle
If you enjoy Tetris, match-3 games and Boggle, then Puzzlejuice [99¢] from might be right up your alley. That’s because this falling-block, color-matching, word-finding mash-up combines these things into a nice-looking bundle of pleasure.
Puzzlejuice starts with falling puzzle-blocks, just like Tetris. You can rotate each falling block by tapping the screen or drag it left or right. A ghost image of the block shows where it will end up at the bottom. When you’re happy with the position of the block, you can swipe it downwards to speed up its descent. And the idea is to form a solid row. That should all sound fairly familiar for anyone who knows Tetris, but that’s just the start of this game.
When you form a solid row of blocks across the playing area, instead of disappearing, the blocks turn into letters. And to make the letters disappear, you must draw a line across adjoining letter-blocks, to spell a word in eight directions, like Boggle. If your word is long enough, the surrounding blocks are also destroyed. So now you’re multitasking between managing falling blocks and finding words.
The falling blocks are comprised of different colors. Whenever you match-up three or more blocks of the same color, those blocks can be tapped so they convert into letters. So now you’re managing falling blocks, matching and tapping colors and also finding words, which is enough to keep your brain challenged and fully entertained (especially if you’re a male, because apparently we’re not great at multitasking).
A series of objectives are provided as well, which can be completed across multiple games. For example, you might need to spell a six letter word, use two power-ups simultaneously or activate 3+ rows at once. By satisfying these objectives, you can unlock power-ups, like “The Kabomb!” (explodes blocks), “Driller” (falling blocks carve through everything they touch) or “Twister” (scrambles the blocks). You can choose up to three power-ups to carry.
There are two game modes, Zen and Core. In Zen Mode the blocks don’t drop, but you only get 90 seconds to play. In Core Mode you play until the blocks reach the top of the screen. Core Mode has two difficulty levels, with the harder levels requiring longer words to explode surrounding blocks, but offering three times the points. Basically, the longer your words, the bigger the width of your explosion, which all helps your Game Center score.
I tried this universal game on the iPad and iPod touch, both of which played well, although the music spluttered at times on my 4th generation iPod. There’s a “picture-in-picture” mode for the smaller screen devices, which shows a zoomed in image of what’s under your finger. On the iPad that mode is unnecessary, but on the smaller screen it’s useful for seeing the words you’re swiping, or un-swiping.
Puzzlejuice may not be totally original, as it combines three common App Store genres, but putting them together into one game was a stroke of genius. It’s a real breath of fresh air with loads of frantic gameplay, style and humor. As an added bonus, Puzzlejuice is currently on sale for 99¢ due to being featured by Apple, and at that bargain price (or its original price of $2.99, for that matter) it’s a strong recommendation for puzzle and word game fans.
TouchArcade Rating: 
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‘Adventure Bar Story’ Coming To iPhone In February
Adventure Bar Story, a -like RPG that originally released in Japan as Adventure Bar of Wonderland Portable on PSP, is being localized and fitted for iPhone and iPod Touch. , the studio behind this new effort, revealed its intentions to do this , and even dropped a few new screenshots to stimulate the community. We’re including a much less, er, eye-melting below.
Knock out the “item” part of Recettear’s title and insert “bar” if you want a decent idea of what you’ll be getting into with Adventure Bar Story. The goal is to have the best bar in the kingdom; To accomplish this, you’ll need to dungeon crawl and harvest the component parts of a variety of monsters to win cooking and drink contests. You know, just like in real life.
As of right now, the title is not slated to incorporate iPad support. That’ll be a thing the studio evaluates based on sales. Pricing, by the way, has yet to be confirmed.
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CES 2012: Hands On with the iCade Mobile
So, in the madhouse that is CES, I managed to track down the booth to get some hands on time with the new iCade Mobile.
The details remain the same as when we previously reported on it. The iCade Mobile will be priced at $79.99 when it launches. It’s got eight buttons, and a d-pad. Like the original iCade, it connects over Bluetooth.
What’s nice about the design is it supports both landscape and portrait modes. The iPhone or iPod Touch sits in a specially designed cradle that can rotate freely.
Of course, one side effect to this design is that it makes the whole device pretty big. You’ll be able to see in the hands on video that it adds a considerable amount of bulkage to your iOS device:
Unsurprisingly, control-wise it felt the same as the iCade. Some people seem to complain of a very slight lag in controls, but as you can see in the video, it’s pretty minimal. To my hands the controls felt nicely spaced out, though I didn’t really get a chance to test out the shoulder buttons in action. As with any of these accessories, it’s hard to imagine lugging one around with you everywhere you go, but the added convenience (over the original iCade) of being able to lean back in your couch is nice.
And here’s an official video from Ion Audio showing people having a hilarious time with it:
You too could look this happy. The device is coming this spring at $79.99.
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Hands-On With ‘Dungeon Crawlers,’ A Quirky Strategy RPG
‘ and ‘ next title is a 3D, close-quarters strategy RPG with the usual trimmings: ghouls, ghosts, swords, sorcery, dungeon crawling, and leveling are all a part of the package. It’s as functionally classical as its name, Dungeon Crawlers, implies, and nothing mechanical I’ve seen seems to be breaking any mold.
There is this one thing, though. It’s kinda quirky. In the opening moments, one of the party members clearly references Ghostbusters. Roy, the healer, carries around a weapon called “The Unreturned Library Tome.” When you search the first weapon rack you find, it calmly tells you that while there’s tons of weapons here, none of them are indeed yours.
Dungeon Crawlers, which is due out later this month, is straddling a fun line. It’s the video game equivalent of a mullet, reserved and business-like, yet fun-loving and goofy. What makes it a strategy RPG isn’t messed with, but the story, the weapons, and even the item pick-ups are all tinged with a lightheartedness that I’m OK with seeing — especially since fantasy is so stale.
The business part is good, by the way. After putting some time into a preview build, I feel like I can lazily sum up the mechanics as “Shining Force Meets Diablo.” There’s a lot of traditional strategy RPG in the combat, but you also freely move around and explore a dungeon in-between fights.
A typical confrontation goes a little something like this: the battleground morphs into a series of tiles, all of which can be accessed through turn-based play; blue titles indicate a movement can occur, red alerts you to the fact that you can attack, and green lets you know that healing can happen. Simple taps activate the action, while swipes allow you to move fluidly through skill menus. Pop an enemy enough, it dies. Rinse and repeat.
Kill enough dudes, and you level up and gain access to new skills that, of course, allow for a wider range of tactical options. Cleave, for instance, hits in a three square arc, while magic missile attacks from four spaces away. The overall strategy boils down to a touch of structural awareness, a heavy helping of positional wrangling, and a solid understanding of skill sets and AI behavior.
There’s some wrinkles. Boss fights promise some more interesting situational content. In the first fight, for example, the goal is to reach a goblin king in his throne instead of delivering his head on a platter. Later, you’ll see some puzzles and solo action.
Speaking of characters, you start out with three knuckleheads: a womanizing barbarian, a nerdy sorcerer, and a gluttonous healer. Their banter is inviting, and the situation the trio find themselves in is something straight out of Ghostbusters.
Weird influence, right? I asked Drowning Monkeys what’s up, and I was relieved to find that I wasn’t crazy.
“… the actual idea for the story came while we were prototyping the game, and we had created our archetypes. We were designing the characters and noticed the similarities to Ghostbusters, so we ran with it and started creating a story around that basic element.”
“The idea that something ‘big’ was happening, and that the characters were initially motivated by money and not because of a ‘call’ to do great things. I think in the end though, we actually have created a story that is unique and keeps the player interested in seeing what happens next.”
Humor is subjective kinda like quality is, so it’ll be interesting to see how Dungeon Crawlers clicks with everyone. I dig it. More importantly, though, I think the game part of it is on the right track. In its pre-release form, it feels almost as good as any of the great games in the genre, and I’ll be excited to dive in for the haul.
If all goes well, Dungeon Crawlers will see a release this January 26 across iPad, iPod Touch, and iPhone. We’ll definitely keep our eye on it, and I’m thinking you should, too.
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‘Hatchi’ Hits The App Store
We have good news and bad news for you. The good news? Portable Pixel’s Tamagotchi-style game, Hatchi [$.99], is now available on iPhone and iPod Touch for $.99. The bad news? The star of our glowing hands-on preview of the neat title, Big Poppa Pump, is dead. He left this world just 24 hours after the write-up. We can’t quite let him go yet, so he’s currently rotting as we figure out how to keep moving on with our lives.
In case you missed the piece, Hatchi is basically Tamagotchi for mobile. You hatch a little monster, and then feed, bathe, play, and teach it. As the hours tick by, it grows and evolves into something of your creation. Hatchi requires some patience, but it’s a cool experience that our .
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Imagination Spills the Beans on PowerVR Series6 GPU Family; 20x as Powerful and Likely Headed to iOS Devices
Imagination’s PowerVR GPU’s have shipped in every iOS device since the release of the iPhone 3GS and the third-generation iPod touch. Those early devices used the PowerVR SGX, while the iPad and iPhone 4 moved on to the PowerVR SGX 535, and finally the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S came packed with the PowerVR SGX543MP2. At CES today, they got ever-so-slightly more specific regarding the Series6 family of PowerVR GPU’s, and it seems incredibly likely that we’ll see them included in future iOS devices, judging by Apple’s three-generation track record of utilizing Imagination’s GPU technology.
Per the , gamers will be able to expect 20 times the performance of current generation hardware, along with a 5x boost in efficiency. Imagination has announced that 8 different outfits have signed up to utilize these new GPUs, but curiously enough, only list 6 of the companies. If I were a betting man, I’d put Apple as one of the two unlisted chip makers.
Needless to say, the potential these new GPUs have is just crazy to think about. The iPad 2 and iPhone 4S are already graphical powerhouses capable of rendering beautiful games like Infinity Blade 2, and imagining the next generation of devices potentially being 20 times more powerful is incredible.
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‘Lunar Racer’ Review – Jump, Flip, Shoot and Win
The first batch of new game releases in 2012 last week was relatively quiet, but Lunar Racer [99¢] from (the makers of Super Stickman Golf [99¢/HD] ) have got things off to a positive start by releasing a new lo-gravity racing game with plenty of jumps, heaps of flips and a couple of weapons.
Lunar Racer starts with a basic driving test, to secure your lunar license. During your rookie training, you learn that tapping the left half of the screen activates “gravity assist” to pull your vehicle towards the ground, while tapping the right side activates nitro boosters for a burst of speed. There’s no steering controls, as this game is all about timing your speed-boosts and jumps to beat your opponents.
Once you’re airborne, tilting the device left or right does a backwards or forwards flip. These flips are essential as each flip replenishes your nitro tanks, allowing you to pass opponents, jump higher, flip more and hopefully win. But if you don’t land safely on your wheels, you’ll crash, incurring a slight delay. The further you turn the device, the faster your racer spins and the more nitro you earn. There are also coins (MoonBux) to collect, both on the ground and floating, which is another incentive to go aerial.
You can use the MoonBux you collect to unlock 16 different vehicle chassis and a similar number of wheels, canopy colors or nitro styles (eg: perhaps you want pretty stars or a green flame shooting out when you turbo?). I believe that adds up to 16 x 16 x 16 x 16 possible combinations, which equals… a lot! The customizations don’t actually improve the attributes or performance of your vehicle, but it allows you to personalize its appearance.
The racing, jumping, flipping and customizations are all fun, but there are also weapons. You can use mines or missiles to attack your three opponents and deploy bubble-shields to protect yourself from their attacks. Once you pass over a generic power-up icon, a specific upgrade is randomly chosen and appears as a button to activate. Some users found this button uncomfortable to reach on the larger iPad screen, but it works fine on the iPod touch or iPhone.
The first race occurs on a space-station near Earth, but by winning races you gain the stars needed to unlock additional moons around Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. The developers plan to release more moons in future, to cover off the rest of our Solar System. The last two moons currently require local multiplayer wins to unlock, which isn’t ideal for those playing alone, but the developers plan to remedy this in an update, perhaps by allowing those levels to be unlocked by stars just like the other levels.
Lunar Racer currently has single player mode (racing against 3 AI-controlled opponents) and local multiplier mode (Bluetooth or WiFi for up to four players). The developers are already investigating the feasibility of an online multiplayer mode, however there’s issues with all the flipping and lag to deal with and NoodleCake told us they won’t release it unless it runs flawlessly, so it’s still an investigation in progress. They also revealed that they’d like to add an ‘endless’ arcade racing mode, where the terrain on the moon is generated procedurally.
Once you win a race with three stars, it unlocks a PRO tour mode for that moon with harder competitors.
This gives you an opportunity to earn three more stars for unlocking new moons. There’s also three specific goals listed for each moon, like: “Do 10 or more back flips” or “Get 15 perfect landings”. If you complete all three goals for a level, you get to play a special bonus round which focuses on collecting as many MoonBux as you can, without any opponents. Game Center and OpenFeint are both integrated for high scores and achievements.
Lunar Racer is already a fun title which I’ll be playing for a while, but it feels like it could be much more. Here’s hoping for more levels coming, an extra game mode planned & the possibility of online multiplayer mode. If they’ve got any spare time, perhaps they can put iCloud synching on their to-do list too.
TouchArcade Rating: 
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‘Cave Story’ Studio Releases ‘Azarashi’
, the one-man studio responsible for giving us the original , last Friday released its first iPhone and iPod touch game, Azarashi [$.99]. It’s as minimal as it is pure in focus; in it, you attempt to catch three seal keychains before they fall to the ground, and at the end of the round you are scored on your speed. Hit too early and you kill a delightful little seal, but do it just fast enough and you’ll earn more keychains to catch after all three rounds are over.
This is a really mini mini-game, so be aware of that before you download. If anything, it’s a brilliant display of Studio Pixel’s art, sound design, and edge. We’ve got some screens for those of you who don’t want to take the plunge just yet:
Cave Story is brilliant, by the way, and are still free. If you’ve got some extra computer time today, we highly suggest you give it a look.
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