TouchArcade.ru

If roleplaying games are your cup of tea, I would find it to be impossible to believe that you've never heard of Atlus, or if the name isn't immediately recognizable, surely you've played an Atlus game at some point in your life. Originally founded in 1986, this Tokyo-based developer (and publisher) have been responsible for quite a number of games on nearly every console going all the way back to the NES. Like many Japanese developers, games of theirs we see in the USA are filtered through an American subsidiary and the games released by Atlus USA are only a small sampling of what is actually available in the East. Their most recognizable US releases are likely the Tactics Ogre series (which I'd love to see on the App Store) and Disgaea: Hour of Darkness.

Published via Nate Games, a somewhat confusing spinoff of South Korean telecommunications operator SK Telecom comes the even more confusing iPhone port of the PSP game Crimson Gem Saga [$9.99]. Crimson Gem Saga is actually the sequel to an RPG called Astonishia Story, originally published in South Korea by SK Telecom as Astonishia Story 2, then as Garnet Chronicle in Japan, and finally as Crimson Gem Saga in North America. The reasoning behind all this odd name swapping is that even though the story is actually continued from Astonishia Story, quite a few of the game's mechanics were changed, and somehow, somewhere, someone thought three different titles for the same game would make this less confusing.

Despite this twisted web of renaming and publishing, Crimson Gem Saga actually was reviewed quite well when it was originally released on the PSP. Sporting a metascore of 78 and a user score of 8.2 over on Metacritic, the gaming media seemed to enjoy the turn-based gameplay even though the game itself doesn't do anything particularly new or exciting in either the gameplay or storytelling departments.

We're still working on our review of the game, as any game that boasts over 30 hours of gameplay is going to take some time to review, but initial impressions in our forums seem mostly positive with the main issues centralizing around the somewhat expected clunky nature of the port as the game went from the physical controls of the PSP to the virtual controls of the iPhone. Clumsy controls aside, Crimson Gem Saga on the iPhone is the same game available currently on the PSP which sells for three times as much.

[source]

If I had to list three things the App Store needs less of, fart apps, games with zombies, and line drawing as a control method would all be at or near the top. iPhone developer Mutant Games would apparently disagree with that statement, judging by their upcoming game which merges these three App Store cliches in to one unholy abomination of a game which oddly enough looks like it might actually be fun especially considering the sky high novelty value of the game.

In Farts VS. Zombies, you play as a Chuck Norris lookalike with your pants dropped in front of an endless conveyor belt of food with your butt pointed at an incoming swarm of zombies. The foods you eat determine what kind of fart you will generate, and these fart clouds can then be routed around the room by drawing lines for them to follow. The goal of the game is to protect japanese school girls, who you will need to make sure your fart clouds stay away from while you gas said zombies. Your ultimate attack of sorts seems to be some kind of projectile vomit, which can clear entire swaths of zombies and is aimed by tilting your device.

Farts VS. Zombies has both a survival mode and a story mode… And I can't wait to see how the plot unfolds as per the trailer the ultimate battle at the end of the game is against an evil unicorn who may or may not be responsible for sending hordes of zombies your way.

Farts VS. Zombies is still in development, and hopefully by the time it's released Mutant Games will have time to implement some form of doodle graphics as well. For more information, check out the thread in our forums.

[source]

Famous Japanese shoot 'em up developer Cave recently revealed that Do-Don-Pachi Dai-Fukkatsu will be released this summer, joining Espgaluda II [$8.99 / Free on the App Store. With similar bullet hell gameplay to Espgaluda II, which we enjoyed in our review, Do-Don-Pachi Dai-Fukkatsu will share the same limitations in only running on the latest generation of iPhone and iPod touch hardware, unfortunately leaving first and second generation iPod touch users as well as original iPhone and iPhone 3G owners left out once again.

Cave isn't discussing pricing yet, and they're not getting any more specific than "Summer 2010" for a release date. Either way, while I'm sure quite a few people have never heard of this game series before those who have, will likely be very excited.

[source]

Digitoys / Yoot Saito has released some info on their upcoming iPad game The Tower… but it's entirely in Japanese. Google translator offers us this interpretation.

You, as the chief executive of the Bill to extend the building is the only person allowed in the building and see all the information. Your mission is to extend the building while residents pay attention to their stress, is to increase the population goes. Residents in the building is sensitive to stress. The building will go out with higher stress. Set up tenant offices and restaurants, elevators and moving equipment set up, equipment is arranged to move stress-free building is available to residents, please environmental facilities and maintenance rooms and even the security station.

Up a little more residents in the building environment to provide a satisfactory their grade goes up. Population of 15,000 building your personality over time. "Cathedral" to set up 100 ground floor, a holiday, a wedding will be here on a pair of couples. Then you is the best title "TOWER" won will witness the miracle of sight and.

Yeah, so far we're not getting much of a "this is going to be available in English" vibe. We've dropped them a line to get more information. In the meanwhile, here's a gameplay video they've also posted:

The company has also announced an Air Hockey game for the iPad called 4 Strikers Hockey. We'll let you know more if they get back to us.

[source]

A new game released this week that caught our eye is Rhythm Spirit [$2.99] by developer Monad Games. Its focus is on being a rhythm based fighting game, similar to the Nintendo DS title Draglade from a few years ago, but offers more beyond just squaring off against an opponent. It's not the greatest rhythm game, and not the greatest action game, but it combines the two elements in a way that is really enjoyable and does it all with fantastic graphics and a phenomenal soundtrack to boot.

You'll play as the ninja Toshi who is infected with a strange evil spirit that gives him powerful martial arts skills that are controlled by tapping the onscreen buttons in rhythm to the music. Icons enter the screen from both the left and right side and must be tapped when they hit the very middle. Most levels feature one-on-one fighting with how well you do keeping up with the rhythm directly affecting your offensive and defensive performance. Other types of levels are thrown in for variety like the very first level that has you outrunning a group of enemy ninjas, or a level where you must play a song on a flute to appease a giant frog into letting you pass his pond.

This video demonstrates the gameplay and just how crazy some of the game elements are:

What really makes Rhythm Spirit a delight is the colorful 2D art style and the truly excellent music. The soundtrack is bass heavy electronic music with subtle Japanese stylings that really fits the game well. The game suggest wearing headphones while playing and I wholeheartedly agree, as not only does it sound much better but it's easier to pick out the parts of the rhythm that you need to tap in time with. There are 10 levels in the game, each with easy, normal, and hard settings and an A-F grading system based on how well you do.

As we said, it's not necessarily the best rhythm game or best fighting game, but if you're interested in something that's quite a bit different than your traditional game, and contains really high quality music and presentation, then check out Rhythm Spirit .

[source]

It seems that even though Apple rejected Yoot Saito's first attempt at an App Store game for being "unpleasant", Saito is ready for another go, but this time for the iPad. According to sketchy information from his blog in poorly machine translated Japanese, it appears The Tower iPad is coming soon.

Yoot Saito is Japanese game designer known for innovative game design. His first major game was SimTower and it's sequel Yoot Tower/The Tower II which was later remade for Gameboy Advance, and the Nintendo DS. Wikipedia describes the original SimTower:

SimTower: The Vertical Empire is a construction and management simulation computer game developed by OPeNBooK Co., Ltd. and published by Maxis for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS 7 operating systems. It was released in November 1994 in the United States. The game allows players to build and manage a tower and decide what facilities to place in it, in order to ultimately build a five-star tower. Random events take place during play, such as terrorist acts that the player must respond to immediately.

Here's a video for The Tower DS (in Japanese):

And that's all we know so far. We'll keep an eye out for it, and hopefully we'll see an international (not just Japan) release.

[source]

If you're one of the lucky ones you managed to secure themselves an iPhone 4 today (or even the past two days if you're really lucky) you've no doubt marveled at how thin it is, how crisp the Retina Display is, and maybe you've even found someone else to do a FaceTime call with… but what about loading it up with some games? Since we haven't gotten our own iPhone 4's yet, we haven't really been able to put together a "games that are really awesome on the iPhone 4" listing, but I figured we'd start out by compiling a list of some of our favorite games in the App Store.

If you think this looks a lot like our 2009 Buyer's Guide, that's because it does. However, we've updated the list with some of our recent favorites and kept some of the old ones. In the interest of space, we had to drop many off the list, but that doesn't reflect the quality of those games. If you're looking for more suggestions, please check out the 2009 Buyer's Guide for additional titles we also loved.

If you want to play games on your new iPhone, you're in for a treat.

iPhone Classics

Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor – 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 represents the promise of iPhone gaming. Spider is an original concept built specifically for the iPhone by a small self funded team. It's this low barrier to entry which provides customers with a huge selection of games including unique and polished gems like Spider. You really should experience this one. (Review, App Store)

Doodle Jump – While we have to give props to PapiJump as the clear inspiration for Doodle Jump, Lima Sky has managed to take the game to a whole new level and succeeded in creating a true iPhone classic. Doodle Jump has sold over a million copies to date and even been casually referenced on primetime TV sitcoms. Every day we hear from up and coming developers who claim they have come up with "the next Doodle Jump" but so far Lima Sky's title hasn't truly been dethroned. (Review, App Store)

Flight Control – Another iPhone game that will go down in history as one of the classics for the platform. Firemint's CEO Rob Murray took some of his free time during last year's Christmas break to whip up a prototype of a game that eventually became Flight Control. The game has single handedly defined a genre on the iPhone of "line drawing" games and has been endlessly imitated. Flight Control is also one of the few games available at the iPhone 4 launch with high-resolution graphics for the Retina Display. (Review, App Store)

Fieldrunners – One of the original tower defense games on the iPhone, and still the best according to many. Fieldrunners was named one of Time Magazine's Top 10 video games of the year in 2008, and since then the game has seen updates adding OpenFeint support as well as additional maps. (Review, App Store)

Angry Birds – We really liked Angry Birds when it was first released, since then it has become a complete App Store sensation with amazing staying power near the top of the top 10 paid app listing. In the game you fling an array of angry birds with different abilities at pigs. Of course it isn't that easy, as the pigs have fortified themselves in makeshift forts. Angry Birds has seen many updates, and now comes loaded with a surprising amount of levels to play through. (Review, App Store)

Only on iPhone

Zen Bound – Ok, technically this started life as a PC Game, but Zen Bound didn't really come into its own until it became an iPhone game in 2009. The game just came to life on the iPhone with multi-touch and tilt controls along with mood and music to perfectly and completely engross you as a player. An experience as much as a game. (Review, App Store)

Eliss – A multi-touch masterpiece. Eliss delivers a unique, challenging and undeniably iPhone experience. Pinching and combining on-screen planets without letting them touch make for some frantic and riveting gameplay. (Review, App Store)

Sway – The unique multi-touch "swinging" controls of Sway may have ultimately been its downfall. If you can master the steep learning curve of the game's controls, an amazing iPhone platforming experience awaits. (Review, App Store)

Space Ninja – A great use of the iPhone's accelerometer that allows you to dodge enemy fire and invoke slow motion "bullet time". Since its original release, 3GS enhancements have been added as well as a new "magnet fluxor" that allows your ship to briefly repel bullets. (Review, App Store)

Arcade

Tilt to Live – Tilt to Live is a game that draws you in with its edgy personality and inescapable 'just one more go' gameplay. It is gorgeously crafted and presented and has a wicked sense of humor to boot (just take a look at the loading screens to see what I mean). Completing its challenges and unlocking weapons has the added benefit of enabling you to achieve even higher scores and multipliers, meaning even those not normally counting themselves as completionists may be eager to experience the width and breadth of what Tilt to Live has to offer. An update added two new game modes since its initial release, making a great game even better. (Review, App Store)

Espgaluda II – Bullet hell at its best on the iPhone. Even not being a huge fan of the genre, we fell quick and hard in love with Espgaluda II. It is the best 2D shooter experience in the App Store with great touch controls. Note: It will only run on the latest generation devices. (Review, App Store: iPhone 3GS, 3rd Gen iPod Touch, or pixel-doubled on iPad)

Cubed Rally Racer – This fantastic racing game features retro-inspired 3D graphics and completely randomized tracks which range from a walk in the park to iPhone-smashingly difficult. If you were a fan of RC Pro Am back in the day, pick this one up. (Review, App Store)

Platformer

Babylonian Twins – Sixteen years in the making, Babylonian Twins delivers an amazingly challenging yet satisfying iPhone and iPad puzzle platformer. In many modern platformers, I've felt like I'm just mindlessly going through the motions to make it to the end of each level. Babylonian Twins, however, really keeps you enthralled throughout. (Review, App Store: iPhone, iPad)

Super QuickHook – A sequel of sorts to Hook Champ, Super QuickHook utilizes a similar swinging mechanic with updated "16 bit" graphics and a brand new completely randomized survival mode. If you love this one, don't miss out on the original Hook Champ (Review, App Store)

Retro Games

Karate Champ – Revolutionary Concepts' iPhone conversion is done superbly. The dual-stick control mechanism is handled via on-screen joysticks which, while no match for physical controls, work rather well. As far as I can see, aside from the necessary control alterations for the iPhone's touch screen, Karate Champ for the iPhone is a perfect conversion. (Review, App Store)

Broken Sword – The remake of this 1996 point and click adventure was wonderfully brought to the iPhone. The story and all around high-quality production values of Broken Sword sucked us in. Whether you're an old fan of the original game, a newcomer to the series, or even someone who's never played a point-and-click adventure before, Broken Sword is a game with mass appeal that will draw you in. (Review, App Store)

Racing / Driving

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars – A great adaptation of a DS/PSP game, Chinatown Wars offers a level of depth rarely seen on the App Store. If you complete everything in game, playtime will need to be measured in days, not hours. The weapon targeting system can use improvement, but barely detracts from an otherwise phenomenal game. (Review, App Store)

Jet Car Stunts – A remarkably fun jet car racer/platformer that had us coming back again and again due to its great controls, fresh visual style and mind boggling levels. The only real complaint we've seen voiced has been the relative difficulty of the game, but, honestly, that's what made it so addicting. (Review, App Store)

Real Racing – Perhaps we should have categorized this as a "classic", but Real Racing was the first iPhone racing game that really blew us away. The great graphics, perfect controls and AI all combined to make this one of the best iPhone racing games that still holds up today. Like Firemint's other game, Flight Control, Real Racing also has been recently updated with high resolution graphics for the iPhone 4's Retina Display. (Review, App Store)

Casual

Fruit Ninja – This oddly popular game puts players to the task of slicing all kinds of fruit that is thrown up from the bottom of the screen. Swiping with your finger controls your virtual sword, and combos are awarded based on how many fruit you can slice in one swipe… Just look out for bombs. (Review, App Store)

Canabalt – This isn't a particularly deep game. In fact, the average gaming session is probably measured in seconds rather than minutes. But with its simplicity and style, it managed to keep us coming back again and again. You can try out the identical Flash version for free at Canabalt.com. (Review, App Store)

Boost 3D – We might not have been too over the top about the game when we first reviewed it, but over time we realized that Boost 3D is a game that we love to play. There's something hypnotic about this tunnel runner that had us coming back to play it again and again. (Review, App Store)

Harbor Master – Among the first of the avalanche of Flight Control inspired games, Harbor Master mixes things up by having the player dock cargo ships and send them back out to sea on a variety of different levels– Each with a different layout and some with additional gameplay elements such as pirate ships to shoot or sea monsters to fight off. (Review, App Store)

Word

Bookworm – A game that should need no introduction, Popcap's word searching classic fits great on the iPhone. The touch controls work effortlessly, and the gameplay is perfect for the casual play style of many iPhone gamers. (Review, App Store)

Words with Friends – Asynchronous online multiplayer not-quite-Scrabble that can either be played for free with in-game ads or without for a couple bucks. A recent update added push notifications to tell you when it's your turn and according to Newtoy, the average player spends 1.5 hours each day playing. (Review, App Store)

Strategy

Carcassonne – A fantastic rendition of the classic board game, Carcassonne can be played with 8 different AI players, locally, or online with push notifications. It also has high resolution graphics already in-game to take advantage of the Retina Display. (Review, App Store)

Plants vs. Zombies – Popcap's breakout hit for PC has come to the iPhone — and it's great. Popcap took the standard tower defense formula and greatly simplified it. Instead of a path to build towers along, you drop seeds in your yard which then grow in to plants that have various offensive or defensive capabilities. While it does lack a few gameplay modes from the original, the iPhone adaption is very well done and highly recommended. (Review, App Store)

Land Air Sea Warfare – There are quite a few options for RTS fans available on the App Store, but all of varying degrees of quality and none that felt "just right". That all changed last month with the release of Land Air Sea Warfare. LASW gets it “just right”, offering a full console-like RTS experience with brilliantly executed, easy to use touch screen controls.(Review, App Store)

Sword & Poker 2 – This strange game is the sequel to the original Sword & Poker <a href="which we loved in our reivew. In the game you play an RPG battling monsters by placing poker hands on a 5×5 grid. The concept sounds crazy, but works very well. If nothing else, give the lite version a try. (Article, App Store, Lite)

Chess with Friends – The iPhone equivalent to snail mail correspondence chess– You can play the ad-based version for free, or upgrade to the premium version to play without ads. Recently added push notifications that alert you when its your turn and an endless supply of human opponents makes this the best chess game available on the platform. (Article, App Store)

Role Playing

Chaos Rings – One of the most ambitious RPG games we've seen so far for the iPhone. The graphics and gameplay are exactly what you'd expect out of a Square Enix RPG. Battle in parties of two in classic turn-based battles as you make your way through a story that's just as ridiculous as any other Japanese RPG. (Review, App Store: iPhone)

Space Miner – It's probably no surprise that this game topped our list for February. Space Miner: Space Ore Bust has an unusually broad appeal successfully mixing shooter and RPG genres into a humorous and well scripted package. Whatever sort of gamer you are, don't miss out on this one. (Review, App Store)

Pocket Legends – This free online multiplayer game for both the iPhone and iPad that is a ton of fun and playing in a party with your friends is especially impressive while you're playing via 3G as the netcode does a great job in providing a lag-free experience. Additional content is available via in-game DLC, but you can really get a good feel for the game before you ever need to buy anything. (Review, App Store: iPhone, iPad)

Sports

Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 – A surprisingly competent port of the classic skateboarding game. Everything is included from the original, and once you get used to the virtual controls, you'll be performing endless combos in no time in the many included skating locations.(Review, App Store:iPhone)

X2 Snowboarding – X2 Snowboarding from Exient is a highly enjoyable romp on the slopes that sets itself apart from the crowd in graphics, controls and gameplay. With a great sense of speed and immersion, this is our snowboarding game of choice for the iPhone. (Review, App Store / Lite)

X2 Soccer 2010 – The followup title to their 2009 title, X2 Soccer 2010 is one of the top soccer game experiences right now on the App Store. X2 Soccer 2010 is complete with great AI, impressive 3d graphics and solid controls. (Review, App Store)

To see other iPhone games we've rated, check out the sidebar where you can find: 5 Stars, 4.5 Stars, 4 Stars, 3.5 Stars, 3 Stars, and 2.5 Stars. All of what we have considered to be the best iPhone games are filed under Best iPhone Games, and I'm sure this post will be filled with comments from people suggesting their own favorite iPhone games that we left out of this list.

Good luck to everyone in line today looking to get an iPhone 4, we'll have much more iPhone 4 coverage as soon as we get ours in our greasy little hands.

[source]

Details are sketchy on this one, but besides Final Fantasy Tactics, it appears Square Enix is also delivering Secret of Mana to the iPhone. The above/right photo by @rpgfancom.

Secret of Mana is an action role-playing game that was originally released in 1993. The game was re-released for Wii in 2008 and ported to Japanese mobile phones in 2009.

More details as we get them.

[source]

Capcom's Phoenix Wright [$4.99] started its life as a Japanese Gameboy Advance game all the way back in 2001. In 2005, a touchscreen-enhanced port of the game made it to the Nintendo DS and the rest of the world. Five years later, and the game is here on the App Store at a fraction of its original DS price.

We described the basic premise of the game following its announcement late last year:

Phoenix Wright games are a strange mixture of a visual adventure game that play a lot like mixture of a hidden object game and a "Choose Your Own Adventure" book. The game is segmented in to two portions, the investigation and the trial. While investigating, you visit various location and gather evidence by looking around and interviewing anyone who is around. When you're finished with that, you go to court where you cross examine witnesses, present evidence, and object to the arguments presented by the prosecuting lawyer.

Even just from looking at screenshots alone, it is amazingly apparent that this is a fairly direct port from the DS game, with the output of the two screens just stacked on top of each other on the iPhone. When playing through the game, the bottom half is loaded with all kinds of buttons and menus depending on if you're investigating or arguing in court, and these UI elements seem to be reworked from the original to be finger-friendly instead of built around the Nintendo DS stylus.

All of the Phoenix Wright games are a fun, and often silly adventure through crime scenes and court rooms. Successfully completing the game requires a keen eye both when gathering evidence and when arguing your case in court. Because so much of the game is based on finding/noticing little things between hidden evidence or inconsistencies in testimony, Phoenix Wright has little if any replay value.

Five cases from the original game are included, and each case should take you a few hours to go through depending on how quickly you read or how much you goof up in court. Phoenix Wright is an insane value at its launch price of $4.99, as when it first launched on the DS it was the kind of game you couldn't find anywhere in stock, and when you did, it was at least $40.00 because of how rare it was.

It would have been nice to see Capcom do more to the game in its port to the iPhone. It seems like Phoenix Wright would be the perfect kind of game to offer with a single case for free to act as a lite version of sorts, with the rest of the cases (and cases from other games in the Phoenix Wright series) available as individual DLC packs. Regardless, I'm just glad the game is finally here, as it was one of the best and most creative games I played on my DS, and a fantastic fit for the iPhone.

[source]

Thirty years ago today, a certain video game from Namco, featuring a curious little yellow fellow with a taste for dots and ghosts, hit the arcades in Japan. That round little yellow guy is known as PAC-MAN — you may have heard of him. In the decades that followed, PAC-MAN became an arcade phenomenon spawning a great-many spin-offs and stands today as an icon of '80s pop culture. And the 1980 original is hugely popular, even still. (Don't miss today's playable PAC-MAN-themed Google doodle.)

Namco is celebrating PAC-MAN's 30th birthday by launching a sweepstakes, detailed on the official PAC-MAN website, to win a PAC-MAN-themed Smart Car as well as running sales on various titles across several platforms.

The discounts on PAC-MAN titles in the App Store follow:

• PAC-MAN Championship Edition (iPhone): $2.99 → $0.99 [ review ]
• PAC-MAN REMIX (iPhone):  $2.99 → $0.99 [ review ]
• PAC-MAN (iPhone): $4.99 → $3.99 (now with leaderboards, chat, achievements)
• PAC-MAN (iPad): $4.99 → $3.99
• Ms. PAC-MAN (iPhone): $4.99 → $0.99 [ review ]

Namco's sale on the indicated items will remain in place until 6 PM (PST) tomorrow, Sunday, May 24. The most compelling grab of the list, in our opinion, is the excellent PAC-MAN Championship Edition, an iPhone conversion of the XBLA original.

[source]