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If you’re looking for something to do this Sunday, try this on for size: The Indie Game Music Bundle. It’s essentially the music-centric version of the various indie game bundles that have been ridiculously popular over the last couple years. Like those bundles, all of this music is DRM free, and you can name the price you want to pay. In addition, a portion of the proceeds are going to the American Cancer Society and Penny Arcade’s Child’s Play charity.

For as little as $1.00, you can get your hands on the soundtracks from Aquaria [$4.99], Sword & Sworcery [$4.99], Machinarium [$4.99] and two non-iOS games, Jamestown and To The Moon. If you contribute $10.00 or more (so, basically the cost of one of these albums normally) you get ten additional game soundtracks, with more bonus soundtracks potentially coming as more sales are made. Oh, and for $10.00+ contributions you also have the option of downloading the music in lossless FLAC.

This whole deal is pretty awesome, as not only are you getting some of the best indie game music the App Store has to offer, but you’re also potentially getting tons of bonus stuff and donating to two great charities in the process. It’s worth it alone for just the Sword & Sworcery album, but the rest of the music is great as well. So, seriously, head over to the Indie Game Music Bundle site if you’re at all interested. This deal is only going on for four more days, so don’t wait too long if you are.

Also, in a similar music-related PSA, if you like the Sworcery soundtrack, Jim Guthrie actually has a new album available which you can either download digitally or preorder it in vinyl. Additionally, if you’re really retro-oriented, the Sword & Sworcery soundtrack is also available on cassette if that’s your cup of tea. Or, if you’re a Spotify person like me, this whole album can be streamed to your heart’s content.

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We didn’t have a lot of arcades in my hometown while I was growing up. Even worse, the few that did exist specialized in video games and air hockey, with nary a pinball machine in sight. Still, whenever I managed to get my hands on a one, it was always such a dazzling experience of light, sound and skill. Perhaps that’s why I can’t stop playing Pinball Arcade [$0.99 / Free], the inaugural iOS title from FarSight Studios. FarSight’s ability to create near-perfect replications of actual pinball machines leads to a game that is not only full of incredibly deep pinball machines, but also captures that feeling of fun and excitement in an iOS game.

As its name implies, Pinball Arcade features classic arcade machines from various eras with the simple goal of mastering each one to get the highest scores possible. Each table also includes ‘Goals’ (read: achievements) that can be solved which lead to more complicated objectives. The entry price includes one machine (‘Tales of the Arabian Nights’) with three more available for purchase within the game via IAP. Tables range from somewhat simple layouts with interesting twists (‘Black Hole’) to lengthy epics chock full of interactive items and objectives (‘Ripley’s Believe It Or Not’). Unlike most games with IAP, you can actually try each table before you buy, providing an opportunity for actual research before you even consider purchasing another table.

I’m impressed with how much effort Pinball Arcade seems to puts into recreating each machine. The visuals, sounds, and effects all feel authentic and add to the presentation, although there is some minor blurriness while playing on an iPad 2. The physics, while occasionally unforgiving, seem to offer a good balance between realism and challenge. What I admire the most, however, is how much Pinball Arcade offers in terms of knowledge for each table.

When you select a table, you’re given a brief history, the option to view an actual flyer (some are pretty low-res) and a comprehensive instruction manual detailing every single objective you can do in a table. The game really wants you to learn, live, and master each table –a concept that I can get behind. Of course, the game works well for the casual player that just wants to play a quick game, but I feel some of the charm is lost experiencing this game in that fashion.

Most importantly, Pinball Arcade simply hits the mark on gameplay and the feeling of actually playing a pinball machine. Whether you’re balancing a multi-ball run, trying to execute a combo or objective, or finally unlocking the ‘end game’ big score objects, all the experiences just feel real, something that doesn’t happen very often to me while playing an iOS game. Even better, since each table has its own personality and can take a long time to master, there’s tons of depth for replayability. I was also impressed with the variety of table selection, although I wasn’t the biggest fan of ‘Black Hole’ (too simple and gimmicky for my tastes).

While Pinball Arcade nails nearly every facet of a great pinball game, I did have some issues with its leaderboard integration. The game exclusively uses Facebook to track high scores, which seems rather cumbersome in my experience. This is further evidenced by the fact that even simple acts like checking the leaderboards seem clunky and slow to update (that and I haven’t yet seen one of my scores upload). I understand that lots of folks use Facebook (and it appears that route was pursued for cross-platform leaderboard support), but simple Game Center support feels like a prerequisite in this day and age. IAP is another aspect that just seems confusing; why the game asks me for both my Facebook login and .mac account when trying to download purchases on another device is beyond me. The whole structure feels mismanaged, which is surprising consider the quality of the rest of the game.

There’s also a potential minor problem in regards to approachability. The large amount of information and instructions for each table is certainly wondrous for enthusiasts, but it may be a bit intimidating for the casual pinball player.  While I thought the IAP price points were fair, I imagine some would balk at having to pay ten dollars to fully unlock all four tables. There’s also the fact that these tables are complicated and actually require some effort to learn and truly enjoy.  I’m sure casual players could simply pick up the base game and play free versions of the other tables, but as mentioned before I feel like a lot of the magic would be lost on them.

However, I feel that some of the concerns above are nitpicky at best. In addition, folks on our forums have stated that the developers plan on integrating Game Center soon, alleviating my most pressing worry. Regardless, Pinball Arcade is simply one of the best pinball games I’ve ever played, and should be put at the top of the class with other iOS pinball elites. Each table is digital masterpiece onto itself and should make pinball enthusiasts very happy. Furthermore, with the promise of many more tables in the queue (most likely as IAP), this game should keep you entertained for many balls to come.

TouchArcade Rating:

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So, I have a confession to make. I was prepared to dislike Baseball Superstars 2012 [Free]. You can blame Homerun Battle 2 [$4.99/Lite] for that one, as it had left me deeply distrustful of freemium sports games. Nonetheless, driven by Air Penguin [99¢/Lite] inspired optimism and the extravagant amount of praise that had been lavished over the franchise, I ended up downloading it anyway.

I’m glad I did. Though not what you would call ‘your must-have game in the event of a zombie apocalypse’, Baseball Superstars 2012 is still kinda awesome. Depending on how much you like your baseball, it might even be extremely awesome. There’s a part of me that wants to be the cranky curmudgeon and witheringly observe that Baseball Superstars 2012 is, while a competent product, just a souped-up version of the one from the previous years, but I can’t. The rest of me is too busy cultivating my digitized athletes.

Baseball Superstars 2012 is engaging in all the right ways. The core gameplay mechanics are incredibly easy to learn, but not so easy to master. As the batter, you’ll basically have to ensure that your batting reticule is within the general vicinity of the ball before you smack it with all your virtual, training-augmented might. Here, you’ll have the option of choosing between the usage of the D-PAD or the device’s accelerometer; I personally recommend the latter. Things are even easier for the pitcher. To lob your balls, you swipe your finger across a grid-like area on the screen. Different pitches will naturally require a different set of motions.

Strangely enough, what makes Baseball Superstars 2012 work is the metaphorical packaging. For example, while the various modes are little more than different ways of approaching the aforementioned elements, there’s still an ungodly amount of things to do. Want to be be a batter? Fire up ‘My Batter’ and enjoy a ten-year career. Prefer pitching instead? Load ‘My Pitcher’. Would you rather micromanage a coterie of little athletes? ‘My Team’ will be your game mode of choice. The list goes on. You’ll get to also dive into challenges, missions, engage in asynchronous multiplayer battle royales and fine-tune your little league of winners.

Visually speaking, Baseball Superstars 2012 is definitely the best-looking of the pack. The resolution is higher, the interface is cleaner and the sprites look like they were manufactured by a man-hwa artist. The writing, unfortunately, still leaves much to be desired. Aside from the overall aesthetics, one of the biggest changes here is the inclusion of the overworld. No longer will you be trapped in the stadium at large. Now, you’ll be able to roam the somewhat scenic-looking town that rings in. In between matches, Baseball Superstars 2012 will allow you to do everything from engage in a fortune-telling session to helping out in a hospital to training in the park. Some of these activities will decrease or increase various statistics, others will add to your modest bank account.

Along the way, you’ll also bump into an assortment of big-breasted characters, many of whom will engage you in peculiar conversations. To be honest, few of the encounters made any sense to me. What do aggressive female characters with a penchant for romance books have to do with baseball? While I appreciated the effort, this aspect of Baseball Superstars 2012 felt tacked on and a little awkward.

That aside, there’s not much to dislike about Baseball Superstars 2012. Heck, even the IAPS are not constantly forced down your throat, something that is a rarity with this business model. Gamevil has done a fine job improving on each iteration. Baseball Superstars 2012 might not redefine mobile gaming but it’ll certainly be a worthy addition to your collection of games.

TouchArcade Rating:

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This is neat. Double Fine, the creators of Brutal Legend and, most recently, a swarm of lovable and unique downloadable titles like Iron Brigade and Costume Quest, is asking its fans via Kickstarter to donate a total of $400,000 towards the production of a brand new point-and-click adventure title that’ll be created by “a small team” and one of the adventure game genre’s most influential developers, Tim Schafer.

The fans have answered, too. In under ten hours the project has received well over half a million dollars in backing. And with over 30 more days to go still, you almost have to assume that Double Fine will be forced to use dollar bills as toilet paper to rid itself of all the extra cash it’s going to receive.

The project doesn’t have a real name yet. It also isn’t exactly slated to hit iOS — the initial pitch was for the development of a PC point-and-click “utilizing modern touch technology.” Double Fine says that if it raises more than what it’s asking for, as the project has, it might put the game on Mac or iOS.

This seems like a big deal for Double Fine: it’s a small, but notable studio that’s triumphantly shedding the typical publisher / loan shark model that it usually uses to make something that it has complete creative control over. But, this is also a studio that has been OK with funny funding deals. It let a dude pay for several PC ports in the past, and it’s apparently currently in talks with Minecraft creator Notch about funding Psychonauts 2.

So, when will you be able to play this game? It’ll be awhile. Provided everything goes as planned, it might appear on Steam as early as October 2012. However, backers will see the game as it’s being developed — this entire experience will be documented by 2 Player Productions and private videos will be released on an ongoing basis.

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We’ve been covering the existence of ngmoco since the very beginning in mid-2008, back before they dropped the extra colon from their logo even. A month later, we were on top of their initial round of funding, and with the launch of nglabs and other amazing future promises, quite a few people (myself included) thought ngmoco was going to become the unquestionable king of iOS game development.

It’s been a long four years since then, and while we once knew ngmoco for releasing absolutely classic must-have games like Rolando [99¢], Rolando 2 [99¢], and Star Defense [99¢], they switched gears to championing the free to play game market in a major way in late 2009. We were blown away when it was announced that Eliminate [Free] was going to be free, and We Rule [Free] was equally popular around here as ngmoco made a splash on the App Store with one of the first available free to play Farmville-like building games.

Since that original free to play explosion in 2009, Ngmoco hasn’t done very much to interest our community. They’ve seemingly stopped both publishing and releasing games, with the last major release that made much of a splash around here being Godfinger [Free], another free to play building game which hit the App Store in late 2010. Even more confusing is what in the world ngmoco has been doing with Freverse, the beloved former Mac developer, since they were acquired.

With Freeverse onboard, ngmoco’s proverbial financial katamari was large enough to lure Asian gaming giant DeNA was acquiring ngmoco for $400m, and since then it seems they’ve fallen even further off the map. Not even people familiar with the situation have been able to explain what ngmoco has been up to in the last two years aside from pushing hard into the Android world with questionable success utilizing their cross-platform game engine Mobage (which is pronounced MOH-bah-GAY, if you were curious).

Throughout all of this, it seems that ngmoco has been hiring all sorts of people, and still are, if their positions page is any indication. Sadly, TechCrunch is reporting layoffs at the former iOS gaming giant:

Ngmoco recently had a round of layoffs — maybe somewhere above 30 people, according to one source. The number isn’t huge, but among the departed are senior leaders including a director of platform tech and the chief marketing officer, this person tells me. One game has apparently been shut down, while another has been pared down, with some engineers remaining to see it to launch.

Ngmoco CEO Neil Young was quick to respond, making it sound as if they layoffs are a result of Ngmoco and DeNA merging, eliminating any duplicate positions leftover from the restructuring process:

“Armed with the insights we’ve gained from both the Western and Japanese markets and after completing the integration of a series of key acquisitions, we’ve organized our global operations to best support and deliver on our mission to build the leading Global Social Mobile Game Platform company.”

To add another interesting wrinkle to the potential fate of Ngmoco, Inside Mobile Apps is reporting that Ngmoco has missed their first earnout date, putting a large portion of that $400m acquisition amount in jeopardy if ngmoco (assuming this report is true) has been unable to meet the agreed upon performance milestones.

It’s hard to say what this all means for the future of ngmoco, but as a fan of all of ngmoco’s pre-freemium titles, it really saddens me to look on what the company used to be (and the promise they represented to iOS games) and what they are today. The weird thing about all this to me is that ngmoco championed the free to play model, then sort of just disappeared to build mobage while other developers went on to become overnight millionaires utilizing it.

I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what, if anything, they do next.

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Only in the indie space do we see games like Pizza vs. Skeletons. Bright and humorous, as well as off-the-walls, it’s a 2D action game that stars a 10-foot tall pizza. It has a knack for catching you off guard by design; delicately crafted to avoid the mechanical monotony so common in its space, it’s an adventure that re-imagines what it is in almost every level. Sometimes you’ll save puppies. Other times, you’ll ski. Or butt heads with gigantic skulls. Or just bash skeletons because, hey, that’s fun.

You just can’t pitch this game to a major publisher. This will never be a blown-up, $60 retail title. It’s too free-wheeling, too idealistic. It’s too … different.

I’ve had my paws all over a pre-release build for the last week or so, and I’m OK with saying that it’s looking every bit as awesome as its name implies it will be. Sure, it might not have any ultra-familiar trappings to draw connections to, but that’s kind of the point: this thing is bananas, man. It’s as far-out as a quasar.

Take the mechanics, for example. In the game, you control a house-sized pizza that can roll, stomp, and jump. Rolling requires a simple tilt of the device. Tap the screen and the pizza jumps. Tap again while in the air and the pizza unleashes a devastating stomp.

Rolling automatically obliterates enemies into plumes of grave dust — provided they aren’t hoisting an over-sized, pizza-skewing spear in front of their bodies. If this is the case, a physics-bending jump and stomp will do the trick. As you play, you’ll start running into a few enemies that twist this basic combat model. There’s a flying skeleton that requires a bit more touch, as well as other minor iterations on this specific idea.

If that was the game, I’d still be as into it since, you know, you’ll be controlling a giant, grimacing pizza on a quest to kill all the skeletons ever. But that’s not all there is. Pizza vs. Skeletons is like a conga line of levels and different systems, each one bolting onto the back of the last and making the stream stronger and crazier.

In the first chapter, you’ll be introduced to a skiing mini-game that doesn’t task you with killing. Instead, the objective is to hit the ramps perfectly in order to collect the most currency possible. Later, you’ll be balancing the pizza on the top of a huge skull while crossing a pit of spikes, pummeling telltale Angry Birds structures into oblivion, or even bouncing on rocks in a timed adventure that has you knocking skulls off of the tiny platform you’ll be forced to work with.

There’s a lot more, and I won’t spoil it all. I will say, though, that nothing I’ve been doing is striking me as particularly interesting. Everything in the game exists in the service of fun, kinda like a Rock Band. You’re just playing to act out weird power fantasies, and that’s cool.

Also, while there’s a level of schizophrenia inherent in this kind of design, Riverman ties all of the bits and bobs together into a coherent whole; the sound design is as kooky as the game, and the art direction? It’s like something Tim Burton would do if he could (a) draw and (b) chill out every once in a while. The game is bent, but lightly so; its style and its tone fits well with the oodles of off-the-wall content.

There’s a good story about this game’s design in this week’s show. Riverman is composed of two brothers, Jacob and Paul Stevens. Jacob, the art dude, dreamt up the scenarios. Paul, the programmer, then had to figure out a way to not only make it work technically, but also make them fun.

The prototyping phase took awhile and the duo had a lot of back and forths on the subject of dreams vs. the reality of having to make solid, fun-to-play content within the technical parameters of the game.

“There are a few levels that have the theme of your sort of crushing a structure in a way like how you fling birds in Angry Birds at something and destroy it. We thought could we make that fun as a pizza? Well, if you actually physically control your character and just crush, say, the Great Pyramids, that could be interesting.” Paul told us earlier this week.

“Jake’s ideas probably come from a totally different place than mine do. In mine, I was thinking what’s fun being a huge, powerful character? Crushing structures.”

Another fun thing that comes hand-in-hand with the conceit of driving around a huge pizza is topping customization. As you beat levels, you earn currency which can be dropped into extra vegetables or meats, new faces, new glasses, and even hats. Each is lovingly animated, and most are pretty hilarious. I’ll go on record here and say that nothing comes close to being as cool as a 10-foot tall pizza with a top hat.

I’ve held back my progression in the game so I wouldn’t get too review-y in this, but I think it’s pretty obvious that I’ll be embracing the game with open arms when it hits a little later this month on the 16th. We’ll be bringing you more around that time, too.

For now, though, keep your eyes on this and Riverman. The studio has never attempted a game this ambitious, this out-of-the-mold, and it seems like it has hit a new stride in the process. I’m excited, and I think you should be, too.

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It’s not often I can be completely sucked into a world on the tiny screen of my iPhone. Don’t get me wrong, it happens, but in the back of my mind I always know that there are dozens of other games waiting for me at the press of the Home button, all ready to feed my ADD-riddled gaming habits at a moment’s notice. It’s like I can never fully forget all the cool stuff my iPhone is capable of long enough to get lost in a game for any great length of time.

That certainly isn’t the case with The Hacker [99¢], though, a story-driven faux hacking game from developer Angry Bugs. When I fire it up, my iPhone is transformed into a Glider OS-equipped computer that becomes my gateway into an international tour de hacking which leads me to uncover a devious plot involving my former employer. It’s far from the first game to let you take on the glorified role of a top level hacker, but it executes the idea incredibly well and offers a fantastic level of immersion with a fairly compelling story.

The Hacker starts with you trying to log into the Glider Operating System on your computer, an OS you helped develop as an employee of Glider Corp. You’re notified on the screen that several things failed to install properly, but you finally boot to the desktop. When you try to connect to the ‘net, you’re denied, and then contacted via email by someone who claims to be a former coworker. He is one of a handful of developers, including yourself, who worked on Glider OS and were unceremoniously fired shortly before it was set to launch.

He informs you that he’s discovered a trojan in the Glider OS and suspects that Glider Corp is up to something shady, and since you have experience with the software he recruits you to join him and several other ex-employees in hacking into Glider Corp’s system and getting to the bottom of things. From there you’ll go on to experience several twists and turns as you dig in and discover just what Glider Corp is up to.

The coolest thing about The Hacker is that it hardly ever breaks character in terms of presentation. It tries to simulate a computer you might find from the late 80s with a green monochrome screen and very basic graphics, and it does it very well. There’s rarely a time when navigating through the game that you don’t feel like you’re actually operating a computer (minus the fact that everything is touch enabled, of course). This level of detail is very cool for people who remember when computers looked like that, but a younger generation might not appreciate such a low-fidelity presentation.

The Glider Corp system is spread across 8 servers around the globe, and the way you “hack” in into each one is by completing various types of mini-games. These are mostly just logic puzzles disguised as computer-y things.

For example, one type has you moving little nanomachine bugs onto trigger pads placed on a circuit board in order to “open the ports” into a server. The catch is that all the bugs move at the same time, and you’ll need to use objects on the board to get each one into the proper position to have them all be on their respective pads at the same time. A couple of the hacking games use similar mechanics to the classic Pipe Dream, like creating a path out of sections that will lead power to a set of dead nodes. Outside of the server mini-games, another bit of hacking lies in “decrypting” emails by completing a slightly altered version of a lights out game.

The mini-games aren’t necessarily anything groundbreaking, but they are really fun and can be quite challenging. It makes you feel like you’re doing real work by putting your brain to use and then being rewarded with an unlocked server and a new part of the story. I won’t spoil too much, but there is definitely more beyond the 8th server including some very cool secrets and surprises.

If you finish the initial 8 servers and still want more you can choose from 3 new areas to buy as in-app purchases for 99¢ each. These 3 areas each have 5 new servers to hack into, and completing each area will lead to some periphery story bits and additional secrets. There’s also Game Center achievements and leaderboards for every area as well as an overall leaderboard.

Doing pretty much any kind of hacking will earn you experience, which acts as an in-game currency. You can pay a bit of XP to pass a mini-game if it’s giving you trouble, or buy an assortment of sweet backgrounds for your virtual desktop that feature ASCII artwork. These definitely bring a nostalgic tear to my eye. But the coolest thing you can spend XP on is unlocking arcade games from the G.A.M.E. portal on your desktop. These playable games include takes on familiar genres like snake, brick breakers, shmups, cave flyers, and dodging games. There’s even a hidden platformer game in there too (but you’ll need to find it yourself).

There aren’t too many things that I didn’t like about The Hacker, but there were a couple of issues that stuck out. There are a ton of spelling mistakes throughout the game, which on the one hand feels a bit sloppy but on the other sort of fits perfectly with a game based around communicating with people over the internet. Our grammar has certainly suffered since the rise of the internet age.

The other problem I encountered was an inconsistent difficulty. The mini-games appropriately get more complex as the game progresses, but at several points no matter where I was in the campaign I ran into puzzles that stumped me for a frustrating amount of time. Then, after finally figuring out the solution, the very next puzzle or two I would beat in a matter of seconds. It could be that’s just how my own particular brain handled certain challenges, but to me the difficulty curve felt kind of choppy.

While at its core The Hacker isn’t much more than a collection of mini-games, the fantastic presentation and little details really pull you in. The story might be a bit cliché, but the way it’s gradually revealed to you as you access each new server compels you to keep hacking away to learn what happens next. Plus, the mini-games and accompanying arcade games are really pretty fun on their own, and can be played over again as many times as you want just for kicks or to earn some extra XP.

Above all else though, The Hacker does a great job at making you feel like a bad ass international hacker, which is what it should really all be about anyway.

TouchArcade Rating:

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When I think about possible themes for tower defense games, a tale about space pirates attacking a futuristic Earth in search of highly sought after ‘Spice’ is probably the last thing I’d think of. Yet, that’s exactly the premise of Spice Invaders [Free], a new freemium title from Chillingo. While the game itself is a nice take on tower defense, the bulk of the conversation unfortunately turns to its freemium elements which distract greatly from the actual game.

As a tower defense game, Spice Invaders plays similarly to Fieldrunners [$2.99 / HD]. Players are charged with defending one (or more) bases in open-field maps. Enemies come in waves from a variety of different entrances, forcing you to build towers in such a way as to prevent them from taking out your base. Since the maps are open (with some featuring random barriers littered throughout the map), you can do this by surrounding your base, forcing the baddies into long paths made of towers, and so on.

The core gameplay isn’t particularly innovative, even the tower types are pretty standard (machine gun, missile, anti-air, e.t.c.). The game does have a pretty mean difficulty streak, since the AI adapts to tower placement and tries to find the path of least resistance to your base. The end result is a game providing a decent challenge for folks that aren’t used to complex tower defense strategy.

Where Spice Invaders differentiates itself is in its overall presentation and execution. The visuals are crisp and vivid and do an interesting job portraying a futuristic (and bleak) Earth. This is also reflected in a good level design, as Spice Invaders takes you through a tour of the various continents. The music is catchy and adequately sets the mood. Even the menus, in-game tutorial and story cutscenes are done well. In fact, based on the above I’d argue that Spice Invaders has all the core elements of a great tower defense game. That is, until you get to the pay wall.

Yes folks, after seven missions in South America (the first continent in the game), you are unceremoniously informed that in order to move to the next continent you must either reach level 20 or pay-up 42 spice. When I reached this point, I was barely level 13, so you can imagine my surprise at making the level cap that high. Also, since I was upgrading my towers on a regular basis (as I was taught), I had very little spice to try and get past the level cap using that method.

I understand the strategy of utilizing freemium as a revenue source, and as far as I’m concerned if it’s done right I’m all for it. I thought Spice Invaders did an adequate job balancing spice rewards with tower (and upgrade) unlocks. I even thought their idea of making costumes for your avatar cost tons of spice wasn’t a bad idea, as it was purely cosmetic and didn’t change the gameplay much. I was even fairly tolerant of the screen-filling ads that you’ll randomly get when starting levels.

But, putting a pay wall into the game after only seven levels forcing players to either grind out for a while on already completed maps or pay up in IAP to access enough space to pass is not a good idea and just seems to go too far.

Now, before we all get our pitchforks and chant about the downfall of freemium, there are a few things you should know. First, it costs only a dollar in IAP to purchase enough spice to pass this pay wall (if you shell out for the $2.99 pack the ads even go away). Furthermore, if you read  this review, you now know you can simply keep 42 spice in your inventory for when this first pay wall hits so you can continue right on playing (you’ll earn more than enough with just leveling).

Finally, while grinding to level 20 does take a decent amount of time, it’s not too hard to simply save up the spice you earn from redoing missions and leveling up to move on (that’s how I did it). If you’re willing to put a little effort into grinding, these sorts of barriers aren’t horrible.

However, in this instance it’s really the principle of the thing. Artificially restricting progress in this manner is not my preferred way of implementing freemium mechanics. It would have been far better to add more towers/upgrades/perks and expect players to eventually shell out spice purchases to explore those (the game does this as well). I have no problem with encouraging players to spend some cash on premium items that are not necessary for normal gameplay. The restrictions in Spice Invaders do not fit that example, especially since all these design choices are solely made to encourage folks to spend money (rather than designs that encourage fun).

It really is a shame, because other than the freemium issues Spice Invaders is a really great addition to the tower defense genre. While the gameplay didn’t offer anything particularly new, the artwork, music, and all around presentation and gameplay implementation were well done. I just really wish there was a way for players to just pay one hard fee that would get rid of all pay walls and basically treat the game as a normal paid title. Unfortunately, that’s not the way freemium typically works.

If you’re in the mood to explore a new, tough TD game and you don’t mind the freemium grind (or shelling out cash), then check out Spice Invaders. If not, well, I already know what you’re going to be doing.

TouchArcade Rating:

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Regardless of whether you typically buy things with iTunes gift cards or if you’ve just linked your credit card up to your iTunes account and forgotten about it, Best Buy has a pretty great deal going that lasts until 7:00 PM Eastern tonight. iTunes gift cards are 20% off, and they’re available in values ranging from $15.00 (for $12.00) all the way up to $100.00 (for $80.00). Better yet, these gift cards are delivered digitally. So, if you’ve got a way to funnel money into the Best Buy web site, they’ll just instantly email you a discounted iTunes gift card code. How’s that for convenience?

Mash this link if you’re interested in taking advantage of the deal. You should see all the available gift cards. If the link isn’t working for you, just search their site for “iTunes (Digital Delivery)”. These 20% off deals aren’t anything to scoff at either, as buying $100.00 worth of credit for $80.00 could potentially net you nearly 20 free 99¢ games out of the deal depending on your local tax rate.

How much are those of you who are taking advantage of this dumping into the deal? I know people who buy stupid amounts of iTunes credit when these 20% off sales roll around, as that’s not only about as cheap as iTunes credit ever gets, but it’s also definitely a “the more you buy the more you save” kind of thing.

[via 9to5Mac]

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It’s 2012, and I’ve had a few years to conjure a snappy explanation of what Eufloria is and how it rolls. I haven’t. So, before I even get into how much I dig it on iPad, I’ll let my main man Rudolf Kremers — one of the handful of dudes behind the original release — do the talking. In our latest “bonus” podcast, he cheekily broke it down like this:

“Eufloria is a game of space, conquest, and exploration based on themes of plant life and flowers rather than space marines and spaceships.”

That’s the thing about Eufloria: it’s an RTS that goes against the grain. It doesn’t have any big dudes in big armor smashing space orcs in the face with apartment-sized space maces. It also doesn’t subscribe to any particular feel or taste, or really, any action-y RTS conventions. It’s a minimalist strategy game that has some cool, laid-back creative touches, and it’s all wrapped up in a sensitive production overhead that conveys the game’s core design ideals and gentle pacing well.

This much has been proven in past iterations. And for the most part, what you’ve seen is what you’ll be getting Day Zero on iPad. Eufloria on iPad still looks gorgeous, it still runs as smooth as ever, and all the little technical touches on the movement, placement and execution phases of the game have made it over. But, on the other hand, I’m not seeing a major adjustment on anything anyone has complained about before — the balance appears to be still a little touch and go, and in some of the levels I’ve been playing, the pacing is brutally, brutally slow.

What the iPad port does bring, though, are new ways to interact more intimately with the experience. Pinch and zoom can be used liberally to explore every little nook and cranny of each level. Satisfying drag, hold, and swipe gestures take care of the rest. It’s all good stuff.

I asked Kremers after the show to explain what he was shooting for with this version’s controls. He said that the main idea was to strip “all barriers between playing the game and the device you play it on.” Mission accomplished as far as I’m concerned. This is appears to be as much of a lean-back experience as ever before, and delightfully so.

Here’s a breakdown for those of you just seeing Eufloria for the first time. This is a game about asteroids, trees, and tiny, winged seedlings. In almost every scenario, the goal is to take these seedlings to an asteroid, build a tree or two, and then usher even more seedlings on to other asteroids. The tech tree is simple: trees build seedlings and asteroids have one of three different effects on seedlings, either making them strong or fast or energetic. As trees age, they become more potent and harder to kill. Eventually you’ll see some variations on unit types as well as a defensive tree that’ll keep enemy seedlings off of your rock.

The strategy factors into the picture in a variety of ways. You can’t hit up an asteroid unless you have an asteroid connected to it. Also, most asteroids are inhabited, so you’ll need to kill the enemy seedlings and then destroy their trees, which are jacked into that asteroid’s core. Cracking the core boils and tearing down an impromptu space settlement boils down to a numbers game: basically, whoever has the larger wad of dudes wins. Much later in the game, you’ll be given very specific tasks, like say, defending or finding a path through a system.

On our show, Kremers explained where these ideas came from. Eufloria proper is based on a proof-of-concept called “Dyson,” which is named after a british physicist who theorized that you could explore space by growing mechanical trees on asteroids. It’s neat to see this crazy idea living on in a game.

The beauty of Eufloria is in its simplicity; it’s artfully stripped of graphical clutter and is fairly bare-boned on the UI and sound front. It’s also strikingly easy to play for a strategy game since most of the action happens on a macro-level: clicks, drags, and drops compose all you’ll need for galactic takeovers. This type of game feels great on iPad, and it seems like Team Eufloria and Tunatech pulled it off.

My time with the preview build, for reasons of avoiding anything other than modest scrutiny at this phase in its pre-release form, has been artificially shortened, so I don’t have a verdict for you. You’ll get that later at some point this month when the game sees a release across iOS at an unannounced price. We’re expecting more details to roll in shortly. Fingers crossed.

All the screens in this write-up are from the PSN version of the game. I can’t tell a difference between the two in picture-form.

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