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I'll fully admit that I'm a total sucker for anything that vaguely follows the Metroidvania formula. Something deep inside of my genetic code just loves navigating a maze-like mixture of corridors and platforms with more areas becoming unlocked as I collect new skills, weapons, and abilities. Robot Wants Kitty [99¢] plays in to this perfectly, even integrating my love for cats. Based on the Flash game with the same name, Robot Wants Kitty has been fantastically translated to the touchscreen of iOS devices and plays just as well as recent platformers like League of Evil.

The basic premise of the game is that you're a robot, and you want to collect kitties, as the title suggests. Doing so involves picking up new "apps" for your robot, to program it to do additional things. For instance, at the start of the game you're not even capable of jumping. You've got to figure out how to get to the jump app, usually by falling, and avoiding enemies. Actually acquiring the kitty on each level will requiring your robot to be fairly decked out, both with abilities like powered up lasers, rocket boosters, and multi-colored key cards.

The way you acquire all of these abilities fits perfectly in to the Metroidvania formula, but how quickly you acquire them and how little fanfare there is makes it feel like the essence of what makes said formula work so well has been practically perfectly distilled. Six levels are included of increasing difficulty level, and while it starts out fairly easy and straight forward, the later levels can take over an hour to complete. There's even a level editor where you can create your own creations, although there isn't a way to share these yet.

I suppose you could look at the fact that there's only six levels as a negative point of the game, but then again, it's a dollar with a complete level editor. Forum members are really digging the game, and it's hard not to get behind a developer like Raptisoft who has historically been so good about updating their games.

If you like robots, cats, and/or Metroidvania style games, don't miss Robot Wants Kitty.

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Back in January, we learned about a new crossover deal between Universal Pictures and Doodle Jump developer Lima Sky that would see Doodle Jump somehow being affiliated with the upcoming movie Hop. At that time we weren’t quite sure if this would tie into the original Doodle Jump [99¢], be an update to Doodle Jump Christmas Special [99¢], or if it would be a completely new game altogether. Today we find out that it’s the latter, as Doodle Jump: Hop the Movie [Free] is now available in the App Store as a brand new separate game.

The premise for the game is that E.B., the son of the Easter Bunny, is set to take over the family tradition of delivering Easter baskets to kids around the world. But before he can take on his new role in life, he needs to become more proficient at jumping. This is where Doodle the Doodler comes in, as he has had more experience jumping than practically anybody.

Doodle Jump: Hop the Movie features 25 levels, with one unlocking each day until the movie’s release on April 1st. Since that’s not quite 25 days away, there are currently 8 levels available to play, which probably accounts for the time it took to be approved by Apple. It’s unclear whether or not there is a traditional endless mode, as each new level is completed by attaining a certain height goal, and there is no sort of score tracking that I can see.

Still, it definitely feels just like a Doodle Jump game, and that means that it’s a lot of fun. The graphics have an Easter flare to them, with platforms made out of jelly beans and Doodler jumping alongside you decked out in his cute bunny costume. It's also a universal app and features graphical support for Retina Display devices. Doodle Jump: Hop the Movie is free to download and play, and as far as games that tie in with advertisements go, it seems to be a pretty solid release and is worth checking out if you’re looking for a new Doodle Jump fix.

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Big Pixel Studios first cut their teeth in the App Store with Piyo Blocks [99¢/Lite] and its sequel Piyo Blocks 2 [99¢/HD], two highly underrated games and easily my favorites among the many, many match-3 games available. They then moved on to a more ambitious project, the wacky dual-stick shooter Meow Meow Happy Fight [99¢/HD], which we really enjoyed back in August when we reviewed it. With their library of titles thus far, Big Pixel has proven is that they are very capable of making games that feature solid gameplay, cute characters, and a colorful visual style.

This rings extremely true in their latest effort Land-a Panda [99¢/Lite/HD] as well. In Land-a Panda your goal is to get the male panda Yang Guang reunited with his sweetheart Tian Tian who is waiting at the end of each obstacle-filled level. You accomplish this by shooting him across the levels using a series of cannons, avoiding all manner of hazards along the way and trying to collect 3 coins on each stage for maximum scoring. If you remember any of the barrel blasting sequences from the Donkey Kong Country series, Land-a Panda is like an extreme homage to these.

There are 4 different worlds in Land-a Panda, each containing 20 levels, with an open spot for additional worlds to come in future updates. With 80 levels, there is a lot of gameplay here. The levels ease you into the mechanics in the game, starting with cannons that will automatically align to the proper angle and fire you in the right direction. As the game progresses, trickier cannons are introduced like ones that rotate and move back and forth, requiring you to fire at the correct time in order to launch to the next cannon. Enemies and environmental hazards like spikes add to the difficulty as well.

All of these elements blend together really well in Land-a Panda. Each level is like a puzzle in how you must figure out the best route to complete it, but the moving platforms and precision firing add a fast-paced component to the gameplay. If earning the highest score possible isn’t a big deal to you, then you’re free to take your time with each level and wait for the proper time to fire each of the cannons, which should suit you if you're typically more of a casual player.

Another big part of the game is predicting the trajectories of your cannon shots, which is something that has been attributed to the allure of games like Angry Birds. I think there’s something to this theory too, as there’s really nothing like firing your cannon and the exact right time to launch Yang Guang in a perfect arc up and over a set of spikes, narrowly between a set of enemies on the way down, and landing squarely next to his darling Tian Tian. One huge draw to Land-a Panda is that it’s incredibly fast and simple to retry a level, so it’s easy to experiment with different methods or endlessly retry a level in the hopes of topping your highest score.

Land-a Panda takes the simple concept of firing from cannon to cannon and builds a wealth of highly replayable content around it. Completing all 80 levels will take some time, and earning 3 stars for each will keep you busy even longer. Then, you can go back and perfect your techniques to earn higher scores and compete on the OpenFeint and Game Center leaderboards. And of course, this is all done using the lighthearted sights and sounds that Big Pixel are known for, with graphics that are crisp, colorful, and Retina Display ready. Players in our forums have been enjoying this game a ton, and if you’re in the market for a cleverly designed physics puzzler with a great sense of style then you can’t really go wrong with Land-a Panda.

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While we were out in San Francisco at GDC 2011, I had a chance to sit down with Xavier Liard of DotEmu to catch up on the latest from their studio. Part of the news gathered in that meeting we passed along last week in our story covering the upcoming arrival of Another World for iOS — DotEmu is the developer on that project. But there's more to tell from this retro revival studio.

The third release in DotEmu's Jaleco arcade series, an iPhone port of 64th Street: A Detective Story [link], has recently gone live in the App Store. The game is a Double Dragon-style beat 'em up arcade fighter that was originally released back in 1991. The iOS version of 64th Street is wrapped in an emulator, providing the original graphics and an authentic game experience as compared to the arcade release, but with customizations that make it appropriate for the iOS platform.

The next title slated for release as part of the Jaleco series is P47: The Freedom Fighter, an arcade side shooter released in 1988 that also saw release on the Amiga, C64 and various other platforms. The coming iOS version of P47 is delivered via emulation of the original arcade version.

Another item worth mentioning from DotEmu is the v2.0 update to their iPhone port of the MSX / Sega Master System RPG Golvellius – The Valley of Doom [link]. New in this release are a redone interface, adjustments to the control system, Game Center intregration bringing around 30 achievements, as well as optimizations to the code for smoother gameplay.

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Last week we met with the guys from Owlchemy Labs who are responsible for the highly controversial physics game Smuggle Truck. We've already posted about the controversy as well as the playable web demo, but this was the first time we actually saw it running on an iOS device.

Check out the game running on an iPad:

Owlchemy Labs plans on submitting Smuggle Truck to Apple for approval sometime around the 15th. They're using Unity for the game engine, which is allowing them to have a surprising amount of cross-platform compatibility. Once its all said and done, levels created in the level editor seen in the video will be playable across all platforms. What platforms are those? Well, Owlchemy is planning a release on the iPad, iPhone, Mac, PC, and potentially even distributing the game via Steam.

I can't wait.

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Well, GDC week is behind us, and what a week it was! Our full staff convened in San Francisco early in the week and, between the lot of us, saw some truly inspiring upcoming titles and spent time with a huge number of absolutely great people — developers and non-developers, alike. And while, by now, we've all made our way back to our own corners of the United States, there are still plenty of GDC stories in the pipeline!

One bit of GDC recap goodness that I wanted to share with readers is a short video I captured at the Independent Games Festival (IGF) area on the GDC show floor on Friday. A piece of professional cinematography it is not, with plenty of elbow-nudges and excuse-me's, but it does provide a glimpse of some of the indie games honored by the IGF, for both iOS and other platforms.

Music by Mick Rippon

TouchArcade has, so far, covered the Game Developer Conference for three years running, and every year's event has been an amazing experience and the most significant show of the year for iOS gaming. And, we can't wait for next year.

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This week at GDC we had a chance to sit down with Gamevil to have a look at what's in their pipeline — and pipeline chock-full of games it is. The Korean studio has been quite busy of late, and this year they expect to release more than twice as many iOS titles as they did last year. Gamevil, who caters to both the featurephone and smartphone markets, has restructured to enhance their focus on the latter. And, while they have so far strongly established themselves as an RPG maker, in 2011 all types of games will be landing in the App Store, as evidenced by the titles they shared with us here at GDC.

Zenonia 3

The third member of the popular Zenonia RPG series, Zenonia 3 brings notable enhancements along with a new story to play through.

The story goes like this: The world of Zenonia was divided into the Heavenly Realm and the Earth Realm until a war between the Divine Tribe and the Devil Tribe caused the creation of the Midgard Realm. The main character of the original Zenonia, Regret, appears to his son, Chael, the hero of this story. Chael, shortly thereafter while walking in a wood with his fairy friend Runa, disappears into the mysterious Midgard Realm. Your goal, as Chael, is to help the Divine Tribe get back to the Heavenly Realm and return yourself to Earth.

Fans of the earlier versions of the game will appreciate the dramatically improved, razor-sharp Retina graphics and lovely onscreen animation.

Chalk n' Talk

Chalk n' Talk is a multiplayer draw-and-guess game something akin to Charadium, but with the addition of social dating elements. The game allows up to four online players at once to join a room and participate in a game of drawing a scene and trying to guess what it is.

Seeds and flowers are given to players that solve the puzzle, which represent the game's basic currency. By default, the canvas is represented as a chalkboard, but other backdrops can be acquired, both by spending virtual currency as well as via in-app purchase, to mix up the look and the finished drawings can be shared and liked by others. (Some of the existing works I was shown were pretty impressive!)

Players setup Gamevil live profiles that track their progress and allow groups of friends to connect. The profiles contain a self-photo which others can see and, if interested, reach out, send virtual gifts, request a game session, etc. It's a social mechanic that's proven quite popular in the original, Korean version of the game.

Chalk n' Talk will be submitted to the App Store this week and launch in Canada and various countries abroad around the 20th of this month.

Skipping Stone

The original Skipping Stone was apparently the first "one button" game for mobile phones and was IGN game of the year in 2005. The game is basically a simple timing / rhythm title where you to skip a stone across a scrolling field of water as far as possible by timing your taps to the the leaps of the stone. A tap precisely when the stone hits the water keeps the next leap at the same height, while missed taps result in smaller and smaller leaps until your stone sinks. Along the way, dolphins and such may jump out of the water to give your stone a helping nudge upwards.

Skipping Stone will be submitted to the App Store in late March or early April and will be available for both $.99 and free, with ads. (See gameplay in the video, below.)

Mr. Penguin

A simple, pick-up-and-play title, Mr. Penguin (tentative title) is an entirely tilt-controlled game where your goal is to help a cute little penguin make his way along the vertically scrolling field of snow and floating slabs of ice. On the snow, it's an exercise in dodging obstacles as you slide along through the snow, while on the floating ice you must use delicate timing and tilt skills to bounce your penguin from slab to slab and on the backs of turtles, without falling in — all while avoiding the sharks.

Game Center and Facebook integration drive your progress along the way. (See a gameplay sample at the end of the video above.)

Soccer Superstars 2011

Gamevil is following up last year's Soccer Superstars with the new Soccer Superstars 2011, an evolved installment of the title featuring a significantly upgraded game engine with much more advanced player AI. The game allows players to select team countries like the original, with the added ability to choose from among a roster of (fictional) club teams. The title is graphically similar to last year's release and maintains its special players and special shots, while bringing with it most of the peripheral features of the Baseball Superstars series.

Soccer Superstars 2011 will be submitted to the App Store in late March or early April.

Kami Retro

We've just had the opportunity for a bit of hands-on time with the amazing looking Kami Retro, developed by Paw Print Games. The game is a platform puzzler that combines elements from Jet Set Willy, Rainbow Island, Mario, and Lemmings.

Gameplay involves flick-guiding a series of "Kami's" from start point to end point across colorful 2.5D, blocky retro playscreens. There are five stages with 13 levels each — 65 screens in all. In addition to fixed platforms, the task at hand involves positioning movable platforms, utilizing upward-blowing fans, and the like. Game Center integration keeps the gameplay competitive.

Ever since we first got word of this one, we've been eagerly awaiting its arrival — and the wait is almost over. Kami Retro is set to launch on March 10th.

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One of the surprise hits from last year was Game Dev Story [$3.99/Lite] from Kairosoft. This quirky simulation game allowed you to create your own game development company and release a series of titles across multiple platforms. Game Dev Story was littered with all kinds of references to the real history of video games, making it especially appealing to long time gamers like myself. We loved the game when we reviewed it last October, and Game Dev Story went on to suck countless hours from iOS gamers ever since.

Coming off the huge success of Game Dev Story, Kairosoft has talked about their plans to bring a sequel to iOS in the distant future. Then earlier this year, they launched an interesting looking title called The Game Dealer in the Japanese App Store. Similar to Game Dev Story, The Game Dealer has you heading up a brick and mortar video game store and dealing with all the simulation elements that go along with it.

We speculated that The Game Dealer would be the next to get a localized US release, but earlier today we were surprised to see that Kairosoft’s US follow-up to Game Dev Story is instead a game called Hot Springs Story [$3.99]. In Hot Springs Story, you (unsurprisingly) manage a Japanese hot springs inn, building it out to your liking and attracting customers to patronize your establishment. AppBank has a gameplay video of the Japanese version of Hot Springs Story to give you an idea of what it plays like:

Hot Springs Story has been available in the Japanese App Store since December, and seeing as how it was their follow-up release to Game Dev Story in Japan I still think we’ll end up seeing The Game Dealer localized as well in due time. For now, though, you’ll be able to live out your fantasy of running a relaxing hot springs resort, just as you’ve always dreamed… right? Early impressions in our forums are positive, noting that the interface and mechanics are nearly identical to Game Dev Story but with a few welcome enhancements like zooming and landscape display.

The gameplay appears to be just as engaging as well, and chances are if you liked Game Dev Story then you’ll get similar enjoyment out of Hot Springs Story. Just don’t start playing too close to your bed time if you value sleep. We’ll have more on Hot Springs Story once we’re able to break away from our GDC shenanigans long enough to engulf ourselves in the world of hot springs management, but you can grab the game right now for an introductory sale price of $3.99.

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Considering how into Minecraft some folks are, and the surprising amount of unsanctioned Minecraft apps on the App Store, it’s not too surprising to learn this exciting bit of news: Mojang, the studio behind the indie monster hit, is developing its own iOS version of the title! It's slated to hit at some point in 2011 for the iPad, iPhone, and the iPod Touch.

Specifically, one dude is at the helm. A fellow that goes by the name of Aron Neiminen has been brought on board to handle it. Details, unfortunately, are light at the moment, but Gamasutra confirms that not all the updates to Minecraft will make it over the iOS version. Mojang is only instituting stuff Minecraft iOS that “makes sense” for its touch-based platforms, which is inspiring. You gotta love it when a dev gets that touch devices are just that — touch devices.

Minecraft, by the way, is still in beta. You can get into the action by shooting over to the game’s Web site and checking out the download version or even the browser version.

[via Gamasutra]

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This past week Bravo Games, who brought us Touch Racing Nitro, released Volcano Escape [App Store], a game that combines elements of several different genres to create what's best described as an "endless platformer" title.

As the game starts off, you choose one of six different characters to play, some of whom are locked initially, and one who is a $0.99 download as he sports five lives (two extra). And then that character is pitched into an active volcano. Luckily, the volcano in question is arrayed with platforms the whole way down. You land on the bottom platform, just above a pool of lava, but there's no time to gather your wits — the lava is rising. The task at hand is to flee the molten menace by escaping upwards, jumping from platform to platform as nimbly as possible.

Complicating your flight are various tiki men and monsters that you must avoid or kill, and in the higher reaches of the volcano you'll need to use their blasted corpses as floating platforms to continue your ascent. Luckily there are various weapons and power-ups such as spring-loaded boots and even rocket packs to help you along the way — but watch out, some of the items you'll find can do you harm.

One might assume that the driven ascent mechanic would require small, simplistic platform arrangements. And, if the developer's goal were to create a relatively easy game, it would. But Volcano Escape is definitely not an easy game, but one requiring serious skill to rank on the online leaderboard. A significant portion of the challenge in the game is due to the elaborate platform arrangements and the various types of platforms you'll encounter. In addition to nice, solid slabs of stone, you'll find rocks that crumble, hinged surfaces, slabs of fire, and even bear traps. These you must quickly identify and negotiate, all while the searing lava rises to meet you. And, as mentioned previously, at times there are sections without platforms that must be traversed with the help of corpses bobbing in the lava. It's a daunting scenario, but at least you can double-jump and wall-jump like Mario. A nice touch is the random presentation of one of a few different platform arrangements when a new game is started, which helps to avoid monotony.

Volcano Escape borrows — and borrows well — from a number of games I can point to. Like Doodle Jump and its ilk, you are bound endlessly upward, but along the way you have to tap into your basic platformer skills. Unlike the typical endless jumping game, however, you set your own pace of ascent with the encroaching lava as a motivator, similar to the use of fluids in games like Flood and The Killing Game Show / Fatal Rewind.

I found the game highly challenging and extremely difficult to put down in the (many) hours I've spent with it over the last few days. But, in that time, I've identified a few areas that could use some improvement. One issue that is more noticeable as you're just getting a feel for the game is the onscreen control placement. There are two D-pads in the lower corners of the screen, one for movement and one for aiming / firing. (The controls can be rendered invisible in the options screen.) The jump button is positioned on the right edge of the screen, about 60% of the way up towards the top, and that placement, initially at least, feels a bit awkward. An alternate control layout or, better, the ability to customize the control layout would be nice to see in an update.

The "2.5D" graphics in Volcano Escape look downright gorgeous on my iPhone 4's Retina display, with all sorts of nice environmental effects like falling rocks and background tremors. But, perhaps due to its lavish scenery, the game suffers from frequent framerate studders on that device. In my experience, it doesn't significantly get in the way of gameplay, but it is an annoyance, and is something I've heard echoed by folks in our forums.

Volcano Escape really does have a whole lot to offer. Its combination of play mechanics from various genres is beautifully executed, its challenge is immense, and it's got just a whole lot of personality. There are a few issues that I hope will be addressed in a future update but, even so, I'd be quick to recommend Volcano Escape as a "don't miss" title to any iPhone gamer that enjoys a steep challenge.

Disclaimer: Bravo Games is a current advertiser on this site. While we firmly believe this does not influence in any way our review or coverage of the company and their titles, you should be aware.

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