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Giana Sisters [$4.99] was originally released all the way back in 1987 for the Amiga, C64, and similar platforms of the era. Surrounded by legal troubles due to its similarity with Super Mario Bros., the game was pulled almost as soon as it was released– Making original copies of the game highly valued by vintage video game collectors. In 2005, Giana Sisters made the jump to mobile phones, and a few years later found a home on the Nintendo DS following an extensive graphical overhaul.

Earlier this year, the sisters hopped platforms once again to the iPhone, and on July 9th will be jumping, tossing fireballs, and smashing bricks on the iPad. Developers Bad Monkee sent us a bunch of screenshots, and we're really excited to see the game in motion on our iPads.

We really liked Giana Sisters in our review, and later went on to award it a solid four star rating when we did our Best iPhone Games February 2010 round up. If this is the first you've heard of the game, if you like platformers with a classic feel, Giana Sisters is really worth checking out. If you own an iPad, hold off until the 9th to pick up the HD version.

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While we're all busy fiddling with multitasking and obsessively organizing our apps in to folders, developers are hard at work to fully utilize all the other things under the hood of iOS 4. Firemint and Secret Exit are among the first studios taking advantage of iOS 4's new anti-aliasing capabilities.

Anti-aliasing is used to minimize jagged edges found in curved and diagonal lines displayed utilizing the grid of square pixels that make up the displays we use today. Using anti-aliasing, the GPU of the iPhone intelligently decides what color to display on pixels that border the edges of 3D objects to make them blend in to the background and appear more crisp.

As you can see from the above image, the A on the left has no aliasing, while the edges of the A on the right have been blended with the background color. This is a gross over-simplification of how anti-aliasing works, but if you weren't aware before it will at least give you an idea of what you're looking at in the following sets of screenshots:

The effects of the anti-aliasing is incredibly apparent when you focus on the bill of the duck in both images. Secret Exit also posted additional screenshots in our forums, and in a second post explaining the technical details of anti-aliasing in Zen Bound 2 which mentions the performance cost being too high to utilize the effect in older devices.

In somewhat related Zen Bound 2 news, they also announced that it will soon be available on multiple platforms. Joining the existing iPad Zen Bound 2 [$4.99] is an upcoming iPhone, iPod touch, PC, and Mac version. Recent MacBook owners will be able to use the multi-touch trackpad or even a Magic Mouse to control the game just like the iPhone.

Real Racing [$4.99] saw an update yesterday which not only made the game iPhone 4 friendly complete with high resolution graphics, but also brought anti-aliasing to the iPhone 3GS and 3rd generation iPod touch. It might not have been immediately obvious when you fired up the game since updating, but take a look at a screenshot I took today compared to a screenshot captured for our our review over a year ago:

Looking at the line following the top of the dashboard, the A pillar of the car, and edges of the banner over the makes the new anti-aliasing really pop out comparing the two screenshots. This is only the tip of the iceberg, too. Now that new features like this have been unlocked for developers, it should be really fun to see what they come up with.

Anti-aliasing being supported by the iPhone 3GS and 3rd generation iPod touch is also good news for people who might not be immediately upgrading to the iPhone 4. While you'll obviously be lacking the Retina Display, if developers start implementing anti-aliasing in all their 3D games, everything will look substantially better on your existing device without needing to do anything other than download some game updates.

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In a joint development from Bulkypix, Pastagames, and video game historians Pix'n Love, Pix'n Love Rush is a retro-inspired high score platformer suffering from ADD. The many influences that went into Pix'n Love Rush are hard to ignore. With nods to classics such as Space Invaders, Bubble Bobble, WarioWare and more, Pix'n Love Rush is a retro gamer's dream come true crammed into an engaging pick-up and play package. Much like the graphical stylings, the concept is blissfully simple. Collect coins while negotiating the different platform environments, destroy enemies and avoid hazards. It doesn't sound like much on paper, but coupled with the randomly generated sequence of levels and a nifty score multiplier system that actually changes the visual style of the game, Pix'n Love Rush will have you helplessly coming back time and time again.

If the game looks vaguely familiar, that's because it's an offshoot of the Arkedo series on the Indie Games Channel of Xbox Live, in particular the third game in the series 03 Pixel! (also co-developed by Pastagames). The purposely chunky pixel graphics look like something that would have blown you away running on a TI-83 calculator over a decade ago, but still manages to ooze all sorts of charm. The gameplay foundation is rooted in platforming, but not in the traditional sense. Each level is presented in a small chunk, and lasts just a short amount of time (some longer than others). For instance, you may start out on something akin to a Mario Bros. game, progressing from left to right. Then the next level may be a series of platforms moving upwards, and some even auto-scroll so you have to keep up. These bite-sized levels appear in a random order and are nicely varied, and much like WarioWare you must always be ready for what may appear next.

Left and right arrows control movement, and separate buttons control jumping and firing. You can only shoot straight up in the air Space Invaders-style and must be cautious with your bullets as the ones that miss the mark will fall back down to the ground, possibly hitting you if you aren't careful. Collecting coins with a plus symbol will net you 250 points, and touching boxes with a minus symbol with deduct 500 points. There are enemies to take out with your weapon, sometimes moving and sometimes stationary, but there are also angels which must be protected from both the bad guys and your own errant bullets. Grabbing coins without getting hurt while avoiding minus boxes will work towards building up a multiplier to x2, x5, and x10. A handy indicator in the upper right corner shows you how close you are to each one, and similarly a heart icon in the upper right displays your remaining life. Beyond worrying about what level type is thrown at you next, you must constantly be getting the good stuff while avoiding the bad stuff, and it's a wonderful challenge of your dexterity.

One of the neatest aspects of the game is how the background style changes with each multiplier gained. These different backgrounds are just as saturated in retro as the pixel graphics themselves, featuring accurate representations of the original Game Boy, the Game & Watch series of LCD games, and even a theme styled after the failed Nintendo Virtual Boy (headaches and eyestrain thankfully not included). It's hard to explain the burst of excitement you feel from moving from one theme to the next, but it's definitely a huge part of the appeal of Pix'n Love Rush. The Game Boy art is especially authentic, and made me feel as if I'd entered a time warp back to 1989 when I first fired up the legendary system. There's currently 7 different background themes spread across the games 5 minute timed mode and Infinite mode, with more planned in future updates. It's a nice variety of the bite-sized levels, and while you'll recognize certain sequences as you spend more time playing the game the random nature in which they're presented ensures the game feels different just about every time you play.

There are a couple very minor issues I had while playing, the most notable being the placement of the jump and fire buttons – they're just too far apart for my liking. There's nothing worse than knocking your multiplier down a level because you jumped into an enemy when you meant to shoot him. Otherwise the controls function just as well as virtual controls can on a touch screen. The other issue is the quirky way in which high scores are recorded. OpenFeint is integrated for achievements and leaderboards, but currently your score will only be uploaded if you break the one million mark. This isn't too terribly difficult to do once you've played the game some, but still seems a little bit too inspired by the hardcore nature of old-school arcade games. These two issues are on their way to being rectified, however, as both Bulkypix and Pastagames are actively addressing feedback in the game's forum thread. Even with these minor complaints, Pix'n Love Rush comes together beautifully to create a game that's perfectly suited for long or short play sessions, and beckons to be played over and over as you work towards high score glory.

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Last month we posted an exclusive look at the upcoming iPhone version of the '90s classic puzzle / platformer Qwak, which started life on the BBC Micro and later came to the Amiga. We're happy to report that the game has just gone live in the App Store [link].

In Qwak, you control a duck (get it?). Your objective is to guide this green duck through level after level of platforms, fruits and gems (worth points), bouncing enemies, power-ups to help demolish said enemies, and keys to unlock goodies as well as the level's exit gate. Your duck can run, jump, and fire volleys of egg projectiles to knock out the baddies. Grab a bonus item and watch a hail of colorful fruit rain down upon you. Take too long on a level and meet a hail of spikeballs. In a nutshell, I call it frenetic, fun, and rather fruity (to be alliteratively wanton).

I've spent some time with the prerelease build of the game that developer Jamie Woodhouse provided, and it's been lovely to play. It's a touch-controlled game with a left / right control in one corner and jump and egg-fire controls in the other. The vibrant visuals move about the screen as smooth as glass on the iPhone 3GS test device and a very Amiga-sounding score accompanies the action. It feels both retro and highly polished. It's a game platformer fans won't want to miss.

See our previous article to read our interview with Qwak author Jamie Woodhouse.

App Store Link: Qwak, $2.99

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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.

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Back in 1989 now-veteran UK game developer Jamie Woodhouse released a lively little puzzle / platformer called Qwak for the 8-bit BBC Micro home computer.  Not long after, he joined forces with Team17 to develop an enhanhced, two-player Amiga version of the game, which was released in 1993 and featured faster action and more frantic gameplay. The rather well-reviewed title (Amiga Computing magazine gave it a "Gamer Gold" 92% rating) later made its way to the Gameboy Advance as well as the Mac and PC.

We're pleased to report that Jamie recently got in touch to let us know that he has developed an iPhone version of Qwak and will shortly be launching it through the App Store.

In Qwak, you control a duck (get it?). Your objective is to guide this green duck through level after level of platforms, fruits and gems (worth points), bouncing enemies, power-ups to help demolish said enemies, and keys to unlock goodies as well as the level's exit gate. Your duck can run, jump, and fire volleys of egg projectiles to knock out the baddies. Grab a bonus item and watch a hale of colorful fruit rain down upon you. Take too long on a level and meet a hale of spikeballs. In a nutshell, I call it frenetic, fun, and rather fruity (to be alliteratively wanton).

I've spent some time with the exclusive prerelease build of the game Jamie provided us and it's been lovely to play. It's a touch-controlled affair with a left / right control in one corner and jump and egg-fire controls in the other. The vibrant visuals move about the screen as smooth as glass on the iPhone 3GS test device and a very Amiga-sounding score accompanies the action. It feels both retro and highly polished. It's a game platformer fans won't want to miss.

Additional details, I'll leave to the developer to provide (after the jump), as he was kind enough to grant us an interview along with the exclusive ad hoc build.

What were your inspirations for writing the original?  Are there any particular games you had in mind?

Well, there was a bunch of platform games on the Beeb I used to play; Blagger, Monters, Space Panic, Frak etc. I also went in the arcades a lot back then (so much so that I got kicked out of college), and I undoubtedly played Bubble Bobble, which Qwak gets compared to a lot.

What language did you use to write the BBC Micro version?

100% 6502 Assembler. You could quite easily mix BBC basic and assembler, or have 100% assembler; which a lot of game developers did back then, and you needed to, to get the best performance out of the very limited and slow hardware. Fun times!

Is the BBC Micro version, in fact, the original?

Yep, it’s the original. It was released in 1989 by Superior on a 4 game compilation. I still have a review of the game from a 1989 A&B Computing magazine; “The best game of the bunch has to be Qwak! Designed and coded by Jamie Woodhouse it is very addictive and great fun..”.

I think that was the first time I’d ever seen one of my games reviewed and in print; felt pretty good as I stood there reading the mag in the newsagents!

The '93 Amiga rework is a bit more fast paced / arcadey than the original. GBA and PC / Mac versions followed. It seems the iPhone ver is really an adaptation of the later versions, is that true?

Yeah, I guess it’s confusing with all the different versions all sharing the same name; but with different graphics and various gameplay mechanics…

The Beeb version came first, and the Amiga version was a good deal different to the Beeb version.

The GBA version came next, which was a port of the Amiga version, I used all the same graphics and levels etc; and just added in some scrolling to accommodate the GBA’s smaller screen resolution.

Actually, I couldn’t find a publisher for the GBA version so I had a load of carts shipped over from China and self-published a small limited run of carts. All sold out now!

Next came the PC version, which had completely new levels, more tricks and traps, different power-ups and secret bonuses; and a lot more going on visually to! The Mac version was a port of the PC version.

For the iPhone version of Qwak, I’ve managed to retain pretty much everything that’s going on with the PC version. It’s based on the PC version; but there’s a little scrolling, to squeeze the levels in to the smaller iPhone screen resolution. I don’t think it hurts the game-play too much.

How are you liking iPhone game development as opposed to what you've done on the Amiga, GBA and other platforms?

I’m absolutely loving it so far!

There’s a bit of a learning curve, with this being my first iPhone game; but I feel as if I’m making good progress and getting a good technical understanding of the platform.

The Amiga and GBA were also fun platforms to make games for; and as with the iPhone, you have a pretty solid idea of the minimum spec machine people will be playing your game on (which doesn’t happen with desktop game dev). Plus, it’s relatively a low powered device (compared to desktop PC’s), which is awesome! … because there’s more scope for programmer creativity in squeezing more performance from the device (game developers secretly love that kind of thing!).

The music track sounds very Amiga. Is the audio straight from that version?

Yep, it's got the same 10 tracks of music from the Amiga version (which used to be in .MOD format, was a little tricky converting them to .MP3s).

Can you comment at all on the controls of the iPhone ver, thoughts that went into them, etc?

Well, Qwak is quite a fast paced game, so I felt some kind of on-screen D-pad control mechanic would work a lot better than using the accelerometer.

There’s also an issue that your thumbs and fingers may obscure the in-game action; so what I’ve done is when the player is at the bottom of the screen; the screen kinda shifts up a little bit, so you can still see yourself.

I also have the fire (throw egg) button on the right hand side, so it’s easy to waddle your wrist and throw eggs really quickly, one after the other (which is handy as the bigger baddies need multiple hits to ‘dispatch’ them).

The controls work for me; but it’ll be interesting to see how people respond when they’ve tried the game for themselves. I’m wondering too, how left-handed players with cope with the controls. I just hope I get feedback and people let me know, it’s always great to hear what’s working and what needs changing or improvement (and it’s always possible to do an update).

Is there anything down the road you can speak of?

There’s quite a few ideas I have; and it’s funny you should say ‘road’ … as I’m half tempted to do a re-envisioned version of Nitro or ATR. There doesn’t seem to be many top-down perspective racers on the App Store.

I’m also thinking ‘Qwak spin-off’ … I often worry that Qwak may be TOO frantic and fast-paced for a lot of people (although I personally love that kind of thing), so the spin-off game would be slightly slower paced, with more exploration and puzzle solving (and tricks and traps, hehe).

What are your thoughts on the iPhone as a game platform, and the overall situation that is the App Store?

I really like it, it’s a lot of fun to make games for, and I feel genuinely excited at the prospect of making more games for it.

I’m still pretty new to the App Store; but my first impressions, I guess there seems to be a lot of variation in the quality of games on there; from really poor, to really awesome.

I really like the fact that it’s possible for small indie game developers, to make the kind of games they want to make, and share them with other people through the App Store. There’s not so much need for any middle-man or publisher or anything like that. So it’s a lot more accessible to developers that a lot of platforms.

Qwak should be landing in the App Store shortly. We'll give folks a heads-up when it lands. This is a good one, folks.

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When the App Store first launched, I don't think anyone imagined that the iPhone would be such a marvelous platform for retro gamers. The amount of games out there that are either direct ports or heavily inspired by classic titles has been absolutely awesome both for fans of these vintage games and newcomers who are getting to experience the roots of video gaming for the first time.

Revolutionary Concepts, the guys behind the phenomenal port of the LaserDisc arcade game Cobra Command [$2.99] just revealed a video of their next game, Karate Champ. The attention to detail is absolutely astounding, between the arcade style cabinet controls, the gameplay itself, and even the announcer voice which is a dead ringer for the Commodore 64 SAM voice.

Released to arcades in 1984, Karate Champ was one of the first fighting games. It later made its way to the Apple II, the Commodore 64, and the NES among other platforms. According to Revolutionary Concepts, it will be submitted to Apple this week and it will launch at $1.99 as soon as it is approved.

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It seems that Freebie Friday is spilling in to the weekend, with another set of games to download. The games from yesterday will likely still be free for a little while, so be sure to grab those as well as the following four games:

Chop Chop Runner

The ninja from Chop Chop Ninja [99¢ / Free] is back in this fast-paced single-button sidescroller. See how far you can go while unlocking a hand full of achievements and finally submitting your best scores to the game's OpenFeint-powered online leaderboards.

StickBound

Another see how far you can go to the right platforming game, StickBound has an interesting control mechanic where instead of jumping you're using some kind of intergalactic pole to pole vault across the platforms that make up the game. Where you touch to aim your pole controls how far you jump and where you end up. It takes a bit of getting used to, but is a lot of fun once you do. StickBound also comes loaded with OpenFeint leaderboards.

Tune Runner

Appy Entertainment's Tune Runner is also free for a limited time. This rhythm game puts you in control of Groov-EE, a robotic boom box of sorts and the game generates levels for any song in your iTunes library with shapes for you to trace to keep Groov-EE dancing. Each song also has its own online leaderboard, and it's fun to see which songs have the most in-game competition online.

Mini Golf Wacky Worlds Free

This mini golf game, as the title may indicate, is fairly wacky. 45 holes are included and each one comes with obstacles such as snow, lava, cheese, police helicopters, and all kinds of other strange things. This is a new ad-supported version of the game, but there's also the ad-free Mini Golf Wacky Worlds [$2.99] if the advertisements bother you. Otherwise, if you can put up with some ads, this is the full game.

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Puzzle Quest 2, Infinite Interactive's follow-up to the RPG puzzle series, is slated to hit Xbox LIVE Arcade and the Nintendo DS this summer. But will it be released for the iPad and iPhone?

It's possible. In a conversation with us, game executive producer Tim Ramage said that both platforms are "viable platforms" for the game.

“At the moment we are only announced for XBLA and DS but we are looking at all other platforms for possible opportunities," Ramage said via e-mail. "Both the iPad and iPhone would be viable platforms for Puzzle Quest 2 to be a part of.”

The original Puzzle Quest (Chapters 1 and 2) [App Store] launched on the App Store in December 2008 following the full game's Xbox LIVE Arcade release in October.

The iPhone port was met with middling reviews until perfomance updates brought it up to speed with its platform counterparts, but it's always maintained that magical mixture of Bejeweled-style match-three play with RPG trimmings. Definitely check it out if you're a puzzle game fan.

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Telltale Games, the creators of Sam & Max [App Store] and Tales of Monkey Island, revealed a new iPhone-bound puzzle game last afternoon at a San Francisco-based event.

It's called Puzzle Agent, and according to IGN's write-up, it seeks to jump outside the usual Telltale mold by integrating the studio's signature story-telling with Professor Layton-style, scene-based puzzles.

The game's visual art is the product of former Telltale designer Graham Annable, the creator of Grickle. His pen and ink, purposefully crude approach comes through prominently in Puzzle Agent.

Players will be controlling an FBI Agent named Nelson Tether and apparently will be tasked with uncovering what hidden mysteries the desolate and snow-laden Scoggins, Minnesota holds.

Telltale Games started teasing Puzzle Agent via a splash page on their official website earlier this month. The page featured the Agent standing in the forefront of an old factory. A sign just behind the Tether's shoulder read "Welcome to Scoggins."

It's possible the secret of Scoggins has something to do with the little red gnomes that appear when mousing over objects on this splash page.

Telltale only showed a brief video of the game at the event, but the developer did share that the game will have a hint system tied to Tether's love of chewing gum.

Puzzle Agent will hit the iPhone and iPad, as well as several other platforms, this June. Unlike Telltale's other IPs, Puzzle Agent might not be the first in a line of episodic titles based on Tether's adventures. According to IGN, this is the flagship project for the Telltale Pilot Program, a program designed around gauging interest in a title before tossing it into the usual episodic model.

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