TouchArcade.ru

Pavel Tsarev's iDaTank [$1.99 / Lite] was released a few weeks ago but had some troubles, namely some crashing issues and a lack of a save function when the home button was pushed — thankfully an update thrust out last week fixes those problems, meaning all of us can sit and enjoy the unique experience without having to worry about saving issues.

Nailing down what it is that makes iDaTank enjoyable is difficult. At its core, it’s a resource-hoarding exploration game where you're controlling a small tank as it moves around a small, three dimensional planet collecting resources and killing enemies. Somehow it also manages to feel a bit like a rogue-like, where permadeath can end your game quickly (although you can purchase more lives through the in-game economy), weapon upgrades are slowly seeded out and an RPG system lays underneath the hood to increase the tanks properties.

It doesn't fit into an easily definable genre-box, which is what makes it all the more appealing. The game play doesn't stretch much further than what you'll get from the outset — you drive around, stripping planets of resources and killing enemies, but you still feel like you have to see what's at the end.

You control the tanks movement by sliding your finger in the direction you want to go — there is no virtual joystick, but it feels similar, perhaps even better than one. The firing is done automatically, so even though it might look like a duel stick shooter, it's not. Somehow, the constant upgrades keep it interesting and as the game progresses, you can actually feel it change underneath your fingers. You get more control over your tank, more speed, weapons, storage — the progression feels spot on, even though you'll have to grind a bit to get through later levels.

There are a total of 26 different levels, each subdivided into different subsections based on planet type. Each planet has its own alien life, is shaped differently and a few even have bosses, which if you run into unprepared, will absolutely slaughter you. That's made all the more difficult by the fact you can't back out and leave a planet if you find it too tough, which means you'll need to grind the early levels before you jump into some of the later ones, providing a serious challenge even if you're fully prepared. The goal of each planet is to capture a certain amount of resources, sometimes this means running over and delivering some blue crystals, other times you'll need to kill enemies or blow up giant egg things. You'll often need to make several trips from the resources to the delivery platform before you're finished with the level.

Picking which upgrades to use on your tank and your weapons is integral to your success in each mission. Weapons are handled by the same in-game economy as the lives, so you have to choose between the two. Tank upgrades are dispersed out when you reach a new level by gaining XP from killing aliens. There's also the whole permadeath thing that might turn some people off — when you're out of lives, you have to start over at the very beginning of the game.

iDaTank is built in Unity and looks the part. The 3D graphics are simple, but they work with the overall atmosphere of the game, which is to say it's a minimal, but well-planned and well-executed idea. That said, the enemy animation is top-notch and the tank looks great as well — like something pulled straight out of Jonathan Ive's brain if Apple suddenly decided to start making space-tanks. The interface continues the minimalist trend, almost to a fault as it takes a couple of taps to figure out what a button does instead of just one, but the uncluttered look works well with the rest of the game. It's a universal build, but it looks a little better on the iPhone's smaller screen then it does on iPad. However, the controls are a little smoother on iPad, so pick your fancy there if you have a choice.

Despite the ambiguous name, iDaTank is a surprisingly in-depth adventure game with a thin, but adequate layer of RPG elements added on top to keep you coming back for more. Like the best rogue-likes, it works like crack in that you'll manage to inch further and further into space through each playthrough before suddenly realizing it's three in the morning.

[source]

Last night, TechCrunch leaked some details of a new initiative taking place over at Facebook called "Project Spartan." This project aims to utilize HTML5 to free Facebook (and Facebook games) from App Store dependence, essentially putting the ball back in Facebook's hands for control over their platform. If you're not privy to the differences between HTML5 and native apps downloaded through the App Store, I'll break it down for you real quick so you can understand why this matters:

Currently, if you want to release an app or game on the App Store, you need to build it in Xcode using C, C++, or Objective-C, using the documented API's available for developers. To submit said game/app to the App Store, you need a valid developer account which costs $99 a year and your game/app needs to abide by Apple's guidelines. Updates to existing games/apps need to go through the same process, and pushing an update out not only requires an additional trip through the week (or more) long approval process, but also depends on users to actually download said update. When you think about it that way, there sure are a lot of hoops to jump through.

Alternatively, your can build your game/app using HTML5. This won't allow you to access many of the features and functionality of the device as easily (or, really, at all) compared to a native app, but taking this road puts the developer in the driver seat instead of Apple. There are other drawbacks as well, such as requiring online connectivity, although clever resource caching can get around this to some extent, and until WebGL support matures there's not really an easy way to do any kind of 3D.

Where a HTML5 distribution model greatly favors Facebook and social game developers like Zynga is that they can instantly and seamlessly push out updates to their platform. In fact, one of the original criticisms that Zynga had, and one of the reasons why Farmville [Free] took so long to be released on the App Store is that the week or longer delays for each update doesn't jive with Zynga's rapid-fire update model. Those of you who are familiar with Zynga Facebook games are fully aware, but it seems like there's something new being added on a near-daily basis.

In addition, by utilizing your own payment infrastructure with your HTML5 game/app, you're able to completely sidestep Apple's required 30% cut. While coming up with an entire payment system might be too much for most developers to handle, Facebook already has their credits system in place that millions of people are already using today. Also, when you're looking at things in the scope of Facebook's massive userbase, that 30% savings that would have gone to Apple can easily add up to millions of dollars.

HTML5 works great for games as Sarien.net proved a while back, and it's fantastic for apps as well. Give Google Docs a spin on your device for a great display of just what's possible with some clever coding. With these two examples, it's not hard to imagine what Facebook and Facebook game developers could come up with.

TechCrunch also notes another interesting aspect of Project Spartan: Even though Facebook is essentially pushing to distribute its content outside of the bounds of the App Store (and with 700m users, they likely have the muscle to do it), transitioning developers like Zynga to HTML5 and away from Flash only serves to further diminish Flash reliance in the gaming world.

Allegedly, 80 developers are currently involved in Project Spartan. It's hard to imagine this having much of an impact on the App Store in general, but historically speaking, underestimating the power of Facebook has been a terrible thing to do.

[via TechCrunch]

[source]

Bumpy Road [$2.99] is a great game for a lot of reasons. Its art, sound, and controls fit snuggly together, establishing it as one of the most complete, whole, and well-refined games that we've taken a look at recently. And while there’s a bunch to do in the game, there’s even more as of now. A free update to the innovative physics-based platform game has been pushed out, adding 100 new level segments, the “gruesome and sneaky Break Gizmo,” and two new tracks for the “Classic Sunday Trip.”

Complimenting this, of course, are five new Game Center achievements, and some new leaderboards, which round out the experience nicely.

On the technical side — what’s an update without a band-aid — developer Simogo has tweaked the title so its start-up loading is faster. On the game’s blog, Simog reckons that it’s now “three times faster.” Good. I don’t like waiting.

Definitely give Bumpy Road a shot if you’re looking for a new game. As I referenced earlier, we do have a review for the title. Catch it!

[source]

Last week at WWDC, I met up with the guys from Get Set Games to talk about the success they’ve had with their game Mega Jump [Free] as well as what the future holds for them on the App Store. First of all, they revealed that Mega Jump has just passed the 15 million download mark, which is an impressive milestone to say the least. You might remember that just over a year ago, Mega Jump launched as a 99¢ paid app. It saw a brief sale period at one point, but last August the team decided to make the game permanently free and try to make their money by selling a huge selection of IAP goodies from within the game.

Love it or hate it, this freemium pay model has done extremely well for them in the past 10 months, and they have no plans to revert to a paid app anytime soon. Mega Jump has also received a steady stream of updates during its lifespan, and the newest one that is set to hit any day now will be the game’s 15th. It adds a huge new feature to the back end of the game which will allow the developers to send new content to the game through OpenFeint without actually submitting it as an official update. This means that things like new level skins and coin patterns can be pushed out to the game even more frequently and with less hassle. If you’re a Mega Jump fan, expect new content to be hitting the game at an even faster pace from update 15 on.

Next, they filled me in on one of their upcoming new games which will be starring the main character from Mega Jump, who I’ve come to learn is named Redford. Called Mega Run, it will be an endless running style of game using a similar art style from Mega Jump. The version of Mega Run I was able to try is currently just a functioning prototype, but already felt pretty good. The developers are planning to utilize a similar freemium pay structure and update schedule for Mega Run as they have with Mega Jump. It will also include the new back end feature that lets new assets be pushed to the game without an update, so they assured me that there will be plenty of fresh content coming to that title after it launches as well.

One bit of interesting news that came up during my meeting was finding out that Rob Segal of Get Set Games is one of the brains behind the Toronto Game Jam, or TOJam, and that the entire development team participates in this 3 day game jam every year. During the latest TOJam this past May, members of Get Set Games created a game called Seven Jamurai under their pseudonym Team Awesomo. Seven Jamurai was easily one of the most talked about games at the jam, and it’s pretty incredible to think that such a high quality effort can be created in just a few short days.

The exciting part of all this is that the team was so happy with how Seven Jamurai turned out that they are in the process of readying the game for an iOS release. Gameplay could be described as Castle Crashers meets Smash TV, as Seven Samurai is a frantic dual-stick shooter that relies heavily on cooperative play with up to 4 players. They are really fine tuning how all of this will work out in the iOS version, but you can check out this early video of Seven Jamurai from the game jam to get an idea of what it will be like:

Both Mega Run and Seven Jamurai are being developed at the same time, and the developers hope to have them both out on the App Store “in a few months”. My big takeaway from my meeting with Get Set Games is that this is a crew of video game-loving friends who have all defined their own roles in the company, which allows them to work together really well. They also have a near endless supply of amazing game ideas, and I could easily write twice as much about their previous game jam titles which were never fully realized but all have immense potential.

I’ll keep my fingers crossed that will see these games materialize in some form someday, but for now I’ll be looking forward to plenty of new Mega Jump content and both Mega Run and Seven Jamurai hitting the App Store sometime this year.

[source]

Sometimes the simplest things are the ones that bring the most joy. There aren't many games that are simpler than Match Panic [$0.99], but that's a big part of its charm.

Here's how the game plays: adorable pixel sprites make a line down the screen. Identical sprites are shown on both sides of the screen, and its your job to tap the side of the screen that matches the sprite in the middle. Does it get any more straightforward than that?

But don't jump to conclusions—Match Panic is harder than it sounds. Without lives to contend with, you're free to make mistakes, but you have to beat the clock. It's easy at first, but time gets tight as you reach higher and higher levels. You've got to be fast, and you can't spare the seconds mistakes cost you. Now you're probably thinking that you're some kind of pro matcher who'd never make an error, but try saying that when there are three sprites on one side of the screen, two on the other and a clock ticking down the seconds. This is some seriously frantic matching action.

For all you meta-gamers, there's a lot more replayability than you might think. The first challenge is to unlock all the sprites by hitting level or match milestones. They get shuffled into play and make it that much harder to keep track of where your fingers should be tapping. You'll also want to push your scores on the Game Center leaderboards, which track high scores, bonus time, streaks and total matches. Then there are the achievements, which challenge you to play creatively, quickly and carefully.

I was pretty charmed by the trailers for Match Panic, so I'm thrilled that the game is so good. When I have a little time to kill, I put a song with a good beat on my iPod and get right to matching. I love Chaotic Box's Silverfish [$1.99], and Match Panic confirms that the one-man dev studio is chock full of good ideas. Our forum users agree: this is a game that's simple to pick up, but so hard to put down.

[source]

It seems like every convention we see a game (or, sometimes, games) that make us take a step back and say, "Whoa, now that's really cool." As a former hardcore Dungeons & Dragons player, Pocket Heroes hit all the right notes for me. Here's the game in a nutshell: Take a party-centric tabletop-style turn based game, give it sprite-based UI, and then add in Words With Friends-style push-powered asynchronous online multiplayer.

The developers explain it better than I can:

It remains to be seen just how awesome the game will be once it's finally released, but I'm super excited for this. Some of the best times I've had in a gaming environment has been in Dungeons & Dragons games, so if F5 Games can even capture a sliver of that fun I'll be totally happy.

For more details, check out the thread in our forums.

[source]

On June 6 Nintendo pushed out its e-Shop update to all 3DS owners with connected devices. From head to toe, this is a more streamlined digital marketplace than the one featured on the 3DS’ predecessor. But while there’s a lot of good, rational stuff in the e-Shop, the marketplace as a whole still doesn’t stack up well against the App Store.

The App Store, whether you love or hate its bulkiness and constant deluge of releases large and small and bad or good, is a better experience. Tools like “What’s Hot,” “Staff Favorites,” and “New and Noteworthy” do an acceptable job at pointing at the next big thing. Its search is simple, sharp, and intuitive and its genre or hook-based splash pages are often valid little storefronts themselves.

To its credit, the e-Shop has similar tools, but they’re all contained within a blade-based UI that is, already, cumbersome and flooded to the extent that it’s hard to find the good or the unique in the store. For example, Plants vs. Zombies [$2.99 / HD] is available now, but where is it? This is a fantastic joint on the DS platform as well and it’s sadly not being featured in the front of the store or in an easily discoverable place, as it should be.

Oh wait — it’s tucked beyond all the first-party releases, which conveniently for Nintendo, are all featured prominently at the front of the e-Shop.

The e-Shop has a “Staff Pick of the Week.” This week it’s Cave Story. Behind this listing a few panels back there’s a “Charts” category, as well as a “Recent Arrivals.” To the right is a mess of featured games followed by a senseless “Games Shown at E3” category.

Finally, after this, there’s the “Virtual Console” category and a mess of genre-based or non-specific listings. “Puzzle Games” and “Card Games” make sense, but then there’s the “2-Player Games” category, “4-Player Games,” the “Essential Games” listing and so on, which are all choked with a mishmash of releases. PVZ is in this latter category.

All of these blades give consumers more options to look through and further breakdowns, which if anything, is better than what the DSi offered. There’s also a welcome search bar at the bottom of the screen… but you have to know what’s out to find it.

Nintendo has ditched the points contrivance. Now, games cost real money and not Nintendo Banana Dollars which you get in exchange for real currency. Also, it looks like developers will have a lot more control over price points; I'm noting quite a few $1.99 downloads.

Those are cool changes, but I think the e-Shop needs work. It needs better, more concise categorization. It also needs to dump the blade interface in favor of something that uses both screens on the device. Right now, the bottom screen is the only one that reveals meaningful data. That’s a waste of screen real estate. I’d also like to see the first-party marketing stuff take a hike; “Games of E3” and “3DS Games Coming Soon” are taking up precious space that could be used for more categorization.

The mouse and keyboard interface of the App Store will always be better. I get that. But the e-Shop is just two days old and has, maybe, just over three hundred releases that are already hard to find. What’s this going to be like six months from now?

The existence of some of these more streamlined e-Shop features indicated that Nintendo is listening to consumer feedback. I just wonder if it’ll keep listening, or if we’ll need to wait until the next handheld to find the downloadable games we all want to play.

On a related note, the e-Shop is offering a "3D Classic" version of Excitebike free of charge until late this July. It’s the original 2D and with the 3D slider, you can change the perspective of the background. It tilts. You can find this at the front of the store. The Legend of Zelda Link's Awakening DX is also available for purchase. It's an awesome game and it continues to look and play great on the 3DS. This is also at the front of the store.

[source]

Today, Apple CEO Steve Jobs kicked off the week of the 2011 World Wide Developer Conference here in San Francisco with his keynote presentation that outlined three major technologies the company will soon be rolling out: Mac OS X Lion, iOS 5, and the iCloud service.

Mac OS X Lion

Jobs and company began running through several of the 250 new features that will arrive with the forthcoming major update to Mac OS X, Lion (version 10.7). Among the many advances it will bring are deeper support for multitouch gestures, facilities to allow easy creation and management of fullscreen applications, and the LaunchPad system that makes for easier browsing and launching of apps — all of which bring Mac OS X's look and feel closer that of iOS.

Mac OS X Lion will be available sometime in July, exclusively through the Mac App Store as a 4GB download at a price of $29.99.

iOS 5

Jobs then moved on to iOS 5, beginning with a look at where we are. Since the original iPhone's 2007 debut, over 200 million iOS devices have been sold, in all, 25 million of which are iPads. There are presently 425,000 apps in the App Store, 90,000 of which were designed specifically for the iPad. And, since its debut less than three years ago, 14 billion apps have been downloaded from the App Store, generating a total developer payout of over $2.5 billion.

Apple intends to grow those already impressive numbers with the release of iOS 5, a major update to operating system driving the company's mobile devices. This new release will bring over 1,500 new APIs for developers to work with and over 200 new features.

Senior VP of iOS Software Scott Forstall took the stage to detail ten of the more notable features that iOS 5 will bring.

1. Notification Center is a new component of iOS that acts as a central notification hub that can be swiped into view, presenting a list of recent notifications and the ability to jump to the application associated with each. Additionally, notifications will no longer pop disruptively onto the screen, but will appear at the top of the screen, taking the user to the originating app with a tap or fading out entirely if ignored. The iOS lock screen will also display a list of the most recent notifications, with a swipe across each taking you to the originating application.

2. Newsstand gathers the many disparate digital magazines and newspapers available on the App Store into one place and allows easy browsing and purchasing. Chosen items will be downloaded into the News Rack, which features an iBooks-like interface that shows the current front page as the item's icon. Background downloads will allow subscribed items to updated themselves for easy pick-up reading.

3. Twitter support has been integrated into iOS, providing single sign-on (no need to re-enter password every time an app wants to access your Twitter account) and a pop-up Tweet Sheet for applications that support the new components. Those with immediate support include Camera, Photos, Safari, Maps, and Contact, the last of which can pull twitter user photos and import them into iOS contacts to put simplify the task of putting a name with a face.

4. Mobile Safari is the most popular mobile web browser in use today; nearly 2/3 of all mobile browsing is done with it. New to Mobile Safari is Reader, which provides a clean, unified rendering of multi-page stories, generated from RSS information. Reading List is an Instapaper-like system that allows webpages to be saved to a list for later reading. And, finally, tabbed browsing support will allow for easier management of multiple sites at the same time.

5. Reminders is a type of active to-do list system that can setup a "geofence" and trigger reminders based on your geographic location.

6. Camera is getting an update that will bring optional grid lines for better framing, on-device editing like cropping and rotating plus red-eye reduction. The volume up button can also be set to trigger the shutter. Additionally, a camera icon will appear on the lock screen allowing photos to be taken quickly without unlocking the device.

7. Mail under iOS will be enhanced to allow draggable addresses, indentation control, message flagging, full-message search, left / right swipe to / from inbox to message, an integrated dictionary, and support for the newly expanded iOS keyboard that can be slid upwards to split out into two thumboards.

8. "PC Free" changes have been made to iOS to allow it, for the first time, to be fully used without the need to sync to any PC or Mac. Upon first power-on, iOS devices will display a Welcome screen, as opposed to a sync notice. Software updates will now take place over the air via WiFi, and incremental "delta updates" will allow more efficient system updates.

9. Game Center has received several enhancements in this next version of iOS. Forstall indicates that there are over 100,000 game and entertainment titles in the App Store and, in an effort to further iOS as a game platform, Game Center has been expanded include user photos, achievement points, access to friends of friends, friend recommendations, game recommendations from Apple, and game downloads direct to Game Center. A framework for handling the behind-the-scenes back-and-forth needed by turn-based games has been provided as well, to eliminate the need for developers of such titles to handle everything on their own.

It was noted that in just nine months, there are 50 million Game Center users, while Xbox Live currently has about 30 million users after nine years of up-time, as a comparison.

10. iMessage lets iPad users get in on iPhone-style Message app texting. It's 3G and WiFi based, supports rich media, and works on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. The system includes optional delivery and read receipts with messages pushed to all of your devices.

It was also mentioned that iOS 5 will support wireless mirroring of an iPad 2 screen to an Apple TV display, WiFi-based syncing with iTunes, and will bring all of the resources of Mac OS X's Core Image subsystem to iOS developers.

iCloud

The third piece of today's keynote puzzle is iCloud, Apple's long-rumored online data storage / retrieval system that's designed to make life much simpler for users of all Apple devices.

"Some people think a cloud is just a hard disk in the sky," Steve told the crowd. "We think it's way more than that." iCloud stores content (think contacts, calendar, photos, music), with wireless push to all devices. But the kicker is, it's completely integrated with apps. Everything happens automatically, invisibly. "It just works."

iCloud replaces MobileMe and its core apps — Contact, Mail, Calendar — with completely rewritten version made to store data remotely and sync it with all Apple devices, Mac OS X or iOS-based. But those are just three of the nine total apps that make up the iCloud system. The App Store app has been updated to show your full purchase history from any device, with a download from cloud button that allows such apps to be redownloaded on different devices without any additional charge. Moving forward, any app purchased on any device gets pushed out to all other iOS devices. The iBooks app now works in the same fashion, as well.

A Backup application wirelessly backs up all data on an iOS device to the cloud via WiFi — user data, camera roll photos, videos, books, apps, and music. If you purchase a new iPhone to replace an old, all data from the old device will sync down to the new unit.

Documents in the Cloud is Apple's solution to the complex and unnecessary nature of the filesystem on modern systems. As Jobs indicated, it "completes the iOS document storage story." This component of the iCould system allows applications to manage their own documents, syncing them to the cloud and down to all other devices. Support for Documents in the Cloud is already present in the latest versions of Pages, Numbers and Keynote. iCloud developer APIs are forthcoming that will allow storage of full documents as well as simple key value data. Documents in the Cloud supports all iOS devices, Macs, and PCs, too.

Photo Stream brings photos to the cloud. Take a photo on any iOS device or import a photo into iTunes on a Mac and it is automatically moved to the cloud and synced with all other Apple devices, and the Pictures folder on Windows PCs. This allows viewing of your Photo Stream on any iOS device — including the Apple TV — or Mac or PC. Photo Stream photos are all stored permanently on Macs and PCs, with the most recent 1,000 stored on iOS devices. Photos will be stored in the cloud for 30 days, long enough for them to make their way to all of your connected devices.

iTunes in the Cloud brings easy syncing of your music across all devices. Any previously purchased music can be downloaded without additional cost on any Mac, PC, or iOS device. Any future music purchase automatically gets pushed out to all connected devices. For music not purchased through iTunes, but ripped from CD or gathered elsewhere, the iTunes Match service will scan your library and allow you to download tracks that are found, at 256 Kbit AAC quality. Any tracks that were not matched can be uploaded to the cloud for access from any device. The cost for maintaining iTunes Match titles in your iCloud library is $24.99 per year.

MobileMe, which was a $99 per year, subscription service is now dead. iCloud replaces it as a free service that provides all of the aforementioned along with a me.com email address and 5GB of document storage, not counting photos, videos, music, apps, or books.

Developers can download a beta of iOS 5 with iCloud support today, and the system will roll out publicly in the fall.

Apple has placed a video of this morning's complete keynote event online.

[source]

We’re not in the business of covering Call of Duty proper, but I thought it’d be cool to clue you in on the latest development with the series, Call of Duty: Elite.

If you boil it down to its marrow, Elite is a stat-tracking service similar to Bungie.net for Halo games. With Elite, you’ll be able to see detailed maps of each skirmish you’ve been in, as well as glance at statistics, interact with friends, and participate in tournaments and other competitions, some of which will have prizes.

One of the key differentiators is that Activision plans to release a mobile version of the app for the iPad, Android, and iPhone. At a demo late last month, in fact, demonstrators showed off the functionality on the iPad and enthusiasts seem to agree that it worked.

On mobile, Elite will have a dedicated app, ensuring that the experience is native. Like with the web site, you’ll be able to view all of the aforementioned, except on the go. But unlike the web-based application, you’ll also be able to rig push notifications.

There’s a certain promise with Elite that extends beyond the information gathering. The three pillars, according to Activision, are “connect, compete, and improve.” The former two can be taken care of utilizing the suite of tools inside Elite, but the latter, one of the other key differentiators, is something that hasn’t been done well before.

Unfortunately, Activision hasn’t elaborated on what Elite will do to help you become better at the game. It also, in case you’re wondering, isn’t ready to talk about price, but it has made it known that Elite will operate on a subscription model.

As of now, we know the service will work with Treyarch’s recent Call of Duty: Black Ops, as well as other forthcoming Call of Duty titles like Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. If you're lucky, maybe you'll be able to get into the beta for the Black Ops stuff, which has apparently started.

I fully expect mobile companion apps to become increasingly more common as these huge online-focused games become more and more a part of our culture. I just wonder if a subscription model is really the way to go. Regardless, this is another thing we’ll be learning more about at E3. We’ll be sure to pass along the important details to you.

[Via IntoMobile and GiantBomb]

[source]

The last time I discussed the Back to the Future series, I noted that I’ve hit a creative wall of sorts in terms of coverage. The initial two episodes hit all the same notes that the third episode does, so it’s hard to find something meaningful and fun to share. Of course, I’m also couching this in the opinion that every episode is well produced and their respective new, or even reproduced, mechanics are sharp and solid.

If you missed out on the first episode [Free] though, now is the time to grab it. It’s free on the App Store until June 31, 2011. You have the entire month to push “download” and grab what is, easily, one of the coolest modern adventure games out there.

If the fact that it’s free isn’t enough to convince you to give it a download, go ahead and check out our review for it. Overall, it’s an ambitious beginning to a serial that treats its source material with the proper reverence. It might lean on a more casual-level of skill, but it’s still fun to play.

In other Back to the Future news, Episode 4 [$6.99] is now out on the App Store. We will, of course, continue our coverage of the series so look forward to our impressions down the road. Now, push “download” already. Jeesh.

UPDATE: For whatever reason, the first episode of Back to the Future is now back at $6.99. The press releases all mention that the game will be free until July 31st, so they might have potentially jumped the gun on setting it free. Either way, we're trying to get to the bottom of things.

UPDATE 2: Aaaaand it's free again.

[source]