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When a new "jumping game" appears on the App Store, it's sometimes difficult to feel excited because there's just so many of them, and they usually all feel the same. But, despite the genre being thrashed to death, it appears there's still room for a little creativity. Com2uS have recently released Escape the Ape [99c], which while definitely fitting nicely inside of the vertical jumper mold, mixes things up a bit by requiring you to draw your own platforms to jump on in real time.

Here's the story: Jo-Jo the curious chimpanzee tried to snatch a precious jewel, which was clutched in the hands of a giant gorilla statue. Unfortunately for Jo-Jo, the statue came to life and wasn't impressed with the little furry kleptomaniac. The thieving monkey fled upwards, into the trees, with the agitated ape in hot pursuit. …And that's where you step in.

To help Jo-Jo escape the ape, you draw lines on the screen, which instantly become trampolines, bouncing the mischievous monkey higher.  There's nothing for Jo-Jo to land on, just the trampolines which you draw. If you can predict where the monkey will fall and draw a line in the right spot, you'll do well, bouncing him increasingly higher. The trampolines can be drawn on an angle, to bounce Jo-Jo sideways, so he can collect items such as jewels and bananas, or avoid obstacles.

If you fail to draw a trampoline for the monkey, or draw it in the wrong place, he'll fall back down into the arms of the chasing ape, ending your game. This means you have to swipe a trampoline every couple of seconds, because each bounce only takes Jo-Jo a little way up the screen, after which your trampoline disappears and he falls back down.

The "chase" aspect of this game adds excitement, as the trees start shaking and dropping leaves when the ape draws closer. Eventually, the ape's head and arms appear at the bottom of the screen. This is the time to draw some quick trampolines, or if you've gathered enough yellow bananas you can tap the full glass of fresh banana juice to perform a bigger life-saving bounce, to get ahead and gain some breathing room.  Oh, and if Jo-Jo collects an unripe green banana, his banana juice supply is depleted.

Another way to get ahead of the ape, is to perform a combo-jump. This is achieved by doing three "cool" jumps in a row, which seems to be awarded if Jo-Jo bounces perfectly in the middle of the trampoline without hitting any obstacles (although I'm not 100% certain of this, as it doesn't always seem to work and isn't explained). When a super combo-jump is executed, Jo-Jo flies upwards in a burst of stars, with his fist in front, like Superman.

Branches occasionally jut out, which slow your momentum on the way up, but if you land on top of a branch it bends and catapults the monkey higher. Or, Jo-Jo can grab hold of a red helium balloon, to float upwards. During the balloon ride, tilt controls are used to maneuver left or right, while collecting additional balloons prolongs the ride.

You can tell how high you are during the game, as birds periodically display signs stating the altitude. As you get higher, the background view changes and new obstacles appear. There's cobwebs which ensnare you like a cocoon, requiring some quick left-right swiping to break free before the ape catches you. And there's lamps, which – for some unexplained reason – make you grow in size, turning little Jo-Jo temporarily into an over-grown pixelated monkey who fills the screen and grabs all the jewels quite easily.

The jewels you've gathered can be used to buy items in the store. This includes stronger banana drinks which give more lift, trampolines which look thicker and give more bounce and the "Midas Touch" which increases the likelihood of a jewel appearing. The first upgrades for these items are quite affordable, but it will take quite a few games and jewels to upgrade these items to level 3. Although, of course, you can optionally use IAP to purchase jewels online.

Your final score is the number of meters climbed. Com2Us use their own online hub for leader-boards, requiring you to sign-up at their website, so there's no Game Center connectivity provided, but 30 achievements are available in-game.

Escape the Ape has been interesting to play over the past couple of days, and the game trailer (above) is quite amusing, so I've definitely got my 99 cents worth of entertainment, but the novelty of swiping trampolines every couple of seconds is wearing off, especially given the large gaps between upgrades. Although, admittedly, I'm still curious about what happens to Jo-Jo and the Gorilla at the top, assuming there is a top to get to, of course.

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As if simply touching a screen with your finger and interacting with an iPad game wasn’t magical enough, Disney Mobile is taking things to the next level with a special toy and game tie-in for Cars 2. All Things D recently got a first glimpse at the first “Disney Appmate,” a weird experiential racing game that requires Cars 2 toys. Basically, you turn on the game, put a toy Cars car on the surface of the iPad, and then you push it around and explore (and crash into things in) the virtual top-down world that Disney Mobile has developed alongside the corporeal item.

The meatspace-slash-cyberspace tie-in isn’t a new concept by any means, but it’s interesting to see a new product utilizing the iPad’s touchpad enter the realm. Also, this is definitely the mother of all free-to-play experiments so far. The game part will be free and packaged in with a $20 blister of two interactive Cars 2 toys.

Kids love the gadget and word on the street is that they also love toys, so on a conceptual level this all sounds like a promising venture. We can’t really envision a world in which this actually takes off, but hey, who saw that electricity thing coming? You? Nope.

[Via All Things D, 9 to 5 Mac]

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We've been incredibly excited for Madfinger Games' Shadowgun since we first saw it actually running on an iOS device back at E3. Before then, the games' Gears of War-like graphics seemed almost too good to be true. Either way, I'm loving this engine war that's starting to brew between Unity and the Unreal Engine on the App Store, as it seems both are totally capable of jaw-dropping graphics on mobile devices.

Take a look at the trailer:

If all goes as planned, and trends from previous weeks stay true, we should have Shadowgun in our grubby little hands next Wednesday at 11:00 PM Eastern. If you're to the east of North America, you'll potentially have it much earlier. Exciting, right?

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Later this year in Japan, Namco Bandai plans to capitalize on fresh hardware fever with a launch iteration of Katamari on the PlayStation Vita. It’s also giving us iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch owners a little something, too, with Katamari Amore this Thursday. Slated to hit in both paid and free-to-play versions, this latest Katamari looks to put you in some familiar shoes: you’ll play as the Prince’s Katamari and, as usual, be tasked with wrapping up various items to increase its size.

Expect 24 missions at launch, six of which are “completely new stages.” Also, expect to play across four different modes, including a regular campaign, a time attack mode, “Exact Size Challenge,” and “Eternal Mode.” For you Pac-Man fans out there, Namco is rolling in a special themed level complete with dots, ghosts, and a controllable Pac-Man. Neat!

The free version of the title will include Time Attack mode, while the full $3.99 version (special price) will have all of the aforementioned launch content from the get-go. Namco has promised that more content is on the way, too, which is cool because if Amore is able to overcome the technical woes its predecessor I Love Katamari [$6.99] had, it should absolutely rock. I mean, the last one did until the framerate took crazy dives, at least.

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Simogo’s Bumpy Road [$2.99] is one of the most inventive, intuitive, and refined experiences on touch devices, so we’re pretty stoked to hear this bit of news: against the odds, the game has hit 100,000 downloads. This is a pretty big deal for the independent outfit, which doesn’t have the same name recognition as, say, a Firemint and is, obviously, competing against tons and tons of other independent studios for the mass market’s dollar.

In more practical news for those of you who aren’t interested in milestones, Bumpy Road will go on sale soon thanks to this accomplishment. Starting this Wednesday and rolling until late this Thursday, you’ll be able to grab the game for $.99 instead of the usual $2.99.

You can read our review of Bumpy Road at this handy-dandy link. Spoiler: we liked it. Oh, and just as a side-note here, we’re in the process of trying to grab an interview with Simogo for another bonus episode of our podcast. As soon as we can, we’ll get that out to you.

[Via @simogogames]

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A lot of people have learned a lot from id Software’s classics, which are available in open source form all over the Internet. Even the iOS versions of DOOM Classic [$6.99] and Wolfenstein 3D [$1.99] have been floating around available for anyone to take a look at and tinker with if they so choose. If you’re one of those people, you’ll like this bit of news: Bethesda has released the open source code for these two games in their latest iterations. You can download DOOM Classic open source here and Wolfenstein 3D here and check out what went into the big-time updates that hit both games just as Quake-Con kicked off earlier this summer.

As a refresher, both games were turned into Universal support apps complete with Retina Display support. Also, both games saw a UI overhaul, some music tweaks, and other assorted technical brush-ups, including bug fixes.

If your’e the developer type, I’d imagine there’s something cool to learn here, or hey, if you’re just starting out, I can’t think of code better than John Carmack’s to take a gander at. Plus, it’s free! Everyone loves free.

[Via Bethblog]

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