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Wings of Valor [ $1.99 ], the “Wings of Fury” spiritual remake by Idea Spoon, is a rare gem in the app store – a game that might not sell you on its screenshots alone, but is an automatic purchase for gamers “in the know.”  Based on a classic game for the Amiga/PC/Apple II, Wings of Valor has a familiar, nostalgic feel to it, with all the best parts of an arcade shooter and a surprisingly complex strategy sim.

The base gameplay is straightforward and simplistic, as illustrated by the image-only help file.  Take off from your carrier, and destroy your targets. Targets range from islands, to other planes, to ships, and you’re given an entire (unlockable) arsenal for dealing with the threats. For people such as myself, who never played the original, it may take you a few tries to even get off the ground. For instance: mashing the engine button over and over to get it started (just like a real old plane!), or trying to fly off the right side of the carrier and taking a bath instead. Missions are relatively quick, and can easily be squeezed into a bus ride, a work break, or any spare 5-10 minute period of time.

Once you get in the air, the game plays like a dream. Lovingly handcrafted visuals and spot on controls make you wonder why the side-scrolling fighter pilot genre died off so long ago. Aerial combat is a joy, pure and simple: the banks, the arcs, the turns, it all manages to feel “simulationy” and “arcadey” at the same time. Touch controls suffer somewhat from the usual lack of physical feedback, but not as much as you would think with this sort of game.

Dogfighting lacks a bit of challenge, as the enemy AI seems all too easily confused when you turn around directly behind them and light up their tail. Strafing runs are exciting, and can prove to be a test on resources – are you more of a T-16 piloting, womp-rat bullseyeing sharpshooter, or a light-up-the-jungle, empty the plane sort of carpet-bomber? The game plays into both strategies, but the latter sort will have to get very used to landings/takeoffs while they return to their ships to replenish their arsenal.

The camera work is spot on, zooming in as you approach the ground, adding to the feeling of speed. The music is old-timey, “Welcome to the world of tomorrow!” radio static fanfare, and adds to the retro feel. Sound effects are sufficiently explodey and ratatatty, and the particle effects are excellent, whether it’s planes smoking and plummeting to the earth or water kicking up as you bring death to dozens of unseen ocean critters. It is incredibly difficult to believe that the entire game was put together by a single person.

With plenty of challenges, unlockables, an upcoming iPad version, and promised updates to the visuals and AI, Wings of Valor makes for a very attractive package at $1.99. For people who have boldly proclaimed the death of classic gaming at the hands of iOS, I can only gesture wildly in this direction – here is a game with no IAP, no freemium model, just classic, old-school gameplay at its finest.  Whether you’re a fan of the genre or completely new to this style of game, here is a something that is very worth your time.

The first time you have a bogey on your six, you tear off straight upward at top speed, and see the stars for just a second before stalling out, turning back towards your prey, spitting hot death, you’ll get it. Get it?

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If there was a list of things that I never expected to be talking about today, Duke Nukem 3D [ Free ] getting an update would probably be right near the top. But that’s just what has happened as MachineWorks has issued a new update for 3D Realms’ classic first-person shooter that looks to address the long-derided virtual controls in the game.

For a quick backstory, Duke Nukem 3D launched in the App Store way back in August of 2009. Id Software’s Wolfenstein 3D [$1.99 / Free ] had hit iOS several months earlier and received critical acclaim, mostly centered around how well their controls worked. With a Doom [ $4.99 ] iOS port also on the horizon, having Duke Nukem on my iPhone seemed like the greatest news in history for a long-time FPS fan like me.

However, the initial version of Duke had possibly the worst controls I’ve ever encountered. I mean downright unplayable. To the developer’s credit they quickly issued an update about a month later with a bunch of new control options, but sadly it did little to help. Sure, some people could find a scheme that was workable for them with some heavy tweaking of options, but the controls still felt pretty bad and have remained that way ever since.

Until today that is, closing in on 3 years after the last update to Duke Nukem. Surprising to say the least, but unfortunately it’s also a good news/bad news situation. The good news is that the controls are actually quite decent now, offering an improved (but still lackluster) dual-stick option as well as a very good “drag anywhere to aim” scheme which really nails it. It may have taken a long time (that’s an understatement) but I can finally enjoy Duke Nukem 3D on my iPhone. Also, it appears that the visuals have been cleaned up considerably, and actually look quite good for a 16 year old game.

Now for the bad news. The update is full of bugs, one of which can render your controls unusable. You can avoid causing this by going into the control options before loading or starting a new game and selecting and then deselecting the dual-stick controls, but that will erase whatever custom scheme you might have previously created by dragging the virtual buttons around the screen. Basically, it’s not much of a solution.

In addition, there’s also a bug that silences the sounds from the game which I’ve only been able to fix by saving my game and killing it from the multi-tasking screen and then starting it up again. Also, for some reason the end-level stats screen is upside down and they’ve disabled the mirror reflection effect in the game. Finally, advertisements have been inserted into Duke Nukem 3D which will pop down when you first start the game and when wake your device from sleep with the game running. Lame.

As delighted as I was to see a surprise update to one of my all-time favorite games, unfortunately this latest update for Duke Nukem 3D is a complete mess. If they can sort out the bugs then I really believe the new controls are a huge improvement, and bring the game more in line with the newer FPS games on the App Store. However, given the lack of attention paid to the game the past few years that seems like a pretty big “if”, especially since the iPad version Duke Nukem 3D SE [ $0.99 (HD)] hasn’t been updated at all. Also, I’m not crazy about ads being put into a game that I previously paid for.

At any rate, Duke Nukem 3D is currently free right now, so if you didn’t have it already you might as well grab it just in case they do sort out the bugs. If you could manage just fine with the controls the way they were before, then you’ll probably want to hold out on this update altogether until (and if) they can fix this situation.

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Today Retro Dreamer, developers of such titles as the awesome arcade shooter Velocispider [$1.99 / Free ] and the adorable Sneezies [$0.99 / Free / $2.99 (HD)], have announced a new game is on the horizon. In a post over on the Retro Dreamer website, the company has divulged that this latest title will be called Duckers, and then they went on to explain… well, absolutely nothing actually.

Yes that’s right, they’re giving us the old tease treatment. But on the bright side there is the promo art attached to this very post which is both extremely cute as well as intriguing. What’s in that jar? Did it crash land to Earth? Why does that duck have flight goggles on? Can ducks even fly?

In the end we’re left with nothing but questions, however, Retro Dreamer states that Duckers is just about ready to go and should be hitting within a month’s time, possibly even by the end of May if everything goes absolutely perfectly. Until then they’ll be pushing out all sorts of new promotional stuff over the next few weeks for the impending Duckers launch, including a trailer that should hit sometime this week, so stick around to find out more about this mysterious title soon.

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After seeing Monster Shooter: The Lost Levels [ $2.99 ] for the first time, you might be wondering why another dual stick shooter is necessary on iOS, considering the hundreds of others already available. The answer isn’t always an easy one, but let’s just say that Monster Shooter shows why we shouldn’t just be writing off the genre altogether.

Monster Shooter tells the story of alien battles from one planet to another, all with the ultimate goal of saving a kitten with a runny nose. These naughty aliens want to wreak havoc and torture the poor kitty, and are even traveling anywhere in the galaxy as to not be captured.

As the kitty rescuer, you travel from planet to planet in a level-based format, and are shooting down enemies in a dual stick style shooter. The controls of a shooter are of the upmost importance, and they work well in this game especially with the multiple options available. If you’re finding the aiming to be a difficult affair, you can turn on the auto aim option and then you’ll only have to tap when you want to shoot, rather than where. Having the option of a fixed d-pad is also a nice touch, meaning you can play in whatever way suits your style best.

One of the most polarizing topics of discussion on our forums is the game’s option to pay for additional upgrades and weapons through in-app purchases. As you play each level, you will consistently pick-up in-game cash that you can spend on these items anyway, and fortunately there seems to be enough cash in each level to purchase the items during the natural progression of play, making the actual buying of cash through IAP feel largely optional.

The upgrades and power-ups available in the shop amp up the gameplay in glorious fashion too, providing you with nukes, grenades, or stim-packs that could make all the difference when you’re caught in a tough situation. You can even buy a few select items while in the heat of battle, if you didn’t prepare well enough.

Even more interesting than the power-ups you can buy are the abilities you can only earn by leveling up, which range from a higher fire rate, more damage, or more cash dropped by enemies. These abilities are fantastic and can help out greatly while playing, but the way of unlocking them could use some work. The problem is that you can only unlock them while playing the game, meaning you have to stop mid-level, potentially costing you precious health or combo momentum.

Where Monster Shooter: The Lost Levels differentiates itself from other shooters on iOS is in its tight control, and cartoonish graphical style. The animation is fluid, and each planet has a distinct look to keep things fresh. Being on both iPad and iPhone as a universal app also helps, as the larger screen of an iPad lends itself well for keeping track of enemies, and a larger d-pad area for better control.

Packing in over 60 levels across 3 distinct planets, Monster Shooter is likely to hold on to your attention for quite a while. This is not even including the endless survival mode, which could potentially last you forever. Adding even more to the longevity are the in-game side missions (of Jetpack Joyride [ Free ] fame) that you can complete along your path of destruction. Game Center achievements and leaderboards should be standard fare by now, and are included.

Exploding alien faces with an awesome new weapon you just purchased almost never gets old, meaning you’ll probably keep playing Monster Shooter: The Lost Levels for hours on end. Packing in a huge amount of content and little in the way of problems means that you should probably grab this one on your next iOS shopping spree.

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Last month we introduced you to a new collaboration between Blowfish Studios and Crescent Moon Games with a set of impressive-looking screenshots and details for a game called Razor: Salvation. The two studios had worked together previously, producing Siegecraft [ $2.99 ] back in October, but Razor: Salvation looks to be a much different game.

It’s a fixed-position shooter played from a first-person perspective, but unlike many games like this, Razor gives you a full 360 degree view of the environments where the action takes place. You can see this idea in motion in the brand new trailer for Razor: Salvation, which looks fantastic so far.

According to Crescent Moon, the game is nearly finished and they’re shooting for a launch before the month is over. Until then you can swing by the discussion thread in our forums and keep a heads up for Razor: Salvation to hit soon.

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It’s a Thursday on the App Store which is as just as good of a reason as any to set your games’ prices to free if you’re an iOS developer, or, at least, so it would seem. It sort of goes without saying, but due to the volatile nature of pricing on the App Store, you better grab these games now if you’re interested in them. Few things are more annoying in the world of iOS gaming than missing a killer freebie.

Get your downloading finger ready:

Beyond Ynth, Free – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – An absolutely fantastic puzzle game where you play as a little ladybug doing your best to survive each level, often by rotating curiously sectioned off boxes. Do not miss this game while it’s free. If you want to give it a go on your iPad, there’s Beyond Ynth HD [ $0.99 (HD)], too.

Braveheart, Free – [Forum Thread] – You probably have a lot of games on your iPhone, but how many of those games have you searching for the Holy Grail? (Not many, I’d guess.) You’ll hack and slash your way through all sorts of normal monsters, boss monsters, and other monsters. If you’re looking for the iPad version, Braveheart HD [ Free (HD)] is what you seek.

Escape The Ape, Free – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – This jumping game puts you to the task of drawing lines to create trampolines for JoJo the monkey to bounce on. While it looks simple, gameplay is deceptively deep especially when you start reaching higher altitudes and need to work harder to collect power ups.

Fish Tycoon, Free – [Forum Thread] – I’m including this game in the list because these dumb Tycoon games are responsible for soaking up countless hours of my time, going all the way back to my Palm Treo 650 days. Or, before that, now that I think about it. …And now, fair reader, I place this curse upon you.

Highway Rider, Free – [Forum Thread] – Have you ever been sitting in traffic when some dude on a motorcycle recklessly lane splits you at what seems like a million miles an hour? Well, in Highway Rider, you can be that jerk. The point system even encourages it, in fact.

Swordigo, Free – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – A side scrolling action RPG that is just fantastic. Imagine if you took something like Zelda II and released it in 2012, that’d be Swordigo. Download it. Play it. Love it. Trust me.

Towers N’ Trolls, Free – [Forum Thread] – I love tower defense games, you love tower defense games, and this is a tower defense game. It’s a pretty good one too, so if you haven’t scratched that whole laying out towers and murdering creeps itch in a while, here’s your chance.

Trigonon, Free – [Forum Thread] – The gimmick of this puzzle game is that it takes place in the factory of your mind. Your thoughts are represented by steel spheres, and you’ve got to get them out. Seems reasonable, and looks cool.

Vermes on Mars, Free – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – An interesting shooter where you control a small squad of robots (which are all upgradeable). You position them, and tap to target. It takes place on Mars, and your enemies are worms. The control scheme is worth giving this game a try.

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On the iOS platform, nobody has done as much for the 2D scrolling arcade shooter genre than Japanese developer Cave. For the past 2 years, they have consistently delivered high quality ports of their stellar back catalog of games to the App Store. They have yet to really have a misstep either, providing you have an especially unquenchable thirst for bullet hell-style shooters.

Cave’s iOS games come with several hallmarks, like touch controls that are arguably even better than physical controls, plenty of variety in scoring techniques, and a staggering amount of screen-filling explosions and interesting enemies and bosses. Their latest release Bug Princess 2 [$6.99 / Free ], which hit early last month, is no exception. It’s the sequel to last December’s Bug Princess [$4.99 / Free ] and you might also know it by its original name Mushihimesama Futari. It is widely considered by fans to be the best and most challenging entry in the Mushihimesama series.

If you played Bug Princess on iOS before, then things will seem incredibly familiar to you with Bug Princess 2. The menus and UI are largely the same, you have the same options for screen sizes and button placement, and of course the same great touch controls. Also like the original, the meat of the game comes in a 5 level campaign which can either be played straight through in one go or individually by level in a score attack mode.

You have the option of 2 ship types to play as, each with their own firing style, and on top of that you can choose what kind of shot type you want: Normal or Abnormal. Normal keeps your satellite helper ships tightly beside you, while Abnormal has them moving more tactically independently from your own ship movement. Finally, you have a choice of 4 difficulty options – Novice, Normal, Hard and Hell – which do a great job of tailoring the game’s challenge to suit practically any type of player.

Bug Princess 2 retains another feature from its iOS predecessor (am I sounding like a broken record yet?) which is 3 types of gameplay modes: Original, Maniac, and Ultra. In Original mode you build up a multiplier counter in the corner of the screen by collecting gems dropped by defeated enemies. You’ll need to switch back and forth between normal bullets and lasers depending on the color of the counter, adding a layer of strategy as opposed to just blasting away at every enemy willy-nilly. Ultra mode uses the same scoring system but with arranged enemies and bullet patterns.

Maniac mode, however, is where Bug Princess 2 really shows its brilliance. Here you build up your multiplier meter using regular shots, and once it’s hit a certain point, you switch to laser to cash it all in. Using either regular shots or laser shots will produce different types of gems from fallen enemies too. This makes Maniac mode the most strategic in terms of variety of scoring ways, and in turn makes it the most interesting mode.

So there you have it. Bug Princess 2 shares a ton in common with the original Bug Princess, but thanks to some key differences in scoring and completely new stages it really stands out on its own. And like Bug Princess it’s also not overly complex like some later Cave titles, so for shooter newbies it remains a strong entry point to the genre. If you’ve had your fill of bullet-hell shooters then Bug Princess 2 probably won’t do anything to change your mind, but if you’re a leaderboard competitor or a Cave fanatic then you’ll find plenty of value in picking it up or at least checking out the lite version.

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In March of 2009, id Software released the grandfather of all first-person shooters, their 1992 classic Wolfenstein 3D [ Free ], to the App Store. Besides being a piece of gaming history that you could fit snugly into your pocket, Wolf 3D was also noteworthy for having the most usable touch screen controls for an FPS seen thus far on iOS.

Not long after its initial release, Wolfenstein 3D on iOS received a huge update that added in all of the Spear of Destiny expansion pack levels as well as the ability to load custom levels into the game. Then last summer, another sweet update hit that added Universal and Retina Display support to the game, and it played fantastically on the large screen of the iPad.

Now for the first time ever id Software is offering Wolfenstein 3D Classic on iOS for free, most likely to celebrate its 20th anniversary. If you’ve somehow never got around to picking up Wolf 3D on the App Store, now is your chance to strike, as the game is an absolute classic that plays wonderfully on iOS and must be experienced.

I have a sneaking suspicion we’ll be hearing more iOS plans from id when QuakeCon gets rolling in August – I refuse to give up hope on the long-awaited iOS versions of Quake and Doom II – but until then make sure you don’t miss out on grabbing the grandfather of FPS on iOS while free.

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