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Mika Mobile’s third-person, side-scrolling shooter Zombieville USA [$1.99] hit the App Store in early 2009. Considering the growth of the App Store and the amount of different handhelds Apple has released since the game’s initial launch, I think its safe to call it prehistoric. To put another spin on that: I remember reviewing the game at another outlet as part of a new initiative to cover the budding platform. Wild! But anyway, I’m bringing all this up to pound home the point that Mika Mobile isn’t done with the game quite yet despite its relative age. Intriguing, yes?

In a new update, the studio has added fancy retina display graphics, as well as support for “fast app switching,” which is another indication of its advanced age. Also, Universal support has been added, ensuring that you’ll, from now on, get two copies of the game for the price of one. Zombieville has been 2011-ized, in other words.

I’d imagine all of this work ultimately serves the purpose to promote Zombieville USA 2 and perhaps comfort new fans who might flock to the old title. That’s right; Zombieville 2 is a thing that was announced alongside this update and, according to Mika Mobile, it’s coming as soon as this ‘summer.’ Neat!

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If you're the kind of person whose feathers get ruffled whenever free to play is mentioned, you should make sure you're sitting down before reading the rest of this post. We liked Glu's Gun Bros [Free] quite a bit when it was first released. As mentioned in our review, it really does provide a cool twist on the dual stick shooter formula via the bro system which allows you to play in a asynchronous co-op mode where you can bro up and bring a friend's bro into your game to help you slay waves of monsters. A recent update even added realtime online multiplayer via 3G and WiFi.

The rub of Gun Bros is an extensive upgrade system to keep you coming back on a daily basis shooting up bad guys to progressively unlock bigger and badder gear upgrades. Of course, like all free to play games you can sidestep this time sink by purchasing the premium currency "war bucks" with real-world dollars. Alternatively, you can do things like watch advertisements, sign up for Netflix, or even online dating sites to earn "free" war bucks.

What are you working towards with all of these war bucks? Well, the mack daddy of all premium unlockable guns is The Kraken which promises to instantly vaporize all nearby enemies. The Kraken sells for the modest sum of 3499 war bucks, and assuming you're buying them in the largest 710 war buck pack for $99, that's just under $500 real world dollars for a gun in a video game. Crazier yet is that The Kraken used to only cost 1400 war bucks, the price was raised.

Surely no one is biting at this though, right? Well, videos on YouTube show otherwise:

Now, I realize that the entire idea around the business of free to play games involves essentially having no top-end for how much a player can spend on the game. In fact, Flurry Analytics even mentions these so called "whales" in their recent analysis piece where they found that 30% of the total revenue from the "over $20" bucket of their report comes from people actually spending more than $50 in free to play transactions.

The whole thing seems pretty wild to me– But hey, in the interest of doing business I suppose if you've got players that are dedicated enough to your game to spend the equivalent of $500 for a single unlock, why wouldn't you give them the ability to do so?

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We've had our eye on Halfbrick's Machine Gun Jetpack for quite a while now. We got a glimpse of the game back at GDC and last month found out that it'll likely be hitting the App Store this August. We've even had Halfbrick's own Phil Larsen on an episode of The TouchArcade Show to discuss all things Halfbrick, including Machine Gun Jetpack.

Anyway, this latest video of the game entitled "Simple Awesomeness" does a marvelous job of exhibiting just how awesome Machine Gun Jetpack is going to be. It seems Halfbrick has just taken the cave flier formula, held it hostage in some kind of secret underground Australian bunker, and spent the last six months injecting various experimental performance boosting compounds into it. Lasers, energy beams, collectable coins that actually are used for things, oh baby.

Also, I'm just going to throw this out there, but I don't think it's too late for Halfbrick to either flat out change the protagonist in the game to Phil Larsen himself, or at least have Phil available as an unlockable character. I mean, Barry Steakfries was awesome in Monster Dash [99¢] and Age of Zombies [$2.99], but he's no Phil.

Needless to say, we're totally stoked for Machine Gun Jetpack and absolutely love Halfbrick's ability to take what amounts to a tired game type on the App Store and make it incredible. They did it with Age of Zombies and dual stick shooters, Monster Dash and endless runners, and I'm thinking they're going to go for a three-peat with Machine Gun Jetpack.

Sure, things could go horribly wrong, but Halfbrick has an amazing track record for great games on the App Store.

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Today, CAVE sent over some details for the first major update to their latest iOS bullet-hell shooter Deathsmiles [$11.99/Lite]. In case you missed it, we reviewed Deathsmiles earlier this month and found it to be quite the bee’s knees. Really, my biggest negative about the game wasn’t even something that was the fault of the game itself. By nature, controlling your character causes you to block part of the screen with your thumb or finger, and with enemies approaching from either side of the screen, this can create some problems.

There are 3 screen size options already which do a good job of alleviating this issue for some folks, but CAVE is trying to take it a step further with this update. You’ll now be able to push the screen to the right or left, giving a much wider border edge for placing your digit to control the game. You can see an example of this in the screen below to the left.

Another new feature coming in this update, seen in the above right screen, will be the ability to unlock different costumes for the main character of the iPhone mode, Tiara. These costumes will become available by completing specific tasks in the game. Pretty much sounds like another form of achievements, but with a tangible reward for completing them. CAVE hints that some of the costumes will look familiar to fans of their other games, so it will be interesting to see just what that means.

Speaking of CAVE’s other games, one of the coolest new features in the update is the addition of new weapons based off of their previous titles Guwange and Dodonpachi Resurrection [$11.99/Lite]. These new weapons will be available as paid downloadable content, which based on a screen from their press release look to be about $2.99 apiece. The pricing has yet to be confirmed, though, so we might just have to wait and see.

Other items in this impending update include a brand new BGM track that is only unlockable using a special trick. CAVE can be devious with their secrets, and for this one they only offer up the hint: “Flash flash? Tap tap!”. There is also a new mini-game being added that has you earn jigsaw puzzle pieces by completing armor sets (not including DLC items), and then putting the pieces together to form an illustration by one of the game’s artists. Finally, they’ve added new items that will increase the drop rate in the game, which right now is fairly infrequent, which should make collecting items quite a bit easier.

There really is a number of cool new things getting tossed into this upcoming Deathsmiles update. The plan is to release the update a week from tomorrow, on August 6th, but you can get an early preview if you check out CAVE’s UStream channel on August 5th at 11am GMT. They also note that they might give away a few tricks during the stream, like how to unlock the hidden BGM, and tease that another surprise announcement could go down too. Whether you’re waking up at the crack of dawn (in the US anyway) to check out the live stream or not, be on the lookout for the new Deathsmiles update hitting next weekend.

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Developer Crystalised are throwing their hat into the Unreal Engine powered 3D shooter ring with their upcoming title Desert Zombie: Last Stand. They announced the title back in June via a teaser trailer, which was a cool cinematic but didn’t showcase any gameplay. Today, they have released a new gameplay trailer from an alpha version of Desert Zombie that showcases the game in action. So far, it’s looking pretty incredible:

Yeah, I’m pretty sick of zombies too, but that video looked awesome nonetheless. All we really know about the game at this point is that it will be a completely free-roaming third-person affair and include 6 levels to survive though, including an on-rails shooter sequence in a Blackhawk helicopter. No release date is given other than “coming soon”, but we do know the game will be $5.99 whenever it launches and will require 3rd generation hardware and up.

You can check out discussion of the game in our forums, and we’ll be sure to keep our eye out for more on Desert Zombie: Last Stand in the coming weeks.

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The isometric, online-focused competitive shooter we talked about a couple of weeks ago on our fair podcast, Deadlock: Online [Free], is getting its first update. It’s a doozy by update standards, as it adds two new maps to the fold: Jungle and Desert Compound. We’re not too sure of the specifics on these, but with names like the and images like the ones below, we don’t really need them. We get it. You get it. We’re all happy.

This update also packages in a bunch of tweaks and fixes, which I’d imagine will thrill those of you out there actively participating in the game. Specifically, Crescent Moon is adding in a latency meter on custom game types. It’s also adding in region tags so you know where the host is and why his latency seems out of control. On the bug front, the update will stamp out the ‘double point’ flag glitch, you’ll now respawn instead of watch people play, and killed the name counter that hovers over dead folks.

We’re told this update is expected to land within the next two weeks, so keep an eye out for it. You can stare at those screenshots or play more, oh I don't know, Deadlock while you wait. We won’t mind.

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A free version of everyone’s favorite view-locked, Space Invader-y shooter starting a raptor with spider legs, Velocispider [$.99], is getting a free version soon. Creator Retro Dreamer blogged about it earlier this afternoon, announcing that it’s currently traveling through Apple’s certification bowels. This free version will include all of the content of the paid, premium version with the exception that it’s free-to-play.

This means that it’ll feature all the same levels and the Game Center achievements functionality that was just added in an update a few days ago. It won’t, however, share Game Center leader boards with its other iteration — according to Retro, the service doesn’t allow for that kind of connectivity.

You know how we said that we’d love to get our hands on more iCade titles? Well, both of these versions will support iCade in the future. Velocispider Zero will right out of the box, while the premium version will receive its own support in an update that’s currently clearing certification. Neat!

Velocispider is an exceedingly awesome game, so definitely check out our review if you’re interested in the game, or hey, just the concept behind it. And really, who isn’t?

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If Flying Hamster [$1.99 / HD] or the billion other side-scrolling shoot-‘em-ups available on the App Store aren’t doing it for you, perhaps DotEmu’s P47: The Phantom Fighter [$1.99] will. We’ve seen it in action a few times and can report that, like the studio’s other projects, it’s as faithful to its source material. Also, it’s a pretty good shooter, though definitely filled with plenty of well-trod, standard material.

I’m bothering you with all of this because the port just hit the ‘Store last night. If you didn’t catch P47 on the Amiga, Commodore 64 and its other native platforms, I’ll give you a quick rundown: P47 is about killing nazis with airplanes, and you’ll do it across eight unique levels. As you can see in our demo video below, air-to-air pummeling as well as air-to-ground blasting is required. Oh! And there’s also a bunch of huge, bullet-spewing boss encounters to be had.

We’ll be giving this one a closer look in the future, but if you’re a fan of DotEmu’s work and classic games in general, I can’t imagine why you’re waiting for reviews. I guess you're just a careful person. I understand.

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We’ve been excited for Crescent Moon and Invulse Games’ Deadlock [Free] ever since we first heard about it back in May, and at long last the game has finally gone live in the US App Store. Just to recap, Deadlock is a dual-stick shooter with competitive online multiplayer over Game Center for up to 8 players. There is a fairly deep weapon and equipment system that has you earning new items as you rank up through playing online. Deadlock is completely free to download and play and doesn’t contain any ads. There is an in-app purchase system that will allow you to accelerate unlocking items in the game, but all of these same items can be earned for free just through playing as well.

Have a look at the brand new launch trailer for Deadlock to get an idea of the gameplay:

We’ve been playing beta builds of Deadlock for weeks now, and while it’s been a pretty fantastic time playing with the select group of people who had access to the game, it really isn’t possible to fully review an online-centric game like this before it’s available to the masses. We’ll be playing Deadlock over the following days as the servers fill up with players and then come back with a more in-depth look at the game after we’ve fully gotten a feel for how the online community shakes out.

But really, you don’t need to wait around to find out our opinion as Deadlock is completely free anyway. There’s no reason not to grab the game right now and actually try it out for yourself. There’s a link below for downoading the game and you can check out the thread in our forums for early impressions of the game or the Deadlock code sharing thread to link up with your fellow gamers to get some matches going online. See you on the servers!

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For more than a year now, CAVE has had a reputation of releasing high quality shooters on the App Store that featured hefty amounts of action, depth, and replay value. Their bullet hell shooters Espgaluda II [$11.99/Lite] and Dodonpachi Resurrection [$11.99/Lite] are two of the finest shooters around, and they proved they could translate their particular brand of manic gameplay to a more traditional action game with Mushihimesama Bug Panic [$6.99/Lite]. CAVE’s latest title, Deathsmiles [$11.99/Lite], furthers their reputation of offering top quality shmups and us yet another excellent shooter to add to our collection.

Like the aforementioned CAVE shooters, Deathsmiles consists of a mode that mimics the arcade version of the game as well as an iPhone-specific mode with exclusive features. The arcade mode features 4 different playable characters and 8 total stages to play. The underlying gameplay mechanics are fairly straightforward. Your character automatically fires, and a button in the bottom corner toggles firing to the left or right. There’s also a button to toggle between a regular shot and a laser shot, and a third button that performs a lock-on shot.

Enemies approach at a dizzying pace, and every level from start to finish you are constantly being bombarded by an assortment of awesome baddies in all shapes and sizes, as well as absolutely massive boss battles. Slain enemies will drop items which can be collected and go towards filling a counter in the lower left corner of the screen. When that counter reaches a thousand, you can activate a powered-up state that will give you increased firepower for the duration it takes the counter to return back to zero.

These base mechanics are pretty standard shmup stuff, but as with most CAVE games the real brilliance comes from the hidden depth in the scoring systems. Playing through Deathsmiles simply to complete the game is an exhilarating (if brief) experience, but players who want to score big and are looking for an extra challenge must take advantage of the many nuances to how enemies are killed and items are collected. If you want to take the game to the next level and really learn the ins and outs of the gameplay, our forum member ColdCoffee has put together this excellent detailed FAQ thread that explains pretty much all you need to know about arcade mode and scoring tricks.

Then there's the new iPhone mode which is similar to the arcade mode but is played with a brand new exclusive character that has an interesting alternate storyline. It also features a sweet weapon and equipment system that lets you customize your character with different items that have unique attributes. You can buy items from a shop in the game or collect them when they are randomly dropped by defeated enemies. The ability to collect items adds a very slight RPG element to the game, which is awesome, and your items and gold are carried over persistently to each new play of iPhone mode.

Just about the only flaw I have found with Deathsmiles isn’t something that’s the fault of the game itself, but rather it’s an inherent problem due to actually controlling the game right on the touch screen. It’s a horizontally scrolling game rather than a vertical one, and enemies come at your from both sides of the screen rather than just the top, so your character spends a lot of time right smack in the middle of the screen. This means that by nature of controlling your character with your thumb or finger, you’re going to be blocking a good amount of enemies and bullets that enter from the sides of the screen. It doesn’t entirely hinder the gameplay, and it’s manageable with some practice and experimenting with the 3 available screen sizes, but it’s really the only area where Deathsmiles falters and is worth noting.

If you can deal with the less than ideal control situation, Deathsmiles offers a just as robust and enjoyable shooter experience as their previous efforts, if not more so. On the easiest settings, the game can be enjoyed by even the biggest shmup newbie, but deeper below the surface lie advanced difficulties and complex scoring mechanics that will tax even hardcore veterans of the genre. Multiple characters and storylines as well as Game Center achievements and leaderboards ensure that Deathsmiles can be played over and over again for a long time to come.

So far, CAVE is 4 for 4 with top-notch game releases on the App Store. If you’re any sort of shmup fan then you’ll definitely want to at least try out the lite version of Deathsmiles, and if you do be sure to check out the scoring FAQ thread and the general discussion game thread in our forums to get the most out of the experience.

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