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Like Tower Defense, one of the genres that saw a resurgence with the advent of iOS gaming is the ‘Sniper’ genre. Typically relegated to the flash games scene, the touch screen, accelerometer and gyroscopic controls of iOS devices seemed like a natural fit for Sniper games. This lead to an explosion of a wide variety of titles that all sought to put you behind the scope of a sniper rifle.

Hired Gun 3D [$0.99], the newest game from Triniti Interactive, is the latest Sniper game to hit the market. Described as a sequel to Triniti’s previous stick-figured sniper title, Hired Gun 3D lookes to up the ante with a revamped graphics engine as well as some improvements to the general gameplay. While it does end up as a marked improvement on its predecessor in an assortment of different ways, Hired Gun 3D fails to differentiate itself from the rest of the Sniper crowd.

If you’re unfamiliar with the Sniper shooter genre, let me set the scene for Hired Gun 3D: each mission tasks you with taking out a specific target in one of eight different environments. You’ll initially start zoomed out watching everyone walk by. Once you spot your man, tap on the screen to zoom in via your scope and once you’ve got him in your cross-hairs, all you have to do is shoot him to get credit for the kill. Missions have you killing multiples of the same target within a certain amount of time. After each successful mission, you earn cash that lets you buy and upgrade bigger and better sniper rifles. As with most sniper games, Hired Gun 3D is all about patience, precision, and observance.

Overall, Hired Gun 3D manages to satisfy those three tenants of sniper games. Each mission location is filled with random civilians, which not only increases the overall ambience but also forces you to pay extra attention to your target. Thankfully, the game’s accelerometer controls are relatively smooth and allow you the precision necessary to adequately track and target your victims. Hired Gun 3D’s visuals are also well done and are vastly improved over its predecessor. The upgrade system also does a good job of prolonging replayability, although I would have liked descriptions as to what exactly you’re getting when you upgrade the various stats on each gun (as well as a price tag for each upgrade).

Hired Gun 3D succeeds at being a decent sniper game, but there are some annoying design issues that bring the overall gameplay experience down. While the accelerometer controls do a good job of allowing you to track and take down your targets, the optional joystick controls are horrendous. Unfortunately, this makes the game almost unplayable when you’re in a situation that prevents you from moving your device around in a precise manner. The zoom controls while scoped seemed erratic as they would occasionally throw me out of zoom mode forcing me to have to re-aim, taking precious time off the mission clock. In addition, even though Hired Gun 3D is a paid app with IAP, all the menus still have annoying ads for other Triniti Interactive titles. While this doesn’t really affect gameplay, it seems an odd choice to subject your paying customers to ads.

One of the biggest concerns I have with Hired Gun 3D is  the overall lack of variety. One of the game’s selling points is the fact that there are an unlimited amount of missions to play and earn money, but they all play exactly the same way. Your target is always one of a handful of people and, while I enjoyed the mission environments, they get old pretty quickly. Even just a little more variety would have made the game far easier to enjoy. The fact that there’s no story or motivation to continue playing (besides upgrading your weapons) doesn’t help either.

Hired Gun 3D does a good job of providing you the average sniper experience. Unfortunately, that's all it does. If you're a fan of similar games, then Hired Gun 3D is worth a try simply because it's a new game and doesn't suck. However, if you're a newcomer or not necessarily a fan of sniper shooters, don't expect it to convert you.

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We’ve been keeping tabs on Firemint’s newest upcoming title since it was announced back in February of this year. Things were much different back then: their new game was still known as Agent Squeak, Firemint wasn’t owned by EA yet, and Steve Jobs was still the CEO of Apple (ok, that one just happened, but still). Fast forward to now, and after a nearly 2 year development time, the title that is now known as SPY mouse [99¢] is now available in the US App Store.

We’ll be putting SPY mouse thoroughly through the ringer and bringing you a review soon, but if you like scoring free games while picking up a cup of your favorite overpriced coffee then I want to let you in on a little promotion that’s going down to celebrate the launch of the game.

Beloved coffee chain and free WiFi sanctuary Starbucks has been running a new promotion called the Pick of the Week, where the cafe highlights a new book, TV show, or application and gives them away for free. Starting next Tuesday August 30th, SPY mouse will mark the first game to participate in this program. Basically, you’ll just need to stop into any Starbucks in the US and score a Pick of the Week card which will allow you to redeem SPY mouse for free through iTunes. Pretty simple, right?

There is a catch, though. These Pick of the Week cards are in limited supply, and once they’re gone, they’re gone. Previously, Starbucks offered up the premium version of the music recognition app Shazam Encore [$5.99] as part of this promotion, and word on the street was that they were pretty hard to come by. Seeing as games are the most popular type of app in the App Store, and SPY mouse is brand spanking new, it might be kind of difficult to get your caffeine-riddled hands on one of those cards.

Don’t distress, though. If heading to your local Starbucks sounds like too much of a task, or you’re worried about them running out of cards, there is a simple solution. You can spend one of your hard-earned dollars and just buy the game the old-fashioned way. It is available right now, after all, and the Starbucks promotion doesn’t start until next Tuesday. No matter the path you take to obtain a copy of SPY mouse, keep your eyes peeled for our full review to hit soon and as always stop into our forums to hear discussion and impressions of the game.

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IGN recently got their hands on Gameloft's upcoming modern military shooter Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nation and aside from a new gameplay trailer, also have tons of details on the game itself. First off, you really need to watch this:

It seems Modern Combat 3 will fall in line with the other entries in the series and feature online multiplayer, this time with 12 players and six different game modes spread over six maps. They've also told IGN there will be "frequent updates," so it will be interesting to see if Modern Combat 3 sees better post-launch support than previous iterations.

Single player sounds like it's basically what you'd expect: 13 levels of fast-paced military-centric combat with voiceovers and battle locations ranging from Los Angeles to Russia. Controls sound like they'll be similar to other Gameloft first person shooters. What I'm curious of is whether this is a Unity or an Unreal Engine game, not that it really matters either way, but we haven't seen much yet from Gameloft's announcement of their future utilization of Unreal Engine 3.

[via IGN]

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If you have an older iPhone or iPod Touch, or hey, just a little cramped on space because you have an entire folder crammed with fart apps, you probably don’t want to update Chaos Rings [$12.99 / HD] or its kinda-sequel, Chaos Rings Omega [$11.99 / HD]. For whatever reason, Square Enix has added Japanese voices to both games, and in the process have (at least) doubled the file sizes of both.

The newly updated version of Chaos Rings has gone from 273MB to 698MB, while the follow-up skyrocketed to 778MB from 379MB on the iPhone. The iPad versions see similar file increases. Refreshingly, this information is freely available in the respective applications’ descriptions. It’s nice when a company is up front about moves like this, but also kind of sad since we didn't expect to hear stuff like this from them in the first place.

If you’re worried about space or whatever, there are a couple of things you can do. First, you could just not download the updates since they don’t add anything of significant value to the game part of either. Or, if you want to give these a spin but want to revert later, you could save the old .IPA files of the originals for safe-keeping. Your choice, but we thought you’d like to know before clicking “update.”

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If you don’t mind soiling your hands by participating in a marketing scheme, you could win a chance to play Spy Mouse before the rest of the world does. Firemint and EA have kicked off a ‘contest’ for the long-awaited title, offering copies of Spy Mouse, Dead Space [$6.99 / HD], Real Racing 2 [$4.99 / HD], and The Sims 3 [$.99] as door prizes for discovering the answers to clues posted to this page once a day until August 26.

If you answer the clue correctly, you’ll be entered into a pool to win any of those games. If you so choose to tweet the fact that you’ve solved the clue on the appropriate page, you’ll apparently “double” your chance of winning. Also, for every 100 Facebook “Likes” the game’s page drums up, another winner will be picked for that day. The competition page is located here, while the clue page is here.

TUAW suggests that you use a side-Twitter account to do all of this, and that strikes us as sound advice. Unless, of course, your followers really want to know about Spy Mouse. Chances are, though, they’re more concerned with what you ate this morning and how your commute went. Just saying.

[Via TUAW]

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The Secret of Chateau de Moreau [$4.99 / Lite] by 4:33 Creative Lab is an entertaining adventure game, which is quite similar to Phoenix Wright [$4.99] / Review], which has heaps of fans here on TouchArcade. Both of these games are interactive story-telling adventures, where you make decisions which determine the outcome. If you love Phoenix Wright, or murder mysteries, you'll probably enjoy this game as much as we do.

You play as Antoine, the step-son of the wealthy Count Moreau, who has died under suspicious circumstances and now you're the main suspect. Antoine must investigate the crime, solving puzzles along the way, to prove his own innocence. The story is captivating, almost like reading a book, except you're an active participant in the drama.

This is a "who dun it?" murder mystery, with back-story and a decent cast of suspects. I've met 14 characters so far, including family members, a maid, a nanny, an engineer, a house guest…and yes, there's a butler.  Maybe he did it? Maybe he didn't? Perhaps I did it? That's what makes this game so much fun.

There's three different types of gameplay. Sometimes you walk your character around a floor-map of the Chateau, searching rooms for objects, using objects or presenting them to people. During your investigations you'll uncover topics of interest, which are recorded as clues. Once a clue is revealed, you can question the various characters about it and use objects to resolve that clue.

The second type of play is when you present your evidence, at the appropriate times, to solve the mystery. It's this part of the game which is most like Phoenix Wright. If you don't respond to the situation correctly, you might fail to prove your innocence. You're given five candles (lives), which extinguish each time you make a mistake. There's 40 alternate endings, which are presented in this game like achievements. So, in addition to completing the story, you can also try to reveal the other 39 endings.

The third type of gameplay involves puzzles to solve, such as opening an object, entering a code, or putting things in the right position. The developers advise there are over 100 puzzles, so I'll take their word on that.

If you haven't seen Phoenix Wright you may be unfamiliar with how this story is presented. Basically, static images of locations and characters are presented in cartoon format, sometimes with slight animations or flickers, along with subtitles for speech (white text) or thoughts (blue text). Meanwhile,  sound effects and music help create atmosphere. At times, you're forced to tap through several lines of dialog and my only criticism is that this is a bit boring if you're repeating a section, which may put some players off seeking all 40 endings. There's also the occasional line of strangely structured "foreign English" but generally the story-telling is fairly decent.

The controls vary, depending on your position within the game. When dialog or thoughts are presented, you tap to progress. Questioning involves selecting a question from a list. When you're walking around the floor-map, you tap a point to walk there, or tap the "Open Door" button. To search a room, you tap on specific items within the room. And there's buttons to access your inventory, clues, question someone, present an object or switch to move mode, to explore.

During the game, you discover time potions (which rewind time, to let you do things differently) and 'Water of Blessing' (which reveals any hidden mysteries while searching a specific room). These two items can also be purchased as In-App Purchases (IAP), but that's not really necessary.

The Secret of Chateau de Moreau is a really well-designed, nicely-paced game, which captures your attention quickly and makes you want to play detective, searching for clues and solving puzzles, right up to the dramatic reveal at the end. If you love Phoenix Wright, this purchase is an absolute no-brainer – just do it. And if you're not sure, take the lite version for a quick spin, but do it quickly, before someone else gets murdered!

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Freemium experiences on iOS just keep getting better. It wasn't long ago that gamers looking for a free game to play could choose from a variety of -ville and -war titles and very little else. Now, as free-to-play titles regularly hold the top of the charts, we're seeing freemium models worked into all sorts of games.

The latest to catch my fancy is Startales [Free], a darling game about a lonely star seeking the one he loves. Not only does Startales have engaging gameplay, borrowing the hook-and-swing mechanic of games like Hook Champ [$2.99], it also offers something of an emotional experience.

In Startales, you play a small star who has fallen in love. Tragically, you aren't bright enough to be seen by the object of your affections. She simply shines too bright. The other occupants of the sky dedicate themselves toward helping you win your lady love, lending their brightness to you until you shine bright enough.

In practice, this means that you hook your way from cloud to cloud, using your momentum to fling you forward and up into the night sky and collecting the other stars from the sky. Once you have enough, you have a chance to fly with your beloved. If you can keep close to her for long enough, you'll win her over and win the game.

After your first two attempts, which introduce you to the game with everything Startales has to offer, you are faced with a stripped-down version of the game. As you collect stars they're pooled together to act as currency. You can use them to activate a selection of power-ups that allow you to collect more stars, to build up your score or to fly with your love. You have to choose how you want to play — do you want to get the highest score and fly the furthest? Or do you want to win the heart of your love? You'll probably end up doing both, realistically, working on your high score until you have enough stars to fly with your love, and doing it all over again when you fail to win her over.

That was the point where my heart broke, just a tiny bit. I'd worked hard to shine brightly enough to find her, and then I only had a few moments to fly with her at my side. But it was hard to keep up with her and she got away. I followed the on-screen indicator to catch her, but tragedy struck. I launched myself badly and lost her. As I flew, the indicator grew smaller and smaller, then disappeared completely. She was gone. Defeated, I let darkness come up and claim me. I'll be honest — it was actually kind of sad.

If you can't stand the heartbreak, you can purchase extra stars and just keep trying. I prefer to earn my way into her heart, and it helps that the rest of the game is quite a lot of fun. You can choose power-ups that complement your strengths and keep using them as long as you earn enough stars to pay for them. While you're at it, you can use the game's robust multiplier system to work your way up the leaderboard (which will hopefully use Game Center at some future date).

Intrigued? Check it out — Startales is free, after all. And don't forget to share your impressions in our discussion thread.

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Settlers of Catan [$4.99 / HD] is considered, rightly, as one of the best board game-to-digital ports on the App Store. But other than just generally being sharp, it's also infinitely expandable, which is a great thing for the fans. Capitalizing on this is developer Exozet, who just shot Pocket Gamer a note that a new expansion is slated to hit later this year.

So, what is this upcoming expansion? Cities and Knights, which is easily one of the most aggressive expansions of the bunch. In it, you’ll develop cities while using knights to attack other players as well as help opponents defend the world from barbarians from across the ocean. The expansion also ushers in new cards that bolster the overall vibe of the experience.

Overall, there are a lot of fine details in this package, so if you're really interested in Cities And Knights, the Wikipedia article on it should sate your hot desire to learn more.

It’s unknown at the moment whether this will be an IAP or simply a free update, but our dime is on the fact that it’ll cost some dough. And, really, why wouldn’t it considering the amount of stuff it adds to an aging game. Speaking of that, actually, Catan was updated earlier last month with a new graphical pass and several optimization tweaks. Obviously, the developer is still very much behind its product.

[Via Pocket Gamer]

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