TouchArcade.ru

London-based design studio ustwo created a heck of a game in Whale Trail, but it’s failing as a commercial entity. It’ll never hit the App Store top 10. The face of its bubbly and wide-eyed mascot, Willow, will never grace products like panties or fruit snacks. And at its current pace, it’ll be awhile before it generates a decent profit.

The studio has huge expectations that aren’t being met, and just based on trends, it’s clear that Whale Trail will continue not meeting them. It’s a failure in this life. But will it be one in its next? Again, ustwo is spending money on Whale Trail, giving it a second wind via creative mouth-to-mouth. It’s retooling and redesigning the oddball flying game as a free-to-play title in a high-bandwidth effort to attract the casual audience that the original version failed to reach, but managed to brush.

The hope is that this model, alongside some fresh content, will finally put the game over the top and onto hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of phones and tablets across the world. It’s a crazy plan. Crazy, however, is kinda its project lead’s thing.

On Conversion, Failure, And Journeys

I’ve been speaking with ustwo co-founder Mills about the upcoming transformation. Mills is like a bizarro Clint Eastwood. In the face of adversity he has the same grit and air of determination, but instead of a cowboy hat and a killer squint Mills rocks a long, flowing red wig and eyeglasses with thick, black frames. When he talks to you, even via e-mail, you feel his warmth, energy, and passion. He’s funny, too, and you see a lot of his brand of humor in his game. As we talk, he refuses to call the original Whale Trail a failure despite being able to produce evidence indicating as much. Instead, he calls it a “succailure” and the process of making it a F2P title a “journey.”

“Whale Trail was our first proper game release,” Mills tells TouchArcade. “Full heart, full passion. The launch was a success for our studio, showering loads of eyeballs on us but something didn’t quite click. Although we were hitting 12,000 downloads a day at launch, it tailed off pretty quick.”

In fact, Whale Trail has just hit over 188,000 total sales, and it shifts around 250 units a day across Android and iPhone and iPad. These kind of numbers would be enough for a lot of studios, but ustwo spent oodles of cash on the game. It needed Whale Trail to be up there with the Angry Birds and Fruit Ninjas and the Cut the Ropes of the world.

How those titles manage to stay up top is a matter of debate. Mills doesn’t believe that featuring, reviews, or exposure brings in new downloads. He thinks that word of mouth is now driving sales. As evidence, he notes that the game’s trailers still get around 500 new views a day and the music video for the theme used in the game drives interest, too. Riding on a wave of featuring, however, Whale Trail managed to light up the charts for a short period. Mills shot us the following handy chart, for those of you into the numbers:

Learning about why the game didn’t keep selling at its initial, breakneck pace is an important component of its upcoming transformation. Mills is soaking up everything he can. He frequently frames this entire ordeal as a learning experience.

“We went back to the drawing board and dove deep into the blue waters to understand why Whale Trail wasn’t quite able to take off. We had made a wonderful experience but there wasn’t enough ‘replay’ value in the current game. The new challenge levels added in iteration release two and three helped, but we needed more. Much more,” he adds.

The new version of the game is, indeed, functionally different. As you collect bubbles and travel, you’ll collect an in-game currency called Krill. With Krill, you can buy new powers, “useable treats,” costumes for Willow and its five new playable friends. If you want this stuff without the grind, you can buy Krill straight-up.

“The game is so much better. Players are now in full control of their destiny and each play rewards them. This was missing before,” he says.

If you’ve already purchased Whale Trail, Mills says you’ll receive a “BIG” bag of Krill when you update to the new version. Additionally, you’ll receive a message designed to make you feel “special.” Mills worries about how the current install base is going to react to this massive change, since the regular version will essentially die after this update. Perhaps that’s why this message to fans will be “like finding a bag of money in your house that you can use to pimp it right up 50 style” or “like finding a bag of candy that is so sweet, yet so sticky.”

When I bring up failure, Mills says I have a point, but he describes the experience so far as a “journey.” His studio has had opportunities to sell off the IP or actually make money, but ustwo as a whole is more interested in learning at this point.

“You can look at it as a failure, but I see it as journey,” Mills says. “Each iteration of Whale Trail has created a new buzz and has engaged the players more. It’s been a big lesson for me especially in regards to releasing something I wanted and releasing something that the majority of players want. We were very successful at creating buzz, we were very open about the whole experience and the story of Whale Trail will now be told via Penguin,” he tells us. He means the publishing company, not an actual penguin.

“We had two Whale Trail acquisition offers for the game as it currently stands now, but we were not interested in money. We were interested in better understanding what we could do to make the game better. I couldn’t walk away from it now, knowing it was not the game we wanted it to be. The game we have since built and are testing now with players is the game we should have released back then but didn’t realize it at the time.”

Even though the Whale Trail flopped, Mills notes some positives. It gave his studio new business opportunities, a higher-profile in the development community, and a lot of good will. These things, however, aren’t going to make new Whale Trail sail. A balance of IAP and fun mechanics are the only thing that’ll save it.

“I want to know more about free-to-play,” Mills says. “We are not being aggressive with the monetization potential. Players need never spend, but the joy they feel should allow the game to be pretty viral. We get a small social virility through Twitter right now, but the potential at the higher numbers is unreal. I guess the plan is for Willow to find some real Whales!”

We’ll have to see if the new version of Whale Trail hits the heights that Mills thinks it can reach. Regardless if it does or not, it’s going to be hard to call this iteration a failure. To Mills, success is all about what you do as you try to succeed.

“We didn’t set out to make something generic. Success is about crafting something you believe in and telling that story, granted it may never be a smash hit as the very concept of a little fat flying whale called Willow who lives in a psychedelic land is too far out for many to stomach, but we made something we are so proud of.”

We’ll have hands-on impressions in the near future.

[source]

One of the world’s best CCGs on mobile, Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer [$.99], is now better looking and it’s packing more content. In a recent update, developer Incinerator Studios added retina support for iPad, as well as three new IAP card packs — Return of the Fallen, Storm of Souls, and an aptly named promotional pack called Promo Pack 1. It has also dropped in an “in-app purchase” manager, which allows you to restore, as well as buy, cards from within the app.

If this sounds good, go ahead and update Ascension. You’ll notice some new tweaks, too: fast-app switching is now supported and a new 28-day online game timer round out what is sounding like a pretty sweet update for the game’s most dedicated fans. It’s nice when this happens, right?

[source]

Like most 2D platformer stars, Mr. Pop of Frenzy Pop [$0.99 / $0.99 (HD)] enjoys long walks on the beach, scouring levels for hidden items, and running and jumping through a series of trap-infested environments. Fortunately, the orange soda bottle’s bag of tricks distinguishes itself by extending quite a bit deeper than just running and jumping.

Throwing in elements from other popular platformers like League of Evil along with a fizzy maneuver all his own, Mr. Pop can wall-jump his way to greater heights, grind down walls to safety, and roll under spinning buzz saws and other hazards. The shades-wearing orange soda bottle also comes equipped with Pop Power. By holding the PP button in the lower right corner of the screen, Mr. Pop flips his top and fires fizzy bubbles, rocketing upward at super speed.

Passing levels requires you to master and seamlessly flow between maneuvers. Hop a saw blade, roll through tunnels, then alternate between floating and falling by using Pop Power in measured bursts so you don’t hurtle upwards and impale yourself on the blades above, nor drop onto the blades below; then grind down a wall and quickly bound down to safety before getting ready to mix and match maneuvers through the next stretch of sharp objects.

Mr. Pop’s defining trait is his Sonic-like speed. With the slightest tap of a virtual arrow, the carbonated hero goes from standstill to sprint. While Pop’s speed meshes with the rest of his slick move set to make you feel like a level-clearing ninja when plans go well, they often don’t. Most stages unleash scrolling traps like boulder-sized snowballs, blocks studded with the worst kinds of jaggies, and massive bosses, all chasing you across the screen or through an entire level. High-speed chases and picking my way through long spans of traps wouldn’t pose much of a problem if I had a proper controller, but virtual buttons infamous for their lack of precision often made some romps more frustrating than fun.

Touchy physics exacerbated my issues. Mr. Pop’s zero-to-sixty-in-.02-seconds momentum makes levels fly by, giving you little time to react to impending traps but no chance to slow down with something barreling down from behind. Again, that’s not so bad in and of itself. It was the inherent imprecision of non-tactile controls combined with the too-fast speed that often turned many levels into rinse-and-repeat exercises of: die, add the trap that did me in to a list of obstacles, then call up the whole level from memory and hope I can press each button just so in order to pass.

Buttons do respond when you press them dead on, but the control scheme itself occasionally hiccups. Left and right arrows sit in the left corner, jump and roll sit below PP on the right; but each set is fused together, so you’ll wind up pressing one when you meant the other. Standing still next to a wall then pressing jump makes Mr. Pop perform a wall jump if the last arrow button you pressed was in the direction of the wall—which, in most platformers, is usually the case.

Not exactly a move you want to perform when you’re hugging a wall on a narrow ledge adjacent to a bed of spikes. Holding the jump button during wall jumps registers as two jumps every time you connect with a solid surface, which can get you into trouble on levels covered in ceiling traps, and Mr. Pop flip-flops between grinding nice and easy, or shooting down as if the wall were coated in butter.

I harp on these issues only because platformers rely so heavily on precision and a controllable rate of movement. Frankly, other games in the App Store do everything Frenzy Pop does, and with tighter controls. But once you weed out some problems—learn to tap the jump button during wall jumps instead of holding it—and work around the rest, you’ll find an otherwise enjoyable platformer.

The variety of levels and their obstacles keep the pace quick and fresh, and the completionist in me enjoyed the extra challenge of hunting down the soda can hidden in each level and opening up unlockables such as races against an evil chunk of cheese and hard-mode stages that really put your handle on the controls to the test. Plus, flowing through complicated sets of traps really does feel good. It just takes a bit more effort than I’d like.

For only a dollar, the Frenzy Pop package includes several dozen levels and assorted unlockables from the start, with the promise of more worlds on the way soon. While the game’s content doesn’t yet measure up to other more padded entries in the App Store, what it does offer will keep you entertained, and for a fair asking price.

TouchArcade Rating:

[source]

Shark Dash [$0.99 / Free ] features all the trappings of a classic love story. At the tale’s outset, we meet our protagonist, a toy shark enjoying a romantic swim around the tub with his gal. Suddenly rubber ducks, the most vicious of water fowl, come splashing onto the scene and restrain our hero, who flails about while the diabolical ducks spirit his fair maiden away. Rather than flexing his fins, the shark sets off on his quest to save his lady love by solving a series of physics puzzles.

Swapping hungry sharks for Angry Birds [ $0.99 ] and googly-eyed ducks for slovenly hogs, Shark Dash oozes personality. Each level takes place in a tub filled with a mix of bath-time implements: Salts, soap bars, plastic rings, beach balls, and several unique props like explosive mines and inflatable blocks that burst at a touch.

Positioned around the tub are the scumbags that made off with your girl. Your goal is to pull back on your shark and line up your dotted trajectory like an expert billiards player, then release to send him careening into bath-time accessories like a pinball—blasting through speed tubes that fire you into the air, cleaving through chains that hold hanging platforms, knocking over structures to dump their feathery cargo into the water, swooping beneath the surface to gobble up stragglers. Once you’ve devoured all your prey, you move on to the next stage.

Besides dining on duck, each level poses two additional challenges: collect every coin, and try to meet the minimum number of moves needed to win. Hitting par or less on each level is optional, but presents the game’s greatest thrill. As you progress, levels gradually introduce new elements that make up Rube Goldberg-like constructions. Dots lining the bathtub drain show how many moves you have to finish the level until the game pulls the plug and throws victory out with the bath water.

You can spend all your available moves throwing yourself at ducks, brute-forcing your way from one level to the next. Or you can join the Shark Dash elite who analyze each layout, painstakingly calculate trajectories, and slingshot their sharks in just the right way to kick off a Goldberg sequence that ends with every last duck into your belly—usually in two moves or less. Watching a well-laid plan come off without a hitch brought about immense satisfaction and prompted me to retry stages until I scored a perfect rank.

Unfortunately, the game’s economy is its biggest flaw. Collecting the coins scattered around levels gives you the funds you need to skip tougher levels, buy elixirs to call mulligans on poorly executed moves, pick up new sharks, or break your bank and open up every level. The problem is, even netting every coin on every stage doesn’t fill your wallet fast enough.

You can get by without retry elixirs and new sharks (the game’s levels are divided across themed bathtubs, and you automatically receive control of a new shark whose abilities Gameloft designed specifically for his tub’s challenges), but at some point, you won’t have enough to skip a stage giving you trouble. That means either banging your shark’s head against a level’s porcelain walls until you figure out how to pass it, or admit defeat and buy IAP coin packs.

Don’t let an unbalanced economy make you shy away from Shark Dash, though. Cracking a level’s puzzle-like configuration is a real kick that comes wrapped in a fun theme, vibrant graphics, and, quite likely, the first and only time you’ll ever root for a shark.

TouchArcade Rating:

[source]

Way back in November of 2010, Playcreek released Death Worm [$0.99 / Free ], an official enhanced remake of the popular Flash game of the same name. By that point, we had already been enjoying a retro-inspired version of the “giant killer worm” formula for a few months with the excellent Super Mega Worm [$1.99 / Free ], but in our review for Death Worm we noted that both games offered decidedly different experiences and could happily coexist together.

Other people seemed to like Death Worm too, as this week Playcreek is celebrating hitting the 5 million download mark by releasing a big content update. The first new item on tap is a new ice-themed stage for the campaign, and more than 20 new enemies have been added to the game including a Mega Boss battle. A new trailer showcases the different features found in the latest Death Worm update.

The other big addition in this update is a brand new mini-game called Countdown. It tasks you with collecting lizards underground within a certain time limit and while avoiding hazards, with each lizard collected resetting the clock to allow you to keep going. Finally, there are a set of new achievements and some new in-game music to rock out to.

Death Worm is a game I thoroughly enjoyed when it came out in 2010, and the new update has reignited my interest once again. Definitely check it out if you’re into playing as a giant killer worm and enjoy challenging arcade games.

[source]

Late last month Everplay and FruitFireForge released Spellsword [ $0.99 ], a game we really enjoyed in our review. It took the arena-style action platforming of Super Crate Box [ $1.99 ] and added a ton of variety in the form of RPG-like upgradeable items and abilities. Even though the two titles shared a core idea, Spellsword really stood on its own as a different experience.

However, one of the main problems we had with the game had to do with the controls. They worked well on the smaller screen of the iPhone and iPod touch, but failed to scale very well to the iPad’s big screen. Today’s update addresses this very problem by allowing you to move the virtual buttons to wherever you feel is most comfortable. Also, an new option for “Pro Swipe Controls” has been added that makes the movement controls center on wherever you place down your thumb.

Speaking of options, there’s an actual Options screen you can access from the main menu. It’s here you can configure the controls and also some basic stuff like volume sliders, an option for disabling hints, and a new option to reset your current character if you want to start over.

In addition to all the new options, Everplay has also sent over a teaser for a new upcoming level which you can see above. This new stage will contain new enemies as well as new items for your character to unlock. No word on just when this new level will hit, but it shouldn’t be too far off. In the meantime enjoy the latest update which tightened up an already great overall package in Spellsword.

[source]

Big Pixel Studio’s Off the Leash [ Free ] hit earlier this year, and basically did for tilt-based avoidance games what Jetpack Joyride [ Free ] did for the cave flyer. By that I mean it took a tried-and-true gameplay mechanic and fleshed it out to the max by dropping it into a game with attractive visuals, a mission-based progression, and tons of unlockable items and upgrades.

Yesterday a big update hit for Off the Leash that added some welcome new content to the game. The big ticket items are a brand new track and field themed location to perform your evasive dog actions in, and a new character named Charlie the Man Dog. Yep, Man Dog. He’s a man dressed up in a dog suit in case you didn’t gather that from his name, and he cracks me up to no end. He’s also the fastest out of all the characters in the game.

The more minor additions in this update include a new baseball cap and an awesome Land-a Panda [$0.99 / $1.99 (HD) / Free (HD)] hat to buy in the store, a set of new missions bringing the total up to 99, and a couple of wallpapers to trick out your device. Off the Leash was loads of fun before, but new goodies are always a welcome addition. If you haven’t checked it out yet you can grab it for free in the App Store, and be sure to check out our original review.

[source]

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.

TouchArcade Rating:

[source]

Say what you will about Gameloft, the developer occasionally does a good job of filling the App Store void with iOS versions of console staples. N.O.V.A. 3 [ $6.99 ], the third game in the company’s perennial FPS series is one such title.  Capitalizing on the success of the previous two titles, as well as offering full support for the latest and greatest in Apple hardware, N.O.V.A. 3 offers a great action-packed single player experience complete with some very impressive visuals.

Following the never-ending trials and tribulations of Kal Warden, N.O.V.A. 3 continues the story as Warden is yet again recalled into action, this time to the ruins of San Francisco to aid an old friend. From there, you’ll travel to several more planets, a derelict ship, and even the home planet of the Volterites. I’ll save the spoilers for those of you that care about the story, but suffice to Kal gets tasked with saving the human race (again) from certain doom and will go through humans, Volterites and Judgers alike to accomplish that feat.

You’ll be saving humanity via gameplay that should be largely familiar for genre veterans. Like its predecessor, N.O.V.A. 3 has you exploring a wide variety of locales while battling enemy archetypes and hitting objective-marker based goals that shouldn’t offer much in terms of surprise. Also, you can expect the occasional break from the on-foot battle heroics by piloting Mechs, manning the weaponry on top of AI driven trucks and serving as sniper support for other NPCs. By now, it should be apparent that Gameloft has uncovered the formula for a successful FPS, and while N.O.V.A. 3 doesn’t offer much in terms of revolutionary gameplay, it certainly succeeds in what it does implement.

One interesting inclusion is an in-game store that offers unique weapons and upgrades that takes currency you earn by completing single player levels. It’s nice to see a system that actually provides rewards proportionally to how well you complete a level run. Unfortunately, the inclusion of IAP to bypass said currency collection lessens experience somewhat.

A well-done FPS is in some ways far more reliant on its controls than other genres. Thankfully, N.O.V.A. 3 works within its limitations to provide a competent scheme for a touch screen. The standard dual-stick controls are available, as well as generous use of a swipe gestures for swapping weapons and powers. I was particularly a fan of the gyroscope inclusion, as proper use of that option goes a long way towards making the game’s aiming accurate and fun.

N.O.V.A. 3 plays well on the iPhone, but I found the screen to be a bit cramped compared to the roomy iPad controls. Either way, a host of options such as auto-aim, attempt to help even touch-screen novices blast away with ease. While I imagine there are some folks that will never get used to touchscreen controls for an FPS, the fact remains that N.O.V.A. 3’s control schemes do a decent job of letting you take out baddies and navigate the environments with ease.

By the way, those environments you’ll be traversing across look absolutely gorgeous. N.O.V.A. 3 takes full advantage of the hardware offerings of the iPhone 4S and new iPad, which leads to one of the most visually impressive FPS titles I’ve played on iOS. The textures, weather and visual effects – even the shadows are all well done and simply stunning.

As nice as the game looks on the small scree, N.O.V.A. 3 begs to be played on a new iPad. The larger retina-display of the tablet lets you truly appreciate just how far the visuals have come in the series. The fact that the game manages to look this good while successfully running (for the most part) at a decent framerate is probably the most impressive accomplishment. Granted, there were a few mishaps with the graphics engine, such as a few instances of falling through environments, the occasional slowdown when there’s a lot of action on the screen and the unusually lengthy loading screens (that occasionally make you think the game crashed), but these do little to detract from what is an otherwise impressive visual system.

It would be easy to simply classify N.O.V.A. 3 as impressive eye candy and leave it at that, but Gameloft deserves credit for continuing the trend of creating a well-rounded FPS experience complete with a full story-driven campaign, a plethora of control and gameplay options and a balanced gameplay experience. We sometimes talk about games that possess that certain something that make them ideal for showcasing the might of iOS. I’d argue that, while N.O.V.A. 3 may not necessarily be at the top of that shortlist, it has enough going for it to warrant being close to such a classification.

This is part one of our two-part N.O.V.A. 3 review. In previous N.O.V.A. games, multiplayer played a very large component of how much our community enjoyed the game. With our early review copy, there obviously wasn’t anyone to be found to play with online. As soon as the game is released, and we can spend some quality time with the multiplayer we’ll post a follow-up focusing on the multiplayer aspects of N.O.V.A. 3.

TouchArcade Rating:

[source]

Ballistic SE [$1.99] and Fireball SE [$1.99] creator, Luke Schneider, has been porting another Xbox Live Indie Game to the iPhone and iPad. Inferno+, which features newer high resolution assets for retina screens, is coming later this month or earlier next. Luke dropped us a really awesome slow-motion teaser trailer that shows off a smidgen of the game’s creative twin-stick action, which seeks to combine elements of Geometry Wars (!) with the structure of Gauntlet (!!).

Luke describes the trailer in his latest blog post, shedding some light on what he’s trying to shoot for:

While the launch trailer will cover a lot more of what’s in Inferno+, for the teaser video above I only wanted to show a single quick sequence to give a taste of the game. Obviously it’s in slow motion, and zoomed in a bit, so I cheated a little, but I think that’s OK.

We’ve been pretty impressed with what Luke has released so far, so count us in for a day one download. Whenever we get a final build, we’ll shoot you a review. Hah. Get it? It’s a twin-stick shooter. We’re going to shoot our thoughts at you… like you’d fire bullets in a shooter. We crack us up.

[source]