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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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Binary Square's Flick Rocket [$.99] is a gesture-based amalgamation of Missile Command, Centipede, Asteroid, and Space Invaders that has you firing rockets from a centralized turret into a swathe of vertical space occupied by roving beasts nabbed from its source material. Where it has the most bang is in its over-the-top presentation, which assaults your senses with its lo-fi, retro-infused arcade sound effects and vector-stylized world. Where it fails is in its lack of precision and content. As far as flaws go, those are pretty fundamental, but I feel like the rudimentary action mechanics and even the stilted content to some degree are almost perfect for a pick-up-and-play game. If you rock Flick Rocket in bursts, you’ll get something out of it, which is a vague way to say that you’ll probably get those basic, visceral thrills that all of the classics its based on have provided for eons.

As of right now, Flick Rocket boasts three different styles of play that can be accessed in either its pick-a-level campaign or its arcade score-attack mode. The most satisfying of the trio is its Space Invaders mode, which simply has you hammering a squadron of roving crabs with unlimited missiles that you flick out of your turret with a swipe. The other two styles of play are basic riffs on Centipede and Asteroid: one has you battering a squirming worm that drops a mushroom for every segment you explode, while the other has you pummeling space rocks. You get infinite ammo in all the modes, as well as access to power-ups that allow you to stop time and do fun stuff like bounce your rockets off walls.

The goal is always to protect the city underneath the action. The foes, whether its from straight-up attacking or from secondary flack, can easily obliterate the eight or so buildings you’re charged with protecting if you're not on the ball, so you're asked to stay on your toes. Overall, it’s a simple enough play formula, and its satisfies in that overly basic and cozy kind of way. Oddly, you never really feel like you have total control over where the rockets go, despite that being the central conceit of the game.

I also kinda think that the enemy spacing is a tad too close and the explosions from rocket-to-enemy impact are just a smidgen too weak. Despite the fact that you’re firing rockets half the size of the enemies, you don’t really get a solid sense of empowerment, and I think the precision factors into that, too.

But, again, this is a really simple, retro-infused title. I feel like I’m saying that Pac-Man is broke or something whenever I criticize Flick Rocket. So, to be perfectly clear, the core concepts and the mechanic at work in this game are entertaining, though these are fleeting feelings. I like Flick Rocket as a lunch break-type of game, where you just go in and get your kicks and get right out. It doesn’t have the substance to hold your attention for long anyway, but I don’t think it really needs to.

It’ll be interesting to see this game expand in the future. The campaign mode leaves several, several bubbles open indicating that new mechanics are coming. My gut doesn’t says this was a horrible choice; games that feel content-light shouldn’t really advertise the fact that they are indeed content light, but it’s nice to know  that more is planned, I guess.

Anyway, if you’re in the mood for some old-school action, Flick Rocket is definitely a good place to start looking for action. It’s entertaining enough for what little it is. Check it out if you’re intrigued, though, or need another good time waster.

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Remember Star Command that we posted about a few months ago? No? Well here's the deal– War Balloon Games took note of the success of simulations like Game Dev Story and decided to take a crack at releasing something similar, only with a Star Trek-like theme to it. Here's the developer's own description from the original unveiling on Reddit:

Players can build their vessel in their own image – if you prefer a scientific, peace oriented game style you can build long rang scanners and diplomatic facilities to encourage peace and information exchange. Players more focused on settling disputes through force can build their Starship with multiple weapon bays and reinforced hull to absorb heavy damage.
Throughout the game players can hire and manage their crew. Crew members have a variety of skill sets and each of these comes into play when performing tasks on board like research, tactical, engineering and more. Crew members gain new skills as the game progresses making them more and more valuable.

Players can explore the universe, discovering black holes, nebula’s, new planets and eventually make contact with new races. Diplomacy comes into play as some species are naturally drawn to combat while others may be more willing to join you – even exchanging officers on your crew.

Anyway, here's the three new screenshots to prove the dev team is "still alive and working":

Needless to say, I'm super excited for this. We're huge fans of the Kairosoft formula around here, and really can't wait to see a game that takes those same basic ideas and applies them to something entirely new and original instead of poorly translated ports of existing mobile phone games. If you want to know more about the game, the developers are actively posting in our forums.

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Ever since the success of Death Rally [99¢] earlier this year, there has been somewhat of a resurgence in isometric racing titles with an emphasis on weapons and destruction. And why not? There’s nothing cooler than setting up a shot in your souped-up racer and blowing apart the leader right before taking the checkered flag. Mad Wheels [99¢/Lite/HD] attempts to ride on this wave of enthusiasm and success and, while the title does a decent job nailing the core gameplay, its lack of any real customization definitely hurts replayability.

Simply put, many aspects of Mad Wheels are, well, simple. There are only two single player modes: a ‘Championship’ mode that has the player race through 25 tracks across four “regions,” and a randomized Quick Race option. In addition, there is no story to speak of; the only motivation to continue playing is a progression bar that goes up every time a race is won or objective is met. While Mad Wheels offers a half dozen cars to choose from (with three more as IAP), each vehicle has fixed weapons and stats, with no options for upgrades or improvements. This drastically decreases any potential replayability, as once you go through each track and nail all the objectives, there’s nothing else to play towards.

In addition to the concerns above, there are some glaring omissions in Mad Wheels that definitely detract from the overall experience. For example, there are no save states or ‘multitasking’ support within this game. In other words, if you’re playing on your iPad, and you decide to exit out to check your email, you’ve just lost any progress you had on your current race and need to start over. This lack of any save state is almost unacceptable in this day and age. In addition, Mad Wheels only uses the Crystal social network system and doesn’t even integrate Game Center. This isn’t necessarily a big deal, but still surprising considering how Game Center is poised to be the primary gaming service once the next version of iOS comes out.

Not everything is bad, however. Mad Wheels has decent graphics with a stable, fast framerate (with a visual style that makes me wish Blast Corp was on iOS). In addition, the game controls pretty well, emulating Death Rally and providing an overall decent gameplay experience. While the weapons are predictable, they are implemented nicely and preserve the enjoyment of blasting apart your opponents. Furthermore, Mad Wheels also incorporates a Wi-Fi multiplayer mode, allowing gamers to join and host multiplayer races.

Despite its issues, Mad Wheels still manages to preserve some of the fun involved with these types of weapon racers. If you’re looking for a simple, weapons-based racer with multiplayer and don’t care about customizability or excessive replayability, then Mad Wheels may be a title worthy of your attention. If you’re looking for a game with more substance and depth, then Death Rally still remains the perennial favorite and recommended title.

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Breaking news: Chillingo and Zepto Lab will capitalize on the astounding success of their physics-based puzzle game, Cut The Rope, with a sequel to Cut The Rope. I hope this sends the same chills down your spine as it does mine.

Sarcasm aside for a moment, IGN mobile got its hands on the first few bits of Cut The Rope 2 media, thus confirming that a follow-up to the original game is indeed in the works. IGN is being oddly coy about the whole situation; in the article, the site seems to be suggesting to its readers that someone other than Chillingo or Zepto put the concept art into its hands, while the effort clearly appears to be the fruits from an initial step in a marketing effort.

The images say a lot, but I suppose they also say nothing. In the logo in particular, take note that the scissors are over two pairs of strings. Also, there’s a hint that a new dude dubbed The Professor will join the existing cast of one (pic to the right). Two mascots, I’ve learned, are always better than one.

When will you see Cut The Rope 2? Since Chillingo hasn’t made the follow-up officially official just yet, we don’t know. The IGN article, however, says it’ll hit the App Store in the near future. Neat!

[Via IGN]

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In this week’s bonus edition of The TouchArcade show, we sit down and have a chat with CEO of Cedar Hill Games, Tobyn Manthorpe. We’ve covered his studio’s latest game, Emissary of War, pretty well so far, so I’ll spare the pitch in this post, however, I will say that we spend a good deal of time talking about the streamlining process which went into it. We also discuss his background at BioWare and how his experience informs Cedar Hill, Emissary of War, and his studio in general.

If you’d like to give this a listen, you can stream it or download it just below. You could also subscribe to our podcast feed and get these episodes without having to click a single thing! Its like “One Click” check-out minus the click, what a deal!

iTunes Link: The TouchArcade Show
Zune Marketplace: TouchArcade.com Podcasts
RSS Feed: The TouchArcade Show
Direct Link: TouchArcadeShow-Bonus-007.mp3, 20MB

Music for this episode is from Overclocked Remix. Specifically, we picked two up-tempto re-mixes of traditional RPG tracks:

• Baldur's Gate 'Child of The Murder God'
• Neverwinter Nights 'Kara-Turian Nights'

If you’d like to get hold of us, feel free to drop us an e-mail at podcast@toucharcade.com or hit us up via the Twitter and the Facebook. We’ll be back later this week for another regular show. I wonder what cat game Jared will pick up next?

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Words With Friends [$1.99 / Free] is headed to Facebook. Social giant Zynga Games announced the platform flip this afternoon with a delightful teaser image. Normally, I’d be a little annoyed by the lack of information, but really, what is there to say? Words with Friends is an extremely simple riff on the Scrabble formula with basic visual do-dads and mechanics that we’ve been enjoying for quite a while on iOS.

I’d imagine the reason we don’t have many details here is tied into the fact that nothing meaningful has been changed, aside from the addition of new Facebook-y social elements.

Let's talk about those for a second. PC Mag is reporting that users will be able to sync their iOS and Android games to this particular version. Also, you'll be able to, somehow, post about your current game on your foes' walls. Cool!

Zynga is heavily invested in Facebook, and as you know, the With Friends creator NewToy was grabbed by the mega publisher earlier last year. It only makes sense that we’re seeing its games (under a new name) on this specific platform, too.

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Spiderweb Software, the studio behind the fiendishly old-school isometric, turn-based dungeon crawler Avadon: The Black Fortress [$9.99], have announced a new game that looks like a pretty faithful follow-up to that aforementioned title.

The new game is called Avernum: Escape From the Pit, and it’s being billed as the “first chapter” in an RPG saga. This one in particular will span around eighty different towns and dungeons filled with, of course, unique races, magic, mystery, foes, and artifacts to discover.

One of the coolest things we know about the title so far is that it’ll support plot branching of some sort. Spiderweb says that there are three distinct “game-winning quests” in which you will either be given the opportunity to escape, seek safety, or get revenge.

It appears as if the Mac version of the game is the lead sku. So, Avernum for Mac will see a release much later this year, while the iPad port will see Q1 2012 release shortly after. I guess the best part about waiting, though, it that it’ll give you enough time to travel Avadon again. Game is, like, mad huge and complex. Also, a bit dry, but hey, this is a niche title.

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Ragnarok Online is getting a mobile companion in the states, too. Creator Gravity Interactive just announced an oh-so creatively title called Ragnarok Violet. In brief, it’s an offline, iOS-specific version of the MMO that features a lot of the sights, sounds, and monsters that compose the ridiculously popular free-to-play game’s universe. This announcement is coming on the heels of two offline Maple Story releases, which have performed extremely well.

Specifically on the familiarity front, Gravity cites that Porings, Spores, and Marins will compose the base monster cast. It also name-drops Empty Bottles, Honey, colored herbs, and standard knight fare as the loot. As you play, you’ll also pick up monster cards, which can be used to modify your dude and make him stronger.

Violet appears to be a fairly faithful port of feature phone game with the same name, if this is all ringing a bell, that's why. The best we can tell is that it debuted at some point in 2008 or so. We've also seen indications that a US iOS version has been floating around seedier circles for a bit, too.

Anyway, Ragnarok Violet will appear on the App Store this coming Friday, August 5 (which seems wrong to us; most games hit on Thursday). It’ll launch for free, but if you want some hot drops quick and dirty-like, you’ll probably want to pony up the cash in its in-game store. As standard with these stores, it'll allow you to buy weapons, armor, and items. What? You didn’t see that coming?

Speaking of seeing stuff coming, we’ll probably see many more Ragnarok Online releases on mobile platforms moving forward. As of right now, there are eight out in the wild, and most of them can talk to the proper game in a rudimentary fashion, which is something this one will not even attempt to do. I always wonder how much more successful these F2P games could be if they actually could meaningfully touch base with the community and the proper game.

On a totally different note, it'll be interesting to see these Korean-centric apps as a whole chart in the future. According to Bloomberg, the Korean government just tossed out the government rating requirement for mobile games, which in return, also potentially means Apple and Google will open up their app stores in the region. Talk about hurdles.

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Every time I dip my head into the hardcore world of chess I feel like an idiot that has stumbled into a Mensa meeting. I'm not referring to actually playing the game of chess, but all the crazy competitions and other events which surround the game to take it to whole new levels. Today, I'm specifically speaking of the World Microcomputer Chess Championship, the World Computer Chess Championship, the World Chess Software Championship, and the World Computer Speed Chess Championship. All of these events are different flavors of the same type of event where hardcore Chess AI developers all bring their electronic chess-playing babies to compete for fame, fortune, and I assume a heck of a lot of bragging rights amongst certain circles.

Stefan Meyer-Kahlen, seen in the photo above, first brought Shredder Chess [$7.99 / Lite / HD] online in 1993, and since then has placed first at twelve of the various world chess software tournaments, doing particularly well at the speed-centric variety. The iOS version is no slouch either, with tons of functionality that will both provide some significant challenge if you're adept, as well as help you be a better player if you've got a smarmy older cousin like me who always insisted on beating you at every family gathering with a chess set nearby.

It does this through a shockingly adjustable AI engine that adjusts its strengths to yours, calculating your Elo rating along the way. If you're just starting out, you can even move the difficulty slider all the way down and Shredder will even make deliberate novice mistakes. Aside from that, there's a coaching functionality which allows you to analyze your games to see and learn from the mistakes you've made. My favorite feature is the little gauge at the bottom (seen in the screenshots) which shows what Shredder thinks the current winner will be, with some crazy accuracy, regardless of how hard I try to prove it wrong.

In addition, there are 1000 different chess puzzles, the ability to load and save games, and even export these games via the open "Portable Game Notation" format which is email-centric, and can be opened in full-fledged versions of Shredder. Also, by buying the iOS version you get a $10 off coupon which can be put towards the Mac/PC/Linux version which sells for €49.99 or €99.99 depending on whether you spring for the standard or the "Deep" variety.

Sure, there's tons of cheaper (or free-er) chess apps available on the App Store. And really, if all you want to do is play some casual games with friends, Chess With Friends [Free / $2.99] fits the bill perfectly. However, if you're a expert in need of a challenge or a novice actively looking to improve your game, Shredder Chess is where it's at, and has a shelf full of real-world trophies to prove it.

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