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Zeboyd Games radical 16-bit parody RPG, Chtulhu Saves the World, is coming to mobile devices this year. And sooner than you’d think. On Twitter, lead designer Robert Boyd says the studio held this announcement until work was almost finished, and he expects the game to hit at some point this quarter. Nice guy!

Meaningful details, like, how this version will control, if it’ll include any extras, or its price point aren’t being discussed at this time. A note on the game’s blog does say that more information is coming in the next few weeks, but since we’re so nosey we’ve reached out to Zeboyd for more anyway.

If you’ve played Breath of Fire or an old-school Final Fantasy, you’ll be able to get your head around Cthulhu’s systems and mechanics pretty quickly. The awareness of what genre its in, the sharp improvements it makes, and the humor is what makes it pretty great. Here’s hoping the mobile ports rock just as hard.

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Welcome to 2012.

TouchArcade has grown considerably over the past year with new hires and more content. This additional help has finally allowed us to devote time to some tasks that have long been on our TouchArcade to-do list. For example, our iOS app, which we previewed last week, should become available sometime in early 2012.

One of the other major tasks for 2011 was trying to find a new logo for our site.

While we all liked our Space Invader themed logo, which Taito was very kind to license to us, we felt it was time to break out into our own distinctive branding. Finding a suitable logo to follow such an iconic gaming character was no small task, as evidenced by the number of talented designers who valiantly tried along the way. We finally found a logo that we all loved just about a month ago, and we are launching it today.

The final logo was created by Wolfgang Bartelme based on concept sketches/brainstorming by Steven Matarazzo.

The new logo will be featured in our iOS app which is coming soon. And, we are also planning on working on a major site redesign following our app release to bring the rest of the site on par with the app and new logo.

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You guys, I had the Worst Christmas Ever this year. No, it’s not because I didn’t get an iPad 2 – I mean, it’s pretty much a job requirement for me to be set in that department – so my (ex-) friends and (former) loved ones are off the hook for that. No, what I can’t get over is the fact that Santa did not leave me a puppy this year. Seriously, I blew up Twitter for weeks with links to dog videos and pet adoption websites and no one picked up on the hints? Collective friends and family, you are dead to me.

Luckily, RagTag Studio’s Puppy Panic [$.99] is here to numb my pain. A cute, well-made endless runner, Puppy Panic helped take my mind off of the callousness of those most dear to me by presenting me with a stable of eight (nine, if you count the secret one) puppies for me to race and play with. Each puppy has special abilities unique to their breed that help it in various ways throughout the game’s two modes. When you start with the Beagle, for example, you can double-jump really high, and when you get the Eskimo, you can bark and clear all the obstacles from your path.

The games themselves are pretty much the same, with slight variations. In Squirrel Chase, your puppy chases a squirrel and must dodge bouncy red balls, jump over tree stumps and duck under low-flying birds in order to catch up with it. In Cloud Surfing, your puppy has to bounce along on clouds to catch up to an airplane while avoiding falling through the clouds or running into birds. (Dog LSD may or may not be involved.) Beating both game types with a puppy breed unlocks endless mode for that puppy, meaning you can continuously chase squirrels or airplanes (which I’m pretty sure my existing dog dreams about on a daily basis).

But I know why you’re really here. You don’t care about catching squirrels or airplanes. You’re here for the puppies, am I right? You want to know how to get your hands on a sweet little puppy of your very own. I feel you. So pay attention, because you’re about to get the lowdown on how to get your hands on a bunch of puppies, and I’m only saying this once.

OK, here it is. In case your parents never told you where puppies came from, Puppy Panic blows the lid right off that secret—they come from vending machines, duh! But, like, really big vending machines that only take puppy coins, which you earn through successfully passing trials with your first puppy. You get your first puppy handed to you by the game, presumably because the prior owner of the puppy coin was already losing his or her mind due to the alarmingly large number of puppies the game gives you, and the thought of getting one more out of the vending machine would have driven them to adorable, floppy-eared suicide.

Despite the overall adorableness of the game, there are improvements I would definitely like to see made. While the two game types are solid and well-designed, I would love to see more made available in future updates. The same two games, over and over, for all eight puppy types is repetitive, and while playing and beating both game types with each puppy unlocks endless running mode for that particular puppy breed, I couldn’t be bothered with it after a while because it all felt the same.

The special abilities each puppy has, too, are a bit unbalanced. For example, the Corgi’s ability to automatically avoid pretty much all birds (because it has short legs!) made the game too easy for me, whereas the Dalmatian’s ability to call a firetruck to its aid never got used.

Even with these small downsides, Puppy Panic is a fun take on the runner genre. For about a buck, you get pretty much endless entertainment, especially since you can pick your favorite puppy out of eight to customize the playing experience. If you’re a fan of runners in general, this is a really cute, family-friendly option. And you don’t even have to worry about your furniture getting chewed up.

TouchArcade Rating:

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With the holiday season upon us and the iTunes freeze halting any new games or updates from popping up, there’s been a severe lack of hard hitting iOS news to post about this week. So, with that in mind, we’re going to do what any self respecting website would do during a dry spell – post a cute cat video from YouTube. Everybody knows that cats are the dominating force of the internet, but in this instance, there is actually some relevance to what we do here at TouchArcade.

As pointed out by Halbrick on their Twitter, some crazy cat owner has gone and taught their furry feline friend how to play Fruit Ninja. A cat owner after my own heart, really. Check it out:

So here’s the thing: I actually think this cat might be better than I am at Fruit Ninja. I mean, sure, I’ve achieved higher scores than kitty has, but you can see how his (or her?) technique is nearly flawless, and it’s only a matter of time before my score is overtaken. Halfbrick also points out that their Fruit Ninja movie spinoff Fruit Ninja Puss’n Boots stars a cat, and this may possibly be the real life incarnation of that. Did Halfbrick go out of their way to train a cat to play Fruit Ninja in an elaborate scheme to start a viral video marketing campaign? Nah, probably not, but I’m nonetheless happy to be able to share in the cute cat video goodness.

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You’re looking at the very first released screenshot of the upcoming TouchArcade app. We’ve been working on this with designer Wolfgang Bartelme and the developers from Flexibits for the better part of 2011.

If everything goes as planned, it should be available in early 2012. As part of running TouchArcade over the last few years, we’ve come up with tons of tricks to take the App Store and distill it down to a manageable amount of great games to check out. The TouchArcade app automates this, and will grant anyone who downloads it instant access to not only every aspect of TouchArcade, but also a listing of hot new games which is constantly updated, 24 hours a day.

It has some other great features as well, but we’ll get in to those as we get closer to actually releasing the app. I’ve been using it over the past few months as it has gotten closer and closer to what it will be like when it’s released, and the app is fantastic. Our goal was to make the ultimate companion app for iOS gamers, and what we’ve got so far has even exceeded even my expectations of what the TouchArcade app should be when I first imagined it.

Stay tuned, 2012 is going to be one hell of a year- And be sure to follow Flexibits on Twitter, as now that the cat is out of the bag they’ll likely be posting updates on the progress of the TouchArcade app.

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We’ve mentioned in the past how difficult it was deciding on Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor [99¢] as our game of the year in 2009, along with Space Miner [99¢ / HD] in 2010. It shouldn’t come as much as much of a surprise that as the App Store has gained even more momentum, making these picks has become much more challenging. Interestingly enough, this year all of the games that we had in consideration for game of the year were also universal, which made the decision to drop the differentiation between the iPhone game of the year and iPad game of the year that we did in 2010 incredibly easy.

In 2011, we’re looking at iOS games as exactly that, games for iOS devices. We might prefer playing some of these games on the iPad (or in some cases, even the smaller screens of the iPhone or iPod touch) but they’re all fantastic experiences regardless of what device you’re playing it on. With the advent of iCloud, we’re hoping in 2012 developers take universal compatibility to new levels, and create games that are not only great on all devices, but can be seamlessly played on as many devices as you own.

Also, if you’d like to get some more insight on the TouchArcade game of the year process, check out the most recent episode of The TouchArcade Show. We discuss what we each liked about all of these games and more.

TouchArcade Game of the Year

Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, $4.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Our minds were blown at GDC 2010 when we first got our hands on Sword & Sworcery. The initial experience of playing the game is so powerful that it gave me chills. I really can’t think of any other mobile game that has invoked a similar emotional response that I’ve played in my entire life. Sworcery is an absolute flawless combination of an entirely original soundtrack by Jim Guthrie, pixel art that is easily among the best I’ve ever seen by Craig D. Adams, and the creative genius of Kris Piotrowski along with the proverbial behind-the-scenes glue provided by Capybara Games to bring the whole project together.

Sword & Sworcery is universal, and while we ever-so-slightly prefer the overall experience on our iPads, it’s still just as incredible on the smaller screens of the rest of the iOS device family. In fact, if all you have is an iPhone or iPod touch, you might want to just opt for Superbrother: Sword & Sworcery EP Micro [$2.99], which is a couple bucks cheaper at the expense of losing universal compatibility. Regardless of what device you play it on, S&S is a game you simply must play, from start to finish, with a great pair of headphones on if at all possible.

TouchArcade Game of the Year Runner Up

Anomaly Warzone Earth, $1.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Tower defense games have always been an App Store staple. It just seems to be a genre that perfectly meshes with both the touch controls of iOS devices, as well as providing an overall gameplay experience that works really well for playing on the go. Unfortunately, it seems there’s only so much you can do in a tower defense game, and even though the past few years have brought some great entries into the genre, they all felt sort of the same. Then, from out of nowhere, comes Anomaly Warzone Earth. In essence, 11 bit studios took the traditional tower defense formula, and flipped it around, offering a whole new take on an otherwise stale section of the App Store.

They didn’t stop there though, as especially when played with headphones, Anomaly Warzone Earth is ridiculously immersive. Incredible amounts of effort went into creating a game that looks and sounds as good as it plays, and the game feels fresh the whole way through, as 11 bit studios constantly throws new challenges and gameplay elements at you all the way up to the last level. Similar to Sword & Sworcery, Anomaly Warzone Earth [99¢] is also available as a slightly cheaper although non-universal version as well.

Honorable Mentions

We also wanted to honor three other stand-out iOS titles that were among all of our best-of lists for the year. Like our game of the year and runner up, they’re all universal and should be on every iOS device that you own if you’re even remotely interested in iOS gaming.

Infinity Blade II, $6.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – A great sequel to Infinity Blade [$5.99] by Chair Entertainment, Infinity Blade II expands upon the original in every way possible. It’s by far the best looking game on the App Store, and we suspect it will likely serve as the graphical benchmark of what iOS devices are capable of throughout 2012. If you want to stretch the legs of your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch and see what its truly capable of, Infinity Blade II is the game to do it with.

Mage Gauntlet, $2.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Rocketcat Games has had a fabulous track record for releasing phenomenal iOS titles with its Hook series of games, and Mage Gauntlet continues that tradition by being its best game yet. Flawless controls combine with all the retro trimmings to make us warm with nostalgia while feeling modern enough that even people who weren’t around for the great action RPGs of the 16-bit era can appreciate it. Recent updates have improved gameplay even further, and have added universal compatibility. We can’t wait to see what Rocketcat does in 2012.

SpellTower, $1.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – The App Store is home to a plethora of clever puzzle games, and Zach Gage’s SpellTower is our favorite of the year. Gage elegantly combines the simplicity of a word game with the complexity of a strategy game, and its multiple game modes provide something for everyone regardless of whether you like to take your time and hunt for the best words, or be on the clock and racking up points as quickly as possible. We prefer SpellTower on our iPads, but it’s just as much fun on the iPhone and iPod touch as well.

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We’ve been giddy for the Sonic CD iOS release since it was finally officially announced back in August, Sega has finally revealed the release date for the game: and it’s tomorrow! This will coincide with the release of Sonic CD on the console digital download platforms Xbox Live and PSN this week as well. Pricing on consoles will be $4.99, but iOS gamers get a special introductory price of $1.99. Sega has also confirmed via their Twitter that Sonic CD will be coming to Android and Windows Phone 7, but not until early next year.

This was going to be an absolutely insane week for releases already, but when you throw a heavy hitter like the beloved Sonic CD, coming with all sorts of enhancements and bonuses over the original, into the release mix then things quickly get turned up to 11 and beyond. We’ll let you know as soon as Sonic CD officially hits the App Store, and you can be sure we’ll be playing the heck out of it with a review soon to follow.

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Microsoft, via Xbox Live evangelist Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb, has just announced the immediate release of another surprising App Store app — though this one, Kinectimals [$2.99], is a game and not a companion piece, as was the case with My Xbox Live.

This version of Kinectimals seems like it’s pretty close to the Kinect experience that it’s based on, though we’ve also heard that it’s strikingly similar to the Windows 7 mobile version of the game, too. In a nutshell, it’s just a collection of mini-games starring several super cute cats that you can train to do tricks or participate in a wide range of not-necessarily-stimulating-for-adults activities.

Of note, this version, developed by Frontier Developments as well, incorporates “brand new ways to play with your cub” and offers an unlock for five additional cats on the Xbox 360.

We’ll be playing with this throughout the day, and will bring you some more details a bit later. As a side-note, we’re absolutely loving the fact that Microsoft is down for actively supporting the Xbox 360 and its games via iOS. The future! It’s here!

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Rovio Mobile is celebrating the second “birthday” of Angry Birds [$.99 / Lite / HD / HD Lite] in style. Of course, the app has been updated with new levels — specifically, 15 birthday-themed levels, complete with cake and candles and hats. But Rovio is also taking the celebration to the streets. Starting at 11AM, Barnes & Noble stores around the country are holding exclusive events complete with prize raffles and Mighty Eagle scavenger hunts.

As we revealed on Twitter, Barnes & Nobles at The Grove in Los Angeles is probably going to be the best place to see this party in action. Rovio’s North American GM will be there, and he’ll apparently be carrying tons of swag with him. If you’re going to go, send us some pictures. We’d love to see that “Birds & Noble” sign in particular.

Love it or hate it, Angry Birds is huge. And it’s huge enough to score a re-branding partnership with a popular retailer for a good chunk of a Sunday afternoon. While it seems silly, this kind of thing does wonders for our favorite phone and tablet hobby, so here’s to hoping the momentum continues.

[Via VentureBeat]

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Despite is charmingly designed appearance, Bike Baron [$.99] is a cold and cruel game made for those of us who like to fail and feel rewarded whenever we do manage to land a pixel-perfect jump. The game’s developer, Mountain Sheep, on the other hand… it seems a lot more open and friendlier than its product. Case in point: it’s giving users a brand new, insane-big free update and it’s asking for nothing, not even a beating, in return.

At the top, Bike Baron 1.3 sees the introduction of Domovoi Biker playability in every one of the game’s levels. Mountain Sheep reckons that he’s “just as cool as” Baron, but notes that he’s a tad easier to play with. The fact that he gets more checkpoints, basically proves that.

But that’s not all — Mountain Sheep is featuring 22 of the ‘best’ user levels with new goals. This update also adds a “retry from beginning” button, more sound effects, and “various small fixes in level flow and structure,” including those new Domovoi checkpoints we just mentioned. Oh! And Twitter integration is now a thing. Try not to spew to many profanities across the world wide web, eh?

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