Archive for the ‘USA’ tag
‘Risk: The Official Game’ Released – Here Are Some Better Unofficial Games
An official version of Risk [$4.99] just hit the App Store, and as I mentioned in the roundup from the recent EA event, this really seems like too little too late from the massive game developer. When third party software first graced the iPhone, it wasn't hard to see the potential that the touch interface had for board games, and this potential only grew as Apple implemented push notifications which allowed developers to create some extremely robust asynchronous multiplayer experiences. An absolutely fantastic example of this in the classic board game arena is Carcassonne [$4.99] which we detailed in our review not too long ago. In Carcassonne, developers masterfully duplicated the board game while providing more single player and multiplayer features than I think anyone was expecting when we first heard of the game.
In Risk: The Official Game, EA brings a fully licensed version of Risk to the App Store with futuristic looking graphics, a decent soundtrack, and all the same army fortifying dice rolling gameplay that has been evolving for the last 50 years through various iterations of the board game. You can either play single player against AI opponents, or play local multiplayer with up to 6 players on a single device, or up to 4 players with their own devices via WiFi or Bluetooth. There's a decent amount of stat tracking and achievements in game, but that's where the bells and whistles stop.
The problem with Risk is that the brand name is so powerful that I think that most people who are downloading it are just thinking, "Oh, finally, Risk for the iPhone!" without being aware of the many other better alternatives which aren't exactly the same as Risk, but scratch the same strategic dice rolling itch– Often with much more content, options, and game modes. If this applies to you, here are just a few of the better Risk knock-offs available on the App Store:
Lux DLX 2, $4.99 – This world conquest game which recently was updated to version 2.0 sports universal compatibility between the iPhone and iPad, single device multiplayer, challenging AI, and tons of new maps to play that can be downloaded within the game for free. If you want to try Lux before buying, there are two different free versions, Lux Touch, and Lux USA which are also universal apps.
Generals – Online Global Conquest!, $2.99 – Where Generals lacks in multiple maps it more than makes up for in the online multiplayer department. Like most Risk-like games, you can play locally on one device with human or AI opponents and Generals also allows you to organize online games over WiFi or 3G. Currently, games are played in real time online, but the developers are working on an update to add push notifications to allow for up to 20 games to be played simultaneously as well as more online game modes. The free version has ads and no multiplayer, but will give you a good idea of what you're getting in to.
Stratergery, $1.99 – Also a universal app, Strategery boasts single player, single device multiplayer, and online multiplayer with push notifications. My favorite thing about Strategery is that it randomly generates maps of four different sizes, which always keeps things fresh since you need to develop new strategies on the fly instead of just going by your old standby of building up armies in Australia. Strategery Lite is also available, which doesn't have any ads but lacks a few gameplay options and online multiplayer.
Dominion, $1.99 – Like the other games already mentioned, Dominion has local and online multiplayer with either classic world domination mode or objective based games. It has multiple maps and a full featured online component with asynchronous push alert powered play, player statistics, and a bunch of other goodies. Unfortunately, Dominion isn't universal so if you don't want to run the game pixel doubled on your iPad you will have to spring for Dominion HD.
Unless you really really need to play the official Risk game for some reason, I'd really give any of the four previously mentioned games a spin if you're looking for some awesome online world conquest action. At least for me, board games are exponentially more fun when you're playing with real people, and if the success of Words With Friends [$2.99 / Free] is any indication, most tend to agree.
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Lifehacker Posts Fantastic Walkthrough on Playing SNES Games with a Jailbroken iPad
Back in May when the first videos started appearing of jailbroken iPads playing SNES games, it definitely piqued our interest as few things would have blown my mind more back when the SNES hit North America in 1991. (Actually, come to think of it, just seeing the iPad 19 years ago would be a mind-blowing experience in itself.) The emulator in question in the original videos, as well as the one capable of pairing with a Wii controller is , but if you'd rather have an emulator that runs natively, will do the trick, you just won't have Wii controller support.
The entire guide itelf with a bunch of photos and links is , and they've also explained the whole thing in the following video:
Keep in mind that "unauthorized modification of iOS has been a major source of instability, disruption of services, and other issues", and obviously the jailbreak community completely disagrees. Either way, the entire jailbreak process is entirely unsupported, so just be sure to do some research to make sure you know what you're getting in to before blindly mashing the "jailbreak" button in Spirit.
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‘Train Conductor 2′ – Now Steaming through the Great West for iPad and iPhone
The original Train Conductor was a sleeper hit that we really enjoyed and remains a staple on many users' iOS devices. That version featured a distinct Australian backdrop that many of us may have found unfamiliar. Train Conductor 2: USA [iPhone/ iPad] puts Uncle Sam in the driver's seat, embarking on 5 new levels from New York to the Grand Canyon.
Train Conductor 2 retains the basic Flight Control on Rails gameplay from the first game, but re-imagines both the setting and each level's special gameplay twist.
One such twist challenges you to flick trains upwards and or downwards depending on their color, whilst the others are a spin on the standard formula. The New York subway sequence for example provides non-sensical numerical and alphabetical line names that confuse just as they do in real life.
Some from a fan of the original in our forums:
Each level is a survival level. You route your trains until you crash. When you crash your score is displayed and you then have a choice of playing the level again or going to the map which is a US map drawn in the same style as the Aussie map in the first game. You also get a choice to post the results to Facebook or Twitter. To find out how many more trains you need to route to unlock the next city you just tap the locked city to activate the bubble with the answer. The visual style is consistent with the original game.
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There is no longer night/day button. The cities now can only be played in one mode i.e. New York is a day map and Nashville is a night map with Ghost trains. I am enjoying the game so far and can recommend it, especially at $0.99.
For all these new gameplay mechanics though, it seems that in some ways Train Conductor 2 is a scaled back some aspects of the first game. Objectives required to unlock the next level are much easier to obtain; there are no day/night sequences for each track as there was in the first game; and there is no longer level bonus' for speeding up time or acheiving a streak of connections. Facebook high scores also replace the Plus+ integration from the previous iteration.
In fact, if you had not played either game and were interested in the base gameplay, we'd still recommend you to try the original Train Conductor first. What Train Conductor 2 does add is a flashier, higher resolution look for the iPad and iPhone 4 Retina display and a funky new soundtrack to suit each of the new U.S. level themes.
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Exclusive ‘Pocket Frogs’ Sneak Preview – Breed an Army of Frogs in NimbleBit’s Next Game
Proud to be indie developer leaked some vague details to us this afternoon regarding their next iPhone game, Pocket Frogs. The story of Pocket Frogs starts back with their previous game, Dizzypad [iPhone: $1.99 / iPad: Free + DLC], a simple jumping game that we loved in our review which recently received an update adding in iOS 4 fast app switching and Retina Display support for the iPhone 4.
Figuring they'd make the various Plus+ awards a little more fun than just increasing your overall Plus+ gamer score, NimbleBit linked these awards with unlocking differently colored playable frogs. The unexpected side effect of this for NimbleBit was it turned out that for many players, the goal of playing Dizzypad for them was to unlock every frog rather than shooting for high scores as originally intended. NimbleBit released several updates to the game which added even more frogs, so when searching for inspiration for their next game, it seemed only natural to make a game with the sole purpose of collecting as many frogs as possible.
Pocket Frogs is a game of raising, breeding, and trading frogs. Each of your frogs will have three specific genetic traits that they inherit from their parent frogs, which according to NimbleBit will result in "many thousand possible emergent species." There are going to be multiple customizable habitats to raise your frogs in, and players will be responsible for keeping the frogs healthy, happy, and well fed by taking them out to explore the Pocket Frog pond.
Aside from breeding frogs, players will be able to get new frogs by ordering them in-game as well as trading frogs with friends via Plus+. There are also plans to have various challenges to breed certain frogs which rotate on a weekly and monthly basis and the frog store will rotate on a daily with new frogs to buy with in-game currency. NimbleBit is still hashing out plans on exactly how they're going to monetize Pocket Frogs, but have assured me that players will be able to access absolutely everything in game for free and whatever in-app purchases they finally decide on will be intended for serious frog breeders and otherwise entirely optional.
One of the core features of Pocket Frogs that NimbleBit feels has been missing from some many of these free social games is a full featured offline mode. If you're an iPod touch user, you will be happy to know that you can play Pocket Frogs without ever connecting to the Internet, you just won't be able to buy any of the in-app purchases or participate in frog trading while offline. Otherwise, you can breed your own little frogs to your heart's content, buy new frogs, and even participate in all the breeding challenges.
Pocket Frogs is currently being developed for all iOS platforms and will include Retina Display support. NimbleBit isn't getting specific with release dates yet, and instead have just told us to "expect to have a handful of little frogs this summer." We've yet to hear whether or not players will be able to release their army of frogs on unsuspecting virgin ecosystems, but for what it's worth, I've got my fingers crossed.
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For One Quarter of Users, the iPad is a Game Machine
Resolve Market Research an online survey that solicited usage pattern feedback from users of mobile devices of various types, including a specific look at how users perceive the iPad both before and after owning the device. As it turns out, gaming is no small deal on the device.
According to the survey, 28% of iPad-using respondents indicated that gaming was one of their main uses on the device. What's more 23% said that between the iPad, smartphones and various portable gaming devices, the iPad is the most enjoyable for playing games. In fact, 38% of iPad owners responding to the survey indicated that they had no desire to purchase a different mobile gaming device.
The iPad is clearly a formidable mobile gaming device, sporting the same 1GHz A4 processor used in the iPhone 4. And, while we've seen a number of quality iPad game titles appear in the App Store, the iPad gaming scene is still young. We're anxious to see, down the road, just how game developers make use of the iPad's 1024×768 pixel display and powerful processing unit.
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‘Ultraviolet Dawn’ – New Open Space Shooter / Trading Game Free for 1st Day
Sad Cat Software, the makers of the frantic tank shooter Project Phoenix just released their followup title: Ultraviolet Dawn.
Ultraviolet Dawn is described as a hybrid space-shooter/trading game which puts the player into an open Universe with over a thousand stars to explore. The entire map is generated when you start the game and it's up to you to trade, fight, upgrade, or follow missions. The game is controlled via dual stick controls.
The game universe is said to be open world with thousands of stars. You can choose to trade goods, hunt pirates, deal in illegal goods or even be a pirate. The game seems to come with a heavy upgrade system that lets you build up your ship's weapons and even buy new ships.
And if that all doesn't sound amazing enough…. it's also free for the first 24 hours of launch, so grab it while you can.
App Store Link: Ultraviolet Dawn, Free (24 hours)
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‘Wolf Boy’ Review – Howl at the Moon in this 2D Side-Scrolling Beat ‘Em Up
It seems like there's been an influx of new 2D beat 'em ups on the App Store in these past few months, and get ready to add another to that list. Wolf Boy [99¢] is a single plane side-scrolling brawler similar to games like Zombieville USA [$1.99 / Free] and Twin Blades [$2.99]. The actual gameplay is rather simplistic, but it features a really appealing art style and best of all it allows you to change from a cute (albeit angry) little boy into a ferocious werewolf to dispatch the many enemies in the game. The arcade style button mashing may not appeal to everyone, but for those that don't mind the simplicity, Wolf Boy offers a visually appealing and challenging game.
Like many games before it, Wolf Boy begins with your special lady friend being taken from you by an evil enemy. This ignites your rage, and starts you off on a journey to reclaim her. Left/right arrows in the corner control your movement with a button for attacking and separate button for jumping or double jumping in the opposite corner. Double tapping either arrow will perform a dash in that direction, and if you couple that with an attack you'll pull off a powerful dash attack maneuver. The combat is melee focused, and an assortment of weapons and powerups (like huge swords or hammers and temporary invincibility) can be found throughout the levels. It's nothing groundbreaking, but the virtual controls work well and there's a decent amount of variety in your offense.
What is really cool about Wolf Boy is that as you defeat enemies a gauge shaped like the moon will slowly fill in the upper corner. Once full and flashing, touching that moon turns the boy into a more powerful werewolf and let's you wreak havoc as such on enemies for a period of time. As the werewolf you won't take damage and are much larger, allowing you to take out airborne enemies without jumping. The werewolf mechanic throws a nice wrinkle into the gameplay, as you might strategically wait to use it until there's a slew of enemies onscreen or your life is almost depleted. Plus, it's just really satisfying to turn into a huge werewolf and wreck shop on some bad guys.
Coins are collected during the level and after defeating enemies. After each stage you can spend these coins on upgrades, and both the boy and his werewolf incarnation can be upgraded independently. The boy can be upgraded in health, speed, and attack power. How quickly the moon gauge fills up and how long you stay transformed can be upgraded for the werewolf, as well as attack power. Like the gameplay, it's a fairly shallow system but it works well and is balanced out nicely with your progression in the game.
While not reinventing the genre, Wolf Boy is an entertaining game with plenty of action, although it can tend to feel a bit repetitive. This fact is even more pronounced due to the great length of the game. In the game's , member sammysin has made it all the way to level 38, which is no small feat and earns him the title of “most hardened Wolf Boy player” but still does not indicate when the game will end. At any rate, you can at least be assured you're getting plenty of bang for your buck. For my money, Wolf Boy is worth the price based on visuals alone, and the icing is that it's also a relatively fun game, adding yet another solid option to the crowded 2D brawler genre.
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‘Doodle God’ — Your Very Own Chemistry Set…of Life!
Every now and then the App Store divulges something that actually surprises me; a previously unheard of game design that sinks its claws into me before I even know it. From its outward appearance, Doodle God [App Store] seems less of a game and more of a periodic table gone wrong, an experiment only of interest to scientists of questionable sanity. It's not until you experience it for yourself that you realise the true genius behind Doodle God's alluring gameplay.
The premise starts off simple: combine the four basic elements of earth, fire, water and air to create 140 objects (referred to within as elements, but not strictly so) in the world around us. Your job is to find the specific combination of two individual elements, or by-products of elements, or by-products of by-products, et cetera; to do so.
And elements don't always bond as you believe they should; the developers employ a far more abstract thought process than a logical one in creating the Doodle God universe. So while combining earth and fire to create lava might be logical, the combination of fire and water into alcohol requires a greater stretch (and that is a tame example). Dare I say it, but God knows what needs to be added together to create a Wizard, of all things.
The end result is that what seems like a relaxing, thought provoking experience, is instead a manic adventure of 'out of the box' thinking, with many results and accidental discoveries evoking laughter just as often as they do sighs of relief as a piece of the puzzle is secured. Because while Doodle God doesn't impose any time constraints on your discovery process, it will test the limits of your imagination and patience.
Elements are neatly categorised into 15 groups that are only made available when they are discovered. Pressing a group will open its list of elements to select from, displaying the groups again on the left of the screen. Selecting one of these groups will in turn display its list of available elements on the left. Choosing two elements from the selected groups will then attempt to fuse them together (if possible).
A successful bonding results in either a quirky or philosophical quote concerning the resulting reaction. Of course, chances are your selection won't succeed (there are literally thousands of possible combinations, after all) and that's where Doodle God's nifty hint system comes to the rescue. Hints are doled out on a timer, so you never feel too bad resorting to that oft-needed light bulb. They take two forms; either showing a feasible byproduct to work towards, or showing two possible groups that have an available reaction.
If I had to put my finger on what specifically appeals to me about Doodle God, it would have to be that insatiable 'just one more go' pull, with the knowledge that some other inane discovery is just around the corner.
If you're open to a new gameplay experience and not liable to just throw out a crazy concept from the get-go, then I recommend giving Doddle God a whirl. An is available to try first. And let your friends and family in on it too– you won't be short a laugh or two, that's for sure.
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‘Oddy Smog’s Misadventure’ Review – Captivating High Score Game with Fantastic Art Style
The endless high score game is a popular genre in the App Store, as Doodle Jump and it's 5 million downloads will attest to. One of the more recent titles to catch our eye is Oddy Smog's Misadventure by two-man developer Medusa. At first glance you might just dismiss Oddy Smog as a clone of Glu Mobile's Jump O'Clock, and while true they share similarities at the very basic level Oddy Smog offers a pretty different experience that we're finding hard to put down.
Oddy is just a small bit of a much larger mass of smog working it's way upward to expel out of the machine that created it. He decides that he doesn't want to be a part of this pollution any longer, and so breaks out on his own ahead of the rest of the smog. He must use the different gears inside the vent to propel himself upwards faster than the mass can follow him, and one wrong move will engulf him back in the dirty blackness from which he came. It's a charming premise with equally charming graphics and music to accompany it. The vent you travel up is rendered in 3D giving it some depth, and Oddy himself is a billowing, lively little puff of smog that manages to have a lot of personality for being essentially a black circle with eyes. There's just something endearing about Oddy, and you find yourself rooting for him to escape his smoggy pursuer.
Holding the right side of the screen latches Oddy onto a gear he comes into contact with, and letting go launches him using the spinning gear's inertia. You don't shoot straight off the gear like you would in Dizzypad for example, and this aspect takes a bit of getting used to when you first start playing the game. Touching the left side of the screen makes Oddy jump in midair, and you can only jump once between touching either gears or the walls of the vent. If you do launch yourself into the wall, Oddy will climb a short distance and then jump off by himself and from there you can latch onto another gear or perform a midair jump to get where you need to go. Occasionally another errant smog blob like Oddy will be chained to the wall and if you jump into these guys you can release them. This acts as the score multiplier, and will multiply your total height by the number of prisoners you catch.
There are different types of gears to latch onto, some can only be grabbed for a short period forcing you to act quickly, and others will propel you high into the air letting you easily cover a good stretch of distance. Other special items do similar things, like a spaceship or teleportation pod that will advance Oddy for you. All these game elements combine to make for a really engaging experience. It's a great feeling to quickly hit a series of gears or narrowly escape the impending doom of the approaching smog, and the risk/reward aspect of trying to free prisoners adds a lot to the formula. There's some hints that this might not be such an 'endless' game, and that there's the possibility of Oddy actually escaping the vent, although I have yet to make it that far.
A couple of small gripes about the game are present, and the most notable is the lack of high score tracking. A game like this is just meant for such a thing, although the ability to post your scores to Twitter helps somewhat. The dev has conceded that this is due to waiting and seeing how Apple's Game Center will turn out, and likely a social platform of some type will be added down the line. Another problem I had was due to the random generation of the level, and every so often a section would be too barren for me to latch onto any gears and I'd helplessly fall back into the pursuing smog. Finally, there's no screen flip option which can be pretty annoying for a game that encourages the use of headphones. None of these issues should deter anyone from trying Oddy Smog's Misadventure, and for randomly generated high score game enthusiasts this is one that's not to be missed.
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‘Pro Zombie Soccer’ Review — Let’s sign this guy up ASAP!
After a tumultuous release, where Apple seemingly played yo-yo with its iTunes availability, Pro Zombie Soccer [App Store] is finally here to stay, and aren't we glad for it! Comfortably one of the more anticipated titles here at Touch Arcade, Pro Zombie Soccer is developed by the 6-man operation at Super Awesome Hyper Dimensional Mega Team, whose founders have notched titles such as Plants vs Zombies and Worms into their belts.
That pedigree shows from the start– particularly where the artwork is concerned– an outstanding PvZ-stylized canvass of highly detailed, inked environments and characters make up the world of Pro Zombie Soccer. A world filled with the Zombification of everything from burly meat-cleaver weilding butchers to schoolgirls to riot-shield weilding zombie swat teams. And a lone, street-kid with a love of the world game.
The soccer-inspired gameplay of Pro Zombie Soccer begins on a stage very familiar to anyone who has played PvZ (and let's face it, who hasn't?). Zombies attack from the right of the screen, lumbering towards your lone hero armed only with a round ball at his feet. That's where the soccer gameplay starts and ends though, with the game playing out more as a sidescrolling shooter from thereon in.
By swiping up and down with your left hand you control Jax's shot angle, as you take aim at the approaching decaying horde. Releasing your thumb will let fly a thunderous kick, tearing apart zombie limbs with abandon before the ball graciously returns to your boot. It's a simple game mechanic that belays some pretty frantic action, particularly in the later game. Kicks can be charged by holding down your thumb before releasing, resulting in a power shot that is necessary to kill certain zombies.
The Zombies themselves have a range of personalities, and though most can be killed by kicking the ball into their heads (successive headshots build multipliers that are critical to hitting the highest echelons of scores), some require a more reasoned approach– our favorite being the gargantuan, viagra-induced zombie that requires a 'nutshot' to take down. Ouch!
There are three powers available to Jax as he builds up momentum; the lightning kick; the piercing kick; and the indomitable Laser attack (which sees Jax fire a kick into the heavens to knock an orbital laser off-course to reign destruction on your Zombie adversaries). Though they do alot to disperse the otherwise straightforward gameplay, we were a little disappointed to see them made available so early on. Spreading their introduction across more levels would have made their individual usage a little more special. As it is, you have access to all three from very near the start, and so the gameplay tends to get repetitive as it is almost always best to resort to the room-clearing laser attack.
The plot and level mechanics do somewhat remedy the repetitive gameplay. Just as levels start to feel same-ish, a well-placed surprise pops up that turns the game entirely on its head. One such instance sees an entire level devoted to the piercing kick, a bloodbath resulting as a million zombie limbs explode all over the screen. These aren't the exception to the rule either, as from halfway through it is clear that each subsequent level continues a headlong run into the realm of insanity.
There are 20 levels all up in Pro Zombie Soccer spread over 8 different environments. The levels can be played through in about two hours, which unlocks a hardcore mode (which pits you against way more zombies) and a Zombie Odyssey, survival mode. Though it's not the most content-heavy game out there, if the story mode was any longer it might have taken away from the game rather than added to it. Certainly any additional levels (if they are added as DLC) would need new gameplay mechanics to keep them interesting.
All told, Pro Zombie Soccer injects something a little different into the soccer games we're being bombarded with leading into the World Cup. Its PvZ feel is just as much a reference to its great artwork as it is to its quality finishing. Hardcore mode should provide just enough challenge for those who breeze through normal mode, and Crystal integration ensures all your scores are recorded, and your actions in-game are rewarded with craft achievements. What really makes Pro Zombie Soccer stand out in the end though is its entertaining story sequences and gameplay tie-ins, and a finale that is just plain epic. At only $0.99 (limited 66% off World Cup sale), it's a good time to pick it up.
Note: For those of you toying with OSi4, an update is already in the pipeline to resolve current errors with the yet-to-be-released OS and PZS should be ready to go for it soon.
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