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Last week we posted details surrounding the then-upcoming bundles of retro Elite Collection and Elite Collection HD for the iPhone and iPad, set to launch this past weekend. As we’ve learned from Elite Systems, the collections are still upcoming, unfortunately.

Elite Systems‘ Steve Wilcox explains,

We spend countless hours tracking down the current owners of the classic 8-bit home computer games (and the associated intellectual properties) which we include in our Apps. We come across some fascinating people and stories whilst doing so.

Earlier this week, an organisation – from whom we’d previously received a written “clearance” – claimed an interest in a trademark in one of the twenty five games in the Apps. This interest does not appear on the public records.

Since one of our declared goals for the “Elite Collection” Apps is, “to restore some order to the market for 8-bit home computer games” we needed some time to check the claim. At the time of writing, that claim is still being reviewed and we felt it would be inappropriate to release the Apps until it had been dealt with.

Wilcox, at the same time, took the opportunity to share some rather good news concerning his studio’s forthcoming 8-bit offerings. He indicates that the delay should provide the opportunity to include some additional “AAA” titles to the mix when, or shortly after, they are released. The coming titles he speaks of are likely to include an excellent collection of games from Interplay Productions: the classic fantasy RPG The Bard’s Tale (I, II & III), the post-apocalyptic RPG Wasteland, as well as Dragon Wars and Neuromancer.

Elite expects the delay of the Elite Collection and Elite Collection HD to be brief — perhaps a couple of weeks. For details on the (at least) 12 titles launching in the collections, have a look at our post from last week.

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This week on The TouchArcade Show, we fight through conversations about Soft Paws, Modern Warfare 3, leather couches and Battlefield 3 in order to bring you the hottest front page and reviews action of the week. For example, we dig into Shantae: Risky’s Revenge and get into lengthier discussions on subjects such as battery life across new mobile gaming devices, the impact of sales on revenue, and game saves. Overall, I really dug this week and we all hope you do, too.

If you’d like to give us a try, feel free via the streaming and download links below. If you want plugged in to The TouchArcade Show and receive our episodes the second they hit, just go ahead and subscribe to us on iTunes and Zune. While you’re there, we’d really like for you to drop your positive feedback in the reviews section. We need your help!

iTunes Link: The TouchArcade Show
Zune Marketplace: TouchArcade.com Podcasts
RSS Feed: The TouchArcade Show
Direct Link: TouchArcadeShow-023.mp3, 42MB

The show notes are coming, but before you leave us, know this: we’ll be back next week with another regular episode of the show and another great bonus podcast.

GAMES

• Shantae: Risky’s Revenge [Free]
• League of Evil [$.99]
• Blosics [$.99 / HD]
• Riptide GP [$4.99]

JARED’S KITTY KORNER

• Cat’s Comming [$.99]

FRONT PAGE

Have a good weekend, guys!

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Com2uS is certainly in the seasonal spirit. The publisher has added Halloween trimmings to a ton of its current line-up of titles, including Homerun Battle 3D [$.99 / HD], Tiny Farm [Free], World of Magic [Free], and even Piggy Adventure [$.99 / HD]. Starting now, you can deck out your farms with zombie horses and jack-o-lanterns, blow baseballs out of the yard while wearing a pumpkin on your head, use Warp Gates and pumpkins as pet in World of Magic, and enjoy 12 Halloween-themed levels and new musical tracks across Piggy Adventure.

In other related Halloween-ynews, Homerun Battle 3D is now just $.99, three dollars less than its standard, non-celebratory price. Piggy Adventure also sees a cut due to this event: it’s now $.99 instead of its usual $2.99.

Now, I ask you to enjoy the funniest series of pictures from a video game ever. You can catch images of the other games mentioned in this post at Com2uS’s blog.

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Our main man at Kode 80, Ben Hopkins, launched a huge update to 1-Bit Ninja [$1.99] yesterday, adding in the ability to save video and export your game replays from your photo roll. Making this sweeter, the game now also supports an unlockable “follow-cam” that should add to the dramatic flair of whatever you choose to unleash on the Internet. This update comes as a free download to a platformer built around the pride of a perfect run and the thrill of accomplishing ridiculous feats of skill and memorization.

Another thing to mention about this update? 1-Bit Ninja now has Game Center support. You’ll be able to earn some achievements, as well as see your times on an in-game leaderboard. Neat!

We’re pretty big fans of 1-Bit Ninja, so we’re stoked to see a new iteration. On an unrelated note, we spoke with Kode 80’s Hopkins earlier this September on The TouchArcade Show and got a good sense that things like this update were coming down the pipe. He also spoke to an HD version for the iPad, which we sincerely hope is still something he’s interested in.

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Hey, have you recently found yourself wondering what Phil Hassey, the creator of the award winning multiplayer strategy game Galcon [$1.99/Lite], has planned for his next game? Well, if you have, then I’ve got some news for you. Unfortunately, it isn’t the highly detailed kind of news, but today Phil has sent over some teaser information for his upcoming game Chickon. So, what do we know about Chickon? So far we know it involves chickens, and it’s from the maker of Galcon. Chickens + Galcon = Chickon. You may be able to see where this is going.

According to Phil, the game will involve chickens battling robots in order to save roosters who are dressed up as…pimps? Yep, rooster pimps. It sounds like this game is not trying to take itself seriously at all, and he describes that it’s a game he made over this past summer just as a silly distraction. Silly or not, Galcon had some serious gameplay chops, so if Chickon is following in the same vein then it could end up being a surprisingly engaging affair. Go ahead and check out the first teaser trailer for the game, which doesn’t actually show any gameplay or even anything from a video game at all, but it does feature a guy in a chicken suit, which is always fine by me:

Aside from the odd live-action guy in a chicken suit video, Chickon also has its own landing page on the Galcon website. There isn’t exactly any more information there either, but it’s probably a good place to keep your eyes on to see any new developments. Chickon is aiming to launch in the next few weeks according to Mr. Hassey, that is, as long as everything goes nice with Apple approval and all that. We’ll try to sniff out some more details on Chickon before its release, and in the meantime, if you’re looking for some good strategic gameplay to pass the time, then definitely make sure you own a copy of Galcon or the iPad equivalent Galcon Fusion [$1.99]. They’re truly excellent.

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Back in May, we reviewed a clever little game called Foodies [99¢] from developer Nano Titans. It featured a rotund little creature named Sam who was in love with his best gal Pam, and proposed marriage to her. Unfortunately, Sam wasn’t quite rotund enough for Pam’s taste. She gives Sam exactly one week to eat everything in sight and gain enough weight to appease her before she would agree to marry him. Ah, unhealthy eating and forced obesity, the signs of true love.

While the story is certainly silly, and the graphics and presentation are appropriately adorable, the thing that really stood out in Foodies was the clever mechanics and controls. Each level in Foodies is littered with different kinds of food items, and the goal is to bounce Sam around the screen to collect them all. This is accomplished in an intuitive way by placing both thumbs on the screen which creates a bouncy platform in the space in-between them. You can change the size and angle of this platform by adjusting the placement of your thumbs, and the whole system just works incredibly well as you bounce Sam around the levels in the game.

One thing many players were asking after Foodies was released was whether or not an iPad version was in the cards. The developers responded that if they could find a way to make the game work on the larger screen, then they would look into bringing the game out for the iPad. Well, it appears that they’ve cracked that particular nut, as Foodies HD [$1.99] made a surprise appearance in the App Store this week.

One of the things that made the original Foodies so great was that it just felt perfect in regards to where your thumbs went when holding an iPhone or iPod touch. Very natural. It was hard to imagine how that could translate to a device that was more than four times the size, but I think Nano Titans has pulled it off about as well as you could expect. I still prefer to play the game on the iPhone, but it’s still quite successful on the iPad, and if that’s the only device that you own it’s well worth checking out Foodies HD.

One nice feature of Foodies HD is that it can be played in either portrait or landscape mode. In portrait, you can somewhat get away with using your thumbs to play like you normally would, though you still have to stretch them pretty far to do so. Still, it works pretty well. The sacrifice for this is that the game is then rendered on only the bottom portion of the screen, with the top portion being filled with static game artwork and your current score and online leaderboard position, as well as the top online score overall. I’m not a big fan of having games rendered in a smaller window within the screen of the iPad, but it isn’t too bad here, and at least they put the empty space up top to good use.

(Video from the iPhone version)

However, in landscape orientation, the game plays in full screen, and it looks especially crisp and vibrant on the iPad. The trouble here though is that it’s basically impossible to play with your two thumbs with any degree of proficiency, and instead the game recommends that you use your two index fingers to play. This of course means you’ll need to lay the iPad down in your lap or onto a table in order to have both hands free. I experimented with using the thumb and index finger of one hand to play while holding the iPad with my other hand, but it was just too awkward to really be of any use. Still, with a properly positioned iPad, I felt that using two index fingers and having the larger screen actually helped me play better than I normally do on the iPhone, which is pretty cool.

So, the bottom line is that Foodies is a clever, intuitive, and unique experience on the iPhone, and that all remains fairly true with Foodies HD on the iPad. As long as you know the sacrifices that need to be made with the larger device, then you should have a great time playing through the many levels in Foodies HD, and every iPad owner should definitely check it out. If you own the game on the iPhone or iPod touch already, then you aren’t really missing out on anything by just sticking with that version.

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Halloween is great. It’s the only day of the year you can get away with dressing as the bug-eyed rabbit from Donnie Darko and not immediately be sent to a crisis center. Also, it turns out that it’s also a great holiday to save some cash on video games. 2K Games has joined the price-cut party with some stellar deals of its own, all of which are slated to run into this weekend. And if you decide to buy, they could possibly occupy the entire thing. Games like Civilization Revolution are time warps — you boot them up and all of a sudden it’s 4AM .

Here’s the full list of what 2K is offering on the cheap. Take note that Sid Meier’s Pirates, which is another great time sink, has hit rockbottom sales-wise, too:

• Civilization Revolution – $6.99 → $.99
• Civilization Revolution for iPad – $12.99 → $1.99
• NHL 2K11 – $3.99 → $.99
• NHL 2K11 for iPad – $4.99 → $1.99
• Sid Meier’s Pirates for iPad – $4.99 → $1.99

I’ve been playing Civ Rev on my iPad for a long, long time now, so I’ve got zero problems with telling you to buy this thing now. Despite being a simpler version of Civilization proper, Civ Rev’s easily manageable strategy components are deep, compelling and satisfying. Give it like an hour or so to learn and then wave goodbye to your fun-fun iPad free time for a couple of months. Also, this is the biggest sale it’s ever seen. I mean, it’s eleven dollars off! Definitely jump all over that while you have the chance.

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Last week ustwo™'s Whale Trail [99¢] hit the App Store. It was quickly featured as game of the week, and was met with tons of critical acclaim. We thought it was great in our review, and most other reviews online that I've seen mention similar feelings. Sure, the gameplay is a little on the basic side but Whale Trail's production values are absolutely through the roof.

A behind the scenes video from ustwo™ recently was released, and aside from the game's producers and designers providing their thoughts on the game, ustwo™ also revealed the staggering amounts of time, energy, and money that went into the project. "Chief Wonka" Mills also discusses the concept of a "succailure," citing previous apps Papercut [$5.99] and Nursery Rhymes with StoryTime [$3.99]. Both well received, with tons of support from Apple, but neither turning a profit.

Take a look:

Another interesting point raised in the video is the significant advantage that indie developers can have. Running a design firm like ustwo™ is expensive, and investing in the App Store is risky business when you've got a full office, staff of employees, and all the other expenses that come with that. The App Store is a curious place, as it really makes no difference to the end user if you're working out of your bedroom or releasing projects from a design firm that have invested over £500,000 into them. Every iOS developer has equal chances of discovery, visibility, and success– Assuming of course that they put out a good product.

We're anxious to see what ustwo™'s next move is going to be. Whale Trail is going to need to be downloaded a ton to break even, especially at a 99¢ price point. I'd love to say "hopefully this doesn't discourage them from iOS development," as I think it's outfits like ustwo™ that seem the most likely to push the platform forward, but how much of a financial hole can they dig themselves keeping their fingers crossed that critical acclaim and love from Apple eventually turns into the hundreds of thousands of downloads they need?

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Coming early next year, developer FarSight Studios will be bringing a massive collection of some of the most classic pinball games from throughout history to just about every single gaming platform imaginable. Of course, the one that matters most to us is the iOS platform, which the upcoming Pinball Arcade is indeed slated to hit. You're likely familiar with FarSight's previous pinball work, the Pinball Hall of Fame series, with The Gottlieb Collection and The Williams Collection, each of which has landed on various platforms over the last several years. With The Pinball Arcade, they look to take a similar "collection" approach, only with far more licensed tables.

The Pinball Arcade lays claim to more than 50 different tables from classic companies like Williams and Gottlieb (naturally), Bally, and Stern. FarSight is calling the game "the most comprehensive pinball video game ever created" which it certainly will be if they can really achieve their lofty goal of included tables. Details are scarce at this point, but it sounds as if the game will initially ship with at least the tables mentioned in the above trailer, and possibly more, with a steady stream of additional tables being made available as downloadable content post release.

We'll look to dig up some more information on The Pinball Arcade as the new year approaches, but the prospect of having dozens of virtual representations of classic pinball machines available right in your pocket has players in our forums drooling in anticipation (myself included).

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The mobile division of Nexon Co. is readying an iOS version of their popular free-to-play online first-person shooter Combat Arms. Known as Combat Arms: Zombies, the title has been developed using Unreal Engine 3 and is based off of the zombie themed cooperative Fireteam Mode from the original game. There aren't many details regarding Combat Arms: Zombies at the moment, but Nexon Mobile hints that they are interested in supporting the game post-release until it almost equals the full scale of the original Combat Arms online game.

I've never played Combat Arms, but this Zombies edition sounds like a cooperative survival mode similar to the popular Call of Duty: Zombies [$4.99/HD] that's been a pretty big hit on iOS the past couple of years. The first trailer for the game looks pretty darn impressive, and although it doesn't appear to show any actual gameplay, it does seem that the entire video was rendered using an in-game engine.

Combat Arms: Zombies will first be unveiled in playable form at the G-Star 2011 expo in South Korea on November 10th. The release date is expected sometime shortly after, though nothing specific has been confirmed. We'll of course be keeping our eye out for Combat Arms: Zombies as it gets closer to release, and bring you any new information or media as we get it.

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