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Back in January we gave a heads-up on the first gameplay video of Cope-Com's upcoming shooter Battle Squadron ONE, an iOS recreation of one of the very best shooters ever to appear on the Amiga, in the form of a Universal application for both iPhone and iPad. This weekend, Cope-Com CEO Martin Pedersen provided us with a pre-beta build of the game to try out. And, that's something I've been doing a lot of today, and have a video to share that should whet the appetite of those who've been waiting for this one as anxiously as we.

For those who enjoy(ed) Battle Squadron on the Amiga, I can tell you that the iOS version is exactly the same game — original graphics, original music — but with various new options and an iOS-appropriate control system. It's so close to the original that I had to re-confirm with the developers that it is not, in fact, running under emulation. While the original Battle Squadron was written in 68000 assembly, Battle Squadron ONE for iOS is a line-by-line C/C++ rewrite, based on the original source code (which Pedersen had stored on floppies in a box in his basement these long years). It's likely the first entirely recoded Amiga game to land on the iOS platform.

For those not familiar, Battle Squadron is a top-down, vertical shooter where you (and a friend, if you have one) blast your way through a variety of scrolling alien landscapes, taking out turrets and dodging enemy lasers and missiles on a mission to rescue commanders Berry Mayers and Lori Bergin who have been kidnapped by the evil Barrax empire, a ruthless species with one thing on their mind — ruling the universe. And, it's no light task. The action here is intense — it's what I'd call a bullet hell shooter, though milder than some I've seen come out of Japan. That's at the "Amiga" difficulty level, anyway. There's also an "Easy" and a "Hard" mode, in this version.

To ensure solid performance, Battle Squadron ONE requires iOS 4 and an iPhone 3GS, 3G iPod touch, iPad or better. Currently, the game features tilt controls only, but D-pad controls are in the works. And, as can be seen by my deft tiltwork in the following video filmed on an iPad 2, the accelerometer-based controls deliver precision maneuvering.

Cope-Com indicates that the core game is complete, but there are a number of things that need to be accomplished before it hits the App Store, including the addition of touch controls, implementation of the two-player mode, and Game Center integration. And, while these are important additions, Battle Squadron ONE, even in pre-beta, is already excellent — just like the original.

We'll let readers know when the game is available for download in the App Store.

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Imagine your life as a fat multi-armed dude named "All Waka" chilling out in space relaxing and eating rocks all day. Sounds good, right? Well, what would you do when an irritating alien race known as the "Wikus" come crashing your siesta? Slap them back in to space of course. I mean, it only seems logical, doesn't it? That's the premise of Get Outta My Galaxy! [99¢] in a nutshell.

All Waka's movement in the game is controlled by tilting, and your multiple appendages can be sent flying by tapping anywhere on the screen. Each level, much like Super Mario Galaxy is a unique planet with different kinds of vegetation, obstacles, and more. They're all spherical in shape, and generally are small enough that you never really get lost. Progressing in the game requires clearing a planet of Wikus, which just involves giving them a smack with one of your arms. There's a number of different types of Wikus, and various power-ups as well to mix things up. After you've "dealt with" all of the offending Wikus, you need to make it to a glowing stone of sorts, hit that, and you're off to the next planet.

You can see how this goes together in the following gameplay video:

The game starts off incredibly simple, with you just randomly running around open planets slapping errant aliens. It's almost too simple, and really my first complaint is how slowly the difficulty of the game ramps up. I about got bored of it just as it was starting to get cool, and it does get cool. Planets slowly evolve in to worlds filled with plants that can hurt you, maze-like walls, puzzles involving switches to open doors to access restricted areas, and more. It's a ton of fun once you get to the more complicated levels, so make sure you stick with the game at least through the first galaxy.

Another thing I'd really like to see tweaked is how the tilt controls actually work. I feel like you need to tilt way too much to make your character move, and would much prefer a higher sensitivity setting. However, this and the difficulty progression are minor complaints, and shouldn't dissuade you at all from giving this game a shot.

Forum members are having a great time with the game, and I can't help but agree. Get Outta My Galaxy is a fantastic little game that not only looks great, but also is a lot of fun. Just make sure you stick with it long enough to see some of the more interesting level mechanics.

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I’m not sure how much of a big deal this is, but Cut The Rope [$.99 / Lite / HD] took home a BAFTA the other night becoming the first, as a press release tells us, iPod Touch and iPhone title to win an award at the UK-based event. Specifically, Cut The Rope won one for “handheld” where it was competing against games like Super Scribblenauts, God of War: Ghost of Sparta, and Sonic Team’s Sonic Colors.

If you’re not on the up and up on video game awards shows, BAFTA is the British Academy of Film And Television Arts. It pays attention to the achievements in films, television, and, yes, even video games, and then rewards their excellence. Cut The Rope was able to compete against Nintendo DS and PSP titles, so hey, our medium is definitely becoming much more “mainstream,” eh?

If anything, we’ve an excuse to utter “Cut The Rope” again. It’s a fantastic game, full of heart, creativity, and expression. It totally deserves awards and we’re glad it’s been recognized by a big old establishment, too. If you somehow missed the game, check out our review.

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As readers are by now aware, the iPad 2 launched last week, bringing with it a powerful dual-core CPU and a dramatically more capable graphics subsystem. And, aside from pushing more polygons and tossing more texels, the GPU in the A5 at the heart of the iPad 2 is capable of mirroring its screen to an external display via the Apple Digital AV Adapter, which provides HDMI-out.

To give a folks a look at this feature in action, I've put together a video of the iPad 2 running through a number of games and apps, with video mirrored to a 50-inch plasma HDTV.

(Note that we can't be responsible for any rifts in space-time caused by watching this video on an iPad 2 outputting to an external HDTV.)

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Back in January Gameloft revealed that they were working on a new entry in the Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six series titled Shadow Vanguard. We’ve previously posted the official trailer, a hands-on gameplay video, and an interesting interactive trailer that Gameloft created that takes you through part of the first level. After all of that anticipation, at long last Rainbow Six Shadow Vanguard [$6.99] has finally gone live in the App Store.

The game features 11 single player missions where you lead a special elite group of soldiers in taking out a terrorist organization. Unlike your typical first-person shooter, Rainbow Six games rely on tactical gameplay choices rather than an all out run-n-gun approach. Taking your time to investigate each situation closely and determine the best plan of attack will get much better results than just bursting in and blasting anything that moves.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect to Rainbow Six Shadow Vanguard is the multiplayer options. It features a traditional deathmatch mode with up to 10 players in a game, but there is also the option to team up with up to 2 buddies and have a go at the campaign cooperatively.

Gameloft has proven they can create competent FPS experiences with games like N.O.V.A. 2 [$6.99/HD] and Modern Combat 2 [$6.99/Lite/HD], both of which feature great single-player campaigns and robust online multiplayer options. In the case of Rainbow Six Shadow Vanguard, we’ll be holding off our full review for a bit so that the servers can populate with other players first and we can get a good feel for all the online functionality in the game.

Until then, there is a forum thread filling up with early impressions of Rainbow Six Shadow Vanguard if you’re interested in hearing what your fellow gamers have to say about the game. We’ll put it through its paces as well and report back with a review soon.

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All the way back in January of 2010, Ryan Mitchell Games released Necromancer Rising [Free], an RPG of impressive scale. Utilizing their own in-house developed "Soul Engine", the game comes packed with tons of content and customization while still being capable of running well on ancient iOS devices. The graphics look a little dated, but if you can get beyond that you'll be in for 60 hours of gameplay across 50 in-game dungeons with 49 different bosses.

Check out the trailer which shows a bunch of bosses, dungeons, and gameplay:

Anyway, the whole reason that this game is free is because of the launch of Mission Europa, a Sci-Fi themed title based on the same engine which has an additional year of development under its belt. Again, the graphics in Mission Europa are definitely rough around the edges compared to modern video games, but the amount of content and customization is crazy. The 50 hours of gameplay is comprised of 50 different levels over 5 episodes and 170 missions. Also included are 180 different enemies, 50 bosses, and 30 unique armor sets.

Give the trailer a look:

One odd thing about Mission Europa is that it comes in two different editions. First off, there's Mission Europa Collector's Edition HD [$9.99] and Mission Europa Standard Edition HD [$3.99] they seem to be the same game, but the Collector's Edition comes with all of the content while the Standard Edition has it for sale in-game via IAP.

It sounds weird, but people on our forums are absolutely in love with the game. It had a ridiculously huge thread in our upcoming games forum, and now that it's out there's an equally massive thread in our games forum. In addition, there's even a FAQ thread filled with forum members helping others with the game.

I'd definitely give Necromancer Rising a try first, as the game mechanics are similar enough that you'll easily be able to get a feel for whether or not you can deal with how the game feels before getting involved in Mission Europa. Either way, it's impressive seeing indie developers like this releasing games of this scope and scale, so swing by the forums and see what others are saying about the games.

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The hype machine is in full swing for the release of Gameloft’s newest shooter Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Shadow Vanguard, set to hit this Thursday. Rainbow Six: Shadow Vanguard will feature 11 tactical missions where you’ll be able to direct your AI team of specially trained soldiers or, in a first for iPhone first-person shooters, you can link up with up to 2 buddies online and play through the campaign cooperatively.

In addition to the cooperative mode, Rainbow Six: Shadow Vanguard will feature an online deathmatch mode for up to 10 players. Here are some screens from the 5 deathmatch maps that will be included at launch.

For their latest video for Rainbow Six: Shadow Vanguard, Gameloft have taken an interesting approach at making it interactive. Much like the Choose Your Own Adventure books I read as a child, the video will stop occasionally and give you a choice on how to handle the current situation, with some choices ending up in your team’s demise and others having you come out victorious. The video will only work on a Mac or PC, so if you’re checking this out on your iOS device it won’t pan out:

At first I thought the interactive demo was kind of cheesy, but after running through it a few times it's actually pretty neat. And it shows off a good amount of gameplay for Rainbow Six: Shadow Vanguard, which appears to follow fairly closely to the console titles that I love so much. It will be interesting to see how well the online co-op plays out, and how the deathmatch will be with all the tactical gameplay additions rather than your average kill everything free-for-all. There's been a huge buzz for the game in our forums for some time now, and we're also eager to get our hands on Rainbow Six: Shadow Vanguard this Thursday.

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On our last day out at GDC, I spent some time browsing the many indie titles on display in the Independent Games Festival (IGF) area of the show floor. One of the iOS titles I saw on display is the excellent rhythm puzzler Halcyon for iPad [link] that we reviewed back in December. I spoke with Kurt Bieg at the Halcyon booth who showed me a new title that he and Halcyon's developer Zach Gage will shortly be bringing to the App Store, the platform color-matching game Monster Jam, from Simple Machine.

In the world of Monster Jam, the king loves jam so much that he's eaten up every last piece of fruit in his kingdom. As chancellor, it's your job to put a smile on the king's face and get him his jam. Luckily, you've got a machine that can turn anything into jam. And, it turns out, the king's favorite jam of all is jam made out of monsters. Monster jam, if you will.

And, so, the task at hand is to collect monsters for jamification. The game presents a series of platform screens full of monsters of various types and colors wandering about, across a series of different environments. In order to collect a group of monsters to put through the process, they must be separated out so that each platform only holds monsters of like color. Once all monsters of a certain color have been herded onto a given platform, off they go. Kurt, who walked me through the game, explains the gameplay during the following video demonstration.

Kurt and Zach are working on Monster Jam with Ramsey Nasser and Chris Driscoll, who did the graphics.

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Hey there, do you like over-the-top action movies from the 80s and early 90s? And do you like pinball? Have you always dreamed that both of these things could be magically fused together in a game for your favorite iOS device? Well Gameprom is ready to make your dreams come true with their upcoming game War Pinball HD.

Gameprom has been one of the preeminent pinball developers for iOS, with their Wild West [99¢], The Deep [99¢], Jungle Style [99¢], and Slayer Rocks [$2.99] pinball games all garnering huge download numbers and earning many fans. All of these games are available individually or in a single app called Pinball HD [99¢/HD]. Two hallmarks of Gameprom’s pinball games have been really solid physics behavior, which can often make or break a pinball video game, and impressive graphics which are rendered in full 3D.

War Pinball will retain these hallmarks, and I was able to play a preview build of the game at GDC a couple of weeks ago. If you’ve played any of Gameprom’s previous pinball games, War Pinball feels very in line with those experiences, which is to say it’s a lot of fun. What really surprised and delighted me was the theme of the game. War Pinball will contain 3 separate tables, each one crafted after a war-themed action movie. There’s one based on Platoon, one for Navy Seals, and one for Missing in Action which features prominent Chuck Norris decor.

The first trailer for War Pinball doesn’t show off a ton of gameplay, but in true action movie form it features a montage of all 3 tables:

War Pinball was looking great when I checked it out at GDC, and I’ve been enjoying a preview build on my iPhone ever since. The evolution of Gameprom’s pinball creating prowess is clear in each new game, as War Pinball is a much more complex and strategic game in comparison to the relatively simplistic Wild West Pinball. The game has already been finished and shipped off to Apple for review, complete with optimizations for the new iPad 2, so we’ll be keeping our eyes out for it to hit the App Store soon.

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It’s that time again! Apple has released OS update 4.3 for the iPhone, iPod Touch, Apple TV, and the iPad, bringing some cool new features to the respective devices. I could gab for centuries about iTunes Home Sharing and the addition of personal hotspots, but I’ll can that chatter in favor of more game-related stuff about the latest update. Specifically, I want to note the enhanced AirPlay offering.

In brief, the 4.3 version of AirPlay connectivity gives both Web apps and App Store apps the ability to output video to the Apple TV. I think you can see the possible gaming kickbacks from this move. If, say, Imangi was feeling froggy, it could theoretically update Imangi: The Game [Free] to output to Apple TV, thus allowing you to play from your couch on a big screen as opposed to alone and on a toilet. That’s cool, right?

Obviously, we’ll need to play a wait-and-see game on this feature. Surely, adding in this functionality will take time, tweaking, and testing, which means we’ll likely see a lackluster adoption rate initially. Plus, who owns an Apple TV? Even at its lower price point, it doesn't seem to be exactly flying off the Apple Store's shelves. Regardless, this is exciting stuff. Guess I really need to think about putting that plasma by the toilet after all.

So what are you waiting for? Download 4.3! Also, if you happen to have an Apple TV and want to check out this new AirPlay functionality, give Air Video [$2.99 / Free] a try. Sure, it's not a game but playing videos converted real time on my computer, streamed to my iPhone, then relayed to my TV feels like magic.

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