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I’m honestly not even sure what the best way to introduce this New York Times article would be to do it justice. I read a lot (I mean, a lot.) of blogs, newspapers, forums, and everything else that could even be a vaguely relevant source for TouchArcade content, and I’ve never come across such a fantastic retrospective both on the evolution of handheld video games, but also the way “stupid games” like Angry Birds become so integrated into our lives. In fact, I’m reluctant to even sum it up any more than that, so here’s a link and an excerpt to whet your proverbial whistle:

And so a tradition was born: a tradition I am going to call (half descriptively, half out of revenge for all the hours I’ve lost to them) “stupid games.” In the nearly 30 years since Tetris’s invention — and especially over the last five, with the rise of smartphones — Tetris and its offspring (Angry Birds, Bejeweled, Fruit Ninja, etc.) have colonized our pockets and our brains and shifted the entire economic model of the video-game industry. Today we are living, for better and worse, in a world of stupid games. …Read More

If you’ve got friends, family, co-workers, or anyone else who doesn’t get this whole mobile gaming thing, Sam Anderson wrapped the whole phenomenon up in a perfect little package digestible even for people who know nothing about video games. Zach Gage even makes an appearance.

Seriously though, take ten minutes out of your day and give it a read.

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Last year at E3, we got our first taste of F5 Games’ upcoming Pocket Heroes, and we were definitely intrigued by what we saw. Pocket Heroes looks to take a party-based adventure RPG and give it the asynchronous multiplayer treatment. In fact, it’s strictly online-only, with each player controlling a party member in the game and taking turns making moves asynchronously, with push notifications letting everybody know when it’s time for them to go.

It’s been described as Words With Friends meets turn-based RPG, and is probably best understood by watching the trailer below.

So, as you can see from that video, Pocket Heroes is a really cool idea. Since we first saw the game at E3 last June, F5 has been continuing to toil away at the project, and we got another chance to see where it was at during GDC last month. It had come a long way since E3, and actually looked very close to finished.

Earlier this week, the game’s publisher Ayopa Games posted the official game page for Pocket Heroes along with an official release date and pricing info. We can expect to get our hands on Pocket Heroes May 11th for the reasonable price of $1.99. Sweet! You can also see some brand spanking new promo art for the game and learn more about the different classes by visiting our forums, and we’ll definitely have more on Pocket Heroes as it nears its release next month.

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Thinkers, entrepreneurs, and manufacturers of all shapes and sizes are still trying to bring us useful, physical controllers for iPad and iPhone. We’ve seen a lot, over the years, but none have struck as novel as the one currently in an early development stage at Keio University in Japan. It’s an analog stick similar to the Fling, except it uses the iPhone’s front camera to control the action on the screen.

Here’s what makes it possible, according to the following video from DigiInfo:

There are small markers in this elastic device and the markers are detected by this built-in front-facing mobile phone camera. By tracking how the markers move as the elastic device deforms, this system enables a variety of inputs. Basically, the system’s precision depends on hardware factors, like the camera resolution and refresh rate.

It’s a neat idea, and while it has a couple of obvious issues working against it, we’d love to see this end up as an actual product. Who knows, maybe it’ll catch on.

[via AppAdvice]

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The App Store is a great place to find seedy Minecraft apps. It’s also the best place to find the official Minecraft companion app. Studio 57Digital LLC’s Minecraft Explorer [$.99 / Free] now has the support of Mojang, which makes it a much more stomach-able buy. You can do a lot of awesome stuff with this, by the way, as it functions like an Internet wiki. From the app, you can browse all of the game’s item, enchantment, and crafting recipes, favorite items and server listings, view enemy information, and even watch videos.

… And now you can do more. Specifically, with this latest update, you can now share your character skins and design new ones. It’s also considerably less buggy, if the long list of fixes is to be believed.

Mojang managing director Carl Manneh drew our all-seeing eye to the product earlier today and it’s proving to be a cool tool. We’re thinking that it’ll be doubly useful for the impending Xbox Live Arcade version of the game, since dual-fisting a laptop and an Xbox 360 controller can be pretty rough. Check it out.

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Halfbrick knows its Jetpack Joyride [Free] users, or Joyriders, need something to spend their hard-earned coin on, so this April will see the release of the gadget system. After the update, you’ll be able to unlock different kinds of gadgets that’ll do hip stuff, like say, give you the ability to jump to the middle of the screen without the jetpack. A new video that Halfbrick just shot out is showcasing another gadget: the gravity belt.

Halfbrick expects the update to hit, specifically, this April 12, so definitely give it a look if you’re a fan. If you’re not a fan, well, consider becoming one because what’s wrong with you. On a separate note entirely, yay, there’s dubstep in this trailer!

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The third episode of Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space was originally released in 2008, on the cusp of the videogame industry’s zombie renaissance. Four years and three Dead Risings later the iOS port of “Night of the Raving Dead” [$4.99] may feel — to steal a quote from the game’s antagonist, the vampire Jurgen — “played, yo.” Still, Steve Purcell’s brand of silly humor gives “Raving Dead” life, even for those tired of zombies and vampires.

This season of episodic Sam & Max games comes into its own in “Raving Dead,” particularly if players have been keeping up since the first episode ”Ice Station Santa” : we can start to see how the central town and its inhabitants are changing over time. We now have access to Sybil’s shop, but Bosco’s Inconvenience has been shuttered since he went missing in the second episode, ”Moai Better Blues” ; Flint Paper takes a more active role in “Raving Dead,” and Sam and Max have all but stopped giving Stinky the benefit of the doubt in the mysterious death of her grandfather. This is one of the strengths of episodic gaming, and it’s nice to see Telltale Games’ writing come to fruition.

This type of self-referential writings has its limits, though. In-jokes that refer to players’ previous exploits feel natural to players keeping up with the series, but the second quarter of “Raving Dead” can be jarring for those who, like me, didn’t play Sam & Max Save the World. Not that “Raving Dead” is a literary giant, but there are a few levels of nuance in Sam and Max’ relationship with Jurgen that you’ll miss if you didn’t play the “Situation: Comedy” episode from that series, which isn’t currently available on the App Store. And this wouldn’t even be so bad if this plot point didn’t directly inform at least two of the puzzles in the first half of the game.

Nevertheless, “Raving Dead” features the strongest writing and characterization to date — I’ll never forget the way Jurgen hooks his thumbs into his nipple rings while he relaxes.

Whereas as “Ice Station Santa” and “Moai Better Blues” tend to meander along until a plot twist at the end, “Raving Dead” establishes Jurgen as the antagonist fairly early in the game, and most of the puzzles revolve around him. This gives Purcell room to stretch out and give the game a little more nuance, and I’d even argue that he re-imagines and modernizes the social commentary George Romero wrote into seminal zombie movies like Night of the Living Dead, from where this episode borrows its title. Sam & Max isn’t subtle stuff, by any means, but there are some threads of maturity to be found, not to mention that “Raving Dead” has a relatively bleak ending — I won’t spoil anything here, but it does seem heavy-handed for the series.

This episode is pretty clearly demarcated into two halves, the first of which is probably the most mechanically and thematically interesting of Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space to date. Unfortunately, that praise comes with a caveat: the first half of the game is murky in its goals, and you’ll likely stumble into the puzzle solutions instead of tactfully divining them. There are a few puzzles in particular that, even after having solved them, don’t seem to have much in-game logic behind them — brute force experimentation isn’t as satisfying as actual problem-solving.

The problem is that “Raving Dead” is narratively strict, often times depending on the player to trigger specific events to push the story forward. In older Sam & Max episodes, players generally had a handful of puzzles to solve at a time, giving them a reason to explore different areas, interact with different characters, and gradually amass the knowledge and items they need to move forward. “Raving Dead” is stingier with its progress, meaning that you’ll need to solve each puzzle in turn before you can move on.

The upshot is that the interplay between Sam, Max, and Jurgen is really neat once you figure it out. Dialogue hints have always been a big part of Sam & Max, but “Raving Dead” is almost impossible to figure out without taking the time to think about Jurgen’s character and motivations. (Again, having played “Situation: Comedy” helps.) Thankfully, the same general idea repeats itself a few times in a row — once you know what makes Jurgen tick and how his castle functions, the game starts to pick up steam in terms of narrative progress and player engagement.

The second half of “Raving Dead” is more straightforward and consists of traditional item management puzzles. The game does a good job of feeding players items, which keeps the game moving forward and pixel-hunting to a minimum. The final boss fight, too, is a return to form after some lackluster fisticuffs against Mr. Spatula in “Moai.”

“Raving Dead” ends on a somewhat dour note, but I can’t help be excited at the midpoint of Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space: different plot threads are coming together and the designers at Telltale consistently and effectively iterate on the mechanics and structure of the point-and-click adventure. “Raving Dead” is easily stronger than “Moai Better Blues” and more interesting than, if not executed as well as “Ice Station Santa.” Here’s hoping the last two episodes keep up the good work.

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You may not have noticed since it was a short-lived situation, but just before this past weekend Retro Racing [99¢], the fun old-school style top-down racer from Mr. Qwak, was pulled from the App Store. The sole developer behind Mr. Qwak explains the cause for the removal in a blog post on his website, but in short it was due to trying to change his Apple developer account from personal to business and hitting a few snags along the way.

The real bummer is that Retro Racing had just launched last month and was doing pretty well, selling between 1000-3000 copies a day. It sure sucks when that number abruptly drops to 0 when you aren’t expecting it. Mr. Qwak advises not making changes to your developer account during a new release period like this, a lesson he learned the hard way.

The good news is that Retro Racing has returned to the App Store, and before the removal business happened it had received a great new update. First off, the previously iPad-only same-device multiplayer mode has been enabled for iPhone and iPod touch users. It’s tiny, but it works, and I appreciate its inclusion since the local multiplayer is one of my favorite parts about Retro Racing.

The next big addition in this newest update to Retro Racing is 3 new levels, with more levels already planned for future updates. One of our biggest gripes with the game in our review was that it was so short, so it’s nice to see that being addressed. Finally, iCade support has been added to the game, which seems like a perfect fit for the style of game that Retro Racing is. You can see Retro Racing in action on the iCade in this gameplay video from the developer.

I like Retro Racing quite a bit, and am happy to see the developer account situation sorted out and the game back on the App Store. The new update is nice too, though I still have one outstanding gripe: landscape support. The game feels so cramped in portrait mode on the iPhone that I find I can only play it effectively on the iPad. Granted, it feels awesome on the iPad, but still. Maybe that option can be added in the future, but everything else about Retro Racing is top-notch, and if you hadn’t checked it out previously be sure to give it a look now that it’s back.

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At the beginning of February, the team behind the action platformer Terra Noctis [99¢] announced their new iOS project called Spellsword (no relation to Rocketcat’s upcoming game). After dishing out scant details for Spellsword in our forums, the team has been quiet for the last month or so while toiling away at the project. Today they’ve sent along the first video for Spellsword that finally shows the game in action.

The core gameplay in Spellsword is arcade-style action platforming similar to Super Crate Box [$1.99], but with lots of cool upgradeable items like hats, rings, amulets, and special powers. It will also be more structured and goal-oriented than SCB with 90 missions slated for the release version as well as unlockable endless arenas. It’s looking pretty sweet so far, and it sounds like Spellsword is very near its completion, so expect to hear a release date sometime in the near future.

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As if you need another reminder to download Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP [$4.99 / $2.99 ] if you haven’t already, nominations for the 2012 Canadian Videogame Awards were just revealed and Sworcery was nominated for basically every category that even vaguely applies to the game. This includes game of the year, best game on the go, best downloadable game, best game design, best visual arts, best writing, best indie game, best original music, and… innovation award.

I have no doubts that the game will soak up at least some of those awards, which is just extra crazy when you look at the list of other games that were nominated. In your wildest dreams back when the App Store launched in mid-2008 did you ever think that four years later an iOS-exclusive indie-developed game would be standing toe to toe with massive budget AAA console titles for awards?

What a wild time to be a gamer.

Oh, and if this somehow is the first time you’ve heard of the game (really?) check out our review.

[via Gamasutra]

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At GDC earlier this month, one of my favorite upcoming games that I had a chance to play was Get Set Games’ Mega Run. They’ve taken Redford, the adorable main character from their hugely successful previous title Mega Jump [Free], and have dropped him into an auto-running game.

But, this isn’t just any boring, old auto-runner. Instead it’s literally bursting with items, power-ups, and enemies, not to mention its colorful visuals and loads of personality. Plus, it has incredibly well-designed levels with multiple pathways and tons of secrets to discover. It really is something you need to see in motion to appreciate. Which is fortunate for you, as Get Set has released a new gameplay video of Mega Run in action.

Mega Run is still in the final stages of development, and with any luck we should be seeing the title hit the App Store within the next month or two. After getting my hands on the preview version at GDC, I really can’t wait to spend some quality time with the final game. Keep your eyes firmly planted on this space and we’ll let you know just as soon as Mega Run gets a firm release date.

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