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‘The King of Fighters-i 2012′ Review – One of the Best iOS Fighters, Now with New Characters and Online Play

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It was in July of last year that SNK Playmore brought their classic fighting game franchise to iOS with The King of Fighters-i [ $4.99 ], and it was the only game that could really stand up to the then current standard for touch screen fighters Street Fighter IV [ $4.99 ], and in many ways it even exceeded it. Which series you prefer is largely a personal preference thing, but I always felt that The King of Fighters-i edged out Street Fighter IV in overall quality and playability.

The problem was that by the time The King of Fighters-i hit the App Store, the superior sequel to Street Fighter IV had already been out for a month. It was called Street Fighter IV Volt [ $6.99 ] and it came packing everything that made the original game so great plus additional characters, new features, and most importantly online multiplayer. The online matchmaking worked surprisingly well in Volt, and despite The King of Fighters-i being absolutely fantastic it was still just a single player- or Bluetooth multiplayer-only game, and online battling was the new hotness.

Now nearly a year later SNK Playmore is taking a page out of the Volt handbook with the just-released The King of Fighters-i 2012 [ $6.99 ]. This latest entry in the iOS KOF series contains everything from the first game that was great in addition to – much like the release of Volt – new characters, new features, and online WiFi multiplayer. Since basically everything from the first game is included in the 2012 edition, you might want to read our original review of KOF-i as well as the details of its extensive update to get the nitty gritty on the game.

As for what’s improved in The King of Fighters-i 2012, for starters the roster has been significantly expanded from 20 playable characters to 32. Art of Fighting, Psycho Soldier, Kim and Ikari are the 4 new teams of 3 that make up the new additions. Also, there are 2 more characters – Nests-style Kyo and Classic Iori – available as DLC for $1.99 each. These are alternate versions of existing characters, and they’re certainly entirely optional purchases, but it will be interesting to see if more characters end up coming down the road and if they’ll be paid or as a part of free updates.

The single player part of the game includes everything that was in last year’s version: an arcade ladder in 3v3 team battles or 1v1 flavors, an endless survival mode, and an excellent training mode. The lengthy Challenge mode from the original game returns, with some new challenges thrown in for good measure. A brand new single player addition to KOF-i 2012 is a Time Attack mode. Here you must battle through 10 straight opponents as quickly as possible, with a Game Center leaderboard tracking your best overall time.

Time Attack is a nice addition to an already great single player offering in The King of Fighters-i 2012, but that’s not why we’re here. We came for the multiplayer. Naturally, the Bluetooth local multiplayer mode from the original game made its way into 2012, and remains a fine option for squaring off against a buddy in your same vicinity. However, the real draw in the new online WiFi multiplayer mode.

The online portion for KOF-i 2012 works about how you might expect if you’re familiar with Volt – that is, it’s pretty good but not great. Naturally there is a bit of lag at times, but nothing too earth-shattering. Finding a match can also take a long time but I imagine that will clear up a lot as more people get the game. When talking about real-time multiplayer on a mobile device like the iPhone, it’s hard to expect perfection. For what it is the online matchmaking in KOF-i 2012 is really fun for people who get tired of fighting against the CPU all the time. With the right expectations, it really is a killer feature of the new game.

So, with a large portion of The King of Fighters-i 2012 being nearly identical to last year’s release, whether or not you should buy this new edition will hinge on how important new characters and online play is to you. With a whopping 12 new fighters added to the roster, I think it’s worth upgrading just for that, and people in our forums are totally digging the new version too. Along with a decent online offering and KOF-i 12 is likely a worthy upgrade for fans of iOS fighters. One thing is for sure though, Street Fighter IV Volt now has some serious competition, and it looks like the future is pretty bright for fighting games on the App Store.

App Store Link: THE KING OF FIGHTERS-i 2012., $6.99

TouchArcade Rating:

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Written by admin

May 4, 2012 at 2:15

‘CitiRacing’ Review – Small-time Urban Racing

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We’ve had our share of great arcade racers on iOS lately and CitiRacing [$0.99] looked to continue that trend. With good locales and solid foundational gameplay, it seemed to be on the right track, too. Unfortunately, missteps in terms of replayability, redundancy and a lack of online multiplayer hold this game back from shifting into a higher gear.

The first thing you’ll notice when you get into a race in CitiRacing is its distinctly urban environments. More importantly, the game does a decent job of making you feel like you’re racing on city streets. Tracks range from downtown streets (complete with parked cars to avoid and skyscrapers that occasionally block your view) to freeway overpasses to even a farmers’ market. CitiRacing isn’t strictly a metropolitan affair either, as some stages also take you to beach towns and snowy suburbia.

Another solid aspect about CitiRacing is the gameplay itself. Races play out somewhat similar to Reckless Racing 2 (to toss out a recent racing game), but with a greater emphasis on drifting. I also enjoyed the physics – vehicles can (and will) flip, roll and barrel out of control if you’re not paying attention. Control-wise, CitiRacing only has one control scheme. I personally had no problem with it, but it would have been nice to have a few more options.

You’ll be racing through these maps via a standard ‘Championship’ cup single-player mode. Each cup has a variety of stages that has racers earning points based on finishing position. Do well and you unlock extra vehicles and the next set of tracks. A single race mode also allows you to replay any map that you’ve unlocked.

Championship mode works well enough, but it’s somewhat barebones. There’s no cash/upgrade system like other similar racers. While each vehicle handles differently, there’s no stat line that actually shows the differences. Also, CitiRacing is extremely easy; most players will easily take the gold on the normal difficulty (’easy’ difficulty is pretty much a joke), with only some challenge on hard mode. All these translate into a game that doesn’t have as much replayability as it should.

Continuing this trend are the tracks themselves. While CitiRacing boasts 45 different tracks in its description, it’s not that simple. In reality, there are 15 different tracks, each with three different orientations (with one of those three taking place in a night setting). Each orientation changes both the camera angles as well as starting positions. Most maps do a good job making each orientation feel different, but it’s still obvious that you’re playing the same map several times.

Visually, CitiRacing’s graphics mostly get the job done. There’s nothing particularly fancy about overhead cartoony visuals but it works well with the overall game. There are a few hiccups, such as the occasional inability to discern between changes in elevation (which can cause your car to lose control if you aren’t paying attention), but overall there’s not much in terms of gameplay detraction. The same goes for the game’s framerate, which runs at a smooth clip with little slowdown.

In addition to its single player offerings, CitiRacing also has local multiplayer via Bluetooth or WiFi. Up to six players can participate in a match (either single races or Championship) and you can substitute CPU drivers for any open spots. Despite some lag and an errant disconnect, I found local multiplayer to be entertaining. However, the lack of an actual internet multiplayer feature will most likely prevent a lot of folks from even checking out this mode.

CitiRacing feels like a game perpetually on the edge of being great. This theme seems to permeate most aspects of the game, from the multiplayer to the tracks and beyond. As it is, I still had an enjoyable time with CitiRacing and would recommend it for racing fans simply because of the locales and core gameplay. However, folks looking for the next racing masterpiece will end up looking elsewhere.

App Store Link: CitiRacing, $0.99 (Universal)

TouchArcade Rating:

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Written by admin

April 6, 2012 at 16:15

Freebie Alert: ‘Lunar Racer’ and ‘Super Stickman Golf’

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Just a quick heads up to let you know that Noodlecake Games has made two of their iOS titles free for a limited time. First up is Lunar Racer [Free], a side-scrolling 2D racer that feels like a mashup of Excitebike and Mario Kart. The physics are crazy, due to being on the Moon and all, and Lunar Racer is a frantic arcade experience due to just how easily the tides can turn during a race.

There’s also a whole host of unlockable items to trick out your ride with, as well as 12 different lunar tracks to race on. Finally, there’s a local multiplayer mode over Bluetooth or WiFi that is a total blast if you have a friend handy with another copy of the game. You can read about that and more in our review of Lunar Racer, but since it’s free you might as well just go grab it anyway and find out how it is for yourself.

App Store Link: Lunar Racer, Free (Universal)


The other title Noodlecake is currently offering for free is the excellent Super Stickman Golf [Free]. It’s been free a few times before, but that is definitely no reason not to grab it if you haven’t already. Super Stickman Golf is what happens when you combine the trajectory-based mechanics of an artillery style game like Worms with the rules of golf. The results are spectacular. Super Stickman Golf offers a crazy amount of single player courses to play through, and a bunch of special “power-up” golf balls to use that give you unique abilities like sticking your ball to a surface or causing it to stop suddenly and drop right out of midair.

Despite all of this single player goodness, perhaps the biggest draw of Super Stickman Golf is its fantastic online multiplayer mode, which we covered when it first hit. It’s a ridiculous amount of fun and is easily one of the finest real-time multiplayer experiences I’ve had on iOS. Needless to say, make sure to grab both Super Stickman Golf and Lunar Racer while they’re currently free if you’re a fan of not paying anything for good games.

App Store Link: Super Stickman Golf, Free (Universal)

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Written by admin

March 27, 2012 at 18:15

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GDC 2012: Let’s Get This Party Started

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GDC starts… Tomorrow! Most of the TouchArcade crew is already causing trouble in San Francisco, while a few of us (myself included) are still airborne and working via the wonders of in-flight WiFi. Anyway, just as a heads-up this week should be pretty crazy with a constant stream of posts as we meet with the 80 different game developers we have scheduled meetings with.

If you have a meeting with us, please be sure to bring assets for your game with you. WiFi and cellular service in San Francisco seem to be equally unreliable, so we’re asking everyone to load some screenshots and any video you can come up with on some sort of USB storage device. USB flash drive, portable hard drive, whatever! As long as we can pull data off of it, we’re good to go.

If you don’t have a meeting with us, unfortunately our schedule is totally slammed and I can’t squeeze anyone else in regardless of how many times (and how creatively) you try to contact me about it! Please be sure to come to our party though. It’s at the same place we hold it every year, but a day earlier.

Here are the details:

  • WHEN: Tuesday March 6th, 7:00 PM until they kick us out.
  • WHERE: Bin 55 in the lobby of the Marriott Marquis at 55 4th St.
  • WHY: Because there’s way more cool people we want to meet than we have meeting time slots for!

Bring your industry-relevant business card and/or a GDC pass to flash and we’ll trade you for a fancy tyvek bracelet to turn on the free beer. I’m thinking our party is going to be crazier than usual this year judging by how quickly our meeting schedule got booked up, so, don’t miss it.

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Written by admin

March 5, 2012 at 9:15

‘Reckless Racing 2′ Review – A Bold Sequel With Another First-place Finish

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When Reckless Racing [$0.99 / HD] hit the scene back in October 2010, we praised it for the incredible top-down racing experience it offered. Now, the folks at Pixelbite Games are back again with Reckless Racing 2 [$4.99], the long awaited sequel to this arcade racer. Improving on nearly every facet of its predecessor, Reckless Racing 2 is hands-down one of the top arcade racers I’ve ever played and is well worth the price of admission.

From a presentation standpoint, Reckless Racing 2 makes some significant changes in comparison to its predecessor. Gone are the country themes present in the music and characters (although the latter still remains somewhat in the avatars and names of your AI opponents). In its place is a stylized, clean motif complete with fast-paced music reminiscent of 80s action movies (think Top Gun). Some folks may argue Reckless Racing 2 loses some of the ‘charm’ found in the original, but I think this is a great move that moves towards a more universal appeal.

Another area that receives an overhaul in Reckless Racing 2 is its core gameplay formula. A comprehensive career mode takes center stage in this sequel, complete with 18 different cars to purchase and a plethora of upgrades available for each individual vehicle. The career mode is actually pretty standard – players race through a variety of cups containing several courses. Money is awarded after each race, with a larger monetary bonus depending on your final position at the end of the cup.

Rather than forcing players to complete cups in a sequential fashion, Reckless Racing 2 employs a Performance Index (P.I.) restriction. The higher a P.I. rating is on a car, the ‘better’ it is stats-wise. Modify your car with new parts and its P.I. rating increases. Cups have a P.I. range that your car must fit into in order to play. While it is possible to upgrade your car so it can participate in progressively harder cups, eventually its P.I. max will be reached and you’ll have to buy a new car with a higher range in order to advance to more difficulty cups. It’s a disappointing restriction for folks that become attached to cars, but I thought it was an excellent way to balance upgrades and difficulty while nudging players towards trying new vehicles.

In addition to career mode, Reckless Racing 2 features an excellent challenge mode that supplies the player with a pre-determined car and track. Race against the A.I., place third or higher, and you advance to the next challenge. I found it a great distraction from career, as it allows you to quickly race while still having goals to work towards. Rounding out the modes are single race and wifi-enabled multiplayer. While online multiplayer was pretty fun, the lobby system was a bit rough around the edges (lots of players holding up games from actually starting). An auto-join with P.I. balancing would have been nice, as well as some improvement to the ‘ready’ system.

Racing mechanics also receive substantial changes in Reckless Racing 2, exchanging the ‘floaty’ and hectic feel of the original for a driving system that imbues much more control to the player. This is also reflective in the physics system which feels more suited towards a system requiring actual driving technique. The controls work well enough within this system, but not all control schemes are equal in this sequel. The new dynamic difficulty system, which raises and lowers the overall difficulty based on performance, is another addition that moves the game towards a semblance of realism (you can turn this off if it doesn’t work for you). In some ways, you can argue that these changes make Reckless Racing 2 a bit less, well, reckless. Despite this step away from its predecessor, I think the changes have created a game with more depth and challenge than the original. The upgrade system, for instance, allows you to customize your car to suit your driving style, somewhat preserving the original Reckless Racing style of play.

One of the areas Reckless Racing excelled in was its incredibly detailed visuals. Reckless Racing 2 ups the ante with an improved graphics system that just looks pretty damn amazing. Tracks are meticulously detailed and even effects like the dirt kicking up from your wheels on the off-road portions of the track are well done. Maneuvering my car around a curve with a giant gorge at the bottom or driving along an oceanfront watching the beautiful water effects are some of the nicest graphics I’ve seen on my iPhone 4S. Add in the fact that the game runs fast and smooth (at least on the latest hardware generation), and Reckless Racing 2 would give any game a run for its money in the visual department.

I’ve got to give kudos to Pixelbite – it’s pretty rare for a developer to take a chance and mix up the elements of a successful game in its sequel. However, in the case of Reckless Racing 2, that risk has paid off tremendously. The comprehensive career mode, wealth of maps, and tweaks to the arcade racing formula has made this game more enjoyable in the long term. Add in the amazing visuals and music, and there’s not much to dislike here. Folks have sounded off in our forums in regards to the significant changes to the core gameplay. Personally, if these changes result in an incredibly fun to play game, then what more can you ask for?

App Store Link: Reckless Racing 2, $4.99 (Universal)

TouchArcade Rating:

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Written by admin

February 7, 2012 at 21:17

‘RoboHero’ Review – A Challenging Turn Based Puzzler

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I used to think I had a knack for strategy games. Then I checked out RoboHero [Free], a turn-based tank puzzler from Bravado Waffle Studios. Now, I’m not so sure if I have the chops to handle a game of this difficulty. While the game incorporates relatively simple (and slow) gameplay, this is buttressed by a wide variety of weapons and puzzles, along with a difficulty that’ll either keep you coming back for more or giving up in frustration.

RoboHero places you in the role of Blue Robo, the last defense for Earth in its fight against an evil robot army. As a last resort, you’re sent to the robot ship in order to infiltrate and destroy all the forces. As you progress through the game’s story mode, you’ll unlock new weapons and face new enemies and obstacles. However, the goal of the game is always to either get to the other side of the level or take out a certain amount of enemies.

You’ll accomplish this by planning each move for Blue Robo 15 turns in advance. Every turn, movement, shot, and even weapon change counts as a turn. Once you’ve planned everything out, you hit the start button and your robo executes its actions while the surrounding environment (and enemy baddies) executes theirs. There’s a lot of timing, predicting, and planning involved with each set of turns, much more than I think most players are used to.

The game is also quite unforgiving with planning turns – mistiming a turn or shot can spell doom for that entire set of turns (or even worse, put you in a position to get destroyed). Also, you have to plan out 15 turns; if you try and start the round sooner, your robo will simply stand still for those turns you don’t plan anything, effectively wasting precious moves.

RoboHero’s biggest strength is also its potentially biggest weakness. When all is said and done, this game is hard. You better have some pretty damn good timing and analytical skills if you want to completely finish this game by collecting all the level stars (three stars for each of the thirty missions).

Each level lets you earn up to three stars by accomplishing three different criteria. You can earn a star by collecting all the stars in a level, by keeping your health above a certain threshold, and by passing the level under a certain amount of turns (every individual action counts as a ‘turn’). Normally, I can do well enough to earn one of those at any one time, and if I tried pretty hard, I could probably handle both the health and collectible stars.

However, if you want to land all three, you’re going to have to do a lot of work analyzing your moves, the movements of your enemies, and creating the most streamlined route that takes out only the necessary enemies and gets you where you need to go without coming to harm. It’s an exercise in patience and planning that I rarely see in games these days.

It’s important to note that the difficulty is mostly restricted toward earning stars. In the case of simply wanting to pass a level, RoboHero is a little more forgiving, especially since Blue Robo has the ability to glimpse the future movement of the surrounding enemies and environment. However, you only have a limited amount of foresight, and it doesn’t really make it any easier to time some movement.

Regardless, later levels will still test both your reactive and puzzle solving senses. Annoyances such as the fact that you have to start over if you die make the later levels more annoying to complete (especially considering the latter half of the levels will take some time to actually run through and complete).

In addition to the Story Mode, RoboHero also features an Arena Mode and Multiplayer. I found Arena Mode far more enjoyable than the story mode, as you’re simply tossed into a small level with a bunch of other computer opponents with the sole purpose of kicking the crap out of everyone else. It’s very reminiscent of Bomberman and I think RoboHero does a great job capturing that frenetic feel in a turn based game.

Multiplayer is restricted to pass and play, which I think loses a lot of the excitement that might have occurred with Bluetooth or Wifi modes (asynchronous might have been interesting as well).  Thankfully, online multiplayer is supposedly on the horizon.

If you’re on the fence as to whether a game such a RoboHero is for you, here’s some good news: The game’s first ten levels (as well as Multiplayer and Arena) are offered for free, with IAP covering the other 20 story levels. In this regard, I suggest picking it up if you’re even remotely interested. Its slow, turn-based gameplay is a much different take than most tank games I’ve played on iOS, and it’s bound to turn some heads, but only for pretty hardcore puzzle or strategy fans.

App Store Link: RoboHero, Free (Universal)

TouchArcade Rating:

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Written by admin

January 27, 2012 at 21:15

The TouchArcade Show – 35 – "I hope my Mom doesn’t listen to the podcast."

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On this week’s episode of the TouchArcade Show, it’s a fascinatingly huge struggle to stay on topic. At the top, we discuss Paula Dean’s latest problem, why Eli is across the ocean, and several other things that are increasingly more offbeat. However, we do eventually dig into the world of iOS in order to bring you the latest, hottest, and best-est in iOS news and coverage. Games like Pocket League and Raid Leader, as well as Smash Cops all make an appearance, as well as a hearty discussion on buying habits and the Vita.

If you’d like to listen, go ahead and do so via the handy links below. Our favorite dudes subscribe to us on iTunes and Zune, though. Both are fantastic ways to get our episodes the very second they’re available on our feeds. Definitely consider it.

iTunes Link: The TouchArcade Show
Zune Marketplace: TouchArcade.com Podcasts
RSS Feed: The TouchArcade Show
Direct Link: TouchArcadeShow-035.mp3, 46MB

One note before our show notes: Eli’s going to be in Europe for a bit, but we expect that some of the issues from this week’s podcast (caused by horrible hotel WiFi) will be addressed by next week. You’ll catch some audio burping and stuff from time-to-time and we’re sorry about that.

GAMES

  • Pocket League Story [$2.99]
  • Raid Leader
  • Helsing’s Fire [$.99 / HD / Lite]
  • Geometry Wars Touch [$.99]
  • Smash Cops [$2.99]

JARED’S KITTY KORNER

  • Candy Ninja-Cat [$.99]

NEWS

  • Adventure Bar Story’ Coming to iOS
  • TouchArcade At MacWorld
  • Man Makes iCade NES Controller

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Written by admin

January 21, 2012 at 5:15

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‘Lunar Racer’ Review – Jump, Flip, Shoot and Win

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The first batch of new game releases in 2012 last week was relatively quiet, but Lunar Racer [99¢] from NoodleCake Studios (the makers of Super Stickman Golf [99¢/HD] ) have got things off to a positive start by releasing a new lo-gravity racing game with plenty of jumps, heaps of flips and a couple of weapons.

Lunar Racer starts with a basic driving test, to secure your lunar license. During your rookie training, you learn that tapping the left half of the screen activates “gravity assist” to pull your vehicle towards the ground, while tapping the right side activates nitro boosters for a burst of speed. There’s no steering controls, as this game is all about timing your speed-boosts and jumps to beat your opponents.

Once you’re airborne, tilting the device left or right does a backwards or forwards flip. These flips are essential as each flip replenishes your nitro tanks, allowing you to pass opponents, jump higher, flip more and hopefully win. But if you don’t land safely on your wheels, you’ll crash, incurring a slight delay. The further you turn the device, the faster your racer spins and the more nitro you earn. There are also coins (MoonBux) to collect, both on the ground and floating, which is another incentive to go aerial.

You can use the MoonBux you collect to unlock 16 different vehicle chassis and a similar number of wheels, canopy colors or nitro styles (eg: perhaps you want pretty stars or a green flame shooting out when you turbo?). I believe that adds up to 16 x 16 x 16 x 16 possible combinations, which equals… a lot! The customizations don’t actually improve the attributes or performance of your vehicle, but it allows you to personalize its appearance.

The racing, jumping, flipping and customizations are all fun, but there are also weapons. You can use mines or missiles to attack your three opponents and deploy bubble-shields to protect yourself from their attacks. Once you pass over a generic power-up icon, a specific upgrade is randomly chosen and appears as a button to activate. Some users found this button uncomfortable to reach on the larger iPad screen, but it works fine on the iPod touch or iPhone.

The first race occurs on a space-station near Earth, but by winning races you gain the stars needed to unlock additional moons around Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. The developers plan to release more moons in future, to cover off the rest of our Solar System. The last two moons currently require local multiplayer wins to unlock, which isn’t ideal for those playing alone, but the developers plan to remedy this in an update, perhaps by allowing those levels to be unlocked by stars just like the other levels.

Lunar Racer currently has single player mode (racing against  3 AI-controlled opponents) and local multiplier mode (Bluetooth or WiFi for up to four players). The developers are already investigating the feasibility of an online multiplayer mode, however there’s issues with all the flipping and lag to deal with and NoodleCake told us they won’t release it unless it runs flawlessly, so it’s still an investigation in progress. They also revealed that they’d like to add an ‘endless’ arcade racing mode, where the terrain on the moon is generated procedurally.

Once you win a race with three stars, it unlocks a PRO tour mode for that moon with harder competitors.
This gives you an opportunity to earn three more stars for unlocking new moons. There’s also three specific goals listed for each moon, like: “Do 10 or more back flips”  or “Get 15 perfect landings”. If you complete all three goals for a level, you get to play a special bonus round which focuses on collecting as many MoonBux as you can, without any opponents. Game Center and OpenFeint are both integrated for high scores and achievements.

Lunar Racer is already a fun title which I’ll be playing for a while, but it feels like it could be much more. Here’s hoping for more levels coming, an extra game mode planned & the possibility of online multiplayer mode. If they’ve got any spare time, perhaps they can put iCloud synching on their to-do list too.

App Store Link: Lunar Racer, $0.99 (Universal)

TouchArcade Rating:

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Written by admin

January 11, 2012 at 17:15

‘Ticket to Ride Pocket’ – Popular iPad Board Game Now Available on iPhone

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Ticket to Ride is a popular board game created by board game gurus Days of Wonder. Back in May, Ticket to Ride [$6.99] was digitally converted into an iPad game, one which we thoroughly enjoyed in our review. Ticket to Ride had an excellent computer AI to play against, but the real fun was in playing another real life person. The iPad version contained a slick online multiplayer mode for up to 4 players, but was criticized for not having a local pass-n-play mode, something that should be a core element of any game based on a real life board game. Thankfully, pass-n-play did eventually come in an update a couple months following release, and there was much rejoicing.

Yesterday, Days of Wonder has gone and released an iPhone version of Ticket to Ride, dubbed Ticket to Ride Pocket [99¢]. Many iPad gamers, and of course non-iPad owning gamers, have been clamoring for a portable version of Ticket to Ride, so this release certainly should make quite a few people happy. However, Ticket to Ride Pocket has almost the exact opposite problems that its iPad counterpart had on release. It does contain a pass-n-play mode along with its single player, but does not contain an online multiplayer mode. Days of Wonder has stated this was a conscious decision, as they didn’t want to compromise the online experience with interruptions that are inherent to phones like incoming calls and spotty network coverage.

Besides lacking online play, Ticket to Ride Pocket also nixes the extra Europe and Switzerland maps from the iPad version, instead focusing on just the American map. This was another conscious decision by the developer, as they felt that the additional maps contained too much detail to be sufficiently playable on the smaller screen of the iPhone and iPod touch.

While Ticket to Ride Pocket is a more limited experience than the iPad version, it doesn’t make it a bad game at all. In fact, quite the opposite. The single player AI is quite good, and pass-n-play is adequate for when you have a friend close by. There’s also multiplayer over local WiFi or Bluetooth if you’re close by friend(s) happens to have their own device and copy of the game. Perhaps best of all is that the pocket edition is just 99¢ as of this writing.

I still think it would be nice to see online multiplayer and the additional maps added into the game, despite the developer’s concerns, and that may happens sometime down the line. But for the cheap price of entry, Ticket to Ride Pocket is a great mobile take on the board game that’s worth having a look at.

App Store Link: Ticket to Ride Pocket, $0.99

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Written by admin

November 17, 2011 at 21:15

Official ‘Minecraft Pocket Edition’ Releasing Worldwide Today

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We’ve still got our massive weekly traditional “coming tonight” post in the works, but the fanfare surrounding Mojang’s official (and universal) Minecraft Pocket Edition [$7.99] building on our forums is too great to ignore. Initial impressions seem positive, although some have noted disappointment with how limited the game feels compared to the “full” version. There’s no online play, for instance, only local WiFi, and your portable Minecraft worlds are devoid of both animals and creepers.

Like all of these mid-week release games, Minecraft Pocket Edition should be available for download at 11:00 PM Eastern, or potentially much earlier if you live east of North America. We’ll get a review up as soon as we can, but in the meantime, swing by our forums.

International App Store Link: Minecraft Pocket Edition, $7.99

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Written by admin

November 16, 2011 at 21:15

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