Blog Archive

After a recent SHMUP release (okay, not so recent. And they pretty much do SHMUPs exclusively), Cave is poised to drop another one on us. Kind of. Bug Princess 2 Black Label is more like a Director’s Cut than a real sequel, but it might just be the be-all-end-all version for series fans to get.

The key story and gameplay elements are exactly the same as the original Bug Princess 2. Make no mistake, however, there’s new stuff to justify the purchase. Even more bullets are included in this version, which is something I would never have considered possible but there it is. Players can also recreate a near arcade-perfect experience by slowing down the action (i.e. simulating processor strain). But by far the most interesting addition is the new Boss Rush Mode. All of the massive bosses from the first and second game are here, and high scores can be posted for bragging rights. There was also mention of an option to save progress, but details are still a little scarce at this point.

Bug Princess 2 Black Label has no definitive release date or price at the moment. Presumably it should be out in the next few months, and most likely sell for anywhere between $5 and $15 using Cave’s previous titles as a guide, but that’s all speculation. It is coming, though. And it’s looking like it’ll be glorious.

Fans of Temple Run from Imangi will recognize the mobile game tie-in for the upcoming Pixar movie, Brave. It’s an enhanced version of Temple Run set in the Scottish lands represented in the movie. Instead of playing an Indiana Jones type character, you now play as Merida, the red-haired and firey tempered teenage heorine of the movie.

In addition to the character changes in Temple Run: Brave, you will also find a new gaming mechanic added. Archery has been added to increase the gameplay complexity and provide another way to earn bonuses. In testing it last week, the addition of archery does add complexity to the gameplay yet doesn’t distract from the fun of the original.

While Temple Run is free, Temple Run: Brave will be $0.99. To offset the cost, players of Temple Run: Brave will get 2,500 coins, the in game currency, for power ups and character extras.

Pixar’s Brave hits theaters on June 21st. But you only have to wait a few more days for Temple Run: Brave. It hits the App Store on June 14th.

While not a replacement for Instagram, Facebook Camera is a good first step in this month+ old union of the two companies. Released today, Facebook camera looks to streamline the viewing of photos and the uploading of them.

The app allows you to apply simple filters to images, tag people, upload multiple images at once, and post a note about the group of photos you are uploading to your timeline.

In quickly testing Facebook camera, it’s a very well made app. Much better and more reliable than the main Facebook app for uploading images. Perhaps that is their plan? The only feature I was left missing was the ability to specify an album to upload images into.

Worth checking out if you upload images to Facebook regularly.

Not too long ago, Zombie Smash developer Game Doctors was acquired by Zynga. Their next game, merging of Zombie Smash with the Zynga casual game machine, the Zyngification if you will, has been announced, Zombie Swipeout.

The good news? It’s an interesting game. In our few minutes with it earlier this week, it seemed very enjoyable. It borrows heavily from Fruit Ninja yet makes a few interesting twists on the swipe-things-thrown-into-the-air genre. Then there’s the aforementioned Zyngification of the game. You earn coins while playing the game to buy upgrades and progress in the game, yet your progress is limited by your energy level. All of that can, of course, be bypassed by buying in-game goods with cold hard cash.

Wether the game suffers from this paywall method is yet to be seen. Game developers are good, how much and how often you can play are dynamic — so they can change it at any time. Their goal, of course, is to tune it to maximize revenue. To do that, they need to make sure they don’t annoy too many players.

Off my soap box for a bit, the game is actually very well done and I look forward to spending too much time playing it. Unfortunately it’s only out in Canada for another week or so for some final testing. But it will be hitting the rest of the world soon enough. Keep an eye out for it.

For over four years, the crew at TouchArcade have provided a great place to go for iOS game lovers. Earlier this year they unveiled their mobile site and they are now following that up with a wonderfully designed native iOS app. We have been taking it for a spin for the last couple weeks, here’s a quick look.

The Touch Arcade iOS app gives you great mobile access to the TA site content in a very well designed native iOS app. The reviews and news are there for quick access and reading on the go. Also included is a great reference for the past reviews, sortable by category, price, and rating. For the app-crazed, you can also turn on notifications to be notified every time a new post is published.

There’s also mobile access to the forums, the liveliest past of the TouchArcade site.

But by far the best feature is the Hot New Games section. Both in a sidebar of the main screen and in it’s own section, you see the games that people are talking about most on the Touch Arcade forums. A great way to get a quick look at games that may be new to you.

The Touch Arcade app is out now. If you are a mobile game lover, grab it!

Mini Motor Racing got a great four and a half stars in our review. And it’s just been updated to be even better with multiplayer support!

Take a killer top down racer with an extensive single player career mode and add in four player multiplayer and you end up with verison 1.5 of Mini Motor Racing. The great arcade racer from The Binary Mill. The multiplayer can be from 2 to 4 racers at a time and can include either your Gamce Center friends or random match-ups.

Not only has verison 1.5 added multiplayer, it’s also added a new circuit to the career mode with four new tracks and 12 new cars. That brings the total to 30 tracks and 18 different vehicles.

If you have the new iPad, the HD verison has been updated to support retina graphics in the game. A great top down racer is now even better. Grab it now if you haven’t tried it already.

Stitcher has always been a great app to go to for audio content. They have now implemented a new feature that allows then to create focus sections on a particular category. The first of these sections to launch will the a 2012 Presidential election that includes audio endorsed by the candidates themselves.

“The majority of Stitcher users listen to news and political content, so creating the Election Center was a natural step for us,” said Noah Shanok, CEO of Stitcher. “There’s an avalanche of coverage during election season and it can be tough to get the best information when you need it. We’re rolling out trending topics on demand, a first in the industry. We see this as part of our mission to further the evolution of radio by making it more relevant and accessible than ever.”

The new Election Center allows you to follow news about your candidate or candidates of choice. It also allows you to focus on particular sources or topics. Using transcription, Stitcher will allow you to search in the transcribed text of the audio features to find mentions of the topics you are interested in.

Election Center is just the first step. Expect to see Stitcher roll out the focus areas to other topics in the near future. But for now, the updated Stitcher with Election Center should be available now. Grab it at the link below.

It was a long wait but you can finally get your hands on it. Long after competitors Rdio, Mog, and Slacker released their iPad apps, nothing from Spotify. But it’s finally here, the Spotify iPad app, and it’s spectacular.

The iPad version of Spotify use the sliding panes interface that is becoming the defacto standard. If you have used Twitter for the iPad, you’ll be familiar with the style. The app is very well done providing easy access to all standard Spotify features. Looks like the wait was worth it.

If you are not familiar with Spotify, it’s an “All you can listen” music service. It gives you access to millions of tracks for a monthly fee of around $10. And much like any music player you can create playlists, repeat tracks, shuffle, etc. The one big feature that really sets Spotify apart from competitors is that you can integrate your music library with Spotify. So if there are tracks you have that they do not have the license to, you can still listen to them, all in the same place. It has, for me, pretty much taken the place of iTunes Music and iTunes Match.

Grab the new Spotify app at the link below. Do you use Spotify? What’s the feature that sets it apart from the others for you?

The first, and the most important thing to get out of the way is that N.O.V.A. 3 is NOT a freemium title. Gameloft have played the freemium waters, successfully at times, spectacular failures at other times. But let me repeat, N.O.V.A. 3 will not be a freemium title. There will be in-app purchases available for certain things, but they are not required to play or progress through the game. Whew. I know that takes a load off many core gamers minds.

N.O.V.A. 3 starts out with our hero, Kal Wardin, crash landing on Old Earth (in San Francisco no less), to find that the enemy Voltarites have invaded. In this first of 10 levels, you progress quickly, but as you’d expect building the game difficulty as you go. Starting out with just a pistol and gathering other weapons and equipment as you kill enemies and move through the level.

The story of what has happened builds as you move through the first level with very well done, fully voiced storyline played out in cutscenes. One difference noticed between this one and previous ones is that it just feels more natural. Even N.O.V.A. 2, as good as it was, felt way more contrived and scripted. N.O.V.A. 3 flows more naturally and just feels more professional. This installment is also has full retina support, even on the new iPad. That means it’s one gorgeous game.

To sum it up what you can expect in N.O.V.A. 3, it’s the great N.O.V.A. experience we expect, turned up to eleven. Better gameplay, better graphics, better script, and more of everything we have loved in the previous installments. Take a look at this teaser for a peak at what you can expect.

N.O.V.A. 3 also includes a 12 player multiplayer mode. The multiplayer is sure to be great with six different game modes. All of the weapons and vehicles are available in multiplayer.

While we weren’t able to test multiplayer in our preview time, it is a feature that I’m looking forward to as Gameloft has, in the past, done a good job with the multiplayer modes in their games.

N.O.V.A. 3 will be available in May. Check back and we’ll let you know as soon as it’s available.

Take a look at the following video for the first gameplay footage.

Hit the jump for a few more details on N.O.V.A. 3!

Continue reading N.O.V.A. 3 Hands-on Preview »

In some ways the original Shadowrun was a little before my time. Only a little, though. I was actually just too young to appreciate tabletop role playing games when I was eight. But I did appreciate the kick-ass SNES video game spin-off, and I even managed to come back to (and run) the pen and paper original in high school. Like many people I have very fond memories of street samurai and wage mages, so the news that Jordan Weisman (the original creator) plans to bring it back to PC, Mac, and tablets fills me with glee and makes me squeal like an excited school girl. Complete with jumping up and down repeatedly.

As is the apparently very successful trend right now, Harebrained Schemes has taken their idea to the Kickstarter community instead of a publisher. Ordinarily I’d try to rally the troops in an attempt to ensure that they meet their goal but that’s already happened. Like, a while ago. The developer is already at three times their goal to start working on the turn-based, player-driven RPG. That’s not to say that people should stop donating, though. If they can make another 200K or so (reaching 1.75 million) then Physical Adepts will be added. As one of many who have “seen” what physical adepts are capable of, this excites me.

The project still has a little over two days before it’s finished so we all have time to make our pledges. Virtually all of the game is pure speculation at this point, but I have every confidence in Mr. Weisman and his team. And I could not be looking forward to raiding mega corporations more.

[Via Kickstarter]

Hearing about an adventure/music/rpg is enough to pique my interest, and that’s exactly what Arman Bohn‘s Arranger is setting out to be. However, reading over a few of the more descriptive elements has gotten me more than interested. It’s gotten me downright excited, actually.

“The game is an Adventure/RPG that combines elements from classics like The Legend of Zelda, WarioWare and the original Sierra adventure games,” according to the developer. Now if that doesn’t get people’s attention then I suppose there’s no hope for the world. The mini-game laden adventure is looking pretty fantastic in a simple, retro-esque sort of way. Players will be controlling the tiny musician as they attempt to save the world in a less-then-typical fashion. Rather than direct combat or level-grinding, they’ll be gathering a number of musical instruments in order to craft a tune that will avoid whatever this particular catastrophe entails.

Arranger is still a little ways out, being slated for a Summer 2012 release, but it definitely looks like something to keep an eye on. If the trailer below is any indication, it just might be worth the wait. It’s also apparently going to have some great music.

Ever wonder what to do in case of a zombie outbreak? I know I have. I’ve got the plan all lined up, ready in case of attack. Living in a country where guns aren’t easily accessible limits my options but I have backup ideas, even if they are rather inspired by Dead Rising. Even better, soon there’ll be a way to simulate what would happen during such an outbreak.

Zombie Outbreak Simulator is the app I’m talking about. Previously a website, its aim is to track just what would happen if zombies emerged and started attacking humans.

As it’s a simulation, interaction is quite limited. Like on the website, users can adjust certain parameters then it’s just a matter of watching to see the action unfold. The preview build I checked out seems pretty complete and offers plenty of variables. Civilian numbers can be adjusted between 100 and 4000, with up to 1000 zombies available to unleash. Armed civilians can be assigned, along with police numbers. In both cases, accuracy can also play a vital role in their chance for survival so that can be adjusted. Any fan of zombie films knows that zombies react differently so infection time and speed can also be changed.

Together, this makes a pretty comprehensive spectrum of situations. The red dots representing zombies and green dots of humanity then descend upon the Google Map image, with users able to zoom in a bit further to see some of the action. Only one map was available in the preview build but I’m hopeful that the full release will enable Location Services so that players can check out how things work out in their local area. The website offers similar and it’s fun to see what happens.

No one would expect just watching action unfold to be quite so entertaining, but it is. I’m not sure how long the novelty will last but for now, it’s fun to see how adjusting certain numbers can change things so drastically. Even if, all too often, humanity appears to be doomed in this scenario.

Zombie Outbreak Simulator is set for release next week. We’ll be sure to give it the full review treatment nearer the time.

Lots of independent games get shown off at the Games Developer Conference each year. Some of them are entered in the Independent Games Forum, a special competition for indie games releasing on console, Mac/PC, or iOS. We were able to visit a few of these, listed below, and wanted to tell you all about them.

Lume
While our reviewer enjoyed the look of this game, she also said it felt kind of short. When I mentioned this to the developer at the demo kiosk, he agreed. He then went on to show me how they put this game together, with hand built sets and hand-held cameras panning through each level to give it the unique visual style it has. In addition, the planned additional levels look nothing short of brilliant and expansive, so this should be one to keep an eye on.

Pugs Luv Beats / Pug Synth
File this one under adorable, right next to hilarious. As a pug owner and fan myself, Pugs Luv Beats took my heart away. Each pug in the game represents a specific beat or musical motif, and adding hats and costumes changes the music and allows the pug to go farther and faster towards its goal. The game may be more about music performance with gaming elements, but it’s still a ton of fun to mess around with. Add the spin-off music app, Pug Synth, and I am sold.



Fingle
One thing missing from modern games, say the developers of Fingle, is touching. And not in a weird way, either. Fingle tasks two players to place their fingers onto an iPad at the same time, and solve puzzles by cooperating and, yes, touching fingers. It’s a unique and real-life-inspired game that’s making lots of waves. Imagine taking this to a party where that cute boy or girl you want to meet is hanging out. Oh, yeah.


Ridiculous Fishing
Developer Vlambeer (Super Crate Box) teamed up with Zach Gage (Bit Pilot) and artist Greg Wohlwend (Solipskier) to create this funky game where the goal is to avoid fish on the way down, and hook as many as possible on the way up, then shoot them all out of the sky. Yeah, it’s wacky. But super fun to play, of course. The couple of minutes I had to check it out made me glad I’d been able to stop by and play this all-star creation.

Faraway
I have to say that I wasn’t expecting to be emotionally invested in a game that looks like this, but the music and the loneliness of that poor star affected me in a fairly intense way. From Steph Thiron, the developer behind indie-darling Eliss, Faraway is a one-touch controlled, procedurally created game that puts players in the role of a lonely star in an empty universe, holding out hope that its quest will have meaning, in the end. Fantastic score, simple, elegant graphics define this one, and I can’t wait to play the whole thing.

ASYNC Corp
This one caught my eye as I walked by its kiosk at GDC. I was attracted to the clean lines, the happy little faces, and the puzzle look right from the start. Created by Powerhead Games, ASYNC Corp starts off a simple brain teaser, asking players to switch out and connect colored squares to create larger and larger rectangles. The conceit of the shipping center is a good one, and helps get the game idea across to the player fairly quickly.

Waking Mars
What’s left to be said about this beautiful game from the makers of award-winning Spider, The Secret of Bryce Manor? Quite a bit, apparently, as I stood and talked with the lead art designer for the game. He made sure I knew that he created the concepts behind the art, but the actual paintings were done by “real artists.” Whatever, dude, the game is gorgeous. Also? this is the first time I’ve heard the term “action-gardening adventure.”


Beat Sneak Bandit – Winner of Best Mobile Game
Rhythm games are super fun. Stealth games are, too. Put them together, and you’ve got Beat Sneak Bandit, from Simogo. Our reviewer dug this one, so I gave it a quick try at the conference. Whoo, boy it IS fun. The artwork is stylish and cute, and the music is, obviously, beat heavy and catchy. Tapping to the beat to move my little guy to the clocks in the level was enjoyable and had me feeling pretty talented, two great ways to keep me playing a game.


Two other games that I did NOT have a chance to play (I didn’t see them on the expo floor, really) are English Country Tune and Storyteller, the winner of the Nuovo prize. For more details on all the games entered into the contest, including the finalists and winners, see the main page here.

We had the chance to sit down with Adam Saltsman last week at GDC to ostensibly talk about The Hunger Games, the upcoming movie tie in game from Semi Secret Software`, the folks that brought us indie darling and commercial hit, Canabalt as well as Gravity Hook.

It didn’t quite work out that way.

Lucky for us, Adam may be the nicest crazy-smart person around. He seemed genuinely upset that he wasn’t able to talk The Hunger Games (maybe next week, he promised us), but also equally enthusiastic about the game he’s currently developing with Greg Wohlwend, the developer behind Solipskier, another critical darling of the iOS gaming scene.

Currently named Hundreds, the game app is a mathematical, physics, puzzle…er…thing. It’s beautifully designed with lots of red and white, with levels chosen by swiping a finger across a matrix of white dots.

Once inside the chosen level, the player must figure out how to grow the number circles to add up to 100, without touching each other, obstacles, or more vicious extra pieces. Each level is a mini-education in itself, as Saltsman spends an inordinate amount of time creating each level so that it can be figured out without a tutorial or instructions. This has got to be difficult, especially when we’re talking about the hundred levels or so included in the game.

We played a few levels with Adam looking over our shoulder, and I remain impressed with the advanced level design and brilliant unspoken, unwritten pedagogy built into each one. Saltsman showed us his notebook full of illustrations and written notes about the levels to be included in Hundreds–this is a man who is at the top of his design game, and it shows.

While we learned nothing about The Hunger Games app on our visit, we came away with a new appreciation for game design and this genuine, kind human being with a notebook full of awesome and a new baby. Thanks again, Adam, for a lovely chat.

Even with all the praise the Infinity Blade series has gotten since its introduction, there’s usually one major complaint people have: there’s no freedom of movement. A rather silly gripe seeing as open-world style exploration isn’t the point (plus it would be ridiculously taxing on the hardware with those graphics), but it’s still probably the most common one seen in user reviews and the like. Infinity Blade: Dungeons has no such movement restrictions. It’s also a fairly major departure from the gameplay series fans are used to.

Infinity Blade: Dungeons takes place thousands of years before the events in the first game, with players taking control of a weaponsmith on a quest to forge the legendary sword that’s at the center of it all. At its core, it’s a dungeon crawler. No more tapping from point-to-point and watching cutscenes and no more one-on-one bouts. Enemies can and will swarm and the player character can and will destroy them mightily with plenty of fast-paced combat and AOE (area of effect) strikes. And of course, being a weaponsmith means there will also be crafting. No word yet on what that would entail, specifically, but it’s going to be in there.

Infinity Blade: Dungeons is due out later this year (no specific date or price, naturally). It’s looking like it’ll be available across most iOS platforms, but will look its best on the iPad 2 as expected.

Holy crap. No, seriously, holy crap. Pixowl Inc, in collaboration with Bulkypix, are poised to unleash something major on the App Store. It might look like a simple toy at first, but make no mistake: The SandBox is packing some seriously intense concepts behind that cute facade.

When The SandBox first caught my attention, I thought it looked like a nifty little pixelated world-building game. In a way, it kind of is. However, I was thoroughly unprepared for just how many different aspects of this created world could be manipulated. Water will flow down hills, erode stone into sand, turn dirt into fertile soil, evaporate in extreme heat and freeze in extreme cold. Flowers and trees can grow. Weather will develop based largely on the environment. Players can even make rudimentary circuits to do anything from heating to creating light.

The SandBox is still very much in beta at the moment, but that’s no reason not to get excited. What’s already implemented is pretty amazing, actually. A lot of specifics are still up in the air, such as the final number of “story” levels (currently around 20), price and release date. It’s kind of a shame because this is all so cool, but then again it’s probably best not to rush things. Although the super-curious or anxious can try to get in to the beta. No guarantees, though. Regardless, be sure to keep an eye out for The SandBox whenever it does hit the App Store.

I make no secret of the fact that I am seriously addicted to Ticket to Ride on iOS. Of all the designer board games currently rushing to the App Store, none is as polished in presentation and gameplay as TtR. Unbelievably, the translation from analogue to digital is seamless.

Yet, something has been missing from the iPhone version of the game, Ticket to Ride Pocket.

Until now, that is.

Version 1.1 has just be released to the App Store and it contains what many fans (including me) have been waiting for: Multi Mode. Is Multi Mode true online play or something more akin to Words With Friends-style asynchronous play? From my experience, the answer is both.

Multi Mode is designed primarily to be played in asynchronous mode, with players taking turns at their whim over the course of hours, days, or even weeks. However, my experience has shown that many online players prefer to simply play their game online in real time, and Multi Mode easily accommodates that choice. So, it’s the best of both worlds: head-to-head play when time permits, and asynchronous play for when it doesn’t.

In fact, the straight-up multiplayer version of the game is preferable, as turns in Ticket to Ride can be very short indeed. While I don’t want to imply that there are no strategic choices to be made in the game (quite the opposite, actually), the time it takes to play a turn is miniscule compared to a turn in Scrabble or Words with Friends. Asynchronous play is a welcome addition, but you may find yourself playing more than one game in real time.

If you’ve never heard of Ticket to Ride (gasp!) or never played TtR Pocket, I urge you to take a moment and read our glowing review of the game when it was released. Then, take the plunge and start building your railroad empire. I’ll meet you online. My Gamecenter user name is Skinnerbox. Challenge me to a game anytime!

The darkness is coming. It won’t give up. Ever. The only option is to run. Dodge obstacles, plan ahead and only resort to direct conflict when there’s absolutely no other choice. But most importantly: Never. Stop. Running.

InterWave Studios, in collaboration with EVENT Interactive, is bringing one of the best indie runners this side of Canabalt to iOS. rComplex is a beautifully stylized runner with a story. One that will only fully reveal itself to those with the fortitude and reflexes to brave all seven of the world’s environments. Players control a nameless “running man” as he jumps, ducks, dodges and sprints from his seemingly omniscient pursuer.

Aside from looking super-awesome (no, really, look at those screens!) it also offers up a bit more variety than a standard runner. Each level involves running of a sort, certainly, but some use close-quarters to up the tension while others utilize lane-changing motorcycle chases. Plus there’s that story I mentioned that can be uncovered through a combination of progress and item/secret discovery.

There’s no official price announcement yet, but rComplex is due out at the end of February. All things considered, I don’t think I mind having to wait another month to get some hands-on time. I’m fairly certain it’ll be worth it.

It’s a series that may not be as insanely popular as other Capcom franchises, but it’s certainly no less loved by its fans. The Ace Attorney series is about to get its fifth title – only in Japan thus far and no confirmed platform, no other details are available at present – but it seems like the developer is also interested in giving the series’ roots some love. Andriasang has reported that they’ve also announced Ace Attorney 123HD, an HD remake of the first three Ace Attorney games (back when they were called Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney) for iOS and other platforms.

The original has already been brought to iOS, but it was pretty much a straight port. Once this Turnabout HD is released (sorry, couldn’t resist) anyone who owns this port can upgrade to the HD version. For everyone else, they can download the first two episodes/turnabouts for free then unlock more via in-app purchases. The prospect of digging into HD renditions of some of my favorite Nintendo DS games (all conveniently located in one place no less) has me very, very excited.

There’s no confirmed release date yet, but Capcom says Ace Attorney 123HD should be available “shortly.” Gotta love that intentionally obscure information.

[Via: Andriasang]

At Macworld | iWorld this week, OmniGroup leader Ken Case showed off the end cap to the suite of iPad applications his company released right after the iPad was announced. OmniPlan, a popular desktop project management app, is now available for the iPad.

Featuring all of the main features you would need while pouring over project plans in meetings or while on the go, OmniPlan is the mobile cousin to the desktop app of the same name. While the version we saw isn’t finished, it already shows an impressive interface with the familiar gantt chart interface and support for multiple project plans. All of this data syncs back to the desktop version of OmniPlan.

No current release date or price is known, but the price will probably hit around $39.99 if past OmniGroup app pricing is an indication.

Hit the jump for more screenshots and we’ll let you know when this app hits the App Store.

Continue reading OmniPlan for iPad First Look »

The iOS Moffee experience seems to be a bit of a mixed bag, what with the somewhat lackluster response to their dice app and the fun-but-flawed nature of TheColossusAge. Well if early impressions are any indication, the bag is going to get decidedly full of more awesome once they release The Temple of Ogrosh.

In a nutshell, The Temple of Ogrash is meant to be a gamebook set in the Moffee universe. For those without any prior experience with the genre, try to think of it as a choose-your-own-adventure book with major RPG elements such as an inventory system and dice combat. At the moment there isn’t a whole lot of info to go on but I can reiterate some of the tidbits from the press release. The game will include five chapters, each at about 130 pages apiece, for a total of 650 possible pages of gamebooking. There will indeed be an inventory, as well as experience, sleep and hunger systems. Combat will still involve dice rolling like most gamebooks, but will also feature element attacks (fire, ice, poison, etc…) and a ton of possible weapon combinations (1920, plus unique items). Add to all of that the inclusion of multiple enemies, difficulty levels, several heroes and actual animations (ANIMATIONS, guys!) and this is looking like one heck of an awesome thing.

The Temple of Ogrosh is still a ways out. No pricing or release info has been made available yet, but judging by the checklist in the press release it’s roughly around the halfway mark. We’ll do our best to keep everyone up-to-date on this glorious-looking adventure.

With not one but two popular MMORPGs under their belt already, one would think that Spacetime Studios might be interested in taking a little break. Nope. DroidGamers have discovered that, rather than simply being content with resounding success they’ve decided it’s time to make yet another one. It’s planned for mobile devices, it’s going to be “… a bit of a departure from the formula that Pocket Legends established,” and its called Dark Legends.

I wish I had more info to share about it, but after checking the initial forum announcement, their official Facebook page and the completely unhelpful teaser site (I know, what else could I expect from a teaser site?) I’ve come up with zip. Well okay, that’s not entirely true. It’s fair to assume that it’ll probably have a somewhat darker theme than either of the developer’s previous titles. It’s also looking like Spacetime will be refining their Massively Multiplayer craft even further, and given the leap in quality from Pocket Legends to Star Legends it’s certainly something to be excited about.

148apps will no doubt be keeping an eye out for further developments. In the meantime, I’d advise being patient. Or possibly keeping busy with one (or both) of those other mobile MMOs while waiting. Patiently.

[Via DroidGamers]

In a move that’s not entirely unexpected, another popular Facebook title is being brought over to iOS devices. Bulkypix, in collaboration with Kobojo, are adapting PyramidVille for Apple devices. Dubbed PyramidVille Adventure this time around.

This is looking to be more than a mere straight port, however. While the developers have indeed carried the Ancient Egyptian city-building and citizen-gathering mechanics over, they’ve gone and added some new stuff as well. Players will be able to find special items that allow them to build special structures such as the Great Sphinx, as well as take part in a new collection of mini-games that can actually reduce the amount of real-time waiting required for various actions. And, of course, the entire interface has been redesigned for iOS with touch controls and the like.

Those looking to become the next Ramses (or Cleopatra!) will still have to wait a bit before they can experience the 6 million player strong Facebook phenomena on the go. PyramidVille Adventure isn’t set to come out for another month or so, towards the tail end of January. It’ll be free-to-play, and universal, so once it does come out there won’t be much of a reason to avoid it. Aside from the obvious ones like “free time” and “loved ones” anyway.

iMAME has hit the App Store — but for how long? Rarely has an emulator been allowed in the App Store, only when it has been tightly controlled have we seen them. That’s why it’s most surprising that the most popular emulator of all time shows up in it’s i-device glory, iMAME.

MAME traditionally offers emulations for literally thousands of coin-op arcade games – mainly classic ones, but still pretty amazing. This build includes support for iCade. Put this thing on your iPad, with a few thousand roms, slip it into your iCade and reach classic gaming nirvana.

If classic gaming is your thing, I highly suggest you grab it right this very second, if not sooner. It can’t last long.

Update: For those of you looking to, ahem, get more out of iMAME, check the source link below at Touch Arcade for all you need to know. Woo hoo! Classic gaming Christmas!

[via: Touch Arcade]

The team behind the great Hipstamatic artistic photography app today revealed a new app that brings the disposable camera into the digital age. Releasing Thursday, the new Hipstamatic’s D-Series app allows a group of friends to share a 24 exposure digital roll of film across multiple devices.

D-Series has the same retro camera hardware feel and pixel perfect design that the original Hipstamatic app has. D-Series adds an interesting social slant by allowing a group of friends to share a virtual roll of film. One user starts off by selecting the camera to use and inviting friends. From there the invited photographers start shooting and each user sees a shared shot count. Once all shots have been taken, and only once all shots have been taken, all invited users get to see the shots taken.

I got a chance to try out the new app and can report that Hipstamatic D-Series does indeed bring back the nostalgic memories of sharing a disposable camera and swapping double prints into the digital age. It’s a great idea and well executed. There’s even the anxious need to burn the last shot by taking a picture of your foot, just to get the roll developed quicker. It’s indeed very fun.

And this app wouldn’t be a Hipstamatic app without the unique selection of cameras and films that it is so well known for. When you download the app there will be one unlimited use camera included. Link up your Facebook account and you’ll get a second infinite use camera. Beyond that you’ll have the opportunity to buy unique limited use cameras as well. The way this works in a group is that just one user needs the camera for all to be able to use it.

Synthetic Corp previously released the 2010 App of the Year, Hipstamatic, one of my favorite photography apps Incredibooth (an old style photo booth simulator), and Swankolab (think Instamatic for any photo).

Hipstamatic’s D-Series will be released tomorrow in the App Store. Check our Twitter stream for a link once it goes live. Check out this (unfortunately non-embeddable) video for more details and the photo gallery below THAT for a bunch of photos from the new app.

Not so long ago, Tin Man Games announced a project with 2000 AD – an announcement that would cause nerd-muscles to spasm uncontrollably in comic book/gamebook/role playing geeks all over the internet. Judge Dredd is getting his own Gamebook Adventure.

Holy crap.

There are very few details available at this time, what with it being just announced and all, but it’s going to be a Gamebook Adventure. Only set in the Judge Dredd universe and all that. So plenty of choices, equipment, branching paths, dice-oriented combat and so on. About the only specific things I do know is that it’s set to release in “Q2 2012″ for both the iPad and iPhone, and it’ll cost $4.99. There might be some kind of sale at launch if the recent release of Temple of the Spider God is any indication, but that’s pure speculation at this point.

Regardless, this is exciting news! I know I’m looking forward to a tabletop-styled quest through Mega City One. Anyone else?

Buttonless: Incredible iPhone and iPad Games and the Stories Behind Them is coming out December 21 (and available for pre-order now) to bookstores and online retailers everywhere. It’s a book about iOS games and their stories by Ryan Rigney, a freelance journalist who has covered the video-game industry from every angle for publications and sites including Gamasutra, PC Gamer and GamePro. We managed to talk with him for a bit about the inspirations for the book, among other things. Click through to the post for the interview AND an exclusive chapter from the upcoming book, all about Fruit Ninja.

Continue reading Get the Inside Scoop And An Exclusive Fruit Ninja Chapter from Buttonless »

Peanuts has got to be one of, if not the, most recognizable American cartoon strips in history. Not just the comic, either. Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown is one of those holiday classics that just has to be seen. It’s a staple of every Santa-loving child’s holiday. Suffice it to say, Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the rest of those not-quite troublemakers are a huge part of American culture.

They’ve been around a long time. Long enough, in fact, to have spawned more than a couple video game iterations. Now it’s time for the unnaturally bald man-child and his friends to try their luck on iOS with Snoopy’s Street Fair. I’ll admit I was somewhat surprised and confused by the odd choice of gameplay style at first, but after only a few seconds of that trailer down there I’ve completely changed my tune. I’m legitimately excited for this game.

Peanuts and a freemium “city” building game… Who in their right mind would have ever thought that would work? Players will help Charlie Brown and friends (21 characters in all) set up a street fair in the neighborhood, with all manner of stalls and other street fair things. Notable characters such as Linus, Lucy and more can also be recruited to run the kiosks and attractions. Of course, these all earn money that can be used to acquire better stuff, etc…

An interesting spin to the whole idea is Snoopy himself. The mischievous beagle will wander the neighborhood and cause all manner of light-hearted trouble. Depending on his current costume (such as the Beagle Scout) he’ll interact with the environment in various ways, and each of the three outfits unlocks a unique themed minigame.

There are also a bunch of collectibles to keep players doing what they do best while steadily earning income to build more structures to earn more income and so on. With over two-dozen trading cards and 45 original cartoon strips, well it’s got plenty of carrots to dangle. And through it all, the classic Peanuts style shines through with artwork faithful to Charles M. Schulz’s illustrations and “official voice talent.” Official voice talent (!).

Snoopy’s Street Fair will be setting up shop in the App Store November 17th. I’m calling it right now: unless there’s hypothetically some kind of insane bug (which I doubt), this game is going to do very, very well. Because everyone loves Snoopy and the rest of the Peanuts troupe.

We got a chance to go hands on with a few new titles from Ubisoft. Let’s take a look at the most casual title, Monster Burner.

Monster Burner is a casual puzzle shooter where you send fireballs up the screen to burn the advancing monsters. Part Puzzle Bobble, part Space Invaders, Monster Burner has 40 levels, power-ups (spells), and enough interesting social features to keep you interested for a while.

In our short look at the app, due out next week on November 3rd, we were pretty impressed. The game offers an interesting take and we’re looking forward to the release.

I must admit I was more than a little surprised to see this game on iOS. It’s a pretty big hit on the Wii and I know a lot of kids both young and old that really love it. How can a Wii-Motion game / rhythm game translate to iOS? So far, pretty well.

The idea of The Michael Jackson Experience is that you are MJ, dancing away to his greatest hits. In try rhythm game fashion, you trigger events at key beats in the song. These events can be slide left, right, taps, and curve etc. The harder the level, the more events you need to trigger. All timed to and set to everyone’s favorite Michael Jackson songs. This version of the game is a port from the PSP Vita version. And while the final list of songs to be included is still being negotiated, you can expect all of the greatest hits here when it releases.

No release date or price has been set, but we’re really looking forward to this one. Take a look at the video of the Wii version below for a fairly good idea of what to expect from the iOS port.