iPhone App - Designed for iPhone, compatible with iPad
Gamesmold, developer of games like Puzzle Dozer and Cart Cow, has schedule the release for their upcoming 3-D runner, Blood Roofs, for next month.
Gameplay looks similar to recent hit, Temple Run. The player controls the runner by tilting the iOS device left and right to avoid obstacles and jumps by tapping the left side of the screen. In addition, the running character is carrying another female character that can fire her gun at incoming monsters by tapping the right side of the screen.
The game has some high quality 3-D graphics but the developers claim that it will work on some older devices such as the iPhone 3GS and iPad 1. According to comments on YouTube from the developers, it uses the Unity game engine. Also, the pricing isn’t fixed but it “won’t be too expensive.”
The storyline is supposedly inspired by H. P. Lovecraft. There’s a glimpse of a huge monster bursting out of a large building at the end of the trailer attached below.
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After launching on Xbox Live Arcade in 2009 and making the long, slow burn over to the Windows Phone 7 platform in 2010, Codeglue’s twin-stick shooter Rocket Riot has finally landed on iOS, courtesy of Chillingo.
I could make an attempt to explain Rocket Riot’s “story’ to the reading audience out there, but by the time I finished relating this nonsensical tale of stolen legs, blocky pirates and butt-mounted jetpacks I would likely have been hauled off in a straightjacket, thus rendering me unable to finish the review proper. So let’s just say some crazy stuff happens that requires the player to hoist a bazooka, strap on one of those jet-butt devices and blow the living crap out of, well, everything.
Seriously. Everything.
The game’s stages, presented in a very neat, pseudo-3D style, are all fully destructible, with bursts of pixels cascading as each rocket tears chunks out of the surrounding structures. However, there’s more incentive to smash these levels to bits than mere visceral thrills, as hidden inside the various environments are a variety of power blocks. I hesitate to call them “power-ups,” though, as roughly a quarter of the 20 blocks offered have detrimental effects and another quarter are mere cosmetic effect changes (rainbow particle effects, firing soccer balls instead of rockets, etc.). Just keep in mind that the blocks are mostly color coded, avoid the red ones, and things should be okay.
Three different control schemes are offered, but I found the onscreen virtual stick setup to be the best, most intuitive option. The movement controls are carried out relative to wherever the player’s left thumb plops down and although the right side is limited to a defined circle for aiming and firing, it’s so generously sized that I never found myself scrambling back to reposition my thumbs. It just works, transparently fading away to the point where I forgot that the controls were even there. And that’s always a good feeling.
Objectives shift over the variously themed stages by including different match types. Most of the time players will be blasting a set number of enemies in arena deathmatches, but the pacing occasionally gets changed up with detours through Destroy the Object levels or a quick Rugby Riot match, which requires a number of goals to be scored by carrying a ball through goal posts. Nothing hugely innovative or different here, but it serves as a nice palate cleanser for when just blasting hordes of pirates/zombies/what-have-you gets a little old.
While the omnipresent theme song may get a bit grating and it sadly lacks the multiplayer modes of the original Xbox version, Rocket Riot still serves up plenty of good, mindless, destructive fun and bizarre quirky charm. Warm up those jet-butts and check it out.
This week at 148Apps, once we were all finished with our Halloween and post-Halloween merriment, writer Lisa Caplan explored the vast landscape of camera replacement apps for the iPhone. Caplan writes, "Apple has done a lot to improve the native camera app with iOS 5 and lucky iPhone 4S owners are already taking the highest quality iPhone images ever. But, even with the tune up, many of the most requested features from manual adjustments to photo bursts, darkroom effects to more sharing options (Facebook anyone?) are still lacking. But, the app store is filled with alternatives so this week we look at our favorite four camera replacement apps."
Over at our kid's apps headquarters, GiggleApps, Amy Solomon took a closer look at an innovative 3D comic book called The Gwaii. Solomon states, "This app does have some 3D effects as well that are best seen as one moves the device, looking at the additional angles that this provides. The 3D here is effective but somewhat overly sensitive to touch and there have been moments that I wish I would have turned this element off, trying to keep my hand steady to minimize the screen movements. I think this effect may be a distraction for some children, while others may really enjoy this effect."
Finally, AndroidRundown featured an article by Carter Dotson that attempted to address the iOS versus Android ongoing argument head-on. Dotson says, "The thing to remember, though, is that Android and iOS are different in their very natures. iOS is a piece of Apple software, following Apple principles; it is designed to run on specific hardware. That is a big part of why the experience is often smoother. Android is designed to run on many, many forms of hardware, not just what Google has intended for it to run on. Yes, Google has their stock devices that run a pure Android, but Android is meant to be something bigger, and not as something tailored to one set of hardware. That Android is on the caliber of Android is impressive."
That is the week that was. What started with Halloween ended with the first onslaught of holiday commercials on television, so keep your eye on 148Apps.com and our Facebook and Twitter streams for the latest reviews and helpful hints to get you through the holiday season. See you next week, readers!
A great idea that comes up slightly short in practice, Helium Boy is still one of the few original 3D platformers in the App Store that deserves your attention.
This week at 148Apps.com, writer Blake Grundman offered part one of his developer interview with the folks behind Squishy's Revenge, Toy Studio. Grundman writes, "Despite only having been in existence since September of 2009 the team working behind the scenes at Toy Studio have been hard at work, churning out an impressive thirteen games in that short span. Having successfully released titles on both the Nook Color and Facebook, it seemed like the next logical step was to transition into the iOS space."
Read the rest of part one at 148Apps.com, and keep checking in for parts two and three soon.
Over at 148Apps.biz, founder Jeff Scott reported on Unity's big announcement at Unite11. Scott says, "Shown during the Unite11 keynote, Unity 3.5 includes lots of new, very impressive sounding features like Multi-threaded rendering, Improved occlusion culling, and Radiosity Normal Mapping lightmaps. All in all, about 40 major new features. I’m thinking this will make some developers very happy — and me, as a game player will reap the benefits! For a full list of new features in Unity 3.5, check out the press release."
Read more about the big announcement on 148Apps.biz.
GiggleApps writer Amy Solomon contributed a review of Snap and Share Kids Cam, stating, "I take a lot of photos of my son, who will also now ask me to take a snapshot many times of things he finds amusing, sometimes asking me to email them to family members. This app easily allows a child his age to take and send photos himself, as this app is very simple to use and contains nice spoken prompts explaining each event leading up to the emailing of photos. So easy to use in fact, that I plan to use it myself as this application is surely quicker than taking a picture, finding it on the camera roll, tapping to email, typing the recipient’s email address and tapping again to send the email on its way."
And thus we come to another weekly round-up of 148Apps network goodness. There's so much more to see on the various sites, so check them out for yourself - and don't forget to follow our Twitter and Facebook feeds for daily news updates and contests galore. See you next time.
3D screens have come a heck of a long way in recent years. Once seen as a gimmicky technology that never quite achieved the desired affect, they're now taking over the technological world. 3D screens at the cinema work great with the current biggest film at the box office being a 3D version of classic Disney flick, The Lion King. 3D TVs are spreading throughout people's living rooms and even the handheld world benefits from the Nintendo 3DS and its glasses-less 3D capabilities. Now the potential of 3D reaches iOS devices courtesy of the CineXPlayer.
The potential is pretty impressive with users being able to watch 3D movies on their iPad with or without 3D glasses. The CineXPlayer software supports viewing with regular standard glasses, otherwise known as anaglyph (red/blue) glasses. These work by providing different images to the left and right eye through different colored filters. Another option is thanks to a partnership with GRilli3D. Users can also watch without glasses thanks to the GRilli3D protective filter on the screen that provides the glasses-free experience by placing a series of 'barrier lines' across the display, thus blocking different parts of the image to each eye. This 3D filter sheet is available for about $30.
Even more exciting is the potential for converting 2D imagery to 3D courtesy of CineXPlayer's real-time conversion capabilities which can generate a 3D effect for any Xvid video file. CineXPlayer's 3D capabilities also work with 3D content from 3D cameras providing a well rounded experience for those users keen to embrace all things 3D.
To further enhance such technological innovations, come October 28th, CineXPlayer will be updated with AC3 (Dolby Mobile) support making it the first app with official Dolby support. Impressive stuff, indeed, and a mere glimpse of what the future could hold for handheld technology.
CineXPlayer is available now for $2.99 with an in-app purchase for $1.99 to enable 3D support.
The original HoloToy was a fun little app that could simulate 3D in pictures by tracking the accelerometer movement of your phone. Tilt the phone to the right and your image looks like you are viewing it from the right side. The effect is pretty darn cool, especially when you really get into making your own pictures into holograms.
HoloToy's newest update, version 1.07, takes the concept and adds a sprinkle of iPhone 4 awesomeness. Instead of just being able to change your viewing angle with the accelerometer, HoloToy now uses your front facing camera to change the image angle depending on where your head is looking. It almost gives you the feeling that you can peer around images to see what's behind them.
HoloToy's creator Ben Hopkins had this to say. "Since release it's been great watching peoples reactions to HoloToy. As soon as I heard the iPhone 4 had a front facing camera I knew that this would be the next big HoloToy feature. Moving the device and seeing the 3D scenes move as expected is surprising, moving your head and seeing the 3D scenes move as expected is magical!".
While Ben's comment ("it's been great watching peoples reactions") may lead me to believe that he is personally watching me through my camera, his statement about the technology being magical rings true. The face tracking isn't perfect, but if someone could perfect this we could finally see the end to those silly looking 3D glasses.
We’re getting excited about an upcoming racing game for iPhone called Cubed Rally Racer. Jared Bailey, creator of DuckNCover for iPhone, has submitted his latest app which, from the look of the trailer below, could be an addictive slice of fun for your iPhone. The app is described as a 3D isometric rally car racing game and Jared says “Think Dirt meets RC Pro-Am meets Canabalt”. If this turns out to be true we can see ourselves getting hooked!
Cubed Rally Racer features randomly generated levels and sees the user play for best times while picking up gas cans scattered across each track. The game has a nice retro 8-bit look with exciting curves and jumps and will also offer OpenFeint connectivity as well as Facebook and Twitter integration.
Cubed Rally Racer has been submitted to the App Store and will cost $1.99 so check out the video below and keep tabs on www.nocanwin.com for news of the game’s launch.
