Tag: $6.99 »

Cowbell Hero released back in January of this year, and is already in need of help to renew its music license for its songs. The company has launched a new Kickstarter campaign to raise the funds needed, which explains why they need the money so soon.

"The commercial music was licensed for three years. By the time the game became available on the App Store, about two years of the contracts had already passed," as said on the Kickstarter page.

Cowbell Hero is a rhythm game that features songs like “Down on the Corner”, “Hair of the Dog”, and “(Don’t Fear) the Reaper”, along with 11 classic rock songs from the 70's and 15 originals. Check out the Kickstarter campaign by clicking here.

It's time to stop the dreams and start the driving! 2K Drive is now available on the App Store at a premium price of $6.99. Drivers can take part in both single and multiplayer race modes and can choose from over 25 vehicles to race with in over 25 different tracks.

“2K Drive was designed to offer the most comprehensive driving simulation experience in today’s mobile market,” said Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K. “The game successfully combines the appeal of a premier console racing game with some of the leading automotive editorial content available on the Web, to create an all-inclusive entertainment hub for auto-enthusiasts.”

Now go put your face in the game! Literally. Or at least check out the new launch trailer!

So, there is a new Call of Duty game that arrived on iOS today. Yeah, it pretty much came out of no where. Almost as if it were a "ghost!"

It's called Call of Duty: Strike Team and it's been built from the ground up for mobile devices. Pocket Gamer reports that it features both third-person and first-person viewpoints that can be used throughout a campaign and survival mode.

Call of Duty: Strike Team enables the player to switch out of the first-person view when things calm down on the battlefield and use third-person for missions that require a little bit of recon for coordinated squad based attacks. Wow, I pretty much just mentioned Call of Duty, Battlefield, and Ghost Recon in one sentence. Ok, I really need to play it now!

Players are able to customize their squad's weapons, perks, and body armor so that they can build a team that fits them best. It's probably important since players are going to be traveling all over the world while experiencing many cinematic moments which are surely full of explosions and chaos. There is only one thing that seems to be missing - multiplayer! What the shazbot is up with that? At least there is a leaderboard for survival mode...

Minecraft – Pocket Edition has seen a brand new update which adds the sun, the moon, and the stars. That sounds so beautiful! Players of the pocket edition will also find double chests [Editor's Note: FINALLY!], quartz slabs, and improvements made to many realms.

I think this means that it's time to return to building. So get back to it, crafters!

Whenever zombies and/or mutants have overrun the Earth, iOS gamers are always more than happy to take to the streets and start blasting. However, they haven't had many opportunities to do so with friends. That's why James Petty, president of Action Mobile Games, and the rest of the development team have been working on 2013: Infected Wars. They're hoping to push the limits of what iOS gamers have come to expect from their action games, and James was gracious enough to answer a few of our questions about their soon-to-be-released project.

148Apps: What made you decide to create a co-op action game as opposed to a more typical single player affair?
James Petty (JP): There were a few reasons for that. One, it has never been done before on mobile so I wanted us to do something new and fun to try and stand out. Two, I thought it would be really well received by the community since playing multiplayer is always more fun. Three, because it is so difficult to pull off; my hope was Apple would feature us in the App Store at release.

148Apps: I was also wondering just how big the environments might be. Are there multiple paths to explore?
JP: They are not as big as some of the huge PC or console hits that many of us are familiar with. There are different paths you can take to some extent but we had to be creative to allow for the large number of creatures spawned at any given time. I wanted to make sure the player felt like the world was covered with infected. Most people probably don't notice, but on mobile each unique creature takes a ton of resources which is why many games with higher end graphics will cap them at 3 or so. This wouldn't work at all if we wanted to create hordes of enemies. So we were able to optimize the Unreal Engine to such an extent that we can have around 10 at any given time and have some amazing graphics to boot. With our custom spawn system you often don't even notice the cap as we can have another enemy spawn as soon as one dies to really give you the feeling of an enemy 'horde'.

148Apps: It looks like there’s a good mix of classes available (Field Support, Marine, Sniper, Sapper). Do you find that some compliment others better, and was it tough to balance them out?
JP: Yes, this was extremely tough to balance out. It would have been easy to just get rid of the classes and have a bunch of weapons but I think that removes some of the depth you can achieve when you get to choose a strategy and see if it works. The field support in my opinion is the easiest class to master, and I suggest this for any player who isn't as experienced with mobile gaming. The sniper and Sapper are the most challenging and work better in multiplayer.

148Apps: What sort of persistent character progression can we expect in 2013: Infected Wars? Do the characters actually learn skills or become more powerful, or is it more of a rank-based system that unlocks new gear?
JP: There is no gear unlocking in 2013: Infected Wars; instead, the more money you earn from killing infected and the less you die the more money you have. However each class gets benefits with certain weapon types, and as you level up the weapons in that class become more affordable. You also get unique bonuses for each class but there isn't a special move per say. The game is designed to offer fun replayability and you are meant to die. If you challenge players and they realize a mistake is going to cause them to die, lose weapons, and then have to try a mission again it really ups the intensity. I believe the mobile gaming community is really wanting a challenge and I stand 100% by 2013: Infected Wars being the most challenging mobile shooter that will be in the App Store.

148Apps: What would you consider to be 2013: Infected Wars’ most significant feature?
JP: Definitely the fact we have a true full co-op campaign with a ton of content and true hordes of zombies and other infected to kill. And larger than life bosses that actually move around. This has never been done on mobile before and I really hope the community enjoys it. In fact we are already working on our first new content update before the game even hits the App Store.

We'd like to thank James again for taking the time to answer our questions. If you're anxious to get your co-op mutant blasting on, keep an eye out. 2013: Infected Wars should be hitting the App Store within the next couple of weeks and set you back $6.99. Expect a full review from 148Apps when it does!