Tag: Cat-In-A-Box Games »

Some of my favorite all time iOS games - made by Cat in a Box Games - have been updated for iOS 7, the iPhone 5 screen size, and Retina displays. Years after release, these games have remained some of my favorites. If you've never played them it's a great time to pick them up and give them a spin now that they are all updated for the latest hardware.

Blue Defense was the first game released. It used the accelerometer in an interesting way; having the player rotate their phone 360 degrees to defend the blue planet in the center.

Blue Attack has the other end of the story with the blue side attacking the red invaders in their home land. Different control methods and unique game play.

Blue Defense: Second Wave! amps up the original title with new attacks and new fun. It's a great place to start if you've never played any of the three.

Fastar! is a completely different game, a lightweight RPG and a ton of fun. [Editor's Note: Yes! Fastar!]

Red Conquest is a new take on the Red/Blue storyline and is full blown real time strategy game. Deep and fun.

All great games and all worth supporting. It's always nice to see a developer keep games like this alive by updating for the latest hardware and iOS versions.

Blue Defense: Second Wave!
Cat in a Box Games is back at it with a sequel to their hugely poplar Blue Defense game from 2008. It is up to you to defend the Blue planet from those obnoxiously evil Red and Green enemies. Packed with a new Gauntlet mode, leaderboards, level select, 24 enemy types, and 64 levels will keep you busy for a long time. This pick-up and play Editor's Choice game has been destroying free time for gamers all over; it is your time to see what the hype is all about.

BIT.TRIP BEAT
Namco has decided it was high time to take the game of Pong, fuse it together with interactive beats, put a pretty coat of paint on it all, and push it out to iOS devices. You decide if tilt controls work best, or if you like touching the screen as you move a paddle up and down to bounce beats back to where they came from. Crazy scores, fun retro visuals, and four-player action make this a splendid addition to your gaming collection.

Across Age HD
FDG Entertainment is taking gamers back to the 16-bit era with this 2D action adventure RPG style game. Not to be forgotten, real environmental puzzles bring on a bit of the nostalgia that took the SNES by storm. Choose from two switchable characters to fight off the enemies and solve puzzles in a game boasting a 15-hour playtime. If you have been missing your SNES, venture over to the App Store and check out this throwback to a classical era.

FlightBoard – Live Flight Departure and Arrival Status
Turn your iDevice into a classic Arrival and Departure board reminiscent of the Charles de Gaulle Airport. This app covers 4,000 airports with 1,400 airlines worldwide. Instantly search for flights, easily switch between departure and arrival, and enjoy updates every 5 minutes. If you spend a lot of time doing the airport shuffle, this app just might be the time saver you need as you do the Gate Transfer Marathon.

PlainText – Dropbox text editing
Sometimes you just need a simple, distraction free, and uncomplicated text editor to get your work done. Hog Bay Software has a free app that will allow you to connect to your Dropbox account, and then edit, or create, simple .txt files. All that hard work saves in a UTF8 encoded file for easy sharing regardless of your OS or word processor of choice. Simplicity can be a good thing at times.

Fresh off of their fantastic quirky action-RPG Fastar!, Cat in a Box games are returning to the game that kicked off their App Store career with Blue Defense: Second Wave. The original game was a well-received shooter that had you defending a blue planet of approximately 6.7 billion people from invading red forces, using the accelerometer to tilt left and right to change your direction of fire. Second Wave follows roughly along the same line of thinking, but with graphical and gameplay enhancements.

One of the big additions to the game is the ability to set up points that you can fire at - by either dragging a finger to where you want to shoot at, or by double tapping to lock where you want to fire. Each target you set, up to 10, reduces the power of your main stream of fire, so you don't want to just set a bunch of targets and not worry about it as it will make your main firing stream that much less effective. Also helping you out is a new planetary laser beam, activated by dragging out from your planet in the direction you want to fire, but you only get to use this three times per game, so use them wisely.

The game still makes you play in each possible orientation of your device, but the transitions from wave to wave are smoother, as the game just simply adapts your view as each wave comes in, without any popups: it's all smooth gameplay transitions from wave to wave. Sadly, the count of humans doesn't recover as time goes on, so all damage must be treated as permanent. The game lacks any kind of music or sound effects in this pre-release version, and much could change when the final version comes out, but the game as it currently stands shows promise towards making this be a worthy sequel to the original, when it launches in the near future, hopefully by the end of September.

No, Huey Lewis, it is not hip to be a square.

On This Episode:

• Carter speaks with John Kooistra and Henry Truong of Cat in a Box Games about their whimsical new action RPG, Fastar, discussing the game's origins and where the humor for the game came from. Click here to check out Fastar's original prototype mentioned on the show.


• Carter speaks with Steve Tompkins and Dave Hakim of Movable Sprites, discussing Chuck Gnome's distinctive look, inspiration from carnival and theme park attractions, and how the game worked in z-axis elements in a 2D pop-up book esque world.

Who Are We:

• Host: Carter Dotson


• Guest: John Kooistra & Henry Truong, Cat in a Box Games (Fastar)


• Guest: Steve Tompkins & Dave Ahakim, Movable Sprites (Chuck Gnome)

Where To Hear TPP:

• Click here to subscribe in iTunes:

  



• Listen on WRGT Radio every Friday at 4pm Central


• Listen Now: [powerpress]

Music:

• None

Contact:
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @portablepodcast

Apps Mentioned In This Episode:

In the crowded sea of gaming apps in the App Store, there are a few that stand out that epitomize simple iPhone gaming. Taking simple simple accelerometer controls and the cool neon and black graphics that we've seen in so many games now, Blue Defense sort of set the standard for simple app gaming.

Cat In A Box Games is now coming out with the sequel, called Blue Defense - Second Wave. The sequel takes all that made the first game so great, and adds on some features that will make it any better.

Now there will be 4 game modes, a new weapon, multitouch targeting, two enemy factions to fight against, and 64 levels to fight your way through... that is if you don't want to play the classic Infinite mode.

With all of the new updates, it's hard to imagine that the game will retain its simple nature, but judging on how well the other games in the series have fared (Blue Attack, Red Conquest), I think it will do just fine. It may not be the simplistic game that we used to love, but I'm sure that it will still hang around on our iOS device of choice for just as long.

There is no release date or word on the pricing yet, but we'll be sure to make a big fuss when the game finally arrives.

Be sure to check after the jump for some more screenshots... they look mighty fine.