Hello there! It’s time once again for our Favorite Four, handpicked from the iTunes App Store just for you. This week, we’re looking at Tower Defense games. The genre is well worn across all gaming consoles, but perhaps no where as much as on the iOS itself (two full icon pages of iPhone game apps alone – try a search on ‘tower defense’). The concept is simple, yet addictive: place towers across a fixed or grid-defined path to keep bad guys, or creeps, from getting to your base or tower. The upside of so many these kinds of games is that you can find the ones that most appeal to YOU. Here are four of the ones that work for me.

Zombie Attack
This is one of the original iPhone Tower Defense games, having been released way back in July of last year, from IUGO. I still think it’s one of the first TD games on the iPhone to innovate with a non-fixed path, and a thematic consistency that lends to a survival horror-type feel while playing. If you want to play the innovator, go here.

$1.99

Zombie Attack!

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2008-11-08 :: Category: Games

Sentinel 2: Earth Defense
I truly think this iteration of Sentinel is one of the best tower defense games out there on a thematic level, as well as from a graphic and gameplay standpoint. Its pretty, has a variety of great maps to play through, and keeps the challenge at a high yet accessible level. Give this one a shot if you love science fiction as well as gaming.

$0.99

Sentinel 2: Earth Defense

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad

Our Rating: :: INCREDIBLE
Read Our Full Review >>

Released: 2009-06-26 :: Category: Games

Fieldrunners
If you don’t already have this game, either on your iPhone or PSP, go out right now and get it. The folks over at Subatomic Studios hit the sweet spot in terms of balance and gameplay with this title. It continues to be my go to game of choice when I’m sitting in a waiting room or jury box, needing something that launches quickly, keeps me engaged, and doesn’t require twitch reflexes to keep going. Grab it, and grab it now.

$2.99

Fieldrunners

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad

Our Rating: :: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Read Our Full Review >>

Released: 2008-10-05 :: Category: Games

Plants Vs. Zombies
While this one sits on the expensive side of the price fence, it’s definitely worth it. PopCap, makers of addictive gaming crack like Bejeweled and Peggle, bring what could be the most fun mutli-platform tower defense game to your iPad. The “towers” here are plants and flowers, keeping the hordes of creep zombies at bay with a variety of attributes and powers. This is a game that feels fully polished, fully professional, and competes with any desktop game of the type, let alone an iOS game. If you can handle the price tag, get it now.

$6.99

Plants vs. Zombies HD

iPad Only App - Designed for the iPad
Released: 2010-04-01 :: Category: Games

Another hotly anticipated update for the tower defense game Fieldrunners has been released. This update to the favorite tower defense game brings integration with the OpenFeint social gaming network and long with it achievements, challenges, and competition against friends on OpenFeint. In addition there are two new maps, each with new towers and fieldrunners available for in app purchase.

Each of the new maps, Skyway and Frostbite are available for $0.99 via in-app purchase. Here’s a quick video of the Skyway map in action:

And another video preview of the Frostbite level.

Unfortunately reviewers are not being kind to Subatomic for this update. While the update itself provides some great features for free including the OpenFeint integration, the maps requiring purchase has upset the I want it free mentality of the average App Store gamer. At the time of the writing, There were as many 1 star reviews as 5 star reviews for Fieldrunners version 1.3. Compare that to the total ratings for all versions for the app which had 12x as many 5 star reviews as 1 star reviews.

Fieldrunners is still $2.99 and a great bargain for a fantastic tower defense game. And both new maps are highly recommended if you are a Fieldrunners lover.

$2.99

Fieldrunners

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad

Our Rating: :: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Read Our Full Review >>

Released: 2008-10-05 :: Category: Games

Random musings of the App Store

Alchemize App Store Pricing Protest

This weekend, in a protest against supposedly 3400 emails complaining about the $2.99 price of their app Alchemize, Schiau Studios raised the price to $39.99 for the weekend. Yes, it’s a hilarious protest against whiners who complain about spending a few bucks, but Schiau is not entirely in the right. Alchemize was originally priced at $9.99 and then quickly lowered until it was only $.99 for a short time. I can’t blame people for waiting for another sale. If Schiau truly wanted to protest App Store pricing, they would have come up with a fair price, stuck to it, and never changed it amid protests. By acknowledging the whiners, Schiau has granted them some legitimacy.

$1.99

Alchemize™

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2009-08-22 :: Category: Games

PSP Minis

Sometimes it’s good to take a look at our beloved App Store’s rival, the PSP Mini store. The store has launched and two of its biggest name games have already made an appearance on the iPhone (and for cheaper): Hero of Sparta and Fieldrunners. In addition, Chillingo and Mountain Sheep’s Minigore is on the way. What do all of these games have in common? In my estimation, they’re three of the most overrated games on the App Store. Hero of Sparta had good visuals for its time, but the dull one-button hack and slash affair has so many pre-rendered cinematic animations it’s like watching a movie. Fieldrunners has a great art style and was admittedly one of the first open-path TD’s on the App Store, but there’s only a few enemy types and tower types, and it lacks the depth of the genre luminaries such as Sentinel 2 and Defender Chronicles. Minigore has nice aesthetics as well, but it’s an average two-stick survival shooter with little depth, easily outclassed by games such as Alive 4 Ever. Sony, wake me up when you manage to get some good games.

Nimblebit’s Freebie Friday

This Friday, Nimblebit lowered all their apps to free in celebration of their newly launched site App Classics! Even if you missed the deal, the apps are still worth buying; Nimblebit is the best in the business at creating fun, short, and addictive games such as Scoops and Textropolis. This move was interesting from a marketing standpoint, and certainly created buzz. In fact, Ian Marsh reported via Twitter that Saturday’s sales were double normal and more than made up for Friday’s losses.

This week’s upcoming app that looks frickin’ awesome!

This is the inaugural issue of this feature where I’ll be showing off some upcoming games that look awesome (though I’ve been doing it unofficially for quite some time). This week, we have Jet Car Stunts, an awesome-looking racing game in the vein of Track Mania. The game is due to be submitted within the next week. Enjoy!

A few weeks ago, Chris used this space to talk about how happy he was that Glu’s awful Family Guy cash-in was doing poorly in the App Store. Well, times have changed, and apparently Stewie is enough to make a poor game reach #9 on Top Grossing Apps.

$0.99

Family Guy: Uncensored

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2009-09-23 :: Category: Games

Soosiz

Soosiz is without question the best platformer yet on the App Store. The game uses gravity-centered gameplay, like that of Gomi, but much more fast-paced, to turn a good platform adventure into something extraordinary. The level design is excellent, and the difficulty curve is just right. Controls are great as well. There’s only a left arrow, a right arrow, and a jump button, but they are all perfectly responsive and work brilliantly in unison, making you almost forget you’re playing on a touch screen.. The graphics are cartoony and playful, and the only big flaw of the game is the sometimes overly-childish music. Other than that though, Soosiz is a magnificent achievement is App Store platforming, and it’s one of the most fun games I’ve played in a while, coming highly recommended.

$1.99

Soosiz

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad

Our Rating: :: AMAZING
Read Our Full Review >>

Released: 2009-10-09 :: Category: Games

Random musings of the App Store

2 Billion Apps Served

Apple announced recently that over 2 billion apps have been downloaded from the App Store. Notable is the timing; this announcement comes only six months after the download of the billionth app, which occurred 9 months after the App Store was launched. This indicated exponential growth of the store. Obviously these numbers are a bit inflated from a developer’s perspective because they seem to include free downloads, but the numbers also indicate that among the user base of 50 million, the average number of apps downloaded is 40, a surprisingly high number. In contrast, the average number of times one of 85,000 apps has been downloaded is only about 2350, hardly a safe bet for business prospects when you consider that most apps are $.99 and that Apple takes 30% of sales. In addition, these numbers are disproportionately eschewed by the top 100 apps; my guess is the median would be much lower. Despite all of your various incompetencies in managing the App Store, Apple, I have to congratulate you on a truly unprecedented event.

Critical Contrast

No matter how experienced we are here at 148apps, no two reviewers agree about every game. That’s why I thought it would be nice to offer some separate best app lists, just so you’ll know what we think is worth buying right now.

Will’s Top 3 Current Apps (games):
1. iBlast Moki
2. Meteor Blitz
3. Unify

Will’s Top 3 Apps of All Time:
1. Rolando 2
2. Real Racing
3. Space Invaders Infinity Gene

Chris’s Top 3 Current Apps (games):
1. geoDefense Swarm
2. Orbital
3. Aera

Chris’s Top 3 Apps of All Time:
1. Orbital
2. Fieldrunners
3. Need For Speed: Undercover
A special mention has to go out to geoDefense Swarm, as it may enter the top 3 after a bit more time spent on my iPhone.

This week’s sign of the apocalypse of the world being fair and just. By Chris Hall
This space is usually reserved for calamity, but this week we have one instance of people being quite rational. Family Guy: Uncensored appeared in the app store this week for an insanely high app price of $4.99. I’m not against spending $5 on an app, as I do quite often, but this one is just bad. How can you have a Family Guy game with absolutely no voices, only text bubbles? Even a simple “giggidy” would’ve been appreciated given the premium app price, but I suppose that Glu Mobile just figured that the Family Guy license alone would bring customers. Apparently the people aren’t biting though, as Family Guy: Uncensored is nowhere to be found in the top 100 apps.

$0.99

Family Guy: Uncensored

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2009-09-23 :: Category: Games

Apps of the Week

Robocalypse: Mobile Mayhem
The strongest App Store Real Time Strategy game yet comes loaded with an extensive single player campaign, online multiplayer, and a humorous and engaging story. The game covers all of the proverbial RTS bases while forging a unique identity. My main complaint about the game is the lack of the ability to minutely control your troops, you must place “action flags” that attract your troops but don’t allow for the same degree of precision. Besides this quirk, however, the game is highly recommended.

$0.99

Robocalypse - Mobile Mayhem

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad

Our Rating: :: BEST RTS YET
Read Our Full Review >>

Released: 2009-09-18 :: Category: Games

geoDefense Swarm, by guest writer Chris Hall
I usually don’t work myself into MMAHQ, but I have found a new love. geoDefense Swarm (gDS) may be the best tower defense app in the app store, and with a crowded field of apps that include Fieldrunners, The Creeps!, and Sentinel, that is saying something. Unlike so many apps in the tower defense genre, including some of the iPhone greats, gDS is genuinely challenging from the start. The graphics are great in a Tron sort of way, and the sound effects are surprisingly effective. This game is not only my new favorite tower defense game, but it may be my favorite iPhone game… period.

$1.99

geoDefense Swarm

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad

Our Rating: :: INSANELY DIFFICULT
Read Our Full Review >>

Released: 2009-09-14 :: Category: Games

The IGF Mobile awards were announced at the Game Developers Conference this week, and the iPhone, less than a year after commercial games became available for it, swept the awards winning all categories.

In celebration of these awards and due to extra publicity by Apple in the App Store, have reduced their prices to help increase sales for the nominated applications. Here’s a rundown of the winners:

Best Mobile Game – Fieldrunners
(on sale for $2.99, down from $4.99 iTunes Link)

Best iPhone Game – Zen Bound
($4.99 iTunes Link)

Innovation in Game Design – Galcon
(on sale for $0.99, down from $4.99 iTunes Link)

Mobile Achievement in Art – Fieldrunners
(on sale for $2.99, down from $4.99 iTunes Link)

Technical Achievement Award – Real Racing
(Not yet released – target release date: late April, 2009)

Mobile Audio Achievement – Zen Bound
($4.99 iTunes Link)