Posted by Jeff Scott on September 6th, 2012 iPhone App - Designed for iPhone, compatible with iPad
The original Fieldrunners has had a major update released today. Full retina support on the iPhone 4/4S, and much more.
To celebrate the update, the price has been dropped to just $0.99 — grab it for a little weekend fun. Also, check out our contest to give away five copies of Fieldrunners 2 over on Facebook.
All artwork recreated for full Retina display support
Extended soundtrack available on iPhone for the first time ever!
32-bit colors for iPhone 4 and up for a richer experience
Adjustments for super precise controls
Double tap to zoom for quicker movement
Optimizations to make the game run faster
Posted by Jeff Scott on August 29th, 2012 + Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Those tower defense wizards at Subatomic studios have delivered the first big update to Fieldrunners 2. In our review of Fieldrunners 2 we loved it. Even gave it an Editor’s Choice.
Some of the updates include a new map (Flash Fire), better Game Center leaderboard support, and a great way to earn extra coins by posting your scores to Twitter or Facebook (max 1 per 24 hours). More friendly idea that needing to buy coins via in app purchase.
Take a look below for the full list of updates and keep an eye on our Twitter feed as we have 5 copies of the game to give away next week.
• Beat those hard levels with an easier Casual mode!
• Amazing new time trial map – Flash Fire!
• Conquer the leaderboards with Game Center!
• Faster levels fit your on-the-go lifestyle!
• Finally beat Scrambled Eggs on Hard!
• Can you spot the changes in Bizarre Bazaar?
• Get coins for sharing scores on Twitter!
• Glorious music is now bug free!
• Enable low-fi mode to fix crashes!
• Save your progress when exiting maps!
• Push notifications that won’t annoy you!
• Tackle the challenging Endless mode!
• General bug fixes and more!
Fieldrunners was one of the original breakout iOS gaming hits. First released in 2008, this game checked all the right boxes and really helped herald the iPhone’s potential as a gaming device. As time passed, the folks at Subatomic Studios continued to update the game, released an iPad version, and even a version on the Playstation Network. A lot of amazing things happened for Subatomic Studios along the way. But where was their follow up game? Years passed and nothing.
Then we got word in January that they had a new game in the works and found out shortly later that Fieldrunners 2 was that game. Now, nearly 4 years after the original was released, we have a preview of Fieldrunners 2. We’ve had the opportunity to play with the pre-release build for a week, and honestly, we’re blown away. It’s everything we loved in Fieldrunners, but turned up to 11. The preview below is taken from the pre-release app, but the final version will be out later this week.
One of the first thing you will notice with Fieldrunners 2 is that it improves on just about everything in the game. The graphics are better, the sound is better, and the variations in gameplay are greater. They have left in the familiar gameplay, the included puzzle levels, and completely new map types. Let’s start out with something that will look familiar to Fieldrunners fans.
Grasslands – Here’s a level that will remind you of the original Fieldrunners. But you’ll quickly notice the video improvements in this full retina version. Not only are the animations crisper, they are also much smoother.
Fieldrunners has a load of new levels, and not only the open / pathless tower defense style of the original Fieldrunners. There are also path levels where the creeps will loop over and back on top of the path, adding some interesting strategy to the level. Here’s an example video of a set path level, known as Tangled Turnpike in Fieldrunners 2.
When progressing through the game, you will at times unlock special puzzle levels. These levels go beyond the normal tower defense and require that in addition to guarding your base, you also have to complete the puzzle. Here’s an example of a puzzle level where you must place your limited towers in locations that will guide the creeps between one or multiple towers.
As you can see, the king of tower defense has returned. Fieldrunners 2 will be out later this week. It’s one to look forward to. Follow us on Twitter and we’ll let you know as soon as it’s available.
The original Fieldrunners (and iPad version) was one of the first real “wow” games on the iPhone. A game that was everything the new gaming platform needed, fun, amazingly well done, and made you want to play just one more round. Since it’s release nearly four years ago, it has been a staple in best of lists yearly.
It was pretty surprising that after all this time we got word that Subatomic Studios was releasing a sequel. Fieldrunners 2 will be out this June on iPhone/iPod touch and follow on the iPad shortly after. And wow, does it look good. We don’t have much yet, but take a look at this shot.
What we do know is that it has more of everything. More creeps, more levels, more towers. Really looking forward to this one. Hope to get a hands on for you during E3. Stay tuned.
Hit the jump for a few more screenshots and full press release from this highly anticipated sequel.
FIELDRUNNERS 2 INVADES iPHONES THIS JUNE Subatomic Studios announces sequel to classic tower defense game
CAMBRIDGE, MA – MAY 22, 2012 – SUBATOMIC STUDIOS is pleased to announce Fieldrunners 2 for iOS! The massive sequel to the award winning tower defense game, Fieldrunners, will launch on the iPhone at the end of June, with an iPad version available shortly afterwards (pricing tbd). With more levels, more weapons, more enemies, and more ways to play, Fieldrunners 2 packs tons of gameplay into the ultimate tower defense experience.
Fieldrunners 2 features over 20 beautifully hand-painted levels spanning four distinct zones. From the grassy fields, to the scenic cities, and even the secret volcano base, Fieldrunners 2 has it all! Defending each unique map requires a new strategy, and the players are armed with more than 20 upgradeable towers and customizable loadouts to take on that challenge. The limbo-of-death Link tower, the sniper-like Railgun tower, and the we-probably-shouldn’t-be-giving-this-to-people Nuke tower join dozens of others for powerful all-new defensive capabilities. In addition to basic survival and newly revamped time trial maps, mind-bending puzzle maps and innovative sudden death maps have joined the fray. Adding devastating air strikes and precision-based power up attacks to the mix means the fieldrunners don’t stand a chance! Or do they?
In Fieldrunners 2, over 30 different types of enemies rush the field like never before! Moving like a swarm of locusts, each fieldrunner plans their own route through your deadly maze of towers. Change your strategy and the enemies immediately adapt their paths for the optimal attack. Wrapping around obstacles in massive waves, charging over bridges and under tunnels, inside trenches and over open fields, pummeling your defenses from as many routes as possible is all part of the fieldrunners’ plans.
Do you have what it takes to stop the fieldrunners? If you do, you just might discover their secret origins…
About Subatomic Studios
Subatomic Studios, based in Cambridge, MA, is an award-winning independent developer of video games for handheld and mobile devices. Fieldrunners, the studio’s flagship game, combines gorgeous artwork with fine-tuned tower defense gameplay, allowing Subatomic Studios to captivate mobile gamers everywhere with a truly unique entertainment experience. Fieldrunners was first released for the iPhone and iPod Touch, followed by versions for the iPad, the PSP, the Nintendo DSi, BlackBerry, Android, Chrome Web Store, Roku, Gametree TV, and more!
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.
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.
iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
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.
iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
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.
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.
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.
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!
This week’s sign of the apocalypse
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.
iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2009-09-23 :: Category: Games
App of the Week
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.
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.
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.
iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
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.
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:
:: EXCEPTIONAL
:: PROMISING
]
