Astro Ranch follows along the same game play style that many of us have grown to love. The inclusion of a different planet, and unique mini-games, make this a fresh and exciting experience. If you’re into farming games, pick this title up.
Spirit is a modern tower defense title with an arcade twist. Sporting visuals similar to GeoDefense, you guide a vector-shaped spirit around a gridded playing field while aiming to avoid capture.
While probably not as graphically exciting as perhaps some other flight simulators like F.A.S.T, X Invasion 2 is a respectable punt at providing the simulated flying experience you might be looking for.
The Graveyard is a wonderful work of art with a very limited appeal. Those who really appreciate the art form that is video gaming will find great pleasure in this game. Everyone else might not.
Hellemental is a colorful tower defense title set in the times of magic sorcerers and mythical creatures. One with 3D graphics and more spells you can shake a stick it .. for me though, it was missing something I couldn’t quite put my finger on.
Tilt to Live is a fast paced tilt-based action title in which the overall aim, is to try and stay alive for the longest amount of time possible. Stunning visuals, tight integration of leader boards via AGON Online and 27 awards to collect throughout makes Tilt to Live a winner
Ragdoll Blaster 2 has the potential of providing hours of enjoyment through its simplistic yet addictive game play. Veterans of the series will enjoy the update to graphics and game play elements, while newcomers will find a rich and exciting stand alone game.
Catacombs is a dual stick dungeon crawler based on that of Atari’s Gauntlet. While is doesn’t contain any hint of 3D visuals and isn’t generically immersive in that sense, the game has a visual style which is both familiar and popular among the lovers of this genre.
Drawn Blood is a simple point and shoot side-scroller with playful and rather artistic visuals. While good, the game could benefit from more weapons and enemies, and is clearly still a little buggy.
Tetryon is a fun take on match-3 bringing with its immersive visuals and solid game play. While it does try to be match-3, some of its in-game restrictions and methods make for much more interesting and challenging gameplay.
Rockstar Games presents arguably one of the most anticipated gaming experience to the iPhone. But, with such a well-loved title being adapted to the iPhone, has it lost its edge?
OpenFeint has described their service as “think XBOX Live meets Facebook.” They’ve quickly become the social gaming platform of choice for several game developers, even with competition from the likes of Scoreloop, Agon, and ngmoco’s Plus+ network. OpenFeint has now released a free standalone app that gives you a central location for tracking all of your gaming accomplishments, and for interacting with the rest of the community. These features were previously only accessible from within each individual game.
With the new OpenFeint app, you can see your progess, as well as that of your friends, across the entire inventory of OpenFeint enabled games. This includes global, friends-only, and personal leaderboards, as well as specific game accomplishments. You can send challenges, participate in forums, and chat/IM. There are several features to manage your profile, such as linking your account to Twitter or Facebook for the incorporation of your profile picture and friend lists. The OpenFeint app also showcases a free/lite app everyday, shining the spotlight on that particular developer.
With hundreds of games already supporting their service, and the intent to eventually bring their community features to Android as well, OpenFeint may be steadily emerging as the de facto standard for social gaming on the go.
OpenFeint: Free Game of the Day
Category: Entertainment Released: 2010-01-08 Price: FREE
The one thing that made the holidays that much more special this year was the Appvent Calendar promotion. Blacksmith games, makers of Plushed, organized the event that offered a free app every day during the month of December. Appvent Calendar was such a smashing success that Blacksmith games has now joined forces with ICS Mobile, Tapjoy, and OpenFeint to create freeappaday.com. As the URL states, one free app will be given away every single day! You will also have the ability to set up email alerts based on your genres of interest.
While the site is currently active, only ICS Mobile’s Navy Patro Coastal Defense is displayed as the January 1st selection. Blacksmith has teased January 18th as the date that will truly kick-off the stream of free apps. They’ve also announced that the Appvent Calendar will be returning on April 1st for the Easter season.
App Entertainment is celebrating the new year by offering all of their apps for $0.99 between January 8-10. This includes their flagship app, FaceFighter, which lets you create virtual sparring partners using pictures of your friends. Good times! FaceFighter received a favorable review from us back in June, and is currently nominated for 2009 BestAppEver in the categories of Best Productivity Killer and Best Use of Bluetooth.
The other titles on sale are the light-hearted puzzle game Zombie Pizza, and Appy Newz – Scandal Maker!, which has also been for BestAppEver in the Best Photo Manipulation App category.
Ubisoft has today debuted the sequel to their multi-ward winning Assassin’s Creed game franchise, on the iPhone. Assassin’s Creed II Discovery. According to the game’s App Store description, the game carries the series on following Ezio on his travels to Spain as he scales cities, jumps rooftops and tries to rescue his fellow assassins.
But don’t get too excited just yet.
Hitting the store late this morning, the game officially became the first ever App Store gaming title to smash through that $9.99 price barrier, blasting it’s way into that previously rumored ‘Premium‘ price band. Unfortunately, the game was pulled just a few hours after it’s release, and is no longer available on the App Store .. for reasons unknown.
If the price holds up on the game’s return to the store, it could in fact retain that title for itself. Priced at $11.99, Assassin’s Creed II Discovery is reportedly exactly the same as that of the DS version, the main difference in this version however, compared to that of the original Assassin’s Creed II Discovery is more of a side scroller adventure, rather than a fully-blown immersive RPG.
Luckily, Touch Arcade managed to snag a copy of the game before it was pulled from the store. Checkout their in-depth gameplay video of Assassin’s Creed II Discovery in action below.
So, What’s this deal with Ubisoft pulling the game? Where’s the game gone? I hear you ask .. Well, we at 148 reckon the early pulling of the app could likely be due the game being approved by Apple yesterday, but Ubisoft having forgot to change the actual release date of the game on iTunes Connect, have realised later, causing them to panic and pull the app.
If you’re not already aware, this is pretty normal practice for developers of the App Store. When submitting an app a developer like Ubisoft can choose and set a specific date in which an application becomes available to the public. This allows them not only to hype the app before its initial store release, but in turn, also work to specific set deadlines with regards to the marketing surrounding the title. It’s likely this won’t turn out to be one of those purposeful PR stunts, although it’s not completely out of the realms of possibility.
First impressions of Assassin’s Creed II Discovery have been mostly positive from what I’ve seen so far, however some people still believe that a price point of $11.99 could be a little too steep for what they’re actually getting (if that indeed is the game’s final price point).
Be sure to check out the games page for full game descriptions and screenshots.
What do you think? Is an $11.99 price point worthy of such a game?
Having worked 12 years in the gaming industry, working as a software engineer and senior programmer with major gaming outfits such as EA and RockStar Games, Edinburgh-based Kevin Ng has worked on and helped develop a slew of well-known console titles which we will most likely be familiar with or have played at some point in our lives; including the likes of: “Skate” for Xbox 360, “Bully” for PS2 and “Starlancer” for PC and Dreamcast. Leaving that life behind though (for the most part) Kevin is now going solo, becoming an independent developer specifically targeting the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch. He was kind enough to give me a quick heads up on his debut iPhone title, and I even scored myself a pre-release promo copy to take a look at .. (Cheers, Kevin!).
Dropping January 11th, Word Crasher is a well-designed, graphically exciting word game. Playing through two modes; Marathon and Flood Panic the aim of the game is to create words from the letter chips that fall from above – but don’t make the mistake of picturing this as your normal every-day word puzzle. Its much more dynamic. Usually with these types of games we see a rigid setup which involves some kind of grid-like area, and you having to draw out or follow a certain path in order to create a word. Word Crasher throws that rule book away, adding it’s own pretty unique twist to it’s gameplay.
The game is set out in a ‘tank-like’ environment. With fairly straight forward gameplay, at the start of each level a number of letter ‘chips’ fall to the ground, and every few seconds or so after that, another letter chip will be added into the mix. Unlike other word puzzles of it’s genre, in Word Crasher you’re able to make a word from any of the letters on screen, regardless of their current position or proximity to others letters on screen. Almost psychedelic in it’s approach, the game has a sort of modern retro feel to it. Tapping letters on the board will see a faint colorful neon-like glow surround them. As you select various letters to create a word, they appear at the bottom of the screen allowing you to see just what you’ve selected and whether it actually does make sense (unlike my attempt – seen right!). The games AI then lets you know if the word exists by lighting up either the ‘tick’ symbol (bottom right), or cross symbol (bottom left).
The game’s “Flood Panic” mode injects even more challenge, introducing a rising water level which creates both a frenzied-type gameplay experience and a race against the clock. Having spent some time with the game, my first impressions are that this is one polished, well-designed and thought out title.
Fully supported by Open Feint, Word Crasher is reportedly set to make it’s debut on January 11th at the introductory price of $0.99 .. returning to $1.99 afterward. Also, while you’re at it, be sure to checkout the game’s official site at wordcrasher.com.
Space Invaders Infinity Gene is easily one of my favorite games of the year. It’s an amazingly wonderful re-imagining of the Space Invaders world, one of the oldest video games around.
Space Invaders was originally released in 1978 and I can’t count the number of quarters I dumped into the machine down at the neighborhood pizza shop. So while my love for SIIG might be a little tainted with nostalgia, it still stands as a fantastic game. The method of play in this game is basically the same as the original. You are shooting at advancing aliens — the twist here is that the game evolves from the original Space Invaders to a progressively different and more interesting game as you score more points and progress through the levels by filling the evolution gauge. With each filling of the gauge, the game evolves into a new one bringing increasing weapons and level changes.
This update brings, much like the Fieldrunners update, integration with OpenFeint. This allows you to compare your score with your OpenFeint friends and also includes new achievements to work toward. While the first version of this game was amazing, it left me wanting more. This new update adds new levels to work towards as the evolution gauge fills.
Here’s a video demo of the game from Taito.
One of the interesting feature of this game which I all but ignored in the first release is the Music Stage. In this stage you select a song from your device music library and play a level that’s specifically tailored to that song. Each song generates a different level. With this update you can rate and share your favorite Music Stage levels with friends.
UK development studio Sauce Digital will be holding a 12 Days of Christmas Apps contest from December 26 (Boxing Day) through January 6 (Epiphany). They’ve gathered hundreds of promo codes from participating developers, and will be giving away one twelfth of the codes on every day of the event. To enter the contest, all you have to do is submit your name and email on the official site, http://www.12daysofchristmasapps.com. The website also has an area where interested developers can sign-up for taking part in the promotion.
Sauce Digital is probably known best for their game Nano Rally, and have recently released Touch Soccer 3D. Their suite of games will be offered in the competition, as well as those from a variety of developers including Hanged by Freeverse, and Harbor Master by Imangi Studios. So far 47 developers have joined the contest pool, and the total number of promo codes collected is at 365 and counting.
You know, PR people are odd. They push and push and push to get you to cover their apps. Then the apps just magically appear on the App Store and the PR people are quiet. Ok, now I can actually see the game, play the game, but you don’t want me to know that it’s out? I just don’t get it.
Anyway — F1 2009 Game from Codemasters popped into view at $6.99. We’re downloading it now and we will see how it goes. The screen shots look ok, but they aren’t up to the quality of Real Racing. But how’s the game play? Well, I have 87 MB to go.
Stats look pretty good:
RACE ALL 17 OFFICIALLY LICENSED CIRCUITS
Feel the exhilaration of speeding around iconic circuits like Monaco, Spa Francorchamps and Silverstone, or enjoy dramatic night racing at Singapore.
TWO GREAT GAME MODES!
Put in a flying lap in Time Trial, perfectly tuned for on the go gaming, or take on Endurance for the ultimate test of skill and consistency and set your fastest average time over a number of laps.
PR people are weird.
F1 2009 Game
Category: Games / Racing Released: 2009-12-14 Price: $2.99
IUGO Mobile Entertainment is one of the most well-respected independent studios on the app store. They have a variety of hits going back to the original Toy Bot Dairies, and have enjoyed recent success with Implode, which was recently in the top 5 paid apps in multiple countries. The last couple of months have been a particularly busy time for IUGO, with four big releases, all of which have just been discounted. There are in fact a whopping 12 games on sale for the holidays, a vast majority of the IUGO catalog, and here is the complete list:
A.D.D. $2.99 > $1.99
Cliffed $1.99 > $0.99
Freeballin’ $1.99 > $0.99
Implode! $1.99 > $0.99
Toy Bot Diaries $1.99 > $0.99
Toy Bot Diaries 2 $1.99 > $0.99
Toy Bot Diaries 3 $1.99 > $0.99
Toy Bot Diaries Compilation $3.99 > $2.99
Toy Bot Mini Missions $1.99 > $0.99
Spy Bot Chronicles $3.99 > $1.99
Star Hogs $4.99 > $2.99
Zombie Attack! 2 $3.99 > $2.99
Cliffed, Implode, and Zombie Attack! 2 also received free updates within the last week, which added special holiday costumes and/or levels to the games. If you’ve had your eye on any of these titles, now is definitely the time to take the plunge, as the sale ends January 2010.
Interesting tidbit: iugo in Latin means connect. When put together with the acronym for mobile entertainment, you get ‘connect me.’ Very clever…
Sega’s sequel to the original Monkey madness title. With stunning 3D graphics, Wi-Fi Multiplayer and 115 levels, Super Monkey Ball 2 is a big step up from the original.
Updated :: 11/27, 1:09pm Pacific – Final (?) update. 284 total sale items, 34 of them free! Updated :: 11/27, 11:59am Pacific – Added 12 more. Updated :: 11/27, 10:51am Pacific – Added Gameloft NFL 2010, few more. Updated :: 11/27, 10:25am Pacific – Added another 10+ games. Updated :: 11/27, 9:42am Pacific – Added GPS apps, dozens more. Time to get buying. Updated :: 11/26, 10:08pm Pacific – Added Com2uS games, and 30 others. Too much pie. Must sleep. Updated :: 11/26, 10:55am Pacific – Added 20+ from the night before. Happy Thanksgiving! Updated :: 11/25, 11:38pm Pacific – added a bunch of games from Namco and more.
Every year on Black Friday, retailers put things on huge discount. It’s become a tradition to have “Door-Buster” sales to get people out and shop on this day that retailers traditionally first turn a profit for the year. Well, the app store is no different. App developers big and small are putting their apps on sale for the holiday weekend.
We’ll try to update this a few times over the holiday weekend, it’s a good way to escape the in-laws.
Don’t forget to come back on Friday as that’s when a bunch of the following go on sale.
A whole bunch of ifs, ands, or buts.
These apps are the sale items that we have been notified about or have found. Some of these items may not be on sale yet, but we’ve been told they are going to be on sale. The prices do change at any time and do change quickly – developers are tricky that way. Some are on sale for the weekend, others for only Black Friday. If the app you want isn’t showing up as on sale, I’d check back Friday.
Because prices change so quickly, we can’t always update things to show the correct prices below. We like to take a break and eat pumpkin pie too you know. Click through to the App Store to see the current up-to-the-second prices. And if you see something you like, at a price you like, grab it immediately as it may not stay on sale as long as you would hope.
It’s quite possible that we missed a few sale apps – I blame the tryptophan. So, head on over to our iPhone App Price Drops for the constantly updating full list of app price drops. Also, if you are just interested in apps that have gone free, check out our Twitter stream for @148Apps_nowfree – you don’t have to sign up to Twitter to see the newly free apps.
GPS Apps
All of the best GPS apps are on sale. CoPilot started it out by dropping to $20, Navigon followed by dropping to $70, then TomTom matched the price from Navigon. Magellan is now the highest priced at $80. What will they do? It’s a good time to be in the market for an iPhone GPS solution.
Gameloft, unlike EA, are putting some of their underperforming games on sale. But the good news is that they are nearly giving them away at only $0.99. Some really good bargains in there. I highly recommend Blades of Fury if you are at all into the Street Fighter genre. These go back to normal price on 11/29.
IUGO has put a bunch of their games on sale for Thanksgiving and to celebrate the release of their new Wario world like mini-game collection, A.D.D. Highly recommended titles below include Zombie Attack, Zombie Attack Second Wave, and Star Hogs.
We all know Apple’s App Store approval process is less than perfect, and that sometimes their rejection policies seem down right crazy. We’ve seen app’s rejected for multiple reasons, but nothing quite like what happened to IUGO earlier this year. If you cast your mind back to June 29, you might remember Vancouver based development studio IUGO releasing their hilarious, quirky title A.D.D Lite. The idea behind the app was simple; to give the user short bursts of fast-paced, addictive and challenging (slightly risque), crazy, raunchy, fun. For example, tasks you may encounter include the waxing of a man, threading a pencil into a bum-crack, and un-doing a chick’s bra as fast as you can .. Just an regular ordinary day for me, then.
As with any developer, they too thought they’d be in for a smooth ride on the approval train, and unfortunately as we all now know, that wasn’t to be the case. IUGO submitted a ‘Lite’ version of thier A.D.D app, with the intention of submitting a more feature-packed paid version, at a later date. Monitoring the success of A.D.D Lite, shortly after releasing it they submitted the full version of A.D.D to Apple for approval. Now, although the game is raunchy (in parts), and it was meant to be .. they didn’t think that anything in it would break Apple’s App Store policies, because let’s be honest- it didn’t.
With all this in mind, (as you can imagine), IUGO was more than I little stunned when their approval wait time surpassed 2 weeks, then 4 weeks, and then 6 weeks. It was clear that Apple wasn’t going to let this through. With word from Apple simply stating “the game is taking an unusually long time to review and that they apologize.”, they drew their own conclusions and in August of this year IUGOME took the decision to pull ‘A.D.D Lite’ from the App Store in all countries. Their reason being was that the lite version existed only to sell copies of the full version of A.D.D. What’s even more baffling is that IUGO was actually prepared to re-think and change elements of the game at Apple’s request, but never once got word to do so. At this point, they just wanted the game approved and would do anything they could to help it.
After 6 months of the full version of A.D.D being stuck in Apple’s approval process, I can’t blame the guys and girls over at IUGO if they’d completely forgotten about the title. Yesterday though, out of the blue, their painfully long waiting came to an end, announcing via their Twitter stream that the game had indeed now been approved by Apple, and that we should wait for it to appear on the store!
“OMG OMG OMG!! A.D.D. has been approved! No I’m not kidding! Still waiting for it to show up on the App Store! Holy Crap! Six months later!”
A few hours after that, it did. In all it’s glory. Packed with roughly 80 mini-games, and updates coming with more on the way, A.D.D is now available for purchse in the App Store, for $2.99. There’s no lite version however, as mentioned that was pulled earlier this year. Will it return? I hope it does .. But, God help IUGO if they have to wait another 6 months for Apple to re-approve that ..
The Settlers for iPhone is a reincarnation of the classic PC-based title of the same name. With stunning visuals and audio to match, I found the game to be both immersive and addicting.
In association with Fox Mobile Entertainment, Two Tribes and Chillingo debut Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, a move tie-in to the million dollar Ice Age franchise. With stunning graphics, immersive gameplay, and rich animations, the game is faultless in my eyes.
Sulake Inc the guys behind the original online hit sensation Habbo Hotel brings Bobba Bar to iPhone and iPod touch. A watered-down, but graphically stunning version of the franchise.
Camden, London based iPhone development studio Origin8 has announced that to celebrate this years Bomfire night here in the UK, they’re launching a special offer in which the first edition to their tower defense series, Sentinel: Mars Defense, will be discounted. Starting today, November 5th at 6PM GMT and originally priced at $0.99, Sentinel: Mars Defense will be FREE for a whole week!
“It’s Bonfire Night in the UK, and the thoughts of the nation turn toward really big explosions. Thanks to London-based development studio Origin8, iPhone/iPod Touch gamers worldwide can share in the joy of blowing things up today, as their breakout sci fi strategy game “Sentinel: Mars Defense” will be FREE for a week from 6PM GMT.”
Originally released in February of this year, and in case you’re not familiar with the game, Sentinel: Mars Defense is a 2D tower defense game which brings with it fully immersive 2D (but with sort of a 3D-effect) graphics. The game is centered around stopping ‘waves’ of creeps from reaching an end point. Along the way to aid you in this battle you’ll have to use different powered space-like weapons, each with their own specialties and strong points. The aim is to destroy all alien lifeforms, before they have to reach a series of ‘gates’. If your end defenses are destroyed, it’s game over.
Sentinel: Mars Defense has been described as: Incredible, with stellar graphics, and a great amount of ‘content’ in-game. Having played the game myself, I can add to the fact that that it was definitely worth it at the low price of $0.99, but now you don’t have any excuse. Sentinel: Mars Defense is now FREE, and I highly recommend you go and snap it up!
Update: While the offer doesn’t seem to have started yet, it’s well and truly past 6PM here in the UK, so I’m sure we can expect the change to propagate to the App Store soon!
Following on from the immersive RPG that was Return to Mysterious Island, iPhone publisher Chillingo have announced they’re bringing a sequel to the store, announcing Jules Verne’s Secrets of The Mysterious Island is coming to both iPhone (and iPod touch), shortly. The first of the series hit App Store shelves in May of this year, and like most adventure based titles seemed to go down in a storm with the iPhone crowd. Recently I seem to be saying that a little too often about various titles, but having actually owned (and played) this title myself, I can say quite honestly say the adventure was thoroughly enjoyable to play through.
Based on a graphic novel by Jules Verne’s, and carrying on from titles such as 1112 and Cassandra’s Journey, the game sees you take the role of Mina, a sailor who becomes stranded on an island, somewhere in the Pacific ocean. As you trail and tap your way around the island, trying your up-most to survive, and finding objects and (more importantly) food along the way, you try to unlock the mysteries hidden within.
Described by Chillingo as an experience which will mirror that of Robinson Crusoe, this new release will carry on from where you left off. The game will start off with a helicopter crash, and continuing the theme of being stranded, you will have to guide Mina to safety. This time will also see you visit new locations including: Captain Nemo’s base and scouring the ruins of an unknown civilization. Eventually, you will realize the cause of the threat to the island, and will aim to prevent it.
For approximately 700 Mb, the player will find out the end of the adventure of Mina. Jules Verne’s “Secrets of The Mysterious Island” contains stunning 3D graphics, many ambient sounds, music designed to enhance the mysterious atmosphere and feel.
- FARMING FUN
OpenFeint has described their service as “think XBOX Live meets Facebook.” They’ve quickly become the social gaming platform of choice for several game developers, even with competition from the likes of Scoreloop, Agon, and ngmoco’s Plus+ network. OpenFeint has now released a free standalone app that gives you a central location for tracking all of your gaming accomplishments, and for interacting with the rest of the community. These features were previously only accessible from within each individual game.
The one thing that made the holidays that much more special this year was the 
App Entertainment is celebrating the new year by offering all of their apps for $0.99 between January 8-10. This includes their flagship app, FaceFighter, which lets you create virtual sparring partners using pictures of your friends. Good times! FaceFighter received a 
:: GOOD TIMES :: 
:: EPIC :: 
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