Hybrid: Eternal Whisper is a hardcore action RPG with a killer combat system. It’s very dialogue-heavy, especially in the beginning, but the fighting makes it all worth it.

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Monday Morning App HQ

Random musings of the app store

App Alluvion

This week’s only news story also has the sign of the apocalypse and the apps of the week built in – handy, eh? Over a 24 hour period, 453 new games were released! What happened Apple, did someone finally wake up? This is a great disservice to developers, as it’s exceedingly hard for an app to get noticed when so many other good games are released on the same day. Sure, developers can set release dates, but if they do, their app is placed on the latest releases section in iTunes according to approval date not publication date, therefore burying it beneath the first page and limiting valuable exposure. Please fix this, Apple! Anyway, enough ranting, here are some of the most notable releases this week. We’ll try to have reviews for as many as we can in due time, but until then, here’s a quick rundown:

Hybrid: Eternal Whisper

Gamevil’s action-RPG follow-up to Zenonia certainly has great aesthetics and a nice online component, but for me so far, the story has been too intrusive and the gameplay mediocre. At $5.99, you may want to wait for our review. Upon playing more, the gameplay has proven more fun and the story’s role is minimized. Recommended!

Unify

Zach Gage’s first iPhone game is a very stylish Tetris variant with OpenFeint integration. Instead of blocks falling from from the top, the fall into the middle from both the left and the right, where you have to manipulate them using multi-touch controls. Match four or more of the same color to clear blocks. The game starts out slow with only black and white, but quickly becomes challenging with the addition of more colors and faster scrolling. From my time with the game, I can say it’s one of the more fun puzzle games on the App Store.

Aera

This beautiful flight sim had our editor Chris in a frenzy before its release. From initial impressions, it seems the game delivers on the hype, but if you don’t want to shell out the $2.99 now, Chris will have a review up very soon.

Aves
Aves contains some truly magnificent animations and entrancing binaural audio, but with its simplistic gameplay, it plays more like a tech demo. Still, if you want to see some really cool technology, it’s worth the $.99 price of admission, and I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for Ghost LLC’s future projects.

Above and Beyond Air Combat

Young developer Josh Rosen’s followup to SciFly is a totally different beast. It’s still an arcade plane flying game, but it shines with OpenFeint integration, a huge level of customization, open-world gameplay, and shiny graphics. In any normal week, this would easily earn the app of the week award.

Robocalypse – Mobile Mayhem

Robocalypse is a humorous and strong entry into the RTS genre, which is relatively weak on the App Store. Featuring a lengthy campaign and full online multiplayer, Robocalypse is a safe bet for RTS fans.

Alley Gator

Alley Gator is Glu’s entry into the quick $.99 games category with accelerometer-based gameplay.

Champion Archer

From the guys who made Sparta comes a port of an addictive online flash game.

Against the Fire!

Meridian’s followup to their smash hit Alive 4 Ever is a similar survival shooter but with theme of a fireman putting out water monsters.

Dungeon Hunter (pulled from the App Store)

Otherwise known as Gameloft’s Diablo clone, Dungeon Hunter was said to be very impressive, but was unfortunately pulled due to a bug in the game. The game should be available for download again soon.

Castle Warriors

Castle Warriors is another nice addition to the RTS genre on the App Store. The gameplay is similar to Galcon and the graphics are very nice overall.

Super Shock Football

After App Store giants Gameloft and EA turned out full football sims, you would expect Chillingo, publisher extraordinaire to follow up with one of their own, right? Instead, developer Steamroller studios has produced a light-hearted throw back to vintage vibrating football games that is ultimately more suited to the iPhone than either Madden or NFL 2010.

Underground

This Chillingo “shmup” is very stylish but adds little to the genre gameplay-wise.

Scarecrow

Scarecrow is Ezone’s take on Doodle Jump and also the latest 3rd party game to incorporate ngmoco’s plus+ network.

Apps of the Week

iBlast Moki

iBlast Moki is the best puzzle game on the iPhone, period. This physics-based puzzle game contains challenging gameplay. The goal is to, using bombs and eventually other elements like balloons, get all of the mokis to the exit of the level. It sounds simple, but some of the levels are head-scratchingly devious. There is almost unlimited replay value with over 70 levels, Plus+ integration, and a full-featured level editor/sharer.

Meteor Blitz

By the same token, Meteor Blitz is the best top-down space shooter for the iPhone, surpassing even the famed Isotope. The dual-stick control scheme is incredibly fast and responsive, the graphics are simply stunning, and the gameplay is livened up by the inclusion of RPG elements and many different weapons. The game also features superlative pause and auto-save functions.

Wow, so many great games, and I’m sure I’m missing a few. Of course, I won’t expect any good game releases for the next month couple with reports of month-long approval times.

Monday Morning App HQ

Random Musings of the App Store

New iTunes brings fresh App Store

Among the goings-on at the 9.9.09 Apple event was the release of iTunes 9.0 which included a redesigned App Store. To sum up the changes in one word – “clutter.” It seems as if Apple has challenged themselves to fit as many app icons on one page as possible. There are some nice changes, but they are masked by the overall clutter. Top 100’s are now top 200’s, though looking over the lists now causes eye damage. There is now a top grossing app list, though it is hidden at the bottom of the page and used in conjunction with the top volume list making it confusing for all. Tabs at the top of iTunes are nice though the drop down App Store categories are initially hard to find. One of the new iTunes is the ability to organize iPhone app icons from iTunes. Though it’s not perfect, this new feature is infinitely preferable to organizing on the iPhone itself.

Gameloft clones

Gameloft is really wearing thin on me with their clones. GTA is more of a genre now, so I was ok with Gangstar, but with their COD4 clone (Modern Combat) and Soul Caliber clone (Blades of Fury), I’ve had enough. These games certainly show off the iPhone as a gaming platform, but there comes a point when I just can’t get excited about exact clones of existing games. These aren’t rough clones either, they’re almost indistinguishable. Gameloft is a talented developer, but in order to start making memorable games, they’re going to have to show the creativity involved in creating games like Sway and Gomi, two indie darlings. For now though, all the upcoming Gameloft games are clones, including a Diablo clone, a Mario Kart clone, and a Halo clone.

Exciting upcoming games

In contrast to Gameloft, here are some trailers for some games I’m really excited about. Enjoy!

iBlast Moki:

In addition to clever physics-based gameplay, iBlast Moki boasts 70 levels and a fully featured in-game level editor. Gozilab, the developer, has been notified that the game could not be posted because the price was included in the App description, but this was fixed so hopefully iBlast Moki will be making an appearance on the App Store soon.

Hybrid: Eternal Whisper:

Gamevil, the developer of the famed Zenonia, has submitted their stylish action RPG to the App Store so hopefully we’ll be seeing Hybrid soon.

Ravensword: the Fallen King

Crescent Moon games has estimated a submission date of September 30 for their 3D open-world adventure RPG.
Contest Winner

Well, you were all horribly wrong, but sf49lu wins the $15 gift card for being the most detailed in his wrong predictions. Congratulations, Chris will email you your winnings as soon as he stops watching football.

Apps of the Week

Sadly, there were no apps good enough to be deemed worthy of this award. Blades of Fury was lacking, Madden was disappointing, and I haven’t gotten a chance to play Dexter yet. See you all next week!

Zenonia 2!

I’m sorry… this one is mean of me. Zenonia 2 for the iPhone isn’t even in production yet and isn’t expected until sometime next year. Again, I’m sorry for getting you all so worked up. I found this poster on Gamevil’s Facebook page and just had to post it. Enjoy!

HYBRID: Eternal Whisper Trailer Released

Gamevil has just released a new teaser for their upcoming game HYBRID: Eternal Whisper, which is set to release in the US App Store this Fall. The product of the same team behind the amazing RPG Zenonia, HYBRID has a lot of promise. Gamevil’s calling HYBRID a “a new breed of stylish action adventure,” and it looks like it’ll focused more on combat and special moves than on a storyline. There will be 150 levels, a complex storyline, and plenty of challenge. If Zenonia’s success and level of polish is anything to go by, HYBIRD should delight the hardcore gaming crowd.

Gamevil doesn’t have a huge App Store presence on this side of the ocean yet (their only games with English localizations are Zenonia and Baseball Superstars) but from what I understand, they’ve got a solid presence in Korea. Like their other two US releases, HYBRID will be a port from a popular Korean title.

Interview with Gamevil (Developers of Zenonia and Baseball Superstars)

Gamevil is the fantastic company behind Zenonia and Baseball Superstars. I recently had the chance to review their latest game, Zenonia, and it blew me away; you can read my review here, but suffice to say that I thought it clearly surpassed other RPGs in the App Store. While the Korean-based company has only released two games in the US App Store so far (the other Baseball Superstars), both have been very well-received.

The president of Gamevil USA, Kyu Lee, generously agreed to answer a few questions about Zenonia, Gamevil, and the App Store in general. He has some really interesting and intriguing insights—it’s not often that we get to hear things from a mobile game developer’s point of view.

Parts of this interview were also used in my Search for Satisfaction editorial, but there’s plenty of additional content here!

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Bonnie Eisenman (148apps): Hi, Kyu, and thanks for taking the time to do this! For starters, what inspired you guys to make Zenonia? I don’t just mean “why make an RPG”–I mean, “why make a good RPG?”

Kyu Lee (Gamevil): We’ve been developing and publishing mobile games since 2000 in South Korea. One of the most popular categories in South Korea is Role-Playing Games, and it is an extremely competitive category. We “had” to make good RPG games in order to survive through the tough competition. We have been developing RPG games ever since we launched “Last Warrior” in 2001, the first RPG mobile game in Korea, which was less than 50KB. ZENONIA was a project decided to be done after we launched our multiplayer network game, “Path of a Warrior”.
Continue reading Interview with Gamevil (Developers of Zenonia and Baseball Superstars) »

Zenonia showcases what iPhone RPGs should look like. Sure, it has its flaws; the generic plot doesn’t do it any favors. But beautiful graphics and amazing depth make this a must-have for most RPG fans.

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