This is it – the first ever look at Industrial Toys’ upcoming sci-fi shooter, Morning Star, a core gaming experience made just for the iPad by industry vets Alex Seropian (Bungie, Disney) and Tim Harris (Denuo, Alley Cat Comics), as well as a superstar team of music, art, and story, including comic artist Mike Choi (Marvel/DC) and author John Scalzi (Old Man’s War, Redshirts).

The trailer shows us a maddeningly brief look at the universe of Morning Star, including the depths of space, the skip ship Joplin, and some scary-ass aliens that we seriously just want to shoot in their toothy faces.

“With Morning Star, we’re looking to change expectations for what kind of experience core gamers get from their mobile devices,” said Industrial Toys CEO Alex Seropian. “We’re breaking new ground on everything from the visuals to the story to the ongoing support we’ll provide in the way of content, events and player involvement. It’s gonna be nuts.”

The development team promises a reimagining of the sci-fi shooter, a no-brainer considering that Seropian was one of the co-founders of Bungie, responsible for Marathon and Halo. They’ve made it their mission to create an exciting, action-packed game with controls, community and competitive multiplayer features designed directly for mobile platforms like the iPad. It also uses the Unreal Engine to make it look super amazing and badass gorgeous.

Set 120 years into our future, Morning Star takes players aboard the MSRV-Joplin, a research vessel newly outfitted with military weaponry to explore a mysterious signal coming from within our Solar System. When inevitable disaster strikes, they’re transported across the cosmos to take part in an epic war that is not their own to undo a bunch of awfulness that goes down.

For more info, check out the official website of the game, which is expected to release sometime in Spring 2013. Hit the jump for even more screens and concept art.

Source: Morning Star Game Website

A sequel to popular tower defense game, Star Defense Mission, has been released by Yezh Studio. Star Defense Mission 2 is also a tower defense with a sci-fi space theme.

This time, the games boasts three basic towers with six different evolutionary routes for those towers to go via upgrades. The ten different enemies in this challenging sequel can use seven different skills, making the defense in each level challenging and unique based on which enemies are coming. The game also includes five different items and 25 battle maps.

The story for Star Defense Mission takes place in Lightsource year 9-2. Some humans have escaped the rule of a tyrant, Sinu, with a large amount of energy crystals. The humans must use their rebel force to defend the crystals against the hordes of enemies Sinu sends against them.

The original game was featured on Apple’s New & Noteworthy page. Star Defense Mission 2 is available for $2.99 and is an iPad only game.

$0.99

Star Defense Mission 2

iPad Only App - Designed for the iPad
Released: 2012-04-18 :: Category: Games

It’s the end of the week and there are all kinds of great-looking games and apps to give a shot over the weekend. Let’s call this a sci-fi/fantasy week because all of three of the games in this week’s five have either a sci-fi or fantasy theme. We also have some filter-applying photo apps.

DOFUS: Battles 2
This is the sequel of the tower defense I reviewed a little less than a year ago, DOFUS: Battles. DOFUS: Battles remains to be one of my favorite tower defense experiences on iOS. The games are based on the world from popular MMORPG, DOFUS. “Towers” are characters that can be leveled up and equipped and placed on the game board to defeat waves of enemies. DOFUS: Battles 2 is a reverse tower defense; the characters are attacking, not defending. I’ll definitely be playing this one over the weekend. DOFUS: Battles 2 is available in an HD version as well for the iPad (my preference).

$2.99

DOFUS : Battles 2

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2012-04-12 :: Category: Games

$2.99

DOFUS : Battles 2 HD

iPad Only App - Designed for the iPad
Released: 2012-04-12 :: Category: Games

Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space Ep 4
Those with a great memory may feel a bit of deja vu when looking at this app. Didn’t Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space already show up in Five for Friday recently? Yes it did. A little over a month ago, Telltale released Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space Episode 2 this is Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space Episode 4! Two months and three episodes! This is the same developer behind the Back to the Future and Jurassic Park games.

$2.99

Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space Ep 4

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2012-04-12 :: Category: Games

iStriper
Camera apps that apply filters are getting popular. iStriper applies a unique filter to photos. The app takes a picture from the camera roll and “cuts” it into strips of varying sizes to create an artistic looking result. Distance, thickness, and color can be customized and photos can be exported via Facebook, Twitter, or email.

$1.99

iStriper

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2012-04-09 :: Category: Photography

B&W Lab
Another photography app that adds filters has been released this week, B&W Lab. While most of these filter apps provide a variety filters (like Instagram), B&W Lab focuses on black & white style filtering. There are twenty black & white presets in the app, but users can also customize the saturation, contrast, brightness, gamma, and more. Photos can be shared within the app via Twitter.

$1.99

B&W Lab

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2012-04-09 :: Category: Photography

Hero Mages
Hero Mages is a mix between an RPG, strategy, and card game. Players command a party of three champions and fight in multiplayer or campaigns with various dice and cards to represent spells. Multiplayer can be played with up to 8 players all over the world in free-for-all, team, or cooperative games. Hero Mages was developed by D20Studios, a one-man development team.

$2.99

Hero Mages

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2012-04-11 :: Category: Games

3bot, a 3D action/puzzle game for the iPad, iPhone and iTouch, developed by DevKid, in cooperation with PIXELFEDERATION, is gearing up for it’s app store debut!

3bot is shaping up to look like an exciting, unique, 3D puzzle/action game. Game play previews feature a tripedal “bot” traversing a dynamic, multi-colored polygonal game board, set within a retro, 50′s-60′s-style cosmic universe reminiscent of a puzzle version of Q-bert set in the 50′s space-age.

According to the game’s developers, 3bot is a robot with 3 feet that thinks in three’s. Game play centers around 3bot moving and coloring 3D patterns, navigating its way around a 3D environment set in outer space.

3bot’s cosmic puzzle/action unfolds throughout 3 worlds containing 45 different levels and features multi-touch controls, global score sharing and an authentic, “retro” 50s-60s sci-fi genre atmosphere.

Features:

1. 3+3+3+3+3 levels in 3 worlds = 45 levels.
2. New features added into levels to keep players “on their toes.”
3. Global Score-sharing.
4. Simple, intuitive touch controls.
5. Multiple player profiles.

3bot was developed by DevKid, in cooperation with Pixelfederation and looks like it’s shaping up to be a unique game play experience. You can follow 3bot on Facebook.

Hit the jump for some more screen shots of 3bot.
Continue reading 3bot for iPad, iPhone and iTouch coming soon! »