When I think of TAITO, I still think of playing Sky Shark on my old PC running DOS in the mid 80′s. It’s pretty amazing that the company that guided my airplane obsession as a youth is now pumping out great iPhone games in the 21st century. Ok, enough of my childhood memories, on to the game sale!

SPACE INVADERS INFINITY GENE – Now $2.99

SPACE INVADERS INFINITY GENE was on many app of the year shortlists last year, and is still a mainstay on my iPhone a year and a half later. Its insane mix of old school Space Invaders and new aged freneticism will make you think you are on the iOS equivalent of an Easy Rider drug sequence (and I think that is a good thing).

This winter sale is the first time that TAITO has dropped the price of SPACE INVADERS INFINITY GENE in the App Store. It’s only going to be discounted for the first 100,000 downloads though, so be sure to pick up your cheap copy before the sale runs out.

Mikado Defenders – Now $0.99

Mikado Defenders is also on sale for the first time ever, and it is now a whopping 80% off. It’s definitely not for everyone, but fans of tower/castle defense games that want a brutal challenge will get a good deal of enjoyment out of Mikado Defenders.

Bust-A-Move (Puzzle Bobble) – Now $2.99

Since the original arcade release of Bust-A-Move in 1994 (don’t litter or do drugs!), millions of people have grown fond of the bubble popping puzzle game. It’s one of those nostalgic puzzle games that is a requirement on a new system, and now it’s on sale. If you like Bust-A-Move but have been holding out for a cheaper price, now is the time to snag it.

Cooking Mama – Now $3.99

Like SPACE INVADERS, Cooking Mama is only on sale for the first 50,000 apps that are downloaded, so don’t wait and end up as customer #50,001.

Enjoy the sale, and happy holidays!

The world changed significantly in 1978. The first computer bulletin board system was released, Apple III was under way and, most recognizably, TAITO’s SPACE INVADERS made its way into arcade games rooms around the world. Some 32 years later, it’s back. iPad style.

TAITO Corporation, the original manufacturer and distributor of the classic game, announced that Space Invaders HD (iPad edition) as been released. Here’s what TAITO had to say:

While remaining a faithful recreation of the beloved arcade classic, the graphics and sounds in SPACE INVADERS HD have been specially optimized to take full advantage of iPad’s hardware. Not only are familiar tricks like the Nagoya Attack present and accounted for, the game also includes a treasury of bonus materials, such as rarely seen design documents from the original 1978 game’s development.

Graphics have been optimized exclusively for the iPad, making it “a more impressive gaming experience than the iPhone/iPod touch edition” – something we awarded proudly with 4.5 stars. You can see our review here.

The price for this nostalgic goodness? $4.99. Available to download now.

Space Invaders Infinity Gene really was one of the best games to come out on the iPhone in 2009. It was simple to play, didn’t demand a ton of time all at once, and looked and felt beautiful, in a spooky, System Shock 2 sort of way. If you haven’t played it yet, download it as soon as you can.

Just today, Taito released an update for the game that adds some really neat things, most notably the ability to play the game as a side scrolling shooter and the ability to purchase unique levels and new ships that are based on other arcade classics like Darius, Metal Black, and Night Striker.

Check out the newly updated promo video that Taito put out. If it doesn’t make you want to re-download the game, I don’t know what will.

With the current “retro” trend refusing to die down, especially on the App Store, one of the first and best videogames, Space Invaders, is making a return but not in the form you might expect.

Instead of simply porting the relentless, pixilated aliens to the iPhone platform, Taito has introduced a novel set of utilities (Gizmos) themed with Space Invaders graphics.

Available now on the App Store, iPhone users can take advantage of Space Invaders business card swapper, a calculator, battery meter, memory status tool, clock, flashlight and a timer. Each app offers a unique Space Invaders design and incorporates the 8-bit graphics of the classic game into buttons and displays.

Of all the apps available, Space Invaders Business Cards looks the best featured with the ability to create and customize personal business cards and share them between devices via Bluetooth.

All of the apps, bar the premium version of the calculator are free and provide a fun way to perform basic tasks on your iPhone while remembering simpler times back when a phone just made calls.

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.

Random musings of the App Store.

Retro Invasion

Retro games are appearing in the App Store in droves! Pac-Man Remix, Q*Bert Deluxe, and of course, the incredible Space Invaders Infinity Gene. All of these are updated in some way from the classic games. Q*Bert has updated graphics, Pac-Man Remix has updated graphics (though they are still not too hot on the iPhone) along with power-ups that sometimes feel gimmicky, and Space Invaders is a complete re-imagining of the classic game. Of these, the only game that really captivates me is SIIG. In my opinion, retro games are retro for a reason – frankly, they’re boring and outdated. However, the concepts are still good, and if they’re updated for modern gamers, they can turn out like SIIG. To go with these retro games, there are plenty more on the way: Snood, a classic match-3 shooting game, TAITO’s Bust-a-Move, and most importantly, Pac-Man Championship Edition. Pac-Man CE, for XBLA, is, along with SIIG, one of the best re-imaginings of a retro game I have ever played and, if the controls are changed from Remix, should translate fantastically for the iPhone.

Gameloft coming on strong (maybe)

Along with NFL 2010, Gameloft has an upcoming FPS, Sandstorm, and a GTA knockoff, Gang$tar in the works. These games are particularly of note because it seems as if Gameloft is attempting to directly compete with other developers. NFL 2010 was notably released before EA’s upcoming Madden 2010, and at a lower expected price point – $7.99 compared to $9.99. Sandstorm seems to be in line for direct competition with ngmoco’s upcoming FPS (as yet unnamed). Gang$tar looks to have a huge advantage on current App Store GTA-a-likes with a fully roam-able 3D world. If I was a betting man (ok, I am a betting man), though, I would count on the other two games losing out. If there’s two things Gameloft games have in common, with the notable exception of Castle of Magic, it’s lackluster, on-screen controls, and uninspired gameplay. Gameloft seems to put all of the genre “requirements” in their games, without doing anything truly unique to make the game their own. They seem stubborn about their controls as well, always opting for mediocre on-screen d-pads or joysticks, rather than attempting any innovation for the iPhone. NFL 2010 is a solid football game with licensing, and I’m sure Sandstorm will be a decent FPS. However, neither if these titles, probably, will be great.

Games requiring 3.0 software

I wanted to briefly address a common complaint springing up various places: games requiring 3.0 software or higher. Developers are excited to utilize 3.0 features and making their apps 2.2.1 compatible takes a lot of time, resources, and extra testing. Look, I know that the update is $10 for iPod touchers (whoops, that sounds weird), but that’s really not a lot for a major software upgrade, and if these stubborn users don’t update soon, they’re going to find themselves left out in the cold for some of the App Store’s best apps and games.

This week’s sign of the apocalypse

First Doodle Jump, now Harbor Master; the Pocket God pygmies are invading other games! It was bad enough that I had to look at those stupid pygmies while playing Pocket God, thinking I would eventually like it. But no, that wasn’t enough, now they have to ruin games that I actually play! I really want to kill a pygmy, and in a way so that they can’t be magically dropped from the sky a few seconds later.

Apps of the Week

Gomi

Last week, I previewed Kevin Calderone’s new game Gomi, mentioning the staggering amount of content. Now, the app is out, and not only is it huge, but all that content is actually worth playing! In Gomi, you clean up the world by eating pollution and the like while spitting (?) out trees and flowers. You have to eat smaller things to build your appetite, eventually building up to shopping malls and the like. The regular levels are great, the boss battles are challenging and clever, and the game is seemingly endless with 140+ levels, eight mini games, achievements, and online scoreboards. At the low price of $1.99, Gomi is a unique game and a highly recommended bargain. Expect a full review soon (sorry, I’m on vacation).

BargainBin

BargainBin is an app that allows you track other apps; creating wish lists with target prices and viewing the newest apps, updates, and price drops. BargainBin recently was updated with two major improvements: a nice UI update and a killer feature: push notifications. Now, whenever an app you’re tracking reaches your desired price, you’ll instantly receive a push notification without ever having to open the app. Finding the App Store’s best deals has never been easier!

Well, that’s it for this week, and I’m still loving writing this column! Apparently, I messed up the links for the previous articles, so commenting was impossible. This has been fixed, so hopefully this week my begging for feedback/comments will succeed!

Random musings of the app store.

Minigore Released into the Wild

Minigore, a dual-stick survival shooter, has finally been released onto the App Store after weeks of intense hype and anticipation. So what was all the hype about? Honestly, I don’t know. Compared with its survival shooter kin, iDracula (App Info), Minigore is as shallow as a puddle. It has one map, two weapons, four enemy types, and two health points. It definitely has a unique art style going for it, but beyond that, not too much. There seems to be some sort of story, and while it is never even touched on, there will apparently be Pocket God-style episodic updates. I’m sorry, but I don’t like this approach unless it’s done with a complete game. Minigore is clearly not a complete game, and I’m tired of getting incomplete games with promises of updates that aren’t always fulfilled. There seems to be a bit of a logjam cycle going on with apps nowadays – developers won’t add to their apps unless they do well in the App Store, but consumers don’t want to pay for an incomplete app. But hey, it worked for Pocket God (App Info); it went from being a boring, mindless, stupid time waster to a… boring, mindless, stupid time waster. But seriously, Minigore is not a bad game, just an average one that without a bevy of substantial updates is undeserving of the immense hype that preceding it.

Freeverse joins ngmoco’s Plus+ network

As I touched on last week, there is an emerging social game network competition on the App Store. And, as I loosely predicted (thank you, thank you), ngmoco’s Plus+ network has taken the lead. Freeverse, who may not be my favorite developer but is certainly among the most popular and has a large volume of games, has announced that they will be implementing the Plus+ network in their upcoming action space trader Warpgate, their incredibly popular Flick Fishing (App Info), and presumably more upcoming games. Having two of the premiere App Store developers certainly bolsters Plus+, and could induce a chain reaction of developers braking for Plus+. At this point, OpenFeint may be implemented in more games, but that catalog is very scattered, not all of those games are exactly quality controlled, and some apps were clearly not made for OpenFeint (have you ever tried to go into a Pocket God chat room?). I’m definitely putting my money on Plus+ for now.

From the developer of Trace – Gomi submitted

Bovine Dragon has finally submitted their new game, Gomi, to the App Store. Gomi appears to be a platforming game in which you, as a Gomi, replace the pollution in the world with trees and other natural things. The artwork is certainly unique, and the gameplay looks good, but perhaps the most impressive thing about Gomi is the staggering amount of content. Gomi will have over 140 stages, each lasting several minutes, spread across 8 worlds, with a boss battle for each world that unlocks a new ability. There are also 8 unique mini-games, hundreds of achievements, hundreds of playable Gomis, a complete soundtrack of 17 songs, and online scoreboards for everything. Wow, talk about a complete game! The developer estimates that playing through each stage once, without trying to unlock any achievements
or playing any mini-games, will take over 12 hours. The price for a game of this size? Reportedly just $1.99 upon release. This looks to be an incredible value and if the production values and unique gameplay of Trace (App Info) were any indication, Gomi should be an incredible game.

This week’s sign of the apocalypse

Offender Locator (App Info), an app that locates nearby sex offenders, is currently sitting at #4 overall in the App Store. First of all, are people really that paranoid? And second, if you do find an offender in your area, what are you going to do? Move away? Complain to your neighborhood police patrol? Set up barricades? No, you are just going to be more worried than you were before.

App of the week

So normally, I would list more than one app of the week, but this week, there is basically only one app deserving of the honor, only one game I have been playing all week:

Space Invaders Infinity Gene

I have to admit, after seeing SIIG appear on the App Store, I was skeptical. After all, how fun can a remake of Space Invaders be? It might be fun, but for $4.99? I figured they just slapped some neon backgrounds on the old tried and true gameplay. Well, after reading the 148apps review, I decided to buy the game, and, happily, I was utterly, completely, and unequivocally wrong. TAITO brings a shining example of how to remake retro games for the App Store. The graphics are fantastic, the action is frantic and heart-pounding, the music is techno bliss, and the controls are perfect. The evolution concept and implementation is fantastic, with unlockables aplenty. And on top of all of this, there is the ridiculously awesome ability to generate completely original levels based on your iPod music. I really need some good songs for this mode, so if anyone has any suggestions, post away! This isn’t just a great App Store shooter, this is a great shooter period. Probably in my top three iPhone games ever, and at $4.99, if you’ve ever enjoyed a shooter, you owe it to yourself to buy this game.

Wow, they actually let me write a second Monday Morning App HQ. Hopefully everyone is enjoying the column, and feel free to post feedback.