It may be a new year, but Chillingo isn’t forgetting about their previous releases, as they have announced an update for one of their games, and a new free version for another.

Parking Mania now has free versions for iPhone/iPod touch and iPad. These are full versions of Parking Mania, where the goal is to park cars in tricky and tight spaces. Parking Mania Free features ads that can be removed, purchasable level packs, and a golden car that will allow players to not fail when they reach their last life. However, even with all these purchasable items, the game still comes with 60 levels of intense parking action! It’s more fun than actual parking is.

The world’s favorite game involving tossing ninjas throwing shurikens at targets, Ninja Throw, has been updated with a new level pack, Master of the Dojo, containing 15 new levels. The game is also on sale for $0.99 for both the iPhone/iPod touch version, and universal iPad version. I’m no genius, but the latter sounds like the smart money option.

Capcom confirms today that a new update for Street Fighter IV: Volt is available now on the App Store. In this new update, they’ve added Tournament Mode. As the name so cleverly implies, Tournament mode allows players to rank up alone or with friends via repeated wins in match play over WiFi. There is also an online community connected in the game, with leaderboards, tournament events, individual and team rankings and pages, as well as post-match analyses, allowing players to share recorded matches.

Volt is the same core game as the previous Street Fighter IV, with the addition of a multiplayer. Players fight on a 2D plane with some extra 3D camera work, working their way up to harder and harder opponents as they win more and more matches. The update addresses our original concern about pushing out “new” games instead of updating them. Looks like someone at Capcom is listening, yeah?

For more details on the game, head over to Capcom-Unity at http://www.capcom-unity.com/. The updated app is live and in the App Store now.

Ash was one of the first RPGs I downloaded when I was a new initiate to the wonders of iOS gaming. I recall being thoroughly impressed by the quality. Well, that quality just got a boost. The original game was released with graphics licensed from RPG Maker, but SRRN Games has replaced all of it with totally original artwork. The new style shares a few basic similarities with the older one, but overall it’s a huge visual change. Especially the character portraits.

Another less obvious but still notable change has to do with the random encounters. One of the game’s initial shortcomings was that there were just so freaking many of them it kind of made getting from point A to point B a pain. This has been rebalanced, so now random encounters are a bit less frequent. They’ll still happen, and they’re still essential to not being caught in a boss battle with one’s pants down, but the decrease will go a long way to making the game more accessible and overall more fun.

Last and most important, Ash is getting an 80% prince drop for the holidays. What was once a great RPG that could be had for $4.99 is now a great RPG made slightly greater and available for a buck. One dollar. $0.99. I’d gladly recommend this game to any RPG fans at $5, but $1? That’s, like, “don’t even think about it just buy it” pricing. So yeah; don’t even think about it, just buy it.

When Whale Trail was released last month, ustwo’s mills made a big point about how the game needed to sell about 300,000 copies in order to be a financial success. The game has so far only sold 130,000 copies; a number that a lot of indie devs would kill for, but for the greater ambitions of ustwo, it clearly falls well short, given the game’s lengthy development time and high budget. The game reached the top 25 on the iPhone and the top 15 on the iPad while featured as the iPhone/iPod touch game of the week worldwide, but has been declining down the charts ever since. So, in an attempt to revitalize the game, ustwo are executing what they call a “PIVOT 180°™” to try and revitalize sales.

The new update to the game adds 32 new levels which transform the game from just an endless runner into one with level-based challenges as well. The new levels challenge players to try and navigate set levels, collecting blubbles along the way. Reaching certain point scores nets more stars (true false fact: it is now possible to earn more stars in iOS games than it there are stars in the universe), which helps unlock future levels. Those who are too lazy to perform well to unlock those levels, or who want to help mills and the rest of the folks at ustwo come closer to profitability, can pay $0.99 or local equivalent to unlock them all at once.

Of course, the same endless mode is still in there, so those who like their games to never end never have to. This release is obviously another risk taken toward profitability, but ustwo are hoping that between this PIVOT 180°™ and the in-development Android version, Willow the Whale can go from succailure to just plain success. The update is now available on the App Store.

Know what’s great about Pocket God? Aside from the malicious glee one gets from snuffing out helpless cartoon characters repeatedly, I mean. It’s that the game has been receiving a ridiculous amount of support since it’s release. Just over 40 Episodes have been released thus far, and Bolt Creative doesn’t look like they plan to slow down any time soon.

Yes, I said “over” 40. The newest Episode, “I Sting the Body Electric” has just gone live. This update adds a coral reef to the Ocean Floor area, complete with jellyfish to torment those loveable, languishing pygmies. It also includes a purchasable “Underwater World” skin pack that changes the Pocket God island’s boulder into a puffer fish and the volcano into a whale. Oh, and there’s something about iOS 5 feature support or something. I wasn’t really paying attention.

I’m kidding! Just kidding! Don’t hurt me!

The new update allows players to make use of two iOS 5 thingies: First, there’s the Asynchronous Turn-Based Gaming that will let them square off against friends and complete strangers in the Battle of the Gods mini-game. Second is the iCloud Storage, which will save progress whenever a level in the battle arena is completed or a new challenge is unlocked. Then they can continue their game with no data loss on any of their other iOS devices.

I suppose there’s no time like the present to dive back in to the pygmy slaughter. Pocket God is, and has been, available on the App Store (iOS 5 support and all) right now for a buck. But really, who doesn’t own it by now?

Genera Games is definitely on to something with TouchyBooks. It’s a clever little app that more-or-less digitizes the experience found in most “board books,” letting young readers (or lookers, really) tap all over the screen to generate sounds and movement. If I were a kid, my parents would never let me hold an iPhone, but if they did this would be a great alternative to a typical bedtime story.

As great as the app may be, this new 2.0 update sweetens the deal immensely. Among the plethora of additions that aren’t all detailed, including a revamped design and a search feature (wow, it must have been rough without that one), are a couple of ideas that are just as smart as the app itself. First, all of the books (full copies, not free samples) can be rated by users. The Amazon-like five star rating system may seem obvious now, but it makes searching through the store a bit less of a hassle. Secondly, there’s the autoplay option. Wow. I mean, the whole narration/interaction thing is smart, but adding the choice to automatically read through a title is borderline brilliant. It’s perfect for kids that are old enough to “read” along, but aren’t quite ready to start poking at things.

Were I a parent, I’d be all over TouchyBooks. This is an awesome app for kids that are just starting to tip a toe into the waters of literacy, as well as a solid tool for helping more advanced “learning-to” readers. Anyone even vaguely familiar with browsing the App Store will find navigation a breeze, and the titles in this limited (but still fairly substantial) library are priced very respectably. Parents, check this one out ASAP.

This morning I got to sit-in on a streaming presentation by Cave World as they announced the particulars of their pending DEATHSMILES update. Options have been added, settings have been tweaked and lots of extra content has been tossed in that should keep the fans quite happy for a while. And they announced another game or something.

The update will include two new special features: First, players can unlock new costumes for Princess Tiara in iPhone Mode (eight plus her default, it looks like) by fulfilling “special conditions” such as clearing Normal Mode. The second addition is a jigsaw puzzle, similar to the one found in Mushihimesama BUG PANIC. Players can unlock pieces as they play and pick up equipment in-game and eventually put the whole thing together. What this accomplishes, aside from looking spiffy, wasn’t talked about, but it’s yet another carrot to keep players interested so it’s hardly a bad thing. As is the “hidden” BGM that can be unlocked by using some “special technique.”

In addition, special DLC weapons will be available for purchase. One of the DLC weapons, the “Golden Horn,” was shown off and looked to be somewhat of a screen-clearing powerhouse. None of these weapons (ranging in price from $2.99 – $3.99) will be required for achievements or unlocking content, but Cave fans probably won’t be able to resist using guns from Dodonpachi Ressurection in their game.

Last on the list of additions is a number of unspecified bug fixes and screen adjustment options. Now players will be able to shift the screen to the left or right in order to keep finger obscuring to a minimum, and the display can be reoriented (FINALLY) to accommodate those of us who hate holding our iPhones the wrong way. Oh come on, it’s totally awkward with the Home button on the left. Admit it.

But updates to their newest shooter aren’t the only thing they had in store. Cave World producer Masa King, clad in a French maid uniform (seriously), showed off a trailer for their upcoming social sim game: Castle Creator. Castle Creator lets players create their own castle town in feudal Japan, register their location and “skirmish” with other players when their town is big enough. There’s no specific date yet, but it is in production and should be out later this year.

Mention of a Mushihimesama BUG PANIC soundtrack CD release (featuring 24 tracks) was also made, but I think the bigger announcement was Espgaluda II HD. It was a last-minute thing, and aside from a very brief demo virtually no information was given, but iPad owners should still be getting plenty excited. It looks gorgeous.

DEATHSMILES owners can look forward to the update sometime within the next day or so.

Today is a day of major updates and new releases. Three of the major updates deal with multiplayer functionality and features. Need for Speed Hot Pursuit updated yesterday with its Autolog feature. According to the Need for Speed blog,

Through Autolog, you’ll be able to track your career progress, Personal Best times and how they compare against your friends, check out all your captured game photos, brag about your latest accomplishments, and jump directly into challenges recommended by Autolog’s comparison engine based on your friends’ gameplay.

Popular board game ported to iOS, Carcassonne, updated to allow online multiplayer through Game Center. Carcassonne also added more achievements, a score sharing option, and made overall improvements to the app itself.

The update I’m the most excited about is the massive Infinity Blade update. The Chair Entertainment Group has added the “Arena” to Infinity Blade, allowing multiplayer challenges with friends through Game Center. In addition, the game now has a survival mode, new items, and new achievements.

If these major updates aren’t enough to overwhelm those serious gamers out there, a slew of interesting games have been released.

Square Enix and Chaos Ring fans will jump for joy because a new Chaos Rings game has been released today, Chaos Rings Omega. The new game uses new characters and a new storyline that is said to span 10,000 years!

Casey’s Contrapations involve creating Rube Goldberg-ish machines so that Casey can get his toys back. Friends can share the puzzle solutions with each other over Game Center and can even create their own contraptions for their friends to solve! It’s also an Editor’s Choice recipient on 148Apps!

Bumpy Road is an interesting game where the player guides a moving car by modifying its surrounding environment (like the ground). The game looks great for kids but I’ll probably be caught playing it shortly!

TNA Wrestling iMPACT is a professional wrestling game, obviously. It includes wrestlers such as Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair, has a wrestler creation mode, career mode, and multiplayer through Game Center.

iQuarterback 2 is a target practice game football game. The player controls are quarterback trying to hit various moving targets in different environments (apparently some as weird as an air hockey table). Game Center provides high scores and achievements.

Candy Train is an old PopCap game finally ported to iOS. The player controls a train while attempting to fix hilarious messed up tracks to reach pieces of candy. While it looks like another great for kids, this seems like a fast-paced game and fun for adults as well.

Orions 2: The Deckmasters is a sequel to original fantasy card game Orions: Legend of wizards. The new game includes more cards and characters and seems to have a ton of visually stimulating animations for attacks.

And finally, Storm in a Teacup is a puzzle platformer where the character flies across various levels in a magical teacup. Despite the ridiculous premise and name, it looks like a cute and well-made game.

So pick a new game, update the older ones, and have great time playing with friends online today!

Just when you think that Angry Birds may finally be ready to slink away from the top of the iOS sales charts and make way for some new hotshot developers, another update hits for the most successful portable game franchise in the history of the platform.  That’s right folks, it is time to fire up your iPhones and get ready for the long awaited and eagerly anticipated May update for Angry Birds Rio to land on your iOS device of choice.

After facing a barrage of emails, tweets, and Facebook messages when the first of May came and went without new stages being added to their beloved Angry Birds, Rovio decided to head speculation off at the pass, and released the following trailer:



Finally landing last Friday, the expansion pack nicknamed “Beach Volley”,  features thirty new stages to add to the initial sixty included in Rio’s original release.  This time you will take the primate assaulting to the surf and turf, in search of more birds that desperately need to be freed.

But that is not all folks, because it looks like the original Angry Birds may be getting some downloadable love as well.  According to Rovio’s official twitter feed, late this month will also see brand new content come to roost on the first game that just kept on giving.  Honestly, the concept of continuing to update the first title when the sequel is already selling like gangbusters baffles me slightly, but who am I to sneeze at new, not to mention free, content.

In one last revelation to sneak out over Rovio’s twitter account, they seem to be targeting June to release another update to Angry Birds Seasons.  Given that June 21st officially marks the start of summer, it would seem appropriate to see how everyone’s favorite swine embrace the sweltering heat.  Oh, and just a note, in case you couldn’t see the theme of this article, if you are a fan of Angry Birds, you should really be following Rovio on twitter.  It is a veritable news bonanza!

A string of major free updates have landed this week in the App Store, just in time for the beginning of the holiday season that always witnesses fierce competition and price reductions for consumers. This week, Sleep Cycle, Twitter and Boxcar all rolled out significant additions to their already impressive applications, enhancing functionality dramatically.

Developers Maciek Drejak Labs rolled out version 3.0 of Sleep Cycle alarm clock, rated 5 stars by 148Apps and holding the position of #1 top paid application in numerous countries. The $0.99 application tracks your sleeping pattern in an effort to wake you up during your lightest sleeping phase. The free update now allows you to wake up to your own music from the iPod application, or choose not to have an alarm at all but still track your sleeping pattern. In addition, the application now offers full support for iPod Touch and is “up to 5x more sensitive to your movement”. A new intelligent snooze feature has also been integrated, along with a plethora of general improvements that make this application a thorough ‘buy’ recommendation.

In social networking news, a much-anticipated and long overdue update to the official Twitter application for iPhone and iPad brings push notifications for @replies and direct messages, a feature that third party applications such as Boxcar (see below for a twist) offered to satisfy users who were forced to make use of an unofficial alternative.

However, Boxcar, an application that satisfied push notifications for Twitter before the update, have gone one step further still and now offer push notifications from anyone on your timeline, regardless of whether or not the message is a standard tweet, @reply or direct message. This is big news, particularly for twitter feeds dedicated to posting breaking news, where speed is everything. Version 4.1 also provides Foursquare, Gowalla and Reddit push integration.

With the holiday season fast approaching, expect more and more developers to provide added incentives, release significant updates and reduce prices in a bid to ensure that their application remains top of the charts. The best things in the tech life really are free – updates!

Three games from relatively recent reviews have all received robust updates of late. Forgive me if these aren’t exactly “new,” but if you passed on these games in the past due to concerns about content, take note: now’s the time to try them again.

Angry Birds
Clickgamer’s Angry Birds won my heart with its quirky style and cheerful, bizarre art. One feature that was notably absent from the birds-in-a-slingshot game, however, was online high scores. The 1.2 update remedied that with Crystal integration, which brings leaderboards and achievements. It also included 42 new levels for an already-great game.

Continue reading More Physics-y Goodness: Angry Birds, Rafter, and Doodle Bomb Updates »

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.

By now I’m sure you’re all aware of Imangi’s Habour Master. Ever since it launched back in June of this year, it’s been a well loved, and treasured App Store classic.

Similar to Flight Control, Habor Master centers around line-drawing, an App Store genre of game which first hit the App Store in January, with pretty big fanfare. In the game you’re in control of a busy harbor, controlling shipments of goods and packages, and docking the boats in a frantic bid to deliver these shipments to the right ports. It’s a fun title, taking into consideration the true mechanics and value of the iPhone platform, and taking advantage of touch, to create an overall addictive experience.

A few days ago, we got the heads up from Imangi Studios‘ very own Natalia Luckyanova, on a new upcoming update to Harbor Master which should hit the App Store any day now, and is bound to make you fall in love with the title again. The update we’re talking about is version 2.0, and it’s set to bring with it wireless multiplayer matches via Bluetooth. With the update, you’ll be able to select from the 6 included maps, battling to clear the harbor of ships, all the while playing against a friend.

But how are you going to keep track of all these boats? And just how exactly is this 2-player gameplay going to work? The studio explained:

“When a player sends an unloaded ship off the screen, it appears on the other player’s screen, at the same spot, fully loaded. That way, a player can use different strategies to try to overwhelm their opponent, such as timing waves of ships to send over all at once. The player who crashes first loses.”

We are told that the ‘Multiplayer’ aspect of this update will only work on OS 3.0 or higher, and you’ll have to have either an iPod touch (2nd Gen), iPhone 3G or a later model. That said, Natalia ensures the rest of the game will still work on all devices and OS versions.

But the fun doesn’t stop there. Oh no, the update will also include a highly anticipated feature, which is been present in other titles for a while. A fast-forward button. Plus, we’re also told you’ll also be able to adjust the speed of this ‘fast-forward’ motion.

I for one love Harbor Master, I think it’s great – and this update looks like it’ll have me playing it even more! Look out for this mutliplayer update hitting the store very shortly!

We’ve been running the 2.0.1 OS update for a few days now and our advice is to go for it. Install the update only once you have a full and complete backup though.

We’ve had fairly good luck with the update — even though we’ve just had our 4th restore, 2.0.1 seems a little faster if not more stable.

The install was quick and painless — much quicker than the restore process (3+ hours in our case). Let us know your thoughts.

Apple today posted the first update to the iPhone OS for both generations of iPhones (original and 3G), and the iPod Touch. The updated only lists mysterious bug fixes. Some users are reporting that it gets rid of the lag seen in Contacts and the Camera. We’ll be trying it once a few more brave souls have and report back. Hopefully it will address some of the more serious bugs as well.

[originally spotted at TUAW]