Tag: Pinball »

If you're an obsessed baseball fan like me, who can watch any teams play anywhere at any time in any stadium or on any TV channel, you can't wait until Spring Training finally ends and the real games finally begin. To help tide you over before the boys of summer take the field, Smashed Fly has a different take on the baseball game genre with Hit the Deck Baseball. Combining baseball with pinball, a la the mechanical baseball games of the 80's, you have to hit a pinball that drops toward your flipper, which is appropriately enough a bat, and hit it back up toward targets that represent a variety of baseball outcomes, your goal being to score as many runs as possible, of course. The game features 3D graphics, a built-in physics engine, five different game modes, and hotseat multiplayer. So, while the baseball season has yet to start with any meaningful games, pinball is always in season! Play ball!

As the year winds down and we look ahead to the next decade it's time for all those wonderful end-of-year lists we all get so excited about. Today we have some exciting news, as Apple has detailed all the top paid and free apps for the iPhone and iPad, as well as the top grossing apps on each platform. Here's the full rundown, for your edification.

Top 10 Paid iPhone Apps

1. Angry Birds
2. Doodle Jump
3. Skee-Ball
4. Bejeweled 2 + Blitz
5. Fruit Ninja
6. Cut the Rope
7. ALL-IN-1 GAMEBOX
8. The Moron Test
9. Plants vs. Zombies
10. Pocket God

Top 10 Free iPhone Apps

1. Facebook
2. Angry Birds Lite
3. Words With Friends Free
4. Skype
5. Tap Tap Revenge 3
6. The Weather Channel®
7. Paper Toss
8. Bing
9. ROCK BAND FREE
10. Talking Tom Cat

Top 10 Grossing iPhone Apps

1. MLB.com At Bat 2010
2. Angry Birds
3. Call of Duty: Zombies
4. Bejeweled 2 + Blitz
5. FriendCaller 3 Pro
6. Zombie Farm
7. TomTom U.S.A.
8. TETRIS®
9. Plants vs. Zombies
10. Doodle Jump

REad even MORE lists after the jump.

Gameprom, the 2010 winners of the elusive Apple Design Award in Games, have just launched Pinball HD 4 iPhone, an iPhone only version of the top-selling iPad game, Pinball HD. It'll set you back $1.99 and, in return, provide you with three tables and a plethora of new and exclusive features.

The first of such new features is full 326ppi display support - meaning iPhone 4 owners will reap all the benefits of their immensely clear screen. This particular version of Pinball houses all three tables: Wild West Pinball, The Deep and Jungle Style Pinball. In addition, multiplayer support means "as many players as you like" (according to their press release) can challenge each other, assuming they are on the same Wi-Fi network.

"If you have an iPad, you already know how incredible playing Pinball HD can be. With the release of Pinball HD 4 iPhone, anyone with an iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS or iPod touch third generation can get in on the fun" writes the official press team. "Featuring the Retina Display on the iPhone 4, the graphics really pop and the new multiplayer feature brings a new level of involvement and thrills to what is already the best Pinball experience in the app store."

Other features include an option between portrait and landscape view; built in help for each table; local and global high scores to bring out your competitive nature; unique soundtracks, sound effects and voices and camera tilt, which provides 3D dimensionality without the need of 3D glasses (although if you do own a pair, they'll work with the application to give you a full sense of immersion).

Given its unique features, the application is not universal - meaning iPad owners of the application will have to shell out an extra $1.99 if they want to enjoy the game on their iPhone. In addition, it looks like multiplayer mode is only available on iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad or a third generation iPod Touch. It's currently unconfirmed whether the iPhone 3G will support multiplayer mode. Confirmed: iPhone 3G, iPod Touch 2G and models older than this are not supported. The game is available to download now through iTunes. You can click on the link below the YouTube video to take you there.

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It's Friday! Hurray! Of course, for me it's summer vacation and Fridays aren't quite as exciting. But, we've still got our traditional sampling of delightful new releases from the past week, so that's something. Big names like ngmoco and Illusion Labs make an appearance this week, as well as a few more mainstream companies like ESPN. Enjoy!

Godfinger
Godfinger from ngmoco allows you to build up a little world of cartoony followers and exert your godly powers on them. In Godfinger, you can be a kind, caring deity—performing Wonders and helping your civilization prosper—or a wicked demagogue, leaving a path of destruction in your wake. You can control sun, rain, lightning, floods, and fire. As you play Godfinger, your actions shape the terrain and your populace's opinion. It's almost ngmoco's answer to Pocket God. Go on, give it a try and test out your godly abilities...Godfinger, like many of ngmoco's newer games, is free.

Geometry Wars: Touch
Geometry Wars was already a classic Xbox game, but it made its iPad debut back in March. Now, it's a universal app, meaning that iPhone and iPod owners can get in on the action! Geometry Wars is a simplistic arcade shooter with basic, geometric graphics and a strong retro theme. It also was one of the first major games to make good use of the dual-stick shooter system that's so popular on the App Store today. The iPhone/iPad version also includes a brand-new mode, Titan, in which you gradually break giant foes apart into swarms of smaller pieces.

ESPN Pinball
In honor of the World Cup, ESPN has a released a pinball app with some football-themed tables (ahem, soccer for us Americans). There's also a Basketball table. The new pinball app is full of flashy graphics and boasts pass-and-play multiplayer, global and local leaderboards, and voice-overs from ESPN Sports Center host Jay Harris. It's a marriage of a TV network, sports, and pinball...if that sounds a little strange, well, it is, but the game looks like some solid pinball fun nevertheless.

Onion News Network
Where would we be without the Onion? In case you haven't heard of this magnificent publication, the Onion is a completely satirical news network with both an online and a print publication. (Yes, that's right: you can get a real Onion newspaper.) Their stories are funny, witty, snide, and clever; you'd be crazy not to enjoy browsing them. The Onion's new app gives you mobile access to the entire Onion archives, including both textual stories and videos. There's not much more to say: it's a typical newspaper app. The only difference is that the Onion is anything but a serious, esteemed publication. It's here to make you grin, and, perhaps, think.

Foosball HD
Illusion Labs has long expressed an interest in touchscreen gaming on larger screens (think back to their tabletop demo of Touchgrind) and now they've released an impressive iPad-only title: Foosbal HD. Foosball HD takes full advantage of the iPad's large screen, transforming it into a top-down view of a foosball table designed perfectly for "local multiplayer": both you and your friend just play foosball! You can also play against the computer, of course, but multiplayer is the real draw. Foosball seems like a natural fit for the iPad, and it's great to see Illusion Labs putting the iPad to good use. Sorry, iPhone users; this one isn't for us.

Any pinball game needs a few things: responsive controls, a complex table design, and solid physics. Jungle Style Pinball has all of that, plus incredible, fully 3D graphics. The table looks great and is tons of fun to play, which is no surprise; Gameprom is also the developer behind two other much-loved titles: Wild West Pinball and The Deep Pinball. Jungle Style Pinball continues the evolution of their games and does so with their signature polish and flair.

The first thing you'll notice upon booting up Jungle Style Pinball are the graphics. The table is filled with lush and vibrant objects, all of which are fully 3D. Tiki-style wooden bridges serve as "chutes" that crisscross the playing field; Big Kong crouches at the far end, and a shaman guards the giant maze. The 3D isn't just there to look pretty, either; it's actually an important aspect of the game. When you tilt your iPhone, the table tilts, too, and you can use this to give yourself a better view of the table. You can also use the tilt feature to save your ball, if you're skilled enough.

Controls are straight forward and fast. There are a total of four flippers on the table: two standard flippers at the bottom, and two separate flippers on either side of the table closer to the top. Tapping the left half of the screen triggers the left flippers; tapping on the right triggers the right flippers. Hold the screen to keep 'em up. It's simple, and the buttonless control scheme works wonderfully.

As for the actual gameplay, well, you'll need to play a few times before figuring out exactly what each hidden trigger controls. There's a guide available online from Gameprom, but it's not accessible from within the app. Once you get the hang of it, the game becomes much easier. "Keys" can be obtained, Big Kong can be awoken and defeated, and you can even make it onto the aircraft that hovers above the table. Multiball can also be unlocked, which just unleashes more havoc. Whether or not you'll prefer this dense table to other App Store offerings is a matter of personal preference, as always, but I found Jungle Style Pinball to be a blast. My only wish is for an in-app explanation of the missions; even with the online guide, it's not always clear how to trigger certain events.

At least Gameprom put a lot of effort into the small details. Pausing the game is as easy as tapping the top of the screen, and if you get interrupted by a push notification, the game resumes with nary a hitch. Even if you close the app, it'll recover your game. Though the game description trumpets that it was initially "designed to show you the possibilities of your iPhone 3GS," I'm running a second-generation iPod Touch and have yet to experience any lag. Both local and global high score boards are integrated, and you can even change the camera from "live" to "fixed" by pinching the screen.

All in all, Jungle Style Pinball is a great addition to the iPhone's library of pinball games. Again, personal tastes will determine if you prefer this table layout over others, but Gameprom's physics engine and 3D graphics are simply superb. If you're a pinball fan or just a gamer looking for a quick pick-up-and-play title, Jungle Style Pinball's low price makes it an easy buy.