TouchDown issue 10
Published: February 8, 2010
Welcome to another TouchDown… a summary of the week’s highlights in iPhone and iPod Touch Gaming news. With all the excitement, and in some cases disappointment, with the iPad, it’s nice to get back to all things pocket sized…
Sonic 4 speeding to AppStore?
In a new trailer for the next Sonic Game, a mysterious shape can be seen in the final screen. Alongside the Xbox Live, PSN and Wii Ware logos is a black rectangle similar in shape to an iPhone or iPod Touch with a question mark icon and a lock on it.
Let’s hope it can only be our beloved Apple devices, as I’m sure most of you would agree, we are thirsty for some real Sonic action. With the game being given the ‘4′ monicker, we can only assume that it will be a true sequel to the Genesis/Megadrive classic series, and back to it’s 2D roots. Check out the trailer below and see the mystery icon for yourself!
Riddim Ribbon out tomorrow
Tapulous’s highly anticipated racing come music game will be released next week on the 8th of February. Originally shown at a previous Apple event last year, the game sees you controlling a rolling ball on a futuristic 3D musical track. Rolling into certain objects activate the music track, and changing tracks alternates part of the music track. The Black Eyed Peas will be featured in the game and recently Tapulous unveiled this new trailer feature the dance delights of Tiesto.
SocCars
No, that is not a typo above! SocCars is a combination of man’s two favourite pastimes… Soccer and Cars!
Presented as a one-on-one battle, you must steer the ball into the opponents goal using the front of you car. Powerups are available to pick up including; Freeze, to freeze the opponent; Rocket, to deflect the trajectory of the ball; and Magnet, to attract the ball. There are a selection of cars to choose from, with the more agile racing car allowing for best attacking, while the heavier armoured car is best in defence. SocCars will be released February the 11th at $0.99 (£0.59).
Become… The Hero!
Chillingo unveil a teaser trailer for their upcoming side-scroller from Traplight games. The video below includes gameplay that sees you taking control of a Superman style hero in a 2D open world, taking on a variety of threats such as meteors, zombies, UFO’s, ninjas, giant insects and falling babies. Check it out:
Brothers in arms: Global front
Last Monday we posted out hands-on of Gameloft’s new First person Shooter, the sequel to their 3rd person shooter released last year. We did have video, unfortunately despite being given permission to video the game in action, we were asked to remove the clip from Youtube (A quick search will unveil a few copies of our video). Check out out hands-on here as well as updated screens of the game here.
Broken Sword on iPad?
Maybe not, buy Digital Spy reports that Revolution Software, the creators of Broken Sword, will support the iPad in some form.
Managing director Charles Cecil expressed his excitement for the platform, saying that the studio will be working on a new property for the device.
“The device is amazing. Personally I think that while the ebook market, currently dominated by Kindle, is the most obvious target, the,area with the biggest potential is the enormous netbook market,” he said.
He added: “Our future plans for iPad are primarily in relation to a new property, rather than revamping existing games.”
Source: Digital Spy
Maestro: Green Groove - hands-on
Bulky-pix have provided us with a preview build of a new music game coming soon to iPhone and iPod Touch. Much like Mevo and The Grooveriders from red Rocket Games, Maestro: Green Groove is a musical platformer, but it’s far more hands on. Each level sees you guiding a bird along wire, picking up fruit and stars. Each object emits a note in time with the music, building a song. To make the bird jump or drop to a wire below, you flick the wire in the opposite direction. Some wires include guitar hero style sections which you must pluck at just the right moment. Couple this with creatures caught in bubbles which you must tap at the right moment, and the game can become pretty hectic musically. Maestro will hit the AppStore this month for $0.99. It’s certainly worth picking up if you want a new twist on a music game, and the 16-bit style graphics are pretty cool to boot. Check out our hands-on video below:
Lemmings-like hits AppStore
We’re surprised Lemmings hasn’t been ported to iPhone yet… but while we wait you may want to check out Age of Tribes, a lemmings-a-like from Axel Friedrich.
As the leader of a small group of natives from different eras, it’s your mission to lead the members of your clan home safely. Not that simple, since your tribe members trust you blindly and would readily follow any path you present them with.
Main Features
- 4 different eras (egypt, viking, aztec and chinese) with a total of 8 different graphic themes
- 3 beginner’s and 5 advanced levels per era
- precise touchscreen controls
- Plus+ enabled: leaderboards and achievements
Vanquish: Oath of Brothers
In episode 49 of the podcast I talked about how interesting Vanquish: Oath of Brothers looked, and speculated that we might be getting some kind of action RPG along the lines of Okami. Described by Gamevil as an artistic RPG I was hoping for gameplay requiring you paint your attacks with your finger. Unfortunately after some time with the game it’s simply a button masher with artistic pen-drawn graphics. It certainly has a cool art-style going for it, but it’s not what I was expecting gameplay-wise. Check out the video below to make you own mind up, and look out for my review soon.
Cliffed for free
IUGO have released a lite version of Cliffed. Called ‘Norm’s World’, the game features: only one character (Norm), unlimited gameplay, and fully functioning multiplayer. Users will also earn VIP points which go towards unlocking exclusive content in select IUGO games. You can get it here.
Play god with the Art
Ever felt that you wanted to platy the SIMS but that all the characters where artists in a colony? No? Well while that does seem to be a rather specific and unique request for a game, I-play have granted it with ‘Artist Colony’.
“Unveil the drama in this masterpiece of love, betrayal and creative genius! Artist Colony is the ground breaking sim/time management game where players have to restore a thriving oasis of artists as they rebuild the community.”
See for yourself:
Cooking Mutha F***er
It was only a matter of time before Gameloft got their hands on yet another popular genre… this time a Cooking Mama clone with Pocket Chef. To give them credit, it does look the business, with great looking 3D representations of cooking utilities at work that will see you mixing, chopping, blending and pan frying through 25 recipes and 19 mini-games. Pocket Chef is out now for $4.99.
What ever happened to…. Noby Noby Boy!
With GDC around the corner I thought it would be interesting to look back at what we covered last year (see it here). I stumbled upon a post I made about Noby Noby boy coming to iPhone http://www.touchgen.net/gdc-noby-noby-boy the strange game on PS3 from Katamari creator Keita Takahashi. What happened to it we don’t know as it never surfaced… does anyone know where it is? or if it’s coming. Who knows, maybe it will make an appearance this year.
Escape
As IUGO continues to bring more original IP to multiple mobile platforms, the indie studio introduces its latest casual game with ESCAPE, coming soon to iPhone
Play through limitless zen-like puzzles by jumping a little guy from stone to stone to eliminate all and solve the puzzle.
Escape features:
• Endless levels and gameplay
• 2 additional unlockable difficulty modes introduced through DLC (iPhone only)
• Simple controls for all ages
• Minimalist graphics for maximum appeal
• Unique cerebral game play complimented by relaxing audio and visual effects
ESCAPE is slated to launch on the BlackBerry first followed by an iPhone release shortly after. Price point for BlackBerry and iPhone apps will be announced upon release.
Go to Hell Kid!
JustNine have released HellKid, a Bionic Commander-a-like platformer. You play Devi a devil fascinated with humnanity, and your objective is to collect enough souls in your quest to become human! The game includes 12 levels. Each one is randomised giving you that extra level of challenge and re-playability. The similarites to Bionic Commando come from a “hook” giving you the ability to swing across pits and chasms!
HellKid also has 38 achievements to be unlocked, and an endless hard mode aptly named “Valley Of Despair”. Other features include leader-boards, the ability to submit scores to Facebook and Twitter, and the option to play music from your personal music library.
Reviewers on iTunes have already described it as the bastard child of Hook Champ and Canabalt. It’s out now for $0.99 http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hellkid-hook-jump/id350273868?mt=8
Red Five standing by!
Star Wars: Trench Run (reviewed here) has been updated, it’s still a bit light on content but fixes some bugs, and makes the trench level a little more challenging with less forgiving turrets. If you are still not willing to drop a few coins on the game, then you can actually play it for from on StarWars.com
Well, that’s it for another TouchDown, be sure to check out the site for any breaking news and reviews in the week… see you next time!
Review disclosure: Any games reviewed on this page may have been provided to us by the developer for the purposes of this review. Note: the resulting review score is never impeded by this fact, all opinions are that of the TouchGen reviewer and not the developer. This is in keeping with our O.A.T.S oath. Read more about O.A.T.S here
