We've posted about Shadow Gun a few times now, but really haven't gotten much confirmation that the game will actually look (and perform) like it does in the trailer footage. Heck, being skeptical about such things is entirely reasonable too, as it seems like over the course of video game history more than a few developers have released trailers that are either pre-rendered or captured running on hardware that far exceeds the target platform. And really, I suppose as a game developer the greatest compliment you can get is producing something that is so good that people don't think it's real.

Well, I can assure you all that Shadow Gun is real, and the footage that has been shown so far really does reflect how the game looks and plays. Sure, it doesn't seem like there's much gameplay yet aside from a basic third person shooter, but this seems like an awesome starting point.

Here's the game running on an iPad 2, I do some zooming in on the character model so you can see the lighting:

Pretty crazy, right? If you're wondering what's going on behind the scenes, Unity just released the following video that reveals it's not witchcraft, wizardry, or other forms of sorcery... It's actually really clever way to handle character models and lighting. Give it a look:

I'm really looking forward to Shadow Gun, I just hope that Madfinger Games builds an awesome game around these graphics. I'm worried that it could potentially turn into another Samurai II, which as mentioned in our review looked incredible but was somewhat lacking in the gameplay department... So let's cross our collective fingers that this isn't the case here.

There are, I think, four people left on Earth who don’t own the following titles from PopCap Games: Plants vs. Zombies [$2.99 / HD] and Peggle [$2.99]. If you don’t, shame on you sirs. If you do already have them, here’s some good news -- Peggle now supports the Retina Display and PVZ now has the Zen Garden. Both of these respective updates are available for free right now.

The news of the Peggle update broke yesterday afternoon, just about right when the update when live on the App Store. This update fixes, really, the only issue I had with the original game, which is to say, its muddy, out-dated visuals.

The Zen Garden is a different beast. It functions just like how it does in PVZ proper. It’s an interactive garden that gives you cash in return for your green thumbs. You earn plants in the campaign or by purchasing them from Crazy Dave. As you earn more cash, you’ll be able to unlock additional gardens, which in return, will give you more cash to buy all the high-priced action plants in PVZ.

New mini-games, as well as Game Center-linked achievements have been added to PVZ alongside the Zen Garden. That’s quite an update, eh?

UPDATE: Awesome typo, bro!

Back to the Future Episode 4 [$6.99] is available on the App Store. At this point, these write-ups are turning into reports as opposed to reviews. I’m OK with that. The first serial laid the foundation for all the future episodes mechanically and functionally. A review would be weird when there’s nothing evaluative to say without regurgitating previous musings.

In other words, if you’re new to Back to the Future read our review of the first episode.

Episode 4 kicks off right after the events of its predecessor. In the course of the game, however, you will travel back to 1931, which means there’s a... pseudo-new environment to explore and interact with. The beginning of this specific episode in contrast with others does deal heavily with the dialogue wheel, so if you like the characters, this should be in your wheelhouse. If not... well, there’s a lot of find, manipulate, and “use” convention.

I have a couple of thoughts coming out of Episode 4. Wouldn’t it be great if there were decisions you could make that branched out the plot in interesting ways? Wouldn’t it also be cool if these ‘choices’ carried that impact from episode to episode? Telltale never does this, but I think I’d be more invested in the series if it revolved around my actions.

Also, I’m tiring of this engine. Native app or not, these games run much, much slower than their PC and Macintosh counterparts. I understand the graphical sacrifice, but why doesn’t the lack of textures, lighting and other effects mean we get a snappier game? I think there’s some good work that can be done in the future with other series.

The next episode in the series will be the last. I don’t have a hard date for its release, but I would imagine that it hits next month. I’ll keep you in the loop.

On July 23, 1981, Galaga, one of the most well-loved scrolling shooters of all time, made its arcade debut. In celebration of its coming 30-year anniversary, Namco has released the Galaga 30th Collection [App Store], which brings Galaxian, Galaga, Gaplus (aka Galaga 3), and Galaga '88 to iOS.

The collection is a free Universal download (for iPhone and iPad) that includes Galaxian (which is actually the first game in the Galaga series) and offers the other aforementioned titles as in-app purchases individually ($9.97 combined) or as a discounted single game-pack download at a price of $7.99. Each of the titles features reworked graphics that lend a more modern feel to the retro and an optional scan-line filter and score-tracking HUD.

There's not a whole lot to say about the gameplay that hasn't been said for the past 30 years. These are all highly enjoyable and well-loved shooters that feature excellent balance and white-knuckle action. The iOS adaptations of these games, of course, feature iOS-style controls, and of several sorts. There is a mode with two left / right sliders at the bottom of the screen, one for movement and one for movement plus autofire; a left / right slider mode with a tap to the game screen to fire, and a control mode featuring a left / right virtual stick and a fire button along the bottom. The virtual stick mode moves your ship at a speed similar to the arcade originals, while the slider modes move your ship as fast as your finger can zip back and forth across the screen.

An accumulating / depleting fast-fire battery has been added to the games in the collection, which heighten the pace of the game. It's an addition that actually feels pretty nice. I warmed up to it quickly.

Galaga, Gaplus and Galaga '88 all feature a Score Attack mode that is a race against the clock to see how high a score you can achieve, in addition to the Normal Game mode. Another enhancement found in the iOS ports is the ability to supercharge your ship by buying upgrades with Galaga Points earned as you play. All of the titles in the collection feature Game Center achievements and rankings.

Galaga 30th Collection includes a pretty epic intro movie sequence that will have longtime fans smiling, but sadly it adds some real bulk to the download, which weighs in at a hefty 135MB.

My only real gripe with the title is the total absence of the original arcade graphics as a settings option. As a huge retro fan, I would definitely be playing with the original graphics, were they available. (It's worth noting that Namco's Galaga REMIX for iPhone includes the original Galaga with original graphics.)

The star of this collection is definitely the highly acclaimed Galaga '88, but none of the games in the Galaga series disappoint in the least -- in the arcade or under iOS. The touch control options presented here are some of the best I've seen for an iOS arcade conversion, and Galaga 30th Collection really is worth a spot on any arcade shooter fan's iOS device.

One of my favorite iOS games of all time is the dungeon crawler Rogue Touch from ChronoSoft. Here at WWDC 2011, I had a chance to sit down with the man behind the games, Kevin Hill, to discuss the latest on that great classic adaptation as well as some of his upcoming titles, including roguelike / RPG Dungeon Tactics: Spirit Hunter Mineko, which we first mentioned back in March of last year.

First off, Rogue Touch will be getting a major update sometime in July as it moves from v1.6, which arrived last summer, to version 2.0. Kevin worked am impressive series of updates to the game in its early days, but none of them have brought nearly as drastic a set of enhancements as the coming update.

Rogue Touch v2.0 will bring an entirely new set of tiles and monsters with much greater detail than those of the current release. What's more, the game will move to an OpenGL-based rendering engine (don't worry -- it's still a 2D game), improving the visuals in several respects as compared to its current CoreGraphics-based engine. Game Center integration is also in the mix, as well as various, smaller tweaks and enhancements. I took a look at the tile and character sheets for Rogue Touch v2.0, and I can't wait to make the upgrade.

The coming Rogue Touch update isn't all that fans of the game have to look forward to. Rogue Touch EX is still on track to inject the dungeon crawler formula with a dose of arcade action. The game will feature pseudo real-time exploration, something akin to what we've seen in Solomon's Keep. Rogue Touch EX is expected to arrive as a Universal application for both iPad and iPhone, with Retina display support on the latter.

The biggest news of all out of our meeting with ChronoSoft is the preview I was given of Hill's upcoming Dungeon Tactics: Spirit Hunter Mineko. The game marries elements of the roguelike dungeon crawler with those of the traditional Japanese RPG.

We detailed the backstory in our first look but, in short, the game is the adventure of Mineko, a teenage girl and Spirit Hunter who lives with her family in a remote, mountaintop village. One night during a magical and terrible storm, she and her fellow villagers see a menacing castle materialize out of nowhere. The village council decides that her brother should be sent to investigate this new evil and Mineko, never one to mope about the house, follows after him to help save her village.

Hill has made a number of design decisions aimed at keeping the game experience as accessible and uncluttered as possible. For example, movement is a simple swipe with two swipes for an action. Stairs are automatically ascended / descended when encountered. Tidy inventory and potion selection panes can be swiped in from above and below. The entire system feels rather streamlined.

The game features multiple environments including houses, sewers, cellars, caves, forests and castles as well as an active weather system and day and night modes. In addition to weapons and potions, there is a magic system handled via glyphs on a scroll that can slide in from the side of the screen. Additional side areas become available upon completion of the main mission, allowing some bonus post-victory dungeon crawling fun.

I had a chance to play an in-progress version of the game here at WWDC and it seems extremely well put together. Have a look at a brief video of the game in its current state.

We can expect Dungeon Tactics: Spirit Hunter Mineko to arrive sometime this fall. After that, it's on to work on the next title for Hill, an as-yet unnamed, futuristic strategy game in the vein of Advanced Wars and Super Robot Wars. I took a look at the character sheets and they look quite promising.

At WWDC this year we got a chance to one again catch up with Josh Presseisen of Crescent Moon Games who had an iPad 2 loaded with tons of games (some not even his) that he was eager to demonstrate for us. The first of which was Paper Monsters which we have extensively posted about already. It turns out our excitement was totally justified, as this game both looks (and plays) great.

Next up is a game called Topia which is a collaboration between Crescent Moon and Glenn Corpes, the creator of Ground Effect [$1.99]. It turns out that Glenn also had his hands all over the creation of the original Populous, which really shows in the following video:

Last, but certainly not least is Pocket RPG, an entirely randomized hack and slash game that we first caught wind of last year. It seems like the game is nearing release, and Josh goes through tons of details in this nearly 7 minute long hands-on video:

Coming off the successful launch of Touchgrind BMX [$4.99], which we reviewed last month, I met with the folks from Illusion Labs here at WWDC 2011 to discuss their plans for the series moving forward. Speaking of that successful launch, Illusion Labs has revealed that Touchgrind BMX sold over 100,000 copies in just its first 10 days in the App Store, making it their fastest selling title to date. Combined with the original Touchgrind [$4.99/HD], the total sales for the series exceeds 1.5 million units. That’s no small potatoes!

As for the future of Touchgrind BMX, there are a few nice things in the works. Just last week, an update was released which added some much-needed Retina Display support for the game, but unfortunately it was at the expense of a smooth frame rate. Illusion Labs is furiously working the kinks out of this, and the new build I was able to play showed a vastly improved frame rate with Retina Display visuals enabled. They’ll continue to refine this and then plan to drop the optimization update in the next couple of weeks. Following the improved Retina Display update, the hinted at new level Polar Ridge will be released along with full Game Center support.

But it doesn’t stop there. Once all of these new features are finally launched, the next step will be adding a TV-Out feature to Touchgrind BMX that will allow the game to be played on a big screen while being controlled on your iOS device. They demonstrated this functionality to me by using a portable projector and projecting the game right onto the wall in front of me. It looks absolutely awesome, and plays just as good. The iOS screen takes the form of a bike silhouette and controls exactly as the game normally would. Here’s a developer video showcasing the functionality projected onto a big screen:

Pretty cool stuff, but that’s still not the end of the Touchgrind-related news. Way back in January of 2010, Illusion Labs demonstrated a proof-of-concept video that showed the original Touchgrind being played on a MacBook using the multitouch-enabled trackpad. They never actually released the game for Mac due to not really having a solid distribution channel, but when the Mac App Store was announced last October the Touchgrind MacBook demo was one of the first things that came to our minds.

Now, at long last, Illusion Labs is releasing the original Touchgrind on the Mac App Store. The best part? It will be launching for free. You heard that right, for free. Illusion Labs isn’t known for dropping prices or giving away things for free, but this is something they wanted to do for their fans as a thank you for making Touchgrind such a success. You’ll be able to grab Touchgrind for your Mac sometime in July. The announced features for Touchgrind BMX will slowly release over the course of the next several weeks or so, and I can’t wait to see what else Illusion Labs has up their sleeve for the future.

Baseball Superstars has been a favorite around these parts for years now, with entries to the franchise released each fall. So it's surprising to see Baseball Superstars II Pro [$0.99] released a little over half a year after the series' last major outing.

Each update to the series brings new features and improvements, and this one is no different. It's a huge upgrade from the earliest games in the series, but when compared to last year's model, it's a bit less impressive. Don't get me wrong—this one is better than Baseball Superstars 2011 [$0.99 / Free] across the board. But if you've spent some time in Gamevil's series already, you'll find a shinier, prettier game, but not one that's much different from what you've already seen.

(more...)

1000 Heroz [$0.99 / HD] is a simple game wrapped in a fantastic gimmick. Every day you can open it up to find a new hero and a new level to conquer. You'll need to hurtle your hero to the finish line as fast as you can to top the leaderboards for the daily competition. I find little as compelling as fighting a few dozen of my nearest and dearest for the top spot in a game like this.

The game inside the gimmick is a little less exciting. So far the levels have been short and sweet. Climb a few hills or stumble down them, leap over a few pits, dodge a few rocks and you'll get your hero to the finish line. The biggest challenge is mastering the exceptionally floaty physics - if you need precise jumps to enjoy a platformer, you'll definitely want to stay away. But I'm okay with the floatiness. I'd prefer something smoother, but it matches the rest of the game's style perfectly and provides a decent challenge.

(more...)

I heard you guys like gameplay videos. Well here are a ton. Gameloft had a ridiculous amount of games to show off at E3, and all of these games are scheduled for release in the third quarter of 2011. Of course no pricing was discussed (except for Let's Golf 3 which will be free) but we can likely assume these games will all be priced in line with Gameloft's fairly predictable pricing schemes.

March of Heroes - Gameloft's first Unreal Engine 3 game is a first person shooter that basically plays like all of their other first person shooters with a bit more eye candy thanks to the new and improved engine. Oddly enough, the engine switch alone doesn't make the game look that much better. Polygon counts seem low, and almost out of place compared to the nice shadows generated by the game engine.

Some levels are environmental-focused, check out this underwater portion:

BackStab - I'm not exactly sure what to think of this. It seems like Pirates of the Caribbean meets Assassin's Creed, which could be a very good thing if you like both franchises and would love to see them mushed together in to one game.

9mm - This linear adventure game is highly inspired by Max Payne, complete with an over-the-top bullet time mechanic. Unfortunately, the color palette of the game is rather dark so the quality of the hands-on video isn't the greatest.

Let's Golf 3 - I've had a great time with all the Let's Golf games, and I expect the third installment to be no different. This time around, Gameloft will be dabbling in the free to play world. Hopefully we don't hit a pay wall too early.

Block Breaker 3 Unlimited - A crazy block breaking game with power-ups, multiple areas for blocks to be broken on each level, and channels you can shoot your ball into to transfer between them. This was a lot of fun.

Silent Ops - Gameloft seems to be re-using a lot of its Splinter Cell gameplay with this pseudo-sequel. The game has a very similar look and feel to it, including the fairly dark color palette that my camera didn't capture so well under the E3 lighting.

At GDC in 2009, OnLive was originally unveiled with an incredible amount of entirely reasonable skepticism. The prospect of a service that removed the high-end gaming console and/or PC from the equation and instead did all the heavy lifting in a remote datacenter before streaming your game in HD via the internet was difficult to imagine at the time. Hell, when you stop and think about it, it's still hard to imagine today.

It's here though, and after a quick signup you can be on your way to effortlessly streaming a (as of this writing) collection of 100 different PC and console games. In fact, if you're still at all skeptical about OnLive, I highly encourage you to give it a spin. You'll be inside of a game in less than five minutes, and you can see for yourself just how well it works. The only real requirement is an internet connection that allows you to ping under 80ms to the OnLive servers and enough bandwidth to receive a HD stream. If you've got that, you're good to go.

Currently, only the OnLive Viewer is available for the iPad, but in the not too distant future we'll be able to play the entire OnLive catalog on the iPad. Players will be able to choose between a less-than-ideal set of virtual controls, or purchasing a bluetooth controller to pair with the iPad. I got a chance to fiddle with both today, and while the on-screen controls are functional, the controller is definitely the way to go.

Check out how it all works in the following video:

The folks are OnLive aren't ready to commit to release dates, controller cost, and other details, but it's said to be coming "soon" and the controller is going to be "reasonably priced." Since the whole OnLive Micro Console currently sells for $99, and has been given away for free with a few pre-order promotions, I'd find it hard to believe that the iPad-friendly controller would cost any more than $50-- But that's pure speculation on my part.

As I mentioned on Twitter earlier today, it feels like this changes everything. I couldn't believe how well the whole setup worked, and with Apple's new HDMI adapter, plugging your iOS device into your TV via HDMI to play a game in HD resolutions streamed from the internet just feels like the future. The iOS OnLive client even has support for touch and gesture-based controls, it's just up for developers to build games around them.

What an incredible time to be alive.

The Apple Design Awards are an annual event hosted at WWDC that seeks to recognize the best of the best applications and games across whatever Apple platforms Apple wants to elevate. In 2010 the Mac was snubbed, but in 2011 Apple flipped the script and gave it a place amongst the other two relevant platforms: the iPad and the iPhone.

The results of 2011’s awards show are now public. In the interest of our interests, we’ll be highlighting just the games that took the fancy little trophy Apple gave to winners. A few listing can be seen at sites like, say, TUAW.

iPhone

Cut the Rope [$.99 / HD] - Chillingo
Infinity Blade [$5.99] - Chair Entertainment

Mac

Anomaly: Warzone Earth [$6.99], - 11-Bit Studios

iPad

Osmos [$2.99 / HD], - Hemisphere Games

Infinity Blade and Cut the Rope are two fantastic titles that really stress the strengths of the platform. Both feel native and original and benefit from the unique platform. These are well-deserved winners, for sure.

Anomaly: Warzone Earth is a firm example of what you can do with a limited budget and a great idea. It’s a gorgeous “in reverse” tower defense title in which you’re charged with taking down towers with a small group of minions. Warzone Earth is geeked out with all sorts of fun sub-systems and unique points of design. This was a solid choice, too.

Osmos, on the other hand, is a laid-back experience that doesn’t require much from the owner. It’s an ambient game that looks beautiful and plays just as well on the iPad as it does on the PC and the Mac. Good one on Apple for recognizing this.

According to TUAW, the winners in these categories have are receiving a Macbook Air, an iPad 2, and an iPod Touch in addition to their trophy. I wonder if anyone at Chair is in a position to need free tech. From the sound of it, Apple should have given them flippers to swim through the pool of cash below the office.

[via TUAW]

On June 6 Nintendo pushed out its e-Shop update to all 3DS owners with connected devices. From head to toe, this is a more streamlined digital marketplace than the one featured on the 3DS’ predecessor. But while there’s a lot of good, rational stuff in the e-Shop, the marketplace as a whole still doesn’t stack up well against the App Store.

The App Store, whether you love or hate its bulkiness and constant deluge of releases large and small and bad or good, is a better experience. Tools like “What’s Hot,” “Staff Favorites,” and “New and Noteworthy” do an acceptable job at pointing at the next big thing. Its search is simple, sharp, and intuitive and its genre or hook-based splash pages are often valid little storefronts themselves.

To its credit, the e-Shop has similar tools, but they’re all contained within a blade-based UI that is, already, cumbersome and flooded to the extent that it’s hard to find the good or the unique in the store. For example, Plants vs. Zombies [$2.99 / HD] is available now, but where is it? This is a fantastic joint on the DS platform as well and it’s sadly not being featured in the front of the store or in an easily discoverable place, as it should be. (more...)

While they weren’t technically the first to do it, Firemint’s Real Racing 2 HD [$9.99] was the first game to officially support full screen 1080p TV-Out on the iPad 2. After the iPad 2 dropped, it was discovered that a few other games also supported this already, but more of by chance and not necessarily as a specified feature. Now Real Racing 2 HD is making sure its the first game to announce support for one of the new features revealed for iOS 5 at Monday’s keynote.

When iOS 5 is released sometime this Fall, Real Racing 2 HD will support fully wireless TV-Out via the iPad 2 and AirPlay Mirroring with an Apple TV. Essentially, it will perform the same function as the TV-Out feature did using an HDMI cable plugged directly into your TV but completely wirelessly, though it won’t be displayed in full 1080p. It will still run in full screen, but the maximum resolution AirPlay Mirroring can output is 720p. However, that is a very small price to pay to be able to play Real Racing 2 HD on a TV using the iPad 2 as a controller and having it be completely wireless.

In short: I want this for every game ever. The Real Racing franchise has typically been at the forefront of adopting new and interesting features in iOS, and I really hope others follow suit. In fact, AirPlay Mirroring combined with gaming is incredibly similar to what Nintendo is touting as a huge feature of their new Wii U console that was unveiled at E3 yesterday. This gives even more credence to the talk that Apple is now a firm player in the console gaming market with AirPlay Mirroring as they increasingly try to invade the living room space.

I personally love it, and although there are many things the home consoles offer that iOS doesn’t, I absolutely feel there is room for my iPad 2 as a viable option when deciding what to play on my TV at home. We’ll keep a close eye on how this feature is utilized in other games too as we near the release of iOS 5 later this year.

There's no way to beat around the bush on this. Even though many developers have gotten onboard the universal app train, a select few have implemented any cloud-based game save storage system to allow you to sync progress across devices. Of course most server-based free to play games already do this, but in your typical super-casual 99¢ time-waster, your progress is largely locked onto the device that you're playing it on. I can't really fault developers for this, as implementing such a system would largely be overkill for most games, and maintaining the entire online infrastructure to track cross-device progress in a game like Dungeon Raid [$2.99 / Free] would be silly for the developer to do by themselves. For them, there's not much benefit. It would take a heck of a lot of engineering, and servers cost can be substantial-- But that's where Apple comes in.

Monday's keynote introduced us to iCloud, an entirely free cloud-based storage system usable by everyone who owns a recent iOS device, and every developer who wants to use it. So, while it might have been entirely unrealistic for the Dungeon Raid developer to do all this himself, Apple has made it nice and easy.

I've spent most of the day today discussing the prospects of iCloud with many of the developers around WWDC and really one word can describe the temperature of each conversation: Excitement. According to developers who have attended various iCloud-centric WWDC sessions, implementing iCloud-based storage of game saves will be nearly as trivial as dealing with gave saves stored locally on the device is now. This means that as developers inevitably work on tweaking their various apps and games to make them more iOS 5 friendly over the next few months, they'll also likely switch their storage methods over to iCloud, as there's little reason for them not to.

It's still early though, and we're really just scratching the surface of what's possible on the first day of WWDC. One thing I wasn't able to get a very solid answer on was how this was all going to work between standard and HD versions of games. For instance, right now Game Center works like this: If you release your game as a universal app, you can share Game Center leaderboards and achievements for that game across all iOS devices. However, if you release the same game as a separate standard and HD version, Game Center treats those as entirely different apps, and as such, keeps leaderboards and achievements for each app individually.

It's an interesting problem, and no one is sure right now if there's a real solution. Apple obviously seems to want developers to focus on universal apps, but developers vastly prefer two different apps due to pricing flexibility, chart advantages, and several other very valid reasons. If Apple is sticking with the same restrictions as they have for Game Center leaderboards, I hope this just spurs developers to continue the trend we've started to see in offering universal compatibility in the HD version.

This truly seems to be the best of both worlds, as developers can still retain pricing flexibility for two different apps, while providing universal compatibility and cross-device iCloud save syncing while still providing a lower-priced option for those who only own an iPhone or iPod touch.

Another potential snag might be in how game saves are reconciled across multiple devices that might not always be connected to the internet. For example, if you've got a non-3G iPad and an iPod touch, and play the same game on both before returning to a friendly WiFi network. Each game will have different amounts of progress, and the developers I've spoken to so far aren't really sure how things will shake out once these two different game saves hit the iCloud.

Surely this is something Apple has considered, and I'm almost positive we'll find out the answer to all these questions and more in the next few weeks as developers delve into iOS 5. One thing is for certain, holy cow am I happy that cloud-based game save storage will practically be a standard feature in the not too distant future.