Hello. My name is Cassandra and I have a problem. I'm a recovering trading card game-holic. I used to play them obsessively - just ask my wallet. But I've been getting better. I've been clean for a while but I have doubts that it is going to last. There's a new game in town and it's smart, sexy and exotic. Meet Cabals: The Card Game [Free], ladies and gentlemen, and kiss your productivity good-bye.
Developed by Finnish Kyy Games, Cabals has all the necessary hallmarks of the genre: exceptional artwork, warring factions, creatures to summon, resources to manage, booster packs - you name it, they've got it.
The world of Cabals: The Card Game is a familiar one. It's our own, after all. The key players here are the Cabals, secret societies comprised of witches and steam punk magicians, of Russians and alchemists and faerie pigs. As is often the case with anything eldritch in nature, these Cabals don't get along too well. This, obviously enough, is where you come in. You're one of the vanguards and you will fight for the glory of your faction. Or something like that.
Back in late October we posted an update on Elite Systems' coming Elite Collection (iPhone) and Elite Collection HD (iPad) apps, which will offer a bundled collection of classic Commodore 8-bit home computer games, as well as an in-app game store for purchasing additional singles and bundled arrangements of games. At that time, Elite indicated that these applications would be delayed due to a trademark complication. We're now happy to report the studio has informed us that the titles will land in the App Store on Friday, December 16th, and at a one-week promotional launch price of $0.99 each. [ UPDATE: Apologies to readers in our overlooking the fact that the stated release date does not apply to the Americas. These titles will see release there in mid-to-late January. ]
Rovio Mobile is celebrating the second "birthday" of Angry Birds [$.99 / Lite / HD / HD Lite] in style. Of course, the app has been updated with new levels -- specifically, 15 birthday-themed levels, complete with cake and candles and hats. But Rovio is also taking the celebration to the streets. Starting at 11AM, Barnes & Noble stores around the country are holding exclusive events complete with prize raffles and Mighty Eagle scavenger hunts.
As we revealed on Twitter, Barnes & Nobles at The Grove in Los Angeles is probably going to be the best place to see this party in action. Rovio's North American GM will be there, and he'll apparently be carrying tons of swag with him. If you're going to go, send us some pictures. We'd love to see that "Birds & Noble" sign in particular.
Love it or hate it, Angry Birds is huge. And it's huge enough to score a re-branding partnership with a popular retailer for a good chunk of a Sunday afternoon. While it seems silly, this kind of thing does wonders for our favorite phone and tablet hobby, so here's to hoping the momentum continues.
Now here's something I was never expecting. As part of the EA Daily Deals program this holiday season, Flight Control [Free] and Flight Control HD [Free] have had their prices slashed to zero dollars.
Flight Control is about as classic as games get for iOS. It not only has won a pile full of awards since it was released, it's single handedly responsible for popularizing the whole "line drawing" and "chaos management" family of games. Everyone needs to download it while it's free, which from the looks of it, is today only.
On this week's show, we power through conversations about toilets and Eli's European adventure in order to bring you the latest, hottest, and bestest in iOS. At the top, we dive into why Eli is in Finland and then discuss Dragon Shout and Brad's latest soul-sucking strategy game, Rebuild. Later, we answer some of your user questions, and drop our takes on news-y topics like OnLive's app and using the Siri's tech in games.
Even though we had a man across the ocean this week, I think we put together quite the episode for all of you TouchArcade-iacs out there. If you're not a member of the club, join up by listening to one of these links. Additionally, you can subscribe to our show via iTunes or Zune Marketplace.
Earlier this week, Warner Bros. and Mortal Kombat developer NeatherRealm Studios surprised everybody by dropping Batman Arkham City Lockdown [$5.99], an iOS spinoff of the critically acclaimed console series, into the App Store. Batman Arkham City Lockdown is a streamlined take on its console big brother games, placing you in the role of Batman as he faces off against a stable of Gotham City's infamous villains in one-on-one battles. The presentation and overall "Batman-ness" of the game are absolutely fantastic, and although the combat is a bit rigid and flat, Arkham City Lockdown offers a fun mobile version of The Dark Knight's superhero escapades.
Immediately upon starting up the game, you're thrust into a fight with one of the Joker's thugs which acts as a tutorial in the ways of combat. The controls are fairly straightforward: Tapping the screen allows you to dodge an incoming blow, swiping the screen left or right throws those respective punches, swiping up does an uppercut, and swiping down just when an enemy is about to strike does a deflection move resulting in a dizzied opponent.
Last month, CAVE announced plans to bring Bug Princess to iOS. Details were vague aside from a teaser video and a "winter 2011" release data. Well, this afternoon CAVE let the proverbial cat out of the bag and revealed that it'll be available on the 15th as a universal app for $4.99.
My favorite part of the trailer is about half way in when they show the side by side gameplay of the different difficulty levels. I've never really been good enough at CAVE games to advance past the easy modes. Thinking that it's possible for someone to rock out in "hell" mode sort of makes my head explode.
Bug Princess is just the latest of the plethora of games that are scheduled to be released on the 15th. Strap in, next week is going to be insane.
Earlier today I got a live demo of Ovelin's WildChords [Free], an edutainment musical game that never really had much reason to be on my radar. But using nothing more than an iPad, any kind of guitar, and some technical wizardry on their end, WildChords can teach you how to play the guitar. There are a number of fairly exhaustive overview videos on YouTube, and something like this is really better to just see in action, so check this out:
The crazy thing about WildChords, is that it really works exactly like it shows in the video. Watching someone play a guitar in front of the iPad, along to a game, that is able to recognize what chords you're playing and slowly ramp up to teach you actual songs flat out feels like a mixture of magic and something you'd see in a sci-fi movie. Better yet, it's totally free to try. You can download the app and get access to all of the early lessons, which will give you a great idea of just how well it works. It's worth repeating that you seriously don't need anything but an iPad, and a guitar. There's no wires, accessories, or anything else.
After you complete the free content, additional lessons are purchased for $2.99 a pop via in-app purchase, and they have plans to roll out all sorts of additional IAP packages. The music recognition technology they're using apparently has the potential to be stupidly exact with future possibilities of detecting whether you're strumming with an upstroke or a downstroke, as well as all sorts of other nuances that flew right over my non-musical head.
I think there's tons of potential in these kind of real-world musical instrument games. Imagine if instead of spending a cumulative week of your life playing Guitar Hero you invested your time in WildChords. You'd know how to actually play an instrument instead of just being especially proficient on pressing buttons. The cost savings are incredible too, as even if you bought every piece of IAP in WildChords, you'd likely still have spent less money than a single guitar lesson.
If you don't have an iPad, or a guitar, but just want to see more of WildChords in action, check out the Ovelin YouTube channel. If you do have an iPad and a guitar, you really need to download WildChords.
The adorable Om Nom from ZeptoLab's Cut The Rope [$.99 / HD / Lite] franchise is cutting loose from the confines of his brilliant puzzle games. Earlier today, the studio put out a fantastic animated short starring the adorable monster in a live-action setting. The core story revolves around Om Nom's desire to get candy wherever, and the conflict is one between him and a playful tabbby. I can hear The Bearded One moaning in delight from over here.
Cut The Rope is certainly popular and has seen its fair share of merchandising. I think I like this, though, way more than any plush toy or bit of apparel. Make sure to check out the video whenever you have time. It's awesome (and embedded).
SpellTower [$.99] is one of those rare titles that come along and completely knock your socks off. Mixing elegance and good word game play, we recommend it to anyone looking for a good game, no less a good word game. And now it's an even better value: version 2.0 of SpellTower adds in achievements and bug fixes on top of Universal support, for free.
Oh! And the price? You probably noticed that it's lower, too. As of yesterday, the game's price has been knocked down to $.99 instead of its usual $1.99. Deal! They happen! I'm excited!
If you're still on the fence after this reduction, take a moment and educate yourself with our review of the game. Spoiler: it's pretty good.
Despite is charmingly designed appearance, Bike Baron [$.99] is a cold and cruel game made for those of us who like to fail and feel rewarded whenever we do manage to land a pixel-perfect jump. The game's developer, Mountain Sheep, on the other hand... it seems a lot more open and friendlier than its product. Case in point: it's giving users a brand new, insane-big free update and it's asking for nothing, not even a beating, in return.
At the top, Bike Baron 1.3 sees the introduction of Domovoi Biker playability in every one of the game's levels. Mountain Sheep reckons that he's "just as cool as" Baron, but notes that he's a tad easier to play with. The fact that he gets more checkpoints, basically proves that.
But that's not all -- Mountain Sheep is featuring 22 of the 'best' user levels with new goals. This update also adds a "retry from beginning" button, more sound effects, and "various small fixes in level flow and structure," including those new Domovoi checkpoints we just mentioned. Oh! And Twitter integration is now a thing. Try not to spew to many profanities across the world wide web, eh?
Uppercut Games's ridiculously awesome cover-based shooter, Epoch [$2.99], is seeing its first price reduction since its November launch. For a limited time, you can grab it at $2.99 instead of its usual $5.99. I ran this deal past a few of our math wizards, and they're telling me this is 50 percent off the regular price, so that's cool.
Epoch was a big hit with us. We awarded it a lot of stars, and loved how it made cover actually feel good. That's a rare thing in third-person shooters, even though there's a billion-plus-two of them out there on shelves at the moment. Give it a shot if you didn't grab it yet, or hey, read our full-length review and decide.
12 Indie Apps for Christmas still has a few more weeks to clock before it ends, but the latest report on what the program has managed to raise in the little time that it's been up and running is impressive. According to Indie Game Mag, the collective of developers have raised over $1500 dollars to give to its two charities: Doctors Without Borders and Child's Play. That's hip!
In case you missed it this week, 12 Indie Apps For Christmas is kinda like the Humble Indie Bundle. The bottom-line is that twelve developers are teaming up together and giving away 25 percent of each individual sale of one of their App Store games, post Apple cut, to charity through December. Neat idea, right?
If you've been wanting some additional control functionality in Space Tripper [$3.99], you got just that in the game's latest update. This morning, the crew behind the free-roaming shoot 'em up added in tilt calibration alongside "relative" touch controls, which let you touch the screen and move around your ship with momentum-heavy flicks.
Developer Luke Ryan let us behind the curtain a bit. He was initially worried that this new scheme wouldn't work, but then he realized "we could just add momentum so that you can flick the ship the same way you would flick a scroll menu." Ryan adds that he thinks this works "surprisingly well," and our forums are back that up.
In addition to this, a new Easy Mode has been integrated into the experience, giving users more lives to work with and no level restarts after death. If you want it less intense, give it a spin. Heck, give the game a spin in general. It's pretty good.
My Xbox Live and Dragon Shout have been welcome surprises for Xbox Live or Skyrim users, respectively. Judging by looks and promise alone, we imagine that Halo Waypoint is going to be huge for Halo and Live fans.
On December 10 the slick-looking companion app will see a release across the App Store, Android, and Windows Phone 7. It'll, of course, usher in all the Halo Reach-specific stat-tracking, service details, challenge, and map functionality that a Reach person could want, but it will also include a fun real-time twist to all of this.
Assisted Tactical Assault System is a "companion experience" built into Waypoint that will, essentially, act as a sort of multiplayer GPS. With ATLAS, you'll be able to track weapon and vehicle spawn locations, health pack locations, engagements, teammates, and yourself in near real-time. It'll also spit out weapon loadout information for players, as well as current team scores. This is crazy!
We're not sure what it'll be like to fist a controller and phone while actually playing a game of Reach at the same time, but ATLAS sure does sound like that next-level official companion piece we've been waiting for, so we'll definitely be giving it a spin tomorrow. It's also of note that the app will connect people to the game's web site, which we're guessing is where a lot of this magic will actually be happening.
Halo Waypoint will debut at $4.99 for Android and iOS, and free on Windows Phone 7. Microsoft and 343 have a pretty expansive FAQ and post on the app, if you want some hardcore specific details and technical information.
Hello. My name is Cassandra and I have a problem. I'm a recovering trading card game-holic. I used to play them obsessively - just ask my wallet. But I've been getting better. I've been clean for a while but I have doubts that it is going to last. There's a new game in town and it's smart, sexy and exotic. Meet Cabals: The Card Game [Free], ladies and gentlemen, and kiss your productivity good-bye.
Back in late October we posted an update on 
The adorable Om Nom from 
SpellTower [$.
Despite is charmingly designed appearance, 
If you've been wanting some additional control functionality in 
My Xbox Live
