One of my very favorite games of the distant past is good ole' Lunar Lander. There's a certain beauty to the simple proposition there -- it's just gravity and you. Lunar Lander, which got its start back in 1969, kicked off the cave-flyer genre that boasts many great games under its banner. iOS developer Polygon Play recently offered us an exclusive look at their upcoming iPad title, Lander Hero, that will join those proud ranks later this year.

Lander Hero brings a twist on the standard formula by incorporating puzzle-solving elements into the cave-flyer experience. The goal of the game is to navigate each labyrinthine level, from start point to end pad, collecting stars as you go -- you need to have grabbed at least 50% of the stars on any level in order to advance to the next.  Along the way, you will encounter a number of obstacles that must be negotiated. These include moving boulders, I-beams, (tip: flammable) crates, force fields, bombs and the like. For example, a certain pathway cannot be travelled until you nudge a boulder rolling along a beam until its weight tips it out of your way. In addition to these challenges, your ship's fuel and damage levels are always working against you. Power-ups hidden about the caverns of each level must be found and collected to keep your ship in shape.

The game offers several different configurations of the on-screen touch controls, which are thrust-left, thrust-right, and thrust-down. In the beta build I'm playing with, clustered, one-hand controls are the default, but I find a two-handed button arrangement -- thrust-left/right at the lower left, thrust-down at the lower right -- much more to my liking. Having such simple controls, as cave-flyers often do, Lander Hero works just fine with the iPad's touchscreen.

Lander Hero really shines in the graphics department. The stylized rocky landscapes are bright, colorfully textured, and slide by as smooth as glass on the iPad 2 as you guide your ship along the twists and turns of each cavern. The whole scene, along with your cartoony ship and the little bespectacled scientist inside (there's apparently a backstory there), lend the game a whimsical feel. And the physics system, so critical in titles of the sort, is spot-on.

I've really enjoyed playing through the 13 finished levels in this beta, and am anxious to move through the rest of the 40+ levels (across two different worlds) that the initial App Store release will bring. The game is iPad-only, but the developer tells me he's considering bringing it to the iPhone, down the road. I'll be sure to let all the cave-flyer fans out there know when Lander Hero hits the App Store, sometime in late September.

For quite some time now we have been tracking Manomio's upcoming iAmiga emulation system for iOS, designed as a sort of wrapper or delivery vehicle to bring licensed Amiga games to the App Store. At the end of last year, we posted an exclusive preview of the in-development system, including a demo video showing a number of classic test titles running quite well on an iPhone 4. One of the titles we played with back then was Cinemaware's classic 1986 strategy game, Defender of the Crown. I'm happy to report that this well-loved, fully-licensed title will be the first iAmiga-powered game to land in the App Store, and that Manomio CEO Stuart Carnie was kind enough to grant us exclusive access to a near-release build of the game.

First, let me say a little bit about the game, for those that may be unfamiliar. Defender of the Crown is a strategy game set in medieval England. The player takes on the role of any of four Saxon knights in a bid to defeat the Norman invaders and fill the vacant throne of England. The original game manual, which is packed with historical information, tells the story well. (more...)

If you're anything like me, you've been wondering, "When in the world is Rocketcat Games going to release something that doesn't rely on a swinging mechanic?" Don't get me wrong, HookChamp, Super QuickHook, and Hook Worlds are all fantastic games, but I doubt I'm alone in looking forward to what Rocketcat would release outside of the hook and swing world. We're getting a first real glimpse at their next game today, Mage Gauntlet, which seems to be a beautifully pixelated homage to the classic action RPG games of yore.

Check out some screenshots:

The real awesomeness is contained inside of the trailer:

Details are a little vague right now, but Mage Gauntlet is built around a "more action, less grinding" quest philosophy centralized around the main character, Lexi. You're looking to become a wizard's apprentice, and your journey starts out with a quest to prove yourself. Equipped with a magical gauntlet, Lexi is able to absorb and launch magical energy. The spell system involves destroying "certain objects" to power-up your gauntlet with a completely randomized spell. You can hold four at a time, and these are accessible through a menu.

There's a full loot and leveling system complete with character customization through three different stats that you can build your character with. 50 levels will be included with release, along with an unlockable additional game mode. More levels and modes are planned after release. Oh, and there's boss fights, loads of different enemies, and lots of secrets and achievements. Scoreboards aren't initially included, but the future game modes I mentioned will introduce them.

Mage Gauntlet will be priced at $2.99, with an initial $1.99 sale. Like other RocketCat games, early buyers will get a pack of hats to customize your character with as well as a in-game pet that follows you around. We'll be following the release of this game closely, and hope to have a full preview in the next couple weeks.

Long-time hirsute, psychedelic game writer Jeff Minter of Llamasoft has released two iOS games, and they're two of the best games in the App Store: Minotron: 2112 [link] and Minotaur Rescue [link]. His third iOS game, a Universal (iPhone and iPad) release called Deflex, is on the way, and I've been frustrating myself having fun with a pre-release he recently sent over, for the past couple of days.

Deflex is a dexterity puzzle game, of sorts. It is an iOS adaptation of a 1982 Llamasoft release for the Sinclair machines, VIC-20, and Atari 8-bits, itself inspired by an earlier, simpler Commodore PET title. Gameplay is tricky to describe, and trickier to master. Or so it seems -- I'm rather a ways from mastering it, myself.

The game takes you through level after level (52 in all) of different characters -- oxen, bulls, smileys, telephones -- arrayed about various wall configurations. You control a ball that appears at level's start, bouncing slowly back and forth along a linear path. The object of the game is to absorb the on-screen characters with your ball. It's the manner in which you get your ball over to all the characters that's the thing about this game.

At the bottom of the screen sit two buttons, one in each corner. These are your only controls. Each button drops a "bat" onto the screen at the exact position of your ball. These bats are mirrors, deflectors. The left button drops a " / " bat, while the right drops a horizontally opposed " \ " one. You can drop as many bats as you like, but I'd caution towards judicious deployment, and you'll see why.

The instant the bat is dropped, two things happen. First, the ball hits it and its course deflects 90-degrees, heading off in a direction dependent upon the direction of its path prior to impact. Second, the bat flips to the opposite type (" / " turns to " \ " and vice versa), adding a sort of mind-bending, deeper complexity to the challenge of strategically clearing the levels. And it's definitely an exercise in strategy, here -- the hurried sort. Because, in order to get the ball to each item on the screen, a clever arrangement of bats must be laid down. Too many bats can lead to chaos, and some levels reward you for lean placement. But you can't take too long about it, because time spent zipping through empty space is time where your score multiplier is dwindling. If it gets too low...your ball disintegrates.

There is some behavioral variety to the on-screen character objects. Many just sit there. Some move towards you. Some (like jiggly bananas) dart away from you. It's a bit chaotic. And the elimination of each character triggers the next note in a haunting piano melody. The whole things delivers a tangible, very bizarre game mood. Standard Minter fare, really.

The first few times I played the game I was utterly lost at sea. After a while, I began to understand what was happening. And now, I feel I have some degree of skill at the game, but I've got a ways to go before I'm at the top of the leaderboards. Well, there are no leaderboards at the moment, but they're on the way. OpenFeint and Game Center integration will be worked in before release, and there'll be 53 score tables in all.

Minter is known for putting out titles that are distinctly "different." (Have a look at Space Giraffe.) Deflex is no exception. The game gets huge points for challenge, uniqueness, and also drippy visual eye-candy. The psychedelia is, as expected, in full effect here.

We'll let you know when Deflex hits the app store. In the mean time I'll be honing my skills in an effort to rule the leaderboards. Well, here's hoping, anyway....

At WWDC, I had a chance to sit down with David Whatley, who brought us GeoDefense and GeoDefense Swarm, to discuss what he's got in store for us iOS gamers.

Whatley's path-based tower defense title GeoDefense is unquestionably the iOS tower defense game I've spent the most time with. There's definite appeal in its minimal, neon glowing graphics and relentless action. During our meeting, the author showed me an in-progress build of sequel GeoDefense 2, which is a tower defense game -- with a twist.

In the simplest terms, GeoDefense 2 is a tower defense puzzle game. The game features a pre-laid track along which the encroaching enemies file through, but each level starts off with a number of towers already in place. Your task is to arrange the towers about the playfield in the most strategically sound fashion, but there's a catch: you can only move towers across straight track segments and empty space; towers can't be moved over each other or over track corner segments. This arrangement lends something of a sliding puzzle feel to the strategerie of the game. To make matters either better or worse (we'll see...), new turrets appear with each wave.

Tower defense is a now crowded genre in the App Store, and a notable variation on the formula is welcome. I was very much intrigued by what Whatley showed me of GeoDefense 2, and am anxious to give it a go in its final, release form.

In addition to his GeoDefense sequel, which will be published through his studio Critical Thought, Whatley gave us an exclusive look at his upcoming title, Tiny Heroes, to be published by the other studio with which he is involved, Simutronics. In short, it's Plants vs. Zombies meets Dungeon Keeper.

In Tiny Heroes, you play the dungeon. The objective of the game is to defend your treasures by placing the defenses you've chosen about your dungeon corridors. Waves of classic heroes of various sorts and abilities -- thieves, knights, clerics, wizards, rangers, etc. -- begin to invade your dungeons in an effort to make off with the booty.

The defenses available are a bit more varied than those of the typical tower defense game. There are crossbows, crush chambers, pop-up pikes, allied monsters, bombs, and the like. The incoming heroes vary in their ability to deal with the different defenses; the thieves can sometimes disarm bombs, for instance.

For the creative defense gamer, a forge area in the game allows players to craft their own custom towers. Tiny Heroes will take advantage of the Retina display where available and the graphics look sharp. The iPhone version is set for an August 1st submission to Apple, with an iPad version to follow, in time.

This review is going to get a little wordy. Not only am I telling you all about Great Little War Game, a fantastic turn-based strategy game from Rubicon, I also get to tell you all about the upcoming 1.4 update. So if you're short on time and you want the summary, let me just say that this is a game you need to own if you like turn-based strategy, and the update is going to make it better than ever.

I'll call Great Little War Game "great" without hesitation, but I'd hardly call it "little" - not with 20 campaign levels, a 10 level IAP expansion, and tons of maps for pass-and-play multiplayer and AI skirmishes. This isn't a game that's over quickly - the levels take time and multiplayer matches can turn into all-out war.

The campaign gives you a thorough introduction to the game's many units, from the humble Engineer to mighty tanks, warships and aircraft. Early on, you learn the simple controls - tap to select and move, hold to see range and movement - and then then you'll learn to capture the enemy's resources and base. You'll also need to pick up vital strategies like holding high terrain, defending your resources and picking the right spot to lay an ambush.

You're set against enemy forces controlled by an AI that poses a challenge without becoming frustrating. In each level, you're facing ongoing assaults by the enemy while you try to achieve a goal. Sometimes you need to capture the enemy base. Other times you're left to hold out against a superior foe or to struggle to build up your resources before being overwhelmed. Your performance is ranked on how quickly you succeed.

Great Little War Game isn't just an impressive strategy game; it's also pretty darn funny. The cut scenes between levels feature your army's Generalissimo and his terribly courageous approach to warmongering. I've never seen someone lead so bravely from the (distant) rear. Unit voices, animations and descriptions also offer up some laughs.

I've had a chance to go hands-on with the upcoming 1.4 update. It's going to be submitted Friday, so hopefully we'll see it soon. The biggest change is the addition of difficulty modes. You'll start on Basic difficulty, and there are three higher modes to unlock by beating the campaign with each. Damage increases for both sides as you play on higher difficulties, so you'll need to be very careful about keeping your army safely out of range while picking off the enemy.  The AI also gets more cash to spend, and it's a little smarter in all modes, so skilled players are going to be challenged.

Great Little War Game is also getting a cosmetic bump, with improvements to lighting and water, multisampling and bump maps. It looks very nice - still cartoony, but much more polished. Despite the nice new look, 1.4  feels snappier than ever on my 3GS. As for the one thing some of you have been holding out for - the game's 16 achievements now sync to Game Center. Three new skirmish maps have been added (including a sweet little nod to this site). On top of all that, there's a new 15 level campaign, Holiday from Hell, available for in-app purchase.

Rubicon's always been very responsive to their fans, adding fixes and updates based on feedback. They've adopted a lot of ideas from users on our forums, so if you've got any suggestions, make sure to stop in.

One technical note: the game only supports third-generation devices and newer. Also, be sure to grab the right version. With an HD version, a standard version, and a lite version for each, things can get a little confusing. The HD is Universal with Retina graphics, while the standard version has neither feature. I do like the recent trend of releasing a second version that's a Universal HD, but restricting Retina graphics to that version is less awesome.

Great Little War Game is the kind of game you can really sink your teeth into, which is rare enough. So I'm delighted to discover that it's also rich in features, good looking and full of humor. With the 1.4 update, it's going to be even more of a must-buy. I've got my fingers crossed for asynchronous multiplayer, a feature Rubicon hopes to include some time in the future, but in the meantime there's quite the bounty to enjoy.

TouchArcade Rating:

A couple months ago, NimbleBit (creators of Pocket Frogs [Free]) revealed their upcoming Universal freemium title, Tiny Tower. Since then, I've had a chance to get hands on with the game, and so far I really like what I've seen.

Your role in Tiny Tower is part building developer, part elevator operator. You're responsible for the lives of the Bitizens that live and work in your tower, and you're also responsible for building a tower that brings in the big bucks. Tiny Tower is still in beta, so just about anything could change before release, but let me run down how things work currently.

The tutorial walks you through the basics of building. For each floor you add on to your tower, you can choose from hundreds of different production and residential designs. Residential floors hold your Bitizens, production floors employ them. Whether a production floor is a coffee shop or a hair salon, it needs Bitizens to stock its goods or services.

(more...)

Back in March we posted an exclusive hands-on with a pre-beta version of the Universal title Battle Squadron ONE, an iOS port of Cope-Com's excellent Amiga vertical-scrolling space shooter Battle Squadron. Even in its relatively early state, the game was playing just great on the iPhone and iPad. We're happy to report that Martin Pedersen and Torben Larsen of Cope-Com have recently shared a close-to-final beta of the game with me to put through its paces. And I definitely like what I'm seeing, here.

The biggest difference between the two pre-release versions we've been given is the controls. The earlier, pre-beta version they provided us with offered both swipe and tilt controls. This new release features entirely revamped swipe controls (at two sensitivities), as well as tilt (also at two sensitivities), and an onscreen D-pad. I'll say right off that the last is the weakest. The best control scheme -- by far -- is the more sensitive swipe control scheme which breaks the shackles tying it to the Amiga ship movement speed and lets you zip your craft around the screen like nobody's business. This method would absolutely make the game too easy at the Amiga difficulty level but, happily, there are three difficulty settings to choose from. Jacking the difficulty to the roof and going with the sensitive, fast swipe is absolutely the way to play this game on an iOS device.

As a retro enthusiast I'm pleased that the graphics from the Amiga version were maintained. They're so faithful, in fact, that one might think it's an extended emulation title -- but it's not. The iOS version is a line-by-line C/C++ adaptation of the original Amiga 68000 assembly code. Impressive.

According to the guys at Cope-Com, the only thing left to add before release is Game Center integration. And, based on the gameplay I'm seeing in this near-launch beta, that's just fine with me.

Battle Squadron ONE will be followed up by Battle Squadron TWO which offers a two-player, cooperative game mode for those with friends. Battle Squadron TWO will be free for those who purchased the initial release.

We'll give the heads-up when this lands in the App Store. Stay tuned.

Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP has been on our collective minds here at TouchArcade for over a year now. The first time I saw the game, I called it "the most amazing game I've seen at GDC". Blake was sitting nearby for the initial demonstration of the game, and later offered his own remarkably positive impressions. A year passed without much news on Sword & Sworcery aside from the Superbrothers team popping up for air every now and again to deliver some new screenshots, a brief video, or vaguely mention a potential release date. We caught up with them again at this year's GDC where we were let in on the terrible secret of Sword & Sworcery's development.

It turned out that what we were shown of Sword & Sworcery was all that was actually even completed at the time, and we had fallen in love with what amounted to little more than a prototype. This unconventional development approach actually allowed Superbrothers to follow the community feedback on what people expected the game to be, implementing quite a few of the suggestions along the way. In comparison, typically when we're given a game preview the title is finished or close to it. At that point, there's not much a developer can do with major community complaints aside from attempt to address them in updates. Superbrothers turned this process on its head, and it shows when you're playing the game.

Before I continue with this preview, there's something you should know about Sword & Sworcery. It's as much of an experience as it is a game, and at times it's more of an experience of pixel art and music than it is an actual game. This makes determining what is and isn't technically a spoiler very difficult, as discovery is such an important element of this whole experimental project that Superbrothers is conducting.

(more...)

Back in January we gave a heads-up on the first gameplay video of Cope-Com's upcoming shooter Battle Squadron ONE, an iOS recreation of one of the very best shooters ever to appear on the Amiga, in the form of a Universal application for both iPhone and iPad. This weekend, Cope-Com CEO Martin Pedersen provided us with a pre-beta build of the game to try out. And, that's something I've been doing a lot of today, and have a video to share that should whet the appetite of those who've been waiting for this one as anxiously as we.

For those who enjoy(ed) Battle Squadron on the Amiga, I can tell you that the iOS version is exactly the same game -- original graphics, original music -- but with various new options and an iOS-appropriate control system. It's so close to the original that I had to re-confirm with the developers that it is not, in fact, running under emulation. While the original Battle Squadron was written in 68000 assembly, Battle Squadron ONE for iOS is a line-by-line C/C++ rewrite, based on the original source code (which Pedersen had stored on floppies in a box in his basement these long years). It's likely the first entirely recoded Amiga game to land on the iOS platform.

For those not familiar, Battle Squadron is a top-down, vertical shooter where you blast your way through a variety of scrolling alien landscapes, taking out turrets and dodging enemy lasers and missiles on a mission to rescue commanders Berry Mayers and Lori Bergin who have been kidnapped by the evil Barrax empire, a ruthless species with one thing on their mind -- ruling the universe. And, it's no light task. The action here is intense -- there's so much dodging that I'd probably call it a bullet hell shooter, although it's milder than some I've seen come out of Japan. That's at the "Amiga" difficulty level, anyway. There's also an "Easy" and a "Hard" mode, in this version.

(more...)

Early last month, noted gamemaker Jeff Minter released Solar Minotaur Rescue Frenzy [App Store], the first title in his Minotaur Project, an effort to release a series of new games in the style of the hardware of days long past, but without any of the limitations of the original platforms. Over the past weeks we've noted with anticipation (and some fear) Jeff's tweets, providing hints at the progress of the second game in this effort -- at least, we seriously hope that's what all those tweets were about... In any case, Jeff has just given us the best hint of all: an exclusive preview build of the game, known as Minotron: 2112, which turns out to be an enhanced iPhone / iPad (universal) remake of his 1991 shooter Llamatron: 2112.

Llamatron, which was originally released as shareware for the Atari ST, was a shooter inspired by Eugene Jarvis' Robotron: 2084. The game plays more or less like a single-stick version of Robotron -- wander about the playfield shooting baddies and not getting killed, but you're a llama instead of a superhuman and its beasties instead of helpless civilians you're rescuing. Minotron plays basically the same, but this time around, you're a minotaur, and things have gone dual (virtual) stick, so what you get feels a whole lot like Robotron, but on acid (which is a phrase that could be used to describe a great many of Jeff's creations).

Minotron offers four modes of play: Normal, which is the standard "dual stick" mode with lots of power-ups to be had; Assisted, where you are assisted by an indestructible helper droid and less power-ups are available; Simplified, where the player only has to move and avoid being killed, aiming and firing are automatic; and Hard, where only the power-ups from the original Llamatron are available.

The game's control system features temporally separated movement and aiming touches; the first thumb to contact the screen becomes the movement thumb, and the second becomes the aiming thumb, which provides a nice bit of control flexibility. (The developer suggests players may find that the use of an occasional swipe to alter the firing direction, as opposed to a constant touch to the "stick," is the better way to go and minimizes thumb obscuring screen.) And, in any playmode, the trippy visuals provided by Llamasoft's new Neon 2 engine are in full effect, as is the amusing cacophony of explosions, blasts, and bleats.

See our brief gameplay video of just the first few levels of the game.

As mentioned previously, the game is not quite finished; Jeff indicates that about a week or two's worth of finishing touches -- level balance tweaks, new enemy graphics, leaderboards and achievements, etc. -- should get it in order for submission to the App Store. And when Minotron: 2112 lands, unless one of the last minute tweaks is to scrape off all the awesome that's smeared all over this preview build, retro fans and arcade shooter fans alike are in for some serious, white-knuckle beastie saving.

Regular readers have seen us mention the classic Amiga platform in various capacities over the years. An extremely influential gaming platform, the Amiga outperformed all of the consoles of its day and delivered to users the best home gaming experience that could be had (not to mention robust general purpose computing, to boot).

The Amiga's game library includes thousands of titles, many of which are just superb. We've been fortunate to see a number of Amiga classic ported to the iOS platform, opening these titles up to a new generation of gamers. A few such titles that come to mind are Flashback, Krypton Egg, Qwak, Beneath a Steel Sky, Giana Sisters, Pinball Fantasies, Pipe Mania, Babylonian Twins, and the upcoming Speedball 2, not to mention the iAmiga emulation system.

I'm happy to report that another Amiga classic is about to make its App Store debut as a native iOS title: Cope-Com's vertical shooter Battle Squadron, one of the very best Amiga shooters ever developed and a particular favorite of those of us here at TouchArcade that have spent time in front of an Amiga.

We've been in talks with Martin Pedersen and Torben Larsen of Cope-Com for weeks regarding their soon to be released iOS title. We've been tracking the game's progress and have just gotten the heads-up that it's now complete -- start to finish -- with only menu and transition elements left to be put in place. And, in celebration of the new year, the developers have given us exclusive access to a brief demonstration video showing a bit of in-game action from the iPad version.

I've been gaming for 30 years now, and can honestly say that Battle Squadron is probably my favorite 2D shooter of them all. It's a sequel to Cape-Com's Amiga shooter Hybris, which will also make its way to the App Store sometime later this year. I can't wait to get my hands on both of these titles and share reactions with our readers. Stay tuned.

Indie development studio Manomio, whose proud motto is "in retro we trust," first grabbed our attention last summer when their Commodore 64 for iPhone [link] emulation app was rejected by Apple, putting some of the App Store's boundaries under the spotlight. Happily, though, C64 eventually got the green light and has been warming the hearts of retro gaming enthusiasts for just over a year, now. It's beautifully executed and is a favorite here at Touch Arcade.

Early this year, Manomio let us know that they had a whole lot more retro heart warming in store and shared details of their upcoming Amiga emulation system, now known as iAmiga, that would allow them to license and release various classic Amiga titles to be faithfully rendered on your iPhone screen. On hearing this we were -- readers and editors alike -- thrilled at the prospect of enjoying some of the true gaming gems that sit among the vast library of Amiga releases. A short tech demo video was provided in short order, showing two games in play, that served as quite a teaser, making us very anxious to get our hands on the studio's latest.

I'm happy to report that, yesterday, Manomio CTO Stuart Carnie was merciful enough to finally put an end to our suffering and provide us with an exclusive early build of the iAmiga system, packed with a bundle of sample games, to put through its paces. Yea, it's dirty work, but somebody's got to do it.

After spending some serious time with the iAmiga system, I can tell you that, for an early build, it is truly impressive. While it's true that a few of the games that I tried glitched at some point, the vast majority ran perfectly and buttery smoothly on my iPhone 4. I'm talking about totally accurate sound, flawless graphics, glass smooth animation -- just as if the games were being played on the standard config Amiga 500 that iAmiga emulates. Right now there are keyboard, mouse, and joystick input systems that can be activated with a tap, but (especially in the case of the keyboard) they are quick and dirty solutions that will be replaced with much more refined components before anything lands in the App Store, Stuart assures me. The overall portrait / landscape control mechanics, like those found in the studio's C64, will be preserved, however.

As for what's under the hood of the iAmiga system, Manomio has taken the UAE4All Amiga emulator and tied it to Stuart's own ARM assembly optimized, emulated 68000 CPU core. In the name of performance, the core relies upon the ARM7x architecture and, as such, only iPhone 3GS / 3rd gen. iPod touch devices and up can play. iPad support is coming, as well.

The original plan was to take this emulator and wrap it around various licensed Amiga titles and release them as stand-alone games. That's still part of the plan, but as certain App Store restrictions have loosened a bit of late, there will likely also be a sort of Amiga shell app released that that allows the stand-alone games to be played in a richer Amiga emulation environment that may offers things like OpenGL ES 2.0 shader effects to add scan-lines, CRT glare, and even TV-out and iPad play using a tethered iPhone as a controller. Just the kind of things that make die-hard retro nuts rather weak in the knees.

Stuart has given the okay for us to record and share sample gameplay footage of his emulation system, and so I've put together a fairly lengthy mix of 10 Amiga games that you just might remember.

The games shown in the video are the following, in order: Defender of the Crown, Battle Squadron, International Karate +, R-Type, R-Type II, Speedball, Stunt Car Racer, Shadow of the Beast, Virus, and Xenon 2: Megablast. It should be noted that this list does not represent the list of games that will necessarily be coming to the App Store through the iAmiga system -- these are games simply used to test the system in its developmental state. (In fact, some of these I added from my own collection of Amiga disk images.)

As far as what we will be seeing in the way of iOS Amiga releases, Manomio has licensed various titles from Cinemaware, so Defender of the Crown, It Came from the Desert, Wings, and others are on the way. The studio is currently in licensing discussions with several other IP holders to secure additional titles for iOS release, including Factor 5 (Turrican I, II, III), The Bitmap Brothers (Xenon II: Megablast), Magnetic Fields (Supercars), Cope-Com (Battle Squadron), and Archer MacLean (IK+). Additionally, they are in talks with an unnamed major mobile publisher that's very interested in putting Amiga classics in the hands of today's gamers.

As you can see from the video, what we're in for is a wave of excellent games that are retro, true, but not so retro that they lack mainstream appeal. (Yes, the Amiga was that advanced 25 years ago.) This is big news, not only for iOS gamers, but for mobile gaming in general. In my personal experience, Amiga emulation has been quite a bit more difficult to manage than other age-old platforms on proper Macs and PCs due to the complexity of the original hardware. The thought of having easy access to these games in a tap-and-go fashion -- even standing in line at the bank -- is just amazing. I call this some of the very biggest news in iOS gaming that we've ever covered and can't wait until all of you out there get a chance to enjoy these great Amiga titles on your iOS devices, as well.

For readers unfamiliar with the Amiga, it is a 16-bit computer released by Commodore in 1985. A far more complex system than the C64, the Amiga featured a powerful central processor (the same found in the early Macintosh), various custom co-processors, and a multitasking operating system that, together, enabled audiovisual feats previously unseen in a consumer system at that point in time. While it did not see enormous popularity in the United States, it was wildly popular in Europe and is considered by many to be one of the very best game platforms ever created. InfoWorld called the Amiga the "third milestone" in computing after the Apple II and IBM PC.

We'll be tracking Manomio's iAmiga project closely and will pass along any further details that emerge, as we get them.

UPDATE: The developer has indicated that iAmiga will gain AGA support sometime after the first version is out the door. AGA (for Advanced Graphics Architecture) is the third generation Amiga chipset that brought a 24-bit color palette and more overall graphics horsepower to the platform. (Many of the most recent Amiga games are AGA-only.)

We're big fans of Dinofarm Games / Fusion Reactions' arcade-style dungeon crawler 100 Rogues [App Store]. The game, which we reviewed back in May, is a re-imagination of the typical Rogue-like formula. It features the typical elements of the genre -- near-certain death, randomly generated maps and loot, and a foray into the depths of an enemy-riddled pit -- but delivers it in a way that makes you feel you are playing something else entirely. In our initial review, we found it to be pretty brilliant.

In that review, we spoke of the long list of planned features that the developer had in store for the title. Here, half a year later, it's clear those weren't empty promises. The developer released all of nine updates to the game through October, and two weeks ago released version 2.0, a massive update that enhanced the gameplay in a great many ways.

Some of the enhancements that came with version 2.0:

• Hell! Another world, with new levels, music, monsters and maps to explore, has been added to the end of the game, appropriately situated between the Dungeon and Satan
• New Boss: A new, Dungeon-themed boss has been placed between the Dungeon and the new Hell world
• Amafyst: The Fairy Wizard's basic projectile skill now leaves behind Crystal Caltrops upon impact, each lasting 10 turns dealing damage and slowing monsters that walk on them. Each skill point in Amafyst creates a higher number of more damaging crystals
• Easy Mode now spans all three game worlds
• Map Generation: Each map is now comprised of a mix of handcrafted and randomly generated rooms
• Mob Clustering: Monsters now spawn more tightly in groups, and only spawn in mobs within rooms, reducing the incidence of difficult encounters in hallways.
• Game Center can now be disabled via 100 Rogues user preferences in the Settings App
• Stability improvements throughout the game

And the continuing evolution of 100 Rogues is showing no sign of slowing down. The version 2.1 update has been submitted to Apple and should go live later today or tomorrow. And it's a pretty significant update.

A partial list of what version 2.1 will bring:

• Two new weapons
• One new armor type
• End Cutscene now rendered in-engine (Apple's movie player has been entirely removed from the game. Enjoy the greatly reduced update size!)
• New Bandit Hole 1 music
• Custom Playlist support via Options Menu
• iOS 4.2 support (Game Center / Multi-tasking on iPad)
• Load Times improved throughout the games
• Many various bug fixes

In addition, a new, third player class will be released by December 15. This new class is known as the Skellyman Scoundrel, which lead designer Keith Burgun describes.

In terms of character, the Scoundrel is a member of the Skellyman race, a race of Skeleton-People created by magic many generations ago. This means that they actually reproduce and have baby skeletons which grow into adult skeletons - they're not undead and they don't come from humans. The Scoundrel in particular happens to be an undead Skellyman, however, as she was killed by her lover in life - he stabbed her in the back of the head with a dagger. She now keeps it in her skull (and it ends up looking like a fashionable ponytail because of its tassle) and stalks the dungeons looking for greater and greater kills with which to satisfy her thirst for revenge. When you get enough backstabs, you can deliver the ability SKELLY VENGENACE, a skill which makes the skellyman pull her lover's dagger from her skull and plunge it into a target. This skill can do *MASSIVE* damage, like you've never seen in 100 Rogues.

This Leap Attacking, Skelly Vengeance-dealing new class is all about stealth, mobility, speed, and dealing great damage to singular targets. It should mix up this already heavily-updated title rather nicely. Hats off to the folks behind the game for so admirably keeping the ball rolling with 100 Rogues, as well as for providing us these exclusive details and (inset) design sketch.

There are literally dozens of dual-stick arena shooters available on the App Store, and with this in mind developer Grumpyface Studios decided to put an interesting new twist on the formula with their inaugural game Wispin. In Wispin, you'll take on endless waves of enemies, only rather than mindlessly blasting them away with loads of ammunition a strategic use of color serves as your weapon. It's a novel idea that works quite well for this type of game, and is complemented by a wonderfully cute art style and excellent production values. Grumpyface recently sent me a near-final build of Wispin, and I was really impressed by how much I enjoyed the unique brand of action in the game.

The character movement in Wispin is controlled by tilt or with a virtual stick in the lower left corner. Where the right stick would normally be in a typical dual-stick shooter there is instead a color wheel with red, blue, and green buttons. The enemies, called Bloopers, come in various sizes and one of these same three colors. Pressing a color on the wheel will change your character to that color, and if it matches that of an enemy you merely run into it to attack it. In addition to this melee style attack, there are also bombs and arrows to use against the Bloopers, which they can use against you as well. A few different special items are also available to aid you, like a hunk of cheese that will cause one particular color of enemy to be drawn to where you place it or a rainbow colored bomb that will blow up enemies of any color within its blast radius.

The concept of Wispin sounds kind of weird on paper, but it's actually a total blast to play. The action gets frantic as more and more enemies enter the fray, and having to negotiate enemies while worrying about changing your color constantly pulls your brain in two different directions (in a good way). Another aspect to keep in mind is that you are invulnerable to enemy attacks of your same color. So if you find yourself suddenly standing next to a big red bomb that's about to blow, quickly turning yourself red will save you from the blast. All of these different game elements come together beautifully in Wispin, creating a gameplay experience that requires fast reactions and a strategic eye.

On top of the core gameplay in Wispin is a nice multiplier system. With every enemy you kill, a meter in the upper left instantly fills and starts to rapidly decrease. Every enemy that you take out before the meter empties adds to a combo multiplier. Getting a combo of three same color enemies in a row gives your character a temporary speed boost, and if you can get the multiplier up to 20 you'll enter into a frenzy where you fly around the screen taking out enemies of every color. The multiplier system adds a risk/reward element to the game, as you can try to play fast and loose going for huge scores by getting kills in rapid succession, but this also increases the chance that you'll make a harmful mistake. Game Center leaderboards are used to keep track of a number of different kinds of high scores in the game.

Barring any unforeseen problems, Wispin should be released in the App Store this Thursday. It will come with two different maps to play on with plans to add more maps, enemies, items, and modes in future updates. In addition to the Standard Mode of play that pits you against increasingly difficult waves of enemies, a Super Intense Mode can be unlocked that brings a constant stream of enemies gunning towards you. Since the Standard Mode starts off pretty slow and each game can last for a while, the Super Intense Mode is perfect if you want to just jump right into some action. More information including some funny character bios of the enemies can be found in the thread in our forums. In an overly saturated genre of dual-stick shooters, Wispin does something decidedly different from the norm, and ends up being a whole lot of fun because of it. We'll take another look at Wispin when it releases hopefully later this week.