Last month we posted about Sarien.net, Martin Kool's home built tribute to a wide array of classic Sierra Adventure games ranging from Space Quest to Leisure Suit Larry. Currently, all of these games are completely playable via any modern web browser just by navigating around the site. Since we last spoke with him, Martin has been hard at work customizing and tweaking Space Quest to run on the iPad. We were given a hands-on preview of the game, and it didn't take long to come to the strange realization that they really feel like how the games were meant to be played... nearly 25 years later, on a device that the original developers likely couldn't even imagine.

Playing the game on the iPad is effortless. Installing it is as simple as navigating to a (secret) URL, at which point the game tells you to go through the sequence to add the URL as a home screen icon. From there, you tap the home screen icon and the game loads completely seamlessly without any additional work. It's crazy just how fast and easy the whole process is. The first time you load it up, there's a small load time, but as soon as mobile Safari starts caching parts of the game it's just like playing the actual computer game. There's even multiple save slots, and accessing them is as simple as rotating the iPad in to portrait mode.

The version of the game we were given access to seems complete, and playing it is simple. You tap in the game world to move there, and text commands are entered via a menu tree of sorts represented by buttons on the bottom of the screen. Instead of typing, every command is only a few taps away. It works really well, and I suspect will make the games much more approachable to people who haven't experienced them before as the available commands usually at least nudge you in the right direction by hinting at what you're capable of doing.

What makes this all that much more impressive is the technical wizardry taking place behind the scenes making this all possible. Space Quest is built entirely with HTML, CSS, and Javascript and once they've been cached on the iPad you can play them in their entirety offline. Also, to preserve the classic retro blocky graphics, Kool had to jump through quite a few hoops since modern browsers love to scale things with bicubic filters. This makes photos and other images look good, but turn these ancient pixels in to a blocky mess. Due to this, each of the games on Sarien.net will need to be hand-tweaked to run on the iPad. Space Quest should be finished within a week if everything goes according to plan, and after that Martin has his sights set on The Black Cauldron, King's Quest and Leisure Suit Larry.

As huge fans of retro adventure gaming, we're following this very closely. As soon as Space Quest is ready to be made public, we'll let you guys know.

Late last month we covered John Carmack's announcement on the Bethesda Blog regarding his plans with future iPhone development. It turned out that he wasn't planning on making a full-blown RAGE port like we originally suspected when he demonstrated RAGE on the iPhone 4 at Quakecon, but instead is bringing a more iPhone-friendly game that takes place in the RAGE universe.

This game world is based on a post-apocalyptic future, following the Apophis asteroid smashing into Earth. (A plausible future, given there actually is an Apophis asteroid which at one time scientists believed had a 1 in 42 chance of hitting our planet.) In the full PC and console versions due out 9/13/11, you play as a member of the Eden Project, a government program that placed important members of society in underground "arks".

The goal of all this, much like the vaults in the Fallout series, is to be able to restore society after the nuclear (or in this case, asteroid) apocalypse. Unsurprisingly, the ark system doesn't work as well as was hoped. You are the sole survivor of your ark, and with all the other members of your group dead, you awaken to a very different future in a world that has long since forgotten about the Eden Project and the existence of the arks.

It isn't really clear whether you're playing as this same protagonist in Mutant Bash TV, but the basis of the iPhone game is that you are a contestant on a weekly game show where people are pitted against an onslaught of mutants to win fabulous prizes. It works well, and I'm sure I will appreciate it more once RAGE is actually released and I get more of the tie-ins with other elements of the RAGE world.

Mutant Bash TV plays surprisingly similar to DOOM Resurrection [$6.99]. The entire game takes place on rails, and even the controls are laid out similarly. Tilting controls the camera and your aim, and you have buttons to dodge, fire, switch weapons, and reload. The main difference is just how much faster everything is in Mutant Bash TV. Mutants pop up everywhere, and while you're dealing with them there are bags of cash to grab and bullseyes to shoot. Your overall performance is graded at the end of the level, at which point you can either move on to a new level or replay the last one for an even higher score. Four difficulty settings are included, ranging from easy (where it's seemingly impossible to die) to nightmare (which is incredibly difficult).

In the preview we were given, only the first level was playable, which takes place in the mutant tenements. These tenements look a lot like your typical broken down corridor-heavy graffiti-covered first person shooter level, but you hardly have time to look around at the scenery because there is no downtime. You're always either shooting or quickly moving to the next area.

The graphics of Mutant Bash TV are amazing, and really make me look forward to the future of iOS gaming. The demo we were given was on a 4th generation iPod touch, which consistently ran at a high framerate throughout all parts of the game we had access to regardless of how much was going on at once. Mutant Bash TV looks so good in motion that the screenshots barely do it justice, especially when you add the pixel density of the Retina Display into the mix. While you might notice some jagged edges or low resolution textures if you were to carefully analyze the screenshots on your computer, none of this is apparent at all when you're playing it.

I'm sure there will be people out there who are disappointed to find out that Mutant Bash TV is a first person shooter on rails, especially with the backlash we saw surrounding our DOOM Resurrection review. However, after playing the demo level over and over, I really thought that the automatic movement was basically exactly what I'd be doing if I was actually controlling my character. Instead I didn't need to have a third of the screen obscured working two virtual thumb sticks. In any case, due to the level design it doesn't seem like there's anywhere else you could go if you controlled your movement in Mutant Bash TV. Since this was just a brief demo, it's hard to get a real idea of what the rest of the game will entail.

It's incredibly exciting to see industry giants Id and Epic going head to head in releasing their next-generation graphics engines on the iPhone. Id's Mutant Bash TV should beat Epic's Infinity Blade to market, as currently Id is shooting for the end of November for the release of Mutant Bash TV. Meanwhile, Infinity Blade is still set for a vague holiday release. Pricing hasn't yet been released for Infinity Blade, but Mutant Bash TV is launching at 99¢ for non-Retina Display iPod touches and iPhones and $1.99 for Retina Display-equipped devices and the iPad. After being amazed by Epic Citadel [Free], looking forward to Infinity Blade, and now getting my hands on Mutant Bash TV, I can say with the utmost confidence that this is an incredible time to be an iOS gamer.

Aaaaaaarrrrrrrrr!!!

For the lot o' ye landlubbers readin' this post, I first be tellin' ye today be International Talk Like a Pirate Day. All ye squiffies not knowin' this a'fore ought be keelhauled off me vessle! For the rest of ye buccaneers, enjoy the sweet trade 'till the sun be settin'! One lot o' scallywags that would ne'er be missin' this great, grand day be the scurvy dogs o'er at Cyan Worlds, thar in the far nor' west. And how timely it be for 'em to bestow such booty upon yer bold and mighty scriber (that be me) as a pre-release build of their latest 'ware, Stoneship: Curse of a Thousand Islands! (And I be not talkin' about the dressin', yer can be sure!) </piratespeak>

Indeed, never quite able to find enough ways to properly celebrate this fine holiday, I must thank Cyan Worlds for providing us with an exclusive preview build of their upcoming title, Stoneship. It has made my day of festivities that much richer.

As Cyan indicated to us earlier, Stoneship: The Curse of a Thousand Islands represents "a lighthearted new direction" for the studio. Cyan describes the game as a casual, top-down, turn-based, strategy puzzle game. That's quite a string of adjectives. After spending a bit of time with the game in its current form, I can say that each of those descriptors indeed apply. And, as such, it's something of a difficult title to nutshell for the uninitiated -- but I'll try, and in two different ways.

I will first give a rather general characterization of the game "on paper," is it were. Stoneship sets you and your first mate on the high seas, charged with exploring, controlling, and protecting vast oceans and islands, under continual threat of pirate sieges and tangles with ghastly monsters from the deep. The game is played by moving about any given level, uncovering obscured blocks of both land and sea in an attempt to discover ports, and temples (and, as a result, weaponry) as well as rafts of men lost at sea who will join your forces, as well as the location of any pirate ships that make your forces necessary in the first place.

Once you find a port, it becomes your own...as well as a target for pirates in the area. Each level has a set number of moves you're permitted to execute before the inevitable pirate onslaught ensues. Multiple ports can be linked together to allow resource (battle-ready men) sharing, which is all about shifting men from port to port in the 10 second count-down before the pirate attack comes. Of course, you can only set things up to your advantage here if you've uncovered the location of the lurking pirates in your set number of turns. If not, the pirates come from one of the remaining hidden blocks on the map (which is pretty much a bad thing).

The core play mode is Campaign, which is a round-to-round push through the eighty three included levels (with additional levels to come later via update). A Challenge mode is also offered, which is a sort-of pick and choose affair.

Stoneship is not a complicated game -- really, it's not. But it sounds like it might be, described thus. And so, in a move not typical for our demo videos, I've recorded nearly the entire tutorial session, which explains the gameplay by example, far better than I can with words alone. The action in the video steps up towards the end, after the tutorial, but forgive what must necessarily be somewhat of a slow-paced, if highly informative, overall glimpse of the game in action.

It does take a little while to get the hang of, but after a few rounds, it ends up feeling quite natural.

The pre-release build we were given feels quite close to complete, with the minor issue here and there that should be addressed prior to launch. Stoneship is expected to soon make it's App Store appearance, and an update will shortly follow, bringing with it various enhancements including Game Center support.

Stoneship: The Curse of a Thousand Islands is a casual and interesting mix of ingredients from a number of different formulas that come together to make up a rather unique title. We hope Stoneship marks the beginning of a series of new iOS releases from MYST-maker Cyan.

A few weeks ago we showed a new trailer for an upcoming gravity-based puzzle platforming game called GravBot from Team Phobic. They have since sent us a near-final build of the game, and after completing nearly all of it, I'm thoroughly impressed with just about everything that GravBot has to offer. Team Phobic has already proven that they know how to bring cute, colorful graphics and excellent level designs with Bounce On [$1.99/Lite] and Bounce On 2 [$3.99/Lite], and those skills have translated well into the creation of GravBot. The levels start out simple enough and ease you into the different elements in the game, but as you progress GravBot will really test your puzzle solving skills and force you to look at each level from every angle.

In GravBot, you'll play as a tiny robot who must collect all of the batteries on each perilous level. In order to accomplish this, you can spin the entire level either 90 degrees left or right or entirely upside down to change the direction of gravity. Your robot can travel left and right on its single tire, and will fall towards whichever way happens to be down at the time. Levels are filled with hazards like spikes, enemies, and lasers which will kill instantly if not avoided. The batteries can be tricky to get to, and a color-coded system of trapdoors, elevators, and various other obstacles will need to be triggered by switching a lever or pushing blocks onto buttons - all in the name of snagging every last battery on a given level.

While just completing each level is sufficiently challenging and fun, the real hook to GravBot is trying to obtain gold medals for each one. The game keeps track of how many times you switched gravity to complete a level, with bronze/silver/gold medals awarded for using it efficiently. What is really satisfying is when you figure out a way to win gold using fewer gravity switches than is required. Due to the physics engine in the game, you can sometimes make it to a hard to reach area without changing the gravity and instead gliding through the air or just barely catching the edge of a platform and hanging on. These types of moves can be risky however, and if you don't pull one off just right you can easily fall to your death. If you do happen to beat a level using a ridiculously low number of gravity switches, you will be immortalized in leaderboard form thanks to the Plus+ network, and there are a number of achievements to obtain as well.

GravBot looks and sounds absolutely great, with Retina Display enhanced graphics and catchy music and sound effects. I especially love the little blips and bloops that your robot will spout out during the game, and he has a ton of personality for essentially being a TV set with a wheel. GravBot has already been submitted and Team Phobic is shooting for a September 30^th release. The game will be free to download and comes with 12 levels, with two additional 20 level packs available as in-app purchase for 99¢ apiece. The 12 free levels aren't terribly difficult and serve mostly to get you familiar with the game, but the additional level packs contain some seriously challenging stuff that should keep you busy for quite a while. Make sure to head over to the upcoming thread in our forums to check out more about GravBot, and we'll take another look at the game when it hits the App Store later this month.

We recently posted screenshots and details of the upcoming turn-based strategy puzzler Stoneship in an exclusive granted us by Cyan Worlds. Today, the studio pointed us to a brief video they have posted that provides a look at the game in action.

The upcoming Stoneship: The Curse of a Thousand Islands represents "a lighthearted new direction" for Cyan Worlds, the studio indicates. The game is a casual, top-down, turn-based, strategy puzzle game "with a bent toward the whimsical," we're told. Stoneship sets you and your first mate on the high seas, charged with exploring, controlling, and protecting vast oceans and islands, under continual threat of a pirate siege. There are eighty three included levels to play through, with additional levels to come later via update.

Cyan tells us that the game is nearly complete, but that they are considering slightly delaying its release in order to integrate Apple's GameCenter functionality, what with the iPhone-maker's recent announcement that we will see its arrival in the upcoming iOS 4.1. If GameCenter integration does not make it into the initial release of Stoneship, it will join a planned update that includes additional maps and other gameplay features.

Stay tuned for a close look at Stoneship: The Curse of a Thousand Islands we'll be posting as soon as we have the game in hand.

Last week, in a post featuring new screenshots from the upcoming iPhone version of Riven from Cyan Worlds, we pointed to clues of a new, previously unheard of forthcoming title spotted on the studio's website. At the time, all we saw of Stoneship (named after an age from Myst) was an ad banner commanding, "Never let your timbers be shivered!" and a tiny screenshot. Today, Cyan shared with Touch Arcade exclusive details and screenshots to help give readers a feel for what Stoneship is all about.

The upcoming Stoneship represents "a lighthearted new direction" for Cyan Worlds, the studio indicates. The game is a casual, top-down, turn-based, strategy puzzle game "with a bent toward the whimsical," we're told. The game sets you and your first mate on the high seas, charged with exploring, controlling, and protecting vast oceans and islands, under continual threat of a pirate siege. There are eighty three included levels to play through, with additional levels to come later, it appears.

Granted, there's still room for gameplay specifics and other details on this one, but what we've got does paint an overall picture. And the screenshots provided us should help flesh out that picture, further.

Cyan plans to submit Stoneship to Apple in the next few weeks and, as well, confirms that Riven for the iPhone is still on track for a release this fall. We expect to post a full review of Stoneship coincidental with its release in the App Store. Stay tuned.

When Sega first started releasing its emulated games like Sonic the Hedgehog [$5.99], Golden Axe [$2.99] and others, everyone wondered where Sega's array of classic RPG's were. Sega responded by releasing Shining Force [$2.99], leaving commenters and forum posters happy, but asking for the Phantasy Star series next... Which is exactly what Sega is delivering this Thursday.

Much like Shining Force, Phantasy Star II is a turn-based RPG that works marvelously with Sega's emulator. Text entry is a little dicey, but otherwise navigating the game world and engaging in battles works wonderfully. The emulator also does a great job of saving the game state when you quit the app, making Phantasy Star II surprisingly workable as a pick up and play game.

I still need to spend more time with Phantasy Star II, as like most RPG's the game is quite epic, but so far things are looking very good with this classic Genesis game on the iPhone. Just like Shining Force, all the down sides of Sega's emulator fade away when you're playing a game that doesn't require precise control or high frame rates. Stay tuned for a more comprehensive review when the game arrives on the App Store this Thursday.

As mentioned in our review of Ecco the Dolphin and Space Harrier II, we're glad that Sega is bringing these classic games to the App Store, but action packed platformers and arcade games of days of yore combined with mediocre emulator performance on older devices and touch controls is not a good mix. Today Sega gave us a sneak peek of their upcoming classic RPG Shining Force running in this same emulator, and it is amazing how much the entire experience is improved when you're not playing a game that is based on quick reactions, high frame rates, or precise controls.

Shining Force is a tactical RPG with turn-based battles that take place on square grids. Originally released in the USA in 1993, Shining Force is about as classic as you get when it comes to a Sega RPG. Not only has it been included in various classic game collections that Sega has released on numerous platforms over the years, but it also saw a remake in 2004 for the Gameboy Advance. This is the original Genesis version of the game, set in the land of Rune where you play a silent protagonist who recruits allies to the Shining Force to ultimately prevent the evil Darksol from resurrecting a Dark Dragon, destroying the world, and doing all those other things which have since become entirely cliche for RPG villains to do.

While Shining Force may seem a little basic if you haven't played it before and your first exposure to turn based strategy games was Final Fantasy Tactics or later games, Shining Force has everything it needs for a great old school RPG. Each character has their own class (and personality which is often revealed throughout the story) along with special abilities. As you battle your units level up, and my favorite feature of Shining Force always was that there never really is a game over. If your party falls in battle you retain all your experience earned and just try again. Of course there are all kinds of items to buy, treasure to find, gear to equip, and everything else you'd expect as well.

According to Sega, Shining Force is set to be released this Thursday. If you've been looking for a game to supplement the two Final Fantasy games that were released not too long ago, look no further.

Proud to be indie developer NimbleBit leaked some vague details to us this afternoon regarding their next iPhone game, Pocket Frogs. The story of Pocket Frogs starts back with their previous game, Dizzypad [iPhone: $1.99 / iPad: Free + DLC], a simple jumping game that we loved in our review which recently received an update adding in iOS 4 fast app switching and Retina Display support for the iPhone 4.

Figuring they'd make the various Plus+ awards a little more fun than just increasing your overall Plus+ gamer score, NimbleBit linked these awards with unlocking differently colored playable frogs. The unexpected side effect of this for NimbleBit was it turned out that for many players, the goal of playing Dizzypad for them was to unlock every frog rather than shooting for high scores as originally intended. NimbleBit released several updates to the game which added even more frogs, so when searching for inspiration for their next game, it seemed only natural to make a game with the sole purpose of collecting as many frogs as possible.

Pocket Frogs is a game of raising, breeding, and trading frogs. Each of your frogs will have three specific genetic traits that they inherit from their parent frogs, which according to NimbleBit will result in "many thousand possible emergent species." There are going to be multiple customizable habitats to raise your frogs in, and players will be responsible for keeping the frogs healthy, happy, and well fed by taking them out to explore the Pocket Frog pond.

Aside from breeding frogs, players will be able to get new frogs by ordering them in-game as well as trading frogs with friends via Plus+. There are also plans to have various challenges to breed certain frogs which rotate on a weekly and monthly basis and the frog store will rotate on a daily with new frogs to buy with in-game currency. NimbleBit is still hashing out plans on exactly how they're going to monetize Pocket Frogs, but have assured me that players will be able to access absolutely everything in game for free and whatever in-app purchases they finally decide on will be intended for serious frog breeders and otherwise entirely optional.

One of the core features of Pocket Frogs that NimbleBit feels has been missing from some many of these free social games is a full featured offline mode. If you're an iPod touch user, you will be happy to know that you can play Pocket Frogs without ever connecting to the Internet, you just won't be able to buy any of the in-app purchases or participate in frog trading while offline. Otherwise, you can breed your own little frogs to your heart's content, buy new frogs, and even participate in all the breeding challenges.

Pocket Frogs is currently being developed for all iOS platforms and will include Retina Display support. NimbleBit isn't getting specific with release dates yet, and instead have just told us to "expect to have a handful of little frogs this summer." We've yet to hear whether or not players will be able to release their army of frogs on unsuspecting virgin ecosystems, but for what it's worth, I've got my fingers crossed.

In early May we first posted about Crescent Moon Games getting involved in the development of Aralon: Sword and Shadow, an RPG by Galoobeth Games that had been in development long before Crescent Moon even started on their previous RPG, Ravensword: The Fallen King [$4.99 / Free]. In essence, Aralon had been the project of two developers who were extremely passionate about building an immersive RPG with levels of detail seldom seen on mobile platforms... But neither of them were artists. Aralon was filled with what amounted to mediocre character animations, place holder art, and 3D models that were beyond basic.

Crescent Moon saw the potential this game had if the graphical front-end could be brought up to par with all of the various subsystems powering the game world that Galoobeth had spent so much time working on. With artist Mark Jones, Aralon had the last piece of the puzzle it was missing to be the game it needed to be.

This is what the world of Aralon was going to look like:

And this is what Aralon will look like now, running at the Retina Display resolution of the iPhone 4:

The night and day difference continues through the rest of the screenshots we were provided:

The time that's being put in to the complete artistic makeover of the game has allowed Galoobeth to add even more to Aralon than they were originally even planning on launching with. For instance, the game now has a complete pet system where any NPC (even a human) can be charmed and serve as your pet. The game now includes well over 30 hours of gameplay, what has been described to us as a "massive" world that players can completely explore, hundreds of items, mounts, four playable classes across three races, and other gameplay mechanics such as faction systems, herb gathering, crafting, and more.

Aralon: Sword and Shadow is planned for a fall release, and if they manage to deliver on the things they're promising, Crescent Moon and Galoobeth games will likely have a hit on their hands. For more on Aralon, take a look at our previous post on the game or the thread on our forums. If you like seeing these kind of drastic before and after shots, swing on by this thread on our forums where other developers are posting shots of their placeholder art compared to their final release art as well.

We first heard about Crescent Moon Games' Ultra Kid: Mystery of the Mutants back in late April of this year. Back then we only had a few screenshots and were told the game was inspired by classics such as MegaMan, Kid Icarus, Super Mario Galaxy and others. It's not hard to see elements of those games coming together in the following teaser video:

A new set of screenshots have also been released:

Ultra Kid is still in development, and the guys at Crescent Moon are shooting for a release this fall. We enjoyed their other game, Ravensword: The Fallen King [$4.99 / Free] quite a bit, and are expecting some great things from Ultra Kid.

Deadly Dungeon is a new 3D dungeon-crawling hack 'n' slash game for the iPhone and iPod touch. It seems to be somewhat Diablo-esque in the way the dungeon is presented, the real-time enemy combat, and loot collecting. It doesn't appear that there's much in the way of weapons or gear to equip on your warrior, but there are two playable main characters with a female warrior able to be purchased with in-game gold. The graphics and animation shown in the video are really impressive, with huge enemies and nice lighting and magical attacks.

Details from the developer:

• 8 levels
• 3 enemy types: Skeletons, Ogres and Goblins
• Collect gold to unlock extra playable Female Warrior and extra swords
• 4 magic spells per playable character
• Great 3d art/animations, music and sound effects
• OpenFeint achievements and leaderboards integration

While we're certainly impressed with the visuals portrayed in the video, we do have some reservations about the game. First, it doesn't appear that there's much variety in the dark dungeon setting. Playing through 8 levels of the same environment may get monotonous. On that same note, only having 3 different enemies seems a bit lacking, although those huge ogres are pretty cool. It may just be a bit too basic for gamers who are normally into this type of game, although that remains to be seen until we've actually played it. Still, it has a great look to it and a lot of potential. The magic attacks seem interesting and the ability to play as a female character is a nice addition.

Deadly Dungeon was submitted on Sunday for review from Apple. Barring any unforeseen complications, we should be seeing the game arrive in the next week or so. The price is said to be at 99¢ or $1.99, with the possiblility of being free at first release for early adopters. Due to the graphical intensity, it's recommended for newer hardware (2^nd generation iPod touch and above). We'll be taking a closer look at the final version when it's available.

One of our most highly rated games on the App Store, Meteor Blitz [$2.99 / Free] by Alley Labs, is getting an iPad specific HD version. If you have some how missed this game completely since its September release last year, here is a recap of a few of it's succeses:

• Apple's Best of 2009
• TouchArcade's Best of 2009
• Our Monthly 5/5 Star Rating
• TouchArcade's Review

And if that is not enough to convince you on how good of a game this is, we highly recommend trying the 3 level Lite version of Meteor Blitz [Free] to see for yourself.

There is a lot about the game that we liked from the iPhone version like near-instant load times, auto-save, real-time high score rankings, and great controls that we look forward to playing on the larger screen.

Meteor Blitz HD includes new features such as an extended remix soundtrack, separate high score leaderboards from the iPhone version, a larger playing field, new effects, including slow-motion blur, and more intense particle systems, an option to enable or disable the automatic gravity gun, and all the features from the original, including auto-pause, auto-save/resume, smooth gameplay and controls.

Here is a gameplay video from the developers of the iPad version of Meteor Blitz:

Meteor Blitz HD will be $4.99 and has already been submitted to Apple, so we should expect to see it soon on the App Store. Our impressions on the HD version should be out shortly after this hits the store. We haven't been huge fans of dual-stick controls on the iPad with previous titles, so we'll have to see how one of our iPhone favorites makes the transition.

The developers of Sally's Spa [$2.99] and Hottie Hookups [$.99] are about to release their newest game, Sigma. Entering a new category of games, BigStack Studios has created a marvelous looking match-3 game.

Using multi-touch, you can independently spin two columns of blocks on either side of the screen. Tapping either side of the screen sends blocks back and forth across the screen. Once a match has been created, you'll have a couple of seconds to tag additional blocks on to the cluster before the whole thing explodes. Overall, it reminds us of an enhanced version of Unify.

The goal is to create huge blocks of the same color to earn the most points, get power ups, and increase the point multipliers. There will be three different modes in Sigma; Sectors, Time Attack, and Multiplayer. Playing in Sector mode allows you to unlock up to 10 different themes, each with their own music track. Time Attack mode has three time lengths to score as many points as possible before the time runs out. And go head-to-head in Multiplayer mode to compete against your friends over local wifi or bluetooth connection. Sigma will also have the online social network Plus+ included in their game with awards to unlock and leader boards to submit your high scores and compete against the world.

Sigma should be available soon, look for it on the App Store in the near future. And to better see how Sigma will be played, check out this gameplay video:

We'll take a closer look when it arrives. The developers plan on submitting the game to Apple as early as today.

Back in 1989 now-veteran UK game developer Jamie Woodhouse released a lively little puzzle / platformer called Qwak for the 8-bit BBC Micro home computer. Not long after, he joined forces with Team17 to develop an enhanhced, two-player Amiga version of the game, which was released in 1993 and featured faster action and more frantic gameplay. The rather well-reviewed title (Amiga Computing magazine gave it a "Gamer Gold" 92% rating) later made its way to the Gameboy Advance as well as the Mac and PC.

We're pleased to report that Jamie recently got in touch with Touch Arcade to give us an exclusive look at the iPhone version of Qwak he has just completed and will be shortly launching through the App Store.

In Qwak, you control a duck (get it?). Your objective is to guide this green duck through level after level of platforms, fruits and gems (worth points), bouncing enemies, power-ups to help demolish said enemies, and keys to unlock goodies as well as the level's exit gate. Your duck can run, jump, and fire volleys of egg projectiles to knock out the baddies. Grab a bonus item and watch a hail of colorful fruit rain down upon you. Take too long on a level and meet a hail of spikeballs. In a nutshell, I call it frenetic, fun, and rather fruity (to be alliteratively wanton).

I've spent some time with the prerelease build of the game Jamie provided us and it's been lovely to play. It's a touch-controlled affair with a left / right control in one corner and jump and egg-fire controls in the other. The vibrant visuals move about the screen as smooth as glass on the iPhone 3GS test device and a very Amiga-sounding score accompanies the action. It feels both retro and highly polished. It's a game platformer fans won't want to miss.

[ NOTE: Our original video embed ran at half-speed for some reason, the video has been replaced with a speed-accurate version. Have another look. ]

Additional details, I'll leave to the developer to provide (after the jump), as he was kind enough to grant us an interview along with the exclusive ad hoc build.

(more...)