Whoa, hey, Capcom Mobile is on a roll. After releasing a pretty hefty and free content update to Street Fighter 4: Volt this morning, the publisher has released two new (old) games on the App Store. Starting now, you can re-live some of your old coin-op beat-em-up memories with Final Fight iOS [$.99]. Or, if classic Street Fighter is more your thing, you can also check out three different versions of Street Fighter 2 in Street Fighter 2 Collection [$3.99].
Final Fight, as you’ve probably noticed, is carrying a promotional $.99 price tag, which strikes us as pretty appropriate considering you’ve probably purchased this game in some shape or form a billion times already. This specific version, however, does roll in virtual controls and a finishing move button. Also, if you’ve got pals with phones, you can connect with one via Bluetooth for co-op action. And before you ask: dibs on Haggar.
In bummer news, Street Fighter II Collection is also shackled by Bluetooth. In much brighter news, it’s a heck of a package for fans of the series -- it rolls in the original game, Street Fighter II: Championship Edition, and Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting all in one app. They all appear to be relatively untouched content-wise, but like with Final Fight the notable iOS tweak is an “easy-to-use one button finishing move.”
One note: both games require iOS 4.1 (or better) and don’t support a lot of older devices. Check the game notes before you go nuts.
Have you scoped the latest version notes on Street Fighter 4: Volt [$2.99]? We did this morning and were stoked to see what they had to share. On top of 60 new icons, a “Friend Request” button, and a few tweaks, Capcom has added two new (old) pugilists to the action: fan favorite Fei Long and the uber-powerful brat Yun. With these guys included, the roster has expanded to 22 fighters, but let’s be serious, Guile is still the only character that matters.
Oh! And Volt is much cheaper than what it was -- until the end of this month, it’s $2.99 instead of $6.99. You could buy a, uh, liter of frozen yogurt or a really classy hotdog with those savings!
Anyway, it appears as though Capcom Mobile is committed to updating Volt as much as it did the its first proper mobile Street Fighter game, Street Fighter 4 [$4.99]. If this is indeed the case, you’d probably be better off with Volt in the long-term. Here’s our review if you’re interested in learning more about the game.
This past May, SNK Playmore surprised everybody by releasing The King of Fighters-i [$4.99], a mobile version of their popular fighting series, into the App Store. Until that time, Capcom’sStreet Fighter IV Volt [$6.99] had been the pinnacle of touch screen fighters, but just like the 90s arcades that I grew up in, King of Fighters gave Street Fighter a worthy opponent for the title of best iOS fighting game. We gave the nod to The King of Fighters-iin our review, but just barely, and in reality both titles are extremely evenly matched when it comes down to gameplay and features. It really may just boil down to personal preference which one you like more, or if you’re like me, you just play and enjoy both. Problem solved.
Anyway, The King of Fighters-i has just gotten even better with a brand new update that adds 6 new playable fighters as well as an interesting new Challenge Mode. The new fighters are Iori Yagami, Mature, Vice, Elisabeth Branctorche, Shen Woo, and Duo Lon, bringing the total character count to 20, the same as in Street Fighter IV Volt. I’m not as familiar with The King of Fighters series' characters as I am with the Street Fighter ones, so I don’t have any real attachment to any of these new additions, but I am pretty stoked to have 6 new people to learn how to use.
Pocket Warriors [$4.99] is an action hack-and-slash game, with 2d cartoon-style graphics, from WitOne Games. It's based on killing monsters and leveling-up your weapons through combat. But you're not alone on this quest, as your party consists of two little warriors - a male and a female, who must work together to protect the village from monsters and dragons. In the thread in our forums, Pocket Warriors is likened to a 2D version of the Monster Hunter series, and it provides many hours of monster combat, with 3 chapters, each containing 12 missions for a total of 36 quests.
Your adventure starts in the village, as you prepare for battle. There's a weapons trader selling both weapons and magic spells, a blacksmith offering weapon upgrades, the village chief dishing out quests, and your own home for depositing items and storing stuff. After interacting with these four places to prepare, you can walk through the village gates to hunt the next available monster. There's often no minions, just straight to the boss!
We were pretty excited about Capcom’s latest iOS offering of their venerable fighting game franchise, Street Fighter IV Volt [$4.99], when we reviewed the title back in June. It offered everything that was great about the original iPhone release plus a few new characters and many new features, most significantly the ability to battle it out with people from all over the world online.
Having online play was fantastic, if not a little rough due to latency issues, but one aspect about it didn’t seem to be very well thought out. When playing online, there was no penalty for quitting out of a match. This seems like a good idea given the mobile nature of the game and the potential for distractions like texts or phone calls interrupting a match. But it also gave way to people quitting when they’re on the wrong side of a beating, and screwing you out of a win while not being subjected to any sort of penalty.
The newest update for Street Fighter IV Volt looks to address this problem. Now, quitting out of an online match for whatever reason counts as a loss, and it will deduct points from your BP which are like the experience points for online play. Also, players found to be habitually quitting early from matches may have their matchmaking experience limited in some form, though there aren’t any details on exactly how you’re limited when this happens.
Not to be forgotten about in this update are the two new characters that we learned last month were being added to the roster, Sakura and Makoto. Both fighters fit nicely into the current selection of characters, though strangely some of Makoto’s animations seem abnormally choppy. I’m not sure if that’s intentional or just a graphical glitch, but it doesn’t seem to affect her performance in the game.
If you’ve been enjoying Street Fighter IV Volt but have been getting fed up with people taking the coward’s way out online, then hopefully this newest update will help smooth out the experience some. Of course, even if you don’t partake in online battles, you’ll want to grab this latest update for the two additional characters, and if you've been on the fence about picking up the game it's not a bad time to consider grabbing it as it's currently on sale for $4.99.
Street Fighter IV Volt [$6.99] launched back in June and although it played strikingly similar to Capcom's original Street Fighter IV [$4.99] on iOS, it did contain a few significant upgrades. Namely, it featured every character from the original as well as 3 new fighters and competitive online play via Game Center. We really loved the first Street Fighter IV so it wasn’t surprising that we enjoyed the enhanced Street Fighter IV Volt even more in our review.
Capcom fed a pretty steady stream of new characters and features to the original Street Fighter IV, and their new iteration is gearing up to start off on that same foot. According to Andriasang and 4Gamer.net, the first set of new characters for Street Fighter IV Volt will be a pair of female fighters, Sakura and Makoto. Sakura is a long time favorite from back in the Alpha series, and Makoto first appeared in Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike and made a triumphant return in last year’s Super Street Fighter IV on consoles.
There are plenty more screens of both Sakura and Makoto over at Andriasang.com, and as for what may be coming in future updates some enterprising members in our forums may have a lead on that as well. After digging around through some of the game files in Street Fighter IV Volt, they have come across a character list that includes every character already in the game plus Sakura and Makoto, and has spots for Evil Ryu and Fei Long too. This doesn’t necessarily confirm those characters are coming, but it sure is a strong possibility.
There is also another character in Street Fighter IV Volt that was conspicuously absent from the original game, the long time fan favorite Akuma. You fight Akuma as a second boss character after M. Bison in arcade mode, assuming you don’t lose a single round along the way. You can unlock Akuma as a playable character by playing and beating him with every character in Arcade mode or by playing 100 matches online, both potentially time consuming endeavors.
If you want to bypass all that, then there is a very easy way to unlock Akuma if you already have the original Street Fighter IV installed on your device. Simply fire up Arcade mode in Street Fighter IV Volt and at the character select screen tap on the characters in the following order: starting at Ryu, select Abel, Guile, Cammy, then end back on Ryu. Pause for about a second at each character, and when you return back to Ryu tap on him again to reveal Akuma, who will stay unlocked permanently at the character select screen from now on.
Unfortunately, my dodgy Google translating of the articles didn’t divulge a release date for the Sakura and Makoto update, but we’ll keep our eye out for it and let you know when it hits.
Last year, Capcom raised the bar for traditional fighting games on the touch screen with Street Fighter IV [$4.99], and a couple of weeks ago they upped their game again by releasing Street Fighter IV Volt [$6.99] with online multiplayer. To a lesser degree, we’ve also seen Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 [99¢/HD] on the App Store, and although quirky and rough around the edges it still offered up a decent portable experience for fans of that series. With SNK Playmore’s recently released The King of Fighters-i [$7.99], we now have all the major players of the mid-90s 2D arcade fighter rivalry once again battling it out with each other, this time on the App Store.
While SNK’s various fighting franchises all had a pretty dedicated following, it was always the Street Fighters and Mortal Kombats of the world that stole the mainstream spotlight. Now here, more than a decade later on iOS, SNK Playmore has brought their A-game for a shot at the iOS fighting crown. And true to its namesake, The King of Fighters-i takes that crown by elevating touch screen fighters to the next level. It’s missing the marquee feature of online multiplayer that Street Fighter IV Volt can boast about, but when it comes to control responsiveness, speed, performance, visuals, animations, and approachability, The King of Fighters-i tops the competition.
I was really excited when Capcom announced at E3 this year that their wildly successful Street Fighter IV [$4.99] for iPhone would be getting a follow up title called Street Fighter IV Volt [99¢]. I’ve been a huge Street Fighter fan for the majority of my life, and the original iPhone version is easily my favorite fighter in the App Store. It was a pretty big deal when it first released back in March of last year, not only because it was such a huge IP but also because it proved that a traditional fighting game could be done well with virtual controls. Capcom fed a steady stream of updates to Street Fighter IV over the past year which have added new characters and features to the game, keeping it on top of the iOS fighting heap.
Now with Street Fighter IV Volt, Capcom has extended the long standing Street Fighter tradition of releasing an incremental update as a new game. What you’re getting with Volt is essentially everything that was already in the first Street Fighter IV, right down to mostly identical graphics and sounds, plus a few additional features and 3 new characters – Cody, Balrog and Vega. These minor enhancements are nice, but the big selling point of Volt is the inclusion of online competitive multiplayer over WiFi, which was easily the most requested feature of the first game.
By default you are set up to accept any online challenges that might be out there. This means that if you’re running through the arcade mode you might suddenly get interrupted with a challenge from a random player online who’s searching for a match. This ensures that there should always be a pretty large pool of players to match up with when you feel like throwing down online, and it also gives it that old-school arcade feeling of having a complete stranger walk up to your arcade cabinet unexpectedly and issue a challenge. Of course, it would be hard to even make it through arcade mode with constantly being interrupted with matches, so thankfully you can easily switch the auto-acceptance on and off at will.
As for the actual experience of competing online in Street Fighter IV Volt, so far it leaves a lot to be desired. Random matches are easy enough to find even in this early stage of the game’s release, but they are usually plagued with lag and are prone to randomly disconnecting. Sometimes the online works near flawlessly, and when it does it’s absolutely brilliant. But more often than not you’ll be subjected to jittery animations and momentary freezes that can really disrupt the flow of a game.
Even with the lag matches can still end up being a ton of fun, but it’s hard realistically gauge either players’ actual skill level when playing under those conditions. I’m hoping things will smooth out as more players pick up the game and jump online, but currently it’s hard to consider it anything more than just a novelty rather than a serious competitive online experience.
One pretty interesting new aspect to Street Fighter IV Volt is something called Wandering Warrior. This mode has you creating an avatar for your multiplayer profile which can be leveled up and upgraded in an almost RPG-like fashion. Then, while you’re facing an opponent in an online or local multiplayer match, your avatar will square up against your opponent’s avatar and they’ll duke it out as well. Special points are earned during multiplayer matches which can be put towards upgrading your avatar and unlocking new icons and badges which grant new abilities and enhancements. It’s a pretty cool little meta game that’s a fun side distraction to throwing down against people in multiplayer.
Despite its spotty online performance and content that is heavily recycled from the first game, Street Fighter IV Volt improves on what was already a successful formula and is the definitive version to own on the App Store. If you aren’t very interested in its online multiplayer or the 3 new characters, then you may be fine just skipping Volt and sticking with the original for getting your quick Street Fighter fixes on the go.
The one wrinkle to this advice is the fact that Capcom is currently running an introductory sale for Street Fighter IV Volt. It launched for just 99¢, and the price will increase by a dollar each day for the next several days before hitting its regular price of $6.99. Even if you already own the first game and the new features don’t totally interest you, I’d still suggest picking up Volt if you can snag for just a dollar or two. It may be a bit harder to justify the upgrade when it hits full price, however.
Street Fighter IV Volt is mostly just more of the same, but that’s not such a bad thing since the original release was so good. The highly anticipated online multiplayer isn’t quite up to par technically, but it can still provide some pretty entertaining moments. Hopefully the online performance can be improved over time, as there is plenty of potential for one of the best multiplayer experiences on the App Store.
Ice T once said, “I’m on the front line, and I am a rapper.” He’s also said, “I have to grow my audience.” The latter is something most game publishers can get on board with, while the former is... well, an Ice T quote. Regardless, we see the attempts to draw more people in every single day. Why, actually, Capcom is in the thick of fleshing out its audience right now with a new sale that sees four of its most high profile titles reduced to 99 cents.
We’re not sure, exactly, when the sale will end or if other titles will join the mix at a later date, but it’s probably best to just be safe and gobble up these titles ASAP if you’re in the mood for any of them. Personally, I think SFIV is the best of the bunch.
Early yesterday I made a post sharing Manomio CEO Stuart Carnie's intent to bring iCade support to his Commodore emulation systems. Early this morning, he posted a video of the Amiga game International Karate + running under his iAmiga emulation system with full iCade support. I've not had a chance to test out his latest development build personally, but I wanted to share the video for to pique retro gamers' appetites.
And, speaking of Manomio's Amiga and C64 emulators, Craig Rothwell behind the iControlPad (and Wizzley Presto) reached out and is sending over an eval device for us to check out. Manomio is currently in the process of building iControlPad support into their emulators, as promised. We'll report on that shortly.
We’re shedding paper like a second skin in favor of digital versions of the same content, but in the gaming arena there’s still a place for collectible cards. BANDAI is the latest creator intent on pairing “AR cards” with a digital game. At the 2011 Tokyo Toy Fair the studio is showing off a sharp marriage of the two that looks to stir anime enthusiasts.
We’re not sure on the name of the game because modern Internet translation software is notoriously fickle with brands, but the pictures from the event do enough talking. In this particular title, BANDAI is harnessing the back-facing camera of the iPhone to connect with cards from the popular mangas “One Piece” and “Kamen Rider.”
Once the pairing is complete between multiple cards and one phone, users can then battle digital versions of these cards via an application. There’s also a ‘mission’ element to the design as well, though it appears as if a demonstration of that was absent from the event.
A separate source tells us that the “first” series of these games will be available by the end of next month in Japan. We’re also advised that these cards can be used with other games and on other devices and are quite popular in the region.
Of course, this isn’t a new thing -- cards and games have been talking to each other since cameras started being introduced to handhelds and consoles, but it’s neat to see this kind of technology being used with iOS devices.
The Nintendo 3DS recently launched with a set of AR Cards that are host to a swathe of different mini-games. Because of the lack of quality 3-D experiences on the handheld, the cards are the de facto demonstration pieces for the two-screen device’s technology.
When EA released Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 [99¢/HD] last December, it struck me as kind of a strange release. It wasn’t a direct port of the original arcade game, though it did retain the original music and sound effects. Instead it was a brand new version of that game completely redone with 3D graphics, and it also came with a healthy cut in the roster and number of arenas. The move to 3D visuals was puzzling as it somewhat alienated the fans of the original game, but at the same time they looked pretty sweet. The character models were kind of blocky, but the new 3D backgrounds looked absolutely fantastic, especially at high resolution on the Retina Display.
So looking past the dramatic visual change, whether you loved it or hated it, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 was actually a competent little fighter on the iPhone, and I wound up liking it quite a bit in our review. The virtual buttons worked about as well as you could expect them to in a fighting game, despite some instances of inconsistent responsiveness. An iPad version was released a couple of months later, and came with an interesting (but not very practical) same-device multiplayer mode and more detailed graphics. Personally, I also found the game easier to play on the iPad with the larger screen.
The major issue I had with Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 on iOS was that for some reason the developers only included roughly half of the original fighters, and only 10 of the arenas. I can deal with new graphics and less than ideal controls, but at least give me the complete experience when I’m trying to get my Mortal Kombat nostalgia fix while waiting for the bus. Thankfully, today EA has released a major update to Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 that does just that. You can now choose from the full roster of more than 20 characters from the original game, and the 6 arena backgrounds that were missing in the initial release are included too. I’m also happy to report that the weird occasional control lag that I mentioned in the review of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 seems to have disappeared as well, though there’s no mention of this in the update description.
Check out the paltry selection of fighters in the pre-update screen on the left, compared to the full roster of the arcade game post-update on the right:
With my two major complaints now taken care of, the lack of characters and the wonky controls, I’m now having even more fun with Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 on iOS. It’s not perfect, and it's not quite up to par with Street Fighter IV [$1.99] as far as touch screen fighters go, but as a huge fan of the series I love having a version to carry around in my pocket at all times. If you’re also a Mortal Kombat fan then you should easily get a dollar’s worth of enjoyment out of the game. The iPad version is slightly superior in my opinion, but it also comes in at five times the price. Update: iPad version has now dropped to 99¢.
Even though it took a while, I’m glad EA came through with an update for Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 that completes the game, and I would really love to see other entries in the series brought to iOS in similar fashion.
Perfection is a strong word, but Capcom isn’t shying from using it when describing Street Fighter 4: Volt, a fleshed out iPod Touch and iPhone sequel to the original Street Fighter 4 [$4.99]. Volt will feature a cast of 18 characters, and will see the addition of Wi-Fi competitive play, which was something its predecessor lacked. It’ll also, according to Capcom, offer “perfected” action with a control feature set reminiscent of the original game.
Of those 18 characters, four will be new to iPhone and iPod Touch series: Balrog, Vega, and Cody will make their debut alongside a “mystery character.” If I were a betting man, I’d bet that this mystery dude is one of the four new cast members of Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition -- Yun, Yang, Evil Ryu, or Oni.
The teaser trailer revealed during E3 shows a lot of the in-game action, but it doesn’t do a great job at expressing that the touch controls can be customized, just like they can be in Street Fighter 4. Neat!
Looking good, right? No word on price, but Capcom has confirmed that launch will be soon -- the game should be available on the App Store this July.
In 2009, Total NonStop Action (TNA) Wrestling was released. Surprisingly, it was a turn-based strategic wrestling game, with RPG elements, enabling your wrestler to "level-up". That game later disappeared from the App Store, with players in the thread suggesting their license expired. Now, another TNA Wrestling game has been released by Bight Interactiveand Namco Bandai.
TNA Wrestling iMPACT [$4.99] opens with bright lights and an electric guitar soundtrack, which introduces the entertainment spectacle that is modern wrestling. It's a good introduction, and perfectly sets the scene for just how over the top this kind of wrestling is.
Retro revival studio DotEmu has just sent word that they have kicked off a 48-hour sale on five of their iPhone titles. From today until the 28th the following titles will be available for just $0.99.
64th Street: A Detective Story is a Double Dragon-style beat 'em up arcade fighter that was originally released back in 1991. The iOS version of 64th Street is wrapped in an emulator, providing the original graphics and an authentic game experience as compared to the arcade release, but with customizations that make it appropriate for the iOS platform.
During a walk with his girlfriend, a boy is ambushed by agents of a mysterious crime organization and is shot to death. Now, as a wandering spirit with the ability to possess most others, he is summoned by his girlfriend's father to save her from these criminals
The game is a run-and-jump platformer that sets itself apart due to its "possess anyone" mechanic. You start out as a Casper-cute ghost and make your initial possession. Then, when you die, your ghost pops out and you can take control of most any character onscreen. Your fighting abilities depend upon who you've possessed, so it mixes the game up nicely.
Earth Defense Force is a classic horizontal shoot ‘em up that made an appearance in both arcades and on the SNES in the early 90's.
The alien Azyma Empire, threatens to destroy the Earth with the Orbital Buster, a large computerized space satellite. The Earth's only hope lies in the recently developed XA-1 spaceships held under the organization known as E.D.F: Earth Defense Force. You are the pilot in command!
This iOS version features two game modes: Arcade and Freeplay, and also boasts support for both D-pad and touch controls. Online leaderboards are also a part of the package, as well as Game Center integration.
Golvellius: Valley of Doom is a 1987 RPG that was originally released for the Japanese MSX home computer system and later brought to the Sega Master System.
The iPhone version of the game was ported by DotEmu with iPhone UI modifications as well as an intelligent save system.
Whoa, hey, Capcom Mobile is on a roll. After releasing a pretty hefty and free content update to Street Fighter 4: Volt this morning, the publisher has released two new (old) games on the App Store. Starting now, you can re-live some of your old coin-op beat-em-up memories with Final Fight iOS [$.99]. Or, if classic Street Fighter is more your thing, you can also check out three different versions of Street Fighter 2 in Street Fighter 2 Collection [$3.99].
Have you scoped the latest version notes on Street Fighter 4: Volt [$
Ice T once said, “I’m on the front line, and I am a rapper.” He’s also said, “I have to grow my audience.” The latter is something most game publishers can get on board with, while the former is... well, an Ice T quote. Regardless, we see the attempts to draw more people in every single day. Why, actually, Capcom is in the thick of fleshing out its audience right now with a new sale that sees four of its most high profile titles reduced to 99 cents.
When EA released Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 [
In 2009, Total NonStop Action (TNA) Wrestling was released. Surprisingly, it was a turn-based strategic wrestling game, with RPG elements, enabling your wrestler to "level-up". That game later disappeared from the App Store, with 
