So, I have a confession to make. I was prepared to dislike Baseball Superstars 2012 [Free]. You can blame Homerun Battle 2 [$4.99/Lite] for that one, as it had left me deeply distrustful of freemium sports games. Nonetheless, driven by Air Penguin [99¢/Lite] inspired optimism and the extravagant amount of praise that had been lavished over the franchise, I ended up downloading it anyway.
I'm glad I did. Though not what you would call 'your must-have game in the event of a zombie apocalypse', Baseball Superstars 2012 is still kinda awesome. Depending on how much you like your baseball, it might even be extremely awesome. There's a part of me that wants to be the cranky curmudgeon and witheringly observe that Baseball Superstars 2012 is, while a competent product, just a souped-up version of the one from the previous years, but I can't. The rest of me is too busy cultivating my digitized athletes.
Last month developer Mountain Sheep released Ice Rage [99¢], a simple arcade title that looked like ice hockey but played a lot closer to a game of air hockey. It nailed the simple, fast-paced gameplay but fell a bit short in terms of content, offering just one-off quick play matches against the AI or a same-device multiplayer mode. Granted, the multiplayer mode was a stupid amount of fun, especially on the large screen of the iPad, but Ice Rage still lacked that single-player staying power.
Over the weekend, an update was released that looks to improve this situation with a new single-player Tournament Mode. Here you'll take on the 9 opponents in the game one after the other, and their AI increases in difficulty as you progress. Make it through them without dying and you'll square off against Skar, the new boss character you can see in the icon above. Also, a very simplistic stat upgrade system lets you increase your character's speed, power, and technique with each subsequent win.
This weekend was a big one if you're a fan of NFL football, as the final 4 teams in the playoffs battled it out to see who's going to the Superbowl this year. Sadly, I'm still feeling like I was punched in the stomach after my Niners played an amazing defensive game only to fumble a punt return in overtime and set up the NY Giants for a piece of cake winning field goal. It sucks to see two teams play such a great game only to have it end on such a sour note.
However, as bad as that was, it was far from the biggest blunder of the conference championships this weekend. Ravens fans, you know where I'm going with this. After taking the fight to the mighty Patriots all afternoon, the Ravens put together an impressive late game drive to put them within a short field goal distance to tie the game and send it into overtime. Seriously, this field goal was basically a chip shot that 99% of the time any NFL kicker could make blindfolded. Unfortunately for them, the Ravens kicker fell into the other 1%, when he shanked the kick and missed the field goal - sans blindfold.
So what's all this sports talk have to do with iOS gaming you ask? Well, Full Fat Games has just released NFL Flick Kicker [99¢/HD], which, if you so choose, will allow you to reenact the biggest missed field goal of the entire NFL season. If you're a Ravens fan, this sort of thing might be akin to rubbing salt in the wound. So, you can go the other way with it if you want – play as the Ravens and pretend he actually made that field goal, and then daydream your way to the Superbowl. You're always a winner, as long as it's in your mind.
Don't worry, if you're not an NFL fan there's still plenty to enjoy here. Full Fat has basically perfected the flicking sports genre over the past couple of years, starting with Deadball Specialist [99¢/HD] back in 2010 and extending to many additional titles across several different sports since then. They've even previously utilized their NFL license on the opposite end of the spectrum with NFL Flick Quarterback [99¢/HD], which put you in the roll of the ball thrower rather than the ball kicker.
I've been having fun with NFL Flick Kicker so far. It doesn't really do anything drastically different than previous flicking games, but it does have a nice character progression system and several different modes to play through, as well as Game Center achievements and leaderboards.
If you've enjoyed any of their previous games, chances are pretty good you'll enjoy NFL Flick Kicker as well, especially if the official NFL licensing does something for you.
Last month, Enviro-Bear 2010 creator Justin Smith released his latest iOS endeavor called Justin Smith's Realistic Summer Sports Simulator [Free], or JSRSSS to lazy people like myself. Summer Sports Simulator was like a twisted take on an old Atari 2600 track and field title, with a bunch of Olympic-style events to partake in by awkwardly flinging your athletes through them. There was something strangely compelling about JSRSSS with its quirky gameplay and charm, and the mini-game nature of the events made it a perfect go-to title when I'm looking for a quick fix of fun.
Despite really liking Summer Sports Simulator, there were a few minor issues that detracted from the experience. With the game's first update, these have basically been taken care of. The most glaring problem with the initial release was that it lacked any sort of online high score tracking, which seemed like a big omission for such a high score-centric game like this. To rectify this, Game Center has been added with leaderboards for every event as well as a leaderboard for most gold medals earned during one play through. I've been having a ton of fun trading spots on the leaderboards with friends in JSRSSS.
The next major addition is a brand new event, the kayak slalom, and then the rest of the update consists of smaller tweaks and fixes. Controls have been improved on the iPhone, the AI has been balanced, and that weird cat that seemed to be stuck on the title screen has been fixed. Also, you can now choose from a list of actual flags and countries, rather than the weird mashup countries from the original release. See? I told you it got more realistic in this update, though I was pretty partial to the silly country names from before. Finally, you can turn on a "turbo" mode from the help screen at the main menu, which makes the entire game run at double speed. This makes an already difficult game that much more so, but it is kind of a fun feature to check out.
Another big change for Summer Sports Simulator is that the initial game is now free. Previously, it cost 99¢ which gave you 4 events and the option to unlock an additional 10 events with a $1.99 in-app purchase. It's something that we took issue with in our review, not so much because the game wasn't worth the money but more because it just seemed confusing and possibly off-putting for those who were thinking they were getting the whole game for their initial $.99 purchase. Now, the game basically functions as a free demo with five events and the remaining 10 still available from within the game for $1.99.
Justin Smith's Realistic Summer Sports Simulator is the type of game that won't be for everyone. Now that the barrier of entry has been lowered to free, there's no reason not to give it a spin. It's a really fun game made even better with this latest update, especially Game Center integration.
We've reached a point in Kairosoft's output where a pattern begins to form. On one side are Game Dev Story [$3.99 / Lite] and Grand Prix Story [$3.99 / Lite], games mostly about teams and what they can achieve. On the other side are five other titles that are more about building the perfect environment, be it mall, town, school, or hot spring. Their newest release, Pocket League Story [$2.99] falls squarely in column A. This time, you're creating the perfect soccer team, and you won't need spreadsheets or a love of soccer to enjoy yourself.
I'd go so far as to say that Pocket League Story is the most approachable game Kairosoft has put out on iOS to date. There are a few tricks to min-maxing the game, but if you do exactly what it tells you to do you'll be fine. For the spreadsheet geeks among us it may be too straightforward, but ultimately this is the perfect game to serve as an introduction to Kairosoft's catalog, or for anyone who loves their games but gets hung up on lists of combos and other arcana.
Looks like we've got one more big release to add to today's list. Kairosoft has just released their latest simulation title called Pocket League Story [$2.99]. By now you're probably familiar with Kairosoft's method of operation: pick a theme and develop a simplistic but deceptively deep simulation around it, then fill it to the brim with cute and colorful retro-style visuals and mobile friendly gameplay.
Pocket League Story appears to be no exception. The theme of choice this time around is soccer, or football depending on which country you hail from. You'll build up a team of players, train them, and then take on the rest of the league. You also have the ability to sell your team's own merchandise, build a gym for training, and even build your own stadium. The goal is to increase your fan base as you progress your team's abilities through competition.
It looks as though all the components are here of another solid Kairosoft simulation, especially if you're a fan of footy. We'll be digging in a lot deeper before passing final judgement on Pocket League Story, but if you're generally a fan of Kairosoft's work you probably can pretty much guess what you're getting here. You can pick it up for $2.99 which is an introductory price, and at some point it will raise up to their usual $3.99.
We'll have a full review of Pocket League Story in the near future, and until then you can check out impressions in our forums which are starting to trickle in.
Justin Smith from Captain Games is probably most widely known for sparking off the Enviro-Bear 2010 phenomenon of 2009. The world’s first bear driving a car simulator made a huge splash on the App Store, and proved that beyond the surface of MS Paint quality visuals and purposely awkward control schemes could lie a surprising amount of depth and replay value. Also, you play as a bear driving a car through a forest. Not every video game lets you do that.
Those same principles of low-fidelity visuals, unwieldy controls, and high playability carried through to his next iOS release So Long, Oregon! [$1.99], and they are ever-present in his latest bit of zaniness know as Justin Smith’s Realistic Summer Sports Simulator [99¢]. Don’t let the ironic title fool you, there is absolutely nothing realistic about Summer Sports Simulator. In fact, it’s greatest attraction is just how NOT realistic it portrays the various Olympic-style events it contains.
If you were to tell me that I’d be able to play a hockey game featuring Enviro-Bear [99¢] as a player, I’d say you were crazy. Yet, that’s exactly the case with Ice Rage [99¢], a simple arcade hockey game from Mountain Sheep. While Ice Rage doesn’t quite feature the deep gameplay found in previous Mountain Sheep titles, it’s still an enjoyable little arcade game, especially on the multiplayer side.
Billed as bringing the “8-bit hockey experience” to iOS, Ice Rage plays less like a hockey game and more of something akin to Pong. Games are played 2 vs 2 (one goalie and one attacker) on a very small rink. There’s also very little strategy involved; if your player has the puck you take shots at the opposing goal, and if you don’t have it, you smack the opposing attacker until you get it back. The controls also share Ice Rage’s simplicity: a virtual joystick and a button that doubles as the offense/defense action are the only buttons you have.
Back in November, we took an early look at SummitX Snowboarding [99¢] from Com2uS and Free Range Games. Since then, the game's been released, so now the rest of us can hit the virtual slopes for $99¢. After investing some time into the final release of the game I've reached the same conclusion as our preview: - I like what see.
There's six different mountains to conquer, including 36 different multiple-branching down-hill runs. The first slope is 'Glacier' which has six runs and you can unlock the other peaks - like Mt. Payne and Angel Peak - by winning medal points (3 points for gold, 2 for silver or 1 point for bronze). You can choose which valley to enter and each route contains different gates, with blue for time bonuses and red for a score multiplier, so it's worth exploring.
After choosing to be male or female, you start with $1000 and can earn money in the game, which is handy for buying tricks, such as the ability to tilt the device for air-control. There's a decent assortment of tricks available, such as flips, rolls and tail grabs. Doing tricks earns time bonuses and points as you fly down the mountain towards the finish.
When you leave the ground, six new buttons conveniently appear on-screen for performing tricks. You can press one button for a simple trick, two buttons for a trickier trick or hold and slide your finger to extend the move, for the trickiest of tricks. Two landing buttons appear when you're about to hit the snow and these can be pressed to level-out the board for a safe landing, or to stop a spin, roll or flip. These trick buttons only appear when needed and then disappear to keep the screen uncluttered, so you have a clear view of the terrain.
The main navigational controls are rather unusual. A two-thumbed split steering-wheel is used to turn left or right. For example, to turn left sharply: The left thumb moves down, while the right right thumb moves up simultaneously like using a virtual steering wheel of sorts. This control scheme wasn't immediately intuitive to me, however, I persevered and after five minutes I was carving the snow quite happily. So, potentially be prepared for a little practice time at the start.
Some highlights of the game include finding massive jumps on the side of the course or jumping off a cliff, onto a small snow-coated plateau, then immediately off a ramp for some big air. There's also caves and a deep rocky ravine to jump across, with a turning landing required on the other side. These "hell yeah" moments really add to the experience and make this game a lot of fun.
You can spend your game money on a variety of snowboards, for improved performance. There's six decks, ranging from the entry-level "basix" up to the "pro board". Each board has different attributes for air-time, air-control, acrobatics, speed and toughness. Plus, there's over 20 skins to buy: Perhaps you want a zombie ape on your deck, a tiger shark or a stylish green cyclops.
Your runs are scored based on tricks performed and time taken. SummitX connects to the Com2uS gameHub, but pleasingly, it also supports Game Center for leader-boards and 15 achievements and games are automatically saved to iCloud. The music is great, featuring over 20 licensed rock soundtracks, which play in a slow-motion effect when you're aerial. Alternatively, you can pump your own iTunes playlist. There are in-app purchases (IAP) available, to unlock features, however so far it hasn't felt intrusive or necessary which is good as Com2uS have been criticized for heavy-handed IAP in the past.
SummitX Snowboarding only has one game mode and I haven't seen any other boarders to race, however, this is a cool looking and sounding snowboarding game, with peaks, runs, boards, skins and tricks to unlock, plus a variety of routes down each run, which ensures there's plenty of replay value. Unfortunately, after downloading their update v1.01 and installing it on both devices, I lost my medal points and progress, which has dented my otherwise positive impression. If you're downloading the game for the first time, this obviously won't be an issue for you.
Back in late October we posted an update on Elite Systems' coming Elite Collection (iPhone) and Elite Collection HD (iPad) apps, which will offer a bundled collection of classic Commodore 8-bit home computer games, as well as an in-app game store for purchasing additional singles and bundled arrangements of games. At that time, Elite indicated that these applications would be delayed due to a trademark complication. We're now happy to report the studio has informed us that the titles will land in the App Store on Friday, December 16th, and at a one-week promotional launch price of $0.99 each. [ UPDATE: Apologies to readers in our overlooking the fact that the stated release date does not apply to the Americas. These titles will see release there in mid-to-late January. ]
For whatever reason, there really aren't that many snowboarding games available for iOS devices. X2 Snowboarding [$2.99] is my favorite of the currently available titles, and I really wish Sean White Snowboarding: Origins [99¢] was a better game, but other than that there's slim pickings on the App Store. Free Range Games and Com2uS are on the verge of adding another entry to the snowboarding aisle of your local iOS games depository with SummitX Snowboarding. I've got my hands on a preview build of it, and I like what I see so far.
The graphics speak for themselves, check out the above trailer, the game really looks like that. What I'm really digging though is the control scheme that they've implemented. The preview I got was on my iPad 2, and games like this are usually controlled in one of two ways: Tilting, which I've never felt is ideal for the iPad, or with a weird virtual joystick setup which similarly never translates very well.
SummitX implements a two-thumb steering wheel sort of approach in that you slide your thumbs along both sides of the screen to control the board. I raised an eyebrow at the first loading screen that explained how it worked, but in practice, it's really cool. When you go over a jump, the interface changes to focus on tricks, which will allow you to do all your standard grabs and flips while flying through the air.
If all goes as planned, SummitX should be available as a universal app sometime this December. Initially, it'll come loaded with 14 different paths spread across 4 different mountainsides and an entirely licensed soundtrack with over 20 different bands. There's also plans for an iPhone/iPod touch-only non-universal build sometime after launch. Neat, right?
Com2uS and I have a love-hate thing going on. I love many of their games but I absolutely loath their aggressive marketing tactics. Nothing in the world is going to convince me to give you an unwarranted 5-star review. No, not even a small pile of virtual currency. As you might have already guessed, Homerun Battle 2 [$4.99] is the latest in the long line of Com2uS games that I despise myself for enjoying.
Distilled into its most basic form, Homerun Battle 2, much like its predecessor, is a batting simulation. A 'casual' sports game, if you will. The goal here is to hit as many home runs as is humanly possible. Sometimes. Depending on which game mode you've selected, you might occasionally be called upon to hit a number of fouls in rapid succession instead. It varies. If you're experiencing vague feelings of deja vu, I don't blame you. Com2uS is clearly a firm believer in the old adage, 'If it isn't broke, don't fix it' and that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Instead of venturing away from a beloved formula, they've added more to the fix. But, we're getting ahead of ourselves.
People around here have been playing the original Homerun Battle 3D [$4.99 / Free / HD] since it was Baseball Slugger all the way back in 2009. We reviewed the game then and even though there's been all kinds of changes (some crazy, some not so much) the core gameplay is still the same.
It revolves around being nearly instantly matched up with people all over the world to compete in homerun derbies. You aim your bat by tilting, then tap to swing, hopefully resulting in a higher score than your opponent. Unfortunately, the addition of an in-app purchase system skewed the power curve like nobody's business, and before long you needed to either spend a shocking amount of money or grind for eternity to remain competitive.
The sequel is launching with all sorts of new customization, including female batters. There's six different game modes, and even multiple stadiums. Everything we've heard so far about the game is pointing to it being a great sequel to the original, but I've got my fingers, toes, shoelaces, and everything else that can be crossed crossed in hopes that the in-app purchase system doesn't have such a drastic effect on this entry in the series. Or, if nothing else, that there's at least a lobby you can play in that doesn't allow anything but the starting equipment… As the pre-IAP Baseball Slugger is responsible for some of my fondest memories in early iOS gaming.
If all goes as planned, Homerun Battle 2 should be available in the US App Store tomorrow night at 11:00 PM Eastern, or potentially much earlier if you're lucky enough to live on the same island as Peter Jackson.
Flick Home Run [99¢] from Infinity Pocket has been camped out as the #2 paid application on the American App Store for a few days and hit #1 for top grossing iPhone apps, yet it's barely been mentioned in our forums, which is rather unusual for a top-ranking game. We decided to investigate why this baseball game's so popular. That was a few days ago ...and I'm still playing it.
Rather than displaying a batter, bowler, bases and fielders, like a regular baseball game, Flick Home Run focuses entirely on smacking home runs, as the name suggests. There's no awkward floating virtual bat displayed either, because your finger acts as the bat and your swipe is the swing. When you place your finger on the pitch button, a ball is bowled by an unseen pitcher from the right side of the screen. You flick your finger at the ball, timing it right to smack it as far as possible.
When Top Spin was released for the original Xbox, I became an instant fan of tennis games. I would crank up the difficulty to max and give myself bad stats and play the top players, just to make it more challenging. But until recently my iOS device had no tennis games installed, even though there's a few out there.
Flick Tennis: College Wars [99¢ / HD / HD Free] by Rolocule has come to the rescue, providing me with a challenging touch-based tennis game to conveniently carry in my pocket. The iPad version was released in August, but this review is based on the iPhone version, which has just come out. And I'm really enjoying it, because although it starts out pretty easy, the later matches are challenging and can be real nail-biters.
So, I have a confession to make. I was prepared to dislike Baseball Superstars 2012 [Free]. You can blame Homerun Battle 2 [$4.99/Lite] for that one, as it had left me deeply distrustful of freemium sports games. Nonetheless, driven by Air Penguin [99¢/Lite] inspired optimism and the extravagant amount of praise that had been lavished over the franchise, I ended up downloading it anyway.
Last month, Enviro-Bear 2010 creator Justin Smith released his latest iOS endeavor called Justin Smith's Realistic Summer Sports Simulator [
We've reached a point in Kairosoft's output where a pattern begins to form. On one side are Game Dev Story [
Back in November, 
Back in late October we posted an update on 
