Last month, after basically zero pre-release hype, we were pretty surprised to see Batman Arkham City Lockdown [$2.99] pop up in the App Store. Perhaps even more surprising was that NetherRealm Studios, developer of the recent (and excellent) Mortal Kombat reboot on consoles, was behind the iOS title.
And, even more surprising still, Batman Arkham City Lockdown was actually pretty freaking awesome. It was built using the Unreal Engine, so the graphics were definitely up to snuff. And the gameplay took a tiny page out of the Infinity Blade handbook, having you face off against baddies in one-on-one battles using swipe controls to dish out the pain. The combat didn't quite have the complexity of an Infinity Blade, but it was fun nonetheless.
Now, Batman Arkham City Lockdown has just received its first ever sale, dropping from its normal $5.99 price point down to $2.99 for a limited time. If you're wondering if this is the game for you, then be sure to give our full review a read for some insight. Personally, I had a ton of fun with Arkham City Lockdown, and thought it was well worth its original price. For $2.99 I think it's a steal, especially if you're a fan of the Batman, as the developers have done a wonderful job of making the game feel like a fully realized Batman experience. Definitely check it out and take advantage of the sale while it lasts.
Did you know that penguins spend up to 75% of their time underwater, looking for food in the ocean? Or, if Chillingo’s recent Greedy Penguins [99¢/Lite] is to be believed, they spend 85% of their time on ice floes, waiting for you to feed them, 10% of their time playing guitar and burping, and 5% of their time getting eaten by ravenous Orcas.
Greedy Penguins is a bird-centric physics puzzler (what a concept!) that revolves around you finding ways to get incredibly stressed-out fish in the mouths of the correspondingly-colored penguins. You tap the fish to drop it from its hook and get it rolling, then through a combination of timing and obstacle-clearing, get it to the right-colored penguin. Once your penguin is successfully fed, he coughs up ice cream, which you tap to feed each level’s companion and get bonus points when completing the level, garnering a one, two, or three-fish rating.
Way back in 2010 when Monster Dash [$0.99] was released it felt a tiny bit lacking. Not that it wasn't a fantastic game, but it could have used a little more depth. You know, upgrades to earn, a complex mission system, maybe eventual retina support?
Now there's no need to worry about any of that. Not because One Epic Game [$0.99] brings any of that to the table, mind, but because Jetpack Joyride [Free] came out a year later and blew its predecessor out of the water. So why is it we're still seeing retreads of an older, lesser product? Could it be, she wonders, because Grip Gamesforgot their own game's roots when bringing it back from PlayStation Minis?
Hey, remember that time we were like, "oh sure, Junk Jack is coming to the iPad, but it's not going to be for a long time"? Well, you should remember, because it was just last week. Anyway, the story goes that the game's developer PixBits has been so involved with just updating the game in general, that making it iPad-friendly was kind of on the back burner, at least until the iPhone version became more fleshed out.
However, it sounds like they might have overestimated how difficult the transition to the iPad would be, because we've heard from the developer that progress on a Universal update for Junk Jack is moving forward much more quickly than they had expected. They've sent over a load of work-in-progress screens of the game from the iPad, which you can check out below.
We've been told that the Universal support won't go live with the very next update, which sounds like it's pretty near completion, but PixBits is hopeful that it will be included in the update that follows. We'll be sure to keep tabs on this and let you know just as soon as you can get diggin' on the big screen with Junk Jack.
First, the news: IKAROS [$.99] creator Riverman Media has finally dated Pizza vs. Skeletons. The wonderfully bent, 100-level pizza rolling game is currently in submission and set to release this February 25 as a paid Universal app. Perhaps as a commentary on current iOS trends, Riverman notes on its blog that this release will be "the whole game, for one price" and all updates will be free forever.
And now for a reminder, because hey, it's been a really, really long time since we've talked about Pizza vs. Skeletons. May 2011, actually, was the last time we had anything meaningful to say about the project, which at the time, the developer was struggling to pitch. "How do you hype up something that has no clear genre, a nonsense plot, and a main character that's a thirty foot tall conglomeration of cheese and tomato sauce?” the reveal blog post asked.
Surprise! RAGE HD [$1.99], id Software's graphically off-the-walls tie-in shooter to RAGE, has been updated with two additional levels in a brand new update that also throws in higher resolution models, video output support, and various other enhancements and bug fixes. The house cleaning additions are free as always, but these levels, Kraken and Aqueduct, come at a cost: $.99, to be exact, via in-app purchase through the in-game Store.
We've spent a few minutes with each and can happily report that they are, indeed, levels that have been added to RAGE HD. One thing we didn't expect, though, is to be floored all over again by this game's look. Goodness, it's gorgeous. Get the same feeling below by glancing at some of the new levels:
A dark, moody endless runner with an actual narrative hook? That's the elevator pitch for rComplex, according to the game's developer, InterWave Studios. Originally released for PC back in 2009, InterWave is breathing new life into the title with a Unity 3D powered re-imaginings across multiple handsets and platforms, including iOS later this February.
A new trailer for the game is embedded below, and you should check it out. Basically, you play as a mysterious dude with a lot of stamina who is being chased by a dream-like tentacle monster. As you run, you'll steadily "piece together the events that led to your current situation," and ultimately the mystery. Well, unless you die. You'll probably be boned on that front, then.
The just-released Paper Monsters [99¢], co-developed by Robots Vs Wizards and Crescent Moon Games, has been in the works for a long time. In fact, development originally began way back in mid-2010, and we didn’t learn until well into 2011 that Crescent Moon had actually jumped into the project to give it a graphical makeover (as they’ve been known to do from time to time).
With such a long development cycle, it’s easy for the hype over a game to do one of two things: either people start to lose interest as the months drag along, or the hype builds up to the kind of level that would be hard for any game to deliver on. Well, Paper Monsters finally has reached the App Store, so if you’re part of that first group then it’s time to start paying attention again.
Need more Tiny Invaders [$.99 / Free] in your life? Cool, because conveniently enough, there are more now. In a new major content update, Hogrocket has dropped several new levels into the puzzler, all of which follow a fresh narrative hook. After the President is infected at the end of the game, a new threat emerges: a man who apparently has a resistance. In the pack, you'll have to take over this dude to "truly claim overlord status." Neat!
We've got some other related news. Hogrocket tells us that its just released a free-to-play version of the title that packs in 15 levels from the get-go. After that, users are asked to pay for additional level content. Read our glowing review and give this a spin -- this is a neat puzzle title with tons of interesting choices and characters.
That Epoch [$.99] update that Uppercut Games teased on our show a couple of weeks back is on its way out and will be available at the generous price of $0, while the game itself is celebrating the new update by going on sale for $.99. That's dollars off, y'all -- the usual price is $4.99.
In brief, the update rolls in an "ultra difficulty" mode that introduces harder to kill dudes as well as "trickier enemy variants." It also adds some needed visual tweaks that show off your robot's armor and weaponry and introduces new story content via new in-game pick-ups. Uppercut has updated the game's trailer to reflect all of this, so check it out if you don't dig the word picture we're painting you. Lookin' good!
Last week, Spry Fox released an iOS version of Triple Town [Free], their hugely popular match-3 town builder for the Amazon Kindle, and more recently for Google+ and Facebook. We really liked Triple Townin our review, and it’s personally been my biggest obsession of the past week. The ability to upgrade the game tiles by making matches and the limited amount of space to work within added a tremendous amount of depth to the gameplay far beyond your typical matching game.
Today the first update has hit for Triple Town, which mostly focuses on fixing bugs. Things like broken Game Center achievements, the inability to restart games sometimes, and tons of other quirks that come with a version 1.0 release have now been taken care of. The update description also goes on to say that there are several other known bugs that are currently in the process of being hunted down and fixed, one of which includes a problem with turns regenerating after exiting the app.
Star Warfare: Alien Invasion [99¢] is a first-person arena-shooter from Freyr Games, which features wave after wave of relentless attacking alien creatures. The aliens emerge from holes in the wall and from underground, or come flying, bounding or waddling straight towards you from all sides. And once you've shot them, the next wave arrives immediately. It's almost as if you don't even need to explore, as the aliens will come straight for you.
The single player campaign includes five maps, each with six levels of increasing difficulty to unlock (30 levels in total). A progress bar indicates how many of the enemies have spawned and if you survive to the end, your reward is currency to spend in an in-game store. The sixth level of each map is a "survival" level.
Buckle up; Adventure Bar Story appears to be pretty radical. I just spent a good chunk of time with a pre-release build of the PSP port, and while I do have a reservation or two about its virtual controls, I couldn't be happier with the overall port job and its core play, which is satisfyingly genre-bending.
Imagine if your everyday 16-bit JRPG hooked up with a management sim. In Adventure Bar Story, you control a young girl attempting to save her bar from being stolen or bought out by a renowned and rival neighborhood restaurant. In order to prevent this, she'll need to learn how to cook, buy or gather ingredients in RPG-like zones complimented by random battles, assemble the ingredients into a dish, and then profit.
We'd love to have been there when Electric Pixel Factory dreamed up Gorilla Gondola, as it's easily one of the stranger game ideas we've seen come to fruition. In the game, you control a gorilla on a gondola. The objective is to collect bananas and avoid hazards by shaking the gondola with swipes, tilts, and taps. There are also power-ups that change the gorilla and his interaction with the world, as well as what appears to be light puzzle elements, like, laser beam deactivation and so on.
The thing that's getting people the most excited on our message board is its look; it's definitely a sharp game with tons of cool little effects and background touches. We're trying to get some hands on time at the moment, but the wait until release won't be too long: Gorilla Gondola is set to be released on February 2nd.
Eufloria, Alex May and Rudolf Kremer's award-winning ambient real-time strategy game, is coming to iPad and iPhone in February, the dynamic duo have confirmed on the game's blog. And while you should expect a port of the full experience that saw its initial release on PC and then PSN, it appears as if iOS owners are going to get a tad bit more via updates.
"The initial release and update will be by far the most comprehensive and enjoyable release of Eufloria to date. And the price will be pretty darn reasonable," Team Eufloria writes on its blog. The first content update will roll in a new Ambient mode that adds a "new terraforming mechanic." We've included the debut trailer just below for your viewing pleasure. It looks great!
Last month, after basically zero pre-release hype, we were pretty surprised to see Batman Arkham City Lockdown [$2.99] pop up in the App Store. Perhaps even more surprising was that NetherRealm Studios, developer of the recent (and excellent) Mortal Kombat reboot on consoles, was behind the iOS title.
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A dark, moody endless runner with an actual narrative hook? That's the elevator pitch for rComplex, according to the game's developer, 
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