Slide To Play Top Stories

No Fantasy: Square Enix Working on iPhone RPG

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 10:22:40 -0700

While Final Fantasy XIII may be receiving a somewhat lukewarm response on consoles, the news that Square Enix is working on its first dedicated iPhone RPG, which some are pitching as Final Fantasy for the iPhone, has us feeling hopeful.

Chaos Rings represents a major effort by Square Enix, which has vocalized its intent to make a greater impression in western markets of late.

Little is currently known about the title, though Square Enix has revealed Chaos Rings will be structured around turn-based battles. The trailer that hit YouTube today also shows some fairly impressive 3D visuals to boot.

"Game design, music, scenario, and graphics... everything was created with great passion of great staff!" said Chaos Rings producer Takehiro Ando.

"Of course, controls are designed for iPhone/iPod touch, and I think you can play the RPG game very comfortably. It is exclusive for iPhone/iPod touch. So don't miss it if you're using iPhone/iPod touch."

The publisher says the story will focus on a "battle to the death" between five pairs of warriors who have been pushed into competing in an arena-based tournament. The prize for the winner is apparently "eternal youth", although we'll be impressed if Square Enix somehow manages to work that particular reward into the app itself.

[Via VideoGamer]

The Hero Review

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 05:58:00 -0700

Thanks to the sage words of Spider-Man's Uncle Ben, we all learned that with great power comes great responsibility. To the muscle-bound superhero who takes center stage in The Hero, that responsibility makes him one busy guy. The cities he visits are some of the most crime-ridden, insect-infested war zones in the universe, and he is tasked not only with saving innocent people, putting out fires, and thwarting persistent armies, but also with running a public relations campaign based on high-fiving every fan he flies by. Even for a superhero, that's a lot of work.

The basic gameplay of The Hero is as simple as could be. You control him as he swoops around cityscapes of various sizes, doing good deeds, while avoiding running into civilian automobiles. The action is presented from a 2D side-scrolling perspective, with cartoony graphics and excellent audio that combine to form a very polished exterior.

Blades schmades.

You can control the hero either with a D-pad or using tilt, but we found the D-pad to offer the most precision. When danger appears in the gameworld, arrows pop up around your character, indicating where to go to stop it. In every case, you fly over to whatever is disturbing the peace and ram into it to eliminate the threat. The hero is smoothly animated and moves around about as easily as the planes in MiniSquadron, although fine-tuning his turns can be a little tricky. Because he can't do a quick 180, it's easy to miss a few times when you're trying to ram a nearby object.

The developers do a fairly good job of keeping such a simple concept fresh throughout the 15 levels of the campaign mode. New bad guys appear in every level, occasional time challenges kick in, and powerups are presented to help you in your quest. However, there's only so much the developers can do to mix up the gameplay when the gist of it is flying around and touching things in the environment. After a while, everything starts to feel a little too familiar. The survival mode, which is high score-based, doesn't do much to detract from that feeling.

Storks don't get paid enough for front door delivery.

For a modestly-priced game, we can't complain too much. Any repetitiveness is made up for by the game's overall charm. The story is told through funny dialogue spoken by a lazy, donut-munching cop who can't be bothered to go out and fight crime himself. His busty assistant chimes in before you start each level to inform you of new abilities or enemies that will be present. And high-fiving people hanging out of windows is a fun way to get from point A to point B.

The Hero probably won't keep you coming back day after day, but the price feels fair. Chances are, you won't be disappointed if you choose to wield the great power that is The Hero. The question is, as Uncle Ben says, can you handle the responsibility?

ZombieSmash Review

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 18:58:14 -0700

Last summer we played a lot of Knights Onrush, a game where you flick and smash attackers who are trying to break down your castle door. That was probably the best example of a “castle defense” game on the iPhone, and it set the bar very high. Since then we’ve played lots of similar titles, and ZombieSmash adds just enough new, like absurd weapons and goofy physics, to make it worth trying as well.

ZombieSmash has no story to speak of, and a very cursory setup. You are holed up in your secluded cabin for 31 days, trying to survive the zombie hordes. Instead of just using an arsenal of conventional weapons to delay the brain buffet, you have access to comical props like wrecking balls, boulders, and giant I-beams that fall from the sky.

Good thing we keep that crane parked nearby.

You can also flick zombies to kill them, although there is a type of giant zombie that is impervious to those attacks. For those brutes, you can use a powerup that lightens the gravity, or just smash, shoot, or explode them with your other special weapons. Since special weapons appear randomly, you’re sometimes at the mercy of the game to get you out of tight spots.

The 31-stage campaign mode is enjoyable, and you’ll continually unlock new powerups and earn credits towards upgrades. At times, the amount of action onscreen is downright inspiring, with frozen zombies smashed by heavy objects, sent into graceful slow-motion with shattered limbs flying.

It's raining dead! Hallelujah!

ZombieSmash is a tidy little package, but it doesn’t quite contain the ambition we were hoping for. There’s only one location, around half a dozen zombie types, and 31 short levels that you can probably beat the first time in two hours (although you can replay them on a harder difficulty mode). The sandbox mode is a great addition, where you can load up on powerups and send zombie waves your way, and these are also tied to Crystal achievements to reward your creativity.

Hopefully, more content for ZombieSmash is coming soon. For example, we thought a puzzle mode might make sense, to play off of the physics engine and special weapon combinations. We have the feeling that there could be a lot more to ZombieSmash than what you’ll find in this initial package, but time will tell if this game remains a snack-sized gaming bite or a full-on brain buffet.

Final Fantasy XIII Photo Gallery Released, Is Expensive

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 15:58:00 -0700

If you are so obsessed with Final Fantasy XIII that you feel the constant urge to ogle art from the game every second of every day, then the app of your dreams has just been released: Final Fantasy XIII Larger-than-Life Gallery. If, on the other hand, you think $8.99 is way too much for this privilege, then your dreams have just been shattered.

Sporting "ultra-high resolution" images that let you "discover hidden minutiae like eye colors, clothing materials, and the brilliant luster of accessories!", this app lets you zoom in on and pan around the images to your heart's content. Too bad the images are trapped on a 3.5-inch screen. All of might be palatable if the app didn't ring in at a price most gamers would cringe at even if it were a playable game.

So far only a few App Store reviews have rolled in, but they decry the app for having too few photos. We're not sure how many actually come packaged in, but that information makes the already-expensive app seem even less appealing.

Update: Tuesday Twitter Giveaway: ZombieSmash, Doodle Bomb, and More

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 15:31:15 -0700

The winners are in! Click to see what your favorite iPhone console or PC ports are, and who takes home today's free game codes.

The winners are:

@falcons13atl: My favorite iPhone ports are definately Rayman 2: The Great Escape & COD: World at War: Zombies

@chumbake: My favorite iPhone port is Peggle.

@Kamblad: My favorite iPhone ports are Myst, Monkey Island, and Beneath a steel sky.

@dazzlemi: My favorite iPhone ports are Monkey island, toki Tori, archibalds adventures

@Isaacph5: My favorite iPhone ports are GTA chinatown wars, Spore creatures, and the sims 3. I hope I win!!!

@vampireman1000: peggle has kept me busy for months.its a challengin game that keeps u comin back 4 more&its just as on PC.

@HermanSlet: GTA:CTW I guess. Been playin GTA since GTA3,and now my fav game is suddenly on my phone- and it's awesome!

@Nafoni: CoD:Zombies.Been loving CoD series for years now, and one lucky day it suddenly appeared in the App Store

@DeputyDogGames: The best ports are Giana Sisters, both Need for Speeds, and the C64 emulator. Plus the upcoming THPS2 ftw!

@corleno: My favorite iPhone ports are Plants vs Zombies, Rayman2 , and Earthworm Jim.

@zandy1123: My favorite iPhone ports are Myst, Street fighter 4, and Cod Zombies

Congratulations to all our winners! Check your Twitter direct messages for your game code. We'll have even more prizes for everyone to try and win next Tuesday!

Update: Revolutionary Concepts Reveal New iPad Game

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:25:40 -0700

Frogman, as this game is now known, has received a debut trailer on Youtube. Check it out!

Slide To Play Podcast #39: GDC Wrap-Up and GameFinder

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 11:00:33 -0700

In this week's podcast, Andrew returns from a week of interviews and demos at San Francisco's Game Developers Conference, offering audio of chats with developers from the games Pocket Creatures, Undead: The Last Refuge, and Zen Bound 2. Plus, we discuss GameFinder, our brand new app.

GDC discussion: We talk about Street Fighter 4, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction, Zombie Infection, QuickHook, Pocket Creatures, Zen Bound 2, Kick-Ass, Undead: The Last Refuge, and Zenonia 2.

GameFinder: We walk you through our app's new reviews, videos, genres, lists, and STP mobile.

Reader email: How many apps do you have, and do you ever keep apps because you think they'll be updated and improved?

Subscribe to our podcast through iTunes, or download it directly here. Email your podcast questions to podcast [at] slidetoplay.com. Thanks for listening!

Report: Motorola Droid Hits One Million Faster Than iPhone

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 07:58:00 -0700

The ever-hot battle between the iPhone and Android took another unexpected turn this week, with analytics firm Flurry revealing it believes Motorola's Droid handset sold its first one million units quicker than the iPhone.

The news actually arose out of a study the firm put together to look at the (relatively dire) performance of Google's Nexus One. Flurry uses its own data (apps embedded with the firm's software have been downloaded to more than 80 percent of all iPhone and Android handsets) to work out each phone's user base after 74 days. 74 days is the amount of time it took Apple to sell its first one million units.

As a result, Flurry's conclusion that Google has only managed to shift 135,000 Nexus Ones in the same amount of time is hardly good news for the Internet giant. However, what will calm its nerves is the revelation that Motorola's Droid handset actually managed to shift more than a million handsets within its first 74 days on sale.

1.05 million units, to be precise, narrowly putting the most popular Android model ahead of the iPhone by that metric. It's a claim that has been met with industry-wide surprise, although, as Flurry points out, it's not actually as unexpected as we might think.

"Motorola Droid launched over 2.5 years after the iPhone 1G. When the iPhone launched, consumers' concept of a mobile computing device as we now understand it, was very different," Flurry states on its blog.

"Since then, Apple has spent millions of dollars training and educating consumers about capabilities of such a device, which was no small feat especially after its first foray into the handset business. Until the iPhone was introduced, most consumers, especially in the U.S. had thought of their phones as, well, just phones."

Flurry concludes that the fact that Droid launched in the midst of the holidays also gave the platform a big boost, a benefit both iPhone and Nexus One missed out on.

[Via Flurry]

ImageQuest Review

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 05:58:00 -0700

ImageQuest is a game that gives you nine images and asks you to find the keyword that links them together in under 20 seconds. For example, the game will give you pictures of the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, and Paris Hilton, and you must type in "Paris" as the word that links the images.

Finding a common word between images under game show-style pressure sounds cool, but the game's design has a way of tripping up the fun of a good concept. Most of the challenge comes not from knowing what links the images, but finding the exact word ImageQuest wants and entering it correctly in the short time limit.

The biggest problem stems from the game's requirement for you to input an exact, specific word. For example, the game gave us nine pictures of people or things running into each other, so we input the word "crash," but it came up incorrect. So we typed in "impact." Wrong again. How about "collision?" Ding ding ding! Correct.

It seems arbitrary. Nine pictures of people clapping isn't "applause," but "applaud," and pictures of cookies and bread fresh from the oven is considered "bake" but could never be "baked." When there are so many words that correctly name what's happening in the pictures, ImageQuest's insistence on one specific word feels too rigid and unfairly difficult. We feel that a few more words should be accepted as correct, or they should take away the timer and let a player really think it out, because a game show with answers this rigid would never last, even if they had Bob Barker hosting.

Sorry, but the word we're looking for is "rouge".

At times, the game seems to have absurd spikes and drops in challenge. One moment they're asking you to identify ancient musical instruments and the next you're identifying a duck! When the difficulty spikes up, you'll be getting nine pictures of something you've never seen before. We once got one of these questions right, however, because the answer (beignets) was written on a bag in one of the pictures.

ImageQuest could also use a more gracious spelling system like Google's "Did you mean" feature. It's frustrating to be yelling a word at your iPhone, but either not know how to spell it or to mistype it on the keyboard. We don't want to ever yell "piccolo" or "karaoke" that loud in public again.

All in all, the game needs to be more forgiving. Can you imagine if ImageQuest was a real game show? "I'm sorry, that's incorrect. We know you really wanted that trip to Hawaii, but the correct answer is 'Television' and not 'TV'. I'm Bob Barker, thanks for watching!" ImageQuest has a good concept, but without some changes, it's not ready for prime time.

Caligo Chaser Review

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 12:00:11 -0700

A wonderful thing is happening right now in mobile gaming. For years, the Korean cellphone gaming marketplace was far more advanced than the American market. In Korea, gamers were having in-depth RPG and adventure experiences on their cellphones while the rest of us were getting by with just Tetris and Snake. Now that the iPhone has taken hold, Korean developers like Com2Us can easily port over their insanely detailed and addictive games to the US App Store, resulting in gems like Caligo Chaser.

Of course, it’s the “easy port” part that gives us pause. Caligo Chaser feels very much like a traditional mobile game that was meant to be played with a keypad, rather than a game optimized for the iPhone’s touchscreen. Like in the first Zenonia, menus must be navigated with a D-pad and buttons, instead of a more intuitive touch or drag mechanic. Plus, your character’s movement can be stiff and stubborn with a tiny D-pad in the corner. We’d have preferred a more responsive virtual analog stick.

Slash and Dash: The lesser-known method to avoid paying a restaurant bill.

Responsive controls are critical in this game, since your character, a newly-trained Private Knight, is tasked with clearing out every single one of the lands surrounding a fantasy village called Emporion. Throughout the game he’ll receive quests from locals, which tend to involve collecting special loot from monsters, killing certain monsters, or just clearing a path through the environments.

Each area is made up of four or five screens, filled with bad guys, with no other environmental hazards to get in the way. Once you’ve mashed your attack button and unleashed enough magic spells to clear the screen, then picked up any dropped loot, it’s on to the next area.

The enemy designs are usually interesting, like the swarms of blue mongooses that greet you early on, or the lumbering Treants and immovable golems you’ll fight later in the game. However, all of the enemies are repeated throughout, with different color swaps and higher levels of attack and defense.

You have their full attention.

While we liked the constant action in Caligo Chaser, what really drew us in were the RPG elements. Every kill adds to your experience points, and higher levels let you equip stronger items. You can also enchant your items and special abilities, making them more powerful.

One surprising oversight is that you can’t directly compare an item you’ve equipped with an item in your inventory, which we thought came factory-standard in RPGs these days. Caligo Chaser nails the RPG elements in every way except for this one.

Like Hybrid, a similar game from a rival company, this is an in-depth action game with extensive RPG elements. If you’re at all into number-crunching stats and button-mashing combos, this game is an excellent value at a low price. You can easily squeeze over ten hours of gameplay out of Caligo Chaser, but some of those hours may begin to feel repetitive and you’ll wish for a more iPhone-friendly port. Still, we recommend a buy for this game, especially if you’ve ever wondered what all the fuss about Korean cellphone games has been about.

Assault Squadron Hands-On Preview

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 10:15:43 -0700

There’s a reason why the Assault Squadron trailer made the cut as one of our featured videos last week. Not only does this shooter sport a serious visual package, but the scale and density being hinted at seem extremely promising. Looking like a supercharged update of Gradius, Assault Squadron seems to have all the ingredients to be something special. Fresh off of spending our weekend plowing through a preview build, it’s time to share our hands-on impressions.

Par for the course for intergalactic shooters, Earth has come under attack by an unknown enemy force. With our planet’s defense systems torn to shreds by precise enemy aggression, the only hope for salvation comes with the Assault Squadron, a trio of aircraft with a bevy of powerful weapons and firepower.

Unlike other iPhone shooters that rely on a mountain of text to relay the plot, Assault Squadron goes in a different direction. Using voice-overs in conjunction with gorgeous cutscenes, you’ll want to follow along with the drama. So many games whiff on executing these kinds of story elements, but the folks at Binary Mill seem to have nailed it.

The action is so intense and frenetic that you will not want to blink when playing Assault Squadron. With the dozens of ships, lasers, and powerups all on screen most of the time, playing this shooter is almost like a twitch exercise. Three ships are selectable, each with their own special characteristics and unique secondary weapons. During gameplay, the ships fire automatically, with options to launch rechargeable special and bomb attacks in your holster.

Dying early and often is something you’ll come to grips with early on. With the seemingly endless amount of enemy fire coming your way, it’s impossible to dodge with the precision you’d get from a physical joystick. That being said, virtually every type of control scheme is included. Tilt controls, 1:1 touch controls, and a virtual joystick ensure everyone should have a comfortable way to play.

How Assault Squadron manages to pull off all its bells and whistles while maintaining a brisk 60 FPS clip is a mystery to us. Along with the beautiful chaos that happens throughout, big boss encounters conclude each level. All of them are larger than life, and it’s a bit challenging figuring out the best approach to take 'em down. On top of that, the game switches from a landscape to portrait view on some missions.

We’re curious to see if Assault Squadron can keep on surprising us from beginning to end. Luckily, we won't have to wait too much longer. Expect our usual review treatment when Assault Squadron hits the App Store soon.

Slide To Play Launches Mobile Version of Site

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 09:30:53 -0700

If you've visited Slide To Play on your iPhone, iPod Touch, or certain other mobile web-connected devices in the last few days, you've probably noticed that we've launched a mobile version of our site.

Slide To Play Mobile offers the same great content as the regular site, but in a less graphically intensive way, meaning you'll experience shorter load times no matter what kind of Internet connection you're using. We've also streamlined the way the content is presented on your devices in order to make the best possible use of your screen space.

Between mobile STP and our GameFinder app, we're making it a priority to give you the best user experience possible on any device you use to connect to us.

Be sure to check out our mobile site and let us know what you think.

Android Advocate Lays Into Apple

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 07:58:00 -0700

Competition is healthy, and it also creates plenty of juicy quotes. The latest comes from Android "Developer Advocate" Tim Bray, a former Sun Microsystems employee who uses his new blog to talk about Apple following his recent appointment at Google.

According to Bray, while he respects the technology that's gone into the iPhone and the resulting software that studios have produced on the system, the way Apple is handling the App Store is becoming increasingly "sterile". It's a setup he's not going to be afraid to take on at his new employer.

"The reason I'm here is mostly Android, which seems to me about as unambiguously a good thing as the tangled wrinkly human texture of the net can sustain just now," says Bray in the blog entry announcing his move to Google.

"I'll enjoy competing with Apple," he continues. "Compete with Apple, you say? As of now, they're selling around 90K iPhones per day compared to around 60K Android handsets. It's a horse race!"

But while Apple has a substantial and ever-growing lead in Bray's eyes, it's spoiling the party for the publishers and developers who are on board for the ride.

"The iPhone vision of the mobile Internet’s future omits controversy, sex, and freedom, but includes strict limits on who can know what and who can say what. It’s a sterile Disney-fied walled garden surrounded by sharp-toothed lawyers. The people who create the apps serve at the landlord’s pleasure and fear his anger. I hate it."

Bray's certainly not afraid to speak his mind in his new position, although he does point out that his words, while vetted by Google, are his own and not representative of the company's view of its close rival.

[Via TBray.org]

Fox Vs Duck Review

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 05:58:00 -0700

Apparently ducks have become one fox’s favorite treat, because in Fox Vs Duck all he does is run around the pond where they reside and chew them up when they try to escape. However, despite what the title would have you believe, the real danger is the killer fish that wants to make a meal out of your ducks from below. Nobody said living the duck life was easy, but these feathered fellows have it bad. That’s where you come in for the rescue.

As a duck-saving hero, you must tilt your phone to help the circle-shaped ducks escape from the pond one at a time. You must also avoid a ravenous fish, whose head will turn red when he's hungry, and the sneaky fox running around the pond's border at an increasingly quick pace. They are both quicker than you, so things can become difficult. On top of all this, black rocks will randomly emerge from the water to block your path.

There are two different modes in Fox Vs Duck. Challenge mode involves getting ducks out as quickly as possible to keep your timer up. Powerups such as speed and extra time can help you with this. Survival mode starts you with five lives, and you play until you lose them all. Extra lives can be picked up, and you can have a maximum of ten at any time.

The horror… the horror...

The minimalist art direction of Fox Vs Duck is a nice surprise, especially considering this game is from the developers of MiniSquadron. Everything in Fox Vs Duck is made from simple shapes, and the colors range from white to dark gray. However, when killed, a pool of red blood forms around the dead duck’s body. Its quite chilling to see your precious ducks slaughtered by carnivorous koi and a cunning fox.

Online scoring through OpenFeint offers plenty of competition, but Fox Vs Duck also has a community-based aspect to its online scoring. In order to reach certain achievements, the total amount of ducks saved and killed across all players around the world are compiled. Over time, new achievements will be unlocked based on this.

If these pond-dwelling fowl have any sentimental value to you, you might pay any price to save them from immediate danger. Fox Vs Duck only costs $0.99, and for all the duck lives you'll be saving, it’s worth every penny. You get to be the animal savior you have always dreamed of, plus you'll have a game that we don’t see getting old any time soon.

Street Fighter IV Review

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 12:10:01 -0700

The first thing we'd like to say about Street Fighter IV for the iPhone and iPod Touch is this: Wow. Most people thought it wouldn't be possible. Heck, we had our own doubts, but Capcom has gone and done it. They've made an incredibly playable, faithful, and fun port of Street Fighter IV for the iPhone.

Despite the device's lack of physical buttons, the controls work great. Don't expect the precision of an etched-out D-pad like the PS3's, or the tactile feedback of an arcade stick. But considering that you're sliding and tapping your thumbs on nothing but glass, Street Fighter IV feels marvelously responsive.

Long as I can see the light.

We admit that the D-pad in SF4 is big and ugly, and that its colors are loud enough to attract wild birds in mating season. However, it's perfectly designed to accommodate the swoops and flicks necessary to perform all the sonic booms you'd ever want to throw. Arrows pointing in all eight directions make it easy to differentiate between inputs, so you'll never jump forward when trying to dash.

The attack buttons have been minimized down to punch and kick, which suits the game just fine, and a chargeable F button lets you power up and unleash a flashy knockout punch. Those unfamiliar with the characters' special attacks can enable the SP button, which lets you do these moves without having to memorize the joystick patterns. And last but not least, the gauge under the health bar acts as a super combo button that lets you channel the power you've built up throughout the fight. That's a lot of abilities built into just a few buttons, and everything works surprisingly well.

Unfortunately, the roster has been downsized to just eight characters: Able, Blanka, Chun Li, Dhalsim, Guile, Ken, M. Bison, and Ryu. This is the game's biggest drawback, as a single play-through of the tournament mode can be completed in under 15 minutes. Also disappointing is that multiplayer is only available through a local Bluetooth connection. It works just fine, but we wish we could duke it out with players online.

An eye-buggingly powerful flip kick.

The game makes up for these drawbacks with its polished presentation. The art is lively, and the animations have been trimmed down to their essentials in order to give fans of the series the impeccable control and timing they're accustomed to. The game's sound is another high point of the experience. Every time you land a hit, a deep thud comes through your earbuds, making even basic attacks feel satisfying. And of course the characters have voices, so you'll get to hear Dhalsim belt out the word "yoga" every few seconds.

It's not just the hardcore fans this game will appeal to. There's an extremely deep tutorial system built in that walks new players through everything they'll need to know about the game, including many of the intricacies veterans take for granted. Also helpful for newbies is the special moves list for each character available at any time on the pause menu.

Overall, Street Fighter IV is the fighting game that fans of the genre have been waiting for. While it only has eight fighters and a limited multiplayer mode, the core mechanics are as solid as we could have hoped. Now if you'll excuse us, we have some hadokens to throw.

Puzzle Quest: Chapter 3 Launches As In-App Purchase

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 09:05:58 -0700

No one would go and see a movie with a third of the scenes cut out, or pick up a book with scores of pages missing. Playing a game without a conclusion is equally frustrating, so the news that TransGaming has released the final chapter of the Puzzle Quest trilogy on the App Store will no doubt please the fans of its puzzle/RPG action.

Rather than launching it as a sequel, however, the new chapter is only available as an in-app purchase.

Players can pick it up in one of two forms; either through the existing Chapter 1 and 2 package for $1.99 (which was updated to version 1.5 to enable the latest chapter's release), or via the free Lite version, which sells all three chapters together for the bargain price of $4.99.

Chapter 3 comes over a year since TransGaming released the second episode, and that update came without charge.

However, gamers are set to get value for their money with Chapter 3, as the developer has confirmed that the new episode includes content from the Revenge of the Plague Lord expansion pack and the original game.

Namco Announces Tinseltown Dreams and Lt. Fly

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 09:00:42 -0700

Hot on the heels of Pool Pro Online 3, Namco has announced two new Match-3 titles exclusive to the iPhone and iPod Touch: Tinseltown Dreams and Lt. Fly: Rise of the Arachnids.

Tinseltown Dreams puts you in the director's chair and lets you to make a movie by building your budget through a Match-3 game. With the money you make, you can hire the best cast and crew in the industry, purchase props, and arrange everything on a stage. 35 levels are included, with sets based on classic films. This could be your first step towards directing the next Hollywood hit.

Namco's other offering, which they describe as a hybrid between a Match-4 and shooter, is called Lt. Fly: Rise Of The Arachnids. As explained by the title, you play as a military fly in a war against the spiders. In order to get ammo, you must match four blocks of the same color. Then you shoot falling spiders and bosses. Local multiplayer will be available, although we don't have any more information on this at the moment.

Both games are expected to launch in the next few weeks, so keep your cameras rolling and webs spinning.

Vector Tanks Extreme Review

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 07:58:00 -0700

Just shy of a year ago, Peter Hirschberg let loose Vector Tanks, one of the finest throwbacks to retro gaming in recent years. Vector Tanks wasn't so much a reinvisioning of a classic, a la Pac-Man Championship Edition, as it was just a great example of how to take old-school arcade action and bring it to the 21st century.

Vector Tanks Extreme is not drastically different from the original. In fact, it's more or less an upgrade. Since the first Vector Tanks was published by Chillingo, and Hirschberg now has his own studio, it was not possible to simply update the game.

With this new version, a good-faith gesture was made by re-releasing the original for free for a limited time, since this one comes with a new price tag. What you get for your extra bucks is a revamped version with a much more extreme difficulty setting. The first iteration already carried a weighty challenge, so Extreme is tailored to those who want even more.

The '80s called. They want their future back.

In typical arcade fashion, the goal here is merely to survive. You'll take your seat in three different tank styles, jeeps, and helicopters as you cruise through a vector-based battlefield, blowing up as many enemy forces as you can before your own imminent death. The graphics may be simple and textureless, but it provides an authentic, '80s-style futuristic take on virtual worlds. The gameplay is equally simplistic and hearkens back to the glory days of arcade classics.

The extra notch of difficulty goes a long way to make this update a success. Because it's so hard, it's bound to turn a few people off after a few plays, but this is a game that invokes that "just one more try" feeling to keep you coming back to beat your high scores.

New powerups are provided to help with the onslaught, including a railgun, homing missiles, and nukes. Easily the best addition is the rapid fire. With the slow loading of the main gun (where aiming and timing every shot is important) having rapid fire, even for a short period of time, is not only helpful, but more fun.

If you've already picked up the original Vector Tanks, you'll probably be satisfied. After all, this is really just an upgraded edition. However, for those who loved the first game and crave even more destruction and fast-paced mayhem, this will be well worth the few dollars it costs to upgrade.

Competition Heats Up In US Smartphone Market

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 05:58:00 -0700

What makes tracking just how well the iPhone is doing difficult is the reluctance of major mobile manufacturers or retailers to release official sales figures. Unlike the standard games industry, which has the NPD to fall back on, those looking to see just who is making their mark in the world of smartphones have to rely on third-party sources-- sources that generate their figures using a variety of different, and sometimes confusing, means.

ComScore, however, is one of the more reliable sales trackers. This marketing research firm regularly publishes what it believes to be the state of play in the US mobile market. If we take its word as gospel, then Apple currently has much to cheer about, as the firm's latest figures for the three month period between October and January show a slight rise in the iPhone's market share in the face of stiff competition.

Indeed, comScore claims iPhone is the second biggest player in the US smartphone market, accounting for just over a quarter of all users at the start of the year.

That puts it a way behind BlackBerry maker RIM's 43 percent, but comfortably ahead of Apple's long-time rival Microsoft, whose share dropped like a stone to less than 16 percent of the market in the run-up to Windows Phone 7's launch.

However, while Apple's performance-- considering it has just one smartphone on sale-- remains impressive, the smartphone market is perhaps the most competitive in the States at the moment. Google's Android platform is gaining considerable momentum, as its OS currently sits in fourth place according to comScore's statistics, but its share has more than doubled since October.

If Android continues to grow at is current rate, it could be challenging Apple's position as the second-biggest player in the market at this time next year.

[Via comScore]

Replay Value: Sunday, March 14

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 12:25:49 -0700

With the annual Game Developers Conference occurring this week, we had lots of interesting previews to share with you. We've got hands-on reports on tons of awesome games like the unique Sketch Nation, the blockbuster Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction, and the utterly adorable Pocket Creatures.

Plus, we gave our verdict on several new releases like the great Thumpies, as well as Military Madness: Neo Nectaris, De Blob Revolution, and Radio Flare Redux. So get caught up on the past week of iPhone goings-on, and we'll see you next week!

Reviews:

Thumpies Review

Military Madness: Neo Nectaris Review

De Blob Revolution Review

How to Train Your Dragon: Flight of the Night Fury Review

Fly Kiwi Fly Review

Devil Invasion Review

Radio Flare Redux Review

Mike V: Do or Die Skateboarding

Maestro Green Groove Review

Critical Wave Review

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