Touch Arcade

'Magic Touch - Wizard for Hire' Review - The Sky is Falling Posted: 25 Feb 2015 02:00 PM PST Nitrome is a company with a very fascinating output, as they have roots as a Flash game company with a particular pixel art style, and Flash games have always felt to me like they straddle a line between being casual-friendly but also maintaining that appeal to core, dyed-in-the-wool gamers. As such, their mobile games definitely have that casual feel while still being ones that core gamers should enjoy as 'real games'. And Magic Touch - Wizard for Hire [Free] is perhaps their best effort at being casual yet gamer-friendly. It's got touch-friendly controls, but very quickly ramps up into an incredible challenge to face down. The concept of Magic Touch is that you're a wizard who must deal with a series of slowly-descending robot enemies trying to get him. The good news for you is that while you may be a magic-user, the law of gravity applies to us all, and these robots are fragile enough that a little bit of free-falling will cause them to break. Also, their balloon supplier made products that can be popped by magician's spells, each one with a glyph on them that you have to draw in order to take out the enemy. So, you draw each glyph with your finger to defeat each enemy before they hit the ground. It starts off pretty simple with a basic set of shapes, but the game starts introducing purple enemies with more complicated glyphs, a greater number of enemies, and ones with multiple balloons that you have to pop in quick sequence. Thankfully, enemies with the same glyph will have their balloons popped simultaneously from one glyph drawing. But good luck trying to pop an enemy with 7 balloons as several other ones are coming down. Just needing to draw shapes is an accessible challenge, it's something anyone can do. Having to do them in rapid succession? That takes some intestinal fortitude and quick reactions in order to score high. The game does offer treasure chests with multiple glyphs to break that also serve as nice slow-down moments to catch a brief breather. But even then, my 100 point score feels like a real achievement. The game does have a difficulty curve, but it quickly hits a ceiling where it's just about surviving at the current pace. For a game where drawing glyphs is the key to the game, and oh yeah, you have to do them at a hyperactive pace, thankfully the game is very good at recognizing hastily-scribbled glyphs. There's a little bit of acclimation to figure out just how much you can fudge the glyphs, but eventually you'll get pretty confident that you can make even the complicated purple ones. Some of the scribbles that have counted have been pretty outlandish. It's the powerup glyphs that will probably be the cause of your demise, however. These are difficult to execute and often are a bit picky as to how to pull them off. The problem is that you often get into situations where you have to risk a game over in order to use either a saved powerup or one that's on the screen. It's a funny irony, that these powerups will doom you if you try to use them. I'd like if perhaps you could just tap to use the powerups that you've got saved from the balloons that you popped by making several shapes in sequence. I already earned it, it should be a reward, not something I'm afraid to deploy! The game uses a similar payment model as Platform Panic [Free] does, in that the game is free-to-play with ads and coins to spend on unlocking new powerups and backgrounds. You can pay to disable ads, and can buy more coins to unlock everything quicker. However, powerups don't appear in greater number just because you've bought more of them, so while perhaps some of the more expensive ones are more effective, you can't really pay to win. Also, drawing their glyphs is the great equalizer! You can buy coins, with $6.99 for enough coins buy just about everything and nothing consumable to buy (no revives here, which seems like a logical inclusion). The game does support incentivized video ads where you get 1000 coins for watching a short ad, which is great for stockpiling coins as while you have to wait a couple minutes to watch a new ad, you can do so every couple games or so. It's all a system with great balance between "game developers need to make money" and "players deserve a fair system to pay for their games." I highly recommend Magic Touch. It's something I'd recommend to casual players, as just tracing glyphs is simple enough for anyone to get into without needing to be intimidated by old-school platformer mechanics. I could see where Gunbrick [$0.99] could be difficult for someone who's a more casual gamer could look intimidating to get into, this should be easy enough to get into. But it really offers a fast-paced intensity that I like from my games, it's something where you can really get into it and marvel at how you escape tight situations, and realize "hey, this game is lasting a lot longer than normal, I'm doing really well." It's a game that's easy to learn, hard to do well at, and that's what I want from my high score games. Plus, it has a Gunbrick cameo in one of the backgrounds you can buy, and I'm a sucker for cross-game cameos, so Magic Touch really, really does a lot well in my eyes.

Apple Doesn't Want Guns in App Store Screenshots… Unless They're Pointed at Hitler Posted: 25 Feb 2015 12:38 PM PST The first couple of months of 2015 have been kind of strange when it comes to Apple's App Store regulatory practices. They have a set of fairly clear developer guidelines for creating iOS apps, but they've been famously inconsistent in how and when they enforce them. So far this year we've seen several instances of Apple suddenly deciding to strictly enforce developer guideline 3.6 which states "Apps with App icons, screenshots, and previews that do not adhere to the 4+ age rating will be rejected." First was an issue with Gunslugs 2 [$2.99] getting its update rejected due to one of its screenshots depicting "violence against a human being." Strangely the game was originally approved just a couple of weeks prior with that exact same screenshot. As most people figured it looked like just a mistake on Apple's side, and indeed they pushed that update through without requiring any changes. But that did show that Apple was looking more closely at the front-facing parts of its App Store. The next incident was earlier this month when the action game Tempo [$3.99] arrived with its characters holding blurred-out weapons in the App Store screenshots. It looked quite silly, and even weirder is that Tempo was one of Apple's Editor's Choice features for that week. The drama surrounding those blurred-out guns caused several other developers to come forward with their own experiences of Apple requesting that they change aspects of their App Store media assets so as not to display violence or weapons. The developers of the upcoming Overkill 3 even tried to get ahead of the whole situation by completely omitting the weapons from characters' hands in their promotional trailer. So with all that groundwork laid out, what the hell is this all about? Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but I see an RPG, an Uzi, a knife, a cannon, dynamite and a tank all pointing at/shooting at a caricature of Adolf Hitler. On the decidedly less-violent side, I also see Cupid shooting an arrow of love at him, and a magnet shooting off a, er, "magnetism bolt?" at him, and on closer inspection the tank barrel may actually be a fountain pen and the tank itself is being driven by a brain. So… yeah. I guess the weird things cancel out the violent things? I mean, I get it, this is meant as a totally silly, over-the-top game with cartoonish visuals and violence. Still, given the types of things Apple has taken issue with previously, it seems surprising that they wouldn't have a problem here. Not just with the issues of weapons or violence, but Apple has been notoriously cautious with games that are political in nature. Even the name–Beat the Dictator - Funny Torture Game–seems in incredibly poor taste. I mean, it doesn't matter how awful some of these world leaders are/were, there just isn't that much that's "funny" about torture, you know? The thing about all this is that I totally understand Apple wanting to make sure their public storefront is safe for everyone to navigate. I personally think that targeting people holding weapons is a bit too overboard, but that's their choice. What's driving me crazy is just the wild inconsistency of how they're enforcing their policies. As people have noted on these stories before, there are currently plenty of games on the App Store that show people holding guns in their screenshots. It may just be that moving forward Apple will request developers change those screens, and it'll be interesting to see what happens to a game like Modern Combat 5 [$3.99] when its next update arrives. With Beat the Dictator, is it the slapstick-nature of its violence that makes it OK? Apple is free to police their App Store however they want, but it sure would be nice if they could be more clear and consistent with their policies. As of right now, I'd be pretty nervous if I was a developer working on a new shooter game.

'Inferno 2' On Sale for $0.99, Offers Fantastic Dollars Per Hour Played Ratio Posted: 25 Feb 2015 12:01 PM PST Looking for a fun and lengthy dual-stick shooter without paying fun and lengthy dual-stick shooter prices? Well then I have good news for you, as Radiangames' Inferno 2 [$0.99] is currently on sale for the low, low price of $0.99. The game offers a fantastic dollars-per-hour-played value, as it has 80 levels of dual-stick shooting to enjoy, with secret things to discover in the levels and plenty of upgrades to buy. Oh, and the game supports MFi gamepads. Check out our review for more details on the game. Oh, and speaking of value, Inferno 2 got a New Game+ mode in the 1.1 update, so once you beat the game, you can start all over again with some upgrades already earned, but at a harder difficulty level. More value for the money! Radiangames knows their dual-stick shooters as they have made a ton of them, even a Metroidvania dual-stick shooter in Powerpuff Girls: Defenders of Townsville [$3.99], so you have to check this out if you're a fan.

Nitrome's Pixelly Puzzle-Platformer 'Gunbrick' Goes on Sale for First Time Posted: 25 Feb 2015 10:51 AM PST Nitrome's rad take on the puzzle platformer, Gunbrick [$0.99], has just gone on sale for the first time. You control a bird-type fellow who has bought a gunbrick, which is a giant brick with a gun on one of its sides, and you must try to make it from beginning to end, mastering the rules of movement with the brick to make it through the three dozen levels. And of course, the game has that Nitrome pixel art style going for it at some of its most detailed. You can check out our review for the game – despite the angry commenters, I did like the game, the game is a bit short but while it's not a huge issue at $2.99, at $0.99 it's even better! If you were interested but were waiting for a cheaper price, the game's clever enough that you should run and pick it up right now. Or, go to the App Store and download it, there's no need to actually run.

Classic Indie Puzzle-Platformer 'Yet It Moves' is Free Right Now Posted: 25 Feb 2015 09:52 AM PST Here's a solid freebie to pick up today. Yet It Moves [Free], the puzzle platformer based on And Yet It Moves, that was published on iOS by DeNA, is currently free until Febrary 27th at 3:00 PM GMT. That means Friday morning for those of y'all in the US, so download this now. This is based on the 2007 indie game, where you control a running man and must rotate the world in order to navigate from one place to another. Check out our review of the game. I talked with Felix Bohatsch, developer at Broken Rules who created the original and the port, and apparently they had tried to make And Yet It Moves for iOS a few times that fell through for various business and technical reasons. Eventually, the project came back to life thanks to various business circumstances and DeNA's publishing initiative with premium indie games on mobile lined up to them developing the mobile port for DeNA. Cool stuff, and Bohatsch considers this to be the definitive version of the game, so yeah, check it out!

Square Enix and Mediatonic's 'Heavenstrike Rivals' Launches Worldwide Posted: 25 Feb 2015 09:10 AM PST Square Enix and developer Mediatonic announced Heavenstrike Rivals [Free] a few months ago, putting the game in soft launch. Well, that has ended and the game is at last available worldwide starting today, just ahead of the busy Thursday launch period for most of the world. This game from the prolific RPG publisher and the developer known for the remake of Hatoful Boyfriend is a hybrid between a strategy game and a trading card game, as you send characters into battle on an 8x3 grid, trying to defeat your opponent's own cast of heroes. The game boasts real-time online multiplayer against opponents, to go along with the campaign mode. The game has a Final Fantasy pedigree to go along with it - there's characters designed by Final Fantasy Tactics Advance character designer Ryoma-Ito, and music from Ryo Yamazaki, who did music for Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers. It could prove to be an interesting mix of genres and styles, and you can check it out now.

Five-Star Action-RPG 'Battleheart Legacy' Gets its First Sale Posted: 25 Feb 2015 08:30 AM PST One of the games I constantly hear about as far as far as great action-RPGs go among our readers is Battleheart Legacy [$1.99] from Mika Mobile. And the game was critically-acclaimed, too, with a five-star review from us and other outlets giving it high scores as well. If you've been meaning to check this one out, now is as good a time as ever, as Mika Mobile has put the title on sale for the first time. You can pick up the game right now for $1.99, down from a regular price of $4.99. This is a sort of follow-up to the Battleheart [$2.99] games, taking the combat mechanics from that RPG and making it into a Diablo-style isometric 3D action-RPG, with an incredibly deep class customization system to play with. The forum thread is massive with people having talked about the game for months, and with the game being cheaper than ever, now's a great time to hop into one of the best games of 2014.

New iPhone Games Coming Tonight: 'Age of Sparta', 'Hell: Fight for Gilrand', 'Atomas' and More Posted: 25 Feb 2015 07:32 AM PST While the jury is still out on whether or not this is a weak week, it certainly is a weird one. For whatever reason there's been a ton of developers breaking out of the normal Wednesday morning release cycle this week. So, I broke the games out into two lists. The first is games that are in New Zealand right now and likely following what we usually see with App Store releases. The second are games which were released yesterday or otherwise soft launched. Out in New Zealand and likely coming tonight: Age of Sparta (by Gameloft) Deeply Absurd Chain (by Illya Sikeryn) Fisk (by Bulkypix) Hell: Fight for Gilrand (by Slitherine) Rocket Joust (by Dobsoft Studios) Sopio (by Lightwood Consultancy) Symmetrica (by Lars Mollinger-Olson) The Empty (by Magic Frame Studios) The Hopping Dead (by Rondo Rocket) Soft launched or potentially out now: 2D Race Runner (by Ultra Line Software) Atomas (by Max Gittel) Hell Marys (by CriticalHit) Joe Dever's Lone Wolf Complete (by Bulkypix) Kyubu (by Aurea Games) LikWit: The Liquid Puzzle (by HeYou Games) Medieval Wars: Strategy & Tactics Deluxe (by HeroCraft Ltd.) Mind Snares: Alice's Journey (by G5 Entertainment) Pieces of Paper Match Pro (by Kyle Wilgus) Rotate - Zen Journey (by Zhipeng Wang) Spellcaster: Gatekeeper's Oath (by Tin Man Games) Starbit Twist v1.2 (by Ed Groover Games) THE KING OF FIGHTERS-i 2012(F) (by SNK PLAYMORE) Title Challenge: Football Management (by Kyan Games) TWIST3D (by Chroma Studios) UFC (by Electronic Arts) Wizards: 1984 (by Terrasect Mobile) We await your verdict in the comments regarding the potential weakness of this week. Just remember, as official TouchArcade jurors, you are to base your conclusions on evidence as presented by the "Coming Tonight" post and subsequent forum threads. If you've never done jury duty before, maybe this will help. Either way, stay tuned for the full release list at 11:00 PM Eastern tonight.

Spacetime Studios Jump From MMORPGs to MOBAs with Upcoming 'Call of Champions' Posted: 25 Feb 2015 07:00 AM PST The MOBA genre is one that has been proven to work on a physical level on iOS - Fates Forever [Free (HD)] and Vainglory [Free / Free (HD)] are both tons of fun. But they both require long gameplay sessions that might not be conducive to many people's lifestyles and expectations for mobile games. That's where Spacetime Studios, creators of several mobile MMOs including their latest, Arcane Legends [Free], are coming in. They've just announced their game, Call of Champions, which is a 3-versus-3 MOBA with 5-minute game sessions. The idea for the game is that it will try to distill down MOBA mechanics into bite-size portions. There are no item shops, no minions, nor jungles. You start off with all your powers, though you can pick up powerups. You'll fight other players online in real-time with support for cross-platform multiplayer, and Spacetime's promising around 20 characters at launch with up to 40 down the road. And there will be no pay-to-win mechanics, you'll just be able to speed up the unlocking of other characters. While other games have tried this sort of speed MOBA strategy, notably Solstice Arena [Free], it'll be interesting to see what Spacetime does. They have a track record of success with adapting big PC genres down to mobile with their MMOs. MOBAs are such big business that one game has got to finally break through and become a smash hit on mobile. We'll be seeing this game next week at GDC and be going hands-on with it.

Ex-Halfbrick MVP's Form Pretty Great New Studio Named "Prettygreat" Posted: 25 Feb 2015 05:00 AM PST There's some news coming from the land down under this morning (or their night, I guess), as three guys who were among the top talent at Halfbrick have all amicably parted ways with the company to form their own studio. Luke Muscat created Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride, Hugh Walters was the art director for Halfbrick, and Phil Larsen was responsible for making sure the whole world knew about the Halfbrick library. Since even my own grandma not only knows about Fruit Ninja, but also enjoys it, I'd say they all did a pretty alright job. This team of guys created, or otherwise had their fingers in the pot of some incredibly well designed and received games, and now they're hoping to do it themselves with their own brand new game studio. They're calling themselves Prettygreat, and their company vision is as simple as just making great games. They've done it before, so it makes sense they'd be more than capable to do it again. Also, I dig the whole vibe they've got going. While this news story is seriously just limited to "Hey, three guys who made really great stuff split off and hopefully are going to make more great stuff," it's hard not to get excited. If I had a short list of people I'd want working at my own game studio, all three of these dudes would be on it. I can't wait to see what they create.

Android-Exclusive Action-RPG-Platformer 'Magic Rampage' Due for iOS Posted: 24 Feb 2015 05:00 PM PST Magic Rampage is a game that we caught word of recently thanks to one of our forum posters - and while you need an Android device to play it right now, you should be playing this one on iOS soon enough. This is an action-RPG platformer where you make your way through myriad dungeons, killing all sorts of creatures. Ever wanted to kill a zombie with a headshot via dagger, in a 2D RPG platformer? Magic Rampage will provide just that for you. The game is level-based but also has a survival mode for endless play. The game is free-to-play on Android, but is paid on Ouya (which, yes, still exists), so premium fans have something to hope for there. The game is confirmed for iOS, so hope for it sooner than later. I played through some of the game on Android, and I found there were some clever aspects, like Super Mario Bros. style hidden areas where you can run along above-screen areas, which contain loads of gold to collect. Keep an eye out for this one.

'Real Steel Champions' Will Let You Build Robots and Then Fight With Them Posted: 24 Feb 2015 04:00 PM PST Reliance Games has just announced a new game in the Real Steel [$0.99] series of robot fighting games, including Real Steel World Robot Boxing [Free]. That new game is Real Steel Champions, and you can expect to be playing it in March. Expect more and more from this robot-fighter: the new Championship mode boasts 20 total fights with 4 bosses to take down, along with 30 challenges, over 90 Time Attack matches, and a Free Sparring mode. The big new hook here, though is the ability to create your own robot from a variety of parts, including Heads, Torsos, Hands, and Legs from various robots from the history of the series. Ten arenas are available to fight in here as well. Building and fighting with your own robots? My, what an age we live in. You'll be able to do so in March, though we have no concrete release date quite yet.

The Creators of 'Canabalt', 'Ridiculous Fishing', and More are Judging the Indie Plus Contest at GDC Posted: 24 Feb 2015 03:00 PM PST The annual Game Developers Conference brings forth a bunch of awards shows during the week of the event, because it's the biggest developer-focused show. All the big names are there, so you get awards and contests like the IGF awards, IMGA awards, and whatnot. Publisher FunPlus is running another one of these contests, but focused around mobile gaming, and with an esteemed panel of judges. The FunPlus Indie Plus Contest is taking submissions until tomorrow, February 25th, for the best independent mobile games. Who's judging the event? Well, you have Adam Saltsman of Canabalt [$2.99] fame. Nathan Vella of Capy, developers of Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP [$2.99 / $4.99]. And you also have one of the many clones of the constantly jet-setting Rami Ismail, behind Ridiculous Fishing [$2.99] and Super Crate Box [$1.99]. As well, you have Louis Castle, who co-founded Command and Conquer creators Westwood Studios, Jenova Chen of thatgamecompany, Ryan Payton of Camouflaj, and Andy Zhong, the CEO of FunPlus. The winner gets $10,000. Second place gets a Lenovo Y50 laptop. Run a spyware check on it first. Third place gets an iPad Air 2. With a talented judging panel, it may just be worth keeping an eye on whatever they choose as their top 3 choices next Tuesday, March 3rd.

Telltale Wants to Make Hybrid TV and Game "Super Shows" Posted: 24 Feb 2015 02:00 PM PST Telltale Games has become known for their brand of episodic, narrative-driven adventure games to the point that they're almost the namesake for their genre. If I say something is "like a Telltale game," you have an idea what I'm talking about. So far, Telltale has focused on games based off licensed properties, releasing them in multiple episodes. But now they want to try something new, with what they're calling the "Super Show" concept. As explained in this interview Telltale's CEO did with noted gaming publication Entertainment Weekly, "a 'Super Show' episode combines one part of interactive playable content with one part of scripted television style content." Essentially, a TV show episode combined with a Telltale interactive portion, with the two interacting with each other, and choices in the game affecting what happens in the scripted portion. though the Telltale parts may become available as standard TV episodes on streaming and television broadcast. Telltale's first Super Show will be based on an original concept, though there are plans to make both Super Shows and standard Telltale series down the road. Will this work out? Who knows, it is a bold ambition, but Telltale has managed to make the episodic format take hold, and to do things with narrative that others have not. And with an investment from Lionsgate to help bring the Super Show idea to life, it'll be interesting to see just what they can do with all this.

Check Out Stylish Upcoming Orbital Runner 'Astra' Posted: 24 Feb 2015 01:01 PM PST Fabuloso Games has just announced an interesting hybrid of two genres we've seen a lot of on iOS: endless runners and those 'spin-around-the-planet" games where you use angular momentum and orbital gravity in order to make it from planet to planet without falling into the inescapable void of space. Their game is called Astra, and it's in the works right now for mobile. Check out the game in motion in this GIF, but be wary that it's sped up from normal gameplay. While there are a couple of videos that show a smooth framerate, there's no true gameplay video yet: The game has you playing as Hemera, the Greek goddess of daylight. You'll be dodging space junk and collecting orbs as you try to make it as far through space as possible. There's a development blog with various ephemera from the game's development that's worth checking out. The developers are also looking for testers in the forum thread for the game, so if you want to get your hands on this one and provide feedback, now's your chance. Also, the band's name reminds me of prog-rock band Astra, which has nothing to do with the game, but is a band you should be listening to: