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‘Karate Champ’ Sale, Update from Revolutionary Concepts
‘Karate Champ’ Sale, Update from Revolutionary Concepts is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website
Wayne Whatford over at Revolutionary Concepts dropped us a line to let us know that '80s arcade classic Karate Champ – both the iPhone [link] and iPad [link] versions — is on sale this weekend for $0.99, down from $1.99 and $2.99, respectively. This marks a great chance for iPad users who grabbed the iPhone version early on to checkout the version tailored for Apple's tablet, featuring split-screen, head-to-head, two-player action.
In other news from the studio, forum readers may have noted the thread recently started by Revolutionary Concepts, challenging readers to guess what the initials of an upcoming game stand for. Those initials are "U. o. T." and some of the suggestions readers have been making are … well … amusing. The studio indicates the game is being created with just two criterion:
- It should have ZERO Buttons or onscreen controls of any kind, making it immediately accessible to anyone.
- Deliver it to you guys in just 2 weeks from start to finish!
Free copies of the game go to users with the closest (or funniest) guesses, at launch.
Whatford also indicated that his studio's iPhone adaptation of the Data East laserdisc classic Road Blaster is progressing nicely. The only time this game has been seen outside of Japan is in the Sega CD port which not only suffered from the same horrid video compression of all Sega CD games, but also got renamed to Road Avenger. Revolutionary Concepts have completely remastered the game, and when it is finally released, it will play at 60FPS at full iPhone 4 or iPad resolutions. They've also completely redesigned the dashboard of the car, added in tilt controls, and made a whole list of other tweaks. The studio is hoping for an end-of-month release for Road Blaster, we're told.
Whatford tells us that various, unspecified titles will follow shortly behind Road Blaster. Stay tuned.
App Store Link: Karate Champ, $0.99
App Store Link: Karate Champ XL, $0.99 (iPad Only)
‘Danger Derby’ for iPad Review – Zoom Zoom
‘Race After 1977′ – An Upcoming Post-Apocalyptic Racer
‘Race After 1977′ – An Upcoming Post-Apocalyptic Racer is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website
Xpect Games is nearing the release of their upcoming post-apocalyptic racer, Race After 1977 which has been in development since January of 2009. The game takes place after a massive nuclear war of sorts, leaving the world ravaged and the survivors just racing their pieced together racecars around Mad Max style. Xpect has built a completely customized 3D engine for the game with physics tweaked for realistic driving across all different types of terrain, jumps, ramps, and other obstacles as you fight your way to the finish line. (Or, as realistic as any post-apocalyptic racer can get I suppose.)
The developers have released two videos of the game, the first of which is a teaser trailer seen below:
The second video is a hands-on gameplay trailer which shows several different cars being driven around a few different tracks. The game is being played on an iPhone 3GS in this video, so presumably the framerate should be even smoother on the iPhone 4 and new iPod touch:
Race After 1977 is being released this fall, and as someone who loved Mad Max, the Fallout series, and really anything to do with crazy post-apocalyptic stuff, I can't wait.
Rockstar Announces ‘Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars HD’
Rockstar Announces ‘Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars HD’ is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website
Moments before the Apple keynote is scheduled to start today, Rockstar announced Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars HD for the iPad. The game sounds like it will feature the same content of the existing iPhone version of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars for the iPhone, with HD graphics and modified controls like most HD-ized games.
Chinatown Wars will be available on September 9th for $9.99. For more information on the iPhone version of the game, buzz on over to our comprehensive review from when it originally was released. During keynotes, Apple has historically shown gameplay footage of yet to be released big name titles from large publishers like EA and Gameloft. If we're lucky, maybe we'll see Grand Theft Auto on the iPad today.
‘Final Freeway’ Review – A Fun Homage to ‘OutRun’ for iPhone and iPad
‘Final Freeway’ Review – A Fun Homage to ‘OutRun’ for iPhone and iPad is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website
The 1986 arcade classic OutRun, with its easy to pick up gameplay and simplistic mechanics, seems like it would be a perfect fit for the iPhone. It's strange then, given the wealth of racing games on the App Store, that no one has taken a serious stab at an OutRun-inspired game yet. Now, developer Oyatsukai.com has risen to this challenge with their first iPhone game Final Freeway, and delivered in fairly impressive fashion. Final Freeway does an excellent job at capturing the feel of the original OutRun, while offering tight controls with multiple configurations and a terrific sense of speed that runs well even on older devices.
Just as in OutRun, Final Freeway is a point-to-point racing game, where instead of trying to beat other cars to the finish you're trying to reach each checkpoint in the given amount of time until finally reaching the end. In total there are six different sections to race through, each with their own unique scenery, but unfortunately there aren't the branching paths at the end of each section as in OutRun. The racing is simple and arcadey, with the focus being to race each leg of the track as fast as possible while avoiding traffic and staying on the track. You don't crash in the game, but will slow down a lot if you hit another car or go off track. If time runs out before you reach the end of the track segment, it's game over.
In another nod to OutRun, you can choose one of three different tunes to listen to while you're racing in Final Freeway. Also, your ride looks suspiciously like a Ferrari, which is the staple car in the OutRun series. The graphics in Final Freeway are very nice, with added support for the higher resolution iPhone 4 and iPad displays. The framerate is ultra smooth, even on my iPod touch 2G, and makes for a blazingly fast sense of speed. There are touch and tilt control options, with various other configurations of onscreen button placement. Either control option works well, but I found myself preferring the touch controls. There isn't the option for auto-accelerate, only separate gas and brake buttons, but this actually benefits the game as it can pay to merely let off the gas when approaching turns rather than slamming on the brakes.
Really, the only fault of Final Freeway is that there just isn't that much of it. The six track locations are decent, and can be played on a normal or expert setting, but I would love to see more. It sounds like that just might happen too, as the developer is active in our forums and has hinted that more levels are on their way, as well as taking note of other suggestions from our forum members for future updates. With a few updates, Final Freeway could evolve into something truly special, although what is here already is quite competent for the price. The bottom line is that Final Freeway is fun, plays extremely well, looks great, and will scratch that OutRun itch whenever you need it to.
App Store Link: Final Freeway, $0.99 (Universal)
‘Zombie Highway’ Review – Like Zombieland, Gives The Zombie Thing a Little Extra Mileage
‘Monorace’ Review — Craneballs Turning Us On Our Heads
John Carmack on the Future of id Software and the App Store
‘MotoGP 2010′ Review – Fairly Average Two-Wheeled Racer
iPhone Racer Asphalt 5 on Sale for $.99 for Limited Time
iPhone Racer Asphalt 5 on Sale for $.99 for Limited Time is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website
Ashpalt 5, from developer Gameloft, has just recently been updated to take advantage of the new iPhone 4 Retina display and is currently on-sale for just $0.99.
Originally $6.99, there’s never been a better time to check out this popular racing game.
With more than 30 different automobiles to drive including cars from Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Ducati, 8 different game modes to choose from such as Cop Chase and Escape, and Bluetooth/Online multiplayer action, Ashpalt 5 becomes a steal for racing game lovers.
Asphalt 5 is compatible with iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad requires iOS 3.0 or later.
‘Archetype’, ‘Bejeweled 2′ and ‘Doodle God’ Receive Significant Updates, ‘Aqua Moto Racing 2′ Updates on the Way
‘Archetype’, ‘Bejeweled 2′ and ‘Doodle God’ Receive Significant Updates, ‘Aqua Moto Racing 2′ Updates on the Way is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website
If you're like us and have way more apps in your iTunes library than you can manage without a dedicated personal assistant on the job (Ahh, first world problems truly are the worst.) then you might have missed some of these updates that have hit the App Store recently. If you've grown tired of any of these games since you first downloaded them, mash the "update all" button and give them a go again.
Archetype, $2.99 – We were blown away by Archetype as evident by our review. The game features gameplay similar to Eliminate [Free] in that it's an online first person shooter that's playable over everything from EDGE to broadband via WiFi. Archetype ups the ante significantly by providing 5v5 team-based deathmatches that are a ridiculous amount of fun, and the fact that it runs at Retina Display resolutions on the iPhone 4 is the proverbial cherry on top of this multiplayer fragfest sundae.
The update that just landed adds a new level called "Avarice" which focuses on vertical combat with tons of jump pads. Also, the new game mode "Rocket Arena" pits players against each other using only rocket launchers. If you're playing with an iPhone 4, the game now can take advantage of the gyroscope, and there are a number of other tweaks and fixes as well.
App Store Link: Archetype, $2.99
Bejeweled 2 + Blitz, $2.99 – This game should hardly need an introduction, but in case you've been living in a cave on Mars with your fingers in your ears and your eyes closed, Bejeweled is PopCap's insanely successful match 3. The original Bejeweled was released nearly 10 years ago, and since then the game has seen a few sequels and spinoffs which have been ported to nearly every platform imaginable.
The latest update further fleshes out the Blitz game mode which can be played sharing online leaderboards with any friends of yours who play the Facebook version. The iPhone version of the game now has coins and boosts, which basically just amount to yet another layer of complexity on top of the game where your Facebook friends can score millions of points more than you, leaving you wondering how people get so good at this game. Coins spawn randomly and are collected by matching the associated blocks, and then those coins are spent on power-ups (or "bosts") to boost your score even more.
App Store Link: Bejeweled 2 + Blitz, $2.99
Doodle God, 99¢ – I fully admit I don't understand the appeal of this game, yet nearly everyone I know can't get enough of it. Peter explains how the gameplay works in our review, and Doodle God basically amounts to combining various "elements" to create others such as combining earth and fire to create lava. From there, lava can be combined with other elements to create even more, and it just snowballs from there.
Episode #3 just landed which adds even more content to the game. There are over 100 new reactions along with 40 new "modern age" elements. There are also now parental controls to make sure your kids can only create kid-safe elements along with several other additions and tweaks such as not draining your battery quite so much while playing.
App Store Link: Doodle God™, $0.99
Aqua Moto Racing 2, $2.99 – Free – I really liked this arcade aquatic racer in my review, and while these updates haven't been released yet, they're worth keeping your eye out for. 1.0.2 is adding Retina Display support, 1.0.3 is adding universal support to turn the iPhone game in to an iPad game, and 1.0.4 is adding a new "storm mode" which apparently is going to be for "hardcore riders" only.
It's always exciting to see a game get this much post-launch support, and I love when iPhone games I like turn in to universal apps so I can play them full screen on my iPad. Aqua Moto Racing 2 already looks great on my iPhone, and I can't wait to see it at Retina Display resolutions.
App Store Links: Aqua Moto Racing 2, $4.99 – Aqua Moto Racing 2 Lite, Free
Freebie Alert: ‘Truckers Delight: Episode 1′ and ‘Luxor’
Jet Car Stunts Review
Jet Car Stunts Review is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website
Developer: TRUE AXIS
Price: $1.99
Version Reviewed: 1.4.1
Device Reviewed On: iPod Touch
Price: $1.99
Version Reviewed: 1.4.1
Device Reviewed On: iPod Touch
Graphics / Sound Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Game Controls Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars
Gameplay Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Replay Value Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Overall Rating: 4.31 out of 5 stars
I’ve been a fan of Jet Car Stunts, the single-player rocket-car agility game from True Axis, for awhile now. Since the game has recently gotten an upgrade from the devs, one that has made the already fun game an even better addition to your iOS device, now is certainly the time for those who have not yet found this little gem to try it out.
In Jet Car Stunts, you take control of a red, rocket-powered car and jump, fly, spin, and skid your way across a series of floating trick tracks. You have two options to begin: play one of 25 Platforming tracks (my favorites), where you are free to execute the most awesome stunts; or tackle one of the 10 Time Trial tracks, where you must execute more linear stunts as you complete laps. Playing each track and performing each jump requires a mix of speed and accuracy, and the fun comes in trying to get as accurate as you can, while still maintaining speed. There’s no joy in being an old fuddy-duddy on these tracks.
Executing a game like this requires solid design and controls, and True Axis scores on both counts. The car handles well with accelerometer steering and touch accelleration, if perhaps just a touch unrealistically; and once you get used to it you’ll be able to send it 
more or less where you want it to be. You’ll rarely be frustrated by a good jump being soured by poor touch controls. And since there’s a lot of different difficulty settings, there’s something to please both casual players and dedicated gamers.
The fun gameplay is accompanied by some truly excellent visuals. The polygonal, cell-shaded tracks are minimalist and eye-catching, while the sky-high backdrop casts the whole thing in sharp, bright sunlight (and adds an element of highwire flavor). While some players might find things a little too plain for their tastes, I thought it fit the game just fine.
If you’ve never heard of Jet Car Stunts before, now’s the time to try it. With an iOS4 upgrade and the chance to download additional tracks, it’s a good game that has gotten even better.
[ Jet Car Stunts Review is a post from 148Apps ]