Category Archives: Upcoming Games

First Screenshots of Upcoming ‘Battleheart’ from Mika Mobile

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First Screenshots of Upcoming ‘Battleheart’ from Mika Mobile is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website

Developer Mika Mobile, who are responsible for the popular Zombieville USA [$1.99/Lite/HD] and OMG Pirates! [$1.99/Lite], have just announced their newest iOS project called Battleheart. Battleheart is a real-time tactical strategy RPG that uses a line drawing mechanic for controlling the actions of its characters. You'll create a party of 4 from 8 different classes, and Mika Mobile assures there will be a robust skill system that offers a ton of ways to outfit your party members.

Here is an excerpt of some additional details about Battleheart that Mika Mobile has offered up in our forums:

The strategy lies in how you configure your party between the 8 classes and dozens of active and passive powers they possess. As they level up, you choose new skills which when used properly help to control the chaos of the battlefield. Examples include spells that slow time or raise your defenses, poisons that paralyze enemies, or attacks that simply deal heavy damage to thin out the enemies numbers fast.

Not too much more is known about the gameplay in Battleheart other than what can be found in the upcoming games thread, but we do know that the game will have universal iPad support and be optimized for Retina Display and fast-app switching. Mika Mobile is shooting for a release before the holidays, but are not going to rush anything out before the game is ready. They are currently working on a video preview of Battleheart in action, and we'll bring you any more news on the game as soon as it's available.


New ‘Gangstar: Miami Vindication’ Trailer Released

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New ‘Gangstar: Miami Vindication’ Trailer Released is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website

Open world crime games have been incredibly popular for years now, so it wasn't much of a surprise to see Gameloft release Gangstar: West Coast Hustle [$4.99 / Free / HD] which we liked quite a bit in our review. Following the success of Gangstar, Rockstar threw its hat in to the ring with Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars [$9.99 / Free / HD] which really upped the ante with a real Grand Theft Auto experience with all the depth and complexity that players have come to expect of the series. It's going to be interesting to see what Gameloft includes in the Gangstar sequel to one-up Rockstar, but the good news is we won't have to wait much longer as Miami Vindication is set to be released on the 23rd.

If you're like us and are looking forward to stealing virtual cars on the streets of Gameloft's version of Miami, check out this new trailer:

Something that immediately pops out is how low polygon count everything is, but it remains to be seen how noticeable this is when you're actually playing the game. Thankfully, we don't have much longer to wait, and we should have a review available as soon as Gangstar: Miami Vindication hits the App Store late tomorrow night.


Ngmoco’s ‘Touch Pets: Cats’ and ‘We City’ Launch in Canadian App Store

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Ngmoco’s ‘Touch Pets: Cats’ and ‘We City’ Launch in Canadian App Store is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website

Two of Ngmoco's recently announced titles have made their debut in the Canadian App Store as of yesterday afternoon – Touch Pets: Cats and We City. As with most of Ngmoco's games that are hosted over online servers, they have released these games in the limited market of Canada in order to test them out and make tweaks to the system before readying a worldwide release. During a Ngmoco media event at WWDC in June, we took a look at both Touch Pets: Cats and We City and determined them to be pretty much in line with previous Ngmoco releases. Although the apple doesn't fall too far from the proverbial freemium tree that is the Ngmoco business model, both games offer up a nice free-to-play experience in their respective forms of virtual simulation.

Touch Pets: Cats – While retaining many of the same general concepts of its canine predecessor Touch Pets: Dogs, this feline-themed virtual pet game does away with the food bowl mechanic that was the bane of many Touch Pets: Dogs players and replaces it with catnip. In Touch Pets: Cats, you can play with your kitty at any time, and the catnip merely allows you to gain coins and experience at an accelerated rate. Playing with and caring for your pet is largely similar to Touch Pets: Dogs, and there is an emphasis on collecting items to customize your living spaces. You can visit your friends houses and pets as well using the Plus+ network, and can purchase additional catnip through IAP if you choose. Further information and a discussion of Touch Pets: Cats can be found in our forums.

We City – Following in the footsteps of We Rule and We Farm, We City takes many of the same mechanics from those titles and places them in a modern metropolis setting. You'll build your city from the ground up by placing buildings, streets, grass, and other infrastructure on a starting plot of land. As your city flourishes, you'll be able to expand the area where you can build and unlock more items and buildings for your city. The main focus in We City is on industrial production, and you'll need to build factories and stores that can produce goods and services for your citizens and those of your Plus+ network friends. This process can take time, however, and if you're feeling impatient you can use in-app purchasing to buy ZAP that will speed up your rate of production. As always, a discussion of We City is taking place in our forums if you're looking for more information and player impressions.

There's not currently a set US release date for Touch Pets: Cats or We City, but both titles are free to download if you happen to have a Canadian iTunes account. For those that don't, you can most likely expect to see both titles in the US App Store sometime before the end of the year.


‘Blue Defense: Second Wave!’ Trailer Unveiled and Release Date Announced

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‘Blue Defense: Second Wave!’ Trailer Unveiled and Release Date Announced is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website

John Kooistra originally released Blue Defense! [$1.99] back in late 2008 and the game was both well received by our forum members as well as in our actual review. Since then, Kooistra formed Cat In a Box Games which went on to develop both Red Conquest! [$3.99] and Fastar! [$1.99], two games we also enjoyed quite a bit. Their next project was revealed this afternoon, a sequel to Blue Defense!, entitled Blue Defense: Second Wave!.

The Second Wave will be hitting the App Store on September 30th and is absolutely packed with content including 74 different mode-based leaderboards, Retina Display graphics, new enemies, and new controls. This is a sequel I can't wait to play, and we'll post a review as soon as we get our hands on the game.


Avast, Me Hearties! Our Booty Be “Stoneship” from Cyan!

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Avast, Me Hearties! Our Booty Be “Stoneship” from Cyan! is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website

Aaaaaaarrrrrrrrr!!!

For the lot o' ye landlubbers readin' this post, I first be tellin' ye today be International Talk Like a Pirate Day. All ye squiffies not knowin' this a'fore ought be keelhauled off me vessle! For the rest of ye buccaneers, enjoy the sweet trade 'till the sun be settin'! One lot o' scallywags that would ne'er be missin' this great, grand day be the scurvy dogs o'er at Cyan Worlds, thar in the far nor' west. And how timely it be for 'em to bestow such booty upon yer bold and mighty scriber (that be me) as a pre-release build of their latest 'ware, Stoneship: Curse of a Thousand Islands! (And I be not talkin' about the dressin', yer can be sure!) </piratespeak>

Indeed, never quite able to find enough ways to properly celebrate this fine holiday, I must thank Cyan Worlds for providing us with an exclusive preview build of their upcoming title, Stoneship. It has made my day of festivities that much richer.

As Cyan indicated to us earlier, Stoneship: The Curse of a Thousand Islands represents "a lighthearted new direction" for the studio. Cyan describes the game as a casual, top-down, turn-based, strategy puzzle game. That's quite a string of adjectives. After spending a bit of time with the game in its current form, I can say that each of those descriptors indeed apply. And, as such, it's something of a difficult title to nutshell for the uninitiated — but I'll try, and in two different ways.

I will first give a rather general characterization of the game "on paper," is it were. Stoneship sets you and your first mate on the high seas, charged with exploring, controlling, and protecting vast oceans and islands, under continual threat of pirate sieges and tangles with ghastly monsters from the deep. The game is played by moving about any given level, uncovering obscured blocks of both land and sea in an attempt to discover ports, and temples (and, as a result, weaponry) as well as rafts of men lost at sea who will join your forces, as well as the location of any pirate ships that make your forces necessary in the first place.

Once you find a port, it becomes your own…as well as a target for pirates in the area. Each level has a set number of moves you're permitted to execute before the inevitable pirate onslaught ensues. Multiple ports can be linked together to allow resource (battle-ready men) sharing, which is all about shifting men from port to port in the 10 second count-down before the pirate attack comes. Of course, you can only set things up to your advantage here if you've uncovered the location of the lurking pirates in your set number of turns. If not, the pirates come from one of the remaining hidden blocks on the map (which is pretty much a bad thing).

The core play mode is Campaign, which is a round-to-round push through the eighty three included levels (with additional levels to come later via update). A Challenge mode is also offered, which is a sort-of pick and choose affair.

Stoneship is not a complicated game — really, it's not. But it sounds like it might be, described thus. And so, in a move not typical for our demo videos, I've recorded nearly the entire tutorial session, which explains the gameplay by example, far better than I can with words alone. The action in the video steps up towards the end, after the tutorial, but forgive what must necessarily be somewhat of a less exciting, if highly informative, glimpse of the game in action.

It does take a little while to get the hang of, but after a few rounds, it ends up feeling quite natural.

The pre-release build we were given feels quite close to complete, with the minor issue here and there that should be addressed prior to launch. Stoneship is expected to soon make it's App Store appearance, and an update will shortly follow, bringing with it various enhancements including Game Center support.

Stoneship: The Curse of a Thousand Islands is a casual and interesting mix of ingredients from a number of different formulas that come together to make up a rather unique title. We hope Stoneship marks the beginning of a series of new iOS releases from MYST-maker Cyan.


‘Karate Champ’ Sale, Update from Revolutionary Concepts

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‘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:

  1. It should have ZERO Buttons or onscreen controls of any kind, making it immediately accessible to anyone.
  2. 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)


Hands-On Videos of ‘Gundam’ Games Leak Out of Tokyo Game Show

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Hands-On Videos of ‘Gundam’ Games Leak Out of Tokyo Game Show is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website

Yesterday we caught wind of a set of Gundam games and apps courtesy of Japanese video game magazine Famitsu. All of these games are currently playable at the Tokyo Game Show, and our friends over at AppBank have posted hands-on videos. We still don't know much about these games, or if they'll even be released in English on the US App Store, but quite a few people are excited for them judging by the comments from yesterday.

Gundam Fighting Spirit – A fighting game where players are pit against other mobile suits.

Gundam G Generation Touch – A strategy RPG with what sounds like tons of content with additional suits to unlock.

NDAM Tool Box – A Gundam-themed dashboard-like app lets you launch things like Safari, Mail, and other apps.

The Gundam suite of games and apps is scheduled for release this winter, but as I already mentioned, we still haven't heard whether this will be a Japanese-only release or not.


‘Army of Darkness’ iPhone Game Coming – Hail to the King, Baby

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‘Army of Darkness’ iPhone Game Coming – Hail to the King, Baby is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website

Buried in the Buganoids announcement email from Backflip Studios was this tiny little tidbit:

A game developed by us in tandem with MGM Studios based on the cult classic ARMY OF DARKNESS movie will launch early in 2011 . . . deadites beware!

That's right! Army of Darkness the game is coming to the App Store in 2011.

Now, I know what you're thinking… "a movie franchise game?" But Backflip's Julian says the whole team is "insanely excited" about it and its collectively their favorite movie. So, we're going to mark this one as "can't wait" for now.

The game will include all the favorite quotes from the movie and is described as a hybrid castle/tower defense inspired game. Your job is to protect the Necrinomicon from the deadites with help with your trust boomstick, chainsaw and more.

Here's a great collection of many of the quotes, probably not entirely safe for work:


If you haven't seen Army of Darkness, well, you've got time before the expected "early 2011" release.