This Week in iPhone Gaming News
More Toys Based on iOS Games
Halfbrick, the developer behind the iOS hits Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride, have partnered with multiple manufacturing companies around the world to bring consumers items and toys based on its hit game Fruit Ninja. The items will include plushies, novelty toys, apparel, mouse pads, coffee mugs, phone covers, and more. There is no word yet on when these fine items will be available for the rabid fans of the fruit killing game to snatch up, but if you are one of the 3 people that have an iPhone and have not played Fruit Ninja, you can check it out here: iTunes link
Disease Themed iPhone game Hits a Lofty Sales Figure
London based developer Ndemic Creations has reported in an aptly named “21 days later” report that in that short timespan, their disease spreading, population infecting strategy game titled Plague Inc. has sold 750,000 units. The feat is even more admirable given that Ndemic in one man with no marketing budget. The game, described as “a unique mix of high strategy and terrifyingly realistic simulation”, was the #1 paid app in the US for iPhone and iPad for 2 weeks and has received over 25 thousand 5 star reviews, and it’s success is completely due to people playing it and recommending it to others. You can check out the virus game that’s gone viral by going here: iTunes link
Anime Inspired Action/Adventure Game Starts Crowdfunding Campaign on Indiegogo
Honey Tribe Studios is working to bring their anime inspired action/adventure game Ashley Ao to the iOS, Android, and Mac platforms. The game may be inspired by anime, but the characters and backgrounds look like a painting come to life, thanks to artist and animator Ryan Jackson, as you control the title character Ashley, who is a mercenary hired to travel to a newly terraformed planet by a ruthless cartel. The gameplay will consist of running levels and boss fights that will have platforming elements. The campaign is still in its infancy, with 28 days still to go and only $225 of the $8000 goal raised as of this writing. You can reach the page for their campaign here: link
Want an iPad3???
Ok, so this news doesn’t pertain to any iOS game, but who doesn’t want a chance to win an iPad, right? There is an online browser based game called Tribal Wars that is having a tournament called Summer Games, in which teams of 10 people register and play for a spot in the “world final”, then all 10 members of the top team after the final will each win an iPad3. Awesome, right? I honestly do not know anything about the game itself, but I’m just passing this along in case a free iPad is enough incentive to start. Registration began on June 21 and the games begin on June 28th. Go to http://forum.tribalwarsmasters.net/showthread.php?1543-Summer-Games&p=11482&viewfull=1#post11482 for more info. Good luck!
Highlighted Releases of the Week
Action/Arcade-
Centipede: Origins: Takes the venerable Atari classic arcade game and adds a cool new isometric background, multiple weapons, and power-ups.
iTunes link
Velocirapture: Combining dinosaurs and Christian prophesy like only [adult swim] can (or would dare to), sort the good dinos from the bad in either Endless Mode or Story mode as you send them to either “up there” or “downtown”.
iTunes link
Apocalypse Knights: Hack and slash that combines a slick presentation, awesome art, and great graphics into one seriously fun and engaging package.
iTunes link
Dragon Flight: A cutesy shooter where you grind for coins while shooting weak enemies and avoiding stronger ones.
iTunes link
Ancient Crystal Warrior: A really sleek looking side scrolling shooter where you play as what looks like a witch on a scooter as you fight odd but cool looking mechanical things.
iTunes link
Adventure/RPG-
Elphis Adventure: A cutesy and simple side scrolling RPG where you play as Little Red Riding Hood and fight monsters in a time traveling adventure.
iTunes link
Tic-Tac-Toe Dungeon: Why not combine tic-tac-toe and dungeon crawling? Looks fun but the graphics are really simple and it looks like it might not have enough gameplay for the price. But if you’ve always wanted to play RPG tic-tac-toe, this might be your game.
iTunes link
The President 2012: Be the next president in this interactive fiction game and make the key decisions that affect our lives. Make choices that shape the story, and the developer is making new chapters based on your responses, which is a pretty cool concept.
iTunes link
Castle Master PLUS: This is a cool looking strategy and action game that has cute and colorful graphics and epic looking battles with RPG and tactical elements. Also, it is very highly rated on the App Store.
iTunes link
Board/Card/Dice-
InLined: A very slick and polished looking abstract board game where the goal is to move similarly colored pawns adjacent to each other to form lines to score points, with bonus points being awarded for long lines or combos.
iTunes link
Lock ‘n’ Roll Deluxe: Fun and colorful looking dice game where you roll different colored and numbered dice and try to arrange them in specific configurations to score points.
iTunes link
Inisheer Stones: Very solid looking token playing game where you try to drain your opponents “life” by placing four of your own color tokens in a row. The fun comes with a neutral token that is place randomly in between each player’sd turn.
iTunes link
Sumo: Very intriguing looking card based Sumo wrestling game with very clean looking comic styled graphics. I wish I knew Japanese so I could actually play it.
iTunes link
Magic 2013: This is iPad only, which I usually don’t cover, but this is worth mentioning. The venerable CCG that started it all finally comes to iOS! Choose your pre-contructed deck and play in a variety of game modes, including head to head multiplayer. Awesome art and time tested gameplay make this a no-brainer for anyone who is a fantasy card game fan.
iTunes link
Puzzle/Strategy
Puzzle Mage: Move from island to island using magic to solve 40 different maze like levels of ever increasing complexity.
iTunes link
Warlock Defense: A fantasy themed defense game with a very solid and unique look in which you use various spells to defeat the invaders.
iTunes link
Boom Brigade 2: Over the head view RTS where you fight an alien horde by drawing lines for your soldiers to follow. There is added tactical depth because you can pause the game at any time to issue commands.
iTunes link
Battlemass: 3D hex-based strategy war game that resembles the PSN and XBLA game Greed Corps, in that you harvest resources from tiles, which destroys that tile, and the resources are used to build units that you attack your opponent with, the object being to destroy their base.
iTunes link