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First Look: Hellfire for iPhone / iPod touch
Ahhh, there's nothing quite like taking your helicopter gunship out for a spin to wake you up first thing in the morning! Astraware has announced the immediate availability of their newest action game for iPhone and iPod touch, Hellfire (click opens iTunes). This US$4.99 game puts you in the pilot's seat of a helicopter gunship, ready to take on one of 16 missions.Control is provided through both the accelerometer (steering, speed) and touch-screen controls (throttle, weapons) as you fly US and Soviet-era helicopters through the missions. There are various levels of challenges, with missions in locations throughout the world. Some missions provide multiple objectives, such as taking out enemy defenses, then rescuing hostages and returning them to a base. The helicopters are pre-rendered and very realistic, and the gunships fly over 3D terrain that is rendered on-the-fly. The soundtrack and sound effects can be switched off for play during meetings, and your own music can be substituted if you prefer.There's a YouTube video showing Hellfire in action, complete with Alison's camo green nail polish. Click the Read More link to view it.
First Look: My Little Tank for iPhone
C'mon -- you know you've always wanted to go cruising around in a tank, blasting things to pieces. Now you can have the vicarious thrill of driving a little tank around in Handmark's latest game, a scrolling-screen arcade-style blaster called My Little Tank for iPhone (click opens iTunes). It's from the wizards at Astraware, Handmark's game studio.You have your choice of seven tank colors (that whirring sound you hear is General George Patton spinning in his grave when you choose the pink tank). You can control My Little Tank with an onscreen virtual d-pad, by swiping the screen with your finger to move the tank, and accelerometer-based directional tilt. You can listen to the built-in soundtrack, or pick your own music to enjoy while playing.My Little Tank for iPhone will keep you busy for a while with 80 increasingly difficult missions, five different enemy tank types, and six different power-ups to help you in your battle. The terrain on which you'll command your tank includes plains, deserts, snow, and swamps.More details about the US$4.99 app can be found on the Astraware website or in the iTunes store. Be sure to watch the YouTube video below for five minutes of fun.
Glyph rocks on iPhone; GTS World Racing gets two-player mode
Handmark has released one new game for the iPhone and iPod touch, and updated one of their existing titles. The new game is Glyph, a game in the jewel-matching genre that has been a hit on PCs and other handheld platforms. The game has more than 200 levels across 2 different modes. In the Quest mode, you are trying to break through layers of rock by matching like-colored stones to make the glyphs visible. In Action mode, you touch groups of stones to clear them as they come up from the bottom of the screen. Your task is to try to keep the stones from making it all the way to the top of the screen. There's beautiful music playing in the background, although you can choose your own soundtrack from your music.Glyph is available now in the App Store (click opens iTunes) at an introductory price of US$1.99 -- the regular price will be US$4.99.In other news, Handmark has announced an update to GTS World Racing that provides a two-player mode so you can race against friends over Wi-Fi. The update is available for free through the App Store.
GTS World Racing on sale
One of my favorite racing games for iPhone / iPod touch is GTS World Racing from Handmark and Astraware. If you haven't loaded this fun app on your pocket pal, you might want to race over to the App Store before October 19th since GTS World Racing is on sale (click opens iTunes) for $2.99.This action-filled race game features a number of different cars, countries, and tracks, and uses the accelerometer to control the speed and direction of the car. It's a much more realistic racing game than Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D or Cro-Mag RallyFor more info about the app, including a movie showing the game in action, check out our August preview of GTS World Racing.
Preview: Astraware Golden Skull for iPhone
A few weeks ago we took a first look at Astraware's GTS World Racing for iPhone; now they're back with another title -- Golden Skull. Golden Skull was developed by Deluxeware and published by Astraware.If you're familiar with the Bejeweled 2 genre of jewel-matching games, then you're well on your way to understanding Golden Skull. In this game, you're introduced to a character who has gotten into debt and needs money, so he takes on the job of finding the Golden Skull. In each stop along the way, you tap groups of jewels of the same color to make them disappear, which accumulates points -- more points for more jewels eliminated. When you get to a certain point level, you get a gold coin. Five gold coins gets you to the next village on your journey. As the game progresses, more types of jewels are added to the screen, making it even more difficult to match them. When you get to the last village, accumulating a certain number of points reveals your goal -- the Golden Skull. There are four different skill levels, and you can either listen to the built-in soundtrack or your own music. To see a video of Golden Skull in action, click here. Golden Skull should be available in the App Store today (August 27th) for US$2.99. Check the gallery below for screenshots!Update: Golden Skull is now in the App Store (September 1, 2008). Click here for more info -- click opens iTunes App Store. %Gallery-30540%
Developers chime in on PalmOS, ALP
While the whole Cobalt-that-never-was / Access buyout has all been sort of a blur over the past few years, the one thing that remained constant was the aging of Palm's current OS and the inability to sufficiently replace it. While we've seen ALP prototypes and more recently, Palm licensing Garnet source code from ACCESS, an interesting series of interviews over at PocketFactory asks developers to throw in their $.02 in regard to the debacle, and overall, responses weren't entirely shocking. The CEO of mobile game developer Astraware felt the need was still there to continue supporting Palm, if for nothing more than to take advantage of its relatively impressive installed user base, but it was no secret that he was more excited about a Linux-based possibility. Moreover, both the COO of iambic, Inc. and Stuart Dewar from Pimlico Software stressed that Palm's situation is nothing short of dire; with Windows Mobile 5 devices selling by the truckload (and not suffering OS battles all the while), it's giving developers less reason to focus their efforts on Palm applications. Additionally, building WinMo apps that could easily be ported to a Linux platform is becoming the most attractive option, which eventually leaves Palm trailing in the dust. Nevertheless, it's hard to deny to depth and breadth of Palm's marketshare, but be sure to hit the read link for the full skinny on just how developers feel about using their efforts to create Palm-friendly programs.
