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Daily Mac App: War Pinball HD
Can't get enough pinball on your Mac? War Pinball HD from Gameprom takes the great pinball engine we saw in Pinball HD and adds some war film tie-ins to the mix. You've got three tables on offer in War Pinball HD, two based on Charlie Sheen flicks, Platoon and Navy Seals, and one on a Chuck Norris special, Missing in Action. Each table is stacked full of images, props and sounds from the movies. You've even got unique elements like Huey's, Subs and a giant Chuck Norris on the table that form part of the missions available to each table. Of course because it's war-themed you've got oodles of gun fire and explosions. Almost every action on the table has some sort of well thought out and integrated sound effect or clip from the respective movie, making the soundscape within War Pinball HD incredibly immersive. It draws you in and really adds to the action. In the settings there's a toggle for some of the more sweary clips, just in case youngsters are playing. Even the menu music and sound effects are great. If you're a fan of American war films, you're going to love it. The game's graphics look great of course, and you can even play it in 3D with some suitable glasses. Gameplay is top notch too, as each table plays really well, with enough side missions and targets to keep you entertained. If you're hankering for some decent pinball action on your Mac, the US$2.99 War Pinball HD brings pinball and war together to give you one of the best pinball games available in the Mac App Store.
Daily Mac App: Pinball HD
Looking for some classic arcade gaming action on your Mac? Pinball HD might just hit the spot. Originally released for iOS, Pinball HD has made the jump to the Mac App Store bringing you three tables in one and upping the graphics to take advantage of modern Mac hardware. Tables include Wild West, where you have to try and rob a bank and kill Dirty Harry; The Deep, which takes you down to the sea floor; and Jungle Style, which yes, you guessed it, takes you on a trek through the jungle, pinball style. Pinball HD looks great either windowed or fullscreen, with three graphics modes and 2x and 4x anti-aliasing to suit every Mac (a 2011 15" MacBook Pro didn't even break a sweat with everything maxed out). You've even got the option of playing in 3D using some traditional color-based 3D glasses if you have them. Game play is pretty good, with realistic physics and no detectable latency. Each of the tables have missions, which you unlock as you might expect, by hitting targets and fulfilling certain criteria. In Wild West for instance you first unlock the bank vault by hitting targets up top, then you can go rob it by firing the ball into the vault. It's pretty easy to keep up with the action, as the three camera modes do a good job of keeping an eye on the ball. For US$2.99 of your hard-earned cash, Pinball HD brings you enough pinball action to your Mac to keep you entertained on a rainy day.
TUAW's Daily iPhone App: Battle Slugs
Battle Slugs is essentially a stylized version of the old Chinese game Go. You start with two different colors of playing pieces which jump around the board in different ways. Jump one space to produce a cloned slug or two spaces to move the slug you're controlling. When you land next to a piece of the opposite color, it changes color. Those are basically the only rules, but like Go, the strategy gets complicated quickly. You want to try and claim space on the board (the one you're playing at least -- there are 25 different levels in the game), but you have to do so carefully, because overextending can make trouble quickly. The game's actually pretty hard -- I had trouble mastering even the first level consistently. Battle Slugs was originally a Flash game, but you can't tell from the presentation on iOS. While the graphics can be somewhat crude, they are colorful, and bring a lot of personality to the title. Loading times are a little long (though that's of course between matches, not during), and the iTunes reviews have some complaints about the game's performance on older phones, so beware of that. But there's a lite version to try out first if you want to make sure you like it, and the full version (which is Game Center enabled as well) is only 99 cents for a universal build anyway. If you like the strategy of Go and don't mind some cartoony characters, Battle Slugs could tease your mind for a while.
Slayer: Pinball Rocks tests your metal on iPhone and iPad
The press release for thrash metal band Slayer's new iPhone/iPad pinball game, Slayer: Pinball Rocks, is emblazoned with the following text: "Game Features a Skull that Eats your Ball and Spits it Out Through its Eye Socket." Seriously.
Tilt! Preview photos of The Pinball for iPad and Mac OS X
With just one week left until iPad Saturday, we're starting to see some amazing software coming out. One of the more intriguing games that we've seen is The Pinball for iPad from Gameprom. Pinball fanatics will likely find this app to be a vast improvement over the games found on the iPhone platform, with a larger playing field, increased game detail, and more realistic game play. The Pinball for iPad combines three of Gameprom's iPhone pinball games -- Jungle Style Pinball, The Deep Pinball and Wild West Pinball -- into one tasty looking app. Some of the features of The Pinball include: Different camera modes: stable picture of the "whole table" and agile camera, which follows the ball in the game with automatic zoom in significant places Realistic physics Camera tilt Anaglyptographic (3D) stereo effect Local and global high scores 3-ball multiball mode Ability to shake the pinball table, with an acceleration indicator so you don't "tilt" In what we're hoping is the start of a sweeping trend, Gameprom is also planning on releasing The Pinball for Mac OS X. While there's not a lot of info about the game, the developers provided a number of screenshots to whet your appetite. Check out the gallery for a look at The Pinball. %Gallery-89147%
