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Daily iPhone App: Dead Ahead races through a stylish zombieland
Dead Ahead is a game released by Chillingo a few weeks ago, and it's been huge in the App Store charts lately. It's an endless running game where you're actually on a moped (or, later, a motorcycle), racing through a zombie-ridden apocalypse. The game's controls are excellently simple (you move your finger up and down the screen to steer, and then there are two buttons to race forward or shoot backwards), but the biggest draw here is the game's aesthetic, which uses a very stylistic look to add a little bit of whimsy to a pretty spooky zombie setting. The game is relatively gory, as the zombies are you can either be crashed into cars (or shot apart) in very bloody ways. But for all of the gore, the zombies are also cool, and the various types you'll encounter (including big, hulking zombie bosses) mix up the gameplay quite a bit. As you drive along, you'll pick up coins and earn points, which then let you upgrade your bike, your gun, or unlock various powerups and other fun tweaks. Dead Ahead is a great title -- it's an endless runner and doesn't really break open the conventions of the genre, but it does perform its few features very well. You can download the game right now for free, and (not surprisingly) there are plenty of in-app purchases to make if you so choose.
Minimum: a free-to-play shooter from TimeGate [update]
Texas-based developer TimeGate Studios has announced that it's working on a new free-to-play, third-person match-based shooter called Minimum.Minimum boasts a simplistic look, and has you building a character up during each life, adding more and more power-ups to your weapons (ranging from ice-powered sniper rifles to flaming katanas) as you go. In Titan, the "signature" game mode according to the FAQ, players support two giant creatures fighting each other during the match.TimeGate also says it hopes to bring "everyone to the development table to influence how the game grows and changes." Minimum will be in closed alpha soon, and is set for a Steam release whenever it's ready.TimeGate is probably best known at the moment for its work on Aliens: Colonial Marines, but the company also made Section 8 and Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns in the past, so Minimum is coming from a substantial history of development experience for PC.Update: The game will be available through Steam's Early Access channel on April 16 in North America.
Halfbrick tries for a 10 with Fish Out of Water
Halfbrick Studios held a media lunch at GDC to show off its brand-new original title, Fish Out of Water. It's the company's first since the very popular Jetpack Joyride arrived a few years ago (the Australia-based studio is also known for making Fruit Ninja). As we'd previously heard, Fish Out of Water is more casual than Jetpack, and it boasts the same great polish and beautiful work that fans expect from Halfbrick. In Fish Out of Water, the main mechanic simply has you throwing fish. You're presented with a school of various creatures, all with different shapes and sizes (and all adorably named -- the big whale is called "Micro" and the fastest one is called "Rocket"). To play, you grab one with a finger, pull it out of the water, and fling it off to the right as fast as you can. That fish flies through the air, and the game tracks number of skips on the water and total distance traveled. A high toss will likely earn more skips, and the type of fish you throw affects that as well. For example, Rocket is big on skipping, but the dolphin simply jumps in and out of the water rather than skipping across it. Distance is affected by fish type as well, and both stats are also affected by the weather. The game runs on a clock up in the left corner which ties in to your real local time wherever you play the game, and different weather conditions, like sun or rain, will affect your skips and jumps as well. During the course of a round, you can throw three different fish, and then you're judged on your throws by a line of crabs, who are also very adorable. They put up numbers (and each crab is also named and has a favorite piece of the game: Skippy Steve really enjoys it when you score a lot of skips), and the average out of 10 is your final score for the round. That's the game: Throw fish, try to score as best you can during the three throws, and then the crabs will boil down your score into one number out of 10. It's not super-hard: Even in my first few throws, I was able to pick up an 8.5 and an 8.7. But to score a perfect 10, you'll need to put a little bit of strategy into the game, picking exactly the right fish for the right weather conditions, and even choosing fish based on which throw you're doing. You can use a big whale for the first throw for distance, for example, and then choose a fish that splits into multiple fishies to ramp up your skip score. As you skip along the water, you also score coins that both give you a speed boost to use (with a strangely placed button along the top of the screen) and also allow you to buy various upgrades and cosmetic items for your fish. And finally, you can collect gems as you play, which can be assembled together into crystals that give you various abilities like double skips or an automatic 10 from one of the crabs. The crystals system is actually pretty complex: You can pair up two colors to try and form a specific crystal, or experiment a bit. One of the most powerful crystals is a black crystal, which sends a huge school of fish out to join the one that you throw. Just like Jetpack Joyride, the game is very social as well. Players can join "leagues," which award trophies every single day for the highest scorers in each league. Leagues also win prizes on their own, so there are lots of rewards to go around for all players involved. Fish Out of Water will launch at a price of US$0.99, which feels a little fishy on Halfbrick's part: The company has had a lot of success at turning their Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride games into freemium titles, and it's a bit surprising that they're not embracing freemium right away with this one. Still, as good as the game looks and plays, you can't blame them at all for charging a little bit out of the gate -- even at a buck, this looks like a terrific game. It is more casual than Jetpack Joyride even. After you throw the fish, the game is more or less hands-off, as you sit there and watch your fish skip along to victory or defeat. And that casual approach may leave a few hardcore players out of the boat on this one. But not to worry, Halfbrick told us at GDC this week. The company has quite a few more titles in progress, including some games that are a little more complicated and deeper than this one. So if Fish Out of Water doesn't quite float your boat, just wait a bit and we'll see what else the company is working on soon. Meanwhile, you can get ready to go swimming with this one fairly soon.
Daily iPhone App: Danger Boat is an endless runner on the waves
Most of the iOS buzz around this time last week was from the great Ridiculous Fishing, but there was another new release last week that I really liked and it's Pixelocity's Danger Boat. Vlambeer's big hit deserved all the attention it got, but Danger Boat was overlooked, I think -- it's a really well-made app as well that's simple but offers a lot of fun. "Boatpack Joyride" is probably how I'd best describe this one. It's a endless runner where you guide a boat along a watery course, trying to dodge obstacles, collect coins and use powerups while staying alive for as long as possible. Just like Halfbrick's famous endless runner, this one is well-polished and controls very well (you tilt back and forth to slide your boat around, and while I usually don't like tilt controls, this is done about as well as it can be done), and there are plenty of extras and powerups to spend with all of the coins you pick up. You can upgrade your powerups, you can buy booster items to give you extra benefits or you can buy new boats or places to race out of. There are a lot of fun details in this one, too, from the waves that kick you around to the various environments you race in while playing. Danger Boat is completely free and supported by in-app purchases, so there's no reason not to try this one. If you missed it during that Ridiculous Fishing rush, make sure you give it a good look now.
TUAW's Daily App: Space Storm
Space Storm is about as conventional as space shooters get; enemies come into the screen from the right, and your ship flies from the left, blowing things out of the sky with a few different weapons and picking up health or power-ups along the way. In this case, though, conventional is good. The game feels right, and the dual-stick setup will have you navigating your ship around enemies and bullets and even slowing time down with occasional power-ups, in no time. Boss levels add a little variety to the mix, but basically, it's fly and shoot. It's very simple and pretty darn fun. OpenFeint adds some replayability to the somewhat short game, but a shooter is a shooter. As of this writing, the game is free on a promotion, but if you enjoy a good space shooter, it's definitely worth a couple of bucks.
It's-a Mario World: Mushroom Feast
Commence with the spending frenzy! Black Friday's door-busting sales and no-holds-barred consumer fistfights initiate holiday shopping today, and that means the annual limited-edition Nintendo swag is now being clawed from store shelves. As many of you know, this year is no slouch with two new DS Lite colors, one of which is a phenomenal Mario-red. No cause for alarm; some foaming at the mouth is to be expected. Almost harder to believe is DS Fanboy's current giveaway where one lucky reader will take it home free. The rest of us can bag it at Amazon.com while supplies last.ANYWAYS. We still have a gallery this week amidst all of the excitement. It started out as a series of photographs capturing every possible angle of the aforementioned DS Lite, but that didn't quite work. Instead, being so stuffed with Thanksgiving turkey and delicious pumpkin pie, we couldn't help thinking about what comprises Mario's diet. The short answer? Mushrooms. Lots of them. Seriously, what is it about fungus? Chomp down on our new gallery in which you'll taste a smorgasbord of 'shroom varieties Mario has consumed throughout his career. Yum. It's-a Mario World is a weekly feature in which the ubiquity of Nintendo's flagship character is celebrated: We'll incessantly ruminate about mustache wax, debate the curious whereabouts of the princess and covet the luminous power stars strewn about the galaxy. Check back here every Friday to find out what strange and wonderful thing has got us tipping our caps.
It's-a Mario World: Curious Costumes
Costumes are an integral part of any proper Halloween celebration, and we didn't have it in our little video gaming hearts to exclude Dear Mario from today's internationally recognized festivities. This is because we are obsessively enamored with Him, yes, sometimes to the extent of unnecessarily capitalizing pronouns, but also because we are under a rigorous blogging contract by penalty of death. Thus, we come to your monitor on this spooky evening with a mind for Mario's unconventional garb. It isn't often that we see Mario dressed in anything other than his trademark overalls. Even in his more athletic role he seems to prefer his mainstay red and blue outfit, however constricting and warm it may be, topped with his all-too-familiar cap. So any time we see him decked out in a fancy suit or in powered up form, we do a double take. Today we have gone ahead and compiled some of these less usual costumes in a new gallery that will FRIGHTEN and AMAZE, probably. Get to it! It's-a Mario World is a weekly feature in which the ubiquity of Nintendo's flagship character is celebrated: We'll incessantly ruminate about mustache wax, debate the curious whereabouts of the princess and covet the luminous power stars strewn about the galaxy. Check back here every Friday to find out what strange and wonderful thing has got us tipping our caps.
Tag Games bringing Rock'n'Roll to the iPhone's accelerometer
The folks over at Touch Arcade are doing a terrific job of keeping up with all the good-looking games on the App Store (and even some not-so-good-looking ones) but for my money, this one falls solidly into the first category. Rock'n'Roll is an accelerometer-based puzzle/platforming game (ported from other mobile platforms). As you can see in the video above, it plays like a much more colorful version of the already-fun Spinner, as you rotate the iPhone to control the little circle and get him to fall down in the right place. There are power-ups and items to collect as you explore the little mazes, and though there's no sound in the video, we're told the game will have a "traditional Americana" rock soundtrack, which sounds like fun.A few people have mentioned motion sickness, and while that's a possibility, my guess is that it's more from the video itself -- playing Spinner has kind of the same effect, but when it's you controlling the spinning and the image is confined to the iPhone's screen, it's not so bad. At any rate, we'll find out soon whether the game is as fun as it looks -- it's due for a release later this month.
It's-a Mario World: Rare Power-ups
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/nintendo/It_s_a_Mario_World_Rare_power_ups'; Welcome to the inaugural edition of It's-a Mario World, Nintendo Wii Fanboy's newest feature about one of Nintendo's oldest characters. Every Thursday, we'll bring you a fresh perspective on Mario games and culture, emphasizing his lesser-discussed titles and memorable game content for your nostalgic enjoyment. In this first issue, join us as we reminisce about Mario's hard-to-find power-ups.You know the common fare: Mushrooms, flowers and stars comprise the mainstay arsenal in any Mario game, and other traditional items like golden coins and 1-ups are found in sequels and off-shoots everywhere. But what about the obscured items of Mushroom Kingdom history, the rare perishables you rationed and strange pick-ups you briefly adored? Why didn't they catch on? Were they too uncouth for mainstream appeal? Let our gallery shed some light on these shadowy items of utmost rarity. It's-a Mario World is a weekly feature in which the ubiquity of Nintendo's flagship character is celebrated: We'll incessantly ruminate about mustache wax, debate the curious whereabouts of Princess Peach and covet the luminous power stars strewn about the galaxy. Check back here every Thursday to find out what strange and wonderful thing has got us tipping our caps.
