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Daily iPhone App: Light Byte provides frenetic color-matching fun
Light Byte is one of the most invention takes on "falling block" games I've seen in a while. In fact, there are a few genres mixed in here, including Snood's kind of color matching gameplay, as well as some excellent combo action. The game starts out with blocks slowly falling toward you on the screen, and it's your job to fire stars (by touching the various block columns) back up at the blocks, hitting the same colors in a row. Blocks that match the color you just hit fall off the screen, and (in the endless mode, anyway) you've got to keep the screen clear for as long as possible. It's really fun, and the title's groovy out-of-this-world soundtrack really contributes to the feeling that you're building up mega-combos when you can line up the same color all in a row. There are powerups that show up in the various colors as you move along, more colors that appear as you level up, and eventually the blocks also start to grow transparent over time, so you also have to try and remember which colors were where. It sounds frenetic, and it is, but the game presents these things to you in such a smooth manner that it's still good fun. Light Byte is a 99 cent download. It's definitely worth the price, and with quite a few options to play even outside the main endless mode, you'll probably be matching colored blocks for a long time to come.
Plants vs. Zombies updated, and a few other app deals
PopCap has updated the Plants vs. Zombies iOS app with a few new game mode options, purchaseable with the in-game currency at Dave's crazy store. The modes are all different and available in purchases of three each, featuring everything from a mode where you fight invisible zombies to a special bowling mode, and even a variant of PopCap's own Bejeweled called "Beghouled Twist." If you don't want to earn the in-game currency yourself, PopCap's also offering in-app purchases for in-game coins that will unlock each of the modes, so that's another way to go. Elsewhere on the App Store, EA has released Snood Free, a free version of the popular Bubble Bobble-style game (along with Snood Free HD for iPad). This version leaves multiplayer out and contains ads, while the original paid versions of the game are still online. Disney has also launched a lite version of the popular JellyCar 3, so you can now try that one out without any additional cost. And finally, Illusion Labs' Touchgrind BMX app has gone universal, so anyone who owned the iPhone version can now download the iPad version for free.
TUAW's Daily App: Captain Puzzle
Captain Puzzle is a colorful puzzle game in the vein of Bust a Move (which itself is on the App Store, by the way) and Snood (ditto). As Captain Puzzle, you throw little colored balls at similarly colored villains; when you are able to get three of the same color touching, they'll disappear and give you points. The 50 levels are set up Angry Birds-style, with each level requiring you to chase down three stars, challenging you to collect them all as you play along. The game offers both OpenFeint and Game Center integration, but unfortunately, there's just the one mode to play through; it'd be nice to see an endless mode or even a multiplayer mode added in eventually. But the basic gameplay is there, with some fun objective-based twists on the old Snood gameplay. The superhero theme makes for some fun graphics and nice music. Captain Puzzle is available on the App Store now, on the iPhone for US$0.99.
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, Monopoly and Snood on iPad
EA has passed word that three of its games are now ready for the iPad: Monopoly, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and Snood can all be downloaded from the App Store right now. These three games have been optimized for the iPad with near high-def graphics and interface tweaks made specifically for the platform. Both Monopoly and Hot Pursuit will set you back $9.99, while Snood is a bit more modestly priced at $4.99. %Gallery-110308%
iPhone apps on sale for Halloween
Happy Halloween weekend! This is my favorite holiday of the year, not only because it's a fun time for parties during my favorite season, but also because it seems to be an excellent time for developers to put a little something special into their apps -- like put them on sale. There are quite a few sales hitting the App Store this weekend -- Sega has some of their titles on sale again (including Ecco the Dolphin and the great Shining Force), and Namco Bandai is doing the same. You can pick up Bit.Trip Beat and the original Pac Man game for just a buck each, among a few other good deals. PopCap has brought Plants vs. Zombies down to a buck for the holiday, and EA has a "Monster Sale" going on, too, with Wolfenstein RPG, Snood, and more on sale for just one cent less than a buck. All treats, no tricks on this Halloween weekend. There will probably be a few more sales announced before the weekend ends -- we'll try to keep an eye out for them, and let you know when we see them. Want even more quick app sale announcements? Watch our Twitter feed -- we'll often post quick free app and sale app notices there.
EA drops Clue, Snood, and The Game of Life onto iPhone
Apparently EA Mobile didn't realize that Snood has long since lapsed as our drug of choice -- we've already found a more adept pusher in Popcap with Peggle, silly gooses! Alongside the aging methamphetamine, EA Mobile has dropped iPhone iterations of Clue and The Game of Life in the iPhone App Store for purchase as of today. The games range from $3 to $5 and have already arrived on the App Store, though we bet you're 100k points deep in Drop7 this very minute, laughing while your personal assistant reads you off the titles of the three aforementioned games. "What is this hogwash you're telling me, Winston? Surely you jest -- these games are from an era that has long since passed!" We don't jest, dearest reader. We never do.Clue: Snood: The Game of Life:
Snood Redood coming to the iPhone
Fortunately, World of Warcraft didn't exist while I was in school, otherwise I might not have finished my venerable BS degree at the storied Ithaca College at all. But if there was one game that almost kept me from finishing all of those essays and homework... well, it was Civ. But if there were two games, the second was Snood. And now that game is due in iPhone form soon as well. It features the same creature-matching gameplay (with both new and old graphics, as you can see above), which means it probably has the same addictive quality that kept me playing long after I was supposed to have read those excerpts the professor gave to us in English class, and three gameplay modes, including Story, Classic, and even a Time Attack mode. "Coming soon" is the word on when it'll be out, though the main webpage actually says "play now," so it probably isn't that far off. It's not the only "Bust a Move" style game out on the App Store, but it is Snood, and that itself is enough to take me back to the days of pizza and beer in the dorm room.
Ex-Naughty Dog founders go casual with Monkey Gods
Back in 1986, Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin had a dream. As childhood friends, they both wished to make games, so in their adult life, they established Naughty Dog in Santa Monica. They made some games for the Sega Genesis and 3DO, but pay dirt didn't arrive until they created Crash Bandicoot and set the whirling dervish loose on the PSOne. When the PS2 came around, the duo thought up another beloved property in the Jak & Daxter series, which we don't have to tell you was a pretty big deal (and still is!). Now, the duo has a new company: Monkey Gods. Its focus is on the PC crowd (mostly the casual players), though there really isn't anything on the site at the moment. The first game to come from Monkey Gods will be Snood for the iPhone, available on the iTunes App store June 1.We've put in word for comment to the two, and will update you all on whatever we hear back just as soon as we receive it.[Via Geoff Keighley's Twitter]
