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Daily iPhone App: Ultimate Battle Zombies is a freemium zombie throwdown
I unfortunately made the mistake of overbooking myself for interviews last week at GDC, so I didn't get to see developer Brian Robbins' panel on how to put together money for making iPhone games. But I did get to meet up with him later in the week, and he showed me what's going on with his company's latest iPhone app, Ultimate Battle Zombies. Ultimate Battle Zombies is a freemium title that serves up multiplayer, turn-based fights with some really goofy zombie characters. You pick a character to get started, then you can enter that character into Game Center-enabled fights. Each round, you choose three attacks from a list of four (high, mid, low, and a special attack that varies per zombie), and three blocks. Depending on how your opponent chooses, you win the fight or don't. There is a little bit of skill to it. As you fight, you can hit your blocks and attacks at exactly the right time and get a nice bonus that helps you along. But at this point, the zombies are basically the same, and the look of the characters is mostly just cosmetic. That will change soon, however. During GDC, Robbins showed me the new belt system that has just arrived for the title. After this latest update, you can now complete objectives while fighting and earn various belts, which will add new stats and attributes to your characters. Character choice is still basically cosmetic, but belts will make each character just a little different, so you can have a little say in how it all works. In the future, Robbins says Ultimate Battle Zombies is getting a singleplayer mode for players who aren't willing to wait for multiplayer turns to come around. That should be out in about two weeks, and there are also new zombies coming: An old lady called Grandma Z, and a gorilla called Gorilla Juicehead. Ultimate Battle Zombies is a little chunk of free fun. It's not the most intricate game (the zombie attacks basically play out like a game of rock, paper, scissors and can sometimes be pretty unfair), but it's colorful and easy to play, and especially if you convince a few friends to jump in the zombie ring with you, it can scratch that freemium itch for a while. Ultimate Battle Zombies is available now.
TUAW earphone throwdown: Altec Lansing Muzx Ultra vs. Scosche IDR655m
When it comes to listening to music, watching movies on the run, or even making phone calls, the earphones you use on your iDevice make a difference. Apple's iconic white earbuds are everywhere, and the inline remote control and mic can be used on every iPhone, iPod, and iPad to some extent, although the lower-end iPods logically can't use the mic. For audiophile Apple fans, those white earbuds just don't cut it, so a number of manufacturers have come out with high-end earphones. As fate would have it, two of those earphones -- the Altec Lansing Muzx Ultra (US$99.95) and Scosche IDR655m ($99.99) both arrived at my door about the same time. When I have competing reviews to do, I go the lazy route and force the entries to face off in a TUAW throwdown. Click the Read More link below and see who the winner is in this head-to-head battle of the earphones.
Breakfast topic: There is only Zul
Zul'Farrak vs. Zul'Gurub vs. Zul'Aman.Bronko on the forums says "if the mobs were of equal level... go!" but I can't tell if he means which we like better or which would win in a throwdown (my hunch thinks "throwdown," since that would be so much more interesting to see). So let's answer both.I haven't played Zul'Aman yet, so it may be amazing, but I think I might have to agree with Bornakk-- the stairs in Zul'Farrak are pretty epic, especially for their level. Then again, Zul'Aman will probably have at least one or two events like that, so I'd be partial to the troll city in the Ghostlands in that case. And ZG is definitely a great 10 man 20 man (boy it's been a while since I've been there), too-- Hakkar's whispers, all the different bosses, the funny little in-jokes ("Ding!" "Grats!" is a classic, as is Nat Pagle's fishing spot), and the different animal areas make it a great instance. Hopefully Zul'Aman will match up.And in terms of a throwdown, as players note in the thread, the Blood Drinkers in Zul'Gurub make things harder for everyone else. Will the trolls from ZF and ZA know to down the other bosses before Hakkar? Or can anyone, for that matter, stand up to the might of Zul'jin himself? So who wins, ZA, ZF, or ZG?
