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TUAW's Daily iPhone App: To-Fu: The Trials of Chi
This is a good one. To-Fu: The Trials of Chi is what's probably best described as a physics platformer, where you play, yes, a little piece of tofu. This To-Fu is much spicier than the actual thing, however -- you tap and drag on him to jump around a series of levels, and his jumps always go basically gravity-free in the same direction, so eventually you're bouncing off of walls, judging angles, and avoiding spikes and other dangers while bouncing from platform to platform. It's actually a pretty big challenge, but that's tempered a little bit by the fact that your basic goal is just getting through the level. There are quite a few collectibles to pick up, but you don't need them on a basic playthrough. Later, you can go back and replay the levels, picking up some of the tougher collectibles. To-Fu is a really solid game -- the presentation is excellent, the controls are precise and innovative, and there's lots of content to go through, along with full Game Center integration. This is also Apple's Game of the Week, and that notice is well-deserved. You can play a trial version for free, or buy the iPhone version for US 99 cents, or the HD iPad version for $1.99.
TUAW's Daily iPhone App: Kard Combat
Kard Combat is a new universal iOS title from Hothead Games, the folks behind the Penny Arcade videogames, DeathSpank, and the iPhone's Bunny the Zombie Slayer. As you may have guessed from the name, Kard Combat is a Magic The Gathering-style card game, where you use a deck of cards that represent magic spells or creatures and fight them against each other. To be honest, Magic the Gathering isn't really my thing, so I can't compare the two super closely. But Kard Combat offers some innovation, I think, in the way the cards are laid out -- any cards summoned to your side first attack cards laid across from them, and then the health pool of your opponent, so there's some interesting positioning strategy involved. You also oversee a few different types of mana that grow over time or based on certain cards you have out, so that provides a lot of complexity to the gameplay. There's a lot of content to play through as well -- four decks, each with their own single player "Tower" campaigns, and then of course multiplayer gameplay. The game's business model is almost tougher to figure out than the actual strategy -- currently, the title is a free download with five single-player missions unlocked, though an in-app purchase of $2.99 will unlock everything. After that, there are more decks and cards to buy, of course, and more to come. In the end, Kard Combat is an excellent little turn-based title. It's definitely worth a free download, and then if you consume all the content there, you can see if you want to dive in deeper.
TUAW's Daily iPhone App: Occurro! - The Game of Stellar Combat
Occurro is, I would say, an above average space-based dual stick shooter for the iPhone. It doesn't offer much more than an arcade experience, as you pilot a small ship around the screen with one thumb while shooting in any direction with your second thumb. But Occurro is a particularly well-done version of this genre, with controls feeling really speedy and precise, and a few nice touches such as a double-tap screen-clearing bomb and a shield around your ship for a little extra time to play instead of just a one-hit kill. Occurro actually came out a few years ago, but it's recently been revamped, with new graphics and extras such as multitasking support and Game Center. Plus, as a bonus, developer Acceleroto has dropped the game down to the low, low price of free until further notice. It's definitely worth a grab at that price: Occurro is available in the App Store right now.
TUAW's Daily iPhone App: Tumblr
Tumblr is, of course, the blogging platform that's taken off lately, featuring an easy way to quickly post a lot of different kinds of media, as well as share it across friends and networks. Tumblr's iPhone app has been serviceable since it came out, but it hasn't always been the best option for posting to the service. Still, a 2.0 complete rewrite has helped a little bit, so if you're a Tumblr user who wants to post more while mobile, it's worth another look. The new update brings a brand new interface to handling multiple blogs, as well as improvements to posting and the main dashboard. You can now read and reply to messages on the service from right in the app, and if you're new to Tumblr, you can sign up right from the iPhone app, too. The service is free, and so the app is too. Power users will probably still find some issues with the app, which makes sense -- posting blog posts from the iPhone is probably never going to be quite as easy as doing it from a PC. But for those times when you're out and about and want to do a quick Tumblr post, the app should serve you just fine.
TUAW's Daily iPhone App: Two Worlds II Castle Defense
Two Worlds is an RPG series for consoles that's had a few releases already, but this game for iOS only uses the same setting and assets as those titles. As you can tell from the title itself, it plays very differently from the third-person RPG. It's a castle defense game of a sort, but rather than building towers, you build out your army and forces, tasking your little soldiers with fighting incoming waves of bad guys. The game plays sort of like the very popular Battleheart, though instead of directly controlling your troops, you're only placing them on the field in various spots available. You might put two melee fighters up front, for example, a priest behind them, and then two archers in the back to pump out ranged damage. As you fight, you win gold, and then can spend that gold to build more troops, upgrade the ones you've got, or even cast spells to heal your troops or attack the enemies. The game is simple but really fun, and the polish is actually really impressive. Controls are not explained well, but the icons are clear enough that after a few rounds with the title, you will know what does what. And pitting two powered up soldiers and a hardcore fire mage against a wave of incoming baddies is very rewarding, once you've gotten to that point. A recent upgrade added a few much needed tweaks, including Game Center integration and some various difficulty levels, and it also dropped the price of the game to just US $4.99. And that's not a bad price at all -- it's a little more expensive than most iOS games, but this is a quality experience. There is a lite version, though, if you doubt the price, but for castle defense fans, those who enjoy the Two Worlds series, or just anyone who enjoys a good fantasy-based tower defense game, this one's definitely worth checking out.
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.
TUAW's Daily iPhone App: Ionocraft Racing
Ionocraft Racing is a racing title for iOS unlike any other -- in both good and bad ways. The good side of it is that you're essentially building your own car in this one. The game's set in a steampunk universe, and the general gameplay loop has you building a car out of various parts (that affect steering, thrust, or the car's armor and mass), and then racing it around a track as fast as you can. Race faster, win medals, get more money ("Cogs" is what the currency is called), and then build a better car. That's fun, but the bad part is that you're really just racing against yourself -- there are no other cars on the track with you. You can still technically race -- the game is Game Center enabled, and there is a certain thrill in trying to grab the best lap on a certain track. But the game is all about how to get the most out of the car you've built, not racing alongside colorful steampunk enemies as you might expect. The game's fun, as long as you realize that it's all about the time trials, not a full racing experience like the vaunted Real Racing series. But the customization for your car is really impressive, and it's fun to see how a car changes after you've tweaked its parts or added new ones. Iconocraft Racing is now available on the App Store for iPhone for US $1.99, or on the iPad in HD for $4.99.
TUAW's Daily iPhone App: Gravity Guy
Gravity Guy is a fun one. It doesn't really do anything we haven't seen before -- the basic idea is a running-style game where you simply tap the screen to switch gravity (very similar to the terrific indie game VVVVVV). You can play it right now online as a Flash game, and you only need to get into it for a second before you see the whole premise. But what's really sent this one to the top of the App Store charts is all the extras and bonus modes that come with it. Not only is there a full story mode to play through, there are also practice and endless modes to play, and even a local or online multiplayer mode. There are Game Center leaderboards and achievements, and both the graphics and music look and sound terrific. So yes, this is just a Flash game port (and a simple one at that), but it's a Flash game port done very right. Plus, as of this writing, Gravity Guy is on sale today for the low price of absolutely free. Grab it and check it out if it seems like your thing.
TUAW's Daily iPhone App: 1-bit Ninja
Lots of games on the iPhone skew more casual, both because the touchscreen doesn't exactly make for precise controls all the time, and also because a lot of developers are aiming for the iPhone's much wider audience than most gaming platforms. But 1-bit Ninja is obstinately the exception to this -- it's unapologetically retro and decidedly hardcore. The nearest reference is Super Mario Bros, but not Super Mario Galaxy or the more recent 3D interations. Nope, this one goes back to Super Mario Land on the GameBoy, when Mario could only move forward, and had to make some spectacularly timed jumps to explore the land and fully discover its secrets. 1-bit Ninja isn't just a 2D platformer -- it does have a really wild 3D angle (accessed by swiping the top of the screen) that will show off some new heights or extra secrets to find. But especially early on, that mode's somewhat underused, with most of the gameplay sticking with the 2D realm. Still, with over 20 levels to play, challenges to beat (too bad Game Center isn't included -- seems like it should have been), and lots and lots of secrets to find, along with a great stylistic design and some cool chiptunes to play with, 1-bit Ninja is an excellent title. It's available for US $1.99 in the App Store right now.
TUAW's Daily iPhone App: Legacy: Mystery Mansion
It's been a while since we've covered a solid match-three game in this space, and Legacy: Mystery Mansion is exactly that. It's similar to Puzzle Quest in that it puts an overarching storyline in the form of a match-three puzzle title, but it's a little tougher than the more casual entries in the genre, putting a hard time limit on each of 25 stages and taking you through recovering missing antiques in a haunted mansion. I was a big fan of Call of Atlantis' match-three mayhem, and Legacy seems very much in that vein, if just a little more difficult. At any rate, it seems like an excellent match-three puzzler, and at US 99 cents, the price is just right. It'd be nice to have Game Center integration for leaderboards and achievements, but a free zen mode will have to do for now. Legacy: Mystery Mansion is well worth a try for fans of this very traditional puzzle genre.
TUAW's Daily iPhone App: Dragon's Lair 2: Time Warp
This one is, of course, the sequel to the Don Bluth classic, Dragon's Lair, now presented on the small iOS screen in all of its (let's be honest, somewhat aged) glory. Dragon's Lair 2 is subtitled Time Warp, and sends Dirk the Daring off through time in the hopes of saving the fair Princess Daphne. Just like the first title, originally made popular on Laserdisc, this one offers branching paths that make up a pretty compelling adventure game, and just like the first iteration of the series on iOS, moves are made by pressing various virtual buttons on the screen. If you played the first Dragon's Lair and didn't get into it (like a fine wine, it does require a little appreciation for the age it was created in), you probably won't find much here to keep your interest. But if you look back on the Dragon's Lair series with fondness and have been waiting for the sequel to drop, well, here you go. Dragon's Lair 2: Time Warp is now available on the App Store for US$2.99.
TUAW's Daily App: Tiny Tower
I actually played Tiny Tower for the first time back at GDC this year -- the guys at NimbleBit kindly showed me an early version of it while they were in the middle of designing the game. The title itself is now out and finished on the App Store, and after having played it for about a week already (thanks to a press preview), I can say it's an amazing title that's made even better by the fact that it's completely free to install and play. It's very much like the old SimTower game in that you create and run a tower filled with little characters called Bitizens. You can build residential floors to move Bitizens into, and then you can put them to work on other floors that fill out certain categories, like retail floors and services and recreation areas. You can assign three Bitizens to work on a certain floor, and then you pay money to stock goods in those stores and sell them to various visitors. In addition to the time-based management side of the game, there are a few games to play, like getting Bitizens to the right floor in a working elevator or playing find-the-Bitizen. These games are more integrated into the overall game than, say, the pond was in NimbleBit's Pocket Frogs, but I'm still a little disappointed that they don't have too much of an effect. You can make a few bucks at a time, and there are VIPs that show up every once in a while, but the floors you deliver people to don't seem to really have a direct effect. Nevertheless, it's fun building up your tower, and while the push notifications (if you keep them on) threaten to get annoying after a while, the amount of detail and care put into the art and strategy is excellent. There are even little extras, like a "BitBook" social network page and a fun screen to compare your friends' towers via Game Center. Tiny Tower is yet another great title from NimbleBit. It's a freemium download (and like Pocket Frogs, you can buy "convenience currency" with an in-app purchase, but I haven't needed it yet) that's available right now.
TUAW's Daily iPhone App: Twirdie
Twirdie is an interesting game that's got one of the most fascinating premises I've ever heard, but it unfortunately gets bogged down in an implementation that's quite a bit less than fun. The basic idea (which you may have heard before -- the game's already been around the Web once) is that you're playing golf, and you use Twitter search results to hit the ball. The more times a word you punch into the game has been mentioned live on Twitter in the past 60 seconds, the farther your ball goes. The idea is interesting, and it works (though I was playing on a Wi-Fi connection -- I assume 3G or even Edge Twitter searches would be much slower). But the problem is that it's not actually fun. You don't line up an angle or anything to actually "play" the golf course; it's all about just getting distance. And not only is the distance random, based on your search, but if you go too short or too far, you just plain lose the shot. In other words, the backend "live" functionality is neat, but the game attached to it is sadly disappointing. If you want to see the app in action (and maybe you're better at guessing Twitter results than I am), it's only US 99 cents on the App Store right now. Here's hoping that some other developers pick up on using this "live data" from Twitter or elsewhere, and we get a more substantial game out of it.
TUAW's Daily iPhone App: Diversion
Diversion may not look like much, but it makes up for any shortage in graphical quality (yes, the characters do look that goofy) with a solid bunch of gameplay that's surprisingly fun despite the simple premise. The pitch here is "a platformer on rails," so you play as a 3D character who's always running forward through a world, and it's just up to you to jump at the right times. Again, that sounds simple, but it's surprisingly interesting with lots of strange jumps to make and figure out across over 100 levels. There's also an amazing amount of content to unlock -- there are over 150 different characters to play with and plenty of secrets to find across the game's 3D worlds. Normally I'd say it's unfortunate that there's no Game Center involved, but in this case, it's not really needed as the challenge is simply just passing the levels rather than racing through them. Diversion does an excellent job of providing just that, and especially at its current price of just US 99 cents.
TUAW's Daily iPhone App: iQuarterback 2 Pocket Edition
iQuarterback 2 is an excellent little football throwing game from FuzzyCube Software that has you tossing a little pigskin around a football field through multiple game modes. The game recently came out on the iPad, but the iPhone version is brand new. It's just as fun on the small screen, with plenty of targets to go after, and a "Fame" currency that you can use to collect new outfits, accessories, and more. Full Game Center integration lets you check scores and achievements between you and your friends as well. Plus, the price is right -- the game is a free download, and right now this weekend, the in-app purchase to remove ads is just US 99 cents. The iPad version is a little more expensive, but that's what you get for having a bigger screen, right?
TUAW's Daily iPhone App: Titus
Titus is a game that calls itself a "political simulator," featuring an agoraphobic watchmaker who decides to run for president in the crazy world of Wealland. If that description and the game's Tim Burton-esque aesthetic haven't won you over already, then you and I have very different tastes in gaming. The actual gameplay is more about how well you do at minigames than actual strategy, but it's a fun affair, providing a tweaked parody of politics and that really interesting art style. Titus' main opponent is a mime, and through minigames that have you catching cash or Doodle Jumping-your way along, it's your goal to win the hearts (or at least the wallets) of your people. Titus has achievements, but unfortunately it isn't directly Game Center enabled. It is a universal app, however, and it's available right now for US$1.99.
TUAW's Daily iPhone App: Hercules - Curse of the Hydra
Hercules - Curse of the Hydra isn't exactly the most polished game I've seen on the iPhone -- it's a little clumsy, in fact, with some awkwardly placed controls and graphics that aren't quite as smooth as they could be. But it's still an interesting title and a solid effort from an indie studio, and I like its ambitious nature. There are 16 different levels of platforming and 3D action to fight through here, and while the game is still a little rough, it's cool to see a small studio take on a full title like this on iOS. Unfortunately, there's no Game Center integration, but there's a nice progression scheme to explore, which should keep you charging through the action and the storyline. There's a free version of the game to try out (and I actually recommend you give it a shot before you buy the full game, just to see if it's your thing). The full version is US$3.99 on the App Store right now, and I think it's worth supporting this studio, called Smerc. There are a lot of little pick-up-and-play puzzle games out on the store, but I like to see someone trying to tackle an experience that's a little bigger than that.
TUAW's Daily iPhone App: Icebreaker Hockey
You may remember Backbreaker, the iOS football arcade game series by developers NaturalMotion. That same company has now used its proprietary physics engine to put together a game called Icebreaker Hockey, which obviously takes on the sport that's popular with our Canadian friends in the north. Just like Backbreaker, the game isn't a straight hockey title, but rather plays like a concentrated version of hockey, with you controlling a player skating straight for the goal and having to juke around defenders and get your shot in when you can. It's fun stuff, especially if you're not too concerned about realism. There are a few different modes to play with, and full Game Center integration for leaderboards and achievements. The weather's heating up outside, so the ice rink may seem like a thing of the past these days, but you can still get your skate on with this one. Icebreaker Hockey is just US$0.99 on the App Store right now.
TUAW's Daily iOS App: The Incredible Machine
A little while back, we spotlighted the great game Casey's Contraptions in this space, and the credit was well-deserved at the time (and still is). But that game was inspired in large part by an older game called The Incredible Machine, worked on by programmer Jeff Tunnell. Tunnell recently went to work for Playdom, and that company is now owned by Disney's interactive arm. So when Tunnell also decided recently that he wanted to bring The Incredible Machine to iOS, Disney gladly helped out with publishing. If I had to choose one, I'd say Casey's Contraptions is the more full-featured title, and my recommendation for that one is as strong as ever. But I also spent some time with Incredible Machine in Disney's booth at E3 this week, and it's a pretty solid title as well. The game comes with 60 levels, with more available in extra packs, and if you're a fan of the old game, most of your favorite items are back in play here. If you shot through Casey's and want another Rube Goldberg game to play, you can give this one a look as well. Incredible Machine is currently available on the App Store as a universal version for iPad, and costs US$2.99.
TUAW's Daily iPhone App: Feed Me Oil
I'm going to see what Chillingo has to offer here at E3 later on today, but in the meantime, this recent release on the App Store is gaining some popularity (and has been featured by Apple as iPhone game of the week this week). It's sort of a liquid physics puzzler -- there's oil coming out of a spigot at the top of each level, and you've got to funnel it down, using a series of platform pieces, into a waiting "mouth" somewhere on screen. Gameplay is simple but interesting as the game very slowly opens up, level by level, into more and more creative ways to find solutions. The standard Chillingo polish is here as well -- each level has the usual three star rating, a timer that tracks how fast you complete things and even a score depending on how well you do. Leaderboard and achievements are tracked with Game Center and Crystal, and there's a fun social feature for sharing levels with friends as well. Feed Me Oil is a fun little physics outing that doesn't do a lot of new things, but does what it does in a polished and fun way. It's only US$0.99, so give it a look when you want a little physics thinking to do.
