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First Impressions: Book of Heroes
Within the ever-changing landscape of MMOs, the mobile MMO is a peculiar beast. Not too often will you find any perfect storm of MMO features in one mobile title, but as players, we're instead forced to make do with a game that includes our favorite parts and pieces. Book of Heroes is a mobile MMO that first launched for Apple devices in November of 2011 and on Android in March of 2012. The game's developer, Venan Entertainment, has most recently produced Chapter 3: Dragonmoor, which puts the game even closer to what one might want from a "true" MMO. It's not even close to being there quite yet, but if you like raiding and battling up the leaderboards with your friends, you might just enjoy this game.
NinjaTown: Trees of Doom half price for a 'limited time'
Between scaling deadly pines and being adorable, NinjaTown franchise star Wee Ninja somehow found the time to pow-wow with Business Ninja and work out a price drop for NinjaTown: Trees of Doom. The Doodle Jump-like series spinoff game landed on iPhone earlier this month for $1.99, but apparently developer Venan Entertainment decided that it's "not yet satisfied" with sales, despite remaining atop the Top 25 paid app charts for some time now. No official end date is given for the sale, though the game's iTunes App Store listing says it will stay on sale "while featured by Apple." Better get it while the getting's good then, eh? NinjaTown: Trees of Doom (Venan Entertainment, $0.99):
Return to Ninjatown in tree-hopping iPhone adventure
click to enter the gallery of doomShawn Smith's Ninjatown characters first appeared in video game form in a 2008 tower defense game for DS called, appropriately, Ninjatown. It was adorable. Developer Venan Entertainment is bringing Ninjatown back on a new platform, and as a platformer, sort of! Ninjatown: Trees of Doom puts the player in the role of a Wee Ninja who, in order to impress Ol' Master Ninja, demonstrates his ability to run straight up a tree. To avoid enemies and obstacles like Dark Syrup, Wee Ninja must leap between two parallel trees or use branches to catapult himself upward. Trees of Doom will be Ninja Dropping onto the App Store "in a couple weeks" for $1.99. %Gallery-91004%
Ol' Master Ninja's ol' magic
Ol' Master Ninja has plenty of techniques at his disposal to help take care of the denizens of Ninjatown. This trailer illustrates some of the ninja magic that can be used in-game to augment the monster-killing abilities of Ninjatown's silent, cuddly assassins. One special ability allows the player to refill ninjas' health by humming into the mic while they are on screen. Another gives Ol' Master Ninja a magnifying glass that can be directed onto enemies with the stylus. Ninjas aren't helpless on their own, of course: Forest Ninjas shoot barrages of arrows, and Business Ninjas can ... smack dudes in the head with cell phones.%Gallery-15839%
Ninjatown: Tower Defense with ninjas
We knew developer Venan Entertainment and Shawnimals creator Shawn Smith were intending to create an "action-strategy" title with Ninjatown, but, for some reason, it never occurred to us that what they meant was a ninja-themed Tower Defense game.Reviewing IGN's gameplay clips and Joystiq's hands-on preview, it's obvious now how Ninjatown will play: During a brief building phase, you'll build ninja huts along a path which will produce varied ninja units. Enemies will start to charge down the path, and your newly created ninjas must try to stop them.Managing and commanding the ninjas from a hot air balloon as Ol' Master Ninja, players can jump into the battle with special attacks, such as smacking enemies with the Ol' Master Ninja's cane and slowing them down by blowing into the DS's microphone.Publisher SouthPeak expects to include 30+ scenarios total, encompassing five different gameworld areas, for Ninjatown's fall release. Though there's already at least one other Tower Defense commercial title due for the DS -- 5th Cell's Lock's Quest -- the cute character designs, playful approach, and use of the system's features could be enough to turn Ninjatown into something special.%Gallery-15839%Read - Joystiq hands-on: NinjatownRead - IGN's Ninjatown videos
What's going down in Ninjatown
We're confident in our belief that Ninjatown is the only ninja game in history to feature cartoon hearts on its box. It's all due to the super-cute style created by Shawn Smith that the bizarre dichotomy between cute and cold-heartedly murderous can be maintained. For example: the game is a strategy game, which means war. The black-suited ninja is less than one second away from committing an act of violence on the boxart, and yet the ninjas' Smurf-Village-like dwellings overpower that and elicit an "awwww." We've got the first direct-feed screens of the game in our new gallery, and the same feeling applies: yes, these are people who primarily identify as ruthless assassins, but ... we want to huggle them.%Gallery-15839%[Via press release]
EGM visits Ninjatown
Shawnimals creator and Electronic Gaming Monthly alum Shawn Smith finally broke his silence on Ninjatown, sitting with EGM to talk about the game and share a couple screenshots. We knew to expect plenty of characters from the Shawnimals plush toy line when the Ninjatown trailer debuted, but, until now, we've been left in the dark on how the "action-strategy" title would play.According to Shawn, battles will be split into two phases, building and combat, the first of which allows you to drop in structures and create/upgrade the different ninjas at your disposal. While combat hasn't been finalized, it's expected to include a "puzzle element." We're not sure how that would work with the two screens shown so far, but it certainly sounds interesting!
