BardsTale
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Daily iPad App: The Bard's Tale
The Bard's Tale was originally released on Microsoft's first Xbox console, and it was a sort of a side-make of the original point-and-click RPG adventure game from the 80s (which itself is represented on the App Store by an app called Silversword, if you'd rather go even more old school than this one). But the Xbox title has just recently appeared on iOS, and it's a respectable port of the title that makes fun of a lot of fantasy and RPG video game tropes. The Bard's Tale features amazing voice work (including by the late great Tony Jay) and the hack-and-slash action isn't half bad. Fans of bawdy humor and wacky stories (there's a zombie dance-off hidden in the plotline) will definitely get a kick out of it. The app is Game Center-enabled and uses iCloud across a universal version, so you can trade saves between your iOS devices. Some iTunes users have reported a few bugs, unfortunately, but there are updates coming (driven by a few in-app purchases that are optional but definitely not required), so hopefully if you hit an issue, it should be fixed before long. To sweeten the pot even further, the app's on sale this week, down to US$2.99. The Bard's Tale is definitely worth a play through, especially if you missed it during the original run on the Xbox.
Classic Elite, Interplay titles coming to iOS
Touch Arcade has some good and bad news for fans of classic PC RPGs out there. The bad news is that the expected Elite Collection (which was set to come out last week and round up some of old developer Elite Systems' best games on iOS, has been delayed due to some rights issues. One of the companies involved that had previously agreed to share its games decided instead to claim a trademark at the last minute, which will hold up the process for a while, perhaps only a week or two. The good news, however, is that that extra time will allow the folks behind the apps to add in some extra titles, which TA presumes are some really amazing Interplay games, including The Bard's Tale and the great RPG Wasteland. That would be awesome -- almost all of Interplay's old titles are classics, and it'd be great to get those up and running on iOS devices. We'll see -- Elite is still working on getting everything together, but as I said, news should be out in the next couple of weeks. Here's hoping iOS gamers get their hands on this great collection soon.
