CannonCadets
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Cannon Cadets now includes level builder, scoring, and a TUAW level
Back in August, XMG Studio released a fun game called Cannon Cadets (US$0.99), and it quickly became popular with those of us who love games where we shoot or fling things at targets. I enjoyed Cannon Cadets, although lack of a cohesive scoring mechanism made it difficult to measure my progress, and the sound effects -- which consisted mainly of farts and burps -- were annoying. XMG listened to feedback from the many people who purchased the game, and it's now out with even more special features, cool sounds, and an updated soundtrack. The updated version is universal, so you can now kill robots on your iPad as well. If you have an iPhone 4, you'll be thrilled to see that Retina Display support is included. A scoring mechanism has been built into Cannon Cadets, but even better, you can now build your own levels and share them with other players. XMG Studio reported that in less than a week, over 500 user-generated levels have been developed. All are available for gameplay from within Cannon Cadets, and we're happy to say that Brandon at XMG created a difficult level for TUAW (see screenshot above). If you have Cannon Cadets, go to "Download User Made Levels", search for tuaw by brandonmat, download it, and enjoy. It should keep you busy over the weekend!
Celebrate the launch of Cannon Cadets with XMG Studio and TUAW
When you're tired of flinging birds at pigs, here's a new way to have fun -- an addictive game called Cannon Cadets (US$1.99) from XMG Studio. I was fortunate enough to get a preview of Cannon Cadets a few weeks ago, and quickly jumped into the fun. The back story of Cannon Cadets is that there's a very unhappy monkey by the name of Gordo who seeks to remove fun from the universe with his army of evil robots. Your mission is to use your cannon to launch your characters -- RocketBoy, RocketGirl, Pop, Granati and Beats -- at the robots, structures, and flying targets to try to knock out the robot army and finish a level. There are 80 levels on four different planets (not including hidden levels) to work your way through, all of which are challenging and fun to look at. The game physics are a lot of fun -- there are objects in higher levels that are more like Rube Goldberg devices than just knock 'em down structures, with spinning and swinging bits that are a delight to work with. The sound effects are musical and crazy (yes, those two adjectives do work together in this game), and the graphics really pop on the iPhone 4 Retina Display. You need to work your way through one level to unlock the next level, or if you're impatient, you can spend $0.99 on an in-app purchase that will automatically unlock all levels. What will delight some players and irritate others is that there is no scoring in Cannon Cadets. You basically work your way through the levels, and if you're unsuccessful, you try again. There are some levels further on in the game that are just so much fun to defeat that you'll find yourself playing them again just to watch the game in action. If you'd like to win a copy of the game or a specially-designed Cannon Cadets / TUAW skin for your iDevice, read on.
TUAW exclusive: Cannon Cadets brings frantic robot-killing action to iPhone
I spent about the last two weeks working my way through the levels of Angry Birds HD, a wacky and addictive game for iPad in which you slingshot birds at pigs to kill them. Yeah, I know it sounds weird, but if you have played the game, you know that it's a great way to kill a few hours days worth of spare time. When I was approached about previewing a new, similar game called Cannon Cadets, my first inclination was that it wasn't going to be as fun. I'm glad to say I was wrong. Based on a pre-release version of the game I tested, Cannon Cadets from XMG Studio is a blast (no pun intended). As you can see in the video above, the back story consists of an evil monkey who has created an army of robots to kill all of the fun in the universe. Rather than using a slingshot to fire suicidal birds, you use a small cannon to fire small characters at the robots. There are a number of different planets on which you can play, each with a variety of increasingly difficult levels. As with Angry Birds, sometimes a straight shot at a target is not the answer, while blasting away at structures causes them to topple and knock off a bunch of robots. There are flying targets that, when destroyed, provide access to hidden levels. Other targets launch your characters when destroyed, so a direct hit can take out a string of robots. If you're unsuccessful in killing off the robots in a level, you can either try again or move to another level to try your luck. The graphics in Cannon Cadets appear to be optimized for the iPhone 4's Retina Display, since they really pop on the device. The game is expected to be in the App Store soon; stay tuned to TUAW and we'll let you know when you can start killing robots. Cannon Cadets will be released for iPhone and iPod touch first, followed by a version for iPad.
