DynamiteJack
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Daily iPad App: Dynamite Jack is a welcome arrival on the iPad
Phil Hassey's great Dynamite Jack game arrived on Steam and the Mac App Store a little while ago, but Phil told us back at GDC this year that he's been planning an iOS release. This week, that finally happened, and Dynamite Jack is now available on the iPad. The game's a 2D stealth affair, where you guide Jack through a series of caverns, trying to dodge guards, cave trolls, lasers, and spiders to collect chips and make it to the exit alive. Hassey's done an impressive job porting the game over here. The virtual controls work just fine and a new line-drawing mode lets you trace a line on the screen to guide Jack's route. At first, I stuck with the virtual controls, but I think for the tougher stealth levels, I actually prefer drawing lines. Impressively, the iOS app includes all of the community-created maps, and a built-in map editor lets you create your own levels. Custom levels come with their own leaderboards. There's a crazy amount of replayability on this one, to be sure. Dynamite Jack is US$2.99 on the App Store, and I think this is the best version of the game released yet. If you've made the mistake of not playing this game yet, now's your chance. This is the version you want.
Dynamite Jack now available
Phil Hassey's title Dynamite Jack, first seen by us at GDC earlier this year, is now available for purchase on Steam. It's only $4.99 usually, and it's actually on a launch sale for $3.99 right now, so if you need something to play this weekend, it would be a perfect choice. I really like the game's combination of stealth and action, and it's got a nice retro style that's clear, simple, and fun. The only reason you might not want to grab it just yet is that it's still coming to the Mac App Store soon -- Hassey says that he couldn't quite swing a simultaneous release, so the Mac App Store version might have a few extra features that the version on Steam doesn't have just yet. And Hassey says he's also going to be hard at work on an iPad version as well, so if you'd rather play the game on a tablet, you might want to wait. But the game is a lot of fun, and at just a few bucks, it's worth a look for sure.
Phil Hassey's Anathema Mines renamed Dynamite Jack, gets a trailer
A little while ago at GDC, I sat down with Galcon creator Phil Hassey. He showed me a game he called Anathema Mines that was a stylish take on stealth action, with a fun mechanic of blowing up walls (as long as you could keep out of the reach of flashlight-wielding enemies). Apparently he's done a lot of work and a little bit of brand tweaking to the title, because it's now called Dynamite Jack, and you can watch the official trailer below. It looks fun, and also looks basically the same as the game I played at GDC (though obviously then it wasn't quite as done yet). Hassey told me the game would be ready for iOS as well as Windows and Mac around release, and he also said that he was aiming for iCade support as well. The latest launch date on the project is sometime in May, so we'll keep an eye out for it then.
