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'Defector' on the Oculus is basically VR spy training
While I may be a rather incompetent assassin, it turns out that I'm not a half-bad secret agent man. At E3 on Thursday, I was afforded the opportunity to don an Oculus headset and play through a level of Twisted Pixel's upcoming espionage simulator, Defector. I only blew my own cover twice!
'Splosion Man' developer Twisted Pixel is leaving Microsoft
Twisted Pixel may have gotten into Microsoft's good graces (and the company itself) through games like Splosion Man and The Maw, but it didn't stay there for very long. The developer has revealed that it's being spun out from Microsoft Studios roughly four years after it joined the fold. The reasons behind the departure aren't immediately apparent. However, it's safe to say that Twisted Pixel's most recent game, LocoCycle, didn't do it any favors -- the Xbox One launch title was so terrible that even the intro movie was hard to bear. Hopefully, the team's departure from Microsoft leads to bigger and better efforts.
Daily iPhone App: Ms. Splosion Man splodes out onto iOS
I'm a big fan of developer Twisted Pixel -- their console games are always terrific, with the original Splosion Man being one of my favorites. Now, the company has teamed up with developer Iron Galaxy and publisher Microsoft to bring the sequel to that one, Ms. Splosion Man, to iOS, and the result is a really impressive port. In fact, I don't know if "port" is even the right word for this one. If you'd never heard Ms. Splosion Man was released on Xbox before it arrived on the iPhone, this could just be one of the best platformers on the App Store. The idea here is that you play a very silly creature that can "splode" whenever you touch the screen, which allows you to destroy objects and jump all in one explosive movement. You can "splode" up to three times before you need to touch the ground again, so essentially the game is a pretty twitchy triple jump platformer, challenging you to navigate Ms. Splosion Man through fifty different levels. Just looking at the game itself, Ms. Splosion Man is great -- it takes Twisted Pixel's original Splosion Man idea, and improves on it with huge boss fights, perfectly designed levels, and lots of new mechanics, like rotating cannons and a very active camera. As a port, however, this title is even more impressive. I am not sure how Iron Galaxy was able to make the game look and run this well, but they did it -- the title looks like it was lifted straight from the Xbox, and it runs just as smoothly on my iPhone. There are some new additions, too, like challenges to complete for "Fame" as you play, and even full AirPlay support. My one complaint here is that the touchscreen controls sometimes cover up the action, but that's not a huge issue, especially considering the rest of the app's quality. Ms. Splosion Man is a great game already, and it's been delivered to the App Store with panache here. You can pick it up there now for just $2.99.
XBLA developer Twisted Pixel aiming for iOS
Touch Arcade recently chatted with the CEO of developer Twisted Pixel Michael Wilford. Twisted Pixel is the group behind Xbox Live Arcade hits like The Maw and Splosion Man, the latter of which was the "influence" for Capcom's "MaXplosion." Touch Arcade asked about iOS development, and Wilford first said the Capcom incident had "lit a fire under our butts" to try to make an iOS game. He then confirmed that Twisted Pixel is "working on something" for Apple's platform. That's exciting! We don't yet know what it is they're working on; TUAW contacted Wilford to ask if it might be an original IP or a port of one of the XBLA titles, but were told it's still too soon to say. Wilford does tell us there'll be something to share soon, so we're all ears. There's one more wrinkle to this: XBLA is currently one of the biggest online marketplaces for downloaded games out there, and it could be argued it's in direct competition with Apple's App Store. We've already seen some crossover between the two platforms, and whenever this project is ready to see the light, it seems we'll have even more.
Twisted Pixel chooses not to sue Capcom over iOS ripoff
Capcom Mobile recently released a new game for the iOS App Store called MaXplosion, and soon after, a few fans noticed the game bears a striking similarity to a game by Twisted Pixel for Xbox Live Arcade called 'Splosion Man. Aside from the names themselves, MaXplosion also allows the player to jump three times by exploding each time, has a similar-looking character also running around a lab space, and it even has a similar soundtrack. We've noted before that intellectual property theft has run rampant on the App Store, and Gameloft has even earned a reputation for "borrowing" game styles from bigger console games. But this one's pretty flagrant -- not only is the ripoff pretty clear, but it's from Capcom's European development unit, a traditional gaming company that should know better. There's one more wrinkle: Twisted Pixel says it even pitched the game to Capcom's US offices before releasing it themselves on Xbox Live. Despite the problem, Twisted Pixel has responded by saying it won't sue. Not only is the battle probably not worth it for the relatively small developer, but as CEO Mike Wilford says wittily, "we owe them one for inventing Mega Man, so we'll let them slide." He promises Twisted Pixel will put the extra time saved into a quality mobile game of its own. Fair enough.
