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[Kafel]

Free upgrade pack for MGS Touch :

http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/iPhone/Metal+Gear+Solid+Touch/news.asp?c=12461

 

[Mr.Squirrel]

I suppose you have tried Deadbeef? Its free!

yeah i tried deadbeef a while back. i really wanted to like it, but the controls just felt off to me

 

[Solideliquid]

Just got Flight Control and Galaxy on Fire. Going to be playing these and watching some movie with airplanes on the way from ATL to LA next week!

 

[Stoney Mason]

Flight Control is #1 and Wolfenstein is at #4 overall on the us app store. First time Pocket God hasn't been #1 in quite a while. Nice to see.

Zombieville is also at #3.

 

[dream]

Tell me more about Galaxy On Fire, Stoney? I'm pretty wary of ports of 2 year old Java games but I'm intrigued by the Privateeresque design of this game...

 

[Stoney Mason]

Tell me more about Galaxy On Fire, Stoney? I'm pretty wary of ports of 2 year old Java games but I'm intrigued by the Privateeresque design of this game...

Unfortunately I ended up playing a good deal of Chinatown wars today and never had a chance to play more. I'll give a more detailed write up tomorrow as I'll play a good deal this evening.

 

[Stoney Mason]

Tell me more about Galaxy On Fire, Stoney? I'm pretty wary of ports of 2 year old Java games but I'm intrigued by the Privateeresque design of this game...

Well I played some more today but honestly I'm stuck on mission 6. The game probably needs an easier mode patch for people like me

Seems pretty cool. Supposedly the first 13 missions are story scripted but it gets more open form after that. The problem is the story doesn't ever pick back up supposedly. There is no sort of full story mode. You just kind of do what you want to make money and upgrade your ship which is neat but there really should be a story and goal somewhere in there.

The graphics are decent. The controls are pretty good once you crank the sensitivity up to 100%. Supposedly a few of the later mission like 9 and 13 are a bitch too so I scared I'm gonna get stuck there also.

You'd probably be better off checking the toucharcade forums for the people who are farther along in the game and better than me.



http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=8082&page=53

 

[Tobor]

Any consensus on the best solitaire game? I purchased Solebon a while ago, but I'd like to know if there is a better one I'm missing.

 

[Mr.Squirrel]

Any consensus on the best solitaire game? I purchased Solebon a while ago, but I'd like to know if there is a better one I'm missing.

top 3 is my fav. has solitaire, free cell, and spider solitaire. it's from the guy who made isoliataire during that 1.4 fw days.

 

[Castor Krieg]

Just learned that iphone has rRootage, off to dl it

 

[Stoney Mason]

Any consensus on the best solitaire game? I purchased Solebon a while ago, but I'd like to know if there is a better one I'm missing.

Soliban and Solitaire City are both well regarded.

 

[Castor Krieg]

Stoney, can you or someone else suggest me really good MAHJONG game for the iPhone. I don't mean the simple "match the tile" ones with shapes, I mean real Mahjong with scoring system, pref. different rules, good tile animation, etc. Thanks!

 

[mrklaw]

This era of the fps game is really nearly perfectly suited for the iphone. I'm not really sure how games like Quake will work where you divorce the aim from the movement though. You will certainly have to slow them down but I still don't quite understand how you combine movement with shooting. You can emulate dual ananlog controls like a lot of games do like iDracula but how do you fire? Or jump for that matter? Oh well. Those are questions for later.
.

Does the ipod touch have only tilt sensors, or can it also detect movement up/down (without tilting)? Eg could it detect you 'tapping' virtual shoulder buttons to fire?

 

[Stoney Mason]

Stoney, can you or someone else suggest me really good MAHJONG game for the iPhone. I don't mean the simple "match the tile" ones with shapes, I mean real Mahjong with scoring system, pref. different rules, good tile animation, etc. Thanks!

Unfortunately I think most of the mahjong games on the iphone follow the American match the tiles solitaire concept that most westerners like. As far as traditional ones.

There is Majong Police but that is in Japanese.
There is Four Winds Mah Jong but that has terrible reviews on the app store.
Majong Fairyland despite the cartoon looks seems to be a somewhat traditional take on Four Winds.
iGame 16 Mahjong is Chinese language but seems to imply a multi-language update is coming.
China Mahjong looks like it plays a somewhat traditional game.

 

[bryehn]

Just popping in to self-whore a review of Just Fillin' I published today. Great, fast-paced puzzle game, 4/5.

It's easy for me to recommend Just Fillin' to those looking for a great portable action-puzzle title, provided they are up for a challenge. It's the kind of game I mean to play for five minutes and end up playing for 30 thanks to a great presentation and original, addictive gameplay.

Positives:

+ Fast-Paced, Addictive Gameplay
+ Polished Look, Well Realized Art Style
+ Unlimited Levels in Normal and Hard Modes
+ Daily, Weekly, Monthly Leaderboards

Negatives:

- Fingers Obscure Areas of the Playfield

 

[Castor Krieg]

Unfortunately I think most of the mahjong games on the iphone follow the American match the tiles solitaire concept that most westerners like. As far as traditional ones.

There is Majong Police but that is in Japanese.
There is Four Winds Mah Jong but that has terrible reviews on the app store.
Majong Fairyland despite the cartoon looks seems to be a somewhat traditional take on Four Winds.
iGame 16 Mahjong is Chinese language but seems to imply a multi-language update is coming.
China Mahjong looks like it plays a somewhat traditional game.

Thx so much for the list, I'm going to go with China Mahjong, reviews of Mahjong Fairyland are bad, clearly the app needs lot of improvement. China Mahjong has been already reworked to version 2.1, which shows some dedication from the developer. Also the reviews on app store are very positive.

 

[dave360]

Anyone know when Peggle is releasing for the IPhone/Touch?

 

[Stoney Mason]

Anyone know when Peggle is coming out for the IPhone?

No one knows. Anytime within the next month it could be honestly. Originally it was slated around the end of March though.

 

[DevelopmentArrested]

so... Crayon Physics Deluxe or Topple 2 ?

 

[Stoney Mason]

so... Crayon Physics Deluxe or Topple 2 ?

Tough call.

Crayon Physics is neat but I find it a little slow on the iphone. Haven't got around to getting Topple 2 yet but I really enjoyed the first.

Don't forgot to try Trace if you haven't already. Similar concept in that you draw on the screen to get (in this case) a person from point A to point B. Butt ugly but a fun game and its free.

 

[Remy]

Where did TNA Wrestling come from?

Reviews are pointing to it being a *turn-based* wrestling game, which is intriguing enough that I just went in on it. Having Fire Pro-style graphics isn't hurting either.

Impressions soon.

 

[Rummy Bunnz]

Where did TNA Wrestling come from?

Reviews are pointing to it being a *turn-based* wrestling game, which is intriguing enough that I just went in on it. Having Fire Pro-style graphics isn't hurting either.

Impressions soon.

Oh man the roided up ape arms on those sprites are hilarious. It almost makes me wanna buy it. Where are the impressions, Remy?!

 

[bathala]

Where did TNA Wrestling come from?

Reviews are pointing to it being a *turn-based* wrestling game, which is intriguing enough that I just went in on it. Having Fire Pro-style graphics isn't hurting either.

Impressions soon.

I stopped watching the show, but that's interesting gameplay and art style might check it out

 

[sportzhead]

Where did TNA Wrestling come from?

Reviews are pointing to it being a *turn-based* wrestling game, which is intriguing enough that I just went in on it. Having Fire Pro-style graphics isn't hurting either.

Impressions soon.

Here is a video of the game. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnrldGIrVHI

Looks pretty weak to me. Also what the deal with the no sound effects.

 

[Ydahs]

I bought an 8 GB IPod Touch a couple days ago and I was wondering what are the good free, downloadable games? I have Tap Tap Revenge which is a pretty decent game but is there anything else which is recommended for downloading? It must be free, since I don't have a credit or debit card to purchase.

I know this is the Gaming thread, but app recommendations would also be appreciated!

(I'd normally browse through the thread, but it's pretty big and my internet usage is wasted for the month and is now ~28kbps)

 

[Stocka]

I bought an 8 GB IPod Touch a couple days ago and I was wondering what are the good free, downloadable games? I have Tap Tap Revenge which is a pretty decent game but is there anything else which is recommended for downloading? It must be free, since I don't have a credit or debit card to purchase.

I know this is the Gaming thread, but app recommendations would also be appreciated!

(I'd normally browse through the thread, but it's pretty big and my internet usage is wasted for the month and is now ~28kbps)

Labyrinth Lite Edition
Edge Lite
Tap Tap Revenge 2
Rolando Lite
Bounce On Lite

 

[Ydahs]

Labyrinth Lite Edition
Edge Lite
Tap Tap Revenge 2
Rolando Lite
Bounce On Lite

Thank you. I take it that the Lite versions are a limited version of the full, paid game? I already have TTR2 and it is pretty addictive.

 

[dream]

Thank you. I take it that the Lite versions are a limited version of the full, paid game? I already have TTR2 and it is pretty addictive.

Yeah, developers aren't allowed to use the word "demo" on the App Store so everyone settled on "Lite."

 

[Stoney Mason]

Always interesting to get sales data and I agree with him about revenue rather than individual sales which is a better metric in this case imo when content can sell for 99 cents although I doubt Apple will do it.

Payback Outsells Trism (and iShoot, technically)

Introduction

Payback has been on sale in the App Store for two months now, and it's been a real rollercoaster! People seem to be really interested in App Store sales figures, so we've decided to release ours. As you can probably tell from the title, things have gone rather well - we've outsold Trism which famously made $250K in the same time period. (We've also technically outsold iShoot although that didn't really take off until the lite version was released two and a half months after the initial launch.)

Sales

Without further ado, here's a graph of units sold over the first two months. As you can see, the game did really well right from the start:



Impressively, 500 people managed to buy the game before it was officially released. Not exactly sure how that happened - best guess is it's probably due to time zone differences.

The second peak roughly in the middle of the graph is when the game was featured on "new and noteworthy" in the US. You'll also notice there's a dip in this peak and then it goes up again - this second spike was when we reduced the price from $6.99 to $4.99. It's also worth pointing out that even the "low" level we're now at is higher than we expected the peak to be before the game was launched!

The headline figures are revenues to date of $400,000 (before Apple's cut and taxes) and 65,000 copies sold. There have also been roughly half a million downloads of the lite version even though it was only launched relatively recently.

Conclusion

As you can see, the App Store has certainly been kind to us, and we'd really like to thank Apple for making it possible and all of those who have bought the game to date. The really amazing thing is even the sales we've had so far represent just 0.2% of the total iPhone OS user base - it really is a huge market.

We do have one criticism though: it's vitally important to get visibility on the device, so getting into the Top 50 can really boost sales - unfortunately, the paid app charts are sorted by sales, which is inevitably going to skew things towards the cheaper apps and so will make it harder for relatively expensive apps like ours to break through (in fact, we have only occasionally been in the charts in most countries).

We've been lucky (and the lite version certainly helped), but others haven't been so fortunate. We'd therefore like to humbly suggest a solution to Apple - please sort the paid apps by revenue not by units sold. This would effectively allow the better value apps to rise to the top irrespective of price, giving them the visibility they deserve. This would benefit customers and developers alike because it would encourage quality software rather than cheap novelties.

Anyway, not to sound ungrateful - thanks again everyone! Let's see where this 'coaster goes next!

http://www.apex-designs.net/payback_iphone_report2.html

 

[Mr.Squirrel]

I bought an 8 GB IPod Touch a couple days ago and I was wondering what are the good free, downloadable games? I have Tap Tap Revenge which is a pretty decent game but is there anything else which is recommended for downloading? It must be free, since I don't have a credit or debit card to purchase.

I know this is the Gaming thread, but app recommendations would also be appreciated!

(I'd normally browse through the thread, but it's pretty big and my internet usage is wasted for the month and is now ~28kbps)

if itunes cards are available in your area spend .99c and get flight control. the games addictive and def worth a buck

 

[Remy]

Oh man the roided up ape arms on those sprites are hilarious. It almost makes me wanna buy it. Where are the impressions, Remy?!

Here they are!

What I expected was a wrestling game - what I got was an RPG. A pleasant surprise!

As you can see from that video, there's some pretty goofy writing, but it's certainly not worse than most wrestling game career modes. You get a lot of dialog branches where you can earn face or heel points depending on your actions.

Some of the story bits I've run into so far:

- I had Jim Cornette tell me I should change my name to "Princess Ballerina" and I had to politely tell him that it didn't match my style (working through as a face the first time).
- I had Scott Steiner punk me out in the locker room because he's a roided up freak.
- I helped Sting not get the crap beat out of him.
- I mocked Jeff Jarrett for his country music career.

They all seem very "who do you want to side with?", but again, no worse than most games.

Battle is definitely turn based and works on an action point system. Each attack costs some number of action points, and after yours are used up, your opponent gets to attack.

Three mechanics build on top of this:

1) By chaining the basic moves together, you get more advanced moves and finishers. Triggering one of these moves means you have to do a small sequence of gestures before a timer runs out.
2) When your opponent is attacking, you can either dodge (no damage), counter (do damage to them), or reverse (make it your turn immediately) by doing a gesture sequence. You can only do this once per type in a match, so you may want to save them.
3) There's a crowd meter that allows you to pull off other moves *or* replenish your defensive moves.

No real gripes with the combat engine - I haven't had any challenging matches yet though (worked through 3-4 last night). Winning matches unlocks moves and gives you more experience points; leveling up gives you more action points or stamina.

And the artwork really is hilarious. It's bad enough the character headshots don't really look like them at all, but literally everyone is on the same style roided up body. But there are four roided up bodies to choose form!

It's apparently a port of an existing mobile phone game, but with the gesture controls and the touch screen navigation, it doesn't feel out of place.

Consider this a mixed but positive recommendation - only mixed because of the artwork, really. I definitely want to play through the whole career mode a few times, and that'll get me at least $5 of fun out of it.

 

[bathala]

Here they are!

What I expected was a wrestling game - what I got was an RPG. A pleasant surprise!

As you can see from that video, there's some pretty goofy writing, but it's certainly not worse than most wrestling game career modes. You get a lot of dialog branches where you can earn face or heel points depending on your actions.

Some of the story bits I've run into so far:

- I had Jim Cornette tell me I should change my name to "Princess Ballerina" and I had to politely tell him that it didn't match my style (working through as a face the first time).
- I had Scott Steiner punk me out in the locker room because he's a roided up freak.
- I helped Sting not get the crap beat out of him.
- I mocked Jeff Jarrett for his country music career.

They all seem very "who do you want to side with?", but again, no worse than most games.

Battle is definitely turn based and works on an action point system. Each attack costs some number of action points, and after yours are used up, your opponent gets to attack.

Three mechanics build on top of this:

1) By chaining the basic moves together, you get more advanced moves and finishers. Triggering one of these moves means you have to do a small sequence of gestures before a timer runs out.
2) When your opponent is attacking, you can either dodge (no damage), counter (do damage to them), or reverse (make it your turn immediately) by doing a gesture sequence. You can only do this once per type in a match, so you may want to save them.
3) There's a crowd meter that allows you to pull off other moves *or* replenish your defensive moves.

No real gripes with the combat engine - I haven't had any challenging matches yet though (worked through 3-4 last night). Winning matches unlocks moves and gives you more experience points; leveling up gives you more action points or stamina.

And the artwork really is hilarious. It's bad enough the character headshots don't really look like them at all, but literally everyone is on the same style roided up body. But there are four roided up bodies to choose form!

It's apparently a port of an existing mobile phone game, but with the gesture controls and the touch screen navigation, it doesn't feel out of place.

Consider this a mixed but positive recommendation - only mixed because of the artwork, really. I definitely want to play through the whole career mode a few times, and that'll get me at least $5 of fun out of it.

awesome impression. I'm diggin this rpg gameplay.

 

[AZ Greg]

I bought an 8 GB IPod Touch a couple days ago and I was wondering what are the good free, downloadable games? I have Tap Tap Revenge which is a pretty decent game but is there anything else which is recommended for downloading? It must be free, since I don't have a credit or debit card to purchase.

I know this is the Gaming thread, but app recommendations would also be appreciated!

(I'd normally browse through the thread, but it's pretty big and my internet usage is wasted for the month and is now ~28kbps)

In addition to what was already recommended, you should check out these games:

- Topple (Full game, cost money at one point, but free now)
- Archibald's Adventures lite
- Geo Defense lite

Just a couple of free apps:

- Remote (Apple made app to turn your Touch into a remote to control iTunes)
- Nimbuzz (My personal favorite IM client. Has all the services you would want, and when paired with a mic, works as a great portable Skype.)

 

[bathala]

TNA is great reminds me of Here comes the Pain with all the backstage scene options.

I get to spit on eric young, and hit Sting with a Chair :lol

and Christian still the Champ Daniels is still Fallen Angel

 

[Eaten By A Grue]

Oh man. Carmack making other devs look like morons since 1990.

Oh wait, this is GAF. LOLZ Carmacks shit not relevant loser rofl.

QFT, Carmack just served them.

I purchased Wolfenstein earlier tonight and have been playing it for hours now. This game has the best controls I have used yet for an iPhone game. I will be day 1 when Doom comes out. I hope that since Carmack got over the hump of putting out his first iPhone game, Doom development will be quicker. And by that I mean 2 days of dev time instead of the 4 days it took him to make Wolf3D.

 

[Ydahs]

if itunes cards are available in your area spend .99c and get flight control. the games addictive and def worth a buck

iTunes cards? Like Wii point cards? Never knew such a thing existed. I'll look for one the next time I go out and I'll be sure to get Flight Control.

In addition to what was already recommended, you should check out these games:

- Topple (Full game, cost money at one point, but free now)
- Archibald's Adventures lite
- Geo Defense lite

Just a couple of free apps:

- Remote (Apple made app to turn your Touch into a remote to control iTunes)
- Nimbuzz (My personal favorite IM client. Has all the services you would want, and when paired with a mic, works as a great portable Skype.)

Downloading the three games now. Geo Defense looks awesome.

 

[Surfheart]

What's the feeling on the TD situation, which is the best do you guys reckon?

 

[dream]

What's the feeling on the TD situation, which is the best do you guys reckon?

Well, keep in mind I'm more of a "mazes suck, just fucking die already" type of TD player but I really, really, really like 7 Cities. It's very similar to PixelJunk Monsters on the PS3 -- both use fixed paths instead of freeform levels.

 

[Masklinn]

What's the feeling on the TD situation, which is the best do you guys reckon?

Fixed paths, geoDefense (by a pretty long shot) followed by 7Cities and The Creeps. Crystal Defenders one also has quite a following (I hate it, personally). Elemental Monster TD is also not bad, and it's beautiful (in a heavier graphical style than geoDefense, which is more on the minimalistic/vector side)
Freeform, Fieldrunners

 

[Bliddo]

What's the feeling on the TD situation, which is the best do you guys reckon?

I'm not a big fan of TD but I really enjoy The Creeps and Fieldrunners.
They're cheap too

 

[okno]

I've been meaning to pop in here for a while now, but keep forgetting to do so.

Anyone who has not bought DROP7, DO SO NOW!

Seriously, the game is absolutely phenomenal and I can't put it down. I dream about the game, I close my eyes and see the bubbles, I'm driving my girlfriend crazy by playing it all the time. It's tricky at first, but once you start to understand the small nuances to score big points it because a total blast. My top score is ~133,000 with a max chain of 11. My only gripe with the game is it doesn't save your highest score, it only tells you the average score of all games played, and there is no online leaderboard, but hopefully these get patched into the game soon.

BUY BUY BUY

 

[Remy]

I've been meaning to pop in here for a while now, but keep forgetting to do so.

Anyone who has not bought DROP7, DO SO NOW!

Seriously, the game is absolutely phenomenal and I can't put it down. I dream about the game, I close my eyes and see the bubbles, I'm driving my girlfriend crazy by playing it all the time. It's tricky at first, but once you start to understand the small nuances to score big points it because a total blast. My top score is ~133,000 with a max chain of 11. My only gripe with the game is it doesn't save your highest score, it only tells you the average score of all games played, and there is no online leaderboard, but hopefully these get patched into the game soon.

BUY BUY BUY

While I completely agree that everyone should own this game, you're wrong about there not being high scoreboards. They just don't display after each round; you need to explicitly hit the "Scores" button to see them.

Online leaderboards would be nice.

Spoiler

I swear, I didn't post this just to mock your score!

 

[Mr.Squirrel]

iTunes cards? Like Wii point cards? Never knew such a thing existed. I'll look for one the next time I go out and I'll be sure to get Flight Control.


Downloading the three games now. Geo Defense looks awesome.

yeah it's like wii points card, or better yet gift cards. they have em at the my local supermarket next to the prepaid cell and calling cards.

heres a pic

 

[mrklaw]

Wolfenstein is good, but a bit less spooging over the controls please.

The controls are good but too fixed and low down. Makes it tricky to hold the 2nd gen touch. Why not use the DS mario 64 method where you could use anywhere in the left half of the screen for movement, taking your first press as the center point? As it is, it's difficult to touch the screen and not move so you have to correct for that too

 

[okno]

While I completely agree that everyone should own this game, you're wrong about there not being high scoreboards. They just don't display after each round; you need to explicitly hit the "Scores" button to see them.

Online leaderboards would be nice.

Spoiler

I swear, I didn't post this just to mock your score!

... huh. Wow. I guess I'm blind, because I've looked for it and somehow managed to not see it everl

 

[Remy]

The legendary Hudson Shooting Watch has come to the iPhone as Shot Watch. 99 cents for the greatest button mashing game ever, with online ranking, two secret

Spoiler

slot machine

modes and, hilariously enough, a super secret

Spoiler

TRIX

mode!

Best 99 cents you'll spend today.

App Store
A fantastic trailer which explains nothing in an awesome way
Flash demo if you don't understand
Offworld post

EDIT: It has a warning screen!

:lol

 

[Stoney Mason]

Wolfenstein is good, but a bit less spooging over the controls please.

The controls are good but too fixed and low down. Makes it tricky to hold the 2nd gen touch. Why not use the DS mario 64 method where you could use anywhere in the left half of the screen for movement, taking your first press as the center point? As it is, it's difficult to touch the screen and not move so you have to correct for that too

Haven't played Mario DS in a long time so I can't remember it but what I do remember is that I didn't like how it controlled. I won't pretend the iphone is made for fps games but I think Wolfenstein handles it pretty well outside of the fact that you have to pull of a hand to shoot. To be honest I don't quite understand the control system you are describing.

 

[Adam Prime]

Sorry for the incredibly stupid ass question: Is Peggle on the iPhone? I told my roommate to buy it tonight and we couldn't find it searching for "Peggle" or "Popcap". Are we just retarded or is the game not released on iPhone yet?

EDIT: Actually he has iPod Touch, if that matters...

 

[Flunkie]

Sorry for the incredibly stupid ass question: Is Peggle on the iPhone? I told my roommate to buy it tonight and we couldn't find it searching for "Peggle" or "Popcap". Are we just retarded or is the game not released on iPhone yet?

EDIT: Actually he has iPod Touch, if that matters...

Yeah, there's Peggle on the iPod Classic, but not for the iPod Touch or iPhone. Not yet.

It's coming soon though.

 

[Tobor]

iTunes cards? Like Wii point cards? Never knew such a thing existed. I'll look for one the next time I go out and I'll be sure to get Flight Control.


Downloading the three games now. Geo Defense looks awesome.

How is this possible? It's hard to find a store that doesn't carry iTunes cards.