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Game On: Catching Up With The Voxel Agents and Halfbrick
The Brisbane chapter of IGDA (International Game Developers Association) recently held an evening of questions and answers, bringing together three members from prominent development studios in Australia to talk to students about their experiences in the industry. Tom Killen and Henrik Pettersson from The Voxel Agents and Luke Muscat from Halfbrick were more than ready and willing to discuss topics ranging from the casual such as 'What games do you like to play now?' to more serious points regarding how to sell yourself as an Indie developer. The chat is only one such event in the year-long 'Game On' season organized by IGDA Brisbane. Co-reviewer Dave Flodine and I couldn't pass up an opp…
Capcom's Beeline Bringing Freemium Title Snoopy's Street Fair To the iPhone This November
Snoopy's Street Fair is the latest attempt at a freemium money-maker from Capcom's mobile arm Beeline, and it's set to hit the App Store this November. Featuring theme music from the original cartoons and the official voice actors, Beeline's follow-up to the insanely successful Smurfs' Village sees you running a small street fair and generating enough wonga to buy the Peanuts gang some fancy new Baseball uniforms. Through the course of play, you will be able to construct an array of stalls, such as Sally's Lemonade Stand and Lucy's Psychiatrist Service, and unlock a series of classic Peanuts comic strips. Various costumes for Snoopy will unlock a selection of mini-games and will als…
ArkanoArena for iPhone Review
So somewhere in the pockets of time and space there's a tournament held that is only for the strongest competitors to survive. It is overseen by a mysterious man named Arkano, and the competition itself... is Arkanoid. This is definitely one of the more ludicrous setups for a brick breaker but fans of the genre will see that this is indeed a solid entry. For those who've played any brick breaker on the iPhone, the controls should be familiar. The paddle (called the Stinger in this gam…
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To-Fu 2 Review
How far can you stretch a premise? That was a joke. You see in To-fu 2, you play a block of tofu who stretches to ping his way onto walls in search of the ever elusive kitty fortune cookie. For those who played the original game, not too much has changed. You use your finger to stretch the tofu in the direction you want him to fly, and he'll stick to the corresponding piece of wood. Obviously spikes will kill him, but there's metal which he will ricochet off, glass he'll slide down, a…
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Race illegal: High Speed 3D Review
At times I wonder if the Arcade Racer has lost some of its charm, more specifically I wonder if the need to simplify the controls for iOS users has resulted in a genre that has managed to mute an already toned-down sport too far. Race illegal: High Speed 3D by Apetrus and Chillingo tries every trick in the book to wow the player in to continuing to play, but the end result is something that lacks the energy it tries to portray. Sparks, blurs, revving engines, flames and whining turbos…
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(It's Still) Friday News Wrap-Up 9 September 2011
I might just be stretching the line a bit thin, but technically those of you on the western seaboard are still experiencing Friday, so I'll take that and run with it as far as I can! Relevant links for the articles follow the video. Full Trailer for 'Lost Mars' available here: http://vimeo.com/28727594Dead Island Gameplay footage care of MMOMFG: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ijPeMQ3wmkPopCap Games on iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/artist/popcap/id284832145Another World (Amiga) footage care of cubex55: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zgkf6wooDmwGun Fu: http://itunes.apple.com/app/gun-fu/id442868359?mt=8Grand Prix Story Review: http://www.appspy.com/grand-prix-story-review…
Tiger Style Release First Gameplay Footage From Upcoming iPhone Sci-Fi Platformer Lost Mars
Developer Tiger Style have followed up their batch of teasing screenshots with some gameplay footage from their upcoming iPhone side-scroller Lost Mars, which reveals some new and exciting tidbits of information about the game's action. Your mission is to traverse a series of outer space caves using a handy jetpack, collect seeds, and use them to spread alien life throughout the game's many underground caverns. You'll navigate the perilous caves using a simple one-touch control scheme that elevates the game's protagonist in the direction of your taps. "One part METROID, one part 1970s-era sci-fi film, and one part ...gardening?!" finally makes a little sense. Check out the footage…
NaturalMotion's NFL Rivals Runs A 3rd Quarter Slant-And-Go Onto the iPhone
NaturalMotion's latest attempt at creating an authentic American-football experience has rounded the opposition's defence and sprinted into the App Store's end zone, complete with 32 licensed NFL teams. After selecting your favourite bunch of pad-clad players (the New England Patriots, natch), you're tasked with scoring as many TDs as you possibly can, by juking, trucking, jumping, spinning, and generally avoiding the oncoming waves of burly tacklers. Each successful attempt at glory earns you points, which elevate the real-world team of your choosing to the top of the NFL Rivals global rankings. Playing in sync with your team's real NFL schedule will grant you extra bonus points. If you…
NOM 5 Review
Nom wants to find himself a girlfriend. To do so, he's on a quest to meet the Spaceking and acquire the truth of life along the way. At least that's what we think is going on. The story itself reads like it was written through an online translator and doesn't have much to do with the gameplay. Funnily enough this could a point in the favor of Nom's odd charm. When the first level loads up, you get the feeling this is going to be another endless runner with a multi-purpose tap control…
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Classic Amiga Game Another World Hitting iPhone On 22nd September
In artistic and cultural circles, the term 'Renaissance' denotes a specific era during which my two favourite Ninja Turtles Leonardo and Michelangelo flourished. More generally speaking, the word 'renaissance' refers to a rebirth. With the recent news that Bullfrog's influential Theme Park is coming to an App Store town near you, you'd be forgiven for thinking iPhone users had witnessed their fair share of rebirths lately. Well, that depends on your definition of 'fair share' really, doesn't it. I'm all for nostalgia, you see, so am delighted to report that Eric Chahi's 1991 cinematic platformer / adventure game Another World is hitting the iPhone touchscreen on 22nd September. Publishe…
4Towers Onslaught: Combo TD Review
Releasing a tower defense game these days is a risky proposition. If it's well made enough or brings a new spin on the genre to the table, it will grab fans of TD games and new players alike, but if it's just the same old TD game we've seen hundreds of times before, the market is significantly smaller. 4 Towers: Onslaught is the latest release in the 4 Towers series by Lamnda Mu, and it differs itself enough from the standard tower defense formula to warrant some interest. The first t…
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Grand Prix Story Review
It seems we can barely finish a Kairosoft game these days before another hits the shelves in order to suck up the loose change from our collective wallets. To be fair to the developer, Grand Prix Story did see its way on to the Android platform as an exclusive earlier in the year. It's hard to feel cynical and claim the game as a simple cash grab, because when it comes down to it the game is just as great as you'd expect it to be. It's no surprise to find out that Grand Prix Story is…
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Jetpack Joyride Soundtrack Now Available
If you're like me, you probably can't get that fantastic soundtrack from Jetpack Joyride (5/5) out of your head after a quick run through and nothing short of hearing it again will help to scratch that itch. Thankfully you can now get your fill of the fine work by Cedar Jones as Halfbrick have uploaded the soundtrack (along with some juicy bonus tracks) to their Bandcamp page. While you're there you can also check out the music from their earlier titles (for me it was like a treasure-trove of delights!), from Echoes to Raskulls. The only problem I have now is making sure I don't listen to the soundtrack while driving 'cause I might just get a bit distracted ;) (Jetpack Joyride Soundtrack…
Psychedelic Shooter Wave - Against every BEAT! Goes Free
You can now grab Colorbox's bullet-hell shmup Wave - Against every BEAT! for nowt, thanks to OpenFeint’s Free Game of the Day promotion. Wave - Against every BEAT! features levels and enemies created solely from the beat of various musical tracks. You can use the game's built-in techno tunes or fire up your iPhone's music library for a more personal touch. You'll find yourself battling enemies and completing missions across three game modes - Arcade, Survival, Free Play - and destroying bosses as you soar through the skies. OpenFeint is fully supported for leaderboards, achievements, and bragging rights. You can grab Wave - Against every BEAT! from the App Store right now for…
Swing the Bat Review
When the call came in to review Swing the Bat, we here at AppSpy were expecting some sort of arcade based home run baseball game, but what we got instead was a nocturnal creature with fangs and a hookshot. Why is a bat swinging around from cave ceiling to bamboo stalk instead of flying? Well its because he hasn't eaten enough fruit to gather enough strength to flap his wings yet. Stay with me here. Swing the Bat bears some resemblance to Tiny Wings, but more in game structure. The lev…
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