Apple Celebrate 100k App milestone

There’s no denying the success of the AppStore. The SDK gave unparalleled control over content creation, allowing a sole developer to go head to head with the big boys and succeed. Granted, not all those 100,000 Apps are games, and an even smaller amount are going to be worthy of picking up. But if nothing, then it has at least given us gamers a wide variety of choice, which tailor to an even greater variety of budgets. Now, if someone could only develop an app the sifts through all the crap!

Eliminate mayhem

It’s easy to get caught up in all the excitement surrounding last weeks release of ngmoco’s Eliminate, and the first decent foray into true online multiplayer FPS’s. But to give them credit they have done a stellar job, as our very own Nacho states in his recent review of the game. But, and as the review says, it doesn’t come without out it’s problems. In a recent interview with id’s John Carmack, he told me that the reason DOOM doesn’t support online multiplayer, specifically over 3G, is that it just wouldn’t be an enjoyable enough experience and just a gimmick. A comment that many couldn’t believe judging by the success of Eliminate… However, these are the words of not only someone with a huge amount of experience in this field, but also a complete perfectionist. So, while to us the experience in Eliminate over 3G and sometimes WiFi is good enough… to John it’s not even an option… not right now. I myself have had some pretty laggy games over 3G, with constant drop outs from me or other players, much to the grievance of people with Energy to spare.

Which brings me onto the energy issue. While as a business model it makes a lot of sense and will no doubt give ngmoco a huge pile of cash… I can’t believe how obvious a cash-in it is…. and it must be putting off some players from delving deeper into the experience. It’s a tricky one… get a free game and pay for energy (which could cost you $100’s in the long run) or pay $10 straight up, and pay for the odd new suit or weapon here and there… hmm, I’m still undecided.

Of course there is a new FPS that will steal the thunder… and it’s called Modern Warfare 2. Yes it’s not on iPhone… but any gamer worth their salt will be swapping their iPhone’s for Xbox controllers this week. Myself included.

What ever happened to…. 8lb Gorilla

The mini developer startup, safe under the wing of the 800lb Gorilla EA, promised small game releases on a monthly basis. But since the release of Zombies & Me it’s all gone quiet. Has anyone seen a small furry ape anywhere?

Highway to the danger zone!

Sorry, I couldn’t resist. No it’s not another Top Gun game… although Dave as been looking forward to a session of Naked Hairy Men Beach Volleyball 2009 on his white iPhone!

No, this is news of the impending release of Ace Combat Xi: Skies of incursion from Namco Bandai. At its unveiling at September’s Tokyo Game Show, lucky punters got their first taste of what’s in store. With its launch only weeks away, a trailer is planned to show how the game will push the graphical capabilities of the hardware to its limits.

In the game, players can immerse themselves in scenario-based first-person flight sim mode, or crank up the Gs in third-person flight action mode. Both modes feature HD graphics, multiple HUDs, and real satellite topographic imagery from Japan Space Imaging Corporation.

Developed by the team responsible for all the console versions of Ace Combat, so expect something special.

Keep your eyes peeled to the skies!

Disney likes Jelly!

Jelly Car 2, the sequel to Jelly car from Tim Fitz-Randolph has jumped (or wobbled) straight to the top of the paid charts. However this time it’s been picked up and distributed by Disney. Don’t expect any Disney like maker-overs, it still looks the same but now with more than 30 new levels, new power-ups and three new modes. Jelly Car 2 also features a new custom level editor for creating your own puzzles complete with ramps, wheels, levers and more, in addition to new Sticky Wheels for driving up walls and a Balloon Ability for  floating out of trouble. However it’s good to see Disney supporting the smaller developers with it’s obvious might… and will be bringing several more games based on original IP’s later this year, including Breakspin and Luma.

Bring on the Ghosts… ‘n Goblins too!

Halloween might have been and gone, but that doesn’t stop Capcom from releasing Ghosts ‘n Goblins Gold Knights. An update to their popular franchise that has graced pretty much every platform over the last 24 years. It looks to borrow from the PSP update dubbed Ultimate Ghosts ‘n Goblins, but with some notable differences including being able to choose from two characters to play, and additional downloadable content, and even some cheat options such as unlimited lives, rapid fire and weaker enemies.

Ghosts ‘n Goblins is out now for $2.99

Skater Nation update

We posted a hands on with the game back in September. Well, it’s been a while but Gameloft have released footage of the game in motion in their latest Vodcast:

Who let the dogs out? ooh ooh ooh

Well it was ngmoco! TouchPets dogs was finally released giving iPhone and iPod Touch users something to bark about… but will it cause Nintendogs to whimper in the corner? Probably not, unless Apple bring out a pink device! Not content with their FPS getting all the DLC glory, TouchPets is also free, but relies on buying downloads to advance your dogs development. Of course, you can decide not to pay-to-play, but then you’ll only get a limited play time with your pup going to sleep if no food is available.

Once again an interesting idea as a business model, but one that people may grow weary of. TouchPets is out now for FREE (or is it?)

iPhonetendo

As posted by our resident control pad lover Matt Dunn, is news of the iControlPad latest prototype. You can check out Matt’s post and a video of the pad in action. I have my doubts about such a device being a success with out widespread support, however in our John Carmack interview {link} he did say that if a device did exist and he was emailed the code to support it, he might include it in id’s games line-up.

Then again, I’m all for anything to help me win in Eliminate!

Review round up

In case you missed them here some highlights of the games reviewed over the past week. Click on the titles to read the full review.

Dead Panic

A survival game combining the mechanics of tower defence with barricade defence, offering a good time with the newly implemented Survival Mode.

Command and Conquer

An accurate and updated version of the hot game, but it doesn’t come without it’s problems. Fans beware!

Eliminate

Despite some shortcomings, Eliminate offers an adrenaline pumping, finger twitching, frag making, trash talking good time for any FPS fan.

Hyakki Yagyo

If you are interested in playing a hypnotic game set in a lovely Okami like world then we can recommend it. If you are looking for a shooter that challenges you intensely Hyakki Yagyo is not the right game for you.

Earth Dragon

A short and sometimes frustrating experience, that despite it’s shortcomings should be experienced purely for it’s unique control style

Bowman Defense

A Patapon looking castle defense game, that lack originality.

Zombie Attack: second wave

If you enjoyed the original, it’s a safe bet that you will like Second Wave… it keeps what was good, and adds a bit of new content.

DOOM classic

id release their FPS Horror classic, and like a fine wine this vintage seems to get better with age…

Rock Band

A disappointing entry into the best selling franchise

The End

Stay tuned for the next installment of TouchDown, and please let us know if there is something you woul dlike us to cover by leaving a comment below, or emailing us through the contacts page above.

The Studio Beats by Dr Dre is created to let the listener hear the music the way the artists and producers want it to be heard. And after spending a week with a pair of Studios I have to say that Monster Cable has managed to create what was intended. The sound is really crisp, and can make any listener move to the beats, and grooving to the riffs. The fact that they look like something taken out of the latest videos from MTV with a completely unique look is also a major draw. Actually the Studios can be seen being worn by a number of notable artists, producers and celebrities as Monster Cable has created a product people want to be seen wearing. It is hip, cool and brings superb sound.

It is easy to understand that the Studio Beats by Dr Dre is sold out at several outlets, and in Sweden they are really hard to come by. Not even Monster Cable here in Sweden had any in stock, and thankfully I got to borrow a pair from the Swedish Monster Cable distributor Interconnect Nordic AB.(thanks Tomas)

The box the Studios ship in is awesome, and probably the best presented package I have seen from any product beside Apple’s products. The large orange box is lavish, and probably totally unnecessary but to complement the $300 headphones it is perfect. You get both a Monster Cable headphone cable with very little signal loss, and a Monster iSoniTalk™ iPhone headphone cable. In this review I test the Studio Beats by Dr Dre as a set of handsfree headphones using the iSoniTalk™ cable with the integrated microphone. The microphone is looking like a rectangular box placed in height to your mouth. The microphone button is constructed like a spring from a truck. It is very easy to locate on the go, and the entire microphone feels solid. Sadly though the sound quality is appalling for the person on the other end of a conversation. This means that you can’t buy the Studios expecting to use them as your handsfree headset.

You also get a rigid tour case that lets the Studios fold up nicely within. The Studios fold up in a really cool way stacking itself on top of itself. There is also a small cloth to keep the Studios clean from smudges. 2 AAA batteries are also included, and since you have to have power on to be able to use the headphones it is wise to invest in re rechargeable batteries. The batteries last quite a long time as long as you don’t forget to turn off the Studios when you aren’t going to use them for a while. There is no automatic shutoff or power save mode. To some it might be bothersome to purchase batteries but if you buy $300 headphones you should be able to afford a couple of bucks worth of batteries.

Listening to the Studio Beats by Dr Dre the first time gave me a jolt of energy. The music came alive, and I understood the pricing of the headphones. If you want to really experience your music it is certainly worth it.

Image/Style/Design

The Studio Beats by Dr Dre has a distinct look not to be mistaken for any other brand. The large (b) logo found on the ear cups paired with the sleek glossy finish really attracts attention. I have not seen any headphones that look as hot and cool as the Studio Beats by Dr Dre. And quite frankly that might be the problem for many people, as they can’t match the headphones. I have already had my students laugh at me when wearing these as I lack a bit of cool apparently. The Studio Beats by Dr Dre is aimed at the urban city kid wearing them like it is nobodies’ business. I feel a bit like one of them wearing the Studios but my students brought me down to earth again from dreams of Escalades, bandanas, bling bling and thumping bass. If you are cool enough these headphones will certainly boost your cool further.

The glossy finish gets smudgy from fingerprints when handling them making them look a bit greasy up close. You get a cloth in the package to polish them, and these are the first headphones I have tried that you actually need to polish from time to time. Walking around with $300 headphones that looks like they are worn by a filth pig is no fun, but then again you have to wash your Ferrari as well to keep it shiny, right?

Portability/Comfort

The Studio Beats by Dr Dre is really comfortable to wear despite their size, and the fact that they contain two AAA batteries. They feel light, and once on the head it is easy to forget that you wear large headphones. They remain quite cool against the skin even after hours of wear in comparison to most other headphones I have tried. Of course if you exercise, and run they will get warm and sticky because of your perspiration. This might not be such a problem though because the Studios aren’t suited for running anyway. Sudden movements such as head movement while running, and head banging makes the Studios move on your head. The headband moves back and forth on your skull making for an unpleasant run. They don’t fall off completely though as the headphones gently hug your ears.

Of course you can’t put the studios in your pocket but they sit really nicely around the neck without disturbing the wearer. The cords, both with and without microphone, are hassle free without any tendency to tangle due to thickness and sturdiness.

The case you get for storing the Studios is really sturdy, and the Studios fold up easily. You can easily smack the case around with the Studios inside without risking any damage. The Studios themselves feels durable but this test is limited to a week, and quite frankly I wouldn’t want to torture these sleek objects of art more than necessary.

If you have a really big head the Studios might be too small. I have a moderately large head, and I have to stretch the headbands to almost full extension. For big headed people or those with a seriously massive hairdo I recommend you to try before you buy.

Sound quality

I feel like I am on stage at a concert wearing the Studio Beats by Dr Dre. The sound focus around the user making for a really intense experience. A bit bass heavy but at the right level enhancing the music instead of ruining it. I have listened to all kinds of music wearing the Studios, and the result is always the same but the reaction depends on the surroundings. Listening to In Flames at home turns me into an air guitarist kneeling in front of my hall mirrors playing like crazy. At work listening to some big band it turns into some soft chair dancing not to disturb my colleagues. Worst of course is being out walking listening to Jay Z or Eminem as it turns into my totally own impression of hip hop dance. Needless to say the Studios does what Apple says about their own in-ear headphones, it lets you rediscover your music.

I have to mention the poor microphone as well as it is completely useless, and this drags the sound quality rating down. I have yet to complete a phone call without having to unplug the Studios because the person at the other end has had trouble hearing me. The sound is tinny, and really muted for the recipient making them useless as your handsfree headset. This is a shame as it would be really cool to have both headphones, and decent handsfree in the same product. The microphone lets you control the play/pause, and Voice Control making it really useful anyway. But please don’t buy the Studios expecting to use them as your handsfree headset.

Noise isolation

The noise cancellation of the Studios is a mixed bag. On the one hand it works quite well blocking out unwanted sounds such as computers humming, fans whirring and chairs moving. On the other hand it can’t be turned off, the headphones are either powered or completely silent. Voices and high pitched sounds still filter through although somewhat muted which is ok.

When used with my Macbook the Studios hum when I don’t play any audio. This background hum is drowned easily by music, but if you for example listen to classical music with silent parts I can’t recommend the Studios.

You can easily interact with people around you pressing the (b) on the right headphone to mute the music. I can hear both myself, and the person I talk to clearly using this feature. But since the button needs to be held you can just as well take the Studios off as you look silly standing around holding the button. I think this function should have a proper on/off switch to make it useful. Standing at the supermarket handling the wallet with one hand, and holding the (b) with the other is not practical at all.

Gaming

The Studio Beats by Dr Dre is also available in white.

The Studio Beats by Dr Dre has got some issues with interference from Edge/3G usage. It is not as bad as I have experience with other noise cancellation headphones but it is annoying enough to take note of. Walking near my high speed cable modem at home makes the Studios go haywire with noise. As the noise cancellation can’t be turned off some environments, and heavy Edge/3G gaming becomes less fun but still tolerable. I would like to have the ability to turn off the noise cancellation to play some Eliminate on the go without interference but sadly I can’t.

Final rating

There is no denying that the Studio Beats by Dr Dre are among the coolest, best looking headphones out there. With great sound quality, good sound cancellation and comfortable fit they are easy to recommend for most users. Do not expect them to meet your expectations when it comes to the microphone that is really poor making them useless as handsfree for your iPhone. The occasional interference from Edge/3G and surrounding radios and modems also drags the final rating down. Still clearly the Studios is a good purchase if you are looking for some of the best headphones out there.

Beats by Dr Dre Studio at the US Apple Store $299.95

Beats by Dr Dre Studio Official Site

Colourware custom Studio Beats by Dr Dre

Jules Verne’s Secrets of the Mysterious Island

You can get more info at www.icontrolpad.com.

Dead Panic, well those are two words that don’t go too well together. Either you are dead or you are panicking like crazy. The dead don’t panic, at least not those I have encountered in the countless zombie games and movies during my lifetime. Zombies tend to be quite laid back, and you can’t blame them since they haven’t got any reason to hurry. In Dead Panic they move quite slowly, and even if your soldiers blast them into pieces with their machine guns they stick to their slow slouchy walk.

Dead Panic is a survival game combining the mechanics of tower defence with barricade defence. You get to control the line of sight(LOS) of the soldiers under your command. Tap a soldier, and choose which direction he aims. Once an enemy enters the LOS the soldier fires until the threat has been terminated. The challenge comes from the hordes of zombies, super zombies and spiders swarming your team of soldiers from all directions. You have to make sure that no enemies reach your soldiers as they tend to eat them, and that as you all know is a bad thing. Dead soldiers don’t panic though as they remain dead.

The soldiers can’t shoot through walls or over obstacles making it harder to get full coverage depending on the level layout. At times you get to move your soldier into new positions adjusting your coverage. Some levels also features movable blockades that you get to place along with your soldiers at the start of the level. These barricades stop the horde, and force them to take another route.

In campaign mode you have to kill all enemies to proceed to the next level. In the top left corner you get to see the percentage of enemies killed so far. To me the campaign levels are simply too slow, and I get bored before I finish them. Thankfully the game saves your progression in the current level giving you the option to continue later on. Would have liked to have a more intense campaign mode instead. The story is told in large chunks of text between levels. It is supposed to be funny, and kind of fooling around with zombie and horror stereotypes but the presentation is too dull to convey that.

I was about to slap a really poor rating onto Dead Panic as I got bored from the uninspired campaign mode. Then I gave the survival mode a spin, and finally I got to feel some panic among all the walking dead. In survival you play until all of your soldiers are dead, and then you get to post your highscore to the leaderboards powered by Openfeint. What sets survival apart from the campaign mode is the upgrades and extra soldiers you can buy. For each killed enemy you gain a credit that can be used in the shop. Depending on the demands of the level and current situation you can choose to relocate soldiers, heal them, buy extra damage, buy nets that stops enemies or buy new soldiers. The price of new soldiers increases in relation to the number of soldiers you have.

There are also new weapons added in the latest update such as the sniper rifle. Snipers kill at a distance but have a much narrower LOS. This forces you to take a more active role in aiming.

The graphics in Dead Panic is ok at best. I think that the enemies are a bit boring as each enemy only have one look. Zombies should come in a variety of shapes and sizes. When you kill something it vanishes instantly not leaving any bloody rotting carcass behind.

The music is ambient horror really suitable to the game, and the sound effects are good with some nice weapon fire that of course becomes somewhat grating as your soldiers fire most of the time. You can play your own music in unison with the sound effects. Vibration signals that your soldiers are taking damage, and as far as I can tell it can’t be turned off.

Two different levels of difficulty, and Openfeint achievements add a fair amount of content. There are 13 levels in the campaign demanding quite different strategies depending on the layout.

My initial experience playing the campaign was that even though I enjoyed the Close Combat styled LOS strategy gameplay it was too slow. With the newly implemented survival mode Dead Panic takes leaps forwards regarding gameplay. Intensity is added alongside the strategy that comes from having a budget to spend on upgrades. An updated gallery of enemies, and revamped graphics could make this a must have. In the current state it is a jolly fun game if you stick to the survival mode.

Final Rating

Dead Panic $1.99

I remember some scoffing going on when I wrote my “All Your Base are Belong to Touch” article stating 5 reasons why RTS will work on the iPhone. It’s hard for hardcore strategy fans to imagine controlling the genre with anything other than a mouse and keyboard. Anything else is considered too dumbed down, and thus not a true RTS experience. Despite some definite shortcomings, Command & Conquer: Red Alert is the real deal.

Since the epic saga started with Westwood Studios many many years ago, EA has taken some interesting paths with the story arc and gameplay in the series, but it’s always stuck with its roots in campy cutscenes, crazy units, and solid RTS action. While Red Alert for the iPhone may not include any video cutscenes (shame!), the action is still there, and even some of classic characters of the series like Natasha and Tonya. I must warn true Red Alert fans though, I’m not really sure how this fits into the PC series story-wise… but oh well, it’s Red Alert for your iPhone!

The Good

Command & Conquer: Red Alert look great. Rather than go with sprite-based graphics like the original games, EA went all out with a greatly slimmed down version of their current game engine. That is, fully rendered 3D maps, units, and buildings. I was impressed with the amount of detail packed into the assets for this game. You can easily use your fingers to pinch and zoom in on the action to see these details, or, like a true RTS player, survey everything from far in the sky. This is how I played most of the game, but I certainly zoomed in to check out some of the great modeling work from time to time. You know, to check out Tanya’s “assets’… *ahem*

From the menu to the missions, the music in Red Alert is awesome. The industrial rock pumps through each mission and never gets boring or annoying despite a very short list of songs. The sounds from the units are acceptable, but inconsistent. You don’t always hear

I bet I could handle YOUR important mission...

sounds you expect when you expect them. Not a terrible thing, but kinda weird. There also aren’t always response sounds when you give orders to each unit. Luckily, with hero characters you always get a cheesy one-liner when dishing out commands. I’m not sure how “Hope you’re wearing your seatbelt!” applies when I send Natasha to blow up a building, but that’s always been one of the great parts of Red Alert. It’s not supposed to make sense!

The storyline for a Commies and Allies are only 5 missions each, but I honestly don’t see this as a huge issue considering new content will made available via the store. It will only take the experienced player a couple hours per campaign, and the missions carry the usual variety. Secondary missions, like blowing up a defense post or capturing a radar station, add some challenge, but very little. Red Alert includes the ability to fortify civilian buildings with units, which is pretty cool. The engineers also play a nice effect with their usual ability to commandeer enemy buildings for your cause.

The touch controls are probably the most impressive accomplishment in Red Alert… as in, they actually work! Tap units to select them and tap to move them. Double tap one unit to select all of that kinds, or click the “all” button to select all units on the screen. You can then group units to one of 3 slots, and tap on that group icon to jump to where they are on the map. To make things easier during battle, you can actually collapse both the radar and the building screen at any time. I rarely had issues controlling my units or targeting them appropriately, which says a lot for the iPhone’s minimal real screen estate.

EA has built a very nice little in-game store for Red Alert which will be used to purchase skirmish maps and campaign expansions in the future. I think this is a great idea for a game like this. Already there is a 6-map skirmish pack available for just 99 cents. If EA keeps up

Placing buildings sucks. Why do they take up so much space!?

with reasonable add-on pricing, and the promised multiplayer update, Red Alert is going to offer some long-standing replay value for your buck. Unfortunately, at the moment it won’t be offering a lot of that promised replay value. See below.

The Bad

Just wanted to get one annoyance out there before diving in here: if you’re going to put the game tutorial in the Commie campaign, don’t give me the ability to start with Allies. I know that Red Alert has always offered the option to choose which side you start with, but for Pete’s sake, if you’re going to do that then add the tutorial to each with the option to skip. I started the Allied campaign quite confused. Luckily you can read through an in-game help, but it’s not quite as helpful as that tutorial that started when I launched the Commie campaign. Also, because I played the Allies first, I didn’t get the full scope of the plot as it mixed in with the Commies.

One of the biggest issues I had with Red Alert was some of the extreme lag, especially when trying to place buildings. When you select a building to place it down, the game goes into ultra lag mode which makes it really difficult to build anything. It’s especially hard because buildings tend to take up a lot of invisible space for some reason, and in most maps things seem really cramped. This got extremely frustrating at times, and in one mission actually led to my demise. I made the common mistake of building too many buildings, thus shutting off power to my defense. In the time it took me to build a power plant I was almost completely over run. This may not be an issue with the 3GS or iPod Touch, but if that’s the case there needs to be a warning for other users! I also had the game crash on me many times, and in most cases lost my current progress. Yikes.

Speaking of crashing and resuming, my biggest disappointment with Red Alert is the complete lack of a save feature. Sure, the game saves very well if you quit or the game crashes, but there’s no way to manually save your game at all. One of my favorite part of RTS

Aaah the great Tanya. Now I'm playing Red Alert!

games was saving before a big attack, and then trying various strategies to see what works best. Even worse, if you die in a mission, you have to start completely over from scratch, which became frustration in a couple of the later missions. Adding a manual save feature could also help recover from random crashes.

The AI in Red Alert is pretty abysmal. It seems that in most levels your enemy will keep sending the exact same amount of enemies down the exact same path. Setup an ambush for them and you will continue to kill them while you can expand indefinitely. In very few instances was I actually challenged during the game. To make matters worse, there is no way to bump up the difficulty - not even in skirmish mode! So you play against the same dumb AI opponents over and over, which is both extremely easy and boring. Moving larger units like tanks feels like trying to move a bunch of mentally challenged monkeys through a banana factory. It almost comical to give a group of 5 or more tanks a move command, and watch them endlessly continue to move around back and forth during the journey and after they reached their destination. I sat there for 10 minutes at one point as my tanks continuously rearranged themselves without my command. *sigh*

Finally, one complaint hardcore RTS fans will probably have the slowness of gameplay in Red Alert. Personally, I didn’t have a big issue with this, but the game does really feel like you’re playing in slow-motion at times, and not jsut from the lag. Personally, as with most RTS games, I think there needs to be an option for game speed overall. Some people may want the game to be a little more “real time” than it currently is.

Game Rating

While EA has plenty of things to fix and tweak with it’s RTS baby, Red Alert still offers a good gameplay experience that will hopefully improve with time. As with most RTS games, the initial release always has issues, and the inevitable patches to come will help balance things out. At the moment some may not think it’s worth the $10 price of admission due to only 10 campaign missions and a lame skirmish mode that sets you against a dumb AI opponent, but I like to look to the future with games like this. It would have been nice if more than 2 maps were included, but 99 cents for 6 new maps is a steal. Once wifi multiplayer and new campaign map packs become available, I think Red Alert will turn out to be a good time for any RTS fans out there. At the moment, despite some obviously pitfalls, Red Alert is by far the best RTS on the app store, and definitely one to pick up if you are a fan of the genre.

Command & Conquer: Red Alert - $10

So instead of getting into the tactical details of the game, let me give you my opinion on how this game rates on the TouchGen scale of awesomeness. As you know we have talked a lot about FPS’s on the iPhone, and we keep wondering if there will be one that will really breakout and be THE FPS of the device. Eliminate is an awesome game, the graphics are great, the concept is highly polished, but there are a few shortcomings that keep it from reaching it’s full potential. Let’s look at the breakdown:

The Good

• Great Graphics
• Smart and Deep upgrading/leveling system
• Multiplayer over 3G and WiFi

While not earth-shattering the graphics in Eliminate are great. The art for the menu’s are players weapons and upgrades is very highly polished and colorful. The maps are also pretty diverse, with lots of different, colors textures, and layouts. In game everything runs very smoothly with a decent level of detail. It’s equivalent to PS1 maybe even PSP quality games.

The biggest thing that sets Eliminate apart from the pack is the unique leveling/upgrading system. As you kill and earn credits you can buy upgrades to your existing suit or weapons, or get completely new ones. These items are limited by level so you won’t find a level 4 person with a level 15 set of armor. The armor seems balanced and varied. For example you can get a suit that will increase your defense, but will take away your speed. This system creates a lot of choice in how you want to play the game, and in they type of opponents you will face. In this aspect Eliminate almost feels like a good RPG where you get to pick classes, and level up ability to optimize how you play.

One thing I have constantly been complaining about is lack of multiplayer on such a connected platform. ngmoco delivers exactly what we wanted with an online head to head game that we can play WiFi or over 3G. Admittedly 3G is not as responsive as the WiFi, but it is playable. I actually save my energy for when I’m in WiFi then feel free to practice over 3G without worrying about ping too much. Fragging real people over the internet is what this game is all about.

The Bad

• Energy runs out too quickly
• Stealing credits
• Left stick controls
• Match-ups can be lopsided

The first complaint I have about Eliminate is about energy. Playing with a full bar of energy only seems to last one or two matches, which to me is way to short of a time to earn credits. I feel like the meter should run out a bit slower than it does now. Of course if your energy runs out you can keep playing, but you won’t earn any credits Also, If you haven’t played for a few days you don’t build up more energy. Once you hit your limit you stay at your limit until you use it. So you can’t store up a lot by not playing, you have to log in frequently to keep using then earn energy.

This brings me to my second problem with eliminate. Even if you can’t earn credits you can steal them from other people’s kills. This means anything relating to sniping in the game like zooming in, or sniping armor, is completely worthless because if you snipe, someone else is guaranteed to steal your credits. In fact because of the way you have to collect credits after they die, it only makes a very few options of gameplay worthwhile making most of the customization features worthless. You need to play close up and have either a lot of defense or a lot of speed to you can collect all the credits. You might say to me, well you can still play and not worry about credits, but really this is not a good argument. The whole game is focused around credits, its how you level up, upgrade and buy new equipment, everything.

Because you need credits to do anything in the game there are a lot of complaints about how much pressure there is to buy more energy through the in-app purchases. Buying credits can significantly increase the speed at which you can level up. Some have suggested they would prefer monthly subscriptions instead of individual purchases. In my opinion this model would be a lot more friendly for the user, and still net ngmoco the buckets of money they want.

The controls on Eliminate are overall, good, but there are a few caveats. For example, while you can jump in game there is no point. You have to move your hand (either one you use) far enough to totally mess up either your aiming or movement, so jumping does not add any benefit for you. I also have the same complaint about zoom. You may as well go ahead and turn that off now, not only is there no real use for sniping (see my gripe about it earlier) but it takes too much time to zoom in and zoom out to make it really effective. Now these things you can get around pretty easily, but the one persistent problem with the controls is the left movement stick. It seems very sluggish, and even downright unresponsive sometimes. With the aiming controls you can turn up the sensitivity and make them decent, but there is no such tweak to the movement stick and it makes things very difficult. Please, ngmoco, in a future update please, please, add a sensitivity bar to the movement controls, or even better, steal a page from Doom Classic and use those controls for movement.

My final complaint is about whatever method ngmoco uses for online matchups. Half the time it seems to match you up well, but the other half you’ll find yourself up against people a few levels higher than you with upgraded that will tear you to bits. When entering these games, if you have energy, just drop out immediately. There is no point in wasting your energy on a game you can’t win. Hopefully the matchups get better over time.

Game Rating

Despite some shortcomings (that can be fixed in updates) Eliminate offers an adrenaline pumping, finger twitching, frag making, trash talking good time for any FPS fan. Eliminate is by far the best online FPS on any mobile platform.

”This is Japanese style 3D shooting game.
The player side becomes a shrine maiden.
When striking at an enemy,
You can use two methods of the magic circle and shot.”

To get to know more I took a look at the webpage for Hyakki Yagyo, and got the following addition to the description:
”In the rule of this game, you won’t die even if you recieved enemy’s attack.
(However, the energy of the magic circle and power to attack decrease.)
You should defeat the boss in each stage until the time limit. If the boss run away three times, Game is over. (When the stage boss can run away even once, it is game over.)”

Ok, this helps quite a lot actually as I at least get to know why I never die in the game. I still have no clue to the background to the shrine maiden, heck I don’t even know what a shrine maiden is.

Hyakki Yagyo is a shooter where you control the shrine maiden by tilting your iPhone. Simply tap the screen to shoot, and you can even hold the screen for autofire without any risk of running out of ammo. Special attacks are performed by multitouching the screen, and once the game enters a special slow motion state you can draw a circle to attack everything within it.

The controls work quite well even though you can’t calibrate the controls once the game is in progress. Calibration is only found in the main options menu. Getting the game to register the multitouch can be a bit twitchy, and I tend to go back and forth between reality and circle attack instead of actually attacking.

The game does not save your progress when you have to quit by either lack of time or incoming phone calls. This is not good, not at all. It takes quite a while to complete the six levels, and if you are aiming for a highscore it can easily be wiped out by a friend calling in the middle of the last level.

Enemies come in a variety of strange shapes, ranging from small combinations of musical notes and dog turds to large skeleton bosses. Those you meet on the level can’t kill you but diminish your power meter found at the bottom of the screen. I played the game by simply holding the screen to fire, while at the same time doing something else until a boss appears. The boss has to be captured by shooting until it runs out of energy or until you manage to capture it using the circle attack. A times ticks down until the boss escapes, and you can only let two of them escape as you die when the third escapes. Level bosses kill you right away if they escape.

The presentation in Hyakki Yagyo is beautiful reminding me of Okami for the Wii with a lucid dreamy hypnotic feel to it. At times it is hard telling the enemies apart from the moving landscape though. The music is also really good combining traditional Asian vibes with a modern electronica in a strangely appealing mix. Firing your weapon as the shrine maiden is really annoying though with an unnerving high pitched sound.

Gamelife is ensured by Openfeint integration with high scores for the 6 levels, and achievements for capturing the level bosses in hard difficulty. There are only easy and normal difficulty unlocked from the start, and you have to complete the game to unlock hard mode.

Hyakki Yagyo is strange as a game because of the long travel sections between the levels. Not being able to die during these is really weird, and I feel that collecting points by killing the lesser enemies is a bit boring. I want to have action in a shooter, and feeling threatened is a big part of a good action game. A bit more story would also be really good to introduce the world of the shrine maiden.

Great presentation, ok controls and a unique gameplay on the one hand. Poor story/introduction, no ingame calibration, no savegame function, and a strange pacing of the game on the other hand. Sadly the negative aspects of the game weighs the game down too much. If you are interested in playing a hypnotic game set in a lovely Okami like world I can recommend it. If you are looking for a shooter that challenges you intensely Hyakki Yagyo is not the right game for you.

This review is a total fail but hopefully you know as much about Hyakki Yagyo as me from reading it.

Final Rating

Hyakki Yagyo $0.99

Knights are sissies, so are archers and bloody wizards. I am sick of valiant fair-haired heroes getting all the credits when the interesting characters are usually the evil villains. Finally you can be that evil villain instead, and you get to smash all that is good. In Earth Dragon you are the dragon, and you are on a mission to punish the feeble humans for infesting your part of the world.

The Earth Dragon is a cute little green dragon with a couple of great attacks to maim, decapitate and grill humans. The controls are what really sets Earth Dragon apart from all other games found in the App Store today. With thousands of games in the App Store it feels really refreshing to see a game with a control setup never seen before. You flap your iPhone to flap the wings of the Earth Dragon to go up. To move left or right you simply tilt your iPhone. The harder the tilt the faster the Earth Dragon moves downwards as well. To spew fire simply touch where you want the Earth Dragon to aim. You can also make a tower-smashing move much like the ass smash move made famous by Yoshi. Touch the Earth Dragon and flick it downwards to smash anything beneath you. Smashing nearby towers is done by simply tapping them. At times this makes you cover too much of the game with your finger making it hard to avoid enemy blasts.

There are fifteen levels in Earth Dragon ranging from survival battles where you have to smash castles, archers and mages to levels where you have to pick up coins. Smashing towers can be really intense as arrows and magic blasts fills the sky aiming at you. Then you get the strange side-scrolling collect coins levels that feel like fillers to add a bit of content to the game. The final level is a boss battle against a big ass red dragon, and it is hard as nails to beat.

The graphics in Earth Dragon is really cool mixing retro with a modern cartoony look. The game runs really smoothly, and it is easy to see incoming enemy fire to be able to avoid it. The audio is also really high quality stuff with a mix of modern electronics/pop/rock music mashup and retro blippety bloppety sound effects. The presentation is really great as Earth Dragon manages to both appeal to retro nuts, and merges this with a modern vibe.

The lack of content really hurts Earth Dragon as you can complete the first 14 levels within fifteen minutes. The first five levels are more or less tutorial levels, and this paired with three coin levels makes the content really poor. The last level might take forever to complete, and it feels strange to make the final level so much harder than the rest of the game. You get rated for each level, and if you do really well you can get the princess bonus. To improve your rating you can replay any level from the level select screen.

Earth Dragon is a game that should be experienced by every gamer out there as it really adds a means of control that is new and fresh. Sadly the experience is quite short until you get to feel the frustration dying time after time on the final level. This short gamelife makes the game hard to recommend fully. There are no achievements or unlockables in the game. There are only local high scores for each level.

I hope that the developer updates the game with more levels or even better a random level generator paired with online scoring. All iPhone game developers should buy this game right away to get some inspiration to avoid creating another tap to shoot game, tower defense game or ball roller. You can create cool stuff using more of the capabilities of the iPhone/iPod Touch.

If you want to experience a game that feels creative and unique I really recommend you to give Earth Dragon a go. The lack of content, and incoherence found between levels drag the rating down significantly. At $0.99 it would have been much easier to just say go for it, but at $2.99 more content is expected. The developers promise more levels if more people buy the game. This feels a bit like catch 22, and I hope that the developers update Earth Dragon once first to show that they are committed to really bring more levels.

Final Rating

Earth Dragon $2.99

Boost 3d is the perfect name for this game. You boost along a 3d maze of tunnels, bridges and obstacles. It is never explained what vehicle you use to travel along these winding paths, and quite frankly I don’t care. Boost 3d is a high score game, and that is it.

The aim of the game is to survive for as long as possible without coming to a complete halt. There are arrows on the floor that gives a boost when you go over them. This boost wears off after some time, and need to be renewed by hitting more boost zones. If you crash into something without any boost it is game over. If however you have some boost left you only loose that amount, and can keep going. Having a bit of boost left is like having a spare life but at the same time it makes it all go faster thus making it harder.

The obstacles come in different shapes and behaviours. The floor/ceiling/walls of the tunnels and winding roads are usually white but get a colour whenever there is an obstacle on that part. When the obstacle itself comes closer the colour turns light warning you to stay clear. There are also obstacles that don’t signal where they will show up, and some move over the course forcing you to dodge.

You control by tilting your iPhone, and it works perfectly. The game rotates around you giving a real sense of movement. I often tap the screen because I want to jump but that only brings out the pause menu. You can choose to calibrate in the pause menu but that is seldom needed.

Boost 3d has got almost the same addictive pull as games such as Doodle Jump and Canabalt. Just one more go, one more. What is a shame though is that it takes quite a while initially to get to the more intense parts of the game. I would have liked to jump into the game further in to avoid the slow start. This could have been remedied by using randomised levels like in Canabalt but in Boost 3d the level look the same every time. This makes me hesitate for an instant before trying again, and ultimately leads to the decision not to upon my second game over in a session.

There are online highscores integrated using the free Openfeint service. I don’t really understand the scores some people get, as I am so far from being close to them. But then again practise makes perfect.

The graphics in Boost 3d is really nice and smooth. When it is going well I get almost hypnotised by the whirling tunnels, and bright colours of the blocks moving towards me. It is a really pleasant experience just playing to clear my mind.

The music is good with uptempo electronics suitable to the hypnotic graphics. The sound effects are a bit too sparse, and I would like to hear the obstacles move around. You can play your own music, and keep the sound effects as well.

Boost 3d is a great pick up and play game with crisp visuals, good sounds and solid controls. A quicker route from the start to the more intense passages would be appreciated. Only one game mode limits the game somewhat, and I can think of a heap of different game modes for the graphics and control engine. For example a de Blob mode where you have to paint the tunnels would be cool.

At a dollar it is easy to recommend Boost 3d as a solid and addictive arcade game.

Final Rating

Boost 3D $0.99