Touch Arcade

EA Closes Mythic Entertainment, Developers of Free to Play 'Dungeon Keeper' Reboot Posted: 29 May 2014 12:36 PM PDT In a surprise move that may cause folks around here who viciously hate free to play to straight up overdose on schadenfreude, EA announced this afternoon that they're closing Mythic Entertainment. (Or, I guess, "EA Mythic" as they were known recently.) Most recently known for the incredibly poorly received Dungeon Keeper [Free], Mythic used to make totally awesome games like Dark Age of Camelot which was an incredibly groundbreaking MMORPG when it was first released in late 2001. The followup, Imperator Online never really got off the ground, but following that they released another MMORPG, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. It was online from late 2008 to late 2013. Kotaku received the following statement from EA on the studio closing: We are closing the EA Mythic location in Fairfax, Virginia, as we concentrate mobile development in our other studio locations. We are working with all impacted employees to provide assistance in finding new opportunities, either within EA or with other companies via an upcoming job fair. I hate seeing folks in the gaming industry lose their jobs, and it especially sucks when it's an entire studio closing its doors. We didn't like Dungeon Keeper , but, man, I loved Dark Age of Camelot and still have great friends I met playing that game. Hopefully the talent behind DAoC and other Mythic titles all find cooler opportunities than working for EA.

'Battleheart Legacy' Review - This RPG is Among the Best Games I've Played This Year Posted: 29 May 2014 09:02 AM PDT Turning the clocks back to early 2011 brings us to the original release of Mika Mobile's Battleheart [$2.99]. It's hard to forget for me, as I was living in Paris for a few months at the time, but instead of doing all sorts of Parisian things I was pounding away at monsters on my iPad. It was impossible to put down, as Battleheart did something totally unique in that it allowed you to effortlessly control a whole party of dudes in a MMO-feeling boss encounter, with fairly complicated boss gimmicks, without ever feeling frustrating. If you haven't played it, I still highly recommend the game- Or at least reading our review of it. For all the incredible things Battleheart did, there was one super-valid complaint: It was hard to escape the feeling that Battleheart was a basic framework for a more advanced game that was hopefully coming in the future. A couple other developers borrowed some of Battleheart's control mechanics to try a make a similar feeling game with increased depth, but like most "inspired" games, they all lacked that je ne sais quoi that made Battleheart so damn good. Historically, Mika Mobile's games have been a little on the basic side, largely because their strengths have always lied in their stellar art and animation. So, looking at their back catalog, it seemed overly optimistic to think it'd be Mika Mobile that'd bring us the evolution of Battleheart that fans of the original so badly desired. I'm absolutely elated to say that didn't turn out to be the case. Battleheart Legacy [$4.99], by Mika Mobile, has exceeded my expectations to a point that the only way I can rationalize how this was even possible involves, well, aliens. Or something similar. If you, like me, wished the original had more depth, you'll be happy to know that Legacy has enough depth to dig a hole all the way to China. In fact, if that was your complaint of the original, feel free to stop reading this review now and just grab the sequel. Backing things up a bit, like the original, Battleheart Legacy is controlled exclusively through tapping and dragging, with a familiar quick bar at the bottom of the screen with virtual buttons to tap to execute the various moves your character can do. Instead of controlling a party of guys, you're controlling a single avatar inside of the game world. Classes are gone, and instead are replaced with a stupidly flexible character stat and skill training system that allows you to quite literally be whatever you want to be in the game… And it's all balanced in a way that makes sense. So, as you play you'll gain experience and level up. When you level up you get points you can dump in to your character stats. In town you'll find trainers that can teach you new abilities which are gated by stat requirements. Spend your points on strength and you'll likely meet the minimum to learn some skills from the knight. High in dexterity? You'll qualify to learn some rogue skills, and so on. What's nuts about this is that you aren't railroaded down a particular skill tree at all. Want to build a character that's a two-handed weapon wielding lightning shooting battle mage who also can charm monsters like a bard? Go nuts. In fact, discovering the skill synergies that result when you dabble in training from multiple classes is an amazing part of the game. If this skill training system were the only new thing in Battleheart Legacy, I'd have been pretty satisfied. But, remember the whole hole to China thing? This game doesn't stop there. Using your ultra-customized character you'll meet an entire game world full of characters who, like most RPGs, typically want something from you. Multiple dialog options with decisions that can actually have a drastic impact on the game are everywhere. You could be sent on a quest to kill some bandits in a cave, and really, the game could've stopped there. You would've had a ton of fun dungeon (err, cave) crawling, killing bad guys, collecting loot, and completing quests… But Mika Mobile takes this a step farther. Instead of killing said bandits, why not negotiate with them? Make the right choices and instead of killing them and completing one quest, you make a new bandit contact which opens up additional quests that you never would've discovered if you just went in with your crossbow firing. It's these kind of things that make none of the decisions you make in Battleheart Legacy feel like simple throwaway dialog options as you never know where they could lead you. Replay value is off the chain too, as with each successive play through you can choose to do different things, build your character a different way, and end up using a whole different array of equipment in the game. It's truly incredible, and while comparisons to games like Skyrim may seem pretty lofty, it's hard to think of anything else to liken Battleheart legacy to when it comes to complexity, customization, and branching choices in the game world. On the technical side, the game looks and performs beautifully. There's no load times to speak of when going in and out of buildings (Which may even make this game, dare I say, better than Skyrim?) and it's pretty crazy how they managed to take the same art style and spell effects from Battleheart and make them not only work in a 3D world, but also retain all the charm of the original cartoonish graphics. Additionally, there's not only multiple save slots, but they also handle iCloud in the ultra-intelligent way we're always asking for. Anyone who has lost a game save to iCloud knows just how irritating the "automatic" sync iCloud does is. Instead of trusting that whole thing, each character slot has buttons that allow you to upload and download your current character to or from iCloud. This way, you can both use iCloud as a backup every once in a while, or use it to easily move your dudes back and forth between your iPhone and iPad. It works great, and I wish more games would implement a system like this… As nothing is worse than losing dozens of hours of gameplay to an iCloud sync. (*cough* Infinity Blade *cough*) I could seriously go on forever gushing about this game. I loved the original, and my expectations for a sequel have been so significantly exceeded I'm not sure how to even properly convey it all without just rambling on forever about all the neat things this game does. People in our forums love it, and there's even a spinoff thread exclusively for discussing character builds and other strategies. Battleheart Legacy is easily among the best games I've played this year, and I can't imagine a reality where it isn't still high in the running when we get around to doing all of our game of the year stuff in December. Battleheart and Battleheart Legacy are games you must play.

The Amazing 'Infinity Blade II' is Free Posted: 29 May 2014 07:29 AM PDT I'd find it to be hard to believe that many people who read TouchArcade don't already have Chair's incredible Infinity Blade II [Free], but you can now download it for free. If I were a betting man, I'd put some money on this game popping up as Apple's free app of the week when the App Store features refresh this afternoon. If for some weird reason you need additional convincing to download this game, you can check out our review. Additionally, if you didn't play the first one and want to get caught up on what's going on in the plot of these games, take a look at our plot guide. Obviously, stop reading before you get to the Infinity Blade II part, as that's going to be spoiler HQ for you. If you've got any vaguely recent iOS device, Infinity Blade II will run great on it. If you've got an older device, it's still worth checking out as you may be surprised by how well the game runs. Chair really did a crazy job optimizing for everything.

Five Alarm Freebie Alert: 'Tilt to Live' and 'Tilt to Live 2' Posted: 29 May 2014 07:07 AM PDT It's been a while since we've had a proper five alarm freebie alert around here, largely because a hell of a lot of games just are free anyway these days. Regardless, this hasn't stopped me from checking AppShopper's recent free game sales feed (which you should totally book mark if you haven't) every morning. Today's goodies include Tilt to Live [Free] and Tilt to Live 2 [Free]. If you've got an iPad, Tilt to Live HD [Free (HD)] has been free forever. These are still among my favorite iPhone games, and are games that are in my rotation of classic iOS games that I both play all the time and get installed first whenever I get a new iOS device. If you haven't played them before, the entire premise of the game is explained in the title- You tilt your phone, to live. More specifically, you play as a little arrow and you need to both avoid and kill an endless swarm of red dots coming your way. You deal with these dots using a seemingly never-ending array of different weapons and power-ups. The cool thing about these games is both the original and the sequel are different enough that they're both worth having and playing. Maybe I'm old school, but I still find myself preferring the original Tile to Live to Tilt to Live 2, although the sequel does have some awesome new game modes. Either way, these are two games that you need. They weigh in at around 120MB, so they're small enough to just download and keep on your device forever like me.

'Dragon Quest VIII' Review - One Of Japan's Most Epic RPGs Gets A Slightly Less Epic Port Posted: 29 May 2014 12:01 AM PDT The Dragon Quest series has had an odd relationship with western gamers. It's a bonafide cultural icon in its home country of Japan in a way few games have managed to become anywhere. I mean, as I type this review, I can hear the theme being played by a school band at the local elementary school, and that's hardly a rare occurrence. However, it's never quite taken in the west, and it's certainly not for lack of trying. Nintendo gave the first game a massive push, overhauling the graphics, interface, and save system, and featuring it prominently in their magazine Nintendo Power, only to be left with so many unsold cartridges they ended up giving them away with subscriptions. Enix of America quietly translated and released the other three NES games, then disappeared shortly into the 16-bit generation before they could release Dragon Quest 5 and 6. Enix of America then briefly reappeared in the PlayStation 1 era, translating the massive Dragon Quest 7. Unfortunately, that game was about as pretty as the south end of a northbound mule, and it released almost a year after the PlayStation 2 released, so it wasn't exactly a big hit. After Square and Enix merged, the company clearly decided they wanted to make a strong effort to establish Dragon Quest outside of Japan with the release of Dragon Quest 8. It helped that the Japanese version was already a gorgeous game, in sharp contrast to Dragon Quest 7. The publisher went the extra mile for the English release, adding excellent voice acting, extra animations, an overhauled menu system, and an orchestrated version of the soundtrack. This game was also the first release of the main series in Europe. Just for extra mustard, Square Enix packed in a demo disc for Final Fantasy XII. The game ended up a critical and commercial hit, and it finally seemed like Dragon Quest was overseas to stay. In the next few years, Square Enix would translate several spin-offs and remakes, releasing almost every game without fail. Perhaps they went to the paint a bit too hard, though, since by the time Dragon Quest 5 DS released, sales had greatly tapered off. Square Enix took a step back from English releases, handed the car keys to Nintendo (who also seem to have cooled on localizations), and wouldn't handle Dragon Quest again themselves outside Japan until, well, today. It seems the series is getting another chance with the English release of the iOS version of Dragon Quest 8 [$19.99]. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be nearly as much gusto behind this game as there was last time, and the results might be a little underwhelming for English fans. Let's talk about the game itself, first, though. While other RPG series had reduced their scope and backed away from world-spanning adventures across open environments due to the rise in costs of realizing such an ambition, Dragon Quest 8 represented the full, glorious 3D realization of the JRPG in its purest form. It has big towns and cities filled with NPCs who give you vague advice and don't care if you steal stuff out of their dresser and a huge, treasure-packed overworld map that's in scale with your character's dimensions. It has cool forms of transportation, dungeons with branching paths that lead to treasures for some reason. There are animated 3D battles with a menagerie of interesting creatures, epic boss fights, and a twisty story with lots of memorable vignettes. You can gamble in casinos, create a monster team to battle in a coliseum, hunt unique monsters, and craft a veritable arsenal of weapons and armor. You'll travel the seas, fly through the air, fight evil wizards and dragons, and save the world through the power of friendship and love. It's a wonderful, charming game that any fan of JRPGs will find something to love about. You play as the nameless hero, as he travels with his companions trying to lift the curse that has befallen his kingdom. As usual for a Dragon Quest game, on the way to reaching your goal, you'll end up mixed up in a whole bunch of other situations along the way. Some of these side-stories end happily, others not so much, but they're all quite interesting. One of the reasons why I love this series is its bittersweet nature. Sometimes you're too late to save the day, and all you can do is help people find closure. Sometimes, you can't even do that, and you're left to just reflect on what happened. A cursory glance at Square Enix's two main franchises would probably have you peg Dragon Quest as the more childish series, but there's actually a sort of maturity to the storytelling that you rarely see in games. More unusual for the series, the party members in Dragon Quest 8 are quite fleshed-out and very memorable. The boisterous thief Yangus is the clear star of the show, and his constant feuding with King Trode is genuinely laugh-out-loud funny at times. Jessica's slightly spoiled yet kind-hearted personality and Angelo's pompous self-adoration round out the main cast nicely. Even the mute hero gets quite the backstory, though you have to go digging into the post-game to unveil it completely. There are lots of other memorable characters you'll meet along the way, including the awful Prince Charmles, the colorful (in more ways than one) Morrie, and the mysterious thief Red. Dragon Quest is well-known for being a very orthodox JRPG series, and its battles reflect that more than anything else. The encounters are invisible and random, and the battles are the stereotypical turn-based affairs associated with the genre. The only new thing Dragon Quest 8 added was the tension meter, which allows you to use a character's turn to charge up for a powerful attack. Tension actually makes this one of the easier Dragon Quest games, but you still have to remember to use buffs and debuffs to your advantage if you want the sailing to be smooth. They're very important in this series, and people ignoring them is what tends to lead to the mistaken notion that you have to grind in these games to win. Unlike the preceding and following installments, there isn't a job class system in Dragon Quest 8. Instead, when you level up, you get points that you can put towards any of five different categories. When a certain number of points are put into each category, your character will learn a new skill or ability. If it's your first time playing, my advice is to pick one or two categories and lean into them hard. While I miss the great customization the class system offers, the skill system still offers quite a bit of flexibility while making for a more balanced experience. It's almost impossible to screw yourself over by developing your character the wrong way, since there really is no wrong way to develop. All told, the game's main quest will take the average player 60-70 hours to finish, and the side content and post-game will easily drive that to the 90-100 hour mark. The pacing gets a bit spotty in the middle, but for the most part, you'll be so absorbed that you won't notice the hours go by. The main quest takes the form of a road trip that helps keep things moving, while the focus on smaller side-stories means you can take the game in digestible bites if that's your speed. If you step away and forget what you were doing, you can talk to your party members. They'll bring you up to speed and make some amusing comments, to boot. As for the iOS port, it's not quite as good as you might hope. Since this is just a translated version of the Japanese release, the orchestrated music and voice acting found only in the western PS2 release are out. The orchestrated music, I can live without, since it was recorded at low quality and bloated the game's loading times, but losing the voice acting hurts. Reading Yangus say "Cor Blimey!" just isn't the same as hearing it, and some of the jokes have a lot less punch in text, like the gags around Prince Charmles' name. Tailored for the train-faring Japanese population the game is played in portrait mode, which is going to seem like an odd choice for some people. I actually like being able to play one-handed, but there's no doubt the lack of horizontal space cuts down on the feeling of grandness in some of the game's environments. The controls themselves take a little getting used to, but after an adjustment period, I didn't have any problems with them. It's certainly a unique interface, but it ends up working out fine. The game only supports hardware with A5 chipsets or higher, but realistically, you really should have an A6 if you want to play without problems. This is a heinously inefficient port, suffering from framerate issues even on an iPhone 5S, so playing it on a 4S and its contemporaries is basically asking for trouble. Loading times are on par with the PS2 release, but not as well-hidden due to the loading screens. Apart from framerate problems, technical issues were minimal on the 5S, but it's apparently crash-prone on A5 devices. Dragon Quest 8 is a beautiful game, don't get me wrong, but there's really no reason modern mobile hardware should be struggling with it at all. Oh, and just to settle any fears you might have, there's no online connection required and Square Enix hasn't messed with the game at all, so there are no IAPs, either. Although the loss of the voice acting and slightly more cramped view make for a lesser experience than the PS2 original, this is still an absolutely incredible game, provided you have the hardware to run it. Up until now, Square Enix has been content to deliver ports of their NES and SNES games, along with the odd DS game. This, however, is one of the genre kings of the PS2 generation, and as such, it feels like a much bigger and more advanced experience than virtually anything else available on the App Store. This is one of those games like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic [$9.99], where it feels absolutely amazing to be playing this on my mobile device. Sure, it's expensive, but if any game could justify a higher price tag, Dragon Quest 8 is it. I acknowledge this is a very long review, so for those of you who gave up and skipped down to the bottom, here's the short version. Dragon Quest 8 on iOS isn't quite up to the original English PS2 game, thanks to a lack of voice acting and some technical issues, but it is a largely faithful version of one of the best RPGs of the last decade. It's a grand adventure that no JRPG fan should miss, as long as your device can run it. Here's hoping this return is a successful one.

Out Now: 'Dragon Quest VIII', 'Delivery Outlaw', 'Trainz Simulator 2', 'Romans In My Carpet!' and More Posted: 28 May 2014 08:11 PM PDT If you're able to pull yourself away from Battleheart Legacy, which jumped the gun and released last night, then there's a whole bunch of other new iOS games to occupy your time with. If you're a fan of the PlayStation 2 game Dragon Quest VIII, you can now take it with you on the go on your iOS device. It seems to be a pretty faithful port, with the added bonus of one-handed, portrait-oriented gameplay. Also, there's a number of cool puzzle games on the list tonight, as well as Adult Swim's latest Delivery Outlaw which has just launched worldwide following a soft launch. Eli and I actually streamed many of these new games earlier today, so check out the archive video if you missed it. But seriously, just make sure you grab Battleheart Legacy, it's stupidly good. Bardadum: The Kingdom Roads iTunes Description Once upon a time... Bardadum: The Kingdom Roads, a puzzle video game set in a humoristic medieval world. The game is simple, accessible, and based upon the player's common sense and observation. Follow the story of two friends: a bard and a knight traveling through the Bardadum kingdom. May their quest become yours! Forum Thread: Bardadum: The Kingdom Roads (by Emedion) Battleheart Legacy iTunes Description The spirit of Battleheart returns, re-imagined! In Battleheart Legacy, you will explore a rich and detailed fantasy world, customize your unique hero with dozens of powerful skills and items, do battle with hordes of enemies, encounter quirky characters and discover the stories of a troubled realm. Will you become a powerful wizard, or a notorious rogue? A noble knight, or a savage barbarian? How will you forge your legacy? Forum Thread: Battleheart Legacy (by Mika Mobile) Beware Planet Earth! iTunes Description Heed the warning from the red planet, Earthlings! The Martians are about to strike our beloved planet to take our single most valuable resource: cows! Protect Barney's "ladies" in this colorful and whimsical tower defense game! Forum Thread: Beware Planet Earth! (by Bandai Namco Games Europe) Brazil 2014 Kebab Cart iTunes Description Congratulations ! You have been granted a licence to serve kebabs to the Brazil 2014 football crowds. Serve them up what they want before they lose it and you lose you prime pitch-side street food stall. Enjoy multiple meats, lots of crazy characters & sizzling arcade action in this football cooking game ! Forum Thread: Brazil 2014 Kebab Cart (by Mousebreaker) Delivery Outlaw iTunes Desctiption Crashing your race-car into the courthouse was bad…But community service as delivery boy to a crime boss? KIND OF AWESOME. So hop behind the wheel and put the pedal to the metal as JACK GUNNIT, disgraced daredevil-turned-deliveryboy, forced off-road and outside the law by the mysterious LILY BREAKER. You'll need to keep your skills sharp and your thumbs twitchy as you launch, flip and tumble your fragile and OFTEN LETHAL cargo through nightmarish terrain and deadly pitfalls. The clock is ticking, so be quick and handle with care— especially over the dynamite pits. Forum Thread: Delivery Outlaw - (by adult swim) Don't Eat People! iTunes Description It's feeding time in the village! That means yummy sacrificial animals just for your big monster mouth. But be careful not to eat any people...or else! In Don't Eat People, you control several hungry monsters whose appetite can only be satisfied by a record-breaking number of tasty bulls… but for some reason villagers are hurling themselves off the cliff along with the animals. You have one simple goal… DON'T EAT PEOPLE! Earn points for every bull you eat, and bonuses for special bulls that appear at random. The controls are easy - just tap and hold to close the monster's mouth and watch the villagers bounce off your head with hilarious results. If you eat a single person, it's game over! Forum Thread: Don't Eat People - (by Piasa Games, LLC) Dragon Quest VIII iTunes Description The 8th instalment in the legendary DRAGON QUEST series is now even easier to enjoy! The phenomenally popular DRAGON QUEST VIII has sold 4.9 million units worldwide, and now it's coming to the iPhone and iPad for the first time! This was the first title in the series to be presented in full 3D, and its exquisitely detailed world has to be seen to be believed! Set off on an unforgettable adventure with Yangus, the bandit with a heart of gold, Jessica, the high-born magical minx, and Angelo, knight and lothario, by your side! Everything you need is here in a single package! Once the app is downloaded, there's no more to pay, as every last shred of content is yours to enjoy. So get ready to play the epic that is DRAGON QUEST VIII from beginning to end—and far beyond! Forum Thread: Dragon Quest VIII (by Square Enix) Final Kick iTunes Description Enjoy the tense moments of the penalty shots as if you were playing in the World Cup final, competing against the best teams, making the most spectacular goals and saves and along with graphics that will make you feel as if you were sitting in the first row in Maracan„ Stadium. Perfect your special shots, shoot with special effects, fool your opponent and make the most impressive saves, controlling the ball with one finger, and become the Brazil 2014 Champion. Forum Thread: Final Kick: The best penalty shootout - (By Ivanovich Games) har-mon-y 2 iTunes Description An immersive puzzle game of beautiful color palettes and beautiful music… blended in perfect harmony. Relax your mind with over two full hours of mesmerizing ambient music by Hammock - including rare and unreleased tracks! Music playlists are arranged harmoniously with the mood and style of each set of colorful puzzles… We love color and har•mo•ny 2 gives you color in abundance. Hundreds of handcrafted levels, rich with color and organized into paths for your exploration. Awaken your mind to the bold colors of "refresh", relax to the peaceful pastels of "dream" or play the darker tones of "twilight" before you go to sleep... Each level becomes a journey with a destination as you strategically reassemble each color palette. Make a wrong move and you may take one step back. Venture too far the wrong way and you must start over. See how you rank in Game Center and challenge your friends! How far can you get? Forum Thread: har-mo-ny 2 (by BorderLeap) iON Bond iTunes Description iON Bond is a puzzle game about bonding and colliding subatomic particles. Form bonds to create forces between particles, and collide them together inside a simulated vacuum to and create beautiful cloud particle collisions and advance through the stages. - 70 Levels - Numerous particle types and features which bend the laws of physics - Secret game mode for anyone who manages to get a perfect score Forum Thread: iON Bond (by Stewart Hogarth) Marcus Level iTunes Description Marcus thought that while his parents were away, he could play his favorite videogame "Gorbar and The Valley of the Seven Light Towers". Unfortunately, he got transported inside the videogame itself ! To avoid the Game Over and get a chance to come back to his world, Marcus will have to finish the game and free the Princess Aria from the villain Vipkrad. Discover the universe of the Marcus Level cartoon through this challenging runner. Forum Thread: Marcus Level (by MondoTV France) Minimo iTunes Description Brace yourself for the ultimate tap experience! Minimo combines "flap" and shooter mechanics. This minimalistic game is challenging, yet rewarding. The levels and the music are generated as you play, every try has something new to offer. Forum Thread: Minimo (by Fabuloso Games) Once Upon A Time: Man iTunes Description Once Upon a Time… Man is a stimulating interactive brain board game, where kids and adults can check their knowledge of history and continue learning. At the very beginning, each player choosestheir owncharacter to play with along with the DICE+ (which creates further excitement, but is not mandatory) to begin the journey through the dynamically generated map, which is different in every game. The main goal of the game is to fulfil the quests related to famous historical characters and events, which are drawn at the beginning of the game.Finishing quests give you ducats, when you are the first to tackle all of them you are the victorious winner of the game! Don't expect and easyroad to victory as its full of obstacles and unexpected events. Adding another layer of strategy with the use of power ups and boosters, other players can tacticallyderange you from your trail or strengthen their heroes and his statistics! Forum Thread: Once Upon A Time: Man (by Synergy-IT) Pablo Cavarez iTunes Description Pablo Cavarez: Sliding Puzzle Explorer is an original puzzle game, as easy and immediate as the Fifteen puzzle, but fun and deep as the best puzzle games. The goal of each level is to move tiles to create a safe route to guide Pablo to the exit, while collecting treasures and avoiding traps. Forum Thread: Pablo Cavarez - (By Paolo Taje') Perfect Paths iTunes Description Perfect Paths is amazing puzzle solving game where you create paths and add other instructions to move blocks to their designated positions. Blocks can be combined or separated. These simple rules create interesting environment, where each puzzle can be solved in many different ways. Forum Thread: Perfect Paths (by Hyperbolic Magnetism) Pogo Plumber iTunes Description Help our scruffy hero, Pogo, bounce around the boroughs of Brooklyn on his trusty plunger. Avoid obstacles and leap tall buildings in a single pogo, while plunging your way through a mix of pesky enemies. You'll battle everything from ferocious turtles and blood sucking bats, to massive man-eating plants! Chain pogos between multiple enemies to jump super high, collect coins, get power-ups and earn special accessories and new pumped-up plungers for SUPER pogo-ing! Forum Thread: Pogo Plumber: Retro Side-Scroller (by Apptly LLC) Romans In My Carpet! iTunes Description Now for something completely different from the developers of the Ravenmark saga. We've got Romans In My Carpet! - an absurd MULTIPLAYER turn-based strategy game in vivid 16-bit pixel glory! Stare at a screenful of mite-sized Roman soldiers charge into battle on spider-powered chariots. This is lush 2D life, perfected to a retro-loving science. Engage in turn-based wargaming by way of Monty Python, and feel good about cutting up your foes while catching all of our smart, smart japes. Think you're a strategic genius? Challenge your friends in asynchronous multiplayer! Tell them it was just a flesh wound through in-battle chat. Bring your own taunts. While waiting in between multiplayer matches, continue honing your wits in the single-player campaign, where you do battle against the nefarious AI that lives on our server. Play as both Imperial scum or the rather nekkid tribes of Britannia! Romans In My Carpet! We're making bedbugs as adorable as a button. Forum Thread: Romans In My Carpet! (by Witching Hour Studios) RubPix iTunes Description Rubpix is a picture-forming sliding block puzzle game from the creator of Pretentious Game. It's as awesome as it is simple. Imagine a Rubik's cube with pixels, hence RubPix ! Your goal is to recreate a picture depicted above your RubPix. As you may expect some are pretty tricky. 150 puzzles, gotta solve them all! Forum Thread: RubPix (by Bulkypix) Salt & Pepper: A Physics Game iTunes Description Salt & Pepper is an exclusive iOS physics game. Simply draw to guide enough salt and pepper to the white and black bowls. When enough salt and pepper have reached the bowls, a star will appear. The level is complete when all bowls have a star. The salt and pepper must reach their bowls. To complete a level: etch a unique pathway to guide the white salt and black pepper to their bowls until a star appears. In this physics game, there are no specific paths or patterns to complete a level as each level will have countless ways to win. Forum Thread: Salt & Pepper: A Physics Game (by Cartez Augustus) Super Soccer Champs 14 iTunes Description The king of Retro Soccer is back, new and improved! Successor to the critically acclaimed Super Soccer Champs 2013, now with more leagues, a deeper Career mode, and a host of graphics, sound and gameplay improvements. World Of Soccer Champs mode sees you work your way up from managing the minnows, with 4 divisions of English Football, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Scottish and Japanese Leagues. Transfers, job offers, promotion and relegation! Build your squad to deal with injuries and suspensions, it's all here. But most importantly, the most sensible and kick-off-est footy controls going, let you bang in the goals like a Champ! Forum Thread: S.S.C. '14 : Retro style Soccer at it's best Trainz Simulator 2 iTunes Description Trainz Simulator 2 for iPad is the Next-generation Train Sim for mobile! TS2 offers all the original features of Trainz Simulator while pushing the boundaries of mobile once more with many new features for you to experience. Based on the successful PC & Mac franchise, Trainz Simulator 2 allows you to Build and operate the railroad of your dreams. Trainz Simulator 2 for iPad includes everything you need to build and operate your own dream railroad. You can build a fun layout in minutes, faithfully recreate a railroad from days gone by or develop a fully-fledged prototypical route; the choice is yours. Forum Thread: Trainz Simulator 2 (by N3V Games) Truffle Saga iTunes Description From the makers of Commando Jack, comes Truffle Saga! Take Truffle on a cool adventure to rid the forest of angry Mushrooms in a fun addicting physics puzzler! Truffle needs your help, and has acorns ready to throw at the pesky Mushrooms to destroy them! You have to do it in one shot, I bet you can't, though Truffle will be happy if you do! Stop the Mushrooms taking over the forest now in this addictive saga! Forum Thread: Truffle Saga (by Colossal Games) Warfare Nations iTunes Description Warfare Nations is an epic and addictive combat strategy game filled with exciting adventures and explosive fun. Train your troops, build your Outpost, and battle with thousands of other players online! The Great war rages around! LEAD your TROOPS, PILOT your ARMORS and BLOW your ENEMIES sky high! It's Europe and the world powers have descended into world war. Your troops need a leader at their most desperate hour. Could you be that leader? As the world holds its breath, the decisions are yours! Put on your boots and take to the mud and trenches of Europe. Build a base and bring your rivals to their knees! Forum Thread: Warfare Nations (by VOLV)

TouchArcade Will Be at WWDC and E3, Additionally, We're Having a Birthday Party for Jared Posted: 28 May 2014 04:43 PM PDT As the yearly tradition dictates, we'll be at both WWDC and E3 this year in California. WWDC is Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference and it runs from June 2nd through the 6th in San Francisco. E3, or, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, in Los Angeles from June 10th to Thursday the 12th. Both typically are pretty great for iOS games with WWDC focusing more on the indie side of things and E3 being home to the bigger developers and publishers who have the bankroll for the elaborate booths and spectacle of E3 versus the meeting over coffee at WWDC. They're both a lot of fun, and historically have resulted in some pretty cool stories. If you're a developer or publisher and you're planning on attending either of these events, please send us an email at meetings@toucharcade.com. Our schedules for both are pretty weird, so I'm sure we'll be able to fit everyone in who wants to show us their games. If you don't have a game to show off but just want to say "Hello!" or otherwise come hang out at WWDC, we're going to be doing our typical mixer thing at Bin 55. It's in the lobby of the San Francisco Marriott Marquis. It'll be really similar to what we did at GDC, which basically just amounts to choosing a bar people come hang out at. Super low key, tons of fun, and nixing the whole open bar / drink ticket thing keeps the crowd limited to people who actually want to come chill out instead of people who are just there to pound free beer. (Seriously, our GDC party like this was easily the best we've had.) Our little get together will be on Wednesday the 4th (one week from today) at 7:00 PM, or whenever you feel like showing up. Typically the way these work is people get there around 7:00, we close out the bar, head to another bar, then for whatever horrible reason end up at the Denny's across the street to guarantee that everyone who stayed out that late truly hates their lives the next day. It's a ton of fun, I promise... and that Wednesday also happens to be Jared's birthday! We might have to get a huge cake or something, ya'll will have to let me know if you want to go in on some massive iPad cake. Hopefully he doesn't read TouchArcade so it's a surprise. So, to reiterate, if you're a developer with a new game to show off at WWDC or E3, email us. If you're going to be in San Francisco on the night of the 4th, regardless of whether or not you're a developer, come to Bin 55 and let me shake your hand for reading our web site.