You may know Terry Cavanagh from a little game that frustrated you to insanity called Super Hexagon. Before that, Cavanagh made a platformer called VVVVVV. It wasn't quite as streamlined as its successor, but featured the same hallmarks of a great soundtrack and maddening, rewarding challenge. Now, it's finally on Android, and while I still favor playing it on a device with keys or buttons, it's been translated for touch screen play amazingly well. VVVVVV is about a crew of little pixel people who get accidentally warped to another dimension and separated. You, as ship captain Viridian, must explore the hostile planet, rescuing your five crewmembers and collecting shiny trinkets. There's some cute dialogue from the crew and computer terminals offering backstory, but it's all just an excuse to get down to some old-school, hard-as-nails platforming.
Atypically, there's no actual jumping; you avoid spikes, enemies, and other obstacles by switching Viridian's gravity, sending him flying up to the ceiling or back down to the earth (and there's no flipping mid-air). VVVVVV keeps the concept fresh with a variety of hazards and environmental junk. There are conveyor belts, platforms that disappear once landed on, lines that involuntarily flip your gravity when touched, and spikes. Spikes everywhere.
There's no health bar; one slip-up and you're dead. Lives are endless and checkpoints plentiful, but every screen is a maniacal challenge; the satisfaction comes from seeing how many you can pass without dying. You'll have to flip deftly up and down across conveyor belts alternating both horizontally and vertically. Making it over a spike-coated chasm means falling down into it, navigating your way to a disappearing platform at the bottom, then flipping off it and floating back up to the other side. Each time you find a crewmate there's a small escort mission—each one with a slightly different spin on it.
Further challenge comes from collecting the optional twenty trinkets found throughout the world. These often require you to invert your thinking, figuring out how to get to the underside of where you've just been walking on. Checkpoints are often cleverly used against you. Nabbing a trinket will require you to hit a checkpoint in the process, so you can't die and respawn back where you started, but instead have to again navigate the insanely hard area you just bypassed.
None of this would be remotely fair if the controls weren't as solid as they are. There are three control schemes, each intuitive in their own way, but I can't deny a subtle loss in accuracy from not having actual buttons to press. The biggest issue is trying to move only a few steps when on a small ledge (which happens semi-frequently). None of the control schemes are quite precise enough to pull this off well. Still, it's generally incredible how near-perfectly the controls have been adapted to touchscreen. VVVVVV's graphical presentation isn't too special. It's unabashedly inspired by Commodore 64 computer graphics of the eighties, so it's all simple pixels and bright colors. Enemies look like bizarre, random placeholders like floating stop signs or what appear to be dancing beer mugs with the word "YES" above them. Viridian and his crewmates are pretty adorable though with their faces frowning whenever they're in a tight spot.
The audio, on the other hand, is fantastic. The sound effects are few; almost all you'll hear are the digitized "bloop" of Viridian flipping or the tragic "beeoooo" of his death. But the music is a collection of jaunty tracks by chiptune musician SoulEye. These songs are fun and catchy enough that you may end up, as I did, downloading them, and even learning their titles ("Pushing Onwards" is my personal favorite).
With the entire world open to you from the start, just searching through the environment and filling out the worldmap is a joy on its own. The world is awfully finite, but the sheer difficulty of getting through it should take at least a couple of hours. Collecting all of the trinkets adds a sizeable chunk more. Further, there's tons of additional content in the form of user-created levels, some of which are as big as the core game. They're not as elegantly designed as Cavanagh's, but they're an enjoyable addition. There are also time trials, a no-death mode (if you're crazy), and the unreasonably difficult Super Gravitron minigame, in which you see how long you can survive getting bounced around in a small space with constant hazards chucked at you. VVVVVV is a brilliant showing of game design, wringing tons of challenge out of one little mechanic. It's got an average retro look, but it sounds great, which is important for when you're stuck dying repeatedly at the same spot. It's not the laser-focused tour de force that Terry Cavanagh's other game, Super Hexagon is, but that I'm assessing this game's quality in comparison to another title by the same guy demonstrates just how good he is. For more precise control, I'd still recommend the PC or 3DS versions of VVVVVV before this one, but this Android release is definitely not a bad way to go.
When a highly anticipated game arrives on the iOS App Store, audiences flock to it like nobody's business. However, that doesn't necessarily mean the party's over, as companies often release updates that provide extra content to said games. Sometimes it's free, while other times it costs a couple of bucks. Regardless, you score additional gameplay, and that's what counts.
That said, here are our favorite updates to iPhone and iPad games during June 2014.
Plants vs. Zombies 2 (free)
One of the best free-to-play games available on iOS right now, Plants vs. Zombies 2 scored a great new update this past month that features several new Plants to choose from, including Bonk Choy, Lightning Reed and Laser Bean. However, several Zombies joined the party as well, including the Wrangler and Jetpack Zombie. Hope you have plenty of ammunition on hand.
Download Plants vs. Zombies 2: iPhone and iPad
Zen Pinball: Deadpool Table ($1.99)
The Zen Pinball tables usually provide a lot of variety, with both original properties and licensed fare, including the recent Star Wars and Marvel tables. For its latest addition, the team at Zen Studios turned to Deadpool, the legendary Marvel assassin, whose outspoken nature and comical antics are a perfect fit for pinball action. For $1.99, you can enjoy every bit of greatness from this table, including the uncanny voice work by Deadpool mainstay Nolan North. Yes, the guy who voiced Nathan Drake from Sony's Uncharted series.
Download Zen Pinball: iPad & iPhone
Godzilla: Smash 3 (free)
Ever since its release earlier this summer, Godzilla: Smash 3 has allowed players to cause havoc with a terrific match-three formula, destroying enemy ships, aircraft and other creatures by putting together combos. For its latest update, the game is a little easier for casual players, with difficulty adjustments in San Francisco and with certain enemies. You'll still have a fight on your hands, but at least it's not as monstrous.
Download Godzilla: Smash 3: iPhone and iPad
FarmVille 2: Country Escape (free)
Just in time for the dog days of summer, Zynga added new content that will keep avid FarmVille players planting and maintaining. Dogs have now entered the fray as Farm Hands, helping you locate rare items, so long as you take care of them by building a dog house and bringing home a fellow canine to play with. You'll also be able to take part in special events, and listen to your own music through iTunes. Nothing beats farming to Five Finger Death Punch, right?
Download FarmVille 2: Country Strong: iPhone and iPad
Dungeon Hunter 4 (free)
Last but not least, Gameloft's premiere dungeon crawler has a slew of new content to take advantage of for free. The game now allows you to join up with others with the addition of New Guilds, while also providing exclusive events to earn bonus rewards, as well as new weapons and armor. Dungeon Hunter 4 also supports in-game chat, and gives you a chance to spin the Wheel of Fate to earn new rings. Cleaning up on rewards for no charge is definitely worth it.
Download Dungeon Hunter 4: iPhone and iPad
Line: Disney Tsum Tsum launches on iOS, Google Play
Disney has today announced the launch of Line: Disney Tsum Tsum on iOS and Android devices. The game was published by Line, the free call and messaging app, and is the worldwide launch of the previously released puzzle game from Japan. In Line: Disney Tsum Tsum, which translates to "Disney Stack Stack," users connect and pop pictures of as many famous Disney characters as they can in 60 seconds. These characters are presented as detailed orbs on the screen, and represent everyone from Mickey Mouse and Piglet to Mike Wazowski and beyond. The more orbs, or tsums, players remove from the screen, the higher the score. As players collect these tsums, they can be leveled up to unlock their special abilities for in-game bonuses.
By connecting the Line: Disney Tsum Tsum app to a Line messaging account, users can experience social features, including comparing high scores with fiends on leaderboards, as well as sending friends virtual gifts.
"Disney Japan has created some of our most successful and popular digital products and Disney Interactive is proud to be working closely with the team to extend their success globally," said Jimmy Pitaro, president of Disney Interactive. "This is one of the first times that Disney has introduced a distinctly Japanese product to a global audience, and Disney Tsum Tsum offers our guests a unique combination of quality characters, compelling game play and an engaging social experience."
In Japan, the game has reached the No. 1 free app spot on both iOS and Android devices, and has been downloaded more than 14 million times.
To celebrate the launch of the app, Disney has also announced the release of a range of Tsum Tsum soft toys in Disney Store and Disney Park locations. Thirty different stackable toys are now available, with more coming in a fall release. These plush toys have a screen-cleaning material on their stomachs and come in three sizes.
Line: Disney Tsum Tsum is available to download for free on iOS and Google Play.
WildStar is a busy game. In every direction, shiny baubles and fluttering flags and swirling beacons of light compete for your attention. The world of Nexus is awash with color--or, more specifically, awash with all of the colors, many of them splashed across the screen at any given time as if by an artist determined to exhaust his entire supply of paint. Developer Carbine Studios, apparently unable to choose a single art style, squeezed multiple ones together, crafting an audiovisual potpourri that's as eclectic as the game's narrative themes. A horn-heavy tune, the kind John Williams would be proud to have written, calls out during a planetside battle, evoking Star Wars and its galactic tensions. Graceful gazelles glide across the grass while the music whispers a hint of Disney's Pocahontas soundtrack, at least when it isn't mirroring chord progressions from Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy. Quests and regions refer to Left 4 Dead and Firefly, and your level-up notification flashes with comic-book pizzazz. In WildStar, the pop culture references flow freely down a river of science fiction and fantasy themes, each wink and nod leaping from the waters with glee.
This concoction makes for an overwrought aesthetic, and while I am occasionally struck by the gaudiness, I'm more often struck by WildStar's beauty. But even when I venture into villages swamped in kitsch, I know that I am in Nexus. The zombies and the horned snow monsters, the hoverboards and skyboats, the aloof robots and talking vegetables are all wrapped into a world that is very much its own, no matter how easy you might think it is to compare WildStar to World of Warcraft. Such a comparison is a superficial one: where Warcraft aspires to the Warhammer universe's chunky proportions and bulging architecture, WildStar details its landscapes with bright green curlicues and gray-blue bubbles to depict grass and rocks.
I beg your pardon for so quickly dissecting WildStar's looks, but my adoration of an online role-playing game is directly proportional to how much I enjoy existing in its world, and how well it encourages me to leave behind the comfort of the starting areas and set my eyes upon the more perilous regions beyond. And even when I felt the grind while chasing the game's countless missions, I still felt that tingle that came from wondering what might lie outside my current zone. Early in the game, I was enamored with the aforementioned gazelle creatures and the bucolic wilds they roamed. It was here that the Aurin race rallied around an ancient (and sentient) tree--and here that the tree fell under attack. It wasn't the locals' dialogue that made me so invested in the subsequent missions, but rather the wistful climate and the nature of great beauty spoiled by war.
Later, when I was more directly involved with the war between WildStar's two opposing player factions--the Dominion and the Exiles--I was swept away by the audiovisual barrage that did its best to veil how endless clockwork battles between non-player characters could never truly be won. But it was these grand gestures that made me aware of my purpose on Nexus, even when the commanders that poured details into my questing journal became cliche-spouting mission machines. Even at its most charming, WildStar can't always overcome monotony; I spent more time acting as a wedding planner for talking bunny rabbits than I care to reveal, and witnessing the final ceremony wasn't much reward for the tedium of searching for lost groomsmen. But even though I was immune to the allure of trinket-toting rodents, I always presumed something more intriguing would lie around the bend. And it always did.
They say the humanity is the real monster, but really, it's this guy. This is the real monster. Suffice it to say, not every activity in WildStar is stuffed with meaning, but with such a breadth of content, it's difficult not to find appealing elements, even if you prefer to chase waypoints without paying any mind to the context. In fact, the game's fascination with visual gewgaws has parallels in the gameplay that make the quest writing almost superfluous. "Collect all the litter and activate all the objects," Carbine seems to say, more concerned with keeping you busy than with making every activity feel all that important. What those objects might be depends on the path you choose when creating your character. Paths are independent of your race and class; think of them as professions that open up different ways of interacting with the world. Scientists keep themselves busy fixing robots and scanning monsters, while adventurers leap to higher ground looking for artifacts and hidden nooks.
I'm a settler. I collect resources and use them to erect various machines and miscellany--gadgets that give you health boosts, campfires for cooking, and so forth. There's appeal in feeling like I'm gathering items for the greater good, knowing that the taxi stand I build will enable fellow Exiles to travel more efficiently, or that the vendbot I summon might help a teammate empty his pockets of useless items and pad her pocketbook. Other tasks aren't all that substantial; I run about villages lighting fires on spindly tiki torches and planting flowers to brighten up the decor in addition to my more relevant community services. Profuse scatterings of collectibles and items, each object labeled with an icon that urges you to interact with it, ensure you have lots of stuff to do, but it's undeniable busywork: interaction for the sake of interaction.
Welcome to the madness that is player-versus player.To its great credit, WildStar makes the most vital elements--movement and combat--energetic and enjoyable. This isn't the first massively multiplayer online game to include a double jump, but it's the first such double jump that has felt so free and easy. I enjoy the basics of locomotion here, most often for the breezy animations and the overall sense that Nexus is a fine place to spread your allegorical wings. I occasionally found myself leaping into the most unusual places as I followed trails of settler resources, surprised that areas so unlikely to be traversed were still built with great care so that players wouldn't get stuck in crevasses. The primary obstacle to exploration is the world itself, which doesn't hew to a consistent set of physical rules; mild hills block your passage with invisible walls and steep inclines that look insurmountable pave the way to higher vantage points.
You needn't travel by foot. My current ride of choice is a hoverboard, though your first vehicle will be one tamed creature or another--no boring horses here. Whether you stay on foot or not, however, your travels inevitably lead you into battle. In the most basic sense, WildStar is built on the foundation that countless games have laid before it: you earn new skills as you level up, and equip those skills to a hotbar, tapping your number keys to fire off spells or bullets, or to slash away at an attacking creature's grotesque face with a set of claws.
Profuse scatterings of collectibles and items, each object labeled with an icon that urges you to interact with it, ensure you have lots of stuff to do, but it's undeniable busywork: interaction for the sake of interaction.
If the sight of a hotbar inspires within you eye-rolling assumptions that WildStar must be the same old tap-and-wait experience, take delight in knowing that this specific brand of MMOG combat is built to keep you mobile. You couldn't confuse WildStar with an action game--there's no sense that each key press results in an immediate, weighty onscreen action--but cooldowns are quick, and most skills are assigned an area of effect rather than being limited to a single target. My primary character is a spellslinger who uses her dual pistols to inflict as much damage as possible, though spellslingers aren't necessarily concerned just with cutting down the enemy; they can also act as healers. Skills typically emanate in arcs, cones, circles, and rectangles, affecting the players and creatures unlucky enough (or lucky enough) to stand within range of your fury.
Enemies telegraph their strongest attacks with similar tells, the most powerful of them requiring you to roll and leap around to avoid the red patches that designate dangerous areas. Out in the rolling hills and snow-covered meadows of Nexus, this makes for fun adventuring, whether you're on your own or tagging along with other players. You're likely to run into a few idiosyncrasies as you traverse Nexus, many of them to be found within snowy Whitevale, where bizarre enemy leash ranges can make some open-world skirmishes a hassle. (In this region, some creatures can move only a foot or two from the location to which they are leashed before the game replenishes their health bars and they hop a few steps back to their original spot.) WildStar is generally stable and feature-complete, however, and such easily fixed foibles are momentary distractions and not signals of deeper troubles.
Swamps and tundras within quick walking distance. No one could accuse WildStar of being boring to look at!
In the game's dungeons and adventure scenarios, tensions rise substantially. One dungeon boss proved problematic for my five-player party, which struggled to collect incoming green orbs before they could reach--and buff--the hulk demanding our heads. It wasn't the creature's main attacks that proved most problematic, however, but the treacherous spheroids that sometimes radiated from the beast, temporarily turning WildStar into a bullet-hell shooter. We ultimately succeeded, though only two of us were standing when the ogre finally fell.
Such battles require you to keep a close eye on enemy behavior, but the chaos is rarely overpowering, making such challenges welcome outliers in a genre rarely singled out for requiring skillful play. Cooperative levels called adventures are the most rewarding places to prove your mettle, given their creative use of ideas not often associated with MMOGs. The War of the Wilds adventure, for instance, appropriates elements of competitive arena games like League of Legends, unleashing waves of AI grunts that complicate your goal of capturing more flags than your computer-controlled rivals. You dodge out of range of a bearded abominable snowman and into a healer's green arc of healing, all while setting fire to the rampaging hordes. Adventures are fun--and more vitally, they are fun to return to again and again.
Player-versus-player battlegrounds are subject to the whims of human players, making them even more frantic than adventures and dungeons--sometimes too frantic, actually; some battles require all of your senses just to make sense of the hodgepodge of red and green arcs players paint onto the ground while attacking. These capture-the-flag and assault-and-defend variants are fortunately exciting even when the undisciplined visuals threaten anarchy, at least, and opening the caches of goodies you reap as rewards for victory often comes with the possibility of receiving some house decor for your troubles.
Click above for more WildStar images.You will likely collect such decor even before you reach level 15, the level at which you may unlock access to your very own plot of land. Player housing is a welcome offering, a once-standard feature now often relegated to a post-release patch, if it is ever added at all. Delightfully, your home in WildStar is not just a house, but an entire floating island upon which your abode is but one element. You can plant gardens, set up healing stations, place crafting tables, and even erect a dungeon upon your island in the sky, thus making your home a useful destination and not just a virtual status symbol. Some players have used the items they purchase and collect (beds, trees, empty toilet tissue rolls, wall art, and so forth) to craft jumping puzzles upon their plots. I've approached my home as a dollhouse, taking great care to maximize its attractiveness, rotating and resizing tables and chairs as if I might be preparing a fancy tea party.
Alas, the only drink I'm serving right now is the moonshine I created by jumping up and down in a giant vat of fermented fruit. Oh WildStar, how charming and brassy you are, how loud and brazen and often irresistible you are. Your charisma has dulled over time, I'm afraid; I'm less beguiled by your thematic mishmash than I was when I started, yet there are still crannies I have yet to peek into, and I'm itching to discover what might be crammed into them. More than likely, I'll find more things to collect, more quests to take, and more outposts promising refuge. WildStar inspires compulsion, laying down trails of tasty candies that lead to even more candy trails, and in doing so, makes the case that "fun" can be a fine cornerstone around which to construct a massive adventure.
We all know the dozens of Clash of Clans clones on the Play Store. But I never expected an officially licensed Star Wars Clash of Clans clone.
LucasArts and Disney have teamed up to soft-launch Star Wars: Commander in Australia for iOS. The game is not available anywhere else, or on any other devices yet. Star Wars: Commander is a free-to-play strategy game that places you in the middle of the Galactic Civil War in the Star Wars universe. You can side with either the Rebellion or the Empire.
You will have to build bases for recruiting and training troops and fortifying them with equipment like shields, turrets and artillery. You can also be attacked by other players, just like in Clash of Clans. You're able to call on iconic units like AT-ATs and Tie Fighters as the Empire, or Han Solo and Princess Leia on the Rebellion side. You' can also even travel across familiar locations seen in the Star Wars movies.
The game is expected to be released worldwide this summer on Android.
What's your favorite kind of co-op shooter? The ultra-competitive, team-based thrills of a Battlefield Domination match? The wave-based panic of Gears of War's Horde mode? Or maybe you're partial to the strategic gore-fest that is a game of Left 4 Dead? Judging by the four-player co-op on offer in Killzone: Shadow Fall Intercept, developer Guerrilla is very much a fan of all three. But while those games carefully home in on a single mechanic, much to their benefit, Intercept is a rather heterogeneous creation by comparison.
Don't get me wrong: Intercept's class-based, four-player co-op is by no means an awful thing. But after a day of showing hundreds of Helghast the business end of a shotgun, I can't shake the feeling that it tries to do far too much for its own good. Fun was had, but not the sort of rollicking good time that made me want to shout about it afterward. Take the four classes on offer, for example: the assault class is armed to the teeth, the tactician lays turrets, the medic heals and revives fallen allies, and the marksman brings up the rear with a sniper rifle.
These are the archetypal class roles for a shooter, which would be fine, except that there's nothing about any of these classes that stands out from the regular Shadow Fall fare. Sure, there's the class-wide ability to wield a drone for protection, the odd speed boost, and the ability to lay shields or ammo packs. But all the classes handle the same, so the heavy isn't any slower than the medic, for example. Even their weapon selection becomes a moot point once you've unlocked some new ones (there are 20 in total to choose from, including those from the Insurgent downloadable content pack), giving you things like a shotgun-wielding medic that's pretty good in a firefight.
Customization is nice to have, but limitations are often there in co-op for a reason, and in the case of Intercept, it would have made each character feel that little bit more special. That mundane feeling extends out onto the battlefield, where you must defend three control points from waves of AI Helghast, while also racking up a certain number of points for your team to win the match. Each map consists of a home base, where a spot called a bank lies. Therein lies Intercept's core risk/reward mechanic. You earn points by killing Helghast and healing teammates and the like, which increases your score multiplier. However, if you get killed, all those points and your score multiplier disappear.
I can't shake the feeling that it tries to do far too much for its own good.
To win the match, it's your team's score, not yours, that counts. That means periodically running back to base to deposit your points while weighing whether to hang onto them for a higher score or risk losing them all. You can kill hundreds of Helghast, but if you keep getting killed and fail to deposit points, the match will go on indefinitely, or at least until you hit zero points. Respawning without a medic costs 50 points, so going without a healer is an entirely possible scenario if everyone's a bit gung ho with deposits.
On paper, that sounds like an interesting, even potentially entertaining, mechanic. But while it has its moments, there's just not enough depth for it to hold your attention for long. Matches quickly become a repetitive slog of smashing out a few kills and running back to base to cash them in. There's little incentive to build up those big score multipliers, because more often than not, a slow and steady buildup of points easily wins the match.
Unfortunately, there's little else in Intercept to liven the action. Carrying capacitors back to purchase temporary power-ups like miniguns, damage boosts, and bunny-hopping jetpacks is fine, but the capacitors themselves often spawn in exactly the same place, while the power-ups lack the visual pizzazz to make them interesting. I want to know when I'm doing double damage, or am suddenly armed with a jetpack and machine gun. I want the game to shout it out at me, flash some killer graphics on the screen, and make me feel like I've really achieved something, rather than just timidly changing a tiny icon at the bottom of the screen.
Then there are the Helghast themselves, who we're told are powered by an AI commander that picks the best strategy based on your progress. (Sound familiar?) Certainly, there were some particularly hairy moments where the AI had my team surrounded and vastly overpowered. Only by working together as a team, carefully placing turrets around capture points, healing where necessary, and sniping from afar, were we able to overcome them. But these moments were the exception rather than the rule, and even then, it seemed the AI was merely throwing more soldiers at the problem rather than coming up with some kind of intelligent strategy.
Interspersed between the regular enemies and the losing and capturing of control points are the boss battles, which are extremely disappointing. Much like how Gears would send out a grinder, or L4D would send out a tank to spice things up, Intercept wheels out bosses based on characters from the single-player campaign. However, these bosses are a feeble imitation. The most I ever saw one do was teleport to another area of the map, or cloak, but otherwise, there was little to tell them apart from a standard enemy other than a higher health bar and some cheesy voice-over.
All the elements are there for a good time in Intercept, but none shine enough on their own to be melded together into a cohesive whole. The four maps Intercept is currently set in--Market, Highway, DMZ, and Outpost, with six more on the way for free--are at least well designed, even if the mysterious blue shield walls around their rims sometimes prevent you from making the flanking moves you so desire. The usual array of leaderboards, challenges, and trophies make up the metagame, while three different game lengths (based on the total number of points needed to win) mean you can play small, 15-minute skirmishes, all the way through to epic hour-long battles.
Whether Intercept can keep you entertained for such lengths of time, I'm not so sure. It takes just a few matches to realize that the magical multiplayer spark, that itch that must be scratched by just one more match, is sorely lacking. This is a technically competent add-on that feels like it was designed to latch onto a growing co-op trend and to plug a gap in the game's multiplayer repertoire because the market research said to, rather than something designed with some real heart and soul behind it.
Kabam launches Wartune: Hall of Heroes on iOS, Google Play
Game developer and publisher Kabam has today announced the launch of Wartune: Hall of Heroes on iOS and Android devices. The MMORPG sees players choosing to become a knight, archer or mage, as they join millions of players around the world in a fantasy land filled with monsters and quests. As players explore the world, they'll collect loot from fallen enemies, can craft enchanted gear to improve their hero, and can customize their appearance with new weapons and armor.
The game features both a single-player campaign mode and multiplayer battles. These player-vs-player elements support three-person squads or up to 30-member guild battles.
"Kabam is unique among the world's mobile games companies in our ability to identify hit games in Asia that we adapt and make popular in Western markets," said Kabam Publishing President Amit Ranade. "We expect Wartune: Hall of Heroes to be as significant a hit internationally as it has been in China."
Jointly developed 7Road and Hoolai of Beijing, the game has become one of the top-grossing games in China and was licensed as part of Kabam's $50 million development fund. This fund was created to bring popular Asian titles to gamers in Western territories, with help for localization, translation, analytics tracking, marketing, user acquisition / retention and more.
"At Hoolai Games, we have always been passionate about creating and developing quality, engaging games – no matter what platform it's for," added Xiang Lin, VP of International Business Development at Hoolai Games. "Wartune: Hall of Heroes introduces a new experience that finally brings the scale of traditional PC-based strategy RPG gaming onto mobile. We are excited for the reception of the international audience and remain committed to pushing the technological limits of game creation."
Wartune: Hall of Heroes is available to download for free on iOS and Google Play.
Since its release in last summer, JumpStart's School of Dragons MMORPG has found fast success on a variety of platforms, including Facebook and web browsers, Android tablets and iPad devices. Now, iPhone users can jump into the virtual world, based on the How to Train Your Dragon franchise from DreamWorks Animation.
In addition, a variety of new content updates are now available for all players, expanding the fun gamers can have at home or on the go. In School of Dragons, players become rookie dragon tamers, completing both whimsical and educational quests that teach gamers about scientific theory, or simply offer fun mini-games. Before this update, users were assigned a single dragon, but can now raise and train multiple dragons, housing them in special dragon stables.
Elsewhere, a new educational quest line has been released, based on one of the episodes of the How to Train Your Dragon-based television show, Defenders of Berk. Finally, a Flight Suit item is available to purchase for players' viking avatars. This item was inspired by Hiccup's flight suit from the new film in the series.
"From day one of our initial game launch, our fans have been asking for a mobile version of School of Dragons. I believe we have gone above and beyond in responding to these requests, as we are now available on multiple different mobile platforms — iOS, Android, Amazon, and Fuhu DreamTab devices," said David Lord, President and CEO of JumpStart. "We continue to look at other platforms, and more ways to play the game are on their way."
There were a few announcements, leaked images and release dates for highly anticipated Apple and Android mobile games. Today, we'll give you a preview of these games and the mobile platforms you'll see them on.
World of Tanks Blitz
Wargaming hosts a launch party this week for the highly anticipated World of Tanks Blitz. Making its debut on iOS and Android devices this Thursday, this free-to-play game won't cost anything to download from the Apple and Google Play app stores, but will offer players the option to make in-game purchases.
The concept behind the the mobile game is to offer a quick, functional and fun way to play World of Tanks on the go. The mobile version offers faster progression, while money is gained quicker and battles are seven-on-seven with destructible environments. Being in development for over a year, we have to say the game looks very polished on the iPad, and its controls are fluid for touchscreens.
If you have an Xbox 360, Wargaming plans to release a retail SKU estimated to cost less than $30, which will include a Premium Tier 2 Panzer Tank. This exclusive retail version comes with with three days of Premium time that will get you one-and-a-half times more experience and will research new tanks and modules at cosmic speed, extra gold and silver, plus 30 days of Xbox Live Gold for console gameplay.
Hellraid: The Escape
Developer Shortbreak Studios will launch Hellraid: The Escape on July 10 for iOS devices. This first-person puzzle adventure is set in the same universe as Techland's Hellraid, a fantasy combat game that was originally a mod for zombie-shooter Dead Island. Hellraid: The Escape will only be available for advanced iOS devices such as iPad 2, iPhone 4S and iPod Touch 5th Generation.
Using the full potential of the Unreal Engine to achieve visual quality previously known only on PCs and consoles, Hellraid: The Escape offers a unique challenge to mobile games where you face off against demons using your wits. Equipped with free updates and no in app purchases, we can't image this game being free. No official word on cost.
Curse of Naxxramas Expansion
Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft Curse of Naxxramas is a single-player expansion that will let you battle through five wings themed around a World of Warcraft raid, taking on bosses and earning new cards. These wings will unlock over a period of five weeks and add a total 30 new cards (themed around the Deathrattle ability) to the card pool. Blizzard gives you the first wing for free, but you'll have to use in-game gold or in-app purchases to access the other four Wings.
This expansion couldn't have come at a better time considering how current gameplay has grown a bit stale, and with the addition of these new cards, Hearthstone fans will have more reason to stay engaged. We're very excited about its release, and plan to cover the Naxxramas expansion pack in the near future.
Civilization Revolution 2
Yesterday, 2K announced its sequel to Civilization Revolution, a simplified take on the classic strategy sim. Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution 2 makes its debut on iOS devices on July 2nd, and expands its influence to Android soon after. Developed exclusively for mobile, which is a first for the series, it features an interface that caters to the device. As a paid app, Civ Rev 2 will feature 16 recognizable historical leaders from the series, like Ghandi and Genghis Khan, along with a few new ones like John F. Kennedy and Winston Churchill.
Street Fighter IV Arena
Capcom's third Street Fighter game for the mobile platform is in the works. Street Fighter IV Arena is a collaboration between Capcom and Nexon. This could be a free-to-play game based on Nexon free-to-play development history. We hope to see some new characters before it makes its way to the U.S. That said, Street Fighter IV Arena will be in beta test in Korea later this year.
We're very excited about the release of these titles and look forward to playing them on iOS and Android devices.
Become a mogul in Capital City: Escape from Supercorp on iOS
Torn Screen Entertainment has released its latest mobile game with a personal finance twist, Capital City: Escape from Supercorp. The digital board game allows users to become a mogul in a virtual town, purchasing everything from beauty parlors and burger shops to the fancy house on the corner.
While purchasing everything in sight might seem like a sound plan, users will need to make the right deals to earn the most money. Making the wrong deals can result in virtual bankruptcy, and a loss at the game. In each game of Capital City: Escape from Supercorp, gamers have the option of playing against real world friends, strangers or AI opponents. Users choose a vehicle and color to represent them in the world, and have three moves to make as much money as possible on each turn.
These moves are somewhat random, as users move up to six spaces around the map on each move, and are then presented with two buildings (one on either side of the road). If unowned, users can purchase these buildings for their portfolio. However, if a home is owned by another player (for instance), users need to pay rent.
Each purchase adds to a user's cash-flow and overall expenses, with the goal being to have a higher rate of cash coming into the account than going out. Loans and other business debts count as expenses, while rent from tenants or sales from businesses bring in the cash.
"Torn Screen believes that the more fun and accessible we can make learning about money, the more players we will engage and inspire to invest in the real world," said Shane Caniglia, CEO of Torn Screen Entertainment. "Capital City does exactly that! We've integrated the power of the Rich Dad brand and content with a real gaming experience that features vehicle selection and the ability to invite your friends to compete in a fast paced game of deal making."
Capital City: Escape from Supercorp is available to download for $4.99 on iOS.
