iPhone Article Zone

The Inferno

Turns out hell’s not such a nice place. Who knew? You’ll be experiencing it first-hand in Xpressed’s The Inferno, which is very loosely based on Dante’s “The Divine Comedy.” You take on the role of Dante, who must journey to hell and back to try to save his murdered lover Beatrice. What ensues is 121 levels of grueling action-based puzzles where hell throws the kitchen sink at you to impede your progress. You’ll have to out-maneuver all manners of fire balls, collapsing floors, bats, toxic clouds, etc., on your way. Impeccable timing and patience are required, and you’ll need an abundance of both to succeed on your quest.

Your 121 level journey will take you through 5 differently themed circles of hell labeled Limbo, Plains of Gluttony, Fire Pits, Forest of Suicides, and Cocytus. Each level is completed by collecting all of the available soul orbs, which then activates the exit. There are a diabolical number of moving obstacles and traps that need to be navigated precisely, and the game sometimes gives you speed increase/decrease or shield power-ups to deal with these many dangers of hell.

The levels themselves get progressively longer and more difficult. Thankfully, there are checkpoints along the way that let you re-spawn from part-way through the level, and that also let you keep the souls you’ve collected up to that location. This is much needed because you will die A LOT in The Inferno. The game shows you a running tally of your deaths, and the number gets very large, very quick. Don’t be surprised if your death count quickly runs into the triple digits. On top of that, you must complete the game within 4 hours in order to save Beatrice. A timer is shown on-screen that constantly ticks down the time, and the combination of dying repeatedly while the clock marches down really ratchets up the pressure. One nice touch is that the game constantly reminds you of your dire circumstances by taunting you during the in-between load screens. It’s harsh, but usually pretty funny.

As the levels get longer in The Inferno, the game does start feeling overly repetitive, and each arduous stage requires more endurance to complete. You’ll be required to move very quickly through a hell-storm of obstacles at times, and this is where the controls start to feel too stiff to oblige. The default control scheme has a virtual d-pad that actually places the left-right controls on one side of the screen, with the up-down controls on the other. This takes some getting used to, but there is the option to switch to a standard cross-shaped d-pad instead. Since the underlying game-field is essentially a grid of boxes, Dante’s movements tend to stutter at a one box at time pace. This makes sense to a degree, but still feels somewhat sluggish and unresponsive at critical junctures. It’s one thing to die a lot, but another thing entirely to feel like it was sometimes due to the stilted controls letting you down. The overall feel and precision of movement just doesn’t feel quite smooth enough. One tip to remember is that repeated tapping in a direction is faster than holding the button, just don’t tap too many times…

The Inferno is a hellacious grind for sure, whose fun factor starts to slip as the levels get longer & more repetitive, and as you start to rack up an astronomical number of deaths. It will appeal to your sadistic streak, providing you have one. The presentation is nicely polished, and the game exudes a wry sense of humor that is both appropriate and appreciated. Patience is required if you want to reach the end goal, especially when the controls sometimes get in your way. The Inferno is a quality effort, just make sure you’re up for the challenge before stepping foot past the devil’s doorstep. The full game can be bought for $4.99, or you alternatively try the first 50 levels for $0.99, with the rest available via download.

Mirror’s Edge Trailer

We recently reported that EA Mobile will be bringing Mirror’s Edge to the iPhone in January 2010. The console version of Mirror’s Edge was a pretty ground-breaking title, but wasn’t a huge hit commercially, so it’s nice to see that EA has not abandoned the promising franchise. A trailer has been released to go along with the first batch of action shots, and it looks every bit as thrilling.

Mirror’s Edge has already been successfully re-imagined as a 2D Flash game, which can be played at http://mirrorsedge2d.com. It’ll be very interesting to see how the iphone version, as a 3D side-scroller, will fit between the two. Here’s the official feature list released by EA:

EXPERIENCE THE WORLD OF MIRROR’S EDGE
A place where information is heavily monitored and law is brutally enforced in an effort to create the ‘perfect’ society.

YOUR MISSION
Take control of Faith Connors, a member of an underground messenger group known as Runners, as she races to stop a deadly threat that has grown from within their own ranks.

SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST AND FASTEST
Use Faith’s incredible acrobatic moves to outmaneuver the enemy–run on walls, slide down precarious ramps, ride ziplines, and leap between rooftops. Leave the enemy in your dust.

EDGE-OF-YOUR-SEAT EXCITEMENT
Burn through 14 levels of the fastest, most fluid action imaginable. Dynamic camera angles capture the intense action of this unique game.

HEIGHTEN YOUR SENSES
Immerse yourself in a stylish, graphically rich 3D environment flooded with realistic sound effects and phenomenal music.

Star Wars: Trench Run

In Star Wars: Trench Run, THQ Wireless attempts to boil down the climactic finale of the original Star Wars film into its simplest components. They may have taken it too far though, as the game suffers from an all-around lack of substance. The Star Wars license is adequately used, offering exciting glimpses of the original source material, but you’ll be paying for that window-dressing as opposed to depth or variety in the gameplay department.

Trench run comes with two game modes, Mission and Arcade. In the main Mission mode, you play as Luke Skywalker and must pilot his X-wing fighter across 5 segments called Dog Fight, Cannons, Obstacles, Darth Vader, and Exhaust Port. The last four segments just roll up into one seamless stretch, so the game is basically composed of a dog fighting sequence in space, followed by the actual trench run on the surface of the Death Star.

The Dog Fight section presents you with a static background of the neighboring planets, and you must tilt around to track down and destroy a few waves of enemy TIE fighters. As far as dog-fighting games go, this is a fairly simple affair without advanced targeting indications, lock-ons, or aerial maneuvers. You tap on the right of the screen to shoot, and tap on the left to use the force for some useful, slow-motion aiming. You can also switch to a basic cockpit view, and can adjust the sensitivity of the tilt controls, but there is no option to recalibrate the viewing angle.

Once you’ve destroyed all of the TIE fighters, the actual trench run commences. Your X-wing will be shown hurdling down a canyon of the Death Star, where the occasional, stationary cannon will appear for you to destroy for points or to just evade. The corridor itself will present various structures to avoid, and small openings that you need to delicately fly through. Eventually, a large targeting graphic will appear to indicate that Darth Vader is hot on your heels. You must continue to navigate the trench at this point, while also avoiding the center of Darth Vader’s crosshairs. The targeting indicator goes away after a short period, and you are then free for the stretch run. In this final portion, you just fly briefly along the trench with no obstacles to avoid while Obi-Wan urges you to, “Use the force, Luke!” One shot down the exposed exhaust pipe located at the end of the trench, and it’s mission accomplished. When all is said and done, the entirety of the mission mode can be finished in roughly 15 minutes or so. There are 4 difficulty modes available to tackle, although it would have been nice to see and to be able to select your difficulty from the mission start screen, not to mention your highscore.

When you’re done with the main mission, Arcade mode attempts to deliver some additional replay-ability. Arcade mode has two separate scenarios, Trench and Dog Fight. In the Trench scenario, you race through self-contained pieces of a Death Star trench run. Each new level increases the speed, length, number of obstacles, and number of cannons that are present. The number of cannons you shoot, and your level of accuracy, determines your score. Every fifth level or so adds Darth Vader trailing you into the mix. In Dog Fight, each level adds an increasing numbers of Tie fighters for you to destroy, and will occasionally include Darth Vader’s ship, which takes several shots to eliminate. Both Arcade scenarios are devised to see what’s the highest level you can reach, and how big of a score you can accrue in the process. Unfortunately, the leaderboards that are available only show the global top ten scores for all game modes, and give you no indication as to your best scores and where they may stand on the lists.

Star Wars: Trench Run gets the vibe right, but the overly simplistic and repetitive gameplay is not the most compelling. Everything about the trappings of the app, from the opening cinematics to the $4.99 price tag, hints at something more meaty and exciting. The actual gameplay is too brief and simplistic, and is without the breadth of options or precision to elevate it into must-play territory. It lives somewhere between casual and hardcore, but struggles to satisfy either side of the spectrum.

Earthworm Jim

Earthworm Jim was originally released in 1994 on the Sega Genesis. Since then, the game has been subsequently updated and ported to several other platforms, the newest being the iPhone. Earthworm Jim is an unforgettable game in terms of both gameplay and difficulty, but was Gameloft able to successfully port it to a device with no physical buttons?

One of the best features of Earthworm Jim is its humor. For those of you who have yet to play it, in Earthworm Jim, you play as Jim, an initially lowly earthworm. One day, a super-powered suit falls from space and gives Jim super powers. Of course, Jim’s adventure involves saving a princess, “Queen Slug-for-a-Butt”. Saving the princess involves, like all platformers, the basic mechanic of running and jumping onto platforms. There are numerous enemies along the way, which Jim can attack in one of two ways, depending on the enemy: using his gun or using his head as a whip. The whip can also be used as a sort of pseudo grappling rope. In addition to the normal in-level enemies, there are bosses which often require special mechanics. One of the best things about Earthworm Jim is the absolute plethora of gameplay elements it contains. There are wires to be crossed using your head, conveyer belts of garbage, teleportation devices, underwater hiding spots, and more. The level design is superb. Earthworm Jim is known for being extremely difficult, but to help out more casual gamers, Gameloft has included four difficulty levels, the hardest one being “original.” In addition to the normal platforming levels, Earthworm Jim contains intermediary tunnel racing levels in which you race an enemy. These are controlled using the accelerometer, and they are very similar to other App Store tunnel games: avoid some objects, collect others. Including these levels, Earthworm Jim has 16 levels in all. The game is a little short, though the individual levels are long. Frustratingly, there are no mid-level saves, eliminating “pick up and play” value.

I couldn’t have ever imagined a perfect control scheme for Earthworm Jim for the iPhone, but Gameloft did the best they could. Movement is done using a virtual d-pad or analog stick. While for me, the d-pad was by far easier to use, it lacked a big enough sensitivity area. There are on-screen action buttons for jumping, using the gun, and using the whip. These are a bit too bunched together. The controls take some time to master, and of course lack the precision of physical controls which is frustrating, but are not a deal-breaker because of the adjustable difficulty levels.

Gameloft's superb graphics enhancements

Gameloft has clearly taken time and effort in recreating Earthworm Jim, as evidenced by the graphics. They have all been lovingly remastered, and look fantastic. The presentation is comical, and is well-implemented. This is the best looking version of Earthworm Jim yet. The audio is great as well, with recreated sound effects and music that do nothing but add to the humorous feel of the game.

Hybrid: Eternal Whisper

After playing Gamevil’s fabulous Zenonia, I found myself waiting with bated breath, wondering what epic RPG they would port next. Hybrid: Eternal Whisper has been in production for quite some time, and the teaser trailers had me salivating. A combat-oriented adventure with a complex fantasy storyline? Count me in!

Hybrid just hit the App Store a few days ago. The combat is there, and it’s just as complex, fun, and stunning as I’d expected. However, the storyline is another story entirely. I’m an avid reader and a fan of lengthy RPGs…but there is such a thing as too many blocks of text, especially when the story spends more time introducing new concepts than exploring existing, interesting ones. Hybrid’s combat makes it all worth it, but I really recommend hitting the “skip” button. You won’t miss much.

Your character, “Grey,” lives in a world called Platina, which is under attack by dark spirits. Needless to say, it quickly becomes apparent that you’ve got to dig your fellow inhabitants out of this mess by ruthlessly murdering every monster you come across. That’s the short version. The long version includes a mish-mash of way too many bizarre concepts: parallel worlds, spirits, ghosts, hybrids, fairies, magic, mana, force power…every scene, it seems, we learn about a new thing. The story might have been interesting if the player wasn’t inundated with so much information. Unfortunately, skipping the dialogue means you sometimes miss crucial instructions.

Combat is much more interesting than the endless dialogue. Gameplay takes place on a two-dimensional field, and you can move left, right, forward, and back using the virtual D-pad, which works well enough. There’s an easily mashable attack button on the right side of the screen, as well as a button for changing your sword grip. Everything is about well-timed combos: switching your grip in mid-attack, combining magic with sword thrusts to unlock more special abilities, and so on. Make no mistake; Hybrid is not a casual game.

Characters join your party as you progress through the game, but in a way that makes much more sense than just throwing in extra characters. Fairy, for example, can be called into battle to defend you, or to attack enemies, but you’ll have to build up enough “Sync” before doing so. Salamander, a fire spirit, grants you the ability to cast fire spells. The magic system thus evolves in a sensible fashion. While some of the gestures used for magic aren’t always recognized, for the most part, the technical controls work well.

There’s plenty of room for customization. You get points to spend on basic stat upgrades with each level up, but you can also collect “POW” from fallen enemies to increase other stats. Plus, weapon and equipment drops are also common.

My main gripe with Hybird is really that I don’t get to spend enough time playing the game. I adore the combat system; it’s extremely exciting and absolutely murders what little competition it has among fighting RPGs in the App Store. However, between the load screens and the endless plot, you don’t get to spend much time fighting, especially in the beginning. As time goes on the battles get longer, which is a good thing, but many players may give up before they get to the real meat of the game.

I love Gamevil in general, but while Hybrid certainly kept me occupied, it isn’t a home-run like their previous releases. If you’re a hardcore gamer, the proudly beating heart of Hybrid (the combat!) should be enough to thrill you. Just be warned that you’ll be sitting through a lot of load screens.

Modern Combat: Sandstorm

“Wow” was simply the only word I could utter when I began playing Gameloft’s masterpiece of a first person shooter. Though my excitement for the graphics has been somewhat diminished by uneven gameplay, Sandstorm remains an indisputable landmark for iPhone games.

It’s easy to imagine the premise and basic gameplay of Sandstorm. In fact, I can describe it in two words: COD 4. For those not so savvy with Call of Duty, here’s a quick rundown: in Sandstorm, you play as the chief of squad of U.S. soldiers who embark on the mission Sandstorm, a mission to stop Middle Eastern people of indeterminate origin from conducting some type of terrorist plans. Sound like a generic storyline? That’s because it is. The characterization is poor as well; nothing is really learned about characters and every member of your squad seems to be a blatant character stereotype. Story matters little, however, if the game delivers in terms of action. Sandstorm is an FPS, so basically you move through missions shooting people and running where you’re told. If you take too much damage, you die, and restart from the last checkpoint. Unfortunately and aggravatingly, if you are interrupted by a call or have to quit the game for any reason, you start at the beginning of the mission, not the last checkpoint.

The game utilizes modern weaponry, and the range of guns is decent enough, with flash and normal grenades also available. Unfortunately, the mission structure is simply too linear. No only is the map very narrow with little choice of movement, but blatant green arrows also guide you through, preventing any hope of exploration. Though it is perhaps unfair to compare Sandstorm’s AI to that of a console FPS, the AI is simply lacking. Sure, the AI will do basic things like move towards you or move away from you, but their range of movement is tiny, and their intelligence, especially when it comes to grenades, is dubious, making Sandstorm feel like a bit of a shooting gallery in some places.

Sandstorm has 10 missions (the first one is training), and each will last you 15-20 minutes. The time for one play through is certainly not great, but at the same time, it’s decent compared to other iPhone games, and considering the game is a paltry $6.99, not much more could be expected. There are three difficulty levels, and it’s actually pretty enjoyable to play through on different difficulties. Unfortunately, there is no multiplayer, even bluetooth, at this time, so the replay value is severely limited.

We have seen countless FPS’s with great potential fail on the iPhone, and for one common reason: controls. Thankfully, Gameloft absolutely nails the controls with three great options. In the default control scheme, a fixed analog stick is used for movement, a fixed firing button is used for shooting, and you can drag anywhere on the screen to change your view and aim. The second, option, my favorite, divides the screen into two sides. Touching anywhere on the left side causes an analog stick to appear and from there you can control your movement. Touching on the right side of the screen and dragging aims, and simply touching on the right side shoots. This is better than the default option because you can change your aim while you shoot, but unfortunately, sometimes touching to shoot doesn’t register correctly. The third option consists of analog sticks on either side of the screen, one on the left to move and one on the right to aim. Touching anywhere on the screen shoots your weapon. This is by far the toughest control option, and it’s difficulty of use makes me fear for ngmoco’s upcoming FPS Eliminate, which apparently utilizes a similar system. To make up for the inaccuracy of virtual controls, there is a generous and very welcome aim assist, though you can disable this if you want more of a challenge. You can also adjust the sensitivity of all the controls to your liking, and there is even an option to invert controls. With all the control systems, there are some common buttons. Tapping a gun display once reloads, and tapping twice swaps weapons, and the grenade system is the similar: tap the grenade icon once to throw a grenade, twice to switch to flash grenades. In the lower corners of the screens there are buttons for crouching and looking through your scope. Throughout the game, contextual buttons will also appear for things like jumping over obstacles, planting C4, and picking up new weapons. If a better overall control system exists for a FPS on the iPhone, I would be shocked.

Modern Combat features the most impressive 3D graphics on the iPhone. Not “some” of the best graphics, but the best, period. Textures are surprisingly detailed, character models are great, and there is no annoying pop-up like in Gangstar. There are great visual details as well: the animation for a baddie being killed by a close-range shotgun blast is much different is much different than that of a baddie taking a sniper bullet in the head. Sound effects are very good, and Gameloft even goes the extra mile by including extensive voiceovers. Unfortunately these voiceovers are not great and often play into the character stereotypes, but it’s better than no voiceovers at all.

HYBRID: Eternal Whisper Trailer Released

Gamevil has just released a new teaser for their upcoming game HYBRID: Eternal Whisper, which is set to release in the US App Store this Fall. The product of the same team behind the amazing RPG Zenonia, HYBRID has a lot of promise. Gamevil’s calling HYBRID a “a new breed of stylish action adventure,” and it looks like it’ll focused more on combat and special moves than on a storyline. There will be 150 levels, a complex storyline, and plenty of challenge. If Zenonia’s success and level of polish is anything to go by, HYBIRD should delight the hardcore gaming crowd.

Gamevil doesn’t have a huge App Store presence on this side of the ocean yet (their only games with English localizations are Zenonia and Baseball Superstars) but from what I understand, they’ve got a solid presence in Korea. Like their other two US releases, HYBRID will be a port from a popular Korean title.

WORMS

Worms, the insanely popular game from Team17, has been ported to just about every popular gaming platform. So with their experience with porting, Team17 should produce a fantastic version of Worms for the iPhone, right? Well, sadly that logic doesn’t hold up here, as Worms for the iPhone is nothing more than a subpar port of a great game.

Worms is a turn-based artillery combat game. Each turn is strictly timed, and consists of moving (usually laterally with small jumps), using a weapon, and then a brief retreat time. Also available for movement, at times, are the jetpack and famous ninja rope. A turn ends after the firing of a weapon or if you manage to damage your own worm. One of the big strengths of Worms is the large selection of weapons. Weapons are incredibly varied and each is truly unique. There are the standard weapons - the bazooka and grenade, and then the not-so-standard ones, such as the sheep or the holy grenade. There can be up to four teams at once, with four worms on each team. Turns cycle in order between teams, and also between Worms on a team. To make things more difficult, the terrain is littered with obstacles, mines, and explosive barrels. Occasionally health, weapon, and utility crates are dropped from the sky. With all the gameplay elements, Worms can quickly become frantic and chaotic, as chain reactions and the like are commonplace.

The initial release of Worms contains only three main game modes: quick play, challenges, and “hot-seat” multiplayer. Quick play, as the name would suggest, throws you into a game on a randomly generated map against an easy, normal, or hard AI. The random maps are a nice feature and add some replay value. Challenge mode consists of 50 completely predetermined levels, ranging from extremely easy to very difficult. For some mind-boggling and unknown reason, Team17 has decided to only include one device multiplayer even though online multiplayer is a hallmark of the series. Promises from the developers have included mentions of upcoming online play, but the exclusion from the initial release is extremely disappointing.

Controls, at times, can make the game a chore. Holding either corresponding side of the screen to move side-to-side works well enough, but just about every other control method found in the game is just too imprecise. Jumping is accomplished by tapping the worm once, and tapping twice causes your worm to backflip. This can require several missed taps to finally accomplish, and a separate “jump” button would be an easy fix. After choosing a button, a cross hair will be displayed near your worm. Most are limited to a fixed radius around your worm, but some weapons, such as air strikes, can be aimed anywhere on the map. Dragging the cross hair changes the aim, which is, in fact, very unresponsive. Holding the shoot button charges up power, and releasing it fires your weapon. For the jetpack, after pressing the shoot button, two onscreen arrows are displayed, and holding one boosts your jetpack to one side. These take a lot of practice to master, but once you do, controlling the jetpack feels… imprecise. Then there’s the ninja rope. This is perhaps one of the most important game elements, and it’s handled horribly. After tapping the shoot icon, your rope will shoot out and attach itself to a surface. From there, you can move the rope up, down, left, or right using onscreen arrows. Even after many hours playing the game, I still found it nearly impossible to correctly use the rope. There are so many possible control methods for the rope; swipe, tilt, touch/tilt combination, etc. Looking at the controls makes me wonder if Worms was the first game that Team17 has ever played for the iPhone.

On a happier note, the graphics still contain that patent-pending Worms spunk, and a lot of background animations are included - too many perhaps. The game does suffer from some performance issues on my iPhone 3G, but they were just annoyances, never interfering with the actual gameplay. Quite possibly the most frustrating part about this port is the zoom, simply because it would be such an easy fix. First, you are only able to zoom to about five different levels, which is quite annoying, and to make matters worst, the highest zoom level is not nearly far enough in. In addition, panning the screen using two fingers is a laborious process as the camera always seems to be at least a second behind your fingers.

As anyone who’s ever played Worms before knows, one of the best parts of the game are the sound effects. The music is fine, but the voices and sound effects of the worms are just downright hilarious and add charm to the game.