iPhone Article Zone

The Hero

Much like going to the movies, there are two ways of going into a new game. You can either go in thinking that it is going to be fantastic, or you can go in with no expectations at all. Rarely do high expectations pay off, but when they do, it makes for the best experience possible. Unfortunately, my expectations for The Hero were through the roof after seeing what I called at the time “the best app trailer ever”.

Much like the trailer showed off, The Hero is a superhero action game where you, The Hero, protect the world from the very Dr. Robotnik-like Dr. Hubbub and his band of evil militants. The game basically amounts to you flying around the screen while running into all the bad guys and potential disasters that you see. There are no punching or kicking moves, although you are given a few superpowers along the way… the majority of the time it is just up to your ability to ram into targets. The enemies, as expected, vary greatly from the stationary bombs to slow moving, high hit point tanks, to high flying satellites with laser beams. There are no real hit points in the game, only a “fame” bar, tracking how much the people adore you. Every time you get hit, hurt civilians, or let babies fall out of windows (seriously), your fame drops, but it can be regained by high-fiving supporters and killing bad guys. Once your fame meter runs all the way down, you lose.

The game really works on a number of levels, mostly being the graphics. There is something extremely satisfying about seeing a game on your iPhone that looks like it could just as easily be on XBLA. On my iPhone 3G, there were no slowdowns of any kind, and apparently on the 3GS you can enable a better graphics mode that runs at 60fps. I can’t imagine the game looking any better than it already does, but I’d love to see it try. The other winner here are the controls, which are almost simple to a fault. The Hero is controlled with a floating virtual joystick that works no matter where your thumb is on the screen. For the first hour or so the controls were spectacular, but I noticed after awhile that all the quick moving on the glass screen was giving my thumb a blister. Never being the kid that complained about thumb blisters, I played through the annoyance, but it was quite annoying.

My real gripe with The Hero is the story. After watching the trailer a few times, I was really excited about learning the story behind The Hero. I was hoping that the game would be an epic, taking you from the heyday to the point that he is in the video… depressed and smoking. I wasn’t expecting anything amazing, but I was hoping for a humorous Raging Bull-like downfall story. Instead I got a few screen before each level of a doting police chief and a press girl that seemed like a sexed up version of Moneypenny. On its own, the story isn’t awful, but my expectations were far too high for what I ended up getting.

While I certainly enjoyed playing all 15 levels of The Hero, I didn’t finish the game with the excitement that I wanted to. Unfortunately, this was a case there the trailer was so good that it actually took away from the overall experience. With the campaign mode and the survival modes afterwards, I’d expect a few hours of gameplay… certainly enough to warrant a purchase. Just don’t expect the app to be nearly as good as the trailer.

News From Chillingo

Two pieces of news from Chillingo today. The first bit is quite exciting, because it feeds my incurable craving for great game trailers.

Radio Flare REDUX – New Game Trailer
I put up a video for Radio Flare REDUX before showing the differences between the original and the sequel, but this new trailer really looks like a white-knuckle affair. Check it out, it looks really good!

Assault Squadron

The second bit of news is of a new Chillingo title, Assault Squadron. Assault Squadron is a new sci-fi shoot-em-up that looks to be very pretty. It boasts a custom built graphics engine that pumps out 60 fps. I’ll leave the rest of the description up to the developer.

“The Global Defense Force (GDF) reports that Earth is under attack by a hostile, unidentified vessel containing thousands of enemy craft. Striking with unwavering precision, the invasion destroys key defensive facilities to leave Earth and its inhabitants at the mercy of fearsome alien attackers.

You are a part of the Assault Squadron, an elite tactical space combat force dispatched by the Federal Alliance to defeat the alien enemy. Assault Squadron’s explosive sci-fi missions and in-depth storyline will thrill shoot-‘em-up fans and casual players as they battle to save the Earth.”

Radio Flare Redux – Trailer Full Of Space Beats

The original Radio Flare had a whole bunch of good beats, but was a bit lacking in the action department. Back in April we gave it a 3.5 star review, but were quite impressed by its audio excellence. Bonnie wrote in the original review “I think that Radio Flare’s audio stands for itself; its synchronization with your actions really makes it feel like you’re completely immersed in the game, and every time you play, the soundtrack will be different.”

Studio Radiolaris is now coming out with the sequel to Radio Flare, Radio Flare Redux, and the app is now being published by Chillingo. This time, the action really looks to be amped up, which will hopefully make this one a real winner. Check out the new trailer and see for yourself. Enjoy!

Radio Flare Redux – Trailer Full Of Space Beats

The original Radio Flare had a whole bunch of good beats, but was a bit lacking in the action department. Back in April we gave it a 3.5 star review, but were quite impressed by its audio excellence. Bonnie wrote in the original review “I think that Radio Flare’s audio stands for itself; its synchronization with your actions really makes it feel like you’re completely immersed in the game, and every time you play, the soundtrack will be different.”

Studio Radiolaris is now coming out with the sequel to Radio Flare, Radio Flare Redux, and the app is now being published by Chillingo. This time, the action really looks to be amped up, which will hopefully make this one a real winner. Check out the new trailer and see for yourself. Enjoy!

Mobile Showdown – Game Trailers

Game trailers are serious business. The decisions that you come to on a daily basis sometime come down to whether or not a quality game trailer has been made. Even if you don’t particularly care for trailers, I watch them religiously and often highlight apps that put in that extra bit of effort.

Last week I went ahead and put in my best trailer ever vote for Chillingo’s newest title, The Hero. Perhaps my vote was premature. This week I’m not even going to leave it up to me. Let the readers be the judge! This weeks showdown is between two game trailer powerhouses. On one side, we have Chillingo’s trailer of the hero, which is still all sorts of amazing to me. On the other side, we have ustwo’s trailer for ..™. They pride themselves on their trailers for the entire .™ coolectable series, but I personally like the ..™ trailer the best. Watch both trailers after the break and let us know who wins… I have to know!

The Hero – Possibly The Best Trailer Ever

As you may know by know, I have this obsession with high quality game trailers. Chillingo’s new trailer for Traplight Games new app “The Hero” just obliterated the rest of the iPhone trailer competition, with what could be the best promo video for a game since the commercials for the original Gears of War. Enjoy!

According to the superhero evaluation on Traplight’s website, The Hero “reveals clear signs of Super Human Stress Disorder (SHSD) caused by exposure to threats such as meteors, zombies, UFO’s, ninjas, giant insects and falling babies. Constant impacts and flying at high speeds have also caused micro tears in brain tissue, possibly explaining momentary episodes of disorientation. SHSD is a condition caused by both, psychological and physiological elements. Condition can be summarized as mental breakdown caused by physical stress combined with inflated ego and a sense of omnipotence.”

I can’t wait to play. Expect “The Hero” to take over the App Store later this month.

Dracula: The Path Of The Dragon – Part 1

To me, the days of wondering around still locations, looking for things to click on died with Myst, or maybe the old X-Files PC game. You know, the one that took a full gigabyte to download. With modern 3D environments and our collective five second attention span, genres like this have just about died off and have been replaced with fast twitch genres that melt your brain… in a good way. Apparently though, in 2008 Kheops Studio developed Dracula 3: The Path of the Dragon for the PC, the sequel to the Dracula PC game series dating back to 1998… the heyday of the genre. The game came out to mixed reviews on the PC, but was just cryptic enough for Chillingo to port it to the iPhone. For better or worse, due to what I can only guess as possible control issues, graphic issues, or just to appeal to the ADD nature of iPhone users, the game’s puzzles have apparently been quite simplified on the iPhone version.

The game, like previously stated, is a scene by scene, story driven adventure game. You do get a bit of freedom with the ability to look around with simple screen swipes, but there is no free movement. Actions, such as walking to the next scene, grabbing items, and talking to people are all handled by simple screen taps on things that are highlighted. Movement is a bit disorienting at first because there is very little continuity between many of the scenes, but it gets better over time.

Game progression works quite simply, with you basically clicking on everything that is clickable on each screen. The puzzles that haunted that were so difficult on the PC version have been replaced by simple clicking actions. Conversations, instead of requiring thought to guide through, are completed by clicking on every available conversation action. Because of the linear nature, the game is quite simple. The only real reason to keep playing from scene to scene is for the story, which isn’t all that bad.

The game starts with you, a priest from the Vatican, getting sent off to Transylvania, recently captured by Romania, to investigate the case of Martha Calugarul. The story quickly evolves into a hunt to find Dracula. Along the way, there are multiple characters to talk to, as well as some fairly interesting locations to interact with. Dracula: TPOTD is quite easy to follow, with fairly well acted dialogue and easy to follow clues guiding you along, just don’t give up too fast because of the navigation… you become numb to it with with time. Getting into the story was a bit tough for me, but it started to grow on me after about hour two. Watch out though, right around hour 3, when you finally get to where you want to find out what happens, the game ends. Apparently I have to wait for Part 2 now… maybe it’ll be optimized for the iPad.

If I had a game like this was on my phone in 1999, I would’ve freaked out. It reminds me of a slightly easier to navigate, but slightly less epic version of Myst… or X-Files… or Blade Runner… or Phantasmagoria. I’m just having a real hard time getting into a game like this now because the genre is old and exhausted. I didn’t realize that I was of the fast twitch ADD generation, but I guess that I definitely am. I’m all for a good story, but tapping on arrows to navigate scene by scene is just tedious in todays marketplace… even on a mobile device. If you are in the market for a Myst-like creepy game though, it’s tough to beat Dracula: TPOTD with its 99 cent cost.

Guerrilla Bob

Certain genres just work so well on iDevices, and dual-stick shooters are one of them. There have been so many dual-stick shooter hits on the iPhone that I’m wondering why every developer doesn’t have one. Chillingo, with iDracula and Minigore already sitting in their impressive game catalogue, have really taken control of the dual-stick shooter market with Guerrilla Bob… a wonderfully designed shooter that is certain to be a crowd pleaser.

Instead of following the path that was originally paved with iDracula, Guerrilla Bob has actual levels that are path based rather than open ended. Each level has a beginning and an end, complete with hidden pathways, secret power-ups, and bosses at the end. The levels aren’t incredibly long, but they do have their own individual feel that makes them seem like their own entity. There are only seven real levels and a survival madness level up to this point (unlockable after you’ve beaten the game), so the content is a bit lite, but the levels provided have some really great moments that have never been done in other games in the genre.

For those of you who have never played a dual-stick shooter before, the premise is quite simple. You get a stick on the left that moves you around and a stick on the right that aims and shoots your gun at the same time. Some games in the genre deal with ammo, but the kind folks at Angry Mob decided to just forego that and let you rain terror on everything around you with unlimited everything. The guns are limited to a machine gun, a flame thrower, and a rocket launcher, but any more would honestly seem unnecessary. I could see a shotgun coming in a later update, but it certainly does not seem necessary.

Too bad he's not the bullet dodger.

The real star of the show, other than the funny plot which I won’t spoil for you, is the games graphics. Even on my 3G, the animation is silky smooth and incredibly vibrant. All of the characters, although purposefully blocky, seem extremely organic. The game effortlessly slips into tiny cutscenes introducing new enemies and bosses without interrupting the flow of the game at all. Even the opening title and movie sequence contain a level of polish that may be unmatched in the app store.

As pretty as the game is though, there are some flaws. The first flaw is a minor one, but it takes away a bit of the games violence induced awesomeness. I’ll paint a picture for you… you, as Guerrilla Bob, are running through an admittedly cartoony, but awesome urban setting and see some enemies with machine guns waiting for you behind some sandbags. You know that they have the tactical advantage, so you decide to rush around them with your rocket launcher to end them quick. As you get around them, you one of them gets a shot off… oh no! Instead of a menacing gun shot though, the gun flubs out what can best be described as the sound an air bubble makes in the pool. “Bloooop”. I got so tired of the sound that I turned the volume off completely at one point, missing out on some of the funny Guerrilla Bob one-liners that are present throughout. I don’t know if this will bother everyone, but a more impressive sound would make me happy.

Hopefully we'll get more soon!

My other issue is with the longevity of the game. I beat the whole thing in just a couple of hours, leaving myself with just the survival mode to pass the time. While there is nothing wrong with the survival mode, it was definitely an afterthought and didn’t hold my attention nearly as well as the rest of the game. If I want to run endless circles around a field, I’ll play Minigore, the game that was really meant for that sort of thing. There is the inclusion of Crystal, Chillingo’s own social gaming platform, which gives you some incentive to get high scores and such, but this will only keep you playing for so long.

As a whole, Guerrilla Bob is an impressive app that will most certainly climb the App Store charts fairly quickly. The graphics are stunning, the concept is fresh, and the controls are tried and true. If you are a fan of other dual-stick shooters, don’t hesitate to pick up Guerrilla Bob at its current $2.99 price point.

Preview: Cogs By Lazy 8 Studios

Fancy a new puzzle challenge? Published by Chillingo, Cogs is an upcoming, innovative logic-based puzzle game from the guys and girls over at Lazy 8 Studios. Just through the simple motion of sliding titles with various metal cogs attached, the game sees you the player building a variety of mechanical machines and crafts. The aim of the game is to get all the metal cogs turning on the playing board, achieved by ensuring each cog touches the next one beside it all the while keeping your overall number of moves to a minimum. What makes Cogs different to your normal tile-sliding puzzler however is the playing board. It’s not flat. Using two fingers, and adapted for multi-touch, the board is rotatable giving you a birds eye view of where best to make your next move.

Cogs plays out in two modes; Inventor mode and Challenge mode. In Inventor mode you’re giving a brief of what the outcome should be after completing each level. Challenge mode however is a little more pressured, seeing a 30 second time limit introduced, and just 10 moves to find each solution to each puzzle! Paying through 50 levels of coglicious slidification, your skills will be put to the test across 3 specific categories. Whether you managed to find the solution, the time it took you to find that individual solution and how many moves in total it took you to find the solution. Each of these in-game aspects are then marked out of 3 stars.

With its oldy-worldy 3D animated visuals and simplistic gameplay, Cogs is, in my opinion, a fun-filled offering and definitely one to watch. Set to be submitted to Apple early next week, we’re told that the final version will include some sort of in-app purchase system, which can only mean one thing .. more levels anyone?

Speed Forge Extreme

Developed by Polish-based Rat Square and published by Chillingo, Speed Forge Extreme is a polished futuristic racer which has clearly taken it’s inspiration from both Low Grav Racer and Sony’s WipEout franchise. Controlling various space-age hovercraft machines you race against others to win. A simple game, the app offers a choice of 6 different space-like machines in which you can race. These include: the HCM 220, HCM E2, HCM 3000, HCM 4000, X HCM 200 and the BT HCM 400. Your final choice of ship should depend on four factors. Mass, Speed, Agility and Munition. By default only the HCM 220 is available for racing with, however the other 5 ships are unlockable by completing each subsequent track.

After you’ve chosen your ship and track, you’ll have a choice to select a level difficulty of either Easy, Medium or Hard. The game allows you to control your ship in a number of ways. By default the controls are set to ‘Option 2′. This sees you controlling acceleration and braking via a analog slider located on the left of the screen. But maybe that’s not for you. If not, just hit up the apps options menu and navigate to ‘Steering’. From here you’ll have a further 4 ways in which you can modify the in-game steering controls. Below is a description of each steering method ..

Option 1 – Choose this steering option and your ship will auto-accelerate. Steering is controlled by tilting your device either left or right and braking happens manual via a ‘Stop’ button located towards the bottom of the screen.

Option 2 – This steering option still sees in-game steering controlled by tilting, but both acceleration and braking are controlled via analog, manually. (Default)

Option 3 – Choose this steering option and steering is still tilt-activated but now you’ll see two arrow like items on the far left of the screen. These control both acceleration and braking manually, this time by use of touch.

Option 4 – This steering option introduces the use of buttons to steer, placing two arrow like items towards the bottom of the screen. Weapons are located on the right of the screen, and braking is manually controlled via touch.

Option 5 – The final steering sees steering controlled by analog placing a slider like item at the bottom of the screen. Your ship’s acceleration is automatic and braking is manually controlled via touch.

The aim of the game is to win (obviously), and you’ll have to use force to achieve 1st position. In the early stages of the game when you find yourself tackling the first few tracks you might find the game a little boring, but don’t let that put you off. After you complete the first track, you’ll start winning weapons, and just like WipEout you can then use these against your opponents for defense.

Unfortunately, one of the downsides to the game is that it doesn’t have any kind of online mutliplayer option, and so your opponents are really just made up of the games AI. Be that as it may, this doesn’t seem to detract from the game. In fact, it enhances as these bots are cleverly consistent at winning .. posing a real challenge for a would-be racer.

Once weapons are introduced into the game, you’ll see a new button appear on screen representing that particular weapon. In order to use a weapon in Speed Forge Extreme you need to pickup ammo for it, and you’ll find this ammo scattered about the place while running your laps. once you have ammo the appropriate weapon button will light up, and then you can light someone else up, literally. Some weapons will auto-target your subject. Once you feel you’re ready .. FIRE, stand back and watch the light show. Careful though, when your screen turns red at the edges that means someone is returning the favor. With no shields or force fields, you’ll have to dodge those flaming sticks with all the agility your ship can muster!

Speed Forge Extreme is an action packed space-themed racer which both looks and feels the part. In my experience I really felt like I was playing a WipEout spin-off (in a good way), plus the game’s accelerometer controls are the smoothest I’ve seen on any App Store title to date. My only reservation about the game is the lack of mutliplayer options. If Chillingo were to set this title up for online mutliplayer, I think it would only help it’s replay value. As it stands though, if you’re the type who like the racing genre or in fact you were or still are an original fan of the WipEout franchise, I’d definitely recommend picking this up and taking it for a spin.