iPhone Article Zone

Major Update to Sentinel 2: Earth Defense to Bring Downloadable Content!

Origin8 have today announced that a major update to their hit iPhone and iPod touch tower defense sequel “Sentinel 2: Earth Defense,” Version 1.4 is now in submission. The new update will enable players to have access to a bunch of downloadable content, as well as providing free enhancements to the base game. Expansion Pack One, priced at $0.99 or regional equivalent, will be available as an in-app purchase upon approval.

Here’s just some of what you can expect from this new update:

Free content features:
- One menacing new enemy unit, integrated into all existing campaign maps.
- A new Sentinel ship weapon, the ION bomb, providing a spectacular explosion and damage over time.
- Two new missions based on existing campaign maps.
- New OpenFeint achievements.
- Bug fixes and balance tweaks for existing missions.

Expansion Pack One features:
- Two new maps, Barracks and Overpass, with unique mechanics and challenging layouts.
- A tough new enemy present on DLC maps only.
- Three new missions based on DLC maps.
- OpenFeint leaderboards and achievements for the new maps and missions.

Look out for this update hitting very soon!

Sentinel 2: Earth Defense

Our Rating: :: INCREDIBLE :: Read Our Full Review >>

Category: Games / Action
Released: 2009-06-26
Price: $2.99

Robot Rampage

Origin 8, the makers of Robot Rampage, have a good thing going in the App Store. For those of you who haven’t played the Sentinel series tower defense games yet, you are really missing out. Robot Rampage though is not a tower defense game, it is instead a 2D side scroller in the same vein as Zombieville USA.

Instead of being lame and having you play as the humans in charge of defeating the invading aliens, Robot Rampage pits you, the invading robot, against all the pitiful little humans with their pitiful little weapons. As you walk through the city, it is up to you to blow up all the buildings as well as the human military that come at you. The game progresses by having you blow up city block after city block, with the goal of blowing up as many city blocks at you can without getting yourself blown up.

The combat system is quite simple. You can either punch things, stomp on things, or shoot your laser. The more attacks you use, the more your bonus blaster goes up, eventually letting you unleash a wave of energy that blows everything up on the screen. As you progress through the levels, different enemy units come at you, from foot soldiers (not the Ninja Turtle kind) to fighter jets.

The real winner here is the graphics. The goal of the game is to put you in charge of your own B-movie robot rampage, and the graphics sure don’t let you down. The robot moves around with perfect motion, while the humans look amazing while they attack you.The real treat is using your laser, which somehow looks like it is actually going to hurt someone. The laser lights up in such a way that it almost looks like some sort of real motion blast coming out of the B-movie robot. Needless to say, I was thoroughly impressed with the graphics.

Unfortunately, the game isn’t perfect. Even though there is all sorts of mayhem and carnage going on, you’ll eventually get to a point that you just don’t care anymore. With no breaks in the game, replaying over and over just seems rather unpleasant. The game could really use some kind of level system where you could possibly spend money on health and maybe some upgrades. Everything just becomes a bit stale after a few levels.

Overall, I’d say that Robot Rampage is an extremely well made game that is lacking the required depth to make it a must have game. Think of it as the iPhone gaming version of Star Wars: Episode 1, but without all the annoying characters. Sure, it’s extremely pretty, but there is just not enough depth there to really make you come back for more.

Origin8 Launches App Store “February Freebie Fever” Sale

The App Store is known for its sales, and just like December and the holiday discount, February is no different, at least for London UK-based mobile development studio Origin8. Developer of “The Sentinel” series, Origin8 have announced “February Freebie Fever,” a sale which will see the company drop the price to FREE on one of it’s App Store hits. Every Friday in the month of February, Origin8 will make one of their App Store titles absolutely free for the busy weekend period.

The sale comes as Sentinel: Mars Defense is about to turn a year old on the 19th February. The sale has already started with Car Mania becoming free last Friday up until today. Details of future weekend deals will be announced via the company’s various social networking accounts on the day of the sale.

“The Sentinel: Mars Defense anniversary provides us with a great excuse to spread some love to our players, and it’s a logical point for us to take a look back over an exciting year. Our aim is to develop games that stand out for their high quality and we want to get them into as many hands as we can. The iPhone as a gaming platform has grown spectacularly over the past year – many current players won’t have owned an iDevice at the time of the original Sentinel release, so we’re giving them a chance to catch up with our back catalogue for nothing.”

“We’re not just looking backwards, of course. Apple’s recent iPad announcement is great news for all App Store developers, and we have some more great products in the pipeline for release this year.”

With titles such as Car Mania, the cute and critically praised arcade-style AirBear and Sentinel: Mars Defense in the line up to plummet to FREE, this is one sale you should keep your eye on!

Car Mania

Our Rating: :: AWESOME FUN :: Read Our Full Review >>

Category: Games / Kids
Released: 2009-07-16
Price: $0.99 ON SALE: FREE

Space Station: Frontier

The folks at Origin8 have already proven their mastery of the strategy genre on the iPhone: they’re the makers of popular tower-defense titles Sentinel and Sentinel 2. Space Station: Frontier takes place 100 years after the events of Sentinel 2: Earth Defense. Space Station: Frontier is no tower defense game, however; here, you’re in charge of a mining operation in a dangerous area of the solar system, and you must simultaneously gather resources and defend your ship. Space Station: Frontier is a terrific strategy game that with enough twists to make it stand out from the crowd.

The meat of the game is in Campaign mode. Here, you’ll struggle through the ten missions while waiting for your back-up to arrive. Ironically, it’s the 100-year-old Sentinel that comes to your “rescue.” Each mission requires you to either survive for a set amount of time or meet a mining quota; either way, you’ll need to fend off enemy ships whilst mining enough resources to build up your defenses.

Your ship is floating in the middle of the screen, surrounded by scattered asteroids. You can build three main types of structures: miners, weapons, and support structures like power generators and repair drones. Initially, you’re limited to a miner and a laser turret. You’ll need to harvest energy in order to build each machine; while your ship generates a small amount on its own, miners must sap resources from nearby asteroids to provide with a sufficient supply. Enemy ships will fly on-screen at certain intervals (you’ll get a heads-up beforehand). However, you can’t just build willy-nilly; machines don’t work on their own. A network of power nodes is required to supply energy to your structures. This adds an interesting aspect that’s missing from many tower defense games, and forces you to place your structures strategically; one blasted node is all it takes for your complex network to lose power.

The two other modes—Survival and Mining—are basically free-play sections from campaign mode. In Survival, you’re awarded based on how long you survive; in Mining mode, you’re trying to mine as much crystal as possible. However, both these modes serve a definite purpose. Your ship exists outside of each level as a continuous structure…meaning that you can upgrade it from the main menu. The Shipyard screen presents an array of permanent upgrades, ranging from blueprints for better weapons to increasing the ship’s health. At the end of every completed level you receive credits that can be used in the Shipyard. This is a key area of the game; it’s simply impossible to complete all ten missions without upgrading your ships.

On the whole, the gameplay is a lot of fun, with a surprising amount of depth. New weapon types (laser interceptors, missile launchers, etc.) allow you to keep up with tougher enemies, who often hover just out of range of your standard weapons. The choice between more miners or more weapons is a constant strategic tug-of-war, and the sense of impending doom is almost a constant. This isn’t an easy game, either; you can’t barrel through the ten missions without re-playing some of it (or the Survival / Mining modes) to earn more credits.

The interface is similar to what we’ve seen in the Sentinel games: pinch-to-zoom allows you to view the map at almost any scale you want, and the graphics hold up nicely regardless. (They do seem a little blurry if you zoom all the way, however.) All building must happen in real-time, and the intuitive controls are therefore much appreciated. Lag is minimal, but when hundreds of enemies swarm on screen in later levels…well, it is apparent. OpenFeint integration automatically uploads your scores, and achievements are also integrated.

While Sentinel is a great strategy game, it isn’t perfect. For one thing, I wish there was a lot more content. It doesn’t take too long to get through the 10 campaign levels, even with the need to go back and play other modes to earn credits, and once you finish those the game loses some of its fun. Graphics and audio are both good, but not blockbusters. When you finish a level, the game dumps you back to the main menu without preamble. It’s a bit jarring, especially if you wanted to continue the Campaign mode. And then there’s the originality factor; while Space Station: Frontier has some great features, many of them aren’t unique to this particular title.

Still, despite the low number of included levels, Space Station: Frontier is a blast. Strategy fans should enjoy its mix of real-time strategy (RTS) and tower defense (TD) elements, and the upgrades available in the Shipyard do give you an incentive to replay levels. The need to manage resource harvesting, weapon-building, and power networks concurrently makes it much more participatory than a boring old tower defense title. And, really, what’s not to like about blowing up alien ships? Space Station: Frontier is a well-produced strategy title, and I thoroughly enjoyed playing it…while it lasted, anyway.

Origin8 Submits Space Station: Frontier for Approval

Origin8, makers of the popular tower defense games Sentinel: Mars Defense and Sentinel 2: Earth Defense, are set to take the fight to space. Their third sci-fi strategy game takes place a century after the last title, and according to Origin8…

Space Station: Frontier sees the player in charge of a deep space mining operation in dangerous territory on the edge of Solar System. By constructing and powering networks of mining tools and weaponry – centred on the titular space station – players must juggle resource harvesting with the defence of their station against hordes of hostile alien ships.

As you can see from the trailer below, Space Station: Frontier adds some interesting wrinkles to the core defense gameplay, as there is an upgrade and management component to your expanding space station. Origin8 has stated that this is a persistent upgrade system, allowing you to level up your station with a variety of purchased tech, and then carry over your customisation across all game modes.

Space Station: Frontier was submitted for approval on December 14th, so we should be able to get our hands on it within the next couple weeks. The full list of features is as follows:

Construct weaponry and mining tools using an intuitive tower defense style interface.

Design and power vast networks of structures, then defend them against alien incursion!

Earn upgrades and unlocks for your space station to increase its power and abilities!

Enjoy the story-based campaign mode where you are humanity’s last chance for survival.

Play one of the freeform, endless modes and compete with other players worldwide using the online leaderboards.

Mission mode provides quick tactical challenges. Beat a scenario to earn achievements!

Full OpenFeint integration provides multiple user profiles, complete offline support, online scores and lots achievements to earn.

Awesome music & sound effects by Earcom!

Also, as we reported last week, you can experience the original, critically-acclaimed Sentinel: Mars Defense for free until Christmas…

Sentinel: Mars Defense

Our Rating: :: STELLAR

Category: Games / Action
Released: 2009-02-27
Price: $0.99 ON SALE: FREE

Origin8 Announces ‘Sentinel: Mars Defense’ FREE for a Week

Camden, London based iPhone development studio Origin8 has announced that to celebrate this years Bomfire night here in the UK, they’re launching a special offer in which the first edition to their tower defense series, Sentinel: Mars Defense, will be discounted. Starting today, November 5th at 6PM GMT and originally priced at $0.99, Sentinel: Mars Defense will be FREE for a whole week!

“It’s Bonfire Night in the UK, and the thoughts of the nation turn toward really big explosions. Thanks to London-based development studio Origin8, iPhone/iPod Touch gamers worldwide can share in the joy of blowing things up today, as their breakout sci fi strategy game “Sentinel: Mars Defense” will be FREE for a week from 6PM GMT.”

Originally released in February of this year, and in case you’re not familiar with the game, Sentinel: Mars Defense is a 2D tower defense game which brings with it fully immersive 2D (but with sort of a 3D-effect) graphics. The game is centered around stopping ‘waves’ of creeps from reaching an end point. Along the way to aid you in this battle you’ll have to use different powered space-like weapons, each with their own specialties and strong points. The aim is to destroy all alien lifeforms, before they have to reach a series of ‘gates’. If your end defenses are destroyed, it’s game over.

Sentinel: Mars Defense has been described as: Incredible, with stellar graphics, and a great amount of ‘content’ in-game. Having played the game myself, I can add to the fact that that it was definitely worth it at the low price of $0.99, but now you don’t have any excuse. Sentinel: Mars Defense is now FREE, and I highly recommend you go and snap it up!

Update: While the offer doesn’t seem to have started yet, it’s well and truly past 6PM here in the UK, so I’m sure we can expect the change to propagate to the App Store soon!

Sentinel: Mars Defense

Our Rating: :: STELLAR

Category: Games / Strategy
Released: 2009-08-11
Price: $0.99

Origin8 Announces ‘Sentinel: Mars Defense’ FREE for a Week

Camden, London based iPhone development studio Origin8 has announced that to celebrate this years Bomfire night here in the UK, they’re launching a special offer in which the first edition to their tower defense series, Sentinel: Mars Defense, will be discounted. Starting today, November 5th at 6PM GMT and originally priced at $0.99, Sentinel: Mars Defense will be FREE for a whole week!

“It’s Bonfire Night in the UK, and the thoughts of the nation turn toward really big explosions. Thanks to London-based development studio Origin8, iPhone/iPod Touch gamers worldwide can share in the joy of blowing things up today, as their breakout sci fi strategy game “Sentinel: Mars Defense” will be FREE for a week from 6PM GMT.”

Originally released in February of this year, and in case you’re not familiar with the game, Sentinel: Mars Defense is a 2D tower defense game which brings with it fully immersive 2D (but with sort of a 3D-effect) graphics. The game is centered around stopping ‘waves’ of creeps from reaching an end point. Along the way to aid you in this battle you’ll have to use different powered space-like weapons, each with their own specialties and strong points. The aim is to destroy all alien lifeforms, before they have to reach a series of ‘gates’. If your end defenses are destroyed, it’s game over.

Sentinel: Mars Defense has been described as: Incredible, with stellar graphics, and a great amount of ‘content’ in-game. Having played the game myself, I can add to the fact that that it was definitely worth it at the low price of $0.99, but now you don’t have any excuse. Sentinel: Mars Defense is now FREE, and I highly recommend you go and snap it up!

Update: While the offer doesn’t seem to have started yet, it’s well and truly past 6PM here in the UK, so I’m sure we can expect the change to propagate to the App Store soon!

Sentinel: Mars Defense

Our Rating: :: STELLAR

Category: Games / Strategy
Released: 2009-08-11
Price: $0.99

BioSub

Origin8 have brought us some pretty exciting games in the past, from Monster Kill to Car Mania as well as Sentinel and Sentinel 2. These past games have all been huge hits, so could they get it right another time with a game that is so very different from their past successes?

BioSub is a game where you need to clean the ocean from the nasty chemical spills with your sub which has a protective shield. The gameplay is all controlled with your accelerometer, which turns out to be fairly easy to maneuver. There are optional touch controls if you prefer, but for this game the way it responds, playing with the tilt is ok.

From the opening launch screen, which splashes over with a wave of green water, I was hooked and ready to put in a serious game session. Once you get past the initial control calibrations, you just jump right in, and your first level is a nice easy one to start with. You have to move your sub to make the two red containers hit each other, which makes them both explode and disappear. The level is cleared.

From level two onwards though, it gets a lot more difficult. There are more canisters placed and you have to again bash into each other. As you move your sub you will notice that the edges are not boundaries and your ship goes off the edge and reappears on the other side, as do the canisters. This does make the game pretty confusing and at times you have half canisters on both edges of your screen.

As you progress through the game, if you finish the levels in certain times you get awards. These help you to progress on to the levels and you can see how many awards you need to unlock the next (or higher) levels. As these levels get more difficult the canisters interact with each other if you hit them in the wrong colours. There are different reactions from more canisters being made (No Please No More Canisters!! *feints*) to them helping you.

There are 70 levels for you to work your way through, which means that this game will last for a very long time… good luck getting through them all and unlocking them! The graphics on the game are very polished, and the icon is great too, visually they have done a great job. The sound also does work well with the game so those are clear winners.

For me, the game was just a bit too difficult… so for me it was a bit less fun than it could have been. I think the reason for the difficulty is the timer in the center of the screen. You have 30 seconds on some levels to clear the canisters and it just isn’t enough time. It’ difficult enough to move as it is so adding the time pressure just makes it really frustrating. I would honestly prefer if they had an option so you could play the game without the time pressure.

Overall it is a good game if you are a patient natured person. I found that the time pressure put me over the edge, especially when I was really close to beating levels and just blew up for no good reason. Because of the crazy amount of time induced stress involved, I don’t think that this one is for me.

BioSub

Origin8 have brought us some pretty exciting games in the past, from Monster Kill to Car Mania as well as Sentinel and Sentinel 2. These past games have all been huge hits, so could they get it right another time with a game that is so very different from their past successes?

BioSub is a game where you need to clean the ocean from the nasty chemical spills with your sub which has a protective shield. The gameplay is all controlled with your accelerometer, which turns out to be fairly easy to maneuver. There are optional touch controls if you prefer, but for this game the way it responds, playing with the tilt is ok.

From the opening launch screen, which splashes over with a wave of green water, I was hooked and ready to put in a serious game session. Once you get past the initial control calibrations, you just jump right in, and your first level is a nice easy one to start with. You have to move your sub to make the two red containers hit each other, which makes them both explode and disappear. The level is cleared.

From level two onwards though, it gets a lot more difficult. There are more canisters placed and you have to again bash into each other. As you move your sub you will notice that the edges are not boundaries and your ship goes off the edge and reappears on the other side, as do the canisters. This does make the game pretty confusing and at times you have half canisters on both edges of your screen.

As you progress through the game, if you finish the levels in certain times you get awards. These help you to progress on to the levels and you can see how many awards you need to unlock the next (or higher) levels. As these levels get more difficult the canisters interact with each other if you hit them in the wrong colours. There are different reactions from more canisters being made (No Please No More Canisters!! *feints*) to them helping you.

There are 70 levels for you to work your way through, which means that this game will last for a very long time… good luck getting through them all and unlocking them! The graphics on the game are very polished, and the icon is great too, visually they have done a great job. The sound also does work well with the game so those are clear winners.

For me, the game was just a bit too difficult… so for me it was a bit less fun than it could have been. I think the reason for the difficulty is the timer in the center of the screen. You have 30 seconds on some levels to clear the canisters and it just isn’t enough time. It’ difficult enough to move as it is so adding the time pressure just makes it really frustrating. I would honestly prefer if they had an option so you could play the game without the time pressure.

Overall it is a good game if you are a patient natured person. I found that the time pressure put me over the edge, especially when I was really close to beating levels and just blew up for no good reason. Because of the crazy amount of time induced stress involved, I don’t think that this one is for me.

Car Mania

The makers of Sentinel & Sentinel 2 (which received a high rating) have decided to join the big boys that are Flight Control and Harbor Master. This genre of game is still really popular, and copied a lot because of it. If you are a regular reader here at 148 Apps (*waves hello*) you may have come across my slight obsession with this style of game. I love playing these pick up and put down games because it means I don’t have to commit to huge story lines or collecting little bits of things that I will forget what they are for. This game you can jump in and jump out again, which suits me fine.

When I launched Car Mania, I was nervous for it… how could it live up to the giants? What could they do to make a pretty great formula and make it fabulous? Could it be done?

Well I am pleased to say that Origin 8 has clearly done their research. They have created a game that looks like it has already had all the essential updates and is slick, fun, challenging and varied. I can’t wait to tell you all about it so let’s begin!

When you first launch the game there is quite a lot on the interface to choose from. The main area has the three styles of game to select from and at the beginning, only survival is available to you. You will need to achieve a certain number of happy drivers to unlock other levels. If you notice to the right of this main area, there is a traffic sign (this will say stop or go depending on if you can play the level or not) and it has New York, Freeway and Central on it which will also become unlocked as you progress.

I could describe all the intricacies here about the levels and options but essentially there are 3 types of game play, the city mode that you start off in, the freeway, which is a bit easier as you are only channeling the traffic one way, and then central which has 4 destinations for the cars as well as trains to negotiate. This level is really fun, and when you are alerted that the train is about to come - you literally panic - it’s fantastic!!

With the combination of the levels and styles of game play you have 8 ways to either save or crash all the vehicles. On the road rage style of play you have to get as many drivers as possible to crash. It’s a great spin on the game, especially if you have been playing for ages and concentrating to get them all to perfect. To then play a level that is essentially the exact opposite is really fun.

The combination of levels and ways to play makes this a real hit straight from the first game. Once I had played it, I wanted to unlock all the bonuses and levels, and try them all. It was a game that actually got more fun as I played it. This hasn’t happened for ages.

Here is a run down of some other great things about this game. If I wrote it all up we would be here for days so the list of fun things:

- It has a fast forward button so that if it starts too slow for you or you want to speed it along, you can do that.

- You have a bar at the top which monitor the ‘rage’ levels. This is great because it isn’t a case of one hit/crash and you are out. This means you get several chances at it. The result is it really increases your game play and when you have had a near miss you really focus and work it a bit harder. Fantastic!

- The choices of levels means you really have several games in one. The maps are all very different and all have a different goal. The city map is a case of getting yellow to yellow garage, and blue to blue. On the highway there are more colors to match but only the one direction. On the Central level you have 4 areas to navigate them to but also the danger of a speeding train to get past!

- different speed of the cars / motorcycles / trucks. This is great because there are some that will slow the others down, and they start honking. (and trains on one level)

- construction: At some point in the level, there will be road construction. This was a fun aspect to the game as well. When the little builder sign comes up and the builder noise accompanies it, you have to click it fast to fix the road.

- OpenFeint is used for hiscores, so it’s possible to connect information to friends and other hiscores who use that same platform.

Some of the negative aspects of the game (only minor), are that the routes at times can be awkward to map out. You have to go precisely to all corners and turn or it kind of doesn’t trace your route. Additionally it might be nice to have those routes mapped out a little clearer on the roads so you know who you have traced a path for. But I’m just being picky.

Also, the actual drawing and the line are not as fluid as on the other games in this genre. I really liked the beauty of that fluid line in FlightControl, and in this game its a bit square and angular. Again it’s not really a big deal but especially on the highway level, it seems difficult to correct a mistake. Gameplay can be frustrating on that level because you can’t reverse and it seems to go slightly beyond the point where you can actually steer the vehicles.

Lastly the interface is packed, this means it takes a bit of time to orient yourself with the opening screen. You have to click the level you want and the type of map and then you have to click the large ‘go’ sign. There are so many buttons on the opening screen, it’s fine once you figure it out but it’s not as clean as other games.

Overall - I thought this game was completely fantastic. It really seemed to look at what was out there, take the good bits and incorporate them. Tons of levels, achievements, and really fun that you don’t just die right away and have several chances to make it all run smoothly. It’s a hit in all the right places!!