
Who would’ve guessed that one of the biggest App Store hits thus far would involve wrapping string around a wooden object? Apparently the success of the original Zen Bound even took developers by surprise. “We never expected the calm gameplay of wrapping wooden statues with rope to find such a great audience on the iPhone, much less win multiple awards over the year.”
Fortunately for us, the team over at Secret Exit announced Zen Bound 2 today, and it is specifically being tweaked to take advantage of the iPad’s graphic and size advantages. On top of that, Secret Exit has said that Zen Bound 2 “is both a sequel and a revision to the original, with more music from Ghost Monkey, new levels and new kinds of gameplay, but Zen Bound 2 also includes the original soundtrack and upgraded versions of all levels from the first game.” Secret Exit expects Zen Bound 2 to launch right around the iPad launch date… my guess is that the launches will coincide. There’s no video trailer yet, but there are a ton of screenshots after the break. Enjoy!
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.”
A few weeks/months back, Square-Enix announced that Final Fantasy 1 & 2 would be coming to the iPhone. Being a Final Fantasy fan, I got all excited, but knew that I would explode unless I pushed such news out of my head. After checking out Square’s Facebook page this morning though, my excitement was renewed because of two new screenshots.
Unfortunately, the release date is still under wraps by the marketing team, but we will certainly know soon enough. Until then, enjoy the new screens!


A few weeks/months back, Square-Enix announced that Final Fantasy 1 & 2 would be coming to the iPhone. Being a Final Fantasy fan, I got all excited, but knew that I would explode unless I pushed such news out of my head. After checking out Square’s Facebook page this morning though, my excitement was renewed because of two new screenshots.
Unfortunately, the release date is still under wraps by the marketing team, but we will certainly know soon enough. Until then, enjoy the new screens!


Gameloft is bringing Rayman to the iPhone, and from the teaser trailer, he looks 3D! It’s not clear yet if this version of Rayman will be a remake of an older title or be its own app, but it’s Rayman, and Rayman is good. Enjoy the teaser!
The trailer for Glu Mobile’s Transformers G1 is out today, and while it brought back some good ol’ childhood memories, it was missing something. Watch the video, maybe you’ll agree.
What it’s missing is funk. Hit the play button below, mute the trailer sound, and then re-watch it. Brilliant!
Sometimes I sit around my house, on my supple leather chair with rich mahogany accents, and think about what we are missing in the App Store. We have this great foundation going, with definite game genres becoming more popular than others, but nobody has found the real Holy Grail of app concepts… until now. Pairing peoples insatiable appetite for zombies with ragdoll blasters, Freeverse and h.grenade have created the ultimate game, Zombie Cannon Carnage (ZCC).
Not to be outdone by any other zombie game… or ragdoll blaster for that matter, ZCC has a story line that is sure to please even the most discerning concept critics.
No one has ever claimed that Zombies are very smart. They are however, very busy. In ZCC! three of these morons crash landed on our lovely little planet. With no other options, a fierce need to feed and a couple of spare circus parts they quickly build a cannon in a brilliant attempt to fire themselves back into space. This plan will never work, but at the very least they can save some hapless and unfortunate humans along the way and then eat their brains.
It gets better…
Using your Zombie Cannon fire Pee-Pee Boy and his cohorts up into the night sky. Use your Jet Pack to rocket through the city avoiding air conditioners, balconies, crane hooks and the pesky Police Helicopter. Fly too high and the military will unleash their F15 armed with Air-to-Zombie missles. Hit pinball bumpers to up your bonus multiplier, hit multiple objects to crank up your combo bonus and try to find all eleven Signature Impacts for maximum points. If that somehow isn’t enough carnage, you can buy the power to call in Air Strikes on yourself, a chainsaw to wield, TNT crates, Radioactive Barrels and more at the Upgrade-O-Matic vending machine with the points that you have earned along the way.
I really can’t begin to explain how excited I am for this game to come out. Freeverse is expecting this one to come out on Feb. 23 for around $2, but no official price has been announced yet.
Yup, you read that headline right. Capcom has announced that Street Fighter IV is coming to the iPhone, and better yet, this won’t be some buggy port: IGN says that Capcom has spent months working on the iPhone version’s control scheme alone, and multiple configurations are said to be included. Also expect to see some familiar graphics, because visual assets will be drawn directly from current-generation games. While the characters will be scaled down, loss of detail should be minimal. This is the real deal, folks!
As for the fighters themselves, Capcom has yet to announce the entire roster. So far we know that Ryu and Ken will be present, as well as new fighters from Street Fighter IV and old favorites from past installments. Each character’s move set will also be complete, including their Ultra moves and all animations.
Good news comes as far as modes go, too: in addition to a training (”Dojo”) mode and tournament mode, Bluetooth-enabled multiplayer will also be included. Heck yes! Half the fun of Street Fighter has always come from pulverizing your friends, and it’s great to see it included here as well.
It definitely looks like Capcom is taking this release seriously, as they should. Street Fighter IV is much-loved and critically acclaimed, and Capcom can make the transition to the App Store successfully it’ll be a great showcase of the iPhone platform as well as the fighting series itself. Street Fighter IV is currently slated for a March release, and we’ll keep you updated in the coming weeks. Be sure to check out IGN’s gallery!
The hype machine started churning back in January when Square Enix announced iPhone ports of Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy II. The announcement was an exciting one, certainly; it’s hard to get more classic than the original FF titles! Back then, we only had a few screenshots to salivate over, but now we have quite a few additional screenshots, a trailer…and a promise that they’re “coming soon.” Now you can feast your eyes on the live gameplay shown in the trailer while we wait anxiously for the actual games to hit the App Store. (Chocobos anyone?) Rest assured, we’ll be following these two titles closely.
Com2uS is the developer behind many titles, but they are perhaps best known for Inotia and Inotia 2: A Wanderer of Luone. It was with excitement, therefore, that I opened a recent email containing a beta testing invite for their newest project…a “fully-featured MMORPG on the iPhone.”
Yes, that’s right: a real MMO, not that Epic Pet Wars or Zombies Live nonsense. The game is titled IMO: World of Magic, and the feature list includes guilds, a party system, a friends list, and chatting as well as the inclusion of three character classes, 50+ skills, and a trading shop. I grabbed the beta build early this week and have spent some time wandering through IMO’s thirty zones. The game is indeed much like a “real” MMORPG. You’ve got guilds, skills, and monsters to kill. The game world has a cute Maple Story-like vibe and lag wasn’t bad at all, though only the real launch will reveal Com2uS’s server’s capabilities. (Also note that I was on WiFi.)
The game so far has been a mixed bag. There are translation errors, the “pick up items” button seems superfluous, and chatting is hampered by both an absurdly short text limit and a clunky in-game keyboard. On the other hand, combat works quite well; you can play as a warrior, ranged fighter, or mage, and each class comes with its own unique talents. Teaming up with other random player to hunt piggies and moving bushes is fun, and the world itself is very cheerful. Even with its flaws, it’s an impressive title simply because we haven’t seen a “real” MMORPG on the App Store. I can see this being a great pick-up-and-play title: killing a few monsters in those five-minute breaks that populate our lives is both easy and fun.
Strangely, there isn’t much of a story. Fetch quests from the villagers sort of give you an objective, but they’re hardly exciting and there’s no quest log to keep track of things. For now, IMO is mostly a grind: kill monsters, level up, gain skills and items, and kill some more monsters. Grind-fests are typical of Korean RPGs, but they certainly aren’t my favorite feature, and there’s little else to do right now.
IMO has a ton of potential, and this beta build is very impressive, especially from a technical standpoint. I’m still worried about the lack of a narrative, though. Once the revised version hits the App Store, rest assured that we’ll be giving it a full review!
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