Het grote Apple iPhone/iPod Touch Games Topic deel #1

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Worms iPhone Review

July 13, 2009 - The classic strategy game Worms has finally wriggled on to the iPhone, a platform that seems like a perfect fit for its brand of comic mayhem. Exploding sheep, holy hand grenades, and homing missiles fly furiously as the worm armies square off on randomly generated stage littered with both hazards and opportunities. These fun moments, plus the thrill of delivering a manic combo strike that decimates an opponent, are the reasons why the franchise is still endearing to its fan base.

However, due to some wonky controls, Worms on the iPhone is likely to infuriate the loyal. This is always the catch with games that have some dedicated followings. You fell in love with it on another screen so you know when a new version of it just feels... off. And in the case of Worms on the iPhone, the inability to execute precision flights with the jet pack or accurately throw a rope and pull off those awesome worm acrobatics will have you gnashing your teeth. Don't get me started on the jump controls either. I cannot count the number of times I double-tapped a worm to do a back-flip, only to helpless watch it jump either into the water or straight into range of a mine.

Practice makes perfect, right? I have been hammering on this game since it came out this weekend, though. And while my roping skills did improve, there is just no way to move the worms with the same laser-like precision of the PC game. Yes, yes -- the iPhone is not a PC -- but that is half the fun of the game, though. Bounding halfway across the screen on a rope and delivering a dynamite stick to a helpless rival is one of those awesome gaming moments. You will not find it here.


That said, I could see a newcomer not getting too worked up about the control issues because they simply wouldn't know any better. The wonky flight path of the jet pack would be far less important to the laugh of launching a sheep attack for the first time or hearing the "hallelujah" of the holy hand grenade. It's not like you cannot use all of the other weapons and gear to great effect, such as air strikes and the shotgun. And with these tools, you can still have a modest match of turn-based madness.

However, there are two more complaints with Worms that grind down its score: online multiplayer (or the lack thereof) and enemy AI. You cannot play Worms online with other gamers. You can only play it local -- and by local, I mean pass the phone around the room. It certainly works, although it robs the pleasure of having your opponent watch you unload a bazooka at just the right angle to blast their healthiest worm right into a watery grave. Unless they were standing over your shoulder, of course -- but then they would know which weapons you had left in stock. The iPhone is a very capable online multiplayer device and there is no reason for Worms to ship without it. Sure, it may come in an update -- but it should have been in here from the get-go. Online multiplayer is a hallmark feature of the series.

When playing against the computer in Worms, get ready for some spectacularly uneven intelligence. There are three difficulty levels and if you pick easy, the game is a total cakewalk -- no challenge whatsoever. If you pick normal, the computer veers wildly between stupefying mistakes like dropping a grenade right on itself and pulling off a perfect shot, firing the bazooka into the wind at just the right power so it drops straight down on your worm. Oh, and of course that worm is bounced into a mine. And the explosion from that mine launches them into the water. Or into another mine. You get those kind of amazing chain reactions maybe once every ten game. The computer is able to deliver those without breaking a sweat, over and over, in hard.

At least the game looks solid and the soundtrack is exactly what you remember. The background music is still purposefully at odds with the destruction, although you can opt for your own music. The worms utter goofy worm-speak in funny accents. And I do like that Team17 included 50 challenge levels to give the game something of a single-player campaign that does work, to some degree, as a tutorial.

Worms was reviewed with version 1.0.


Closing Comments
Worms is such an awesome game -- it's a shame this version of it is not. The walking and aiming controls work well, but jumping is haphazard and effective roping is about as likely as your iPhone spitting out the winning lottery ticket. As I mentioned, I could see a newcomer not being too bent about these things because they don't know about how cool Worms gets when you master the ropes, jumps, and jet pack. But for those of you that were looking forward to having Worms to-go on your iPhone, I must strongly warn you: this port is very, very frustrating.

IGN Ratings for Worms (iPhone)
Rating Description
out of 10 click here for ratings guide
7.0 Presentation
The game looks fine and the menus are easy to navigate.
7.0 Graphics
All of the worms, backdrops, and weapons look alright, but the game is unfortunately chuggy in places.
8.0 Sound
Great worm voices and sound effects. Background music is good and you can use your own music, too.
5.0 Gameplay
The controls need serious work -- especially the precision stuff. It just sucks the fun out of the game.
5.0 Lasting Appeal
50 challenge stages sounds good, but the lack of online play is a bizarre exclusion for a series that regularly flaunts it.
5.5
Mediocre OVERALL
(out of 10 / not an average)

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The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition spoelt aan in App Store

LucasArts heeft de game ‘The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition’ op de iPhone uitgebracht. Deze game was eerder al op de PC en via Xbox Live beschikbaar. Monkey Island is 350 MB groot en kost ¤5,99. Door met twee vingers over het scherm te bewegen kun je wisselen tussen de Special Edition en het origineel in 256-kleurenweergave. Ook gebruik je twee vingers om in te zoomen.

Eerder was er al een jailbreak-versie van Monkey Island verschenen (ScummVM). Bij de game die nu in de App Store te vinden is gaat het om de officiële versie, voorzien van nieuwe artwork en een nieuwe soundtrack en voice-overs. In de game spoelt Guybrush Threepwood aan op het eiland Mêlée. Hij besluit piraat te worden en maakt een afspraak met de piratenleiders in de SCUMM-taveerne. Vervolgens krijg je drie uitdagingen gesteld: zwaardvechten, diefstallen en op schatten jagen.

En dat is nog maar het begin van een avontuur, waar je tientallen uren mee bezig kunt zijn. Zelfs voor mensen die de game al helemaal hebben uitgespeeld zou deze uitvoering door de nieuwe voice-overs nog iets nieuws te bieden moeten hebben. Monkey Island is zo bekend, dat het een eigen Wikipedia-pagina heeft.

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If we had a new point-and-click adventure game for every time someone said: "That was definitely the last point-and-click adventure game," then we'd pretty much be where we are today. Long pronounced dead, the adventure game never really departed. From Broken Sword 4 to Grim Fandango to Zack & Wiki, new releases in the genre may be sparse but they are undeniably steady. And as a slew of LucasArts and Sierra classics make their way onto the Steam download service, just as Monkey Island introduces a new generation of console gamers to insult sword-fighting, the genre is enjoying, if not a resurrection, then certainly something of a resurgence.

Beneath A Steel Sky (BASS) is the latest venerable adventure game to undergo a nip and a tuck in preparation for re-release. While less iconic than some of the LucasArts big-hitters, it is nevertheless the most widely played adventure game of all time. Nine years after its original release in 1994, British developer Revolution Software released the game's source code as freeware, to be offered for free to all users of ScummVM, the popular adventure game emulator. As a result, millions have played it. So why now choose to bring it to the iPhone? And why charge players for the privilege? By combining a mobile telephone, a map and a diary, we solved these puzzles and more at a meeting with the game's creator and MD of Revolution Software, Charles Cecil. And when it comes to talking to the grandfather of the adventure game about his genre's future, passions run high.
'Beneath A Steel Sky - Remastered' Screenshot 1


"Everything is f***ed up." Something dark flashes behind Cecil's normally kind eyes and his bald pate turns a darker shade of rosy. "When it comes to retail, everything is f***ed up, all the way down the line. If we sell a game in a shop, the retailer takes 40 per cent of the cover price, the format holder takes 15 per cent and the publisher pays us 20 per cent of what's left. That money has to be set against our development costs, so you can imagine how many copies of a game we have to sell to recoup. But on iPhone we receive 70 per cent of the game price immediately and we can sell direct to our audience. So we can charge a fraction of the price of a boxed product."

So is this re-release just a quick way to make a quicker buck? "Not at all. We've put a lot of effort into this BASS port," he explains. "It's not shovelware. As with Broken Sword: Director's Cut, we've added content that I think makes it a very justifiable and worthwhile project." That new content includes, amongst other things, fully animated cut-scenes, notable for being created by renowned comic book artist Dave Gibbons. In motion the sequences are beautiful, perfectly capturing the game's dystopian ambiance. But the proposed $2-3 asking price for the game isn't all being spent on new art and re-sampled dialogue. Rather, as Cecil is quick to point out, buyers are investing in the genre's future.

"Yes, you can jailbreak your phone and play the game for free. But if you like the game and like the kind of games we make, then pay us a little bit of money and, if it's a big enough success, we can reinvest the funds. We can start to look at a potential BASS sequel. You know, I think a massive part of the piracy problem is due to a broken-down relationship between game makers and consumers. There's no respect between the two parties anymore. So I'm very excited at the prospect of repairing the relationship. I think this is the model we'll take with our future games. If you like adventures and like what we write, then please work with us. We're looking at ways of including fans names in future games and so on. It's more exciting than ever before. It reminds me of the early eighties where anything seemed possible for smaller game-makers."

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/be...stered-preview

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NESynth: maak muziek in Nintendo-stijl op je iPhone [video]

Iedereen kent wel de beroemde tune van Nintendo’s Super Mario. Met de applicatie NESynth kan je deze en andere Nintendo-tunes zelf spelen. Bij NESynth krijg je, zoals bij vele andere muziekapplicaties, een pianoklavier tot je beschikking. Het leuke aan deze applicatie is echter dat je ook muziek kunt maken met een virtuele NES-gamepad (de Nintendo spelcomputer uit 1983).

Het pianoklavier heeft dezelfde tonen waarmee ook de Nintendo-tunes zijn gecomponeerd. Je kunt de toetsen een bepaald geluid laten maken, zoals een spring-, schiet- of lasergeluid. Bij het virtuele gamepad kun je deze geluiden ook spelen door bijvoorbeeld op een van de pijltjestoetsen te klikken of de B-knop te gebruiken.

NESynth iPhone App

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Plants vs Zombies To Gnaw At Retail, iPhones, Your Chest

PopCap announced today that Plants vs Zombies - a game we like very, very much - will now be able to be enjoyed by even more people, with both a retail and iPhone release.

The game will, as you read this, already be sitting on store shelves across America, for the reasonable price of $20. And if you likes things a little more portable? PopCap also confirmed that an iPhone version of the game is on its way, and should be on the App Store in "late 2009."

http://kotaku.com/5342238(...)l-iphones-your-chest

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Classic Adventure Game Beneath a Steel Sky Hits the iPhone

A remastered version of 90's point-and-click adventure game Beneath a Steel Sky is now available in the App Store for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

The original 1994 game told the story of an orphan adopted by Aboriginal Australians in a dystopian future. The game's graphics and artwork were down by Dave Gibbons, co-creator of Watchmen.

The remastered game has a touch-based interface, new animated movies from Gibbons, context-sensitive hint system and a remastered audio track featuring re-sampled voice and higher quality music. Sound was the one thing that the game was dinged on when it was initially released.

The $5 game will take you about ten hours to play through, according to the game's developers.

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An iPhone version of classic platformer Earthworm Jim is now available in the App Store.

Earthworm Jim was first released for the Megadrive and SNES a whole 15 years ago. Players control the titular character as he battles evil crows and the like in a bid to rescue Princess What's-Her-Name.

In the iPhone version, Jim is controlled using a virtual d-pad and action buttons. There are racing levels where you control your vehicle by tilting the phone left and right. But otherwise you can expect the usual collection of cows, snot, intestines, bungee jumping etc.

Earthworm Jim is priced at £2.99, which was the average house price in 1994.

http://www.eurogamer.net/(...)available-for-iphone

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Op woensdag 21 oktober 2009 13:14 schreef Misan het volgende:
Waar halen jullie eigenlijk nieuwe iPhone games vandaan? Mond op mond-reclame?

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Plants vs Zombies, iPhone, January

PopCap's excellent Plants vs Zombies has already been announced for the iPhone, but you know what hadn't been announced? Its release date.

According to the company's Facebook page, however, the game will be out on Apple's handheld in late January. So, around a month! Should be well worth the wait, as about the only thing better than PvZ is PvZ that you can carry in your pocket.

http://kotaku.com/5436739/plants-vs-zombies-iphone-january

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Gizmodo reports that Sega is about to release a free iPhone emulator called Ultimate Genesis which will offer SEGA Genesis games to purchase via downloadable content (DLC).

The free app will include Space Harrier II and offer the following titles as additional purchases.

Sonic the Hedgehog: $5.99
Golden Axe: $4.99
Ecco the Dolphin: $2.99
Shining Force: $2.99
The move seems like an obvious one, but has been made possible due to some changes in Apple's rules. The new app is supposed to appear in the App Store sometime today.

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Op dinsdag 9 februari 2010 13:37 schreef FP128 het volgende:
Als ik even mag onderbreken: Hoe kunnen jullie spelletjes spelen op een iPhone nu leuk vinden?
Dat ding dat heeft een batterij die nog sneller leeg is dan mijn Philips flashlight batterijtjes in de remote
controle en je zit letterlijk te pielen op een scherm dat om een vergrootglas vraagt. Daarbij zijn games
op de Mac zo minimaal als je dat afzet tegen het aanbod op Windows of een console.

Koop dan,als je toch op iets kleine wilt spelen, een PSP met een gigantisch aanbod aan games
en betere graphics.

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Rumor: Lucasarts Releasing Monkey Island 2: Special Edition
Lucasarts made a special edition of Monkey Island, and it went down real well. Know what that means? Yeah, that Lucasarts will be releasing a special edition of Monkey Island 2.

We've heard from sources that the game is due to be announced very soon, perhaps even next week at the Game Developer's Conference, and that like the first game's special edition, will contain all-new graphics and audio.

Unlike the first game, however, this one will be reaching a few more consumers, with versions planned for not just the Xbox 360, PC ad iPhone (like Monkey Island), but the PlayStation Network as well.

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Op donderdag 11 maart 2010 07:58 schreef Misan het volgende:
Hoe vaak heb je 'm doorgespeeld? Ben nu met de tweede run door het spel bezig en heb nu ook verplichte items die ik zelf niet kan kiezen of verwijderen