Game Dev Story

Developer: Kairosoft

Publisher: Kairosoft
Release Date: Sept. 10, 2010
System: iPhone/iPod Touch
ESRB Rating: N/A
Official Web site (Japanese)

In a nutshell: A good game about making good games.

0:00 This game came out of nowhere to become the talk of practically every game journalist I know over the weekend, so I felt I had to see what it was about. It seems primed to indulge my interest in the behind-the-scenes of game development, too, so my expectations are pretty high.

0:01 Charmingly old school synth music plays over the title screen. It looks like a pixelated monkey is swinging from the G in the brightly colored title. New Game.

0:02 The default name for my company is Sunny Studios. Boooring. I got with "! Soft," which is pronounced "Exclamation Point Soft," thank you very much!

0:04 "Hello. I'll be your secretary here at ! Soft." First up we need some employees. A few taps through Menu -> Staff -> Hire. Word of mouth is cheap, magazine and online ads less so. I'm kind of shocked that online ads cost more than magazine ads in this game. I'd like to believe that's true, but it seems unlikely.

0:05 Shortly, three candidates for the job appear: Ann Deroid, Gilly Bates and Biggs Porkins. Cute. They all have numerical rankings in Program, Scenario, Graphics and Sound, as well as various power levels, contract fees and salaries. What do I do? What do I need? How do I choose? Whine whine whine.

***-->CONTINUE READING<--***

***-->AT GAMERONI<-***

___________________________________________________

Aurifi

Developer: Punk Pie
Publisher: Punk Pie
Release Date: April 6, 2010
System: iPhone OS
ESRB Rating: N/A
Official Web page

In a nutshell: "Let's run through that again." Let's not.

0:00 When I got an e-mail offering me a chance to play "the first ever audio-only game built solely for the iPhone" I was immediately intrigued. Audio-only? How in the world does that work? Let's find out, shall we?

0:01 Logos? Those are graphics! I thought this was audio only. Then a sexy British female voice comes into my ears. "Tilt to the left to create a new connection, or to the right to resume a connection." A connection? Is that like a save file? I tilt to the left again to choose "Slot 1." Then the game quits to the iPod menu. Ummm...

0:03 Restarted. Some ethereal music has come in. "I found a place for us to play," says the voice. "There we will exist only in sound. You can even close your eyes. Tap the screen if you want to come with me. This is Aurifi." There's a logo with a rainbow smudge in the background. The music has a nice heavy drum beat now.

0:05 My first task is to tilt the iPhone to move a sound back and forth between my two earbuds. Then I can control the pitch of a guitar chord with a front/back tilt. Then I tap the screen to play drum sounds along with the background music. Different parts of the screen make different drum noises. Fun, but not quite a game yet.

***-->CONTINUE READING AT<--***
***-->JOYSTICK DIVISION<-***
___________________________________________________

Pocket God

Developer: Bolt Creative

Publisher: Bolt Creative

Release Date: Jan 9, 2009

System: iPhone OS

ESRB Rating: E

Official Web site

In a nutshell: Like Black & White, but with more cruelty and less things to do.

0:00 I think the free downloadable copy of this game that the publishers provided has been sitting on my iPod for over a year now, just waiting for me to have the inclination to try it out. Over two million people have made it one of the best-selling paid iPhone apps out there, so it's safe to say my expectations are pretty high.

0:01 Little native guys are crushed by huge stone "GOD" letters on the loading screen. "Welcome to the world of Pocket God" says a screen with some bouncy jungle music. "Pocket God is an open world where you are the God with the Pygmies, inhabitants of a tropical island living inside your iPod/iPhone." The game then introduces "Ep. 32: Crack is Whack. ... A new god power to cause a crack in the Earth has been added." Hey, they're all new god powers to me.

0:03 The "island" look like a small stone outcropping with a single pygmy walking back and forth. In the background is an outhouse and a bent palm tree. A pygmy goes fishing all on his own before hooking and being dragged down and eaten by a passing shark. Uh... is that "game over" then?

0:04 Tapping around the screen, I've found I can knock on an unoccupied outhouse door, knock some sticks into the water, make a shark jump out of the water, and make a seagull poop. Are we having fun yet?

0:05 Oh, I can also make the sun set and the moon rise. Fireworks occasionally go off in the sky for no apparent reason.

***-->CONTINUE READING AT<--***

***-->JOYSTICK DIVISION<-***

___________________________________________________

Sonic 2 (iPhone)

Developer: Sonic Team

Publisher: Sega

Release Date: Late April 2010

System: iPhone/iPod Touch

ESRB Rating: E

In a nutshell: Not quite uncontrollable, but not quite controllable either...

0:00 The original Sonic 2 was the primary reason I bought a used Genesis to go with my beloved SNES as a child. That said, I'm not at all confident the game will be as enjoyable when controlled via touchscreen. Some games just need buttons, I think.

0:01 A good ten seconds of loading precede Sonic running in front of the traditional "SEGA" screen, complete with singers chanting the name. The title is the same as ever: "Sonic and Miles 'Tails' Prower in... Sonic the Hedgehog 2" Oh man, this takes me back. I remember being SO impressed with those big character sprites back in the day.

0:02 I tap the screen to bring up a ridiculously bare bones menu, and tap it again to bring up the familiar Emerald Hill Zone, Act 1. The scene is stretched nicely to fill the whole iPod. There's a little translucent d-pad in the lower lefthand corner and a little A button in the lower right. Hey, what if I want to use the B or C buttons? I know they all do the same thing, but still.

0:04 So far it's surprisingly easy to place my thumb in the center of the d-pad picture and kind of rock it back and forth to move. I get hit by a few coconut-throwing monkeys, but I feel like that's my fault, not the game's.

0:05 I've already collected my first 100 rings and my first an extra life, so I guess the controls can't be that bad. So far the game runs with nary a hiccup on my 2nd gen iPod. "Sonic Got Through Act 1" and earned a continue in the process.

***-->CONTINUE READING AT<--***

***-->JOYSTICK DIVISION<--***

___________________________________________________

Super Monkey Ball 2

Developer: Other Ocean
Publisher: Sega
Release Date: Dec. 2, 2009
System: iPhone/iPod Touch
ESRB Rating: N/A
Official Web site

In a nutshell: Super Monkey Tilt 'N' Tumble

0:00 My first experience with iPhone gaming was playing the first Super Monkey Ball on a friend's brand-new phone just after it launched. I found the game to be an impossible-to-control mess, which is a shame, because I loved the console Super Monkey Ball games. Here's hoping this one is an improvement.

0:01 A few logos, then right to the title screen, with a picture of the four core Monkeys and some bouncy, catchy music. Baby has on a Geordi La Forge visor for some reason.

0:02 Mini-games? There are mini-games? Nice! I'll save them for dessert, though. For now, it's on to the main game. There's an option for a tutorial, but I think I know how this works by now and just dive in.

0:03 I pick Gongon, because he's the biggest and manliest of the available monkeys by far. I can spin a globe around to choose what world I want, but everything except for Jumble Jungle is an inky black. Let's do this!

0:04 "Welcome to Super Monkey Ball 2. Let's cover a few basic tips before getting into the game." Wait ... I thought I skipped the tutorial. Oh well. Tilt the iPod to move ... a tilt meter in the corner shows whether you're centered or not. I roll forward down an arrow-straight path and reach the white light as instructed. I like how the game treats holding the iPod downward at a natural, 45-degree viewing angle as "centered." Too many other games force you to hold it level and look straight down.

0:05 A second tutorial level introduces turning, with nice high walls to protect me from falling to my doom. Turns are a little shallower than I expect, but when I slow down they get sharper. So far the controls feel entirely natural and intuitive. I think they may have actually gotten it right this time.

***-->CONTINUE READING AT CRISPY GAMER<--***

____________________________________________________

Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor

Developer: Tiger Style Games
Publisher: Apple
Release Date: Aug. 10, 2009
System: iPhone/iPod Touch
ESRB Rating: N/A

In a nutshell: The secret is that there are games this good on the iPhone!

0:00 I've lost count of the number of sources I've seen in the past week hailing this one as a groundbreaking, important, essential addition to iPhone gaming, so $3 sounds like a small price to pay to try it out.

0:01 Zoom in on a tiny spider standing in a hand-drawn forest backdrop. The title quickly gives way to the first instruction: "To walk, hold your finger on the screen." Pleasant, upbeat synth music propels me along.

0:02 Spider can stick to walls and even the underside of the forest mushrooms. A quick swipe leads to a quick, extremely satisfying jump across the expanse.

0:03 Tap Spider, then jump to create a thread. Create a polygon between threads to make a web, which can act as a platform for more jumping/web-making.

0:04 "Six months later..." The music is now light electric guitar. "Eat bugs to survive. Eating bugs gives you silk and scores points." OK ... so where are these bugs?

0:06 Oh... I thought those tiny floating green things were leaves, but it turns out they're actually the bugs I'm supposed to be eating. I make a quick triangular web with three jumps, then gobble 'em up nice and easy. I jump in a spiraling purple portal to move on, and the camera zooms out to show the entirety of the porch area I've been jumping around. Seeing it from a wide perspective after spending so much time zoomed-in close on Spider is interesting, to say the least.

***-->CONTINUE READING AT CRISPY GAMER<--***

____________________________________________________

Space Invaders: Infinity Gene

Developer: Taito
Publisher: Taito
Release Date: July 27, 2009
Systems: iPhone/iPod Touch (reviewed), other mobile phones
ESRB Rating: N/A
Official Web site

In a nutshell: If you showed this to a Space Invaders player 30 years ago, their head would literally explode.
0:00 After hearing our own Ryan Kuo and countless others absolutely GUSH about this for weeks, I finally decided to plunk down the $4.99. I liked Space Invaders Extreme well enough, but I'm wary of how the iPhone's touch controls will work...

0:01 An incredibly old-school black-and-white intro screen shows the points scored for dead enemies. It even has a "Credits: 1" message in the corner." After some loading, I hear waves washing over a bit-tune violin on the options screen. Eerie.

0:02 The available difficulties are Easy and Normal. I'm betting Normal is more like a normal Hard, but I'm feeling gutsy.

0:03 "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change," reads the introductory Darwin quote. "The king of games strikes back!" Eep! Wait, the king? Space Invaders hasn't been king for decades! Anyway, it starts out just like the old-school classic, with a ship that fires automatically and is slid back and forth by my thumb. This quickly transitions to Level 1-1, "Adaptive Radiation," which is much faster-paced and includes some large Invaders that throw off bright white shrapnel and explosions as they're hit. Digging it already...

0:05 When I finish the level, a big "EVOLUTION!" message comes up. I accidentally tap too fast and don't see what new feature I got. Oh well. Level 1-2 is "Genetic Diversity." It includes a few rows of never-ending Invader streams that are hard to shoot through but whose shots are easy enough to dodge. In the end, I find I got a "122 chain," but no "Nagoya Attack," whatever that is.

***-->CONTINUE READING AT CRISPY GAMER<--***

____________________________________________________

Eliss

Developer: Steph Thirion
Publisher: Apple
Release Date: March 9, 2009
System: iPhone/iPod Touch
Apple Rating: 4+
Official Web site

In a nutshell: Who knew pulling apart planets could be so fun?

0:00 I've heard a ton of great stuff about this little iPhone puzzler, but its appearance on Crispy's Mid-Season Videogame All-Stars sealed the deal and got my $3. I don't doubt it'll be worth it.

0:01 A small red dot sprouts a long black antenna, which bursts into a blocky "ELISS" title, Nice old-school chirping when I tap the menu buttons.

0:02 The "How To" section is a bunch of IKEA-style instructional images with short, cryptic instructions. For instance: "Objective: Supernovas" shows a finger dragging a yellow circle into a hollow, yellow flower-thing to increase a rainbow-colored counter. I think.

0:03 If I'm interpreting these images correctly, a circle (planet) has to be the right size for its flower ("squeezar"), and different-colored planets colliding is a bad thing. I can put together and pull apart planets to change their size, and use multiple fingers at once to move them about. Also, the supernovas create stardust that I can tap to regain health. I think.

0:04 This "Danger" image makes no sense to me. It shows a planet and a sun colliding? I guess I'll figure that out as I play. Headphones are recommended, so I get some out. OK, ready as I'll ever be. Here we go!

0:07 I start with Sector 1, as I must. It's almost a complete disaster, as I'm so distracted by the trippy vector graphics and interesting music that I have trouble moving the red and yellow planets apart quickly enough. Eventually I focus and start clumping colored planets together in order to keep them separate more easily. All the squeezars are huge, so all I have to do is combine and fill. Complete! I'm betting it gets harder than this...

***-->CONTINUE READING AT CRISPY GAMER<--***

____________________________________________________

Peggle (iPhone)

Developer: PopCap
Publisher: PopCap
Release Date: May 12, 2009
System: iPhone/iPod Touch
ESRB Rating: E
Official Web site

In a nutshell: Now easier than ever to play on the toilet.

0:00 Having played through versions of Peggle on PC, Nintendo DS and Xbox Live already, I'm not expecting a lot of surprises in this one. Basically I just want to see how well the addictive peg-popping experience translates to the iPhone's touch-screen.

0:01 I turn my iPod sideways to orient the PopCap logo correctly. As the game loads, it tells me it's "Cranking Awesomeness, Summoning Zen," etc. Before I know it, we're ready to go. That was fast!

0:02 I enter my name on a Peggle Academy "Certificate of Admission" using the iPod's crappy on-screen keyboard, and Bjorn the Unicorn makes his familiar introduction: "Ten Peggle masters are ready to teach you how to get the most out of your Peggle experience, and since I'm the boss, I get to go first!" Well la dee freakin' da!

0:03 Yup ... looks a lot like the first level of Peggle, all right. If you don't know somehow, the object is to use a bouncing pinball to hit the few orange pegs amid a sea of blue pegs. Interesting ... there's a wheel along the right edge of the screen that I flick with my thumb to aim my ball cannon at the pegs. I can also aim more directly by tapping anywhere on the playfield. Makes me wonder why the wheel is there at all...

0:04 Hey, where's the background music? Everything seems oddly quiet without it. Do they want me to go into iTunes to make my own soundtrack or something?

0:05 So far, this reminds me of Peggle: Dual Shot a whole lot. The resolution is a little better than it was on the DS, but it still doesn't compare to a full-size computer monitor or TV screen. Everything's just a little grainy and the animation is just a little jumpy.

***-->CONTINUE READING AT CRISPY GAMER<--***

____________________________________________________

Zen Bound

Developer: Secret Exit
Publisher: Chillingo
Release Date: Feb. 24, 2009
System: iPod Touch/iPhone
ESRB Rating: N/A
Official Web site

In a nutshell: The most non-sexual fun you can have with a rope!

0:00 When I first asked my friends and colleagues for game recommendations for my new iPod Touch, quite a few people mentioned this one. I'm looking forward to a game that doesn't require much attention or cause much stress.

0:01 The game says it's "designed for headphones," so I spend a minute digging up some ratty old earbuds. Wow ... the trippy music really does sounds a lot better echoing directly through my skull.

0:02 "Zen Bound is a game about slowing down and letting things happen at their own pace." I could use a game like that after a stressful tax season, let me tell you. Apparently I'll be painting structures by wrapping them with rope. Er ... that's not how painting works? Is it? I've never really painted...

0:02 I start with the "Tree of Reflection" because it sounds more, um, reflective than the "Tree of Challenge."

0:04 Immediately I'm impressed with the detailed 3-D graphics. The wooden block has a nice, convincing grain to it, and the tiny iPod handles the full 3-D animation with minimal jumpiness. I'm also digging the interface -- flicking my thumb to rotate the block, tilting the iPod to change the rope direction. It only takes 12.4 of the available 25 meters of rope to get the simple block 100-percent painted with a spiraling rope pattern. The game makes a strong, unique first impression.

***-->CONTINUE READING AT CRISPY GAMER<--***

____________________________________________________

Rolando

Developer: HandCircus
Publisher: ngmoco
Release Date: Dec. 18, 2008
System: iPhone/iPod Touch
ESRB Rating: N/A
Official Web site

In a nutshell: Like LocoRoco if it were actually fun to play instead of just cute.

0:00 Now that I've finally joined the rest of the developed world in the iPhone revolution (by buying an iPod Touch), I thought I'd check out what is widely considered one of the best examples of what iPhone gaming is capable of.

0:01 Already I'm impressed with how easy and quick it is to purchase and download games wirelessly through the App Store. Compared to the pain that is the PSP's online store, it's a wonder.

0:02 "Hey Finger, let's get started," says a roly-poly red ball with a blinking face on the menu screen. As I tilt the iPod he rolls along the edge. Very cute, very reminiscent of LocoRoco. I'm digging the samba music.

0:03 A pop-up book opens to reveal a map and the first level, "Hello Rolando." What is this, a Motorola commercial?

0:04 "Hey Finger! Give me a tap!" I do and Rolando gets a thick white border around him, allowing him to roll as I tilt the iPhone. I don't think I like him calling me "Finger" though.

Read the full review at Crispy Gamer