There are a great selection of places to visit and a plethora of puzzles to rack the mind and keep you entertained.   Some of the puzzles you might get quite easily, whereas others might have you looking online for the answer (it’s not cheating!) but each is enough to keep your attention and make you play through the game.

The graphics are lovely to look at and whilst they could have more animation to lift them a little it does not detract from the game as each screen immerses you if the weird world of your eccentric grandfather.  The sounds are suitably atmospheric and give the whole a ‘eerie’ feel.

Once criticism would be that it feels a little short as we got through it relatively quickly (with a little help of the net) and would love to see it go further in the story department as there was a loads of puzzles to keep us going.  However, if the sign of a great game is to leave you wanting more then Fire Maple has achieved it as we can’t wait for the sequel.

US LINK

UK LINK

The post Review: The Secret of Grisly Manor appeared first on AppTrawler.

We heard about this game a few months back whilst reading up on our old 8 bit hero ‘Dizzy’.  Dizzy was an egg who had numerous adventures in the days of the spectrum and Amiga.  I believe his last outing was on the Sega Megadrive before the Oliver Twins and Codemasters had a falling out and poor Dizzy fell by the wayside.

This new game for the ipod and iphone follows in the footsteps of these games as you control Wizzley, a trainee wizard who is sent to save the kingdom from a returning evil in the form of a vampire.  You control Wizzley and explore a huge hand drawn world of puzzles, quests and fun. Along the way you’ll meet Kings, Princesses, Trolls and Witches.  The dialogue is great and the characters each have a personality of their own.

Visually the game looks fantastic and looks fresh whilst retaining its ‘retro’ roots.  As with the Dizzy games you can only carry three items at a time so much of the game involves tracking back and forth through the kingdom boiling, destroying, opening, activating and using.  Many of the younger gamers might find this style of game play tedious however due to the nature of the game we expected as much.

One thing that this game did that Dizzy didn’t was the use of eggs as weapons, which you can throw about the place to take out enemies, solve puzzles and hit these weird eye things which I have no idea what they do.

The two issues I did find was the positions of the controls as these felt unnatural and the lack of a jump button.  At first I thought it was broken but as far as I can tell, its supposed to be like that, however,  the confusion is increased by a lack of instructions.

The lack of a save game option is handled by the use of 3 chapters so as you complete one, another is unlocked and you start a fresh from there.

Overall Wizzley Presto is a traditional cartoon adventure game with some great visuals and funny dialogue and sweet music.  The game has several nods to the classic Dizzy series and is a magical adventure for the ipod and iphone.

itunes link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wizzley-presto-vampires-tomb/id377667373?mt=8#

Cost: $4.99 / £2.99

The post Review: Wizzley Presto and the Vampires Tomb appeared first on AppTrawler.

Per a recent posting on the Myst forums, Myst [$4.99 / Free] just had an update submitted to Apple to add iOS 4 compatibility. Interestingly enough, also mentioned in the same thread by Cyan employee Chogon is the fact that yet another Cyan classic is coming to the App Store: The Manhole.

The Manhole is a children’s adventure game written by Rand and Robyn Miller, founders of Cyan (and creators of Myst). It was developed for the early Macintosh using Apple’s HyperCard, one of the first available hypermedia authoring systems. The game was Cyan’s first release and was published on floppy disk in 1988. In The Manhole, you open a manhole revealing a giant beanstalk which can either be climbed up or down with no real objective other than to simply explore the game world and have fun. The Manhole has since been re-released in a number of forms on various platforms, including Brøderbund’s 1995 re-release, The Manhole: CD-ROM Masterpiece Edition, and its release on GameTap in 2007. According to Cyan, the graphics in the iPhone version of The Manhole have been enhanced even further than the Masterpiece Edition.

Per Chogon’s post on the Myst forums, The Manhole was submitted on June 30th, so barring any issues it should hopefully appear on the App Store sometime next week. While I’m sure quite a few people have never heard of The Manhole before, I expect this announcement will be a delightful blast from the past for some.

The post Coming Soon: The Manhole – From Myst Creators appeared first on AppTrawler.

At GDC 2010, iPhone developer 99games showed us what they have been working on as their next major iPhone title. The Jim and Frank Mysteries – The Blood River Files is an adventure puzzler in the vein of the Professor Layton game series.

In the Jim and Frank Mysteries, players assume the role of Jim and Frank who uncover a mystery left by their grandfather. As they follow the story and clues, they start to unravel the mysteries and must solve the various puzzles along the way. The game is an original iPhone title with 60 puzzles and an estimated 20-30 hours of gameplay.

The game is story-driven with 60 puzzles, 4 chapters, 8 mini games and 27 different characters. The puzzles are designed with the iPhone in mind and take advantage of iPhone specific inputs such as touch and tilt.

A hint system is also included so you can get help along the way. Here’s a few screenshots of some of the in-game puzzles.

The Jim and Frank Mysteries is due in late April, early May.

The post Preview: The Jim and Frank Mysteries – The Blood River Files appeared first on AppTrawler.

Much like other versions of the game, screenshots barely do it justice. Liberty City in motion on the iPhone is amazing, and all the jagged edges in the screenshots quickly fade away when you’re racing down a street, under elevated train tracks, and through alleys as you escape the police. The realtime clock in-game also changes the lighting of the city, shifting from the orange glow of a sunset to the street lights turning on at night. It really looks awesome.

The basic premise of the game involves a man named Huang Lee, the son of a Triad gang boss who was recently sent to sleep with the fishes. He flies in to Liberty City with a heirloom sword his father won in a poker game, deciding to deliver it to his uncle. Of course things never go as planned, and not long after landing Huang finds himself in the middle of a gunfight and winds up getting kidnapped. After stealing the sword, the assailants assume Huang is dead, and looking to dispose of the body drive the car he’s in off the side of a pier. In the same vein of other GTA games, story isn’t really anything revolutionary, but it gets the job done.

Chinatown Wars is controlled very similar to Gameloft’s Gangstar, with virtual buttons and a joystick that handle all the driving, running, shooting, and other activities in game. The iPhone port of Chinatown Wars retains the stylus minigames that filled the DS version, appearing in a little popups where you do things like tap to smash the window of the car you were trapped in at the beginning of the game, slide your finger around to turn a screwdriver to start a car you’re stealing, etc.

When the Nintendo DS version was first released, I devoted hours to playing through the game. So far the iPhone port seems like a faithful reproduction with quite a few expletives. I obviously don’t have the full text scripts of both games to compare, but everything I’ve come across so far has fit with what you would expect out of a GTA game, and it would appear that very little if anything was actually censored for the App Store release.

Chinatown Wars seems to be a complete GTA experience. You have your apartment that serves as your character’s hub with a “Fruit” computer you can check emails on, a garage you can stash a car in, and when you’re on the road there is a full GPS system with a map of Liberty City that you can plot your destination on to easily get from one side of the city to the other. There’s all kinds of stat tracking that will tell you everything from how many bullets you’ve fired to how many fish you’ve fed and in-game options that offer all kinds of different tweaks to the interface and gameplay.

[ Full HD version | Low Bandwidth version ]

We weren’t initially sure if this release was intentional, as we expected some amount of pre-release fanfare from Rockstar, but we are going to be working on a full review of this version of the game.

App Store Link: Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, .99

The post GTA: Chinatown Wars Out in US First Impressions & Video appeared first on AppTrawler.

For the time being, here are the screenshots from iTunes:

App Store Link: Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, .99 – Currently available in European countries only.

The post Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars Euro debate appeared first on AppTrawler.

Fans of the title will be pleased to hear that the first update since our discussion with Kepa (and the third update to the game since its release) has just hit the App Store.

Features as listed by the developer:

• New challenge level set: The Forbidden Hats! Put your hooking skills to the test like never before!
• New ‘simple’ ghost mode allows you to gauge your progress when racing a friend or competing against your own best time without being distracted by the in-game avatar.
• New cosmetic-only DLC character: Bounty Hunter Zelle! Zelle is equal to Gunny in abilities, but has her own sense of style and new dialog. Zelle also features her own collection of incredibly fashionable hats!
• Change: Rope lengths tweaked to create a smoother experience for beginning players.
• Bugfix: Personal best run ghosts now saved even if ghost display is turned off.
• Bugfix: The Addiction hat achievements and Celebrity local scores achievements should be properly awarded now.
• Performance: Stunning performance enhancements across the board on both older model iPhone/iPod Touch devices and newer 3GS models!
• Even more hats!

What’s more, Rocketcat tells us that Update 4 should be available around the end of this month and will feature a number of new, more causal levels featuring John Gore of Minigore, who will shoot his enemies Bionic Commando-style. A new “Duel System” will also appear in the next update.

Have a look at the game in action. (Video is prior to Update 3)

[ Full HD version | Low Bandwidth version ]

As we said in our review, Hook Champ is an absolutely fantastic game that all fans of retro styled sidescrollers should own. If you’ve not added this one to your game library as yet, now’s the perfect time. At least give the free, lite version [App Store] a swing.

And hats off to Rocketcat Games for keeping this one going strong.

App Store Link: Hook Champ, .99

The post Hook Champ – Update 3.0 appeared first on AppTrawler.

Designed by code guru Charles Cecil, Broken Sword has a long and celebrated history in the video game world, and Revolution Software has just dropped us a line to announce that protagonists George Stobbard and Nico Collard are now heading to the iPhone.

Broken Sword: The Director’s Cut promises an update on the adventure classic that utilises the interface and control mechanism put together for the remake of Beneath a Steel Sky, which should make the puzzle solving and award-winning narrative very accessible.

“We were absolutely thrilled with the reaction to our first iPhone and iPod touch release,” says Charles Cecil, managing director at Revolution Software. “We’re particularly excited to be introducing [Broken Sword: The Director’s Cut] to a whole new audience.

“I am confident that the quality of the original adventure coupled with significant updates and new assets will ensure that the game appeals both to new players as well as those that played the original first time around.”

The game follows the adventure of Nico Collard as she races against time to uncover a sinister conspiracy linked to an ancient secret.

Artist Dave Gibbons has been drafted in once again to put together some all new cut-scenes and animation, while a similar context-sensitive help system will provide a bit of in-game assistance when the puzzles get too much.

Apparently we can expect the game within a month, though there’s no price announcement as yet. Stay tuned for more Broken Sword: The Director’s Cut iPhone news.

The post Coming Soon: Broken Sword: The Director’s Cut appeared first on AppTrawler.

Attaching the word ‘Dante’ to any piece of entertainment suggests that a hellish experience is in store. Consider the risible 1997 Pierce Brosnan vehicle, Dante’s Peak, or the entire filmography of Joe Dante.

Okay, so Gremlins and Inner Space were pretty good.

Regardless of that, you have to say it was a wise move on part of Javaground to omit Dante from the title of its maze-running puzzler – this despite the fact that The Inferno is indeed based on the portion of The Divine Comedy by the fourteenth century poet Dante that carries the same name.

Tortured artist

The game – as with the poem – charts the writer’s journey through a mediaeval vision of hell, aided by the Roman poet Virgil. Minus some rather overripe between-level dialogue, however, that’s about it for the game’s literary pretensions.

I rather doubt Dante’s journey involved scurrying about trap-laden mazes and collecting glowing orbs like Indiana Jones, yet that’s exactly what you have to do in The Inferno.

It’s a fairly plain top-down 2D affair, with Dante moving along rather jerkily, one square at a time. The aim of each level is to make your way to the exit, which only opens up once you’ve collected each of the blue soul orbs that litter each level (usually in the most awkward spots).

There’s an overall time limit of four hours in which the game must be completed, your success or failure at which determines the ending you receive.

Trouble down below

With such a basic premise, the developer has opted to spread the simple directional controls across the screen. Movement by default is handled via a deconstructed virtual D-pad, with horizontal movement handled on the left side of the screen and vertical movement on the right.

While this two-handed approach would appear to be a wise choice given the lack of any other control considerations, it’s actually unintuitive. In fact, I never found myself entirely comfortable with having to operate two individual controls for simple movement – there’s a lingering feeling of detachment between your thumbs and poor old Dante.

Fortunately, there’s the option to switch to a single virtual control pad, but even this proves to be unsatisfactory given the need for pin-sharp timing and reactions on the tougher levels. Collapsing walkways, patrolling ghouls and intermittent spike tracks invariably lead you on a merry dance of death.

It’s often too difficult and the controls only make it worse. The aforementioned stilted movement and jerky animation must take much of the blame for these frustrations, as the sheer number of untimely deaths you experience begins to resemble a whole new kind of torment.

Judgement day

Still, there’s no doubting the old skool appeal of simply getting from entrance to exit as quickly and efficiently as possible, and the sheer number of levels provides a sizable challenge.

There’s a braveness and a purity to the game’s stripped-back style that proves strangely refreshing – how many digital trawls through the underworld do you know of that don’t involve even a smattering of combat?

Despite the oppressive setting, this is far closer to Edge than Doom. The only trouble is, The Inferno lacks the tightly tactile controls of the former, which are absolutely essential in a game with such a narrow focus.

The Inferno, then, while certainly not a tortuous experience, finds itself in the shadowy limbo of being merely above average.

The post Review: The Inferno appeared first on AppTrawler.

Inotia 2 isn’t really bringing anything new to the table, even in terms of the app store. Games like Dungeon Hunter and (more similarly) Zenonia have already pioneered the action-RPG genre on the platform, but Inotia 2 makes up for that by being more polished, more accessible, and arguably deeper than any that came before it.

Progress is made through the completion of main-story quests and the leveling up of your character, a concept that should be familiar to many gamers. All of the regular trimmings like a skill tree that you can use to customize your character as he/she levels or collectible loot is there, but it’s the mercenaries system that really sets Inotia 2 apart. Over the course of the game, players will be able to hire up to two mercenaries, which they can then take with them on all their quests, level up and customize as they grow, and actually manually control while in battle.

This allows for experimentation with each of the five character classes in a single playthrough, regardless of which character you chose at the beginning of the game to be your main. Item customization is another feature that adds to the depth of Inotia 2, as it allows players to attach enchantments (or upgrades) to their weapons and equipment via scrolls found through various methods in the game.

If plot is your main concern when delving into action-RPGs, Inotia 2 is going to disappoint you. The story is cliche-filled and poorly written, with bad dialogue making the already uninteresting conversations between characters only bearable because of the ability to quickly tap your way through them. It does not matter if you choose to play as a male or female character in this game, because everyone in the game will refer to you as though you are male, regardless of actual gender. This is all probably due to the fact that the developers, Com2uS, are from Korea and it seems like quite a bit may have been lost in translation.

Non-Player Characters (NPCs) are scattered about environments and towns with quests to give and generic lines to spew, as is par for the course in games of this genre, but they all seem dead due to their complete lack of animation. Since the NES era, NPCs have always had small movement animations, just to make it clear to the player that they’re alive. This is not the case in Inotia 2; NPCs are so still that they could sometimes be mistaken as parts of the environment.

Addressing a common problem with both its predecessor and other games in its genre (I’m looking at you, Zenonia), Inotia 2 has a fantastic menu/inventory system. While the game does limit the number of items that players can carry along with them on the field, it also offers plenty of room for expansion, potentially to quadruple the number of inventory slots available at the start of the game. Touch navigation of the menus makes accessing all of the options, information, and character customization methods easy to get to.

The actual battles in Inotia 2 are extremely well-designed, and there’s a lot of fun and satisfaction to be had by taking part in them, especially later in the game, when you’ll be managing three characters at once, each with their own complete skill sets. Movement is controlled either by touch or virtual D-pad, the latter of which I found to be much more responsive.

There is a large attack button on the right-hand side of the screen, and tapping this button once while in attacking distance of an enemy will simultaneously auto-turn your character in the right direction and initiate a series of constant attacks until either your character or the enemy is dead. This sounds rather brutish and indelicate, but strategy comes into play when you take advantage of your (up to) four special attacks on your quick menu and the combined skills of your unique party members.

For the first part of the game, I controlled a mage (my main character) and a templar, the latter of whom served as both my healer and frontline. I controlled the templar and led the way into battle, creating a safe environment for my mage to attack from a distance behind me. At first, the only skill that my templar had access to was a basic healing spell, but with a broadsword and careful attention to the health bars of my party members, I was able to make it through most situations with ease. Later, I added a knight to my party, which added even more strategic options due to the fact that my templar was now freed for full time healing duty while my knight charged headfirst into enemies. The combination of class types in my party gave me a lot of wiggle room for experimentation with strategy, making the game much more than a simple hack-and-slasher.

Unfortunately, mercenaries do not have the same potential as your main character. Players are limited to the use of only half of their mercenaries’ skills trees, the other half of both passive and active abilities are locked. I suppose that the developers’ intentions when designing this system was to increase replayability and encourage second playthroughs as a different character class, but since the game is easily 40+ hours anyway, this is more of an annoyance than anything else. I strongly urge the developers to create some way to open up access to the second half of the mercenaries’ skill trees; it’s something that everyone who buys the game will want.

Inotia 2 is not lacking in online features, with a ranking system that shows your worldwide rank as measured by either player level or the highest level enchantment on one of your weapons. Players are also given the ability to take their party online in a versus-style environment called “Match Up Mode.”

I would generally advise against participating in this mode until you have a full three person party, as you’re likely to get totally owned, otherwise. This mode is really nothing more than a fun diversion to take part in after completing the main storyline in the game, but it will add to the overall value to the really hardcore players who pour in the dozens of hours required to fully level their characters.

Visually, Inotia 2 is a real treat, with large, high-quality character portraits that appear during dialogue and an all around clean, top down 2D graphical style that looks several leaps ahead of what was possible on the Super Nintendo, but while still keeping that same sort of feel. The actual animation of characters aren’t quite up to par  with the art and retro graphics in the game, but they do just well enough to not really be noticable.

The audio is a bit forgettable, with a score that seems uninspired and generic when compared to the approximately 12 million other games that use a fantasy setting, but the option to turn off individual aspects of the sound are allowed via the in-game menu, and music from your iPod itself can be activated in its place.

So is Inotia 2 worth a purchase? With the absolutely enormous story mode, numerous possibilities for customization (whether that be through party configurations, skill sets, or weapon/armor choices), and the online play options, this is by all means a complete package. The level of visual detail and overall fun factor provided by the game is only slightly diminished by weak writing, a problem that most games in the action-RPG genre share.

Casual gamers who are unfamiliar with games of this sort will most likely be turned off by the complexity of the game’s inner workings, but those who know what they’re getting into and enjoy similar games will probably agree with me when I say that Inotia 2 is one of the best action-RPG’s on the App Store.

App Store Link: Inotia: A Wanderer of Luone, .99

The post Review: Inotia: A Wanderer of Luone appeared first on AppTrawler.

In a nutshell, the Sword of Fargoal places the player within the top level of a deep series of dungeons with the quest of seeking out the legendary “Sword of Fargoal” and escaping with it from the depths of said dungeons. Complicating matters is the fact that the layout of each dungeon level is randomly generated when the player enters it, and that the dungeons are all initially bathed in darkness, revealing themselves only as the player explores. Those lucky enough to locate the sword have only 2,000 seconds to find their way out of the dungeons which, even on the way up, are also randomly generated.

The iPhone version features completely redone graphics utilizing OpenGL ES to add depth to the stony visuals. It allows for pinch-and-spread zoom control to focus on the action at hand and features an optional on-screen mini map to aid in negotiating the twists and turns of each dungeon level. What’s more, the developer has implemented a full, real-time music synthesizer system for the game which delivers sound that, while ringing of retro, surpasses the quality of the C64’s SID-based score.

But, really, what makes the game so well suited for the iPhone is its casual nature as compared to the typical roguelike. And that’s not to say the game is shallow or light on dungeon crawling action, but rather we feel it’s simply a bit more accessible to the typical gamer than, say, Nethack, Moria, or Rogue thanks to an economy of controls, spells, and the like. Those who’ve never played a dungeon crawler before might just find themselves drawn in to Sword of Fargoal.

The game is on sale 40% off during its first week.

App Store Link: Sword of Fargoal, .99

The post ‘Sword of Fargoal’ – A Classic Dungeon Adventure Reimagined appeared first on AppTrawler.

Square Enix appears to be dipping its toes into the App Store once again, releasing another title with little fanfare, Hills and Rivers Remain [App Store]. Square Enix has released a light strategy game that is best be described as a Galcon-a-like. Fortunately, it does do enough different that it can be distinguished on its own merits, though it continues to disappoint that a developer of Square Enix’s calibre could not bring something to the table that really redefines the platform.

Hills and Rivers Remain wraps the traditional Galcon model in a typical Japanese RPG wrapper, with grandiose story telling, an abundance of dialogue and the typically overly dramatic anime characters that have been a hallmark of Square Enix’s franchises. Unfortunately the story in Hills and Rivers Remain isn’t its shining point, being loaded to the brim with clichés, uninspired characters, and banter that will likely make one wince more often than not.

The gameplay itself sees you directing your forces around a grid of linked bases, reinforcing the troops at each base and sending them on their way to overwhelm and capture the enemies’ bases. Your troop numbers are replenished only when the constantly circulating green frame around the screen depletes, and only at a HQ that you can designate by pressing on an existing base. This summarizes much of the gameplay; frantically selecting the appropriate base to reinforce depending on the enemies’ moves and your own strategy, a fact that is compounded when you are faced with more than one enemy.

Where Square Enix has departed from the Galcon mold is in its inclusion of ‘special bases’ and consumable items. Special bases come in the form of stables, castles, ports, cannons, mines and forts; each providing a specific tactical advantage such as faster movement, being able to travel over sea or increased combat effectiveness, to name a few. This feature is its saving grace; providing interesting strategic choke-points that grant bonus’ that essentially determine each match. Additionally, upon seizing a base you are sometimes awarded with an item, which can be consumed at any time to boost a particular aspect of your entire army, such as speed, combat effectiveness or defense. Both these elements help Hills and Rivers Remain from becoming an overly monotonous experience.

Fortunately, the artwork and sound in Hills and Rivers Remain is of the high standard expected of Square Enix. The game itself is presented in the form of detailed 2D sprites of sufficient resolution that they can be zoomed in on without looking ugly. The animations themselves are a little basic, but ultimately they get the job done. The in-game dialogue between the game’s characters is where the artwork comes into its own; each character splendidly created in typical Square Enix fashion. The music follows suit with Square Enix’s penchant for fanfare, symphony and drum-rolls.

Despite all this however, one can not help but feel that you are still playing Galcon albeit in a different setting and without the multiplayer experience that made Galcon a hit. Longevity in Hills and Rivers Remain comes in the form of Free Mode, where a range of different armies unlocked in Story Mode, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, can be pitted against each other in the various story missions.

For those who are fans of troop management games, Hills and Rivers Remain may just provide enough additional gameplay elements and depth to really pique your interest. For those expecting a more comprehensive experience or those who did not enjoy games such as Galcon, the gameplay can get quickly tiresome and stale. The story is unfortunately forgettable, and raises the question of why Square Enix did not tap into its sizable library of popular licences to provide something more of substance. A lite version is available with exclusive content not found in the full version, so is worth a download regardless of your plans to buy the full.

App Store Link: Hills and Rivers Remain, .99, Hills and Rivers Remain Lite, Free.

The post Square Enix : ‘Hills and Rivers Remain’ appeared first on AppTrawler.

Namco’s Garters & Ghouls made its way into the App Store last night and is the latest twin stick shooter to arrive on the scene. You play as the freshly reanimated Marie Dupois fighting against an evil force known as “Thrum” who has caused the dead to rise under its control. It’s your task to close the portals of the underworld that spawn the various zombies, werewolves, and demons that are rampaging across the countryside.

The game plays a lot like iDracula and other similar games, with two virtual joysticks that control your movement and shooting. Along the way you come across different weapons and powerups, and throughout the land are shops run by the “Steam Queens” where you can buy upgrades for your character’s health, movement, weapon damage, and other things.

The main content difference between Garters & Ghouls and similar iPhone games is that the gameplay is structured around 25 distinct and large levels and framed in a slowly revealing storyline.

The task for each level, however, remains the same throughout: you must destroy the enemy-spawing portals strewn across the map. Still, going into a level with a specific number of portals to destroy gave me a greater sense of purpose than other pure survival shooters. There is some very light planning involved in avoiding getting caught in the crossfire between demon-spawing portals, and there are a variety of enemies which do get more difficult as well as a number of weapon upgrades.

The game’s difficulty, however, ramps up slowly, so it can feel like you are just grinding your way through the game. And if you listened to our last podcast, you would have heard that Eli Hodapp’s issue with the game was the repetitive and lengthy nature of the levels. While I don’t believe its any more repetitive than many of the existing survival shooters we’ve played before, I had also hoped the levels would provide more variety in gameplay.

Meanwhile, a number of other factors keeps the game squarely in the “good, but not great” category. The controls and animations are adequate, though not especially smooth, and the targeting of the enemies and portals requires you hitting just the right spot. This gives the enemies a 2 dimensional feel. The 1.0 version also suffers from some occasional crashes, though if this occurs only your in-level progress is lost and you can resume at the beginning of the level.

The post Out Now: Garters & Ghouls appeared first on AppTrawler.

The adventure sequel, entitled Secrets of The Mysterious Island, picks up immediately after Mina has unlocked the island’s secrets with the help of Captain Nemo’s ghost, and neutralised the magnetic shield that hides the mysterious island.

But a volcanic eruption causes her rescue helicopter to crash on the beach, Mina’s continued adventure takes an environmental turn as she realises it’s the island that needs protecting from our polluted world, and must reactivate the magnetic shield to protect this dangerous paradise.

Secrets of The Mysterious Island will weigh in at a Myst-sized 700MB, thanks to the epic girth of the game itself, it’s incredible visuals and atmospheric audio accompaniment. It’ll also pack in a few iPhone 3GS-specific features, such as using the digital compass and allowing you to move the device in 360 degrees to look around the island.

The final version will be available in five languages (English, German, French, Spanish and Italian) and should be landing on the App Store beaches ‘within weeks’, priced at £4.99 (or $6.99). In the meantime, check out the two Secrets of The Mysterious Island trailers below.

The post Jules Verne’s Secrets of The Mysterious Island appeared first on AppTrawler.

The one potential hurdle that we (and our readers) saw in early builds of the game, however, was the adoption of a seemingly awkward control system. We discussed in our recent podcast that it seems clear the major developers had already settled on a somewhat standardized “swipe to look” control mechanism for these 3D games.

Fortunately, Crescent Moon has modified their game to adopt a similar control scheme that they detail in this new gameplay video:

The developer also demonstrates other features including auto targeting and the various scaling options provided to boost performance on previous generation devices. Ravensword is in the final stages of development and should be submitted in a matter of days to weeks.

The post Ravensword’s Controls: Video appeared first on AppTrawler.