The graphics are stunning and provide the player with a vibrant and colorful experience using a cast of well drawn characters and backdrops. The animation is solid, if a little ‘flash like’ but the maps, assets, shop, extras and awards are all beautifully drawn and match the rose tinted expectations you might have of the He-Man of yesteryear.

The characters include all the classics, battle-cat, man at arms, Teela and Orko as well as all the classic enemies you might expect such as Beastman, Lockjaw and the mighty Skeletor. A recent update has also added She-Ra as a playable character right from the outset.

Sounds and music all fit perfectly and they are plenty of swooshes and tings to reinforce the 80’s vibe whilst the music does seem like it might be based on the original tunes from the show (though I can’t remember more than the shows theme song).

The controls try so hard to be intuitive and they make a pretty decent job of it but it’s not perfect. The game has done away with on screen d-pad and buttons and instead adopted more of a gesture model. In theory this sounds great; moving your finger left and right on the left hand side of the screen moves your character and various taps on the right hand side attacks. Swipes upward on the right hand side also jumps your character. As the game progresses and you buy more skills and attacks, other gestures are added to your arsenal in order to perform them. Special powers are controlled by buttons in the top right and you will end up looking forward to the times you get to power up to the sound of ‘I Have The POWER!’ And you be forgiven if you hold your phone aloft when he says it.

There are plenty of levels to keep any gamer busy but the levels aren’t hugely complex (think Early Mario Brothers) and what it lacks in level difficulty it makes up for in hack and slash as are a plethora of enemies of your to cut down and collect those valuable gems. This crystalline currency can then be used in the store to buy an assortment of skills, attacks, weapons and characters. As you would expect, your gem count can be easily boosted with the range of in-app purchases that are all to frequent in mobile games nowadays.

Overall, this is a fun game that not only has bags of retro charm but also innovates in terms of controls. The graphics and sound are fantastic whereas the animation and control accuracy is less than perfect. The free to play model means you have no excuse not to download this nostalgic gem and re-live those innocent days playing with semi naked muscle bound men.

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The post Review: He-Man – Masters of the Universe appeared first on AppTrawler.

Bloodflow is a pipemania inspired puzzle game for the iPhone and iPad. Unlike its retro inspired predecessor that follows the exploits of a plumber trying to attach water pipes together, you are tasked with attaching blood filled pipes to keep the vampire bar up and running.

The gameplay is simple enough and players tap a square on a grid in order to place a tile (or section of pipe). The upcoming pipes are all displayed on the left so you can plan your strategy accordingly. Once a tile has been placed, you can not remove it, only rotate it in 90 degree intervals. After a few seconds the blood starts flowing and you have to ensure that the start pipe is connected to the end pipe. As the blood speeds up it all gets pretty intense.

As an added element to the game, Bloodflow also has various collectables around the levels such as keys and money for extra bonuses and achievements. This gives the player extra distraction and hardcore puzzle game fans will enjoy chasing those extras.

The graphics on Blowflow are cute, simple and lovely to look at. There is lots of little animations everywhere which make the game feel well considered. The sounds and music are funny and atmospheric with some cute voices that will definitely make you smile.

As for longevity, this is where the game comes into its own. The game generates random levels so you don’t have to play through the same levels again and again. Whilst the game lacks a full narrative and end goal it offers hours of gameplay as you collect the different items and gain achievements. The random level generation also means you can quickly pick up and play it and know you will get a new challenge.

Overall, this is a very slick game. It’s simple premise is executed very well and there is lots of puzzle action you keep you busy for hours. The finish is slick as the graphics and sound set the scene perfectly. It might not have the 3D sheen and neon explosions of more modern puzzlers but it oozes retro goodness and brings back memories of the many hours spent on pipemania. Personally, I prefered playing the upscaled iPad version over the iPhone as sometime my chubby digits lost prescision under pressure but either way, its a great puzzle game from Deep Blue Apps.

The post Review: Bloodflow appeared first on AppTrawler.

Although he was gone he was not forgotten, and various attempts to bring him back all seemed to fail. Recently there was a Kickstarter campaign (last month) by non other than the egg’s creators ‘The Oliver Twins’ who wanted to give Dizzy a complete overhaul to bring him into the 21st century. Sadly this failed and we had to settle for a Codemasters remake of Dizzy Prince of the Yolk Folk.

The graphics have been lovingly updated from its 16bit counterpart and everything has been mirrored from the original so retro fans and dizzy fan boys will be happy. This game celebrates it retro-ness with an old style graphic splash screen and Amiga ‘workbench’ screen whilst loading. However, for new gamers I am not sure the pick up and carry mechanic will hold many people’s attention. In essence, you have to find an item at one end of the level, take it to the other end and move forward. Sounds simple enough but there is plenty to keep you entertained throughout your journey. From start to finish there is a few hours game play so its well worth the price tag.

The one let down has to be the controls. They work fine but just seem a little ‘spread out’. There are six buttons for each of main points of the compass; up down, left right and all the diagonals but they are on all sides of the screen which makes it unusual to play to say the least.

Overall, it’s great to see the little egg back in action and although many newer gamers might not like the simplicity of this classic adventure those that remember the early day of gaming will play it with fond memories of yesteryear. We can only hope that this is Dizzy dipping his proverbial toes in the world of smartphone gaming, as it would be great to see more of our shell shocked hero.

iTunes link: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/dizzy-prince-of-the-yolkfolk/id474181227?mt=8

The post Review: Dizzy Prince Of The Yolkfolk appeared first on AppTrawler.

Well we’re back and what better way to come back than a ‘First Play’ preview of the new top down shooter Dragon Fire: Una’s Quest.  Dragon Fire is a bright, fun and strange top down shooter reminiscent of ‘Pop n Twin Bee’ and ‘Parodius’ where you play Una, a small red Dragon who’s aim is to bring peace back to the land by shooting everything that moves.  The auto fire constantly shoots and you use an onscreen D-pad (or optional joystick) to control the player.  Power ups include Phoenix wing men, winged health fairy and power up coins which allows you to grow extra heads increasing your firepower.

The graphics are bright, colourful and imaginative as you will be shooting all sorts of ‘weird and wonderful’ creatures including flying pigs, minotaurs, griffen types creatures and a whole lot more.  The 14 levels each have 7 end of stage bosses which are REALLY weird such as rocket launcher hog, a spitting camel on a lilo and a strange lava Mexican throwing chilli’s at you… very odd… but at the end of each level you have to face down the dragon guardians.

The gameplay is good and the dragons moves well but there are a few times when it feels a little sparce and its hard to know how much health you have when you are bombarded by enemy bullets all the time.  The music and sound effects fit well and have a epic feel to them giving a relatively slow game an bit more excitement.  The levels don’t change so memorizing them and attempting to kill anything that moves is your best bet to completing it but we still found ourselves going back over the previous levels in order to collect the all important stars as these unlock three mini games.

We were only able to unlock two of the games at the time of writing which all seem to be pig related (weird i know).  The first is a plinko game in which you drop coins down a pin board to get them into a moving piggy bank at the bottom.  Its pretty simplistic but it has two game modes which is great for a quick game/distraction.  The second game we managed to unlock was a platform game like ‘Cliffed’ where you have to get a pig down a tower whilst a spikey bar drops from the ceiling… very fun, but quite hard.  The final game looks to be a tap game but as you needed 5000 stars to unlock we don’t see ourselves unlocking that for a while.

This is a great shooter with a retro feel which took us back to the top down shooters of the neo geo. You can tell its from an individual developer and not a proper software house but this is better than a lot of the apps out there. The build we had did have a couple of bugs which were some gaps in the background and a couple of colour inconsistencies but we hope the final build will have these sorted.  Overall, Dragon Fire is great fun, with creative enemies, colourful graphics and some interesting replay options. Coupled with epic music and plenty of options this is a refreshing game which is well worth a look.

VIDEO :

The post Review: Dragon Fire Una’s Quest appeared first on AppTrawler.

There is a tonne of levels to work through each with different goals from simple ‘kill everything’ to ‘unblock the scanner’.  This scanner sits at the top of the screen to let you know where each of the enemies are in relation to you which does become very helpful in the later levels.  Each level has a story which links all the levels together until the final battle on the Kraken home world.

The graphics are bright and colourful if a little simplistic but there are a number of amusing nods to movies and TV shows from the island from ‘Lost’ to the obelisk in 2001: A Space Odyssey. The sounds and music all fit well and the game gels together nicely.  Where this game shines out is the gameplay, after the initial confusion of getting used to the controls it becomes great fun to move your ship around the arena, looping about and zapping the oncoming horde.

Despite the great selection of levels and fun gameplay, the game is completed quite easily and you are left wanting more.  However, it has been a while since I have wanted to play through the entire game so I recommend this game as its great fun and will appeal to both fans of the retro shooters and new players.

well worth 59p

[itunes link=”http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/attack-of-the-kraken/id335511023?mt=8&uo=4″ title=”US Link” text=”US Link”]    [itunes link=”http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/attack-of-the-kraken/id335511023?mt=8&uo=4″ title=”UK Link” text=”UK Link”]

The post Review: Attack of the Kraken appeared first on AppTrawler.

Sega has released a number of classic Genesis games on the App Store- Sonic the Hedgehog [$5.99], Sonic the Hedgehog 2 [$5.99], Golden Axe [$2.99], Streets of Rage [$2.99], and as of last night, Ecco the Dolphin [$2.99] and Space Harrier II [99¢]. In the past we’ve been increasingly critical of Sega releasing these emulated games, as while the games wrapped in the emulator are undoubtedly classics, the emulator itself leaves much to be desired.

Revisiting these games with my iPhone 4 has revealed that Apple has finally released hardware that is fast enough to properly run Sega’s emulator (although I have had weird crashing issues with Sonic 2). If you’ve got an iPhone 4, the games run substantially better than the 3GS/3rd generation iPod touch, leaving the touch controls as the only issue. If you’re stuck in the world of the iPhone 3G or 2nd Generation iPod touch, you’re still better off skipping all of these because the performance really isn’t that great. The games are playable, yes, but not a good experience by any means.

Anyway, Ecco the Dolphin is an action adventure side scroller released on the Sega Genesis in 1992. In the game you play as a dolphin, ramming in to things and using your sonar to both talk to other friendly sea creatures and interact with various objects in the game world. When I played the game the first time around on my Genesis, I thought it was surprisingly difficult as you need to manage Ecco’s air supply while navigating vast underwater mazes. Drowning over and over was not something I was expecting to get myself in to when I first saw the cute box art.

There’s a fairly extensive library of clips on YouTube of people playing the game in various emulators:

Ecco the Dolphin is just as much of a classic as the other games Sega has released, and really should be played by anyone who considers themselves a gamer who hasn’t yet. If you want to go back in time even further, Space Harrier II was a launch title for the Genesis and debuted with the system in mid-August of 1989. Like most games of the time, Space Harrier II came packed with a nonsensical story where you’re searching out a distress call from the 214th sector in the year 6236. You run around on a pseudo-3D checkerboard landscape shooting your laser at anything that crosses your path.

Like Ecco, there are no shortage of Space Harrier II gameplay videos captured from various emulators on YouTube:

Space Harrier II hasn’t aged as well as the other classics Sega has released, but it’s still pretty cool to take a look at what was considered cutting-edge mind blowing graphics over 20 years ago. But like all these games, the touch controls of the Genesis emulator on the iPhone aren’t ideal and the framerate is low on older devices. Because of this, they’re all hard to really recommend, but at least they exist in some form on the App Store if you’re determined to revisit these classics on your iPhone.

The post Sega Classics – Ecco The Dolphin & Space Harrier 2 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.

EA has yet to announce a release date or pricing, but judging by how they’ve handled other pre-release games in the past on their Facebook, R-Type will likely appear on the App Store very soon. They’re claiming the game will be 100% true to the original, which seems like a lofty promise to make, but I’m keeping everything I have crossed that they manage to deliver. Tilt, touch, and virtual d-pad controls are included with multiple difficulty levels which will hopefully bring the difficulty of the game down to something a normal human can complete in their lifetime.

The post Preview: R-Type Screenshots Released appeared first on AppTrawler.

We’re pleased to report that Jamie recently got in touch with Touch Arcade to give us an exclusive look at the iPhone version of Qwak he has just completed and will be shortly launching through the App Store.

In Qwak, you control a duck (get it?). Your objective is to guide this green duck through level after level of platforms, fruits and gems (worth points), bouncing enemies, power-ups to help demolish said enemies, and keys to unlock goodies as well as the level’s exit gate. Your duck can run, jump, and fire volleys of egg projectiles to knock out the baddies. Grab a bonus item and watch a hail of colorful fruit rain down upon you. Take too long on a level and meet a hail of spikeballs. In a nutshell, I call it frenetic, fun, and rather fruity (to be alliteratively wanton).

I’ve spent some time with the prerelease build of the game Jamie provided us and it’s been lovely to play. It’s a touch-controlled affair with a left / right control in one corner and jump and egg-fire controls in the other. The vibrant visuals move about the screen as smooth as glass on the iPhone 3GS test device and a very Amiga-sounding score accompanies the action. It feels both retro and highly polished. It’s a game platformer fans won’t want to miss.

Additional details, I’ll leave to the developer to provide (after the jump), as he was kind enough to grant us an interview along with the exclusive ad hoc build.

What were your inspirations for writing the original?  Are there any particular games you had in mind?

Well, there was a bunch of platform games on the Beeb I used to play; Blagger, Monters, Space Panic, Frak etc. I also went in the arcades a lot back then (so much so that I got kicked out of college), and I undoubtedly played Bubble Bobble, which Qwak gets compared to a lot.

What language did you use to write the BBC Micro version?

100% 6502 Assembler. You could quite easily mix BBC basic and assembler, or have 100% assembler; which a lot of game developers did back then, and you needed to, to get the best performance out of the very limited and slow hardware. Fun times!

Is the BBC Micro version, in fact, the original?

Yep, it’s the original. It was released in 1989 by Superior on a 4 game compilation. I still have a review of the game from a 1989 A&B Computing magazine; “The best game of the bunch has to be Qwak! Designed and coded by Jamie Woodhouse it is very addictive and great fun..”.

I think that was the first time I’d ever seen one of my games reviewed and in print; felt pretty good as I stood there reading the mag in the newsagents!

The ’93 Amiga rework is a bit more fast paced / arcadey than the original. GBA and PC / Mac versions followed. It seems the iPhone ver is really an adaptation of the later versions, is that true?

Yeah, I guess it’s confusing with all the different versions all sharing the same name; but with different graphics and various gameplay mechanics…

The Beeb version came first, and the Amiga version was a good deal different to the Beeb version.

The GBA version came next, which was a port of the Amiga version, I used all the same graphics and levels etc; and just added in some scrolling to accommodate the GBA’s smaller screen resolution.

Actually, I couldn’t find a publisher for the GBA version so I had a load of carts shipped over from China and self-published a small limited run of carts. All sold out now!

Next came the PC version, which had completely new levels, more tricks and traps, different power-ups and secret bonuses; and a lot more going on visually to! The Mac version was a port of the PC version.

For the iPhone version of Qwak, I’ve managed to retain pretty much everything that’s going on with the PC version. It’s based on the PC version; but there’s a little scrolling, to squeeze the levels in to the smaller iPhone screen resolution. I don’t think it hurts the game-play too much.

How are you liking iPhone game development as opposed to what you’ve done on the Amiga, GBA and other platforms?

I’m absolutely loving it so far!

There’s a bit of a learning curve, with this being my first iPhone game; but I feel as if I’m making good progress and getting a good technical understanding of the platform.

The Amiga and GBA were also fun platforms to make games for; and as with the iPhone, you have a pretty solid idea of the minimum spec machine people will be playing your game on (which doesn’t happen with desktop game dev). Plus, it’s relatively a low powered device (compared to desktop PC’s), which is awesome! … because there’s more scope for programmer creativity in squeezing more performance from the device (game developers secretly love that kind of thing!).

The music track sounds very Amiga. Is the audio straight from that version?

Yep, it’s got the same 10 tracks of music from the Amiga version (which used to be in .MOD format, was a little tricky converting them to .MP3s).

Can you comment at all on the controls of the iPhone ver, thoughts that went into them, etc?

Well, Qwak is quite a fast paced game, so I felt some kind of on-screen D-pad control mechanic would work a lot better than using the accelerometer.

There’s also an issue that your thumbs and fingers may obscure the in-game action; so what I’ve done is when the player is at the bottom of the screen; the screen kinda shifts up a little bit, so you can still see yourself.

I also have the fire (throw egg) button on the right hand side, so it’s easy to waddle your wrist and throw eggs really quickly, one after the other (which is handy as the bigger baddies need multiple hits to ‘dispatch’ them).

The controls work for me; but it’ll be interesting to see how people respond when they’ve tried the game for themselves. I’m wondering too, how left-handed players with cope with the controls. I just hope I get feedback and people let me know, it’s always great to hear what’s working and what needs changing or improvement (and it’s always possible to do an update).

Is there anything down the road you can speak of?

There’s quite a few ideas I have; and it’s funny you should say ‘road’ … as I’m half tempted to do a re-envisioned version of Nitro or ATR. There doesn’t seem to be many top-down perspective racers on the App Store.

I’m also thinking ‘Qwak spin-off’ … I often worry that Qwak may be TOO frantic and fast-paced for a lot of people (although I personally love that kind of thing), so the spin-off game would be slightly slower paced, with more exploration and puzzle solving (and tricks and traps, hehe).

What are your thoughts on the iPhone as a game platform, and the overall situation that is the App Store?

I really like it, it’s a lot of fun to make games for, and I feel genuinely excited at the prospect of making more games for it.

I’m still pretty new to the App Store; but my first impressions, I guess there seems to be a lot of variation in the quality of games on there; from really poor, to really awesome.

I really like the fact that it’s possible for small indie game developers, to make the kind of games they want to make, and share them with other people through the App Store. There’s not so much need for any middle-man or publisher or anything like that. So it’s a lot more accessible to developers that a lot of platforms.

Qwak should be landing in the App Store shortly. We’ll give folks a heads-up when it arrives. Those impatient for a taste of the action can download the Mac or PC demo version for free. This is a good one, folks.

The post Preview: Qwak appeared first on AppTrawler.

In Episode 1, you play as a truck driver chasing a girl in a sports car down the highway. The iTunes description mentions similarities to the classic Sega arcade game OutRun, which couldn’t possibly serve as a better comparison. Tilting the phone controls your truck, and all you do is chase the girl, ramming her car whenever possible for points. A countdown timer is constantly ticking away which is refreshed by passing checkpoints, and during your pursuit you will need to fend off angry police, bikers, and avoid a constant onslaught of traffic that will slow you down.

Several power ups can be picked up during your adventure. So far I’ve come across three: A set of horns that allow you to ram other cars off the road easily, a rocket booster that sends you flying towards the next checkpoint, and a tongue attack point multiplier. You can also honk the horn of your truck, this doesn’t seem to do anything, but I can’t seem to help myself from doing it almost constantly.

Truckers Delight: Episode 1 includes an odd amount of cartoon nudity for a game on the App Store. Not only does it include the first portion of the original video, but when you pick up the power up to let your tongue fly, it quite literally results in an on-screen explosion of naked women.
I’ve actually had a surprising amount of fun with Truckers Delight. Mobigame did a great job of nailing the feel of endless retro racing games, and the difficulty ramps up nicely requiring quite a bit of concentration as you dart between oncoming cars in your 18 wheeler. Truckers Delight features online leaderboards which are already loaded with scores that are about twice as high as my best score, and it’s hard to not get in to the catchy soundtrack included with the game.

The post Review: Truckers Delight: Episode 1 appeared first on AppTrawler.

The basic premise of Prince of Persia is similar to that of most classic platformers in that you’re racing against a timer overcoming various obstacles all to save a princess. In this case, the game is set in ancient Persia and you’re facing off against the sultan’s evil vizier, Jaffar. The original version of the game needed to be completed in an hour, and from the sound of it, the iPhone port will be no different.

Aside from that, all we really know is that it will obviously have some kind of touch screen controls, and the Ubisoft site mentions the iPad amongst the list of supported devices. It’s unclear if this only means the iPhone version will also run on the iPad, or if Ubisoft is planning on either releasing a HD version of Prince of Persia or simply developing the game as a universal app.

Curiously enough, Ubisoft mentions 4/29/2010 as the release date of Prince of Persia Retro. The game doesn’t seem to have been released yet, but since it has been almost a month since their original planned release date we might be playing Prince of Persia sooner than we think.

We’re definitely adding Prince of Persia Retro to our App Store watch lists.

The post Preview: Prince of Persia appeared first on AppTrawler.

Revolutionary Concepts sent us a new screenshot and a note saying they are working around the clock on their port of Data East’s arcade classic Karate Champ to the iPhone. The partial list of features include:

• Dual Stick Control (no D-Pad or buttons).
• Virtual arcade cabinet surround (no thumbs covering the action)
• 1 Player vs CPU over 12 environments
• 2 Player Mode via Bluetooth and WIFI
• all the bonus rounds
• all the classic 80’s sounds
• Super large Character Option
• Old school scanlines on/off

Karate Champ was a 1984 arcade game that was one of the first fighting games and was later ported to the Apple II and Commodore 64. They are hoping to get the iPhone version of the game out by April.

The post Preview: Karate Champ Classic appeared first on AppTrawler.

Bit Pilot is a retro-inspired dodging game that comes from Zach Gage, who also brought us the multi-touch puzzler Unify. Bit Pilot’s biggest flaw seems to be that it was released only a week after Tilt to Live and likely drowned out by the cheers for that game.

Bit Pilot, though, does stand on its own with fast paced gameplay, well implemented touch controls and a great 8-bit soundtrack. The game allows you to control a small ship in an asteroid field using single or dual swipes. Use one thumb for smaller movements, or both for more rapid movements. All the while, your job is to dodge the asteroids and lasers while picking up bonuses.

It’s one of those simple games in which death can happen very quickly, so you gotta try just one more time. The swipe/touch controls are very nicely done and responsive. A hands on video is also available.

App Store Link: Bit Pilot, $0.99

iJumpman

Part platformer, part tilt/rotation game, iJumpman actually started life as a PC/Mac game and remains available as a free download for those platforms. The iPhone version is said to have all the content of the PC/Mac version and even includes a level editor.

The game uses swipe controls on the iPhone for basic running/jumping movement and seems to work well. Levels tend to be small and quick, and often requires multiple attempts. If you die, you respawn immediately to try again. The rapid-fire trial/error nature of the game reminds me a bit of Gravball.

I’d recommend trying the nearly identical PC/Mac version before diving in.

App Store Link: iJumpman, $2.99

The post Retro Preview: Bit Pilot & iJumpman appeared first on AppTrawler.

In the future convicts fight for their freedom in a frantic game show called ‘The Danger Room’. On this show the contestant must battle through 9 rooms for their freedom but each room is different and you face aliens, soldiers, zombies, robots, demons and more, before the final battle with ‘The Host’. You play Warren Connor, an ex-policeman convited for a crime he didn’t commit, now his family is in danger he HAS to play the show.

In each room (of which there are 12) there are weapon power ups such as shotguns, flame throwers, rocket launchers, and lazers. There are also lots of cash prizes to collect for you to spend if you can survive ‘The Danger Room’.

The Danger Room is a top down shooter from Debug Design. You play via two on screen joysticks to enable you to move and shoot in all directions. The initial build has 9 levels which can be fought through sequentially or be chosen via the level select screen.

[itunes link=”http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-danger-room/id354164732?mt=8&uo=4″ title=”Download it at itunes here >> USA” text=”ITUNES LINKS”]

[itunes link=”http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/the-danger-room/id354164732?mt=8&uo=4″ title=”UK itunes Link”]

The post The Danger Room – Out Now appeared first on AppTrawler.

In an App Store first, the iPhone is about to receive a port of a highly praised Amiga game…that never was.

In 1993, Iraqi developer Rabah Shihab, part of the Mesopotamia Team, began work on the Amiga title Babylonian Twins (with basically no budget), inspired by what he saw of other games’ depiction of Iraq. As he explained in an interview with Amiga Games That Weren’t,

…My real dedication for this theme came during the early nineties after I saw a computer game in which you control a warplane with the goal of bombing Iraq. Putting the bombing aside (I was in Baghdad during the first gulf war and I saw the human suffering that resulted from the real bombing ), I didn’t like the way they depicted Iraq in the game, as a primitive and uncivilized place. I wanted to build a game that counter that image, a game that shows the vibrant history of Mesopotamia. In Babylonian Twins, the game takes you to different historical places, from Babylon to Assyria. We relied on authentic history books to design many of the graphics in the game.

Shihab was impressed by the smooth scrolling of Team 17’s Amiga title Superfrog and set out to deliver similar visual finesse in his title. Another inspiration was Konami’s MSX release Maze of Galious. The team released a very well-liked demo version of the game, but no full Amiga release ever came. And although he, later, targeted the Xbox Live Arcade, it’s the iPhone that will at long last receive the final release. And, befitting the game’s history, the full Amiga release is also imminent.

The forthcoming game is a puzzle platformer with an authentic historic feel and unique two-character gameplay. It features the puzzle elements of Maze of Galious with the multi-character control of Lost Vikings, along with the glass-smooth animation of Superfrog. The author indicates that the iPhone version features an original soundtrack, excellent graphics, and over a dozen large levels.

See the developer’s trailer video for a look at the updated version.

[ Full HD version | Low Bandwidth version ]

Videos of the original Amiga demo version can be seen here, here, and here. Amiga screenshots are also available.

UPDATE: In putting together this post, we sought further information from the developer, but he got back to us a bit after the post went live. Shihab wants to make sure readers are aware that the iPhone version of Babylonian Twins is an entirely new game that borrows no graphics or audio from the Amiga version. He assures us that all aspects of the game have been enhanced specifically for the iPhone by a dedicated team (and this time around on a healthy budget) over the course of the game’s six-month development cycle.

We’re quite anxious to get our hands on the final product and will bring further news of the iPhone release of Babylonian Twins as we get it. Stay tuned.

The post Preview: Babylonian Twins 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)

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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.

That game, Project 72, has just been submitted to Apple after the three team members stayed awake for 72 hours to take the game from launch platform to orbit.

Project 72 is a simple enough looking game. It places you in control of a space rocket as it speeds through an asteroid field. The accelerometer is used to steer you around rocks, black holes, and aliens as you gather speed and slow down by tilting backwards and forwards.

It’s beautiful looking, and a damn impressive effort for 72 hours worth of work. Project 72 is with Apple now and should be landing on the App Store shortly. In the meantime, check out the final build video.

The post Project 72 – Arcade game built in three days appeared first on AppTrawler.

Taito impressed the hell out of us with its iPhone revamp of the original shmup in Space Invaders Infinity Gene, which also just made it onto our top ten list of 2009’s iPhone games.

To celebrate the New Year, Taito has just dropped us a line to announce that a major 2.0 update has gone live for Space Invaders Infinity Gene that, amongst other things, delivers OpenFeint connectivity to the awesome shmup.

This will bring global leaderboards to the three main categories (High Score, Number of Chains, Number of Nagoya Attacks) and separate rankings for the standard game and music stages. There are now also 50 achievements – five of which are secret – while high scores and unlocked awards can be uploaded to Facebook and Twitter in-app.

The Infinity Gene 2.0 update also delivers ten new stages which are unlocked as the Evolution Gauge is filled, and six of these new levels will feature alternate versions of the boss battles.

The superb music stages (one of the game’s best features) have also been expanded and improved. The alternate bosses from the new levels will appear (under certain conditions), song and title information is displayed at the beginning of the stage, and players can rate the music stages on a five star scale and can even share music stage recommendations via Facebook and Twitter.

This is the second title Taito has given OpenFeint support to, and is a great improvement on an already excellent game in Space Invaders Infinity Gene. Hit the App Store button below to go get it.

The post Space Invaders Infinity Gene gets extra levels & OpenFeint appeared first on AppTrawler.

Featuring characters from the series, gameplay is a combination of isometric exploration and 2D combat with 30 levels separated into six acts and will also feature video and audio from the animated classic.

Furthermore, fans of the series will be pleased to know that you can combine your giant robot lions to unleash devastating attacks such as the Lion Saber, Blazing Sword or Argon Force field as you battle your way through the galaxy in a quest to defeat the evil King Zarkon.

Already available on the US App Store Voltron is due for release in the UK and Europe later this month for £2.39 or $3.99. The game will also be made available for other mobiles and priced between $3-10, depending on your handset.

The post Voltron hits the US App Store appeared first on AppTrawler.

Pac Man C.E. carries forward the same basic concept and gameplay of the original but spices up the play enormously, making it an action-packed race against the clock:

The game is bound by a time limit in which the player must score as many points as possible, and the game ends when this time limit is reached or the player runs out of lives. The game speeds up as the player scores more points, and slows down slightly when the player loses a life.
….
Each maze is divided into two halves. Eating all the dots in one half of the maze causes a bonus fruit to appear on the other side, and eating the fruit causes a new maze to appear in the original half. In most cases, the maze patterns vary significantly throughout the game and some change over time.

We’ve managed to spend a little time with the game already and already think it plays great. The make or break feature on the iPhone is, of course, the control scheme. Namco seems to have put a lot of thought into the controls for such a fast action game and offer 4 different types:

• Dual d-pads
• Thumb Swipe
• Pointer Swipe
• Directional buttons

Each control scheme seems to make sense in its own way. The presents of a dual d-pad, for example, allows you to perform quick turns as the accuracy of tapping one pad and then another is far less an issue when using two thumbs.

I stuck with the thumb swipe action which worked quite well for the most part.

This video shows the thumb swipe as well as a bit of the Directional buttons towards the end:

The basic game comes with 20 Mission levels and 5 Championship Mode levels. Namco will be offering an expansion pack which includes an additional 100 Mission Levels, 10 Championship levels, and 15 Challenge Mode courses. Unfortunately, there is no online component to the scoring.

What we can’t yet comment on is the value of the included game levels and value of the expansion pack, but the core gameplay itself seems great. Namco does seem to be holding back the bulk of the content for an in-app purchase, so the relative pricing of these elements will be key. We’ll have a full review when the game arrives on Thursday.

The post Preview: Pac Man Championship Edition appeared first on AppTrawler.