Category Archives: News
As you probably know by now if you're a Hearthstone [Free] player, Blizzard finally decided to nerf Quest Rogue, and right now the developers are hosting a live stream Q&A to talk more about the game's balance and Un'Goro in general. The hosts are Game Director Ben Brode and Principal Game Designer Mike Donais. If you have questions that you want to ask, you can tweet @PlayHearthstone with the hashtag #QA, post a question below this blog, or post it directly in the Twitch chat...
Turns out there's more going on this weekend in Canada than poutine donuts at Tim Horton's (for real, I guess that's a thing now), particularly in the arctic tundra of Saskatoon, home of Noodlecake: Two great games are on sale. First off, Super Stickman Golf 3 [Free] is free to download (and really, you could play forever without spending a cent) but this weekend the premium unlock IAP is 99 cents. This IAP removes ads, and gives you unlimited access to the downloadable courses area of the game. Additionally, with the premium unlock you'll have unlimited attempts at the daily races, and can have 25 turn based matches going at one time. Oh, and to further sweeten the deal you'll get 5 card packs...
While seeing older Steam releases make the transition to the App Store is by no means a rare phenomenon anymore, publishing label tinyBuild has been responsible for some of the more interesting ports to iOS in recent times. Party Hard Go [$0.99] was notable for bringing its eccentric stealth strategy gameplay to the smaller screen, and Punch Club [Free], with its beautiful pixel art aesthetic and numerous updates since its January 2016 launch, remains one of the better simulation games on the App Store to date. Beyond these two standout titles, tinyBuild have amassed a significant catalogue of iOS releases, and today have reduced every single game down to the bargain price of $0.99 for a limited time summer sale. To tempt you further into expanding that backlog even more, here's a full list of the tinyBuild games that are currently on sale:..
Fire Emblem Heroes [Free]: you probably know it, you may or may not love it, and I'm certainly running out of ideas for intro paragraphs for it. The game was highlighted as a strong earner in Nintendo's most recent shareholders' meeting, and a quick glance at the charts show that it's hanging on better than Nintendo's previous efforts. Nintendo has done a great job of supporting the game post release, with near-monthly updates that provide new things to do and various improvements based on user feedback. We've just received word of what will be included in the next update, so let's take a look...
There has been much anticipation around TouchArcade Towers as of late, as a major update for the frontrunner for 2017's iOS Game of the Year has been on the cards. No, not Death Road to Canada - I'm talking about Pokemon: Magikarp Jump [Free], which took the App Store by storm when it flopped onto the iPhone back in May. In a rather fitting allusion to its starring water-type Pokemon, what appeared to be a throwaway slapstick experience starring the notoriously weak titular fish actually turned out to evolve into a surprisingly formidable beast. While Magikarp Jump won't be making waves and redefining gaming as a medium anytime soon, our very own Shaun Musgrave brilliantly explained the appeal of the game through the tales of his own Pokemon, and it seems such a bond to the orange whiskered sea-dweller has occurred with many. Today, a major new update for Magikarp Jump has released, with a new Ultra League, additional support Pokemon and much more...
Sports games are notoriously hard to nail down perfectly, for a number of reasons. The vast majority of us have never been lucky enough to climb up snowy mountains or trawl through radioactive lands, and so the latest AAA adventure game on consoles is extremely easy to become wholly immersed in. However, attempting to replicate a regular physically active pastime in what is a relatively sedentary medium is a whole new level of challenge. As a result, the fact Tennis Champs Returns [Free] is up there with the best racket sport simulators I've ever played, and on a mobile phone with touch controls no less, is mightily impressive. Uprising Games really did hit it out of the park (or smash it over the net?) when they released their retro tennis throwback title last year, and a brand new update that has dropped today adds even more content to an already sizeable release. Dubbed the Season 2 Update, this latest patch is all about customising your player on their way to the top, and includes some nice fixes to tighten up the gameplay even further...
Hello, gentle readers, and welcome to the RPG Reload, the regular feature where our battles to the death are usually turn-based. In each of these columns, we take a look at some aspect of RPG gaming on iOS. Often, it's in the form of a replay or a retrospective, but today I want to try out something new. In the last couple of months, we went through the history of tactical RPGs, from Dungeons & Dragons to Fire Emblem Echoes. Although I felt that was finished with the end of the historical line, so to speak, I got to thinking this week that these trips through history present us with an opportunity to do something that is often requested of us here at TouchArcade: lists of the best examples of each gaming genre. Consider this, then, your starter set for tactical RPGs on iOS. Are there other excellent ones? You bet! This is just my opinion, after all. But this gives you a place to get started in the genre with some assurance of reasonable quality...
Just about a month ago, Chroma Squad [$4.99] developer Rogue Snail announced that they'd partnered up with Akupara Games in order to bring a revamped version of their incredibly silly puzzle RPG Star Vikings from Steam over to iOS and Android as Star Vikings Forever. We knew the game would be launching in July, but we didn't know WHEN in July… until today! The developers have announced that Star Vikings Forever will be arriving next Thursday, July 6th. Just a week away! The original Star Vikings launched on Steam in October of last year and has garnered a positive reception with its silly sense of humor and vibrant characters. They've released a brand new trailer for Star Vikings Forever which, THANKFULLY, retains the kick-ass theme song for the game...
It's been a week for CCGs this one, with Elder Scrolls: Legends getting the Skyrim expansion and now Shadowverse [Free] got the Wonderland Dreams expansion, the game's 5th. The expansion brings over a 100 cards to the game, all of which have to do with old and new fables. As you can see from the Alice in Wonderland-themed trailer below, Wonderland Dreams looks like a fun trip into fairy tales and fables including Don Quixote, Alice, Beauty and the Beast, Snow White, and many more. Definitely a fun theme to explore and a departure from the usual fantasy fare of other CCGs...
Command & Colors Ancients is still under development, and today we got to see some early screenshots as well as some new info about the game's development. The developer, HexWar, talked about the early challenge of getting the right "feel" for close combat, laying out the units clearly (which will be important once the game hits mobile screens), and communicating the various game actions correctly. While the game features a relatively simple card set, it has more complex rules for close combat, and those can be confusing. The developers took in player feedback and improved the way information is displayed to make the game more accessible...
As we talked about last month, Mipumi Games is bringing their beautiful early 20th century narrative adventure The Lion's Song to iOS and Android, and now we know exactly when that will be: July 13th. The Lion's Song follows the story of four distinct Austrian characters who work in the arts and science fields and takes "a closer look at their intimate struggles with creativity and inspiration." The first episode of the game originally launched in July of last year on Steam for PC, and two additional episodes have released since, with each episode dealing with one of the characters in the game. The fourth and final episode, appropriately titled Closure, will take place on a train as all the characters and storylines interweave with each other. Here's a trailer for Episode 4 - Closure...
Clash Royale's [Free] official podcast, Radio Royale, is quite fun to listen to and one that you should add to your podcast queue (if you have one). The latest episode, which is out today, focuses on the game's esport side and includes special guests as well as members of the Clash Royale community. The Worldwide Royale Events talks about events such as the Crown Championship Official, Clash Nights, the Royal Helsinki Cup, the CR Worlds, and the Semis of the ESWC Paris Games Week, as well as some great moments from recent esport matches, like an epic goblin comeback a few weeks ago...
King Rabbit [Free] and its predecessor Furdemption [$2.99] have been two of my favorite iOS games of recent times, with the former managing to make my highly exclusive Best of 2016 list at the end of last year. The brilliantly executed puzzle mechanics of both games was perfectly suited to iPhone gaming, and managed to bottle the nostalgic charm of early mobile gaming while possessing a formidable amount of depth in content, secrets and modes that could be discovered. King Rabbit has been the recipient of a number of content updates since its launch in March of last year, and even with a brand new sequel on the horizon, Raresloth have today added a brand new Sapphire Collection level set, featuring 64 of the best community created levels...
What is there left to say about Death Road to Canada [$9.99]? Ever since its launch on the App Store in March, it seems the iOS community has been entirely enamoured by Rocketcat Games' latest and biggest mobile venture, and for good reason. As our review and subsequent Game of the Week award firmly underlines, Death Road to Canada's eccentric unpredictability and compulsively fun gameplay has made it a shoe-in for the end of year awards season, and the developer's commitment to expanding the experience with updates is both commendable and extremely exciting. After what has felt like a long wait, the first major content update for Death Road to Canada has today launched on the App Store, and comes with a veritable slew of content, most notably an awesome unlock system that includes perks, traits, upgrades, one-off bonuses and much more with a brand new currency called Zombo Points. The launch trailer for what has been dubbed the COCCYX update does a good job of demonstrating some of the recent additions, and this huge content patch serves as a great excuse to revisit Death Road to Canada for both hardcore fans and anyone currently sitting on the fence...
Get ready Hearthstone [Free] players because on July 6th at 7 PM PDT, Blizzard will reveal details about the game's next expansion. Specifically, during the HCT Spring championships, Team 5 will be around to make a "special announcement" about upcoming content. The announcement will be streamed live on Hearthstone's official Twitch channel, and after the announcement, you'll can watch the second leg of HCT, although I'm pretty sure everyone will be chatting about the expansion rather than the tournament. The announcement comes with an image of some faint figures behind the Tavern window, but no other detail outside that...
The Smithsonian American Art Museum hosts an annual event called SAAM Arcade, and this year it will be all about video games. 150 independent developers submitted their games for consideration, and only a few were selected to be featured during the event. Among those few are two mobile games, Fugl and Burly Men at Sea, although the latter was ported over to iOS from the PC. Fugl has been in development since 2014, and our forum thread tracks that whole development arc in great detail. Fugl is a voxel flying game where you play as a bird with free reign to fly and explore the huge procedurally generated worlds...
Badland 2 [$0.99], the sequel to the very successful Badland, is a gorgeous game to play on an iPad and one I often use to showoff mobile gaming to non-gamers. Today, Badland 2 got a huge update and dropped to $0.99, its lowest price ever. The new update adds a new level pack called Evolution, which brings 10 new levels, 20 new online levels, 35 new secrets to discover, 19 new achievements, 60 new time trial badges to unlock, and 7 new time-based leaderboards. As you can tell, that's a tone more content in a game already filled with stuff to do...
Simon's Cat, that cute, white cartoon kitty, is a bona fide internet celebrity, and now it's starring in Simon's Cat-Crunch Time [Free], a Match 3 with fun visuals. If you haven't heard of Simon's Cat, it's an animated cartoon and book series by the British animator Simon Tofield that has exploded in popularity over the last couple of years. The Simon's Cat YouTube channel has 4.5 million subscribers, and the short videos often hit over a million views. The videos are very well made, and if you have a cat, you'll recognize all of those behaviors...
If Okidokico Entertainment had released their latest update for OK Golf [$2.99] a mere week earlier during what was apparently England's 'longest heat wave ever' (which lasted a prolonged and arduous five days), their dismal and damp new Oakford Woods course would feel somewhat out of place. However, just in time for OK Golf's 1.4 patch, the sun promptly disappeared from our isles and was replaced with incessant rain. Don't you just love Britain, eh? Obligatory weather ranting aside, the latest update for OK Golf is a big one for fans of the stunning iPhone golfing simulator, as the aforementioned England course has been added alongside Apple TV support, all for no additional cost. Following some solid improvements since its initial release at the start of the year, OK Golf has grown from a beautiful yet flawed title to one that presents a really distinct perspective on the sport, and is more essential than ever now this new update has finally launched on the App Store...
