Lawyers, robots and zombies..oh my!
Tonight’s going to be another packed night for iOS gamers with a couple of hotly anticipated titles book-ending this round-up and a number of entertaining looking titles filling out today’s coverage.
In 2010 CAPCOM released a Phoenix Wright iOS title containing all five of the GBA classic cases. Tonight CAPCOM launches the free-to-try, Ace Attorney: Phoenix Wright Trilogy HD, featuring all of the cases from the original trilogy (Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, PW: AA – Justice For All, and PW: AA – Trials and Tribulations) with “clear, Retina-quality graphics” and vertical or horizontal gameplay. You can object your way through the first two episodes of “Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney” for free then each of the games are available as unlockable IAP or in a discounted bundle. You cannot purchase individual episodes separately. I’ve never played a Phoenix Wright game before, but have heard good things, so it looks like tonight I’ll be checking this one off my bucket list.
Next up is a cute looking free-to-play Match-3 title called Witch Academy: Match 3. The game’s bright colors, two play modes and ‘magical boosters’ may be just the thing to bewitch casual gamers.
A throwback to classic platformers, Incredible Jack smashes onto the App Store tonight from iOS newcomers Belmac Interactive and publisher Chillingo. Players must help Jack the Timbergrote, rescue his family across 37 levels of treasure-collecting action in this nicely illustrated adventure through sandy tombs, icy caves and lava-filled pits.
Merchant to the Stars is quite possibly the most truly original title of the night and comes from a couple of former Freeverse guys. It is a fresh take on the simulation genre. You play a simple shop merchant, who all the RPG heroes come to to sell items they’ve found in dungeons and to buy new weapons. You must purchase their loot, upgrade it and attempt to sell it back to the correct hero who will use it to find even better loot. According to the developers, “the entire game is proceduraly generated, with Millions of items in the game” and “you can post the stories of the heroes to Facebook”. Sounds pretty neat.
Thumbstar Games’ The Boomerang Trail looks like it might be a fun little boomerang tossing title. Though the fun could be fairly short-lived seeing as the game appears to only feature 20 levels. I guess we’ll find out soon.
And that brings us to the retro portion of the evening…
Little Luca is an interesting looking physics-based puzzle game in which players must navigate an 8-bit world, utilizing morphing shapes, wind, gravity wells, portals to find and collect stars. I’m still on the fence with this one , but with 90 levels at launch and the promise of “free updates with more levels and more game worlds” this could be a nice 99¢ bargain.
Underground Pixel, the folks behind such popular retro titles as Holiday Havoc and Pastry Panic are back with an all new 8-bit style game and kind of a new take on the endless runner. In Mansion Run you are a skeleton named Bones Wellington who is trying to get away from the ghosts currently infesting his delightfully dreadful mansion. Swipe to switch between the four floors, avoiding furniture while collecting bones which can be used to unlock power-ups and playable cameo characters from other popular titles.
Our last retro-inspired title of the night comes to us from the duo at Retro Dreamer. SlamBots was born from their casual title Happy P’s Revenge. Like that game, players tilt to move their character among a series of platform collecting stars while smashing the flying objects below. Smashing multiple objects in a row w/o touching the ground or a platform results in higher scores. There are also unlockable characters and upgrades, however, unlike Happy P’s Revenge, SlamBots has some added depth and game play mechanics resulting in a more arcade-like experience as well as an awesome Velocispider-like (my favorite RD game) sense of style with some great retro graphics and sound.
Finally we come to the higher-priced titles…
These last two games should have no problems overcoming their somewhat higher barrier to entry as both are bound to be quite popular.
Phosphor Games Studio (Horn, Dark Meadow) puts out an impressive looking partially-on-rails FPS tie in to Paramount’s blockbuster Summer zombie epidemic film World War Z. With its “28 visceral levels, intense combat, engaging puzzles, upgradable weapons and armor, unlimited challenge mode”, somewhat unique control scheme and the capable development hands of the folks at Phosphor Games this is bound to be one of the night’s hottest releases.
Last but not least is Rodeo Games’ HUGELY anticipated title, Warhammer Quest. Built exclusively for iOS using Rodeo Games ‘Taurus’ engine, this digital version of the 1995 table top board game, Warhammer Quest is the first iOS adventure game set in Games Workshop’s Warhammer World.
“You take control of a party of four questing warriors in search of immeasurable power and riches. Your adventures will take you deep into the dungeons and under-lairs of the Old World, fighting foul creatures as you explore hidden tunnels in the hope of finding lost treasure, hoards of gold and lasting fame.” While I have never played the original board game on which this is based, I know it has a huge following and the early buzz on this one is very, very good, so I expect to see this trending upward on the App Store / Top-Grossing charts tomorrow. Given that the game apparently offers 25 to 30 hours of game play, the $5 price tag seems pretty small, though there are additional unlockable characters available as IAP and it is only a single-player game at the moment.
And that’ll do it for tonight…make sure to let us know which of these games you’ll be picking up tonight when these (and more) new releases go live at 11pm EST.
Note: All of the links below will go live at 11pm (EST) on Wednesday, May 29th.
 Witch Academy: Match 3 |
 Incredible Jack |
 Merchant to the Stars |
 The Boomerang Trail |
 Little Luca |
 Mansion Run |
 SlamBots |
 World War Z |
 Warhammer Quest |
