Starting off with some free-to-play entertainment we have Snow Spin – Snowboarding Adventure!. It may be Summertime for Australian development studio Ezone.com, but they are taking to the slopes in this cute character-filled gesture-controlled snowboarding game.
Next up is Keybol Games’ award-winning minimalistic platformer, Pretentious Game, in which players try to help the blue square safely reach the pink square. Published on iOS by Bulkypix, the free download contains the first of the game’s (three) chapters, with the remainder of the game unlockable via in-app purchase.
Halfbrick Studios newest game (this time only in a publishing capacity), Band Stars is a free-to-play band management game where players attempt to reach super-stardom by forming their own band, recording hit singles and working their way up the charts. The game has a very strong Game Dev Story vibe to it which means it could turn out to be rather addictive.
Now for the paid apps…
Galaxy Run is a new one-touch auto runner from Spiel Studios in which players assume the role of an astronaut explorer Rez, who is forced to land in an unknown system filled with a host of hazards. The game features 360 single-screen levels which Rez must successfully navigate utilizing a variety of things like anti-gravity, grappling hooks, springboards and more. this looks like it could be a fun little time waster.
Bike Baron and Minigore developer, Mountain Sheep returns to the App Store with KingHunt – The Next Generation Slicing Game. As you may have surmised from the title, it is a Fruit Ninja-style game where you must slash over 200 different types of enemies, all of which are rendered in Mountain Sheep’s beautiful signature 3D artistic style and runs at an impressive 60 fps and uses DST (Dynamic Slicing Technology) allowing for “infinite slice variants through four degrees of freedom”.
Don’t get lost wandering around Middle Earth like Bilbo and his company of Dwarves, HarperCollins’ new digital app release of The Hobbit: Official Visual Companion allows you to “explore the majesty of Middle-earth with the beautifully rendered 3D map”. If you’ve ever wanted more details about this magical world or would like to better visualize the lay of the land, this app (which also features a good deal of other content) could be a useful tool before you head to the theater or crack open the Tolkien’s tome.
One of my all-time favorite brawlers has always been Double Dragon and I fondly remember playing co-op for hours with my brothers on the NES when we were younger (and could spend a whole day playing video games). Now those retro revival wizards at DotEmu have ported the entire Double Dragon Trilogy to iOS complete with Arcade and Story modes, your choice of the original 8-bit soundtrack or a brand-new remastered one and even two player co-op via Bluetooth! Game On!
Crescent Moon Games is back again this week with
Clash of Puppets, a 3D hack-n-slash platformer with a classic horror / b-movie aesthetic. Shoot werewolves, take down aliens, lay some traps for zombies and more as you explore the beautiful, expansive 3D worlds. I’ve spent a little bit of time with this one already, and the visuals are quite nice on my iPad Air, especially the lighting effects.
Now how’s this for unique plot? “You are a dead, failed video game character wandering through the recesses of the Random Access Memory, trying to find peace in the final moments of your existence before being deleted forever…”.
Having only seen the trailer, I honestly have no idea what to make of continue?9876543210, it appears to be a mix of adventure game, art and introspection. Each game randomly assigns you 1 of the game’s 6 characters and 6 of the 11 areas and there is no set order to the stages of the game. According to the game’s developer, Jason Oda, everything in the game has a deeper meaning behind it and he asks that players share their interpretations of their experience on the game’s official Facebook and twitter pages.
Easily my most anticipated new release of the night is Telltale Games’ new episodic adventure game series The Wolf Among Us. From the creators of my 2012 iOS Game of the Year, The Walking Dead, this new adventure puts players in the role of Bigby Wolf (THE big bad wolf in human form) who, as the Sheriff of Fabletown must stop the evil characters from popular fairytales, legends and folklore who have escaped into the human world. Released on PC and console platforms back in October, the game finally comes to iOS. The $4.99 app contains the first episode of the series and players can pre-order episodes 2 through 5 for a one-time $14.99 IAP (saving them $5 over purchasing each episode individually as they are released). This is definitely an instant-buy given Telltale’s recent track record. I can’t wait to dive into this one.
Ubisoft brings iOS gamers a new Assassin’s Creed spin-off game called Assassin’s Creed Pirates. A big departure for the franchise, Pirates is a real-time naval battle game that takes place on the Caribbean Sea and bares very little resemblance to the console or even the previous mobile Assassin’s Creed titles. Will players accept such a radical departure or will they be going in expecting a very different game, I guess we’ll know soon enough.
Finally, Full Control Studios brings Space Hulk to the iPad. “You are a small squad of fearless Space Marine Terminators attempting to reclaim their honor by mounting an assault on a derelict Space Hulk infested by hordes of vicious Tyranid Genestealers.”
This digital version of the classic tactical turn-based game set in Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40,000 universe aims to recreate and enhance the original table top experience with a single player campaign and cross-platform multiplayer functionality. While I’ve certainly heard of the table top game, I have never played it as it seemed like a daunting (and expensive) task, however this new app’s rich 3D visuals certainly look quite appealing.
And that’s all I have for you tonight, feel free to leave a comment below letting us know which (if any) of these games you plan to pick up.
 Band Stars |
 KingHunt – The Next Generation Slicing Game |
 Galaxy Run |
 The Hobbit: Official Visual Companion |
 Clash of Puppets |
 continue?9876543210 |
 The Wolf Among Us |
 Space Hulk |
