Home Features Newly Available On iOS: Super Obstacle Boy, Stubies, R-Type II, Word Puttz,...

Newly Available On iOS: Super Obstacle Boy, Stubies, R-Type II, Word Puttz, Qwirkle and More

NOTE: I’ve been delaying this post because Riot Runners and Card Wars – Adventure Time both seem to be inexplicably delayed in their worldwide releases and are STILL not live on the US App Store. However both are still expected to show up on the US store sometime today. Ironically, both of these titles employ free-to-play mechanics within a paid app…perhaps it’s just karma getting back at them.

iOS developers are certainly keeping us busy this month, with another packed busy week of new releases. Though I’ve removed a few of the duds from my original list and pared things down a bit.

The first (and one of the most promising) freebie doesn’t actually come out until tomorrow when Red Winter Software will be launching Dungelot 2, the sequel to last February’s RPG / dungeon crawling / minesweeper mashup Dungelot. I only briefly played the original, but I’ve really been enjoying my time with a pre-release copy of the sequel which features the same approachable casual roguelike
core gameplay as the original but with improved graphical improvements new elements like grates and levers.

The game will be free to download and there are some in-app purchases, to buy various currency and items with real money, but I haven’t really hit any sort of pay wall yet in my experience with the game thus far.

Ludia, the studio behind a number of fun gameshow apps for iOS, has just launched Mr. Peabody & Sherman a new general knowledge multiple-choice trivia game themed around DreamWork’s upcoming animated film (of the same name). You travel through time in the WABAC machine and try to correctly answer rounds of questions in all sorts of categories. The questions have been designed such that the game is approachable by players of any age and one of the better movie tie-in game options.

Jackbox Games, the minds behind the classic twisted gameshow trivia game You Don’t Know Jack bring us Word Puttz. It is a unique blend of crosswords and minigolf, where you must spell intersecting words on the putting green to reach the hole. So far I’ve played about 9 holes and it’s a fun departure on the word game genre.

Onto the paid games…

Stubies is an interesting and colorful level-based puzzle game in which players earn points by matching different colored pedestrians who are constantly on the move throughout the screen (think of the Wii’s Mii parade). With a swipe of a finger, you can nudge the walkers in the right direction, keep them from falling into a hole, or keep differently colored people from colliding and becoming stone statues. As you progress through the game, new elements and interactions are presented Stubies will certainly keep you on your toes and will hold special appeal to time management fans.

Room 8’s brings their indie award-winning atmospheric runner, Riot Runners to iOS. It is quite a looker, so hopefully the gameplay will be good as well in this genre dominated by the free-to-play market.

Oceanhouse Media is doing double-duty again this week, launching two new educational digital book apps at special introductory prices. First, your kids can “join Stegosaurus as she awakes from a deep sleep and sets off to find food for herself before her nest of eggs hatch” in A Busy Day for Stegosaurus – Smithsonian’s Prehistoric Pals and the Cat in the Hat takes Sally and Nick to the Super-Tremendous-Studependous Horse Show in If I Ran the Horse Show. Also for the kids, StoryToys has released a brand-new interactive 3D Pop-Up book, Wake Up Mo!, the sequel to their Goodnight Mo! title.

Obviously inspired by Super Meat Boy, Matthias Falk’s unforgiving looking retro jump and run puzzle platformer Super Obstacle Boy offers iOS gamers over 100 levels of pulse pumping action. This looks tough, but in a fun (well programmed and purposeful way).

Speaking of “tough” games, I LOVED DotEmu’s iOS port of the arcade classic R-TYPE and now they are back with the 1989 sequel R-TYPE II. The game features six challenging levels of horizontal scrolling space shooter action, each with their own unique boss and your choice of two control schemes, plus iOS controller support.

Next up is a digital board / card game, Cryptozoic’s Card Wars – Adventure Time. This turn-based trading card game was born out of a game which was featured prominently in an episode of the Adventure Time animated series. In a case of life imitating art, that fake game has now become a reality.

Developed by Kung Fu Factory, the game features 20 playable characters from the Land of Ooo, craftable cards, hundreds of creatures, spells and abilities and much more. With more than 200 cards featuring unique abilities, over 250 playable quests and 90 tournament battles, players will get to summon creatures, build buildings, cast spells and watch creatures literally come to life on their holographic game board!

Cryptozoics’ physical tabletop version launches next week and “will include download codes for use within the digital version of the game, providing an enhanced opportunity for fans.”

Finally we have another digital board game, Qwirkle, a great release which quietly got its worldwide launch last Friday, so I just wanted to make sure it gets the attention that it deserves. MindWare has done a stellar job bringing this popular title-based tabletop game to iOS with multiple levels of AI opponents, local and online multiplayer and nice little accessibility tweaks. If you love (or even just like) board games, Qwirkle is a MUST HAVE game.