The first big-name company to pledge support for the Apple TV is, strangely enough, Activision. They’re committing to bring some of their biggest franchises – Guitar Hero and Skylanders – as well as a modern arcade classic – Geometry Wars – to the Apple TV in the near future.
Skylanders SuperChargers brings a new style of gameplay to the Skylanders universe with the introduction of land, sea, and sky vehicles and vehicles-to-life toys. The Skylanders SuperChargers Starter Pack for Apple TV, iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch will include everything fans with those devices need to play, including a Bluetooth-enabled portal, an embedded Bluetooth controller, and even a built-in stand. Whatâs more, if you have multiple Apple devices, your progress can be seamlessly synced across Apple TV, iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch with cloud save support under the same Game Center account.
And if you already own a Bluetooth portal and controller from the iPad version of Skylanders Trap Team, you can use the same devices for Skylanders SuperChargers. All you need to do is download the game and you are good to go. You can also play Skylanders on your favorite consoles as well, including Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4 system, PlayStation 3 system and Nintendo’s Wii U system as well as Wii and Nintendo 3DS.
Guitar Hero Live is also coming to a wide array of devices, including consoles, mobile devices and Apple TV. Guitar Hero Liveâs GH Live mode brings you closer to the live stage experience with live-action, first-person gameplay with crowds and bands that react dynamically to how you play. Thereâs also GHTV, the worldâs first playable music video network, which lets you play along with a continually updated collection of official music videos spanning a variety of genres. Guitar Hero Live for Apple TV, iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch devices will come with the redesigned six-button guitar controller, which connects through Bluetooth so it be used across all supported Apple devices.
“We jumped at the opportunity to bring back Guitar Hero in a cool new way with Guitar Hero Live and have been energized by the response from fans who have had a chance to play it so far,” said Jamie Jackson, co-studio head and creative director at FreeStyleGames. “We canât wait for the game to launch next month and think people are going to get a kick out of living their rock star fantasy on consoles, mobile devices and Apple TV this fall. Itâs going to be rad!”
Last, but certainly not least, Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions Evolved, which launched for consoles and PCs last October and mobile devices earlier this year, will be available on Apple TV and iPad Pro this fall. The fast-paced arcade-style shooter game that features 3D action and gameplay modes, a dedicated single-player campaign and revamped online cooperative mode is a lot of fun to play with the new remote for Apple TV and the new Apple Pencil on iPad Pro. We think a lot of people will discover the game and play it in these new and exciting ways.
Activision’s iOS games are generally of mixed quality. Some, like Geometry Wars, are every bit as good as their console brethren. Others, like Skylanders, run at low resolutions and poor framerates.
It’s unclear from this press release exactly how seriously Activision will be taking the Apple TV. Still, it’s great to see they’re at least paying attention to it. With any luck, they’ll step up their game for this first batch of ports.
Skylanders and Geometry Wars are available now on iOS with support for MFi controllers. No word yet on whether these versions will be universal to the Apple TV, but they’re still worth a look today.
Rayman Adventures, the third game in the iOS Rayman Spinoff series, is coming to the Apple TV!
The previous Rayman iOS games – Rayman Jungle Run and Rayman Fiesta Run – were excellent. They combined solid platforming gameplay with an autorunning mechanic more common in endless runners. They were originally bogged down by ads and spam, but Ubisoft seems to have fixed that in subsequent updates.
Rayman Adventures is already available on The App Store in New Zealand. Hopefully it’ll come stateside to iOS as well as to the Apple TV.
In the mean time, check out the other iOS Rayman games. They’re a lot of fun, and they both fully support MFi controllers.
I’m not familiar with this company, but they’re promising three new games are in development for the Apple TV.
Armada of Undead is a turn-based strategy game for 1-4 players featuring undead pirates in an fun and eerie Caribbean setting. Use your iOS device of choice (iPhone, iPad or iPod touch) as a second-screen controller as you and your friends set sail (f)right from the living room!
Dracula Twins is a platforming, “Ghosts ‘n Goblins”-like experience where you’ll play as vampiric siblings Drac and Dragana, battling zombies and other malevolent creatures in an epic adventure to reclaim Castle Moonskull from the devious Doctor Lifelust. Already popular on iOS, the tvOS version will feature 2-player cooperative support!
Pure Pinball – what could be better than 3D pinball, in all its bumper-bouncing glory, on your big-screen TV? The iOS version received rave reviews for its table design, responsive controls, exceptional graphics and realistic ball movement – and now you’ll get to play it on the new Apple TV right from your couch.
Some decent sounding options there. Two of these games, Dracula Twins and Pure Pinball, are already available on iOS, so check them out if you’re interested in seeing what some of the earliest Apple TV games are going to look like.
The dust has barely settled from Apple’s big Apple TV / iPad Pro / new iPhone reveal, and developers are already scrambling go get their games ready for the new devices.
Proun+ is one such game. Developers Engine Software announced today that they’re hard at work bringing Proun+ to the Apple TV.
In Proun+ you race your ball over a tube like track and evade countless obstacles. With its five different speed settings â from Relaxed to Speed of Light â this game offers a great experience for both the casual as well as the hardcore gamer. Each level is accompanied by great jazzy rock tunes which were specifically written for Proun+.
Proun+ is thereby perfect for the new Apple TV. Itâs going to turn the living room into one big exciting and colourful race adventure! As the new Apple TV will interact with you, itâs possible to play Proun+ like you used to, but with an even more beautiful screen and in better quality like no one has ever experienced before. It takes every aspect of the game to a whole other level.
Proun+ is already available on iOS, but it doesn’t currently support MFi controllers. With any luck, they’ll take the opportunity to port the controls from the Apple TV version back to the iOS app.
This week just keeps getting better! After yesterday’s cavalcade of news, Gamevice has one more big announcement to add: The Gamevice for iPhone will be coming in the next few months!
Much like the excellent iPad Gamevice, the iPhone Gamevice uses a classic plus-shaped d-pad, and features two real analog sticks positioned above the ABXY buttons. Circle pad / analog nub haters have nothing to worry about here: the Gamevice uses REAL console-grade analog sticks.
The Gamevice for iPhone uses a smart-cover-style folding rubber piece in the middle to hold it’s two halves together, rather than the single-piece bendable rubber of the larger Gamevice. This means that the same exact Gamevice can work with both the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus – no need to lock yourself into one or the other. The newly announced iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus are also fully supported, of course.
Much like the recently revealed Nimbus controller, the Gamevice for iPhone charges over Lightning, rather than the Micro USB connection used by the larger Gamevice. It seems like Apple’s MFi spec has changed to accommodate Lightning charging in controllers, which should be welcome for people who otherwise wouldn’t need a Micro USB cable.
I had a chance to hold a very early prototype of the Gamevice for iPhone a long time ago, back at CES. It wasn’t actually connected to anything, so I can’t make any judgements on how well it plays, but I can vouch for the fact that the layout felt comfortable. Separating the two halves via a folding bridge works as well as you would hope. It’s a clever move, and it makes for a potentially more future-proof design than the larger Gamevice.
The Gamevice for iPhone goes on sale within the next few months for the same $99 price as the larger iPad model. I expect we’ll hear a lot more about this controller in the near future, as release approaches. Personally, I can’t wait to get my hands on one. If this controller is even half as good as their iPad model, we’re in for a real treat.
The Gamevice for iPad Air also gets a firm release date: October 2015 – next month! If you’ve been looking forward to the iPad Air model, the wait is nearly over.
I’ll have an extensive review of this Gamevice, as well as the other Gamevice models, as soon as possible.
Hot on the heels of the new Apple TV announcement, our questions are starting to be answered. Exactly as I predicted, Apple will NOT have a first-party game controller for Apple TV, but instead has chosen to partner with SteelSeries on a brand-new design: The Nimbus.
At this point, I know as much as you do about this controller. But we can make some guesses based on the available renders.
The analog sticks look exactly like the Xbox One’s, which is excellent. The d-pad is a true Plus-shaped design, far better than the circular pads SteelSeries has used until now. The surface appears to have a matte texture, likely more bumpy than most other controllers. Lastly, the “Pause” button has been changed to “Menu”.
Solid looking triggers and a Lightning port
Unlike every other MFi controller, the Nimbus charges using an integrated Lightning port, rather than requiring a USB cable. Also unique: the Bluetooth connection. The SteelSeries Nimbus connects to the Apple TV using the Bluetooth 4.0 standard; previous MFi controllers used the Bluetooth 2.1 standard instead.
The SteelSeries Nimbus appears primarily marketed towards the new Apple TV, but that doesn’t mean existing iOS devices are left out. SteelSeries promises compatibility with the same iOS devices all current MFi controllers work with, as well as Mac compatibility, which is something only SteelSeries has been able to deliver so far.
SteelSeries is also launching a companion app for the controller, which should allow for easier firmware updates than the Stratus controllers, which required installing a potentially dangerous kernel extension to your Mac.
Aside from that, we know very little. Hopefully SteelSeries has corrected the poorly designed triggers used on their last controller. If so, we could be looking at the best MFi controller ever made.
I’ll be getting my hands on one of these and reviewing it as soon as possible.
They finally did it: Apple just announced the brand new Apple TV!
I'll be digging deep into the new Apple TV shortly, uncovering as many game-related details as I can find. But for now, here's what we know.
The primary interface of the Apple TV is a touchpad with a gyroscope. Think a hybrid between the Wiimote and a laptop trackpad. I wasn't expecting this. This doesn't allow iOS games to easily port to Apple TV, but instead opens up a completely new interaction metaphor. Expect new games incorporating motion swiping, much more akin to the Wii than to traditional iOS games.
Game controllers are supported by the new Apple TV, exactly as expected. They will continue to be optional, and Apple isn't making one of their own. Still, the nature of the TV interface suggests that controllers will be MUCH more popular with TV gamers than with iOS gamers. Expect a lot of cross-platform Apple TV and iOS games to gain support for game controllers.
The Apple TV App Store will indicate which games support controllers and which games don't, which is long overdue. With any luck, this will be coming to iOS before too long – it would make my job a lot easier!
The New Apple TV is powered by an A8 chip, at the low end of what I was expecting, rather than the A9 chips in the new iPhone and iPad Pro models. Performance-wise, it should run every game you throw at it exactly as well as the iPhone 6 Plus does, as both render a 1920×1080 picture. Everything we know and love from the existing A8-powered devices should work with the Apple TV, including Metal, and the array of games it powers.
Pricing starts at $149 for a 32 gigabyte model and $199 for a 64 gigabyte model. Depending on how well developers optimize their games for new technologies like iCloud and App Thinning, the 32 model may very well be sufficient for the majority of gamers, at least until next year’s model.
I'll be buying one of these Apple TVs as soon as is humanly possible. Expect to see a LOT of coverage of this new device, and a lot of game reviews, right here on AfterPad!
It’s here. This is the moment many of you have been waiting the past 9 months for. Minecraft, one of the biggest games of all time, now supports MFi controllers.
I think a lot of older gamers (at least those without kids) don’t quite understand just how huge Minecraft is among young people. To many in their teens, Minecraft is how they hang out with their friends. Gameplay videos of Minecraft are what they watch instead of TV. They live and breathe this game.
Whatever Apple ends up announcing at tomorrow’s event, there is a very real chance that this Minecraft update will have more of an impact on MFi controller sales. As soon as kids see their friends playing Minecraft on a Gamevice, they’re going to be begging for one over the holidays.
I’ve just barely begun to scratch the surface of playing Minecraft on an MFi controller, but I expect to have a lot more information (and much higher quality photos) up soon. My initial impressions: controller support works excellently, and Minecraft is a textbook definition of a must-own game. I say buy it now.
I have yet to use the Contour, but the integrated iPhone grip is a compelling feature. Assuming TteSPORTS didn’t screw up the rest of the controller, I expect this to be a great choice for iPhone gamers. I’ll be grabbing one as soon as possible, and I’ll have a review up shortly.
