Ars Technica reports news from brick-and-morter gaming retailer GameStop:
In a sweeping presentation to investors earlier this week, GameStop executives laid out plans to expand aggressively in the markets for mobile and Apple products while slightly reducing the number of storefronts devoted primarily to video games.
[…] Regarding Apple products specifically, Raines said, “We have spent a lot of time in Cupertino with Apple leadership and we have their support to grow Simply Mac.”
The possible ramifications for iOS gaming accessories such as MFi controllers are interesting. GameStop already carries a selection of controllers for iPhones and iPads. In light of this story, I’d expect that selection to expand.
Side-scrolling platforming game Leo’s Fortune is available now – no need to wait until midnight for this one!
Leo’s Fortune tasks you, as the titular ball-of-fur Leo, with recovering your stolen fortune of gold coins. You’ll do this across a series of levels filled with beautiful 2.5D graphics, challenging puzzles, and classic platforming.
Leo’s Fortune plays as good as it looks
I’ve personally been looking forward to this game since it was revealed at GDC last month. In the hour or so I’ve played so far, Leo’s Fortune lives up to every expectation.
I should have a full review up soon, but until then, suffice it to say that platforming game fans should give this an immediate download. It is one of the most polished games I’ve seen on iOS, and it also happens to be loads of fun.
In recent years, a new style of game has emerged and found a home on iOS. These games are defined by a clean aesthetic, straightforward objectives, and gameplay that is both simple to understand and rewardingly difficult. Modern classics like Super Hexagon, Impossible Road, Canabalt – even the infamous Flappy Bird – all represent this growing wave of simple games that aren’t afraid to be difficult.
These games buck the trend towards ultra-casual. They test your reflexes and your skill by presenting a high level of difficulty. They are accessible to the casual gamer, but they do not pander. They are straightforward in design, but unapologetically challenging. Unpossible builds on this style, but with an identity completely it’s own.
Unpossible levels
Unpossible is beautifully simple in it’s conception. You constantly move forward on a twisting tube covered in obstacles. Your job is to rotate around the tube to dodge those obstacles. The objective is straightforward enough, but as with most games of this style, Unpossible’s success depends on how well it executes on its design. Luckily, that execution is about as perfect as you can imagine.
The first time you play the easiest difficulty, you will die. Quickly. The next several times you play, you’ll die again within seconds. But that will be okay. The deaths will always feel avoidable, never cheap. You’ll reach for the continue button without thinking about it, eager to make it further, to make it through the obstacle that slipped you up. You’ll get better, slowly, over the course of many playthroughs. You’ll feel that adrenaline rush each time you make it past your previous high score, and hit that continue button as fast as possible when you inevitably crash again.
Unpossible has “it” – that elusive quality of design that makes you want to hit that continue button, over and over again, until you realize you’ve spent the past hour playing such a seemingly simple game, without a hint of boredom or frustration. That feeling is worth everything – it makes the difference between games that are classics and games that are forgettable. Unpossible has it in spades; this is a tough game to put down.
Beware the increasingly difficult array of obstacles
The levels are divided into 3 difficulty modes – Simplicity, Futile, and Ultra. Simplicity starts unlocked, with the more challenging difficulties made available after you survive 60 seconds in each of the easier difficulties. Rounding out the traditional levels are special “daily” levels. These have layouts that change every day, and feature independent leaderboards to compete on.
The leaderboards make Unpossible even better. Unpossible is completely a test of skill – every obstacle is avoidable if your reflexes are quick enough. Nothing prevents you from surviving forever. You won’t survive forever, but you might just survive longer than the rest of the people playing any given level. Once you get the hang of the controls, competing for that goal adds an extra dimension to the game.
Controller support in Unpossible is implemented quite well, though the sheer difficulty of the game really drives home some of the limitations of the current crop of MFi controllers. The lack of analog sticks on the PowerShell makes the type of fine-grain control necessary for the difficult levels somewhat challenging to pull off. The relative looseness of the analog nubs on the Moga Ace Power is more apparent in Unpossible than anywhere else. The SteelSeries Stratus works the best of the available controllers – its surprisingly solid analog sticks do a great job at registering even the finest grain movement.
Unpossible also permits the use of on-screen movement controls and tilt control. The on-screen buttons won’t be much good beyond the easiest difficulty, but the tilt controls are quite excellent, and give the MFi controllers a run for their money.
Unpossible plays well with controllers, but the game is still challenging (Source: Mfi4gamerz)
In terms of monetization, Unpossible is fairly straightforward. You pay two dollars, you get the game. There are no timers, ads, in-app purchases. You can’t buy your way out of Unpossible’s inherent challenge – everyone is in the same boat.
Thoughts From Other Reviewers
A couple of the owners of other iOS gaming sites and I decided to try something a little different with this review: rather than duplicating our efforts completely in writing three separate-yet-similar reviews, we’ve opted to share some resources between our reviews and cross-link each other.
Mfigamer Says:
Unpossible is played with easy to learn controls with options for touch, tilt and external MFi game controllers. Each control scheme is designed so the controls get out of your way. You’ll feel at one with the game allowing you to focus on your reactions and dodging skills.
The video was provided by Mfigamer at mfi4.gamerz.com, a forum dedicated to news and reviews related to MFi controller compatible games and hardware. He does great work chronicling the iOS gaming scene, and it was fun collaborating and discussing this this game together.
Conclusion
Unpossible’s asking price is more than fair for the quality of the game you get. For anyone who is a fan of this sort of beautifully simple, challenging, and addicting game that iOS seems to excel so well at, don’t think twice about giving this one a download.
Zombie Goddess was recently updated with more content, expanded controller support (with camera control!), faster gameplay pacing, more generous coin drops, and improved polish and bug-fixing. And the removal of a checkbox that was of questionable taste.
In my review of Zombie Goddess, I characterized it having a great gameplay foundation, but in need of more content. That’s truer now than ever. Zombie Goddess is even more now than it was before, which makes the desire for more content even stronger.
Zombie slashing, even better than before
It’s great that the developers are actively responding to criticisms and user requests – it is a really nice thing to see in the App Store, where games are so often abandoned after the initial hype dies down. Developer Zozogame managed to address basically every complaint I had about the previous version, and pretty much every one I’ve seen, save for the one big one – more content.
Now that the base gameplay has been further polished and improved, I’m looking forward to seeing additional content on top of it. The developers plan to add boss fights, additional weapons, loot drops – and some even more expansive plans after that. It’s great to see the developers actively improving things, and I’m looking forward to seeing these updates released. Zombie Goddess is a very fun, though somewhat limited, experience. It’s worth a download, especially if the developers continue to update at this pace.
Stunt Guy 2, a game where you dodge traffic and slam into cars while a stuntman hangs from the back of your vehicle, was just released with MFi controller support.
Dodge, destroy, and collect
You can think of Stunt Guy 2 as an iPhone-game-version of the classic Tarantino film Death Proof. And if that sounds as awesome to you as it does to me, give this one a download.
Looks like the Benchmark edition was a temporary release – iTunes shows it as being no longer available. If you missed it, thats a shame, but the full game is still worth a download
A new “benchmark” edition of the iOS RPG masterpiece Oceanhorn is now available.
Oceanhorn has always been a premium game at a premium price. When I reviewed it, I found that it more than earned that price. However, to many people, $8.99 is too much to ask. While this “benchmark” edition is pitched around the cool device-benchmarking functionality, it also provides the first chapter of Oceanhorn free of charge. I hope that’s enough to convince the hold-outs to give Oceanhorn a shot, because it deserves it.
This is one beautiful benchmark
Oceanhorn really is a benchmark. Not just in performance and graphics – although those are outstanding – but in terms of just how great an iOS game can be. It’s obvious from the moment the game starts that the developers really cared about creating a great experience. With this free benchmark edition, I hope more people give this experience a try.
The hotly anticipated twitch-reaction-based arcade game Unpossible is now available on the App Store with full MFi controller support!
I’ll have a full review coming soon, but suffice it to say, this game is a lot of fun. If you’re a fan of games like Octagon or Impossible Road, Unpossible is a no-brainer.
Pinball Arcade has been on my watch list for some time, since the developers first announced MFi controller support would be implemented. That update is finally here. While there are many iOS pinballgames, Pinball Arcade is particularly well regarded among its fan-base.
In my brief testing, both Standard and Extended controllers seem to be supported in-game, though menu control appears inconsistent. Still, it is great to finally see a pinball game with controller support – those shoulder triggers are just made for toggling flippers…
Rabbids Big Bang, the space-rabbit-launching action-puzzler from Ubisoft, was just updated for MFi controller support.
Fans of the AngryBirdsSpaceGames will feel right at home here. While Rabbids doesn’t feel quite like a clone or knock-off, the gameplay is familiar and objectives similar. You launch your character, you navigate around gravity, you collect goal and try to get a high score – straightforward stuff for mobile games.
Rabbids in space!
Rabbids shakes things up a little bit by adding a little more direct control over your animal-projectiles. The biggest innovation is the jetpack, which allows you to steer your Rabbid. Because you start the round by hitting him into orbit with a baseball bat, there’s a certain degree of spin to your character. Timing when to trigger your jetpack in accordance with which direction your character is facing adds an interesting dimension to the gameplay. Limited fuel and planetary gravity require you to act reasonably fast, which makes timing a significant factor. It’s in interesting twist to the formula, and I think quite a successful one.
On a technical level, Rabbids does not disappoint. The graphics are solid, the framerate is smooth, and the music and sound design clever. Controller support is reasonably well implemented, with both Standard and Extended format MFi controllers supported both in-game and in the menus.
Collect green jet fuel and yellow coins
The biggest negative here are the in-game ads. Quite simply, pop-up ads in a paid game are unacceptable. Making money off of gamers, then turning around and selling those gamers to advertisers is a sleazy, amoral business practice. From a strictly practical perspective, these ads (marked as “Urgent News”) are impossible to dismiss without reaching out and touching the close button on your screen – in other words, an inconvenience for iPad gamers looking to play this game with the SteelSeries Stratus controller, and a black mark on the game.
Ultimately, Rabbids Big Bang is fun. It’s a little unoriginal, but it isn’t exactly a direct copy of anything else; Rabbids establishes an identity of it’s own. If the ads were removed, it would be an easy recommendation. As it is, the App Store is full of great games with more respect for their players – take it as you will.
iOS shoot-em-up Trisector is free for a limited time in celebration of PAX. If you’re a fan of shoot-em-ups and arcade games, give this one a download – it was worth the asking price before, and for free, this is a no-brainer.
I helped with testing and coming up with ideas for the implementation of controller support here, and I can vouch for that aspect of the game – this one plays great with every available MFi controller, with full menu support and hands-free play.
The free price promotion has come to an end. Don’t let that stop you from giving it a download, though – for fans of shoot-em-ups, it’s easily worth the asking price.
