Have you ever wanted a tank combat game where the tanks are driven by cats? That was a rhetorical question: Yes you have.
KatzePanzer is a little rough around the edges, but it manages to be amusing. It’s free, no ads, includes Game Center leaderboards, support for Extended controllers, and importantly, delivers exactly on what it promises: cat-based tank combat. If that sounds like something you’d like to spend a few minutes involved with, give it a shot.
Japanese shoot-em-up Deathsmiles (also available in a Lite version) was just updated for game controller support!
DeathSmiles is a fast-paced side-scrolling action game that tasks you to shoot down swarms of enemies, dodge tons of bullets, and collect power ups. It plays similarly to the excellent ports of classic shooters that have recently been released, though with a more updated aesthetic and presentation – this is NOT a port of a game from the 80s, but a brand new game in the same style.
Cave charges a lot for their games, but they have a niche. They make great quality, difficult, fun shooters with a classic arcade feel. Not everyone is going to spend the asking price on this game, but this game isn’t for everyone. If you’re the type of player who plays every arcade shoot-em-up you can find, and who loves japanese arcade games, this is for you. It’s a beautiful, well-executed, and fun entry into a genre that has been mostly ignored for years.
Freemium castle-defense-and-raid game Royal Revolt 2 has just been updated for game controller support.
Games like this have become very popular on the App Store since Clash of Clans exploded in popularity. With its continued dominance over the Top Grossing chart, it’s no surprise that similar games would riff on the successful formula. Royal Revolt does just that, though with a degree of polish that might just be enough for it to eke out a place of its own.
The formula here doesn’t stray far from the traditional “raid some other guy’s castle and buy defenses for your own” system, neither in gameplay nor in monetization. You lead a hero on an assault on a series of towers and troops owned by another player. You have the ability to summon other minions to fight with you and use special attacks, all with the ultimate goal of destroying the enemy’s castle. Doing so earns you gold, which you use to buy buildings, level abilities, and train troops. Each of those activities has an associated timer, which you can speed up by using a premium currency – gems.
Currency comes quickly and goes far at first, long enough to get you hooked into the game. Then it trickles more sparingly, and buildings take longer and longer to be constructed. If the idea of having to wait to play your game doesn’t sound like a fun gameplay mechanic, you’re right, it isn’t designed to be fun for the player – it exists entirely to drive sales of the premium currency. If you aren’t a fan of monetization like this, it’s unlikely that this game will change your mind.
Royal Revolt 2 has a high degree of polish in its presentation, and the price to entry – free – is certainly nothing to complain about. Fans of freemium social games should give this one a shot. For the rest of us, being able to command your hero with a controller isn’t enough to overcome addiction-based monetization and aggressive, fun-delaying timers.
Mobile World Congress is among us, and a new iOS7 game controller has been announced! This time, Mad Catz – longtime maker of third party controllers and gaming accessories – is trying their hand at the iPhone.
This new controller, called C.T.R.L.i, is an iOS version of their C.T.R.L. android controller, and will be one of the first full-size iOS controllers hitting the market. Heres what we know, about it:
For iPad gamers looking for a full-size controller option, this might just fit the bill.
The Metal Slug Series – Metal Slug 3, specifically, so far – has finally received it’s long-awaited update for MFi controller support!
These games have been on my shortlist since the day the program was announced. And with good reason – these are fast-paced, high tension shooters that require quick reflexes and delicate movements. If you don’t think any of this lends itself to touchscreen gaming, you’re right – The Metal Slug games are frustrating to play with touch.
Enter the game controllers. Developers SNK Playmore and porter Dotemu have partnered on several other App Store releases – Blazing Star, R-Type, R-Type II, the Double Dragon series, two different King of Fighters games – with that record, it was only a matter of time until Metal Slug got the update
Fans of arcade games and side-scrolling shooters, just trust me on this one. I dumped way more quarters than they’re asking for now into this game at various points in my life. This is a true classic of the genre, one of the best arcade games in the App Store, and an easy recommendation.
Install the latest firmware update to fix button input issues
SteelSeries has today released a firmware update for the SteelSeries Stratus MFi controller.
This update was released to fix the previously reported issues regarding button lag. Iâve been running an earlier version of this firmware for a few days now, and Iâm happy to report that the problems seem completely solved.
If you encounter any difficulties updating, Iâll be happy to help – or you can head on over to SteelSeriesâ website for more information.
Tired of Flappy Bird yet? No? Really? Are you SURE?
Well fine, if you say so… Flappy Bird inspired side-scroller Die in a Fire was just released, and marks the first Flappy Bird clone with MFi controller support.
For the less than 1% of you who are unfamiliar with how these games are played, you tap the button to make your character flap slightly higher in the air, and you try to dodge the obstacles for as long as you can until you inevitably crash into one of them and restart the level. It’s extremely simple, but strangely addicting. And now you can play with a controller.
Diversion, a side-scrolling 2.5D platformer by Ezone, was just updated for MFi controller support. It joins their other recently updated games Crazy Snowboard and Snow Spin in supporting game controllers.
Diversion is a side-scrolling platformer with a similar graphical presentation and level design to the classic Pandemonium series. In practice, it plays more like one of the iOS Rayman games or Pitfall – your character automatically runs from the beginning of the course to the end, and your control consists of telling the character when to jump and when to use special abilities. It actually plays really well in practice – despite the simplification in control, the levels can get challenging. Collecting all 3 stars in each level isn’t always easy, and requires technique and timing.
Diversion is free to play with ads, combined with somewhat unnecessary “Extra life” tokens right out of an arcade machine, and supplemented with “Gem” currency that can be used to unlock alternate costumes. Any purchase of anything disables the ads. In practice, this is one of the least offensive examples of the “freemium” model that i’ve seen. You can play everything without paying a dime, you’ll probably want to replay a level rather than use a continue token anyways if you’re going for score, and you get plenty of gems just by playing.
In addition to MFi controller support, Diversion features iCloud saves, Game Center achievements, video sharing, universal iPhone and iPad compatibility, over 200 levels across 7 worlds, and over 700 characters – certainly an impressive list of features.
This game is an easy recommendation to fans of auto-runners and side-scrolling platformers. It’s free to play, and If you like the game, you can purchase something to remove the ads – thanks to a fair payment model, that’ll probably be the last purchase you have to make.
Classic iOS platformer Mikey Hooks now supports MFi game controllers. With this update, Mikey Hooks joins the previously released (and excellent) Mikey Shorts in having controller support.
Both Mikey Hooks and Mikey Shorts are excellent games, even without controller support. I’ve been working on a full review of Mikey Shorts which I’ll be posting soon, but for fans of classic side-scrolling platforming games, I can absolutely recommend downloading both of these games.
Police-chase action game Smash Cops Heat has been updated to support MFi game controllers.
Smash Cops has a really cool premise – the game tasks you with driving a police car on a mission to take down criminals and navigate crime scenes, and presents it in the form of a live news broadcast about the events you’re experiencing. Aside from looking and feeling really cool, this allows the current mission objectives to be laid out cleverly, with a cinematic presentation.
Controls work reasonably well, in-game and in menus, with one exception: driving forward is handled by holding forward on the DPad or analog stick. While this works great with the analog sticks of the Extended layout controllers, holding forward and turning at the same time with the D-Pad feels a little more difficult than it should. It is not a deal-killer, but the game does play better with the Extended pads.
No matter which controller you have, this is still absolutely worth a download. It’s polished, fun, and free to play.