The long-awaited launch comes next week for $79.99
It has been a long, long ride, but it looks like the Moga Rebel MFi controller is finally getting close to launch!
Starting September 17th, the Moga Rebel will be available from retailers everywhere, including Apple, at a price of $79.99 – the same price as the SteelSeries Stratus and Moga Ace Power controllers.
The Moga Rebel looks like it’ll play just as well with the iPad as with the iPhone
This controller has undergone a ridiculous number of delays, possibly doing to manufacturer MOGA being closed down and folded into it’s parent company, BDAinc. The controller worked in one form or another since at least January, when it received FCC approval for sale. Since then, it has undergone a bit of visual redesign, but was still scheduled for launch at GDC this year. At least, it was, until Moga cancelled their press meetings and closed down their Facebook and Twitter presences.
Whatever happened, Moga seems to be back on track, at least in some capacity. Here’s hoping they continue designing iOS controller – it seems like they keep getting better at it.
Dock your iPhone and play
The Moga Rebel looks like it will end up being the most versatile MFi controller available. The integrated grip supports every iPhone and iPod Touch (even the iPhone 6 Plus, apparently!). Due to the use of Bluetooth, the Rebel will be fully compatible with every recent iPad model as well. No other controller works great with both the iPhone and the iPad today – the Stratus has no way to support the iPhone – so I think the Rebel is going to be the controller of choice for a lot of people.
A lot of people – myself included – have been waiting for a gaming capable Apple TV for a long time. Current rumors are inconsistent about when such a product might be released, with guesses ranging from next week to over a year from now.
The good news is, gamers don’t have to wait that long to play iOS gamers on their TV. Through a technology called Airplay, modern iPhones and iPads can beam anything displayed on their screens to any current Apple TV. This, when combined with an MFi controller, allows true touchscreen-free play of iOS games on the big screen.
Such a solution isn’t perfect, however. In its current form, Airplay limits the framerate of screen mirroring to 30fps, and introduces about a half second of lag. This, combined with the fact that reaching down to touch your iPhone’s screen while looking at your TV is incredibly awkward, restricts the number of games that really work well with Airplay.
The best games to play via Airplay must have complete touchscreen-free controller support. That means menus, gameplay, pausing – everything must work completely using only the buttons and d-pad of the controller, as if the touchscreen doesn’t exist. The framerate limit and half-second lag further removes games that require fast reflexes or precise timing. The good news is, even with these restrictions, the list of games that work great on the Apple TV is substantial.
I’ll be covering this as a series of articles, to be posted over the course of the next few weeks. If anyone out there has any suggestions for games they personally recommend for the Apple TV, don’t be afraid to let everyone know in the comments section below.
Oceanhorn is a true classic iOS game, no two ways about it. While it bares some undeniable similarities to Nintendo’s Zelda series, Oceanhorn manages to carve out an identity of it’s own. Featuring an epic storyline, excellent action-rpg gameplay, top-notch presentation, beautiful graphics and sound, and full MFi controller support, I cannot recommend this game highly enough to anyone who’s a fan of the genre; this is an absolutely essential iOS RPG.
Oceanhorn may be an action-RPG, but it’s combat is paced slowly enough that the lag associated with Airplay doesn’t really interfere much. The graphics are vibrant and colorful, which comes across excellently even with light compression. More importantly, the game just feels wonderful on the big screen. This is simply one of the best iOS games available, and playing it on the Apple TV is a great experience.
The Edge games may have been released on the App Store 6 years ago, but they don’t feel like they’ve aged a day – these are true, undeniable iPhone classics. And they always have been. The relatively straightforward gameplay of tilting a cube along a minimalistic plane, attempting to navigate obstacles and flip switches on the way to the goal, still feels as fresh now as it did in 2008.
The Edge series has had a bit of a murky history due to some trademark disputes (some jackass claimed ownership over the word Edge and tried to sue anyone who used it in a product name), but those have long-since been resolved, and the Edge games are back and better than ever. They played great on the original iPhone, they got the retina update for iPhone 4, they got Universal support for the iPad, they got widescreen support for the iPhone 5, they got iCloud support, Airplay support – anything Apple implemented, you could count on these games supporting it as first-class citizens. Now they’ve received MFi controller support, further keeping them at the absolute forefront of the Apple ecosystem.
Thanks to the developer’s responsiveness to changes in the iOS ecosystem, Edge and Edge Extended play great on every iOS device ever made, including the Apple TV, and are strong recommendation.
These two releases in the Final Fantasy series are truly great games in their own right, and they’re also notable for being the best iOS ports of the series. They also take tens of hours to complete each, and feature a level of polish that more than justifies their cost.
The graphics engine is fully 3D, rather than relying on blurry up-scaling of old sprites, like many others in the series; MFi controllers are supported both in-game and in menus, allowing for completely touchscreen-free control; the gameplay itself is turn-based, and doesn’t suffer at all from the limits of Airplay. These games come incredibly close to feeling like “true” Apple TV games, and are a strong recommendation for anyone looking to take their gaming to the big screen.
Calling Terraria a side-scrolling version of Minecraft, while not entirely inaccurate, does it a disservice. To be fair, Terraria lets you craft picks, shovels and such to craft blocks from various biomes in the environment around you, and use those to build houses, assemble crafting stations, and build weapons to fight off enemies – all standard Minecraft fare, of course. But unlike Minecraft, Terraria is structured much more in the style of a traditional game. The world has boss enemies, and much of your crafting is in preparation to face these bosses. There are special events – meteor showers, goblin raids, that sort of thing – that keep Terraria from ever feeling like the sandbox Minecraft prides itself on being.
Terraria works excellently on the Apple TV – by far the best of any game with any relation to Minecraft. It is very easy to lose yourself in the experience of playing this game on the big screen, and if you’re like me, you’ll dump A LOT of time into this one.
The Mikey series has always provided a fun, polished way to speedrun through some well designed platforming levels. The whole series is great, and plays quite well with every available MFi controller.
Mikey Shorts, the first game in the series, isn’t recommended for the Apple TV due to a lack of menu control. Mikey Boots, the newest game in the series, is excluded because it gets laughably difficult near the end even at the full 60fps framerate and no lag – playing with lag and reduced framerate would simply be masochistic. Mikey Hooks strikes a great balance of not being TOO difficult, and also playing great on the Apple TV.
Yes, I know it’s strange to see a graphically-intensive FPS on a list of games that play well with lag and reduced frame rates, but hear me out on this one. Bioshock is simply an outstanding game – often considered one of the best FPS games of all time. And something to consider is that this iOS version is already stuck with reduced graphics. The special effects have been dropped, the resolution has been reduced – not good things on their own, but when combined with the video processing required to output the game to the Apple TV, these reductions have the effect of allowing the game to still look great after video compression is applied.
It isn’t just the visuals, though. As a shooter, Bioshock tends to rely more on strategy than on precisely timed twitch reflexes. In fact, for a good deal of the game, you won’t be shooting anything at all, just experiencing a great story. In short, AirPlaying Bioshock to the Apple TV might not be the BEST way to experience it, but it certainly works, and it’s still a lot of fun.
Aztec Antics might not be as well known as some of the other games on this list, but the fact of the matter is, it is tailor-made for big screen play in a way that very few other iOS games even come close to. In addition to supporting all available MFi controllers, full menu control, and looking great even with AirPlay compression, Aztec Antics sports one huge feature that precious few iOS games have: full multiplayer support.
Thats right – connect your iPhone over AirPlay to the Apple TV, and connect up to 4 MFi controllers over Lightning or Bluetooth, and you and a group of friends can all play at the same time, trying to jump each other, collect coins, and try to obtain the highest score before the timer expires. If you’ve ever played Super Mario War, or even Super Smash Bros, you know exactly what you’re in for here.
I’ve personally played the heck out of the multiplayer here with some friends, and even helped the developer tweak and optimize for MFi controller support, and I have to say, it works great. Strongly recommended for anyone who wants to play on the big screen.
Everyone reading this has probably heard of Tomb Raider at one time or another. Heck, most people have probably played it in some form – the series has been relaunched countless times, with sequels, remakes, and everything in between. This iOS port is of the original, classic Tomb Raider 1 from the ‘90s. But far from feeling old, this port feels fresh and modern, thanks to a top-flight porting job with all the extras you’d expect out of a modern iOS game. With MFi controller support, iCloud, widescreen, improved textures, and smooth 60fps framerates, there has probably never been a better version of Tomb Raider 1 than this one.
The nature of the platforming gameplay in Tomb Raider actually lends itself well to Airplay. There has always been a level of slack given to when you need to press the jump button or the grab button – the game is forgiving about timing, and generally plays better when you enter your jump / grab / roll commands a little bit before they’re actually needed. In fact, I found that I didn’t have to change my play style much at all to compensate for the associated lag with playing on the Apple TV; the game just worked.
Frankly, Tomb Raider 1 over AirPlay probably plays about as well as the original PlayStation / Sega Saturn version did on the old tube TVs most of us played it on.
If you’ve never played the Worms games before, you’re in for a treat. You control a squad of worms with a selection of over-the-top weapons, and take turns controlling one of your worms and using it to the most damage to your opponent’s worms as possible before they take their turn. Developer Team17 has spend over a decade polishing this somewhat simple game design, and Worms 3 is the newest and best iOS game in the series.
Worms 3 plays a little different on the Apple TV than the rest of the games in this list. You don’t actually look at the Apple TV while you’re playing – it’s used as a spectator camera, just showing what your worms are doing from an outsider perspective, while you yourself look at a different picture on the iPhone’s screen. This allows you to select weapons and plan strategies without your friends actually seeing your inventory. Then after you take your turn, you hand the iPhone to the next player and watch the action on the TV.
This sort of thing actually works great for a multiplayer environment, but I wouldn’t recommend it for single player, as there’s no reason to bother AirPlaying it at all. But as long as you’re playing with some friends, Worms 3 on the Apple TV is a blast.
Across Age 2 is an action-RPG with a classical retro presentation and a time-travel mechanic that is guaranteed to appeal to fans of games like Chrono Cross. It also happens to be a really good RPG in it’s own right, with a great storyline (which doesn’t require knowledge of the first game), clever puzzles, and excellent MFi controller support.
While Across Age 2’s gameplay is action-heavy, it never really feels like timing or reaction is critical. The puzzles interspersed between the action rely on strategy more than on action. The graphical style of the game lends itself well to Airplay, with bright, colorful environments and anime style characters. If you’re looking for a deep, polished action-RPG with a retro presentation that plays great on the Apple TV, you can’t go wrong with this one.
Well that just about does it for the first installment of the Best Apple TV Games series. Don’t forget to leave questions or recommendations in the comments section below, and stay tuned for further articles in the series – there are a lot more games to cover!
Zombieville USA 2, an old-school side scrolling brawler / shooter with a modern coat of paint, was recently updated for MFi controller support.
This game follows in the tradition of Double Dragon, Metal Slug, games like that; you travel from the left side of a level to the right, fending off swarms of enemies using both melee weapons and guns, and collecting objects and powerups. It’s an old formula that would’t feel out of place in a classic arcade, but developer Mika Mobile manages to turn it into a polished and fun experience.
Blasting zombies in the USA!
Despite being several years old, this is still a great game, and one that a lot of people have been eagerly awaiting an update for. I always like seeing developers spend some time updating and polishing up older games, and in this particular instance, the inclusion of MFi controller support really serves to improve the experience of playing Zombieville USA 2.
If you haven’t picked this game up yet, now is a great opportunity. It’s a polished, fun game, and now that it supports controllers, it plays better than ever.
Wayward Souls, a top-down hack and slash action-RPG, has finally received it’s long-awaited MFi controller support update!
Fans of old-school action RPGs from the SNES days will absolutely want to give this a look. Not only does Wayward Souls bring a ridiculous amount of polish to the formula, it also incorporates more modern features such as unlockables, upgrades, and perks.
A game like this is just begging for real buttons
If you’ve already played the heck out of this game in the past, the latest update brings with it further improvements to the Endless Dungeon mode, which scales the difficulty up with a high-score format.
Developers Rocketcat Games have an interesting pricing model with Wayward Souls: with every major update, the price increments $1. The game launched at $4.99, and with the last update, the price rose to $5.99. Now that this second update has it, the price will rise to $6.99 on Monday. This policy has the dual effect of both rewarding early adopters and providing incentive for further development. But anyways, long story short, if you think you’ll enjoy Wayward Souls – and I think a lot of people will – you should buy it by Monday or it’ll cost an extra dollar.
Back To Bed, a surreal puzzle game with an isometric perspective, was just released with full MFi controller support!
Puzzle games aren’t hard to find on iOS, but Back To Bed brings a high level of polish to the table that absolutely makes it worth checking out. Gameplay seems inspired by games like Lemmings and Star Wars Pit Droids; your goal is to guide a constantly-walking sleepwalker through a dreamscape using obstacles to prevent him from falling off the edge of the level.
Dali meets Escher in an Isometric puzzler
There is a decent amount of similarity in presentation between this game and the recent classic Monument Valley, and comparisons between the two are going to be unavoidable. But there is more to the story than a simple case of “new game copies things from older classic”. In fact, Back To Bed is apparently an expanded version of a game the developers originally demonstrated in 2011, a full 2 years before Monument Valley’s release. The developers of Back to Bed then took to Kickstarted to successfully fund the expansion of Back to Bed into a full game – a process that was completed in March of 2013. One month later, Monument Valley was released to critical acclaim.
Anyways, that is not to say fans of Monument Valley won’t enjoy this game – they probably will. As will fans of puzzle games in the same vein as Lemmings. If the idea of a combination of those games sounds interesting to you – and it should, because it’s awesome – give Back to Bed a download.
Ridge Racer Slipstream, the latest game in the classic Ridge Racer series, has just been updated for MFi controller support!
Ridge Racer has been a mainstay of arcades and PlayStations for 20 years now. It strikes a great balance between fun and realism, with just the right touch of arcade gameplay to keep things interesting, without managing to turn into a combat racer.
Ridge Racer!
This iPhone edition of Ridge Racer features a mix of classic courses from other games in the series, and introduces a new “Slipstreaming” mechanic, where you can gain a significant speed boost by maintaining a position directly behind another vehicle. This adds an extra level of strategy to the more traditional mechanic, and provides a new way to catch up with an opponent in addition to your nitro.
Both Standard and Extended layout MFi controllers are supported, though only in-game. With a price tag of “Free”, it’s hard not to recommend this game to any racing game fan with an MFi controller.
SNK, a publisher of classic arcade games, is running a massive sale right now, dropping the price of their games to less than a dollar!
This sale is in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the King of Fighters series, and should be over by the end of the weekend.
There are a ton of excellent games in this sale. The King of Fighters series are classic fighting games, and all feature full MFi controller support. The Metal Slug games are some of the best shoot-em-ups ever, though only the third features MFi controller support at this time.
This sale is a great opportunity for classic arcade game fans to round out their collections.
As promised, the second update to action-RPG Wayward Souls will fully support MFi controllers, and has just been submitted to Apple. Developer Rocketcat Games took to twitter to announce it:
Wayward Souls update was submitted by the way. I’ll be able to post details on Monday. Still in Europe.
The Wayward Souls update coming up is the one with MFI support. Didn’t get cloud save sync in, but did save document exporting like in MG.
Apple’s review process lasts about a week these days, so barring an unforeseen complication, we should look forward to seeing this update hit within that timeframe.
Rocketcat Games’ pricing structure with Wayward Souls is interesting: every major update will increment the price by $1. For MFi controller fans, it might make sense to give the game a download today, before the price increase. Even without a controller, It’s a fun game, oozing with polish, and it’s worth the relatively premium price tag.
It looks like Beavertap Games, makers of the excellent Mikey Shorts and Mikey Hooks games, are about set to release their much-awaited follow-up game: Mikey Boots.
Mikey Boots is the third game in the “Mikey” trilogy, and sees the hero augmented with a set of jet boots, with gameplay shifting to a sort of cave-flyer style game – a genre that has seen renewed popularity on the back of the success of Flappy Bird.
According to TouchArcade, Mikey Boots will include “a half dozen unique environments across 42 levels, two playable characters, 230 different disguise combinations, achievements, MFi controller support, and Game Center. (Source)
Dodge fireballs by carefully timing your ascent
Both Mikey Shorts and Mikey Hooks, the previous games in the series, are excellent. Both feature MFi controller support for both Standard and Extended layouts, with Mikey Hooks featuring complete touch-free control over menus, in addition to gameplay.
Mikey Hooks is a particularly brilliant platformer, and despite it’s age, it still holds its own against newer iOS platformers quite well. But the gameplay of these previous games is much more in the vein of the traditional platformer, rather than the "hold to levitate and avoid crashing into things” mechanic re-popularized by Flappy Bird and incorporated by Mikey Boots.
Extensive character customization accompanies challenging levels
In fact, Beavertap Games developer (and frequent TouchArcade podcast contributor) Mike Meade previously joked about making the third Mikey game “Mikey Flaps” instead. That didn’t happen, and I hope I speak for everyone when I say the world is worse off for it. But considering Hodappy Bird is a thing that exists, perhaps this joke has gone far enough already.
Mikey Boots has been submitted to Apple, and barring any complications, should be available within the next few weeks.
Lunar: Silver Star Story, a classic JRPG from over 20 years ago, is about ready to receive a major update including redrawn widescreen retina graphics and MFi controller support. TouchArcade has the story.
This update was announced a long time ago, back in November of last year. Since then, it had gone unmentioned by the developers. While some feared it had been cancelled, it turns out that the depth of the graphical overhaul simply required a bit more time. The Lunar update is finally scheduled to be released within the next few weeks.
As you can see, the in-game sprites are really cleaned up and much sharper looking than they were originally. Also, since the original game was a 4:3 aspect ratio SoMoGa states that they have created “all-new artwork adjustments to provide a complete widescreen gameplay experience” for the new version of Lunar Touch. Additionally, the update will provide support for MFi controllers for those who want to play with physical controls. All in all it sounds like a really impressive update for a nearly 2 year old port of a 20+ year old game.
If everything goes as planned, we could be seeing this update within the next few weeks. Personally, I’ve been excited for this one since the announcement way back in November, so consider me excited.
