Post: iPhone
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01-28-2009, 02:50 AM
#1
AgentJon
Former Staff
Originally posted by another user
Archon Coming to iPhone
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Retro on iPhone
The App Store is a true marketplace of ideas, where puzzlers compete for eyeballs with driving games. There is still a Wild West mentality to iPhone gaming with developers feeling out not just what concepts and ideas work best on the platform, but also what kinds of games players really want for the device. This has lead to puzzle games about untangling wires, shooters made out of clay, and attempts to squeeze hardcore videogames on to the new platform. It's also inspired a lot of smaller developers to look to the past for inspiration -- to a time when gamplay was king because, well, the graphics sure weren't going to save a poor concept.
While there are plenty of retro games on the App Store right now, such as Pac-Man and Frogger (and a questionably legal port of Duck Hunt), iPhone gamers are also seeing a rise of neo-retro games. These are games based entirely on tried-and-true mechanics from yesteryear, like a classic platformer or shooter. Not all neo-retro games look like the classics. Many dress up old ideas in new clothes for an audience that may not exactly appreciate the aesthetics of the 8-bit generation... or even farther back.
One of the most popular arcade games in 1983 was Star Wars: The Arcade Game by Atari. By this point, most arcade games were sprite-based. But Atari decided the vector art that fueled classics like Asteroids and Battlezone was appropriate for recreating the cockpit view of an X-Wing fighter going foil to foil with the Empire's TIE fighters above the surface of the Death Star. This aesthetic is recreated in Act1's 80s Galaxy, a space shooter constructed entirely of vectors.
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It isn't just the retro look that 80s Galaxy borrows from the arcade classics. 80s Galaxy is also built on a very simple gameplay concept: blow up everything. As you pilot your starfighter through the cosmos, you must shoot down enemy craft as they swirl around you. To fire, you simply tap the enemy. Some foes require more than one shot to destroy. Your enemies fire back, too. Yellow shots streak toward you. When they turn red, they are about to slam into your ship. You must swipe them aside with your fingers. So, the game becomes a balancing attack to tapping ships to shoot them and swiping away bullets just before they hit you, which in turn takes attention away from shooting enemies before they fire out you.
Role-playing games have changed significantly over the years. What is considered an RPG now is really more of a scripted story than a tale you have any true control over. Chillingo's Dungeon & Hero is a great throwback to the classic RPGs of the eighties that weren't so event-based. Instead, you take on the role of a knight, elf, or wizard and just level-up your way through a fantasy-themed adventure.
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Dungeon & Hero is more action-oriented than the turned-based fighting of the old Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior games for the NES. This is more akin to the Ys series. You move through the world -- dressed delightfully in the duds of a Super NES RPG -- targeting monsters with an on-screen attack button. Hopefully, that sounds appealing to you, because that is the core of Dungeon & Hero: fighting. The game is very much a grind for experience and special items, pausing occasionally to assign skill points to your character's traits and abilities.
Dungeon & Hero is flanked by Com2Us' Chronicles of Inotia: Legend of Fearnor, another old-style RPG where you grind up your character from humble origins. There is plenty of monster hunting, gold hoarding, shop browsing, and level upping for the hardcore RPG fan. Inotia also has a cool virtual pet system where you raise up a companion that helps your character out in situations.
If you have a soft spot in your heart for classic Amiga action games, then Liquid Air Lab's Rick Rocketson will likely be a welcome addition to your iPhone/iPod Touch. This is very much a classic run-and-gun actioner from 1988, complete with a silly story about the heroic Rick having to fight space hedgehogs and the asteroid Blob 5. (If you were gaming in 1988, this kind of purposefully goofy backstory will feel very familiar. If you weren't, then just know that before games got all serious, stuff like "space hedgehogs" was par for the course.)
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Rick Rocketson is a fast-paced action game on a platform that has struggled to deliver good controls for the genre. Hero of Sparta did a great job replicating an analog stick on-screen and Rick Rocketson does an equally solid job recreating a d-pad. The left-right axis appears on the lower-left corner of the screen. The up-down axis is on the right, joined by the laser gun and grenade buttons. After just a stage, you'll get the hang of it. The split pad means you can run and jump without trying to guess precisely where the 45-degree angle between up and to the side if the d-pad was whole.
The game employs many of the sensibilities of classic action games, with precision jumps and enemies paced just right that it makes sense when to use each weapon. And it looks like it stepped right off the Amiga, too. Also cool: Rick Rocketson's music was composed by Amiga musicians Tempest and Reed.
Originally posted by another user
The classic Archon is en route to the iPhone. Today, React! Games announced that it is currently developing an iPhone edition of the Electronic Arts retro favorite to flank Mac and PC versions also in the works. According to React!, Archon will pop on touch screens in the second quarter of 2009. So get ready for a little basilisk-on-unicorn action just in time for the flowers to bloom.
Archon will feature Wi-Fi multiplayer, leaderboards, and a single-player mode with a little something extra -- although React! isn't ready to announce what that surprise is just yet.
"We're very excited for this platform, its ease of development and user base. Initial tests confirm that the touchscreen and accelerometer will be a fun and interesting experience for everyone," said Chad Lee, founder of React! Games.
Lee just gave us a few hints about the game right there -- it will use both touch and tilt. How will tilt be used in the battle sequences?
Archon will feature Wi-Fi multiplayer, leaderboards, and a single-player mode with a little something extra -- although React! isn't ready to announce what that surprise is just yet.
"We're very excited for this platform, its ease of development and user base. Initial tests confirm that the touchscreen and accelerometer will be a fun and interesting experience for everyone," said Chad Lee, founder of React! Games.
Lee just gave us a few hints about the game right there -- it will use both touch and tilt. How will tilt be used in the battle sequences?
You must login or register to view this content.
Retro on iPhone
The App Store is a true marketplace of ideas, where puzzlers compete for eyeballs with driving games. There is still a Wild West mentality to iPhone gaming with developers feeling out not just what concepts and ideas work best on the platform, but also what kinds of games players really want for the device. This has lead to puzzle games about untangling wires, shooters made out of clay, and attempts to squeeze hardcore videogames on to the new platform. It's also inspired a lot of smaller developers to look to the past for inspiration -- to a time when gamplay was king because, well, the graphics sure weren't going to save a poor concept.
While there are plenty of retro games on the App Store right now, such as Pac-Man and Frogger (and a questionably legal port of Duck Hunt), iPhone gamers are also seeing a rise of neo-retro games. These are games based entirely on tried-and-true mechanics from yesteryear, like a classic platformer or shooter. Not all neo-retro games look like the classics. Many dress up old ideas in new clothes for an audience that may not exactly appreciate the aesthetics of the 8-bit generation... or even farther back.
One of the most popular arcade games in 1983 was Star Wars: The Arcade Game by Atari. By this point, most arcade games were sprite-based. But Atari decided the vector art that fueled classics like Asteroids and Battlezone was appropriate for recreating the cockpit view of an X-Wing fighter going foil to foil with the Empire's TIE fighters above the surface of the Death Star. This aesthetic is recreated in Act1's 80s Galaxy, a space shooter constructed entirely of vectors.
You must login or register to view this content.
It isn't just the retro look that 80s Galaxy borrows from the arcade classics. 80s Galaxy is also built on a very simple gameplay concept: blow up everything. As you pilot your starfighter through the cosmos, you must shoot down enemy craft as they swirl around you. To fire, you simply tap the enemy. Some foes require more than one shot to destroy. Your enemies fire back, too. Yellow shots streak toward you. When they turn red, they are about to slam into your ship. You must swipe them aside with your fingers. So, the game becomes a balancing attack to tapping ships to shoot them and swiping away bullets just before they hit you, which in turn takes attention away from shooting enemies before they fire out you.
Role-playing games have changed significantly over the years. What is considered an RPG now is really more of a scripted story than a tale you have any true control over. Chillingo's Dungeon & Hero is a great throwback to the classic RPGs of the eighties that weren't so event-based. Instead, you take on the role of a knight, elf, or wizard and just level-up your way through a fantasy-themed adventure.
You must login or register to view this content.
Dungeon & Hero is more action-oriented than the turned-based fighting of the old Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior games for the NES. This is more akin to the Ys series. You move through the world -- dressed delightfully in the duds of a Super NES RPG -- targeting monsters with an on-screen attack button. Hopefully, that sounds appealing to you, because that is the core of Dungeon & Hero: fighting. The game is very much a grind for experience and special items, pausing occasionally to assign skill points to your character's traits and abilities.
Dungeon & Hero is flanked by Com2Us' Chronicles of Inotia: Legend of Fearnor, another old-style RPG where you grind up your character from humble origins. There is plenty of monster hunting, gold hoarding, shop browsing, and level upping for the hardcore RPG fan. Inotia also has a cool virtual pet system where you raise up a companion that helps your character out in situations.
If you have a soft spot in your heart for classic Amiga action games, then Liquid Air Lab's Rick Rocketson will likely be a welcome addition to your iPhone/iPod Touch. This is very much a classic run-and-gun actioner from 1988, complete with a silly story about the heroic Rick having to fight space hedgehogs and the asteroid Blob 5. (If you were gaming in 1988, this kind of purposefully goofy backstory will feel very familiar. If you weren't, then just know that before games got all serious, stuff like "space hedgehogs" was par for the course.)
You must login or register to view this content.
Rick Rocketson is a fast-paced action game on a platform that has struggled to deliver good controls for the genre. Hero of Sparta did a great job replicating an analog stick on-screen and Rick Rocketson does an equally solid job recreating a d-pad. The left-right axis appears on the lower-left corner of the screen. The up-down axis is on the right, joined by the laser gun and grenade buttons. After just a stage, you'll get the hang of it. The split pad means you can run and jump without trying to guess precisely where the 45-degree angle between up and to the side if the d-pad was whole.
The game employs many of the sensibilities of classic action games, with precision jumps and enemies paced just right that it makes sense when to use each weapon. And it looks like it stepped right off the Amiga, too. Also cool: Rick Rocketson's music was composed by Amiga musicians Tempest and Reed.
Hope you have an iphone
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