Do you have what it takes to help Mark the mole locate the elusive Terracore gem? That's the question, really, in Roo Games' recent release Mole -Quest for the Terracore Gem! [App Store].
Mole is a game that, on the surface resembles classic Dig Dug, but is really a deeper game (sorry) that's much more about scoring up in order to better equip your character than simple arcade action. In Mole, you start off as a rather ill-equipped Mark the mole that can't do much beyond burrow about the top-most layer of the six-layer underground world that hides the fabled Terracore Gem (in the deepest layer, of course). While burrowing, you can pick up various precious metals and gems, and they can be used to up your gear in the equip shop — and better gear is what really opens up the game. It's a gear-to-gameplay dynamic that's reminiscent of that in Hook Champ.
The aforementioned shop offers air tanks, pick axes, gem detectors, and the like for the player with enough metal. All of them help you on your quest, but the most important upgrade would have to be the air tanks, for, despite the occasional pockets of air that can be found in some (but not all) of the underground layers, you're not going to get very deep without some serious tankage. And the Terracore Gem lies deep.
The game offers very simplistic controls that work quite well; tap out some distance from your mole and he'll move there or just hold and drag in the direction you want to travel. The arrangement of on-screen indicators can be adjusted for left or right players, as well.
See the developer's gameplay video.
This is one of those games that delivers just a really nice balance between light playfield strategy (how deep should you go with your limited oxygen supply?) and asset allocation (how best to spend money in the shop?). If break-neck arcade action is what you're after, then Mole – Quest for the Terracore Gem! will disappoint, but for the gamer that can weigh risks and keep their eye on the goal, this one is a true hidden gem.
In honor of the Game Developers Conference 2010, Mole is free until Sunday, March 14th.
Late last year Volkswagen teamed up with Firemint to bring us Real Racing GTI [Free], a cleverly disguised free demo of Real Racing [$4.99] loaded with VW cars and branding that is still totally worth downloading if you haven't tried out Real Racing yet.
VW's most recent collaboration was just released today, this time working with Fish Labs to bring us what appears to be some kind of crazy economical driving edutainment game that appears to share a similar game engine to their previously released Rally Master Pro 3D [$4.99]. In Volkswagen Think Blue. Challenge [Free], instead of racing as quickly as you can, players are forced to drive economically.
As silly as this sounds for a video game, doing well is actually quite challenging. You start the game with a small amount of gas, and with each checkpoint you come to, you're asked an often obvious question about fuel efficiency to get more fuel. You then try to drive as far as you can with the amount of gas the game gives you. This means intelligent throttle management, coasting down hills, taking turns properly to not lose speed, and other economical driving techniques the game explains for you.
When you finally run out of gas, your distance is submitted to a global online leaderboard showing how far the world's most economical drivers have gotten in the game. Initially I just wrote Volkswagen Think Blue. Challenge off as a marketing gimmick, but after playing a few games it's really kind of neat how the game encourages highly technical driving. So often in driving games you're able to just go all out, bounce through corners and off other cars with little if any penalty at all and this is a nice, albeit fairly odd, change of pace.
Volkswagen Think Blue. Challenge is free, and who knows, you might even learn something about economical driving that could end up saving you money on gas in your own car. If you like the graphics in the game and how it calls out turns for you, be sure to check out Fish Labs' game this seems to be based on, Rally Master Pro which we posted a review on when it was first released.
Turn-based strategy gameUniWar has gone free today. Uniwar came out in mid 2009 and has since seen numerous updates since that time.
UniWar tips its hat at both the StarCraft and Advance Wars series with three playable races that each have slightly different advantages and disadvantages while waging a turn based war on a hex grid.
We loved the game when it was introduced as it was one of the few asynchronous online multiplayer games available on the iPhone. The game now supports push notifications so you know when it's your turn.
If you somehow missed picking up this game so far, now's the perfect time while it's free.
I'm really not even sure what to make of Gundead Defense [App Store]. It's a free tower defense game set in 1885 where cowboys are battling zombies in the wild west. While the premise is beyond ridiculous, the gameplay is extremely solid and it even features some functionality I haven't seen in other tower defense games before.
Gundead Defense follows the standard tower defense formula in that there are creeps traveling down a set path that you need to defend. Instead of placing towers, you position members of your posse armed with different kinds of weapons. You can also dispatch different henchmen down the path to fight with the creeps to supplement your defenses, which creates this interesting second layer of strategy to the game as you not only need to manage placing and upgrading members of your posse, but you also must strategically order your henchmen to attack to exploit the weaknesses of the various zombie types.
In addition, there's also a multiplayer mode where you can either play on a single device, or with two devices via Bluetooth. When playing via Bluetooth, both players play at once on a split map and you can see where your opponent is placing towers and everything. It's really cool, and again, I can't believe they're not charging for any of this.
The included single player has seven maps and features both a quick play mode and a story mode that focuses on your posse robbing a bank and being jumped by zombies. There's also a single 99¢ DLC level pack that adds an additional seven maps and allows you to play as the zombies who have completely different abilities. Purchasing the DLC pack also will let you play as the zombies in multiplayer.
I've been having a great time with Gundead Defense, and highly recommend downloading it. If you somehow haven't played a tower defense game before, this freebie is an excellent introduction to the genre.
In early February we were tipped off to a mysterious announcement on Ubisoft's web site regarding a multiplayer Assassin's Creed game exclusive to the iPhone and iPod touch. Last night Assassin's Creed II: Multiplayer [App Store] was released, along with the surprising promotional price point: Free for the next 48 hours.
AC2: Multiplayer initially appears to be an extremely simple game. Players are matched with other assassins online, and then pick up assassination targets to determine which player they need to kill. Following this, you wander around town until you find them, then tap to assassinate. Doing well in a game seems to actually require a surprising amount of skill, as you need to walk with the other civilians around town, matching their movement as much as possible, all the while looking for other civilians who are moving irregularly or are somewhere they wouldn't normally be.
The game is loaded with several different power-ups, online leaderboards, a friends system, and other cool unexpected features. It's even under 20MB, so you can download it over 3G. In two days it's going back to its normal price of $2.99, so be sure you grab this game while it's still free.
Much like Eliminate and TouchPets Dogs, ngmoco's We Rule launched first in Canada this afternoon. Since We Rule heavily relies on the Plus+ network, this limited Canadian release is allowing ngmoco to make sure they've got all their servers working properly before the game is unleashed to the rest of the world. They haven't said when they're going to throw the switch to allow everyone else to download We Rule, but looking back at the limited Canadian releases of previous ngmoco games, it wouldn't surprise me to see We Rule in the US App Store sometime next week.
We Rule is a kingdom building game, somewhat similar to the massively popular Facebook game Farmville. Here's what we had to say about the game from our hands-on preview at Macworld San Francisco:
The game map shows you your kingdom as well as the kingdom of your Plus+ contacts. Scrolling across the map shows you the relative size of everyone's kingdoms. The goal of the game is to build up your community as much as possible, but with the added twist that your own kingdom can be customized with a number of special cosmetic tweaks. These tweaks will make your kingdom truly unique and personalized.
The game consists of alternating between your daily activities of harvesting or otherwise managing your resources while building up new houses, farms, and businesses. Your kingdom will be bustling with activity from townspeople as it grows, though unlike God Finger, you don't actually have individual control of the inhabitants. …Read More.
We'll have a review of sorts when the game hits the US App Store, but in the meantime, if you're lucky enough to have a Canadian iTunes account and are looking to add kingdoms to your network, my Plus+ username is simply "Eli". (Although because of how the Plus+ search works, you're probably better off searching for "Hodapp" or "Eli Hodapp".)
Admittedly, my kingdom is fairly pitiful right now.
If it weren't obvious by now, ngmoco has completely shifted gears from their former business model of offering "premium" priced games to free to play "freemium" games. Eliminate [Free] and Touch Pets Dogs [Free] were just the start of the pricing trend that will likely permeate the rest of the ngmoco game lineup for the foreseeable future.
A number of things can be attributed to this shift, in a Gamasutra interview with ngmoco VP Alan Yu, he cited 50% to 90% piracy rates, and discussed the increasing difficulty in selling iPhone games at a $9.99 price point as the market drives itself to rock-bottom 99¢ pricing. Free games can't be pirated, and the explosion of Facebook gaming, as well as the success of the various Epic Wars and other similar games on the App Store solidified the validity of the free to play model before Eliminate even launched.
The unfortunate side effect of all this is that Rolando 3 as it originally was envisioned is left as the odd man out, per an IGN interview with Neil Young, founder and CEO of ngmoco. Since ngmoco currently has no plans to release games that aren't free, the Rolando franchise has been sent back to the drawing board until they can figure out a sensible way to deliver a Rolando game as a free to play experience.
Even though there may not be a Rolando 3 anytime soon, I still recommend trying out the existing Rolando games on the App Store if you haven't already. The original Rolando [$2.99 / Free] as well as Rolando 2 [$4.99 / Free] are both absolutely fantastic games, making excellent use of both the touch and tilt controls of the iPhone.
Free games are almost as awesome as free samples at the grocery store, or maybe more awesome depending on how you look at it. Three cool games are free today, and like most price changes, they will only be free for a short period of time so it's best not to wait before downloading these games.
Alchemize looks to be a simple match 3, but the gameplay is actually quite complex with all kinds of things to unlock, different game modes, and other surprises. We liked the game in our review, and it's really worth checking out to see how they managed to mix up the match 3 formula.
While I wasn't really crazy about this naval tower defense game when it was first released, it has since been updated a ton with all kinds new content, gameplay tweaks, achievements, and OpenFeint integration with online leaderboards.
Where most word finding games have you frantically searching for words to beat a timer, Textropolis has much more laid back gameplay that allows players to search for words made from the letters found in the names of 30 different included cities at their own pace. If you like Textropolis, check out the sequel, Fishtropolis [$1.99] as well.
Well, readers, that special day is upon us. It's Valentine's Day. And what better way to share our love with our readers — who are certainly glued to the website, the App Store, and their iPhones, rather than out weaving a web of romance with someone special — than to underscore a few Valentine-savvy iPhone games?
Makeout Mania! is a "chain-reaction puzzler" that puts you in the role of that love-spreading cherub, Cupid, on a mission to pierce the heart of a school full of unsuspecting students with your arrows of love, sending them on a frenzied bid to kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss.
The title offers 24 levels of gameplay in Puzzle Mode, where the mission is to pierce a heart and make the perfect match (consult the yearbook to see who's nuts about who) while avoiding the teachers at all cost. There's also Mania Mode where it's a race against the clock to trigger the most kisses possible in an ever-scrolling schoolhouse, with the option to compete against your Facebook and Plus+ friends.
Free, new levels are on the way and an update has been submitted that tweaks a few areas of gameplay.
A big part of Valentine's Day, for those of us that don't spend all our time playing iPhone games, is flowers. And, thanks to Noel Llopis of SnappyTouch, you can have your own lovely flower garden right inside your iPhone.
As we said in our initial review of the app, Flower Garden is not really a game. It does, however, fall into the same sim / virtual pet type experience that has boosted apps such as Koi Pond,Pocket God and Touch Pets Dogs to the heights of popularity in the App Store.
There's no real goal to Flower Garden. It's something of a zen-like experience, really. Grow flowers. Unlock new seeds. Clip flowers to make bouquets. And it's the last that really puts this game under the Valentine's Day crosshairs; you can make a lovely bouquet and email it to someone special. Basically, it turns your iPhone into a digital Cupid, with email for arrows. And, to make things even sweeter, the game is currently under a 60%-off weekend-only Valentine's Day sale at $0.99.
Everybody's played a whack-a-mole game, in one form or another. It's a pretty simple formula: the mole pops up out of its hole and you whack it. And, who doesn't like to bludgeon moles? Especially when the damned things are trying to ruin Valentine's Day!
Whac-a-Mole: Whacky Valentines is basically a Valentine-themed version of the iPhone original [App Store] which is, as such games go, a pretty solid take on the whack-a-mole formula. Amusingly, the digital backboard of the game provides the occasional (though highly simplistic) mini-game — a nice touch.
I'd go into further description of the title but…it's free, so just download it and start whacking.
Virtual pet buffs need not be left out in the cold on this day of love and merriment. Ngmoco is currently offering a Valentine's Goodies Pack as paid in-game DLC ($2.99) in Touch Pets Dogs for those that want to lavish their v-pooch with as much love as can be.
What do you get when you cross line drawing with a pack of hungry lions? Lion Pride [App Store], of course. As OpenFeint's free game of the day, you really don't want to miss this strange warthog munching simulator.
The premise of the game is simple, you control a pack of lions and need to gather food for the rest of your pride. Thankfully, in this corner of the African savanna there seems to be a constant stream of warthogs, gazelles, and other beasts to munch on. Similar to Draw Race, you control the speed of the lions by how fast you draw lines from them on screen. Sneaking up on animals is important to keep them from running off, so you start by moving your lions slowly, then quickly go in for the kill. If something starts to get away, tapping twice on them will briefly stun them.
As you get further in to the game, you get more lions to control and tougher prey which needs to be attacked by multiple lions in order to be brought down. Lions need to be positioned to work as a team to all strike at once, and if any wandering hyenas come on screen they need to be scared off to prevent them from disrupting your food supply.
I really liked Lion Pride when we first took a look at it, and since then they've added additional game modes and all kinds of OpenFeint functionality to give the game tons of replay value through achievements and friends challenges. There's even fun facts about lions in game, how can you go wrong?
Do you have what it takes to help Mark the mole locate the elusive Terracore gem? That's the question, really, in Roo Games' recent release Mole - Quest for the Terracore Gem! [App Store].
Late last year 
In early February we were tipped off to 
If it weren't obvious by now, ngmoco has completely shifted gears from their former business model of offering "premium" priced games to free to play "freemium" games. Eliminate [
Free games are almost as awesome as free samples at the grocery store, or maybe more awesome depending on how you look at it. Three cool games are free today, and like most price changes, they will only be free for a short period of time so it's best not to wait before downloading these games.
What do you get when you cross line drawing with a pack of hungry lions? Lion Pride [
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