Studio Radiolaris has released their followup title to Radio Flare this morning. Radio Flare Redux promises a side-scrolling multi-touch shoot'em up experience.
Pilot your ship to the beat of the universe and blast a galaxy of invaders out of the sky. Weave through an intense sensory onslaught as you dispatch swarm after swarm of enemies, tapping the touchscreen, and your toes, as you go.
Redux contains over 30 levels of varying visual styles and licensed techno, club and house music. The latest gameplay video shows much enhanced visuals from the original release:
We'll post thoughts/impressions about the game in the near future.
There are a lot of crazy rhythm games on the App Store, including the recently released Thumpies, but Bulkypix's Maestro Green Groove takes the cake in being the most insane musical game I've played so far on my iPhone.
Maestro Green Groove is a crazy combination of a beat matching and platforming. You control a pink duck who struts along the level, and by swiping up or down you pluck the rope he's running across to make him either jump or fall down. Fruit are scattered throughout the level, and each fruit you pick up plays a musical note. Also, there are special strings that glow which must be strummed by swiping across them just as the glow is completely fading. To make things even more complicated, various monsters pop up which must be tapped to eliminate at the same time the circle that appears comes in to contact with them.
If you manage to do all these things at the right time, you'll actually be playing a piece of classical music. The way it all flows together is nuts, and there is so much going on at once that you're frantically swiping your finger and tapping that the first few times you go through a song there's little you can do to not end up failing and having to do it over again. After a little practice, you're bombing through levels watching your smug smiling duck parade around as you bust out Beethoven's 5th. It's awesome.
Here's a video of me doing poorly:
According to Bulkypix, Maestro Green Groove is "nearly ready" to be launched on the App Store, and when it finally appears for download it will be priced at 99¢.
It takes a lot to stand out amongst the crowded rhythm game section of the App Store (or any section of the App Store, really) but Big Blue Bubble's Thumpies [App Store] manages to easily set it self apart. Crazy graphics combine with an interesting gameplay mechanic where each level has you tapping out beats that layer on top of each other until you've eventually formed a fairly complex song.
The most immediately noticeable thing about Thumpies is the art style which seems to be this odd combination of Where the Wild Things Are, the Madballs toys from the 80's, and the Fire Gang from the movie Labyrinth. The entire game is dripping in whimsical charm between the sprawling tree that makes up the level select menu, butterflies fluttering around everywhere, and even the backgrounds of each level that pulse with the beat of the music.
After selecting one of the unlocked songs (of which there are 16 in total) and then choosing one of three difficulties, the Thumpies will then fall from the sky to bounce on top of tree stumps and mushrooms and you must tap the screen when and where they land. This is simple enough when there is only one spherical creature bopping around the screen, but as the songs increase in difficulty, even more pads for the Thumpies to land on are introduced along with additional Thumpies you will need to manage at once.
If you're like me and not particularly musically minded, juggling all these Thumpies in the air to the beat of the song (especially when Thumpies are landing on half-beats) can be deceptively difficult. On top of this, there are additional Thumpies that can be unlocked by collecting and saving up differently colored butterflies that will be floating around as you're tapping out your beat. As soon as they appear on screen you need to try to tap them because if one of the Thumpies flies by them they will munch the butterfly right out of the air.
Completing each section of the song requires you to fill the meter at the top of the screen. The meter increases when you successfully tap in time with the beat, and decreases when you miss a beat. When the meter is full, the Thumpies cheer, the portion of the song you just completed where you were tapping out the bass beat merges with the rest background music, and you begin the next section of the song which might have you tapping out some crazy vocals to add. When a song is complete, you're scored on your accuracy, and the next song (or songs) leading up the branches of the level select tree is unlocked.
Thumpies is an amazingly creative game, and thanks to the multiple difficulty levels should be approachable enough for kids and challenging enough for adults. The thread in our forums is filled with people who are leaving absolutely glowing reviews of the game, and I find myself in agreement with all of them. If you enjoy rhythm games at all, you really need to give Thumpies a spin.
Last week was absolutely loaded with sneak previews of games, and thanks to the wonderfully fast App Store approval turnaround time so far this year, B-Boy Beats, Robot Rampage, and Drift Sumi-e are all available for download.
The gameplay of B-Boy Beats amounts to keeping your index and middle fingers on the screen of your iPhone and moving them in time with the red and green circles to dance to the songs. This actually seems to take quite a bit of getting used to, as instead of most rhythm games where you're just tapping things along with a beat, you often need to keep one finger down while you move the other one around. Doing well takes an awful lot of brain power as when the songs speed up you almost instinctively just try to go back to quickly tapping like you do in Tap Tap Revenge and other games.
Despite quite a few naysayers in both the comments of our preview article, YouTube comments, and the forum thread, this game is one of the better rhythm games I've played on the iPhone largely because of how different it feels playing it compared to the typical tap to the beat rhythm game. B-Boy Beats comes loaded with nerdcore and once you get in to the gameplay, dancing with your fingers is a lot of fun. (And even more fun if you draw some Nike Dunks on your finger tips.) This is a game that badly needs a lite version, as you really need to get a feel for the game to fully appreciate it.
Robot Rampage is a seemingly endless survival game where you play as a gigantic robot armed with a super laser. Your massive robot is controlled with a variety of touch gestures. Tapping on the side of the screen causes the robot to move in that direction, holding a finger down on the screen fires the laster in that direction. The robot can also punch and stomp by tapping on either side of the robot's torso to punch, and tapping its legs to stomp. As you destroy your surroundings, a gauge in the top left corner fills up. Once full, you can tap and hold the robot to charge up a massive attack that clears the screen.
If you like giant robots, cheesy Sci-Fi B-movies, and destroying cities with huge lasers and robot fists of fury, it's safe to say you'll enjoy this quirky survival game. Gameplay is a little on the simple side, as all you do is rampage through a seemingly endless and random cityscape destroying buildings, soldiers, tanks, and other meager human defenses. OpenFeint integration should provide quite a bit of replay value if you enjoy competing in online leaderboards.
The game involves drawing a single stroke along the racetrack as the path for your car. You must try to hit and connect all the red clipping zones and try to make it through the course as fast as possible. After you draw your single stroke, you sit back and watch the playback in 3D as your car drifts around the corners. Multiple camera angles are provided along with drifting smoke effects. Your ultimate score is based on the smoothness of the line and speed of your run.
Drift Sumi-e is an interesting blend of gameplay reminiscent of Draw Race with a really cool looking sumi-e art style. Gameplay is simple, although it seems to take a back seat to the extremely elegant graphics as most of the game is spent watching your car drift around corners and taking snapshots with the unlockable in-game camera.
Tag Games, creators of Car Jack Streets [App Store], recently sent us an early copy of their upcoming rhythm game B-Boy Beats. This oddly amusing game has you break dancing with your fingers to 17 songs from popular nerdcore hip hop artists MC Frontalot, Optimus Rhyme, and others.
When trying out this game I went through three distinct phases– First off, I couldn't help but raise my eyebrow at another rhythm game, especially with how many there are on the App Store and how wildly the quality of these games vary. As I loaded up B-Boy Beats and went through the extremely simple tutorial, things weren't looking good. It wasn't until I was about half way through the first song the game has you play that I finally got it, and then couldn't stop smiling as my fingers were breakdancing up a storm.
The gameplay of B-Boy Beats amounts to keeping your index and middle fingers on the screen of your iPhone and moving them in time with the red and green circles to dance to the songs. This actually seems to take quite a bit of getting used to, as instead of most rhythm games where you're just tapping things along with a beat, you often need to keep one finger down while you move the other one around. Doing well takes an awful lot of brain power as when the songs speed up you almost instinctively just try to go back to quickly tapping like you do in Tap Tap Revenge and other games.
The following gameplay video shows me doing poorly in one of the early stages:
Once you get in to it, dancing with your fingers turned out to be way more fun than I was expecting it to be. I admit I had to look up what a "B-Boy" was on Urban Dictionary, so while I know almost nothing about breakdancing, I'm still really looking forward to this game's release on the 14th for $2.99.
Gizmodo found an awesome video of someone in Korea playing the recently released Taiko no Tatsujin [App Store, Japan Only], a drum game which hasn't made its way to the US or European App Stores yet. Taiko Drum Master, as its known around these parts is played with a set of thick drum sticks and a matching drum pad that plugs in to whatever console you're playing the game on.
Naturally, the iPhone port utilizes your fingers on the touch screen, but obviously fails to provide the feel of actually using the drum sticks. Since the iPhone uses a capacitive touchscreen, you can't just use any old drum stick to beat on the screen as you need something electrically conductive. (Which is why your finger works, but a typical stylus doesn't.) Thankfully, it would seem cased meat products are the perfect replacement for Taiko drum sticks:
I had joked with friends who were complaining about the lack of a stylus with the iPad that they could just use a hot dog. At no point did I really think someone would actually decide to use cased meat to beat on the screen of their iPhone. Perhaps the hot dog stylus will be more popular than I originally thought.
Nearly five months ago now Tapulous first announced Riddim Ribbon [App Store] on stage at an Apple keynote. Oddly enough, aside from graphical changes, the game that is available today is almost exactly what Tapulous promised at the event. Three songs from the Black Eyed Peas are included along with three additional 99¢ tracks available via in-app purchase. (Two by Tiësto and one by Benny Benassi.)
The objective of Riddim Ribbon is to guide a ball down a track, and tilt your device to follow a green line that moves left and right to one of the three songs you select on the main screen. When you stray from the track, the music begins to fade out until you're only hearing the faint backbeat to the song. Laid out on the green line are silver spheres to pick up, ramps to jump over, and hoops to jump through. All of these different pickups and obstacles are arranged so you're hitting them with the beat of the song, an experience that's actually pretty cool if you haven't played a similar racing rhythm game before.
As you're rolling down the tracks in Riddim Ribbon, you will be faced with both forks in the road and ramps that lead to secondary portions of track that allow you to mix the song by turning or jumping up on to the same portion of the song remixed by one of a number of different DJ's included in the game. By replaying individual songs and choosing different paths to take, you can come up with a number of different remixes of the same song.
Riddim Ribbon is a game that sounds really cool when you describe it, yet it somehow manages to be not that fun at all when you're playing it. The way the music is visualized is great, and the tracks are laid out very well to match each song. Unfortunately, it doesn't take long to get bored of the three included songs, and the tilt controls are frustrating.
Instead of like most racing games where you tilt to move right or left, then hold your device level straight to go straight, the amount you tilt directly translates to your position on the track. This causes you to spend most of your time holding your device at an awkward angle instead of making small tilting movements to steer as you're probably used to if you've played many racing games on the platform.
As mentioned previously, the way you interact with the music in the game is really neat but by default an announcer is almost constantly talking over it telling you how "dope" and "ill" your performance is along with announcing the many checkpoints on each song. It likely won't take you long to turn this off in the options.
Riddim Ribbon is a great idea for a game that ultimately is ruined by frustrating controls and gameplay which is too easy to get bored of.
One of the features that piqued the interest of quite a few people when iPhone OS 3.0 was originally announced was Apple finally allowing developers access to the iPhone/iPod touch music library. Gamers were anxious to see something similar to Audiosurf, a PC game that turns music tracks in to actual in-game tracks for you to race on. Unfortunately, the limited access developers actually ended up with to the device's music library prevented much more than the in-game music player menus that have been implemented in some games.
Avatar Labs' recently released Rhythm Racer [App Store] doesn't allow you to play your own tracks, but it does a good job of providing a similar Audiosurf-like experience. You race down a track, tilting to move your ship right or left to follow the notes and fly over jumps to collect bonus rings.
The controls work well, and the music combines with the gameplay to create a really neat experience, especially if you've never played Audiosurf. Rhythm Racer is even free to try, initially loaded with a single track. Within the game, you can buy a second track for 99¢, but that's all the extra content that seems to be available currently.
The sensation of speed is good, and while there isn't much to do in the game after you race through the two tracks, the game uses OpenFeint for both online leaderboards and achievements which could provide some replay value if competing on online laderboards is your thing. Since the game with one track is free, it's definitely worth a download, if for no reason other than to hold you over until Riddim Ribbon arrives.
There may be rhythm games on the App Store already where you can pretend you're singing, playing a guitar, rocking out on the drums, or even spinning turntables, but all those pale in comparison to beat matching to slay an endless supply of zombies. In Zombeat [App Store] you play as Zeke who according to the in-game character bio has given up a life as a biker to start a new career in zombie mass murder.
The game comes loaded with tunes from APM Music, and while it doesn't include any tracks that I was able to recognize, with the optional 99¢ holiday song pack there are 22 total songs available. Gameplay consists of standard beat matching with blocks that must be tapped as they come flying down the screen. The unique twist in Zombeat is that with each beat you match, Zeke shoots a gun, swings a chainsaw, or uses one of many other attacks.
Depending on your performance, bombs that clear the whole screen when tapped and weapons that can be equipped appear on conveyor belts. The game is over when you miss enough beats for Zeke to get overwhelmed by zombies, but if you succeed in surviving through a song your score is uploaded to an online leaderboard.
Zombeat isn't a particularly amazing game, it just does a good job in combining a rhythm game with zombies– Which likely will be more than enough for some people to slam their mouse down on the "Buy" button in iTunes. Watching the river of zombie blood as you do well in the first few songs you play is highly entertaining, but aside from that, Zombeat doesn't really do anything that Tap Tap Revenge 3 [App Store] isn't already doing for free.
…But, Tap Tap Revenge 3 lacks the killer feature of, well, killing zombies.
We've all played music games before; Guitar Hero and Rock Band have eaten up a lot of my time cumulatively over the past couple of years, so reading and reacting to the scrolling note tracks in those games has almost become a purely mechanical muscle reaction at this point. Even if there was no music playing audibly I could probably score 90% or above on most songs on even the hardest difficulties because my brain is reacting to the note tracks on a visual level, not an audible one.
Beat It! [App Store], a music-based game from Glu Games Inc, is different from other music games, not only in the way that it presents its music for interactive play, but in the way that players' brains must function in order to be successful. Instead of playing along with a predetermined song, players are asked to recreate a short, looping beat that is played for them several times in quick succession before the beginning of each level.
Once engaged in a level, players are handed a grid of squares in which each horizontal line represents potential note locations for a given instrument, which is shown on the left of the grid at equal height to its corresponding track. Tapping any square in the grid will place one singular note played from the given instrument at that point in the beat sequence, and notes are played in order from left to right as a blue line sweeps across the note grid at a persistent rate and passes over them.
This all sounds very confusing, but it's actually pretty simple and easy to deal with right from the start, so long as you're listening to the beats carefully. The rate at which difficulty ramps up over the course of the game's 50 levels (which you'll play through chronologically in the career mode) is absolutely perfect. New concepts are dealt out at a quick but manageable pace so that your brain will be consistently stretching just enough to really get the juices flowing without the levels becoming frustratingly difficult.
At any point in a level, players can touch an icon at the bottom of the screen to hear the target beat track played for them again, and they'll receive slight visual cues from the previously mentioned blue line to help determine where exactly notes should go. This helps a lot, but doesn't make the game overly easy, as the meat of the game is all about improving your completion times in levels. There is no way to fail, but taking longer means that less points are earned at the end of each level so you'll have an incentive to go back and improve your time.
All of this beat-matching gameplay is made so very much sweeter by the retro pixel-art backgrounds and animations that differ from level to level. This isn't your dad's pixel art, as the camera showing various animated pixel-art locations is pulled way back, making for a view of an entire 16-bit city block. This is probably the best looking pixel-art that I've ever seen, and I say that as a huge fan of retro consoles.
New instruments are unlocked as the game progresses, making for a total of four complete instrument sets, each of which contains about six instruments. All of these instruments can be used in free play mode, where players are free to experiment with creating their own beats and note tracks. It's possible to save your note tracks, and while you're not all that likely to make anything especially awesome, free play mode is definitely a fun, worthy edition to the overall package, providing a lot of potential for players to squeeze some extra hours of fun out of their copy.
Having to mentally separate out each individual instrument and determine its tempo requires the firing of neurons that most people's brains never access, and the intense use of these neurons improves their effectiveness extremely quickly. Within about an hour of first picking the game up I was able to simultaneously pay full attention to two instrument tracks at once, immediately figuring out both of their full sets of note locations.
Even if it doesn't have the same brain-stimulating effect on other people that it had on me, the game is a game worth playing for everyone, not just those who are already fans of music games like Guitar Hero. Beat It! is a delight to play, and a true brain-teasing, unique experience.
Studio Radiolaris has released their followup title to Radio Flare this morning. Radio Flare Redux promises a side-scrolling multi-touch shoot'em up experience.
Nearly five months ago now Tapulous first announced Riddim Ribbon [
One of the features that piqued the interest of quite a few people when iPhone OS 3.0 was originally announced was Apple finally allowing developers access to the iPhone/iPod touch music library. Gamers were anxious to see something similar to 
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