In late 2008, Freeverse released the original Flick Bowling, the first of what has since become the Flick Sports franchise. Next week they plan on launching its sequel, Flick Bowling 2, which improves upon the original in every way imaginable. In fact, it's really sort of amazing to go back and look at the original Flick Bowling trailer in comparison to see how much more detailed something as simple as a bowling game has become.
Flick Bowling 2 is controlled using simple touch gestures, and once you get the hang of it, flicking your finger across the screen to bowl works really well. Unlike the original where you applied spin to the ball by swiping across the screen, your entire shot is done in one flicking gesture. To throw the ball straight you flick straight up, to curve it in a particular direction, you simply curve your finger flick. It works surprisingly well.
Another new feature in the sequel is the addition of a story mode. Playing as either Jen or Jim, you'll warp through time (somewhat like Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure) to face off in bowling matches against famous figures in history who also have similarly themed bowling alleys while you make your way to the ultimate bowling showdown with the evil Baron Von Schtopwatch. The game itself even admits the plot makes no sense. Aside from story mode, you can also play regular bowling games as well as a quick three frame game.
Here is a video of me doing poorly against Cleopatra:
One of the most interesting things about Flick Bowling 2 is how Freeverse is pricing it. While the original Flick Bowling launched at $4.99, the sequel will come in two flavors: A completely free ad-supported version, and a paid ads-free version. The only differences between the two games is advertising, and the paid version also comes with multiplayer. Both games will also come with DLC packs for customizing your bowling balls, as well as an additional Helen of Troy level.
Freeverse is shooting for launching Flick Bowling 2 on the 23rd, and I really recommend keeping an eye out for it, especially if in-game ads don't bother you. The bowling control mechanic is fun, the new physics engine is a massive improvement over the original, and the time traveling premise of the game, which is beyond ridiculous, is hard to not enjoy.
Back in May of last year a mysterious video appeared on YouTube showing a surprisingly full featured port of Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 for the iPhone. The next day, the developers clarified that while the game was running amazingly on the iPhone, it was unlikely to ever see the light of day. Disappointed, we eventually just gave up on waiting for Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 to be released.
Here is a copy of the original Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 video, although since it was ripped from YouTube and re-uploaded, the quality seems to have taken a substantial hit:
As you can see in the screenshots, it seems that the controls have seen a major overhaul following the initial release of the video. According to Tony Hawk's twitter feed, the game is real, and is going to be available soon.
As someone who played the original Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 until I broke my Nintendo 64 controller, I cannot wait. We will post any other details we're able to dig up on the game in the future.
As a kid, one of my absolute things to play at the arcade with my Dad was the hockey table machines. If hockey tables (or arcades for that matter) were before your time, a hockey table is similar to a foosball table with players on opposite ends controlling a team of miniature hockey players that are controlled with handles that can be pulled in or out to move the player in their track and spun to make them move their stick around. Much like foosball you could either play this with extremely calculated moves, or, my technique of choice, wildly flail the handles about, spinning your players like crazy and knocking the puck all over the place.
Stinger Table Hockey effectively duplicates the same insanity of a real hockey table, and while the controls are still in the process of being tweaked, I thought they worked pretty well. Basically, dragging up and down on a track moves that player back and forth, and swiping right or left on the same track causes the player to spin around. It's pretty intuitive, and works well enough to be fun.
There is a single player mode that allow you to play against an AI opponent which is a little on the lame side since the fun part of hockey tables were always playing with another person. Thankfully, Stinger Table Hockey has both bluetooth and wifi multiplayer that I can't wait to try out. There are also tournament modes, and skill tests that feature shootouts and other challenges.
If all goes as planned the guys at Stinger Games are going to finish tightening up the controls and physics and should have Stinger Table Hockey on the App Store sometime next week.
I'm not a big sports fan, in real life or on the consoles. But there is one exception: snowboarding titles. I can't get enough of them. 1080 Snowboarding on the N64, SSX on the PS2, SSX Blur on the Wii — I just love them. Sadly, none of the snowboarding games available in the App Store have really been able to do it for me. Compared to SSX on Tour for the PSP, they generally just look fairly weak.
Well, I'm happy to report that, at long last, a quality snowboarding title has landed on the iPhone. X2 Snowboarding [App Store] from Exient is a highly enjoyable romp on the slopes that sets itself apart from the crowd in a number of ways.
The first thing you'll notice about X2 Snowboarding is its stylized graphical presentation. The game features particularly detailed cel-shaded graphics reminiscent of the exceptional Jet Grind Radio for the Dreamcast. They give the game something of a cartoony rather than realistic look, but compared to its App Store contemporaries, it looks just great.
You've got a crowd of six boarders to choose from, each of a different nationality and with highly varied skill sets. Six different venues there are, as well, set in as many countries: USA, Switzerland, Japan, New Zealand, Canada, and Chile. Upon each set of slopes there are three different types of competitions: Freestyle, Race, and Trick-Race. The slopes are impressively long and more varied than one might expect, providing a satisfying chunk of gameplay across the available types of competitions.
Another thing that sets X2 Snowboarding apart is the feel of its controls. Oh, there's nothing unexpected about the configuration, with a combination of tilt and touch controls (that can be customized) — it's more the general feel I'm referring to. Everything just feels a little "looser" than one might expect. But it's not a bad thing, in fact, somehow it feels quite right combined with the game's stylized visuals. And speaking of visuals, a nice instant-replay system lets you see your best moves over and over from various camera angles.
Gameplay is solid and heavy on the tricks. On-screen buttons control jump, speed boost, and "wheelies" which can be used to tie together tricks — and the trick system works great. Once in the air, you can swipe (or tilt, depending on your settings) in any direction to rotate thus, and tap on the left and right board icons that just appeared to perform various grabs. The more tricks you can tie together, the higher your score, the more speed boosts you can trigger, and the better gear you can grab in the shop to tweak your game.
Adding to the experience is a great soundtrack with songs that can be purchased through iTunes. Another feature we're glad to see is local, Bluetooth and WiFi multiplayer — for now — with online multiplayer to come in the game's first update, which will be in the App Store soon.
All of the aspects of X2 Snowboarding come together to deliver a highly enjoyable game with a surprising sense of speed and immersion. I've spent much time with this one so far, and I don't see that trend changing anytime soon. If you're a gamer that likes to tear up the slopes on occasion, do not let this one pass you by.
If like me you've found yourself following all the events and drama surrounding this year's Winter Olympics, you really need something to keep you busy during those pesky commercial breaks. RealArcade's Vancouver 2010 [App Store] does the trick, and being the official game of the Olympic Winter Games, it's even loaded with all the olympic logos, mascots, and five events: Cross country skiing, speed skating, snowboard cross, biathlon, and freestyle moguls.
Each event is able to be played individually, or all together in the "Olympic Games" mode which has you doing one event after the other competing against a team of opponents. There's also a single device multiplayer mode that can support up to 6 people competing against each other by passing the device around.
Each of the five included games are controlled a little differently, some with on-screen buttons you need to tap and others that require tilting. For instance, when cross country skiing, you tap the buttons that appear randomly on either side of the screen to go faster, and in snowboard cross your board is controlled by tilting your device. Racing in the speed skating event involves holding and releasing on-screen buttons with precise timing. Three difficulty modes are included, an easy mode which comes unlocked, as well as hard and survival modes which are sequentially unlocked as you complete each difficulty level.
Vancouver 2010 looks and plays very similar to Playman Track & Field [99¢ / Free], RealArcade's other sports game that came out early last year featuring a set of summer events. There isn't a lite version of Vancouver 2010, but the free version of Playman Track & Field will give you a very good idea of what you're getting in to. There's also a video of the J2ME version which looks nearly identical to the iPhone game aside from the differences in aspect ratio.
I liked Playman a lot, and Vancouver 2010 is even more timing, tilting, and reaction-based mini games. Each of the events are fun, although I've found myself preferring the Snowboard Cross and Biathlon both in-game and in real life.
Well that was fast. X2 Snowboarding [App Store] just showed up for download mere moments ago, and only a couple hours after our hands-on preview.
We'll have an in-depth review soon, but currently this is the snowboarding game for future games in the genre to beat. X2 Snowboarding has great tilt controls, awesome cell shaded graphics, a single player game mode with unlockables, a licensed soundtrack, and even local multiplayer via Bluetooth and WiFi.
I was extremely impressed with the game in our preview, and look forward to it soaking up a good deal of my spare time in the future. In case you missed it the first time around, here is a brief gameplay video again:
I've been a fan of extreme sports games since Skate or Die on my NES, and while there have been a number of really great skateboarding games on the App Store, the available snowboarding titles have left something to be desired. X2 Snowboarding is the first snowboarding game I've played on my iPhone that does a great job of combining all the vital components of a good extreme sports game.
Most immediately noticeable in X2 Snowboarding is the cool cell shaded graphics that encapsulate the entire game. All of the different snowboarders you can choose from look really cool, and both the snow and weather effects are well done. When you're doing good in game, multi-colored snowflakes explode from your character and when you wipe out you often kick up a huge puff of snow. Even with all this visual flair, X2 Snowboarding runs at a really high framerate on my iPhone 3GS, although because of the limitations of preview builds I wasn't able to test performance on previous-generation devices.
The game is controlled with a mixture of tilting to steer and using a number of different on-screen buttons. When you're airborne, or on a rail the buttons disappear and a trick interface shows up as an on-screen snowboard with different tricks you can perform depending where you touch. For instance, nose or tail grabs are executed by jumping off a ramp then touching the top or the bottom of the snowboard.
Doing tricks fills up your "joost meter" at the bottom of the screen, and using this stored up joost you can go in to a slow motion adrenaline mode for a brief period of time, rewind back before a wipe out, or even boost to fly off ramps. The system works really well, and any mistakes you make are easily undone thanks to the rewind function.
X2 Snowboarding is a really in-depth game with many different mountains with different courses, hidden coins to find on each course, and snowboards you can buy with those coins. Each of the riders have different statistics, there's a replay system, and much like other extreme sports games you can string together massive combos for huge point totals. X2 Snowboarding has already been submitted to Apple and is expected to be released very soon. We'll take an in-depth look at the game as soon as its available.
Lately it seems that we've been collecting an increasing number of comments in the discussions of some of the more popular games we've covered from Android users hoping to see more iPhone games in the Android Marketplace. Homerun Battle 3D [$4.99 / Free], a game we reviewed back when it was called Baseball Slugger, was released early last month for Android devices, and features cross-platform multiplayer– Allowing existing iPhone players to face off against Android-equipped online rivals.
Com2Us sent us the following video of a match between an iPhone and a Motorola Droid:
As more and more iPhone games eventually make their way to the Android Marketplace, I hope developers decide to follow Com2Us's lead and implement cross-platform multiplayer. The more people playing online the better, regardless of what game it is.
Late last month we got a sneak peek at Sega's Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games [App Store] and its official release this afternoon seems to be very similar, if not the exact same game we played in December. You can compete as Sonic or any of his included friends in four events: Skeleton, curling, figure skating, and snowboard cross. However, with only four events the game feels like a stripped down version of Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games for the Nintendo DS, which not only has many more events to compete in, but also Nintendo characters.
Skeleton is a basic tilt-based pipe racing game of sorts where you pick up rings and hit areas on the track to gain speed. Figure skating plays a lot like a very slow-paced version of Elite Beat Agents with areas to tap and drag along with the music. Snowboard cross is a very basic snowboarding game, that also feels way too slow.
The best event in the entire game is curling. From our preview:
Curling is a team game where two teams of four players take turns sliding polished stones down a stretch of ice towards a target. Two sweepers walk in front of the stone sweeping the ice to change its direction and speed. It seems that curling has gained a curious amount of popularity in recent winter games, but if you haven't heard of it before I recommend reading the Wikipedia entry, as it downright crazy how complicated such a seemingly simple game can be.
The implementation of curling is really quite good, and it works well with the touch screen controls to control your throw as well as the sweepers. Curling can be seen in the following gameplay video:
Overall, Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games does little more than remind me of how great any game with Sonic in the title used to be, and how bad recent Sonic games have been. If you're not interested in curling, there really isn't much reason to pick this game up, as the other three events aren't much fun at all.
Acceleroto's Air Hockey [App Store] is one of the early classics in iPhone gaming. Released in August of 2008, the game has been regularly updated with different features and additions such as peer to peer bluetooth multiplayer and OpenFeint integration.
Aside from peer to peer bluetooth multiplayer, Air Hockey can also be played against another person using one device or by facing an AI opponent with several different difficulty levels.
Air Hockey has been featured several times by Apple, including being listed in the iTunes "Best of 2008". On top of that, the game was the #1 paid app on the App Store, and has won many other rewards from various media outlets. In other words, there is absolutely no reason for you to not drop whatever you're doing and download this game.
Also, on a somewhat unrelated note, if you're in to following iPhone developers on Twitter, Acceleroto developer Brian Duke is responsible for one of the more interesting Twitter feeds that I follow.
Acceleroto's other game, Occurro! [App Store] is also worth a look, especially if you like space shooters. We really enjoyed the game in our review.
In late 2008, Freeverse released the original Flick Bowling, the first of what has since become the Flick Sports franchise. Next week they plan on launching its sequel, Flick Bowling 2, which improves upon the original in every way imaginable. In fact, it's really sort of amazing to go back and look at the original Flick Bowling trailer in comparison to see how much more detailed something as simple as a bowling game has become.
If like me you've found yourself following all the events and drama surrounding this year's Winter Olympics, you really need something to keep you busy during those pesky commercial breaks. RealArcade's Vancouver 2010 [
Well that was fast. X2 Snowboarding [
Lately it seems that we've been collecting an increasing number of comments in the discussions of some of the more popular games we've covered from Android users hoping to see more iPhone games in the Android Marketplace. Homerun Battle 3D [
Late last month 
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