Gaming on iOS has seen huge growth the in last few years with iPhones, iPads and more recently Apple TV emerging as true gaming platforms. From solid original titles and franchises developed specifically for iOS, to gaming heavyweights like Nintendo now fully embarrassing the platform, iOS has become a legitimate platform for gamers of all kinds. What’s next? New technologies in iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra including ARKit for augmented reality give us a glimpse of the future of gaming on iOS.
iOS gamers are not going to be short of options when it comes to choosing a games controller for their iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. After earlier dock-based controllers from Logitech and Moga, and Monday’s announcement by SteelSeries of the first Bluetooth controller, Signal has just announced the first full-size Bluetooth controller in the shape of the RP One … Expand Expanding Close
The 90s brought with it a plethora of culture and fun (myself included) from breakthrough Nintendo handheld video games to pop music and weird boy bands (like Britney Spears and N*SYNC). We recently witnessed N*SYNC reunite, but something else from the 90s needed modernizing: Tamagotchi, the digital pet you fed and loved as a kid.
That’s where Hatch steps in… err, hatches… right on your iPhone!
In a collaborative effort between Impending and Realmac Software, who last teamed up to deliver Clear, the two studios deliver on what is an absolutely adorable and lovable game for the iPhone. Check out my complete hands-on review of the long-anticipated Hatch (and lots of entertaining photos) below: Expand Expanding Close
Update: Several readers report that games were previously held up by a dispute with the Films and Publications Board responsible for approving movies, games, and other content before going on sale in the country. No word on the resolution with Apple, but it appears they are now allowing Apple to sell games to iOS users in South Africa.
Apple has flicked the switch on the ability for developers to offer their games in the iTunes App Store in South Africa. It is unclear why Games have been unavailable in the country until now. A look at the South Africa App Store shows that the Games category is now active. Apple informed developers of the new ability to sell games, and the company tells the creators that games will automatically appear in the South African store.
We’re pleased to announce that games are now available on the South African App Store. All apps in the Games category that are cleared for sale in South Africa will be automatically available on the South African App Store. No additional action is required on your part. If you need to make changes to the territories where your apps are available, visit the Rights and Pricing section of the Manage Your Apps module on iTunes Connect.
Apple is celebrating the addition with a large Games banner at the top of the App Store in South Africa (shown above).
Activision has just dropped a brand new Call of Duty game built from the ground up specifically for mobile devices. Strike Team is set in the year 2020 and puts gamers in control of a Joint Special Operations Team attempting to bring justice to an unknown enemy. Gamers are able to freely switch between the traditional first-person shooter view as well as a third-person view. This game features a Campaign mode which promises to be “full of epic, cinematic moments in diverse locations around the world,” and Survival mode that “Put[s] your skills to the test as you fight off waves of increasingly difficult enemies.”
Call of Duty: Strike Team is available exclusively as a universal iOS download for $7. It requires iOS6 and an iPhone 4S/iPad 2 or newer. No word yet on future release dates for Android or Windows devices.
Call of Duty®: Strike Team delivers an all-new, first-person and third-person Call of Duty® experience built from the ground up for mobile and tablet devices. Fully customize your squad’s loadouts and abilities before leading them into combat in diverse gameplay environments. Call of Duty®: Strike Team features the revolutionary ability to dynamically switch from run-and-gun first-person view to reconnaissance and coordinated squad attacks in third-person view.
The year is 2020. Tensions run high amongst the world’s superpowers. In a surprise attack, the U.S. finds themselves in a war with an unknown enemy. Your mission is to lead a Joint Special Operations Team in a global effort to hunt down those responsible.
Play your way. Switch between first-person and third-person action at almost any time. Strategically customize the members of your squad with weapons, perks or body armor.
CAMPAIGN MODE: Experience an immersive single-player campaign full of epic, cinematic moments in diverse locations around the world.
SURVIVAL MODE: Put your skills to the test as you fight off waves of increasingly difficult enemies. Compete against family, friends and the Call of Duty®: Strike Team community for leaderboard domination.
Madden NFL 25, EA Sports’ football simulation game that started life on the PC way back in 1989 and is now best-known as an XBox and Playstation game, today launched as a freemium iOS game for both iPhone and iPad. This iOS iteration of the famous football game promises to be more reflective of a console gaming experience, unlike the now retired Madden Social. EA has even included an exclusive head-to-head gameplay mode in this mobile version.
As we’ve learned in the past, many ‘freemium’ apps come with gaming caveats that can be confusing and frustrating as a gamer, but hopefully that isn’t that case here. In Madden 25, gamers will need to either earn coins to improve the player roster or simply cough up the cash to buy better players.
Perhaps most importantly, EA has improved the touch controls for Madden 25. The previously used virtual D-pad has been replaced by “intuitive tap & swipe controls.” Many of the player actions and moves can be executed using just one hand. This style of on-screen control may be the best way to game on iOS until we have a full-fledged hardware controller.
Madden 25 is exclusively available on iOS until later this fall when it will hit Android. For the biggest football fans, you can pickup a copy of Madden 25 for your favorite gaming console bundled with a year of NFL Sunday ticket for just $100. That’s up to a savings of $400.
An experience 25 years in the making! EA SPORTS delivers the most authentic NFL football experience to date on iPhone® and iPad® with MADDEN NFL 25. Build your Ultimate Team of NFL stars and run the show on offense and defense with new and improved touch controls, game modes and much more!
BUILD YOUR ULTIMATE TEAM
Collect your favorite NFL players from packs or win them in the Auction House, then dominate the field against friends by building your ultimate powerhouse team.
AUTHENTIC NFL ACTION
Madden NFL lets you choose from 32 REAL NFL teams and a roster of more than 1,500 REAL NFL players! Battle it out in true-to-life NFL stadiums, too. Ultra-sharp graphics make gameplay even more realistic. Feel the impact of every game-changing tackle with hard-hitting collision effects!
PLAY MULTIPLE MADDEN NFL MODES
Relive NFL storylines and play through several seasons in Solo Challenges. Take on friends in the fast-paced, offensive shootout mode, Head-2-Head (a mobile exclusive)! Or, jump into Exhibition mode for single-player offensive and defensive football.
NEW & IMPROVED TOUCH CONTROLS
Run, pass, and make the big hits on D with new and intuitive Tap & Swipe controls. Better tape your fingers!
Score MADDEN NFL 25 on iPhone® and iPad® now. BOOM!
Update (6/26): A US-optimized version of Contra: Evolution has been re-released this morning on the App Store and is available for download now. This re-issued version of Contra also includes new levels, an improved control system and in-game weapon shop.
Update (6/3): We have been told that the release of ‘Contra Evolution’ on the US App Store was a mistake. Konami is currently developing a US version of this game that will be released later this year. Please stay tuned for more information as it becomes available.
Today Konami released a brand new iteration in the Contra series, although it should look pretty familiar. Contra Evolution is basically a remix of the original Contra most gamers fell in love with a long time ago in a classic arcade. At first glance, this title appears to include enough familiarity to embrace nostalgia, while mixing in some new features and characters to keep the gameplay fresh.
Gamers can choose to play as all the original characters plus two brand new female players. Konami boasts that the updated HD graphics and weapon system “will provide a whole new experience in the world of Contra!”
If you’re feeling nostalgic for some traditional Run n’ Gun gameplay, it’s safe to say Contra Evolution won’t disappoint. Available as an iPhone or iPad download for $.99 each.
Embark on an epic adventure as four heroes driven together by fate: Bartz and his chocobo companion, Princess Lenna of Castle Tycoon, the mysterious Galuf, and the pirate captain Faris. The crystals that bring peace and prosperity to the world – earth, water, fire, and wind – have lost their power and are on the verge of destruction.
Infinity Blade is to the iPad what the Halo series is to the Xbox 360 (or the Gran Turismo franchise to the PlayStation 3). That is, a killer game – a title so compelling that not only does it showcases what’s possible on a platform, but is also so impressive that folks go out and buy the hardware just to be able to play that particular game. A killer title for iPad gamers has to be Chair Entertainment’s Infinity Blade.
Classed as the first iOS game to run on the Unreal Engine, Infinity Blade went on to become the fastest-grossing app in the history of iOS, selling $1.6 million in four days. Three major updates later, Chair Entertainment launches Infinity Blade 2, a sequel to the elegiac action masterpiece. Here’s the blurb:
Journey into the world of the Deathless tyrants and their legion of Titans. Build skills and upgrade characters… all while delving deeper into this mysterious, timeless adventure.
Expect forty new locations (up from ten in the original title), many new hit points, weapons and spells, plus a bunch of other nuances and nice-to-haves. Chair is already thinking post-launch, teasing an update with the Clash Mobs feature where a bunch of other players attack a monster with millions of hit points. In case you were wondering, IGNgaveInfinity Blade 2 a 10. A cornerstone of the sequel is, of course, graphics.
[slideshow] The game features console-quality lighting effects.
The game runs fine on the original iPad, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 and third- and fourth-generation iPod touch. However, you’ll want to enjoy it on your iPad 2 or iPhone 4S due to optimizations that really push the envelope of what’s possible on Apple’s A5 chip, especially in the lighting and shading department. Make no mistake, this is one game that you’ll want to show off to your Android-toting friends.
More information is available at the official site. The game hit the New Zealand App Store this morning. You should expect it in the U.S. store around 11pm Eastern time tonight at this URL, priced at $9.99 (a 941MB universal binary download). To celebrate the launch of Infinity Blade 2, Chair slashed the original Infinity Blade to just six bucks for a limited time. Release notes and more clips after the break, including Donald Mustard (creative director), Adam Ford (artistic director) and Geremy Mustard (technical director) talking the visuals.
A new app called Joypad allows users to play iOS games on their Apple TV. Granted, you will need an iPad and iPhone to get this to work, but as seen in the video above it works really well. After you download the Joystick app on your iPhone it will connect to the iPad via Bluetooth.
Once the connection has been made you can then push the game from your iPad to the Apple TV with Airplay. In effect you’ll be using your iPhone as a controller and your iPad as “console”. As of now the catalog of games is relatively small, but with the Joypad SDK any developer can add this capability into their apps.(via The Next Web).
Last night, an update to Angry Birds HD dropped on iPad with fifteen new levels, a new golden egg and a “feature” that has immediately angered loyal fans – adverts. No, not the unobtrusive types of an AdMob or AdSense variety seen in some apps. In Angry Birds HD, a “news section” – a nicer word for advertisements – hits gamers in the face upon reaching the pause screen.
It pitches the official merchandise, forcing gamers to wait for the promotional animation to finish, thus hindering their ability to restart the level and resume the game as quickly as possible. The move backfired as agitated fans began posting despicable comments in iTunes reviews. Here’s what one avid fan wrote:
The Pusetic brothers, the brains behind the stupendously addictive platform jumper Doodle Jump that has amassed ten million paid downloads, have just released a brand new game that introduces an interesting twist to the original formula. It’s called Doodle Jump: Hop the Movie and is available free for the iPhone and iPad.
Mobile games developer Gameloft is launching Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Shadow Vanguard for the iPhone tomorrow and to mark the occasion they’ve put together a pretty awesome interactive trailer that lets you play the embassy level by clicking on the hotspots to choose between several possible directions. It’s kinda cool, reminds me of those laserdisc games from the 80s, such as Dragon’s Lair, which has been ported to both the iPhone and iPad. Note that the above clip works on PCs and Macs, but those watching the trailer on their iDevice won’t be able to interact with it. The official site has more information about this promising looking release.
Final Fantasy V has finally landed in the App Store
