TAITO Corporation

Following the port of their 1993 arcade shooter [$11.99] to the App Store, Taito announced over the weekend that they'll be bringing another shooter, Darius Burst: Second Prologue, to iOS in the future, according to Andriasang. Darius Burst was originally a Sony PSP game released in late 2009, and was an official new entry in the fabled Darius series of shmups. An arcade version came a year later called Darius Burst Another Chronicle, and it was especially noteworthy due to its insanely wide screen and cabinet. Sadly, neither game was released outside of Japan. It's unknown whether the iOS version of Darius Burst is based off of either of the previous versions of the game, but my guess would be that it is an enhanced remake of the original that will have its own special iOS specific features. That's just wishful speculation on my part, however. Famitsu's mobile gaming site originally broke this news and also managed to nab the first screens of Darius Burst: Second Prologue which you see here, but unfortunately there are no other details on the game – like pricing or release date – at this time. After the somewhat controversial launch price for what was a fairly standard port of RayForce, it will also be interesting to see what price Darius Burst clocks in at. Just as soon as we have more news on Darius Burst: Second Prologue, we'll let you know.   #1   Today, 06:11 AM Senior Member iPhone 4, iOS 5.x Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Dreamland, [NZ] Posts: 1,890 Quote: The Game is out in New Zealand. It should be out in US at about 11 PM EST and Europe at around 12 AM UK time. Size of the app is 20.6 MB. Price in NZ is FREE click to enlarge There’s a new Chief of Police in town, and he’s put a ban on dogs, ordering them all to be captured! It’s your task to outrun those pesky cops and evade capture, whilst trying to rescue as many of your doggy pals as you can. Along the way you’ll need to eat food, collect coins, complete missions, and do all you can to avoid capture! You’ll begin playing as Steve the Golden Retriever, collecting coins as you go which can later be spent on various items in the store. Unlock new dogs, collect custom clothing, unleash super power-ups, and call on Read More

Now we’ve seen some expensive games in the past, but this is almost outrageous in today’s economy. Taito’s classic shooter RayForce is now available in the Apple AppStore for $11.99. And while we’re pretty confident there will be users who will easily pay that amount for the dose of nostalgia RayForce brings, it’s still too much to ask for an iOS app these days (at least I think so). Anyway the game allows you to play in two different modes – Arcade, which is a “faithful touchscreen recreation” of the original arcade experience; and iPhone mode that comes with flick-style controls. Moreover, there are two different shooting methods (automatic and manual) and two different display types (zoom and original). Apple’s Game Center integration is included as well, so you’ll be able to compare your results with the rest of the world… presuming they also pour out 12 bucks for the game. Finally, if you don’t know what RayForce is all about, you can check out the game’s dedicated page at Wikipedia. RayForce ($11.99) [iTunes link] Dusan has been using smartphones since their introduction and is now following the latest trends in the industry. The "convergence" is what he's most excited about, and writing about it is the next logical thing to do. He thinks that using a smartphone is what everyone who cares about their time should do. In addition to his interests in mobile phones, Dusan also loves to experiment with the latest web and mobile 2.0 services. The idea of accessing and managing your information from any device no matter where you are simply amazes him. Whether it's an online to-do list, note taking service or a video sharing social network, he's there to try it out. He admits though, he's still searching for the ultimate web-based organizational tool, which "sings" perfectly with the mobile PIM application. Dusan used to run SymbianWatch.com which later became part of IntoMobile. He lives in Serbia, South-East Europe, from where he edits the site on a daily basis. Read More

Just before the new year, we caught wind of Taito's plans to bring one of its classic properties to the App Store. Originally released as RayForce in arcades in the early nineties, it made its way to the Sega Saturn with its name intact but due to trademark issues was released in various other international markets under different names, including Layer Attack, Gunlock, and Galactic Attack. Now it's once again been resurrected yet again as RayForce [$11.99] for iOS devices, and is now available. Taito is touting this as a pixel-perfect adaptation of the arcade original, which while being true to the original also looks like it hasn't been enhanced visually for the much more advanced iOS hardware. However, it does feature original arcade controls for purists as well as an easier iPhone control mode made specifically for the touch screen. Also, there are plenty of customization options so you can suit the play to your own particular style, and there is full Game Center support for leaderboards and achievements. Since I never played much of the original RayForce back in the day, I'm really stoked to be able to finally give it some proper attention on my iPhone nearly 20 years later. Also, it will be interesting to see if Taito will bring the next installments in this trilogy, RayStorm and RayCrisis, to the App Store as well. As we dig into RayForce to see what it's all about, you can grab the game with the link below or check out some player impressions which are trickling into our forums.   #1   Today, 06:11 AM Senior Member iPhone 4, iOS 5.x Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Dreamland, [NZ] Posts: 1,890 Quote: The Game is out in New Zealand. It should be out in US at about 11 PM EST and Europe at around 12 AM UK time. Size of the app is 20.6 MB. Price in NZ is FREE click to enlarge There’s a new Chief of Police in town, and he’s put a ban on dogs, ordering them all to be captured! It’s your task to outrun those pesky cops and evade capture, whilst trying to rescue as many of your doggy pals as you can. Along the way you’ll need to eat food, collect coins, complete missions, and do all you can to avoid capture! You’ll begin playing as Steve the Golden Retriever, collecting coins as you Read More

Simogo's Bumpy Road [$2.99] is radical because it totally embraces the touch screen. On top of being a simple and gorgeous game, the play is stupendously clever. Touch the physics-enabled bit of road and it lifts, taking the playful car with it. This purity of design might become something of a hallmark for the Swedish company. I've just spent some time with its upcoming title, . It's as artful and as delightfully cutesy as Bumpy Road, and it boasts another kind of one-touch control that feels just as satisfying. Color me impressed. Beat Sneak is a little abstract conceptually. I've started to think about it like this: it is what would happen if Kojima decided to marry 2D Metal Gear Solid to Grove Coaster [$.99], and knock out all of the former series' fat in the process. In Beat Sneak, you control a bandit (duh) on a 2D plane in tightly constructed, object--filled vertical levels. Your goal is pretty basic: steal a huge clock without security systems or people detecting your presence. What makes this interesting is the injection of puzzle mechanics and the game's unusual control method. You move lockstep, but only if you tap correctly to the level's beat. If you played Groove Coaster, imagine a scenario in which you were only able to access the next note if you correctly hit the previous one. This is how you move in the world. Moving is simple, but devilish in practice: in addition to having to keep the beat, you'll need to avoid pitfalls -- sliding doors, strobing searchlights and other kinds of bandit-catching obstacles. In the game's first chapter, a lot of the mainline puzzle solutions can be boiled down to knowing when to wait for an opportunity to open. This is roughly the equivalent of resuming a Rock Band song midway through, so it ain't easy. Another thing: there are other, smaller clocks in levels. If you're into optionals, you can grab these, too, but they require serious thought. You'll need to observe movement patterns at every turn, evaluate the best way to turn Beat Sneak the Character around, and then get him back to the main prize -- all without being caught. In my demo session, I played through the entirety of the first chapter in the game and that took around 30 minutes. I failed a lot because I'm no music game master, but I also Read More

It's no secret that iOS game developers enjoy a good holiday sale, and this week they've pulled out all the stops, dropping the prices on hundreds of titles. We've sifted through the sales and highlighted the best games below (and it's ). If you've had your eye on any of these, this is a great time to pull the trigger. Free Call of Mini: Zombies - Review - 3/4 - Free (was $0.99) - Open in iTunes Hero of Sparta II - Review - 4/4 - Free (was $4.99) - Open in iTunes iStunt 2 - Snowboard - Review - 4/4 - Free (was $0.99) - Open in iTunes Jetpack Joyride - Review - 3/4 - Free (was $0.99) - Open in iTunes MinoMonsters - Review - 3/4 - Free (was $0.99) - Open in iTunes Ninja Fishing - Review - 3/4 - Free (was $0.99) - Open in iTunes Sentinel 3: Homeworld - Review - 4/4 - Free (was $2.99) - Open in iTunes Stenches: A Zombie Tale of Trenches - Review - 3/4 - Free (was $0.99) - Open in iTunes Sales The Adventures of Tintin - Review - 4/4 - $4.99 (was $6.99) - Open in iTunes Amazing Breaker - Review - 4/4 - $0.99 (was $1.99) - Open in iTunes Amazon - Hidden Expedition - Review - 4/4 - $0.99 (was $3.99) - Open in iTunes Aralon: Sword and Shadow HD - Review - 4/4 - $0.99 (was $6.99) - Open in iTunes Backstab - Review - 3/4 - $0.99 (was $6.99) - Open in iTunes Battlefield: Bad Company 2 - Review - 4/4 - $0.99 (was $2.99) - Buy It Broken Sword - The Smoking Mirror: Remastered - Review - 3/4 - $0.99 (was $5.99) - Buy It Chaos Rings - Review - 4/4 - $6.99 (was $12.99) - Open in iTunes Chaos Rings Ω - Review - 4/4 - $5.99 (was $11.99) - Open in iTunes Civilization Revolution - Review - 4/4 - $0.99 (was $6.99) - Open in iTunes Dead Space - Review - 4/4 - $0.99 (was $6.99) - Buy It Deathsmiles - Review - 3/4 - $6.99 (was $11.99) - Buy It Desert Zombie Last Stand - Review - 3/4 - $0.99 (was $5.99) - Buy It Driver - Review - 3/4 - $0.99 (was $2.99) - Open in iTunes Edge Extended - Review - 4/4 - $0.99 (was $2.99) - Buy Read More

We would argue that if there was just one more thing Taito's Groove Coaster [$.99] needed, it would be way more dubstep. Now, the game's latest update unfortunately doesn't include any dubstep, but we'll take it anyway because it includes a total of five more downloadable tracks, including a trance mix of Jingle Bells that we're sure you'll never forget. A new ska track, as well as an acid house joint -- "Thrase Beat -- are the other notables joining the downloadable roster. Oh! And in the spirit of the holidays, Groove Coaster, Space Invaders Infinity Gene [$2.99], and Cooking Momma [$3.99], have gone on sale for a "limited time" -- or until the iTunes freeze clears we're presuming. Hi to all, this is Chix vs Aliens, be ready to get addicted to this game, check it out! More info, videos and screenshots on http://nerfd.com Send PM for promocodes.   #1   Today, 05:50 AM Junior Member iPhone 4, iOS 4.x Join Date: Dec 2011 Posts: 2 This app is fun in the sense that it does not test how much you love somebody, but test how much you are being loved. Show the test result to the one you care if you are shy to express your love Happy holiday and wish you all a good time with your love! The rats have been drooling over the eggs for a long time. Today they launch the deliberate strikes eventually. Warriors, join us and fight against the rats together! Jet Rats is an unique defense game, you will act as the core of the game, use up to 9 gun weapons, cooperate with 18 unique towers,you are the key to victory! iTunes Link: Lords At War MMO Launched today for FREE! Download it for free now. Lords At War MMO is a strategy game for iOS developed by Veraxon Entertainment. The game has been created to work on the iPhone/iPod touch and iPad (HD version). Lords At War strategy MMO presents a unique and innovate style to play various types of war, including a Faction War between Alliance and Fury, guild wars, and wars between kingdoms. The game takes place in the mythical “World Of Midgard” which is based on Norse mythology. It is a game based on conquest, expansion, and warfare. Watch Lords At War MMO "iPad in-hand" preview Download it for free now. We just made this tutorial video for Read More

Ahora que estamos casi en Navidad, muchas empresas y desarrolladores están empezando a rebajar sus juegos, así que os dejamos un nuevo listado de juegos que han sido rebajados en la App Store. A destacar algunos recien salidos como Sonic CD. Como siempre, son por tiempo limitado, así que si os interesa alguno no esperéis. Tenéis el listado completo después del salto. Read More

Groove Coaster for iOS is one of my two favorite games for the iPhone, the other being Tiny Wings. It’s this weird Japanese music game that’s essentially dance dance revolution, but for your finger. You can play it with one hand, and if you hook up your iPhone to your home stereo it’s absolutely mind blowing. It also runs on the iPad, but since I don’t own one it’s hard to say whether or not it scales well to a 9.7 inch screen. Anyway, it’s currently $0.99 in the App Store, making it a tremendous bargin, especially now that version 2.0 is out. TAITO Corporation, the developers behind Groove Coaster, added 5 new songs in this latest version, one of which is a trance version of the famous Jingle Bells melody. Each song has 3 difficulty levels (easy, normal, hard) and you’re given a letter grade once you finish a track. Better grades gets you better points, which translates to upgrades that help you achieve higher scores or even let you tweak the look and feel of levels. The bigger question here is would Groove Coaster have become such a cult hit if it had launched on a more traditional gaming platform such as the Nintendo DS? Having owned a DS, one of my favorite games on that device was “Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan” (see video below), which is again a weird Japanese rhythm game that you play with a stylus. iNiS, the company who made the game, have yet to make a game for iOS, and that’s a tremendous shame. Groove Coaster is unique in terms of visual styling, but the game play elements have clearly been influenced by the work iNiS has done. Why doesn’t iNiS take charge and show the the world what they can do on one of the world’s most popular mobile gaming platforms? That question haunts me at night. Stefan Constantinescu (@WhatTheBit on Twitter) has loved technology since as far back as he can remember. It started with computers, but in the past few years his passion has turned to mobile devices. As a mobile phone enthusiast who lives and breathes devices that connect to the internet, he knows he is not alone with this radical fascination of all things wireless. He is strongly opinionated and enjoys a good debate so leave comments in his posts and he’ll get back to you! Stefan began blogging as Read More

+ Universal App $0.99 Our Review By Rob Rich on October 31st, 2011 Rating: :: FERTILE GROUND Help Meu bring life (or at least a little more ambiance) back to the kingdom with lots and lots of line-drawing. There's tapping aplenty, too. Developer: Price: $0.99 Version: 1.1.0 App Reviewed on: iPhone 3GS Graphics / Sound Rating: User Interface Rating: Gameplay Rating: Re-use / Replay Value Rating: Overall Rating: I’ve noticed that the idea of irresponsible monarchs is kind of a major theme in quite a few games these days. Some of them let their people suffer, others get wasted like a lonely teenager on prom night, and some just stink at taking care of the day-to-day stuff. The king of Meu’s land falls squarely into the latter category as he’s probably the worst plant-enthusiast I’ve ever seen. So the kingdom is looking pretty grim. It’s not under assault from a demonic force or becoming poverty-stricken, it’s just lacking in proper garden maintenance. The king loves his plants, but he’s absolutely terrible about taking proper care of them. So, like any proper ruler, he gets some other poor sap to fix his mess. Meu, the bizarre little green pixie with fly wings and a decidedly 70′s coif, is that sap. Players will have to take up the mantle with him as they revitalize the kingdom’s flora by way of drawing lines to guide sunlight, water and more to their intended flower pots. However, only two lines can exist simultaneously (most of the time), so it’s important to know when to delete and redirect. Under normal circumstances I’d be partial to Drawin’ Growin’s paper emulation visuals, but in this particular instance the theme also fits the gameplay (i.e. drawing + paper) to a T. It’s a bit lethargic at first, but soon things get frantic as players have to guide different elements (sun, water, etc…) to specific plants and tap invading insects to keep them away. All while on a timer. It gets borderline overwhelming, but thankfully there are a number of power-ups that can be earned, purchased and utilized to help. Some will allow longer lines to be traced while others will remove the need to tap away at those darned bugs. For the duration of one level, anyway. These bonuses help a great deal, but they aren’t 100% required to beat a particular stage. I do have a couple of problems Read More

Oft nachgefragt: ein Beitrags-Update über meine ‘Homescreens‘. Seit März 2011, als die letzte Aktualisierung dieser Artikel-Serie erfolgte, hat sich die eine oder andere App verschoben, geändert und aussortiert. Der derzeit aktuellen Stand ist an dieser Stelle festgehalten. Vielleicht finden an diesem Montag ja speziell frische 4S-Käufer, die einen ersten Grundbedarf an Software benötigen, die eine oder andere Anregung. Ich persönlich ziehe jede individuelle Empfehlungen allen generischen ‘Hitlisten’ vor. Genau deshalb soll mein privater Einblick auch nicht alleine bleiben: Wer Screenshots oder Tipps von seinen verwendeten Apps in den Kommentaren kundtun möchte, ist dazu herzlich eingeladen. Zwei Anmerkungen noch: Die zwei benutzten Hintergrundbilder gibt es hier und hier. Auf meinem Standby-Screen befinden sich dieses und dieses Bild. Außerdem führe ich zwei Ordner mit ‘Review’-Software, die ich mir für dieses Blog noch genauer anschauen möchte. Da diese Programme (noch) keine Empfehlungen sind, verbleiben sie für diesen Artikel ohne Erwähnung. Außerdem verstecken sich in den iPhone-Ordnern: Delivery Status touch (3.99 €); Dropbox (kostenlos); eBay (kostenlos); iCab Mobile (1.59 €); Skype (kostenlos); WeatherPro (2.99 €); Tumblr (kostenlos); Verbs (0.79 €); WhatsApp (kostenlos); PayPal (kostenlos); Analytics Pro (4.99 €); Boxcar (kostenlos); Articles (2.39 €); Instapaper (3.99 €); Facebook (kostenlos); Kicktipp (kostenlos); Flickit Pro (3.99 €); 360 Panorama (0.79 €); Lab (0.79 €); Halftone (0.79 €); Instagram (kostenlos); Finnish English (2.39 €); Evernote (kostenlos); Reeder (2.39 €); CrashPlan (kostenlos); Meine Freunde suchen (kostenlos); Shazam (kostenlos); Synonymwörterbuch (19.99 €); iSSH (7.99 €); Handoff (1.59 €); Screens (15.99 €); Google+ (kostenlos) und AirPort Dienstprogramm (kostenlos). Außerdem verstecken sich in den Ordnern: Evernote (kostenlos); iOutBank (9.99 €); Pages (7.99 €); iSSH (7.99 €); Dropbox (kostenlos); iMovie (3.99 €); Skype (kostenlos); Numbers (7.99 €); Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery (3.99 €); Bumpy Road (2.39 €); Cut the Rope (1.59 €); Emberwind HD (1.59 €); Groove Coaster (2.39 €); The Last Rocket (2.39 €); Contre Jour HD (2.39 €); ShadowGun (3.99 €); Comic Zeal (5.99 €); Flipboard (kostenlos); Kindle (kostenlos); Tagesschau (kostenlos); Wired (2.99 €); Zeit Online (kostenlos); Big Picture (2.39 €); Color Splash (1.59 €); Instagallery (1.59 €); Instamap (1.59 €); PhotoSync (1.59 €); Remote (kostenlos); Boxee (kostenlos); iCab Mobile (1.59 €); Simplenote (kostenlos); Air Display (7.99 €) und PDF Expert (7.99 €). * Alle Affiliate-Links (Danke!) führen direkt in den App Store. Read More