Apple Thoughts - News & Reviews on all things Apple

"AppStar Games Inc., the digital publishing venture founded by David Crane and Garry Kitchen, announces its latest game release for the Apple iPhone/iPod touch and iPad platforms – Fling Pong – The Planets. It’s a fun and addictive arcade-style “ball toss” game featuring graphics inspired by actual imagery from the Hubble Telescope."

The games objective sounds simple, all you have to do is bounce a ping pong ball toward some target holes in an attempt to get the ball to drop inside the hole. The twist in this game is that the target holes are represented by the planets in our Solar System, the official planets that is so no Pluto! The imagery looks amazing, and they have a version for the iPad [affiliate link] as well as the iPhone [affiliate link]. You can get more info via iTunes or direct from the source at AppStar Games.

"Telltale, like Capcom did earlier in the week, is celebrating Comic-Con with a sale on both of their interactive adventure games for iPad, which feature two of the company's most popular duos: Wallace & Gromit and Sam & Max."

It's a pretty good deal if you want to play either game, Wallace & Gromit for $1.99 USD [affiliate link] or Sam & Max for $1.99 USD [affiliate link]. Wallace & Gromit is $3.00 USD off, and Sam & Max is $5.00 USD off the normal price. This discount ends when Comic-Con ends, which is tomorrow, July 26th.

"We posted about Archetype the other day -- it's an impressively solid multiplayer first-person shooter for the iPhone that brings some hardcore gameplay to Apple's touchscreen platform."

The game sells for $2.99 USD in the iTunes Store [affiliate link], and it proves if you do a multiplayer FPS game right, you are going to get the sales. The game has been out about a week and they already have over 160,000 players registered. I love FPS type games so I'm adding this to my list. Anyone out there already playing, and if so, what are your thoughts about the game?

"Astraware is excited to announce a limited time offer on games for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. It's almost the weekend, and what better time to treat yourself to some new games at special low prices!?"

So if you want to get a deal on a game so you can play OddBlob (pictured above) for example, now is the time. The sale on all the games starts at 5am Eastern time (UTC -4) today, and will go through 5am Eastern on Tuesday June 1st. While all of the games will be $0.99 USD or lower, many of them will be free. The free games include Crazy Daisy, Plantastic! and Buble Shuffle, while games such as Tradewinds 2, Glyph, Astraware Casino, Astraware Sudoku and Hellfire are $0.99 USD. This is just a partial list, and best of all the sale is worldwide. Oh, and as a bonus, OddBlob, Astraware Solitaire, Astraware Casino and Astraware Sudoku are universal binaries which are optmized for iPad.

"The always impressive folks at Valve have released the trailer above below, which will be familiar if you've ever seen a very popular Apple commercial before. And at the end, you'll also see why they've done this: Half Life 2 is coming to the Mac tomorrow today, May 26, 2010."

As part of their ongoing promotion, they are releasing games to the Mac platform every Wednesday so now it is time for Half-Life 2. Great game, and I for one will be getting it for my Mac. Not sure yet on the price, but I doubt it will be free like Portal was for a short time.

"Gameloft makes some of the biggest App Store gaming titles, and they're celebrating their ten year anniversary."

And the announcements look like the screenshot above. Follow Gameloft on Twitter to get your updates and they give you two hours to get the games for free from iTunes. Per Gameloft, "For two hours every day, from May 10th through May 21st, with the exception of the weekend, one Gameloft iPhone/iPod Touch game will be available for free. There will be unlimited downloads allowed during the two hours. Ten different games will be given away during the promotion. The specific title and hours for the giveaway will be revealed daily on @Gameloft's Twitter feed. The daily reveals will occur at random times so participants are encouraged to follow Gameloft on Twitter to be the first to know."

Sounds easy enough right?

"Those who thought Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch would not live up to the promise of being a great mobile gaming platform are in for a big surprise."

19% of all portable gaming software sold in 2009 was done so by Apple, which is quite a jump from 2008 when it sold 5%. During the same time period Sony fell to 11% and Nintendo dropped to 70%, drops of 9% and 5% respectively. They are also estimating this could go even higher with the release of the iPad, but I'm not so sure. I think it will be great for gaming, but I'm thinking this device is going to be used more for the things that Jobs was demonstrating (reading emails, surfing from the couch, etc). I guess we shall see after April 3rd, but what are your thoughts?

"After Valve's series of teaser images, it's now been revealed that their upcoming sequel Portal 2 will also be coming to the Mac. The above image comes from a series of scans from the latest issue of Gameinformer magazine which carries a cover story about the much anticipated sequel."

A friend of mine has the Orange Box compilation and Portal was one of the games. Very interesting game and it really made you think. Can't wait to see what they come up with for Portal 2, due out this fall.

"Before Cloud, Squall, and Yuna there was Princess Sara, Garland, and Firion. Though most known for the later installments of the iconic fantasy RPG series, Final Fantasy has been a successful franchise since the late 1980s. Now, thanks to the efforts of Square Enix, Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy II (the first two installments of the series) are available on the iPhone and iPod Touch."

Final Fantasy I and Final Fantasy II, both available now and both a hefty $8.99 USD. However if you are a fan of these games it might be worth it. One bonus is that each game features extra dungeons that weren't in the original Nintendo releases, and are available after you complete the adventure mode. They have also "optimized" the control systems for the iPhone and iPod Touch according to the press release.

"Ubisoft has released a multiplayer version of its popular Assassin's Creed II game exclusively for the iPhone and iPod touch."

Head on over to the iTunes Store and download this normally $2.99 USD game for free, but only for approximately 48 hours. This version allows you to compete with up to three other player-controlled assassins via Wi-Fi connection. This is part of a 48-hour launch promotion.

"It's hard to kill a Sith Lord. Long thought to be a dead project, The Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition made its surprise arrival on the Mac platform Tuesday."

And for $40.00 USD you can download the game at gameagent.com to see if it was worth the wait for "one of the most popular console games of 2008." This game is "set in the years between Episode III and IV of the Star Wars saga, The Force Unleashed follows the story of Darth Vader's secret apprentice as he tracks down rogue Jedi and does the bidding of his villainous master." This was supposed to be released last November, but with problems at the game company Aspyr, it never materialized until now. Hopefully they have fixed the frame rate problems the game had on the PC version.

"After a bit of a delay, GTA has finally made it's way into the App Store with it's guns blazing. Back in September we told you Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars was coming to the iPhone and now it is finally here."

I have a few of these game, but none on the iPhone. However, after watching a bit of the video for this game, I think I may have to pick it up. It appears to be done very well, and according to the review over at Touch Arcade, that seems to be the reviewers opinion as well. You can check out the video here, and the game is available now in iTunes [affiliate link] for $9.99 USD.

"SPB Software, a leading mobile applications and games developer announces the release of the iPhone version of SPB Quads - an extremely addictive mobile game created to help killing time with use. Now iPhone users have a good way to spend 5 boring minutes in line or challenge their Windows Mobile rivals' dominance in our online score table."

SPB Quad is available now in the iTunes store, another option to while away the minutes on your iPhone or iPod Touch!

"A group of developers plans to launch has launched FreeAppaDay.com, a Website that will offer paid iPhone programs for free for 24 hours. The program, which kicks off next week, results from the efforts of developer ICS Mobile; OpenFeint, the leading iDevice social gaming network; Tapjoy, a mobile advertising and promotion firm; and Blacksmith Games."

I checked out the site at FreeAppaDay and they appear to have started the program already. For 24 hours, they will offer an iPhone/iPod Touch app for free for 24 hours. Every 24 hours the app changes so you get exposed to a variety of different gaming apps in different genres.

"This video is all over Twitter this morning, and you can see why. Never mind a rotating Lego iPhone dock - here's one with added steering wheel, so you can use it to play all your fave tilt-to-steer racing games."

Very clever.

"If an angry, perspiring Steve Ballmer took over control of my iPhone and said I could only have one third-party app on it, I know which app I'd keep."

And that app is Monopoly, the World Edition. But now there is another option with the release of Monopoly Original. The difference? The world edition used names from places all over the world but the original, obviously, uses the names from the original game such as Boardwalk, Park Place etc. You can also play against real or AI opponents, up to 2 via bluetooth and 3 or more via Wi-Fi. "Monopoly" is available now in the iTunes store for $4.99 USD.

"Gameloft just released the fifth edition of its highly successful iPhone car racing game Asphalt. This 5th edition comes with 30 cars to choose from, 12 highly detailed racetracks and 8 different game modes."

This has been a pretty popular racing game for the iPhone platform, and with this version they add more of everything, including the price. Version 5 goes for $6.99 USD in the iTunes store, and if you aren't sure you will like it, you can always check out the video.

"Tapulous took the App Store by storm with its inaugural Tap Tap Revenge rhythm music gaming title. It followed that up with the no less successful Tap Tap Revenge 2, Tap Tap Dance, and various Tap Tap games branded for individual artists. Tap Tap Revenge 3 hit the App Store today, bringing with it new features and some unique iPhone 3.0 capabilities."

This one, unlike previous versions, will set you back $0.99 USD, but you also get the ability to add to the game from within. You can earn coins to spend within the game for slick clothing for your avatar as well as bonus themes and tracks. The Tapulous site has more info, and it is available now in iTunes. 

"EA Sports is one of the few game companies that's managed to successfully charge $9.99 for a game in Apple's App Store. Madden NFL 10, priced at 10 bucks, remains a top seller, and now FIFA Soccer 10 has hit the App Store for $9.99 and seems destined to make a run for the top spot in the games category."

EA throws down the gauntlet with this game, challenging GameLoft's Real Soccer 2010 for soccer dominance in the iTunes store. EA does have some advantages in that they have more teams to choose from and let you create your own player to track through matches. But on the downside it has only been around for two years thus comes into it with less of a customer base, and they have also priced their game $3.00 USD more than Real Soccer 2010. I guess it's up to the fans/gamers to decide now.

"Some iPhone app/gaming stats we heard at this week's New York Gaming Conference: Most iPhone games are free. There are 16,000 games available on the iPhone, and only 28% are paid games, says Michael Klotz, senior manager of Games business at NPD Group."

They also heard that most game downloads are unpaid, games are cheaper than other apps and games extremely popular. Interesting that 65% of the 2 billion apps downloaded are games, the average user downloads 9 games and that the average amount an iPhone user spends on those games is roughly $7.00 USD. I know I've spent more than that, but I have a couple kids. How much have you spent on games?