Review: Prince of Persia Retro [iPhone/iPod Touch]

July 5, 2010 By

I’ve been pretty lucky, when I think about it, in that my dad’s a bit of a geek too. That meant we always had a computer in the house and pretty much fed my geeky side from the very start. I’ve spoken elsewhere about our Commodore allegiance, but we also had a succession of IBM Compatible PCs.

One of the games I loved on the PC was Prince of Persia. Well, I say, “loved”… I mean “played and got immensely frustrated at”! It was a great game and, at the time, looked amazing. It was just brain-poppingly difficult! But it rewarded repeated play as you started to remember where the traps and dangers were on each level.

With the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time movie coming out, it must have seemed a good time to re-release the original game for iPhone and iPod Touch – which is exactly what Ubisoft have done. So what’s it like?

Hard as nails

It’s still bloomin’ hard – it’s very easy to miss a clue as to which floor panel will drop away and leave you impaled on spikes. Or, come to think of it, which panel will drop out of the ceiling and prematurely end your game. Trap-switches mean gates close just as you’ve navigate your way over to them, and there are more than a few areas I can see but not get to. The weird thing is that if this happened in a modern game I would be up in arms over it, but because this is authentic to the original Prince of Persia experience, I’m more wiling to let it slide.

Retro graphics

I’m pretty sure our PC had the EGA graphics card. We’re not exactly talking high-def here. The iPhone/iPod Touch graphics, however, are improved when compared to the original, but not to the point where it looks like a total conversion. Good plan, Ubisoft, because when I look at the original Prince of Persia on YouTube I’m a little surprised at how plain the graphics were. Tarting the graphics up a little keeps it looking decent without ruining the retro feel.

I do think it’s amazing how forgiving we were towards graphics back then. I guess it was because we knew that as about as good as it could get (at the time) so we just filled in the details with our imaginations. It makes it a little strange when you look back at games now that we’re used to HD content on demand. Anyway, back to the review.

I’m just a control freak

The controls are a simple affair. There are on-screen controls for moving left and right, jumping and crouching. I had completely forgotten that you could also sneak and grab hold of ledges as there isn’t an on-screen control for that… instead you touch the screen anywhere other than a direction control. You won’t be able to get very far without that ability, so remember it! I do have to say the controls are a little imprecise, though… I’ve run off a ledge more than once when I meant to jump.

Is it worth buying?

Prince of Persia is difficult, fiddly, and the graphics aren’t the best. But it’s the genesis of the whole Prince of Persia franchise and a classic piece of gaming history. It’s still as fun as it is difficult, and well worth adding to that ever-growing catalogue of app purchases you haven’t admitted to yet ;) It’s driving me mad, but I’m determined to defeat every level. Think you can do it before me?

Buy Prince of Persia Retro from the iTunes App Store (aff).

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Braaaaaains! Zombie games for iPhone/iPod Touch

April 29, 2010 By

I have to admit I’m a sucker for zombie movies and games. I have no idea why… but I know I’m not alone! I’ve been enjoying a few zombie-themed games on my iPhone lately and wanted to tell you about them too. Just to let you know that they’re all paid apps except one, and if you choose to purchase via these links I’ll get a small commission.

Right, so what are the zombie games I’d most recommend?

Plants vs Zombies – They’re coming… quick, get into the house and lock the doors! How are we going to stop the zombies in their tracks? Plants vs Zombies gives you a range of exotic plants to put in the garden. Some shoot peas, some eat zombies alive (or undead), and some explode on contact. It’s a great action-strategy game, and insane enough to make it loads of fun. This post’s main image is a screenshot of Plants vs Zombies.
Get Plants vs Zombies on iTunes

Zombie FarmZombie Farm – If  you’ve played Farmville on Facebook you’ll have an idea of what to expect with this one. Tend a farm, growing plants, caring for trees, and getting money for your crops. So far so boring. But plant a few gravestones and, a while later, you’ll have zombies wandering around the farm. These can be used to invade your (computer-controlled) neighbour and steal gold or, if you’re lucky, brains!  It’s a fairly slow paced game, but a nice distraction if you want one. Zombie Farm is free, with in-game purchases if you want to boost your game a little.
Get Zombie Farm on iTunes

Zombie SmashZombie Smash -I really like this one. Waves of zombies are attacking your house – so you flick them up in the air with your fingers, hoping that when they land they’ll be killed. Powerups like guns, mines, wrecking balls, and meteor strikes help with the defence. Zombie Smash has 31 levels, a sandbox mode, and a random attack mode, which gives this game plenty of life.
Get Zombie Smash on iTunes

Zombieville USAZombieville USA - A side-scrolling shooter. You walk along the street carrying your choice of weapons and have to deal with the zombie hoardes coming after you. There’s a choice of different characters which alters how the game plays: more money per kill, more powerful melee hits, and so on. A nice touch is that you can duck into houses as you pass them and search for money or ammo… and dodge oncoming enemies.
Get Zombieville USA on iTunes

Call of Duty: World at War - ZombiesCall of Duty: World at War – Zombies – I absolutely loved this game mode on the Xbox360 version of CoD: World at War. My dad and I have co-operated many a time in defending a position against Nazi undead, and that has now come to the iPhone and iPod touch. This is a pretty expensive game (£5.99 in the UK) but it really is impressive. I found the controls a little difficult to get to grips with, but got the hang of it before long. Because this is in the first person, and you’re holed up waiting for the zombies to arrive, it’s a wonderfully tense game.
Get Call of Duty: World at War – Zombies on iTunes

I’m loving these games, and I trust you will too. Are there any other zombie-themed games you’d recommend? Let us know in the comments.

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What’s in the iPhoneOS 4.0 update?

April 15, 2010 By

It had to happen, didn’t it? The week I was away on holiday there was an announcement from Apple about new software for the iPhone. In case you missed the news, here are the points I think are particularly exciting:

Multitasking

Switching between apps on the iPhone has always been a little bit clunky, requiring a visit to the home screen and then reopening the app in question. Now, though, if you’ve had an app open you can double-tap the home key and you’ll get a list of all the apps that are running in the background. It makes the process of switching apps slicker, and it’s something users have been keen to see included for a while. The nice thing is that audio streaming apps will still run if you decide to check your mail or open your browser.

Apple say they have been careful to implement multitasking in a way that preserves battery life and performance, essentially providing the services required for apps to run in the background as core APIs. That will allow the phone to manage performance and battery usage without the developers having to worry about it.

Location Privacy

I remember when I got my first iPhone I was a little nervous about sharing my location with some apps. I got over that, but Apple are adding a new feature that will allow you to have more control over which apps are using your location. If anything is using location information there will be an icon in the status bar to let you know. You will also be able to set location permissions on an app-by-app basis in the iPhone‘s settings.

Folders

Scrolling through screens of icons is a pain in the neck, so iPhoneOS 4.0 will allow you to drop one icon on top of another and they’ll create a folder. This will let you group your apps together, making it easier to find your games or social media apps quickly.

The folders can be renamed if you like, or they’ll be automatically named based on which category in the app store the apps within came from.

Enhanced Mail App

At the moment there’s a separate mailbox for each address within the mail app. That’s a little annoying if you want to quickly check two mail accounts, so 4.0 brings a unified mailbox which includes messages from all accounts in Mail. Fast inbox switching will still allow you focus on a single address if you want to, but I can definitely see myself using the unified option a lot. There will also be the ability to view e-mails in threads and keep track of the conversation instead of having them appear in the inbox in the order they arrived. I would have found that very useful when running some of the competitions we’ve had here recently. On my Mac all the entries were grouped together in one thread… but not on my iPhone. This is a very welcome feature.

iBooks

If you were jealous that iPad users got the iBooks bookstore and reader, be jealous no more! It’s coming to the iPhone and, while obviously on a smaller screen than the iPad, looks pretty nice! You’ll even get a free Winnie the Pooh ebook to get you started :)

Game Center

Yes, I know it’s “centre” but the presentation was in America so I’ve stuck with their spelling! The iPhone and iPod Touch are wonderful gaming platforms and 4.0 will include a preview of a new feature that works as a social gaming network.  You will be able to invite friends to play with you, be matched with players of similar skill, view leaderboards and earn achievements. Kind of like Xbox LIVE but on a mobile device (and probably not full of people screaming obscenities into their communicators either).

The Gaming Center will be available later this year.

iAd

Mobile advertising. Hmm. OK, here’s the deal – lots of iPhone apps are supported by advertising and Mr Jobs expressed the opinion that a lot of this advertising really sucks. So Apple will step in and provide a built-in advertising platform that’s part of the apps users are, well, using. There’s the opportunity to place 1 billion ads in front of users every day, but also to improve the quality of the ads, provide interaction and emotion. That’s really going to upset some of the mobile advertising networks that have sprung up.

Importantly, iAd will keep you within the app you were using rather than dragging you out to a browser for more information. iAd is looking like a decent option for that reason alone!

If you develop an application with iAd you will receive 60% of the revenues from advertising, with Apple (who will sell and host the ads) receiving the other 40%. From a developer point of view this does look good. We’ll reserve judgment on how it works from a user point of view until we’ve seen it in the wild. iAd uses HTML 5, by the way, continuing Apple’s non-use of Flash.

Anything else?

Those are the main points I think you’ll find interesting, but there are a few other things that may pique your interest: a 5x digital zoom on the camera and the ability to gift apps to a friend without having to just give them the money are among the updates coming soon.

iPhoneOS 4 will be out in the summer and runs on iPhone 3GS and 3rd Gen iPod Touch. The 3G and 2nd Gen iPod Touch will run many of the features but not all (not multitasking, for instance). At the time of writing there is no firm information about new iPhone hardware, although rumours say there may be an iPhone HD announcement on 22nd June. More on that if and when we get it.

Are you looking forward to iPhoneOS 4.0? Is there anything you think should have been included but wasn’t? Anything that’s particularly exciting to you? As ever, let us know in the comments.

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The Simpsons Arcade for iPhone/iPod Touch [review]

April 7, 2010 By

Do you remember when side-scrolling beat-em-ups were the mainstream of video game arcades? I mean the type of game where you’d walk along a linear level, stop to deal with some bad guys, and when you’d kicked the spit out of them you could walk along a bit more and deal with the next group. Oh, and there were usually some big boss fights at the end of the level. Remember that?

The Simpsons Arcade on iPhone and iPod Touch revisits those days. This isn’t to be confused with the actual Simpsons arcade game – it plays the same but the storyline and levels are different.

OK, storyline: Mr Burns has gathered Springfield’s most powerful citizens to hatch an evil masterplan. The plan is held in a USB drive, stuffed into a donut. You, as Homer, want that donut. If you’re wondering what the evil plan is, I don’t know – the game doesn’t even know! It’s just a device to give you a reason to play!

Gameplay is simple (standard beat-em-up stuff) but I really liked how the sound has been made to feel quite retro. You could say that’s laziness on the part of EA, but I think it’s a wink and a nod back to the earlier days of gaming. It’s not quite as retro as this video, but I couldn’t resist showing you that anyway! Oh how I loved my C64 :)

The graphics, however, look crisp and clean, so don’t worry about buying this and discovering that you’ve got a game that would look more at home in the early ’90s.

There are a couple of annoyances with the game, though:

The Simpsons Arcade - Classic beat-em-up action

Classic beat-em-up action on the move

Save Points - The game only saves when you get to the end of an area. Now, areas are split up into three or more acts, but you must complete the entire area before quitting or you’ll start it all over again when you come back. Areas aren’t very long, so it’s not a major hassle, but it does mean you can’t pop the The Simpsons Arcade on for a quick game… you need enough time to get to the next save point.

In-Game Menu – As in, there isn’t one. Once you’re in the game the only way to quit is to hit the home key and come out of the app altogether. To be fair there isn’t much you would want with an in-game menu anyway, but there were a couple of times I wanted to go back to the start and had to restart the app to do it.

Despite those two niggles, this is a great little game. It’s cheap too – 59p here in the UK – and I think well worth the payment. If you’re looking for a bit of Simpsons themed fun (and a decent beat-em-up to boot) give The Simpsons Arcade a go.

iTunes links within this review are affiliate links. If you enjoyed this you may want to read more articles about the iPhone too.
Edit: I noticed last night that the price of this game has gone up to £2.99. Please double-check the price before purchasing so that you don’t get a surprise when you read your receipt!

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Turn your iPhone into a wireless mouse with Touch Mouse

March 4, 2010 By

More often than not I’m sitting right in front of my computer when I want to control it, so the normal keyboard and mouse are just fine for my needs. I’ll occasionally use LogMeIn to control my home computer from work over the Internet, but there again I’m using a standard mouse and keyboard.

My friend showed me a nifty app for the iPhone and iPod Touch the other day, though, that allows him to control his computer from the other end of the room: Touch Mouse (iTunes link).

Touch Mouse is built by well-known tech company Logitech who, now that I check, actually make most of the peripherals I use on my desktop machine. It works by connecting to a helper application on your computer via the WiFi network. That means that both your computer and iPhone or iPod Touch have to be on the same network, so no long-distance controls here! Once you’re connected, though, it’s like having a wireless laptop trackpad in the palm of your hand!

What would you use this for then? Other than showing people and saying, “Isn’t that cool?” the main reason I would use this is to control a multimedia presentation like PowerPoint or MediaShout. It’s especially nice that the application is a free download, so I don’t have to buy any extra equipment like a USB clicker… I just have to make sure that I’m in an area with a decent WiFi signal that both my computer and iPhone can connect to.

As well as working as a mouse, Touch Mouse features a remote keyboard. I’m never going to use this for typing significant amounts of text, as the iPhone’s virtual keyboard just isn’t up to that, but perhaps when the iPad comes out this function will become more useful. As it is I’ve used it to enter website addresses, but that’s pretty much it.

Touch Mouse is a great little application, connects to Windows and Mac OS X and, if you’re presenting, could very well turn out to be just what you’re looking for. Download it for free and give it a whirl.

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