NgMoco, one of my new favorite developers on the iPhone, has put all of it’s apps on sale to celebrate the release of it’s newest game Rolando. This means one of my all time favorite iPhone games, Topple, has gone from 99 cents, to FREE.
(Above: “Topple” for the iPhone. I love the personalities of the blocks, a really nice touch.)
For those of you who haven’t seen Topple before, imagine Tetris with physics. Much like Tetris, the blocks come down in different shapes from the top of the screen. In this game, your goal is to build a stack of blocks as high as you can get it without the blocks toppling over. Also, you have to make sure to keep yourself steady, as swaying the phone from side to side can disturb the blocks as well. It requires a lot of skill and concentration. And it’s a hell of a lot of fun!
If there’s one App you download today. Give Topple a try, it’s pretty awesome. Especially for free!
We’ll after the release of the app store, I posted an article requesting an accelerometer-controlled iPhone port of the incredibly silly ball rolling game Katamari Damacy. For those unfortunate enough to not have played the original, let me give you a quick rundown of this incredibly bizarre game.
Katamari Damacy places you into the character of “The Prince of All Cosmos”, a tiny little green dude. Your dad, the Hunter S. Thompson-esque “King of All Cosmos”, has gone on a bit of a bender, and managed to screw up the whole universe by destroying all the stars. So being a lazy king, he sends you off to do his dirty work and put all the stars back together.
Now how would you go about putting a star together? By going down to earth and rolling up all the junk you can find. You are given a ball called a Katamari, that anything sticks to. And you’re tasked with rolling around this ball all across earth, picking up all sorts of items, starting small with tacks and rubber bands, and moving up to plants, animals, cars, islands, etc. As your katamari gets bigger and bigger, it can pick up bigger items. It’s a simple concept, but beautifully executed. There’s nothing like playing it, and seeing a cow that you really want to roll into your katamari, so you task yourself with making it big enough to roll up said cow.
It all sounds absurd, and of course it is. It has a sense of humor somewhere between odd japanese game shows and monty python. The music is also similarly absurd and you’re likely to be whistling it to yourself for weeks after playing.
So when I read this morning that Katamari for the iPhone had been released. I was a bit more excited about it than even I was expecting to be. The price is a bit steep at $7.99 but certainly not out of the average person’s price range, and the frame rate is a little stuttery, but all in all it’s a fantastic port, and stays very true to the Katamari look and feel.
If you want some absurd fun that will keep you occupied for hours on end, I can’t think of a better game to buy.
You can be sure that when Steve Jobs sets his laser vision upon your market that there’s reason to worry. Steve and his team at Apple have taken on the Mp3 player market and won, and they’re now making serious inroads into the cellphone market. Apple in it’s current state is nothing less than a juggernaut and it looks like they’ve set their sites on yet another marketplace. Gaming.
While yesterday’s “Let’s Rock” keynote seemed to be forcused more iPods and music than anything else, but there was an unusually large focus on gaming with the iPod touch. In fact the new iPod touch ad, available on Apple’s site, seems like almost like a threat to the major companies like Nintendo and Sony who manufacture portable gaming systems.
It’s certainly an ad that says ” Not only is this an iPod, but this thing plays games that look better than on your system. We’re coming for you. Watch out.”
If this is the beginning of a marketing push by Apple, it’s certainly a new strategy for a company that has never been much interested in gaming. At least not since the release of the Pippin back in the 90s, which I’m sure scared them off of console gaming forever. Thats not to say that the mobile space doesn’t have room to grow though, considering the mobile gaming market is dominated mostly by one company, Nintendo, with Sony in a DISTANT second, and a slew of mobile developers making seriously crappy cellphone games. In fact as of now, mobile gaming seems very much like an area that Apple could exert its substantial influence to gain some marketshare.
The iPhone and iPod touch may in fact BE the perfect mobile gaming platform. No cartridges or UMDs to lose, it has a really neat touch interface that people have only started to exploit, and it’s capable of some fairly high end visuals. On top of that, the device is a full fledged media player, and portable internet device. It already accomplishes more than the competition without even being FOCUSED on gaming.
There is something missing to this mix though, and you can bet someone out there is working on it. A killer app. This portable gaming platform doesn’t yet have it’s Super Mario Bros., Sonic the Hedgehog, Final Fantasy or Metal Gear Solid.
It needs a game that will drive units, something that will make the traditional game media stand up and take notice. Unfortunately none of the games they demoed yesterday are that game, but considering that the App Store has only been open for a couple of months, you can be it’s in the works somewhere.
This isn’t to say that Apple would be able to take over the portable gaming industry all at once, Nintendo and co. have a lot more experience in the gaming arena, and you can be sure there are new products on the way. All I have to say though, is that you’re new DS better be really damned cool Nintendo, or you might be in some trouble.
Apple today announced a September 9th special event, which considering the invitation and name of the event, will likely hold announcements for updates to the company’s iPod line. With rumors of CEO Steve Jobs’ ill-health, and problems concerning the release of iPhone 3g, and MobileMe, this will be a perfect opportunity to get the press talking positively about Apple once again.
One can expect updates to most of the iPod line, especially a rumored total redesign of the best-selling iPod nano. Rumors and concept art have held that this new nano will be taller and thinner than the one it replaces, and will house a 16×9 ratio widescreen that will make viewing movies on the device more pleasant.
(an artists conception of what the new iPod nano may look like)
Also look for price cuts across the board as Apple plans to get as many of it’s iPod Touch devices into homes for the holiday season. I would expect to see a $179 – $199 8 or 16 gig iPod touch which will compare favorably to the price of Apple’s iPhone 3g. Since these two devices are similar in capability, and both share the ability to get applications from Apple’s App Store, look for this to be a way to seriously solidify Apple’s Multi-Touch platform in the minds of consumers.
Will there be a “One More Thing?”
Rumors have been swirling that Apple will begin to offer a subscription style music service in the vein of Zune Marketplace, Napster, and Rhapsody. It’s still unclear whether or not something like this is coming, but if it were to be announced here is the place. Diggnation’s Kevin Rose told listeners of TWiT that these new iPods would also come requiring iTunes 8. For a company like Apple that generally doesn’t jump a version number without major new features, a subscription service could be the surprise of the day, and require the new version of iTunes.
One thing is for sure, I’ll be here September 9th covering the event as it happens. So remember to check in for the best speculation and punditry on the web, and I’ll try not to dissapoint.
I was playing the original Katamari Damacy today on my aging ps2. I hadn’t touched the game in months, but I felt like just having a bit of mindless fun. While playing it, something struck me!
This game would be PERFECT for the iPhone!
For those who haven’t played it, Katamari Damacy is an extremely odd and occasionally hilarious game where you play the role of a tiny prince from space, tasked with rolling a large and extremely sticky ball that attaches itself to anything it rolls over. Your father, the King of all Cosmos, who is kind of a strange Hunter S. Thompson type, eggs you into rolling larger and larger balls of junk to replace all of the stars in the sky, which he accidentally broke.
Yes, it’s as bizarre as it sounds, and it’s an absolute blast. There is a real satisfaction to be had from rolling a larger and larger ball of stuff, first collecting small objects like pushpins, and tacks, and pencil erasers, then as the gravity of your ball gets bigger, collecting parking cones, people, whales, buildings, etc.
The accelerometer based controls of Super Monkey Ball on the iPhone would be a perfect fit for the game, and someone needs to get in touch with the developer and get them working on this as soon as humanly possible. I for one would buy it on release day.
Here’s a video of the game in action!:
Don’t tell me that Katamari wouldn’t be anything other than a load of fun on the iPhone 3g and iPod Touch! ROYAL RAINBOW!
