FingerGaming

Rating:

• Price: $2.99 (Get Full Version or Free Lite Demo)
• Version: 1.0
• Official Site: Chillingo

Horror Racing is a fun little racing game that illustrates that not all kart racers on the iPhone have to be difficult to control. The game’s isometric perspective and steering wheel control setup may seem like a bad combination at first, but after a shallow five-minute learning curve, maneuvering the vehicles becomes second-nature.

Without any need for a tutorial, I started off immediately in Championship mode. Steering only requires players to place a finger (or a thumb, in my case) on the steering wheel and slide it around to turn. Vehicles automatically accelerate when a finger is placed on the wheel and decelerate when it’s taken off. It may be easier to follow the steering wheel’s arrow marker as a guide.

Horror Racing is a cross between a top-down racer and a shooter. Vehicles are equipped with turrets, rockets, and even mines, which can all be used to whittle down the health of enemy vehicles. Once the enemy’s health is depleted, the vehicle explodes and regenerates a few seconds later, most likely after all the other cars have driven past.

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Tags: chillingo, horror racing, newfx games, Racing, reviews

It’s surprising that it took this long for an officially licensed Godzilla app to show up on the iPhone, but at last, this unforgivable oversight has been corrected. Godzilla: Monster Mayhem ($1.99) pits Godzilla against his arch-nemesis Ghidorah in a one-on-one fighting game. On your iPhone.

Godzilla: Monster Mayhem allows players to choose from a roster of…two monsters. As Godzilla or Ghidorah, you’ll square off against…the other monster. And that’s pretty much it.

The game does offer a moderate set of features for what it lacks in character selection, however. Developer Indiagames has devised a clever gesture-based control scheme for attacks and counters, and players can challenge friends via e-mail and Facebook. Plus, it’s got Godzilla in it. I mean, come on.

Tags: Action, Fighting, godzilla, godzilla: monster mayhem, indiagames

While the App Store is rich with football simulation titles like NFL 2010 and Madden NFL 10, NaturalMotion’s latest game, Backbreaker Football ($0.99), fills a niche by offering a more arcade-like take on the sport.

Somewhat similar to offense-focused arcade games like NFL Blitz or 10-Yard Fight, Backbreaker Football challenges players to move the ball up the field as fast as possible. As yardage is gained, players can rack up combos and score multipliers by dodging the defending team.

The game earns its title with its brutal tackle animations, all of which are generated in real time using NaturalMotion’s morpheme engine. Multi-angle instant replays showcase the carnage after each play.

Tags: backbreaker football, football, naturalmotion, sports

Tecstar Games has made its App Store debut with the release of BattlEternal ($0.99), a first-person action-RPG that, from what I’ve seen so far, has greater scope and ambition than many competing iPhone titles in the genre.

As the first in a planned series of “low cost, high quality RPG games,” BattlEternal introduces players to a storyline that will take them across multiple worlds, through space, and eventually, through time. The game includes a deep character customization system, allowing players to choose from a number of classes, races, and different types of body armor.

While it probably doesn’t meet the high standards set by The Elder Scrolls series, it’s not often that iPhone developers attempt this kind of scope. Hopefully BattlEternal’s gameplay matches its high ambitions.

Tags: action-rpg, battleternal, tecstar games

In this new weekly feature, FingerGaming rounds up the top-grossing iPhone and iPod Touch applications, as current that day on the iTunes App Store. This week’s top titles are:

1. Madden NFL 10 ($9.99)
2. Bejeweled 2 ($2.99)
3. The Sims 3 ($6.99)
4. Real Soccer 2010 ($6.99)
5. Uno ($4.99)
6. Modern Combat: Sandstorm ($6.99)
7. Need for Speed Undercover ($4.99)
8. Tetris ($4.99)
9. Dungeon Hunter ($6.99)
10. Scrabble ($4.99)

Madden NFL 10 takes the top spot in the App Store’s top-grossing games chart for the third week in a row. Modern Combat: Sandstorm drops to sixth place after an impressive second-place showing last week, as Bejeweled 2 rises up to take its spot.

The Sims 3 also makes a sales comeback this week, taking third place in today’s rankings after finishing seventh last week. Gameloft’s Real Soccer 2010 manages to overtake Uno in its first week of release, while Need for Speed: Undercover beats out Scrabble, Tetris, and Dungeon Hunter.

Tags: bejeweled 2, charts, madden nfl 10, real soccer 2010, the sims 3, top grossing apps

G-mode, fresh off of a promising App Store debut with Magical Drop Touch, has released its latest iPhone title — the overhead-view rally racing game Cherry Drift ($4.99).

Cherry Drift offers an arcade-styled racing experience in the vein of titles like Rally King and Neo Drft Out, with heavy emphasis placed on a player’s ability to perform exaggerated drifts around corners. The game includes two gameplay modes — a Championship campaign and single-race Time Attack — and nine courses in all.

Cherry Drift gives players extra incentive to complete Championship mode with its lineup of unlockable navigators, all of whom just happen to be busty anime women with squeaky anime voices. Nothing wrong with that!

Tags: cherry drift, g-mode, Racing, rally

Amateur turntablists have a lot to look forward to in the coming months, with titles like Activision’s DJ Hero and Scratch: The Ultimate DJ soon to be available for consoles. iPhone owners will also get a chance to mix virtual beats thanks to I-Play’s Hip Hop All Star ($2.99).

Hip Hop All Star challenges players to match beats in a gameplay style similar to Beatmania and Guitar Hero. Samples and scratches must be triggered in time to on-screen cues as they scroll across a spinning record.

Hip Hop All Star collects many of the genre’s biggest names, with Busta Rhymes, Kid Cudi, DJ Green Lantern, and Kool G Rap contributing music to the title. The core game includes 12 tracks in all, and additional track packs are available as in-app purchases.

Tags: dj, hip hop all star, Music, rhythm, simulation

[The following item was originally written by Kris Graft for FingerGaming sister site Gamasutra.]

Apple’s App Store surpassed the 2 billion download mark, the company announced Monday, as the total number of available apps exceeded the 85,000 mark.

The App Store reached that milestone just over a year after its launch. Apple CEO Steve Jobs said that the download figure includes “half a billion apps this quarter alone,” indicating continuing acceleration of App Store adoption.

The App Store is a digital download service provided by Apple, usable with the iPhone and iPod Touch platforms. Apple’s handheld devices have become a hotbed for game developers both large and small – out of the 85,000 available apps, about 16,000 are games, according to a report by mobile tracking firm Mobclix (spotted by VentureBeat).

That makes games the largest category on the App Store. The category with the second-highest number of apps is Entertainment with around 13,000 items. Other categories, from large to small, include books, utilities, travel, education, lifestyle, and reference.

Apple also said there are over 50 million iPod Touch and iPhone customers worldwide, and over 125,000 developers in the company’s iPhone Developer Program.

“The App Store has reinvented what you can do with a mobile handheld device, and our users are clearly loving it,” Jobs added.

Tags: app store, Apple, Industry News, iPhone

The Independent Games Festival (IGF) Mobile, the premiere venue that celebrates creativity and innovation on handheld platforms, has opened submissions for its third annual festival.

The overall IGF Mobile winner will be awarded at the IGF Awards Ceremony, which precedes the Game Developers Choice Awards on March 11th, 2010. Both the IGF Awards Ceremony and the Game Developers Choice Awards are part of the 2010 Game Developers Conference, which takes place in San Francisco’s Moscone Center in March.

This year’s competition — the sister event to the main Independent Games Festival — will again feature independently-developed handheld games for all mobile devices including Apple’s iPhone, other cellphone and smartphone OSes, Nintendo DS, Sony PSP, and other handheld devices.

IGF Mobile submissions are now being accepted at the competition’s official website through December 1, 2009; finalists will be announced in January 2010, and will each receive one pass to attend the 2010 Game Developers Conference.

Finalists will compete for $5,000 in prizes, including notable awards for design, art, and technology innovation in mobile game development. This year, winners in each category — with the exception of ‘Best Game’, will be announced before the show, on February 8th, 2010. Each category winner will receive $500 in spending money to come to the 2010 Game Developers Conference in March 2010 and showcase their mobile game.

The five category winners will exhibit their games in a special area of the main IGF Pavilion, the winners will then compete for the coveted IGF Mobile Best Game award, worth $2,500. The prize is presented on stage during the main Independent Games Festival Awards, preceding the Game Developers Choice Awards ceremony on March 11th, 2010. In addition, the winners in each category can take part in an IGF Mobile Finalist Showcase at GDC10, a session during which the five IGF Mobile main prize finalists will present their mobile games to the audience.

Now in its third year, IGF Mobile has blossomed into a major showcase of the handheld form. Last year’s IGF Mobile ‘Next Great Mobile Game’ winner Reflection has been signed by Konami for Nintendo DSi, and Apple’s App Store created a special Store section just to highlight the IGF-nominated iPhone games from 2009′s IGF Mobile competition.

Submissions to the competition are now open to all independent developers working on mobile platforms, including game development for cell phones, iPhone, PSP, DS, and other handheld devices. The important dates for IGF Mobile in 2009-2010 are as follows:

September 28th, 2009 Submissions Open
December 1st, 2009 Submission Deadline
January 22nd, 2010 IGF Mobile Finalists Announced
February 8th, 2010 Category Winners Pre-Announced
March 9-13th, 2010 Game Developer’s Conference 2010
March 11th, 2010 IGF Awards Ceremony

For a complete list of IGF Mobile 2010 information, please visit IGFMobile.com.

Tags: igf, igf mobile 2010, independent games festival mobile, Industry News

Every Monday, FingerGaming rounds up the most popular paid iPhone and iPod Touch applications, as current that day on the iTunes App Store. This week’s top titles are:

1. Frogger ($0.99)
2. Cartoon Wars ($0.99)
3. F.A.S.T. — Fleet Air Superiority Training! ($0.99)
4. Bejeweled 2 ($2.99)
5. geoDefense Swarm ($0.99)
6. Knights Onrush ($0.99)
7. Battle Bears ($0.99)
8. Doodle Jump ($0.99)
9. TightWire ($0.99)
10. Max Injury ($0.99)

The castle defense title Cartoon Wars makes a surprise return to the top ten this week, landing behind the reigning chart champion Frogger at second place. Last week’s second-place title geoDefense Swarm falls to fifth in today’s results, as F.A.S.T. climbs up to third after publisher SGN recently revealed the specifics of its App Store sales data.

Bejeweled 2 moves up several spots to take fourth place this week. The popularity of A Quest of Knights Onrush has generated new interest in its predecessor title, meanwhile, as Doodle Jump, TightWire, and Max Injury finish out this week’s top ten.

Tags: cartoon wars, charts, f.a.s.t., frogger, top paid apps