Spore Origins was an impressive early effort for the iPhone, offering an arcade-influenced take on EA Maxis’ complex life simulation game Spore. The sequel, Spore Creatures ($6.99), evolves the cellular gameplay of its predecessor with new features and character creation options.
Veteran Spore Origins players will find a familiar gameplay setup in Spore Creatures. Like its predecessor, the object of Spore Creatures is to eat smaller animals, collect their DNA, and evolve to grow larger and earn new abilities. Creatures retains Origins’ simple accelerometer-based control scheme while adding new environmental hazards and puzzles.
Spore Creatures features a robust character creation tool, allowing players to customize their own personal freak of nature with 45 unique body parts. The game includes 20 levels across four unique gameplay zones.
Tags: Action, electronic arts, simulation, spore creatures, spore: origins
With The Sims 3 still ranking as one of the App Store’s top sellers more than six months after its initial release, EA announced that it will soon bring another entry in its popular life simulation franchise to the iPhone and iPod Touch.
The Sims 3: World Adventures allows players to import their created Sims from The Sims 3 and take them to three exotic locations, each loosely based on real-world countries. Players will have the opportunity to explore “Shang SimLa” (China), find love in “Champ Les Sims” (France), and meet a mummy or two in “Al Simhara” (Egypt).
Each location features a unique set of careers and challenges, with the game offering a total of 52 new goals and four minigames. World Adventures also includes a variety of new furniture, clothes, and accessories, and is fully compatible with all downloadable content purchased from The Sims 3.
Tags: electronic arts, simulation, the sims 3, the sims 3: world adventures, Upcoming
In this 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:
- N.O.V.A. – Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance ($6.99)
- Call of Duty: World at War Zombies ($9.99)
- Battleship ($2.99)
- James Cameron’s Avatar ($9.99)
- Need for Speed: Shift ($6.99)
- Where’s Waldo? The Fantastic Journey ($2.99)
- Bejeweled 2 ($2.99)
- Tetris ($4.99)
- Cartoon Wars: Gunner ($0.99)
- The Sims 3 ($6.99)
Ludia’s Where’s Waldo? drops to sixth place after a chart-topping performance last week, as Gameloft’s sci-fi FPS N.O.V.A. takes first place in its debut week.
Activision’s Call of Duty: World at War Zombies holds steady at second place, while EA’s iPhone adaptation of the classic board game Battleship premieres at third.
EA has another hit this week with the street racing sim Need for Speed: Shift, which finishes behind James Cameron’s Avatar at fifth place. PopCap’s Bejeweled 2 and EA’s Tetris follow at seventh and eighth, as Blue Gen’s 99-cent Cartoon Wars: Gunner enters the chart at ninth place.
Tags: battleship, charts, electronic arts, gameloft, nova, top grossing apps
The iPhone continues to be the premier platform for the interactive movie genre, with the App Store offering arcade classics like Space Ace alongside modern-day FMV epics like The Odyssey and Hysteria Project.
Two more 1980s-era laserdisc arcade games have now been ported to the iPhone — the FMV shooter Cobra Command ($0.99) and the Don Bluth animated adventure title Dragon’s Lair ($4.99).
Dragon’s Lair, published by Electronic Arts, puts players in control of Dirk the Daring, a bumbling knight out to rescue Princess Daphne from an evil dragon. Throughout the course of Dragon’s Lair, you’ll die a lot. A whole lot. Gameplay involves quick reflexes, precise input, and a fair amount of rote memorization. Thankfully, the iPhone version of Dragon’s Lair gives players infinite lives by default, helping to offset the extreme difficulty.
Cobra Command slipped by me when it debuted earlier this month, but it’s one of my personal favorites from the early days of the Sega CD. The original 1984 Data East arcade game has been remastered for the iPhone with enhanced video, an overhauled interface, and new touch screen controls.
At its current sale price of 99 cents, I’ll be picking up a copy of Cobra Command for sure. All we need now is a port of Road Avenger, complete with its incredibly awesome opening song.
Tags: arcade, cobra command, digital leisure, dragon's lair, electronic arts, fmv, port, retro
EA’s Monopoly Here & Now: The World Edition was a runaway success on the iPhone, and still charts among the platform’s top sellers a year after its initial release. While it plays just like Parker Brothers’ original real estate-trading board game, it also packed a lot of aesthetic changes that purists may have found superfluous or distracting.
If you prefer Boardwalk to Barcelona and would rather buy up railroads than invest in airlines, EA has released an iPhone adaptation of the classic version of Monopoly ($4.99).
Monopoly includes many of the features found in the Here & Now edition — including the ability to roll the dice by shaking the iPhone — but it retains the look and feel of the original board game. Monopoly also features three difficulty levels and a multiplayer mode playable over a Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connection.
Tags: board game, electronic arts, monopoly
RTS fans, the wait is over — EA’s Command & Conquer franchise has made its iPhone debut. Command & Conquer: Red Alert ($9.99) offers all of the real-time strategy action of the PC original, and boasts a number of new platform-specific features.
Red Alert’s control scheme has been completely redesigned to take advantage of the iPhone’s touch screen. Maps can now be surveyed by dragging and scrolling, and multiple units can be selected at a time by swiping a finger over them. A pinch-controlled zoom function is also included.
Red Alert launches with 12 levels of combat for both the Allied and Soviet forces, along with two maps for multiplayer Skirmish matches, playable over a Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connection. A map pack containing six additional Skirmish stages is also available as an optional in-app purchase for 99 cents. EA has announced that an expansion pack will be released in the future as downloadable content.
Tags: command & conquer red alert, electronic arts, Multiplayer, rts
Electronic Arts has launched Rock Band ($9.99) for the iPhone, an adaptation of the Harmonix-developed band simulation franchise.
Like previous console releases in the series, Rock Band for the iPhone simulates a live musical performance with multiple band members. iPhone Rock Band trades in the instrument-shaped peripherals of its console versions for a touch-based interface that allows a solo player to perform the guitar, bass, drums, or vocals portions of each song.
Rock Band for the iPhone also includes an online multiplayer mode, allowing players to assemble a musical group and perform each song as a full four-piece band. During multiplayer sessions, players are able to save failing band members and increase the score multiplier by using Overdrive energy earned during play.
The iPhone version of Rock Band includes 20 songs from artists like Foo Fighters, The Beastie Boys, and Blondie. In a move similar to the pricing strategy adopted by Tap Tap Revenge 3, Rock Band also features an in-game store that allows players to purchase additional song packs for a small fee.
Tags: ea mobile, electronic arts, Multiplayer, Music, rhythm, rock band
EA and Hasbro continue their successful partnership with the release of Boggle ($2.99) for the iPhone.
EA’s adaptation of the classic word game arrives in the App Store with three different gameplay modes. Challenge Mode is a traditional race to find as many words as possible by connecting letters displayed in a 4×4 grid. Advanced Mode features speedier and more difficult challenges, while Self-Score allows users to customize game rules to their own personal tastes.
This release is an interesting one, as dozens of App Store developers have built their fortunes around cloning some or all of Boggle’s gameplay. EA’s officially licensed version of Boggle also seems to be somewhat barebones in terms of features — the game lacks multiplayer gameplay, and includes none of the Twitter and Facebook integration built into other recent Boggle clones. Will the Boggle name be enough to carry EA’s game up through the App Store sales ranks?
Tags: boggle, electronic arts, hasbro, Puzzle, word game
Like it or loathe it, Snood is an inescapable part of gaming culture. Sure, it’s more escapable now than it once was, but in the days before PopCap began its worldwide domination of the casual games market, it was the go-to game for bored college students and grandmas alike. Today, Snood ($3.99) comes to the iPhone, courtesy of Electronic Arts.
If you’ve never played Snood, it’s basically Taito’s Bust-A-Move, but with more attitude. And by attitude, I mean “puzzle pieces with faces on them, some of which are wearing sunglasses.” The gameplay is exactly the same. Launch bubbles. Match bubbles. Make bubbles disappear.
The iPhone version of Snood includes 100 single-player puzzle levels, along with a multiplayer mode — a first for the series. The game also features achievements, high score reporting, and the ability to challenge friends over Facebook.
Tags: bust-a-move, electronic arts, Puzzle, puzzle bobble, snood
As the latest act in its partnership with board game manufacturer Hasbro, Electronic Arts has released an iPhone port of The Game of Life ($4.99).
The Game of Life allows players to amass a virtual fortune, achieve their wildest career dreams, and have lots of beautiful and successful children. Of course, all of this means nothing if the competing players have bigger fortunes, wilder dreams, and more successful children. To win at The Game of Life, your life must be so good that it makes other people feel bad.
The Game of Life includes the following features:
- Navigate your way through a stunning, 3D environment
- Enjoy the ease of innovative controls and animated tokens
- Turn up the fun and Pass’N Play with up to 3 friends
- Gain tiles worth big bucks when you land on “Life Spaces”
- Collect “Share The Wealth Cards” for your chance at becoming a millionaire
- Recreate your life each time you play and savor endless hours of replay
EA notes that its next Hasbro board game releases for the iPhone will be Monopoly Classic and…Boggle. Given that dozens of App Store developers have at least partially sustained themselves by ripping off Boggle at some point, it should be interesting to see how the original game performs in such a crowded marketplace.
Tags: board game, electronic arts, hasbro, the game of life
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