Ethan Nicholas was one of the first independent developers to achieve a significant degree of success in the App Store. Nicholas’s first title, the Scorched Earth-like artillery combat sim iShoot, has earned more than one million dollars in sales to date.
Soon after iShoot’s release, Nicholas quit his day job to focus exclusively on iPhone development. Nicholas hopes to repeat iShoot’s success with his next game, the hunting sim Kim Rhode’s Outdoor Shooting.
Developed in cooperation with four-time Olympic medalist Kim Rhode, Outdoor Shooting challenges players to hunt white-tailed deer, grizzly bears and wild turkeys in a series of realistic environments. Weapons range from pistols, rifles and shotguns to more unconventional fare like the M134 mini-gun and the RPG-7. Because sometimes — on special occasions — deer need to be blown up with a grenade launcher.
Kim Rhode’s Outdoor Shooting is scheduled for release later this year or in early 2010.
Tags: ethan nicholas, hunting, ishoot, kim rhode's outdoor shooting, shooting, Upcoming
“Don’t fear the end of the world. Fear what happens next.” Dun dun DUNNNN. So reads the tagline for Pandorum, an upcoming sci-fi thriller starring Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster. iPhone and iPod Touch owners can get an early taste of the action with Pandorum ($3.99), a “3D first-person role-playing game” based on the events in the movie.
In Pandorum, players control a character who awakens from hypersleep with no memory or knowledge of his surroundings. Turns out that you’re aboard the lost spaceship Elysium, and you and your amnesiac crew members are drifting aimlessly through space. Drag.
Gameplay is a mix of action and adventure — in attempting to explore the ship to find out more about your past and your surroundings, you’ll encounter all sorts of deadly creatures and suffer the effects of your own waning sanity. Sounds like a hoot. A free Lite version is also available.
Tags: Action, adventure, artificial life, pandorum, rpg, shooting, survival horror
Poor zombies. They didn’t ask to be a nerd cliche. They never wanted to be a part of your memes. All they want are your brains, and here you are, treating them like they’re some kind of joke.
Despite the Internet’s concerted attempts to ruin everything, though, the iPhone continues to host an unusually large number of genuinely clever zombie games. Even Zombie Bowling ($1.99) manages to have an interesting premise, despite it all.
Zombie Bowling puts you in the role of a bored bowler, jaded by the humdrum reality that follows the zombie apocalypse. Is this kind of world really worth saving? Screw it, let’s go bowling.
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Tags: atlanticnet, bowling, shooting, sports, zombie bowling, zombies
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If Chippy looks familiar, then you’ve probably played an old game called Pang. In this iPhone rendition, you play a chipmunk who also happens to be an archer. In each stage, Chippy has to shoot large bouncing balls, which split into smaller bouncing balls until they disappear.
Bouncing balls may sound dull, but each stage has a little something different from the previous one. There may be a different number of balls, obstacles for the balls to bounce off of, or new ball layouts. To help Chippy, bonus blocks — which do things like slow balls down or increase your score — fall randomly when balls are hit.
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Tags: balls, chipmunk, chippy, reviews, shooting
Konami’s Silent Scope arcade game popularized the sniper simulation genre in the late ’90s. The series boasted realistic gameplay thanks to a cabinet-mounted sniper rifle controller, which came complete with an eyepiece that magnified on-screen action.
Though the sniper craze cooled in the years since, the genre reemerged recently as a popular niche on the iPhone. Independent developers have found success in titles like iSniper and Super Sniper, both of which have made regular appearances on the top seller charts in the iTunes App Store.
Konami has apparently been paying attention, and intends to take advantage of the opportunity. Today, Konami announced that a port of the original Silent Scope is currently in development for the iPhone.
The iPhone version of Silent Scope will contain all of the modes, features, and options found in the arcade original, and will include a branching storyline, as is series tradition. The iPhone port will also feature a new control scheme that will utilize the platform’s multitouch functionality for aiming and firing.
This isn’t the first time Silent Scope has been ported to another platform — the series previously found its way on to the Sega Dreamcast and PlayStation 2, and even saw an Xbox release that included a full-sized sniper rifle controller. Given the genre’s recently renewed popularity, however, Silent Scope might soon find its greatest success on the iPhone.
Tags: isniper, konami, shooting, silent scope, sniper, super sniper
Konami’s awaited iPhone spinoff Metal Gear series title, Metal Gear Solid Touch ($7.99), is now available for download from the iTunes App Store. Featuring settings and characters from the console title Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Metal Gear Solid Touch expands on the franchise with unique, touch-based shooting mechanics.
Eschewing the series’ traditional stealth-based gameplay, Metal Gear Solid Touch instead offers shooting gallery-styled gameplay that takes place in the Metal Gear Solid universe. The mechanics themselves are a little more complex than the “touch to shoot” control scheme that drives many iPhone shooters, however — in Metal Gear Solid Touch, players will drag a thumb across the screen to move an aiming reticule to an enemy character, and then tap to shoot. Sniping also plays heavily into the experience. Players can “pinch” the screen with two fingers to enter a sniper scope mode to pick off distant enemies.
Metal Gear Solid Touch features multiple stages, challenges, awards, and even a set of unlockable iPhone wallpaper. More information can be found at Konami’s official website.
Tags: Action, konami, metal gear solid touch, shooting
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