A month ago, I posted a hands-on preview of Manomio's iOS version of the classic Cinemaware strategy game Defender of the Crown. I'm happy to report that the game has finally landed as as Universal application (for iPhone and iPad) in the App Store [link].

Defender of the Crown was originally released for the Amiga in 1986 � but that's really not saying enough. The Amiga will always be remembered for, among many other things, being one of the most notable gaming platforms ever created. And, for a long while, Defender of the Crown was the system's undisputed flagship game title. I will quote Brian Bagnall from his excellent book�On the Edge: the�Spectacular Rise and Fall of Commodore, to help convey just how actually jarring an experience it was to see the game for the first time on the Amiga back in 1986.

[Amiga co-creator R.J.] Mical saw artist Jim Sachs push the Amiga to its full potential. "Jim Sachs, what a God he is," marvels Mical. "Jim Sachs is amazing. These days everyone sees graphics like that because there are a lot of really good computer graphics artists now, but back then, 20 years ago, it was astonishing to have someone that good."

The final game was a landmark in video game production values. As game designer Bob Lindstrom recalls, "The shock of seeing Defender for the first time was one of those experiences that changed the gaming stakes for all of us."

Compared to other video games of the time, Defender of the Crown established a new level of quality. IBM had Kings Quest by Sierra On-Line, a decent but primitive adventure game. The Macintosh had games like Checkers or Backgammon, or board games like Risk. Defender of the Crown had richer graphics than any computer, console, or even arcade game could boast in 1986. It was a revelation.

Of course, the above seeks to convey the magic of the title as seen 25 years ago, but despite the passage of a quarter century, the visuals still look magnificent and are a testament to both the Amiga's then-revolutionary graphics hardware and the pixel savvy of designer Jim Sachs. The accompanying audio score is superb, as well.

The game was originally mouse-based and, in this iOS release, is running under Manimio's iAmiga emulation system. As such, completely native iOS controls were not possible, but the studio has done an admirable job of converting the iPhone and iPad screen into a virtual track-pad for swipe and tap controls. Given the extra screen real estate, the game is best played on the iPad, but it's still a great experience on the iPhone and iPod touch.

The preview I posted last month is basically a review of the release version of the game, as all that was left to finish at the time of that post was the in-game documentation. I'd urge anyone who's never played the game to give it a read. I think it's safe to assume that anyone who has played the game before already jumped right to the download link on seeing the story title.

Back in February, Sticky [99c / HD] developed by Gamistry, was released for the iPhone. This month and the recent release of the iPad version made the game re-appear on our radar, and it still has some good things and not so good things about it.

The game opens with an entirely ridiculous storyline: Two scientists with ironic names � Dr. Bunsen and Dr. Globule � were trying to create the perfect energy source, but their experiment went terribly wrong and accidentally created an orange jelly creature, named 'Sticky'. Dr. Bunsen decided to adopt Sticky as his own son, and in a remarkable coincidence, their next experiment also had unexpected consequences causing Dr Globule to lose his mind and become evil. He's now locked in his laboratory where he's creating grey monsters, called 'toxins', to pollute the world.

So Sticky ends up in an underground cavern, surrounded by orange jelly, where he's confronted by evil toxic sludge-monsters.

The controls are based on dragging the jelly to catapult poor Sticky around. There's jelly on the ground, walls and roof, so you fling yourself around the level, trying to head-butt toxins, before they reach the exit pipe. You can use walls to your advantage, by bouncing off them or rebound off multiple enemies to string a combo together.� Some crushed enemies turn into a tap-able icon, which earn you an ability, such as transforming into a large sticky ball to crush enemies or gaining a targeting system that let's you tap toxins directly without any flinging required. You can also acquire a powerful rock-shield, which wraps around you, so you can fearlessly bash into anything toxic.

There's three game-modes: Story, survival and time attack. Most of the game is based around story mode, which has 40 levels.� There's a decent variety of enemies, with ten different toxin variants, including 'Hop toxins' who stick to your face, like in the movie aliens and must be peeled off with a swipe. Some toxins actually consume you and then spit you back out. The 'Extras' menu contains some "Toxiary' notes about the specific behavior of each sludge-monster. New enemies appear every few levels, which keeps the story-mode levels fresh. The levels environments also vary, sometimes including wind or altered-gravity, which affects your movements.

Survival mode has four levels, to test how long you can contain the toxins. It's better to play story mode first, as survival mode throws various new toxins at you without any explanation of their behavior.� This mode has a couple of flaws, as it keeps interrupting game-play by repeating the same dialog messages. And when you use the pause menu to change survival level, it incorrectly opens the level selection screen for story mode.� The third game-mode is "Time Attack" which gives you a set duration (eg: 2 minutes) to maximize your score. Unfortunately, the survival and time attack modes feel like rushed, last minute additions, taken from story mode.

Crystal and Game Center integration are included (a healthy 50 achievements), with leader-boards provided for each game-play mode and level, although strangely, levels 22+ don't seem to have ranking tables listed in Game Center.

Sticky creates a mixed impression. On one hand, the levels, creatures and power-ups's are varied and creative, the artwork is hand-drawn and the controls are interesting and work really well.� But survival and time attack modes seem rushed, simply for the sake of adding extra modes. Some of the smaller levels are much harder than others. And the character Sticky, despite his cute name, isn't particularly cute or lovable, so I'm unsure why Dr. Bunsen adopted the little scientific side-effect.

If you've got a first, second, or even 8GB third generation iPod touch, an O.G. iPhone or an iPhone 3G, it might be time to think about upgrading. Aside from missing out on a heck of a lot of cool games that require more recent hardware, quite a few developers seem to be dropping support of their older devices as Apple no longer provides iOS updates.

Freemium powerhouse ngmoco announced this afternoon that as of We Rule [Free] version 1.6, older devices will no longer be supported. Ngmoco, like many other developers who have made this decision to abandon older devices explains that in order to move the game forward they need to free themselves of the constraints of these older devices.

An interesting statistic comes out of this though, in that according to a blog post of theirs, only 5% of their player base actually uses these ancient devices. What do you do if you're in this 5% and you want to keep ruling over your game of We Rule? Well, even older iOS devices still fetch a decent amount of money on Craigslist and Ebay, and Apple offers refurbs on the cheap.

Alternatively, it might not be that bad of an idea to just wait until what the rumored September iPod/iPhone event has in store for us before upgrading. Like most yearly iterations, the 5th generation iPod touch likely will cost just as much as the current 4th generation iPod touch does now. Otherwise, if you're still one of the people who is playing We Rule, hold off on updating if you're still on older hardware.

Well, now we finally know what Julius Styles: The International is: a bad game. We committed a lot of resources to reporting on it pre-release, so I thought it'd be for the best to tell you all what was up with its quality. Like Joystiq, I could only stomach the first 30 or so minutes of the 3D "King's Quest meets Alpha Protocol"-ish title, but those 30 minutes were pretty telling. Heck, the first two minutes were.

"They said I needed some time away," a bad Wesley Snipes impersonator says after the title card. "Some space to think after the incident. Get in a little fishing. Maybe some swimming," he continues as the game states he's doing all this in Arctic Lapland.

"I don't think this is quite what they had in mind. I knew it wouldn't last. Nothing does," he says with a dead deer and an old bow strapped over his hulking shoulders. A helicopter carrying a man with a mysterious letter pops into view.

While that's hilarious on some level, I don't recommend a purchase at all and probably never will. This seems like a completely directionless game that neglects to telegraph or contextualize events and actions. Its initial puzzles and conversations suffer from the same woes. Also, since when was sarcasm considered a moral choice? Really? I mean, really?

Early this morning Bloomberg ran a story regarding the latest Nintendo 3DS price drop fiasco from a side that you don't often hear from: Investors. As you may recall from the last episode of this mobile gaming financial soap opera, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata has remained vigilant insisting that as long as he is in charge Nintendo will only be making games for its own line of hardware.

Investors don't agree, especially as Nintendo stocks dip to six-year lows. Specifically, Masamitsu Ohki, a fund manager for a Tokyo-based investment management company explains: "Smartphones are the new battlefield for the gaming industry, Nintendo should try to either buy its way into this platform or develop something totally new."

The best example of how badly investors want the big N to get involved in smartphone gaming came in early July when we caught wind of a potential Pokemon game coming to the iPhone. This caused Nintendo stock to rocket up the most it had in four months, although gains were quickly lost when Nintendo announced that it was not involved with this Pokemon release.

On this news, Japanese investment firm MF Global FXA Securities Ltd. released a note explaining that "They just don't get it," urging investors to sell Nintendo stock "because a management once feted for creative out-of-box thinking have just shown how behind the times they are." Other financial megaminds are insisting that Nintendo use its $10b cash stockpile to acquire companies to help them position themselves better in the changing face of mobile gaming.

It remains to be seen what if any effect the 3DS price drop will have both on player adoption rates as well as Nintendo stock prices. While the system itself may be cheaper, a lower price point doesn't change the fact that consumers as a whole have gone cold on 3D, one of the main selling points of the system. Similarly, the 3DS software library is still as bleak as it ever was, with no respite on the horizon until Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 hit this holiday season, which seems like forever compared to the fast-paced world of the App Store where great games are released on a daily basis.

Most, if not all of us at TouchArcade grew up on Nintendo platforms and likely wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for the NES, the SNES, and the market that Nintendo essentially forged out of the video game crashes of the late 70's and early 80's. It's sad to see a company losing their way, and I'm honestly not entirely sure how Nintendo's dedicated portable gaming devices and $40 games can compete in a world flooded with capable smartphones in hundreds of millions of pockets and enough 99� (and free) content available to last a lifetime.

I think we all knew the days of the dedicated portable gaming device were numbered, but I'm not sure any of us expected this would come so soon.

[via Bloomberg, MacRumors]

File this one into the Things I Never Thought I'd See On An iPad list: the real Hitchhiker's Guide. Like, the actual one. Hothead Games, the creators of several small downloadable titles like DeathSpank and the Penny Arcade series, as well as iOS titles like Kickin' Momma [$.99 /�UHD], Chormanoids [$.99], and Kard Combat [Free], have confirmed its intentions to bring a visual version of Douglas Adams' fantasy guide to the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch this fall. The price will be $0, and it appears as if future entires will be paid downloads.

The app is being described as an "authentic experience," which means it's being shaped to be the actual device Adams described in his original radio series. It isn't so much a game, but I think there's a bunch of wiggle room here. No-one is saying that select entries won't have game-like mechanics or gameification in them, so the door is open at the moment.

"We really focused on taking existing Guide entries and presenting them in a new, interactive way," Hothead Producer, Joel DeYoung said in a statement.

"We have so much respect for the original that we had to stay true to the style of Douglas Adams, and deliver an app that feels familiar to fans, but updated for today's devices," he continued.

I'm not the biggest fan of Hitchhiker out there, for sure, but I'd imagine that this is tickling a good portion of Adams' e-zealots. The question if this will actually be any good or not, or nearly as faithful as Hothead and fans will want it to be, won't be one we can answer until we see the end result. One thing I know for sure is that I'd hate to be a lead on this. The pressure has to be intense.

We'll keep our eyes out for this, and if the god's will it, we'll follow-up if its "interactive experiences" turn out to be something truly relevant to our interests.

[Via MTV Multiplayer, Kotaku]

Octodad 2 hit its funding goal. The project raised around 120 percent of its benchmark, which I'd imagine has its fledgling indie development studio Young Horses stoked to finish up work on the follow-up to what was, probably, one of the craziest games I've ever played.

When we covered the fact that this sequel was coming, it was suggested that an iOS version was in future release plans. With money now in the bag, will we still see something? Maybe, says a representative from the studio. In an e-mail exchange with me, I was told that the studio updated its physics engine to its latest version for the sole reason of being able to port the game to the iOS platform, but Young Horses isn't sure if it will port the first or the follow-up to the iPad 2. This is the first we've heard of the original getting a port.

Distressingly for us iOS nerds, the potential port won't be getting immediate love. "[It] would most likely be something we work on either towards the end of Octodad 2 development for PC / Mac when the engineers have more time," I was told. It's also possible that nothing for iOS will be started until after Octodad 2 development. Sad face.

A port of one, the other, or both, isn't set in stone, either. "I can't say it's a done deal, but it's something we're seriously planning for," he said.

Regardless of what happens, it sounds like we have some time on our hands. Last time I wrote about Octodad 2, I suggested that we pass it with the original game, which remains free. I'll do the same now, but note that two new levels have been added to the PC version of the game in celebration of Young Horses nailing (and exceeding) their original funding goals for Octodad 2.

"These levels are a bit gritty, but we thought that it would be better to end the game as we originally intended to for the Independent Games Festival rather than keep them in our archives any longer," the studio said on its Kickstarter page. A Mac version of these is planned for release in September.

"These levels are a labor of love and even though we can't let you see too much from Octodad 2 yet they should whet your appetite for the time being." Great minds think alike.

Back in January, Liv Games released Legendary Wars [99�/Lite/HD], a game that took the tired side-scrolling castle defense genre and reinvigorated it with new gameplay ideas, a ton of variety, and a great sense of style and humor. Now, they've collaborated with developer subzero.eu to once again enter war game territory, though this time as a revamped take on the classic Rampart strategy game formula with the just released Zen Wars [99�]. It nails the Rampart gameplay too, and offers a sufficiently lengthy single player campaign and survival mode as well as a fantastic online multiplayer system through Game Center for up to 3 players.

The basic gist of Zen Wars involves choosing one of three towers to place a barrier around, creating a protective base. You then place cannons within this base, and when finished use those cannons to fire on an approaching enemy threat. Enemies come in timed waves, and when the time runs out you'll repair the parts of your barrier that were damaged during the battle as well as expand your base even further, or create new barriers around your other two towers. After repairing things, you'll once again place your weaponry and then square off against the next wave of enemies, and thus the entire process begins again.

What really forces the action along in Zen Wars is that everything is timer-based. You'll only have a few short seconds to decide which tower to start building around initially, and then just a short time to place all your weapons. Cannon fire is also timed, so you'll need to wait for a cool down period for each one before firing again to prevent endless spamming of cannon fire.

Finally, the repair round is also timed, and this is where things can get really frantic. You aren't able to choose which shape your repair blocks are, you're just given them in random order. Shapes vary from single blocks, to long wall pieces, to Tetris-like angled segments. The perimeter wall around your tower can't have any breaks in it in order to use the cannons placed within, and it can be incredibly difficult to use the pieces you are given to patch things up properly. The timer just compounds this, and can send you into a state of panic if the clock is ticking down and you're not being given any of the proper pieces that you need.

This panic will increase due to the one big downfall of the game, the finicky controls. You can pan and zoom around the battlefield using swipe and pinch gestures, and items are placed simply by dragging them where they need to go. On the smaller screen of the iPhone, things are pretty cramped, and with a timer ticking down there really isn't much room for error. Constantly having to drag to scroll the view or erroneously placing items can eat up precious time, sometimes resulting in failure.

This problem is greatly reduced playing on the larger screen of the iPad, and soon Zen Wars will be updated with universal iPad support as well as iPad exclusive modes and features. Until then, the game plays in full resolution in 2x mode on the iPad, and if you own one then I'd suggest playing on that device. You get used to the quirkiness of controlling things on the iPhone and iPod touch screen, but Zen Wars seems like a title that's tailor made for the iPad, and I'm really looking forward to the native iPad support.

While there is a ton of content and challenge on offer with the single player side of things, Zen Wars really shines in the multiplayer mode. Up to 3 players can connect locally or online through Game Center. Each player has a set of 3 towers, and the wall building and weapon placement plays out just like in the campaign, with the goal being to demolish the other players' bases. Every player gets 3 lives, and the last player standing wins.Things can get pretty crazy with 3 players in the mix all trying to blow the snot out of each other, and voice chat is included for proper smack talking. Matches tend to run pretty long, sometimes upwards of 20 minutes, which is an eternity for a mobile title. But, if you have the time set aside to play, there aren't many better multiplayer experiences on iOS than Zen Wars.

If you were a Rampart fan back in the day and have wanted a portable version on the go, nothing else in the App Store even approaches Zen Wars. Even if you aren't familiar with Rampart, the mechanics in Zen Wars are easy enough for anybody to grasp, and the strategy needed to be successful runs deep. Controls can be an issue, not because they're poorly implemented but mostly due to the small screen real estate and the looming threat of timers. It's far from a deal breaker though, and for one of the better and unique strategy offerings in the App Store, Zen Wars is a solid choice.

Tero [99�]�� the new by-the-numbers platformer from Studio Yomi featuring the titular pilot who, oddly enough, runs and jumps instead of piloting anything � is ostensibly about saving lives.�But don't be fooled by the 24 gorgeously detailed naturescapes or the Fern Gully-inspired cautionary tale about the dangers of using science to exploit the environment. Tero is about death, about dying over and over and over again.

The thing about Tero's difficulty (besides the fact that it ramps up in, oh, the fourth level) is that it's borne out of a perfect storm of bad implementation and great design. On the one hand: Tero's accelerometer-based controls are finicky at best (tilt to run, swipe up to jump and down to attack, etc.), and its hit detection is equally spotty.

On the other hand, Tero would be a difficult game even with tighter controls, and its this idealized version that's so interesting. Despite it's slick presentation and lack of pixel art, Tero's aesthetic and design hark from an older era � blind jumps lead to nothingness, and enemies appear out of nowhere to attack Tero mid-jump. Success in Tero depends on players' ability (or willingness) to repeat themselves, to memorize patterns, to rely on muscle memory instead of intuition.

This difficulty is mitigated by short levels, generous checkpointing, and by Studio Yomi's decision to reward almost every player action with extra "lives" for Tero: collecting flowers and killing enemies yield "hearts," and Tero can be hit once for each heart in his stockpile. But despite these concessions, Tero remains a punishing game.

The result � if you have the patience � is that every death is a small lesson, another opportunity to nail the timing on this or that jump, to learn more about an enemy's pattern, to find a secret ledge, or to rack up enough hearts to bulldoze your way through. This learning process is, I think, essential to Tero, because it's after each lesson has crystalized that the game really begins to shine.

At its best, Tero is a delightfully kinetic experience � there's something triumphant about letting Tero run at full-tilt, confident in one's ability to time his jumps, kill his enemies, and collect his hearts with precision that can only be learned through repetition. Letting Tero run, dash, and spin his way through a well-memorized and well-worn level is the sublime catharsis that makes all the dying and all the frustration worth it.

But if you lose yourself in that sublimation, you'll fail to notice just how precisely crafted each level of Tero can be. Each jump, each enemy pathfinding routine, each floating lever and invincible ghost seem purposefully placed and timed with the assumption that Tero will be running as fast as possible. Under the best possible circumstances, that flame-throwing statue isn't designed to kill Tero, but to present him with the illusion of danger as he bounces past unscathed. The real meat of the game is in its speed, timing, and grace, not in stomping baddies or saving flowers.

At first blush, Tero seems entirely unremarkable in a sea of iOS platformers, a first impression bolstered by the sketchy controls. But, under the right circumstances, Tero synthesizes the visuals of Super Mario World, the physics of Yoshi's Island, and the death-cult gameplay of games like Mega Man and Super Meat Boy into a game that strikes the perfect balance between tension and release, between frustration and delight.