Mobile analytics firm Flurry today reports on the continuing shift in portable gaming from dedicated devices to smartphones and other multipurpose devices. According to results compiled by Flurry from NPD market research and Flurry's own mobile app data, Apple's iOS and Google's Android mobile operating systems will account for 58% of portable gaming revenue in the United States for 2011, an almost exact flip-flop from 2010 when dedicated device leaders Nintendo and Sony held 57% of the market.

The most striking trend is that iOS and Android games have tripled their market share from roughly 20% in 2009 to nearly 60% in just two years. Simultaneously, Nintendo, the once dominant player, has been crushed down to owning about one-third of market in 2011, from having controlled more than two-thirds in 2009. Combined, iOS and Android game revenue delivered $500 million, $800 million and $1.9 billion over 2009, 2010 and 2011, respectively.

Flurry's data for 2011 is based on estimates for the final two months of the year, but suggests that the rapid growth in gaming on smartphone platforms is showing no signs of slowing. The market dynamics of free or low-cost games sometimes supplemented by in-app purchases and played on multi-function devices versus dedicated gaming devices with relatively high-cost game titles are clearly playing out in favor of iOS and Android. The result has been a surging gaming market increasingly attracting casual gamers willing to spend a few dollars to play on their phones, while established players have seen not only their shares but also their revenue declining each year.

Nintendo has been resisting increasing pressure to bring its games to the iPhone and other platforms, sticking by its long-standing tradition of making its games exclusive to its own hardware. Flurry suggests that the rapidly-shifting landscape of portable gaming may soon bring Nintendo face-to-face with a "Nokia-like" decision whether to jump over to smartphone platforms or watch its business erode away.

[Originally Posted on MacRumors]

As wonderful of a thing as the App Store is, it comes with a heck of a seedy underbelly of unscrupulous developers and I really hate how often it seems like we're posting these rip-off alerts lately. Shameless clones are one thing, but flat out stealing a game's assets is an entirely different animal. Today's victims are the guys from Ironhide Game Studio, who currently have three different Flash games out in the wild. Kingdom Rush is their most popular, which is currently ripping up the charts on the various Flash game portal sites, and is boasting 40 million total plays worldwide. You can add one more to that number by clicking here and checking it out, it's a pretty cool little tower defense game.

In late July, Ironhide Games released Kingdom Rush, and in the last few weeks of October, My Yayi released the same game on the App Store… Although, you'll notice that the Ironhide and Armor Games logos have been removed, making the whole thing that much more damning. In fact, if you want to see a ton of other ripped assets, click the above image for a full-size comparison of multiple levels.

The guys from Ironhide Games have already explored all the regular channels to get the game taken down, including sending copyright infringement notices, contacting Apple, and even hiring outside consultants to help get it removed. Yet, it remains. We've heard the actual process of getting a stolen game removed can be rather slow from other developers who have experienced similar problems, but it's no-doubt incredibly painful for the original creators to look at the game up on the App Store in the meantime.

It's easy to see why cover is so widely used in every modern game with a gun in it, but it doesn't excuse how boring the systems usually are. Epoch [$5.99] stands out because its cover mechanics are actually fun to play with. They smartly combine agility and athleticism to the standard pounding and popping, while also offering an alien uptempo pacing, courtesy of Uppercut Games's exploitative enemies. The cover system is strong enough, actually, to carry the game to completion, which is an important note to make since, aside from the story hooks, the game doesn't have a lot more to offer outside of a standard weapons / items upgrade model.

Think of Epoch as a bizarre "what if" scenario come true. It's sci-fi Infinity Blade with guns, and it's pretty thorough with its adaption of that game's upgrade model and on-rails structure. The key departure is within Epoch's action model -- instead of hacking and slashing, you'll be whipping, sliding, jumping around, ducking or crashing your robot into pieces of cover as enemies sling bullets and lasers at you. If you're moving tactically, enemies will lose their bead on your metallic frame, and you will then be subsequently free to target them and fire without worry.

The enemy AI is aware of what you can pull off, and the way they coax you out of a flow or a dead period is one of the more exciting aspects of Epoch. Some enemies fire timed grenades that you'll need to avoid, while others can fire sweeping lasers that you'll need to jump over, and so on. Mitigating these hazards, while also handling the other enemies firing at you at different speeds and rates, keeps the volume of battle on 11 and makes you to consider options and moves ahead of the one you're currently executing. I like this approach to battle; it's kinetic, but forces some thoughtfulness.

Moving in cover is a simple, visceral joy, by the way. The animations are smooth, the swipe controls are intuitive, and you get a palpable sense of power, speed, and actual control as you bound from pillar to pillar, barrier to barrier. Epoch does a great job at mixing up the action, too, by bringing in new enemy types, compelling waves, and generally keeping you on your toes throughout the game. Though, with that said, it lasts just shy of an hour.

Shooting is a side-bar, much like cover is for most cover-based shooters. It's automated, but based on who you target. There are, on the other hand, some user-controlled special abilities that essentially act as upgradeable crowd-thinners on cooldown clocks. Think magic but in the real world explode-y sense, and you've got the ticket.

Epoch ... encourages its users to play through sequences multiple times in order to earn more income to buy new guns and new abilities from its in-game store, which is brimming with high-cost content. There's a stumble here. Re-runs though a level you're previously beaten doesn't appear to yield new fights or content outside of difficulty. The kickback is that, even though the combat is awesome, you'll find yourself doing the maneuvers in the same spots.

Another point: even though the on-rails approach that Epoch takes to guide you through its narrative element is effective, the lack of control can become grating when you're just re-loading the same content over and over again. Infinity Blade disguises this same problem effectively by giving you the ability to pick where your character goes. It also dishes out some optional side paths and item pick-ups. Epoch doesn't, so you're left with zero to do outside of fighting whenever you're stuck in a grind cycle.

If you're into upgrades and that rinse and repeat model of progression I doubt you'll have any qualms with Epoch because, otherwise, it's a good game that really executes on what sets it apart from a billion other titles: it's cover-system. You'll jump, glide, and whip all over the place while executing on some cool on-your-heels strategy padded out by a host of competent mechanics and systems. I recommend it, but also excuse the game time and a lot of the pacing issues.

Oh! And check out the game's story. It's a delight and delivered just right.

One of the pleasant surprises of last month's releases was King Cashing: Slots Adventure [99�/Lite], the slot machine game with an RPG twist. I'm of the mind that you can throw experience bars and upgradeable weapons on just about anything and it will be a better game for it, and King Cashing is a great example of this.

You play as a King on a quest to rid the world of an evil being who's holed up in his dark castle. You progress through the game battle by battle, and combat is handled by a unique slot machine mechanic. Each wheel of the slot machine represents things like your party members, weapons, bonus items, and enemies. You'll give the 3 wheels a spin and stop them either individually or all at once. The things that you manage to line up horizontally across the wheels determines the actions that take place during the battle. It may sound strange, but it's actually a pretty ingenious idea, and it works beautifully in the game.

King Cashing is great because it's accessible enough that anybody who even has a passing familiarity with slot machines can pick it up and instantly be playing. But, for those interested in more, there is a good amount of underlying depth to the game with leveling up your party, upgrading their weapons and equipment, and trying to beat each battle as efficiently as possible in order to earn the the top medal.

That underlying depth just got quite a bit deeper, as yesterday King Cashing received a fairly massive update. First of all, the game is now Universal, and although it looked just fine running on an iPad in 2x mode before, it's a lot nicer having the game properly formatted for the larger screen.

As for gameplay, the level cap has been raised to 25, so you can continue on progressing your party members if you had reached the cap before. Also, there are 9 brand new weapons in the game to collect and use. Something fun about these new weapons is that they were actually all named after members in our forums following a contest the developer held there. Just goes to show, it always pays to hang around the forums, as you never know when you might end up with your name in an indie game.

The biggest new feature of this update however is the addition of 3 brand new side quests. These aren't your ordinary battles though, and instead are dubbed rag doll battles. Here your enemy is a dummy, literally, and doesn't have any HP. Rather, the enemy health starts at zero and your job is to inflict as much damage as you can given your allotment of cherries, which are the currency used to spin the slots. The more damage you're able to inflict, the better the prizes you'll earn.

I absolutely love this mode as it's essentially using the exact same mechanics but in a completely different way. I just keep on retrying, over and over, trying to climb my way ever higher up the prize ladder. These rag doll levels feel like proper games you'd find in a casino, and I imagine if the game charged real money in order to play then I'd have a pretty empty wallet by now.

Other minor additions in this update include a new Game Center leaderboard for the third rag doll level to keep track of who does the highest amount of damage, as well as 2 new achievements tied into the rag doll levels and new assortment of weapons. And of course, there is a massive amount of bug fixes and minor tweaks here as well, which are detailed in the app description if you're curious to know more.

I'm really happy to see one of my current favorite games get such a great update, and if you weren't sure about King Cashing before then there's a brand new lite version for you to try on for size. Definitely at least give the lite version of this unique title a spin.

I expected to love Evertales [$0.99]. Its trailer is stylish and charming, it looks a tiny bit like Trine, and it's by Thunder Game Works, the folks who made the Trenches series, and Crescent Moon Games, the studio that brought us Pocket RPG, Aralon, Gears and other great games. We were optimistic in our previews. But here's the thing about expectations -- sometimes they leave you disappointed.

Despite its impressive pedigree, Evertales falls totally flat. It's short, and it's got a few kinks that still need working out. It's excessively straightforward. But far worse than any of that, it's just not very much fun.

The formula should work. You've got three heroes, each with his own set of abilities. Sort of. You have platforming, combat, and something that could resemble puzzle-solving if you squint hard enough. You've got upgradeable weapons and big boss fights. You've got great looking environments -- I'll give this game that much. But you haven't got much else.

The trouble starts with those three heroes and their abilities. They just aren't all that unique. The archer can shoot, but so can the mage and warrior if you buy their extra weapons. The mage can cast spells, which is a lot like shooting but much more useful. The archer can double jump, and the mage can float slowly to the ground. There will be areas where you need to use those abilities. The warrior can't do much, but he seems to hit pretty hard. You can switch between them, but for the vast majority of the game you won't have any reason to want to.

Then there's the levels. There are only twelve, and they aren't particularly long. It's actually more like six with a hard checkpoint in the midst of each. They aren't hard, though they're occasionally irritating. I ran into a few bugs, places where I fell forever, coins that were stuck, that sort of thing. But more frequently I encountered areas where I'd be one death in before I could see where I needed to go next, which is simply shoddy level design. Deaths don't mean much, though. You'll run past several checkpoints per level, and you lose nothing for dying. It might rob the game of some potential challenge, but at least it keeps the lousy parts from getting too frustrating.

At the end of every second level, you'll find a boss. It seems like the idea of these bosses is to provide an epic, puzzling fight, but jumping and hitting them works efficiently and universally, right down to the final boss.

Like me, you might think you'll find some replayability in the Game Center integration. You probably won't. Most of the achievements are for defeating the game's six bosses. The others are for collecting all the armor for each of the characters. You can do that by grinding for coins -- which just means replaying levels to collect the same coins in the same spots, not improving your performance or anything -- or you can just buy the IAP. Which you should probably do if you're really into getting achievements, since there's one for that too. Maybe it's just me, but achievements lose a bit of their luster when you literally need to purchase them.

When you beat the game, you unlock Survival mode, which will give you a leaderboard to climb. You get a tiny sliver of Evertales' least interesting level to stand on while you fight off waves of enemies. It doesn't seem like you can earn coins this way, so forget about working your way up the leaderboard while earning useful upgrades.

The controls are another issue. By default, they're awful. Movement is controlled with a virtual stick that hangs out wherever you place your thumb, and that's fine. But jumping and attacking are both controlled by swipes on the right side of the screen, and more often than not the game confuses which you intend. That's okay, because there's a traditional jump/attack button set up available. It probably should have been the default, but that's the least of this game's problems.

Aesthetically, Evertales is pretty good. It looks great, sounds good, and has some cute cosmetic upgrades for its heroes. Otherwise, it's bland and boring. I've always been pleasantly surprised by these studios in the past. Evertales was a surprise, but it wasn't pleasant. Whether you love it or hate it, though, share your thoughts in our discussion thread.

One of our long-time favorites around the TouchArcade offices is Adult Swim's Robot Unicorn Attack [99�/HD], and to a lesser extent its siblings Robot Unicorn Attack Heavy Metal Edition [99�] and Robot Unicorn Attack Christmas Edition [99�]. I say "to a lesser extent" not because we don't enjoy the gameplay as much in the latter two titles, mind you, but because it's a scientifically proven fact that humans are incapable of enjoying any game more than one that runs Erasure's Always on an endless loop as its soundtrack, even if the gameplay is identical in each game. You can't argue with science.

Anyway, Adult Swim Games has just released new updates for the regular Robot Unicorn Attack as well as Heavy Metal Edition which add Retina Display optimized visuals into the games. This is something I've personally wanted ever since the release of the iPhone 4, and I've heard many requests from other users since then as well. But, it appears that it wasn't as simple as just flipping a switch to enable Retina Display in these games. Much of the artwork looks to have been redrawn and reworked, which could explain the delay in bringing these updates to market. You can see before and after examples in the screens below (click to enlarge):

At any rate, they both look fantastic now. It's a huge step up from the blurry, jagged visuals Retina Display device owners have been enduring for the past year or so. The Christmas Edition version of the game has not been updated, and it isn't clear if there are any plans to do so. But, with Christmas looming next month, perhaps Santa has a graphical update waiting in the wings for our Rudolph-costumed unicorn? We'll have to wait and see, but in the meantime, be sure to update your copies of Robot Unicorn Attack vanilla and Heavy Metal Edition and enjoy the new eyeball-scorching crispness.