News World Wild…..iphone, ipod, ipad,….

Sissel has a lot of problems, but the least of  them is that he's dead. Well, not dead-dead, but dead. I'll explain: Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective [Free] is all about what Sissel has gained in the afterlife. Like a common ghoul, this guy can rattle mundane objects, activate levers and buttons, and possess stuff. He can also decidedly un-ghoulishly rewind time, which is a trick that comes in pretty handy; a lot of the people he knows tend to die, and he needs these people to help him with his biggest problem: memory loss.

Ghost Trick first saw a release on Nintendo DS around a year ago. This isn't its debut on iOS, though. A couple of months after the DS release, Capcom dropped a Universal version of the game on the Japanese App Store. Now, the rest of the world is finally getting to see a version of this port tonight.

And it seems like it's OK from a technical standpoint. In my modest amount of time with it, I haven't seen any port-specific issues like stuttering or flickering. It controls pretty well, too, and caters to your finger just about as well as it did to the stylus.

There's some stuff still bothering me. The assets aren't as high of a resolution as I would like. Also, a good sixth of the screen is covered by a thick layer of UI that, it seems, is simply there to keep the pixel density high. It's weird.

In case you missed out on Ghost Trick, it breaks down like this: Sissel is often charged with reversing people's deaths and he has to use his powers to do so. Each death is like a puzzle, basically, that has you opening doors, spiritually oozing to adjacent objects, and otherwise setting up Rube Goldberg-ian scenarios that'll change that person's fate.

In most cases, you're watching a death, infesting that person's body in order to rewind time, and then actively trying to disrupt that sequence. The solutions to puzzles seem to be mired in weird video game logic, but the saving grace here is that there is a single and true solution to every puzzle. You just gotta find it, you know?

I've been having a blast so far, by the way. This is a pretty thoughtful, if not challenging game with some insane, but fun-to-discover solutions. And while the minutes of overly long exposition is starting to wear me out, I'm digging the characters and the humor. Just wait until you meet dog, man. Wait for it.

We'll definitely continue on with Ghost Trick, and try to give you something much more definitive than this in the near future. This is a free release, though -- the first two chapters, which take about 60 or 70 minutes to complete, are what you'll get with a $0 download, so that should give you a good indication of what you're getting into. Our gut says grab it. Here's some more screens:

It's 2012, and I've had a few years to conjure a snappy explanation of what Eufloria is and how it rolls. I haven't. So, before I even get into how much I dig it on iPad, I'll let my main man Rudolf Kremers -- one of the handful of dudes behind the original release -- do the talking. In our latest "bonus" podcast, he cheekily broke it down like this:

"Eufloria is a game of space, conquest, and exploration based on themes of plant life and flowers rather than space marines and spaceships."

That's the thing about Eufloria: it's an RTS that goes against the grain. It doesn't have any big dudes in big armor smashing space orcs in the face with apartment-sized space maces. It also doesn't subscribe to any particular feel or taste, or really, any action-y RTS conventions. It's a minimalist strategy game that has some cool, laid-back creative touches, and it's all wrapped up in a sensitive production overhead that conveys the game's core design ideals and gentle pacing well.

This much has been proven in past iterations. And for the most part, what you've seen is what you'll be getting Day Zero on iPad. Eufloria on iPad still looks gorgeous, it still runs as smooth as ever, and all the little technical touches on the movement, placement and execution phases of the game have made it over. But, on the other hand, I'm not seeing a major adjustment on anything anyone has complained about before -- the balance appears to be still a little touch and go, and in some of the levels I've been playing, the pacing is brutally, brutally slow.

What the iPad port does bring, though, are new ways to interact more intimately with the experience. Pinch and zoom can be used liberally to explore every little nook and cranny of each level. Satisfying drag, hold, and swipe gestures take care of the rest. It's all good stuff.

I asked Kremers after the show to explain what he was shooting for with this version's controls. He said that the main idea was to strip "all barriers between playing the game and the device you play it on." Mission accomplished as far as I'm concerned. This is appears to be as much of a lean-back experience as ever before, and delightfully so.

Here's a breakdown for those of you just seeing Eufloria for the first time. This is a game about asteroids, trees, and tiny, winged seedlings. In almost every scenario, the goal is to take these seedlings to an asteroid, build a tree or two, and then usher even more seedlings on to other asteroids. The tech tree is simple: trees build seedlings and asteroids have one of three different effects on seedlings, either making them strong or fast or energetic. As trees age, they become more potent and harder to kill. Eventually you'll see some variations on unit types as well as a defensive tree that'll keep enemy seedlings off of your rock.

The strategy factors into the picture in a variety of ways. You can't hit up an asteroid unless you have an asteroid connected to it. Also, most asteroids are inhabited, so you'll need to kill the enemy seedlings and then destroy their trees, which are jacked into that asteroid's core. Cracking the core boils and tearing down an impromptu space settlement boils down to a numbers game: basically, whoever has the larger wad of dudes wins. Much later in the game, you'll be given very specific tasks, like say, defending or finding a path through a system.

On our show, Kremers explained where these ideas came from. Eufloria proper is based on a proof-of-concept called "Dyson," which is named after a british physicist who theorized that you could explore space by growing mechanical trees on asteroids. It's neat to see this crazy idea living on in a game.

The beauty of Eufloria is in its simplicity; it's artfully stripped of graphical clutter and is fairly bare-boned on the UI and sound front. It's also strikingly easy to play for a strategy game since most of the action happens on a macro-level: clicks, drags, and drops compose all you'll need for galactic takeovers. This type of game feels great on iPad, and it seems like Team Eufloria and Tunatech pulled it off.

My time with the preview build, for reasons of avoiding anything other than modest scrutiny at this phase in its pre-release form, has been artificially shortened, so I don't have a verdict for you. You'll get that later at some point this month when the game sees a release across iOS at an unannounced price. We're expecting more details to roll in shortly. Fingers crossed.

All the screens in this write-up are from the PSN version of the game. I can't tell a difference between the two in picture-form.

An official, totally real spin-off of a PC Steam release that goes by the name of Tobe's Vertical Adventure will be available on the App Store this month. As we write this, the folks over at Secret Base are hard at work on Tobe & Friends Hookshot Escape, a vertical and endless platformer that stars everyone's favorite super weapon, the hookshot.

We're told that Tobe & Friends will stroke arcade desires, as well as provide a ton of differentiated play in its space. A total of four unique characters that offer unique hook, er, shotting abilities, as well as four different worlds and 20 pieces of equipment dot the game's landscape. In a blog post, Secret Base notes that there's more to the game like, say, "power ups, monsters, themes and chirpy musics" and more will be revealed later. Catch your first look in the trailer below:

Also at Macworld this year was ZigZaGame Inc, the developers who are bringing Adventure Bar Story to the App Store. We've already gone pretty in depth with Adventure Bar Story in our hands-on preview, but another title that they were showing off is their Pokemon-style game Dragon Island.

Dragon Island has you exploring a huge world, battling and collecting over 200 different species of monsters. Each one can be evolved several times, and you can even collect recipes which will allow you to combine two different creatures to create a new hybrid version. Also, you'll be able to battle bosses and claim their spirits in order to summon them in future battles.

Another interesting feature is that there are no healing spells or items in the game. You can return to the main town hub to heal, but if you're out in battle and one of your creatures dies, then they're gone for good. I kind of like this as it adds an element of suspense and risk, and should affect how you go about tackling battles and completing the many dungeons in the game.

To balance this, even though you can only battle with 3 monsters at a time, you'll be able to bring more than that with you as you play. So if you do end up losing one, another monster from your queue will take its place. As you level up in the game, you'll gain the ability to carry more and more monsters with you.

An example of 3 evolutions of a dragon

The world which you can explore in Dragon Island is massive, with tons of points of interest to discover. These include towns, forests, random battles, and dungeons. When you come upon a dungeon, it is randomly generated and turns the game into more of a rogue-like, and there will be one infinite dungeon where you can grind and discover monsters and items, as well as compete on a leaderboard for how many floors you can descend.

Finally, the battle system will be a traditional 3-on-3 turn-based affair. Each monster can have up to 4 skills, each assigned a special swipe gesture. Although your character doesn't get involved in battles himself, you can still level him up as you would in a normal RPG, and then his stats will extend to the monsters under his control. In this way you can influence how you will play the game despite the massive number of different monsters in the game which are actually the ones doing battle.

I was blown away when I saw Dragon Island in action. The amount of creatures in the game, coupled with the ability to evolve them and level up your own character has the potential for just a ridiculous amount of customization and strategy. Along with a huge world to explore, a storyline, tons of items and abilities, and even an infinite dungeon, there will be plenty to keep you busy in Dragon Island. Be on the lookout for Dragon Island to hit in the coming months, or check out the thread in our forums for even more discussion on the game.

Foursaken Media has made a name for themselves which such quality releases as Bug Heroes [Free], it's spinoff Bug Heroes Quest [99¢], and the wacky arcade cooking game Mad Chef [99¢]. In fact, they have yet to make a game that I don't like, and it looks like they aren't interested in breaking that trend anytime soon as their newest upcoming game Sky Gnomes looks like yet another winner. Rather than go into too much detail about Sky Gnomes, check out the hands-on video below where the developer does an excellent job of explaining all the ins and outs of the gameplay:

Sky Gnomes looks like it's going to be a ton of fun, and I'm really digging how you'll be able to race against the ghosts of other players. Also, it's a really attractive game to look at, something that doesn't quite show through as well in the above video. Further down the line, Foursaken is also in the beginning stages of a sequel to their first iOS title N.Y. Zombies [99¢]. They're aware of how overdone zombie games are in the App Store, but they also know that the original game has quite a following of fans, and they're eager to put everything they've learned through their last several releases to work on the N.Y. Zombies sequel.

Sky Gnomes is just being wrapped up, so shouldn't be too long of a wait, and beyond that keep your eyes out for the sequel to N.Y. Zombies to hit sometime in 2012.

In April of 2009, the world was treated to Ow My Balls! [Free], the “Citizen Kane of iPhone gaming” according to our own Eli Hodapp. Ow My Balls! is a simple but powerful arcade game where you kick a hapless gentleman off of a rooftop and try to rack his, ahem, family jewels let’s say, against as many painful objects as possible before hitting the ground. Aiding you in this noble quest is the use of flatulence to keep you afloat and carry you towards some hard to reach objects in the environment (like unicorns), which will ultimately lead to higher scores.

So yeah, Ow My Balls! probably won’t be the next favorite past time of high society, but it’s an immensely fun and funny game for those who can appreciate its lowbrow humor. At last year’s Macworld I talked with Ow My Balls! developer Josh Michaels about a huge version 2.0 update to the game which went live the following month and expanded the game with Retina Display visuals and a whole roster of new characters, as well as dropping its price to free.

This year at Macworld 2012, I again met with Josh to check out the upcoming Ow My Balls! XL for iPad. The iPad version will include everything from its iPhone counterpart, as well as a number of new enhancements. There’s a brand new politician character to play, as well as other subtle nods to current events like the hippie Bobby Surreal “occupying” the starting rooftop in his tent. New swiping controls have also been added which are both simple to use and more effective, ensuring that even your grandmother could play this game (something I could sense was a concern on everybody's mind).

Finally, there is some fresh new title screen music and some new character dialogue, both of which you can see in this hands-on video (FYI if you’re somewhere that’s not blaring fart sounds friendly, you might want to check your volume):

Unfortunately, despite reaching nearly 5 million users, Ow My Balls! wasn’t exactly a financial success. Josh’s other project, ironically, is the classy and beautiful Magic Window [99¢] app that brings amazing time-lapse scenery to your iOS device. It’s as gorgeous as Ow My Balls! is silly, and it’s currently the one putting the Cup O’ Noodles on the table. No, Ow My Balls! XL isn’t meant to make money, though it may offer some sort of in-app purchase as more of a donation type of thing. Instead, Josh draws satisfaction just from knowing he’s made people laugh with his work (and about an equal number of people angry, as the iTunes reviews have always been roughly equal parts 1 and 5 stars).

If everything goes according to plan, then Ow My Balls! XL should be launching on Valentines Day for free, and I can’t really think of a better gift for your loved one. Also, in the very near future the iPhone version will be getting updated with all the additional features found in the iPad version. Sadly, once that’s completed, that will likely be the last of game development for Josh as he focuses solely on Magic Window. Sometimes you gotta do what pays the bills, even if it means putting your farting, nuts-kicking game to rest.

Smappsoft is another company that I had the pleasure of meeting at last year's Macworld, when they were readying the release of their clever matching game Look Again! [$1.99/Lite]. We liked Look Again! quite a bit in our review, and a child-friendly spinoff was released later in the year called Look Again Jr [99¢] which takes the core gameplay of the original but adds in all sorts of learning-centric things for young kids like spelling and counting. It's actually really well done, with brightly colored visuals and some solid voice work, and is something I'd suggest checking out for any of the parents out their with little ones.

One thing you might not realize about Smappsoft though is that they have a fairly large presence in the world of professional poker. Their Chinese 13 Card Poker [$4.99] has an almost cult-like following in the competitive card playing world, and a day doesn't go by where I don't see some kind of professional poker star tweeting about playing the game or looking for new online opponents.

Smappsoft is sticking with the poker theme for their next game, and are looking to turn video poker on its ear with the upcoming Pokertini. I was able to spend some quality time with Pokertini during our meeting, and let's just say I had a pretty hard time giving them their iPad back. Pokertini looks like your average 3-hand video poker on the surface, with brightly colored visuals, a clean interface, and some jazzy background music. Video poker games aren't anything new on the App Store, so initially it might be hard to see what all the fuss is about with Pokertini.

This is where the twists come in. There is a list off to the side of the screen that is filled with various types of powerups and game augmenters. Using coins you earn from playing, or by purchasing more through an in-game store, you can use these twists to change up some of the aspects in the game. Things like multiplying your bet amounts because you drew a great initial hand, or blocking high cards from being drawn from the deck because you're trying to go for that low straight. The twist menu adds all sorts of crazy strategy to how you go about playing each hand, and is a really fun way to mix up the tried and true video poker gameplay.

The other big addition is a badge system that works almost like the mini-missions in Jetpack Joyride. At any time you can click the icons in the upper right of the screen to check which badge you're currently on and what types of things you need to fulfill before advancing to the next badge. These can be tied to things like getting certain hands, winning certain bets, and more. This is the real carrot on the string for Pokertini, and I can already tell I'll be spending an unhealthy amount of time chasing missions to upgrade my badge status.

Pokertini was a lot of fun during the time I spent with it, and it looks like it's very near completion so keep your eyes out for it to hit the App Store soon.

Star Command looks like a real winner, so we've been following it like the hawks that we are since its initial unveil. The especially cool part about this approach is that we're watching it grow month-by-month, and our users, who are understandably excited, are a something of a cog in its development now. Case in point: the Star Command dudes are asking for feedback on the ship-versus-ship battle system to decide if it should be real time like the rest of the game's action or turn based as initially planned. Talk about big decisions, eh?

Here's the scenario being laid out:

You receive a transmission from the Evil Cortexians. You start a fight with them; your weapons begin to charge and you fire using a brief 10 second mini-game to target them. You then take a few critical hits and your shields drop; now, you have a fire from the last shot occurring on you're bridge so you move some guys from engineering to go fight the fire. Meanwhile, engineering gets hit by an even bigger blast and you have to split this repair crew... and ...

... then two different follow-up scenarios are introduced, both of which are fairly wide-reaching and strategically harrowing. The problem that the developers are running into is that they're afraid to ditch the methodical X-Com-ish strategy in favor of a more seamless, action-focused kind of approach. Your thoughts matter here, however it does seem like turn-based is currently out of favor.

Check out the thread to dive in, see everyone's thoughts, and add your own to the delicious pile. And speaking of thoughts, it looks like free-to-play might be thing in Star Command. Check out this post:

...the game will be fully playable, beatable and fun but with the monetization along the lines of unique characters, or something along those lines.

This way the game isn't forced to go slow or be painful just to entice to raise revenue. Instead, we will have random drops of non-important game items -- and if you want that specific one -- you will have to pay for it or just keep trying to grab it.

At SOME point we need revenue, and freemium might perhaps be the least painful way of doing it. Perhaps not, but it is also (as we are all mature) a good way of raising more revenue which leads to more Star Command.

If that seems up in the air, it's probably because it still is. The larger takeaway from these kinds of community outreach pitches is this: Star Command probably isn't anywhere near finished. You don't ask about stuff like "Hey, how should we do our combat" unless a product is still a ways off. Kind of a bummer, actually, now that we think about it... but, hey, at least you can have a voice in this stuff.

Check this: footage of Oceanhorn, the Cornfox & Brothers adventure game joint that seems to resemble the best Zelda ever in both style and tone, is now available. We've embedded the video just below for your viewing pleasure and aren't worried in the slightest that it will be pulled despite being labeled as a "secret" video. This is a PR stunt for a title that made waves when first announced, and hasn't seen substantial coverage since.

We're not complaining, by the way. We want to see more and realize that Oceanhorn: Monster of Uncharted Seas could be a big deal when it hits later this 2012. Not only is it fascinatingly gorgeous, but it's also mechanically and functionally inspired by Zelda. The world desperately needs more of these kinds of games, and if these cats can pull it off, a lot of people are going to be very happy.

Also, in entirely unrelated but sort of related news: If you're into Wind Waker, check out this fan-made imaginary Wii U sequel trailer that just hit YouTube and is blowing up all over Twitter. Bananas!

What happens when three visionaries get together and tease an awesome game? You get The Other Brothers, which is certainly has the look and style of a next-level iOS joint. On the other hand, you also get almost nothing in the Fine Details Department, and that's a monumental bummer considering the promise on display. I mean, just look at that.

The first post on the game's new blog describes The Other Brothers as "a pixelated family fun adventure [game] of running, jumping, collecting, racing against the clock ..." with a suitably mysterious twist. A Kotaku post has some more concept-y type of art if you'd like to see a lot more than what's on display in this post. We're on a mission to get a lot more details, so definitely stay tuned.

[Via Kotaku]