R.Type [DotEmu] - $1.99

DotEmu. Over the years they’ve built up a very solid and strong fan-base in the iOS and Android gaming worlds. And now, just the mention of their name will have a lot of gamers screaming ‘instabuy’ and ‘take my money’. Their ports are some of the best in the AppStore and the added little perks and different settings options have secured their place in the porting world as ‘one of the best’. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, check out their work, you won’t regret it. Raiden Legacy, The Last Express, King Of Fighters, Metal Slug and others are just waiting to be snatched up by eager old-school gamers like yourself. Now, if the mention of those titles do bring back unforgettable gaming memories, their latest release will need no introduction. R-Type is a classic in the retro gaming world. Released on just about every single old-school gaming platform there was back in the late 80’s and early 90’s and has also been ported to the PC, XBLA and has spawned numerous sequels. 

Set in the 22nd century, your mission is to take out the evil Bydo Empire. There’s not much more to it than that. After each stage is beat, the game will count up your score and you’ll go on to the next. What R-Type is probably most famous for is it’s difficulty. It earned a 7th position spot on IGN’s top 10 most difficult games, and while it can be quite easy for someone who’s learned the ins and outs of the game, actually getting to that level will take more than just a couple of deaths to accomplish. While this is now a staple of the SHMUP world, endless replayability because of heightened difficulties and score chasing, don’t let that turn you off if you’re not really a big shoot-em-up gamer. DotEmu has added an Unlimited Mode in this version, allowing for infinite lives so that you can learn the game and make it through no matter your skill level. 

There are 8 stages, each with a crazy looking boss at the end. One of my favorite memories of the first time I played R-Type when I was younger was how shocked I was at the boss’s designs and models. This, along with the mesh of organic and synthetic material in the level designs and enemies also give R-Type a distinctive feeling and atmosphere that’s hard to forget. To this day the whole graphic design of the game stands as one of the most original, interesting, innovative and visually appealing in the shmup gaming world. 

There are 4 different shot types that you’ll be able to pick up as you progress throughout the game; your original one projectile shot type, a 3 way laser, a beam shot that takes a circular pattern and a ‘wall shot’ which fires out of the top and bottom of your ship and crawls along the walls. While in-game, little robot orbs with feet will be mixed in with the enemies and destroying these will let loose a power-up. If you don’t have a power-up equipped yet, you’ll receive your ‘Force Orb’. This is one aspect of R-Type that really makes it stand out above other shmups of the time period. You can either equip your Force Orb on the front or back of your ship as well as have it maneuver throughout the levels on its own. Mastering the Force Orb is something that you’ll need to do in order to complete the game and adds another layer to form the very cohesive whole that is R-Type. 

There are two control options; Relative Touch and a Virtual Joystick. Both work exceedingly well, and while both have two additional icons, one for controlling an add-on power-up core and another for charging up your charged shot, everything can be moved around anywhere on the screen to fit your play-style and device. You can also turn auto-fire on or off while off will have you mashing on the charge shot icon to fire. There are two options for screen-size, full screen, or boxed and like most other DotEmu ports, you can turn the video filter on or off, making the edges jagged (original look) or smoothed out (more modern look) and add scan-lines to the game as well. Other awesome additions/features are 10 languages, Retina display (as well as on the iPad, since this new R-Type build is Universal), iCade support and an extra Insane difficulty mode that unlocks once you beat the game on Normal difficulty.

To top it all off, DotEmu has dumped the OpenFeint support that came with the older version and added GameCenter with 11 achievements and 2 leaderboards (one for Normal and one for Insane). All of this packed into a nice little package and with a price point of only $1.99, it’s insane to not recommend this to any and all shooter and retro gaming fans out there. Even if you own the old EA published version, this new version has enough perks to throw down the two bucks. If you’ve never played R-Type before, you’re in for one hell of a treat, as it has been, and always will be, one of my favorite shooters of all time. It’s not one to be missed.

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Raiden Legacy [DotEmu] - $4.99

DotEmu is definitely up there on our list of developers who do an amazing job with porting games to the iOS. R-Type, King of Fighters, The Last Express, Metal Slug 3, Blazing Star, I could pretty much list their entire catalogue when talking about great ports available in the AppStore. Their most recent release is no exception, and this time around they’ve brought another classic to the touch screen with Raiden Legacy. Not only have they ported over this must-own shmup, but DotEmu has also included 3 other Raiden titles in the package; Fighters, Fighters 2 and Fighters Jet. 

For those of you who are not familiar with Radien, now is a great chance to get acquainted. Not only will you be able to see where quite a few other shmups were influenced from, but you’ll be exposed to a hardcore shmup on par difficulty wise with bullet-hell titles from the likes of Cave and Doragon (Sunny Tam), as well as many other titles from non-iOS development studios. It’s always great when games can still hold their own after 20+ years. 

Not only does Raiden feature stages packed full of power-ups, loads of enemies and quick action like just about every other shmup out there, but it also incorporates some great features that help it to stand out, like bullet grazing, quite a few on-screen projectiles (at the time of it’s original release, it was known for having ‘loads’ of bullets, and even today is considered one of the first steps that brought shmups towards the bullet-hell subgenre) and a nice scoring system that includes the bullet grazing along with medals, two ‘secret’ items; the Fairy and Miclus, and end of level bonuses that multiply your remaining bombs by the number of medals you’ve picked up in the stage. There are also other little features that make the gameplay more interesting; various enemy projectiles, some of which can be ‘absorbed’ by your own shots, quick moving ‘grouped’ projectiles reminiscent of bullet curtain shots and a larger-than-the-screen play area that you can use to your advantage, like being able to avoid enemies as enemies that are not on-screen can not shoot at you.

Along with the original Raiden, Raiden Fighters, Raiden Fighters 2 and Raiden Fighters Jet are also included, all of which feature some of the same great mechanics as the original, including bullet grazing, medals and more. One of the major differences, aside from the graphical improvements, is the addition of numerous ships, each with their own strengths and weaknesses as well as some enhancements to the scoring system, charged shots and ‘slave’ ships that have a direct influence on the medal system. Needless to say, once you learn the ins and outs of each games scoring, they become a lot more difficult, as well as raise up the replay value and general fun factor of the games. 

Each of the 4 titles have the same game options. If you’re familiar with DotEmu’s previous releases, you pretty much know what to expect. You can change the game’s volume level (though you can’t change the sound effects and music volumes separately), turn video filtering off or on allowing for you to experience the games in their original pixilated graphics, or more ‘modern’ smoothed out graphics and switch the aspect ration between ‘original’, which puts a ‘dead zone’ at the bottom of the screen, and ‘full-screen’ which takes up the entire screen. You’re also able to adjust the controls by placing them anywhere on the screen, turn auto-fire on or off and switch between the original arcade ship speeds, adding quite a bit to the strategy and ship selection decisions, and fast touch, allowing for near 1:1 movement and speed. 

Along with the ‘typical’ DotEmu game options, you’re also able to choose between two difficulties for each game, Medium and Hard as well as play through the original Arcade Mode, Mission Mode which lets you play through single levels that you’ve unlocked by playing through Arcade Mode, and Training Mode, which gives you a chance to practice levels with unlimited continues. 

Of course, an iOS shmup isn’t really complete unless you’re able to chase other players high-scores. Raiden Legacy is supported by GameCenter and features 8 Leaderboards; two for each of the 4 titles, split up by difficulty. Along with the 8 Leaderboards there’s also 15 Achievements, most of which will take some pretty slick gaming to unlock. Along with all of this, Raiden Legacy also features iCade compatibility, giving players the opportunity to have an almost exact copy of the original arcade experience. 

There is one minor issue that I’ve run into while playing; starting the game back up after pausing it will give you a black screen for a second. During this second, the game has already started which can result in some very unnecessary deaths. But aside from this, Raiden Legacy is a near perfect port, as you might have expected coming from DotEmu. 

Priced at $4.99 and being Universal, Raiden Legacy is an incredible deal. If you told me years ago that I would be able to own Raiden for a mere 5 quarters, I would have laughed in your face. Shmup fans looking for a hardcore gaming experience up to par with the bullet hell titles available on the iOS would be doing themselves a favor picking this collection up. However, if you’re not very good at shmups, you should keep in mind that the Easy difficulty has been taken out of each of these games, so there just might be more frustration in here than you’re willing to deal with. With that in mind, it should also be said that DotEmu has done an incredible job in the past with adding tweaks and features to games based on customer and gamer feedback, so there is a real possibility that Easy could very well be added to the games in the future, so you just might want to keep an eye on the updates for Raiden Legacy in the future. Personally, I’ve got to put Raiden Legacy in my top 10 favorite iOS games of 2012, and it’s definitely a must-own for shmup lovers. 

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The Last Express [DotEmu] - $4.99

The AppStore is full of ports, and with all the older retro gamers that have gotten back into gaming because of the iDevice, it’s considered fantastic by many. Being able to play Final Fantasy or War of the Lions, Blazing Star and ESPGaluda, Metal Slug and Myst all on one device that fits in your pocket is something gamers have been dreaming about for quite some time. It’s also given old-school gamers a chance to check out newer games that they wouldn’t have been exposed to otherwise, like Bastion, Eufloria, Splice and others. But it’s always great seeing an old(er) classic hit the AppStore, in this case, The Last Express. Originally released back in 1997, The Last Express, created by Jordan Mechner (who’s also the creator of Prince of Persia) has been hailed by many as one of the greatest Adventure games ever developed. Being called ‘thrilling’ and ‘exquisite’ by Newsweek and listed in the book ‘1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die’, it’s received quite a bit of praise and dozens of awards. 

Now, what exactly makes The Last Express so amazing? Well, alongside the story, there’s roughly 35 different endings to the game, with about 30 being ‘bad’ endings, about 4 being ‘good’ and only one being considered the ‘proper’ ending. Within the game there are about 30+ characters, all designed with their own AI and concerns, all of which changes depending on how and when you interact with them. The Last Express also takes place in real time. Kind of. It’s real time x6, with some parts where you’ll need to rush to get somewhere, and others where you’ll need to kill time before being able to talk to a certain character. 

If you’ve never played The Last Express before, chances are you’re going to run into a ‘bad’ ending a lot more than once. Figuring out what to do and what not to do, where to go, who to talk to, what to collect and who to show what items to along the way. This could be considered a horrible thing, resulting in players needing to play through the game numerous times before reaching an end that they can handle, if it weren’t for the ability to go back in time. You’re able to exit to the menu, at any time, in which case you’ll be able to turn the clock back, and sometimes forward, just in case you’ve missed something, or wound up doing something you weren’t suppose to do. 

Taking place right before the start of World War 1, July 24, 1914, the main character that you’ll be playing as, Robert Cath, who’s just boarded the Orient Express train after receiving an urgent summons from your old friend, Tyler Whitney. After boarding, you find Tyler dead in his room. With Robert already being hunted by police for being a suspect in another murder. From here, you need to figure out what to do, who killed your friend, how not to get caught and who you can and can not trust, if anyone. 

The gameplay is designed around a 3D environment in which you’re able to move around by tapping arrows on the screen, and interact with objects by tapping icons that appear over certain objects. Talking to people can be done by tapping on dialogue bubbles that appear on the character as you get near them. The graphics are very well done in an Art Nouveau styling (which was very popular in 1914), with cut-scenes moving like you do in-game, one frame at a time. The Last Express is considered by many a work of art, and they aren’t wrong in the slightest. To put the game together, Jordan Mechner hired actors to act out every action done by every character within the game. These actions were photographed and digitized. Hand picked frames were then selected and de-colorized, with a computer then creating line drawings of the photos which were then colored by hand. 40,000 frames in total are included in The Last Express. After 5 years of work, the game was completed.

GameCenter has been added to the iOS version, with 15 achievements added which will take most gamers quite a bit of gameplay in order to unlock. Priced at $4.99, and being Universal, this iOS version of The Last Express is a must own for anyone even slightly interested in experiencing one of the best Adventure/Thriller games ever created. DotEmu, the studio who has handled the ports of R-Type, Metal Slug 3, King Of Fighters, Blazing Star and others, has done a fantastic job with the user interface, and keeping the gameplay true to the original on the touch screen. The menus are great, and easy to navigate, and really, the whole gameplay experience is just fantastic. The art style, background music, multiple endings and large cast of characters all make The Last Express a game that you will never forget. 

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Blazing Star [SNK + Dot Emu] - $2.99

After the release of Metal Slug 3 by SNK and Dot Emu, a lot of gamers have been hoping for more ports of classic SNK titles. However, I don’t think anyone really expected to see another title so soon. This time around, SNK and Dot Emu have brought the fantastic old-school SHMUP, Blazing Star, to the iOS, and it’s just as faithful a port as Metal Slug 3. 

For those of you who have never played the original Blazing Star, it was originally released in Arcades back in 1998, and is the sequel to the other fantastic Arcade shoot-em-up, Pulstar. Blazing Star includes 6 different pilots + ships, all having their own type of shot, and special shots, offering up quite a bit of varied gameplay. The ships with the stronger shot types tend to move slightly slower than the ships with the weaker shots, leaving it up to the player to find the ship which best suits their style of play. 

Included in the game are 7 stages, each getting progressively more difficult as you progress. Luckily, just like in Metal Slug 3, you’re given continues, and can also choose to play in Mission Mode, which lets you play from the last level you reached in Arcade Mode, so that you’re able to experience playing all of the 7 stages, as well as practice certain stages after you get use to the gameplay and start to go for high-scores. Also included in the game, same as Metal Slug, is the option to switch from pixilated to smooth graphics, add scan-lines, and choose to play in 4:3 or 16:9 ratio. Also available is the ability to play in 2 player co-op mode via Bluetooth, which, like with Metal Slug, is a fantastic addition. 

There are two control schemes, one includes a joystick, and the other offers up 1:1 relative touch controls. You’re able to move the two shot buttons as well as the joystick to anywhere on the screen you like, which is a huge plus, especially when playing on the iPad. 

Unfortunately, a lot of players are having problems getting use to the ship speed. The way the game was made, making stronger ships move slower, this means that the ships will not move as fast as you can move your finger across the screen, and because of this, a lot of players have had problems getting comfortable with the gameplay. Also an issue is the joystick. The dead zone that you’re able to touch is fairly small, and results in the ship’s movement being pretty jerky, and hard to control. Another issue some have been having is that in order to fire, you need to constantly tap on the shoot button. Fortunately, SNK and Dot Emu have stated that they are adding an option for ship movement to be sped up, as well as an auto-fire option. But not to worry, for those of you who have come to love the game in the past, and are accustomed to the ship’s movement, and the firing mechanics, the new control set-ups will have a separate leaderboard, leaving the hardcore players boards safe and sound. 

Graphically, Blazing Star looks amazing. The animations and 2.5D graphics look incredible on both the iPhone and the iPad, and the music is exactly as it was over 14 years ago; hard-edged, and full of energy. The GameCenter integration definitely adds to the already high replay value that almost all SHMUPs inevitably include, having boards for all 4 difficulty settings, as well as 15 hard to snag achievements. 

Being Universal, and priced insanely low at $2.99, Blazing Star is a game that all SHMUP fans need to check out. With it’s slick graphics, awesome gameplay, and fantastic scoring system, it sits along-side the other heavy hitters like Dariusburst and RayStorm, as one of the best non-Cave shoot-em-ups available for the iOS. Hopefully SNK and Dot Emu will keep porting over amazing classics from the past and making them available via the AppStore (here’s hoping for The Last Blade!). Having them available at any time and in our pockets is simply amazing. 

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Walking Dead: The Game [Telltale Games] - $4.99

If you’ve been reading the reviewers here at TAS for a while, you’ve come to know that Point & Click games were have never really been a favorite of mine. That is, until I had the extreme pleasure of playing Machinarium, Yesterday, and Myst. And now I can add one more title to that very short list of P&C games that I’ve come to love; Telltale’s Walking Dead: The Game. A survival/horror adventure game, originally released for PC and MAC, ported over to the iOS. 

Now, I haven’t had the pleasure of playing the PC version of Walking Dead, and I don’t watch the TV show, mainly because my wife hates any sort of horror entertainment. I do, however, read the comics, and have come to really enjoy them. But when I heard that Telltale was going to be the team releasing the game on iOS, I was pretty skeptical. Their previous releases have been kind of hit or miss; Back to the Future - blah, Sam & Max - loved it, Law & Order - meh, Puzzle Agent - great. But after seeing the trailer, I was ready to be impressed, and after playing the first episode of Walking Dead: The Game; I am. 

For those of you familiar with The Walking Dead, the game does not follow Rick his group of survivors. Instead, an entirely new storyline has been done for the game. You follow a convict, Lee, convicted of murder, as he tries to make his way to Mason, Georgia to find his family after being in a car crash that freed him from incarceration. On his way, he runs across a little girl, Clementine, who’s parents are somewhere in Savannah, GA, and whom you try to protect, as well as others who eventually make up the group of survivors that you’ll be following. 

Controlling Lee is what really makes the game stand out as one of the best Telltale games to hit the AppStore. As you meet people, and get thrown into situations with zombies, you’ll need to make quick decisions regarding dialogue and actions. Instead of feeling like the game is controlling what you do, it’s more like you’re controlling the game, having an impact over what the other characters think of you, as well as who lives and who dies. What’s even better? These choices are apparently carried over across all of the episodes, so they stick with you throughout the entire game. 

The graphics and animations are extremely well done, and incredibly reminiscent of the comics. The environments and objects are very well crafted, and create an incredible atmosphere. There have been times when I encountered some slowdown and general jerkiness, even while playing on my iPad 2, though not enough to really take away from the games fantastic immersive quality. The voice acting is another aspect which I found myself consistently being impressed by. All-n-all, it’s extremely well put-together. 

Priced at $4.99 for the first episode, and giving players the option to purchase the next 4 episodes for $14.99, it is a bit pricy. Especially considering there’s only about 3 hours of gameplay in the first episode. But if you’re a fan of the series (comic, TV, or both), this is definitely a game you should check out. Even if you’ve never seen an episode of the show, or read one comic, it’s still a fantastic Point & Click adventure game that deserves to be experienced. Once you complete the first episode, it definitely leaves you wanting more. Walking Dead: The Game has set a new standard for Telltale games, and one that I hope they live up to in the future. 

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Fur Fighters: Viggo on Glass [Muffin Games] - $1.99

Previously released games, ported to the iOS. A perfect way to buy back childhood/teenage memories for pennies on the dollar, as we proclaimed in our review of Metal Slug 3. This time, we’ve got our hands on Fur Fighters: Viggo on Glass, a Dreamcast title back from one of the best years of Dreamcast gaming; 2000. If you ever played the original, then you already know that Fur Fighters is one of the best and most underrated Dreamcast titles around. Those of you who haven’t heard of Fur Fighters until now. Get ready to get hooked. 

Back in 2000, IGN gave Fur Fighters a rating of 8.3, saying “a wonderful, whimsical personality radiates from the lavishly detailed characters and surroundings” and that “Fur Fighters is like nothing else in the gaming scene.” And they couldn’t be more right. At the time, the graphics, characters, story, gameplay, all of it was incredibly well done, looked beautiful, and was, in fact, like nothing else gamers had seen before. In Fur Fighters: Viggo on Glass, you’ll control 6 different characters, each with their own special and unique abilities, taking them on a mission to stop General Viggo, who’d kidnapped the hero’s families and babies, from taking over the world with his army of bears.

As you go from area to area, blowing the bears to fluff, collecting gems that keep the warp gates for each of the characters open, you’ll need to change between each of the characters so that you can use their abilities to reach certain areas, collect all of the weapons, solve puzzles, collect each of the babies who only come to their parents, and progress through the game. The training area at the beginning gives you a very good idea of what goes on throughout the game. In the training area, you’ll need to collect each of the 6 babies, and use each of the characters and their abilities to get through it. For instance, the cat can climb walls which have cat scratches on them, the raccoon can crawl through very small areas, a kangaroo who can jump higher than anyone else, ect. 

Graphically, the game looks just like it did back in 2000. But if you haven’t had the pleasure of playing the original, the world of Fur Fighters is very reminiscent of Super Mario 64. Big blocky objects, basic, but polished animations, and a general cartoony feel to everything. Killing the enemies causes them to blow up in an explosion of fluff, and the characters language is pretty interesting, adding another level of cuteness to the game. Actually, Fur Fighters, from the outside, looks a lot like a game made specifically for kids. But once you get into the game, and start blasting away, and getting into some of the harder puzzles, that perception is put to rest fairly quickly, with the game offering up a pretty decent challenge. 

The only thing that the game really suffers from is the controls. It’s fairly clear that the developers were trying to copy the movement of the Dreamcast joysticks perfectly. But on the touch screen, this results in some pretty funky movement. You’re given two invisible joysticks, one for movement, and one for looking around. But once you touch the screen, and start dragging slightly in one direction, the camera, usually tends to move pretty fast. To really control the game, it requires small swipes to turn and look around, kind of like flicking a joystick. The shoot and fire buttons are halfway up the right side of the screen, which is kind of a pain as well. A lot of times, I’ll wind up shooting when I want to jump, and jumping when I want to shoot. Hopefully the developers will tinker with the controls a bit, and make the buttons configurable to anywhere on the screen. As it is now, the game is playable, but it takes some getting use to, and in the end, could definitely use some tweaking.

Fur Fighters: Viggo on Glass is available for the iPad, and priced incredibly low at $1.99. Two bucks for this great game is a steal, and those of you who are lucky enough to have played it in the past already know that. But for those of you on the fence, you really should dive right in. Even with the control issues, which the developers have said that they’re working on, and that some options will be made available in a future update, but until it hits, we won’t really know how it’ll effect the game. The gameplay is fantastic, and offers up a great challenge, and memorable experience. It’s definitely a game you should check out if you’re a fan of mid-school third person shooter/adventure gameplay. 

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RayStorm [TAITO] - $8.99

Shoot-em-ups are really thriving in the AppStore. But with Cave pretty much having a monopoly on the high-end, extremely polished side of things, it’s hard for others to really compare to the insanely high quality they bring to the table. Fortunately, there are some developers that can compete with this, Taito being one of them. The release of Space Invaders: Infinity Gene, and ports of DariusBurst and RayForce are considered to be some of the best non-Cave shmups available on the iOS, and with good reason. The gameplay, graphics, music and amount of polish are all top-notch. And now they’ve added one more game to the list of ports to hit the AppStore; RayStorm. Originally released for the PSX, SEGA Saturn, and for Arcades, it’s also been ported over to Windows, XBLA and the Playstation Network, it’s now available for your iDevice.

RayStorm is the only Taito Ray-title that’s not connected to the series. Released before RayForce and RayCrisis, what there is of a plot is not connected to the other two in any way. The game takes place between August 4th and 7th, starts on Earth, moves into space, and ends on the planet Secilia. Like RayForce on the iOS, RayStorm contains both an Arcade Mode as well as an iPhone Mode. The two play pretty much exactly the same, but with the iPhone Mode, the enemy placements, game music and color schemes are different, while the difficulty settings have been revised to make the gameplay a little easier. 

In the Options Menu, you’re able to set the difficulty for both modes to Very Easy, Easy, Normal and 5 different Hard Difficulties; Hard 1, Hard 2, Hard 3, Hard 4 and Very Hard. You can also change the movement ratio from 1:1 to 1:1.5, 1:2, 1:2.5, ect, up to 1:4, as well as change the button positioning from left to right. From the first time you start up the game, you’ll be able to start from any of the 7 stages in both modes and select between 2 different fighters. Both of these fighters have fairly different ways of playing and scoring; The R-Gray 1 uses a spread shot and can lock on to 8 enemies at once, while the R-Gray 2 uses a condensed laser shot, but can lock onto 16 enemies at once. The Gray1 is better for new-comers to the game/genre, while the Gray2 is built more for experienced players.

Graphically, RayStorm looks great on the small screen, but unfortunately, the game is only built for the iPod and iPhone, and does not contain retina graphics, so playing on the iPad requires 2X mode, and as a result, is pretty pixilated. But for fans of the genre, this shouldn’t really pose a problem, as there are very few HD/Retina shmups available in the AppStore, so it’s not really a deal breaker. The animations for shooting projectiles, movement and explosions are all fantastic, and with the movement of the backgrounds creating a 3D environment, even though some of the background images can look pretty ugly, coupled with the smooth controls, and great music, RayStorm turned out to be an incredibly immersive shooter.

Priced at $8.99, and including GameCenter integration with 4 leaderboards, one for each ship in each mode, along with 31 achievements, chances are, even though it’s one of the better previously released shmups ported over to the iOS, only hardcore fans of the genre will wind up purchasing it. If you’re new to the genre, you might want to check out some of the cheaper titles before diving right in, but for fans of the genre, RayStorm is a great game, and is really only out-done by Cave’s titles. Taito has shown, once again, why they have been around since 1953, are still highly respected, and have a very loyal fan following. 

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