Gamertell

The Apple App Store gaming update is Gamertell’s weekly look at the previous week’s Apple App Store game releases. We cover them all - good and not so good - in their respective categories with a breakdown of the great games and the free games right where you want ‘em, at the top and in your face. The list is available every Monday, right as you are about to start that long work week.

I’m sorry to say that this week’s App Store update is, well, not too exciting. I’ll leave it to you folks to dig something out of the list this week, hopefully FIFA 10 will be enough to whet your gaming appetite until next week. 

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While the Tokyo Game Show may have been a little underwhelming, at least this week’s gaming App Store update offers you a good way to start your week.

Baseball Superstars comes out with a new version, Golvellius reappears, Family Guy finally has an iPhone game, and many others. So go down the list and find something to get you through the week.

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This week we see a big jump in games compared to last week’s set and what good timing! In case you forgot, this week is TGS (Tokyo Game Show). So now you have plenty of games to play on your phone while you wait for the big news from the show to break.

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The Apple App Store gaming update is Gamertell’s weekly look at the previous week’s Apple App Store game releases. We cover them all - good and not so good - in their respective categories with a breakdown of the great games and the free games right where you want ‘em, at the top and in your face. The list is available every Monday, right as you are about to start that long work week.

Apple finally does something about the App Store people have been complaining about an,  I must admit, it looks mighty clean. Things are easier to find and, while it’s still not perfect, it’s a huge improvement over the previous iteration.

Apple also introduced a new iPod Touch to accommodate your gaming needs but you can read all about that in the links below. For now, howabout checking out this weeks releases? We kick things off with:

What’s Free

iTank Battle - Free
“Miss the simple joy playing a tank battle game? That’s what you find in iTank Battle. Simple rule: Eleminate all enemies before they blow up your base. Simple control: Go in 4 directions and fire! Move your tank around to chase the enemies or find the best spot to ambush them. Pick up items to speed up, boost your fire power, freeze enemies, recover HP… What’s more? You can challenge players all around the world for the highest score and the shortest clear time!”

Brain Training - Left or Right Free
“Challenge your limit! Left or Right will make you concentrate into and memorize something better while making decisions more quickly. To win the game, the only thing that you need is the instinct and swift choice.”

Brain 2: Global Challenge LITE
“Invest in your IQ and success! The smarter you get, the better are chances for your financial success. Improve your ability to deal with numbers quickly, and earn more money in your life. Invest your time in your IQ! This LITE version trains your one skill to add numbers. You learn to add your money, your stuff and your fortune in a split second. Besides you have all the features of the paid app including the Global Challenge.”

Battle of Midway
“The battleship is the classic naval strategy game where two players try to sink each other’s hidden ships. Battle of Midway is an awesome 45 degree angle battleship game in the iPhone. There is no relation between this game and the historical background, it just takes you to a fantasy navy field.”

What’s New

Action

Blades of Fury: $6.99
“Prove your bravery & establish your own fighting style through epic duels to cast your name among the greatest heroes, and be remembered in history. Alone against the computer or against your friends in multiplayer gaming sessions, experience an explosive and accessible fighting experience thanks to an arcade-style gameplay. Blades of Fury is the ultimate one-on-one fighting game, offering numerous game modes, and a wide array of playable fighters and fighting combinations.”

EMERGENCY!DOWNGIRL: Price: $0.99
“A girl is falling into the elevator shaft! Above her, the elevator has falling with augers, Behind, deep precipice is waiting for her. Please shake your iPhone/iPod Touch from side to side. And use scaffolds to save your life! More you steps, more score. Have fun with world wide people by getting high score.”

iTank Battle: Price: $0.99
“Miss the simple joy playing a tank battle game? That’s what you find in iTank Battle. Simple rule: Eleminate all enemies before they blow up your base. Simple control: Go in 4 directions and fire! Move your tank around to chase the enemies or find the best spot to ambush them. Pick up items to speed up, boost your fire power, freeze enemies, recover HP… What’s more? You can challenge players all around the world for the highest score and the shortest clear time!”

Adventure

Cassandra’s Journey: The Legacy of Nostradamus: Price: $1.99
“Cassandra is a young mystic, heiress and successor of her grandmother - powerful sorceress Serena. The girl helps people in a trouble relying on her magical ring. That magic ring helps her to have a strong power for prediction. Cassandra’s adventure begins from mysterious disappearance of Violet Smith’s brother. Of course kind and sympathetic Cassandra is going to come to aid, but her ring was found to be missing too! So now Cassandra can use just natural human means.

That’s how you come to be in the world of fascinating magical trinkets. Don’t be anxious about lack of experience because the spirit of famous Nostradamus will be your guide in a wonderful travelling. The quest consists of 30 beautiful levels where you meet diverse characters, accomplish a lot of tasks and progressively find a surprising key to the main riddle. Gameplay includes all the best and the most loved in casual games. It fabulously mixes hidden-object and card games, image and word puzzles, match 3 levels and magic tricks.”

Smashing The Opponent: Price: $0.99
“The Legend of the Black Shawarma tells of a pita so mystic, divine and tasty, that those who have a bite will be blessed with eternal life. Hearing this you find yourself in the Black forest, facing peril and hardship which you must overcome to reach the ultimate prize. Run through the Black Forest, meet the creatures who defend the treasure and SMASH them silly. Face the bosses and unlock new worlds. Search the Forest for weapons which will maximize your creative smashing skills, like bombs, shotguns and the chainsaw. Smashing the Opponent is an exciting new game brought to you by the sonic masters, Infected Mushroom. Creators of the psychedelic trance scene, I.Zen and Duvdev will blast your mind and set the vibe for the ultimate smashing. Featuring original infected music and never released trance tracks.”

Arcade

Magical Drop Touch: Price: $2.99
“Data East is back with its Brand New version of its Retro Classic Magical Drop. Magical Drop Touch is now available for the iPhone and iPod Touch. This time World has summoned her favorite friends, Fool, Star, Devil, Chariot and Justice to compete in a Magical Drop Tournament and the winner gets to face the World for a chance to receive a wish of their own desire. Fully utilizing the revolutionary touch panel for the iPhone, try and swipe your way to victory by creating 3 ball chains and overwhelm your opponent with lines until they beg for mercy.”

MonsterKill: Price: $0.99
“hey’re cute, they’re cheeky - you just want to squeeze the life out of the little monsters! Hordes of tiny terrors have broken free of their chains and are running amok! Use touchscreen gestures to summon a variety of spells as you battle against these classic mini-monsters.”

Space Dock: Price: $0.99
“You begin as a lowly space station controller on the shiny new deep space station. Starships, space shuttles, and space fighters start to hyperspace into the station’s quadrant. Some ships are running from aliens, some from asteroids, some are low on fuel. You must dock them quickly and safely on the station. But wait, there is a problem? Aliens in the docking area? Are they dangerous, or perhaps wanting to make first contact? Did they just abduct your astronaut? Are the aliens actually probing our people?

You have to land the spacecraft quicker and quicker, but now asteroids are overwhelming the station’s defenses. Your spacecraft are being plastered by the asteroids, and spacemen from damaged ships are floating stranded in space. They are your crewmates and are in grave danger and you must rescue them. If one of your spacecraft hits them, the game is over. Use all your skills to deftly guide a rescue craft to them to save their lives. In the meantime, the starships, fighters, and shuttles keep coming and coming.”

Board

RICHMAN: Price: $0.99
“RICHMAN is an action strategy iPhone game in which the object is to make enough money to buy the millionaire’s mansion and end the game, all within the quickest time possible. To play, simply touch on a house as it comes up for sale to buy it. You must have enough funds to cover the cost of the purchase. Hold onto is as long as its value increases, which is indicated by a small triangle next to its price. Sell the house to make a profit, which gives you additional funds for a more expensive property. Begin by buying and selling the cheaper houses, which are furthest from the masion. Advance to more expensive areas as you can afford to do so. As soon as you are able to afford the millionaire’s mansion at the end, click on it to end the game.”

Blokuz
“Blokuz” - is a collection of three great games: Blokuz One, Blokuz Mono, Blokuz Dual. Each game - is remake of the popular puzzle.

“Blokuz One”
The playing board is filled with chips of different colors. You choose the same colored chips that are connected to each other and delete them, increasing your points. With each level the complication of the game and the amount of colors increases. The more chips you delete at one time, the more points you get. In the beginning of the game you have 3 lives. If you have any chips which you cannot delete left over – you lose one life and can’t go to the next level.

“Blokuz Mono”
In front of you there is a field of chips, which are hidden underneath question marks. Open and collect groups of similar chips by tapping on the hidden chips. If the chip is single - it is highlighted, but does not open. Delete the opened group of chips with a second tap. You can see the location of color chips using the switch button.
Your aim is to clear the game field. Choose the largest block of chips, and the more chips you delete at one time the more points you get. After the task is completed, you go to the next level.

“Blokuz Dual”
Your aim is to clear the game field on two sides of the board. Switching to the other side is using the button at the bottom of the screen. You can select a group of chips on the active screen, see the appropriate distribution of the background screen and make the most successful choice.
In all three games, if you lose a level, you are encouraged to pass it again, but during the second pass, you get less points. Once you lose your last “life”, you will be prompted to save a record in the local/global high scores. Without access to the Internet, the record is written only locally.

Card

NOTHING

Casino

World Roulette: Price: $0.99
“Taking it’s name from the french word for ‘small wheel’, Roulette has become one of the most popular casino games in the world. During it’s spread across the globe, many different variants of roulette have evolved. Mobigames UK is proud to present World Roulette, bringing you several types of this successful game in one easy to use application.”

Dice

NOTHING

Educational

FourPlay Genius Edition (Four Letter Word Game): Price: $1.99
“Challenging! See if you can get all of the words that can be spelled with the letters of the first four-letter word! Shows you the words that you didn’t get. Will help you play other four letter words games by reminding you of the words you may be missing. If you like FourPlay, you will love FourPlay Genius Edition!”

Family

Deal or No Deal: Around the World: Price: $4.99
“DEAL OR NO DEAL is back to take you on a trip of a lifetime! Experience the thrill of the hit TV game show with millions of fans worldwide. In this new version fully optimized for the iPhone and iPod Touch, the stakes are even higher as you travel to exotic destinations to collect CA$H, prizes and awards. Will you make a deal or risk it all to win millions?”

Brain Cat: Price: $0.99
“You are a cat with good brains. You have to use your brains to eat the fish in the fishbow. Rearrange the fish in the fishbow to make them look like ones at the upper left corner, and you can eat them. You can move them by touching a specific fish. The fish around touched one will go round your fish. You have limited time, but the amount of moves are not limited.”

Music

CrazyDancing: Price: $0.99
“You have to act as two people on your left side. It may seem very easy, but as you play, the game requires extreme speed, technique, and concentration. If you make a mistake, the two people on your left side will give you a disappointing look and a warning sound which indicates the end of the game. The number of clicks you have made will be saved as your score in the ranking. Highly addictive.”

Puzzle

Brainy Smarty Party: Price: $2.99
“Improve your brains and challenge players around the globe with Brainy Smarty Party! A collection of 15 addictive and fun games designed to improve your brains in different areas like reaction, memory, counting, logic, math and focus. And when you’re done, enjoy the time with one of the world’s most popular puzzle: Sudoku!”

Color Ninjutsu Puzzle: Price: $1.99
“The objective of this challenging game is to link 3 blocks of the same color and make them disappear. You’ll rack your brain to come up with the best course of action that will win you the most points!”

Oil Spill: Price: $1.99
“DRILL, BABY, DRILL!!! This easy-to-learn puzzle game will keep you coming back for more! Clear the entire board by “exploding” oil drops. The more chain reactions you connect, the higher your score.”

Cave Dweller: Price: $1.99
“To win at this game, you must gather all of the bombs scattered around the level and get to the exit safely. By safely, we mean without getting trapped! Walking sideways underneath blocks causes them to fall, changing the level as you go. If you fail to reach the exit with all of the bombs, you must restart and try again. You can earn medals for beating a level in the minimum amount of moves. Beating all the levels unlocks a special feature in the game’s options menu.”

Racing

Parking Master: Price: $0.99
“Park the cars in the an occupied parking lots, while trying not to get hit by the other cars or obstacles.”

Role Playing

NOTHING

Simulation

The Galactic Aquarium: Price: $0.99
“The Galactic Aquarium is a fun, addictive game that’s easy to get into but hard to master! Try to breed all the different types of fish to get the daddy of them all, The Cod Father! Watch out for fish with special abilities, like the Chameeleon and the time warping Bronzefish, that can cause chaos in your fish tank! And try to manage what’s eating what so you can make the most money and be top of the online scoreboard. With over 40 different types of fish, you’ll have to keep on your toes - or fins ;) - to keep your tank running smoothly. Luckily, you’ve got your handy breeding guide to help you along your way, and your freezer to store fish that are ready to breed.”

Sports

OhBasket: Price: $0.99
“OhBasket is a really fun game for all casual game players. It’s a good way to consume boring times such as your 5 to 10 minutes break from work. The way to control the game play is simple. You just have to use the iphone accelerometer to control the movement of the basket to catch all the balls that is shot from the worst basketball player in the world. Please don’t get mad when you see him throw all those terrible shots. You are the one that is going to save him from this embarrassing situation with your magic hands!”

Strategy

Silent Swords: Price: $2.99
“Silent Swords is a stealth action game designed exclusively for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The legend begins, be a part of it! “Patience is a virtue,” his sensei had taught him, so the little black ninja waited patiently for the right moment. And the right moment came. That poor guard never knew what hit him. Our hero has become just another shadow among shadows. With the Silent Swords back in his hands, the filthy walls won’t hold him for much longer…”

Arcana: Spell Duel: Price: $1.99
“Arcana: Spell Duel brings high strategy mage duelling to the iPhone in full 3D. Tear down your opponent blast by blast as you construct a careful strategy that will leave him guessing at every turn. You can play as a Naturalist, or duel as an Arcanist. An Arcanist uses the Arcanix to cast: an ancient device that responds to your gestures by conjuring up magical energies. He cast spells with specific gestures and combinations which he must master. He is virtually unlimited in his power. A Naturalist cast spells using menus, and is limited in his power.”

Trivia

Find Freak: Price: $0.99
“Test your eagle eyes and find the four differences in each level. But beware: it can be difficult to spot all the variants in those beautiful images. The clock is ticking. If a level gets too hard for you, two jokers can be used to assist you on your journey to become a real find freak. Three degrees of difficulty (easy, normal and freak) are available in the game and on freak mode you will encounter our specially designed mirror bonus levels. A highscore list will remember your best scores to show to your friends. Also perfect to play while listening to your own music - just switch off the games sound in the options and activate your ipod. Over 100 images are in the game, all optimized for the iPhone display and even more to come in updates.”

Pocket Quiz: Classics of World Literature: Price: $1.99
“Hamlet, Faust, Romeo and Juliet, Don Quixote, The Three Musketeers, Effi Briest, Homo Faber, Lolita, Buddenbrooks… everything worth knowing about classics of world literature! Get detailed answers with background information to 150 edited questions! Also including interesting illustrations interspersed among the questions and answers that clarify the contents. You can now play our successful print series – more than 2 million copies sold – on your iPhone or iPod Touch. Play alone against time 15, 25, 50, or all 150 questions. But don’t think too long, time is running! Get points for every correct answer depending on how much time is remaining. Get as many points as possible to ensure your place in the high score list! In the two-player mode, challenge your friends and view the questions on one device. May the best man win! Find other interesting pocket quiz topics in addition to this at your iTunes App store! For example, inventions, astronomy & space travel, classics of world literature, computer, Jazz… and much more! Add to your collection!”

Word

Typing with Volcanoes: Price; $0.99
“Two volcano gods compete to build the tallest tower. Help your volcano god be the first to build a tower to the heavens. Steal your rival’s blocks to build your own tower. Type the words inscribed into the falling blocks to steal them. Typing glowing blocks reveals power ups. Unleash these power ups to bring down your enemy’s tower. Use your powers to destroy their tower brick by brick, or blow chunks of it away. The choice is up to you. Control the game with the gorgeous, easy to use landscape keyboard. You’ll need fast fingers to compete against the world on the global high scores. Maximize your score by completing the 100 addictive levels. Finishing all 100 levels won’t be easy, so the game auto saves whenever you exit the application.”

Amazing Hangman: Price: $0.99
“Amazing Hangman is a very popular word guessing game. It is also an educational application where you can improve your vocabulary. Play alone or with a friend via bluetooth.”

iPhone/iPod Touch Links

AppleTell: [Macintosh/iPhone software update roundup - September 11, 2009] [Apple updates iPod touch] [iPhone OS 3.1 available today [update]] [Apple releases iTunes 9 [Update: now available.]]

GamerTell: [GamerTell Review: Toki Tori for iPhone, iPod Touch]

• Black Friday 2009: Apple one-day shopping event details
• Festive Fishdom games find the way to your browser
• How to protect yourself from SSH-based iPhone worms

In light of this year’s Dreamcast anniversary I’ve decided to write up a guide for many of you who either are just diving into Dreamcast or rejoining the Orange Swirl Society.

I’ll try to cover as many aspects as I can about the system but if I miss some burning question, feel free to ask in the comments below and I’ll do my best to answer them.

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On September 9. 1999, I remember sitting with my friends talking about whether or not we would be getting a Dreamcast. I boldly claimed, “No!” among a sea of yes-es and also claimed the system would never make it. No, I wasn’t a prophet embedded with the knowledge that the Dreamcast really wouldn’t make it longer than 16 months, I was simply a burned consumer who bought a Sega Saturn and only played Panzer Dragoon and Sonic Jam.

However, it wouldn’t be long before I joined in with the masses. In fact, I could only hold out until that Christmas (I literally asked my dad to buy me one the day before Christmas Eve) when I read an article about Soul Calibur in an issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly and began a love affair that goes on still today, 10 years later.

The love people share for this particular piece of hardware year after year never ceases to amaze me though I completely understand. Thanks to a combination of internal struggles, which are too far and winding for me to go over here and piracy, the Dreamcast only lasted 16 months on store shelves. Yet, thanks to a strong community and indie game developers, the beloved system lives on even today with complete games still being created for it. It’s a safe bet that the Dreamcast will still be thinking until the last remaining unit dies out.

So as 09/09/09 goes by today, I will be hooking up my still kicking Dreamcast to my dusty VGA monitor and will be enjoying the nostalgic goodness of games like Soul Calibur, Crazy Taxi, Sonic Adventure, D2, and Street Fighter: Third Strike with a mix of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and Capcom vs SNK 2.

Of course I encourage you to join me on the trip back into the orange swirl because without the Dreamcast who knows where gaming would be today.

Read [Gamertell]

• Black Friday 2009: Apple one-day shopping event details
• Festive Fishdom games find the way to your browser
• How to protect yourself from SSH-based iPhone worms

For those of us not lucky enough to live near the Nintendo World Store, here’s a friendly reminder to check in with your local game shop to see if they’ve received the absolutely gorgeous 2D side-scroller, Muramasa: The Demon Blade. Muramasa follows the stories of Kisuke and Momohime as one fights amnesia and desire and one fights demonic possession.

Muramasa: The Demon Blade is set for release September 8, 2009 at $49.99. 

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Brought to us through the porting efforts of Two Tribes and publishing duties of Chillingo, Toki Tori is a game about a chicken named Toki Tori and his quest to rescue his kidnapped brothers and sisters. Alas, Toki Tori is no ordinary chicken. He has special powers that include being able to climb ladders and building bridges, all powers which will be required to rescue his poor relatives before they become dinner. Or something like that.

Essentially, your goal is to guide our hero through 80 stages of puzzles in an attempt to collect a certain number of his yet-to-be hatched family.

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What’s the talk of this week? No, it’s nothing to do with Labor Day here in the States, it’s instead Apple’s mystery event on September 9, 2009. What’s going to be at the event? Only Apple knows but there will sure be some Rock ‘n’ Roll.

Until then, here’s this week’s list of gaming apps to help you get time on your side until Wednesday.

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That’s right PlayStation owners, now’s your chance to jump onto the last major system update of the year for your PlayStation 3.

The download runs very fast compared to previous updates which either means this download isn’t as grand in size as previous ones or that I caught a really lucky connection.

At first glance, you’ll notice that sparks have now overlay the standard wave stream background and the menu icons have increased in size. However, Update 3.0 is more than a simple face lift as you’ll also notice that the PlayStation Store icon has been moved (to right above the game, movie and under the PlayStation Network disc icon) for more immediate access.

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