The iFriday Roundup, No. 5

What Has the Eye of Jojopet Beheld This Week?

The last time we checked in on Jojopet TV we found that LeeRoy had turned up a real treasure trove of interesting free apps, so we couldn’t resist going back and seeing if any of the games he identified this week are still free as of this writing. Turns out that Stars Pig, Zombie Crisis 3D: PROLOGUE, D-Day: Normandy, Defender of Diosa (see our review here), Glass Tower 2, Warspear Online, Hired Gun, Pirate and Coins, Let’s Golf! 3, iBlast Moki, and Pirates 3D: Treasure Hunt are all still ripe for the picking! Whoa! A lot of the titles LeeRoy identifies on his channel go back to paid status before we get a chance to do an iFriday Roundup, so be sure to keep an eye on his Youtube channel during the week for the full truckload of freebies.

Explore Pitman’s World, Price of Admission: $0

More proof that if you dig deep enough in the App Store, you’re liable to find diamonds that don’t cost you a penny. Pitman, a 3D roguelike that’s totally recommended to genre fans, is free for the weekend. Just be careful not to get lost in those randomly generated dungeons!

Pivotal Punishment Spins an Update, Goes Free

“Ask and you shall receive” isn’t just a religious byline anymore; it’s pretty much the motto of the App Store, what with all these godly app developers giving gamers exactly what they want. Sean asked for a fix to the sensitivity of this game’s menu system, and that’s exactly what happened in yesterday’s update. Now players will have an easier time stepping into the ten billion kilowatt incandescent quantum space hole.

Wisp: Eira’s Tale, Pirate Gunner on Sale

Not since Peter Pan have pirates and fairies been this entertaining, as you can no doubt tell from our gushing reviews of Wisp and Pirate Gunner. If you’re an action puzzle fan and haven’t picked up both of these titles yet, doing so just got cheaper — they’re both going for a buck right now!

Dedalord Kills Fred Even More, Releases Falling Fred Z

We’ll give you one guess what the “Z” stands for — looks like poor Fred has risen right up from the grave to take more punishment. Ru said that the original Falling Fred “…splices together over-the-top cartoon violence, depraved humor and an intuitive tilt mechanic with monstrously addictive results,” and Dedalord tells us this brand-new rendition features “…plenty of brain-eating challenge missions that will blow the top off your skull!” Mmm…brains. Oh, yeah — did we mention this one’s free forever, supported by ads? Mmm…free.

FunTribe Experiments With Free Version of Doodle Lab 101

Also riding the ad support wave are FunTribe, who shot us a quick message to let us know that Doodle Lab 101 now has a Free version. It would take a mad scientist to cook up a release strategy like this: gamers can start out with the Lite, move to Free, which adds an additional 30 levels, and then move on to the full version, which Ru lauded as an “innovative and strikingly original path drawing/physics puzzler hybrid.”

App Store Verdicts in, So Far Declare Necta Collecta is the Bee’s Knees

A reader chimed in to point out that Necta Collecta is running quite well in the App Store ratings after its August 9 update, so it might be quite the pleasant surprise to logic puzzle and action puzzle fans! For extra references you can check out our review of the original release and the Lite version linked therein, which has also benefited from the update since then.

Zen Wars Better Caters to iGamers on the Go

Sean had a lot of praises to sing about in his Zen Wars review, but cautioned that every battle is a big time eater most suited to players who can carve solid fifteen to twenty minute blocks out of their schedules. In that light, the developer’s ushered in a particularly interesting update — a sudden death-style mode in Multiplayer that gives each player one chance at failure as opposed to the usual three tries. This should shorten the average Multiplayer match considerably, that’s for sure! Why, you might be able to play Zen Wars with your friends and cook dinner the same night after all.

New Imps Sighted on BansheeSoft Blog, Not From Mission Europa!

That’s right, the creator of Mission: Europa (which is currently On Sale, by the way!) is creating another game filled with dastardly demons. This time it looks like Ryan Mitchell is going for an homage to Bullfrog Productions’ lineup of 1990s dungeon management games. Which is pretty cool, because Sean always lamented that he missed out on them the first time around, and in addition, it sounds like this could be a great shot in the arm to the Castle Defense and Real Time Strategy genres on iOS. Check out BansheeSoft’s open design doc for way more info on this project-in-progress! You can bet iFanzine will do its best to nab a hands-on preview when the time is ripe! 

Touchgameplay Preview of the Week

You might have noticed that we sometimes grab huge fifteen-minute gameplay videos from the Youtube channel Touchgameplay to round out our reviews and previews. Sanuku, the channel operator, has been known to work with developers in crafting his lengthy previews — definitely a tantalizing opportunity considering the channel’s near-300 subscribers and quickly rising view tally. Since we haven’t had a chance to dive into Final Fantasy Tactics (hey, we gifted all our copies to you guys!) why don’t we end this iFriday Roundup by kicking back and joining the rest of you who’ve gone Tactics-less for the game’s first fifteen minutes?

Are you an iOS videogame developer or publisher with a cool update, video, or other news that you want to get out to the masses? iFanzine probably has an eye on you already, but don’t hesitate to get in touch via our Twitter feed or Contact page. We want to fill our iFriday Roundups with all your beautiful stuff!