Games

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode II hits the App Store

Fans of the popular Sonic franchise will be happy to hear that Sega has just finished porting over another new title to iOS featuring the little blue hedgehog. Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode II is now available in the App Store.

This is the fifth Sonic title that Sega has released on Apple's mobile platform, and it doesn't disappoint. The game features an all-new graphics engine, fit for a Retina display, updated physics, and oh yeah, Tails is back...

Angry Birds Heikki webgame arrives June 18

Angry Birds maker Rovio announced an unusual move today: they will release a web-only game called Angry Birds Heikki on June 18.

While the Angry Birds series has been available on both Facebook as Chrome Web Store for some time, this is the first time they're releasing a webgame under the Angry Birds brand name.

What's this one about?

New Infinity Blade Dungeons gameplay footage is totally eye-candy

If you own an iPad 3, Infinity Blade Dungeons is that killer game you’ve been dying to show off to your Android-toting friends. Unlike elegiac masterpieces Infinity Blade I & II that have been created by Chair Entertainment, Epic entrusted the creation of Infinity Blade Dungeons to a small team comprised of vets who worked on Gears of Wars.

It's one of a select few games Apple demoed during March’s iPad 3 introduction to show off the graphics prowess of its new tablet and the improved A5X chip that rocks quad-core graphics engine.

If this new gameplay footage is anything to go by, this dungeon crawler is going to raise the ladder of console-grade gaming on portable devices...

New Party Doodles app shows the potential of Apple TV gaming

I've said before that I felt like AirPlay Mirroring was one of the most underrated features of iOS 5. The ability to wirelessly stream content from the device to a TV seemed like an open invitation for iOS developers to create console-esque games.

We've seen a couple of big name titles take advantage of this, but perhaps none of them showcases the feature's potential better than Cerebral Gardens' recently-released Party Doodles...

Rovio says Angry Birds successor will be called Amazing Alex

Angry Birds maker Rovio confirmed in an interview with a Finnish television network that its upcoming project will be called Amazing Alex.

Yesterday, we told you that the Espoo, Finland-based game maker acquired all rights to Casey’s Contraptions.

As you know, Casey's Contraptions is a charming and addictive puzzle game by Snappy Touch and Mystery Coconut. That game's main character was briefly shown at the end of a video accompanying the one billionth Angry Birds download. So, what's Amazing Alex going to be about? Here's what we know so far...

Rumor: Google working on a Game Center rip-off for Android

The search giant Google is reportedly looking to replicate Apple's Game Center with a native Android app of its own.

Despite the ongoing patent war waged between Apple and a bunch of Android backers over the look and feel of iOS software, Google is reportedly looking to simply copy Game Center.

The search firm needs own social gaming service so Android gamers have a central place to connect with each other, check out leaderboards, scores and challenge friends.

And if their other products are anything to go by, Google's thing is likely to feature deep integration with Google+, their another social thing...

Up next for Rovio: Casey’s Contraptions

Eagle-eyed readers spotted something interesting at the end of yesterday's clip accompanying the one billionth Angry Birds download milestone: a character that looks a lot like that in Casey's Contraptions, a charming and addictive puzzle game by Snappy Touch and Mystery Coconut.

Confirming speculation, Rovio's vice president of franchise development Ville Heijari confirmed his company acquired all rights to Casey's Contraptions. The iPad version has already been pulled from the App Store as the Angry Birds maker works on a new version that will hit iOS, Android and other platforms this summer...

Gameloft’s N.O.V.A 3 now available in the App Store

Last week, we told you about Gameloft's upcoming new first-person shooter, N.O.V.A 3. And with its stunning graphics and Halo-esque gameplay, the latest iteration of the popular sci-fi series looked pretty impressive.

Well for those of you who have been looking forward to playing the game on your own iOS device, we've got some good news for you. It appears that N.O.V.A 3 has just landed in the App Store...

Angry Birds zooms past one billion downloads

For Finnish developer Rovio, there's no slowing down, their Angry Birds franchise just keeps chugging along.

According to the latest official data released this morning, the Angry Birds games have just passed a whopping one billion cumulative downloads across all platforms.

The number includes both free and paid downloads and is an astounding milestone for the popular franchise that debuted on the App Store in December of 2009...

Next game by Tiny Wings creator due “in less than three weeks”

We instantly fell in love with Tiny Wings by Andreas Illiger, an addictive game featuring a cute bird flying through a series of random hills. The game still files as one of the best entertainment releases to hit the App Store since Angry Birds.

Apple loves it, too, and it even inspired a charming knock-off dubbed Whale Trail. Having earned a fortune from Tiny Wings, the developer shared a little secret on his upcoming project, scheduled to hit the App Store by June.

Gamers, rejoice: TouchArcade lands on App Store, we go hands-on

We here at iDB love TouchArchade, one of the first and arguably the most comprehensive websites out there for up-to-date news and reviews concerning gaming on the iOS platform. In case you haven't heard about it, TouchArcade is a project by our friends over at MacRumors, one of the longest-running Apple rumor publications on the web, run by Arnold Kim.

Born out of AppShopper, another pet project by MacRumors that provides most of the glue which enhances iTunes meta data by tracking app changes, the TouchArcade website has become the go-to source for my iOS gaming needs.

Having tried the app briefly, I'm happy to report that it's everything you've been hoping for - and then some...

Angry Birds clocks 648M downloads in 2011, has 200M active monthly users

Developer Rovio has had enormous success with Angry Birds. The series debuted on the iPhone back in December 2009 and has since remained one of the most sold games in the App Store.

From today's earnings release for the full calendar year of 2011, the Espoo, Finland-headquartered company hit an astounding 648 million Angry Birds downloads by the end of 2011.

Total number of active monthly users across all platforms reached 200 million, helping Rovio book a cool $106.3 million in revenue. The number of active users grew considerably from the 40 million people who were regularly playing Angry Birds games as of March 2011.

Most importantly, first-quarter earnings before tax stood at $67.6 million, or 64 percent of total revenue in 2011, making Rovio one of the most-profitable game developers out there...