As someone who's been a gamer for 30 years now, I must say things have come a long way from those distant, humble beginnings.

A few crude black and white blocks turned into somewhat less crude color blocks, which became much nicer looking high-palette pixel art and — flash forward 20 years — we've got expansive 3D worlds rendered sharper than a high-definition feature film. Technology marches ever on and, along the way, has brought gamers a vast array of computers and consoles, each a step forward from the one that came before. And the largest single step forward along these lines that ever took place was unquestionably the arrival of the Amiga from Commodore.

At half the price of the Macintosh and a quarter the price of IBM's meatiest desktop, the Amiga, which PC World called the seventh greatest computer of all time, delivered vastly more capable hardware than either, along with a fully preemptive multitasking UNIX-like operating system. Nothing of the likes of its graphics and audio capabilities had ever been seen before. It excelled in gaming and this new sort of thing called "multimedia" that, at the time, people really didn't know what to make of. It really was 10 years before its time.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Amiga and a number of tech sites are taking the opportunity to pay tribute to this infulential platform with retrospectives and historical pieces. And, we're happy to report that Amiga and iPhone developer Rabah Shihab is honoring the occasion by dropping the price of Babylonian Twins for the iPhone [App Store] by 75% this weekend.

We took a close look at this reimagining of his 17-year old Amiga title back in April and found it to be one of the very best iPhone games out there (we gave it 4.5 stars). An iPad version is also available [App Store].

Babylonian Twins is s a puzzle-platformer with two-character tag-team type play. You control brothers Nasir and Blasir in order to solve each levels. Each character has some special abilities, but only one can be active at once. Switching between the two is as simple as tapping on a button — leaving the unplayed character as a statue. You'll find you need to tag team to make your way past puzzles and obstacles, and even use the other character as a springboard to jump higher. Blasir can jump higher, and dash into walls, while Nasir spin to break through weakened floors. The game is a collaborative effort between the two characters.

The game has been entirely revamped since the original Amiga version and includes all new graphics and audio.

And, while Babylonian Twins is a truly excellent title, it's not the only quality Amiga conversion in the App store. Not by a long shot. And, thanks to Manomio, among others, we're in for a lot more Amiga game goodness in the App Store later this year.

Related Amiga links:

• Amiga: 25 Years Later
• Shadow of the 16-bit Beast: an Amiga gaming retrospective
• Ars Technica's A History of the Amiga (parts 1 – 6)
• Amiga.org community

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Jet Car Stunts [$1.99 / Free] by True Axis is without a doubt a favorite around here, and last week we posted about the recent update which not only added a DLC level pack, but also threw in a load of iOS 4 enhancements including antialiasing on newer devices as well as fast app switching support. True Axis had intended this update to also include Retina Display support, but a last minute bug prevented the game from running at the glorious 960×640 resolution. This was quickly fixed, and an updated version was submitted to the App Store which was just approved mere moments ago.

Check out how awesome Jet Car Stunts looks on the iPhone 4:

If you're an iPhone 4 owner with Jet Car Stunts, don't waste any time before mashing the update button in iTunes. The game looks fantastic on the Retina Display, and still runs at its sky high frame rate even at the higher resolution. If this is the first you've heard of Jet Car Stunts, take a look at our review. We liked the game so much we awarded it five stars, and from checking out the quotes in the iTunes description, we're not alone.

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Back in April of last year we ran a story about mobile developer ZodTTD's announcement of the forthcoming platform puzzle adventure game Wizzley Presto and the Mysterious Time Machine. What made the project interesting was the fact that the developers set a goal to complete the development of the game within 30 days, publicly documenting their progress along the way at 30daygame.com.

A cool element of this project is the blog. We are doing this game in 30 days, from an idea to a finished product for AppStore. Best of all we’re showing all of what is involved along the way. Expect lots of interesting posts for all those who wonder what it’s like programming a game on the iPhone & iPod Touch!

Early this month the game (renamed Wizzley Presto and the Vampire's Tomb) went live in the App Store [link]. But hey — wait a minute — that's a lot more than 30 days! I contacted the developers to find out what gives.

I spoke with project programmer Craig Rothwell, who also happens to be the person behind the OpenPandora handheld and the iControlPad iPhone accessory. He indicates that he achieved "mission accomplished" within 30 days, as planned, but the decision was made to expand the title into something overall more complete.

We did indeed complete the 30 day game but it was rather nice and we decided rather than releasing it then as a 'tech demo' we would like to make it bigger and better.

Now one thing a lot of people don't realise is that 90% of 'full' games which have development started are never finished, team members get bored, people move to other projects, the steam runs out and the 'on no! real work!' syndrome starts. Fortunately I've worked on games before (for the Gameboy color and GBA) so I knew how to just knuckle down and get on with it, sleepless nights and all.

So over the space of 8 months we worked on a proper plot, scenes, monsters and dialogue.

By Christmas 2009, the game was ready to go — as developed and tested in the iPhone simulator — but, when it was loaded onto an actual device, it didn't work. (The simulator is not the perfect testing ground…) Work began to get the game running on actual metal, and in March a few extra features (such as egg throwing) were added in before submission to Apple. And, after a rejection / resubmission snafu, Wizzley Presto has landed in the App Store.

It's a pretty nice title, actually. It features extremely impressive oldschool artwork reminiscent of  by pixel artist Ruckage along with a nice audio track. The goal of the game is to traverse screen after screen of obstacle, puzzle, and enemy-laden platforms, by way of button touch controls, in order to make it through all three "chapters," each bringing a save point. It's not so much a Turrican or Mario affair, but more a modestly-paced puzzle solving experience reminiscent of the classic Dizzy series. Stand on a switch to activate a sliding bridge, find the appropriate tool to make it past an obstacle, etc. Less arcade action and more problem solving. Kind of a Babylonian Twins — without the twins, to reference an existing iPhone title.

Wizzley Presto and the Vampires Tomb is lovely, clever, and quite enjoyable. I'm pleased the team took the extra time needed to build the game up to its current form. And, if you have what it takes to be the first to finish the challenge, the developers have a $1,500 prize waiting for you.

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App developer: Aerenda Inc
Website: http://www.aerende.com/

Secret Agent is a throwback to old platform style games, like Double Dragon – only *finally* you have a gun! The object of the game is to get past the various thugs and hooligans to the Boss. Pretty simple, and definitely appealing to those of us who used to spend hours on platform beat-em-up games.

The first level is in a warehouse where you’ll encounter villains not only armed with guns, but baseball bats and worse. You’ll have to move yourself in front of them to shoot, but be careful not to get hurt yourself.

One of the neat parts of this game is that you automatically start out with a few weapons and you can pick more up as you go along. The default ones are pistol, grenade and landmine. Pretty early on I picked up a knife too, but the more you play the more you’ll find more weapons – including a laser gun. What’s a secret agent without a laser gun, am I right?

For each villain/thug that you kill you will receive monies – all in a days work, right? Travel through each level and you’ll find different ways of defeating your enemies, hiding from them, or out tricking them. The description even boasts of an invisibility jacket. You’ll have to avoid those enemies if you want to stay alive – watch your heath meter, or else;

Now, while I certainly did enjoy the game quite a bit – I did find it a little slow at times. The initial load was particularly long. Several of the review on iTunes state that it’s near impossible to play on the original iPhone (which is what I use for my reviews), but I didn’t find it that bad. I’m sure anyone on a newer generation 3GS or 4 wouldn’t have any problems, or newer iPod Touches.

Also, while the graphics are just fine, and the controls and features are suited well, I still think that $1.99 is a bit pricey for this game. If it were slightly more in depth or had an additional level of game-play it would be great – as it is, I wish it were 99 cents. That doesn’t mean it’s not worth $1.99 – it very much is – I just prefer games with more puzzle-like qualities, I suppose.

Keeping all of that in mind, I think that this game will appeal to quite a few people and that those people will have a blast playing Secret Agent – if you also think you’re one of those people, why not give it a try?

~ChantelleJoy
Tweet Me: @ChantelleJoytwt

© 2010, iPhone and iPad app reviews. All rights reserved. An expedite fee may have been paid for some reviews. We work diligently to ensure that this does not affect the content of the review and strive to keep the journalistic integrity intact. All reviews are the personal opinion of the reviewer.

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Back at E3 I sat down with the guys from TrueAxis to check out their upcoming game Space Tripper and get the low down on some upcoming Jet Car Stunts DLC. As you may recall, just before E3 was WWDC, during which Apple release the gold master for the then upcoming iOS 4 upgrade. Not long after, it was released, leaving TrueAxis now not only scrambling to finish the DLC pack, but also add in all the iOS 4 refinements they wanted to. After "some headaches," as they described it, the upcoming Jet Car Stunts update is currently in Apple's hands waiting for review.

This update is bringing an additional 26 levels available for a DLC purchase of $1.99, as well as the levels from the lite version being added to the full version for free. The previous impossible difficulty levels are now playable in casual mode. Best of all, Jet Car Stunts has been updated to not only have full screen anti-aliasing on both the 3rd generation iPod touch and iPhone 3GS, but also full Retina Display support on the iPhone 4.

If this is the first you've heard of Jet Car Stunts, you simply must check out our review. It's a platformer that's been cleverly disguised as a 3D racing game where you must use your jet car to overcome insane obstacles, jumps, loops, and other stunts. The visual style is delightfully retro, with extremely simple 3D models set on top of an endless sky. The game runs at an astronomical framerate, and is one of the few games we've awarded 5 stars since the inception of our ranking system.

You really can't go wrong with Jet Car Stunts, and with the addition of the upcoming DLC pack and other enhancements, this great game is getting even better.

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As much as I'd love to be reporting that both Trism [$2.99 / Free] and Giana Sisters [$4.99] are now available for the iPad, both developers were hit by unexpected App Store hiccups recently. Bad Monkee, creators of the classic platformer port Giana Sisters announced via Twitter this afternoon that the wrong version of Giana Sisters HD was uploaded, approved, and briefly available for sale before it was pulled down. If you were excited for the iPad game after our announcement last week, you should only need to wait a few more days before you're collecting crystals and smooshing bad guys on the iPad.

Demiforce's Trism was hit with a much nastier bug in Trism 1.5 which landed on the App Store recently. If you were excited to see the little universal plus in the bottom corner of the Trism icon, I'd hold off on buying the game until a fix is released. With 1.5, when you launch the game on the iPad, instead of having the option to run in 1x or 2x mode, it attempts to run fullscreen but only displays the triangle-laden game board in the top right corner. This display bug is actually kind of interesting, as when you move the rows of triangles around they will extend the whole length of the iPad screen, and all the in-game text sits to the right of the play area until it's needed in the game.

If you're a Trism fan that has been enjoying the game on your iPad, hold off on updating until a fix is released, which according to Demiforce has already been submitted to Apple and they've requested an expedited review. We've seen critical expedited updates hit the App Store in 24 hours or less, so a fix may be coming very soon.

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As much as I'd love to be reporting that both Trism [$2.99 / Free] and Giana Sisters [$4.99] are now available for the iPad, both developers were hit by unexpected App Store hiccups recently. Bad Monkee, creators of the classic platformer port Giana Sisters announced via Twitter this afternoon that the wrong version of Giana Sisters HD was uploaded, approved, and briefly available for sale before it was pulled down. If you were excited for the iPad game after our announcement last week, you should only need to wait a few more days before you're collecting crystals and smooshing bad guys on the iPad.

Demiforce's Trism was hit with a much nastier bug in Trism 1.5 which landed on the App Store recently. If you were excited to see the little universal plus in the bottom corner of the Trism icon, I'd hold off on buying the game until a fix is released. With 1.5, when you launch the game on the iPad, instead of having the option to run in 1x or 2x mode, it attempts to run fullscreen but only displays the triangle-laden game board in the top right corner. This display bug is actually kind of interesting, as when you move the rows of triangles around they will extend the whole length of the iPad screen, and all the in-game text sits to the right of the play area until it's needed in the game.

If you're a Trism fan that has been enjoying the game on your iPad, hold off on updating until a fix is released, which according to Demiforce has already been submitted to Apple and they've requested an expedited review. We've seen critical expedited updates hit the App Store in 24 hours or less, so a fix may be coming very soon.

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One of our favorite games of April went free today, Babylonian Twins [Free], while its HD iPad counterpart, Babylonian Twins HD [$1.99] saw a price drop to $1.99. Regardless of which version you get, both are a lot of fun and the game has an amazingly interesting history involving extraordinary conditions during its development in Iraq with economic sanctions preventing its initial release.

As the title would hint, in Babylonian Twins you play as a set of Babylonian twins, with each twin having their own abilities which must be cleverly combined to complete levels. Gameplay is very similar to that of the classic Blizzard game The Lost Vikings, with only one twin able to be controlled at once. We loved how this gameplay mechanic was combined with challenging, well designed levels in our review:

These simple gameplay features form the premise for some of the most interesting and expansive level designs that we have seen to date on the platform. In many ways, Babylonian Twins does away with contemporary trends in gaming, and re-instates the old-school values of a challenging, explorative platformer that refuses to hold you by the hand. There are no directional arrows or maps to point you towards the golden palm trees you must collect each level. In fact, even crucial objects such as the aforementioned broken walls and floors are easily missed unless you're paying attention. And each level is enormous– an adventure in and of itself– many of our completion times clocking in at around 30 minutes each.

The iPad version of the game plays the same, with higher quality graphics as is the case with most "HD" releases. Give the iPhone version a try, and if you like it and own an iPad, Babylonian Twins HD is well worth the two bucks. Regardless of whether or not you pick up the iPad version while it's on sale, Babylonian Twins for the iPhone is a game everyone should download to try out while it's free.

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Here's one for all the platformer fans out there. Alessandro Andriani has recently released Omino [App Store], a cute little retro-inspired platformer with a look reminiscent of Super Mario Brothers on the NES. It features bright colors, simplistic "8-bit" graphics, and a rather primitive chiptune soundtrack that all come together to pretty much achieve the developer's stated goal of taking you back to the '80s.

In fairly standard platformer fashion, the goal in Omino is to sfely get from start to finish across various levels filled with platforms, obstacles, power-ups, and baddies — some of which can be stomped, while others (the spikey ones) can't. Along the way you find coins to collect and power-blocks that, when hit with your head, may reveal red or blue hat power-ups that, when worn, allow you to shoot at your enemies (red) or walk on water, and faster than normal (blue).

The game makes use of left / right touch arrows and on-screen fire buttons for jumping and shooting. In my first few minutes with Omino, I found the game hard to control due to the speed of the on-screen character, which made things feel a bit over-sensitive. After about 20 minutes playing, however, I got used to the controls and they became a complete non-issue.

Omino is a free download that comes with the first two levels, with the rest of the game zones available in a single in-app download at a price of 99 cents. Anyone who enjoys old-school platformer action should give this one a try.

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Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

• Price: $1.99 (Download full version or free Lite demo)
• Version: 1.0
• Official Site: Black Tie Adventure

When one of the highlighted features for an iPhone game in its App Store description is ‘RUN, JUMP and SWING’, you know you’re in for a wild ride.

Sarcasm aside, when said game has cartoony graphics suitable for children and adults alike, it’s understandable that the gameplay should be simple to allow younger players the chance to have a bit of fun with their parent’s iPhone.

Black Tie Adventure looks absolutely lovely, and gives off very playful vibes. Unfortunately, the dodgy collision detection and control issues make it much too difficult for any adult to enjoy, let alone a child.

A bunch of evil snakes have kidnapped your girlfriend and all your loved ones, forcing you to leap and bound across a series of perilous platforms, tuxedo and all. You also have a bug flower to whack snakes to death, for some reason.

There’s a real feel-good edge to it all, thanks to some charming character art and bright, vibrant scenery. Our smartly dressed protagonist has a permanently fixed smile, whether he’s in the face of danger or making a daring leap. Along the way, friends can be found in giant presents, and hearts can be collected.

It’s all very lovey-dovey, but the controls and combat definitely are not. Snakes can be eradicated by either jumping on their heads, or thrashing them with your flower wand. Unfortunately, just one touch from a snake and it’s curtains for your fragile character, sending you right back to the start of the level.

This makes each snake interaction tense, as one little slip-up could potentially undo all your work up to that point in the level. I found myself carefully collecting every single heart and present, only to be scuppered at the last snake and have to do it all over again.

The controls don’t help matters, as trying to turn around and use the flower swiper at the same time frequently produces the wrong results, allowing an incoming snake to take you out from behind while you’re frantically swinging your flora and fauna around in the opposite direction.

Fortunately, there is an ‘easy’ difficulty option coming in a future update which will hopefully allow players a little leeway. Still, for what the premise is, it’s not very child-friendly.

If you can cope with the irritating stop-and-start nature of it all, however, there’s plenty on offer here. 32 stages over four backdrop worlds, with a boss battle at the end of each mean it’ll take you a good couple of hours to see it through.

Anyone looking for a quality platforming experience, however, should probably venture elsewhere. Black Tie Adventure may be beautiful, but the gameplay just isn’t sound enough.

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Giana Sisters [$4.99] was originally released all the way back in 1987 for the Amiga, C64, and similar platforms of the era. Surrounded by legal troubles due to its similarity with Super Mario Bros., the game was pulled almost as soon as it was released– Making original copies of the game highly valued by vintage video game collectors. In 2005, Giana Sisters made the jump to mobile phones, and a few years later found a home on the Nintendo DS following an extensive graphical overhaul.

Earlier this year, the sisters hopped platforms once again to the iPhone, and on July 9th will be jumping, tossing fireballs, and smashing bricks on the iPad. Developers Bad Monkee sent us a bunch of screenshots, and we're really excited to see the game in motion on our iPads.

We really liked Giana Sisters in our review, and later went on to award it a solid four star rating when we did our Best iPhone Games February 2010 round up. If this is the first you've heard of the game, if you like platformers with a classic feel, Giana Sisters is really worth checking out. If you own an iPad, hold off until the 9th to pick up the HD version.

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We first heard about Crescent Moon Software's Ultra Kid: Mystery of the Mutants back in late April of this year. Back then we only had a few screenshots and were told the game was inspired by classics such as MegaMan, Kid Icarus, Super Mario Galaxy and others. It's not hard to see elements of those games coming together in the following teaser video:

A new set of screenshots have also been released:

Ultra Kid is still in development, and the guys at Crescent Moon are shooting for a release this fall. We enjoyed their other game, Ravensword: The Fallen King [$4.99 / Free] quite a bit, and are expecting some great things from Ultra Kid.

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It's amazing to see the success of Doodle Jump [99¢], especially when you consider the meager beginnings of Lima Sky, which essentially is little more than two brothers building simple games for the iPhone. Igor and Marko Pusenjak announced this afternoon that since its release, the game has been downloaded over 5 million times, which they believe is a first on the App Store.

Since its initial release, Doodle Jump has become somewhat of a pop culture phenomenon. It's been mentioned on the show Big Bang Theory, spoofed on the Jimmy Fallon Show, and the doodler himself has even been spotted on stage with Lady Gaga.

Doodle Jump like so many other games built in one or two man teams perfectly embodies the indie spirit of the App Store. It's hard to say what really made Doodle Jump take off like it has, but it's unreal to think that the $99 a year Lima Sky pays for their iPhone SDK license has given them access to their pool of 5 million customers, and even more remarkable to think that this is barely 5% market penetration, per the "over 100 million devices" figure Steve Jobs quoted in his latest keynote address.

The Pusenjak brothers seem to be planning to keep the regular updates coming, with an underwater Doodle Jump theme in the works. After winning an Apple Design Award this year at WWDC, I'm confident that Lima Sky will keep the updates rolling for some time to come. Either way, it's no secret that we love Doodle Jump around here. If you haven't yet, give episode #10 of our podcast a listen, we interviewed Igor regarding the game and his company a few million downloads ago.

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Semi Secret Software's survival side-scroller Canabalt [$2.99] went universal this afternoon, and while (like most pixel art games) it looked great upscaled on the iPad, Canabalt is even more awesome running at the full 1024×768 resolution.

If this is the first you've heard of Canabalt, check out our review:

Canabalt for the iPhone is a port of the extremely popular flash game of the same name. Absolutely everything has been preserved in the transition, and Canabalt is a perfect for a mobile gaming device. It loads quickly, and the games (unless you're really good) rarely last any more than a couple minutes. …Read More

Canabalt can be played for free online, and the paid iPhone game is nearly identical aside from the fact that you're clicking your mouse instead of tapping with your finger. I really can't recommend this game enough. We awarded it five stars in our October '09 Best iPhone Games Listing, and it's one of the few games that not only has stayed on my phone since it was released last year, but also a game I play nearly every day.

A word of warning before updating, Canabalt 1.4 does seem to wipe out your local scores when you install it. If you have any insanely high local runs you'd like to immortalize, screen shot them before installing. Also, some forum members have reported frame rate issues with the new update, but so far I've tried it on every device I have access to and don't notice it running any different than before.

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I met with the guys from True Axis in the hall outside of the media lounge on the last day of E3. Having flown all the way from Australia, and dead tired from three days of non-stop video game insanity, they let us in on their plans for the future of Jet Car Stunts [$1.99 / Free], its sequel, and a tilt-controlled sidescrolling shooter, Space Tripper.

Space Tripper is a port of the PC/Mac game with the same title by PomPom Games. True Axis have taken this game filled with bullets, enemies, lasers, bosses, and all forms of other mayhem and turned it in to what they're calling "the most optimized iPhone game of all time." It's immediately evident that they've put tons of work in to this game, as much like Jet Car Stunts, the framerate of the game is incredibly fluid, even with tons of things going on.

Controlled with the accelerometer, you tilt to move your ship and touching one side of the screen turns your ship around while the other changes weapons. Like any good shooter, there are times when your ship is absolutely surrounded by enemies and bullets, and as you can see in the following video, the bosses even fill up half the screen just like they're supposed to in a game like this.

While Space Tripper looked really awesome, True Axis is hard at work both in increasing the content available in Jet Car Stunts as well as putting together its sequel, Jet Car Stunts 2. Currently the sequel is little more than some concept images of the many cars they plan to have in the game. Everything from a monster truck looking vehicle with huge tires to a sports car with wings like a fighter jet will be included, and True Axis is hoping to make each car feel a little different. There are also plans for some kind of level editor, although no details have really been fleshed out yet.

A 26 level pack is coming to Jet Car Stunts very soon, and if you've been looking for an even greater challenge in the game, this DLC is going to be for you. The levels True Axis showed off included driving upside down, flinging around high-banked curves, and even a level with a crazy jump that required you to essentially bounced your car off airborne barricades like a jet powered pinball.

As mentioned, this level pack should be available any day now, and the sequel likely won't appear until next year. They're hoping to have Space Tripper released next month, and you can expect a review from us as soon as it hits the App Store.

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