Miniclip has just launched Everplay Interactive’s popular retro-inspired hack and slash iOS title, Spellsword, on Android! Spellsword follows the path of an unlikely hero as he quests to unleash the power of his newly found “Spellsword”.  Spellsword features 60 missions and 9 endless arenas where the player will fight to unlock new items and spell cards.

The game combines fun, action and comedy with highlights such as RPG elements and upgrades, and retro-inspired graphics and gameplay. Spellsword is now available for FREE in the Google Play store. To download: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.miniclip.spellsword

DotEmu’s Raiden anthology, Raiden Legacy, has arrive on the iTunes App Store and Google Play Store for both iOS and Android devices. This compilation of retro shmups bearing the Raiden arcade game lineage consists of the following titles: Raiden, Raiden Fighters, Raiden Fighters 2,  and Raiden Fighters Jet.

In Raiden, the ground-breaking first title, Earth is invaded by an alien race known as the Cranassians, who threaten humanity’s very existence. To repel the onslaught, the World Alliance Military launches a daring counter-attack with a powerful new weapon: Raiden, a supersonic attack fighter. Players will need to utilise Raiden’s powerful weaponry against waves of enemy ships and save the human race.

Originally developed by Seibu Kaihatsu, these classic scrolling shooters have not only been authentically recreated for mobile, but also enhanced with brand-new features. Each title includes three different modes: “Arcade Mode” (just like the original); “Mission Mode”, which allows players to play any unlocked stage; and “Training Mode”, which, true to its name, allows you to excel at your favorite stages and practice the most difficult ones!

In all, Raiden Legacy features a total of 15 different ships for the player to control, two different touch modes and further controls customization for the player. The game is compatible with the iCade and has been optimized for the iPhone 5. Click here to download the game for iOS devices, and here for the Android version of the game.

Christmas has arrived early at Nineoverten.com, at least in the form of press releases and e-mails informing us of new iOS & Android apps and updates coming in conjunction with the Yuletide season. Here are a select bunch of games and apps that should pique your interest:

Christmas Advent Calendar

This brand new app from BCNMultimedia, the publisher of the popular Children’s Bible and Children’s Prayer apps, is available for free on the iTunes App Store. This is a Bible faithful Advent calendar for children of all ages. Starting on December 1st, kids will be able to open a daily window every day until Christmas. Each day you will find an illustration about a moment in the gospels on the Annunciation and the Birth of Jesus with a text and a quotation from the Bible. Download it over here.

Hungry Santa

This eat-all-you-can-and-fatten-up-Santa game has been upgraded to version 2.0, featuring several new content additions which include new power-ups and upgrades. Players must fatten up Santa before Christmas and utilizing tilt controls, guide Santa’s mouth to a variety of falling treats, but do skip on the broccoli. The game is available both on the iTunes App Store (for iOS devices, click here) and on the Google Play Store (for Android devices, click here).

Christmasville

In Nevosoft’s hidden object game out on the Google Play Store for Android devices, Santa Claus is missing and players take on the role of the great private detective Arthur Knight to find him in the North Pole. Christmasville features a gameplay element which has been long overdue in hidden object game, a time penalty for random clicking. With 20 stages of play and multiple levels per stage (around 80 levels in total), there is a fair bit of play in store – about three hours without the dialogue. The game is available here.

Mahjong Worlds

Zariba’s newest update for iOS title Mahjong Worlds was released on November 30th. The game takes inspiration from the classic Taipan (Mahjong) gameplay for Windows, and since it was released near Christmas, the developer saw fit to place in Christmas-themed tiles and level. The game is available for download here.

Fans of Talking Tom, the wisecracking cat on iOS and Android, you guys will get to purchase iconic items from Star Trek: The Next Generation in the Talking Tom 2 app. This collaboration is in conjunction with the 25th anniversary of Star Trek and the items will be made available in two-tiers. Beginning from the 30th of November, fans can get Talking Tom the red and yellow uniforms of the Federation Star Fleet.

Starting from mid-December, users will be able to purchase the starship Enterprise itself, along with Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge’s visors. The deal between Outfit7, the company behind Talking Tom, and CBS Consumer Products, was facilitated by IconicFuture, and marks the first time Outfit7 has licensed and integrated an entertainment property into its Talking Friends line.

“We’re humbled and honored to incorporate elements of Star Trek: The Next Generation into our app,” said Samo Login, Outfit7′s founder and chief executive officer.  “Trekkers and fans of Talking Tom alike will revel in the opportunity to see Tom act as Captain or ensign.”

“These two great brands complement one another in many ways,” said Sharon Bennett of Iconicfuture.  “With its mission to explore new worlds and new lives, TNG has found a rag tag team of friendly characters in Talking Tom 2.” Check out the app right over here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/talking-tom-cat-2/id421997825?mt=8

Imagine that you have it good with a hit game on both Android and iOS platforms, and someone plagiarises your game, submits that new game into a competition and then wins it. The whole scenario sounds incredulous, but for the sake of argument, if I were the developer of the plagiarised game, I would be totally incensed and would go on a warpath to set things straight.

So imagine how the developers at Craneball Studios felt when this nightmare scenario actually happened to them, in real life?  They dropped me a line recently regarding their game, iOS & Android title Overkill. Apparently an Asian studio called Feelingtouch Inc (a.k.a FT Games, previously known as Superdroid.net) came up with a game called Gun & Blood which proceeded to win the best game category in the Samsung Smart App Challenge.

The folks at Craneball actually found out back in April that Gun & Blood is really similar to that of Overkill, in which the game’s mechanics and design had been plagiarised with slightly reworked graphics. To add salt to injury, feeling touch saw fit to use text from Overkill in previous versions of Gun & Blood. Check out the comparison chart below to see for yourself:

This isn’t the first time plagiarism has reared its ugly head in iOS & Android games. Previously I did not publish news on certain games (or reviewed them for that matter) since they looked incredibly similar to that of existing, successful iOS or Android hits, and some of these instances of plagiarism were even more severe than what Craneball Studios faced.

It does add to the stigma that Asian developers (those copycat games that I found were made by developers from Vietnam, Hong Kong and China) can’t really come up with original hits. The folks at Samsung have not commented on the issue although I wished their judging of the competition was a little more stringent. feeling touch actually received USD 200,000 by winning the grand prize in this competition.

To the folks at Craneball Studios, we at Nineoverten.com feel for you. We’ll be seeking comment from Feelingtouch Inc/FT Games soon. To check out Overkill, it’s available for free on the iTunes  App Store: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/overkill/id421659813?mt=8

Back in April 2010, I asked this question: “Apple’s Game Center: What Does It Spell For OpenFeint and Gang?” In that article, I answered my own question stating that perhaps companies such as OpenFeint should consolidate in order to better face the challenges posed by Game Center.

More than 2 years later, I find that it was a self-fulfilling prophecy with OpenFeint being shutdown come this December 14th and its services being taken over by Japanese mobile social networking service, GREE. Developers will need to update their social features and game coding in order to keep their games running by switching to the new GREE platform.

While porting over to GREE would be an option and it does come with benefits, as in players still get to keep their OpenFeint accounts, another option would be to go for an alternate platform such as Swarm. One caveat though, Swarm is currently available for Android only.

Signing up for Swarm is easy and developers can configure their social features via an online admin panel. OpenFeint exiles, you can learn more over here: http://swarmconnect.com/openfeint_shutdown

My 7-year old nephew was showing off a favourite game of his on Sunday when I was back at my grandmother’s place last Sunday. It was Chillingo’s Robbery Bob, a fun little game which involved breaking and entering into houses, offices, and stealing stuff while trying not to get caught. Kinda like Assassins Creed or Splinter Cell, but with colourful and nicely animated 3D top-down graphics and a kid-friendly no-kill policy.

But then again, the game does teach you one thing, if you get caught while you are stealing, you’ll get beaten up by grandmothers who come armed with an aweful cackle and a rolling pin. It was really interesting to watch a 7-year old play through the game and displaying strategic thinking on the fly, but we are talking about seasoned pro here.

One of the tactics involved while sneaking into people’s homes would be to leave room doors open so that the occupants get distracted while you hide and move along the walls and grab stuff. Once you’ve obtain a certain object or got your fill of items, you’ll need to make it to the exit, which can be the same way you entered or a different door entirely.

The fact that he was showing me on this on his new toy, a Samsung Galaxy Note II, made the gameplay look crystal clear and surprisingly easy to pull off. But I’m a n00b in this and considering that it was my first time playing the game, I’ll need to count with more than one hand on the number of times I got caught during that play-through.

Anyways, Robbery Bob is also available on the iTunes App Store for free, so go ahead and grab the game since it’s a steal (I can’t stop myself on that…I’m sorry). Nine Over Ten 9/10 rates the game at a 4.5 out of 5, check it out over here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/robbery-bob/id503869041?mt=8

I find the Amazon Appstore for Android’s web interface to be rather appalling. It looks exactly like the rest of Amazon.com. Urgh. No matter, Square Enix Inc has announced that its new fast-paced 3D puzzler Motley Blocks is now available for download on the Amazon Appstore for FREE for Android devices, Kindle Fire and the Kindle Fire HD.

From the press release:

An innovative 3D puzzle game, Motley Blocks challenges players to connect blocks of the same color as they rotate in a cyclonic pattern. By connecting all the blocks before the rotations run out, players reveal a fun and vibrant hidden image. The longer the chains of blocks, the higher the point value and overall score. As the game progresses, each level becomes increasingly more challenging, requiring players to not only use their brains and reflexes, but also the in-game power-ups to solve puzzles.

 In addition to puzzle solving, Motley Blocks features a unique in-game level editor, allowing users to develop their own masterpieces using hundreds of colorful blocks. Once created, players can share their “works of art” with friends – creating an unending flow of new challenges.

Click here to head over to the Amazon Appstore and download the game. The iOS version of the game will follow up shortly.

Remember our previous coverage on Woo Games’ top-down multiplayer shooter ErnCon: Multiplayer Combat? The game is now out on the iTunes App Store for the iPhone, iPod touch and the iPad. The game has Retina and iPhone 5 optimised graphics and do check out the screenshots below, the game looks great on the widescreen of the iPhone 5.

The game features 12 fighter and robot workhorses from which the players can select and customise with over 20 weapons. Cash and XP points are earned by playing the game and these are used to buy new fighters/robots, weapons and unlock new multiplayer missions. The game bridges the gap with its Android counterpart by allowing iOS players to battle against Android players in cross-platform play.

“Harkening back to simpler times, ErnCon: Multiplayer Combat translates the intense ‘bullet hell’ gameplay from arcade shooters to 21st century mobile gaming,” says Ernest Woo, founder and CEO of Woo Games. “I built ErnCon on my own—risking it all to come up with something new. If you like multiplayer games–and blasting things in deep space–this is the game for you ”

The game is available for free on the iTunes App Store, so be sure to check it out over here: https://itunes.apple.com/my/app/erncon-multiplayer-combat/id557629269?mt=8

I wonder why the likes of EA hasn’t bought over South Korean mobile games developer  and publisher GAMEVIL. That company’s so large that they are having a huge presence at G-Star 2012 at the BEXCO Convention Centre in Busan, South Korea. The theme for the expo would be “Gaming in a Smartphone World” and get this, there will be 60 booths, 50 of them dedicated to mobile games whereby players can play and view demos of during the 4-days conference.

As reported in their blog, a total of 30 new games will be announced during G-Star, this includes a number of internally developed games as well as third party published titles. These games cover the a wide gamut of genres, including social network games, sports, strategy, fighting, adventure, RPG and arcade.

This includes the successful social Facebook title, Train City, a new photorealistic 3D baseball game, Two Outs Bases Loaded, 3D MMORPGs Legend of Master Online and Legends of Gaia, and new games for hit franchises, such as Baseball Superstars 2013  and Zenonia 5.

Through the announcement of their unreleased games at G-STAR 2012, GAMEVIL will continues to embark on their journey as leading mobile games publisher and developer. GAMEVIL continues to pursue forging new relationships with indie developers through their $10M Partner Fund, ongoing collaborations with KOCCA, as well as internally developing high quality mobile games.

For more details, check out their blog post over here:http://us.gamevil.com/blog/2012/10/31/1252/