Why do ANDROID users get the free stuff all the time? They get to have the highly anticipated ZENONIA 3 on the Android Market for free whereas the same game is going for USD 0.99 on the iTunes App Store.

This is probably to push the momentum for GAMEVIL’s games in what is essentially a free market with plenty of other stuff going for free as well. Check out the press release below for more details:

Highly Anticipated ZENONIA 3 comes to Android for Free

LOS ANGELES, CA – June 30th, 2011 – GAMEVIL(R), a leading mobile games publisher and developer, announced that its highly anticipated game ZENONIA 3 is now available on the Android Market. More notably, this marks the first time a full game in the series is offered for free on any platform.

In ZENONIA 3, players will guide Chael through a fateful journey in search for his destiny and to uncover the truth behind his family background. The vast realm of Midgard spans well over 200 maps and a hundred quests, from fiery depths to the open skies populated by creatures and legendary monsters.

Four distinct melee and ranged character classes each have 13 active skills and 9 passive skills in addition to combos, and the introduction of a new Fairy helper-system adds another layer of leveling strategy. Streamlined inventory and item management lets players focus on the action. In-game titles give special stat boosts and a new Execution Room Mode allows for single or asynchronous co-op play for loot, in addition to the returning online PvP arena.

“ZENONIA 3 is packed to the brim with an expansive story, exciting combat and RPG action, extended online play,” said Kyu Lee, Head of GAMEVIL USA. “We’re very proud to share this next chapter of our flagship RPG series with Android fans, and welcome everyone as we offer it for free.”

ZENONIA 3 is available now for FREE from the Android Market, or at http://market.android.com/.

Pixowl Inc’s Doodle Grub for the iPhone must be doing something right. 1.5 million players and counting worldwide isn’t exactly chump change and it’s heartening to know that the developers are repaying their fans with an update to Doodle Grub, bringing the Snake-inspired game to version 2.3. Doodle Grub is also reaching out to fans on the iPad, Android devices as well as Facebook with the release of platform-specific versions of the game. Check out the press release below for more details:

FREE POPULAR SNAKE GAME ON IPHONE HITS BACK: “Doodle Grub” gets a major update on iPhone and comes to iPad, Android and Facebook

San Francisco – June 14, 2011 – Pixowl Inc. announced today the release an update to Doodle Grub, their popular free casual mobile game, inspired by the classic game Snake.  The title has reached 1.5 million downloads and counts more than 200,000 active players every day. Praised for its successful combination of beautiful graphics and addictive gameplay, Doodle Grub received positive feedback from critics and gamers alike.

The game takes full advantage of the iPhone’s accelerometer, allowing players to control the movements of the worm by simply tilting their device. The main goal is to collect apples to grow while avoiding several enemies that slope around the screen.

Designed by Laurel, a famous French comic book illustrator, the game comes with 11 various themes to play in, each with their own unique enemies, apples and dangers. Doodle Grub’s distinctive feature that makes it stand out from other games of its kind is Wireless and Bluetooth multiplayer mode supported via Game Center. Players can also challenge their friends and family to beat high scores and post them to their Facebook and Twitter profiles.

Pixowl Inc. is excited to let more mobile users enjoy the highly entertaining gameplay of Doodle Grub:

• iPhone: the new update brings integration with the OpenFeint social gaming network together with its achievements and community features.
• iPad: HD version with optimized gameplay and even more enemies on the screen
• Android: the long awaited adaptation is finally released, works on all android smartphones and tablets
• Facebook App: now users can test their skills and challenge their friends in a competition on Facebook social network

“We couldn’t be happier about the tremendous success of Doodle Grub. We think Doodle Grub is a must-have game for all smartphone owners because it’s free and easy to play. We’re really thankful to all the players and we will keep up pleasing them with regular updates and new addictive games!” – said Sebastien Borget, Adrien Duermael and Arthur Madrid, founders of Pixowl Inc.

Pricing and Availability

Doodle Grub (FREE) and Doodle Grub HD ($2.99) are available worldwide through the App Store in the Games category. Check out the game over here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/doodle-grub/id375749524?mt=8

If you have checked out our previous coverage on MADFINGER Games‘ upcoming title, SHADOWGUN, you would probably have been impressed by the amazing-looking screenshots (you are not too late, the post is available here). But now, those crazy guys have put it up a notch by releasing the SHADOWGUN E3 2011 HD Gameplay Trailer, made up entirely out of gameplay footage. Check it out below, it’s totally awesome:

A bit of primer on the game: SHADOWGUN combines tactical combat with third person harrowing action, ushering in a new visual standard for handheld gaming. SHADOWGUN puts players into the role of John Slade, a professional bounty hunter in the year 2350. Slade’s mission: hunt down Dr. Edgar Simon, renowned geneticist and former employee of the trans-galactic corporation Toltech Enterprises.

Players must lead shadowgun John Slade as he infiltrates Dr. Simon’s mountain fortress and fights his personal army of mutants, cyborgs, and genetically-enhanced humanoids. Using state-of-the-art weaponry, ships, and the assistance of S.A.R.A. – Slade’s personal android assistant. The story is written by award winning author Micah Nathan who has joined the MadFinger team as executive creative consultant for SHADOWGUN.

I hope you caught our review on Punch-It last week. In my opinion, it’s one of the simplest games that has gotten a perfect 5 out of 5 rating from Nineoverten.com (do check out the review over here). This week we are kick-starting things with an interview with Apprica, the multi-discipline and talented studio behind Punch-It. Check it out:

Tell us more about yourselves and how you started developing mobile games:

Apprica, a UK development company is developing all sorts of apps which include sports news, games, business apps and whatever our customers want for their needs. With the current growth of smart-phones, we are seeing more and more customer requests every week for something unique that helps them engage with their customers or a game they came up with during their lunch hour.

For a relatively simple game, how did you come up with Punch-It, considering that most of the time games tend to consist of several different gameplay mechanics?

Punch-it was just an idea that stuck when we first started think of a game to design and develop . We thought about several game levels in the design phase but decided that most users want a mix of games on their phones which Punch-it slots very nicely for the quick and fun element.

How has the response been so far for Punch-It on the iTunes App Store?

Our response has been very good for phone Apple and Android phones., I think the key lesson or take away from our experience is that the marketing on any app is the most important element in driving sales for the app. It’s impossible to just sit back and wait for the sales – It’s like any product.to design

What will you be working on next?

For our own collection we have invested some time and money to developing an app dedicated for the South African Rugby Team before the World Cup starts – This app will be released in a few weeks and it’s called Bok Rugby.

Here’s something interesting that you don’t see everyday, a game that is released for not only iOS devices (iPhone, iPod touch, iPad), but also for devices running on Google Android and Windows Phone 7. Christian Gross and his indie game development team’s Spinballs Special Edition does exactly that and it’s a fast-paced action puzzle game introducing a fresh and unique game concept to gamers on all three platforms.

Spinballs delivers un-timed match-3 fun packed into an unique game concept challenging both puzzle and action game fans. Moving away from traditional colored blocks or gems Spinballs requires players to think different. Colored orbs on seven discs need to be connected by rotating those discs and building up same-color chains.

Since time is running players need to act quick and smart. Clearing chains reward them with points, extra time and energy for the four special powers that can be triggered to unleash effects like points multipliers, time slowdowns, automatic orb sorting and full playground explosions.

The new Zen-Mode in Spinballs Special Edition offers a relaxing endless mode enabling players to explore all the features of Spinballs without being stressed by time pressure. And the new special recharger comes handy on charging special powers faster than before.

All those and various other features like skins, game center support and Facebook highscore publishing enhance the gaming experience Spinballs offers for both casual and hardcore gamers and keep making it the game people love and know for almost two years since its initial release. Check out the all three versions of the game over there:

• iOS: http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/christian-gross/id388855629
• Android: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.christiangross.spinballs.special
• Windows Phone 7: http://social.zune.net/redirect?type=phoneApp&id=4c5fb4a1-4f64-e011-81d2-78e7d1fa76f8

Award-winning mobile games publisher Infinite Dreams has revealed today the first information on Jelly Defense for the iOS, Android and Mac OS platforms. Judging from the concept art alone, this looks like it’s going to be a doozy. The game is now in beta testing (no word on which version is being tested) and the premise behind the game is that players join up with the Jelly forces in fighting against the invaders.

“This is a very exciting moment for us. We are now in the process of testing Jelly Defence and preparing the game for release. We are very proud that over 100 fans and journalists participate in our closed beta tests and use their experience to improve the game. We hope our new amazing product will smash everything gamers have seen so far in the tower-defense genre!” – said Infinite Dreams CEO, Tomasz Kostrzewski

Players will need to exhibit proper tactical skills and wisdom to push back the fierce invaders and save the planet Diploglobe, which is inhabited by the Jellies Jelly Defense is actually the highly anticipated third release in the Jelly series, the first two being Jelly Chronicles and Jelly Invaders. Those two games were created to announce the upcoming tower defense game and familiarize players with the Jelly universe.

Do stay tuned to Nine Over Ten 9/10 (subscribe to our RSS Feed or LIKE our Facebook page) for more news on Jelly Defense.

Playpen Studio has released today the first details for Skillz: The DJ Game, which is due for release on the iPad, Android tablet and as for the PC in the form of digital download. Skillz is an award-winning music and rhythm game (IGF China 2010 “Excellence in Audio”) in which players will use virtual turntables to crossfade, scratch, and drop in samples to remix popular tracks from top artistes.

The game promises over 20 of the hottest dance tracks from world renowned artistes and the partial tracklist revealed today includes tracks from Amp Live, People Under the Stairs, Diplo, Samantha James, James Pants, Redlight and Bassnectar. The various modes in Skillz will allow aspiring DJs to casually freestyle a track of their choice or pursue a virutal DJ career as they unlock achievements and new venues while racking up points and building up their rep.

Visitors to this year’s E3 will be able to catch the game in action on an iPad over at the DNA Interactive booth#2959 in the South Hall. For the rest of us, do check out the trailer below, and stay tuned to Nine Over Ten 9/10 as we put up news on Skillz: The DJ Game as it gets closer to launch:

The mother of all randomness… I reserve this term to describe any games involving dice, but it doesn’t mean I don’t like them. LOL. And apparently plenty of people share the same sentiment as me since Smart Box Design announced today that their chart-topping and highly entertaining game, Farkle Dice for the iPhone has been downloaded more than half a million times. The game involves players rolling a set of six dice (or should I say die) and can continue rolling as long as their roll continues to yield points.

For more details on the game and the mechanics, check out the press release below:

Bellingham, Washington – Smart Box Design today is pleased to announce the chart-topping highly entertaining game Farkle Dice for iOS and Android has been downloaded more than 500,000 making it one of the most successful dice games available. Farkle offers players an opportunity to challenge friends or compete against a variety of “intelligent” computer opponents with a wide range of personalities – from cautious to daring – that will determine the level of risk each opponent is willing to take when deciding just how far to push their luck.

Farkle is an enormously popular game throughout the world. Players roll a set of six dice for points and can continue rolling the dice as long as their roll continues to yield points. Any non-scoring roll is called a Farkle and the player forfeits their turn and any points accumulated during that turn. Like most games of chance and skill, Farkle’s attraction stems from players hoping to beat the odds and roll a high scoring combination.

Smart Box Design is known for the attention it places on both the playability and design of its games, and Farkle is no exception. There are very few dice games available for Apple iOS and Android with the quality and attention to detail that went into creating Farkle Dice. The game, which can be customized to accommodate regional rules, is extremely easy for users to pick up and begin playing upon installation. It is beautifully designed with the rich hues of a felt and wooden game-playing surface surrounded by a western theme.

Many games feature computerized opponents that are programmed with varying degrees of difficulty (smart, smarter, and smartest). Farkle, rather, comes with a collection of computerized opponents that are programmed to employ different strategies and take various degrees of risk when deciding whether to continue rolling for points – just like different people that Farkle players will encounter as they play the real dice game.

“We are delighted to bring one of the all-time classic dice games to the Apple iOS and Android Markets,” said Todd Sherman, Smart Box Design’s president. “Our version of Farkle provides mobile device users with a great game that can be picked up when they only have a few minutes to spare, but user beware – once the game is started, it can be very addictive!”

Farkle Dice is available either as a free ad supported app or without ads for 99 cents. Farkle Dice has been translated into French, German, Spanish, Japanese and Korean. Check it out over here for the iPhone version and here for the Android version

Amazon’s Kindle is doing for e-books what the iTunes App Store does for apps. It’s like the one stop center for e-books and with Kindle e-book reader software support for Windows PCs, Macs, iOS devices it makes it easy for users to share e-books across the number of devices that they have and there’s no need to actually invest in a Kindle reading device.

Technology such as Whispersync allows users to pick up from where they left reading regardless on which device they choose an e-book on. I could read up to a certain page on the new Transformers: Dark of the Moon on my Mac and then continue reading from that page onwards on my iPhone.

Purchasing e-books is pretty simple, just head towards the Kindle Store, it’s basically a sub-site of the main Amazon.com site. The only issue I have though is being in the Asia Pacific region, Kindle titles are actually not available for me to purchase. I needed to change my region to that of North America to be able to start to purchase titles but after that it’s a simple matter of entering credit card information.

Price wise, Kindle e-books are pretty cheap. The book I bought had a price tag of USD 7.99 and it’s about 3 dollars cheaper than what you normally pay for a physical book. It’s also one avenue to purchase ahem, books banned by the government. I live in Malaysia and I’ll be kidding myself if I were to say there’s no government censorship on printed media. But with Kindle, I can now purchase that Damon Brown book that I’ve been looking to buy for a damn long time.

It’s also no surprise Amazon announced that they are selling more e-books then printed books. How’s this for a selling point: Instant Delivery!

On the downside, you obviously lose out on holding onto a physical paper/hard-back book. Some people I know prefer to have bookshelves filled with books, these double up as interior decoration as well. But vanity aside, e-books do have an added benefit of not having trees cut down for paper. This however is still a shallow “green” argument point. One must ask whether the data centres hosting all these titles are “green” ones as well. Anyways, that’s an issue that should be addressed independently.

In the mean time, I’m giving Kindle two-thumbs up. It’s not really a replacement for my physical books yet but hey, having one additional avenue for books is no harm at all.

The guys at MADFINGER Games are always up to something that looks pretty and violent (just take a look at their Samurai series of games and also that crazy bloodfest known as Bloodyxmas) at the same time. Their upcoming game, SHADOWGUN for iOS and Android is no different, but just take a look at the screens below, they look absolutely GORGEOUS! I’m beginning to wonder what are the prospects of such a pretty looking game running on a two-year old device like the 3GS, but my are fingers crossed.

The game seems to be optimised for stuff like NVIDIA’s Tegra chips that you find on higher-end Android smartphones and also for the iPhone 4G/ iPad/iPad 2 using the Unity 3D engine. Check out the press release below for the details:

Brno, Czech Republic – Madfinger Games, creators of Samurai II: Vengeance, today is pleased to announce the beginning of a new property SHADOWGUN, with an emphasis on next-gen graphics and immersive gameplay. By focusing on mobile platforms – including smartphones and tablets- Madfinger has created the most advanced handheld game in the market, optimized for superb performance and offering gamers the same quality expected from console gaming systems.

With SHADOWGUN, Madfinger is expanding the entertainment potential of smartphone, iOS devices and tablets. SHADOWGUN will also support Android mobile devices powered by the NVIDIA Tegra super chip, and will be available on the Tegra Zone app and Android Market.

Authored with the Unity development platform, SHADOWGUN combines tactical combat with third person harrowing action, ushering in a new visual standard for handheld gaming. SHADOWGUN puts players into the role of John Slade, a professional bounty hunter in the year 2350. Slade’s mission: hunt down Dr. Edgar Simon, renowned geneticist and former employee of the trans-galactic corporation Toltech Enterprises.

Players must lead “shadowgun” John Slade as he infiltrates Dr. Simon’s mountain fortress and fights his personal army of mutants, cyborgs, and genetically-enhanced humanoids. Using state-of-the-art weaponry, ships, and the assistance of S.A.R.A. – Slade’s personal android assistant. The story is written by award winning author Micah Nathan who has joined the MadFinger team as executive creative consultant for SHADOWGUN.

“SHADOWGUN is possibly the the best expression of quality production achievable on mobile devices and a great indicator of what consumers can expect from future mobile games,” said Brett Seyler, General Manager of Union. “We’re very proud to see this kind of creative product created with Unity and excited to offer it to our partners through our Union distribution service.”

In addition to an optimized version for Android super phones and tablets powered by Tegra 2, Madfinger is also developing an even more enhanced version supporting NVIDIA’s Project Kal-El, the next-generation Tegra quad-core processor. Ashu Rege, Vice President of Game Content and Technology at NVIDIA, said: “SHADOWGUN shows off the console-quality experience that Tegra is bringing to Android devices. We’re especially excited that Madfinger is creating a special version of SHADOWGUN that’s optimized for multi-core processors and will take advantage of the processing and graphics power of Project Kal-El.”