Australian skateboarding company Penny Skateboards has been around for quite some time but it didn’t across (to me at least) as a company that would tie up with indie developers IV Motion to come up with their first iOS game, titled Penny Time. And what a surprise it turn out to be, this skateboarding (naturally) game is actually pretty awesome.

The game combines 3D platforming, skateboarding, rhythm-based gameplay with cell shaded graphics to create what I would dare say a classic on the iPad that would give anything else on the platform a good run for their money. The player’s character skateboards through levels in which people and objects are stuck in freeze time; this itself lends a surrealistic feel to the game and with plenty of obstacles abound, players will need to ollie, slide and hippie jump (is that what it’s called?) their way around on their skateboard.

The timing of all the actions are rhythm-based, so in situations where the action gets really busy, here’s a tip: do really on the rhythm to time your actions. Having said that, the game’s soundtrack is totally awesome and I would recommend a good set of ear/headphones to play the game (a pair of Grado SR-60 cans would be just nice). The later levels are DIFFICULT and you’ll need a combination of practice, skill AND luck to succeed (a good sense of rhythm helps also).

Having said all that, Penny Time gets a 5 out of 5! If there’s one skateboarding game that you should get, it should be Penny Time. The game is available on the iTunes App Store for a meager 99 cents. IV Motion is planning to support the game with more FREE downloadable content and that’s always commendable IMHO.

A review code was provided to Nineoverten.com for the purpose of this review

I remember playing the Phoenix Wright games back when Nineoverten.com used to focus on NDS reviews, those were really great games that made full use of the platform’s features. Now, Capcom is set to release Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy HD for a whole new audience, the users of iOS devices. Re-created in HD, this trilogy features the first three games in the Ace Attorney series, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Justice for All, and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trials and Tribulations.

The games follow the unforgettable career of eccentric defense attorney Phoenix Wright as he must prove his seemingly guilty client’s innocence, no matter how dire the circumstances. Each of the three games include all gameplay content originally enjoyed in the Nintendo DS versions with re-mastered HD graphics as well as responsive on-screen controls fine-tuned for the iOS platform allowing for easy navigation using simple swipe commands.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy HD will also come with the “Everyone Object” mode (at no additional cost) to help players communicate their displeasure of everyday situations with the help of popular Ace Attorney characters and sayings. With a simple touch of a button, the phrases, “Objection!”, “Hold it!”, and “Take that!” can be emailed to friends or tweeted along with an animated image.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy HD will be available for download for free this Fall on iOS devices (iOS 5.0 is required to run the application), with each full game in the trilogy available for purchase individually or as a bundle.  The first two chapters of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney will be available as a free demo.

Interesting, NASA has an MMO in the works and the folks at Project Whitecard are working to deliver Starlite, formerly known as Astronaut: Moon, Mars and Beyond, by the end of 2012 in the form of a beta. Piqued? Read the following press release for more details:

 It’s interesting how I got a review request for a Ghostbusters augmented-reality app at the onset of the Chinese Hungry Ghost month. A superstitious reviewer would have gone urghhh…but for me, it just involves tilting the phone above my head to catch ghosts, bringing attention to myself in places such as the office and the nearby shopping mall.

Yup, the brand new Ghostbusters: Paranomal Blast for the iPad and iPhone melds an 3D augmented reality battle system with location base services to create something special and guess what, I was really surprised at how smooth the game ran. Got to hand it to the developers on a job well done.

Players start off by picking an avatar, representing a new recruit to the Ghostbusters team. In order to prove yourself, you’ll need to head out to the locations marked out on the in-game map to catch some gbosts. Catching ghosts brings about the AR battle system, where you move the phone around in the physical room that you are in, in order to catch the ghost. Keeping the phone’s camera centered on the ghost will cause it to be zapped by your proton gun. At one point you’ll need to do a sliding motion on the touch screen to lay out the ghost trap and capture the ghost.

It’s all really fun stuff and a good way to freak out your curious friends by saying “Hold still, I’m zapping a ghost and it’s right next to your head!!”. Ghostbusters: Paranormal Blast has more than 14 unique 3D demons and you’ll get to face some iconic ones made popular by the movies, such as Slimer and the Librarian Ghost.

Nine Over Ten 9/10 rates it at a 4.5 out of 5. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. The game is available on the iTunes App Store for USD 0.99, do check it out over here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ghostbusters-paranormal-blast/id533816549?mt=8

A review code was provided to Nine Over Ten 9/10 for the purpose of this review.

For online shopping price comparisons for video games, be sure to check out PricePanda.

I am not really a fan of Jane Austen’s book, Pride and Prejudice, but it turns out that the novel can serve as inspiration for a pretty good puzzle game on the iPad. Titled Hidden Anthologies: Pride & Prejudice, it’s a hidden object adventure game that will test the mettle of any player and would delight fans of the book.

The game features beautiful 2D graphics in each scene where players are tasked with looking for items and using them to solve puzzles, on behalf of the characters from the book. Hidden Anthologies: Pride & Prejudice provides a decent amount of game time (around half a day) with the game providing some really challenging puzzles which requires players to move from room to room to solve them.

My only problem with the game is that while you are required to zoom in to look for items, the scenes reveal their typical low-res nature. It wouldn’t harm to replace them with high-res alternatives, it would really improve the playing experience. That little niggle aside, Hidden Anthologies: Pride & Prejudice is a worthy addition to any hidden-object fan’s game library.

Nine Over Ten 9/10 rates Hidden Anthologies: Pride & Prejudice at a 4 out of 5. The game is available on the iTunes App Store for USD 5.99: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/pride-prejudice-hidden-anthologies/id518349212?mt=8.

A review code was provided to Nine Over Ten 9/10 for the purpose of this review.

Both of my favourite Mac games are being patched today, so with Diablo III AND StarCraft II out of commission for a while (take a look at the SCII patch, it’s weighing in at 1.1 gig), I’ve got some time to check out something I’ve not done in a while, a Facebook game! In this case, it’s Konami’s Blockolicious, which essentially is a port of the same game by Chillingo for mobile devices.

Now, you might groan, not another match-3/Bejeweled clone, but look at it this way, what do all (well almost) match-3 games have in common? They all have the ability to keep players transfixed. Blockolicious adds in several strategy-based elements that will make players even more hooked. Divided into two modes of gameplay, Sprint and Marathon, the basis still the same: Match like-coloured blocks in groups of 3 or more to form up Juicy Blocks. Match like-coloured Juicy Blocks together to create explosive Juicy Bombs which can be used to take out all like-coloured blocks on the block and power up Power Aids.

Power Aids are power-ups that will help players to destroy even more blocks or even provide multipliers to their scores. The difference between the two modes are in Sprint, the juicy blocks drain out and in Marathon, you’ll need to keep your number of moves high up or else it’s game over. Putting up that many strategic elements in a simple game of match-3 would be quite daunting to read on paper (or from the e-mail), but the proof is definitely in the playing.

Having said that, my favourite mode would be the Marathon, with the Sprint being a little too frantic for me. Doing well in the game rewards players with coins that can be used to unlock more Power Aids (or even quickly boost them in-game) and the players scores are reflected on cross platform leaderboards.

Nine Over Ten 9/10 rates Blockolicious at a 4.5 out of 5! The game is available on Facebook for free, so do check it out over here: https://apps.facebook.com/blockolicious/.

Hey guys, good news! OrangePixel’s 2D-retro game for the iPhone Chrono&Cash is now being sold at a discounted price of USD 0.99 on the iTunes App Store. The game has received some really favourable reviews from the folks at TouchArcade and Modojo. Players take on the role of Cash, a talented thief who, accompanied by his trusty Chrono robot CR2, travels through time to rob from the bad and… well.. let’s just keep it in the middle what he does with the things he robs!

Every level is a single screen with a collection of platforms and treasure, grab it, and advance to the next level! Just avoid contact with the locals. What are you waiting for the game is available over here: http://itunes.apple.com/app/chrono-cash/id532308830

For this week’s interview segment, we’ve got Geoff Blair and Matt Hackett, together they form up Lost Decade Games, who are responsible for the HTML 5-based game Lunch Bug that we reviewed recently (check it out here). These guys are really passionate about HTML 5 and indie game development. Without further ado, here we go:

Nine Over Ten 9/10: Tell us more about yourselves and how you started developing mobile games?

Geoff Blair/Matt Hackett (Lost Decade Games): The two of us (Geoff and Matt) both have web development backgrounds, working for companies like Yahoo! and Raptr. We founded Lost Decade Games in 2010 because we wanted to work on JavaScript games together. Our first game Onslaught! Arena is an award-winning HTML5 arcade shoot ‘em up that we launched with the Chrome Web Store that December. In 2011, we worked with Game Closure as their very first hires, making fun game demos and helping with their SDK. In February of this year we started working on Lost Decade Games full time.

9/10: What was the idea behind Lunch Bug?

LDG: Lunch Bug was originally conceived as simple twist on the classic board game, Othello (also called Reversi). We wondered what might happen if we introduced more pieces than simply black and white. It’s evolved quite a bit from there, but you can see that the core mechanic of Lunch Bunch is still about “capturing” pieces by surrounding them with other piece types. In addition, we wanted to branch out a bit from the retro, hardcore feel of Onslaught! Arena and try our hand at a more accessible game.

9/10: How has the response been to Lunch Bug?

LDG: We’re pleased that it’s been overall very positive. Players have been saying that they like the graphics and the sound, and that once they get into the game, it offers fun and interesting problems to solve. Though, our biggest complaint has been the tutorial. It’s difficult to teach new game mechanics to players and we took a very hand-holding approach that turned off a lot of people.

This is all a learning experience for us though, and the great response to Lunch Bug has given us a lot of confidence for improving our future games.

9/10: Could you describe the process of marketing your games?

LDG: Honestly, marketing is the weakest piece of our stack. We try to get early attention on our games by tweeting and blogging about the process of making them, but it’s difficult to get many people’s attention. We do our due diligence by creating comprehensive and high-quality media kits, which we send to everyone we can in games press and journalism, but we get largely ignored.

Moving forward, we think that the issue is one of inherent interest. If a single sentence that describes a game doesn’t really grab people, it’ll probably be hard to sell marketing-wise. It can be very humbling to be composing an email to a games journalist and having difficulty coming up with a compelling reason they should spend their time writing about your game instead of hundreds of others. So in the future we’re trying to make games that people find inherently intriguing when you talk about it.

9/10: Could you share with us a little on what you’ll be working on next?

LDG: Absolutely! We recently secured funding for our next game, which we are calling Lava Blade. It’s a side-scrolling platformer built around procedural level generation and progression. It could be described as a combat-oriented Canabalt or Jetpack Joyride (or Moon Patrol for you retro gamers). It’s medieval fantasy, will be packed with content, and of course will be built in HTML5, except this time we’re tailoring the experience for desktop.

Lava Blade will be available on the open web later this year, and we’ll be making some exclusive content for Pokki, which is an HTML 5 desktop platform. Pokki also sponsors Lostcast, our HTML5 games podcast.

9/10: Any plans for releasing Lunch Bug as a native app and market it on the iTunes App Store?

LDG: Lunch Bug runs pretty well in Mobile Safari, so technically the game is playable on iOS devices. However, the game runs rather slowly and audio is just terrible in mobile browsers. We’d really like to get it on the iTunes App Store, but we’ll need to integrate with native wrapper technology like those from Ludei and Game Closure. It was actually Game Closure’s SDK that allowed us to get Onslaught! on iPad, but Ludei  has also integrated one of our portal games with their SDK, and it looks really promising too. The future is bright!

9/10: Any words for aspiring game developers out there?

LDG: We suggest starting by doing everything yourself. Find a way to be as productive as you can, as fast as you can. If you know Java, go with that. If you’re not a programmer, pick some GUI like Game Maker and run with it. Design the simplest game you can, make it a complete game with a title screen and menus and all that, and wrap a bow on it. Then spend as long as you can polishing your very simple game until there’s nothing left you’d make prettier or smoother.

Once you show this creation to people, the conversations you have with professionals in the industry changes. Before you have something really compelling like a full game to play, I think people have a tendency to not take you seriously. So prove yourself and make a game! Once you’ve demonstrated a broad, valuable skillset, you can begin to focus your efforts on your specific area of interest, like design or graphics.

We often talk about making it as an independent game developer on our blog and podcast, and Matt discussed it in depth on an episode of Laser Time podcast called How to Make a Video Game.

Here’s some industry news before we call it a night, Swiss-based online and mobile games company, Miniclip, has announced today that it has surpassed the 100-milion downloads mark (insert the obligatory “if I had a dollar for every download line here”) across the board for the company’s mobile titles. Considering that this highly successful company has been around since 2001, it was a long time coming.

With its new cross-platform initiative, Miniclip has become the first company to have simultaneously launched new games across online, iPhone and Android. Popular games in its expansive library include Extreme Skater, Hambo and Monster Island. Miniclip’s recently re-launched website now allows users to instantly play mobile games online, share it with their friends and download it to their iPhone, Android or Windows Phone. For those players that enjoy competing with big groups, Miniclip is implementing its new multiplayer server technology to run game tournaments in real time online and on mobile.

“This milestone clearly demonstrates that Miniclip’s online players want to extend their gaming experience to their mobile devices,” said Sergio Varanda, Director of Mobile for Miniclip. “By utilizing our proprietary X-Port Genie technology we’ve been able to substantially grow our mobile library by simultaneously launching new games across multiple mobile and online platforms allowing Miniclip players to play any time, anywhere.”

For more industry news, be sure to follow us at nineoverten.com.

I had a lot of fun playing Nyan Cat: Lost in Space on the iPad during the long Aidilfitri holidays. Basically an endless running game, players guide the ever popular Nyan Cat as he proceeds to gobble up milk and other goodies and at the same time, try not to fall “out” of space. The game doesn’t break new ground but the colourful graphics, simple gameplay and happy-sounding Nyan Cat song all make for a really good timewaster.

The game is available for free on the App Store but comes with enough game modes to keep anyone happy for a while before going in for the in-app purchases. Accompanying the Classic Mode are the ZEN and Tac Nayn modes which alter the gameplay slightly. Nine Over Ten 9/10 rates Nyan Cat: Lost in Space at a 4 out of 5. Go and grab it now: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/nyan-cat-lost-in-space/id433592592?mt=8