This is pretty awesome news for owners of Sphero gadgets: they just released a brand new app for controlling the various Star Wars Sphero products with the Gamevice.

The original Sphero has supported the Gamevice for years, but before now, the Star Wars versions have been notably lacking in support. With this new app, the Star Wars droids gain feature-parity with the original model.

One thing to be aware of: certain functions still require the touch screen. You can use the Gamevice to steer the droids, and to engage certain basic functions. Some of the more advanced functionality will still require touching the screen. We’re hoping controller support is expanded in the future, but even in its current form, the experience of using these droids with the Gamevice is far better than only having the touch screen.

• Download: Star Wars Droids by Sphero

After 3 and a half years of teasing, Oddworld: New n’ Tasty has finally hit the App Store, with full Gamevice support. And it’s as good as you could possibly hope for.

The story of Abe’s Odyssey – originally criticized for being quite dark – has aged well. Abe is enslaved as a factory worker at a facility responsible for processing meat into a variety of food stuffs enjoyed by the aliens that make up this universe. One day, he stumbles upon a meeting between the higher-ups, where they reveal that because they’ve harvested almost every other creature into extinction, they’re planning on grinding up Abe’s species into a new meal – “New n’ Tasty”.

As dark as that premise sounds, things never devolve into self-seriousness. Abe’s aww-shucks demeanor and overall positivity keep the tone grounded as a dark comedy. In fact, while replaying this iOS port, I was most struck by how much Abe reminded me of Jar-Jar Binks – who came several years after Oddworld was released. Almost like if Jar-Jar was transported into Soylent Green, and then superimposed over a story about escaping from slavery. Yeah, it’s a weird tone. But it works.

Previous games in the Oddworld franchise have been ported to iOS before, and work great with the Gamevice. Unfortunately, while these games are perfectly competent, they also never quite captured the magic of what made the original Oddworld so special. They were in-universe spinoffs, but that is all.

New n’ Tasty is a ground-up remake of Oddworld: Abe’s Odyssey. Whereas the original was a great looking game for the original PlayStation, its pseudo-3D visuals and low resolution graphics don’t quite convey the sense of wonder they once did. New n’ Tasty fixes this. Visually, this is about as good as 2.5D platformers get.

Gameplay, on the other hand, is almost completely unchanged. Oddworld has always been a complex game, blending strategy and platforming, and taking full advantage of pretty much every button on your controller to command a deep set of actions. This gameplay, while complex and difficult, holds up perfectly well. If you’ve ever played Flashback, or any of the classic Prince of Persia games, Oddworld feels like an expanded version of that type of game, with the same difficulty you’d expect.

Oddworld’s challenge is mitigated somewhat by a few modern features. Quick saves are probably the biggest – you can quickly save your place, and reload from exactly where you left off, rather than relying on checkpoints. Far from feeling like the developers are just throwing a bone to casual gamers, these quick saves actually enhance the gameplay experience, removing frustration points that hurt the original release.

If you have fond memories about playing the original Oddworld, or if you want to see what all the fuss is about, and why so many people consider Oddworld such a cult classic, now is a great chance to pick it up and see for yourself.

• Download ‘Oddworld: New n’ Tasty’ for iOS

Fez just hit the App Store yesterday, and I’ve been having a blast with it all day today.

Considered a modern platforming game classic, and the primary subject of the critically-acclaimed film Indie Game: The Movie (93% on Rotten Tomatoes!). Fez presents itself as a classic 2D pixel-art platformer, but quickly changes things up by introducing a novel new 3D perspective shifting mechanic.

Using the shoulder buttons, you can shift the camera between 4 views, revealing new perspectives on the 2D platforming world you inhabit. Changing the camera perspective flattens every axis back into two dimensions. As a result, platforms that would be far away along a Z axis in a three-dimensional world can be brought right next to each another when flattening back to just the XY axi.

This is a difficult mechanic to describe, but it quickly becomes second-nature during gameplay, and is a novel, unique take on bridging three dimensional and two dimensional platforming games.

I know this one is a hard sell in writing, but if you’re a platforming game fan, you need to take my word on this one – there’s a reason Fez has gotten as much acclaim as it has. It may look like a bunch of other indie games, but Fez is one of the most important games to hit the App Store.

• Download Fez on the App Store

Out of nowhere, Apple just added support for preordering upcoming apps and games to the App Store.

The first wave of games have already been made available for preorder, and they’re some big ones. Life is Strange, Bridge Constructor Portal, Inside, and Thumper: Pocket Edition (no words yet about whether or not these will support controllers, but we’re optimistic!)

From Apple:

Customers can pre-order your app from your product page, search results, and the Today, Games, or Apps tabs if your app is featured.

On launch day, your app automatically downloads to the device on which the customer requested the pre-order, and to their other devices that have automatic downloads enabled. Customers will also receive a notification letting them know the app is available.

Customers who pre-order a paid app won’t be charged until the day the app is released for download. If the price of your app changes during pre-order, they will be charged the price that is lower: the price they accepted at pre-order or the price on the day of release.

Customers can cancel their pre-orders in their App Store settings on iOS and macOS, and in their iTunes settings on desktop for iOS, macOS, and tvOS apps.

Pre-orders can be made on devices running iOS 11.2, tvOS 11.2, and macOS 10.13.2 or later. Product pages during pre-order are accessible for customers on earlier operating systems through direct links. However, the buy button is disabled and customers are prompted to update to the latest OS version to pre-order apps.

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At first blush, preordering digital apps and games would seem to make no sense. In the physical realm, preorders are used by retailers as a way to gauge demand, to help the retailer know how many of a product to order for launch day. This reason doesn’t apply to digital goods, obviously. But there are other reasons to allow preorders.

Developers frequently upload apps to the App Store early, but don’t make those apps available for download. This is done for numerous reasons, such as making sure the information in the store is accurate and allowing promo copies to be gifted to media. If nothing more, preordering provides a more codified way of implementing these features.

Developers of premium apps and games frequently have special launch day pricing, to rewards fans. Developers will often promote a game on social media, and then rush to tell fans to buy the game early if they want to be rewarded with discount pricing. Preordering provides a way to give special discounts on apps to people who are already committed to buying, without hurting profit from first-day sales.

For users, the benefits are less obvious, but not entirely absent. If you’re already 100% committed to buying an app, the preorder might give you a discount. It’ll also provide a convenient notification when the app is finally available to download, so you don’t have to remind yourself about release dates. Lastly, if developers change their mind about pricing and launch the app for cheaper than you preordered, you only end up paying the cheapest price – you’ll never be hurt by preordering.

Honestly, this doesn’t seem like a huge change for users or for developers, but it also doesn’t seem to have any downsides. If it helps make premium games more viable on the App Store, there’s nothing to complain about. If it mitigates some of the risks involved in the App Store, and convinces bigger studios to consider porting more games to mobile, everyone wins. If it turns out to be a rarely-used and unpopular feature, well, we’re not any worse off than we would be without it.

If you’re a car person, GRID is probably an essential buy. While many mobile racing games strive for a more casual, arcade-friendly experience, GRID is all about realism. Original developers Codemasters spent a long time trying to make the handling of every car feel true-to-life, and while I can’t speak for the accuracy of how it would actually feel driving these cars on these tracks at high speeds, it feels right.

Many of the courses in GRID are directly based on famous real-world circuits. Courses not based on real racetracks, such as the city locations, still match the feel of the locations. You’ll be driving on these tracks in a variety of real-world licensed cars, for that added dose of realism.

Porting studio Feral Interactive really went all-out with this iOS version. GRID has lost absolutely nothing in its transition from console to mobile, and in some ways, actually looks better than it in its previous life on the PS3 and Xbox 360. This shouldn’t be a surprise – modern iOS devices easily outclass previous-generation consoles. But far too often, developers seem to struggle to take advantage of this power, and release games that simply show off what the hardware is capable of. GRID bucks this trend.

Quite simply, GRID is a breathtakingly beautiful game. Installing the optional (but free) DLC texture packs make it even more beautiful, but either way, you’re looking at one of the best games ever seen on iOS.

Unfortunately, GRID doesn’t quite run as good as it looks. Despite limiting itself to only the most powerful iOS devices available, GRID is capped at 30fps, and occasionally stutters trying to reach that. This is unfortunate – modern iPads run natively at 120fps, and racing games, in particular, really benefit from a high frame rate. Maybe future updates will solve this problem.

Perhaps the best part of GRID is one thing it did not gain in its transition to mobile – a new business model. There are no freemium currencies here, no wait timers, no ads, no nonsense. This is a serious, console-class experience. For a one-time fee, you get the whole game. There are quite a few DLC packs available with additional content, but in a welcome break from expectations, these DLC packs are entirely free. Yes, you can install all the extra courses, cars, and HD textures you want, for no added fee.

If you’re a fan of racing games, GRID is an essential buy. And if you’re a believer in premium, console-class games, GRID is one of the best examples yet of a real-deal, top-flight, no compromise console game on mobile.

• Download: GRID Autosport

Sonic 2 joins the original Sonic as part of Sega Classics. Classics is a marketing initiative where beloved games from throughout Sega’s history are released on mobile and made free-to-play, with an optional in-app purchase to disable ads. Some of the games in Classics are emulated, others are rebuilt from scratch to run on modern hardware.

There isn’t a whole lot to say about these classic Sonic games that hasn’t already been said. You’ve probably already played these games – they’re among the best 2D platforming games of all time, and they virtually defined gaming in the late-’80s-early-’90s. They established Sega as a major player in the world of gaming, and Sega is arguably only alive today because of the franchise these games spawned. If you’ve never played these games, you should download them immediately.

These games are timeless masterpieces, and I’m not going to try to sell you on them. Instead, I want to talk about what makes these particular versions of Sonic so special, and why these mobile ports are the definitive versions.

There have been many releases of Sonic 1 and Sonic 2 over the years. Name any game system, handheld or console, and there’s a good chance one or both of these games have appeared on it¹. But the iOS versions are notably different from all previous releases. They’re unique in that, unlike every other release, the iOS versions of Sonic, Sonic 2, and Sonic CD were rebuilt, from the ground up, specifically for iOS. A little history:

The year is 2009. Sega released both Sonic and Sonic 2 on the App Store. These original releases were poor quality, struggling to maintain 30fps on Apple’s most powerful devices, and lacking any modern features. Quality aside, the ports are successful from a sales perspective, and Sega is eager for more. They ask the community: which game should the bring to the iPhone next?

Developer Christian “Taxman” Whitehead, a longtime Sonic fan, and participant in the Sonic modding community, has an answer. In his spare time, he rebuilt Sonic CD himself, as a fan project. It runs on his own custom game engine, which perfectly replicates the physics of the classic Sonic games, down to the tiniest detail, at vastly greater performance than the poor-quality emulators Sega has been using. Whitehead shows off his custom version of Sonic CD, running at 60fps on an iPod Touch. The community wanted Sonic CD, and Whitehead wanted to work on it, but Sega went silent.

Two years later, and we’ve heard nothing more about Sonic CD or Christian Whitehead’s engine. Everyone assumes the project didn’t work out. Then, almost out of nowhere, Sonic CD hits the App Store.

Whitehead’s Sonic CD release is amazing. It runs perfectly on all iOS devices. It includes an expanded feature set, tons of bug fixes from the original ’90s game, and tons of additional bonus content. Arguably, it was the best release of any Sonic game, for any platform, ever. Better yet, because it was originally released for the obscure Sega CD system, it is one of the least-played games in the classic 2D Sonic catalog.

Because of these factors, Sonic CD’s iOS port was a huge success. It immediately became the best Sonic game on iOS, and was eventually ported to all of the major game consoles, PC, and Android².

Sega and Whitehead followed-up Sonic CD by updating Sonic 1 and Sonic 2, with the assistance of co-developer Stealth’s development studio Headcannon. Gone were the poor-quality emulators, replaced with brand new, completely rebuilt, versions of the classics. These versions gained all the performance improvements and bug fixes that could be expected from the improved engine, but also included numerous new features. Knuckles and Tails were added to the original Sonic and Sonic 2, and an incomplete level that was cut from Sonic 2 was finished and re-added back to the game.

After these ports, Whitehead and Stealth attempted to convince Sega to approve development of a similarly-updated port of Sonic 3, and even released a video proof-of-concept. Sadly, it wasn’t going to happen³. Sega had other plans.

Whitehead and Headcannon’s work on the mobile Sonic releases was so good, Sega trusted them with development of a brand new Sonic game using the new game engine – Sonic Mania. Mania has gone on to be the highest reviewed Sonic game in over a decade. It is, in fact, arguably the best game in the entire series. And it wouldn’t exist without the engine Whitehead used to port Sonic CD to iPhone back in 2009. But that is a story for another day.

Unlike with Sonic CD, the updated versions of Sonic 1 and Sonic 2 were not ported to any other consoles, or to PC. The only way to play these versions of Sonic is on iOS and Android. For whatever reason, rather than porting these versions of Sonic to other consoles, Sega has reverted back to using emulated versions everywhere else. And unfortunately, even though Android has these updated versions of the Sonic games, only the iOS versions support the Gamevice (yeah, we’re hoping they fix that, too).

As it stands today, the best possible way to play Sonic 1 and Sonic 2 is on iOS. And although these games work with touchscreens, they’re best with a controller. And the Gamevice is the best controller you can get for iPhones and iPads. So we’re in an interesting position where the very best way to play two of the very best games of all time is on your iPhone or iPad, with a Gamevice. And on top of all that, the games are free to download now, with a one-time fee to remove ads.

If this isn’t enough of a reason to give Sonic a download, I don’t know what is.

• Download: Sonic 1 for iOS
• Download: Sonic 2 for iOS
• Download: Sonic CD for iOS

Morphite, an incredible new sci-fi action/exploration game, was just released on iOS, as well as PC and a variety of consoles.

It is impossible to talk about Morphite without mentioning the game that serves as its obvious inspiration: No Man’s Sky. Both are space exploration games, both feature procedurally generated planets, both are played from a first-person perspective, both require you catalog procedurally-generated plants and animals with a scanner – it’s clear that Morphite wouldn’t exist without No Man’s Sky.

With that said, Morphite is no mere clone of No Man’s Sky. Morphite brings something No Man’s Sky mostly lacks: a clear focus and direction. Where No Man’s Sky is all about exploration and wandering, Morphite both a directed storyline and a clearly-defined (and fully voiced) protagonist. It also features a more action-oriented gameplay style, with a focus less on exploration and more on Metroid-style action-platforming. I don’t want to understate what a difference this makes – to many people, Morphite’s presentation as a more traditional “game” will actually make it preferable to No Man’s Sky.

Morphite is also a beautiful game. It doesn’t attempt to mimic No Man’s Sky’s massive scale and photorealistic textures, which would likely be impossible on mobile, instead opting for a low-polygon aesthetic. This gives Morphite a retro vibe, but one that doens’t feels cheap. Colors are vibrant, but not cartoony. Environments strike the right balance between atmosphere and detail. And there are multiple graphics options in the settings to tweak the balance between visual effects and framerate (I personally recommend disabling cinematic effects, which make everything seem washed-out).

Anyways, I’ve been a massive fan of No Man’s Sky since it launched last year – it is one of my all-time favorite gaming experience, and it’s one I’ve put more time into than almost any other games I own. Morphite is its own game, but it scratches a similar itch. I’m looking forward to putting many, many hours Morphite – I’m giving this one a strong recommendation. And if planned features like cloud saving, procedural temples, and multiplayer end up getting added, that recommendation will only get stronger.

• Buy Now on iOS

Good news, RPG fans. The iOS port of the classic ’80s RPG Lunar: Silver Star Story was recently updated to support 64-bit devices, sparing it from the list of games and apps that no longer function in iOS 11.

Lunar SSST has been well cared for since its iOS launch in 200x, receiving numerous substantial updates. Over the past several years, SoMoGa, the developers in charge of the port, have re-drawn the graphics in HD, enabled iCloud save data syncing, added additional language translations, programmed support for every new iPhone screen size, and – of course – added controller support for the Gamevice. It would have been surprising if Lunar was abandoned in the transition to 64-bit-only apps – luckily, it wasn’t.

If you’re an RPG fan who somehow missed out on Lunar SSST in the past, now is a great time to catch up on a classic.

• Download: Lunar Silver Star Story Touch

Hot on the heels of last week‘s amazing releases, Gameloft’s new multiplayer shooter Modern Combat Versus is finally out of its lengthy soft launch and in wide release on iOS.

Like the rest of Gameloft’s games, Modern Combat Versus follows a predictable strategy: take a popular PC or console game, and bring a mobile-focused facsimile of it to a mobile audience that might not be familiar with the real thing.

Modern Combat Versus is straightforward in this matter. It takes the overall feel of one of the “near-future” Call of Duty games, adds gameplay structure reminiscent of Overwatch or Team Fortress 2, and sticks a timer-based unlock system on pretty much every aspect of progression. Unfortunately, Modern Combat VS does not borrow Call of Duty’s epic storylines and incredible polish, nor does it borrow the colorful (and brilliantly balanced) character roster of Overwatch or TF2. Most important of all, Modern Combat lacks any of the the polish and heart of the games it is obviously “inspired” by.

Anyways, that’s just my opinion. TouchArcade gave this one their Game of the Week designation, and it’s also sitting at number 3 on the Top Free Games chart right now, so a lot of people definitely seem to be enjoying it.

The good news is, you can try Modern Combat Versus out for absolutely nothing, right now. Even if you get fed up of the timer system and quit playing after an hour or so, as I did, you’ll at least have received a download’s worth of enjoyment. And really, what else can you ask for in a free game?

• Download Modern Combat Versus on the App Store
• Download Modern Combat Versus on Google Play

As you may have noticed on our recently-revised homepage, Gamevice is at New York Comic Con this week!

We’ve been sharing a booth with Lionsgate and N-Way, who just added controller support to their new Power Rangers Legacy Wars game. We’ve got iPads and iPhones set up running the latest build of that game, as well as tons of other Gamevice-compatible games from our catalog.

We’re also doing a couple of special things, just for the show. If, after trying out our controllers, you decide you’d like to buy a Gamevice, we’re doing a 20% off discount on every model. We’re also doing a giveaway for an iPhone 8 Plus with an iPhone 8 Plus Gamevice. All you have to do is head down to the booth and enter your email address and name into our app.

If you have any questions about the Gamevice, if you’re interested in trying one out for yourself, or if you’d just like to stop by and say hello, head over to booth 210. I’ll be there, along with Joshua, Errol, and Fraser. We’re looking forward to meeting you, and showing off what we’ve been working on.