Last week, amidst the mayhem of the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Sega showed off its upcoming releases for iPhone and iPad, giving us a chance to go hands-on with a pair of new releases from existing franchises, plus a notable update to perhaps its biggest iOS release to date.
What impressed us the most in the pack was Total War Battles: Shogun, a spin-off of The Creative Assembly's long-running real-time strategy PC series. Rather than port the existing experience with potentially clumsy controls, Total War Battles: Shogun looks to capture the essence of the franchise while adapting the interface and mechanics for touch screen devices -- and what we saw and played really stood out in terms of scope and production values.
Upon hex-based battlefields, you'll generate troops and battle it out in medieval Japan, with the single-player campaign comprising 40 core missions for a total of 10+ hours of gameplay, with additional side missions adding to the bulk. And beyond that, the game includes a same-screen multiplayer option on both iPad and iPhone, which lets each player command half of the display with an overhead view portraying the action. The multiplayer worked well on both iPad 2 and iPhone 4 during our demo, and the game will be released to the App Store on April 19.
Also due out this spring is Alexandria Bloodshow, the successor to last year's free-to-play Samurai Bloodshow for iPhone and iPad. Taking the form of a Plants vs. Zombies-like grid-based tower defense strategy affair, Alexandria Bloodshow serves up fantastical battles between the ancient Egyptians and Greeks. Taking the role of either side, you'll march further towards the enemy base across numerous missions, wherein you'll place cards on the battlefield to spawn a variety of warriors to help your cause.
Among the pack are fire archers and falconers, along with tools like catapults, traps, and blockades, and you can expand your deck by purchasing cards via in-app purchases, if you'd like. Beyond the campaign, Alexandria Bloodshow also includes online multiplayer and local Bluetooth-enabled play, with the app expected to be universally playable. Sega's sequel promises more troops and combat variety than the original, while still offering a faux-historical tower defense experience, and looks like another unique (and gory) App Store option.
Finally, we caught a glimpse of the upcoming update to Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing for iOS, which will add a new driver (Knuckles the Echidna) and track when it launches in the near future. But the biggest enhancement is the addition of app mirroring via AirPlay, which lets you experience the game on a large, high-definition television display while using the iPad or iPhone as a controller. It's a pretty sizable update to a year-old iOS game, and Sega says other content additions may also follow down the line.
