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Apple vs. Nintendo for Handheld Market

Liam Widman — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:45:26 -0600

The Wall Street Journal reports that Satoru Iwata, the president of Nintendo Co., doesn't see Apple as a competitor for control of the handheld market, but Apple sure does. According to Apple's head of marketing, Phil Schiller, the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP were "so cool at first" but "don't stack up" to the iPhone and iTouch's vast variety of different games. With the iPhone and iTouch, people can design thousands of games and most go for $10 or under, while the DS sells most it's games new for $20.

Nintendo, who plans to release a new version of the DS handheld, has survived many competitors in the handheld market including Sega's Game Gear and Nokia's N-Gage and none have succeeded in taking the market. But Nintendo isn't invincible to cellphone games. Last month, Nintendo reported a 52% decrease in profit for the first half of it's fiscal year, which ends in march, as sales of the Wii and DS cooled. Nintendo also expects it's annual profit to drop for the first time in six years.

Mr. Iwata says that Nintendo has an experience that no other device can mimic. And with famous franchises like Mario, Zelda, and Pokémon, Nintendo is pretty confident that it can stay ahead of Apple.

Industry analysts expect Nintendo to release an all-new handheld in 2010, even while Nintendo has been making changes to improve the DS since it came out in 2004. Global sales of the DS were recently down 15%, though that is nothing compared to other handhelds, like the 38% drop in sales of the Sony PSP.

Nintendo and Sony say that since their systems are designed to be game machines, "from the actual game play to the games themselves, [they] don't see any real overlap."

Nintendo is preparing to debut its new DSi LL model, which has a larger screen to enable more group play and web browsing. The new DSi LL will go on sale November 21 for 20,000 yen, which is about $222. It will then be expected to go on sale in other regions next year.

When asked if Nintendo will add a phone to the DS, Mr. Iwata said they will not because it will cost money for the plan. He is interested in the Amazon Kindle's system because they don't have to pay to directly receive and send data. "My job is to find the potential in something that others can not see, to secretly pour our resources into them and turn them into hits before anyone else catches on."

Touch Ski 3D

Susie Ochs — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 11:42:10 -0500

In Touch Ski 3D, two of your fingers act as the skier’s legs, and you see the tips of your skis poking out. You control your speed and direction by putting the skis parallel and pointing ‘em straight down the mountain to go faster, moving the skis on the slant to turn, and pointing the ski tips in toward each other slightly to slow down. (We kept thinking of the South Park ski instructor’s “If you French fry when you should pizza, you’re going to have a bad time” mantra, but if you haven’t seen that episode, trust us, it’s too silly to explain.)

Anyway, the game includes seven modes (training, race, slalom, freestyle park, tight slalom, distance jump, and freestyle jump) and 42 courses in all, so there’s lots to do. In the freestyle modes, you hit jumps, and then while in the air, take your fingers off the skis and tap one quadrant of the screen to perform a trick. The object is to vary the tricks and not crash—it’s fun to watch the scenery spin around like you’re really doing a 360. In all modes, the MPH indicator turns green when your skis are exactly parallel, and your job is to keep it that way, even when turning.

The 3D graphics are gorgeous, and they combine with the pleasant swooshing sound effects to give you a real sense of speed. The menu music is OK, but we’d rather be able to listen to our iPod tunes. And it took us a while to be able to see the ski tips poking out from under our fingers--the trick is to keep them very low on the screen, and it helps a ton if your iPhone is lying flat on a table.

Swish. Swoosh. Crash.

Aki Mahjong Solitaire 1.2.0

Ambrosia Software — Wed, 28 May 2008 15:27:22 -0500

Aki Mahjong Solitaire for Mac OS X elegantly blends the ancient Chinese game of Mahjong with an enchanting journey across Japan. It's a modern fusion of two ancient Asian cultures, and is as much an experience as it is a game. Aki Mahjong Solitaire is easy to learn even if you still haven't mastered chopsticks, so don't hesitate to dive right in. We think you'll soon find yourself captivated.

REQUIREMENTS: Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later

To download a shareware copy of Aki Mahjong Solitaire 1.2.0 (20.1MB), click here.

Uplink 1.6.0

Ambrosia Software — Mon, 12 May 2008 18:00:34 -0500

An enigma in itself, Uplink is akin to a more cerebral incarnation of Ambrosia's popular Escape Velocity series of games, with missions that interweave a threaded plot which is unveiled with each conquest. Only this time, you have only your intellect, hacking skills, and the computer systems you've compromised to aid you.

REQUIREMENTS: Mac OS 10.3.9 or later

To download a shareware copy of Uplink 1.6.0 (14.4MB), click here.

EA Developing Spore, Other Games For iPhone

Zack Stern — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 17:41:51 -0600

Apple displayed games at its iPhone SDK event, with EA, Sega, and Apple itself unveiling upcoming products. Sega will release a tilt-sensitive version of Super Monkey Ball, its marble-in-a-maze franchise. Apple showed Touch Fighter, an OpenGL space-pilot game where you lean the iPhone to steer and tap the screen to fire. And EA announced plans to bring a version of Spore to the iPhone. Release dates aren’t available for Super Monkey Ball or Touch Fighter, but EA is targeting a September release for iPhone Spore.

In addition to the creature simulation, EA has “other [iPhone] games in early stages of development,” according to EA spokesperson Trudy Muller. While Apple announced that all iPhone products would also work on the iPod touch, EA didn’t offer any comment about Spore’s specific phone-free compatibility.

Muller is pleased with the SDK release, which allows EA to create games for Apple’s mobile devices. She notes via email, “We’re really excited about what this means for people to be able to play EA games on their iPhone or iPod touch and are thrilled to extend our relationship as a developer of games for various Apple products.” She even names the devices, lest Mac gamers feel left out: Mac, iPod nano, iPod with video, iPod touch, and iPhone.

Spore creator Will Wright and executive producer Lucy Bradshaw were coy with us about iPhone plans at a recent Spore demonstration. (See the April issue, on newsstands now for more details.) We played a mobile phone version of the game then, but EA won’t comment on how closely that flip-phone game will match the iPhone release. Based on our brief impressions from the SDK press conference today, we think the two seem similar.

Instead of the massive five stages within the Mac game, Spore for mobile phones focuses on the first stage—the microscopic, cellular world. Players pilot primitive creatures in an overhead view, trying to eat nutrients to grow larger. Traditional phones use a joystick for steering, but tilts direct iPhone organisms.

Once the creature eats enough, players enter a customization screen to evolve. With the iPhone, upgrades are just a touch away; players position fins with a fingertip, allowing better steering and movement. Other changes add shells, jaws, and other offensive or defensive capabilities; other creatures live in this eat-or-be-eaten pool. Players can even customize colors for a unique, visual style.

EA wouldn’t confirm if the iPhone version of Spore will allow online competition, but the company has already explained the multiplayer mode on traditional phones. After beating the standard-phone version, players upload fully evolved, simple creatures, where they’ll fight other friends’ creations. Through automated battles, different creatures’ strengths and weaknesses determine the winner.

At the end of the demonstration today at Apple's town hall meeting, EA’s Travis Boatman ran a cut-scene of the creature climbing onto land. This transition marks the beginning of the second phase in the full, computer version, but he said it was just a test of the video capabilities of the SDK. We’ll keep you posted if the iPhone version of Spore evolves into something different than its mobile-phone cousins.

New: Kill Monty

Freeverse — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 11:26:57 -0600

In the fine tradition of such extinction-level events as asteroid impacts, supernovas and the Lynne Spears Parenting Guide, Freeverse proudly gives you Kill Monty, the game that spanks your adrenal gland and makes you call it “Papi”.

With multiple levels of non-stop shooting and bucket after bucket of red, um, food coloring, (we have our family-friendly image to maintain after all), Kill Monty is the perfect quick-gaming fix.

The story features exactly two words, so it won’t over-tax your higher cerebral function or be an impediment to our literacy-challenged customers. After you’ve tried the demo and purchase the game, you’ll get access to the flame thrower (which throws flames) and the rail gun (which guns rails…) or something. It’s super cool and it’s only for the Mac!

REQUIREMENTS: Mac OS X 10.2.8 or higher, G3, G4, G5 or Intel Processor, 500 Mhz or faster, 32 MB VRAM minimum. 256 MB RAM minimum, 20 MB hard drive space minimum

To download a copy of Kill Monty 1.1 (22.3MB), click here.

Updated: pop-pop 1.0.6

Ambrosia Software — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 20:37:13 -0600

Pick your pop, then enter the bright happy world of fierce brick-bashing combat, where your paddle is your weapon, and your pop-fu must be strong to survive.

pop-pop has over 100 built-in puzzle levels if you want to play solo to sharpen your pop-pop’ing skills, or play against the viciously aggressive computer AI pops for a test of your mettle. The real challenge of your pop-worth, however, is when you enter the Internet arena to play against other pop-pop players all over the world.

pop-pop has a built-in Ambrosia game tracker that allows you to easily find other people to play against. Best of all, pop-pop is playable from anywhere in the world, even over slow modem Internet connections.

REQUIREMENTS: Intel or PowerPC G3 or better, Mac OS 10.3 or later

To download a copy of pop-pop 1.0.6 (19.1MB), click here.

New: Galder 1.0.1

Fastforward Software — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 12:54:04 -0500

Galder has what you're looking for in a puzzle board game. Interactivity and dazzling graphics come together in this unique and attractive gem stone game for the Mac. With Galder, you'll have non-stop fun while removing gem stones from the circular board to achieve the highest score.

You can also compete against your friends online with Galder's network playability.

REQUIREMENTS: Mac OS 10.3.9 or later, 256MB RAM, 32MB video VRAM recommended

To download a trial copy of Galder 1.0.1 (15.6MB), click here.