nintendo-ds posts

Filed under: Gaming, Software, iPhone, iPod touch

GTA Chinatown coming to the iPhone

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Sep 1st, 2009

Payback has been doing pretty well on the iPhone as a Grand Theft Auto clone, but the real thing is coming soon, apparently -- Rockstar Games says that they'll be bringing the acclaimed DS hit Chinatown Wars to Apple's iPhone and iPod touch platforms. Pretty big news, not only for GTA fans looking for a hijack-ing and crime spree fix (in this edition of the game, you can also deal drugs around the city, so that'll be fun), but also for the platform as a whole, since this is yet another sign that big developers are thinking about the iPhone as a major handheld platform.

Chinatown Wars isn't the only game Rockstar will be releasing on the App Store, either, as their PSP music title Beaterator is also set to make an appearance. Nothing has yet been said about exact date or price (though G4 has guessed Rockstar wlll aim higher than the premium somewhat-standard of $9.99). We'll keep tuned to the police scanners for you.

Tags: app-store, beaterator, gaming, gta-chinatown-wars, iphone, nintendo-ds, psp, rockstar, rockstar-games

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Humor, Software, Developer, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

Make a video with Cat Piano, win a DS

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Feb 4th, 2009

It's probably time for me to lay off of Smule -- I've said that their Ocarina app might be the silliest musical app in the App Store, but we have a new winner: Cat Piano is just plain loony: a piano made up of cats meowing, like those old Christmas recordings, but playable. There are a few different cat sounds to play (from "Furball" to "Housecat"), and even a regular piano if you just want to tickle the ivories a little bit. Most of the reviews on the App Store say people are using it to mess with their cats, but there's definitely a musical instrument here -- if Ocarina can be used as an instrument, the Cat Piano can, too.

And in fact, the developers are challenging you to prove it -- they're giving away a Nintendo DS (interesting choice of prizes -- an iPod touch might be more apt) to the person who makes the best video using Cat Piano. I don't know if you could beat that Jingle Cats video, but you can certainly try. The contest starts on Thursday, and goes until March 20th, so you've got a little over a month to get the cat sounds down.

Ocarina, you'll remember, also turned out some watchable videos, so we're interested to see what comes out of this contest.

Tags: app, cat-piano, instruments, music, nintendo-ds, ocarina, silly, smule, video

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Odds and ends, Apple, iPod touch

Apple poised to become a mobile gaming force

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Nov 6th, 2008

Welcome to last year, Business Week. Their writer Arik Hesseldahl has a story up about how Apple seems poised to take over the mobile gaming world this holiday. He's been playing with an iPod touch and the games available on the App Store, and he's ready to drink the Kool-aid: what Apple's assembled on their mobile devices rivals some of the experiences on the Nintendo DS or Sony PSP.

Not really news to us here at TUAW, of course, but he's right about one thing: this holiday is all-important for Apple in finding a foothold with the iPod touch. Halloween's over, gift shopping is only a few weeks away, and Apple needs to prove why people interested in handheld gaming should pick up a touch before the DSi (and its App Store-style online store) or a new Sony device make their way to our shores.

The good news for Apple is that the games are getting better, and that the touch brings a lot more functionality to the mix (iPod, utility apps) than a dedicated gaming device would. But then again, Nintendo and Sony are established brands for gamers, and even kids looking for a game machine from Santa probably won't have an iPod touch first on their list. We'll have to see how it all plays out.

Tags: dsi, games, gaming, gifts, holiday, iphone, nintendo-ds, online-store, sony-psp

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Multimedia, Apple, iPhone

iPhone has the potential to take over handheld gaming

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Mar 22nd, 2008

Roughly Drafted has a nice, long analysis of the iPhone as a gaming device, and they hit on a lot of great reasons why the iPhone seems destined to be a great gaming platform. Not only will it have the hardware chops to play games (including a few input devices that no other handheld gaming consoles have ever had), but Apple's SDK implementation, when it finally gets off the ground in June anyway, seems poised to let almost anyone develop any game ideas they have for the device.

Throw in a great distribution platform and a relative lack of competition on the handheld platform (Nintendo is undoubtedly working on a successor to the DS, but other than that, there are no real next-generation contenders so far), and Apple apparently has the potential to do very well in the gaming market.

In fact, the only problem that Apple might bump up against in building up in the iPhone as a gaming device is the cost -- at $400, it'll be the most expensive gaming handheld out there. But given that it's actually a smartphone, and thus actually benefits from an already installed user base (people who have the iPhone may very well be people who will have never purchased or used a handheld gaming platform before), the price may not be that big an obstacle to ownership.

And if they can build up a respectable library of game titles, they could even brand an iPod touch/phoneless iPhone as a gaming unit, and sell that at a price that would compete with Sony's PSP and Nintendo's DS. Apple has never historically pushed for the forefont of anything in gaming, but if their showing at the SDK event is any indication, they may be lining up to make the iPhone the place to play handheld videogames in the future.

[Via IMG]

Tags: apple, development, gaming, gaming-device, iphone, nintendo, nintendo-ds, platform, price, sdk, sony, sony-psp

Tip of the Day

Reply in the Mail.app with a specific quote.
Select the text you want quoted and then hit the reply button.
Only your selected text will copied to the reply email.

Learn More

TUAW flickr Pool

www.flickr.com

Featured Galleries

TUAW bloggers (30 days)

#	Blogger	Posts	Cmts
1	Steven Sande	51	4
2	Dave Caolo	36	1
3	Mike Schramm	32	0
4	Mel Martin	31	0
5	TJ Luoma	24	31
6	Joachim Bean	18	2
7	Michael Rose	17	16
8	Victor Agreda, Jr.	17	7
9	Erica Sadun	16	2
10	Josh Carr	13	22
11	Sang Tang	11	1
12	David Winograd	11	17
13	Ken Ray	11	2
14	Brett Terpstra	9	8
15	Megan Lavey	5	9
16	Tim Wasson	4	1
17	Chris Ullrich	4	1
18	John Burke	4	3
19	Kent Pribbernow	4	0
20	Aron Trimble	3	2

More Apple Analysis

AAPL on BloggingStocks The Apple category feed from BloggingStocks.com
AAPL Quote, News & Summary The AAPL financials page from AOL Money and Finance
iPhone analysis from BloggingStocks iPhone tag feed from BloggingStocks
Macintosh news and reviews on Download Squad The Macintosh category feed from Download Squad

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)