During our recent look at Kosmik Revenge, we suggested typing “shooter” into the search field of your Apple TV. The result is a couple of pages of various styles of shooters – some good, some not so good. It was this experiment that brought us to Time Monkeys. The screenshots showed what might be an okay twin-stick shooter, but it was the description and the studio that really piqued our interest.
Time Monkeys is from a team called Kwalee, which boasts founders and staff that hail from racing giant Codemasters. More specifically, Time Monkeys is attributed to none other than Andrew Graham, designer of a little NES classic you may have heard of – Micro Machines.
Has anyone used Frankenstein’s name as a verb before? Not sure. The games writing crowd appropriated early 20th century horror writer H. P. Lovecraft’s surname as an adjective years ago, and has been applying the term Lovecraftian ever since, so I figure I’m good.
But moving on…
There are some excellent racers on Apple TV, but it would be hard to argue that any of them are perfect. What if we could role-play as Frankenstein and stitch together the ultimate racing hybrid, made up of our favourite elements from the games we love? Which games would we steal from? What would we take?
These are the sorts of questions that keep me awake at night, and what better way to help me get a good night’s sleep than to share them with you?
Obviously the which part I’ve spoiled in this article’s headline, but as for the what, mash the page 2 button to find out.
The old Henry Ford quote, “Any colour you like, as long as it’s black,” thankfully no longer applies to the Steel Series Nimbus. If you purchase it directly from Apple, you can now also get it in white.
A recent tipoff from our friends at Siniscope Gaming brought this to our attention, and it’s great when your options double.
Hit page 2 for more info on ATVG’s weapon of choice.
As of today, mobile gamers are enjoying version 2.0 of Nintendo’s Super Mario Run. The update brings playable Yoshis in four different colours, new buildings, more of the game unlocked in the free-to-play portion, and lots of updates that aim to improve the overall experience.
Seeing the release drop this morning when checking the iOS App Store for updates got me thinking: Will we ever see a version compatible with Apple TV?
My short answer is no. But I’d be happy to be proven wrong.
If The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is Nintendo Switch’s system seller, then Super Mario Run is its Trojan horse. Designed to infiltrate smart phones with a teasing glimpse of arguably the most iconic of all video gaming mascots, and create a desire for more, Super Mario Run was a deft play by Nintendo.
But bringing it to Apple TV feels like it would dilute the intention of creating that sense of wanting more. You’d still want more, but maybe a few would feel that Mario on Apple’s digital-only console might be just enough. Also, ATV gamers that feel that way, might also be left thinking that if they got Super Mario Run, then maybe there is more to come, if only they wait long enough.
Super Mario Run will no doubt remain on smart phones, creating a longing for more with the promise of delivery via Nintendo Switch, and its upcoming Super Mario Odyssey, the Switch’s second-wave system seller.
Siniscope Gaming is reporting the unfortunate news that mobile gaming giant Gameloft, has not updated the tvOS version of its FPS – Modern Combat 5 – since April 2016. The iOS version however, has continued to receive a steady trickle of updates with new content throughout the last 12 months, even as recently as February 22nd.
The FPS genre is under-represented on the Apple TV platform, and Modern Combat 5 was easily the best option. And of course it still is, as the game is still completely playable with all the content prior to April 2016, but just hasn’t received anything since then.
From the developer’s side of things, it is understandable that if a platform is not performing as expected, or if a game is not performing on a platform, then it makes little sense to throw resources at it.
Did Gameloft give up too soon though? Throughout 2016, and into 2017, Apple TV has seen some great releases, including a surprising number of titles that have had turns as PlayStation Plus monthly offerings. Then there is the not insignificant release of Mojang’s Minecraft just in time for Christmas 2016. There are definitely a good number of talented studios rolling the dice with Apple TV, and for the sake of sites such as Siniscope Gaming and ATVG – and of course ATV gamers the world over – we hope this trend in quality releases continues.
Perhaps if ATV gaming does start trending upwards in popularity, Gameloft may decide to take up support of its shooter once again. ATVG has reached out to Gameloft for comment, and will update this article if more news comes to hand.
If you’re new to The Apple TV Gaming Blog (ATVG), or just new to Apple TV gaming in general, or both, then the best place to get acquainted is our Best Apple TV Games of 2019 article. You’ll find a great collection of games to play, and a bunch of useful links to our previous site content. Welcome aboard. Enjoy the ride.
When Apple’s digital-only console hit shelves in 2015, the hope of seeing the above screenshot from Halfbrick’s Dan The Man was a pipe dream. At launch, the tech giant’s rules stipulated that every game released needed to be playable with the Siri Remote. For those hoping for a credible addition to the gaming landscape, this was seen by many as a handicap.
To get a complex, traditional gaming experience such as a first-person-shooter onto ATV’s App Store, developers needed to get pretty creative when mapping a control scheme to the Siri Remote. Have you ever tried playing Gameloft’s Modern Combat 5 with it? It’s like trying to rub your head and pat your tummy while reciting the alphabet backwards.
Two thumb sticks, shoulder buttons and triggers, a diamond-shaped configuration of four face-buttons, and possibly a d-pad – the now traditional gamepad layout has become second nature to gamers. Even when hopping between consoles, from Xbox to PlayStation, and now also the Nintendo Switch, the muscle memory goes with you like a physical language we learned to speak with our hands a couple of decades ago. Play Modern Combat 5 with a proper controller and it’s actually a pretty decent FPS.
Thankfully, Apple slowly seems to be getting it, and at WWDC 2016 the rules were relaxed to allow games to require a controller, and gamers finally started to see screenshots like the one above when loading up a game with only the Siri Remote connected.
I recently posted a piece outlining three excellent gaming experiences to enjoy just with your Siri Remote, but where would Yin be without Yang? So here is its companion piece: excellent games that won’t let you play them without a traditional game controller.
In December 2016 I reached out to studio Legendo to find out if it was still planning to bring games to Apple TV. You can read my full story here, but in short, the studio replied, “Yes we are. Dracula Twins hitting the tvOS App Store soon! We were/are waiting for the platform to mature, and now that Minecraft is available, I think it may be getting its legs.”
Even more recently, only four days ago to be exact, Legendo posted an update on its blog reaffirming its position on still planning to bring games to Apple TV. So good news all round. (On a side note, the studio also teased a brand new game in development based on Norse mythology which is exciting, so watch out for more details on that.)
Meanwhile, over at my old stomping ground – Grab It Magazine – Chris Stead posted an article only just today with a snippet from an interview with Bioware’s Fabrice Condominas, producer of a little upcoming game you may have heard of called Mass Effect Andromeda. When asked to comment on why the hugely anticipated fourth entry into the Mass Effect franchise wasn’t a launch title for Nintendo Switch, Condominas replied, “If the Switch is a significant success we will revisit that. So the door is certainly not closed, it just wasn’t the right timing for us.”
So much the same as Legendo was keeping an eye on Apple TV’s growth, Bioware – the huge producer of triple A titles – is playing wait and see with Nintendo Switch. It’s fascinating to get these occasional glimpses behind the business side of the development process, and to see how studios both big and small react to new hardware.
Interestingly, in Legendo’s recent blog post, the studio also teased how excited it is for the upcoming Switch, with a promise of more information to come when the time is right. Obviously ATVG is more concerned with Apple TV developments here, but within the context of this article it’s a great tidbit of food for thought.
Remember learning about Venn Diagrams in school? Those overlapping circles used to depict commonalities? Take a look at the following list of games, and as you do, consider what they might all have in common:
Road Not Taken (Spry Fox) Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions Evolved (Lucid Games) Chariot (Frima Studio) Broken Age (Double Fine Productions) Transistor (Supergiant Games) Badland (Frogmind)
They all actually have two things in common: They’re all available on Apple TV, and at some point they’ve all been made available in Sony’s PlayStation Plus monthly game offerings. It’s an interesting overlap, and it helps me illustrate a point regarding the sorts of games that I’ve imagined being part of Apple TV’s catalogue since the platform’s release just over a year ago.
When I’ve thought to myself or been asked by others what sorts of games I envision being suitable to the Apple TV console, in my mind I have a very simple answer: PlayStation Plus games. I of course know what I mean when I think that, but if you mash the page 2 link below, I’ll see if I can cobble together an explanation for you as well, dear reader.
Last Sunday night at exactly 7.30pm, I stopped playing Toon Shooters 2: The Freelancers on Apple TV. A deal I’d made with my wife meant that the lounge room flatscreen was all hers, as Grigor Dimitrov and Kei Nishikori were about to face off in the final of the Brisbane International.
The thing is, I was really enjoying playing Toon Shooters 2. The side scrolling shooter from Mooff Games is a lovely throwback for fans of R-Type, but with a fun cartoon twist. There’s loads of new ships to be unlocked with different weapon load-outs, pets that add differing firepower abilities, and with Mooff Games you’re never too far away from Star Wars references. The picture above is an obvious one, and – spoiler alert – look out for the armada of Star Destroyers.
So at level 5, 7.30pm rolled around, and my time was up. But I wasn’t in the mood for tennis, I had work to do. Those aliens weren’t going to shoot themselves.
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