Thursdays are always big days for games in the App Store, but it doesn’t get much bigger than this. Today marks another huge update to the critically acclaimed, highly popular and seriously beautiful Infinity Blade, adding a multiplayer component to the game that gives the whole experience new life. We’ve also got a new addition to Square Enix’s big role-playing game franchise with Chaos Ring Ω, and Bumpy Road, an innovative side-scroller from the makers of Kosmo Spin creator Simgo. And bringing up the rear is Book Crawler, a seriously useful app for finding and cataloging your book collection. Enjoy, but try to get some work done today, too.
Infinity Blade update (iPhone, iPad) $5.99
Finally, it is upon us: The ability to clash swords with other players has finally hit Infinity Blade. The newly added Arena adds two new game modes to Infinity Blade – the single-player Survival mode, and a multiplayer mode that puts one player in the role of the Knight, the game’s protagonist, and the other in control of one of the monstrous Titans that fights for Infinity Blade’s chief villain, the God King. Each has a different play style and in between bouts, you can upgrade your fighter with different weapons and armors to gain an edge against your opponents.
But developer ChAIR has also brought new single-player content to Infinity Blade in the new update. While there isn’t more story content to play through (although after the last update, The Deathless Kings, do you really need more?), there are a bunch of new weapons and items to buy and master, along with new achievements and Game Center support for the multiplayer mode and leaderboards.
Bumpy Road (iPhone, iPad) $0.99
Bumpy road is, at its heart, a side-scrolling driving game. It has an interesting twist, though – you don’t control the car in Bumpy Road, you control the ground beneath it. Tapping on the screen causes the ground beneath the car to pitch upward, causing it to jump, and sliding your finger along behind or in front of the car creates a wave that directs it around, helping you to pick up speed, gather items to keep yourself going, or jump gaps in the ground.
Bumpy Road includes two game modes: Evergreen Ride, in which you play until you die, trying to get as far as you can; and Sunday Drive, a time attack mode in which you try to gather certain items to bring down your time and finish the level with as little on the clock as possible. The game also packs an unlockable story in pictures and Game Center support.
Chaos Rings Ω (iPhone, iPad) $11.99
Set 10,000 years before the last Chaos Rings, Omega is another iOS-exclusive role-playing game from Square Enix, the company behind the legendary Final Fantasy game series. Omega has refined a lot of the RPG gameplay from the last Chaos Rings, but the core elements remain, which is sure to please fans of Square’s style of role-playing titles.
Square Enix also pledges to roll out monthly updates that will add bosses to fight and allow players to further “level up” their characters to make them stronger. With phenomenal graphics and a deep, interesting story, Omega is sure to keep RPG fans tied up for quite a while.
Book Crawler (iPhone, iPad) $1.99
Greatly simplified, Book Crawler is a big database filled with books and user reviews. The idea is that you can search through that database and find all kinds of information about books, but more than anything, you can figure out what should be next on your reading agenda – be it something you want to purchase next time you make a book store run, or what you should be checking out from your local library. Everything you need to know, down to whether a book is good, is found within Book Crawler.
In addition to running searchers for books you might want to read, you can also log books you’ve already read or own using Book Crawler’s bar code and ISBN scanner. These allow you to keep a catalog of your books and to whom you might have lent them. You can also integrate the app with Facebook and Goodreads to instantly update your social networks about what books you’re reading and how you like them, among a host of other features.
