Everyone loves Worms right? No, I don’t mean the parasites, I mean those cuddly Worms from Team 17. They’re back and they’re just as fun as ever in Worms 2: Armageddon.

Typical Worms gameplay remains here. You control a team of cute worms who must wipe out opposing worms. At your disposal is an array of different weaponry. There’s the humble shotgun and bazooka, but then there’s the quirky Holy Hand Grenade, the baseball bat, the ninja rope, the sheep and the er…concrete donkey. It’s certainly a different way of wiping out the opposition, I’ll give it that.

Worms 2: Armageddon offers a variety of different modes to play, all with fundamentally the same aim: destroy the enemy. There’s the single player campaign mode with 30 different missions to keep you interested, a practice mode and a body count mode whereby a steady stream of foes come at you and it’s a matter of survival. Then there’s the multiplayer mode which offers a hotseat/pass around option and a Bluetooth or Wi-Fi mode. It’s occasionally slightly laggy but it works well for the most part.

It’s a similar case with the controls which work well but occasionally falter and are imprecise but it’s forgivable. Much like the previous Worms game, movement is a matter of tapping while aiming involves dragging your finger to the appropriate position. It’s when it comes to jumping and back flipping (one tap and two taps respectively) that things can be fiddly and annoying.

Despite these problems, Worms 2: Armageddon can be forgiven because it’s so much fun. It’s typical quirky Worms after all. You can create your own teams and personalise them how you want, you can even unlock hats and weapons by completing the campaign missions.

Overall, Worms 2 is terrific fun. It’s not a bad price at all for a product that offers so much to do. The campaign missions will keep you busy for a long while and body count is excellent fun to drop in on from time to time. While the controls might be a little imprecise, the rest of the iPhone conversion is excellent. If you’ve enjoyed previous Worms games, you’ll love this.

[ Worms 2: Armageddon review is a post from 148Apps ]

The pending release of iOS 4.2 will include multiplayer support, and Firemint stands at the ready by announcing that Real Racing HD for the iPad will feature online multiplayer once the update goes live. The free feature will be handled via Game Center, allowing players to log in and vie for the checkered flag in races featuring up to 4 human competitors.

This is a nice addition, as the game already supports 6 player local races via Wi-Fi as well as head-to-head races over Bluetooth: now the multiplayer suite of options is fully fleshed-out. While we don’t yet know when iOS 4.2 is coming out (should be any day now), the Real Racing HD update should be available to launch right alongside it.

The inclusion of simultaneous online multiplayer in the latest iOS update shows just how seriously Apple is competing in the handheld gaming space these days. While people largely wrote off mobile gaming back when the iPhone originally launched, Apple’s devices have become a major player in the handheld space and have sent traditional gaming companies like Sony and Nintendo into a minor panic. After all, when you can play games on your phone that are just as good or better than what you find on a traditional handheld, and you end up paying far less per game, what’s the point in buying anything else?

As for the matter at hand, congrats to all those Real Racing HD owners out there who will soon be able to take on other human competitors in the hopes of being crowned king (or queen) of the raceway. We’d throw in a “Gentlemen, start your engines” joke at this point but it just feels forced, so instead we’ll simply say have fun with this new mode.

$9.99

Real Racing HD

iPad Only App – Designed for the iPad
Released: 2010-04-01 :: Category: Games / Racing

[ Real Racing Getting Online Multiplayer Support is a post from 148Apps ]

If you have ever tried to play a two-player multi-touch game on your iPhone, then you know how tricky it can be. While it’s still fun, and debateably a better experience than the dollar-eating barroom games, you will soon have the opportunity to completely upgrade your multiplayer iPhone game experience.

Enter the coolest iPhone peripheral to date: Table.Connect for iPhone. While still in development, this brilliant idea proposes a beautifully designed table that connects directly to the iPhone via the dock connector. The mockups boast a 58″ capacitive multitouch surface, sculpture and design to match the appearance of an iPhone, a power button, a Home button, and a built-in AC power supply… Read More

Cubed Rally Racer HD, from nocanwin, is an iPad upscaling of the company’s popular iPhone racing game. While there’s some fun to be had here, this may be a case of a game that plays well on the iPhone, but is perhaps too little game for big brother iPad.

In each race, you take control of a cubish little car — blue by default, red and blue in two-player — and race to the finish of a randomly-generated track littered with trees, cows, and other obstacles. The whole thing plays out to a jaunty chipset soundtrack that gets a little repetitive after a few games.

The racing experience is fun enough, but it’s hurt by two problems: dull design and overly sensitive controls. In terms of design, the problem is this: the simple graphical nature of the game, which worked fairly well on the smaller iPhone, feels like too little game for the iPad’s expansive real estate. Colors are flat; obstacles are sparse; too much of the screen is empty.

In terms of control, well, there’s not enough of it. The car speeds up quickly, turns sharply, and has no means of reversing. It’s so very easy to drive yourself into a corner you can’t get out of except by going off the track or to simply oversteer to the same bad ending. There are no sensitivity adjustments to counter this. It can make the game frustrating instead of fun.

The best part of Cubed Rally Racer HD is its local 2-player mode, which lets two players sit across from one another and race to the finish. I’m a big fan of multiplayer on the iPad, so I was glad to see this feature, and my six-year-old son and I had some fun with it. But you’re still dealing with the so-so controls and plain level design.

If you were a fan of Cubed Racer Rally, you might enjoy having an HD version on your iPad. In general, fans of simple racing games might get a kick out of this game’s retro stylings and quick play, especially for the game’s low price. More serious iPad gamers will probably want to give this one a miss, however.

[ Cubed Rally Racer HD Review is a post from 148Apps ]

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 – Based on the best selling console game of the same title, Bad Company 2 is a squad-based first-person shooter with 14 single player missions and 5 distinct battle zones (i.e. jungle heat, winter snow, desert dust). Like the console version, the app also includes room to room, ground-based combat and vehicle combat, giving you the controls of tanks and helicopters. The real treat though, if done right, could be the multiplayer mode. If it’s even as close to as good as the console version we’re all in for a treat. Look for Bad Company 2 to hit the App Store sometime in November. If the app plays as good as it looks, I’ll be expecting it to be a top 25 mainstay.

Heroes Lore: Stigmata of Gaia – Heroes Lore is little known in the west, but in Korea it’s about as big as it gets. Heroes Lore is a mobile RPG that offers an over 30 hour single player experience as well as an astoundingly successful 1 vs. 1 and 2 vs. 2 multiplayer arena. At one point, the original was seeing upwards of a million and a half online battles a day. Insane.

High Caliber Hunting – Not quite as anticipated as Battlefield or Heroes Lore, High Caliber Hunting is EA’s hyper-realistic foray into hunting. With “20 types of wild game, including Bear, Moose, Boar, and smaller critters like Squirrel, Fox, Rabbit” and 70 real brand-name firearms, High Caliber Hunting looks to be the pinnacle of mobile hunting. Look for High Caliber Hunting to launch sometime in November.

EA Sports MMA – It seems that everyone is watching MMA these days (except for me, something about arm bars makes me cringe), so EA is enthusiastically bringing their authentic MMA game to the iOS. The game features multiple fighting styles and over 20 real life fighters, enough to please any mobile warrior. Expect MMA to launch later this month.

EA Sports NBA Elite 11 – Instead of continuing with the NBA Live brand, EA is re-branding their hit series NBA Elite 11. As you’d expect, the game has all 30 NBA teams with over 450 players and unlockable legends. The iOS version even has a 3 point mode which will certainly drain hours of my time. The launch has been often delayed up to now because of the console launch of the new NBA JAM, but it should come out later this month.

On another note, hopefully NBA JAM will come to the iPhone too. Boomshakalaka!

SimCity Deluxe (iPad) – As expected, EA is bringing their ever so popular SimCity Deluxe game to the big screen. The HUD has been fully redesigned for the iPad, has many customizable features, and even simultaneous disaster strikes. Earthquakes and alien strikes await us all sometime in November.

Be sure to check out the mass of screenshots after the jump. Enjoy!

[ Huge EA Fall Lineup is a post from 148Apps ]