From TAITO Corporation, comes a beautiful looking tower defense game inspired by classical Japanese paintings with a samurai twist. Check out the description of the game and its features:

Mikado Defenders: an original feudal Japanese defense simulation for the iPhone / iPod touch!

In Mikado Defenders, players deploy samurai foot soldiers, archers, and other units, desperately attempting to defend their fortress from an all-out demonic attack. It’s tower defense, with a uniquely Japanese twist!

Set in the Sengoku Era—a time when Japan was torn asunder by civil war— Mikado Defenders features historical locations such as Edo and Osaka, renowned samurai commanders including Uesugi Kenshin and the “One-Eyed Dragon” Masamune, powerful Guardian Spirit allies, giant demonic enemies, an in-depth castle improvement system and more!

Special Characteristics:
- Castle Improvement – Build your base up from a humble campsite to an impregnable fortress, complete with barricades and turrets! Investing in your castle is vital if you’re to have any hope fending off the Skull Wheel and other massive demons!
- Guardian Spirits – Hold off the attacking demons for long enough and your castle will attract the aid of mystical allies. A single attack from one of these Guardian Spirits boasts the power to turn the tide of battle! Guardian Spirits also improve with your fortress; the stouter your defenses, the more powerful your ally!
- Samurai Commanders – Reinforcing your castle and successfully destroying a “boss” giant demon has the chance of drawing a new samurai commander to your side! Recruit Oda Nobunaga, Sanada Yukimura, Date Masamune, and more! Each commander has their own special characteristics, and these abilities will prove vital in staging a successful defense!

Other Features:
- Simple yet strategic game play!
- Intuitive goals: place your troops on the map, fend off attacking demons, and guard your castle!
- Easy controls: deploy samurai, select commanders, and unleash powerful guardian spirit attacks through intuitive taps and flicks!
- Play on your terms: you can suspend games mid-level, and come back to them later, picking up right where you left off!
- Selectable music: enjoy the provided ZUNTATA soundtrack or listen your own tunes via iPod Library Support!

Check out the screenshots:

Received this release from the good folk over at TAITO Corporation on January 4, 2010 about the update they release to Space Invaders Infinity Gene:

On December 29th, version 2.0 of SPACE INVADERS INFINITY GENE for iPhone/iPod touch was released to the App Store. While we’ve done some minor tweaking in the past, this free update adds a considerable number of new features.

Now OpenFeint compatible!
- Global leaderboards have been added for three main categories (High Score, Number of Chains, Number of Nagoya Attacks). Separate rankings exist for both the standard game and Music Stages.
- Support for in-game Achievements has been added: 50 Achievements total, 5 of them Secret Achievements.
- Players may now upload their high scores and unlocked Achievements to Twitter and Facebook.
- INFINITY GENE is our second game to feature OpenFeint, following the classic Space Invaders for iPhone.

New Stages!
- 10 new Extra Stages have been added to the game.
- New stages become available as the Evolution Gauge is filled through play.
- Six of the new stages feature alternate versions of familiar bosses.
- Alternate bosses look similar to their standard counterparts, but move and attack in completely different patterns.

Music Stages expanded and improved!
- The fan-favorite Music Stage feature has evolved, resulting in even more diverse levels.
- Under certain conditions, the alternate bosses from the new Extra Stages will also appear.
- Song title and artist information is now displayed when a music stage begins.
- A Music Stage rating feature has been added.
- Players can now rate the Music Stages they’ve played on a 5 star scale
- Players can then share their Music Stage recommendations (title, artist name, and star rating) via Facebook and Twitter.

It’s our number one game at MustTap, and it’s gotten even better!

Bust-A-Move is a great adaptation of the arcade classic from TAITO Corporation.

Well this looks familiar.

Have you ever played Bust-A-Move? If your answer was anything but a resounding “Yes!” then shame on you. Bust-A-Move is one of my favourite “shoot-a-bubble-to-pop-other-bubbles” games from back in the day – so much so that I even created the genre of “shoot-a-bubble-to-pop-other-bubbles” in order to describe it.

Well, for the sake of posterity, I will explain it for those who do not know: in Bust-A-Move (or Puzzle Bobble as it is known in North America), you are in control of Bub, a strange lizard creature who shows a strange affection toward brightly-coloured orbs that he then slings upward towards other orbs that are just as brightly-coloured. Bub’s one real objective? Eliminate those orbs that he is so fond of by making sure that orbs of the same colour are touching in groups of three or more.

I'm here to save... that?

Now that is out of the way, we can discuss Bust-A-Move for the iPhone. What’s different from regular Bust-A-Move? Well, let’s start with the controls. You have two options for firing your lovable orbs: drag and shoot, or point and shoot. Drag and shoot has you tapping and holding the firing machine, moving your finger away from said machine while simultaneously aiming, and letting it fly. Point and shoot is even more self-explanatory: tap where you want the orb to go and press the shiny red button to fire it off. Pretty easy, and caters to different styles of play.

The actual objective of the game is that some of your friends are stuck in various worlds for some odd reason, and you have to go through each world and clear out all of the stages contained within – each stage having three rounds that you must clear. Really straight-forward and simple story. Of course, if you’re playing Bust-A-Move for its story, you might want to consider putting your iPhone down and taking a nice long walk.

You also have three game modes: Story mode (as described above), Challenge mode, and VS. mode.

The graphics of Bust-A-Move are very faithful to the original while keeping the quality high enough to be enjoyable for the iPhone. They are very plain and simple with very well drawn and animated sprites and environments. No real complaints on my end – I can’t even make a joke about it!

Like the rest of the game, the sounds are simple and very fitting for Bust-A-Move, the sounds that the original had – bubbles firing off, orbs hitting each other, orbs bouncing off sides – are all the same or touched up for better quality. There is also a nice and subtle soundtrack that is very nice and cheery and fits the environments presented in the game.

Clear!

Overall, Bust-A-Move is a great throwback to the original – the graphics, sound, and gameplay are all very familiar while doing enough to ensure that they all stay crisp and fresh. I’ve sunk a good amount of hours (and so have my friends!) playing Bust-A-Move and we’ve had a blast.

In addition, Taito recently released a great update that adds a store where you can purchase two new game modes: Puzzle mode and Co-op mode. I haven’t really had a chance to try either of them out, but if they are anything like what we currently have in the original game, I’m sure they are amazing.

Score

MustTap Score: Silver Tap

Looks great and gives out some quality stuff!

Bottom Line
Bust-A-Move is a very faithful adaptation of the original with its own bit of flavour. Fans of the original and puzzle-lovers will spend hours and hours with this - and you will not be disappointed.

Screenshots

Space Invaders Infinity Gene is a modernization of the classic Space Invaders game developed by the TAITO Corporation.

The Game

Classic Space Invaders becomes…

Space Invaders Infinity Gene is not your typical old school Space Invaders game. It looks like it during the first few moments, but as Charles Darwin would say, the game “evolves.” The game starts evolving into a scrolling shooter, like Raiden Fighters, after playing through a few levels. Evolution is how the game expands. Sometimes this gives the option to increase your lives, new ships with new weapons, or bonus levels, just to name a few of them. The levels each have a few evolution branches that require multiple playthroughs to unlock each of the evolutions. To do this, you need to fill up the Gene gauge by playing through the levels. It doesn’t take too long, so filling the gauge never really feels like a grind. All of the unlocks increase the lasting appeal of the game because most of them are actually worth unlocking.

The gameplay of Space Invaders Infinity Gene is exceptional. In order to move, you just drag your finger anywhere on the screen to navigate the ship. The ship will shoot automatically, so you don’t need to worry about that. I never felt like my finger or hand obstructed my view of the game, which is very important in this genre. There is quite a variety of weapons available to your arsenal; from the simple Rapid Shot, which is self explanatory, to Gravity, which absorbs enemy bullets. The types of weapons all have their own unique strengths and weaknesses against particular ships. Gravity may be good against small ships, but should you be fighting bosses, Lock-On is the way to go. Space Invaders Infinity Gene never got to the point of difficulty where I wanted to throw my iPhone against the ground; which other shoot’em up games often invoke. Since quitting out of rage is almost non-existent in Space Invaders Infinity Gene, the time you spend playing the game will be enjoyable. Fun fact, you can rotate the iPhone/iPod to play more like a horizontal shooter.

…Space Invaders Infinity Gene!

Graphics

Space Invaders Infinity Gene has great graphics in its own particular way due to it holding onto the retro feel from the original game. Most of the sprites in the game come from Space Invaders, but the newer sprites created for Infinity Gene remain true to the retro theme of Infinity Gene. The only color in the game comes from the backgrounds in the later levels and while there really isn’t a lack of diversity, despite it seeming that way.

Sound

Guess what? Space Invaders Infinity Gene has many sound effects similar to the ones found in the classic Space Invaders. The soundtrack is fantastic, and the other sounds work together perfectly. Much like the graphics, the sound will definitely be appreciated by some people more than others. There really isn’t much else to say other than it has that old school feel; just like everything else.

FIRE EVERYTHING!

Additional Comments

Space Invaders Infinity Gene is a great game that sucks you in. You can easily consume large amounts of time playing through the main game by itself, but prepare to lose more of your life in attempting to unlock all of the different evolutions. The tremendous amount of content gives this game a huge amount of replayability; those not obsessed with getting 100% completion will still be tempted to unlock all of the unlockables. There was so much with this game that I did not expect; Space Invaders Infinity Gene was such a fantastic experience.

Conclusion

Most people who do buy this version of Space Invaders will have a fantastic time from start to finish. For some, the $4.99 USD price point will be a turn-off, but I think that the price tag is perfect, maybe even too low. They could have easily charged a few more dollars, and it would still have been worth it. I highly recommend Space Invaders Infinity Gene to anyone who likes shoot’em up games, or just video games in general.

Score

MustTap Score: Golden Tap

The best of the best; everything about this is perfect.

Bottom Line
If you like a good shooter or something that will last you for awhile, Space Invaders Infinity Gene is a fantastic game to play.

Screenshots