I think this story pretty well sums up what's wrong with Midway these days. When I got the press release today announcing that Midway was bringing five games to the iPhone and iPod Touch by the end of the month, I got kind of excited. I immediately started jogging through the awesome classic Midway arcade games in my head that I would totally pay between 99 cents and $2.99 for, play once, and then never touch again. Turns out, the five games in question are from their TouchMaster series, which will be available for 99 cents apiece, or as a bundle for $3.99. I guess this makes sense, considering that these games already use touchscreen interfaces, and that the most successful iPhone games so far have been mad casual, but dammit, where's my Smash TV, my Marble Madness, or my Paperboy?
For the sake of people who spend a lot of time getting drunk in bars and playing lots of TouchMaster games instead of talking to people (I shouldn't judge, I just drink by myself in my house which is way worse,) here's the meat of the press release.
Spellwinder - This is a word search game with a twist. Only adjacent letters can be used to create a word. Make words in any direction without using the same letter twice.
Dice King - This dice swapping puzzle is super addicting! Swap two adjacent dice to form matching combinations of three or more dice. Attempt to form the listed combinations displayed on the top portion of the screen and watch your score rise.
Prismatix - Prismatix is an easy to play hexagonal matching game. The wheel shows a color sequence. Try to eliminate gems by matching the sequence in any direction. As gems are cleared (up to four at a time) the wheel will shuffle and rotate, based on the number of gems used. Creating four links will award big points and also add to your spin multiplier!
Combo 11 - With face cards removed from the deck makes sets of 11. As cards are eliminated, you can press the "Next" button to add available cards to the playfield. If no moves are left, you can use "Jumble" to mix up the cards
Carpet - A new take on the card game you know and love... Solitaire. The object of the game is to move all cards to the foundations where the aces have already been dealt. All cards from "the Carpet" must be moved to the foundations upwards by suit (i.e. 2 over A). Any "holes on the carpet," or gaps left behind by the cards that have been moved to the foundations, are filled by cards from the waste pile.
