Mobile gamers play games to prevent boredom, but fun mobile gameplay still rules as new survey from MocoSpace shows.

MocoSpace, the leading destination for playing mobile games over the internet, has announced the results of a recent survey conducted on its network of over 25 million users. The study, which took place in April this year and involved more than 10,000 gamers, was conducted in order to gain a better understanding of why Americans like to play mobile games. In fact, over half of all active MocoSpace users (55 percent) play games on the network everyday, with more than one million hours spent playing over one million games on the site. Users were allowed to provide a single answer to the question “What is the main reason you play games on your mobile phone?”

As the infographic above shows, the two most popular reasons as to why people in North America play mobile games are boredom and, unsurprisingly, to have fun. Roughly a third of all those that participated said that they bought mobile games as means to kill time, while the other third was attributed to fun.

Interestingly, three percent declared that that they play mobile games to flirt. As long-time gamers, we can confirm that this usually isn’t a successful route to the love of your life.

The data also shows that making new friends trumps gaming with existing friends and family; players prefer meeting new people via games five times more than connecting with people they already know. Just as well that MocoSpace is a social space for mobile gamers then.

“This survey showed us that our gamers are really engaged with the titles we are offering,” said MocoSpace co-founder and CEO Justin Siegel. “We are working on developing more games in-house as well as fostering relationships with third-party developers in order to churn out more fun HTML5 games that can be played on any mobile device.”

The iconic British video game designer – who recently left Lionhead Studios to found a new independent venture, 22Cans – will be providing analysis on next month’s E3 conference with Spike TV.

In the correspondence, Molyneux described the Wii U, Nintendo’s new console due to launch at the end of this year, as “slightly lacklustre”  and said that it would have to “blow us away” with better system specs and a solid first-party line up to assure success.

On Microsoft and Sony, he wondered about their overdue forays into new hardware and suggested they were “holding their breath” to outfox competition, leaving their big announcements until 2013. This year, he continued, may see price cuts and new models of existing consoles instead.

Molyneux added that the biggest challenges both gamers and industry professionals have to rise to is the increasing prominence of companies like Apple and Facebook, and also new outlets and technologies, like social media and cloud computing.

E3, the world’s largest video game conference, runs from 5-7 June in Los Angeles.

[Source: Kotaku]

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Line Surfer (Free, Robert Szeleney) Universal

There’s a thin line between a game so simple that it’s incredible, and so simple that it borders on boring. With Line Surfer, I’m honestly torn. Something I like to think I very rarely am. On the one hand, Line Surfer is a great and straightforward game that involves guiding your stick-figure surfer along beautifully animated waves, avoiding crates, and landing cool jumps and flips whenever you want to. Tap to jump, tilt to spin – the controls are very simple. It’s good fun at first, there’s no part of me that questions that. But after some time, it all becomes mundane.

I found myself getting bored of the same tricks, the same obstacles, and the same environment. Granted, Line Surfer has a well-designed setting, and it is wonderfully animated, but for me, there’s not enough gameplay magic to hold it up. Although the game does come in two game modes, they are effectively identical. One has you jumping for points, and the other is to see how far you can go. Of course, you have to jump around anyway, and so the experience of each game mode is very similar, even if the objective is not.

I don’t regret downloading Line Surfer… It was free after all. But I don’t think I’ll be able to justify playing it again to myself.

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Lunar Racer (Free, Noodlecake Studios) Universal

Aside from a few blips on the App Store’s review page, Lunar Racer hasn’t fared unfavourably in the eyes of players. And why should it? Lunar Racer is a quirky but well-designed game that takes players around the universe, racing one different planets, moons and space stations. Each race gives players the chance to complete challenges to ensure that they not only come first, but blow their opponents out of the water (sky?), and these challenges unlock new racing locations, as well as customisable parts for your space-buggy.

Lunar Racer excels in graphical and gameplay departments, but there was one aspect that left me not completely sold. The controls, coupled with the game’s physics, make for sometimes stressful crashes and seemingly random explosions of your car. By tilting your device to flip your buggy, you can score points with back- and frontflips, but this is possible even when not getting air. In my opinion, and from what we know of various other space-racers, this is a rather major flaw in the controls that may have some players quitting from frustration.

Overall, a solid game with few technical hitches, and well worth your time, but don’t be surprised if the sometimes-random crashes get on your nerves.

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Retro Racing (£0.69/$0.99, Mr Qwak) Universal

Is it just me, or are racing game controls getting harder? We saw in Lunar Racer that sometimes games just can’t keep up with players, but Retro Racing has some of the fiddliest and hardest controls to use I’ve ever seen. And yet … I forgive it.

Retro Racing is a great overhead-style racer that provides high-speed thrills, near-miss action and petrol-head excitement. I think I covered everything there… Oh, and it looks amazing. After choosing your team, you’re thrown right into your first race, with many many more to come. What I really love about Retro Racing is that, based on its graphics, its gameplay mechanics and its controls, it’s not taking itself too seriously. And that’s good, because it’s an incredibly simple game, from its design to its gameplay. While at its core it is no different to a million other racing games, Retro Racing has a lot of heart and soul, and I think that every iOS device owner should download a copy of this game. It’s a great time-filler, and heaps of fun.

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TwinGo! (£0.69/$0.99, Chillingo) Universal

At last, the prodigal son has returned! It’s been some time since we’ve seen an entry from Chillingo on the iOS Hot List. Or at least it feels that way. Either way, they’re back on form with TwinGo!, a great and original puzzle game that you’d have to be crazy not to enjoy.

The aim of TwinGo! is to navigate the two lovable twins you can see above to their corresponding springs, thus catapulting them out of the level. By swiping your finger across the screen, the twins move around together, but make sure they don’t fall off the world. The game is loaded with obstacles, challenges, and ways for you to keep improving your puzzle-solving skills. The characters are brilliant, the levels are meticulously well-designed, and the overall experience of TwinGo! is like no puzzle game you’ll have ever played before. As I said, Chillingo, the prodigal son, has returned.

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Check back next Thursday for more of the best and worst iOS games of the week.

The iPad version of the game offers full retina support and high definition graphics, optimised for the new iPad, as well as Game Center support, four game modes (Classic, Butterflies, Diamond Mine and Zen), and it is available now on the App Store for £2.49/$3.99, available in English, German, French and Italian. Follow this link to download the game to your iPad.

For a full list of Bejeweled HD‘s features, read below:

• Stunning HD graphics; full retina display support for the new iPad
• Four great game modes: Play the ever-popular Butterflies and Diamond Mine, along with Classic and Zen for hours of challenge and fun
• Game Center Support: Compete against your friends and climb the leaderboards
• Create electrifying special gems like Flame gems, Star gems, Hypercubes, and Supernova gems
• Earn badges and Game Center achievements to show off your best skills

Giordano Bruno Contestabile, Bejeweled franchise business director at PopCap Games, commented on the series’ appearance on iPad:

The  iPad has become a de facto standard for tablet gaming and is an ideal platform for the Bejeweled franchise. This native adaptation is one of our best yet, and will enthrall players with fantastic HD graphics and optimized gameplay.  As Bejeweled further evolves, we’ll continue to bring exciting new iterations, updates and content to millions of new and existing players.

The collector’s edition will cost players $54.99.

You have heard about the pre-order incentives for Kingdom Hearts 3D, but Square Enix has other goodies in store for fans of the upcoming 3DS title. The Mark of Mastery Edition is considered to be the collector’s edition and comes in a Kingdom Hearts magnetic box. The contents of the box include a copy of the game, a hard case skin cover, 12 art cards and 5 augmented reality cards that feature various Dream Eaters. For those who do not know, this year marks the franchise’s 10th year anniversary so picking up the Mark of Mastery Edition might be a good way to celebrate the occasion. Take a look at the picture of the special edition above and remember that Kingdom Hearts 3D drops on July 31.

In the wake of COO’s departure comes grim news of several Vita titles summarily cancelled.

According to reports from Andriasang, the shmup developer, responsible for such titles as Deathsmiles, has given the boot to two upcoming Vita titles – one a social game and the other remaining an unannounced shooter. This news comes in tandem with COO Mike Watanabe’s decision to step down from his post for “personal reasons”, effective May 31.

What this means for the company remains unclear, after rumors of the developer divorcing itself from the shooting genre altogether caused ripples on the pond earlier this year; said rumors were quickly dismissed by Cave, however.

[Source: MCVUK]

Xbox Live Arcade title Trials Evolution has sold 500,000 units since launch last month.

The wacky physics-based stuntbike game sold 100,000 units on its first day alone, breaking a record for Microsoft as the fastest-selling Xbox Live Arcade title ever.

You can read our review here.

[Source: VG247]

The game, announced in November last year, is a post-apocalyptic third-person action-adventure developed by Uncharted creators, Naughty Dog. Set on an anarchic Earth plagued by a parasitic fungus that has devastated society, the player must lead two characters – middle-aged Joel and 14-year-old Ellie – to safety as they traverse America, presumably learning more about the biological cataclysm in the process.

Naughty Dog’s community strategist commented:

“We can’t wait to share this genre-defining game with you. The hounds have started to bay. Get prepared for the coming months and look out for more information at E3.”

Minecraft 360 co-developer wants to match PC update schedule blow for blow.

4J Studios, co-developers of the best-selling Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition along with Mojang, recently announced via their Twitter feed that they’ve got their eyes set on matching the PC version’s update schedule, sticking as close to possible to the same update history that its counterpart went through. First up on their list of targeted content? Pistons, shears, and improved clay generation.

The game was recently certified as already having sold upwards of 1,000,000 digital copies even though it was only released a week ago, on May 9. Those who’ve played its PC big brother can attest to how much content is still on the way, even though players new to the fold already have an insanely fun experience on their hands (check out our in-depth review for the full scoop on what makes this game so great all over again).

If 4J Studios meets their goal for the next Minecraft update, the full list of changes should include the following:

• Added pistons
• Fixed clay generation
• Flint and Steel or redstone is now required to trigger TNT
• Fences can be stacked
• Added Shears
• Redstone wire now will connect to a repeater
• Shears can be used to pick up leaf blocks
• Shears can be used to shear sheep without hurting them
• Sheep no longer drop wool from being punched, only from being killed when they are unsheared
• New textures for Cobblestone and Brick blocks
• Silverfish skin was added (for Beta 1.8)

[Source: LoudMouthedGamers.com]

The open-world crime action series Saints Row has sold 11 million units since 2006, according to publisher THQ.

The impressive sales figure was released in the company’s annual financial report, though it was alongside an unfortunate overall net loss of $239.9 million.

The latest Saints Row game, Saints Row: The Third, released in November 2011, is the most successful of the series, having sold 4.25 million units. THQ added: “The game has generated the highest digital revenue of any console title in the company’s history.”

You can read our review of the game here.

[Source: MCV]