MapleStory takes another stab at iPhone, iPad in Cave Crawlers

MapleStory creator Nexon has been a bunch of busy bees lately, what with going public and selling more digital pets than some of us will make in dollars in decades. Now, the pioneer of free-to-play gaming is looking to try its hands at mobile again, but in a very not free way. Nexon released MapleStory: Cave Crawlers for the iPhone and iPad for $2.99. That's not free at all.

A far departure from previous effort Cygnus Knights, Cave Crawlers sends players into dungeons in a first-person, retro-themed play experience with many of the familiar tropes and characters from the series. Players can choose to embark on these adventures as either a brawny Fighter or a sneaky, stabby Thief. (What, no flashy magic love?)

The game only offers five randomized dungeons to play kill monsters and collect loot in, but Nexon promises that more content is on the way. Hopefully that means some more characters classes are incoming, too. (Guy's gotta' have his fireballs.) Nexon has yet to replicate the same wild success it's had on the web in the mobile arena. Frankly, we're surprised these games have yet to take on the "freemium" approach to distribution that it's web counterparts popularized.

That's especially considering how widespread free-to-play has already become in iPhone and Android games. At any rate, MapleStory fans will be happy to know that this take on the game is decidedly different from its predecessors, even at first glance.

Click here to download MapleStory: Cave Crawlers Now >

Are you a MapleStory fan? Where do you prefer to get your fix: The web, Facebook or mobile?

FIFA Superstars on iPhone yanked from App Store due to 'server issues'

EA is sitting pretty on Facebook at the moment, but on smartphones ... not so much. Mobile Entertainment reports that that the publisher has been forced to remove its recently-released iPhone version of Facebook soccer (football) hit FIFA Superstars from the App Store due to "server issues."

The game, released in late August, provides the 2.8 million monthly players of the Facebook version of FIFA Superstars a near-identical representation of what they're used to seeing in their browsers. However, the game suffered login issues from the get-go, it seems. Players have been unable to access the game after logging into the company's new Origin service.

"We are currently experiencing server issues with FIFA Superstars mobile that have required us to temporarily take the game down," EA told Mobile Entertainment. "This is not a data security-related issue. We are implementing a solution that will ensure users have the best gameplay experience, and will provide an update soon as to when the game will be live again."

According to Mobile Entertainment, EA stresses that this issue does not affect the Facebook version of the game, and that players can still enjoy the game there for now. (When we tried to log into the game, we didn't encounter any issues either.) It's comforting to see that EA is more vocal with the issues it has encountered in this game than it has been with social games in the past.

When its hyper popular Facebook version of The Sims, The Sims Social, suffered launch issues, the company was mum on the details for days before it released a message to its players with an explanation (and later threw them a bone). Since then, the game has enjoyed incredible growth, so hopefully FIFA Superstars for iPhone can bounce back from these hiccups just as well.

[Via Pocket Gamer]

Did you have trouble logging into FIFA Superstars for iPhone, too? What are you doing to scratch the social soccer itch while you wait for the game to return to the App Store? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment