While the developer has only been around for a few days, GameClub is already shaping up to provide the first legitimate solution to the persistent legacy issue within the iOS gaming community. Seeing Hook Champ, one of TouchArcade’s most treasured early classics, become playable again on modern devices is something that I’m sure none of us would have even considered a possibility a few weeks ago, and an absolute delight to revisit. Whilst acknowledging my rosiest of rose-tinted nostalgia glasses, playing these early iOS games gives me the same feeling as replaying the likes of Super Mario World, in that each title is just pure fun to complete with none of the complications of modern gaming conventions. Without wanting to sound too greedy, the big question raised from our community is ‘what next"’ – and thankfully we don’t have to wait too long to find out. Today, GameClub announced that the next retro revival will be the stone-cold roguelike classic Sword of Fargoal, and will be available for early access next week.
Of all the titles to fall at the hands of Apple’s 32-Bit Appocalypse, Sword of Fargoal is probably one of the oldest. Originally launching in 1982 on the Commodore 64, Jeff McCord’s cult hit was resurrected with the help of prolific mobile developer Madgarden in 2009. Through a complete overhaul of the graphics and a substantial amount of new content, Sword of Fargoal on iOS was a huge critical success,...