Secret of Mana Remake Hitting iOS Tonight

[Greg Tito]

Secret of Mana Remake Hitting iOS Tonight

The classic action RPG from Square Enix is available in New Zealand's App Store right now and will be coming to the rest of the world soon.

First announced back at E3 and then promptly forgotten, the iOS remake of Secret of Mana looks like it will actually make its goal of releasing in 2010. For the uninitiated, Secret of Mana, dubbed Holy Sword Legend 2 in Japan, first came out in 1993 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Eschewing the Final Fantasy-like turn-based combat of many Japanese RPGs, Secret of Mana emulated the top down action combat of Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, but the trick was that you could switch control between three characters while the others traipse around with you. The official release date for the iOS release is December 21st, and New Zealand is the first country to report that the game can, in fact, be downloaded to your favorite iDevice. Damn you, kiwis, for already being in tomorrow! Once the sun reaches the correct time zone, you can purchase Secret of Mana for $8.99 on the App Store.

Judging by the screenshots, the control scheme seems similar to other iOS games with "control sticks" appearing over the game display. Mana saw a release on Nintendo's Virtual Console for the Wii in 2008, but it's interesting that Square chose it to port for use with iPhones and iPads. Perhaps the success of porting Final Fantasy and its sequels to the device prompted Square Enix to invest in porting other classic games.

An iOS version of Final Fantasy Tactics has been announced but is still awaiting a release date. That's the game that make actually make me cave and at least consider purchasing an iProduct. What other classic games should Square Enix considering porting? Chrono Trigger? The original Kingdom Hearts? Dragon Warrior/Quest?

Source: Touch Arcade [http://toucharcade.com/2010/12/20/secret-of-mana-hits-the-nz-app-store-releasing-in-us-tonight/]

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[Virgil]

It's unlikely, but I hope that the game can run as an iPad app, and not as an iPhone app on the iPad (in their stupid frame, etc). It's a relatively minor difference, but it's the difference between the "touch joystick" being unplayable or not.

Secret of Mana is easily one of the best action-RPGs of all time. I put an ungodly amount of hours into that game on the SNES (and still own a copy, and have the SNES connected )

 

[WorldCritic]

Finally, another game that will give me a reason to play one on my iPod. $8.99, expensive for an IOS game, but hell I'm gonna get it anyway.

 

[mxfox408]

Secret of mana is a spinoff from the gameboy title final fantasy adventure. The game was pretty good back when square knew how to write good stories before enix, and this i will purchase, also the sword of mana is a remake of final fantasy adventure.

 

[IronCladNinja]

A tad expensive, but worth it for sure. Hope they port the sequel to iOS.

 

[Tarlane]

The original game let you use the multitap to play it three player, I wonder if this will have any sort of multiplayer features.

I used to get together with two of my friends almost every weekend and pull an overnighter playing solid through this game. Must have beaten it 20 times and its still one of my favorites.

 

[blippity]

How about making a new SOM for a console huh??

 

[Kenjitsuka]

One of THE very best games EVARRR!!!!

 

[Fumbleumble]

If they can do this I'd like them to 'clean up' FF VII.. I'd actually buy Apple if they did that......Not a phone though, an ipod touch, I've been eyeing that machine for a while. Music, video, wifi and it does HD video recording..... plus the 960 by 640 is CLEARLY D) the best around.

The nearest andriod equivalent is a quarter of that WTF!!

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

remake or port? more likely a port....

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

How about making a new SOM for a console huh??

Because apparently, making games for mobile devices like the iPhone is where all the money is. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to shout incoherent expletives. A touchscreen is not and has never been an appropriate substitute for a D-Pad and a good collection of buttons.

Its rather easy to port it as DLC actually . . .

 

[Vim-Hogar]

Oh man, I never got around to beating that game, somehow. So good, though; obviously I'll have to get back to it. Do I start over from the beginning, though, or try to pick it up in the middle where I left of? Hard to go wrong, I suppose.

 

[Gindil]

...

I'm PISSED!

You can get Secret of Mana but you can't get part 3 and the Parasite Eve games on the PSP?!

ARGH! >_<

 

[Omegatronacles]

It's available in Australia now as well, but for $11.99, which is kinda annoying since the exchange rate is so good at the moment there is no excuse for that kind of price hike.

Still bought it though, because it's one of my top 5 games of all time.

It's also been available for purchase through the Wii store for quite some time now.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Yay!!!

Now if they only made it for something I had... Oh well, the SNES is more than good enough

 

[mxfox408]

sorry browser lag tripple post

 

[mxfox408]

If they can do this I'd like them to 'clean up' FF VII.. I'd actually buy Apple if they did that......Not a phone though, an ipod touch, I've been eyeing that machine for a while. Music, video, wifi and it does HD video recording..... plus the 960 by 640 is CLEARLY D) the best around.

The nearest andriod equivalent is a quarter of that WTF!!

Haha well i guess my current android isnt as great right i mean i got wifi, music, open source UI, 8mp camera, 720p hd recording, 1080p playback, video editing, music editing, emulators, and faster cpu and multitasking ability that the ios lacks in every way. So your ios is better right this is what im hearing.

 

[mxfox408]

Sorry browser lag triple post

 

[Nalgas D. Lemur]

It's unlikely, but I hope that the game can run as an iPad app, and not as an iPhone app on the iPad (in their stupid frame, etc). It's a relatively minor difference, but it's the difference between the "touch joystick" being unplayable or not.

Secret of Mana is easily one of the best action-RPGs of all time. I put an ungodly amount of hours into that game on the SNES (and still own a copy, and have the SNES connected )

I still have the SNES and multitap out and hooked up for the same reason, although it's really hard to get people together in the same place at the same time to play now that they're all grown up. Can't get away with taking an entire day to play straight through the entire game in one sitting with three people very often anymore. I really wish they hadn't dropped that feature from later games in the series. I also wish that they hadn't all sucked after LoM, but that's another story...

I haven't used an iPad yet, so I wasn't aware of that issue. Sounds...fun. Way to make an awkward control scheme even worse. I'm not convinced that it would be playable anyway, though. The on-screen keyboard on the iPhone/iPod touch makes me want to stab someone often enough even with non-real-time things, so I can't imagine I'd get along with an action game with no tactile feedback. Fortunately it works just fine on my Dingoo [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dingoo] if I happen to need portable SoM for some reason.