Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time heading to Apple Arcade, watch an exclusive developer diary here

Cartoon Network and Adult Swim sweetheart Samurai Jack is now confirmed as heading to iOS when Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time releases for Xbox One, PS4, PC, Nintendo Switch and Apple Arcade this Summer.

While the console versions and PC versions were announced earlier in the year, the iOS version was originally due to be announced today - we can confirm. However, an early refresh on the Apple Arcade page revealed that it, as well as World's End Club (Izanagi Games), Next Stop Nowhere (Night School) and The Last Campfire (Hello Games), would be releasing on the Apple Arcade service soon.

As it turns out, we've been talking with Adult Swim Games for quite some time, originally having them onboard for our Pocket Gamer LaunchPad event earlier on in the year. Due to some scheduling conflicts, we weren't able to run the news at the time. However, what with everything going on, we're happy to showcase an exclusive developer diary from Soleil Game Studios, the core-developers of the upcoming action game.

That said, we should clarify that it is Novarama (who you might know as the creators of Invizimals) who have been handling the Apple Arcade version of the game.

As you can see from the footage below, retaining the core of the Samurai Jack series was integral to the design choices behind the game, in so far as there are many scenes from the series, including several sequences with Aku and The Scotsman that you'll see interlaced with the developer diary we've got for you below.

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"As fans ourselves, we didn't want to make just another game." Marcos Ramos, art director explained, "We really thought, okay, what makes this game special? And all the materials are there, basically - the show is amazing." he continued "For us it was important we were authentic."

That's a pattern which echoes throughout the developer diary. It's clear that there's more than a couple of fans of the series among the development leads - and with consultation from series creator Genndy Tartakovsky, it certainly looks like they've achieved it.

In addition to the above, we've also had a quick look at some of the gameplay for the Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time, including a more in-depth look at some of the controls and user interface. 

The mobile UI is quite dense, with seven inputs on the right-hand side of the screen including arrow-firing commands, two types of melee weapon attacks, as well as jump, dash and block inputs. We didn't see any options for layout changes, however, there is plenty of free space left on the screen which could be used if it resizes with the device.

The combo system, as well as death and execution animations, were particularly interesting as well, and we're very interested in seeing how the game's controls fare in combat against some of the larger enemies we saw, including the stone golem fight we watched. 

Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time is releasing on PC and console formats in August, with the Apple Arcade version currently waiting on a confirmed release date.