The AppStore is known for a lot of things, but easy navigation isn’t one of them.  With tens of thousands of games on the service, knowing when a real gem comes out can be more of a challenge than it should be.  Big games may get featured on the What’s Hot or What’s New pages, and they may sit at the top of the sale numbers for a few weeks, but unless you’re actively checking to see what’s new on a regular basis it’s almost inevitable you’re going to miss a golden gaming experience.

Today we’re taking a look at 5 upcoming game worth keeping an eye out for.  Why miss out on the big names if we can give you the heads up before they happen?

Ravensword
Release Date: Shortly (currently submitted for approval)
Price: Unknown

What is it: A 3D action RPG that’s been described as equal parts Oblivion and Twilight Princess, Ravensword developers are promising a richer, deeper experience than anything that’s come before on the iPhone.

Why you should be excited: Set in an expansive world with plenty of side quests, rumor has it you’ll need 3-6 hours to get through the main quest alone.  In a traditional RPG that’s a drop in the bucket — but on the iPhone?  For a game that looks this good, that’s tremendous.

Forget about how good it looks and how deep it should play for a moment though and realize this:  what you’re witnessing here is the birth of a franchise.  The game isn’t even out yet and Chillingo’s already committed to an expansion in the next six months that should add new gameplay devices in addition to content.  Even bigger is the promise of Ravensword Online, the iPhone’s first true MMO in 2010.  An MMO.  On the iPhone.  And all of itstarts right here with the release of the first Ravensword.

Eliminate
Release Date: Shortly (currently submitted for approval)
Price: FREE

What is it: First person shooters on the iPhone have had a spotty reputation at best, but ngmoco hopes to turn that around with this upcoming online arena shooter.

Why you should be excited: Eliminate will offer instant, jump-in, multiplayer action from anywhere in the world.  Multiplayer on the iPhone has ranged from nightmarish to “meh.”  If ngmoco can pull off Eliminate, that’sall going to change.  The only downside to the game is that you’ll only have so much “energy” to use in a day, meaning you can only play so long before you have to let your character recharge.  Now that Apple allows microtransactions you’ll be able to purchase your way back into the game early.  It sounds a lot like the business model used by Zynga in games like Mafia Wars, which is definitely something I have mixed feelings about.

Galactic Keep: Dice Battles
Release Date: 2010
Price: Unknown

What is it: A role-playing game that plays less like Final Fantasy and more like… well, a role-playing game.  Remember those nights of D&D in your parents basement?  That’s Galactic Keep.  Everything down to the dice, hand-drawn maps, and monster stats replicates that old school, table-top gaming experience.

Why you should be excited: Try and forget the amazing hand drawn art style for a minute.  Forget about the brilliant table top vibe and photorealistic dice.  What you’re left with after all of the spit and polish is a role-playing game for the iPhone that accurately replicates the experience of real role-playing games in five separate quests.  Tough decisions, fierce battles, and engaging stories for what we assume will be hours on end.  If you’ve ever spent a night around a kitchen table with Mountain Dew, Cheetos, and a bag of 20-sided dies, Galactic Keep could very well be the greatest thing you’ve ever put in your pocket.

The Relic
Release Date: November 2009
Price: Unknown

What is it: Think Gauntlet, but better.  Chillingo is bringing the classic hack’n’slash action of yesteryear to the iPhone in a multiplayer dungeon crawler that they describe as “Gauntlet on steroids.”

Why you should be excited: Earlier this year, Chillingo kicked off a brand new genre for the iPhone that caught on like wild fire: the twin stick shooter.  As our review of iDracula will attest, Chillingo knows what they’re doing when it comes to crazy hyper-violent top-down gameplay.  Now they’ve taken that experience and added in bigger environments, a variety of enemies, some objectives and a storyline.  While iDracula may have come up with a great mechanic, The Relic has the chance to use that in a great experience.  If someone had told me that the iDracula team were remaking Gauntlet for the iPhone I would have squealed like a little girl.  Hearing about The Relic pretty much had the same effect.

Star Wars: Trench Run
Release Date: Unknown
Price: $4.99

What is it: Remember that last scene in the first Star Wars?  When Luke and his buddies go all Red Dawn on the Death Star?  In the Star Wars community that’s remembered fondly as the Trench Run.  Thanks to THQ Wireless, pretty soon you’ll get to fly it yourself with the magic of tilt control.

Why you should be excited: It’s a little too early to tell, but judging by the screens it looks like we might finally be getting a fresh taste of the classic X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter series that graced our desktops nearly two decades ago.  The in-cockpit view and dogfighting looks strikingly similar, and it makes our hearts smile.  There’s also a definite taste of the original Star Wars Arcade here.  If THQ Wireless wanted a game that paid homage to the classics, those would be the games to draw from.

It also looks like Trench Run might let us fill the shoes of both Luke and Vader.  There’s a moment in the trailer where the screen switches to Vader’s cockpit trying to shoot down Luke.  It’s just as likely that this may be a section of game where you’re controlling Luke and trying to evade Vader’s targeting, but we’re hoping on playing as the dark lord himself.

Like the traditional Rock Band experience, you’ll get to select between four instruments — vocals, guitar, bass and drums. Each will feature it’s own authentic experience for every song in the game, and when played with friends should sync up flawlessly.  Note our use of the word “should.”  This game has been in development for more than a year now, so we’d like to think that they’ve worked all the kinks out.  But until we get a room full of band geeks jamming out on their portables, we’ll never really know how well the game will sync via Bluetooth.  At the end of the day, this will likely make or break the experience.  Knowing the top notch quality of previous Rock Band efforts, we’re inclined to believe that Rock Band iPhone should pull this off without a hitch.

Touch Arcade were given a hands-on preview of the game, and are reporting that the following 20 songs will make up the initial set list;

30 Seconds To Mars – “Attack”
AFI – “Girls Not Grey”
All American Rejects – “Move Along”
Beastie Boys – “Sabotage”
Blink-182 – “All The Small Things”
Blondie – “Hanging on the Telephone”
Foo Fighters – “Learn To Fly”
Foo Fighters – “Everlong”
George Thorogood & the Destroyers – “Bad to The Bone”
Jethro Tull – “Hymn 43″
Joan Jett – “Hymn 43″
Lynard Skynard – “Simple Man”
Motorhead – “Ace of Spades ‘08″
Pixies – “Debaser”
Presidents of The United States of America – “Ladybug”
Rise Against – “Give It All”
Silversun Pickups – “Lazy Eye”
Smashing Pumpkins – “Cherub Rock”
Steve Miller Band – “Take The Money and Run”
The Go Go’s – “We Got The Beat”

The one disappointing thing we gleamed from the Touch Arcade preview was that “every instrument has its own track that you tap along with.”  If true, that means that vocals have replaced actual singing with yet another instrument track.  It’s understandable (not all App Store shoppers have access to a mic), but still disappointing.  We would have loved to learn that iPhone rockers could belt out the hits into their microphones.  Doesn’t look like that’s going to be the case.

We’re also very glad to see that this release have gone in a very different direction than Rock Band’s other recent portable incarnation, Rock Band Unplugged for the PSP.  The PSP version had players attempting to keep all four instruments in play at the same time in a frantic, mad balancing act.  It was not unlike Harmonix’s breakthrough PS2 game Frequency, but it just didn’t seem to be a great fit for the portable player in our opinion.  Keeping things streamlined and as close the original experience as possible, much as EA Mobile seems to have done here, is really the best way to bring this to the portable market.

No word on price yet, but a number of sources are reporting that this has already been submitted to Apple for approval.  Hopefully this means we’ll be seeing it in the coming weeks.  In the meantime, enjoy every second of Tap Tap Revenge you can.  Once Rock Band hits, something tells me Tap Tap won’t carry the weight it once did in the court of public opinion.

Ramp Champ takes the classic game of Skee-Ball and puts it on its head. The game play is pretty much as simple as it gets on the iPhone, you simply slide your finger from the bottom of the screen up to roll your ball at the various targets. Out of the box, Ramp Champ includes 4 different styles of Skee-Ball: Clown Town, Breakwater Bay, Space Spin, and the Icon Garden. But using the in-app purchasing you can get two add-ons, both costing $.99 and including 2 new themes as well as various new prizes.

By far the most impressive of Ramp Champ’s features is it’s design. The Iconfactory is known for it’s superb design and this game is no exception.Immediately upon launching the app you become immersed in the carnival atmosphere through the impressive typography and phenomenal use of texture. The user interface is simple and clean but does not stray away from the overall feel, the tab bar the garnishes the bottom of 99% of iPhone apps, for example, is still there in spirit but it’s face is replaced with various carnival style posters. If the design alone doesn’t put you in the midway spirit, the music and sounds will certainly get you there. They are so good, in fact, that I don’t think you should play the game without them.

The gameplay is as addictive as an iPhone game can be. Each individual ramp theme has a separate set of 3 goals, which are surprisingly motivating and I’ve found they actually give you some hint on how you should play the ramp. For every 500 points you receive you get a ticket, just like you would get at a carnival, with these tickets you can get various virtual prizes, including Ollie, the Twitterrific bird. Unfortunately, the game has a tendency to crash occasionally when “printing your tickets” and at some other times during gameplay. I’ve also found that on occasion the ball will get stuck on the dividers between the various levels of targets. Luckily, the ball disappears after a few seconds and the game play resumes. If it weren’t for the crashing and few bugs, this could be the perfect iPhone game.

Overall, I’ve found Iconfactory and DS Media Lab’s Ramp Champ to be absolutely deserving of it’s $1.99 price tag even with the bugs. For more coverage on Ramp Champ be sure to listen to the next episode of the MacApper Podcast, releasing Monday morning.

Given PopCap’s track record it only stood to reason that PvZ would be ported to every console known to man.  That’s why it comes as no surprise when PopCap Games announced this morning that, in addition to an upcoming port to Xbox Live Arcade and a recent retail box release, Plants vs Zombies will be arriving in the AppStore for iPhone users in late 2009.

PopCap has had a tremendously good track record with iPhone Games.  Peggle, Bookworm, and Bejeweled 2 have all been ported to the popular portable with great success.  Few of these games, however, required the visual real estate that Plants vs. Zombies will.  It’s a question that’s begging to be asked — how are you going to manage to fit the fast paced, screen-filling action of Plants vs Zombies on a 3.5″ widescreen?

That’s not to say that PopCap won’t be able to do it.  I have no doubt in my mind that they’ll execute a perfect port — it’s what they’re known for.  But how?  Will they retool the game to create a smaller playfield?  Will they offer a “scan-and-pan” camera that lets you move around the board?  It’s a befuddling conundrum to be sure, but one I’m looking forward to seeing solved.

No price or solid release date has been announced, but PopCap assures us you can expect to see this one in the AppStore by the end of the year.  In the meantime, why not check out our review of the original Mac version?

Power Pros Touch isn’t the first baseball game to make its way to the AppStore.  In fact, with more than a dozen baseball titles currently available for purchase some might say that Power Pros is a little late to the game.  But as the old saying goes, sometimes the best things in life are worth waiting for.

Whether this is your first time stepping up to the virtual plate or your fifty-first, Power Pros Touch offers the perfect blend of exciting baseball action and accessible gameplay.  Like many baseball games, Power Pros Touch is largely about pitching and hitting.  Making excellent use of the touch screen, you’ll choose your pitch from a selection wheel and pinpoint exactly where in the batter’s box you want to throw it.  When the shoe is on the other foot and you’re stepping up to the plate, a small target will appear that you’ll need to tap at just the right time to connect with the ball.  Little touches, like sliding your finger upward to try for a power hit, round out the core experience.

The visuals in Power Pro are so sugary sweet that those judging by appearances alone would almost instantly assume this is a children’s games.  The characters, with their rounded heads and giant eyes, feel like vinyl dolls come to life.  Power Pros Touch is simply the latest handheld iteration of Japan’s wildly successful Pawapuro series, so the teams and uniforms will be unfamiliar to most.  While entirely fictional (as opposed to having roots in real world Japanese baseball), teams like the Dolphins and the Pawapuro All-Stars have long been a staple of Japanese sports gaming.

What strikes me as odd about this release though is the lack of a Major League Baseball license.  Konami had previously brought the Pawapuro series to North American gamers as MLB Power Pros for the Nintendo Wii and Sony Playstation 2, featuring all of the teams and players in the MLB.  While I can understand their desire to keep the roster small for the iPhone version, it’s surprising that they didn’t pick six teams from North America in an effort to appeal to a wider audience.  Still, wide eyes trump a wide audience any day, and Power Pros Touch definitely has wide, adorable eyes.

Despite it’s cute as a button presentation, an amazing amount of depth is available for players that want to amp up the challenge.  Much like its console predecessors Power Pros Touch can be customized to offer as simple or as deep an experience as you like.  By default the game boots up on the easiest settings, but a little tweaking in the options can change a number of items from automatic from manual.  The default controls automate everything outside of the pitching and batting, which means that base running and fielding are all controlled by your AI teammates.  And while the simplicity of this is downright elegant, gamers who want to step outside of the batters box and get live in the field can do so with ease thanks to the level of customization offered.  Full season and exhibition modes are also offered with adjustable numbers of innings, rules, and difficulties all popping up at the front of every game.

The team at Konami have done the seemingly impossible: they’ve created a baseball game for everyone.  Not only that, but they’ve created it to be played anywhere and for any length of time.  You can play a quick one inning match while waiting for your cab just as easily as you can work your way through a full season over a few months of lunch breaks.  There’s no doubt about it, Konami have really hit this one out of the park.  At $3.99 Power Pros Touch may be the best value you’ll find on the iPhone this summer.  You can find it exclusively in the iTunes App Store.

LucasArts and Aspyr Media have just announced The Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition for for both Mac and PC.  So what makes this release so “ultimate”?  Journey with us to the dark side and find out.

In addition to offering the God of War style Star Wars experience that gamers were given last fall, expect to find new costumes, new characters to play as, and three new levels.  And while the prospect of playing as Luke, Obi-Wan or C3PO sounds pretty cool (if not downright confusing — what kind of powers could 3P0 use?) the real draw of this title for repeat players would have to be the three additional levels.

Contributing to the Infinities universe which takes a “what if?” approach to existing Star Wars mythos, the new levels break from the existing Star Wars universe (which Force Unleashed is considered a canon part of) and show how things would have unfolded in a world where the Apprentice defeated Darth Vader to become the Emperor’s right hand.  Expect to visit the Jedi Temple on Coruscant in an effort to discover the truth about your father, be sent to Tatooine to assassinate Ben Kenobi (and make a stop at Jabba’s Palace), and crush the Rebellion once and for all on Hoth.

Screenshots made available alongside the announcement showcase some of the new costumes, which appear to be less bonus content and more an integral part of the story presented in these three new levels.  Starkiller appears to be disguised as a sand person when on Tatooine, and is donning his new “king of the universe” threads when on Hoth.  Gamers who’ve gone through this adventure once before will be happy to hear that these three new levels will be available from the main menu rather than tacked on at the end of the single player campaign.

While action heavy third-person games don’t always pan out with a mouse and keyboard as well as one might hope, the addition of this new content should persuade even the most embittered of console veterans to check this out.  No specific release date or price have been given, but the powers that be have assured us that we should see a Fall 2009 release.  They’ve also assured us of something even more exciting; while no specific price has been set, The Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition will not be shipping at the $59.99 MSRP that the console versions debuted at last year.  Fingers crossed that we get a real bargain.

Columns Deluxe, normally $1.99, offers up a tremendous value even at its regular price.  Not only does it include the classic jewel-dropping puzzle game that SEGA dreamed up to compete with Tetris back in the Genesis days, but it also includes a version of Puyo Pop built right into the same app!  While the name Puyo Pop might not be too familiar in the ears of western gamers, they’ll likely be very familiar with the formula.  Back in the day it was brought home on 16-bit machines as Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine and Kirby’s Avalanche.  Matching like-colored blobs is simple, but incredibly addicting.  And like any good puzzle game, it never really gets old.

Some might find it strange to receive a gift on such a patriotic holiday from a company few would think of as domestic, but in all actuality SEGA has some very American roots.  Originally launched in 1940, Service Games (later shortened to SEGA) was an entrepreneurial venture by three Americans looking to provide coin-op amusements to US military personnel fighting the war in the Pacific.  So when you think about it, SEGA is a company with roots as red, white and blue as they come!

Click here to grab SEGA Columns Deluxe from the iTunes AppStore. Hurry though!  Sale ends Monday!

Toki Tori is the game that just won’t die. Surprisingly, we mean this is in a good way. If you haven’t played Toki Tori yet you should absolutely stop reading this and grab it for less than a buck right now. But if you already love Toki Tori? Read on!

Originally released for the GameBoy Color back in 2001, Toki Tori was a critical success but a commercial failure. Most developers would have taken their lumps and moved on to their next projects, but Two Tribes knew that they had a true gem on their hands and weren’t ready to let go.

After allowing for a 2003 port to Windows Mobile, the team at Two Tribes took a break from Toki Tori only to re-emerge last year with a gorgeous remake on Nintendo’s WiiWare service. But with the service itself not gaining any real traction, Two Tribes still hadn’t see the commercial success that their title deserved.

Then came Chillingo. The iPhone publisher has become one of the premiere names in iPhone gaming, and they saw the potential Toki Tori had to offer. Porting the WiiWare remake to the iPhone, Chillingo has released the penultimate version of the puzzle platformer. Now that version is on sale for 99 cents. That’s 80% off the regular $4.99.

Toki Tori is the tale of a lonely bird trying to rescue all of his friends without being killed in the process. Lead Toki Tori safely past obstacles and solve environment-based puzzles to help him reach his objectives! Fans of games like Professor Fizzwizzle or Eets will find a lot to love here.  Having played both the GBC and WiiWare versions, I can easily say that the iPhone edition of Toki Tori is second to none.  Controls-wise the game has never felt more comfortable, and it looks downright mindblowing for a portable game.

No word on how long the sale is on for, but at this price picking it up is a no-brainer.  Click here to visit Toki Tori on the App Store.

Released this past December, Rolando’s iPhone tilting action and adorable personality quickly made it one of the platform’s must-own games.  Consistent critical acclaim and sales success had cemented it as one of the true cornerstones of the iTunes AppStore.  Taking that into consideration, it’s an absolute mystery why developer ngmoco has announced that Rolando is being removed from the AppStore this Wednesday, July 1st.

The pulling of this title from the AppStore, as well as it’s Lite counterpart, was a decision made to “make room for Rolando 2″ according to ngmoco representative mjmmoco.  In an announcement made on the TouchArcade forums, mjmmoco announced that both the regular and Lite versions of Rolando would be removed at the time of Rolando 2’s release.  I can’t even begin to understand why a decision like this would be made.

From a marketing standpoint, wouldn’t those checking out the franchise for the first time with Rolando 2 be inclined to go back and revisit the first Rolando, thereby driving ngmoco’s overall sales?  And if this decision wasn’t made by ngmoco but rather Apple, why would Apple want to remove one of the top selling games from their AppStore?  The game has been available for more than 6 months and still charts in the top 100 paid games in the App Store.

This whole situation reeks of confusion and poor decision making.  Regardless, if you were thinking about picking up the original Rolando, you’d better get rolling.  Unless this is all just a big marketing stunt to make a big fuss when they bring it back “due to popular demand.”  Existing Rolando fans can enjoy the new title Rolando 2: Quest for the Golden Orchid this Wednesday.

These two movies turned iPhone games bring the same concept: go fast, beat those around you who try to knock you down, win the day.  The concept is tried and true: mix high energy rock music to fast driving/piloting and you’ve got a recipe for success.  How do they work out for Freeverse?  A mixed bag is what I found.

For each game, Freeverse uses similar strategies: look a like actor dialogue in between races/missions.  The result isn’t horrible if not a little hokey, but adds some plot to the games.

Days of Thunder

For Days of Thunder, you’re rookie driver Cole Trickle looking to move up through the racing ranks.  Left and right controls are handled through the accelerometer and do a fine job allowing players to dodge traffic, navigate turns and sling-shot around cars after drafting.  An onscreen button controls acceleration and brake in the lower left and right corners.

Play is good.  You can build up draft points and get enough and you can “drop the hammer” which catapults you beyond your top speed when the yellow hammer appears on the right hand side.  A speedometer reminds you to stay off the walls in corners and away from rubbing other racers.

Players also need to keep an eye on their car’s health meter on the top of the screen.  Get too low and you’ll be “out” and forced to pause racing and have to play catch up to limp into the pits to regain health.  There is nothing to do in the pits but wait out your health restore.

One aspect of the game thrown in to make it interesting is the other cars behavoir.  Your compeition likes to bang into you like bumper cars, rubbing your health lower and lower.  Fortunately these cars have health meters too that when depleted force them to crash.  I found it a bit annoying but so would coasting around the tracks.

The game is a good play until you lose track of what circuit you are in (about 15 races in my experience) then replay value was low for me.  It certainly was addicting for the first bunch of races.  I found the dialogue silly and at one point inappropriate as the racers talked about Dr. Claire Lewicki.

As popular as NASCAR is, this game pales in comparison to the second Tom Cruise fashioned game from Freeverse.

The game is currently $.99 in the App Store. Days of Thunder link in App Store

Top Gun

This game drips with adrenaline.  Maybe it is the fond memories of the Paramount movie or the fact that this is an Afterburner clone, or the game calling you by your chosen call sign;but whatever it is, mix a decent rock soundtrack to Vulcan Cannons and sidewinder missiles and you’ve got a winning combo.

Player are still fighting the Communist Russians but this time instead of the standard issue F-14 Tomcat, your assigned a prototype F22-B (we’ll sidestep the F-22-b being canceled back in 1993 as a replacement for the Tomcat).   From the movie, Iceman and Maverick are brought back as Top Gun instructors whose dialogue is less silly than in Days of Thunder as they outline the objectives through the mission, requiring you to click through.

Controls are similar to Days of Thunder: accelerometer for left right, up and down, bottom left for Vulcan Cannons and bottom right for missiles.  Guiding your sight over enemy aircraft turns their radar diamond to red, indicating radar lock.  Your radar can lock onto three targets at once allowing you to hit the missile fire button once to launch missiles on all three simultaneously.  Fun.

Obstacles in your way are “Danger Zones”.  The screen is divided up into 3 rows and 3 columns and much like tic-tac-toe you’ve got to escape into a free area as the danger zone turns from yellow to orange to red.  If your jet is in the Danger Zone when it turns red, you lose a health point.  Lose all your health points and you’ll be forced to eject.

If you’ve seen Top Gun then undoubtedly you know the Kenny Loggins hit Danger Zone.  The song here is reproduced by Gavareal and sounds very close to the original.  Other original songs are performed by Gavareal and do a good job of keeping your pulse quick.

This game has become my favorite iPhone game.  The action is quick, you can change the hardness level simply by deciding to take down combatants with your cannons instead of missiles and fighting the Russians is fun again!  The game has high replay value and I’ve still yet to beat the final level.

The dialogue lays out an decent plot, discovering that a mole exists in Top Gun.  Some of the movie-mimicking is a bit silly at times but it holds together.  It is not too hard to figure out who it is though I still have the big unveiling at the end of the final level to put it all together.

The graphics are amazing.  From the carrier take offs to the HUD (heads-up-display) everything is very clear and easy to figure out the game in short order.  Calibration of the accelerometer is very handy from in the game: simply hit pause and tap calibrate.  The game is well thought out and a blast to play.

As a huge fan of Afterburner, Top Gun was an easy pick as my new favorite.  Days of Thunder provided some fun but lacked in advanced play.  Once you mastered getting around cars and when to pit, not much changed.

For Top Gun, the enemies became craftier, dodging your missiles better, battleships through up anti-aircraft fire forcing you to be quick with the controls and to firing options keeps it moving.

The game is currently $3.99 in the App Store. Top Gun link to App Store

Summary

With Freeverse’s licesning relationship with Paramount, could Mission Impossible games be next?  $5 says both these games are on Tom Cruise’s iPhone.  Any takers?

Developer Site: [Freeverse]

Buddy the Bus offers up a 21st century take on the book-and-record sets we used to get as kids.  Back then you’d dig out your Fisher-Price turntable and listen to the narrator read along with the story.  Now that we live in “the future,” both audio and book are magically transported as one package in this totally free app.  Your kids can pop in their headphones and listen along as Buddy the Bus takes his passengers all over the town.

Baby Flash Cards is, to no ones suprise, exactly what it sounds like.  Flash cards are considered by many to be a great way to stimulate a child’s mind.  But why shell out $5-$10 for a set of real cards when you can get a fantastic free set right here?  The free set included in Baby Flash Cards features a variety of real world objects and animals paired up with their matching words.  Cards can be explored alphabetically or randomly, and you can set it so that all the info is on the card at once or the words are hidden until you touch them.

SimpleDraw proves one solid universal truth: kids LOVE coloring.  It’s timeless.  Give a kid in 12th century Mongolia a crayon and he’ll know what to do with it in seconds.  So it should come as no surprise that the one app my 2 year old is always trying to wrestle away my iPod for is the one she calls “COLOR!!”  SimpleDraw’s name couldn’t be more accurate.  You can select from a handful of colors and brush thicknesses, but asides from that things are kept alarmingly minimalist.  Your little one can just put a finger on the screen and go to town.

Children’s Classics let’s you put the tradition of reading with you’re kids right in your pocket.  Sure you could ask your child to sit quietly and patiently on that long train trip/airport wait/doctor’s office visit, but wouldn’t it be more fun to break out the bedtime stories in the middle of the afternoon?  Children’s Classics offers up 16 classics children’s reads ranging from Pinnochio and Robin Hood to Aesop’s Fables and The Secret Garden.  If you find your family is really digging it, make sure to do a search on the AppStore for BeamItDown Software.  Not only have they pblished this great collection, but they have a number of other classic family stories like Alice in Wonderland or A Christmas Carol available completely free of charge.

myHomework is an app that every iPhone/iPod toting student should own, and every parent encourage.  myHomework lets a child keep track of their class schedule, assignments, tests and other school activities.  Even better, it has color coded reminders to let them know when something is about to come due or has missed a deadline.  Organization is a cornerstone to success, and what better developmental task to apply this to than the daily juggle of academia?

This is just the tip of the iceberg.  There are many apps, both paid and free, that prove to be a great resource for parents the world over.  What iPhone apps do you share with your kids?

While the idea comes across as pretty tasteless, something of this nature aimed at those in the legal age range to purchase tobacco is something that I really have no valid reason to get uptight about.  But it’s not.  The game has officially been rated 12+ for, and I quote, “infrequent/mild alcohol, tobacco or drug use or references”.

Really?  A game where the entire object is to pretend like you’re smoking falls under the category of infrequent/mild tobacco use or reference?  It’s astounding that somebody out there though this was ok.  Even reading the instructions from the official website makes this sound like the actual act of smoking;

In order to puff smoke rings, You must first “suck” some smoke. To do this, try to suck the air out of the iPhone from its microphone at the bottom-right side of the iPhone, making some kind of “sssssh” noise

You can only get a limited amount of smoke at a time so don’t waste Your cigarette too much! You must see a reddish glow at the bottom of the screen if You do it right. When You think You got enough smoke, make a puffing noise like “Pft” or “Ph” until You see a ring!

Believe me, I’m the farthest thing from a reactionary alarmist. For the most part, watchdog groups make my stomach turn more than Smoke Rings ever could.  But in a world that is progressively becoming more and more aware of how tobacco use regularly kills both smokers and non-smokers, to see this app even exist (let alone be rated acceptable for adolescents) is mind-boggling.  For years tobacco companies have counted on drafting in legions of dopey teenagers to form life-long smokers.  An app like Smoke Rings will help foster that culture of tobacco acceptance amonst the youth.

Apple’s 17+ rating , which requires the purchaser to be 17 or older to purchase content, lists amongst its criteria the frequent use of “alcohol, tobacco and drugs which may not be suitable for children under the age of 17.”  I can’t imagine a title that more fits that description than Smoke Rings.  So how did it get through?  Who’s actually in control of these ratings?  And who is going to hold them accountable?

For more information on this product, visit the AppStore product page or TTrGames official website for the game.

Until recently the event isn’t something that most would have expected Apple to be associated with.  Now, with the iPhone and iPod Touch taking the premiere spot in the handheld marketplace, it almost seems inevitable that they’d be making an appearance.  So why aren’t they?  And what do they have planned in lieu of attending?

If you’ve been with us for awhile, you’ll likely remember the rumor that’s been floating around about a premium games store being added to the already flooded App Store.  The logic behind this is that premium iPhone publishers such as EA or Konami could release higher-end games that would rival PSP releases for a moderately higher price (likely $19.99).  My guess?  Apple will both make the official announcement and launch the store during E3 week.  Remember folks, this is just pure speculation.  But here’s what I’m going on;

1. E309’s worst kept secret is Sony’s PSP Go.  With no UMD drive, the Go will rely solely on downloadable content.  This means the PlayStation Store is about to become a whole lot bigger, offering premium content from major developers at the $15-$30 range.  This would be in direct competition with the Premium Games Store.  Overshadowing Sony’s expected announcement with a surprise launch is just good business sense.
2. Sims 3 for the iPhone releases on June 2nd; the first official day of E3.  Judging from the trailers and other videos available online this appears to be nothing short of the complete experience that the full version will offer.  I can’t imagine EA slapping a $7.99 price tag on this and calling it a day.
3. Sims 3 makes use of OS 3.0 (as per this video from the 3.0 Sneak Peek event), which means OS 3.0 should be launching this week as well.  If there are any tweaks that need to be made to the OS to introduce the Premium Games Store, what better time than now?

3.0 could mean some other changes for the games business as well.  I don’t really have any specific predictions per se, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see multiple save files introduced or internet-base multiplayer rather than the local-wifi or pass’n'play that we seem to be limited to now.

I’d also expect to see some additional publisher commitments for Mac gaming.  EA made a big push earlier this year to cement a name for themselves amongst Mac users.  If the Premium Games Store does come to frutition, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to find out the publishers benifiting from the iPhone may be contractually obligated to step up their Mac offerings.

None of this may happen.  Apple may have a quiet week, not try to overshadow the rest of the industry, and quietly go about their business.  But given their position of dominance in the handheld gaming market?  They’d be fools to not try and one-up the competition.

For the most part, the answer to that is a resounding yes.  Peggle recreates the source material perfectly, level by level, offering a package as robust as the original which still sells for 4x the price.  Peggle veterans will find that everything they loved from the original is perfectly intact, from the addictive play mechanics to the wacky personalities.

Those of you new to Peggle (where have you been for the last two years??) will be pleasantly surprised by the fresh gameplay concept.  Peggle has it’s roots in games like Pachinko and Plinko, but is still entirely its own beast.  Each stage in Peggle is made up of dozens of pegs and squares.  Some of these are blue and some are orange.  The object of the game is to fire a ball from the top of the screen and remove all of the orange pegs.  The idea is simple enough and may even sound a tad boring to the uninitiated.  But Peggle is one of those rare games that’s equal parts luck and skill.  You’ll need to line up your shots perfectly to take out some orange pegs.  Other times its all about trying to figure out where you can ricochet the ball to reach those hard to get to pegs.   You’ll even find yourself weighing your options between clearing out some useless blue pegs or trying for that trick shot with the few balls you have remaining.

Each level plays host to a set number of stages, and during that level you’ll have the pleasure of meeting a Peggle Master who will give you a special power if you can hit the green peg.  These powers lend a lot to the strategies you’ll use.  Once you feel you’ve mastered the game, there are a number of different scoring possibilities out there that you can use as incentive to revisit a stage and conquer it all over again.   Completing the game will open up a totally new set of challenges.  Things like “clear this stage using only three balls,” “get such and such a score,” etc..  There’s a mountain of content in here for $4.99.

But the iPhone isn’t the Mac, and that means that certain tweaks to the gameplay had to be made in order to survive the transition.  Like all non-keyboard and mouse editions of Peggle, this version lacks the precision of the original.  Lining up shots, while still mostly accurate, has a few small hiccups that can be annoying at times.  You’ll aim with your finger and then remove your finger and press “FIRE” to shoot.  The only problem is that removing your finger generally causes you to nudge the shot a little.  Why they couldn’t have just taken advantage of the multi-touch surface to allow you to hold your shot with one finger and fire with the other is beyond me.  Still, the team at PopCap did an admirable job of modifying the controls to compensate for this.  Now, in addition to simply lining up the shot and firing, you can zoom in on your target area as well as use a dial to fine tune your shot.  It’s a few extra steps then you might want but you’ll find that you won’t need to go this route most of the time.  Unless you’re trying to pull off tht impossible shot, you’ll likely be good with a post-nudge firing.

Despite the small ripple of discomfort that occassionally pops up in aiming, Peggle on the iPhone offers an incredible amount of content and all of the fun and charm of the original.  Whether you were already in love with the original or have never heard the word before in your life, Peggle is pretty much a must buy for anyone with even a passing interest in video games.

Peggle is available now on the iTunes AppStore for $4.99.

Toki Tori takes you through a young chick’s adventures in trying to rescue his siblings. It is both a platformer and a puzzler. You are given a limited number of tools to complete each level, and it can take a while to plan out what you should do. There are four words in the whole game, adding up to 80 levels, but there are also hard levels in each world that you can play once you have beaten the level. Having played this for a bit of time, it is pretty challenging, but yet still fun.

The sound effects and music are great. And the graphics and animations are stunning. It is an extremely polished game, of which we don’t see very many of these days in the App Store. Anyone looking for a new puzzler should try out Toki Tori for $4.99.

The concept behind Monster Trucks Nitro remains unchanged from its predecessor.  You’ll need to drive your Monster Truck across a 2.5D landscape, over obstacles and hills, and make it to the finish line in a set amount of time.  In a lot of ways it feels like the spiritual successor to ExciteBike.  In fact, the game that came before Nitro, Trials 2, featured similar gameplay and dirt bikes.  For anyone who loved that NES classic from the days of yore, you’ll find a lot to love in the Red Lynx catalogue.  It’s just a shame Trials 2 hasn’t made the jump from PC to Mac yet like Nitro has.

But what made the Mac version of Nitro so much fun was the physics engine.  Angling your jumps just right to jump the lake, accidentally over-tilting your truck and landing upside down, pulling off stunts like front and back flips — these are the things that made Monster Trucks Nitro such a fun title.  The iPhone version, despite attempting to recreate that same physics experience, seems to be lacking all of that.

In an effort to streamline things the iPhone version now comes with a “cruise control” option that will keep you from varying your speed.  The option becomes essential because you control the nose and tail of your truck using the built-in accelerometer, leaving no free thumb for the throttle. The entire game is built around this concept, and itworks to a certain degree, but it falls short of recreating the fun of the original.  Adding in a left and right command for nose control on the left side of the screen would have gone a long way towards recreating the experience.  Instead you’ll find yourself playing a game that looks like Monster Trucks Nitro, but feels more like using a level in shop class.

Because of the change in controls, a lot of the levels from the original version simply wouldn’t play well on the portable.  Thankfully the team at RedLynx had the forethought to cherry-pick the levels that would work best given the new control scheme.  Despite this, there are a few stages that just prove problematic.  One stage has you completing a loop five times.  To do this you need to spin your iPhone 360 degrees — five times.  Try doing that without making a mess of your headphone wires.  Only 8 stages are included in the iPhone version.  With any reasonable amount of skill you can easily play through everything the game has to offer in a lunch break and still have time to eat that sandwich you packed from home.

Those who haven’t experienced the superior version will likely find this to be an acceptable time waster.  At 99 cents, it gives you a small taste of that classic ExciteBike-style gameplay, even if it only offers a fraction of what you’ll find on the Mac.  If you don’t mind sinking the extra cash though, the Mac version is a vastly superior product (with a free demo available, too!)  If you have any interest in this game, we’d suggest you skip the iPhone version and go straight for the good stuff.  99 cents is enough for a taste, but you’re just not getting enough product here to make it worth a purchase.

Monster Trucks Nitro is available on the iTunes Store for 99 cents.

The gameplay in Plants vs Zombies, like in all PopCap titles, is deceptively simple.  As a property owner, you’re tasked with protecting your home from the oncoming zombie invasion.  Their weakness?  Plants.  But these are no ordinary plants.  Each serves a special purpose or has a specific attack that it can use to take down the zombies.  The goal of the game is to eliminate all of the zombies each round without letting any of them reach your house.

Some critics are claiming this is PopCap’s take on the tower defense genre, and while it’s easy to see where they’re coming from, they’re not entirely right.  Plants vs Zombies feels more akin to a game of football than it does tower defense.  The zombies start in the street (their end zone) and move their way from one side of the screen to the other in an attempt to reach the house (your end zone).  Tower defense games generally include things like pre-determined paths or set entrances and exits.  Because the zombies can enter from any point in the screen and continue along that path, there’s a different element in play than you’d find in a traditional tower defense game.  But then again, that’s PopCap for you — nothing they ever do is traditional.  I think that’s a lot of the reason almost everything they touch turns to gold.

Still, a lot of tower defense elements still exist in the game.  Money, for example, is a must have for expanding your army.  You’ll need to earn “sunshine” to purchase more plants, which can come from sunflowers (and additional plants later in the game) or from the sun itself on the daytime levels.  There’s a huge variety of plants available in the game, with a new one usually unlocked at the end of each stage.

A good deal of strategy can be implemented in the game as well.  You’ll only have so many seed slots available, which means picking and choosing the types of plants you want to use wisely.  Every ten stages your environment will change slightly, adding in a whole new element of gameplay.  Night levels, for example, mean you need to work extra hard to get sunshine by can use mushrooms in your fight against the undead (mushrooms being unavailable in the day).  Other levels might introduce a backyard pool and aquatic plants.  There’s enough variety here to really keep you on your toes.

In addition to the variety offered by the changing environments, the stages are occassionally broken up by mini-games like “whack-a-zombie” or “wall-nut bowling.”  The mini-games are a nice touch, and help to keep things fresh in a game that plays largely the same throughout.

Plants vs Zombies is great fun, and smacks of the delightful PopCap personality that we’ve all come to know and love.  The only real complaint to be had is that it’s just too easy.  Previous PopCap games have always offered that extra level of challenge that makes their games exciting for players of any skill level.  But after awhile, you’ll get into a groove with Plants vs. Zombies and find yourself getting through stages with zero difficulty.  The game tries to keep throwing new things at you like changing conditions and zombies with different strengths and weaknesses, and while these keep things fresh they don’t provide the level of challenge that might incentivize you to keep playing.

Plants vs. Zombies is a fantastic title that puts a new spin on the tower defense genre, and will easily be remembered as another gem in PopCap’s crown.  It’s something that should be experienced by everybody.  Just be prepared for a game with a lot of personality and charm, but not a lot of challenge.

Plants vs Zombies is available from PopCap Games for $19.95.  A free trial is also available.

Turning a games like GTA into an iPhone App is a very hard thing–one of GTA’s best features is having a whole large map to roam around. So, to recreate the huge map on the iPhone takes some major space–the game is 222Mb, which is one of the largest in the App Store. The graphics are very nice and it runs very smoothly in 3D, so it is worth the space.

The controls can be a little awkward to start out: You move back and forwards with a double-arrowed box (up is forwards, down is reverse). But, you can’t move sideways, you must use the accelerometer to change the way your current vehicle or the person is going. But, having two more control buttons would have taken up too much space, so it may be a good thing that the controls are this way. Other than going back and forwards, there are two other main buttons: Punch/Weapon and Enter/Leave vehicle. There is also A score box at the top, a health meter, and a mini-map of the current city.

The goal in Payback is to gain points. Each level you play requires you to get a certain amount of points, and once you reach that, you win. To get points, you must complete missions or basically cause some trouble. However, the more trouble you cause, as in GTA, the more the cops want to find and ‘bust’ you. So, you can’t just go crazy. To start a mission, you will have to find a ringing phone, and then go next to it to answer it. You will then be told exactly what to do.

Story mode is not the only mode that Payback offers. You can also play in Rampage and Challenge mode. Challenge mode turns Payback into more of a game that you can pick up and put away easily, with a few extra smaller places to play. In Rampage Mode, you really just try to get as many points as possible, and can move from level to level as much as you want.

Overall, Payback provides a fun and challenging gameplay, with a few game modes to bring extra playability. The controls are awkward to being with, but you should get used to them. If you have 222Mb free on your iPhone or iPod Touch and $4.99 to spare, or if you’re just a GTA fan, you should definitely try Payback–there’s even a Lite version available.

The fine folks over at TouchArcade were recently tipped off to the existence of a YouTube video claiming that a very dedicated coder has found a way to get World of Warcraft running on the iPhone.  It may sound like an elaborate hoax (and for all we know, it is) but does that mean it’s impossible?

If you check out the video you’ll see that they’re actually booting the game from Vollee.  VolleeX is an engine designed to allow PC games to be streamed to the iPhone, not unlike how certain PlayStation 3 games can be streamed to a PlayStation Portable.  So it’s entirely feasible that the game could be booted with the aid of the Vollee client.  But even if it was as simple as that, the video shows a layout for World of Warcraft that is uniquely adapted for the iPhone.  That would mean that someone would have had to invest the time and money into getting everything just right.  What kind of hacker would have the resources to tackle that?

Vollee would.

As it turns out Vollee has a partnership with Activision-Blizzard, World of Warcraft’s parent company.  It’s entirely feasible that this could just be an early teaser that’s surfacing in the form of a “leak” from the developer.  Fake leaks are a big part of viral marketing.   They’re a great way to get people talking.  Clearly, it’s working — the Vollee website has been knocked offline (one would assume due to traffic) all afternoon.

And Vollee has never said they weren’t working on a mobile version of World of Warcraft, either.  In an interview with PocketGamer.co.uk back in May 2008, they were asked flat out if they might be able to bring World of Warcraft to the iPhone.  Here’s what they had to say;

We can bring all MMOs and virtual worlds to mobile. We’ve been approaching the major developers and publishers with the idea of enabling all of them to benefit from VolleeX… The possibilities are limitless.

That’s not to say that Vollee is necessarily responsible for the footage online, or to even say that this isn’t just an elaborate hoax.  But when you weigh all the facts, it wouldn’t be all that surprising to find out this was just an early look at what might one day become the official iPhone app for streaming World of Warcraft.  For all we know, they’re just testing the water.

Seeing WoW on the iPhone may seem like a crazy concept at first, but the more I think about it the more it makes sense.  It’s the most popular game on the planet right now.  People have no mobile way to access their characters(save for a wireless laptop).  Vollee is working on technology to do things just like this.  And most of all, rumors of the Premium Games Store haven’t gone away.  If Apple is looking for the perfect app to launch a store with games at a $19.99 price point, i couldn’t think of a better way to guarantee that success than with Warcraft.

The first mode is QuickPlay mode. First to hit 250 points wins. Points are awarded based upon the cards you play. You play against three other computer players until one of you gets a sum of 250 points.

Then there is Single Player mode. Two options are available: Tournament or Custom. Tournament mode involves playing against three other computer players. Each level gets increasing difficult, unlocking player icons, puzzle pieces, and backgrounds as you advance. In Custom mode, you can choose a variety of factors for your game: difficulty level, game mode, penalties, Jump-In rules, etc.

There’s also a Multiplayer mode. The options for multiplayer mode are over Wifi, on one device, and online.

You must be on a Wifi network in order to play over Wifi or to play online. Over Wifi, you can play with other people who are on the same network and also have the app. Up to four people can play on one iPhone if you aren’t on Wifi or if no one else has an iPhone or the game.

You can also play online against other people. You can create your own room or choose a room to play in. Each player’s turn is timed so one person doesn’t stall the game.

Uno on the iPhone is just as addicting and fun as I remember playing the physical game growing up. However, there are a few issues with the app. In order to play cards, you have to double tap a very small space. Also, the entire game is in landscape mode, with no option for portrait mode. There are several load screens you have to tap through to get to actual play, which is annoying when you just want to play.

Multiplayer mode adds back the element of real competitiveness of playing against another human and not just the AI computer. The tournament mode challenges you as you advance, unlocking fun icons and backgrounds. While not the best UI experience, it is the classic, competitive, fun physical game brought to the iPhone platform.

If Lexic were included, I suspect users would have reduced that 70% dramatically as the game is addicting.  The fast-paced word search game reflects everything that is great about the iPhone: great looks and a well-executed GUI.  The two combine in an ever-changing game that will have you playing anywhere you’ve got 10 seconds peace.

Upon clicking the icon, a boot-screen appears in understated tones.  About 4 seconds on average later, tiles descend from the top and layout in a 5 letters x 7 letters layout and the game has begun.  The objective in Lexic is to find as many words from the jumbled letter tiles.

For example, in the image above, you can see I’ve made the highly complex word, “homes” by starting on the “H” and dragging to the other letters.  Depending on the game I am playing, solving for this word will achieve different results.

There are three games included in this one application: Cascade, Blackout and Stasis; each with their own personality but along the same concept: drag your finger from one adjacent letter to the next to create words.

Cascade

In Cascade, as you complete words, the tiles fill in by droping from the top.  As you complete words, you are scored by their length and if any letters solved were a highlighted yellow bonus letter.  The game is timed with customizable times from 1-5 minutes or practice mode.

Cascade keeps things rattled as new letters drop in to fulfill your word plans or completely destroy them.  This is the classic Lexic game and I can’t stop playing it.

Blackout 

Blackout changes game play up quite a bit.  As you solve words in typical Lexic form, the word becomes blacked out and those tiles are not replaced.  The left over tiles settle downward if applicable, leaving you fewer tiles to work with.  This game takes a clever mind to try to create as many words as possible with the tiles on hand.

In Blackout, there is no time component.  For me, these games are short and often end in frustration.

Stasis

Stasis adds a new twist to the concept.  Instead of tiles that disappear after you use them, in Stasis the tiles are recycled and remain exactly where they started.  Your mission is to make as many words out of one group of 35 tiles as you can.

This game leaves me with the feel of the luck of the draw and stretches my word-search abilities unlike the other games.

Settings

The settings, like the rest of the game are elegantly executed and simple.  From Settings, users can control which game they are playing, tile color, which word list to use (TWL-the approved list for word game competitions in the US, Canada and oddly enough: Thailand or SOWPODS which is used in most other countries), sounds, scores and instructions on how to play.  Expect all your questions to be answered and there isn’t a feeling of insecurity anywhere to be found in this game.

Easter Eggs

There are some really cool features added into 1.3.3, the latest version.  The developers seems to share the sense that anything is possible with a touchscreen and have been playing according to the rules so far.

However, press and hold “new game” upon the completion of a game and you’ll get a great looking shortcut menu arrayed in a circle.  The menu is again simple and elegant.

Another great addition is a small button at the bottom of the screen at the end of the game that brings up the words you’ve solved in that game.  The developers again found a way to accomplish this in a very elegant manner.

Developer support looks to be impressive as this latest release added the two new sub games: Stasis and Blackout.  While these are not break-out hits in their own right, it is a great variation that was pushed out for free to current customers.

Overall, the game is compelling and is word searches are the least bit attractive to you, this is one to get.

Lexic is available on the iTunes App Store. It is priced at $2.99.

You play the character Jill Evans, who is trying to prepare for her wedding. A time bender breaks, and her friends and family are sent back in time to various points in “history.” Each set of levels takes place in a different place and point in history. You must make cakes of various complexities and make enough money as a bakery to free each friend or family member.

The fast-pace levels are easy to play, with simple tapping to make, frost, and give cakes to customers. There are also small treats that can be given the customers to keep them happy, as well as tea, coffee, and cocoa that customers can order. Each level requires you to make a certain amount of money at the bakery to advance to the next level. You can replay a level as many times as necessary to reach the required monetary goal. There is a “Super Bakery Level” of money above the minimum for each level as well. Your progress through each era of history is marked by a path of blue stars for making the minimum level of money or red stars for “Super Bakery Level” of money.

There is also a challenge game where you just play through one location until the bakery doesn’t reach its goal for that level. This is essentially a mini game of the overall game, where you only play path of levels until you don’t reach the monetary goal or that level. Your score can be uploaded to an online site, which opens in mobile Safari. You must register for the site before your score can be uploaded.

The game is easy to play, and very addicting. However, if you get interrupted mid-level by a phone call or needing to exit the app, your progress for that level is not saved. The next time you open the game, you can begin at the beginning of the last level you were playing. Also, the game is very resource intensive, and lags slightly on startup, close, and if interrupted by a phone call.

Cake Mania 3 is on sale for $4.99 right now, so enjoy playing this fun, addicting game.

With their fast paced, twitch shooter gameplay, twin stick gameplay was dependent on it’s two physical joysticks to react to the action on screen; the left stick to control motion, the right to control direction of fire. Mapping those directional controls to the iPhone’s touch panel was possible, but at the same time sounded ridiculous. Without something physical to grip, could a gamer really react quickly enough to tackle everything coming at them? And what about screen size? Could you really get a good handle on the enemies coming in at you with a handheld device and your thumbs blocking the invading forces? The team behind iDracula had the answer; slow it down.

By no means does that mean that iDracula moves at a slow pace. But with the reduced screen size, lack of actual sticks, and thumbs blocking a portion of the playfield, bringing iDracula to a pace appropriate for the platform was a necessity. If Geometry Wars speed was at the proverbial Spinal Tap 11, then iDracula moves at about an 8. It solves the dilemma of sticklessness and it solves the dilemma of size.

Controls are simple, intuitive, and responsive. Your left thumb goes on the left circle and controls movement. Your right thumb goes on the right and control direction of fire. For many twin stick shooters, that’s about all you can say. iDracula takes things further. The game offers a series of weapons, perks, and demons that ensure the gameplay evolves the longer you survive.

As you slay hordes of werewolves, ghosts, witches and other monsters, you’ll collect ammunition and unlock new weapons from their corpses. Initially you’ll be defending yourself with a single shot pistol. As the game progresses you’ll be firing everything from a crossbow to a grenade launcher. Each weapon has it’s own pluses and minuses, meaning you may find yourself switching for the different situations you encounter. The machine gun, for example, has a high rate of fire but only damages one enemy at a time. The grenade launcher on the other hand is slower but can take out a whole group of monsters in one shot. Since you’ll be tasked with gathering you’re own ammo, you’ll often find yourself running out and switching to other weapons. That means you’ll have to balance your time between your favorite weapons and the weapons that are just good enough to get the job done.

As you progress through countless waves of monsters, you’ll be upgrading more than your choice of weapons. Each time you upgrade a level you’ll earn access to a new “perk.” Perks are modifiers that will affect the way the game is played. Some perks will increase your rate of fire when your health is low. Others will improve how far back the bad guys stumble when shot. There’s a pretty wide variety of perks offered that range anywhere from improving your health to telekinetically drawing ammo and health drops towards you. You’ll get to select your perk from a randomly generated list of four each time you level up. Depending on the combination of perks you select, the game will feel marginally different on each play.

All of the aspects of the game outside of the actual mechanics have that same level of polish discussed above. Visually, the game creates it’s own unique look. It becomes clear upon first glance that a painstaking level of detail and love went into making the character models look as original and identifiable as possible. If you were to ever see one of iDracula’s werewolves outside of the game, you’d likely find it to be instantly recognizable. The artwork is distinctive and helps to build the game’s panic-attack-horror atmosphere. The original audio score, blending rock and club vibes in an early 90’s kind of way, contributes greatly to this as well.

As a balanced review should always look at the good and the bad, it would be something of a cop out to say there’s nothing bad to say about this game — but there’s really not. If we were to get nitpicky, there are certainly some things that would be great to see in future iterations that aren’t there in the games original incarnation. As a stat junkie, it would be terrific to have an option from the pause menu that lets you see exactly how your perks are affecting your performance. A feature that let’s you save and load previous games (something I don’t think I’ve seen in any iPhone title yet) would be awesome for giving you that second chance after you’ve botched up a great 30 minute session with one wrong slip. But again — this is nitpicking. At $2.99 iDracula is easily the best value currently on the iTunes App Store. I would have been just as happy spending $20 on this.

Developer support appears to be a big thing for the future of iDracula. Much like Fieldrunners, it appears that free expansion-style updates are on the way. Version 1.1 is already in the pipe and set for release later this month, featuring a new play mode where the monsters attack in waves, new weapons, new maps (the current version only has one) and an online leaderboard. Titles with developers that listen to their audience (that’s why they decided on waves) and strive to provide fresh content for their long-term players will always be winners in my book. If you’re looking for fast-paced action, great atmosphere, and a narcotic-like addiction, you need to purchase iDracula.

iDracula is available on the iTunes App Store. Normally priced at $2.99, as of this writing iDracula is available for the introductory price of 99 cents.

With the blessing of the original developers, the team at Cowboy Rodeo treated their port as a true restoration of the original. Working from the original code they ensured that every last bit of Dreams classic physics and memorable table design made the transition. From the world of early 90’s computers to the world of 21st century handhelds, not a moment of the action was lost. The sounds, the sights, and most importantly the gameplay remain intact. Fans of the original Pinball Dreams are going to find a lot to love here. It’s a perfect pocket trip down memory lane.

But what about gamers new to the Pinball Dreams series? Is there enough here to keep new audiences captivated, or is Pinball Dreams a game that can only be enjoyed through rose-colored glasses?

The answer to that is positive, albeit a tad mixed. Any gamer, young or old, that enjoys simulated pinball will find something of value in this title — but it is a title from 1992. That means that all of the bells and whistles that you may have come to expect from modern pinball simulations simply aren’t there. Interactive set pieces, flashing lights, and giant production numbers that you might find in a real world pinball table just won’t be found here like they will be in some of Dreams modern competition. Look past that though, and you’re getting one of the best values for simulated pinball on the iPhone.

Pinball Dreaming: Pinball Dreams features four distinctly different tables with different themes. Ignition takes you into the world of space exploration. Steel Wheels is a train journey through the old west. Beat Box has you involved in the world of club music. Nightmare is a spooky jaunt through a graveyard. While all four tables play pretty differently and can lay claims to originality, it seems as though some classic real world tables have played influence into their design. The one that most clearly jumps out at pinball enthusiasts would be Ignition, a table that seems inspired both in theme and playfield to the Williams classic Firepower. “Inspired” really is the key word here. Nothing feels like it’s a blatant rip off of something popular on the market. It all comes across as a loving homage, and it’s a good thing.

The heart of the action — the actual pinball — plays exactly like you’d want it to play. The flippers are controlled by simply tapping on the side of the screen the flipper is on. You can shoot the ball by tapping the plunger. You can tilt by shaking the iPhone. As mentioned earlier, the physics are about as dead on as a 2D pinball simulation can get. For a pinball fan, playing Pinball Dreams is a delight.

Dreams even offers a widescreen alternative by simply turning your device to the widescreen position, forcing the game to scroll rather than displaying the whole thing at once. Some gamers will actually prefer the scrolling motion to seeing the whole table at once (myself included) as it creates the illusion of faster action.

That’s not to say this title isn’t without it’s flaws though. Outside of the core game there are a fews twists and tweaks that could use some serious improvement. While the main menu selection offers a very sleek presentation, it also neglects to tell you that clicking on the title will bring up the “help” screen. Without information from that help screen, you’ll find yourself at a serious loss when you’re attempting to do even the most basic navigation in between games. If you want to access the options you’ll need to tap the right corner of the screen. If you want to quit and return to the main menu you’ll need to tap on the left. The hidden help screen on the main menu is the only way to learn this. Even entering your initials for the high score becomes a confusing mess without guidance. Making some of these things visible should be a simple fix, and we’d love to see one employed in a future update.

Despite some poor decisions in menu management, Pinball Dreaming: Pinball Dreams offers an unbeatable value for iPhone-wielding pinball fanatics by including four tables in the same package. The simpler tables of yesteryear may not hold the same appeal for everyone, but if you enjoy pinball less for it’s flash and more for it’s substance, this one’s a no brainer.

Pinball Dreaming: Pinball Dreams is available on the iTunes App Store for $5.99.

The game launches in and is played in widescreen format, as this makes sense for its gameplay.  The menu gives you seven different options, three of which are gameplay modes.  The gameplay modes include Challenge Mode, Speed Mode, and Practice Mode.  These will all be looked at in depth throughout the review.  The instructions page is very nice, as the game can be a tad bit confusing when you first start it.  It only takes a matter of seconds to get used to, but we would suggest starting with the instructions menu.  It thoroughly explains each game mode and menu item available.

So, the point of the game is to match the “Goal” number by flipping switches on and off of different binary numbers.  A switch “On” will mean that this number is going to be added to “Your” number, while turning the switch back off will subtract it.  You start at 0.  Say the number you are given is 228.  You will want to flip on switches 128, 64, 32, and 4 as quickly as possible, matching the 228 goal.  You will then be given a new number.

In practice mode you are able do just that, practice.  There is no time running or goal to be set.  This is where you can get good and fast at the game by just messing around.  You might even be able to memorize some combinations if you practice enough.  The game reacts very fast and there is no lag, which is essential in a game of this nature.  The buttons are big and spaced out enough so that you don’t accidentally click on the wrong switch.

The real fun starts in Challenge mode.  Here you are put on a timer and are given a Level and Round rating.  The goal is to advance to the next round before the timer runs out.  Each level has 5 rounds within it, and you are given points for each number you complete.  Eventually, after you run out of time, all of your points are totaled and this is your score. You can see these features in the image below.

Next, and by far the most addicting, is speed mode.  Speed mode acts a lot like the rest of the game, but you are given 15 numbers, and the goal is complete each number as fast as possible.  The whole session is on a timer and the goal is to beat previous best times.

The coolest feature of B1nary Game is the online score tracking.  In the game, you can go to your own personal high scores and there is an option to upload them to the web.  Then, you can go over to B1nary Game’s website and see where you rank with everyone else playing the game.  They feature rankings for the Top 15 in both challenge mode and speed mode for the day and the all time leaders in each.  This feature works great and I haven’t had any trouble with it.

In conclusion, B1nary Game truly is a very fun and addicting puzzle game, just like they promised.  Although the idea is very simple, it truly is original and innovative.  It pulls you in and makes you want to keep improving on your best times, as you really do get better at it every time you play.  It seems to be the type of game that a lot of people are looking for in the cluster that has become of the App Store.  If you love numbers and puzzles, this game will be a blast for you.

The game never crashed or ran slowly through hours of gameplay.  The only complaints I have are that there is no demo and that it can feel a tad repetitive after awhile.  However, trying to beat the top scores takes away from this and I’m sure there are some good updates coming.

The creator of the game has told us that an update should be released to Apple has early as Monday.

You can find B1nary Game in the iPhone App Store for 1.99

On most gaming platforms, when a game goes through an approval process there’s some rigorous legal testing in addition to quality control. That’s why you never hear about Wii or PS3 games being pulled from the shelves for copyright violations. But the world of iPhone/iPod Touch games? Apple treats it like the Wild West. So long as it passes quality control (some games don’t — just look at Yoot Saito’s Gabo), Apple doesn’t seem to have a problem with releasing a title to iTunes — often despite glaring copyright issues. Just take a peek at these few examples.

LED Football: Mattel LED sports games were all the rage in the late 70’s and early 80’s. I remember having a baseball one that I played to death. That’s why I was so excited to see the old Mattel classics coming to the iPhone in picture perfect recreations of the originals! But what’s this? The word Mattel doesn’t seem to appear anywhere in the game. OH! I GET IT! Mattel had nothing to do with these games despite being point for point clones.

Mattel would have a great case on their hands if they decided to pursue legal action. It’s not even like these things are out of production — Mattel has an active re-release of their LED classics on store shelves now. 99 cents on the AppStore is a far cry from the $9.99 MSRP of the re-issued classics.  There’s no way these can’t be hurting business.  Why would anyone take a $10 trip down memory lane when they can do the same journey for a tenth of the cost?

Monster Typer: While it’s essentially a mobile twist on Typing of the Dead, Monster Typer’s copyright concerns aren’t with Sega. They’re not with Mavis Beacon either. No, Monster Typer’s issue lies with Sony and/or the artist Roltio. You see, Rolito was commissioned to create the art for the Sony-published PSP game Patapon. To say the art in Monster Typer was inspired by Patapon would be a gross understatment. Regardless, Apple was more than happy to release this free typing tutor to the App Store.  It’s a shame too, because asides from the art theft leaving a bad taste in our mouths our review of Monster Typer couldn’t have been more glowing.  Why should it take the threat of a lawsuit from Sony to fix such a glaring violation of intellectual property rights?

And that’s just a sampling of the issues on the App Store now. Numerous past releases have been curbed from their renegade ways once the lawyers got involved;

Atari Shuts Down Breakout Clones: Breakout clones, in one form or another, have existed for years. Back in 1977, Breakout created a genre. As such it can be hard to determine what might fall under the category of copyright violation and what could be considered an evolution of the species. Games like Arkanoid, Break’em All and Magic Ball could easily be seen as seperate from the original Breakout franchise. BreakClassic and BreakTouch 3D however, were borrowing a little too heavily from the series title for Atari’s liking. After a brief lawyer intervention, these games were removed from the App Store.

Nintendo Shoots Down Duck Hunt: While some games might fall into something of a debatable gray area like the Breakout clones mentioned above, there’s no arguing what happened with the iPhone App Duck Hunt, which shared more than just a name with Nintendo’s own NES classic. In fact, Duck Hunt was a direct port. It was the digital equivalent of bootlegging. Nintendo felt the same way and demanded Apple take it down. Lawl Mart, the game’s developer, wasn’t discouraged. He intends to change the name and graphics and re-release the game as soon as possible.

THQ Didn’t Feel PhoneSaber’s Force: Sure it was fun to swing your iPhone around making lightsaber noises and running the risk of accidentally chucking it into the ground, but THQ Wireless, a company that held exclusive rights to Star Wars mobile properties, didn’t see the fun in someone stealing the IP rights to a license that they’d paid handsomely for. The original app was removed, and THQ actually reached a pretty good bargain with PhoneSaber’s developers — they bought it. Now you get grab PhoneSaber Unleashed, a free download meant to help promote THQ’s actual Star Wars iPhone game, The Force Unleashed.

Again — this is just a sampling. While the problem seems to be running rampant the vast majority of developers still take the moral highground by creating original content or getting permission from license holders. A great example of this is the team at Cowboy Rodeo, the studio behind the recently released Pinball Dreaming: Pinball Dreams. A straight port of the Amiga original, Cowboy Rodeo made sure to get the blessing of the game’s co-creator and coder Andreas Axelsson, who ended up giving the team access to the original source code. Better for them, and in the end, a better product for us.

Copyright infringement seems to be an ongoing issue on the App Store, yet Apple doesn’t seem concerned enough to change their approval process to make sure these items aren’t making their way to the store. Is it that they can afford the lawsuits? Or do they just pass the cost on to the publisher? What makes them so unconcerned, and what can copyright holders do to change this? And then there’s the most important question — what happens to us, Joe Consumer? If I spent 99 cents on Duck Hunt, do I get my money back when it’s yanked off my phone? Or do I get to keep it despite it being pulled down from the store? It’s a strange situation with far more questions than answers.

Apple will likely need to tighten up copyright abuse if they want to encourage larger publishers and developers to bring their wares into the mix, which is exactly what the rumored Premium Game Store is set to do. But will they tighten up their shabby treatment of copyright law to date? Or will my iPod Touch remain the place to go for classic games that aren’t tied to their parent companies?

According to PocketGamer’s sources, games on this special channel will retail for $19.99 rather than the traditionally low price point games that currently exist on the App Store. Slide to Play was able to get more details from another unnamed source. The Premium Games Store will only be open for certain developers, and is intended to bring PSP quality games to the iPhone. This means substantially bigger file sizes, and according to their source, “attract prominent franchises that publishers have been reluctant to bring to the platform thus far.”

While it’s easy to appreciate Apple’s need to entice larger publishers to their platform, it’s hard not to worry about the effect this will have on indie developers that have risen to some success courtesy of the iPhone’s App Store. Had their been a Premium Games section at launch, would titles like FieldRunners or Rolando have been able to get the attention they deserve?

This is still classed as a rumor, but it seems to be a pretty solid one considering the number of developers willing to go off record about it. Expect radio silence from Apple on this until their next major press event or, if they decide to go all in and get the word out to gamers, E3.

Developer TouchGrove has made LED Football, an iPhone app heavily influenced by the Mattel LED games of old, available as a free download this Superbowl weekend. The deal ends on February 2, 2009, at which point it will likely return to it’s original price of $0.99.

If you enjoy LED Football, make sure to check out TouchGrove’s other LED titles LED Football 2 and LED Basketball, available on the iTunes App Store for $0.99 each.

On the company’s official Twitter page was a tweet that read “peggle for iphone planned for this year as well!” The message was removed a short time later, but not before word began to spread. At first PopCap refused to comment on the now-removed tweet, but later confirmed to Joystiq that not only would we see the title in 2009, but we’d likely see it in early March.

We’ve attempted to get further details out of PopCap, but at the moment their lips are sealed. No word yet on pricing or gameplay details. Will Peggle on the iPhone feature new levels and challenges or will it be territory we’ve visited before? Will aiming be controlled via touch or tilt? There are still a lot of questions that remain unanswered. Luckily we’ll only have to wait until early March to find out.

IGF Mobile Best Game:
* Cubic Republic (IKS Mobile) – Flash Lite
* Smiles (Sykhronics Entertainment) – iPhone/iPod touch
* Fieldrunners (Subatomic Studios) – iPhone/iPod touch
* Edge (Mobigame) – iPhone/iPod touch
* Wardive (And-or) – Nintendo DS

Innovation in Mobile Game Design:
* Wardive (And-or) – Nintendo DS
* Galcon (Hassey Enterprises) – iPhone/iPod touch
* Eliss (Steph Thirion) – iPhone/iPod touch

Achievement in Art:
* Fieldrunners (Subatomic Studios) – iPhone/iPod touch
* Dizzy Bee (Igloo Games) – iPhone/iPod touch
* Ruben & Lullaby (Song New Creative) – iPhone/iPod touch

Technical Achievement:
* Football Tycoon (Dynamo Games) – Java
* Real Racing (Firemint) – iPhone/iPod touch
* Wardive (And-or) – Nintendo DS

Audio Achievement:
* Radio Flare (Studio Radiolaris) – iPhone/iPod touch
* Zen Bound (Secret Exit) – iPhone/iPod touch
* Edge (Mobigame) – iPhone/iPod touch

Best iPhone Game — Presented by ngmoco:
* Edge (Mobigame) – iPhone/iPod touch
* Dizzy Bee (Igloo Games) – iPhone/iPod touch
* Fieldrunners (Subatomic Studios) – iPhone/iPod touch
* Zen Bound (Secret Exit) – iPhone/iPod touch
* Frenzic (The Iconfactory) – iPhone/iPod touch

The winners will be announced on March 24th 2009, with a special ceremony on March 25th to present the winners with their share of the $30,000 prize money. If you want to check out the nominees first hand, all titles will be on display at this years Game Developer’s Conference in San Fransisco March 23rd-27th.

To learn more visit igfmobile.com.