Gamertell - Mashups

Free Apple Apps roundup for November 6, 2009

NEWS — 2009-11-06T21:25:48+00:00

FROM APPLETELL - Another great week for freebies on the App Store. Lots of information, apps and games, which is good news if your weekend was going to be bland. Now it can be full of icons instead!
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Apple App Store gaming update for the week of October 26 to November 2, 2009

Kris Rosado — 2009-11-03T01:03:30+00:00

Section: Features, Lists, Mashups, Handhelds, iPhone & iPod Touch, Updates, Apple App Store

The Apple App Store gaming update is Gamertell’s weekly look at the previous week’s Apple App Store game releases. We cover them all - good and not so good - in their respective categories with a breakdown of the great games and the free games right where you want ‘em, at the top and in your face. The list is available every Monday, right as you are about to start that long work week.

This first week of November 2009 brings us the biggest update we have seen in awhile. Tons of games for you guys and gals to choose from including Virtual Villagers 3, Word Spin, and DOOM Classic. If none of those do it for you, there are still plenty of other games to choose from.

What’s Free

BomberDove Lite
“BomberDove is a fun and addicting shooting game with a comic touch! Have you ever been bombed by a dove? Now’s your chance to get your revenge. Shoot the doves to score as many point as you can within the time limit on Timed Mode.”

Fantasy Warrior: Good & Evil Free
“Good or Evil? What side will you choose? Step into a world of heroes, villains, and legends as you join this epic conflict in Fantasy Warrior. Fight for good through 5 quests with sword in hand as you get a taste of this epic adventure. Purchase the Full Version and journey through a vast world of deep dungeons, scorching deserts, and misty marshes as you make your mark by playing both sides of the story. Crusade for good as Rento the valiant warrior or fight for evil as Vera the beautiful, but deadly vampire countess! Fulfill your destiny on quests to advance the powers of light – or darkness – as you enjoy a massive fantasy adventure full of hours of gameplay!”

Adventure Zones Lite
“Do you like simple but strategic games such as “Chess” or “Reversi” that competing with your friends? Or, do you like “Solitaire” type of game that you play solo? If then, you will love our “Adventure Zones”. Measure your wits in the adventure world. As a Treasure Hunter, you will have to collect various treasures throughout the world. You can obtain treasure by linking the block roads. Rules are simple, but circumstance changes simultaneously depends on what strategy you have. Make the game yours while competing with your rivals.”

Chupacabra Killer LITE
“A Chupacabra is on the loose, sucking the blood from animals and leaving them for dead! Kill as many animals as you, as fast as you can.. But watch out for the snipers, they are trying to capture you before you can mangle the innocent little prey. Even a blood thirsty Chupacabra has difficulty catching prey sometimes, so there are awesome weapons to pick up and use against them. Hear the prey scream and the blood splatter as you sink your teeth into them!”

Transylvania Adventure
“Princess Sabrina needs you! Come play the classic adventure game Transylvania™, the perfect escape for Halloween! You will wander a haunted landscape and face a howling werewolf, a sinister vampire, and other supernatural foes on your quest to find and rescue the princess!”

Battle Zone 1942 Lite
“Inspired by the classic Seawolf, Battle Zone 1942 is a fast-paced arcade action game coupled with fresh innovative gameplay features. for fans of the Original Seawolf, as well as old and new players to the action game genre, this game is for you!”

Squared! Free
“Squared! Free is Quick and Addictive Arcade Action! This is the ad supported full version. How to Play: Drag the center black square to collect other black squares! Pick up the black circle for a power-up. Watch out for red squares! It’s easy to learn, hard to master! Compete on the worldwide leaderboard featuring your country flag. The perfect two-minute time killer.”

ArtemisLite
“Artemis is a vertical scrolling shoot’em’up game! Keldor - the emperor of Morag built a new fleet and is trying to conquer the galaxy once again! With your modern R4000-2 space ship you can try to destroy a crucial part of Keldors evil robot fleet!”

Sock Slider
“Sock Slider is an addictive pick-up-and-play game that simulates the physics and fun of running and sliding in your socks. The objectives are simple- either run and slide across the floor as far as you can, or see how many times you can slide into the circle.”

Monster Ball Lite
“Monster Ball is a turn based strategy game that builds on the simplicity of checker without getting as complex (*ehm* and boring) as chess. This lite version features 3 of the 16 levels in the full version, annihilation game mode and single player gameplay.”

Backgammon NJ Lite
“Backgammon NJ Lite is fully-functional with no ads. The only difference from the full version is that the lite version includes Manual Rolls only. That is, you’ll need to roll real dice and enter your rolls into the game. With this lite version, you’ll be able to clearly see all of the features of the game: how well the AI plays, the look and feel of the game, how Hints & Tutor mode can help you improve your game, etc. If you like Backgammon NJ Lite, get the full version for automatically generated dice rolls and all the same great features! Backgammon NJ is a full-featured backgammon game which uses an advanced, neural network-based, artificial intelligence. Players of all skill levels can match wits against a computer opponent or play against another person in 2-player mode on a single device. Discriminating players will appreciate how well the AI plays. It uses a neural network trained on millions of positions, a bearoff database, and a match equity table to achieve strong gameplay that will challenge even expert players.”

Gas Tycoon 2 Lite
“If you have already played in the classic pipe puzzle game, such as “Pipe Mania” or “Pipe Dream”, then you’re familiar with this genre. Game “Gas Tycoon 2” is a development of this genre, where you have to lay a pipeline from sources to consumers of ready-made elements by their rotation in opposite directions. If you have already played in the first part of the “Gas Tycoon”, then you’ll love this sequel. We tried to make the game more interesting, more beautiful, and created more and more new levels.”

Falling Sands Free 2
“Falling Sands Free 2 is the sequel to the hit simulation game Falling Sands. Remember the classic sand games found on the web way back when? Now you can enjoy it on the go with Falling Sands Free 2! There’s no objectives in Falling Sands Free 2, you simply choose a particle (“sand”) type, the size of the brush, and draw along the screen with a swipe. As the sands mix, they each interact differently allowing for some neat visuals. Make a calming water based game, or go destructive with smelter, fire, and plants! Falling Sands Free 2 fully supports the accelerometer allowing interesting moments when you tip your device. Also supported are custom backgrounds including support for your photo album.”

Perfect Balance: Lost Trials
“Rotate and stack shapes, and try to achieve perfect balance in this physics puzzle! The third Perfect Balance game for iPhone & iPod Touch with 30 new and unique levels. And this time it’s free! Play this and you’ll see why both Perfect Balance: Harmony and Perfect Balance: Inferno have gotten great reviews… Perfect Balance was released as a Flash 9 game at the beginning of 2009, and over 7 million players have enjoyed its challenges after the game hit the biggest Flash games sites in the Internet world wide. If you like games like Tetris, Topple, 99 Bricks, Tower Bloxx and Super Stacker, you just might love Perfect Balance! Girls play it, too!”

Explosion! FREE
“Explosion! FREE is a skill game that will try out your memory, reflexes and timing in an attempt to defuse a dangerous bomb, before it esplodes! Thanks to the e-Defuser™ in fact, you can enter certain codes, using the keypad, in order to prevent the explosion. Find the highest number of hidden words, organized into different categories, as fast as you can… but be careful! Guess each word before time runs out, otherwise the bomb will esplode, ending your game! It won’t be an easy task to decipher the sequence of 50 hidden words, because after each error (wrong letter) the timer will increase its speed, getting you closer and closer to a very explosive epilogue!”

What’s New

Action

DOOM Classic: Price: $6.99
“Welcome to Hell! Prepare to relive the First Person Shooter that defined a generation with the legendary original DOOM - now on the iPhone. As a space marine stationed on the planet Mars, you are all that stands between the armies of Hell and their invasion of planet Earth! DOOM Classic includes the original three episodes as well as Episode Four, Thy Flesh Consumed, spread across 36 levels of non-stop carnage and action. Choose from customizable control schemes, all designed by id Software co-founder and industry legend, John Carmack. Wield unforgettable weapons like the Chainsaw and the BFG 9000 while fighting through notorious monsters like the Imp, Cacodemon, and Hell Knight! In DOOM Classic, multiplayer action is reborn! With a wireless connection, battle up to four players in Deathmatch mode, or work together cooperatively and fight back against the demons of Hell.”

Amy’s Dessert Shop: Price: $0.99
“Running a dessert shop is the dream of Amy since childhood and she is going to make her dream come true. In order to raise capital and gain experience, Aunt Mary has helped her with getting several jobs so she can earn more money. Through referrals, Amy managed to get 3 jobs at the same time working at a pancake shop, an ice-cream shop and a cake shop to gain more experience. She is working very hard and learning as much as she can. She believes she can run her own dessert shop in the very near future. Amy’s Dessert Shop is a time management game which offers fast paced action and innovative game play. Player will play as shop owner and efficiently serve 60 kinds of desserts. In order to satisfy each customer’s different needs, the player has to response fast enough to manage different orders.”

Blood Beach: Price: $2.99
“You are hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned and have no option or hope except to fight and win. You are alone. Just you, your guns, and the thin stretch of what you call Blood Beach stand between you and the whole of the Japanese Imperial Navy… Blood Beach is an authentic WW2 sim in the classic arcade style. You are the lone defender of a remote listening post in the Solomon islands. While you have an impressive arsenal including the M2 BMG, Bofors 40mm, and of course your Thompson SMG, the Imperial Japanese Navy will throw everything they can muster at you, “Zeros”, “Bettys” , even Nagato class battleships in their methodical and relentless push to recapture the Solomon’s.”

Jean’s Boutique: Price: $2.99
“Jean’s Boutique Time Management Game for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Manage your own virtual Jean’s Boutique. Run your own Jean’s Boutique, a great fashion game combined with the fun of serving customers. To make it in the fast-paced world of fashion, Jean will need to be fast on her feet, dedicated to her customers, wise in her upgrades. For fast fashion fun, there’s no place like Jean’s Boutique!”

Fantasy Warrior: Good & Evil: Price: $4.99
“Good or Evil? What side will you choose? Step into a world of heroes, villains, and legends as you join this epic conflict in Fantasy Warrior. Journey through a vast world of deep dungeons, scorching deserts, and misty marshes as you make your mark by playing both sides of the story. Crusade for good as Rento the valiant warrior or fight for evil as Vera the beautiful, but deadly vampire countess! Fulfill your destiny on quests to advance the powers of light – or darkness – as you enjoy a massive fantasy adventure full of hours of gameplay!”

SUSHI-DO: Price: $0.99
“SUSHI-DO” is an unprecedented action puzzle game. The sense of speed that kept the flick operation that is one of the characteristics of iPhone/iPod touch alive is a game to overflow. The stage is a sushi shop of EDO period. It is a fight of three SAMURAI who have the appetite without exhausted and workman of the sushi.”

Black Eyed Zombies: Price: $1.99
“The Zombies are out tonight! They only have one goal - kill you. You only have one goal - kill them. Blast them down while dodging the ghouls and goblins. Don’t let the bats and ghosts knock you down. Earn bigger weapons by catching the falling skulls. Earn additional life by catching cake dropped by the scooter girl. Don’t let the Zombie lawn mower run you down. Kill the devil beasts and win the game! Listen to our Zombie killing music or start your iTunes with something good from Nine Inch Nails while you splatter Zombies.”

Taxi Fight!: Price: $0.99
“Under the busy city lights, Taxi Fight! puts you in a quick race against time and traffic to catch a cab. Just tap a waiting passenger, then tap any available taxi to get them hustling on their way. The more passengers you get into free cabs, the more fares your taxi company earns. But wouldn’t you know it – the more success you have, the faster the cabs speed along the city streets, making them a real challenge to chase down. If your passengers have to wait too long for a cab, they’ll literally explode in rage. And if one of them is run over, game over!”

Adventure

Adventure Zones: Price: $0.99
“Do you like simple but strategic games such as “Chess” or “Reversi” that competing with your friends? Or, do you like “Solitaire” type of game that you play solo? If then, you will love our “Adventure Zones”. Measure your wits in the adventure world. As a Treasure Hunter, you will have to collect various treasures throughout the world. You can obtain treasure by linking the block roads. Rules are simple, but circumstance changes simultaneously depends on what strategy you have. Make the game yours while competing with your rivals.”

Aether Fighter: Price: $0.99
“Aether Fighter is a 2D shooting game in the “shoot’em up” style of arcade games like Galaga and Space Invader.You need to fight a space army,levels get harder and harder,your main challenge is surviving and useing the cannon to bring down as many invaders as you can in order to defeat the invasion. This is inspired on classic arcade games with updated graphics and sound.It also leverages the unique iPhone user interface to make the game even funier. You can tap anywhere on the screen to shoot and use the accelerometer to control your cannon. Save the world and have fun!”

Alice in Bomberland: Price: $1.99
“From the designer/programmer of the hit game Topple, and the visual artist from Braid, Sonic Boom presents Alice in Bomberland! Alice in Bomberland brings a new spin to the classical stories and characters from legendary author Lewis Carroll. Help Alice collect the missing pages of her story as she tries to outlast the explosive attacks of the fantasy world that is Bomberland. Don’t worry though; you’ll come across fantastic powerups to help you on your way through this bizarre world. See you down the rabbit hole!”

MarsRover: Price: $0.99
“Take a perilous journey across Martian landscape in this unique platform, physics game built specifically for the iPhone. Navigate your space AV over challenging terrains while avoiding destruction by evil Martians, land mines, wicked projectiles, or even falling into bottomless chasms. Marsrover is a fun addictive game with original graphics and stunning effects. Particle explosions set off by landmines and missiles will have your adrenaline glands on overdrive. Your AV’s shocks recoil to absorb ground collisions on this rough terrain. Tilting your device to control speed. Drive slowly over rough surface to prevent rollovers. Using the trusty hand brake for emergency stop will ensure you stay alive. Have fun exploring Mars! Check out video samples at www.redskygames.com”

Chupacabra Killer: Price: $0.99
“A Chupacabra is on the loose, sucking the blood from animals and leaving them for dead! Kill as many animals as you, as fast as you can.. But watch out for the snipers, they are trying to capture you before you can mangle the innocent little prey. Even a blood thirsty Chupacabra has difficulty catching prey sometimes, so there are awesome weapons to pick up and use against them. Hear the prey scream and the blood splatter as you sink your teeth into them!”

Ocean Hunters: Price: $0.99
“The ocean flows with many treasures. Do you wanna experience a ocean-hunter’s life? You may choose a character from two to start your expedition. Come On! As a ocean-hunter, you need to work hard to unlock the piscary. And then catch the fishes, search for the treasures as many as you can. The expedition through the seas was fraught with challenges and dangers. You may learn some skills to strengthen yourself.”

Totemo: Price: $0.99
“Unloose the spirit. Break the spell. TOTEMO is a game designed to soothe your mind and train your brain. Uncover the mystery hidden between the realms in a unique puzzle game. Travel to enchanted places of the past with your witch doctor guide and solve over 60 logic tasks. Play at your own pace. Think hard and weight carefully your next move, or just stroke your moves intuitively and let the solution emerge in front of your eyes. Play the survival mode for extra challenge, make your stand against the time and write your name into the on-line leaderboards.”

Hamster Hunt: Price: $0.99
“When Cute Attacks - An ill-fated experiment leaves rampaging mutant hamsters out for blood. Now the mad scientist has to bring out his super weapons to stop these killer hamsters before they overrun the world!”

Arcade

Big Buck Hunter Pro: Price: $2.99
“No confusing navigation controls or disorienting scope work. Just intuitive arcade fun with the replayability you have come to expect from Big Buck Hunter Pro. Simple concept, challenging execution: shoot the three biggest whitetail bucks you can find (per site) without hitting any does. But be careful—innocent does and crafty critters will try to distract your keen hunter’s eye at every step. With a combination of kill distance, impact location (where you hit the deer), and number of shots for the kill, a skilled hunter can achieve Big Buck Hunter glory with higher scores to flaunt on the networked leaderboards. Big Buck Hunter Pro also features integration into the BBHP arcade network allowing players to track their own personal Arcade Leaderboards and Hunting Party statistics right from their iPhone or iPod touch.”

Squared!: Price: $0.99
“Squared! is Quick and Addictive Arcade Action! How to Play: Drag the center black square to collect other black squares! Watch out for red squares! Pick up the black circle for power-up. It’s easy to learn, hard to master! Compete on the worldwide leaderboard featuring your country flag. The perfect two-minute time killer.”

MoneyTalks: Wealth Simulation: Price: $2.99
“With this game you will be able to change your routine insights on the money, bank account balance or cold cash. As soon as you cross the “poverty line” in the game you cross it in sensational world that keeps the very secret of dissonance between your mind and reality. The reality decrees that when you change your feelings, your profits change as well! The more you are “in contact” with the big money in your mind, the more you feel it is real. Gaining the power of habit to think differently about money opens the door to riches. Ease your doubts and try for yourself with the magical MoneyTalks game!”

Crazy Neighb: Price: $1.99
“Ever have that neighbor who annoys you? Rather than keep all of that anger bottle up, why not do some fight back? Now, you have the chance, Crazy Neighb, an amazingly funny and intensive fighting game. In this game, you are going to choose your favorite character to fight with your “neighbor”. Don’t hesitate, enjoy the game and play with your friends!”

Jungle Swing: Price: $0.99
“Jungle Swing is an extremely addictive, fast-paced, pick up and play game. The goal is simple - swing your monkey from tree to tree and also use your handy jetpack to travel as far as you can. That’s right, the monkey has a freaking jetpack! It’s Jungle Swing’s simplicity and addictiveness that will keep you coming back for more. If you’re a fan of games like Doodle Jump and Flight Control, you’ll love Jungle Swing. It’s simple addicting fun!”

To The Point: Price: $0.99
“You’ve got some arrows. You’ve got some targets. Your targets are varied. You’ve got your targetty target. You’ve got your squirrely target. And you’ve got your girly target. Hit the regular target and you get points. The more points, the happier you become. And we all strive for happiness, no? The squirrel awards with time! After all, that is what squirrels do. Fancy yourself a modern-day William Tell? Shoot the apple off the girl’s head for glorious points! But ... aim carefully or suffer the consequences should you hit the girl instead! Now, go forth and fling some arrows through the air at high velocities for no good reason at all! Enjoy!”

Board

Monster Ball: Price: $0.99
“Big guys eat smaller guys and grow bigger. But watch out! Once greed takes over and you grow too large, you will explode into 1000 pieces scattering the neighbors with green goo. Find the right balance, take tactical advantage of the myriad of special tiles like splitters, clone machines and bazookas and you will be victorious with a big, sarcastic smile on your lips. Monster Ball plays across platforms, so you can sit at school on your PC or Mac and battle your friend on his iPhone on the bus. Tired of the 10+ maps that ship with the game? Simply download some new ones! Welcome to the world of nasty green monster balls!”

Fruit Dish: Price: $0.99
“There are 7 kinds of fruits. Each time there are three fruits displayed randomly. Anytime the same kind of fruit combine in a line over 5, they will disappear. Tap the fruit that you want to move and then tap the blank. There must be a path without barrier between the fruit and the aim space. Game over when there are less than 3 blanks. Each 5 fruits disappear you will get 10 scores. More fruits disappear one time more scores you get.”

DINGBATS: Price: $2.99
“DINGBATS are cunningly disguised names, phrases and sayings that are turned around, upside-down, sideways or jumbled up. HOW TO SOLVE? You need to work out the hidden word or phrase on each card. It could be the size, position or direction that will give you a clue. Sometimes, the pictures combined with a word or a number will give you your answer. If you get stumped by a puzzle, just relax and come back to it later. Then, when you figure it out you’re sure to let out what we call the “Dingbats Ahhh!” We have included a “PASS” button but use it wisely, as you are only awarded a few passes!”

Gas Tycoon 2: Price: $1.99
“If you have already played in the classic pipe puzzle game, such as “Pipe Mania” or “Pipe Dream”, then you’re familiar with this genre. Game “Gas Tycoon 2” is a development of this genre, where you have to lay a pipeline from sources to consumers of ready-made elements by their rotation in opposite directions. If you have already played in the first part of the “Gas Tycoon”, then you’ll love this sequel. We tried to make the game more interesting, more beautiful, and created more and more new levels.”

Card

Sweet Pairs: Price: $0.99
“This is a card matching game. It uses the traditional playing cards so that adults can play it. Tap a card to flip it. Shake the device during the game to bring up a quit menu. Change backgrounds and card images in the options. Play with either 28 or 54 cards. Some say this game can enhance your memory.”

Casino

World Series of Poker Hold’em Legend: Price: $6.99
“Go from poker amateur to hold’em legend by winning prestigious WSOP events in Las Vegas and other casino venues around the world. This is the most authentic, fastest playing Texas hold’em poker game with an in-depth career mode and global real-time multiplayer. This is the real deal!”

Hot Poker Tour LIVE! World Texas Hold’em by Aftershock: Price: $4.99
“Enjoy Gorgeous Avatars! Play LIVE! With Real Players around the world!”

Dice

Snake and Ladder Classic: Price: $0.99
“Snake and Ladder, is a children’s board game in which children can play against the device or against another players. The game is called Chutes and Ladders in most other parts of the world. It is played between 2, 3, 4 players on a 5 multi-level playing board with numbers from 1 to 48 on grid squares. On certain squares on the grid are drawn a number of “ladders” connecting two squares together, and a number of “snakes” also connecting squares together. To play, you can use touch to roll the dice or simply shake the iPhone or iPod touch and then the respective beads move according to the result. When a player lands on a square containing the foot of a ladder, they move up to the top of the ladder. When a player lands on a square containing a snake’s head, they move down to the tail of snake.”

Educational

ABC Maze: Price: $0.99
“Control Birdie by tilting your iPhone or iPod Touch and help him catch all the runaway letters.”

Family

Catch me now!: Price: $0.99
“Test and improve your reflexes in this addictive game where you have to drag angel smiley around the screen and avoid devil smileys who are trying to catch you. This sounds easy enough but after initial warm up things get harder and harder because speed and number of devil smileys are increasing. There are 40 increasingly harder levels to play in normal mode but you can also try to break your personal record in time trial mode. Your all times best score gets automatically saved in both modes and you can also load this highest finished level in normal mode and continue playing from this level anytime you wish.”

Falling Sands 2: Price: $0.99
“Falling Sands 2 is the sequel to the hit simulation game Falling Sands. Remember the classic sand games found on the web way back when? Now you can enjoy it on the go with Falling Sands 2! There’s no objectives in Falling Sands 2, you simply choose a particle (“sand”) type, the size of the brush, and draw along the screen with a swipe. As the sands mix, they each interact differently allowing for some neat visuals. Make a calming water based game, or go destructive with smelter, fire, and plants! Falling Sands 2 fully supports the accelerometer allowing interesting moments when you tip your device. Also supported are custom backgrounds including support for your photo album. Falling Sands 2 will save your current game and background on exit too! Now you can play whenever you feel like it, and continue on at a later time!”

Thanksgiving Taps: Price: $0.99
“Thanksgiving and the autumn harvest are almost here, so it’s time to get your iPhone into the holiday spirit! Step inside the world of Thanksgiving, with the easy-to-play, finger-gripping game, Thanksgiving Taps! The object of the game is simple. Just tap the turkey, harvest bowl, cranberry, or pumpkin to score 10 points. As easy as that sounds, Thanksgiving Taps advances in difficulty with each point scored, so keep your focus on the iPhone screen and get ready to tap away! How many taps can you get?”

Music

RockQuiz-Classic Rock vol. 1: Price: $0.99
“How well do you know Classic Rock trivia? Great game for parties and to stump your friends… Unlike most quiz games… your score will be based on speed and accuracy. Free updates for life. Dozens of questions ranging from easy to super obscure. Rock On!”

Air Horn Premium: Price: $1.99
“Air Horn Premium” is your one stop shop for the most annoying horns ever known to man!”

Christmas Carols - Jingle Bells and more: Price: $0.99
“Get yourself in the festive seasons cause you know its the season to be jolly! Christmas Carols features many widely popular carols. Sing along with the provided lyrics! Jingle away to the relaxing tunes on your very own jingle bell! Merry Christmas!”

Puzzle

Perfect Balance: Lost Trials Gold: Price: $0.99
“Rotate and stack shapes, and try to achieve perfect balance in this physics puzzle! The third Perfect Balance game for iPhone & iPod Touch with 30 new and unique levels. And this time it’s free! Play this and you’ll see why both Perfect Balance: Harmony and Perfect Balance: Inferno have gotten great reviews…”

Glass Master: Price: $0.99
“Your task is to place pieces of broken stained-glass window on their former places. Controlling is highly intuitive. Grab and move piece of glass using one of your fingers and rotate it using another one.”

Puzzle Sylt: Price: $4.99
“Enjoy a different kind of puzzle! Just take a break from the stresses and strains of everyday life! You can play on a bus or train, in an airplane, a waiting room, a car (but only as a passenger!) or on a long journey, to relieve stress in the office or during boring meetings. ME iPSylt is both enjoyable and relaxing. It’s a bit difficult to describe how it works, you simply have to give it a go and see for yourself. But this much we can explain: Shake it once and a stack will form. Shake it again and a random number of stacks will form in different positions. Different again on every second shake. Each stack contains one or more pictures. Pull a picture to an available position and start to do the puzzle. However, you can also create your own stack – take a part of the puzzle from the overall picture and put it in another one. Start first with one stack and then make 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6. The possibilities for variation are virtually unlimited. Thus, you can set your own level. Here’s a tip: The last picture to be added to a stack is always the second in the stack. Try it and see. This is absolutely great fun and never gets boring. ”

KidsWordfind: Price: $0.99
“To play Kids Wordfind, select a wordlist from the options page and search for the hidden words by swiping with your finger or tap the first and last letter to reveal the word. When you identify a correct word, it is crossed off the list below the grid. Easy setting for new players and hard for older players. Beat the countdown clock and earn bonus points for the next level. The puzzles get harder with each new level, words start appearing in more directions and the time to complete them is reduced. Play again and beat your highest score.”

Racing

Cliffed: Price: $1.99
“Challenge your friends to the most addictive race to the bottom! IUGO presents its latest sensation in casual gaming with this frantic 2D scrolling racer. WARNING: This game will get your heart and fingers racing!”

HalloweenFly: Price: $0.99
“Halloween Fly is a game made for halloween. Very easy to play, but very fun. Some one said that “it’s SIMPLE but ADDICTIVE”. In Halloween Fly, you control the Cat, just by tapping the screen , flying over one car after another, eating some special sugars such as “SuperMan Sugar” and “Rocket Sugar”, avoiding monsters like bat, crow , even big ghost.”

Role Playing

Act ShakeGirl: Price: $0.99
“Tilt your iPod/iPhone and target RingRing with light. When RingRing is crying in the light TOUCH it to HIT them. If u hit RingRing 3 times it will die. U can also use “Special Power”
by touching 4 battery marks. U can SHAKE and boost UP Special Power
and get more CaloryPoint.”

Simulation

Virtual Villagers 3: The Secret City: Price: $1.99
“Virtual Villagers: The Secret City is the third chapter in the award-winning Virtual Villagers series from the creators of Fish Tycoon and Virtual Families. This is the same game that became a best-selling Windows and Mac sensation! Care for and nurture a tribe of little people by teaching them the basics of survival. Grow a small village in your iPhone: your little villagers have food needs, housing needs, technologies to research and diseases to fight! As the tribe grows and prospers, the villagers become curious about the ruined city they have discovered and the secrets it holds. The game continues to progress in true real time, even when your iPhone is turned off, so don’t forget to check in regularly to care for your tribe, help them gain skills and technology, and enable them to discover the secrets that lay waiting for them. How will you lead your tribe?”

Pocket Oinko: Price: $0.99
“Have you always wanted a friend in your pocket? Invite Oinko to move in and keep you company! Oinko is a cute little pig with a mind of his own, living inside your iPhone or iPod touch. Watch him as he eats, sleeps, bathes, plays and uses the restroom. Guide him through his daily routine by suggesting things to do. Keeping Oinko happy rewards you with bonus points. Use these to buy him more toys and snacks. Pocket Oinko has dozens of unique animations and events, and plenty of items for him to interact with. Every major update will add more content for you and Oinko to enjoy together!”

Sports

Real Deer Hunting: Price: $0.99
“Introducing Real Deer Hunting from the developers of the original Deer Hunter game – and founders of the hunting game genre back in 1997. Real Deer Hunter is the first in a series of ultra realistic hunting games. Real Deer Hunting boasts realistic deer behaviors, outstanding graphics, and the most immersive hunting experience available. Hunt the hardwoods of snowy Indiana or the scrubby plains of rugged Texas all while being surrounded by the sounds of nature, blowing clouds, falling snow, or pouring rain! Use your hunting skills to call in doe, bucks, or elusive, non-typical monster bucks! Deer have real-life behaviors: they wander to food sources, hear your calls, and respond to your scent and movement. A spray of cover scent will keep you hidden while you spot distant deer with range-finding binoculars. Use rattling antlers and doe bleat or buck grunt calls to attract the biggest buck for your trophy. Unlock new stands as you work toward the most prized hunting spots in the state!”

Pocket Billiard: Price: $1.99
“There are two game modes those are single play mode and Vs play mode. Single play mode is for practice and enjoying your self Vs play mode is played by turns. You can see white balls and yellow balls on the right side. The yellow balls are disappeared when you cue but the white ball is deposited or the other balls are not deposited. If the 6 yellow balls are all disappeared, one of white ball is disappeared.”

Pocket Putt: Price: $0.99
“18 holes of fun challenging Putt Putt golf in the palm of your hand! Bank the ball off barriers, avoid moving obstacles and get a feel for the controls on the practice green before your game! Simple controls allow for full 360 degree aiming of your shot and for control of the strength of your putt. Be careful not to putt too hard or you’ll bounce off the pin! Features 18 challenging holes, practice green and clear top down view of the action with simple, intuitive controls.”

Way Of The Kung Fu: Price: $0.99
““Way Of The Kung Fu”, Play this addictive game of skill and concentration as a young martial arts apprentice. Follow the moves that your kung-fu master will give you to elevate your fighting skills. Train in various settings and try to beat your high score. This is a simple app, yet extremely entertaining!”

Strategy

Zombie Attack! Second Wave: Price: $3.99
“Just when you thought it was safe…ZA! is back! Lovers of zombies and tower defense-style games combined have a second chance to tear into more zombies with more weapons and in more locations than ever before. IUGO built upon what you loved best about the original Zombie Attack! game making it bigger, better and bloodier! Your mission: play as a survivor from the ultimate Zombie Apocalypse, protect your shack and stay alive. Kill zombies, earn points and cash to upgrade your weapons and bolster your fire power. Easy tilt and touch-screen controls make ZA! SW an instant iPhone-exclusive favorite.”

Doodle Break: Price: $0.99
“Doodle Break” is an classic “Breakout(tm)” in doodle version!

Avatar of War: Price: $0.99
“Avatar of War is a drawing commands game where you draw different gestures on your iPhone for different kinds of commands such as March Forward/Backward, Charge, Retreat, Focus Fire, Assassin etc. You can use the drawing commands wisely to get an upper hand in the battle. There are different types of units such as warriors, archer, mage, knights, catapult, assassin, gryphon etc. Each of them has their unique abilities which can help you fight for glorious victory.”

Trivia

Awesome Movie Trivia: Volume 2: Price: $0.99
“How well do you know your favorite movies? Test your knowledge again with Awesome Movie Trivia: Volume 2. This volume includes 50 more questions. Awesome Movie Trivia: Volume 2 includes a prize for anyone who can get a perfect score. Are you awesome enough to take up the challenge?”

Word

WORD SPIN: Price: $0.99
“Boost your mental agility, language skills and greatly enhance your ability to play ALL word games better with one of the most captivating word games ever invented: WORD SPIN®. Any time you have a spare moment you can now experience the mesmerizing word game that millions of WORD SPIN® fans around the world have enjoyed.”

iPhone/iPod Touch Links

Appletell: [Macintosh/iPhone software update roundup - November 2, 2009] [Appletell reviews “And Another Thing…” H2G2 audio book for iPhone, iPod touch] [Appletell reviews augmented reality games for iPhone 3GS] [Appletell reviews two deer hunting games for iPhone, iPod Touch] [Free app roundup for October 30th, 2009]

Gamertell: [Top 5 Halloween games for the iPhone and iPod Touch]

Full Story » | Written by Kris Rosado for Gamertell. | Comment on this Article »

Apple App Store gaming update for the week of October 19 to October 25, 2009

Kris Rosado — 2009-10-27T03:21:53+00:00

Section: Gaming News, Features, Lists, Mashups, Handhelds, iPhone & iPod Touch, Updates, Apple App Store

It’s the last week of October (2009) and we are counting down to the holiday release rush on the App Store, which kicks off with a handful of new Halloween apps including CDE’s Crush the Zomibes, the free Wordsearch Halloween and Little G’s Halloween Adventure. Other big notables are Guardian Soul, Groovin’ Blocks and NBA Live. So get tricked or get treated or simply get some apps my friends.

What’s Free

Hip Hop All Star Lite
“Rise to Hip Hop DJ Stardom by scratching and beat matching the hottest Hip Hop tracks from Busta Rhymes, Kid Cudi, DJ Green Lantern, Kool G Rap and more! Hip Hop All Star turns your iPhone and iPod Touch into virtual turntables!”

My first words Lite: Constellations
“Kids age 2 to 7 will now have fun learning basic words. The aim of the game is to arrange the letters in the correct order to make up a word. Letters are pronounced when touched. When word is completed, it’s pronounced and provided letters were arranged in the correct written sequence an animation is displayed. This version includes only 4 different constellations.”

Groovin’ Blocks Lite
“Get ready for a puzzle game unlike any you’ve ever seen! Groovin’ Blocks brings a unique mix of Rock Band-style beat matching to classic puzzle gameplay. It’s addictive! Maneuver colorful blocks and drop them in like-colored clusters to clear the board. But this is not your average puzzle game—this is the first puzzle game where you get rewarded for playing to the rhythm of the music. An original soundtrack with all new beats really drives the puzzles in Groovin’ Blocks. Drop the blocks on the beat for higher scores and bonuses—and really let the music take over! And for the first time, you’ll be able to take this successful Wii™ title on-the-go with a whole new iPhone edition! Play to the music with Groovin’ Blocks!”

Neanderbal
“Neanderbal is a game of logic.. and brawn! The dinos have taken over your prehistoric home and it’s up to you to save you and your family from these dangerous predators! How? Go for the nests! But dino eggs are notoriously hard - too hard to simply smash with your club (unlike those exploding mushrooms and balloon plants!). Luckily, there are plenty of giant boulders hanging around to help you with your cause? Smoosh the dino eggs by rolling boulders on them, but watch out! You only have so many boulders to use, and you can’t risk letting even a single dino egg hatch!”

Worderus Lite
“Can your brain perform under pressure? Worderus Lite is an ad-supported version of the fast-paced word game Worderus. Tap the falling letters to spell words and make the letter blocks disappear. Don’t let the blocks pile up to the top of the screen, or its game over!”

Reebok iSprint
“Do you think you’ve got quick fingers? Well test them out on Reebok’s iSprint, probably one of the most addictive games you’ll ever play! Set your fingers in the starting blocks and wait for the gun… then sprint to the finish line by swiping your fingers down the screen.”

Hangman Free
“Think you have a good vocabulary? Take on your iPhone or a friend in this chalkboard classic and find out how good your vocabulary really is. Hangman Free is the best Hangman game available for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The game faithfully captures every detail of the classic Hangman experience, right down to the chalk dust. Hangman Free supports one player and two player gameplay, so you can let a friend choose a word or have your phone select a word from a broad range of categories.”

WordSearch Halloween
“For a limited time only… get this free Halloween treat! You get to solve countless puzzles in this special holiday edition of AFKSoft Word Search. And you can keep playing long after the holiday.”

What’s New

Action

Guardian Soul: Price: $3.99
“Summon Action RPG! Summon the Guardian!! This romantic action RPG is about a novice knight, Leica, who defends her town Agnus from invasion of the Kingdom of Largo for the treasure, Agnesian. Starting the journey, she encounters a guardian master by chance and they get closer as time goes by. Revolving around main quests for defending Agnus, Leica faces many other guardians and guardian masters. Guardian Master: One with special power that summons guardians. Items obtained from guardians enable you acquire other guardians, weapons, armors and potions from an alchemist.”

Roswell Fighter: Price: $2.99
“Roswell Fighter is the ultimate classic arcade style shooter, but with improved and fresh game-play. Tons of aliens wait for you! And do not forget, mother earth is in danger – so be fast and blow up everything in a beautiful mixed 2D/3D environment. Roswell fighter will charm you with its great 50’s art style and music! The game-play starts classic but will get more and more challenging through the time while you face totally new and innovative game features. Mini-games and huge bosses will force your adrenalin to the limit.”

Crush the Zombies: Price: $0.99
“The aliens have invaded your hometown. Most people in the vicinity are infected with the alien zombie virus. There is no cure for this virus. You found a road roller in your backyard and you decided to use it to get out of your house and search for survivors who are not infected with the zombie virus. You need to guide them to the exit door so they can escape from the zombies. The game controls are the wheel control to move and the right and left steering controls for direction navigation. Basically, you need to use the wheel control and the steering controls to navigate your road roller to crush the zombies. The more zombies you crush, the more combos you obtained. There will be no lack of zombies to crush as they keep coming in waves to swarm you and your vehicle. There are five types of enemies in this game. Two children zombies and a big deformed zombie which you have to deal with while navigating your road roller. The worst has yet to come. There is an green alien that will shoot lasers at your road roller to damage your getaway vehicle. Fortunately, you have in-game items to help you in difficult situations. These items usually appear after you completed several combos by squashing more zombies with your road roller.”

Adventure

Nicky Boom 2: Price: $0.99
“Nicky Boom 2 on iPhone : Nicky Boom strikes back! Following the thrilling adventures of little Nicky Boom, retro platform game that combines adventure, puzzle and 90’s graphics, is now available on the App Store to try to solve a new riddle. With his magical goose by his side, help Nicky Boom to find out who removed the ladders and blocked the entrance of the caves in his country of origin. Enjoy your new weapons, go look for keys to secret passageways, and get ready to fight hordes of toadstools that divide when they’re attacked, of killer wasps which fire at you, spiked wheels, and even hungry grizzlies.”

Endless Defence: Price: $0.99
“A shaman summoned a lot of monster, And began attacking the city through the teleport , You are THE HERO, THE ONE, Only you can save the city! Take up your sword and FIGHT BACK!! You must prevent enemies from attack the stronghold. Let’s see “How long can you survive?”

Little G’s Halloween Adventure: Price: $1.99
“Out to Play Entertainment brings you a magical holiday game experience based on the award winning animated short, Little G.’s Halloween. It’s Halloween Night, and it’s up to you to help guide our small ghostly friend as Little G. encounters menacing Pumpkin Guards, spinning Treatbags and other surprises. His goal is to collect all 13 treat bags in numerical order and get back home as quickly as he can. But be alert. Little G. must avoid the flashlight beams of roving Trick-or-Treaters or find himself whisked back to the beginning of the street. Can you brave this spooky challenge? As a special treat, this adventure is paired with the original, short animated film Little G.’s Halloween. This charming film has been screened at film festivals around the world and featured in children’s programs at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.”

Arcade

Crystal Gems: Price: $0.99
“Crystal Gems is a cool remake of the famous breakout classics with the additional touch. Navigate your transporter ship with the finger, deflect your crystal gem collector ball over the power shield and try to collect all crystal gems to clear a stage. If the gems start to shine while you collect them your score will double. On your trip you will find different power ups, monsters and a challenging level design.”

Warp Fighter: Price: $1.99
“Warp Fighter is a aerial dog fight game through time in different ages from first world war 1 until a futuristic UFO to fight air to air with them. In the 3rd century of the earth’s life the human became a confederation and the industry pollution was the major problem , this caused a collapsing of the entire temperature system that create holes on the ozone , the solar shadow make a chain reaction that create an overlapping of ages between the old and the new worlds. Old and new country start to be face to face with different cultures and war concept was never forgiven , so each country of this different parallel world decide to race against each other creating the warp fighter challenge. Scope of the challenging is to beat all the other airplanes and survive to this one to many air combat game This game is dedicated to enthusiasts of ’80 shoot’em up game is a remix of the old time pilot game with a new completely renovated sound and graphics plus more weapons for a full nice extended game.”

Alien Outpost: Price: $1.99
“Like defense games, but sick of “flicking” enemies around a screen with your finger? If so, then you’ll love Alien Outpost! Alien Outpost is a fast paced defense game with awesome shooter gameplay mechanics! Defend your base against wave after wave of alien attackers, and manage your assets wisely as you upgrade your defenses. Alien Outpost will have you on the edge of your seat!”

Penguin Break: Price: $0.99
“Penguin Break is an exciting, captivating game of runaway penguins and your efforts to stop them. Reaction, strategy, split-second timing, and careful aim – you’ll need them all to get the highest scores in this light-hearted, easy-to-pick-up, can’t-put-it-down flock of fun for your iPhone/iPod Touch.”

Board

The New York Times Sudoku Daily: Price: $4.99
“Bring the gold standard of Sudoku to your iPhone and iPod Touch with The New York Times Sudoku. Officially licensed by the puzzle experts at The New York Times, Sudoku fans of any level can now play daily puzzles, post solve times and compare their performance with this challenging game. 5000 puzzles are included, plus great features for the ultimate Sudoku challenge. Whether you’re playing the included puzzles, creating your own grids, or playing the daily downloaded puzzles, this Sudoku game is sure to become a favorite app on your iPhone for a long time.”

Jewel Master: Price: $0.99
“Jewel madness is a crazy little gem that once played you will have a hard time letting it go. This Jewel Puzzle game is Tetris Bejeweled and simon all rolled up into one. As the Jewels drop you must press that matching colour. This game starts off slow but don’t let that fool you. As you progress they will come faster and faster. At the end you will see your best run and your global score. If your running out of Power watch out for Star Power. This little item will boost your power back to 100%.”

Pumpkin Peg: Price: $0.99
““a Pumpkin Peg” is an “Solitaire/Peg” board game in the “Halloween version”.

The Sudoku: Price: $2.99
“This sudoku game has 5 different levels. Each level has thousands of grid design.”

Card

LetsHoldemPoker: Price: $3.99
“Lets you meet people who share your love this great card game. You can enjoy the various games with high qualities at this “LetsHoldemPoker”. You can enjoy playing the game “LetsHoldemPoker” under some different levels, such as normal,master or legend with many other players. And it will be very interesting yo you. The game offers realistic game playing,very smooth graphics and vivid sound effect.”

Casino

NOTHING

Dice

NOTHING

Educational

Little Cook: Price: $0.99
“Now kids can plan and create a wide variety of meals in their very own virtual kitchen! Little Cook is an engaging game that helps children learn from and be entertained by their own decisions. No chef is too small in the Little Cook kitchen – select your favorite meal from pizza to ice cream sundaes, and add whatever ingredients appeal to you! Want to put candy in your soup? Go ahead! Just be prepared to have your creation tested by a professional kid-taster at the end of the game. She will not be shy when raving about perfectly prepared meals, or about criticizing wacky ingredients. Onion and peanut butter sandwich? Ewww! Whether you stick to the rules, or play as a zany chef, children will enjoy the colorful graphics and range of responses from their food taster. A game of trial and error, you can return to the kitchen again and again to experiment with new dishes and improve your culinary skills! Learn to cook with Little Cook, and best of all, have fun trying! Recommended for children ages 4-7.”

Animal Tracks Quiz: Price: $0.99
“Animal Tracks Quiz” is a quiz game which invites you to test your knowledge of wild nature and its inhabitants. It may be used for testing and educational purposes for people well-informed about tracks and footprints of wild animals. Game consists of 30 questions. The question contains the photo of animal’s tracks you need to name. Each question has 4 possible answers. When you tap one of the answers, the default color of the pressed button is changed to green (when it was the right answer) or to red (wrong answer). You have 3 attempts to give the right answer. If you give it at the first attempt you will receive 3 points, at the second attempt - 2 points, at the third - 1 point. After 2 wrong answers the country name will be shown at the bottom of the screen to help you. Play the “Animal Tracks Quiz” now and find out how well you know world of wild nature!”

My first words: Constellations: Price: $0.99
“Kids age 2 to 7 will now have fun learning basic words. The aim of the game is to arrange the letters in the correct order to make up a word. Letters are pronounced when touched. When word is completed, it’s pronounced and provided letters were arranged in the correct written sequence an animation is displayed. This version includes 18 different constellations.”

Family

Shopping Crazy: Price: $0.99
“Shopping Crazy is a puzzle game in which you have to help the Smith family get home after a long and accident-laden shopping trip. You will need to use all your wits to rearrange the obstacles and help the get out of the maze of the mess they got in!”

Balls to Holes - 250: Price: $2.99
“Balls to Holes - 250 is a super interesting !!! Which will make you to be addicted from the beginning. Balls to Holes - 250 is a fun game that you try to land colored balls into adequate holes, by drawing ink strokes. Balls to Holes - 250 gets challenging as you level up. Different color balls, puzzle like walls, acceleration of the balls will make the game challenging but yet enjoy full experience. Each level gets more challenging yet enjoy full to play. 250 levels are there for you to get started your journey.”

Fish Dish: Price: $0.99
“Fish Dish is most fun and famous fish style game available for the iPhone. Eat the fish which is smaller than you, and avoid which is bigger than you. You can have a wonderful time with various kinds of cute fish. As your fish gets bigger, prettier fish that you can get will appear. Feed your fish which is hungry. You can also check your score by online ranking system.”

GameBox Classics Gold: Price: $0.99
“The fun-filled, award-winning, most popular game collection for iPhone! GameBox Classics Gold is a collection of six highly addictive arcade games to keep your mind stimulated and your finger tapping! This Gold edition is the updated version of the all-popular free game, Gamebox Classics. If you liked the free version, you will definitely love this one too!”

Robinson Crusoe’s Story: Price: $0.99
“This time instead of fairy tales, Digital Media brings you classical adventure book written by Daniel Defoe about adventurous life of Robinson Crusoe. Kids will love to see what happened on the island and who is Friday. What’s more - We give you digital coloring book so your kids will have twice fun with this application.”

Asteroids vs Planet: Price: $0.99
“Meet Planet. One day floating peacefully in the universe and the next, bombarded by an endless asteroid field. Use tilt controls to avoid the asteroids and attempt to maintain the optimum planetary position. While your score constantly grows, staying close to the center increases your score even faster. Keeping Planet in the center adds combo multipliers to help build your score to astronomical heights. When things get too hairy, tap the screen to activate a temporary shield. Use them wisely though - you have three to use and when they’re gone, they’re gone for good… How high can you score before the inevitable armageddon?”

Music

Groovin’ Blocks: Price: $1.99
“Get ready for a puzzle game unlike any you’ve ever seen! Groovin’ Blocks brings a unique mix of Rock Band-style beat matching to classic puzzle gameplay. It’s addictive! Maneuver colorful blocks and drop them in like-colored clusters to clear the board. But this is not your average puzzle game—this is the first puzzle game where you get rewarded for playing to the rhythm of the music. An original soundtrack with all new beats really drives the puzzles in Groovin’ Blocks. Drop the blocks on the beat for higher scores and bonuses—and really let the music take over! And for the first time, you’ll be able to take this successful Wii™ title on-the-go with a whole new iPhone edition! Play to the music with Groovin’ Blocks!”

Touch Lyrics: Price: $1.99
“Touch Lyrics is a intelligent music player that magically displays lyrics for your iTunes songs. Play music using a familiar iPod like interface while singing along to those songs. Beautiful, fully featured with a massive lyrics database for your iPod and iPhone.”

The Club: Price: $5.99
“Welcome to The Club where the best parties take place. In this music arcade game you’re trying to match couples and score as big and as often as possible! Make your moves and dazzle your partner. It’s time to start clubbin’! Use the touch screen to make different dancers meet and spend the night together. Your score depends on the qualities of the dancers and the general party mood. But beware, if the wrong people bump into one another a fight might break out and that will definitely ruin the vibe. Thank goodness there’s always a chance a celebrity will enter the game and look for the right people to join the afterparty.”

MusicQuiz - How well do you know your favorite music?: Price: $0.99
“Play MusicQuiz and find out how well you know the music collection on your iPhone/iPod touch! Here’s how it works: Randomly selected music pieces from your own iPod music library will be played for a few seconds. Then 5 possible answers will be displayed, from which you have to choose the right one. One game runs for several rounds. All your collected points can be recorded in a global Highscore list. That way, you can compare your score to other players worldwide. “

Puzzle

Pang Pond The Hero Begins: Smoky Orge: Price: $2.99
“From the popular comic that captured Thai reader for over 20 years and onto the animation that made international success. Today let joining the wonderful experience together with Pang Pond in his newly exciting Action Puzzle game. You will be taking a role of little super hero who has an importance mission to saving the world from the dangerous monster which having a toxic gas as a weapon. Go through this exciting and challenging mission in “Pang Pond Smoky Ogre the Game”

Paired Sounds: Price: $0.99
“Paired Sounds is game that a player looks for the same sounds, just like a pairs card game. The purpose of this game is to find the exact same sounds. There are many different sounds such as animal, people, House, Army, and Midi. As you keep clearing the stages the boxes of sounds keep increasing, which means the game gets harder. while playing the game, a player can hear the voices, it provides interesting hearing. More sounds will be added later such as instruments and Languages.”

Star Paint: Price: $0.99
“Each level in Star Paint is dynamically created, offering a new puzzle each time you play. Stars will appear on the screen, with lines connecting each one. Move the stars until none of the lines are crossing to clear the level. Sound easy? Watch your time, because if you take too long, it’s game over. To help, use multiple fingers to grab and move different stars at the same time. Make it through normal and medium modes and you’ll unlock Hard mode - turning off the timer, and opening up some really devious puzzles.”

Racing

Zombie Karts: Price: $0.99
“Eeek! The zombies have taken to the streets… in custom go-karts! Pick a zombie and race til you drop. Use power-ups and shortcuts to defeat the others and become top zombie. It’s wacky Halloween racing fun.”

Role Playing

Stranded!: Price: $1.99
“Stranded! is a desert island survival game set in the Space HoRSE universe. Four passengers on a space ship were on a mission to colonize a new planet when the ship crash landed on a planet that is almost completely covered by ocean. You are the only survivor - an upper-management executive from the Decoo corporation, the company that sponsored the original mission. Now you must use your survival skills to stay alive long enough to get rescued. Build shelter, find food and drink, and collect salvageable parts from the wreckage that wash ashore. Use the parts to build a space radio and call for a rescue team to win the game. Search for natural resources, then use them to create other items using various combinations.”

Dungeons: Price: $2.99
“Scour the undead infestation in 99 dungeons, fighting in four differently themed worlds. Defeat reanimated skeletons in the fiery lava world. Try to escape being frozen solid by zombie wizards in the icy snow dungeon. The lush jungle and abandoned castle have monsters ready to raise their blades against you, the intrepid adventurer. Luckily, you have tricks of your own! Use four customizable abilities to put down your foes. Spend synergy points to decide how your magic spells evolve. Collect treasures held by the dungeon’s inhabitants to improve your chances against the relentless horde of creatures that await. At the end of each labyrinth, a ferocious battle-hardened knight awaits. You’ll need all your wits about you to defeat him and gain access to the next level. Best of all, each time you enter a dungeon it’s completely different! Create the spells you want. Wear the items you think will give you the best chance against evil. No two adventures are quite the same in Dungeons.”

Simulation

3D Rollercoaster Rush Bundle Pack: Price: $7.99
“Take a wild ride with this 3-in-1 Bundle Pack of the Original, Jurassic, and Haunted 3D Rollercoaster Rush games, an award-winning and top downloaded brand in June! This Bundle Pack is a steal with a whopping 120 different 3D action-packed rollercoaster tracks! 120 ways to feel the rush of zooming through the highest peaks, biggest drops, underwater, and haunted pumpkin patches in Career Mode! You can even go head-to-head with your friends via Bluetooth in both Jurassic and Haunted themes. Please be warned to eat lightly before playing or you may lose your lunch due to the thrill seeking INSANITY!”

Kitty BubbleWrap: Price: $0.99
“POP, POP, POP—no one can resist making those little plastic bubbles explode! Now your experience never ends with this computerized bubblewrap you can pop again and again. But wait, there’s MORE—our bubblewrap comes with a new and surprising picture revealed at the end of each sheet! With hundreds of pictures of kittens and cats, the real test is how fast you uncover them all!”

Magic Earthwand: Price: $2.99
“Enter a fairy tale world where three enchanted princes are turned into Magic EarthWands and sent into a dark world to catch love that the evil wizard Duche Baggums stole from them. Using an original 3D algorithm written expressly for the iPhone platform, the Magic EarthWand simulates the behavior physics of the classic Cup and Ball game. This charming and beautiful game takes you through the journey of the three princes of Earth in their quest to restore light to the world and return to their original selves.”

Sports

NBA Live by EA Sports: Price: $9.99
“NBA LIVE by EA SPORTS™ delivers the most realistic 5-on-5 action available for iPhone® and iPod touch®! AUTHENTIC TEAMS, REAL STARS, TRUE LEGENDS
With real NBA rosters, you can dominate the game as Dwight Howard and other All-NBA stars. Or unlock legends from favorite NBA teams like the Lakers, Celtics, Sixers, and more. Match up all 30 NBA teams in the new 82-game Season Mode. Play a casual game in Exhibition Mode, or battle all the way the Finals in the ultra-intense Playoff Mode. Control the game with a virtual analog stick. Use the accelerometer to accurately shoot free-throws. Press the clipboard to pick from multiple plays on offense or to set your strategy on defense. Stay in the zone with the beat of15 music tracks from artists like Matt and Kim, Snoop Dogg, and Xzibit. Hear legendary announcer Marv Albert accent the action as you rain 3s from downtown. Tip-off anytime, anywhere, and watch your game come to life in vivid 3D. It’s intuitive enough for the casual gamer, but delivers the authenticity that hardcore fans demand.”

Strategy

NOTHING

Trivia

SPLINTERS: Price: $0.99
“The third dimension of puzzle games is just one fingertip ahead. In SPLINTERS you have to rotate a three-dimensional point cloud. From the right perspective, the cloud merges into an image. Play against the clock to win a place in the worldwide highscore list. 30 Levels are waiting to be mastered with skill and spatial ability.
SPLINTERS takes full advantage of the graphic chip of the iPhone / iPod touch to ensure a direct and smooth gameplay.”

776 Things You Didn’t Know: Price: $0.99
“776 Things You Didn’t Know is a collection of interesting facts and trivia. Board at a bar? Killing time during class. Pull out your iPhone/iPod Touch and fire up this 776 Things You Didn’t Know. This application is a great way to start up conversation. Did you know that every time you lick a stamp you consume 1/10 of calorie? Did you know that rabbits can not vomit. There is no such thing as naturally blue food. Even blueberries are purple. 776 Things You Didn’t Know is great for random facts, curious situations, conversation starters, parties, and settling bets.”

Word

Aero Frenzy: Price: $0.99
“Aero Frenzy is an engaging word game with high-flying fun! Race your airplane to the finish line by building words from the available letters. Can you reach the finish before your opponent does? It’s high-flying fun as you race across the sky!”

Hangman Pro: Price: $0.99
“Think you have a good vocabulary? Take on your iPhone or a friend in this chalkboard classic and find out how good your vocabulary really is. Hangman Pro is the best Hangman game available for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The game faithfully captures every detail of the classic Hangman experience, right down to the chalk dust. Hangman Pro supports one player and two player gameplay, so you can let a friend choose a word or have your phone select a word from a broad range of categories.”

iPhone / iPod Touch Links

Appletell: [Macintosh/iPhone software update roundup - October 26th, 2009] [Appletell reviews Keep Defenders for iPhone, iPod touch] [First iPhone firewall soon to be in Cydia]

Full Story » | Written by Kris Rosado for Gamertell. | Comment on this Article »

Apple App Store gaming update for the week of October 12 through October 18, 2009

Kris Rosado — 2009-10-19T13:39:35+00:00

Section: Features, Columns, Lists, Mashups, Handhelds, iPhone & iPod Touch, Updates, Apple App Store

Apple supposedly has an announcement to make this week, probably trying to steal some thunder from the Windows 7 release this Thursday (October 22, 2009). What could Apple possibly announce? Who knows at this point, we really haven’t heard if they are officially announcing anything. But feel free to place your bets below.

I will venture a guess that whatever Apple announces it won’t have anything to do with your iPhone or iPod Touch but this week’s list certainly does:

What’s Free

Domineering Lite
“Domineering is a very easy to learn strategy game where each player takes turns placing their dominoe. Each player tries to force the other player into not being able to place their piece on the board. One player may only place dominoes horizontally, and the other may only place them vertically.”

Geo Warfare Lite
“Protect your city from an alien invasion by battling against enemy spaceships in their attempt to conquer Earth. Your goal is to destroy indicated targets before they reach any alien aircraft. Failure to do so will cause UFOs to fire lasers towards your city.”

Piyo Blocks Lite
“Your task is simple – swap adjacent Piyo Blocks to match 3 or more of the same kind to capture them. To level up you will need to capture a target number of each kind of Piyo. The real skill comes into play when creating combos, which multiplies your score for capturing the Piyos. The bigger the combo you create, the greater score you’ll get!”

Total Soccer
“Total Soccer is a clone of the original Soccer game released by Atari in the 70’s. With a simple tap and drag interface and a totally configurable game, Total Soccer is THE app for the classic gamer.”

Real Soccer 2010 Free
“Try out the free version of Real Soccer 2010, - the #1 soccer game on the App Store and discover the thrill of the greatest football matches: Barcelona vs. Manchester or Brazil vs. Spain!”

Word 2 Word
“This word changing puzzle game will test your brain as well as your vocabulary. A fresh new take on word ladders, your goal is to transform one word into another, making new words along the way, by changing just one letter at a time. Do you have the smarts to master all 50 puzzles?”

What’s New

Action

ASTROBOY: FLYING ACTION: Price: $2.99
“oin in the adventures of Astro Boy, the young robot with astonishing powers, super strength and an ability to fly. Journey with him through Metro city and beyond and take on his arch rivals with special weapons. The first OFFICAL Astroboy game available for the iPhone and iTouch, lets you take control of your favorite character through 6 action packed levels. Your goal is to cross all hurdles in your path, destroy all the vicious villains for a final showdown with Pluto, the world’s strongest robot.”

Air Force Online: Price: $0.99
“Air Force Online is a game that lets you relive your childhood memories of playing the planes game. The game lets you navigate a World War II Japanese fighter plane and your mission is to bring down enemy aircraft by rotating your plane clockwise or anti-clockwise in the skies to avoid enemy fire as well as to chase after the enemy aircraft.”

Tap-Fu: Price: $3.99
“Tap-Fu is a casual beat-em-up inspired by games like Karateka, Double Dragon, and Castle Crashers. Features rich 3D levels and striking 2D characters, with unique and easy to learn control systems and fast-paced combat with combos and Style Points.”

A Lyndon Wicked Tale: Red Rage: Price: $0.99
“Lyndon’s Wicked Tales: Red Rage is an epic story that takes the story of Little Red Riding Hood and turns it on its head. The game fully embraces the true nature of the story and creates a dark and intriguing tale that pits Red on an engaging journey against wolves, vampires, and werewolves. Of course there are many twists throughout the game that propel the player forward and continue the story.”

Adventure

Pang Mobile: Price: $2.99
“Test your reflexes in this highly addictive official remake of the 80s arcade classic, “Pang”, also known as “Buster Bros” in the US. Travel from Japan to the tropical shores of Hawaii as you take up the task of saving civilisation from dangerously bouncing bubbles that threaten city landmarks across the planet. Can you save Mount Fuji from being flattened by spherical dangers? Will your reactions be good enough to defend the Eiffel Tower or the Statue of Liberty? Or can you wear them down while saving your own skin? Everyone’s favourite from the arcades, Pang is easy to learn but difficult to master as you progress through 17 locations saving the world’s attractions with an assortment of weapons from the grappling hook to the twin harpoon. Use various power-ups including a force field and time freeze; anything to give you the edge to avoid their fatal touch.”

iMPig: Price: $0.99
“Help Piggy shoot the wolves and keep back the wolves’ attack. More wolves are killed, more props you will get, and even become more powerful as green giant, spider man, or bat man. But meanwhile more difficult the obstacles become. Move on, protect the little piggy and become a really bat man.”

frog jumping adventure: Price: $1.99
“Once upon a time there was frog prince. The frog was jumping around the world to find princess to be prince again. Your frog prince’s greate adventure is ready to go. It’s simple one button Jumping game.”

Women’s Murder Club: Death in Scarlet: Price: $3.99
“Take on the role of a homicide detective in this spine-tingling mystery by bestselling author JAMES PATTERSON. Study murder scenes, perform forensic analysis and find evidence as you try to solve a series of ghastly murders in San Francisco.”

Arcade

Polapoly Blue: Price: $1.99
“The ultimate figure swapping puzzler! Now it is in polygon. More twist, structured story, reasonably leveled missions and dazzling action than any other figure swapping puzzlers! Feel the extreme pleasure as you swap adjacent Poly to match three or more colors in 6 different directions! Unlike other typical figure swapping puzzlers, Polapoly let users to select various ways to play the game.”

Watergame - (Old water toys): Price: $0.99
“The most refreshing experience for the iPhone! Remember when you used to play with those old water toys? Now Anyplays will take you back to your childhood with WaterGame. Turn your iPhone/iPod into a water tank and try to place all coloured balls in the corresponding baskets to complete every mission.”

Geo Warfare: Price: $0.99
“Protect your city from an alien invasion by battling against enemy spaceships in their attempt to conquer Earth. Your goal is to destroy indicated targets before they reach any alien aircraft. Failure to do so will cause UFOs to fire lasers towards your city.”

Board

Domineering: Price: $0.99
“Domineering is a very easy to learn strategy game where each player takes turns placing their dominoe. Each player tries to force the other player into not being able to place their piece on the board. One player may only place dominoes horizontally, and the other may only place them vertically.”

Card

3 Kingdoms Landmaster: Price: $1.99
“Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight for your own fortune! Take over your opponents’ land to level up your own land. You could make more money with more land, so take as much land as you can!! Use as many cards as you want on your opponents. From taking over others’ land to playing some tricks on your opponents, the special effect on this cards will overwhelmed them! So buy as many cards as you want! Characters from the famous 3-kingdom Chinese history will join this game. Their cuteness, unique personalities and facial expressions will blow you away! Don’t ever trust anyone when you are rich! Even when they claim to be your friends… If you’re not in the mood for tricks and fights, go for the free mode. You change the game settings in your way Bet small or play big; it’s all up to you! Play the game just the way you like. We have 2 different ways of control for you. It’s ok if you don’t know how to play. We have the best tutorial for you to guide you into the overwhelming world of land wresting!”

Casino

NOTHING

Dice

NOTHING

Educational

Math Brain for Kids: Price: $0.99
“Test your ability to solve different math operations.”

Touch Touch Typing: Price: $3.99
“This application is a “Flick Japanese Input” training application. You can lesson Japanese flick-kanji-input with fun. The basic lesson is for a beginner and special lesson is for experts. The challenge mode allows you to challenge the speed, accuracy of “flick-kanji-input”. With tapping the logo area of the main screen, you can change the mode to “Touch Typing” training mode. In this mode you can try to input kanji with no-key-top-keyboard. When you master “Touch typing”, you’ll be able to input kanji so fast.”

Memory Commander: Price: $0.99
“Train your brain with “Memory Commander”! 65 levels with increasing difficulty train you to remember up to 10 symbols. Remember the symbols at the top. Once they disappear try to find the symbols as fast as you can. The faster you are the more points you get. Become “Memory Commander” on your phone first and then compete worldwide via the online HighScoreList.”

Cut Word: Price: $0.99
“An original word game from M.G.Studio. In this game,Cut Word offers you 45 levels to challenge.Each level has a series of words which is both in Chinese and English.We all know Chinese word is a square word,it’s hard to remember,but each word has its character. Since the game began,the word’s order has been reordered,so in a limit time,you need to drag them to the right order to finish this level’s challenge. This game can lead you to find out the Chinese square word’s magic,then help you remember it.You can show off the word you have got by your hand. It’s awesome!”

Family

Squeeballs Party: Price: $2.99
“Family friendly video game for kids ages 9 and up. You will slice, dice, fire and shock the toys as one of our testers through over 70 mini games found in 5 different game genres that provide endless hours of fun for everyone.”

Magnoid Plus: Price: $0.99
“Magnoid Plus…..... is a very interactive and addictive game. As you progress with the game by removing the bricks, it becomes more exciting. The speed of the ball will gradually increase without you even knowing, which makes this game really exciting. It will act as your favorite pass time, while traveling or when you are getting bored. Being the initial version, we have made this application simple and Addictive. Our enhancements are going on that will reveal more features and information which you will really love in our next enhanced version. We would welcome your ideas as to what all things you would like to have in the application so that we can try and incorporate it in our next version.”

The Snow Queen: Price: $0.99
“Digital Media is proud to bring to you classical story made famous by Hans Christian Andersen. Join Gerda on her journey to find Kay and bing him back. And after watching story you can color scenes from fairy tale in coloring book.”

Cinderella: Price: $0.99
“Digital Media brings you new animated version of classic fairy tale - Cinderella. Inspired by Charles Perrault writing we created a funny and eye catching application where your kids can watch Cinderella’s story and play with coloring book where they can let their creativity free with dozens of colours and textures on 10 scenes from this beautiful tale.”

Music

NOTHING

Puzzle

Cash Cow: Price: $0.99
“Cash Cow makes pocket change add up to loads of fun! Help Buck the Cow and his friends save the farm in this original game of coin-counting. The objective is simple: earn money by counting up your loose change. Small coins make big coins, and big coins make dollar bills. Things get trickier when you add counterfeit money, ladybugs, gold nuggets, glowing coins, and powerups into the mix. With its unique challenges, fantastic graphics, and catchy soundtrack, Cash Cow is one app you’ll keep playing again and again!”

Piyo Blocks: Price: $0.99
“Your task is simple – swap adjacent Piyo Blocks to match 3 or more of the same kind to capture them. To level up you will need to capture a target number of each kind of Piyo. The real skill comes into play when creating combos, which multiplies your score for capturing the Piyos. The bigger the combo you create, the greater score you’ll get!”

PuzzMon: Price: $1.99
“Apprenticeship magic knight’s Mint clears the trial given because it becomes an independent magic knight. The mission of each level is put out, and if monsters of a specified number are knocked down in time, the level is clear. It is possible to knock it down by moving the monster up and down and right and left, and arranging the same three monsters or more sideways.”

Racing

NOTHING

Role Playing

NOTHING

Simulation

Anna Montana: Price: $1.99
“You start the game as Anna Montana, a desperate co-ed turned housekeeper, who tidies up houses at Glamour Lane, which belong to some very diverse and eccentric individuals. You will need to pick up laundry and drop them off at an automated washer & dryer, pick up the scraps, vacuum the floor, clean and mop the rooms and do everyday household duties. Successful completion requires following instructions given by the fussy home owners and completing multiple housekeeping tasks. The quicker you tidy up the houses, the more Glamour $$ you earn. Efficiency not only earns you a higher tip from these well-known stars but also additional elegant awards.”

Lone Wolf - Lion’s Den: Price: $0.99
“Lone Wolf - Lion’s Den is Donoma Games’s second entry in the sniper genre focusing on stealth and strategy. Lion’s Den challenges the player to find different ways of completing each mission without alerting the other guards. The latter half of the missions focuses on quickly eliminating the enemies.”

Fail Boat: Price: $0.99
“Are you ready to set sail on the high seas? Fail Boat puts you at the helm of your very own ship to deliver cargo to ports all over the world. Find the most lucrative jobs and climb to the top of the leaderboards with the most gold! Traveling between ports is in real-time, so after you set sail, you can go about your business and check Fail Boat whenever you want to see when you’ll arrive. Good luck captain!”

CrazyBumb: Price: $0.99
“Bumb, crazy bumb. You must touch the correct position to perish the bumb. Note that where you touch, where the rocket go and explosion. And there are many kinds of item can boost up youself.”

Sports

PaperJet: Price: $1.99
“Paper Jet is a game where a paper plane is thrown three times and players compete for the highest total distance thrown. Make full use of all the different items in the air and on the ground to fly your paper plane further and further. Hit a ‘nitoro’ and you’ll go even further! Hit a bird and you’ll slow down! Who will be in command of the heart pounding battle that looms in the sky?! With the ranking function you’ll know where you rank among players from around the world. So aim to have the world’s best throw!”

Hockey Allstar Shootout: Price: $0.99
“Beat the best goalies the world has to offer in this addictive, easy to play hockey shootout game! Choose between nine different countries as you attempt to deke out top class goalies. Will you try and beat the goalie five hole? Decide to go top shelf? The choice is yours.”

Ragduck Hunt: Price: $0.99
“Blast ducks from the sky and witness their fall in glorious 3D with full ragdoll physics enabled! Test your marksmanship by collecting all the coins.”

Strategy

Abductor: Price: $0.99
“Humble Gaming offers you an extended, fun filled and unique Match 3 type Puzzle Game, with loaded features offering good value. All the fun of a typical Match 3 puzzle game with additional twists of power plays and a mission specific to celebrate the Halloween spirit. An UFO, during a routine visit is intrigued by how Earthlings celebrate Halloween. They decide to abduct the ‘spirit’ of Halloween, by taking with them any and all objects and artifacts that represent or symbolize Halloween.”

Trivia

Explosion!: Price: $0.99
“Explosion! is a skill game that will try out your memory, reflexes and timing in an attempt to defuse a dangerous bomb, before it esplodes! Thanks to the e-Defuser™ in fact, you can enter certain codes, using the keypad, in order to prevent the explosion. Find the highest number of hidden words, organized into different categories, as fast as you can… but be careful! Guess each word before time runs out, otherwise the bomb will esplode, ending your game! It won’t be an easy task to decipher the sequence of 50 hidden words, because after each error (wrong letter) the timer will increase its speed, getting you closer and closer to a very explosive epilogue!”

Word

NOTHING

iPhone and iPod Touch Links

AppleTell: [Appletell reviews Elgato’s EyeTV for iPhone] [App it Up: The Fright Factory] [Free Apps roundup for October 16th, 2009] [In-app purchases now available in free apps]

Full Story » | Written by Kris Rosado for Gamertell. | Comment on this Article »

Apple App Store gaming update for the week of October 5 through October 11, 2009

Kris Rosado — 2009-10-12T14:03:12+00:00

Section: Features, Lists, Mashups, Handhelds, iPhone & iPod Touch, Updates, Apple App Store

Not much to say about this week’s list. Some releases look interesting and others, well, not so much. Yep, it’s another week of gaming apps, so get to it kids!

What’s Free

Brazil Kick Control
“Brazil Kick Control is more than a kick up game. It will challenge your ability to control the ball, in a highly addictive, reflex-challenging way and more important: IT’S FUN! You will still have to kick the ball up, easily done with a finger swipe, but pay attention! Uncontrollable wind bursts and curious birds are there to either hinder or help you and the longer you play, the faster the ball will drop and the stronger will be the wind. Challenge your friends and see who has the best score. Be careful, it’s a very addictive game, even the developers could not stop until they beat each other. Truly a new “toss app” kind of experience, with very nice and cool animations and effects :) Using an exclusive Hi Score server, you can play as a single player and contribute to a team, competing as a top player and within the top team. Get a quickie when you have little time, or challenge how long you can survive on the normal mode.”

GeoTron Lite
“GeoTron is a fast paced, skill driven, arcade shooter featuring dazzling graphics and an energetic retro soundtrack. GeoTron features hours of fun and will bring back joyful memories of retro arcade style gameplay re-imagined with gorgeous graphics and updated play styles to keep it fresh and addictive. Challenge your friends to beat your high score or show off how long you can survive the constant threat of oncoming enemies. Inspired by other games in this genre such as Geometry Wars and Asteroids, GeoTron contains all the things which make these games addictive and fun, yet rewarding and challenging each and every time you play. Retro soundtrack that matches the gameplay that has to be heard to be appreciated! Hum along to your favourite 8-bit tunes as you blast the enemies away… This lite version is just a taste of what is available in the full version. The full version contains 4 distinct gameplay modes (Normal, Minute Madness, Survival and Gridlock) and even more classic 8-bit tunes!”

Storm Attack Lite
“attle storms. Destroy blocks. Unlock awards. Compete in the global leaderboard. Think you’re ready? Storm Attack Lite is an addicting, fast-paced, arcade block-blasting game. Drag, organize, and zap away a constant stream of falling blocks… but be careful! Every minute, a storm rains down an ever-increasing swarm of blocks. It’s a constant battle against the clock as you fight for survival. Build up your bonuses, keep an eye on your ammo, and don’t get caught in the storm!”

MazeRunnerLE
“Experience the newest game app that people are hooked on. MazeRunnerLE, the best maze game ever created for the iPhone and iPod Touch! Easy to use, challenging to master, MazeRunnerLE will have you lost deep in a world of hedges, gems, pits, secret doors, teleports and more. With 5 mazes for you to explore and race MazeRunnerLE will give you hours of brain-teasing fun. The Lite Edition consists of the first 5 introductory mazes of MazeRunner and gives you a taste of what the MazeRunner games have to offer.”

Squiz Lite
“Note that the first time you play Squiz you will need an internet connection to download questions. After that you can play the game offline, but you will need an internet connection to add more questions if you run out. Squiz is an exiting trivia game for the iPhone and the iPod touch! Plenty of new questions are added every day, so there is no risk of running out of questions. Play a single player game for high score, or play in multiplayer mode with up to four players. Earn power-ups, which will help you solve the most tricky questions.”

What’s New

Action

Draw Slasher: Dark Ninja vs Pirate Monkey Zombies: Price: $0.99
“who can stop them! Slash through your enemies in style known from countless Japanese anime, and movies! Cut off your opponents heads, hands, legs - whatever you want! Slash them to pieces and never stop the mayhem! Hack your opponent and reappear behind his back. Do it over and over and make the biggest combo ever seen without being wounded once!”

Pirate Waters: Price: $0.99
“Prepare to be boarded! Pirate Waters is a very enjoyable 3D game. Sail your ship by tilting your iPhone or iPod Touch. Destroy enemy ships. Collect treasures and collect different power-ups. Rescue sailors. Upgrade your ship at docks. Sail through 20 levels across different environments (south, north, tropics, volcanoes, snow). Save the world from evil pirates and become a pirate too!”

GeoTron: Price: $0.99
“GeoTron is a fast paced, skill driven, arcade shooter featuring dazzling graphics and an energetic retro soundtrack. GeoTron features hours of fun and will bring back joyful memories of retro arcade style gameplay re-imagined with gorgeous graphics and updated play styles to keep it fresh and addictive. Challenge your friends to beat your high score or show off how long you can survive the constant threat of oncoming enemies. Four different and unique gameplay modes provide different challenges and offer new ways to play and high score tracking ensure you will want to play over and over again. Inspired by other games in this genre such as Geometry Wars and Asteroids, GeoTron contains all the things which make these games addictive and fun, yet rewarding and challenging each and every time you play. Retro soundtrack that matches the gameplay that has to be heard to be appreciated! Hum along to your favourite 8-bit tunes as you blast the enemies away…”

Soosiz: Price: $0.99
“Darkness is falling and your friends are missing. Do you have what it takes to save the world? Experience the groundbreaking gameplay mechanics, excellent playability and pixel-precise controls in this gravity-defying platformer where words like up and down get a totally new meaning. Simple controls make Soosiz easy to learn, but it’s a challenge to truly master the game. Enhancing your skills will be essential in beating the new gameplay elements and enemies introduced in each world. Watch out for the reduced gravity in space, slippery surfaces on the ice, gravity fields, freezing fountains and more.”

Adventure

Battle Zone 1942: Price: $0.99
“Inspired by the classic Seawolf, Battle Zone 1942 is a fast-paced arcade action game coupled with fresh innovative gameplay features.
for fans of the Original Seawolf, as well as old and new players to the action game genre, this game is for you! Time period: World War II. Location: English Channel. Mission: Battle huge assortment of enemy naval fleets. Weapons: upgradable torpedoes and the ability to use airstrike.”

Zombie Tap: Episodes: Price: $0.99
“Zombie Tap: Episodes is an experiment in episoding gaming on the iPhone and iPod Touch. Joe just finished his shift at the bar and wants nothing more than to get home and get some sleep. But in the parking lot, he finds a zombie horde with a different idea. Will he make it home? Or will he succumb to the spreading zombie plague? The first release of Zombie Tap includes episode 1. Future updates will add new episodes, each one a mini-game dealing with Joe’s attempts to just get home alive. Each episode will tell another piece of the story.”

Arcade

Robophobia: Price: $0.99
“You are Star Commander Ivan Medved nicknamed Iron Fist, leader of an elite Galaxy fighting unit on Special Ops assignment. Your call to duty is to save the Galaxy from grip of the Crazy Robots Army, who live on the planet Robophobia.”

NFL Rush Zone: Price: $1.99
“Two NFL games in one! Competition is king in the NFL Rush Zone! See how many touchdowns you can score in a quick pass action game of Lateral Collateral and escape detention to make it to the big game in Detentionator Dash!”

Storm Attack: Price: $1.99
“Battle storms. Destroy blocks. Unlock awards. Compete in the global leaderboard. Think you’re ready? Storm Attack is an addicting, fast-paced, arcade block-blasting game. Drag, organize, and zap away a constant stream of falling blocks… but be careful! Every minute, a storm rains down an ever-increasing swarm of blocks. It’s a constant battle against the clock as you fight for survival. Build up your bonuses, keep an eye on your ammo, and don’t get caught in the storm!”

Singularity Drive: Prologue: Price: $0.99
“Singularity Drive: Prologue. A classic, retro side scrolling avoid ‘em up! In 2097, the experimental time ship ‘Singularity Drive’ was lost on its maiden voyage. Trapped in the Vortex, can you change history and get the Singularity Drive back to the future?”

Stunt Driver: Price: $2.99
“Check out the trialer at: http://www.championsoft.com/stuntdriver. With Spin and Flip technology you can pull off all kinds of tricks and land smoothly. Stunts range from waterfalls to skyscrapers and even jumping out of the back of a cargo helicopter. Get this unique and exciting game now!”

Board

NOTHING

Card

NOTHING

Casino

Heads or Tails Zombie: Price: $0.99
“Meet your friends at the cemetery for a creepy storytelling, or a get together for a late session of that horror movie? Let a zombie decide that for you! Just swing up your iPhone/iPod Touch (hold it tight!) and the coin will be tossed up using 3D physics with impressive realism! Unlike other coin apps, the result is not randomly generated but rather based on gravity calculations that change the outcome depending on the way you shake your iPhone/iPod Touch. If you practice hard enough you can even challenge your friends on Heads or Tails Zombie! Loads of fun for this Halloween (and all year long too) with this scary version of Heads or Tails!”

Creepy Slots: Price: $0.99
“Creepy Slots… the spooky themed 5 reel casino slot machine where you must align the correct spooky symbols to win the creepy jackpot! Enter the Spooky Wheel of Fortune bonus game to win virtual prize bonuses and accumulate more creepy credits. Upload, share and compete with your hi-score online via AGON and post to Facebook and Twitter!”

Dice

NOTHING

Educational

Ni’s Quiz: Price: $0.99
“The Ni’s Quiz Show is a game in which players answer quizzes based on their common knowledge in history, music, movie and science, etc. Jessica, Kim and Jack try to answer questions today to become the best quiz king. Total 50 questions are presented at each stage and the game is over for five wrong answers. A nice chance to upgrade your common knowledge!!! Challenge the Quiz King.”

mult puzzle: Price: $1.99
“This is a puzzle game of multiplication. The original is well known game ‘mpuz’ in emacs editor, This is a remake for iPhone/iPod touch from scratch. The rule is easy. Guess the combinations of alphabet and number. To try your guess, tap a alphabet button in multiplication and tap a number button below. As a result, the button at the center becomes equation( for example B = 7 ). Then tap a center button. You can get a hint by tapping ‘hint’ button. You can give up a game by tapping ‘giveup’ button. It is a simple screen. But buttons funnily rotates, trembles, laughs as a visual effect.”

Super Banker: Price: $0.99
“Super Banker is a game about “Counting bill” game. Player is a new hire employee into the worldwide bank group. In the same rule, player need to service some customer and get promotion, after player promotion to CEO level, then will travel to another city. (New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Taipei, Tokyo, Shanghai) Each city has different currency, background, and buildings. Player need to count the correct money to get promotion. Enjoy it!”

Family

Just Find World (Spot the difference): Price: $0.99
“Just Find World succeeds the name and fame of Just Find It. Reasonable difficulty, fancy design and great control! Educational App with Links to Wikipedia for Each Place - You can trace where you have traveled. And if you want to know more about the place you are playing, tap the Wikipedia icon on the screen. With Just Find World you’ll be a traveler rather than a tourist. Different Spots - Different When You Back - Even if you encounter the same place again, the different spots won’t be the same. You won’t be bored!”

Titanic Rescue: Price: $0.99
“Take part of a hilarious MARINE RESCUE OPERATION as you FLING crazy cartoon gentlemen out of the cabins aboard the sinking ship. Slide forth empty vessels below to safely catch the passengers, but make sure they don’t bounce off an edge, a pile of sacks, a boat full of jazz musicians or any other crazy obstacle that might come floating. How long can you keep the gentlemen from plunging into the sea? Come join the rescue squad in TITANIC RESCUE!”

Music

Beat Runner 145 bpm: Price: $0.99
“Run or jog to the beat with your iPhone/iPod Touch. Beat Runner plays a series of drum loops sampled at 145 bpm whilst you run with your iPod in hand, or in pocket (using the built in accelerometer to sense arm/leg movement). The aim of the game is to race faster than a ticking time bomb that races against you on a series of world-wide stages.”

Puzzle

Mumbees: Price: $1.99
“Challenge your memory with Cackleberries.com’s version of a classic card game! Select Easy, Medium or Hard and you will be dealt 4, 6 or 16 pairs of cards. Choose any two cards and if they match they will stay face up. If they don’t, they’ll turn back over. Try to remember which cards are where by choosing pairs of cards until they are all matched. When all the cards are face-up, you win! Fun for any age level! Is your memory up to the challenge of Mumbee’s Match?”

Racing

Roaring Racers: Price: $0.99
“Diabolico and his gang have taken control of the local racing circuit. Playing the part of Buddy Bullet, you’ll need all the ROAR you can muster on your path to the top. Beat Diabolico and the gang to save the town.”

Boost 3D: Price: $1.99
“Boost is a 3D fast-paced experience unlike any other. The game’s visually stunning graphics and unique gameplay style will easily appeal to both experts and casual gamers. As you maneuver through the tunnel, you’ll have to dodge an ever-increasing amount of obstacles. But it’s not as simple as it sounds - the level will dynamically change it’s shape, so watch out!”

Role Playing

Sushi Chain: Price: $1.99
“This setting took place in Ueno, Tokyo. The Main character could not stand the corporate rat race anymore, and decided to call in sick for a few days. As he was walking around Ueno Park, he stumbles upon an Ad looking for a “Sushi Disciple” that would like to be trained and eventually own a famous Sushi restaurant if he/she pass the “Sushi Exams” Without hesitating, the main character applied to be a “Disciple”. How Far can you take your Sushi Chain? Or Will you have to call your boss and apologize?? It’s up to you!”

Simulation

iPuppy World: Price: $2.99
“ALL-IN-ONE CLIENT AND NEW BREEDS - Six iPuppy breeds (Husky, Chihuahua, Schnauzer, Dalmatian, Toy poodle and Labrador) with 17 color variations all in ONE client. NEW AVATARS - Make your beloved iPuppy even prettier with dozens of fashion and classic avatars. No mention the future highly customizable hair colors. NEW GROWING SYSTEM - Spend more time interacting with you iPuppy each day can grow them faster and stronger. NEW FRIEND SYSTEM - Make new friends in iPuppy World and bring your Facebook friends in. Visiting each other more and share happiness together. EXPLORE THE WORLD - Visit friends’ house, bring two iPuppies to play together and find great stuffs hiding there. Explore the world of iPuppy to find even more secrets to share. NEW BADGE SYSTEM - Collect the unique iPuppy Badges by visiting others to make your iPuppy the most popular collector in the world. UNLIMITED UPDATES - iPuppy series will NOT release any other stand-alone clients after iPuppy World. All future new content will be added only to iPuppy World as updates, and most of them are FREE!”

Junkmobile: Price: $1.99
“Help the guy get as far as possible on his newly purchased ‘junkmobile’. This will not be easy as parts will be falling off the vehicle during driving. The less parts remain, the slower the car will be moving, while the time is limited! In order to re-attach a falling part, use your finger to catch it and put it back where it belongs. Over time, the rate of parts falling off increases making them harder to catch.”

MazeRunner: Price: $0.99
“Easy to use, challenging to master, MazeRunner will have you lost deep in a world of hedges, gems, pits, secret doors, teleports and more. With 25 mazes for you to explore and race MazeRunner will give you hours of brain-teasing fun.”

Sports

NOTHING

Strategy

Collision: TTTM: Price: $1.99
“In Collision - Travel To The Moon, you can fly your spaceship on a mission to the Moon, using its powerful engine and the natural force of gravity. Escape the Earth’s pull and find the fastest route. There are several ways to obtain a spectacular score, but which one is the best? In all cases, make sure to save as much fuel as possible for future missions to the stars! Bonus points are awarded when you complete a full orbit around the Earth or the Moon, and when you play on higher difficulty levels.”

Trivia

Triviality - History: Price: $0.99
“Triviality - History is the first in a new series of trivia games for the iPhone. Triviality brings a new trivia engine that ensures that you never see repeat questions until you’ve seen them all. Triviality is a fast paced trivia game; we never want you to have to wait for the next question. Play by yourself to set a new high score on our global leader boards, or duel a friend with another iPhone or iPod Touch with our bluetooth multiplayer feature. Either way, you can earn achievements by answering questions correctly and quickly.”

Word

Whirly Word: Price: $0.99
“From the makers of the most popular Sudoku games on iPhone comes a new whirl on word games! Have fun with anagrams; no really, words can be fun! How many words can you discover from six letters? Solve the puzzle instantly by finding the six-letter word or step up to the challenge of finding all possible words with the letters given. Whirly Word comes with over 5,000 puzzles, multiple color schemes, score tracking, and background music and sound effects that can be turned off so you can listen to your iPod while you play. The large buttons and sensible design allow you to get lost in puzzles for hours. Or take a quick break from your daily routine to play for just a few minutes. This game is smart and remembers right where you left off. Our puzzles use words that you will recognize. So challenge your vocabulary prowess and play until you win!”

Wordigo: Price: $0.99
“Wordigo’s quick pace – only 7 minutes a game – keeps you on your toes as you race to complete all the paths AND achieve a high score before time runs out. Or, turn the timer off and make completing all the paths on one of the 8 boards the challenge.”

iPhone/iPod Touch Links

AppleTell: [Free Apps roundup for October 9th, 2009] [Macintosh/iPhone software update roundup - October 9th, 2009] [iPhone OS 3.1.2 available now] [Pornographic games on the iPhone: a workaround]

GamerTell: [Gamertell Review: Circuit Strike One for iPhone, iPod Touch]

Full Story » | Written by Kris Rosado for Gamertell. | Comment on this Article »

Apple App Store gaming update for the week of September 28 to October 4, 2009

Kris Rosado — 2009-10-05T15:39:47+00:00

Section: Originals, Features, Lists, Mashups, Handhelds, iPhone & iPod Touch, Updates, Apple App Store

I’m sorry to say that this week’s App Store update is, well, not too exciting. I’ll leave it to you folks to dig something out of the list this week, hopefully FIFA 10 will be enough to whet your gaming appetite until next week.

What’s Free

Moonlights lite
“Moonlights is a top quality tower building puzzle game.”

Paradise Monkeys Free
“Help the monkeys to stop the horrible monkey Dracula, decided to take all the bananas on the island! Touch the monkeys as fast as possible, avoiding traps, beat strong monsters and earn gold to increase your power, regenerate your life and unlock bonus.”

Great Colosseum Free
“Great Colosseum is a 2D shooting game! Hide bihind an object, avoid enemy shots, and shoot your enemy! This game features 6 unique characters and 5 stages. A each character has a different weapon, so choose your favorite target! This game also loads VS Human mode, soyou can play with your friends.”

Puzzle 15 FREE
“Old-school classic 15 puzzle as you remember it from childhood (if you don’t remember it, show it to your parents, son - let them recall good old times when they were young, when trees were higher and sky was bluer). Enjoy plastic authentically textured tiles, listen to the music of 70th and compete with people from all over the world for the 1st place in the Best Times list. Game supports English and Russian languages.”

Wargame Lite
“Wargame is a next generation strategy game developed only for iPhone and iPod Touch. Experience intense turn based strategy for hours of ruthless battles, alone or against your friends. With our special tactical map you will have the true feeling of leading an all-out war against your enemies. Prepare yourself general, the future of your nation is in your hands.”

What’s New

Action

FIFA 10: Price: $9.99
“Guide your club or country to glory on the field! “Be a Pro” and kick off your own countdown to the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™.”

America’s Next Top Model: Price: $4.99
“Are you ready to compete in the fiercest modeling competition on mobile? Think you have what it takes to take yourself to the top of the modeling world? If so, you’ve come to the right game. Create your own model to battle against previous winners of the show. Strut your stuff on the catwalk, show off your best look and mingle your way to the top of the modeling world!”

Adventure

NOTHING

Arcade

Minibike Racing: Price: $1.99
“Win and unlock all tracks and beat your best time!”

Bastion: Price: $0.99
“In Bastion, the player builds armories and towers, which they must defend, by shooting at the attacking ships, and repairing damage within a time limit. Connecting the armories and towers are roads made up of small blocks. Towers connected to an armory will be activated for firing. Gold is earned by destroying ships which can then be used to purchase upgrades or special weapons.”

Pumpkin Panic: Price: $0.99
“At midnight on Halloween, the pumpkins start coming to life… You are alone in your car with a bag of candy bars… you can see the evil pumpkins coming to life in the graveyard pumpkin patch… if they can get out of the graveyard they will spill out onto the streets stealing candy from all of the trick-or-treaters, causing panic wherever they go!!! Only you can stop the evil pumpkins. By hitting them with candy bars, you can cause them to become good again and to return to the graveyard pumpkin patch. Watch out though if they hit hit you with a dagger or a cleaver, it will cost you some candy bar! Lots of retro game fun for kids of all ages!”

Board

Mr. Mahjong touch: Price: $4.99
“At last you can play this superb range of Mahjong games on your iPhone and iPod touch! Mr. Mahjong brings you fabulous puzzle-solving fun from the Far East. The latest touch controls and high-definition display make Mr. Mahjong touch the best version yet by far! A real treat!”

Remik: Price: $4.99
“Remik is a card game classic played all over the world. This version of Remik is designed beautifully and follows the well known rules. Remik for iPhone is a great game for all friends of classical card games such as Gin Rummy, Canasta, Crazy Eights, Durak or Poker.”

Card

NOTHING

Casino

NOTHING

Dice

WowSlot: Price: $1.99
“Wow! Slot is an exciting slot machine game for iPhone and iPod touch. This time we bring 4 different styles slots to you.”

Educational

KanaBlaster: Price: $1.99
“Adrift in a mine field, the good ship SJC is out of fuel and out of luck. With no one on board capable of reading the characters, the crew are in panic, shouting at the tops of their lungs in a plea for help. If only someone could touch the mines in the right order to disarm them, gracefully freeing our heroes from their horrible fate…”

Family

Pocket Farm: Price: $0.99
“With only a shovel and a handful of seeds, build your farm from the ground up into a money making business. Buy fields, fences, a barn, tractor, pond, and a variety of animals. Place them where you want to design your farm the way you like it. Water the crops from your pond, or use a tractor to plow all the fields at once. When you’ve harvested enough vegetables that are in demand, head to the market where you’ll have to pack customer’s baskets with vegetables without letting them fall off the conveyor belt. Fill adjacent baskets to chain them together and collect bonus multipliers to earn the most cash!”

Music

NOTHING

Puzzle

XenoWars: Price: $0.99
“XenoWars is a “new style” game that combines the fun of the real-time strategy (RTS) game and the traditional match 3 puzzle game. Your mission is to protect your castle against your enemy and to eventually defeat your enemy. In order to do so, you need to collect Mana and produce Units. You can also gather Gold and upgrade your Units to deal with your increasingly-powerful enemy. Plus, Action Points (AP) can be gained to let your Units use special skills. These resources (Mana, Gold, and Action Point) can be earned by solving the match 3 puzzle. The game ends if the Health Points (HP) of your castle drop down to zero.”

Puzzle 15: Price: $0.99
“Old-school classic 15 puzzle as you remember it from childhood (if you don’t remember it, show it to your parents, son - let them recall good old times when they were young, when trees were higher and sky was bluer). Enjoy plastic authentically textured tiles, listen to the music of 70th and compete with people from all over the world for the 1st place in the Best Times list.”

Jam Packed!: Price: $1.99
“Jam Packed! is an addictive new puzzle game for the iPhone or iPod Touch. You must drag all items presented to you in each level into a container that holds them. The catch is that there is exactly enough space to hold all the items on each level, and only if they are put in the container the right way. Simple concept, lots of fun. With over 100 levels included to challenge you, Jam Packed! will provide you with hours of entertainment.”

Racing

Unreal Trial: Price: $0.99
“Are you good enough to overcome all obstacles on your way? Ride your motorcycle over the valleys, hills, mountains and rocks to become first! Unreal Trial is challenging motocross game with beautiful graphics presenting to you huge variability of levels from pretty easy to such which will require all of your skills. Choose one of the three unique motorcycles and try to complete all of the levels in best traditions of Elastomania and Gravity Defied. Advanced real physics engine in combination wih user-friendly adjustable controls makes it possible to get over any obstacle you can imagine.”

Role Playing

NOTHING

Simulation

Wargame: Price: $2.99
“Wargame is a next generation strategy game developed only for iPhone and iPod Touch. Experience intense turn based strategy for hours of ruthless battles, alone or against your friends. With our special tactical map you will have the true feeling of leading an all-out war against your enemies. Prepare yourself general, the future of your nation is in your hands.”

Sports

NOTHING

Strategy

NOTHING

Trivia

Celebrity: TV Edition: Price: $0.99
“How well do you know your favorite television stars? Celebrity is an iPhone/iPod Touch version of the classic party game. With Celebrity on your device, you can turn any gathering of friends into a fun, fast-paced game night with a tap of your screen. Use descriptions, one-word clues, and charades to get your teammates to guess as many television stars as possible before the time runs out. Just be careful—mention any first or last names and kiss your turn goodbye! Make anytime game time with iPhone and Celebrity.”

Word

SAT Vocab Challenge Vol. 2: Price: $4.99
“SAT® Vocab Challenge measures your mastery of 250 words that frequently appear on the SAT. Vocabulary building is one of the easiest, most effective ways to improve an SAT score. Now you can carry hundreds of need-to-know words with you everywhere you go. Turn 5 minutes into a productive study session—standing in line, riding the bus, during a lunch break, or just hanging out at home.”

iPhone and iPod Touch

AppleTell: [Free Apps roundup for October 2nd, 2009] [Appletell reviews International Athletics, iSoccer Backstreet and Archer for iPhone/iPod touch] [App It Up: Rock, Paper, Airplane!]

Full Story » | Written by Kris Rosado for Gamertell. | Comment on this Article »

Apple App Store gaming update for the week of September 14 to September 20, 2009

Kris Rosado — 2009-09-21T18:02:06+00:00

Section: Features, Lists, Mashups, Handhelds, iPhone & iPod Touch, Updates, Apple App Store

This week we see a big jump in games compared to last week’s set and what good timing! In case you forgot, this week is TGS (Tokyo Game Show). So now you have plenty of games to play on your phone while you wait for the big news from the show to break.

Here’s what you can download this week:

What’s Free

Galaxy Front - Free
“Aliens have invaded your galaxy. Fire the plasma cannon and summon soldiers to defeat the incoming aliens. Then send your army forward to destroy the alien lair to secure the planet. Take over all 10 planets and extend your territory to the edge of the galaxy! You need money to summon soldiers. The plasma cannon is for free but requires cooling time until the next shot. When your base is under attack and the energy reduces to zero, the mission is failed. Combine all 5 kinds of soldiers to make the strongest army and remember to upgrade your force when you have extra money. Enemy ability upgrades every 20 waves. So don’t get trapped in a long battle.”

Champion Archer LITE
“The Orc hordes have risen from the east and have decimated all in their path. The pride of humanity has prevented them from joining together to battle the onslaught as a united force.
Kingdom after kingdom has fallen and there is but one last stronghold to hold out against the evil. As a last resort, the final King of mankind has approached the Elven Council to request their help. The Elven Lords believe that the pride of humanity is their ultimate downfall and are reluctant to aid them in battle. Yet one Elven Lord accepts the challenge to be the Hero of the free world. You are that Hero.”

Gunshock Racing!
“It takes more than a fast car to rule these streets.. it takes something that all other racing games lack… FIREPOWER! Any old Lame can drive fast, but it takes a special kind of Driver to handle a fast car with a ROCKET LAUNCHER attached to it!”

Magic Chain Lite
“Magic Chain LITE is the free version of Magic Chain, a fast paced action puzzle game for the iPhone and iPod touch! Meet Tabitha, a cheerful witch-in-training. She is stuck on the wrong side of the forest - the kind of place you fly a broomstick through with the windows rolled up - and it is up to you to bust her out with a combination of magic and wits! In Magic Chain you build chains out of approaching enemies. Big chains bring in serious points but to pull them off you’ll need to be on your toes! The theory is simple but the results are chaotic and it will take fast decisions and swift fingers to make it out unscathed!”

Color Buster Original Lite
“This is the original version of the 90’s game “Color Buster” made specially for iPhone and iPod! One of the best logic puzzle game that was installed on almost every PC in the beginning of 90’s. Same graphic, same board and same addictive gameplay. Now you can play it wherever you are.”

BabyBuilder Lite
“BabyBuilder isn’t just another bogus simple cut and paste process of digital photographs to mash together a non-realistic image of a baby face. WaveNest Innovations significantly invested in BabyBuilder making it the first INTERACTIVE iPhone/ iPod Touch babymaking application using complex facial mapping and recognition algorithms to generate the most realistic looking babies possible. BabyBuilder’s facial mapping and recognition technology focuses on key facial features such ears, eyes, nose, mouth and chin as well as the distance between those features as displayed in quality photo’s. It also is intelligent enough to detect the relative skin tone of the individual mapped in each picture. When all the data is gathered, BabyBuilder does complex mathematical calculations to birth what a probable baby might actually look like from the photo’s of two perspective parents. Keep in mind, due to the sensitivity of the underlying BabyBuilder technology if you use photo’s of degraded quality, poor lighting, etc., it could adversely affect your baby’s appearance.”

Tribe War - Free
“This is just a lite version of the game, get full version for: 3 stages for players of all levels. Endless waves of challenges. The barbarians are trying to destroy your tribe. Take the bow and arrows to defend your tribe with your allies. Enemies come in endless waves. They’ll be faster and smarter in the next wave. The key to survive is taking out the most dangerous enemy first and wisely using the money you have earned to get the right reinforcement! How many waves can you defeat?”

What’s New

Action

9,000 BC: Price: $0.99
“9000BC is based in 9000BC. The natives from neighboring tribes and the monsters from the deep Jungle and are coming. They are coming to take away the power of life from your Village. Your soul task is of a protector. In order to destroy the enemies, you are not alone. There are Gods who are there to assist you. Get the power of Gods to magnify your strength and eliminate the monsters in creative ways. 9000 BC features creative game play and promises to take you back in time where fiction is reality.”

Rock Climber: Price: $1.99
“If you want to enjoy some cool accelerometer-controlled mountain climbing experience, then this game is for you! Tilt your iPhone to climb up fast and safe the mountains of Montana. Improve your climbing skill by collecting additional equipment on your way to the top. This really extreme and breathtaking experience will get your attention for weeks. Tap the screen to make the first jump and start climbing up. Tilt your iPhone to aim the next nearest hook. It may seem to be difficult at the very beginning, but with a little practice, you’ll feel like a pro! Another cool thing about the game reported by our first beta-testers - The Rock Climber game helps you to train your wrist and fingers, that is very helpful, e.g. if you play a guitar!”

Adventure

Apollonia Kingdom: Price: $0.99
“The red jars of Apollonia Kingdom are stolen by Kingdom of Monsters. Save the people of Apollonia Kingdom by collecting all the red jars. Visit 5 islands in Apollonia Kingdom & its market to buy health, ammo, time, stealth and shield.”

Blade Angel: Price: $0.99
“Blade Angel is a side-view action game that lets you enjoy adventure against group of villains called P-Crusaders. You will enjoy action-packed adventure with features such as zoom in/out effect, pad system optimized for iPod touch, and elegant dot-style graphic with gorgeous effects. 13 level power upgrade system lets you help defeating powerful enemies. Four kinds of min-bots help the player throughout the game. FourGod System lets you use special ultimate moves to evade dangerous situations. The player can ride three kinds of vehicles. Awesome movement can be performed by using Jump, Attack, and Direction keys. You have to avoid obstacles and clear the stages by using moves such as Jump, Double Jump, Wall Riding, Sliding, Punch, Kick, etc. Blade Angel also lets you enjoy side games via Shooting Mode and Crab Mode. The player has to go through 30 stages filled with various booby traps and powerful enemies. The player can collect bottles from each stage and exchange them to cubes to get various upgrades to face more powerful enemies.”

Arcade

Tribe War: Price: $0.99
“The barbarians are trying to destroy your tribe. Take the bow and arrows to defend your tribe with your allies. Enemies come in endless waves. They’ll be faster and smarter in the next wave. The key to survive is taking out the most dangerous enemy first and wisely using the money you have earned to get the right reinforcement! How many waves can you defeat?”

EGO City Invasion: Price: $0.99
“EGO City is under attack. You and your jet-propelled tank are its last line of defense. Using strategy, cunning and a mind-blowing array of weaponry, you will save EGO City from destruction.”

Rocket Monkey: Price: $0.99
“Blastoff into space with this hopelessly addictive title from people operating technology. Rocket Monkey offers fast, adrenaline paced fun by allowing you to control an “all business” monkey as he flies through space. This isn’t so easy…the pull of gravity from below is strong and the asteroids won’t stop coming your way! Help Rocket Monkey escape and navigate through unchartered deep space. Only you can protect him from what lays ahead.”

Cosmobomber: Price: $0.99
“CosmoBomber - a fast-paced arcade-style space shooter From Pulsargalaxy Studio! Crash and crumble menacing asteroids with powerful weapons! Upgrade your guns and be best orbital defender in gobal ladder! Have fun! As the commander of your space ship flying through dangerous galaxies, you need to shoot off incoming meteoroids to protect your ship!”

Against the Fire!: Price: $0.99
“Against the Fire! takes place in the city of Waterfront where strange “fire ball monsters” live and cause havoc by producing massive fires. All hell breaks loose and the Waterfront fire department is suddenly swamped with endless fires to attend to. Your character Andrew, a firefighter trainee without any experience, is ordered to stay behind at the headquarters. However, the siren goes off while he is at the station alone and it turns out the alarm is coming from the hotel right next to the headquarters! A huge number of hotel guests are trapped inside the hotel as the fire ball monsters loom outside attacking. Not wanting to stand aside, Andrew has no choice but to rescue them from the fire scene!”

Space Junk: Price: $1.99
“Pollution has plagued mankind for their entire existence. Human beings excrete far more refuse than other animal species and as our population continues to grow so to does our garbage. Collection of this refuse can be solved by paying the jobless to clean it up but where to put these mountains of rubbish? Sewage and toxic chemicals can be surreptitiously discharged into the oceans but what of excess building materials, out of service trains, planes and automobiles, old refrigerators, televisions and the like? These bulky items needed a final resting place and it was the collected wisdom of the world’s finest scientists and politicians that space fit the bill perfectly. And indeed it has worked out well for Earth’s inhabitants. The only ones that seem to complain are the space jockeys that have to fly through all that junk up there. And thatís your challenge. Navigate your ship through a 3D world of the nastiest, most dangerous, polluted stretch of space you ever dreamed of.”

CutNRun: Price: $0.99
“CutNRun is a level based action-strategy game that puts players into increasingly exciting scenarios. The game revolves around one core game play aspect: Don’t get caught by the enemy! Maneuver the bunny around each stage with your finger collecting carrots and power-ups while avoiding the many enemies of variable sizes and speeds. Get ready to CutNRun and have your reflexes pushed to the limit!”

Board

Brain Plus: Price: $1.99
“If you are willing to testing your memory, we right now recommend you this ‘Brain Plus’ without hesitation. Brain Plus is a simple and intuitional game with brains, which is how it makes possible for people from 4 year old kids to the middle aged to play this all together. You will get used to the game with the diagrams you used to learn in your school when you were young, and you will realize that your memory and your capacity of your brain has been improved as you keep playing the game and as the level keeps going up. Brain Plus consists of 3 brain games in total, which are ‘WHAT’S THE NEXT?’, ‘WHAT’S THE ORDER?’, ‘WHAT’S THE ASKED ONE?’. The ‘TEST MODE’ is that you can enjoy once only at a day and is that you can play all of those 3 games at once without pause and rank the total score on the World Ranking. At this moment, you will need to access internet line first and you can check your rank of your brain on the World Ranking. We invite you to Brain Plus, where everyone in the world competes with each other with their brains.”

POP’n Tock: Price: $1.99
“Now you will enter into a big adventure with cute jelly-balls. You can become a hero who rescues the cute jelly-balls, which often fall into all kinds of traps out of their curiosity. This is an action-puzzle game that you have to rescue the cute jelly-balls from the traps in a limited time. Once you start the game, you will be facing a harder and complex obstacles as you enter higher stages and finally to the place where the treasures are.”

Spellbound NJ: Price: $3.99
“Spellbound NJ, the popular, handheld, word game, is now available for the iPhone and iPod touch! Since 2002, players have been addicted to Spellbound NJ, playing games that have reached hundreds of rounds on the untimed level. Challenging and thought-provoking goals make Spellbound NJ fun and addictive. Watch tiles fall into place as you spell words. Interact with the computer to complete the goal for each round. Improve your vocabulary as you play. What makes this game unique is that each round has interesting goals that require more than just spelling words.”

Mazeball: Price: $0.99
“Waiting in line? for your slow computer to start up? for big shot to enter the meeting room? for late attendees to your appointment? For those short time you stuck in between, fire up Mazeball and make it enjoyable. Mazeball is a simple casual game. It’s fun and easy to play, suitable for all ages. Just roll the ball to the maze exit by tilting your iPhone or iPod. No learning curve.”

Card

NOTHING

Casino

World Poker Tour® Texas Hold ‘Em!: Price: $3.99
“Play like the pros in World Poker Tour® Texas Hold ‘Em! Over 60 million poker hands dealt! The best-selling, award-winning, WPT® Texas Hold ‘Em allows you to take down monster pots, anytime, anywhere. Test your skills at the table against hundreds of thousands of real world players from across all phone networks and the Web. See if you have what it takes to make it to the World Poker Tour and take down the competition!”

Gallop for Gold Slots: Price: $1.99
“Beat the bookie and share the fun in Gallop for Gold Slots… with the first ever Nudge Jackpot and 6 unique bookie bonuses in the feature bonus round - this really is the mane event! Can your horse win all 48 trophies and become super-champion? Try it now and see! During normal play the highly fashionable hostess acts as a wildcard and substitutes for all symbols except scattered horses.”

Dice

Gluckhaus: Price: $0.99
“Gluckhaus (House of Fortune) is a German gambling game played with dice. Gluckhaus is played on a board numbered from 2 to 12 (possibly without the number 4), with two 6-sided dice. It is a game for 2 or more players, German in origin. First mentioned (and condemned) in sermons in the 13th or 14th century, it continued to be a common game until outlawed by the Nazi party. Gluckhaus boards are often highly decorated, with different scenes appearing in the different squares of the board. Most of these illustrations vary from one board to the next. The only set squares are 2 (a pig), 7 (a wedding), and 12 (a king). Play begins with each player anteing a coin to the wedding. After all, one must always bring a gift to a wedding. Players then begin to roll dice, passing the dice around the table. On any roll of 7, the player leaves a coin on the wedding. Play then passes to the next player.”

Educational

WordGirl Word Hunt: Price: $1.99
“Villains have taken over the city and only WordGirl ‘s vocabulary prowess and superhero strength can save the day from certain doom! WordGirl knows that crime doesn’t pay, but knowing the right word for the right moment is priceless. Complete each WordGirl story by choosing the right word to defeat the evil villains. Then in a high-flying action game, tilt your iPhone™ or iPod® Touch to fly with WordGirl as she collects the word she needs to save the day!”

APlus Memory: Price: $0.99
“A PLUS MEMORY!! An addictive game played by thousands already in cafeterias and office canteens around the world, keep the photo planktons in your brain happy! Ever imagined, why you forget that last item on the grocery list or the name of an acquaintance you met last week in Sherry’s Party? Build up your brain with this addictive puzzle game that lets your friends say…WOW!! This puzzle displays a “Photo” with some hidden clues for “20 Secs”. All you have to do is remember the photo in your brain when you answer the next 5 questions. The more questions you answer correctly, the healthier your brain is in remembering stuff. Well the results page displays an average score of past performance both numerically and graphically to help you evaluate improvements.”

Family

BabyBuilder: Price: $1.99
“BabyBuilder isn’t just another bogus simple cut and paste process of digital photographs to mash together a non-realistic image of a baby face. WaveNest Innovations significantly invested in BabyBuilder making it the first INTERACTIVE iPhone/ iPod Touch babymaking application using complex facial mapping and recognition algorithms to generate the most realistic looking babies possible. BabyBuilder’s facial mapping and recognition technology focuses on key facial features such ears, eyes, nose, mouth and chin as well as the distance between those features as displayed in quality photo’s. It also is intelligent enough to detect the relative skin tone of the individual mapped in each picture. When all the data is gathered, BabyBuilder does complex mathematical calculations to birth what a probable baby might actually look like from the photo’s of two perspective parents. Keep in mind, due to the sensitivity of the underlying BabyBuilder technology if you use photo’s of degraded quality, poor lighting, etc., it could adversely affect your baby’s appearance.”

Music

NOTHING

Puzzle

Crystal Cave Classic: Price: $3.99
“Collect gemstones from ancient tombs and pyramids in this amazing adventure logic game from Rake in Grass, the creators of Archibald’s Adventures! Crystal Cave Classic is a quest for long-lost treasures buried in pitch black caves, pyramids and temples of ancient civilizations. Huge gemstones were sheltered from the sunshine for eons of time waiting for explorers brave enough to unearth them. You - as an intrepid treasure hunter - will need all your ingenuity to pass the traps and dangers of the underground and collect the treasure in more than 170 levels. Crystal Cave Classic offers gameplay mixed of action and puzzle elements for players of all ages!”

Mezopuzzle: Price: $0.99
“Your goal is to unravel some of these mysteries by collecting precious fragments of paintings on grain and to reconstruct three Maya legends on your own! Each story provides another level of complexity. Each level you need to complete 10 paintings, which gradually recreate key moments of the legend plot, and once again to outwit the mighty god Kizin. Some innovations distinguish this puzzle from lots of previous. Blocks can be moved in any directions within boundaries of a playing field – right and left, up and down. To optimize the game process you’re able to slide few blocks at one time. Picture by picture accomplished paintings take their places in the row on a wall. The game is based on a real mythology! A dumb presentation of three beautiful Yucatec Maya legends is unfolding before a player-researcher step by step.”

Ninja TD: Price: $2.99
“NinjaTD is a Tower Defense like game. It has five defense themes and they are wind, thunder, ice, fire, and sand. In Ver. 1.0, it has 20 stages and 3 levels of difficulty to choose. There are five types of ninja and five types of ninja magic.”

Cake Mania Celebrity Chef: Price: $2.99
“Jill’s delicious cakes have become so popular that she’s been invited to appear on Cake Mania Celebrity Chef, a culinary competition taking place in exotic locations around the globe! Help Jill bake her way to the top by whipping up cakes for her quirky customers in more than 50 exciting levels. Stack, serve, and catch cakes in three all-new mini-games and climb to the top of the Cake-o-Meter by completing fun milestones.”

Racing

Lab Rat: Price: $1.99
“You’re part of a mysterious experiment conducted by an unkown group of scientists. Your job is to get to the other side of the maze in the least amount of time, where a tasty cheese awaits you.
To help you out, the scientists have fixed you with some neural implants that give interesting power ups. But to use them, you must first get some score points. For every second below the current record time, you get 100 points.”

SkyDodge: Price: $0.99
“Use accelerometer to control the plane and avoid any obstacles in the sky. It sounds easy, but as more and more obstacles appear with increasing speed, you will need rapid reaction to avoid any collision! You can obtain several items by flighting through item bubbles or coins, which can be used for either enhance your plane or increase your score.”

Role Playing

HYBRID: Eternal Whisper: Price: $5.99
“Platina, the world of humans and Spirits, is on the verge of annihilation. Travel between parallel worlds, save the Spirits, and change the future. Prepare for an epic battle in HYBRID: Eternal Whisper!”

Simulation

Fight Desert: Price: $1.99
“In this game, you have to deal with pieces of land, which are gradually transforming into desert. Your goal is to stop the spread of desert by supplying water, planting trees and fixating the soil. Each piece of land has it’s own level, green point, and increase/decrease influence to the land surrounding it. Combating desertification is complex and difficult, you have to choose the right mitigation strategy.”

Aera: Price: $2.99
“Essentially, Aera can be defined as casual 2.5D flight simulator. Since the physics model is “real” but simplified, it allows you to start off easily, but as you advance and master the controls, you’ll discover more possibilities and ways of flying. Eventually, you might find it fun and enjoyable just to fly the planes around the scenery, hence the Free Flight Mode.”

Spark of Life: Price: $1.99
“Somewhere out in the mighty cosmos, a lonely rock spins through space. No trees dot its surface, no birds fill its skies, no civilization calls it home. Not yet, anyway… but it has potential. Perhaps you can lend a hand. You are the Spark of Life. It is your job to guide and protect fledgling planets as they make their way onto the cosmic stage. Catch comets, align asteroids, and go toe to toe with black holes to foster and grow your planet.”

Sports

Soccer Skills Academy: Price: $2.99
“For the first time ever on iPhone get a chance to train your own team and compete against others for glory, so are you game? “Soccer Skills Academy” puts you close to the action giving you an opportunity to help your team train for their league matches! Scout opposing teams, and train your team to take on all comers with fun and challenging training mini-games! Improve team’s Attack, Defense, and Stamina to outmatch your opponents, and then defeat them on your road to the cup. With “Soccer Skills Academy”, every day is game day! Strengthen the Attack, Defense and Stamina of your team.”

Super Shock Football: Price: $1.99
“Finally a football game that anyone can play! Immerse yourself in the fun filled nostalgic world of Super Shock Football. Featuring game-play simple enough for the casual gamer, yet deep enough to satisfy the hardcore football nut. Enjoy a touch of something old, as well as new, in this charming re-envisioning of the classic football game. Lace up and get in the game!”

Strategy

Boom Brigade: Price: $0.99
“The player controls bunch of troopers each carrying a weapon of player’s choosing: a minigun, a bazooka, or a shotgun. The troopers are controlled by drawing lines on the screen and they fire their weapons automatically at the alien horde. The game starts with one trooper and the reinforcements will be sent in as the pace picks up. The goal is to defend a bunker against the alien horde with an appetite for humans. The longer the player survives, the higher the score. Aliens drop loot which can be used to reinforce the brigade, heal the troops, upgrade the troopers, and repair the bunker.”

Robocalypse - Mobile Mayhem: Price: $4.99
“In Robocalypse – Mobile Mayhem, players build and command robot armies to fend off attacks from the evil Demolisher and his near-endless supply of maniacal mechanical marauders. The game features characters and dialog created by the comedic writing duo of Jay Lender (of Spongebob Squarepants™ fame) and Micah Wright and a storyline sure to keep players laughing for hours on end. Featuring 10 unit types, 20 varieties of weaponry, 17 campaign missions, 18 unique multiplayer maps, a cast of powerful Hero robots and an intuitive touch-screen interface, Robocalypse – Mobile Mayhem ensures fun for everyone. Robocalypse – Mobile Mayhem is playable online by 1 to 4 players – Play head-to-head or co-op over 18 unique maps and multiple play modes.”

Galaxy Front: Price: $0.99
“Aliens have invaded your galaxy. Fire the plasma cannon and summon soldiers to defeat the incoming aliens. Then send your army forward to destroy the alien lair to secure the planet. Take over all 10 planets and extend your territory to the edge of the galaxy! You need money to summon soldiers. The plasma cannon is for free but requires cooling time until the next shot. When your base is under attack and the energy reduces to zero, the mission is failed. Combine all 5 kinds of soldiers to make the strongest army and remember to upgrade your force when you have extra money. Enemy ability upgrades every 20 waves. So don’t get trapped in a long battle.”

Champion Archer: Price: $0.99
“The Orc hordes have risen from the east and have decimated all in their path. The pride of humanity has prevented them from joining together to battle the onslaught as a united force. Kingdom after kingdom has fallen and there is but one last stronghold to hold out against the evil. As a last resort, the final King of mankind has approached the Elven Council to request their help. The Elven Lords believe that the pride of humanity is their ultimate downfall and are reluctant to aid them in battle. Yet one Elven Lord accepts the challenge to be the Hero of the free world. You are that Hero.”

Ancient War: Price: $0.99
“You are the God of one ancient tribe. You have to lead your tribe to conquer the world. Now command your army of ancient militias, warders, infantries, hunters, cavalries, wizards, catapults and, even trained DINOSAURs to crush enemy defense and destroy their TOTEM. Don’t forget to upgrade your technology to take advantage. You can upgrade unlock new units and upgrade them to further levels. Some unit may TRANSFORM at certain level!”

Car Washer: Price: $0.99
“Do you have what it takes to operate a successful car wash? Vehicles will enter the game from one of two locations. Vehicles entering from the right must travel through each station (gas, vacuum, car wash, drying) to earn $10.00. Direct your customers to an open station by touching first the car and then the station. The progress bar will notify the player when a task is completed; the vehicle can proceed to the next station when space is available. All cars entering from the upper left are utilizing the quick service feature that consists of only the car wash and drying. Circle / Shaded red cars require only a car wash and will exit automatically without prompting earning the player $10.00. Circle / Shaded red cars must be given immediate attention.”

Trivia

Time Travel Trivia Through History: Price: $1.99
“Do you know when Rome was founded, when William the Conqueror invaded the Kingdom of England, when Michelangelo finished the “David” sculpture, when George Washington became the first President of the United States of America, when World War I broke out, when Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his famous “I Have a Dream Speech”, when the Woodstock Festival was held, when Elvis Presley died, or the Berlin Wall was opened? Your task is to give the exact date for historical events by moving “the wheel of history” with your finger. The less years off in total the better.
To cover a wide range of world history, we carefully selected 250 events. They all come with a short explanation shown after the answer to give you some background information about the event, helping you to better memorize the correct date. You can compare your results among others with the built in online high score. With some training you will make it to the top of the list.

Lyric Genius - 70s Edition: Price: $0.99
“Are you a Lyric Genius? Do you know your 70s songs? If you like music from the 80s or songs from 2000+ era, try out our 80s or 2K Editions as well. Are you the type of genius with an endless library of lyric trivia? Are you the special kind of genius with a lightning fast trigger recognizing hit songs in a matter of seconds? Prove it!!! Test your skills with Lyric Genius a brand new lyric trivia game. See if you can attain the ultimate title of “Lyric Genius” with our fun game and try to have your friends beat your high score!!!”

Flag Challenge: Price: $0.99
“Do you know what does the Cote D’Ivore Flag looks like, what is the capital of Bangladesh or what does the United State of America’s Coat of Arms looks like? If you answered no to any of the previous questions then Flag Challenge is perfect for you. Flag Challenge tests your geography knowledge to the limit. Featuring Flag, Capital and Coat of Arm Challenge for 221 different countries. You can either test your knowledge or study before the challenge. Race against the clock while you complete the three challenge and find out what kind of explorer are you, at the end of the test you will be ranked.”

Word

Wordaisy: Price: $1.99
“Form words by aligning letters at the bottom of the board while making  sure you keep that ladybug from getting to the top! Spend hours of word-making fun in 2 exciting game modes!”

iPhone and iPod Touch Links

AppleTell: [Appletell reviews SplashID password management for iPhone, iPod touch] [Appletell reviews TomTom for iPhone] [Free Apps roundup for September 18th, 2009]

GadgetTell:[Pong wants to protect you from your iPhone’s radiation]

Full Story » | Written by Kris Rosado for Gamertell. | Comment on this Article »

Free Apple Apps roundup for September 18, 2009

NEWS — 2009-09-18T16:45:22+00:00

FROM APPLETELL - You’ll be glad to know this week’s offering of freebies on the App Store was much more substantial. Games, apps and novelty apps to keep one and all happy.
MORE »

Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gamertell. | Comment on this Article »

Apple App Store gaming update for the week of September 7 to 13, 2009

Kris Rosado — 2009-09-14T15:07:51+00:00

Section: Originals, Features, Columns, Lists, Mashups, Handhelds, iPhone & iPod Touch, Updates, Apple App Store

Apple finally does something about the App Store people have been complaining about an, I must admit, it looks mighty clean. Things are easier to find and, while it’s still not perfect, it’s a huge improvement over the previous iteration.

Apple also introduced a new iPod Touch to accommodate your gaming needs but you can read all about that in the links below. For now, howabout checking out this weeks releases? We kick things off with:

What’s Free

iTank Battle - Free
“Miss the simple joy playing a tank battle game? That’s what you find in iTank Battle. Simple rule: Eleminate all enemies before they blow up your base. Simple control: Go in 4 directions and fire! Move your tank around to chase the enemies or find the best spot to ambush them. Pick up items to speed up, boost your fire power, freeze enemies, recover HP… What’s more? You can challenge players all around the world for the highest score and the shortest clear time!”

Brain Training - Left or Right Free
“Challenge your limit! Left or Right will make you concentrate into and memorize something better while making decisions more quickly. To win the game, the only thing that you need is the instinct and swift choice.”

Brain 2: Global Challenge LITE
“Invest in your IQ and success! The smarter you get, the better are chances for your financial success. Improve your ability to deal with numbers quickly, and earn more money in your life. Invest your time in your IQ! This LITE version trains your one skill to add numbers. You learn to add your money, your stuff and your fortune in a split second. Besides you have all the features of the paid app including the Global Challenge.”

Battle of Midway
“The battleship is the classic naval strategy game where two players try to sink each other’s hidden ships. Battle of Midway is an awesome 45 degree angle battleship game in the iPhone. There is no relation between this game and the historical background, it just takes you to a fantasy navy field.”

What’s New

Action

Blades of Fury: $6.99
“Prove your bravery & establish your own fighting style through epic duels to cast your name among the greatest heroes, and be remembered in history. Alone against the computer or against your friends in multiplayer gaming sessions, experience an explosive and accessible fighting experience thanks to an arcade-style gameplay. Blades of Fury is the ultimate one-on-one fighting game, offering numerous game modes, and a wide array of playable fighters and fighting combinations.”

EMERGENCY!DOWNGIRL: Price: $0.99
“A girl is falling into the elevator shaft! Above her, the elevator has falling with augers, Behind, deep precipice is waiting for her. Please shake your iPhone/iPod Touch from side to side. And use scaffolds to save your life! More you steps, more score. Have fun with world wide people by getting high score.”

iTank Battle: Price: $0.99
“Miss the simple joy playing a tank battle game? That’s what you find in iTank Battle. Simple rule: Eleminate all enemies before they blow up your base. Simple control: Go in 4 directions and fire! Move your tank around to chase the enemies or find the best spot to ambush them. Pick up items to speed up, boost your fire power, freeze enemies, recover HP… What’s more? You can challenge players all around the world for the highest score and the shortest clear time!”

Adventure

Cassandra’s Journey: The Legacy of Nostradamus: Price: $1.99
“Cassandra is a young mystic, heiress and successor of her grandmother - powerful sorceress Serena. The girl helps people in a trouble relying on her magical ring. That magic ring helps her to have a strong power for prediction. Cassandra’s adventure begins from mysterious disappearance of Violet Smith’s brother. Of course kind and sympathetic Cassandra is going to come to aid, but her ring was found to be missing too! So now Cassandra can use just natural human means.

That’s how you come to be in the world of fascinating magical trinkets. Don’t be anxious about lack of experience because the spirit of famous Nostradamus will be your guide in a wonderful travelling. The quest consists of 30 beautiful levels where you meet diverse characters, accomplish a lot of tasks and progressively find a surprising key to the main riddle. Gameplay includes all the best and the most loved in casual games. It fabulously mixes hidden-object and card games, image and word puzzles, match 3 levels and magic tricks.”

Smashing The Opponent: Price: $0.99
“The Legend of the Black Shawarma tells of a pita so mystic, divine and tasty, that those who have a bite will be blessed with eternal life. Hearing this you find yourself in the Black forest, facing peril and hardship which you must overcome to reach the ultimate prize. Run through the Black Forest, meet the creatures who defend the treasure and SMASH them silly. Face the bosses and unlock new worlds. Search the Forest for weapons which will maximize your creative smashing skills, like bombs, shotguns and the chainsaw. Smashing the Opponent is an exciting new game brought to you by the sonic masters, Infected Mushroom. Creators of the psychedelic trance scene, I.Zen and Duvdev will blast your mind and set the vibe for the ultimate smashing. Featuring original infected music and never released trance tracks.”

Arcade

Magical Drop Touch: Price: $2.99
“Data East is back with its Brand New version of its Retro Classic Magical Drop. Magical Drop Touch is now available for the iPhone and iPod Touch. This time World has summoned her favorite friends, Fool, Star, Devil, Chariot and Justice to compete in a Magical Drop Tournament and the winner gets to face the World for a chance to receive a wish of their own desire. Fully utilizing the revolutionary touch panel for the iPhone, try and swipe your way to victory by creating 3 ball chains and overwhelm your opponent with lines until they beg for mercy.”

MonsterKill: Price: $0.99
“hey’re cute, they’re cheeky - you just want to squeeze the life out of the little monsters! Hordes of tiny terrors have broken free of their chains and are running amok! Use touchscreen gestures to summon a variety of spells as you battle against these classic mini-monsters.”

Space Dock: Price: $0.99
“You begin as a lowly space station controller on the shiny new deep space station. Starships, space shuttles, and space fighters start to hyperspace into the station’s quadrant. Some ships are running from aliens, some from asteroids, some are low on fuel. You must dock them quickly and safely on the station. But wait, there is a problem? Aliens in the docking area? Are they dangerous, or perhaps wanting to make first contact? Did they just abduct your astronaut? Are the aliens actually probing our people?

You have to land the spacecraft quicker and quicker, but now asteroids are overwhelming the station’s defenses. Your spacecraft are being plastered by the asteroids, and spacemen from damaged ships are floating stranded in space. They are your crewmates and are in grave danger and you must rescue them. If one of your spacecraft hits them, the game is over. Use all your skills to deftly guide a rescue craft to them to save their lives. In the meantime, the starships, fighters, and shuttles keep coming and coming.”

Board

RICHMAN: Price: $0.99
“RICHMAN is an action strategy iPhone game in which the object is to make enough money to buy the millionaire’s mansion and end the game, all within the quickest time possible. To play, simply touch on a house as it comes up for sale to buy it. You must have enough funds to cover the cost of the purchase. Hold onto is as long as its value increases, which is indicated by a small triangle next to its price. Sell the house to make a profit, which gives you additional funds for a more expensive property. Begin by buying and selling the cheaper houses, which are furthest from the masion. Advance to more expensive areas as you can afford to do so. As soon as you are able to afford the millionaire’s mansion at the end, click on it to end the game.”

Blokuz
“Blokuz” - is a collection of three great games: Blokuz One, Blokuz Mono, Blokuz Dual. Each game - is remake of the popular puzzle.

“Blokuz One”
The playing board is filled with chips of different colors. You choose the same colored chips that are connected to each other and delete them, increasing your points. With each level the complication of the game and the amount of colors increases. The more chips you delete at one time, the more points you get. In the beginning of the game you have 3 lives. If you have any chips which you cannot delete left over – you lose one life and can’t go to the next level.

“Blokuz Mono”
In front of you there is a field of chips, which are hidden underneath question marks. Open and collect groups of similar chips by tapping on the hidden chips. If the chip is single - it is highlighted, but does not open. Delete the opened group of chips with a second tap. You can see the location of color chips using the switch button.
Your aim is to clear the game field. Choose the largest block of chips, and the more chips you delete at one time the more points you get. After the task is completed, you go to the next level.

“Blokuz Dual”
Your aim is to clear the game field on two sides of the board. Switching to the other side is using the button at the bottom of the screen. You can select a group of chips on the active screen, see the appropriate distribution of the background screen and make the most successful choice.
In all three games, if you lose a level, you are encouraged to pass it again, but during the second pass, you get less points. Once you lose your last “life”, you will be prompted to save a record in the local/global high scores. Without access to the Internet, the record is written only locally.

Card

NOTHING

Casino

World Roulette: Price: $0.99
“Taking it’s name from the french word for ‘small wheel’, Roulette has become one of the most popular casino games in the world. During it’s spread across the globe, many different variants of roulette have evolved. Mobigames UK is proud to present World Roulette, bringing you several types of this successful game in one easy to use application.”

Dice

NOTHING

Educational

FourPlay Genius Edition (Four Letter Word Game): Price: $1.99
“Challenging! See if you can get all of the words that can be spelled with the letters of the first four-letter word! Shows you the words that you didn’t get. Will help you play other four letter words games by reminding you of the words you may be missing. If you like FourPlay, you will love FourPlay Genius Edition!”

Family

Deal or No Deal: Around the World: Price: $4.99
“DEAL OR NO DEAL is back to take you on a trip of a lifetime! Experience the thrill of the hit TV game show with millions of fans worldwide. In this new version fully optimized for the iPhone and iPod Touch, the stakes are even higher as you travel to exotic destinations to collect CA$H, prizes and awards. Will you make a deal or risk it all to win millions?”

Brain Cat: Price: $0.99
“You are a cat with good brains. You have to use your brains to eat the fish in the fishbow. Rearrange the fish in the fishbow to make them look like ones at the upper left corner, and you can eat them. You can move them by touching a specific fish. The fish around touched one will go round your fish. You have limited time, but the amount of moves are not limited.”

Music

CrazyDancing: Price: $0.99
“You have to act as two people on your left side. It may seem very easy, but as you play, the game requires extreme speed, technique, and concentration. If you make a mistake, the two people on your left side will give you a disappointing look and a warning sound which indicates the end of the game. The number of clicks you have made will be saved as your score in the ranking. Highly addictive.”

Puzzle

Brainy Smarty Party: Price: $2.99
“Improve your brains and challenge players around the globe with Brainy Smarty Party! A collection of 15 addictive and fun games designed to improve your brains in different areas like reaction, memory, counting, logic, math and focus. And when you’re done, enjoy the time with one of the world’s most popular puzzle: Sudoku!”

Color Ninjutsu Puzzle: Price: $1.99
“The objective of this challenging game is to link 3 blocks of the same color and make them disappear. You’ll rack your brain to come up with the best course of action that will win you the most points!”

Oil Spill: Price: $1.99
“DRILL, BABY, DRILL!!! This easy-to-learn puzzle game will keep you coming back for more! Clear the entire board by “exploding” oil drops. The more chain reactions you connect, the higher your score.”

Cave Dweller: Price: $1.99
“To win at this game, you must gather all of the bombs scattered around the level and get to the exit safely. By safely, we mean without getting trapped! Walking sideways underneath blocks causes them to fall, changing the level as you go. If you fail to reach the exit with all of the bombs, you must restart and try again. You can earn medals for beating a level in the minimum amount of moves. Beating all the levels unlocks a special feature in the game’s options menu.”

Racing

Parking Master: Price: $0.99
“Park the cars in the an occupied parking lots, while trying not to get hit by the other cars or obstacles.”

Role Playing

NOTHING

Simulation

The Galactic Aquarium: Price: $0.99
“The Galactic Aquarium is a fun, addictive game that’s easy to get into but hard to master! Try to breed all the different types of fish to get the daddy of them all, The Cod Father! Watch out for fish with special abilities, like the Chameeleon and the time warping Bronzefish, that can cause chaos in your fish tank! And try to manage what’s eating what so you can make the most money and be top of the online scoreboard. With over 40 different types of fish, you’ll have to keep on your toes - or fins ;) - to keep your tank running smoothly. Luckily, you’ve got your handy breeding guide to help you along your way, and your freezer to store fish that are ready to breed.”

Sports

OhBasket: Price: $0.99
“OhBasket is a really fun game for all casual game players. It’s a good way to consume boring times such as your 5 to 10 minutes break from work. The way to control the game play is simple. You just have to use the iphone accelerometer to control the movement of the basket to catch all the balls that is shot from the worst basketball player in the world. Please don’t get mad when you see him throw all those terrible shots. You are the one that is going to save him from this embarrassing situation with your magic hands!”

Strategy

Silent Swords: Price: $2.99
“Silent Swords is a stealth action game designed exclusively for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The legend begins, be a part of it! “Patience is a virtue,” his sensei had taught him, so the little black ninja waited patiently for the right moment. And the right moment came. That poor guard never knew what hit him. Our hero has become just another shadow among shadows. With the Silent Swords back in his hands, the filthy walls won’t hold him for much longer…”

Arcana: Spell Duel: Price: $1.99
“Arcana: Spell Duel brings high strategy mage duelling to the iPhone in full 3D. Tear down your opponent blast by blast as you construct a careful strategy that will leave him guessing at every turn. You can play as a Naturalist, or duel as an Arcanist. An Arcanist uses the Arcanix to cast: an ancient device that responds to your gestures by conjuring up magical energies. He cast spells with specific gestures and combinations which he must master. He is virtually unlimited in his power. A Naturalist cast spells using menus, and is limited in his power.”

Trivia

Find Freak: Price: $0.99
“Test your eagle eyes and find the four differences in each level. But beware: it can be difficult to spot all the variants in those beautiful images. The clock is ticking. If a level gets too hard for you, two jokers can be used to assist you on your journey to become a real find freak. Three degrees of difficulty (easy, normal and freak) are available in the game and on freak mode you will encounter our specially designed mirror bonus levels. A highscore list will remember your best scores to show to your friends. Also perfect to play while listening to your own music - just switch off the games sound in the options and activate your ipod. Over 100 images are in the game, all optimized for the iPhone display and even more to come in updates.”

Pocket Quiz: Classics of World Literature: Price: $1.99
“Hamlet, Faust, Romeo and Juliet, Don Quixote, The Three Musketeers, Effi Briest, Homo Faber, Lolita, Buddenbrooks… everything worth knowing about classics of world literature! Get detailed answers with background information to 150 edited questions! Also including interesting illustrations interspersed among the questions and answers that clarify the contents. You can now play our successful print series – more than 2 million copies sold – on your iPhone or iPod Touch. Play alone against time 15, 25, 50, or all 150 questions. But don’t think too long, time is running! Get points for every correct answer depending on how much time is remaining. Get as many points as possible to ensure your place in the high score list! In the two-player mode, challenge your friends and view the questions on one device. May the best man win! Find other interesting pocket quiz topics in addition to this at your iTunes App store! For example, inventions, astronomy & space travel, classics of world literature, computer, Jazz… and much more! Add to your collection!”

Word

Typing with Volcanoes: Price; $0.99
“Two volcano gods compete to build the tallest tower. Help your volcano god be the first to build a tower to the heavens. Steal your rival’s blocks to build your own tower. Type the words inscribed into the falling blocks to steal them. Typing glowing blocks reveals power ups. Unleash these power ups to bring down your enemy’s tower. Use your powers to destroy their tower brick by brick, or blow chunks of it away. The choice is up to you. Control the game with the gorgeous, easy to use landscape keyboard. You’ll need fast fingers to compete against the world on the global high scores. Maximize your score by completing the 100 addictive levels. Finishing all 100 levels won’t be easy, so the game auto saves whenever you exit the application.”

Amazing Hangman: Price: $0.99
“Amazing Hangman is a very popular word guessing game. It is also an educational application where you can improve your vocabulary. Play alone or with a friend via bluetooth.”

iPhone/iPod Touch Links

AppleTell: [Macintosh/iPhone software update roundup - September 11, 2009] [Apple updates iPod touch] [iPhone OS 3.1 available today [update]] [Apple releases iTunes 9 [Update: now available.]]

GamerTell: [GamerTell Review: Toki Tori for iPhone, iPod Touch]

Full Story » | Written by Kris Rosado for Gamertell. | Comment on this Article »

Media Mashup: Microsoft lowers Xbox 360 Elite price by $100, the web’s achatter

PJ Hruschak — 2009-09-01T03:10:49+00:00

Section: Gaming News, Features, Mashups, Consoles, Xbox-360, Ads & Media, Web, Game-Companies, Developers, Publishers

As if a response to Sony’s PS3 Slim and PS3 price reduction announcements at GamesCon, Microsoft recently reduced the price of its Xbox 360 Elite model, beginning August 28, 2009.

And, of course, there was a web frenzy about it.

First the price-y facts. In the United States, the 120 GB Xbox 360 Elite now costs $299.99, a $100 reduction (and elimination of an HD cable). The 60 GB Xbox 360 Pro’s price was reduced by $50 making it $249.99. The hard drive-less Xbox 360 Arcade system remains unchanged at $199. In the United Kingdom, the Elite price dropped to £299.99 (approx. US$490) and the Arcade price increased to £159.99 ($260).

Here’s a quick look at how various online media covered these same few facts:

Joystiq used the opportunity to plug its “chat” with Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg. (BTW: If you wondered how some sites get “insider info” and facts online so fast, it’s not super secret scans, it’s called preferential treatment.)
Kotaku used it to not only announce the price drop but to dispel Xbox 360 Slim rumors (that hardly existed). And for a bit of spinning from Greenberg (because he, of course, spoke with Kotaku, too, that day) concerning the timing with Sony’s announcements: “I think it’s a bit coincidental, but it’s also somewhat logical with both [Sony and Microsoft] making price adjustments at this time of the year because we are turning the corner of the holiday season.”
GamePro took the more pro route with less sarcasm and straight info including a hefty chunk of Microsoft’s official price reduction announcement.
MajorNelson - whose site now makes my eyes bleed - had a nice, side-by-side comparison of prices along with new box art but no other facts.
CrunchGear went for some backhanded self-praise, a little sarcasm and then a full press release regurgitation.
The Scottish DailyRecord included the price change as a blurb. Interesting to note that the Xbox Arcade price was increased to £159.99. Blimey!
Edge also reported the overseas price changes in a fact-y way along with the US price changes. Ah, the pros.
Of the Euro-pubs, Eurogamer and PocketLint mentioned that made the Sony connection. PocketLint also supposedly spoke with Microsoft and reassures readers that these “new” consoles will work with Project Natal. Phew…?
GamesIndustry.biz was nice and quote-y in reporting the UK price changes although, of course, every Microsoft quote reads pretty much the same.
Destructoid pointed out the UK reduction and hike (and was one of the few sites that tried to explain the price hike) and took a jab at the dis-inclusion of the HD cables. Destructoid also points out that the marketing analysts at EEDAR expect another Microsoft price cut relatively soon (so they can leave out the power cable, too?).
CVG got an explanation of the reasoning for the removal of the HD cables (”[W]we are confident that providing even better value for our premium console will allow people the flexibility to purchase the HDMI cable of their choice so they can enjoy the full benefits of our high-definition and 1080p experiences over Xbox Live”) along with the full press release.

There were, of course, many, many others. Feel free to post links to notable coverage below.

Site [Xbox]

Note: Image borrowed from MajorNelson.

Full Story » | Written by PJ Hruschak for Gamertell. | Comment on this Article »

Apple App Store gaming update for the week of August 17 to August 23, 2009

Kris Rosado — 2009-08-24T21:22:02+00:00

Section: Features, Lists, Mashups, Handhelds, iPhone & iPod Touch, Updates, Apple App Store

Another week of Apple App Store games has arrived for your downloading pleasure but I’m betting you’re too preoccupied anticipating the release of Snow Leopard for your other Apple device, right?

Well instead of twiddling your fingers waiting for UPS to bring you your copy, why not play a game instead?

What’s Free

A Quest Of Knights Onrush
“This is a promo game made based on Knights Onrush characters and graphics - it’s free and fully functional. However, it’s totally different kind of a game. You control one character and your mission is to force through hordes of enemies using your sword. Fight knights, swordsmen, wizards and ballistas, take advantage of the leveling system, do your best to fight as far as you can. Go and kill them all.”

KidwordsFree
“A fun game to teach your kids how to spell! Identify the brightly colored images on top, and use the picker below to spell the word. Having trouble with a word? Turn on the Voice setting, or set it up to speak the name of the image automatically!”

What’s New

Action

Justice in glory: Price: $0.99
“Justice In Glory is a horizontal scrolling action game. You play as Barry who will walk from the streets to the insurance company‘s office, defending yourself from the insurance agents. There will be employees stopping you from entering the main office. You have to use your tools and agility to knock out those insurance agents before reaching the safe that stores your grandmother’s money.”

Bust-A-Move: Price: $4.99
“The original “Bust-A-Move” game is reborn on the iPhone / iPod touch, bursting with bubble-popping fun for both 1 and 2 players! Featuring Story Mode, where you control Bub in an all-new puzzle-solving adventure; VS. Mode, where you and a friend play head-to-head over Bluetooth; and Challenge Mode, where the puzzles never stop!”

WarMen: Price: $1.99
“Year 2013. Fight as a member of the resistance against a futuristic tyranny. Play as Marco. Former Veteran, now fighting the global dictatorship along with his friends from the resistance. Get deployed on a tactical operation to sabotage enemy “scrambler” devices.”

Adventure

Game of da Dead: Price: $1.99
“Experience a new type of iPhone gaming. “Game of da Dead” is a fun and easy to learn action-packed adventure game where your mission is to battle zombies that have invaded the galaxy and rescue the humans that haven’t been infected. Control the gun turret with your upgradable machine gun, rocket launcher, seeking missiles or strategically place land mines to eliminate the Zombies before they attack the humans.”

Arcade

Inkvaders: Price: $0.99
“The task of saving the day falls at the feet of Generic Marine (G to his friends).  As the Martian horde invades, G must battle his way from his base on the Moon back to Earth, to wipe the Martian menace from our streets and restore the human race. It won’t be an easy task but G has an arsenal of 15 deadly weapons to hand. Join him and shoot, splat, and blast your way through 30 levels across 3 unique locations, to victory!”

Funji Bunny
“Final game of Funji trilogy- homage to frogger. Also simple, time-killing and good music. Let’s help bunnies get to the dock with endless supply of carrots! Try to ride floating logs or lilypads. Be wary of cars and snakes passing by.”

iMech: Price: $2.99
“Welcome to iMech - the Real-Time Online Multiplayer 3D Shooter for the iPhone and iPod Touch. In iMech, players can login to our servers and battle up to 7 other Mechs to the death”

Board

Animal Kingdom: Price: $0.99
“Animal Kingdom is an easy-to-learn, easy-to-play board game with beautiful graphics and animations. It is joyful by simply watching how pieces move around on the board. It is a challenging game too, and you should feel proud if you can defeat our hard-level AI (we have never done that). Animal Kingdom is perfect for charging your brain in 5 minutes everyday, and you can resume the joy whenever you want. “

Spelltris: Price: $1.99
“Test your spelling skills as you create words from letters scrambled in a 3x3 or larger square. Once you use up letters, more will fall into the empty places! The longer the word, the more points you score. Can’t find a word to spell? Shake the device to mix up and cross the letters or simply touch the sword button to destroy the blocks so that a new batch of letters can drop down! Do you have what it takes to be the next spelling hero?”

Card

Epic Blackjack: Price: $0.99
“Play Blackjack with smooth, realistic card placement as if you were sitting at the table!”

Poker Solitaire Deluxe: Price: $0.99
“If you like Texas Hold’em, you’re going to obsess over Poker Solitaire. It’s like playing 5 hands of poker at a time. Poker Solitaire Deluxe features an in-depth tutorial for easy pick-up and play. PLUS play to win with the guaranteed winnable hands in the Daily Deals section. Go at it alone, compete against your friends, post scores to the real-time leaderboard and use your game points for FREE downloadable content in the Rewards Store.”

Casino

Superstar DJ: Price: $0.99
“Superstar DJ… the Music DJ themed slot machine! Get on the decks and match musical symbols to unlock exclusive music from artists on the Spiralking label including Matt Laws from Binary Finary. Upload, share and compete with your hi-score and awards via AGON Online and directly post your progress to Facebook and Twitter!”

Dice

NOTHING

Educational

NOTHING

Family

Mr. and Mrs. Tarzan: Price: $1.99
“You Tarzan, she Jane in this hilarious new game featuring the Lord of the Jungle! As Tarzan it’s up to you to keep Mrs. Tarzan happy in your jungle home. After numerous appearances on TV, radio and theater, the Lord of the Jungle finally arrives to your iPhone and iPod Touch. Run household errands, dodge dangerous animals, find missing items, and do whatever else it takes to keep Jane happy in over 20 captivating levels. You’ll have to be quick on your feet and your vine, though, because the jungle is full of surprises and hidden dangers like killer bees, slithering snakes, hungry plants, and more!”

Music

SightRead: Price: $0.99
“The game is very simple: Four random notes appear on the staves, so you have to play them correctly using the piano keys.”

Reverse the Verse - Classic Rock Edition: Price: $0.99
“For the first time you can have access to hundreds of Classic Rock songs – played backwards – and test your skills at trying to figure out the right answer! Thanks to “Reverse The Verse,” the newest release from jacAPPS, you’re one touch away from hours of challenging fun. It’s not as easy as it seems but it’s always fun to play (and it can be hilarious hearing these songs backwards!). You’ll hear songs from all the great artists such as Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Aerosmith, Bob Seger, Bad Company, and Lynyrd Skynyrd.”

Puzzle

Boiler Blast: Price: $0.99
“What? Someone bungled the boiler job and none of the pipes are connected! As the only plumber on site it’s all up to you. Those pipes need to be connected…and fast! It isn’t fair but that’s life in Boiler Blast, the arcade puzzler where you race to connect all of a building’s pipes before the boiler blows! To make matters worse…much worse…the site is crawling with rats who just love to sniff around and cause trouble! It’s a crazy job…but it’s your job! Quick! Grab your trusty wrench and don’t forget the hammer. Jump into that basement and let the pipes fly! Place ‘em, spin ‘em, pull ‘em…it’s madness! Watch that boiler rattle. The more it shakes the crazier it gets. The crazier it gets the closer you are to the blast. Keep one eye on the timer, one eye on Ratty and both hands spinning pipes. There’s not a second to lose!”

aKids Puzzle: Price: $0.99
“a cute puzzle game for kids”

Racing

NOTHING

Role Playing

The Myth Of Heroes Legend: Price: $1.99
“The type of the game is SLG Strategy. The player can enjoy bright color and exquisite screen and figures, in which aesthetic map, vivid figures and specially gorgeous background music will bring players with different experience. The game have adopted large amount of the hit effect, fire, freeze and witchcraft effect together with gorgeous background music, which makes the game being easy to play.”

Wizard Warfare: Price: $2.99
“Your training is at an end; the tournament has begun. Now is the time to fulfill your destiny and become the most powerful Wizard in the land.”

Simulation

NOTHING

Sports

Beat the Cooler: Price: $0.99
“Have you ever had a bad day? Did your boss dump a load of work on you or did he just dump you? Are the kids and your wife living in a constant state of nag? Is your husband having a torrid affair with the remote control and paying you no attention. It’s time for BEAT THE COOLER™. Let out all your aggressions and problems of the day on the Cooler in the dugout…just like the Big Leaguers! Shake, swipe, and tilt your IPhone in limitless combinations to gain points, win prizes, and hear the response of the Cooler. More points and combinations will open the door to more Cooler damage, more Cooler gameplay, and more Cooler respect.”

Strategy

Bucket Me!: Price: $0.99
“Do you want to dominate the ocean? Do you want to feel the pleasure of doing everything follow your inclinations? Then you get a chance to release yourself trough “Bucket Me!”. You could control the sea animals freely, as long as draw a beautiful arc line on the bucket, they were absorbed into the bucket according to the arc line you draw. It’s time to exert your vivid imagination to chart a geography of your mind into the deep blue sea by the colorful lines and control those adorable fellows, put them inside your bucket!”

Breaker !: Price: $0.99
“Breaker !” is an arcade game and is also the right mix of the classic “Breakout” and the classic “Space Invaders”

Trivia

NOTHING

Word

Word Path: Price: $0.99
“Word Path is a casual but addictive word search game. The goal is simple: from a large, scrolling grid of randomly chosen letters remove as many words as you can find. A word’s path through the grid doesn’t have to be strictly horizontal, vertical or diagonal; it can twist, turn and cross over itself and the grid boundaries.”

iPhone/iPod Touch Links

AppleTell: [Appletell reviews Cubit for iPhone, iPod touch] [Appletell reviews Crystal Clear for iPhone, iPod touch] [Appletell reviews Comics for iPhone, iPod touch] [Free Apps roundup for August 21st, 2009]

Full Story » | Written by Kris Rosado for Gamertell. | Comment on this Article »

Apple App Store gaming update for the week of August 3 to August 9, 2009

Kris Rosado — 2009-08-10T13:43:31+00:00

Section: Gaming News, Features, Lists, Mashups, Handhelds, iPhone & iPod Touch, Updates, Apple App Store

No witty banter this week, I’m busy hanging out with Simon the Sorcerer. But, if adventure games aren’t your thing, maybe one of these many other apps are:

What’s Free

Proto Lite
“San Francisco needs your help! It’s the year 2081 and the city has been invaded by aliens. The aliens need San Francisco’s sourdough bread to power their spaceships! You play as “Proto”, a military combat prototype and San Francisco’s only hope for protection from the evil sourdough bread aliens. Do you have the skills to lead Proto to victory over the Aliens?”

What’s New

Action

Spy Bot Chronicles: Price: $0.99
“Toy Bot has been kidnapped! Thief Bot, the greedy kleptomaniac, has taken him to be used as a shiny, golden trophy and Spy Bot is the only one who can rescue him! Take control of Spy Bot as he jumps, shoots, and hacks his way through a varied 2D world of fun and adventure. Find Thief Bot’s hideout, save Toy Bot, and recover all the other stolen goods Thief Bot has swindled throughout the galaxy!”

Trailer Park Twister: Price: $1.99
“Command one of the most destructive forces of nature and raze a total of 20 pastoral communities! Use the accelerometer to navigate the maze-like levels, tearing along roadways and steering clear of hills and rocky cliffs. Pick up trash bins, cars, trees, cows, and more—then hurl them into your targets for long-ranged destruction! But you had better hurry, because even the most powerful twister must eventually wind down. In the meantime, suck up those dust devils to keep your strength up (or even go beyond and play for a time as the dreaded “F-6” category twister!)”

NetRunner: Price: $0.99
“Be the NetRunner. As one of the best hackers, log in to the virus infested network and help your city!” Use your exceptional skills to breach the security of a dangerous AI system, and save the metropolis from total destruction. Hack, crack and scan viruses, break firewalls and jump through devices of a system that will try to destroy you and spread the evil virus. You are the best there is. You are the only hope.”

Alien Crisis: Price: $1.99
“Alien Crisis is a survival shooting game that brings you an unforgettable shooting experience with realistic graphics, fantastic actions and outstanding visual screenplays. In the year 2025, scientists conducted the Large Hadron Collider experiments. But an accident occurred, creating an portal which connects to the Alien world. A large number of Alien armies invaded into the human world through the portal. The Aliens are cold blooded, horrific and tough. They attacked the human city, destroyed the buildings and prey on humans as food. Although the humans constructed an all-out defense against the Alien threat, they still are defeated in the end. A large number of humans was massacred and humans now face the fate of extinction.

Adventure

Simon the Sorcerer 1: Price: $4.99
“There are some things that kids just shouldn’t have to put up with. Being transported to some weird dimension full of goblins, dwarves, swamplings, stupid wizards and sleeping giants is definitely one of them. Simon is a teenager transported into a fantasy world as a sorcerer dressed in a cloak and pointy hat. He must use his logic and magical skills to solve puzzles as he progresses through the game. The story begins with the protagonist, Simon, as an ordinary teenager. His dog, “Chippy”, discovers a chest in the loft of his house containing a spellbook titled “Ye Olde Spellbooke”. Simon throws the book onto the floor in contempt, but a portal opens above it. Chippy goes through the portal and Simon follows. After entering the portal, Simon finds himself in another world. He escapes from some goblins who intended to eat him and discovers that he has been brought on a quest to rescue the wizard Calypso from the evil sorcerer Sordid.”

Arcade

Gunrazor: Price: $0.99
“Your Gunrazor assault craft cuts like a knife through those sneaky alien hordes. Your plasma blaster can powerup to screen-sweeping proportions, while your shockwave bombs can clear the whole screen. Aliens can also drop crazy powerups like a supershield and ghost shots that can impale multiple targets at once.”

Board

FourPlay (Four Letter Word Game): Price: $1.99
“A simple, fast-paced and highly addictive challenge to make as many 2, 3 or 4 letter words as you can in 150 seconds. Word game fans be warned…you will be hooked for life! This game is awesome and will keep you occupied for hours on end. Even casual game fans will love FourPlay! Who doesn’t?”

Card

Spider Solitaire Deluxe: Price: $0.99
“The object of the game is to remove all of the cards from the board in the fewest number of moves. Spider is played using 104 cards. 54 cards are dealt to the 10 Tableau piles at the start of the game. Move the cards from one column to another, playing the cards in descending order, until you line up a suit of cards in order from King to Ace.”

Casino

Hold’em Video Poker: Price: $0.99
“Adjustable bet sizes. Play up to 4 decks (boards for you poker pro’s) at once. Great authentic casino style sound effects. You can even play your music (in the standard music player) and play the game at the same time. Scrolling help to bring you up to speed on what is sure to become one of your favorite games. Credits automatically re-load when you use them all up - no trips to the ATM!”

HOYLE Red Hot Slots: Price: $1.99
“Get ready to win big money! The #1 brand in family entertainment PC gaming introduces HOYLE Red Hot Slots, new to the iPhone and iPod Touch! Designed especially for the touch screen, HOYLE Red Hot Slots features incredible graphics, great sound effects and best of all, 10 slot games in one.”

Dice

World Wars: Price: $0.99
“World Wars is a unique new turn-based strategy game from Powerise Interactive. Using nothing but dice and a randomly generated territory map made of hexagons, the game is similar in gameplay to that of the board game, Risk, though much simpler and quicker to play. The objective is to conquer all territories and eliminate all your opponents by attacking them with dice.”

Educational

iSpellBetter: Price: $1.99
“Like all compelling videogames, it is great fun, with increasingly challenging levels, adjustable difficulty modes and delightful surprises for the determined, strategic player. Amazingly, at the same time, you will become a better speller, as you vanquish words that are not just right-side-up, but once you get to Level 4, upside-down, backwards, plus both upside-down and backwards! You had better earn and save your power-ups, since you’re sure to need them. It’s not just practice or a test of what you already know… no letter scramble disguised as a game. Rather, our straightforward, engaging approach taps your natural capacity to form, hold and retrieve visual images. And it gets you to apply that ability to written words. You’ll not only easily and enjoyably learn the words you encounter in the game, you’ll actually become a much better speller in general.”

iKrypto: Price: $0.99
“Five cards are dealt to you and a common objective card is turned up in the bottom of the screen… The game is under way. Use the numbers on each card in your screen to equal the common objective card by simple addition, subtraction, division and multiplication and any combinations thereof.”

Family

Cat And Mouse: Price: $0.99
“Touch the mice and drag their paths -draw a line- to get candies to score. Get the big candy for double points. Yummy! Run around the traps, be smart! Watch out the cats, they are fast !!! They will chase after the mice! They will capture the little mice and put them into the jail!! Run the little mice, back to the holes to hide from the cats! Be safe at home. WOW!! Team work, four little mice team up !! Lead away the cats from candies so other mice can enjoy the candies. Run to get the golden key !! To rescue the captured mice from the jail, and make them free again !!! YOHO!!!”

Music

SightRead: Price: $0.99
“The game is very simple: Four random notes appear on the staves, so you have to play them correctly using the piano keys.”

Puzzle

Arrange Mask: Price: $0.99
“This is the shiny and good looking representation of old “Puyo Puyo” game. You have a situation in the jungle, where masks are falling from the sky. You have to arrange the falling masks by dragging and rotating before it touches the ground. If four or more same type of masks come together all will be vanished. You have to arrange the masks accordingly preventing the heap to touch the sky, once it touches the game is over.”

Racing

Mini Taxi: Price: $0.99
“Drive to you heart’s content in this fast paced arcade style taxi game! Finally for the iPhone and iPod touch a top-view car game for the arcade game lover. Explore Mini City, keep an eye out for customers and drive like a crazy maniac to get them to their destination in least time possible! Choose from 4 different taxis, with their different driving styles thanks to the realtime physics simulation. Show everyone you’re the best taxi driver around and compete online for the highest score!”

Role Playing

Merdeka atau Mati: Price: $0.99
“When World War II broke out, the Japanese occupied the Dutch East Indies after the surrender of the Dutch colonial army in March 1942. Three years later, on August 14, 1945, the Japanese surrendered to the Allied Forces. To Indonesia’s leaders, the power vacuum in Jakarta looked like an open window of opportunity to proclaim their independence. On 17 August 1945, Indonesian national leaders Ir. Soekarno and Dr. Mohamad Hatta proclaimed Indonesia’s independence on behalf of the Indonesian people. You will play this game as an independence soldier in the 1945 struggle for freedom! Your choice was only one, freedom or death (merdeka atau mati). Good luck! and Merdeka!”

Simulation

NOTHING

Sports

NFL 2010: Price: $7.99
“Enjoy a 100% authentic NFL game experience with real teams, real players and real action. Whether you’re are a fan of the Steelers, Cardinals or Cowboys, you can lead your favorite team through an entire season and battle for the ultimate prize: The Super Bowl.”

Strategy

NOTHING

Trivia

WordSpy: Price: $0.99
“WordSpy is a fun word game where you must find hidden words which are embedded in scrolling text across the screen. As you find more words, the scrolling gets faster and faster adding to the difficulty.”

Word

Square Shuffle: Price: $0.99
“The aim of the game is to rearrange a 4x4 matrix of 15 numbers in random order into ascending order.”

iPhone/iPod Touch Links

AppleTell: [Appletell reviews the Goddess Tarot for iPhone and iPod touch] [Appletell reviews Tweetdeck for iPhone, iPod Touch]

Full Story » | Written by Kris Rosado for Gamertell. | Comment on this Article »

Special Effects: A few fanciful game industry predictions

PJ Hruschak — 2009-08-05T18:46:00+00:00

Section: Originals, Features, Mashups, Opinions, Handhelds, DS, iPhone & iPod Touch, Gear, Hardware, Genres, Sports

There’s no doubt that the current economic recession is having an impact on the video game industry. Companies are downsizing, consolidating or closing (which means games are getting delayed or canceled), games stores are cutting back and game-related publications are also feeling the pressure. Of course, a recession cannot last forever and the game industry will thrive and continue to evolve

It’s not clear what the long-term affect this “economic downturn” recession will have on the game industry but a few things might be extrapolated from current trends.

Here are a few predictions of game industry-related results that stem from a mix the current economic recession, corporate tendencies and a bit of fantasy. Fee free to post your suppositions in the comments area below.

Nintendo’s QS

Since DS sales never slowed down, making it the most popular game system across the globe saturating nearly 80% of all households. With the failure of the TS (aka Tri Screen) system, the company tries one more time with the QS, or Quad Screen. The system folds twice, making it about the size of a business card when collapsed. When unfolded, the four screens form a larger, high-definition widescreen touchscreen screen. By 2015 it becomes the most popular portable video player and e-reader.

Madden Real World

Electronic Arts, which bought up most failing game companies by 2010, also bought the NFL as well as floundering foreign football leagues a few years later. Now American football is known worldwide as MRW (“Madden Real World”). The Madden estate makes enough money from the rights and merchandising that it now owns a cruise ship, an island and an amusement park know as MaddenLand (which is, of course, huge in Japan).

Apple’s iGame

After regaining a reputation as a respectable game company thanks to the Apple App Store’s inexpensive development, distribution and per-game cost for buyers, Apple decides it can finally compete with Nintendo’s QS (aka Quad Screen) in 2017 and releases its second generation iGame handheld game system (the first was a feebly rebranded iPod Touch). It’ll be a bit more tricked-out - although still an 8th generation iPod Touch - with a new, rubber-accented case, built-in Bluetooth and stereo speakers. It also features (*gasp*) two low-profile buttons on the side: Pause and Reset. iTunes will also split off its game section (iGames) and the release of the uber easy-to-use iMade-It SDK allows anyone can make a game for the iGame. It’s even taught in first grade in many private schools. The iGame becomes the most popular game system in the world by 2020.

Microsoft Retro

Microsoft, in response to sales lost to Apple’s iPod personal computers and unstoppable viruses and pirating, launches the Microsoft Retro brand along with its Retro Windows operating system. The RetrOS, as it becomes known, is a compilation of every operating system the company has ever made, including all Xbox models. The system runs on any personal computer (and inexpensive 1TB crystal thumb drives) but Microsoft develops a metal-cased Retro PC specifically for the OS. Every Xbox, Windows and DOS computer game ever made is sold at the Microsoft’s iTunes clone called MicroCenter (named for the failing computer stores it bought in 2011) for $1 each.

Sony-Skype gWing

After abandoning the slowly failing PSP name (and all proprietary memory cards), the company partners with Skype (which is super successful due to a 400% increase in all land-based technology, forcing several phone companies to go all wireless and use Skype technology) to create the first mobile IP game phone. The gWing is shaped like an old-school wing controller, except smaller and flatter, with a programmable, illuminated touch pad that doubles as a full keyboard with mini thumbsticks. Sony-Skype is promptly sued by Nokia, which sinks untold fortunes into the legal battles. Nokia, citing the N-Gage as the gWing’s inspiration, eventually loses and is forced shut down. The company’s remnants are bought by Skype. All (now wireless) phone companies soon follow suit with the wing design, realizing it is more ergonomic than a rectangle, making it even easier for teenagers to type.

Kaz

A new game system breaks into the market by 2012 that successfully incorporates downloadable casual games, social network gaming, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and RF-ID tech. Games for the Kaz can be downloaded online but most games are purchased at GameStop kiosks in grocery stores. The system is a temporary success as a game system but really takes off as a grocery shopping aid (for interactive grocery lists, digital coupons and item-in-store locator thanks to RF-ID). It’s also very popular with hackers who find ways to reprogram product RF-IDs and temporarily change product prices and get free drinks from digitized vending machines.

VendiGamez

A Japanese company perfects kiosk distribution by 2015, also giving the Kaz system a temporary boost in sales. Iit also works with several other game devices and portable mini drives. The company eventually buys the GameStop chain, closing 80% of the stores and replacing them with VendiGamez kiosks. Thanks to deals with Amazon, Apple and Microsoft, it becomes the most successful game retailer.

Full Story » | Written by PJ Hruschak for Gamertell. | Comment on this Article »

Free Apple Apps roundup for July 17, 2009

NEWS — 2009-07-17T22:59:20+00:00

FROM APPLETELL - Based on recent sales figures, chances are high that you now have an iPhone 3GS (and are also out of money as a result). But don’t worry, I have your back. It’s Friday again, and here comes my list of great free apps.
MORE »

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iPhone and iPod Touch action games roundup

NEWS — 2009-07-17T10:45:43+00:00

FROM APPLETELL - If knights, jumping off leaves, or knocking down planes to keep your boat afloat…well, floats your boat, then Knights Onrush, iYamato an Leaf Bound are definitely for you.
MORE »

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iPhone word game round up

NEWS — 2009-07-16T13:52:25+00:00

FROM APPLETELL - There is a nice variety of iPhone games based on words. Each offers its own type of interface and gameplay and is interesting in its own way.
MORE »

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Gamertell Mashup: Our favorite E3 2009 announcements

PJ Hruschak — 2009-06-06T13:07:44+00:00

Section: Gaming News, Features, Lists, Mashups, Opinions, Conventions, E3

When comparing the press conferences of the Big Three - Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft - it’s a bit like comparing Apples to Windows, er, apples to oranges. Each has its own flavor and style yet you can peal them back to a few key elements to determine which you like better. Toss in Ubisoft, EA and a countless barrage of announcements by other companies and you’re essentially adding a jar of flavorful crunchy bits to your comparison fruit salad.

Every company claims their is the biggest, most important and whatevertheheck else announcements but one a few can be our favorites. Here’s a look at some of the Gamertell staff’s favorite announcements from this year’s E3 (more will be added as our writers recuperate). Give it a read and then let us know what below which were your favorite announcements from E3 2009 (also check out our favorite announcements from E3 2008)

Jenni Lada, Assistant Editorm was so excited about Golden Sun DS that she even uploaded a Photo Gallery:

My favorite E3 2009 announcement was undoubtedly Golden Sun DS. I adored the original GBA Golden Sun games and it is great to see Nintendo hasn’t forgotten the series. Runner-ups include Persona (PSP), WarioWare DIY (DS) and Style Savvy (DS).

Jeremy Hill, Staff Writer, especially appreciated Project Natal with a hint of Sony’s wand controller:

At the risk of sounding cliche’ I’ll say my favorite announcement was Microsoft’s Project Natal. While I also got very excited for Sony’s wand controller prototype, Natal just seemed to have more future implications that could influence where gaming is headed years from now. On the surface Natal just seems like an Eye Toy with enhanced features such as voice recognition, voice recognition and 1-to-1 movement but Microsoft is focusing on a no controller concept that other game companies haven’t touched too much on. This concept even goes beyond playing games by allowing you to control the dashboard and select movies to watch just by moving your hands and speaking. Microsoft now understands to be successful these days they must reach out to non gamers in new and exciting ways. The sight of a Xbox 360 controller is enough to scare some people away and Natal finds a way around that. It also doesn’t hurt to have Steven Spielberg backing the project either.

Outside of the motion controls I was really happy to see Microsoft’s Milo concept [Editor’s Note: That was the talking boy demo by Lionhead]. I personally think we are years away from something like that to be mass marketed in homes but it shows Microsoft is aiming to the future. During the press conference Don Mattrick said something along the lines of how Project Natal would replace the need to bring out another console. It may not be too wise to create a whole new console in this economy and like the Wii, Microsoft is preparing to win over consumers in ways other than showing off console horsepower.

PJ Hruschak, Editor, once again plays it a bit safe, picking more than one favorite:

The two newer motion control announcements were the most exciting, especially Sony’s tech demo at its press conference. If Project Natal can come through with everything the fancy video promises, it’ll be something amazing. Even so, seeing a giant sword in your hand, manipulating virtual 3D objects and taking down zombie warriors with archery-like movements looks pretty dern cool. The WiiMotionPlus also looks pretty cool but we had heard of that before. Likewise, the PSPgo was also pretty exciting to see in someone’s hand but, again, the internet rumor mill kinda killed a good portion of the overall excitement there. Although there was that lilac PSP…

The retro gamer in me really likes the idea of a current-gen version of the classics, especially the games I played a lot with friends. The New Super Mario Bros. Wii made my inner teenager (or some impossible combination of the two ages when I played Super Mario. Bros. and Super Mario Bros. 3 the most) all shades of happy.

Otherwise, there were so many great looking games that I reserve judgment - and suppress excitement - until I get see more screen shots and get my hands on the games. Things always look nicer when on a giant, HD monitor running from a development kit preempted with slick, pre-rendered promotional footage than out of the box and playing on my cruddy ol’ home TV.

Read [Gamertell] Site [Gamertell: E3 2009] Photo Gallery [Gamertell]

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E3 2009: Recap of Ubisoft’s press conference

PJ Hruschak — 2009-06-02T14:49:46+00:00

Section: Gaming News, Originals, Features, Lists, Mashups, Consoles, PS3, Wii, Xbox-360, Gear, Accessories, Controllers, Conventions, E3

They sure dragged that one out. Ubisoft’s press conference lasted two hours with a lot of talking, a couple big-name celebrities and very little actual game footage.

While Microsoft made a concerted effort to do more showing than telling, Ubisoft went so far as to get James Cameron on stage to talk at length (30 minutes) about his upcoming movie, Avatar, and the collaboration with Ubisoft and not show one speck of footage. Nothing. Nil. Nadda.

The other big name of note was soccer super star Pele, who came on to the stage and was awkwardly introduced, and even more awkwardly bantered with, the host, Joel McHale. Hale tried to make more jabs at Ryan Seacrest than a fencing star, with hardly any getting more than a snicker from the audience. Pele was promoting soccer game Academy of Champions which will feature his likeness.

There were plenty of the game announcements and teases including Assassin’s Creed 2, Red Steel 2, Shaun White Snowboarding: World Stage, Splinter Cell: Conviction, Ruse, more Rabids, More Turtles and a fitness game.

Oh, and it is definitely pronounced OO-bee-soft.

Here’s the bullet point list of the notable goodness from the press conference.

Host was The Soup‘s Joel McHale: “I am a gamer. I love them. I haven’t had as much time to play them recently because I have two kids and I regret that. They are distracting me from my gaming time.”
Word of the day: Confluence. The company wants to focus on bringing together various media including movies, books, web and varied controls with video games.
Unisoft is launching a new web site, UPlay, which will offer four sections: UShare, UWin, UHelp (for midgame help) and UShop.
The company is working with Hollywood a lot more including with James Cameron, Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg.
James Cameraon took the stage and talked (a lot) about Avatar the movie and the related game. “Games derived from movies historically have kinda sicked. I didn’t want anything associated with Avatar to suck,” so the game will follow its own story line. Avatar will be the first major stereoscopic title.
Red Steel 2 will take advantage of the WiiMotionPlus controls and be bundled with the WiiMotionPlus at launch. You can switch between shooting and sword swiping and block bullets with your sword.
Shaun White Snowboarding: World Stage was teased. Will use the skate deck controller shown at Microsoft’s press conference.
Pele came out to promote Academy of Champions, a soccer game that he hopes will help to educate children. Will be released later this year.
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction will be released Fall 2009 exclusively for Xbox 360 and PC
Ruse was teased with a great trailer that showed gamers controlling forces via a giant table.
Fitness is the fasted growing genre and Ubisoft will release Your Shape with a camera Christmas 2009. Will be for Wii and the camera will connected via USB.
Rabids Go Home game looks like a minikart-Katamari hybrid where yu drive around and collect stuff.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Smashup, to be released Fall 2009, will be a Smash Bros. Brawl style game featuring the turtles, Shredder, Splinter and a scantily-clad April.
No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle is being worked on.
Also working on a yet-to-be-named project called Eden with Tetsu Yamaguchi.
Assassin’s Creed 2 was the conference ender, with a very long and very good looking trailer (possibly in-game cutscenes) and a little game play. Game will be released November 17, 2009.

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E3 2009: EA press conference wrapup

Jeremy Hill — 2009-06-02T13:55:31+00:00

Section: Gaming News, Features, Mashups, Consoles, PS3, Wii, Xbox-360, PCs, Windows, Handhelds, DS, PSP, Game-Companies, Developers, Publishers, Genres, 3D, Action, Adventure, Casual, Children's, Shooter, Sports, Sim, Conventions, E3

EA covered a lot of bases during its E3 2009 press conference. From casual games aimed towards young girls, sports games and action titles. Among the biggest games shown were Mass Effect 2, Star Wars: The Old Republic and Need for Speed Shift.

One surprise was that Fight Night Round 4 will be released one week ahead of schedule on June 25, 2009. Also, rock stars including Lemmy Kilmister, Lita Ford and Ozzy Osbourne will be lending their likeness to Brutal Legend.

EA showed twelve games and we have a quick rundown for you posted below.

The Sims 3 launches on June 2, 2009
Littlest Pet Shop Friends and Littlest Pet Shop online launches Fall 2009
Four Charm Girl’s Club game launch Fall 2009
Dragon Age: Origins launches October 20, 2009
Mass Effect 2 launches early 2010 for Xbox 360 and PC
Fight Night Round 4 launches June 25, 2009
EA Sports MMA launches in 2010
EA Sports Active expansion launches this holiday season
Brutal Legend launches October 13, 2009

Read [Gamertell]

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Wrapup of Microsoft’s E3 2009 press conference

Jeremy Hill — 2009-06-01T20:37:19+00:00

Section: Gaming News, Originals, Features, Live-Blogs, Mashups, Consoles, Xbox-360, PCs, Windows, Game-Companies, Developers, Publishers, Genres, 3D, Action, Adventure, Casual, FPS, Shooter, Music, Party, Racing, Conventions, E3

Microsoft’s E3 2009 press conference has just wrapped up and it’s safe to say it came out swinging. Of the avalanche of announcements that were revealed, a few stood out as being the best in show.

The Hideo Kojima mystery has finally been solved as he will be bringing a brand new Metal Gear game to the Xbox 360. Metal Gear: Rising will star Raiden and carries the tagline Lightning Bolt Action.

Another big announcement was Microsoft’s experiment called Project Natal. Project Natal uses a sensor that replaces the Xbox 360 controller. Natal can recognize your voice, face and body movements that are then shown on your television screen. The Xbox 360 dashboard will also be controllable through Natal. Big names including Steven Spielberg and Peter Molyneux came out on stage to show their support for Project Natal.

Project Natal won’t be shipping in 2009 according to Kuto Tsunoda, the creative director of Project Natal during a television interview with G4. Tsunoda also took a shot at the Wii by saying, “This isn’t a game where you wind up on the sofa using preset waggle commands.”

Of course there were a lot of other announcements and we’ve summed it up for you below.

The full album for Abby Road will be available shortly after the release of The Beatles Rock Band.
“All You Need is Love” will be an exclusive Xbox 360 downloadable song.
Shadow Complex from Epic is announced for XBLA. It will be released in the Summer.
Joy Ride for XBLA will be free and released in the Winter 2009.
First two Modern Warfare 2 map packs are exclusive to Xbox 360
Crackdown 2 is officially announced.
Left 4 Dead 2 is officially announced for a November 17, 2009, release.
Splinter Cell Conviction gets a Fall 2009 release date.
Forza Motorsport 3 launches in October 2009.
Halo 3: ODST is coming September 22, 2009.
Halo Reach is announced for a 2010 release. Those who buy Halo 3: ODST will be invited to the Halo Reach multiplayer beta.
Alan Wake is coming in 2010.
Last.fm is a music service coming to the Xbox 360 this year. It’ll be free to Xbox Live Gold members.
Instant On 1080p HD is a streaming video service launching Fall 2009.
Zune Video launches Fall 2009
Microsoft teams up with Facebook and Twitter to bring the networks to the Xbox 360 in Fall 2009.
Facebook Connect will let you take screenshots and enter text from games and post them to your Facebook account.
Metal Gear: Rising announced. No mention of Xbox 360 exclusivity.
Project Natal is announced offering controller-free game control.

Read [Gamertell] Also Read [Gamertell: E3 2009]

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Earth Day 2009: Green-themed apps for your iPhone, iPod Touch (Part 2)

PJ Hruschak — 2009-04-22T20:45:46+00:00

Section: Gaming News, Originals, Features, Lists, Mashups, Handhelds, iPhone & iPod Touch, Updates, Apple App Store

With so many applications in Apple’s App Store there has to be a few Earth Day themes things to download.

Here’s a look at all the Earth Day, green and eco-groovin’ apps we could find (at the rate the App Store is growing, expect this to be outdated before you finish reading it).

This is the second of two parts so please enjoy the first as well.

Gorgeously Green Survival Guide
Targeted at women (with a sexy pinup lady?), this $1 app is a quick reference eco guide “for women on the go.” It offers advice for creating an environmentally friendly home, safe and eco-conscious beauty regimes, shopping and fitness programs.

Get Green
If you like daily notices of any sort and have a green tint, this $1 app will make you happy. It provides you with daily green tips on pretty much everything including greener parties for each holiday. There are free alternatives by others called Go Green and Green Tips.

The Green Book
Really an ebook, this $6 app includes green thinking advice and anecdotes from popular writers and celebrities. The full title is The Green Book: The Everyday Guide to Saving the Planet One Simple Step at a Time and was written by Elizabeth Rogers and Thomas Kostigen. There is also a free Lite version.

Green Triangle
I included this one simply for the sake trying. The iTunes description reads: “How about that? A truly ‘green’ musical triangle. No trees killed, no metals mined. Use your iPhone or iPod Touch to carry around your very own socially responsible musical instrument.” Includes five sounds and a green hippo? The developer also has a bunch of other “green” instruments to knock around. Oh yeah, a Green Cowbell as well.

Dream Green
Not really environmentally green but more for your soul. For $1 you can play ambient sounds to your soul’s content, tweaking various elements to find that perfect sound. I’m about to snooze just thinking about it.

Green Calculator - Carbon, Environment Friendly Calculator
This app helps you calculate your CO2 emissions based on “lifestyle choices, specifically from activities such as flying, driving and using daily household appliances, AC, heater, etc.” It also includes a Tips section and sells for $2 with a free Lite version also available.

iPhorest
Virtually grow your own tree by digging, shoveling and scooping with the iPhone or iPod Touch. Tap to plant a seed, shake to make it rain and watch it grow. It may be $5 but the money goes to various environmental groups. For each virtual tree plated a real-world tree will be planted by The Conservation Fund.

iNewz Green
If tips are simply not enough, you can also get daily green-themed news for $3. A free alternative by another developer is available called Green News Reader.

Green Gas Saver
For a buck ($1) you can monitor your gas mileage and get warnings if you are driving too fast or turning too hard. You then get scored on how well you drove at the end of your trip.

Green Energy Challenge
A freebie trivia game that tests your knowledge of green energy news and facts. This also includes some tips.

125 Ways to Go Green… Save Green at the Same Time
Albeit a long name, this $3 ebook offers 125 strategies to save money and remain environmental.

iBloom
For this freebie you pretty much just plant a virtual flower and watch it grow.

Read [Gamertell (Part 1)] Site [Appletell] Also Read [Gamertell]

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Earth Day 2009: Green-themed apps for your iPhone, iPod Touch (Part 1)

PJ Hruschak — 2009-04-22T19:32:28+00:00

Section: Gaming News, Originals, Features, Lists, Mashups, Handhelds, iPhone & iPod Touch, Updates, Apple App Store

You know with so many applications in Apple’s App Store there has to be a few Earth Day themed things to download.

Here’s a look at the green, Earth Day and environmentally themed apps available that we could find (at the rate the App Store is growing, expect this to be outdated before you finish reading it).

This is the first of two parts so please don’t forget to enjoy the second part as well.

Earth Day
Developed by eSoft Interactive, this simply-named old school arcade-style shooter has gamers defend Earth from invading alien spaceships. Right now it’s only a buck (US$0.99), which isn’t a lot of green. The game is also available for Palm, Pocket PC and Smartphone for significantly more money ($10).

A Real Tree
Buy this app for $1 and a real-world tree will be planted in one of twelve countries fighting deforestation. Otherwise the app is a neat art project where you make birds fly and flowers float in a breeze. Trippy, man.

beamME Pro vCard exchange and beamME CV and Resume Sender
Being called a green app (by iFones) due to the potential to save paper, these apps by rmbrME let you send your business card and resume, respectively, via SMS or email. The company is also planting a tree for each premium purchase. Each app is $4.99 (regularly $6.99 and $7.99 respectively) through Earth Day.

Pocket Globe
It’s the Earth. In your pocket. Only $3. The 3D earth rotates and includes countries, capitals and major cities. You can also see the radiation the Earth is emitting back into space and solar energy being reflected.

Earth Envi
Another Earth-in-your-pocket app although this features photos taken from various space missions. This one is only $1 and includes some of the “most amazing web-based space photos of our home planet that you’ll ever see.” There’s also a similar app for space photos called Space Envi Deluxe that is $4.

Time to Live
If you like counters and are wondering how long you’ll remain on the planet in living physical form, then this $1 app is for you. You plug in information about your current life style and it calculates to the day when you’ll no longer care about the economy, games or oxygen.

MeterRead
On sale or $1.99 for Earth Day, this app helps you monitor your energy use with easy-to-read meters.

Sol: Daylight Clock
This will give you the exact time that you’ll be able to witness the sun set anywhere in the world. Perfect for timing that most romantic moment during a date. It tells you the number of hours spent in daylight, night and twilight in terms of the time of sunrise, sunset, dawn and dusk.

World Clock
A variation of the previous app, this shows the world map flat style with the night and day super-imposed over it. A less expensive and less fancy version is also available called SunMap and, even less expensive (as in Free) and less fancy, Sunlight. Terra ($5), another variation on the same theme, uses a 3D globe instead of a flat map.

Planet
If you want to get a bit more galactic, this $1 app lets you see the position of six major planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn) around the sun at any time of the year.

Green Wars
This $2 app promises to “help you learn a thing or two about how you can save green by going green in your own life.” It’s basically a money management game where you buy and resell products, take out loans, earn interest and earn credibility points.

Site [Appletell] Read [AppleiPhoneApps] Also Read [Gamertell]

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Gamertell - Mashups

Top 10 Gamertell posts for the week of November 01, 2009

Free Apple Apps roundup for November 6, 2009

Apple App Store gaming update for the week of October 26 to November 2, 2009

What’s Free

What’s New

Action

Adventure

Arcade

Board

Card

Casino

Dice

Educational

Family

Music

Puzzle

Racing

Role Playing

Simulation

Sports

Strategy

Trivia

Word

iPhone/iPod Touch Links

Top 10 Gamertell posts for the week of October 25, 2009

Apple App Store gaming update for the week of October 19 to October 25, 2009

What’s Free

What’s New

Action

Adventure

Arcade

Board

Card

Casino

Dice

Educational

Family

Music

Puzzle

Racing

Role Playing

Simulation

Sports

Strategy

Trivia

Word

iPhone / iPod Touch Links

Apple App Store gaming update for the week of October 12 through October 18, 2009

What’s Free

What’s New

Action

Adventure

Arcade

Board

Card

Casino

Dice

Educational

Family

Music

Puzzle

Racing

Role Playing

Simulation

Sports

Strategy

Trivia

Word

iPhone and iPod Touch Links

Top 10 Gamertell posts for the week of October 11, 2009

Top 10 Gamertell posts for the week of October 11, 2009

Apple App Store gaming update for the week of October 5 through October 11, 2009

What’s Free

What’s New

Action

Adventure

Arcade

Board

Card