iphonegames

New Finnish game studio Breach Entertainment is in the final stages of their upcoming iOS title Shardlands, and have just released the first trailer. Breach is made up of just 4 individuals and was founded at the beginning of the year, but Shardlands has actually been in development for more than a year and is reaching the final crunch phase. It’s a puzzle-adventure game with a fantasy/science fiction motif, and the new trailer shows off some of the great looking environments in the game.

Also of note is that one member of Breach, Aarni Gratseff, is a long-time supporter of our TouchArcade Show podcast, and was the first to create a theme song for the now defunct Kitty Korner segment (direct all hate towards Mr. Nicholson for that, by the way). He’ll be composing all the music for Shardlands, and given the epic-ness of the Kitty Korner theme, I think all of our collective ears will be in for a treat. Stay tuned for more on Shardlands as it nears release in the coming months.

Details are still vague as they could possibly be regarding the upcoming Magic the Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalker 2013 coming to the iPad, but a new video just hit YouTube this afternoon that shows off some of the new cards included in the 2013 release. Give it a look:

It's probably safe to assume that this is video of the PC (or console) version of the game, so it'll be interesting to see how many of the various visual effects transfer over to the iPad. Either way, we'll find out when the game finally hits sometime this summer. I can't wait.

After making a splash on the App Store earlier this year with their quirky and stylish skydiving title AaAaAA! (Force = Mass x Acceleration) [ $2.99 ], Dejobaan Games has hinted on their website at what their next mobile release is going to be.

Teaming up with Radial Games, the original creators of the Steambirds games on Flash, the new collaboration project is called Monster Loves You! and aims to be an engaging virtual pet-like experience with much more RPG-like depth than what’s currently available.

Dejobaan asked Radial Games’ Andy Moore a bit about Monster Loves You!, including why he was motivated to create a new Tamagotchi-style game: “I think the closest I’ve really come to playing an enjoyable ‘pet’ game is The Sims 2, which was an excellent title but just demands WAY too much of my time. I want a similar experience – something with all that drama, character development, and ups and downs… but that I can play on the toilet.”

That’s certainly something I can get behind, Andy. I’ve always been intrigued by the notion of carrying around a little virtual creature that lives on my device, and there’s been some neat efforts in this area on iOS but nothing that’s really grabbed me and drew me in. With Dejobaan’s fantastic sense of humor and Radial Games' drive to create a meaningful experience, I’m definitely curious to see more from Monster Loves You! in the near future.

There are great mysteries buried beneath the surface of the alien world of Gene Effect [ $4.99 ], mysteries your small team has been sent to uncover. As you immerse yourself in the atmosphere of those distant tunnels, you'll encounter alien life, hostile and beautiful, and the remnants of a civilization both ancient and powerful.

You pilot the exploration ship Triton. It's almost ludicrously vulnerable, destroyed with equal ease by careless piloting, aggressive plant life and man-made defenses. But that doesn't change the facts: you're the only one who can unlock the secrets of this cavern and its alien masters. Unarmed but for your repulsors, you travel ever deeper.

This journey isn't one of lengthy maze-like exploration. Gene Effect is broken up into levels, and most of those levels are fairly straightforward. There will be a task or for the Triton to complete, maybe collecting a certain amount of koronite resources from the environment, finding DNA samples or powering up ancient reactors. You might need to use your repulsors to clear away loose rocks in your path, or locate and use the occasional drone to clear a path. Once those things are done, it's just a matter of finding the warp gate and moving on.

There are subtasks that might impede your progress, though. The path is often blocked with gates that need opening in some way—finding the right triggers tucked away in the tunnels, collecting enough of a resource or turning on (or off) the lights. On their own these things are usually fairly simple—or at least they would be if not for the presence of so many walls.

Walls are the Triton's natural enemy. While you're still getting comfortable piloting you might find yourself bumping into them. Do so for more than a moment and you'll blow your ship up. The controls are well-designed, with a responsive joystick that controls movement, so crashing shouldn't be a big problem for long. It's when you're comfortable that the game brings in mines and plant life that will smash you into walls if you're not ever-so-careful.

Once you have survival sorted out, you can start to enjoy the real meat of Gene Effect. It's a completionist's dream, with level trophies for speed, careful navigation, and overall score. And then there are the relicts and artifacts. Nearly every level has a hidden relict or two tucked away somewhere. They're often hidden in the walls, revealed with a lucky ping of your sonar and a well-placed blast from Triton's repulsor. Sometimes they're hidden more deeply, in temples opened with camouflaged triggers or rooms tucked away behind seemingly solid walls. Some, the most hidden of all, aren't even listed on the level score breakdown, so you won't know they're present until you find them. Those are the alien artifacts, and if you find enough pieces you'll be able to strap them on to Triton to upgrade its capabilities.

While all of this is going on, the game slowly unfolds an intriguing story. It tends toward telling over showing, as it's revealed far more in static text feeds at the end of each level than within the gameplay itself. There are also a few too many errors in the text for comfort. But the story has some great hooks, and it should string you along quite effectively while you're out exploring.

Gene Effect is ambitious, and long—accounting for deaths, I've put in quite a few hours without finding everything that's out there to discover. But that length also highlights the game's flaws. For example, the caves, while gorgeous, all look fairly similar to one another, and while the levels grow more difficult they don't really get all that complex. On its own this would start to feel a bit repetitious, and pixel-hunting your way to new artifacts doesn't really help.

The game's difficulty level varies between hard and stupidly frustrating. Some of the later levels are long, and meander between traveling through long, mostly harmless tunnels and facing down sudden bursts of danger. Long periods of boredom followed by short-lived struggles aren't really what I look for in entertainment. Take it easy when you choose your difficulty—Gene Effect is harder than it looks, and you can't really change difficulty modes mid-stream.

All of this leaves Gene Effect something of a tough call. On one hand it's gorgeous, with a well-crafted story and loads of content. On the other hand, that content ventures into boredom or frustration a little too often. Ultimately, though, it's a game worth playing, a story worth experiencing. And it will leave you wanting more, so let's hope there's more on the way soon.

Infinity Blade 2 [$6.99] already has a ton of content to explore, but it'll be offering even more fat loot and monsters this coming Thursday when Chair unleashes a new expansion dubbed Vault of Tears. It's free and set to "delve further into the Infinity Blade story" via a brand new dungeon to dive. Expect to get around 50 new items to collect, level up, and utilize and expect to see a handful of new foes.

Interestingly, Chair is plugging in a few fresh mechanics to play around with. Of the most note, it's adding a treasure map that marks treasure locations. Also, ClashMob is being expanded to allow anyone to participate in fights via Twitter or Facebook -- no game required. Weird, right?

We're giving this update a go as we write this, so expect more on Vault of Tears from us later today. These assets should hold you over until then, we'd hope.

It seems as if ever since the iOS remake of Death Rally [ $0.99 ] hit the scene over a year ago, we’ve had a resurgence of weapons-based racing titles gracing the platform. Deadmans Run [ $0.99 ] from Nightfall Interactive is another entry into the genre and attempts to model itself somewhat closely to Death Rally. While Deadmans Run does try to differentiate itself from the pack in some ways, you’re mostly left with a fairly average racer with controls that leave a bit to be desired.

Deadmans Run offers a somewhat comprehensive campaign that has you racing across nine different levels across three “difficulty” levels, earning both cash and notoriety (essentially experience points). The cash is used to purchase permanent (engine, weapons, and armor) and temporary upgrades for your vehicles while the notoriety acts as a level-wall that restricts upgrades and car purchases until you've hit a certain level. Overall, the system works well enough for replayability, although the strict level requirements for each purchase take away any sense of freedom, which is a bit disappointing.

Gameplay involves your standard race-to-the-finish with positional awards, although the inclusion of weapons makes it a bit more interesting. Cars all come equipped with machine guns and mines, with ammo refills (among other power-ups) randomly littered on the track. As you upgrade your cars, you’ll typically find yourself in races that end prematurely because everyone else (or you) has been destroyed. This typically leads to a very hectic racing experience, especially at the onset of the campaign since you’ll be losing a lot before you can earn enough cash and notoriety to build up a contending car.

One area that I thought Deadmans Run did well dealt with its dynamic generation of races. As mentioned above, there are three different difficulties in the campaign. Whenever you want to race, each difficulty will randomly choose the level and opponents (while usually keeping the purse winnings the same).

In addition, races will occasionally offer supplemental objectives, such as to take out a specific opponent before the race is over. The supplemental quests actually offer penalties if you fail, making the choice to accept it have actual repercussions. Unfortunately, while the dynamic missions are an interesting idea, you’ll quickly find that the two harder difficulties will be way too challenging to play for quite a while. One item of note is the complete lack of IAP, so all notoriety and cash will have to earned by (gasp!) playing the game. In addition to the campaign, a time trial mode also exists.

While everything above seems fairly decent, Deadmans’ controls are where the experience starts faltering. You are given the option of two control schemes: auto-acceleration and manual gas. Auto-acceleration is the default and my preferred control type as it allows you to focus mostly on turning and aiming. Unfortunately, this also leads to a lot of lost control when you’re making tight turns as you’ve effectively lost the ability to ‘ease up on the gas.’

Manual gas, meanwhile, just feels awful as the gas ‘button’ is right smack in the middle of the two turn portions, which feels extremely unintuitive for me.  Either way, additional miscues such as a very bouncy physics system and the occasional unresponsiveness of controls don’t help the experience, either. Other facets of Deadmans Run, such as the visuals, felt mostly average and don’t add or detract from the rest of the game.

If you can get past the spotty controls, Deadmans Run is an adequate racer with enough meat in its campaign to offer genre fans something to try. There are gamers out there that are simply looking for the next ‘rat race’ to race through, and this game can certainly provide that. However, the overall rough presentation and spotty controls are enough to detract all but the diehard combat racing enthusiasts.

Everybody’s favorite fruit slicing arcade game Fruit Ninja [$0.99 / Free ] originally launched back in April 2010, and to celebrate its two-plus year anniversary on the App Store the Halfbrick team are currently touring around Australia in search of the best Fruit Ninja high score and they have a big new update releasing for the game later this week.

In the animated trailer below, we meet the merchant Gutsu and his piggy sidekick Truffles who will offer new powerups in exchange for Starfruit, the new in-game currency. These items will allow you to do things like swat away bombs, add additional time on to a game, and cause massive berry explosions.

The Fruit Ninja update is set to hit this Thursday the 24th, and it’s pretty crazy to think of how well Halfbrick has supported the title over the past 2 years, and how far it’s evolved from its initial release. It sounds like they don’t plan on stopping any time soon either, with more new content planned for the future.

As mentioned, Halfbrick are currently jetting around their homeland holding several high score competitions for a chance to compete in a finals tournament in Sydney at the end of the month. Some crazy scores are getting set already, and you can follow the team’s exploits as they post photos and blog about the tour on the Halfbrick website.

Adult Swim has surprised a lot of gamers with their fun iOS games, which often manage to merge simple old-school gameplay with the themes and look of their own shows. Extinction Squad is no exception, and it takes the quest to rescue endangered animals to a new high… or low as the case may be. Fortunately, we mean that in a good way.

In Extinction Squad, animals have gone crazy, the dodos have returned, and they’re all leaping off cliffs like lemmings or just falling from the sky. Enter daredevil scientist, Chuck Darwin, and his crack team of specialists. Intent on saving these animals from (presumably) themselves, Chuck’s team travels across the world to catch them on trampolines and fling them to safety.

So, deep and sensible story aside, most of Extinction Squad is simple-- players just slide their finger back and forth across the bottom of the screen to move the two guys holding a portable trampoline. Animals fall from above, which must be caught while avoiding falling bombs and other hazards.

Moving across Africa, Asia, Antarctica, American, and the Amazon will be a challenge, though. The game starts off friendly, but soon players will have to decide which animals to catch a veritable maze of falling fur. Bombs will fall like rain, and the action gets insane. The adventure mode is a trip across the world, with some slight semblance of a story and continuity. Countdown mode is a more traditional arcade-style bout, where the clock is ticking and high scores are king.

Between bouts, players can spin the Wild Wheel for more bonus items to help their quest or coins to help purchase items. Power-ups are everywhere in this game, helping to slow time, widen the trampoline, and shield the characters from bombs. While there’s a healthy and expected micro-transaction commerce system at work in the game, buying things isn’t necessary to enjoy the game. Split-second reflexes are.

For the most part, Extinction Squad is a fun, shallow time. The bright, cartoonish graphics with adorable animals and hilarious bits of gore (usually from splattering animals) look like they were stripped from an Adult Swim show. The audio work is minimal, but excellent as well. The gameplay itself is dirt simple, but for whatever reason, we encountered occasional (very brief) lapses of response.

Extinction Squad is ideal for players with a sense of humor who want something that is the epitome of a mobile game-- a game they can instantly pick up and play for a minute or two at a time. It’s simple, hectic, and funny. Just don’t expect anything more, and you’ll likely be happy with it, too.

What is best in life? An iPhone with a bigger display. Reports are coming in that Apple is planning for the iPhone 5 to have a 4-inch screen. Current models of the iPhone measure 3.5 inches from corner to corner, so provided Apple keeps the screen dimensions proportional, that’ll mean a 30% viewing area increase.

Everything that’s flying around right now is rumor, speculation, and secrets whispered over fences, but according to the report, people who are “close to the situation” (as Reuters puts it) claim that Apple has already begun putting out orders for the new displays in South Korea and Japan. Supposedly, production is gearing up to begin around August.

If Apple is indeed looking to enlarge its screens, they’re almost certainly being pushed into action by its main competitor, Samsung. Earlier this month, Samsung revealed its new Galaxy smartphone, which has a 4.8 inch touchscreen. Samsung became the world’s largest cellphone maker earlier this year, and sold 45 million smartphones in the first quarter of 2012.

Samsung’s looming shadow probably isn’t the only motivator Apple has for looking into bigger screens (provided that is indeed what is going on with the iPhone 5). iPads, Kindles, and other tablets are becoming go-to instruments for gaming, reading, and watching video on the go. A phone with a 4-inch screen is no replacement for a tablet, but it should be enough to convince people to assign even more tasks to their iPhone when they’re on the go.

[via Reuters]

In the latest postings over the last seven days, Gamasutra's jobs board plays host to roles in every major discipline, including opportunities at SCE Santa Monica Studios, Monolith Productions, and others. Each position posted by employers will appear on the main Gamasutra job board, and appear in the site's daily and weekly newsletters, reaching our readers directly. It will also be cross-posted for free across Gamasutra's network of submarket sites, which includes content sites focused ...

On this week's episode of The TouchArcade Show, Eli and I try to persuade Jared to buy Blizzard Entertainment's Diablo 3. We also dive into what makes the game click with us comment on how its release has ground the gaming industry to a stop. Later, we manage to dive into iPhone and iPad. In our games section, we discuss Cuboid and Extinction Squad. In our front page section, we talk about how traditional industry guys never seem to have success on the App Store and get out our mallets for a proper legal discussion.

If you'd like to listen, awesome! Click one of the links below. Additionally, you can subscribe to The TouchArcade Show on iTunes and Zune Marketplace. Those links are just below, too. The latter is the easiest way to listen to us, as you'll get new episodes the second they're released.

iTunes Link: The TouchArcade Show Zune Marketplace: TouchArcade.com Podcasts RSS Feed: The TouchArcade Show Direct Link: TouchArcadeShow-052.mp3, 36.8MB

Here are your show notes:

GAMES

• Cuboid Free [Free]
• Extinction Squad [$.99]
• Sonic The Hedgehog 4: Episode 2 [$6.99]

FRONT PAGE

• Q Entertainment Vets Release So-So Mobile Game
• Dragon Shout Creator Hit With Copyright Infringement Notice
• 'Whale Trail' Is Going F2P
• Wow, Look at This 'Sworcery' Jam Stuff!

[In this weekly column, Gamasutra rounds up the most popular paid and free iPad gaming applications on the App Store as of today, with Bejeweled HD, Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode II and Feed Me Oil currently ranking among the platform's top downloads.] This week's top paid titles are: 1. Bejeweled HD (PopCap, $3.99) 2. Angry Birds Space HD (Rovio, $2.99) 3. Fruit Ninja HD (Halfbrick, $0.99) 4. Where's My Water? (Disney, $0.99) 5. Draw ...

The TouchArcade App [ Free ] has been out for a couple weeks now, and it seems like everyone is really digging it. Currently we're working on a quick 1.1 update which will address some tweaks, fixes, and suggestions that have been posted in our forums. After that, it's full-steam ahead on releasing a universal update. Spoilers: I've already got a beta version of it on my iPad, and it's going to be really nice.

But anyway, one of the best features you might not be using in the TouchArcade app is setting up watch lists to stay on top of upcoming gales we've posted about. Flipping the little binoculars switch on these games will add them to your watch list, and you'll be notified when we post additional articles on them as well as when they're actually released. Going back through historical stories to fill up your watch list is a bit of a hassle, so here's a list of games I'm looking forward to that you could think about adding.

All you've got to do is tap each link, and then flip the binocular toggle on top:

Audiosuft Air - The Audiosurf series of games were a huge hit on the PC, and it seems like a natural fit on the iPhone. It's currently scheduled to be released sometime this year.

Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition - If you listen to the podcast, you'll know we're always going on about how much we want old school RPGs on our iPads, and there's few finer old school RPGs than Baldur's Gate- Especially a totally touch-centric port.

Bladeslinger - A "western-themed Infinity Blade" as it's known around my house. The game has been delayed like crazy, but last we heard is still supposed to be released this month.

Defender Chronicles II - The original Defender Chronicles was a huge hit in our community, so naturally, folks are incredibly excited about the upcoming sequel. (Including me, I can't wait.)

Drifter - Space trading games and me go together like peas and carrots. Drifter is looking really promising.

Galactic Keep - I feel like Gilded Skull Games has been teasing us with this game for eternity, and last we heard, it's still coming. I'm still loving the art style and dice-centric gameplay ideas.

Infinity Blade Dungeons - It's the new Infinity Blade, there's no way this game won't be huge, especially with the recent release of Diablo III and Dungeons' dungeon crawling gameplay.

Linux Tycoon - There have been tons of "tycoon" style games released over the years, but none are as delightfully nerdy as Linux Tycoon. Last we heard, it's coming very soon.

Penny Arcade On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness Episode Three - Sadly, I don't hold out much hope for the first two episodes, but I'm more than happy for the third installment to be hitting iOS devices.

Pocket Heroes - Dungeons and Dragons combined with Words With Friends style asynchronous multiplayer? That "Take My Money" meme is totally appropriate here.

RealMyst - I'm still blown away that this exists. 20-ish years ago, my computer could barely play the pre-rendered version of Myst. Soon we'll be playing it rendered in real time on our phones.

Star Command - Kairosoft-style simulation combined with a gloriously Star-Trek-y setting. They've also released the best trailer I've seen recently, which is embedded above.

The Other Brothers - An adventure game with platforming elements and some really awesome pixel art. We can't wait.

WarGames - I'm a massive fan of Dungeon Raid [$2.99 / Free ] and WarGames is designed with vaguely similar gameplay in mind. Oh, and it's dripping with WarGames style from the actual movie.

Puppets are on the loose, and it's up to a lowly amusement park janitor to keep them at bay. Isn't that always the way? NuOxygen's tap-and-slash adventure Monster of Puppets (a clever play on words, if we may say so) follows janitor Charlie on his journey to keep the puppets in each booth at the amusement park from wreaking havoc upon the unsuspecting public-- all because a wayward UFO decided it wanted to make a quick landing. It's clear the game was meant to give Fruit Ninja a run for its money-- but does it ever get off the ground?

Monster of Puppets has all the charms of a great Flash game: plenty of levels, power-ups, and stuff to shoot, mostly of monsters, as the title implies. Every Halloween cliche you can name makes a cameo appearance, rising to the top of the screen carried by ballons and other apparatus: robots, wizards, werewolves, zombies, pumpkins, and even vicious mascots. All of them need a sound beatdown, and it's up to you to administer one.

While at first Charlie is only equipped with a broom, as you tap through each puppet, sending them hurtling to a swift death, or exploding, he can quickly make his way through the ranks, unlocking and purchasing new armaments at the in-game store. Bazookas, buzz saws, and rockets are at your disposal. You'll spend coin earned in-game throughout your puppet-busting exploits, and it's prudent to snap up what you can, as these puppets can fight back. In fact, that's part of the tagline: "fruit doesn't fight back." Cute.

And these puppets are out for blood. Each game is fast and frantic, increasing in difficulty as you down each malevolent attacker. It quickly becomes addictive, turning into a competition with yourself and other players to see how many puppets you can annihilate and how many points you can rack up via quick-chaining combos. Collecting currency is another miniature battle, and one you'll happily engage in if you want to take out the higher-powered foes in less time.

The carnage is juxtaposed against the cutesy puppets themselves, rendered in 3D against patchwork backgrounds and whimsical locales. The backgrounds certainly aren't up to par with the puppet models, but they lend a bit of a fantastical feel to the already quite silly game. Bold colors and an energetic soundtrack keep things fun and light-- no matter how many puppets you're blowing away.

It's intuitive, simple, and accessible-- all things one would expect out of any app that might fancy itself a competitor for one of the top games in the genre. And given its variety, ease of use, and relatively interesting presentation, Monster of Puppets is a formidable opponent in the same arena. With a little more aesthetic polish and new enemies (maybe a few more weapons, too) it could become a must-own app quite easily. Just make sure you keep it away from actual puppets. You never know how easily they can be swayed into revolting.

How do you feel about endangered species? Does your heart ache for the poor creatures that, through no fault of their own, are being driven to extinction? If so, you might want to join up with Adult Swim and PikPok's Extinction Squad [ $0.99 ], the bloodiest game about conservation I've ever seen.

As the story goes, the surprisingly well-preserved Chuck Darwin, father of evolution, has found a lost colony of dodos. Seems like a miracle, but then the terrible truth is revealed: the scent of dodos causes other animals to jump to their deaths. Animals are killing themselves by the thousands, so Chuck pulls together his extinction squad to save 'em. Running back and forth with a jump net, the squad bounces the suicidal animals to safety, earning points, coins and the occasional surprise in the process.

All you need to do is swipe your finger back and forth along the bottom of the screen, directing the squad back and forth. You need to position them under falling animals, beneath coins and powerups, and away from falling bombs—a single encounter with a bomb means game over. Adventure mode is all about survival, and Countdown mode is a time trial, but both just ask you to swipe back and forth, nothing more. This makes for a very simple game, but it isn't the sort of simple that gets boring quickl. PikPok is pretty great at making crazy-fun simple games, the kind that Adult Swim likes to publish, and Extinction Squad is no exception.

There's the absurdity, for one. You travel around the world with these adorably designed and well-animated people and animals. Every animal you miss splatters into bloody chunks on the ground. Sometimes you juggle pandas, and sometimes you need to bounce a whale. Simply put, this game is over-the-top in all the best ways. With bright colors everywhere and a ton of Australianisms, the whole game commits to a level of absurdity that most developers can't match.

Then there's the compulsion. Every time you play, you're not only saving animals (fun in and of itself) and working on high scores, you're also collecting. As in Jetpack Joyride [ Free ], there are coins to collect and tokens for the post-game lucky spin. Also familiar is the selection of three meta-goals you're faced with each time you play, like reaching certain scores in a single streak or saving all the animals that fall within a certain span of time. These elements give players a lot of reasons to just keep playing, with that one last turn turning into a dozen.

The coins you collect can go toward upgrading your powerups and unlocking new, higher-scoring areas. As the game normally plays, you need to save 30 animals in one area without dying, then 40 in the next, then 45 in the one after that, and so on. When you go through all the available areas the game loops but the goal keeps rising. Having access to the later areas means higher overall scores, though the game takes just as long to get obscenely difficult.

A word about IAP in Extinction Squad before we continue: yes, you can absolutely do everything without ever spending an additional dime. With lucky spins and occasional coin powerups and the awards you get from completing goals, you'll unlock all the areas pretty quickly. If you buy coins, however, you'll be able to unlock them more quickly, level up your powerups sooner, and—most damningly—extend your plays further. You can pay coins to continue after dying, and that coin value increases each time you use it in a single run. Pay the toll and you can pick up from the start of the current stage with your score intact. So yes, IAP can give you an advantage on the leaderboards, a sad addition to an otherwise excellent game.

If you're not fussed about IAP, there is so much to love here. Skill can play a huge part in your success, with bonuses for accuracy and with the serious reflexes needed to dodge bombs as the game goes on. There are random events that add a lot of variety, and stats to keep track of just how good you are at saving animals. And the game just oozes character.

Everything considered, Extinction Squad is a ridiculously fun diversion, a great way to while away the minutes. I wouldn't put too much effort into climbing the leaderboards, knowing that someone with deeper pockets could easily outmatch me with less skill, but just for fun? Sure, I'm happy to give this game my time. If fun, charm and character are all that matter to you, then you should definitely pick it up. And bounce by our discussion thread to let us know what you think when you do.

Craneballs may not be one of the App Store's best-known indie developers, but ever since we played Blimp and Monorace, two of their finest games, we've been big fans. Other Craneballs fans out there will want to know all about Fish Heroes, a 3D physics puzzler that plays a bit like Angry Birds underwater.

In Fish Heroes, you have to slingshot one type of animal (friendly fish) into another (mean sharks). While this sounds like yet another Angry Birds-like premise, the 3D levels make a huge difference. Like in the game Save Toshi, you can spin around each level to find the best viewpoint.

Instead of a tap-to-shoot mechanic like in Save Toshi, Fish Heroes offers a more tactical approach to the controls. You operate your slingshot by pulling back on an icon in the lower-right. This will bring up an aiming reticule, which you can use to hone in on your shark targets. Let go, and your fish will go flying.

You start off with clownfish, which are just simple projectiles, but later on you'll be able to use heavy whales and inflatable pufferfish to cause mayhem. Inflating the pufferfish is especially fun, because they swell up and knock over nearby blocks, like some kind of biological bomb.

Some of your special attacks mirror those in Angry Birds, like a school of fish that separates into individual fish, or a piranha that boosts forward with a button press. While this shows a slight lack of creativity, the cube-shaped characters are quite cute.

If you thought Angry Birds Space was the height of physics puzzling, Fish Heroes will feel like a surprising 3D evolution. After playing it, we're going to try spinning every puzzle game to get a better view. Fish Heroes will be available on the App Store in June.

Wings of Valor [ $1.99 ], the “Wings of Fury” spiritual remake by Idea Spoon, is a rare gem in the app store - a game that might not sell you on its screenshots alone, but is an automatic purchase for gamers “in the know.”  Based on a classic game for the Amiga/PC/Apple II, Wings of Valor has a familiar, nostalgic feel to it, with all the best parts of an arcade shooter and a surprisingly complex strategy sim.

The base gameplay is straightforward and simplistic, as illustrated by the image-only help file.  Take off from your carrier, and destroy your targets. Targets range from islands, to other planes, to ships, and you’re given an entire (unlockable) arsenal for dealing with the threats. For people such as myself, who never played the original, it may take you a few tries to even get off the ground. For instance: mashing the engine button over and over to get it started (just like a real old plane!), or trying to fly off the right side of the carrier and taking a bath instead. Missions are relatively quick, and can easily be squeezed into a bus ride, a work break, or any spare 5-10 minute period of time.

Once you get in the air, the game plays like a dream. Lovingly handcrafted visuals and spot on controls make you wonder why the side-scrolling fighter pilot genre died off so long ago. Aerial combat is a joy, pure and simple: the banks, the arcs, the turns, it all manages to feel “simulationy” and “arcadey” at the same time. Touch controls suffer somewhat from the usual lack of physical feedback, but not as much as you would think with this sort of game.

Dogfighting lacks a bit of challenge, as the enemy AI seems all too easily confused when you turn around directly behind them and light up their tail. Strafing runs are exciting, and can prove to be a test on resources - are you more of a T-16 piloting, womp-rat bullseyeing sharpshooter, or a light-up-the-jungle, empty the plane sort of carpet-bomber? The game plays into both strategies, but the latter sort will have to get very used to landings/takeoffs while they return to their ships to replenish their arsenal.

The camera work is spot on, zooming in as you approach the ground, adding to the feeling of speed. The music is old-timey, “Welcome to the world of tomorrow!” radio static fanfare, and adds to the retro feel. Sound effects are sufficiently explodey and ratatatty, and the particle effects are excellent, whether it's planes smoking and plummeting to the earth or water kicking up as you bring death to dozens of unseen ocean critters. It is incredibly difficult to believe that the entire game was put together by a single person.

With plenty of challenges, unlockables, an upcoming iPad version, and promised updates to the visuals and AI, Wings of Valor makes for a very attractive package at $1.99. For people who have boldly proclaimed the death of classic gaming at the hands of iOS, I can only gesture wildly in this direction - here is a game with no IAP, no freemium model, just classic, old-school gameplay at its finest.  Whether you’re a fan of the genre or completely new to this style of game, here is a something that is very worth your time.

The first time you have a bogey on your six, you tear off straight upward at top speed, and see the stars for just a second before stalling out, turning back towards your prey, spitting hot death, you'll get it. Get it?

Japan's Consumer Affairs Agency has formally declared that a questionable virtual goods sales method known as "kompu gacha" is illegal, and will penalize companies that continue to engage in the practice. The method, which has contributed to the enormous virtual goods revenues for mobile social game companies in the country, encourages players to purchase random virtual goods, in order to receive a prize once they collect a set of items. Some criticized kompu gacha for ...

Usually when we call a game a sandbox, we're referring to some kind of open world game where you can wander, free of restraints, and do anything you can think of. The Sandbox [ Free ] isn't quite that kind of game. Instead it straddles the border between game and art project, rewarding players for creativity while giving them near-infinite possibilities.

You don't play a character in The Sandbox, you play a god. You can paint with pixels of stone, draw towers of earth and set them to grow. You can draw just about any non-living thing you can imagine, paint it into a scene, and then bring it to life with the forces at your command. You have electricity at your fingertips, steam and oil in your grasp, and much more. It's less a sandbox than a blank canvas, waiting to be filled.

There are two ways to play (with) The Sandbox: Free Mode and Story Mode. Story Mode is misnamed; there is no story, just a complex, goal-driven training ground. The game walks you through each element so you can learn how it interacts with the others, teaching you tricks like how to use heat and electricity to boil water, or how to grow a forest using soil, seeds and rain.

A disproportionate amount of Story Mode is spent on working out the finer details of the freemium model, unfortunately. The elements can be unlocked via IAP or mana earned in game, but the latter option is complicated. The Sandbox doesn't give out enough mana in Story Mode to unlock the elements when you need them, but if you switch over to Free Mode and earn some achievements you'll be awarded more. It seems like it might be possible to unlock all the elements for free with enough careful planning and time. Otherwise you can purchase mana, or a launch pack with everything for $6.99. It's an unnecessarily complicated system that draws attention to the man behind the curtain when you should be focused on learning the ropes.

However you do it, once you work through all 24 Story Mode levels you'll have the full stable of elements and climate options at your command. That's when things get really fun, when you move into Free Mode and start creating. You can essentially paint any sort of pixel environment you want, with a huge selection of unlockable backdrops and the freedom to combine elements to do just about anything. Players are only just starting to explore the potential of the game—if you want to be inspired you can paw through the gallery of shared worlds and play with any that you like.

All this freedom comes at a cost, though. The game has a few bugs, like level conditions that trigger incorrectly and Game Center achievements that don't seem to work. But the part that counts, the ways the elements interact with one another, that part works beautifully. The elements may not always have the properties you might expect, but they can do quite a lot. It would be a dream come true to play a game with this complexity in worlds like those of Minecraft, where you could work some serious feats of 3D engineering.

The Sandbox isn't that kind of sandbox, sadly, but it's still fun to play in just two dimensions. Build a world, populate it with flowers and trees, then burn it to the ground. Experiment with the debilitating effects of acid rain. Or build complex Rube Goldberg machines that really work. The sky isn't quite the limit, but The Sandbox is well on the way. And with a planned Universal update in the works, its canvas is set to grow. So go, make something amazing—then stop by our discussion thread to share your creation with the world.

Reiner Knizia is back at it again, teaming with iOS creators Aidem Media and updating one of his board games, Pipes, to fit into to the City of Secrets universe, like he did previously with Skyline. This is again being done to celebrate the upcoming game City of Secrets 2. This time, however, the results aren’t as good as Skyline, and we’re left with a fairly frustrating and mediocre puzzler.

Your goal in each level is to connect a series of pipe parts branching out from a central source node to each of the outlying pipes on the grid's exterior. Each of the outside pipes have different point values and you want to try to get as many points as possible. The more points you get, the better your star rating, up to a maximum of three stars.

The pipe pieces come in different shapes and sizes and with different connections types (certain connectors will only attach with specific types), and you get more points for connecting the pipes in certain ways. You can rotate the pipe parts before you place them on the grid and a green box tells you valid places to put them, but once you place them, thats it. You don’t get a second chance, as there isn’t an undo button. Placing a part in an invalid square creates a “stopper” which creates problems for putting down more parts and takes away points from your total.

And that’s basically all there is to it. Knizia’s Pipes simply isn’t that much fun. It’s a neat idea (we have very fond memories of games like Pipe Dreams), but this isn’t that game. There isn’t enough variation in what you have to do, there’s an obnoxious level of guesswork involved as you never know what the next piece is going to be, and the levels are all presented in a drab, virtually colorless, uninteresting steampunk design. Add in a droning soundtrack and you have a game that could easily put you to sleep if you’re having an off day.

We really can’t find any compelling reason to recommend this game. There are already games for iOS doing this concept and doing it in better, more interesting ways. Enigmo2 easily comes to mind. Reiner Knizia’s City of Secrets Pipes is a boring, uninteresting slog. For the most ardent Knizia fans only.