You smash down into the outside of an airport. There are a swarm of yellow baddies attacking the place. J.A.R.V.I.S. tells you to get going while you can. You touch a button on your suit. You’re flying through the air.

This is how Iron Man 3 [Free] begins, the iOS game based on the $1B grossing film of its namesake. Gameloft’s latest casts you as the famous Tony Stark, on a quest to save the world from the evil ne'er-do-wells. While fun, the game sadly is in stark contrast to its business model, which partly goes against the protagonist.

The first thing you’ll notice are Iron Man 3’s graphics; they are outstanding. Gameloft has definitely gone to great lengths to make the game look good. Iron Man’s suit is reflective, which slightly shows off the world surrounding him. The environment is lush and detailed, making you feel like you’re actually in a living, breathing world, not laying in bed with your iOS device on your lap. However, the environments are also very limited, and you’ll quickly wish for some variety.

Because of these graphics (or in spite of?), the game seems very laggy. On my iPad Retina, even when there wasn't a lot of action on screen, it would lag a little. It’s not enough to distract from the gameplay, but it’s enough to notice.

After the opening sequence, in which we’re introduced to A.I.M., and seeing an airport come under attack, Iron Man zips through a tunnel, and emerges on a highway. At this point, we’re playing what is basically an endless runner. The tutorial guides you through the basics, how to control Iron Man and dodge obstacles while collecting Stark Credits and defeating enemies.

The controls are pretty simple; slide left and right to move to whatever lane you desire and to avoid oncoming obstacles. (If you desire tilt-based movement, your wish can be fulfilled through the options menu.) You’ll also take further up into the air, where the game introduces you to your first enemy and how to kill them, by swiping left to right (or vice versa) over them. Swiping can lead to chain combos, which will improve your score at the end, but most enemies can also be defeated by simply tapping on them (some requiring multiple taps).

With that being said, the control scheme, regardless of the method you choose, feels very sensitive, even on a low sensitivity setting. The slightest touch or tilt will send Tony to the other side of the screen, and considering how fast and frantic some of the action is, this can result in an untimely death. There were a few times where I noticed a lull in the action. I’d be flying for a good ten seconds with no obstacles, no credits to collect, and no enemies to fight. I'm unsure if this is a result of the game loading something upcoming in the background, is intended to provide a break of sorts, or is an unintended action.

As you progress, you’ll start getting missions. These are all pretty common fare, and do nothing to further the genre. Defeat ten enemies in a single run, narrowly avoid ten jets in a single run, or run a total distance of 100,000, to name a few. You’ll also get daily missions that award ISO-8, such as flying a set distance and then defeating a special boss from the Iron Man universe, such as Crimson Dynamo.

These encounters are unique in that they change the game dynamics as well as serve to advance the storyline; instead of the basic runner, you’re thrown up close and personal. Iron Man 3 also gives you the option to use some powerups, which cost premium currency. You can get a head start at the beginning, or double the amount of Stark Credits you pick up.

At the end of your run, there’s no option to immediately restart; instead, you’re presented with a Stark Industries button, which takes you to the suit upgrade screen. As well as this, depending on how much damage you sustained during your run before you finish, you may have to wait while your suit gets “fixed”. Spending some premium currency, ISO-8, will make this process instant.

The further you travel, the more XP and Stark Credits you’ll earn, which are used to upgrade your suit. The three basic fields to upgrade are Special, Weapon and HP. When purchasing an upgrade, there is an “installation” period, which can be bypassed by spending ISO-8.

Like any good running game, you’re rated in various categories; these are distance traveled, combo score, enemies defeated and avoidance score. Naturally, the higher your score, the more credits and experience you’ll earn. With earning experience comes a level system. Each time you increase in level, you earn one ISO-8. As you gain further levels, you’ll unlock different suit trees. There are three main suits available. The default suit, Striker Missile (or Mark III), is the Iron Man everyone knows, and it comes with a score multiplier of 1.0. The first suit available to purchase, Unibeam Blast (or Mark V), increases the multiplier, and has different stats. The third suit, Frost Charge (or Mark II), continues.

Each suit has a tree attached to it. To unlock a suit, the previous one must be purchased first. You purchase suits with experience points (or ISO-8), and then use Stark Credits to build the suit. Clearly, the game has been designed to make you grind out everything, unless you spend real money. There is Facebook and Game Center integration here, so not only can you challenge friends, but you can also collect trophies which earn ISO-8.

Iron Man 3 relies on two currency types; Stark Credits, which are earned while playing, and ISO-8, the premium currency. A small pack of ISO-8 will set you back $1.99, while the largest pack, at 15,000, will cost $99.99. You can also purchase Stark Credits, but buying those requires spending ISO-8; there's no option to buy, say, 100 Credits for $0.99.

For fans of Tony Stark and his universe, Iron Man 3 is definitely a fun adventure. For those who care nothing whatsoever for comics or the Iron Man universe, it’s still fun as an endless runner. It doesn't feel as finished as other Gameloft games, but time may change that. But be prepared to either spend lots of your time, or your money, to get the most out of Iron Man 3.

Appearances can be deceiving. In the App Store, Mosaique [$0.99] looks like it might be a generic block-pusher game, or some sort of warped Tetris clone. The truth is that developer Winning Blimp uses these familiar aesthetics to create something altogether completely different.

In Mosaique, Colored squares assemble onscreen in a seemingly random pattern, and you must navigate the screen’s perimeter to clear them by going to the side you want and then dispatching your colored square out into the field. You can only remove same-colored squares – send it out against something not matching your color, and the new color comes boomeranging back, and what you sent out originally takes its place.

It might sound somewhat complicated, but it really isn’t. It’s your level of mastery with this mechanic that will determine whether you’re a skillful player or merely just okay. It can be a little confusing at first, even with the tutorial, but the best way to understand Mosaique, alas, is to just try it for yourself. After spending a few hours with it, though, I can tell you: This is not a time-suck game in the traditional sense.

With soothing, almost meditative music playing, and a hyper-focus on the game’s sole mechanic, Mosaique can be downright distracting to the extent that the rest of the world can seemingly fall away and disappear. Falling under Mosaique’s spell, my entire world became these giant, differently hued pixels. Even though there's not a ton of depth here, there's something very absorbing about the game that's difficult to articulate.

What prevents Mosaique from being too easy is your shot meter. Every time you spew a square out to try to remove more, it dissipates slightly. If you’re careless, your play sessions will be rather short. The only way to survive is by strategizing, Raiders of the Lost Ark-style, when Indy is trying to grab the idol. If you’re in a rush and just go for the easy shots, you’ll be penalized. But if you’re crafty and realize, “Hey, if I shoot this blue one here for this green one… then I can use it to line up all these purple ones after I move the yellow one,” well, then, you’ll fare much, much better. You’ll also be able to continue on, because obliterating two or more squares in one go is the only way to extend your shot meter.

“Winning” is defined by completing seven different, increasingly more difficult puzzles. The game isn’t timed, so you can take as long as you want to hem and haw, but unless you have a chess-master’s mind, you probably will need to dive in and just start square-swapping to crack how to best survive the world of Mosaique.

I woke up to some very exciting and unexpected news today as HyperDevbox Japan has announced that ExZeus 2 is in the works and is heading to the App Store soon. If you aren't familiar (and I won't blame you if you aren't), the original ExZeus [$2.99] was a somewhat obscure arcade game that came out in 2003 and went on to see limited releases on various other platforms like the PlayStation 2, PC, and even as a Wii title in 2007 under the name Counter Force.

In 2009 ExZeus released for the iPhone, and we took a close look at it as well as a hands-on video of the game in motion, as in those early days of the App Store it was a pretty impressive title and used the accelerometer functionality of the iPhone really well. The iPhone was my first time experiencing ExZeus, and it went on to become one of my very favorite games.

ExZeus was an arcade game through and through, and was a similar behind-the-back on-rails shooter to something like Space Harrier. It was hard, but tons of fun. ExZeus 2 looks to bring back that same style of play but will be throwing in tons of other things, too. Seriously, it's nuts how many different things are going on in this game. In between the flying there are parts where you'll face off against enemies on the ground brawler-style, there's a part that looks like a top-down shooter, vehicle sections, giant turrets you can sit in and blast dudes away with, and more. Check out all the craziness in this early trailer for ExZeus 2.

I really loved the simplicity of the first ExZeus. It did one thing and it did it really well. I'm not totally sure how mashing up so many types game styles will work out in the sequel, but it'll be interesting to see nonetheless. Basically I'm just super excited that the ExZeus franchise lives, as very recently I was reminiscing at how much I loved that game and how sad I was it hadn't been updated in so long.

HyperDevbox says ExZeus 2 should be coming "very soon" so join in on the forum discussion and add it to your TouchArcade [Free] Watch List and we'll let you know when more news is available.

Earlier this month, EA soft-launched a new version of the iconic block-clearing game Tetris in the Canadian App Store, called Tetris Blitz [Free], and we took the title for a spin in a TA Plays video to see what it was all about. Basically, it's the Tetris block-dropping-and-clearing that we all know and love, but stuffed into a fast-paced timed mode similar to Bejeweled Blitz [Free]. It's pretty good, despite being littered with all the freemium trappings that we've come to expect on the App Store.

Today, Tetris Blitz graduated from its soft-launch status and has released outside of Canada and into the world at large. Here's an official trailer showing the game in action.

Tetris Blitz is actually a great version of the classic game, and out of all the various Tetris games that have been released on the App Store over the years this one really nails the touchscreen controls the best. The downfall, of course, is the freemium-ness of the game, but at least it's not completely in your face and is pretty easily ignored. Anyway, it's free to check out, so if interested definitely give Tetris Blitz a look.

We recently mentioned how having a Minecraft style game, or even just sticking the word Minecraft into your title or search terms, is the flavor of the moment to try and snatch some downloads from mobile Minecraft fans. Sometimes, though, the block-building formula is actually used in a unique way that complements the game. Naquatic's recently-released Guncrafter [Free] is one of those games.

I never really understood the appeal of "gun apps" that let you either build, clean or just admire various types of 3D-rendered firearms, but they sure have been popular in the past. In Guncrafter you're given a grid and a set of block types that you'll use to build a firearm piece by piece. There are different size grids and different kinds of blocks that you'll slowly unlock as you play which will affect how large your weapon is and the kinds of attributes it has.

Once you've created a firearm in Guncrafter you can then take it into a shoot range scenario where you get to actually test it out by blasting away at various targets, also made up of blocks. This portion of the game actually pits you online against another player and their created weapon to see who can blast away more of the target terrain.

It's actually really fun, both to build a creative weapon and to see how it performs in competition. The formula really works in Guncrafter. However, there is one major negative that seems to be the sticking point for most players: the actual build of your weapon has no bearing on its performance. So, an elaborately-built weapon will fire exactly the same as one that's literally just a barrel.

That's too bad too, because Guncrafter could be a really deep title if the actual designs of your weapons had meaning. As it is now it's still a fun shooting gallery game, and there's something strangely compelling about creating crazy weapons of your own design, but at the end of the day the game just feels a bit too hollow to have much lasting appeal.

Like I said, though, it's still fun for what it is, and it's free-to-play so worth giving a look. I still need to spend some more time diving into it, but so far I've found that Guncrafter is way cooler than I originally thought it would be. People in the forums have been enjoying it too, so if you fancy making your own weapons and blasting away at stuff against online competition, check out Guncrafter.

According to Wikipedia, "Snotlings" are cousins of Goblins and Orks. They're smaller and are used by their much larger brethren as "cannon fodder, food, or cannon missiles." You can imagine tough life must be for these little dudes, but you'll probably find yourself being an even bigger bully to them when you get your hands on Warhammer Quest later next week. Snotlings appear randomly in dungeons, mostly as buffers between you and important enemies that can actually hurt you. Tear through them quickly, and you'll be better able to prioritize. Poor little Snotlings, always receiving hammers and swords to the face.

If you didn't catch it, Warhammer Quest (and its legion of Snotlings) is coming to iPad and iPhone next week. Specifically, it's hitting May 30. Rodeo says Quest supports iOS 6 and above, cloud saves, and it'll debut as a Universal app. The price will be $4.99, which seems perfect.

Quest is one of those games that I can't get enough of. It's an insanely fluid loot-driven turn-based game with a lot of care put into the look, style, and mechanics. You can read more of my thoughts on that stuff in that link, but we've also got some video above, too. It's coming so soon, guys!

If you're among the, like, 12 people who don't own Angry Birds Space [Free / Free (HD)], now's an awesome time to fix that. The outer space-themed take on the series is free to download across iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. You got zero dollars, right? Get clicking!

My favorite thing to do in Space is watch my birds helplessly orbit objects without any hope of actually colliding into something that can break. It's funny in that troll-y kind of way. These brave birds braved space and, possibly, travelled light years to do a job, but can't because their operator is a jerk. Eli, on the other hand, found a couple of better things to like about Space, including the level design.

We hear folks really like Space, so chances are the remaining 12 of you will, too. We're guessing this is free courtesy Apple's own Free App of the Week promotion, so you've got seven or so days to jump on the game's new $0 price.

It's another Wednesday evening here in the US, which means that it's another batch of new iOS game releases. Tonight is a pretty extensive list, with a little something for everybody. Telltale's odd and awesome looking poker game Poker Night 2, which features a mashup of characters from a number of cool games, made a late appearance in the New Zealand App Store. I'm stoked to check that one out. Also, in case you missed it before, EA's online RPG Ultima Forever soft-launched in Canada today, so if you have access to a Canadian App Store account you should check that out too. Enjoy!

1968

App Store Description:

The creators of Save My Bacon brings you an epic space adventure with 4 different planets and over 60+ levels to complete!! Try to master huge jumps, endless falls and tricky terrain in this racing vs puzzle game! Challenge your friends on Game Center and be the first to conquer all the planets. Can you beat the clock!?

Forum Thread: 1968 - (by Attribite AB) [Universal]

Bam Fu

App Store Description:

HANDS CLASH IN CHAOS in Bam fu, a game for two-, three- or four people on one device.
Everyone is fighting over the same pebbles. Physical contact is totally part of this game.
Each player fights for her own color. Pebbles loop through the colors of the players when you tap them. Make the majority of the pebbles your color and win the round. Win five rounds and you’ve secured your victory.

Forum Thread: Bam fu - (by Game Oven) [Universal]

Call of Mini: DinoHunter

App Store Description:

Fight your way through hordes of giant lizards and collect items to craft and upgrade various weapons.
Dinosaurs emerge from the ancient forest after hiding for decades. As a descendant from a great hunter family, you continuously hone skills towards your desired goal in order to stand up to your father's expectation. Now it's time to prove yourself.

Forum Thread: Call of Mini: DinoHunter - (by Triniti Interactive Limited) [Universal]

Combo Crew

First Impressions: Upcoming Brawler 'Combo Crew' From 'Squids' Creator Is Pretty Rad

Unlike most of brawlers, including ones we see on iPad and iPhone, Crew doesn't use virtual buttons. In fact, you don't even directly control your character's movement. You just swipe to attack between bad guys. Two finger swipes lead to bigger combos, holding down a swipe charges an attack that can break through defenses, while on-screen taps can counter-attack anyone taking shots at you. As the game ramps up, you start learning new ways to combo, as it integrates multi-directional swipes that can do things like, say, blast opponents into the air for a juggle.

Forum Thread: Combo Crew - (by The Game Bakers) [Universal]

Dead Ahead

App Store Description:

Swerve between abandoned cars, plough through undead crowds and when the dead get too close, get trigger-happy. Visit the Garage to upgrade your ride and your firearms to keep ahead of your pursuers. Smart thinking is the best weapon against the dead. Trick these brain-hungry buffoons by leading them over ramps or straight into the back of cars and watch those red pixels fly! Survive as long as you can to complete missions, rank up, and top the leaderboards. Rack up gory combos and take on daily challenges to reap even greater rewards.

Forum Thread: Dead Ahead™ - (by Chillingo Ltd) [Universal]

Downhill Supreme

App Store Description:

Launch off a huge jumps, balance in mid-air, fly over the rock sections and time the perfect landing. Welcome to the thrilling world of Downhill Supreme! It's addictive, action-packed sports game where your skills will be tested in order to become downhill cycling superstar. Have you got what it takes?

Forum Thread: Downhill Supreme - (by Reinholds Berzins) [Universal]

Epic

First Impressions: Hands-on With Gameloft's 'Epic,' A Free-To-Play Movie Tie-In

In Epic, you'll be tasked with building up a fantasy army and taking care of all the overhead that goes alongside this. Basically, you'll be obtaining minerals, refining minerals, and waiting for a bunch of timers to finish so you can obtain and refine even more minerals -- you know, the usual. I guess the hook with this one is in its tie-in with Blue Sky's film of the same name, which is apparently hitting a theater near you later this week. It has talking slugs in it, just FYI.

Forum Thread: Epic (Universal app By Gameloft)

Finger Tied Jr.

App Store Description:

Based on the popular iPad puzzler, Finger Tied Jr. is a multi-touch puzzle game for iPhone and iPod touch. In each Finger Tied Jr. puzzle, fill in a shape by moving up to four fingers around on your iPhone/iPod touch at the same time. But be careful, lift a finger, or go out of bounds, and it's game over. Finger Tied Jr. will test your mental, as well as your finger abilities! Finger Tied Jr. can be played entirely by yourself, but for even more fun, invite some friends over and Finger Tied Jr. makes a great party game!

Forum Thread: Finger Tied Jr. - (by Streaming Colour Studios)

Go Round

App Store Description:

Make color matches to push pieces towards the center of the rings. Plan carefully, as sometimes your path will be blocked. Play at your own pace, using strategy and skill to complete each level before all the rings disappear.

- 100 handcrafted levels
- New gameplay twists every 5 levels
- Difficulty increases as your skills increase
- Earn coins every time you play
- Boosters to help you when you're stuck
- Share your journey progress with friends
- Color blind mode available

Forum Thread: Go Round - by Little White Bear Studios [Universal]

Hyper Breaker Turbo

First Impressions: 'Hyper Breaker Turbo' is the Newest Brick Breaker on the Block, and It's Pretty Darn Good

The part that stands out about Hyper Breaker Turbo to me are its elongated levels. As you break through a set of block barriers you can continue to go up in the level, with more block formations and obstacles for you to deal with. It's a nice change from the usual single-screen levels in similar games, and once you do end up making it to the goal your score is tallied and you're given up to a 4-star rating for completion. You don't have to break every block to complete a level, but doing so will earn you more points and thus give you a better shot at earning more stars, which are used for unlocking additional themes and sets of levels later in the game.

Forum Thread: Hyper Breaker Turbo - (by Barry Kostjens) [Universal]

Jane Wilde

App Store Description:

Get on board with this awesome Wild West pick-up-and-play shooter! This is an all new side scrolling shooter game where your mission is to stay alive while killing as many undead creatures as possible. To aid in your quest you have five upgradable weapons, including: revolvers, shotgun, gatling gun, a “Freeze” bow and the all-powerful fishgun! Additionally, you have seven quirky, yet effective powerups to help you survive any sticky situations. Take pleasure in shooting, kicking and bombing tons of twisted creatures, such as vampires, bats, skeletons, centaurs and many more! What are you waiting for? Hours of unobstructed, undead-obliteration await!

Forum Thread: Jane Wilde - (by Level Bit) [Universal]

Men's Room Mayhem

First Impressions: 'Men's Room Mayhem' Tasks You with Directing Traffic when Nature Calls

Men's Room Mayhem is a pretty straightforward line-drawing game. You're given a top-down view of a bathroom, with 3 urinals on one wall, a toilet stall down in the corner, and a couple of sinks near the exit. As people walk in they'll give you and indication of whether it's "number one" or "number two" and you simply draw a path from them to the appropriate facility. Of course, just as you need to avoid planes crashing into each other in the granddaddy line-drawer Flight Control, if two bathroom patrons' paths cross during the course of their potty break, a knock-down drag-out fight will ensue.

Forum Thread: Men's Room Mayhem - (by Ripstone Ltd) [Universal]

Poker Night 2

App Store Description:

The chips are down and the ante is up in this sentence already bursting with poker clichés!

Take the fifth seat in Poker Night 2 and go all in at a table featuring Claptrap (Borderlands 2), Brock Samson (The Venture Bros.), Ash (Army of Darkness) and Sam (Sam and Max series). Your dealer is GLaDOS (Portal series), but at no point will you be considered as a candidate for a visit to Aperture Science’s Enrichment Center. Unless you lose.

- Listen to your new poker buddies’ hilarious banter discussing life, Rusty Venture’s underwear and other amusing anecdotes!

- Unlock in-game bounties including themed tables, chips, cards and other awesome items!

- Play either Texas Hold ‘em or the slightly less popular Omaha Hold ‘em. No one knows why it’s less popular. Omaha is a great place.

Forum Thread:

Quell Memento

App Store Description:

Set within an old abandoned house, the player restores order to the jumbled memories of the last occupant, and in doing so embarks on a haunting journey of self-discovery and reflection.

* Over 150 cunningly crafted puzzles!
* Perfectly balanced difficulty curve!
* HD and Retina support hand-painted art!
* Universal app with iCloud integration
* GameCenter Achievements and Leaderboards
* New soundtrack by composer Steven Cravis

Forum Thread: Quell Memento - (by Bulkypix) [Universal]

Sci-Fighters

App Store Description:

Designed by FlukeDuke - the creator of "The Impossible Game" - comes a fast-paced actiongame playable with two players on one device!
The games idea is as simple a addicting: You and 3 opponents are set in an arena which is haunted by a monster. Each player tries to be the last man standing using classical 2d-gameplay mechanics. By using different weapons like flash grenades, a monster potion (turning you into a monster), an ice-rifle or even an automatic laser you are fighting for your life over and over again.

Forum Thread: Sci-Fighters - (by Headup Games GmbH & Co KG) [Universal]

Stickman Tennis

First Impressions: 'Stickman Tennis' is a Simple but Fun Game of Mobile Tennis

You'll guide your stickman through 64 different tournaments in the single-player campaign, or just hop right into a one-off quick game. You have the option of having your character auto-run to the ball or you can choose to control his movement manually. You can also choose from 3 opponent difficulty levels and the length of each match.

Stickman Tennis is controlled with a virtual stick for movement (or just for shot direction, if you choose the auto-run option) and a set of 3 virtual buttons – one each for a lob, slice, or topspin shot. You'll hold down the button of the type of shot you want to hit, and when the ball is near you release it to perform the shot. How well you hit that shot is all based on timing, so let go too early or too late and it won't result in an optimum shot.

Forum Thread: Stickman Tennis - (by Djinnworks)

Zombie Fish Tank

First Impressions: Chillingo's 'Zombie Fish Tank' Is Coming Tonight

Zombie Fish Tank is yet another competent, level-based arcade action game with a three-star rating system being published by Chillingo. Its hook is a "devouring" mechanic. In the game, you play as a ghoulish fish and are tasked with eating other freakish fish. As you gobble these dudes up, your fish gets bigger. Eventually, he gets big enough to chow down on the larger fish swimming around in a given level. If you accidentally run into a bigger fish before your own is large enough to take him on, he'll eat you instead.

Forum Thread: Zombie Fish Tank - (by Chillingo Ltd) [Universal]

Details for a free-to-play Ultima game coming to PC and iOS courtesy of EA Mythic surfaced all the way back in July of last year, and the following month we got a few more details on the game, known officially as Ultima Forever: Quest for the Avatar, by way of an interview with one of the game's executive producers. Most recently, in February, we got a taste of the game in action for the first time with a new trailer, along with the news that Ultima Forever was set for a spring release.

Well, spring is in the air and Ultima Forever is sort of finally here. Thanks to a heads-up from Ultima fan site Ultima Codex, we've learned that the game has soft-launched in the Canadian App Store. So if you're a real Canadian or just a fake Canadian with access to that country's App Store, you can download the free game and check it out for yourself.

I was never into the whole MMO or online RPG thing, but I've been interested in seeing a mobile one done right that would actually get me to stick around. I don't know if that game will be Ultima Forever, but I'm pretty excited to dive in and give it a try. I'd imagine that a full worldwide release won't be too far off either, so if you can't get a hold of the Canadian version then throw this bad boy on your TouchArcade [Free] app Watch List to get an alert when more news of a full release becomes available.

Canadian App Store Link: Ultima Forever: Quest for the Avatar, Free (Universal)

As we mentioned at the beginning of the month with the release of Stick Stunt Biker 2 [Free], Djinn Works are the most prolific producers of stick-figure based mobile games. They crank them out at a brisk pace, but they always end up being pretty darn fun little games. Not even a month later and already they are back with another title, this time taking on the world of tennis with Stickman Tennis [$0.99].

Strangely, there aren't a whole lot of options for tennis fans on the App Store, and even Sega's mobile rendition of their popular tennis franchise Virtua Tennis Challenge [$4.99 / Free] was kind of a letdown when it released last year. However, for a somewhat simplistic, arcadey game of tennis, Stickman Tennis delivers.

The setup is simple. You'll guide your stickman through 64 different tournaments in the single-player campaign, or just hop right into a one-off quick game. You have the option of having your character auto-run to the ball or you can choose to control his movement manually. You can also choose from 3 opponent difficulty levels and the length of each match.

Stickman Tennis is controlled with a virtual stick for movement (or just for shot direction, if you choose the auto-run option) and a set of 3 virtual buttons – one each for a lob, slice, or topspin shot. You'll hold down the button of the type of shot you want to hit, and when the ball is near you release it to perform the shot. How well you hit that shot is all based on timing, so let go too early or too late and it won't result in an optimum shot.

And… that's pretty much it. Like I said, this is a simple game, but a fun one. The performance is smooth and the AI appears to be pretty competent, at least in the early goings. This isn't some deep tennis simulation game, but for what it is I'm enjoying it a lot. It feels like a good fit for mobile. Stickman Tennis is out worldwide already, so if you're interested grab it with the link below or check in with the forum community for more impressions. Also, if you're an iPad gamer you're out of luck at the moment, but a Universal update is in the pipeline.

One of tonight's more notable upcoming free-to-play offerings is Gameloft's Epic, a city building-meets-strategy game that plays pretty much like Clash of Clans [Free]. In Epic, you'll be tasked with building up a fantasy army and taking care of all the overhead that goes alongside this. Basically, you'll be obtaining minerals, refining minerals, and waiting for a bunch of timers to finish so you can obtain and refine even more minerals -- you know, the usual. I guess the hook with this one is in its tie-in with Blue Sky's film of the same name, which is apparently hitting a theater near you later this week. It has talking slugs in it, just FYI.

Combat is one of the few places where Epic threatens to be interesting, by the way. Your soldiers and machines of war are all elemental-based, much like the enemies you'll be fighting, making it seem as if producing the right mix of dudes and then matching them up against your opponents as counters is important. Unfortunately, in the early going, countering doesn't appear to matter. You win no matter what. Maybe down the line this stuff gets harder? These games tend to hold players' hands forever, so that's entirely possible. Regardless, this is the shell of an interesting system where choices could potentially matter.

Anyway, Epic will be available tonight. If you've played a free-to-play building game in the last couple of months, you'll be readily familiar with this one so give it a shot if you've been enjoying this genre.

International App Store Link: Epic, Free (Universal)

Brick breaking games like the classics Breakout or Arkanoid are pretty timeless, but they've also been done to death in the mobile space. Because of that it's hard to get too excited about a new brick breaker unless it really does something to stand out from the pack. I wouldn't say that the upcoming Hyper Breaker Turbo is trying to reinvent the genre or anything, but it does have a clean look and complex multi-screen levels which caught my attention. Plus, it has been a while since I've had a good brick breaker, so I was actually enthused to check this one out.

If you're at all familiar with this genre, then there's not a whole lot to explain about Hyper Breaker Turbo. You control a paddle at the bottom of the screen – the curved variety, not a flat one – and bounce a tiny ball toward the block formations in the playing area, breaking and clearing as many blocks as you can while you travel upwards towards an end goal. There are many different kinds of blocks, some of which have special requirements in order to be broken or just plain can't be broken at all, and a variety of bonuses and power-ups that fall from broken blocks that you can use to your advantage (or disadvantage, depending on the power-up).

It's all pretty typical fare, but very clean and polished. The part that stands out about Hyper Breaker Turbo to me are its elongated levels. As you break through a set of block barriers you can continue to go up in the level, with more block formations and obstacles for you to deal with. It's a nice change from the usual single-screen levels in similar games, and once you do end up making it to the goal your score is tallied and you're given up to a 4-star rating for completion. You don't have to break every block to complete a level, but doing so will earn you more points and thus give you a better shot at earning more stars, which are used for unlocking additional themes and sets of levels later in the game.

There's not a whole lot more to say about Hyper Breaker Turbo, it's just a very well-made brick breaking game. I will say that the physics feel a little lightweight and wonky at times, but nothing detrimental. Also I'm not a huge fan of using a curved paddle, I'd prefer a flat one, but I am warming up to the one here. The bottom line is that if you're ready for another brick breaking game, then Hyper Breaker Turbo appears to be a pretty great one. With 75 levels it should give you your fix for some time, so if interested stop by the forums for more impressions and add it to your TouchArcade [Free] app Watch List to get an alert when it hits the US App Store later tonight.

International App Store Link: Hyper Breaker Turbo, $1.99 (Universal)

Zombie Fish Tank is yet another competent, level-based arcade action game with a three-star rating system being published by Chillingo. Its hook is a "devouring" mechanic. In the game, you play as a ghoulish fish and are tasked with eating other freakish fish. As you gobble these dudes up, your fish gets bigger. Eventually, he gets big enough to chow down on the larger fish swimming around in a given level. If you accidentally run into a bigger fish before your own is large enough to take him on, he'll eat you instead.

In grade school, I played a game similar to this on CD-ROM. I can't remember the name of it, unfortunately, but I do recall that it was meant to be educational. You controlled a bunch of actual fish. The goal was, I guess, to learn about the food chain. Zombie Fish Tank isn't so concerned with this. Surprising, I know! Instead, it leans more on scoring and raw progression. Get big, go to a new level, get big again, and so on. Here's a trailer that shows almost everything off:

There's also an actual fish tank component. You earn coins or whatever as you play and can cash those in to buy fish that swim around in a tank that's displayed prominently on the main menu screen. You can also buy power-ups and stuff in the game's market. Also, yeah, there's IAP.

By the way, you control your fish with the accelerometer. A double tap at any time will reset what the game interprets as the center of your device. All you have to do to eat something is collide into it. This all feels pretty good, which is neat.

Zombie Fish Tank hits tonight across iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. You can catch it at about 11PM EST. Add it to our app's [Free] Watch List if you want notified when it's out. And you know you do! Zombies! They're a thing!

International App Store Link: Zombie Fish Tank, $0.99 (Universal)

Welp. Here we are with a game about going to the bathroom. It's called Men's Room Mayhem, and it's a line-drawing game where you must manage the traffic rolling through a men's bathroom, ensuring each patron is able to get a chance to relieve themselves, wash up, and be on their way. Isn't this the job you've always dreamt of? Well now you can live out that fantasy on your telephone or tablet, most likely while sitting on the toilet yourself. The future is amazing.

Men's Room Mayhem is a pretty straightforward line-drawing game. You're given a top-down view of a bathroom, with 3 urinals on one wall, a toilet stall down in the corner, and a couple of sinks near the exit. As people walk in they'll give you and indication of whether it's "number one" or "number two" and you simply draw a path from them to the appropriate facility.

When a person is all through, you can then score some bonus points by directing them down to the sink area so they can wash up before leading them to the exit. That's nice, bonus points for washing your hands. Pro tip: you should always wash your hands after using the bathroom in real life, too. You can also earn some bonus points for proper "etiquette" like not taking the urinal directly next to one that's in use if there's another one available. That's totally based on real life unspoken rules, too. After each wave is complete, you can score even more bonus points by cleaning up the facilities by frantically rubbing them clean.

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Man. I've been nibbling on some delicious crow. Combo Crew is A-OK and I kinda feel bad about writing off brawler-y games on FingerPads devices. This one proves this genre can work on touch, thanks to its utilization rad gesture-based controls.

To rewind a bit, Combo Crew is an everyday brawler that pits you against hundreds of bad dudes and several bosses along the way. The quest is to reach the top of a tower where a really bad dude named Mr. Boss resides. Sounds ridiculous, right? With a wink and a nod, Combo Crew embraces the cheesiness of old-school brawlers, constantly poking fun at the amount of stupidity these things threw at you. From the music, to the character designs, and to the story, Combo Crew's aware that everything you're doing is dumb. I like it for this, and the execution on the satire is pretty good.

Unlike most of brawlers, including ones we see on iPad and iPhone, Crew doesn't use virtual buttons. In fact, you don't even directly control your character's movement. You just swipe to attack between bad guys. Two finger swipes lead to bigger combos, holding down a swipe charges an attack that can break through defenses, while on-screen taps can counter-attack anyone taking shots at you. As the game ramps up, you start learning new ways to combo, as it integrates multi-directional swipes that can do things like, say, blast opponents into the air for a juggle. The touch controls, in general, are pretty robust considering the simplicity of the control method. I was surprised, at least.

Another neat thing: Crew has a neat social hook in its endless "arena" mode. If you bite the dust, you can opt to send your score to a friend via Facebook or e-mail. If he or she manages to beat that score, you'll be healed with your friend's score converted into life points for you. It's a wild idea, and while it doesn't use Game Center, this seems like a pretty healthy way to integrate some sort of multiplayer.

If you're wondering why this looks so good, it's because Squids maker The Game Bakers is behind it. The art and production elements, as always with this crew, are top-notch.

There's a lot for us to see, still, in Crew -- there's an entire boost system which gives your characters extra powers, a character unlock system, and upgrades. I'll have to spend a lot more time to really evaluate if this stuff works and feels fair, but just so you know, no, this thing doesn't have IAP.

Combo Crew will hit tonight at around 11PM EST. If you've got our app [Free] , you can add it to your Watch List to be notified when it's released. We'll have more on this one as we dig deeper into it.

International App Store Link: Combo Crew, $1.99 (Universal)