Drop 7

Drop 7 Lite (Free) - We enjoyed the full version of this number puzzler when it was released back in February. The Lite version gives you a chance to give it a try on your iPhone.

The game involves dropping numbered discs into a row/column. Whenever the number of the disc matches the size of the row/column that the disc is in, it will disappear. In practice, it's more difficult and interesting than the description.

The latest update to the full version includes Global High Scores as well as Facebook Connect compatibility.

There's also a similar Flash version called Chain Reaction that can be played in your browser.

Bobby Carrot 2

Bobby Carrot 2 ($0.99) - The second classic version of Bobby Carrot was released this week. FDG is going back to and porting the original mobile phone versions of Bobby Carrot to the iPhone with reworked music. This version contains 50 levels in all. Be sure to try Bobby Carrot 1 Lite for a taste of the gameplay. Meanwhile Bobby Carrot Forever is their flagship iPhone native product which we loved.

Nintaii

Nintaii ($0.99) - This was originally an award winning game for the Blackberry which has now bee ported to the iPhone. With 100 levels, it seems a bargain at $0.99. Long-time readers will remember that CubicMan Deluxe had a very similar gameplay.

The goal is to move the block to the proper spot on the map, but it takes some manipulation to get it there. The game appeared on our radar again after Concrete Software released a Lite version that is strangely priced at $2.99. We're assuming a pricing mix-up rather than a strange misguided marketing experiment, so if you give it time, you may be able to try-before-you-buy.

Ouch!

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Ouch! Lite (Free) - Ok, I'll be honest... I'm not sure I understand the appeal of rag-doll simulators, but it's out there. Ouch! is a open-ended game where you fling your customizable "rag doll" around inflicting damage for high scores and glory.

If that sounds appealing to you, take the Lite version for a spin or buy the full version [App Store] for $2.99.

With the volume of new apps and updates, we sometimes miss posting a few during the course of the week. Here are a few notable updates that hit this past week. All updates are free for existing owners of these games.

• Metal Gear Solid ($7.99) - Konami delivered their "full" version update to the game which adds 8 missions to the original release. The update is available for free through iTunes. Aside from the new levels the game also adds some enhancements to the existing levels. Existing owners seem to be enjoying the update but the game is still simply a well implemented tap-to-shoot game.

• Rolando ($4.99) - Ngmoco released another of their weekly updates that offers two more secret levels to the original game. Ngmoco is planning on updating Rolando each week up to Rolando 2's release, so keep checking iTunes.

• Flick Fishing ($0.99) - Freeverse released a major update this week for their very popular fishing game. Aside from the usual bug fixes and tweeks, Freeverse added a new "Fish Net" feature which lets you compete with others.
  

  You can create a new Fish Net or enter a short code to join an existing one created by your friends, co-workers or even one of the public ones that Freeverse (and others) will be hosting. On each Fish Net whoever catches the biggest fish in any game mode will have their name bragged around that whole net. The best bit is that you don't have to be online at the same time, the top fish is stored serverside so the other players will hear about it (and curse your name if you just beat their top fish ).

  A later update is expected to bring more formal online tournaments.

Most of you have probably seen World of Warcraft-on-iPhone claims/videos/mock-ups before, but this time it looks like it might actually be true.

Someone posted this YouTube video of World of Warcraft running on an iPhone:

A few interesting things to note. The game is running in the Vollee client, an application from a mobile company whose main purpose is to develop software to allow mobile 3G phones to play CPU intensive PC applications over the network. From an interview:

Through the VolleeX engine, we can take full PC games, MMOs or even virtual worlds and stream them to any 3G enabled handsets. This means that you can now access games or full persistent online worlds right from your mobile handset. It's a real step forward for mobile games as you can now have meaningful connected experiences on your handset.

Vollee's first public demonstration of the product showed off Second Life on a mobile phone. Vollee has announced a partnership with ActivisionBlizzard making a World of Warcraft port a possibility -- one that people have been speculating about for some time. And as a final piece to the puzzle, Vollee said back in 2008 that they will be supporting the iPhone.

When questioned about the functionality of the app, the poster of the video claims it's a "fully working app."

So, there you have it... a very convincing video (or a very intricate hoax).

Thanks MICHAELSD

Craneball Studios has released screenshots and video from their upcoming "premium" iPhone title called Blimp - The Flying Adventures.

You are a blimp pilot. A war veteran, who wants to live the rest of your life in quiet and peace. Working your day job on a trading planet, everything seems to be ok. Suddenly the planet is assaulted by an evil empire. Your blimp is upgraded with bombs and you are going to save the planet...

The game revolves around piloting a blimp through 20 "action packed" levels. Your tasks begin with simple transport but later escalate to saving friends, protecting other blimps, guerrilla attacks and more.

• high quality particle effects (fires, steams, explosions, radiations etc.)
• 20 action packed levels with interesting plots
• 4 completely different locations (dark forest, mines, snow mountains, red rocks)
• deceitful enemies incl. tanks, gun nests, blimps, bunkers
• your blimp is upgraded throught the campaign
• global score
• created exclusively for iPhone/iPod touch with accelerometer controls in mind

The developer's gameplay video looks quite nice:

The game is due for release in May/June.

In the nine months since the App Store went online, over 35,000 applications have been written for the iPhone.  Of these, the single largest category is games.  Lots and lots of games...which, of course, means lots and lots of takes on the same formula.  Match-three is likely the most repeated type, but not far behind are the "snake" games.  They have a simple premise: you're a snake.  Move about the playfield eating things, to grow in length, but don't eat your tail or bump into obstacles.  I own a camera that has a built-in snake game -- they're everywhere.  And the only real difference between them is just how much prettier one is than the next.

And so, I was rather pleasantly surprised by French developer DigDog's recent release, SnakeGalaxy [App Store], which puts a new spin on the snake game proposition.

In SnakeGalaxy, you are a snake, but in a departure from the standard formula, the playfield is a 3D planet.  You must slither about its surface (as the planet rotates beneath you) collecting food rations and super food rations to accumulate points and increase the score multiplier.  Each time a ration is collected, your speed and length increase, the score multiplier increments by one, and a timer starts to dwindle.  Collect rations fast enough and the multiplier will increase, but if time runs out, it returns to 1x.  Oh -- and don't eat your tail.

The game features five different planets, each well rendered and of a different theme, and with a different set of challenges.  On the Village planet, you must avoid wooden fences while traversing its cobblestone surface.  On the Jeans planet, avoid buttons and rivets while slithering across its denim surface.  On the Graphik planet, your tail is the only enemy, etc.  A Mission mode lets you choose any unlocked planet and play from there to the next planet, and so forth, while a Quick Play mode sets you on the most recently unlocked planet to go for the highest score.

The game is best played with two thumbs.  Upon touching an area of the screen, the snake will head in that direction.  It takes a little getting used to, as a tap to the left or right of the screen is not a "turn in this direction until I let up" control, but simply a turn to the area of the tap -- no further.  After a number of hours with the game, however, it becomes much more natural, in my experience.

I confess that, upon seeing this title appear in the App Store -- another snake title -- my heart did not go pitter-pat.  But after downloading it and spending considerable time with the game, I find it to be the most unique snake game I've come across.  It's enjoyable and even charming, with lovely graphics.  If you need just one snake game on your iPhone or iPod touch, it should be SnakeGalaxy.  And at it's limited introductory price of $.99, it's a solid buy (regularly $2.99).

See our gameplay video for a look at the first three planets.

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App Store Link: SnakeGalaxy, $.99 (limited time)

As Pocket Gamer reports, renowned UK-based game studio Team 17, who last year announced they would be bringing their most notable title, Worms, to the iPhone, has just released photos of the game in action.

Originally an Amiga title, Worms is a turn-based game in the vein of Scorched Earth, where two teams of worms face off across various craggy battlefields, armed with a variety of weapons (bazookas, cluster grenades, air strikes, etc.), in a bid to wipe out the other team and emerge victorious with the last worm standing.  The original can be played between two human opponents or as a single player game against the computer.  It's an extremely well executed take on the formula and has gathered something of a cult following among fans of the genre.

Team 17 won rave reviews for Worms as well as several other Amiga titles, including the top-down shooter Alien Breed series and platformer Superfrog.  The studio went on to develop games for Windows PCs and all major game consoles.  The arrival of Team 17 in the iPhone gaming camp is great news for the platform and hopefully this is just the beginning of the studio's iPhone involvement with the platform.

We'll bring further news on Worms and Team 17 as it develops.

UPDATE: Team 17 has recently released Worms for the PS3 on the Playstation Network.  While we don't have confirmation of this, the iPhone version may be an adaptation of the PS3 release -- or at least share some common remake features.  A look at screenshots of the PS3 version does show some stylistic similarity.  See a video of the PS3 game in action.

EA has released their iPhone version of Trivial Pursuit [App Store]. The popular board game involves players testing their knowledge of trivia questions across a number of different topics.

Knowledge meets fun in this stylish version of the classic! With over 3,500 text and picture questions, you’ll never run out of answers! Stunning 3D graphics and rich sound effects immerse you in the game. Feeling nostalgic? Play a round in Classic Mode. In the mood for something new? Test your wit in Pursuit Mode.

EA lists the following features in the iPhone version:

• Over 3,500 questions including 2,900 text and 600 picture questions
• WiFi MP for up to four (4) players
• Pass & Play MP for up to six (6) players
• Simple and intuitive touchscreen controls
• Exciting 3D visuals and sound effects
• Features and Game Modes enhance replayability and depth

Some first impressions and a description of "Pursuit Mode" by forum user sizzlakalonji:

I got it, and enjoy it. So far I've played one game against AI on medium mode, and won. I've also played part of one game of Pursuit mode, which is an interesting twist on the classic. Basically, you are rewarded for the speed of your answer by getting to move your token more spaces toward the "finish line". The things I like: The visual style is nice, but not distracting with unnecessary animation (something I think is a problem with Monopoly). The questions seem of a good relative difficulty. I like that when it's the AI's turn, you don't see the question, only if they got it right or not (this would be wasted questions you could potentially be asked later). Probably my favorite part are the picture based questions. Photos have been incorporated into some questions which add a nice degree of change from strictly text based trivia. The only negative so far is something that I can't see how they could avoid, namely the questions having to be multiple choice. This is obviously different from traditional TP, but I noticed that in settings you could choose the amount of time a person has to answer the question.

Meanwhile, for those who missed it the first time, EA has re-released Lemonade Tycoon as a free ad-supported download. EA had briefly released the game last week but it had been pulled for unclear reasons.

App Store Link: Trivial Pursuit (U.S.), $4.99, Trivial Pursuit (International), Lemonade Tycoon, Free

Right now both IUGO and Pangea are running $.99 (unrelated) sales on every iPhone game in their respective catalogs.  IUGO's "Fire Sale" ends Monday, April 29th while Pangea's "Huge Spring Cleaning Sale" ends at the end of next week (May 1st-ish).

While, for both developers, some titles are better than others, there are some good deals to be found in the overall mix.

Take advantage of the sales while you can!

Apple has officially hit one billion downloads from their iTunes App Store. Apple has been running a 1 Billion App Countdown promotion offering a package of Apple prizes valued at over $13,000. App Store customers had a chance to win a $10,000 iTunes Gift Card, an iPod touch, a Time Capsule, and a MacBook Pro. The competition is now closed and the result should be announced shortly.

The 1 billion download mark is massive, of course, though Apple hasn't revealed the breakdown of Free vs Paid applications. Apple did reveal at a recent financial results conference call that they have now sold 37 million iPhones and iPod Touches. That is a jump of 7 million devices since December of 2008.

Of interest to our readers, Games remain the single largest category in the App Store and seem to represent a disproportionate number of the top app sales rankings. Apple has published a list of the all time top paid and free applications.

Obviously, we feel that the iPhone gaming market is growing tremendously and these numbers certainly confirm that.

You can consider all your time with Flight Control [App Store] to have been practice so far. Firemint reports that they have submitted their first update to Flight Control and posted these screenshots of the new leaderboard capabilities.

Firemint CEO Rob Murray was recently interviewed by Telegraph.co.uk about the wild success of their first self-published title and detailed the new features we can expect in Flight Control:

The first update will introduce Online Scores using our cloudcell.com technology. We've built a web site with leader boards and personal profiles for each player who uploads their stats, including Google Maps that show who else is playing around them (if they choose to share their location).

Murray also reveals that despite the fact that he runs a mobile gaming company, Flight Control was a side-project done outside of office hours. The game was developed over the course of two months on weekends, holidays and evenings by himself, his wife and the art director from Firemint.

A subsequent update is said to offer new airports and aircraft to the game. Meanwhile, Firemint is also poised to release their Real Racing game which is due very soon.

App Store Link: Flight Control, $0.99

Phil Hassey has just let us know that, after collecting user requests over the past few months, he has made Galcon v1.5 [App Store], a notable update to his pick-up galactic domination strategy game, available through the App Store.

Galcon is a fast-paced arcade strategy game set in space.  The game begins with a galactic playfield filled with planets of varying size.  The green planets belong to the player, neutral planets are grey, and planets of any other color belong to the enemy.  The goal is to take over all the planets.

Galcon v1.5 brings the following enhancements:

• Added 2 vs 2 Team play!  Now you can play with your friends against your enemies!
• Overhaul of the on-line rankings feature so we are able to deliver more accurate and detailed stats!
• Added "friends" feature to Galcon.com, so now you can join your friends to play!
• Resolved issues with network disconnect after playing for more than 15 minutes.
• All users are now ranked, even unregistered users, so you'll always know what level of player you are up against.

See our review of the initial release of Galcon.

App Store Link: Galcon, $2.99

Last week, Monster Gila released their original iPhone platformer Ignite [link] to the App Store. The game is a very non-traditional 2D platformer that is well suited for the iPhone with excellent touch-screen controls.

The game's protagonist is Iggy, a flaming ember that is defending his fiery world from the evil Water Warlords. Each level is composed of a number of floating platforms made of different materials -- some flammable, some not. As always, your goal is to get to the end of each level by jumping from platform to platform. There are many interesting elements to this game, however, that make it surprisingly fun.

Iggy is, of course, on fire -- but Iggy loses "health" and starts dwindling over time. The only way to restore the health is to ignite something on fire -- either a wooden platform or a checkpoint marker. The wooden platforms, of course, can only stay on fire for so long before they are consumed. So, while each fiery platform restores your health, you also need to keep moving, else you'll fall to your death.

Don't burn up enough platforms and your flame will dwindle out. The fire effect is rendered in real-time and, as your health drops, the ambient light also dims. The game introduces a number of other elements as well, such as watery enemies that consume your health/fire.

The game's controls are nicely implemented and involve the use of one of two onscreen buttons. Simply pressing and sliding on either of the buttons results in a trajectory arc being shown onscreen. This represents the path that Iggy will take. Simple and effective.

The overall art style, music and atmosphere of Ignite really make it stand out. The game includes 30 different levels with 3 distinct environments. Be sure to watch our gameplay video to get a feel for the action:

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Despite a seemingly simple gameplay mechanic, the game is surprisingly compelling and one we highly recommend.

App Store Link: Ignite, $2.99

Gameloft's much anticipated Assassin's Creed for the iPhone arrived in the App Store [link] tonight. The game is priced at $9.99 and delivers a port of the Nintendo DS version.

The original Assassin's Creed is a popular sandbox-style action-adventure that was first released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles. A version of the game called Assassin's Creed: Altair's Chronicles was later released for the Nintendo DS. The DS version of the game is described as a prequel to the console version and drew mixed reviews as well as the ire of some of our own forum members. The iPhone version appears to be a graphically enhanced port of the DS title that has adapted to the iPhone's touch screen.

How the iPhone community reacts to what seems to be the same essential game as the DS will be quite interesting. Some of the poor reviews of the DS version seemed to cite short gameplay (3-5 hours) and only a very loose association with the original game. It's also quite likely that being compared to the existing library of Nintendo DS titles and being priced at $29 negatively impacted its DS reception. That said, some reviews were positive, with some sites comparing the game favorably to Prince of Persia.

On the iPhone side, the game is a full $20 cheaper, and the length seems on-par with many other high-quality iPhone titles. The game, itself, is an attractive 3D platformer with running, jumping, climbing and fighting. While these sort of titles may be common on other mobile platforms, the iPhone is notably deficient in these types of games. As a result, I suspect iPhone gamers without any pre-conceptions will find the game to be particularly impressive.

Our gameplay video shows some of the platform jumping components as well as the early fighting:

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Fans of Gameloft's Hero of Sparta will recognize a similar control system in Assassin's Creed. The game, however, is less focused on pure fighting and adds a number of mini games as well as some mild puzzle components.

Meanwhile, forum user Big Albie provides additional detailed first impressions based on his early gameplay.

App Store Link: Assassin's Creed - Altair's Chronicles, $9.99

Konami's arcade classic Silent Scope has arrived on the iPhone and iPod Touch [App Store].

The $5.99 game brings the original 1999 arcade sniper game to the iPhone. The game puts you in the role of the world's top sniper who is trying to rescue the President and first family from terrorists. The game includes 9 stages and 2 gameplay modes: Arcade and Training. Arcade features Story, Shooting Range and Time Attack.

The game is as expected -- a tap to shoot game. The sniper mechanism involves double tapping on the screen to activate your scope and single tap to fire. Dragging your finger on the screen moves your scope to find additional enemies. Konami has also added the ability to aim more precisely aim by holding one finger down while swiping. This moves your scope slowly so you can line up your enemies.

This gameplay video shows a couple of the stages:

While the stationary sniping seems to works fine, the "boss" stages seem very difficult using the swipe to aim mechanism. As you can see in the video, your ability to target a moving enemy while in motion can be very difficult -- at least in our early testing. Other first impressions from our forums echo similar sentiments.

App Store Link: Silent Scope, $5.99

Trileet Inc has released their first iPhone game into the App Store. Reflexion [App Store] is a fresh take on the brick breaker formula with an iPhone twist.

At first glance, the game seems to be a standard Arkanoid/Brick Breaker game but it's quickly apparent there's something different going on. The game begins with a rather standard grid of bricks that must be destroyed. Instead of a moving paddle along the bottom, however, you are allowed to simply "draw" the paddle in any location on the screen with a simple swipe.

While it would seem that this mechanic would make the game easier, it actually introduces a level of complexity that wasn't immediately obvious. Suddenly, areas on the sides of the screen can become out-of-bound areas which require quick reaction times. The game comes with standard power-ups (fast ball, power ball, long paddle) but also some unique ones such as multiple-paddles.

In order to compensate for the increased complexity, the developers have also included a slow-motion mode that is invoked by shaking the iPhone (or tapping a button on the top of the screen).

The game comes with 50 levels including a "puzzle" mode that offers more intricate and difficult levels that must be completed within 3 lives.

We recommend taking a look at this gameplay video:

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Of note, there seems to be a device specific bug that is causing crashes on some 2nd Generation iPod Touches, so if you own one of those devices, you should probably wait for the fix which is being worked on. Meanwhile, the game has been solid on our iPhone 3G.

Overall, the game is a refreshing and challenging take on Arkanoid and is easy to recommend.

App Store Link: Reflexion, $1.99