Alexandre Kral of Javaground recently gave us a heads up on an upcoming action/adventure game of theirs called KARATE. Javaground is the same company that brought us UniWar [$4.99] and Pocket Gold [$0.99 / Lite].

Kral says that they believe Karate fighting games are under represented on the iPhone, and we'd agree.

Embedded deep into a deadly forest, guarded by an army of fierce warriors stands the fortress of the evil warlord Maguro. In the darkest dungeon of the castle Maguro gloats over his lovely captive, the princess Miyuki.

You are one trained in the way of karate. Alone and unarmed, you must defeat Maguro and rescue the beautiful Miyuki.

Put fear and self-concern behind you. You will use your skill and focus all while accepting death as a possibility. This is the way of Karate.

The company is still at an early stage of the game, so character animations are still rough and not final, but here's an early video:

The game is described a high-end adventure game and is expected towards the end of summer. In the end, I'm suspect the control system is going to be the make or break feature for the game. The main competition to speak of at the moment is Karate Fighter [$1.99/Lite] which has had control issues though is receiving ongoing updates.

On Friday, we reported on EA's plans to create a micro-studio within the company called 8lb Gorilla to create original games to target the low-end casual iPhone gaming market.

Their first entry Zombies & Me [App Store] appeared in the App Store this weekend. This $0.99 game is targeting the pick-up and play audience that seems to be becoming a staple in iPhone gaming.

The release of any game under the EA masthead seems to evoke high expectations and strong emotions from portions of our audience. Some of these emotions appear to be misplaced as we feel all games should be taken for what they are regardless of publisher. At $0.99, this simple game clearly fits into the causal pick-up-and-play market that has been so well dominated by the likes of Flight Control, Pocket God and Doodle Jump. For these types of games, it comes down to the gameplay "hook" and whether or not they are compelling. Our final verdict of Zombies & Me as a $0.99 game ends up as "good, but not great".

In Zombies & Me, it is the apocalypse and zombies are coming out of the woodwork to get you and your grandma's house. Without any weapons, the best you can do is use yourself as bait to lead the zombies under falling bombs. The targets appear at random and you get bonuses for killing zombies in bulk. The trick is getting out from under the targets yourself before the bomb hits. If the zombies get too close to you, they will grab you and prevent you from moving. You have to tap rapidly in order to get out of their hold. This can, of course, cause your untimely demise if you are under a bomb.

Our video shows how the game is played:

[ Full HD version | Low Bandwidth version ]

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Forum superstar and night owl WunDaii discovered Worms [App Store] becoming available for download just before 5:00 AM this morning, and since then our forum has been host to a lively debate as members purchase the game.

Worms is a turn based artillery-style combat game developed by Team17 Software based on a series of over a dozen previous Worms titles starting with the original in 1995. You control a small team of several worms and during the game, players take turns attacking with a large variety of weapons to either kill or drown enemy worms.

At the start of each turn, you can move your worm (or use ninja ropes, jet packs, and other items to reach areas that would be inaccessible otherwise), fire with whatever weapon you choose, and briefly retreat. Littering the battlefield are mines and exploding barrels that can either be avoided or used to your advantage as you blast enemy worms in to them.

Reactions on our forum have varied widely between those who are really enjoying the game, and those who are having issues with the performance, controls, or both. I feel Worms could really benefit by having the option to enable an on-screen D-pad as the default controls feel clumsy and make complicated movements like jumping over mines or precise backflips far more difficult than they should be.

Another problem with Worms is the limited available zoom levels. I felt like I couldn't zoom in far enough to see what I wanted to see (such as positioning a worm at the very edge of a cliff to drop a grenade) and you can't zoom out enough to accurately aim long-range shots. Swiping with two fingers on the screen pans the camera, but this also felt strange as most battlefields require 4-5 full swipes to move the camera from one side to the other with it zoomed out all the way.

The only multiplayer currently available in Worms is single-device local mutliplayer, a strange omission given how popular online multiplayer has been in previous Worms games. Also, in the limited local multiplayer mode, there's no way to customize which weapons are enabled and how many are available aside from a few different game modes such as only enabling bazookas and grenades, or only allowing melee combat.

As previously stated, reports of in-game performance seems to vary widely and I've confirmed there is a massive framerate difference between my 3G and 3GS. Worms is host to various visual effects such as colorful animated backgrounds and particle effects that blow in the wind. Given the lackluster performance in previous-generation devices, having the option to turn off some visual fluff in exchange for an increased framerate would be a welcome addition.

Video played on an iPhone 3GS:

[ Full HD version | Low Bandwidth version ]

Of course, if you can get past (or aren't affected by) the performance issues, lackluster controls and limited multiplayer, Worms certainly does preserve the gameplay of previous iterations and is dripping with the cartoonish charm that Worms games are famous for. That being said, there are many more artillery-style turn-based battle games on the App Store that offer weapon customization like iShoot [App Store] or complete internet multiplayer like Star Hogs [App Store].

If you're already a big fan of Worms, you may not be able to resist downloading this iPhone version while you await multi-player updates and performance tweaks, but for everyone else, I'd recommend checking out some of the alternatives for now.

App Store Link: WORMS, $4.99

Occurro! [App Store], a top-down space shooter by Acceleroto, developer of Air Hockey [App Store], was released late last night. While there are several games that have gameplay similar to Geometry Wars, none have controls anywhere near as well done as Occurro!.

Gameplay is exactly what you would expect from a top-down space shooter. You fly around, avoiding an endless supply of enemies, and shoot everything that moves while collecting power ups that both increase your score multiplier and your firepower. When things get too hairy, you can double-tap the screen to drop bombs and when you die, scores are submitted to a online leaderboard.

Where Occurro! really shines is in the controls. In the options you can choose between tilt and touch controls. Both methods have a virtual joystick to control your lasers, and touch control adds a second virtual joystick to control both your direction and speed.

In any shooter, controls are everything, and I really can't stress enough how much Occurro! nails it. Regardless of what input method you use, both just feel "right." This takes what would just be a simple top-down 99¢ shooter to something for other developers to aspire to when making similar games.

[ Full HD version | Low Bandwidth version ]

Currently in the game there is only one power-up to increase the width of your laser beam, and there isn't any way to customize the sensitivity of the controls if you don't like the defaults. Other than that, Occurro! is a simple but solid 99¢ title.

For more information on Occurro!, including mention of an already-submitted 1.1 update, check out the thread in our forums. There are a few bugs that are being addressed in the update. If you're a Twitter user, I highly recommend following the developer (@GrouchoDuke) as his feed is one of the more interesting ones I follow.

App Store Link: Occurro!, 99¢

In June, iPhone developer Javier Davalos released his real time strategy (RTS) game Quantum Collapse into the App Store. The game was generally well received though the 1.0 release seemed to have some outstanding issues for some players. A recent 1.1 update, however, seems to have made some major improvements to the game for several customers.

Some of the v1.1 features include:

• Skirmish mode with 11 maps
• Selection triangle
• Group Assignment and Recall
• Performance increase, cutscene improvements

In the meanwhile, Davalos has also released a Lite version [App Store] so you can try the game out for yourself for free. And, for this weekend, he has dropped the price on the full version of the game from $3.99 to $0.99. The developer is said to be hard at work on a multi-player version of the game which is set to be submitted on Monday.

Here's an early developer video of the game (music not included)

App Store Link: Quantum Collapse, $0.99 (sale), Quantum Collapse Lite, Free

On Wednesday we posted a series of screenshots we got from Freeverse of their upcoming galactic conquest and trading game, Warp Gate. After the eager response both in the comments and on our forums, we went back to Freeverse and asked if they had anything else they could show us, especially since the video we included previously was from before WWDC last month.

Warp Gate features a fluid and ever changing economy filled with commodity markets to master, but fully conquering space will require the use of the game's full arsenal of weapons to deal with pesky space pirates, as well as whatever opposing factions you align yourself against. This latest trailer gives us a preview of what combat in Warp Gate is going to look like:

Warp Gate is still in active development, so what we see in these videos may not represent the final version of the game-- Specifically, the audio component of the game is completely unfinished right now. Most of the sound effects were just added for this trailer and will likely be different by the time Warp Gate is submitted.

Pipe Mania [App Store] was originally developed by The Assembly Line in 1989 for the Amiga. Soon after, it was ported to various other platforms by LucasFilm Games (who called it Pipe Dream), and since then it's appeared on nearly ever platform in existence. Whether you've played the original, a remake, or a mini-game inside another game based on the concept (such as the hacking drill in BioShock), Pipe Mania is a timeless classic and is said to be the most successful puzzle game ever created.

The basics of the game are simple, you need to construct a pipeline from the faucet to the drain. Initially, you construct this pipeline using the series of different straight pieces and elbows from the left side of the screen. Pieces can't be rotated, so each must be placed intelligently on the game board to reach the goal.

As the difficulty ramps up, you will be forced to build your pipeline utilizing existing pieces already built at the start of the level as well as building around obstacles in squares that you can't place pipes on. If the next available piece is of no use to you, you can place it on the game board, out of the way, and if you misplace something you can build over it. Both of these actions subtract from your overall score, but are often necessary, especially in later levels.

To add variety, this latest version of Pipe Mania (based on the 2008 PSP version) includes a colorfully animated introduction, complete with different characters seen throughout the game, along with slightly different tile sets for other areas of the game. For instance, once you complete laying pipes in the sewers, you progress to the railroad where you lay train tracks to connect two tunnels. Seven of these locales are playable in World mode, and as you earn trophies Arcade, Bonus, and Classic modes are unlocked.

Pipe Mania for the iPhone works very well with touch controls. Reinvented for the iPhone and other consoles, this latest iteration of Pipe Mania has the same core gameplay of the previous versions, but with graphical updates as well as a few other perks to increase replay value and add variety.

Here's a gameplay video showing some of the early levels:

While there have been a number of Pipe Mania clones in the App Store, none seem to have the depth and finish of this official port of the original. Early reactions from our forum members have been very positive. The iPhone version is said to be almost an exact port of the 2008 PSP remake of the game. Those only familiar with the original version of Pipe Dream may take offense to portions of the 2008 remake as it adds a number of new elements to the game. Fortunately for old fans, there also appears to be a Classic mode that seems to preserve the original gameplay.

If you've never played a Pipe Mania game before, there is no better time than the present.

App Store Link: Pipe Mania, $4.99

Industry giant EA isn't satisfied with dominating the premium iPhone game market with App Store blockbusters like The Sims 3 [App Store], Need For Speed Undercover [App Store], Tiger Woods PGA Tour [App Store], and other titles which have all flirted with various positions on the top sales charts. EA is now setting its sights on the 99¢ market, which is where their new "micro-studio", 8lb Gorilla comes in.

8lb Gorilla is a team of twenty-something year old developers set loose by EA executives, in their words, "on an island" to develop indie-style simple pick up and play iPhone games. These 8lb gorillas, backed by EA (the 800lb gorilla) plan on releasing these bite-sized games on a near-monthly basis, pending no delays with the App Store submission process.

Their first entry in to this market is Zombies & Me. Instead of taking place in a post-apocalyptic world, the game is set during the apocalypse. Zombies are rising from the ground and the military is throwing down missiles left and right to try to fend off the attack. You play as Guy, and are tasked with the duty of protecting your grandmother who stays inside her house and periodically shouts various things at you.

According to 8lb Gorilla, the average play tester was able to figure out how to play Zombies & Me within 5-10 seconds, and they weren't kidding-- The controls couldn't get more simple. Tapping the screen determines where Guy moves, and the goal of the game is to round up the zombies that chase after you and position them under one of the missiles.

Initially only dealing with a few zombies, the longer you play, the higher the panic level gets. As the panic level rises, more zombies appear until eventually you are running from swarms of dozens of zombies desperately trying to find an incoming missile to destroy them.

The gameplay is on par with what you would expect for a 99¢ game, and the overall production value of the game is in line with other EA titles. Zombies & Me is due out on the App Store "very soon", and needless to say, we're not only anxious to see what other games the 8lb Gorillas come up with, but also how the gaming community as a whole reacts to EA encroaching on turf previously claimed by indie developers.

Rob Lemon of Gilded Skull Games dropped us a note about two titles they have in the works for the iPhone. The first is Imp or Oaf?, a quirky guessing game where a portion of an image is shown, and players can either decide if they're looking at an imp or an oaf. Tapping the image zooms out a bit, and scoring is based on how far you needed to zoom out on each image for the round.

While Imp or Oaf? may be too simple to interest core gamers, the art style is closer to what you would expect in a children's book and raises the bar on what we've seen in the past with games aimed at kids. Imp or Oaf? is tentatively going to be released in August or September, and will begin beta testing soon.

As a table top RPG fanatic currently playing City State of the Invincible Overlord (An ancient AD&D module.) I'm far more excited about Gilded Skull Games' second game in the works, Galactic Keep: Dice Battles. Utilizing gameplay elements from classic pen and paper roleplaying games, Galactic Keep takes a clever spin on RPG adventure games and tells the story as if you were sitting around a game table tossing out twenty sided dice and listening to the dungeonmaster explain the environments while they drive the plot forward.

Similar to D20 table top RPG's, players will roll dice to create characters, move, and battle. As Gilded Skull Games explains, one of the key elements to the game will be the story:

We want to create a variety of story ‘missions’ in the first offering that allow quite a bit of replay. To this end, the first five missions that will ship with the game will have branching story paths that lead to at least 5 different endings per mission, various different unlockable playable characters, different items to equip and special attacks to collect.

Every mission will be different, some will be dungeon crawls with lots of creatures to kill and loot to collect. Others will be more socially oriented, as players explore large maps and communicate with NPC's. One of the things I'm mosted excited about is the planned inclusion of Bluetooth multiplayer to battle other player's characters. With my circle of friends, quite a few being avid Dungeons & Dragons players, something tells me I'll get a lot of use out of this.

Also in the works are plans for addon packs to be sold via DLC following the game's release. Galactic Keep is slated for submission to the App Store early next year, but the developer has promised to keep us posted on its progress.

For more information about either of these games, check out the ongoing discussion thread in our forums.

$0.99 seems to be where the action is in the App Store. A number of notable titles have dropped to $0.99 at least temporarily to boost sales and exposure. Most of the sales are temporary, so grab 'em while you can:

• Return to Mysterious Island - A nice point and click adventure from Chillingo which was originally priced at $4.99
• Galcon - A longtime favorite of ours, Galcon was one of the early iPhone games from way back in July. A real time strategy game that offers online multiplayer. Only $0.99 for a few days. Developer Phil Hassey has also posted updates to his community site and a peek at a future update.
• Radio Flare - A nice musical shooter that was originally $4.99. The latest update adds tilt control and OpenFeint 2.0 integration.
• Mecho Wars - This is Luc Bernard's turn based strategy game that was originally priced at $4.99. It's certainly worth $0.99 and more updates are on the way. See our previous review.

I like to think of my mental awesome-o-meter, that is, the gauge I use to determine how awesome a game is as something similar to one of those really old analog pressure gauges you might find on a submarine somewhere. Every so often a game comes along that is just so terrible that the ol' awesome-o-meter goes so far in to the red that it comes back up on the other side. Enviro-Bear 2010 [App Store], my friends, is a game which causes this phenomenon.

Yes, Enviro-Bear 2010 is a bear driving a car simulator where you have five minutes to fatten yourself up and drive to your cave in preparation for winter. The controls are hilariously awful, and while the iPhone may be capable of multi-touch gestures, as a bear driving a car you only have one free paw which is what you use to drive around and scarf down food.

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Bootant's Crazy Choppers [App Store] came out a few days ago, and since then has generated a bit of a fan following on our forums. With simple tilt controls, a basic upgrade system, and five different locales to decimate various enemy vehicles, Crazy Choppers is a steal at 99¢.

While flying around, you need to carefully keep an eye on both your health and fuel gauges. After the first few levels, enemies start firing back, forcing you to take evasive maneuvers and multiple attack runs to avoid enemy fire. To refuel and repair, simply check your radar for the nearest green dot indicating a friendly helipad to land on.

When you're getting gassed up and your bullet holes patched, you're also offered an upgrade screen to spend some of the money you've earned by upgrading your offensive and defensive capabilities, as well as increasing the capacity of your fuel tank. Initially, you burn through gas extremely quickly, but after a few upgrades the game becomes far more enjoyable.

Bootant posted a gameplay video on our forums:

The controls are great and can be calibrated at any time during by pausing the game, and while the gameplay is more in depth than Crazy Tanks [App Store], it would be nice to have a greater weapon selection. Still, if you like helicopter games, Crazy Choppers is hard to pass up for 99¢.

App Store Link: Crazy Choppers, 99¢

It appears EA will be bringing Need for Speed: Shift to the iPhone. The console version of the game is due in September and unlike their previous Need for Speed title, Shift is more of a sim racer rather than an arcade racer.

The news was noticed in our forums as a sidenote on a teaser trailer, but also appears on the official Need for Speed: Shift site:

Expect to be playing SHIFT in Fall 2009. It will be available on Xbox 360®, PLAYSTATION®3, PC and PLAYSTATION®PORTABLE (PSP) as well as on Mobile and iPhone.

The news was also confirmed by EAMobile's twitter account.

The teaser/trailer for the console version looks impressive, but remember we don't know what the iPhone version will look like yet:

Continuing the trend this week with an avalanche of free versions of games, here are three games with lites that are worth giving a try if you're looking for something new. Each game seems to have its fans.

• GloBall Lite (GloBall, 99¢) - Take a basic accelerometer ball rolling game, add in all kinds of crazy power ups and particle effects, then pile a surprisingly well done location-aware global scoreboard on top and you've got GloBall.

  Being discussed here.

• Leaf Bound Lite (Leaf Bound, 99¢) - A hand drawn jumping game with similar gameplay mechanics to the Orisinal classic Winterbells, you jump from leaf to leaf collecting food and stomping on mechanical monkeys before reaching the end boss of each level. This Leaf Bound video shows the different levels and bosses.

  Being discussed here.

• Radial 50 Lite (Radial 50, $1.99) - A new "spin" on brick breaking games, Radial 50 features a circular array of blocks to bust with a paddle that rotates along the outside by sliding your thumb up and down the right side of the screen as shown in the gameplay demo video.

  Being discussed here

A few months ago iPhone developers must have gotten a memo that the next big trend in iPhone gaming are math-based games, and they must have been working hard since that time.

DropSum is one of the better ones to arrive in the App Store and is based on a Flash game of the same name. The game also bears a resemblance to Drop7, but the goal here is to simply create adjacent numbers that add up to 9. Each numbered disc changes color as it's involved in more matches. After three times, the disc explodes and the remaining numbers fall into place potentially causing a chain reaction.

The game was well designed and includes a local high score and achievement system. The developers have promised a global high score in a future update. Check out the developer video below or check out the Flash version. Note the iPhone version only appears to have the "Basic" playmode.

App Store Link: DropSum, $2.99