If you have fond memories of wasting entirely too much time playing Crazy Taxi on your Sega Dreamcast, Mad Processor's Parcel Panic - Post Car Racer 3D [App Store] is really worth checking out. In the game, you play as a delivery truck driver on Tapiti Island, a strange land where customers expect their packages to be delivered in a matter of seconds or minutes instead of the days (or weeks) we're used to in the real world.

Starting the game, you have 60 seconds to get to the first seemingly random package pick up location indicated by a green circle on the ground. Once there, the bed of your truck is filled with crates and you need to race the packages to their destination. Guiding you to where you need to go is both an arrow, a mini map, and a dotted line showing you one way you could take.

Once you get familiar with Tapiti Island, you'll quickly realize that simply following the dotted line is not the fastest way to get from place to place as there seem to be shortcuts and ramps everywhere. Getting massive amounts of air also adds a few seconds of time to the clock, and when you successfully deliver your cargo, you're also awarded bonus time. The game continues until the clock reaches zero.

Also included is a free play mode where you can explore Tapiti Island. Although you may not notice it while you're frantically ferrying packages from place to place, the island itself is home to all kinds of varied architecture and overall, in my opinion, seems much more interesting than the repetitive cityscapes that made up the Crazy Taxi world-- Even though Tapiti Island is nowhere near as large.

The developer put together the following trailer for the game:

Really, the only thing I don't like about this game is the camera takes a bit of getting used to. Your truck is controlled by tilting, which is standard for games like this, but your viewpoint seems to always tilt to keep the truck level on the screen regardless of how much you're tilting your device. The driving physics themselves seem fairly realistic, so your truck doesn't turn instantly, but the way the screen will tilt all the way to the side makes it feel like it should be.

It's only disorienting the first few times you play the game, but since people have mentioned not liking games with cameras that tilt with the device it's worth mentioning that Parcel Panic is one of the more extreme examples of this. Even though it has a weird camera, Parcel Panic is by far the closest thing to Crazy Taxi on the App Store, and completely worth a look for that reason alone.

If the Crazy Taxi comparison is lost on you, Parcel Panic is a fun and fast paced driving game with tons of jumps, unlockables, great graphics with effects that scale depending what device you're using that I've really enjoyed since loading it on my iPhone.

App Store Link: Parcel Panic - Post Car Racer 3D, $2.99

It's always great to see indie developers banding together for cross promotion, and even better when those joint efforts result in some fantastic deals. The Second Annual New Year's App Blowout which was put together by the guys at Howling Moon Software is back again to ring in the new year with a bunch of games (and a few apps) on sale. All of these prices should be in effect by now, with normal pricing returning sometime after the first of the year.

• Aqua Wars, 99¢ → Free
• Dragon Eye, 99¢ → Free
• Outnumbered, 99¢ → Free
• Volcano Planet, 99¢ → Free

• 3D Wizard Wand, $1.99 → 99¢
• Cash Machine, $1.99 → 99¢
• CatTaTa, $1.99 → 99¢
• Eyegore's Eye Blast, $1.99 → 99¢
• Hi, How Are You, $1.99 → 99¢
• iHurt, $1.99 → 99¢
• iTweetReply, $1.99 → 99¢
• iType2Go Pro, $1.99 → 99¢
• MatchTunes, $2.99 → 99¢
• Pinch 'n Pop!, $1.99 → 99¢
• Pollywog, $1.99 → 99¢
• Rail Adventures, $1.99 → 99¢
• Ringo, $1.99 → 99¢
• RocketFuse, $1.99 → 99¢
• Screw The Dealer, $1.99 → 99¢
• Smiles Zen, $1.99 → 99¢
• SpaceDuel!, $1.99 → 99¢
• Tap-Fu, $1.99 → 99¢
• Trace It, $1.99 → 99¢

• Battle for Wesnoth, $4.99 → $1.99
• Crayon Ball, $2.99 → $1.99
• Rogueship, $2.99 → $1.99
• Smiles, $2.99 → $1.99
• Train Conductor, $2.99 → $1.99
• Twilight Golf, $2.99 → $1.99

• Sword of Fargoal, $4.99 → $2.99

Moyo Studios' latest game Zlider [App Store] is an interesting concept in that you're assisting a meteoroid down a track in space to a black hole at the end of each level. In order to accomplish this goal, players must manage red and blue lines dubbed "star-belts" to provide a clear path for the meteoroid on its journey.

These star-belts have different sized gaps in them, and the only control you have of the game is moving the red belts up and down the screen by sliding your thumb along the left side and doing the same with the blue on the right. The early levels where you only need to deal with a single meteroid are fairly easy, but things get crazy as soon as your meteoroid splits in two (or more).

The grey line it travels down in later levels often forks in to several different tracks, spawning a new meteoroid on each. As these separate tracks lead up or down the screen, meteoroids will be in entirely different positions making managing the openings in the star belts even more challenging as the meteoroid on the top might be a half a second ahead of the meteoroid on the bottom.

The developer released the following gameplay video:

Zlider is another game with a single free version that is upgraded via in-game microtransactions. Initially included are four free levels to give you a taste of the game, then there is a "Andromedia" pack of 20 easy levels and a "Milky Way" pack of 20 medium levels-- Each level pack sells for 99¢, and the iTunes description mentions even more level packs being released within the game.

If this game sounds at all interesting to you, you should at least give the free levels a spin. I've had a lot of fun with it so far, and really like that the level packs are segregated in to difficulty, so if you found the included four levels to be too easy you can just jump directly to the medium difficulty levels without even needing to bother with the easy level pack.

App Store Link: Zlider, Free
(Two level packs available as in-game purchases for 99¢ each.)

NimbleBit has quite a fan following on our forums, and tonight Fishtropolis [App Store] joins their existing lineup of fun and simple iPhone games. Fishtropolis is a sequel of sorts to Textropolis [App Store] which shares all the same mechanics and gameplay elements with a whole new set of words to find within the names of 15 different types of fish.

Textropolis was well-recieved in our review, and Fishtropolis is more of the same. Starting with the letters that make up "white carp" you search for words with four or more characters. As you find more words you earn stars and attract more fish and other aquatic life to your game until the screen is almost completely full when you've found most of the words. The first star you earn unlocks the next level, "blue platy," where you start the whole process over.

When you find a word, the definition scrolls across the screen and if you find yourself stuck you can shake your phone to sacrifice five of the fish you've earned finding words to get a hint. The thing most people liked about Textropolis originally was that there were no time limits of any kind, and you can take as long as you want instead of trying to beat a clock, and Fishtropolis works the same way.

At the end of the day, Fishtropolis is little more than a reskin of Textropolis with new words to find. If you were among the many people who enjoyed the original game in the series, you will also have a lot of fun with this one. However, if you're looking for something new, there isn't much to be found in Fishtropolis aside from a different graphical theme and a new catalog of words.

App Store Link: Fishtropolis, $1.99

It takes quite a bit to stand out from the pack of marble rolling games for the iPhone, but with an interesting atmosphere and art style along with challenging timed puzzle elements, Marbles Multiball 3D - The Castle Adventure [App Store] is different enough that it's worth a look.

Much like many other marble rolling games, Marbles Multiball 3D is controlled using the accelerometer and if you've played one before you'll instantly be familiar with how the game works. While many of these games have 2.5D graphical effects that coincide with how you're tilting your phone, Marbles Multiball 3D has a more dramatic effect than most because of how deep most of the levels appear. (Instead of say, Labyrinth 2 where the levels only appear to be as tall as the ball itself.)

The menus are filled with ancient looking statues, broken skulls, and other spooky graphical elements that set the mood of the game. The levels themselves are made out of stone and tile, and often times are either framed in lava or a black abyss. The 42 included challenges start by simply rolling a marble from its starting location to a round indentation on the other side of the level.

It doesn't take long before you're dealing with multiple marbles of different colors that all need to end up in their matching indentations at the end of the level along with mazes that have no walls, jumps, blocks that need to be pushed out of the way, and other obstacles.

The developers posted this trailer which shows a few of these different levels along with some multi-ball mayhem:

Three difficulty levels are included which change the amount of time you have to complete each level, and the "master" difficulty is downright insane. The only thing I don't like about Marbles Multiball 3D is the omission of an accelerometer calibration option, so the game can only be played by holding your device completely flat. Regardless, it's one of the more interesting marble rollers available and is worth checking out if you're a fan of these types of games.

App Store Link: Marbles Multiball 3D - The Castle Adventure, $1.99

I had plans for a highly productive evening yesterday, then I discovered Blockoban [App Store], a simple block sliding game that not only is a ton of fun but also serves as an excellent example of a free trial that is upgraded to the full version via an in-app purchase. Blockoban is the latest game to make its way to the iPhone from developer BonusLevel.org's array of free flash games, the first of which was Moonlights [$1.99 / Free], a structure building physics game we enjoyed in our review.

Like any good puzzle game for the iPhone, the core gameplay elements are both simple and approachable. Controls are implemented well utilizing standard swiping gestures to move pieces around along with pinching gestures to zoom in and out for more precise control-- A feature which becomes vital in the later levels which are much larger than the easier ones.

An in-game tutorial walks you through the concept behind the game. On the simplest levels, you need to slide blocks of different colors in to the spaces on the game board with corresponding colors. When you slide a block, it moves until it collides with something, and levels often require quite a bit of planning as you figure out where everything needs to be moved and in what order to end up in the correct positions.

As you progress through the game, new block types are introduced that behave differently and require new strategies to deal with. Meanwhile, every move you make is tracked and optionally uploaded to the Plus+ powered online leaderboards along with whatever achievements you managed to earn along the way.

A solid puzzle game with colorful graphics, good music, and fun gameplay would usually be a slam dunk alone, but Blockoban takes things a step further with the implementation of many more small features which combine in to a game which far exceeded my expectations.

First of all, Blockoban is completely free to try. There is only one version of the game to download that includes both the tutorial and a pack of 100 free levels. If you make it through that and want more, a pack of an additional 820 levels can be purchased inside of the game for $1.99. Optionally, if you're stuck on a hard level you can buy the solutions pack for another $1.99 to watch levels get solved move by move.

You have unlimited undos, and I've yet to find myself in a situation where I just need to completely start a level over as I can quickly undo to before things started to go pear shaped. Blockoban also saves exactly where you are when you quit the game (a feature more games need to have) and if you use Plus+, your game state is also saved online, synchronizing your saved game across any device of yours that is also logged in to your Plus+ account-- Another particularly handy feature especially if you own both an iPhone and iPod touch.

If you somehow manage to make it through the 920 different puzzles, each of the five difficulty levels also include a "map generator" which whips up a randomly created puzzle for you to solve. There's even an online level editor where you can submit levels that are then reviewed by the Blockoban team for potential inclusion in to "official" level packs.

Blockoban is a lot of fun, and the single free version that is unlockable to the full version does a great job at making sure you enjoy it and know what you're getting in to before you buy it-- In fact, you aren't even given the option to upgrade until you've completed the tutorial. If you like puzzle games, you need to give Blockoban a shot. If you're a developer, it's also worth a peek to see a really great implementation of a free to paid in-game microtransaction system.

App Store Link: Blockoban, Free
(Fully unlocked game, $1.99 or $3.98 with optional solutions pack.)

There may be rhythm games on the App Store already where you can pretend you're singing, playing a guitar, rocking out on the drums, or even spinning turntables, but all those pale in comparison to beat matching to slay an endless supply of zombies. In Zombeat [App Store] you play as Zeke who according to the in-game character bio has given up a life as a biker to start a new career in zombie mass murder.

The game comes loaded with tunes from APM Music, and while it doesn't include any tracks that I was able to recognize, with the optional 99¢ holiday song pack there are 22 total songs available. Gameplay consists of standard beat matching with blocks that must be tapped as they come flying down the screen. The unique twist in Zombeat is that with each beat you match, Zeke shoots a gun, swings a chainsaw, or uses one of many other attacks.

Depending on your performance, bombs that clear the whole screen when tapped and weapons that can be equipped appear on conveyor belts. The game is over when you miss enough beats for Zeke to get overwhelmed by zombies, but if you succeed in surviving through a song your score is uploaded to an online leaderboard.

Zombeat isn't a particularly amazing game, it just does a good job in combining a rhythm game with zombies-- Which likely will be more than enough for some people to slam their mouse down on the "Buy" button in iTunes. Watching the river of zombie blood as you do well in the first few songs you play is highly entertaining, but aside from that, Zombeat doesn't really do anything that Tap Tap Revenge 3 [App Store] isn't already doing for free.

...But, Tap Tap Revenge 3 lacks the killer feature of, well, killing zombies.

App Store Link: Zombeat, $2.99

When I first heard about WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010's [App Store] release on the app store, I was admittedly unexcited. Other wrestling games on the platform have underwhelmed, to put things nicely, so I was justifiably skeptical. After spending extended amounts of time with the game, learning the ins-and-outs of the mechanics and exploring all of the various modes, however, I can say this: SvR 2010 may not be the first game to attempt to bring wrestling to the iPhone/iPod Touch, but it is without a doubt the best.

There are several ways to play SvR 2010. Exhibition allows you to select your preferred wrestler, opponent, arena, and difficulty setting, before entering a match, while Quick Match is a faster option that throws players right into the fray. There is a tutorial mode available from the Play menu at any time, and it features three tutorials that separately cover the basics of wrestling and more advanced techniques like picking up a chair and applying it to your strategy to aid in beating the snot out of a big ugly guys. This tutorial is also an optional feature when players first begin a file save in Career mode, the heart of SvR 2010's package.

Career mode starts out by letting players create their own personalized wrestler, and then sets them along the path to WWE stardom. The career mode's story is utterly ridiculous and implausible, but fans of the WWE are likely to have no problem with this sort of thing, as poor writing and over-the-top bravado have become the standard in the wrestling world. In a nutshell, the story involves your created wrestler being betrayed by a friend. Naturally, the only way to achieve vengeance is to beat up a series of goofy characters in a battle for the WWE championship.

You'll unlock more shirts, pants, tattoos, and signature moves for your character as you progress through Career mode, and nearly everything about your character is customizable. I really embraced the ridiculous nature of the story, naming my superstar "ULTIMAHULK" and giving him green skin, so that he might draw energy from the sun to help strike down his enemies with the power of poorly staged piledrivers (that's not in the game, that's just part of my imagined fiction for my character).

When not making progress through Career mode, there are six arenas (including arenas from Summerslam, the Survivor series, and Wrestlemania) and 11 stars from Raw, SmackDown, and ECW to fool around with via Exhibition mode. These 11 wrestlers (Batista, John Cena, Chris Jericho, Rey Mysterio, Randy Orton, Triple H, Undertaker, Big Show, Edge, Vladimir Kozlov, and Matt Hardy) can duke it out in 7 different modes of play: Regular, No Disqualification, WWE Extreme Rules, Iron Man, Submission, Ultimate Submission, and Last Man Standing.

What really makes SvR 2010 a great game in my eyes are the controls, which are well thought out for the device. Movement is controlled by swipes, and nearly every other action in the game is relegated to a situationally sensitive "smart button" located near the middle of the screen. After completing the three in-game tutorials and playing only a couple matches, I felt that I had a complete understanding of the controls, and was winning matches with consistency. It would be far too difficult to accurately detail the intricacies of the one-button controls, but I think that anyone who enjoys the console games or any sort of arcade fighting game will enjoy the simple genius of the control scheme.

Otherwise, I was pretty disappointed at the lack of any multiplayer features (not even local play is included), and the game's audio is pretty low-budget. No one, not even the ring announcer, has a voice-actor, so it's a stroll down "text-only" lane for this game. There also seems to be only one song in the game, a generic rock track that gets very old very fast. After seeing the clear signs of the extra effort that went into the intuitive controls and above-par visuals in the game, I'm just not happy with the game's audio.

WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010 is enjoyable, and I say that as a person who isn't blindy in love with such games. In fact, it's been a pretty long time since I've really enjoyed a wrestling video game, so downloading this one was a refreshing experience and a great decision. I feel that SvR2010 could get traction amongst fans of the genre, so it's worth a try if the thought of being able to smash Triple H in the face on the go appeals to you.

App Store Link: WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010, $4.99

As we work through out backlog of games from the holiday week, one sidescroller has been getting rave reviews in our forums is Chop Chop Ninja by Gamerizon.

Chop Chop Ninja is a sidescrolling platformer/beat 'em up in which you play a ninja. As always, your job is to save the princess! The game features iPhone-specific control system that works quite well. Movement, jumping and attacking are all done by on-screen touches and gestures. No D-Pad to be found, and it works surprisingly well. A Lite version offers you a chance to try it yourself, and this video shows the game in action:

The Lite is quite short and really gives you the tutorial piece, but the remainder of the full game seems to offer a good amount of level and obstacle variety across 10 levels. Combat is pretty basic with repeated attacks, but the game also incorporates platforming skills and obstacles.

Join the discussion thread or try the Lite yourself.

App Store Link: Chop Chop Ninja, $1.99, Chop Chop Ninja Lite, Free

In the wake of iTunes Connect returning to operation following Apple's holiday hiatus, a massive wave of updates have been pushed out. These are just a few of the notable updates, but even if you don't own any of these games I'd still check for updates as I just downloaded a metric... truckload.

Hook Champ - Hookbot has been added, a new playable character available via a 99¢ in-game purchase. When you play as Hookbot there is no ghost chasing you, and he also has a recharging steam powered thruster that works a lot like the gun on normal characters. A new costume system was added that allows you to even further change the appearance of your characters along with new hats and a upgrades at the in-game store. (Review, App Store)

Zombieville USA - Play as one of 7 new characters which all look different and provide a different spin on gameplay such as some characters having more health or different movement speeds. Level selection was also added along with checkpoints you can return to once you've reached them. (Review, App Store)

Doodle Jump - An enhancement to the existing holiday themed snow update, there is now a new yeti monster boss that has to be shot down with snowballs before you can jump on the two platforms he hogs up. (Review, App Store)

Red Conquest - Quite a few of the complaints we had in our review have been addressed, an additional tutorial level does a great job at explaining the basic tactics of the game and the difficulty curve was lowered for the early levels among other improvements. (Review, App Store)

Jet Car Stunts - A new in-game tutorial really clears things up for new players, and a new casual and much more forgiving game mode has been added to both platforming and time trial game modes. You can also now change your camera view during replays. (Review, App Store)

iBlast Moki - New levels, new graphics, a completely redesigned level editor, and a new "Doodleland" world make this great game even better. The tutorial has been improved, along with other bug fixes and tweaks. (Review, App Store)

The Inferno is the latest game from Xpressed, the creators of the fan favorite Uniwar. Unlike Uniwar (an excellent turn-based strategy game), The Inferno can be best described as an Action-Puzzle game, with a strong emphasis on "action."

Based on "The Divine Comedy," The Inferno has you playing as Dante, a hapless dude whose main squeeze has been sent to be with all the world's laywers and cats in a little place called Hell.

There are 121 levels in The Inferno, and these levels are divided between 5 distinct areas (or circles of Hell, if you will). Progression through these levels is made by collecting each of the blue light orbs scattered about the levels, which then unlocks an exit gate that leads to the next area.

As Dante dares to go further into the depths of Hell, the challenges he will have to face become more difficult. While the earliest levels in The Inferno will throw nothing more than a few measly fireballs and collapsing platforms at Dante, later levels will test the player with traps that spout poison or lava, bats that hone in on Dante in a quest for blood, and really big fire-snake monsters.

(more...)

Aztec Quest [App Store] by Clickgamer is in a unique, 3D puzzle game. The game can be best described as an isometric ball-drop game, but what at first seems to be a simple puzzle game becomes interesting and complex when players discover the intricacies of its full-blown physics engine. Aztec Quest is one of those rare, unique entries into the puzzle genre that could potentially be addictive for everyone who tries it.

At the beginning of each level, Aztec Quest hands players a number of different types of pieces or simple machines which will be used in order to get a small ball from the dragonhead (the origin point for the ball) to the diamond (your target in each level). These pieces are to be dragged with a finger to an open slot on the game board from the bank at the bottom of the screen. This may sound easy, but the game has a specific way in mind for these challenges to be completed, so pieces can only be placed on highlighted parts of the game board.

Players usually only have access to five unique types of pieces per level (the rollers, spring pad, tube, hammer, and catapult) but several of these pieces come in four different flavors that changes the direction they move the ball in; e.g. there are separate catapults that launch the ball up, down, left, or right. There are also warp pads in later levels, and the way that these pads function will force players to use critical thinking to succeed.

There are a full 50 preloaded levels in Aztec Quest, but the real headliners here are the community features. The game allows players access to a complete level creator that gives them the freedom to do pretty much anything they'd like in-game, and created levels can be uploaded to an online database for the game. Alternatively, any level that an player creates can be downloaded for free, giving Aztec Quest potentially unlimited replayability.

During my time with the Aztec Quest I found that it was always a lot of fun to figure out a way to beat the levels in a way that the developers never intended. What would have otherwise been a complex, brain-bending challenge can sometimes be solved with only a few pieces through a little ingenious use of the physics system to bounce the ball into places that it normally shouldn't go.

To showcase this type of level manipulation, I uploaded my own level to the Aztec Quest servers. Search for "Toucharcade Rigney Challenge" and try to beat my level. There is one part of that level in particular that will require you to use a piece in a way that you wouldn't normally. PM me (I'm RKRigney in the forums) if you successfully complete the level and send me a picture of the way that you went about doing it. I don't have any prizes to give out, but I will bestow upon you "mad street cred."

Completing any downloaded player-created level will earn a player points. These points don't really have a practical application in Aztec Quest, but the game does calculate your worldwide rank based on these points, so those who wish to rise to the top can keep easy tabs on their progress. As of the time of this writing the current #1 spot is held by "Lbhb," who has 161,550 points, so to anybody who wants to knock that guy from his throne, I wish you great luck.

There's something oddly satisfying and fun about solving the puzzles, and figuring out creative, unusual ways to do them is especially fun. The online and community features are especially well fleshed-out, and the only real thing that I feel like is missing would be the ability to save online levels to the device for later play, but the developers have said in our forum's official thread for the game that they are considering adding this feature as well in a future update.

Those who like some good, challenging, pick-up-and-play gameplay will likely find something to love in this game, and I can't wait to see what creative types come up with via the online level creator. There is a lite version available on the app store, so no one should miss out on Aztec Quest completely.

App Store Link: Aztec Quest, $0.99, Aztec Quest Lite, Free

Plushed is a by-the-numbers platformer for the iPhone with exceptional art and some fairly challenging level design.  As the young girl’s plush rabbit now brought to life, you’ll navigate you way through each level collecting golden ladybugs and helping fairytale folks solve their problems.  One level features a family that has lost their son and some pigs in bales of hay.  Another has crying babies in need of candy.  As a young bunny knight in a fairytale kingdom, it’s your job to help these folks as you work your way towards saving your little girl.

Controls in Plushed are both simple and responsive.  You’ll have the option of touch or tilt control for directional movement, and tapping anywhere on the screen with make your little bunny jump.  While responsive, the jumping wasn’t quite as perfect as we’d have liked it to be.  There were moments in the game that became far more difficult than they needed to be due to the low height of the rabbit’s jump.  Every now and then there’d be a certain enemy or chasm that would lead to our death because he simply couldn’t lift his rabbit feet high enough.  As well, on more than one occasion jumping proved far more frustrating than it should have due to a few holes in the game’s otherwise excellent level design.  A few unintended alternate paths stick out like a sore thumb and lead to jumps that seem possible but never are.  One particular moment in the third stage had me ready to give up until I finally realized that this wasn’t the route the developers intended.  Other situations like this crept up from time to time and marred an otherwise top notch experience.

In addition to having a great deal of original personality and charm, Plushed pulls from the world of gaming and internet culture on more than one occasion to draw some inspiration for its fairytale world.  The “pizza eaters,” a family of creatures that lets you complete epically large jumps, are a clear visual homage to Critter Crunch.  Explore one level deep enough and you’ll find a character in appropriate attire doing the “peanut butter jelly time” dance of internet meme fame.  There’s even a Doc Brown hiding up in the clouds.  The unique characters and environments of Plushed are the highlight of the game in their own right, but adding in these delightful little homages felt like a perfect fit.

The level design really comes together in the second half of the game and offers up some great platforming action.  The downside is that the first few levels are so easy that some gamers might walk away before getting to the good stuff.  There’s a gradual build in the challenge of the game that leaves the first 2 levels feeling like a little too much like a children’s platformer.  Thankfully things ramp up from there.

There are a number of boss fights you’ll tackle during the course of the games 9 levels, each of which showcases the skills you’ve learned up to that point.  Boss battles are a real highlight in Plushed, as you’ll need to think each scenario out instead of simply exploring like you do in the rest of the game.

Once you’ve finished your adventure, the package also includes 3 mini-games that you’ll unlock by earning golden ladybugs throughout the course of the game.

Overall, despite the aforementioned issues, the art design in Plushed is wonderful, the level design was ultimately fun, and the in-jokes and pop culture references delightful. If you like twisted fairytales and fun, it’s going to be $1.99 well spent.  Just try not to get too frustrated if you find yourself headed down the wrong path.

App Store Link: Plushed, $1.99

At PAX this year we first got word that there was a Fieldrunners [App Store] update in the works with additional maps which was later confirmed along with the announcement of OpenFeint gold. Available now, Fieldrunners 1.3 includes everything we expected with both the latest and greatest of OpenFeint integration, and two new maps available via two 99¢ microtransactions.

OpenFeint 2.4 adds even more XBOX Live-style features, and should be available in other OpenFeint-enabled games as developers update them to include it. Among the improvements is an instant messaging service that works across all OpenFeint games similar to the previously implemented chat, a new forum system, and the "fan club" area. In this new section you can add a game as a favorite, read developer announcements, subscribe to newsletters, and even suggest new features.

Fieldrunners itself seems to be largely unchanged aside from two new maps: Skyway and Frostbite. Skyway is an interesting map with chunks of the field missing that prevent towers being built in various locations. Building a maze of towers with these restrictions to effectively survive seems to be fairly difficult so far.

In Frostbite, you defend a central base from attackers that come from multiple directions, forcing you to spread your defenses dangerously thin to cover all of the entrances until you are able to build a good array of towers to funnel creeps around. Frostbite also features a neat snow effect which doesn't do much aside from look cool.

Both maps include new enemies and tower types, and have done a great job at breathing new life in to Fieldrunners, a game I spent a great deal of time with when it was first released. If you're like me and haven't had Fieldrunners on your iPhone in ages, it's worth re-syncing it and giving the new maps a shot.

If this is the first you've heard of Fieldrunners, check out our review from 2008. Fieldrunners is practically a classic in the overloaded tower defense section of the App Store, and is worth a look if you enjoy open-field tower defense games.

App Store Link: Fieldrunners, $2.99

iPhone developer The Voxel Agents has recently released Train Conductor [App Store], a pick-up chaos management game that should get the attention of Flight Control and Harbor Master fans.

Train Conductor, like the other aforementioned titles, involves safely getting a series of vehicles to their designated destination. In this game, the vehicles in question are trains and, as such, it's not a matter of drawing an arbitrary path to said destination, but routing the trains from track to proper track.

Each screen is filled with up to five, numbered, parallel train tracks. After a brief warning signal, numbered trains enter the screen along these track -- in both directions -- and the task at hand is to draw connecting tracks to get each train to its designated track. A tap on any train stops it on its track, and a fast-forward control allows for moving the game along when all on-screen trains are sorted. It sounds like a more simple take on the formula than that of the better known time management games in the App Store -- and in a way, it is -- but as the developer's video illustrates, things can get hectic pretty fast.

In all, there are eight progressively harder levels across four Australian locales. Certain levels feature a few twists, such as especially long and fast Gold Rush Trains, Demon Trains, and even Ghost Trains in the Graveyard Shift mode where spectral trains don't collide and action ramps up fast. Plus+ network integration tracks global awards and leaderboards.

See the developer's demonstration video to feel the action.

iPhone gamers on the go will find Train Conductor to be a game particularly well-suited to quick, pick-up play sessions. It's right into the action and in moments you're in the heat of the connecting track shuffle. In assessing the game for this writeup, I found it hard to put down and expect to spend some real just-for-fun time with Train Conductor over the next few months.

App Store Link: Train Conductor, $1.99 (limited time)