Gamevil's action RPG Zenonia [$2.99 / Free] was among the first "full" RPG experiences on the iPhone, and is still a game that is thoroughly recommended amongst our community whenever a "What game should I get?" thread pops up on the forums. Its sequel is something which will no doubt be as highly anticipated as its initial release, and of this evening Gamevil gave us a few details on what to expect.

Zenonia 2 will have four distinctly different character classes: The paladin, shooter, magician, and warrior. Ranged attacks are also being implemented, allowing players to use various skills to attack from a distance. New difficulty modes are also being added, aside from the standard "normal" difficulty, "hard" and "hell" modes will allow hardcore players to access additional loot and a hidden boss stage only available in the higher difficulty modes. There are also new terrain effects thrown in to the mix such as water, snow, ice and others.

While this all sounds pretty cool, the feature I'm most looking forward to is the asynchronous online multiplayer, which sounds fairly similar to the online multiplayer functionality found in Baseball Superstars 2010 [$4.99]. According to Gamevil, players will be able to "download and compete against" your friends' characters-- Details are limited right now, but they're shooting at a March release so we should have more information soon.

Released in late 2008, The Creeps [App Store] is a classic tower defense game for the iPhone with a devoted group of fans who have stuck with the game and its various updates that were slowly released over 2009. With this latest update, it's clear that developers Super Squawk Software aren't giving up on the game anytime soon.

The recently released version 1.4 includes three map packs, purchasable via a 99¢ in-game transaction. Each DLC pack comes with six new levels, as well as new dinosaur-themed terrain and creeps. Two of the packs are fairly difficult and seem to be designed for veterans of The Creeps, the third variety pack is of "average" difficulty.

If you haven't had The Creeps on your phone recently, it's worth reinstalling to check out these new level packs, especially if you completed all the content in the previous updates. The new levels have definitely got me back in to the game, and judging from the response on our forums I'm not alone.

App Store Link: The Creeps!, 99¢

Following on the coattails of Skeeball's [99¢] overwhelming success comes another classic arcade machine game from Freeverse. NBA Hotshot [99¢] is a fully NBA licensed game based on the basketball games seen in many bars, bowling alleys, and video arcades. Featuring two gameplay modes, prizes to win, and both local and online scoring via the Plus+ network, NBA Hotshot is a welcome addition to Freeverse's "Flick Sports" lineup.

The game is controlled using flicking gestures to shoot basketballs. In classic mode, you have 40 seconds to score as many points as possible. Initially your shots are worth two points a piece, but 20 seconds in round two starts, the hoop moves farther away in the machine, and each shot is then worth three points. There is also a flashing bonus ball that provides additional points when used.

The second game mode, three strikes, allows you to play until you miss three shots. Regardless of which game mode you choose, as you finish each game a bar slowly fills indicating when you get your next prize. Prizes range from different balls you can play with that feature the NBA team logos and colors, and other less useful prizes like foam fingers and popcorn.

Reactions on our forums have been mixed, but it's safe to say that if you found yourself enjoying the gameplay and controls of Skeeball, NBA Hotshot will likely be a welcome addition to the arcade game collection on your iPhone.

App Store Link: NBA Hotshot, 99¢

Romper Games has recently released an arcade-style block elimination game called ReBounce [App Store] that Peggle fans might just find right up their alley.

ReBounce challenges you to use a golden puck to eliminate screenfuls of marbles of varying colors. Tag a marble with your puck and all surrounding marbles of the same color change to the next color. The color sequence goes: green, yellow/green, and then yellow, with a final hit causing the elimination of all adjoining yellow marbles. Puck control involves tapping the on-screen puck to slow down time, and dragging and releasing in the desired direction to send it where you will. It's an agreeable control method that, along with the puck physics (gravity, inertia), takes little getting used to.

In all, the game offers 40 levels divided among three different types of play: Rush, Puzzle and Bonus levels. Rush levels involve eliminating enough marbles to at least reach the indicated goldScore while not letting the puck fall off the screen. It is also important not to let the growing field of marbles, scrolling in from the bottom of the screen, reach the safety line at the top of the screen. Puzzle levels are set against a timer and are completed when either all of the marbles on the screen are eliminated or the special Goal marble is eliminated (in  the case of the latter, the more marbles eliminated before the Goal marble, the higher your score). And Bonus levels are similar to Rush levels, with an expanding field of marbles, but are set against a timer and the risk of losing the puck off the screen is removed. The various level types are intermixed in the standard play mode and can also be selected individually by type, as well.

We discussed ReBounce in our latest podcast (#10) and had mixed, but overall positive, reactions to it. I love the game, finding it to deliver a feel highly reminiscent of Peggle (one of my favorite iPhone games), but with the notable addition of a fast paced, real-time element. Arnold, too, enjoyed the game but felt that the intermixing of the three different board types in the standard play mode can be, at times, awkward. Eli, on the other hand, found the intense, real-time action to be a bit out of place in a game of this sort. A look at the developer's gameplay video should help you decide of ReBounce is for you.

[ Full HD version | Low Bandwidth version ]

I just spent the entirety of a two and a half hour flight knocking out marbles with my puck, never finding it turn tedious. Noting that, at a debut sale price of $0.99, ReBounce seems a rather solid bit of iPhone gaming for your dollar. At least, two out of three experts agree...

App Store Link: ReBounce, $0.99 (limited time)

In Paris last year when we were given several hands-on previews with various Gameloft games, GT Racing was little more than an elusive 2010 racing simulator. Following Gameloft's holiday lineup, GT Racing seems to be the next big game to come from the developer.

From our preview:

Gameloft is putting a lot of effort in to providing a realistic racing experience, and in the demo I was able to get my hands on, my '67 Shelby GT was wonderfully challenging to control around Leguna Seca. It was actually refreshing to play an iPhone racing game where you actually have to precisely control your car instead of just mashing down the gas and flying down the track.

Like all Gameloft games, they aim to make GT Racing as accessible as possible, with both brake assist and traction control that can be turned on for casual players, or disabled entirely for racing veterans. As you play through events in the game you earn money to buy upgrades for your cars, as you tune every aspect of your car by adding these aftermarket parts you will be given the opportunity to test track (just like Gran Turismo) before going back to competition races.

Gameloft also released a brief gameplay trailer last month:

The iPhone's tilt controls seem to be a natural fit for racing games, and while there are already quite a few amazing racers on the platform, it sounds like GT Racing will feature by far the most included licensed content between both real tracks and cars. The release date of GT Racing is uncertain, but we'll be keeping an eye out for news from Gameloft regarding its status.

Bottle Rocket Apps is responsible for quite a few entries on the App Store, most notably, the National Public Radio app which has been well received by iPhone owning fans of NPR. Their most recently release is Doodle Bomb [App Store], a physics-based bomb puzzle game that is a lot of fun.

The goal of each of the 50 levels in Doodle Bomb is to assist your eyepatch-equipped "bomb master" in tossing bombs from what appears to be some kind of strange sewer pipe to flip various switches, resulting in a door being unlocked-- Allowing you to progress to the next level. Bombs are thrown by tapping on screen in the direction you want to throw, tapping closer or farther away from the bomb master to control the strength of your throw.

Throughout the game you will come across many different obstacles such as mice to bounce bombs off of, soldier to blow up with bombs, switches of different colors that control different gadgets and gizmos on the game board, pipes to throw bombs down, and many others.

Each level can be completed either by just tossing tons of bombs out and hoping something lands where you want it to, or by precisely throwing bombs and using the least amount possible. Every level also comes with a target number of bombs to use, and if you get under that, you will earn a "bomb badge" which then unlock additional goodies in game.

Doodle Bomb reminds me a lot of Ragdoll Blaster and other similar physics games on the App Store. I think it's safe to say if you're a fan of the physics puzzle genre, Doodle Bomb will be a welcome addition to your game collection. The Doodle Bomb thread on our forums also has quite a few people posting positive responses, along with the developer actively answering questions.

App Store Link: Doodle Bomb, $1.99

We really enjoyed the first Ragdoll Blaster, and amongst my circle of friends, the game seemed to spread like a virus-- Even infecting the phones of non-gamer types when it first got popular on the App Store. The original is a physics game which appears deceptively simple at first that quickly makes way to levels that are so challenging that people still leave comments on our post from June of last year asking for help.

Gameplay of Ragdoll Blaster amounts to touching and dragging your finger on screen to aim a cannon, and releasing to shoot a rag doll to reach a target. Ragdoll Blaster 2 seems to be an evolution of the original, which according to developer Backflip Studios comes packed with "new contraptions, physics, puzzles and more expansive levels."

Battle Blasters [App Store], the first release from developers Little Guy Games, is a one-on-one, top-down action shooter tuned for multiplayer. While plenty of good things can be said about the single player, the real potential for this game lies in the (local-only for now) multiplayer.

Combat in Battle Blasters is controlled using a variety of on-screen taps and swipes. The battlers can only move on a horizontal plane to dodge attacks; a simple touch on the bottom area of the screen will lead your fighter out of danger's way, and a swipe in the area above your character will cause him/her to attack. A fast swipe away from the selected fighter will send out a quick attack in the form of some sort of laser beam and a slow swipe will send out a slower, more powerful attack that has the power to stop enemy beams in mid-flight. Swiping down will cause your battler to reflect nearly any attack, a technique that will prove itself to be extremely useful for turning the tide on an overly aggresive opponent.

There are six different characters to choose from in Battle Blasters, and each one has a special ability (along with unique attributes in movement speed, attack power, and defensive categories) which can be activated in battle by simply tapping the character. Jerett, the initially unlocked character, has the ability to quickly fire destructive rockets, Maya can absorb enemy attacks to add to her total ammo capacity, and Animus can fire difficult-to-stop dual cannon shots, to name only a few.

The special powers force players to adapt their play style in significant ways depending on who they're facing. This is all done in a way that manages to avoid unbalancing the game or making some characters inherently better  than others. Some characters, especially Maya and End,  require a little extra patience to fully grasp, but I feel that they too could be highly effective in the hands of an experienced player.

I've always heard fans of fighting games talk about how the greatest reason for their love of the genre is the level of total connection with a character that players get once the game has been mastered. Avid Street Fighter players speak about a certain point after memorizing every character's moveset where everything becomes all one giant mindgame with an opponent. When two players have total control and knowledge of how to pull off any move in a fighting game, the game evolves into something much more complex than a simple button-masher that it may appear to be to the uninitiated.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of fighting games, but as I played and eventually conquered Battle Blasters, I began to finally understand what those fighting game fanatics were raving on about. Just as with fighting games, Battle Blasters contains a hidden level of strategic depth that, once discovered, really changes the nature of the game. Instead of simply blasting away with what seems like a good combination of strong and weak attacks, players will begin to be able to foresee potential combo opportunities and draw out weaknesses in an enemy's defenses by throwing off their game with unexpected and creative techniques, effectively using mind games on their opponents.

Battle Blasters does feature same-device simultaneous multiplayer, but that doesn't work so well due to the physical constraints of playing on a single 3.5" screen. So, where the game would shine would be the inclusion of online multi-player -- a feature that is said to be planned for a future update.

In the meanwhile, it's still worth picking up now to enjoy the single player (because it's totally a blast), and hone those skills for the fateful day that online does arrive. Until then, I'll enjoy smack-talking our forum goers in the game's official thread without ever needing to back up my claims, and all competition will have to be limited to the included online leaderboards.

App Store Link: Battle Blasters, $2.99

Secret Exit has posted the first teaser screenshot of their upcoming Zen Bound 2 game which will support Open GL ES 2.0 effects found in the iPhone 3GS and 3rd Generation iPod Touch. Few details of the project have been released, though they state a formal announcement is coming in the next few days.

In the meanwhile, this side-by-side comparison shot shows the improvements in the enhanced version as compared to the original.

Secret Exit's Frand warns that the game is still months out, so all textures and UI elements should be considered placeholders for now.

The original Zen Bound [$1.99] was released in February to critical acclaim.

Infinite Dreams has released Sailboat Championship, a free game which we briefly previewed in December.

Sailboat Championship is a clever game in which you must properly steer your boat in order to fully capture the wind in an effective way to propel yourself forward. Three different modes are offered as well as a bonus mode. Each mode needs to be progressively unlocked before you can go on. The content of this free version of the game seems to be a little light, though it does take skill/practice to be able to get through the included levels.

A paid version of the game is expected eventually with additional courses, but the free version is worth a download on its own merits.

App Store Link: Sailboat Championship, Free

One of my favorite things about the App Store are all of these insane game concepts that likely would have never seen the light of day if it wasn't for the low barrier of entry in to iPhone development. Discussed during our most recent podcast, Sword & Poker [App Store] is a game we greatly enjoyed with an odd combination of gameplay elements that surprisingly enough work very well together.

At the core is a card-based strategy/adventure game where battles take place by making poker hands on a 5x5 grid. When each game starts, nine cards are dealt in to the center of the grid and you take turns with the AI opponent placing pairs of the four cards you're dealt on the perimeter of the game board to form hands down, across, or diagonally. Jokers are wild, and as you play more hands a gauge in the bottom left slowly fills which allows you to swap a card for a joker as well.

There is a surprising amount of strategy in placing cards, as you need to look at what you've been dealt to try to determine the best order to play them as your opponent could also have plans for the same squares you hope to utilize on your next turn. Furthermore, as the game board fills up, you can potentially form multiple hands. A well-planned hand placed on the diagonal could also form many other hands going down or across.

The "Sword" portion of Sword & Poker comes from the roleplaying game layered on top of these poker battles, which could practically stand alone as its own game. Instead of just playing poker battles of increasing difficulty, the games are structured as floors in a dungeon and the challenge differs based on the type of monster you're fighting.

The various monsters have different amounts of coins, which is how your life is measured in game. Forming a hand like a flush subtracts far more coins from your opponent's coin purse than a simple pair, and when either you or the monster you're fighting runs out of coins the battle is over.

As you get farther in the game, the shop eventually unlocks where you can use the money you win from battles. Aside from upgrading your coin purse to increase your stamina in battles, you also can buy a number of different weapons. These weapons change your damage output, and some of the later ones you come across also have special abilities when you form particular poker hands.

Weapon selection adds yet another layer of strategy on top of Sword & Poker, as some weapons are bottom heavy, and do more damage when you form simple hands like one or two pairs. Other weapons are top-heavy, and while they do very little damage when you match pairs, they inflict devastating strikes upon laying down hands like straights or flushes.

In addition, certain weapons (along with some monsters) have special effects associated with certain hands. For instance, the thief's knife I'm using now steals a card from my opponent's hand when I form any kind of straight. Other special effects include shielding yourself from damage, causing your opponent to skip a turn, and more.

This is barely scratching the surface of Sword & Poker, a game which nearly defines the term "a hidden gem of the App Store." There are a few things that are strange about the game, such as there seems to be a huge benefit in passing your turn to make sure you are able to play the last two cards of each game board as you're often guaranteed more than one poker hand.

Also, as you progress in the game, poker battles can drag on for quite a while especially when fighting harder "boss" monsters. These fights can be a lot of fun, but the battle music is a painfully short loop that quickly becomes very repetitive as it has a very clear start and finish. However, these are merely minor complaints for an otherwise fantastic game.

If you like poker, RPG's, or just strange games that actually turn out to be a lot of fun you owe it to yourself to at least try the five levels in Sword & Poker Lite [App Store]. We discussed the game on our last podcast, and there is a thread on the forums where several people have posted about how much they're enjoying it if you need any more reason to give the game a try.

App Store Link: Sword & Poker, 99¢ - Sword & Poker Lite, Free

Similar to the amount of care that went in to updating and enhancing the Missile Defense formula in Low Five Games' other game, Earth Vs Moon, The Horrible Vikings [App Store] is much more than a simple catapult game.

Like other catapult games, the basic premise amounts to aiming and flinging something to fly as far as possible and collide in to other things on the way. In the case of The Horrible Vikings, you control a pair of vikings: One who moves back and forth in the ship as ballast to control the angle of your shot, and by dragging the catapult back with another viking in it you control the power of your shot. While flying you can tilt your phone to control the direction of your flight, swipe down to stomp targets, and later in the game you get access to other abilities to fly farther such as a wizard that zaps you.

Along the way you pick up coins to spend on items and upgrades, slaughter ninjas, smash jars, and of course-- Loot and plunder whatever goal lies at the end of each level. The game is incredibly varied, both in the enemies you come across, the different abilities and upgrades you can buy from the in-game store, and if you're a fan of OpenFeint achievements, The Horrible Vikings has tons.

One of the nice things about The Horrible Vikings is that you can take as many shots as you want to complete a level. You will never run out of lives, and there doesn't seem to be any penalty for flinging your vikings over and over. However, if you are precise with your shots, there is also an OpenFeint leaderboard for your "evasion efficiency", or how few shots it takes you to complete the levels. (There is also a leaderboard for most gold collected.)

Low Five Games has a few different videos up on their YouTube channel showing The Horrible Vikings gameplay:

If you're a fan of catapult games, there isn't much to not like about The Horrible Vikings. Yes, the core gameplay element has been done to death on the App Store, but few of them can even begin to rival the amount of refinement seen in The Horrible Vikings.

App Store Link: The Horrible Vikings, $1.99

TV and Movie tie-ins tend to be popular themes for iPhone games, though the results are always a bit mixed. The latest iPhone gaming tie-ins come in the form of Spartacus and the upcoming Dawn of the Dead.

Spartacus: Blood and Sand

Artificial Life brings us a fighting game based on the upcoming Starz series Spartacus: Blood and Sand which is set to debut on January 22nd.

Early impressions of the game are pretty mixed, and so are ours. The game throws you into the mix without much of a gameplay tutorial. While there are a number of combo moves, these are only accessible through the in-game pause menu, and the resultant game feels a bit rough. In general, these fighting games can be difficult to execute on the iPhone, likely due to the virtual controls. Based on our first impressions, Blades of Fury remains the better version of this game.

App Store Link: Spartacus: Blood and Sand, $4.99

Dawn of the Dead

Meanwhile, horror film Dawn of the Dead is said to be getting an official iPhone game. The game adopts the familiar top-down dual-stick gameplay, making it a safer bet, perhaps.

Dawn of the Dead iPhone (DOTD) brings the timeless zombie horror classic to the iPhone and iPod Touch for the first time. An intense action game that puts players in the shoes of a lone survivor among the horde of undead, DOTD is sure to please fans of George Romero’s film phenomenon.After fleeing in terror from a suburban neighborhood, players find themselves stranded at the entrance of the Crossroads Mall. To survive, they must make their way through the mall, where they will meet other survivors and devise an escape plan.

Final game is said to offer multiple difficulty levels, both melee (bat, golf club, bat) and shooting weapons. It is set to debut on January 19th for $2.99. We'll take a closer look at this one when it arrives.

In the spirit of games like Lode Runner that use a limited number of ways to interact with an enironment to force players to think creatively, developer Alexander Williams brings us Arctopia [App Store], a puzzle game with a distinctive retro feel.

Arctopia provides players with three simple on-screen buttons: a "move left" button, a "move right" button, and an "ice" button. As the player, you control an unnamed penguin intent on ending the lives of as many angry-looking fireball critters as possible. There are 120 levels, each of which can be played in any order, regardless of how many levels have been completed. This is a method of game design that I really enjoy, as it allows players to skip levels that they think are too easy or too hard.

Each level is 2D with a side-view perspective, and puzzles are solved by knocking ice or iron blocks into the aforementioned fire critters. Pressing the "ice" button will create ice in the space below and to the right (or left, depending on which way you're facing) of where your penguin in standing. If there is already ice in the targeted location, that ice will be destroyed, potentially causing a chain reaction in which other ice pieces fall and cause a ton of destruction.

Despite the simple control scheme, there's a lot of complexity in the game mechanics due to the different elements that must be considered when attempting to solve a level. The penguin can hop up on small steps, but any ledge more than two blocks high cannot be climbed. Other elements (each of which are rolled out over time as the game progresses) like flaming barrels or iron blocks can interact in seemingly unlimited ways to create seriously challenging puzzles in the later levels.

I think that the art style could've used a more creative direction, but the game has a very clean feel to it. The main menu manages to give players options for quick-starting on the last level they played, selecting any of the total 120 levels, fooling with sound settings, or checking out the tutorial, all while providing extra information like the total number of completed levels and some randomly selected fun facts about penguins.

Arctopia keeps track of how many moves it takes players to complete its levels, and encourages players to try to beat them in less moves. Unfortunately, it doesn't provide any information on what the lowest possible number of moves a level can be beaten in, so there's no real baseline number for players' comparison. If there's anything that needs to be changed in an update, it's this.

Arctopia is a fun little game that will appeal greatly to those with fond memories of similar '80s classics. For most people, the game is a really enjoyable pick-up-and-play little app that will likely give those who download it something to do for a long time. Those who aren't interested in slower-paced, thinking games should probably avoid this one, but if you're like me and have an unexplainable love for Lode Runner, this game is worth a look.

App Store Link: Arctopia: A Puzzle Game, $1.99 - Arctopia: A Puzzle Intro, Free

Igor Pusenjak of Lima Sky joins us this week for our podcast. We talked about Doodle Jump's massive success and their plans for the future. We also spent some time talking about a few recent iPhone games as well as what we saw at CES 2010.

Lima Sky

• Doodle Jump - We talk about the massive success of Doodle Jump and their plans for the future.

Games We Played

• ReBounce ($0.99)
• Sword & Poker ($0.99)
• Cartoon Wars-Gunner ($0.99)

CES 2010

• Parrot AR.Drone
• Posimotion's Helix Gaming Grip

Podcast music provided by Overclocked Remix.

Podcast: Subscribe in iTunes or Direct Download (M4A, 39MB)