What do you get when you cross line drawing with a pack of hungry lions? Lion Pride [App Store], of course. As OpenFeint's free game of the day, you really don't want to miss this strange warthog munching simulator.

From our review:

The premise of the game is simple, you control a pack of lions and need to gather food for the rest of your pride. Thankfully, in this corner of the African savanna there seems to be a constant stream of warthogs, gazelles, and other beasts to munch on. Similar to Draw Race, you control the speed of the lions by how fast you draw lines from them on screen. Sneaking up on animals is important to keep them from running off, so you start by moving your lions slowly, then quickly go in for the kill. If something starts to get away, tapping twice on them will briefly stun them.

As you get further in to the game, you get more lions to control and tougher prey which needs to be attacked by multiple lions in order to be brought down. Lions need to be positioned to work as a team to all strike at once, and if any wandering hyenas come on screen they need to be scared off to prevent them from disrupting your food supply.

I really liked Lion Pride when we first took a look at it, and since then they've added additional game modes and all kinds of OpenFeint functionality to give the game tons of replay value through achievements and friends challenges. There's even fun facts about lions in game, how can you go wrong?

App Store Link: Lion Pride, Free (Today only.)

Gamevil's latest entry into the App Store arrived last night with Vanquish: The Oath of Brothers.

This Three Kingdoms based game offers side scrolling hack and slash gameplay with a striking ink & wash art style. The game is reminiscent of their previous title Hybrid which was a side view action RPG which we were luke warm on, though the general reaction was divided.

Here's a video showing the game in action:

Early reactions to Vanquish have been mixed on our forums.

App Store Link: Vanquish: The Oath of Brothers, $2.99

Blizzard forum poster Bornakk recently mentioned as a part of their efforts to increase the functionality of the World of Warcraft Armory that players will soon be able to access in-game auction houses through the web site itself, as well as an app that's in the works to manage your auctions on your iPhone.

Features and functionality of the app are still in the process of being worked out, and Blizzard admits that since this is a fairly complex addition to the integration seen with both the armory and the iPhone so because of this they don't have any kind of release estimate yet. Also mentioned is that parts of this service will be "premium-based", and more details on what exactly that means will be revealed at a later date.

Blizzard isn't exactly shy about charging players for in-game services between character server changes and sex changes, so it's anyone's guess as to where the "premium" will come in to play with this new app. Previously released Blizzard iPhone apps, World of Warcraft Mobile Armory [App Store] and Battle.net Mobile Authenticator [App Store] have been popular amongst our community, so we will be keeping a close eye on the development of the auction house app.

Thanks to everyone I used to play World of Warcraft with relentlessly IM'ing me about this today.

In 1989, influenced by Tetris and tic-tac-toe, Dave Akers and Mark Stephen Pierce created Klax, originally programmed in just a few weeks in Amiga Basic. Nearly 20 years later, Mark Stephen Pierce flying solo with the help of Super Happy Fun Fun released Star*Burst [App Store], a matching game with tons of particle effects and all the gameplay from classic Klax turned upside down as the rights to the original Klax seems to be trapped somewhere in Midway's bankruptcy-powered licensing purgatory.

If Klax was before your time, or you just never got around to pumping quarters in to a Klax machine, here's the basic gist of the Star*Burst-- Randomly spawning bricks come down a conveyor belt towards a paddle which can catch and hold up to five bricks at once. Moving your finger around controls the paddle, and swiping down throws a brick back up on to the conveyor belt, while tapping the paddle throws the brick up to the five by five grid at the top of the screen.

Blocks on the top of the screen are cleared by matching them horizontally, vertically, diagonally, and other more complicated layouts such as forming arrows, an X, or stars. The more blocks you clear the more points you earn, and as blocks are removed the existing blocks compress to fill any spaces that may have been created as blocks disappear-- Allowing you to chain massive combos (and earn point multipliers) if you can set them up.

When you get farther in to the game, wild blocks that will match any color and bomb blocks appear that can destroy nearby blocks on the grid. Just like Klax, achieving high scores involves thinking ahead and intelligently managing which blocks you keep on your paddle, which blocks you flip back up on to the conveyor belt, and how you arrange the blocks on the grid. The game is over when you either fail to catch five blocks from the conveyor belt, or you run out of spaces on the grid to place new blocks.

If you were a fan of the original Klax, you need to have Star*Burst on your iPhone. The touch controls work well, and really my only gameplay criticism is that the on-screen button to make the conveyor spit out blocks (the small square with two arrows near the top in screenshots) seems to be awkwardly positioned. You really only need to speed up the block conveyor in the earlier levels when blocks come slower, so this is a very minor issue.

Star*Burst has online scoring and tons of achievements, but unfortunately uses Facebook instead of Plus+ or OpenFeint so the online scoring/achievement functionality is fairly primative and seems to be limited to your Facebook friends and spamming your Facebook wall. With a better online scoring system, Star*Burst would be amazing.

App Store Link: Star*Burst, $1.99

Indeeo Games gave us some early details on their upcoming iPhone game that they plan on submitting to the App Store within the next few days. AirStrike Defense seeks to blend familiar line drawing controls with an RTS element, allowing players to take control of a variety of naval and air forces to engage in full battles where you attack the enemy fleet with your air force while you defend your own fleet from theirs.

AirStrike Defense comes with three game modes: Air attack mode, where you attack the enemy fleet with your planes, naval defense mode where you defend your fleet, and and all-out battle missions which combine both game types.

With how quickly the App Store approval process has been lately, if Indeeo Games follow throughs with their plans and submits AirStrike Defense in the next couple days, we could have the game in our hands as early as next week.

Undoubtedly we are all quite fond of our iPhones. After all, never has it been easier to bring our favourite games around with us wherever we may be. But how would it be if the roles were reversed-- if our games instead brought us around with them? That is the question on which Glu Mobile has rested the success of its latest foray into the AppStore.

1000: Find 'Em All! [App Store] is as much an abstract as it is the title. You are tasked with simply finding and collecting 1000 items-- that is the extent of the what, but it's the how which really sets 1000: Find 'Em All! apart.

The first method of collecting items is the easiest. You navigate your character by dragging him around a lifeless but gorgeously crafted in-game world; leaving a trail of sunshine, rainbows and lollipops behind you. Well, maybe not lollipops, but your very presence injects color and life into your surroundings-- flowers will sprout, grass will turn green, objects will animate-- for anyone that's tried their hand at De Blob [$3.99 / Free], you'll know what I'm on about. And every now and then you'll stumble across a sparkling item and tapping on it may or may not reveal an item to collect.

This is all well and good but still largely derivative. It's the second and third means of discovering items that really bring something new to the table. Making use of the iPhone's in-build GPS and in partnership with Google Maps, 1000: Find 'Em All! will populate your neighbourhood and surroundings with virtual items simply by the press of a button. A map of your area will download and presents will pop-up all over the place; Christmas only coming early to those willing to physically move to the highlighted locations. In a similar fashion the third and final means of collecting items also interacts with the real world; virtual 'Gifters' appearing at different WiFi hotspots that you may come across to bestow presents on you. At this point you may be thinking what I was-- if only Glu Mobile were in league with Starbucks or McDonalds we could be gifted some serious rewards for our exertions.

In any case, 1000: Find 'Em All! comes packaged with a raft of achievements, not only to do with the number of items collected and the percentage of the game world colored, but also concerning how items are collected (presumably to encourage players not to just sit at home). Collected items can only be interacted with as far as their tooltip, and whilst they can be quite funny or informative, they really serve no other purpose than as trophies.

Whether this worldwide scavenger hunt will appeal to you is really quite up to you as an individual. I can see how some may rally to the idea of having something interesting to distract them while they're out. Personally, I could not depart from the feeling that it was too gimmicky and ultimately superfluous-- that it demanded too much from you for it to be worth your while. If anything, it seems more suited to those with kids, to encourage a little out-and-about time whilst still whetting the little monsters' insatiable appetites for technology.

It's disappointing that finding and collecting items is really all there is to do in 1000: Find 'Em All! though, as the game world is rich and detailed and screaming for further interaction. But for all you budding treasure-hunters out there, finding 1000 items is sure to occupy you for a very long time, and you may actually take something from 1000: Find 'Em All! if you're willing to brave the elements to do so.

Please note that only the iPhone is supported due to the GPS requirements, and only if you have OS 3.0 installed.

App Store Link: 1000: Find 'Em All!, $2.99.

GTProductions, creators of the recently released 24 hour TouchArcade forum powered code fest, Super Ramen BROTHers is giving away their first iPhone game away for free today. Spring Fling [App Store] is a jumping game with a similar play style to Doodle Jump, but with the physics of a bouncing spring.

From our review:

GTProduction's Spring Fling is a jump-up-the-platform-wall game where you take on the role of a spring. Being a spring, it's not just a matter of tap to jump straight upward -- you can compress the string and set the angle of your jump by way of a tap and drag mechanic. And the integrated PhysX engine makes the experience rather convincing. Choose an angle to shallow or severe and it's a platform miss with a plummet to your end.

Each jump uses up a supply of Power that doesn't get recharged until the next checkpoint. So, the game is a more deliberate physics/power management game than the fast paced action of other platform jumping titles.

Along the way rockets, balloons, parachutes, and pogo sticks help you scale the wall. The game includes five different worlds, some static and some downward scrolling. And achievements, online leaderboards, and Facebook / Twitter integration provide incentive to reach the highest height.

Spring Fling is free for a limited time, so if you're as much of a fan of these endless jumping games as we are, don't waste any time downloading this one.

App Store Link: SpringFling, Free (Today Only)

We're not entirely sure what to make of this, but here's what we know so far:

Sega has been teasing the reveal of "Project Needlemouse" since September of last year, which we found out tonight was officially an episodic sequel to Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles to be released on WiiWare, PSN, XBOX Live Arcade, and a yet to be revealed mystery platform. Sonic 4 is abandoning the 3D platforming that has plagued recent Sonic games and going back to its 2D roots as you can see in the following trailer:

Where things get crazy is when it comes to a few details which will be unlocked when a few different timers hit zero on the Sonic 4 web site. According to SonicStadium.org and a post on NeoGAF, finding out what lies behind promo1_locked.png and promo2_locked.png on the web site was as simple as removing the "_locked" from the URL. Of course these files are nowhere to be found now, but here are the two images that allegedly were found on Sega's servers:

Now, it's entirely possible we're being pranked here, but, at the same time, Sega is revealing a fourth platform that the game will be on soon. Episodes of Sonic 4 are obviously being distributed digitally, and aside from the Wii, PS3, and XBOX 360, there really only is the DSi, PSP, and iPhone left that Sega would even conceivably release the game on... So, if nothing else, we've got a 1 in 3 chance of seeing Sonic 4 on the App Store.

Reiner Knizia holds a PhD in mathematics, and is credit with publishing over 500 different puzzle games, many earning various awards worldwide. Developing his first game at the age of 6, Knizia left a job as a boardmember of an international bank in 1997 to pursue game designing full time. Since then, he has been admitted to the Gaming Hall of Fame and redeveloped several of his old games along with creating new games for the PC, home consoles, and iPhone.

His latest iPhone game, Topas [$1.99], tasks players with placing colored domino-like tiles on a game board in three included game modes. To place tiles, you drag them around with your finger, and tiles can be rotated by tapping on screen with another finger. Tiles are placed on the board following a few simple rules: They must be placed with the whole tile fitting on the game board, every tile must be placed next to another, and the aligned gems on the tiles cannot total more than 8. Points are awarded for the number of gems lined up with each tile placed, and Topas has Agon online leaderboards for each of the game modes.

In arcade mode, you have 36 tiles to place on the game board. Tiles are cleared by lining matching colored rows of gems up and down or across that add up to 7. If you place all 36 tiles, the board is cleared and you can keep going in attempt to get the highest score possible. In weakest link mode, you play 4 quick games placing 8 tiles, the second lowest score of the four games is your end score. Finally, in color play mode, instead of the board clearing when you place all 36 tiles, you only need to score 10 points in a single color, indicated by gauges at the top of the screen.

Like most of Reiner Knizia's games, scoring well in Topas requires quite a bit of strategy, and wile the basics of the game are quite simple, it took me a while to wrap my head around ideal tile placement for maximum point gain. Knizia has quite a few iPhone games available on the App Store now, and they are all quite good in their own ways.

Ingenious, $1.99 - Take turns tiles on a game board, scoring points by creating lines of tiles with similar colors. Play against AI opponents of three difficulty levels and place tiles to block opponents in and make as many matches as possible to increase your score. There's also a solitaire mode if you'd rather just place tiles to see how much you can score.

Money, $1.99 - Starting with six random bills from different countries, players try to exchange their money in to 2-3 currencies before the end of the game. There's a YouTube video explaining the entire game and also an interesting article on boardgamenews.com about adapting the card game to the iPhone.

Monumental, $1.99 - A Mayan themed matching game where players slide around tiles to form groups of 3 colors, symbols, or both colors and symbols for maximum points. Broken stones and dynamite mix things up, and as you progress in the game more colors and symbols are introduced to increase the difficulty curve.

Roto, $1.99 - Players must analyze a group of wheels with colored segments and match those segments by rotating those wheels as few times as possible for maximum points. Roto comes with arcade, puzzle, and action modes which all provide a different spin on gameplay.

Robot Master, 99¢ - Players take turns placing numbered cards down on the game board, scores are totaled by adding the numbers of all the cards, with huge bonuses awarded by lining up pairs and three of a kind on a row.

Knights of Charlemagne, $1.99 - Deploy knights and conquer estates by overwhelming the enemy forces. The strategy and gameplay can get a little complicated, but thankfully the game comes with a great tutorial.

Poison, $2.99 - A card game of brewing potions, players take turns placing numbered potion cards in to three different cauldrons. If a player over-fills a cauldron, they have to take all the cards (and any poison cards) that were inside the cauldron.

The above games are developed by several different developers, so the visual style quality of each of the games varies widely. All of them are faithful reproductions of Reiner Knizia games, require a great deal of strategy, and can offer an awful lot of replay value if you appreciate brain-bending puzzle games.

Gamevil has posted a hands on gameplay video of their upcoming game iPhone game Vanquish: The Oath of Brothers which is due for launch this Friday.

The game's story is based on the Three Kingdoms and is set on horseback. The gameplay video and mechanic feels somewhat similar to Hybrid but in an ink-wash art style.

Vanquish will launch at $2.99 this Friday.

Storm Basic has released their hack and slash game Tehra Dark Warrior which we previewed just a couple of weeks ago.

Early feedback is rolling in our forums noting high production values with a core hack 'n slash gameplay mechanic. From squarezero:

Having played for about half an hour, I can't disagree with the gist of Gabrien's impressions. That said, I'm probably enjoying more than he is. It's a middle-of-the road hack 'n slash action game in a platform that has very few of them. The production values are very high, the controls are nearly flawless, there's a real story (nothing new, but it does give some context) and the addition of spells does add some variety to the gameplay. There are some nice environments to explore (without a Gameloft-style arrow telling you exactly where you need to go) and as far as I can tell right now, there's quite a bit of content.

The game features both magic and combat skills, leveling up, and even special visual effects on supported 3rd generation hardware:

We'll take a more in depth look in time.

App Store Link: Tehra Dark Warrior, $3.99

When I think of Mechs, I don't think of the MechWarrior of old as I used to. Instead, a more immediate memory comes to mind-- that very awesome scene from Matrix: Revolutions where the Zion Mech platoon were (albeit briefly) holding off the entire squid machine onslaught. Maybe it's the John Woo fanatic in me, but I've always wanted to play an ambidextrous Mech; both weapons firing all over the place at a horde of surrounding enemies. It seems Brisk Mobile had similar thoughts, as 2360: Battle for Cydonia [App Store] captures that dual-wielding mechanical mayhem brilliantly.

2360: Battle for Cydonia differentiates itself from similar games with its great use of the iPhone's multitouch feature-- allowing you to navigate the battlefield and shoot both weapons at foes from different directions all at the same time. It can sometimes be an exercise in dexterity, but there's something too damn cool about holding off forces from two flanks with a range of machine guns, shotguns, rockets and eventually even high powered lasers. It's effortless to orchestrate your one-man-war too; you direct your Mech by dragging your finger around and fire your weapons by tapping on enemies, your Mech swivelling its two arms where needed to direct its barrage.

As the story goes in 2360: Battle for Cydonia, you are part of a rebellion fighting to claim their fair share of the Mars colonization. The story isn't anything revelatory, but it's definitely appreciated as a means of tying together the various missions and give them a sense of purpose-- something that we were critical of in our recent review of a similar title, Heavy Mach 2. There are 21 missions on offer, some of which are quite lengthy and challenging, even on the normal difficulty level. Missions aren't just your run-of-the-mill collect this object, destroy this target-- though there is a fair bit of that, 2360: Battle for Cydonia also throws escort and base-defence into the mix, as well as a few others to keep things interesting. In order to keep up with the enemy's firepower, you'll have to invest in a sizeable range of upgrades for your Mech; from the traditional armour, speed and weapon upgrades, to more interesting upgrades such as one that improves your mech's swivel action, or the various auto-weapons on offer that can target tank shells.

It's fortunate that 2360: Battle for Cydonia looks and sounds great too. All the artwork is crisp and detailed, though for the first half of the game you will be encountering a number of similar-looking spider and tank enemies. Thankfully, the latter half really showcases Brisk Mobile's artistic efforts though, with a number of terrific-looking flying and Mech enemies thrown at you too to turn up the heat. The weapon effects are very satisfying, each distinguishable on your mech itself, and each very capable of leaving a trail of impressive explosions. There's really only one area where 2360: Battle for Cydonia seems to drop the ball, and that's in the environment art; the same grey floor texture seemingly repeated each level, and only improved upon in the latter missions. It's no big deal though, and it can help to identify your foes quicker. Aurally, 2360: Battle for Cydonia delivers a lot of punch for each weapon, and has a good selection of energetic music to keep you engaged.

If you're a fan of Mech or tank combat, then 2360: Battle for Cydonia should really be a no-brainer. There's a couple of hours worth of content to get through, and it's not for the faint of heart either. 2360: Battle for Cydonia does a great job in keeping its Mech combat fresh, be it through a huge range of interesting weapons and items to unlock, or its engaging mission objectives, and will undoubtedly be a staple on our devices for a while to come.

Be sure to check out the trailer above and our 2360: Battle for Cydonia discussion thread where impressions from our readers have been overwhelmingly positive and the developer has already indicated at an upcoming survival mode.

App Store Link: 2360: Battle for Cydonia, $0.99 (75% off Launch Sale Price).

During episode #9 of the TouchArcade podcast, Kepa Auwae of Rocketcat Games let us in on some details regarding the successor to Hook Champ [App Store], a game currently dubbed Avalanche Game. This morning MTV Multiplayer posted some new tidbits, including a image comparing the art style of the two games and the evolution from "8-bit" to "16-bit" graphics:

As we discussed during our podcast, Avalanche Game is going to be a randomly generated never-ending game, building on the fun the developers had with Canabalt. Gameplay is said to remain similar to Hook Champ with new abilities to master and items to collect along the way. We loved Hook Champ, and needless to say, are going to be closely following the development of Avalanche Game.

Last year we reported on an upcoming multi-player update to the iPhone card game Durak. The promised update has finally arrived and delivers a number of new multi-player features.

Durak is a popular Russian card game typically played between two to six people (two to four in the iPhone version). Each player receives six cards and the objective is to get rid of all your cards. The game is a trump-card based game where players take turns being on the attack. Attacking involves placed a card down face up. The defending player must place a card of higher value with the same suit or a trump card. Attacks can continue if you have additional cards in your hand whose face values that match any of the cards in play. If the defender can't defend, then they must take all the cards into their own hand. If the defender does successfully defend the attacks, all the cards get swept into the "graveyard" and remain out of play. The goal is to get rid of all your cards.

We described the iPhone implementation of Durak to be "top-notch" and the only real criticism we had was the lack of any sort of online multiplayer. A list of new features include:

• More difficult single player
• Online multiplayer (3G and Wi-Fi)
• Bluetooth multiplayer
• Chat
• Buddy lists
• Push notifications
• Nudge notifications
• Profiles
• Private games
• Local and global leader-boards

If you already own Durak, now's your chance to upgrade to try out the online features, or buy it if it interests you.

App Store Link: Durak, $4.99

According to the Ubisoft web site, a new game that takes place in the Assassin's Creed universe is coming soon, exclusively to the iPhone. Assassin’s Creed II: Multiplayer will utilize a WiFi connection to hunt down three other assassins online in some type of strange top-down stealth-oriented deathmatch.

Assassin’s Creed 2: Multiplayer, an exclusive game for iPhone & iPod touch and the first game in the series that allows you to compete against your friends.

The game is said to have three different environments that are all inspired by the italian cities of Assassin's Creed II along with six different power-ups for players to utilize when mowing down their opponents. The feature listing also includes mention of a notoriety system, which sounds like a fancy online leaderboard of sorts, and of course, the game comes loaded with its own set of achievements.

Last month, news broke that Ubisoft had plans for a multiplayer Assassin's Creed game and when we spoke with Assassin's Creed II: Discovery producer Ben Mattes, he did say to expect some "super-cool content" coming in the following weeks and months, and it seems this is Ubisoft's followup to that commitment.

Assassin's Creed II: Multiplayer is "coming soon", and as soon as we have more details we will post them.

Thanks @RustyFirestar