An upcoming but little known game that has come to our attention recently is a Worms-esque, platform shooter entitled TotemHeadz, developed by Innobec Technologies.

Though we haven't had any play time with TotemHeadz as yet, from what we've seen TotemHeadz deviates from the traditional Worms model by scrapping the turn-based gameplay and opting for a real-time, action-packed combat system. How this manic gameplay will handle in practise remains to be seen, but we have high hopes for what is evidently an explosive portrayal of Totemic warfare.

Even from early screenshots and the trailer currently available, it is clear that TotemHeadz is shaping to be a visual treat; with rich, thematic, animated backdrops and detailed character and weapon artwork immediately standing out. TotemHeadz's impressive production values bode well for the game's other elements too, of which the full feature list which includes 10 levels, multiple weapons, and later plans for a level editor and multiplayer.

An early trailer for the game has also been released and can be viewed below.

A price point of $2.99 or $3.99 is still being considered for TotemHeadz, which should be ready for submission within the next month or so.

Revolutionary Concepts, creators of Cobra Command [App Store] and the upcoming Karate Champ, have given us a sneak peek of Frogman, a 3D Frogger-like game that should be available very soon. Wrapped in a ridiculous story that is highly reminiscent of 'The Fly' with classic gameplay enhanced by powerups, Frogman blows Konami's Frogger games out of the water.

By default, the game is controlled using swiping gestures, but also includes two different control methods with either arrows on the sides of the screen, or a virtual D-Pad. Gameplay in Frogman is nearly identical to Frogger. You hop from one side of the screen to the other, rescuing helpless civilians, and trying not to get run over.

As you progress farther in the game, the simple traffic patterns slowly get even more complicated, eventually introducing boats, trains, and even platforms over lava. While hopping back and forth you can pick up various powerups, such as one that lets you jump over an obstacle and another that slows everything down. The slow motion powerup becomes particularly vital in later levels.

Here is a brief gameplay video of a preview version, keep in mind that the sounds are not finalized at all. Revolutionary Concepts plans on adding voices, new sound effects, and much more music to the game before its final release:

Frogman should be available very soon, and we've been told that it will be priced "well under $5." An iPad-specific version featuring higher resolution textures is planned and will follow the launch of the iPhone version by about a month. If you too grew up on the well-greased joysticks of Frogger arcade machines, keep an eye out for this game.

Some developers have been taking advantage of our upcoming iPad games forum to post early screens of their coming iPad games. As we said during our GDC podcast, iPad gaming is going to launch with a bang, and this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Here are a few of the early screens that caught our eye. (Click on images for iPad sized screens).

Gameprom's Pinball Games are coming to the iPad. Just when you thought you might have gotten tired of pinball gaming, this screenshot of the iPad version of The Deep has us excited to play these again with the extra real estate provided by Apple's tablet-sized device.

Revolutionary Concepts, makes of Cobra Command posted screens of their upcoming iPad and iPhone game Frogman. Essentially, Frogger in 3D, we'll have a closer hands on look of the iPhone version very shortly.

Finally, fan favorite iBlast Moki is also getting the iPad treatment with extra breathing room with the larger screen size.

Click on screens for full iPad-sized images.

If you didn’t manage to get enough feudal Japanese escape-the-room gameplay from the first iEscaper!, you’ll be happy to know that the series is back for a second go round. Rather than breaking out of a fortress as you did in the last iEscaper! adventure, this time you’ll be breaking in. Your objective? To find the Crystal of Dragon.

Everything you loved about the first iEscaper! is back. The gorgeously-detailed 3D environments, the brutally challenging puzzles, the haunting zen-like soundtrack – all of it. But that doesn’t mean that the winning formula of the first iEscaper! hasn’t undergone some tweaking.

Puzzles are no longer confined to single rooms. You’ll often find a clue or an item in one room that needs to be used in another. This means you’ll need to be considering every room in the castle when you uncover new items and clues. It also means that some backtracking has been added into the mix, but not so much that it feels like a chore. The size of the fortress may feel vast, but you’ll quickly realize when backtracking that any room you need to visit is only a handful of taps away.

Despite the little changes and jaw-dropping environments, what really defines iEscaper! 2 is the difficulty. Some objects are tiny and hard to notice. Some puzzles lack an obvious solution at first glance. If you don’t have the patience for it, iEscaper! 2 is a game that might drive you mad.

The game also suffers from some weak translation, hence the subtitle ‘Castle of the Doom,’ or your pursuit of the ‘Crystal of Dragon.’ Little touches like this almost felt intentional and endearing, but alas, the developer has told us that an update should be arriving any day now to address the problem and improve the English text.

It might have an interesting setting and beautiful scenes, but iEscaper! 2 is all about its challenge. If you’re a veteran of the escape-the-room genre, you’re going to love what’s offered here. If you’re not... consider this a trial by fire.

While there is no Lite for the sequel, the Lite for the original game remains available if you aren't familiar with the genre.

App Store Link: iEscaper 2, $2.99, iEscaper Lite, Free

Back in September we took a look at Crystal Cave Classic [App Store] from Rake in Grass, the studio who also brought us Archibald's Adventures, Undercroft, and Westbang. The game delivers Boulder Dash-style play and tons of content -- we liked what we saw. Rake in Grass has just released a spin-off to the title, Crystal Cave: Lost Treasures [App Store], which features over 100 new levels and is designed for the more casual gamer.

An adventure logic game, Crystal Cave: Lost Treasures challenges the player to exhibit the required ingenuity to move through the game's treacherous environs, pulling off the right moves at the right time in order to find the treasure and move on to the next level. The game's riddle-packed levels span three different graphic scenarios.

See the developer's gameplay video.

With over 100 levels at $0.99, Crystal Cave: Lost Treasures is a great value and should have definite appeal for fans of the classic version, Boulder Dash, or logic puzzlers in general. This one comes highly recommended. Those wanting to try before they buy can grab Crystal Cave Classic Lite [App Store] or the OS X and Windows demo versions.

To mark the release of this new title, Rake in Grass has lowered the price of the original Crystal Cave Classic from $3.99 down to $1.99.

And in further Rake in Grass news, the studio will shortly be releasing has just released a match-three action puzzler known as Phantasia, developed by 300AD.

Phantasia, designed to appeal to gamers of all ages, challenges the user to save an unfortunate group of fairy dwarves imprisoned within colored spheres. Row by row the spheres move down the screen and it's up to the player to destroy the spheres and free the dwarves by firing his or her spheres at two or more advancing spheres of the same color.

The game offers both an Arcade and an Adventure mode and delivers over 30 levels of gameplay.

See the studio's gameplay video.

App Store Link: Phantasia, $0.99

Mobile developer Croquis has just released Castle Fantasy [link], a side-scrolling hack-'n'-slash platformer, through the App Store.

Castle Fantasy is something of a "2.25D" affair in that it consists mainly of 2D character and backdrop illustrations (more than 2000 of them, according to the developer) and is played on a 2D plane, but there is a sense of depth conveyed through varying platform heights and, at times, foreground parallax scrolling fields. But, more simply and to the point, it's a very lovely game that's well-illustrated and smoothly animated.

Gameplay involves moving your character through the game's levels -- there are four chapters, each with seven stages -- while collecting gems for power-ups, slashing enemies, and jumping from ledge to ledge. Some of the ghoulish enemies are much more difficult than others, with greater endurance and range weapons. The occasional boss enemy is encountered along the way, as well. At the medium difficulty setting, it's quite a challenging experience. Some of the challenge, however, comes from the game's controls...

Your character is controlled by way of onscreen buttons. Movement is handled via left / right buttons at the lower left (I find it best to treat these as a "slider") while jumps and attacks (both short- and long-range) are triggered by a button cluster at the lower right, with a sort-of fatality button bottom-center. In first playing the game, the controls feel a bit cluttered, but extended play does bring a good deal of familiarity which helps the situation. Still, when the action gets intense, I find myself occasionally attacking when I want to jump or failing to move in the desired direction. It's definitely not a deal breaker, and there's only so far a developer can go in the controls in a game like this on the iPhone, but it's a little frustrating. Also, it takes a little while to get accustomed to the ideal distance and pacing of short-range attacks in order to not get clobbered constantly while delivering your blows. Skill in this regard brings much more success.

Happily, those daunted by the above paragraph can give the game a try before reaching for the wallet, as there's a free, lite version available as well [App Store].

See the developer's gameplay video for a look at the action.

Our forum readers are highly enjoying the game, some calling it one of the best action platformers in the App Store. After the learning curve, there's definitely some intense action to be found in Castle Fantasy. We recommend everyone at least give the light version a try.

App Store Link: Castle Fantasy, $2.99, Castle Fantasy Lite, Free

One of the first highly successful games in the App Store was Majic Jungle's Chopper [App Store], a side-scrolling aerial shooter that's an adaptation of his original Mac release. The game has seen well over one million downloads since its release and is a pretty fun time on your iPod or iPod touch.

We spent some highly enjoyable face time with Dave Frampton, the man behind Majic Jungle, at MWSF '09 and WWDC '09. As such, I've been following him on Twitter and have long been seeing the occasional tweet about the progress of his upcoming sequel, Chopper 2. Yesterday I pinged Dave and demanded a solid update on this title that we've been quite anxious to see. Happily, with minimal threats, he agreed to give us the latest details and an exclusive set of screenshots of the in-progress title, as well.

Chopper 2 is a complete re-write, with full 3D graphics, numerous different landscapes and a realistic Chipmunk based physics system. It still retains the classic side-scrolling shooter gameplay, however. The control system in the game has been completely overhauled, allowing for touch based aim control independent of the tilt based flight control. There's also the option to use a touch based flight control method with a virtual D-pad.

Chopper 2 has eight different enemies with unique weapons and AI. There are also allies in some missions who will help by firing at the enemy. Some enemies fire homing missiles, and some fire multiple missiles in rapid succession. The missions themselves are also much more diverse than in the original Chopper. In one mission, you and your allies defend a base while a long line of enemies attack from both sides. In another mission you pick up a bomb disposal expert, take him to disarm a bomb in an office tower, and defend his position from attacking enemies until he's done. Sometimes you have to kill a certain enemy but are free to ignore others, and sometimes you must not kill any enemies. There is limited ammo and a new health meter that allows you to take a certain number of hits before you die. Most missions have a base or two where you can regain health and/or ammo, but there is a time bonus you'll be sacrificing to do so.

Chopper 2 will be utilizing the OpenFeint network for online scores, with a high score tracked for each of the 12 locations. Each location has three missions, and there will be three difficulties to play through. This makes for a total of 36 missions in each difficulty setting. The progression structure is non-linear, with a map based system where you unlock new locations and missions to choose between.

The story is not yet complete but, similar to the original Chopper, there is instructional story dialog before each mission. However, Dave tells us that Chopper 2 has a unique and impressive way of delivering this dialog, which makes the story a lot more engaging. We'll hear more about that as the title approaches release.

If all this isn't enough to pique your interest, Dave is also working on an iPad version of the game that will be part of the single-app release -- one version for both iPhone and iPad. Having planned to release a Mac version of Chopper 2 following the iPhone release, Dave has had high resolution graphics at the ready all along. He indicates that the work involved in fully utilizing the enhanced features of the iPad is fairly minor and feels that it makes little sense to charge gamers again for it.

Dave was kind enough to provide us with an early iPad simulator screenshot of Chopper 2 in action. The shot doesn't feature all of the graphics of the final iPad version, but it does give some idea of what the device's extra screen real estate offers.

Click for full-sized iPad screenshot

Chopper 2 is not too far from completion, but Dave indicates it won't make the April 3 iPad release. There's no solid release estimate right now, as the developer wants to make sure the game is fully ready in all respects before it lands in the App Store, but he tells us it's coming along quite nicely. Price is yet to be solidly determined, but Dave indicates that it will fall somewhere below $5. Stay tuned for more details on Chopper 2 as we get them.

After a limited release in Canada, ngmoco's We Rule has finally launched worldwide.

We Rule is a kingdom building game, somewhat similar to the massively popular Facebook game Farmville. Here's what we had to say about the game from our hands-on preview at Macworld San Francisco:

The game map shows you your kingdom as well as the kingdom of your Plus+ contacts. Scrolling across the map shows you the relative size of everyone's kingdoms. The goal of the game is to build up your community as much as possible, but with the added twist that your own kingdom can be customized with a number of special cosmetic tweaks. These tweaks will make your kingdom truly unique and personalized.

The game consists of alternating between your daily activities of harvesting or otherwise managing your resources while building up new houses, farms, and businesses. Your kingdom will be bustling with activity from townspeople as it grows, though unlike God Finger, you don't actually have individual control of the inhabitants. ...Read More.

The game is free to download and play and has been well received since its original Canadian launch.

App Store Link: We Rule, Free

One of our favorite games this month was One Man Left's Tilt to Live, a fast paced object avoidance game that has also been getting overwhelmingly positive feedback in our forums.

The game is presently on sale for only $0.99, so if you haven't picked it up yet, now's your chance. Riding on their early success. One Man Left has revealed to us that they are planning a couple of additional game modes for Tilt to Live that will be arriving in April. The new modes are described here:

Code Red

Rather than guiding players along a polite difficulty curve, we’re chucking them off a difficulty cliff with Code Red mode. This gametype is best described as “Classic mode on crack”. Everything from Classic is there, but the red dots will spawn at their highest intensity right from the start. It’s tailor-made for experienced players that “just wanna get to the good part”, without enduring the buildup.

Gauntlet Mode

Run the Gauntlet to put your precision tilting skills to the test! In Gauntlet mode, players compete for the longest survival time rather than highscores or combos. Enemies waves will no longer relentlessly chase you. Instead, the dots work together to form an increasingly difficult treadmill course of smashers, battle axes, windmills, and more. It’s an entirely new gameplay experience! The difficulty curve will be comparable to our original gametype, a crescendo from manageable to kick-your-butt. Early dot obstacles and gameplay will be showcased in our teaser video, and even more sinister twists are in development as we speak.

Meanwhile, this video shows Gauntlet in action:

One Man Left promises more game modes, awards and weapons in future versions of the game. If you haven't picked this one up yet, we still highly recommend it.

App Store Link: Tilt to Live, $0.99

I'm still kind of stunned it's already Friday, after GDC madness last week and playing catch up this week I'm not even sure where all the time went. Regardless, we missed our sales and freebies post this week, so I've dug up an extra helping of freebies in attempt to make amends this week. As always, the standard iTunes price change disclaimer is in effect. These prices are all current as of Friday afternoon, but due to the nature of the App Store are subject to change at any time. If you've got your eye on one or more of these games, you're probably better off grabbing them ASAP.

Earth Vs Moon, 99¢ → FREE

Quite possibly one of the best missile command spinoffs on the App Store, we loved Earth Vs Moon in our review, and since then it has only gotten better with updates. This one has been free for a few days now, and likely will return to normal price any time now, so grab it while you still can... And if you miss the free promotion, it's still totally worth a buck if you haven't heard of it before.

Other notable freebies include:

• Crazy Turkey Blast, 99¢ → FREE
• DJ Jones, 99¢ → FREE
• Kaloki Adventure, $1.99 → FREE
• My Brute, $3.99 → FREE
• TowerMadness, $2.99 → FREE

As far as game sales are concerned, a few Gameloft games were recently dropped to 99¢. I've had a good time playing through all of these, so if you don't own them yet, I can think of worse ways to spend $5:

• Blades of Fury, $4.99 → 99¢
• Dungeon Hunter, $4.99 → 99¢
• Earthworm Jim, $4.99 → 99¢
• Real Soccer 2010, $4.99 → 99¢
• Skater Nation, $4.99 → 99¢

And of course, there are a ton of other games with recent price drops:

• 2012 Zombies vs Aliens, $1.99 → 99¢
• Across Age, $6.99 → $5.99
• Alien Glyphs, $3.99 → $2.99
• Azkend, $4.99 → $2.99
• Battle for Wesnoth, $4.99 → $2.99
• Boom Brigade, $3.99 → $1.99
• Doodle Bomb, $1.99 → 99¢
• Dragon Portals, $4.99 → $2.99
• Electric Box, $1.99 → 99¢
• Fighting Fantasy: Deathtrap Dungeon, $2.99 → $1.99
• Fighting Fantasy: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, $2.99 → $1.99
• Geared, $2.99 → 99¢
• Hottie Hookups, $1.99 → 99¢
• Occurro!, $1.99 → 99¢
• ReBounce, $1.99 → 99¢
• Tall Bike Joust, $2.99 → 99¢
• Thumpies, $2.99 → 99¢
• TRANSFORMERS G1: AWAKENING, $4.99 → $2.99

There are many other games with recent price changes, and you can see a listing of popular games and all games on sale over on AppShopper. Stay tuned for more freebies and sales next week, same bat time, same bat channel.

With the Apple iPad only two weeks away, Apple has invited developers to start submitting their iPad applications to the App Store. They are asking developers to submit their iPad apps by March 27th to be ready for the iPad launch.

As we discussed during our GDC Podcast, we were surprised at the scope of some of the projects that have been in the works for the iPad. In anticipation of the iPad launch, we've created an Upcoming iPad Games subforum for developers to post announcements and screenshots about their upcoming iPad games. Developers can also contact us privately at tips@toucharcade.com if they prefer.

Some of the games already pre-announced for iPad include Flight Control HD, TanZen for iPad, Azkend HD and a bunch of IUGO titles.

A year ago ChronoSoft brought us the dungeon crawler Rogue Touch [App Store], included in our Best Games of 2009 roundup and my personal favorite iPhone roguelike. The game has been well-supported by the developer and has gathered quite a following in our forums. Over the past few months, however, developer Kevin Hill has been fairly quiet, leading us to wonder just what he's been up to.

As it turns out, with the roguelike formula held firmly in mind, Kevin's been busy at work on a new iPhone game. Yesterday, in our forums, Kevin announced his forthcoming title Spirit Hunter Mineko: Demon's Reach.

Spirit Hunter Mineko: Demon's Reach is a roguelike / dungeon crawler with a bit of a backstory. The game centers around Mineko, an average teenage girl who enjoys exploration, spelunking, and sparring with tough monsters. Stubborn, short-tempered, and rebellious, Mineko lives with her family in a secluded mountaintop village. She is a Spirit Hunter, trained from a young age in the art of channeling her spirit to perform magical feats. And while she demonstrates great skill, she is still treated like a child by her village. However, Mineko's chance to prove herself has just arrived.

One dark night a vicious storm kicks up, tearing through the valley below and whistling through the peaks that she calls home. Upon waking the next day, Mineko and every last member of the village are amazed to see that this was no ordinary storm! Down in the valley that previously contained nothing but dense forest, a huge castle has materialized... apparently from thin air! Its sinister appearance, as though an enormous evil hand was stretching out of the earth towards some unseen desire, immediately earns it the name "Demons Reach".

The village council decides to send a scout into the valley to investigate and, in a move that infuriates Mineko, her brother is chosen for the task. Not one to mope about the house, Mineko grabs up her dagger and crossbow, opens the hidden door in the floor of her bedroom, and it's off to high adventure she goes.

Spirit Hunter Mineko, while a dungeon crawler like Rogue Touch, is rather more similar to some of the iconic SNES and Gameboy Advance adventures of the past. It features a unique world with monsters, gameplay mechanics, and graphics not inspired by any existing roguelike. Unlike the much more graphically simple Rogue Touch, the new title is an OpenGL ES-based affair featuring smooth-scrolling travel through the game's various levels. As the development of the title progresses, detailed animations and particle effects will come into play, as well. The developer likens his vision of the completed title to Shiren the Wanderer for the DS.

Kevin has just posted an early video of the game that serves as more of a "tech demo" of the game system as it stands currently than a demonstration of any meaningful gameplay.

The developer tells us that, while the early video demonstrates his line-of-sight algorithm, he plans to finesse the system with a smooth-shadow effect before release. He also indicates that the onscreen mini-map, in the final game, will start small and slowly fill out as you explore the randomly-generated levels. And, while the video shows only the game's dungeon environments, there are currently four different environments / tilesets planned for the release version.

We're told that there's much left to do in this title before it's ready for the App Store, but, remembering Rogue Touch, we're rather confident that the end result will be worth the wait. Stay tuned for more on ChronoSoft's Spirit Hunter Mineko: Demon's Reach down the road.

Halfbrick's latest game actually started its life on the PlayStation Network as a PSP Mini, along side Fieldrunners and a small hand full of other similar bite-sized titles. Recently making its way to the iPhone, Blast Off is nearly identical to its PSP counterpart, with the control scheme as the main differentiator.

In Blast Off, you control a tiny rocket ship blasting through space rescuing astronauts. Touching the screen tilts your ship in that direction and fires your rocket, usually sending you off that way. Your enemy in the game is gravity, and the game is over when you crash-- Numerous celestial bodies are scattered across each level, each which have a different effect on your ships trajectory.

As you blast through space, you have to keep an eye on your air and fuel gauges. Air serves as the timer for the levels, and fuel is consumed as you touch the screen to let off rocket burns. Once you get a feel for how the ship performs in space, it won't take long for you to sling shot around planets and use gravity to your advantage to really only need to fire your rocket for minor course changes.

Two different game modes are included, endless mode where you need to rescue as many astronauts as possible while picking up power ups to refuel and refill your air supply. Classic mode consists of 45 levels with multiple difficulties where players must collect as many astronauts on screen as possible then make their way to the warpgate without running out of air or fuel. Both game modes are a lot of fun, although I've found myself preferring endless mode.

Online scores and achievements are tracked via OpenFeint, and Halfbrick has even released the game's soundtrack as a free download on their site. If you've had fun with these kinds of gravity puzzle games in the past, Blast Off is really worth a look.

App Store Link: Blast Off, 99¢

Last week, TouchArcade attended the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2010 in San Francisco, CA. It was an intense and incredibly fun week of developer meetings, parties and events.

We got sneak peeks at a number of games which we've already reported on and a number of unannounced titles that we'll be hearing more about in the near future. Even though GDC officially ended last Saturday, we're still recovering from the trip and catching up on the backlog of games and news that has come out since. We also expect a few more GDC-related posts to trickle out over the next few days.

The iPhone game that seems to have gotten the most buzz at GDC 2010 wasn't even a finished game. Sword and Sworcery definitely wins the prize as the biggest surprise of the trip. In this week's podcast we discuss the reason why the game -- even in its unfinished form -- seemed to have captured people's imaginations so much.

And our reactions weren't out of the place, as the game has seen a similar reaction amongst other gaming sites as well.

In our GDC Wrapup Podcast we also discuss other interesting games including Sketch Nation, Faraway, Assault Squadron as well as games from Gameloft, Namco and the promise of iPad gaming.

In my mind, the biggest value of these large conferences to developers is the after-hours events and meet ups with other iPhone developers. As much as TouchArcade is a news and review site, it is also a massive community that successfully brings both developers and players together. It's great to meet up in person with TouchArcade forum regulars who happen to also be developers, even if just to say "hi".

Check out our GDC 2010 Wrapup podcast where Blake, Eli and I discuss the most interesting games that we saw.

Podcast music provided by Overclocked Remix.

Podcast: Subscribe in iTunes or Direct Download (M4A, 42MB)

It seems as if EA's rapid fire release schedule we saw in 2009 is continuing right through to 2010 with the three games that they just revealed new screenshots of today. We don't know that much about these games yet, but should very soon judging by how EA has handled iPhone game launches in the past.

Sim City Deluxe

Coming this summer, Sim City Deluxe looks to be a significant upgrade from the original iPhone Sim City released in late 2008. The interface appears to have been tweaked, and the game also is loaded with new natural disasters and a pinch-zoom function.

The Sims 3 World Adventures

Yet another Sims expansion, this time focusing on exotic destinations such as Egypt and the far east. World Adventures for the PC includes tons of hidden treasures and new things for your Sims to discover, and it seems like we can expect the same out of the iPhone port. Oh, and of course, what would a Sims expansion be without new clothes and furniture?

2010 FIFA World Cup

Set in South Africa, this game appears to be an evolution of FIFA 10 which we enjoyed in our review. If you're a soccer fan, this is likely the soccer game to look forward to on the iPhone.

We will be following up with all of these games as more details are revealed.