Early this year we first caught wind of the hybrid poker RPG Sword & Poker [$1.99 / Free] and instantly fell in love with the game to the point of awarding it 5 stars in our January best iPhone games listing.

The basic premise of the game is explained in our review:

At the core is a card-based strategy/adventure game where battles take place by making poker hands on a 5×5 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.

We don't really know anything yet about Sword & Poker 2 other than that it is coming soon, and the other sparse details on the Sword & Poker 2 web site. Obviously there are going to be new dungeons, and even new weapons and magic to players to wield. The story is a continuation of the original game, and from the sounds of it, Sword & Poker 2 is going to provide even more Sword & Poker gameplay.

Personally, I can't wait for the sequel. Sword & Poker really surprised me with how much fun I had with the game and I look forward to making my way through even more dungeons in Sword & Poker 2. If this is the first you've heard of Sword & Poker, please, if nothing else, try the lite version.

NimbleBit is holding another Freebie Friday on April 23rd, this time the free game being offered is their newest release, Dizzypad for the iPhone. It's already gone free for those of you who want to jump on it early.

We gave Dizzypad 4 stars back in February for being a fun casual game.

The goal is to simply get as far as you can while jumping from lily pad to lily pad. Each lily pad is spinning in place, and a well timed tap on the screen will launch you forward. The trick is to wait until you are facing the right direction and off you go. Sounds simple, eh?

In addition to making their iPhone version of Dizzypad free for the day, Nimblebit has announced that Dizzypad is coming to the iPad as well. The iPad version of Dizzypad will be freemium, where you will get the classic game mode, 30 unlockable frog skins, and plus+ with awards and leaderboards included. In addition, there will also be three new game modes available to purchase through DLC for $1.99 each:

Sliders: A fun twist on the classic mode. Test your timing with pads that slide back and forth instead of rotating in place!
Memory: Be a froggy matchmaker and test your memory by picking frog pairs. Guaranteed to sharpen your wits!
Battle: Duke it out on the pond with a friend in this 2 player mode! Try your best to gobble each other up until your frog grows the largest.

Dizzypad for the iPad has already been submitted, so expect to see it soon in the AppStore.

Here's a video of the iPhone version in action:

Owners of the original iPhone will remember the dark days before the App Store or even the original jailbreaks and third party software when games and apps consisted of nothing more than clever web pages, usually loaded to the brim with javascript. The games were basic, and the "apps" consisted of little more than simple database-powered applets and tip calculators, but they did the trick.

Akihabara is a HTML5 toolbox filled with all kinds of neat goodies that creative developers can use to make browser games. On the Akihabara web site there are five demo games ranging from a simple Tetris-like game to a basic Zelda clone. The cool part is, these games work on every modern non-Internet Explorer browser, including the browsers of the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, and apparently even other touchscreen phones like the Palm Pre.

Depending on what platform you're playing on, all of the proper controls appear on screen or you use the keyboard and arrow keys. On the iPhone, virtual controls pop up at the bottom of the screen and while they're not as responsive as a native game, it's still pretty amazing to think you're essentially playing a web page-- Without even a smidge of Flash.

All of the games on the Akihabara site are free, and really worth a spin both because they're really impressive pieces of web development but also so you can appreciate what things were like before the App Store came around.

Chaos Rings [$12.99] producer Takehiro Ando posted a note on the Square Enix Facebook page today that confirms the existence of Chaos Rings HD for the iPad. Ecstatic with the success the iPhone version of the game has seen, Ando has the game running on the iPad, but admits it needs quite a few tweaks to get everything how it needs to be before it's ready to be released.

Chaos Rings seems to be a massive success so far, annihilating the top grossing charts in multiple markets and even beating out the $14.99 MLB.com At Bat 2010 app- A particularly massive feat, especially considering how early we are in the baseball season. The Facebook notes doesn't give much detail beyond the above photo showing the game running full screen on the iPad Ando thinking that Chaos Rings on the iPad is a "good idea".

If this is the first you've heard of Chaos Rings, go take a peek at our review. We enjoyed the game a ton. If you haven't picked up the game yet and own an iPad, it might not be a bad idea to wait for more news on Chaos Rings HD to leak out of Square Enix first.

Gameprom has more than proven themselves on the App Store with three fantastic iPhone pinball games: Wild West Pinball, [99¢], The Deep Pinball [99¢], and Jungle Style Pinball [99¢]. Their latest game, The Pinball [$2.99], combines the three of these games in to a single high-resolution iPad game.

All of the high scoring, table objectives, and everything else from the three iPhone games are included, in addition to several different options for playing the game in 3D using stereoscopic 3D glasses. The red/cyan 3D works fairly well, but feels kind of gimmicky like most games that feature this kind of 3D.

Much like the iPhone versions, the pinball physics of each of the included games are phenomenal, but what has left me scratching my head with The Pinball HD is how few view options are included. The iPhone games are played in portrait mode and the camera can either follow the ball or zoom out to view the whole table. On the iPad, this is controlled by which way you orient the device.

Holding it horizontally allows you to see the whole table at an odd skewed perspective, while holding it in portrait mode follows the ball around. This really seems backwards, and I'd love to see the whole table in portrait mode. Judging by the response in our forums, I'm not alone on that.

Even though the camera is kind of weird, The Pinball HD seems to be the best pinball collection available for the iPad right now. Gameprom has had a fantastic history of updating and maintaining their games, so I have faith they'll listen to and implement feedback to change the in-game camera around.

A few days ago Gameloft released some new screenshots of the upcoming iPhone version of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction that we first saw back at GDC. They also promised a "new revelation" regarding the game, which we've since discovered to be an iPhone-exclusive level where players try out their sea legs and captain a speed boat down the Potomac River.

In other news, Gameloft is also releasing an iPhone Iron Man 2 game. IGN got a peek at the game, and it sounds like it's going to provide an impressive amount of fan service with multiple Iron Man suits, Warmachine, and all kinds of suit upgrades that you earn across nine included levels that presumably span the major scenes of the movie.

Finally, the last tidbit from Gameloft is little more than a 16 second teaser trailer:

So far the thread in our forums nearly unanimously agrees that this is some kind of Prince of Persia game, and with the movie coming soon, it would make a lot of sense that Gameloft would release this with the movie just like they did with the Avatar game. Since all three of these games seem like they have potential to be pretty cool, stay tuned for more updates as we get them.

Update: Also, there's a Hero of Sparta II trailer that was recently released which doesn't show any gameplay, but confirms its existence and also teases a contest to visit Gameloft in Paris:

Yesterday I stumbled across ESP Training [99¢] on Kotaku and have since had a lot of fun fooling around with the test at bars with friends, then I discovered the even better free app, Fake ESP [Free]. While not technically a game, these two apps can be a great time, especially if your friends are fans of Ghostbusters.

The cards included in these apps are actually Zener cards, designed in the early 1930's to test for clairvoyance and telepathy. Consisting of 25 cards, 5 of each design, the subject is asked to determine which card is being held up without any visual or vocal queues. With the iPhone, this is accomplished by placing your iPhone screen down, and assuming your extra-sensory perception is in order, you should be able to determine the correct card with greater than 20% accuracy.

Dr. Peter Venkman administers this very test at the beginning of Ghostbusters:

While ESP Training actually is a serious app which graphs your progress, Fake ESP is the same test with a much more fun fake mode. In fake mode, the next card which is displayed is controlled by which area of the bottom of the screen you touch. When you're doing this, it's probably a good idea to miss a few every once in a while to try to make it not too obvious that you're faking it.

App Store Links: ESP Training, 99¢ - Fake ESP, Free

Last week we took a look at Rabah Shihab's excellent platformer Babylonian Twins, a game 16 years in the making, and very much liked what we saw in both the iPhone and iPad versions. Now is a great time to give the game a try, as the developer has just put both versions of Babylonian Twins on sale through the end of the weekend.

Babylonian Twins [App Store] is now $0.99, down from $3.99, while Babylonian Twins HD [App Store] is on sale for $1.99, down from $4.99.

Not liking the way his home country, Iraq, was being portrayed in video games at the time, Shihab began development of the title with the goal of countering that negative image. While he did manage to release a well-loved demo of the game for the Amiga (the original platform), the harsh conditions caused by the economic sanctions of Iraq at the time left the game hanging in semi-complete obscurity for years. Luckily for iPhone gamers, the developer has brought Babylonian Twins -- both a port and a re-imagination of the Amiga original -- to the iPhone.

App Store Links: Babylonian Twins, $0.99, Babylonian Twins HD, $1.99

Admittedly, I seem to be behind the times when it comes to modern-day board games. So when Gameloft announced the release of Blokus [AppStore], it barely registered on my radar, despite its award winning table-top origins.

For anyone else in my position (though I'm sure the majority of you are better informed) a description of Blokus is warranted. A colorful, tetris-like affair, Blokus has you competing against other players to cover more of the board in your tiles than can. The trick is that you have at your disposal 21 differently shaped tiles, which can only connect at the corners-- no adjacent or touching tiles are allowed of your own color or the move is invalid. Each player takes it in turn to play one tile, until players are eventually eliminated by being unable to play a valid turn. Squares are then counted up, with the player owning the most tiles on the board claiming victory.

It's a simple process that evidently has an enormous amount of strategic value for those wishing to understand the nuts and bolts of the gameplay and really get good. Fortunately for the uninitiated, Gameloft have compiled a set of single-player tournaments to teach you the basic strategies and handling of the game. The controls are smartly designed and easy to learn-- tiles are twisted and flipped with intuitive swiping and rotational gestures, and are picked up by simply tapping the tiles in the bottom tray. After mastering the controls, the rest of the single player Tournament mode introduces a number of gameplay variations to keep things interesting, including the two player board game variant, Blokus Duo.

While the single player Tournament mode is challenging enough, offering 6 cups to unlock scaling up to the Legend difficulty, Multiplayer is where the game appears to shine. I say appears because at the time of this writing, I came across no games to join, nor were any that I created populated. This was really a shame, as it is clear that a game as rich in strategy as Blokus supporting up to 4 players simply needs to be played competitively. Gameloft have done a great job facilitating the multiplayer element of Blokus too, offering both an Online mode (WiFi and 3G supported) and a Network mode to connect to your friends.

If you're a fan of the board game, you won't need me to tell you that this is a game that really gets you thinking. You'll soon learn through lots of trial and error (and cursing, as your opponent deftly blocks your entire gameplan) just when and how a particular piece should be played, or how to shut down a particularly aggressive opposing player. It's a great looking, quick-paced game that is perfectly suited to the App Store, and shouldn't require much thought to pick up for those interested in strategic and competitive multiplayer puzzlers.

Here's hoping that more people get on board the online multiplayer system!

App Store Link: Blokus, $4.99.

The extremely popular Facebook game, FarmVille, may be making its way to the AppStore. FarmVille is a farming simulation game, where users plant, grow, and harvest virtual crops along with raising livestock, similar to the freemium ngmoco game We Rule [iPhone / iPad] that was released last month. FarmVille is developed by the company Zynga, who is no stranger to the AppStore, with over 40 applications including Mafia Wars and Live Poker.

News of this broke when Supererogatory posted that DNStination Inc. registered the domain names farmvilleipad.com, and farmvilleiphone.com. DNStination is the same company that holds the domain name to the official farmville.com website by Zynga.

When Mashable.com asked a spokesperson for Zynga about it, they were told, “Zynga plans to expand to various mobile platforms." However, they were not able to get any more information. With the combination of the new domain names,  Zynga's willingness to move to mobile devices, and their history of being in the AppStore, it seems likely that FarmVille may be coming.

It will be interesting to see if the mobile devices that 'Zynga plans to expand to' will include all the features that the full version has available online.

The Muteki Corporation, creators of Topple 2 [99¢ / Free] and The Battle of Pirate Bay [99¢ / Free] had a new game hit the App Store recently, Super Jetpack Dragon IV: Village Burntopia [iPhone: Free / iPad: $1.99]. Similar to Adult Swim's free online flash game, Robot Unicorn Attack, Super Jetpack Dragon IV: Village Burntopia is a high-scoring endurance games where players play as a dragon running across the countryside capable of jumping, briefly gliding, and smashing through walls depending on which side of the screen you touch.

Scoring high involves picking up meat, burning every town you come across, and most importantly, not dying. As you get farther and farther your dragon runs even faster, creating a slow but steady difficulty curve. There are also a bundle of Plus+ achievements to unlock, and the entire game is set to some awesome rock music.

The iPhone version is completely free, with a brief interstitial ad (currently for Bing.com) between loading the game and playing. If you want the HD iPad version, be prepared to fork out two bucks for basically the same game with higher resolution graphics.

Sure, Super Jetpack Dragon IV: Village Burntopia is a little on the simple side, but I have a hard time complaining about a fun free game that helps me pad my Plus+ gamer score.

App Store Links: iPhone: Super Jetpack Dragon IV: Village Burntopia, Free - iPad: Super Jetpack Dragon IV: Village Burntopia HD, $1.99

Venan Entertainment's Space Miner [$4.99 / Free] seems to be universally loved by nearly everyone who touches it. We couldn't get enough of the game in our review, and it is one of the few iPhone games video games I've ever played where I enjoyed playing through it so much the first time that immediately after I beat the game the first time I started a second play through on the next higher difficulty.

From our review:

In short, it's Asteroids meets the RPG. But that description really doesn't do the game justice.

Space Miner places you in the role of the nephew of good ole' Uncle Jebediah Gritstone, proprietor of the galactic Gritstone Mining Station. Uncle Jeb has hired you on to help with the ore mining and it's with much excitement that you make your way to his mining station in your veritable space jalopy. Once on board, things get complicated (it's a long story, enjoy it in-game) and Uncle Jeb is desperately counting on you to go out into the neighboring sectors, blast asteroids, and bring back the precious ore contained within. The more ore you collect, the bigger your cut of the profits. But the pitiful ship you start off with is hardly up to the task.

As you accumulate profits, the money can be spent in Uncle Jeb's shop, where more powerful ships, weapons, shields, ore collectors, power plants, and the like can be purchased. It doesn't take long to find yourself sitting in a decent ship with multiple ore blasters, a sizable cargo bay, and an ore collector that can get the job done. And the whole package is done up with a great deal of spot-on humorous dialog and even an amusing banjo-based audio track that fits ole' Uncle Jeb's operation to a T. (There's no doubt that he's got a still hidden somewhere on that rock of his.) ...Read More

This update makes this amazing game even better. If you've got an iPhone 3GS or 3rd generation iPod touch, you will be able to enjoy new shader effects on the asteroids that really make the game look a lot cooler. If you don't have a new device, you'll still be able to enjoy the rest of the new features which include a new level 7 pilot's license which unlocks even more spaceship upgrades. Also, five new pieces of alien technology are floating about somewhere in space for you to find.

My favorite addition is the new even harder UltracORE perma-death difficulty mode. Perma-death always adds an amazing sense of danger to a game, and seeing how far I can get in Space Miner on UltracORE has pretty much owned my evening so far.

The difficulty curve of the game has been slightly tweaked, and to go with all of these new features comes another set of Plus+ achievements for players to unlock as well as Facebook and Twitter integration to make sure your friends know exactly how good you are at the game.

If you haven't picked up Space Miner yet, this is an excellent opportunity to do so. It's on my short list of games I tell people to check out after buying an iPhone, and if nothing else, you really should give the lite version a spin. Space Miner is a fantastic game made even better by this update.

App Store Links: Space Miner: Space Ore Bust, $4.99 - Space Miner: Space Ore Bust Lite, Free

Half Brick Studios just released a simple but challenging casual game called Fruit Ninja.

The game is a simple affair that has you swiping at the screen to dismember pieces of fruit that are lobbed in your general direction.

It's a bit of a shooting-gallery type experience but one you are swiping to slice rather than tapping to shoot. You're only allowed to miss 3 pieces of fruit before it's game over -- but beware, slicing a single bomb (thrown up randomly) will result in an instant game over.

In fact, it's so simple, that it's hard to explain the appeal. The overall game is put together quite well, and the swipe mechanism is strangely satisfying. The biggest feature for the game, however, is the quick ramp up in difficulty. It doesn't take long before you are anxiously awaiting the next volley of fruit since it takes a quick reaction time to keep playing. Here's the developer's promotional video:

App Store Link: Fruit Ninja, $0.99

Yesterday we posted our close look at the excellent RPG Chaos Rings [App Store], an iPhone exclusive and the latest from Square Enix. In celebration of the release of this new title, the studio today began a two week sale on all of their games.

• Final Fantasy, $8.99 → $6.99 [ review ]
• Final Fantasy II, $8.99 → $6.99 [ review ]
• Crystal Defenders, $7.99 → $5.99 [ review ]
• Vanguard Storm, $4.99 → $3.99 [ review ]
• Sliding Heroes, $2.99 → $.99
• Hills and Rivers Remain, $6.99 → $4.99 [ review ]
• Song Summoner: The Unsung Heroes - Encore, $9.99 → $7.99 [ review ]
• Final Fantasy XIII Larger-than-Life Gallery, $8.99 → $5.99

Freeverse's recently released space conquest game, Warpgate [iPad / iPhone] saw its first update yesterday on the iPad and iPhone. Aside from a pile of bug fixes and performance improvements, the main change in Warpgate 1.1 is how combat works.

Previously, combat in Warpgate consisted of you watching your ship fly in circles with enemy ships and fire your various weapons whenever they were ready. In this update, tilting your device actually controls the movement of your ship in battle, and skilled pilots will be able to either dodge enemy missiles entirely, or at least delay their impact.

Also, you are able to divert your power to your ship's shields to lessen the damage taken by a barrage of enemy attacks. The down side is by diverting power to your shields, all your weapons lose their charge as if you had just fired them all, and you won't be able to attack until they recharge. Since one of our complaints about the game was the simple combat system, it's pretty great to have some more interactivity in this part of the game.

Warpgate 1.2 which is nearing submission to Apple is addressing even more of our complaints with a Plus+ powered save game system that will allow players to synchronize their game data between different devices, as well as keeping a backup online. This was actually one of my biggest concerns in our review, and I'm ecstatic to see it addressed. Also coming in 1.2 is the ability to turn off the tilt battle controls seen in 1.1.

If this is the first you've heard of Warpgate, give our review a look. The game is a lot of fun, and without any real end to the game, I'm still happily playing it today while building a massive space empire.

App Store Links: Warpgate HD, $7.99 (iPad) - Warpgate, $4.99 (iPhone)