Yesterday, Fun Guy Media released Entombed for the iPhone [App Store], an exploration puzzler set in the labyrinthine underground tombs of ancient civilizations. The game is something of a grave-robber scenario, but the other way around.

You play the role of Blake (indeed), whose father, a heroic archeologist in his time, has recently died in a freak accident, leaving you with a dread family legacy. During his life, your father explored the ancient tombs of long lost civilizations -- the Egyptians, the Incas, the Aztecs, the Persians, and the like. He stripped them of their treasures for display in museums around the world, but, known only to his closest family members, he secretly kept a number of precious items for his own, personal collection. Over the years, your family has seen many a dark and tragic event befall them, your father's recent demise among them. Upon consulting an Egyptian mystic, you learn that the only way to avoid the same unfortunate end as your father is to return the artifacts in the secret collection to their rightful resting place.

And, so the adventure begins. As you move through the levels of this game, your goal is to return the artifacts in question, which requires solving various puzzles that riddle these subterranean labyrinths to get to your final destination. Along the way you will find various objects and obstacles that must be collected, moved, or crumbled in order to gain access to closed off areas of the tomb. There are pits, dart traps, sliding walls, and sketching challenges that test your observation skills as an archeologist.

You negotiate the many twists and turns of these catacombs by tapping where you'd like to move. Certain objects can be tapped to trigger interactions and a pinch / spread mechanic is used to zoom in and out of the play area. The angled top-down 3D graphics are simple but nice, with great, moody lighting accompanied by a similarly atmospheric audio track.

See our demo video that shows bits of early gameplay.

I, along with several forum readers, encountered a few glitches here and there in the game which required a level restart. It's an unfortunate blemish on a clever and enjoyable game, but I expect the developer to address these in a near-term update. Despite the glitches, our forum members are rather enjoying this one.

If you're one of the many people who always loved the Super Monkey Ball games on consoles, but never could really get in to the iPhone and iPad iterations because of control issues (I'm definitely one of those people), Aerox [$1.99] by Synoptical Studios is worth checking out. Aerox features extremely clean looking graphics, almost as if the game itself was designed as some part of a Aperture Science training program. This graphical style is paired with soothing music which creates an oddly relaxing experience-- A phrase I never really thought I'd use to describe a ball rolling puzzle game.

Much like Super Monkey Ball, the object of Aerox is to roll your ball to the end of each level. In between the beginning and the pillar of light you must reach are all kinds of crazy obstacles ranging from simple ramps, moving platforms, and narrow platforms. It doesn't take long for the difficulty of the game to ramp up and throw other physics-based obstacles at you. For instance, you'll need to bump in to tall skinny blocks to get them to fall over to make a bridge to cross, other times there will be objects you need to move around to pass, or even move out of the way so a ramp can drop down to climb up.

The ball is controlled by tilting, and tilting your device back and forth controls rolling while tilting right or left controls the camera. For additional precision, you can touch and hold the screen and the camera will lock behind your ball at which point tilting right or left causes you to roll that direction. It's a pretty decent setup, although I have found myself rolling out of control by tilting too much and having the camera skew to an unexpected angle. A sensitivity slider in the options would likely solve this problem, which the developer has mentioned is coming in an update in the Aerox thread on our forums.

Aerox utilizes the graphical power of the iPhone 3GS, 3rd generation iPod touch, and iPhone 4 to do realtime reflections on the ball along with some fancy shadow generation not available on other devices. Currently the game runs at the typical 480x320 iOS game resolution, but in the not too distant future is getting updated with complete Retina Display support along with universal iPad compatibility.

With 30 levels to go through, online leader boards (although they haven't been working for me), and updates on the horizon to make the game take advantage of the increased resolution of iPad and iPhone 4, there's a lot to like about Aerox. The game isn't perfect, as I'd love to see some mid-level checkpoints added, but people on our forums are enjoying it, and it's easy to get behind any game with developers actively participating in the forums with plans to implement user suggestions in future updates.

If I had to list three things the App Store needs less of, fart apps, games with zombies, and line drawing as a control method would all be at or near the top. iPhone developer Mutant Games would apparently disagree with that statement, judging by their upcoming game which merges these three App Store cliches in to one unholy abomination of a game which oddly enough looks like it might actually be fun especially considering the sky high novelty value of the game.

In Farts VS. Zombies, you play as a Chuck Norris lookalike with your pants dropped in front of an endless conveyor belt of food with your butt pointed at an incoming swarm of zombies. The foods you eat determine what kind of fart you will generate, and these fart clouds can then be routed around the room by drawing lines for them to follow. The goal of the game is to protect japanese school girls, who you will need to make sure your fart clouds stay away from while you gas said zombies. Your ultimate attack of sorts seems to be some kind of projectile vomit, which can clear entire swaths of zombies and is aimed by tilting your device.

Farts VS. Zombies has both a survival mode and a story mode... And I can't wait to see how the plot unfolds as per the trailer the ultimate battle at the end of the game is against an evil unicorn who may or may not be responsible for sending hordes of zombies your way.

Farts VS. Zombies is still in development, and hopefully by the time it's released Mutant Games will have time to implement some form of doodle graphics as well. For more information, check out the thread in our forums.

There are a lot of options for turn-based and real-time strategy games on the App Store, and plenty of quality role-playing games too. But if you're looking for a combination of the two, your choices are sorely limited (unless you want to count the Sega rerelease of Genesis classic Shining Force [$2.99] that just came out). That changed yesterday however with the release of The War of Eustrath [$2.99] for iPhone. iPad owners have been enjoying this title for almost two months now, since The War of Eustrath HD [$7.99] has been available since early June. Now that the iPhone version has arrived, owners of both devices can enjoy tactical turn-based battles wrapped in an intriguing anime storyline.

Since I missed the iPad version of The War of Eustrath the first time around, I was really excited to engage in some tactical battles with the iPhone version. What I wasn't expecting is to actually be engrossed in the storyline that accompanies the action. It certainly has some cliché elements, but the anime style character portraits and feelings of emotion they convey do a great job of keeping you interested in what's going on. The only major issue in this department is the many grammatical errors that plague the written text, but it's never to the point that you can't follow along or misunderstand what is trying to be said.

Besides the surprisingly good story, there are some excellent tactical battles in The War of Eustrath. Your team of characters in the game control giant mechs called GEARs which can be upgraded and leveled up as you play. Each GEAR can have elemental tendencies such as lighting or air that give them additional special abilities. Battles take place on an overhead grid in turn-based fashion, and engaging with enemies shows the battle play out in a zoomed in side view of the GEARs. The different terrains you travel to during the game are varied and play a big part in choosing your strategy for each battle. It's all pretty standard stuff for games like this, but is well done and enjoyable.

What's really nice about The War of Eustrath is that the UI has been built lovingly around the touch interface. Accessing menus and moving your team around the maps works really well, and the extra screen real estate of the iPad provides an even less cluttered experience (although at a substantially higher price). Things feel a little cramped on the iPhone, but not overwhelmingly so. There's also a ton of content in the game with over 50 campaign missions, some of which can play out with multiple results, altering how the story flows. Players in our forums are loving the game, as iPad owners have for the last couple months in that versions game thread. If you like tactical turn-based battling, giant upgradeable robots, and compelling storytelling, take a look at The War of Eustrath for either iPhone or iPad.

One of our favorite turn-based strategy games, Highborn, has just received a new update and has gone free for today only. Released in early June of this year, Highborn has a wonderful art style, clever writing, single player campaign, and an asynchronous multiplayer mode. Using the typical top-down grid view of most strategic games like this, once you engage in battle with an enemy the game switches to a 3D animation of the ensuing fight between your troops and the enemy. It's a really neat effect, and the overall presentation of Highborn really impresses. As you can see from this excerpt, we really loved the game in our full review:

Highborn comfortably sits as one of the best turn-based strategy games we have played on the iPhone. Beyond its dialogue and characters, which raise the bar entirely for humour, creativity and personality (and ability to plough right through that fourth wall); Highborn looks and plays fantastically, with a depth and attention to detail in its presentation that constantly surprises (just take a look at the character descriptions to see what I mean). If you look past the Facebook integration (which we understand some of you won't, though we strongly urge you to), Highborn also has a lasting and engrossing multiplayer mode that is excellently paced and perfect for portable devices. With additional campaigns promised beyond the 8 lengthy missions currently available (they'll take you hours to complete), Highborn is a robust and content-heavy turn-based strategy game that will surely leave you impressed.

What you can also see from that snippet is that while we loved the way the multiplayer mode worked, we absolutely hated that it forced you to use Facebook to take part in it. I'm sure many other players felt the same, and likely shied away from the multiplayer aspect because of this. Developer Jet Set Games recognized this, and in an update released a couple days ago Facebook was taken out in favor of the OpenFeint social network. While not everyone is a fan of OpenFeint either, it at least affords a way to enjoy the multiplayer in the game without having to add strangers to your own personal Facebook friend list, and doesn't even require an email or any personal info to sign up for. There's even the inclusion of player chat thanks to OpenFeint, not to mention the 30 million strong user base.

Besides Highborn for iPhone being free today, there's also an iPad version that has just been released. The iPad version adds the usual benefits of sharper graphics and a larger play area due to the bigger screen, but essentially the two versions are identical. This isn't necessarily a bad thing though, as the iPhone version is of such high quality and the introductory price for the iPad version is only $2.99. And while Highborn has a fairly decent single player campaign already, what I'm really waiting for is the addition of the second chapter that is hinted at in the game. Still, for one of the best strategy games available on the App Store there's no reason not to at least grab the iPhone version of Highborn while it's free for today only.

When John Kooistra of Cat in a Box Games first contacted us about Fastar! and we ran our preview post, I really wasn't sure where they were going with the game. Reading the promotional materials and watching the trailer (embedded below) sounded promising, but I wasn't sure if the game was actually going to be fun to play, or just a satirical jab at the repetitiveness of action RPG's filled with generic enemies of different sizes and colors, vague fantasy worlds, and tons of button mashing. The emphasis on speed runs sounded interesting, but in order for speed runs to be appealing you need to have compelling gameplay, and I just wasn't sure whether or not Fastar! would be up to the task.

I'm happy to report that Fastar!, or Fight Angry Squares: The Action RPG, is a ridiculous amount of fun. So much so, that working up the motivation to stop playing the game to actually write this review has been something I've spent the better part of this afternoon doing and once I'm done I'm going to go right back to working on completing a hard mode run through, despite the fact that the siren call of StarCraft II has been taunting me to actually play it since it came out this Tuesday.

The object of Fastar! is delightfully simple. Basically, all you do is run to the right, kill everything that moves, collect coins, spend those coins on upgrades, and make it to the finish as quickly as possible. What makes Fastar! so much fun is the insane amount of variety in the game. While all the enemies you will come across are squares of different sizes and colors, they all behave differently. Some are extremely aggressive and lunge right towards you as soon as they appear on screen, while others will do everything they can to avoid your attacks including jumping clear over your character's head. There are giant squares that move slow but do tons of damage, very fast moving small squares, and the different squares can even use the several magical spells included in the game. It's really strange how much personality these squares manage to have, and how you get to know them once you spend some time with the game. (Argh, damn you, green squares!)

On top of all the different enemies, there are 24 different game modes which all manage to feel different even though the gameplay itself is essentially the same. For instance, there are three standard game modes ranging from easy to hard that provide the "classic" Fastar! experience which pits you up against various enemies to complete the game as fast as possible. Alternatively, there is "profit" mode which emphasizes making money and puts the player to the task of collecting as much money as possible in five minutes, "showdown" mode where you fight 25 enemies as quickly as possible, "sudden death" mode where you only have 50 hit points and basically one hit will kill you, and many others. I'm preferring "arena" mode which is a survival mode of sorts with an endless supply of squares to kill with high scores measured by the number of rounds you're able to survive.

The RPG elements of Fastar! are fairly basic, but do the trick just fine. At points throughout the game, you'll be given the option to upgrade your character. For instance, in the standard game modes you come across towns, or in the "arena" mode a store pops up every 10 rounds. From there, you're able to spend the coins you've collected on boosting your offense or defense as well as healing yourself. This adds yet another layer of complexity on top of this seemingly simple game as you're forced to make decisions such as running back to the previous town to heal at the cost of lost time, or running forward hoping to run across one before dying, thus ruining your entire run.

At the start of each game mode you can choose one of nine magic spells to use on your quest (except in "battlemage" mode where you can choose two). These spells cover the standard array of RPG spells such as fire or lighting attacks to damage opponents, temporary defense boosts, healing, and there's even a spell to instantly warp you back to the previous village. Activating these spells is as easy as tapping a button in the top right corner of the screen, and each spell uses different amounts of power which is displayed in a gauge that slowly refills over time.

The best part about Fastar! is how far above and beyond Cat in the Box games went with polishing this game before its release. I know how incredibly cliche it is to describe a game as "polished" and I hate doing it, believe me, but I can't think of a more accurate way to describe all the little touches here and there that combine to make Fastar! even more awesome. Every part of your Fastar! character is customizable with different colors, and each game mode has its own online leaderboard where your little dude appears exactly how you tweaked him out along with showing which spell you chose for your adventure. There's even four different control modes to play with on-screen controls, swiping, tilting, or one handed.

Fastar! also behaves fantastically as an iPhone game, a pet peeve of mine that far too many games fall victim to. It loads quickly, resumes quickly, and saves your progress exactly where you left off when you quit the game to do something else. It even remembers the last game mode you chose to play and has a big button to mash to replay that mode on the main menu. The game over screen is even fun, as just like when the squares explode in to glorious showers of coins, your character does as well when he's finally slain, and the square that killed you hops on top of your corpse then back and forth collecting all your loot.

The thread in our forums is filled with people in love with the game, and I can't help but agree. Fastar! is a ton of fun, and has all the quick pick-up-and-play-ability of App Store classics like Doodle Jump with a level of depth and complexity that makes Fastar! a blast to play in both the quick game modes that barely last for a minute, and the long difficult game modes that can last for hours... And on top of that, it's launching for a buck.

Anyway, I've spent far too long reviewing this game and can't handle listening to the epic background music of Fastar! loop any more from my phone sitting here on my here desk without playing it. I've got to get back to getting far too involved in slaying squares, yelling at my phone as they drop coins, then eventually getting greedy and dying before reaching the goal. (Or at least that's how the majority of my day has gone so far.)

We got word this afternoon that the Parrot AR.Drone Quadricopter is going to be sold exclusively through Brookstone and is available for pre-order right now for $299.99. Brookstone plans on shipping orders on September 3rd, and the first 300 orders get a free flight bag. (Tempting, I know.) Currently, Brookstone is only willing to ship the Parrot AR.Drone to customers inside of the USA, and optionally available is a $49.95 bundle which includes a additional hull, battery, and an iPhone 3G/3GS case. They're also selling two and three year service plans for $39.99 or $49.99, although it's unclear whether or not breaking your AR.Drone by crashing it in to something is considered "normal wear and tear."

We got our first hands-on at CES 2010 earlier this year and thought it was incredibly cool-

The device is currently controlled using an iPhone/iPod Touch app which communicates through Wi-Fi to the AR.Drone itself. Simply tap on Launch and the AR.Drone takes off and hovers over a stationary spot. On screen controls are easy and effective.

Left/right buttons allow you to rotate 360 degrees in one spot, while up/down buttons control altitude. Pressing on a special button activates tilt-control on the iPhone/iPod Touch itself. This allow you to fly the device by naturally tilting the iPhone itself. Meanwhile, the on screen controls are overlayed with live video coming from the front-facing camera of the Drone itself.

In picking it up for the first time, I found it very easy to maneuver. The main thing I had to get used to was using the drone's point of view to steer, rather than my own. Check out our video:

The Parrot AR.Drone has some serious technology built in to it with its ability to auto-level itself, and pilot itself if it loses the connection with the device you're controlling it with. Remote control helicopters (which require much more skill to fly) sell for upwards of $1,000, making the $299.99 they're asking for everything the AR.Drone is capable of doing seem surprisingly appealing. For more information on the Parrot AR.Drone check out the web site and make sure to take a peek at their gallery of augmented reality games that you can play for the device.

I can't wait to get my hands on one.

The game that put Crescent Moon Games on the map, Ravensword: The Fallen King [99¢ / Free] is on sale this week for 99¢. Originally released in late 2009, Ravensword was incredibly anticipated on our forums, and we really enjoyed playing through it. Since our initial review, the game has been updated with more items and quests, and provides an incredible amount of content for a buck.

Give the lite version a shot, or swing by the thread in our forums which has been going strong since last November. Either way, if you're at all interested in open world RPG's, picking up Ravensword will probably be the best dollar you spend today.

Graveyard Shift [$2.99/Lite] is a new physics puzzle game where you are literally working a graveyard shift in a graveyard putting back skeletons that have inexplicably decided to pop out of their coffins. It features a charming art style that's Retina Display ready, a multitude of levels, and best of all some great level designs that are hard not to appreciate. It also doesn't hurt that the game is universal, and there's a lite to try before you buy. If you like games like Saving Private Sheep, Angry Birds, and Ragdoll Blaster, then Graveyard Shift should be right up your alley.

The premise is that you're a boy looking for a job to earn some extra cash, and you come to find that the local graveyard is hiring. For some odd reason, the skeletons from the graves have popped out of their coffins and perched themselves precariously amongst objects throughout the graveyard. It's your job to use the different properties of these objects and the physics in the game to get the skeleton back into their coffin homes. Some blocks can be touched to make them disappear, some must be touched by the same type block to eliminate them, and some just can't be removed from the level at all. There are also boxes of TNT that can be used to launch objects or the skeletons themselves to aid the task of getting them back to their eternal resting place.

The graphics in Graveyard Shift are nice, with lovely hand drawn backgrounds and crisp in-game elements that look especially great on the iPhone 4. The music is also very catchy and fitting, but the thing that really stands out about the game is the excellent level designs. Some levels are very straightforward, with the skeleton on top of stacks of blocks that must simply be cleared in order for him to fall into the coffin. But others are more complex, and almost Rube Goldberg-esque in their execution. For example, you may pop a box of dynamite that sends a ball rolling down an incline, that will then cause a latch that is holding back a giant pendulum to disappear. Gravity will then cause the pendulum to swing, and once it hits it's apex another box of dynamite is used to blast the pendulum further upwards into a platform where the skeleton resides, catapulting him into the nearby coffin. There's plenty of examples of situations like these during the game's 72 levels, and I certainly had my fair share of laugh out loud moments as I stared in amazement while the level played out.

As much as I enjoyed playing through Graveyard Shift, it's not without a couple problems. The biggest issue is the extremely finicky physics system. While it does create for some hilarious moments with the ragdoll skeleton, it can also cause objects in the game to behave wildly different from one play to the next. As a result, some of the levels can be frustratingly hard as you try to get things to do what you want them to, and completing each one is more luck than anything else. Somehow this doesn't really hinder the enjoyment though, and levels are easy to instantly replay at any moment, which you'll be doing often. The other issues with the game are very minor glitches where sometimes graphics don't display properly or levels load without any objects. These are easily fixed by simply reloading a level, and the developer is already working on an update to iron out these kinks.

Minor issues aside, I had a ton of fun with Graveyard Shift. The moments of figuring out how a level should work and then executing it, all while the ragdoll skeleton is flailing about the screen, brought a smile to my face every time. As an added challenge each level has a par for completion time and taps used, so beyond just completing each one you can also shoot for these goals. Unfortunately there's no sort of social network like OpenFeint to tie these accomplishments together, but at the very least it still adds replay to the game. If you are a fan of these physics games you should definitely try out the lite version of Graveyard Shift, and join in on the forum discussion for further player impressions and developer responses.

As we noted in our EA Hot For The Holidays roundup, the successor to the original SimCity for iPhone SimCity Deluxe [$6.99] is now available in the App Store. While not exactly a sequel, this new version is more of an enhanced version of the original iPhone iteration. From our preview of the game:

This sequel of sorts is basically little more than a makeover of the original SimCity [$2.99], it's a little disappointing that EA is releasing this as a separate game instead of applying these fixes to the existing one, but I suppose you could say the same about most EA sequels. SimCity Deluxe is going to have seasons (and disasters to go with each) as well as graphics that look a lot like SimCity 4 for the PC. In the game you will finally be able to modify the terrain with touch controls, which actually was a lot of fun. The new UI is also substantially less clunky, although still suffers a little just because there's so much you can do in the game and packing all those functions in to a sensible touch-based interface is never going to be easy.

After spending a little time with SimCity Deluxe, it certainly is an improvement over the original, and works rather well on the iPhone touch screen. If you have yet to own SimCity on your device and were thinking that the cheaper original version would suffice, that doesn't appear to be an option anymore. Curiously, the original SimCity for iPhone seems to have been removed from the App Store to make room for its deluxe big brother. I'm not sure if this is a permanent removal, but for the extra few dollars you're probably better off going with this newer version anyway.

Oddly enough, SimCity Deluxe isn't universal, and an iPad version of the game is nowhere to be found in EA's lineup of upcoming games that they've announced. The larger screen seems to be a natural fit for a game this complex, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that EA eventually realizes this as well.

Semi Secret Software seem to be making a name for themselves as developers of games with great pixel art graphics, fantastic music, and high-score centric gameplay that in the case of Canabalt [$2.99] has kept me coming back for just one more try for the better part of a year now. Gravity Hook HD [$2.99] hit the App Store tonight, and provides much of what I loved about Canabalt, only in a vertical climb instead of a side scrolling run. In the game you play as a lovable little robot with a grappling hook who ascends to, well, wherever he's climbing to, by grabbing on to a randomized series of orbs, reeling himself in, then flinging to the next one. Unlike Canabalt which you could hand to anyone with it running on your phone and say "tap the screen to jump," Gravity Hook HD has a bit of a learning curve as you get used to the physics of the game.

The different orbs you can latch on to have different properties, ranging from the green orbs which you can touch without issue, grey orbs which are chained together and fall if you hold on to them too long, and blue orbs which turn in to bombs and explode if you get near them. You're also able to kick off the wall if you can swing your robot towards one, and mastering wall jumping as well as how to handle the different orb types are all required to get very far in Gravity Hook HD.

Just like Canabalt, Gravity Hook HD is playable in its entirety online for free in any browser with the Flash plugin. We've even embedded it below, just make sure you either have your speakers muted or are in an area where you can play sounds before clicking:

Gravity Hook HD is universal, and looks great on both the iPhone and iPad, although I've found myself leaning towards preferring it on the bigger screen. Scores are tracked online via Semi Secret's proprietary system which breaks scores out in to top daily, weekly, and monthly submissions as well as the best scores of all time. Gravity Hook HD translates very well to touch controls, and while you can play the whole game for free with a mouse, it really is a much better experience with your finger.

If you've been waiting for a game wrapped in Sega's mediocre emulator that's finally worth buying, that day has come. Shining Force [$2.99] hit the App Store mere moments ago, and as mentioned in our preview yesterday, it's amazing how much the overall experience of playing these emulated games is improved when playing a slow-paced game that doesn't depend on emulator performance or precise controls. In said preview, I explained the basics of Shining Force:

Shining Force is a tactical RPG with turn-based battles that take place on square grids. Originally released in the USA in 1993, Shining Force is about as classic as you get when it comes to a Sega RPG. Not only has it been included in various classic game collections that Sega has released on numerous platforms over the years, but it also saw a remake in 2004 for the Gameboy Advance. This is the original Genesis version of the game, set in the land of Rune where you play a silent protagonist who recruits allies to the Shining Force to ultimately prevent the evil Darksol from resurrecting a Dark Dragon, destroying the world, and doing all those other things which have since become entirely cliche for RPG villains to do.

While Shining Force may seem a little basic if you haven't played it before and your first exposure to turn based strategy games was Final Fantasy Tactics or later games, Shining Force has everything it needs for a great old school RPG. Each character has their own class (and personality which is often revealed throughout the story) along with special abilities. As you battle your units level up, and my favorite feature of Shining Force always was that there never really is a game over. If your party falls in battle you retain all your experience earned and just try again. Of course there are all kinds of items to buy, treasure to find, gear to equip, and everything else you'd expect as well.

Surprisingly enough, this is the first emulated Genesis game on the App Store I can recommend without issue. Shining Force is an excellent classic RPG, and the turn based gameplay makes the touch controls extremely forgiving. It would have been nice to see Sega put a little more effort in to this game and either port the Gameboy Advance or Sega CD release, but I'm just glad they've moved on to RPG's instead of sticking with the classic lineup of action and arcade games. Now, how about Phantasy Star next, eh Sega?

The original Hero of Sparta [$1.99 / Free / HD] was a technically innovative hack and slash adventure game released in late 2008 when the App Store was still in its infancy and large-scale 3D games were few and far between. In our review we called the original "visually impressive and fun". In the Hero of Sparta series, you play as Argos, a Spartan hero, who has to make his way through endless hordes of monsters. Much like the God of War trilogy which the Hero of Sparta series is heavily "inspired" by, along the way you'll fight massive bosses, execute finishing moves via touchscreen quick action sequences, and eventually master the combo system to turn opposing enemies in to pulp.

Hero of Sparta II [$6.99] offers a significant graphical improvement over its predecessor and is packed with new powers and weapons to use while murdering everything that moves. If you enjoyed the first installment, it's safe to say you will also have a blast with the second one as well. If you haven't heard of the Hero of Sparta games before, give the lite version of the original game a spin to see how much you enjoy it.

Back in May, Jared Bailey from NoCanWin.com released Cubed Rally Racer [99¢] onto the App Store. Inspired by NES-era isometric racers, Cubed Rally Racer was dubbed “RC Pro-Am meets Canabalt”, and fits that tagline rather well. It put you in control of a rally car tasked with racing through randomly generated levels, all the while avoiding cows, gophers, and other silly obstacles on your way to the finish line. We really liked the game in our review, but noted that the controls can be hard to get used to and the overall difficulty of the game is rather high.

Because of those reasons, many gamers may have been on the fence over purchasing the game. Those fence-sitters should be happy to know then that a lite version of Cubed Rally Racer has just been made available. The full version features tracks made up of sections, with a maximum number of 99 sections in a track. Cubed Rally Racer Lite [Free] features up to 3 sections of track to race on, and a selection of the different unlockable track obstacles from the full version. It's definitely enough to give you an idea of whether or not you'll enjoy the full version, and there is an option to upgrade to the full right from within the game after practically every race.

What you don't get in the lite is any kind of OpenFeint integration, which is a huge part of Cubed Rally Racer as you can send challenges to friends and and compete on several different leaderboards. Also missing in the lite is the endless Pasture mode which acts as a more casual practice track, and Redline mode which is pretty much the opposite and has a red line chasing you down an endless course while you race, forcing you to keep up a brisk pace. These two modes have been added in an update since we reviewed the game, and players in our forums are absolutely loving them. In addition, the full version has many more types of track sections and obstacles available.

If you have never been able to pull the trigger on purchasing Cubed Rally Racer, definitely give this new lite version a try. It's the type of game that doesn't appeal to everybody, but to those who take kindly to it it's a real gaming treat. As an added incentive, the full game is seeing it's first ever price drop, down to 99¢ from $1.99. If you like what you see in the lite version, now is a great chance to jump on the full version of Cubed Rally Racer during this limited time sale.

Shortly after the release of Revolutionary Concept's iPhone port of arcade classic Karate Champ [99¢], we reported that they were hard at work on a native iPad version. This new version would take advantage of the higher resolution and larger screen of the iPad, as well as include a same-device multiplayer mode akin to the old tabletop arcade machines of the past. This feature alone is incredibly enticing, and has been implemented successfully in games like Space Invaders HD [$4.99] and Fruit Ninja HD [$4.99] with entertaining results.

Those who are anticipating this new iPad version will be happy to know that Revolutionary Concepts has sent word that Karate Champ XL is now in the final phases of QA testing, and should be submitted to Apple sometime this week. That means we should hopefully be seeing the title available in the next week or two, barring any sort of fuss from Apple. They've also sent over some fresh new screens of the game straight from the iPad to whet your appetite (click any image to enlarge):

The game is indeed looking very nice despite being a port of a 25+ year old game. What's more astonishing is the fact that due to the iPad screen being the wrong proportions in comparison to the original arcade screen, Revolutionary Concepts has actually redrawn portions of the levels in an authentic 8-bit style to fill in the gaps of the extra space, so you'll actually be seeing more of the Karate Champ landscape than you ever could have before. Additionally, the arcade cabinet facia has been redone in HD and looks absolutely crisp and realistic.

It's nice to see them going the extra mile in bringing the game to the iPad, and with the extra visual enhancements and the same-device 2 player mode it should be well worth a purchase even if you already own the iPhone version of the game. Speaking of the iPhone version, it has recently dropped to just 99¢ in anticipation of the iPad release, and will remain there until Karate Champ XL is finally available.  Check out our review of the iPhone version of Karate Champ, and join in on the discussion thread of Karate Champ XL in our forums while waiting for the game to release.