Sega has released a number of classic Genesis games on the App Store- Sonic the Hedgehog [$5.99], Sonic the Hedgehog 2 [$5.99], Golden Axe [$2.99], Streets of Rage [$2.99], and as of last night, Ecco the Dolphin [$2.99] and Space Harrier II [99¢]. In the past we've been increasingly critical of Sega releasing these emulated games, as while the games wrapped in the emulator are undoubtedly classics, the emulator itself leaves much to be desired.

Revisiting these games with my iPhone 4 has revealed that Apple has finally released hardware that is fast enough to properly run Sega's emulator (although I have had weird crashing issues with Sonic 2). If you've got an iPhone 4, the games run substantially better than the 3GS/3rd generation iPod touch, leaving the touch controls as the only issue. If you're stuck in the world of the iPhone 3G or 2nd Generation iPod touch, you're still better off skipping all of these because the performance really isn't that great. The games are playable, yes, but not a good experience by any means.

Anyway, Ecco the Dolphin is an action adventure side scroller released on the Sega Genesis in 1992. In the game you play as a dolphin, ramming in to things and using your sonar to both talk to other friendly sea creatures and interact with various objects in the game world. When I played the game the first time around on my Genesis, I thought it was surprisingly difficult as you need to manage Ecco's air supply while navigating vast underwater mazes. Drowning over and over was not something I was expecting to get myself in to when I first saw the cute box art.

There's a fairly extensive library of clips on YouTube of people playing the game in various emulators:

Ecco the Dolphin is just as much of a classic as the other games Sega has released, and really should be played by anyone who considers themselves a gamer who hasn't yet. If you want to go back in time even further, Space Harrier II was a launch title for the Genesis and debuted with the system in mid-August of 1989. Like most games of the time, Space Harrier II came packed with a nonsensical story where you're searching out a distress call from the 214th sector in the year 6236. You run around on a pseudo-3D checkerboard landscape shooting your laser at anything that crosses your path.

Like Ecco, there are no shortage of Space Harrier II gameplay videos captured from various emulators on YouTube:

Space Harrier II hasn't aged as well as the other classics Sega has released, but it's still pretty cool to take a look at what was considered cutting-edge mind blowing graphics over 20 years ago. But like all these games, the touch controls of the Genesis emulator on the iPhone aren't ideal and the framerate is low on older devices. Because of this, they're all hard to really recommend, but at least they exist in some form on the App Store if you're determined to revisit these classics on your iPhone.

Ever since the demonstration of the iPhone 4 at the WWDC keynote, the far and away most talked about feature has been the stunning Retina Display. When the iPhone 4 finally released, some developers took the opportunity to update their existing games to harness the power of the eyeball burning high resolution. Previously, we've covered games that have added retina support including Real Racing, Flight Control, Archetype, Sword of Fargoal, Jet Car Stunts, Zen Bound 2, and a host of games from Pangea Software. Well it's time to add another to the list as Gameloft's Halo inspired first-person shooter N.O.V.A. has been given the Retina Display treatment as well, along with support for the iPhone 4's gyroscope.

N.O.V.A. wasn't a bad looking game to begin with, but with this latest update it's hard to believe that I ever thought so. Gone are the many jagged edges that are rife within the game, replaced with silky smooth graphical models that can only be possible with the four times as many pixels on the iPhone 4 display. The game literally pops of the screen now (although the voice acting remains comically terrible). I could go on about the enhanced visual clarity of N.O.V.A., but these comparison screens tell the story better than I ever could:

Perhaps an even more intriguing addition to N.O.V.A. is support for the iPhone 4's gyroscope. The gyroscope must be enabled when starting a new game or from the control options, and is actually a combination of screen swiping and movement. Swiping still moves your aim in an extreme manner, so you still pretty much move and turn the same throughout the game. But the gyroscope offers refined accuracy within your current view (unless you are moving your entire body around, in which case your entire view changes with you), and it works beautifully. It can be a little disorienting to get used to at first, but one you do you'll never want to play an FPS game any other way, and this is coming from someone that typically hates tilt-to-aim in FPS games. This slightly cheesy video demonstrates the new controls:

The touch and gyro combination just sings, and makes N.O.V.A. feel like a whole new experience. The new updated graphics are gorgeous, and still impress even for a seven month old game. And there's the always handy iOS4 fast app switching thrown in this update for good measure. Needless to say, if you're an iPhone 4 owner with a copy of N.O.V.A., don't hesitate to grab this latest update and play through one of the better iPhone FPS games all over again.

If you're a regular around here, you've probably played tons of iPhone games, as well as other kinds of video games for that matter. The key word here is "playing" these games, as no matter what the object of whatever video game you're currently enjoying is, it likely involves you doing something. That's where Godville [Free] comes in, it's a "zero-player game" in that it requires absolutely no interaction from the player at all. Your character in Godville plays himself, all by himself, and you take the role of an omnipotent god and can either encourage or punish your hero, or do nothing at all.

When you want to know what your character in Godville is up to, you simply load the game and see what adventures he has been on lately while you've been off doing other things, or playing actual games. Sometimes your hero will be brave and slay endless hordes of monsters, collecting and equipping all forms of magical loot along the way. Sometimes your hero will find himself outmatched and need to run, and other times your character will either swindle or get swindled, all without any interaction from you at all.

As your hero goes on his adventure he can level up, eventually earn a personal motto, start learning specialized skills, or even join a guild. Your character has his own alignment which is swayed by his adventures, and once he completes a quest, he gets a new one and goes off in attempt to complete it all by himself. This may all sound a little stupid, and honestly, it is-- But that's the best part.

If you've ever played an MMORPG or any other RPG that focuses on grinding and repetitiveness, it's surprisingly amusing to just be able to load up your Godville character and vicariously live through his randomized adventures without needing to actually do anything at all. I have a feeling that fans of RPG's will at least get a chuckle out of some of the things your character ends up doing in Godville, and everyone else can just download a free game then complain in iTunes reviews that you can't do anything.

I'm not entirely sure friends mean anything in this game, but if you're looking for another deity to add in game, my username is "Hodapp".

Note: Castlevania Puzzle: Encore of the Night is now available in the U.S. [Link] as well as Internationally [Link]. We've bumped up this review to reflect the new U.S. release.

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Back in May when Konami announced a new Castlevania game exclusive to the iPhone, many gamers (myself included) were disappointed to find that it was actually a gem matching game with a Castlevania theme. With Castlevania Puzzle: Encore of the Night being released today, to say that I was skeptical that I would enjoy it would be a huge understatement. Much to my surprise, not only did I enjoy the title a great deal, but I became helplessly hooked on leveling up my character, discovering new items and spells, and exploring the immense castle in the game. If you can get past the fact that this isn't your traditional Castlevania affair, then you will be treated to one of the best puzzle-RPG games available for iPhone.

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TouchArcade Rating:

One of the coolest things about the App Store is the sheer amount of obscure ports it exposes us iOS gamers to that we would have otherwise missed. Prior to the news of the iOS port hitting our forums, I had never heard of Battle for Wesnoth [$4.99 - iPhone / iPad] and tonight its creators are unleashing another open source game on to the App Store, Frogatto & Friends [$1.99]. Frogatto is a platformer with some of the most blatant classic video game influences I've seen in quite some time, and I mean that in the best way possible.

Everything from the style of the fantastic pixel art that makes up the game, to the way Frogatto deals with enemies, to interface elements all seem to be lovingly lifted from memories of the sixteen bit era. In the game you play as a tiny unemployed frog who sets out for adventure and employment. It doesn't take long before the villain of the game, Big Bad Milgram, is revealed, and your sights are set on restoring order to the world. Fighting through various boss fights, solving puzzles, and making your way through tons of enemies and platforming obstacles are all vital parts of Frogatto & Friends.

Much like Battle for Wesnoth, Frogatto is freely available online to play on either Mac or Windows machines (as well as some out of date Linux builds). It's really a toss up as to which version is better, as platformers like this really need the physical controls that playing on a keyboard provide. On the other hand, the iPhone port is great, but I'd really love to see some better game save handling.

Currently if you quit the game for any reason, you lose your progress from the last save point. Save points are plentiful throughout the game, but I really think we're at a point now where if you're releasing something more than a simple time waster you should really include better save state handling. Even using fast app switching loses your progress, which is a total bummer given how awesome it has been with iOS 4 to quickly and easily switch between checking your email or browsing the internet while playing a game.

If you can get past losing a little bit of progress if you quit the game, Frogatto is totally worth checking out. I've been completely captivated by both the art of the game, and the game world itself; so much so that while playing through the other games that have been released tonight to write about I kept wanting to go back to Frogatto & Friends. I'm a total sucker for games like this, and I doubt I'm alone on that. If nothing else, at least give the free PC version a try.

UPDATE: The developers have posted in our forums that they're looking in to the save issues when the app is quit, and it sounds like only some people are experiencing the problem. Much like Battle for Wesnoth, they plan on maintaining and improving Frogatto with updates.

When we first posted about Office Heroes [Free] earlier this month, I admit I was more than a little surprised with the overwhelmingly positive response the game saw both in article comments and on our forums. It seems that social gaming is a guilty pleasure for many, and as I mentioned in the preview, Office Heroes has an incredibly clever premise in that you're wasting your virtual life away inside of an office as you're wasting your real life away sinking your time in to the game.

In Office Heroes, you have an incredibly customizable avatar who lives inside of a (initially) tiny virtual office. Gameplay is identical to similar social games in that you're managing in-game resources that are both generated by completing tasks in games with others that are gained via an in-app purchase. As you level up and get more friends, you unlock more decorations for your office and various gizmos to waste your avatar's time on. Absolutely nothing you do to earn money in game is productive in any way. For instance, you buy your little dude a computer and he uses it to tweet, or you can get him a phone to make personal phone calls, along with tons of other activities with other office items.

There's not much sense in really "reviewing" a game like this as it's free and you either love these kind of social games or hate them. Office Heroes doesn't do anything other games haven't done before, but it's still incredibly refreshing to play a social game that actually has an original premise. So many of them on the App Store do little more than pick a popular Zynga game and duplicate it, so it's nice to see Astro Ape Studios releasing something that doesn't have to do with tending fields.

If you're looking for people to add to your vast network of in-game coworkers, swing on by the friend finding thread on our forums. Otherwise, happy time wasting!

Back at E3 I stepped aboard the Gameloft party bus and was given a peek at their upcoming lineup. One of those games was Let's Golf 2 [$4.99], the sequel to one of my favorite golf games on the App Store, Let's Golf [$1.99 / Free / HD]. Looking back at the review of the original, I loved that Let's Golf was the closest thing to Hot Shots Golf on the App Store, one of the only reasons I kept my PSP.

Let's Golf 2 takes the same basic gameplay and enhances it with more holes (108 this time), along with more playable characters, unlockables, and better graphics across the six different environments. There's even online multiplayer, although as this point too few people are playing for me to get a game going. There is a career mode to play through, and each of the golfers even have their own super power they can use in a pinch such as a more powerful drive or more precise puts.

If you enjoyed the first Let's Golf, or gold games with an arcade feel in general, you should really give the Let's Golf series a spin. If the online multiplayer in Let's Golf 2 works as well as I hope it does, Gameloft is going to have a real hole in one on their hands here.

Last week we posted about Secret Exit dropping the price of Zen Bound 2 [$2.99] and submitting an update to add universal compatibility along with all kinds of new visual effects and other tweaks. Zen Bound 2 now uses full OpenGL ES 2.0 graphics on 3rd generation devices and newer which means even better shadows and lighting effects as well as even more detailed paint spread. When playing on the iPad, the random framerate drops have been completely fixed, and the game even performs a little better too. Also, third generation iPod touch and iPhone 3GS users will see incredibly smooth visuals with full anti-aliasing, and Zen Bound 2 looks simply incredible on the Retina Display of the iPhone 4.

If you were waiting for any reason, now is an absolutely fantastic time to pick up Zen Bound 2. It is filled with relaxing gameplay supplemented by one of the best (if not the best) soundtrack I've heard in an iPhone game, and the gameplay mechanic of rotating string around a 3D object to cover it in paint works phenomenally with the multi-touch controls of iOS devices-- and even more so when you throw the gyroscope of the iPhone 4 in to the mix. Zen Bound 2 is the best looking game I've played on my iPhone 4, as Secret Exit's knack for creating lifelike textures and lighting effects is perfectly paired with the Retina Display to create an experience that looks nearly photorealistic, a term I never thought I'd ever use to describe an iPhone game.

While Madden NFL 11 was undoubtedly the star of the show at the top secret EA Hot For the Holidays event last week, EA was also showing off a couple of predictable sequels, iOS adaptations of Hasbro classics, and third party titles published by EA.

SimCity Deluxe - 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.

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The Sims 3 Ambitions - I've never really been one to get sucked in to The Sims, but the sheer popularity of the series is undeniable. The Sims 3 Ambitions, much like SimCity Deluxe takes the same basic formula from The Sims 3 [$6.99] and greatly improves upon it. Unlike The Sims 3 World Adventures [$6.99], EA doesn't currently have plans to allow you to import your existing sim in to the game which I'm sure some people will be disappointed by. Regardless of that, Ambitions is host to tons of improvements. You can now build rooms of your house just like the computer game, there are kids in game, players have much more control over the speed of time, and the city area is much denser with many more career paths and activities for your sims. For me, my favorite part of Sims games was always building my house, so I was very excited to see they finally added that functionality to the iPhone game and even more so when I saw just how well the touch interface worked for building.

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Risk - Moving on to EA's massive pile of Hasbro IP is an officially licensed Risk game, and there's really not much to say about it other than it's Risk. The game has a futuristic look to it with scan line graphical effects everywhere, modern looking troops, and a soundtrack that wasn't half bad. What killed me about playing Risk at the event was it just seemed like too little too late. When the App Store first came online I was practically begging for a Risk game on my iPhone, and since then there have been many highly competent Risk spinoffs such as Lux DLX 2 [$4.99] which not only is universal but also features over 80 different maps to play on. If EA gave Risk the Carcassonne treatment and provided a well designed game from a well known name with asynchronous push alert powered online multiplayer, Risk would have been the easiest game in the world to recommend. Unfortunately, with local multiplayer only, the only thing that was captivating about Risk was the brand name.

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Yahtzee for the iPad - Originally created all the way back in 1956 and with classic gameplay that couldn't be more basic and playable with little more than five dice and a piece of paper, it definitely was a little silly seeing Yahtzee on the iPad. Silly as it may be, I've really enjoyed nearly every game with solid local multiplayer on the iPad, and Yahtzee will be no different. The iPad game will have four different gameplay modes, as well as Facebook Connect functionality to boast about high scores and issue challenges.

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R-Type - Last, but certainly not least, is the upcoming iPhone port of R-Type. We've covered the game in the past, from its original announcement last year to the recent screenshots released. In any shooter, high frame rates and precise controls are both very important, and I'm happy to say that R-Type completely met my expectations and I can't wait for it to be released.

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These games consist of EA's "summer lineup", and aside from Madden which is set to be released on August 10th, and Risk which is already available in the New Zealand App Store and should appear tonight in the US App Store, when these games get released is anyone's guess. EA typically doesn't publicize games that aren't very close to being released on the App Store, so hopefully we'll be seeing these games very soon.

Yahtzee, Reckless Racing and Madden NFL 10 are the only games EA seems to have planned for the iPad anytime soon, and when asked about their plans for the iPhone 4, moving forward EA doesn't plan to do more iPhone 4 specific versions of games like NCAA Football by EA SPORTS HD. When possible, they said their games will support the various features of the iPhone 4, but were reluctant to offer specifics beyond that.

Last week at EA's "Hot For The Holidays" event in New York City I was able to sit down and get a considerable amount of playtime in with the predictable yearly sequel of Madden NFL 11 which EA plans on releasing for both the iPhone and iPad with the launch of the console game on August 10th. One of the first things EA showed me in the demonstration was a side by side with Madden NFL 10 [$6.99] and the difference was remarkable. Immediately you notice higher resolution textures everywhere and stadium crowds that actually look like people instead of just a solid multi-color texture, something that was extremely noticeable that you can see in the screenshots of our Madden NFL 10 review.

The player models have also gotten a makeover as well, and appear to have a much higher polygon count as the stick figure models of last year's game are nowhere to be found. The animations seem improved, and the shadows below the players actually represent what they're doing instead of the small dark circles of Madden NFL 10. Weather effects are greatly enhanced too. It was really amazing seeing both 10 and 11 running next to each other, as the difference almost looks like a jump in console generations.

There are a heap of new features in Madden NFL 11, but what interested me the most was the new GameFlow system. With this enabled, instead of needing to wade through endless menus selecting plays that (in my case anyway) you're not even sure are appropriate for that particular point in the game, GameFlow will choose the best play for you. According to EA this takes in to account numerous different factors such as field position, score, and many other factors to make sure you're always using a play that makes sense.

This not only works great on a mobile device where quick play sessions are generally preferred, but also for casual sports players like me who enjoy football games but always just randomly choose whatever play has the most interesting looking lines squiggling about. Speaking of squiggling lines, the Hot Routes system from Madden NFL 10 has been totally reworked and similar functionality has been brought to the defensive portion of the game.

At any time when playing Madden NFL 11 you can pause the action and draw where each of your players should be going with your finger. You can completely customize offensive plays like this, and even save these custom plays to be later recalled using audibles. On the defensive side of things, instead of just randomly tabbing through players and running them towards whoever has the ball on the other team, you can similarly pause the action and customize the routes of each of your players.

The goal behind this was to make playing defense more fun, and it seems like EA succeeded. More often than not in football games it seems like playing defense was always just a clunky necessary evil while you waited to get possession of the ball again. Now that you can actually have precise control over your team, playing defense is actually quite enjoyable as you can easily use your own strategies instead of just controlling one player while the AI handles the rest of your team.

Aside from all the standard game modes we've come to expect from a Madden game, Madden NFL 11 will also include "vintage voltage football," which sounds identical to Chillingo's Super Shock Football [99¢ / Free / HD]. EA even went out and bought an electric football game to make sure the experience was similar to the original tabletop game. It sounds like a lot of effort is going in to this extra game mode, as they've even had custom announcer clips recorded to fit the action that takes place in an electric football game.

Like most Madden games, Madden NFL 11 is a substantial improvement over last year's game. The new features they're adding in should enhance the gameplay significantly on the iPhone, and I'm especially looking forward to the game automatically choosing the best play for me. Stay tuned for August 10th, as we'll have an in-depth look at the game as soon as it hits the App Store.

UPDATE: Since this article was written, Capcom has added some excellent titles to their sale in celebration of Comic-Con.  We've added those games to the list, and added Gameloft's Fishing Kings which dropped to 99¢ a few days ago. Gameloft and Capcom have recently dropped some of their games down to 99¢, and while some of these titles have been on sale before, there's a couple of great deals to be had out of the bunch.

Gameloft titles on sale:

• Fishing Kings, $2.99 → 99¢
• Modern Combat: Sandstorm, $4.99 → 99¢
• Dungeon Hunter, $4.99 → 99¢
• Skater Nation, $4.99 → 99¢

Capcom titles on sale:

• Street Fighter IV, $9.99 → $6.99
• Resident Evil Degeneration, $4.99 → $2.99
• Resident Evil 4, $4.99 → $2.99
• Resident Evil 4 iPad Edition (iPad), $6.99 → $2.99
• Phoenix Wright, $4.99 → $2.99
• 1942: First Strike, $2.99 → 99¢
• Mega Man II, $2.99 → 99¢
• Dark Void Zero, $2.99 → 99¢
• Are You Smarter Than A 5^th Grader? 2010, $1.99 → 99¢
• Who Wants To Be A Millionaire 2010, $1.99 → 99¢

My personal pick on the Gameloft side is Modern Combat: Sandstorm, which is a very good Call of Duty-like FPS with online multiplayer. On the Capcom side I recommend Dark Void Zero, which is an 8-bit “demake” of the console game Dark Void. It really nails the look and feel of the classic NES games, and even has you blowing into the mic of your iPhone to simulate blowing into a NES cartridge, as was customary when you couldn't get a game to work.

If you're like many people who have been anxiously awaiting upcoming top-down racer Reckless Racing (formerly Deliverace), then today brought about some good news. We previewed the game way back in the beginning of March, but the weeks just kept on passing by with no game release in sight. When developer Pixelbite suddenly went silent in the Reckless Racing discussion thread in our forums, we knew that something had to be up. Thankfully, what we've learned is that Reckless Racing has been picked up by EA Mobile and is still very much on it's way to the iPhone and iPad.

Here's a screen from the iPad version and information given to us in the press release for Reckless Racing:

Roaring engines, squealing tires and amazing graphics. Reckless Racing mixes old-school top-down racing game play with state of the art graphics and engaging multiplayer features. Perfectly balanced controls let players skid, slip and slide through the most beautiful tracks ever seen on a handheld device - leaving nothing but mud-splattered opponents and skid marks behind. Reckless Racing features a fully stocked internet multiplayer mode, on-line leaderboards and the ability to trade ghost races with other players from all over the world.

EA pegs the game's release date as Summer 2010, so by our best estimation if it's not out by the end of this month, then it should be coming sometime in August. After so many months of waiting, we're just as anxious as everybody else to get our hands on the final version of the game. We'll report on any new information we get for Reckless Racing, such as a release date, as well as outline the upcoming lineup of other games from EA Mobile being released this year.

The folks at Secret Exit, who are responsible for bringing us the incredible Zen Bound and Zen Bound 2, have just released a content update to their delightful ragdoll physics game Stair Dismount Universal [99¢/Lite]. If you aren't familiar with the title, the first Stair Dismount essentially spawned the inflict-pain-on-a-ragdoll genre on the PC back in 2002. Since then a number of other games on the iPhone have utilized a similar idea, but none have achieved the polish and technical complexity of Secret Exit's offering on this platform.  Gameplay involves pushing a nondescript dummy named Mr. Dismount down a set of stairs, with your score being based on how much pain you can inflict on the poor fellow. It's a satisfying feeling, and has an undeniable "zen-like" appeal as you try to top your previous high score.

Stair Dismount has been updated a number of times since it's release last November, adding new levels and online leaderboards via OpenFeint. A couple of months back, the game was updated to be a universal app, with special enhancements for when running on the iPad. Today's update adds two more brand new levels, bringing the total number to 12, as well as iOS4 support including fast app switching. More significant, however, is the addition of 3 new characters available for 99¢ as an in-app purchase. Besides Mr. Dismount who is an averaged size person, the new characters are Mr. Reach who is incredibly tall and lanky, Mr. Heft who is short and stalky with a huge belly, and Mr. Stalwart who is basically the shape of a gorilla.

These new characters are a ton of fun to use, and actually change the gameplay pretty significantly. Mr. Heft crashes hard while falling down the stairs due to his portly stature, Mr. Reach uses his length to hit many points of the level, and Mr. Stalwart has all sorts of odd behavior due to his stubby legs, long arms, and incredibly top-heavy build. They can all be had for one 99¢ in-app purchase, and really breathe new life into this already entertaining game.

Due to the ability to save snapshots of each dismount, it seems every time I play the game I get at least one hilarious photo of one of the characters in some kind of precarious position, which has been fun to share amongst other players in the game's forum thread. If you find yourself with some funny photos of your own, upload them to our forums for others to appreciate and comment on. And if you already own Stair Dismount Universal, make sure you grab the latest update for the 2 new free levels and new IAP character pack.

Jet Car Stunts [$1.99 / Free] by True Axis is without a doubt a favorite around here, and last week we posted about the recent update which not only added a DLC level pack, but also threw in a load of iOS 4 enhancements including antialiasing on newer devices as well as fast app switching support. True Axis had intended this update to also include Retina Display support, but a last minute bug prevented the game from running at the glorious 960x640 resolution. This was quickly fixed, and an updated version was submitted to the App Store which was just approved mere moments ago.

Check out how awesome Jet Car Stunts looks on the iPhone 4:

If you're an iPhone 4 owner with Jet Car Stunts, don't waste any time before mashing the update button in iTunes. The game looks fantastic on the Retina Display, and still runs at its sky high frame rate even at the higher resolution. If this is the first you've heard of Jet Car Stunts, take a look at our review. We liked the game so much we awarded it five stars, and from checking out the quotes in the iTunes description, we're not alone.

As you may recall back when Star Wars: Trench Run [$4.99] first came out back in November, we weren't too kind in our review. Basically, in the game, through a series of levels that feel a lot like different Star Wars themed shooter mini-games sewn together with clips from the movies, you re-enact the various events leading up to the original destruction of the Death Star. There wasn't much gameplay to be had in the mission mode, and arcade mode wasn't particularly compelling either.

The latest update adds three new levels and introduces four new ships: The Millennium Falcon, the Y-wing, along with both standard TIE fighters and Darth Vader's own TIE fighter. The new levels focus on flying the Millennium Falcon either attacking TIE fighters as you ferry Princess Leia back to the Rebel base or flying over the Death Star trench protecting three Y-wings from TIE fighters and turret fire. The third level also has you protecting the same Y-wings in arcade mode attempting to survive as long as possible.

While I'm sure there are some people out there who will absolutely love the fact that they're piloting the Millennium Falcon or getting in dog fights behind the controls of Darth Vader's TIE fighter, ultimately nothing that has been added provides any more depth or variety to the gameplay. Star Wars: Trench Run still retains the mini-game feel, and like most video games based on movies, its greatest asset is the included licensed content.