If you're in the mood to indulge in something completely off the wall crazy, then you're in for a treat. Meow Meow Happy Fight [99¢] is a new dual stick shooter with an incredibly wacky Japanese style. Before you bemoan the existence of yet another dual stick shooter, this one actually throws some novel ideas into the mix to set itself apart from the pack. Oh, and did I mention you get to play as a cup of noodles? If that's not a selling point of the game, then I don't know what is. With multiple stages to play, a slew of diverse characters to unlock, and colorful graphics with a unique style, Meow Meow Happy Fight will bring happiness and destruction to your iPhone.

Happy Cat comes from the future, where everything is just too darn happy. He travels back in time to the present day to encourage the characters in the game to battle each other, and take the future happiness down a notch. While Happy Fight functions like most traditional dual stick shooters (left stick for movement and right stick for firing), rather than fighting off hordes of enemies in a survival marathon you'll be directly battling the other characters in the game deathmatch style. Each of the 24 levels in the game has you fighting against multiple opponents, and the character who has the most kills when the match time runs out wins.

There's 15 different characters in the game, including a hamster in a ball, a vending machine, and of course a cup of noodles. Defeating enemies causes them to drop a number of different happy pickups, which are just as odd as the characters themselves and include various food items, toiletries, and designer fashion accessories. It truly is bizarre, but in a good way. Some of these items will replenish a small portion of your health, and others contribute to your total of Happy Points at the end of a match, which act as the currency in the game for purchasing and unlocking additional characters.

The arenas in Happy Fight are all locations around Tokyo, and provide relatively small but adequate quarters to engage in battle. Each new location must be unlocked by coming in first place in the previous one, and they get progressively harder as you go. A number of cool powerups also begin to appear as you make your way through the game, and the arenas have interactive elements like teleports and explosive barrels to add strategic variety. Icons at the edges of the screen point you towards enemies and powerups, and battles are fast and action packed as you search out opponents to destroy or scramble to pick up a health pack as you're on the edge of death. It really is a lot of fun.

The one negative aspect of Happy Fight that sticks out to me is that you can only play against computer controlled opponents. This game is just screaming for some online play against real live human opponents, but sadly this is not the case. The AI is very good though, and the game is still a lot of fun, but I can only imagine how much better it could be with some sort of online multiplayer component. Still, it will take you a good amount of time to beat all of the games levels, and unlock every character. Plus there is OpenFeint integration for leaderboards and achievements, as well as some detailed stat tracking.

This is the first dual stick shooter in a while that's been entertaining enough to hold my interest, as the gameplay is fast-paced and the style is the most absurd I've seen since MUST.EAT.BIRDS. [99¢/Lite]. Players are loving the game in our forums, and the developers are there answering questions and collecting feedback on ways to improve the game. If you're looking for something that feels familiar but adds some interesting new twists, check out Meow Meow Happy Fight right meow.

TouchArcade Rating:

Last month we took a look at Helsing's Fire [99¢], an absolutely fantastic puzzle game by Ratloop and published by Clickgamer. We thought the game was great in our review as it sports a unique gameplay mechanic we had yet to see on the iPhone. Players position a torch in the game world, and from there are able to attack the baddies that are within line of sight using a variety of multi-colored tonics. Things eventually get complicated as new monsters are introduced with both behave differently and require different combinations of tonics and torch positioning to vanquish.

Since our review, one of the main criticisms I've seen of the game is how slowly the difficulty ramps up since most of the earlier levels required very little thought at all. Ratloop addressed this concern by both making the game harder faster and adding the "absurd" difficulty level, even warning players in the iTunes description that this new difficulty level is "way too hard." There are now multiple player profiles for those who share their device with other people, and they even added a new colorblind mode for those who had issue with the red, green, and blue palette of the enemies.

Performance has been tweaked for higher frame rates, and you can now listen to your own music while playing. Best of all, there's an entirely new victory animation-- The Tomahawk. Overall, 1.1 is a fantastic update to an already great game. If you already own Helsing's Fire, make sure you grab 1.1, and if you need more convincing to download the game, take a look at our review or read the overwhelmingly positive responses in the thread in our forums.

If you like chucking gnomes (and who doesn't?), you need to be aware of Chuck Gnome [$1.99/Lite] from developer Movable Sprites. Essentially, it's a mixture of Ramp Champ [$1.99] and MUST.EAT.BIRDS. [99¢/Lite], but with 100% more gnome flinging. The painfully simple mechanic of pulling back and launching gnomes at targets is bolstered with some complex level designs and excellent presentation. Simple enough that anyone can play, but requiring a surprising amount of skill and determination to be successful, Chuck Gnome is a game that is full of challenge and a lot of silly fun.

As the name implies, the task at hand is to chuck gnomes at various targets in the game. Each of the 5 levels (plus a bonus level) has the colorful, illustrated look of a children's storybook come to life. The levels also evolve as you play, with backgrounds and targets changing as you progress, sometimes resulting in a level that is completely different than it was when you started. It's quite a sight to behold, and coupled with the charming background music the presentation in Chuck Gnome is a real high point. The levels are set up like shooting galleries, with different targets moving as if on a track or popping up from the edges of the screen. Another neat aspect to the levels is the clever use of the accelerometer. Similar to the game Bowmaster [99¢], tilting to either side shifts your view to reveal more of the level, and can give you an extra chance to hit a missed target.

Simply pulling back on the slingshot at the bottom of the screen launches your gnome, and how much you pull him back dictates how far he will travel into the distance. You have an unlimited number of gnomes to launch, which may make it seem like you could rapidly spam gnomes to take out all the targets, and to a certain extent this is true. But this will only get you through the first few levels at best, as the later levels require precise aim to take out targets. Also, this tactic won't net very high scores due to the multiplier aspect of scoring. Successfully hitting targets in a row builds up a progressive multiplier, and thoughtful shooting can result in some monster scores.

The biggest issue I had with Chuck Gnome is that it can be very hard to progress in the game. Each level must be unlocked by finding a key in the previous level. Taking out certain targets before time runs out will result in the key popping up on screen, which must also be hit with a gnome to initiate. This can be difficult to pull off at times, but is definitely possible with perseverance especially as you learn which targets to shoot for in order to get the level to switch to its next set of targets eventually leading to the key appearing. Another minor issue is the sensitivity of pulling back the sling doesn't feel consistent. Sometimes it seems the slightest pull will send your gnome flying completely offscreen, and vice versa. You get used to it to an extent but it still feels rather touchy.

What appears to be an overly simplistic game on the surface actually has a ton of subtle depth, and Chuck Gnome is one of those games that's easy to pick up and play for short or long periods of time if you end up getting sucked in to maximizing your multiplier with precise gnome shooting. OpenFeint is in the game for online leaderboards and achievements, and it should take a good amount of time to play through every level. Even once completed, there's incentive to go back and try to top your previous high scores by playing a level more efficiently. Overall, Chuck Gnome combines a fun flinging mechanic with stellar visuals, and players are enjoying the game in our forums as well. If you're on the fence, give the lite version a try first. Content is fairly limited in the free version, but it will give you an excellent idea of how much you like the flinging mechanic the game hinges on.

TouchArcade Rating:

I'd say the best possible way to start any morning is with a massive cup of Dunkin Donuts coffee and a downloading whole pile of App Store freebies. There are quite a few free games available today, but some of these promotions have been running for a couple days now. Given the temporary nature of most freebie sales, I'd say there's a decent chance of some of these games returning to their original price very soon so be sure to grab any/all of the games you're interested in ASAP.

Babo Crash HD - If you like puzzle games where you're able to pull off massive chains of blocks being cleared, intentionally or unintentionally, Babo Crash HD is right up your alley. It follows the familiar Bejeweled style gameplay model with gems you swap around to form matches of three or more. What sets Babo Crash HD apart is the ridiculous array of power-ups in the game that can clear out entire swaths of gems at a time. Free, fun, and universal-- What's not to like about that?

Crystal Quest - Originally released in 1987, Crystal Quest was one of the first game to support the color display of the Macintosh II and since then has been ported to a number of different platforms including the iPhone. Gameplay is fairly basic and amounts to surviving through waves of enemies and collecting crystals. It feels a little dated, but if you were around for the original Macintosh release this should be an awesome blast from the past.

DinoSmash Online - An extremely cool online deathmatch game which piles up to 16 players in to a 2D map filled with platforms to jump around (or use your grappling hook) on and weapons to pick up. It was recently updated to support the Retina Display of the iPhone 4, and the game seems to play well on both WiFi and 3G networks. Also, the title screen music absolutely owns and DinoSmash Online is worth downloading just to listen to it, even if you have no intention of ever playing the game.

Dr. Nano - 3D Artery Adventure - We first got a peek at this game back at PAX East, and while the controls feel a little clunky the game is based around the amusing premise of shrinking yourself small enough to solve medical problems in the human body by running around and shooting them... You might even learn something about human anatomy in the process.

Max Vector - This is a Game Salad game so gameplay is a little basic and performance is on the mediocre side, but Max Vector has so much awesome retro flare to it that it's worth checking out for that alone. The graphics and music are awesome, and like any good shooter, it has a heap of screen-filling bosses to spam massive amounts of bullets at.

Mecho Wars - A turn based strategy game with some cool gameplay mechanics such as a day and night cycles which does things like freeze water so your troops can walk across it, forcing you to take time of day in to account with both your attacks and defenses. Mecho Wars has a full single player campaign as well as four different OpenFeint-powered online multiplayer modes.

Piyo Blocks - This match three is loaded with bright pixel art and a ton of personality. Piyo Blocks features three different game modes, along with full OpenFeint integration for online leaderboards, achievements, and all that other fun stuff. Doing well hinges on pulling off massive combos, and it's fairly rewarding when you get your score multiplier going like crazy.

As we alerted our readers earlier today, Osmos is heading to iPhone and has just appeared to go live in the US App Store. The game is supposed to be largely identical to the iPad version released last month, with some slight tweaking to accommodte the smaller screen of the iPhone, and after spending some time with the game I can confirm this to be true. Osmos plays beautifully on the iPhone, and is an experience that should not be missed. Here are some excerpts from our review of the iPad version, as they sum up the iPhone version as well:

Osmos has a wide variety of different level types, which all revolve around one common theme: Be the biggest. You control a tiny organism called a "mote". By tapping in a direction, you expel mass towards where you tapped, and your mote goes zooming off the other direction. With each tap you lose a little bit of your mass, so it doesn't take long before you're making extremely calculated taps to get exactly where you want to go with minimal loss of size. Your mote can absorb any mote that it smaller than it, but it also can be absorbed by any mote that is larger than it. You can also zoom in or out using a pinching gesture.

Initially levels simply ask you to be the biggest, but it doesn't take long until Osmos throws other level types at you such as levels where everything is orbiting around a central mass and you must carefully expel your own mass to change your orbit to absorb other motes as well as levels that require you to capture a specific mote.

In all, eight different levels types are included, which all have their own unique mechanic centralized around the physics engine powering Osmos. You can even speed up or slow down time by swiping the screen, a function that becomes very handy in later levels when you need time for precise movements. Following the completion of Odyssey mode, arcade mode is unlocked which allows you to play any level type on whatever difficulty level you choose. OpenFeint is even bundled in for tracking the various in-game achievements.

The iPhone version of Osmos includes support for fast app switching and the iPhone 4's Retina Display. The graphics look phenomenal on the iPhone 4, with razor sharp text and extremely crisp in game graphics. Some of the levels have been adjusted for the iPhone screen and create a somewhat different and slightly more difficult experience. If you don't own an iPad and have been curious about Osmos, now is your chance to get in on the fun. The game has received a ridiculous amount of praise for both the Mac/PC and iPad versions, and this new iPhone edition is no different. This is one of those games that must really be experienced by everyone, and can now be enjoyed by iPad and iPhone owners alike.

Early last month we posted about Cyan's plans to bring the childrens' adventure game The Manhole: Masterpiece Edition [$1.99] to the App Store. The game just became available for download this morning, and I must admit, approaching the game for the first time as an adult is a little odd. The Manhole really has no goal other than exploring the fantasy world laid out in front of you after you climb a beanstalk which grows out of a manhole. As a gamer I'm almost trained to try to figure out where to go, or what to do, or what item I need to solve a puzzle, or countless other things. It's just really strange to be thrown in to a game universe where you don't do any of those things, and instead, you just see what there is to see.

The original version of the game was released in 1988 using HyperCard, an early hypermedia authoring system that anyone who used an early Macintosh is likely familiar with. The game was then re-released a few times over the years and finally ended up on CD-ROM as The Manhole: CD-ROM Masterpiece Edition which is where the App Store version is derived from. The Manhole on iOS devices plays very similar to Cyan's Myst [$4.99 / Free] in that it's basically a highly interactive slide show of pre-rendered scenes.

The Manhole sports a full soundtrack and voiceovers for the various odd characters you will come across while exploring such as a poetry reading pig, a cool dude of a dragon, and many others. Check out the following video of the Windows version of the game, which seems to be nearly identical to the iPhone game aside from the obvious differences between the touch and mouse interface:

I don't think The Manhole will appeal to anyone who doesn't have fond memories of playing the game when it was originally released. Friends of mine who loved the game when they were younger are enjoying The Manhole as a fantastic piece of nostalgia, but I don't have any special ties to the game and while I can appreciate it for the piece of gaming history that it is The Manhole isn't doing much for me.

If roleplaying games are your cup of tea, I would find it to be impossible to believe that you've never heard of Atlus, or if the name isn't immediately recognizable, surely you've played an Atlus game at some point in your life. Originally founded in 1986, this Tokyo-based developer (and publisher) have been responsible for quite a number of games on nearly every console going all the way back to the NES. Like many Japanese developers, games of theirs we see in the USA are filtered through an American subsidiary and the games released by Atlus USA are only a small sampling of what is actually available in the East. Their most recognizable US releases are likely the Tactics Ogre series (which I'd love to see on the App Store) and Disgaea: Hour of Darkness.

Published via Nate Games, a somewhat confusing spinoff of South Korean telecommunications operator SK Telecom comes the even more confusing iPhone port of the PSP game Crimson Gem Saga [$9.99]. Crimson Gem Saga is actually the sequel to an RPG called Astonishia Story, originally published in South Korea by SK Telecom as Astonishia Story 2, then as Garnet Chronicle in Japan, and finally as Crimson Gem Saga in North America. The reasoning behind all this odd name swapping is that even though the story is actually continued from Astonishia Story, quite a few of the game's mechanics were changed, and somehow, somewhere, someone thought three different titles for the same game would make this less confusing.

Despite this twisted web of renaming and publishing, Crimson Gem Saga actually was reviewed quite well when it was originally released on the PSP. Sporting a metascore of 78 and a user score of 8.2 over on Metacritic, the gaming media seemed to enjoy the turn-based gameplay even though the game itself doesn't do anything particularly new or exciting in either the gameplay or storytelling departments.

We're still working on our review of the game, as any game that boasts over 30 hours of gameplay is going to take some time to review, but initial impressions in our forums seem mostly positive with the main issues centralizing around the somewhat expected clunky nature of the port as the game went from the physical controls of the PSP to the virtual controls of the iPhone. Clumsy controls aside, Crimson Gem Saga on the iPhone is the same game available currently on the PSP which sells for three times as much.

Ever since a slew of new APIs found their way into the latest version of Apple's iOS, the one that we've been waiting for somebody to really take advantage of is the ability for applications to finally be able to tap into the music library of the device itself. We even dreamed of the classic Audiosurf making its way to iPhone in a post from early last month. With the success of rhythm games in the past few years, and especially the Tap Tap Revenge series on iPhone, gamers have been clamoring for a similar game that they can play using their own music. Enter Tapic [99¢], the first game (that I know of) that creates a tapping chart directly from a song in your music library for you to play with. Tapic attains various levels of success in what it sets out to do, but it's far from perfect. Still, it's a novel use of the new API and is pretty fun in its own right.

The interface used in Tapic is simple to use. Choosing Play from the main menu brings up all the songs from your music library. After selecting a song Tapic will create a note chart for it, which takes about 10-20 seconds, and next you'll choose which difficulty to play it on. The harder the difficulty, the faster the notes come barreling towards you down the lanes. Choosing More Songs from the menu allows you to select a bunch of songs at once and have them prepared in advance for playing. Depending on how many songs you choose this can take a quite a few minutes, but allows you to play from songs in your playlist in succession without waiting for each one to create a chart in between.

The game can be played in portrait or landscape mode, although landscape must be purchased and unlocked using collected in-game coins (or by buying them with real money as IAP). Portrait uses three lanes of notes to tap along with, and landscape uses five. The game is at its best in landscape mode, and it's annoying that this must be unlocked rather than available from the start. Portrait is still ok, and it's a good way to get acclimated with playing Tapic, but landscape is where I spend most of the time playing. Different themes can also be bought using the game currency for both portrait and landscape mode, adding some graphical variety to the backgrounds.

The presentation and functionality of tapping the notes all work extremely well in Tapic, but it's the actual chart generation that fails to really impress. It doesn't ever feel like the notes jive with the song in a meaningful way as they rarely sync up properly, and when they do it mostly just feels like a coincidence. Some songs fared better than others while testing out the game, but overall you really feel like you're just playing an unrelated tapping game while listening to your favorite tunes. In my experience, and the general consensus of gamers in our forums, is that hip-hop and techno music gives the best results, while rock and metal generally don't.

The funny thing about the chart generator is that even though it's somewhat lacking, Tapic is still can be fun. I found myself continually wanting to keep playing, even though it didn't really feel like my performance had any impact on the song that was being used. I just can't help but feel like if the developer can improve this aspect of the game, which they have stated they are working on, then Tapic could really be something special. My other biggest point of contention is having to play for an extensive period of time (or spend real life money) before being able to unlock the landscape mode. It just feels like a cheap aspect to an otherwise excellently presented game.

TouchArcade Rating:

The award winning Mac/PC game Osmos from developer Hemisphere Games made its way onto the iPad last month to overwhelmingly positive reviews from just about every media outlet that laid their hands on it. Osmos is the kind of experience that blurs the line between art and game, and we really enjoyed the game in our own review as well. As great of an impression as Osmos left on iPad owners, those who are without that device were left asking “where is an iPhone version?” Hemisphere had hinted during the development of the iPad game that an iPhone version would be forthcoming, and they have since confirmed this on their website with a gameplay video and release date.

One concern that always seems to come up when talking about Osmos for iPhone is how the game will play on the smaller screen as opposed to that of the iPad. It appears the answer is that it will play just fine, as demonstrated in this video:

The iPhone version of Osmos will contain all the same content as it's iPad older brother. The developer explains that some of the levels have been slightly reworked to accommodate the smaller screen space, and due to this the game can require different strategies to complete some levels, offering a somewhat different experience than the iPad version.  The iPhone version will also have full iOS4 and Retina Display support. If you've been green with envy over iPad owners getting to experience such a phenomenal game, rest assured that the wait for Osmos on iPhone is almost over, as the game will be available August 5^th for $2.99.

If you're like us and have way more apps in your iTunes library than you can manage without a dedicated personal assistant on the job (Ahh, first world problems truly are the worst.) then you might have missed some of these updates that have hit the App Store recently. If you've grown tired of any of these games since you first downloaded them, mash the "update all" button and give them a go again.

Archetype, $2.99 - We were blown away by Archetype as evident by our review. The game features gameplay similar to Eliminate [Free] in that it's an online first person shooter that's playable over everything from EDGE to broadband via WiFi. Archetype ups the ante significantly by providing 5v5 team-based deathmatches that are a ridiculous amount of fun, and the fact that it runs at Retina Display resolutions on the iPhone 4 is the proverbial cherry on top of this multiplayer fragfest sundae.

The update that just landed adds a new level called "Avarice" which focuses on vertical combat with tons of jump pads. Also, the new game mode "Rocket Arena" pits players against each other using only rocket launchers. If you're playing with an iPhone 4, the game now can take advantage of the gyroscope, and there are a number of other tweaks and fixes as well.

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Bejeweled 2 + Blitz, $2.99 - This game should hardly need an introduction, but in case you've been living in a cave on Mars with your fingers in your ears and your eyes closed, Bejeweled is PopCap's insanely successful match 3. The original Bejeweled was released nearly 10 years ago, and since then the game has seen a few sequels and spinoffs which have been ported to nearly every platform imaginable.

The latest update further fleshes out the Blitz game mode which can be played sharing online leaderboards with any friends of yours who play the Facebook version. The iPhone version of the game now has coins and boosts, which basically just amount to yet another layer of complexity on top of the game where your Facebook friends can score millions of points more than you, leaving you wondering how people get so good at this game. Coins spawn randomly and are collected by matching the associated blocks, and then those coins are spent on power-ups (or "bosts") to boost your score even more.

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Doodle God, 99¢ - I fully admit I don't understand the appeal of this game, yet nearly everyone I know can't get enough of it. Peter explains how the gameplay works in our review, and Doodle God basically amounts to combining various "elements" to create others such as combining earth and fire to create lava. From there, lava can be combined with other elements to create even more, and it just snowballs from there.

Episode #3 just landed which adds even more content to the game. There are over 100 new reactions along with 40 new "modern age" elements. There are also now parental controls to make sure your kids can only create kid-safe elements along with several other additions and tweaks such as not draining your battery quite so much while playing.

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Aqua Moto Racing 2, $2.99 - Free - I really liked this arcade aquatic racer in my review, and while these updates haven't been released yet, they're worth keeping your eye out for. 1.0.2 is adding Retina Display support, 1.0.3 is adding universal support to turn the iPhone game in to an iPad game, and 1.0.4 is adding a new "storm mode" which apparently is going to be for "hardcore riders" only.

It's always exciting to see a game get this much post-launch support, and I love when iPhone games I like turn in to universal apps so I can play them full screen on my iPad. Aqua Moto Racing 2 already looks great on my iPhone, and I can't wait to see it at Retina Display resolutions.

Freebies are universally awesome, whether they're free samples of pizza bagels at the grocery store or great iPhone games. We've favorably reviewed both of these games, but you might as well just download both of these and give them a try for yourself while they're free.

Truckers Delight: Episode 1 - While Mobigame is likely best known for the controversy surrounding Edge [$2.99], they've also brought both Cross Fingers [$1.99 / Free] and Truckers Delight: Episode 1 [Free] to the App Store as well. Truckers Delight is an episodic iPhone game based on the not at all work safe video of the same name. In the game, you play as a trucker driving down a highway pursuing a blonde girl in a red corvette. Your truck is controlled by tilting, and along the way you'll need to run police, motorcycles, and many other vehicles off the road with the help of an array of increasingly odd and vulgar power-ups.

We liked Truckers Delight: Episode 1 quite a bit in our review, and really can't wait for the rest of the episodes in the series. The game does a great job of preserving the feel of retro racing games while providing a good difficulty curve that gets really exciting as you're just barely making it to the next checkpoint with one second to spare. Don't miss this game while it's free.

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Luxor - Initially released in 2005, Luxor has lived a long life on many platforms including the Mac, PC, and several game consoles both through its initial release and subsequent sequels. The iPhone port is done well, and features gameplay similar to Puzzloop [$7.99 / Free] and many other marble shooting color matching games. Luxor has a bit of a notorious reputation on our forums due to the role that developer Mumbo Jumbo played in StoneLoops! of Jurassica's removal from the App Store, which explains the tsunami of negative reviews in iTunes despite the fact that the game is quite fun.

As mentioned when we first took a look at the game, Luxor is host to a heap of levels, power-ups, and achievements to inflate your Plus+ score. If you've been looking for a marble shooter, grab this one while it's free.

The newest iteration of Gameloft's officially licensed football game NFL 2011 [$6.99] was released on the App Store this past weekend. While featuring a significant graphical update and some other enhancements, this new version appears to be largely unchanged from the NFL 2010 that was released a year ago. Not necessarily a bad thing, as we enjoyed last year's version, but that was partly due to the “wow” factor of having such a comprehensive football game running on a mobile phone. Since that time, and especially with the release of the new iPhone, the bar of expectations for what is possible in a mobile game have been raised significantly. Because of this, NFL 2011 feels a bit underwhelming.

The improved graphics in NFL 2011 do look great though. The blocky and low-poly player models of NFL 2010 have been largely improved. What really stands out are the excellent animations in the game, replacing the somewhat stiff and repetitive animations from last year's version. Players now exude a lot more personality with celebrations after what can seem like every play. It goes without saying that everything looks all that much better running on an iPhone 4.

Another improvement in NFL 2011 is the move to replace some of the use of virtual buttons (which was complaint we had in the original game) with more natural iPhone specific controls. Certain moves will be performed with a tilt of the device rather than an onscreen icon, and kicking takes the form of swiping on the screen rather than the traditional power meter set with button taps. Also new this year are the addition of replays from the pause menu after any completed play and the removal of the “time freeze” element when dictating what actions your player performs on the field, which gives the game a much more natural feel.

NFL 2011 seems to be a decent package if you enjoy football games, and if you liked last years version then you should definitely enjoy this one as well. If you're looking for a completely different experience, you'll likely feel disappointed. Not coincidently, this release comes just over a week before the release of EA's Madden NFL 11, which we recently previewed and is set to release on August 10th. Last year it seemed that all the positive reactions to Gameloft's NFL entry were trampled by the bull that is the Madden franchise. We'll see if history repeats itself next week when both NFL titles are finally available.

Despite all the technological advancements that have taken place during the lifespan of mobile gaming, the fondness players continue to have for retro-style games never ceases to amaze me. As iPhones continue to push out loads of onscreen polygons, sprawling 3D worlds, and high definition graphics, there will always be a place for charming pixel art and 8-bit tunes in my book. These two games are fun, original creations that take inspiration from video game heritage, and are worth a look for retro nuts and newer gamers alike.

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Max Vector – A new horizontal shmup from developer POLYGAMe, Max Vector harkens back to the days of 8-bit gaming in a number of ways. The graphics are bright, colorful, and blocky in a good way. The soundtrack is by the epic band 8-Bit Weapon, and fans of Cubed Rally Racer should recognize the song from the first stage of the game. Max Vector nails the look and feel of gaming in the 80's, right down to the simple play mechanics. Touch controls the movement of your ship, with a single onscreen button for firing. There's no auto-fire, so expect some serious (virtual) button mashing while playing.

Like many games from the early era of gaming, Max Vector is a difficult game. Memorization of enemy patterns and figuring out the trick to dealing with the huge bosses in the game are keys to success. It's hard, but fun, and keeps you coming back for more. Max Vector is also noteworthy for being one of the few games made with GameSalad that I'm able to tolerate. I say tolerate because the game is not without it's issues. The most glaring is that Max Vector will only currently run on 3rd generation devices and higher. Pretty shameful for such a simple game, but the dev is working to optimize for older devices in future updates. Also, the game is devoid of any kinds of frills or options. What you see is what you get, but it's a fun ride and Max Vector is certainly worth checking out.

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Amor: The Unicorn Keep – Built on an incredibly humorous premise, Amor is a puzzle platformer from developer RadBits with fantastic pixel art, great presentation, and challenging content. Long before unicorns were the magical fantasy creatures we all know and love today, they were stone cold evil and bent on world domination. After imprisoning all the fluffy cute rabbits of the world in the King Unicorn's castle, it's your job to rescue them along with any other prisoners being held captive in each of the 60 rooms of the keep. The room designs are reminiscent of the classic Bubble Bobble, and gameplay is slightly similar although much slower paced.

Amor can be controlled with either tilt or directional arrows, and a jump and attack button. He can shoot arrows to stun enemies or to stick into walls and be used to bounce to higher destinations. When close to a stunned enemy, his sword is used to finish the job. Bonus items can be collected on the way, and each level has it's own set of trophies and a letter grade to be earned upon completion. A global high score leaderboard keeps track of the best players in the game, and every level can be replayed once beaten to try and earn a better grade. The game has a great difficulty progression that will really test your platform jumping skills, as well as you mental skill in finding the best way to conquer each level. A bug in the release version of Amor could cause save progress to be lost which made the game hard to recommend, but that has since been fixed in an update and Amor: The Unicorn Keep is a solid choice for retro-styled puzzle platforming goodness.

The long awaited comic app for the iPhone sensation Pocket God [99¢], which we previewed way back in February, has just been released on the App Store. Titled Pocket God Comics [99¢], it follows the hilarious (and often destructive) antics of the pygmies from the Pocket God universe. It's a universal app, and has been designed with higher resolution artwork for running on the iPad, although it looks quite sharp and colorful on the iPhone. The initial app purchase comes with the first issue of the comic, which was created by Ape Entertainment, that runs inside of a reader shell that was developed by publisher iVerse Media. This allows future issues to be bought directly from inside the app, and the shell even features a GPS comic book shop locator to find your nearest local retail outlet for purchasing the physical version of Pocket God Comics.

Also forthcoming is the latest episode to the Pocket God game titled “A Pygmy a Day Keeps the Ape Away”. This 33rd episode was inspired by the comic content creators Ape Entertainment, and features a mountain top with an altar where you can sacrifice pygmies to a gigantic ape, as well as a number of other interactive elements. There is also a new skin pack available in this new update, which developer Dave Castelnuovo has detailed in our forums. The update has been timed to (sort of) coincide with the launch of Pocket God Comics, and should be available sometime this morning or early afternoon.

The iPad version of the game, titled Pocket God: Journey to Uranus, is a much different game than the iPhone version, most notably by partially taking place in an outer space environment. We previewed the game in early July, but Dave has also dropped some new info on us regarding some of the mini-games planned for the release. The first is called Volcano Blast and takes place on the new high def version of the original Pocket God island, and is an expanded take on the “flick pygmies into the volcano” mechanic. Multiple volcanoes will be present and you must flick as many pygmies into them as you can without missing. A retooled flick mechanic and brand new wind element make the task at hand more challenging this time around. As Dave puts it, “think Paper Toss with burnt pygmies”. Sounds good to us.

Here's a new screenshot from Pocket God: Journey to Uranus (click to enlarge):

The other mini-game mentioned hasn't received a final name yet, but takes place in outer space and is an homage to the Atari Jaguar title Tempest 2000 (which was a personal favorite of mine as well). Expect to be shooting pygmies at enemies as they advance up different styles of wormholes from the middle of the screen. Pocket God: Journey to Uranus doesn't have a firm release date set yet, but should be available sometime this year and you can follow along in the forum thread for the latest information.

Pocket God Comics is available now, and the printed versions will be arriving in comic book shops in September. The physical books will also contain 4 page mini stories that won't be available in the digital versions, and if you happen to be attending the Wizard World comic convention in Chicago August 19th-22nd then you'll have a chance to meet Pocket God creators Dave and Allan and possibly score a limited edition of the Pocket God comic book. They will also be running a contest for $1000 Apple gift card starting today, which is detailed on the Pocket God Blog.

In the hit-based market of the App Store, it's somewhat expected at this point to see developers building games which seem to be highly inspired by other extremely successful games-- In this case, Angry Birds [99¢ / Free / HD]. When Flight Control [99¢ / HD] was burning up the charts, Harbor Master [$1.99 / Free / HD] was released, providing some variety on an incredibly popular game type which iPhone gamers gobbled up at the time. It's hard to say if Cannon Cadets will be able to duplicate the same phenomenon, but judging by the trailer it seems to have some very familiar physics-powered cannon gameplay with some new twists such as moving platforms and hidden levels accessible by hitting targets.

As someone who has completely obliterated every level of Angry Birds on both my iPhone and then again on the iPad, I can't wait for more content both from Angry Birds updates and any other developer who wants to deliver similar gameplay. If XMG Studio can provide that, all I can say is that I can't wait to play it.

Cannon Cadets is coming soon, and according to TUAW will come packed with Retina Display support as well as a version for the iPad following after the initial iPhone release.