It's Wednesday, which means that 11:00 PM EST tonight there's going to be a whole slew of games appearing for download on the App Store. It's the same song and dance as every week, and if you live in an area where it's already Wednesday night or Thursday morning (like New Zealand) these games will already be available for download. Otherwise, wait a bit and as the world turns all of these games will slowly filter out to your regional App Store.

SteamBirds, 99¢ [Forum Thread] - The latest Flash port from Semi Secret Software, creators of Canabalt [$2.99] and Gravity Hook HD [$2.99]. The original flash game by Radial Games and Spry Fox can be played in its entirety online for free. SteamBirds is an odd game in that it's a turn-based aerial combat strategy game. You drag the trajectory of your planes around, and shoot down enemy planes. It's kind of surprising how well the gameplay works, because it initially seems so simple.

Stenches: A Zombie Take of Trenches, $1.99 [Forum Thread] - A zombified sequel of the zombie horde mode in Trenches [$1.99 / Lite], only this time as a full-fledged game. 200 waves of zombies are included, and there's plans for additional content and even multiplayer modes in the future.

Civilization Wars, 99¢ [Forum Thread] - This game seems to take strategic gameplay similar to Galcon [$2.99 / Lite] while adding several layers of customization via an RPG-style leveling system. There are a few videos available, but they're close to a year old now and might not entirely represent final gameplay. Either way, I thought games like Galcon worked well on the platform so Civilization Wars seems worth a look.

Spirits for iPad, $4.99 [Forum Thread] - This game seems a lot like Lemmings, only instead of assigning your individual lemmings various jobs, you have to get the spirits to the end of the level by controlling the wind to blow them about. You're able to create wind, as well as block wind, dig tunnels, and grow bridges. I'm really excited for this one.

In addition to all of these games, Gameloft is also releasing Spider-Man: Total Mayhem HD [$6.99] for the iPad. I liked the original version quite a bit in our review, and if you were waiting for an iPad-specific version, tonight will be your chance to grab it. I'm sure there's other games that will pop up tonight, but as it stands, these are what we have our eyes on.

Developer The Iconfactory, who most may know as co-developer of the game Ramp Champ [$1.99] or from the popular Twitter client Twitterrific [Free], have announced their latest iOS project titled Astronut. Astronut looks to have similar gameplay to Jump O'Clock [99¢], where you are launching a character upwards to various spinning discs, but in Astronut some of these discs appear to have gravity which adds quite an interesting element to this style of gameplay.

The following teaser for Astronut doesn't show a whole lot of gameplay, but it does give you a quick glimpse of what the game should be like:

So far the only details we have on Astronut is that there will be 24 levels across 6 different "sectors" and Game Center integration for leaderboards and achievements. Also, the game will be free to download and try, though I'm not sure if that means a full game will be unlockable through IAP or if it will be more like a freemium title with some sort of monetization of certain game elements. The game is said to be "coming soon" and we'll keep our eye out for more information on Astronut in the coming weeks.

Way back at E3 in June of this year, developer Venan announced Space Miner Blast [Free], an arcade-focused spinoff of their full-fledged RPG-style shooter Space Miner: Space Ore Bust [$1.99/Lite]. The introduction of the iPhone 4 and iOS 4 threw a wrench in the development of Space Miner Blast, and the game that had once been "coming soon" was delayed for the next several months. Just over a week ago Venan released a trailer for Space Miner Blast to celebrate that the game was finally submitted, and indeed just a couple of hours ago the game went live in the App Store.

Space Miner Blast is free to download and play, but comes with ads in the menu and title screens and 10 second countdown timers that must be endured before beginning the game and in between levels. In addition to the default ship, there are three additional ships available through in-app purchase. Each one can be bought separately for 99¢ or purchased all at once with the Blast Pack for $1.99. Buying any ship or the Blast Pack disables all ads and timers, and as an interesting bonus unlocks Retina Display graphics for 4th generation iPhones and iPod touches. While the game looks quite nice in standard definition anyway, it's simply stunning with the high resolution Retina Display graphics unlocked.

I've had a ton of fun in the short amount of time I've been playing Space Miner Blast. It offers a focused approach on the type of action found in its older sibling Space Ore Bust, and stands really well on its own as an arcade survival shooter. Game Center leaderboards and achievements come with the free version, and there are dedicated leaderboards for each of the three IAP ships as well. As a small heads up regarding the IAP, I found the way it works to be slightly funky. After choosing to purchase a ship from the ship selection screen, the game will actually prompt you to input your iTunes information before popping up with a menu showing the available pricing options for purchases. This left me wondering if I was about to be charged for something before even seeing what that something is, but alas you will have the opportunity to choose to buy either a single ship or the Blast Pack after entering your iTunes login information.

Space Miner Blast is a fun game, and player impressions in our forums have been positive as well. It's free to download and play, so there's really no reason not to give it a try. If you enjoy this sort of gameplay but are looking for a fantastic storyline and a whole lot more depth to go along with it, check out our original review and the lite version of Space Miner: Space Ore Bust as it is a highly recommended title as well.

Update: It looks like Space Miner: Space Ore Bust has just gone on sale for $1.99 [App Store]

Last month we posted about Sarien.net, Martin Kool's home built tribute to a wide array of classic Sierra Adventure games ranging from Space Quest to Leisure Suit Larry. Currently, all of these games are completely playable via any modern web browser just by navigating around the site. Since we last spoke with him, Martin has been hard at work customizing and tweaking Space Quest to run on the iPad. We were given a hands-on preview of the game, and it didn't take long to come to the strange realization that they really feel like how the games were meant to be played... nearly 25 years later, on a device that the original developers likely couldn't even imagine.

Playing the game on the iPad is effortless. Installing it is as simple as navigating to a (secret) URL, at which point the game tells you to go through the sequence to add the URL as a home screen icon. From there, you tap the home screen icon and the game loads completely seamlessly without any additional work. It's crazy just how fast and easy the whole process is. The first time you load it up, there's a small load time, but as soon as mobile Safari starts caching parts of the game it's just like playing the actual computer game. There's even multiple save slots, and accessing them is as simple as rotating the iPad in to portrait mode.

The version of the game we were given access to seems complete, and playing it is simple. You tap in the game world to move there, and text commands are entered via a menu tree of sorts represented by buttons on the bottom of the screen. Instead of typing, every command is only a few taps away. It works really well, and I suspect will make the games much more approachable to people who haven't experienced them before as the available commands usually at least nudge you in the right direction by hinting at what you're capable of doing.

What makes this all that much more impressive is the technical wizardry taking place behind the scenes making this all possible. Space Quest is built entirely with HTML, CSS, and Javascript and once they've been cached on the iPad you can play them in their entirety offline. Also, to preserve the classic retro blocky graphics, Kool had to jump through quite a few hoops since modern browsers love to scale things with bicubic filters. This makes photos and other images look good, but turn these ancient pixels in to a blocky mess. Due to this, each of the games on Sarien.net will need to be hand-tweaked to run on the iPad. Space Quest should be finished within a week if everything goes according to plan, and after that Martin has his sights set on The Black Cauldron, King's Quest and Leisure Suit Larry.

As huge fans of retro adventure gaming, we're following this very closely. As soon as Space Quest is ready to be made public, we'll let you guys know.

Last week when Square Enix release Voice Fantasy [$2.99], members of our forum and commenters on our review were left wondering where in the world Square's other titles that they've already announced were. Courtesy of our friends over at AppBank, we have our answer. They recently scored a hands on [Translated] of Secret of Mana, and were even able to shoot the following gameplay video:

Secret of Mana is a top-down action RPG which features a three character party wandering about the land, with each member having specific strengths and weaknesses. The Super Nintendo version of the game (As well as the Wii Virtual Console) supports up to three players playing at once, each controlling one of the characters. It isn't really clear if this will be the case in the iPhone game or not, but this could potentially be an excellent opportunity for Square to really knock it out of the park with some Game Center-powered coop online play. Sure, it seems unlikely, but it would be awesome.

Either way, according to AppBank, Secret of Mana will be available later this year. The good news is, there isn't much time left in 2010. With the iTunes Connect shutdown that happens every year around Christmas, it doesn't seem like much of a stretch to expect a Secret of Mana release in the next few weeks.

If Apple packaged and sold a sneeze, you better believe Firemint would figure out a way to support it with Flight Control -- and fast, as the studio is often on the bleeding edge of all things Apple with its hallmark game. With this in mind, you might not be so surprised to learn today's bit of news: Firemint plans to release a free update to Flight Control HD [$4.99] that will add Game Center multiplayer support day and date with the release of the iOS 4.2.

This update, specifically, will add a brand new "exclusive" versus map to the game, as well as co-op support to the five original maps. Game Center, as we've seen in the past, will play the role as a service: when the update hits, you'll be able to invite friends or enter into random matchmaking for these modes, as well as earn achievements. This update will also support multi-tasking, which means you'll be able to drop into a game as you please and drop out whenever mom sends that e-mail. No worries, ma!

iOS 4.2, which is slated to hit this November, in addition to adding multi-tasking support, will also add Folders, AirPrint, "enhanced enterprise support," a unified e-mail inbox, dictionary enhancements, and AirPlay. Sounds hot, right? Oh! And Flight Control HD is pretty good. You should probably check it out.

Back in late August, Deceased Pixel announced Super Mega Worm [99¢], a game inspired by the flash game Effing Worms that was itself inspired by the original worm havoc game Death Worm by JTR. Literally the next day, developer Playcreek announced that they were working on an official version of Death Worm in conjunction with JTR for the iPhone and iPad. The battle for worm game supremacy was now in full swing, but Super Mega Worm was first to market as it launched in the App Store just a couple of days following its announcement. We liked Super Mega Worm in our review, and most of our complaints with the game have since been fixed via updates, but we were still anxious to get our hands on Playcreek's take on the game with Death Worm [99¢].

Following the new trailer for Death Worm we posted last week, the game has since wiggled its way into the App Store this past weekend. Death Worm features sharp Retina Display graphics, three different environments to cause destruction in, a fairly deep upgrade system for your worm, and even a mini-game to break up the core gameplay. The question I keep seeing asked in our forums is which game is better – Death Worm or Super Mega Worm? Honestly, it's a toss up, and will likely depend on personal preference which one you end up enjoying more as they both have their own sets of strengths and weaknesses.

In Death Worm you'll control your worm using a virtual stick, which works really well but is also the only option. There are two special moves your worm can perform which are enabled by collecting icons dropped from defeated enemies. One allows you to move with increased speed and strength for a period of time, and the other is a fireball that can be shot from your mouth. These special moves, along with your more basic attributes like speed and size, can be upgraded as you progressively destroy more and more enemies. The upgrading aspect is fantastic, giving Death Worm a slight RPG feel as you choose what areas to improve your worm in.

Another nice touch in Death Worm are the three different environments to play in that all have their own independent save states, essentially allowing you to have three games in progress at once. Each environment has 15 levels to play through with certain requirements that must be met to pass each one. This is the part of Death Worm that I absolutely did not like, as sometimes the requirements can be downright frustrating. For example, there are levels where you must kill a certain amount of enemies without taking damage of any kind. With one enemy left before passing a level, a single bullet from a soldier's pea shooter will reset the quota, forcing you to start over again. I've literally been stuck at points like this for dozens of retries, and the game gets difficult enough in the later levels that there isn't a need for such a cheap requirement.

Other than those infrequent frustrating moments, Death Worm is a ton of fun to play. It's different enough from Super Mega Worm that both games can coexist in the App Store, and both certainly warrant a spot on your device. Super Mega Worm feels like more of the arcade experience, with its colorful pixel graphics and over-the-top style. Death Worm has a more realistic look to it, and feels more strategic and challenging. It also has the added bonus of more content, with the nice upgrade system, three environments, and a fun iCopter-like mini game to play. There is promise of more mini games and environments for future updates to Death Worm, but Super Mega Worm hints at additional content updates as well.

As they are both currently priced at 99¢ each, I have no problem recommending both to ensure you've covered all your worm game needs. If I was forced to choose just one, however, I'd choose Death Worm as it's the game I've continually been coming back to.

Guns'n'Glory was released in late August and our review reflected just how surprised we were with just how fun the game turned out to be. Unlike many tower defense games where you place a tower and it stays there until you sell it, Guns'n'Glory almost plays closer to an RTS than a TD because you're able to move all of your units around whenever you please. This allows you to adapt your entire defense to each incoming wave of, well, innocent settlers attempting to make their way west.

Another thing that is amusing about Guns'n'Glory is that you don't control a faceless set of towers that attack an array of geometric shapes, monsters, or aliens. No, instead you control a team of bandits that quite literally position themselves on bridges and over mountain passes, slaughtering entire families of people trying to settle out west. It's a silly and entirely unexpected premise for a tower defense game, and I'm more than a little surprised that it didn't seem to offend anyone.

Take a look at the trailer, and take a peek at our review if you'd like, but really you should just download this game as quickly as possible while it's still free. The mix of tower defense and realtime strategy elements really makes for a fun game. It's a little short on content, but that's hard to get worked up over while the game is free.

There's an odd social disconnect in most "social" games. You can't rate each other's work. In life we wither or thrive under the scrutiny of peers, and whether this pressure is good or bad, it informs what we do and how we approach a given task or problem. This is what drew me to Haiku Wind Pro HD [$.99] for the iPad, oddly enough.

Haiku Wind Pro is a social-focused joint that encourages people to write and then rate anonymous haikus. The rating process is streamlined; a simple thumbs up and thumbs down indicator appears above each finished haiku. You need only click on one or the other to bring down righteous judgment.

The game launched last night, so the audience pool is shallow, but you can already see how others' successes are informing or influencing new works. For example, my creative haiku based on the popular song "The Thong Song" is currently sitting at a -1 rating, while other more original, much more flowery haikus are receiving praise from others. The fledgling audience expects deeper, more garnish-laced poems and, as a result, that's the majority of the content.

Imagine if Farmville [free] allowed you to rate each other's crop placement or Bejeweled Blitz let you suggest the next move. Now, imagine that this rater or suggester was just a dude on the 'net. You might think twice about how you play, right? This is what's happening in Haiku Wind Pro and it's neat to watch unfold, though its admittedly, very limited action at the moment.

Another factor that majorly weighs into you producing the best, perhaps most popular works (as, perhaps, influenced by prior works) is the game's persistent leveling system. As your poems are received well by others and you rate, you'll gain levels. Haiku Wind Pro, in this way, is like an RPG where the experience points have been replaced by some sort of shared social currency.

The streamlined UI in Haiku Wind Pro also does its part in making it easier to rate and produce; it's very, very simple. To the left, you'll always see the latest haikus in a swipe-down, Twitter-style menu. To the right, you'll see your current haiku and what level you're at, denoted by a style of mask.

There's not much more to Haiku Wind Pro; it's a barebones game with a clever idea. But I think it's a fascinating app in that illustrates a missing piece in our increasingly connected digital existence -- actually connecting with people with what we've done or created. Also, it's a neat study in how we inform each other in a confined space.

A couple of weeks back we posted a new video for CAVE's newest iOS game called Mushihimesama Bug Panic. A departure from CAVE's typical offerings like the scrolling shooters Dodonpachi Resurrection [$8.99/Lite] and Epgaluda II [$8.99/Lite], Mushihimesama Bug Panic looks to be more of a dual-stick shooter but still contains the hectic onscreen action that the developer is known for.

CAVE has just sent word that the release date for Mushihimesama Bug Panic will be Thursday November 18th. The game will launch at a discounted price of $3.99 for the first four days of release before returning to the regular price of $4.99. As with other CAVE releases, a lite version will be available sometime following the full version. Here is the latest trailer for the game, and I'm not going to lie, I love the Bug Panic theme song:

Also in line with CAVE's other iOS titles, Mushihimesama Bug Panic will only be compatible with 3rd generation devices and higher, as well as the iPad. Strangely they don't specifically mention the 4th generation iPod touch on their compatibility list, but it's assumed that the game should play fine on those devices as well. You can pop in on the upcoming games thread in our forum to pass the time until November 18th, and we'll be taking a look at Mushihimesama Bug Panic when it releases.

The same company that brought us Mr. Potato Head and Risk is poised to release a new peripheral for the iPhone and iPod Touch that will -- wait for it -- bring 3D gaming to the platform. It's called "My3D," and yes, it looks as strange as it sounds.

News of this device comes straight from a recent AP report, which spills a few beans short of a proper legume salad. My3D, in a nutshell, is a snap-on and wear device that renders Hasbro content into eye-popping 3D. How the device will render this content isn't being talked about at the moment. But, it appears as if what Hasbro will be able to make into a 3D experience is set to be somewhat exclusive. The AP report makes a specific mention that users with My3D will have to browse some sort of in-app store to be able to find content that will work with it.

The 3D craze is hard to get behind because of price alone. Just hit a Best Buy and cruise the 3D HDTV aisle if you're not catching our drift, but My3D won't be crippling pocketbooks or crushing hearts. It hits next spring at an agreeable $30, according to Hasbro.

To be perfectly clear, My3D isn't strictly a gaming device; Hasbro, as MacRumors notes, has plans to use it for other bits of entertainment content like TV shows, movies, and weird interactive app experiences. Great, I say, but will we be able to play Flight Control with it? How hard will our loved ones laugh at us while we have a My3D strapped to our skulls? Ah, these are the questions we should be asking ourselves before we dive in.

Windows Phone 7 devices launched today, and users who are booting up their phones are being greeted with a good number of apps and games available on day one. We've heard from quite a few iOS indie developers that they were going to dabble in Windows Phone 7 development to test the waters of a brand new app market. Currently, there are around 400 games available. However, we suspect that much like the numbers that Apple boasts regarding the number of apps on the App Store, significantly less are likely worth playing.

XBOX Live integration comes standard with Windows Phone 7 instead of Apple's Game Center, and I really can't wait to see how this all gets leveraged with the existing XBOX Live functionality that's baked in to every XBOX 360 game. You're able to access your existing XBOX Live profile, and any achievements you earn get applied to your existing XBOX Live gamer score. Although, of those 400+ games available, only 26 actually use XBOX Live currently.

Another nice perk of the platform is how streamlined the demo process is. The Windows Phone 7 store allows for the download of demo versions, which are then upgraded to full versions of games and apps without needing to worry about separate full and lite versions like we do on the App Store.

Regardless of how you feel about Windows devices, it's great to see more competition in the smartphone market. It's hard to say if Microsoft can catch up to the momentum Apple has built up for itself, but it sure would be nice to see some of the better things about Windows Phone 7 eventually leak over to the iOS platform.

Up until now, mobile game porting seems to have been a one-way affair with most popular iOS games extending out onto other platforms. If Windows Series 7 does attract a new core of game developers, maybe we'll see that trend in reverse.

The paid version of Words With Friends HD [2.99] has been available for the iPad since the dinosaurs began hocking up miasmic balls of cosmic goo. But the free version? Nah, that hasn't been around at all -- until recently at least.

The free version of WWF HD [free] is now available to download as of yesterday, and just like its iPhone counterpart, the app is ad-supported.

In this version specifically, you'll get access to everything WWF. In other words, you'll be able to play up to 20 games at the same time, join and start online games, chat in a cute little text box while playing, receive push notifications when not in the app, and feel like a moron whenever you spell "van" knowing full well that "V" could have gone somewhere else for more points.

There's not a lot that differentiates the iPhone and iPad versions of WWF. The iPad version, of course, has more screen space to work with and looks sharper, but that's about it. I should note that, annoyingly, both the free and paid versions of the iPad app are locked in portrait mode, so no horizontal spelling action is allowed. It's a bummer, but, hey, WWF is (kinda) free now on the iPad! Why am I complaining?

Late last month we covered John Carmack's announcement on the Bethesda Blog regarding his plans with future iPhone development. It turned out that he wasn't planning on making a full-blown RAGE port like we originally suspected when he demonstrated RAGE on the iPhone 4 at Quakecon, but instead is bringing a more iPhone-friendly game that takes place in the RAGE universe.

This game world is based on a post-apocalyptic future, following the Apophis asteroid smashing into Earth. (A plausible future, given there actually is an Apophis asteroid which at one time scientists believed had a 1 in 42 chance of hitting our planet.) In the full PC and console versions due out 9/13/11, you play as a member of the Eden Project, a government program that placed important members of society in underground "arks".

The goal of all this, much like the vaults in the Fallout series, is to be able to restore society after the nuclear (or in this case, asteroid) apocalypse. Unsurprisingly, the ark system doesn't work as well as was hoped. You are the sole survivor of your ark, and with all the other members of your group dead, you awaken to a very different future in a world that has long since forgotten about the Eden Project and the existence of the arks.

It isn't really clear whether you're playing as this same protagonist in Mutant Bash TV, but the basis of the iPhone game is that you are a contestant on a weekly game show where people are pitted against an onslaught of mutants to win fabulous prizes. It works well, and I'm sure I will appreciate it more once RAGE is actually released and I get more of the tie-ins with other elements of the RAGE world.

Mutant Bash TV plays surprisingly similar to DOOM Resurrection [$6.99]. The entire game takes place on rails, and even the controls are laid out similarly. Tilting controls the camera and your aim, and you have buttons to dodge, fire, switch weapons, and reload. The main difference is just how much faster everything is in Mutant Bash TV. Mutants pop up everywhere, and while you're dealing with them there are bags of cash to grab and bullseyes to shoot. Your overall performance is graded at the end of the level, at which point you can either move on to a new level or replay the last one for an even higher score. Four difficulty settings are included, ranging from easy (where it's seemingly impossible to die) to nightmare (which is incredibly difficult).

In the preview we were given, only the first level was playable, which takes place in the mutant tenements. These tenements look a lot like your typical broken down corridor-heavy graffiti-covered first person shooter level, but you hardly have time to look around at the scenery because there is no downtime. You're always either shooting or quickly moving to the next area.

The graphics of Mutant Bash TV are amazing, and really make me look forward to the future of iOS gaming. The demo we were given was on a 4th generation iPod touch, which consistently ran at a high framerate throughout all parts of the game we had access to regardless of how much was going on at once. Mutant Bash TV looks so good in motion that the screenshots barely do it justice, especially when you add the pixel density of the Retina Display into the mix. While you might notice some jagged edges or low resolution textures if you were to carefully analyze the screenshots on your computer, none of this is apparent at all when you're playing it.

I'm sure there will be people out there who are disappointed to find out that Mutant Bash TV is a first person shooter on rails, especially with the backlash we saw surrounding our DOOM Resurrection review. However, after playing the demo level over and over, I really thought that the automatic movement was basically exactly what I'd be doing if I was actually controlling my character. Instead I didn't need to have a third of the screen obscured working two virtual thumb sticks. In any case, due to the level design it doesn't seem like there's anywhere else you could go if you controlled your movement in Mutant Bash TV. Since this was just a brief demo, it's hard to get a real idea of what the rest of the game will entail.

It's incredibly exciting to see industry giants Id and Epic going head to head in releasing their next-generation graphics engines on the iPhone. Id's Mutant Bash TV should beat Epic's Infinity Blade to market, as currently Id is shooting for the end of November for the release of Mutant Bash TV. Meanwhile, Infinity Blade is still set for a vague holiday release. Pricing hasn't yet been released for Infinity Blade, but Mutant Bash TV is launching at 99¢ for non-Retina Display iPod touches and iPhones and $1.99 for Retina Display-equipped devices and the iPad. After being amazed by Epic Citadel [Free], looking forward to Infinity Blade, and now getting my hands on Mutant Bash TV, I can say with the utmost confidence that this is an incredible time to be an iOS gamer.

If you were a PC gamer back in the early 90s, you may remember a point-and-click adventure game by the name of Gobliiins [99¢]. In the game you took control of three different goblin characters who each had their own unique abilities that would need to be utilized to solve a series of (sometimes nonsensical) puzzles. A charming art style and humorous story complimented the clever use of the different characters in Gobliiins, which went on to spawn 3 sequels in the two decades since its original release.

Fans of Gobliiins will be happy to know that a port of the game, developed by DotEmu and published by Bulkypix, is now available in the App Store. The game contains all 22 of the original levels and remains largely unchanged other than having an added hint system and being slightly reworked for touch screen controls.

While the impressions in our forums are largely positive, they are predominantly from players of the original Gobliiins. It's important to note that this is a game from 1991, and lacks some of the refinement that came with later adventure games of the era. If you have fond memories of Gobliiins and are looking to scratch that nostalgia itch, then this version should be a no-brainer. If you never played the original but are looking for a new adventure game to play, the dated feel of Gobliiins may be a bit hard to overcome.

As a small word of caution, Gobliiins seems to be having some loading/freezing problems on certain devices. DotEmu has stated in the forum thread that these issues are being addressed and should be resolved in an update.