Rock Band fans have got another installment to keep them tapping -- or perhaps, in this case, singing -- to the beat with EA's recent release of Rock Band Reloaded in two versions, one for the iPhone [link] and one for the iPad [link]. This latest release is the first iOS Rock Band that features the (rather forgiving) new vocal recognition mode where gameplay consists of singing right along with the available tracks.

And, speaking of available tracks, there are 27 free tracks (some of which must be downloaded) along with four pay tracks that can be purchased at $.99 for a bundle of two. The complete list follows.

Free songs:

• A Jagged Gorgeous Winter by The Main Drag *
• A-Punk by Vampire Weekend
• Am I Crazy by Little Fish *
• Blood Doll by Anarchy Club *
• Bodies by Drowning Pool
• Call Me When Your're Sober by Evanessence
• Can't Let Go by Death of the Cool *
• Day Late, Dollar Short by The Acro-brats *
• Dearest (I'm So Sorry) by Picture Me Broken
• Entangled by Honest Bob and the Factory-to-Dealer Incentives *
• Get Clean by Anarchy Club *
• Heartbreaker by Pat Benatar
• Hella Good by No Doubt
• Hungry Like the Wolf by Duran Duran
• I Get By by Honest Bob and the Factory-to-Dealer Incentives *
• In Bloom by Nirvana
• Kryptonite by 3 Doors Down
• Night Lies by Bang Camaro *
• Pleasure (Pleasure) by Bang Camaro *
• Peace Sells by Megadeth
• Remedy by Seether
• Rock'n Me by Steve Miller Band
• Seven by Tijuana Sweetheart *
• So What'cha Want by Beastie Boys
• The Perfect Drug by Nine Inch Nails
• White Wedding (Part 1) by Billy Idol
• Your Decision by Alice in Chains

Pay songs:

• Drunken Lullabies by Flogging Molly *
• Mean Woman Blues by Roy Orbison *
• Requiem for a Dying Song by Flogging Molly *
• You Got It by Roy Orbison *

( * denotes DLC tracks )

Rock Band Reloaded features Facebook integration, local (WiFi and Bluetooth) multiplayer, and a new Expert Mode for those wanting more of a challenge. The iPhone version supports the Retina display where available.

Last month Ngmoco launched its first person shooter Star Wars: Imperial Academy [free], but in Canada only. Last night the game finally arrived in most other markets around the world (with the apparent exception of Japan, right now).

As we said in our initial report, with Star Wars: Imperial Academy, Ngmoco appears to be going for what's more or less Eliminate with a heavy layer of Star Wars plastered on top. The game's feature list can be found on the Ngmoco website.

Now that the title is available (pretty much) everywhere, we will shortly be posting a closer look.

Indie sandbox building game Minecraft has become something of a phenomenon since the Mac / Windows / Linux release of Minecraft Alpha back in June. And, for a rather brief moment, iOS gamers had the chance to get in on the Minecraft experience as well, thanks to Trevor Wilkin's Minecrafted, basically an iPhone Minecraft client (which could connect to Minecraft servers) that was pulled shortly after landing in the App Store.

Those bereft Minecraft fans out there who lament the iOS Minecraft experience having been but a brief flirtation may be pleased to see Kingly Games' new release, Eden - World Builder [App Store]. The game, according to the developer, was inspired by various members of the block building genre, including Minecraft, Infiniminer, and Blockland. And it's apparent.

The game features "a vast pristine world of infinite possibility," dozens of block types, integrated community tools for sharing and, perhaps most important of all, fire and explosives. To the eye, it's pretty much Minecraft, with gameplay more akin to the earlier Classic version than the current favorite and more complex, Alpha release.

Movement through the game world is controlled via an onscreen D-pad with swipe-based view controls. Along the right edge of the screen are buttons for digging, selecting building blocks, lighting fires, jumping, and the like. Happily, the onscreen action is very smooth and fluid, moreso than the Java-based Minecraft on some Mac and PC setups. Eden is optimized for the iPhone 3GS / 3G iPod touch and newer, with iOS 3.2 or better required.

And while there's much similarity to Mojang's indie smash, Eden - World Builder is indeed it's own game and does not connect in any way to the world of Minecraft. I've enjoyed the brief time I've spent with the title so far and expect fans of the block-based world building genre would do likewise.

UPDATE:  Developer Ari Ronen contacted us early this morning to give us a heads-up on a price drop for Eden - World Builder. "Just a heads up -- I've decided to lower the price for Eden to 99c so that everyone can check it out."

Today we got a chance to try Capcom's upcoming Dead Rising Mobile which is due for release next Thursday. I'm going to reserve most of my comments for our full review which will accompany the official release, but they've given us clearance to do a brief preview piece since we're so excited about the game. Let's start with a little backstory since quite a few of our readers aren't console gamers: Dead Rising for the Xbox 360 in late 2006 (which also recently saw a sequel released). It's a sandbox style game set in a shopping mall which is currently the site of an all-out zombie Apocalypse.

The game had a terrible save system, poor controls, horrible AI, and was generally a little buggy. However, none of this stopped the game from being something that was impossible to put down. Dead Rising was incredibly entertaining, because you could do the missions however you wanted, or just disregard them entirely. The name of the game in Dead Rising was improvised weaponry, and almost anything could be picked up and swung around at zombies. If you wanted, you could exclusively use guns, or dabble in the various melee weapons, or ignore conventional weapons and use only chairs and trash cans to make your way through the game.

Dead Rising Mobile comes packed with all the things that were bad about the original Dead Rising, with some issues that have even been magnified on the device. For instance, the already poor controls are even worse on the touch screen, and the general buggy nature of the Xbox 360 game persists with weird graphical glitches, clipping issues, and crazy camera angles. The objective system isn't very clear, the framerate is low (even on my iPhone 4) and it seems to take forever to load between areas.

The great thing is, none of this seems to matter because the Dead Rising formula is just so much fun. The appeal is hard to explain unless you've actually played it (which makes me hope Capcom eventually releases a lite version), but they've somehow managed to turn this expansive sandbox console game in to a mobile game that comes with enough elements from the original that it doesn't feel like a watered down port at all. The mall that makes up the game world is extensive, and after completing a few missions you begin to remember where the locations of your favorite weapons are, just like the original.

There's something incredibly satisfying about slaying entire swaths of zombies with a chair, running over mad zombies (beastly zombies that are stronger) with a lawn mower, and decapitating entire groups of zombies with an excellent chainsaw-driven spin attack... And just like the console version, you can either choose to follow the various missions, or just explore the mall on your own-- Although, missions seem to award tons of experience, making leveling up difficult if you choose to disregard them.

We're going to be playing through the game more over the next week to provide a more in-depth look when it is finally released on Thursday, but so far we're impressed. Much like the original, if you can overlook the general buggy nature of the game and can deal with some lackluster controls, you're really going to be in for a treat of all out zombie mayhem.

Character can be a dangerous thing. All the narrative, charm, or wit in the world can be churned into mush if the foundation it sits on is unsound. Games that are able to inject doses of character into their tried-and-true fundamentals are special. They're hard to put down, even harder to forget, and inarguably solid.

Corpse Craft [Free] manages to be this type of game. It's no-nonsense approach and mixture of two different genres works spectacularly well, while its clever veneer adds a delectable flavor to the play.

But let's start at the beginning, shall we? Corpse Craft is a castle vs castle title with a matching twist. The UI itself has a built-in matching-game puzzle board. Each color within this board represents a different kind of material that you can use to build your soldiers, which are represented in the game just above the UI. The more dramatic the match, the more materials you'll receive as a result.

Materials aren't figurative and the soldiers are people… sort of. The game draws its name its peculiar choice of castle vs castle troops: cobbled together, reanimated flesh. In a way, this is castle battle "Frankenstein" minus all that stupid "What is it to be human?" crap. Also, there's no stalking.

Once material is gathered, you can build a butcher knife-equipped attacker or even a mix-and-match consisting of a female's head held up by multiple hands. Later, you'll be able to build a disgusting rolling sphere of interconnected parts or defensive creatures with multiple arms.

What's important to get here is that each soldier has its own specialization, as well as a flaw. And while these guys are all separate, they do share one thing in common: a quirky, yet dark and original character.

The weird, but whimsical aesthetic is present throughout the title, soaking the atmosphere in its quirk. You'll notice that Corpse Craft has a delightful pen-and-ink approach reminiscent of Graham Annable's "Grickle." It's an approach that keeps the gruesome in the forefront, but doesn't dish out copious gore. The narrative follows the art's lead, presenting the macabre substance via grim singsong poems.

Since we're dealing with monsters here, it's only natural that there's a day and night mechanic. At night, your abominations can attack and defend at will. But during the day, the entire board is wiped clean of the reanimated, leaving you to gather resources until the next night falls.

Depending on how good you are, you may only see more than a dozen nights, as there appears to be around 16 levels in the game. I wish I could confirm this, but there's a sharp difficulty spike just beyond this "free" title's pay wall. (Yes, Corpse Craft is one of those "Buy the full game" games.) The AI in these later stages turns into corpse grinders, able to blast out many more soldiers than you can within short spurts. A good deal of strategy is required and, unfortunately, luck. I'll note though that nothing seems impossible to beat.

In addition to a campaign, there's a Survival Mode and an online component, which presents 1 vs. 1 or 2 vs. 2 play via Game Center. The online sounds cooler in theory than what it actually is. The simplicity of the matching component lends itself to spamming blocks for massive amounts of soldiers, which turns out not to be so grand when you, and not the AI, is on the receiving end of the punishment. Again, this is where luck rears its head. If you get a bad board, you'll probably lose since there's not much complexity to Corpse Craft.

Regardless, it's hard not to love Corpse Craft for solely for its slick character, so it's really nice that it sits on such a solid foundation. I've enjoyed my time with the game immensely and I expect many others will as well. Go ahead and give the game a download -- you'll easily get a good enough indication of how much you'll dig the game before you hit its pay wall.

Back to the Future is one of the finest movie trilogies ever made, second only to maybe Star Wars, but only if you completely disregard the existence of the prequels. Because of this, it stands to reason that the episodic Back to the Future: The Game series will also be finest pentalogy ever made. Sure, my logic may be faulty (OK, it probably is) but either way I couldn't be more excited for Telltale Games' take on the Back to the Future universe which is coming to a bundle of different platforms including the iPad.

Check out the newly released trailer:

We don't have any more specifics on the game right now aside from the few snippets that have already been revealed on the Back to the Future: The Game web site. It's scheduled to be released on the PC and Mac this month, with the PSN and iPad versions coming "later." How much "later" they're coming isn't clear right now, but that's as specific as Telltale is willing to get.

Hopefully we won't have to wait too long, as adventure games like this have been absolutely amazing on the iPad, and I really can't wait to try this one.

Remember the ad that Sony released a few months ago starring their new PSP spokesman Marcus promoting the PSP's lineup of various $9.99 games? If you were too busy texting your grandma, as the ad suggests, here's what you missed:

Following this video, Be Rad Entertainmen sprang to action and began working on Lame Castle [99¢], the game that Marcus mocks. The game is a typical see how far you can run to the right survival game like Robot Unicorn Attack [$1.99] with both pre-made levels, endless mode, a host of unlockables, and Game Center support. It's packed with cute-looking graphics, a scoring system that involves ramming in to things, and promises of more levels and game modes to come.

If you're the kind of person who gets involved in heated console arguments with friends, Lame Castle is something you should probably have on your device to fuel the fire.

Nintendo killed the bowling alley with its spin on the popular "throw spherical hard thing at cone-like hard things" sport in Wii Sports. Now, Freeverse is piling on the pain with its iPhone and iPod Touch game We Bowl [Free], which debuted on the App Store this December 2nd.

As you'd expect, We Bowl is a touch take on the sport, requiring little more than a finger swipe to send a three-holed ball down a virtual alley. The twist is in its avatar creation component, which houses a rather deep pool of items to put on your unique little bowler. And as you compete in the game, you'll unlock even more stuff to put on your fledgling bowler / drunkard / wife abuser, provided you don't opt to just buy items with your real, hard-earned cash.

We Bowl a simple and free game that we have no real problems with… except when we dig into the way they're presenting the game. "Why bowl boring when you can bowl gonzo," asks the game's curious slogan. We've been digging furiously through the game in an attempt to locate this indicated Muppet tie-in to no avail. Gonzo or his chickens -- or even Kermit, Rawlf, or that cute little shrimp with the accent, for that matter -- simply do not appear in We Bowl.

"Ludicrous!" we've cried to the skies with one fist cocked, the other firmly clenching our phones on numerous occasions. But no matter how frazzled, how depressed we get, we'll continue to try to locate this elusive connection. Muppets have got to be in the game somewhere, right?

Regardless of how you feel about bowling, Muppets, or the apparent lack of Muppets, the avatar system in We Bowl is really cool. We've been told that items you unlock in the game to pimp out your avatar will stay with your avatar across future Freeverse games that also utilize this avatar system. Of course since We Bowl is the only game that's using their avatars right now, we'll have to take Freeverse's word that my awesome Walter Sobchak looking avatar will persist.

Even if you're not interested in the bowling aspect of the game, the avatar system is flexible enough and fun enough that you can sink a stupid amount of time in to just building all kinds of different looking characters. Just keep in mind that We Bowl is a freemium game like the other We games, so expect some ads, in-app purchases, and all that fun stuff.

For many TouchArcade forum members, Aralon: Sword and Shadow is on the top of their most-anticipated holiday titles list. By now, the Aralon thread is sporting over 3,000 posts and nearly a quarter of a million views since it was first posted. If this is the first you've heard of the game, Aralon is an open-world RPG that has been in development for ages. In our last article about the game, we explained the story behind it along with posting a ten minute long developer walkthrough. (Check it out if you haven't.)

Currently, Crescent Moon Games is shooting at a release date of December 16th, which is little more than their best guess on when the game will likely be approved. Given the mad rush of developers all submitting their games to be ready for the holidays, no one but Apple really knows if we'll be playing Aralon sooner or later than that. Also, something that's been hotly debated on our forums is what the price of Aralon will be. Most were expecting the game to launch in the neighborhood of $9.99, but Crescent Moon has just told us that they're planning on launching the game at $6.99 as a special launch price which will last until December 29th.

Following the announcement of Firemint's Real Racing 2 they've been slowly leaking out additional details about the game. First they mentioned it was going to include real cars, then they released a cinematic trailer. Following that, a gameplay video was released from the development version of the game. Admittedly, today's haul is a little lackluster in comparison, but if you needed more confirmation that Real Racing 2 was going to look great, here's three new screenshots:

Also, (and this is kind of old news but we never mentioned it) if you want to trick out your phone or computer, Firemint has some sick looking Real Racing 2 wallpaper they released a while back. Anyway, it sort of goes without saying, but we're very excited to finally play this game, as the first Real Racing was awesome and it's hard to imagine the sequel being just as (if not substantially more) rad.

SimCity, the seminal city building and management series, has had a rocky lifespan on the App Store. The original SimCity game for the iPhone was released nearly two full years ago. At that time it was hard not to be impressed that a fully featured version of the game was running on a mobile phone, but the reality is that game had some pretty serious bugs and performance problems, especially when your population grew to a few hundred thousand.

Then last July EA Mobile pulled the old SimCity title in favor of SimCity Deluxe [$2.99] which indeed was an overall better experience but came with some new problems of its own. Both versions of SimCity suffered from a lack of screen real estate on the iPhone and iPod touch, and neither ever felt like that remarkable of an experience.

After checking out SimCity Deluxe for iPad in person, though, it seems that the franchise has finally found a device that can do it justice. SimCity Deluxe for iPad uses the graphical assets from SimCity 4, so it looks gorgeous on the bigger screen. The biggest benefit however is the revamped user interface and extra screen space that allows for simple and intuitive controls. The content is largely the same as the iPhone version of SimCity Deluxe, with 7 starter cities modeled after real world locations, 7 scenarios with specific goals to work out, and of course the ability to start completely from scratch. An EA rep demoed the game for me and this video shows off a ton of the features in the game:

Being a fan of SimCity, I always wanted to like the iPhone versions but they just felt too cramped and frustrating to play. With most of those frustrations alleviated thanks to the bigger screen on the iPad, I can actually picture myself playing this game a lot more. The highly customizable and easy to use interface is friendly to newcomers or casual players, but doesn't sacrifice the ability to dig in to some of the more advanced techniques. The release date is scheduled for this month, and we'll take another look at SimCity Deluxe for iPad when it finally does hit the App Store.

EA Mobile has already brought two successful versions of the Monopoly franchise to the iPhone/iPod touch, classic Monopoly [$2.99] and The World Edition [$2.99], but now it's the iPad's turn. Obviously the larger screen of the iPad makes for a more enjoyable experience with a virtual board game, but EA has also added a few interesting twists to the game to make it more than just a straight digital conversion.

First of all, the other iOS versions of Monopoly are pretty hard. I've heard more than one player complain that the AI was “cheating” because they would get whooped badly so often. The iPad version looks to remedy this with Teacher Mode where you play a much friendlier AI, not just in difficulty but also in offering helpful hints and tips. The AI in Teacher Mode will pop up with information like which color properties get landed on the most so you can be sure to place hotels there, and in-depth statistics for both of you so you can see that the AI actually isn't pulling a fast one on you by comparing how each other's game unfolds.

The other great addition to Monopoly on iPad is Tabletop Mode where you can play same-device multiplayer with up to 4 people. What's cool about this mode is that you can just lay the iPad down on whatever surface you want to play on, like a table, and the relevant text and UI will reorient itself around the screen towards each player while keeping the game board in the same spot. It basically feels just like playing the actual board game, only there is no money or pieces to manage and everything is automated for you. In fact I'd say this is the definitive way to play Monopoly, and the only people who will bother to bust out the actual board game anymore are the nostalgic types who want to remember what us old people called “tactile feedback”.

Of course Monopoly on the iPad will also contain plain old regular games with a myriad of difficulty settings, game options, and rule sets. You'll also be able to play local multiplayer with up to 4 players using multiple devices over WiFi or Bluetooth, and in a nice touch the local multiplayer with be compatible with the iPhone/iPod touch versions of Monopoly. Board games have already proven to be a great fit for the iPad, and if you're a fan of Monopoly but hate keeping track of all the pieces, or have an unnatural disdain for thin elongated boxes, then you'll definitely want to check out Monopoly Classic for iPad when it releases sometime this month.

Ever since it was announced that Battlefield Bad Company 2 would be coming to iOS, our forums have run rampant with speculation and anticipation. While the Halos and Call of Dutys of the world get most of the spotlight, the Battlefield franchise has had its own dedicated following of hardcore players for years. This same group of players is very keen on not having their beloved franchise butchered in the transition to iOS. At a recent EA Mobile event, I finally got the chance to actually play Battlefield Bad Company 2. While my overall impression of the game is positive, the good news also comes with some bad.

Let's start with the good. Bad Company 2 will feature a single player campaign comprised of 14 missions spread across the typical environments, such as snow, desert, jungle, etc. The missions can be quite lengthy and are full of a variety of different goals. You'll be able to drive several different vehicles during certain missions, including a tank, a turret-mounted armored truck, and a helicopter. The controls are spot-on, both on foot and while driving vehicles. They utilize the familiar "touch anywhere" virtual analog setup, with icons for throwing grenades, crouching, and aiming down your sights. It's all very minimalist and unobtrusive, letting you get a good view of the action taking place.

The graphics in Bad Company 2 have been largely criticized in our forums ever since EA released screenshots of the game. After seeing the game in person though, the criticism is unwarranted. Bad Company 2 looks great and runs smoothly, and while it doesn't quite approach the visuals of something like Modern Combat 2 [$6.99], it's certainly far from a bad looking game. It runs in high resolution with detailed weapon models and environments. It won't blow your mind, but it exceeded my expectations.

So, are you ready for the bad news? First of all, the trademark destructible environments that Battlefield is known for will not be making it to this portable outing. That's not entirely surprising given that this is game running on a mobile device and the technology to offer something like that would be quite taxing. Still, I did have my fingers crossed that they would find a way to pull it off, but it just wasn't meant to be. At least not in this release. You'll come across vehicles that can be blown up and explosive barrels and the like, but the majority of structures and objects will not be affected by the carnage.

The other somewhat disappointing aspect to Bad Company 2 is the multiplayer. It's online over WiFi or 3G, or local over Bluetooth, but will only support 2-4 players in regular deathmatch and team deathmatch game types. Again, this is a far cry from the competition, but that doesn't mean it won't end up being fun. Also, as of this writing vehicles will not be a part of the multiplayer, which is another trademark of the Battlefield franchise. I'm told that it's something that is under consideration and could change in the future, but the game will most likely ship without this feature. Another thing that was unclear during the preview was whether there is any sort of class structure to choose from, but my gut feeling is that there isn't.

A rep from EA was kind enough to let me film her as she demonstrated a bit of the single player campaign in Battlefield. While a noisy, dimly lit bar isn't the ideal recording location this video should give you and idea of some of the game mechanics:

Even with these negative points there is a saving grace with Battlefield Bad Company 2, and that is that the game is a blast to play. It's easy to get wrapped up in bullet points and feature sets when talking about a game, and it would be hard for anything to measure up to the current high-water mark in iOS FPS games that is Modern Combat 2. But the bottom line is that even in the short amount of time I spent with Bad Company 2 it was a lot of fun. The multiplayer seems a bit basic, but I'm really looking forward to the single player campaign. Plus this is EA's first attempt at an FPS for the iPhone, so there's the possibility that the experience will be improved over time with updates or in future releases.

Bad Company 2 is slated for release sometime this month, so it won't be long before we can put the final version through the wringer. Until then you can join in on the active discussion in our forums, and we'll bring you more of Battlefield Bad Company 2 when it hits in the coming weeks.

Earlier this week Zynga sent out some curious invitations to a conference call to various members of the media, including TouchArcade. That left us scratching our heads to see what exactly it was that Zynga was up to that could possibly interest us. I was half expecting them to reveal plans to bring more games to iOS following the success of Farmville [Free] on the App Store, but this took me completely by surprise.

Zynga has acquired NewToy, the developers behind both Words with Friends [$2.99 / Free] and Chess with Friends [$2.99 / Free]. Where things really get interesting is when you consider that NewToy collaborated with ngmoco to release We Rule [Free] back in March, which has since been reskinned several times in various themes. Ngmoco has since been bought by Japanese social gaming conglomerate DeNA, which currently is one of Zynga's biggest competitors in the social gaming realm.

While many of our readers are (understandably) getting tired of freemium time sinks, it is incredibly interesting watching the international business battle unfold between all of these companies making untold millions on microtransactions and ad impressions. We're not sure yet what this will mean for NewToy other than a shiny new titles for the higher-ups at NewToy as well as the rebranding of NewToy to "Zynga With Friends." Like all these previous high-dollar dealings, it will be fun to see what happens once the dust of the acquisition settles.

Activision Blizzard's often controversial CEO Bobby Kotick recently told Reuters at the Global Media Summit this tuesday, "We don't view the App Store as a really big opportunity for dedicated games." Kotick believes that the best path for growth in Activision's future is utilizing the community of franchises they currently control. World of Warcraft, the Call of Duty games, and other series have been massive cash cows for the company, likely making Call of Duty: Zombies [$4.99 / HD] seem like small potatoes in comparison. While the game has been near the top of the iTunes highest grossing lists since release, it's hard to imagine that's even comparable to the amount of money Activision rakes in on a daily basis from WoW subscriptions and console titles.

Kotick's stance is somewhat understandable, and predictable given the direction the company has taken lately, prioritizing sequels and expansions of reliable series over exploring new territory. It's still disappointing given the success that their current titles have seen on the App Store, as well as the success that similar large publishers such as EA and Gameloft have enjoyed. The up side to all this is that according to Bobby Kotick, the iPad may be an attractive platform for Activision in the future, but not quite yet. Given the sky-high adoption rates the iPad has seen, hopefully serious Activision iPad titles will be coming sooner rather than later.

[via Joystiq]