Last month Gameloft teased us with an announcement trailer for their upcoming game based on the Tom Clancy franchise Rainbow Six: Shadow Vanguard. Unfortunately, as is the nature of teaser videos, very little of the actual game was shown. In fact, there was no gameplay in that video at all, making it frustrating if you're a fan of the Rainbow Six series and were curious to see what the iOS version would be like.

Today Gameloft is easing that pain a bit by releasing the first screens for Rainbow Six: Shadow Vanguard on their Facebook page, and unsurprisingly they look pretty fantastic (click to enlarge):

Based on the screen shots, Rainbow Six: Shadow Vanguard should offer up the same sort of tactical espionage that the series is known for. Unfortunately we still don't know a solid release date, but if these screens are any indication then it should be arriving fairly soon. There is a lively discussion of the game in our forums, and we'll bring you any new information on Rainbow Six: Shadow Vanguard just as soon as we get it.

It really has to have been a crazy last few days for Andreas Illiger, the developer of Tiny Wings [99¢]. His first iOS game hasn’t even been out for a full week yet, and it was just two days ago that we gave it a glowing 5 star review and have basically been glued to it since. Over these past two days, the buzz surrounding Tiny Wings has been swelling like an epic tidal wave. It’s all anybody has been talking about on Twitter, it’s been one of the busiest discussion threads in our forums, and every iOS toting device owner I’ve run into in real life I’ve recommended the game to.

For having zero marketing, Tiny Wings has been doing some incredible things in the top paid charts in the US App Store. It’s been steadily climbing the last couple of days, and I was floored when I looked up and noticed that it had broken into the top 25 of total paid apps. It didn’t stop there, though, and shortly thereafter broke the top 10. I was genuinely amazed by this, but it still kept climbing. For most of yesterday it spent a lot of time in both the 3rd and 2nd top positions, dethroning top 3 mainstay Fruit Ninja and pushing past the incredibly popular Camera+ app.

And then it happened. The unthinkable. Tiny Wings took the top spot from the King of the App Store charts for nearly a year, Angry Birds. Many members in our forums were confident that this would happen eventually, and some felt that it could never be done, despite how good Tiny Wings was. It just didn't have the brand recognition or marketing muscle to push it to the very top. It has happened though, and for one of the most unique, fun, and beautiful games I’ve played in a long time I think it's well deserved.

This isn’t the first time Angry Birds has been knocked off the top, as several different games or apps have bumped it from its position over the past year. But usually it’s a short-lived victory, as within just a few days Angry Birds is right back at #1. We’ll have to see how long Tiny Wings can maintain it’s #1 status, but surely there has never been such an unknown IP with no marketing campaign whatsoever that’s risen in popularity as fast as Tiny Wings has.

Based on our review, the positive words of everybody who plays it, and this very article you’re reading right now, it should go without saying that you need to pick up Tiny Wings if you haven't already.

Fruit Ninja, $0.99 Fruit Ninja has been one of the most well-supported games in the entire App Store, and has lived a long healthy life at the top of the paid charts because of it. Today, both the iPhone and iPad versions of Fruit Ninja received yet another update which adds even more content to the game. There are now 5 new blades to unlock in the Dojo, which are described as follows by Halfbrick themselves:

SHADOW BLADE – This super sweet blade was forged in darkness, void of all good.
PIXEL BLADE – Show how cool you really are with a blade that harks back to the days of 8-bit gaming.
BAMBOO SHOOT BLADE – Made in the forest that Sensei himself grew up in, this is one awesome blade that is bound to impress!
PARTY TIME BLADE – Every swipe will feel like you’re partying like it’s 1999.
PIANO BLADE – Make some sweet, sweet music as you destroy fruit with this groovy slicer.

In addition to the new blades, there are now weekly online leaderboards for the Classic and Zen modes following the great success of the Arcade mode weekly leaderboard. Last but not least, Fruit Ninja is now fast-app switching enabled so you can bounce in and out of the game with ease. If you have either full version of Fruit Ninja, grab the latest update and give the new content a spin.

Max Adventure, $0.99 Last December, the husband and wife team that makes up Imangi Studios released their most ambitious title to date, Max Adventure. This dual-stick shooter managed to stand out from the many cookie-cutter releases in the genre with ultra cute characters and graphics, great controls, excellent music, and solid shooting action.

We liked Max Adventure quite a bit in our review, and less than a month after release the game was updated with some new content that made it even better. An option for video-out was added which let you play Max Adventure on a big screen using technical wizardry explained in our post on the matter. In addition a brand new farm-themed survival map was added, giving the game a total of 2 survival maps.

Today's update is mostly a bug fix and performance improvement release, but it does add yet another survival map - The Arena - for a total of 3 now. Also, one of the welcome fixes in this update is a confirmation dialogue if you wish to exit a level so that you don't lose your current progress, which is a problem that had been plaguing a few players in our forums. Releasing in tandem with this latest update is a free lite version of Max Adventure, so if you haven't yet picked up the game now is a great chance to take it for a test drive, and to celebrate the lite the full version is on sale for just 99¢. If you already have the game, make sure and get the update to check out the new Arena survival map.

Ok, so we've been posting a ton about Final Fantasy III lately. But when an announcement for such a big name game comes up so suddenly, the trickle of new tidbits has a way of tossing fans into a frenzy. Since just this past Sunday, we've gone from not being completely sure if Final Fantasy III was coming to iOS, to getting official confirmation from Square Enix that it was, and finally learning that it would be an enhanced remake of the Nintendo DS version, putting to rest questions of what version we would be seeing in the App Store.

S in just a few days' time we've come from not even knowing about the existence of Final Fantasy III on iOS to where we're at right now, which is able to see what appears to be a near-final version of the game running on an iOS device.  Wow the internet moves fast! Japanese magazine Famitsu has posted several hands-on videos of Final Fantasy III on iOS and so far it's looking pretty sharp. It doesn't look like it strays too far from its DS counterpart, and the YouTube encoding makes it nigh impossible to tell how improved the graphics or sound are. But it's Final Fantasy III, and it's coming very soon, and that's reason enough to get excited.

This first video is the longest of the 5 that Famitsu has created and shows the very beginning of the game, a battle with a huge monster, and a bit of the overworld map:

This video is the fourth of the series and very nicely shows off a battle sequence with a full party:

To save bogging down our site with multiple embedded videos, the remaining 3 videos can be found embedded in the first post of the upcoming thread in our forums. You can also check them out via direct YouTube links for part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4 and part 5. We'll of course keep you updated with any new developments, and it wouldn't be a bad idea to keep track of the upcoming thread in our forums since pretty much every tidbit of information has popped up there before we've caught wind of it. Final Fantasy III is slated for a March release, and by the looks of these videos it appears to be nearly finished and may be here sooner than you think.

Update: Here are a couple of comparison screenshots that were posted in our forums. Clearly there has been some love put into the iOS version compared to the DS original (DS on left, iOS on right. Click to enlarge):

There are a whole bunch more screenshots of the iOS version of Final Fantasy III posted over at Famitsu, and if you're interested in checking them out you can get there by clicking this link.

[Via Famitsu]

Hopefully everybody has been grabbing the free game we posted earlier today SpikeDislike [Free], but there's another freebie deal on a great game that slipped by us until just now. Puppet War FPS [Free] is an arena style first-person shooter that is currently free for today as well. It originally launched in June of last year, and we really liked it when we reviewed it. You play as a hapless janitor who gets locked inside the studio of a popular children's puppet show. The puppets have decided to turn homicidal on humanity, and it's up to you to blast the stuffing out of endless waves of them using all sorts of interesting weapons.

Puppet War FPS originally launched with just one arena to battle in, the studio, but last August it received a huge update with additional locations and other improvements. There was now a night time version of the studio, and a brand new street scene level with it's own accompanying night version, bringing the total number of locations to 4. Also a Survival mode was added which was a very welcome addition if you just felt like hopping into a quick game for some puppet fragging without committing to the level based nature of the Campaign. A number of other gameplay tweaks and control improvements went on to make the updated version of Puppet War FPS an overall tighter experience.

Now you can grab this excellent shooter for free if you hurry. It's supposed to be free for today, February 23rd only, so depending on when you catch this post the price may already have increased. Puppet War FPS was definitely recommended at its various price points ranging from a dollar to three, and I would suggest downloading as soon as possible while it's currently free. It features some really attractive visuals and solid first-person shooting action. Plus, you get to blast the heads off of puppets, which should be reason enough to check it out. There's loads of further impressions in the thread in our forums, and don't miss out on this latest freebie for Puppet War FPS.

Galaxy On Fire 2 [$9.99 / Lite] is a big game that’s going to get even bigger with the eventual release of a Tom Cruise-less add-on called “Valkyrie.” Developer Fishlabs is going light on the details at the moment, reserving the reveal for press at GDC, however, we do know some general stuff at the moment -- new ships from a new class, new weapons, and a new and voiced story component will all be included in the add-on which hits in April via IAP.

As if that was enough GOF content, Fishlabs will be releasing a high-resolution ship pack featuring ship models from the first game as a free update on the same day Valkyrie is released. Neat!

So, you’re not familiar with GOF 2? Brother, I got your back. In a nutshell, it’s a space trading and commerce game with a lot of options and upgrades. Our review is pretty comprehensive, but here’s a selection that gets to the meat of the game:

“Your goal is to get back to your home system on the other side of the galaxy, but achieving that goal is going to take some time, and what better way to fill that time than by taking on various missions across the region's 20 star systems. You start out with a relatively weak, modestly outfitted ship, but there's money to be made and upgrades to be had along the way.”

“Jobs ranging from cleaning up space garbage to mining asteroids to transporting goods to hunting pirates to rescuing kidnapped officers can be had in the various stations in each system on the vast star map. And, if that seems too harrowing, money can be made in the simple buying and selling of simple commodities from one station to another. Like father of the genre Elite, it's a game you can take at your own pace.”

Told you I got you! Anyway, I imagine dedicated GOF'ers out there are more than thrilled about this update. Tell me how thrilled!

Last month we showed you the trailer for the upcoming side-scrolling physics-based driving game Smuggle Truck from Owlchemy Labs. We hinted that Owlchemy would be releasing a browser-based level editor prior to the actual iOS game coming out, and holding a level creation contest. Last week that contest got underway, and there is now a playable web browser version of Smuggle Truck complete with level editor ready for you to try.

Smuggle Truck has recently drawn some heat for its subject matter, namely the fact that you are carting a truckload of immigrants across each level until you reach the goal, which is in actuality a border line. Media outlets who felt it was offensive lambasted the game, with a seemingly equal number of people quick to defend it. Smuggle Truck even caught the attention of George Lopez, and was featured in a segment on his late night talk show.

Now you can see what all the fuss is about yourself with the playable web demo of Smuggle Truck, and enter their level creation contest for a chance at some cool prizes. Let me explain how. First, head over to Kongregate and try out the playable demo. There you can also access the level editor, and Owlchemy has put together a quick 60 second YouTube video to explain how it works. It’s a simple drag-and-drop process to create levels and then submit them right from within the browser window. Finally, you’ll want to sign up for the mailing list in the upper right corner of the Owlchemy Labs website so you can be informed if you’ve won.

Here’s a list of what you can win:

1 Grand Prize winner wins:

• A custom embroidered Owlchemy Labs lab coat
• A free copy of the game
• Your level in the final game with a callout as “Master Level Chef”
• A signed piece of artwork from the developers
• A personalized caricature and inclusion in the final game as one of the passengers in the truck.

4 Gold Prize winners win:

• A free copy of the game
• Your level in the final game with a callout as “Master Level Chef”

5 Silver Prize winners win:

• A free copy of the game

Based on my time with the demo of Smuggle Truck, I think the game will be a lot of fun when it hits the App Store. This level creation contest is a cool way to get an early preview of the game as well as put your creativity to work. The level editor in the browser demo is actually the same that will be included in the iPad version of Smuggle Truck, and I hope that there will be some sort of fancy schmancy way to create and share levels amongst the iOS versions of the game.

There’s a thread in our forums dedicated to the level creation contest where people have been swapping links to their created levels, and there’s the regular upcoming thread with discussion of the impending release. Definitely give the browser demo and level editor a try, and the contest will be running through this coming Monday, the 28th. The iOS version of Smuggle Truck is on schedule and should be available in the App Store sometime next month.

Oh, let’s not beat around the bush. Apple is poised to announce the iPad 2 on March 2nd, 2011. The tech giant’s marketing department has been firing off invitations to select outlets, including our very own, for an event scheduled for 10:00 AM at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. As you’ll see in the promotional art blasted our way, Apple is making it plain that it is indeed announcing a second-generation iPad on the heels of numerous rumors indicating that it would.

Not too subtle, eh? That’s why I’m biting the bullet here and avoiding “safe words” like probably, presumably, and all that jazz.

One thing we’re definitely not sure of is what will be included in the new iPad. An on-board camera and a potentially even a SD slot seem like a safe bet, but there’s a lot of speculation over the processor, screen, and potential mystery ports. Some people are suggesting it’ll boast a Retina Display and a beastly dual-core SGX543 GPU, but we won ‘t know for sure until March 2nd. We’ll be there, of course, and we hope you’ll join us for a week of insane coverage both at GDC and now at this Apple event.

Earlier this month we somewhat predictably announced we will be at GDC 2011 in San Francisco. Since then, we've been receiving a monsoon of meeting requests which has made my usual disaster of an inbox into... something far less manageable. I'm fairly caught up with existing meeting requests, and our schedule is getting pretty packed. However, since we're bringing the entire TouchArcade crew to San Francisco, I still have tons of availability to cram even more meetings in.

For the sake of simplicity, and avoiding the lag in between emails, if you'd like to book a meeting with us please send me an IM via AOL Instant Messenger. My screen name is ioburn [Status: ]. If you don't have an AIM account, signing up is easy and only takes a second. Alternatively, AIM even connected to Facebook and Google Talk, if you would rather use that. Of course you can also email at tips@toucharcade.com, it just won't be anywhere near as fast. (Be sure to put "GDC 2011" somewhere in the subject for email filters.)

Don't forget our party that we're having on Wednesday night either! We'll be at Bin 55 which is the bar in the hotel lobby of the Marriott near Moscone. If you track down someone from TouchArcade, we'll be giving out fancy little tyvek TouchArcade bracelets which will allow you to gain access to free beer and drinks from 8:00 PM until last call, which I think is sometime around 11:00 PM!

I can't wait to see everyone there! This GDC is working up to be even more crazy than the last.

There's been a lot of buzz about Final Fantasy III lately. Ever since we first announced over the weekend that it might be coming to iOS, and then after Square Enix officially confirmed that it was indeed coming, everybody has been wondering what version of the game it would be. According to Andriasang.com, Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu has the first details of Final Fantasy III for iOS.

Famitsu claims that it will indeed be the 2006 Nintendo DS 3D remake of the original, but enhanced quite a bit for iOS. The graphics are being redone in high resolution and the music and sound effects are getting an overhaul as well. The characters will be controlled via a "touch anywhere" analog stick, and during battle attacks and commands will be carried out simply by tapping on an enemy.

If you're unfamiliar with the DS version of Final Fantasy III, have a look at the trailer:

I wish there were more details available at this time, but I'm excited to know that the iOS version of Final Fantasy III will be the DS version that I enjoyed more than 4 years ago. Even more exciting is that if Square Enix is bringing this game to the App Store, then there is a strong possibility that they will bring the (in my opinion) superior Final Fantasy IV DS remake to iOS as well. I'm sure we'll be hearing more details about Final Fantasy III on iOS in the coming weeks as its March release draws closer, and until then you can head to the upcoming thread in our forums for discussion of the game.

[Via Andriasang]

SpikeDislike [Free] is a simple arcade game that we reviewed last month and have been hooked on ever since. The goal is to move your perpetually bouncing ball to the right while avoiding an endless series of spiky objects and earning combos and multipliers that add to your final score. It uses an easy one-touch control mechanic that anybody can pick up and play, but few will ever be able to fully master.

Since our review, SpikeDislike has been updated with some additional features. There’s a new “Zero G” mode which plays a bit like any of the various iCopter games that have been released where your ball automatically sinks to the floor and touching the screen raises it into the air. There are also new kinds of combos and small badges that appear when certain tasks are completed, such as breaking a previous high score or passing a set number of spikes. Presumably these will fit in nicely with the planned Game Center integration sometime down the line, and a Challenge mode is nearing completion and is planned for the very next update as well.

The other big addition in the last update was 4 brand new graphical themes to choose from, bringing the total to 8. What’s interesting about this is that one of them is actually a fan-made theme. Visiting this link on the developer’s blog explains how you can make your own sprite sheets for SpikeDislike and submit them for potential inclusion in an upcoming version. There’s no guarantee that your sprite sheet would make the cut, but it’s worth a look if you’re into making that sort of thing just for fun.

So now that we’ve got the important information about why we liked SpikeDislike and what’s new in the latest version, we can move onto the real reason you’re reading this which is that SpikeDislike is currently free for the entire day to celebrate the developer’s birthday (Happy Birthday James!). SpikeDislike was an easy recommendation at a dollar, especially with the nice content update it received and more planned for the future, but it should be a pretty easy decision to make to download the game while it's currently free.

App Store Link: SpikeDislike, Free (Universal)

Remember Shining Force? It was a turn-based RPG created by the dudes over at SEGA for the Genesis. It’s since been ported and sequel-ized to all hell. Little Brad Nicholson and huge Brad Nicholson is a big fan of the original game. It managed to make the turn-based experience engaging without punitive design constructs, a clever pairing that has somehow been lost to the ether. Well, not completely lost. Hunters: Episode One does a great job in being interesting, tactical, and precise, without making you want to pull your hair out or turn off your iPod Touch or iPad.

That’s high praise from me, folks. I’ve got the patience of a bear standing in front of a car filled with raw salmon. But I suppose I should slow down. Hunters: Episode One is a turn-based strategy RPG with all the trimmings -- a top-down camera, characters who can move a select number of spots per turn, devastating range and melee attacks, and tons of brain-tickling scenarios. Unlike the high fantasy of a Shining Force, Hunters is based in a dystopian sci-fi universe that, according to a text crawl, runs purely on the almighty dollar. Mercenaries, it seems, are much in desire, too.

A solid tutorial sequence will set you up with these essentials: each level, which can be plucked from a central hub, earns you cash upon completion. And as you use each of your characters you’ll earn experience points that can be used, in turn, on pumping them up in the usual core RPG categories. Swords are not a part of this future as far as I can tell, but massive hammers as well as sub-machine guns, assault rifles, and shotguns are.

Each character can move a certain number of spots depending on who they are, and a generous amount of war fog obscures the map and keeps you from knowing what’s around the corner. This, as always, adds a major strategic edge to the AI, which in this specific title, seem rather cunning and ruthless. Attacks, by the way, can also be triggered depending on range.

I’m digging Hunters. It’s an ambitious, deep title with tons of equipment and stat options and a lot of menus. It's also content heavy heavy -- with a quirky catch. Five levels will be added to the game on a daily basis and you'll only be able to play those levels during this period. However, on the IAP end, the game will be supported by ten-or-so level "story packs" that'll add to the barebones core narrative and give you levels to play whenever, without restriction.

What I like the most about Hunters, I think, is the lack of punishment. If one of your guys eat it, he doesn’t croak forever, nor does he lose his experience points. Sure, he won’t be able to continue in the current mission, but you’ll have him around for the next one. Seriously, it’s nice to be able to breath while playing a turn-based strategy RPG again. The camera isn't too shabby, either. With pinch and zoom, you can do just about anything you want to with it.

Oh! And I can't forget about the difficulty. The game’s earlier missions, at least, are tuned well. Enemies are neither too all knowing nor oblivious. They react and respond just like you would in a given situation, leading to actual, engaging fights. The level design, which features a lot of corners, is a boon, as you’ll never really know what’s around the bend as you split up troops to get accomplish minor level-based goals.

Developer Rodeo Games tells us that Hunters: Episode One is “on the precipice of launching,” so we’ll definitely post a more detailed review when it hits the App Store. We're particularly curious to see how the daily content gimmick works out, we're thinking that could be real cool.

In the iOS gaming world, sometimes the simpler a game is, the better. Sure I love more complex, “console-like” experiences, but it seems that the more boundaries a developer tries to push in adding complexity to an iOS game, the more chances that some aspects will fall short given the inherent limitations of the device. In that case, Tiny Wings [99¢] from first time iOS developer Andreas Illiger leaves very little room for falling short of expectations. Games doesn’t get much simpler than the one-touch mechanic found in Tiny Wings.  Combined with the fantastic art style, delightful music, and brilliant gameplay, Tiny Wings approaches what I would consider the perfect iOS game.

In Tiny Wings you play as a bird who has been pecking a bit too much at the seed bell, making you a bit on the heavy side. You’re not able to fly like most normal birds, as your tiny wings can’t support your weight. But you dream about flying all the time, and with the help of your environment, you make this dream a reality. Using the hilly terrain to your advantage, you’ll gather speed sliding down the slope of a hill and then using the upslope of the neighboring hill as a launch ramp. No matter how hard you flap your little wings, you won’t be able to stay airborne for long, so you must continually land and relaunch yourself in order to keep flying.

Your overweight avian will automatically move to the right, and not touching the screen at all causes him (or her?) to vigorously flap its wings trying desperately to stay in the air. Holding down on the screen ceases all flapping and causes your bird to become nothing more than dead weight. You’ll use this weight to accelerate into the downslopes while immediately letting go after an upslope to launch yourself in the air. This mechanic takes a few tries to fully "click", but works wonderfully well and there’s an almost zen-like rhythm to coasting in and out of the slopes of the terrain.

Each journey starts at sunrise, and your score is based on how far you can make it to the right before nightfall. Collecting coins or perfectly hitting the curves of the hills can add to your score and increase your speed. The terrain is broken up into a series of islands which are procedurally generated and change in real time each day. Completing a short list of specific tasks will earn you a nest upgrade, which in turn increases your overall score multiplier. The required tasks change with each nest upgrade, adding a bunch of interesting goals to shoot for while you play.

The simple gameplay in Tiny Wings is sublime, but there’s an intangible aspect to it that makes it a total joy to play. The charming graphics and music make me feel good, and I find myself rooting for the plump little bird and sharing in his jubilance each time he takes flight. It's such a great feeling to hit several perfect slopes in a row, pick up a ton of speed and just soar through the air. All the while my birdie is yipping and hollering for joy, and I just feel happy for him. It sounds silly, but it’s unlike anything I’ve ever felt from an iOS game in recent memory.

While I don’t hesitate to label Tiny Wings a 5 star game based on the initial release, some simple additions could serve to make it a more fulfilling experience. Currently OpenFeint offers a number of achievements and a single high score leaderboard, but Game Center integration is in the works along with additional leaderboards to cover a wider variety of statistics. More nest upgrades and possibly even additional bird types would be welcome as well. Retina Display support would be nice, but at the same time it might ruin the unique watercolor-esque look the game currently employs.

I could go on saying more nice things about Tiny Wings, but I’d rather get back to playing. There are a ton of positive impressions in our forums, and I can’t think of the last time I’ve seen a game so universally loved by our members. Tiny Wings has found itself a permanent spot on my device nestled snugly next to games like Solipskier [99¢] and SpikeDislike [99¢/Lite] as simple to play, hard to master, and endlessly replayable titles that are perfectly suited to the platform. If these are the types of games that interest you, don’t even hesitate to give Tiny Wings a download.

Back in December, Hudson somewhat surprisingly released an emulator app for their cult-classic 16-bit console TurboGrafx-16. This emulator, called the TurboGrafx-16 GameBox [Free], features a free-to-download shell that includes the full game of World Sports Competition and houses a hefty selection of other titles that can be unlocked via in-app purchase for $2.99 each. There's also one new rotating tile per day that gives you a chance to play that particular game for 10 minutes, up from the initial 3 minutes offered on the app's release, as a sort of demo to decide if you want to purchase the full version.

We really liked the TurboGrafx-16 GameBox in our review, noting that its virtual controls were about as good as they come on an iOS device that emulates games designed for physical controls and a favorable save system ensured that you could retry tricky sections easily without causing too much frustration. The initial selection of games available for in-app purchase in the TurboGrafx-16 GameBox featured a range of very good to mediocre titles, with a couple of must-haves like Bonk's Adventure, Ninja Spirit, or R-Type. Today Hudson has released an update for the TurboGrafx-16 GameBox that adds 5 new titles to the in-app catalog which are listed below:

Bonk's Revenge by Hudson Soft

Detana!! TwinBee by Konami

Kaizouchoujin Shubibinman by NCS/extreme

Double Dungeons by NCS/extreme

Benkei Gaiden by Sunsoft

Like a few of the games in the initial release of TurboGrafx-16 GameBox, 3 of the 5 new titles are the PC-Engine versions of the game, the Japanese counterpart to the TurboGrafx-16. As such, their menus, dialogue, and instruction manuals are entirely in Japanese with no option for an English version. For a game like Detana!! TwinBee this isn't as much of an issue, as it's just a vertical shooter and knowing what's going on is secondary to blasting stuff out of the sky. But in the case of Benkei Gaiden, it's a heavily dialogue-driven RPG which will be hard to enjoy if you aren't able to read Japanese text.

Also worth noting is that the full version of Bonk's Revenge is currently free to play as part of a special promotion. Seeing as this will likely be the title that most people are interested in, it's a great chance to actually try it out yourself before committing the cash to unlock the full version. Make sure to update your game to the latest version and give Bonk's Revenge a spin and check out the other 4 new titles in the TurboGrafx-16 GameBox.

While the App Store may be entirely overrun by terrible games and apps focused around varied levels of toilet humor, there are some definite diamonds in the rough if you're willing to search for them. Bad Air Day [99¢ / Lite] is one such instance of a game centralized around managing farts, which you would naturally just assume to be terrible that actually turned out to be a surprising amount of fun. The basic premise amounts to you taking the roll of a bellboy at a tall hotel who just got finished chowing down at some kind of all you can eat taco buffet. Well, now you've got a case of the furious farts, but your life depends on the inhabitants of your hotel not getting a whiff of them.

As you ride the elevator, your stomach will gurgle, and you'll emit a giant green puff of gas which must be managed. At its most simple, this just amounts to swiping on the screen to waft the fart in a particular direction. You can either blow it around until it dissipates on its own or direct it up to one of the exhaust fans at the top of the elevator to get sucked out. These vents randomly open and close, which often force you to get creative with managing your farts, particularly with a full elevator.

On each floor, hotel clientele get on and off. There are a wide array of elevator passengers from little old ladies who just stand there to clowns bouncing on pogo sticks. Each person seems to have a different fart tolerance as well, so while you might be able to accidentally squeeze one by a briefcase carrying businessman, an angry dog might not be so tolerant. When a part of the gas cloud approaches someone's nose, a red circle fills up in small segments. If it fills all the way, that person turns in to a skeleton and you lose a life. Also, after each floor, passengers get off the elevator and you score higher based on how little of your farts they smelled.

While all this is happening a, for the lack of a better term, fart fairy shows up who awards bonus points if you keep them enveloped in your stinky green cloud. It all gets incredibly hectic, and it won't take long before you're dealing with an entire elevator full of people, multiple farts, and a greedy fart fairy anxious to get a sniff. All of this is set to perfectly suited fart-centric music as well.

Bad Air Day has everything a good iPhone game should have. It's universal from the start, comes packed with Game Center for achievements and online scoring, and has a gesture-based control system that works fantastic. The art style is cute, the music couldn't be better, and the game is built on a funny (yet entirely cliche) premise. Don't let the fart app stigma scare you away from giving Bad Air Day a try, especially if you're the kind of person who can appreciate the silly side of the App Store.