Bummed that the Space Shuttle launch got scrubbed and need a pick-me-up? Have nothing to do this weekend? Are you totally out of iTunes credit and want a new game to play? Well, I have the solution to all three of these problems, and potentially any other problems you can cook up: Physics Gamebox [Free]

While you're waiting for the game to download (you are downloading it, aren't you?) you can check out our review. In a nutshell, Physics Gamebox comes packed with two incredibly popular games that got their start on various Flash game portals out there. Ragdoll Cannon has you shooting ragdolls at goals (and actually was the inspiration behind Ragdoll Blaster) as well as Roly-Poly Cannon which puts you in charge of firing your cannon at Roly-Poly bugs who have invaded. 300 levels in all are included, which should keep you busy for quite a while.

For more freebies, swing on over to AppShopper, or check out our price drops and freebies forum. It seems like there's always awesome stuff to be had for free (or very cheap).

Earlier this week Epic Games reported that LucasArts signed a multi-year studio-wide licensing agreement to utilize Epic's awesome Unreal Engine 3 across multiple platforms. According to Epic Vice President Mark Rein, “LucasArts is now primed to capitalize on Unreal Engine 3’s ability to scale across platforms, from mobile, through PC and console all the way up to the next generation of games.”

Now, I'm not entirely sure just how excited to get about all of this. Epic Citadel [Free] and Infinity Blade [$5.99] have done a great job showing just what the Unreal Engine 3 can do on the iOS platform. Technically speaking, if games are developed in UE3 with multiple platforms in mind, targeting iOS devices could all be part of the same development process that would result in Xbox 360, PS3, and PC games. Rein does specifically mention mobile gaming too, and there's no disputing the fact that iOS is a main mobile platform currently.

However, LucasArts really has yet to get that involved in the world of iOS. Their App Store catalog is fairly barren, and only consists of Monkey Island remakes. I'd love to think that we're about to get a bucket of amazing LucasArts Unreal Engine 3-powered games dumped on the App Store, but if this is just being announced now, it will likely be quite a while before we see any of the projects utilizing this engine.

Keep your fingers crossed, iOS-owning LucasArts fans!

Fishlabs' highly anticipated add-on to Galaxy On Fire 2 [$9.99 / Lite] recently hit the App Store, and is likely sitting in your pending updates listing if you already own the game. (Assuming of course you haven't already updated.) This update actually comes in two parts, a free component and the actual Valkyrieadd-on which is unlocked via a $4.99 in-app purchase.

In this update, everyone who owns Galaxy On Fire 2 will be granted access to three ships from the original Galaxy On Fire: The Phantom, Vol Noor, and Wraith. Also, you'll be able to get a personal space station to store multiple ships as well as all your loot, cargo, and other items that you want out of your ships' cargo holds.

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Need more RPG fantasy action? Cool, because another big title based on these three things is now available for purchase on the App Store. The game I’m talking about here is Zenonia 3: The Midgard Story [$4.99], following Zenonia [$1.99 / Free] and Zenonia 2 [$1.99 / Free] as the third installment in the series.

This specific iteration offers a few new things -- foremost being the “Fairy helper system,” which adds some additional depth to the leveling mechanic. There are also a total of four character classes, more special active and passive skills, as well as a new, more streamlined inventory and item management system. Oh, and if you’re down with some Words With Friends style asynchronous play, Zenonia 3 has that -- there’s a special “Execution Room” which allows "co-op" play for loot, as well as PVP.

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If you've never heard of The Impossible Game [99¢ / Free]] go ahead and take a minute to clear your schedule because your going to need some free time. Released just over a year ago on the App Store, The Impossible Game is a port of the highly popular Xbox Live Indie game under the same name. While it's a platformer by nature, there's one major difference about The Impossible Game that really makes stand out from the rest: As the title might suggest, this game is hard.

The game's graphics consist of only 2 shapes, squares and triangles. The Impossible Game won't win any awards in the graphics department it makes up for it with some of the most original platform gaming I've ever experienced. The gameplay is simple and straightforward and consists of a square that moves automatically through a level at a blazingly fast speed while you try to tap on the screen to make your square jump over and onto other squares, all while trying to avoid smashing into them head on.

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While PopCap Games is content to leave all unpleasantries to its 4th & Battery division, the good-hearted portion of the company is helping to enrich the life of 9-year old Owain Weinert, according to Kotaku. Partnering with the Make-A-Wish Foundation, who have a long history of helping children stricken with life-threatening illnesses to realize their dreams, PopCap has recruited young Owain as lead designer on an upcoming iOS game called Allied Star Police.

Allied Star Police is a sci-fi real-time strategy game where you play as a base commander who must deploy “automated battle machines” and “targeted ballistic ordnance” in an effort to fight of a race of aliens known as the Flamions. GameSetWatch reports that Owain, who was diagnosed with Leukemia last year, has been visiting the Seattle-based PopCap Games every week helping to create Allied Star Police. You can see one of these visits in a clip from Q13 Fox News who recently reported on the story:

Allied Star Police is still under development and could be as much as a few months from releasing, and PopCap has stated that 100% of the proceeds from the game will go right back into the Make-A-Wish foundation. We wish Owain luck in his new endeavor as a game designer, and we’ll let you know when the game is released in the App Store. There is currently a thread discussing Allied Star Police in our forums, as well.

[Via Kotaku and GameSetWatch]

I've spent so much time playing Dungeon Raid [$2.99] over the last few months that if I was doing anything else more productive I can't even imagine what I could have accomplished. Does this bother me? Heck no, Dungeon Raid owns. I basically drooled all over it in our review, and it easily made out Best iPhone Games of January '11 listing. I explained the gameplay in the previously-mentioned review-

By now you might be scratching your head wondering why I'm piling shovels full of praise on to a matching game with a matching component that's so simple that it usually doesn't take much skill to clear half the board in one move. Well, it's because of the layer on top of all this that makes Dungeon Raid the game that stole my entire day today. You see, each match you make serves a purpose, and deciding what you're going to match when seems to require quite a bit of strategy, and often some luck, as you never know what's going to replace the blocks you just cleared.

Strategy comes in to play because while Dungeon Raid may initially appear to just be a simple matching game, there's a fairly complex subset of RPG elements that drives everything you do. Enemies are represented by skulls on the game board. "Killing" an enemy involves matching skulls with enough swords to total up more damage than their hit points (which is displayed to the right of each enemy). After every match, every enemy on screen damages you, and special enemies also appear randomly which have increased hit points and other special abilities. One such ability involves their attacks "poisoning" you, at which point you take constant damage until you match healing potions. (Matching healing potions, as you can probably guess, heals you.)

Since our review, Dungeon Raid has had two substantial updates. The first one added playable classes which mix gameplay up further, and today's update adds two new game modes:

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It was back in October of last year that we first learned of Gears, a new ball rolling game from Mobile Game Garage that was set to get the extreme graphical makeover treatment from fellow iOS developer Crescent Moon Games. Not surprisingly, the before and after screens were quite astonishing, and Gears was shaping up to be quite a beautiful game. After a longer than anticipated development time, we finally got a trailer for Gears in early February followed by a hands-on gameplay video a couple of weeks later. And at long last, Gears [99¢] is finally available for download in the App Store.

First things first: Gears is gorgeous. Crescent Moon has worked some serious mojo on the graphics here, which are entirely rendered in 3D and utilize a fantasy/steampunk theme that suits the game well. Retina Display equipped devices will be treated to high resolution visuals, and there are additional special enhancements for the extra power of the iPad 2. Also, owners of older devices can choose from different levels of graphical quality to increase performance if need be. No matter which device you're playing on, Gears looks spectacular with a ton of detail and impressive effects throughout.

The campaign in Gears consists of 27 levels spread across 3 different themed worlds with 9 levels apiece. Each level has a set number of power gears to collect on your way to the finish. It’s not necessary to collect them all, though higher scores and thus better medals are awarded based on how many you do manage to pick up. The levels are all really well designed, and the type of terrain you must traverse is what really sets Gears apart from other ball rolling games. Levels are rife with moving gears (naturally), stairs, narrow bridges, trampolines, gates, exploding boxes, and various other obstacles that can impede your progress.

The first set of 9 levels won’t prove too much of a challenge, and in fact serve as a perfect introduction to playing the game without being a total cakewalk. In world 2 and beyond, however, the difficulty ramps up quite a bit. Thankfully this is handled beautifully with the ability to choose from 4 difficulty levels at any time during the campaign.

Easy is where I suggest starting from, as there is no time limit and you’re free to take as long as you need to reach the finish. Normal gives a generous time limit that allows for making some mistakes while still being able to complete it, and Hard gives you a stricter time limit that requires a fairly flawless run. All 3 of these difficulties give you unlimited lives and take advantage of the many checkpoints spread throughout every level, transporting you back to the last one that was triggered should you see your demise (which you will, a lot).

Then there’s Brutal difficulty, which is reserved for masochists only. Brutal gives you the same time limit as Hard but you only get 1 life, and rolling your ball off the path will result in having to start over from the beginning of the level. It certainly earns the title of Brutal difficulty, but playing on the harder difficulty settings will earn you additional bonus points at the end of a level which is key to earning high scores and competing on the Game Center leaderboards.

The number one thing that really stands out about Gears to me is the excellent touch controls. There are many ball rolling games in the App Store, most of them meant to be played with tilt controls. This makes sense due to the accelerometer and gyroscope capabilities of iOS devices, and Gears too has a completely competent tilt control system should you prefer using that. But touch controls are totally where it’s at. There’s never been a ball roller with touch controls this good, and once you’re comfortable with the nuance of them you’ll feel like you have solid control over your little shiny ball.

Gears is everything you would expect from a Crescent Moon release. It has fantastic production values, amazing graphics, brilliant controls, and a solid set of well designed levels to play through. What’s crazy is that they took something as simple as a ball rolling game and made it feel like something more. The difficulty might be a little much for your average gamer, but thanks to the Easy setting, it’s at least possible to complete the entire game with a little perseverance rather than limiting it to only the most hardcore and dedicated players.

Even if you’re not a fan of the ball rolling genre (which aside from the classic Marble Madness, I’m not) Gears is totally worth a look as it feels much different from what’s already out there. Players in our forums have been loving this one as well, and for the introductory price of 99¢ Gears is highly recommended.

It’s been a busy couple of days with news coming from the Square Enix camp, and following the announcement yesterday that two new Chaos Rings titles were in the works the Japanese developer has now revealed the first trailer for Chaos Rings Omega. Andriasang.com has additional details for this prequel to the original Chaos Rings [$12.99/HD] straight from the Famitsu website:

According to the site, Omega is set 10,000 years before the events of the first Chaos Rings. You'll follow a story centered on the characters of Viegue his wife and daughter Vahti. Viegue appeared in the original game as Olgar.

This setup is different from the original, which had players select their main character and partner from four pairs. Here, the story is told just from Viegue's perspective, although battles are still fought in pairs.

Check out the video below of Chaos Rings Omega, though keep in mind it’s entirely in Japanese so I really have no idea what’s going on in it:

Chaos Rings Omega is looking pretty great so far, and appears to have many similarities to the original which actually falls right in line with the storyline of Chaos Rings. The game is set for release in Japan next month, and we’ll let you know if they announce any information pertaining to a US release. Until then, check out our forums for a discussion on Chaos Rings Omega.

[Via Andriasang]

After a bit of an approval snafu earlier this month, the first title from PopCap Games’ new edgier games division 4th & Battery has finally hit the App Store. Called Unpleasant Horse [Free], it’s an endless high scoring game that stars - wait for it - an unpleasant horse. And let me tell you, this horse is a real jerk.

Gameplay is simple. Your horse leaps through the air traveling to the right, and can rest upon clouds spread throughout the sky. Pressing anywhere on the screen will cause unpleasant horse to jump to that spot, and the object is to leap from cloud to cloud for as long as possible. There are also cute birdies flying in the air, and jumping into these will give you an additional air jump to use when you need an extra boost in the middle of a jump to make it to your destination.

There are kind and gentle ponies flying through the sky as well, and this is where the unpleasantness comes in. Unpleasant horse can jump onto the backs of these majestic creatures, which are merely minding their own business I might add, and weigh them down sinking towards the ground. The “ground” in this case is a series of spinning saw blades, and you’ll earn extra points by pushing the nice horses down and grinding them into the blades in a shower of gore reminiscent of so many Mortal Kombat games.

So yeah, it’s pretty unpleasant, but it’s also pretty fun. The game mechanics are solid, though it does take a bit of practice to get used to, but once you get a nice run going it’s a very satisfying experience. Guilt-ridden satisfaction, due to all the ponies and birds you end up killing, but satisfaction nonetheless. The game’s description explains that Unpleasant Horse was the result of a game jam where they literally drew words out of a hat and developed a game based around whatever phrase came from it. For this, I’d say Unpleasant Horse actually came out pretty well.

Best of all is you can currently download Unpleasant Horse for free and try it yourself, rather than listening to me blather on about it. When PopCap announced the new 4th & Battery label, they explained that their aim was to try out new experimental titles without having to worry about annoying things like development schedules or profitability. This relaxed take on making games means free games for you, Mr. or Mrs. Consumer, so if Unpleasant Horse sounds interesting to you at all and you can stomach the unpleasantness, then definitely give it a download.

Snuggle Truck [$1.99/HD] was supposed to be a game about driving a truck overflowing with illegal immigrants to a border. Its hook revolved around the fact that the physics-enabled immigrants sit an open pickup truck bed. So, whenever you lost control on a bump or a jump, there was a good chance that immigrants could go flying out of said cage. The end goal was to try to get as many people as you can to the end point.

Quite a few people felt it was an insensitive and juvenile idea, but fortunately (or unfortunately depending on how you look at it) all of that content has since been stripped and replaced with escaped cartoon animals. I bring up the history simply because Snuggle Truck feels like a game that had its vision stripped: cartoon animals are great and all, but the environments and mechanics built up around the cargo are of another tone and style; the pieces just don't fit together so well.

The good news is that the mechanics are solid, there is depth in terms of content, and the execution is superb. I wouldn’t call this one a “thrill ride,” but Snuggle Truck can be your burst game, that title you play when you’ve got three minutes to spare.

It’s hard to just peg Snuggle Truck in a genre. I call it a side-scrolling racing game and then toss in the caveat that it’s highly physics-based. In the game, you control a dirty truck that can be highly reactive to the terrain its meets -- the smallest dips and jumps cause the truck to lean back and forth. You can correct its arc with the tilt, but you don’t do it for the safety of the vehicle -- you get lined up to protect the cargo, those cartoon animals riding in the back. Each animal is just as reactive to the truck’s trajectory, and the point is to hit the end point as quickly as possible with as many animals as possible. Easier said than done, I've learned. The truck, again, is highly reactive.

There’s a lot of stuff that can get in your way in the process of getting to the end goal, the "zoo": there’s an assortment of bumps, massive hills, dips, and even a few surprise environmental objects like explosive crates that get thrown into the mix in later levels. For the most part, Owlchemy Labs does a fantastic job providing change of pace opportunities: there’s a ton of different layouts and jumps experimented with, which give you plenty to do and think about.

Hitting and landing a jump without losing your animal dudes is all in the wrist and in the finger. You can tilt your device to correct the trajectory and also use the basic movement mechanic -- pressing your fingers on either the left or the right of the screen -- to slow or speed up your truck. The main problem I have with Snuggle Truck lies here, though: in the process of moving the truck, the way I hold my phone causes my thumbs to be all over the pieces of the environment that you need to avoid or jump over. Since the game uses the whole screen split in half to control it, you can just use the top two corners to control the truck and hardly block anything, but that just doesn't feel natural to me. This issue is much less prevalent on the larger screen of the iPad, however.

Snuggle Truck introduces one new mechanic at a time, giving you the ability to slowly learn and react to obstacles as you progress through the levels. But there’s a big trial-and-error element as well since you never know what’s around the bend. One small jump, for example, can take you straight into a wall while another of the same exact kind might not present any mission critical navigational issues.

To its credit, Snuggle Truck remains fun despite its clumps of middling level design. I chock this up to its relative snappiness -- levels take, generally, under a minute to finish, so it’s not a great loss to start over again. Nor do you really need to ace a level since there’s so many in each tier.

Of course, there are carrots on sticks to chase -- Snuggle Truck goes heavy on the rewards after completion of each level. You can earn your traditional star medals, as well as completion medals based on completion and number of animals you save.

To progress to a different tier you’ll need a pre-defined set of medals, but you can just float through the content without a care. In the app world, I find this priceless since I rarely have the time at a bus stop or whatever to really grind out perks. But if you want to be a collector type of dude, you can totally go nuts with this one: there’s a lot of side stuff to earn in each level. Sick it, achievement hounds.

So, anyway, while Snuggle Truck actually feels like a game that went one direction and then the other, I recommend it. The truck controls well, the physics respond well, and the level design has that right mix of snappiness and intrigue. Check it out if you’re in the market for another racing side-scroller, and keep your eyes peeled for updates. Owlchemy Labs has crazy plans for Smuggle Truck which include implementing community-generated levels which could lead to some awesome replay value.

App Store Links:

• Snuggle Truck, $1.99
• Snuggle Truck HD, $2.99 (iPad Only)

I'll cut right to the chase here- The 7th Guest [$2.99 / HD] is without a doubt one of the most memorable games I've ever played. It landed at the perfect time between the CD-ROM drive being released and everyone trying to figure out what to do with it. Hell, I still remember the solutions to most of the puzzles. I say most of the puzzles because all of them had a very cut and dry solution except for the dreaded microscope puzzle which actually pit the player against a surprisingly difficult (at least in my opinion at the time) AI-based game which had no solution other than flat out beating the AI.

The microscope puzzle actually existed in a few different forms before its inclusion in The 7th Guest. Originally released as Infection in 1988, the game eventually made its way to arcades as Ataxx. Also, oddly enough, the same gameplay mechanic was also repurposed for the NES, Gameboy, and PC game Spot which featured 7-Up's Cool Spot mascot-- A complete 180 from the maniacal Stauf's microscope. This game has since been re-released again as The 7th Guest: Infection [99¢], a re-built (currently) iPad-only re-imagination of the microscope puzzle.

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It seems like only yesterday I was cruising around looking for a silly Wednesday-related image to include with last week's game release post. Time flies when you're having fun, I suppose. Anyway, if this is your first App Store Wednesday, here's the gist- Developers can set specific release dates for their games on the App Store. Since the App Store is an international market, these specific launch dates occur at different times in the world. Games launch in New Zealand first, then slowly appear in other regions as the planet spins and it slowly becomes Thursday in other parts of the world. For us Americans, this actually means 11:00 PM EST tonight. Here's what to expect tonight, or earlier, if you live to the east of North America:

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Yesterday I posted some basic details and then followed that up with some additional impressions as I made my way to level 10. At some point during the night, Gameloft threw the switch to make the game available internationally. If you've been anxiously reading our preview coverage and forum thread, download Order & Chaos Online [$6.99] as soon as you can.

And as soon as you do, disable global chat for the love of all things true and decent. To do so, bring up the text entry and instead of tapping the "Global Chat" button to talk in that channel, holdit down until it is blocked. For whatever reason, Gameloft apparently hasn't segregated servers at all, so Global chat is a mishmash of every language under the sun.

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In more Square Enix news this morning, the company has updated the teaser site for their previously unknown upcoming game that we posted about a couple of weeks ago. The game is called Imaginary Range, and will be launching in Japan for free on May 5th. It doesn’t sound like your typical game, either.

Square Enix describes Imaginary Range as a “game comic”, which basically means it’s a digital comic book with interactive elements spread throughout. As you’re reading it, you may come across hidden items in some of the panels that relate to the overall story, or you may come to a scene that requires you to complete a mini-game in order to progress. They want this to appeal to people that are only interested in reading the story as well as gamers, so whatever gameplay elements it contains are of the simple variety that anybody can play.

According to Andriasang.com and some dodgy Google translating of an article posted at Famitsu.com, the story in Imaginary Range revolves around two characters named Sid and Sierra. A giant monster known as Ω (Omega) has attacked France, and Sid and Sierra head into the country to figure out who Omega is and the purpose of the attack. Despite having the same name, the Omega character doesn’t appear to have any correlation with Square Enix’s recently revealed Chaos Rings Omega.

Famitsu has also been granted access to the first screenshots of Imaginary Range, which you can see in the gallery below (click to enlarge):

While Imaginary Range does sound interesting, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit disappointed that it’s going to be more of an interactive comic book with light gaming elements rather than a full-fledged new game. Still, since the game will be free I'll definitely be checking it out. Imaginary Range is slated to hit the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad on May 5th, with an Android version coming later in the month. We’ll let you know if we hear word of a US release, which I’d imagine we’ll be seeing, and in the meantime there is a discussion for Imaginary Range in our forums.

[Via Famitsu and Andriasang]