Eli and Jared are Hurdle Turtle [$.99] fanatics. It’s a documented love affair beyond that of mortal bounds. And while the either of the duo would love to be the one to pen this blockbuster of a post, they can’t. They’re... unwell after a botched duel to the death over the rights of authorship. It’s with a leaden heart and a rejuvenating tinge of anticipation that I bring you this Hurdle Turtle update news: competitive multiplayer is coming soon.

Version 2.1.0 of Hurdle Turtle will usher in real-time, actual competitive multiplayer to the core game using Game Center as its service. The creators of Hurdle Turtle tell us that you’ll be able to play against friends, foes, or random dudes alike via the support, which should be coming very soon since the update is in Apple’s hands right now.

As you’d expect, Hurdle Turtle multiplayer will support friends play as well as auto-matching, and it plans to make this easier on your end: after picking a match, the game will assign the match a random level where you’ll be able to select your character before it begins in truth. No flashiness, just raw-dog Hurdle Turtle action.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must tend to Fearless Leaders’ wounds. Jared’s Beard of Woe is a powerful weapon indeed.

Burrito Bison is one of the thousands and thousands -- if not millions -- of web-based games available on the Internet. You can try the popular “fling” game now with a mouse for $0, or soon you can give it a go on your favorite Apple handheld for a price.

My eyes gloss over when I peruse flash game libraries. There are a lot of games with great ideas, but rare is it when you stumble upon a title that has the mega important hallmarks of a solid game: coherent vision, polish, and sharp execution. I can count on my fingers the number of titles that fit this bill.

Burrito Bison is etched on fist. It’s a solid, realized game that I’m excited to see come to a platform and a wider audience. I got into contact with game creator Juicy Beast late last week to talk about the inspiration behind the title, as well as some specifics about the iOS port, which is slated to come later this summer.

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One of my favorite recent releases has been Mos Speedrun [$1.99/Lite] from developer Physmo. This retro-styled platforming game puts the emphasis on completing each of its levels in as quick a time as possible. Each of your failed attempts lives on as a ghost of your previous run, and many failed attempts in a row can lead to a screen full of little Mos characters all running and bouncing along at the same time. Mos Speedrun also controls exceptionally well on the touch screen, and there are goals beyond just speed running through levels like collecting coins, finding hidden skulls, and earning Game Center achievements.

A new update has hit that adds an additional 5 levels into the game. These levels also seem to be a notch above the rest difficulty-wise, so you’ll be in for a challenge collect all items and beat them in a timely fashion. Another new addition is a total time leaderboard for every world in the game. There are 5 worlds in Mos Speedrun that each have 5 levels, and you can now compete for the best combined completion time of all 5 levels in each world.

Along with this new update is a free lite version of Mos Speedrun, which lets you play through all 5 levels of the first world in their entirety, though there is no Game Center integration. If you even remotely like platforming games, you shouldn’t hesitate to give Mos Speedrun Lite a try. It will give you a perfect taste of how the game controls and what the gameplay is like, and you can even transfer your lite version progress over to the full if you decide to upgrade.

I’ve been having a great time with Mos Speedrun ever since we reviewed it in April, and the players in our forums have really been digging this one as well, so grab this latest update to check out the new levels or give the lite version a spin if you’re on the fence.

In Catch the Candy [99¢ / HD], the new game from BulkyPix and FedoIT, you play a fuzzy little fellow trying reach your one true love: a shiny piece of candy. While a bit reminiscent of Cut the Rope's Om Nom in looks and desires, our anonymous protagonist doesn't have nearly as many resources helping him out. You won't find yourself manipulating strings or bubbles or anything like that - this little guy can only use his arm.

This limitation leads to some great one-touch gameplay. Your arm is more like a grappling hook. Tap on something, and your arm will fly out to it and stick to it or nudge it (depending on the surface type). Early on, it's easy to use these talents to reach the candy. Tap the ground and you'll drag yourself along. Tap an overhead beam and you'll swing into the air. Tap the candy once you can reach it, and it'll come straight to you.

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If you didn't quite get your fill of wandering around in an empty game world powered by the Unreal Engine in Epic Citadel [Free], you're in luck. Codenrama just released Castlerama [Free], a remarkably similar tech demo that allows you to walk around and similarly look at just what the Unreal Engine is capable of on iOS devices.

Per the YouTube description of the above video, it seems like the developers are running into similar issues as the Dream:Scape developer last month with the memory limitations of older devices:

While developing Castlerama, we had to face the fact that newer devices such as iPhone4s and iPad2s are very different from their predecessors, iPhone3GSs and iPads, in that the former have twice as much memory. In order to have the app run on all devices, we had to compromise quite a bit, pushing the old devices to their limits (risking crash if other applications are left running) while keeping the new devices well behind their capabilities. In the future we believe we will have to develop two versions for each application.

Castlerama looks awesome, and if what they've released is a "compromise" to work with older devices, I seriously can't wait to see what the iPhone 4 and iPad 2 exclusive build is capable of. If you've got some spare time today and want to see another demonstration of the Unreal Engine, give Castlerama a try.

I'm still waiting for some major Unreal Engine-powered game releases, but I suppose tech demos are a good first start.

Recently I embarked on a quest to see if there was a way I could stream my PC games to my iPad using the various remote desktop apps available on the App Store. Initially, this resulted in countless hours (and dollars) wasted, only to be disappointed time and time again. Some apps had no audio, others were nowhere near responsive enough, and some of them just flat out didn't work-- Then came Splashtop Remote Desktop [99¢ / Lite / HD].

Splashtop is a remote desktop client that streams your PC or Mac screen directly to your iPad, iPod touch, or iPhone with amazingly fast response times, and full streaming audio. Installation and setup couldn't be easier. All you do is install the desktop software and download the app and you're up and running. Keep in mind, using Splashtop outside of your local network will require fiddling with port forwarding, and unless you've got an insane internet connection, will bring the response time down to be almost unplayable. However, on the same network, Splashtop is basically a 1:1 representation of what is happening on your PC, and is totally enjoyable to game on.

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It's the weekend and that means sales. Here is a quick roundup of several stand-out offerings we think are worth a look.

• Aralon: Sword and Shadow HD -- $9.99 → $4.99 [ review ]

Crescent Moon Games is, for a limited time, offering their superb iOS Universal RPG Aralon: Sword and Shadow HD at 50% its normal price. One of the most anticipated titles of 2010, the game gained the distinction of being TouchArcade Forum's Game of the Year.

The story of Aralon follows a tale of betrayal and a Kingdom on the brink of collapse. As fate would have it, you are the key element to solving these problems and restoring The Kingdom of Aralon to its previous state of peace and harmony.

The real fun begins when you are let loose into the world of Aralon to explore and complete quests. The expansiveness and detail of the lands is jaw-dropping. There are main quests that pertain to the storyline as well as a number of side quests to complete, all of which are neatly tracked through a helpful quest log. During your exploits you will run into countless enemies roaming the land. There is just so much more to Aralon that it isn't even funny, like joining guilds, combining and creating items, or becoming an outlaw

We gave the game five stars in our December review and consider it one of the most magnificent titles in the App Store and a must-have for any sort of RPG fan. Aralon: Sword and Shadow HD [App Store] puts a fully realized, living and breathing universe snugly in your pocket.

• Death Rally -- $2.99 → $0.99 [ review ]

Remedy Entertainment's gorgeous top-down Universal racer Death Rally is 66% off for the weekend.

Remedy, who brought us the likes of Max Payne and Alan Wake, took their first ever PC game (originally released in 1996) and brought it to the App Store in March. And we're quite glad they did. This one got five stars in our in-depth review.

The thing that sets Death Rally apart from most racers is its focus on combat. Each vehicle is equipped with a standard machine gun and a second stronger weapon of your choosing. These weapons, along with the vehicles beyond the first one, are unlocked by collecting items spread along the track while you’re racing. Money is earned with every race you enter, with more money awarded based on what place you finish, how many cars you destroy, and other performance factors. Your winnings go towards upgrading the 5 available vehicles in the game in the areas of speed, handling, armor, and weapons.

Upgrading your cars and equipment is the real hook of Death Rally, and the combat is also very satisfying. There’s nothing better than blowing the snot out of the car ahead of you in order to surpass them and win a race at the last moment.

The highlight of Death Rally [App Store] is the fantastic visuals, with support for Retina Display devices and full screen anti-aliasing on the iPad 2. The levels are incredibly detailed, as are the vehicle models which display damage during the course of a race.

This is one not to be missed -- sale or no.

• Plants vs. Zombies -- $2.99 → $0.99 [ review ]

PopCap Games has dropped the price on their excellent simplified tower defense title, Plants vs. Zombies.

This is a game that just oozes character. Rather than placing defenses along a winding path, Plants vs. Zombies is an exercise in seeding your lawn in order to grow various armed plants in order to fend of an encroaching hoard of zombies.

Plants vs. Zombies [App Store] is absolutely loaded with high quality animations, excellent cartoonish zombies, and silly dialog between your neighbor/shopkeeper Crazy Dave and even notes from the zombies themselves. Throughout the game you'll defend your front lawn during the day, at night, then defend your back yard which introduces water plants that can only be planted in your pool.

If you don't have this one yet, now's the time to get that taken care of.

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Words With Friends [2.99 / Free / HD] has dominated the multiplayer word game genre on the app store for a long time, but recently some new competitors have elbowed their way in: Kalimat [$2.99 / Free] and Wordfeud [Free]. We've loved Words With Friends since way back when, but it can't hurt to see what the competition has to offer.

Both games are Scrabble-style word games with asynchronous multiplayer - Kalimat through OpenFeint, and Wordfeud through its own system. Both also have free, ad-supported versions to try (Kalimat's cripples some features). But there are a few things that set these games apart from each other.

Wordfeud beat Words With Friends to Android earlier this year and then made its way to the App Store. It's not pretty, with its muted colors and plain interface, but it's quick. I ran into a few small bugs, but nothing game breaking. Currently, it supports six dictionaries, including Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, and both English tournament dictionaries (TWL and SOWPODS).

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It's difficult to think of an appropriate way to describe the success that Nintendo has seen with the Pokemon series. The franchise celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2006, and basically seems to endlessly print money for Nintendo through an endless stream of video games, movies, cartoons, toys, and other merchandising. Part of the reason Pokemon has done so well is because the core gameplay just works so incredibly well for a portable game. So much so, that I've been scratching my head for years now wondering why someone hasn't made a great Pokemon-esque game for iOS, assuming that it just has to be on a to do list on a whiteboard at Gameloft.

Indie developer Fuzzy Professor Head decided enough was enough, and has thrown their hat into the Pokemon clone creation ring with Puppysaurus. Details on the game are incredibly vague right now aside from the few snippets that have been posted in the thread in our upcoming games forum but they have released this teaser trailer:

Puppysaurus is still a few months off according to the developers, but I'd be lying if I said my interest wasn't seriously piqued. I just hope you can move on a diagonal because every Pokemon game ever has been ruined for me because of that. Either way, if Fuzzy Professor Head succeeds in making a competent Pokemon clone, I can't even imagine how popular it could be, especially if it leverages all kinds of online functionality that would never be possible with a Nintendo game.

IKAROS [$.99] creators Riverman Media has an interesting new title up its sleeves. Earlier in April, the studio revealed Pizza vs. Skeletons, a game that’ll pit two favorite things of mine against each other in one convenient iPod Touch and iPhone app.

I wish I could give you a good idea of what kind of game Pizza vs. Skeletons is slated to be, but even Riverman is struggling to pitch its concept or vision. “How do you hype up something that has no clear genre, a nonsense plot, and a main character that's a thirty foot tall conglomeration of cheese and tomato sauce,” the post asks.

In a nutshell, Pizza vs. Skeletons will have you moving a monstrous pizza wheel through a bevy of skeletons across 100 -- or so -- 2D levels of bone-smashing destruction. Apparently, Riverman will be implementing level-based mechanics, so in one level the focus will be crushing, the other rolling, the other "sumo wrestling," and more. The studio plans to keep switching up how you'll re-kill the undead to avoid repetition. Also, there's a significant focus on the feeling of being a gigantic pizza -- whatever that means.

I reached out to Riverman to get further clarification on how these mechanics will fit together specifically, but if I’m reading into the original posting on its blog correctly, chances are that there’s no rhyme or reason for the existence of any of this stuff, which is sort of the point of the over-the-top game.

“We've had a lot of false starts and thrown it on the back-burner several times now,” the post says. “For awhile it was looking like it would be totally un-fun. However, recently we've finally started to make some real headway.”

Good! I can’t wait to show some skeletons what’s up... with a gigantic pizza. In the meantime, if you're hungry for more details on this game, stop by the thread in our upcoming games forum.

At a glance, one might think Unit9's2 Nano Panda [99¢ / Free] is a not-so-subtle copy of Big Pixel Studios' Land-a Panda [99¢], but other than a striking similarity in the look of the icons and the existence of barrels in both games, they're wholly different experiences. Still, that one commonality -- adorable animals existing in obstacle based puzzle games is an App Store trademark to say the least -- but thankfully, Nano Panda rises above the clichés and offers something new.

Stylistically, it's a shoe-in for success based on its collect-three stars system, its adorable visuals and its single-screen puzzles, but even though it looks the part of so many games before it, Nano Panda offers enough innovation in its gameplay to keep if from disappearing among a sea of clones.

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The first major content update to Order & Chaos Online [$6.99] is coming down the pipe, so says a new thread on the World of Warcraft-like MMO’s official message board.

Details on the complete patch and its eventual release are still cloudy, but we do know a number of key fixes, tweaks, and enhancements that it’ll package in. Foremost, expect to see a number of new quests in “the last two high-level regions” and a new teleport in the Greenmont region of world. Also, forget about killing dudes in cemeteries -- with the arrival of this patch, these zones are to become hands-off, non-PVP areas.

Of course, there’s more. The ever descriptive “additional content and ... fixes” has been promised and game creator Gameloft is still teasing new dungeon, PVP arena, and level cap add-ons.

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Angry Birds [99¢] was released in 2009 and became a global sensation, dominating the iOS game charts. However, several months earlier, Armor Games released the popular, but lesser known title: Crush The Castle [99¢] - where players fire projectiles at architectural structures, governed by physics, to kill or squash enemies. Sound familiar? That's right - Armor Games got there first and their series enjoyed some success (the developers report 224 million plays). Despite their early start, the cute graphical characters from Angry Birds had mass appeal and became the ultimate money-making juggernaut, completely redefining success on the App Store. Undeterred, Armor Games has now released a new game in the same vein, Siege Hero [99¢ / HD].

Siege Hero offers 63 levels, with 10 additional special levels which unlock as you progress. Each level involves killing or squashing knights, vikings or samurais by propelling the allocated sequence of rocks, oil barrels, fire-jars or gunpowder (bombs). The fire-jars destroy wood and ice structures. The oil barrels do collateral damage, taking out humans without damaging the surroundings. Some levels include peasants or maidens who add extra points if spared death, or deduct points if harmed.

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Board games turned video games have serious legs. I don’t personally understand the phenomenon, but I dig the support that happens as a result. Take this for example. Carcassonne [$9.99], which hit the App Store in June 2010, will soon be updated with Game Center support. Also, in a new blog post, The Coding Monkeys has revealed that its preparing to release two add-on expansions, “Inns and Cathedrals” and “The River II” in the next few months.

The reason why Carcassonne didn’t support Game Center from the get-go has to do with the time it was originally released. Game Center didn’t exist in today’s form while the game was being produced, so The Coding Monkeys had to shape and create its own series of tubes to connect people with each other.

“We initially released Carcassonne before Game Center was available and had to build our own multi-player experience, so it’s great to now be more tightly integrated with existing games and friends by supporting Game Center as well,” the blog reads.

The update is expected to hit within the week, so keep your eyes peeled.

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Back in late March, we caught wind of the trailer for developer Simogo’s follow-up title to Kosmo Spin [99¢] called Bumpy Road. Similar to an endless running game, Bumpy Road has you controlling a car carrying a happy married couple as they leap onto platforms and over hazards while collecting various trinkets. While that all sounds pretty standard to many other games available, Bumpy Road uses a unique mechanic where you actually manipulate the elevation of the ground by touching the screen in order to move the car to and fro and bop it into the air.

It’s a clever new gameplay mechanic and one that I found works extremely well in our hands-on preview of Bumpy Road. Yesterday, Simogo announced that Bumpy Road is set to debut on the App Store next week, on May 19th.

Simogo has also stated that Bumpy Road has come a long way since the build that was provided for our preview, further refining the gameplay and adding new features. Since our build was pretty solid as is, this can only mean good things for the final release version. The ground manipulation mechanic is truly brilliant, and allows anybody to be able to pick up the game and begin playing, but will reward those who practice and improve their skill. With such a solid foundation in place, if Bumpy Road can come through with enough compelling content then I’m nearly certain it will be a hit.

Bumpy Road will launch as a universal app with Retina Display and Game Center support. Players in our forums have been excited for this game since it was announced, and we’ll have a full review of Bumpy Road when it launches next week.