Gameloft's BackStab [$6.99] was released for Xperia Play a few months back as a timed exclusive, but now that it has finally arrived on iOS as a universal app, we get to take a look at the studios take of Assassin's Creed via Pirates of the Carribbean. Which is to say, it's an open world action adventure game with lots of jumping around and stabbing things.

The core of the game relies on the same parkour and action mechanics of the Assassin's Creed games on consoles. That means the bulk of the game requires you to run around a somewhat open world and jump from object to object. Control wise, you'll get a virtual thumbstick and some buttons to control sword swipes and jumping. Combat is a button mashing affair and while you get some counter moves, you don't get a block, so most battles can be won by hitting the attack button repeatedly. Touching and scrolling anywhere on the screen moves the camera around. It's tolerable, but there will be plenty of instances where you miss jumps, balk stealth sequences or attack thin air because you can't quite get the camera settled properly.

The same goes for free-running, which only works in certain contextual situations. Occasionally you have to push the jump button and sometimes the game does it for you. It's confusing at best, unpredictable and annoying at its worst and you'll die a lot if you don't get the hang of it.

You'll be doing all of this dying, running, jumping and stabbing across several locales in what can only be described as one of the most insane, brain-melting stories I've played through in a long time. From the outset, you play as Henry Blake, an officer in England's Royal Navy who ends up with a faux-hawk and a badass biker jacket after being double-crossed by a man who was apparently an old friend. This puts you into shackles, gives excuse for a daring escape and eventually provides the reasoning for the crux of the story, your revenge. To get your revenge, you'll kill chickens and rabbits to make food for a buxom lady, run errands for random people and explore a few different Caribbean Islands in a series of missions only slightly related to the main story arc.

I'm wary to "spoil" the strangeness the game takes on around its mid-point, but let's just say it pulls an Uncharted and goes off the rails of reality and spills into something totally different. This wouldn't be a big deal if it made a lick of sense, but the game seems to push you to want revenge, not to run around caves searching out different artifacts to reverse an infection. The world simply doesn't justify the twist, but it's a point only a few will likely quibble with.

As far as the open-world is concerned, it's a mix between Assassin's Creed and Red Dead Redemption, in that you'll be running around and taking on missions from random people, saving people from being killed by the Spanish and picking flowers. The kitchen sink approach is admirable, but the game is so buggy it's difficult to really dig into. If you can deal with it, there is tons of content to explore, even if it's all a bit familiar. You can play through the main storyline in about four or five hours, but if you explore the extra missions and side stuff, there is plenty of gameplay to be had.

The engine is likely the place to put the blame for the bugs. Characters will fall through the ground, get stuck in jumping loops or disappear altogether. Design wise, several of the NPCs seem pulled directly from Assassins Creed II, but the low polygon count and often humorous animation means you'll never really mistake this for anything but a mobile game. While those are minor annoyances and are mostly expected in open world games, they happen far more than they should and even worse, happen to your own character sometimes. The game does a decent job of magically pulling you out of stuck corners, but I had to restart a few times after getting trapped on a ledge or in a wall.

That said, BackStab runs well on the iPad and only occasionally chugs on an iPhone 3GS. Control-wise, it's far better suited for the iPad's bigger screen and you'll likely be accidently touching buttons far more often on an iPhone. The world looks great on all of the devices, even if the characters don't.

The characters are fully voiced, but the dialogue isn't particularly noteworthy and the voice acting, while an admirable inclusion, doesn't really add to the experience. For their part, the sound effects and music do a good job of sounding like what they're supposed to, but don't plan on being blown away by the sound design or the acting. It's better than previous Gameloft titles, but still has a lot of room to grow.

If you've been desperately craving an Assassin's Creed game set in an 18th Century pirate wonderland to play on the go, this will do the trick, but don't expect too much from it. If you can deal with all the bugs, you'll certainly be taken on a bizarre ride and you'll have a ton of stuff to do in the world.

P1XL Games, who brought us RPG Quest: Minimae [App Store], has just released an original collection of simple, C64-styled retro games entitled P1XL Party [App Store] -- and it's a collection that retro gamers won't want to miss. The initial release brings three titles -- Splatform, Wandererz, and Marz -- but there's more on the way in free updates to come.

The first game on the list, Splatform, can best be described to readers as a side-scrolling take on Doodle Jump / Papi Jump -- although it preceded both titles by years. It is a perfect recreation of the 2002 C64 title of the same name, 1st place winner of that year's Mimigame Programming Competition. In the iOS version, you tilt to send your bouncing ball from platform to platform in a quest for the greatest distance and highest score.

Wandererz is a mini-RPG, retro styled (of course), that puts you on a pixellated quest to rescue the seven lost daughters of the king. Your mission is to find the daughters, bring them back to the castle, and contend with the ghoulish creatures wandering the land along the way. There are potions, weapons, armor, treasure chests, dangerous swamps, and encroaching nightfall. It's a great little RPG experience -- tiny, really -- all packaged up for quick, mobile play sessions.

Marz is something akin to Space Invaders, but in reverse. You are in control of a space craft in a decaying planetary orbit. You will soon land, but you must first clear the surface of obstacles with your lasers to avoid a crash. This involves precise timing and adaptation to your dwindling height from the surface. Once all the obstacles are cleared, it's thumbs up and you're planted firmly on the alien surface. A C64 color palette brings the nostalgia.

The developers indicate that coming titles in this collection include puzzle games, strategy games, racing games, and more. I'm pretty anxious to see where this goes. If you dig the retro, don't miss P1XL Party [App Store].

P1XL Games was formed in 2009 by Robin Harbron who worked with Jerri Ellsworth to bring the C64 DTV to market, and designer Sam Washburn. Harbron made the jump from Nintendo DS to iOS development in late 2008.

If you enjoy arcade kart-racing games, do yourself a favor and download Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing [$1.99] by Sega.  There's currently an introductory price of $1.99 which ends on June 25th, when it increases to $4.99. The game is universal, so it runs on iPad and iPhone. The console version came out last year, so you may already know this game involves racing, drifting around corners and shooting opponents. It's a playful light-hearted game, rather than a racing simulation and the characters and courses are based on Sonic and Sega game-worlds. Seriously, if you like Kart racers, just go download it.

Need some more convincing? Alright.

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Most of us here have been anticipating NimbleBit's Tiny Tower [Free] since the developers first announced it. Their last take on the freemium model was the extremely successful Pocket Frogs [Free], a game that I still pull out a few times a week.

So the big day has come - does Tiny Tower live up to the hype? Yes, with one suitably tiny caveat: this isn't the second coming of Sim Tower. Let's just get that out of the way up front, because the early screenshots gave some people that impression. That aside, yes, Tiny Tower is a fantastic, adorable successor to the Pocket Frog empire and it's just as hard to put down.

Here's how it works. Upon starting the game, you're greeted by a fresh new tower and a simple lobby. Working through the tutorial, you build your first residential floor and your first production floor, move in your first Bitizen and give them a job. The Bitizen gets to work creating items to sell, bringing in coins. Spend those coins on building more floors and eventually your tower will reach up into the sky.

Each floor has three items to stock, and each one is on a different timer. When an item's stock sells out, its your job to tell your Bitizens to order more, a task that takes anywhere from a minute to a few hours depending on the item. When that timer fills up, you also need to order them to put the item up for sale again. When you're overseeing a few production floors, this means checking in occasionally. When you've got a 40 story tower, on the other hand, this production cycle will quickly take over your life—if you let it.

The game uses local notifications to let you know when the first item is available to restock after closing the app. This is a great way to stay on top of your towers' needs early on, but with enough production floors it might just make you crazy. I turned notifications off pretty quickly, and discovered something cool—unlike most of these "appointment gaming" types, I can peek into my tower at any time and find something to do. There's always something ready to stock, or someone waiting to ride the elevator. So Tiny Tower fits perfectly into any little gaps of time you have for it. And with no spoilage mechanic, the only thing to lose by ignoring it is the coins you could have been earning in the meantime.

If this all sounds like a lot of managing timers and pushing buttons, you'll be happy to know there's a bit more to it. The Bitizens are really the heart and soul of Tiny Tower. Their comings and goings will occupy a lot of your attention. For starters, they each have their own set of talents. There are five categories of production floor, and individual Bitizens are stronger working at some and weaker at others. They also have their own little dreams. Bitizens working in their dream jobs are better than their counterparts, and you get a tidy bonus for putting them there. Want to see what they're thinking? Hit up Bitbook, a virtual social network for your virtual workers that's filled with quips and little hints.

You're also in control of their literal comings and goings, because you control your tower's elevator. Ferrying Bitizens to their destination nets you tips, both in coins and Bux, the game's premium currency. Occasionally, VIPs show up to add a bit of strategy to the game. They have special abilities, and where you drop them off can make a big difference to your production.

For the creative types, you can customize your tower to the nines. You can't pick which floors are built, just which categories you're creating, but you can move your floors around and paint them to match any color scheme you can imagine. You can also dress up your Bitizens with a palette and outfit randomizer. It took a bit of persistence, but I've got all my employees dressed smartly in per-floor uniforms. The adorable pixel art makes this extra satisfying.

The premium aspects of the game are more than fair. You can buy Tower Bux with real money, but you can also earn them as tips or as bonuses for fully stocking a production floor. A Where's Waldo-style mini-game also awards them. You can exchange them for coins or as timesavers to build a floor faster, finish stocking it, upgrade your elevator or move in a Bitizen. If you're really keen to get ahead, purchasing Bux will help. But if you just play regularly you'll always have lots to do and plenty of chances to expand. Nothing is locked out for players who don't want to pay.

Other than a nitpick or two (it would be nice to toggle the elevator-style music off and keep the sound on, for instance), my only real concern is the lack of social integration. These games are always better with friends (many of whom you can find in our forums), but the only thing you can really do with your buddies in Tiny Tower is compete with them on the Game Center leaderboard and for achievements, and look at their towers. Maybe we'll see more social options in the future, like something to exchange with friends or something to do in their towers.

But enough talk. Tiny Tower is another great, free game from the guys at NimbleBit, and you should definitely check it out. Just try not to get too caught up in the lives of your little Bitizens - it's important to put the game down once in a while.

If you watch a lot of the Discovery Channel, you've likely caught several episodes of "How It's Made." If you're lucky, you might even have seen episodes of apple juice and orange juice. While these might be accurate depictions of how juice is made in the real world, on your iPhone, things are substantially different.

Enter Juice Belts, yet another ultra-casual puzzle game with a three star fruit rating system, physics-based gameplay that centralizes around a drawing mechanic, and tons of gizmos to use to complete your goal. This might sound like a bad thing, but I assure you it's not. What sets Juice Belts apart is that you're actually drawing conveyor belts, and through a stupidly simple interface are able to build these oddly elaborate contraptions to transport fruit from its box to the juicer.

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Ben Cousins, the former general manager at EA Easy Studios who oversaw the creation of Battlefield Play 4 Free, has landed a new job in a similar field. It’s been revealed that Cousins is now working with ngmoco and forming a new studio in Sweden focused on delivering F2P games on mobile platforms.

Chock it up to “studio infancy” syndrome, but ngmoco isn’t divulging any specifics on what Cousins will be cooking up. We’re simply being told that he’ll lead the studio and drop games on Mobage courtesy of DeNA, the Japanese studio who bought ngmoco for an obscene amount of money earlier last year.

“The games industry is at an inflection point,” Cousins said in a statement. “These platforms are bringing hundreds of millions of new gamers into the fold, and at the same time existing core gamers are discovering the innovation, immersion and connectivity they bring. I’m excited to participate in helping shape what we believe is the future of games.”

It’s easy enough to speculate that Cousins will be making more core gamer-focused F2P games, which seems like a smart move considering the growth in this sector. We’ve got all sorts of “core” F2P games -- League of Legends is a leading example -- and it seems as though they’re continuing to fair well post-release.

It bears noting that Cousins was also a creative lead at EA DICE, so he’s got some decent ‘core’ game experience under his belt, namely with (proper) Battlefield games.

If anything, dude is going to be making F2P games. That much is plain. I just wonder if we’ll see more bullets instead of farms from ngmoco Sweden.

There's so many games coming out tonight that I don't even want to waste time on a witty introduction to this post. It's like this is the Wednesday before the Christmas App Store freeze, this is a veritable stampede of games. Anyway, the way this works is a little like this: Developers can set their release dates on the App Store for a specific date in the future. Since the App Store is a worldwide market, things are released in the various regions as it becomes that date in said region. New Zealand's proximity to the International Date Line makes them first, followed by Australia and eastern Asia, then slowly the rest of the world. All of these games should be available in the US App Store at 11:00 PM Eastern time!

Without further ado-

1-bit Ninja, $1.99 - Forum Thread - We've been looking forward to this game since we first heard about it. 1-bit Ninja combines old-school platforming with a slick 3D gimmick where you can rotate the camera to see what appears to be a 2D plane in 3D, potentially revealing secret platforms. I've been lucky enough to spend some time with a pre-release copy of the game, and it's awesome. You can't move backwards though, which takes a little getting used to.

BackStab, $6.99 - Forum Thread - What do you get when you combine Pirates of the Caribbean and Assassin's Creed? Well, you're looking at it! I spent some time with BackStab at E3, and while the pirate universe definitely seemed cool, it was a little weird to be doing missions that were fairly obviously lifted directly out of Assassin's Creed. Regardless, it's being released as a universal app, which is something I can totally get behind.

Battleship for iPad, $2.99 - Forum Thread - Another game we saw at E3. This is a technically competent port of Battleship, but it boggles my mind why EA releases games like this without online multiplayer. I mean really, with how successful Words With Friends has been, imagine how much more successful similar push-based online multiplayer would be with a recognizable IP behind it.

Circus City, Free - Forum Thread - Have you grown tired of building farms, tending livestock, and other similar tasks? Well, Glu hopes running a circus is something that will entice you into Circus City a try.

Continuity 2: The Continuation, 99¢ - Forum Thread - This game looks really slick, as they've combined platforming and sliding puzzle games into one. It's universal too, making the whole thing even more appealing.

D.A.R.K., 99¢ - Forum Thread - I got a super-early look at this game back at PAX East, and while it looked awesome then, it looks so much cooler now. D.A.R.K. is an action-oriented Sci-Fi RPG with tons of enemies, upgrades, and content to blast through.

Don't Fall Off, 99¢ - Forum Thread - This game puts you in charge of helping Rollie stay on his little paper boat floating down a river. For whatever reason, Rollie can't get wet, making his choice to travel by water extremely questionable.

Fish Odyssey, 99¢ - Forum Thread - I can't help but be pedantic with this game's title. Clearly it's called Fish Odyssey, but it seems the majority of the animals you're helping jump over waves by tapping are actually mammals. I suppose Mammal Odyssey doesn't have that great of a ring to it.

Hills of Glory: WWII, 99¢ - Forum Thread - I'm not sure describing this as a "castle defense" game is the most accurate, but it seems to fit. You defend your base from an onslaught of enemies using various military weaponry. Sure, your base isn't technically a castle, but it's similar.

Ionocraft Racing, $1.99 / HD - Forum Thread - This steampunky version of Wipeout features 13 tracks, upgrades, online leaderboards, and everything else you could ask of a steampunk version of Wipeout.

Kona's Crate, $2.99 / HD - Forum Thread - The above trailer makes this game look like a ton of fun, but I can't get over how weird it is to make a crate the main character that you have control of in this game. Regardless, there's over 60 levels for you to fly your crate through, online leaderboards, and all kinds of other goodies.

Lamebo VS Zombies, 99¢ - Forum Thread - Developers are really reaching these days to come up with things that haven't already been done before in the world of zombie games. This one in particular attempts to differentiate itself by having you control a, uh, sheep. Despite the weird premise, the art style of the game looks fantastic and I'm always a sucker for games with tons of upgrades to unlock.

Monkey Island Tales HD, $6.99 - Forum Thread - Currently, Monkey Island Tales HD Episode 1 [$6.99] is available on the App Store, and Telltale is wasting no time releasing the others. Here's iTunes links for the rest of the series coming tonight:

• Episode 2
• Episode 3
• Episode 4
• Episode 5

Powerslide Penguin, 99¢ / Universal HD - Forum Thread - This penguin-flinging game looks cool in the trailer, but it's another one of those mega-confusing split non-HD and HD releases like Red Ball 3. The HD version is universal, but the non-HD version doesn't include Retina Display graphics, so if you want those, you'll need to spring for the HD version.

Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, $1.99 - Forum Thread - This Mario Kart-esque game seemingly has it all. Tons of recognizable characters, universal compatibility, online multiplayer, and a reasonable price. I'm surprised!

Sunshine Cruise Lines, Free - Forum Thread - This free to play game has a fairly interesting premise that involves customizing your own cruise ship. There's also functionality in game to actually go on cruises, visit various ports, and all kinds of other cruise-related things. I admit, I'm intrigued.

Tiny Tower, Free - Forum Thread - NimbleBit fans have been waiting for this game forever, and it's finally here. They've applied the same free to play style of gameplay from Pocket Frogs where paying for anything truly does feel optional. It's a ton of fun, I had a blast with beta versions of the game and have been building my tower since I got my hands on the final version of the game last week. Don't miss Tiny Tower.

Trenches: Generals for iPad, 99¢ - Forum Thread - The Trenches series of games have been stupidly popular on the App Store, and now Thunder Game Works is bringing it to the iPad. The start of the show seems to be the single device multiplayer, seen above, which looks like a ton of fun.

Watch Out Danger Ahead, 99¢ / Lite - Forum Thread - This super-minimal platformer puts you in control of a simple ball. I'm digging the simple art style. Make sure you check out the above trailer.

War Grimoire HD, $2.99 - Judging by screenshots, this tower defense game has some crazy awesome art in it. 60 kinds of weapons (towers?) are included, as well as 30 different environments. The graphics look fantastic, and it's even got an entirely original soundtrack.

Japanese mobile company DeNA has announced two new games for the Japanese market via its new-fangled social platform called “Mobage.” The names of the games should ring a bell: Infinity Blade X and Professor Layton Royale.

Professor Layton Royale is the product of an actual partnership with Level-5, the original creators of the series. Yet, I don’t think it’d be wise to expect Royale to be a full-fledged entry in the Nintendo DS franchise -- it’s a crossover between Layton and Kaito Royale.

In a press conference the other afternoon, it was announced that users would be tasked with taking on the role of detective, as well as a thief and a citizen. That doesn’t sound too Layton-y to me, at least, but I suppose we’ll see for sure later this fall when it hits.

Infinity Blade X, on the other hand, is the Infinity Blade [$5.99 / HD] we all know and love -- minus the whole “free to play” part. In a nutshell, on Mobage virtual items will serve as the way the game makes money; there will be no initial cost. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that you won't be able to earn extravagant weapons and armor with in-game gold. You'll just be forced to buy them.

DeNA seeks to be a world leader in the mobile / social realm and it’s making huge strides by being aggressive and creative in the space. These two games are just the latest in a string of other moves that has made Mobage enticing in the East has us scratching our chins in the West.

[Via Pocket Gamer]

Heads up: Tower Defense: Lost Earth [$.99] for iPod Touch and iPhone is 66 percent off for a “limited time.” So, until... whenever, you can grab it for 99 cents, which is a few dollars shy of its regular price of $2.99. The HD version of the game for iPad remains $4.99.

Lost Earth is a fantastic tower defense game -- and it should be considering that it’s the only tower defense game that can carry the name “tower defense.” In our review, we laud its kitchen sink approach to level design and compliment its other strengths at length.

I’ve been picking at the game since its release while doing my thing on the elliptical at the gym. My big takeaway is that the campaign possesses a good mix of new concepts and smart tweaks on the few-and-far-between revisited elements. It's almost like the StarCraft II of tower defense games in this regard -- you're constantly being given a new object to play with or new approaches to tackle. Sure, I’ve got some qualms with the enemy balance on some levels (Vulcan, I hate you), but overall it’s a solid TD experience.

Hopefully, we’ll see the HD price plummet at some point in the future -- it’s definitely the superior version of the game courtesy the enhanced screen real estate.

The name Spiderweb Software is a bit misleading, after all, it's mostly the work of one man, Jeff Vogel, who has for almost twenty years given us some of the most intricate RPGs on PC and Mac. Until now, at least, these were often an inclusive, old-schooler affair. But Avadon: The Black Fortress HD [$9.99] is one of the first to be easily approachable -- it's also the first to hit the iPad.

You'd be forgiven if you've glanced at screenshots and balked at the idea of playing Avadon, it's not a pretty game. Visually, it falls somewhere in the '90s, pre-CD-ROM drive, which is to say it's an isometric RPG akin to something like Baldur's Gate, Ultima or even Fallout. It's filled with old-fashioned tilesets, hardly animated sprites and a locked camera that doesn't allow you to zoom nor rotate. While I'm getting things out of the way, I should probably also mention there is no musical score. The sound, when it does exist is hardly worth paying attention to and the amount of modern day polish slathered on here lays somewhere between murky and non-existent.

But none of that has anything to do with what makes Avadon a good game, because it's good based solely on the actual game, not the flair.

Avadon isn't as hardcore of an RPG as it might look on first glance and it's also considerably more approachable than Vogel's earlier games. You start the game by picking one of four pre-built classes and typing in a name. No complex stat sheets, no guessing what abilities you'll need and what you won't. You'll meet other adventurers along your journey who will join your party. You'll level up through your adventure, but it's done mostly through a small skill tree, not a vast collection of unknown abilities leading to more unknown abilities.

Combat is turn-based and works well, provided you enjoy turn-based combat. If you don't, consider this an ample warning. Depending on the difficulty level you chose, you'll need to concentrate on your strategy in different ways. There is, quiet literally, something for everyone here. A complete RPG-virgin can pick it up and walk through the game with little trouble on Casual, but the higher levels should provide adequate challenge for players of all backgrounds. Naturally, you'll pick up loot, outfit your team with different equipment and change around your stats. For the most part, this is all relatively self-explanatory, although the menus don't make things easy if you're swapping items between party members.

It's the story that really matters here more than anything else, it's what's going to keep you going through the night. That story bends to your will and your actions and like the best RPGs, you're not always aware of it when it's happening. The core of the narrative comes from you enlisting as a Hand to the Pact, a high-horse power created by a group of nations bent on protecting the good of itself and its people from a fortress called Avadon. This doesn't just mean they protect the borders, it also means they'll burn down villages, kill helpless creatures and lock people into prisons.

As with most of Vogel's games, the writing in Avadon is well done and sprinkled with enough wit and humor that you don't feel oppressed by the seriousness of it all. Within a few hours you'll have a good grasp on the Avadon's structure, the religions, your fellow fighters and a number of the NPC groups. You'll also start getting the sneaking suspicion the Pact and Avadon aren't all they're cracked up to be.

As you play through the game's 20-30 hour campaign, you'll start to notice how your actions are affecting the larger story, from minor quips in dialogue or descriptions to fully-fledged moments that couldn't have existed had you not done something earlier. The dialogue options aren’t the color-coded morally simple choices of modern RPGs, nearly every time you need to respond to a situation it will sit somewhere on a gray scale between good and evil and you'll never know for sure if you're making the right choice. The plotline is basically linear, save for a fair share of side quests, but you still feel like you're having an affect on the world, for better or worse.

The translation to iPad is relatively fluid. I had a few crashes and memory errors while playing, but nothing that set me back too much. The touch screen works well for this type game, although you'll occasionally accidently move your characters around when you mean to fight because you'll tap on the wrong part of the grid. The item screen, as mentioned earlier, is a bit unwieldy with a touch screen and requires an excessive number of taps to get to business, but you'll get used to it. If you've played Spiderweb's RPGs before, you'll know what to expect, but Avadon is considerably more linear and less open than much of its previous work. That's not a bad thing in this case; it's a good entry point into a deeper RPG for iPad players and a great throwback to people who've been playing for a long time. It's streamlined, yes, but not to the point where you feel like you have no control. You still have to read signs to get directions, take note of what people say and remember (in your head, not in an objective screen) where you're going and why you're going there.

Avadon: The Black Fortress HD might take a little while to sink in, but if you get enmeshed in the narrative and the world, it's hard to walk away from it. It's been a long while since I accidently stayed up all night with a game, but Avadon managed to do that without even bothering with fancy visuals or voiced dialogue. It's not going to be a game for everybody, but if you're weary of spending the completely fair price of $10 on the iPad version, I'd suggest checking out the demo for the PC or Mac versions. The experience is similar, although the iPad version will occasionally run into some frame rate drops and has a lower resolution. If you're a fan of '90s RPGs and have been craving something that doesn't hold your hand or guide you along on the iPad, this is the perfect game for you.

The Hexog are coming, and it's up to you, as the ARC pilot, to stop them. You'll need to bring your best Bust-A-Move skills to the table if the Hexog threat is to be eliminated, and the universe of Current [$0.99] is to be saved.

While some action match games let you play calmly, Current demands nothing less than your best reflexes. The Hexog breed, you see. Let them get a foothold, and they'll spread swiftly. The green ones grow exponentially, each one spawning into every surrounding hex. The red ones fill straight lines. The blue ones... well, let's not talk about the blue ones.

To fight them, you need take your ship to their systems and yank them out of the sky. Firing them back at a matching Hexogs will destroy both, and take out others around them. You have a limited number of shots per level, so make them count. Each of Current's 56 levels is a struggle as you fight to swiftly defeat the multiplying hordes before you run out of ammunition.

In the first sets of levels, your only weapon is your shot. But eventually, you discover the game's namesake "current," a force you can use to arm yourself against the Hexog. You unlock weapons that use their multiplying powers against them, blowing them to bits when they breed and forcing them to infect each other. This is war, and it isn't always pretty. Well, actually, it is quite pretty, with all those wireframe Hexog exploding all over the grid.

The whole thing happens to the beat of an original techno soundtrack - make sure to wander into the music menu and play with the different songs. They take Current from a pretty interesting Puzzle Bobble clone to something really cool. The beat of the music rules everything - the Hexog breed to the beat and you slaughter them to it as well. It gets downright hypnotic at times, when you get in the zone and polish them off with style.

Other times it's a little more frustrating, but a recent update addressed that problem. Now not only can you switch between three difficulty levels, you can also toggle the game to a turn-based mode at any time. The Hexog will only breed once per each of your shots in this mode, avoiding the utter chaos of the original action. Things can still get completely out of control if you're not careful, but it's all a little more strategic and a little less reflexive.

If you can't get enough of Current, you can replay on higher difficulty modes or try to get three stars on each level. The levels are procedurally generated, so it shouldn't be the same experience twice. Game Center Leaderboards seem like an obvious addition, and hopefully they'll show up in an update some day. It sounds like there are more levels, game modes and songs in the works, so there should be plenty of opportunities to destroy the Hexog yet to come. Good thing, too - I just love to watch them disappear.

Have a Snake-shaped hole in your app collection? Longing for light cycles? Check out Hard Lines [$0.99], by Spilt Milk Studios. It's the perfect mix of point-gobbling and line-racing arcade action in one little package.

The basic gameplay is simple and familiar. You take control of Lionel, a line that can take only 90 degree turns. You've got a choice of controls, with Tappy's on screen buttons, Swipey's swipes to turn, and Turny, which divides the screen into two tapping zones (yes, the game presents its controls with those rather tongue-in-cheek names). If you crash your line into itself, another line or a wall, it's toast. Your goal, as in Snake, is to survive and earn as many points as you can in the process.

Don't write this off as just another knockoff. Hard Lines takes the formula further with six great game modes. Yes, you can play Snake mode, where your line grows ever longer as you gobble up glowy things. Or you can play Survival mode, which is a light cycle battle that pits you against a couple opponent lines. Deadline gives you three minutes to pull in the highest score possible, while Gauntlet sends an endless supply of enemy lines at you. There's also Pinata, where the lines you kill explode into piles of point-bearing glowy things, and Time Attack, which requires you to keep earning points to keep going.

What you get out of all that variety is a high-score race that doesn't get dull. Hit a plateau in one mode and you can move to the next. Unfortunately the leaderboards are currently only OpenFeint, not Game Center, but Spilt Milk Studios plans to address that in an upcoming update. They'll also be adding Retina support and tweaking the difficulty to get players right into the action. You can keep tabs on their plans in our forums.

What Hard Lines is missing in those features, it makes up for with charm and humor. The lines are chatty little things, always ready with quips to entertain you or to lament their deaths. On a long enough timeline these might get old, but so far the developer has been adding more quips to keep them fresh. The graphics and sound have a retro-stylish appeal that brings to mind the games Hard Lines owes its existence to. Oh, and make sure not to miss the vocal theme in the tutorial - it's really something to hear.

I expect that the lack of Game Center support will be a deal-breaker for many of our readers. If you can let that go, there's a great arcade gaming waiting for you in Hard Lines. I'll be waiting for you on the leaderboards if you decide to jump in.

[ UPDATE: Hard Lines has, by way of an update, gained Game Center support since the writing of this review. ]

When I originally played the outstanding game Osmos [$2.99/HD], the unhurried gameplay and soothing music lulled me into a calmer state.  People have made similar comments about the relaxing effects of Zenbound 2 [$2.99] and Spirits [$2.99/HD]. It's been a while since another game had this effect on me, but Wisp: Eira's Tale [$2.99/Lite] by Triolith Entertainment seems to exert a calming influence. There's no timer or score, just a little glowing fairy (wisp) named Eira who's lost in the forest and needs your help to return home.

The controls are tilt-and-touch. Tilting your device moves Eira left or right. Tapping and holding the screen causes her to float upwards. Using these controls, you can search each level to discover three blue crystals and an exit portal. This is one of those games where you're constantly doing little taps and tilt adjustments to tweak your character's floating direction and speed. And there's nasty things to avoid. Apparently, an ancient creature named Fafnir is bleeding and his black blood is corrupting the forest with evil and monsters, which Eira mustn't touch. She has no weapon, so avoidance is her main strategy.

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Does the name Richard Garfield ring a bell? No? Well, the man is responsible for creating both Magic: The Gathering, the Star Wars Trading Card Game and a ridiculous list of other less notable (but still fantastic) collectable card games and board games. Better yet, he's lending his lifetime of incredible expertise to co-creating a brand new strategy-based iOS card game called Kard Combat.

Kard Combat features a 33 battle campaign that sounds a little similar to how Duels of the Planeswalkers works in addition to single duel mode. Initially there's going to be "over 100" cards, along with "four unique mages to master." I however have a feeling that the free online multiplayer mode is going to be the star of the show.

As someone who has spent more of my life playing Magic than not playing Magic, seeing Richard Garfield involved in an iOS game is fantastic news. There's a ton of M:TG-like games on the App Store, but to someone who is familiar with lots of collectable card games, these always seem to feel half-baked and like they're borrowing mechanics from existing card games. Also, the fast development cycles and low price points of iOS games don't exactly allow for extensive testing to make sure these game are balanced as masterfully as something like Magic: The Gathering.

Like many online free to play games, Kard Combat is currently available in Canada before being unleashed to other regions. If you're a "Canadian" or an actual Canadian, give it a try. I'll be playing some battles today in preparation for a review whenever it actually goes online in the rest of the world. I've got my fingers crossed that Richard Garfield being onboard allows Kard Combat to side-step the issues other similar games have, it sure would be disappointing if it didn't.

Canadian App Store Link: Kard Combat, Free

Want to know why you’re not seeing a lot of Take-Two label games on the App Store? That answer resides in a new Forbes interview with CEO Strauss Zelnick. When the conversation turned towards iPad and iPod games, the business-first-man whipped out the phrase “economically meaningful.” When used in a negative light like he did in the talk, it means, “not making the kind of money we want.” In short: the cold reality of business is why.

“We’ve tried a bunch a things. We tried Chinatown Wars [$9.99 / HD] for the iPhone, and we’re thrilled that we did it, and it was creatively successful. At the price point for which we can sell on the iPhone, it is not going to be economically meaningful,” he said.

To keep this in focus, Chinatown Wars started out as a Rockstar Leeds Nintendo DS project. The App Store version is a port with a few bells and whistles. The original DS title did not perform up to expectations, either.

“At the end of the day, we are interested in creating economic value, and what we intend to do is make something and sell it to millions and millions of people, and sell it at a high price. You don’t want to spend lots and lots of money to make something you are going to sell to a small amount of people at a low price.”

So, smart -- thus, cold and non-consumer facing -- business is, part of what’s gumming up the Take-Two / App Store works. Pricing specifically was touched on. Zelnick, naturally, favors boosted prices. When pressed, he seemed opened to the idea of a $20, $30, $40 tablet games -- but provided that said game brings a “robust and engaging” experience.

“I don’t see why not. Tablets are ubiquitous. And tablets are a great game platform. And it’s the right sized screen. And you use the tablet to have an engaging experience. So if all of that’s true, I don’t see why we wouldn’t be able to sell a robust product for the same price point. The reason the price point is currently lower for an iPhone app is it is used for five minutes, and not for a hundred hours,” Zelnick said.

There’s no little pretty bow to wrap this up in -- Zelnick was non-committal about the App Store as a whole. The thing is, though, is that Take-Two exists to make money and there’s no doubt at all that the App Store can provide in this arena. The question we’re asking now is if Take-Two will scale back experiences to cater to lower prices or if it actually does plan to charge premiums for console-like titles.

[Via Forbes]