First off, apologies for not posting our typical Wednesday night release megapost last week. To say we were "amazingly busy" covering two concurrent events would be an understatement. Regardless, we're back again this week combing through the New Zealand App Store for cool new releases. If you're new here, here's how this whole deal works: Developers can set specific release dates for their games/apps. The trick is, since the App Store is a global marketplace, those games/apps are released on that specific date in each region. Thanks to the modern-day wizardry that are time zones and New Zealand's proximity to the International Date Line, they get things first.

These games will slowly be available to everyone west of New Zealand slowly throughout the day before finally appearing in the US App Store at 11:00 PM Eastern. Here's an alphabetical list of things coming out tonight that seem worth checking out:

Celtic Heroes, Free - [Forum Thread] - This 3D MMO seems to have the kind of feature list you'd expect: Character customization, multiple classes, a quest system, and more, all for free. Sounds cool, right? What has us scratching our collective heads is its file size. Celtic Heroes weighs in at a svelte 23MB. Perhaps they're trying to keep the download size under the 25MB limit for 3G installs, and streaming the rest of the content and assets in-game. Either way, our interest is piqued.

A Long Way Home, $1.99 - [Forum Thread] - A puzzle game that seems to employ a similar mechanic as Dizzypad and other similar "jump from one circular object to another" style games. I'm digging the art style, and the premise of making your way back to Earth one light year at a time seems interesting.

Cell Bound, 99¢ - [Forum Thread] - This cellular matching game involves matching five colored orbs together in a play area that you can spin around to line up matches. Multiple game modes are included, as well as power-ups.

Ewe Doodle - Keep the Sheep Alive, 99¢ - [Forum Thread] - This avoidance game puts you in charge of keeping a sheep safe from its natural enemies: Dogs, bees, and um, duel wielding maniacs? On a personal note, I grew up in the midwest on a farm. We had sheep amongst other animals. I have to say, I don't recall any issues with dogs, bees, or blood-crazed killers. Times truly have changed, apparently. Perhaps global warming is to blame.

Flick Golf Extreme!, $2.99 - [Forum Thread] - Previously, playing a game of golf on the decks of aircraft carriers and on the roofs of skyscrapers were reserved for members of the US military and the financial elite. Not anymore! Thanks to the thoughtful folks at Full Fat, the rest of us proles can enjoy these high-end pleasures. Seriously though, Flick Golf! was great, and I expect this to be just as good if not better.

iQuarterback 2 Pocket Edition, Free - [Forum Thread - We had a great time with the iPad-specific version of iQuarterback 2 in our review. We got a look at the iPhone version at WWDC, and it's just as much fun. If you like football, don't miss this fun and free pigskin-tossing mini-game.

Monkey Island Tales 2 HD, $6.99 - [Forum Thread] - Continuing where Monkey Island Tales 1 HD [$6.99] left off, the second installment delves deeper into this adventure which involves Guybrush, LeChuck, and all the other Monkey Island favorites. Like most episodic games, it's probably a good idea to play the first one before jumping into the second.

Mower Ride, 99¢ - [Forum Thread] - Alright, I'm stoked for this one. Vivid Games seems to have applied the "see how far you can go" gameplay style of jumping games, but transformed to a top-down vertical racer where you ride a lawn mower. Perfect!

Peter Packer, 99¢ / HD - [Forum Thread] - Judging by the trailer, this sorting game gets hectic fast. Bonuses are earned by sorting multiple boxes at once using multi-touch. I've never really enjoyed these kind of games, but I could see the simple premise being perfect for kids.

While out at WWDC 2011, I sat down with Limbic Software and Hidden Elephant to have a look at an upcoming game developed in conjunction with Digital Cavemen. Zombie Gunship is, I believe, the most promising title of the aerial zombie shooter genre. Ok, and maybe also the only member of that genre. But, I'm happy it will soon be out there, because sniping zombies from on high is a pretty sweet experience.

The game puts you in control of the turrets of a Lockheed AC-130 heavily-armored ground attack gunship. But, it's not merely enemy troops you're trying to wipe out. It's zombies. Hordes of zombies. And gigantic, hard-to-kill boss zombies. (It's grizzly.)

Your mission is to defend an allied army bunker at Cheyenne Mountain from the encroaching armies of the dead while, at the same time, keeping the unholy beasts from ravenously consuming a number of scattered and highly unfortunate ground troops caught outside said bunker -- all from the belly of a soaring death machine. You have several types of ordnance with which to rain destruction upon the zombies, and the ability to zoom in for a surgical shot that can save a troop from an in-progress zombie attack.

It's an endless experience -- the zombies just won't stop. The longer you fend off the horde, the higher your score. But, eventually, a zombie is going to get into the bunker or you'll inadvertently kill more than two humans with your fire, and that's when the story ends.

Zombie Gunship features Game Center integration, and an update to come will bring more types of zombies, more weapons, and more locales. Limbic recently partnered with a new art studio and a new sounds team that was responsible for the Gears of War audio effects. Zombie Gunship showcases these new talents nicely. The game should be available for download within the next two weeks. Price has not been announced.

I wanted to share a related anecdote that underscores the value of WWDC to iOS and Mac OS X developers everywhere. On my first night at WWDC Arash Keshmirian, CEO of Limbic, gave me a quick demo of the game, which definitely piqued my interest. Our actual sit-down with the AC-130 crew took place late in the week, on Thursday. Between my first glimpse of the game and our scheduled meeting, the developers were able to implement code optimizations with help from Apple engineers that allowed for three times as many zombies to wander the battlefield as before. And this is just one of many such WWDC success stories I've heard from developers we're close to. A valuable week, indeed.

While we were gathered, we also spent some time with Nuts! [App Store], Limbic's new climb-and-dodge title that launched on May 23rd and jumped high in the paid rankings shortly thereafter. The game challenges you, a squirrel, to make it as high as possible up a frustratingly branchy tree in an effort to gain ranking on the leaderboards. There are several different tree environments or stats (normal, icy, ashy, etc.). It's a fun little title that kept me well entertained on the late-night flight back home.

A Nuts! update coming this month will bring additional story and characters, with more environments coming later.

Bit Pilot [$.99] chose a bad time to be released on the App Store. The retro-influenced dodging game hit a week after One Man Left’s Tilt to Live [$2.99 / Lite / HD] graced the platform, drowning out the much of acclaim it would have garnered otherwise. Perhaps the update that just hit this morning will give Bit Pilot some fresh legs and some new eyes, as it adds a lot of new components to the core game, as well as some fresh tweaks.

Bit Pilot 2.0 adds a total of three new tracks as well as two new modes: Tunnels and Super Massive Mode, respectively. The latter has you gathering power-ups and getting larger in the process, while the former has you dodging massive, creeping space rocks.

The patch also adds new taunts, friends list rankings, Game Center support, cumulative score tracking for his stat pleasure, and most importantly, universal support for the iPad and the retina display.

If you’re more interesting in tackling a game like Bit Pilot with a mouse, or hey, even a Magic Track Pad, game creator Zach Gage will have your back. The game will soon launch on the Mac App Store alongside a demo version that gives you pretty much the full release. We'll grab those links respectively when the application goes live. It's expected to later today.

File this into the fun facts part of your brain: provided that a couple of dudes have bought the game within the last 20 hours, it’s safe to say that Angry Birds [$.99 / Free / Lite / HD / HD Free] has been downloaded over 250 million times across its various platforms. That’s a lot -- like “almost the total population of the entire United States” kind of a lot.

Word of this came to Tech Crunch straight from Rovio Mobile founder Peter Vestebacka, who also mentioned to the publication that the studio is working on a game called Wine and Dine, as well as a title called Angry Birds Magic.

The latter is the more fleshed out of the two. Magic is a location-based game that unlocks levels or Angry Birds ‘experiences’ based on where you are. Plans are also in the works to have it interact with Angry Birds toys stuffed with computer chips.

Details are still really light on this project, but it does kinda sound more like a vehicle for Rovio to sell more Angry Birds stuff than a game We’ll see.

Just a little remarkable note here to close this out: just a month ago, Rovio announced that Angry Birds had hit the 200 million download mark. That means, within the last 30 or so days, the title has received 50 million downloads.

Granted, most were probably free downloads, but that's still a lot of people to reach in such a short span of time. What's the secret here?

[Via Tech Crunch]

Defiant and Chillingo's Rocket Bunnies [$0.99 / HD] tells us of a future where bunnies have spread throughout the universe, and one rabbit, armed with only a rocket, must fight the forces of oppression to bring food to the hungry masses on each planet and asteroid. Or something like that, anyhow. Story isn't really a big thing in this game.

What we get instead is plenty of gravity-based planet hopping. Each level is filled with planets and asteroids, as well as obstacles—orbiting mines, rotating electrical fields, homing robotic spiders and the like. You, as the titular rocket bunny, orbit around a planet until you tap another one nearby. This launches you toward that planet as soon as you're lined up with it, and with careful timing you won't succumb to the various enemies and obstacles in your path—you might even get them to blow each other up. Hungry bunnies are spread between the planets, and your goal is to get to each of them alive.

Gravity-based physics games are already well-represented on the App Store, but Rocket Bunnies does things a little differently. You might start out treating it like a puzzle game, plotting each move carefully, but that isn't going to work for long. As you make your way through the game's 60 levels, you'll quickly learn that hesitation is death. Sit on a planet too long and a spider will come to destroy you. Fling yourself away from an asteroid at anything but the right moment and you'll smack headfirst into a web or a mine. There are no second chances. Mess up once and you'll be starting the level over again.

The fear of failure isn't the only thing that will keep you moving. In order to unlock all of Rocket Bunnies' levels, you need to earn higher and higher totals of stars. Each level has three stars to earn, but you don't collect them through clever platforming or puzzle solving, you earn them with speed. Muddling through at a steady pace will generally give you only one star, and you won't be able to unlock all the levels with performance like that. I'd like to see completion time leaderboards in a future update, since so much of the game revolves around shaving seconds of your time.

When I wasn't rocketing through each level at maximum speed, I didn't find Rocket Bunnies all that much fun. Avoiding all the obstacles while feeding the bunnies is challenging, but sort of bland. The game got a lot more interesting once I realized the stakes behind my level completion times. I needed to both react quickly and time my jumps carefully to get boosts (a reward for perfect timing) and to avoid dying.

While you're working on earning those three-star completion times, you can gather the 32 Crystal/Game Center achievements. Most of them require creative space acrobatics, with a couple that require grinding and completionism. Intrepid explorers will also be rewarded with a collection of hats that are hidden in a few of the levels, allowing you to dress your bunny in a sombrero or a trucker's cap if you're so inclined.

Despite all of that, Rocket Bunnies never completely grabbed me. It's a solid, even game that's good across the board that is never quite great. If you're looking for a new physics platformer, you certainly won't go wrong grabbing this one. It's not quite a universe of entertainment, but it's a galaxy or two for sure.

About a week or so ago, Noodlecake Games was in our forums talking up the latest update for Super Stickman Golf [99¢], the golf-themed physics game with the phenomenal online multiplayer mode that has become an underground sensation. In a post discussing update 1.6 for Super Stickman Golf, they happened to mention that they have been fiddling around with a new game concept lately, and posted a few screens of what they’re currently calling Lunar Racing.

There really isn’t much known about Lunar Racing at the moment, but you can gather a few nuggets from the screens themselves. It appears to be a 2D side-scrolling racing game, and prominently features a multiplayer mode on the title screen. If there’s one thing I’ve come to learn, it’s that Noodlecake Games can create an incredibly fun multiplayer experience, so just the inclusion of a multiplayer mode is reason for me to get excited.

There also seems to be an element of car customization and even some sort of trick system that rewards you for things like flipping your vehicle. This is total speculation on my part, but I imagine the physics and gameplay being similar to So Long, Oregon! [$1.99] but with competitive multiplayer, which sounds completely awesome to me. We’ll prod Noodlecake Games for more info on what exactly the deal is with Lunar Racing, and bring you any more information on the title as we get it.

NaturalMotion Games' Icebreaker Hockey [99¢] is a bit difficult to describe. Not because it's a complicated game, it's not -- but it so resembles the studio's Backbreaker series of games it's a bit hard to really dig into the premise of it without noting its pedigree.

So, if you've played Backbreaker, you're going to know what to expect from Icebreaker, but if you've avoided the series because you're not a fan of football, you'll be in for a treat. Icebreaker takes the same, challenge oriented, tower-defense-in-reverse aspects of Backbreaker and puts it on the ice.

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Bumpy Road [$2.99] is a great game for a lot of reasons. Its art, sound, and controls fit snuggly together, establishing it as one of the most complete, whole, and well-refined games that we've taken a look at recently. And while there’s a bunch to do in the game, there’s even more as of now. A free update to the innovative physics-based platform game has been pushed out, adding 100 new level segments, the “gruesome and sneaky Break Gizmo,” and two new tracks for the “Classic Sunday Trip.”

Complimenting this, of course, are five new Game Center achievements, and some new leaderboards, which round out the experience nicely.

On the technical side -- what’s an update without a band-aid -- developer Simogo has tweaked the title so its start-up loading is faster. On the game’s blog, Simog reckons that it’s now “three times faster.” Good. I don’t like waiting.

Definitely give Bumpy Road a shot if you’re looking for a new game. As I referenced earlier, we do have a review for the title. Catch it!

Earlier the other week, we brought you news that Activision was kicking off a new stat-tracking service for Call of Duty called “Call of Duty: Elite.” In addition to giving fans a web portal, the mega publisher plans to release native applications for the iPad and iPod Touch that do much the same thing. Bungie has since fired first so-to-speak by offering a stat-tracking application of its own for Halo: Reach (and possibly more games to come).

You can download “Bungie Mobile” [Free] for free. And while it gives you all that you need to know about your K/D ratio, it also lets you view your Spartan’s armor, the challenges of the week, the commendations that you’ve earned, and last but not least, connect with the rich Halo community still residing at Bungie.Net, the one-stop-web portal for all things Halo including stats.

The latter is an important point: part of the reason why this was released was to give fans free stuff. As of now, you can unlock a Bungie Nameplate and special Blue Flames over the app for Halo: Reach. Bungie is giving users without an app a shot at other fun stuff, including never-released artwork and commemorative t-shirts.

You can learn more about that via Bungie’s Web site.

If you’re wondering what the hubbub is all about, know this: 343 Industries is now the studio behind the IP. Its first title will be Halo 4,  a new chapter in a three-part continuation of the original Halo series.

Official applications like this are more rare than you’d think. Publishers and studios don’t blow a portion their 25 million dollar-and-up budgets on small social-focused apps that connect to console experiences, despite the power of the “always thinking about the game” mentality that their on-the-go nature inspires. It’s nice to see a high-profile studio like Bungie give it a shot in earnest.

If you’d like to don a tin-foil hat with me for a second, I think this also means that Bungie won’t be afraid to pump out a similar support application for its forthcoming MMO.

Speaking of crystal balls, Bungie revealed in a post earlier today explaining the sudden appearance of Bungie Mobile that it will “tell you, in explicit detail, exactly what Bungie Aerospace is all about.” I’ve been thinking that it has a connection to said MMO. I’m not sure that’s the case now. We’ll see soon enough -- July 7 is the cut-off date.

A couple of weeks ago, we learned that Ten One Design was getting ready to release a smaller version of their wonderful Fling controllers for the iPad which would be suitable for use on iPhone and iPod touch devices. There was a lot of negative backlash to this announcement though, and I can sort of see why. The promo image for the Fling Mini showed that using 2 of the controllers at the same time really blocked much of the screen of the device, and it was hard to imagine how it could be practical to play games this way.

Last week at WWDC, Eli and myself both got our hands on an early pair of the Fling Minis and put them to the test. Surprisingly, the screen blockage is almost a complete non-issue when you’re actually using the Fling Minis. The plastic that the Fling Mini is comprised of is translucent and doesn’t really block any more of the screen than your own thumbs normally would. But, that’s not to say that they don’t come with some quirks and they won’t work on every game that you’d hope. For the games that they do work with they work exceptionally well, and just like the Flings on iPad they offer a smooth and tactile control option over using a touch screen alone.

Eli has put together this fantastic comparison video showing off the difference between the original Fling, which you can read our original review of, and the new Fling Mini:

In my own experience, I’ve found several games that work near perfectly with the Fling Mini. Both Bug Heroes [Free] and Max Adventure [99¢/Lite] are two of my favorite dual-stick shooters that don’t come with many compromises when using the Fling, which you can see in this second hands-on video. There will be times when accessing a UI element or menu option will be difficult because the Fling Mini is blocking that part of the screen, but it’s easy enough to detach a suction cup and swivel the controller out of the way to gain access to these. It would be cool if there were tiny hinges in the connector arms of the Fling Mini so you could quickly flip them up to access the entire screen. Perhaps in a Fling Mini version 2.0.

The Fling Mini is also well-suited to some games that use just a single analog stick or a d-pad for movement, and one interesting thing is how well it works with the Joypad Game Controller [Free] which we also covered at WWDC this year. Especially with the Joypad SDK now offering the ability to use analog sticks, one or two Fling Minis combined with an iPhone or iPod touch and the Joypad app could make for a really nice controller for playing an iPad or desktop game.

One example of a game that did not work so well is Age of Zombies [$2.99/Lite]. I had high hopes for this one as it employs a touch anywhere scheme for its set of dual-stick controls, which would mean precise placement of the Fling wouldn’t be necessary. Unfortunately there is no way to access the grenade button while using the Fling with this game, which is a pretty big problem. You can avoid this by using only one Fling on the left control stick, but this gives the game an inconsistent feel. Also, games that utilize buttons in the lower corners of the screen, like many first person shooters, are also basically unplayable due to the plastic spirals of the Fling Mini blocking those areas of the screen.

The thing I like most about the Flings is that they just “feel” good. The movement is solid and smooth, and for the games that they work well with they are definitely an enhancement. On the larger screen of the iPad, the original Fling works with a greater number of games and there are much fewer instances of inaccessible UI elements. These problems are amplified with the Fling Mini and the smaller iOS screens, but it isn’t a total deal breaker and for the select games that they do work well with they feel absolutely brilliant.

One of the first things I asked Ten One Design about the Fling Mini was whether they would also work on an iPad, thus negating needing two different styles of Flings. While there’s technically nothing preventing them from working on an iPad, almost all iPad virtual analog sticks require a larger range of motion than what is afforded by the smaller Fling Mini. You may be able to come up with a few games that work well on the iPad with a Fling Mini, but for the most part you are better off using the original Fling with that device.

Really the best thing to do is find a friend who owns a pair or head to an Apple store and try out the Fling for yourself. If you like the way they feel and can deal with limited game compatibility, then they are a great purchase. Hopefully more developers will incorporate special settings for using a Fling controller in their game, especially with them now being available on iPhones and iPod touches.

You can currently pre-order the Fling Mini in a 2-pack for $24.95, and they should be shipping sometime in mid-to-late July. The original Fling for iPad is available now in 3 colors at a price of $19.95 for a single controller or in a 2-pack for $29.95.

Product Pages:

• Fling Mini 2-Pack (Pre-Order)
• Fling for iPad

Last week at WWDC, I met up with the guys from Get Set Games to talk about the success they’ve had with their game Mega Jump [Free] as well as what the future holds for them on the App Store. First of all, they revealed that Mega Jump has just passed the 15 million download mark, which is an impressive milestone to say the least. You might remember that just over a year ago, Mega Jump launched as a 99¢ paid app. It saw a brief sale period at one point, but last August the team decided to make the game permanently free and try to make their money by selling a huge selection of IAP goodies from within the game.

Love it or hate it, this freemium pay model has done extremely well for them in the past 10 months, and they have no plans to revert to a paid app anytime soon. Mega Jump has also received a steady stream of updates during its lifespan, and the newest one that is set to hit any day now will be the game’s 15th. It adds a huge new feature to the back end of the game which will allow the developers to send new content to the game through OpenFeint without actually submitting it as an official update. This means that things like new level skins and coin patterns can be pushed out to the game even more frequently and with less hassle. If you’re a Mega Jump fan, expect new content to be hitting the game at an even faster pace from update 15 on.

Next, they filled me in on one of their upcoming new games which will be starring the main character from Mega Jump, who I’ve come to learn is named Redford. Called Mega Run, it will be an endless running style of game using a similar art style from Mega Jump. The version of Mega Run I was able to try is currently just a functioning prototype, but already felt pretty good. The developers are planning to utilize a similar freemium pay structure and update schedule for Mega Run as they have with Mega Jump. It will also include the new back end feature that lets new assets be pushed to the game without an update, so they assured me that there will be plenty of fresh content coming to that title after it launches as well.

One bit of interesting news that came up during my meeting was finding out that Rob Segal of Get Set Games is one of the brains behind the Toronto Game Jam, or TOJam, and that the entire development team participates in this 3 day game jam every year. During the latest TOJam this past May, members of Get Set Games created a game called Seven Jamurai under their pseudonym Team Awesomo. Seven Jamurai was easily one of the most talked about games at the jam, and it’s pretty incredible to think that such a high quality effort can be created in just a few short days.

The exciting part of all this is that the team was so happy with how Seven Jamurai turned out that they are in the process of readying the game for an iOS release. Gameplay could be described as Castle Crashers meets Smash TV, as Seven Jamurai is a frantic dual-stick shooter that relies heavily on cooperative play with up to 4 players. They are really fine tuning how all of this will work out in the iOS version, but you can check out this early video of Seven Jamurai from the game jam to get an idea of what it will be like:

Both Mega Run and Seven Jamurai are being developed at the same time, and the developers hope to have them both out on the App Store “in a few months”. My big takeaway from my meeting with Get Set Games is that this is a crew of video game-loving friends who have all defined their own roles in the company, which allows them to work together really well. They also have a near endless supply of amazing game ideas, and I could easily write twice as much about their previous game jam titles which were never fully realized but all have immense potential.

I’ll keep my fingers crossed that will see these games materialize in some form someday, but for now I’ll be looking forward to plenty of new Mega Jump content and both Mega Run and Seven Jamurai hitting the App Store sometime this year.

Back in February we learned that CAVE was readying a port of Deathsmiles for the App Store, and just a couple of days later they released a teaser trailer for the game. The trailer pegged a Deathsmiles release for Spring 2011, but with Spring all but gone and no sign of the game on the App Store it’s pretty obvious that things are taking a bit longer than expected.

CAVE announced on their Twitter that they will have more information regarding a release date soon, and have offered up a brand new trailer of Deathsmiles as a peace offering for the release running late. Like CAVE’s other iOS shmups, Espgaluda II [$8.99/Lite] and Dodonpachi Resurrection [$8.99/Lite], Deathsmiles will come with an iPhone mode in addition to the original arcade mode. The iPhone mode will come with a brand new exclusive playable character named Princess Tiara, and will have its own new storyline as well as original background music.

All of CAVE’s iOS offerings are amongst my very favorite games in the App Store, and I really can’t wait to check out Deathsmiles when it finally releases. We’ll be keeping a close eye out for any new information regarding a release date, and in the meantime you can check out our forums for some Deathsmiles discussion with your fellow gamers.

If you were having issues downloading the latest episodes of our podcast, here's some good news: Our iTunes feed is now working. It’s finally pumping out hot pod content just as the gods intended. It's also available on Zune. You’re welcome, ears.

We were having some brief technical difficulties which prevented the feed from being updated, but everything is good to go now. You can now download the second and the third episode of the TouchArcade Show via the iTunes music store. Both are free, so there's not much reason not to.

While I have you, if you could do us solid, I’d love for you to rate us on iTunes. Ideally, I’d love to see a ton of five star “you guys are the greatest, I want to stroke Jared's beard” reviews... but I would understand if you opted to be somewhat sober about the whole thing. Either way, your reviews will help establish the podcast on the store and give us even more listeners and POWER.

As always, we’re easy to reach. If you’d like to blast us a question through the Internet, hit us up at podcast@toucharcade.com. You can also hit us up via the Twitters and the Facebooks, too, if you’re into the whole social media thing.

Oh -- and if you’ve got any feedback, let ‘er rip in the comments below.

iTunes Link: The TouchArcade Show
Zune Marketplace Link: TouchArcade.com Podcasts

Sometimes the simplest things are the ones that bring the most joy. There aren't many games that are simpler than Match Panic [$0.99], but that's a big part of its charm.

Here's how the game plays: adorable pixel sprites make a line down the screen. Identical sprites are shown on both sides of the screen, and its your job to tap the side of the screen that matches the sprite in the middle. Does it get any more straightforward than that?

But don't jump to conclusions—Match Panic is harder than it sounds. Without lives to contend with, you're free to make mistakes, but you have to beat the clock. It's easy at first, but time gets tight as you reach higher and higher levels. You've got to be fast, and you can't spare the seconds mistakes cost you. Now you're probably thinking that you're some kind of pro matcher who'd never make an error, but try saying that when there are three sprites on one side of the screen, two on the other and a clock ticking down the seconds. This is some seriously frantic matching action.

For all you meta-gamers, there's a lot more replayability than you might think. The first challenge is to unlock all the sprites by hitting level or match milestones. They get shuffled into play and make it that much harder to keep track of where your fingers should be tapping. You'll also want to push your scores on the Game Center leaderboards, which track high scores, bonus time, streaks and total matches. Then there are the achievements, which challenge you to play creatively, quickly and carefully.

I was pretty charmed by the trailers for Match Panic, so I'm thrilled that the game is so good. When I have a little time to kill, I put a song with a good beat on my iPod and get right to matching. I love Chaotic Box's Silverfish [$1.99], and Match Panic confirms that the one-man dev studio is chock full of good ideas. Our forum users agree: this is a game that's simple to pick up, but so hard to put down.

What's My Word? [$0.99] is a board game port that language lovers simply must check out. If you've played the original with pen and paper, you know what to expect. If not, you're in for a treat.

The goal is to discover a hidden six- or seven-letter word. To find it, you need to come up with other, shorter guess words and enter them in shifted positions along the board. Each guess is scored by how many letters match the hidden word, and whether or not those letters are in the right place.

The scoring is the tricky part. It's the only thing that will tell you if you're on the right track. Correct letters in the wrong spot give you 250 points. Correct letters in the right spot give you 1000 points. You're given the total for the whole word, so you'll need to compare all of your guesses and find the overlapping letters and other giveaways. On your 11th guess, you'll either get the correct word, or not. It feels like a wordy version of the classic board game Mastermind, if that makes it any clearer.

What's My Word? is quite the strategic game. You can try to cover as much of the alphabet as possible with your guesses, but this might leave you with a lot of possible letters and no sure things. If you instead use similar words to track down correct positioning, you might finish the game with only two or three correct letters. Words that score 0 are extremely helpful since all their letters are eliminated, but then you lose that whole word from your total score. To make things even more complicated, you don't necessarily need to guess the correct word to get a high score. Balancing all these factors makes for an interesting challenge.

Though the game design is sound, the port's mechanics leave a little to be desired. The Game Center achievements pop up inconsistently and at weird times. Also, I found myself heading to pen and paper to solve some of the puzzles. The game includes a scratch pad to note down the letters that you're sure of and those you've eliminated, but I just don't find it interactive enough to work through all the logic. Not a huge deal, but it's hard to play on the go when I'm constantly looking for a pen.

For the price of admission, you get 50 potpourri puzzles, and daily six- and seven-letter challenges. The daily challenges have Game Center leaderboards to rank your score. If you'd like more content, there are already 19 extra word packs available for in-app purchase, at a dollar each or 10 bucks for an all-access pass. Categories for the extra packs include things like sports, video games, and movies. I've enjoyed playing the extra content, but if you put a puzzle down partway through it would sure be nice to see which category it's in when you come back.

Unfortunately, the multiplayer aspect of the original game has pretty much been abandoned. You can challenge friends by sending them words with categories, but there's no overarching competitive play. If you want to play with a friend locally, the best you can do is enlist their help over your shoulder while you struggle through the solo challenges.

All in all, though, What's My Word? is a great little package. It's even Universal. If you like your word games to come with a big dose of strategy and logic, you should definitely check it out.