Let’s face it, SnakeRace [$0.99] isn’t going to impress you with any graphical flair or with particularly astonishing production values. However, it doesn’t need to. SnakeRace takes a classic premise, tunes it to its own personality, and then attempts to create a simple game with enough content to pull you back in. While I don’t think that every gamer is going to be particularly impressed with what it has to offer, it certainly does succeed for those looking to take a chance.

At its heart, SnakeRace is a simple vertical scroller that has you navigating a snake on a diagonal pathway through a variety of mazes and barriers in order to get to the eventual finish line, all while collecting various gems to improve your score. Your snake can only move up diagonally, and a quick tap on the screen switches direction. Your snake’s length indicates its life, which goes down every time you hit a barrier (typically rocks of varying strengths).

Interestingly, hitting a blockade does not mean instant death – if you expend enough life hitting it you can actually plow through, possibly opening up a new path. However, don’t expect to live long smashing into barriers without picking up some yellow gems, which increase your snake’s length (and thus its life).

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Infinity Field [$1.99], a pretty standard Geometry Wars-ish dual-stick shooter, is coming to the iPhone and iPod Touch. Developer Forze Field Studios unveiled a new trailer teasing as much with a big fat Chillingo logo sitting in front of the glorious ensuing lo-fi, particle-laded action.

Details on the 'port' are still startling light. The video mentions a campaign and six game modes, and directly states that Retina Screen visuals will be part of the package, but that’s it -- no launch date, price, or possible additions were pinned down. We’re in the process of chasing down this information and will get back to you as soon as possible.  (more...)

In a lot of ways, if you've played one Korean RPG, you've played them all, and if you've played one 16-bit inspired action-RPG, you know exactly what to expect from another -- but Minoraxis' Exitium: Saviors of Vardonia [$1.99] hopes its ideas about multiple narratives and play styles is enough to separate it from the abundance of action-RPGs in the App Store.

The majority of the gameplay elements are going to be familiar -- the hack, slash, then loot formula is here in abundance as is the need to grind through respawning enemies to get enough experience and goods to tackle the next area. The game controls exactly like you expect, but the iPad offers enough screen real estate to keep the fully customizable interface from being overbearing.

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"Climb up, tryst with amorous billy goats, eat grass, give birth."

A little odd as the nutshell for an upcoming iOS title? To be sure. But, then, odd too is the game's hirsute developer, affectionately known as Yak. The title in question is Goat Goes Up by Jeff Minter of Llamasoft, who brought us Minotaur Rescue [link], Minotron: 2011 [link], and Deflex [link] for iOS.

The upcoming Goat Goes Up (a working title) is, according to Minter, inspired by several oldschool platformers, including the Atari 2600 title Man Goes Down, Nebulus, and Rainbow Island. And, as for the climbing, trysting, eating, and birthing, the developer indicates that the game in its final form will offer plenty more than that.

Minter recently posted a preview video of the game in early stages of development. The video below is a little rough, but represents the state of the title after just two days of coding.

UPDATE: Moments ago, Jeff Minter got back to me with a bit more detail about the upcoming title.

GGU is a simple but fun endless climbing game in which the objective is to raise a family of goats - literally, as high as you can. Platforms continuously scroll down and you have to keep climbing - the game ends if you get carried off the bottom of the screen. On the way you will meet billy goats with whom you can tryst. Meeting the billy goats makes you pregnant, and you have to eat grass to eventually produce a baby goat which follows you. Keep doing that to get more kids; more kids give you higher scores for the various bonus items that you can collect along the way. Various powerup collectibles help you as you climb.

On the journey you will pass through various zones, some of which refer to famous platform games from throughout history.

Simple and fun and despite the goat breeding theme actually quite innocent and lovely.

As well, he underscores the fact that the preview video was a very early sample and that the game has evolved significantly since it was released.

We'll be sure to share any further details we get about this one right away. Stay tuned.

In this week’s episode of the TouchArcade Show, the cast and crew manage to stay on the topic of “new games” for quite awhile. Never you fear, though, because somehow, someway, conversations about message board rage, shed repair, the look of constipation, podcast production, and other random subjects crop up. Oh! And we also dig into more next-next-next generation console tin-foil hat talk. You know you love it.

Anyway, to give us a listen via streaming or direct download, click on the link just below. We’re also available on iTunes and Zune Marketplace, and we encourage all of you to subscribe to us in those places.

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After what seemed like an eternity of waiting as we followed the iControlPad's development, we finally got our hands on one not too long ago. We mentioned a few issues that we had with the device which mostly were due to the way the current iControlPad firmware handled sending controls to the iPhone compared to how the iCade works. (This was all detailed in the previous article.) However, one of the strong suits of the iControlPad is that it seems to have an infinitely updatable firmware, and the developers behind the device recently released an update to make the iControlPad behave a lot more like the iCade-- Potentially alleviating most of the issues we had with the device's functionality.

To get the firmware update, head on over to the support section of the iControlPad site and follow the instructions. Alternatively, if you prefer watching a tutorial video to reading, the guys behind the iControlPad have got you covered on that front too:

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Retro visuals have become such a staple they're beginning to feel like they're modern again, but Shaun Inman's The Last Rocket [$2.99] proves it's not just about the look, it's about the entire aesthetic of the game, from the simple and easy to pick up gameplay to the sounds coming out it -- retro is a design principle, not just a pair of pixilated pants.

You play as a rocket -- the last one, actually, in case the title didn't clue you in -- as you attempt to help an onboard computer collect gears and escape a ship before it tumbles into a star. The story doesn't seem particularly important, but you'll get different endings depending on how you complete it, and although you're playing a mechanical rocket there is a whole lot of charm packed into that orange tube that will make you sympathize with its goal.

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My gut says the chances aren’t great, but Braid developer Jonathan Blow’s next game, The Witness, might end up on the iPad or iPhone. Blow just wrapped up a few press demonstrations for the estimated 2 million dollar downloadable and gave the media some things to chew on about the platforms of its forthcoming 2012 launch.

Right now, the game is slated for release on PC and “one console,” Blow said to Gamasutra. He added, “others later.” The fact that he hasn’t nailed down another platform is telling; I’m guessing he’s looking for a Microsoft or Sony to give him an exclusive, but Blow also also isn’t betting the farm on this.

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From the Wii, to the DS, to Kinect, to iOS, developers continue to leverage non-traditional input methods to create gesture based gameplay. So far, their efforts have been met with varying success. For every pile of flailing shovelware or visionary title in the genre that just didn’t pass muster, there’s an Okami or Max and the Magic Marker out there to restore balance to the Force. The concept works.

Art Penguin [.99] takes the concept of drawing objects on the screen that then materialize in the game, and merges it with the tried-and-true auto-runner gameplay that iOS gamers are only too familiar with. A surprisingly smooth experience, the game offers the tension of twitch gesture input and a surprising amount of depth. As is wont to happen in game design, the title’s strengths also are the source of its greatest shortcomings. That being said, there are more than enough reasons to give this game a spin.

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Technical hiccups and control issues kept us from delivering a glowing review for Fenix Fire Games’ visually stunning fast-paced platformer, Roboto [$2.99]. In a new update, these issues have presumably stabilized the touch-and-go experience users have been grumbling about.

Version 1.0.1 brings about, foremost, important visual optimizations, as well as graphical effects and camera options for people with older devices. It also packs in nebulous bug fixes. I suspect that the new aforementioned toggles in the Options menu are exactly what users with older devices will need in order to run the game sans the frame rate hitches and critical crashes.

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Here's some news that just seems crazy, until you stop and think about just how great the soundtrack of Sword & Sworcery [$4.99 Universal / $2.99] actually is. For reference, we absolutely loved the accompanying music as mentioned in our review, and the soundtrack has since become a staple in my iTunes library. I suppose it only makes sense that an album as great as this gets sampled, but it does seem a little surreal that Lil Wayne would be pulling music from iOS games. I wonder if he's a Sworcery fan?

Anyway, here's the original song by Jim Guthrie entitled "The Cloud":

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Creator Kairosoft’s Mega Mall Story [$3.99 / Lite] is, arguably, one of its most complete simulations, as it elegantly wraps you up in numbers and upgrades, as well as the community and people you serve in the process of building the tallest, most complete tower ever created by man. Other than a few control woes, I didn’t find a single issue worth noting in the review. If you didn’t take the plunge for one reason or another and still have a slight interest, you can do so now for the generous price of $0. A new Lite version has appeared on the App Store.

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The hardest thing about reviewing Pigs in Trees [99c / HD] is deciding which part to praise first, because there's just so many things I like about it. Launching the app leads into a delightful animated trailer which introduces the family of pigs who reside in a tree and the woodpeckers, who (obviously) like to peck on wood.  Did you spot the tension there? (Hint: They both want the tree.) This game from PAN Vision and Tactile Entertainment represents a role reversal from Angry Birds [99c / Lite] as the pigs are the good guys and the aggressive birds are the nasty villains.

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The Apple rumor scene is always on fire with speculation of all sorts, but two things of note popped up on the rumor mill that pertain to iOS gamers. First off, lately reports have been flowing in that the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) have started a trial run to produce Apple's next generation processor. The A6 is suspected to be revealed in the second quarter of 2012 at the earliest, with a possible inclusion in the next generation iPad.

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We don't generally follow sales figures of non-iOS devices too closely, but this was just too good to pass up-- Especially as a silly Friday news story. Marco Arment, creator of Instapaper whipped up a graph today utilizing data he compiled from GamePro, Daring Fireball, and The Wallstreet Journal to show just how poorly Android tablets are selling compared to obscure video game systems of the past:

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