Back in January, Liv Games released Legendary Wars [99¢/Lite/HD], a game that took the tired side-scrolling castle defense genre and reinvigorated it with new gameplay ideas, a ton of variety, and a great sense of style and humor. Now, they’ve collaborated with developer subzero.eu to once again enter war game territory, though this time as a revamped take on the classic Rampart strategy game formula with the just released Zen Wars [99¢]. It nails the Rampart gameplay too, and offers a sufficiently lengthy single player campaign and survival mode as well as a fantastic online multiplayer system through Game Center for up to 3 players.

The basic gist of Zen Wars involves choosing one of three towers to place a barrier around, creating a protective base. You then place cannons within this base, and when finished use those cannons to fire on an approaching enemy threat. Enemies come in timed waves, and when the time runs out you’ll repair the parts of your barrier that were damaged during the battle as well as expand your base even further, or create new barriers around your other two towers. After repairing things, you’ll once again place your weaponry and then square off against the next wave of enemies, and thus the entire process begins again.

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Tero [99¢] -- the new by-the-numbers platformer from Studio Yomi featuring the titular pilot who, oddly enough, runs and jumps instead of piloting anything -- is ostensibly about saving lives. But don't be fooled by the 24 gorgeously detailed naturescapes or the Fern Gully-esque cautionary tale about the dangers of using science to exploit the environment. Tero is about death, about dying over and over and over again.

The thing about Tero's difficulty (besides the fact that it ramps up in, oh, the fourth level) is that it's borne out of a perfect storm of bad implementation and great design. On the one hand: Tero's accelerometer-based controls are finicky at best (tilt to run, swipe up to jump and down to attack, etc.), and its hit detection is equally spotty.

On the other hand, Tero would be a difficult game even with tighter controls, and its this idealized version that's so interesting. Despite it's slick presentation and lack of pixel art, Tero's aesthetic and design hark from an older era -- blind jumps lead to nothingness, and enemies appear out of nowhere to attack Tero mid-jump. Success in Tero depends on players' ability (or willingness) to repeat themselves, to memorize patterns, to rely on muscle memory instead of intuition.

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11 Bit Studios decision to make a tower defense game set in a bombed-out, alien-infested world otherwise full of sand, bullets, and bombs doesn’t seem like an inspired design direction for a downloadable game from a new studio, but it totally is. Despite its over-saturated genre and its dull name, Anomaly: Warzone Earth [$1.99 / HD] has something new to share and its fresh conceits are executed in some of the most graceful, simple, and visually striking ways I’ve seen in a long time. It nails its strategy component by providing unique constructs, it nails its controls, and it nails its look, which is really is a treat on touch devices.

The easiest way to express what Anomaly does is with the phrase “tower defense in reverse,” which sorta sounds cheesy, but it’s pretty good approximation. Basically, you control the creeps in an environment laced with enemy turrets. Anomaly takes this idea a step further by giving you control over what kind of creeps you can build, the order in which you place your creeps,  and by also allowing you to plot out the course you’ll take dynamically during the mission. (more...)

Texas Hold'em is one of those games that's better in person. It just isn't the same if you can't pull out your best poker face. But as we mentioned in our preview, you can now get that experience from the comfort of your couch if you've got an iPad 2, because Full Deck Hold'Em [$2.99] includes video chat integration in its multiplayer gameplay, and it works beautifully.

For those who aren't on the latest, greatest hardware, it also has nearly everything else you could ask for in a Hold'em app: sixteen AI players to compete against, up to four-player multiplayer through Game Center, eight tables with a range of buy-ins and a lot more. There are some rough spots in the interface, but the core experience is great.

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Oh hey, it's Wednesday again. There's a ton of great games coming out this evening, although, for us, they're all overshadowed by Anomaly Warzone Earth. We've been looking forward to this game for so long it isn't even funny, and it's finally here.

Wednesday nights work different from most nights of the week on the App Store because iOS developers just love setting the release dates for their games to Thursdays. Being a global market and all, the App Store has different regions governed my different time zones. Because of this, things get released in New Zealand first since thanks to their proximity to the International Date Line, it becomes Thursday there before everywhere else. Things slowly trickle out until 11:00 PM Eastern when everything finally hits the US App Store.

Here's what's coming tonight:

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Game Doctors’ undead battle game, Zombie Smash [$.99 / HD / Free / HD Free], is now cheaper and boasts a new online mode courtesy an update-job that wormed through certification this afternoon. The new mode is a head-to-head “Battle Game Mode,” which will have you, basically, defending and attacking the zombie horde as usual while a friend does the same. The man who holds out the longest wins.

Game Center support as well as voice chat support have been added. The former we can really get behind, but the latter? Well, let’s just say we’ve heard enough of what 12-year-olds have had to say when they think they’re alone and anonymous.

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Firaxis Games’ spiritual successor to Civilization II’s Space Race conclusion, Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri, might see new life in this generation. The all-seeing eyes over at NeoGAF have spotted two unique and new EA trademarks for the game (simply Alpha Centauri) across the US and Europe, which begs the question of what exactly the publisher plans to do with the sci-fi inspired, turn-based strategy property.

Trademarks are a slippery slope in the gaming arena. It’s just as possible that we’ll never see Alpha Centauri in a new form as it’s possible that we could. EA isn’t talking and I seriously doubt it will until it has a marketing campaign good and ready. Also, to be crystal clear, the trademarks are for “computer game software” and “online computer games.”

One place we’d love to see the game again would be, naturally, on the iPad. Turn-based games function pretty well on the platform in general, and provided any possible new form of the game keeps to the original’s roots, we see ourselves having a blast with it. Heck, we’d even take a straight-up port of the 1999 game. Fingers crossed.

[Via Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

Pocket God [99¢] is an App Store phenomenon that just doesn't stop. Originally released all the way back in January of 2009, Pocket God has now seen it's 40th major content update, which basically blows away every other iOS game imaginable when it comes to updates. Looking back on it, if you flipped out a buck on the game back when it was first released, how far that dollar has gone is just incredible. Similarly, the amount of content included in Pocket God now is just nuts, to the point that I don't really even know where you'd start if you just downloaded it today.

The latest update, entitled "Battle of the Gods plays off the previous update where players collected idols. These idols are now used for what amounts to almost rock paper scissors Pokemon-style battles with your pygmies. You can get a look at how this all works in the associated trailer that was just released:

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The classic iOS fruit-slashing game Fruit Ninja [99¢] made the jump to Xbox Live Arcade today. The concept behind the game is identical with the major difference being how the game is controlled. Instead of swiping with your fingers, Fruit Ninja Kinect utilizes the Kinect accessory to allow you to wildly flail your arms around to slice fruit. This is all presented in a really clever way, with your body appearing as a silhouette behind the fruit on the screen.

Take a look at the awesome release trailer:

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With adventure games seeing a serious revival on iOS, it should come as no surprise the ports keep on coming. Case in point, Beeworks Games took to bringing over Success' Touch Detective [Free] from the Nintendo DS, a five-year-old game that never saw massive sales on its initial release, but is given new life on iOS. The game got lukewarm reviews when initially released, but an innovative release methodology on iOS helps break it apart from the rest of the pack.

With each of the game's four chapters you'll be taking on the role of Mackenzie, a fledgling detective who has just received her first case. In the demo chapter, you'll need to solve the mystery of stolen dreams, and in later chapters you'll solve a disappearance, an assault and help a stranded person. There are also a series of side missions and a bonus escape the room mini-game.

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The horrible thing about You Don’t Know Jack [$2.99 / HD] is that once you finish it, you really, really finish it. All the answers and questions repeat, and there’s nothing to go back to. For what it’s worth, the game has been updated with two more mini-episodes on the house, which should give you a few more minutes of play. This update also rolls in a few bug fixes.

In other YDKJ update news, creator Jellyvision is readying a “six-pack” of new episodes. No price or date was given in the patch note announcement, but we’re guessing it’ll cost you a few bucks via IAP. Not only do the console versions of the game have a similar setup, but the focus on the “free” part of these latest episodes implies that others will cost later. Two-player multiplayer is also in the works, according to the notes in the HD version.

Chances are that this coming six-pack won’t be the last, and that’s good news. You Don’t Know Jack is a great trivia game, but it definitely needs freshened up with more unique content. I’ll be jumping in again, no doubt.

We're not patent lawyers, but we wanted to brave the legal waters just one more time in order to bring you this update on the unfolding Lodsys drama: Apple is still insisting on intervening in court on behalf of App Store developers despite a reported initial rebuke from Lodsys. It's recently responded to Lodsys' response of Apple's first go at intervention. Provided Apple is allowed to intervene, this should take a lot of pressure off of the sue-ees -- at least, that's our best take from our armchair positions.

FOSS Patents is reporting on this brief, which popped up earlier this week. In the article, it outlines a pretty snappy summary of the arguments Apple has put together. Point four sums up what’s going on from its perspective pretty well. Apple fears that developers might drop the store if things get too murky:
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I think I fell in love with Mega Mall Story [$3.99] the second I activated, inadvertently, a “frenzy” that showered my six-story mall with pieces of confetti. A dude walked in, rode my brand new elevator up to the third floor, strolled into the super market, and purchased $10,000 worth of organic goods. Hearts popped up over his head a little later, which gave me enough points to research the bookstore I had my eye on. With his cash (and others) in-hand, I built it and decided to put the rest towards a community project that would bring in even more customers.

Moments like these happen once every five-to-ten minutes in Kairosoft’s latest simulation, which puts you in the shoes of a bustling mall’s planner, a mall's coordinator, a mall's CEO, and a close-proximity real estate tycoon. The last conceit is the most compelling one: few tower games give you control over more than the tower itself. Being able to raise up a community by purchasing house, parks, parking lots, and more gives you a unique stake in the outside world. It makes you feel like the universe is your baby, not just the mall.

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This past April, developer Physmo released Mos Speedrun [$1.99/Lite], a platformer with a retro aesthetic and an emphasis on completing levels as quickly as possible. We really liked Mos Speedrun in our review, and in fact I became rather infatuated with trying to shave even a fraction of a second off of level completion times in order to inch my way up the Game Center leaderboards.

One thing that drove me nuts, though, was seeing other players’ times that were better than mine and not realizing what special shortcut I was missing out on in my own run. With the latest update to Mos Speedrun, sharing your best runs for all to see just became a whole lot easier with a new replay recording feature.

Recording a run is incredibly simple. Just pause the game during any level and press the little “R” icon in the upper left corner. It will ask you to confirm, and then will quickly record your best run for that particular level and save the video right to the camera roll on your device. From there, you can easily upload the video directly to YouTube or otherwise send it along to whoever you wish. Here’s an example of my run from level 2-5 that I uploaded using the new recording feature:

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When Chaotic Box released Silverfish [$1.99] for the iPhone in November of last year, it got all kinds of love from both the front page and the forums here at TouchArcade. Plans for an iPad version were stalled for a time, but then the developer got his hands on an iCade. Apparently the jones to play his baby in cabinet form was the nudge he needed to get the wheels back in motion, and the iPad/iCade game libraries are now all the more richer for it.

For those unfamiliar with the title (or unwilling to read the iPhone review), Silverfish is a cat-and-mouse avoidance game. Take the minimalist art and aquatic theme of thatgamecompany’s flOw, give it a liberal dose of amphetamines, then replace the circular motions with 4-direction Pac-Man-esque controls, and you’re getting warm. Whether you’re fleeing from your enemies or turning the tables on them, some of the finest and most frantic action on the App Store is on offer here. The release of Silverfish MAX [$2.99] only adds to this game’s arcade appeal.

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