If this review had the same layout as Avalon Wars [Free], here’s how you would get a feel for what the game is like. First, you’d go to the reviewer’s home base screen. For now, ignore the individual game-mechanic analysis buildings titled Combat, Resource Management, Base Building, Troop/Hero Development, and MMO Elements; we’ll come back to those later in the tutorial. To start, simply click on the Review Overview Command Center. Once on the Overview Command Center screen, you’ll select the Review Introduction tab. Choose “Two Paragraphs” as your option from the Review Length sub-menu.

Now, exit the Command Center and scroll over to the Reviewers’ Barracks. Enter the Barracks and select my name from the list of recruited reviewers. Drill down into the Writing Skills menu and click the sub-menu tab for Add New Skill. Spend 30 TAPs (TouchArcade Points) to activate the skill “Analogy Synopsis”. If you lack the necessary TAPs to activate the skill, a modest in-browser purchase will get you more to speed up the process. Now, launch the reviewer and see him crank out a brief overview of the experience of playing Avalon Wars in the style of Avalon Wars.

If you’re still reading at this point, you may just be the kind of person who will love the hell out of this game.

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TouchArcade Rating:

On this week’s episode of The TouchArcade Show bonus edition, we speak with Vlambeer’s Rami Ismail about his studio’s forthcoming iOS port of Super Crate Box and what it took to put the twitch-y, unforgiving game on the platform. We also get into the Radical Fishing controversy and chat a little bit about what’s next from the studio. Spoiler: a lot of stuff is in the works.

If you’d like to listen, give us a download just below. Heck, you can even stream the audio straight from your browser! If you’d like to receive these podcasts, as well as our regular Friday show the second we can release them, please subscribe to us on iTunes or Zune.

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Love it or hate it, Mountain Sheep's Minigore [99¢ / HD] has left an undeniable mark in TouchArcade forum history. The thread in our upcoming games forum is still among the most popular threads of all time, and as Minigore's cult status grew, the pre-release excitement reached never before seen levels. It's even spawned some potentially cringe-worthy memes such as the "Minigore dog" to the right here. Whether a fairly simple, although admittedly dripping with character, dual stick shooter actually lived up to the "pre-launch hype" was debated for years after the game was initially released-- And likely still will be debated in the comments of this very article.

After a series of updates and a iPad version, Mountain Sheep announced the upcoming Minigore Zombies earlier today. Details are vague, and the only hints come from developer Timo Vihola's thread on our forums.

The features mentioned so far include tons of zombies, and even 15 zombie bosses. Enemies will be a little smarter, with attack patterns. In addition to more firepower and pickups, objects not have collision detection so you can do things like bounce grenades off walls. It'll launch as a universal app, and Egoraptor is even making a return for more voice work.

Also, curiously enough, the teaser image specifically makes mention that Minigore Zombies is for iOS 5. Equip your tin foil hat and this could mean a few different things: First off, they could just be targeting iOS 5 because it potentially means better graphics since they don't need to worry about older devices. Alternatively, Mountain Sheep could be using some cool iOS 5 specific features, with some kind of next-generation Game Center integration seeming the most likely if that's the case.

What will actually be included? Well, we'll just have to wait and see.

Last month we posted news that DotEmu would soon be bringing retro classic Rod Land: A Fairy Tale [link] to the App Store as the fifth game in their Jaleco series. The game has just been released and we've got a closer look to share.

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TouchArcade Rating:

Need help finding your way around Dead Island? There’s an official app for that. The new FPS zombie action game from the developers of Call of Juarez, Techland, is launching at brick and mortar this morning alongside a novel App Store companion app that’ll help you navigate the game’s sprawling and complex open world. The Universal, $2.99 app is the result of a group effort between BradyGames and game publisher Deep Silver.

In addition to providing basic navigation support, the Official Dead Island Map App [$2.99] also shows off locations to all the hidden items in the game, as well as allows you to keep track of what you’ve collected. For whatever reason, it also boasts music from the game.

The thing it’s missing is true connectivity -- the app and your saved game don’t talk to each other, which leaves all the record-keeping up to you. Still, this is a really cool idea and I hope more publishers invest in these kinds of companion pieces moving forward. I mean, imagine having apps that keep micro-game elements in your pocket, or keep track of multiplayer stats, or you know, even allow you to plan out your next in-game visitation. There are tons of viable possibilities.

9 to 5 Mac is reporting that GameStop, the US-based video game retailer famed for its glut of “used” goods, is set to begin carrying the iPhone, the iPod Touch, and the iPad in all of its storefronts soon. The company has been testing the tablet and other iDevice waters in at least 20 stores since earlier this summer, while its online arm has been been advertising trade-ins of used iOS devices -- including old scroll-wheel iPods -- for a good clip, so this decision isn't totally out of left field. Company president Tony Bartel has also stated in the past that a nationwide roll-out of the initiative was set to happen in 2011.

9 to 5 was hearing these tidings from various sources coming from the company’s recent function in Las Vegas, Nevada where this announcement was supposedly made. No information regarding timing, trade-in values, or how it’ll handle the sell of used iPhones -- which you know, are phones -- has slipped out, unfortunately. (more...)

Perhaps we can all agree on something: bird games are getting a little old. I know there were a couple really popular bird games at one point or another, but certain developers have been wielding birds, pigs and rolling hills like they're some sort of winning game talisman. It's cool, guys. We like other animals too.

I'll make an exception from this little tirade for Booyah's Early Bird ($0.99 / HD). Yeah, it stars a (completely adorable) bird. And sure, it may occasionally give you flashbacks to other games with avian stars. But given the game's classic Disneyesque art and solid swipe-controlled platforming, I'd feel like a bit of a monster for telling this little birdie to fly on by. (more...)

TouchArcade Rating:

The eagle-eyed gamers over at Technabob have noticed an interesting little tidbit of information given with the latest update description to Atari’s Greatest Hits [Free]. Along with the typical bullet points of optimizations and improvements was a line declaring the game’s compatibility with the “official Atari Arcade – Duo Powered joystick”. Say what? Thankfully, Atari doesn’t leave us hanging with just a cryptic hint and actually provides a link to a product page for said joystick, along with the following promo image:

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Don't ask me how this is even a possibility, but before I got my hands on Food Chain [Free], I had never played a single moment of Tetris Attack. Not even a second. Which is basically a crime, since I do love Tetris, but I guess I was sleeping under a rock at the time or something.

Anyway, after I went back and got schooled on what Tetris Attack actually was, I got down to playing Food Chain so it could see how well they used the same formula. For those of you who have never played either title, both are puzzle games that share a few common mechanics: falling block puzzles, and the ability to only move them in two directions. Unlike a puzzler that allows you to scoot blocks up and down, Food Chain will only allow them to be moved side to side to make combos of three or more matching pieces. (more...)

TouchArcade Rating:

Back in the Summer of 2009, Flight Control [99¢/Lite/HD] had just sparked off the line drawing craze in the App Store. But before the market was completely flooded with “me too” clones that brought nothing new to the formula, Imangi Studios had released Harbor Master [Free/HD], a line drawing game very similar to Flight Control but with its own unique twists.

Obviously, the premise in Harbor Master differed by having the player direct boats into docks rather than planes onto landing strips, but it went a bit deeper than that. Boats that were destined for particular docks came in various sizes and speeds, and you’d need to wait for the ship to unload its cargo before directing it out of the dock to make room for a new ship. This small change added a whole new level of strategy and frantic gameplay, and Harbor Master has remained a favorite in the line drawing genre around the TouchArcade headquarters since its release.

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One of my most favorite puzzle games that I played while growing up was Lemmings. Sure, there were plenty of games before that required thinking and coordination, but there was something about being in charge of a group of characters and having to lead them across maps of perilous obstacles that I loved.

BridgeTheGap [$0.99], a pirate-themed puzzle game, attempts to recreate a portion of the classic Lemmings formula while infusing it with even more strategy and precision than its spiritual predecessor. While BridgeTheGap certainly brings some good ideas to the mix through its bridge building mechanics, atrocious controls and poor execution prevent it from being little more than a subpar puzzler.

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TouchArcade Rating:

Our ratings for games we reviewed in August are now in place, and we now present to you the ones that are on the top of the heap. Each game reviewed receives a 1-5 star rating relative to the other games from that month. Generally, a 3 or higher is considered a "good" rating.

Our final scores are not the product of any traditionally objective measures such as graphics or sound, but simply reflect the games we would most recommend to others. (more...)

This week’s TouchArcade Show is the longest we’ve ever produced. Coincidentally, it has the most Frogger discussion we’ve ever had, too. As bad as it sounds on the surface, don’t let the latter stop you from lending us your earholes this week. We get into a lot of interesting discussion. At the top -- beyond the Frogger junk -- we chat about the bevy of fabulous releases that came down this week. Following the break, we talk up even more new releases until finally moving onto topics such as censorship and awards shows.

This is probably our most off-beat shows, but it's also one of our more fun ones. To give us a listen, just download the file directly or stream it via the links below. If you’d like to subscribe to our audio awesomeness, feel free to do so via the iTunes or the Zune Marketplace.

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There's oodles of sales this weekend, and we've cherry picked some of the noteworthy ones, but there's tons more out there. I figure this is as good of a time as any to post a little guide on how to find good deals on the App Store.

First off, you could stop by our Price Drops, Must-Have Freebies, and Deals Forum where we've got an army of dudes combing the App Store to find cool games on the cheap (or free). If you want to get a little more proactive, you can go scoping for deals yourself. How we do this when we post about sales is by utilizing our sister site, AppShopper.

Here are some handy links:

• All games with price drops.
• Popular games with price drops.
• All previously paid games that have been made free.
• Popular games that were previously paid that are now free

Watching the previous two freebie links can yield some particularly great results, as you can often find games that go free before whatever freebie promotions those particular games might be doing even technically start. Similarly, I've heard tales of some people being able to snag great games that were accidentally marked to free.

As far as the differences between "all" games and "popular" games, that all has to do with a top secret algorithm that attempts to determine what kind of games people are interested in. Personally, I tend to lean towards just wading through all games as sometimes you find some really crazy stuff in there.

Alternatively, you could just download the AppShopper App [Free] which also is pretty great for finding deals.

In the interest of keeping our Labor Day sales coverage coherent, we’ve split it into as many studio-centric categories as possible. With any bargain big, though, you’re going to come up with titles that don’t quite sync up to each other. That’s what this post is all about -- it’s the catch-all for the various independent studios out there with a notable game on sale. As you’ll see, some of these might not be celebrating Labor Day specifically, so it’s in your own interests to move double time and gobble these up.

In no specific order outside of alphabetical, here’s another list of hot deals:

• Destructopus: Total Rampage - $.99 → Free
• Geared - $.99 → Free
• Geared 2 - $.99 → Free [Universal]
• Geared for iPad - $2.99 → Free
• iDaTank - $1.99 → Free [Universal]
• Reckless Getaway - $2.99 → $.99 [Universal]
• TITUS - politics is not a game - $1.99 → $.99 [Universal]
• The Secret of Chateau de Moreau - $4.99 → $.99
• Polar Coaster - $.99 → Free
• Papercut - $.99 → Free
• Zombie Highway - $.99 → Free [Universal]

A notable mention here goes to Big Fish Games, which is having a ridiculously HUGE sale. All of its catalogue is being offered up at $.99. We’re talking well over 40 games for pennies on the dollar, so feel free to browse that listing here.

Undoubtedly, there are more sales out there, so we highly advise you bargain hunters of the world to check out our deals forum. Otherwise, go grab the entire Geared franchise for the generous price of $0. These are amazing games that you shouldn’t miss.