In this week's bonus episode of The TouchArcade show, we hook up with Limbic Software to talk about independent video games, Zombie Gunship and where it's headed, and to also discuss how Limbic's approach to development inform the decisions and games it makes today. I think we all had a blast putting this podcast together and you'll probably learn a thing or two about how Limbic rolls and who they are as designers and programmers. It's good stuff overall.

If you'd like to listen to us, the links below this text should do the trick. If you'd like to avoid the hassle of clicking and then popping our latest episodes onto your music machine of choice, feel free to subscribe to us on iTunes or Zune Marketplace. It's free!

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Vector Unit has already made a name for itself with water-based racing games -- especially when you consider the developers release last year of the stupid-entertaining Hydro Thunder Hurricane for XBLA. Now, they've ported the initially Android only Riptide GP [$4.99] to iOS and the arcade action racer is boasting some of, if not the best water physics on the platform, but the game itself might not totally live up to the impressive water effects.

That said, those impressive water physics come at a cost -- namely that they're only really impressive on the new devices. The game plays significantly different on a 4S than on, say, an original iPad, because the waves move and change in real time on newer devices, but are flat on older ones. It's not just a visual thing -- you'll feel like you're playing a different game.

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To say Trilobyte is a company with a ton of history behind it would be a massive understatement. Founded in 1990, they're best known for The 7th Guest which recently (Well, "recently" in Trilobyte terms) got ported to iOS. When it was first released, Trilobyte was blazing a new trail in interactive media, and the success of The 7th Guest played a substantial role in early adoption of the CD-ROM, believe it or not. Since then, Trilobyte has released a few other titles, including The 11th Hour, the 7th Guest sequel that I'd love to see on the App Store. Currently though, Trilobyte is focused on Diddly, which they're calling "the ultimate game for trivia mavens."

The plan is to load the game with "extremely clever and witty questions," targeting true trivia buffs who "enjoy wrapping their minds around double entendre, sub-text and subtlety." If all goes as planned, you'll be able to play by yourself, as well as both local and online multiplayer. There's even talk of using the iOS 5 AirPlay functionality to have your TV serve as the main display with players buzzing in via their own iOS devices. Diddly will either be free, or a buck, with additional trivia packs available via in-app purchase.

For more information on Diddly, swing by KickStarter where you can find all kinds of swag if you feel like contributing to the project. Since the game is still in the fundraising process, we probably won't see it for a while, but as a trivia fan I'm totally going to be keeping my eye out for Diddly.

Friends of mine know King of Dragon Pass [$5.99] as "that menu-based simulation game Eli will not shut the heck up about." Well, now it's "that menu-based simulation game Eli will not shut the heck up about that's also on sale." For a limited time, King of Dragon Pass has sworn fealty to a new royal price point in honor of the game's 12th birthday: $5.99, down from $9.99. Now, before you go instinctively mashing the download button in iTunes, you should really know what you're getting into with this game. It's definitely not for everyone, as I mention in our review:

I think the easiest way to describe what the game is all about is to call it a largely text-based menu-driven mash up of a Civilization game and a Choose Your Own Adventure book. If you're the kind of person who requires flashy graphics, fast action, rock-bottom pricing, and online multiplayer, stop reading now. This is not the game for you. If, however, you can barely even fathom a more glorious conglomeration than Civilization and Choose Your Own Adventure, prepare to absolutely lose yourself in King of Dragon Pass. …Read More

In addition, development has started on the iPad version of the game, which is glorious news for iPad-owning fans to the game. In fact, my only real issue with KoDP is that I really wanted to play it on the iPad and text-based games with mega-pixelated fonts running in 2x mode just doesn't jive with me. From the sounds of it, the developers are just starting on work for the iPad adaptation, and haven't yet committed to whether it's going to be a universal update or an entirely separate version… But I've got my fingers crossed.

We've been following GameStop's entry into the tablet gaming world for some time now. Rumblings started when GameStop started taking iOS devices on trade-in, which we determined utilizing the latest tinfoil hat and witching stick technology might mean they were going to start selling iOS devices soon. A few days later, news hit that GameStop wouldn't be selling iOS devices, and instead is launching it's own Android gaming tablet. Since then, we've speculated heavily on our podcast regarding what this tablet will be like, if GameStop will have a proprietary storefront for it, and whether or not that storefront will offer some kind of trade-in gimmick.

Per a recent report from PC Mag, GameStop just started a pilot program where they will be selling not one but three Android tablets in 200 locations. The lineup includes the Acer A100 at $329, the Asus Transformer at $399, and the Samsung Galaxy Tab at $499. Naturally, these are coming pre-loaded with GameStop software, and they'll be promoting tablet-optimized games to play on them. Interestingly enough, it doesn't sound like GameStop is going to be pushing touch-based games, as all but the low-end tablet will come packaged with a Bluetooth controller.

We'll have to wait and see how this pilot program does, as it's very interesting seeing GameStop respond to iOS games taking off the way they have as well as online game distributors and streaming services like Steam and OnLive eating so much of their proverbial lunch. I tend to think for this to get anywhere GameStop will need to take a much more unified and powerful approach to the whole thing, far beyond the "Oh hey, here's three Android tablets and two of them come with Bluetooth controllers" thing they're doing now.

[via PC Mag]

When Top Spin was released for the original Xbox, I became an instant fan of tennis games. I would crank up the difficulty to max and give myself bad stats and play the top players, just to make it more challenging. But until recently my iOS device had no tennis games installed, even though there's a few out there.

Flick Tennis: College Wars [99¢ / HD / HD Free] by Rolocule has come to the rescue, providing me with a challenging touch-based tennis game to conveniently carry in my pocket. The iPad version was released in August, but this review is based on the iPhone version, which has just come out. And I'm really enjoying it, because although it starts out pretty easy, the later matches are challenging and can be real nail-biters.

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Old school RPG fans (and I mean old school) should be quite familiar with the Wizardry series. More than 30 years ago, Wizardry helped define the pen-and-paper Dungeons & Dragons experience as an electronic computer game, and went on to spawn many sequels and spinoffs since. The most recent of these is Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls from developer Acquire. The game was a modern homage to the classic Wizardry games, and was released on the PlayStation Network as a downloadable title this past summer.

Now we have learned that Labyrinth of Lost Souls will be making the jump from PSN to the App Store this Thursday, Novermber 3rd. Despite being a fairly newly developed game (the original launched in Japan in late 2009), Labyrinth of Lost Souls is purposely entrenched in the archaic roots of the Wizardry series. Many of the modern aspects that you've come to appreciate from the RPG and dungeon crawling genres aren't present here, which is something that didn't quite resonate with a good chunk of the PlayStation 3 audience. However, I think a quirky, old school-inspired title like Labyrinth of Lost Souls will have a comfortable home on the App Store.

Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls will feature ten characters to choose from, and you'll need to create a party of six to take down into the depths of the two massive dungeons in the game. Leveling up your characters, finding items and weaponry, and dueling with scads of monsters are all on the agenda in Wizardry. The game will be launching for free with the first floor of the "Dungeon of Trials" available to explore and play, and a level cap of five for your party members. If you want to continue on, you can open up the rest of the game for a $9.99 in-app purchase. We'll have more from Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls after it launches later this week.

Every logic puzzle lover should know about nonograms. You might know them as picross puzzles, or griddlers, or maybe just the younger sibling of Sudoku, but you should know them. If you don't, no foul: Fugazo's World Mosaics [$1.99] is a good place to start.

If you're not in the know, here's the quick version: a nonogram puzzle presents you with a grid. Each row and column has numbers listed with it, and those numbers correspond to how many of its cells must be filled in. A row with 5 and 7 listed beside it would need 5 adjoining cells filled in with boxes, then at least one space before 7 more cells are boxed in. The clues intersect so you can puzzle out the solution, and when you're done you'll have formed a pixelated picture.

There are some great nonogram apps on iOS already, though fewer than I'd like. World Mosaics joins these after enjoying a successful career on PC and Mac. It's not perfect, but it scratches the logic puzzle itch nicely.

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Last week we posted details surrounding the then-upcoming bundles of retro Elite Collection and Elite Collection HD for the iPhone and iPad, set to launch this past weekend. As we've learned from Elite Systems, the collections are still upcoming, unfortunately.

Elite Systems' Steve Wilcox explains,

We spend countless hours tracking down the current owners of the classic 8-bit home computer games (and the associated intellectual properties) which we include in our Apps. We come across some fascinating people and stories whilst doing so.

Earlier this week, an organisation - from whom we’d previously received a written “clearance” - claimed an interest in a trademark in one of the twenty five games in the Apps. This interest does not appear on the public records.

Since one of our declared goals for the “Elite Collection” Apps is, “to restore some order to the market for 8-bit home computer games” we needed some time to check the claim. At the time of writing, that claim is still being reviewed and we felt it would be inappropriate to release the Apps until it had been dealt with.

Wilcox, at the same time, took the opportunity to share some rather good news concerning his studio's forthcoming 8-bit offerings. He indicates that the delay should provide the opportunity to include some additional "AAA" titles to the mix when, or shortly after, they are released. The coming titles he speaks of are likely to include an excellent collection of games from Interplay Productions: the classic fantasy RPG The Bard's Tale (I, II & III), the post-apocalyptic RPG Wasteland, as well as Dragon Wars and Neuromancer.

Elite expects the delay of the Elite Collection and Elite Collection HD to be brief -- perhaps a couple of weeks. For details on the (at least) 12 titles launching in the collections, have a look at our post from last week.

With the proliferation of camera-equipped smartphones that also double as mobile gaming systems in the last few years, the amount of augmented reality apps and games has surged. While there are a ton of ingenious non-gaming ways to use AR on your smartphone, the vast majority of the games that used the technology boiled down to slapping some graphical assets onto your device's camera view and calling it a game, with little regard for how the augmented reality portion actually affected or enhanced the gameplay.

One title that bucked that trend and changed how I feel about most AR games was last year's ARDefender [99¢] from French developer Int 13. ARDefender had you printing out a special diagram from the ARDefender website (or as we've come to find, just displaying the diagram on a separate device or computer screen) which would then be read by the game using the camera on your iPhone or iPod touch. The game would create a tower on top of this diagram, making it appear that it was actually there in the space where your camera was pointed. Then enemies would come after this tower in waves, and you'd use an assortment of weaponry affixed to the top of your tower to fend them off.

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First there was Modern Combat: Sandstorm [$4.99 / HD] which we described as one of the most impressive gaming experiences on the App Store at that time.  Next came MC2: Black Pegasus [$6.99 / HD /  Free], which we called " A new standard in online multiplayer". Now, Gameloft has released their much anticipated third installment, MC3: Fallen Nation [$6.99], which although not revolutionary, is easily one of the best first-person shooters available for iOS devices.

This release is named "Fallen Nation" because America is under attack. The enemies are KPR (Korea, Pakistan and Russia), who have declared war on America and invaded US cities, reportedly destroying Chicago. Anyone familiar with the earlier games will find more of the same non-stop action in this military shooter, but Gameloft have extended their previous efforts to ensure this latest release is the best in the series.

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This week on The TouchArcade Show, we fight through conversations about Soft Paws, Modern Warfare 3, leather couches and Battlefield 3 in order to bring you the hottest front page and reviews action of the week. For example, we dig into Shantae: Risky's Revenge and get into lengthier discussions on subjects such as battery life across new mobile gaming devices, the impact of sales on revenue, and game saves. Overall, I really dug this week and we all hope you do, too.

If you'd like to give us a try, feel free via the streaming and download links below. If you want plugged in to The TouchArcade Show and receive our episodes the second they hit, just go ahead and subscribe to us on iTunes and Zune. While you're there, we'd really like for you to drop your positive feedback in the reviews section. We need your help!

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When it was initially released for DSiWare last year, Shantae: Risky's Revenge [Free / $2.99 IAP], was an underappreciated gem on a service that most people didn't bother using. Now, thankfully, the game might find a little more grounding with the wider release on iOS, but as we've seen time and time again, platformers are a difficult sale on touchscreens, and Shantae, despite its pedigree, will have to keep up.

The game is a sequel to the Shantae, which was released for the Gameboy Color well into the rein of the Gameboy Advance. It follows the story of the belly-dancing, hair-whipping Shantae, as she seeks out her arch nemesis, Risky Boots, in order to get a magical lamp.

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Com2uS is certainly in the seasonal spirit. The publisher has added Halloween trimmings to a ton of its current line-up of titles, including Homerun Battle 3D [$.99 / HD], Tiny Farm [Free], World of Magic [Free], and even Piggy Adventure [$.99 / HD]. Starting now, you can deck out your farms with zombie horses and jack-o-lanterns, blow baseballs out of the yard while wearing a pumpkin on your head, use Warp Gates and pumpkins as pet in World of Magic, and enjoy 12 Halloween-themed levels and new musical tracks across Piggy Adventure.

In other related Halloween-ynews, Homerun Battle 3D is now just $.99, three dollars less than its standard, non-celebratory price. Piggy Adventure also sees a cut due to this event: it's now $.99 instead of its usual $2.99.

Now, I ask you to enjoy the funniest series of pictures from a video game ever. You can catch images of the other games mentioned in this post at Com2uS's blog.

We're greedy folks over here. When Grand Theft Auto 3 was announced for the iPhone 4S and the iPad 2, we immediately started thinking about also playing Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and its successor San Andreas on our new-fangled devices. Digital Trends must have jacked into our hive mind because it apparently quizzed Rockstar about the possibility of seeing these two games come to iOS, too. The good news is that it's "very possible," according to Rockstar but it would also present a "technical challenge."

Obviously, we're not inside of Rockstar, so it's impossible to talk specifically about what might hold-up the process. Heck, we don't even know why exactly GTA3 is being restricted to hardcore tablets and phones at first, either, but it's probably safe to assume that a variety of factors, including sales of GTA3 and what shape the original code for Vice City and San Andreas are in, will be two bridges to cross when decision time comes.

Grand Theft Auto 3 for iOS was announced a few weeks ago. It should hit in 2011, but no specific release details outside of the year have been dished out so far.

[Via Digital Trends]