Way back in February we brought you the news that Paradox Interactive, a highly regarded developer of PC and console titles, was getting ready to dip its toes into the world of iOS gaming with their upcoming tower defense game Defenders of Ardania. While the tower defense genre is a well-treaded path on the App Store already, that hasn't stopped titles that used innovative ideas from standing out from the pack. For example, this year's Anomaly Warzone Earth [$1.99/UHD] flipped tower defense on its ear by having you play the attackers trying to take out the defense towers, rather than the other way around.

Defenders of Ardania will utilize this "tower offense" style somewhat too, while actually still remaining a traditional-style tower defense game at its core. You'll place various types of towers around each map strategically in an effort to stop the oncoming stream of attackers, however you will also be able to send out your own stream of offensive troops to battle against the enemy head on in the field. In addition to these two attack types, there will be some pretty intense looking magic spells to cast upon your enemy as well.

The tricky part of all this is that your towers, magic spells, and offensive troops will all be powered from the same pool of mana. So, you'll need to figure out how best to utilize each one while not completely depleting your mana resources. It all sounds quite interesting, and a nice departure from most other tower defense games. Defenders of Ardania is slated for a December 6th release on multiple platforms including the iPad. We'll certainly be giving it a look when it hits the App Store early next month.

I'm not sure how it is that Kairosoft does it, but they've managed to nail a gameplay formula that's so engrossing that seemingly everyone is more than willing to overlook the fact that all of their games are mediocre ports of feature phone games. I, for one, don't care at all, and have spent an embarrassing amount of time building game studios, racing teams, shopping malls, schools, and all the other things the guys from Kairosoft have put me in charge of.

For a limited time, Grand Prix Story [99¢] and Mega Mall Story [$1.99] are on sale. As you probably guessed by the title, in Mega Mall Story you manage a shopping mall. We explain how it all works in details in our review. Similarly, our review of Grand Prix Story goes over all the ins and outs of your racing career.

My favorite Kairosoft game is still Game Dev Story [$3.99] and I really recommend diving into that first if you've yet to play a Kairosoft title as its premise is likely the most familiar to readers of TouchArcade. Regardless, all the games are tons of fun (although some are more confusing than others) and you really can't go wrong with any of them.

Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 (and the upcoming Windows Phone 8 ) have always been incredibly interesting platforms to watch for those of us into smartphone gaming. Just like Web OS, I really don't see Microsoft building up enough steam to become a serious competitor to either iOS or Android. However, also like Web OS, Windows Phone 7 and 8 are home to a whole host of cool features that I (likely somewhat foolishly) have my fingers crossed in hopes that they eventually dribble down into iOS somehow. Specifically, the way Windows Phone 7 integrates Facebook is really slick, and I promise if you spend some time with one of the devices you'll find yourself saying, "Huh, that's neat" several times. Adding Nokia hardware to the mix only makes things more interesting, although, again, we'll have to wait and see how the market reacts.

Sadly, one potential nail in Windows Phone 7's gaming coffin is the complete lack of Unity support. In a recent interview with Develop, Unity CEO David Helgason explained that Unity won't be making its way to Windows Phone 7 due to the closed nature of the platform, although support for Windows Phone 8 is being looked at. Windows Phone apps and games need to be either be based on XNA or Silverlight, and getting Unity on the devices would require an exemption to this rule, which Microsoft has decided against.

Just like Web OS, Windows Phone has seemed to be a promising candidate in turning this two horse smartphone OS race into a three horse one, but I'm not sure that's possible without Unity, as the engine has become a major player in mobile gaming. When you look at the best games of the Android marketplaces, they're almost all utilizing Unity. Take those away, and, well, you've got the Windows Phone Market.

I could get up on my soap box here and go on about how competition breeds innovation and all that jazz, but I think we're all well aware of that. In today's market, third party apps are vital to the success of any mobile OS, and it's sad to see Microsoft taking this approach with Unity. Windows Phone owning gamers are losing out, as are developers that have existing Unity projects that could be quickly and easily ported to the platform- Especially since quick and easy porting is among the greatest strengths of Unity.

[Develop via Pocket Gamer]

Surely you've heard of Words With Friends by now, haven't you? I figure, if my mom plays it, that's a pretty good benchmark for the entire world knowing about a video game. Well, if you haven't, here's the gist- Words With Friends is basically the game of Scrabble with a social cross-platform twist. Utilizing the magic of asynchronous multiplayer and push alerts, you can play games of Scrabble with friends across the world. Cooler yet, it doesn't matter if your friends have Android phones or are even playing the Facebook version of the game… It just works.

It's casual and simple enough that you could play with your grandma, while being classic enough that it's fun for even the most hardcore types who enjoy playing word games with their friends and family. Seriously, I can't say enough good things about Words With Friends.

I can say one bad thing though, in that the advertisements that power the free version can get a little obnoxious at times, especially if you have a hatred for interstitial ads… Which is exactly where today's sale comes in. For a limited time, you can get the ad-free version of Words With Friends for 99¢. I can almost promise you'll get more than 99¢ worth of entertainment out of this game, but, if you're a cautious App Store customer you can always try the free version first. All of your games will transfer over if and when you decide to spring for the paid version.

I sat down with Blueprint 3D [$0.99 / HD] last night, planning to get a feel for it. When I got back up, I'd 3-starred every level and earned every achievement. It isn't terribly hard, and it's short enough to be completed in under an hour, but I'm not complaining. Rarely do you find a game that's so simply entertaining.

When you launch a level in Blueprint 3D, you're presented with an explosion of scribbles. With single finger swipes you rotate those scribbles until they start to line up into a recognizable image. Tweak and reposition it until it's right, rotate it with two fingers, and you're done. This only takes a few seconds once you get the hang of it.

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You know how around Halloween you bought five bags of Fun Size Snickers to give out to trick or treaters, but somehow only three bags made it into the candy bowl and now you’re feeling really bloated and gross and you really need to look good for upcoming holiday parties so you’re eating grilled salmon three times a day and that would be fine, except all you can think about is how you really want to eat a bunch of donuts and cake and candy? Yeah, uh, me neither. However, it’s obvious that the people at Com2uS were in throes of weight loss-related fantasy when creating their latest game, Chocohero [$.99].

Before we get too far, we need to establish whether or not you should play this game. Are you diabetic? Has your dentist recommended you stay away from sweet, delicious candy? If so, you shouldn’t have a problem, because this is a video game and not real life, duh. You play as Chipster, the Chocohero the game is named for, who must save his Chocobit friends from an impending milk flood in the land of Smoresdom. These Chocobits (which look a little like bunnies, except better because they are candy) are trapped on delicious pastry ledges made of things called Cakems, which you must destroy or work around in order to rescue your friends before the floods come.

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This past April, Owlchemy Labs was set to release Smuggle Truck to the App Store, a game about transporting illegal immigrants across the border in a rusty old pickup truck. Due to Apple's sensitivity to the subject matter, however, what we ended up seeing released was Snuggle Truck [Free/HD], a game about transporting fuzzy stuffed animals across the border into the zoo. While initially being disappointed in the sudden theme switch, I actually found the colorful characters and complete silliness of the premise to be a bigger success than the originally intended idea. And as we noted in our review, Snuggle Truck was so damn fun anyway that the theme really didn't matter much at all.

Now for the first time, the developers of Snuggle Truck are offering both the iPhone/iPod touch and iPad versions of their game for free. While the decision to go free was to get more players trying the game and building their own levels using the excellent built-in level editor that was released in August, Owlchemy Labs does hope to be monetizing this freebie promotion by offering a selection of items in the new in-game DLC store.

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OrangePixel have a few iOS platform games under their belt. Back in June, we reviewed Meganoid [$1.99] calling it a quality retro platformer with responsive controls. In September, our review of Stardash [$1.99] highlighted the challenging difficulty levels and Game Boy style presentation. Plus they've released Super Drill Panic [$1.99] and Time Chaos [99¢]. Now, OrangePixel has released their latest action platform game, named simply: INC [$1.99], which is probably my favorite of their releases.

INC uses a comic-inspired silhouette art style which immediately captured my interest. Your character is a square with legs and blinking little eyes who runs, jumps and shoots his way through levels that are intentionally pixelated with rough edges. The graphics are 8-bit and chunky, with backgrounds reminiscent of Canabalt [$2.99]. And there's a chip-tune soundtrack, which is always popular in any retro platform game.

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Needing no introduction, Asteroids is one of those classic arcade games that everyone has played in some form or fashion. Atari looks to capitalize on that namesake with Asteroids GUNNER [Free], a modern upgrade to the Asteroids series which converts the game to a dual stick shooter complete with upgrades, unlockables, and IAP. While Asteroids GUNNER offers an adequate gameplay experience, the significant IAP barriers raises some questions as to whether the game is worth a significant play through.

Gameplay-wise, Asteroids GUNNER plays similarly to Space Miner with dual-stick controls instead of thrust-based movement.  Interestingly enough, Space Miner plays closer to classic Asteroids than Asteroids Gunner does. Everything from the controls to the plethora of asteroids to even the ability to customize your ships should feel familiar to any veterans of this genre. In fact, Asteroids’ main problem is that it all seems a bit too familiar – the game does very little to differentiate itself from the pack in any aspects. However, as far as the basic gameplay goes, Asteroids GUNNER does hit all the notes, and doesn’t do anything to detract from the generic dual stick shooter experience.

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On this week's episode of The TouchArcade Show, we pummel through conversations about GenCon, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and the McRib in order to bring you the skinny on the latest and hottest iOS games. At the top, we finish up our continuing conversation about Uppercut Games's Epoch and then dig into FDG Entertainment's Blueprint 3D, Kairosoft's Oh! Edo Town, and a few other delights. In the second half, we dig exclusively into your listener e-mails.

We had a blast recording this episode and hope that you'll have just as much fun putting it in your earholes. If you'd like, you can listen just below via these links OR you could subscribe to us on iTunes and Zunes. Doing that latter is a pretty awesome deal since you get all our podcasts and content the second they hit the Internet.

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In honor of the release of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim today, tons of iOS developers have dropped the price of their games. I suppose this sale could also be for Veteran's Day, but that seems to be just as weird of a reason to slash prices of iOS games as the release of Skyrim. So, since everyone else has abandoned me for Skyrim, I'm just going to assume that these sales are some kind of consolation prize to give me something else to do today other than be forever alone.

Out of all the things on sale, this is the ten bucks I'd spend:

Cowboy Guns HD, $0.99 - [Review] - Sure, there's a billion dual stick shooters on the App Store, but I've got to tip my hat at any that have an actual story-driven single-player campaign to play through instead of just throwing you into a pit full of monsters to see how long you can survive.

Flapcraft, $0.99 - This game was a little hard to recommend when it first came out because of how short and linear it was for a "see how far you can fly" kind of game. But, for a buck, it's totally worth picking up just to see how incredibly detailed the graphics are on the Retina Display.

Grand Prix Story, $3.99 - [Review] - My latest Kairosoft obsession. Take the gameplay of Game Dev Story and apply it to racing. It works really well, and unlike other Kairosoft games features gameplay which seems fairly clear-cut and sensible. Upgrade cars, do better in races, trick out your garage, etc.

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, $2.99 - [Review] - We didn't think a whole lot of this game when it was originally released, it was expensive, buggy, and felt awkward as an iOS game. Well, a price drop and a few updates fixed the first two problems, but I'm not sure what can be done about the third.

Peggle, $2.99 - [Review] - Is there a person on this planet who owns an iPhone and doesn't have Peggle on it? I certainly hope not, but if you fall into that group I'd seriously fix that as soon as possible. Peggle is amazing.

Scribblenauts Remix, $0.99 - [Review] - The Scribblenauts games for the Nintendo DS were incredible, so naturally, when you take those two and cram 'em together into one iOS game that's also universal and supports iCloud syncing? …Yeah, you need to get this game.

SHADOWGUN, $4.99 - [Review] - Like Madfingers' other games, Shadowgun is very heavy on the eye candy and a little light on gameplay. Regardless, if you've got a recent iOS device, for a buck you should totally check out the graphics Shadowgun can make it pump out.

Super Crossfireâ„¢ HD, $2.99 - [Review] - This is what happens when you take the classic game of Space Invaders and crank it up to 11 with bright colors, particle effects, and a really cool warping mechanic that puts a new twist on the whole thing.

World of Goo, $2.99 - [Review] - I wouldn't really say the small screen of the iPhone is the ideal way to play World of Goo, but this game is so good that you should try it anyway. Although, if at all possible, check out the HD version on the iPad.

WORMS, $2.99 - [Review] - Even though I still don't think the port is the best, it's still really rad to be able to play Worms on your phone. A recent update added Bluetooth multiplayer, so if you've got local iOS gamer friends, this is a solid purchase.

Also, just like most holidays, there's tons of other games on sale (and quite a few even free) for the release of Skyrim. I've written up a handy-dandy guide for finding everything that's on sale or free. Alternatively, you can check out our price drops and freebie forum to see what forum members have found.

Happy Skyrim release day everyone!

As great as iOS 5 is, it sure seems to love sucking up battery, particularly on the iPhone 4S. I was getting substantially less battery life than I was on my old iPhone 4 running iOS 4.x, as were many others. A few tweaks made their rounds that were supposed to help with the battery issues, namely turning off some geo-location features and Siri options, but (at least for me) neither of these things resulted in very much.

Thankfully, Apple responded fairly quickly with iOS 5.0.1, which among other things is said to address the battery usage issues of iOS 5. I haven't been running it long enough to say for sure just how much better battery life is, but I'm not noticing my phone's battery taking a dive as soon as I take it off the charger anymore, so that's something.

Anyway, iOS 5.0.1 is available both as a full download through iTunes or by a ~50MB over the air update on your iOS device. Go to Settings, then General, then Software update and you'll be rocking out iOS 5.0.1 inside of about ten minutes or so.

Flick Home Run [99¢] from Infinity Pocket has been camped out as the #2 paid application on the American App Store for a few days and hit #1 for top grossing iPhone apps, yet it's barely been mentioned in our forums, which is rather unusual for a top-ranking game. We decided to investigate why this baseball game's so popular. That was a few days ago ...and I'm still playing it.

Rather than displaying a batter, bowler, bases and fielders, like a regular baseball game, Flick Home Run focuses entirely on smacking home runs, as the name suggests. There's no awkward floating virtual bat displayed either, because your finger acts as the bat and your swipe is the swing. When you place your finger on the pitch button, a ball is bowled by an unseen pitcher from the right side of the screen. You flick your finger at the ball, timing it right to smack it as far as possible.

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It's probably fair to say most episodic series experience big-time drop-offs in sales after each new release. It's just what happens, regardless of quality. But on the App Store, one big studio, Telltale Games, is actually seeing sales spikes after each release of Hector and "substantially less" drop-off with other series in general. File that away in your "the more you know" drawer.

Producer Dave Felton dropped this nugget in a recent interview with Gamasutra. Fleshing out the why, Felton said Telltale attributes "the device form factor and the App Store environment" as making the difference.

"On iOS devices there's really no way yet to fulfill the 'Season Pass' concept through the App Store, but the encouraging thing is the drop off from episode to episode is substantially less than we have seen on any other platform to date," he said.

We have nothing to add here on our end because Felton is probably right: the App Store is much, much more consumer-friendly and facing than any other platform Telltale releases on, so it's generating more sales. And, yeah, these devices can go anywhere with us. Want to play some Monkey Island on the toilet? You totally can. Do that with an Xbox.

[Via Gamasutra, via Joystiq]

Mobile analytics firm Flurry today reports on the continuing shift in portable gaming from dedicated devices to smartphones and other multipurpose devices. According to results compiled by Flurry from NPD market research and Flurry's own mobile app data, Apple's iOS and Google's Android mobile operating systems will account for 58% of portable gaming revenue in the United States for 2011, an almost exact flip-flop from 2010 when dedicated device leaders Nintendo and Sony held 57% of the market.

The most striking trend is that iOS and Android games have tripled their market share from roughly 20% in 2009 to nearly 60% in just two years. Simultaneously, Nintendo, the once dominant player, has been crushed down to owning about one-third of market in 2011, from having controlled more than two-thirds in 2009. Combined, iOS and Android game revenue delivered $500 million, $800 million and $1.9 billion over 2009, 2010 and 2011, respectively.

Flurry's data for 2011 is based on estimates for the final two months of the year, but suggests that the rapid growth in gaming on smartphone platforms is showing no signs of slowing. The market dynamics of free or low-cost games sometimes supplemented by in-app purchases and played on multi-function devices versus dedicated gaming devices with relatively high-cost game titles are clearly playing out in favor of iOS and Android. The result has been a surging gaming market increasingly attracting casual gamers willing to spend a few dollars to play on their phones, while established players have seen not only their shares but also their revenue declining each year.

Nintendo has been resisting increasing pressure to bring its games to the iPhone and other platforms, sticking by its long-standing tradition of making its games exclusive to its own hardware. Flurry suggests that the rapidly-shifting landscape of portable gaming may soon bring Nintendo face-to-face with a "Nokia-like" decision whether to jump over to smartphone platforms or watch its business erode away.

[Originally Posted on MacRumors]