My feelings on Kairosoft's new simulation, Venture Towns [$3.99 / Lite], are mixed, leaning on negative. My recommendation is rather weak: I'd say buy it... but only if you dug Oh! Edo Towns [$3.99 / Lite] a lot.

Venture Towns, for the most part, is a carbon copy of Oh! Edo Towns set in the modern day. You'll build houses and then people will buy them; you'll build buildings and then people will work in them; you'll buy cafes, and arcades, and pastures, and parks, and then people will spend money in them. A grid-based placing system keeps everything as neat and tidy as can be, and a UI choked with options and graphs and additional mechanics will be where you spend the most of your time.

Buildings, in order to be efficient enough to profit, need to be paired with other very specific buildings. People, in order to fair well in the workplace, need to earn bonus statistics given nebulously from these buildings. Special items, on the other hand, can increase the parameters of buildings, shops, and commerce.

All these systems feed into the overall research and build structure; buildings dish out research points at unpredictable intervals, and this gives you the power to research new buildings. Money gathered then goes into building the stuff you just researched.

This is all pretty simple in theory, but there's a huge, catastrophic catch: the only way to execute well and learn what works is to continually fail, and to fail so badly that you need to start new games over and over again. This is a code-red, oh-my-god-I-hate-this-game kind of stuff -- and nothing really saves it.

I've had to dump around five hours into deficit drowning towns in order to even figure out how to position houses and stores together efficiently. Worse, it has taken over four restarts to get a handle on the combination system -- what buildings go together to create the most profit -- and how to acceptably micro-manage my citizens and buildings with boosts. Venture Towns never gives you the tools to be successful. It fails to give you any kind of blueprint for success, and there's obviously one it wants you to use, or else it wouldn't punish you so much.

This is a problem that feeds into everything else just about as well as its structure feeds into the research and build model. Kairosoft's typically sluggish pacing feels even slower as you flounder, the hot-and-cold translation effort gets even more grating as you're forced to read bad tutorial bubbles, and the dumbphone-geared interface gets even more in the way as you knowingly suck at the game for hours on end.

Venture Towns uncharacteristic ruthlessness makes what's usually forgivable with Kairosoft's formula unforgivable. It makes me feel like the whole thing has been played out; that sly hesitancy to give me all the important information up-front comes off as underhanded, the cutesy visuals feels like a mask, the resemblance to other Kairosoft games conceptually and mechanically is grosser, and the mechanics are bulky and the systems brutal. Its just all so muddled. Confidence and fun come at a costly premium of tons of your time and patience.

For what it's worth, there is a decent-enough game buried in this mess. After wrapping my head around all of the unmentioned mechanics and systems and uncovering most of the title's great mysteries -- such as how to advance as beyond as a town, how to unlock cars as vehicles, and how to grid buildings -- the actual game part, the weighing and measuring of what to build and when, became magically entertaining.

It just sucks that Venture Towns sucks until you invest massive, massive amounts of time into failing and discovering what the game is actually offering. As a whole, it doesn't feel like a fully fleshed out title -- there's too much hanging in the breeze.

Oh! Edo Towns has a similar kind of approach, so I think that game's fanatics might find something they might like in Venture Towns. I gotta say though, the modern backdrop doesn't do this game any favors; it's bland, SimCity type of stuff with Kairosoft's characteristic wrapper.

TouchArcade Rating:

So, that pilot iPhone, iPod, and iPad trade-in program at GameStop? Apparently, it isn't doing so shabby. In a thrilling press release, company president Tony Bartel said that the "velocity" of the program has exceeded expectations. Furthermore, GameStop has an expectation that it will see even more traffic after the holidays calm down since a lot of folks have received fresher and better devices.

The program kicked off in select stores earlier in 2011. Customers are receiving "up to" $180 for a iPod touch, $300 for iPhones, and $400 for iPads in GameStop store credit or cash.

In a conversation with Joystiq, GameStop didn't throw down any specific numbers, so it's hard to tell just how many iOS devices the program has roped in. But it isn't like this is a mom-and-pop shop; you gotta figure whatever the number is, it's a lot.

With it being extremely doubtful that Apple will ever roll out any kind of official game controller for use with iPhone and iPad, it's up to third-party creators and wizards to fill in the gap. 60beat is the latest we've seen to throw a hat into the ring, and its product, the GamePad, seems like a cool accessory.

In a nutshell, the $50 GamePad is a slick-looking, PlayStation-style kind of controller that connects, unlike many third-party controllers, to the headphone jack. No bluetooth black magic -- just seemingly straight-up plug-and-play connectivity.

It features of total of ten buttons, two joysticks, a d-pad, and ships with an audio splitter and a luxuriously long four foot cable. We haven't had any hands-on with one quite yet -- it's in the mail -- but creator 60beat has uploaded a video of the thing in action. Take a look:

Looks cool, right? The biggest hurdle for the GamePad -- other than being a good and meaningful product, of course -- will be grabbing the attention of the iOS development community. It apparently requires some game-side tweaks to work properly, so 60beat and its friends will have to collaborate. As of this moment, only two games support the device: Bugdom 2 [$2.99] and Aftermath [$1.99].

The official web site for the device says we'll hear a lot more about games support in February 2012. Expect more from us on the device in the future, too.

Simogo's Bumpy Road [$2.99] is radical because it totally embraces the touch screen. On top of being a simple and gorgeous game, the play is stupendously clever. Touch the physics-enabled bit of road and it lifts, taking the playful car with it.

This purity of design might become something of a hallmark for the Swedish company. I've just spent some time with its upcoming title, Beat Sneak Bandit. It's as artful and as delightfully cutesy as Bumpy Road, and it boasts another kind of one-touch control that feels just as satisfying. Color me impressed.

Beat Sneak is a little abstract conceptually. I've started to think about it like this: it is what would happen if Kojima decided to marry 2D Metal Gear Solid to Grove Coaster [$.99], and knock out all of the former series' fat in the process.

In Beat Sneak, you control a bandit (duh) on a 2D plane in tightly constructed, object--filled vertical levels. Your goal is pretty basic: steal a huge clock without security systems or people detecting your presence.

What makes this interesting is the injection of puzzle mechanics and the game's unusual control method. You move lockstep, but only if you tap correctly to the level's beat. If you played Groove Coaster, imagine a scenario in which you were only able to access the next note if you correctly hit the previous one. This is how you move in the world.

Moving is simple, but devilish in practice: in addition to having to keep the beat, you'll need to avoid pitfalls -- sliding doors, strobing searchlights and other kinds of bandit-catching obstacles. In the game's first chapter, a lot of the mainline puzzle solutions can be boiled down to knowing when to wait for an opportunity to open. This is roughly the equivalent of resuming a Rock Band song midway through, so it ain't easy.

Another thing: there are other, smaller clocks in levels. If you're into optionals, you can grab these, too, but they require serious thought. You'll need to observe movement patterns at every turn, evaluate the best way to turn Beat Sneak the Character around, and then get him back to the main prize -- all without being caught.

In my demo session, I played through the entirety of the first chapter in the game and that took around 30 minutes. I failed a lot because I'm no music game master, but I also failed because the optional clocks are flat-out hard to obtain. I also noticed while I was doing all this failing, by the way, that there is a baby mode "skip" option that'll whisk you away into the next level with no penalty. Not even a tutu.

I think the biggest challenge facing Simogo is keeping players feeling the groove and in the moment as they ponder and then experiment with the environment. Music games are odd beasts in general, as the experience tends to snowball into an icky mess if you fumble the timing of a song.

Speaking of that, Beat Sneak's quirky music is fantastic. I also dig how the entire game seems to revolve around the beats and the general offbeat tone. In the trailer, you'll see how the bubbly world bobs and weaves with the music.

I'm overwhelmed by this idea. Conceptually, Beat Sneak is cool, and the execution on the remarkably pure concept seems to be panning out extremely well. We'll get our hands on a final version a little later this quarter when the game hits iOS.

Two favorite franchises of the TouchArcade forums, Dungeon Hunter and Zenonia both had sequels drop during the Christmas flurry of releases. Both the good news and the bad news is that these games are totally free to play. Depending on which side of the free to play fence you're sitting on, this is either great news or horrible news. I'm not sure there's any wiggle room in between, if arguments on our forums and in iTunes reviews are any indication. In my opinion, regardless of how you feel about the whole free to play thing, both Dungeon Hunter and Zenonia come from a pedigree of games that are worth giving the benefit of the doubt to. They're free to try, and who knows, you might not find their respective free to play mechanics that offensive… So I say, no harm in giving them a spin.

Dungeon Hunter hit in mid-2009 when we were still totally willing to overlook Gameloft being, well, Gameloft with their highly "inspired" games and were just beyond happy to get a great 3D dungeon crawler on the App Store. Dungeon Hunter 2 hit over a year later and improved upon the original in every way imaginable, most notably, adding online co-operative play.

Dungeon Hunter 3 [Free] departs from the traditional Dungeon Hunter formula in that it abandons all semblance of a story in exchange for a hoard mode which has become a surprisingly popular secondary game mode for all sorts of console games. Choose a class, kill everything as fast as you can, repeat. Like many "premium" games that make the "freemium" leap, progression feels artificially limited and grindy, unless you feel like opening your wallet. Still, if all you're looking for is to bash some monsters faces in, Dungeon Hunter 3 will do the trick.

Similarly, Zenonia hit the App Store in early 2009, and even though the Korean RPG formula leans heavily on grinding, there wasn't anything else available that came close to the gameplay offered. Iterative improvements were made both over Zenonia 2 and Zenonia 3 with new art, sound, classes, monsters, and more added with each jump in the series.

The recently released Zenonia 4 [Free] follows this trend, with a free to play mechanic sandwiched in. The controls feel just as clunky as every other Zenonia game, but just like previous installments, don't take long to get used to. Zenonia 4 is the best looking Zenonia title as well, as it comes packed with full Retina Display graphics. Progression doesn't feel any slower than other titles (which were never very fast) and the free to play mechanic hinges on a constant pressure to buy ZEN points which can be used to improve your character in basically every way you can imagine.

I just wish both of these games were available as a single purchase game, tuned to provide a fun gameplay experience from beginning to end instead of goading me to open my wallet or play for eternity. This seems to be the case for most of these "premium" games that make the free to play jump, so it's not like the shift in gameplay should be news to anyone. Regardless, they are free to try, and we still likely won't see any new games until next week...

LostWinds [$3.99] from Frontier was originally released for the Wii in 2008 and we've been waiting for the iOS port since it was reported in July.  It's a beautiful adventure platforming game with puzzle elements, which rates highly in almost every way.

The story opens with little Toku asleep on the grass, but once you swipe him awake, there's a lovely layered platform world to explore, with pink trees, waterfalls, caves, villages and other characters to discover. Just tap the screen to walk in that direction, or hold your finger down for a second to keep moving automatically.

On the first level, you discover Enril the wind spirit and gain the ability to generate gusts of wind with a finger swipe. So if you swipe a plant it sways in the breeze, swiping a tree causes it to shake and rustle, while swiping a waterfall splashes water around. You can also swipe at objects - like large rock balls - to move them, or swipe burning fires to fan or direct the flames. These abilities help your search for the evil Balasar, so you can lift his dark curse.

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TouchArcade Rating:

After getting together to pick our official best games of 2011, we also had our writers take a look back at the last year and compile lists of their personal favorites along with their reasons why.

Here is a moment I’ve been dreading all year: coming up with my own personal top games of 2011. I am horrible about picking my favorites in anything, be it movies, music, food, whatever. I always just want to take the easy way out, and just pick ALL my favorites with no compromise. But that’s not what this list is about. It’s about the top 5 games that rose above the rest, and in the year of stellar releases that was 2011, distilling my favorite games from the year into such a short list has been a task more difficult than I had anticipated.

That said, I present to you the top 5 games that I felt had to be included. My criteria was mostly which games I continued to play the most even after all the previews, reviews, and update posts had been written. In other words, these are the games I began playing to fulfill my job duties, but continued playing for myself.

The caveat, of course, is that there are plenty of games that I really wanted on my list but just flat out didn’t have room for. As such, some of the ones that I was really going back and forth with ended up not being included because they have already been featured in our overall Game of the Year and runners up list or our 2011 Buyers Guide. In fact, almost every game from both of those lists was in my “seriously considering” pile, so be sure to check out both and know that they include a ton of my favorite games from this year too.

At any rate, 2011 was a crazy great year for crazy great games on the App Store. And by the looks of things, 2012 is already shaping up to be even crazier.

Sonic CD, $4.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - I never owned a Sega CD, so my experiences with Sonic CD were limited to brief interactions at friends’ houses and a bit of tooling around with the Sonic Gems Collection on consoles. But I never really got hooked on Sonic CD until it hit iOS. And, almost 20 years later, I can finally see what all the fuss was about. The game is sublime, and caters well to those simply looking to race to the end or to those looking to invest some additional time exploring, earning bonus emeralds, or jumping back and forth through time. The fact that the touch screen controls have never once gotten in the way of me enjoying this game really cements Sonic CD as one of the definitive iOS games of 2011.

Bumpy Road, $2.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Bumpy Road initially caught my attention with its unique ground manipulating mechanic, but the final product managed to tap into my mind on an emotional level. The whimsical music and visuals gave me reason to keep playing as I escorted an adorable couple on a Sunday drive in their motorcar. The fact that you don’t control the main characters directly gives them a chance to shine on their own, but the extremely personal and organic way in which you manipulate the environment with your touch inputs made me feel like an integral part of their journey. Similar sentiments could be said for games like Tiny Wings and Whale Trail, which also hit me at that emotional level. But in the end, it was Bumpy Road that captured my heart the most.

Mos Speedrun, $0.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Stellar iOS platformers were plentiful in 2011, but Mos Speedrun is the one that I obsessed over more than any other. Developers finally figured out that precise virtual controls could be possible on a touch screen, and Mos Speedrun indeed has fantastic controls. Its neo-retro visuals and awesome chiptune soundtrack also tickled my fancy in just the right way. But all of these elements are things that several other platformers did just as well this year, and what set Mos Speedrun apart for me were its incredible level designs. Literally built for speedruns, some of the most fun I’ve had in gaming were the late nights spent playing Mos Speedrun levels over and over again trying to find that one special shortcut that let me shave just a fraction of a second off of a completion time.

Touchgrind BMX, $4.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - The folks at Illusion Labs don’t release games that often, but when they do, they excel at practically every level. Touchgrind BMX is no exception. It brings impressive visuals and unique multitouch controls to the world of BMX, much like the original Touchgrind did for skateboarding. Touchgrind BMX surpasses its predecessor though by offering a great variety of different environments and obstacles to bike on, rather than just a single sandbox-style skatepark. The controls are complex but intuitive, and I’ve spend hours upon hours just trying to sharpen my dexterity to a razor sharp point in order to allow me to pull of some of the insane combos that are possible in the game.

King Cashing: Slots Adventure, $1.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - If you would have told me at the beginning of the year that a slot machine game would be in my top 5 picks for 2011, I would have called you a dirty liar and possibly punched you in the face. I honestly don’t like slot machines much at all in real life, but King Cashing takes just the basic idea of a slot machine and uses it in a fresh way by making it the battle mechanic in an RPG-style setting. With a great character leveling system and tons of interesting weapons and items to collect, King Cashing was the perfect game to pick up for just a spare few minutes or to sink tons of hours into. It made me a fan of slot machines, and proved once again that you can add RPG-style leveling to just about anything and it will be better for it.

You're looking at the very first released screenshot of the upcoming TouchArcade app. We've been working on this with designer Wolfgang Bartelme and the developers from Flexibits for the better part of 2011.

If everything goes as planned, it should be available in early 2012. As part of running TouchArcade over the last few years, we've come up with tons of tricks to take the App Store and distill it down to a manageable amount of great games to check out. The TouchArcade app automates this, and will grant anyone who downloads it instant access to not only every aspect of TouchArcade, but also a listing of hot new games which is constantly updated, 24 hours a day.

It has some other great features as well, but we'll get in to those as we get closer to actually releasing the app. I've been using it over the past few months as it has gotten closer and closer to what it will be like when it's released, and the app is fantastic. Our goal was to make the ultimate companion app for iOS gamers, and what we've got so far has even exceeded even my expectations of what the TouchArcade app should be when I first imagined it.

Stay tuned, 2012 is going to be one hell of a year- And be sure to follow Flexibits on Twitter, as now that the cat is out of the bag they'll likely be posting updates on the progress of the TouchArcade app.

After getting together to pick our official best games of 2011, we also had our writers take a look back at the last year and compile lists of their personal favorites along with their reasons why.

Free to play hit in an even bigger way in 2011, and personally, I wouldn't mind if the bottom fell out of that whole market in 2012. Here's the thing: we all love the idea of a free game, but the constant micro-level cash exchanges that these titles usually require aren't good for gaming as a whole.

We often pay for free-to-play games to skip the game part of the game. This is disastrous, and it's also bad game design. Instead of focusing on creating sharp and satisfying titles with a beginning, middle, and end, these studios are artfully creating games designed to juice the user. Free to play game design all too often hinges on piling on enough tedium and other garbage to get players reaching for their wallets, and the game only "ends" when the player gets tired of playing (and paying).

The premises of some of these games are compelling and the social hooks are often fun, so people are willing to spend a bit of cash to keep the action going or one-up their friends. This core audience, though, probably doesn't know a thing about good games like, say, Sword & Sworcery or The Blocks Cometh.

My personal favorites list this year is a shout-out to the App Store titles that I have spent the most time with and don't have a single free-to-play mechanic. All five are as balanced as any other great game and boast a wealth of content to interact with and to puzzle out. These are satisfying games that show a tremendous amount of creativity in the space. They're helping to move the medium forward and keep it as popular as it is.

Bumpy Road, $2.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Virtual control sticks or on-screen UI is endlessly frustrating to me because of games like Bumpy Road. Simogo, now one of my favorite developers, crafted a game in 2011 that not only was grippingly beautiful and artistic, but also endlessly fun to play without a d-pad. Its bread and butter is the direct interaction with the game's environment, which gives you a level of control that rivals what you could do with a controller if it appeared on consoles. Intuitive, simple, and graceful -- you've got to see this one and experience it.

Rebuild, $2.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Let's get this out of the way, first: Rebuild looks like a flash title, and yeah, it was at one point. But it's also mind-numbingly brilliant as a strategy game. It requires the same kind of skill and crisis management you'd expect in a Civilization and then marries that with the town-building of any other simulation out there. Aside from some of the mechanical novelties, what really makes this a delight is its infinite re-playability and vision. This isn't a game about winning clean; it's about survival at whatever cost.

EPOCH., $2.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Cover mechanics in most cover-based games are usually boring. They're a means to get into the act of what's actually fun: the shooting. One of the cooler aspects of Epoch is that its cover mechanic is entertaining. Jumping, diving, and slamming into barriers is particularly athletic and requires some thoughtfulness. I also dig the writing; instead of force feeding you a story, Epoch invites you to discover it yourself.

Whale Trail, $0.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Whale Trail is kinda tragic because of its sillily weak price, but let's put that aside for a second. For me, this was easily the best flyer of the year, as it combines some brilliant one-touch controls to atmospherically insane visuals. I love the production side of this game from head-to-toe, but the game part is smooth, furious, and easily playable in spurts between whatever you're doing.

Machinarium, $4.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Like Sword & Sworcery, Machinarium is a delightful mash-up of experiential production married to solid point-and-click adventure play. Sure, this leans a lot more on the latter, but it's still delightfully fresh as far as these kinds of games go. It has some awesome puzzles, a beautiful art style, and runs pretty well on iPad 2.

Our game of the year, Sword & Sworcery and our runner-up, Anomaly Warzone Earth, are also two brilliant examples of games that are moving the genre forward while offering everything players could want -- at one price, period.

Here at year's end, we recently posted our Best iOS Games: 2011 Buyer's Guide to give the millions of new iOS users that were created yesterday a place to get started. Among the 5-star best on the list is the (universal) iOS port of Eric Chahi's superb 1991 cinematic platform adventure Another World [App Store] (a.k.a. Out of this World). In our early review of the iOS version posted back in September, we called Another World an absolute App Store must have. Given our fondness for this title, it's with no little interest that we recently discovered and digested Fabien Sanglard's fascinating blog post "'Another World' Code Review."

Within, Sanglard details the results of two weeks spent reading and reverse engineering the source code to Another World. He starts his post off with a brief introduction.

I was amazed to discover an elegant system based on a virtual machine interpreting bytecode in realtime and generating fullscreen vectorial cinematic in order to produce one of the best game of all time.

All this shipping on a 1.44MB floppy disk and running within 600KB of RAM: Not bad for 1991 ! As usual I cleaned up my notes, it may save a few hours to someone.

In explaining the internal structure of the system, Sanglard draws upon original author Eric Chahi's own descriptions of how his virtual machine is structured, to augment his own analysis.

Sanglard's post delves into the extremely technical, but does offer several illuminating videos that demonstrate what is happening as the game executes. It's a look under the hood that helps explain how the title has been ported to so many different platforms over the years, including iOS, with relative ease.

I would encourage any readers intrigued by this analysis to have a look at Eric Chahi's GDC 2011 presentation Classic Game Postmortem: Another World / Out of this World, hosted at the GDC Vault, as well as our own interview with Chahi, conducted just prior to the iOS version's release. It's also worth nothing that Another World isn't Fabien Sanglard's first in-depth code review; he has also gone spelunking within Quake 2, DOOM (both for DOS and iOS), Wolfiphone, and Quake, all of which are linked from his home page. He's also the author of the iPhone shooter Shmup [App Store, forum thread], released last year.

We've mentioned in the past how difficult it was deciding on Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor [99¢] as our game of the year in 2009, along with Space Miner [99¢ / HD] in 2010. It shouldn't come as much as much of a surprise that as the App Store has gained even more momentum, making these picks has become much more challenging. Interestingly enough, this year all of the games that we had in consideration for game of the year were also universal, which made the decision to drop the differentiation between the iPhone game of the year and iPad game of the year that we did in 2010 incredibly easy.

In 2011, we're looking at iOS games as exactly that, games for iOS devices. We might prefer playing some of these games on the iPad (or in some cases, even the smaller screens of the iPhone or iPod touch) but they're all fantastic experiences regardless of what device you're playing it on. With the advent of iCloud, we're hoping in 2012 developers take universal compatibility to new levels, and create games that are not only great on all devices, but can be seamlessly played on as many devices as you own.

Also, if you'd like to get some more insight on the TouchArcade game of the year process, check out the most recent episode of The TouchArcade Show. We discuss what we each liked about all of these games and more.

TouchArcade Game of the Year

Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, $4.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Our minds were blown at GDC 2010 when we first got our hands on Sword & Sworcery. The initial experience of playing the game is so powerful that it gave me chills. I really can't think of any other mobile game that has invoked a similar emotional response that I've played in my entire life. Sworcery is an absolute flawless combination of an entirely original soundtrack by Jim Guthrie, pixel art that is easily among the best I've ever seen by Craig D. Adams, and the creative genius of Kris Piotrowski along with the proverbial behind-the-scenes glue provided by Capybara Games to bring the whole project together.

Sword & Sworcery is universal, and while we ever-so-slightly prefer the overall experience on our iPads, it's still just as incredible on the smaller screens of the rest of the iOS device family. In fact, if all you have is an iPhone or iPod touch, you might want to just opt for Superbrother: Sword & Sworcery EP Micro [$2.99], which is a couple bucks cheaper at the expense of losing universal compatibility. Regardless of what device you play it on, S&S is a game you simply must play, from start to finish, with a great pair of headphones on if at all possible.

TouchArcade Game of the Year Runner Up

Anomaly Warzone Earth, $1.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Tower defense games have always been an App Store staple. It just seems to be a genre that perfectly meshes with both the touch controls of iOS devices, as well as providing an overall gameplay experience that works really well for playing on the go. Unfortunately, it seems there's only so much you can do in a tower defense game, and even though the past few years have brought some great entries into the genre, they all felt sort of the same. Then, from out of nowhere, comes Anomaly Warzone Earth. In essence, 11 bit studios took the traditional tower defense formula, and flipped it around, offering a whole new take on an otherwise stale section of the App Store.

They didn't stop there though, as especially when played with headphones, Anomaly Warzone Earth is ridiculously immersive. Incredible amounts of effort went into creating a game that looks and sounds as good as it plays, and the game feels fresh the whole way through, as 11 bit studios constantly throws new challenges and gameplay elements at you all the way up to the last level. Similar to Sword & Sworcery, Anomaly Warzone Earth [99¢] is also available as a slightly cheaper although non-universal version as well.

Honorable Mentions

We also wanted to honor three other stand-out iOS titles that were among all of our best-of lists for the year. Like our game of the year and runner up, they're all universal and should be on every iOS device that you own if you're even remotely interested in iOS gaming.

Infinity Blade II, $6.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - A great sequel to Infinity Blade [$5.99] by Chair Entertainment, Infinity Blade II expands upon the original in every way possible. It's by far the best looking game on the App Store, and we suspect it will likely serve as the graphical benchmark of what iOS devices are capable of throughout 2012. If you want to stretch the legs of your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch and see what its truly capable of, Infinity Blade II is the game to do it with.

Mage Gauntlet, $2.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Rocketcat Games has had a fabulous track record for releasing phenomenal iOS titles with its Hook series of games, and Mage Gauntlet continues that tradition by being its best game yet. Flawless controls combine with all the retro trimmings to make us warm with nostalgia while feeling modern enough that even people who weren't around for the great action RPGs of the 16-bit era can appreciate it. Recent updates have improved gameplay even further, and have added universal compatibility. We can't wait to see what Rocketcat does in 2012.

SpellTower, $1.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - The App Store is home to a plethora of clever puzzle games, and Zach Gage's SpellTower is our favorite of the year. Gage elegantly combines the simplicity of a word game with the complexity of a strategy game, and its multiple game modes provide something for everyone regardless of whether you like to take your time and hunt for the best words, or be on the clock and racking up points as quickly as possible. We prefer SpellTower on our iPads, but it's just as much fun on the iPhone and iPod touch as well.

This week on The TouchArcade Show we kinda forget to talk about things like, say, using our iPads on the toilet. Instead, the first half of our show is dedicated solely to our internal Game of the Year debate. We go through all five of our finalists in detail, and then we reveal specifically what game won and why.

If you haven't noticed, this little bit of information isn't on the main page just yet, so this is EXCLUSIVE content exclusively for our exclusive listeners. Exclusive, exclusive, exclusive.

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Each year before Christmas we've put up a buyer's guide listing the best iOS titles of the year. Looking back at the 2009 Buyer's Guide and the 2010 Buyer's Guide, we've come a long way. Below you'll find all of 5 star rated iOS titles, as well as the standout 4.5 star games.

If you just opened an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad for Christmas, this is a great place to get started. To make this list a little easier to digest, we've broken these games into a few very vague categories. Oh, and if you also opened an iCade this Christmas, don't forget to check out our list of iCade supported games.

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Casual

Tiny Wings, $0.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - It's not every day that Angry Birds gets knocked to the #2 position on the top sales charts, but Tiny Wings did it. It comes packed with delightfully simple single button gameplay that even kids could enjoy along with increasingly difficult goals that even hardcore gamers will find challenging. Get this game, now.

Angry Birds Rio, $0.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - As easy as it is to groan at Angry Birds Rio getting a 5 star rating, it's a fantastic game. It obviously takes the original Angry Birds formula and builds on top of it with the Rio tie in, boss battles, and some spruced up interface elements. There's also a few extra layers of parallax scrolling that really make this version of Angry Birds look much better than the others as well.

Bumpy Road, $2.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - It's not often that a game comes along in the App Store that makes you think, "Wow, why didn't someone think of this sooner?". Bumpy Road is just that kind of game. The control system to control the game world rather than the car is remarkably clever, and since its initial release it's even seen some update love from the developers.

Tiny Tower, Free - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - NimbleBit set some sky high expectations with Pocket Frogs [Free], their previous (and first) foray into the free to play world. I'd go as far as to say that Tiny Tower is even better, as it has completely taken over my household.

Temple Run, Free - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Imangi Studios doesn't release games all that often, but when they do, they sure are good. Temple Run takes the endless runner formula, adds a third person chase viewpoint, some tilt mechanics, and heaps of power ups to cheat death. Additionally, Temple Run was voted the forum game of the week when it was first released.

Platformer

EDGE Extended, $2.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - We thought the original Edge was incredible, and Extended somehow takes that same game formula, applies a substantial layer of awesome, then knocks it out of the park. Clever platforming mechanics combined with fantastic music really just create an experience that you can't miss.

Bring Me Sandwiches!!, $0.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Adult Swim is batting 1000 lately with fabulous iOS games, and Bring Me Sandwiches!! keeps that tradition going strong. It's a cross between the collect-everything-you-see gameplay of Katamari Damacy with a platformer game. Additionally, tons of control schemes make the game great to play no matter what your control preference might be.

Sonic CD, $4.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Here we have the best installment of one of the greatest gaming franchises, which received both flawless review scores and game of the year awards when it was originally released ported with complete perfection to iOS. This is a game you flat out need to buy if you even vaguely consider yourself an iOS gamer. Not only because it's such an impeccable port of an important piece of gaming history, but because we need to vote with our wallets to tell Sega (and anyone else who might be watching) that this is the quality we demand out of retro games brought to the App Store.

Whale Trail, $0.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Most games you can plot along a line graph with "gameplay" on one end and "presentation" on the other. The best games wind up somewhere in the middle, and Whale Trail definitely sits deep into the "presentation" side of things. Still, the game looks fantastic, and the incredibly vibrant graphics almost make you forget the gameplay is so simple.

Wind-up Knight, Free - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Picture Super Mario Bros. Got a nice image in your head? Good. Now imagine Mario could never stop moving and would only change direction if he hit a wall. A little tougher. And what if absolutely everything could kill him in one hit, and there was no such thing as a checkpoint? That sounds like the sort of game that would have you cursing, spitting, and contemplating throwing your controller, and it also sounds a lot like Wind-up Knight.

Adventure

Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, $4.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - This is the closest thing to what we'd call a "system seller" of a video game since the iPad was originally released. Sword & Sworcery is an absolutely incredible experience, a thought that has not only been shared by the gaming press, but also the mainstream media as well. If you have an iOS device and $5 to your name, there's no excuse not to spend it on this game. If you don't want to fork over a couple bucks more for the universal version, Sword & Sworcery Micro [$2.99] is just what the doctor ordered.

Machinarium, $4.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - This game generated a heck of a lot of controversy when it was revealed that it'd only run on the iPad 2 only, which had us more than a little worried about its performance if it requires top-end hardware. It turns out, Machinarium runs fantastically, despite its Adobe Air-based innards. If you've got the hardware, don't miss this remarkably clever adventure.

Aquaria, $4.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Imagine if a Metroidvania went underwater with a fantastic touch-based control scheme. That's what Aquaria is in a nutshell, but you've got to appreciate its fine touches and vision even if its formula doesn't jive with you.

Retro

Forget-Me-Not, $1.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - In our review we called Forget-Me-Not the "retrolicious lovechild of PAC-MAN and Rogue," and I'm really struggling with a better way to describe the game. An amazing scoring system combines with fantastic retro graphics that only bolster how much fun Forget-Me-Not is to play. If the thought of PAC-MAN combined with dungeon crawling at all piques your interest, stop what you're doing and download Forget-Me-Not immediately.

The Last Rocket, $2.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Retro-inspired games are fairly common on the App Store, but The Last Rocket is one of the best examples we've seen of a modern-day title that could have easily passed as an absolutely fabulous NES game. The Graphics and music are all delightfully 8-bit, but even without all these retro trimmings the gameplay could stand on its own.

Velocispider, $1.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - This fantastic tilt-controlled shooter has sucked up entirely too much of our time. With nods to retro shooters like Space Invaders, awesome pixel art, and universal compatibility Velocispider is simply fantastic.

Another World - 20th Anniversary, $4.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - It's hard to find a game on the App Store with more history behind it than Another World. Touch-based controls (as well as an optional virtual D-pad) along with both original and remastered graphics make for an outstanding port of this classic adventure game.

Role Playing

Infinity Blade II, $6.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - We put incredibly powerful devices in our pockets and on our laps daily, but rarely do we see games that utterly embrace this like Infinity Blade 2 has. It's a showcase piece; a technically and visually gifted game that consistently delivers eye-popping stuff. The gameplay is great, too.

Mage Gauntlet, $2.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Almost too many games lean on pixel art and chip tunes just because it's in style, but Mage Gauntlet draws inspiration from that era and allows it to permeate every aspect of the game. If you have any fond memories of Super Nintendo-era action RPGs, don't miss this game.

Pocket RPG, $4.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Crescent Moon Games' latest is this awesome spin on entirely randomized Roguelike gameplay mixed with the action-packed style of a dual stick shooter. It's a combination that works incredibly well, and being entirely randomized, is infinitely replayable. If you don't feel like springing for the universal version, there's also a cheaper Pocket RPG iPhone Edition [99¢].

Strategy / Sim

King of Dragon Pass, $9.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - No lie, I've spent more time playing this game than all the other games that we reviewed in September combined. If my exhaustive review wasn't clear enough, here's all you need to know: If you like simulation games, you needed King of Dragon Pass on your iPhone yesterday. I've still got my fingers crossed for an iPad version, but I'm more than happy managing my clan whenever I've got a few seconds to spare on my iPhone.

Great Little War Game, $1.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - As mentioned in our review, this game is anything but little. Great Little War Game is a turn-based strategy game that we consider a must have for anyone even vaguely interested in the genre. The developers are remarkably active in our community, and thus far GLWG's updates have been fantastic, both in implementing new features as well as forum feedback.

Pocket Academy, $3.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - It seems like ever since Game Dev Story [$1.99 we just can't get enough of Kairosoft simulations. This one in particular puts you in charge of a school, and while many of the mechanics might not be immediately apparent, once the game grabs you, it doesn't let go.

Tiny Heroes, Free - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - geoDefense and geoDefense Swarm cranked tower defense on the App Store up to 11, and, dare I say it, Tiny Heroes makes a great attempt to crank it to 12. Or, at least, 11 and a half. This fantasy-based tower defense title should not be missed by anyone who even vaguely fancies the genre.

Sid Meier's Pirates! for iPad, $4.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - This pirate sim is a game with a ton of history behind it, and 2K Games did a marvelous job of porting it to the iPad. It has depth on top of depth, and will keep you busy for quite some time if it manages to suck you in. We've got our fingers crossed for more ports like this of incredible games that work phenomenally on the iPad.

Anomaly Warzone Earth, $1.99 / HD - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Who knew that turning tower defense in reverse would make for such an incredible game? If you're even vaguely interested in anything to do to tower defense, Anomaly: Warzone Earth needs to be on your iOS device. The mechanics are solid, the atmosphere is cool, and it'll leave you wanting for a sequel.

Action / Shooter

Dead Space™, $6.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - "Console quality" is a phrase that's thrown around a lot to describe portable games, and really, it's a fitting title for this iOS-exclusive version of Dead Space. We tend to prefer Dead Space for iPad [$9.99] over its iPhone counterpart, but both are fantastic games that should be a part of your collection.

Battleheart, $2.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - This single player game perfectly combines everything that's good about complex party-based realtime battles found in MMO-style games with wonderfully simple and intuitive touch controls. Multiple character classes are included, as well as equipment upgrades. It's incredible just how much flexibility there is for tweaking your party and how you play the game. Battleheart is fantastic on the iPhone, but you can't miss it if you own an iPad.

THE KING OF FIGHTERS-i-, $6.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Back in the day of the arcade fighter arms wars, it was Street Fighter versus The King of Fighters with as fierce of a rivalry among gamers as arguing Nintendo vs. Sega. KoF has arrived on the App Store, and it's every bit as good as its Street Fighter, although it remains to be seen if they'll match the online play found in Volt.

Jetpack Joyride, Free - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - This is our favorite game of the month, as this endless power-up packed single-button flying game is responsible for sapping days of productivity across the entire TouchArcade staff. There are so many hooks to keep you playing that you can do "one more game" for hours through achievements, missions, unlockables, and all sorts of cosmetic customizations.

Bug Heroes, Free - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Much like how Dungeon Raid took typical match three gameplay and made it awesome, Bug Heroes takes the dual stick shooter to the next level. The core of the game is based around the typical dual stick shooter formula, but multiple playable characters (each with strengths and weaknesses) as well as elements of both castle and tower defense make this a game that everyone needs to check out. Just keep in mind, it will be very difficult to go back to your basic survival-mode dual stick shooter after this.

Zombieville USA 2, $0.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Tightly-constructed, well-executed, charming, different and entertaining are all words we freely use when describing Zombieville 2. It's a near perfect iterative entry to the franchise, as it artfully hones in on and turns up the volume on the two best parts of the original: the shooting and upgrade models.

Grand Theft Auto 3, $4.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Even though GTA 3 wasn't designed for virtual controls, you'll have a great time with it, even if all you do is drive around Liberty City listening to the fantastic in-game radio stations. (My favorite is the talk station.) As you become more accustomed with the splattering of virtual buttons all over the screen, you'll find hours upon hours of content to plow through. Having played GTA3 to completion many times in the past, I'm incredibly happy to be able to take it anywhere with me on my phone of all things.

Bug Princess, $4.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Aside from a few small quibbles, Bug Princess offers yet another stellar entry in CAVE’s series of iOS shooters. It’s probably the most straight forward and least complex out of them all, which makes it a great starting point for bullet hell newbies, but it does have its share of depth for those looking to master its strategies.

STREET FIGHTER IV VOLT, $6.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Capcom is following their time honored tradition of relentlessly re-releasing Street Fighter with Street Fighter IV Volt. This time around there are three new characters as well as online multiplayer.

Dark Meadow, $5.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Atmospheric horror is a game genre that never really seems to translates to portable devices very well, but Phosphor Games did a great job of it with Dark Meadow. Set in a creepy hospital, and utilizing the Unreal Engine, the game looks and sounds great. A repetitive combat system drags down this otherwise fantastic title.

Puzzle

Where's My Water?, $0.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - This super-fun liquid-centric physics game puts you in the driver seat of helping an alligator take a shower. Sure, it's hard to come up with a more ridiculous premise, but maybe that's part of this game's charm. A wacky scrolling mechanic on some levels is the only thing we have to complain about, otherwise Where's My Water is fabulous.

Dungeon Raid, $2.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - As mentioned in our review of the game, with the number of fish in the match three sea, it takes a lot to make one that's just as fun (if not more so) than the match three staples like Bejeweled 2 and other classics. Dungeon Raid accomplishes this by distilling the Puzzle Quest formula down to its basics, and providing match three gameplay that retains its simple nature while offering a shocking amount of depth via random equipment and character upgrades. Also, there's much more to matching than just high scoring, clearing each type of block has a purpose, and the order you clear them in can mean life or death. This game has stolen hours of my time, I can't recommend it enough.

Casey's Contraptions HD, $2.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - There are tons of contraption-building games on the App Store, but few are as good as Casey's Contraptions. The theme of the game is gloriously whimsical, and you can spend hours delving through the clever and convoluted solutions your friends post via Game Center.

Gesundheit!, $1.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - This stealth-centric sneeze-powered puzzle game comes with fantastic controls, some of the best hand-drawn art we've seen in action on the App Store, and details like shadows moving relative to your iOS device's gyroscope readings. We prefer the iPad version, but only because you'll want as much screen real estate as possible to enjoy this game's incredible art.

Wooords, $1.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Games where you search for words within a pre-defined set of letters have some serious roots, heck, this kind of puzzle was published in newspapers before video games even existed, and there's a zillion variations on the App Store. Words totally impressed us with its slick presentation that feels less like playing a word game and more like moving magnetic letters around on a refrigerator.

SPY mouse, $0.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Firemint has managed to de-throne Angry Birds from the #1 position on the App Store with this line-drawing-powered stealth game. Collect cheese, evade cats, use various tricks, and even fight bosses. All the gameplay elements go together incredibly well, and Firemint even managed to remove a lot of things that have historically annoyed us about stealth games in the process.

SpellTower, $1.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Word games can still be fun. Elegant, clever and fun, SpellTower a complete package, brought together by Gage's trademark use of cheerful colors, simple patterns and elegant typography.

iBlast Moki 2, $2.99 / Universal HD - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - This game sets the standard of what gamers should expect of sequels. It's got familiar puzzle-centric physics mechanics of the original with tons of new features that add complexity and all kinds of new ways to solve puzzles. Additionally, a perfectly integrated solution system can show you how your friends completed a level if you get stuck.

Monsters Ate My Condo, $0.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Adult Swim and Pik Pok joined forces to bring us one of the craziest matching games we've ever seen on the App Store. The game requires matching similarly colored floors while appeasing nearby color-coded monsters, each with a more ridiculous super-power than the last. Also, you can score billions if you're good. Billions!

Scribblenauts Remix, $0.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Originally released on the Nintendo DS, Scribblenauts is a game that's so unique that you simply must play it. Remix combines the best elements from both of the DS games along with 10 iOS-exclusive levels. In addition, it's even universal and boasts complete iCloud save syncing support.

Bejeweled Blitz, Free - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Popcap takes the glorious match-three mechanic of the classic puzzle franchise, pumps up the volume on the jewel and match bonuses, and then condenses it all down into frantic, one-minute bursts of eye-gasmic, point-laden play.

Sports

NBA JAM by EA SPORTS™, $0.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - iOS gamers really couldn't ask for much more when it comes to EA's port of NBA Jam… Multiplayer was even added in an update! All of the massive dunks and secret modes are intact, making this a surprisingly faithful port. EA even recently updated the game's roster, bringing it in line with this NBA season.

Pocket HalfPipe, $2.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - This incredibly awesome skateboarding game is highly reminiscent of the halfpipe in the classic NES series Skate or Die, but with much better graphics and crazy dual stick controls that allow you to pull off all kinds of moves. The game could easily be described as basic, but it's so much fun that we don't care. The tricks you'll be able to pull off after a bit of practice are cool, and stringing a massive chain together is hugely rewarding.

Fight Night Champion by EA Sports™, $4.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - A surprisingly competent boxing game that feels like an equal to its console counterpart instead of a typical watered-down mobile version. Great touch screen controls combine with different game modes to create a boxing experience that is among the best that the App Store has to offer.

Music

Groove Coaster, $2.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - There have been a ton of rhythm games released on the App Store, but none have the amazing presentation of Groove Coaster that almost makes it less of a game and more of an experience-- And this is one experience you really can't miss especially if you enjoyed its creator's other game, Space Invaders Infinity Gene.

Radballs, $0.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - We fell in love with RadBalls inside of the first few seconds of the trailer, and by the time it was over we were ready to yield our first born to its creator. Oh, yeah, the game is fun as hell too. It's a music-centric matching game that even allows you to use your own tracks. Check it out.

Our ratings for games we reviewed in December 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 three-star 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. Keep in mind, this listing is comprised of games we reviewed in December, and not necessarily games that were specifically released in December.

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Normally, I would say "another day, another Chillingo physics puzzle game" as the developer pumps out these high quality iOS titles like it's nothing, but then I had to take a moment to stop. After all, Home Sheep Home 2 [$0.99] is not just any puzzler, it's a puzzler starring Shaun the Sheep from the Wallace & Gromit series, and if you have no idea what that is get off this website right now and go find out. It's that good, and I don't throw such idle threats around lightly.

The first Home Sheep Home title came out in May and earned a BAFTA award (see review here). Not too shabby since it started out as a free Flash game. Like the first game, Home Sheep Home 2 challenges the player to take charge of the three sheep Shaun, Timmy and Shirley and make their way through a series of levels. Fans of the original game that felt it needed more levels should be delighted that there are 40 in total to be explored here, so you should get more time out of it this go round.

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TouchArcade Rating: