It's Wednesday again, and a rather exciting Wednesday at that. If you haven't yet, you should really check out our new TouchArcade Free Play program where you can get Aralon: Sword and Shadow HD for precisely zero dollars. Anyway, this is a massive release week as we approach the holidays, so let's get on with the show. Like previous weeks, all of these games should be available at 11:00 PM Eastern.

Alpha Zero, $1.99 - Forum Thread - A 2.5D scrolling shoot 'em up.

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APO Snow, $1.99 - Forum Thread - A snowboarding game featuring real snowboarders.

AR Defender 2, Free - Forum Thread - If augmented reality is your cup of tea, these AR Defender games are really cool examples.

Arson & Plunder HD, 99¢ - Forum Thread - A side scrolling bea 'em up.

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Blind Walk, $1.99 - Forum Thread - It's a bit of a mystery what you do in this game, but the art style sure looks neat.

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Call of Mini: Brawlers, 99¢ - Forum Thread - Another side scrolling beat 'em up, except featuring zombies.

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Fluxx, $2.99 - Forum Thread - A crazy card game I've been hearing some very good things about.

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Football Manager Handheld 2013, $9.99 - Forum Thread *Insert ignorant American comment about soccer here.* Seriously though, I know people love this series. Here's the 2013 iteration.

Galaxy Dungeon, Free - Forum Thread - I have no clue what this game is about, but it's a Squeenix title that seems to be exclusive to the Japanese app store.

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Metal Slug 1, $1.99 - Forum Thread - Surprise! It's the original Metal Slug.

Monster Truck Destruction, 99¢ - Forum Thread - Maybe it's the kid in me, but I always have fun with monster trucks.

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Monsters, Inc. Run, 99¢ - Forum Thread - Crazy about Monsters, Inc. and like running games? Well, here you go.

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Monsterthon, 99¢ - Forum Thread - A game of destroying everything in your path?

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The Player - Classic, Free - Forum Thread - A neat looking rhythm game.

Playmobil Pirates, Free - Forum Thread - Another free to play builder from Gameloft.

Potshot Pirates, 99¢ - Forum Thread - A 3D shooting physics puzzler that looks really neat in its trailer.

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Ski Jump Giants 13, 99¢ - Forum Thread - We've got a snowboarding game this week, so why not a ski jumping game?

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Theatrhythm Final Fantasy, Free - Forum Thread - A seemingly cool rhythm-based RPG with an absolutely ludicrous amount of IAP.

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Wheel of Fortune, $2.99 - Forum Thread - WHEEL. Of. FORTUNE!

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Zooniverse, Free - Forum Thread - And last, but not least, a free to play builder/breeder game.



  • ImJPaul

    Wow. No scarcity on quantity but a serious lack of quality. Nbd. Ill just wait for next week and play Farcry 3 in the meantime. Next week FF4 comes and possibly Ravensword!!!! Anybody heard news on RR3?! I thought that was supposed to drop in 2012?!

    • themostunclean

      RR3 Still has no official release date. Last I heard it was confirmed to be "sometime in 2013", possibly Q1.

      They really had to dig deep this week for a lot of crud. Most of these aren't even worth mentioning as you can tell by their description. Hopefully next week will be a big one before the App Store freeze out.

      Last week was pretty good but this one is just lame.

  • Tatiana

    I'm all over Football Manager! Fantastic game!! Also, trying out that Final Fantasy game. Hopefully the iAP is manageable. But that's probably about it.

  • rodgerodger

    This week is all about strategy/board games. The above mentioned Fluxx, the already released Stone Age, and best of all Battle of the Bulge! But the TA crowd isn't the target market for such games.

  • dv8godd

    Waiting for Battle of the Bulge tomorrow. Tonight's selection just isn't cutting it for me.

  • Professionalbum

    Fluxx peaks my interest; isn't there already a wheel of fortune on the App Store?

  • 1Fcm

    I always look forward to the comments for the 'coming tonight' post. Inevitably we get the forum posters who seem to have played every game on the list enough to call them lame or crap. Always entertaining!

    • themostunclean

      Just to clarify, nobody so far has been commenting on the quality of individual games (at least I wasn't) but more referring to how lame the selection is. Compared to last week where we had GTA Vice City, MC4, Baldurs Gate and Minigore 2 you have to admit that this weeks current lineup is an IAP ridden yawn-fest.

      I've gamed on iOS long enough to know the difference between a AAA title and a waste of drive space.

      • toxiccheese

        I for one don't consider popular name brand IP as exclusively AAA titles. There are so many games out there that become AAA, but they had to start somewhere right? This weeks selection might seem like an "IAP ridden yawn-fest" to you, but for me some of it looks good. Perhaps maybe you mean to say that nothing looks interesting to you?

      • themostunclean

        You're right. If you were under the impression I was trying to state fact instead of opinion in a game site comment section, I apologize.

        And part of the definition of AAA games is that they have a huge budget and marketing campaign behind them. A game doesn't become AAA over time, it's IP, sequel and/or remake may though.

    • dv8godd

      Point taken...

      But in fairness, many weeks tend to follow a pattern of "me too" releases that everyone has played before. You can literally play a drinking game checking off each endless runner, tower defense, twin stick, builder/breeder, physics puzzler, match 3, word puzzle, IAP driven clone that's only marginally different than the hundreds of existing titles of same genres.

      That doesn't mean titles aren't getting better on average each time a new release comes out... they certainly are... but the pattern of incremental progress itself is fairly stale and predictable. I'd rather pay $10-20 for a title that really shakes the ground than buy 20 modest tweaks or incremental improvements to a trend at this point.

      With the app store's current maturity, even if a dev does release the quintessential title in any of the aforementioned genres... who doesn't already have a half dozen or more precursors?

      iOS needs more titles that are "timeless" than "timely"... titles that showcase the platform more than capitalize on it.

      Maybe I'm just jaded... but I've got hundreds of releases on my iPad and iPhone that got me there.

      • themostunclean

        Very well put. Agree with every point and wish more devs had the same perspective. iOS gaming has a huge following now but I think a lot of people are still of the opinion that "they're just cell phone games".

  • http://twitter.com/PrayForDeath Pray For Death

    Nothing caught my attention, and Battle of the Bulge isn't tonight. Back to Baldur's Gate I guess :)

  • Maniacfive

    Will download Fluxx. A steal considering that a deck costs double that. And might not always to be hand.

    Although in my household that's unlikely, between two decks of fluxx, one zombie, pirate and Cthulhu fluxx, were not usually far from one.

  • Gamer_Kev

    Metal Slug 1 is on my list if it support the iCade like Metal Slug 3 did. That games a lot of fun using the iCade.

    Other than that, I'm looking more forward to next week when the new Ravensword game might come out. I'm not really expecting to be able to play it on my iPad, but hopeful that my iPod Touch 5 will at least be able to handle it.

  • 3cordguy

    Fluxx is an awesome card game! Kind of like UNO meets strategy card game. Definite buy for me. Hope they come out with Martian fluxx too.

  • http://www.tap-start.com/ Mirkwood

    Fluxx is the only one that interests me. Even though i've never heard of it, the concept seems interesting at least.

  • Turbobond

    Zooniverse? Anyone else hoping that was a Mighty Boosh game?

  • http://twitter.com/JamesMobot James Fletcher

    Monsters Inc, Run...

    Jeez, really?

    Some days i really wonder why even bother spending months and months making a quality gaming experience when you can just crank out running game for every license possible.

    Although strictly from a business point of view i guess it makes sense.

  • http://twitter.com/Inaba_kun Inaba-kun

    Final Fantasy Theatrhythm was a fun game on the 3DS. Sadly the iOS port is missing one of the song types - the type which had a video compilation of the high points of each FF game playing in the background. Also it's an in-app purchase fest of the highest order. You'd spend a fortune to bring it to anywhere near the amount of content in the 3DS version.

  • jptsetung

    This music in the trailer of Playmobil pirates reminds me of something... ^v^

  • Jeff432

    This week it's not a game that I'm most excited about, it's Google Maps!