Song Summoner Encore [App Store] is Square Enix's second release in as many weeks, following on the heels of Hills and Rivers Remain which we weren't overly impressed by. Fortunately, Song Summoner Encore has a bit more substance to its gameplay, touting an interesting twist that sees your music library integrated into the game as its major drawcard.

Song Summoner Encore was originally released as an iPod app utilising the click wheel control. It is a typical turn-based RPG in the same vein as Final Fantasy Tactics, where each battle sees you taking turns to face off against a number of foes with a limited number of your own troops. The iPhone version of the game carries over 20 hours of gameplay and represents both the content of the original Song Summoner as well as a never-published iPod sequel Song Summoner 2.

Song Summoner distinguishes itself by offering a meta game of sorts by integrating and keeping track of your favourite music. Song Summoner Encore automatically generates your troopers from songs in the library that you select; giving each song a class, stats and in-game likeness. The game presents music as a force to be reckoned with as part of the storyline, but continues this out-of-game too by remembering your iPod play counts for each song/trooper that you select. The more you listen to your chosen songs, the more you are awarded with moral boosts that strengthen your troopers in battle.

It is a novel idea that unfortunately is not as fleshed out as it could be. Other than the system outlined above, the songs you select play no further part in the game itself, making the entire integration feel more than a little lacklustre.

This continues through to the presentation of the game itself. The graphics in Song Summoner Encore are nothing to write home about, the only exception being the excellent cutscene artwork. When fully zoomed out, the in-game graphics look decent, and the animations and spell effects are respectable. As soon as you zoom in however, each pixel stands out in what can only be described as an eye sore. Unfortunately, the game cannot practicably be played at the prettier zoomed out level; as navigating the battlefield becomes hit and miss at this setting, particularly for those with larger fingers. Of course, the reason for this seems due to the fact that the game content was originally designed for the click-wheel iPods.

The controls in Song Summoner Encore have been adapted well from the click wheel. Each action is managed from an in-game scroll wheel with a considerate confirmation prompt ensuring that no order is given accidentally. Character and option menus are easy to navigate with the touch controls, and an automatic and manual save system minimizes frustration.

Each level consists of managing your army either by choosing existing forces or importing new units from your iPod library, then pitting those units against the various enemies that make up each level. From there Song Summoner is a standard turn-based strategy game where you kill all of the opposing forces before they kill your force, progress to the next level, and repeat.

Those new to the game however, will undoubtedly find mind boggling the sheer magnitude of stats and game mechanics to keep track of in Song Summoner Encore; something not alleviated by the less-than-helpful in-game assistance. For example, the effectiveness of each trooper in battle requires consideration of deployment points, play points, class ratings, rankings and morale levels.

Song Summoner Encore is ultimately a game that will only reward those with patience enough to learn its details. For those looking for a casual experience, Song Summoner Encore is difficult to recommend, even considering its unique iPod integration. Fortunately, a lite version is available for download and highly recommended for those remotely interested in the game or have been looking for a tactics game to really sink their teeth into.

App Store Link: Song Summoner Encore, $9.99, Lite Version, Free

Indie record label Delicious Vinyl has released self-themed rhythm game which includes a number of hits from their catalog.

We don't expect this one to have much appeal amongst our younger audience, but some of you are going to really enjoy the song list:

• Young MC, "Bust A Move"
• Tone Loc, "Funky Cold Medina"
• Tone Loc, "Wild Thing (Peaches RMX)"
• The Pharcyde, "Passin' Me By"
• Masta Ace, "Born To Roll"
• Mr. Vegas (feat. Pitbull & Lil'Jon), "Pull Up (Club Mix)"
• Masta Ace, "Slaughtahouse (Eminem RMX)"

As a rhythm game, it offers a reasonably fun experience (on the harder difficulties) with additional sound effects (samples, scratching) when you hit the note properly. Unfortunately, the actual experience of scratching along with the music just isn't nearly as satisfying as hitting more traditional beats. The timing isn't as obvious and the audio/visual feedback is more limited. But if you're a big fan of the music, you're not going to find these songs in Rock Band.

App Store Link: Delicious Vinyl DJ, $2.99

Auditorium has arrived for the iPhone. The musical puzzle game began life as a Flash game that can still be played on its website.

In Auditorium you have to guide a flow of light particles into the audio containers on the game board. Each level has a different set of movable pieces that all have different effects on the flow of these particles, from simply controlling its direction, speed, or even attracting or repelling the flow. The early levels start in grayscale, but quickly make way to vibrant colors and different audio containers that can hold each the various particle colors.

The iPhone version of the game contains 25 levels across 5 different acts and naturally uses touch and pinch controls to adjust the placement and strength of the pieces. Additional "movements" (levels) can be purchased for $0.99 a piece, adding 14-17 levels per pack. Some of the more advanced pieces that affect particle movement are reserved for the add-on content. A Lite version of the game is also available which contains 5 different levels and starts off slightly more difficult to give you a better taste of the game. Auditorium is an original game that's worth a try if you've never experienced it before.

App Store Link: Auditorium Lite, Free, Auditorium, $2.99

Despite the release of Tap Tap Revenge 3 with in-app purchases, Tapulous is still releasing specially themed versions. The latest band to get this special edition treatment is Metallica.

The game includes new Hard and Extreme landscape modes with 4 or 5 tap rails, respectively, rather than the usual 3. List of tracks included are:

• For Whom the Bell Tolls
• Fuel
• King Nothing
• Sad But True
• Some Kind of Monster
• Enter Sandman
• One
• Seek & Destroy
• All Nightmare Long
• Master of Puppets

App Store Link: Metallica Revenge, $4.99

Early this month Empty Clip Studios gave us an exclusive preview of the upcoming iPhone port of their download / retail Wii rhythm puzzle title, Groovin' Blocks. Those anxious to get their hands on this one can now try the full [link] or lite [link] version, which went live in the App Store yesterday.

Each of Groovin' Blocks' 50 levels is played to a pumping techno soundtrack with scrolling beat-indicators on either side of the screen.  Block clusters slide onto the playfield in a Tetris-like fashion, and will ultimately come to rest at the bottom of the screen.  A tap on the 'drop' button will quickly drop the piece into place — but if you "hit a beat" (tapping the drop button during a beat of the soundtrack) the blocks will be bigger, brighter, and worth more points.  Hitting consecutive beats without a miss increases your score multiplier — but miss a beat and it drops back to zero.  Hitting the occasional Superbeat, shown brighter in the scrolling beat display, will double your current score multiplier.

Certain blocks contain power-ups that can be collected only if you hit a beat when placing said block.  Power-ups are unleashed when the successfully placed block is destroyed by a match-three scenario.

See our preview video for a closer look.

[ Full HD version | Low Bandwidth version ]

GameSpot calls the Wii version of Groovin' Blocks "a music-based game like no other."  As we said in our preview look, there's no shortage of match-three puzzlers in the App Store, but Groovin' Blocks' musical / rhythm component really does set it apart from the pack.

App Store Links: Groovin' Blocks, $1.99, Groovin' Blocks Lite, Free

Rhythm games have been a part of gamer culture since Bemani popularized them outside of Japan with Dance Dance Revolution in the late 90's. Since then, the core game concept of DDR has varied widely from things as obscure as shaking maracas in Samba de Amigo on the Dreamcast to emulating a full band in EA's newly released Rock Band [App Store] on the iPhone.

Rock Band allows gamers to choose from playing the guitar, bass guitar, drums, and even singingwhile rocking out to a particular song. In console versions, you use plastic guitar, drum kit, and microphone. On the iPhone and iPod Touch, each of these instruments are played by tapping four areas on the screen to match up with the musical notes coming down the screen.

We extensively previewed the game, and preferred it to the other available rhythm games:

Where Rock Band pulls ahead of the pack of rhythm games on the iPhone is when it comes to overall immersion while you're playing the songs.

Obviously there's only so much immersion that you can achieve when you're pretending to play a guitar by tapping on the screen of your iPhone, but playing the tracks in the iPhone Rock Band works just like its console big brother in that every note you miss causes the music to be interrupted. This seems to add so much more to the game than just tapping along to a song like other similar games on the platform with music that just keeps playing regardless of how poorly you're doing.

Rock Band for the iPhone comes loaded with 20 songs, and additional songs can be purchased in game in packs of two for 99¢. This is not only cheaper than buying the songs themselves from iTunes, but also significantly cheaper than buying them inside of any other iteration of Rock Band.

Also included is four player local bluetooth multiplayer, achievements, Facebook connectivity, and along with both single song game modes and a "World Tour" career mode. Keep in mind, because of the in-game DLC, Rock Band requires the 3.0 OS.

The iPhone version of Rock Band does a great job at emulating some of the feel of the console original, and thanks to the four distinct playable tracks in each song, the game also offers an experience not found in competing games on the App Store. With the cheapest DLC to be found in the Rock Band series, the iPhone version will be hard for fans to pass up. Reactions so far seem positive in the thread our forums, with the main complaints relating to veterans of Rock Band finding the iPhone version to be too easy, along with the somewhat expected complaint regarding the track selection.

App Store Link: Rock Band, $9.99

I admit when we first got approached by EA about Rock Band I was skeptical. After all, Tapulous has been through three revisions of Tap Tap Revolution, the latest of which we reviewed recently and includes an immense in-game store to buy new music to play along with a bunch of other features. However, where Rock Band pulls ahead of the pack of rhythm games on the iPhone is when it comes to overall immersion while you're playing the songs.

Obviously there's only so much immersion that you can achieve when you're pretending to play a guitar by tapping on the screen of your iPhone, but playing the tracks in the iPhone Rock Band works just like its console big brother in that every note you miss causes the music to be interrupted. This seems to add so much more to the game than just tapping along to a song like other similar games on the platform with music that just keeps playing regardless of how poorly you're doing.

Each song can be played in four distinctly different ways– Guitar, bass, drums, and vocals. Every instrument has its own track that you tap along with, and they all match up with the music just as well as the other versions of the game. Each mode is also playable in three difficulty levels. Easy should be easy enough for anyone to jump in to, and hard seems fairly challenging.

Rock Band features several modes of play. If you only have time to play a single song, there's a quick play mode. If you want to play through various gigs as your band seeks fame and fortune there's a world tour mode, and if you have friends with the game both online and local bluetooth multiplayer is included. I don't have anyone to test these multiplayer features with, but they're all in there, and I can imagine some pretty hilarious impromptu bluetooth jam sessions among groups of friends that have the game.

The online component uses Facebook to log in and connect you with your friends, and according to EA you will even get push notifications when friends of yours invite you to rock out online. Included in the initial release are 20 songs from a ton of great bands, and there is an in-game store where you can buy additional tracks. In the build I have, there is one additional content pack which features two Smashing Pumpkins songs for 99¢.

Included track list:

30 Seconds To Mars – "Attack"
AFI – "Girls Not Grey"
All American Rejects – "Move Along"
Beastie Boys – "Sabotage"
Blink-182 – "All The Small Things"
Blondie – "Hanging on the Telephone"
Foo Fighters – "Learn To Fly"
Foo Fighters – "Everlong"
George Thorogood & the Destroyers – "Bad to The Bone"
Jethro Tull – "Hymn 43"
Joan Jett – "Hymn 43"
Lynard Skynyrd – "Simple Man"
Motorhead – "Ace of Spades '08"
Pixies – "Debaser"
Presidents of The United States of America – "Ladybug"
Rise Against – "Give It All"
Silversun Pickups – "Lazy Eye"
Smashing Pumpkins – "Cherub Rock"
Steve Miller Band – "Take The Money and Run"
The Go Go's – "We Got The Beat"

I went into Rock Band for the iPhone skeptical that EA could provide something that hadn't already been done before by the existing rhythm game competition and came out fairly impressed. Rock Band has already been submitted for approval to Apple, and is expected to go live sometime next week!

Tapulous's Tap Tap Revenge 3 [App Store] is the third generation of Tap Tap Revenge games, and with the inclusion of downloadable content (DLC), Tap Tap Revenge 3 finally has become what the series should have been from the start, with a complete in-game store to buy all kinds of licensed music tracks to play.

If you're unfamiliar with the series, Tap Tap Revenge is a rhythm game similar to Dance Dance Revolution that you play by tapping with your fingers and shaking the phone. The game's roots go all the way back before the App Store even existed, and was one of the first jailbreak games for the iPhone that was more than a simple card or marble rolling game.

Prior to OS 3.0 and the advent of in-game DLC, Tapulous sold music packs through separate games on the App Store. Available for $4.99, these individually bundled games featured music from Weezer, Coldplay, Lady Gaga, Nine Inch Nails, and Dave Matthews Band.

In Tap Tap Revenge 3, there are close to 50 bundles of music that can be purchased in game. 6 track bundles are sold for $2.99, and 2 track bundles for 99¢. Each of these bundles also comes with their own theme with various art from each of the bands that scroll across the screen as you play their corresponding songs. (Full track list available on TUAW.)

Aside from the array of optional music to buy, Tap Tap Revenge 3 has over 100 free indie songs, and Tapulous plans on adding free music every week for users to download. TTR3 also has a full online component with various multiplayer modes, avatars to choose from, and tons of other social features like in-game chat.

If you've never played a Tap Tap Revenge game, Tap Tap Revenge 2.6 [App Store] is free and will give you a good idea in what to expect in the sequel. Otherwise, Tap Tap Revenge 3 is available for 99¢, and with the potential of nearly unlimited content to be added to the game via the DLC store, there's not much reason to not pick this up if you're a fan of rhythm games.

App Store Link: Tap Tap Revenge 3, 99¢

Red Rocket Games' Mevo & The GrooveRiders [App Store] rhythm platformer is free for the next 24 hours.

This charming rhythm game is presented as a side-scrolling platformer in which your controls consist of two buttons that must be tapped in time with the music. Mevo runs and jumps across the level on his own and your taps must be timed as he runs past the corresponding icons. Miss a note and Mevo will stumble. Miss enough and the game ends.

We really liked it when we first covered it in June, and the game has since seen regular updates with more levels and gameplay modes.

App Store Link: Mevo & The GrooveRiders, Free (1 day)

Pompom Games' Poppi [App Store] is a game that couldn't really exist on any other platform but the iPhone without losing quite a bit of the experience.

The goal of Poppi is touching the screen to juggle the various shapes that fall from the top, bouncing them off other shapes and off the sides of the screen before finally colliding with matching shapes and popping off the screen with a fun star explosion particle effect. As the objects bounce they make different sounds, and eventually strange melodies emerge out of the juggling chaos of Poppi.

The simple gameplay is set on a colorful and slowly changing background, and the entire package creates a very soothing experience similar to games like Zen Bound [App Store] on the iPhone and Electroplankton on the Nintendo DS.

The white rings in the video show where the finger taps would be occuring, and also shown in the video are red spiked objects and bombs which are to be avoided. Poppi is a fun game, and because the sound is such a vital part of the feel of the game, we recommend playing with headphones.

App Store Link: Poppi, 99¢