Pocketball is a fresh new puzzler that takes physics and navigation and wraps them together in a tight little package. In each of Pocketball’s 30 stages, you’ll need to stretch pieces of rope across different pegs to guide a falling ball to a like colored bin. If there’s a blue ball it goes to the blue bin. If there’s a green ball it goes to a green bin. You get the idea.

Things get complicated fairly quickly. Some stages offer up 2 or 3 different colored balls that you need to guide to their like-colored bins. Other stages have items scattered around the playfield with boosters that will give your balls a toss in a certain direction or nukes that will incinerate any ball they come in contact with. With a good deal of variety and some exceptional level design, no two stages ever feel the same.

The mechanics behind the game may be simple, but that doesn’t mean the puzzles don’t offer up an incredible level of challenge. You may find yourself returning to the same puzzle a dozen or more times before finding a solution. There’s a certain degree of logic involved, but after awhile we just found ourselves testing the waters to see where different balls might land after setting up different ropes. Unless a puzzle has an obvious solution, there’s a real “trial and error” vibe to the gameplay. Thankfully Pocketball is incredibly forgiving of the “let’s see what this does” guess work that’s required. With no real penalties in the game, you can try each level over and over until you get it just right.

Pocketball is also forgiving in that it won’t force you to complete a level to proceed to the next. If you’re stuck on a level or two, you can walk away, check out some more levels, and unlock the rest of the game without ever going back to a certain over-complicated nightmare. Likewise you can always go back at a later time and see if you can finally best the harsh mistress that is stage 13.

Pocketball offers up a tremendous level of challenge in an "easy to learn but impossible to master" puzzler. Despite a few nitpicky complaints (such as lack of music), this game did the puzzle fanatic in our hearts good. If you’re a fan of genuinely challenging puzzle games that are about more than falling blocks, Pocketball is $1.99 well spent.

App Store Link: Pocketball, $1.99

The folks over at winandmac.com recently had the opportunity to sit down with a few people from Apple and have a look at a number of upcoming iPhone games and apps.  Among them are two titles we've recently had a look at in "upcoming" posts: THQ's Star Wars: Trench Run and Skies of Glory from SGN.

Have a look at the gameplay videos they were able to capture of these upcoming titles.

• Star Wars: Trench Run

Use the Force to overthrow the evil Galactic Empire as they attempt to destroy the small Rebel base on Yavins jungle moon.

As part of the Rebel Alliances Red Squadron you dogfight with TIE Fighters above the Death Stars surface before heading into a trench where you are inundated by cannon fire. Dodge obstacles, and stay out of Darth Vaders sights as he tries to gun you down before you have the chance to fire your proton torpedoes into a thermal exhaust port the size of a womp rat. If successful, a direct hit will cause a chain reaction that destroys the Death Star, thus saving the Rebel base from impending doom.

• Skies of Glory

Skies of Glory is an aerial combat game much like F.A.S.T. but set in World War II with various terrains including mountains, deserts, and sea which are said to showcase the classic views of WWII air combat. The game will support both local Wi-Fi battles as well as online battles around the world.

Also demonstrated was the upcoming Harry Potter: Spells, a game that turns your iPhone into a magic wand and allows for real-time player-to-player duels utilizing 14 spells, each summoned by its own particular hand gesture.  The hands-on video of this one can be seen here.

Just when you thought you had enough of Bejeweled, PopCap has released an update to the massively popular Match 3 game adding the competitive one minute Blitz mode that has been so popular on Facebook. According to the Facebook application page for Bejeweled Blitz, there are over 10 million monthly active users.

The iPhone version naturally connects to the Facebook version as detailed by Games.com:

The iPhone version also includes all of the same power-ups — score multipliers and laser gems — vital to pushing your score to unbeatable heights. Your high scores will automatically show up on the leaderboard in the Facebook version, and you'll be able to post brag notes on your Facebook page anytime you score a metal in the game (see example below). We were impressed to see our new high scores appeared in the Facebook version's leaderboard in real time, as well as our brag notes.

This tight Facebook integration allows you to compete on the existing leaderboards as well as in the weekly tournaments and prize drawings.

The Blitz mode is a free update to the Bejeweled 2 iPhone game. Facebook connectivity is, of course, required to take advantage of the online component. You can play in an offline mode if you prefer, but then you may as well be playing the existing single player modes.

App Store Link: Bejeweled 2, $2.99

Puzzle games have been wildly popular in the casual gaming market, a fact that has inevitably, for better or worse, resulted in a saturation of the genre on the AppStore. Because of this, it's a wonder that Totemo [App Store] can still inject a great deal of life and charm into the genre.

The basic premise behind Totemo is somewhat similar to block removal games like Mental Blocks [App Store] and the countless other games where you're removing pieces from the game board. Each level in Totemo, of which there are over 60, poses a different arrangement of "spirits", which you must release into the nethers by binding them to the totem ever present on the left of the screen.

Each spirit you select will light up one part of the Totem with a fully lit totem removing them from the playing field. Spirits can only be removed by selecting those in the same row or column, and so the unique twist lies with finding the correct order for discarding your spirits and clearing the level of them entirely- a feat that gets surprisingly challenging by about level 20. Without perfect execution, you will find yourself with only one or two spirits remaining, unable to bind them completely to the Totem and thus encouraged to renew your attempt.

The source of this encouragement is an endearing totemic spirit guide who walks you through the gameplay features at the beginning of the Story Mode and gradually narrates the tale as you progress through the levels. His charm is an embodiment of the excellent presentation and overall feeling of Totemo. Each level is gorgeously crafted, with different animated backdrops for each chapter of the story and lively matching objects that are introduced to ramp up the challenge.

Extra touches such as how the eyes of valid spirits focus on the player when another is selected, and how a level can be instantly restarted by shaking the device, really show off the care that has gone into Totemo's development. Together with an interesting if quirky selection of tribal and electronic tunes to accompany each level, Totemo sports a great deal of polish for a puzzle game.

For those who are finished with the Story mode, there is also a Survival mode that has you breeze through the levels as quickly as you can on a timer, additional time being added on completion of a level. The competitive types will be pleased to note that a comprehensive online leaderboard records your scores in Survival mode, sortable by Daily, Weekly and All time scores.

Here is a teaser video released by the developer that doesn't show any gameplay, but will give you a good idea of the atmosphere to expect in the game:

For $0.99, it is hard not to justify a look into Totemo at least, particularly if you consider yourself a puzzle fan. There is even something there for the action puzzler, with Survival mode getting quite frenetic as you race against the clock. Visit the discussion thread for more opinions about the game.

App Store Link: Totemo, $0.99

The followup title to the extremely popular (and free) Jelly Car game has finally made its way into the App Store. The original Jelly Car was released back in October 2008 and has since developed a pretty massive following. The game is a driving/platforming game in which you drive a squishy car through squishy worlds, trying to reach the exit.

The sequel is being published by Walt Disney and comes with more than 30 new levels, new power-ups, and three new modes. The original free version remains in the App Store if you never tried it.

App Store Link: Jelly Car 2, $0.99, Jelly Car, Free

Auditorium is an abstract Flash puzzle game which shares a lot of gameplay elements with the various games on the App Store that utilize the gravity of objects to change the path of other objects on screen. Instead of guiding rockets or spacemen around the screen as in G [$1.99] or Gravity Sling [Free], in Auditorium you have to guide a flow of light particles in to 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 game itself is so unique that it's extremely difficult to describe. Thankfully, there is a free demo that only requires Flash to play available at PlayAuditorium.com along with a whole slew of videos on YouTube showing how to solve the various levels in game such as this one below:

According to EA Mobile's Facebook page, Auditorium is coming "Fall/Winter 2009" and will have 25 levels played through 5 acts.

Riptide Games has released the first game that was the product of the 360 iDev Game Jam. The Game Jam was an all night coding session for developers to try to create a game in 10 hours. This particular game was created in conjunction with Jonathan Hartstein of Pyro Monkey Productions and Eric Lannan of Crucial Games.

Gravity Sling is an inertia based puzzle game, where you must try to get the astronaut back to the space shuttle safely. In order to do this you'll need to take advantage of gravity from the nearby planets as you sling the astronaut through space.

Here's a promotional video showing how the game is played:

Rather than releasing the game at the expected $0.99 price point, Riptide games has taken advantage of Apple's new policy allowing games to be distributed for free with the ability to purchase additional content. 15 levels are included in the free version, with 30 additional levels available in-app for $0.99. This eliminates the need for a Lite version and could be a peek into how things may evolve in the App Store.

App Store Link: Gravity Sling, Free

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

EA recently release a cute point and click adventure game for the iPhone called Mystery Mania. It's a charming adventure game that was originally released for mobile phones before it was ported to the iPhone.

The game offers 27 puzzle rooms throughout which you unravel the mysterious storyline. You play the role of F8, a robot with amnesia who must figure out what's going on. Touch controls offer the ability to interact with your environment and you must perform tasks in the correct order into order to solve each room. The game as been relatively well received in our forums with mostly positive experiences.

The only real criticism for some has been the relatively short length and ease of difficulty of the game, though it appears to be a good time during. Here's some of the Lite gameplay recorded by AppBank.

Two things, however, may convince you to give the game a shot. First, EA offers a free Lite version that gives you a taste of the game, and second, they have temporarily dropped the price of the game from $3.99 to $1.99 for the next 24 hours.

App Store Link: Mystery Mania FREE, Free, Mystery Mania, $3.99

Bryan Mitchell's Geared [99¢ / Free] is an excellent puzzle game that revolves around a very simple gameplay mechanic: Arranging gears on screen to make a working set of gears that connects from the yellow gear to the blue gear(s).

Geared starts simple and quickly progresses to levels that require pixel perfect accuracy to complete. We greatly enjoyed Geared in our review, and it even spent some time as the #1 paid app in both the USA and UK back in August.

Version 1.1 adds 40 new levels, new gameplay elements like gears that can't move and will jam your other gears if you get near them, along with a bundle of various tweaks and bug fixes. For instance, a new interface to move gears around makes getting them in their pixel perfect positions much easier, and if you find yourself stuck on a level you can skip forward.

If you've enjoyed Geared, now is the time to mash "Check for Updates" in iTunes and get started on the new levels. If this is the first you've heard of the game, I highly recommend at least trying the free version. The developer has started a thread for the new version in our forums, so if you have any questions about the game, that's probably the best place to ask them.

If you've really found yourself stuck in levels 1-80, a fantastic guide was posted on the Mac Rumors forum. Just beware, this will spoil the entire pre-update game for you– Geared Levels 1-80 Walkthrough

App Store Links: Geared, 99¢ – Geared – Free, Free