One of the first highly successful games in the App Store was Majic Jungle's Chopper [App Store], a side-scrolling aerial shooter that's an adaptation of his original Mac release. The game has seen well over one million downloads since its release and is a pretty fun time on your iPod or iPod touch.

We spent some highly enjoyable face time with Dave Frampton, the man behind Majic Jungle, at MWSF '09 and WWDC '09. As such, I've been following him on Twitter and have long been seeing the occasional tweet about the progress of his upcoming sequel, Chopper 2. Yesterday I pinged Dave and demanded a solid update on this title that we've been quite anxious to see. Happily, with minimal threats, he agreed to give us the latest details and an exclusive set of screenshots of the in-progress title, as well.

Chopper 2 is a complete re-write, with full 3D graphics, numerous different landscapes and a realistic Chipmunk based physics system. It still retains the classic side-scrolling shooter gameplay, however. The control system in the game has been completely overhauled, allowing for touch based aim control independent of the tilt based flight control. There's also the option to use a touch based flight control method with a virtual D-pad.

Chopper 2 has eight different enemies with unique weapons and AI. There are also allies in some missions who will help by firing at the enemy. Some enemies fire homing missiles, and some fire multiple missiles in rapid succession. The missions themselves are also much more diverse than in the original Chopper. In one mission, you and your allies defend a base while a long line of enemies attack from both sides. In another mission you pick up a bomb disposal expert, take him to disarm a bomb in an office tower, and defend his position from attacking enemies until he's done. Sometimes you have to kill a certain enemy but are free to ignore others, and sometimes you must not kill any enemies. There is limited ammo and a new health meter that allows you to take a certain number of hits before you die. Most missions have a base or two where you can regain health and/or ammo, but there is a time bonus you'll be sacrificing to do so.

Chopper 2 will be utilizing the OpenFeint network for online scores, with a high score tracked for each of the 12 locations. Each location has three missions, and there will be three difficulties to play through. This makes for a total of 36 missions in each difficulty setting. The progression structure is non-linear, with a map based system where you unlock new locations and missions to choose between.

The story is not yet complete but, similar to the original Chopper, there is instructional story dialog before each mission. However, Dave tells us that Chopper 2 has a unique and impressive way of delivering this dialog, which makes the story a lot more engaging. We'll hear more about that as the title approaches release.

If all this isn't enough to pique your interest, Dave is also working on an iPad version of the game that will be part of the single-app release — one version for both iPhone and iPad. Having planned to release a Mac version of Chopper 2 following the iPhone release, Dave has had high resolution graphics at the ready all along. He indicates that the work involved in fully utilizing the enhanced features of the iPad is fairly minor and feels that it makes little sense to charge gamers again for it.

Dave was kind enough to provide us with an early iPad simulator screenshot of Chopper 2 in action. The shot doesn't feature all of the graphics of the final iPad version, but it does give some idea of what the device's extra screen real estate offers.

Click for full-sized iPad screenshot

Chopper 2 is not too far from completion, but Dave indicates it won't make the April 3 iPad release. There's no solid release estimate right now, as the developer wants to make sure the game is fully ready in all respects before it lands in the App Store, but he tells us it's coming along quite nicely. Price is yet to be solidly determined, but Dave indicates that it will fall somewhere below $5. Stay tuned for more details on Chopper 2 as we get them.

In many ways Aftermath is the zombie shooter I've been waiting for.

You find yourself walking the streets at night of a zombie infestation, trying to fight your way out of the city. It's dark and raining. The entire scene is dark with the exception of your flashlight. You move around frantically trying to take out the incoming zombies when a flash of lighting reveals a horde of them right behind you.

The mood of the game really is perfect. The lighting effects, 3d engine and sound come together to give Aftermath a great feel. Your character is controlled by two thumb pads, but not in the traditional dual-stick format. Left is movement while the right one lets you turn left/right. Meanwhile, firing at zombies is automatic when you point at them with your flashlight. While this may sound awkward, it works quite well and makes the game feel a bit more realistic and frantic as you must be facing your opponents to fire at them.

Another aspect of the game that really stood out was the large city map in which the levels take place. There are blind alleys, cars, and buildings. You need to navigate your way around parts of the city to make your way through the level goals. This is a refreshing change from other dual stick shooters such as Alive 4 Ever which have all taken place in small square-shaped arenas. In Aftermath, you really feel like you are getting lost in the city.

Check out the video for the gameplay:

The game, however, only comes with an 8 level story mode and a final survival mode, but is integrated with OpenFeint for high score achievements.

While there is some replay value in the existing story levels to improve your score (and, of course, the survival mode), the main criticism about the game is this relatively short level structure. The early levels can go by really quickly and leave you wanting for more.

Still, it's hard to find too much fault in the game at only $0.99 when other games launch with much less. If you're looking for an atmospheric zombie shooter, this one's an easy recommendation.

App Store Link: Aftermath, $0.99

We went over the basic premise of the game in our original preview:

Revolt is an exquisite looking shooter that departs from the usual dual-stick model of unlimited ammo run-and-gunning by throwing a surprising amount of strategy into the mix. The gameplay promotes taking cover and rolling to avoid enemy fire, and ammo needs to be carefully managed across 15 weapons and 5 weapon types. A mixture of lasers, grenades and missile launchers serve to create some of the most impressive explosions and combat effects we've seen on the AppStore, too. To boot, Revolt seems to take its storytelling seriously, the gameplay spanning over 8 campaign levels and an impressive 20 survival arenas.

The build we were sent was a preview in every sense of the word, most of the art has yet to be finalized, menus are basic, and they haven't added the story elements yet. However, as far as a beautiful framework for a dual stick shooter is concerned, these guys nailed it.

Check out the gameplay video which shows a bit of story mode and survival mode:

Survival mode is particularly interesting in Revolt, as you fight off enemies in waves and between each wave you're given the opportunity to spend the credits you collect in game on ammo, grenades, and other goodies. I've spent a considerable amount of time trying to make it through the survival mode, and there seems to be an interesting layer of strategy in stocking up on weaponry. The easy levels obviously don't require anything, but once you survive past the first few waves, grenades and other weapons become mandatory.

Revolt is still in development, but shows a considerable amount of promise. We'll be keeping an eye on this game's development, and if you want to know more, stop by the developer's thread on our forums.

We sat down with the guys from The Binary Mill late Friday evening at GDC to check out their upcoming shooter, Assault Squadron. The most immediately noticeable feature about the game is the insane frame rate it all runs at, and the developers insist that it even runs at a solid 60 FPS even on the 1st generation iPod touch. These performance levels are important, especially as the game increases in difficulty and you find yourself in "bullet hell," as the developers put it.

The twist of Assault Squadron comes from the two gameplay modes the various levels alternate between. While playing through the game, you'll go through a level where it plays like a vertical shooter with your phone held in portrait mode. Following that, the game might alternate to a horizontal side scrolling level. With each transition you see different sides of both your ship and enemies, and the gameplay feels slightly different as well.

Other than that, Assault Squadron comes with everything you could possibly want in a shooter. There's a crazy scoring system with multipliers galore (and online leaderboards via Crystal), four different ships that all handle differently with their own unique weapon systems, upgrades everywhere, and best yet– Control options that should satisfy everyone between the on-screen touch controls, a virtual joystick, and tilt.

Take a look at the recently release gameplay trailer:

The developers have mentioned they still have balancing a bug fixing to do, but hope to have Assault Squadron on the App Store sometime this spring. For more information on the game, take a look at the thread on our forums which is home to quite a ton of Assault Squadron media.

This new game mode also includes all kinds of new loot to collect to turn in to credits for the various armor and weaponry upgrades included in the game to make your character even more powerful.

The recently released trailer shows co-op gameplay:

If you've grown bored of Eliminate in the past, it might be worth giving this new game mode a spin. It seems pretty fun so far, although having played similar game modes in many XBOX 360 games, it really really makes me wish Eliminate included some kind of voice chat.

App Store Link: Eliminate: CO-OP, Free

If Gameloft's highly "inspired" games make your eyes roll, you should turn back now because when I first saw Zombie Infection today there was little I could do to stop myself from groaning at the first level we were shown– A nearly identical African cityscape to the one found in Resident Evil 5, with an equally similar premise to the game complete with a second character you come across named Shawna who serves as your female sidekick.

Zombie Infection comes loaded with 10 levels, some lifted directly out of Resident Evil games, and others in locations that could either be described as "ridiculous", "awesome", or possibly even "ridiculously awesome". One such locale we were shown was a zoo, filled with zombie zoo animals. After just barely making it out alive after fighting a zombified lion, my play session was brought to an end by some gigantic crocodile that sprung up from the water.

Like other similar Gameloft games, controls work exactly how you would expect. A virtual joystick handles all your movement, while context sensitive buttons appear that do things like open doors, shoot, holster your gun, unleash melee attacks, etc. Speaking of melee attacks, there's also a number of "finisher" moves that you can pull on nearby zombies. For instance, if a zombie is knocked to the ground you can run over to them and a button will activate allowing you to stomp their head. Also, like Resident Evil games, you cannot move and shoot at the same time.

I wasn't able to get a solid answer on the graphics engine powering Zombie Infection, but the polygon count of the character models, scenery, and all the texturing was extremely detailed. On top of that, it was running at an excellent framerate, making the whole package that much more impressive.

Aside from the standard campaign mode, there's also going to be a survival mode Gameloft is calling "Arena Mode" where players fight off endless swarms of zombies. Other details are scarce at the moment, and much like Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell we only had enough time with the game to blow through a few levels. Needless to say, I'll be giving Zombie Infection a thorough play through as soon as its released sometime later this month.

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction for the iPhone closely follows the console game with the same title. In fact, they are so alike, they even share cut scenes and voice work. (And because of this the voice acting is much higher quality than typical Gameloft games.) There is also a surprising amount of chatter between the bad guys you come across, and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction is one of the few iPhone games that frequently drops the F bomb. It will be interesting to see how much of that remains in the final version of the game.

There are 10 included levels that Gameloft estimates will take players anywhere between 4 to 5 hours to burn through, and of the few levels we were able to see in the demonstration the locales vary wildly from night time stealth missions to missions in middle eastern cities complete with sand blowing everywhere. Overall the game looks amazing, and according to Gameloft is running on the next evolution of the NOVA engine.

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction controls well, using a virtual joystick for movement, an array of context sensitive buttons that appear when needed as well as the same buttons that act like dials seen in many other Gameloft games that can be swiped to select different weapons and gadgets. There's a cover system, different instant kill melee attacks, and a "tag and execute" aiming mode that can potentially allow players to slay entire rooms full of bad guys.

For the few minutes I was able to play of the game, it's hard to form much of an opinion on it. Initial impressions are positive, but we'll need to put the game through its paces once it's finally released. Gameloft isn't discussing release dates with Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction yet, but the console versions of the game are due to be released on April 13th, so it's unlikely that we will see the iPhone game before then.

From our preview:

In Cocoto Magic Circus, you take on the role of Cocoto, Shiny, Neuro, or Baggy on a mission to save poor Fairy, the pixie, who has been kidnapped by a sinister and disturbing clown. In order to save her, you must progress through five different creepy carnival settings, wielding your dart-gun like a champ, tapping true on the clown's various minions to knock them into oblivion. There are seven shooting gallery-style mini-games in each of the settings, making for 35 challenges in all.

While it's true that shooting gallery titles are generally rather simplistic affairs — and there's certainly no lack of such games in the App Store — Cocoto Magic Circus is a surprisingly enjoyable little game. The visuals are very well done — cartoonish, cute, and atmospheric with a nice parallax effect to the scenes that adds a sense of depth to the game. Complexity is added to the title's tap-to-shoot dynamic by way of line-of-fire obstacles as well as floating bonuses and special effects that, when shot, trigger things both good and bad: double shot score, free hits, lights out, gun jams, flip screen, etc. It's a nice touch.

Cocoto Magic Circus is a fun series of tap to shoot mini-games that is enhanced by a real-time online multiplayer mode that worked pretty well in the few games I was able to play. The game has seen an overwhelmingly positive reception in our forums, and while these tap to shoot games never come close to the feel of an actual light gun game, Cocoto Magic Circus is really worth checking out.

App Store Link: Cocoto Magic Circus, 99¢

Pilot your ship to the beat of the universe and blast a galaxy of invaders out of the sky. Weave through an intense sensory onslaught as you dispatch swarm after swarm of enemies, tapping the touchscreen, and your toes, as you go.

Redux contains over 30 levels of varying visual styles and licensed techno, club and house music. The latest gameplay video shows much enhanced visuals from the original release:

We'll post thoughts/impressions about the game in the near future.

App Store Link: Radio Flare Redux, $2.99

First, let's step back a moment and take a look at the overall Vector Tanks situation. Peter's original Vector Tanks appeared in the App Store, published by Chillingo, just over one year ago. It delivered a stylized iPhone take on Ed Rotberg's 1980 arcade classic Battlezone, with a large helping of modern-day retro, thanks to the lovely glowing vector effects that make the iPhone's screen feel more like an Atari Quadrascan display than a 3.5-inch LCD. It's some of the best retro gaming to be found in the App Store.

Early this year Peter parted ways with publisher Chillingo and formed his own studio, the aforementioned BlipTime Studios. In that transition, he brought Vector Tanks along — and with an update — but was unable to provide said update for free to those who purchased the Chillingo Vector Tanks release.

As Peter explains it,

…I apologize that there isn't a way to upgrade. I worked with Apple to try and establish and upgrade path for my current customers but the final answer from Apple was that once you change the account under which an app is published, it will always appear as a "new" app and upgrading is NOT possible. I sincerely apologize. I did try and I know it sort of stinks. My hope is that the reduced price will serve as a good-faith gesture to my current customers who wish to pick up this updated version of Vector Tanks.

To soften the blow of the situation to those who purchased the original, and in honor of the release of Vector Tanks Extreme, Peter is offering the latest version of the original, Vector Tanks (Classic Version) [App Store] for free for one week. Everyone reading this post should just go grab it right now.

Now that we've got all that sorted, let's move back to Vector Tanks Extreme. I had, earlier, described the original Vector Tanks as Battlezone on crack. Given that, Vector Tanks Extreme can only be described as Vector Tanks on crack — squared (and on fire, screaming while giving out wedgies). It's one of the most intensive, white-knucle shooters I've ever played on any platform. And this is true even on the easiest setting. But, when you play at the INSANE difficulty level or in the game's unlimited-lives, balls-to-the-wall, 2-minute Rage mode, it's enough to necessitate a heavy dose of beta-blockers.

The game is basically an exercise in GO GO GO, watch the map to dodge enemy fire, swing behind an obstacle for shielding, and lay down the smack as fast and as hard as you can. And if the aforementioned obstacle is slowing you down, just blow it away. Like the original, Vector Tanks Extreme is controlled by left and right thumb sliders at the edges of the screen that guide the action of your tank's tracks. It's a tap to the screen to fire your weapons, and this time around there are more to be found lying about the battlefield. Canons, rapid fire turrets, rockets, rail guns, nukes — not a very good place to get caught in the crossfire.

Notching up the intensity of the virtual battlefield carnage are the encouraging quips of your in-game crew, consisting of the voices of both Jon St. John (the voice of Duke Nukem) and Jeff Straub. When I try to capture the essence of the game experience, I keep conjuring the image of the famous, '80s Memorex advertisement. It's pretty much like that, but on an iPhone. And with glowing vectors.

Vector Tanks Extreme uses the network to track global scoring, but things should get even more interesting when Peter releases the first major update, which will enable network competitive play. I'm quite anxious for that to land, but until then, single play against the game's vicious AI is definitely keeping my hands full.

If all that gets your juices flowing, go grab Vector Tanks (Classic Version) [App Store] – for free (for a few more days) — and give it a try. And if you want to take that experience a fair piece beyond the next level, you know where to look. Vector Tanks Extreme. Can you take it?

App Store Link: Vector Tanks Extreme, $1.99