The holidays are triggering even more massive sales from some major titles. Here are a few of the biggest from the past few days.

• 2XL ATV Offroad ($7.99 -> $0.99) – For only $0.99 you can get a really high quality ATV racer from 2XL. We highly recommended it at $7.99, so it really a "must buy" for $0.99.
• Doom Classic ($6.99 -> $2.99) – The classic first person shooter is back and now cheaper than ever. For only $2.99 you can relive it on your iPhone.
• Doom Resurrection ($6.99 -> $1.99) – It may be on rails, but it still evokes that Doom feel. Check out our review, we really enjoyed this one.

Whenever we preview an iPhone racer with an element of the acrobatic, a number of readers always comment, hoping upon hope that it's the iPhone's answer to Geoff Crammond's seminal 1989 release, Stunt Car Racer. And, although such a game may be an excellent example of iPhone racing, their hopes are always just a bit dashed. Beleaguered retro stunt racing fans, say hello to RacerCoaster [App Store] Heiko Irrgang's stab at delivering Stunt Car Racer to the iPhone.

So, getting right to the point — is RacerCoaster iPhone gamers' answer to Stunt Car Racer? Well, sort of. It clearly delivers much of the core feel of Crammond's classic to iPhone gamers, but the initial release, at least, is fairly limited by comparison.

The game is rather basic, putting you in accelerometer-based control of a race car with three different elevated tracks upon which to race to choose from which, unlike those of the typical four-wheel racer, are full of dramatic twists, turns, and jumps. A tap to the bottom-right of the screen accelerates and a tap to the bottom-left brakes. The goal is to cross the finish line as fast as possible (of course) and also to grab as much air as you can on the tracks' various jumps. Adding to the challenge is the extreme sensitivity of your vehicle — an overzealous nudge will land you on your side. It's a far more sensitive vehicle than that of Stunt Car Racer.

Unfortunately, merely three tracks is rather few. And the best part of Stunt Car Racer — the gaping sections of missing track that force a jump — are not represented in RacerCoaster. Hills and twists there are, but no you-must-jump obstacles. Still, RacerCoaster unquestionably delivers a Stunt Car Racer-esque experience on the iPhone. And for that, despite its limitations, it's a notable release. The game's author has spoken out in our forums indicating that, yes, the game was heavily influenced by Stunt Car Racer and has informed us that in several weeks he plans to begin work on adding interactive elements to the game, such as moving bridges and height-modifying jumps. He is also toying with the possibility of adding AI and a league system, similar to that in Stunt Car Racer.

The game offers on-line score tracking tied to the 93-interactive website, but at the time of this write, I was experiencing problems connecting with that system.

See the developer's gameplay video for a look at the action.

At only $.99, RacerCoaster is hard to resist for anyone that spent quality time with Crammond's excellent release. For racer fans in general, it's an interesting departure from the norm, but the sparse track design and retro feel may come across as a lack of polish, and the limited number of levels won't help in the evaluation. I am thankful that the developer has plans to expand the game on a number of fronts and feel that updates in this regard will eliminate any concerns of the game being too basic. We'll be sure to keep readers informed when the updates arrive.

App Store Link: RacerCoaster, $0.99

What started as a curious animated TV show 20 years ago has since turned in to a cartoon dynasty spanning nearly 500 episodes, nine comic book series, several video games, a theme park ride and even a movie along with the accompanied merchandising blitz of books, board games, t-shirts, and other swag. The Simpsons Arcade [App Store] for the iPhone is the latest entry in The Simpsons empire, and while it's not the most amazing game on the platform, it's one of the better Simpsons games– A bar set hilariously low by previous video games that take place in The Simpsons universe.

Before you get too excited, no, this isn't The Simpsons Arcade from the early 90's. Instead, it's a significant upgrade to the J2ME game. All of the graphics and animations seem to be substantially spruced up, although the same irritatingly repetitive music remains.

In The Simpsons Arcade, you play as Homer, who is on a quest to chase down a mysterious doughnut which also happens to be host to a USB flash drive that holds some kind of secret information that nearly the entire population of Springfield seems to be in on. Using an on-screen joystick and two buttons Homer can perform a variety of simple moves and combos on the seemingly never-ending supply of henchmen that are dead-set on keeping you away from the doughnut in question.

On the way you can pick up a few different weapons that can be used for a little while, along with a few power-ups which allow you to team up with another Simpson for a brief period of time. Bart climbs on your shoulders and shoots with a sling shot, Lisa appears and damages all the enemies on screen, and Marge sends homer in to some kind of tilt-controlled murderous rampage.

In the following gameplay video you can see these power-ups and weapons in action, along with the first two bosses in game: Chief Wiggum and Mayor Quimby.

The gameplay in The Simpsons Arcade isn't anything to write home about. There are much better arcade-style beat-em-ups on the platform with better animations and more depth such as the recently released OMG Pirates! and other similar games. However, if you're a fan of the series, The Simpsons Arcade comes with enough Simpsons references between familiar locales and popular characters as bosses that you'll likely enjoy playing it.

App Store Link: The Simpsons Arcade, $4.99

Tiger Style's Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor [App Store] is a clever adventure game where you play as a spider, spin webs, eat bugs, and so other spidery things– All the while either unraveling or completely ignoring the mystery of Bryce Manor. We love the game in our review, and particularly enjoyed how well the entire game is controlled:

As a spider, you are able to crawl across objects, jump great lengths and lay down silk to weave your web. Spinning a web simply requires you to create closed geometric shapes using your silk. Tapping on the spider toggles silk production while swiping on the spider causes it to jump. Finally, crawling is invoked by simply tapping on the screen. All in all, the controls work incredibly well and makes it feel like a natural iPhone game.

The recent update adds 10 additional levels, 24 new achievements, a level select, new music, and hornet's nests. Dubbed the "Director's Cut", this update seeks to flesh out some of the game's story, answer some of the mysteries, and even provide some new ones along with providing other refinements and additions.

Hornets, one of my favorite bugs to devour, are actually the star of their new not-quite-a-lite free spinoff game, Spider: Hornet Smash [App Store]. In Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor, eating hornets involves tackling them in-air, as they're impervious to your webs. Hornet Smash turns this in to an entire game where you must tackle as many hornets as possible before getting beaten to death by angry hornets.

With online leaderboards, multiple levels, and a teaser for the full game, Spider: Hornet Smash is different enough that it's still worth downloading even if you own Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor and if you haven't downloaded the full version yet, Hornet Smash serves as a great introduction to the mechanics of being a spider of Bryce Manor.

App Store Links: Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor, $2.99 – Spider: Hornet Smash, Free

Fallen EP-1 is the first of what may be many episodic downloads in a new franchise by 7thSenseStudios. With a creepy story, gory visuals, and puzzles that make great use of the platform, fans of Silent Hill can rejoice, as the iPhone has finally gotten a legitimate adventure/horror game in that vein.

In Fallen, you'll play as Roman Mendez, a man who has been sentenced to a brutal prison sentence for reasons unknown to the player. Roman is somewhat of a troublemaker, and has thus been recently sent to the prison's isolation cells as punishment. The game opens with a brutal scene in which several SWAT squad members are murdered by strange and disgusting creatures in the hallway outside of the isolation cells, and Roman's cell is mysteriously unlocked, leaving him to try to figure out what is going on and escape the prison.

Fallen does feature simple combat mechanics in which Roman is forced to defend himself from a variety of creatures, including what look like rabid dogs and giant, nasty insect monsters. The combat is nothing special, but some strategy is actually included when the insects are introduced, as it'll be necessary to dodge their spitting attack to survive.

Despite the occasional combat sequence, Fallen is all about exploration and puzzle solving. The biggest puzzle in Fallen's first episode involves getting together all the needed tools to repair a fuse box. Finding one piece of the puzzle leads to the next, and the process repeats until you'll find yourself in possession of all of the necessary tools. After finding all of the pieces needed to complete the fuse box puzzle, you'll have to use your newly collected tools in a variety of minigames that use the iPhone's unique features in clever ways. This adds a small amount of gameplay variety to Fallen, which would otherwise be about little more than the exploration of a creepy prison.

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We're a bit late with this posting, but today's Appvent Calendar freebie is Mini Squadron.

We really enjoyed this 2D dog fighting game and highly recommended it even at its original $2.99 price, so getting it for free should be a no brainer.

App Store Link: Mini Squadron, Free (Today only)

Ngmoco has managed to push new content to their free game Eliminate Pro outside of Apple's updates system. So players who launch their game today will be greeted with a New Content download that delivers a new map, a new weapon, and a map reskin:

• Runoff (Map) – Get wet in RUNOFF, our new map that features both land and water elements. Gain elevation in this vertically stacked map to snipe at players below – or dive into the water to escape fire and snag powerups. Runoff is great for gravity gunning, jumping, sniping, and swimming.
• Dualcannon Prototype (Weapon) – The DualCannon packs two powerful blasts dealt in quick succession. More damage per plasma node than its Plasma Cannon cousin, but it takes longer to reload.
• Frostbite (Map) – A holiday reskin of the Bedlam map.

Here's a video of the new veritical map, Runoff:

App Store Link: Eliminate Pro, Free

iPhone gamers fond of a little time on the virtual battlefield may have something to look forward to in Thunder Game Works' upcoming WWI-based Trenches for the iPhone and iPod touch. Thunder Game Works has been teasing readers about the game since mid-November hoping to build up interest in their first title. As it turns out, the developers have revealed that Trenches is 2D, side-view attrition warfare game that involves resource management and strategic deployment of troops, utilizing touch-based line-drawing elements for movement of troops across the battlefield.

The game features a campaign mode which takes you through the course of the Great War as Thunder Game Works has laid it out, as well as a skirmish mode that allows the player to choose his or her own setup for a quick game, including specifying troops, bombardment abilities, and even the amount of trenches and barbwire on the battlefield. There's also a hidden sub-game that can be unlocked by the savvy.

In order to keep the game's replay value high, the developers have implemented an "adaptive artificial intelligence" system that monitors players around the world and learns from their tactics, resulting in an evolving enemy AI that results in never playing the same game twice. The game's music system varies the in-game music based upon how well — or poorly — you're doing on the battlefield, to deepen the atmosphere of the action. OpenFeint integration tracks global high scores as well as achievements.

Trenches was developed by the same team that created the popular tower defense title Tap Defense [App Store]. It makes extensive use of original and professional voice acting for both the British and German troops and features art by Michael Heald of FullyIllustrated.

See the developers' trailer video for a look at the game in action.

See the lengthy Trenches post in our forums to see how readers like what they've seen. The game has recently been submitted to Apple and is set to make its App Store debut next month, January 2010.

The lovable and courageous Mr. stick figure from Mr. AahH!! [99¢ / Free] apparently has escaped from swinging between platforms only to find himself in an even more precarious situation. In Mr. Space!! [99¢ / Free], you're trapped in some kind of stick figure trash compactor which endlessly slams down on your little guy, who presumably wants to do nothing more than get home to Mrs. Space.

The gameplay is simple, and amounts to nothing more than moving to one of the openings between the top and bottom of the screen before they slam shut. This starts off slow and easy, but doesn't take long for the levels to be to be filled with fast-moving extremely jagged smashers that take a surprising amount of brain power along with fast reaction times to successfully navigate.

You control Mr. Space!! using either buttons which act as a virtual D-Pad of sorts to move right or left in tap mode, or in flick mode you can move your finger along the bottom of the screen and tap where you want him to move. I've found myself preferring flick mode as it seems slightly more precise, but both control options work well.

Once you get squished three times and run out of hearts you can submit your score to an online leaderboard and it will tell you your worldwide ranking, which really seems to motivate me to play even more as if I can break in to the low 200's, surely I can make it in to the 100's, right?

I still find myself preferring Mr. AahH!!, but both games are worth owning if you like games with competitive leaderboards that you can play for a few minutes at a time. Mr. Space!! continues the Mr. tradition of highly energetic music, encouraging sound effects, and of course the constantly moving grid background.

If this is the first you've heard of the Mr. series of games, I highly recommend giving the lite versions of both Mr. Space!! and Mr. AahH!! a try.

App Store Links: Mr. Space!!, 99¢ – Mr. Space!! Lite, Free

Lots of readers along the Eastern seaboard of the U.S., myself included, are heavily snowed in this weekend. And, so, what better time to check out a few free, 'lite' titles to see what you might've missed? Here's a short list of lite releases definitely worth a look if you're still a stranger to them.

• iBlast Moki Lite (iBlast Moki, $1.99) — A fun, high quality physics puzzler with intuitive controls and a full level creation and online sharing system. iBlast Moki made it into our Best iPhone Games roundup for September — it comes highly recommended.

   

• The Settlers – Free (The Settlers, $6.99) — The iPhone installment of a real time strategy game series that's been evolving for two decades, The Settlers challenges you to build a community, establish means of income, and expand your territories by force. Setting it apart from many RTS games, The Settlers focuses more on strategic planning than hands-on micromanagement of resources — this can be a positive or negative depending on your particular taste in strategy games. The game offers a deep experience with beautiful graphics and elaborate world maps.
   
• Rogue Planet – Free (Rogue Planet, $4.99) — Returning home after a 35 year mission in space, the crew of the Nimeh discovers that Earth has been taken over by machines. Such is the plight of the characters at your command in the fast-paced, turn-based strategy game, Rogue Planet from Gameloft. The title delivers a solid play interface, lengthy battle sequences, and excellent enemy AI, in a game that's somewhat reminiscent of Advance Wars. The paid release is well worth the price of admission. Strategy game fans who haven't picked it up should have a look at the lite release.
   
• MiniSquadron Lite (MiniSquadron, $2.99) — Tak Fung's MiniSquadron can be most easily described (well…) as a side-scrolling, physics-based aerial dog-fighting game. In MiniSquadron, you take the stick of a cartoonish, fixed-wing fighter in a frantic bid for supremacy of the skies across eight different worlds — all set to a series of classical compositions. Local WiFi multiplayer is also supported. Action fans who haven't tried it, give the lite a try.

  
   

• Low Grav Racer 2 Lite (Low Grav Racer 2, $2.99) — CobraMobile's futuristic racing title, Low Grav Racer 2, is the closest thing in the App Store to the classic Wipeout. Control any of six futuristic racing craft across 18 different planet and space-based tracks. With more track complexity and tighter action, LGR2 is an improvement on its forerunner. If you like racing and it need not be all about rubber on asphalt, Low Grav Racer 2 might be for you.

  
   

• I Dig It Expeditions Lite (I Dig It Expeditions, $1.99) — InMotion Software's I Dig It Expeditions picks up where the original release left off, after your farmer avatar paid off the bank thanks to the subterranean treasures gathered with his tractor-turned-digger. That sorted, he's decided to travel the world with his digger seeking more treasure. With particularly impressive graphics and various improvements over the original, including an in-game map and waypoint system, I Dig It Expeditions is one it's hard not to dig.

  

Sometimes, being trapped in the house can be a good thing.