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.

After a limited release in Canada, ngmoco's We Rule has finally launched worldwide.

We Rule is a kingdom building game, somewhat similar to the massively popular Facebook game Farmville. Here's what we had to say about the game from our hands-on preview at Macworld San Francisco:

The game map shows you your kingdom as well as the kingdom of your Plus+ contacts. Scrolling across the map shows you the relative size of everyone's kingdoms. The goal of the game is to build up your community as much as possible, but with the added twist that your own kingdom can be customized with a number of special cosmetic tweaks. These tweaks will make your kingdom truly unique and personalized.

The game consists of alternating between your daily activities of harvesting or otherwise managing your resources while building up new houses, farms, and businesses. Your kingdom will be bustling with activity from townspeople as it grows, though unlike God Finger, you don't actually have individual control of the inhabitants. …Read More.

The game is free to download and play and has been well received since its original Canadian launch.

App Store Link: We Rule, Free

One of our favorite games this month was One Man Left's Tilt to Live, a fast paced object avoidance game that has also been getting overwhelmingly positive feedback in our forums.

The game is presently on sale for only $0.99, so if you haven't picked it up yet, now's your chance. Riding on their early success. One Man Left has revealed to us that they are planning a couple of additional game modes for Tilt to Live that will be arriving in April. The new modes are described here:

Code Red

Rather than guiding players along a polite difficulty curve, we’re chucking them off a difficulty cliff with Code Red mode. This gametype is best described as “Classic mode on crack”. Everything from Classic is there, but the red dots will spawn at their highest intensity right from the start. It’s tailor-made for experienced players that “just wanna get to the good part”, without enduring the buildup.

Gauntlet Mode

Run the Gauntlet to put your precision tilting skills to the test! In Gauntlet mode, players compete for the longest survival time rather than highscores or combos. Enemies waves will no longer relentlessly chase you. Instead, the dots work together to form an increasingly difficult treadmill course of smashers, battle axes, windmills, and more. It’s an entirely new gameplay experience! The difficulty curve will be comparable to our original gametype, a crescendo from manageable to kick-your-butt. Early dot obstacles and gameplay will be showcased in our teaser video, and even more sinister twists are in development as we speak.

Meanwhile, this video shows Gauntlet in action:

One Man Left promises more game modes, awards and weapons in future versions of the game. If you haven't picked this one up yet, we still highly recommend it.

App Store Link: Tilt to Live, $0.99

I'm still kind of stunned it's already Friday, after GDC madness last week and playing catch up this week I'm not even sure where all the time went. Regardless, we missed our sales and freebies post this week, so I've dug up an extra helping of freebies in attempt to make amends this week. As always, the standard iTunes price change disclaimer is in effect. These prices are all current as of Friday afternoon, but due to the nature of the App Store are subject to change at any time. If you've got your eye on one or more of these games, you're probably better off grabbing them ASAP.

Earth Vs Moon, 99¢ → FREE

Quite possibly one of the best missile command spinoffs on the App Store, we loved Earth Vs Moon in our review, and since then it has only gotten better with updates. This one has been free for a few days now, and likely will return to normal price any time now, so grab it while you still can… And if you miss the free promotion, it's still totally worth a buck if you haven't heard of it before.

Other notable freebies include:

• Crazy Turkey Blast, 99¢ → FREE
• DJ Jones, 99¢ → FREE
• Kaloki Adventure, $1.99 → FREE
• My Brute, $3.99 → FREE
• TowerMadness, $2.99 → FREE

As far as game sales are concerned, a few Gameloft games were recently dropped to 99¢. I've had a good time playing through all of these, so if you don't own them yet, I can think of worse ways to spend $5:

• Blades of Fury, $4.99 → 99¢
• Dungeon Hunter, $4.99 → 99¢
• Earthworm Jim, $4.99 → 99¢
• Real Soccer 2010, $4.99 → 99¢
• Skater Nation, $4.99 → 99¢

And of course, there are a ton of other games with recent price drops:

• 2012 Zombies vs Aliens, $1.99 → 99¢
• Across Age, $6.99 → $5.99
• Alien Glyphs, $3.99 → $2.99
• Azkend, $4.99 → $2.99
• Battle for Wesnoth, $4.99 → $2.99
• Boom Brigade, $3.99 → $1.99
• Doodle Bomb, $1.99 → 99¢
• Dragon Portals, $4.99 → $2.99
• Electric Box, $1.99 → 99¢
• Fighting Fantasy: Deathtrap Dungeon, $2.99 → $1.99
• Fighting Fantasy: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, $2.99 → $1.99
• Geared, $2.99 → 99¢
• Hottie Hookups, $1.99 → 99¢
• Occurro!, $1.99 → 99¢
• ReBounce, $1.99 → 99¢
• Tall Bike Joust, $2.99 → 99¢
• Thumpies, $2.99 → 99¢
• TRANSFORMERS G1: AWAKENING, $4.99 → $2.99

There are many other games with recent price changes, and you can see a listing of popular games and all games on sale over on AppShopper. Stay tuned for more freebies and sales next week, same bat time, same bat channel.

A year ago ChronoSoft brought us the dungeon crawler Rogue Touch [App Store], included in our Best Games of 2009 roundup and my personal favorite iPhone roguelike. The game has been well-supported by the developer and has gathered quite a following in our forums. Over the past few months, however, developer Kevin Hill has been fairly quiet, leading us to wonder just what he's been up to.

As it turns out, with the roguelike formula held firmly in mind, Kevin's been busy at work on a new iPhone game. Yesterday, in our forums, Kevin announced his forthcoming title Spirit Hunter Mineko: Demon's Reach.

Spirit Hunter Mineko: Demon's Reach is a roguelike / dungeon crawler with a bit of a backstory. The game centers around Mineko, an average teenage girl who enjoys exploration, spelunking, and sparring with tough monsters. Stubborn, short-tempered, and rebellious, Mineko lives with her family in a secluded mountaintop village. She is a Spirit Hunter, trained from a young age in the art of channeling her spirit to perform magical feats. And while she demonstrates great skill, she is still treated like a child by her village. However, Mineko's chance to prove herself has just arrived.

One dark night a vicious storm kicks up, tearing through the valley below and whistling through the peaks that she calls home. Upon waking the next day, Mineko and every last member of the village are amazed to see that this was no ordinary storm! Down in the valley that previously contained nothing but dense forest, a huge castle has materialized… apparently from thin air! Its sinister appearance, as though an enormous evil hand was stretching out of the earth towards some unseen desire, immediately earns it the name "Demons Reach".

The village council decides to send a scout into the valley to investigate and, in a move that infuriates Mineko, her brother is chosen for the task. Not one to mope about the house, Mineko grabs up her dagger and crossbow, opens the hidden door in the floor of her bedroom, and it's off to high adventure she goes.

Spirit Hunter Mineko, while a dungeon crawler like Rogue Touch, is rather more similar to some of the iconic SNES and Gameboy Advance adventures of the past. It features a unique world with monsters, gameplay mechanics, and graphics not inspired by any existing roguelike. Unlike the much more graphically simple Rogue Touch, the new title is an OpenGL ES-based affair featuring smooth-scrolling travel through the game's various levels. As the development of the title progresses, detailed animations and particle effects will come into play, as well. The developer likens his vision of the completed title to Shiren the Wanderer for the DS.

Kevin has just posted an early video of the game that serves as more of a "tech demo" of the game system as it stands currently than a demonstration of any meaningful gameplay.

The developer tells us that, while the early video demonstrates his line-of-sight algorithm, he plans to finesse the system with a smooth-shadow effect before release. He also indicates that the onscreen mini-map, in the final game, will start small and slowly fill out as you explore the randomly-generated levels. And, while the video shows only the game's dungeon environments, there are currently four different environments / tilesets planned for the release version.

We're told that there's much left to do in this title before it's ready for the App Store, but, remembering Rogue Touch, we're rather confident that the end result will be worth the wait. Stay tuned for more on ChronoSoft's Spirit Hunter Mineko: Demon's Reach down the road.

Halfbrick's latest game actually started its life on the PlayStation Network as a PSP Mini, along side Fieldrunners and a small hand full of other similar bite-sized titles. Recently making its way to the iPhone, Blast Off is nearly identical to its PSP counterpart, with the control scheme as the main differentiator.

In Blast Off, you control a tiny rocket ship blasting through space rescuing astronauts. Touching the screen tilts your ship in that direction and fires your rocket, usually sending you off that way. Your enemy in the game is gravity, and the game is over when you crash– Numerous celestial bodies are scattered across each level, each which have a different effect on your ships trajectory.

As you blast through space, you have to keep an eye on your air and fuel gauges. Air serves as the timer for the levels, and fuel is consumed as you touch the screen to let off rocket burns. Once you get a feel for how the ship performs in space, it won't take long for you to sling shot around planets and use gravity to your advantage to really only need to fire your rocket for minor course changes.

Two different game modes are included, endless mode where you need to rescue as many astronauts as possible while picking up power ups to refuel and refill your air supply. Classic mode consists of 45 levels with multiple difficulties where players must collect as many astronauts on screen as possible then make their way to the warpgate without running out of air or fuel. Both game modes are a lot of fun, although I've found myself preferring endless mode.

Online scores and achievements are tracked via OpenFeint, and Halfbrick has even released the game's soundtrack as a free download on their site. If you've had fun with these kinds of gravity puzzle games in the past, Blast Off is really worth a look.

App Store Link: Blast Off, 99¢

Last week, TouchArcade attended the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2010 in San Francisco, CA. It was an intense and incredibly fun week of developer meetings, parties and events.

We got sneak peeks at a number of games which we've already reported on and a number of unannounced titles that we'll be hearing more about in the near future. Even though GDC officially ended last Saturday, we're still recovering from the trip and catching up on the backlog of games and news that has come out since. We also expect a few more GDC-related posts to trickle out over the next few days.

The iPhone game that seems to have gotten the most buzz at GDC 2010 wasn't even a finished game. Sword and Sworcery definitely wins the prize as the biggest surprise of the trip. In this week's podcast we discuss the reason why the game — even in its unfinished form — seemed to have captured people's imaginations so much.

And our reactions weren't out of the place, as the game has seen a similar reaction amongst other gaming sites as well.

In our GDC Wrapup Podcast we also discuss other interesting games including Sketch Nation, Faraway, Assault Squadron as well as games from Gameloft, Namco and the promise of iPad gaming.

In my mind, the biggest value of these large conferences to developers is the after-hours events and meet ups with other iPhone developers. As much as TouchArcade is a news and review site, it is also a massive community that successfully brings both developers and players together. It's great to meet up in person with TouchArcade forum regulars who happen to also be developers, even if just to say "hi".

Check out our GDC 2010 Wrapup podcast where Blake, Eli and I discuss the most interesting games that we saw.

Podcast music provided by Overclocked Remix.

Podcast: Subscribe in iTunes or Direct Download (M4A, 42MB)

It seems as if EA's rapid fire release schedule we saw in 2009 is continuing right through to 2010 with the three games that they just revealed new screenshots of today. We don't know that much about these games yet, but should very soon judging by how EA has handled iPhone game launches in the past.

Sim City Deluxe

Coming this summer, Sim City Deluxe looks to be a significant upgrade from the original iPhone Sim City released in late 2008. The interface appears to have been tweaked, and the game also is loaded with new natural disasters and a pinch-zoom function.

The Sims 3 World Adventures

Yet another Sims expansion, this time focusing on exotic destinations such as Egypt and the far east. World Adventures for the PC includes tons of hidden treasures and new things for your Sims to discover, and it seems like we can expect the same out of the iPhone port. Oh, and of course, what would a Sims expansion be without new clothes and furniture?

2010 FIFA World Cup

Set in South Africa, this game appears to be an evolution of FIFA 10 which we enjoyed in our review. If you're a soccer fan, this is likely the soccer game to look forward to on the iPhone.

We will be following up with all of these games as more details are revealed.

In late 2008, Freeverse released the original Flick Bowling, the first of what has since become the Flick Sports franchise. Next week they plan on launching its sequel, Flick Bowling 2, which improves upon the original in every way imaginable. In fact, it's really sort of amazing to go back and look at the original Flick Bowling trailer in comparison to see how much more detailed something as simple as a bowling game has become.

Flick Bowling 2 is controlled using simple touch gestures, and once you get the hang of it, flicking your finger across the screen to bowl works really well. Unlike the original where you applied spin to the ball by swiping across the screen, your entire shot is done in one flicking gesture. To throw the ball straight you flick straight up, to curve it in a particular direction, you simply curve your finger flick. It works surprisingly well.

Another new feature in the sequel is the addition of a story mode. Playing as either Jen or Jim, you'll warp through time (somewhat like Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure) to face off in bowling matches against famous figures in history who also have similarly themed bowling alleys while you make your way to the ultimate bowling showdown with the evil Baron Von Schtopwatch. The game itself even admits the plot makes no sense. Aside from story mode, you can also play regular bowling games as well as a quick three frame game.

Here is a video of me doing poorly against Cleopatra:

One of the most interesting things about Flick Bowling 2 is how Freeverse is pricing it. While the original Flick Bowling launched at $4.99, the sequel will come in two flavors: A completely free ad-supported version, and a paid ads-free version. The only differences between the two games is advertising, and the paid version also comes with multiplayer. Both games will also come with DLC packs for customizing your bowling balls, as well as an additional Helen of Troy level.

Freeverse is shooting for launching Flick Bowling 2 on the 23rd, and I really recommend keeping an eye out for it, especially if in-game ads don't bother you. The bowling control mechanic is fun, the new physics engine is a massive improvement over the original, and the time traveling premise of the game, which is beyond ridiculous, is hard to not enjoy.

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