It seems like Subatomic and Halfbrick are on the same page lately, as both companies released an update last week for the iPad versions of their game which have finally come to the iPhone versions this week. One week ago today, Fieldrunners 2 HD [$4.99 (HD) / Free (HD)] was updated with a couple of new towers as well as two new Christmas-themed power-ups. Today those items have come to Fieldrunners 2 [$2.99 / Free] on the iPhone, along with widescreen support for the iPhone 5.

I get unreasonably excited when my favorite games get widescreen support. I totally appreciate the fact that non-widescreen games can run on the iPhone 5 with borders rather than not run at all, but just like with playing iPhone games in 2x on the iPad it gets old not having a truly native version of a game or app for your device. And it seems like every day my list grows longer for games I wish to get widescreen updates.

Anyway, if you've been holding out on digging into Fieldrunners 2 waiting for widescreen support to come (I know some of you out there have been), then now is the time to update and get to playing. Oh, and one of the two new towers will run you an unusually high price to unlock in-game, but with good reason. Just like with the iPad version, Subatomic has a new lite version of Fieldrunners 2, and if you download and install it you can unlock the new Polymorph Tower totally for free. So be sure to do that and save yourself some in-game scratch.

One more thing. As a special bonus both the iPhone and iPad versions of Fieldrunners 2 are currently on sale, with the former available for 99¢ rather than its normal $2.99 and the latter down to $2.99 from its regular $7.99. Be sure to take advantage of these sales while they last, and hit up our Fieldrunners 2 review or the thread in our forums for more on this fantastic tower defense game.

One of the very best gaming moments in my life took place 28 years ago, yet I remember it as vividly as if it happened yesterday.

One evening in 1984, my mother and I drove out to meet my father after work for dinner, after a quick stop at the mall to visit the local Games 'n' Gadgets. On this night, I wasn't just browsing again. No, I had been granted the rare opportunity to actually take a title off the shelf and buy it. On arrival, I wasted no time dilly dallying; I walked right over to the Apple II section, grabbed the game of my desire, and took it to the cash register where dear old mom kindly pulled out the plastic and paid the $39.95. A short while later, over at the restaurant, I excused my 12-year-old self from the table and walked to the pay phone on the wall by the bathrooms. I put in my quarter, dialed my best friend, and when he answered, I looked down at the box in my hands and proudly proclaimed, "I got it! I have it right here! I got Karateka!"

Ahh, Karateka. It wasn't a game so much as a living story that you, the player, were a part of. Within the severe constraints of the technology of the early '80s, designer Jordan Mechner pulled the player into the tragic tale of Princess Mariko, captured by the evil warlord Akuma and held in his fortress high atop a craggy cliff. It was up to you, and you alone, to fight your way through Akuma's warrior defenses in order to save the princess. Your only weapon was your skill at Karate, and there were no second chances -- as in the real world, death came but once, and finally. The game was beautifully executed and wrung true emotion from the player who was often at the edge of his or her seat. For these reasons, Karateka is widely considered to be one of the greatest 8-bit home computer games ever created.

Flash forward 30 years to a time where the machines we all use daily are thousands of times more powerful than the Apple II on which Karateka was originally written. Mechner, who created Karateka out of an interest in film and animation and a desire to convey a story, began to consider how his 30-year-old idea might be realized on today's flat panel displays. To bring this about, he teamed up with Liquid Entertainment early this year and the team set to work re-envisioning the 8-bit classic. The fruits of their labor went live first on the Xbox 360 early last month, and the iOS version [$1.99] has just landed in the App Store.

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Wow, this is awesome news. One Man Left's fantastic arcade title Tilt to Live [$2.99] and its iPad-only counterpart Tilt to Live HD [Free (HD)] are both receiving updates that will take their previously local-only cooperative multiplayer modes online using Game Center. If you're unfamiliar, Tilt to Live is an avoidance game that has you tilting your device to avoid a barrage of nasty red dots. It uses this base mechanic in several different modes, each having their own unique feel and style making for one of the best arcade games available on the App Store. We summarized the whole Tilt to Live experience pretty well when the game went free earlier this month (which it still is by the way).

The Viva La Turret paid expansion that hit Tilt to Live in late 2010 was updated a couple of months later with a really interesting co-op component, called Viva La Co-op. Connecting locally via Bluetooth, two players could work together with one controlling a mega-turret laying waste to all the incoming baddies and the other person nimbly moving around the play field collecting the spoils of the downed enemies. It was an incredibly fun mode, but required having another person physically there with you to play. With this new update, now you can get your co-op on using Game Center to team up with random players or invite friends from your friends list.

We're excited to dive in and try out the new "Viva La Co-op" online multiplayer, but as of this writing the update has yet to hit the US App Store, we've only gotten word of the update via an email from the developers. But, not one to want to waste time, I figured I'd let the cat out of the bag as soon as possible, so if the update isn't showing for you just yet it will soon, for both the iPhone and iPad versions of the game. Oh, and the iPhone version is also receiving widescreen support as part of this update, something that makes me very happy indeed. Get online and partner up for this new and improved Tilt to Live experience.

Update on the update: The update is now out!

If you're a fan of card games on the App Store, there's a good chance you've heard of Playdek. Creators of the competitive card game Ascension [$0.99], we gave it acceptable marks when it debuted over a year ago. Now, Playdek has partnered with Looney Labs to create an iOS port of Fluxx [$0.99], a more casual-oriented game than its previous offering. Assuming you're in the mood for a game more reminiscent of Uno than Magic, Fluxx may be worth checking out.

For folks unfamiliar with the actual title, Fluxx is a card game for 2-4 players with an emphasis on changing the rules. Cards are divided into four different types: Rule Cards, Keepers, Goals, and Actions. Players initially start out with two cards the baseline rules of having to draw a card from a pile and playing a card from their hand. However, strewn across the virtual deck are rule cards that can change a variety of different parameters. Some examples are cards that change how many cards you can hold in your hand, the amount of cards drawn during each turn, the maximum amount of cards you can hold at any one point, and so on.

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iOS's fantastic little 2D Minecraft-alike (or Terraria-alike if you will), Junk Jack [$2.99], has just received a huge update for the holidays. You might remember that we really enjoyed Junk Jack when it released just over a year ago, but noted some areas in need of improvement, and mentioned at the end of our review that we hoped developer Pixbits would keep expanding their game through updates. Well, after 9 major updates, including an awesome Universal iPad update, I'd say that they've definitely come through.

And Pixbits doesn't typically skimp on content in their updates either, and this latest is no exception. Being as this update is holiday themed, the majority of the new content is focused on winter and Christmas stuff. The whole environment is more winter-y now, with snow covering the ground and trees. There's a new block type made of ice, and you can now throw snowballs that you collect in the world.

There's some new winter mobs too, like penguins and a polar bears, and new ice-based weapons that can freeze mobs. Tons of new craftable and discoverable Christmas-themed decorations have been added if you want to add flair to your world, including the very cool ability to craft wrapping paper that will make a block look like a present. If you venture into the underground world of Junk Jack, you can search out a rare placeable Christmas tree as well as an assortment of other decorations.

Also, if you feel like throwing some more dollars at Pixbits, 4 new Christmas-themed IAP costumes have been added, including Santa, a reindeer, a snowman and a Frost Ninja. I don't remember what ninjas have to do with Christmas but I'm just going to go with it. There's a few non-holiday goodies in this update too, like 10 new achievements, a new brown bear mob, and a new Bear Claw weapon.

Oh, and it wouldn't be a Junk Jack update without a mile-long list of tweaks and bug fixes. You can check out this full list of new additions and fixes for the nitty gritty, if you want. We're still waiting for some iPhone 5 screen love, which may come in the form of a new game, but Junk Jack still remains as fun as ever even with black borders so be sure to check out this latest update.

Ubisoft did something special with the iOS release Rayman Jungle Run [$2.99]. They took the gorgeous art assets from Rayman Origins, the critically acclaimed reboot of the Rayman series that hit consoles last year, and reworked them into a game built from the ground up for mobile and touchscreens.

The result was an auto-running version of the popular platformer with 40 brilliantly designed levels, each crafted with Rayman's various special abilities – like wall-jumping and helicopter floating – in mind. Rayman Jungle Run also boasted some of the nicest visuals and smoothest animation on the entire iOS platform. We thought it was a pretty great game in our review.

Yesterday, Rayman Jungle Run's first significant content update landed which added a brand new world called Potpourri. It contains 10 new levels to play through - 9 regular ones and a new ultra-difficult Land of the Livid Dead level. There are some new gameplay elements here too, like triggering platforms by jumping on plants and the ability to slide on water. This new pack of levels is free to everybody, but just FYI you will need an internet connection to download them to your device.

In addition to new levels, there's also a new in-app purchase option. For 99¢ you can unlock a Heroes pack which gives you a playable Globox character and 2 re-skinned Rayman characters. Big ol' Globox is fun to play as for a nice change of pace, though he seems to use the same voice samples as Rayman which is kind of odd. The skins offer a sinister-looking Dark Rayman and an amusing "Rayman dressed in a Globox costume" character. The different characters appear to only offer cosmetic differences, and all play exactly the same, but are fun nonetheless.

Seriously if you like challenging but rewarding games that feel like they're tailor-made for mobile, and are a visual treat to boot, then you need to have Rayman Jungle Run in your collection. The new update adds 25% more levels to the game for free, and if you want to float Ubisoft an extra buck the unlockable skins are a cool bonus.

There are certain games on iOS that just kind of "stick" with some gamers. Even if it isn't the most popular game, or it's a few years old, some games just click for some reason and become lifelong favorites. One of those games for me is TwoHeads Games' Aftermath [$2.99].

Originally launching in March of 2010, the realistic lighting effects, interesting environments, and overall creepy atmosphere made Aftermath a game that we highly recommended checking out. A fairly high level of difficulty and somewhat short campaign were our only real negatives at the time.

Then, more than a year and a half after release, Aftermath received a significant new update which added Retina Display support and a bunch of new levels to the campaign. It also added a welcome new control scheme and a brightness adjustment option, two things that helped tone down some of the more frustrating non-gameplay difficulties in the game.

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You just HAD to know this was coming, right? Angry Birds Seasons [$0.99 / Free] and Angry Birds Seasons HD [$2.99 (HD) / Free (HD)], the pseudo-sequel to the original bird-flinging epic that celebrates special events and holidays, has just been updated with a new "Wintery Theme" pack of levels. Back in my day they used to just call it Christmas. Anyway, the new pack of 25 winter levels uses the same "Advent Calendar" unlock system. A new level becomes available each day from December 1st until Christmas on December 25th. To grab the new daily level you'll have to be connected to the internet with your device, just FYI.

These new levels also contain an icy ground which causes objects to slip and slide much easier than on normal ground, something that can be helpful to utilize in your strategies for getting 3 stars. Also there's a special Harbin level in celebration of an Angry Birds area opening at the Ice and Snow World in Harbin, China. Just another step in Angry Birds' bid of taking over the world. Finally, there are 3 hidden levels for you to discover in this latest update. Oh, and in case you hadn't heard, Angry Birds Seasons received widescreen support in an update back in October, something I'm still hoping comes to some of the other entries in the series.

We've been keeping close watch on the development of Bladeslinger [$2.99] (and so have you, as evidenced by our anticipated game lists). After a soft launch in Canada, we've finally had the opportunity to check out this third-person action brawler. While Bladeslinger certainly delivers with gorgeous visuals (along with a satisfactory narrative), its control scheme leaves a lot to be desired, leading to a far more frustrating experience than one would want.

Coming back to his hometown from war, you play the role of William Glaston, bladeslinger extraordinaire. After quickly discovering that his town is infested with monsters, he begins on a quest to discover the origin of these creatures, and attempt to eradicate them. From a story standpoint, Bladeslinger isn't going to weave a particularly enthralling tale, but the narrative is decent enough to follow. One area that doesn't merit much praise, however, are the voiceovers, which feel forced and stunted. The story is only a small part of Bladeslinger and there are a few other areas that deserve praise, such as the graphics.

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The first time I played Choice of Games' The Fleet [$2.99], the hideous Tribbles succeeded in their conquest of Altair 4. The second time, my homeworld, Earth 2, wound up in the horrid reptilian clutches of the Republicans. It was only on my third try that I liberated Duroon from the Kargham (I went with default names that time.)

The Fleet is Choice of Games' latest iOS gamebook, and at a glance, looks similar to their recent sci-fi release, Choice of the Star Captain [$2.99]. After all, both feature space ships and megalomanical aliens. The style, however, couldn't be more different. Choice of the Star Captain is farcical, somewhere in the cosmology of Red Dwarf, Bill the Galactic Hero and the Space Quest games.

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Motley Blocks [Free / $2.99] takes little voxel statues and blows them into pieces. They probably didn't deserve it. They probably didn't know what hit them. Now they're scattered to bits, and you need to put them back together.

It's a set up for a matching game, but not quite the usual one. Blocks of many colors fly around the screen, doing laps beneath your fingertips. You trace your way through the ones that match, scooping them up so they can be rebuilt. One or two passes are all you have to put what's broken apart back together again.

The fun isn't so much in the matching - it's line drawing with a side of frustration whenever you bump into the wrong color and your combo falls apart. No, the time limit is where the magic happens. After you get beyond the first few, simple levels, there never seems to be quite enough time to clear every single color before that finish line appears on the horizon. It's frantic, but takes extreme control. The distance between those things keeps the game interesting.

When you finish a level, you get to see what you've built. It may be an ice cream sundae or it may be a dragon - it's nice to know which. It's far nicer to know where you rank, because that's when Motley Blocks goes from acceptably fun to dangerously competitive.

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It was over a year ago that we first caught a glimpse of Bladeslinger, and were completely blown away by its stunning visuals. It was originally supposed to release later that year but word on the game fell silent, until this past March when we caught up with developer Kerosene Games and learned that Bladeslinger was still very much in production. Then late last month, Bladeslinger quietly launched in the Canadian App Store as a soft beta, so if you had access to a Canadian iTunes account you could get in on the action, for free no less.

Well, it looks like the beta period is over as Bladeslinger Ep.1 [$2.99] has just gone live in the US App Store. Oh, and it ain't free this time around, the game will run you the still very agreeable price of $2.99. Here's a brand new trailer for Bladeslinger to get you all pumped up for the release.

We're going to be putting Bladeslinger through its paces to see how it holds up, so check back with us soon to get the full skinny on this highly-anticipated title. Until then you can take the $3 gamble and download the game with the link below, or check in with our forum folk who are excitedly discussing Bladeslinger and offering impressions as I type this.

I've got to admit, when I first heard that Rovio was set to release a Star Wars themed Angry Birds game, I thought it was a joke. After I realized that it was real, I started wondering how the mobile giant would treat this venerable series that has, admittedly, had its ups and downs over the years. It turns out Rovio has managed to accomplish the impossible: make a Star Wars game in this day and age that's actually fun to play. Angry Birds Star Wars [$0.99 / $2.99 (HD)] is an excellent addition to the series with just enough fan service and formula tweaks to make it a must-play.

Folks even vaguely familiar with any previous titles in the Angry Birds series will have no problem with Star Wars. The same premise of flinging birds in a slingshot into Empire-dressed pigs applies and is as enjoyable as ever. In addition, Angry Birds Star Wars splits its levels between the traditional worlds found in most titles, and the gravitational fields-based worlds of Angry Birds Space [Free / Free (HD)] It's a nice mix of levels and a great example of how far Rovio has come with level design.

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Beavertap Games launched their inaugural iOS game Mikey Shorts [$0.99 / Free] back in August, and we thought it was simply outstanding in our review. Its main focus was on speeding through levels as quickly and efficiently as possible, though it was also very welcoming to those who just liked to leisurely run and jump through each stage at their own pace. The levels in Mikey Shorts were incredibly well-designed, and the inclusion of Game Center leaderboards fired up the competitive nature of gamers in our forums as they battled it out for top times.

Mikey Shorts was updated about a month after release with new levels and disguises, and late last month a special Halloween-themed version appropriately called Mikey Shorts Halloween [Free] launched for free with several exclusive levels. Today, another new update has landed, and this one is especially neat. It features 15 new disguises, each one modeled after a different indie iOS game. Check out the full list of what games are included below, along with review and forum links where appropriate, and you can see the collection of disguises in the screen right under the list.

• 10000000, $1.99 - [Review] - [Forum]

• Bean's Quest, $1.99 / Lite - [Review] - [Forum]

• Box Cat, $1.99 - [Kitty Korner]

• Commander Pixman, $1.99 / Lite - [Review] - [Forum]

• Disc Drivin', $1.99 / HD, $2.99 / Lite - [Review] - [Forum]

• iBlast Moki 2, Free - [Review] - [Forum]

• League of Evil, $1.99 / Lite - [Review] - [Forum]

• Mos Speedrun, $1.99 / Lite - [Review] - [Forum]

• Pizza Boy, $1.99 / Lite - [Review] - [Forum]

• Polymer, $1.99 - [Review] - [Forum]

• Punch Quest, 99¢ - [Review] - [Forum]

• Super Lemonade Factory, $2.99 - [Review] - [Forum]

• Swordigo, $1.99 - [Review] - [Forum]

• Velocispider, 99¢ / Lite - [Review] - [Forum]

• Wimp: Who Stole My Pants?, 99¢ / Lite - [Review] - [Forum]

If you haven't given Mikey Shorts a try yet, download the lite version or Halloween version and take it for a free spin. I can also effortlessly recommend all of the games on the list above, and it's pretty cool to see Beavertap paying homage to so many games, many of which are platformers that are direct competitors to Mikey Shorts. That's the Indie Scene for you though, warm fuzzies all around, and all that.

A quick word to developers releasing melodramatic arch-fantasy games on iOS: give your Viking brute a name or I will call him Hodor in my internal monologue.

I mean, I'm sure the hero of Alpha Dog Games' Wraithborne [$2.99] has a thoroughly melodramatic backstory -- having been born of a wratih and all -- but the story (and its voice-acted narration) is camp of the highest order. Hodor's warhammer is an appropriate symbol: blunt.

Hodor's hammer is well served by the Unreal Engine, though, which excels at rendering the chunky, heavy violence you'll find in Wraithborne. The enemy and character design isn't much to write home about, but Wraithborne succeeds in making each strike feel physical better than most 3D action games on iOS. Boulders, cystals, and wooden beams shatter nicely, and Hodor's attack animations are just slow and ponderous enough to make combat engaging without making it slow and unresponsive. Clean lines and clear environments roundout Wraithborne's visuals.

The mechanics at play in Wraithborne is standard for action games: light and heavy attacks, a shield, some special spells activated by a rune-tracing mechanic that stopped being interesting halfway through Phantom Hourglass. The controls aren't good per se, but they impart their own weird internal rhythm once you get used to them.

Hodor can equip three spells at a time -- each with their own mana cost and cooldown -- but his mana pool also governs his shield and can be used to power up his basic attacks. At its best, Wraithborne encourages quick decision making: you could cast a healing spell, or just spam your shields to stay alive; you could summon a powerful but inaccurate fireball, or use that mana to power up a dash attack. These trade-offs are the tried and true tropes of action gaming, but they're evergreen because they work.

Furthermore, Wraithborne suggests some amount of depth: Hodor can be seen unleashing projectiles in our TA Plays video, but I could never quite pull those off; there are still a few runes I haven't quite figured out, though perhaps a few upgrades will prove illuminating. The finer points of Wraithborne's mechanics could use more explanation.

The same can be said about Wraithborne's map. The entire game is played in one contiguous, looping area. This is actually pretty neat, as it cuts down on load times, and finding where and how each section dovetails with the others can be its own reward for exploration. More baffling is how Wraithborne handles, say, player death, or the completion of an objective: the game just dumps Hodor in an ostensibly random part of the map.

This isn't really a bad thing -- the world of Wraithborne is pretty small (too small, in fact, for it's over-the-top lore to really take hold), every area is easy to get to, and you can farm goblins and jewels for spell upgrades along the way -- but it is a weird thing.

One explanation might be to pad Wraithborne's length. It's a relatively short game, even by iOS standards -- I completed it in two sittings, deaths and all. Calm your outrage: this injustice is largely mitigated by a robust arena-battle, Horde-like endgame. The game's combat and spell system come to life as you fight wave after wave of goblin, werewolf, and succubus in an attempt to beat your friends' high scores (mine hovers around 34,000). You'll be rewarded with more jewels to upgrade your spells, and optional bosses will also drop the rare spells you didn't find during the campaign. Wraithborne is short, but it also doesn't have the gumption to charge you another $1.99 for new levels: there are no in-app purchases at all.

Wraithborne is Alpha Dogs' freshman effort, and it's not a bad one: it's well-realized within its own confines and makes good use of its visuals and level design. It's probably a bit short and shallow, but touch-controlled action gaming is really difficult, and Wraithborne stakes its claim valiantly.