The Spore series started as a PC game by Will Wright and has since spawned several other games and a line of t-shirts, posters, and other swag. Plans for the future include expansion packs for the original Spore, a Spore card game, and even a Spore movie by the director of Ice Age. But where do the iPhone games fit in to all of this?

The first Spore game released on the App Store, Spore Origins [$1.99 / Free], arrived in early September of '08. At the time, it was an amazing game compared to the other games available in the infancy of the App Store, especially with how few "name brand" game franchises there were available at the time. Sadly, the game has not aged well, and the enhancements made in the sequel, Spore Creatures [$6.99], don't bring much to the table.

Much like the original, the goal in Spore Creatures is to eat everything lower on the food chain than you are to collect DNA which is then used to evolve, improving existing abilities and granting new ones to your creature. You control your creature (this time on land) by tilting, and the heart of the game mostly involves tilting your phone to steer your creature in to anything that moves.

Spore Creatures attempts to add some much-needed depth to the game by adding different obstacles in the game world that require certain creature upgrades to overcome. For instance, one of the first things blocking your progress to the next area of the game is a rock which can only be moved once you've added legs to your creature, giving it the power to move the rock out of the way. Farther in to the game you will come across boss monsters, and other creatures that you can socialize with.

The one thing that is a lot of fun in Spore Creatures is the actual creature editor itself. With 45 unique body parts, body shape, and colors to be tweaked the iTunes description claims that there are billions of possible combinations. Making silly looking creatures is much more fun than tilting your phone to have them randomly bump in to things, and I really hope that EA brings something similar to the Spore Creature Creator to the iPhone some day.

Spore Origins was released at a time when a ton of people were completely engrossed in Spore mania. Now that the Spore franchise is getting stale, I doubt the sequel will have the same allure. Quite simply, there are both better tilting games and better adventure games on the App Store right now, and unless you're in love with the crazy creatures of the Spore universe, there aren't many reasons to spend much time with Spore Creatures.

App Store Link: Spore Creatures, $6.99

Horror movie based game Dawn of the Dead finally arrived in the App Store this evening after a brief premature release a few days ago. The game is based on the 1978/2004 horror film and gives you the opportunity to try to survive the zombie onslaught.

The game offers both Story mode and Challenge modes while playing with one of three different characters: Salesman, Police Officer, and Nurse. Each character has different Speed, Attack, and Shooting attributes to try to give you some variety in different play throughs. The Story mode and Challenge modes have multiple difficulties, but total gameplay time is not very long. You can easily finish the game's story mode on easy in one session, which then unlocks the hard mode. Story mode consists of 5 different levels of varying goals. While these goals include some mild variety over the standard survival tasks of similar games, they are still ultimately pretty shallow. Goals include killing all zombies in an area, surviving a certain time limit, and finding an exit.

Challenge mode adds a few more individual goals (kill x zombies, survival a time limit etc…) that you can play over again to try to best your previous high score. The game offers both melee and range weapons to battle the zombies, and are demonstrated in the following video:

Controls include the typical left/right dual stick controls for movement and shooting, but the shooting control had some consistency issues resulting in moments of frustration when you'd turn around unintentionally.

Ultimately, for such a short game, the replay value relies on how much fun you had playing the first time through, but given some twitchy controls and slowly paced gameplay, we didn't see much reason to go back. Aside from the movie tie-in, there isn't much to make the game stand out.

App Store Link: Dawn of the Dead, $1.99

THQ Wireless released Star Wars: Trench Run tonight which offers you a chance to relive the key scenes surrounding the destruction of the Death Star by the rebel forces in the original Star Wars the movie.

Your mission: Use the Force to overthrow the evil Galactic Empire as they attempt to destroy the small rebel base on the jungle moon of Yavin 4. As part of the Rebel Allianceʼs Red Squadron, you dogfight with TIE fighters above the Death Starʼs surface before heading into a trench where you are inundated by cannon fire. Dodge obstacles and stay out of Darth Vaderʼs sights as he tries to gun you down before you have the chance to fire your proton torpedoes into the 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.

For anyone who has seen the movie, the plot is laid out for you: combat some Tie fighters, navigate the trench while avoiding obstacles and taking out turrets, avoid Darth Vader's attack from behind and finally shoot your proton torpedoes into the exhaust port.

The only tie-in with the Force is the ability to slow-down time by pressing on the left side of the screen which slows the action down. Right side of the screen fires your lasers while a top left button alternates your cockpit or exterior view. The game comes with Mission and Arcade modes. Mission mode takes you through the above objectives in sequential order while Arcade focuses on two areas (Trench Run and Dogfighting) that you play over and over in increasingly difficult levels.

Overall, the game feels like a series of mediocre mini-games tied together by scenes from the original movie. While there are multiple difficulty levels, none of the individual gaming components were particularly compelling, so once we had made it through the campaign mode on easy (a 10-20 minute endeavor), we weren't sure what there was left to do. The endless arcade mode does offer some added distraction, but quickly grows old as you realize you are just playing those same levels at increasing difficulty.

In the end, it's not a game we see ourselves coming back to again, and given the number of other great games we've recently seen, we just can't recommend it.

App Store Link: Star Wars: Trench Run, $4.99

Pang (or Buster Bros.) was a popular 1989 arcade game that was subsequently ported to a number of home computer platforms. The basic gameplay has already spawned a number of App Store clones including Chippy [$1.99], Buster Boy [$0.99], LaserBug [$1.99], Bubble Pang Free [Free].

Player X, however, has brought an official Pang port to the iPhone with Pang Mobile [$2.99]. The gameplay is rather simple by today's standards, and also pretty unforgiving. The game involves popping balloons bouncing on the screen with one of several possible weapons. The standard weapon is a harpoon that fires upward. If a balloon contacts the harpoon, it splits into smaller pieces. This repeats until your eliminate all the bouncing balloons. Smaller balloons, however, bounce at lower heights, making them harder to hit. Power-ups allow for a double shot, machine gun, and shield, while in-level obstacles can help or hurt your chances.

For long time fans, the mobile version seems to deliver on the Pang experience. Pang Mobile offers two modes: World Tour and Infinite Challenge. The game is controlled using a "touch area" that allows you to slide back and forth to move left/right. This avoids the imprecision of virtual buttons. Options include adjustments for difficulty and control sensitivity.

Video shows the game in World Tour and Infinite modes:

The game offers a local high score board only and only single player mode.

Not being a Pang player back in the day, it's hard to speak as to how accurate a port this is, but early adopters seem to be enjoying it. Any fans of classic arcade action may also want to consider it.

App Store Link: Pang Mobile, $2.99

Action = Reaction Games has caused quite a stir in our forums with their latest release, Aves [App Store]. Openly branding it as a "tech demo," even in the iTunes description, the developers have packed some impressive features in to this game.

Aves uses GHOST binaural audio, which requires headphones, but creates an eerily realistic three dimensional effect to all the in-game music and sound. The animation technology in the game is called "BioReplicants," and has no preset animations for the birds flying around in the game. Instead, the physics model is built around a virtual muscular-skeleton system to create a bird rag doll that moves and flies identical to how a bird would fly in the real world.

It sounds like a whole boat load of marketing hype, but the sound is impressive and the animations are actually extremely realistic looking for an iPhone game. The actual premise of the game is far less exciting, and revolves around shooting a bow and arrow at these birds that fly around the screen. Aiming is very difficult, and beating any more than the first few levels is easier said than done. The developer is even offering $1,500 to the first person who can record a video of themselves beating level 25. (Which leads me to believe it's impossible or close to it.)

[ Full HD version | Low Bandwidth version ]

At 99¢, Aves is worth picking up if you've never experienced binaural audio or want another technically impressive title to show off the power of your device. If you're looking for anything more than a tech demo mini game, you're better off waiting for whatever next game the developers produce utilizing this technology.

App Store Link: Aves, 99¢