At the beginning of the week, we told you that Cave's Dodonpachi Maximum would be heading to the App Store, and as of today it is now available worldwide. Dodonpachi Maximum [$11.99] is an original shooter created specifically for mobile, arriving exclusively on the Windows Phone 7 platform back in April. It takes elements from previous Dodonpachi games and slaps them into a "bullet simulator" to offer sort of a best-of-Cave compilation.

We've noted before how Cave's earlier shooters, like the original Bug Princess [$4.99 / Free], are great entry points for newbies since their scoring systems are generally less complex. However, I'd now argue that Dodonpachi Maximum is the best place for a bullet-hell beginner to start. Since it's an original title, it uses sharp, colorful visuals rather than the pixel art of their previous games, which are often designed for much different hardware and resolutions, so can look a bit rough on iOS screens.

This means that Dodonpachi Maximum has a nice contrast and fantastic clarity that can really help you see exactly where bullets are and exactly where to avoid them with your ship's hotbox. It may not have the same kind of charm that their pixel art games do, but it's definitely more functional and actually feels like a "bullet simulator" as the game implies. Plus, it's pretty cool to see a Cave game in such a different style.

That doesn't mean Dodonpachi Maximum is strictly for the beginner, though. There's still multiple difficulty settings and 16(!) different Game Center leaderboards to compete on, one for every level and a grand total leaderboard. Players in our forums seem to be really enjoying it so far, and we'll continue to put it through its paces. Right now it appears to be another winner from Cave, though definitely quite different from their past releases. The game will be on sale through the weekend for $6.99 before jumping up to its normal price of $11.99, so if you're interested you can save yourself a few bucks by grabbing it while it's on sale.

Back in May we got the first glimpse of Breach Entertainment's first iOS title Shardlands, a platforming/puzzle/adventure hybrid that had really impressive visuals, a moody soundtrack and a tremendous atmosphere. As of right now, ahead of the typical set of weekly releases, Shardlands [$1.99] is available in the App Store.

As you'll see from this newest game trailer, Shardlands is quite a looker. There are 20 levels to work your way through along with Game Center integration, as well as support for Retina Displays and the 4-inch screens. People seem to be loving Shardlands so far in our forums, and I'm rather excited to take it for a spin myself.

We'll have more on Shardlands soon, or if you think you've got a hankering for some puzzle-y adventures you can take the $2 gamble and grab it from the link below.

This past June Stainless Games announced that they would be releasing the cult-classic vehicular combat game Carmageddon to the App Store this year as a side bonus of their successful Kickstarter campaign for the upcoming franchise reboot Carmageddon: Reincarnation. We went hands-on with an early version of Carmageddon for iOS just last month, and felt that it was a faithful port of a game that hasn't exactly aged gracefully in many ways, but is still highly entertaining.

Well, Carmageddon [$3.99] launched internationally earlier today and has just become available in the US App Store. As promised, to say thank you to all the supporters of the Carmageddon: Reincarnation campaign, Stainless Games has made the iOS version completely FREE for the first 24 hours.

They're doing it right with this Carmageddon release too, as the app supports the iPhone 5 and 5th generation iPod touch widescreen Retina Display, iCloud save syncing, and is Universal. It also comes equipped with Game Center leaderboards and achievements, a slick YouTube replay exporting feature, and tons of control options. That's all on top of the fairly comprehensive content of the game itself, and oh yeah, it's FREE.

If you were a big fan of Carmageddon back in the day, then you are no doubt smashing the download button with furious vigor. If you missed out on it originally, there's no reason not to give it a try for free to see if senselessly killing pedestrians with your car in order to better your performance is your cup of tea. Hey, it isn't for everybody.

Also, our forums have been filling up with impressions throughout the day, which are skewing towards the positive, so be sure to check that out as well.

As expected, Rovio's Bad Piggies [$0.99 / $0.99 (HD)] popped up on the App Store in the middle of the night last night and early impressions on our forums seem remarkably positive aside from the somewhat expected complaints regarding separate iPad and iPhone versions of the game. Bad Piggies takes place in the Angry Birds universe, but you play as the pigs assembling various contraptions in a sandbox-feeling physics puzzler trying to reassemble your grand plans to steal the birds' eggs once and for all. (They blew away in the wind.)

If you want to see the game in action, check out the TA Plays video we put up yesterday.

I've been having a load of fun with Bad Piggies so far, and am getting close to completing the currently available content for a review which should be up on the site later today. Of course, like all Rovio games, there's a nebulous "coming soon" section indicating that Bad Piggies likely will also be the target of constant updates and bonus levels.

EA’s newest iteration of its soccer franchise, FIFA 13 [$6.99], has hit the App Store to coincide with the release of the console versions today. You might remember we briefly checked out FIFA 13 at E3 this year, and EA showed off even more of the game’s features at their media event last month.

Sports titles are known for being slightly upgraded iterations from year to year, and this year’s big new feature in FIFA 13, and a first for the series on iOS, is the inclusion of online multiplayer. Sadly it forgoes Game Center for EA's own Origin service, but I think I'll survive. Another big addition is the Skill Move button that lets you easily perform several different kinds of moves by using simple flicks. There's even the ability to record replays and upload them directly to YouTube, so you can share your finer moments with the world.

As any yearly release should, FIFA 13 also looks a lot better than its predecessors with fluid animations and Retina Display graphics, even on the new iPad. It supports the new 4-inch iPhone 5 screen as well, and it’s a Universal app, which is something EA has been more prone to doing this year and I’m certainly a fan of it.

Player impressions in our forums have been largely positive so far for FIFA 13, so chances are if you dug previous installments you’ll probably want to check this one out too. Just as an FYI: the file size is a whopping 1.36 GB so make sure you can spare the room on your device.

Almost a year ago to the day, at last year’s Tokyo Game Show, Square Enix announced a card battling game called Demon’s Score. Well, at least that’s what we thought at the time, but thanks to some sketchy translation issues that wasn’t actually the case. Square Enix WAS working on a card-battling game, and in fact it launched just last week. It’s not called Demon’s Score, though, it’s called Guardian Cross [Free] and it’s free to download and check out for yourself, or you can see what people have been saying about it in our forums.

Now, Demon’s Score [$4.99] is actually a thing, too. In fact, back at E3 in June we got our hands on an early version of Demon’s Score, and thought it was pretty cool in our brief time with it. Visually, the game plays out like an on-rails shooter type of thing, but the gameplay is based mostly around rhythm-tapping, similar to Elite Beat Agents and many other titles. Demon’s Score is also built using the Unreal Engine, so it looks pretty darn good. You can check it out in this trailer, though I’ll leave no comment about the music.

So hey, just a head’s up that Square Enix has been on a roll as of late. First they released a brand new RPG called Drakerider [Free / Free (HD)] earlier this month, then it was Guardian Cross last week, and now Demon’s Score this week. What’ll it be next week? I don’t know, but I’m hoping it’s something. At any rate, we’re tearing through these games as we speak, but you can check out our forums for even more impressions and discussion on Demon’s Score.

Something strange is afoot on the App Store. First Rayman Jungle Run hits at a strange time yesterday, now Capcom's Street Fighter X Tekken [$2.99] appears out of the blue, breaking traditional weekly international release store cycles. Normally, these games would be appearing in New Zealand later this morning. ...Not available in the US now.

We'll have more information on Street Fighter X Tekken as we spend some more time with it tomorrow. But, it's on the App Store now, and seems like it'd be just as solid as Capcom's previous iOS fighter offerings. I expect impressions will be rolling in on our forums fairly quickly.

[$2.99]

Earlier this month we told you that Ubisoft was planning on bringing Rayman to iOS in a new adventure on September 20th, but it looks like somebody got antsy and pulled the lever that released Rayman Jungle Run [$2.99] earlier today. It uses the same engine as the critically acclaimed Rayman Origins which launched earlier this year, so it's got some gorgeous visuals tucked under its belt but the gameplay is quite a bit different from that more traditional platform experience.

Rayman Jungle Run is a level-based auto-runner that has you guiding the titular character through various types of terrain, collecting the a string of glowing bugs called Lums which are spread throughout. Strangely, the game is actually broken up into 4 parts from the start, with each section focusing on just one of Rayman's various abilities. The first world starts with just needing to make Rayman jump when needed to get to the end of a level, but later worlds are unlocked which has him floating with his head propeller, wall running, or punching enemies.

The splitting up of abilities is likely to keep the gameplay simple and focused on just one-button control, which is probably a smart design choice for the pick-up-and-play type of mobile experience Ubisoft is shooting for with Rayman Jungle Run. I've only made my way through the first world so far, but I'm really having fun with it and am already hooked on trying to complete every level 100% and unlock the next world.

I'm not going to lie and say I wouldn't love a full port of Rayman Origins on iOS, because I desperately would, but Rayman Jungle Run so far looks to offer a great mobile experience in its own right, with the kind of high production values you would expect from a full console release. We'll have more on Rayman Jungle Run soon, but in my short time with the game I think it's already going to be a pretty big hit with gamers. If you are a Rayman fan that likes to live on the edge you can just grab the game from the link below, or check in with the forum crowd to get some more early impressions.

It’s always nice to break the Wednesday night release routine, and today Wandake’s Apocalypse Max [$2.99] does just that. It’s a side-scrolling action platformer with a really sharp look and great presentation, and an especially nice control scheme. Brad and Eli kicked the tires a bit in a TA Plays video, and liked what they saw.

If you like your gameplay videos with a hot dose of off-topic discussion about early nineties television programming, give the TA Plays a look. Or you can check out the official Apocalypse Max trailer below.

I’ve played Apocalypse Max a bit as well, and it’s a really stylish game. It employs an auto-aiming feature to keep things simple for the touch screen, which I think was the right move, and I’m enjoying the balance between the swipe-based melee attacks and the gunplay.

We’ll continue to plug away at Apocalypse Max and see how it holds up in the long haul, but if you’re the spontaneous type you can check out our forums for more impressions or just live on the wild side and take that $3 leap of faith that it’s up your alley.

Little Conquest [$0.99], the exciting super-fast RTS we spotlighted earlier last month, is now out and available across iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. The $2.99 asking price will get you two versions of the game, basically, as it's a Universal app.

The magic of Little Conquest is how it manages to deliver a good amount of the strategic wizardry and engagement of a blown-up, traditional RTS in a quarter of the time. In the game, you build troops, fortify buildings, and send out waves and waves of attacks in a matter of seconds, reaching and hitting strategic goals within minutes. A decent-length campaign piles on interesting scenarios to spice up the core play, while the production gives you fresh places to explore and play in.

You can read a lot more about Little Conquest here, if you'd like to get some hands-on impressions. In short, it's a cool game. We'll have more on it later.

Yesterday Gamesmold unexpectedly released their newest iOS title called Blood Roofs [$0.99], and it’s always nice to have a random Sunday game release. It’s a – get this – behind-the-back running game built using the Unreal Engine. Despite being another entry in a near-endless genre of these running games, Blood Roofs is actually a pretty neat departure from the norm so far.

You play as heroic, shirtless, Brad Nicholson-esque character who takes it upon himself to rescue a lady in distress. For whatever reason, you’re both hanging out on the rooftops high above the city during an intense rainstorm. All around you horrific monsters are invading, so you swoop in and grab your girl, whose name is Catherine, and carry her in your arms as you leap from roof to roof to evade the evil beings.

Catherine is wounded and cannot run on her own, but she can still assist by firing her weapon. She’s not the only one in need of help, either, as there are several unlockable characters to take the place of Catherine like an escaped convict, a mermaid, and for whatever reason a grandfather clock. Sometimes clocks need rescuing too, I guess. Check out the trailer.

The people in our forums seem to be really liking Blood Roofs so far, despite a couple of drawbacks. Namely, the jumping feels kind of floaty and the viewpoint is set so low it can make oncoming hazards hard to spot. I’ve been playing a bit and agree with those criticisms, but once you’ve spent a little time with the game you get used to its feel and they’re not such a problem.

At any rate, the ability to choose your own path over the vast expanse of rooftops gives Blood Roofs a different feel than your average Temple Run-alike. Plus its got some pretty impressive visuals, and some really interesting monster designs inspired by H.P. Lovecraft. We’ll keep on plugging away at Blood Roofs and will bring you more from the game soon.

Last month we brought you word that Cubed Rally Racer [$0.99 / $1.99 (HD)] developer Jared Bailey finally had a follow-up iOS project in the works called Infinite Surf [$0.99]. A pretty big departure from the extreme challenge of Cubed Rally Racer, Infinite Surf was more of a relaxing ride on the ocean, from a pseudo 3rd-person perspective that you don’t typically see in surfing games.

We took an early version for a spin in one of our TA Plays videos, and enjoyed our time with the game. It’s a simple tilt-based game where the goal is to guide your surfboard through the ocean on an endless wave and collect coins. Occasionally you can pick up a power-up that will cause your wave to curl and churn out bonus coins, or another that lets you carve up the wall of the wave.

The really clever part of Infinite Surf is how it’s more or less up to you to determine how fast, and thus how challenging, the game gets. Various point multipliers can be picked up which will net you more points, but it will also increase your speed. Picking up several of them during the course of a run can lead to some huge scoring opportunities, but it also becomes risky with the speed increase.

If high scoring isn’t your thing you can just ignore the multipliers and enjoy the scenery at your own pace. There is also a selection of different boards to unlock using the coins collected during play that each have their own attributes, and a second environment with a sweet sunset that you can unlock as well.

Infinite Surf is a really simple game, to the point that it doesn’t even pose much of a challenge until you’ve gotten pretty deep into a run and increased your speed significantly. But its strength lies more in it being an experience, as you enjoy the cool scenery and unique perspective while hypnotically carving your board back and forth across the water. There’s just something that makes me feel good when playing Infinite Surf, so if you dig those relaxing, artsy kind of games that you can lose yourself in then definitely give it a look.

A few weeks back, we found out that Illusion Labs had a new iOS project in the works called Blast-A-Way [$4.99]. At first we weren’t really sure what it was all about, but a trailer released a couple of days later revealed it to be a physics puzzle game that used various types of explosives to blast apart a level and reach the end goal.

So, a physics puzzler. Is my excitement not showing? It's not that I haven’t enjoyed that genre immensely over the years, because I have. It’s just that the overabundance of them on the App Store has sapped my enthusiasm for more, even though great new ones are being released all the time. I mean, why don’t you just make a match-3 while you’re at it?

Then, about 10 minutes after diving into an advanced copy of Blast-A-Way, it hit me: this is Illusion Labs, you idiot. These folks made Touchgrind BMX [$4.99], Sway [$4.99 / Free], and Labyrinth 2 [$4.99 / Free]. Everything they do exudes quality, they don’t play silly App Store pricing games, and they only release new products when they’re fully ready. They’re like a little iOS Valve.

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Today I sit down and give Bradley a first-hand demonstration of my epic platforming skills in the new game Mikey Shorts [$0.99] from BeaverTap Games. Actually, I focus more on demonstrating and explaining the game than I do shooting for new world records, but I’ll let my current dominance of the #1 spots on the Game Center leaderboards speak for themselves. I also expect to get annihilated once the game releases worldwide and gains a bunch of new players, but it was nice while it lasted.

Mikey Shorts is the kind of game that any type of gamer can love. If you want to leisurely work through its levels taking in the vibrant visuals and unlocking a ton of different items to deck out your player with, that’s totally fine. There’s no pressure to hurry if you don’t want (well, in Story Mode at least. Challenge Mode levels have timers, but they’re still pretty easygoing for basic 1-star completion). There’s plenty to enjoy about Mikey Shorts even if you aren’t interested in the time trial aspect at all.

However, if you’re the type who will endlessly replay levels over and over, striving to shave just a fraction of a second off your top best time to inch you ahead on the leaderboard, then Mikey Shorts is your next obsession. Each level begs to be deconstructed and explored as you search out every optimal path and little trick that will give you an advantage against the clock. It can be exhilarating nailing that one perfect run, not to mention massively rewarding.

Not bad for a couple of forum bums I’d have to say. Speaking of forums, everybody can't seem to stop gushing about the game in ours. Mikey Shorts is now available as a Universal app for 99¢ and you should check it out if you have even the slightest interest in platforming games.

We've been following the strange release of Chair's VOTE!!! [$0.99] since it popped up on international App Stores this morning, and it looks like someone has flipped the switch to make it live everywhere including the US App Store. It's even under 50MB so you can beat up Romney and/or Obama without needing to find WiFi to download it.

For more on the game, check out VOTE!!!'s unveiling for the official trailer or our TA Plays: 'Vote!!!' for a look at what the game is like when you're actually playing it. Anyway, now that we've got Infinity Blade: Romney vs Obama, how about some Infinity Blade: Dungeons?