If you've got some extra iTunes credit burning a hole in your virtual pocket, an awful lot of good games recently went on sale. As always with these sale posts, all the prices are temporary and current as of this posting. If you're interested in picking any of these games up for their sale price, it's generally not a good idea to wait too long as some sales are shorter than others.

All Glu games that weren't already 99¢ are on sale for 99¢ (except Deer Hunter 3D for some reason):

• Beat It!, $2.99 → 99¢
• Bonsai Blast, $2.99 → 99¢
• Brain Genius Deluxe, $2.99 → 99¢
• Build-a-lot, $2.99 → 99¢
• Cops & Robbers, $2.99 → 99¢
• Family Guy: Uncensored, $1.99 → 99¢
• Glyder, $2.99 → 99¢
• Glyder 2, $2.99 → 99¢
• Mini Golf Wacky Worlds, $2.99 → 99¢
• Super KO Boxing 2, $2.99 → 99¢
• World Series of Poker Hold’em Legend, $2.99 → 99¢

Appy Entertainment's complete catalog on the App Store is now also 99¢. Their two games are both worth checking out, especially if your interest includes fighting photos of your friends or making pizzas for zombies:

• FaceFighter, $1.99 → 99¢
• Zombie Pizza, $1.99 → 99¢

Other sales of games we've enjoyed include:

• Bridge Odyssey, $1.99 → 99¢
• Driver, $6.99 → $4.99
• Hoggy, $2.99 → $1.99
• Parcel Panic – Post Car Racer 3D, $2.99 → $1.99
• Plushed, $1.99 → 99¢

And of course there are many other games with recent price changes that aren't listed here. You can see popular games with price changes as well as all games with price changes on AppShopper.

Happy New Year from everyone here at TouchArcade. We hope you all had a fun and safe time celebrating the end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010 last night, but let's get down to business. While you were watching the ball drop, a few great games were going on sale. Here are a few of the more noteworthy games with recent price reductions:

• bChamp Beatbox, 99¢ → Free
• Vector Tanks, $2.99 → Free
• Aera, $1.99 → 99¢
• Cell War, $2.99 → 99¢
• Harbor Havoc 3D, $1.99 → 99¢
• Harry Potter: Spells, $2.99 → 99¢
• Liberty Boom, $1.99 → 99¢
• Navy Patrol: Coastal Defense, $2.99 → 99¢
• Sword of Fargoal, $4.99 → $2.99 (Sale Extended)
• The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, $7.99 → $3.99
• Ravensword: The Fallen King, $6.99 → $4.99
• The Settlers, $6.99 → $4.99
• James Cameron's Avatar, $9.99 → $6.99

As always, the prices listed are current as of this posting. If you're quick, you might be able to catch the tail end of The Second Annual New Year's App Blowout Sale from yesterday. Otherwise, you can check AppShopper for popular games with price changes as well as all games with price changes.

It's always great to see indie developers banding together for cross promotion, and even better when those joint efforts result in some fantastic deals. The Second Annual New Year's App Blowout which was put together by the guys at Howling Moon Software is back again to ring in the new year with a bunch of games (and a few apps) on sale. All of these prices should be in effect by now, with normal pricing returning sometime after the first of the year.

• Aqua Wars, 99¢ → Free
• Dragon Eye, 99¢ → Free
• Outnumbered, 99¢ → Free
• Volcano Planet, 99¢ → Free

• 3D Wizard Wand, $1.99 → 99¢
• Cash Machine, $1.99 → 99¢
• CatTaTa, $1.99 → 99¢
• Eyegore's Eye Blast, $1.99 → 99¢
• Hi, How Are You, $1.99 → 99¢
• iHurt, $1.99 → 99¢
• iTweetReply, $1.99 → 99¢
• iType2Go Pro, $1.99 → 99¢
• MatchTunes, $2.99 → 99¢
• Pinch 'n Pop!, $1.99 → 99¢
• Pollywog, $1.99 → 99¢
• Rail Adventures, $1.99 → 99¢
• Ringo, $1.99 → 99¢
• RocketFuse, $1.99 → 99¢
• Screw The Dealer, $1.99 → 99¢
• Smiles Zen, $1.99 → 99¢
• SpaceDuel!, $1.99 → 99¢
• Tap-Fu, $1.99 → 99¢
• Trace It, $1.99 → 99¢

• Battle for Wesnoth, $4.99 → $1.99
• Crayon Ball, $2.99 → $1.99
• Rogueship, $2.99 → $1.99
• Smiles, $2.99 → $1.99
• Train Conductor, $2.99 → $1.99
• Twilight Golf, $2.99 → $1.99

• Sword of Fargoal, $4.99 → $2.99

Among iPhone gamer pinball fans, it seems like debate of which of the pinball series is the best on the platform is as hotly contested as Star Wars nerds arguing over which is the best movie in the original trilogy. I'm partial to Gameprom's pinball games, as they all load very quickly, seem to have realistic pinball physics, come packed with online leaderboards, and have camera options to either follow the pinball or stay locked and display the entire table.

Wild West Pinball [Free] was released first, followed by The Deep Pinball [Free] and as of a few days ago, Jungle Style Pinball [99¢] is the latest in Gameprom's pinball lineup. Normally both 99¢, Wild West and The Deep both went free to promote the launch of Jungle Style. On top of that, the previous two games also were recently updated to "Christmas Editions" which just amount to each of the tables having their art slightly modified to be more festive.

Jungle Style Pinball takes the same gameplay and adds a new jungle themed pinball table. Much like The Deep was an improvement on the table found in Wild West, Jungle Style takes this even farther with even more things to hit and hidden areas to boost your score.

The developer released the following gameplay trailer:

I highly recommend downloading The Deep Pinball and Wild West Pinball while they're free. If you enjoy either of those games, you should like Jungle Style Pinball just as much if not even more.

App Store Links

• Wild West Pinball, Free
• The Deep Pinball, Free
• Jungle Style Pinball, 99¢

If you're a fan of racing games, and were holding back on picking up EA's recently released Need For Speed: Shift [App Store] for some kind of sale, now is your chance. The price was dropped from $9.99 to $6.99 yesterday, and since then Shift has been rocketing up the iTunes charts.

If this is the first you've heard of this game, we got a great deal of hands-on time before its release and posted an in-depth preview. Shift departs from the Need For Speed arcade style gameplay which has become standard over the years to include more simulation elements including the ability to customize cars in many different ways, buy new ones, and the game even constantly tracks your performance to determine what kind of driver you are– Aggressive or precise.

There's a lot to like about Need For Speed: Shift and we think it can easily hang with the best racing games on the platform. Shift sports licensed cars and music, great graphics, and a great control system with settings that make the game approachable for casual players as well as technical enough for hardcore players.

If you've enjoyed racing games on the iPhone, this isn't one you will want to pass up… And if you haven't yet played a racing game on the platform, Need For Speed: Shift is a great starting point.

App Store Link: Need For Speed: Shift, $6.99

The iPhone has become home to a number of retro ports and retro-styled games, but few come close to the amount of care that went in to Sword of Fargoal [App Store], a recently released classic dungeon crawling adventure game. The original creator Jeff McCord teamed up with Paul Pridham (of Saucerlifter fame) to create a greatly enhanced version of Fargoal, a game originally designed 30 years ago in BASIC.

From our in-depth look at the game:

In a nutshell, the game places the player within the top level of a deep series of dungeons with the quest of seeking out the legendary "Sword of Fargoal" and escaping with it from the depths of said dungeons. Complicating matters is the fact that the layout of each dungeon level is randomly generated when the player enters it, and that the dungeons are all initially bathed in darkness, revealing themselves only as the player explores. Those lucky enough to locate the sword have only 2,000 seconds to find their way out of the dungeons which, even on the way up, are randomly generated…. Not a proposition for the meek.

Along the way, the player encounters a vast array of enemies, both human and not-so-human. Battling these enemies, the player builds experience points which allow the character to level, increasing his fighting abilities and hit points. As well, various spells can be found throughout the dungeons that aid the player in completing his quest: Invisibility, Drift, Light, Regeneration, Teleport, and Shield.

Sword of Fargoal is in essence a perfect retro port. The various graphical and interface improvements from the original do a great job at bringing the game up to today's standards while still maintaining a delightful vintage flare with gameplay that stays true to the game's roots. If you've never experienced a roguelike dungeon crawler, Sword of Fargoal is a great place to start as it's by far the most accessible.

While the limited-time $1.99 sale is in place, I highly recommend giving Fargoal a try if you're at all interested in retro games, especially if you like randomly generated games that provide nearly infinite replay value. If you're looking for an even more classic roguelike, check out Rogue Touch [$2.99] although both games are worth owning if you like one or the other.

App Store Link: Sword of Fargoal, $1.99

Earlier this week we took a look at Sega's recently released Super Monkey Ball 2 [link], a followup to their popular App Store launch title. The game commands the premium price of $9.99 but, for this weekend only, Sega is offering the game at 50% off, bringing the price down to $4.99.

As we indicated in our review, Super Monkey Ball 2 improves upon its forerunner by delivering notably enhanced visuals, improved controls, mini-game support, and WiFi multiplayer. Read the full review for more details.

Those who were held back by the launch price may want to consider grabbing Super Monkey Ball 2 while it's only half as dear.

[ Full HD version | Low Bandwidth version ]

Sega has submitted a version 1.1 update to the App Store, which addresses certain user-reported issues.

App Store Link: Super Monkey Ball 2, $4.99 (weekend sale)

Thanks to the Appvent Calendar, Craneball Studios' fantastic blimp piloting game, Blimp – The Flying Adventures [App Store] (affectionately referred to as "that blimp game" around here) is free for the day. Featuring 20 missions, an awesome art style, as well as OpenFeint online leaderboards, the only acceptable reason to not download this game is if you already own it– In which case downloading it again would just be silly.

You control your blimp using a mixture of on-screen buttons and tilting your phone to accomplish various goals like rescuing people or destroying enemy blimps. While I'm sure a lot of iPhone gamers either play with the sound muted or playing through the speaker, Blimp is one game you really should play with headphones on. It seems like just as much care went in to designing the music and sound effects as the rest of the game.

Blimp is a very fun game, and even has difficulty settings so you can still enjoy it, even if you're not very good at it. When it first came out, forum members went crazy over the game, and with it being free today you really need to drop what you're doing and get your Blimp on.

The holiday season is all about giving, and it would seem as if this freebie and slashed game price gravy train isn't coming to an end anytime soon. As usual, the standard game sale disclaimer is in place in that the prices in this listing is current as of this posting– If you want any of these games, grab them quick before they return back to normal.

Pentanimals, FREE – Little White Bear Studios' latest puzzle game features 72 different puzzles with animal themed blocks that must be arranged to fill the game board. Don't let the cute art style fool you, as some of the later levels may have you hopelessly stumped.

Santa's Sack, FREE – A holiday themed game with tilt controls. Maneuver Santa (and his sack) under falling presents to catch as many as possible while avoiding snowballs. Miss ten presents and it's both curtains for Santa, and Christmas is ruined. I had intended on describing this game with as many double entendres as possible, but it's Christmas and this game is far too cute for my filthy innuendo.

Spheric, FREE – A marble shooting game with an interesting gravity gimmick. Tilt your device to move the spheres around and hit the launch button to fire additional spheres on to the game board. Online scores are tracked by AGON, which was added in a recent update.

Earth vs Moon, 99¢ (Originally $1.99) – A fantastic Missile Command-like game, Earth vs Moon takes classic gameplay, a great art style, and adds a hefty helping of Armageddon humor in to the mix. There's also a free lite version to try and we reviewed the game when it was first released.

Hi, How Are You, 99¢ (Originally $1.99) – If you pick up only one game from this entire roundup, let it be Hi, How Are You. Recently updated with even more extras, tweaks, and bug fixes, this puzzle platformer's one fault is that it might be a little too out there for a lot of people. I loved the game in our review, which I recommend reading before buying this game just so you know what you're getting yourself in to.

Ancient Frog, $1.99 (Originally $4.99) – A completely original puzzle game where you move a frog from one side of the screen to the other in order to munch on a fly. You can only move one leg at a time, and making your way across the screen usually involves a lot of fancy footwork. We thought the game was great in our review. Recommended if you're looking for a relaxing puzzle game, or you just like frogs (or alternatively just hate flies).

Secret Exit has discounted two of their games as a celebration for both titles being featured by Apple.

Zen Bound is their premiere gaming title that was released in February. It has also been listed amongst Apple's Best Games of 2009. The game is a calm and meditative puzzle game about wrapping wooden sculptures with rope. It's definitely a differnt sort of experience but one that we loved. A lite version of the game [App Store] remains available to try, but the full version has dropped to $1.99.

Stair Dismount was their followup title that we described bordering on toy more than a full game in its current form, but done in their usual polished style. Stair Dismount has been discounted to $0.99 temporarily, and a submitted update brings global high scores as well as new levels.

  
New levels in the 1.2 update of Stair Dismount

App Store Link: Zen Bound, $1.99, Stair Dismount, $0.99