Earlier this afternoon, Jared and I turned off our lights and tried to enjoy a round or six of Slender Rising [$2.99 / Free]. It's a first-person horror game that plays pretty similarly to Epic Citadel [Free] -- except for the part where some tall, faceless dude appears to attack you. Presented across several spooky environments, Slender Rising tasks users with finding notes left by ... someone and avoiding the Slenderman in the process.

It's hard to tell who owns this property or, really, who even had the idea to do a game like this first, so we don't comment much on that in the video. What is kinda clear is that this is the Slender game fans have really responded to, and for good reason: it's not a bad video game.

Slender Rising has seen a lot of updates since its initial debut, so hey, maybe now's the time to check it out again if you weren't so happy with the initial launch. If you're already happy with and at an MLG-level with Rising, have fun laughing at two idiots trying to play.

We know what you're thinking, but give Trucker: Parking Simulator [Free] a chance. Parking a massive truck with a stupid big trailer can be as rewarding as landing a video game airplane. It takes a lot of skill, a lot of understanding of how physics, momentum, and trajectory play into the perfect parking job. It's kinda surprising (and awesome), as Eli and I discovered today.

This sim's a particularly hard sale because the titling is so awful, so we decided to do a little video of the game in action to show it off. In the below, Eli and I power through several levels, carefully avoiding all road cones and parking like pros. Give it a look and, hey, maybe get as hooked on this thing as we are at the moment:

You can grab this right now, by the way, and you should if you need another simulator in your life. Here's a Steam link to Eurotruck Simulator 2 for PC, as well, since we talked about it so much.

Eli and I opened up a lot about the movies that made us cry while we gave Trigger City [$0.99] a spin the other afternoon. If you don't know about it, it's a retro-inspired brawler that plays pretty much just like... a retro brawler. In the game, you're tasked with punching and kicking a bunch of bad dudes while eternally moving to the right. Sadly, there's not much more to see here outside of a currency system. Basically, you get cash for beating up folks and then you can use that to buy permanent boosts and new combos.

I'm not a big fan of this. It's pretty clear that a lot of love went into the look and sound and feel, but it fails in delivering a reason for me to feel like I need to keep fighting and moving to the right. It's kinda hollow, in a way.

You can see for yourself in our look, which includes a lot of real talk.

Blitz Brigade [Free] is a class-based, competitive shooter that takes a lot of cues from other class-based, competitive shooters like, say, Team Fortress 2 and Battlefield 1943. It's a Gameloft joint, so it's more copycat than original and it's loaded with a ton of free-to-play features, including the ability to buy gems to respawn instantly in battle. I'm guessing the free-to-play part specifically is going to turn folks off. I get that. But, I've gotta say, this isn't a terrible shooter as far as touch device shooters go. Also, the matchmaking and network functionality actually works consistently, which is pretty rare for these types of games.

Eli and I gave it a spin the other afternoon. We killed a bunch of dudes and we also got to drive around in a tank for a few seconds. More importantly, we met a man named Bobby. He was a good man (or a spy), that Bobby:

Blitz is free, so the barrier to entry is pretty low. Give this a shot if you're in the mood for a shooter and can stomach virtual controls and the design wizardry that comes with it. Oh, and if you see Bobby, tell him we said "Hi!"

Cavern [$2.99] is a pretty traditional, top-down rogue-like. You might recall the name. It made an impression on folks back when it was released in 2011. Frustrating, game-ending bugs ultimately held it back, though, despite its neat ideas, great touch interface, and hip combat. Most of those issues have now been fixed. A flurry of recent updates, including a big 2.0 update, have made it pretty playable. We've been enjoying it so much, in fact, that we thought we'd share a run in the game with you.

Earlier this afternoon, I decided to school Jared in the art of perma-death in Cavern, which, in hindsight, was a pretty easy thing to do because all I had to do was die. But it sure was nice to walk around in the randomized dungeons of this game again and grab all sorts of loot. Poison, on the other hand, not so much fun.

If you're in the market for an iOS rogue-like game, you need to grab this. Just check out that video and see if it clicks with you.

Surprise! Sid Meier's Ace Patrol [Free], that turn-based WWI aerial combat game we talked about not too long ago, is now available on the US App Store for the low price of $0. What you get with that initial download is the first handful of missions in the British campaign, one of the four campaigns in the game. For a price, you can grab the rest of that one as well as the other campaigns.

There's some other IAP goodies being offered, too, including new skins and fighters, as well as a get-out-of-jail card, in case your fighter gets captured. I'm beyond tired of describing free-to-play systems, so check out our video to see them in action. Speaking of that, here it is:

Like most of Sid Meier's stuff, Ace Patrol is pretty rad. We've been digging it so far, free-to-play and all. Give it a look.

Heard about Tetris Blitz yet? In a nutshell, it's an arcade take on the title that has you dropping blocks and creating lines in a two-minute rush to get the sickest of sick scores. As you can imagine, it's flashier than regular Tetris. Provided you've got the coin to buy them, you can deploy power-ups that jumble, explode, or even remove blocks. And if you're making lines fast enough, you can activate a frenzy mode that, basically, turns most of the board into TNT. It's sorta like Bejeweled Blitz, except with Tetris. Simple enough.

Tetris Blitz hit the Canadian App Store today as part of seems to be a soft launch for the game. Eli and I took a look at it, mainly because we've been hearing a lot of junk about its free-to-play-ness.

As you'll see, it's loaded with ads, as well as those weird "take a survey" or "sign up for such and such" opportunities. You can also buy the game's currency for real money, and if you're feeling froggy, buy a couple of spins on the game's slot machine mechanic, which hands out random power-ups and coin allotments.

Surprisingly, Blitz isn't as aggressive as we though it would be. The game doesn't beat you over the head about what you can buy, at least. But, some of the power-ups do give players better pieces, which could certainly up their score pretty artificially.

One thing for sure, though: this game actually plays pretty good as far as Tetris games on iPhone and iPads, go. A neat prediction mechanic outlines where you can drop a piece, so all you have to do is tap instead of endlessly rotate your piece and follow it down. It's a neat touch. Also, there's the whole Tetris thing: this game, despite how old it is, continues to hold up as a great puzzle game.

Blitz should be out in the coming weeks. We'll keep our eyes on changes, as there will presumably be a few during this launch phase. Check out our video if you want to see it in action, by the way.

International App Store Link: Tetris Blitz, Free

Because we're always scanning the scene for games with sickest of sick tricks, Eli and I decided to give Djinn Works's Stick Stunt Biker 2 [Free] a shot. By titling alone, you probably already know what to expect. Yes, it's a stick figure game. Yes, it's physics-based. And yes, it has sick tricks. But here's something you might not know: it also doesn't have a rigid progression structure. Once you get access to a world, you can play every level in it, regardless if you manage to get one or even zero stars in a given level. Each win or loss is met by a loading screen that instantly sucks you into the next level, which is a nice pacing touch. A lot of these games make you retry and retry the same stuff over and over again, which for us tends to cause a lot of fatigue.

In this look, you'll notice that we can't quite pull of a sick trick. I swear, I could almost write a guide about how NOT to play this game. I'm pretty bad at it. Oh god, is this becoming a theme in TA Plays? It is, isn't it.

Anyway, you can grab Stick Stunt Biker 2 right now if you'd like. And if you still dig these kinds of physics games, you should consider doing so. The rapid-fire progression is a nice touch, plus the physics keep your bike really rounded to the ground. It just doesn't feel as loose and insane as its brethren, which is cool.

Remember Fall Down? It's a super simple arcade game that revolves around dropping a ball down a series of gaps between ledges. Think Doodle Jump, but flip the mechanics on their heads. Recent release FallDown! 2 [Free] takes this formula and spices it up a bit with a bunch of power-ups, a forever-falling laser beam of death, and some insane colors. People seem to really be digging this new treatment, too, as the game has rocketed up the charts and is currently sitting pretty at number one in Top Free.

Eli and I gave it a spin this afternoon and came away pretty impressed with the lack of free-to-play grossness. The actual game part is pretty rad, too. Its breeziness as well as accessibility are great features.

Eli used to play this on his old Calculator For Smart People, so we talked a lot about that in our elongated look at this chart topper. If you ever wanted to see it in action, here's your chance.

You've read the review, now watch a couple of idiots stumble around in the trap-filled crypts and hidden passages of Dark Quest [$1.99 / $1.99 (HD)], a turn-based strategy game with a ton of old-school board game design flavor. Also, skulls. It has tons of skulls, one of which must be rubbed from time to time in order to satisfy a jerky wizard.

I know, I know, hold the phone: you have to rub skulls in this game? The review's going to fill you in the best, but, in brief, every dungeon in Dark Quest is a mission sent to you from an evil overlord-y wizard guy. As you move around these dungeons and accomplish whatever the wizard wants, he'll hit you up at random times and ask you to rub something called the Skull of Fate. When you do this either something good or bad happens. For the most part, it seems like the results are always BAD.

Anyway, we had a blast playing this game earlier today. Who knew wizards could be fun?

Straight-up: Robot Unicorn Attack 2 [Free] is a next-level upgrade over its predecessor. It has a ton of new features that really set it apart, including an item and upgrade store that lets you customize your unicorn and no-mess, no-fuss online functionality that gives you daily goals to complete. Of course, it also looks and plays a lot better, thanks to some first-class art direction and a blazing frame rate.

If you haven't seen it yet, go ahead and give this video a look. In it, Eli and I bumble around in the game, exploring its various options. We also die a lot in search for a hot score, which is probably funny and sad to watch at the same time. After you've seen this just give the game a download. It's free, it's awesome, and you probably won't regret it.

There's a little story behind this one. A disastrous, no-good, very bad technical hiccup kept us from covering Lone Wolf: Blood On The Snow at GDC 2013. For whatever reason, our capture rig pooped out during the live demo Forge Reply gave us. And what a demo it was, man. Dazzling comes to mind as a word to describe it, even though that sounds a wee bit hyperbolic. You gotta understand, Lone Wolf holds a surprise within its pages. It's the kind of surprise that you don't want to just tell people about, you want to show them.

So, here we are, circling back to Lone Wolf with a build in our hands. This is an effort to give you the same shot in the arm that the demo managed to give us.

Anyway, what is Lone Wolf? It's a game-book, but not your everyday game-book with a few interactive elements and nothing more. This is a GAME-book, and you'll see what we mean if you catch the video we've got just above.

We're really impressed with the effort that is going into every part of this. The page-turning effects are rad, the text is great (Forge has brought in the series' original author Joe Dever), and the art direction is superb. Also, dat surprise.

If you'd like to keep tabs on Lone Wolf, just add it on your Watch List via our app [Free]. I think we'll be talking about it a lot more before it hits digital shelves this year.

I was negative years old in 1983, so I couldn't jump on the Talisman train when Fantasy Flight Games and Games Workshop got together, created some terrible box art, and brought it out to the world. The urge to call my parents and ask why they took so long is strong in me as I play through the "Prologue" iPad version of Talisman as a first-timer. It's a superb game that cuts to the core of what makes RPGs great. You take quests, you fight a bunch of bad dudes, you find fat loot, and you create your fairly epic story in about 20 minutes or less.

Rewinding a bit, Talisman Prologue on mobile is a fantasy-ass fantasy RPG. In it, you play as an adventurer tasked with doing hero-y deeds. As a Barbarian, for example, one of the quests charges you with saving a princess from a duo of ogres and taking her back to the castle. The first Monk quest has you looking for a cross and delivering it to the Chapel because looking for artifacts is pretty cool. Other adventurers have more... narratively adventurous quests, but you get the idea. Also, all the production design in the game is traditional; it has that rugged, old-school pulp fantasy book look that extends all the way to creature design and into font.

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Two Lives Left's Crabitron [$2.99 (HD)] is one of those games you've just got to see. It's an endless crabber that tasks you with charging through the cosmos, crushing and devouring anything that gets in your way. You do this by mimicking the pincers that you're steering around. Want to crush something? Pinch your fingers together. Want to eat something? Bring your fingers (and thus the pincers) to your crab's mouth and go to town. It's a wild control setup that's, surprisingly, good.

Jared and I gave it a spin this afternoon in an attempt to show you what's up. Our run is pretty good: you'll see a couple of the game's mini-games that break up the pacing, and if you don't blink, you'll even see some teleporting cars and explosive burps. And maybe a puzzle game knockoff. Man, this game is good.

It might just be something in the air, but most of us over here are starting to really get into rogue-likes. Mighty Dungeons [$1.99] is the latest one we've played, and we're digging it for the usual reasons: the thrill of random loot drops, the high stakes of permanent death, and the satisfaction that comes with killing hundreds and hundreds of skeletons lurking about in crypts, secret rooms, and libraries. What more could you want, right?

In the interest of giving you a solid look at the game, Eli and I gave this a go just the other day. We dived into quite a few dungeons in mad searches for forgotten relics and managed to, somehow, live quite a while. As you'll notice, the starting difficulty in Mighty Dungeons is maybe a little too ... easy, so maybe consider ratcheting it up before you go on your own no-heals MLG no-scope perma-death run.