Liv Games' excellent strategy defense title Legendary Wars [$1.99] received a massive version 2.0 update back in November, adding fan requests, fixes, tweaks and heaps of new content that had been bubbling up since the game originally launched in January of 2011. Now its follow-up title Monster Wars [$0.99], which offers a lot of the same style of gameplay as Legendary Wars but from the bad guys' perspective, has also received a big update. And, since both titles had launched in January, both Legendary Wars and Monster Wars are celebrating their two and one year anniversaries this month, respectively. Because of these milestones both titles will be free over the weekend.

Now, this update for Monster Wars isn't quite as massive as Legendary Wars 2.0, but it's welcome nonetheless. The biggest addition is full iOS 6 and iPhone 5 widescreen support for the game, along with a lovely new icon and some new in-game graphics for loading screens and menus. There are some new Tier 4 monsters in the game, and you can now play the "Hero" campaign from Legendary Wars right from the main menu of Monster Wars. Finally some additional optimization and fixes should make Monster Wars an overall better performing game, especially on older devices.

It's been an interesting ride watching both Legendary Wars and Monster Wars release and evolve over the past couple of years. Legendary Wars really brought a fresh approach to the fairly stale castle defense genre, offering tons of content and variety as well as a great art style and a fun story. Monster Wars basically took those ideas and improved upon them, while also tying things into the original Legendary Wars in a lot of cool ways. The two games really complemented each other, and after so many updates and improvements that feels more true now than ever.

If you don't own either Legendary Wars or Monster Wars yet, definitely take advantage of this freebie promotion and pick them up, as they should keep you entertained well into their next anniversary milestones.

It's been hectic the past couple of weeks with the holidays and everything, but there have also been some pretty significant updates released for several of our favorite iOS games. As always we offer up a quick blurb on what's new in each game and you can find App Store links as well as links to applicable reviews and our forums if you want to get more details on a particular game.

Need for Speed™ Most Wanted, $4.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Arguably the most action-packed and beautiful arcade racer on iOS has received two brand new supercars in its latest update, the Marussia B2 and Pagani Zonda R. There's also a couple of new Hot Rides events, new milestones to achieve, and 7 new NFS Edition vehicles which rotate in and out of the dealership in the game and each are only available for one week at a time. Also you can still pick up NFS Most Wanted for the ridiculous price of 99¢ for a limited time.

Punch Quest, Free - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - [TA Plays] - The big ticket item in the latest Punch Quest update is an unlockable Spartan mode, which starts you off completely devoid of all the special power-ups and items that you can mix and match to use in the original mode and instead has picking up randomly dropped items during your run. There's also new Ultra Belts which you can buy and equip to your character, as well as a staggering amount of tweaks and fixes which you can read up on in full in the App Store update text. Oh, and Punch Quest is still currently free for the holidays, so it's a perfect time to grab it if you don't already own it.

True Skate, $1.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - [TA Plays] - True Skate has added a laundry list of new missions to complete in its latest update, as well as a very cool combo system that rewards you with score multipliers for successfully pulling off a string of tricks in a line. A new in-game currency called TrueCredits can be earned by completing tricks and lines, and by completing missions. The TrueCredits can be used towards unlocking new missions, or you can unlock them all instantly with a 99¢ IAP. There's also a new slow motion mode which slows your board down in the air while it's flipping. It's kind of a neat effect, and can be triggered in small doses with TrueCredits or unlocked for unlimited use for 99¢.

Reckless Racing 2, $1.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Really the only new thing in Reckless Racing 2's most recent update is proper widescreen support for iPhone 5, which is definitely very appreciated by folks like me. But developer Pixelbite has also just released a new tutorial page and video that demonstrates the keys to successfully drifting in the game's Drift Mode, which was actually part of a big update back in August. It's worth checking out as the drifting in Reckless Racing 2 is one of its highlights, and Pixelbite says they're looking to do more drift-heavy stuff with the game in the future.

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.

Last week we briefly mentioned that Fruit Ninja HD [$2.99 (HD) / Free (HD)] for the iPad had received a new update that included a couple of new blades, two new backgrounds, and a handful of new challenges. We also expected that same update to hit the iPhone version of Fruit Ninja [$0.99 / Free] along with widescreen support for the iPhone 5 and new iPod touch 5th generation model. Well, that's exactly what happened as late yesterday the update for the iPhone Fruit Ninja went live in the App Store.

And hey, it's great. I mean it's Fruit Ninja, a total classic, and I'm very happy to have it support the wider screen of my iPhone 5 now. But let's be real. I'm merely using this new update about Fruit Ninja as an excuse to post this new video that has been making the rounds which features a real-life Fruit Ninja slicing up a market full of fruit in the forest, in slow motion... set to dubstep, naturally. It's glorious. These same folks made the "kittens flying in slow motion" video that was pretty popular a few months back, and they do some seriously quality work.

So grab the latest Fruit Ninja update on the App Store and take a break from whatever probably way less important task that you're currently doing and check out this vid, and be sure to watch through until the end. Wubwubwub.

Easily one of my favorite games this year is Atebits' Letterpress [Free], an asynchronous online word battling game. Now, I enjoy word games just fine but I often lose interest in them quickly, or get frustrated staring at a game board for ten minutes racking my brain to think up the longest, most elaborate word possible. Letterpress changed all that because it's not just about playing the words, but playing the board itself in a highly strategic battle of territory against your opponent. We get into all that in our full review of Letterpress, if you're curious.

Anyway, this week brought an exciting new update to the word game, most prominently adding a new replay feature. It's actually really brilliant. At any time, even if a game is still in progress, you can hit up the in-game menu and choose a new "Share Replay" option. From here you can share a link via email, text/iMessage, Facebook or Twitter, or just copy the link to your device's clipboard for pasting into Safari or wherever. The link takes you to a beautiful little HTML5 replay of your current or completed game. There's a slider that allows you to look through every move made thus far, or you can tap on the played words in a list below the replay to jump straight to when that word was played in the game.

It's an extremely clever way to relive some of your greatest triumphs and defeats, or to share with others any particular game you like. Here is a fairly lengthy game I've been playing for the past couple of weeks that's still in progress, if you want to check out what a replay looks like firsthand. Simply open that link in your browser on your computer or device, manipulate the slider to scroll through the game in order, or tap any of the words from the list below to see them played.

Besides this cool replay feature, the latest Letterpress update also includes an improved dictionary, a clarification of the "prefix" rule, and tons more tweaks and fixes. Oh, and just in time for the holidays, the word Christmas has been banned from use. Hey, it's a proper noun, it's not allowed no matter how good you've been this year. At any rate, Letterpress remains one of the most well-designed games I've played, along with being a lot of fun. So be sure to check out the latest update and the neat new replay feature.

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!

Wow, there have been a lot of quality content updates recently. So many in fact that we couldn't fit everything into our update roundup from yesterday. So, without too much fuss here's a quick rundown of the games that have received notable updates along with whats new and any applicable links to forums, videos or reviews if you want to dig in a little deeper about a particular title.

Commando Jack, $0.99 - [Forum] - [Review] - Chillingo's clever tower defense game that puts you right in the action with a first-person view where you can help pick off the incoming waves of enemies yourself. This huge 2.0 update adds a whopping 39 new levels, 8 different alien types, 11 new kinds of weapons, and 2 brand new game modes.

No, there's no Marvel vs. Capcom-style crossover pitting the Dark Elves against the Adorables... not yet anyway. But those bemoaning the untimely death of Battle Dungeon can take solace in the new additions to One Man Left and Robot Entertainment's asynchronous TBS games, or in one of the other major updates of the past month.

Outwitters, Free - [Review] - The plant-themed Veggienauts (no surprise there) are now available via IAP. As with each Outwitters team, their signature unit is intended to open up new strategies. In this case, the Bramble grows thorny walls that can spread themselves across the battlefield. They're also the second-cutest faction in the game (after the Adorables, of course).

Hero Academy, Free - [Review] - Not to be "outdone," Hero Academy has added a new faction, Shaolin, with a mix of new and remixed familiar abilities and a fair bit of subtlety in their application. Single player has also been extended with a pack of new Challenge Missions. Both are available via IAP.

Spectromancer, $1.99 - [Review] - Available via IAP: four more classes of wizard to play. Free: a new mode of versus play. Unfortunately, there is no "restore purchases" option, so if you don't remember what IAP you've already paid for, you'll have to "buy" them to find out.

Infinite Warrior, $2.99 - [Review] - For something visual, that's not too abysmal, you can take in the (free) update to Infinite Warrior. It greatly improves the game's responsiveness, and, among other things, implements permanent (but damageable and reparable) equipment. Still missing: the option to hug your mortal enemy rather than impale him.

Rune Raiders, Free - [Review] - Rune Raiders also lacks a "restore purchases" option, but this is their first update with IAP, so one can hope they'll fix this flaw. You can now purchase an additional quest, the Ice Lands, which increases the number of campaign missions by hald, and the semi-random Rocketeer.The Rocketeer is IAP only partially because all of the other heroes operate in a strictly deterministic fashion: if you prefer your Rune Raiders that way, you may only want the extra levels.

Squids, $1.99 - [Review] - Squids had added a new character, a couple of maps, and part one (of two) of a comic book, all for free. Apparently it's all to promote the new Squids comic series.

Squids Wild West, $1.99 - [Review] - The second part of that comic and an extra mission are part of this update, which is also free. So, assuming your own both Squids and Wild West, you get the entire comic for free. Well played, Game Bakers, well played.

Spy vs Spy, $0.99 - [Review] - In their perhaps-quixotic quest to make the greatest undervalued game of the 1984 the greatest mobile game of 2012, Robots and Pencils has improved the combat system, added an additional control scheme, and connected iOS players to Mac players.

Yesterday Disney called upon the mobile game media to assemble in San Francisco so they could be told just how popular and successful the mobile publishing division of the iconic company has been in the mobile gaming space. Well duh, it's Disney. Basically, the number of people downloading and playing Disney Mobile games on a daily basis has exploded during 2012, and it looks like that trend will continue right into the new year.

It wasn't all bragging though, as Disney set the stage for the remainder of their 2012 with some new game announcements and updates to many of their popular titles. Here's a brief rundown of the three new titles announced along with some information and screens for all the app updates which should be coming down the pipe with all this week's other new releases later tonight or tomorrow.

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Back in late October, the excellent Fieldrunners 2 HD [$4.99 (HD) / Free (HD)] for the iPad received an update which added a new Halloween-themed tower into the mix, as well as some technical improvements. On the iPhone that same update came to the regular Fieldrunners 2 [$2.99] shortly after, and notably it also added a fairly controversial IAP Coin Store where you could trade in your real money for the virtual kind.

That option has come to Fieldrunners 2 HD in a new update today, along with two new towers and a couple of Christmas-themed items. For some reason the Coin Store doesn't seem to be functional as of this writing, saying it can't connect to the App Store. The iPhone Fieldrunners 2 IAP works fine, so who knows. Maybe somebody forgot to flip a switch or something.

Anyway, as for the new towers the first is called the Polymorph Tower and it'll turn the Fieldrunners into various animals, which temporarily slows them down. The basic Fieldrunner soldier gets zapped into a sheep, larger vehicles become cows, and I'm pretty sure I saw a helicopter get turned into an eagle. It's pretty crazy. The other new tower is a Napalm Tower which causes a "lingering burning sensation."

The new Polymorph Tower will run you a pretty steep 15k coins to unlock, but here's a pro tip: download the just-released Fieldrunners 2 HD Free [Free (HD)] and that tower will unlock in both versions automatically. The lite version is good at doing normal lite version stuff too, like letting you try out the game to see if you like it. It comes with a sampling of levels to play through, but no endless modes.

On the new items front, the Santa Strike lets you call in an airstrike from the Jolly Man himself courtesy of his magical flying reindeer and sled, and a whole lot of explosives. Meanwhile, the Frostinator is an item you can throw down in the field and it acts sort of like a mine, so when a Fieldrunner runs over it it turns him and anyone in the vicinity into Frosty the Snowmen, hopping along as slowly as you can probably imagine a snowman would.

Hopefully the in-app purchasing fixes itself soon, but everything else about this update is pretty cool. The iPhone version of Fieldrunners 2 is set to get a long-awaited iPhone 5 widescreen update, and I'd imagine it will get these new towers and items at the same time too. Maybe even its own lite version. But if you have an iPad and don't have Fieldrunners 2, check out the new lite version as it is simply one of the best games in the App Store.

22Cans' Curiosity [Free] oddly enough still seems to be going strong with users plinking away at the cube revealing new layers on a daily basis. PocketGamer even has someone who is crazy enough to play the game every day and write about it. It didn't grab us in quite the same way, but if tapping on cubes is your thing, Curiosity "V2" hit the App Store this morning.

According to the update notes, "Curiosity V2 is what the experiment always should have been." You'll be able to see the cube shatter away as other people tap on it, and there's weird badges to earn along with other statistics to farm up. Last, but not least, coin-loss issues have been resolved.

If you identify with fellow cube tappers, make sure to grab this update.

Late last month, Rantmedia Games leveled up the state of retro in the App Store with the release of Vectrex Regeneration [Free], their effort to bring the authentic Vectrex experience to iOS gamers. We took a close look at this vectorscopic one-stop-shop, and found that they had largely succeeded, but with a few rough edges just out the gate.

I'm happy to report that the folks over at Rantmedia have been listening to feedback and quick to respond to issue reports and general suggestions. The first update to Vectrex Regeneration, since it debuted, has gone live and addresses a number of issues voiced in my review:

• Earlier devices supported — The original iPad and the iPhone 3GS are now supported, with performance improvements on the iPhone 4.
• Wireless controller improvements — In the initial release, there was a problem with non-diagonal directional control, which is now fixed.
• Joystick sensitivity — Joystick sensitivity settings are now saved per-game, rather than the previous same-setting-for-all situation.
• Black screen — A fix for certain (jailbroken...) devices experiencing a black screen on startup.
• MineStorm — Garbled lines appearing on level 2 have been addressed.
• Box art & instructions — Minor corrections to box art and instructions have been made.

This update notably improves this already-excellent virtual game console, which should not be missed by anyone with any kind of fondness for retro gaming.

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.

There's really no series on iOS or anywhere for that matter that covers all the bases of rainbows, heavy metal, and Christmas cheer quite like the Robot Unicorn Attack series does. The original Robot Unicorn Attack started out as a Flash game on Adult Swim's website, and grew to amass a legion of fans with its adorable dolphins, fairies, and rainbow dashes along with the soothing sounds of Erasure's 'Always' as a constantly looping soundtrack.

In mid-2010 it leapt from the computer screen to the touchscreen as well as into our hearts when Robot Unicorn Attack [$0.99] dashed onto the App Store. Several months later, the antithesis to the original game, Robot Unicorn Attack Heavy Metal Edition [$0.99], traded the dreams for nightmares and the Erasure for the rocking tunes of Blind Guardian.

Then just a month later Adult Swim brought the holiday cheer with Robot Unicorn Attack Christmas Edition [$0.99]. As you can imagine, playing in a festive environment with a robot unicorn who's dressed in reindeer antlers and a holiday sweater really counterbalanced the pure evil wrought by Heavy Metal Edition. A Yin and Yang kinda thing, if you will.

The reason I'm bringing all this up is because all three of Adult Swim's Robot Unicorn Attack games have just been updated in plenty of time for the holidays. After getting some long-awaited Retina Display updates around this time last year, the trio of games have now been updated with widescreen support for iPhone 5 and iPod touch 5. Also, the original Robot Unicorn Attack was updated with Universal iPad support this past February, and with these newest updates the other two games have followed suit, so now you can leap and dash to your heart's content on your iPad.

Just a head's up, though, none of the games appear to be fully Retina on the iPad, and weren't on the iPhone either, but they still look good and are of course still just as fun as ever. Check out any or all three of the new and improved Robot Unicorn Games, and if you ask me the original version is my favorite and will 'Always' have a special spot on my device (I couldn't resist).

Calling all fans of the Stargate franchise: a new mobile game is heading your way. The name of the game is Teal'c's Revenge, and it puts you in control of the Jaffa warrior Teal'c as he defends Stargate Command at Cheyenne Mountain from an onslaught of intruders in one-on-one Infinity Blade-esque battles.

If you are a fan of the Stargate movies, TV series, books and all manner of other media, then it sounds like Teal'c's Revenge will be offering up a lot of fan-service. You'll get to explore the Cheyenne Mountain Complex, discover special items that harken back to previous missions from Stargate SG-1, and there will even be some trivia to test your knowledge of the series. There is even hints of a hidden room for dedicated players to discover that contains rare images from the SG-1 archives. Sounds pretty cool.

What's really interesting is that Teal'c's Revenge isn't a standalone game, but rather an in-app add-on for the Stargate Command [Free] app from developer Arkalis that launched over this past summer. Stargate Command is mostly an entertainment app for fans of Stargate that lets you explore a virtual version of the Stargate Command Complex in Cheyenne Mountain. It had a cool golfing mini-game where you could smack golfballs right into the Stargate itself, and lots of other tidbits to discover about the lore and characters in the Stargate universe. You can see the upcoming Teal'c's Revenge DLC game in action in the trailer below.

Next Thursday the Teal'c's Revenge game will become available in the Stargate Command app for a limited time sale price of 99¢. It's kind of hard to tell just how well the game will actually play from the brief trailer above, but it definitely looks nice, and should be a real treat for Stargate fans. There will be both Campaign and Survival modes to work your way through, and Teal'c earns experience through battling which goes towards leveling up your attributes. There's apparently no level cap either, so you can kick back and level up Teal'c until your blue in the face if you wish.

You can download and explore the Stargate Command app right now for free from the link below, and be on the lookout for the Teal'c's Revenge DLC to hit next week.