We've had a couple of discussions about PikPok's insane creative successes in the recent past. This is a studio that pumps out a ton of games for iOS, and it manages to consistently deliver quality despite its workload. So, in a way, news that its first-person zombie shooting game, Into the Dead [Free], has hit 10 million downloads isn't all that surprising. Still, it's a cool point of validation for our cheerleading. Obviously, it's doing something right.

To dive into more detail about this news, by the way: Specifically, Into the Dead has hit 10 million downloads across iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Android in less than five months after its initial release. Obviously, PikPok is stoked with this news. In the PR we've received about this, managing direction Mario Wynands said:

"I'm very proud of the team and process we have built that has been able to have repeat success, and look forward to seeing how our upcoming releases will be received."

Into the Dead is pretty hot, by the way. And so is Robot Unicorn Attack 2 [Free], Super Monsters Ate My Condo [Free], Extinction Squad [$0.99], Flick Kick Field Goal [$0.99] ... and so on and so on. Makes you wonder if there's something in the water over there.

Heads up: SEGA is doing a sale on three of its more notable recent releases on the App Store. From now until later this weekend, you can grab After Burner Climax [$2.99], Crazy Taxi [$4.99], and House of the Dead: Overkill [$4.99] for a couple bucks off their usual listing price. So, if you want to do something with either zombies, taxis, or jets feel free to go nuts.

Here's one of those handy before and now lists:

• After Burner Climax - $2.99 -> $.99
• Crazy Taxi -$4.99 -> $.99
• House of the Dead: Overkill - The Lost Reels - $4.99 -> $2.99

Each of these games suffer from some of the usual issues that come from ports of games that were originally on machines with buttons (or steering wheels ... or joysticks), but generally speaking, they've been received well by folks.

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.

Ravenous Games put themselves on the iOS map with their twitchy, speed-run style platformer League of Evil [$1.99 / Free] way back in March of 2011. About a year later, they released League of Evil 2 [$1.99 / Free], a sequel that went with a more Retina Display friendly art style over the original's pixely graphics. How you felt about the art style change pretty much came down to personal preference, but it was hard to argue that League of Evil 2 didn't up the ante in every other area over the original.

Ravenous has released quite a few games outside of the League of Evil games, but it seems like fans are always bugging them about when we might see a third entry in the series. (They have in fact told me that people incessantly bug them about this.) Well, today is your lucky day League of Evil fans, as League of Evil 3 is a real thing in the works and Ravenous has unveiled the very first screenshot from the game.

As you can see, this third game uses the same high resolution art style as League of Evil 2. I love pixel art just as much as the next guy, but I really love the sharp look of LoE 2 and I'm psyched to see it return in number 3. Probably the best news of all is that League of Evil 3 isn't that far off, and is planned for release in June. More details will be released leading up to that point, so get into our forums and add this to your TouchArcade [Free] app Watch List as we'll no doubt have more on League of Evil 3 in the near future.

Back in early March we told you about Zynga's upcoming Temple Run-style game called Running With Friends, which was just entering a beta period in the Canadian App Store. Early today, Running With Friends [Free / Free (HD)] bid adieu to its limited beta launch and is now available in the US App Store and internationally. VentureBeat has uploaded an official trailer, check it out.

So, endless runners, ya'll. By now you know what they are, you've likely played many different kinds, and here's a new one from Zynga. I'm not really sure what else there is to say on the matter. Running With Friends is free for iPhone or iPad, so you can just download it and try it yourself if you're dying for a new endless runner, or check out the forums for discussion.

Firaxis is best known for their excellent strategy game work on PC and consoles. At PAX East they announced their ambition to take the iOS world by storm with the release  of XCOM: Enemy Unknown this summer. With much less fanfare comes Haunted Hollow, a sleepy, unassuming little turn-based strategy title. Behind its chibi-monsters and freemium veneer, Haunted Hollow [Free] is a digital board game that successfully marries the accessible strategy pedigree of its creators with the realities of iOS (pricing and playtime).

Your Victorian mansion sits atop a rise overlooking a small village. Heir of untold funds from wealthy ancestors you spend your time creating monsters to scare the villagers below. But what is that, another mad scientist on the neighboring bluff? In Haunted Hollow you are competing with a fellow monster maker to be the first to haunt every home in the village. To do this you will need to build up your mansion room by room and then summon monsters to do your bidding. Monsters like ghosts focus on scaring homes while those like the werewolf are used to fight other monsters.

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Kingturn RPG [Free] ain't a looker. That was my first reaction to the game, as I suspect it will be yours. But for fans of tactics style turn-based RPGs such as myself, pickings are slim on iOS, so I gave the game a shot. I'm glad I did. Underneath the hood of this old beater lies a beautiful, well-oiled machine, and it won't cost you a penny to take a look for yourself.

For those not in the know, tactics games are a subgenre of turn-based RPGs, first brought to the mainstream by Final Fantasy Tactics (which itself has an iOS port). Tactics games see you leading a small host of heroes over a battlefield in turn-based combat against an opponent. They differ from typical RPGs in that a good deal of the strategy deals with the positioning of you and your opponent's soldiers, a bit like pieces on a chessboard.

Being a good tactician requires patience, but the dearth of tactics titles on iOS would test the patience of even the mighty Sun Tzu. Into that void comes Kingturn, a tactics title to its core. The prologue campaign is free, with the full campaign unlocked as a $4.99 IAP. Kingturn's gameplay owes much to its predecessor, Final Fantasy Tactics, but from the start the game begins to stake its own territory. The first thing you will notice is that this game is not merely challenging, but hard. Kingturn will try the skills of even veteran strategy gamers. Beyond the game's refreshing difficulty, Developers Mangobile have also brought some truly innovative gameplay elements to the table.

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The folks over at Butterscotch Shenanigans may be relatively new to the iOS scene, but  they've already made some waves with their offerings. Known for quirky humor and bright, silly visuals, I was introduced to their crazy world with Towelfight 2, a game that we enjoyed. Recently, I had the opportunity to check out a build of their upcoming game, Quadropus Rampage which looks to continue the developer's amusing style in a different setting.

Where Towelfight 2 was a set adventure in similar vein to classic top-down Zelda titles, Quadropus takes the same action-oriented gameplay but puts it in a different setting entirely. Dubbed a 'Rogue-like platforming action RPG' by the devs, there's a lot of different elements at play in Quadropus that come together for a pretty fusion of genres.

Players start every run with a level 1 Quadropus at the entrance of a dungeon in search of baddies to kill. Dungeons are comprised of randomized rooms filled with enemies, pitfalls and an exit to the next depth (i.e. room/level). Thus, the goal becomes to kill all the enemies while avoiding the chasms, and move towards the exit to the next level. Killing enemies reward orbs (which act as currency), experience, which levels up your Quadropus, and new weapons and power-ups. Interestingly, falling off the ledges instantly take you to the next depth, but at a significant health penalty.

While it's theoretically possibly to avoid killing enemies and simply look for the exits, it doesn't seem recommended as you miss out on essential experience and possible power-up and weapon drops. This is especially important as deeper levels contain stronger enemies which will easily mow you down if you're weak. In true rogue-like fashion, players move from depth to depth until they eventually succumb, with the next run starting at the top with a beginning level character. However, Quadropus Rampage features two different systems for improving your Quadropus between runs.

The first, simply called Upgrade, uses the orb currency to upgrade a variety of attributes that persist between runs. Examples include attack, critical damage, and special move improvements. It's a relatively standard system and, when combined with the leveling system, doesn't seem to offer many surprises.

The second system, known as Masteries, are a collection of achievements that award special skills upon completing them. Skill examples include earning more orbs when defeating bosses, unleashing a damage-causing explosion when leveling up, or gaining health whenever moving down a depth. If achievement hunting for skill-ups doesn't suit your fancy, Rampage also has a premium currency known as doubloons which can be bought and used to bypass the achievement portion of Masteries (they can also be used to revive your Quadropus and continue a run).

While the game is still in flux (for example, the tutorial mode hasn't wasn't in), I'm really liking what I see with Quadropus Rampage. The game's rogue-like nature, which includes randomized weapons and an amusing naming system, adds to a game that seems to have a lot more depth than one might originally see. In addition, the IAP system, at least as currently implemented, doesn't feel onerous. Finally, as was the case with Towelfight 2, Quadropus is simply funny and share the unique humor of other B-Scotch games.

Quadropus Rampage is slated to come out in the next month and we'll certainly keep an eye out for it upon release.

Whoa, it's Wednesday again, which means exactly one thing: I have an appointment to get my hair cut. Oh, and a bunch of new iOS games are coming out. As of this posting, all of these games should be available in all regions including the USA. So, without further ado, here's the games you can sink your proverbial teeth into this week:

Crazy Monster Bowling

First Impressions: 'Crazy Monster Bowling' is Arcade-style Bowling with Crazy Monsters

Sometimes taking a sport and axing out pretty much any sort of realism is the key to making a fun arcade version of said sport. With Crazy Monster Bowling, as you can probably guess just by the title, this is about as far from simulation bowling as you can get.

Forum Thread: Crazy Monster Bowling (by NEONFIVE STUDIO) [Universal]

First Impressions: Smash and Grab and Smash Some More in 'Daddy Was A Thief'

The game begins with you bursting onto the rooftop of the bank and leaping to the building next door. It's here that you'll make your escape, and you do this by literally pounding through the floor of each, well, floor of the building. A swipe downward smashes your thief through the floor, and a swipe upward makes you jump. Your character auto-runs so these are literally the only controls in the game, and it works brilliantly.

Forum Thread: Daddy Was a Thief (Universal app by Rebel Twins)

First Impressions: I'm Digging 'Dig!', the Latest Game from Tasty Poison and Crescent Moon

Snark aside, you play as an aspiring archeologist in a fast-paced puzzle game with a strong nod back to games like Qix as the way you both dig up new artifacts and deal with enemies in the field is by controlling your guy to draw boundaries for the areas you're digging in. Completing levels involves managing bad guys, collecting treasure, then digging deeper

Forum Thread: Dig! - (by Crescent Moon Games) [Universal]

First Impressions: Firehose Games's PC Tower Defense Game 'Go Home Dinosaurs' Hits iPad Tonight

Go Home is a pretty standard tower defense title with a couple of notable twists. For one, you don't just place turrets, you control an autonomous one that you can move around a level freely to cover any defensive gaps. For another, the level design sorta resembles a puzzle game's. Turrets are shaped like jigsaw pieces, basically, and you can only put them where they fit. Finding the perfect spacing and locking the right pieces into each other is an essential part of the late-level strategy.

Forum Thread: Go Home Dinosaurs - (by Fire Hose Games)

First Impressions: Cheating Is Fun: 'Impossible Road' Invites Players To Break It

Kevin Ng's upcoming Impossible Road has the look and feel of an everyday mobile arcade game, but it's definitely not. In it, you guide a ball down an infinitely winding neon stretch of track, collecting points as you rocket through the numbered gates that line it. It's a simple, breezy task where death comes fast because the track twists, turns, and falls into itself. As you play, though, you start noticing gaps in the system. For instance, the ball doesn't need to follow the track linearly. You can let it fall off and land onto a stretch that's deeper down. You can also skip gates, too, and earn the same amount of points that a person that managed to hit them all would. Also, the ball doesn't even need to roll down. If you're a bad enough dude, you can just keep throwing it off the track and controlling its ricochet off of the curves.

Forum Thread: IMPOSSIBLE ROAD - (by Kevin Ng) [Universal]

First Impressions: Be Quick or Be Lunch in Arcade Puzzler 'Tasty Tadpoles'

In the jungle, only the strong survive. I guess that's true in ponds, too. In Tasty Tadpoles, the first solo iOS release from developer Mark White, strength doesn't mean being bigger or stronger, but rather being faster and more clever than your enemies. If you aren't, you'll find your cute little tadpole becoming nothing more than an afternoon snack.

Forum Thread: Tasty Tadpoles - (by Mark Whiteb) [Universal]

The roguelike is a timeless video game genre and helped shape the RPGs and dungeon crawlers we've known and loved for decades. But I've never played one that was a side-scroller. Not until WazHack [Free] anyway. Warwick Allison's WazHack has been around on desktop and Android for about a year, and has now made its way to iOS. I've only just barely scratched the surface of the game, but I'm already hooked.

The funny thing about WazHack is that it being a side-scroller doesn't really change its roguelike feel. You still explore a large, randomly generated dungeon; battle monsters in turn-based fashion; and collect all sorts of sweet loot like items, spells and weapons. Your overall goal is to plunge down to the bottom of the dungeon, retrieve the Amulet of Zaw (hey, that's Waz backwards!), and make your way back up and out alive.

Best of all is that WazHack is free to download and play (or free to play on the official website). Once you get to a certain depth in the dungeon, you'll be prompted to purchase a character class to unlock the full dungeon and continue on. There are four character classes (Knight, Wizard, Sorcerer and Huntsman with male and female versions of each) and each class goes for 99¢ as an IAP.

I like this system, as you can play as each of the different classes up to the cutoff depth as many times as you need, and then you can decide to buy whichever ones you really want. The free portion of the dungeon is more than enough to help you decide if WazHack is something you'd like to drop some money on, too.

I have a feeling there's lots more that I'll be discovering about WazHack in the days to come, but I was having such a good time and the players in our forums have been having such a good time that I felt the need to share it with you right away. But seriously, this thing is deep. With over 300 types of items and more than 130 types of monsters, not to mention the various unique attributes of each of the different classes, both male and female, and randomly generated dungeons, WazHack should be a very different experience every time you play.

Check out an older trailer from the desktop version to see it in action.

Something worth noting is that a couple of minor bugs are in this release version of WazHack. From the App Store description:

* Keyboard input on iPhone does not allow pop-down. This will be fixed very soon (1.1.5).
* Multiplayer does not work except by very circuitous means. This will take a little longer to get working - I may use GameCenter for this, but I would prefer that cross-platform multiplayer works, which will take longer.

Nothing major, but good to be aware of at least.

So, go check out WazHack, it's available right now and it's awesome. You can thank me later.

Sometimes taking a sport and axing out pretty much any sort of realism is the key to making a fun arcade version of said sport. With Crazy Monster Bowling, as you can probably guess just by the title, this is about as far from simulation bowling as you can get.

It features many, many, many different kinds of monsters which act as the bowling balls in the game. You'll hurtle your monster ball down one of many different kinds of lanes, typically in an environment that's filled with many objects and hazards that you'd never find on the pristinely polished lanes of a normal bowling alley.

Playing is super simple. Just swipe to send your monster ball down the lane, and continue using swipes as it rolls to steer, speed up, or slow down. There's 3 stars positioned along the lane which you'll want to collect to maximize your score, and once you reach the end you'll smack into 10 "pin" monsters in an effort to knock them all down.

There's only 5 "frames" during each game, and you only throw your ball once per frame. So if you fail to knock all the monsters down don't expect to pick up the slack by getting a spare.

Those aren't negative things, though. In fact it's the oversimplification of the bowling mechanics which I'm finding the most fun about Crazy Monster Bowling. It's a very arcade-y experience. Just flick your ball, steer it a bit, avoid (or aim for) the crazy obstacles, and smash into a bunch of monsters as hard as you can. It's surprisingly awesome.

Also, in case it wasn't obvious with my overuse of the word many, a key element in Crazy Monster Bowling is variety. There are tons of monsters and a decent amount of lanes to slowly unlock using coins earned during play (or bought with IAP, naturally). So far the unlock prices seem to be pretty reasonable compared to what I've been earning through just normal play, and in addition to the free version of the game there is a paid version which starts you off with a very generous amount of 50k coins.

I sort of rolled my eyes when I first saw Crazy Monster Bowling as the App Store is littered with cutesy, shallow games and this looked like yet another. But in the hour or so I've been playing the game I've been eating those initial impressions and having a blast doing so. There's something very satisfying about the wacky bowling and it's oddly fun collecting and naming all the little monster variants.

And hey, it's free to check out, so cruise by the forums for some discussion and Watch List this bad boy in your TouchArcade [Free] app to get an alert when you can try it for yourself later tonight.

International App Store Links:

Crazy Monster Bowling, Free (Universal)
Crazy Monster Bowling - PRO, $2.99 (Universal)

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

In the jungle, only the strong survive. I guess that's true in ponds, too. In Tasty Tadpoles, the first solo iOS release from developer Mark White, strength doesn't mean being bigger or stronger, but rather being faster and more clever than your enemies. If you aren't, you'll find your cute little tadpole becoming nothing more than an afternoon snack.

The goal in Tasty Tadpoles is to collect 3 stars and make it to the exit without getting eaten. Tap anywhere on the screen and your tadpole will zip right to that spot. You'll need to collect the first star before revealing the location of the second, and then collect that one to reveal the location of the third.

With various kinds of enemies swimming around, there's almost a puzzle-like aspect to Tasty Tadpoles as you decide the best path and timing to take to collect all the stars, as well as make it to the exit safely. Different kinds of enemies have different attacks, and some special items, like a protective bubble, will need to be utilized to be successful.

One thing worth mentioning is that Tasty Tadpoles is a GameSalad game. That used to mean an instant skip from me, but really GameSalad has come a long way the past year or two, and some developers are able to utilize the tool extremely well. In terms of visuals, sound, and presentation, you wouldn't even know that Tasty Tadpoles is a GameSalad game. Everything is top-notch.

However, the one thing that is driving me nuts is the loading. GameSalad loads often and slowly. On some of the later, trickier levels you'll be dying incessantly as you try to figure out the right solution. Having to wait for the game to load for a few seconds every time you retry wears thin quickly. It's a minor annoyance, but I could definitely do without it.

Other than that, though, Tasty Tadpoles seems like a cute arcade-puzzler. The beginning levels are kind of a breeze, but it ramps up nicely in terms of difficulty as you go, and a few of the later levels have been rather tricky. It'll be launching later tonight for a buck, so check the early impressions in the forums for more and add it to your Watch List in the TouchArcade [Free] app to get an alert when it releases.

International App Store Link: Tasty Tadpoles, 99¢ (Universal)

Heads up: Firehose Games's tower defense title, Go Home Dinosaurs, is currently worming its way through international App Stores. It'll be available alongside a bunch of other brand new games around 11PM EST here in the states. As we've covered before, it will be launching at $4.99, which seems like a good deal for a pretty fleshed out game.

In case you've missed our pre-release post a couple of weeks back, here's a re-cap: Go Home is a pretty standard tower defense title with a couple of notable twists. For one, you don't just place turrets, you control an autonomous one that you can move around a level freely to cover any defensive gaps. For another, the level design sorta resembles a puzzle game's. Turrets are shaped like jigsaw pieces, basically, and you can only put them where they fit. Finding the perfect spacing and locking the right pieces into each other is an essential part of the late-level strategy.

All this, of course, is wrapped up in a cheery premise with whimsical visuals. We liked the game a lot after we busted out of the tutorial phase (which was way too easy). If you've been feening a new tower defense joint, this might be up your alley. Hit up our TA Plays and see if it clicks with you.

You can always follow your favorite games and add them to your Watch List on our app [Free], by the way. On nights like tonight it's pretty nice to get a notification whenever they release. Feel free to add Go Home Dinosaurs if it looks good to ya.

International App Store Link: Go Home Dinosaurs, $4.99

It seems like the longer you play Magic: The Gathering, the more massive your collection of cards inevitably grows, and the greater the urge is to somehow digitize it all becomes. Whether it's because you've got tens of thousands of dollars of cards you want record of for insurance purposes, a neurotic need to catalog everything, or maybe just to quickly view your mana curve in a deck, that itch is definitely there. The problem is, every other app I've tried that serves this purpose has involved loads of typing. It's just the nature of any data collection app, as the first step of analyzing any data is actual often irritating data entry.

CardSplice [Free] aims to change all that. Using technical wizardry that straddles the line between optical character recognition and feeling like straight up black majiks when it's working properly, all you need to do is wave your cards in front of your iPhone camera to enter them in to the app. Admittedly, it's far from perfect, and there's a bit of a learning curve in regards to how you need to hold your phone in relation to the card, how ambient light needs to be hitting the card, and other finicky things that makes the card recognition stop working.

The good news is, the developer is totally on top of this with two options for making papercraft stands for both your iPhone and the cards themselves. Whether you fashion this apparatus via elaborately folding paper or the (seemingly much more simple) cutting a few junk Magic cards up, removing all the variation of holding the phone, holding the card, and making sure the image isn't blurry seemed to make things go substantially better.

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