It's been a bittersweet year for iPhone-toting fans of Atari's '80s arcade classic Paperboy. Elite brought a 3D-enhanced remake of the title to the App Store roundabouts last Christmas, only to pull it in March due to a license conflict. (All of the Atari ports were pulled from the App Store early this year.) Many of our forum members have lamented not grabbing the old favorite while it was available. Well, Paperboy is once again in the App Store, this time in the form of Paperboy: Special Delivery [link] from Glu.

Paperboy: Special Edition is an enhanced incarnation of the original arcade, featuring a Story Mode that grants special abilities for game progress, such as freeze onscreen characters, throw multiple papers, auto-dodge obstacles -- 10 abilities in all. The story behind the Story Mode is your quest, as a paperboy, to save enough money to buy a game console -- which is delayed by romance and the need to start delivering roses in addition to papers. There's also a quick-play Classic Mode that resembles the original arcade mode. While the Story Mode is the preferred method of play, it doesn't bring that much extra to the gameplay.

The game offers three different methods of control. There's an all-tilt mode where steering and acceleration are controled via tilt, a button mode where left / right are controlled with onscreen arrows and acceleration via tilt, as well as a joystick mode where everything is controlled via onscreen stick. I find the first method to be the most effective and the last to be the least. Overall, the control system is better than the (now-pulled) Elite version -- an issue we were never able to get past with last year's version.

The graphics are reworked from the original, but with a retro feel. It appears to be a homage to the 1984 original, with an isometric style. It's less "3D" than the Classic mode of the Elite version (and far less 3D than that verison's 3D mode, which I was not fond of), but I prefer it to the earlier offering. What's more, onscreen animation is smoother, on the whole, than in Elite's outing. Not every synth audio track is present in this version, but those that are seem to be from the arcade original.

Scores and achievements are tracked online via Game Center integration.

Fans of the original are definitely going to find Glu's offering a fun way to pass the time. But, that said, in prepping for this review, I spent notable time with this Glu release, the earlier Elite release, and the arcade original via a Midway retro collection on the GameCube. I had the most fun, by far, on the GameCube. I would attribute that to a physical stick, the screen real estate, and every note of audio properly in place, just how I remembered it.

Bottom line: retro gaming fans who enjoyed the original as a kid should enjoy this version of Paperboy: Special Edition for iOS, understanding the usual touch-screen translation issues, and the fact that it's not a faithful arcade reproduction. Overall, we enjoyed it more than the Elite version that is no longer available on the App Store primarily due to improvements in the control system.

It's the weekend, and that means sales on games in the App Store. Here's a list of some stand-outs that are currently on sale or recently price-reduced.

Make your weekend about games.

• Sword of Fargoal Legends from Chillingo $6.99 → $.99
• Prince of Persia: Warrior Within from Gameloft [ review ] $4.99 → $.99
• UNO HD for iPad from Gameloft $4.99 → $.99
• Super Mega Worm from Deceased Pixel [ review ] $1.99 → $.99
• Skate It from EA [ review ] $4.99 → $.99
• Madden NFL 11 from EA Sports [ review ] $7.99 → $4.99
• YAHTZEE Adventures from EA $2.99 → $.99
• Tiger Woods PGA TOUR from EA Sports [ review] $4.99 →  $.99
• Spore Creatures from EA [ review ] $6.99 →  $.99
• Command & Conquer Red Alert from EA [ review ] $4.99 → $.99
• Across Age from FDG Entertainment $4.99 → $2.99
• Wizzley Presto and the Vampires Tomb from Craig Rothwell [ review ] $4.99 → $.99
• Monster Trucks Nitro 2 from RedLynx Ltd. [ review ] $2.99 → $.99
• Monster Trucks Nitro from RedLynx Ltd. [ review ] $.99 → Free
• Catacombs from InMotion Software [ review ] $.99 → Free

We've been kind of going crazy with Infinity Blade news lately, but it's hard to not get excited for the first real game to come to the iOS platform that utilizes Unreal Engine 3 technology. Sure, Epic Citadel [Free] is an excellent display of the power of the platform, but it's little more than a tech demo. MTV Multiplayer also had some time with Chair creative director Donald Mustard and they were able to get even more details regarding just what we can expect of the game.

Mustard confirms that the castle in Infinity Blade is in fact different from the one found in Epic Citadel, and went on to discuss the sword fighting nature of the game:

Mustard's goal with "Infinity Blade is to "make a real sword fighting game. A game where it's not just mashing buttons or pressing A to unleash an attack." On the iPhone and iPad, Mustard and his team found an ideal platform for the concept. "It'd be perfect to use this touch screen to where, basically, I swipe on the screen, and I've got this dude who swipes with me. We can actually make a sword fighting game where, if an attack is coming in at a funky angle, I can swipe my sword into it and parry the attack away."

He then goes on to describe Infinity Blade as "a blend between 'Karateka,' 'Dragon's Lair,' 'Punch-Out,' with a whole bunch of other 'Chair-ness' thrown into it." We'll be able to explore the castle for loot in between battles, and while we knew there was going to be free post-launch updates, I don't think anyone expected the amount that they're planning which Donald Mustard is describing as "like a constant stream of free content," citing games like Pocket God and Doodle Jump as examples of how well updating works.

If you're as excited as we are about Infinity Blade, be sure to read the full interview and if you haven't already, take a look at the trailer we posted earlier today.

[via MTV Multiplayer]

The Baseball Superstars series has come quite a long way on the iPhone. The original Baseball Superstars [$2.99 / Lite] was released in late 2008-- It was a fairly obvious port from Gamevil's cell phone version of the game, complete with stretched graphics, mediocre virtual controls, and not much else. When we caught up with Gamevil at the following GDC, they previewed an update that fixed pretty much everything that initially made us take a pass on reviewing the game when it was first released. With improved graphics, and a more sensible difficulty level, Baseball Superstars quickly became one of my favorite iPhone games.

It wasn't much of a surprise to me when Baseball Superstars 2010 [$2.99 / Lite / HD] was released that we liked it just as much, if not more. Our review reflected the various refinements that Gamevil made to the series which only made the experience even better and the game even more difficult to put down. Baseball Superstars 2011 [$4.99] was just released, and as you may have guessed by now, it's even better than the last.

If you've never heard of this game series, here's the gist: Gamevil has made the perfect baseball game for those of us who normally don't care at all about baseball games. Sports games typically don't do too much for me, and the closer they get to the "simulation" side of the spectrum, the less I'm interested in them. Gamevil takes things to the complete opposite end of that scale with Baseball Superstars via the integration of equally ridiculous super batters and pitchers, RPG elements, and tons of items to boost the aspects of your player's performance.

All this fun stuff takes place in "My League" mode where you choose whether you want to play as a batter or pitcher, then you just grind away batting and pitching in baseball game after baseball game. Between these games you're given the opportunity to train your player by sending him off to participate in various training drills, and you can buy things like bats, helmets, and other items which all provide some form of benefit. These are bought either with the money your character earns playing (Their salary increases as they get better as well.) or via G Points which are slowly earned by playing but can be bought in large quantities via an IAP. Also, interestingly enough, these G Points can be sent to other players through an in-game mail system of sorts... So if you've got an excess of G Points and want to help out a friend who just got the game, you can send them up to 30,000 a day.

While "My League" mode only has you in charge of a single player, season mode has you looking after an entire team in addition to the overall appeal of your stadium. When graduating to season mode, there's even more training options, and you're able to trade players, hire coaches, and upgrade the various components of your home stadium. It's all really fun, and all the silly player training and stadium tweaking really keeps you playing, providing great goals along the way such as just needing to play a few more games to buy an awesome new scoreboard for your team. In fact, the RPG elements of Baseball Superstars make it really hard to put down, because there's a seemingly never-ending supply of upgrades that are just a few games away.

Once you're happy with your team, you can take them online and battle other teams in versus mode. This is all asynchronous, and it's basically the same as playing an exhibition game except you're playing against the stats of another player's team. This was introduced in last year's Baseball Superstars, and it's just as cool in this year's iteration. The game modes don't stop there though, there's also a home run derby mode and a mission mode. 28 missions are included initially, and there's a "download missions" option to get even more. These missions include things like just simply landing a successful bunt to hitting a grand slam. The previously mentioned G Points are awarded for any completed missions.

Much like the Madden games, and other yearly sports series, Gamevil's Baseball Superstars 2011 is the same basic game with a number of tweaks, additions, and other changes. If you want to get your feet wet, the best place to start is the lite version of Baseball Superstars 2010. It will give you a great idea of what to expect of 2011, as the core arcade style baseball gameplay hasn't really changed at all aside from a new camera angle for batting. Once Baseball Superstars 2009 got updated, I couldn't put it down. Baseball Superstars 2010 was even better, and Baseball Superstars 2011 is better yet.

RPG elements provide a great goal to keep players who aren't normally in to playing sports games interested, and the core gameplay is likely competent enough to make hardcore baseball fans happy. (As long as you're OK with players wearing tiger heads for helmets batting with sledgehammers.) If you're the kind of person who can get way too involved in any game that offers bars to fill and other types of RPG style progression, you'll likely really enjoy Baseball Superstars 2011. Just be warned, once you get sucked in the game is almost impossible to put down. You'll find yourself playing "just one more game" for hours.

Chair released a brief trailer for Infinity Blade this morning. Formerly known as Project Sword, Infinity Blade was initially unveiled at the September keynote. Recently, all kinds of details have been pouring out, and they even announced that this Unreal Engine-powered game will be available for the holidays.

Check out the trailer:

It will be interesting to see how the game actually plays, and how deep the RPG elements go. From the looks of the trailer, Infinity Blade is an entirely swipe controlled fighting game that allows you to upgrade the gear your character is equipped with. I really can't wait to see this game running on the Retina Display.

The newest offering from Blacksmith Games, who have previously brought Plushed [99¢/Lite] and Boostball [99¢] to the App Store, is a physics puzzler called Floop [99¢]. In Floop, the goal is to launch an acorn into a squirrel's mouth using the least amount of tries as possible. Making this task more difficult are the many hazards and obstacles contained in the 50 cleverly designed levels. Floop is a game that seems so simplistic on the outside but contains quite a bit of complexity, mostly due to the interesting physics engine, and is wrapped up in the kind of visually pleasing package that we would expect from Blacksmith Games.

The mechanics in Floop are really easy to grasp. Each level begins with your acorn sitting at one spot in the level and a squirrel with a gaping maw at another. Touching the acorn and dragging away from it brings up a line that shows the trajectory the acorn will travel. Once you're satisfied with where the line is pointing, letting your finger off the screen sends the acorn flying. You'll earn up to 3 stars on each level based on the amount of launches it takes to get the acorn into the squirrel's hungry mouth. The 50 levels are divided across 4 different themes, with your total amount of launches for each theme tracked through Game Center leaderboards.

As you collect stars, you'll be able to spend them on unlocking two additional creatures to use in the game. One is a mouse which replaces the acorn with a block of cheese, and the other is an ape with a banana. Part of what makes Floop so much fun is the different behavior of each of these objects. The acorn has an odd shape and is bottom heavy, making for some crazy bounces. The block of cheese is a perfect square, with nice flat sides that can be used to your advantage. The banana has the weirdest shape of all, as it's elongated and can bounce in ways you would never expect, kind of like a football. These factors add some variety to the simplistic core gameplay of Floop. In addition to the 3 stars, each level also tracks what object you've used to complete it which adds a lot of replayability.

The physics system in Floop will either strike you as being fun or frustrating. It's extremely floaty and unpredictable, which ensures that each attempt at completing a level feels different from one another, but it can also be annoying at times. Sometimes it can take many retries just to get past a certain level, and others you will beat just with one launch because you had an incredibly lucky bounce right into the creature's mouth. Overall I think the random nature of the physics is fine, but will most likely bother you at some point. Also, the touch recognition when trying to launch can sometimes be unresponsive, and there are areas in each level where your object can get stuck, forcing you to restart.

The control mechanism is actually a bit different than what is shown in this video, but it still gives you a good idea at what kind of gameplay Floop has to offer:

These are pretty minor complaints though, and for the most part Floop really is a lot of fun. The Game Center integration with leaderboards and achievements had me hooked on trying to complete each level with the least amount of launches as possible. The graphics are cute and colorful, though unfortunately not enhanced for Retina Display devices, and I really like the assortment of animals that bring different elements to the gameplay. Floop starts out fairly easy, but the difficulty ramps up nicely and it's quite challenging to complete the later stages, let alone getting 3 stars on them. Players in our forums are really enjoying the game as well, and I would recommend Floop if you're in the market for a new physics puzzler with a slightly unpredictable nature and a good amount of content.

Developer THQ Wireless is flexing their Star Wars license once again with the announcement of Star Wars Arcade: Falcon Gunner. THQ has brought a number of Star Wars licensed games to the App Store, including Star Wars: Battle for Hoth [$2.99/Lite] and Star Wars: Trench Run [$2.99]. This newly announced Falcon Gunner game takes a slightly different approach, unsurprisingly placing you in the gunner's seat on the Millenium Falcon and having you blast away at enemies in an augmented reality style overlay.

We've seen these kinds of games before, but admittedly Star Wars: Falcon Gunner looks to be a fairly high quality effort with a nicely modeled gunner interior and the wonderful authentic Star Wars music and sound effects that I'm such a sucker for. You'll be able to point your device's camera at anything and watch the onslaught of TIE Fighters and other enemies come gunning for you, which leaves open the possibility for some humorous dogfighting locations (“Imperial TIE Fighter heading straight at us from the litter box sir!”).

Of course if you aren't in an area that features an appropriate battle environment, Star Wars: Falcon Gunner will come equipped with some pre-rendered backgrounds where you can play as well. This video shows Falcon Gunner being played with New York City as a backdrop:

Not many other details are known about Star Wars: Falcon Gunner at this time, though THQ is shooting for a mid-November release. Though the game won't necessarily need to use the camera since it has the option of built in backgrounds, it looks like it will only be compatible with the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and 4th generation iPod touch which are all camera equipped. We'll have more from Star Wars: Falcon Gunner as it gets closer to release later this month, and you can drop by the upcoming games thread in our forums for some discussion on the game.

Last month Capcom Mobile announced an interesting new freemium type of game called Capcom Arcade [Free]. The game would serve as a shell of sorts that offered a selection of Capcom's classic arcade ports that have been enhanced for the touch screen. Each game could be played with tokens, with a few free tokens given to you each day, or the option to purchase a pack of tokens as IAP. Also you would have the ability to purchase any of the arcade games outright for a flat fee, meaning they would be playable forever without the use of any tokens. I had a chance to go hands-on with Capcom Arcade last month, and my impressions from the brief time I played each of the games was pretty positive.

The emulation of each of the titles is fairly good, but definitely not perfect, and the controls are about the best that they can be given the touch screen interface. All four games have the option of positioning the virtual buttons where you please, as well as a number of preset positions. Also, every game comes with two flavors of difficulty to play. The default is a toned down iPhone specific difficulty, but you can choose the original arcade difficulty from the options too. As most of these games were incredibly hard back in the arcade days, this is a welcome addition.

The inaugural selection of titles in Capcom Arcade is pretty solid. The highlight is of course the original Street Fighter II. With so many versions of this game being made over the years, this original version feels a little bare bones compared to some of the later iterations, but is still a fun game even two decades later. The next title in the lineup is Ghouls 'n Ghosts, which seemed to me to perform the best out of all the available games. It runs smoothly and the virtual buttons actually work much better than I thought they would for this type of game. It's still one of the hardest games of all time though, even on the easier iPhone difficulty. Both of these games run in landscape mode and offer an original screen aspect ratio as well as a full screen option.

Then there are the games Commando and 1942, which both run in portrait mode and offer only one screen size. Commando performs pretty well, but it can be difficult to aim your shots at oncoming enemies using the virtual joystick. Also the grenade button isn't as responsive as it should be, resulting in me dying on more than one occasion when trying to toss one at some bad guys. 1942 on the other hand is kind of the opposite. The performance leaves a lot to be desired, with the game constantly stuttering when lots of action is onscreen. The controls work well though, with automatic firing and sliding your finger along the bottom of the screen controlling your plane. With so many shooters available on the App Store, it's surprising how much fun 1942 still is after 25 years.

Just like in the arcades, an initial play or continue of each game  in Capcom Arcade will cost you one token. You start each day with 3 free tokens and can buy a maximum of 10 tokens at a time for 99¢. If you want to purchase the game outright, each one can be bought for $2.99. Also, a number of IAP “cheats” can be purchased for each game. These can be things like the ability to cause or absorb more damage, additional starting lives, better equipment, and more. Each of these special items will run 99¢ and only need to be purchased one time, and can then be toggled on or off from the options menu of each game.

Overall I like Capcom Arcade and I'm especially fond of Capcom's pay model for this title. In an era where freemium gaming is the route that many developers are choosing to take, Capcom Arcade offers gamers the best set of options. Right off the bat you can download the title and try out the games a few times each day for free. Or you can buy 10 tokens to spend on each game however you wish, and if enjoy a particular game a great deal then you can just choose to buy it outright and play to your heart's content. The emulation of each game isn't completely spot-on, but they're all really playable and the assortment of control options is a nice touch. There's really no reason not to give Capcom Arcade a try since it's free, and I'm eager to see what new titles will be added in the future as the game evolves.

This Wednesday's list of game releases is particularly crazy. The good news is, two of these games are free, so you might as well give them a try. Here's a list of things that just popped up on the App Store that we think are worth a look:

Baseball Superstars® 2011 Pro, $0.99 [ Forum Thread ] -- We has a blast with both Baseball Superstars 2009 and 2010, and expect 2011 to be just as awesome. Great arcade style baseball gameplay is paired with light RPG elements which will make any fan of filling experience bars wonder where their entire day went.

Zombie Crisis 3D, $2.99 [ Forum Thread ] -- A cool looking rails shooter that puts players in charge of slaughtering countless zombies by tapping on them. Throughout 21 levels you'll encounter 4 different bosses and 3 types of weapons.

Lil' Pirates, Free [ Forum Thread ] -- IUGO and Capcom teamed up to create this pirate-themed freemium game. You'll be able to tweak out your ship, recruit crew members, equip them however you'd like, then engage in ship to ship battles. IUGO and Capcom have had a track record of making some pretty cool games, making Lil' Pirates totally worth checking out.

CAPCOM ARCADE, Free [ Forum Thread ] -- Street Fighter II, Ghouls ‘n Ghosts, 1942 and Commando are all packed in this freemium emulator. You can either play them using tokens which will allow you to play three times a day for free. Alternatively, you can buy additional tokens for more plays, or the games outright for additional plays.

Necronomicon, $0.99 [ Forum Thread ] -- Based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft, Necronomicon is part collectable card game, part roleplaying game, and part board game. Judging by the trailer, Necronomicon will likely greatly entice any fan of Cthulhu Mythos.

Animeals, $0.99 [ Forum Thread ] -- Physics games are almost always a lot of fun on the iPhone, and Floop seems to be no exception. In the game, using a variety of different tools you blast acorns in to the mouthes of hungry squirrels (and other animals), who oddly enough just stand there and expect to be fed.

Paperboy: Special Delivery, $0.99 [ Forum Thread ] -- I'm not really sure what to think about this one. Glu has taken the classic game of Paperboy and added a story mode, new graphics, new gameplay, and some kind of upgrade system that will allow you to use special skills while out delivering papers.

We're going to be powering through all of these games, producing as many reviews as possible. If you can't wait until then, swing by any of the forum threads where people are already posting their impressions on each of the respective titles.

If you were excited after yesterday's story about Infinity Blade (previously known as Project Sword), wait until you get a load of this. Eurogamer tracked down Donald Mustard, creative director of Chair Entertainment which is the Epic Games subsidiary responsible for Infinity Blade development. Here's what someone who has spent months working with the Unreal Engine thinks about the potential of Infinity Blade and the Unreal Engine on iOS devices:

"I didn't take it that seriously until we started making this game," he explained. "Now I'm like, 'Oh my goodness, this is literally going to be the best looking handheld game ever made'. It's way beyond what a DS or PSP could do.

"I think it's going to be an interesting future, especially if in two years we can really run Gears of War on an iPhone."

Now, that two year figure assumes we'll see incremental hardware upgrades like we have so far, and later he goes on to clarify that we'll at least see games like this within five years. This raises other potential issues though, such as are gamers going to be interested in playing a full game experience like Gears of War on a handheld touch screen device? Will it be commercially viable for developers to invest their time in to building games of this caliber if App Store price points remain the same? What does this mean for Nintendo and other handheld device manufacturers? (For instance, Joystiq recently reported the 3DS was below the minimum requirements for the Unreal Engine.)

Regardless of what actually happens, I think we can all agree that this is an incredible time to be a gamer-- Especially with an iOS device in your pocket.

[via Eurogamer]

When Super Mega Worm [$1.99 / Lite] was first announced, it was hard to not get excited after watching the initial trailer. Based on Death Worm and heavily inspired by the flash game Effing Worms, Super Mega Worm showed a lot of promise. A day later, PlayCreek, creators of StoneLoops! of Jurassica revealed that they were bringing an officially licensed remake to the App Store. With that, the worm wars began. We liked Super Mega Worm quite a bit in our review, but really wanted to wait for Death Worm's release to crown the true king of worm destruction.

If that's what you've been waiting for, you're in luck. PlayCreek just contacted us this morning to tell us that Death Worm has been submitted to the App Store, and barring any approval SNAFU's should be available very soon. Out of the box, Death Worm is going to support fast app switching, the Retina Display, and Game Center. In addition, it boasts an impressive feature list including 45 different levels taking place in 3 locations with varied objectives, 30 enemy types, 3 types of worms, a mini-game (with more coming later via updates), and worm customization.

Check out the trailer:

The pixel art in Super Mega Worm was cool, but I'm really digging the art style of Death Worm and how it has a more realistic (well, as realistic as a worm game can get) feel to it. With any luck, Death Worm will see a lightning fast turnaround time at Apple's approval department and we'll be evolving our worms in no time. We'll take a closer look at the game as soon as it is released.

Last week we took a look at a new video for upcoming boxing game Beast Boxing 3D [$2.99/Lite] from Goodhustle Studios. The video boasted some impressive looking character models and fluid animations, but my biggest concern was how the game would control since that had been a sticking point for me with previous boxing games. Just a couple days after our preview post, Beast Boxing 3D popped up on the App Store. After spending the majority of my weekend with the game, I can happily say that the visuals are even more impressive in person and the controls work like a charm. It's over fairly quickly and the overall mechanics are pretty simple, but Beast Boxing 3D is a lot of fun while it lasts and the simplicity actually works to make it a more enjoyable experience given the touch screen interface.

In Beast Boxing 3D, you'll play as a human who enters a “beasts only” boxing federation as a means of making money and escaping your slum lifestyle. A clever costume convinces the other beasts that you're one of them, and the trainer at the local gym takes you under his wing as you rise up the ranks. The career mode spans 9 different opponents, each with their own distinct style and special moves. In between fights you can hit the gym where you're able to spend coins collected during matches on upgrades to your boxer. Also you can rematch any previously defeated opponent to earn some extra coins if you feel like you need additional upgraded abilities before your next career match.

The control scheme in Beast Boxing 3D is really simple and responsive. The screen is split in half, with the gestures performed on either side of the screen corresponding to your left or right arm. Quick taps are used to perform jabs, short horizontal swipes for hooks, and vertical swipes for uppercuts. Holding a thumb down on each side of the screen blocks and tilting moves your boxer to the left and right within the ring. There isn't the ability to perform body blows, which may be essential if you're looking for a pure boxing experience, but their absence actually benefits the arcade nature of Beast Boxing 3D. It's the kind of game that anybody can pick up easily, but it still retains a ton of strategy in how you use your boxer's moves and deal with the capable AI opponents.

While it won't take long to work your way through the 9 opponents in the career mode if you're playing on Casual difficulty, Gamer and Hardcore difficulties will really test your skills. Unlike the Punch-Out! games that Beast Boxing 3D draws inspiration from, your opponents won't follow a set pattern of attacks. If you use the same combos over and over they will adapt to your offense, requiring you to mix up your strategy. This aspect of the game is really well done, and gives each match a natural feel that increases the replay value quite a bit. Rematching defeated opponents for some extra cash can be necessary to purchase upgrades that help you progress through the game, but often I found myself jumping into a quick rematch with an opponent just for the sheer fun of it.

Beast Boxing 3D is exactly the kind of boxing game I've been waiting for. The controls and game mechanics are simple, but there is subtle strategy that runs fairly deep and the intelligent opponent AI ensures that the game doesn't wear too thin. It's an absolutely gorgeous game, and although it doesn't currently support Retina Display graphics you'd be hard pressed to tell, as it looks fantastic even without it. Goodhustle has stated in our forums that high resolution graphics are a possibility for the future, but new characters and arenas are a higher priority. The current price of $2.99 is a limited introductory price, and should jump up to $4.99 soon. There is a lite version to try, so if you're looking for an excellent boxing game for your iOS device then make sure to at least check out the lite version of Beast Boxing 3D.

It was just a couple weeks ago that the highly anticipated top-down racer Reckless Racing hit the App Store. We really enjoyed the game in our review, noting that it was one of the most gorgeous racing games that we have seen and the arcade-style gameplay was a ton of fun. Despite being kind of light on content, Reckless Racing was a solid purchase for the launch price of $2.99. Now it's become an even better value, as EA and Pixelbite have decided to drop the price of Reckless Racing for the iPhone to 99¢ for a limited time.

At this price, Reckless Racing is a must download. The iPad version remains at its original price of $4.99, so if you own two devices and currently only have the iPad version then it would also be a great time to double dip and pick up the iPhone/iPod touch version for just a dollar. You can check out our original review of Reckless Racing or visit the thread in our forums for more information, gameplay videos, and impressions and we'd definitely recommend taking advantage of this 99¢ sale while it lasts.

We've been following Infinity Blade (Previously known as Project Sword) for quite a while now. We first saw it at the September keynote where Epic Games revealed that they'd be bringing the Unreal Engine-powered fighter to the iOS platform. Almost immediately following, Epic Citadel [Free] was released. This free universal tech demo was by far the most impressive display of the graphical capabilities we've seen of iOS devices yet. Our community seems to agree, so much so that it almost seems to be a TouchArcade meme to proclaim that something should be more like Epic Citadel.

Today Epic revealed even more details on what Infinity Blade is going to be all about. A press release blasted out earlier reveals the following gameplay details:

Taking handheld gaming to new heights, the graphically intense “Infinity Blade” features adrenaline-fueled sword battles and epic boss fights set in the realm of a fully 3D castle. The game’s robust single-player mode features an intuitive combat interface and simple touch controls which enable hardcore and casual gamers alike to engage in fun, furious battles. As play progresses, players gain experience, build stats and earn more powerful items to prepare their knight for the final encounter with the game’s nemesis, the God-King.

Updates are going to be released for free, and it sounds like one of those updates will include the Game Center-powered multiplayer that we heard about at the keynote. Pricing and the official release date are both still pending.

We're following Infinity Blade closely and will provide any additional details we receive.

Released all the way back in December of 2008 (which seems like a million years in App Store time) was Adult Swim's Amateur Surgeon [$2.99 / Lite / HD]. With gameplay somewhat similar to the Trauma Center series of games for the Nintendo DS, players had to perform various demented surgeries on a series of equally ridiculous surgical subjects. In fact, for a real blast from the past, check out the forum thread where many forum members were amazed that Apple allowed a 17+ rating.

Amateur Surgeon's sequel, appropriately named Amateur Surgeon 2 has already been submitted to Apple and is due to be released any time now. Similar to the free Flash version of the game, Amateur Surgeon 2 for the iPhone puts you in control of Alan Probe. Taking place 51 years after the original, Alan Probe comes out of retirement to deal with 20 new surgeries of the future.

If you liked the original Amateur Surgeon game, you'll also enjoy the sequel. It's basically just more of the same with brand new silly patients, and a few new features such as the ability to use familiar pinching gestures for zooming in and out and a new syringe tool has been introduced that will help to revive patients that are close to death. In addition, the game comes packed with OpenFeint for leaderboards and achievements, allowing you to compete with other horrible doctors online.

As mentioned, Amateur Surgeon 2 has already been submitted, and barring any weird approval issues should be available soon. I had a lot of fun with the first game, if you're in the same boat, keep your eyes peeled for this sequel.