Ghost Trick first saw a release on Nintendo DS around a year ago. This isn't its debut on iOS, though. A couple of months after the DS release, Capcom dropped a Universal version of the game on the Japanese App Store. Now, the rest of the world is finally getting to see a version of this port tonight.

And it seems like it's OK from a technical standpoint. In my modest amount of time with it, I haven't seen any port-specific issues like stuttering or flickering. It controls pretty well, too, and caters to your finger just about as well as it did to the stylus.

There's some stuff still bothering me. The assets aren't as high of a resolution as I would like. Also, a good sixth of the screen is covered by a thick layer of UI that, it seems, is simply there to keep the pixel density high. It's weird.

In case you missed out on Ghost Trick, it breaks down like this: Sissel is often charged with reversing people's deaths and he has to use his powers to do so. Each death is like a puzzle, basically, that has you opening doors, spiritually oozing to adjacent objects, and otherwise setting up Rube Goldberg-ian scenarios that'll change that person's fate.

In most cases, you're watching a death, infesting that person's body in order to rewind time, and then actively trying to disrupt that sequence. The solutions to puzzles seem to be mired in weird video game logic, but the saving grace here is that there is a single and true solution to every puzzle. You just gotta find it, you know?

I've been having a blast so far, by the way. This is a pretty thoughtful, if not challenging game with some insane, but fun-to-discover solutions. And while the minutes of overly long exposition is starting to wear me out, I'm digging the characters and the humor. Just wait until you meet dog, man. Wait for it.

We'll definitely continue on with Ghost Trick, and try to give you something much more definitive than this in the near future. This is a free release, though -- the first two chapters, which take about 60 or 70 minutes to complete, are what you'll get with a $0 download, so that should give you a good indication of what you're getting into. Our gut says grab it. Here's some more screens:

Armed with a built-in audience, a new publishing deal with Konami, and a multi-tiered business model, Ash II: Shadows [$2.99 Silver Edition / $4.99 Gold Edition] should have been a sure thing for SRRN Games. The UI is cleaner, the sprites more detailed, and random encounters replaced with on-screen enemies – Konami cash put to good use. I have the lasting impression, though, that SRRN's business concerns have impacted – if  not downright dictated – some of its design choices.

The first – and so far, only – chunk of Shadows lasts about five hours, during which time players are exposed to enough world-building and character introductions to feel the full weight of the cliffhanger that introduces the inevitable second chapter. Creating a coherent narrative arc in a relatively confined – by JRPG standards – space means that Shadows employs rather brisk pacing, both narrative and systematic.

I haven't played the original Ash [99¢ / Lite], but I enjoy feeling like a newcomer to the world, and Shadows does a good job of dripfeeding players relevant information without getting too bogged down in exposition. The interpersonal relationships are full of sharp, punchy dialogue that achieves a great amount of characterization in very little time.

Indeed, Shadows puts a premium on action – Damien, a disgraced Aghausian rebel, and his ragtag band are constantly questing and exploring, and they spend very little time actually discussing their options or thinking rationally. It's nice to avoid hearing them labor every detail of exploring what they call "a magical fairy continent," but Shadows can feel ill-plotted and haphazard as a result of its breakneck pace.

The upside is that, by constantly offering something new to see and learn, Shadows' narrative elements can keep players hooked where its systems fall short. Like most things in Ash, the systems are relatively basic and cribbed from larger, more-established franchises. The basic components of the game are a paper-rock-scissors elemental system, a weapon proficiency meter, a queue that maps out the order of the turn-based combat, and skills which are gained by leveling up.

At its best, Shadows is a game about balancing power for precision. Players balance equipping their characters with weapons that carry a high proficiency with ones that come with elemental bonuses. Combat is an exercise in trying to manipulate the queue to your advantage, in trying to get as many turns as possible without letting the enemy in line – it's just too bad that all the best attacks come with heavy queue penalties.

These are basic RPG conceits, but there's potential here – they're common because they work really well. The problem, quite frankly, is that the game is too easy. This is ostensibly in response to the first game's difficulty, but because each battle ends so quickly, I never really have to make any tough choices or fully take advantage of the mechanics in place. When Shadows lets me one-shot my way through the first five hours, it leaves an entire combat system unused and unexplored. (There's also IAP to, god forbid, buy XP-boosting equipment.)

The larger point here is that Shadows' story works well with the game's episodic structure and the gameplay doesn't. As a five-hour mirco-RPG, Shadows provides a satisfying narrative arc. It's ok to take it slow if your game lasts 80 hours, but this one only lasts five –the systems feel underdeveloped and stunted. There's a disconnect in Damien's experience as a player-character and my experience as the man behind the scenes. On the bright side, though – there's no grinding necessary, which lets me get back to the story all the quicker, and there's nothing stopping SRRN from re-balancing the game before Chapter 2 is released.

That's the thing: there are still five more chapters to play. Ash II: Shadows comes in two packages, gold and silver. If you buy the gold version, all future content will be free. Silver buyers get the second chapter free and a discount on extra content.  There's also a "bronze" version in the works – the first chapter will be free, but subsequent content will have to be purchased. Since the rest of the game hasn't been priced yet, it's impossible to know how the silver and bronze packages will shake out.

This is a quandary: I like the story and want to see more of it, but I want the systems to get more engaging before plopping out more cash, especially because it's so easy to see that the fundamentals are already in place. Ash II: Shadows is an improved game over the original in many ways, but until some tweaks are made and we see how the rest of the episodes shake out it's hard to gauge if it's ultimately an overall better experience.

One of the most popular 3D fighting franchises to come out of this era was Namco’s Soul Edge, and more prominently its sequel SoulCalibur, both of which were noteworthy for their focus on weapon-based combat. SoulCalibur hit arcades in 1998, and was then ported to the Sega Dreamcast to launch alongside that system in 1999. The Dreamcast version was remarkable, featuring even better graphics than the arcade version and a wealth of additional modes and characters. In 2008 SoulCalibur was again resurrected for Xbox Live Arcade, boasting a high definition makeover but lacking any sort of online play.

And now in 2012, almost a decade and a half after the original arcade release, SoulCalibur [$11.99] is now available in the palm of our hands on iOS devices. The iOS version appears to be based off of the most recent XBLA version, utilizing those excellent high definition visuals for Retina Display and iPad screens. The framerate and animation is also incredibly smooth, another hallmark of SoulCalibur, and everything looks bright and crisp running on iOS. For those that didn’t already know, you would never guess that this was actually an almost 14 year old game.

However, just because it looks pretty doesn’t mean the iOS version doesn’t have its share of drawbacks. Most glaring is the lack of any sort of multiplayer mode, an integral component of any good fighting game. I can’t for the life of me figure out why Namco Bandai would omit such a feature, but the iTunes description does state that additional modes are planned so I’m still holding out hope for multiplayer sometime in the future. For now though, it’s sorely missed.

As for single player content, SoulCalibur comes with quite a few modes. There’s the standard Arcade ladder, Time Attack, Survival, Extra Survival, and Practice. Sadly, the Team Battle and Mission modes from previous versions aren’t in this iOS version. There’s also a Museum mode where you can set up matches and watch two AI players battle it out or watch an Exhibition where you choose a character and watch them go through all their moves solo. Finally, there’s Game Center integration with leaderboards for Time Attack, Survival, and Extra Survival modes as well as 11 achievements to unlock.

A big factor when considering fighting games on iOS is controls, and SoulCalibur comes through in this department about as well as you could hope for. That is to say the virtual controls aren’t perfect, but they’re entirely workable and just as good as any other iOS fighters out there. If you don’t have any trouble playing games like Street Fighter IV Volt [$2.99] or King of Fighters-i [$6.99], then you shouldn’t have any trouble here either. The button positions and opacity can also be adjusted however you like, which is appreciated. One problem I did have though was with some of the menu UI being a bit too small on the iPhone screen, thus making it hard to make a selection sometimes. A minor complaint, but annoying nonetheless.

Whether or not you need SoulCalibur on iOS will depend on how fond of the original you are, and how important multiplayer is to you. It’s at the higher end of App Store pricing at $11.99, and that’s at a 20% off introductory price. But, I loved the original on my Dreamcast and think the price is absolutely worth it to be able to carry SoulCalibur around in my pocket. As for the lack of multiplayer, it’s a shame, but there’s still plenty to do by yourself. There’s the Game Center leaderboards and achievements, and half of the game’s 19 characters need to be unlocked first, as do several other goodies in the game, giving some good incentive to continue playing.

If you can deal with its shortcomings, SoulCalibur on iOS is actually an excellent port. It looks great, runs smoothly, controls as well as a fighting game can without buttons, and offers a decent amount of single player content to play through. If we can get some kind of multiplayer or other missing modes via updates in the future, then we’ll really be in business.

Hero Academy is Robot Entertainment's first iOS offering, and I think it's the sign of good things to come. The premise is very basic: You are playing a tactical battle against another team, and the goal is to destroy their crystals before they destroy yours. Each round allows you five moves ("action points"), which you can use to either place team members and items on the board, or move and attack with your preexisting team members.

If you play the free version of the game, the only team available to you is the Council, which is made up of humans and is a well-balanced option. Should you wish, you can unlock the Dark Elves for $0.99, which can summon the spirits of their fallen enemies to aid them in battle.

At the bottom of your screen, you'll see a selection of five items and characters, which the game randomly deals you each turn. If you don't like what you got, you can use your finger to drag anything you don't want over to the tiny door in the bottom left corner. Once your turn is finished, you'll get new stuff and hopefully get dealt exactly what you were looking for. This selection of items includes spells and weapons to strengthen your characters' attack and defense abilities so you can survive in the field for longer.

The board itself also includes some options to give you the advantage. In the middle of each board is a tile with a crystal on it, and reaching it will weaken the enemy's crystal a bit. There are also tiles that have a sword or a shield on them, which will give you a buff to attack or defense. At the end of a turn, you can also choose to submit your turn normally or submit it with a taunt, which is pretty much just to piss your opponent off.

Getting to know your characters and how their skills can be used is vital. For example, the magician can cast a spell that can hit a row of opponents and only spend a single action point on it. Using these types of skills to your advantage will give you the edge needed to keep those fools off your crystals.

Frankly, I'm no fan of waiting around for someone to take a turn. When I first saw that Hero Academy had no single player mode where you could at least play against the computer, I was a bit let down. At first, I only had a few games going with other friends. The key to the fun of Hero Academy really came clear when I got a lot of games going, and that was when I started to feel my skills were improving and I was getting better at it. Considering my moves more carefully and how I could best defend against the way my opponent played was rewarding, and I started to win more matches.

There is one downfall to the game, and that is that the free version is relentless when it comes to in-game ads. Between each match, you'll see an ad that you have to stare at for five seconds before it disappears and you can play again. If you're good at ignoring things, you may not mind one bit, but if you're like me and it bugs the hell out of you, you can buy any heroic team to get rid of the ads, which costs a buck. Only the Dark Elves are available for now, but Robot promises new teams are coming in the near future. You can also spend a bit more to get new avatars if you so desire.

Hero Academy is a simple game, and it does what it's built to do very, very well. If the content continues to expand and offer more for the fanbase, I could see it being something I would want to come back to over and over again in the future. It also offers access to invite Facebook and Twitter friends to join you right in the menu, so never fear if you don't have enough games going at a time. Invite everyone you know, and soon enough your phone will be jingling with the notification sound you've learned that you're unable to resist.

You don't even realize that you embraced it until it's an hour later and you hate that godforsaken disc launcher with the passion of many angry men. What renders you helpless has a lot to do with its infinite, looping structure and purity of play. This is a minimalist, throwback-style game that wants you to do one thing: capture crates for a high score. The hooks are in its constituent parts, which seamlessly blend into a cacophony of arcade action surrounding this pure purpose of play. It becomes hypnotizing, fast.

Your typical game goes a little something like this: on a flat plane, enemies tumble out of an invisible pipe in the opening of a level, and you, while they fall, capture crates and defeat those enemies with the weapons you pick up from said crates. If an enemy hits the lava pit because you didn't kill it, it pops back out of the top at double speed and joins the ever-growing conga line of even more brainless enemies.

Avoidance is key, but so is aggression. Each crate contains a new weapon that forces you to strategize distance versus time at the drop of a hat. As you play, you'll unlock even more weapons, all of which do something completely different and are often devastating. Laser guns, mines, rocket launchers, grenade launchers, the shotgun are just a taste of what's on the roster. Each has its own special kind of spread and weaknesses. Some even have big negatives, like the disc launcher, which is a single fire gun that has bullets that bounce back at you.

Whatever pacing you're imagining, multiply that by 11 and you'll get a sense of the raw madness that is Super Crate Box. One second you're charging up a laser gun to rid a platform of its occupants, the next you're dropping down to another level and using a mine in order to put a stop-gap on that side so you have enough free-time to grab a crate on another platform. The frenzy absorbs you, and the raw precision becomes a second nature thing. People say it's a mess, and it is, but I'm OK with it. I welcome all of it.

As you play, you'll steadily unlock more guns and more characters to use in the game. It's your usual incentive program, but where it departs is in the fact that it also rewards failure. If you die 500 times, for example, you'll unlock Super Meat Boy as a character. Simply gathering crates, no matter how many times you die along the way, is also a valid way to unlock stuff.

I'm surprised by how much I dig the virtual controls; Halfbot and Vlambeer did a heck of a job translating the action to the touchscreen and then making it feel as natural, and as split-second responsive as the game's PC and Mac counterparts. On iPhone, the two-button UI is a tad too bulky. On iPad, the game feels at home. Regardless, these guys nailed it. This game feels good.

Another place you can play is on the iCade. Currently, the controls have been flip-flopped inadvertently in an update, but when they're working ideally, they feel great. I think this is the way to play since you get that tactile feedback.

People in general are really responding to Super Crate Box, and our community digs it. I love it. Its high-octane play married with its no-frills, arcade game design keeps me collecting crates and blasting enemies into delightful little pieces of monster. I'm thinking it'll grab you, too.

Some studios, however, aren't willing to rethink design and offer virtual buttons to compensate for the lack of a physical controller. There's a lot of these kinds of guys out there, actually, which is probably why we're seeing a mini-boom in the 3rd party controller market.

The hottest device right now is 60beat's GamePad. Unlike many other controllers, it requires no technical voodoo. You simply just plug the male end of its luxuriously lengthy cord into your headphone jack, pick the controller in an in-game menu, and then get to work. It's really that simple; I haven't had a problem yet.

Big is the first thought that hit me when I picked it up, and it turned out that it was a hair too large for me. Remember the "Duke" Xbox controller? The GamePad is much smaller, but the issues it has because of its size are pretty similar. Both are inarguably useable devices, but they're not the best designed out there.

To get more specific: this thing has huge wings that, to use comfortably, require me to ride up on the neck of the thick plastic and push my outer palms more towards my chest than I'm accustomed to when using a controller. It's a weird angle -- it's like you're squeezing, as opposed to relaxing.

A few minutes of play is a valid cure for the initial awkwardness, but the grip I have to use with this thing makes its ten buttons -- four shoulders, four face, and two of those useless analog stick shoe-ins -- harder to reach than I'd like. I'm also not able to get my hands comfortably perfectly square with the sticks, which is putting some english on my movements.

Speaking of buttons, I'm digging the feedback. There's some meatiness to each and some ideal springiness to the shoulder buttons. The d-pad feels good, too, though I'm sure a purist could find something up with it.

The important thing is that, straight-up, the GamePad works. The response times seem just fine, everything is reasonably reachable, and it adds that real, meaningful layer of tactile feedback to the games. You'll lose game audio unless you connect a pair of headphones to the splitter the device ships with, but this is a forgivable offense considering the technology at use here.

Also, it makes the games that use it currently -- Bugdom 2 and Aftermath -- much, much better.

In Bugdom, for example, the GamePad eliminates all the dirty UI elements and allows you to play much like you would any other 3D platforming game. It fleshes out the nuance of specific points of design. Like, for example, the hovering mechanic. Also, it gives you significantly more control over the character, which makes touch jumps easier.

The latter applies to Aftermath. With the GamePad, it's much easier to move and do the things you want to do. Interestingly, the guys behind Aftermath tied camera controls to the face buttons, which caters to its run-and-gun, corridor style of play.

The GamePad might be bulkier than I'd like, but it gets the job done. The bonus here is that it obviously has an ability to make gameplay more potent. Developers will need to work with 60beat in order to get this controller in their games, though, so the future is as up in the air as our recommendation. If you start seeing a bunch of titles with compatibility, this might be something to spring on.

Those same principles of low-fidelity visuals, unwieldy controls, and high playability carried through to his next iOS release So Long, Oregon! [$1.99], and they are ever-present in his latest bit of zaniness know as Justin Smith’s Realistic Summer Sports Simulator [99¢]. Don’t let the ironic title fool you, there is absolutely nothing realistic about Summer Sports Simulator. In fact, it’s greatest attraction is just how NOT realistic it portrays the various Olympic-style events it contains.

Your job is to pick a fictional country and compete in up to 14 events against three other fictional countries to see who can win the most gold medals. The events themselves are simplistic 2D affairs that are what you might have expected to find in an Olympics game for the Atari 2600 in the early 80s. Pretty standard retro-inspired stuff, but where things start to get really Enviro-Bear-y is in how you control your athletes.

Rather than traditional controls featuring d-pads and buttons, you’ll direct your athletes in Summer Sports Simulator with a spring attached to their bodies (and sometimes, the athletic equipment itself). So for example, to run the 100 meter dash you’ll touch the runner directly and drag him down the track by his springy attached string, over and over, as he clumsily tumbles, cartwheels, and flies towards the finish line.

I just cannot stress enough how terribly awkward this is, and yet, it totally works. Plus, it’s downright hilarious at times watching your blocky athlete stiffly flop around the screen. I’ve easily had more laugh out loud moments with Summer Sports Simulator in the past week than I have with any other game, book, or movie this past year. It’s the game I immediately gravitate to on my springboard when I know I need instant fun and a hearty chuckle, and so far it hasn’t disappointed once.

So while the simplicity and absurdity of Summer Sports Simulator come together to create a fun experience, the game does lack a sense of direction that holds it back a bit. There’s no persistent player data, so each time you start up the game you begin as a new random country. It would be cool if you could pick your own country to play as every time where it kept careful track of all your stats and high scores.

For such a high score focused game, some persistent game save tracking is essential to keep me coming back to play. On that same note, an online network like Game Center would be great to compete against the scores of other players around the world. Based on the developer’s comments in our forums, it looks like more country customization options and better high score tracking will be coming in future updates. Right now, although still incredibly fun, the entire affair feels a bit too much like a one-off arcade experience each time you play.

Finally, I’m not a huge fan of the pay model used in Summer Sports Simulator. The initial game costs 99¢ and comes with 4 events, and 10 more events can be unlocked via a $1.99 IAP. I definitely feel like the entire package is worth the $3 you’ll end up spending to get the whole thing, but with such a “love it or hate it” type of gameplay I think it would have been beneficial to let players try out those initial 4 events for free, to make sure it’s something that would suit them. Lowering the barrier of entry for a game like this is important, and I’m not so sure how many people will be willing to pay a dollar to try out what essentially feels like a set of demo events.

Despite my minor complaints though, Justin Smith’s Realistic Summer Sports Simulator is some of the most fun I’ve had with an iOS game in recent memory. It’s the perfect game to jump into and play around with in short bursts, or focus hours of your attention on trying to earn high scores. The complete lack of instructions on how to complete the events is part of its charm, as it’s actually fun to experiment with different techniques trying to find the best one for each event.

I’ve also dumped an embarrassing amount of time into playing around with the interactive torch lighting ceremony before your events begin, or the medal ceremony at the end where it rains hundreds of medals on the athletes which you can fling around the screen. There’s no gameplay benefit to these things, but they’re the type of silly little details that I love. Seriously, I can’t think of any other game that let’s you grab a jet out of the sky by its rainbow contrail and spin and flick it around to your heart’s content.

If you don’t mind dropping a dollar to see what it’s all about, Summer Sports Simulator offers a deceptive amount of depth and playability. It won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but if it clicks for you then you likely won’t hesitate in dropping an extra couple of dollars to unlock all the events. If a couple of future updates can tighten up the experience with persistent profile saves and online scoring features, then Justin Smith’s Realistic Summer Sports Simulator will end up living a long happy life on my springboard right next to its brother Enviro-Bear 2010.

In 2011, we're looking at iOS games as exactly that, games for iOS devices. We might prefer playing some of these games on the iPad (or in some cases, even the smaller screens of the iPhone or iPod touch) but they're all fantastic experiences regardless of what device you're playing it on. With the advent of iCloud, we're hoping in 2012 developers take universal compatibility to new levels, and create games that are not only great on all devices, but can be seamlessly played on as many devices as you own.

Also, if you'd like to get some more insight on the TouchArcade game of the year process, check out the most recent episode of The TouchArcade Show. We discuss what we each liked about all of these games and more.

TouchArcade Game of the Year

Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, $4.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Our minds were blown at GDC 2010 when we first got our hands on Sword & Sworcery. The initial experience of playing the game is so powerful that it gave me chills. I really can't think of any other mobile game that has invoked a similar emotional response that I've played in my entire life. Sworcery is an absolute flawless combination of an entirely original soundtrack by Jim Guthrie, pixel art that is easily among the best I've ever seen by Craig D. Adams, and the creative genius of Kris Piotrowski along with the proverbial behind-the-scenes glue provided by Capybara Games to bring the whole project together.

Sword & Sworcery is universal, and while we ever-so-slightly prefer the overall experience on our iPads, it's still just as incredible on the smaller screens of the rest of the iOS device family. In fact, if all you have is an iPhone or iPod touch, you might want to just opt for Superbrother: Sword & Sworcery EP Micro [$2.99], which is a couple bucks cheaper at the expense of losing universal compatibility. Regardless of what device you play it on, S&S is a game you simply must play, from start to finish, with a great pair of headphones on if at all possible.

TouchArcade Game of the Year Runner Up

Anomaly Warzone Earth, $1.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Tower defense games have always been an App Store staple. It just seems to be a genre that perfectly meshes with both the touch controls of iOS devices, as well as providing an overall gameplay experience that works really well for playing on the go. Unfortunately, it seems there's only so much you can do in a tower defense game, and even though the past few years have brought some great entries into the genre, they all felt sort of the same. Then, from out of nowhere, comes Anomaly Warzone Earth. In essence, 11 bit studios took the traditional tower defense formula, and flipped it around, offering a whole new take on an otherwise stale section of the App Store.

They didn't stop there though, as especially when played with headphones, Anomaly Warzone Earth is ridiculously immersive. Incredible amounts of effort went into creating a game that looks and sounds as good as it plays, and the game feels fresh the whole way through, as 11 bit studios constantly throws new challenges and gameplay elements at you all the way up to the last level. Similar to Sword & Sworcery, Anomaly Warzone Earth [99¢] is also available as a slightly cheaper although non-universal version as well.

Honorable Mentions

We also wanted to honor three other stand-out iOS titles that were among all of our best-of lists for the year. Like our game of the year and runner up, they're all universal and should be on every iOS device that you own if you're even remotely interested in iOS gaming.

Infinity Blade II, $6.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - A great sequel to Infinity Blade [$5.99] by Chair Entertainment, Infinity Blade II expands upon the original in every way possible. It's by far the best looking game on the App Store, and we suspect it will likely serve as the graphical benchmark of what iOS devices are capable of throughout 2012. If you want to stretch the legs of your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch and see what its truly capable of, Infinity Blade II is the game to do it with.

Mage Gauntlet, $2.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Rocketcat Games has had a fabulous track record for releasing phenomenal iOS titles with its Hook series of games, and Mage Gauntlet continues that tradition by being its best game yet. Flawless controls combine with all the retro trimmings to make us warm with nostalgia while feeling modern enough that even people who weren't around for the great action RPGs of the 16-bit era can appreciate it. Recent updates have improved gameplay even further, and have added universal compatibility. We can't wait to see what Rocketcat does in 2012.

SpellTower, $1.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - The App Store is home to a plethora of clever puzzle games, and Zach Gage's SpellTower is our favorite of the year. Gage elegantly combines the simplicity of a word game with the complexity of a strategy game, and its multiple game modes provide something for everyone regardless of whether you like to take your time and hunt for the best words, or be on the clock and racking up points as quickly as possible. We prefer SpellTower on our iPads, but it's just as much fun on the iPhone and iPod touch as well.

The crazy part about iDOS is there seemed to be nearly no limit to what it was capable of. If you scroll down on this story you'll even find someone successfully installing Microsoft Windows, within iDOS, on their iPad. iDOS was quickly pulled, then re-appeared in late January of this year with quite a bit of its functionality stripped. Regardless, people quickly figured out how to load things into iDOS, utilizing utilities like iExplorer and other Mac/Windows programs that allow you to fiddle with the file system of your iOS device. Once again, iDOS was removed from the App Store.

Yesterday, iDOS hit the App Store once again, this time as Aemula Oldies [Free] for the iPad and Aemula Oldies S [Free] for smaller screen devices. There's also the Aemula Gamepad [99¢] which works a lot like the other gamepad apps and pairs with an iPad playing a game. It seems that the functionality has been stripped even further, as all the previous command line access has been traded for a simple menu to load the included games.

The freebies packed in with Aemula Oldies are Mille Bornes, Commander Keen 4: Secret of the Oracle, Duke Nukem, Dangerous Dave in the Haunted Mansion, Scorched Earth, CD-Man, The Catacomb Abyss, Bio Menace, Monster Bash, StarMines II: Planet of Mines, 4D Prince of Persia and CHAMP Kong. They all seem to work decently well, too.

I sort of think third time is the charm for iDOS, err, Aemula Oldies, as I'd imagine that there aren't any holes for slipping other things to emulate in left anymore. Of course, I could be totally wrong on that, so if anyone figures out any tricks, be sure to let us know.

But The Sims FreePlay [Free] hearkens back to those early days in more ways than one. For one thing, it's more like the original than any of the other mobile titles. For another, this game plays in real time. That means when you take the time to send your Sim off to shower, you really could be doing it yourself. Never before has a game given me such an uncomfortable awareness of my own time-wasting -- but the returns make it feel worthwhile.

By moving the game into real time, players are free to, well, not play on occasion. Freemium titles like this work on timers, and timers have to keep moving while you're away. Since the game is all about micromanaging your Sims lives, imagine a 20 minute day -- step out for an extended lunch in real life, and all your Sims would have starved away to nothing.

Instead, you can pop in to babysit them as little as once or twice a day, or as often as you want. It's a lot like playing The Sims with autonomy turned off: your Sims will do nothing on their own. They will suffer, starve and humiliate themselves if you're not there to care for them. Will they die? I couldn't bring myself to let it go that far. Seeing their tiny, defeated frames as they stood there starving a few steps from a fridge was enough of a heart-breaker.

If you want your Sims to take on gainful employment, you'll need to stop in a bit more often. Jobs also function in real time, so if you're not able to play around, say, 8 am there will be certain jobs you'll want to avoid. It's awkward, but your Sims really don't care -- they lack interests, desires or skills, so one job is as good as the next.

That's the fundamental problem of The Sims FreePlay: if every action is equally good, they all start to feel a bit pointless. You can send your Sim down for a quick nap that takes 4 minutes or a deep sleep that takes 8 hours, and the only difference is the amount of experience you'll earn at the end of it. It's streamlined gameplay that works exceptionally well for a freemium title, but feels a bit pointless when compared to the desktop titles.

Still, as a freemium game The Sim FreePlay works very well. Grinding for experience takes a back seat to entertainment. You can customize your Sims' looks and outfits. You can play with their hearts, setting up love triangles and household-spanning affairs. You can set your Sims to gardening and play Farmville-lite. You can rebuild their homes and decorate with a decent selection of furniture and decor. Playing interior decorator is always my favorite part.

Of course, to buy furniture you need money. Your Sims can earn their simoleons by going to work, selling the fruits of their gardening labor and playing with their pets. Or you can skip all that and just buy them. You can also buy lifestyle points, which can be used to instantly complete timers or purchase some awesome furniture and houses. Lifestyle points can also be earned as you level up and complete missions.

Here's the rub: simoleons and lifestyle points are expensive. The smallest simoleon packs you can buy are $4.99, and give you about enough cash to buy one shop in town. You can do it all yourself instead, but it's going to be a long grind to buy homes to unlock all 16 Sims, open all the shops and build all the workplaces.

If you go into the game looking for the next great Sims title, you'll be disappointed. The game is all surface without much underlying personality. But if you're looking for a new freemium title to sink your teeth into, The Sims FreePlay offers so much fun and variety that you'll barely notice the same old timers underpinning the works. That's no small achievement. If you find yourself as hooked as I am, stop by our discussion thread and share your thoughts.

The first thing you’ll notice when you jump into a race in Mini Motor Racing is the high quality visuals. Both the vehicle models as well as the actual tracks look great and it all runs at a fast framerate. Added touches like weather conditions (the rain looks great) do a good job making the game come alive. In addition, Mini Motor Racing also features a rocking soundtrack that I thought added to the feel of the game. All of these elements combine for a smooth and engaging presentation that simply adds to the overall experience while playing.

Gameplay-wise, Mini Motor Racing plays great and features tons of content to keep you playing for quite a while. Like most racers, each race is a quest to finish first, with the higher your position, the more money you earn. That money can in turn be used to upgrade your vehicle, giving you a better chance to beat later cups and tracks. While upgrades go a long way towards track success, a lot of the strategy in Mini Motor Racing involves memorizing track patterns and understanding the intricacies of the physics of each map. Of course, you could always just spend some money on IAP cash and immediately upgrade the hell out of your racer.

Mini Motor Racing includes both a quickplay and career mode. The career mode features the vast majority of the content and has dozens of maps separated out into quite a few cups. True, a lot of the tracks are reused with mirroring or different weather conditions, but the game does a great job altering camera angles to make each version look adequately different. This is one of the few racing games I’ve played where I didn’t feel like I was playing the same maps over and over again with little change. There’s also a multiplayer mode, but it is restricted to local play currently (something I hope is addressed in future updates).

One of the biggest elements that can make or break any racing title is its controls. Thankfully, Mini Motor Racing looks to address any potential control issues with a wide variety of options. The default control method is the ‘wheel’ which places a small steering wheel in a corner of the screen that you drag to steer. Other options include simple left/right toggle options and the slider, which is a control method I still can’t get used to. Each control scheme works well enough meaning that it’s really up to the player to choose the one that feels the most comfortable (although I felt the wheel offered the most precise control out of all of them). Regardless, it’s nice to play an arcade racer that offers a variety of controls that work.

While there are plenty of reasons to love Mini Motor Racing, there are a few issues that hold the game back from perfection. While the physics engine adds personality to the gameplay, there are some occasions in which your vehicle will interact with the environment in ways that don’t make sense. This is exasperated somewhat when you get to later levels and the AI begins headhunting for your vehicle, slamming you into walls and into other cars which makes it very hard to take first place. In addition, there have been reports of instability in earlier iPhone/touch and iPad generations, causing lots of crashes. While I personally haven’t had these issues on my 4S, the problems seemed widespread enough to mention. Luckily, The Binary Mill has already begun to address these issues, with a recent update expanding the width of certain tracks as well as addressing the stability problems.

Despite these issues, I love Mini Motor Racing and feel that it’s a worthy candidate for being one of the better arcade racers currently on the App Store. Not only are the gameplay elements sound, there’s tons of worthy maps and content that’ll keep you coming back. Furthermore, recent updates to the game show that the developers are willing to put the effort necessary to smooth out any issues. Simply put, if you’re a fan of top-down racers, definitely check out Mini Motor Racing.

Anyway, here's a reverse chronological recap of the stories really worth checking out over the past couple of weeks, in case you missed anything! If you've already read everything I'm linking here, congratulations, you just earned your TouchArcade holiday season merit badge.

Best iOS Games November 2011

Our ratings for games we reviewed in November are now in place, and we now present to you the ones that are on the top of the heap. Each game reviewed receives a 1-5 star rating relative to the other games from that month. Generally, a three-star or higher is considered a "good" rating.

The 'Time Ducks' Trailer Will Melt Your Brain

A couple of weeks ago, Tough Guy Studios released their first iOS game called Time Ducks [$1.99], and I'm going to be honest, I bought it based solely on the fact that it was called Time Ducks. I figured with a name like that, there was no way I could go wrong. As it turned out, Time Ducks ended up being a pretty fun and unique take on line drawing games, and it sort of sat on the back burner as something I'd been planning on writing about.

Controller Update: More on the GameBone, A Bluetooth 4.0 Revelation

iPhone controller accessories have been generating a good bit of news, here lately. More and more existing iOS titles are gaining physical control options via updates, and just last week we detailed the upcoming Gametel Bluetooth controller that will soon become a game-enhancing iOS controller option, alongside the iCade and iControlPad. The more the merrier, true, but long time readers may recall yet another controller we covered over a year ago that has been off the radar ever since. Does anyone remember the GameBone?

Microsoft Releases Official Xbox Live App

Microsoft, via Xbox Live evangelist Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb, has just announced the immediate release of the company's first Xbox Live iOS app, My Xbox Live [Free]. It's a free app that basically acts as a mobile companion to some of the more important aspects of the service. You can read and send messages to anyone on your Friend's List, manage that list or invite new people onto it, edit your profile, gander at all of your hard-earned achievements, or even mess with your Avatar's apparel.

The OnLive iOS Client is Finally Arriving

At E3 back in June of this year, we got an impressive hands-on demo of the OnLive service running and playable on the iPad. In case you're not familiar, OnLive is the cloud-based gaming service that allows you to play from a fairly large selection of console and PC games by way of streaming them to an OnLive client running on your computer or a specially designed set-top box that connects to your TV. In simpler terms, it's a lot like instantly streaming movies over NetFlix, except it's video games, and you get to actually play them in real time with minimal lag if you're internet speeds are up to snuff.

Out Now: 'Batman Arkham City Lockdown', 'Mini Motor Racing', 'Six Guns', 'TXT Fighter HD', and More

Holy jeez! We're pretty used to the typical Wednesday onslaught of new releases in the App Store, but today has been a truly insane undertaking. Between Batman making a surprise drop from the shadows and into the App Store with Arkham City Lockdown, the exciting OnLive iOS client finally seeing the light of day (soon anyway), and the normal barrage of new releases we usually see every week, it's been a wild roller coaster ride of iOS craziness. To top it off, Eli is out in Finland hobnobbing with The Mighty Eagle, ensuring that Brad and I are up to our ear balls in busy work.

Dragon Shout: A Great 'Skyrim' Map App

Dragon Shout [Free] has cleared the certification hurdle and it's available now at the low, low price of $0. What it does, it does well, and it proves a point. Games as deep as Skyrim should be embracing mobile companion apps across the board. Dragon Shout is an app that not only makes Skyrim better, but down the road, it might add an entirely new layer to the experience: social.

'Chrono Trigger' Hits the App Store

Hey guys! Here's a surprise, Chrono Trigger [$9.99] just came out of nowhere. Well, not entirely out of nowhere, since Square Enix had mentioned that it was coming this month… But after the rampant delays that Final Fantasy Tactics saw, my hopes that they'd hit this release window could be best described as "cautiously optimistic."

Apple's "App Store Rewind 2011" Features 'Tiny Tower' and 'Dead Space for iPad' as Games of the Year

If you're new to iOS devices, or haven't been following the scene as closely as you should have been over the last year, Apple's year end feature App Store Rewind 2011 has an incredible amount of must-have games and apps that, in my opinion, you can basically just blindly download as they did a great job of picking out the cream of the crop.

'WildChords' is One of the Coolest Things I've Seen the iPad Do

Earlier today I got a live demo of Ovelin's WildChords [Free], an edutainment musical game that never really had much reason to be on my radar. But using nothing more than an iPad, any kind of guitar, and some technical wizardry on their end, WildChords can teach you how to play the guitar.

'Batman Arkham City Lockdown' Review - The Dark Knight Tries His Hand at 'Infinity Blade'

Earlier this week, Warner Bros. and Mortal Kombat developer NeatherRealm Studios surprised everybody by dropping Batman Arkham City Lockdown [$5.99], an iOS spinoff of the critically acclaimed console series, into the App Store.

Remember 'Star Command'? Well It's Still Coming, Here Are Some New Screens

Easily one of my most anticipated games this year, and I'm sure many of yours out there as well, is Warballoon Games' Star Command.

'Kinectimals' Review - Making Connections

Kinectimals on Kinect is an experiential game that does a solid job of luring its users into forming an emotional bond with its assortment of on-screen, rascally pets.

Out Now: 'Bug Princess', 'Ice Rage', 'Marathon 2', 'Sonic CD', 'Trenches II' and TONS More

If you've been sitting on a massive emergency food supply waiting for the right occasion to open the first gallon sized can of preserved potato chunks, this might be it.

'Sonic CD' Review - Absolutely Incredible and Redefines Expectations of iOS Ports

The only way I can start this review is with a little history lesson, both for people who aren't familiar with Sonic CD, as well as those of you who might not have been reading TouchArcade since the summer of 2009. Let's start at the beginning, so everyone can truly appreciate just how wonderful the very existence of this game is.

'Grand Theft Auto III' Review - Ten Years Later, Still a Great Game

Prior to Grand Theft Auto III I'd say I had fun messing around in Grand Theft Auto games, but never really enjoyed myself. The top-down view felt incredibly claustrophobic, and, at least for me, made getting immersed into the game world incredibly difficult. I don't think it's hyperbole at all to say that GTA 3 changed everything.

Carcassonne' Update Adds Expansion, Baby Mode

Remember when we wrote about the fact that Carcassonne [$9.99] will receive expansion support in the future? It has that right now.

'Mad Dog McCree' Coming To iPhone Next Week

American Laser Games's so-awful-it-ends-up-being-good FMV shooter, Mad Dog McCree, is coming to the iPhone and iPod Touch this December 20, according to caretaker Digital Leisure. This is a port of the original arcade release of the game, so don't expect anything too fancy, however the team is noting that it has converted the game's silly footage for phones and even added an "all new casual mode" for those without hardcore gunslinging skills.

'Bug Princess' Review - Unsurprisingly, CAVE's Latest Bullet Hell Shooter is Another Winner

In April of last year, iOS gamers scored big when longtime Japanese developer CAVE decided to task their mobile division with bringing some of their classic shooter titles to the Apple App Store. All of these games – Espgaluda II, Dodonpachi Resurrection, and Deathsmiles – received critical acclaim from media and gamers alike, and set the benchmark for what we should expect from our bullet hell shmups on the App Store.

I told you it has been a crazy couple of weeks! I only cherry picked the really good stuff that we posted for this list too! Now, it's time for a beer and a weekend away from my inbox…!

Sonic CD, or Sonic the Hedgehog CD was originally released in late 1993 for the Sega CD, Sega's CD-ROM accessory for the Genesis console. Sega CD had actually come out earlier that year, and many gamers (myself included) couldn't wait to get their hands on one as the promise of full motion video powered gaming seemed incredible. Unfortunately, both due to the many technical limitations of the system, as well as the games themselves just not being very good, the Sega CD never really took off quite how I imagined Sega wanted it to. (There's actually a bunch of reasons I could also get into, but I digress.)

Sonic CD represented a blazing torch of promise that I had hoped was going to give the Sega CD the boost it needed, serving as that ever-important position as "system seller." Again, unfortunately, the relative low popularity of the Sega CD accessory made Sonic CD a commercial failure, even though it was a critical success. In fact, I'd still say Sonic CD is the best Sonic game ever released. It was a particularly great Sega CD game, as it played to the strengths of the Genesis with familiar Sonic-style gameplay enhanced through a few tasteful full motion video scenes and some fantastic CD audio.

Fast forward nearly 16 years to a curious question that Sega posted to the iOS community. Previously, Sega's efforts on the App Store were limited to decidedly mediocre games, centralizing almost entirely around emulated Genesis games wrapped in an emulator that really wasn't that great, and still isn't that great. They asked gamers what they'd like to see on the iPhone next, and literally a day later Christian Whitehead revealed his idea. Check out the video from 2009:

While that video might not be that entirely impressive now, remember at the time we were busy wagging our finger at Sega for continuing to release emulated Genesis ports that played poorly, performed even worse, and just weren't any fun. Then Christian Whitehead comes along with not only a port of the best Sonic game, but also running at 60fps? The emulated Genesis games barely ran at a quarter of that. Our minds were beyond blown, but like all cool things utilizing IP of a larger company, we didn't expect this fan-made Sonic CD project to wind up anywhere other than in a cease and desist letter fired off from Sega's legal department.

We quickly got together with Whitehead, and conducted a fascinating interview where one thing started to become crystal clear: This is a project motivated solely by love for the game. Christian built an entire game engine specifically for porting retro classics, and he had aspirations of working with Sega to actually get his version of Sonic CD in gamers' hands. Following that, things went dark. The fan-made Sonic CD web site vanished and the above video disappeared from YouTube. We assumed the worst, as it seemed reasonable that Sega's legal hammer came down on the project.

Jump ahead another two years, and out of nowhere that Sonic CD was coming to iOS. We quickly confirmed that this was in fact Christian Whitehead's Sonic CD, and we couldn't have been happier. Sure, the particulars such as release date and other things like that weren't in the open yet, but it was coming, and that was enough.

Tonight, Sonic CD is released to the world, based on the very same demonstration we saw back in 2009, which I suppose brings us to the actual "review" portion of this review. Sonic CD plays like every other Sonic game in that you run from the start to the finish, collecting rings, and fighting bosses every few levels. One radical addition to Sonic CD is the addition of the "Past" and "Future" system. Running past either a "Past" or "Future" sign sends Sonic time traveling to a slightly different version of the level. Initially, the future will be a "bad" future, overrun by robots. However, if you go into the past first, and destroy the robot generator, you'll be able to enjoy the "good" future which significantly fewer enemies. Alternatively, you can just ignore time traveling all together, although I believe (If my memory serves me.) getting the best ending requires unlocking every "good" future.

In a word, Sonic CD is incredible. It redefines what gamers can expect out of retro iOS ports, while simultaneously making all of Sega's existing ports look absolutely horrid in comparison. The on-screen controls work great, the game performs even better than the original, and they've included not only the Japanese soundtrack, but also the American one. (Note: It defaults to the Japanese soundtrack, so if you're wondering where the familiar "Sonic Boom" song is, you'll need to toggle it in the options.) It's even Universal. I can't think of a single thing that's missing or lacking in any way, in fact, they've even added Tails, who wasn't even present in the original.

I'm not sure what else to say. Here we have the best installment of one of the greatest gaming franchises, which received both flawless review scores and game of the year awards when it was originally released ported with complete perfection to iOS. This is a game you flat out need to buy if you even vaguely consider yourself an iOS gamer. Not only because it's such an impeccable port of an important piece of gaming history, but because we need to vote with our wallets to tell Sega (and anyone else who might be watching) that this is the quality we demand out of retro games brought to the App Store.

International App Store Link: Sonic CD, $1.99

Note: Sonic CD will be available in the USA at 11:00 PM Eastern, it should be available everywhere else in the world right now though.

Hunters 2, which is slated to hit Spring 2012, will build on the same combat that made the first game so popular, but it'll also throw in some notable new systems and weapons. For example, the team is dropping in a new mini-gun that fires blistering bursts of 10 rounds. That's especially hip, we're told, because it'll show off the game's new projectile system, which lets you see every round fired.

New enemies, environments, and mission types will naturally be part of the fresh package, but so will a fleshed out and scripted campaign mode featuring Rodeo's new hero character Caius Black. One of the promotional images we've received notes that he'll be "alone, wounded, and betrayed."

As if that wasn't enough, the game's engine has been scrapped in favor of a new one that'll integrate real-time dynamic lighting and "loads of customization options." Get a taste below:

Speaking of customization, that's something Rodeo is focusing on character-side, too. In Hunters 2, each Hunter will have a talent pool and you'll assign points in specific skill and build trees. Rodeo tells us that this system "really individualizes your Hunters and brings all sorts of new tactics" to the fold.

We'll be getting our hands on Hunters 2 in the coming weeks. If you'd like to try the original game, now is a great time -- both versions are on sale now at $.99 instead of their usual $4.99 and $6.99 price points.

In early February of this year, we learned that a rogue developer named Daniel Blezek was spending his spare few minutes in-between a full time job and a full time family life toiling away at bringing Bungie's seminal FPS Marathon to Apple's iPad. The port was in progress at the time and looking great, but there was still a bit of uncertainty whether or not a release of Marathon would completely jive with some of the rules of App Store and the open source licensing of the codebase.

Then in June, Bungie sort of shocked everyone by announcing that they had picked up the project and would be officially supporting its release. Just a couple of weeks later, on Bungie Day no less, Marathon 1 [Free] launched for the iPad and we thought it was pretty dang awesome. Perhaps the best part was the choice of business model, as the entirety of Marathon 1 was available for free, with the ability to purchase hi-res assets or a cheat mode as optional IAP. While having the entire first entry in the Marathon trilogy literally at my fingertips was fantastic in its own right, we still couldn't help but wonder if the second and third entries in the series would make it to the App Store too.

Today we know the answer to that, as we've learned that the second game in the trilogy, Marathon 2: Durandal, has already been approved by Apple and will be launching this Thursday (or more specifically Wednesday night) along with the onslaught of other heavy hitting titles slated for release. And, Marathon 2 will be launching with a whole set of new features.

First, it will be a Universal app with full support for Retina Display devices, and actually it uses the same assets as the Xbox Live HD release of the game. There will be Game Center integration with achievements and leaderboards, as well as Joypad [Free] support with specific enhancements for the Fling Joystick controller. Finally, the menu interface throughout the game has been dramatically improved. Want to know the ultra secret special bit of extra news about all this? An update will also hit this week for Marathon 1, adding in all of these same new features from Marathon 2 that I've just discussed.

It looks like Marathon 2: Durandal will follow in the footsteps of its predecessor and launch for free, with in-app purchases available for high-resolution textures, the Master Chief Mode cheat options, and a new custom reticule pack, if you feel like throwing some money to support the effort and snag a few non-essential features. As another exciting tidbit of news, several screens from the final entry in the trilogy, Marathon Infinity, were mixed in amongst those from the first two games. So it sounds like we'll be getting the entire trilogy on iOS before too long. If you had told my fifteen year old self that I'd one day be playing the Marathon trilogy in portable form with all sorts of added features and enhancements, it would have blown my tiny mind.

We will of course be grabbing Marathon 2 just as soon as it's available in the App Store tomorrow evening, and until then you can join in the discussion thread in our forums.