So, I have a confession to make. I was prepared to dislike Baseball Superstars 2012 [Free]. You can blame Homerun Battle 2 [$4.99/Lite] for that one, as it had left me deeply distrustful of freemium sports games. Nonetheless, driven by Air Penguin [99¢/Lite] inspired optimism and the extravagant amount of praise that had been lavished over the franchise, I ended up downloading it anyway.

I'm glad I did. Though not what you would call 'your must-have game in the event of a zombie apocalypse', Baseball Superstars 2012 is still kinda awesome. Depending on how much you like your baseball, it might even be extremely awesome. There's a part of me that wants to be the cranky curmudgeon and witheringly observe that Baseball Superstars 2012 is, while a competent product, just a souped-up version of the one from the previous years, but I can't. The rest of me is too busy cultivating my digitized athletes.

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This is neat. Double Fine, the creators of Brutal Legend and, most recently, a swarm of lovable and unique downloadable titles like Iron Brigade and Costume Quest, is asking its fans via Kickstarter to donate a total of $400,000 towards the production of a brand new point-and-click adventure title that'll be created by "a small team" and one of the adventure game genre's most influential developers, Tim Schafer.

The fans have answered, too. In under ten hours the project has received well over half a million dollars in backing. And with over 30 more days to go still, you almost have to assume that Double Fine will be forced to use dollar bills as toilet paper to rid itself of all the extra cash it's going to receive.

The project doesn't have a real name yet. It also isn't exactly slated to hit iOS -- the initial pitch was for the development of a PC point-and-click "utilizing modern touch technology." Double Fine says that if it raises more than what it's asking for, as the project has, it might put the game on Mac or iOS.

This seems like a big deal for Double Fine: it's a small, but notable studio that's triumphantly shedding the typical publisher / loan shark model that it usually uses to make something that it has complete creative control over. But, this is also a studio that has been OK with funny funding deals. It let a dude pay for several PC ports in the past, and it's apparently currently in talks with Minecraft creator Notch about funding Psychonauts 2.

So, when will you be able to play this game? It'll be awhile. Provided everything goes as planned, it might appear on Steam as early as October 2012. However, backers will see the game as it's being developed -- this entire experience will be documented by 2 Player Productions and private videos will be released on an ongoing basis.

Last month Taito announced that they were bringing a port of Dariusburst – a recent entry in the classic Darius series of shooters that was released in arcades and on PSP in Japan – to iOS. While it's a bit of a straggler behind the normal round of new weekly releases, Dariusburst SP [$10.99] is now available on the App Store.

Originally Dariusburst was a PSP game, and featured the familiar horizontal shooting and brutal difficulty that the Darius series was famous for, but with beautiful 3D visuals. It was then released in arcades about a year later as Dariusburst Another Chronicle, and came with additional features not found in the PSP game as well as a crazy double wide screen.

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There's a reason MMORPG players use the term "trash" to describe the stuff that leads up to raid bosses: it's missing all the great rewards, and it's almost always lame. It's junk, in other words, junk that pads the time between the good parts. Red Zebra Games clearly knows the score, because Raid Leader [99¢] skips right past the trash to bring us nothing but the good stuff—intense, white-knuckled battles.

As we pointed out in our preview, the big picture will look familiar to Battleheart [$2.99] fans. But it's the little details that get this recovering World of Warcraft addict's heart a-fluttering. There was a time when damage number spam, health bars and massively telegraphed attacks were my bread and butter, and boy do they come out in force here.

Before I get your hopes up, though, let me be clear. This isn't the next Battleheart, and it's not raiding in World of Warcraft. It's far, far simpler than either. If you're looking for a deeply strategic RTS-RPG, this might be a bit casual for your tastes, but it's a potent combo for those of us nursing fond memories of raiding.

Raid Leader lacks Battleheart's big list of classes, levels and loot. Instead it has bosses, and the three things any proper team needs to defeat them: a tank, a DPS class, and a healer (in the forms of the Knight, Hunter and Priest). Each of them has a bevy of skills to unlock and choose from, and choose you must, because each character can only bring two skills into battle. You might want to deal damage, snare and buff with one character, but you have to pare that down to the skills you really need. That's half the game's strategy right there.

The other half is the battles themselves. There are fifteen levels in total, with 2 arenas, 8 original bosses and a powered-up heroic version of all but the last. These have minions, lasers, death zones and many other familiar tricks, requiring priority targeting, clever positioning and quick reflexes. Lest you think I'm being irresponsible with my WoW comparisons, by the way, one of those bosses is nearly a one-to-one clone of Karsh Steelbender from the most recent expansion. Not that I mind. It just feels a little too much like coming home, if you know what I mean.

Your survival depends on two things: how well you've chosen and upgraded your skills, and how well you can pay attention and perform. It also helps to have a basic understanding of MMORPG-style battles. You'll have an easier time if you already know that the tank should keep the enemies' backs to his team, or when to toss a heal-over-time and switch targets. Admittedly, though, knowing too many tricks takes a little fun out of figuring out the right strategies for each fight, especially when kiting works so effectively.

Because of this, the game sometimes fails to straddle the line between too easy and too hard. Executing a strategy is often fairly simple, because the bosses never have more than three or four plainly timed and well-telegraphed abilities. You'll never have serious trouble figuring out how to handle an encounter when anything tricky is explained on screen.

You'll still run into plenty of difficulty, though. Two things will conspire to stop you no matter how well you can plan. The first is the somewhat-awkward touch controls. Like in Battleheart, you drag one hero to another to heal or attack, and drag your heroes around the screen to move them. Because those two actions are so similar, you may occasionally find the game mixing up your intent. Worse, though, is the way the controls sometimes lead to deaths-by-Notification-Center. Those probably can't be helped, but that doesn't keep them from being frustrating.

The second big roadblock is the enrage timer most bosses sport. This isn't a problem, it's a classic MMORPG mechanic. Three or four minutes into a fight, the boss becomes immensely more powerful. This isn't designed to kill you instantly, but it does keep you from flinging yourself at a boss for ages if you're not powerful enough to defeat it. In Raid Leader, you're not going to run down the clock because you haven't leveled enough or hit the right gear level. Instead, it's your skills that can fall behind.

The three classes each get eight or nine skills to play with. These include a healthy mix of class-appropriate heals, attacks, buffs, debuffs and so on. You can pay out the coins you earn from defeating bosses to upgrade them up to four times each. If you're a better player than I am you might be able to get by with nothing more than the coins you earn from each boss. I rather doubt it, though. It gets seriously tough to pump out enough damage to beat the enrage even when you're doing well. If you hit a wall and decide you need more coins, you have two options: grind or pay.

It's kind of a lame choice. Grinding is actually fun in Raid Leader, but it's hard to turn down the comparatively massive number of coins you can get by putting down an extra dollar or two. If you do, you can earn a decent rate in two arenas fighting waves of minions, or you can replay completed boss fights. You can earn Game Center achievements and leaderboard rank for beating bosses quickly, so this isn't a bad way to go.

I just wish there was more of everything. I want a reason to pull out more skills and level them higher. I'd dread putting hours into WoW at this point, but the few brief hours I put into Raid Leader left me craving a lot more. That's not a bad thing, assuming there's more to come. While we're talking updates, Red Zebra, could you work out the spelling errors and put some clothes on the poor Hunter? She's literally fighting in a bikini. Not even a chainmail bikini, just a few flimsy scraps of nothing.

Raid Leader isn't perfect, and it's not perfectly original. That said, it sure is fun. Any recovering raider will find plenty of great nods and familiar concepts, and anyone who's wondered why folks make such a fuss about raiding will get a low-impact introduction. Drop by our discussion thread to let us know what you think, and point out how much you want more levels while you're there. For me. Because even though I can quit any time, I really don't want to quite yet.

Rebuild [$2.99] for iPhone and iPod Touch is actually happening -- and soon. Tomorrow will see the debut of the post-apocalyptic strategy title on smaller devices, courtesy a big-time Universal update for the iPad versions of the game. Developer Northway tells that the update will also roll in retina support, too.

This is easily one of our favorite strategy games on the App Store this side of Civ Rev [$6.99 / HD], and we're stoked that a "maybe" porting scenario as of a couple of months ago has become a reality. If you haven't read anything about Rebuild check out our review. Or just pick it up on the App Store at its sale price of $.99 starting tomorrow through this Sunday.

Hey it's Wednesday, which for our purposes means exactly one thing: Tons of iOS game releases. There should be something for everyone in this list of games, whether you're a pinball fan, like simple physics games, Star Wars, or even really creepy Japanese RPGs.

This works like all other weeks in that these games should all be available in the USA at 11:00 PM Eastern, or potentially much, much earlier if you're East of North America. In which case, these games should all be available now, or very soon.

100 Trials, $1.99 - Forum Thread - This is a "re-imagining" of 100 Rogues, a roguelike that was released a few years ago which was very highly anticipated amongst our community, but quickly became notorious for just how buggy it was. Combat seems to be further refined, more classes are included, and hopefully this pseudo-sequel manages to free itself of the issues of the original.

Bubble in Paradise, 99¢ - Forum Thread - Do you like words and popping bubbles? Well, Chillingo has you covered this week. Multiple game modes and even online multiplayer are packed in too.

Corpse Party Blood Covered: ...Repeated Fear, $24.99 - Forum Thread - We've gone over what this game is all about in a recent news post. Unfortunately, it seems that the game only comes packed with Japanese language support right now. Oddly enough, it's (currently) available in regions outside of Japan, which seems sort of rare for these crazy Japanese-only RPGs.

Diggin' Dogs, 99¢ - Forum Thread - I like dogs, I like games with digging mechanics, and I especially like games that seem to explode coins everywhere. 3 dogs, 61 levels, and 5 game worlds are included.

DoDonPachi Blissful Death, $4.99 - Forum Thread - The latest shooter from Cave, which should say everything about this game. Expect tons of sprites on screen, bullets everywhere, and incredibly fast action.

End Night for iPad, $2.99 - Forum Thread - Check out our preview for all the details, but this seems to be a really slick interpretation of survival horror on iOS devices, which is a genre which I'd really like to see more of.

Eufloria for iPad, $4.99 - Forum Thread - We've had some extensive hands-on time with this beautiful RTS. In fact, if you want to know everything there is to know and more about it, check out our preview.

Pinball Arcade, 99¢ - Forum Thread - Who knew that iOS devices would be such a killer platform for pinball fans? Pinball Arcade seems to be yet another entry in the fantastic pinball aisle on the App Store. It comes with a single table unlocked, with additional ones available via IAP.

Ragdoll Blaster 3, 99¢ / HD - Forum Thread - Ragdoll Blaster was an incredible game, Ragdoll Blaster 2 was even better, and I don't think it's that big of a leap of faith to assume that the third in the series is going to be better yet. If you haven't played a Ragdoll Blaster game yet, and are even remotely interested in physics puzzlers, get on it.

Raid Leader, 99¢ - Forum Thread - I've been looking forward to this game since I first caught wind of it. We'll have a review up the second it hits the US App Store, but seriously, just watch the trailer.

Star Wars Pit Droids, $1.99 - Forum Thread - Are you excited for Phantom Menace in 3D this weekend? (No? Eh, can't blame you.) Well, the good news is this game looks pretty rad, and actually started its life as a PC game back in 1999. Now, how about some more LucasArts games from the 90's on the App Store?

EA announced an iOS version of the latest console release of their massively popular Battlefield franchise way back in August of last year. Since then, we've gone hands on with early preview versions of the game this past October and again the following month. At both events the game felt extremely early in development, and despite Battlefield 3 launching on consoles in late October, EA really didn't seem to have any idea when the iOS version would hit. And then today, pretty much out of nowhere, Battlefield 3: Aftershock [Free] popped up in the US App Store.

Unfortunately, early impressions of the game aren't pretty. Well actually that's not quite accurate, as the one thing that everyone can seem to agree on is that Battlefield 3: Aftershock's visuals are indeed quite pretty. However, it doesn't seem to contain any of the previously promised features or modes. There is no single player to speak of (only online multiplayer), no "Horde-like" wave mode, and there is a paltry 3 different weapons to choose from (4 if you count the knife).

I might not mind an online multiplayer only game, but so far the actual online performance is underwhelming. It takes forever to match with someone, and even when you do the match that follows lags to the point of it being completely unplayable. I'm almost certain this is just due to the game being new and there not really being a decent pool of people to play against yet, but what should I do while waiting for the lobbies to fill out? There's no single player component to speak of, and not even a local multiplayer option.

However, the most baffling thing about Aftershock is its pay model. The game is free and comes with the online multiplayer mode, and that's it. There does not seem to be anything more to buy in the game (yet at least), and there are ads in the menu screens which it does not appear you can pay to disable. Apparently the game is sponsored by 'Act of Valor' (you know, that movie that uses real Navy Seals as the stars) and if you watch an in-game trailer for it you can unlock an additional weapon.

So, that's really what I don't get about Battlefield 3: Aftershock. It feels strange that EA would relegate the mobile version of one of their biggest franchises to an advergame for an upcoming movie. The lack of modes makes it feel woefully incomplete, and all I can really think is that there's a ton of new content waiting in the wings to be released as future updates or in-app purchases. If not, then Battlefield 3: Aftershock stands as a considerable step down from 2010's Battlefield Bad Company 2 [$2.99/HD], which itself was fairly average.

Battlefield 3: Aftershock doesn't seem to be in international markets just yet, but if you're in the US you can give it a try for free if you're curious and can spare a few hundred MB of space, and be sure to leave your thoughts in the game's thread in our forums.

When Reckless Racing [$0.99 / HD] hit the scene back in October 2010, we praised it for the incredible top-down racing experience it offered. Now, the folks at Pixelbite Games are back again with Reckless Racing 2 [$4.99], the long awaited sequel to this arcade racer. Improving on nearly every facet of its predecessor, Reckless Racing 2 is hands-down one of the top arcade racers I’ve ever played and is well worth the price of admission.

From a presentation standpoint, Reckless Racing 2 makes some significant changes in comparison to its predecessor. Gone are the country themes present in the music and characters (although the latter still remains somewhat in the avatars and names of your AI opponents). In its place is a stylized, clean motif complete with fast-paced music reminiscent of 80s action movies (think Top Gun). Some folks may argue Reckless Racing 2 loses some of the ‘charm’ found in the original, but I think this is a great move that moves towards a more universal appeal.

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I have no shame whatsoever in telling you that I was literally obsessed with Myst when it came out in 1993. The mystical adventure that dared me to tumble into an unknown world and explore beautiful oversized tomes to unlock its secrets had everything that I wanted from a game at the time. It gave me a solo adventure, puzzles that were hard as hell to solve, and atmosphere for miles. I just might have played Myst (and all the clones of it) a rather embarrassing number of times.

So, it was really kind of a given that I was going to be thrilled to see The Lost City [99¢], which at a glance seemed to be aimed like a notched arrow at the heart of the Myst-era adventure game lover. Of course, anyone who was with me on the long ride through the adventure clones that Myst spawned knows that there were a handful of decent ones, but mostly many, many bad ones.

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Fly With Me [99¢] from Electronic Arts may resemble a cute kids game about a flying bird, but it's not actually as simplistic as it seems. You tap the screen to make the little bird fly and try to collect three stars and reach the birdhouse at the end of the level. This may sound easy, but the catch is you have a limited number of wing-flaps available.

Each time you tap the screen to flap your wings, your flap-meter decreases slightly. Once that meter is depleted, you'll literally fall out of the sky with an amusing animation as you splat into the ground. So, you quickly learn to be more conservative with your flaps, and glide whenever possible. NOT flapping is a key part of this game. Your flap-meter must also be replenished by eating bees, otherwise you won't have enough flaps to reach the end.

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Last week we talked about the massive update to last summer's quirky platformer Bean's Quest [99¢/Lite] that added a ton of brand new levels and fleshed out the storyline with appropriate intro and ending sequences. Basically, Bean's Quest was originally an incredibly short game, featuring just 8 levels. That was the chief complaint in our original review, though we did enjoy the game a lot while it lasted. In about 6 months time, Bean's Quest has expanded to 50 levels and is finally the full and complete game it was always intended to be.

For today only, you can grab the full version of Bean's Quest for just 99¢. If you've always admired Bean's Quest from afar, but weren't sure if its "constantly bouncing" gameplay was the right fit for you, then a recently released lite version can help you make up your mind. I would urge all platformer fans to give the lite version a spin, and if you're into it, then definitely grab the full Bean's Quest while it's just a dollar.

The Corpse Party series of video games have been loitering around my "I really should play these some day" game list since I first heard about them a few years ago. The games have some crazy roots behind them, as the first title was made in RPG Maker, a point and click game studio that was responsible for countless terrible ultra-indie RPG games. My personal favorite of these RPG Maker games was Chef Boyardee's Barkley, Shut Up & Jam: Gaiden, Chapter 1 of the Hoopz Barkley SaGa. (Yes, that's a real game, watch the trailer. No really, watch it.) Anyway, Corpse Party has had two different remakes since then, the most recent of which landed as a downloadable title for the PSP in late 2010. A sequel arrived around a year later, and there have even been two manga adaptations. One was even published by Square Enix.

If this is the first time you've heard of Corpse Party, Joystiq's JC Fletcher put together an awesome description of what the game is all about. In essence, it's your typical 16 bit JRPG that jumps the rails in a big way. You quickly find yourself in a nightmare dimension where no one can see each other, doors don't work, windows are blocked by human hair, and evidence of countless child murders are everywhere. (Making you wonder how this is getting by the App Store approval department, eh?) There's a cast of characters who are subjected to the torture of this environment, and you sit by and watch what unfolds.

What interested me about this crazy game is that there's tons of "bad endings," like a Choose Your Own Adventure book. I've always really liked games that divert from a linear roller coaster ride to letting you screw up, and then showing you the consequences. The PSP version is even constructed with selectable chapters to allow you to go back and explore all these different outcomes.

According to Andriasang, Corpse Party will be hitting the Japanese App Store this week for ¥2,200 which in US App Store pricing would be $29.99. No word yet on a localized English release, but I figure if the game will be available for iOS devices with Japanese text, an English adaptation can't be that far off, since presumably the translation already exists from the PSP game.

Fingers crossed, anyway.

[Famitsu via Andriasang via Joystiq]

Remember League of Evil [$1.99]? It came out early last year, and the best way to describe it is the title of our review: "The closest thing to Super Meat Boy on iOS." League of Evil controlled great, making difficult Super Meat Boy-style platforming surprisingly fun. They even eventually added iCade and Joypad [Free] support, giving two more awesome control options.

Check out the recently released trailer for the sequel:

I'm digging the new art style. February 15th can't come quick enough.

Depending on how you look at it, my weekend was either a complete success or a disastrous waste. Asides from my daily ablutions, I've done nothing but sit on my derriere and play Capcom's Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective [Free]. It's true. I'm not ashamed.

I would be ashamed if this was a cheap rip-off stemming from some copycat's attempt to cash in on a popular indie title somewhere but Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective isn't that sort of game. If you had to liken it to a gender-unspecific trophy spouse, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective would be a 6'2" Scandinavian model with a degree in rocket science and a part-time job as a professional comedian. You won't be ashamed to be caught with this one.

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It's not often I can be completely sucked into a world on the tiny screen of my iPhone. Don't get me wrong, it happens, but in the back of my mind I always know that there are dozens of other games waiting for me at the press of the Home button, all ready to feed my ADD-riddled gaming habits at a moment's notice. It's like I can never fully forget all the cool stuff my iPhone is capable of long enough to get lost in a game for any great length of time.

That certainly isn’t the case with The Hacker [99¢], though, a story-driven faux hacking game from developer Angry Bugs. When I fire it up, my iPhone is transformed into a Glider OS-equipped computer that becomes my gateway into an international tour de hacking which leads me to uncover a devious plot involving my former employer. It’s far from the first game to let you take on the glorified role of a top level hacker, but it executes the idea incredibly well and offers a fantastic level of immersion with a fairly compelling story.

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