As a kid growing up with my NES and Super Nintendo, there weren't many things that were as bad ass as the Contra series. These action platformers featured tough main characters, tons of sweet weapons, huge boss battles, and bullets flying everywhere – basically everything a 10-year old boy could ever want. Destructopus [99¢] developer Glitchsoft's latest title Star Marine: Infinite Ammo takes heavy cues from that classic Contra series, as well as similarly strong action games like Rapid Reload and Metal Slug. And so far, it's looking pretty awesome.

One of the biggest issues that pops up when talking about a game like this on iOS is controls, as the Contra games were brutally difficult back in the day even with physical controls, and they demand a degree of finesse that's really difficult to achieve with virtual touch screen buttons. Glitchsoft hopes to avoid any control issues by using a clever dual-stick setup which will allow for a range of movement and abilities to the main character while still allowing him to fire in any direction at the same time.

Time will tell whether or not a game in the vein of Contra or Metal Slug can be accurately translated to a touch screen device, and I'm definitely eager to find out. Word on the street is that Star Marine is already approved by Apple and is slated for a launch sometime this month, and you can be sure we'll check it out then. In the meantime, jump into some Star Marine discussion in our forums.

Update: Glitchsoft got in touch and informed me a few of these screens are a wee bit outdated, so here's a few new screens that are a bit more fresh:

Grand Theft Auto 3 [$4.99] is good and all, but wouldn't it be better if you could, say, adjust the draw distance? Or turn up the Awesome on those muddy A4 chip textures? Some of our more technically savvy and adventurous message board users are doing just that right now, believe it or not, and without a jailbreak.

How? Turns out that Grand Theft Auto 3 on iOS and Android has the exact same file structure as their PC versions, which opens them up for modding after a bit of directory digging. The thread we mentioned is a guide of sorts if you'd like to get in on the action. If you're looking for how to do it, or have questions along the way. That's the place to go.

Cult of Mac speculates that modding could lead to Hot Coffee-type inclusions into this version, if modders wanted to go that far with additional content. It'll be interesting to see how Apple would react to that. Guess: not favorably.

Attention League of Legends fans. If you've found yourself wanting to get your LoL on while on the go, then Maya Games might just have the prescription for you with their just released Legendary Heroes [Free]. While I don't think it was the intention of Maya Games to have Legendary Heroes be a straight up rip of Riot Games' super popular free-to-play action strategy title, it certainly seems to take some heavy cues from it in the visuals department, the gameplay, and the free-to-play structure.

Legendary Heroes gives you several different classes to play and progress with, and lets you control up to 3 of them simultaneously as you defend your own team's base and attempt to destroy your enemy's. Like many free-to-play games, Legendary Heroes utilizes a dual in-game currency of gold and crystals. Both can be earned in game through play or bought as IAP to speed up your progression.

While Legendary Heroes looks like a pretty solid League of Legends wannabe for iOS, it is missing one huge component – multiplayer. Currently, it's solely a single player experience. Maya Games is incredibly active in our forums though, and states that multiplayer is one of the top priorities for a future update if the game can do well enough to justify it. Until then, Legendary Heroes still seems like it might scratch that LoL itch if you're on the go, even as a single player game. If local or online multiplayer reaches the title in the future it could really take off in a big was, as the foundation of the game now seems pretty good.

We'll be diving deeper into Legendary Heroes in the coming days, but if you're curious, there's really no reason not to give the game a free download and check it out for yourself, and be sure to check out the forums where more player impressions, gameplay videos, and information straight from the developer can be found.

Some of you are unfamiliar with Vlambeer's Super Crate Box. Let's fix that real quick -- and for the pleasant price of $0. Hit up this web site, download the client, give it a few minutes, and then come back to us. We'll wait. We're patient.

We on level, yet? If you were playing along with us, you've discovered that SCB is a quirky 2D side-scroller that has all the action of a Mario plus the fury of a frenetic shooter. Enemies spew from the top of an instance-based level, and it's your job to evade or kill them while also collecting devilish crates that dispense weapons. The play is blazingly fast and chaotic, and the rewards -- all the new guns, new levels, and new characters -- come at a satisfyingly awesome drip. It's hard to put down, to say the least.

We've asked for so much of your time up-front because what you saw is what you're going to get in the upcoming iOS version -- Vlambeer and co-developer Halfbot nailed it; this seems like nothing short of a great port, based on our hands-on with a final build.

Functionally, some things have changed. Touch controls -- two buttons and two movement arrows -- have replaced the keyboard inputs. I also think the action has seen the slightest dip in speed, perhaps to make up for users' natural lag-time with the virtual controls.

Don't take this the wrong way; the action is still oh-my-god fast in comparison and somehow, someway, the development duo managed to make it all feel good on iPad and iPhone. Your delightful little avatar, which is always random, responds sweetly to your nudges and frantic pulls. The shooting part of the equation, also feels pretty satisfying with the button.

It might take users a few minutes to get accustomed, but the buttons translate. The game's formula also seems to, too. Got a few seconds? Great, because 90-percent of the time you won't last that long anyway if you come across a disc launcher. Have some minutes? Play a ton of sessions, and unlock some new stuff to play around with the next time you're able to pick up your device and give it a go.

Probably the biggest challenge SCB on iOS faces as it sees a release is the usual one: grabbing the attention of the casual base. The look is easy on the eyes, but its remorseless play is definitely geared towards the core crowd. It doesn't seem to have an answer for players who want a little less chaos... or disc launcher.

This isn't a problem with us, though, so whatever. We dig the arcade vibe. Super Crate Box will see a release on January 5th as a Universal app. We'll have a full review around then, so stay tuned.

There’s something about puzzle games that seem to attract the cutest, most vibrant visuals to the genre and SubTub [$0.99] is no exception. However, despite the bright and cheery graphics, this action-puzzler is no slouch when it comes to difficulty. In fact, if you can get past some control issues and bouts of shallow gameplay, SubTub has enough content and challenge for completionists to possibly be worth checking out.

SubTub is a game of naval superiority. You control a cute red sub through four sets of 18 missions that have you destroying the opposition on the open sea. In the case of SubTub, the open sea is a 6x9 grid of blue filled with other subs, aircraft carriers and more. Your weapons are underwater mines that are placed on the grid. While you have an unlimited amount of mines, each one has a fixed timer and a range slightly more than a single square. Complicating matters are a variety of other seafaring units, such as the rubber ducky, a ‘friendly’ unit that you can’t blow up with your mines (or touch on the grid, for that matter). In addition, mines are chainable, adding to the overall strategy.

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If you've been listening to our show, you already know that Rocketcat Games has plans to release a free-to-play RPG based in its Mage Gauntlet [$2.99] universe. Earlier this morning, Rocketcat dropped another first-look at a class for that game on its Facebook page. It even threw out some information on what it's shooting for with the title.

"The Spellsword is essentially the same as Lexi from Mage Gauntlet. Anti-magic dash move, finds randomized single-use spells, while also being very strong in melee. However, he has low health compared to almost every other character."

"Despite the similarity to Mage Gauntlet mechanics, we'll be taking a lot of time to improve things with the Spellsword. The heart system will be replaced with a health bar system, allowing for things like armor that actually reduces damage.

We're also looking into altering the equipment a bit. Some ideas include making some of the swords change what your charge-attack does, the spell-critical robes being replaced with new effects, and the spell trinkets adding secondary effects to the specific spell."

In brief, Rocketcat's Next Game will be a randomly generated dungeon crawler that jives with the spirit of Mage Gauntlet. Players will have different classes to choose from, and other classes to unlock via an in-game gem currency system. Since it's free-to-play and all, those gems will be also be available as optional IAP downloads.

Rocketcat seems pretty serious about sharing stuff for this title on its Facebook, so go give that a follow if you're into what it's doing next.

We’re certainly no strangers to Glu’s action-oriented freemium model and, whether you love it or hate it, Frontline Commando [Free] looks to follow a very similar format. Sporting great visuals, tons of content and a decent control system, this third-person cover shooter certainly has some positives going for it. However, its freemium system, along with a lack of gameplay variety, may be enough for some to simply pass on it.

Like a lot of other war-themed shooters, Frontline Commando places you in the role of a soldier stranded in the middle of a battle zone with the goal of single-handedly taking down all the enemy forces out to get you. You’ll complete this daunting task through various missions with objectives that include Elimination (kill all the baddies), Survival (kill all the baddies until time runs out) and Rescue (kill everyone but the civilians).

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In the crowded genre of endless games, developers need to do more than ever to distinguish themselves. Some attempt to do it via heightened visuals and presentation while others do it by modifying core gameplay elements to try and differentiate themselves from the pack. Stay Alive [$0.99] falls more in the latter category, with the endless arcade shooter making some changes to what is otherwise a standard leaderboard oriented endless game. While these changes are interesting (and possibly controversial), Stay Alive doesn’t particularly separate itself from the pack as much as it may like.

Stay Alive has you piloting a starship through a perpetual asteroid field littered with enemy ships taking pot shots at you. In addition to avoiding all these hazards for as long as possible, your goal is also to pick up as many floating orbs as possible, which are currency for the upgrade store. Also littered throughout the playing field are power-ups that range from more ammo to a temporary laser weapon that lets you destroy everything in sight. OpenFeint leaderboard support (Game Center is not supported currently) keeps track of total kills across all games, as well as the longest distance traveled during one run. As is the case with most endless games, the primary goal is to beat your (and your friends) leaderboard scores.

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Hey, remember Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1? It came out over a year ago, we liked it a lot in our review, and couldn't wait for additional episodes to come. Maybe I got spoiled by Telltale's release schedule, but I was sort of expecting Sega to rapid fire release additional episodes of the game. Well, it turns out we won't be playing the second installment until sometime next year. But, hey, it'll have Tails!

Check out this brief interview with Gamespot and the reveal trailer:

Cool, right? I'm a little worried about the engine change, as that seems like something that's a little strange to do between installments of an episodic game. It sounds cool though.

Two favorite franchises of the TouchArcade forums, Dungeon Hunter and Zenonia both had sequels drop during the Christmas flurry of releases. Both the good news and the bad news is that these games are totally free to play. Depending on which side of the free to play fence you're sitting on, this is either great news or horrible news. I'm not sure there's any wiggle room in between, if arguments on our forums and in iTunes reviews are any indication. In my opinion, regardless of how you feel about the whole free to play thing, both Dungeon Hunter and Zenonia come from a pedigree of games that are worth giving the benefit of the doubt to. They're free to try, and who knows, you might not find their respective free to play mechanics that offensive… So I say, no harm in giving them a spin.

Dungeon Hunter hit in mid-2009 when we were still totally willing to overlook Gameloft being, well, Gameloft with their highly "inspired" games and were just beyond happy to get a great 3D dungeon crawler on the App Store. Dungeon Hunter 2 hit over a year later and improved upon the original in every way imaginable, most notably, adding online co-operative play.

Dungeon Hunter 3 [Free] departs from the traditional Dungeon Hunter formula in that it abandons all semblance of a story in exchange for a hoard mode which has become a surprisingly popular secondary game mode for all sorts of console games. Choose a class, kill everything as fast as you can, repeat. Like many "premium" games that make the "freemium" leap, progression feels artificially limited and grindy, unless you feel like opening your wallet. Still, if all you're looking for is to bash some monsters faces in, Dungeon Hunter 3 will do the trick.

Similarly, Zenonia hit the App Store in early 2009, and even though the Korean RPG formula leans heavily on grinding, there wasn't anything else available that came close to the gameplay offered. Iterative improvements were made both over Zenonia 2 and Zenonia 3 with new art, sound, classes, monsters, and more added with each jump in the series.

The recently released Zenonia 4 [Free] follows this trend, with a free to play mechanic sandwiched in. The controls feel just as clunky as every other Zenonia game, but just like previous installments, don't take long to get used to. Zenonia 4 is the best looking Zenonia title as well, as it comes packed with full Retina Display graphics. Progression doesn't feel any slower than other titles (which were never very fast) and the free to play mechanic hinges on a constant pressure to buy ZEN points which can be used to improve your character in basically every way you can imagine.

I just wish both of these games were available as a single purchase game, tuned to provide a fun gameplay experience from beginning to end instead of goading me to open my wallet or play for eternity. This seems to be the case for most of these "premium" games that make the free to play jump, so it's not like the shift in gameplay should be news to anyone. Regardless, they are free to try, and we still likely won't see any new games until next week...

Hey, Shadowgun [$2.99] now has more content via an update. Madfinger has added an "expansion" to the overall package that directly follows the events in the core game. Overall, this new expansion contains a total of four new levels, as well as new little visual tweaks, a new gun, new collectibles, and a new enemy type. All for free, of course.

The update this was rolled in with also includes some fresh improvements for the same price: free. According to Madfinger, Shadowgun now sports improved "effects," like, say, bullet trails and camera shakes. You can now also roll and apparently face freshly tuned enemies with freshly tuned guns courtesy of this thing, too.

We weren't so hot on Shadowgun and this update doesn't really change that viewpoint, but we're pretty stoked for the pre-existing fans. This is the kind of update they wanted, and they totally got it.

Death Rally [$.99] now officially has multiplayer courtesy a December 16 update. Starting now, you can participate in an online twist to the game's standard single-player campaign, which has been dubbed "Road Wars." In this, you simply race against others and earn a comparable amount of experience points based on your position and performance.

You'd figure this kind of update would make everyone happy, right? Wrong, because this is the Internet. Road Wars is loaded to the gills with IAP guns and cars that you can buy in advance of earning them normally through play. As a result, some are picking up their nearest pitchfork or torch to storm the gates.

We've spent some time with Road Wars and the IAP stuff looks like just that -- an option. Even though it'll be constantly winking at you, the experience seems suitably balance for those of us who just want to rock out and earn additional items through play. Full update notes through this link, by the way.

UPDATE: We've been advised that some higher level items can't be unlocked traditionally. The fact that IAP exists threw off the balance of the mode anyway, so there's not much left to say here.

Bike Baron [$.99] received an update a couple of days ago, but developer Mountain Sheep has managed to fit another rejuvenating splash of content in before the App Store freeze. And this one, guys, is just as cool.

This latest update specifically drops in a total of five brand new ice-themed levels with a new kind of material that allows you to morph objects into breakable ice. More in line with the yuletide spirit, though, Mountain Sheep has also added two new Santa characters equipped with jolly bikes via in-app purchase. You can view both of these before you buy, by the way, which is a welcome design decision. Here's a look:

Bike Baron is a surprisingly good game, and an especially welcome title on the App Store since we didn't have a Trials or anything near its level beforehand. Check it!

Dead Space [$.99 / HD] is one of the seemingly billions of EA-published games on sale right now, and it's also received a new update. On both iPad and iPhone, Dead Space now supports EA's polarizing social UI, Origin. In more satisfying news, it also now supports Game Center integration by the way of leaderboards and apparently runs "smoother" thanks to some technical tinkering on the back-end.

If you didn't know, by the way, this portable spin on the ridiculously good horror-action franchise is also ridiculously good. And not in that Game Boy port kind of way, either -- this thing is a full, complete product that has its own feel, mechanics, pull. In other words, it easily stands on its own. You should check it out while it's on sale for $.99 and get familiar. We'll be talking about it again this year.

In a bit of a surprise today, Ubisoft released Prince of Persia Classic [99¢] into the App Store. Now you might be thinking, "Hey, Ubisoft. Didn't y0u already release a classic version of Jordan Mechner's influential platform adventure last year?" And the answer to that is, yes, it's called Prince of Persia Retro [99¢]. That game was basically a perfect port of one of the earliest versions of the game, Prince of Persia for Macintosh, with some very sub-standard virtual controls tacked on. The nostalgia factor was there, plus it was cheap and Universal, but Prince of Persia Retro was far from the ideal way to play such a finicky game that demanded precision control.

Today's release is actually another port, this time from the 2007 Prince of Persia remake that was available on Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network. Prince of Persia Classic is essentially the exact same game as the original – same level layouts, same enemies and hazards, same storyline and one hour time limit – but completely redone with fantastic 3D visuals and what appears to be a more zoomed in camera to better suit iOS. Sure, if you're a purist then that might not sound like such a great thing. But if you love the original gameplay and can appreciate a shiny new coat of paint, then Prince of Persia Classic fully delivers.

As for the translation from controller to touch screen, obviously it's much more difficult without tactile feedback but at the very least the controls feel leaps and bounds better than those in Prince of Persia Retro. There's a more intuitive use of action buttons, and there is a slider for movement as opposed to directional arrows which gives you more control over running or walking. The controls aren't perfect, and they make an already difficult game that much more frustrating, but I think they're the best they can be while still being true to how the original game played and they certainly shouldn't prevent you from playing through the game with a bit of practice.

So if you're in the mood for some good old fashioned Prince of Persia gameplay, but want an extra dose of shiny, then Prince of Persia Classic is where it's at. From my limited time with the game, it appears to be a very faithful port of the 2007 remake with virtual controls that are about as good as you can expect from a touch screen. You'll get a headache from some accidental leaps to your own death, but after a bit of play it's pretty easy to work within the confines of the controls in order to play through the game.

As an aside, some players in our forums seem to be having trouble installing the game on an iPod touch device. Indeed, the App Store notes that it's compatible with "iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S" only, with no mention of any iPod touch or iPad devices. I'm not sure if this was just an oversight when uploading the game to iTunes or if the game really does require the two latest iPhones in order to run. If you own an iPod touch or iPad, it might be worth waiting a few days to see what the final verdict is on that, but if you're an iPhone 4 or 4S owner and enjoy yourself some Prince of Persia, then I'd jump all over Prince of Persia Classic for just 99¢.