Battleship is one of those rare games that seems to fit in the computer gaming world even better than the physical board game world in which it was created. There's nothing like the tension while playing a friendly match with a buddy. In many ways, that tension is what makes a simple game like Battleship so appealing.

Battle Planes [$1.99] tries to invoke and expand on that appeal by taking the Battleship formula and twisting it a little by adding some variety and personality to the mix. While overall I would say Battle Planes does succeed in capturing some of that magic, some questionable design decisions prevent it from taking the helm as the best choice for this genre.

At its heart, Battle Planes is a tried and true Battleship clone: You and your opponent (Human or AI) put your three planes on a grid, and then take turns trying to hit and destroy the other's aircraft. Where Battle Planes tries to soar above the competition is in its changes to the core formula.

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Scryptic [$1.99] from LKS GameWorks looks like a traditional Scrabble game. It has a board and letter tiles sitting on a rack, but trust me, the gameplay is VERY different. Two players start in different positions on the board and use words to combat each other. Each player can either build up words defensively around their starting point ("city"), or spread out towards the opposition, in an offensive attack. Sometimes there's additional city squares to be claimed, which can spark a word-race across the board to get there first, as cities offer extra protection.

There's not a 'double word score' or 'triple letter score' in sight. Instead, the squares on the board each represent terrain, like mountains, forests and water. And the rules around each type of terrain make this game really interesting. I'll give you two examples to demonstrate.  If you want to place your word on a blue water square, you must  form a bridge, by ensuring the first and last letter of your word are not in the water.  Whereas ice squares will crack and turn to water if you place any "heavy" letters worth 2+ points on them, drowning your entire word. The game mechanics may seem a little complicated initially, but the game walks you gently through the rules with tutorial levels and help screens, so you learn it pretty quickly. Although I took some notes, which proved helpful.

How does the combat work? Well, you simply deploy a word on top of, or adjacent to, the opponents word(s) to attack them. This isn't like scrabble where your letters need to fit in with the opponents words. You just link your own words together until your word-network reaches the enemy, then drop your word right over theirs to battle. The highest scoring word will be victorious, causing the defeated word to disappear. You can even cut off the opponents supply chain, by destroying connecting words to leave other words isolated and defenseless. It's like playing two different games of scrabble on one board, against each other.

The terrain also has an impact on combat. If your word crosses a mountain square, you have a higher-ground advantage so your word is strengthened. But if your word crosses water, it's weakened. And if you're fortunate enough to find a power token in the game, you can create "elemental forces" such as volcanoes, firestorms, droughts and floods, to strategically modify the terrain. I haven't discovered any of these yet, but I'm itching to flood my opponents words.

Your choice of words makes a difference, as the game is programmed to detect words associated with four topics:  Attacking, defense, sneaking or deforesting. So if you place a word like "kill"  or "sword" it automatically gains extra attacking power, whereas words like "fortify" or "shield" add defensive power. If you discover a word associated with one of these four headings is not rewarded, don't despair - you can add words via the options screen, or advise the developers via their word feedback form and they'll add it in.

The game ends when you capture your opponents city square(s) and you're rewarded by some obnoxiously loud trumpet blasts. Seriously, the occasional sound effects are not great. The game also ends if the letter tiles are all used or when both players pass twice in a row, in which case the player with the most points wins. Phew! That's enough about the rules. Although they are quite fascinating. It's quite unusual for the rules of a game to be a highlight!

Scryptic manages to successfully turn Scrabble into a strategic combat situation. You can play against a friend using pass-and-play or battle the AI opposition on 21 unlockable terrain boards, of different sizes. But be warned, this is a game of skill and strategy, and once you've completed the easy levels, the AI definitely steps up his game. The larger boards can take ages to complete, so there's many hours of game-play, plus 12 achievements and rankings via Game Center.

This game is perfect for Scrabble lovers, who enjoy competition and want to add combat to the mix. While playing the game for a few hours, I did experience one crash and a bug, but fortunately neither caused my game or progress to be lost. The developer advises he's currently working on his first patch upgrade. With Wooords and Scryptic both being released recently, plus a new update for Wurdle, it's a good time for word games!

It’s been awhile since we’ve checked in on the Checkers scene on the App Store, so I thought I’d fire up Mirror Match Games’ new release Lets Play Checkers [$2.99 / Free] to see what the latest and greatest in checkers has to offer. Turns out, the latest Checkers game offers Checkers play... I suppose I shouldn’t be so surprised by that.

Seriously, though, Let’s Play Checkers is a pretty cool app. The checkers action is rendered in 3D, which is a nice touch, and the game has a well-designed UI that, even in the free banner-ad supported version, comes off as tasteful and, hey, even operates pretty well.

The online part of the deal operates kinda like Words With Friends -- you can queue up people by finding their username, their e-mail, or their Facebook. Additionally, by find random dudes via matchmaking. Push notifications will let you know when it’s your turn. As a whole, this stuff operates well enough as indicated by our limited time with it.

New updates are being planned if the App Store description can be believed, and each one will pack in a brand new board to use. I might be in a minority here, but I’m kinda hoping we’ll see a dinosaur-themed board in the near future. You hear me Mirror Match? Make it happen!

Every time I dip my head into the hardcore world of chess I feel like an idiot that has stumbled into a Mensa meeting. I'm not referring to actually playing the game of chess, but all the crazy competitions and other events which surround the game to take it to whole new levels. Today, I'm specifically speaking of the World Microcomputer Chess Championship, the World Computer Chess Championship, the World Chess Software Championship, and the World Computer Speed Chess Championship. All of these events are different flavors of the same type of event where hardcore Chess AI developers all bring their electronic chess-playing babies to compete for fame, fortune, and I assume a heck of a lot of bragging rights amongst certain circles.

Stefan Meyer-Kahlen, seen in the photo above, first brought Shredder Chess [$7.99 / Lite / HD] online in 1993, and since then has placed first at twelve of the various world chess software tournaments, doing particularly well at the speed-centric variety. The iOS version is no slouch either, with tons of functionality that will both provide some significant challenge if you're adept, as well as help you be a better player if you've got a smarmy older cousin like me who always insisted on beating you at every family gathering with a chess set nearby.

It does this through a shockingly adjustable AI engine that adjusts its strengths to yours, calculating your Elo rating along the way. If you're just starting out, you can even move the difficulty slider all the way down and Shredder will even make deliberate novice mistakes. Aside from that, there's a coaching functionality which allows you to analyze your games to see and learn from the mistakes you've made. My favorite feature is the little gauge at the bottom (seen in the screenshots) which shows what Shredder thinks the current winner will be, with some crazy accuracy, regardless of how hard I try to prove it wrong.

In addition, there are 1000 different chess puzzles, the ability to load and save games, and even export these games via the open "Portable Game Notation" format which is email-centric, and can be opened in full-fledged versions of Shredder. Also, by buying the iOS version you get a $10 off coupon which can be put towards the Mac/PC/Linux version which sells for €49.99 or €99.99 depending on whether you spring for the standard or the "Deep" variety.

Sure, there's tons of cheaper (or free-er) chess apps available on the App Store. And really, if all you want to do is play some casual games with friends, Chess With Friends [Free / $2.99] fits the bill perfectly. However, if you're a expert in need of a challenge or a novice actively looking to improve your game, Shredder Chess is where it's at, and has a shelf full of real-world trophies to prove it.

It's been almost a year since we looked at Neuroshima Hex [$4.99], Big Daddy's Creations first board game adaptation for iOS. Now they're back with a new hex-based board game adaptation, Army of Frogs [$1.99 / Universal HD).

If you're not familiar with the original board game, you won't be as completely lost as you might have been with Neuroshima Hex. Army of Frogs has a relatively simple ruleset. The goal is to claim territory for your color's frogs. To win, you need to string at least 7 of your frogs together, leaving no loners behind. Your competitors, 1-3 human or AI players, are trying to do the same, and they're also trying to block you from succeeding.

Each turn you can move a frog of your own, jumping as many times as you'd like in a straight line to the next free space. After that, you need to place one of two randomly selected frogs on the board. It might be yours, in which case you'll try to place it somewhere you can easily jump it to your others, or it might belong to an opponent. Then it's your job to try to place it so it can't reach its brethren.

Unfortunately, like it's older sibling Army of Frogs does a fairly poor job of introducing those rules and goals. The game includes a lot of documentation, but a playable tutorial would do a much better job. As it is, expect to flounder around for your first few games while you sort out exactly what you can and can't do, and then re-read the manual to fine-tune the details.

Once you work all that out, Army of Frogs is a lot of fun. If you have someone (or someones) to play with locally, it's a blast. Games are short but sweet, and strategic without being bogged down with complicated rules. If you don't have anyone to play with locally, you're in a bit of a bind. You can play with AI, but victories feel a bit hollow with no overarching campaign. There are Game Center achievements for beating the AI opponents, but they're quick to burn through.

You can also play online, but here Big Daddy's Creations really dropped the ball. The player base isn't yet large enough to find a game quickly, so most people start games and leave them idling while they fill. Since the game currently lacks push notifications for turns, this means most online games never actually get off the ground. I bet it will be a lot of fun to play with three other players online, but I can't say for sure. I'm still waiting for my turn to come around in every game I've joined.

Given a few tweaks, Army of Frogs could be well worth the price of admission. Until then, though, I'd caution you to only hop in if you've got someone local to play with. You'll find a well-designed game that's a lot of fun to play -- but the pond is awful lonely if you go it alone.

Just a few short months ago, The 7th Guest: Infection [$2.99] emerged on iPad. It was iOS's first great take on 1988's Infection, and it was chock-full of nostalgia for PC players who looked back fondly on 1993, the year The 7th Guest made its debut. But if you lacked that nostalgic view of the subject matter, you might have found the game a bit mystifying. Enter Battle Slugs, [$0.99 / Lite] a reimagining of Infection that has a little more to offer the modern iOS gamer.

In Battle Slugs, players take turns placing their slugs. Each turn, you're given two options: clone your slug to an adjacent hex space, or jump it to one a step further away. Wherever you land, you'll convert adjacent enemy slugs to your team. The player with the most slugs on the board when there are no free hexes left wins.

To keep this formula from growing dull, Battle Slugs offers a few different options for variety. You can play against AI of three difficulty levels, or you can play hot-seat multiplayer. Whichever you choose, you'll have up to 25 different fields to choose from. The layout of the field can make a huge difference to the strategy you'll need to employ to win, so this selection keeps things fresh for quite a long time.

You won't have all the fields available at the start, however. You'll need to unlock them by playing against the computer on previous boards and winning. This is easier said than done -- even on easy difficulty, your AI opponent will put up quite a fight. The early fields are small enough that you can evaluate your errors and improve, but later levels get huge. You'll need a strategic mind to master and unlock them all.

It helps that Battle Slugs throws in a ton of character to keep you entertained. The art is well-done and pretty adorable, in a mutated-slug sort of way. The music is also great -- I've found myself listening to the title theme with its singing slugs an embarrassingly large amount. Whether you win or lose your matches against the game's AI, you earn experience, and that experience goes toward unlocking locations. Locations are randomly assigned when you start the game, and they give you new backgrounds, loading screens and music to play with.

There are a few things that keep me from recommending Battle Slugs unreservedly. For one thing, like every similar game, this one's hard. Even on Easy, the computer will probably stomp you a few times while you work out your strategy. It's also a bit opaque. You unlock new fields by winning on two prior fields, but the game doesn't make this obvious. Unlocking locations feels like a matter of bashing your head against the AI until you eventually earn enough experience, and even then there's no way to pick where you'd like to play.

But those are minor complaints. Gameprom is building quite a reputation for great games, and Battle Slugs is no exception. According to their posts in our forums, there are more fields coming in an update, along with online multiplayer and Game Center achievements. There's absolutely no reason not to check it out -- it's even Universal. Go grab it, and prepare to break against an army of devilish slugs.

Ticket to Ride [$6.99] is a tremendous board game-to-digital game translation. It looks and feels authentic and boasts a wide range of features. It’s a sharp title through and through, but it was missing a couple of things at launch, namely a pass-and-play option. That has since been added. Developer Days of Wonder hit us up about the game’s most recent patch, which adds the aforementioned mode for up to four friends or a mix of friends and AI. It even hides your cards when you pass the device, which is a super-smart design decision.

More was added in this update, though all take a backseat to pass-and-play. You can now mute voices if you don’t want to hear them, as well as skip some animations. The buttons in the game’s silly “Central Station” now have names so you know what you’re clicking on, and hey, if you’re colorbind, “better support” has been added in. Finally, there’s been an update to the netcode for people with crappier connections. Most notably, if you drop out of a match, there’s now an option to do a quick recovery and jump back into action.

That’s a lot stuff addressed and there’s still more. If you’re interested in learning all, hit up the game’s full patch notes at this iTunes link.

Ticket To Ride is easily one of the better board games turned digital, and this update only strengthens its position. If you’d like a more critical dissection of the title look no futher than our review. Spoiler: it’s glowing.

Trouble Brothers’ Cargo Runners [$4.99] is a digital board game with basic issues that should have been ironed out prior to its release. Its tutorial is bad. Granted, it does a decent job in communicating major goals, but it fails in speaking to flow and strategy, which are constituent parts of the Ticket to Ride-meets-the-ocean-trading experience that Cargo Runners shoots for. Worse, it doesn’t feature a single-player mode -- an option that would have made the learning curve a more bearable ordeal and also would have given you something to do with the game when by yourself and network-less. As it is, you’re expected to play and fumble exclusively in live environments. That's not... ideal. And what's killer is that Cargo Runners has all the makings of a good game, but it’s being held back by these odd shortcomings.

Cargo Runners revolves around making the most money in the shortest time frame. In a typical game, which supports up to four human players, you’re tasked with collecting four pieces of cargo that matches up with a need in a port on the world map. When a ticket is turned in, you receive the cash stated on the port’s contract. The not-so-subtle push and shove here is that other players might be vying for the same contract as you. If they collect it, you’re out of luck.

You roll dice to collect moves and cards, the latter of which adds a bit of spice. With cards, you can steal opponents’ cargo, as well as pick up extra pieces of cargo and even complete certain objectives. Each card has a different color differentiating its use. The blue and green ones, from what I gather, should be used every turn. The yellow ones are sort of the rough equivalent of a Wild Card in UNO. You want to hold on to it for a clip and use their trade route-blocking or contract-gathering powers at the right moment.

Figuring out when that right moment is, however, is an issue. This game dearly needs a better, more comprehensive, and an interactive tutorial that teaches you when to do things and how to think about the game. It's hard to soak in game logic via live play. As with any board game, Lady Luck has a huge hand in a lot of game-side affairs, which can be especially trying when you’re flying blind.

What kills me about Cargo Runners is that it looks great and has legitimate entertainment value. It’s one of the sharpest, most cohesive digital board games in general, though I suppose that says more about the fact that Trouble Brothers’ created this version without a physical one to look at; the actual board game hasn't materialized.

Most of our problems might be addressed in the future, provided enough people buy into this version of the game.

In a recent message board post, Trouble Bothers’ Jeff McCord said, “And yes, absolutely we too would love to have found a way to launch Cargo Runners with AI, but to do so would have been at the expense of one or more of the other critical priorities listed above. As soon as we start seeing income from the game it will help us to add other great new features, included AI (and or) solitaire play, as soon as we can.”

The studio is also sharing other thoughts with our community, so check out that thread if you're into where the game might be going and what's going to be addressed in the future. There is also a hefty amount of Wizard Hex [$2.99] talk, which, oddly enough was another Trouble Brothers' pseudo-board game title that lacked a solid tutorial.

Cargo Runners' shortcomings are too big for us to give it an official recommendation, but we'll happily follow this title as it morphs into something that represents a value and makes good on the promise that we've seen flashes of while playing with this version. That's not to say there isn't a shred of value in this specific version. If you've got a solid group of board game pals, for example, this is almost perfect for you.

Just as a little technical note here, the matchmaking system is slow, and worst case, doesn't work. We've been getting server errors quite a bit, lately.

Ticket to Ride [$6.99] is a board game turned digital. It has no great pits to leap across, caves to plumb for loot, or monsters to bludgeon. It is, without a doubt, a traditional game that requires the old-fashioned stuff: deduction, tactics, and skill. It isn’t for people who want flash and glam; rather, it’s for people who can appreciate sharp, boiled-down design that presents compelling challenges without the mess.

Straight up: Ticket to Ride is good on the iPad, just as it’s always been good as a board game. The things the digitization brings to the table is the streamlining of setup -- the end game counting of points, the piece setting, and the shuffling of cards -- and online play against or with friends or even random dudes.

It’s not shocking, but it’s still weird how sterile Ticket to Ride is from a visual design standpoint. I can count the number of animations and UI elements on my fingers. The focus here is on the game itself, as it should be. But while it’s nice to not have to deal with clutter, the thriftiness also highlights the questionable decisions.

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Even without Game Center support, Carcassonne [$9.99] was our runner-up Game of the Year last year. But now, with the release of a new update adding said support, what’s the GOTY Advisory Board supposed to do? Create a time machine? Nah. How about a “Missed Connections” category? Perfect!

While we figure this issue of great import out, play against some of your Game Center friends in one of the best board game turned video games on the planet. Also, enjoy some of the other perks of Version 2.20, which is sure as sure the last “big” update to the game until the first add-on graces the App Store. New leaderboards, 43 new achievements, score sharing, improved stability, chat time stamping, better power consumption, and an ELO bug fix are all a part of this free update that should see some significant hold-over until game creator The Coding Monkey hits fans with some rivers, Inns, and Cathedrals.

What I didn’t mention ever so slyly in the above is that these expansions won’t see the light of day for three billion years Standard Internet Time -- The Coding Monkeys is cautioning fans that it’ll take a couple of months before “The River II” and “Inns and Cathedrals” hit. The good news, however, is that these will be quality bits of content as a result.

It’s hard to believe that someone still hasn’t checked Carcassonne out, but if you’re that dude, give this review a read. Seriously, this is a fantastic title. Just click “Buy app” already. Jeesh.

Board games turned video games have serious legs. I don’t personally understand the phenomenon, but I dig the support that happens as a result. Take this for example. Carcassonne [$9.99], which hit the App Store in June 2010, will soon be updated with Game Center support. Also, in a new blog post, The Coding Monkeys has revealed that its preparing to release two add-on expansions, “Inns and Cathedrals” and “The River II” in the next few months.

The reason why Carcassonne didn’t support Game Center from the get-go has to do with the time it was originally released. Game Center didn’t exist in today’s form while the game was being produced, so The Coding Monkeys had to shape and create its own series of tubes to connect people with each other.

“We initially released Carcassonne before Game Center was available and had to build our own multi-player experience, so it’s great to now be more tightly integrated with existing games and friends by supporting Game Center as well,” the blog reads.

The update is expected to hit within the week, so keep your eyes peeled.

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Last November, NaturalMotion Games announced that they would be bringing the beloved block-based party game Jenga to iOS. A game like Jenga [99¢/HD], where you must pull blocks from a wooden tower and place them on the top while avoiding being the first one to topple the tower, was in good hands at NaturalMotion with their extensive expertise in the area of physics technology. We checked out Jenga when it released in December, and despite not having that certain “feel” that you get from physically interacting with the game in real life, Jenga on iOS was about as great as a virtual interpretation of the game could be.

Ever since the announcement of Jenga though, people have been asking in the comments section and in our forums “what about multiplayer?”. It’s a valid question, since Jenga at its heart is a party game to be enjoyed with other people. The game did ship with a multiplayer component in the form of a pass ‘n play mode, and you could compare tower height in real time with your friends’ Game Center scores. Fun efforts in their own right, but not an adequate replacement for a true online multiplayer mode.

Today at the IMGA Judging event in Barcelona, NaturalMotion has announced that they are one-upping their multiplayer game and bringing asynchronous online multiplayer to Jenga through Game Center. I think it goes without saying that asynchronous multiplayer has proven to be well suited for mobile gaming, and the idea fits in perfectly for a game like Jenga. The Android version of the game will be getting this feature as well using OpenFeint, and the developers have stated that it’s a “definite possibility” that they could enable cross-platform play between iOS and Android devices in the future.

Besides this huge announcement, NaturalMotion has also hinted at some special types of blocks being added to Jenga that can greatly affect the physics in the game. Examples could include rare African wood which would be much lighter than normal, or metal blocks which would obviously be much heavier and harder to remove from the tower. It definitely sounds interesting and I look forward to seeing how they will spice up the traditional play of Jenga beyond the included Arcade mode. What’s really exciting though is the announcement of online asynchronous multiplayer through Game Center, which should be hitting roughly in the next couple of weeks.

Even developers who don’t normally fiddle with their prices are now fiddling with their prices. For the first in almost two years, Imangi Studios tells us, the price of Imangi: The Game [Free] has been dropped. But get this: it’s free and will remain so for “the foreseeable future.”

When we took a look at the game back in 2008, we praised the word game’s hook. It’s something of a cross between Scrabble and a Rubik’s Cube -- you’re presented with a cluster of lettered tiles that you need to arrange in as many words as possible horizontally and vertically with mighty swipes of columns.

It’s a neat game and, well, pretty popular amongst the word game and puzzle crowd. So popular, in fact, that the husband and wife crew who created it were able to eventually build a company around the success of it and their other titles. Dig Max Adventure [$2.99] ? Thank Imangi.

Check out this video of the game in action to get a better sense of what I’m talking about if I failed you with words.

Or, hey, just go download it. It's free! Duh.

Last September, we reviewed Neuroshima Hex [$4.99/Lite], the iOS adaptation of a highly tactical board game that takes place in the Neuroshima role-playing universe. We enjoyed the title a lot for its deep and satisfying strategic gameplay, and about the only negative about Neuroshima Hex we could find was the fairly steep learning curve and lack of very much in-game assistance for helping new players to the game. Since release, a few updates have hit that addressed some of the game’s shortcomings while adding even more new features, with the most recent update coming last Thursday.

After an initial bug fixing update a couple weeks following release, the second update to Neuroshima Hex in November added a ton of usability improvements. An in-game manual could be easily accessed if a part of the ruleset was confusing to you, an undo button let you undo a previous move, and visual displays of unit information and statuses made it much more clear what was happening during play. Another thing that snuck its way into the second update was Retina Display resolution game board graphics, though the rest of the menus and UI remained at regular resolution.

Neuroshima Hex’s third update last week adds in the rest of the Retina Display support for the remaining elements, and the game looks absolutely gorgeous in high resolution. It has also been updated as a universal build, so iPad owners can now run the game at native iPad resolution and with appropriately adjusted UI elements for the larger screen. Most players in our forums had been perfectly happy running Neuroshima Hex in 2x mode thus far, but I’m sure native iPad support is still a welcome addition. Finally, Game Center is now integrated containing online leaderboards and 54 achievements to unlock.

Neuroshima Hex was a really solid effort on release, and over the past several months it just seems to be getting even better with each new update. Currently, developer Big Daddy’s Creation is looking into adding a form of asynchronous online multiplayer, which would really push Neuroshima Hex into the upper levels of iOS board games along with the excellent Carcassonne [$9.99]. New factions and other new features are also being considered for potential updates. Make sure to update your copy of Neuroshima Hex to check out these latest additions, especially if you’re an iPad or a Retina Display device owner.

Ahoy, Catan [$4.99 / HD] for iPod Touch and iPhone owners! Man the poop decks, tow in the anchor, and put on your eye-patch. Catan has just went 2.0 with the “Seafarers Expansion,” an in-game download that adds two new Catan variants and 16 new scenarios within a new, sea-themed campaign. The price? $3.99.

That name should sound familiar to board game enthusiasts. To get specific, the Seafarers expansion adds ships, which are basically over-water roads.  Hilariously, pirates -- another new concept in this expansion -- can steal from these ships. Gold rivers (which give you a mineral of your own choice per adjacent city) and extra victory point tiles are also part of the package.

Other than the whole "new content" thing, the coolest part of this expansion is that you can test it out without ponying up the dough -- USM has also released a “Lite” version of which includes “The 4 Islands” scenario (of the sixteen) and the two additional game variants.

This delicious game of Catan is brought to us by Deviant Art user Luluriel!

We weren’t too crazy about Catan back when it was released, but this kind of support is always awesome -- especially for the people who really love the game being targeted for extra content drops. Hopefully, this’ll give the Carcassonne [$9.99] team a little bit jumpstart. I am more than eager to get my ‘sonne on with some Rivers content or something.