We've been tracking Elite's retro game releases through its ZX Spectrum: Elite Collection [App Store] and associated apps for some time now. This weekend, Elite released another emulated classic that many gamers on both sides of the pond will recall fondly: Barbarian from Palace Software.

Barbarian (distributed in the U.S. by Epyx as Death Sword), originally released for the Commodore 64 in 1987, is a hack and slash fighter that places you, the barbarian, in a series of fighting pits on a mission to slash your way through warrior after warrior and ultimately defeat the evil wizard Drax and rescue the ample Princess Mariana. It's all in the spirit of Conan. The game was noted for its realistic character animation (despite its simplistic graphics), considerable gore, and pleasant dose of wit. More than all of these, perhaps, it was noted for its racy box cover art featuring a bikini-clad Maria Whittaker, who had recently made an appearance as a topless Page Three girl in The Sun, and some dude. The outcry was dramatic.

Being a title running in Elite's ZX Spectrum emulator, Barbarian: ZX Spectrum is, of course, the ZX Spectrum version of the game. Unfortunately, this was not one of the strongest ports. Due to limitations of the Speccy's hardware, the actual play area and the characters within are rendered in monochrome. The detail is there, but the presentation feels pretty sparse. Another negative in this emulated iOS release is the control scheme. Despite Elite's "iDaptive" control system, where button (or key) layout can be custom arranged, the types of wildly varying moves that you need to pull off in rapid succession to excel in this game are not particularly conducive to touchscreen-style D-pad play. Happily, the customizable controls let you move the D-pad out of the way of your character in landscape mode, but that doesn't help with the feel of the controls.

Barbarian for the C64 and other platforms of old featured both a single player campaign mode (the quest to rescue Mariana) and a two-player challenge mode. It's worth noting that the version presented here offers only a single player mode.

See a video of the game as played on the ZX Spectrum.

Barbarian: ZX Spectrum is a stand-alone title with versions for both the iPhone [link] and iPad [link], and will be appearing as part of a new download pack for Elite's ZX Spectrum: Elite Collection [link] on Friday, when the number of available games in the collection will reach 108.

As a fan of what I knew as Death Sword on the Apple II back in the day, I was happy to see Barbarian arrive on iOS, even if it's come in a non-native fashion. I'd wager that the happy customers here are going to be other oldschool gamers who have fond memories of gut kicks and decapitation as Palace delivered them. Those unacquainted will probably find this one wanting.

Revolutionary Concepts is running a sale on its iOS port of the classic '80s laserdisc title Road Blaster. Road Blaster for iPhone [App Store], normally $1.99, and Road Blaster HD for iPad [App Store], normally $3.99, are both available for $0.99 for one week only.

Road Blaster follows a campy story of revenge (not totally unlike many action movies from the '80s) where you are out to get justice against an evil biker gang who murdered your wife. You'll hop into your modified sports car and go after these heartless thugs across 9 different levels, with the option of three difficulty settings. Operate your vehicle using a virtual steering wheel or the brand new tilt controls.

The iOS version features remastered FMV sequences that are optimized for Retina displays (on iPhone), a choice of two different redrawn in-game dashboard consoles, a new soundtrack and plenty of new sound effects, and numerous optimizations over the original.

Today also marks the return of the studio's Karate Champ FREE [iPhone, iPad] to the App Store, which gives a nice taste of the full iOS conversion of the classic '80s arcade fighter.

Before you get good and unsober later tonight, EA would like you to take a spin in a tricked out Need For Speed Undercover car. Or kick a soccer ball. Or punch a dude in the face. Or piece together a tower of multi-colored blocks. That’s right, another holiday sale is in full effect on the App Store. EA has slashed the prices of a bunch of its stable in celebration of St. Patrick’s Day, the the latest holiday-related excuse to have a sale.

A lot of games are on sale, so I’ve assembled a little list below. And, as usual, there’s no mention of when or if this sale will end.

• FIFA 11 -- $2.99
• Madden NFL 11 -- $2.99
• Mirror's Edge -- $.99
• MMA By EA Sports -- $.99
• Monopoly -- $.99
• Need for Speed SHIFT -- $2.99
• Need For Speed Undercover -- $.99
• Scrabble -- $.99
• Tetris -- $.99
• The Sims 3 -- $2.99

Scrabble for a dollar? Yeah, I’ll take that.

While we were out in San Francisco at GDC 2011, I had a chance to sit down with Xavier Liard of DotEmu to catch up on the latest from their studio. Part of the news gathered in that meeting we passed along last week in our story covering the upcoming arrival of Another World for iOS -- DotEmu is the developer on that project. But there's more to tell from this retro revival studio.

The third release in DotEmu's Jaleco arcade series, an iPhone port of 64th Street: A Detective Story [link], has recently gone live in the App Store. The game is a Double Dragon-style beat 'em up arcade fighter that was originally released back in 1991. The iOS version of 64th Street is wrapped in an emulator, providing the original graphics and an authentic game experience as compared to the arcade release, but with customizations that make it appropriate for the iOS platform.

The next title slated for release as part of the Jaleco series is P47: The Freedom Fighter, an arcade side shooter released in 1988 that also saw release on the Amiga, C64 and various other platforms. The coming iOS version of P47 is delivered via emulation of the original arcade version.

Another item worth mentioning from DotEmu is the v2.0 update to their iPhone port of the MSX / Sega Master System RPG Golvellius - The Valley of Doom [link]. New in this release are a redone interface, adjustments to the control system, Game Center intregration bringing around 30 achievements, as well as optimizations to the code for smoother gameplay.

After spending hours in line today, I managed to get my greasy sausage fingers on a brand new iPad 2. I'll be doing a first impressions post shortly, but the insane differences between Infinity Blade [$5.99] running on the original iPad when compared to the iPad 2 seemed too substantial to not immediately write about. Some things to look for in these screen shots include how smooth the edges are on the iPad 2, as well as how high resolution the textures are in comparison. We have this kind of image quality, while everything runs at a much higher frame rate.

The best way to view these comparisons is to click on one to load up the light box image viewer, then click through the screenshots one by one, going back and forth to compare them. The differences are obvious.

iPad 2 on left, iPad on right:

If this is what the iPad 2 can do with existing games that got a quick update to take advantage of the new horsepower, I can't wait to see what games are going to look like that are built from the ground up for the device.

Blanket statements are usually reserved for the uninformed, but I can safely say that I haven't liked a single boxing game in the App Store up to this point. Some of them have admirable qualities, but the vast majority either make me long for Super Punch Out or Fight Night on the PS3. It turns out that all I was waiting for was EA's masterful Fight Night Champion [$4.99].

What makes Fight Night Champion so satisfying is that it never strays too far from its console roots, but at the same time does a great job embracing the touch screen technology for combat and the accelerometer for movement. Like the console, the control system in Fight Night Champion works by splitting the control system into quadrants. Where on the console you pop the stick up to do a high jab, here you just have to tap the upper half of the screen. The same goes for the low right hook, where all you have to do is swipe from right to left on the lower half of the screen. Every punch, grab, and hold, from the simple bob-and-weave to each boxers signature punch is done via easy to follow gesture controls, and once you get a round or two in you'll be ready to punch with the big boys.

In addition to the slick fighting, Fight Night Champion comes loaded with 20 boxing legends, from Mohammed Ali to Manny Pacquiao, and also lets you create your own boxing fantasy in the Legacy Mode. I don't know about you, but taking down the amateur hour fighters in record speed with my ripped heavyweight doppelganger sporting American flag shoes ranks right up there with fried PBJ's and Thin Mint cookies. Hop on a multiplayer match over bluetooth or local WiFi and you'll find yourself in iOS gaming bliss… which I guess would taste something like an A1 Thick 'n Hearty Burger.

As killer as the game is though, there's always room for improvement. My first complaint (and this seems to be echoed frequently in the forum) is that the parrying system is unnecessarily hard. I've nailed a few counters in my play, but my fights tend to become brawls with very little blocking (not that I play any different on the console version). I would also love to see the Legacy Mode flushed out a bit with some interactive training sessions and maybe a cutscene or two, or perhaps a pre-fight Rocky montage to really pump me up.

The bottom line is that if you are a boxing fan, and especially a Fight Night fan, Fight Night Champion is a must have app. The controls are outstanding, the boxer selection will please any boxing fan, and the ability to create your own boxer and start your own career is gold. If you ever find me in a restaurant or airport and want to take me on in a bluetooth match, you're on. As Drago would say, "I must break you."

While we're barely able to keep up with GDC insanity, the massive announcement of the iPad 2 and all the other craziness taking place this week Chair decided to go releasing a major update to their Unreal Engine-powered sword fighter Infinity Blade [$2.99]. The update, dubbed "The Deathless Kings" adds an entirely new dungeon, new enemies, as well as six new arenas which apparently double the size of the game.

Hardcore players will be able to start a new game+, which removes the level cap, allows for re-mastering of items, and unlocks brand new items in the store. In all, 30 new items have been added to the game and new achievements have been added to farm as well. Of course, there have been various tweaks made to the game to make it even better too.

We absolutely loved Infinity Blade in our review, and recommend anyone with an iPad or recent iOS device pick it up while it's on sale. This massive update just further sweetens the deal.

Street Fighter news that doesn’t involve its appearance on the Nintendo 3DS is at a premium as Nintendo rushes its next handheld to market, so I’m pleased to report on this little story which involves something quite different: Street Fighter IV [$.99] for the iPod and iPhone is now being sold for under a dollar. That’s like nine bucks worth of savings for a competent fighting game on a touch screen device. Not bad, right?

But, wait, there’s more savings to go around. Capcom has also slashed the prices of several of its titles to the one-dollar mark. Here’s the full list:

Capcom notes in the new game descriptions that talk about the sales that these deals won’t “last forever,” suggesting the usual one-week kind of sale, but not really confirming the stretch the marketing folks plan to play the App Store charting game.

As is usual with these kinds of sales, I suggest grabbing what you want now. Street Fighter IV is a steal at this price, and Devil May Cry 4, which just hit the platform (review!), is a good buy considering what’s being asked for it at the moment.

Update: Looks like we initially missed a few titles that are part of this sale. These have been added to the above list of links.

The Barcode Battler was the epitome of early 90's handheld electronic gaming contraptions. It was a huge piece of black plastic with a LCD display and a few cryptic face buttons that absolutely decimated any batteries you put in it. When I first read about the device in whatever gaming magazine I was reading at the time, my mind was blown. The idea was that you went scavenging around hunting for barcodes, and after scanning them in to this monstrosity you discovered if that barcode was actually a powerful fighter, a useful item, or something like that. Incredible, right? Well, it was back then.

Unfortunately actually "playing" with the thing was entirely underwhelming, as it almost never could read any barcodes. Also, when it did, it just displayed three numbers indicating whatever statistics the device used to display your character. In other words, the Barcode Battler itself turned out to be the exact polar opposite of what you were expecting and imagining between the time you first read about it and when you actually got to getting your hands on one.

Check out this shockingly accurate video review of the Barcode Battler:

iPhone developers Önders et Gonas share an apparent love for wacky early portable electronics, and are in the midst of developing Warcode. Warcode is an iOS game playable on devices with autofocus cameras (So, the iPhone 4 and 3GS.) and sounds like it could be pretty cool based on the somewhat vague information posted in the Warcode thread in our upcoming games forum.

From the looks of it, you'll be able to scan in barcodes similar to the utility RedLaser [Free] to generate items and warriors much like the Barcode Battler. The main difference here is that Warcode sounds like it will have actual gameplay in the form of a single player campaign and Game Center-powered multiplayer.

I'm glad that it only took twenty years for someone to take the Barcode Battler and turn it in to what it should have been. I can't wait for Warcode to be released, as I have a feeling this barcode on this crazy mint flavored Orangina is going to be a beastly warrior (or cowboy, if the label is to be believed).

One of the best run-and-jump fighters I've ever played is Sega's 1987 coin-op release, Shinobi. Several of us here at Touch Arcade spent hours in the local arcade together way back when, shoveling quarter after quarter into that Shinobi cabinet. We grabbed various home versions of the game, but none lived up to the excellent arcade experience. Happily, a number of sequels followed that targeted consoles specifically, and they provided some great ninja slashing action. The best of the lot in the eyes of many, myself included, is Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master. It was originally released for the Genesis / Mega Drive back in 1993, and tonight Sega has released the game, wrapped in their iOS Genesis emulator we've seen before, through the App Store [link].

In Shinobi III, you're back in the role of ninja warrior Joe Musashi as he fights to defeat the evil organization Neo Zeed, which is bent on world domination. You move through seven rounds of carnage, laying waste to scads of other ninjas with your shinobigatana, shurikens, and four magical ninjutsu techniques. You must brave a variety of hostile environments, including forests, caves, cities, laboratories, and factories. You even ride a horse. And surf! It's a harrowing affair, but the game is actually a bit more forgiving than the first in the series, employing a life meter that allows for accumulated damage as opposed to one hit kills, as did Revenge of Shinobi which preceded it. It's a great game -- a bit short on play time, but full of action.

...on the Genesis (and Wii Virtual Console), that is. Sadly, as has been the case with numerous straight arcade / console conversion from Sega and others in the past, much of the great experience of the original has been lost in translation to the iPhone. There is nothing to complain about as far as performance from the emulator -- it seems Sega has been steadily improving it, and things run smoothly and at full speed for all intents and purposes on an iPhone 4 test device. The issue is with the controls, their arrangement and inflexibility.

Like other Sega iOS releases running in their emulator, there is both a full screen and a windowed view. The fullscreen mode, with its larger image, is the most desirable play mode, I would say, but it suffers from the fixed arrangement of the onscreen D-pad and three action buttons; very often a thumb on either completely obscures your character, making gameplay highly awkward. This can be avoided by using the windowed view which renders the game at it's native resolution (fullscreen is a scale-up, not the other way around) with D-pad and buttons below, but on a screen with a pixel density as high as any iPhone or iPod touch device, it's a strain to behold. It's possible that an option to reposition the touch points would help matters but, frankly, I can't imagine an arrangement that would be truly acceptable. As is, the gameplay will leave you longing for your old Genesis.

See a gameplay video of the original console version.

And so, again we have a truly excellent console title that falls sadly short of the mark in making its way to the iPhone. Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master is likely an App Store purchase that only the true Shinobi devotee could make with satisfaction.

Sega's Virtua Fighter series literally spawned the 3D fighting genre back in the early 90s. It has also been one of the most well-received and successful fighting game franchises of all time, spawning numerous sequels, alternate versions, and spinoffs over the past two decades. That's what makes tonight's release of Virtua Fighter 2 [$1.99] on the App Store so disappointing – it's not the highly refined arcade sequel to the groundbreaking Virtua Fighter, but rather its severely gimped Genesis version running in Sega's iOS Genesis emulator.

I have mixed feelings towards the iOS Genesis games. Some of the titles they choose to bring to the App Store turn out pretty good, and remain highly fun and playable even after many years have passed. Some, though, are completely ill-suited to a touch screen platform, and merely serve to scratch my nostalgia itch when needed. The Genesis version of Virtua Fighter 2 is neither of these.

Since the 16-bit Genesis was incapable of doing a 3D fighting game, Sega created a 2D version of Virtua Fighter 2 for its popular home console to take advantage of the huge popularity of the Virtua Fighter series in arcades. It only slightly resembles its arcade counterpart, and honestly it wasn't even that good of a 2D fighter when it released 15 years ago. It completely baffles me that Sega would opt to bring such a poor example of one of its strongest brands to iOS rather than the excellent arcade version, or at least the Sega Saturn version, both of which should be totally possible with the iOS hardware.

This is a random YouTube video of the Genesis version, just so there's no mistaking what the gameplay is like if you're curious about picking up the game:

Chances are there are some folks out there who never knew the beauty that was the Virtua Fighter series in arcades, but had Virtua Fighter 2 on their Genesis and played the snot out of it back in the day. To those people you will be happy to know you can now carry that experience around in your pocket, running fairly smoothly inside of Sega's no-frills emulator. There's even a nifty Bluetooth local multiplayer mode for you. Unfortunately I am not one of those people, and in fact, I don't even know anybody who is. The forum discussion has echoed a similar disappointment to my own, and I can only hope that someday we will see a proper version of a Virtua Fighter game on the App Store.

Given the incredible success of Street Fighter IV [$9.99] since its release on the App Store, I've always wondered if its 90s arcade competitor Mortal Kombat would ever grace our touch screens. Just a few days ago, it was confirmed that indeed an iOS version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 was in the works from the folks at EA Mobile. And just like that, yesterday Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 [$6.99] was released in the App Store.

I'm a diehard Mortal Kombat fan, going back to the very first release in arcades almost two decades ago. I've since owned just about every version of every Mortal Kombat game for every console over the years. I even bought and suffered through the abomination that is Mortal Kombat Advance on the GBA, so I can definitely recognize a terrible MK game when I see it. And Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 for iOS is far from terrible, and in fact it's pretty good. It gets a lot of things right, and even does some interesting new things, but some of the changes will alienate longtime fans who are looking for a trip down nostalgia road, and the poor execution of the controls can make the game difficult to enjoy.

The most significant thing to notice about Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 is that despite its name this is in no way a direct port of the arcade game. The biggest change is that the game is completely rendered in 3D. Purists will likely cry foul at this design choice, but I have a more positive feeling towards it. The characters are comprised of fairly basic 3D models but they look like their originals for the most part, and this also allows them to appear extra crisp, especially on the Retina Display. I can't imagine the old digitized sprites looking especially great on iOS screens, and the many frames needed to animate them would likely cause performance issues. Because of these points, I understand and accept the decision to go 3D.

One huge disappointment though is the lack of available characters. Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 in the arcades boasted a healthy roster of 22+ fighters, whereas the iOS version only has a selection of 11 including two unlockable characters, and I believe the two bosses are playable though I have yet to verify that myself. Hopefully they take a page out of Street Fighter IV's playbook and offer frequent updates with new characters, because as it is now the roster feels lacking.

The best part about the game being in 3D is that the redone backgrounds look downright gorgeous. Again there is only a selection of 10 stages from the original arcade game's 16 or so, but the ones chosen here are the best of the bunch and contain all of the levels with stage fatalities. There's really nothing like knocking someone in front of a subway train or into a pit of spikes in 3D. On that note, all of the fatalities, babalities, friendships, and animalities are included for each of the characters. Some of these look better in 3D, and some I would prefer the original, but either way it's still hugely satisfying to pull off a finishing move on a defeated opponent, and that's what's important.

Regardless of your feelings about the graphics, none of it would matter anyway if the game didn't control well. Here is where Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 slips up the most. It offers two control schemes and the ability to move the buttons for each wherever you want on the screen. The joystick remains fixed, but it's in a pretty good default position anyway.

The first “pro” control scheme has all 6 buttons of the original arcade game, and all the moves are performed just like in the original. This is my preferred way to play because it's what I know, but it also makes it difficult to pull of moves that require multiple buttons to be held down at the same time, like Sub-Zero's slide for example. The second “easy” control setup features only 5 buttons - punch, kick, block, run, and special. This scheme changes all the special moves and fatalities into simple combinations of the special button and joystick directions. Both setups have their strengths and weaknesses, and neither is completely ideal, but they are both competent enough to get the job done.

The real problem with the controls has to do with the responsiveness. It's a strange phenomenon, really, because at the beginning of the match they work just fine. But as the match prolongs they stop responding as well. Button presses have a way of getting bunched up, and moves that you were trying to perform will play out much later than you intended. There's no way to stop this from happening either, so you'll just have to sit there until the string of button presses is completed before you can focus back on the action of the current moment. It doesn't render the game unplayable, but it's a frustrating problem that definitely needs to be addressed.

Content-wise, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 contains an arcade mode with 4 tiers of difficulty, a local multiplayer mode over WiFi or Bluetooth (complete with the 6 symbol code entry functionality of the arcade game), a survival mode, and a Shao Karnage mode. Shao Karnage mode is brand new, and is actually pretty neat. It pits you against Shao Kahn using the character of your choice, sans health bars for either character, to see how many points worth of damage you can do to him in 99 seconds. There are supposedly online leaderboards for both survival and Shao Karnage modes, but for some reason I have yet to get them working.

Initially I was turned off by Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, but I stuck with it and the game grew on me by leaps and bounds. I've had a lot of fun playing it, and there's all sorts of potential here for it to be a stellar Mortal Kombat game. Assuming you can get past the lack of characters and the new look of the graphics, the only actual problem with the game is the laggy controls. They're workable now, but I'd really like to see them improved in the future. Of course, adding more characters couldn't hurt either. For being the first Mortal Kombat game on the App Store, I ended up being pretty impressed, and there's a lot of positive impressions of the game in our forums as well.

If you're a fan of Mortal Kombat then you'll likely get enough enjoyment out of this version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 to justify the purchase, but if you're looking for a comparable fighting experience to the iOS version of Street Fighter IV then you may want to hold off and see how this game evolves over time.

According to the folks at tech gadget site KnowYourMobile, yes it is. They have posted a video on YouTube showing a very playable version of the game running on iPhone, which they apparently caught a glimpse of during a visit to EA Mobile's offices in London. The video is shot from kind of far away, and doesn't really show a whole lot, but is unmistakably Mortal Kombat on an iPhone. As a huge fan of the 2D Mortal Kombat games, I would be immediately skeptical of controlling such a game with a touch screen, but the video shows a virtual stick and button setup that seems to perform pretty well, and the game is running at a decent speed.

With the long-awaited Mortal Kombat franchise reboot slated for early to mid 2011, a version of the series on iOS would make sense. EA Mobile also recently released a version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 for JAVA, so it's conceivable that they could have had an iOS version in the works as well. It's not known whether this is a port of the Ultimate Mortal Kombat that hit the Nintendo DS a few years ago, or possibly a version of the Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection HD for consoles that was leaked a few months back but has yet to actually surface. If it does end up being a collection of the first 3 arcade games, then consider me overjoyed.

Feel free to speculate about the game with members in our forums, and we'll be eagerly anticipating any additional information or official word from EA Mobile on this release. KnowYourMobile has said the game will be launching in December, and with nearly half the month already gone I'll be interested to see what becomes of Ultimate Mortal Kombat on iPhone in the next couple of weeks.

Update: An EA representative in our forums has confirmed the existence of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 for iPhone. Though scant on any details regarding release date or pricing, he did graciously post a couple of new screenshots from the game (click to enlarge):

What is interesting about these screens is that they show that the game is actually not a direct port of the original, as the characters seem to be 3D models rather than digitized sprites. From a purist's standpoint, this may be disappointing, but I think it's actually a really good thing. Running sprites with many frames of animation takes a lot of RAM, something that only the iPhone 4 has a decent amount of currently. 3D polygonal characters is likely the reason the game is able to run so fast and smoothly, and hopefully means it will work on a wide range of devices. I'm happy to see that the game has been confirmed, and I think it's looking pretty great so far. We'll bring you any new information on Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 as soon as it's available.

We've been following Chair's Infinity Blade [$5.99] like a hawk since we first caught wind of the game at the Apple Keynote. Through various interviews, trailers, screenshots, and other snippets of information, the hype surrounding Infinity Blade's release couldn't possibly be more intense. For what it is, it's an absolutely fantastic gesture-based fighting game that has without a doubt the best graphics we've seen so far on an iOS device. However, for all that it is, there are also many things that it's not.

The game opens with a cut scene with your character ascending the castle to come face to face with the God King. In a cryptic foreign language decoded with subtitles, they chat back and forth for a bit before the God King dispatches his guard to fight you. This begins a brief tutorial which ultimately ends in the God King slamming his Infinity Blade straight through your gut, draining your essence, and powering up the God King even further. This begins the infinite loop that is Infinity Blade, as 20 years later, your successor stands staring the very same castle in the face.

Navigating the castle is all done via a point and click interface, where you tap pulsating circles, watch a brief cinematic animation, and wind up where you tapped. At each stop you can look around, but you can never move anywhere but to the next waypoint. When an enemy appears, you can inspect them with a button in the bottom right corner of the screen, or tap them to fight them, which is when the real fun begins.

Infinity Blade is a game of technique more than anything else. Looking at the combat at its most basic level, you're able to swing your sword by swiping, block by tapping the block button in the bottom center of the screen, or dodge either direction by tapping the bottom right or left sides of the screen. Sure, you can randomly block, dodge, and swing wildly, but doing well really involves putting all these moves together to avoid taking any damage while dishing as much out as you can.

My favorite part of the combat system is parrying. When fighting enemies, you're able to parry attacks by swinging your sword in the direction to collide with the incoming strike. It's not that simple though, as different enemies all have different attack speeds, as well as different attacks which might be faster or slower. An immense amount of timing is required to successfully parry, especially as you progress in the game. For instance, you might be fighting an enemy who is winding up a slow but extremely powerful attack. If you swing your sword too soon, you'll just scratch the enemy. Too late, and you'll have already taken it to the face. Dodging works much the same way.

The truly neat part of all this is just how well the animation of your character translates to each swipe on the screen. If you swipe right, your character swings right, swipe left, and he swings left, and so on. What you begin to realize once you get farther in to the game is just how exact and deliberate each swipe needs to be. There isn't any way to cancel your current swing once you swipe on the screen, so swiping in the wrong direction or at the wrong time can leave you open for attack for the entire duration of the swing animation. It all works incredibly well, and is just ridiculously cool once you begin to grasp these kind of nuances.

Once you successfully progress through the castle, which will likely only take you around a half hour of solid play, you'll be face to face with the God King again. It seems like with perfect technique, beating the God King might be possible on your first play through, but it seems far outside my ability. Inevitably, you will die, which just like the beginning of the game leads to your essence being sucked out. Thankfully, the God King is a good sport, and seemingly allows your next of kin to retrieve your corpse, all your gear, and any experience you've accumulated.

After that, the next bloodline begins, with the successor of the previous victim of the God King overlooking the castle ready to try again. Why the God King keeps giving your loot to your predecessor and why your family doesn't just decide that killing God Kings just isn't for them isn't ever explained. If you don't kill the God King, you can send generation after generation of your bloodline to their death. Maybe I'm too much of a pacifist, but if I had heard that my great grandpa, my grandpa, and my Dad were all killed by the same God King, I'd explore a career in something other than revenge, but I digress.

The way the equipment, experience, and magic system works in Infinity Blade is awesome. You earn experience through items, and as you fight, items are filled with experience until they're mastered. For example, you buy a new sword from the in-game store with your gold coins that looks really cool. That sword has its own experience bar, and it gains a bit of experience after each battle. Any experience it earns, you also earn, and your character also has his own experience bar for leveling up. Once you fight enough with that sword to fill its experience bar, you master it. Mastered items provide an additional bonus, with the drawback that you can no longer gain experience through that item.

This requires you to balance your equipment load-out based on several factors. Obviously, experience is required to level up your character. Using all mastered items, or more than a few, flat-out stops or greatly reduces the amount of experience you're able to earn. If you've got a difficult battle coming up, you could equip all your mastered items to be more effective, but you'd be sacrificing all the experience you'd earn from the fight. Additionally, items have elemental properties to them for casting magic spells such as a fire spell, a lightning spell, and more. These are executed by tapping an icon when it's ready in the top right corner of the screen, then drawing the spell's gesture on the screen.

The equipment system adds a really great element of replay value to the game. While the looping nature of the game is a little silly, the RPG-loving experience bar filling side of me absolutely loves how you're constantly cycling new gear, leveling that gear up, and equipping something new. With each play through as your strength increases, so do the enemies you're fighting, and the rewards you're given.

If you were expecting Infinity Blade to be some massive open-world RPG and any number of other things I've seen people on our forums suggesting, you're going to be sorely disappointed. If all you were looking for is a fighting game with a really cool input method that fits perfectly with iOS devices, you're going to be in for a treat. The RPG elements are very light, but the fighting is solid, and the graphics are the best we've seen so far on the App Store. Infinity Blade is universal, and seems to play equally well on both the small screen of the iPhone and the big screen of the iPad. I cannot stress enough just how great the graphics in this game are. The bar has been raised, and anyone with a device capable of running the game needs to download Infinity Blade to see what the iOS platform is capable of.

Alright Street Fighter fans, you've spoken loud and clear and Capcom has heeded your cries. Last month, we posted about the latest update to Street Fighter IV [$9.99] for iPhone. In this update, a brand new multiplayer mode was added that will auto-connect players into a match via Bluetooth if they are within range of each other. Also, two new playable characters were added to the roster of fighters, Sagat and Dee Jay. This is nothing new by now, as Street Fighter IV has been one of the most well supported titles in the App Store with a ton of new content and characters added in updates since the game was initially released last March.

Something was different about this last update though. Sagat was available right out of the gate, but in order to unlock Dee Jay one would have had to engage in 3 Bluetooth multiplayer matches with another device owner who also had the game. This made sense from the developer's perspective, as they had just come out with an interesting new multiplayer mode and would like to entice players to check it out by rewarding them with a character for doing so. The problem though is that many players in our forums and elsewhere didn't know anybody else with an iOS device, or if they did those people weren't avid gamers who owned a copy of Street Fighter IV. This left people frustrated as they had no way of unlocking Dee Jay, unless they happened to own multiple devices and could play versus matches against themselves (which is exactly how I ended up unlocking him).

Well, this is a problem no more, as the update released earlier today addresses this issue by allowing Dee Jay to be unlocked by beating Tournament Mode with every character or by the 3 versus matches requirement. Now, this isn't exactly a cake walk either, as it will take a significant amount of time to work through Tournament Mode with everyone. And I know what you're thinking, you clever player - that you will just change the round count to 1 to speed up the process. But not so fast, as Capcom figured you would try some shenanigans like that and requires that you keep the round count at 3 in order to unlock Dee Jay. At any rate, it's nice to know that even if it takes a little effort, you can now play as Dee Jay without relying on interacting with other human beings. If you have yet to unlock Dee Jay, make sure to grab the latest update for Street Fighter IV and hop into Tournament Mode to get started.