When I think about possible themes for tower defense games, a tale about space pirates attacking a futuristic Earth in search of highly sought after ‘Spice’ is probably the last thing I’d think of. Yet, that’s exactly the premise of Spice Invaders [Free], a new freemium title from Chillingo. While the game itself is a nice take on tower defense, the bulk of the conversation unfortunately turns to its freemium elements which distract greatly from the actual game.

As a tower defense game, Spice Invaders plays similarly to Fieldrunners [$2.99 / HD]. Players are charged with defending one (or more) bases in open-field maps. Enemies come in waves from a variety of different entrances, forcing you to build towers in such a way as to prevent them from taking out your base. Since the maps are open (with some featuring random barriers littered throughout the map), you can do this by surrounding your base, forcing the baddies into long paths made of towers, and so on.

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I avoided the movie Snakes on a Plane because the premise of reptiles causing an aerial ruckus seemed a little lame. So my expectations were equally low for Gorilla Gondola [$1.99], a game about a silverback gorilla who's riding on the roof of a moving gondola. But fortunately it turns out this debut iOS release from UK developers Electric Pixel Factory is pretty entertaining.

The word "Gondola" has a few different meanings. To clarify, this gorilla is not riding on a flat-bottomed boat in Italy or an open railway freight wagon (that would be ridiculous). It's actually  standing on top of a ski-gondola on a cable, which moves along automatically. By swiping up or down with your finger, the Gorilla jumps or stomps. The further and faster you swipe, the stronger it's movements, causing the ski-lift to rise and fall.

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When Apple announced, four years ago, that they would be releasing an iPhone SDK (for free) and opening an App Store where developers far and wide could peddle their creations, it became immediately clear to us that iOS (née iPhone) gaming was going to be huge. As developers jumped on board and began crafting titles for the platform, many noted that a game creation environment emerged that harkened back to the early-'80s home computer days when a single developer could sit down with an idea, bang out some code, and sell his game at the store down the block -- a floppy wrapped up nicely in a zip-lock bag. The barrier to entry was, again, nil.

Plenty of major studios began porting iOS versions of their large console titles over, sure, but it's really been the wonderful indie developers out there, following that development model of olde, that have contributed most of what's really special to iOS gaming. It's also worth noting that a great many of the true App Store gems adhere to the gameplay model that was the standard back in those early days of video games, both in the home and in the arcade: simple gameplay that's instantly engaging, delivering "just one more game" fun in short play-sessions. They really knew how to do it way back when -- fields of encroaching Asteroids, a furiously barreling Centipede, the quick thinking demanded of a Missile Commander, and the battle with gravity that is Gravitar. Wonderful stuff.

I'm thrilled to report that something incredible has just been revealed that stands to generate gameplay opportunities for iOS gamers that marry that white-knuckle gaming excellence of decades past with the here and now of a particular mobile gaming platform. In perhaps the biggest news ever to come out of an iOS game studio, Seamus Blackley, co-creator of the Xbox, has formed the startup Innovative Leisure and has pulled together a team of famous designers from the Atari of the '70s and '80s to create original, new games for the "new arcade," which is this team's term for the iOS platform.

The veteran Atari developers in question, or "Jedi Council," includes Ed Rotberg, creator of Battlezone; Owen Rubin, creator of Major Havoc and Space Duel; Rich Adam, creator of Gravitar and co-developer of Missile Command; Ed Logg, co-creator of Asteroids and Centipede; Dennis Koble, creator of Touch Me and Shooting Gallery; Bruce Merrit, creator of Black Widow; and Tim Skelly (of Cinematronics, not Atari), creator of Rip-Off. In all, 11 developers of olde, along with several young interns, make up the group. "This is the dream team from Atari," says Blackley.

As Blackley told VentureBeat,

“We had that big collection of games, and we love the history of game design,” Blackley said. “I’m lucky because I love games and following that love has always done me well. Once we figured out the iPhone is the new arcade, that games from the old days fit this new audience and their on-the-go lifestyle, we knew what to do. There is already a group of people who know how to operate and innovate in this space. They had the longest string of hit games in history. And they wanted to get back together again.”

Blackley's partner in the venture, chief executive Van Burnham, came to know many of the early Atari game designers in writing her 2003 book Supercade: A Visual History of the Videogame Age 1971-1984. She introduced them to Blackley, and the like-minded group formed a close relationship. During this time, Blackley and Burnham created their own arcade in an LA warehouse, which they called the "Supercade," filled with rows and rows of vintage cabinets, gathered to illustrate the history of gameplay, as viewed by its curators. And, it is within this arcade in LA that the team of designers will work together on their new iOS creations, so as to gather inspiration by the games that surround them.

To start, the team came up with 30 game ideas in all, narrowed the list down to the 10 best, and pitched them to the publishing house THQ, who indicated they wanted them all. Right now, seven of the titles are in development. (THQ has first right of refusal on all of the team's titles, in exchange for funding, but Blackley indicates he can shop around any ideas the publisher dismisses.)

As a particular retro game lover -- and lover of those titles that stay close to that lean formula of decades past -- this news excites me in ways not easy to express. And, I have a feeling I won't be the only one whose hair stood up on the back of their neck in hearing it. Rest assured we will bring full coverage of any and all news out of Innovative Leisure, including further details the team will be sharing at next week's DICE Summit in Las Vegas.

Read the full interview story over at VentureBeat, and the photo gallery at Time is worth a look.

We've been following Crescent Moon's Raid Leader for what feels like way too long now. I've found myself saying for the past year how much I wish Battleheart was fleshed out into a larger game, as saying that Battleheart left me wanting more would be the largest understatement of 2011. We've covered how Raid Leader works in our preview:

In Raid Leader, you'll be taking a knight, a mage, and an archer, against a variety of damage-eating, MMO-like bosses that all appear to have special mechanical hooks. For example, there's a yeti-like monster with a freeze spell that turns its target into a block of ice. In order to break out, you'll have to tap on the screen. There's also a worm that, much to the archer and mage's chagrin, spawns mobs of life-sucking blood leaches all over the battlefield.

Now you can see all this in action in the recently released trailer:

Per the trailer, it's on track for a release next week. Stay tuned for a full review once the game actually hits.

Heads up: Limbic Software is continuing to build on Zombie Gunship [$.99] with the release of a third residential expansion this afternoon. The expectation is that it'll expand on the fiction like the others, and hey, presumably give us another bodacious zombie-popping romp in the process, too. You can grab it now for the delicious price of $0.

Zombie Gunship is a little old by App Store standards, so here's a little refresher for your mushy stuff. From our review:

If you've played Call of Duty, you may remember the levels where you fly in an AC-130 and target the enemies below in a fantastic display of aerial firepower. Well, Zombie Gunship is based on that idea.

In the game, you look down over an apocalyptic landscape and wait for enemies to appear on your radar. Suddenly, a solitary human figure rushes from the shadows, trying to escape from hoards of brain-loving zombies. This is where you step in to save the day. You must shoot the zombies below, before they eat the few remaining humans or reach the bunker. If one lifeless zombie reaches the bunker, it seals itself to avoid being breached and your mission is over.

We're still loving this game, and judging from the response on the game's Facebook page, it looks like its followers aren't anywhere close to being done with it, either. That's good. If the title continues to thrive, we'll probably keep getting new content, too. Screens of the latest just below, by the way:

If you wanted a leg up in Call of Duty: Black Ops Zombies [$6.99], Activision has your back. In an update that hit yesterday, the publisher has added a new in-game "Points Pack system" that allows users to purchase the game's currency for real money. There's a total of six tiers to choose from, ranging in price from $.99 to $49.99. The former gives you 12,000 points to play with, while the latter dishes out an astounding 2,000,000.

More interestingly, this update rolls in a couple of new weapons -- the Ray Gun and "the zombie-attracting" Monkey Bomb. Both hit at no-cost after updating, which happens to be the same offering price for all the update's nebulous bug fixes and optimizations. Content is something we've noted that Black Ops Zombies needs, so these weapons are certainly a welcome sight. Hopefully new, wholly original and game-specific maps are hitting soon, too.

Did you know that Blackish Games's New Orbit [$.99] is cheaper than usual? It is. Since late this past January, the horror sci-fi title has been available at $.99 instead of its usual $2.99. It's a good price, too: New Orbit is a solid, story-driven game that has some really sharp gravitational / orbital mechanics wrapped up in its Asteroids-inspired, but less frenzied shell.

At $.99, we think you should give it a try. Our users raved about the game after its initial debut, and still seemed high on it even after finishing. Check out what they had to say before making a purchase, or hey, watch this teaser trailer:

[Via @SteveStreza]

We first checked out Liv Games over a year ago with Legendary Wars [$0.99 / HD], a great take on castle defense. Now the developers are back with Monster Wars [$0.99], the latest addition to the genre. Billed as a ‘follow-up’ to their previous game, Monster Wars succeeds at preserving the same great gameplay of its predecessor while tweaking elements and offering a new story complete with a load of new units.

For folks that played Legendary Wars, Monster Wars will feel very familiar. The majority of campaign missions still feature the same castle defense-style gameplay where you collect resources, build units, defend your own castle from the opposition while simultaneously moving forward attack units to take out the opposing fortress.

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We've had our eye on Tweet Land [$1.99] from Why Ideas ever since we spotted it as a curious Kickstarter project back in April of last year. The project was more than sufficiently funded, and last month we were treated to a new trailer and news that Tweet Land would be hitting at the end of January. As expected, earlier this week the game finally went live in the App Store.

Tweet Land was intriguing due to its unique real-time usage of tweets drawn from Twitter that would trigger elements into the game. It reaches out into the vast ocean of Twitter and utilizes special keywords from real tweets to create things in the game. It's a fantastic idea in theory, and Why Ideas did pull it off on a functional level just as they had promised. However, despite being really innovative, Tweet Land doesn't hold up as well in the gameplay department, and there were a couple of unintended side effects of using live tweets that left a sour taste in my mouth.

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Ticket to Ride Pocket [$1.99], the iPhone and iPod Touch-specific version of the wonderful board game translation, has received a huge update. Starting now, users can now rock out online for the first time in a new asynchronous mode that allows up to four games per user. Less excitingly, local play has received a few tweaks: games no longer just quit out whenever there's a disconnect, and an AI or two can now join in on the fun.

The patch notes also mention a lot of bug fixes, including memory leaks. Hit those up if you are really, really into the nitty-gritty of a splendidly comprehensive patch that adds functionality that we've all been waiting for. Here's to hoping Pocket gets all of the maps in the iPad version down the line, too.

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I love Halfbrick's Jetpack Joyride [Free], and if you like good iOS games, chances are you like Jetpack Joyride too. In fact, I'd like even more Jetpack Joyride, which, oddly enough, is where Big Pixel Studios' Off The Leash [Free] comes in. You're likely thinking to yourself, "But it seems obvious from the name alone that Off The Leash has to do with dogs, what does Jetpack Joyride have to do with anything?" I'll explain.

You know how we raved about Jetpack Joyride's mission system, its hefty in-game store full of customizables, and other single-user consumable perks? Well, Off The Leash does an incredible job of utilizing incredibly similar underlying systems to keep you playing game after game while feeling entirely new and fresh. In fact, in light of the recent NimbleBit cloning drama in the past week, it's seems particularly important to tip our hats at games like Off The Leash that utilize these mechanics that work so well, but only as part of building an entirely new game experience.

In Off The Leash you initially control a single dog. It almost has a Mega Jump [Free] feel to it in that coins are everywhere, and you tilt your device to move your dog around to collect them. There's also food to eat, and various power-ups to snag.

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After spending some quality time with a preview version of Int13’s new bullet hell shooter Shogun: Rise of the Renegade [Free] last week, we were eager to get our hands on the final version to see how it all came together. And sure enough, earlier this week Shogun quietly snuck into the App Store.

It was interesting that Int13 was departing from their typical augmented reality based games, like ARDefender [Free], and trying their hand at an established and nuanced genre like arcade-style manic shoot ‘em ups, especially with veteran shmup developer Cave basically cornering the market with their stable of high-quality ports. However, Int13 has surprised me with just how right they got Shogun, and while it might fail to totally impress the more discerning bullet hell enthusiast, fans of shmups in general will find a lot of action and fun brimming from the game.

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Sissel has a lot of problems, but the least of  them is that he's dead. Well, not dead-dead, but dead. I'll explain: Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective [Free] is all about what Sissel has gained in the afterlife. Like a common ghoul, this guy can rattle mundane objects, activate levers and buttons, and possess stuff. He can also decidedly un-ghoulishly rewind time, which is a trick that comes in pretty handy; a lot of the people he knows tend to die, and he needs these people to help him with his biggest problem: memory loss.

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

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It's Wednesday again, and if you've been reading TouchArcade for any more than a week you'll likely know what that means: Game releases, and lots of them. This got me thinking, surely everyone has heard the old nursery rhyme Monday's Child, right? That's something they still tell kids these days, isn't it?

I think this should be revised, as Wednesday's child is now full of iOS games, which I'd say is the exact opposite of woe. Or, maybe the reason Wednesday's child is woeful is because on that particular Wednesday there was a game that cost more than 99¢? The world may never know.

What does this have to do with anything? I don't know, the brutal truth is I just need enough text to make this image I embedded look right. Now, enough breaking the third wall and on with the games!

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I like to imagine there's an Oberlin burnout somewhere who's made a living getting bent on ayahuasca and pitching music-history based games to different companies. My hypothetical game designer, wide-eyed and euphoric, is responsible for games like Boom Boom Rocket, Eternal Sonata, Jazz: Trump's Journey [$2.99], and now Frederic --Resurrection of Music [$1.99/HD/Lite], by Forever Entertainment S.A.

In the first scene, set in present-day Paris, Fryderyk Chopin climbs out of his grave, speaks with the Muses, and rap-battles a French DJ with dual-wield keyboards and a jetpack. After this, he rides a horse-and-carriage to Jamaica and gets high with a reggae artist named Rob. Amazing.

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