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

Dariusburst SP on iOS is mostly based on the PSP version, but with some nice iOS-specific enhancements. It features the entire PSP campaign, an additional playable ship named Assault as well as two boss battles from the arcade version, an SP Mode with remixed enemy patterns and boss encounters, and some brand new music. Plus, it's crazy customizable, with several options for screen position and size, the ability to reposition the virtual buttons, options to adjust the amount of lives and continues, and 3 difficulty modes.

I've spent a good amount of time with Dariusburst SP already and I'm totally digging it. The controls are tight, and there's a cool upgrade system as well as a burst special weapon which can be used to counteract enemy fire and boost up your scores. There's four different ships (two unlockable) and a branching level progression that lets you choose which path to take à la OutRun or Taito's own Bust-a-Move games.

But really, it's all about the graphics. The graphics in Dariusburst SP are bananas. The frame rate is silky smooth, and the 3D backgrounds are whizzing by while moving in all sorts of directions. It makes you feel like you're moving really fast, and enemies often appear from the foreground or background, adding a feeling of depth to the levels. Boss characters fill the screen with their size, and are intricately designed and equipped with heavy firepower. Everything is crisp and high resolution, and along with the buttery frame rate it makes for an especially attractive game.

We're gonna spend some quality time learning the intricacies of Dariusburst SP, and will report back soon with a full review. My gut instinct so far though is that if you're into shooters you won't want to miss this. I know Taito has you nervous because they released RayForce for $11.99 last month. Personally, I totally love that game and didn't mind dropping the coin, but I could see how a fairly straight port of a nearly 20 year old game with very little enhancements might not be something everybody wants to pay at the higher end of App Store pricing for.

However, this isn't that. This is a full blown PSP game that was previously only available in Japan, with enhanced visuals and additional features for iOS. This is the sort of release that we shouldn't mind paying the extra money for. You can find more player impressions in our forums as we get back to diving into the nitty gritty of Dariusburst SP.

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:

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.

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.

The very first thing that pops out at you about Shogun are its graphics. The environments are done up in 3D and give off a great feeling of depth as you’re scrolling by in your ship. It’s also Retina Display ready, meaning it’s razor sharp. Enemies are your standard alien-type of spacecrafts, and there are some rather interestingly designed mid-boss and end-boss fights that will give you a run for your money in terms of challenge. On the whole, gameplay in Shogun doesn’t divert too far from your typical bullet-hell shooter formula, but it executes the components of that formula extremely well.

However, Shogun does show some more innovative signs in a couple of areas. One is the method in which you change your weapons. Your ship comes with 3 weapon types: spread shot, laser, and homing. Whenever you lift your finger off the screen, the game slows down bullet-time style and a small menu pops up above your ship that lets you choose from the 3 weapon types, as well as trigger a screen-clearing EMP or choose to add small wingman ships for added firepower. It’s nice that the action slows down to allow you to concentrate on what weapon you need to pick, but you can still take damage in this mode so you’ll still need to stay alert.

The other thing in Shogun that I found very interesting is the system for filling and using your shield meter. You have the ability to scrape bullets that pass you by, which basically means getting your ship extremely close to them without actually getting hit. With each consecutive bullet you scrape, you build a multiplier, and this adds to your shield meter above which can go past the 100% full mark. Every time you fill up your life meter completely, it fills one of the 6 reserve tanks above the meter.

Now, these reserve tanks can be used for various things, like setting off the aforementioned EMP blast or adding one or more sets of the satellite helper ships to your own ship (which VASTLY increases your firepower, I might add). Also, when you do get hit by enemy fire, the game will automatically clear the screen of bullets and shield you for a brief moment while giving you a refilled meter, but it will cost you one of your reserves.

The scraping and usage of reserve tanks aren't totally new ideas in the shmup world, but they're done well and add a ton of strategy to how you go about being the most effective in Shogun. It’s in your benefit to scrape as much as possible and always strive to keep your reserves well stocked for particularly challenging sections and boss battles. But, you can’t concentrate too hard on just scraping, as inevitably that will lead you to take damage if you aren’t paying enough attention to killing the enemies as well.

While the graphics are gorgeous and the underlying mechanics are sound, about the only thing I don’t like about Shogun is that it’s pretty short. Featuring just 4 levels to play through, it comes to an end pretty quickly, but it’s a satisfying and challenging ride while it lasts. The pay model is also pretty accommodating, allowing you to download and play through the entire first level for free. The remaining 3 levels are accessible as well, but you can only play them for a brief minute – just long enough to get a taste. Each full level is then unlockable separately for 99¢ each, or $1.99 to unlock them all at once.

As a big fan of Cave’s shooters, I find it hard to really get into most of the other shooters on the App Store. They really did set the bar that high. But Shogun is a game that instantly drew me in with its visuals, and then backed it up with a ton of solid action. It even Universal and has iCade support, to truly complete the arcade experience. As a free download, there’s really no reason not to give Shogun a try for yourself.

There's some content mixed into this update, too -- specifically, an all new map called "Coldshot" has been added to the multiplayer rotation. In celebration of all of this, Warm Gun's price has been dropped to $1.99 until the end of this month. But regardless of price, you definitely want to check in with our forums before diving into this one. You know, just to be safe.

We've spent a few minutes with each and can happily report that they are, indeed, levels that have been added to RAGE HD. One thing we didn't expect, though, is to be floored all over again by this game's look. Goodness, it's gorgeous. Get the same feeling below by glancing at some of the new levels:

In brief, the update rolls in an "ultra difficulty" mode that introduces harder to kill dudes as well as "trickier enemy variants." It also adds some needed visual tweaks that show off your robot's armor and weaponry and introduces new story content via new in-game pick-ups. Uppercut has updated the game's trailer to reflect all of this, so check it out if you don't dig the word picture we're painting you. Lookin' good!

It ain't going to be easy. It's the apocalypse, man; Z-Day. The dead have risen and are roving anxiously. Some are even armed or armored. These aren't your typical slow-walking types of creeps, either. In my short preview session, I met runners as well as amblers, and even had the pleasure of running into one or two seriously hopped up bullet-sponges.

Zombies are bad and all, but SKS heightens the tension with a few tried and true old-school survival game mechanics and systems. As you'd expect, the dreary adventure begins at night. The darkness seriously puts a limit your situational awareness, while the lack of everyday sound ratchets up your ability to hear the undead's footfalls. When you get hurt, your vision is also obscured by a layer of crimson.

Also, like an old-school Resident Evil or Silent Hill, bullets are few and the camera perspective is restricted. In this specifically, you'll be dealing with an over the top camera that successfully limits how you move and react to threats. But it's not like you can shoot your way through everything, anyway. You'll need to know when and how to run.

One of the more interesting things about End Night is its world; it's open, but isolated to a small, hole-in-the-wall town. There's a lot of commercial real estate to liberate, as well as a police station to pilfer for supplies like ammo and armor. The walking dead spawn randomly throughout the environment, and as you close in on the vaccine, they also start spawning more frequently. It gets tough, fast.

A fair amount of the game's buildings carry a core component for the cure being worked on back at the lab. You'll need to hull back a vial of some anti-zombie juice every time you find one, which makes the experience fairly fetch-quest-y. These houses also have, for a reason I can't explain, documentation that feeds into an experience points system.

I think that's the other really interesting thing, by the way. Like Infinity Blade, End Night is meant to be played several times. Whenever you meet an untimely death, you'll be prompted to start over from the beginning and then use the experience points you just gained to pump up the marine guy for another go.

I spoke with one of the devs behind the project to get a better sense of what you'll be able to upgrade by playing through multiple times. Spoiler: your guy will get better at smashing zombies, provided you're using the stuff you upgrade.

"One of the most useful upgrades is for pistol accuracy, which drastically increases the chance of getting headshots, and is especially helpful towards the end of the game with lots of fast moving armored enemies," a representative told me.

"Other upgrades such as Armor effectiveness allow your armor take more hits before being destroyed. Upgrading your shotgun allows you to blow enemies apart even from far away, while the health increase means you'll be able to take a lot more hits before dying."

At the beginning of the game, you'll get to choose one of three starting weapons: a pistol, a shotgun, or a fireman's axe. Tools of the trade, right?

The town might be dangerous, but one of the hardest enemies I've come across is my own guy. If you get cut up too bad, you'll need to search around for medical supplies and clean the infected blood off your body. To do the latter, you'll need to find a tub. If you end up killing too many zombies, you'll need to wash away the remorse with booze or bible pick-up items.

In my experience, some of the game's most heart-pumping moments are spent in bathrooms; as you clean your wounds undead can stumble through the door, which leaves you little time to adjust to the conflict. This is some pretty feral stuff, but that first the vibe of the world; there's a lot of undead and they all want you to join in on the party.

Technically, I think you'll enjoy this. It's 3D all the way -- even though you won't get a great sense of this courtesy the camera -- and it has some decent assets to boot. The controls, which are your usual virtual array of bits and bobs, respond well enough. You'll want to be sitting down to play, though, as this definitely isn't an on-the-go kind of joint.

I think the camera and the leveling systems are going to be the biggest hurdles for people. I gave up arguing that survival-horror games' cameras are poorly designed. A restricted perspective never gives me any pleasure, but I suppose the tension that it artificially stirs up is a valid plus. As for the rinse-and-repeat nature of the game, it's just personal preference. If you like this stuff, you'll dig this.

On the other hand, the open-world and the fetch-quest model provide some of the most satisfying stuff. Runs feel epic, if not downright dangerous, so getting back in one piece is powerfully redeeming. The weight and feel of weapons is satisfying, too, and the world has a lot of stuff to explore and discover.

End Night is in submission, so we should see it at some point this February. As of right now, it's slated to hit the iPad exclusively at $2.99. An iPhone version might follow at some point down the road.

Zombie Wonderland 2: Outta Time!

Here, in this goofy little defense/time-management/real-time strategy title, you'll have the dubious pleasure of playing as the redneck stereotype Chuck. Being the responsible Zombie Cleaner (and someone totally oblivious to the idea of job security) that he is, Chuck will stop at nothing to rid the world of the cannibalistic undead.

As you might have guessed, this isn't a particularly easy task. You're going to have to do everything from bringing a vegetarian vampire his lactose-rich treat to protecting pet goldfish in Medieval Japan.

Silly, eh? If that description hasn't scared you off just yet, this might spell the beginning of a wonderful friendship. Much like the story itself, Zombie Wonderland 2 is a fair bit of mindless fun, the kind that can easily rob you of a few hours of your time. If what you want is a simple, silly hybrid of the aforementioned genres, stop reading and go download it already.

However, if you're an Apple App Store connoisseur, this may be where you sit down and ponder the direction of your dollar a bit more. Like a serving of fast food, Zombie Wonderland 2 is both satisfying and unfulfilling all at the same time.

Gameplay here is relatively straightforward. Each stage consists of you being told to defend a certain item from zombies for a number of nights. Of course, as a Zombie Cleaner, you're also going to have to do your best to ensure that there is no unnecessary gunk on the floors at the end of the night, something easier said than done.

To accomplish this, you're going to have to make use of your trusty shotgun 'Betsy', cleaning implements, turrets, wooden planks, unusual bullets and a peculiar assortment of limited-use weapons. Controls are exceedingly simple. To attack a zombie, you touch it with a finger. To board up a window, you tap it with a finger. To summon your infant Death Worm, you - you get the picture.

Sadly, though, it isn't quite as exciting as it sounds. Your nightly escapades will mostly consist of you boarding up windows and playing 'whack-a-mole' with the festering onslaught. Regardless of how many you purchase, you'll only get access to one turret at a time. One. Uno. Satu.

To make things even worse, your turrets are about as impervious to zombie attacks as cookies are to the Cookie Monster. More often than not, you'll find yourself attempting to fix it while corralling flaming cadavers. It's the same with the limited-use weapons and the various bullet types. Sure, you might have a dozen but you'll ever get to use one variety at a time.

All said and done, however, Zombie Wonderland 2 is still an enjoyable piece of work. The over-the-top silliness and the bright, colorful graphics feel reminiscent of an old Saturday morning cartoon. The game's just difficult enough to make it challenging and simple enough to engage in without requiring too much of a forethought.

Now it's once again been resurrected yet again as RayForce [$11.99] for iOS devices, and is now available.

Taito is touting this as a pixel-perfect adaptation of the arcade original, which while being true to the original also looks like it hasn't been enhanced visually for the much more advanced iOS hardware. However, it does feature original arcade controls for purists as well as an easier iPhone control mode made specifically for the touch screen. Also, there are plenty of customization options so you can suit the play to your own particular style, and there is full Game Center support for leaderboards and achievements.

Since I never played much of the original RayForce back in the day, I'm really stoked to be able to finally give it some proper attention on my iPhone nearly 20 years later. Also, it will be interesting to see if Taito will bring the next installments in this trilogy, RayStorm and RayCrisis, to the App Store as well. As we dig into RayForce to see what it's all about, you can grab the game with the link below or check out some player impressions which are trickling into our forums.

In case you have no idea what I’m talking about, both games send you into a universe in your dreams and challenge you to navigate it. In Sleepy Jack, you play Jack, a darling boy who is hurtling through a nighttime world at top speed and needs your assistance to proceed. To help him explore worlds of space, desert and the deep sea, you’ll need to arm your trusty pistol and get your dodging skills ready.

Sleepy Jack runs you through each level on rails, so all you’ll need to be responsible for is moving left and right and shooting your weapon. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? It can be at first, but as the levels become more complex you may find that it requires some real skill to execute those moves and keep from getting hit. While it’s no bullet hell, it certainly does pose a challenge (but if you find it too much you can always adjust the difficulty – easy, medium and hard are all there).

Each level features both Zs to collect (which keep you asleep), obstacles to avoid and rings to aim for in order to collect bonuses. The button you touch to move left and right requires an extra tap in order to do a move called a “barrel roll,” which leaves you momentarily invincible to enemy fire.

This would ultimately be a very useful move, if it was as accurate as I needed it to be. Unfortunately, I often found myself trying to use it and finding it responded just a millisecond too slowly for me, and I would get hit rather than evading a bullet. Perhaps it simply needs more practice to master the timing, but overall I wish this button were more sensitive.

It is worth noting, on this point, that Sleepy Jack features three different control schemes. The one mentioned above is the Classic one, but there is also one called Slider that allows you to simply swipe at the screen with your finger to move Jack around and swipe a bit wider for the barrel roll. Personally I had more luck with this set of controls than the Classic set, and barrel rolls were easier. A third option is called Accelerometer and allows you to tilt the phone to move Jack and press buttons on the side for rolling.

Each area offers ten levels, with a boss waiting for you at the end. Each of these levels is well designed and beautifully presented – in fact, the entire game has a whimsical and charming look you will enjoy. Even the music is nice, and if you navigate each level successfully, you’ll be treated to a nice little graphic of Jack sleeping peacefully in his bed nestled in dreams.

There’s definitely replay value here, with a star rating for each level and a nice list of achievements to unlock.  It’s also enabled for use with Openfeint and GameCenter, so you can get your share on in those forums if you so desire.

Sleepy Jack was, overall, a sweet gaming experience that I think other shooter fans would enjoy. I loved the change in perspective from average shooters and the Pixar look of the game’s characters and settings. This particular execution of the formula came off as pretty unique, and I caught myself thinking about how I could improve on certain levels after I completed it. Guess I’m going back for more – which is the best compliment any game can hope to hear.

In our preview last week there were just screenshots for Star Marine, but Glitchsoft has just released a trailer for the game so you can get an idea of what it looks like in action.

From the trailer, a few things stick out at me as looking particularly awesome. It appears there are quite a few weapons to use, including one that looks a lot like the infamous spread gun from Contra. Also, I really like some of the enemies that are absolutely humongous, sometimes filling up the entire screen. Finally, Star Marine incorporates a feature that slows down your descent when you're falling through the air, giving you a better opportunity to lay waste to the enemies on the screen. I imagine this coupled with the dual-stick controls will allow a game like Star Marine to be quite playable with a touch screen.

Star Marine: Infinite Ammo is scheduled for a release this week, and we'll be looking to get our hands on the title to see just how well it turned out when it hits the App Store.

Wizard Ops

Wizard Ops has you playing the role of a fire mage once part of an elite group of wizards that served the royalty of the kingdom. After the queen dies in an accident, the king irrationally imprisons the wizards in dungeons throughout the land. When the king’s daughter is subsequently kidnapped, he reluctantly releases you and charges you with freeing your brethren and taking down the enemy forces that hold the princess captive.

As a fire wizard, your weapon arsenal includes a multitude of fire spells that shoot projectiles. In addition, destroying enemies and bosses occasionally yield additional weapons which can then be purchased in the in-game store. While Wizard Ops has a decent selection of weapons (18 in all), a lot of them follow the same ‘fire magic’ motif and don’t offer much difference other than fire rate and projectile spread. Still, there’s enough variety to provide players with different strategies for taking on the opposition.

The most enjoyable part of Wizard Ops is the fast-paced nature of its gameplay. It plays very similarly to the classic Space Harrier series and retains that sense of speed. The entire game is controlled by just simple swipes, with movement, aiming and shooting being linked. While the obvious goal is to take out as many enemies as you can, you’re going to find that a lot of the gameplay involves dodging the large amount of hazards and projectiles being thrown at you. Some of the later levels up the ante and have you dodging and feinting across the entire screen just to stay alive. It’s fast, frenetic and a joy to play if you’re a fan of twitch-based gameplay.

Special mention should be given to the sound effects in Wizard Ops, which were created by Michael Winslow of Police Academy fame. The game’s thread has a neat video showcasing some of the sound recordings and I’d recommend checking it out. From a gaming perspective the sound effects sound like, well, sound effects. There’s nothing particularly groundbreaking about them but I will admit that I did enjoy the nostalgia trip, as Winslow’s style is very much apparent.

Unfortunately, Wizard Ops has a few annoying problems that detract from the overall experience. First, I experienced several crashes that would occur while either pausing the game during a level or while trying to check out the store after completing one. While I don’t find the occasional crash a big deal, there was one instance where I had lost all the progress I made on the last level I completed. Another issue is in regards to the visuals. Since enemies and projectiles appear to be coming right at you, it can be somewhat hard to figure out just how far away the projectiles are from hitting you. However, this is just a byproduct of the sort of 3D shooter that it is, so I can’t fault the game itself too much for that.

The biggest disappointment I have with Wizard Ops is just how short it is. The entire game encompasses six normal missions, a tutorial level, and a final mission which doubles as a general ‘survival’ mode. Each mission can be beaten in about 3 – 4 minutes, meaning that from a content perspective there isn’t much there. Sure, there’s three difficulties (with hard being incredibly tough), and there’s some replayability in regards to collecting coins and trying all the difference weapons, but it just didn’t seem enough to me.

It’s probably because I greatly enjoyed the core gameplay of Wizard Ops that I’m bitter about the lack of content. I want to see more missions, more enemies, and more weapons. Even the overall story just seems to come to a sudden standstill after playing the few levels that the game offers. I want to recommend Wizard Ops for its gameplay, but I can’t ignore the severe lack of content. I’m certain that the developers will be adding more missions and will hopefully flesh out the complete narrative. Nevertheless, folks looking to try it out now may not get the complete experience hoped for.

Gameplay involves piloting your flying saucer to various Earth-based prison barracks, blasting open the doors, picking up your captive crewmates, and dropping them off at the transporter where they're beamed safely back to your alien world.  This is made challenging by evil Earth forces, including tanks, laser turrets, fighter jets, and flying attack drones.

There are a lot of nice touches to the title. The stylized, vector-based 2D graphics lend the game clean, future-retro visuals, with a day-into-night changing skyline that adds nice variation to the scene. A letter-box effect alters the aspect of the play area to provide early warning of incoming enemies. It's extremely well done.

On the iCade, the leftmost six buttons control fire / autofire in the three relevant directions -- left, down, and right. I greatly enjoy Saucelifter! via tilt-control, but I have to say that gameplay on the iCade more closely delivers the kind of fun I remember having in front of Gorlin's helicopter classic, hour after hour, back in 1984. Other iOS controller accessories that feature iCade emulation, such as the iControlPad, should also work fine with Saucelifter.

Those not sold on Saucelifter! should at least have a look at the Lite version [link].

Earlier this October, we brought you a first-word because it looked so darn impressive. Functionally, the game does more than look pretty -- it offers players "a hand-picked selection" of guns, has a ton of carnage, customization, and control schemes, and even gives current Combat Arms Online players free weapons in its combat shop with the redemption of a bonus code. Gotta love tie-ins.