As we pointed out in our preview, the big picture will look familiar to Battleheart [$2.99] fans. But it's the little details that get this recovering World of Warcraft addict's heart a-fluttering. There was a time when damage number spam, health bars and massively telegraphed attacks were my bread and butter, and boy do they come out in force here.

Before I get your hopes up, though, let me be clear. This isn't the next Battleheart, and it's not raiding in World of Warcraft. It's far, far simpler than either. If you're looking for a deeply strategic RTS-RPG, this might be a bit casual for your tastes, but it's a potent combo for those of us nursing fond memories of raiding.

Raid Leader lacks Battleheart's big list of classes, levels and loot. Instead it has bosses, and the three things any proper team needs to defeat them: a tank, a DPS class, and a healer (in the forms of the Knight, Hunter and Priest). Each of them has a bevy of skills to unlock and choose from, and choose you must, because each character can only bring two skills into battle. You might want to deal damage, snare and buff with one character, but you have to pare that down to the skills you really need. That's half the game's strategy right there.

The other half is the battles themselves. There are fifteen levels in total, with 2 arenas, 8 original bosses and a powered-up heroic version of all but the last. These have minions, lasers, death zones and many other familiar tricks, requiring priority targeting, clever positioning and quick reflexes. Lest you think I'm being irresponsible with my WoW comparisons, by the way, one of those bosses is nearly a one-to-one clone of Karsh Steelbender from the most recent expansion. Not that I mind. It just feels a little too much like coming home, if you know what I mean.

Your survival depends on two things: how well you've chosen and upgraded your skills, and how well you can pay attention and perform. It also helps to have a basic understanding of MMORPG-style battles. You'll have an easier time if you already know that the tank should keep the enemies' backs to his team, or when to toss a heal-over-time and switch targets. Admittedly, though, knowing too many tricks takes a little fun out of figuring out the right strategies for each fight, especially when kiting works so effectively.

Because of this, the game sometimes fails to straddle the line between too easy and too hard. Executing a strategy is often fairly simple, because the bosses never have more than three or four plainly timed and well-telegraphed abilities. You'll never have serious trouble figuring out how to handle an encounter when anything tricky is explained on screen.

You'll still run into plenty of difficulty, though. Two things will conspire to stop you no matter how well you can plan. The first is the somewhat-awkward touch controls. Like in Battleheart, you drag one hero to another to heal or attack, and drag your heroes around the screen to move them. Because those two actions are so similar, you may occasionally find the game mixing up your intent. Worse, though, is the way the controls sometimes lead to deaths-by-Notification-Center. Those probably can't be helped, but that doesn't keep them from being frustrating.

The second big roadblock is the enrage timer most bosses sport. This isn't a problem, it's a classic MMORPG mechanic. Three or four minutes into a fight, the boss becomes immensely more powerful. This isn't designed to kill you instantly, but it does keep you from flinging yourself at a boss for ages if you're not powerful enough to defeat it. In Raid Leader, you're not going to run down the clock because you haven't leveled enough or hit the right gear level. Instead, it's your skills that can fall behind.

The three classes each get eight or nine skills to play with. These include a healthy mix of class-appropriate heals, attacks, buffs, debuffs and so on. You can pay out the coins you earn from defeating bosses to upgrade them up to four times each. If you're a better player than I am you might be able to get by with nothing more than the coins you earn from each boss. I rather doubt it, though. It gets seriously tough to pump out enough damage to beat the enrage even when you're doing well. If you hit a wall and decide you need more coins, you have two options: grind or pay.

It's kind of a lame choice. Grinding is actually fun in Raid Leader, but it's hard to turn down the comparatively massive number of coins you can get by putting down an extra dollar or two. If you do, you can earn a decent rate in two arenas fighting waves of minions, or you can replay completed boss fights. You can earn Game Center achievements and leaderboard rank for beating bosses quickly, so this isn't a bad way to go.

I just wish there was more of everything. I want a reason to pull out more skills and level them higher. I'd dread putting hours into WoW at this point, but the few brief hours I put into Raid Leader left me craving a lot more. That's not a bad thing, assuming there's more to come. While we're talking updates, Red Zebra, could you work out the spelling errors and put some clothes on the poor Hunter? She's literally fighting in a bikini. Not even a chainmail bikini, just a few flimsy scraps of nothing.

Raid Leader isn't perfect, and it's not perfectly original. That said, it sure is fun. Any recovering raider will find plenty of great nods and familiar concepts, and anyone who's wondered why folks make such a fuss about raiding will get a low-impact introduction. Drop by our discussion thread to let us know what you think, and point out how much you want more levels while you're there. For me. Because even though I can quit any time, I really don't want to quite yet.

Rebuild

This is easily one of our favorite strategy games on the App Store this side of Civ Rev [$6.99 / HD], and we're stoked that a "maybe" porting scenario as of a couple of months ago has become a reality. If you haven't read anything about Rebuild check out our review. Or just pick it up on the App Store at its sale price of $.99 starting tomorrow through this Sunday.

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.

The campaign also brings back the side-scrolling ‘hack n’ slash’ levels from the previous game (for better or worse). Each successful mission rewards players with coins to spend on unit upgrades, with an occasional soulstone (premium currency that you can also purchase using IAP). Most importantly, the deep character customization also returns, giving gamers a ton of incentive to play the game as much as possible simply to level up your character stats.

Despite these similarities, Monster Wars does tweak some of the gameplay by adding new variations on the types of missions we’ve seen in the past. For example, there are a lot more escort quests that have you guarding a ‘Named’ ally or a catapult as you make your way towards the enemy castle. In the case of the catapult, you have to actually use it to take down supplemental castle defenses before you can even damage it. The side scrolling levels have also seen some additions, with endless runner and other objective-based missions being thrown into the mix. In general, these tweaks don’t really do much to change the core gameplay, but considering how well done it is, I don’t care too much.

While Monster Wars improves upon its predecessor in a variety of different ways, I think the aspect that folks will appreciate the most is the sheer amount of content available. The campaign is huge and takes an investment to complete. If you want to take a break from the main story, the game features several endless modes which put you right into the action for as long as you want. The fact that you earn gems and soulstones, which can be used to improve your units within the campaign, is a nice (and necessary) touch. Finally, once you’ve conquered everything you think Monster Wars has to offer, additional difficulties are ready to challenge you all over again.

Another great way Monster Wars differentiates itself is with the all-new cast of monsters that you command in your army. There are over 15 new creatures, from the lowly Skelly to the awesome Lich, with each offering different attacks, special moves, and stats to improve upon. Each of the base units also allow you to upgrade its tier, giving the unit new stats, a new look, and even occasionally new specials.

There is a ton of variety in Monster Wars, and considering you can only take a certain number of units into battle, there are a lot of different ways to plan and play. I was a little disappointed in the fact that ‘tier-upgrades,’ (along with the ability to unlock some units) required as many soulstones as they do. Considering Monster Wars doesn’t pass out soulstones as much as I would want, players will either have to shell out some cash or grind a bit in the endless levels in order to earn enough stones to see everything.

From a controls standpoint, Monster Wars does a decent job. Buttons at the top of the screen let you quickly set attack and retreat orders as well as set simple formations. I did find it particularly tough to specifically select units during the heat of battle as your characters all tend to bunch up while attacking. However, I can’t really think of a better way of implementing something within the confines of castle defense.

Monster Wars also continues the excellent overall presentation started with Legendary Wars. A great soundtrack sets the overall tone of the game while retina-quality visuals paint a vivid picture throughout the course of your adventures. The story, a tongue-in-cheek narrative telling the Legendary (pun intended) tale from the monsters’ perspective, feels a bit trite at times, but still does a good job keeping the player engaged. There were a few strange UI issues, like certain screen buttons not registering taps (almost as if the tap window was smaller than the actual buttons), but nothing detracting from the gameplay too much.

I imagine some folks may complain that Monster Wars feels too much like its precursor without much of a change to the core gameplay. I say, why mess with a good thing? While the game does feel like a re-skin at times, Monster Wars still does a great job taking the classic gameplay from Legendary and transplanting it in a new setting. Add in all the new content combined with the deep character customization and there’s no reason you shouldn’t be checking out Monster Wars.

"Eufloria is a game of space, conquest, and exploration based on themes of plant life and flowers rather than space marines and spaceships."

That's the thing about Eufloria: it's an RTS that goes against the grain. It doesn't have any big dudes in big armor smashing space orcs in the face with apartment-sized space maces. It also doesn't subscribe to any particular feel or taste, or really, any action-y RTS conventions. It's a minimalist strategy game that has some cool, laid-back creative touches, and it's all wrapped up in a sensitive production overhead that conveys the game's core design ideals and gentle pacing well.

This much has been proven in past iterations. And for the most part, what you've seen is what you'll be getting Day Zero on iPad. Eufloria on iPad still looks gorgeous, it still runs as smooth as ever, and all the little technical touches on the movement, placement and execution phases of the game have made it over. But, on the other hand, I'm not seeing a major adjustment on anything anyone has complained about before -- the balance appears to be still a little touch and go, and in some of the levels I've been playing, the pacing is slow (unless you manually crank up the overall game's speed).

What the iPad port does bring, though, are new ways to interact more intimately with the experience. Pinch and zoom can be used liberally to explore every little nook and cranny of each level. Satisfying drag, hold, and swipe gestures take care of the rest. It's all good stuff.

I asked Kremers after the show to explain what he was shooting for with this version's controls. He said that the main idea was to strip "all barriers between playing the game and the device you play it on." Mission accomplished as far as I'm concerned. This is appears to be as much of a lean-back experience as ever before, and delightfully so.

Here's a breakdown for those of you just seeing Eufloria for the first time. This is a game about asteroids, trees, and tiny, winged seedlings. In almost every scenario, the goal is to take these seedlings to an asteroid, build a tree or two, and then usher even more seedlings on to other asteroids. The tech tree is simple: trees build seedlings and asteroids have one of three different effects on seedlings, either making them strong or fast or energetic. As trees age, they become more potent and harder to kill. Eventually you'll see some variations on unit types as well as a defensive tree that'll keep enemy seedlings off of your rock.

The strategy factors into the picture in a variety of ways. You can't hit up an asteroid unless you have an asteroid connected to it. Also, most asteroids are inhabited, so you'll need to kill the enemy seedlings and then destroy their trees, which are jacked into that asteroid's core. Cracking the core boils and tearing down an impromptu space settlement boils down to a numbers game: basically, whoever has the larger wad of dudes wins. Much later in the game, you'll be given very specific tasks, like say, defending or finding a path through a system.

On our show, Kremers explained where these ideas came from. Eufloria proper is based on a proof-of-concept called "Dyson," which is named after a british physicist who theorized that you could explore space by growing mechanical trees on asteroids. It's neat to see this crazy idea living on in a game.

The beauty of Eufloria is in its simplicity; it's artfully stripped of graphical clutter and is fairly bare-boned on the UI and sound front. It's also strikingly easy to play for a strategy game since most of the action happens on a macro-level: clicks, drags, and drops compose all you'll need for galactic takeovers. This type of game feels great on iPad, and it seems like Team Eufloria and Tunatech pulled it off.

My time with the preview build, for reasons of avoiding anything other than modest scrutiny at this phase in its pre-release form, has been artificially shortened, so I don't have a verdict for you. You'll get that later at some point this month when the game sees a release across iOS at an unannounced price. We're expecting more details to roll in shortly. Fingers crossed.

All the screens in this write-up are from the PSN version of the game. I can't tell a difference between the two in picture-form.

UPDATE: We didn't mention the game's 3X speed setting in the original write-up.

Don't get me wrong; fans of traditional SRPGs will find a lot to love if they give Dungeon Crawlers a chance. It's a funny, charming, and mostly well-crafted game. You'll run into a few glaring omissions, and you might have trouble with the game's high memory footprint, but rest assured that Ayopa Games and Drowning Monkeys plan to address all of that soon. No matter how much I enjoy myself, though, I keep coming back to the same problem: Dungeon Crawlers is just way too ponderous.

The mix of dungeon crawling and strategic combat works well. Basically, you poke around a dungeon floor by floor, fighting baddies, finding secrets, and occasionally solving puzzles. The game slips into turn-based combat mode the moment you enter an area with enemies. A movement grid is laid out on the floor. Enemies take their turns, one by one, and then the heroes take theirs. It's a good formula, but every bit of it is too slow.

Enemy turns take too long, and can't really be sped up. Every movement and attack feels a bit slower than it should, and everything has to happen in turn. Sometimes it feels like no one has any idea how to land a hit. In combat that already feels too slow, a whole round spent with weapons missing harmlessly (or landing glancing blows, a common problem) is dull, dull, dull. It would shorten the game, but combat would be a lot more fun if the developers cut out the weak hits, lowered everyone's miss rates and let you fast-forward through enemy turns.

If only they could apply that sort of trimming to the rest of the experience. For example, you start with only three of your four heroes: Payter, Aegon and Roy (if you're thinking Ghostbusters already, those should sound familiar), and each gets just one ability initially. For the first few levels combat is mindless. Payter walks up to an enemy and slashes it. Aegon casts Magic Missile from further back. Roy heals whoever is wounded. Rinse. Repeat. It's a fine way to start, but the game takes far too long to start filling your arsenal with new friends and abilities.

It's a shame, because I doubt many mobile gamers are going to wait the hour or two it takes for things to start getting interesting. Try to be the exception, because it's worth it. Even though Dungeon Crawlers has a limited roster of characters, its encounters get both challenging and strategic. Much of the strategy is in learning to carefully position your party members. Payter, for instance, eventually learns to stun the enemies that surround him. Predicting where the enemies will move, you can put him in just the right place to get surrounded. Then you can line up Aegon to hit the grouped up baddies with an AOE, and keep Failston blocking the way back to Roy. Mana isn't a consideration, but action limits are, so healing is a once-per-turn affair. If a character falls, they're out of the game until the next floor.

Failing isn't a a huge deal, since you can always restart from the beginning of a level or an encounter. But that decision really hurts when encounters start lasting for half an hour or longer. You should be able to offset this by using the coins you collect to buy potions in a tight spot, but you can't. A shop is coming, as are IAP coins for the poor adventurer with a wealthy player. The game can already be completed without the store, though, so the IAP will be optional in the extreme.

Unless, that is, you try to plow straight through. Dungeon Crawler's loot system rewards the explorer. You won't find much if you just stomp around killing enemies and opening chests, and your equipment will quickly fall out of date. If, on the other hand, you manage to find the levers that hide secrets in nearly every level, you'll be at the tip-top of your game. The game could use a balance tweak or two to keep less-curious players geared enough to fight, though. The loot is all pre-determined, and it really hurts your chances if you miss a few secrets.

Even with all the frustrations and issues, I really dig Dungeon Crawlers. If you're a sucker for references, this game plays with a ton of them - from the blatant and encompassing Ghostbusters theme to jokes about things the younger crowd might still understand. That's on top of an engaging adventure tale that does its best to keep you interested in slogging through fight after fight. The characters, the music, the level design and environments - all great. You get the idea: the game would be fantastic if only it were pared down, cleaned up and sent out much more streamlined.

Until then, a cautious recommendation will have to do. If you're looking for an old-school strategic romp through some very traditional dungeons, you're in the right place. But these aren't play sessions you can cram into five minute smoke breaks. Dungeon Crawlers is built to last - for better or worse, you'll get hours out of it. If you're a sit-back-and-be-patient sort, you'll be just fine.

RoboHero places you in the role of Blue Robo, the last defense for Earth in its fight against an evil robot army. As a last resort, you’re sent to the robot ship in order to infiltrate and destroy all the forces. As you progress through the game’s story mode, you’ll unlock new weapons and face new enemies and obstacles. However, the goal of the game is always to either get to the other side of the level or take out a certain amount of enemies.

You’ll accomplish this by planning each move for Blue Robo 15 turns in advance. Every turn, movement, shot, and even weapon change counts as a turn. Once you’ve planned everything out, you hit the start button and your robo executes its actions while the surrounding environment (and enemy baddies) executes theirs. There’s a lot of timing, predicting, and planning involved with each set of turns, much more than I think most players are used to.

The game is also quite unforgiving with planning turns – mistiming a turn or shot can spell doom for that entire set of turns (or even worse, put you in a position to get destroyed). Also, you have to plan out 15 turns; if you try and start the round sooner, your robo will simply stand still for those turns you don't plan anything, effectively wasting precious moves.

RoboHero’s biggest strength is also its potentially biggest weakness. When all is said and done, this game is hard. You better have some pretty damn good timing and analytical skills if you want to completely finish this game by collecting all the level stars (three stars for each of the thirty missions).

Each level lets you earn up to three stars by accomplishing three different criteria. You can earn a star by collecting all the stars in a level, by keeping your health above a certain threshold, and by passing the level under a certain amount of turns (every individual action counts as a ‘turn’). Normally, I can do well enough to earn one of those at any one time, and if I tried pretty hard, I could probably handle both the health and collectible stars.

However, if you want to land all three, you’re going to have to do a lot of work analyzing your moves, the movements of your enemies, and creating the most streamlined route that takes out only the necessary enemies and gets you where you need to go without coming to harm. It’s an exercise in patience and planning that I rarely see in games these days.

It’s important to note that the difficulty is mostly restricted toward earning stars. In the case of simply wanting to pass a level, RoboHero is a little more forgiving, especially since Blue Robo has the ability to glimpse the future movement of the surrounding enemies and environment. However, you only have a limited amount of foresight, and it doesn’t really make it any easier to time some movement.

Regardless, later levels will still test both your reactive and puzzle solving senses. Annoyances such as the fact that you have to start over if you die make the later levels more annoying to complete (especially considering the latter half of the levels will take some time to actually run through and complete).

In addition to the Story Mode, RoboHero also features an Arena Mode and Multiplayer. I found Arena Mode far more enjoyable than the story mode, as you’re simply tossed into a small level with a bunch of other computer opponents with the sole purpose of kicking the crap out of everyone else. It’s very reminiscent of Bomberman and I think RoboHero does a great job capturing that frenetic feel in a turn based game.

Multiplayer is restricted to pass and play, which I think loses a lot of the excitement that might have occurred with Bluetooth or Wifi modes (asynchronous might have been interesting as well).  Thankfully, online multiplayer is supposedly on the horizon.

If you’re on the fence as to whether a game such a RoboHero is for you, here’s some good news: The game’s first ten levels (as well as Multiplayer and Arena) are offered for free, with IAP covering the other 20 story levels. In this regard, I suggest picking it up if you’re even remotely interested. Its slow, turn-based gameplay is a much different take than most tank games I’ve played on iOS, and it’s bound to turn some heads, but only for pretty hardcore puzzle or strategy fans.

"The initial release and update will be by far the most comprehensive and enjoyable release of Eufloria to date. And the price will be pretty darn reasonable," Team Eufloria writes on its blog. The first content update will roll in a new Ambient mode that adds a "new terraforming mechanic." We've included the debut trailer just below for your viewing pleasure. It looks great!

If you’ve ever played the likes of Final Fantasy Tactics, you’ll feel right at home with Time of Heroes. The game takes place on a series of maps, with players choosing heroes, units and their placements at the beginning of the battle. The game then plays out via turn-based gameplay with the goal being to accomplish all the objectives of the map (typically kill the opposing heroes while keeping your own alive). Time of Heroes is classic turn-based strategy, and I think it gets a lot of things right.

By far, the most successful element that Time of Heroes captures is its very deep gameplay. In addition to the standard rock-paper-scissors type of unit matchup advantages, Time of Heroes also features terrain bonuses (and weaknesses) and aura influence (bestowed by being close to a hero). Considering all these bonuses apply to both your units as well as the enemy, these all lead to every move potentially being very important in the great scheme of winning each battle.

While I absolutely loved the depth, I can imagine that the large amount of variables might seem overwhelming for the novice tactician. This is especially true since the game loves to throw out scripted mini-cutscenes during battles that end up with even more baddies joining the scene. Some of the maps can become downright disheartening when you’ve used up the brunt of your forces, think you’re on your way to killing the final monsters, and then more show up. Thankfully, Time of Heroes also includes a good difficulty system, ensuring that most folks should be able to tailor the game to their own skill.

In addition, Time of Heroes does a great job making your actual heroes stand out stat-wise. Most missions will force you to keep them alive via objectives, but your characters also have a very robust experience system with a large amount of talents that can be picked up via the collection of skill points (which you earn by leveling up). When you add in the fact that each hero can equip various items that can either boost their stats or the stats of the units they command, you’ll find that there’s a lot of choices in how you choose to win each battle. Even the spell system deserves some praise, as most spells offer area of effect bonuses that can be the difference between victory and defeat (your enemies have access to these spells too, so watch your positioning).

Another aspect of Time of Heroes that deserves kudos is its use of IAP. Yes, the game does feature an in-game shop that lets you spend real money, but they are all for items that only offer a small advantage in battle. Furthermore, these items are really only useful in the hands of folks that already possess some modicum of strategy, making them simply supplemental additions rather than ‘Win Game’ super items. Some may argue that IAP should in fact be limited to items that make the game very easy, but I appreciate the fact that Time Of Heroes tried to balance incorporating the option to provide some advantages via IAP while preserving the integrity of the game as a whole.

One thing you’ll notice about Time of Heroes is its pacing. It’s pretty slow, especially at the default settings with full movement and battles on. The game features extended battle scenes that do a decent job showing the various advantages of opposing units, but it can add a decent amount of time to each turn. Granted, the developers have put in plenty of options to skip most of the battle and movement animations, making the game much faster (I highly recommend using them). Despite this, even with the quick options turned on, the game can still be a little slow. However, in all reality this is a minor issue since I’m assuming that anyone that’s a fan of these types of deep strategy games should have more patience than the average gamer.

There are also some UI issues that I’d like addressed. For example, the way in which a unit’s movement becomes permanent as soon as you select another character is confusing at first, and seems counter-intuitive. Even though it would add another step, I thought a ‘Wait’ button would have made more sense. I understand it was done for the purposes of streamlining, but it still feels odd to me. Also, due to the "3D" view of the battle field, it can occasionally be difficult to tap exactly where you want your character to move (especially if the place you want to go is surrounded by units to begin with). Thankfully, a quick undo button is always there in case you have to try again (just don’t tap another unit beforehand).

Finally, I also would have liked more of an interactive tutorial. While the game does a good job getting you going with the basics, an advanced tutorial giving more in-depth lessons on terrain and unit advantages would have been a lot better for me instead of simply telling me to go to those screens and attempt to decipher the large block of percentages. It’s always tough balancing heavy gameplay depth with approachability, and while I think Time of Heroes mostly succeeds, this is one aspect that I think they could have improved upon.

While the concerns mentioned above somewhat detract from the overall experience, Time of Heroes nails the most important elements of a good strategy game. When you combine the large amount of depth on the gameplay side with a good narrative tale and a fairly decent control scheme, Time of Heroes is well worth a recommendation for any fan of strategic turn-based games.

It's a fun idea and works incredibly well, and right now you can find that out for yourself as Tiny Heroes has gone temporarily free. If you for some reason still need convincing to download a free game, then be sure to check out our 5 star review of Tiny Heroes and our bonus podcast interview with two of the developers at Simutronics. Also – and this is privileged information so try to keep it on the down low – during that podcast interview we find out the secret to unlocking the special TouchArcade level defense in Tiny Heroes. But shhhhhh, don't tell anybody about that ok? It'll be our little secret.

At any rate, definitely grab Tiny Heroes while it's free, you won't regret it if you're a fan of good strategy games.

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.

Speaking of the battlefield, battle is pretty simple -- just click and drag. When you click on a character, you'll be able to assign actions like healing or attacking to friend or foe. Some monsters have area of effect attacks, and for those, you'll have to move the party around all over the screen, or figure out intricate formations to lessen the blows. It's tactical-light, but effective as Battleheart proved.

One noteworthy thing I've learned in my time with Raid Leader is that you can't go into auto-pilot during fights. You can wipe, and wipe pretty fast, if you (a) don't honor things like blood leaches, (b) keep all of the party alive, and (c) master the game's skill system, which lets you take two different skills per character into fights.

The latter point is particularly noteworthy: as you progress you'll earn currency to buy new skills, and those skills will be essential to countering specific bosses actions and battle needs. Skills, then, are more of a mechanical extension of recognition and exploitation, as opposed to being strictly about preference. It's a neat and entertaining change of pace.

In my preview session, I didn't push too far into the main campaign -- which of course, revolves around a princess and her need for three heroes to defeat a great evil -- but I get the sense that balance might be Raid Leader's biggest hurdle. Hard and fun is great, but hard for the sake of it isn't. MMOs seem to screw this up all the time, so Red Zebra needs to be extra careful here.

Raid Leader is being published by Crescent Moon Games as a Universal app, and it's expected to be released "soon." It's currently in beta.

Hero Academy is Robot Entertainment's first iOS offering, and I think it's the sign of good things to come. The premise is very basic: You are playing a tactical battle against another team, and the goal is to destroy their crystals before they destroy yours. Each round allows you five moves ("action points"), which you can use to either place team members and items on the board, or move and attack with your preexisting team members.

If you play the free version of the game, the only team available to you is the Council, which is made up of humans and is a well-balanced option. Should you wish, you can unlock the Dark Elves for $0.99, which can summon the spirits of their fallen enemies to aid them in battle.

At the bottom of your screen, you'll see a selection of five items and characters, which the game randomly deals you each turn. If you don't like what you got, you can use your finger to drag anything you don't want over to the tiny door in the bottom left corner. Once your turn is finished, you'll get new stuff and hopefully get dealt exactly what you were looking for. This selection of items includes spells and weapons to strengthen your characters' attack and defense abilities so you can survive in the field for longer.

The board itself also includes some options to give you the advantage. In the middle of each board is a tile with a crystal on it, and reaching it will weaken the enemy's crystal a bit. There are also tiles that have a sword or a shield on them, which will give you a buff to attack or defense. At the end of a turn, you can also choose to submit your turn normally or submit it with a taunt, which is pretty much just to piss your opponent off.

Getting to know your characters and how their skills can be used is vital. For example, the magician can cast a spell that can hit a row of opponents and only spend a single action point on it. Using these types of skills to your advantage will give you the edge needed to keep those fools off your crystals.

Frankly, I'm no fan of waiting around for someone to take a turn. When I first saw that Hero Academy had no single player mode where you could at least play against the computer, I was a bit let down. At first, I only had a few games going with other friends. The key to the fun of Hero Academy really came clear when I got a lot of games going, and that was when I started to feel my skills were improving and I was getting better at it. Considering my moves more carefully and how I could best defend against the way my opponent played was rewarding, and I started to win more matches.

There is one downfall to the game, and that is that the free version is relentless when it comes to in-game ads. Between each match, you'll see an ad that you have to stare at for five seconds before it disappears and you can play again. If you're good at ignoring things, you may not mind one bit, but if you're like me and it bugs the hell out of you, you can buy any heroic team to get rid of the ads, which costs a buck. Only the Dark Elves are available for now, but Robot promises new teams are coming in the near future. You can also spend a bit more to get new avatars if you so desire.

Hero Academy is a simple game, and it does what it's built to do very, very well. If the content continues to expand and offer more for the fanbase, I could see it being something I would want to come back to over and over again in the future. It also offers access to invite Facebook and Twitter friends to join you right in the menu, so never fear if you don't have enough games going at a time. Invite everyone you know, and soon enough your phone will be jingling with the notification sound you've learned that you're unable to resist.

Take note that this isn't a true continuation or a follow-up. This is Age of Booty with new stuff (see above image), and hopefully some key improvements. And, hey, even though it's not all-new, Age of Booty on iPad and iPhone sounds like a cool thing. We're hoping to give you some impressions in the near future.

There is this one thing, though. It's kinda quirky. In the opening moments, one of the party members clearly references Ghostbusters. Roy, the healer, carries around a weapon called "The Unreturned Library Tome." When you search the first weapon rack you find, it calmly tells you that while there's tons of weapons here, none of them are indeed yours.

Dungeon Crawlers, which is due out later this month, is straddling a fun line. It's the video game equivalent of a mullet, reserved and business-like, yet fun-loving and goofy. What makes it a strategy RPG isn't messed with, but the story, the weapons, and even the item pick-ups are all tinged with a lightheartedness that I'm OK with seeing -- especially since fantasy is so stale.

The business part is good, by the way. After putting some time into a preview build, I feel like I can lazily sum up the mechanics as "Shining Force Meets Diablo." There's a lot of traditional strategy RPG in the combat, but you also freely move around and explore a dungeon in-between fights.

A typical confrontation goes a little something like this: the battleground morphs into a series of tiles, all of which can be accessed through turn-based play; blue titles indicate a movement can occur, red alerts you to the fact that you can attack, and green lets you know that healing can happen. Simple taps activate the action, while swipes allow you to move fluidly through skill menus. Pop an enemy enough, it dies. Rinse and repeat.

Kill enough dudes, and you level up and gain access to new skills that, of course, allow for a wider range of tactical options. Cleave, for instance, hits in a three square arc, while magic missile attacks from four spaces away. The overall strategy boils down to a touch of structural awareness, a heavy helping of positional wrangling, and a solid understanding of skill sets and AI behavior.

There's some wrinkles. Boss fights promise some more interesting situational content. In the first fight, for example, the goal is to reach a goblin king in his throne instead of delivering his head on a platter. Later, you'll see some puzzles and solo action.

Speaking of characters, you start out with three knuckleheads: a womanizing barbarian, a nerdy sorcerer, and a gluttonous healer. Their banter is inviting, and the situation the trio find themselves in is something straight out of Ghostbusters.

Weird influence, right? I asked Drowning Monkeys what's up, and I was relieved to find that I wasn't crazy.

"... the actual idea for the story came while we were prototyping the game, and we had created our archetypes. We were designing the characters and noticed the similarities to Ghostbusters, so we ran with it and started creating a story around that basic element."

"The idea that something 'big' was happening, and that the characters were initially motivated by money and not because of a 'call' to do great things. I think in the end though, we actually have created a story that is unique and keeps the player interested in seeing what happens next."

Humor is subjective kinda like quality is, so it'll be interesting to see how Dungeon Crawlers clicks with everyone. I dig it. More importantly, though, I think the game part of it is on the right track. In its pre-release form, it feels almost as good as any of the great games in the genre, and I'll be excited to dive in for the haul.

If all goes well, Dungeon Crawlers will see a release this January 26 across iPad, iPod Touch, and iPhone. We'll definitely keep our eye on it, and I'm thinking you should, too.

In case you missed the piece, Hatchi is basically Tamagotchi for mobile. You hatch a little monster, and then feed, bathe, play, and teach it. As the hours tick by, it grows and evolves into something of your creation. Hatchi requires some patience, but it's a cool experience that our community really seems to dig.

Would you take in that stranger you found on the road? Would you mug him instead? Would you break into a police station surrounded by zombies? With moans at your back, three kills to your name and a sledgehammer at your side, would you stop to take a bag of tools from a broken-down car in the middle of the road?

These are the questions Z-Day asks, and presumably, ones you've considered before if a z-day daydream ever popped into your mind. Z-Day is a graphic novel spin on the Choose Your Own Adventure, text-based game, except its presented on iPhone and iPad in all of its gory, high-resolution art glory.

Playing is simple, and the moment-to-moment content is strangely intense. You start in your house. A zombie apocalypse has begun. You decide if you want to run or grab a new weapon. Then, you decide, while zombies are coming to the door, if you want to dig for supplies like duct tape, fight the zombies, or get to higher ground.

All along the way, Z-Day gives you plenty of entertaining situational content. At one point, you'll be asked if saving your best friend is worth a zombie attack. Later, you might bump into a roving band of gun-toting jerks robbing a pawn shop. Before that, you might meet your unfortunate end in the bowels of a police station, as a horde steadily infests it as you search for fat loot.

The most interesting thing about Z-Day is that it doesn't pull punches; if you make a bad decision, you'll probably die. Also, it puts you in horrible situations and then has you make uncomfortable decisions. As you play, you might notice things like empathy have vacated your brain in the face of so many horrifying scenarios.

Breaking this down mechanically feels like a disservice to the experience. In Z-Day, you'll be presented with a variety of Choose Your Action text boxes, hand-drawn graphic novel scenes, and a description of situations. Pick an action, and then move on to the next moment. The goal is survival, but even if you die, you'll be scored on a variety of elements, including your decision-making or the quality of your weaponry and items and the amount of survivors you brought along the way.

Z-Day doesn't have unique content, so you'll see the same situations over and over again as you restart. It's really up to you to role-play it and see different outcomes. There are quite a few, too, in each given situation.

I've been having a blast with this since it's essentially gameifies what runs through my head whenever I read or watch a piece of zombie content, but it's also solid production-wise. I heartily recommend this to anyone that still has an itch for zombies, or even an appreciation of primarily text-based titles.