Battleship

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

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

For example, instead of horizontal ships of various lengths, your planes take up different sorts of shapes on the grid. In addition, you can choose from one of ten different characters, and each character has a different plane design (and thus takes up different spaces on the grid). Also, while the goal of Battleship is to eventually land a hit on every single space that a ship inhabits, your goal in Battle Planes is to take out the 'weak spot' on a plane, which is typically the front of the plane. Land a direct hit on the nose, and the entire plane instantly goes down.

This adds an interesting strategy element to Battle Planes -- since each character has a different plane design, your decision on where to hit will change depending on who you go against. It doesn't alter the core mechanics in any significant way, but it is a welcome change and does a good job differentiating itself from other clones.

Battle Planes offers a single player mode, as well as a 2-player mode via Bluetooth, single device pass-and-play, and Game Center. While I was able to play some stable games over Bluetooth, I had some issues starting matches via Game Center. There is a story in Battle Planes that is told through character bios, but it's so strange that I really wasn't sure what to think of it. In addition, Battle Planes also offers a "Battleship" mode, which does away with the varied plane designs and opts for the tried and true standard ships.

While all this sounds pretty nice, there are some issues with Battle Planes that seem to hold it back from new heights. One of the biggest issues I encountered is the lack of a 'Quit' option while you're playing a game. If you're playing a game against the AI, and you decide to start one with a friend, you cannot stop the game unless you force quit the whole app. This sort of UI misstep just seems bizarre to me and definitely detracts from the overall experience.

Also, while the game incorporates a ranking system in both the single and multiplayer modes, I just couldn't find any reason to play against the AI (that, and I have a strong suspicion that it cheats). While this isn't necessarily a big deal (who plays single player Battleship anyways?), it does lead to the question as to whether it's worth spending cash on a game that is really only enjoyable with other people.

However, if you do have some friends interested in a decent Battleship clone, and you can look over some of the quirks mentioned above, Battle Planes may be worth checking out. In the end, what matters most is whether that feeling of tension and enjoyment exists when you're playing against another person. I'd have to say that yes, Battle Planes does just hit that horizon.

This update, specifically, will add a brand new "exclusive" versus map to the game, as well as co-op support to the five original maps. Game Center, as we've seen in the past, will play the role as a service: when the update hits, you'll be able to invite friends or enter into random matchmaking for these modes, as well as earn achievements. This update will also support multi-tasking, which means you'll be able to drop into a game as you please and drop out whenever mom sends that e-mail. No worries, ma!

iOS 4.2, which is slated to hit this November, in addition to adding multi-tasking support, will also add Folders, AirPrint, "enhanced enterprise support," a unified e-mail inbox, dictionary enhancements, and AirPlay. Sounds hot, right? Oh! And Flight Control HD is pretty good. You should probably check it out.

First and foremost, addressing the biggest complaint that readers had, was the introduction of an offline practice mode in version 1.2. Offline mode is still in its infancy, and though you can pick the map and your race, you are restricted to playing 1v1 vs the AI. Additional AI slots and a customizable AI difficulty would all be great to see in future updates.

This update also addressed my other issue with Armada: Galactic War -- the ARMS upgrade system. In our review, we took issue with how ARMS set an insurmountable gap in advantage between veterans and newcomers. In order to address this, Pixel Stream opted to completely overhaul their ARMS system. The more powerful variants of each item were removed entirely, and though the player can still equip up to 10 items, items are automatically balanced when players are matched against each other.

The player with the fewest upgrades sets the standard for the match at hand. If Player A has 2 items and Player B and C have 4 items, then only the first two items of each player will have effect in that game. In this way, the developers hope to have remedied the issue of power imbalance between players with access to more and better items.

Update 1.3, just released, further addresses issues noted by players since 1.2. It introduces player divisions by way of rooms; with a newbie room available to allow beginners to play against each other; and an extreme room rewarding bonus credits rewarded to the more daring, experienced players. The full change list is as follows:

Interface and Gameplay improvements
• newly created units are automatically selected if mothership is selected
• mech placement is easier to collect minerals
• improved selection/deselection of units
• Destroying a mothership will top up your resources
• Each mothership destroyed counts as a win

Player matching improvements
• three rooms - newbie, intermediate, extreme
• only newbies can enter the newbie room
• extreme room gives 2x credits
• a second leaderboard for extreme battles

ARMS item improvements
• lowered cost of items
• items increase stats as well as decrease other stats
• simplified the number of items

The developers have also released a new freemium version of Armada. This version is online only, and operates a little like Eliminate; in that you require 'fuel cells' to earn credits. These are used up as you play, and recharge automatically every two hours. Of course, In-App purchases allow you to skip that waiting process by purchasing additional cells.

That app has now hit the App Store, and whilst players can now play entirely for free (with a little patience) on the freemium version, the original paid app with offline mode has risen in price, too. So there are now a slew of options for RTS fans to get their game on; and with an app as feature rich as Armada: Galactic War, there's now no reason not to check out what has been dubbed Starcraft-lite on your iOS device.

App Store Link: Armada: Galactic War, $5.99 and Armada - Galactic War Online, Free (With In-App Recharge Purchases).

A strategy game clearly inspired by the richly inked, high-fantasy tilesets and characters of the acclaimed Heroes of Might & Magic series, but played similarly to other popular TBS titles such as Rogue Planet and Mecho Wars; Highborn takes the best credentials from these hits and takes them in a direction distinctly its own.

Highborn follows the story of Archie, an overbearing do-gooder Knight that more often than not frustrates his followers with his overt sense of righteousness, but who nevertheless follow him in his battles against the Arch-Lich, Floyd. The larger-than-life characters are a highlight in Highborn, from the flamboyant, once-famous mage Enzo to the many villains of 'Decay' whom you face off against (such as a Chef who holds entire towns hostage to his dreadful cooking); when characters clash the banter that results is consistently hilarious and peppers the 9 campaign missions with easily some of the best dialogue we've seen on the platform.

The gameplay in Highborn poses an alternate take on the TBS genre, foregoing the usual requirement of mass-producing units to overwhelm the enemy and instead placing a strategic focus on unit value, by placing a finite number of units at your disposal from the onset. The only way you can swell your ranks beyond what you begin each mission with is to capture strategic buildings. Capturing a monastery, for example, will bestow upon you a monk, whilst capturing a Tower will grant you a Mad Wizard.

Some of these strategic buildings double as defensive structures, providing an additional attack at the beginning of any battle initiated within their range. Combat in Highborn is typical of a TBS, where units are marched around on a hexagonal grid until in range of an enemy, upon which they can initiate their attack. Combat sequences are automatically generated with Highborn's great looking 3D combat engine-- a welcome addition to the otherwise 2D overview. Though largely static, the results can be influenced by hero 'powers' collected from captured Monoliths around the map. These powers are only available to the aggressor however, placing particular importance on getting the first shot in.

Though Highborn is flawlessly presented, the gameplay itself is not without its issues. Units are sometimes moved by mistake or to the wrong grid as simply double tapping on a valid location will move the character there and movement commands cannot be undone (a feature we would love to see in the future). The special powers afforded to the attacker are also quite potent, often rendering the defender helpless. This generally isn't an issue in the campaign as powers do activate a cooldown to mitigate their usage and the AI is mostly defensive, with many of the monoliths starting as neutral awaiting your capture. In multiplayer however, the issue is more notable, as monoliths are secured early and even overwhelming odds can be turned by the use of these powers. Still, it does pose a strategic consideration that is available to both players, so we're not willing to call this entirely unbalanced.

Multiplayer in Highborn is provided through Facebook integration, a fact that may prove difficult to swallow for some, particularly in light of the recent scrutiny Facebook has come under. Fortunately, Jet Set Games has been thoughtful about privacy and your name is not shared with the public at all. Games are initiated by selecting members of your friends list, so games are restricted to amongst those you've already approved of. We aren't rapt about the decision to use Facebook, as many gamers network beyond their local social groups and Facebook is at its core a depository for mostly personal information. A means of accessing gamers without requiring them to be added to your Facebook friends list would certainly be preferred.

In any case, the actual handling of asynchronous multiplayer (functional over 3G and WiFi connections) is seamless and effortless. You choose from a number of small or large maps, take your turn, then wait for your opponent. Once they've made their move, their actions are clearly animated for you at the beginning of your next round. You can have a number of games going at once so that you are constantly occupied while waiting for other players. Jet Set Games have gone as far as providing a nifty numerical indicator on Highborn's icon to show when you have pending multiplayer moves.

Highborn comfortably sits as one of the best turn-based strategy games we have played on the iPhone. Beyond its dialogue and characters, which raise the bar entirely for humour, creativity and personality (and ability to plough right through that fourth wall); Highborn looks and plays fantastically, with a depth and attention to detail in its presentation that constantly surprises (just take a look at the character descriptions to see what I mean). If you look past the Facebook integration (which we understand some of you won't, though we strongly urge you to), Highborn also has a lasting and engrossing multiplayer mode that is excellently paced and perfect for portable devices. With additional campaigns promised beyond the 8 lengthy missions currently available (they'll take you hours to complete), Highborn is a robust and content-heavy turn-based strategy game that will surely leave you impressed.

Impressions from our forums are very positive thus far, but do check them out if you're after another take on Highborn. We're confident though that Highborn will remain a fixture on our devices for a very long time. Jet Set Games are also hard at work on an iPad version of Highborn, which should be ready later this summer!

App Store Link: Highborn, $2.99 (Special Introductory Price).

The object of the game is similar to playing ringer with marbles in that players take turn knocking the opposing marbles off the game board. You have control of which marble you shoot, along with its direction and velocity. Aiming and shooting your marbles is just a matter of tapping on the screen, and winning games usually involves intelligent use of environmental obstacles to protect your marbles from your opponent.

These obstacles include two kinds of bumpers that both have a different effect on how hard your marbles bounce off of them. There are also black holes that completely swallow your marbles, as well as warps which look like little worm holes that you can shoot your marble through to have it come shooting out the other similarly colored hole in the game board.

While playing against the AI opponents in the 32 different included levels is a pretty good time, the real killer feature of Finger VS. Finger is online multiplayer which seems to work equally well over both 3G and WiFi. Also, I'm not sure if the developers have bots to play against online or if all the opponents I've faced have been human, but I've yet to have much of a problem finding a match with another player.

The one down side to the game is that the online functionality is limited to random matchmaking. The only way to play with a friend is to simply use the local single device multiplayer. But, at the current price of free, it's hard to really get too worked up over the omission of private online matches-- Especially when the random matchmaking works so well.

Forum member TheProxy shot the following gameplay video for the Finger VS. Finger thread:

Croquisoft hasn't mentioned anywhere that I've found how long Finger VS. Finger will be free but since App Store pricing can change at any time, you should really snag this game as soon as possible.

X2 Soccer 2010 has over 150 club teams to choose from in 10 different leagues, plus international teams from all over the world. This includes U.S. Major League Soccer, Spanish, English, French, Italian, German leagues and more. There are a vast amount of more teams than last years version to play with.

The six game modes are Quick Match, Penalty Shootout, Training, Tournament, Dream Team, and Multiplayer. In Tournament mode, there are 30 tournaments to compete in to win and collect the cups to keep in your trophy room. In the all new Dream Team mode, players must use their skills to create the ultimate team of their own. You start out with poor quality players and work at improving them by competing in Multiplayer, Tournament and Quick Match modes for tokens. These tokens can then be used to scout and recruit quality players from across the globe, to help create the ultimate Dream Team. And Multiplayer mode is where you can play against a friend on local wifi, bluetooth connection, or in a new online option to play against people all over the world. The online option works surprisingly well, but obviously depends on your internet connect for best results. Playing online does not work over 3G or EDGE networks, so you must be connected to a wifi network to play.

The control layout is essentially the same as X2's previous game, with a little refinement. You'll find the virtual floating joystick on the left and the three 'X2 S.M.A.R.T.' buttons in the bottom right corner. The three buttons are slightly adjusted and re-positioned, but offer the same great control system. Of all the soccer games, this layout is my favorite, rather than the traditional "A" and "B" buttons offered in the others. Each button has its own ability depending on if your attacking or defending, with options of pass, lob, cross, one-two, through ball, and shoot on attack and pressure, slide tackle, switch player, and goal keeper charge on defense. The buttons can be tapped, double tapped, or held down for the more advanced controls. When a button is pressed, a power bar appears above the player signifying the level of strength to be used. I don't find the controls to be confusing at all. They are both easy to use for beginners yet fully functional for skilled players.

The game also has enhanced defensive and offensive AI players. The AI players are much smarter now, forcing you to play smarter. If you are finding the game a little easy as you get better, you can ramp up the difficulty in the settings to easy, good, hard, or expert. You have full customization on the settings from what is displayed on the screen while playing, weather, rules, stadium, commentary, replays, favorite team, team/player names and more. There is also a crawl on the bottom of the screen with real life information coming from an RSS feed that you can edit, the default one gives you lots of great soccer information that is going on in the world.

The full 3D graphics are much improved and even more impressive than X2 Soccer 2009, which were already top notch. X2 Soccer 2010 runs super smooth while playing on my iPhone 3GS and there are also 3GS-specific optimizations that were made to accommodate the faster hardware. Some 3GS users are reporting that they are experiencing some lag in their games, but I haven't experienced any. Meanwhile, reports from other device users seem to be fine.

Overall, X2 Soccer 2010 is one of the top soccer game experiences right now on the App Store. Konami will have a tough time out doing X2 with their upcoming Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 game. You will not be disappointed with X2 Soccer 2010, if you are holding out for an enjoyable soccer game, look no further.

The game begins with you manning a simple, somewhat slow fixed wing aircraft, capable of firing only a single machine gun. Round to round you are presented with additional and varied enemy types to take down, each with their own attacking style, agility and armor. Through use of a virtual analog stick you control only the pitch of your plan, able to send it into loop-the-loops and other complex maneuvers as you wrestle for the most advantageous position in which to fire. You unleash your bullets by tapping on the right-hand side of the screen.

These straight-forward controls complement the frantic nature of the game; a fact that ramps up in no time as you find yourself facing an overwhelming number of enemy combatants, particularly in the latter rounds of each level. In order to master MiniSquadron, you have to become intimately familiar with your plane’s speed, turning circle and weapon of choice, as you’ll find yourself dodging a hail of fire from tens of other planes almost simultaneously while trying to whittle them down one-by-one. The combat really is MiniSquadron’s high water mark; an all-out romp that action fans should warm to  immediately.

MiniSquadron rewards your progress and feats with plane unlocks; each plane different to the next, with its own speed, armor and turning attributes. Additionally, planes that you unlock will possess one of several weapons, which start off as just additional guns, but later take the form of the cluster bomb for example, requiring a completely new approach to your aerial acrobatics to get the most out of. A range of in-game power-ups also bolster your arsenal, with quick burst omnipotent weaponry such as the Big Laser providing some of the more memorable experiences, in a throwback to the over-the-top Street Fighter super attacks.

The game is presented in its own charming, cartoony fashion, with smoke trails, weapons and plane damage effects looking particularly terrific. The variety (and eccentricity) of planes to unlock is impressive; with panda-faced planes to UFOs being awarded for completing certain requirements each level.

The 8 worlds to tackle are each accompanied by well-recognised classical compositions. Unfortunately, the current version does not support use of your own music; so if you do have something against classical music you’re out of luck until the developer pushes through an update- something that is being looked into according to posts on our discussion forum.

MiniSquadron also offers local WiFi play, which whilst a nice addition, seems a little out of place for a game that shines far more when heavily populated by combatants. If you can manage to get a few friends together though, there’s no doubt that there is a heap of competitive fun to be had here. MiniSquadron does seem far more suited to online play however, and its absence is notable seeing as how that was the hallmark of games on which it is based.

All in all however, MiniSquadron can be thoroughly recommended both to those who wish to take a trip down memory lane and to those who are new to the 2D dog-fighting genre. It is a well-rounded package that can be breezed through in a couple of hours, but offers you replayability as you unlock and learn to master the many different planes composing your sizable squadron. The game is also seeing overwhelmingly positive impressions in from our discussion forums.

AppStore Link: MiniSquadron, $2.99

Konami has tried pretty hard to duplicate as much of Mario Kart as they can, with shells replaced with missiles, mushrooms replaced with a generic speed boost item, the lightning bolt replaced with an item that turns everyone in to pigs, and other fairly blatant copies of Mario Kart power-ups. Instead of the highly recognizable Nintendo lineup or characters, Krazy Kart Racing features a slightly more obscure cast of Konami characters such as Sparkster (from the SNES game of the same name), Robbie Rabbit (the mascot from an amusement park found in Silent Hill), and the frog from Frogger along with seven others.

The controls work well and feature both tilt steering and touch controls. I've found myself preferring touch controls, but tilt worked fine as well. Acceleration is handled automatically, and there are virtual buttons on screen to brake and use whatever power-up you've managed to pick up.

16 tracks are included, based on themes of the games the characters are from. For instance, Power Stadium is a baseball diamond shaped track to go along with the baseball player racer from Power Touch Pros and there's a Antarctic themed track to go with the penguin racer from Penguin Adventure. These tracks can be played in grand prix, time attack, and free run modes as well as with friends or random people online in the included internet multiplayer modes.

Online multiplayer works without any kind of registration. You simply enter your name, connect to one of the game servers, and from there you can either create or join a game room with other players. Any track that you have unlocked in single player is playable online with up to five other players and/or bots. Aside from the standard race mode, there are two battle modes, chicken and bomb chaser. In chicken, players accelerate down a straight track and slam on their brakes before reaching the end and flying off in to the pool of water below.

In bomb chaser, one player has the bomb and drives around a circular arena attempting to run in to other players to give them the bomb. Whoever has the bomb drives significantly faster than the other players, so it can get kind of hectic at times, but neither battle mode is very interesting and pales in comparison to Mario Kart. Performance online is surprisingly good, although there was a bit of lag when playing in a full game with bots, it was still completely playable. The online system seems a bit buggy still as I experienced a few instances where games wouldn't launch, game rooms becoming unresponsive and it not releasing my username. Once you're actually connected, however, the gameplay seemed to work fine. We mostly tested on Wi-Fi though 3G worked as well.

This video shows the multiplayer modes as well as single player using touch control:

[ Full HD version | Low Bandwidth version ]

Our early impressions of Krazy Kart Racing is that it's a fun kart racer, and while it's currently the closest thing to Mario Kart available on the App Store, it's still hard to compare to the original. There already is a menu item in game for downloadable content, so it should be interesting to see what Konami has in store with that. If Krazy Kart's online community takes off, I could see myself spending a serious amount of time racing over the internet. We'll spend some more time with this title this weekend, and we are still looking forward to Gameloft's Shrek Kart which is due next month.

Note: Krazy Kart Racing is not currently available from the US App Store, but has appeared in international stores. With any luck it should appear for download in the US shortly, though there have been instances (such as Silent Hill) where the U.S. release lagged as long as a week after the international release.

App Store Link: Krazy Kart Racing (EU), $7.99 (Only available in some regions)

At its core, Mino is the same line-clearing game you've been playing for years with two basic single-player game modes, standard and glacier. Standard mode offers a straightforward version of Tetris but with the addition of the "slow" button at the top of the screen. As you clear lines the bar on the right side of the play field slowly fills up which controls how long you can have the "slow" mode enabled. It's kind of a cheesy feature, but it has saved me from a few game overs in my time with the game.

Meanwhile, Glacier mode works has you dealing with near-constant intrusions of garbage rows of random blocks to clear at the bottom of the screen. There is also a "freeze" button that can be used to briefly stop these additional lines from spawning.

The bread and butter of Mino is in the multiplayer which can be played either over the cellular network or WiFi. Multiplayer pits you against up to four other people. As your opponents clear lines, garbage rows of random blocks are sent to your board (and vice versa). So your play directly affects other people's boards. While you can play with up to four other people, finding that many people online looking for games at once can be challenging. A newly release multi-player enabled Lite version, however, may improve that. When you do actually find a good game, it's just as fun as you would expect and the chat room you can brag in between games only adds to the enjoyment.

I could go on explaining this game, but I'd really recommend watching this demo video released by the developer which details every feature of Mino:

Obviously in a game like this, online community is everything. When I asked the developers if they felt gamers had anything to worry about with Mino being pulled from the App Store (and its community along with it) like most other games similar to EA's Tetris, this is what they had to say:

Xio Interactive is dedicated to protecting the online Mino community from any threats, legal or otherwise. We are prepared to use any and every resource at our disposal to ensure that Mino and Mino Lite remain on the app store, and that our game servers remain running at all times, including substantial monetary and personnel resources. Our customers can rest easy with the assurance that we are here to stay.

Either way, Xio Interactive also has a surprisingly full featured lite edition available. Mino Lite [App Store] has both the standard single player mode and you can play 30 matches of online play. So if you like these kinds of games, at least give Mino Lite a try.

App Store Link: Mino, $2.99 - Mino Lite, Free

Chess With Friends has become remarkably popular among Chess players, since it's both free and offers a modern spin on correspondence chess. Words With Friends takes this same formula and offers four different multiplayer game modes.

You can either search for users to play with using your contact list, or search by user name. If you don't know anyone with the game yet, you can play a random opponent. Finally, Words With Friends also has a mode for local play if you want to play against a friend using a single device.

Like Chess With Friends you can have multiple games going at once with both friends and random internet players. While push notifications aren't supported yet, you can either just launch the app to see if it's your turn yet, or enable email/SMS notifications. A recent tweet by Newtoy mentions push notifications coming soon for Chess With Friends, so I'd assume the same treatment will be coming soon for Words With Friends.

Either way, both games are free and supported via in-game advertising and Words With Friends has a premium version for 99¢ that you can buy if you want to support the developer and/or don't like looking at ads. If you like Chess or Scrabble, both games are a ton of fun.

App Store Links:

• Words With Friends Free, Free
• Words With Friends, 99¢
• Chess With Friends, Free

Xpressed has knocked my socks off with UniWar [App Store]. The game is by no means perfect, but for the current promotional price of 99¢, it’s impossible to pass up if you’re even remotely interested in turn based strategy games.

UniWar tips its hat at both the StarCraft and Advance Wars series with three playable races that each have slightly different advantages and disadvantages while waging a turn based war on a hex grid.

The game features a brief tutorial in the 21 map single player campaign that seems to cover everything new players to the genre need to know. (Although it would be nice if these levels could be skipped as they’re fairly remedial to veterans of similar games.) The touch controls are extremely simple and work well aside from a few accidental fat fingered moves here and there that often can’t be undone.  UniWar also seemlessly switches from portrait to landscape mode depending on which way you’re holding the device. I experienced less fat fingering while playing in landscape mode, but it would be nice to be able to lock your screen orientation.

Feedback on our forums has been mixed when it comes to the non-adjustable difficulty of single player campaign and solo maps against an AI opponent.  Personally, I felt the AI was a little too predictable and on the easy side, but please consider this is coming from someone with a vast history of turn based strategy experience.  Others have felt it’s too hard or just right, so what you think of the included AI will greatly depend on your familiarity with the genre.

Outside of the campaign maps, UniWar also comes with solo mode to play individual maps against an AI opponent. Unfortunately, all but the first map comes locked and you can’t choose the next map until you’ve completed the previous. There are 53 maps to choose from in online play, so it really doesn’t make sense to me why you wouldn’t have access to the same set of maps for playing single player skirmishes. This inconsistency also exists in the single device two-player mode. I love that you can play against a friend using one device, but it has really left me scratching my head trying to figure out why you can’t play the same maps that you can online. By doing this, Xpressed is leaving people who are buying the game specifically for local multiplayer out in the cold until they’ve gone through and unlocked everything in single player.

Despite my criticisms with single player and local versus mode, the online multiplayer has earned UniWar complete tenure on my iPhone. Unless the online community dies off, I really can’t see myself ever getting bored of playing over the Internet. Online play with up to 8 players can be done either anonymously or by registering a username. Registering provides online statistics, a friends list, and email notifications. There’s really no reason not to as once you play your first online game you’ll be hooked.

Email notifications? Yes! One of the coolest things about UniWar’s multiplayer is that you can be playing up to twenty games at a time. Xpressed’s servers email you when it’s your turn in a game. After launching UniWar, hit “Current Games”, and make your moves in any that are waiting for you to take your turn. At this point, the email notifications seem like a stopgap solution until Apple releases the 3.0 firmware with the associated push notification service, and it works pretty well.  If you have an unlimited SMS package for your phone, you can even get crazy and use your carrier’s email to SMS gateway for instant alerts when it’s your turn.

One thing that’s kind of annoying about the email notifications is right now toggling them on and off seems to be bugged and Xpressed doesn’t queue up alerts to send multiple notifications in the same email. This morning when I was testing out playing several games at once, my inbox was quite literally exploding with emails from 5 concurrent games. I can’t imagine playing 20. It would be nice if there were a setting to throttle the alerts to come in batches every few minutes. Another thing I’d love to see is if these emails included links you could click which launch the app with the correct game open similar to how apps like Tweetie [App Store] can be launched using tweetie:// URL’s. Email invitations or friend list invites could also potentially be sent to people who have the game using the same URL scheme.

While these enhancements would be nice, the most pressing change the notification service needs is to not send emails when you’re actively connected to a game waiting for the other person to take their turn. If you’re playing a game with someone else with no wait in between turns, Xpressed still sends you email notifications. It’s really pretty silly, and after playing a few games I’ve had to white list their email addresses as there was nothing I could to convince my mail client that the notifications weren’t spam otherwise.

All of my complaints, however, can easily be washed away by the fact that UniWar is currently priced at only 99¢. What you get for your dollar is downright ridiculous and with a little refinement the game will easily command a $5 or $10 price tag. The developer has even mentioned on our forums plans to eventually release a free map editor as well.

If they can deliver some solid updates, UniWar is going to be the iPhone online gaming gold standard.  As I said before, if you’re even remotely interested in the genre you really can’t pass this game up.

The developers of Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart have released a new racing title to the App Store called Raging Thunder [App Store]. The $7.99 title claims to be a "coin-op style racing game" and boasts having "the most breathtaking 3D graphics on the iPhone yet."

Features listed by the developer include:

• WiFi multiplayer
• State-of-the art 3D graphics
• Boost, draft and tackling physics
• Customizable controls

There is a lot of competition amongst racers in the App Store. We had felt that Nitro Kart offered the best "kart racing" experience on the iPhone, so we'll be interested to see their take on a more traditional racer. Raging Thunder has existed for some time in Jailbroken form.

Amongst the other racers currently available, we favored Asphalt 4 Elite Racing over GTS World Racing, Pole Position Remix, and Moto Chaser (formerly Moto Racer). Another notable upcoming title is Need For Speed: Undercover.

We'll provide a full review once we have spent some time with this title.

The most recent Scrabble update has introduced Wi-Fi networking as well as improved game stability and sound quality.

Scrabble is popular word game in which players form words from individual lettered tiles. Words are formed in horizontal or vertical rows with scoring based on which letters are used.

The iPhone version of Scrabble has been reasonably well reviewed, so the discounted price and Wi-Fi option may provide some additional incentive for readers to make the jump.

The game features three levels of difficulty, but even at the "Easy" setting the game is quite hard and the "Pro" level is apparently designed for robots.  However, due to the fluid gameplay and pleasant retro-future feel of this title, I feel compelled to keep at it in hopes of eventually getting a few consecutive victorious matches under my belt.  An "Easier" setting would be welcome, though.

Vector Pong has a feel reminsicent of the 80s classic Shufflepuck Cafe (which, incidentally, exists for the jailbroken iPhone as remake tuxPuck) and provides the player with the same satisfying sense of "WHACK!" with each successful deflection of an incoming volley.  Despite the game's difficulty, it's a lot of fun and seems well priced at $1.99.

Game Details

Name: Vector Pong
Developer: Gyrocade
App Store Link: Buy
Price: $1.99
Compatibility: iPhone and iPod Touch