Like all of these mid-week release games, Minecraft Pocket Edition should be available for download at 11:00 PM Eastern, or potentially much earlier if you live east of North America. We'll get a review up as soon as we can, but in the meantime, swing by our forums.

International App Store Link: Minecraft Pocket Edition, $7.99

I've heard more than a few developers attempting to create similar tools for the iPad, but all of them have hit various roadblocks in the Apple approval process because they all (in one way or another) allowed you to get code and assets onto the device and execute it. Codify sidesteps this by coming with a wide variety of assets, but unfortunately all of your creations will be trapped on your own device. Right now, there's no way to export (or import) anything, although Two Lives Left have told us they've submitted an update to Apple that has this functionality and they're planning on working with the approval teams to come to some kind of solution.

Either way, Lua is easy to learn and even with your prototypes stuck on your own iPad Codify can be an incredibly useful tool. If you come up with a game idea, you can quickly toss it together and see if it's worth pursuing. In fact, I'd almost say keeping these prototypes trapped on your device is a good thing as it serves as a fantastic rough draft to then redo in a more serious development environment.

You play John Slade, a brute with a gun hired to bring back a mad scientist. There's a whole back-story about how corporations rule the world and whatnot, but none of that makes a difference to the core of the game. It's basically you and your A.I. making bad jokes at each other while a mad scientist is on the loose causing havoc.

Shadowgun is a looker in all respects and running it on both an iPhone 3GS and an iPad produces amazing results (although, text is incredibly blurry on the 3GS). If you look closely, you can see some of the tricks Madfinger used to make it run and look the way it does, but as far as the environments go, it's hard not to sit with your mouth agape in awe.

There has been a lot of speculation that this is a Gears of War clone, but it's not as blatant as it appears. Yes, it's a cover-based shooter with enemies that appear to dig bondage, but the comparisons pretty much stop there. The guns aren't as fun to play with as Gears and the lack of any squad mechanic ensures Shadowgun won't be confused as a Gears clone by anyone who's actually played it. The weapon variety is stagnant, all feeling relatively similar and none of them standing out from the usual suspects in action games -- shotgun, SMG, rocket launcher, grenade launcher -- you get the point.

For movement, the controls work well and cover is handled automatically when you get near a wall. However, I was either running into a bug or an odd feature on both devices that would lock my gun in place while shooting a little over half the time. It was never consistent when it would decide to do this, and was amazingly frustrating during portions of the game that had enemies who actually moved. Maybe it's supposed to be like this, but if it is, it doesn't work well.

It's a good thing the enemies don't move much. Most of them will be content appearing on screen, running to cover, then popping up to shoot at you. There are a few different types of enemies who don't do this, but their movement is mechanical and predictable throughout. They're not stupid so much as programed to only follow a set path, regardless of where you are or what you're doing.

Then there are the crashes. So many crashes. In around four hours, the game had crashed around twenty times on my iPhone 3GS, then, after the third hard-reset, it decided to delete my save game on the second to last level. Full disclaimer: I didn't bother going back to it at this point.

I've learned to deal with a lot of technical issues with games in the past, but the one I have no tolerance for is a deleted save game. It's the gaming equivalent of blacking out at party and finding pictures of yourself making out with a goat in the morning. It's heart breaking, frustrating and there's nothing you can do about it.

Maybe if Shadowgun was a little more diverse I would be interested in pushing through it again, but the bulk of the game follows the same formula on repeat: walk into area, trigger event, enemies rush out, hide behind cover, shoot. There are enemies later on with different attack-styles, but most of your time will be spent in long corridors with unexplainable cover, shooting at grunts.

All of that said, there are a few interesting mix-ups throughout the campaign worth noting. Boss fights, for example, are well thought out and shift from combat to minor puzzle solving. There are also Simon style hacking mini-games spread throughout to mix things up, as well as light environmental puzzles here and there. They work as a nice respite from the game's shooting heavy tone, but are never challenging enough to offer more than a quick stop-gap in the action.

I have a whole list of pet peeves Shadowgun manages to break – poorly chosen checkpoints, unpredictable splash damage, and the bizarre choice of chapter ends – all things that will frustrate some more than others.

If Madfinger can fix the crashing and save-game deletion issues with a patch, they're still left with a repetitive, but lovely looking shooter. There are hints of true quality in the boss fights and some minor sections of the campaign, but the majority relies on a simple, corridor design that's hard to find engaging for very long.

While we prepare our review, the best place to head is our forums where initial impressions and comments are rolling in. It seems the main criticism is lack of multiplayer, but Madfinger says they have "a lot of plans" for it. Some have even already beaten the game, and are reporting back that completing Shadowgun's single player campaign on medium takes around 5-6 hours.

1112 Episode 3

We first meet the games protagonist, Louis Everett the antiques dealer, in Episode 1 [$4.99/Lite/HD]. Louis bears a striking resemblance to Johnny Depp, but he's having bad dreams, marital issues and work stresses. As you help him complete his daily tasks, it becomes apparent that something weird and mysterious is going on. There's a gap in his memory which Louis can't explain, and the number '1112' seems to keep recurring in his life. This game is about solving that mystery, but don't expect a final outcome yet, as each episode concludes with a cliff-hanger ending, to entice you into the next release.

After a long wait, Episode 2 [$4.99/HD] was released in 2010. It resumed the same storyline and continued in a similar fashion, but with a few more characters, locations, and puzzles, including the addition of three suduko puzzles as mini-games, which sent some players off to find online sudoku solvers.

Episode 3 opens with a brief recap of the first two episodes, which is a useful reminder if you played it years ago, but wouldn't really enlighten a newcomer about the storyline and atmosphere of this game. You could easily play this series starting with Episode 3, but that would be like starting with the third Harry Potter book. If you want the full experience, we recommend starting at the beginning.

Episode 3 features the same high-quality graphics and music that we've come to expect. Each object in your inventory is presented as a 3D rendering, which you can rotate or zoom with your fingers to examine more closely.  Like any graphical adventure game, the goal is to find, use, give and combine objects to solve problems and progress the storyline.

You also need to converse with various characters, for clues or to reveal the next objective. This involves tapping on any green words in their (unspoken) subtitles to collect "conversation starters". Alternatively, you can use a keyboard interface to enter certain words manually, such as answering riddles, or just try entering "1112" to see what various characters think of the games mysterous title.

Prior to release, we were told Episode 3 would contain a longer campaign than the first two episodes combined; and that has eventuated. It's considerably longer and more involved and could easily take 10+ hours to complete. Despite the longer storyline, the English translations are much improved this time around.

One of the main changes from earlier episodes is that specific objectives are now listed and ticked off once accomplished, which prevents players from getting lost within the longer plot and larger game-world. Fourteen Game Center achievements have also been added and are listed without descriptions, to avoid spoilers.

This game will be a challenge for most people to complete without some assistance. There's a lot of returning to previous places and people, even though you may think you've already covered them off, which requires patience. But don't fret, as there's plenty of hints from the developer in our forums, plus step-by-step walk-thrus for each episode are easily located via Google, so you won't get stuck for long.

If you're not ready to purchase this game, consider checking out the lite version of the first episode, as 1112 is easily one of the better quality adventure games on the App Store. This series is getting better, but since it takes the small development team at least a year to produce an episode, this intriguing mystery may not be resolved for a few more years; but we'll be waiting.

Stefan Meyer-Kahlen, seen in the photo above, first brought Shredder Chess [$7.99 / Lite / HD] online in 1993, and since then has placed first at twelve of the various world chess software tournaments, doing particularly well at the speed-centric variety. The iOS version is no slouch either, with tons of functionality that will both provide some significant challenge if you're adept, as well as help you be a better player if you've got a smarmy older cousin like me who always insisted on beating you at every family gathering with a chess set nearby.

It does this through a shockingly adjustable AI engine that adjusts its strengths to yours, calculating your Elo rating along the way. If you're just starting out, you can even move the difficulty slider all the way down and Shredder will even make deliberate novice mistakes. Aside from that, there's a coaching functionality which allows you to analyze your games to see and learn from the mistakes you've made. My favorite feature is the little gauge at the bottom (seen in the screenshots) which shows what Shredder thinks the current winner will be, with some crazy accuracy, regardless of how hard I try to prove it wrong.

In addition, there are 1000 different chess puzzles, the ability to load and save games, and even export these games via the open "Portable Game Notation" format which is email-centric, and can be opened in full-fledged versions of Shredder. Also, by buying the iOS version you get a $10 off coupon which can be put towards the Mac/PC/Linux version which sells for €49.99 or €99.99 depending on whether you spring for the standard or the "Deep" variety.

Sure, there's tons of cheaper (or free-er) chess apps available on the App Store. And really, if all you want to do is play some casual games with friends, Chess With Friends [Free / $2.99] fits the bill perfectly. However, if you're a expert in need of a challenge or a novice actively looking to improve your game, Shredder Chess is where it's at, and has a shelf full of real-world trophies to prove it.

While SNK’s various fighting franchises all had a pretty dedicated following, it was always the Street Fighters and Mortal Kombats of the world that stole the mainstream spotlight. Now here, more than a decade later on iOS, SNK Playmore has brought their A-game for a shot at the iOS fighting crown. And true to its namesake, The King of Fighters-i takes that crown by elevating touch screen fighters to the next level. It’s missing the marquee feature of online multiplayer that Street Fighter IV Volt can boast about, but when it comes to control responsiveness, speed, performance, visuals, animations, and approachability, The King of Fighters-i tops the competition.

The King of Fighters-i is based off of the newest entry in the franchise, The King of Fighters XIII which hit arcades last Summer and is slated for a home console release this October. The game comes with 14 playable characters, and anybody who knows the King of Fighters series knows that that is just a fraction of the monstrous roster of total available fighters. But it’s a decent start, and all of the included characters are interesting and fun to use. Plus, SNK Playmore states in the game’s description that 6 additional characters will be coming by October in free updates, most likely in time to coincide with the console release of the game.

The meat of The King of Fighters-i lies in the 4 single player modes. First, there is the traditional arcade mode lets you engage in the 3-on-3 team battles that are a staple of the series or regular 1-on-1 matches. Then there is an endless mode which is your typical game of survival as you face off against as many consecutive opponents as you can using just one gauge of life, which gets refilled slightly in between rounds. Finally, there is an excellent training mode which not only lets you spar against a computer opponent with many adjustable parameters but also features a fantastic combo training section that will teach you how to pull off some of the extensive combos in the game, some of which are incredibly elaborate.

As for controls, The King of Fighters-i is set up very much like Street Fighter on iOS, right down to the virtual controls which can be placed anywhere on the screen that’s to your liking. Despite the similarities though, The King of Fighters-i controls come out on top, and feel a notch above Street Fighter in terms of overall responsiveness. There's a punch and kick button, a button for evading, one dedicated to simplified special moves, and a fifth button used for entering a hyper state when one of your special meters is filled. These special meters also allow you to do super and EX moves. All of this is explained well in the tutorial that gets you off an running with the basics without much hassle.

The one big feature I love about the controls here is the inclusion of simplified special moves. This allows specials to be pulled off just by hitting a direction along with the dedicated special moves button. For someone like me who isn’t as intimately familiar with each character’s move sets, this allows me to use any character on a whim and not have to worry about constantly checking a move list in the pause screen and trying to memorize their special moves. It really encourages using and exploring different characters rather than the ones I’m normally comfortable with, and also makes the game a bit more playable with virtual controls.

At this point, the bones of The King of Fighters-i seem fairly comparable to other entries in the genre, but it’s in the overall execution where the game really outshines its opponents. The first thing you will notice is that The King of Fighters-i is much faster than other fighting games on the App Store. The action can get really fast-paced, but thanks to the excellent controls it’s not a problem to keep up. Also, I’ve never ran into so much as a stutter in frame rate while playing, and load times are lightening quick.

Graphically, the game is pretty incredible. It contains static backgrounds similar to Street Fighter IV, which is kind of a bummer, but the backgrounds in The King of Fighters-i are much crisper and more vibrant than the drab, fuzzy ones found in Capcom’s offering. Where the game really stands out visually is in the amazing hand-drawn sprites which are animated so fluidly it almost feels like you're watching a cartoon. The character sprites are a bit jagged around the edges, but you’ll hardly notice once you see them in motion. The animations, to me, are what make The King of Fighters-i feel the most like an actual console fighter as opposed to just a mobile version of one.

With all the things there are to love about The King of Fighters-i, there’s still one big thing missing which is the lack of online multiplayer. This might normally have been forgiven on a platform like the iPhone, but since Street Fighter IV Volt just proved that it’s possible to pull off and will likely only get better in the future, it’s something I’d like to have in a fighter. There is a local Bluetooth multiplayer mode, but in my limited testing the  performance seemed fairly sluggish. Still, I appreciate its inclusion and hope that SNK Playmore will explore more options for multiplayer in the future.

As a single player experience though, The King of Fighters-i has a lot to offer. The several arcade modes and combo training alone will keep you busy for some time, not to mention the Game Center leaderboards and achievements, but there’s also a really great collectible component to the game. Coins can be earned while playing the various modes and then spent in an in-game shop on things like concept and promotional art as well as collectible character cards. There are also different pre-fight dialogues for every character matchup in the game, which is a cool little detail if you have any vested interest in the various story elements of the characters. Luckily, it can also be disabled in the options if you choose so as not to slow down the matches starting.

I really can't find much fault in The King of Fighters-i apart from a lack of online multiplayer. If that ever comes into the picture it will just be icing on what is already a very delicious single player cake. Players in our forums have been raving about The King of Fighters-i since release, and as far as iOS fighters are concerned it’s raised the bar significantly against the competition, including the mighty Street Fighter.

Arcades just aren't what they used to be (with a notable exception or two, of course). But, back in the day, they were wonderful places -- the glowing cloud of phosphorescence, that lovely din of beeps and boops from every direction, and rows and rows of stand up cabinets of many shapes and sizes. Of all the cabinets I recall encountering in my youth, one of the most striking was that of Tecmo Bowl, an American football game released in 1987 that was easily the most visually impressive arcade take on the sport of its day. It was a 46-inch, double-wide cabinet that featured two side-by-side monitors sitting back in a dark sort of monitor cavern. The game was played on a side-to-side "widescreen" rendering of a football field across both screens.

Those recalling this well loved game will be happy to hear that Tecmo Koei Games has just released an enhanced iPhone version of the game, called Tecmo Bowl Throwback [App Store].

Those fondly familiar with this classic likely recall the highly popular NES port, which was responsible for most of the game's popularity, given the relative scarcity of the wide cabinet in arcades. Tecmo Bowl has, since, come to the Game Boy, the Wii Virtual Console and, last year, the PS3 and Xbox 360 in the form of Tecmo Bowl Throwback. This iPhone release is actually a port of last year's console remake.

Like all versions of the title, gameplay in Tecmo Bowl Throwback consists of basically picking teams, starting off a game, and choosing plays from a menu that can be customized to some degree. In the arcade and elsewhere this is done with buttons and sticks, but on the iPhone a touch interface that works well has been put in place. It's the same basic drill, however.

Once a play is in motion, you can choose where a player runs or who to pass to with a screen tap. The active defensive player can be chosen with a tap and the act of tackling a player or breaking out of a scuffle is also done with a tap. This approach versus an onscreen D-pad that might've tried to emulate console play was a wise design decision, I feel.

Now, sadly, I am generally not a fan of sports games. I did play the arcade version a few times with friends long ago, and recall it being a good time. Tecmo Bowl, when it was released, was praised for its easy appeal to typical gamers. Spending time with the iPhone version, I can understand where that sentiment was coming from; it's a very approachable title.

The arcade graphics were impressive for their day, while the NES version's were less so. When the title came to the PS3 and Xbox 360 it got a major overhaul featuring a sort of angled perspective 3D playfield. The iPhone version sits somewhere between the original arcade version and last year's console release on the visual front. It's pretty much 2D gameplay with shadowed "3D" players. It looks nice enough, though somewhat retro -- a situation magnified by the game's apparent lack of native Retina display support.

Tecmo Bowl Throwback offers a Quick Play mode to get you going in a flash, and also a Season Play mode that offers more depth, variety (30 teams in all) and overall team development. There is an impressive degree of player and team stats available through the menus, with certain customizations available along the way.

Tecmo Bowl Throwback is a solid representation of the original game that stands as a well done, albeit somewhat abbreviated (no online play, for example), version of the recent console release. Those who enjoyed the earlier versions should have a good time with the iPhone release, but I fear that the nearly 25 years of video game evolution that's taken place since Tecmo Bowl hit the arcades will limit the game's appeal to gamers that have no history with the title.

Tecmo Bowl Throwback requires an iPhone 3GS or 3G iPod touch or better. The iPad's full display is not natively supported at this time.

So what's in it? As the headline so boldly states, new maps, new towers, and a new same-screen multiplayer component have been added. Specifically, the update adds a total of five maps, three of which are single-player only. The other two maps (which are takes on the added maps) support versus and cooperative, same-screen multiplayer.

Each of the single-player maps adds a new tower to the mix. Subatomic shot us a list of all of these:

Plasma Tower -- creates combo attacks when used with other plasma towers!
Shotgun Tower -- fires a devastating volley of drill bits.
Lava Tower -- incinerates all nearby fieldrunners in a giant wave of fire.

While the exclusivity might be a bummer for the iPhone and iPod owners out there, take comfort in the fact that you might also be getting these three single-player maps and turrets. Subatomic wasn't clear about this point at all, so we've tossed an e-mail to the studio to confirm the contents of this supposed update. We'll let you know as soon as we know.

In the meanwhile, check out this screen of a level that could be yours, provided the smaller-screen App update gets what we think it will. Basically you're looking into a window to the future if our hunch is right. But, again, we're checking with Subatomic.

UPDATE: Still waiting for word, but the information we can confirm is up there.

If you're still feeling kind of lost, Yoot Saito is an innovative Japanese game designer who created SimTower back in 1994, a simulation game similar to SimCity in that you had to manage different resources and expansion, but instead of building a sprawling metropolis you built a structure vertically into the sky. The sequel to SimTower that arrived a few years later, called Yoot Tower, is what the iPad version is based off of. A brief description from our post last week:

Yoot Tower is a simulation joint that plays like a vertical take on Sim City. In the game, you'll play as a building manager with a mission to build a massive tower. This tower, however, won't just be filled with bricks, iron, and cement. No, it'll also house people — residents and workers and the like — who all have individual stress levels and needs. Negotiating these needs, while continuing to build your tower and placing desire facilities, composes the core of a game. So, like a good sim, Yoot Tower appears to have quite the interesting juggling act between you and outside forces.

And here is a brief gameplay demo from July of the Japanese version of The Tower running on the iPad:

So it seems that we were wrong in assuming that there would be no way Yoot Tower would be approved in time for the holidays, despite its submission date and the impending App Store lockdown next week. I think it goes without saying, though, that we are overjoyed to have been incorrect about that. Head on over to the Yoot Tower forum thread for some discussion on the game, and we'll be bringing you a full review just as soon as we've put it through its paces.

Last year we took a close look at Madden NFL 10 and thought it was a really great football game for the iPhone. Madden '10 came loaded with all the licensed players, stadiums, logos, and everything else you'd expect of a Madden game along with game modes ranging from single exhibition games to full seasons. The two hip new features of Madden NFL 10 for the iPhone were hot routes allowing players to draw on the screen to control players, and "action control time" which switched the game to slow motion mode allowing for precise maneuvers with the virtual controls.

There wasn't much to complain about with last year's Madden, which really left me wondering what EA was going to include in this year's release to up the ante. The preview we got revealed substantial graphical upgrades including Retina Display support, but it wasn't until I got to spend more time with the game today that I realized just how much more fun the other new features made playing Madden NFL 11.

In the interest of full disclosure, I'm not a sports person by any means. I don't remember the last time I watched anything more than the Super Bowl on TV, and the only sporting events I've attended have been the result of friends with extra tickets. I play sports games, but generally gravitate towards arcade style sports games like Homerun Battle 3D [$4.99 / Free], or sports games that have RPG elements such as Baseball Superstars 2010 [$4.99 / Free].

I mention this because I generally never really got into a Madden game, or really any full football game. The weak link for me always came in choosing from an endless array of both offensive and defensive plays, with each yearly iteration of football game boasting even more plays to choose from. I don't know enough about the strategy of football plays to have ever felt like I was making a wise decision, and when it got down to it, play selection just always seemed like a needless interruption every few seconds while playing the game.

GameFlow changes all of this, and I really can't overstate how awesome a feature it actually is. Using some new AI algorithm likely designed by a team of people who know way more about football than I ever care to, Madden 11's GameFlow will intelligently chooses plays for you. It is absolutely insane how much this changes both the feel and the pace of the game. Using GameFlow, endless submenus of plays are a thing of the past. Instead, you just play football. The plays it selects work fairly well too, or at least, much better than my typical choice of plays which usually alternate between the hail mary and the fake field goal kick-- both favorites of mine.

What's also shocking is how much this actually speeds up playing the game. You can tap the screen to skip through the extra animations, victory dances, and other junk and play through a whole football game in what barely seems like any time at all. Of course, if you are the kind of person who knows exactly what every play does, all you have to do is flip GameFlow to off and you have complete control of each and every play.

The hot routes functionality from last year has been expanded, and at any point during the game you can pause the action and draw paths for your players. If you're playing offense and do this, you can save those routes as an audible, or if you're playing defense you can just send your players wherever you want. The whole system works very well, and by drawing lines you can send dispatch players to man to man duty, follow the ball, or really anything else. This really makes defense a lot more fun because you can now actually sensibly direct your team around instead of just tabbing in between players and chasing after whoever has the ball. Check out my top secret LOL offense:

As mentioned already, the graphics of Madden NFL 11 look fantastic. The stadium crowd has actual depth now, and they even wave around signs for the home team. The included weather effects look good, and overall it seems like all the player models and animations are more detailed. Every texture in game also seems to have been substantially improved, making going back and forth between 10 and 11 seem fairly drastic.

Madden 11 also is host to some other noticeable tweaks over last year's as well such as controls that feel a little better and a spruced up interface. There's an in-game store which currently is home to a free roster update, but seems like it might be used for future DLC . Finally, Madden NFL 11 behaves beautifully as an iPhone game, gracefully saving your game and resuming quickly when you load it again.

Like last year, the inevitable comparison between Gameloft's NFL 11 [$6.99] and Madden NFL 11 will likely take place in our forums for months to come, but in my opinion, Madden wins by a landslide. Gameloft's offering seems to run at a higher frame rate, but Madden looks better overall-- rspecially when it comes to how the crowd and stadiums are rendered. Madden NFL 11 has local bluetooth multiplayer while NFL 11 is single player only, and the commentary in Madden seems less repetitive than Gameloft's. Where Madden really wins though is in the extra features. With how much I've fallen in love with GameFlow I can hardly bring myself to deal with NFL 11's play selection, and Madden's total defensive control makes playing defense in NFL 11 flat out boring in comparison.

At the end of the day, people who like Madden games likely don't need this review, or anything more than the iTunes link to download the game for that matter. Who I really expect to sway into checking out Madden NFL 11 are the casual sports fans, or people like me, who are vaguely interested in sports games but found the various technicalities of football games to generally be annoying. GameFlow fixes all this, and I can hardly believe that I spent the majority of my day today playing Madden 11 on my iPhone-- not because I was trying to power through it to write a review, but because I was actually really enjoying a football game for the first time since Mutant League Football on the Sega Genesis.

The iPad and iPhone versions are essentially the same aside from the price difference and UI tweaks to make the controls more comfortable for playing on the iPad. The iPhone version is workable with pixel doubling, and the only thing you're really going to be missing out on is the upcoming "Vintage Voltage Football" mode which is basically just Super Shock Football [$1.99 / Free] with Madden graphics.

Since I missed the iPad version of The War of Eustrath the first time around, I was really excited to engage in some tactical battles with the iPhone version. What I wasn't expecting is to actually be engrossed in the storyline that accompanies the action. It certainly has some cliché elements, but the anime style character portraits and feelings of emotion they convey do a great job of keeping you interested in what's going on. The only major issue in this department is the many grammatical errors that plague the written text, but it's never to the point that you can't follow along or misunderstand what is trying to be said.

Besides the surprisingly good story, there are some excellent tactical battles in The War of Eustrath. Your team of characters in the game control giant mechs called GEARs which can be upgraded and leveled up as you play. Each GEAR can have elemental tendencies such as lighting or air that give them additional special abilities. Battles take place on an overhead grid in turn-based fashion, and engaging with enemies shows the battle play out in a zoomed in side view of the GEARs. The different terrains you travel to during the game are varied and play a big part in choosing your strategy for each battle. It's all pretty standard stuff for games like this, but is well done and enjoyable.

What's really nice about The War of Eustrath is that the UI has been built lovingly around the touch interface. Accessing menus and moving your team around the maps works really well, and the extra screen real estate of the iPad provides an even less cluttered experience (although at a substantially higher price). Things feel a little cramped on the iPhone, but not overwhelmingly so. There's also a ton of content in the game with over 50 campaign missions, some of which can play out with multiple results, altering how the story flows. Players in our forums are loving the game, as iPad owners have for the last couple months in that versions game thread. If you like tactical turn-based battling, giant upgradeable robots, and compelling storytelling, take a look at The War of Eustrath for either iPhone or iPad.

Across Age is an RPG loaded with puzzles that take advantage of the game's two main gameplay mechanics: Being able to control two separate characters at once, and heaps of time travel. The game also features massive bosses, which everyone loves, and of course each boss has its own gimmick (usually utilizing an ability you just unlocked) which must be exploited to defeat it. Overall, I had a fun time playing through Across Age as it tickled both my nostalgia for similar games of the Super Nintendo era, while being just fresh enough to not feel blatantly "inspired" by those same games.

FDG Entertainment has been hard at work on an iPad version of the game, and have redrawn all of the graphics in the process. The HD version also has combat and character movement tweaks with customizable on-screen controls. There's even going to be a bonus dungeon and boss fight, which hopefully will be cool enough to give players a reason go play through the game again if they've already beat it on the iPhone or iPod touch.

FDG is planning on releasing Across Age HD sometime next month for $7.99. The screenshots they've sent us so far look awesome, and I can't wait to run through the game again on my iPad.

Monkey Island 2 takes place after the events of the first Monkey Island where wannabe pirate Guybrush Threepwood is introduced and meets the cast of characters included in the game as he seeks out the pirate leaders and attempts to prove himself through three challenges. A ghost pirate named LeChuck is thrown in to the mix, along with the beautiful Elaine Marley. Without spoiling too much, the game concludes with romance, root beer, and fireworks. Even though playing the original is by no means required to enjoy the sequel, Monkey Island is filled with great writing, silly characters, funny situations, and often extremely odd solutions to the problems that Guybrush must overcome which is really worth checking out-- Especially considering the fantastic job LucasArts did on the iPhone port of the special edition release.

Monkey Island 2 opens with our familiar protagonist Guybrush Threepwood setting the scene for his next adventure. Now that LeChuck is no more, he decides to search for the treasure of "Big Whoop", and in typical Guybrush fashion, he has no idea where it is, has no way to get there, and doesn't really know if it even exists at all. Regardless, this hasn't stopped him in the past, and it certainly won't stop him now. Of course no LucasArts adventure game could ever be as straight forward as finding out where some treasure is, figuring out a way to get there, then digging it up, and it doesn't take long before you're toe to toe with Largo LaGrande, LeChuck's old henchman. One thing leads to another, and LeChuck returns, turning your simple treasure hunt in to yet another epic battle with the ghost (now zombie) pirate.

With a development team that was nearly identical to that of the original Secret of Monkey Island, the sequel shares all of the same fantastic writing and cartoonish charm. Monkey Island 2 is hilarious at times, and incredibly cheesy at others, but manages to maintain a highly entertaining witty atmosphere the whole way through. The port of the original to the iPhone was a load of fun, with the only real complaint being the control system which treated the touchscreen like a trackpad which you used to move the in-game cursor around. Thankfully, this has been replaced by a new default control scheme in the sequel which works like many other iPhone adventures games where you just touch areas in the game world that you want to move to, or objects you want to interact with.

Interactive objects highlighted on right.

The special edition of Monkey Island 2 also has several other refinements over the first, my personal favorite being the highlighting system that shows you objects and areas that you can interact with. Tapping the screen with two fingers makes everything interactive glow, easily allowing you to see things you've missed, or other things to try. This is an incredibly welcome change from the standard tap/click on absolutely everything once you get stuck in an area. This two finger tap also illuminates doors you can walk through, making it very easy to see where you're able to go so you don't miss anything on your journey.

If you do get stuck, Monkey Island 2 features the same great hint system found in the original where you can get hints which initially start out extremely vague to push you in the right direction which eventually ramp up to flat out telling you where to go and what to do. Having played quite a few classic adventure game ports on the iPhone, this really is the best approach as you never need to leave the game to check a walkthrough online, and it's usually much more fun to just get a small hint to send you in the right direction instead of just reading exactly what to do. (Of course, that's there if you need it.)

iPad top, iPhone bottom - Comparing both graphical styles.

Monkey Island 2 also has the incredibly superfluous yet amazingly cool classic graphics included which blew out mind when we first saw the previous special edition. By default you can play the game with its redone graphics, stellar voiceovers, and the toolbar of actions that Guybrush is capable of. Swiping two fingers across the screen causes the game to fade out in to its original pixelated glory with the top half of the screen displaying the original game with the set of actions below.

Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck's Revenge launched with separate iPad and iPhone versions of the game, and while I would have loved there to be one universal version for both devices, the iPad game is definitely the one to have. Not only does it have the same adventure from its iPhone counterpart, but currently for an additional two bucks (assuming you own an iPad) you get high resolution graphics and audio commentary. On quite a few areas of the game, you're able to tap a microphone icon in the top right corner and listen to the creators talk about wherever you are in game. It's not exactly a killer feature that's worth getting upset over if you only have an iPhone or iPod touch, but it is a nice addition.

The one thing that is a bit of a disappointment is that LucasArts flaunts these fantastic looking high resolution art assets in the iPad version, but played on my iPhone 4, the iPhone version is disappointingly low resolution in comparison. It still looks good, but I would have loved to have seen some Retina Display support in Monkey Island 2, I'm hopeful for future updates that might beef up the graphics, but it seems doubtful that audio commentary will ever make its way to the iPhone.

I could go on and on about how great the Monkey Island series is, how wonderful any game build on the SCUMM engine is, and the genius of the original creators Ron Gilbert, Tim Schafer, and Dave Grossman, but really this is just a game you need to play. LucasArts is covering all its bases with this launch, with free lites corresponding to both the full iPhone or iPad versions. If you've never played an adventure game before, I can't think of a better place to start. The Monkey Island series is great, and the few minor refinements added to the sequel makes this one of the most accessible point and click (point and tap?) games on the App Store. Download the lite version and give it a try, if the game hooks you in, chances are you will enjoy the entirety of both Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2.

On the other hand, if you're ever played a Monkey Island game before, I doubt you even made it this far in this review before just clicking the first iTunes link you could find and downloading the game for whatever device you own.

Galcon begins with a galactic playfield filled with planets of varying size.  The green planets belong to the player, neutral planets are grey, and planets of any other color belong to the enemy.  The goal is to take over all the planets.

The size of the planet indicates the production rate of the planet.  A number appears on each planet indicating how many ships exist on that planet–for neutral and enemy planets, this is the number of ships that must be defeated in order to take control of a particular planet.  The player clicks on one or more green planets and then drags to a target planet in order to set ships in motion to invade said planet.

Galcon Fusion takes full advantage of the iPad's large display to deliver really a deeper play experience than is possible on the iPhone. And, like the original Galcon, Galcon Fusion provides a truly excellent, real-time strategy game experience. Since it's initial release, Galcon Fusion received a 1.1 update that enabled multiplayer action, doubled the framerate, and improved the overall graphics and lighting effects.