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

The core gameplay isn’t particularly innovative, even the tower types are pretty standard (machine gun, missile, anti-air, e.t.c.). The game does have a pretty mean difficulty streak, since the AI adapts to tower placement and tries to find the path of least resistance to your base. The end result is a game providing a decent challenge for folks that aren't used to complex tower defense strategy.

Where Spice Invaders differentiates itself is in its overall presentation and execution. The visuals are crisp and vivid and do an interesting job portraying a futuristic (and bleak) Earth. This is also reflected in a good level design, as Spice Invaders takes you through a tour of the various continents. The music is catchy and adequately sets the mood. Even the menus, in-game tutorial and story cutscenes are done well. In fact, based on the above I’d argue that Spice Invaders has all the core elements of a great tower defense game. That is, until you get to the pay wall.

Yes folks, after seven missions in South America (the first continent in the game), you are unceremoniously informed that in order to move to the next continent you must either reach level 20 or pay-up 42 spice. When I reached this point, I was barely level 13, so you can imagine my surprise at making the level cap that high. Also, since I was upgrading my towers on a regular basis (as I was taught), I had very little spice to try and get past the level cap using that method.

I understand the strategy of utilizing freemium as a revenue source, and as far as I’m concerned if it’s done right I’m all for it. I thought Spice Invaders did an adequate job balancing spice rewards with tower (and upgrade) unlocks. I even thought their idea of making costumes for your avatar cost tons of spice wasn't a bad idea, as it was purely cosmetic and didn’t change the gameplay much. I was even fairly tolerant of the screen-filling ads that you’ll randomly get when starting levels.

But, putting a pay wall into the game after only seven levels forcing players to either grind out for a while on already completed maps or pay up in IAP to access enough space to pass is not a good idea and just seems to go too far.

Now, before we all get our pitchforks and chant about the downfall of freemium, there are a few things you should know. First, it costs only a dollar in IAP to purchase enough spice to pass this pay wall (if you shell out for the $2.99 pack the ads even go away). Furthermore, if you read  this review, you now know you can simply keep 42 spice in your inventory for when this first pay wall hits so you can continue right on playing (you’ll earn more than enough with just leveling).

Finally, while grinding to level 20 does take a decent amount of time, it’s not too hard to simply save up the spice you earn from redoing missions and leveling up to move on (that’s how I did it). If you’re willing to put a little effort into grinding, these sorts of barriers aren’t horrible.

However, in this instance it’s really the principle of the thing. Artificially restricting progress in this manner is not my preferred way of implementing freemium mechanics. It would have been far better to add more towers/upgrades/perks and expect players to eventually shell out spice purchases to explore those (the game does this as well). I have no problem with encouraging players to spend some cash on premium items that are not necessary for normal gameplay. The restrictions in Spice Invaders do not fit that example, especially since all these design choices are solely made to encourage folks to spend money (rather than designs that encourage fun).

It really is a shame, because other than the freemium issues Spice Invaders is a really great addition to the tower defense genre. While the gameplay didn’t offer anything particularly new, the artwork, music, and all around presentation and gameplay implementation were well done. I just really wish there was a way for players to just pay one hard fee that would get rid of all pay walls and basically treat the game as a normal paid title. Unfortunately, that’s not the way freemium typically works.

If you’re in the mood to explore a new, tough TD game and you don’t mind the freemium grind (or shelling out cash), then check out Spice Invaders. If not, well, I already know what you’re going to be doing.

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

Why jump and stomp? Because it helps him reach yummy bananas and power-ups like banana magnets or rising helium balloons. It also helps you use the gondola to squash "agitated birds" (which resemble certain fat Angry Birds) or to bounce the ape and gondola over or under approaching obstacles. The ski-lift doesn't explode after a crash, instead it gets snagged and you're given an opportunity to quickly tap the screen to destroy the blocking obstacle. If the snagged ski-lift moves off the left of the screen then you lose a life.

If the bananas or mines are slightly to the left or right, you can tilt your device to swing the gondola. As it sways, the gorilla totters, but don't worry he never falls off. I'm not generally a fan of games that involve simultaneous tilting and swiping, but it felt appropriate - although your hands might tire after a long session of tilting, swiping and tapping.

The eight levels start with a tutorial and include the 'Crystal Caves' which feature stalagmites and giant mushrooms to avoid, the underwater 'Reef' and a gondola in space. Each level is dynamically generated, so the layout is different each ride. There's also a variety of soundtracks, including one with distinctive lyrics in a deep voice: "Go-Go Gogo Gorilla! Do it! Oh yeah!!!"

Gorilla Gondola uses an interesting approach to unlocking levels by requiring a set of objectives to be satisfied. For example, collect X bananas, clear X gates and clear X obstacles without crashing. Some of these objectives can be earned across multiple games, and it tracks your progress as you go. This approach to unlocking levels is slower than many other games, but also  makes unlocking a level feel more rewarding. Especially the "Factory" level which has eight objectives to satisfy before it unlocks, including reaching certain scores on earlier levels.

Timing your jumps right is a skill which improves with practice, as the screens become increasingly full of explosive monkey-mines, fans to activate with a tap, bonus gates for the gorilla or gondola to pass through, and lasers. The levels are quite long and contain roughly  5 sections, so it can feel frustrating when the screen abruptly becomes cluttered with mines and causes multiple deaths in quick succession, sending you right back to the start to try again. Personally, I'd rather finish the entire Gondola ride each time and receive a lower score.

The Game Center scores are based on obstacles passed, bananas collected, the number of enemies and gates, and your overall awesomeness. How do they measure awesomeness? Dean from Electric Pixel Factory explains:  "If you collect all banana's, clear all gates, kill all birds and clear obstacles with maximum risk (i.e - closest possible distance) then you will be 100% awesome. Missing bananas and ramming obstacles will gradually chip away at your awesomeness."

Gorilla Gondola is a quality release, with responsive controls, good graphics and energetic music. The gameplay feels fresh and there's definitely skill involved with bouncing the gondola through the tight spots. The way multiple objectives are used to unlock levels feels well-balanced and is rewarding, providing an incentive to keep that fearless Gorilla jumping and stomping.

In The Lighthouse HD, you take the role of an all-seeing lighthouse operator helping ships get across hazardous waters. Tap anywhere on the screen to shine a light on that area. If you shine the light near a ship, it’ll alter direction towards the direction of the light (and will then continue straight on its new path). The game plays somewhat similarly to line drawing games like Harbor Master [$1.99 / HD / Free], with the difference being that you can’t directly alter the course of your ships and instead must use the light to indirectly manage your shipping lanes (rather than drawing routes).

The goal of each mission is to accomplish various objectives (which include goals like getting ships from one point to another and leading fishing boats to giant schools) before losing all your ships. In addition, you’ll encounter barriers such as rolling fog, ship-seeking sharks, and giant krakens looking to trap your ship. As expected, a lot of multitasking, coordination, and precision are required to pass missions and hit the highest scores. Overall gameplay is executed well enough, although I would have liked an option to speed up the map when I’m working with slower boats (considering the game is on a timer, I could see why this wasn’t on the top of the list).

The areas that The Lighthouse HD does a really great job with are its visuals and presentation. The game succeeds in conveying a moody, dark atmosphere at the onset of each mission. Weather effects such as rain, lightning and fog add even more to the general feel of the game, although there were a few times when the various effects made it hard to see some of the baddies swimming underneath the water (call it part of the cruelty of the sea, I suppose). As you get towards the end of each mission, the sun begins to rise, the music starts swelling and the whole map gives off a sense of seeing a light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. I rarely see a game succeed at achieving a play on emotion, but The Lighthouse HD does a good job of getting there.

Unfortunately, there are several areas in The Lighthouse HD that feel rough around the edges. Specifically, the game is filled with a lot of frustrating gameplay nuances that just seem out of place. For example, there are no on-screen notifications when ships are about to come into play on the map. Considering that several levels charge you with taking ships from one end of the map to the other, with both entrances also posing as exists, it can be very frustrating when you get close to an exit and a ship appears out of nowhere and collides with your existing ship, making you lose both in the process.

Another example deals with actual gameplay mechanics. One of the items available to you to make guiding ships easier is buoys, which force nearby ships to divert course automatically. The problem is I could never get the buoys to work correctly – I’d place one in a certain location thinking ships would divert one way and they end up going another way. Considering there doesn’t appear to be a way to remove them once they’re placed. This ends up being a waste of resources and can make or break a level.

Another concern is in regards to content. The Lighthouse HD offers 30 total missions, making the game good on content for at least three or four hours (depending on whether you like collecting objective medals). However, I imagine that most gamers will clamor that the game could use more missions, particularly at its current price point. The developer has stated in the forums that additional levels are coming, and I hope they arrive sooner rather than later.

Despite these shortcomings, The Lighthouse HD should appeal to fans of vehicle management games and line-drawers. Its nuanced changes to the standard gameplay and overall visual presentation do a decent job of differentiating itself. Assuming you can get past the relative lack of content and occasional strange gameplay missteps, I’d recommend The Lighthouse HD .

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.

We've heard all varieties of the backstory before, and surely this is just another of those, but you can't deny that developer Sulake knows what they're doing. After all, they're behind the Habbo Hotel world, and the ten million monthly visitors there is nothing to shake a stick at.

So how have they applied their expertise to Niko? Well, it's a game with a very simple approach, which seems to be a highly successful formula for other winners in the genre. So if you're into that whole Aves with an anger problem thing, you might like this. Niko is an easy guy to control – you have a set of arrows on the bottom of your screen to move him back and forth and a button with his face to make him jump slingshot style (pull it back, see a trajectory appear, and fire away).

That's it. Nothing fancy. Your job is to navigate a series of 30 levels, the first six of which are free to play. You'll need to pony up $1.99 in order to gain access to the other 24, should you be so inclined.

Level design in Niko actually reminded me directly of retro Sonic titles like Sonic the Hedgehog 2, where you often find yourself flying at exhilarating speed picking up dozens of rings at a time, only to risk the danger of bumping into a beastie you didn't see and losing them all. Niko opts not to include the painful part of this formula, merely letting you use bouncy pads and moving platforms in the air to propel yourself through its worlds.

There are enemies, but they don't really make as much as an appearance until you get a bit further along. It feels like a proper platformer, and while the levels hold challenge, they never feel frustrating to complete, which is one of my gripes with a lot of portable platformers and puzzlers today.

Each level you play gives you the opportunity for multiple ratings, of course, with a total of three stars to earn based on performance and golden disks that are harder to find. A unique addition to replay value is also offered in the form of rewards that can be taken over to Habbo and used there. Badges, trophies, and a special surprise if you rescue all if Niko's friends are all there for the grabbing, so that ought to come in handy if you are already a Habbo member (or are considering becoming one).

Well-made, clever and fun, Niko is definitely a platformer that's worth your attention. If you explore the first six levels for free, and if you find you're hooked, it's pretty cheap to score the rest. Then you can slingshot, jump and fly through the air to your heart's delight.

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.

Fantasy Chronicle follows the story of Light, a mysterious youth adopted by a small village who begins his training to join Holos Over, the hero guild charged with ridding the world of evil. During his adventure, Light encounters strife, grief, revenge and nearly every other RPG cliché under the sun. While the story isn’t going to win any awards, it does just enough to advance the narrative and keep you playing, which is more than I can say for some of the other games in the genre.

One area that Fantasy Chronicle does a great job with is its battle system depth. Players control a maximum of three main characters at any time, and each of those characters can employ the aid of a guardian beast – monsters that have their own stats and special moves and can share the damage incurred by the character they are attached to. In addition, you can also set various tactics for your guardian beasts which impact the amount of damage they share with their companion.

I also enjoyed the material/crafting system that Fantasy Chronicle employs. Every enemy you defeat has a chance to drop some kind of raw material that you can later use to create or upgrade your weapons and armor. Upgrade your equipment enough and you have an opportunity to convert it into a different item entirely (assuming you find the crafting book for the new item). Soon after the intro, you also meet an NPC that’ll automatically find certain material for you depending on what locations you tell him to search. It’s a neat little addition that lets you supplement your materials to make the crafting experience a little less monotonous.

Control-wise, while I don’t think Fantasy Chronicle does a particularly good job with its touch controls, the virtual D-Pad controls are very responsive. I particularly liked the optional control toggle that lets you quickly switch between touch and D-Pad controls whenever you wish (this is particularly useful because the D-Pad is huge and blocks a lot of screen space). It’s a feature I think more games could use.

Like many other JRPGs on iOS, Fantasy Chronicle suffers from a mismanaged English translation. Casual conversations between characters feel disjointed, and there’s a lot of story (and non-story) related dialogs that are borderline incomprehensible. It’s never a good sign when I get to a story section and I find myself trying to speed through simply because I don’t really care too much. Granted, I’ve seen plenty of games with a more horrid translation than Fantasy Chronicle, but considering its RPG roots I’m always a bit more critical of an element I consider essential.

The biggest issue I think Fantasy Chronicle contends with is eventual tedium. Each region that you explore has a town acting as the central hub with quests, with a few surrounding areas inhabited by baddies. Typically, you’ll enter the town, get a few quests with mundane objectives usually involving kill nearby enemies, and then you return for more quests. Do enough and you’ll unlock a story-based quest that expands on the narrative. Eventually, you’ll get to progress to a new region with the quest hub and you get to do it all over again.

Because of this type of mission structure, Fantasy Chronicle tends to feature a great deal of grinding with not a lot of story reward. You’re going to grind for mission objectives, resources for crafting, and for experience (although the last one not so much). Missions typically take you back to the same areas again, and when you’ve found yourself over leveled for those areas, the experience becomes an exercise in how fast you can push the attack button during battles.

There are undoubtedly some JRPG fans out there that embrace this style of play. Considering that Fantasy Chronicle gets a lot of the underlying gameplay and controls right, I’d actually recommend it to those types of gamers as a title worth checking out. However, if you’re looking for something a bit less formulaic or a game with more emphasis on story quality, Fantasy Chronicle may not be the RPG you’re looking for.

Armed with a built-in audience, a new publishing deal with Konami, and a multi-tiered business model, Ash II: Shadows [$2.99 Silver Edition / $4.99 Gold Edition] should have been a sure thing for SRRN Games. The UI is cleaner, the sprites more detailed, and random encounters replaced with on-screen enemies – Konami cash put to good use. I have the lasting impression, though, that SRRN's business concerns have impacted – if  not downright dictated – some of its design choices.

The first – and so far, only – chunk of Shadows lasts about five hours, during which time players are exposed to enough world-building and character introductions to feel the full weight of the cliffhanger that introduces the inevitable second chapter. Creating a coherent narrative arc in a relatively confined – by JRPG standards – space means that Shadows employs rather brisk pacing, both narrative and systematic.

I haven't played the original Ash [99¢ / Lite], but I enjoy feeling like a newcomer to the world, and Shadows does a good job of dripfeeding players relevant information without getting too bogged down in exposition. The interpersonal relationships are full of sharp, punchy dialogue that achieves a great amount of characterization in very little time.

Indeed, Shadows puts a premium on action – Damien, a disgraced Aghausian rebel, and his ragtag band are constantly questing and exploring, and they spend very little time actually discussing their options or thinking rationally. It's nice to avoid hearing them labor every detail of exploring what they call "a magical fairy continent," but Shadows can feel ill-plotted and haphazard as a result of its breakneck pace.

The upside is that, by constantly offering something new to see and learn, Shadows' narrative elements can keep players hooked where its systems fall short. Like most things in Ash, the systems are relatively basic and cribbed from larger, more-established franchises. The basic components of the game are a paper-rock-scissors elemental system, a weapon proficiency meter, a queue that maps out the order of the turn-based combat, and skills which are gained by leveling up.

At its best, Shadows is a game about balancing power for precision. Players balance equipping their characters with weapons that carry a high proficiency with ones that come with elemental bonuses. Combat is an exercise in trying to manipulate the queue to your advantage, in trying to get as many turns as possible without letting the enemy in line – it's just too bad that all the best attacks come with heavy queue penalties.

These are basic RPG conceits, but there's potential here – they're common because they work really well. The problem, quite frankly, is that the game is too easy. This is ostensibly in response to the first game's difficulty, but because each battle ends so quickly, I never really have to make any tough choices or fully take advantage of the mechanics in place. When Shadows lets me one-shot my way through the first five hours, it leaves an entire combat system unused and unexplored. (There's also IAP to, god forbid, buy XP-boosting equipment.)

The larger point here is that Shadows' story works well with the game's episodic structure and the gameplay doesn't. As a five-hour mirco-RPG, Shadows provides a satisfying narrative arc. It's ok to take it slow if your game lasts 80 hours, but this one only lasts five –the systems feel underdeveloped and stunted. There's a disconnect in Damien's experience as a player-character and my experience as the man behind the scenes. On the bright side, though – there's no grinding necessary, which lets me get back to the story all the quicker, and there's nothing stopping SRRN from re-balancing the game before Chapter 2 is released.

That's the thing: there are still five more chapters to play. Ash II: Shadows comes in two packages, gold and silver. If you buy the gold version, all future content will be free. Silver buyers get the second chapter free and a discount on extra content.  There's also a "bronze" version in the works – the first chapter will be free, but subsequent content will have to be purchased. Since the rest of the game hasn't been priced yet, it's impossible to know how the silver and bronze packages will shake out.

This is a quandary: I like the story and want to see more of it, but I want the systems to get more engaging before plopping out more cash, especially because it's so easy to see that the fundamentals are already in place. Ash II: Shadows is an improved game over the original in many ways, but until some tweaks are made and we see how the rest of the episodes shake out it's hard to gauge if it's ultimately an overall better experience.

The game you play over the course of that journey is a platformer, with all your standard platforming elements: running, jumping, collecting widgets, and so on. Trump's music has the power to stop people in their tracks - literally freeze time - which opens the way for a few clever puzzles and challenges. But imprecise controls and terrible translation keep Jazz from reaching the heights it deserves.

The translation is the worst offense, completely mangling what may be a touching story or may be a heavy-handed lesson on racism. It's hard to tell when it's presented with phrases like this:

"To be honest. I got prepared to that, but even tough I didn't lost my hope because I knew my music affected her."

We can overlook a few misspellings or grammatical errors, but this translation is inexcusably bad. Oh, and the "daring parallel with the real story of Louis Armstrong," as mentioned in the app description? Ignore that. It's a cute story, but pretty banal, and beyond the setting, the jazz and the color of their skin, Trump and Satchmo don't have much in common at all.

The controls aren't nearly as bad as the grammar, but they need to be fine-tuned. They're laid out with movement on the left side, action on the right, but movement is split up into two sections (back and forth, up and down) and action is laid out so you can't really do more than one thing at a time. If you need to, say, climb a ladder and jump or push a box and freeze time, it's a finger-twister. The game seems to delight in making you do those sorts of things from time to time. Throw in occasionally sketchy physics and strange inconsistencies in the properties of objects and you have yourself a recipe for serious frustration.

If those problems get fixed up, Jazz will be an absolute gem. Every bit of it is gorgeous. You can clamber over the menu and credits, laid out in an elegant theater. The levels, silent movie cut scenes, and animations look fantastic from start to finish. The game is accompanied by a lovely jazz soundtrack that gets better and better as you put your band together and move toward the climax. It's all downright beautiful.

Aside from the frustratingly floaty controls (and the lack of consideration the level design gives them), the platforming is quite cool. The ability to freeze time opens up interesting possibilities for puzzles, allowing you to manipulation sections of your environment and the people around you. Objects that can be frozen are visually distinct from those that can't, but that doesn't make solutions immediately obvious.

For difficulty, I'd stick Jazz at a comfortable middle of the road. It stays too easy for just long enough to get worrisome, but things ramp up apace once they start moving. There are eleven long levels, broken up into several sections that are filled to checkpoints, so you'll never have to replay much unless you want to go back for collectables. Within those tiny bits between checkpoints, however, there are occasionally big-time challenges. Usually these difficulty spikes come at a welcome moment, but every once in a while they're phone-throwingly frustrating.

I can't recommend Jazz: Trump's Journey wholeheartedly. It sells itself as a game with a unique and engaging story, and that's something it simply doesn't have. Setting aside the translation, the message of the game is still iffy at best and you'll only find parallels to Louis Armstrong if you squint really hard. But it is, for the most part, a solid, fun platformer. And can you argue with the looks, or the sound? Let's settle on a cautious recommendation, with a side of hoping for a significant patch-up sooner than later. If you decide to take a look, swing by our discussion thread and let us know what you think.

Zombie Wonderland 2: Outta Time!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Woody Woodpecker [99¢] is basically Tiny Wings [99¢] turned into a side-scrolling race between five cartoon characters across a curvaceous landscape. And like most Chillingo releases, it's nicely presented. You choose which of the five characters to race as, with each having their own "vehicle" and special weapon.

You might choose Woody on a skate board launching missiles, Winnie Woodpecker on skis spraying perfume or perhaps Buzz Buzzard on his motorcycle splashing around black oil to slow down the opposition. Each character has slightly different attributes for speed, acceleration and handling, but this doesn't make much difference, as it's pretty easy to win races. This game would definitely benefit from more challenging difficulty levels.

The main controls are based on one finger, much like Tiny Wings. You hold your finger down to accelerate while descending and lift your finger when moving up-hill. Buttons are available to activate your character's special weapon or for speed-boosts, both of which re-charge before re-use.  There are options for left/right hand controls, although strangely, you must display "left hand" for right handed taps.

Two game modes are provided: Single-player race, or online multiplayer via Game Center. The multiplayer mode randomly matches you with one opponent. My first race was Woody versus someone else playing as Woody. Since then it's been difficult to find a random online opponent (there's no option to play a specific friend).

The thirty single-player levels are spread across three locations. You start on the golf course, but can unlock the snow-covered slopes of the Arctic and Circus levels by winning races and earning "thumbs-up" awards, which is essentially the 3-star achievement system used in many games. On the golf course, there are sand-traps to slow you down and lightning clouds to shock you. While in the Arctic levels, the characters are given skis. You can switch characters between races as it doesn't matter which character you use to beat each level.

Scores are based on the number of slides, tricks, mayhem (swooping on non-race characters), time and points gained during the race, all of which contribute to your "thumbs-up" rating. But if you don't place in the top three, you don't receive a score. High score leaderboards are provided in both Game Center and Crystal, with a separate leaderboard listed for each of the three race locations. But don't rely on the on-screen progress indicators to see how you're doing, as they frequently misreport your position.

Woody Woodpecker is an easy game to enjoy (like Tiny Wings) and has a special nostalgic appeal. However, whereas Tiny Wings had islands to reach and evolving objectives to satisfy, this game has neither. Sure, there's levels and worlds to unlock and a few Game Center objectives, but the character attributes aren't upgradable and the wins come too easily. It would be more satisfying if the various characters, means of transport, and weapons were unlocked along the way, rather than all provided from the start. Overall, a good game, but just for a couple of days or for the kids.

Taken on its own merits Snoticles is certainly a solid title, minus a few recent weeks of crash-happy downtime between updates. There are five worlds of physics puzzles to be solved with the excretions of Zit, Dread, Spark and Snot, the titular snoticles. Each has its own abilities that are put to the test in solving puzzles defined by (generally) static blobs that must be destroyed.

Each snoticle has a set number of shots to destroy the on-screen blots. You must carefully aim and fire, sometimes destroying obstacles before you destroy the blots themselves. It's not completely unfamiliar. But there are no carefully constructed towers to topple, no slingshot to pull. Just the usual things - shooting, a selection of special abilities, a three-star rating system and the goal of complete destruction.

Zit's shots are the default from which every other shot is drawn. His follow an arc afflicted by gravity and bounce off surfaces. If they hit an Alpha Blot, all other blots around it die. Spark launches fireballs that are unaffected by gravity and fly straight through almost anything in their path. Dread's shots blow up everything around the first surface they hit. Snot's particularly grotesque shots cling and can be dropped with an extra tap.

The formula works, but it never gets all that interesting. Every level has more or less a single solution, and most of them are obvious. The only trick is to pull them off with the fewest shots possible. In practice this mostly winds up meaning you'll retake the same shots in the same order and try not to miss. As the game progresses, more and more blots are shielded and can only be destroyed by one particular snoticle, which only serves to make the correct solution even more obvious.

There are elements that complicate matters - breakable surfaces, moving parts, tunnels and gravity wells and such. Only the last of those adds significant complexity, and that's only really by making shots much harder to predict. It's more frustrating than challenging.

There is satisfaction to be found stalking through the levels to hunt down every last blot, don't get me wrong. It just doesn't rise above a fairly straightforward premise. There's an even-keeled wackiness there, but it just doesn't have much on the outright insanity of some of Adult Swim's other recent releases.

Here's what it comes down to: Snoticles is a good game. It's a fun physics puzzler that provides a mid-tier challenge. But there are so many similar games out there, and this one doesn't do much at all to set itself apart. If the App Store hasn't slaked your thirst for aimey-shooty physics games yet, you absolutely won't go wrong with Snoticles. I just have to wonder if there's anyone out there that still meets that description.

If you're familiar with the original game, this latest release features more of the "move-the-penguin-to-the-water" type puzzle-solving, but the graphics and music have improved, with the most obvious changes being a new isometric view of the playing area and the inclusion of snow-coated scenery in the background.

The goal of Puzzling Penguins 2 is to swipe your penguin around a frozen 8x8 pond, collecting three golden stars before reaching a chilly water-hole. The catch is that once you swipe a penguin, it keeps moving in that direction until either hitting an obstacle, or reaching the edge of the frozen pond. The challenge is to work out how to use the various obstacles to reach the water hole. Your overall Game Center score for each level is based on the number of stars collected, time taken and number of moves required to solve the level.

There's currently 3 worlds to play (63 levels in total), which are unlocked by collecting enough stars. The levels in the first world are all pretty obvious, so they're easy to 3-star in your first attempt without requiring much brain activity. But just when you start thinking you're super intelligent, the puzzles in the second world suddenly become more challenging, forcing you to actually stop, think and strategize.

New game elements are introduced regularly like blocks that can be repositioned by swiping, 'bomb stars' which trigger explosions and 'fire stars' for melting the water hole when it freezes over. Most interestingly some levels feature more than one penguin from the colony for you to swipe. This makes things trickier as your penguins must work together, using each other as barriers so they stop moving at the right spots to clear the level.

Puzzling Penguins 2 is a pleasant game to play and a definite improvement on the original, especially in terms of presentation. On the down-side, it's not universal and there's no native iPad version, so it will only run in 2x mode. Also, although the three "worlds" each add new gameplay elements, they all use exactly the same snowy setting and music, so they don't really feel like different "worlds" so much as just more levels. It would also be interesting if they threw a hungry polar bear into the mix.

However, the most important thing in any puzzle game are the puzzles themselves, and in that regard the game is well-designed with difficulty levels which increase as you progress.  Of course, if you're not certain about this game, you can grab the original Puzzling Penguins for Free and if you enjoy that, you'll definitely enjoy this updated and prettier sequel as well.

Wizard Ops

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SubTub is a game of naval superiority. You control a cute red sub through four sets of 18 missions that have you destroying the opposition on the open sea. In the case of SubTub, the open sea is a 6x9 grid of blue filled with other subs, aircraft carriers and more. Your weapons are underwater mines that are placed on the grid. While you have an unlimited amount of mines, each one has a fixed timer and a range slightly more than a single square. Complicating matters are a variety of other seafaring units, such as the rubber ducky, a ‘friendly’ unit that you can’t blow up with your mines (or touch on the grid, for that matter). In addition, mines are chainable, adding to the overall strategy.

Players are scored simply by the amount of time it takes to complete each level, with three tiers of medals available depending on how fast you are (you can also simply ‘pass’ the level if you take long enough). While SubTub’s gameplay foundation is sound, there just isn’t a lot of depth to the game, even when you take into account the different enemies you encounter. Your sub doesn’t gain any new weapons or upgrades, which may make your sense of progression seem a bit passive compared to other titles. In addition, the majority of the new enemies you encounter in later levels don’t add much other than slight variations and different skins.

Despite its cuddly exterior appearance, SubTub is actually a pretty challenging game, especially for folks that like to show their supremacy by collecting medals. Once I got passed the first set of missions, I found myself taking too long to even get the lowest tier medal. Granted, for those looking to simply try and pass the levels, SubTub is somewhat lenient as most levels can eventually be completed with patience and some timing. However, if you really want to earn the medals, you’re going to be doing a bit of practice on each level. This is the sort of balance I actually like to see in puzzlers – providing ample opportunity for casual players to pass levels, while still preserving the challenge for those that want it.

One complaint I have with SubTub is with its controls. Specifically, the swipe mechanism for controlling movement isn’t as precise as I’d like, particularly when it comes to sprinting (which is a double swipe in the direction you want to go). This is especially true if you’re trying to go for the medals, which require both pattern memorization and precise timing. Granted, it’s relatively easy to compensate with enough practice, but it’s still annoying nonetheless.

Don’t let SubTub fool you as this puzzler certainly has enough content and difficulty to keep genre fans occupied. On the other hand, casual gamers that may be looking to purchase SubTub simply from its visuals may be surprised at the difficulty of the title. Regardless, if you’re looking for a puzzler with some bite and don’t mind the cartoony visuals or occasional control issues, I’d recommend checking out SubTub for a quick fix.