Last week when we learned the classic laser disc arcade game Mad Dog McCree [$4.99] was coming to the App Store, I was stoked. I had fond memories of gunslinging at that giant arcade cabinet as a kid, and figured reliving the experience on my small touch screen device would give me that great shot of nostalgia that I've been fortunate enough to encounter often on the App Store. Then I actually fired up the iOS version, and learned once again that nostalgia is a fickle beast.

Mad Dog McCree has not aged well, and I'm not so sure it was ever a very good game to begin with. With a certain part of the video game spectrum always striving for the most realistic visuals possible, and the introduction of disc-based storage in gaming which started becoming prevalent in the late 80s and early 90s, mankind embarked on one of its most hideous inventions of all time – full-motion video games. What could be more real than actual real-life video footage?! It was THE FUTURE.

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Toxic Blob's puzzle-meets-strategy game Sin or Win feels like it has some issues with its actual execution, but it's ultimately an entertaining-enough game that presents a really cool idea: moral choice as a viable, fundamental game-changing mechanic.

In games like Mass Effect 2, for example, its moral choice system boils down to being a space jerk or a space saint -- the difference between booting a dude through a window or getting chatty with him. There are other constructs that flesh out these decisions, but you don't change the way you fundamentally shoot stuff because of what you've done.

Sin or Win, on the other hand, incorporates two unique play styles and introduces basically two different kinds of puzzle games depending on your moral choice: sinning or winning. With a stroke of your finger, you can become the savior of its physics-enabled cavemen, or you can masterfully bring them to their individual fiery dooms. Each route has a unique kind of scoring and its own strategies. The choice, then, changes play.

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It won't take long to suss out the inspiration for Crazy Bomber [$0.99]. Its pedigree is Bomberman all the way down. Are we ready for games inspired by Hudson Soft's 1983 series yet? Or perhaps the question is whether Crazy Bomber brings anything new to the table.

The answer is a tentative "yes." Yes, Crazy Bomber has a few tricks up its sleeve, though not many. Yes, it's the nicest rendition of this gameplay I've seen on iOS yet. But without online multiplayer (a feature JoyTouch says is coming), the heart of the modern Bomberman experience is missing. Without it, you're just a guy running around a field blowing stuff up -- not that there's anything wrong with that.

But let's back up a bit. Maybe you've missed that last 28 years of gaming and you're still wondering what this Crazy Bomber thing is all about. So here goes: you control an adorable character (your choice of cute fairy, zombie, vampire or knight) in a rectangular field filled with obstacles, traps and monsters. You move around with a virtual d-pad on the left of the screen, and plant bombs with a button on the right. The bombs can destroy some of the obstacles, kill monsters, and hurt you. So the challenge is to find the right place to plant them that will trap and kill the moving monsters without doing the same to yourself.

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Controversial is probably the best word for War on Terror [$1.99]. Originally a board game conceived by Terror Bull Games in 2003, War on Terror has precipitated everything from bans to death threats - true story, I swear. As you can imagine, when the iOS version was released, there was significant concern about it being forcibly annulled from the App Store. It wasn't, and I'm damn well glad for that because War on Terror is the sort of game you should at least play once.

Fans of the title should be forewarned, however. The iOS version is significantly watered down compared to the original. There is no Axis of Evil. There are no off-board negotiations or dealings. Defeated players do not become terrorist nations. You don't even get situational cards. Nonetheless, that doesn't change the fact that War on Terror is surprisingly fun and, once you've realized the genius behind it, devilishly clever.

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At heart, Catball Eats It All [Free] does not have a unique premise. At all. At heart, all you do is battle physics with your thumbs to keep a fat cat rolling around big shapes and eating stuff. Sounds a bit boring, doesn't it?

However, great execution is all about a clever take and excellent design, as fans of standout iOS titles will tell you. And if Catball Eats It All has anything nailed, it's in presenting a title that looks so wacky that you can't help but be drawn to its inherent weirdness and wonder what the gameplay will be like. It's actually like someone chopped up a bunch of weird photos of animals on the internet and made playable levels out of them. And you get to play one too. You're sold, right?

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When Call of Duty: Zombies hit the iOS app store way back when we praised it for what was, at the time, a great adaptation of the console secondary game mode. Now, over two years later, the zombies have finally returned with Call of Duty: Black Ops Zombies [$6.99], the first true sequel to iOS CoD Zombies (strange psuedo-sequel notwithstanding). While Black Ops Zombies does succeed in providing improved visuals and extra variety in the addition of the excellent Dead-Ops mode, a frustrating selection of controls, spotty multiplayer, and a very limited map selection on the onset may make some fans hesitant to purchase now.

For the uninitiated, Black Ops Zombies is a first person shooter zombie survival game based off of the survival mode found on some console versions of Call of Duty. Zombies is map-based, with each map typically featuring numerous rooms and weapons that must be unlocked in order to provide the player with better weapons and defense. There are some small secondary objectives, but the primary goal of each play through is to simply survive as long as you can. Zombies come at you in waves, and you earn money for each one you take down, giving you the currency needed to unlock everything. There are also power-ups, such as extra ammo or double currency, which can randomly drop from the slain undead.

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Clay's Reverie [$0.99] is cute. Really, really cute. Cute enough to warrant a warning label. That's how cute it is.

...And hard. In spite of the fleecy clouds and the pink dolphins, SuperGlueStudio's physics puzzler isn't a game for the faint-hearted. One false step and you're dead or, well, whatever passes for dead with doughy-looking things like the protagonist. Here in Clay's Reverie, death is synonymous with touching anything asides from the conveyor belt. It's a tough life but those are the breaks when you're a little, googly-eyed ball of white clay.

Fortunately, the odds are somewhat in your favor. Clay's Reverie benefits from simple and supremely responsive controls. Holding down on the conveyer belt allows you to move it on a vertical axis. Clay, on the other hand, does not seem quite as appreciative of such a hands-on approach. In order to control the blob-by hero himself, you're going to have to make use of the iPhone's accelerometer to roll him around the screen.

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Needing no introduction for any iOS Action fans, the Gangstar series has been Gameloft’s answer for folks looking for the city sandbox experience popular on gaming consoles. While we enjoyed the previous two Gangstar titles, there were outstanding issues in both games that prevented each from becoming a truly ‘must-own’ title. With Gangstar Rio: City of Saints [$6.99], Gameloft looks to up the ante in all aspects from the new location to cleaner graphics to even a new character advancement system. While Rio falters in its voice overs and the overarching story, everything else makes this the best Gangstar yet.

Gangstar Rio continues the tried and true gameplay of previous titles that closely mimics the gameplay of sandbox games like the Grand Theft Auto series. All the elements from previous games – from the mission based main story, to the large amount of collectibles, to even the side jobs attached to various vehicles – make a return. However, Gangstar Rio improves on its predecessors by making everything just a little bit better. For example, the Rio de Janeiro locale seems to be bigger and is a lot more unique compared to the previous locations. The entire world just feels more alive than previous titles. In addition, the developers have improved the controls by adding a few new options and tightening the existing schemes. However, I was extremely disappointed in the lack of cloud saving/syncing as that should be an essential requirement for lengthy games such as this (moreso since Rio is a universal title).

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Ninja Throw [$0.99 / HD], the latest casual game from Chillingo's Clickgamer brand, is a physics-based puzzler with a decent implementation of some interesting ideas for the puzzle genre. Unfortunately, like so many puzzle titles before it, Ninja Throw fails to strike that balance between difficulty and longevity, leading to a game that is simply too easy and too short. However, despite these concerns, Ninja Throw is still worth a play through for gamers that aren’t too caught up on challenges.

Taking control of a ninja that encounters way too many obstructions, your goal is to toss shurikens and hit the gong on the other side of the level. Various barriers, such as poles and boxes of TNT impede your shuriken’s path. Thankfully, there’s a variety of environmental aids to help you get past those barriers and hit that gong. Premise wise, Ninja Throw really doesn’t offer anything new to the genre, as fans of similar physics-based puzzlers are going to be familiar with the general gameplay. However, some of its environmental supports bring a twist to the gameplay.

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I think one of the reasons people are drawn to certain formulas in gaming is because they flick some silent switch within them, and from then on, it's forever in the on position. Clearly birds and physics are one of those irresistible combos, and for me, there's something about zombies and anything that should not be a zombie that is like a drug I must get my hands on. In this case, it's zombies and the elderly, apparently. Which is why I had to find out what was going on behind the clever and attractive look of a game with a name like Corpse Granny [$.99/HD].

I mentioned earlier that Corpse Granny was a nice looking title, and I feel like I have to repeat myself on that because this is an unusually good looking game. Like, if it was a girl and it walked past you at a party, you'd turn around to look again. But could you catch up with said girl and have a worthwhile conversation? Well, yes, you could, but how long the conversation would remain interesting for, I can't say. Or let's throw that metaphor out the window and say that we've seen some of this ground before.

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Wizardry is a series with a pretty long history, and the older you are, the more of it you're likely to recall. Thirty years after its original release, gamers still think of the same thing when they hear the word: a long dungeon crawl in the dark, careful stat management, and a pen and graph paper by your side. In fact, Wizardry was really the first graphical incarnation of the Dungeons & Dragons model, and gamers familiar with it would feel right at home on those subterranean treks through poorly lit mazes.

Fast forward to 2011, however, and you may see a game like Wizardry as nothing but an exercise in punishment. Or would a clean-up and polish of the interface make for a more modern experience? This version of Wizardry, called Labyrinth of Lost Souls [Free] ($9.99 IAP unlocks full game), is not exclusive to iOS -- it's already seen its original debut on the PS3 earlier this year.

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SpinTrip [99¢] from ClickGamer (Chillingo) is a 2D platform game about a rolling wheel with magical abilities. Your task is to hop inside the wheel, then roll, jump, fly or float it to the end of the level. There's things to collect and enemies to avoid or kill, but it's the wheel and various magical abilities which makes this game interesting and differentiates it from other platformers.

In the introduction, an old woman explains that the nasty gants have stolen five magical shims and 'Tisu must now use his chibwheel to collect chibs and find a shimloon portal to rescue them. ...umm, say what? But don't let the unusual names put you off, because this game is actually really easy to play.

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Vector Unit has already made a name for itself with water-based racing games -- especially when you consider the developers release last year of the stupid-entertaining Hydro Thunder Hurricane for XBLA. Now, they've ported the initially Android only Riptide GP [$4.99] to iOS and the arcade action racer is boasting some of, if not the best water physics on the platform, but the game itself might not totally live up to the impressive water effects.

That said, those impressive water physics come at a cost -- namely that they're only really impressive on the new devices. The game plays significantly different on a 4S than on, say, an original iPad, because the waves move and change in real time on newer devices, but are flat on older ones. It's not just a visual thing -- you'll feel like you're playing a different game.

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Every logic puzzle lover should know about nonograms. You might know them as picross puzzles, or griddlers, or maybe just the younger sibling of Sudoku, but you should know them. If you don't, no foul: Fugazo's World Mosaics [$1.99] is a good place to start.

If you're not in the know, here's the quick version: a nonogram puzzle presents you with a grid. Each row and column has numbers listed with it, and those numbers correspond to how many of its cells must be filled in. A row with 5 and 7 listed beside it would need 5 adjoining cells filled in with boxes, then at least one space before 7 more cells are boxed in. The clues intersect so you can puzzle out the solution, and when you're done you'll have formed a pixelated picture.

There are some great nonogram apps on iOS already, though fewer than I'd like. World Mosaics joins these after enjoying a successful career on PC and Mac. It's not perfect, but it scratches the logic puzzle itch nicely.

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Penny Parlor [$1.99] wraps four antique coin-operated sports games into one release. But we're not talking about classic arcade games ...no, Australian-based  GamesLab Apps are taking us further back in time, like pre-1950's, to the era of mechanical arcade machines which used to cost one penny to play.

The game displays a room (parlor) with four antique amusement machines shown in 3D, including: American Pro Football, Super Swing Baseball, The Amazing Golf Game and Smack'n'Whack Cricket. The old-fashioned color schemes, carnival music, and mechanical style movements and controls are all designed to convey the original feeling of playing these games at the fairground.

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