I'm glad I did. Though not what you would call 'your must-have game in the event of a zombie apocalypse', Baseball Superstars 2012 is still kinda awesome. Depending on how much you like your baseball, it might even be extremely awesome. There's a part of me that wants to be the cranky curmudgeon and witheringly observe that Baseball Superstars 2012 is, while a competent product, just a souped-up version of the one from the previous years, but I can't. The rest of me is too busy cultivating my digitized athletes.

Baseball Superstars 2012 is engaging in all the right ways. The core gameplay mechanics are incredibly easy to learn, but not so easy to master. As the batter, you'll basically have to ensure that your batting reticule is within the general vicinity of the ball before you smack it with all your virtual, training-augmented might. Here, you'll have the option of choosing between the usage of the D-PAD or the device's accelerometer; I personally recommend the latter. Things are even easier for the pitcher. To lob your balls, you swipe your finger across a grid-like area on the screen. Different pitches will naturally require a different set of motions.

Strangely enough, what makes Baseball Superstars 2012 work is the metaphorical packaging. For example, while the various modes are little more than different ways of approaching the aforementioned elements, there's still an ungodly amount of things to do. Want to be be a batter? Fire up 'My Batter' and enjoy a ten-year career. Prefer pitching instead? Load 'My Pitcher'. Would you rather micromanage a coterie of little athletes? 'My Team' will be your game mode of choice. The list goes on. You'll get to also dive into challenges, missions, engage in asynchronous multiplayer battle royales and fine-tune your little league of winners.

Visually speaking, Baseball Superstars 2012 is definitely the best-looking of the pack. The resolution is higher, the interface is cleaner and the sprites look like they were manufactured by a man-hwa artist. The writing, unfortunately, still leaves much to be desired. Aside from the overall aesthetics, one of the biggest changes here is the inclusion of the overworld. No longer will you be trapped in the stadium at large. Now, you'll be able to roam the somewhat scenic-looking town that rings in. In between matches, Baseball Superstars 2012 will allow you to do everything from engage in a fortune-telling session to helping out in a hospital to training in the park. Some of these activities will decrease or increase various statistics, others will add to your modest bank account.

Along the way, you'll also bump into an assortment of big-breasted characters, many of whom will engage you in peculiar conversations. To be honest, few of the encounters made any sense to me. What do aggressive female characters with a penchant for romance books have to do with baseball? While I appreciated the effort, this aspect of Baseball Superstars 2012 felt tacked on and a little awkward.

That aside, there's not much to dislike about Baseball Superstars 2012. Heck, even the IAPS are not constantly forced down your throat, something that is a rarity with this business model. Gamevil has done a fine job improving on each iteration. Baseball Superstars 2012 might not redefine mobile gaming but it'll certainly be a worthy addition to your collection of games.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So, it was really kind of a given that I was going to be thrilled to see The Lost City [99¢], which at a glance seemed to be aimed like a notched arrow at the heart of the Myst-era adventure game lover. Of course, anyone who was with me on the long ride through the adventure clones that Myst spawned knows that there were a handful of decent ones, but mostly many, many bad ones.

I'm quite pleased to report that this is not the case with The Lost City. Far from it, in fact. While the storyline behind the game is not quite as fleshed out as that of Atrus and his wayward sons, Fire Maple Games really nailed it in terms of atmosphere. But even more importantly, they got it right with the puzzles – and added a few extra things that Myst itself could have really benefitted from back in the day.

Navigating your way through The Lost City is as simple and pleasant as can be: the touch of a fingertip navigates you through the hidden city your grandmother promised you really did exist (apparently, she wasn't kidding). Your inventory is neatly tucked into a small briefcase in the bottom left corner of the screen, and touching it pops up a small row of all the items you've collected. Items for what? For solving puzzles, of course!

But The Lost City doesn't do that inane thing where you have to figure out the item that makes the least sense to use, cram it into another item and then use it to magically unlock some door that had no keyhole in the first place. No, these puzzles actually make sense, which as anyone who ever played a Kemco adventure game back in the NES days can tell you, was rarely the case.

Speaking of things that adventure games should have thought of a long time ago, another welcome one here is the map. Each scene of the game you encounter is represented by a numbered panel if you hit up the map screen, which you can move around with your fingertip so you can get an overview of the entire area.

You also have a journal which logs important notes you'll need for future puzzles, and it just so happens to contain (gasp!) a hint guide, so if you get stuck you can consult it. I know, it's not proper hardcore. And I don't care, because the days I spent crying and pulling at my hair in front of my computer because I couldn't solve that one puzzle were so bad that I don't mind one bit that this game doesn't want me to go mad with frustration.

One little touch about The Lost City I really adored was the addition of puzzles affected by seasons. You will encounter stone angel statues which you can place a heart item into to change the seasons, which affects which puzzles you have access to solve. This fit in beautifully with the overall coziness of the game, and it simply brought a smile to my face.

In the end, I found myself trying to slow down and simply enjoy being in the game's atmosphere. I really didn't want the game to end, and I suppose that's the best compliment I can give anything I play. If you've ever loved an adventure game of the Myst persuasion, then you're going to love The Lost City. But not because it's a clone, or even a really good clone. This one's got a magic that's all its own.

Fly With Me

Each time you tap the screen to flap your wings, your flap-meter decreases slightly. Once that meter is depleted, you'll literally fall out of the sky with an amusing animation as you splat into the ground. So, you quickly learn to be more conservative with your flaps, and glide whenever possible. NOT flapping is a key part of this game. Your flap-meter must also be replenished by eating bees, otherwise you won't have enough flaps to reach the end.

At the top of the screen is a progress bar. This shows your position within the level, but also marks the location of three stars so you know when to watch out for them. These stars are used to unlock chapters. There's also one golden gear to collect per level. One you've found 45 golden gears a more powerful metallic robot bird is unlocked, or you can just buy it right away as an in-app purchase.

There's three chapters to play (fields, trees and tropical), offering 45 levels in total. You can play using four different birds, but first they'll need to be unlocked. There's also three challenge modes (one per chapter) which are unlocked once you gain enough stars. The challenge levels involve trying to fly as far as possible, and your score in that mode is measured in distance (meters).

Each level contains good winds to ride and bad brown air to avoid. These bad winds might do a loop-the-loop or carry you through an underground tunnel, which is interesting to watch but you can't control the bird while being blown along. While bee's are good to eat, the sick bugs should be avoided. As should predators, including big dangling bird-eating spiders, hungry fish and carnivorous plants.

Fly with Me has two disappointing features. First off, the frequent adverts for the games IAP offerings feel intrusive. After a couple of attempts at the same level, a full screen message appeared asking if I wanted to buy a robot bird (no thanks). Slightly later it asked if I was interested in paying to unlock all levels (Err, no thanks). Perhaps I want to purchase the easier kids mode? (No. Thank. You.) Then it starts over, trying to sell the IAP previously declined.

Secondly, the game reports back to EA, sending them data about game statistics, settings, incident or event data and feature preferences. I have no problem with this "usage sharing" functionality, except that it's enabled by default. If players don't check the "Info" screen, they may not realize their device is sending out data. I turned this setting off on principle.

Despite these drawbacks, Fly With Me is a solid title that's more challenging than it looks. The limited flapping mechanic sets it apart from the many similar simplistic arcade games on the App Store, and it's a good value for a dollar - assuming they don't eventually talk you into additional in-app purchases.

I would be ashamed if this was a cheap rip-off stemming from some copycat's attempt to cash in on a popular indie title somewhere but Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective isn't that sort of game. If you had to liken it to a gender-unspecific trophy spouse, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective would be a 6'2" Scandinavian model with a degree in rocket science and a part-time job as a professional comedian. You won't be ashamed to be caught with this one.

The only problem here is that not everyone likes a talker. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective's only real flaw (which is also, paradoxically enough, its strongest quality) is the fact that it is extremely heavy on the narrative. More than half of your time in the game will be spent reading. Sorry guys. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective doesn't come with a voice pack either. If you're the sort who thinks that actions are louder than words, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is probably not for you. (I still recommend giving it a whirl, though.) As for everyone else, why are you still here? Get the game already!

What? No? Fine. I see those raised eyebrows and I'll raise you with a more thorough explanation. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is the long-anticipated port of an adventure game Capcom developed for the Nintendo DS. The titular character in this eccentric little delight is, as you might have guessed already, sort of dead. Sissel is also sort of awesome for an amnesiac red-suited ghost with a bad haircut.

Unlike most of the recently deceased, he has to navigate between the Land of the Living and the Ghost World. Sissel can also traverse telephone lines, perform minor feats of telekinesis, communicate with certain living beings (we'll get to that in a bit), and go back four minutes in time to avert untimely deaths. (Sadly, that's only applicable for everyone but himself.)

Incidentally, you'll find yourself using that last power a fair bit. The supporting cast is somewhat uniquely skilled at dying repeatedly. At least, one of them is.

Meet Lynne. She's a somewhat bombastic little redhead of a detective, the sole witness to your murder and – according to the helpful desk lamp (yes, a literal desk lamp) you meet in the introductory sequence – the key to deciphering the circumstances behind your posthumous condition. Needless to say, you will spend a lot of time rescuing her only to watch her barrel headlong into yet another humorous tragedy.

Along the way, you will also meet the rest of the highly memorable crew. From an unbelievably adorable if loud-mouthed Pomeranian (To quote our very own Mr. Nicholson, "Just wait until you meet the dog, man!") to a shotgun-wielding assassin (His name is Nearsighted Jeego. He never misses his target if they're in range.) to a slow-witted prison guard who dances when distressed, every entity you encounter in Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is, uh, unique, to say the least. The development team definitely went all the way with the character design here.

(For those of you curious about how well Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective survived the transition to the iOS, I'm happy to say it looks pixel-perfect. While I've never played the original, I've seen the videos and if the videos are any indication of how things were, well, Capcom did you proud.)

Humor-wise, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is about as off-kilter as the menagerie that populates it. Facepalm-inducing moments are in abundance. The actual plotline, on the other hand, is deeper than what the initial twenty minutes might implicate. How so? I can't tell you. Games like Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective are kinda like Fight Club. You don't talk about Fight Club. You don't talk about games like this either. At least, not in the context of the plotline, the actual dialogue and whatnot. Not unless you want to peel away some of the magic. The only thing you're getting out of me on this front is the assurance that when the bleaker moments of the game hit, they will hit hard.

Of course, a good story's not much without decent gameplay. Though marketed as an adventure game, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective feels more like a puzzler sequestered away in a visual novel. When you're not otherwise thumbing through conversations, you'll be in what the game calls 'Trick Time'.

To make this a little easier to understand, we're going to use an example here. Let's say you're inside a flag and you have to make your way across the room to get something. In order to accomplish this, you're going to have press the 'Ghost' button, switch to the Ghost World, and then draw a line from the flag to, say, a pitcher of water. Sissel will then do the rest. Interacting with objects is just as easy. For example, if you're inside a candle and the words 'burn brighter' are present on your side bar, all you need to do is switch to the Land of the Living and hit the 'Trick' button. Once again, Sissel will take it from there.

The puzzles themselves are a lot more complex and likely to leave you going, 'Wait. So, how am I supposed to use two suits of armor, a set of curtains, a globe and a framed-up sword?'. To complicate matters even further, there is often a time limit associated with these puzzles. Luckily for you (and everyone else in the predicament), Sissel can rewind time as many times as he likes, something that makes Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective nicely balanced between the realms of 'forgiving' and 'why would you do this to me?'.

While we're on the topic, here's my only other infinitesimally tiny issue with the game. It's too linear. I know, I know. This isn't some sprawling, open-world sandbox of an action-RPG. However, they've done such a superb job at developing the environments that I kind of want to spend some time away from the main storyline. Ahem. If you haven't guessed it already, I think Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is the bee's knees and with the first two chapters available for free you should definitely give it a shot. Following that, you shouldn't have too difficult a time parting with the cash to unlock the rest of the game.

For folks that played Legendary Wars, Monster Wars will feel very familiar. The majority of campaign missions still feature the same castle defense-style gameplay where you collect resources, build units, defend your own castle from the opposition while simultaneously moving forward attack units to take out the opposing fortress.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It was interesting that Int13 was departing from their typical augmented reality based games, like ARDefender [Free], and trying their hand at an established and nuanced genre like arcade-style manic shoot ‘em ups, especially with veteran shmup developer Cave basically cornering the market with their stable of high-quality ports. However, Int13 has surprised me with just how right they got Shogun, and while it might fail to totally impress the more discerning bullet hell enthusiast, fans of shmups in general will find a lot of action and fun brimming from the game.

The very first thing that pops out at you about Shogun are its graphics. The environments are done up in 3D and give off a great feeling of depth as you’re scrolling by in your ship. It’s also Retina Display ready, meaning it’s razor sharp. Enemies are your standard alien-type of spacecrafts, and there are some rather interestingly designed mid-boss and end-boss fights that will give you a run for your money in terms of challenge. On the whole, gameplay in Shogun doesn’t divert too far from your typical bullet-hell shooter formula, but it executes the components of that formula extremely well.

However, Shogun does show some more innovative signs in a couple of areas. One is the method in which you change your weapons. Your ship comes with 3 weapon types: spread shot, laser, and homing. Whenever you lift your finger off the screen, the game slows down bullet-time style and a small menu pops up above your ship that lets you choose from the 3 weapon types, as well as trigger a screen-clearing EMP or choose to add small wingman ships for added firepower. It’s nice that the action slows down to allow you to concentrate on what weapon you need to pick, but you can still take damage in this mode so you’ll still need to stay alert.

The other thing in Shogun that I found very interesting is the system for filling and using your shield meter. You have the ability to scrape bullets that pass you by, which basically means getting your ship extremely close to them without actually getting hit. With each consecutive bullet you scrape, you build a multiplier, and this adds to your shield meter above which can go past the 100% full mark. Every time you fill up your life meter completely, it fills one of the 6 reserve tanks above the meter.

Now, these reserve tanks can be used for various things, like setting off the aforementioned EMP blast or adding one or more sets of the satellite helper ships to your own ship (which VASTLY increases your firepower, I might add). Also, when you do get hit by enemy fire, the game will automatically clear the screen of bullets and shield you for a brief moment while giving you a refilled meter, but it will cost you one of your reserves.

The scraping and usage of reserve tanks aren't totally new ideas in the shmup world, but they're done well and add a ton of strategy to how you go about being the most effective in Shogun. It’s in your benefit to scrape as much as possible and always strive to keep your reserves well stocked for particularly challenging sections and boss battles. But, you can’t concentrate too hard on just scraping, as inevitably that will lead you to take damage if you aren’t paying enough attention to killing the enemies as well.

While the graphics are gorgeous and the underlying mechanics are sound, about the only thing I don’t like about Shogun is that it’s pretty short. Featuring just 4 levels to play through, it comes to an end pretty quickly, but it’s a satisfying and challenging ride while it lasts. The pay model is also pretty accommodating, allowing you to download and play through the entire first level for free. The remaining 3 levels are accessible as well, but you can only play them for a brief minute – just long enough to get a taste. Each full level is then unlockable separately for 99¢ each, or $1.99 to unlock them all at once.

As a big fan of Cave’s shooters, I find it hard to really get into most of the other shooters on the App Store. They really did set the bar that high. But Shogun is a game that instantly drew me in with its visuals, and then backed it up with a ton of solid action. It even Universal and has iCade support, to truly complete the arcade experience. As a free download, there’s really no reason not to give Shogun a try for yourself.

Hank is a brave rodent, who dreams of being the worlds first "stunt-hamster". He's sealed inside a transparent hamster-ball which must maneuver through each level, collecting three stars before crashing into the finish target. It's part "physics game" and part "puzzler", as you need to determine a safe way through each level.

There's no joystick, buttons or tilting as you don't control Hank's movements directly. Instead, you interact with the surrounding items to make him move. For instance, tapping certain platforms makes them disappear, so if Hank was sitting on that platform, he would fall and roll down a ramp. Or perhaps there's a weight on the platform, which then falls on a see-saw and catapults the daredevil hamster upwards to an awaiting star.

There's spring-loaded boxing gloves, reversible escalators and "hamster-safe bombs", which are just a few of the ways to move the otherwise stationary hamster. But, avoid the fire-pits and electrical fields, or you'll be one charred little critter.

The first chapter is named "The Early Years" but you can also unlock the "Bigger and Better" and "Fairly Badass" chapters by earning stars (making 75 levels in total). A further 18 bonus levels can be unlocked by reaching special golden stars or gifting the game. And there's even a small mini-game hidden away in the credits page, which earns you one of the 23 achievements.

A three-star rating and score is awarded for each level, with high-scores stored via Game Center and Crystal. A separate leaderboard is provided for each chapter, plus an overall leaderboard for total score. To improve your scores, you can gain a "nuts" bonus by collecting all three stars while  also satisfying a specific objective for the level, such as:  "Finish the level traveling at greater than 32 mph", reach a certain height, finish within a certain time, or finish within a limited number of moves. This adds some extra challenge and replay-value.

The level designs are varied and interesting, and ramp up in difficulty as you'd expect with the last chapter requiring more thought than the fairly easy first levels. The difficulty increases because there's more game elements placed on the screen to navigate through.

Whenever I start to tire of Chillingo's constantly expanding range of casual physics-based games, they have a tendency to release another cute and enjoyable game. Somehow they always manage to lure another dollar from my wallet. But frankly, who can resist a few hours entertainment for a single dollar, when it features puzzles, a wide-eyed hamster, and bombs.

Greedy Penguins is a bird-centric physics puzzler (what a concept!) that revolves around you finding ways to get incredibly stressed-out fish in the mouths of the correspondingly-colored penguins. You tap the fish to drop it from its hook and get it rolling, then through a combination of timing and obstacle-clearing, get it to the right-colored penguin. Once your penguin is successfully fed, he coughs up ice cream, which you tap to feed each level’s companion and get bonus points when completing the level, garnering a one, two, or three-fish rating.

The concept isn’t new, but the execution feels good. I found myself really enjoying this game, as much for the cute graphics and theme as for the well-designed puzzles. While the earlier puzzles seem easy (don’t they always?), once I really got going it became quite challenging to make sure I got the fish moving in order to clear obstacles. I found myself failing some levels multiple times. Since each level is short, I didn’t mind too much, but it did remind me of how bad my timing is (I still get night terrors regarding the Cave of Wonders level from Aladdin for the Sega Genesis).

Another challenge, though one not personally experienced, is that the colors chosen for each penguin and their food make the game exceptionally trying for color blind people. As mentioned in the forum thread, those who can’t see colors will have a heck of a time getting through this game. If you’re persistent and don’t mind some trial-and-error, you might still enjoy it, but as a person who had enough trouble being able to clearly see everything, I would probably recommend skipping it until a color blind option is added.

The other thing that I personally didn’t like was the in-app purchase option. I’m generally of the conservative “in-app purchase?! Not in my paid app!” mindset (I am a bit of an old person, after all), and my thoughts on Greedy Penguins are no different. Simply beating every level in a world isn’t enough to unlock the next set of levels. In order to unlock the second and third igloos (worlds of 12 puzzles each), you need to have either collected thirty fish (out of only thirty-six) or pay 99¢.

The game also encourages you to waste time in levels by tapping the penguins and their companions to make them do “funny animations,” making it unlikely that you’ll get a perfect score of three fish on your first try. Crafty, no? I don’t know about you, but I don’t really like replaying levels of games just to gain points (or fish) in order to unlock content that I feel entitled to, having already purchased the app.

All things considered, Greedy Penguins is a well-crafted – though hardly groundbreaking – puzzle game. It's fun and extremely well-executed, with enough challenging puzzles to keep you occupied. If you've got a dollar or two burning a hole in your pocket, I'd definitely recommend giving it a spin, especially since it's Universal. If not, well, you can always get your penguin fix from this video!

Finger twister isn't new, but Fingle is a finger twister game with one purpose: flirtation. A cheesy soundtrack, suggestive backdrops and more than a few double entendres might be enough, but Fingle doesn't settle for enough. Your fingers will stroke hers, or his. You'll make terribly lewd gestures at one another. Fingle takes its premise all the way.

Here's how you play the game: there are squares, and there are boxes, and the two must meet. Some are yellow, some are white. Your fingers rest on one set, hers on another. And then you do as you're told.

At first this is simple. Drag a box here, hold it there. Your fingers might brush up against one another. Then things heat up. One player finds himself stroking his hand over the other's. It gets pretty steamy.

Sort of, anyhow. There are a few rules you have to follow to get the full effect. You can't really play solo, for, um, obvious reasons, and you need to use one hand each. Two hands is easier, but it's a lot less fun. Stick to those rules, and one of you will basically end up in the other's lap before long if you want to pull off some of the moves.

So you can see why you don't want to play with a stranger, or your Grandma. You might also not want to play for too long. While Fingle starts out very flirty, it actually gets pretty hard over time. If one of you has small hands, long fingernails or sweaty palms, you might find it a bit out of your league. Nothing kills the mood quite so much as frustrated failure.

There are over 50 levels to work through, so as long as you know your limit you'll be fine. If you're actually playing to tease, work through the first level pack or two. It starts out slightly subtle and gets suggestive quickly. If you're playing for a challenge, something that's totally possible, work your way through all the rest. Fingle is missing a lot of the traditional game structures we're used to -- scores, points, achievements and the like -- but it's certainly a good time for two people who are comfortable with a little touching. The design that has gone into this game is truly charming, so it's hard to say no.

In all seriousness, you need to know your audience if you're going to play. You can definitely go at it platonically for a laugh, but first be sure you both know where you stand. And you could certainly make someone extremely uncomfortable if you're not at the point where cheesy 70s-style music, suggestive sound effects and light touching is okay. Fingle is the sort of game that could start out funny and end up sexy, or start out cold and end up with a slap to the face. Judge carefully, and stop by our discussion thread to let us know how it goes - just keep it work safe, tiger.

With such a long development cycle, it’s easy for the hype over a game to do one of two things: either people start to lose interest as the months drag along, or the hype builds up to the kind of level that would be hard for any game to deliver on. Well, Paper Monsters finally has reached the App Store, so if you’re part of that first group then it’s time to start paying attention again.

More importantly, however, are the folks in that second group – the insanely hyped crew. Paper Monsters is an incredibly fun platformer, and it’s downright gorgeous to look at. Plus, it’s full of all kinds of whimsy and little touches that bring up those warm, fuzzy nostalgia feelings that will take you back to platformers of days gone by. But, if you’re looking for a genre-defining game that breaks all the boundaries that you thought you knew for platformers, well, Paper Monsters isn’t quite at that level. With tempered expectations, though, it’s one of the nicest platformers currently available on iOS.

First off, Paper Monsters takes more than a few cues from the iconic Mario series. It doesn’t try to hide this fact, either. With every jump your character makes, he lets out an excited “whoo!” that you almost expect to be immediately followed by “here we gooooo!” or “it’s-a me, Mario!” The majority of enemies are dispatched by jumping on their head, you’ll hop into gigantic pipes to warp to different parts of the levels, and there’s even a giant mouth built into a mountain that you’ll escape through after beating up on a boss, à la Super Mario Bros. 2.

These things don’t detract from the game though, in fact, they add to the already rich character and personality of Paper Monsters. As I said previously, the game is gorgeous. Graphics are all done in colorful 3D, though gameplay is strictly old-school 2D style. The music is also a big part of the experience, and it manages to create incredibly moody atmospheres to explore and play through. The many Mario-like flourishes merely enhance the already fantastic presentation of Paper Monsters.

Gameplay itself is simple and straight forward. You can move left or right, jump, and double jump. And… that’s about it. Occasionally, a level will have you playing as a helicopter or submarine, effectively playing more like a shmup which breaks up all the platforming nicely. These sections are actually quite fun, and I wouldn’t have minded more of them. In fact, one of the big downfalls of Paper Monsters is that it’s a pretty short game.

You get 4 chapters in the game, each with 4 levels, for a total of 16 levels. The environments run the gamut of familiar themes like grass lands, ice levels, the desert, and jungle ruins. Each level is a fairly good length, with checkpoints in the middle so you don’t have to restart from the beginning should you die, but they really won’t take too long to complete anyway. Some replay value is added in the form of 3 golden paper clips and a single hidden tile that need to be collected in each level if you wish to fully beat it. You can also collect buttons, which are essentially the “coins” of the game, and which can be accumulated and spent in an in-game shop on additional clothing items to deck out your character. It's a fun distraction, but pretty non-essential. Also, if you don’t have much patience, you can get more buttons as IAP if you wish.

Finally, a really cool inclusion in Paper Monsters is the Dash Mode. This is essentially an auto-running version of the game, where your character runs to the right on his own and you just need to worry about jumping on enemies and over hazards while collecting buttons. It’s really quite fun, and could easily have been a full game on its own, so the fact that it’s included as a bonus is pretty nice. You can also try this mode in your web browser for free, if you're curious.

But where Paper Monsters really wins is in its presentation and overall “feel”, which is something that’s hard to describe. I’ve played a TON of platformers in my day, and while some of them appear to have all the right components, sometimes the most basic mechanics of running and jumping just don’t feel right, and it pretty much ruins the rest of the experience. Paper Monsters pulls this aspect off well, as just playing through the levels is fun in and of itself, even if it doesn’t wow you with a ton of new ideas or endless amounts of levels. For lack of a better expression, it just feels right.

It seems the developers set out to make a throwback to some of their favorite old-school platformers, with awesome graphics and solid controls, and at this they completely succeed with Paper Monsters. If you don’t go in expecting the game to reinvent the wheel, and can appreciate the eye candy and simple fun of platforming, then Paper Monsters should give you plenty of enjoyment for your dollar. People in our forums sure seem to dig it, and with some additional levels planned for updates, there should be even more fun coming in the future.

Star Warfare: Alien Invasion

The single player campaign includes five maps, each with six levels of increasing difficulty to unlock (30 levels in total). A progress bar indicates how many of the enemies have spawned and if you survive to the end, your reward is currency to spend in an in-game store. The sixth level of each map is a "survival" level.

In multiplayer mode, you can team with up to three players online (via Game Center) to engage in a co-op boss battle, or to play co-op on a map you've already unlocked. The incentive for fighting bosses is that you earn greater amounts of gold. Unfortunately, these bosses are not accessible in single player mode, although you can set-up a 1 player room online if you want. Playing co-op with teammates makes the boss battles easier, and so does upgrading via single player mode first since the gear you earn in single player mode is also available in multiplayer.

This is a dual stick shooter, with the left stick for movement, the right for aiming and shooting - and there's no option to change this, although you can tweak sensitivity. The dual sticks are located one third of the way up the screen on each side and can't be repositioned. To look around, or turn around, you swipe the background with your finger. You can also use the right (fire) stick to turn, but that's slower and wastes bullets.

There are 26 weapons to unlock and purchase, including assault rifle, shotgun, laser gun and machine guns. The heavier weapons, like grenade launchers, decrease your speed while other powerful weapons like the RPG consume more energy. Each weapon has power, fire-rate and energy attributes and can be upgraded through 8 levels.

The catch is that some items are purchased with money earned in-game, but other weapons and bags (including the cooler ones) are purchased using a raw material named "mytheril" which seems to only be available through in-app purchases or for getting bonuses for playing online regularly. But aside from this premium currency, even the weapons sold for regular in-game currency get very expensive, making the weapon upgrading more difficult than it feels like it should be.

Also, If you run out of bullets, you end up running around the level unable to do anything as there's currently no melee attack or ammo pick-ups. You just have to die or quit, having wasted the remainder of your bullets, which is frustrating, although the developers advise they may possibly introduce a weapon with no ammo cost. The in-game store also sells space suit parts (helmet, chest, hands and legs) which can improve your hit points, power and speed. Other available items include first aid items, forcefields and the ability to revive after death.

Star Warfare: Alien Invasion is a pretty good first-person shooter for a dollar, despite the expensive weapons, emphasis on IAP and need to buy bullets with in-game money. The developers are planning a minor update with new equipment and maps, and a major update with a brand new game mode. If they can also balance out the in-game currency systems in regards to weapon upgrading and ammunition usage, then Star Warfare might be able to extend beyond just being an average to above average shooter.

Order Up!! was first released for Wii in 2008, and is due to come out soon for PS3 and 3DS at full retail price. I haven't played the console version of the game, but it sounds as though To Go is essentially the same game. For the mobile outing, Supervillian Studios has added advertisements, removable with IAP, and taken away certain goals to encourage players to purchase currency. Aside from that, it looks like everything else is intact. Intact, and downright entertaining.

Just one catch: you've gotta like grinding. Every day you buy meals in preparation for your customers, and those you sell give you a small profit. That profit goes toward buying spices and special meals, cleaning your restaurants, unlocking new recipes and working your way into new locations. Eking out a living this way takes time, and nicer restaurants are pricey. Originally this was handled by letting players unlock new restaurants once they met certain goals. In this freemium version, you have to earn the cash - or buy it.

If you're down with grinding, though, Order Up is great. It looks like Cooking Mama at a glance, and I'd be lying if I said there weren't similarities. But Order Up goes deep, ending up with as much focus on the management elements than the chopping and stirring.

At the highest level, you're responsible for caring for your restaurants. As I mentioned, this means, amongst other things, earning enough money to open them up and keep them running. Each day you pick out the menu based on a randomly selected special, a descending list of popularity and a daily customer total. Say you expect 14 customers in a day. 6 might order the special, 5 the most popular item, and 3 the second most popular. Or maybe 12 will order the special. You don't have those numbers, so you have to balance buying enough stock to cover all your customers' potential desires with your rather slim profit margin.

One you open up for the day the customers start to stream in. You send out your server to take their orders one table at a time, and she or he brings them back to you to cook up. Take too long and customers will start getting unhappy, which will cut into your profits. You're given up to a handful of orders to handle at once, and you have to time your preparations to keep anything from getting cold, doing as much as you can at once to keep things moving but holding back some steps to send your orders back out piping hot.

Preparing food is very hands-on. To make a burger and fries, for example, you have to drop meat onto the grill, then gesture to flip it when it's at the perfect temperature. You drag fries down into the oil and then up when they're cooked. You pull the leaves off a head of lettuce by swiping, and chop a tomato by tapping at the moment its guidelines meet. As each part is finished you tap it onto the tray, and once everything is ready you hit a bell to send it off to the table. Each meal is ranked by how well you complete each of its steps, and your profits depend on that rank.

The game's setting, Port Abello, has six restaurants currently, each with its own unique theme and a slew of recipes. You work your way through a greasy spoon to a Mexican joint, up to a slightly swankier Italian place, through Asian fusion and finally into fine dining. Each setting has thematic decor, recipes and servers, and each of those servers has several lines of dialog with which to compliment your work and butter up your customers.

Port Abello also has a few characters of its own that show up at your restaurants as special guests. They too have voiced dialog to express their spiciest seasoning desires. If you've purchased the right spices and figure out their hints in time to add the right one to their dish you'll earn a hefty bonus, something every struggling restauranteur can appreciate.

Assuming you manage to keep on top of everything else, you can put your coins toward upgrading your kitchens. There are currently a few options available for faster food prep, but it looks like assistants and mini-games are en route as well. You'll also want to keep your kitchens clean with regular payments to the cleaners. If you don't, you'll end up dealing with tedious mini-games like flicking away rat infestations or showing the health inspector that you can, in fact, wash lots of plates.

Other than its sheer grindiness, the only real problem with Order Up is that you're going to be doing a heck of a lot of gesturing. Each recipe you pick up increases your daily customers, increasing the length and complexity of your day. By the time you've grilled your thousandth burger it starts to lose its charm, and days dragging on longer and longer doesn't help. But that's just a sign that it's time to take a break. Give your wrist a rest, have some real food and come back refreshed and ready for another day at the grill. It's hard to fault a game for having too much to do.

Really, it's hard to fault Order Up!! To Go for much at all. It's virtually free, though it would probably be hard to live with the ads for long. It's filled to the brim with a variety of tasks and locales. If not for the damage done to the game's pace by its freemium elements it would be a nearly flawless casual restaurant management title. It's a shame that the best way to monetize the game was to make it frustratingly slow, because that will undoubtedly turn away many potential players. Don't make their mistake. Slow and steady wins the restaurant race, so take it easy and cook up something nice.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

One of the most popular 3D fighting franchises to come out of this era was Namco’s Soul Edge, and more prominently its sequel SoulCalibur, both of which were noteworthy for their focus on weapon-based combat. SoulCalibur hit arcades in 1998, and was then ported to the Sega Dreamcast to launch alongside that system in 1999. The Dreamcast version was remarkable, featuring even better graphics than the arcade version and a wealth of additional modes and characters. In 2008 SoulCalibur was again resurrected for Xbox Live Arcade, boasting a high definition makeover but lacking any sort of online play.

And now in 2012, almost a decade and a half after the original arcade release, SoulCalibur [$11.99] is now available in the palm of our hands on iOS devices. The iOS version appears to be based off of the most recent XBLA version, utilizing those excellent high definition visuals for Retina Display and iPad screens. The framerate and animation is also incredibly smooth, another hallmark of SoulCalibur, and everything looks bright and crisp running on iOS. For those that didn’t already know, you would never guess that this was actually an almost 14 year old game.

However, just because it looks pretty doesn’t mean the iOS version doesn’t have its share of drawbacks. Most glaring is the lack of any sort of multiplayer mode, an integral component of any good fighting game. I can’t for the life of me figure out why Namco Bandai would omit such a feature, but the iTunes description does state that additional modes are planned so I’m still holding out hope for multiplayer sometime in the future. For now though, it’s sorely missed.

As for single player content, SoulCalibur comes with quite a few modes. There’s the standard Arcade ladder, Time Attack, Survival, Extra Survival, and Practice. Sadly, the Team Battle and Mission modes from previous versions aren’t in this iOS version. There’s also a Museum mode where you can set up matches and watch two AI players battle it out or watch an Exhibition where you choose a character and watch them go through all their moves solo. Finally, there’s Game Center integration with leaderboards for Time Attack, Survival, and Extra Survival modes as well as 11 achievements to unlock.

A big factor when considering fighting games on iOS is controls, and SoulCalibur comes through in this department about as well as you could hope for. That is to say the virtual controls aren’t perfect, but they’re entirely workable and just as good as any other iOS fighters out there. If you don’t have any trouble playing games like Street Fighter IV Volt [$2.99] or King of Fighters-i [$6.99], then you shouldn’t have any trouble here either. The button positions and opacity can also be adjusted however you like, which is appreciated. One problem I did have though was with some of the menu UI being a bit too small on the iPhone screen, thus making it hard to make a selection sometimes. A minor complaint, but annoying nonetheless.

Whether or not you need SoulCalibur on iOS will depend on how fond of the original you are, and how important multiplayer is to you. It’s at the higher end of App Store pricing at $11.99, and that’s at a 20% off introductory price. But, I loved the original on my Dreamcast and think the price is absolutely worth it to be able to carry SoulCalibur around in my pocket. As for the lack of multiplayer, it’s a shame, but there’s still plenty to do by yourself. There’s the Game Center leaderboards and achievements, and half of the game’s 19 characters need to be unlocked first, as do several other goodies in the game, giving some good incentive to continue playing.

If you can deal with its shortcomings, SoulCalibur on iOS is actually an excellent port. It looks great, runs smoothly, controls as well as a fighting game can without buttons, and offers a decent amount of single player content to play through. If we can get some kind of multiplayer or other missing modes via updates in the future, then we’ll really be in business.