This is neat. Double Fine, the creators of Brutal Legend and, most recently, a swarm of lovable and unique downloadable titles like Iron Brigade and Costume Quest, is asking its fans via Kickstarter to donate a total of $400,000 towards the production of a brand new point-and-click adventure. It's a title that'll be created by "a small team" and one of the adventure game genre's most influential developers, Tim Schafer, highly regarded for his work on The Secret of Monkey Island and its sequel, and his lead role on Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, and Grim Fandango.

The fans have answered, too. In under ten hours the project has received well over half a million dollars in backing. And with over 30 more days to go still, you almost have to assume that Double Fine will be forced to use dollar bills as toilet paper to rid itself of all the extra cash it's going to receive.

The project doesn't have a real name yet. It also isn't exactly slated to hit iOS -- the initial pitch was for the development of a PC point-and-click "utilizing modern touch technology." Double Fine says that if it raises more than what it's asking for, as the project has, it might put the game on Mac or iOS.

This seems like a big deal for Double Fine: it's a small, but notable studio that's triumphantly shedding the typical publisher / loan shark model that it usually uses to make something that it has complete creative control over. But, this is also a studio that has been OK with funny funding deals. It let a dude pay for several PC ports in the past, and it's apparently currently in talks with Minecraft creator Notch about funding Psychonauts 2.

So, when will you be able to play this game? It'll be awhile. Provided everything goes as planned, it might appear on Steam as early as October 2012. However, backers will see the game as it's being developed -- this entire experience will be documented by 2 Player Productions and private videos will be released on an ongoing basis.

Only in the indie space do we see games like Pizza vs. Skeletons. Bright and humorous, as well as off-the-walls, it's a 2D action game that stars a 10-foot tall pizza. It has a knack for catching you off guard by design; delicately crafted to avoid the mechanical monotony so common in its space, it's an adventure that re-imagines what it is in almost every level. Sometimes you'll save puppies. Other times, you'll ski. Or butt heads with gigantic skulls. Or just bash skeletons because, hey, that's fun.

You just can't pitch this game to a major publisher. This will never be a blown-up, $60 retail title. It's too free-wheeling, too idealistic. It's too ... different.

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We've been keeping close tabs on Bumpy Road [$2.99] developer Simogo's upcoming rhythm-based stealth puzzler Beat Sneak Bandit since they originally teased it last October. We've even had some extensive hands-on time with a limited preview version of the game, and that's just served to make us even more excited for the final release. And today, Simogo has revealed that Beat Sneak Bandit will be hitting the App Store February 16th. Hey that's just a week away! To celebrate, they've released a slick new trailer for the game:

You can bet we'll be all over Beat Sneak Bandit like fingerprints on touch screens when it surfaces next week, and until then there's a discussion thread you can check out in our forums.

Ignite is an indie arcade racer released on Steam last October, and developer Nemesys Games has sent word that a port to iOS is currently in progress. I haven't tried Ignite myself just yet, but I've heard good things. It's your typical stylish arcade racer, but has an interesting twist where you can earn points for pulling off fancy driving maneuvers, stunts, and destruction. Once you've earned 1000 points, you can use it immediately to gain an advantage in the race or you can save it until the end and get a time bonus instead.

Ignite features 3 different modes, 35 circuits across 7 locations, and a ton of different configurable cars to burn rubber with. Oh, also, it's absolutely gorgeous. Let's not forget that. There's no clear release date for Ignite on iOS just yet, but the developers stated that the porting project just started in January and that the game is already up and running in a playable state. More videos and screens are said to be coming soon, but it sounds like it shouldn't take too long to get the game on the App Store. We're intrigued, and will definitely be checking out Ignite when it comes to iOS in the (hopefully) near future.

So, Mass Effect is returning to the iPhone. At a recent EA event, the publisher passed around a pamphlet announcing Mass Effect Infiltrator for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and the iPad. In a nutshell, it's a third-person shooter featuring universe's trimmings, and it will apparently tie into Mass Effect 3's Galaxy At War component.

EA also announced a companion app called Mass Effect Datapad, but revealed nothing about it except its platform: iPad.

On to what we know then. In Infiltrator , you'll "help free prisoners from a hostile Cerberus base" and receive rewards as you gather evidence of Cerberus' crimes. All your rescues and your discoveries will feed into Galaxy At War's "Galactic Readiness rating," which informs events in the game's single-player.

As if the latter wasn't enough to get you to check it out, the app will also offer users exclusive weapons to use in ME3.

Infiltrator's announcement is pretty hot off the presses, so the details are pretty vague. On the other hand, it seems like it is passing through certification as we write this -- if EA is using the term "soon" in regards to its release traditionally -- so, the wait to see what's actually going on should actually end shortly.

UPDATE: Fun fact: this is being developed by Dead Space iOS devs Iron Monkey Studios. This can only be a good thing, we think.

UPDATE 2: IGN has nabbed the first screenshots for Mass Effect Infiltrator:

[Via Shacknews, Joystiq, IGN]

We hadn't officially heard much on Johnny Two Shoe's latest forthcoming iOS release Prevail since they first announced it back in September, but the two brothers that comprise the studio have been extremely active in our forums, both talking about specific elements in Prevail and posting frequent new screen shots for our members to drool over.

Now Johnny Two Shoes has unleashed a brand new trailer for Prevail, and it's looking insanely bad ass. It's a 2D side-scrolling action game similar to their previous release Plunderland [$1.99/Lite], but cranked up to 11, with a vast open universe to explore and tons of activities for the game's inhabitants to partake in. Not to mention an engrossing story that unfolds as the game progresses. Check the trailer and see for yourself:

As pretty huge fans of Plunderland, both for its fantastic aesthetics and novel gameplay, we're pretty pumped for Prevail. This new trailer increases that level of pumped-ness several notches. Tons of planets? Multiple vehicles? Deforming terrain? Huge arrow battles? I'm totally in. Prevail is looking at an early 2012 release, which could be now or even a couple of months from now. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for sooner rather than later, and we'll let you know if any new information surfaces.

The Corpse Party series of video games have been loitering around my "I really should play these some day" game list since I first heard about them a few years ago. The games have some crazy roots behind them, as the first title was made in RPG Maker, a point and click game studio that was responsible for countless terrible ultra-indie RPG games. My personal favorite of these RPG Maker games was Chef Boyardee's Barkley, Shut Up & Jam: Gaiden, Chapter 1 of the Hoopz Barkley SaGa. (Yes, that's a real game, watch the trailer. No really, watch it.) Anyway, Corpse Party has had two different remakes since then, the most recent of which landed as a downloadable title for the PSP in late 2010. A sequel arrived around a year later, and there have even been two manga adaptations. One was even published by Square Enix.

If this is the first time you've heard of Corpse Party, Joystiq's JC Fletcher put together an awesome description of what the game is all about. In essence, it's your typical 16 bit JRPG that jumps the rails in a big way. You quickly find yourself in a nightmare dimension where no one can see each other, doors don't work, windows are blocked by human hair, and evidence of countless child murders are everywhere. (Making you wonder how this is getting by the App Store approval department, eh?) There's a cast of characters who are subjected to the torture of this environment, and you sit by and watch what unfolds.

What interested me about this crazy game is that there's tons of "bad endings," like a Choose Your Own Adventure book. I've always really liked games that divert from a linear roller coaster ride to letting you screw up, and then showing you the consequences. The PSP version is even constructed with selectable chapters to allow you to go back and explore all these different outcomes.

According to Andriasang, Corpse Party will be hitting the Japanese App Store this week for ¥2,200 which in US App Store pricing would be $29.99. No word yet on a localized English release, but I figure if the game will be available for iOS devices with Japanese text, an English adaptation can't be that far off, since presumably the translation already exists from the PSP game.

Fingers crossed, anyway.

[Famitsu via Andriasang via Joystiq]

Remember League of Evil [$1.99]? It came out early last year, and the best way to describe it is the title of our review: "The closest thing to Super Meat Boy on iOS." League of Evil controlled great, making difficult Super Meat Boy-style platforming surprisingly fun. They even eventually added iCade and Joypad [Free] support, giving two more awesome control options.

Check out the recently released trailer for the sequel:

I'm digging the new art style. February 15th can't come quick enough.

A few weeks back, Cave announced that their next iOS release would be Dodonpachi Blissful Death, a port of their 2002 Japanese arcade game Dodonpachi Dai Ou Jou. Just in case your brain needs a refresher, take a look at the rather awesome trailer for the game:

Today Cave announced over Twitter that Dodonpachi Blissful Death is set for release this week on February 9th. Of course, due to the magic of time zones, that means late Wednesday for the App Store here in the US. It'll set you back $4.99, but you'll need at least 4th generation hardware or an iPad 2 in order to play. Also, look for Dodonpachi Resurrection to be going on sale for somewhere around $5 the weekend following release.

We've been following Crescent Moon's Raid Leader for what feels like way too long now. I've found myself saying for the past year how much I wish Battleheart was fleshed out into a larger game, as saying that Battleheart left me wanting more would be the largest understatement of 2011. We've covered how Raid Leader works in our preview:

In Raid Leader, you'll be taking a knight, a mage, and an archer, against a variety of damage-eating, MMO-like bosses that all appear to have special mechanical hooks. For example, there's a yeti-like monster with a freeze spell that turns its target into a block of ice. In order to break out, you'll have to tap on the screen. There's also a worm that, much to the archer and mage's chagrin, spawns mobs of life-sucking blood leaches all over the battlefield.

Now you can see all this in action in the recently released trailer:

Per the trailer, it's on track for a release next week. Stay tuned for a full review once the game actually hits.

Sissel has a lot of problems, but the least of  them is that he's dead. Well, not dead-dead, but dead. I'll explain: Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective [Free] is all about what Sissel has gained in the afterlife. Like a common ghoul, this guy can rattle mundane objects, activate levers and buttons, and possess stuff. He can also decidedly un-ghoulishly rewind time, which is a trick that comes in pretty handy; a lot of the people he knows tend to die, and he needs these people to help him with his biggest problem: memory loss.

Ghost Trick first saw a release on Nintendo DS around a year ago. This isn't its debut on iOS, though. A couple of months after the DS release, Capcom dropped a Universal version of the game on the Japanese App Store. Now, the rest of the world is finally getting to see a version of this port tonight.

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It's 2012, and I've had a few years to conjure a snappy explanation of what Eufloria is and how it rolls. I haven't. So, before I even get into how much I dig it on iPad, I'll let my main man Rudolf Kremers -- one of the handful of dudes behind the original release -- do the talking. In our latest "bonus" podcast, he cheekily broke it down like this:

"Eufloria is a game of space, conquest, and exploration based on themes of plant life and flowers rather than space marines and spaceships."

That's the thing about Eufloria: it's an RTS that goes against the grain. It doesn't have any big dudes in big armor smashing space orcs in the face with apartment-sized space maces. It also doesn't subscribe to any particular feel or taste, or really, any action-y RTS conventions. It's a minimalist strategy game that has some cool, laid-back creative touches, and it's all wrapped up in a sensitive production overhead that conveys the game's core design ideals and gentle pacing well.

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An official, totally real spin-off of a PC Steam release that goes by the name of Tobe's Vertical Adventure will be available on the App Store this month. As we write this, the folks over at Secret Base are hard at work on Tobe & Friends Hookshot Escape, a vertical and endless platformer that stars everyone's favorite super weapon, the hookshot.

We're told that Tobe & Friends will stroke arcade desires, as well as provide a ton of differentiated play in its space. A total of four unique characters that offer unique hook, er, shotting abilities, as well as four different worlds and 20 pieces of equipment dot the game's landscape. In a blog post, Secret Base notes that there's more to the game like, say, "power ups, monsters, themes and chirpy musics" and more will be revealed later. Catch your first look in the trailer below:

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Also at Macworld this year was ZigZaGame Inc, the developers who are bringing Adventure Bar Story to the App Store. We've already gone pretty in depth with Adventure Bar Story in our hands-on preview, but another title that they were showing off is their Pokemon-style game Dragon Island.

Dragon Island has you exploring a huge world, battling and collecting over 200 different species of monsters. Each one can be evolved several times, and you can even collect recipes which will allow you to combine two different creatures to create a new hybrid version. Also, you'll be able to battle bosses and claim their spirits in order to summon them in future battles.

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Foursaken Media has made a name for themselves which such quality releases as Bug Heroes [Free], it's spinoff Bug Heroes Quest [99¢], and the wacky arcade cooking game Mad Chef [99¢]. In fact, they have yet to make a game that I don't like, and it looks like they aren't interested in breaking that trend anytime soon as their newest upcoming game Sky Gnomes looks like yet another winner. Rather than go into too much detail about Sky Gnomes, check out the hands-on video below where the developer does an excellent job of explaining all the ins and outs of the gameplay:

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