Best Iphone Apps Review

Turn-Based Strategy Game ‘Highborn’ Free for a Day, iPad Version Now Available is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website

One of our favorite turn-based strategy games, Highborn, has just received a new update and has gone free for today only. Released in early June of this year, Highborn has a wonderful art style, clever writing, single player campaign, and an asynchronous multiplayer mode. Using the typical top-down grid view of most strategic games like this, once you engage in battle with an enemy the game switches to a 3D animation of the ensuing fight between your troops and the enemy. It's a really neat effect, and the overall presentation of Highborn really impresses. As you can see from this excerpt, we really loved the game in our full review:

Highborn comfortably sits as one of the best turn-based strategy games we have played on the iPhone. Beyond its dialogue and characters, which raise the bar entirely for humour, creativity and personality (and ability to plough right through that fourth wall); Highborn looks and plays fantastically, with a depth and attention to detail in its presentation that constantly surprises (just take a look at the character descriptions to see what I mean). If you look past the Facebook integration (which we understand some of you won't, though we strongly urge you to), Highborn also has a lasting and engrossing multiplayer mode that is excellently paced and perfect for portable devices. With additional campaigns promised beyond the 8 lengthy missions currently available (they'll take you hours to complete), Highborn is a robust and content-heavy turn-based strategy game that will surely leave you impressed.

What you can also see from that snippet is that while we loved the way the multiplayer mode worked, we absolutely hated that it forced you to use Facebook to take part in it. I'm sure many other players felt the same, and likely shied away from the multiplayer aspect because of this. Developer Jet Set Games recognized this, and in an update released a couple days ago Facebook was taken out in favor of the OpenFeint social network. While not everyone is a fan of OpenFeint either, it at least affords a way to enjoy the multiplayer in the game without having to add strangers to your own personal Facebook friend list, and doesn't even require an email or any personal info to sign up for. There's even the inclusion of player chat thanks to OpenFeint, not to mention the 30 million strong user base.

Besides Highborn for iPhone being free today, there's also an iPad version that has just been released. The iPad version adds the usual benefits of sharper graphics and a larger play area due to the bigger screen, but essentially the two versions are identical. This isn't necessarily a bad thing though, as the iPhone version is of such high quality and the introductory price for the iPad version is only $2.99. And while Highborn has a fairly decent single player campaign already, what I'm really waiting for is the addition of the second chapter that is hinted at in the game. Still, for one of the best strategy games available on the App Store there's no reason not to at least grab the iPhone version of Highborn while it's free for today only.

‘Cubed Rally Racer’ – New Lite Version and 99¢ Sale is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website

Back in May, Jared Bailey from NoCanWin.com released Cubed Rally Racer [99¢] onto the App Store. Inspired by NES-era isometric racers, Cubed Rally Racer was dubbed “RC Pro-Am meets Canabalt”, and fits that tagline rather well. It put you in control of a rally car tasked with racing through randomly generated levels, all the while avoiding cows, gophers, and other silly obstacles on your way to the finish line. We really liked the game in our review, but noted that the controls can be hard to get used to and the overall difficulty of the game is rather high.

Because of those reasons, many gamers may have been on the fence over purchasing the game. Those fence-sitters should be happy to know then that a lite version of Cubed Rally Racer has just been made available. The full version features tracks made up of sections, with a maximum number of 99 sections in a track. Cubed Rally Racer Lite [Free] features up to 3 sections of track to race on, and a selection of the different unlockable track obstacles from the full version. It's definitely enough to give you an idea of whether or not you'll enjoy the full version, and there is an option to upgrade to the full right from within the game after practically every race.

What you don't get in the lite is any kind of OpenFeint integration, which is a huge part of Cubed Rally Racer as you can send challenges to friends and and compete on several different leaderboards. Also missing in the lite is the endless Pasture mode which acts as a more casual practice track, and Redline mode which is pretty much the opposite and has a red line chasing you down an endless course while you race, forcing you to keep up a brisk pace. These two modes have been added in an update since we reviewed the game, and players in our forums are absolutely loving them. In addition, the full version has many more types of track sections and obstacles available.

If you have never been able to pull the trigger on purchasing Cubed Rally Racer, definitely give this new lite version a try. It's the type of game that doesn't appeal to everybody, but to those who take kindly to it it's a real gaming treat. As an added incentive, the full game is seeing it's first ever price drop, down to 99¢ from $1.99. If you like what you see in the lite version, now is a great chance to jump on the full version of Cubed Rally Racer during this limited time sale.

Price Drop (and Freebie) Alert – ‘Ancient Frog’, ‘Stick Golf’, and ‘Underworlds Ultimate Edition’ is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website

A few noteworthy games have just received a price reduction that are worth checking out. One is a puzzle game that features some incredible photorealistic graphics, one relies on simple stick figures and silhouettes, and the other provides hours of dungeon crawling action. They all have separate iPhone and iPad versions available for a low price, so no matter which device you own this particular sale should interest you.

Ancient Frog – A puzzle game where you must lead a frog to it's meal, which is naturally a fly, by moving one leg at a time. There are droplets of water laid out before you that are the only spots to place his feet. Keeping in mind that the frog's legs can only stretch so far, you must position him close enough to the fly to be able to eat it, using the least amount of moves as possible. The graphics were simply stunning at the time of release, which was well over a year ago, and still impress today. The graphics are incredibly lifelike, and the gameplay is both challenging and “zen-like” due to the game's great atmosphere.

We liked the iPhone version when it was released, and developer Ancient Workshop completely reworked the game for the iPad specific release, taking advantage of the higher resolution and extra screen space. Both versions originally sell for $4.99 a piece, but they have since both been dropped to 99¢. There's also a lite version to try, which I would recommend doing since the type of gameplay on offer may not appeal to everyone. But if you end up enjoying what's in the lite, I highly suggest grabbing Ancient Frog during this sale.

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Stick Golf – A simplistic game of 2D golf with a clean style and a brutal difficulty. There's eight different nine hole courses, all with a unique theme and some crazy level designs. You're given a side view of each hole and a small trajectory line emanates from the golf ball. To hit a shot you simply adjust the line using a pair of directional arrows, tap a shot button once to start a shot strength meter, and tap again to set the power of the shot. Using one finger you are able to pan around the level to plan out your next shot, and playing Stick Golf couldn't be easier.

The real challenge of Stick Golf is the difficult design of the courses and the physics system. Plenty of times I've made an epic shot only to have my ball very slowly continue rolling right off of some sort of cliff and down into a deep chasm, which I'd then lose plenty of strokes trying to get out of. Still, it's a fun game and easy to get sucked into playing for short or long bursts. I'm not sure why I had never noticed Stick Golf before, but with the price dropping down to free it was a no brainer to check it out, which I'm glad that I did. There's also an iPad specific version available for 99¢, and either are worth taking a look at during this sale.

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Underworlds Ultimate Edition – The iPad version of Underworlds [99¢ / Free], a hack and slash dungeon crawler we really enjoyed in our review. Since we first looked at the game, two additional chapters worth of content have been added and the iPad version makes great use of the extra screen real estate with things like your inventory popping up in small windows instead of being full screen on the iPhone which you can see in the following video:

If you own an iPad and have any interest in dungeon crawlers, you need to grab Underworlds Ultimate Edition, especially while it's free. If you've got an iPhone or iPod touch, give the lite version of Underworlds a spin and consider upgrading to the full version which provides a surprising amount of content for its current price of 99¢.

Three Free Titles During Donut Games Crazy Summer is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website

Donut Games has just set three of their premium titles to free during their “Crazy Summer” promotion. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, we love Donut Games. The wonderful pixel art graphics and simple game concepts are a perfect fit for iPhone gaming. Their games are hardly ever priced at more than a dollar, so it's not hard saying that purchasing any of their games is money well spent. However, if you've ever been on the fence over grabbing any of these three titles, you have no reason not to now as they've gone temporarily free.

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Castle Smasher – One of the earliest offerings from Donut Games, Castle Smasher has you launching stones from a catapult towards a castle in an effort to demolish it to the ground. A recent 2.0 update added a tremendous amount of new content to the game, which we detailed in an article last month. If you enjoy something like Angry Birds, then you should surely enjoy Castle Smasher.

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Traffic Rush – Traffic Rush is a fairly simple traffic direction game. Cars enter from all sides of the screen moving towards a four way intersection. You must decide when to stop cars and when to speed them through in order to avoid having any collisions. If an accident occurs, it's game over. The action picks up fairly quickly as more and faster cars start to come, and the game can get incredibly hectic and fun. If you like line drawing games like Harbor Master or Flight Control, but could do without the actual drawing of lines, Traffic Rush should be a great fit.

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Cat Physics – A cute physics puzzler that tasks you with directing a ball from one kitty to another. Arrows can be placed about on each level that redirect where your ball will go, allowing you to make your way past the obstacles in it's path. I've seen a pretty overwhelming response to Cat Physics from gamers of all ages, and we loved the game in our review from May. Finding just the perfect placement of the arrows ensures you can maximize your score, and if you like puzzle games Cat Physics is a winner.

Camera+ Makes $250k In First Month – Writer Considering Career Change is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website

tap tap tap (Convert, Voices) has done quite well in the App Store despite not being a game developer. Continuing this trend, the company has announced today in a lengthy blog post that their newest app, Camera+, has made $250k in its first month. Surprisingly enough, the app did so with no advertising (the company doesn’t advertise for its apps anymore due to costs) and quickly declining sales in the US market.

So how did they do it? Here’s the abridged version.

Since tap tap tap does no advertising anymore, John Casasanta, head of the company and writer of the blog post, says that the key is to start with a HUGE launch. Huge as in contest for $10,000+ worth of camera equipment… but the key is how to get the word out. Fortunately for tap tap tap, John Casasanta is also the head of MacHeist, so the company got a large head start, but now tap tap tap has its own opt-in list with 70,000 subscribers. Says Casasanta, “Granted, not every developer has access to such resources, but there’s no reason that anyone can’t build-up resources of this sort over time… it’s taken us years so patience and persistence is key.”

I guess in any business, you’re only as successful as the people you know, or in this case, the amount of people you know.

The rest of the success lies in the app itself. Since the US App Store is completely dominated by games, it’s imperative to have a flawless, detail oriented app with some fun touches and well done social network integration. The post talks, in detail, about making things feel right, with not too many options, but enough to work correctly. Also, developers need to be completely open to feedback, and update when the app needs to be updated, but only when the updates are necessary.

As a non-game, it’s very important to keep hope even after sales wane in the US. The app market overseas is very different from our game and entertainment app dominated store, with countries like Finland having 14 of the top 25 being non game and entertainment apps. Check out the sales chart on the right to see how foreign app store are supporting Camera+.

The post ends with a warning. “You can spend a year on an app and hardly make a dime on it. It’s not just the nature of the App Store… it’s the nature of practically any business.” Only make an app if it’s something that you love, and be sure to slave over every last detail.

So good luck to all the devs that are out to make your own $250k. If every app turns out to look as well made as any of the tap tap tap apps, the world would be a much better place.
[Source: taptaptap]

[ Camera+ Makes $250k In First Month – Writer Considering Career Change is a post from 148Apps ]

App Store State of the Union: On the Second Birthday of the App Store is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website

Mr. CEO, members of the developer program, iOS users, and abusers. I have come here today not to only address the great advances of the App Store but to also address the issues.

During the past year the App Store has seen amazing growth. We’ve seen a quadrupling of the number of applications, downloads, and devices. Since it’s inception, the App Store has generated over 1.5 billion dollars in revenue for Apple with over a billion dollars of that going to developers.

The App Store is a unique mobile application market. Apple has done something that no other device manufacturer had done before or since. Not only has Apple developed a common mobile platform delivered across a variety of devices, they have done so across over eighty different countries and mobile carriers. This is the most perfect mobile device and application marketplace match ever created. Apple controls everything from the device research and development, manufacturing, sales, and application delivery. Reducing the mobile carriers to the point that they are simply service providers. Prior to the iPhone, mobile carriers controlled everything from device features, names, and what applications were available at what price. Under the iPhone, they control just the cellular service. Palm, Google, and soon Microsoft will try to replicate the Apple App Store model, but none have yet to be able to — even though they have the perfect example of how to do so.

One year ago there were 65,000 applications available that had amassed 1.5 billion downloads. As of now there are over 229,000 applications available and those applications have been downloaded a total of over 5 billion times.

Growth in the number of applications this year has been more linear than the exponential growth we saw the first year. That has more to do with the saturation of the app store than it does with size of the market. Over the past 12 months we saw nearly 200,000 new applications approved and nearly 4 billion additional downloads. That’s a 3x growth in number of applications this year as opposed to a 109x growth the first year. That works out to a pretty steady 10-20% growth in the number of applications, month-over-month for the past 12 months.

If the current growth trends continue, the App Store could see 35 billion downloads of nearly three-quarters of a million different apps one year from today. Lofty goals indeed, but I don’t think we expected to see the growth we saw this past year. With the continued adoption of the platform on revised devices like the iPhone 4, and whole new device lines like the iPad, and potentially others, I think there’s a great chance that it will continue that growth.

While in it’s first year, application prices dropped considerably and quickly, they have remained fairly steady this year. Due to changes made this year we can expect to see the growth of freemium applications continue as well. And more income will be generated by in-app purchases versus application sales. This is something we can not track though, so it will be a mystery how much income this will bring developers.

The last year has not been without issues. While the App Store to consumer segment continues to be very well received, Apple still has issues to address with it’s developer relations. While greatly improved, there are still issues with application approval. In addition, the open-ended nature of that developer agreement has given Apple the opportunity to change their mind repeatedly and remove an entire segment of application from the App Store without notice.

The developer tools provided by Apple continue to evolve. Xcode, the development environment provided by Apple is consistently lauded by developers as the best available on any platform. The next version, Xcode 4 appears to be even better. While still in beta and under NDA, developers have been leaking a few details here and there that make it sound like a great step forward. Adding features often requested and integration of features such as interface designer and the Instruments performance monitor into the main application.

While everyone knows that developers have to play by Apple’s rules if they want to be in the App Store, those rules are an ever changing target. This causes problems as it’s difficult to develop to rules that are enforced inconsistently and constantly changing. We’ve seen whole companies sprout up, spend money researching and developing applications, and then be ruined as those applications were not approved by Apple for sale in the App Store. Thereby destroying the company that had been built up exclusively to develop for the iOS platform. This has to change.

We’ve also seen whole segments of application approved for sale and then later removed from the App Store. Segments such as Google Voice based application, applications that present a desktop-like interface, and so-called bikini apps were once approved and then later removed – en masse from the App Store. This too has to change.

The application approval delay has been reduced considerably — a job well done there. But there are still some apps that fall through the cracks and don’t get approved in a timely manner. The real issue there is that the developers don’t know why. There is no communication back to the developers on what is going on, what the potential issue is, or how to resolve it. It appears this is usually caused by an exception. An app reviewer takes a look at the app and has a question and passes it up the chain of approval. That seems to be where it gets stalled. Nothing is communicated back to the developer other than it requires further review and it can stall for weeks in that status. Oddly, some developers have been able to remove that application and re-submit and have it go right through as a different reviewer doesn’t see an issue. There is the inconsistency and communication issues, those need to change.

Over this coming year I hope to see Apple firm up it’s developer agreement and explicitly spelling out what developers can and can not do in the App Store. And then the important part, stick to that agreement for all developers. You can’t ignore the rules for some developers and strictly enforce them for others.

While there are reasons to change the rules to adapt to the changes in the market, keeping these changes to a minimum and communicating them properly before they are made are the key to keeping your developers happier.

Censorship has become a concern. We’ve seen the issue where any application that pulls data from the Internet needs to be marked as 17+ since they could, theoretically, pull adult content. This has been very randomly applied to apps it seems. If it were consistently applied, the NY Times application would be marked 17+. It, of course is not marked that way. We’ve also seen applications rejected that could be considered a freedom of press concern.

Censorship could become a major concern, and something to think about for any publication releasing an app on the App Store. Some theorize a world where Apple can control the media by approving or disallowing applications based on their political content. While I don’t think it’s a huge potential concern — or at least not as much of a concern as conspiracy theorists would make you believe — it needs to be considered when developing for the iOS platform.

In summary, the App Store is growing by a phenomenal amount and sales of devices and applications show no real signs of slowing down. We’ve seen growing pains as the larger the App Store gets, the harder it is to manage, in general those have been addressed well. There are issues with developer relations and approvals, but consumers are happier than ever.

In spite of the issues, the state of the App Store is strong.

[ App Store State of the Union: On the Second Birthday of the App Store is a post from 148Apps ]

Freebie Alert: ‘Babylonian Twins’ – iPad HD Version Drops to $1.99 is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website

One of our favorite games of April went free today, Babylonian Twins [Free], while its HD iPad counterpart, Babylonian Twins HD [$1.99] saw a price drop to $1.99. Regardless of which version you get, both are a lot of fun and the game has an amazingly interesting history involving extraordinary conditions during its development in Iraq with economic sanctions preventing its initial release.

As the title would hint, in Babylonian Twins you play as a set of Babylonian twins, with each twin having their own abilities which must be cleverly combined to complete levels. Gameplay is very similar to that of the classic Blizzard game The Lost Vikings, with only one twin able to be controlled at once. We loved how this gameplay mechanic was combined with challenging, well designed levels in our review:

These simple gameplay features form the premise for some of the most interesting and expansive level designs that we have seen to date on the platform. In many ways, Babylonian Twins does away with contemporary trends in gaming, and re-instates the old-school values of a challenging, explorative platformer that refuses to hold you by the hand. There are no directional arrows or maps to point you towards the golden palm trees you must collect each level. In fact, even crucial objects such as the aforementioned broken walls and floors are easily missed unless you're paying attention. And each level is enormous– an adventure in and of itself– many of our completion times clocking in at around 30 minutes each.

The iPad version of the game plays the same, with higher quality graphics as is the case with most "HD" releases. Give the iPhone version a try, and if you like it and own an iPad, Babylonian Twins HD is well worth the two bucks. Regardless of whether or not you pick up the iPad version while it's on sale, Babylonian Twins for the iPhone is a game everyone should download to try out while it's free.

July 4th Weekend Sales: Gameloft, EA, Glu, Namco and More is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website

In celebration of this holiday weekend, several game companies are hoping that you'll load up on some new games while loading up on burgers and hot dogs. Four of the biggest iPhone developers have discounted a selection of their games for this event, and a few other random sales are occurring as well. There's bound to be something on this massive list that piques your interest, so in between lighting off tiny explosives in the name of freedom and stuffing your face with barbecued treats make sure you hit up these sales before they're gone.

Gameloft:

• The Settlers, $4.99 → 99¢
• Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X., $4.99 → 99¢
• Rayman 2: The Great Escape, $4.99 → 99¢
• Driver, $4.99 → 99¢
• The Oregon Trail, $4.99 → 99¢
• Brain Challenge HD (iPad), $4.99 → 99¢
• Hero of Sparta HD (iPad), $4.99 → 99¢

Namco:

• ACE COMBAT Xi Skies of Incursion, $4.99 → $2.99
• Alpine Racer, $1.99 → 99¢
• Brain Exercise with Dr. Kawashima, $4.99 → $1.99
• Dig Dug REMIX, $2.99 → 99¢
• Galaga REMIX, $2.99 → 99¢
• Garters & Ghouls, $1.99 → 99¢
• GATOR PANIC, $1.99 → 99¢
• i Love Katamari, $4.99 → $2.99
• Inspector Gadget, $2.99 → 99¢
• Isaac Newton's Gravity, $2.99 → $1.99
• Lt. Fly Rise of the Arachnids, $1.99 → 99¢
• Mr. Driller, $1.99 → 99¢
• Ms. PAC-MAN, $4.99 → 99¢
• PAC-MAN, $4.99 → 99¢
• PAC-MAN for iPad (iPad), $4.99 → 99¢
• PAC-MAN Championship Edition, $2.99 → 99¢
• PAC-Match Party, $1.99 → 99¢
• PAC-Match Party HD (iPad), $1.99 → 99¢
• Pole Position: Remix, $2.99 → 99¢
• Pool Pro Online 3, $4.99 → 99¢
• Pool Pro Online 3 for iPad (iPad), $1.99 → 99¢
• Star Trigon, $1.99 → 99¢
• Tamagotchi: 'Round the World, $4.99 → $1.99
• Time Crisis Strike, $4.99 → 99¢
• Tinseltown Dreams: The 50's, $2.99 → 99¢

Glu:

• 1000: Find 'Em All!, $2.99 → 99¢
• Beat It!, $1.99 → 99¢
• Bonsai Blast, $2.99 → 99¢
• Brain Genius Deluxe, $1.99 → 99¢
• Build-a-lot, $2.99 → 99¢
• Cooking Star, $1.99 → 99¢
• Mini Golf Wacky Worlds, $2.99 → 99¢
• Space Monkey, $1.99 → 99¢
• Stranded: Mysteries of Time, $2.99 → 99¢
• TRANSFORMERS G1: AWAKENING, $2.99 → 99¢
• World Series of Poker Hold'em Legend, $2.99 → 99¢

EA Games:

• Skate It, $4.99 → $1.99
• Scrabble, $4.99 → $1.99
• Tetris, $4.99 → $2.99
• Connect 4, $2.99 → $1.99
• Battleship, $2.99 → 99¢
• FIFA 10, $6.99 → $2.99
• Mass Effect Galaxy, $1.99 → 99¢
• Boggle, $1.99 → 99¢

Other Sales:

• I Dig It HD (iPad), $9.99 → $6.99
• Call of Duty: World at War: Zombies, $9.99 → $7.99
• Call of Duty: World at War: Zombies II, $9.99 → $7.99
• Highborn, $2.99 → 99¢
• Fantastic Contraption, $4.99 → $3.99
• Moxie 2, $1.99 → 99¢
• Big Buck Hunter Pro, 99¢ → Free
• ZombieSmash, $1.99 → 99¢

Freebie Alert: ‘Soul’, ‘Spinzizzle’, and ‘Rebounce’ is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website

While there are tons of these daily free game sites out there, it's not often that the stars align resulting in three games of this caliber all being free at once. Standard freebie disclaimer is in place of course, with these games likely returning to their regular price very soon. Don't waste any time before snagging these.

Soul, Normally $1.99 – An iPhone adaption of a critically acclaimed XBOX Live Arcade indie game, Soul puts players in control of a soul escaping the body of a dead man. You must then use tilt controls to guide the soul out of the maze-like building to heaven. Gameplay isn't anything we haven't seen before, as the game is basically just a tilt controlled marble game with a whole lot of atmosphere.

Soul has some great art and sound design, but the random screaming doesn't take long to start to get annoying. Regardless, this is a really cool game, and at the current sale price of free, there's not much to not like about it.

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Spinzizzle, Normally 99¢ – Yeah there are a ton of matching games on the App Store, but Spinzizzle is definitely one of the better ones. You control a wheel filled with colored balls that you must rotate to make as many matches as possible. Once three or more balls line up, they get locked in to place and you can keep rotating the wheel to get even more matches.

I really liked Spinzizzle when I reviewed it, and I've recommended it to quite a few people who have asked me to suggest some matching games that offer a little more than your typical match three.

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ReBounce: Evolved Breaking, Normally $1.99 – We first discussed ReBounce on episode #10 of our podcast, then later went on to review the game, and admit we liked it a lot more than we initially expected. In ReBounce, you bounce a golden puck around on the game board, eliminating chains of orbs with each bounce. The game definitely has a Peggle feel to it, and the multiple game modes provide lots of variety.

If you like games with bouncing mechanics, clearing huge sections of objects on screen (intentionally or unintentionally), and online leaderboards via OpenFeint, look no further than ReBounce.

Monday Freebies: ‘Saving Private Sheep’, ‘Dirt Moto Racing’, ‘Super KO Boxing 2′, ‘Dawn of the Dead’, ‘Action Buggy’, ‘Car Mania’, ‘Mr.Space!!’, and ‘Superblox: Powers Unleashed’ is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website

Alright, this is a ridiculous amount of good freebies out there for a Monday afternoon, and really, nothing should stop you from downloading all of these games as soon as possible. Of course, the standard App Store disclaimer applies here in that freebie promotions are often for a very limited time, everything is free as of the time of this posting, but if you delay they may return to their normal prices before you get a chance to snag 'em.

Saving Private Sheep – A fun physics puzzler by Bulkypix with over 80 included levels, and even more available via 99¢ level packs. Set in a silly game world where wolves are at war with sheep, Saving Private Sheep has a great difficulty ramp and a funny atmosphere which significantly adds to the game. (App Store)

Dirt Moto Racing – Resolution Interactive has released several racing games (which are all worth a look if you like this one) that all have great controls and graphics. Dirt Moto Racing has a career mode, vehicle upgrades, and everything else you'd expect from a full racing game. (App Store)

Super KO Boxing 2 – Now this is a game I can't believe is free. Super KO Boxing 2 looks and feels a lot like Super Punch Out for the Super Nintendo, with 15 opponents that cover a wide range of stereotypes, tons of achievements, multiple game modes, and tons of other fun stuff. Don't miss this one while it's free. (App Store)

Dawn of the Dead – I wasn't that impressed by this game when it was originally released, but you can now give it a spin for free. Three characters are included, along with a bunch of weaponry, five different levels, and both a story and survival mode to play through. The iTunes description mentions iOS 4 issues, so you might need to wait for an update if you've already upgraded. (App Store)

Action Buggy – All Donut Games seem to be universally loved around here, and Action Buggy is no different. In the game, you pilot a, well, action buggy, on the rocky surfaces of a distant moon. Like all Donut Games, the gameplay mechanics are simple enough that anyone can play it, but gets difficult surprisingly quickly. (App Store)

Car Mania – Route traffic through a variety of different maps while juggling drivers' road rage, construction sites, and other obstacles. Multiple game modes keep things fresh, and there's even a Road Rage mode where the goal is to crash the cars instead of routing them safely to their destinations. (App Store)

Mr.Space!! – A fast paced game with simple graphics, fun sound effects, and stick figures. Mr. Space has found his way in what appears to be some kind of trash compactor, and you have to move him from side to side to fit in a hole to not get squished. If you like this game, give its sister game, Mr.AahH!! a try. (App Store)

Superblox: Powers Unleashed – As the iTunes description mentions, this is NOT your Grandma's puzzle game. What might initially sound like a simple matching game actually turns out to be tons of fun, filled with crazy powerups, enemies, tons of game modes, and outstanding controls. (App Store)