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Heads up: Limbic Software is continuing to build on Zombie Gunship [$.99] with the release of a third residential expansion this afternoon. The expectation is that it’ll expand on the fiction like the others, and hey, presumably give us another bodacious zombie-popping romp in the process, too. You can grab it now for the delicious price of $0.

Zombie Gunship is a little old by App Store standards, so here’s a little refresher for your mushy stuff. From our review:

If you’ve played Call of Duty, you may remember the levels where you fly in an AC-130 and target the enemies below in a fantastic display of aerial firepower. Well, Zombie Gunship is based on that idea.

In the game, you look down over an apocalyptic landscape and wait for enemies to appear on your radar. Suddenly, a solitary human figure rushes from the shadows, trying to escape from hoards of brain-loving zombies. This is where you step in to save the day. You must shoot the zombies below, before they eat the few remaining humans or reach the bunker. If one lifeless zombie reaches the bunker, it seals itself to avoid being breached and your mission is over.

We’re still loving this game, and judging from the response on the game’s Facebook page, it looks like its followers aren’t anywhere close to being done with it, either. That’s good. If the title continues to thrive, we’ll probably keep getting new content, too. Screens of the latest just below, by the way:

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If you wanted a leg up in Call of Duty: Black Ops Zombies [$6.99], Activision has your back. In an update that hit yesterday, the publisher has added a new in-game “Points Pack system” that allows users to purchase the game’s currency for real money. There’s a total of six tiers to choose from, ranging in price from $.99 to $49.99. The former gives you 12,000 points to play with, while the latter dishes out an astounding 2,000,000.

More interestingly, this update rolls in a couple of new weapons — the Ray Gun and “the zombie-attracting” Monkey Bomb. Both hit at no-cost after updating, which happens to be the same offering price for all the update’s nebulous bug fixes and optimizations. Content is something we’ve noted that Black Ops Zombies needs, so these weapons are certainly a welcome sight. Hopefully new, wholly original and game-specific maps are hitting soon, too.

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Did you know that Blackfish Games’s New Orbit [$.99] is cheaper than usual? It is. Since late this past January, the horror sci-fi title has been available at $.99 instead of its usual $2.99. It’s a good price, too: New Orbit is a solid, story-driven game that has some really sharp gravitational / orbital mechanics wrapped up in its Asteroids-inspired, but less frenzied shell.

At $.99, we think you should give it a try. Our users raved about the game after its initial debut, and still seemed high on it even after finishing. Check out what they had to say before making a purchase, or hey, watch this teaser trailer:

[Via @SteveStreza]

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We first checked out Liv Games over a year ago with Legendary Wars [$0.99 / HD], a great take on castle defense. Now the developers are back with Monster Wars [$0.99], the latest addition to the genre. Billed as a ‘follow-up’ to their previous game, Monster Wars succeeds at preserving the same great gameplay of its predecessor while tweaking elements and offering a new story complete with a load of new units.

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.

TouchArcade Rating:

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We’ve had our eye on Tweet Land [$1.99] from Why Ideas ever since we spotted it as a curious Kickstarter project back in April of last year. The project was more than sufficiently funded, and last month we were treated to a new trailer and news that Tweet Land would be hitting at the end of January. As expected, earlier this week the game finally went live in the App Store.

Tweet Land was intriguing due to its unique real-time usage of tweets drawn from Twitter that would trigger elements into the game. It reaches out into the vast ocean of Twitter and utilizes special keywords from real tweets to create things in the game. It’s a fantastic idea in theory, and Why Ideas did pull it off on a functional level just as they had promised. However, despite being really innovative, Tweet Land doesn’t hold up as well in the gameplay department, and there were a couple of unintended side effects of using live tweets that left a sour taste in my mouth.

First, let’s talk about the kind of gameplay that’s in Tweet Land. You control a car heading down the highway (Route 140 no less) and you must make it to the finish line while dodging tweet-driven hazards and other traffic on the road. You can veer into the other cars from the side to knock them off the road and score some points, and ramming multiple cars off the road at once will multiply the points you earn. If you hit cars from behind or run into road hazards, you lose a bit of life, which is represented by the visual damage on your car.

I really like Tweet Land’s retro style, and there is a lot of humor and personality in its pixel art visuals (though it’s kind of blurry on my iPhone 4S). But things start to fall apart when you actually start playing. The controls are very slippery, and it’s hard to be precise when trying to properly ram other cars or avoid hitting hazards. With practice you can get used to it, but it’s still really annoying when you’re trying to quickly react to something and the controls don’t afford you the kind of finesse that you need to get it done.

I think when you have games that are built on top of a very simple core gameplay concept, you have to get all the little details right. That’s why games like Jetpack Joyride or Angry Birds are often imitated but rarely duplicated. as they get the feel of the controls and the movement in the game so right. If you’re going to be doing the same action over and over again, you want that action to be fun. While Tweet Land has its share of fun moments, something about it just feels off, like it’s missing something but I can’t pinpoint what.

The game is broken into two environments with 12 levels each, with a spot for a third environment that’s said to be coming soon. With each new level, new tweet-driven elements are introduced and added to the current ones, so as you keep going the variety of things that can happen increases quite a bit. An example of a hazard would be if someone tweets the word “meteor” then a meteor will fly in from off screen and you’ll have to use the position of its shadow in order to avoid being crushed. There are helpful things that can be triggered in the game too, like health packs or a temporary spread shot for your vehicle.

One problem with the progression in Tweet Land is that it gets rather hard rather quickly, and if you get stuck on a level there’s no moving forward until you beat it. This got pretty frustrating since many of the times that I died it felt like it wasn’t actually my fault. When elements are brought in from Twitter, they are accompanied by a label with the Twitter handle of whoever tweeted that keyword. This is neat, but leads to an incredibly cluttered and distracting screen, especially when there are multiple things happening at once. Coupled with the floaty controls and the speed at which things are zooming by, and the odds are stacked against you.

Arrows indicate where things will be coming in from off screen, but they’re hard to notice amongst the busyness on the screen and often aren’t very helpful. Add in the fact that there’s usually a ton of traffic on the road with you, and making it to the finish line intact can require a healthy dose of luck just as much as skill. The levels tend to be a bit longish, and nothing is worse than seeing your cheap demise when you’re within a stone’s throw of the finish. The more I failed a level over and over, the less I felt compelled to go back and conquer it.

However, my biggest issue with Tweet Land is something that I didn’t really expect: the tweets that the game draws from can be much too somber for what is supposed to be a fun and lighthearted game. For example, if someone tweets about a “car crash” then cars will zoom in from offscreen and wreck into some of the other traffic on the road. When your run ends, you have the option of looking at a list of all the tweets that were used to bring things into the game.

To my horror, I found that in this particular instance “car crash” was pulled from a huge retweet campaign trying to raise money for a girl who had lost her parents in a car crash in Florida. I know Tweet Land has no way of telling the difference, but I couldn’t help but feel crass for playing a game that was fueled by somebody else’s tragedy. With some of the other keywords used in the game – like tsunami, terrorist, and death – I have no doubt that encountering a downer situation like that will occur often.

While I do still think the idea behind Tweet Land is incredibly clever, I just find the game too fundamentally flawed to be enjoyable. Don’t get me wrong, I want to like it and I did find myself having fun with the game at times, but those fun times are quickly diminished when you realize your game is possibly being powered by the tragic tweets of strangers. Beyond that, the gameplay is too average to warrant dealing with cheap deaths and an unpredictable difficulty.

With some tweaks to the controls and interface, and perhaps some sort of filter for what kind of keywords are utilized, then Tweet Land could end up being something pretty special. It feels like it’s just a couple notches off of being something great, and I hope it gets there someday. As it is now, though, it’s hard to recommend the game except to those who might be curious to check out its novel use of Twitter or are prepared to deal with its shortcomings.

TouchArcade Rating:

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Our ratings for games we reviewed in January are now in place, and we now present to you the ones that are on the top of the heap. Each game reviewed receives a 1-5 star rating relative to the other games from that month. Generally, a three-star or higher is considered a “good” rating.

Our final scores are not the product of any traditionally objective measures such as graphics or sound, but simply reflect the games we would most recommend to others. Keep in mind, this listing is comprised of games we reviewed in January, and not necessarily games that were specifically released in January.

5 Stars

Super Crate Box, $1.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Vlambeer knocks it out of the park with this ultra-frantic crate collecting game. With great virtual controls, and gameplay that is great for pick up and play mobile gaming sessions, Super Crate Box is a game you shouldn’t miss.

4.5 Stars

Blockwick, Free – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – A really slick puzzle game that you can try for free. After that, level packs of increasing difficulty are sold in bundles of 60 for 99¢ a pop. Don’t let the initial pack it comes with turn you off, think of it more as a really long tutorial.

Hero Academy, Free – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – This multiplayer tactical game by Robot Entertainment has become incredibly popular amongst our community, and even was the topic of a recent Penny Arcade comic. If you’re looking for people to play with, hit the forum link and you’ll find tons of people looking for a game.

Run Roo Run, $0.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – From the creators of Scribblenauts comes this super-fun mini-level jumping game. Most levels will only take a few moments to complete, but thankfully, there’s a ton of them. Clearing a world unlocks some really difficult levels that’ll really put you to the test.

Smash Cops, $2.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Not only does Smash Cops have great graphics, but it also has a new control method that we haven’t seen before for controlling your cop car. You use your finger to “push” the car where you want to go. It sounds strange, but it works great.

Triple Town, Free – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – There’s a definite learning curve to Triple Town but once you get over that hump and come to grips with how the mechanics of the game works, you’ll be building amazing towns and cursing at bears in no time. Argh, those bears. They ruin everything.

Windosill, $2.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – This iPad exclusive puzzle game originally started its life as a Flash title. It’s aged incredibly well, and feels like a perfect fit for the iPad. Multitouch adds so much, even if you played the original, it’s worth trying again on the iPad.

The rest of the game ratings can be seen in their respective rating categories (also found in the sidebar navigation): 5 Stars, 4.5 Stars, 4 Stars, 3.5 Stars, 3 Stars, and 2 Stars.

As always, we expect there will be some debate about relative scores, but keep in mind that everyone’s personal ratings may vary based on individual tastes.

For more of our favorite iOS games, check out our “Best iPhone Games” category which includes all of these monthly posts as well as other special compilations of the greatest games the App Store has to offer.

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Ticket to Ride Pocket [$1.99], the iPhone and iPod Touch-specific version of the wonderful board game translation, has received a huge update. Starting now, users can now rock out online for the first time in a new asynchronous mode that allows up to four games per user. Less excitingly, local play has received a few tweaks: games no longer just quit out whenever there’s a disconnect, and an AI or two can now join in on the fun.

The patch notes also mention a lot of bug fixes, including memory leaks. Hit those up if you are really, really into the nitty-gritty of a splendidly comprehensive patch that adds functionality that we’ve all been waiting for. Here’s to hoping Pocket gets all of the maps in the iPad version down the line, too.

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I love Halfbrick’s Jetpack Joyride [Free], and if you like good iOS games, chances are you like Jetpack Joyride too. In fact, I’d like even more Jetpack Joyride, which, oddly enough, is where Big Pixel Studios’ Off The Leash [Free] comes in. You’re likely thinking to yourself, “But it seems obvious from the name alone that Off The Leash has to do with dogs, what does Jetpack Joyride have to do with anything?” I’ll explain.

You know how we raved about Jetpack Joyride’s mission system, its hefty in-game store full of customizables, and other single-user consumable perks? Well, Off The Leash does an incredible job of utilizing incredibly similar underlying systems to keep you playing game after game while feeling entirely new and fresh. In fact, in light of the recent NimbleBit cloning drama in the past week, it’s seems particularly important to tip our hats at games like Off The Leash that utilize these mechanics that work so well, but only as part of building an entirely new game experience.

In Off The Leash you initially control a single dog. It almost has a Mega Jump [Free] feel to it in that coins are everywhere, and you tilt your device to move your dog around to collect them. There’s also food to eat, and various power-ups to snag.

The premise of the game has you running from the police, as apparently dogs have been banned. This lends itself to my favorite gameplay mechanic, the dog rescue system. Since the cops are out in force to catch you (and presumably, all other dogs), you’ve got to snag every other dog you come across and recruit them into your coin collecting food devouring feral dog pack.

As you collect more dogs, you run in what could be best described as a massive canine swarm. Your dog friends you’ve picked up form behind you in a almost bird-like flying V formation which greatly increases the amount of coins and food you can pick up since any dog running into any coin or food product counts towards your total.

It’s not that easy enough, as there’s obstacles which make you lose dogs as the errant corners of your formation bumps into them. Thankfully, touching the screen makes your dogs form up in a line, but doing so greatly decreases your speed, which is really counterproductive since the game ends when your dog pack fails to make it through a checkpoint before you run out of time- Sort of like an old school racing game.

Like most of these games, you quickly find yourself in a rhythm of tilting tilting and tapping and the whole game melts away into this crazy dog pack management experience as you’re trying to go as quickly as possible without losing any of your puppy pals. There’s power-ups you can collect too such as your standard speed boost, time extension, a familiar coin magnet, and my favorite: DOUBLE DOGS. Collecting this power-up instantly doubles the dogs in your pack, which can result in a silly amount of dogs on screen.

Just like Jetpack Joyride, Off The Leash is totally free to download and play, with no ads or other restrictions as far as I can tell. Instead, it’s monetized through selling coins that are then used to buy cosmetic upgrades, better power-ups, and golden whistles which basically act like extra lives to keep playing if you fail to make it through a checkpoint. There’s also a similar permanent double coins add-on for 99¢, which seems to be a good place to start if you like playing the game since you can just earn coins for everything you’d want to unlock anyway.

I’m really sort of shocked by how much I find myself enjoying this game. The difficulty curve seems great, Jetpack Joyride already proved that this payment model works, and I love how they take the foundation that worked so well for Halfbrick but created what feels (and, really, is) an entirely new game around it. For the low, low price of free, you really shouldn’t miss Off The Leash.

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A couple of high-profile games are on sale on the App Store this morning. Warner Bros, in celebration of over a million sales and Valentine’s Day, has put Scribblenauts Remix [$.99] on the price-slash block. Down to $.99 from $1.99, the latest version of the game includes a new Valentine’s Day playground. The other notable, Another World [$1.99], is now just $1.99 instead of its usual $4.99. We’ve created the above epic image to mark the occasion of the meeting of these two games within a single blog post. Enjoy!

In all seriousness, both games are imaginative and lovingly rendered on iPhone and iPad. You can read more about Scribblenauts here and Another World here if you’d like, but let us save you a bit of time with this double-fisted spoiler: both games are, like, fantastically buy-it-now good. What are you waiting for, man?

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Regardless of whether you typically buy things with iTunes gift cards or if you’ve just linked your credit card up to your iTunes account and forgotten about it, Best Buy has a pretty great deal going that lasts until 7:00 PM Eastern tonight. iTunes gift cards are 20% off, and they’re available in values ranging from $15.00 (for $12.00) all the way up to $100.00 (for $80.00). Better yet, these gift cards are delivered digitally. So, if you’ve got a way to funnel money into the Best Buy web site, they’ll just instantly email you a discounted iTunes gift card code. How’s that for convenience?

Mash this link if you’re interested in taking advantage of the deal. You should see all the available gift cards. If the link isn’t working for you, just search their site for “iTunes (Digital Delivery)”. These 20% off deals aren’t anything to scoff at either, as buying $100.00 worth of credit for $80.00 could potentially net you nearly 20 free 99¢ games out of the deal depending on your local tax rate.

How much are those of you who are taking advantage of this dumping into the deal? I know people who buy stupid amounts of iTunes credit when these 20% off sales roll around, as that’s not only about as cheap as iTunes credit ever gets, but it’s also definitely a “the more you buy the more you save” kind of thing.

[via 9to5Mac]

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