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Digitoys / Yoot Saito has released some info on their upcoming iPad game The Tower… but it's entirely in Japanese. Google translator offers us this interpretation.

You, as the chief executive of the Bill to extend the building is the only person allowed in the building and see all the information. Your mission is to extend the building while residents pay attention to their stress, is to increase the population goes. Residents in the building is sensitive to stress. The building will go out with higher stress. Set up tenant offices and restaurants, elevators and moving equipment set up, equipment is arranged to move stress-free building is available to residents, please environmental facilities and maintenance rooms and even the security station.

Up a little more residents in the building environment to provide a satisfactory their grade goes up. Population of 15,000 building your personality over time. "Cathedral" to set up 100 ground floor, a holiday, a wedding will be here on a pair of couples. Then you is the best title "TOWER" won will witness the miracle of sight and.

Yeah, so far we're not getting much of a "this is going to be available in English" vibe. We've dropped them a line to get more information. In the meanwhile, here's a gameplay video they've also posted:

The company has also announced an Air Hockey game for the iPad called 4 Strikers Hockey. We'll let you know more if they get back to us.

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It was just a couple weeks ago that we were previewing the iPad version of the iPhone hit Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor. At the time, developer Tiger Style had yet to submit this enhanced version of their critically acclaimed game. Well, good news Spider fans, as since that preview the game had been submitted and approved, and is now available for download from the App Store. As mentioned, this version includes some extra features that set it apart from it's iPhone counterpart. From our preview:

Like similar HD releases, Spider HD is little more than the iPhone game with the resolution of everything cranked up to fill the screen of the iPad. This allows you to see much more of your surroundings, making clues regarding the secrets of Bryce Manor much easier to spot than on the iPhone version, where your somewhat limited viewpoint could result in missing certain things if you weren't properly exploring some levels. Also, like most games built around fantastic art, the entire game experience is so much better in high resolution.

All four of the game modes from the iPhone game are included, as well as a brand new two player "sidekicks" game mode where two spiders are on screen, and each spider is controlled by the finger nearest to it. It's actually a surprising amount of fun, as like most games played in cooperative mode it's entirely up to you whether you want to help each other build webs, or simply race all over the screen trying to munch up bugs before the other player.

This developer video demonstrates the high resolution visuals, larger play area, and iPad exclusive same-device multiplayer:

If you're an iPad owner who's never played Spider, then now is the best time to become familiar with the franchise as Spider: Bryce Manor HD seems to be the definitive version of the game.  Besides the additions mentioned above, it also includes all the Director's Cut content that was added to the iPhone version towards the end of last year.  As always, further impressions are being collected in the game's forum thread.

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When we first heard that there was a tower defense game in the works based on not only the best entry in the original Star Wars trilogy, but also a movie that is so good that it ranks in at #10 in the IMDB Top 250, it was hard to not get excited. After all, the entire battle on the ice planet Hoth seemed to make quite possibly the perfect scenario for a tower defense game, especially when you throw in heaps of Star Wars fan service in to the mix. After spending the day playing Star Wars: Battle for Hoth [$2.99], I'm happy to report that Battle for Hoth is a competent tower defender, with quite a few good ideas. Unfortunately, it's also lacking in some areas, which may or may not concern you depending on your level of obsession with the Star Wars universe.

First of all, from a Star Wars nerd perspective, it's hard to imagine a better iPhone game. Carving out trenches in the snowbanks of Hoth to position units and drive all the completely recognizable Imperial troops through your maze of defenses is really awesome, especially as you progress enough through the game to where you're battling AT-AT's and have access to the full arsenal of defenses. Brief clips of Empire Strikes Back play between levels, and as mentioned before, the entire scenario laid out in the movie is a great premise for a tower defense game.

Battle for Hoth works like other tower defense games, which by now I'd think everyone who reads this site with any regularity would at least be vaguely familiar with. It improves upon this gameplay formula in a number of ways, the first being trenches. Instead of needing to funnel the incoming enemy troops around by building rows of towers, you can dig trenches in the snow, which barely cost you any of your command points, the resource used in game to buy more defenses. When you place units inside of these trenches, they get a defensive bonus, which is important as the incoming Imperial forces won't just be blindly walking past, they will also be firing at you– Often destroying your defenses in the process.

The way the command points are handled is pretty cool too. Instead of the way most tower defense games work where you're just awarded whatever resource you use to buy defenses when enemies die, you have to actively tap on the little command point icon which is dropped by the last enemy in the wave. This forces you to pay attention, and continually pan around the battlefield to not miss command points, which could have vital consequences if you find yourself short to buy additional or upgrade your existing units. I found myself feeling like I was "playing" the game much more than your typical tower defense game, as odd as that is to say, because I couldn't just upgrade my towers and put my phone down while the next few waves of guys get slaughtered before I have to do anything.

My absolute favorite feature of Star Wars: Battle for Hoth is the level of control that you have over each of your units. Instead of your typical tower defender where your defenses blindly fire on the first unit, with some games allowing you to target a specific unit, Battle for Hoth allows you to tweak the targeting of all of your defenses. For instance, you can toggle whether they attack the weakest or strongest unit first, whether they should prioritize ground or air units, and this can be done both globally as well as on a per-unit basis. If you like this level of micromanagement, you will have a load of fun with Battle for Hoth.

Later in the game as you get access to more and more advanced defenses, you will need to build and protect power generators to supply power to stronger weapons, and there's even a second game mode. In fortress mode, you start each map with a fixed amount of command points, and you must plan ahead and use those command points wisely to be able to survive the level. It's an interesting spin on things, as it really forces you to analyze what the best bang for your proverbial buck is and whether or not you should build more units, focus on upgrades, or a mixture of the two.

Unfortunately, with all this good comes some bad as well. The interface of Battle for Hoth feels a little clunky. To place units, you drag them from the toolbars which line the top and right side of the screen. Units are placed under your finger tip, which really makes things feel extremely inaccurate as I'd much prefer they were offset above my finger instead of relying on the weird crosshair system they have currently implemented which just draws a horizontal and vertical line intersecting with your finger to line things up. In a tower defense game where you need to lay out defenses to route enemy troops around, you need to be able to position them exactly where you need them to go. I felt like I was accidentally placing things in the wrong spot far too often, forcing me to sell them at a loss and try again.

Overall the graphics of the game just seem lackluster. The animations of the various Rebel and Imperial units seem very basic, and while they certainly get the job done, Battle for Hoth barely compares to games like Fieldrunners in the art department. The sound effects and music get a little repetitive too, as you will need to get very used to hearing the same old blaster sound over and over. Also, I would have loved to have the original John Williams soundtrack (or at least parts of it) in game instead of the current background music which seems a little out of place.

Still, for three bucks, Star Wars: Battle for Hoth is one of the cheapest things to sport a Star Wars license that I can think of. It's a competent tower defense game, and I really don't think the things I perceive as negatives to the game wouldn't be as much of an issue if the entire genre wasn't so incredibly mature on the App Store. There are some absolutely fantastic tower defense games out there with highly refined controls, expertly balanced difficulty, tons of content that has been added through (in some cases) years of updates which make the rough edges on newcomers like Battle for Hoth stick out like a sore thumb.

At the end of the day, while there are better tower defense games on the App Store, this is the only one where you can battle waves of AT-AT's, which is likely worth the price of admission alone for most.

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We just heard form Secret Exit, developers of Zen Bound [$2.99 / Free] and the currently iPad-only Zen Bound 2 [$2.99] that aside from dropping the price of Zen Bound 2 to $2.99, they also just submitted an update to make the iPad game universal. Not only that, but if you're lucky enough to have an iPhone 4, the Zen Bound 2 universal update is coming packed with both Retina Display support as well as utilizing the gyroscope for increased accuracy when moving the rope around.

Both Zen Bound games are not games as much as they are experiences, the music pairs wonderfully with the relaxing gameplay of just wrapping a piece of string around a 3D object, and everything down to the in-game menus are simply beautiful. The original Zen Bound actually started as a PC game, but paired with the multi touch interface of the iPhone (and iPad), Zen Bound truly came to life on the platform.

Even if you don't download the game, I really recommend giving the soundtrack a listen. All you have to do is plug your email address in to the Zen Bound web site.

Zen Bound 2 is one of my favorite iPad games, and with both a price drop and a universal update pending approval, it's even easier to recommend picking this game up.

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After our own Eli Hodapp highlighted three silly games you don't need but should probably have anyway this past weekend, I couldn't help but think this next game could very easily be on that list as well. Magnetic Shaving Derby is delightful in it's peculiarity, and as long as you don't expect too much from it, contains some enjoyable gameplay as well. If you've ever had the urge to shave your face by pulling a razor blade across it with a magnet, all while collecting various fruits, vegetables, and even bubble gum, then you are in luck today.

Using either touch or tilt, move a magnet around the screen that controls a razor blade as you shave a large, colorful, MS Paint quality face. Imagine the Wooly Willy from your childhood, only in reverse. Dragging the razor across the helpless chap's eyes, nose, or lips results in screams of pain and copious amounts of blood lost, not to mention it brings down your score. It sounds odd, and it definitely is, but for some reason I just keep on playing. There's a Time Trial mode that tasks you with shaving the face in as short a time as possible, with each painful nick adding time to your score.

The Time Trial mode is good, but the real fun is to be had in the Score Attack mode. Here, you're given 3 minutes to shave away at the face as much as you can, with the stubble growing back almost instantly. A blood loss meter at the bottom slowly dwindles away the more you cut the guy, and if it empties before the timer is up it's game over. Tons of powerups and hazards litter this mode, and take it to the next level of craziness. Dragging the razor across a falling cucumber puts two slices of it over your eyes as protection, and collecting a ninja star sends your blade spinning like a whirlwind making it much easier to shave. There's so many more things like this in the game, and it seems like I keep coming across new ones as I play.

Magnetic Shaving Derby has that intangible quality of “what the heck am I doing and why do I want to keep doing it?” going for it. The graphics are crude in an endearing way, and just silly enough to bring a smile to your face. The gameplay is interesting, but the controls aren't the best. Tilt isn't precise enough to do what you need to do, and while touch works well it can get tough when dragging near the edges of the screen. Also there's OpenFeint integration for achievement and high score tracking, adding replayability to what is a pretty basic game. Even without any of this, Magnetic Shaving Derby delivers a lot of entertaining moments based on just the craziness alone.

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While the tower defense section of the App Store is nearly just as packed as match three's and line drawers, it's hard to not appreciate a game from even the most saturated genre that puts a new spin on things. Developer Tall Chair is putting players in charge of the defense of Undeadwood, a town which unsurprisingly has a zombie problem. In Cowboys vs Zombies, instead of the typical path that creeps snake around in front of your towers in most tower defense games, players hire cowboys to defend the roof of a particular building along what presumably is the main street of Undeadwood with a camera system that pans up and down the street instead of the standard overhead view.

According to the developers' description of the game, the zombies will attack each of your buildings, and deciding which to defend, which to rebuild, and when to fallback will be vital parts of the strategy involved in Cowboys vs Zombies. Check out the following gameplay trailer to see how this all looks in action:

According to the Cowboys vs Zombies Facebook page, the game was submitted to Apple on Monday night. Assuming there aren't any issues with the approval process, Cowboys vs Zombies should be available very soon.

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GodziLAB, of iBlast Moki fame, have taken an entirely new direction with their newest App Store venture, sizing up the portable online scene for a monster slam dunk. Star Dunk [App Store] is a frantically paced, competitive basketball shoot-out, where your task is to score more points than your adversaries in a free throw competition. Graphics are reminiscent of Geometry Wars; a stellar backdrop complete with a light show of shader effects for power-ups and ball handling– all running at a silky smooth 60 FPS on 3rd Gen iOS devices and up.

When playing Star Dunk, you first choose whether you wish to play online or offline. Either way you are immediately launched into a timed match where your objective is to carefully aim the ball's trajectory by swiping upwards with your finger. After each shot, the location of your next shot is reset to somewhere new. The key to obtaining bonus' and power-ups are through the backboard. When all four panels on the backboard are hit, they'll randomly select a bonus that applies for a limited time. Bonus' include score multipliers, larger rings and multi-balls.

To obtain the really big multipliers however, you'll need to hit a swish– nothing but net, and that's not easy. Consecutive 'extra clean shots' really ramp up your score, and are key to victory. Star Dunk also features a number of balls to unlock, all with different properties such as speed, bounciness and size. Some of the rarer unlocks have additional properties that add to the score multiplier in certain instances, and can be used to propel your score even higher. These help personalize the gameplay a bit, and add to the game's longevity as some of the more powerful balls take a considerable amount of effort (and sheer luck) to unlock their related achievement.

One other notable feature that we really liked about Star Dunk was how it handles its online match-making. If you choose to play online from the start screen you are thrown into a practice match, and a counter begins to the next online contest. The contest then begins seamlessly, synchronously matching each player against each other in a contest against the clock. Individual scores are then displayed in a ladder once the time is up. There are no lobbies to worry about and no visible connection screens. It was the smoothest integration of online gameplay we have seen, even over 3G. The downside to this seamlessness is that we were unable to directly play against friends, though the game's description alludes to the possibility.

There are other small touches that show the efforts Godzilab have gone to, to make Star Dunk stand out as an online game. Though you can't see your player's actions during a match-up, the Earth in the background will occasionally rotate to find just where your opponent is, neatly displaying their current score and position along side it. An arrow indicator on the top right of the screen also shows how you're faring in the contest; whether you are raising in rank, declining or stagnant compared to your competition.

These touches help make Star Dunk something more than just the simple basket shooter. The competitive nature of the game gives extra incentive to unlock the gamut of Plus+ achievements and their rewards, and the global ranking system constantly updates you on your progress compared to the rest of the world. What we would have liked to see is a way to compete against friends directly (and if it is possible, a more apparent way to do so) and a more detailed explanation of scoring that the current tutorial doesn't offer. In any case, Star Dunk is an entertaining take on a popular sport that should have the competitive types champing at the bit for a long time to come.

Note: The developers have reported that there is a bug resulting in crashes on OS 3.0 and 3.1. An update is already in submission to Apple to address these issues.

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The large screen followup iPad version to the popular game Fruit Ninja has finally arrived. Fruit Ninja is a simple game at its core but one that we really enjoyed

It's a bit of a shooting-gallery type experience but one you are swiping to slice rather than tapping to shoot. You're only allowed to miss 3 pieces of fruit before it's game over — but beware, slicing a single bomb (thrown up randomly) will result in an instant game over.

In fact, it's so simple, that it's hard to explain the appeal. The overall game is put together quite well, and the swipe mechanism is strangely satisfying.

The iPad version supports up to 8 finger swipes across the screen and adds a two player split-screen mode that is featured in the video:

As with the original, global high scores are tracked via OpenFeint. The iPhone version also remains available for $0.99 and has sold over a million copies.

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If you're anything like us and have been around through multiple device generations, tidal waves of freebies, 99¢ sales out the wazoo, and all the other contributing factors that have lead to the apps section of your iTunes library to be the same completely unmanageable pile of so many games you can barely scroll through them, you know how much of a challenge it is to keep up with the constant stream of updates to the various pieces of your app collection. While slamming a pepperoni-greased finger down on the "update all" button a few weeks ago, I missed a Sketch Nation Shooter [99¢] update which addressed my two major beefs with the game: I dislike anything that requires Facebook to work, as my Facebook is a holy place reserved for friends, family, and incessant Frontierville spam. Secondly, while the custom game sharing was amazing, finding anything quickly became impossible as more and more people submitted their creations.

If this is the first time you've read about Sketch Nation Shooter, you're in for a treat as it's a fantastic idea for an iPhone game. Basically, Sketch Nation provides the building blocks to create simple shooters and avoidance games. You literally draw your ship and the various enemies that will appear in game, photograph them, then as if through some kind of magic the game is able to analyze these photos and import your individual drawings in to the game world. Even if you're terrible at drawing, this entire process is a ton of fun.

If you're not interested in creating your own game (or have an iPod touch and are obviously incapable of photographing your drawings) there is an absolutely massive database of games that other people have created, freely available. Because the designers of these Sketch Nation creations are limited by the tools offered by the sandbox of the game itself, a lot of them feel very similar, but the creativity that has gone in to many of them (particularly the higher rated ones) is often astounding.

For more information on Sketch Nation Shooter, check out our review. You can get a ridiculous amount of play time out of this game if you get sucked in to the creations of others as well as your own and this recent update added a few DLC art modules so you don't even need to be able to draw at all if you'd rather just use the pre-packaged art for your games. With Facebook dependence a thing of the past, and an enhanced interface for browsing user-created games, Sketch Nation Shooter is now even easier to recommend.

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Here's a look at a couple of games that I've been having a surprising amount of fun with lately. They both use the same general concept of keeping a ball bouncing for as long as possible, but each accomplishes this goal with their own unique style. Neither will likely be considered the second coming of video games as we know it, but instead are just a quick bit of fun at an affordable price to eat up a spare few minutes when you're bored.

Tilt Ping, 99¢ – Everyone at one point or another has probably tried to see how long you could keep a ball bouncing in the air with a paddle or racket, and Tilt Ping brings that experience to your iPhone in very nice fashion. You hold your device out flat in the air, just like you would with a paddle, and use subtle tilting to keep the onscreen paddle under the bouncing ping pong ball. Adding variety to this idea is the special powerups that will appear every so often. They are designed in a way to try and distract you from keeping the ball going and force you tap icons that appear on the screen. Trying to maintain your bounce while focusing on tapping the bonus icons (some of which alternate between good and bad bonuses, requiring you to be even more careful) can become a really hectic and fun experience.

The game is hard, but keeps you coming back for just one more go. The whole experience of Tilt Ping is done with nicely detailed and colorful graphics, as well as OpenFeint integration for tracking achievements and many different statistics, making for a fairly robust package for such a simple game.

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Juggle!, 99¢ – What we have here is basically the antithesis of what Tilt Ping brings to the table. Imagine you invited a friend over to play Pong in the 70's, but they cancelled at the last minute, so instead you decided to concoct a way to play by yourself. In essence, this is Juggle! Forgoing the pretty graphics of Tilt Ping and instead paying homage to the aforementioned Pong, Juggle! is a deceptively compelling game. You start with a ball dropping from the top of the screen that you must keep in play by continuously bouncing it with the paddle at the bottom. With each bounce on the paddle, the ball (which is technically a square due to the retro theme) gets smaller and smaller, until it's just a tiny pixel. As play advances, more balls are added into play, requiring you to “juggle” them all to increase your score. You must keep at least one ball in play at a time, or else it's game over.

Again, it's an incredibly simple concept but one that's executed really well and is hard to put down. Like Tilt Ping, OpenFeint is included in Juggle! along with stat tracking and a nice set of options.

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