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Rovio’s Angry Birds Space [$0.99 / $2.99 (HD)] hit the App Store close to a month ago, and we loved it in our review. (Shocker, I know.) The sole sticking point for us, and quite a few other people, was Rovio’s implementation of a new IAP mechanic. Some levels were only available via a 99¢ unlock, which made us question whether or not Rovio would keep the free level updates gravy train rolling. Also, the Mighty Eagle shifted gears from a buy-once-use-a- bunch item like Angry Birds proper to a consumable IAP.

Well, an update just hit which addresses our suspicions. 10 new levels are now available for free, and the way the Mighty Eagle works has been slightly tweaked. Just by downloading the update you’ll get a pack of 20 Mighty Eagles for free, and each day you’ll earn one additional Mighty Eagle. This goes a long way in making buying the Mighty Eagle feel a lot more optional, but I still can’t help but miss the unlimited use of the Mighty Eagle in completed levels like previous Angry Birds games.

But, whatever, if you just ignore the Mighty Eagle, Angry Birds Space is still a ton of fun, and highly recommended. If you’ve cleared all the initial launch levels, give these ten new ones a spin.

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Earlier this month, Foursaken Media dropped their latest iOS title Sky Gnomes [ $0.99 ] into the App Store and we thought it was pretty great in our review. You play as a gnome hurtling straight down through the sky riding a homemade rocket collecting snowflakes, coins and items in an effort to reach a landing zone as quickly as possible.

While that’s an awesome enough premise on its own, what pushed Sky Gnomes to the next level was its fantastic daily tournaments that matched you against the ghost runs of like-skilled players in competition for the best race time. Throw in a ton of upgradeable items to trick out your rocket and Sky Gnomes came together to be one of my favorite recent releases.

Today, Foursaken is sweetening the pot with the first of many planned content updates for Sky Gnomes. The big addition in this update is two brand new characters to play as: Girly the female racer and Skinny the uh, skinny racer. Each come with their own set of unique stats for their rocket, offering a change of pace from the original racer Gnomey. These new racers don’t come cheap though, as each one will set you back 10,000 coins.

Speaking of coins, this update also lowers the costs of all first tier upgrades and trinkets for your rocket, making it easier and quicker for new players to start customizing their machine. There are also a myriad of tweaks and bug fixes, as well as an empty menu screen that serves as a teaser for another major addition coming to Sky Gnomes: 1 vs 1 battles. More new characters are also in the works for future updates.

If you haven’t checked out Sky Gnomes yet, now might be the time as today’s update adds even more cool features to an already great package, with more new stuff already on the horizon.

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Chillingo’s penchant for publishing dual-stick shooters returns with the release of Lock ‘n’ Load [ $0.99 ], a content-rich title developed by GameLab that hits all the right notes for the genre. While a lot of that content is initially locked away a bit tighter than I’d like, the gameplay, visual-style and presentation make up for that setback, leading to a game well worth checking out for the dual-stick shooter crowd.

Lock ‘n’ Load puts you in the role of a hockey-mask wearing protagonist taking on an evil magic-wielding girl whose minions trampled his garden bed. As you can imagine, the tone of the game is very tongue-in-cheek and does a great job making fun of itself. While the story obviously takes a backseat to the gameplay, I still enjoyed it more than most other dual-stick shooters, including the twist at the completion of the main campaign. Still, what’s more important is content, and Lock ‘n’ Load certainly has a lot of enemies to throw at you.

You’ll be taking on those hordes of minions with your choice of three weapons (you’ll have to unlock two of them) through mostly standard DSS gameplay. I say mostly because Lock ‘n’ Load does a great job spicing up the gameplay with good plot pacing and a variety of mini games. You’ll do collection quests, first-person carnival shooting – even a Space Invaders-inspired stint. Of course, there’s also a ton of opportunities to simply mow down the mobs. A second, harder difficulty is also available, along with a second unlockable campaign (and challenge missions) that focuses more on gameplay than story.

Visually, Lock ‘n’ Load looks impressive with a wide variety of backdrops and character models. I was particularly impressed with the assortment of environments used across the campaign, each with their own graphical effects. In addition, the game runs at a good frame rate and looked exceptionally nice on my iPhone 4S. Relatedly, I thought Lock ‘n’ Load did a great job with its auditory aspects, with the music setting the mood appropriately and decent voiceovers accompanying the story cutscenes and combat. It did get a little annoying hearing your character repeat the same catchphrases over and over but in general I thought the voiceovers did much more good than harm.

One of my few complaints about Lock ‘n’ Load is the way it handles unlocks with its in-game currency. Every upgrade and unlockable requires cash, which can be randomly dropped by enemies while playing the campaign or purchased en masse via IAP. As is becoming custom, while you can earn a decent amount of cash through a campaign run it won’t be nearly enough to unlock all the content.

Unfortunately, I think the amount of cash dropped in-game should definitely be adjusted. I ran through the entire campaign (with several restarts on some missions) and didn’t even earn nearly enough cash to unlock the first tier of upgrades. When you include all the challenge levels, skins, and second story mode, players will end up having to rerun through completed levels many times before they can earn enough cash to unlock everything.

On top of all that, unlocks don’t appear to transfer between iOS devices (unless you have the all-encompassing ‘premium pass’) meaning that simply spending a few bucks on cash to unlock extras isn’t going to cut it if you want to play on multiple devices. Also worth mentioning is a crash bug that’s affected some users. An update with a fix is already submitted, and in the meantime if this is affecting you turning on Airplane mode should work as a temporary fix.

Even if you have an adverse reaction to IAP, Lock ‘n’ Load still offers a decent amount of content with more that can be eventually unlocked (even if it takes a long time). When you combine that with the excellent visual style and content diversity, Lock ‘n’ Load becomes a highly recommended game. While we’ve had our share of good dual stick shooters, it’s rare to find one as well-rounded and content-rich (even if you have to unlock a lot of it). Gamers remotely interested in dual stick shooters owe it to themselves to check out this title.

TouchArcade Rating:

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Near the end of one of the “slowest” weeks we’ve had in recent memory, we casted a pod for mass earhole consumption. If you’re not a fan of our off-topic weeks you might want to avoid this one. But, do note you’ll be missing out on a lot of fun discussion: at the top, we dive into the recently released Xbox Live Arcade indie title Fez and ponder what an iPad port would look like, spit a little bit of game about next-generation consoles, and orally review hot new games like Burger Cat. In our second segment, we discuss anything and everything, but eventually get to your user questions.

It was a weird week, so we’ve got a weird show for you. If you’d like to listen, please do so via those handy-dandy links below. Additionally, you could subscribe to us on Zune or iTunes to get our latest episodes the second they hit the Internet.

iTunes Link: The TouchArcade Show
Zune Marketplace: TouchArcade.com Podcasts
RSS Feed: The TouchArcade Show
Direct Link: TouchArcadeShow-048.mp3, 34.4MB

Here are your show notes:

GAMES

• Trees of Life [$.99]
• MacGuffin’s Curse [$1.99 / Lite]
• Wawa Land [$.99]

JARED’S KITTY KORNER

• Burger Cat [$.99]

FRONT PAGE

• A ‘Battlefield 3‘ Companion App Hits
• Musical Chairs: ‘S&S‘ Hits Steam, Steam title Planned for iOS

Cutlass Cove, $0.99 / Lite – Cutlass Cove by independent developer Cheeky Mammoth is an action-packed pirate game that combines nautical combat with the strategic use of powerful spells and munitions. In Cutlass Cove you control a pirate ship, firing cannons at enemies and using voodoo spells to complete 60 challenging objectives and acquire 20 unique ranks.

Cutlass Cove is an intense pirate skirmish on the high seas where you summon whirlpools, unleash tornado storms, ignite brandy slicks, fire cannonballs imbued with destructive molten force, captain a ghost ship and feed your enemies to the sharks.

Cutlass Cove is a universal app that is available now in the App Store for $0.99.

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In a “good news/bad news” sort of situation, I always like starting with the good news first. Maybe it’s just me, but it makes the bad news easier to stomach. So, try this on for size: The Fighting Fantasy game books were originally first published in 1982, starting with The Warlock of Firetop Mountain and blossoming into a full-blown series of gamebooks. What’s a gamebook? Well, imagine one of those choose your own adventure novels from when you were a kid (You do remember those, right?) except with more interactivity. Instead of simply turning to page 92 to to jump across a pit or turning to page 59 to go down the tunnel to the right, you need to roll actual dice to do a skill check to see if you can make it across the pit.

This adds a great element of randomness to things, and it feels more like you’re playing the book instead of just making arbitrary decision along various branching paths. I like ‘em a lot, and if you’re a fan of fantasy novels I’d go as far as saying this whole series is a “must-have,” especially considering at the current sale price of 99¢ you can buy the whole set for less than one dead tree version will run you.

Fighting Fantasy: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, $0.99 – Deep in the caverns beneath Firetop Mountain lies an untold wealth of treasure, guarded by a powerful Warlock – or so the rumor goes. Several adventurers like yourself have set off for Firetop Mountain in search of the Warlocks hoard. None has ever returned. Do you dare follow them?

Fighting Fantasy: Deathtrap Dungeon, $0.99 – Deep in the caverns beneath Firetop Mountain lies an untold wealth of treasure, guarded by a powerful Warlock – or so the rumor goes. Several adventurers like yourself have set off for Firetop Mountain in search of the Warlocks hoard. None has ever returned. Do you dare follow them?

Fighting Fantasy: Citadel of Chaos, $0.99 – The Citadel holds a dark and dangerous peril for anyone foolhardy enough to venture through its gruesome gates. And yet venture you must for your mission lies at the heart of the Citadel, with the dread sorcerer, Balthus Dire!

City of Thieves, $0.99 – Terror stalks the night as Zanbar Bone and his bloodthirsty Moon Dogs hold the prosperous town of Silverton to ransom. YOU are an adventurer and the merchants of Silverton turn to you in their hour of need.

Fighting Fantasy: Creature of Havoc, $0.99 – You begin this adventure not knowing where you are or who you are. All you know is that you are some kind of creature of instinct, understanding little. During the course of the adventure, it may be possible for you to begin to control your bestial nature, to find out more about yourself, and even to learn your destiny. But even if you know all this, success is by no means certain, for the traps and terrors of Trolltooth Pass are many … Are you ready — to become the Creature of Havoc?

It doesn’t matter what order you play them in, so just download and start with whatever sounds the most interesting.

Now, the bad news. Big Blue Bubble, the developers responsible for bringing these gamebooks to the App Store, are on the verge of having their licensing agreements expire. It doesn’t sound like they’re being renewed either, so once these are gone, they’re gone. This also means there won’t be any updates for any of them, so don’t expect any Retina iPad enhancements, or tweaks/bug fixes if future iOS upgrades break the apps.

We’ve yet to hear when the licensing agreement actually expires, but needless to say, you should jump on these sooner rather than later if you want them.

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Though we generally file match-three titles under the puzzle genre, there isn’t often much that’s puzzling about them. Swap a few gems, watch cascades collapse—all good fun, but not exactly a stimulating mental challenge. Cubis Creatures [$0.99 / Lite] is one of the rare matching games that requires—and rewards—putting on your thinking cap.

Cubis Creatures is based off the popular PC game Cubis. It shares the same fundamentals: an isometric view, a grid of cubes, and loose cubes you shoot into the mix from two of the edges. But Cubis Creatures is entirely its own game, with plenty of great matching and a side of adorable art and cutesy creatures. Not a bad combo, in my books.

If you pick up Cubis Creatures, you’ll get access to four creatures, creatures that must be woken by, err, matching cubes in their mouths. Each one gives you 20 levels to work through, and there are two more critters available for purchase. That’s a hefty chunk of content, but if you manage to burn through it you’ll be happy to know there are also daily score tournaments that are well worth checking out.

Now things get complicated. Cubis Creatures is played on a square grid that has three vertical levels, only the bottom of which you can actively effect. You can slide cubes in from two of the sides, and they’ll continue on until they hit an obstruction. If that obstruction is solid, they’ll stop. If not, they’ll knock it forward a space first. If there happen to be two other cubes of the same color at that location, they’ll match and clear off the screen. If you’re lucky or clever that will set off a chain reaction, a combo (or “cubis”) or more skyrocketing your score.

Each level has two meters: a timer and a cube limit. Hit the latter before the former runs out and you’ll complete the level. But to do things right and claim three stars you’ll need to collect all the star cubes in the level. Suddenly it doesn’t necessarily make sense to make every match, because if you hit the cube limit before collecting all the stars you’ll rake in a lousy score for your efforts. Yeah, that’s right. Strategy time.

There are a lot of ways to manipulate the board, randomly granted as they might be. You can launch bombs that scatter the cubes they don’t blow up. Lasers can take out any single cube, no matter how impenetrable. There are even dual-colored cubes that can (and must) match with both colors before clearing. You’ll need them all, because the level designs get increasingly devilish. Many can be puzzled through, leaving you to pick the right spots to set off the perfect chain reaction. Others require a good dose of brute force.

Cubis Creatures is both smart and fun, making it a worthy successor to the Cubis titles of old. It also fits in nicely amongst its modern peers, with Game Center support, lovely art, and a cheery soundtrack—the whole package when it comes to top-notch presentation. It deserves a look, whether you’re a long-time fan or a first timer. And really, who could say no to such darling creatures?

TouchArcade Rating:

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If you pay attention to the world of iOS game music, you might already know Whitaker Trebella’s work. He has composed themes for games that include Super Stickman Golf [$0.99], Tilt to Live [$2.99] and Velocispider [$1.99]. But now he’s taken on the role of game developer. Trebella’s first game, Polymer, is due to hit the App Store soon, and we’ve had a chance to play with a recent build. It’s a strategic shape-creating game, in Trebella’s words, enhanced with a great soundtrack.

A polymer, in the parlance of the game, is a complete shape, one with no unfinished edges. You achieve this by sliding rows and columns back and forth to move pieces into place. A skilled player might be able to use every piece on the board, but each piece you move takes six or nine others with it. Larger creations become exponentially more difficult to make without disruption, but they’re oh so satisfying to reach for. It’s almost a shame to destroy them, but that’s where the points come in.

Like so many developers, Trebella came to iOS with no prior programming experience. But his time composing for big names of the indie scene convinced him that he needed to make a game of his own. A little study, a little elbow grease, and a year and a half later we (almost) have Polymer. But playing the game, you can see how much Trebella picked up in his time spent on the periphery of iOS development. It’s ridiculously savvy to the realities of both touch screen gaming and the iOS market, things most first-time developers struggle with.

It should come as no surprise that Trebella brought his musical talents to bear on Polymer. It isn’t a music game, but it can be quite musical. Each of the game’s three modes has its own soundtrack. You enhance that soundtrack while you play, destroying polymers that chime out musical tones. Each track is in a different key, and the sound effects, notes in the chromatic scale, are designed to fit within the key of the current track. In laymen’s terms, let’s just say the sound blends beautifully with the music.

Polymer’s three modes give you a lot to play with. One lets you race for the highest score you can hit in two minutes, and it’s polar opposite is a mode that requires you make the best single polymer you can in any length of time. The third ratchets up the tension in a sort of survival situation: you must destroy ticking time bombs by incorporating them into polymers. They come faster and faster until you eventually explode. The game also has a nifty unlockable system that introduces you to each element of the game piece by piece.

We don’t have a release date quite yet, but Polymer has been submitted to Apple for approval so it’s just a matter of time. Stay tuned—we’ll take a closer look on release and give you our final verdict. An educated guess in the meantime: it looks like Polymer is destined to eat a lot of the hours of thoughtful gamers.

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I’ll be the first to admit, when the discussion first started on giving Zach Gage’s SpellTower [ $0.99 ] five stars in our review last year, I distinctly remember raising an eyebrow and saying, “Guys, it’s a word game.” Truth be told, until then I hadn’t spent much time with SpellTower, but once I did… I was hooked. So hooked that this simple looking word game wound up as an honorable mention for our game of the year.

Nissa explains what the game is all about:

SpellTower isn’t bogged down with complicated rules or conditional abilities. The tutorial is only a handful of screens expressing a handful of simple rules. You can make a word as long as it’s in the game’s dictionary and it’s at least three letters long. Words that are five letters or longer clear letters all around them. You can’t make the same word twice, and if a letter has a number on it, it needs to be used in a word of at least that length. Finally, uncommon letters like Z, J, Q and X clear their rows if they’re used in a word.

Those rules will carry you through SpellTower’s four game modes, which change up how the board is presented. Tower mode gives you 150 letters to earn the best score you can. Puzzle mode adds a row to the board each time you make a word, and if any column hits the top your game will end. Extreme Puzzle mode follows the same rules, but requires longer words faster and more often. Rush mode adds new rows over time, putting you on the clock.

A fifth game mode was added in a recent update, introducing local multiplayer. It shouldn’t be much of a surprise, but, spoilers, it’s even more fun than just playing SpellTower by your lonesome. This update has also revitalized my love for this game, and I’ve spent the past week absolutely engrossed in SpellTower.

Since the update landed, SpellTower has been rocketing up the iPad charts, and to attempt to push the game over the edge and take on Angry Birds and Draw Something, its price is being slashed to 99¢. If you’re even vaguely interested in word games, you need to pick up SpellTower. Heck, if your mom has an iPhone, tell her to get SpellTower, I bet she’d love it, and maybe love you a little more in the process for recommending an awesome video game.

Tell her TouchArcade sent you.

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Morphing drug pushers into plumes of viscera and leg parts has never been easier, thanks to the latest update to Midway Arcade. The arcade collection app, which features tons of classic arcade titles including NARC and Rampage, now features iCade support. We spent a moment or two in the app this morning and can confirm that the added support is sharp. We can also confirm that NARC is still the greatest game that has ever been made.

Version 1.0.1 rolls in a few more notable tweaks. The Spy Hunter looping theme bug has been fixed, d-pad support has been added for Root Beer Tapper, and that nasty DLC crash bug has finally been annihilated. Neat!

Midway Arcade still doesn’t have the greatest ports on the planets, but what it does offer works well enough for our needs. Check it out if you’re into Midway’s older stuff. Here’s a list of what it has as of this posting, and note that a couple of these are being sold across two $.99 DLC bundles:

• Spy Hunter
• Rampage
• Defender
• Joust
• Root Beer Tapper
• Arch Rivals
• Gauntlet
• Gauntlet 2
• Wizard of Wor
• APB
• NARC
• Total Carnage

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