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Last week we updated you on the status of Defender Chronicles II, the long-awaited sequel to the hit 2009 strategy defense game Defender Chronicles [$1.99 / $4.99 (HD)]. Today, we’ve learned the release date for the new game and it’s set to hit in just a couple of weeks, on May 24th. In addition, a new trailer has been released.

We’ve been playing an early build of Defender Chronicles II and will have a hand-on preview for you shortly, but without spoiling too much if you were a fan of the original then we think you’ll be in for a treat. And if you missed out on Defender Chronicles the first time around, this new release will be a great time to jump on board.

Stick around for our preview of Defender Chronicles II and mark your calendars down for a May 24th release.

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Late last month Everplay and FruitFireForge released Spellsword [ $0.99 ], a game we really enjoyed in our review. It took the arena-style action platforming of Super Crate Box [ $1.99 ] and added a ton of variety in the form of RPG-like upgradeable items and abilities. Even though the two titles shared a core idea, Spellsword really stood on its own as a different experience.

However, one of the main problems we had with the game had to do with the controls. They worked well on the smaller screen of the iPhone and iPod touch, but failed to scale very well to the iPad’s big screen. Today’s update addresses this very problem by allowing you to move the virtual buttons to wherever you feel is most comfortable. Also, an new option for “Pro Swipe Controls” has been added that makes the movement controls center on wherever you place down your thumb.

Speaking of options, there’s an actual Options screen you can access from the main menu. It’s here you can configure the controls and also some basic stuff like volume sliders, an option for disabling hints, and a new option to reset your current character if you want to start over.

In addition to all the new options, Everplay has also sent over a teaser for a new upcoming level which you can see above. This new stage will contain new enemies as well as new items for your character to unlock. No word on just when this new level will hit, but it shouldn’t be too far off. In the meantime enjoy the latest update which tightened up an already great overall package in Spellsword.

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Big Pixel Studio’s Off the Leash [ Free ] hit earlier this year, and basically did for tilt-based avoidance games what Jetpack Joyride [ Free ] did for the cave flyer. By that I mean it took a tried-and-true gameplay mechanic and fleshed it out to the max by dropping it into a game with attractive visuals, a mission-based progression, and tons of unlockable items and upgrades.

Yesterday a big update hit for Off the Leash that added some welcome new content to the game. The big ticket items are a brand new track and field themed location to perform your evasive dog actions in, and a new character named Charlie the Man Dog. Yep, Man Dog. He’s a man dressed up in a dog suit in case you didn’t gather that from his name, and he cracks me up to no end. He’s also the fastest out of all the characters in the game.

The more minor additions in this update include a new baseball cap and an awesome Land-a Panda [$0.99 / $1.99 (HD) / Free (HD)] hat to buy in the store, a set of new missions bringing the total up to 99, and a couple of wallpapers to trick out your device. Off the Leash was loads of fun before, but new goodies are always a welcome addition. If you haven’t checked it out yet you can grab it for free in the App Store, and be sure to check out our original review.

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Donut Games has seemingly always had the philosophy of making small, simple games that only have a few bits of gameplay to speak of. Bubble Pig [ $0.99 ] continues that trend by having one touch gameplay that is both fun and rewarding time after time.

While pigs don’t exactly fly, their rubbery skins and rotund bodies do lend well to bouncing, and Bubble Pig’s gameplay takes full advantage of this. Bouncing the pig around each level is easy; all you have to do is tap where you’d like the pig to bounce to, and he’ll continue to bounce automatically in that direction.

One-touch controls can feel too simplistic if not done well, but this game manages to do it without making it feel like an effortless experience. As some of our forum posters have pointed out, the gameplay is remarkably similar to Bean’s Quest [ $1.99 ] or Superstar Chefs [ $0.99 ].

Making the pig bounce all around the level may be fun, but you will need to complete goals along the way to keep things moving smoothly. Using the pig, you’ll need to activate switches scattered throughout each stage, with the level completing once you’ve hit them all. What makes the stages fun isn’t just moving around and hitting the switches however, the gimmicks involved in each stage are.

Just about every level has a unique gimmick you’ll need to overcome, keeping things fresh each time you play. In one level, you may need to dodge angry foxes that threaten to slaughter your poor pig, or perhaps you’ll need to navigate a series of pipes to find all of the switches in another. Having a new type of concept introduced in almost each new level will keep you thirsty for more and more every time you pick up the game.

Also scattered through each level are various fruits and coins for you to collect. Collecting these items (especially all of them if you can) will reward you with achievements and a special star rating for each level. To further incentivize collecting, you can also compare scores with your friends to make sure you’re as hot as you think you are. Sharing and comparing is key for longevity in these types of games, so it’s nice to see the leaderboards and achievements integrated so tightly.

We’ve probably all come to expect by now that Donut has a unique style that every one of their games uses, and Bubble Pig is no exception. Each stage is colorful and the animations are incredibly smooth, keeping with the standards already set. Being a universal app also helps, as playing on the iPad makes controlling the pig a bit easier, and the colors pop just a bit more.

Bubble Pig is one of those games that achieves a great balance between being straightforward, while still managing to be challenging too. Dismissing the game as being too formulaic would be unfair, as it manages to be very fun despite its simplistic premise.

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Ballistic SE [$1.99] and Fireball SE [$1.99] creator, Luke Schneider, has been porting another Xbox Live Indie Game to the iPhone and iPad. Inferno+, which features newer high resolution assets for retina screens, is coming later this month or earlier next. Luke dropped us a really awesome slow-motion teaser trailer that shows off a smidgen of the game’s creative twin-stick action, which seeks to combine elements of Geometry Wars (!) with the structure of Gauntlet (!!).

Luke describes the trailer in his latest blog post, shedding some light on what he’s trying to shoot for:

While the launch trailer will cover a lot more of what’s in Inferno+, for the teaser video above I only wanted to show a single quick sequence to give a taste of the game. Obviously it’s in slow motion, and zoomed in a bit, so I cheated a little, but I think that’s OK.

We’ve been pretty impressed with what Luke has released so far, so count us in for a day one download. Whenever we get a final build, we’ll shoot you a review. Hah. Get it? It’s a twin-stick shooter. We’re going to shoot our thoughts at you… like you’d fire bullets in a shooter. We crack us up.

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If there were ever a genre in need of reinvention, it’s the marble shooter. As a genre it’s been around for nearly 15 years now, and the two big names, Luxor and Zuma, are pretty much indistinguishable. Swap ancient Egypt for the Inca Empire and you’ve pretty much got the same game. PopCap stepped things up recently with Zuma’s Revenge [$1.99 / $4.99 ], which added boss fights and made a few alterations to the formula. But Luxor Evolved [ $0.99 ], MumboJumbo’s answer to Zuma’s evolution, is feeling like the genre’s next frontier.

It shouldn’t be mind blowing that Luxor Evolved looks different from its predecessors, but it sort of is. Between a new setting in space and wild geometric art it hardly looks like the same game at all, making this the genre’s first serious face lift since 2003. Of course, it is the same game—it’s still about matching and destroying strings of colored marbles, and it even has Luxor’s usual ancient Egyptian theme. But this time it’s space Egypt, and space Egypt has a few new tricks.

Like the last two Luxor titles, you control a ball launcher that moves along the bottom of the screen. Strings of colored marbles follow complicated tracks toward your (space) pyramid, which is unusually prone to death by colored marble. You stop them by launching other colored marbles into the strings to match three or more of the same color. With the help of a little aim assistance, this can all be managed on a touch screen as easily as it ever was with a mouse.

Luxor Evolved has a ton going on at any given moment. Not only are you matching marbles, you’re grabbing the treasures and heart pieces that explode out of them. Treasures are tallied to unlock secret levels, and heart pieces add up into extra lives when you’ve collected a few. You also need to rock your score if you want to level up, because the better you do the more powerups you get.

The powerups are my favorite feature of Luxor Evolved. Every point you earn goes to filling up a progress bar after each level. Whenever it hits its limit something new unlocks. This might be a brand new powerup—and they can do a ton of things, like blow up marbles, paint them in a single color, reverse their path and so on—or it might be an upgrade to an existing powerup. They have a lot of room to grow.

The extra-nice thing about the way the progress is measured is that doing poorly on a boss level means unlocking a huge pile of things. The bosses are complicated. Taking inspiration from bullet hell shooters, they protect their weak points with huge streams of marbles. You have to clear away enough of them to reach the weapons, and then the central ring of marbles. The only problem is that they keep coming back. If you manage to shoot your way through everything you expose the core, and one more shot will destroy it.

This can all be a little challenging, especially if, like me, you aim poorly when it counts. But there’s a bonus: if you really struggle and take a long time on a boss, you’ll pick up a ton of extra treasures and hearts and points. When you finally succeed you’ll be well rewarded with a pile of upgrades and unlocks. If one of them is a secret level, you’re in for an even better reward: they’re built as homages to classic games like Pac-Man and Marble Madness.

And let’s not downplay the new aesthetic. With its intentionally retro stylings, it looks like nothing we’ve seen from any of the big marble shooters before. That new style extends to every part of the game, right down to the interface, and a collection of techno tracks really rounds out the package. For the choosy, Luxor Evolved includes a selection of aim assist options and control tweaks—all of them variations on drag and tap controls. There are multiple difficulty modes to play through, too, and the usual assortment of achievements and leaderboards.

It’s not all good, though. The game currently doesn’t work for anyone who isn’t on iOS 5 (a patch is in the works), and even there I ran into a few bad crashes. One took a good chunk of progress with it. There’s also a popup for MumboJumbo’s other games on load, so heads up to the ad averse. I’m not the biggest fan of the series of aggressive price drops that have occurred since launch either, seeing the game drop from $6.99 to 99¢ incrementally over just the first several days, but at least that means those of you hopping on now will get a great deal.

Honestly, this game surprised me. Marble shooters have a real been-there, done-that vibe for me. I love them, but how many times can you play the same game with a new name? Luxor Evolved isn’t a full reimagining, but it’s different enough to feel exciting again, and it’s hooked me thoroughly. The issues are worth being aware of, but if you’re on iOS 5 and you hop on now you should be just fine. And really, classic marble-shooting gameplay in a fresh new package? That’s an evolution I can get behind.

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I have to admit I’m behind on children’s cinema. I totally haven’t seen Dreamworks’ How to Train Your Dragon. Though they’re clearly from the same world, I’m pretty sure it doesn’t follow the same plot as PikPok’s DreamWorks Dragons: TapDragonDrop [ $1.99 ], which is about kids riding dragons to herd sheep. But really, that seems like an innovative solution to a common problem, no?

Though it takes a few levels to reveal its workings, DreamWorks Dragons is a game of logic puzzles. You’re given a few tools, things a dragon could reasonably be expected to do, like roaring, picking up rocks, smashing things and burning stuff. With them, you need to run through a series of levels about herding sheep into their pens. But the stakes are high: each step needs to be completed in the right order or you’ll end up withcharbroiled sheep on your hands. Mmm, mutton.

Once you’ve unlocked all of your dragon’s abilities, they line up in icons down the left side of the screen. This dragon is well-trained; just drag an icon for an action to the spot you want it to be performed and Toothless will handle it. He’ll fly there and act out your command, be it burning trees, crushing statues, or lifting and dropping rocks. The only thing he can’t do is carry the sheep for you, which is fair enough. I mean, would you let a dragon carry you around?

The game is balanced for a younger audience, of course, so it might take a while before it starts to pose a serious challenge. But while the difficulty curve is shallow, DreamWorks Dragons eventually gets pretty great. The sheep are incredibly vulnerable, and later levels are designed to take full advantage of that. A single mistake means you’ll probably roast a sheep, or drop it off a cliff, or feed it to a shark. No one wants that—or at least they wouldn’t if the animations weren’t so fantastic. I definitely killed sheep in every way possible just to, um, watch them die.

Morbid curiosity aside, killing sheep is not just a bad thing to do; it will also hurt your level rank. Each level has a three star rating to aim for, with one star awarded for completing the level, one star for saving all the sheep, and one star for doing it all within a set number of actions. At first it’s hard not to get three stars. But things pick up by around the midway point of the game.

Some of the later levels get pretty ridiculous, in fact, with drawbridges, catapults, gates and such to manage on top of the usual cliffs and rocks and bridges and hay. There are forty levels in the main game, with twenty more available via an in-app purchase. That second pack gives you the Deadly Nadder to control, which can use its tail spines to create ladders for sheep. This ability is nearly as silly as it looks, but it adds a new challenge into the mix.

Each group of 20 levels also has 9 hidden treasures to be found. Frustrated? Go treasure hunting, since it usually means burning down every stand of trees in your path. You’ll also unlock a bonus level for each set of three treasures you find. Once you’re through those, there’s one more way to play: most of the Game Center achievements revolve around “losing” sheep in a variety of horrifying ways.

If you’re not in the target audience, DreamWorks Dragons probably won’t blow you away. It takes a bit too long to get into and ultimately lacks in variety. But every aspect of the game has been built with PikPok’s trademark care. It’s hard to turn down gorgeous animation and well-crafted levels. If you’re a fan of How To Train Your Dragon, this game is definitely worth a download. If you’re not, you’ll still find a solid set of logic puzzles within. Given how awful movie tie-ins tend to be, DreamWorks Dragons deserves to be recognized. It’s definitely one of the good ones, so check it out—then swing by our discussion thread to share your thoughts.

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It seems like the thing to do nowadays is release a mobile companion app for your big time AAA console release. Whether it’s the Call of Duty Elite app [ Free ], the Mass Effect 3 Datapad [ Free ], or the Dragon Shout app for Skyrim [ Free ], each offer a way to assist or otherwise immerse yourself further into a console or PC game using the second screen of your mobile device. It’s like the digital revolution of the strategy guide.

The newest of these companion apps is the Prototype 2 Official Sidekick [ Free ], which hit the App Store right around the time of the console game late last month. Prototype 2 is an open-world action game that received fair to positive reviews when it released.

The iOS companion app focuses mostly on allowing you to explore that large open world and aid you with finding all of the game’s collectibles. It will track your collection progress and you can filter out the specific parts of the world you’re interested in by zone or item type. Besides the maps and tracking, the app also contains additional in-depth information about the mutations in the game and how to get them.

The Prototype 2 Official Sidekick is free to download and lets you check out the map and features for the Yellow Zone in the console game. For a $1.99 in-app purchase you can unlock both of the additional Red and Green zones in the app. I haven’t given Prototype 2 a spin yet myself, but if it’s a game that you’re currently enjoying you might as well check out at least the free portion of the Prototype 2 Official Sidekick app.

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Does the name Remedy ring a bell? They’re the Finnish developers behind Alan Wake and Max Payne, but before all that, they released a top-down combat-centric MS-DOS Racer called Death Rally. (Oh, and, Max Payne [ $2.99 ] is also now available on the App Store, check out our review.) Anyway, a little over a year ago the greatly enhanced iOS remake of Death Rally hit the App Store.

To create the game, Remedy partnered up with Mountain Sheep, who is likely best known around these parts for Minigore [$0.99 / $1.99 (HD)]. Minigore saw tons of updates, so, I’m not sure anyone was surprised when Death Rally got similar treatment. Since its initial release and our original review, they’ve added all sorts of unlockables, character tie-ins (such as a guest appearance from the one and only Duke Nukem) and even full online multiplayer.

Yes, the game has been free before, and one could argue that it’s only “free” with air quotes as there’s a variety of optional IAP to be had. Regardless, if you missed the last Death Rally promotion, be sure to hop on this one. Even if all you do is tool around in a few single player races, it’s still totally worth the download.

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