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Commander Pixman [99¢] from One Minute Games is a retro platformer. In fact, it's so retro that the graphics are intentionally pixelated, the landscape is formed by a simple yellow line and the background is an old-school scrolling star-field. Graphically, this is platforming cut down to it's most basic form. And I'm totally enjoying it.

Commander Andrew “Pixman” Blazkowicz has crashed and must escape from an alien base by reaching the end of each level. If we do this fast enough, we'll be awarded three stars. And if we kill all the enemies on a level, we'll receive a red badge. Both of these goals can be completed in one attempt, or during separate runs. This allows a rapid enemy-avoiding run-through and a separate unhurried enemy-hunt, squeezing more playability from each level.

There's a healthy 80 levels in total (65 plus 15 extra bonus levels). Each level is small and the goal is to complete them quickly, with some levels completed within a few seconds. This isn't a large platform game which takes ages to explore like Emberwind [99¢/HD], instead it's a rapid sprint, more like Mos Speedrun [$1.99/Lite], but here you're armed with a weapon. This is a game where you'll die every few seconds and then try again. You can quite easily die and restart 10 times in a minute, but that's all part of this game. Just reaching the end of the level, is enough to unlock the next level.

To unlock the bonus levels you can complete objectives to prove you're not a rookie. For example, completing level 20 unlocks the first bonus level and reveals the next objective: to earn an enemy-killing badge on level 22 within 13 seconds. Although having seen how hard the bonus levels can be, unlocking them is the easy part!

The game description mentions there's "over 20 hazards, monsters and utilities". This includes mines with delayed detonation, gravity lifts, trampolines, spikes, crushers, automatic turrets and teleportation portals. There's dissolving platforms and keys for locked areas. With simple graphics there's a risk of the levels appearing repetitive, but pleasingly, they feel well designed and varied, with enough difficulty to be quite challenging without being impossible.

To progress in this game you need quick reflexes and precision movements, as the enemies are often patrolling within a confined area leaving you just a tiny window of opportunity – a mere split second – to land in exactly the right place. So, the inevitable question is: "What are the controls like?"

Well, there's virtual buttons for moving left or right, jumping and shooting. The left, right and shooting parts work fine, but the floaty jet-pack jumping takes some getting used to. If you watch really carefully, Pixman's jumps seem to be slow at the start, then speed up -  and that teeny, tiny, nanosecond of delay at the start means the enemy often runs into you, whereas you might have expected to jump free. The jumping is such an important part of this fast-paced game that it needs to be perfect …and it almost is, it just takes some time to become accustomed.

After completing a level, you can watch your previous attempts all clambering simultaneously across the level in a mass-replay. It displays up to 40 simultaneous previous-attempts on a recent iOS device, or 10 on an older device for performance reasons. This ensures the game can run on older devices. After watching the trailer, some people may mistakenly assume you control multiple characters in the game-play, like Grim Joggers [$1.99/Free], but that's not the case. You control one commander at a time and trust me, that's challenging enough.

The mass replay feature is interesting to watch, because one-by-one each little green Commander drops off at the point they died, until eventually just one makes it to the finish zone. This feature would be improved if the last attempt was shown in another color, so you can assess your latest performance against other attempts. And since the movements have all been recorded, it would be nice in the future to have the option of a ghost of your best time to compete against.

With its emphasis on speed and times, this game is crying out for Game Center leaderboards and achievements, but unfortunately these aren't provided yet. However, the developer plans to integrate Game Center in one of the first updates and is also working on a content update that provides 20 harder(!) levels. The game does track some statistics already, such as your best time for each level and totals for time spent playing, stars collected, deaths and number of enemies killed.

Commander Pixman is a good game for hardcore platform gamers. It's fast-moving and challenging, with simplistic retro graphics and some heavier than usual background music. It's not for the death-adverse, as you'll die frequently and it requires skill, impeccable timing and perseverance as it's not easy to gain three stars for each level. If you can handle that, then it's also extremely satisfying to finally beat a level. Who knew eight seconds could leave you feeling so proud?

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A new turn-based iteration of aerial combat game Steambirds [$1.99 / HD] is on the way, and get this: it’s a free-to-play venture headed up by the original crew behind Steambirds, Spry Fox, AND the video game gurus over at Fruit Ninja [$.99 / Lite / HD]creator Halfbrick. Talk about a mash-up.

Phil Larsen, Halfbrick’s potential Hollywood movie star and marketing wizard, calls Survival the “ultimate dog-fighting tactical aerial combat game” and he’s probably right. I mean, what other game manages to fall under that description? This is why he’s a wizard, folks.

We’ve seen preciously little of Survival thus far, but we do know that it’s a turn-based combat joint similar to Spry’s original game in look and vibe. It’ll hit later this October with eight planes and 64 missions at launch with the promise of more to come. We’ll definitely try to get this in our e-office soon and give you the skinny from a hands-on perspective.

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On this week’s bonus episode of The TouchArcade Show, Eli and I grill the dude behind Kode80 and the game 1-Bit Ninja [$1.99], Ben Hopkins. Hopkins is a creative guy who, obviously, has a love of retro-style games and, as we discovered, perspective. Our interview spans an insane amount of topics including Hopkins devastating injury and how that is effecting him as a creator and what informed his work on 1-Bit Ninja. I think you’ll dig this one.

If you’d like to give us your earholes, you can do so just below via direct download or in-browser streaming. If you’d like to catch these episodes as soon as they’re uploaded, you can do so by subscribing to us on the iTunes and the Zune.

iTunes Link: The TouchArcade Show
Zune Marketplace: TouchArcade.com Podcasts
RSS Feed: The TouchArcade Show
Direct Link: TouchArcadeShow-Bonus-018.mp3, 17MB

We’ll be back at you with another regular episode (starring Jared Nelson) later this week, so don’t get too misty-eyed when you hear Guthrie’s sexy strings.

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As we mentioned in our preview of Stardash [$1.99], developer Orange Pixel set out to make a game the way Nintendo would. The result? A lovingly-crafted tribute to Game Boy platformers of old. It may lack the polish Big N gives its games, but pulls off a challenge more common to a time when creators didn't worry about keeping the lowest common denominator up to speed.

Stardash is a simple game with a simple formula. It's divided into 40 levels over the course of 4 worlds, and each level can be completed in as little as 20 – 40 seconds. The levels don't call for much exploration — they're just series of platforms and baddies that do whatever it takes to bring you down. Unless you're a platforming superstar, they'll probably succeed. This game is made with equal measures of love and sadism.

Borrowing a page from games like Super Meat Boy, Stardash doesn't let your death drag you out of the action. You're not limited by lives, there's no lengthy loading sequence and the music never stops. This keeps death from being too frustrating, a a very good thing when you'll probably be dying a lot. The first few levels are forgiving, but as you progress you'll find a need for more and more precision — and more and more things that will straight up kill you if you don't already know what to expect.

The difficulty in Stardash can be cruelly high, but it rarely feels unfair. The controls are excellent, some of the best on-screen controls I've used. A few levels rely on your ability to jump as high or as far as possible with pixel-perfect precision, but most (thankfully) don't. Instead, the most difficult bits are all about speed, timing, and careful jumping. Dashing off an edge and jumping in midair will save you in many circumstances, and once you master that technique most levels will feel hard but fair.

If just completing the game's main levels isn't enough of a challenge for you, Stardash has plenty more to offer. Each level has two stars that can be earned: one for completing it under a tight time limit, and one for collecting all its stars. It's usually impossible to do both at once. Each level also has a hidden key that goes to opening one of the temples, a sealed level that's only available when you collect all of a world's 9 keys.

For the truly dedicated, there are also a selection of extremely difficult Game Center/OpenFeint achievements to earn. Oh, and your high score only maintains through levels if you don't die, so you'll need to work on your survivability to place on the leaderboard. Sounds easy enough, right?

Unfortunately my time with Stardash wasn't problem free, thanks to a number of technical glitches. The game didn't obey my mute switch. Music kept on playing even after I turned the screen off, too. Leaving a level from the pause menu would in that level becoming locked again if I'd just reached it. The level-selection menu didn't react consistently to input. And while I played on iPhone, our forum users report several issues with the controls on iPad and iCade. Its disconcerting to see bugs of this scale in a released game.

Still, nothing kept me from spending hours playing Stardash. I played until my hands cramped, running through some levels dozens of times. If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, then I completely lost my head over this game. It hits the sweet spot of difficulty, sometimes frustrating but never too frustrating. It's also perfectly wrapped in its Game Boy aesthetic, sound, visuals and all. This isn't a game for the easily defeated, but if you're willing to persevere then Stardash will leave you well rewarded.

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We’ve been working pretty hard in the background on the site this week preparing a cool and helpful new way to discover iCade games: toucharcade.com/iCade. We’re using this now instead of our front page in order to give you a much more comprehensive look at quality titles that support the device. As you’ll see, each game has its own “blurb” as well as links to relevant content, including its original review, its “iCade Angle” write-up, and its forum thread.

That page will forever be a work in progress. Not only are older games rolling in support, but so are fresh games. You can click “refresh” on it to your heart’s content, but we’ll also do round-up posts every once in awhile pointing towards the new additions.

Speaking of that, actually, several games have added support for the iCade. Here’s a small listing of the games we’ve added since you last saw our list:

Orange Pixel

• Super Drill Panic [Free]

Claymore Games

• Plum Crazy [$.99]

Angry Mob Games

• Muffin Knight [$.99]

Llamasoft

• GoatUp [$1.99]
• Minotron: 2112 [$1.99]
• Deflex [$1.99]
• Minotaur Rescue [$.99]

If you know of other awesome games that support the iCade or if you're a developer of an iCade-supported game, feel free to visit our support thread and add your game to the growing list. We'll catch it and definitely roll it in. Oh! And just as a house-keeping note, here, Orange Pixel says its Meganoid [$1.99] is also iCade ready, but as of right now, the support doesn't work.

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With how much praise the entire internet has heaped upon Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP [99¢ / $1.99], I find it to be almost impossible to believe that anyone around here hasn't heard of the game… But, in case you've spent the last year on a cave in mars with your eyes closed and your fingers in your ears, you can check out our incredibly exhaustive review that covers everything you'd ever want to know and then some.

The cause for celebration today is the Autumn Equinox, which has resulted in the price of the "micro" iPhone-only version to dropping to 99¢, while the universal version saw a similar drop to $1.99. If for some strange reason you still don't have this game yet, now is a great time to get on board.

Also, Jim Guthrie's fantastic soundtrack that accompanies the game is also on sale. Head on over to his band camp site where you can name your price (or pay nothing, if that's how you roll) to download the album.

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GRL Games is known not only as the studio of one Graeme Devine, it's also developing a reputation for bringing video chat to iOS games. Last month we reviewed Full Deck Hold 'Em [Free] and found its video chat implementation fascinating. Now something word game fans can experience the joy of face-to-face play in the studio's latest, Word Chat [Free; Normally 99¢].

With one update under its belt already, Word Chat should be a well-executed experience. But while its single-player modes are great fun, the game doesn't succeed universally — and it falters, strangely, in the multiplayer experience.

No matter the mode, Word Chat centers around making words out of seven random Scrabble-esque tiles. The words are scored on the letters used, with a modifier added for length. Five letter words are worth double, six letter words are worth triple. For those who manage a full anagram of their tiles, quadruple multipliers are waiting.

Solo, Word Chat offers four ways to play. 200 Tiles gives players (you guessed it) 200 tiles to work through, seven at a time, to earn the highest score possible. Countdown gives players as many tiles as they can work through in 100 seconds. Infinite Play is like Countdown, but additional time is rewarded for words that are four letters or longer.

Word Solitaire was added in the game's first update. It presents players with seven columns of tiles, with only the lowest row exposed. Players must make words with the exposed letters and work up the board until all the tiles are used, at which point they level up and start over. This is easily the most challenging, and potentially frustrating, mode. You can replace up to three random tiles, but in my experience it's not uncommon to reach to the end of a level with no workable words. Having a solid strategy helps, but there's an element of randomness that leaves things occasionally frustrating.

Multiplayer throws you up against a Game Center opponent in Countdown mode. Both players use the same pool of words to keep things fair, so you're kept from seeing your opponent's words. This results in an oddly disconnected experience where the two of you play in parallel until a winner is presented at the end. You can't really take the time to chat, either, since you're on a tight timer.

Worse, there doesn't seem to be any way to decline video chat – at least not while playing with a friend (I wasn't able to find a random match to try it in). You'd best trust any Game Center friends you play with to stay on task. At least you can toggle your own camera on or off.

In Full Deck Hold 'Em, video chat makes a lot of sense. Seeing the expressions of your opponents adds another level to the poker experience, and the game is slow paced enough that you can have a conversation while you're playing. In Word Chat, it's a gimmick. A few tweaks could help, but when it comes down to it short-form word games probably aren't ever going to be very well suited to video chat.

The single-player content of Word Chat is worth the asking price alone (or lack of asking price, in the case of the sale that's taking place as of this writing). I'm particularly fond of 200 Tiles, because it provides a slow, thoughtful experience that most anagram-hunting games avoid. If you're looking for the next Words With Friends [$1.99] you won't find that depth of multiplayer here. But as an inexpensive way to entertain yourself while chatting with a friend, Word Chat will more than do the job.

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The answer to the eternal question of what happens when a plane filled with crates of animals crashes has finally been answered by pioneering iOS developer TransGaming. The answer is found in Kula Blox [99c / HD], and apparently, in the event of an airborne disaster, animals feel the need to eat everything under themselves in the food chain on the way to the ground. Hey, it seems plausible.

You choose an animal to control and then use tilt or tap controls (or both) to move left or right, through the air, preying on any animals smaller than yourself, chasing them down if they try to flee. If you collide with a larger predator, you'll lose one of your three hearts (lives) for that fall. The more animals you eat, the larger and more dominant you become, as you move up the food chain.

This game currently has three worlds: Jungle, savannah and forest, with 12 airborne levels each (36 total) plus the standard note promising more levels in future. At the start of each level, you're given three goals to satisfy. For example, you may be asked to eat 10 frogs, 15 frogs and 50 monkeys. (At least, I think the green things are frogs.)

If you're an expert, you may be able to satisfy all three goals in one go, but that's not necessary, as you're able to complete each goal in a separate attempt. Each time you complete a goal, you earn a totem, with one totem unlocking the next level and three totems meaning all goals are satisfied for that level.

Initially you can only control a Jaguar, but later you unlock other predators, such as an eagle or cobra. Each animal has different abilities, like Cheetah Boost (speed), Cobra Sense (slow motion) and Panthergeist (pass through animals and obstacles), which you unlock as you progress. These powers are activated via icons on the screen.

There's also pick-up's to grab as you're falling, such as a tortoise shell (shield), parachute (slows descent) plus animal magnets and score multipliers. Or you can buy the pick-up's using money gained from the treasure chests you crash into, on the ground.

You're initially falling through the sky with clouds in the background, but as you descend, the background changes, introducing trees and cliffs which jut out, before you eventually hit into the ground and treasure chests.  Little birds display signs indicating the distance to the ground, so you know how much time you have left to satisfy the goals.

The developers advise the word "Kula" means "Eat" in Swahili, which ties in with the carnivorous theme. However, one user in the forums mentions that "Kula" is another word for "excrement" in Hungarian. Ironically, this game does actually feature some falling animal excrement, which should – as always – be avoided. And according to the developers interesting blog post about the development process, the game was almost called "Animal Droppings", which would have been an apt description.

Kula Blox is a simple game which is made more interesting by the "animal-eats-animal while falling" premise. There's not a lot of variety in the levels in terms of game-play, but it's a relaxing way to pass a few brainless minutes.

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There are two things I want in life: (a) more content in 11 Bit Studio’s Anomaly: Warzone Earth [$1.99 / HD] and (b) a working Space Marine chain-sword that doubles as a potato peeler. I’ll never get the latter, but the chances on the former seem great right now. 11 Bit just wrapped up an interview with relative game Web site newcomers Split Kick and confirmed that one more Squad Assault level is coming to the App Store version of the reverse tower defense game in a fresh update. Even better, more content is being planned alongside a possible sequel.

Talk about a treasure trove of information, right? Here’s 11 Bit’s Pawel Miechowski’s relevant newsy-news words:

Currently an update is on the way to Anomaly WE on App Store. Apart from the several fixes, it’ll deliver a new Squad Assault mode and it is placed in Baghdad setting too. Additional downloadable content for iOS version is in the works and it’ll introduce some new improvements to the concept and some new locations, although that levels are desert-based too. Much of the “processing capacity” is used for the development of other versions that I mentioned, so we do not have enough powers to produce extra content for PC/Mac version now. However, we’ll do in the future. We’re also planning content for the possible sequel and there are brand new ideas and brand new locations considered.

On the studio's blog last week, 11 Bit added that this update, in addition to bug fixes, will also make the HD version Universal. This means that if you held out on iPhone version, you'll get it for free with a download of the iPad one.

Actually, let’s add a third thing to that list. As great as the first game is and as powerful as the prospect of downloadable content for it is, I’d like to go ahead say that I want a new Anomaly game with new locations, new missions, new powers, and new mechanics, too please. Thanks, guys!

[Via Split Kick]

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