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Since the insane Wednesday before the pre-Christmas iTunes Connect freeze, the formerly exciting onslaught of New Zealand releases each week was little more than a fond memory throughout the entire month of January. Thankfully, developers are getting back in to the swing of things and releasing oodles of games. Although, this begs the question- With so few games released in January, did anyone really come out ahead by rushing their games out for Christmas? It's a long way away, but I'll be curious what happens this holiday season. Hopefully it leads to more January releases.

Anyway, on with the show. We're going to be spending the day playing most of these games, and providing a closer look at as many of these as possible. Here's an alphabetical list of the games currently available right now in New Zealand. If you've played along with the Wednesday waiting game before, you'll know how this works. If not, here's the gist- Games appear for download in New Zealand first, then slowly show up on international App Stores around the world before finally appearing on the US App Store at 11:00 PM EST.

Bop It!, $2.99 – [Forum Thread] – The original Bop It! was one of those electronic toy/game abominations that always seems to be out of batteries whenever you wanted to play it and likely has been responsible for millions of annoyed parents stuck in cars with their kids playing a Bop It! for hours. (A Simpsons episode actually makes a joke about this.) You do what the Bop It! tells you do to, whether that's spinning it, bopping it, or many other actions. From the looks of it, the iOS version is very similar. One thing the iOS version is lacking is the sheer durability of Hasbro's child-proof plastics.

Cardboard Castle, 99¢ – [Forum Thread] – A clever looking puzzle game with a slick art style based on cardboard cut outs. You assist a knight in his adventures, and come up with clever solutions for dealing with obstacles in your path by interacting with the various cardboard set pieces of the level. It definitely seems like a unique premise for a game.

Devil May Cry 4 Refrain, $1.99 – [Forum Thread] – An ambitious title by Capcom that we spent some time with earlier this month. A simplified control system goes a long way in bringing this console series over to iOS devices. I'm curious what people are going to think once they get this game in their hands, as the Devil May Cry series is one that's not only been difficult, but also has always been played with a physical controller.

Etolis: Arena, $1.99 – [Forum Thread] – An interesting looking Sci-Fi based dual stick shooter from Chillingo that also happens to be universal. I'm excited to bust out my Fling joysticks and give this game a try as I much prefer blasting aliens to shooting zombies.

Kick Buttowski: Loco Launcho, Free – [Forum Thread] – I have absolutely no idea who Kick Buttowski is, but I seem to get sucked in to these kind of launching games in the worst way– Especially if they've got all kinds of upgrades, which Loco Launcho seems to have. Oh, it's universal too.

League of Evil, 99¢ – [Forum Thread] – This pixel art-packed platformer involves jumping through 50 levels saving scientists. I like pixel art, chiptune music, and saving scientists, so I'm really excited for this game. Also, Jared has been spending some time with a pre-release version of the game and won't stop talking about it, which is always a good thing.

Monty Python's Cow Tossing, 99¢ – [Forum Thread] – A Monty Python parody of Angry Birds. I'm thinking this game will either come packed with enough Monty Python humor to be funny enough to be good, or be just as mediocre as many other Angry Birds-like games. I'm not sure there's much middle ground, and I'm excited to find out where this game lands.

Sacred Odyssey: Rise of Ayden, Free + $6.99 IAP – [Forum Thread] – Gameloft's spin on Zelda is packed with a curious approach we've yet to see the mobile gaming giant take in regards to selling their games. Sacred Odyssey is free to download, which allows you to play about ten minutes worth of gameplay. After that, you've got to unlock the rest of the game via an in-app purchase of $6.99. So basically, you're paying the same price as a typical Gameloft game, but this time the lite and the full versions are merged in to a single version. It will be interesting to see how this tactic plays out.

Zombie Isle, Free – [Forum Thread] Glu has been surprisingly successful since switching gears to freemium, and Zombie Isle is their latest free to play title. It seems to combine the two massive cliches of both pirates and zombies in to one unholy cliche abomination… But there seem to be an awful lot of people out there who love both zombies and pirates, so maybe they're on the right track!

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The latest game from Mika Mobile, creators of Zombieville USA [$1.99 / Lite / HD] and OMG Pirates! [$1.99 / Lite], hit the App Store today. Battleheart [$2.99] is a fantastic game of fantasy combat which is not only universal with complete iPad support, but also comes packed with some great Retina Display friendly graphics. I'm not entirely sure I'd call Battleheart an RPG, but it definitely has tons of RPG elements, making it very easy to enjoy for anyone who likes gearing up characters and filling experience bars.

Gameplay consists of a series of battles with your four character party. There are a ton of different character classes, and which classes you pack in to your crew greatly changes how the battles play out. For instance, your party can be melee based, entirely ranged, well rounded, or a mixture of basically anything. Most combinations I've tried seem to work well, with the only real requirement being some kind of healing ability on levels with boss-type encounters. (Although with careful micromanagement and highly leveled characters I'm not sure if this is true or not.)

Controlling the game is simple and hinges heavily on the line drawing mechanic that has become so familiar on iOS devices. To move your character, you draw a line from where they are to where you want them to go. To attack a monster, you draw a line from the character to the monster. To heal a character, you draw a line from your healer to the character that needs healing. In addition, each character has a special ability (with more learned as you level up) that can be accessed by tapping a character then tapping its respective icon.

Check out the trailer to see how this all goes together:

Under normal circumstances, I'd be praising this game like non-other and recommending that anyone with a functional finger load it on whatever device it is that they play iOS games on. Unfortunately, Battleheart seems to have quite a few nasty crash issues resulting in quite a few people on our forums as well as myself unable to make it past a particular battle in the game. These crashes seem extremely random, with some people able to play the game just fine, and others crashing like crazy.

The good news is, we've been in contact with Mika Mobile and they share our frustration as they haven't encountered a single crash in their hundreds of hours of pre-release testing. Regardless, fixing these issues and submitting an update is their top priority. We'll wait for the update to land before we post our full review. In the meantime, if you feel like rolling the dice on whether or not the game will be crashy on your device, you'll be in for a real treat with Battleheart, assuming said dice roll in your favor.

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So there's these oranges… They're just hanging out amidst wooden blocks and platforms of various sizes, against the backdrop of numerous lovely pastoral landscapes. It's about all an orange could ask for, really. Well, it would be about all an orange could ask for, were it not for this pesky and dangerous cloud that keeps blowing about, precipitating deadly poisonous rain and spelling gruesome death for said oranges. Poor, poor oranges!

Such is the dilemma in FDG Entertainment's iOS physics puzzler Cover Orange [App Store]. But, fret not — there is something you can do…

Cover Orange presents you with level after platform-filled level of cute little vulnerable oranges, and it's your mission to protect them — to cover them, if you will — from the aforementioned cloud's deadly rain. This is done by strategically dragging and dropping the various objects at your disposal (each level presents you with a different mix) onto the platforms where the oranges are resting. This might mean filling a gap between two platforms with a crate to provide cover, or nudging an orange towards the safety of an overhang with a wagon wheel, or dropping in barrels and a crate to build a makeshift house, of sorts, for a helpless orange.

As you progress through the levels, the platform arrangements grow more elaborate. You may need to drop a barrel onto one end of a lever platform to catapult an orange across the screen, or nudge a hinged hammer into motion to get things flying about the level properly. Whatever the case, the end goal is to keep the bouncing droplets (more like pellets, really) of rain from contacting any orange on the screen when the cloud comes passing by.

A realistic physics system acts upon every object onscreen, including each raindrop, which brings with it a bit of collision chaos that inserts a bit of chance as to whether your particular arrangement of objects will get the job done. In short, there is no single, right solution in many cases, and it feels like luck plays a role, as well.

My only real gripe with the game is to do with the scaling of difficulty as the levels advance. The difficulty does increase with the level number, in general, but there are several instances where you may still be patting yourself on the back for completing so complex a level arrangement, when faced with a follow-up level that's quite basic and easy to complete. Additionally, I have heard comments from one or two gamers who dislike the feeling of luck being a party of things, that I described earlier. It's hard to articulate, but there's definitely a feeling that, where you thought you placed your objects well and still failed, another round of the same arrangement might yield success. It's to do with the chaos introduced by the physics system. It may leave a sour taste in your mouth, but it bothers me not at all (because, while it sometimes hurts, it sometimes helps).

Cover Orange for iOS is a port of an existing Flash title, but with notable scenery enhancements. FDG released both Cover Orange [link] for the iPhone / iPod touch and Cover Orange HD [link] for the iPad in mid-December and in the month and a half since, the game has become quite popular, seeing over 2 million downloads.

In the time I've spent with Cover Orange so far, I've definitely felt that "ok, just one more level" draw that a clever puzzler will inspire, making it tough to walk away from. And, while I've not run through all 120 levels (and 20 more are on the way at the time of this writing), I expect I will soon enough.

I know it's not the same sort of game, but if you like Angry Birds and its ilk, I think Cover Orange will be worth your while — there's just a spiritual similarity of sorts going on there. At any rate, at least give the Flash version a whirl or check out the lite version of Cover Orange HD [link].

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Early arcade games were pretty much all about a very simple play mechanic that just worked. Appreciation of such simplicity in gameplay is a big driver of the growing retro gaming crowd — that and nostalgia. Two games from back in the day that delivered such gameplay are Asteroids and Breakout. Simple, addictive. iOS developer Coolpowers has endeavored to combine both of those formulas into the same game with his recent release, Breakeroids [App Store].

Breakeroids is, as it's name might suggest, a mashup of Breakout and Asteroids. It works like this… The upper three-quarters of the screen is a pretty standard Asteroids-like field of asteroids drifting about the play area, with the occasional alien saucer passing by. The lower quarter of the screen contains a Breakout-style paddle, separated from the asteroids by a multilayer convex shield.

As the game begins, you fire a ball up towards the asteroids in an effort to break them into smaller and smaller pieces, eventually eliminating them. Power-ups (thank you, Arkanoid) descend occasionally, for better and for worse. The aforementioned shield keeps the asteroids (but not the alien saucer's bombs) from passing into your paddle space — but with each missed ball, one layer of the shield drops off. You start with three shield layers, but eventually (for all but the perfect player) that drops to two, then one, then…none. And, once your shield is gone, the first time an asteroid passes off the bottom of the screen, it's Game Over. You get a full, new set of shields with each level and, in classic arcade fashion, there is an infinite number of levels. And the whole scene is rendered in beautiful, glowing retro vectors that support the Retina display and, at that resolution, look as if they're being rendered onto a proper vector monitor.

Breakeroids is a lot of fun. One the one hand, it's a pretty simple game, though a little more complex than either Asteroids or Breakout alone, understandably. But keeping track of what can and can't pass through that shield when the action gets hectic can make for a rather intense experience.

My only complaint about the game is the generally lengthy process of smashing that last, tiny asteroid on the playfield. With it and your ball both in motion, it can be a bit of a tedious process to get to the next level. But it's not a deal breaker. And, in fact, a few deal sweeteners will arrive shortly, when the game sees a free upgrade to a universal app, adding native support for the iPad's larger screen, and gets a same-device multiplayer mode.

Breakeroids uses swipe controls for the onscreen paddle, and both OpenFeint and Game Center are supported for online leaderboards and achievement tracking.

If you're the kind of gamer that digs Asteroids and Breakout and are into the retro aesthetic, Breakeroids is one you'll probably want to grab. Our readers are having a good time with it, so far.

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Early arcade games were pretty much all about a very simple play mechanic that just worked. Appreciation of such simplicity in gameplay is a big driver of the growing retro gaming crowd — that and nostalgia. Two games from back in the day that delivered such gameplay are Asteroids and Breakout. Simple, addictive. iOS developer Coolpowers has endeavored to combine both of those formulas into the same game with his recent release, Breakeroids [App Store].

Breakeroids is, as it's name might suggest, a mashup of Breakout and Asteroids. It works like this… The upper three-quarters of the screen is a pretty standard Asteroids-like field of asteroids drifting about the play area, with the occasional alien saucer passing by. The lower quarter of the screen contains a Breakout-style paddle, separated from the asteroids by a multilayer convex shield.

As the game begins, you fire a ball up towards the asteroids in an effort to break them into smaller and smaller pieces, eventually eliminating them. Power-ups (thank you, Arkanoid) descend occasionally, for better and for worse. The aforementioned shield keeps the asteroids (but not the alien saucer's bombs) from passing into your paddle space — but with each missed ball, one layer of the shield drops off. You start with three shield layers, but eventually (for all but the perfect player) that drops to two, then one, then…none. And, once your shield is gone, the first time an asteroid passes off the bottom of the screen, it's Game Over. You get a full, new set of shields with each level and, in classic arcade fashion, there is an infinite number of levels. And the whole scene is rendered in beautiful, glowing retro vectors that support the Retina display and, at that resolution, look as if they're being rendered onto a proper vector monitor.

Breakeroids is a lot of fun. One the one hand, it's a pretty simple game, though a little more complex than either Asteroids or Breakout alone, understandably. But keeping track of what can and can't pass through that shield when the action gets hectic can make for a rather intense experience.

My only complaint about the game is the generally lengthy process of smashing that last, tiny asteroid on the playfield. With it and your ball both in motion, it can be a bit of a tedious process to get to the next level. But it's not a deal breaker. And, in fact, a few deal sweeteners will arrive shortly, when the game sees a free upgrade to a universal app, adding native support for the iPad's larger screen, and gets a same-device multiplayer mode.

Breakeroids uses swipe controls for the onscreen paddle, and both OpenFeint and Game Center are supported for online leaderboards and achievement tracking.

If you're the kind of gamer that digs Asteroids and Breakout and are into the retro aesthetic, Breakeroids is one you'll probably want to grab. Our readers are having a good time with it, so far.

[source]

The original Hysteria Project [Free] was released in early 2009, and still sticks in my head as one of the more memorable iPhone games I've tried. It's free right now, and you really should give it a try… But, if you're in a place where it's not feasible to quickly download a 150MB iPhone game, here's the gist: Hysteria Project plays surprisingly similar to those old Sega CD era full motion video games in that you don't have very much interaction and you're mostly just watching a video with branching points. During the game you'll have an opportunity to tap certain objects to interact with the game world, decide where your character runs, or other things like that.

Even though gameplay was more than a little basic, I thought it was really well done and combined a cool little indie horror flick with some interactivity. The game is short, but was just long enough to leave you walking away from it saying to yourself, "Huh, that was cool." And really, games that make you think that seem to be entirely too rare these days. Hysteria Project 2 [$1.99] can be described in mostly the same way.

Like its predecessor, it's a full motion video game with a heaping helping of video to watch. There is significantly more interactivity this time around, but at its core the game is still a Sega CD style FMV game, which means interactivity is limited to some puzzles and other touch-based mini-games. Unfortunately, these puzzles and mini-games really aren't much fun, usually aren't explained very well (if at all), and the only hints you'll find are generally on the game over screen– A screen which you will get incredibly used to seeing while playing through the game.

Both Hysteria Project games kind of give me the same vibe as Papa Sangre [$4.99] which I reviewed yesterday. I'm glad they exist, and they're the exact kind of crazy indie games that I love seeing crop up on the App Store, but I'm not sure how strong of a recommendation I can give them. They're great experiences, but I wouldn't really describe them as "fun", which I think is what most people are shooting for when they're looking for a new game to play.

That being said, if anything above sounds even remotely interesting to you, you need to try the original Hysteria Project while it's free. If you play through that and are looking for more, dive into the sequel.

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Alright, I suppose technically this is more of an entertainment app than a game, strictly speaking. This hasn't stopped me from trying to stump it (and having a great time doing it) for the past hour. Akinator [$1.99] and Akinator HD [$1.99] ask you to think of a person or character, then asks you a number of questions. These questions can be answered by buttons for "yes" or "no", as well as "I don't know," "probably," and "probably not" in case you're not sure. The Akinator will start asking you incredibly vague questions such as whether your character is male or female, or whether they even really exists. A few questions in and it will start asking you more and more specific things, right down to the color of their hair.

The sheer amount of stuff the Akinator is capable of guessing is just incredible. It's been able to come up with Mr. Pink from "Reservoir Dogs," Alex Trebek from "Jeopardy," Sebastian from "Little Mermaid," and George Washington. It even can do comic book characters:

This is definitely a novelty app, especially considering you can play with the Akinator online for free, but as mentioned previously– I've been having a ton of fun with it. Also, answering the questions truthfully, I've yet to be able to think of something it doesn't know. Something to keep in mind, the Akinator requires an internet connection… an unfortunate side effect of being able to guess every person ever.

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After sharing the “real life Fruit Ninjas” with the world, Kotaku has once again posted an awesome video related to iOS gaming. Some fans of Big Bucket Software’s The Incident [$1.99] that have taken it upon themselves to make a sweded version of the game. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, “sweding” is the art of remaking mainstream films using homemade props and budget techniques.

The practice started with the movie Be Kind Rewind, but has since gone on to become a popular hobby among amateur filmmakers or people who are just plain bored. Typically movies are the basis of sweding, but it can really be applied to anything – even video games.

Going into this, I wasn’t totally sure how anybody could recreate a game like The Incident in real life, given the dozens upon dozens of different kinds of items falling from the sky. But I have to admit, these folks did a bang up job on this. The music just kills me:

Besides this video being pretty hilarious, it also shows – along with the real Fruit Ninja videos – that iOS games have really arrived as a part of the mainstream culture. It always makes me smile whenever I see something related to an iPhone game outside of my normal TouchArcade bubble, and hopefully fans continue being creative and producing amazing things like the above video.

[Via Kotaku]

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When Pro Zombie Soccer [Free] was first released last summer, it was by far one of the most anticipated games on our forums. Developed by Super Awesome Hyper Dimensional Mega Team, Pro Zombie Soccer is an amusing spin on zombie slaying, in that you play as a soccer player named Jax and take aim with a soccer ball, kicking it in to legions of zombies. We explained in detail how this works in our review, but here's the basics:

By swiping up and down with your left hand you control Jax's shot angle, as you take aim at the approaching decaying horde. Releasing your thumb will let fly a thunderous kick, tearing apart zombie limbs with abandon before the ball graciously returns to your boot. It's a simple game mechanic that belays some pretty frantic action, particularly in the later game. Kicks can be charged by holding down your thumb before releasing, resulting in a power shot that is necessary to kill certain zombies. …Read More

Chillingo recently dropped the price of Pro Zombie Soccer to free to celebrate the launch of its iPad counterpart, Pro Zombie Soccer Apocalypse Edition [$1.99 / Lite]. The Apocalypse Edition seems to play identical to the iPhone version with the main difference being how much more you can see on screen at once. Like some HD versions, this one opts to use the additional screen real estate and resolution to keep the game elements the same size, and instead just display tons more at a time. This allows for some pretty crazy zombie battles as the screen gets completely filled with undead.

If you already own the iPhone version (or are downloading it free today), I'm not entirely sure how much reason there is to spring for the upgraded Apocalypse Edition. The new high resolution art looks great, and it's cool having more zombies on screen, but the gameplay is largely the same. Either way, you should totally download Pro Zombie Soccer while it's free, and if you're enjoying it on your iPad, consider grabbing the Apocalypse Edition.

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In late 2008, when App Store gaming was still fairly new, one title that we really liked was RealArcade's Tiki Towers [99¢/Free]. It was a bridge building physics puzzle game that took more than a few cues from World of Goo, but back then World of Goo was not available on iOS and Tiki Towers provided a similar experience that was executed well with cute graphics and clever level designs. Since that time we've seen additional titles in the same vein like Moonlights [$1.99/Lite], Bridge Odyssey [$4.99/Lite], and of course the official port of World of Goo [$4.99] for the iPad.

That hasn't stopped RealArcade from releasing a sequel, however, and more than two years later we now have Tiki Towers 2 [$4.99]. It doesn't stray too far from the formula of the original, and like any good sequel it builds upon its solid gameplay foundation by adding several welcome enhancements. There are 30 brand new levels to tackle in Tiki Towers 2, with a new overworld map system for accessing them. Some levels will have multiple exits which affect what path you take through the overworld.

Each level also tracks how many bamboo sticks you use in making your structure, with a reward for using less than a set amount. This feature was only available in the original after completing the entire game, but is a part of each level right from the beginning here and adds a nice dose of replayability beyond just collecting every banana when completing a level. Tiki Towers 2 also has improved graphics with more detailed environments and Retina Display support, as well as Game Center integration for unlocking 10 achievements.

If you enjoyed the first Tiki Towers, or even any of the previously mentioned similar games, then chances are you will enjoy Tiki Towers 2 as well. It isn't too different from the first game but the few improvements it does have fit into the original gameplay well, and it really is a lot of fun building precarious structures for your little monkeys to cross. One thing to note is that it does come in at a higher price than the original, but includes universal support for the iPad. There's a discussion thread with further impressions in our forums, and Tiki Towers 2 is a solid choice if you're looking for a fun new physics puzzler.

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