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Did you know that Blackfish Games’s New Orbit [$.99] is cheaper than usual? It is. Since late this past January, the horror sci-fi title has been available at $.99 instead of its usual $2.99. It’s a good price, too: New Orbit is a solid, story-driven game that has some really sharp gravitational / orbital mechanics wrapped up in its Asteroids-inspired, but less frenzied shell.

At $.99, we think you should give it a try. Our users raved about the game after its initial debut, and still seemed high on it even after finishing. Check out what they had to say before making a purchase, or hey, watch this teaser trailer:

[Via @SteveStreza]

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Our ratings for games we reviewed in January are now in place, and we now present to you the ones that are on the top of the heap. Each game reviewed receives a 1-5 star rating relative to the other games from that month. Generally, a three-star or higher is considered a “good” rating.

Our final scores are not the product of any traditionally objective measures such as graphics or sound, but simply reflect the games we would most recommend to others. Keep in mind, this listing is comprised of games we reviewed in January, and not necessarily games that were specifically released in January.

5 Stars

Super Crate Box, $1.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Vlambeer knocks it out of the park with this ultra-frantic crate collecting game. With great virtual controls, and gameplay that is great for pick up and play mobile gaming sessions, Super Crate Box is a game you shouldn’t miss.

4.5 Stars

Blockwick, Free – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – A really slick puzzle game that you can try for free. After that, level packs of increasing difficulty are sold in bundles of 60 for 99¢ a pop. Don’t let the initial pack it comes with turn you off, think of it more as a really long tutorial.

Hero Academy, Free – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – This multiplayer tactical game by Robot Entertainment has become incredibly popular amongst our community, and even was the topic of a recent Penny Arcade comic. If you’re looking for people to play with, hit the forum link and you’ll find tons of people looking for a game.

Run Roo Run, $0.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – From the creators of Scribblenauts comes this super-fun mini-level jumping game. Most levels will only take a few moments to complete, but thankfully, there’s a ton of them. Clearing a world unlocks some really difficult levels that’ll really put you to the test.

Smash Cops, $2.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Not only does Smash Cops have great graphics, but it also has a new control method that we haven’t seen before for controlling your cop car. You use your finger to “push” the car where you want to go. It sounds strange, but it works great.

Triple Town, Free – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – There’s a definite learning curve to Triple Town but once you get over that hump and come to grips with how the mechanics of the game works, you’ll be building amazing towns and cursing at bears in no time. Argh, those bears. They ruin everything.

Windosill, $2.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – This iPad exclusive puzzle game originally started its life as a Flash title. It’s aged incredibly well, and feels like a perfect fit for the iPad. Multitouch adds so much, even if you played the original, it’s worth trying again on the iPad.

The rest of the game ratings can be seen in their respective rating categories (also found in the sidebar navigation): 5 Stars, 4.5 Stars, 4 Stars, 3.5 Stars, 3 Stars, and 2 Stars.

As always, we expect there will be some debate about relative scores, but keep in mind that everyone’s personal ratings may vary based on individual tastes.

For more of our favorite iOS games, check out our “Best iPhone Games” category which includes all of these monthly posts as well as other special compilations of the greatest games the App Store has to offer.

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I like to imagine there’s an Oberlin burnout somewhere who’s made a living getting bent on ayahuasca and pitching music-history based games to different companies. My hypothetical game designer, wide-eyed and euphoric, is responsible for games like Boom Boom Rocket, Eternal Sonata, Jazz: Trump’s Journey [$2.99], and now Frederic –Resurrection of Music [$1.99/HD/Lite], by Forever Entertainment S.A.

In the first scene, set in present-day Paris, Fryderyk Chopin climbs out of his grave, speaks with the Muses, and rap-battles a French DJ with dual-wield keyboards and a jetpack. After this, he rides a horse-and-carriage to Jamaica and gets high with a reggae artist named Rob. Amazing.

As he travels the world in his mystic carriage trying to unravel the circumstances of his undeath, Chopin runs through a series of musical duels with local artists. Mechanically, this translates into a rudimentary version of Piano Hero: notes travel on a track toward a touch-screen piano keys, and players are scored on their accuracy and combo streak.

The songs in Resurrection are modern remixes of Chopin’s most famous waltzes, nocturnes, études, and marzukas, re-imagined in the style of whichever locale our hero finds himself: country in Texas, Celtic dance in Ireland, chiptunes in Tokyo. I actually like most of the music — the Resurrection soundtrack is available for purchase on iTunes [$5.99] — but they all tend to suffer from repetitive melody and relatively simple arrangements. Still, the lighthearted pop remixes fit into the game’s absurdist aesthetic much better than an orchestral score would.

With only nine songs, Resurrection is relatively short, though some players might be able to extend its shelf-life by trying to improve their scores. But even on its hardest difficulty, at its most complex, Resurrection goes out of its way to indulge and empower the player, not defeat them with impossible challenges.

Like Climber Brothers [$0.99], the real joy of Resurrection is the one-to-one relationship between tactile input and feedback: tapping the screen of my iPad is more or less a reasonable facsimile of pressing down a physical key. This is a relatively simple pleasure, but Resurrection goes to great lengths to extend it by being overly-generous  in its design — players have a relatively large window to hit notes in, and it’s almost impossible to miss enough notes to fail a song. The goal here is to listen to the music and soak up the strange animations going on in the background.

Since failure — and, by extension, most of the game mechanics — is largely an illusion, Resurrection’s real hook is its insane premise and matching art direction. In both its art direction and treatment of ethnic stereotypes, Resurrection draws on the bande dessinée style of mid-80s Lucky Luke. The voice acting, too, is hard to place: British English re-routed through Forever Entertainment’s Polish roots.

But Resurrection’s essential Europeanness isn’t limited to animation and cut scenes, and this isn’t a game so much as it is a rewriting of Chopin’s cultural identity. During the Cadet Revolution in 1830 Chopin, the son of a Franco-Polish immigrant, fled Warsaw for Paris, never to return. Resurrection ultimately leads him back to a culturally reinvigorated Warsaw, but only after he uses his musical gifts to destroy the stereotyped, corporate shills that populate the rest of the world. Chopin is cast as the savior of music, but it’s odd that he uses modern remixes, not his traditional compositions, to further his cause.

By fudging its rhythm mechanics, Frederic — Resurrection of Music actually presents itself as more of an interactive cartoon than a game. But when viewed as such, Resurrection often comes off muddled and directionless and, even at the end of the game, it’s not clear why Chopin was resurrected, who he’s “saving” music from, or if he really succeeded.

Nevertheless, Resurrection is a bold product, unafraid to be campy, kitschy, and surreal, and presented as a labor of love from a team full of ideas. This game is larger than the sum of its parts and everyone I’ve showed it to has enjoyed basking in the art and music and in the fact that Frederic Chopin uses his second chance at life to smoke dope on the beach and learn the keytar.

TouchArcade Rating:

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It’s safe to say that cave flyers have been around the block a few times, and that a few of you might just be sick of ‘em. Hey, that’s fair—I know my enduring love of endless runners and cave flyers isn’t shared by everyone. But do me a favor: take a look at Blot’s [$0.99] trailer before writing it off. Yeah, it’s just another cave flyer, but goodness, it’s gorgeous.

We’ve seen the control scheme and basic design a thousand times before, and there’s nothing new about collecting coins for upgrades, cosmetic or otherwise. Blot won’t win many points for fundamental originality. But it’s a solid, fun cave flier that also happens to be beautiful, with an underlying sense of humor that’s sure to please.

Screenshots don’t do it justice — a big part of Blot’s appeal is how lovely its parallax backgrounds look in motion. Someone at Majestic Software has taken time to sketch out all manner of things — trees, candies, wastelands, ponies, helicopters wielding swords and morningstars, you name it—which the game then combines and recombines to build new backdrops each time you play.

This is part of a broader vision. Blot himself is an ink spatter, flying outwards from a pen. He dodges pencils and seeks out paint cans and smudges. The artistic theme isn’t carried through as far as it could be—art and coin collection don’t exactly go hand in hand—but it gets very, very close.

For controls you’re looking at something a lot like Jetpack Joyride [Free], to name one recent and popular example. The titular Blot is bigger and a bit floatier than Barry Steakfries and his jetpack, but it has the same inputs—tap to rise, let go to fall. The arc of its movement might take a bit of getting used to, but there are no drastic changes.

And what would a modern cave flyer be without a collection mechanic or two? Aside from coins, you’ll also seek out boost buddies. Blot grows as it absorbs these cute little dudes, making it easier to grab coins but harder to dodge obstacles. Once you pick up four, you get a big boost of speed and temporary invincibility. There are also colorful paint cans and smudges to be found that mess with speed, direction and magnetism.

The coins you collect can be exchanged for upgrades. The selection is pretty cool—stuff that makes paint effects or boosts last longer, alerts you to upcoming boost buddies, makes you magnetic or doubles your income. Since you can only pick one to equip, you’ll have to consider whether you’re grinding for coins, going the distance or working on a Game Center achievement that requires a bit of extra assistance.

The game takes any chance to serve up pop-culture references. Little things, mostly, like how the buddy detector is called the “pip-blot 2000,” and the unlockable costumes play off things like Star Trek and the Ace Attorney series. There are also achievements for flying past wild reference in the background sketches, although you’ll probably die if you take the time to look for them. Best of all, none of this feels as forced or out of place as memes so often do when they pop up in games.

Some of the foreground elements are a bit abrasive against the terribly sexy backgrounds, but everything else is awesome. There’s lovely (if brief) music to fly to, and Blot is stupidly charming for something with only a few frames of animation (that little scrunchy face…!). And while there isn’t a plot or a complicated mission system to keep you motivated, the high score grind is made valuable with coin rewards and a grading system. Practice makes perfect, but getting an A+ will take skill.

One little warning – you can purchase coins with cash. Don’t bother unless you’re out to support the developers or stockpile a huge supply of portals—you’ll just rob yourself of the fun of actually playing. The grind isn’t painful at all unless you need the highest end items right away. My only quibble is that the IAP coins come a bit cheap – a single $2.99 purchase can give you most of what you’d ever need, so grinding starts to look like a bad value proposition.

It’s hard to complain, though. While it fails to distinguish itself on mechanics, Blot blows most of its competition out of the water with style alone. It’s delightful, plain and simple, and when given the choice between equally solid games, I’ll take the one that delights me any day. Who wouldn’t want a little more joy in their games, right? So take a good long look at Blot, and let us know if you like what you see.

TouchArcade Rating:

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Bean’s Quest [$2.99] from Kumobius launched in July of last year, and it was kind of awesome. Actually, it was kind of really awesome. It was just one of many platformers on the App Store that nailed the neo-retro aesthetic, harkening back to the days of 8 and 16 bits. However, there was one key element that separated it from other iOS platformers – you’re constantly bouncing. Picture a sideways Doodle Jump mixed with Super Mario Bros. 3 and you kind of get the idea.

The automatic nonstop bouncing was easy enough to get used to if you’re just trying to make it through the game, but the real brilliance of Bean’s Quest was that it kept track of the number of your bounces and tasked you with completing each level within a certain number of them to maximize your reward. Along with diamonds and a hidden toy creature that had to be collected, Bean’s Quest had come up with an excellent little system for maximizing replay value.

But, you can read all about this stuff in our original review of Bean’s Quest, and there you’ll also find our biggest issue with the game – its severe brevity. At release, Bean’s Quest was a mere eight levels long, all of which could be completed together in just a few minutes. Developer Kumobius had promised that more levels were planned for updates, and in fact seemed to have a pretty ambitious road map for where the game was heading. But as I’m sure many of you have experienced before, it can be dangerous buying a game based on promises of future updates.

However, an update the following month did appear, and added a whole new world with 9 new levels. Then the month after that another update hit adding yet another new world and 10 brand new levels. Bean’s Quest was finally starting to get fleshed out, but for the following several months things went quiet, with no new updates and an “Under Construction” banner in the level select screen teasing that the game still had yet to be finished.

Today, we found out just what Kumobius had been up to for so long as the final massive update to Bean’s Quest has hit the App Store. This time around, the game is getting two new worlds – Dusty Desert with 10 new levels and Wizard’s Lair with 12 new levels. There’s a new intro movie now too, which explains the all-to-frequent problem of having your girlfriend stolen by an evil dude, setting the stage for Bean to traverse the crazy levels and lands. At the end of it all, you’ll square off against the final boss, and then the credits roll, signaling the end of Bean’s Quest.

It’s sad seeing the end of such a fun game, but there’s a positive side to this as well. Bean’s Quest has done well enough that Kumobius is able to push forward with a new project, which I’m sure we’ll be hearing more about once the time is right. It’s crazy to think how far Bean’s Quest has come, initially offering a meager 8 levels and now with today’s update boasting 50 including the final boss fight. Aside from those major additions, this update also tightens up some UI elements and eases the difficulty of bounce requirements across the board, as well as lots of other minor tweaks and optimizations.

If you initially passed on Bean’s Quest because of its length, then I think it’s safe to say you’ve got nothing to worry about any more. It’s a fantastic platformer that puts a twist on the gameplay of more traditional platformers, while offering a huge amount of replay value and an overall stellar presentation. Definitely one that was high on the recommendation list before, and even more so with this new update.

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There’s nothing more frustrating than a game that has good core gameplay that is ruined by missteps and issues in all the other game elements. Such is the case with DvO [$1.99 / HD], a castle defense game that’s heavy on the gameplay depth, but falters in its visuals and slow execution.

DvO (a.k.a. Dwarves vs. Orcs) plays very much like a classic castle defense title. Players send units down five battle lanes taking down the resistance until they reach the opposing castle (with the enemy doing the same to you, obviously). The side that takes down the opposing castle first wins the match. Littered throughout the lanes are crystal patches, which must be mined by your mining units and are used as the currency necessary to build supplemental units.

There are no special moves, upgradeable units, or even changing lanes; units will march down their path until they are either taken out or are attacking the opposing castle. I can see how this kind of simplicity in gameplay can appeal to some folks, but gamers that have experienced (and enjoy) other castle defense games with more modern approaches may feel a bit disappointed.

DvO’s primary strength lies in the wide variety of units you can play with. While you only start out with a handful of units, you unlock subsequent allies as you complete each story mission (you must then ‘buy’ the units using gold earned in matches before you can add them to your list). Once you get a large amount of units unlocked, the real strategic magic of DvO begins. Units include basic melee and ranged units, to mages of a wild variety of elements, to even conjurers that will summon other units onto the field. There are over 25 units available for use, and since you can only bring seven into any individual battle, players will really have to start paying attention to their units and build teams based on their play style.

While DvO’s gameplay variety obviously drives the title forward, its visuals and presentation take the game a few steps back. Graphics-wise, DvO lacks any retina display support, and it’s very apparent in everything from the blurry text to the units and environmental backgrounds. The art style seems to be built more for the iPad’s non-retina display – considering that the HD version is sold separately, I don’t know why they couldn’t have made that one retina compatible. While the blurry visuals aren’t bad enough to actually affect the gameplay, it’s still an eyesore.

Presentation-wise, DvO feels very bare bones. There’s no story (other than a cliché-riddled introduction), and there’s very little to even make you feel like you’re in a world. In addition, the few tutorial portions and even the in-game encyclopedia on the various units don’t really seem to do the game’s depth justice. One of the worst things a strategy game can do is not sufficiently explain the great system it’s built. Unfortunately, DvO seems to fall into that trap.

There are also a lot of silly UI bugs that just feel out of place. For example, tutorial screens pop up when you purchase new units that you unlocked in the previous battle. If you happen to die in the next battle and restart, the game will feed you a tutorial screen for a unit you haven’t unlocked yet (because you haven’t beaten that level). Does it really affect the gaming experience? Of course not, but these kinds of silly missteps hold the game back from being taken seriously.

Perhaps the biggest issue with DvO is simply that the game is too slow. Units plod along at a very sluggish pace, with only the special “fast” units seeming to move at an appropriate speed. Even early battles seem to drag on, and as you get further into the campaign and the likelihood of temporary stalemates rise, missions take forever. Even worse, there aren’t any ways to speed up the gameplay, meaning each map starts painstakingly slow as you’re initially collecting minerals. I’m all for giving folks the time necessary to make proper decisions in a strategy game, but the amount of waiting you will do in DvO is excessive.

With that said, DvO still has a good core gameplay system that should appeal to most fans of castle defense. However, all the missteps in other game elements definitely hold this game back from having a greater appeal. At this point, I’d recommend DvO for hardcore fans of the genre looking for their next fix. Otherwise, you may want to pass.

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On this week’s episode of The TouchArcade Show, we push through discussions about feral dogs, the Mindfreak, and accents in order to bring you the latest, hottest, and best-est in iOS game news and chit-chat. At the top, we dig into unreleased titles like Adventure Bar Story before we dive into more known quantities, like say, Triple Town. Post-break, we weigh in on heavy stuff like the Zynga vs. NimbleBit, uh, issue, and of course, get to a few of your listener questions.

Oh! We also had a special guest this week: Joseph Leray. If you’d like to give us a listen, go ahead and do so via the links below. Additionally, you could subscribe to our feeds at iTunes and Zune. All the cool kids do the latter.

iTunes Link: The TouchArcade Show
Zune Marketplace: TouchArcade.com Podcasts
RSS Feed: The TouchArcade Show
Direct Link: TouchArcadeShow-036.mp3, 33MB

Here are your show notes:

GAMES

• Adventure Bar Story
• End Night
• Ash II: Shadows [$2.99 Silver Edition / $4.99 Gold Edition]
• Triple Town [Free]

FRONT PAGE

• Zynga Rips Off ‘Tiny Tower’
• Unofficial ‘Dominion’ App Hits The Store
• Tweet-Land Has A Release Date

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Earlier this month I convened with the panel of judges in Marseille, France that made up the International Mobile Gaming Awards to go through the over 500 games submitted. After a day of some incredibly intense (and incredibly jet lagged) judging, we had our list of finalists which were just recently revealed. We’ve already reviewed almost all of these games, and if you’re missing any of these games from your collection, they’re all worth picking up:

Best Casual Game

• CreaVures [Coming Soon]
• Hector [$4.99 Episodes 1, 2, 3]
• Jetpack Joyride [Free]
• Sprinkle [$1.99
• The Blocks Cometh [99¢]

Best Mobile Social Game

• Charadium II [$1.99
• Funpark Friends [Free]
• Poker Pals [99¢]
• SpellCraft School of Magic [Free]
• The Pirate King [Free]

Best Real World Game

• CityRace.me [Coming Soon]
• Flatmates [Coming Soon]
• Meatspace Invasion [Free
• NBA: King of the Court [Free]
• Shadow Cities [Free]

Best Sports Game

• Bike Baron [99¢]
• Flick Tennis: College Wars [$1.99]
• Sports Car Challenge [Free]
• Touchgrind BMX [$4.99]
• Trial Xtreme 2 [$1.99]

Excellence in Gameplay

• Battleheart [$2.99]
• Contre Jour [$2.99]
• Death Rally [Free
• Draw Race 2 [$2.99]
• Infinity Blade II [$6.99]

Most Innovative Game

• Forever Drive [Free]
• Kodo [Coming Soon]
• KuraKuraMaze [Free
• Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP [$4.99]
• Wild Chords [Free]

The winners will be announced at Mobile World Congress at the International Mobile Gaming Awards summit on March 1st. Also, if you’d like to vote for which games you think should win, head on over to the IMGA site and start voting.

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Last month, after basically zero pre-release hype, we were pretty surprised to see Batman Arkham City Lockdown [$2.99] pop up in the App Store. Perhaps even more surprising was that NeatherRealm Studios, developer of the recent (and excellent) Mortal Kombat reboot on consoles, was behind the iOS title.

And, even more surprising still, Batman Arkham City Lockdown was actually pretty freaking awesome. It was built using the Unreal Engine, so the graphics were definitely up to snuff. And the gameplay took a tiny page out of the Infinity Blade handbook, having you face off against baddies in one-on-one battles using swipe controls to dish out the pain. The combat didn’t quite have the complexity of an Infinity Blade, but it was fun nonetheless.

Now, Batman Arkham City Lockdown has just received its first ever sale, dropping from its normal $5.99 price point down to $2.99 for a limited time. If you’re wondering if this is the game for you, then be sure to give our full review a read for some insight. Personally, I had a ton of fun with Arkham City Lockdown, and thought it was well worth its original price. For $2.99 I think it’s a steal, especially if you’re a fan of the Batman, as the developers have done a wonderful job of making the game feel like a fully realized Batman experience. Definitely check it out and take advantage of the sale while it lasts.

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Hey, remember that time we were like, “oh sure, Junk Jack is coming to the iPad, but it’s not going to be for a long time”? Well, you should remember, because it was just last week. Anyway, the story goes that the game’s developer PixBits has been so involved with just updating the game in general, that making it iPad-friendly was kind of on the back burner, at least until the iPhone version became more fleshed out.

However, it sounds like they might have overestimated how difficult the transition to the iPad would be, because we’ve heard from the developer that progress on a Universal update for Junk Jack is moving forward much more quickly than they had expected. They’ve sent over a load of work-in-progress screens of the game from the iPad, which you can check out below.

We’ve been told that the Universal support won’t go live with the very next update, which sounds like it’s pretty near completion, but PixBits is hopeful that it will be included in the update that follows. We’ll be sure to keep tabs on this and let you know just as soon as you can get diggin’ on the big screen with Junk Jack.

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