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We first heard of Blizzard's plans to improve the functionality of the Mobile Armory [Free] app to include access to the auction house back in February. MMO Champion has all the details today on the recently released Remote Auction House functionality of the existing Mobile Armory app which currently only works for a small number of World of Warcraft servers as part of a beta test of the service.

To use the Mobile Armory you will need a World of Warcraft or Battle.net account, with most of the features requiring an active World of Warcraft subscription. If you're lucky enough to play on the hand full of servers currently supported, using the existing Mobile Armory app you will not only be able to buy items on the in-game auction house, but also sell any item from your character's bags, bank, or mailbox as well as manage all the gold generated from said auctions.

Currently, this functionality is free but limited to 25 total transactions a day, a number which will be increased at launch, according to Blizzard. At the conclusion of the beta test, the auction house features of the Mobile Armory will split in to free and paid functions. Without paying for anything, you will be able to browse and view the auction house along with getting real-time notifications when your auctions sell, expire, or you are outbid or win an auction. For $2.99 on top of your existing WoW subscription you'll be able to do all the buying and selling mentioned previously.

Towards the bottom of the new Remote Auction House site is a chart that details the feature differences of the two subscription tiers.

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Following on the heels of the recent rerelease of Edge [$2.99] comes Mobigame's next title, Truckers Delight: Episode 1 [$2.99], an episodic retro styled arcade racer. Based on an incredibly not work safe video filled with pixel art, cartoon nudity, and many other potentially offensive things by director Jérémie Périn, Truckers Delight: Episode 1 seems to be based on just the first segment of the video in all of its 8-bit glory. Presumably, the other portions of the video will be coming as their own episodes in the future.

In Episode 1, you play as a truck driver chasing a girl in a sports car down the highway. The iTunes description mentions similarities to the classic Sega arcade game OutRun, which couldn't possibly serve as a better comparison. Tilting the phone controls your truck, and all you do is chase the girl, ramming her car whenever possible for points. A countdown timer is constantly ticking away which is refreshed by passing checkpoints, and during your pursuit you will need to fend off angry police, bikers, and avoid a constant onslaught of traffic that will slow you down.

Several power ups can be picked up during your adventure. So far I've come across three: A set of horns that allow you to ram other cars off the road easily, a rocket booster that sends you flying towards the next checkpoint, and a tongue attack point multiplier. You can also honk the horn of your truck, this doesn't seem to do anything, but I can't seem to help myself from doing it almost constantly.

Truckers Delight: Episode 1 includes an odd amount of cartoon nudity for a game on the App Store. Not only does it include the first portion of the original video, but when you pick up the power up to let your tongue fly, it quite literally results in an on-screen explosion of naked women.

I've actually had a surprising amount of fun with Truckers Delight. Mobigame did a great job of nailing the feel of endless retro racing games, and the difficulty ramps up nicely requiring quite a bit of concentration as you dart between oncoming cars in your 18 wheeler. Truckers Delight features online leaderboards which are already loaded with scores that are about twice as high as my best score, and it's hard to not get in to the catchy soundtrack included with the game.

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Initiated to pop-culture by the mid-90s Tamagotchi device, pet-sims have really taken off on the App Store, but there are surprisingly few that stand out. Fortunately, developers Tasty Poison Games have given us something to talk about with the release of their full 3D dragon-based pet game, Dragooo [App Store].

Dragooo differs in presentation to other pet-sims in that the game world is rendered in fully navigable 3D. Your focus point is always your dragon pet, who starts out as a fledgling and grows over 3 stages to a teen-sized dragon (think more Spyro and less Smaug), with wings large enough to finally fly.

Flying is ultimately the end-goal to your dragon's growth in Dragooo, and getting there requires the usual tasks of feeding, nurturing and exercising your pet. This is quite easy done with a little exploration of the great-looking subterranean lair that is your dragon's home.

Negotiating your dragon around his lair feels natural. The camera is controlled by simply swiping on the screen, and your dragon can be moved around by tapping at the desired location. An on-screen button lets you switch between interaction and navigation mode, the former of which lets you pat your dragon and begin to teach him to fly by dragging upwards with your finger. By moving towards other objects in the lair, such as the pond or to the fireflies or fruit-bats, interaction mode is activated automatically. This enables you to feed your dragon by dragging a critter to his mouth or motioning him to drink.

After nurturing your dragon for a while (30 minutes or so) he'll have grown into a dragon able to finally lift-off. This unlocks the racing option, where your dragon enters a mini-game where he careens through one of three maps to collect as many gems as possible. In this mode, he will also need to use several abilities (such as fire breathing) to get through the track. Gems collected can then be spent on items to customize your dragon and improve his attributes and skills.

Though this sounds comprehensive on paper, in practice all the above is a very straightforward and simple affair, able to be reached in an hour or two at most. And thus we arrive at our major criticism of Dragooo– it is far too light on content at present. Flying is all there is to do once you have raised your dragon (other than continuing to nurture him) and though it looks terrific, it's not executed particularly well; the overly sensitive tilt controls being the only real challenge to each race.

There are also no social features to be found, despite all your races being timed and seemingly ripe for a high score table. That's not to say the developers have skimped on the game entirely, as the 3D engine does look amazing (and even though it was purportedly optimized only for the 3rd gen devices, some readers have had luck installing it on their 2G devices). We just think that in its current state, it is more a foundation for future content. If this content arrives and adds to the gameplay, Dragooo could well be terrific. As it stands though, Dragooo is an entertaining but very brief distraction.

App Store Link: Dragooo, $2.99.

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When we first had a look at the recently released Pocket Creatures [App Store] back at GDC, it didn't take us long to be enchanted by the too-cute, pikachu-like pet sim with an apparent wealth of things to explore.

Pocket Creatures begins in a temple, with you choosing the name and color of your critter. Hatching its egg and proceeding with the tutorial (which continues throughout the game in the form of stone tablets you pick up) introduces you to the basic mechanics of the game. Moving your little guy and navigating the game-world is straightforward, simply requiring double taps and familiar screen gestures.

On leaving the temple your creature is introduced to a respectable-sized garden of eden, teeming with life, hidden treasures and creature comforts. The tutorial continues here, introducing a few important friends that double as the tools to bringing your garden to life; a platypus that digs holes when you shake it; an anteater that ingests large bodies of water (and anything else around it); a woodpecker that, well…pecks things; and any one of these three to double as instant fertiliser factories.

Gardening is essentially the meat of the gameplay, with other activities being largely ancillary. You'll continually be digging holes all over your garden to find hidden items (that randomly spawn) and magical seeds to plant with. These seeds then require water and fertiliser to nourish to life, and may grow into either a simply food item, or a larger plant or tree that sprouts creature-altering fruits. Many of the achievements and rewards in the initial release are tied to gardening, either as a result of what you've grown, or instead what you've found by digging.

Though gardening is fun at first, it soon becomes monotonous, as new seeds are either too slowly revealed (and we didn't come across them in our extensive play), or the really interesting ones (ie. like the one that turns you into a tiger) are just too few in number to hold your attention. Plants require frequent fertiliser and water upkeep, and so your game eventuates into one where you're mostly concentrating on your green thumb or digging holes, with not much else required of you.

That's not to say there isn't anything else here to hold your attention, but that we wished there wasn't such a focus on gardening. Certainly, we have yet to mention the star of the show, who injects his own sense of life into the environment.

Your Pocket Creature is a moody little fellow who visibly responds to your actions. You can pat him, poke him or slap him to grant him a unique ability, such as a healing rainbow, a thunder cloud or a rain cloud above his head respectively; able to be directed by your gestures to effect the game world. If a pest comes to steal your crops for instance, you can fry him with a lightning bolt after prodding your creature into an angry fit. Fruit from magical seeds can give further powers, such as transforming your creature into cupid (or a carebear), able to make creatures fall in love with each other.

How you treat your creature and how you direct him to act molds his overall countenance. If you continually have him in an angry state, frying creatures with abandon, your character will inevitably develop an evil streak; terrorising the world around him when you're not actively directing him. Alternatively, feeding creatures when your creature is around conditions him to care for them in turn, developing a a happy angelic complex instead.

Many of these actions are means to achieve a very sizeable collection of achievements and rewards. Rewards are in the form of wearable items, affording you the opportunity of personalizing your creature beyond his initial coloring. There really does seem to be an extraordinary amount of items to unlock here, though there is no real direction given in the game as to how to attain them. Trial and error is the key, and though this adds to the game's longevity, we can't but help but feel a little more instruction (indeed, there are no tooltips at all in the game, something sorely missed) would serve to keep players that much more engaged.

As far as pet games go, Pocket Creatures is unlike anything out there. It doesn't have any of the social features of the popular Touch Pets (though it does use OpenFeint to record achievements) but it does present one of the more memorable and funny creatures to play with. Unfortunately, many of the objects you find at release currently do not have a purpose in the game (the developer promising updates to come which will flesh these out), perpetuating that directionless quality we mentioned earlier. We also experienced a few crash bugs on our 3GS testing device when transitioning between the two available areas, though these were infrequent.

Pocket Creatures is a charming pet sim with a lively, sandbox world that promotes exploration and experimentation. We're not convinced it's the definitive pet-sim we hoped it would be, but it certainly has the potential to be, particularly if the developers focus on keeping players engaged and entertained. iPad users will be pleased to hear that this is a universal app with an added Hi-Definition bonus' for the bigger screen and the developers have provided an iPad gameplay video which shows the difference the bigger screen makes.

App Store Link: Pocket Creatures, $2.99.

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One of the greatest things about the App Store is the accessibility for indie developers, and as such, the iPhone is the target platform for an amazing amount of risky or artsy games that would likely never see the light of day on regular consoles. Sure, obscure indie games always had a home on the PC, but the visibility offered by the App Store has allowed these same developers to reach a remarkably wide audience.

Kometen [$2.99] is yet another example of an indie game that's hard to really define as a "game", and instead, is more of an interactive experience with fantastic art and music wrapped around a vaguely game-like wrapper.

In Kometen, all you do is play as a comet and explore the galaxy. You can't lose, you can't die. You navigate about by tapping on various planets to orbit them. Some planets have space junk also orbiting that you can munch up to briefly speed up. That's really all there is to it.

The game is the brain child of Erik Svedäng, the creator of the PC game Blueberry Garden, which won the Independent Games Festival Grand Prize 2009 and Niklas Åkerblad, a painter and art director of indie XBOX games. Reactions to the game on our forum have been mixed, with some loving the abstract nature of the game while others are looking for more from the gameplay side of things.

We think Kometen is an artsy game that does a great job of embodying the indie spirit of the App Store. With simple goals, remarkable art, and perfectly paired music, Kometen is a really cool experience that seems to elicit the same kind of feelings as Zen Bound and other games that hinge more on atmosphere and mood than high scores and boss fights.

It's hard to give the game a strong recommendation because at the end of the day, it isn't much of a game, but if the creativity that went in to the above trailer at all piqued your interest, give Kometen a try.

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Since the inception of the App Store, and specifically since the big-name studios started throwing their hats in to the ring, iPhone gamers have been clamoring for big name series on the iPhone. Capcom brought Street Fighter 4 [$9.99], Square Enix developed an entirely new iPhone RPG, Chaos Rings [$12.99] and Konami is releasing a Castlevania puzzle game, Castlevania Puzzle: Encore of the Night.

According to Konami, Encore of the Night is an "addicting puzzle-RPG" where players will play as Alucard, the son of Dracula also seen in the classic Castlevania title, Symphony of the Night. The only details we know right now is that the game will involve playing as or against characters from Symphony of the Night, and completing puzzles will provide weapons and spells to help along the way.

It's hard to say if Encore of the Night is going to be closer to Puzzle Quest [$4.99 / Free], or more battle oriented like Capcom's Super Puzzle Fighter games– Or something else completely different. As for why they're releasing a spin-off puzzle RPG instead of any of the other games in the series, your guess is as good as ours.

Konami rarely announces games like this without having them ready for release very soon. Their last game to appear on the App Store, MLB Power Pros Touch 2010 [$7.99], was first announced hardly even a day before it appeared for download. So, Castlevania Puzzle: Encore of the Night really could be available any time now.

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One of the mainstays on our devices since its release almost a year ago is Cobra Mobile's aerial bombardment game, iBomber. Evidently many of you liked it too as it enjoyed long bouts as the #1 best selling game on the App Store last year. And now, Cobra Mobile has bought us the long-awaited sequel as iBomber 2 [AppStore] finally deploys.

iBomber 2 theatre of war takes place over North Africa and Europe between 1943 and 1944, prompting a change in scenery from the Pacific Island setting of the original game to also include deserts, frozen tundras and forests too. The game engine otherwise remains untouched, so expect no graphical improvements beyond the new landscapes, which are all richly drawn and detailed.

Instead, iBomber 2 focuses on a few added features to sell its sequel. Naturally, the stars of the show– the artillery– had to receive an update. They now include torpedos and depth charges (specifically designed to fight submarines), artillery strikes (which places a marker for a broad-ranged attack to commence) and carpet bombs (a lot of ordinance, all in a neat row). Other new, non-artillery power-ups include the wingman ability, which calls in 2 wingmen to fly below you and soak up your damage for a time.

Missions and enemies are the second spruced up feature in iBomber 2. There are now tanks to contend with, some of which may even fire surface-to-air missiles (leaving a great looking smoke trail) that you have to avoid or suffer a huge damage hit. Additionally, some of the 12 new missions require you to protect or destroy a number of fleeing vehicles, assisting to mix up the usual search and destroy objectives of other levels. We were particularly fond of one level where you supported a spy to flee after he comes under fire when infiltrating an enemy base. Seeing other units benefiting from your actions gave added context to the ongoing war, something we felt should have featured more prominently.

Another major inclusion to iBomber 2 is the new touch control scheme. Cobra Mobile have listened to cries for a non-tilt option, and have implemented a virtual thumb-stick of sorts. Swiping your finger on the left of the screen reveals a small analogue stick, indicating the direction you are currently heading. Swiping left and right steers the bomber, whilst swiping up and down changes your speed. We felt that while the new touch controls were a thoughtful addition, they proved too fiddly to master and were prone to causing your ship to spin erratically. For a change, the tilt mechanism is tried and true, and continues to work best here.

We were surprised to see a rather paltry list of added features in iBomber 2, appearing to be little more than a map expansion despite the addition of a few fun new weapons. We were really hoping for an improvement to the core gameplay of the first game, but aside from the abovementioned chase missions, other objectives are largely the same. That said, when your original game is met with the sort of success that iBomber enjoyed, perhaps more of the same is exactly what customers are demanding.

If this sounds to your liking, then we're confident you'll enjoy playing through the 12 missions in iBomber 2 and seeing how you'll fare against your friends via the new Plus+ high score integration. If you're still not sure though, check out the developer's trailer above for a look and flick through other users' impressions on our forums.

App Store Link: iBomber 2, $2.99.

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When the App Store first launched, I don't think anyone imagined that the iPhone would be such a marvelous platform for retro gamers. The amount of games out there that are either direct ports or heavily inspired by classic titles has been absolutely awesome both for fans of these vintage games and newcomers who are getting to experience the roots of video gaming for the first time.

Revolutionary Concepts, the guys behind the phenomenal port of the LaserDisc arcade game Cobra Command [$2.99] just revealed a video of their next game, Karate Champ. The attention to detail is absolutely astounding, between the arcade style cabinet controls, the gameplay itself, and even the announcer voice which is a dead ringer for the Commodore 64 SAM voice.

Released to arcades in 1984, Karate Champ was one of the first fighting games. It later made its way to the Apple II, the Commodore 64, and the NES among other platforms. According to Revolutionary Concepts, it will be submitted to Apple this week and it will launch at $1.99 as soon as it is approved.

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A couple weeks ago, we reviewed Motocross Challenge, a long lost Gameboy Advance game that never came to be which found new life on the App Store. Despite being more than 5 years old it actually turned out to be a really great experience on the iPhone. Solid controls, a polished interface, OpenFeint integration, and a high fun factor combined to make for one of the best motocross games on this platform. Now it's gotten even better as version 1.2 has gone live and adds real-time multiplayer through OpenFeint, as well as a much requested tilt calibration option.

Previously, multiplayer was restricted to OpenFeint friend challenges. You could pick from any track to race 3 laps as quickly as possible and then send that time to any of your friends to see if they could top it. It was nice and actually worked pretty well within the game's structure, and this feature is still kept intact with the latest update. But most likely you'll forget all about the challenge system once you've had a taste of the exciting real-time racing.

Upon choosing Multiplayer from the main menu, you'll select the new option Vs. World. It will bring you to a bike selection screen where you can choose from your available unlocked motorcycles. While you're doing this it's quietly matching you up with people in the background. A few moments later, the players are set and the race begins on a randomly selected course. There's only the option of racing in 3 lap races online, no trick attacks, but it's incredibly simple to get into and a ton of fun. Where you place in the race earns you points that you'll collect as a badge of honor for how well you do and how much you play, similar to an online ranking.

Also noteworthy in this release is the addition of a tilt calibration. You must start a race and access this option from the pause menu, which is a bit clunky but works as advertised. The real star of this update is the online racing which adds unlimited replayability to this already fantastic game. If you have Motocross Challenge, give the update and online multiplayer a try. If you still haven't pulled the trigger on purchasing yet, now would be a great chance to join in on all the fun. A new Lite version is also now available.

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Just like Freeverse's recently released Warpgate [$4.99 / $6.99 (HD)], Flick Baseball [$2.99] has had a development cycle that borders on legendary for an iPhone game. We first heard of the game in a guest article by Freeverse developer Mark Andersson, and didn't actually see it in motion until a few months later when we played a very basic (and different looking) build of the game at WWDC. Later, we posted a preview trailer that had such an impact on Baseball fans around here that it seemed to slightly overshadow the release of Gameloft's Derek Jeter Real Baseball that popped up on the App Store in the following weeks.

After our preview from last week, I've spent a considerable amount of time with the game. Essentially, if you're looking for an in-depth 3D baseball simulation game, you're going to need to keep waiting– But if you're like me and prefer sports games that have an arcade feel to them, then you'll enjoy Flick Baseball.

Each of the different actions that make up the baseball game has a mini-game feel to it. Batting works just like Com2Us's Homerun Battle 3D [$4.99 / Free / $4.99 (HD)] where you tilt your device to move around a transparent crosshair of sorts to line up your bat. Tapping the screen swings, and you can advance bases by tapping on them in the corner of the screen.

Pitching is a guessing game of sorts that you play with the AI controlled batter. You select a pitch, then tilt the device to aim where you're going to throw and tap the screen to let it fly. If you choose the same pitch as the AI batter, they get a power bonus if they hit the ball. When your pitching luck runs out and the batter lands a hit, Flick Baseball automatically has your team field the ball. While most fielding is automatic, for fly balls, you contribute by playing a timing-based mini-game where four baseball gloves come flying out of each corner of the screen. In this instance, catching the ball requires you to tap the gloves as they intersect.

Once one of your fielders have the ball, using the same interface as running bases you can tap to throw the ball. While none of these areas of the game feel particularly technical, they are still fun. Also, if you don't like batting (or fielding), you can skip entire innings to only play the portions of the game you enjoy.

Skipped innings are calculated based on the statistics of your players, which serves as a fairly in-depth subsystem that controls the entire game. As you go through a game your pitcher's stamina decreases and it becomes harder to aim your pitches. Each batter's accuracy controls the size of their tilt-controlled hit zone. Many other player stats run the rest of the game.

If you're serious enough about baseball to want to play through entire seasons, you can do that as well, and skip as many games as you'd like just like skipping innings. And if you really get in to the game, you can build entire customized teams where you can tweak, modify, and fiddle around with nearly everything imaginable to create your own team filled with players that have silly names and ugly uniforms.

As I mentioned before, if you're the kind of person who wants a highly detailed in-depth baseball game, Flick Baseball isn't the game for you. Everything in Flick Baseball seems to be optimized for quick pick up and play sessions that focuses more on being fun than overly technical or difficult.

Eventually, Flick Baseball will be available in two flavors: The "Pro" version that is available today, and a free version sponsored by Chevy that is being put together by Small Planet which is still waiting to be approved by Apple. It will retain all the core gameplay elements, but you'll be missing out on things like season mode and team customization.

App Store Link: Flick Baseball Pro, $2.99

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