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The original Zombieville USA [$1.99 / Lite] hit very early in the life of the App Store and was one of the many initial indie success stories that helped to spur the whole iOS development gold rush. Heck, it wasn’t even called iOS back then. Since then, Mika Mobile has gone on to release OMG Pirates! [$1.99] and the absolutely fabulous Battleheart [$2.99]. In fact, if you haven’t played or heard of Battleheart, you really need to take a time out and our review of it.

Anyway, Zombieville USA 2 [99¢] seems to be a great sequel so far in every way. It takes the formula from the original, adds tons of unlockable content, full Game Center integration, iCloud support for cross-device syncing… And best yet, co-op multiplayer either locally via Bluetooth or online via WiFi.

We’re going to give the game a thorough once over in our upcoming review, but our initial impressions are remarkably positive, folks on the forums like it, and the developer is already talking about tweaks for the first update.

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A couple of weeks ago, we sat down with Semi Secret Software’s Adam Saltsman. One of the many topics we covered in the conversation was, of all things, Wurdle [$1.99]. It’s another word game but it’s remarkable because it was one of the first big word game productions to hit the now-word-game cluttered App Store. After assaulting us with his thoughts about developing this initial title, he also dropped that a new update was in the works — an update that would bring Wurdle into this era of the App Store. That update is now available. PSI Rockin'.

In a nutshell, version 3.0 of Wurdle is a catch-up upgrade. The game now boasts new retina display artwork and Univeral app functionality. More importantly, Game Center multiplayer has been added, as well as same-screen multiplayer for the iPad variant. You can also set time limits, look up word definitions, and even pass-and-play locally on both versions.

The kicker here is that it’s still $1.99, which is a pretty solid price for a good game with a crazy legacy and, obviously, the support of its developer. Check it out if you’re in the mood for some word hijinks or just like looking at pretty retina artwork.

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While out at WWDC 2011, I sat down with Limbic Software and Hidden Elephant to have a look at an upcoming game developed in conjunction with Digital Cavemen. Zombie Gunship is, I believe, the most promising title of the aerial zombie shooter genre. Ok, and maybe also the only member of that genre. But, I'm happy it will soon be out there, because sniping zombies from on high is a pretty sweet experience.

The game puts you in control of the turrets of a Lockheed AC-130 heavily-armored ground attack gunship. But, it's not merely enemy troops you're trying to wipe out. It's zombies. Hordes of zombies. And gigantic, hard-to-kill boss zombies. (It's grizzly.)

Your mission is to defend an allied army bunker at Cheyenne Mountain from the encroaching armies of the dead while, at the same time, keeping the unholy beasts from ravenously consuming a number of scattered and highly unfortunate ground troops caught outside said bunker — all from the belly of a soaring death machine. You have several types of ordnance with which to rain destruction upon the zombies, and the ability to zoom in for a surgical shot that can save a troop from an in-progress zombie attack.

It's an endless experience — the zombies just won't stop. The longer you fend off the horde, the higher your score. But, eventually, a zombie is going to get into the bunker or you'll inadvertently kill more than two humans with your fire, and that's when the story ends.

Zombie Gunship features Game Center integration, and an update to come will bring more types of zombies, more weapons, and more locales. Limbic recently partnered with a new art studio and a new sounds team that was responsible for the Gears of War audio effects. Zombie Gunship showcases these new talents nicely. The game should be available for download within the next two weeks. Price has not been announced.

I wanted to share a related anecdote that underscores the value of WWDC to iOS and Mac OS X developers everywhere. On my first night at WWDC Arash Keshmirian, CEO of Limbic, gave me a quick demo of the game, which definitely piqued my interest. Our actual sit-down with the AC-130 crew took place late in the week, on Thursday. Between my first glimpse of the game and our scheduled meeting, the developers were able to implement code optimizations with help from Apple engineers that allowed for three times as many zombies to wander the battlefield as before. And this is just one of many such WWDC success stories I've heard from developers we're close to. A valuable week, indeed.

While we were gathered, we also spent some time with Nuts! [App Store], Limbic's new climb-and-dodge title that launched on May 23rd and jumped high in the paid rankings shortly thereafter. The game challenges you, a squirrel, to make it as high as possible up a frustratingly branchy tree in an effort to gain ranking on the leaderboards. There are several different tree environments or stats (normal, icy, ashy, etc.). It's a fun little title that kept me well entertained on the late-night flight back home.

A Nuts! update coming this month will bring additional story and characters, with more environments coming later.

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This weekend has seen a few notable App Store discounts. Here's a quick roundup of the stand-outs.

Ozone — $2.99 → Free, Ozone HD — $4.99 → Free [ review ]

Geardome is offering both the iPhone and iPad versions of Ozone [iPhone, iPad], their clever game of precision problem solving, at no cost for a limited time.

Ozone puts you in control of an inflatable ball that can be moved about various maze-like levels by way of touch-directed bursts of air. The goal is to collect all of the yellow orbs strewn about each of the game's more than 50 pseudo-3D levels in order to exit each maze. But there's more in each level than just yellow orbs. You must negotiate a wide variety of obstacles and enemies in order to make your way through each level. There are, among other things, moving traps, doors to unlock, weapons to collect and use, spikes to avoid, and end-bosses to contend with. A steel ball power-up renders your ball impervious to damage and able to plow through certain walls for a short period. Some pathways require you to deflate your ball in order to fit through, and then it's fingers-crossed that an air pump is just around the corner, because when you're out of air, you're out of luck. And those bursts of air that move you hither and yon — they're not freebies; each burst lowers your air level just a bit.

We reviewed Ozone a year ago and just loved it. I still consider it one of the most engrossing iOS games out there. Don't miss your chance to grab it for free.

Game Dev Story — $3.99 → $0.99 [ review ]

Kairosoft has dropped the price of their excellent Game Dev Story [App Store] in honor of their follow-up title, Hot Springs Story [App Store], which was released in late February.

In Game Dev Story you'll play the president of a fledgling game development company as you direct your crew of designers, artists, and coders in an effort to create a string of successful video games over a 20 year time period. Beyond just making games, you'll need to grow your own brand name by running a game convention booth, attending awards shows, advertising, and managing an ever-changing fan base. As your company expands, you'll have the opportunity to move into larger offices and hire a bigger team of employees, all of whom can be leveled up and trained (at the expense of  higher salaries) so as to create better games. If you really become a big company, and have employees with the right skill sets, you can even create your own console and compete with the well established big boys in the hardware game.

Tapper World Tour — $1.99 → $0.99, Tapper World Tour HD — $2.99 → $1.99 [ review ]

In celebration of a major expansion pack on the way, Warner Bros. has dropped the price of Tapper World Tour [iPhone, iPad] for a limited time.

Tapper World Tour is a remake of the 1983 arcade game Tapper that preserves the fast-paced action of the original while enhancing it and wrapping the entire package in the wonderful art of legendary animator Don Bluth.

Tapper World Tour has you playing as the quick-on-his-feet bartender Sam from the original game, or his equally capable daughter Nikki. Gameplay involves manning several bar counters at once and serving drinks to the patrons whom are slowly approaching the end of each bar. Dishing out drinks sends these folks back down the bar from which they came, and a level is complete when all patrons have been served and cleared out.

The game takes place across 11 different cities in 3 different countries, each with their own unique drinking establishments and customers. The game just oozes all sorts of personality, and it’s hard not to just sit back and enjoy what’s happening on the screen during play. If you were a fan of the original Tapper games or if you enjoy a good fast-paced arcade experience, then Tapper World Tour will satisfy.

Operation Wow — $0.99 → Free, Operation Wow HD — $1.99 → Free [ review ]

If you remember shoveling quarters into Taito's Operation Wolf back when you were a kid, you'll probably want to grab Ivanovich Games' loving tribute to the classic, Operation Wow [iPhone, iPad], while it's a freebie for a limited time.

Operation Wow has been lovingly crafted in the vein of Operation Wolf. The graphics have been drawn by hand giving it a cartoonish look, and the thin storyline of the original has been axed, but everything else about Operation Wowwill tickle your nostalgia bone if you were a fan of its inspiration. The 6 stages in the game follow the same themes as the arcade game, and there are similar enemy soldiers and vehicles like armored tanks and helicopters firing at you from just about every direction. Gameplay involves simply tapping to shoot, but Operation Wow takes advantage of multitouch allowing you to shoot up to 10 bullets simultaneously.

Operation Wow really succeeds at being a loving tribute to fans of the original game, but even if you’re unfamiliar with Operation Wolf it’s still a pretty solid arcade game in its own right.

Sam & Max Episode 1: The Penal Zone for iPad — $6.99 → $0.99

Inspired by Steve Purcell's comic series Sam & Max, Lucas Arts in 1993 released the SCUMM-based adventure Sam & Max Hit the Road to much critical acclaim. Sequels followed and the odd, starring duo gathered something of a cult following. Those in the cult may want to take a look at Telltale Games' take on the digital duo for the iPad, Sam & Max Episode 1: The Penal Zone [App Store] while it sits at such a major discount.

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Yesterday, Sony officially entered the tablet market by unveiling two new tablet devices for release this Fall. As everybody and their mother are rushing into the tablet market to compete with Apple’s iPad after its unprecedented success, it’s not surprising to see one of the largest electronic makers in the world throw their hat into the ring.

What is surprising to me, however, is the decidedly different approaches each of Sony’s new tablets are taking compared to the rest of the crowd. And from a gamer’s perspective, the fact that both tablets are powered by Tegra 2 chips and will be the first tablets to officially be “PlayStation Certified” is definitely intriguing.

The first of Sony’s tablets, currently being called the S1, carries a 9.4” screen that’s only slightly smaller than the iPad’s. Unlike the iPad and most other similar tablets, the S1 features a tapered design that’s thicker at the top and gets skinnier towards the bottom, which Sony claims is more comfortable and is “like holding a magazine”.

Their second tablet, the S2, is a much more radical design and isn’t much like a tablet at all actually. It’s a clamshell design similar to a Nintendo 3DS, with 5.5” screens on both the upper and lower halves. The screens can work in unison to display content or can work independently to perform two different functions, like having game controls on the lower screen while showing the actual gameplay on the top, just like the 3DS.

Each tablet will run on Android 3.0 Honeycomb which is a special version of Android specifically designed for tablets. They will be able to do most of the types of things you would expect tablets to do involving accessing media and the internet, but what interests me the most is how these new devices will factor in regards to gaming.

As stated, both tablets are PlayStation Certified which means they will include support for the PlayStation Suite service which we reported on back in January. The PlayStation Suite allows PlayStation Certified Android devices to run a library of PlayStation 1 titles, and was first implemented into Sony’s own Experia Play phone which is largely known as the “PlayStation Phone”.

We speculated at the time that PlayStation Suite was announced that it would be possible the service could eventually come to iOS, and Sony executive Kaz Hirai further affirmed this possibility by stating that they have a “completely open stance” as to which devices and carriers the service may end up on.

Despite this, however, I don’t suspect we’ll ever see the PlayStation Suite come to iOS. First of all are the hurdles we outlined in our article on the subject, namely the fact that Sony would need to give the OK to whatever comes to the PSS service on top of Apple’s already strict approval process, and the need to have devices running PSS be PlayStation Certified, which Apple would most likely have a problem with.

Beyond this though, Sony’s new devices are not only aimed at the consumer tablet market at large but are also specifically aimed at the mobile gaming market with their emphasis on being able to run games and being PlayStation Certified. It’s obvious that Sony wants a piece of the mobile gaming pie that is currently being dominated by the iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, and 3DS. To offer a flagship service like the PlayStation Suite to one of their biggest competitors would seem like an odd move to say the least. Although, Sony has been known to make some odd moves in the past, so I guess anything is possible.

At any rate, these new devices are pretty interesting, and it will be fun to see how this all plays out over the course of this year and next. Let’s not forget that Sony’s new PSP is on the horizon as well, which throws yet another wrinkle into this matter. If one thing’s for certain, there’s never been a better time to be a mobile gamer as the mobile gaming scene continues to expand and evolve at an incredible pace.

[Via Gizmodo and Wall Street Journal]

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One of the more interesting bits of development drama to come out of last year was when Mobile1Up went rogue and decided to port Lemmings to iOS. Sure, it was undoubtedly doomed from the start but it was still incredibly entertaining watching them liveblog the whole process as they ported over their entirely remade Palm OS version of the game. The liveblog mentioned is still online, and still worth reading (start from the bottom) if you're even vaguely interested in what's involved in porting an old game to iOS.

It wasn't much of a surprise that the Lemmings project was served with a cease and desist order from Sony, who is sitting on a number of forgotten retro IP's similar to Lemmings. Regardless, there are two universal constants in the world of gaming: Haters are gonna hate and lawyers are gonna… lawyer? So with the unofficial Lemmings port officially shut down, the developers decided to turn their existing completely rebuilt version of Lemmings into something that's just barely different enough to legally be in the clear.

Enter Caveman [$1.99] and its associated Caveman HD [$3.99]. It's Lemmings right down to its core, except without the actual Lemmings themselves. Given the circumstances, I would have opted for something a little more funny than cavemen, like lawyers, but I suppose it's in Mobile1Up's best interest to not push the issue much further.

It's great to see the whole Lemmings port project reaching a conclusion. If you've been looking for an authentic Lemmings experience but don't mind a bit of a reskin, make sure to give Cavemen a try.

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Surely by now everyone who reads TouchArcade should be familiar with lite versions of apps. Love 'em or hate 'em, until the advent of in-app purchase an entirely separate version of a game was the only way developers had to allow users to try their (often limited or restricted in some way) apps for free. With the release of iOS 3.0 developers now have the ability to use IAP as a means of offering a single app which is then paid for via an "unlock" of sorts. However, lite versions still remain remarkably prevalent.

We don't normally review lite versions of games, but this one is so confusing that I felt that it needed to be highlighted. Split Rail, developers of the game Face Mirror [Free] recently released Flash Lite 4 [99¢], apparently the lite version of Flash 4 which we're thinking is a yet to be released game based on the Fantastic 4, or possibly even the comic book character The Flash. Releasing a lite version before the full paid version of a game isn't unheard of, as Team Phobic did it with great success with Bounce On 2 [$3.99 / Lite].

Not much positive can be said about Flash Lite 4 other than the fact that it sports some ridiculously crisp Retina Display graphics. Once you load up the game, you're greeted with the Flash Lite 4 title screen that only seems to include a single slider switch which can be toggled on and off using a familiar swiping gesture.

Other than that, Flash Lite 4 is completely devoid of all gameplay. There isn't any story to speak of, no power-ups, unlocks, or achievements. In fact, I'd go as far as to say this is the absolute worst lite version of a game I've ever played in that it neither includes any taste of what the full version of the game is all about, but the developers also have the audacity to charge 99¢ for it.

Needless to say, I recommend steering clear of Flash Lite 4. Oddly enough, playing the game does have a somewhat unexpected side effect in that when you toggle the switch the LED on the iPhone 4 turns on and off, which has been surprisingly handy for finding my way around in the dark. Regardless, gameplay totally falls flat. Don't waste your time with this one.

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We're back again turning the valve of the ol' rumour spigot to quench our undying thirst for all things secret. This week we've got an overflowing goblet of rumors straight from our most trusted industry insiders planted deep inside the world of iOS. Our first rumour comes courtesy of an unexpected agent we randomly found working the front lines of Apple retail at the Apple Store Friendly Center in Greensboro, NC. While casually wandering around the Apple Store looking to buy an iPod nano, we were approached and asked if we needed any help.

Naturally, we spotted our opening and went in for the kill, juicing the agent for every drop of rumour imaginable. When interrogated regarding the upcoming iPhone, we learned that Apple does in fact release new iPhones every year, confirming our suspicions that an iPhone 5 is in the works. Also, while we were unable to delve in to raw specifics, we confirmed that the device will likely be faster, potentially get better battery life, and even might have additional storage.

In other rumours, we've received direct confirmation from a Gameloft beta tester that the French mobile gaming giant plans to release additional iOS titles. Digging for more specifics we've learned that these future titles spread the gamut of first person shooters, third person action games, and even racing games. When pressed for further details we discovered that these games will not only include Gameloft Live, but also will be controlled using a variety of on-screen controls and even tilt.

Stay tuned for additional rumors.

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You may remember last October when a little app called iDOS snuck its way into the App Store. Every once in a while the review team at Apple falls asleep at the wheel and approves an app that probably shouldn't be allowed in the App Store. iDOS was one of those apps. It was a version of the DOSbox emulator that let you run DOS on your iOS device and load up all sorts of crazy old PC software.

Ah yes, I remember the iDOS day well. It was so much fun watching our article on iDOS constantly getting updated with whatever new feat of magic was discovered by the eager members in our forums. Many classic PC games ran incredibly well in iDOS, with full keyboard and mouse support, and the coup de grace was actually installing Microsoft Windows 3.0 on an iPad and playing the classic version of Solitaire included with it.

Like all good things though, the iDOS phenomenon quickly came to an end, and the app was removed from the App Store almost as suddenly as it appeared. Being able to load and run entire outside programs from within the iDOS app is a big no no according to Apple, and the thousands of people who had downloaded iDOS quickly backed up the app to their hard drives for safekeeping.

Then last night, iDOS surprisingly showed its face again in the App Store. In order to get it through the approval process, developer FAST Intelligence closed up the iTunes file sharing rabbit hole that was the gateway to loading whatever DOS programs you wanted, but has added some other nice functionality to try and compensate.

There are now 6 legal shareware games preloaded in iDOS which can be downloaded for free from the new “iDOS Store” within the app. The games can then be launched easily by selecting them from your collection, and no knowledge of DOS commands is necessary to get them going. For those that want to though, there is still access to the full DOS prompt for launching games.

Other additions include a full virtual joystick/d-pad and buttons rather than just a virtual keyboard, the ability to play on the iPhone/iPod touch in portrait mode just like the iPad, and Bluetooth keyboard support for text-based games. The virtual gamepad is actually really good, and makes playing games like Wolfenstein 3D a whole lot more enjoyable.

While it is pretty disappointing that you won't be able to go nuts running programs using the new iDOS, it's actually a pretty solid little emulator and still fun to play around with. Word on the street is that jailbroken devices can still load whatever games they want into this new version using file managing programs, but that doesn't seem very exciting to me since iDOS has been available as DosPad in the jailbreak App Store Cydia for a long time now, and offers that same functionality.

These screenshots show the new portrait mode gamepad controls for the iPad (left) and the iPhone (right). Click either image to enlarge.

If you missed out on iDOS the first time, it's still worth checking out this new version despite its limitations, especially as it's now free to download. Be warned though – if you have the original version of iDOS in your iTunes library, this new version is actually an update that will replace that one, so it's suggested that you back up the original app before downloading version 2.0. There's a brand new thread in our forums for discussing this rereleased version of iDOS, and hopefully this time Apple will let it stick around for longer than one day.

App Store Link: iDOS, Free (Universal)

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