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Zach Gage's Bit Pilot has gone free for today. The retro-inspired dodging game stands on its own with fast paced gameplay, well implemented touch controls and a great 8-bit soundtrack. The game allows you to control a small ship in an asteroid field using single or dual swipes. Use one thumb for smaller movements, or both for more rapid movements. All the while, your job is to dodge the asteroids and lasers while picking up bonuses.

The swipe/touch controls are very nicely done and responsive. This is game we enjoyed on its release, and should be picked up while it's free.

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One of the most beloved and recognizable classics in the relatively short history of video games is Konami's Frogger. The timeless gameplay of getting your character from point A to point B, while navigating a busy highway and hazardous river, has spawned many variations during the years and is still fun even today. Banzai Rabbit (formerly called Frogman) is the newest game from Revolutionary Concepts, who most recently brought us the excellent port of Karate Champ, and it takes the very basic premise of Frogger and turns it on its ear with new gameplay twists, gorgeous 3D graphics, and a comic book style storyline. The overall experience feels more like an actual evolution of the Frogger series than any of the spinoffs ever have.

The story starts in a lab, where scientists are experimenting with building teleportation pods. During some commotion, test lab rabbit Banzai escapes his cage, leaping into one of the pods (with a stowaway flea coming along for the ride as well). The pod then activates with two scientists inside, one getting fused with Banzai and one getting fused with the flea. The results are rabbit and flea humanoids. After the dust clears from the accident, the enemy now known as The Flea plots world domination and kidnaps beautiful lab assistant Mary Beth. Having strong feelings for her, Banzai plots how to stop him, and thus the story begins. Ok, it's basically the plot from the 1986 film The Fly mashed up with elements of Spiderman, but it works pretty well in setting up the story for Banzai Rabbit.

The game is set across 34 levels in various locations such as city streets and railyards. You must guide Banzai from one side of the level to the other while avoiding the hazards laid out before you. On the other side of the map is a human who has been infected by The Flea, and if you don't make it to them in time then they will turn into a fly. Once you rescue that person, the perspective of the level flips around and you must make it back the way you came to save a human who's now on the opposite side from you. This continues until you've rescued 5 humans per level. Two different powerups can be collected, one that let's you jump over one of the hazards if need be, and one that slows down time for a short period making it easier to maneuver between the obstacles. It all comes together extremely well, taking a classic mechanic and wrapping it around some new ideas and fantastic visuals.

The area where the game falters is in terms of difficulty. More specifically, a brutally hard, teeth clenching difficulty. George Costanza couldn't beat this. The levels start to pick up in pace and complexity about a third of the way through the game. It took countless retries to pass some of these levels, which was bad enough, but at about the midway point of the game I completely hit a wall. There was just no way for me to progress, despite trying over and over. Collecting mutagen orbs spread throughout each level allows you to continue. You start the game with 5 lives, and can earn more through bonus levels and by rescuing humans. It takes 10 mutagen orbs to continue once you lose all lives. I started the level where I got stuck with 60 some odd orbs, and went through them all without blinking an eye. That's at least 30 lives wasted on a level where I didn't even rescue one human. Once you run out of orbs, you must frustratingly start completely over from level one. It's just flat out too difficult. I consider myself a fairly accomplished gamer, and have a fondness for the overly challenging games of the 80's and 90's, but I concede to Banzai Rabbit. He beat me. Some truly hardcore players may love this type of challenge, but I highly doubt normal to casual players will have the fortitude to see the game through.

I realize I'm making a pretty big deal about this, but it's honestly the one thing that can keep me from wholeheartedly recommending Banzai Rabbit. I'm not alone, either, as I've only made it halfway through the game and am sitting comfortably atop the Agon leaderboard. Is halfway really the farthest anyone has made it? It's not always necessary to completely beat a game when reviewing it, but you should at least have a pretty broad understanding of what the game offers. I feel like I'm missing out on a big part of Banzai Rabbit that's awaiting me in the second half of the game, not the least of which is the story (I imagine the hero saves the girl, but I'd like to see it).

Luckily, Revolutionary Concepts has been listening to the feedback in the game's forum thread, and will likely address the difficulty in an update. If you feel up to the challenge, Banzai Rabbit really does have a lot to offer, just don't expect to see all of it any time soon.

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While the Apple A4 processor and higher resolution screen of the iPhone 4 will be fantastic for gamers, what likely will cause the biggest splash in future game development is the addition of the electronic gyroscope buried inside of the device. This additional orientation sensor will likely add a similar dimension to gameplay as the Wii Motion Plus, an addon that also utilizes a gyroscope for incredibly accurate motion tracking.

While on stage during the keynote today, Steve Jobs showed a brief demonstration with a Jenga game that was able to rotate the stack of blocks while utilizing the gyroscope in addition to the accelerometers. When only using the accelerometers like games on today's devices use, rotating the stack of blocks worked, and was fairly precise, but once the gyroscope was enabled the difference was remarkable.

Here is a brief video of the gyroscope portion of the keynote, the quality is mediocre but you can easily see how the phone is able to track Steve's various movements then translate it to the game world:

The game that immediately sticks out to me that would benefit the most from this extra degree of control would be a game like Zen Bound [$2.99 / Free], as I imagine manipulating the objects you wrap could be even easier with yet another degree of control. It's not hard to think of other games that could be enhanced by the extremely precise motion tracking, especially if you've ever used a Wii Motion Plus and have seen just how much the addition of a gyroscope can improve how accurately a game can track your movement.

Like anything on the App Store, it's up to developers to implement these new features. All we can do is wait and see what they come up with once they finally get the device in their hands.

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Earlier this month we posted that Konami announced Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 will be coming to the App Store. Konami has updated their blog on the controls, camera angels and some screenshots that will be featured in PES 2010 for the iPhone.

The first screenshots for Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 for the iPhone and iPod Touch have been revealed and show off the replay feature and in-game layout.

The controls in any game can make or break the user experience, which is why the Konami team is spending a lot of time on the control layout for PES 2010. Of course they have the classic controls with a virtual joystick and virtual buttons on screen, but they have also come up with a new unique iPhone control method called "one-touch". The "one-touch" AI assisted control mode takes advantage of the iPhones capabilities and keeps things simple. No buttons or joysticks on the screen, just the accelerometer and the screen as one giant input zone.

The unique one-touch mode with accelerometer and multi-touch comes with great AI assistance so to ensure the best possible gameplay experience. This is a new way of approaching controls for a football game.

Konami has also been posting in our forums, and answering users' questions about the upcoming game. Of interest, they have said that the licensing of player and team names "will be comparable to the PSP", and that "there are about 100 animations for player and goalkeepers in the game".

With a new intriguing control method, great visuals, and player licensing, Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 is shaping up to be promising soccer game for the iPhone. There is no release date set for the game yet, but last week they were about to enter the beta testing, so hopefully we will get to play PES 2010 sometime this summer.

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Since the iPad's arrival last month, we've joined readers in keeping our ear to the ground in order to get our hands on any great new or retooled games offering specific iPad support that land in the App Store. Such titles that take advantage of the iPad's more powerful processor and feature high resolution graphics befitting the iPad's large display have the potential to deliver a game experience beyond that of the iPhone. Of course, the iPad is quite capable of running all your iPhone games (at standard res or 2x scaled), but generally those titles are better played on their original target device.

Of course, there are exceptions. Certain iPhone shooters are more enjoyable on the iPad — Espgaluda II, for one. And, I find that iPhone Arkanoid clones play a little better on the iPad — Bricks of Camelot, Krypton Egg, and … Arkanoid, for example. But, of all the iPhone games I've played on Apple's multitouch tablet, Steph Thirion's Eliss [App Store] is by far the best fit for the device.

Eliss, IGF Mobile 2009 finalist for Innovation in Mobile Game Design, superbly demonstrates all that multitouch gaming can be.

The universe that Eliss presents is a place of entropy. The game challenges the player–in mind and body–to apply order to this universe. Into this dark void spring planets of varying size and color. Like colored planets can be combined to make a larger planet (pinch) or pulled apart to create smaller planets (spread). The goal of the game is to eliminate the planets by dragging them into the "squeezars" (think black…err…multicolored holes) of matching size and color that blink in and out of the universe. After a set number of planets have been eliminated it's on to the next level. And the most important thing to remember? Don't let planets of different colors touch! Failure to heed that warning will result in a rapid drain of energy levels and a chance to see the Game Over screen. Making the task harder are the space vortexes that draw planets towards them (and one another) as well as a red giant star that meanders its way in and out of the playfield, draining energy on contact with any planet.

As I said in last year's review of the game, I've found myself laying my iPhone flat on a table and struggling to keep the planets away from each other and that cursed, wandering red giant with as many as five fingers on the screen at once. With so much extra space to work with on the iPad, the Twister experience — for fingers as well as for the mind — that is Eliss is even more engaging than on the original target device. What's more, the game's spartan geometric, almost retro visuals actually look better at 2x scale on the iPad's display, in my opinion. This is a game that's not begging for an iPad-specific release.

Anyone that has yet to experience Eliss, on iPhone or iPad, should at least spend some time with the free, lite version [App Store].

App Store Link: Eliss, $4.99, Eliss Lite, Free

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Gurlz VS Robots [App Store] from Vinit Agarwal is an action maze game for the iPad that caught my attention for two reasons. First, its display is retroexquisitely rendered in such a way as to make the blocky, Robotron-like graphics appear to be actually glowing from the convex surface of an oldschool CRT display. To retro fans like me, it's a thing of beauty, impressively done. The second and more important reason the game caught my eye is that it takes advantage of the iPad's large screen to bring a new sort of tabletop, multiplayer game experience to the App Store. It's a two-to-four player affair that can handle a whopping total of 11 touch inputs at the same time, the limit of the iPad's multitouch interface. (It's the first game that's hit this limit, as far as we are aware.)

The game presents several streams of robots filing onto the play area (there are a number of screen configurations to choose from). Each player has their own set of directional tiles that, when dragged into the play area, alter the direction of the marching robots. But, mixed in among the robots, are a number of vengeful "gurlz." The goal of the game is to strategically (and rapidly) place your directional tiles in order to direct as many robots as possible to your own, color-coded escape pod before your time runs out, all the while directing the evil gurlz away from both your robots and escape pod to avoid their attacks. Getting all of this done — and fast — with up to four sets of hands groping your iPad at the same time makes for some pretty chaotic (in the best way) action.

A gameplay video posted by the developer demonstrates the action of four players enjoying the game at a party (though, readers sensitive to a bit of "colorful language" might want to pass).

( 1.8x zoom to show pixel effects )

Gurlz VS Robots would be a great game to break out at a gathering, with frantic, group gameplay that would seem to best the popular Wii party game experience, given the hands-on nature of the iPad's screen. My only gripe with the title is its lack of a one-player mode set against a computer AI opponent. I hope that will come but, really, my wish item stands outside of the author's real goal of this title, which was to deliver a fun, new social gaming experience. And, with Gurlz VS Robots, that goal has been well achieved.

App Store Link: Gurlz VS Robots, $0.99

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We were fortunate to be given hands-on time with Jet Set Games' upcoming game, Highborn; a medieval turn-based strategy game with a blend of the traditional 2D map gameplay and a great looking 3D combat engine. To give some context, Jet Set Games is led by the original creators of the immensely popular Command & Conquer RTS.

Much of Highborn clearly draws inspiration from popular PC titles such as Heroes of Might and Magic. From the very first map Highborn's richly painted levels catch the eye. In fact, all the artwork we saw was exceptionally well drawn, from character designs to unit icons on the combat map– all had a grand cartoon-like style that we've really taken to.

This is true of the combat engine too. When you engage in combat, the screen transitions into a focused battlefield, akin to other popular TBS games such as Rogue Planet. Where Highborn differs is that attack moves are played out in full-3D. These 3D encounters are just as detailed and are terrifically animated; units are brought to life to look just as great as their 2D counterparts. The many different battlefield environments we saw were crafted to the same high standard, too.

The rich world created by Jet Set Games doesn't stop at the visuals though, as each character we encountered in our brief time with the game were larger-than-life and very self-aware. We appreciated the (often very funny) well-written banter between characters and the many instances where dialogue segues right through the fourth wall. It's been a long time since a game made us laugh, but Highborn promises to do just that.

Highborn also promises asynchronous multiplayer via Facebook, where you can send challenges to your friends and play against each other on selected multiplayer maps. We had a chance to test this, and we're pleased to say it works really well. You can even have multiple games going at once, meaning time spent waiting for your friends to move can be kept at a minimum. Thoughtfully, the game icon also displays the number of multiplayer games currently awaiting your attention.

Highborn is shaping up to be an excellent turn-based strategy with a storyline worth caring about. It's a breathe of fresh air to see time and effort devoted to good dialogue writing, and it seems to pay off in what we've seen so far. We're eagerly awaiting Highborn's release (which is still slated as 'Coming Soon' by the developers) to see what more fun Jet Set Games have in store for us.

In the interim, whet your appetites by checking out our video above of the opening mission. Be sure to watch it in HD, as you'll get a better feel for the game by reading the mission dialogue.

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Every now and then a game is released that completely transcends the genre it's made for, elevating its possibilities to all new heights. It doesn't happen often, but when it does it results in something genuinely spectacular. And that is precisely the case with Dinofarm Games and Fusion Reactions's lovingly created 100 Rogues [App Store].

100 Rogues is an arcade-style dungeon crawler/rogue-like loosely based on classics such as our highly rated Sword of Fargoal. We say loosely based, because while it features the typical dungeon crawler elements of near-certain death, randomly generated maps and loot and a foray into the depths of an enemy-riddled pit, 100 Rogues delivers it in a way that makes you feel you are playing something else entirely.

Obviously, at first glance, this can be credited to its utterly gorgeous presentation and visuals. Typical dungeon-crawlers are recognisable by their dogmatic approach to gameplay over graphics, many of which are still ASCII-driven. That is definitely not the case here. To begin, 100 Rogues introduces its heroes — the Crusader and the Fairy Wizard– through two different, tongue-in-cheek cutscenes that reveal a surprising amount of context for each character and a dubious quest to eradicate Satan himself. It sets the mood for a game riddled with comical self-awareness.

This certainly plays second-fiddle though to some of the most incredibly animated 2D caricatures we have seen– period. Both the Crusader and the Fairy Wizard are brought to life by Dinofarm Games and Fusion Reactions, each with their own distinct personality and style. The Crusader is an armor-clad, righteous bastion of good who cuts a swathe through enemy hordes with his cape flicking behind him; standing in stark contrast to the Fairy Wizard, a withdrawn, misunderstood creature of magic that prefers to attack with guile and deception from afar.

It's not all eye-candy though, as 100 Rogues brings to the table 8 unique skills for each character. The Crusader for instance, can call on divine powers, knocking back enemies with his Whack of Glory, or Healing himself if things get rough. Also, in what is quite possibly the coolest and most hilarious ability that I have ever seen, he can call on God Himself, who appears in the form of a giant finger that descends upon the battlefield to smite a foe or heal our Hero in times of need. The Fairy Wizard on the other hand, is far more fragile, but is able to teleport to elude enemies and cast crystal attacks from afar. The Fairy Wizard is also capable of confusing enemies or calling on a giant crystal ball familiar to attack nearby enemies.

Though the skills themselves look great and varied, it is their thoughtful implementation that really makes combat in 100 Rogues something special. This is because many of the skills have a strategic use that once discovered, can really excel your combat ability. For instance, the Fairy Wizard can combine a dagger attack with Teleport (aptly named Telestab), popping up behind an enemy to deliver a lethal backstab, only to teleport away again. The Crusader on the other hand can Overheal, giving himself bonus life above and beyond his normal hit points. And though his Whack of Glory knocks back enemies, if they are against an obstacle already, it delivers a devastating critical attack instead.

These secondary functions are critical to advancing through the gruelling 10 dungeon levels included at release. But they aren't made obvious from playing the standard game, so to lend a hand the developers have included a Challenge Mode to highlight to players some of their uses. There are 10 challenges available at release which have you killing a number of enemies or escaping the level within a set number of moves, usually giving you only few hit points and one crucial ability to complete your task. They're a great way for players to familiarise themselves with the advanced strategies, though we're positive there are more to be found through experimentation.

It's an indication of the breadth of features to cover here that we're only now arriving at how well 100 Rogues handles. Foregoing any on-screen controls, your characters are navigated by tapping in any four directions around them. Similarly, enemies are targeted by simply tapping on them (if a range attack) or running into them by the aforementioned mechanism. Skills are activated by tapping on your character, which in turn reveals a skill palette from which your skill is chosen, and then a suitable target selected. There are two on-screen buttons on the lower left and right of the screen to open your inventory or issue a wait command respectively, and a 4-slot quick-bar for immediate access of items. It's worth noting that the game can only be played in Portrait mode, too.

Items and equipment play a big part in dungeon crawlers, and that's no different here. Players can equip a large assortment of weapons, from swords and axes to wands and bows (to name a few), together with a range of armor types and accessories. 100 Rogues runs the full gamut of item effects and stat bonus' too. What's more, some enemies can only be effective by certain item types– something that will have to be learned quickly by players in order to proceed through the depths. As well as weapons and armor, there are also spell scrolls and buff scrolls that enhance either your health, magic or strength, or can raise the item level of equipment. 100 Rogues also has a countdown of sorts in the form of hunger, forcing you to keep your belly full lest your hunger cause you to waste away– placing a significance on searching for safe meals to consume on your quest.

If hunger doesn't get you, enemies surely will however, as 100 Rogues is true to its origins in that it is challenging and unforgiving, with a vast array of enemies that all require a different approach to defeat. If you make one wrong move, you are dead. If you are unlucky, you are dead. If you don't manage to find food, you are dead. And if none of these kill you, then maybe the large-scale boss encounters found every 5 levels will. These are all grim realities of the dungeon crawler. Fortunately, by way of its versatile skill system and arcade-paced strategic action, 100 Rogues is still a highly accessible adventure. And in case you forget, the game regularly lets you know that death is a certainty, and that fun is to be had in achieving that high score and glorifying your name in the online leaderboards forever.

100 Rogues is as much about exploration as it is about move-by-move action and employing a careful strategy. Game sessions are generally short, but 100 Rogues still saves your game by the move, meaning interruptions are a thing of the past and lengthy game sessions are easily broken down into short bursts. Finally, 100 Rogues is rounded out by a catchy, retro-style, synthesised soundtrack that is of the same calibre as the rest of the game.

100 Rogues is an evident labor of love for the developers, who already have a long list of planned features including at least two additional classes (the Dinoman Bruiser and the Skellyman Scoundrel), 10 brand new levels, an item shop, many more monsters and items, in-dungeon NPCs and an Endless game mode. All considered, 100 Rogues is an effortless recommendation to anyone remotely interested in the genre, being one of the most captivating, refined and rewarding games on the App Store. Heck, we're not even sure we'll ever find Satan's lair, but it certainly won't be for want of trying as 100 Rogues is simply brilliant.

UPDATE 1: A number of forum members in the 100 Rogues thread are experiencing random crashes. We haven't had issues in our play throughs of the game, but the developers are looking in to the cause currently. It may be worth waiting to see what they find out before picking this up if you're concerned.

UPDATE 2: Developer Wes Paugh posted in the comments that the crashes are related to equipping some shields. An update is being submitted immediately to address stability issues.

App Store Link: 100 Rogues, $4.99

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Last Gladiators Ver.2010 is a port of a 1995 pinball game for the Sega Saturn. In a world where there's so many different options to satisfy your pinball needs available on the App Store, some aspects about this release will stick out like sore thumbs. The price, the dated graphics, a lack of features, no online scores… the price. It can be kind of a hard sell on the surface. But make no mistake about it, this is hands down the best pinball gameplay available for your device. If I'm going to be trapped on a desert island with my iPhone and can only have one pinball app, I want it to be Last Gladiators.

Let's get right to the elephant in the room, the cost. The app itself is $4.99, and comes with the Gladiators table. The other three tables that make up the original Saturn game are sold separately as DLC for $4.99 apiece. Yep, $4.99 for each additional table. I know that most of us who were fortunate enough to have grown up during the arcade era have probably spent well more than five bucks playing a good table for a couple of hours. So asking that much for a table you can play infinitely that fits in your pocket doesn't sound unreasonable. In the App Store economy, however, it's equivalent to an arm and a leg. The pricing alone means this game won't be for everybody.

Pricing aside, Last Gladiators does everything right in the gameplay department. It's amazing that with all the different pinball games that have been released on iPhone, none of them have ever quite felt like playing a real life table. This one's different, this one feels right. The physics of the ball and the design of the tables are nearly perfect. I'm not going to go into specific table detail (a video of each one can be seen in the thread in our forums) but all four feature multiball and more rounds and missions than I can even count. The instructions run 30+ pages for each table so you can familiarize yourself with every scoring nook and cranny, and also get an idea of just how much depth is on offer here.

This isn't the most visually impressive pinball game, after all it is 15 years old, but it still manages to have a great look that functions well. The table designs are more akin to the pinball tables of the late 80's and early 90's, rather than the highly complex mechanical behemoths of the later 90's. A neat effect is a scaling ball, so it looks smaller while in the back of the table and quite a bit larger as it's near the flippers. Handy on-screen indicators point you towards active goals, and it's always clear what you're supposed to be doing even for a beginner. There aren't really any iPhone specific features, and as far as ports are concerned this is pretty bare-bones. This is basically the Saturn game reworked with touch screen controls, and that's about it.

If you're a pinball fanatic, and just want the best experience regardless of price, then you owe it to yourself to drop $5 on the initial Gladiators table. It will keep you busy for a long time, and you can always decide to splurge on the extra tables sometime down the line when you're ready for something new.

There's no official lite version available, but you can try Ultra Legend Pinball which is basically the Gladiators table with slightly reworked functionality and Ultraman artwork. I hesitate a bit recommending this, as it's entirely in Japanese and the Ultraman version of the table isn't nearly as good as the original, but at the very least it gives you and idea of what the Last Gladiators tables are like. Whatever your feelings on the pricing of Last Gladiators, it's a stellar game that shouldn't be missed if you're looking for an accurate simulation of pinball.

App Store Link: Last Gladiators Ver.2010, $4.99

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