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Miffed that EA made Mirror's Edge free for everyone but Americans? Well, here is a whole bundle of freebies that everyone can get in on. Like always, these freebies are all limited time promotions. Everything was free when I posted this, but with the volatile nature of the App Store, they could return to their regular price at any time. If you're interested in any of these games, it's probably best to snag them ASAP.

Some of these games may seem a little old for veterans of App Store gaming, but if you just picked up an iPod touch or iPhone for Christmas, these are all worth downloading:

Death Worm, Free – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Super Mega Worm [99¢] seems to really have stolen Death Worm's thunder by releasing first, even though Death Worm is actually a official version of the original game, developed in conjunction with its creator. If you've skipped Death Worm because you already owned Super Mega Worm, give this game a try and see which you like better.

DrawRace, Free – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – This is a really cool game, and old enough that it's likely that recent iPhone owners might not even know about it. The premise of the game involves drawing around a race track with your finger, the faster you draw, the faster your car goes. Similarly, to slow down, you slow your finger down. Your car then races on the path that you made for it. Very cool stuff that was highly innovative when it was first released.

:Shift:, Free – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – This puzzle game was originally a free Flash game that was also a bunch of fun. Basically, you're able to shift the world around, which turns white objects black and vice versa. Doing this allows you to run and jump on top of what was open air, and solving puzzles often requires many shifts to get to the exit. This game is a little old, but it's still a bunch of fun.

Vector Tanks (Classic Version), Free – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – A gloriously retro re-imagination of the classic game Battlezone. If you like this version of the game, Vector Tanks Extreme is totally worth a buck as it comes with even more content, universal compatibility and Retina Display graphics.

Fallen EP-1, Free – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – I actually had stumbled across this game while looking for something unrelated for our year end posts, and it's still a really cool survival horror game. Unfortunately, it's still version 1.0 so the issue with the game allowing you to save in game-breaking places are still there, and even more unfortunate, a second episode was never released. Still, this is a short fun game that will make you sad that the series seems to have been abandoned.

Rogue Runner, Free – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – While Fallen has seen no developer support, Rogue Runner has seen tons. What started as a fairly basic running game now has tons of different levels, characters, and more. If you like endless running games, this is one you need to snag.

This is just a small selection of what's available for free, for a full listing check out AppShopper or download the free AppShopper app.

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In 2009, our game of the year was Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor [99¢ / HD], a title that perfectly embodied what we loved about iPhone gaming. After weeks of deliberation, lists, email chains, and IM conversations we've settled on the official TouchArcade iPhone game of the year for 2010: Venan Entertainment's Space Miner: Space Ore Bust [$1.99 / Lite / HD].

In our review we called it "one of the best games [we've] played since the App Store went live over a year and a half ago." Looking back on the game releases of 2010 trying to pick what we thought was the best lead to us continually coming back to Space Miner. We loved the classic Asteroids-style gameplay, the clever storytelling, and the degree of customization that kept us coming back for more through multiple play throughs. Depending on how you load your ship out, the game plays much differently. For instance, you can be a glass cannon prioritizing asteroid-pulverizing guns, or take a more slow and steady approach prioritizing shields and cargo space for huge hauls of ore.

Space Miner HD is great on the iPad, and we also really enjoyed Space Miner Blast [Free], a game based on Space Miner with much of the depth of the original game stripped out to instead focus on quick arcade-style gameplay. Also, the original Space Miner has been updated to include some really great looking Retina Display graphics. If you played through the game when it was originally released earlier this year, we hope this serves as a good reminder to reinstall this game and enjoy it again. If this is the first you've heard of Space Miner, it is a game that simply must be part of your game library.

Runner Up: Carcassonne

The Coding Monkeys have two Apple Design Awards under their belt for their two Mac programs, SubEthaEdit and BoinxTV. Taking this in to account, it's no surprise at all that the overall design and presentation of Carcassonne [$9.99] could not possibly be better. Based on the classic board game of the same name, Carcassonne is without a doubt the best adaptation of any board game that we've seen on the App Store. Instead of implementing unnecessary 3D graphics like EA has with their Hasbro classics, The Coding Monkeys focused on how the game plays.

Carcassonne starts with a fantastic completely voiced over tutorial to guide new players in to the game, and game modes that allow you to either play in massive single player games with many types of AI players or a number of different multiplayer modes. These modes include single device hot seat multiplayer, local Bluetooth or WiFi, and even online asynchronous play utilizing push alerts. Honestly, the only thing we could even ask for is that they eventually implement the various Carcassonne expansions as in-app purchase. We've be all over that.

If you've had Carcassonne on your device since it was released, be sure to swing by the thread where people are still looking for others to play with. Otherwise, it recently saw an update which added universal compatibility, making this game a must-have for both iPhone and iPad owners.

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Rovio has put us in an interesting predicament with our end of the year coverage. It's impossible to not somehow mention Angry Birds [99¢ / Lite / HD], but strictly speaking, it is a game released in 2009. December 10th, 2009, to be exact. The game's appearance on the App Store was without much fanfare, as it was (and still is) published under Chillingo's Clickgamer brand. Established in late May of 2009, Clickgamer is Chillingo's secondary brand to offload casual titles and other games they wouldn't label as an "AAA title" like iDracula [99¢], and other top games of the time.

From the original press release:

“This moves allows Chillingo to focus the Chillingo brand on AAA titles, and at the same time allow us to leverage our marketing resources to promote clickgamer.com to support the publishing of high quality titles across various genres in the App Store” said Joe Wee, Director and co-founder of Chillingo.

Chillingo's decision to relegate Angry Birds to the Clickgamer brand seems to be a clear indication that they had few expectations of the game which has since become their flagship title, and likely played a major role as a bargaining chip when EA acquired Chillingo for $20m. Looking back at the original thread on our forums and our own review, Angry Birds was unanimously loved, but many mentioned there "only" being 63 levels and the lack of any kind of online leaderboards as things that detracted from the game.

Obviously, Rovio didn't give up on Angry Birds, they stuck to their guns and released a constant stream of updates through 2010. Angry Birds charted in one way or another since its release, but it wasn't until late February that it got a foothold on the top of the charts– A position it's more or less held on to since then. A HD iPad version later appeared, as did a new self-published seasonal game, Angry Birds Seasons [99¢ / HD] which has enjoyed similar success.

Graph courtesy of AppAnnie

Rovio has basically rewritten the definition of success both on the App Store and in the world of Android. Earlier this month they announced that they've reached 50 million downloads, and in a recent interview with Tech n' Marketing mentioned that over 80% of people keep the game installed. Some other amazing statistics are mentioned in the same interview. 200 million minutes of Angry Birds is played every day which compares favorably to basically every other form of visual entertainment including primetime television.

Next year Rovio has plans to bring Angry Birds to home consoles, and in a interview with the BBC, they even confirmed a sequel was in the works. While Rovio remains guarded with their exact plans for 2011, the fact remains: With a pool of millions of Angry Birds fans, anything they release will likely also rocket to the top of the charts.

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We'd like to extend our thanks to TouchArcade forum user Crex who worked tirelessly over the holidays to put together an epic thread. Originally asking everyone to list their top games of 2010, Crex went through and compiled the top ten games in to a poll which closed last night.

Epic Games' Infinity Blade [$5.99] put up a fight, but in the end, the unofficial TouchArcade Forums Game Of The Year award goes to Crescent Moons' ambitious and expansive open-world RPG Aralon: Sword and Shadow HD [$6.99] for the iPhone and iPad.

Aralon grabbed the award with 22.8 percent of our user votes in the unofficial message board poll. Infinity Blade came in second with 20.15 percent, while Real Racing 2 [$9.99] was third with 14.6 percent.

In our review, we noted that Aralon is unlike any other experience you'll have on the iOS so far. In brief, the game is wicked big and boasts tons of customization, quests, and areas of interest. Solid character movement, helpful quest logs, and the game's combat are just some of its other positive features that our forum readers have come to love.

Aralon is Galoobeth Games joint, but back in May, Crescent Moon stepped in and gave the RPG a well-document makeover, helping generate even more interest in our upcoming games thread, as it reached more views than any other thread in TA forums history. Now that it's out, the threads on Aralon continue to grow.

Crescent Moon is still working on Aralon, by the way, and our message board is undoubtedly proving vital. The studio is implementing forum suggestions and is obviously dedicated to listening to what you guys have to say. Keep it up! Also, congrats to Aralon and Crescent Moon!

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