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You may remember nearly a year ago when perpetually busy developer Crescent Moon Games announced a new title by the name of Ultra Kid: Mystery of the Mutants. It was a platforming game with a combination of 2.5D and fully 3D gameplay, set in a colorful and cartoonish 3D world with the cute space boy Ultra Kid as its main character. A couple of months later, late last June, we got a peek at the first teaser video for Ultra Kid, and it looked really promising.

About this same time, Crescent Moon had taken on the massive cosmetic overhaul of Aralon: Sword and Shadow [$9.99], and due to that project taking up most of their focus Ultra Kid: Mystery of the Mutants got put on the back burner. Unfortunately, we haven’t heard much about him since then, despite the upcoming thread in our forums still receiving a fair bit of interest.

Then yesterday, Ultra Kid was resurrected, but not quite in the way you might think. Crescent Moon announced a brand new game, Ultra Kid Sprint, which is an endless running style game using the same graphics and set in the same universe as Ultra Kid: Mystery of the Mutants.

With the glut of endless running games already on the App Store, Ultra Kid Sprint hopes to differentiate itself a bit from the pack. First of all, it is comprised of fully 3D graphics and looks fantastic. It also utilizes a dynamic camera that will zoom in and out during play, and is offset slightly behind the character giving a pretty unique perspective to the game. Also, levels will feature multiple elevations and different paths to take, and are chock full of enemies to dispatch and power ups to collect. At one point, Ultra Kid will even be able to transform into a moon buggy to take out enemies.

You can get a quick taste of the gameplay in Ultra Kid Sprint in the following teaser trailer:

Ultra Kid Sprint should have approximately 6 endless levels to play, and Crescent Moon is hoping to have the game out sometime next month. As for Mystery of the Mutants, it’s still in development and should see the light of day at some point, though no firm time frame for release has been committed to. In the meantime, Ultra Kid Sprint is looking pretty cool, and may just be an interesting new take on the endless runner formula. There’s currently a discussion in our forums for Ultra Kid Sprint, and we’ll have more from this title in the coming weeks.

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The popular “irreverent trivia” game You Don’t Know Jack is now available on the App Store for your iPhone/iPod touch [$2.99/Lite] or iPad [$4.99/Lite]. The series began back in 1995 on PC and has since seen a multitude of iterations across computers, game consoles, the web, physical board games, and even a short lived television show. The iOS version of You Don’t Know Jack is based on the 2011 franchise reboot that hit major gaming consoles earlier this year.

If you’re familiar with that version then you’ll be instantly familiar with the game on iOS, and aside from a few missing features and no multiplayer mode it’s a very competent mobile version of the console game. Even if you’re completely unfamiliar with the series, You Don’t Know Jack is a fun and intellectual trivia game mixed with silly pop culture references and humor.

Unlike previous games in the series that presented a random selection of questions, this version of You Don’t Know Jack contains 20 different episodes each filled with 10 questions in a predetermined order. The first 5 questions in an episode are considered Round 1 and are worth face value. The next 5 are Round 2 and are worth double the points. After the 10 questions are completed, Round 3 consists of a special Jack Attack game before giving you your final score for the episode.

The majority of the questions in an episode are multiple choice with 1 correct answer and 3 that are incorrect, and the game has no problem using clever word play or trick questions in an effort to throw you off. You’re given 20 seconds to pick an answer and are awarded cash based on how quickly you answer correctly, with a similar amount deducted for a wrong answer. There is no penalty for not answering at all.

During each episode, one of the questions takes the form of a “DisOrDat”, where you’re given 7 titles or phrases and must determine which of 2 completely different categories they belong in. For example, in one episode you’re given 7 fancy sounding names and are asked to determine whether each one is the name of a luxury sports car or the name of a cajun cuisine. There’s 30 seconds to complete all 7, where right answers earn you cash and wrong answers take some away, and any extra time on the clock gives you bonus money.

The final round of an episode consists of a Jack Attack. It starts by giving you a common theme for the round, then presents a word or phrase in the middle of the screen while other phrases zoom by above and below it. Your job is to tap the word or phrase that relates to the one in the middle as it zooms by. This round rewards you with huge payouts for correct answers as well as penalizes you heavily for wrong ones, and can really make or break your final score for an episode.

So up to this point, You Don’t Know Jack is a fairly typical trivia game, albeit with pretty cleverly written questions. What really makes it stand out though is the excellent presentation. The “host” of the game Cookie Masterson, who has appeared in many of the previous games, has a great personality and makes a ton of hilarious (and often crude) jokes as well as pokes fun at you when you get a question wrong. There’s also some silly intro animations for every question and a few other funny surprises, but the running dialogue from Cookie is what really makes the game what it is. This isn’t a game you’ll want to play with the sound off, as you’d be missing out on 90% of the enjoyment.

The 20 included episodes are far less than the console versions, and due to their linear nature there’s not really much reason to replay them multiple times, but the developer seems keen on adding additional episodes and features in updates. There’s also Game Center integration for unlocking achievements and tracking your scores for the initial play through of an episode, which adds a bit of replay value to the game. Hopefully multiplayer can be added at some point too, since playing trivia with friends is when a game like this is at its best, though it’s still a really fun solo experience.

If you’re already a fan of You Don’t Know Jack, then chances are you bought and downloaded the iOS version the second you heard about it, and for the most part I think you’ll be satisfied. It features completely new questions from the console versions and is surprisingly up to date with its references to current events, with questions involving Charlie Sheen, Liz Taylor, and everybody's favorite pop star Rebecca Black. If you aren’t really familiar with the series but like trivia games, there’s a lite version with 2 full episodes to check out first to see if it’s up your alley. Players in our forums have been digging this one quite a bit, and for irreverent trivia on the go You Don’t Know Jack is a solid pick up.

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The iOS equivalent of video game crack, Game Dev Story [$3.99/Lite], unexpectedly took the App Store world by storm last fall when it released. This quirky simulation game let you build your very own video game company, releasing titles of your choosing for a wide selection of consoles along a timeline that is strikingly similar to the actual history of video games for the past few decades. Chances are you know all this already, as Game Dev Story has earned accolades from seemingly every corner of the internet, including our own glowing review from last October.

Today Game Dev Story received a new update that adds Game Center leaderboards and achievements to the game. There are now online leaderboards for total game sales, total console sales, total capital for the 20 year span of the normal game, and additional leaderboards that track game sales for every single console in the game. The leaderboards are already chock full of some absolutely insane scores, but it’s still pretty fun to see where you stack up in the various areas of the game.

There’s also 32 Game Center achievements to earn which are based on various milestones and special feats in the game. While Game Dev Story already did a stellar job of waving a carrot in front of your face leading you to the next in-game goal, it’s pretty cool to be able to earn some Game Center points and have a nice variety of special things to shoot for. If you’ve already got Game Dev Story, go mash away at your app update button and get in on the Game Center fun, and if you have yet to see what all the fuss is about there is a lite version for you to try.

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Consider this a small bit of news for a huge shooter on the App Store. As of now, you can begin downloading a brand new map pack in Modern Combat 2: Black Pegasus [$6.99 / HD / Free], an FPS that takes a lot of its cues from Modern Warfare.

The pack, which weighs in at $1.99 via in-App purchase, will give you a total of three maps. As you’d figure, none are particularly inspired, but with names like The “Shanty Town,” the “Bunker,” and the “Battlefield,” I find it hard to believe the crowd eating these up at the moment care about the by-the-books approach taken here.

And, hey, even if you don’t buy the maps, the update that brings about this new IAP gives you a little something-something. According to the App’s page, this update sees that every player gets ten additional multiplayer ranking levels, a “perfect” multiplayer experience, and “better protection” against hackers. Wait, a perfect experience? I can’t wait to jump back in!

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There has been an awful lot of action on Chillingo's YouTube channel lately, and I'm stoked as hell to play Dream Track Nation. Not a whole lot of details are available yet aside from the trailer, a few screenshots on the game's web site and a vague release date in our forums. Currently they're shooting for the game to be "on the App Store for E3."

Check out the trailer:

I love these kinds of 2D physics-based games, as evident by my unnatural love for JellyCar [Free] (and the rest of the JellyCar series) and I really dig any game that includes online level editing and sharing since it seems to enhance replay value so much. It's hard to say what to make of the release date, as E3 isn't coming until June 7th. Hopefully we won't have to wait that long.

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We've been shoveling heaps of praise on Death Rally [$2.99] lately between our glowing review and the announcement of the recent update. Well, the update is out now and along with it comes a price drop to $2.99. I've still got my fingers (and toes) crossed for some kind of online multiplayer eventually, but a new car, new weapons, and the new game mode included in this update is a great start.

Death Rally is a remake of the classic topdown racer with the same title. Made by Remedy, the creators of Max Payne and Alan Wake, on top of being universal Death Rally is also one of the few games out there right now that is fully optimized for the iPad 2. With a steady stream of updates on the way, one already dropped, and a recent sale, there's really no reason to not grab this game.

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It was all the way back in September of 2010 that we first got wind of Race After 1977 [$4.99] which at the time was "nearing release." Of course things never go as planned, and after many months of delays later, the game if currently live on the App Store. Included is 10 tracks which spread across 5 environments with 9 cars to race. Unlocking all of this content involves competing in tournaments, and placing well.

Xpect Games spent so long on this game tweaking their home-grown game engine to provide the exact kind of crazy physics that you can find in Race After 1977. Jumps are everywhere, crashes are plentiful, and like any arcade racer, you'll almost always be drifting while turning. Check out the launch trailer:

A lite version is planned as well as an iPad version which will be enhanced for the iPad 2. Initial impressions on our forums seem positive, but odd framerate drops and the strange arcade racer style physics have left us not liking it as much as we thought we would.

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If you've got an iPad you've likely at least dabbled in the various magazines available on the App Store. The Daily [Free] made the biggest splash with its launch, but there are a number of other iPad-formatted magazines ranging all the way from Popular Science [Free] to Elle [Free]. But, what if you don't particularly care about world events, science, or fashion and you're looking for something that focuses entirely on video games? Well, Area 5 has answered the call with the just-launched Atomix Mag [Free].

Issues are attractively priced at 99¢ each, with subscription options coming in the future. I've been enjoying the first issue, as it really feels like consuming this kind of content in this fashion is one of the things the iPad is amazing for. It really feels like the future too. If I showed this to my 1988 self sitting on the toilet reading Nintendo Power, to say my mind would be blown would be an understatement.

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Does the name Timo Vihola ring a bell? If you're a card carrying member of the cult of Minigore [99¢ / HD] you're surely familiar, otherwise, he's the artist and co-creator responsible for the Minigore phenomenon as well as a game designer for the recently released Death Rally [$4.99]. In its day, Minigore had an absolutely ridiculous amount of tie-ins with playable characters from other similarly popular games, so it's not much of a surprise to find that John Gore himself is making an appearance in the below video showing off impending Death Rally update.

All of the features of this new update are detailed in our forums, but it basically amounts to a new car, two new weapons, a new challenge mode, as well as oodles of tweaks and bug fixes.

The update is currently "in review" and Timo is expecting it to drop at any moment. Also, the second update for the game is on the verge of being completed, and it sounds like it will be submitted as soon as this one is approved. Death Rally is a fantastic game, is universal, and is one of the few iPad 2 optimized titles out there. For more information check out our review. I've got nothing but good things to say about Death Rally, especially with developers committing to these kinds of update cycles. Actually, I do have one complaint. They included TUAW's Mike Schramm as a playable character with the game's launch, where's the TouchArcade love?!

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Early this morning Atari released perhaps the most significant single retro gaming application yet to appear in the App Store. Atari's Greatest Hits [link] is a free Universal application for the iPhone and iPad that comes bundled with their first game ever, the 1972 classic Pong. And, while the games-for-free situation ends there, the fun certainly doesn't — not by a long shot.

By way of in-app purchases, Atari's Greatest Hits can deliver to your iOS device up to 99 more games from the historical studio's back catalog, a mix of both arcade and (then) cartridge-based VCS / 2600 releases that you just might've grown up with. These games can be had in four-title game packs available at $0.99 each, as well as in a 68MB lump download of the entire library for $14.99. (The path you take here will reveal to you just how much of a bull geek retro gamer you are, so choose wisely.)

One hundred vintage Atari games for fifteen bucks. It's quite a proposition. But, what are we talking about here?

I'm tempted to say "pardon the awkwardly long list," here, but I suppose this game's unwieldy list of titles is a rather high-class problem.

• Asteroid Pack
  • 1. Asteroid
  • 2. Asteroid Deluxe
  • 3. Asteroids 2600
  • 4. Canyon Bomber – Bluetooth Multiplayer
• Battlezone Pack
  • 1. Battlezone
  • 2. Red Baron
  • 3. Air-Sea Battle – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER
  • 4. Submarine Commander
• Centipede Pack
  • 1. Centipede
  • 2. Millipede
  • 3. Centipede 2600
  • 4. Millipede 2600
• Black Widow Pack
  • 1. Black Widow
  • 2. Space Duel – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER
  • 3. Desert Falcon
  • 4. Space War
• Crystal Castles Pack
  • 1. Crystal Castles
  • 2. Crystal Castls 2600
  • 3. Surround – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER
  • 4. Maze Craze
• Gravitar Pack
  • 1. Gravitar
  • 2. Gravitar 2600
  • 3. Radar Lock
  • 4. Demons to Diamonds – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER
• Star Raiders Pack
  • 1. Star Raiders
  • 2. Liberator
  • 3. Star Ship – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER
  • 4. Human Cannonball
• Missile Command Pack
  • 1. Missile Command
  • 2. Missile Command 2600
  • 3. Fun with Numbers
  • 4. Flag Capture – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER
• Lunar Lader Pack
  • 1. Lunar Lander
  • 2. Sky diver – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER
  • 3. Video Pinball
  • 4. Code Breaker
• Super Breakout Pack
  • 1. Super Breakout
  • 2. Breakout – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER
  • 3. Off – the – Wall
  • 4. Circus Atari – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER
• Tempest Pack
  • 1. Tempest – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER
  • 2. Tempest 2600 – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER
  • 3. Outlaw
  • 4. Atari Video Cube
• Majar Havoc Pack
  • 1. Major Havoc
  • 2. Secret Quest
  • 3. Sentinel
  • 4. Yars Revenge – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER
• Warlords Pack
  • 1. Warlords – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER
  • 2. Warlords 2600
  • 3. Combat – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER
  • 4. Combat 2 – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER
• Adventure Pack
  • 1. Adventure
  • 2. Haunted House
  • 3. Return to Haunted House
  • 4. Save Mary
• Tic-Tac-Toe Pack
  • 1. 3d Tic-Tac-Toe
  • 2. A game of concentration
  • 3. Backgammon
  • 4. Brain Games
• Fatal Run Pack
  • 1. Fatal Run
  • 2. Dodge ‘Em
  • 3. Night Driver
  • 4. Street Racer – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER
• Quadrun Pack
  • 1. Quadrun
  • 2. Slot Racers – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER
  • 3. Stellar Track
  • 4. Math Gran Prix
• Casino Pack
  • 1. Casino – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER
  • 2. Slot Machine
  • 3. Video Checkers
  • 4. Video Chess
• Sword Quest Pack
  • 1. Swordquest Earthworld
  • 2. Swordquest Fireworld
  • 3. Swordquest Waterworld
  • 4. Sprintmaster
• Championship Soccer Pack
  • 1. Championship Soccer – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER
  • 2. Golf
  • 3. Double Dunk
  • 4. Basketball
• Football Pack
  • 1. Football – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER
  • 2. Home Run
  • 3. Miniature Golf
  • 4. Bowling
• Real Sports Basketball Pack
  • 1. Realsports Basketball – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER
  • 2. Realsports Boxing – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER
  • 3. Realsports Tennis – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER
  • 4. Realsports Baseball – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER
• Real Sports Football Pack
  • 1. Realsports Football – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER
  • 2. Realsports Soccer – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER
  • 3. Realsports Vollyball – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER
  • 4. Video Olympics – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER
• Battlezone Pack
  • 1. Battlezone 2600
  • 2. Super Breakout 2600
  • 3. Super Baseball
  • 4. Super Football
• Hangman Pack
  • 1. Hangman
  • 2. Black Jack
  • 3. Steeplechase

The stars of this collection are the arcade titles, certainly. And there are some amazing games in here — Tempest, Major Havoc, Asteroids, Centipede, Missile Command, and Battlezone, among others. Many of these titles were originally vectorscope games, where the screen draws the images laser light show style, as opposed to in terms of scanlines and pixels. These games translate amazingly well to the iPhone 4's Retina display which renders them at over 300 dpi, with antialiasing to boot. But, then, the iPad's larger physical display is quite a boon for these titles, as well.

The arcade titles may be the stars of the show, but the bulk of the games in attendance are from the Atari VCS / 2600. And here, too, there are some awesome ones — Yar's Revenge, Battlezone 2600, Adventure, Star Raiders, and Combat, among the rest. But there are also some titles you probably didn't save your last dime to bring home from the game shop in decades past. Like Basic Math. But, hey, many of these oddball titles bring enough character to the table to be forgiven. These are titles from the very genesis of videogaming, after all.

A media gallery full of original cabinet art, manual scans, and various other bits of memorabilia accompany each game on the list. The arcade titles feature a settings menu that allows a certain degree of game customization. Settings on the VCS titles are handled by way of the (virtual) metal switches on the front of the console, of course.

Ok, so enough about the list — how are the controls? On this front, I am genuinely impressed with the iOS treatment Atari has given these titles, though it's not quite perfection they've wrought.

Games like Asteroids feature, not the awkward directional stick + thrust button, but a directional control that delivers thrust in the using. That's a huge design win. The trackball swipe control for Missile Command, Centipede, and the like has a nice sense of momentum and works quite well, with a surprisingly convincing feel. Battlezone features two sets of up and down buttons that do a solid job of standing in for the arcade cabinet's dual sticks, but they're not as lovely as Vector Tanks' dual slider approach. And, games that were originally paddle-based feature a single slider across two different presentations, which work just fine. But, I do wish that there was a sensitivity adjustment for the last as, to me, they could be just a little tighter. The weakest controls come with a number of the VCS titles, where the familiar 4-way D-pad has been used. What can I say — this has never the ideal route in an iOS title.

So, we're talking about a solid collection of games and a respectable set of controls. Thumbs up, right? Well, let's not forget to factor in the fact that many of these titles (see the unwieldy list) have been enhanced to allow local multiplayer gaming via Bluetooth. Read: Atari classics older than most of you reading this, finally getting the multiplayer treatment. Plus, we expect these titles to support the iCade retro gaming cabinet coming in June from Ion and Atari. Somebody pinch me — I must be dreaming!

Atari's Greatest Hits is absolutely one of the very best buys in the App Store. It will appeal to the oldschool gamer that calls pixellation his or her friend — obviously — but, really, this is also a historical treasure trove that the young gamer of today might just find surprisingly fun, while also delivering a worthwhile familiarity with titles that influenced basically everything we see in gaming today.

In short, I cannot recommend Atari's Greatest Hits highly enough. It is truly a collection not to be missed. Hats off, Atari — a most impressive offering.

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