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Dead Space is like a wicked seesaw that keeps you teetering between states of panic and outright nervousness no matter how predictable the outcome of a scenario is. This is its real voodoo, the magic of the title, which is informed by a sharp, terror-drenched atmosphere influenced by various sci-fi horror works such as “Event Horizon” and “Alien.”

Its setting, plot, and combat feed into this rich atmosphere, making the title feel as if it were a cohesive whole. However, the game’s weakness, the combat, should give you a bit of pause. It’s not hard to recommend Dead Space, especially if you plan to play with the blinds pulled down, but it’s not a good shooter, which carries some weight.

Dead Space is a sequel to the original Dead Space, a console and PC joint created by the folks at EA Visceral. It’s a confusing name at first glance, until you peel the experience back a bit and learn that Dead Space iOS really doesn’t do anything to separate itself from its forerunner. It feels like a one-off experience just so happens to take place before the events of Dead Space 2 on the mining colony “Sprawl.”

You spend all your time on this colony drifting amongst a cluster of stars, completely detached from the rest of civilization. Gorgeous panels and LCD displays sprinkle and contrast the cold, hard steel of the floors and walls of the Sprawl, while the remnants of civilization inform a grim tone and atmosphere.

Things, of course, have gone bad on the colony. Sickly, disjointed aliens are now taking over, slaughtering all in their path. For you, this means you get to see the aftermath — all those pools of crimson, those piles corpses with the missing flesh, and the wrecked lockers, broken glass, and general disarray.

I think what’s most remarkable about the setting is that it’s crafted in a way that all the future stuff feel familiar, yet obviously above and beyond what our civilization can accomplish and build. You can connect with the setting, but you recognize it as alien.

And it’s in solitude that you dwell. Dead Space is really good at making feel both helpless and alone in the face of something much, much larger than yourself. In this specific one, your avatar, code-named “Vandal,” isn’t the chatty type. Your guide — who also doubles as the games’ narrator to some degree — isn’t all that talkative either. Also, your adventure, as a result of an incident, isn’t filled with many people with jawbones intact. Essentially, you live and breath in a world without any living and breathing.

So, you're alone — alone against hordes of aliens, I should add. Unfortunately, combat isn’t good enough. Vandal is essentially a slow meat turret with basic strafing abilities, which makes it hard to be either aggressive or even defensive. Granted, the weaponry in the game is plenty violent; the Plasma Cutter and the god-like drill weapon can put serious hurt on your foes, but you’ll constantly be re-negotiating your position in battle and never quite comfortable with what you’ve chosen.

Combat isn’t this grand ballet where you can skillfully move about enemies, juking and jiving and delivering punishment with the grace and ease of a Kratos. It’s more like a square dance for people with insanely large feet. This wouldn’t be so much of a problem if you could aim and fire with accuracy and quickness, but you can’t do that. The touch implementation of both these mechanics — bringing up the gun and choosing your target — are clunky, leading to a lot of missed shots, missed opportunities and a needless death here and there.

And you’d figure the combat would be grand: the game features a dismemberment mechanic for god sakes that rewards you for shooting off the limbs of aliens. But the accuracy just isn't there, so the pay-offs aren't either. (You also can't aim with tilt or gyrometer, for that matter. There's also no way to invert the Y axis, or any way to customize the controls.)

The kicker for me is that I think the weakness of the combat actually enriches the experience to some degree. It heightens the scares and does the most work in informing the nervousness you’ll feel. I say this because you’re not a Terminator; you can’t just obliterate anything in your path, making you actually fear the next confrontation.

There's a level of immersion in this game as well, due in large part to the game's super limited HUD. Health and bullets, for example, are displayed visually on the character and its respective guns, which makes for a super clean presentation — one in which you control Vandal with invisible dual-analog sticks, which are serviceable, but still not ideal for some of the things the game throws at you in the action department.

Bullets are limited, which is an interesting touch. The lack of ammunition will force you to rethink battle strategies, readjust and lean on the game’s generous upgrade system. With collected nodes and cash, you can refill your guns and make them stronger and faster via Benches and an in-game Store.

To dive into a little bit more of the brick-and-mortar, this is a rigidly linear, scripted game that goes a little something like this: you are to go [there], and the only way you can get to [there] is to find a way to unlock a door, the key in which you'll need just so happens to be tied to a scare or a fight with monsters. And… that’s about it.

Of course, straying from the set path by a few feet will net you goodies, but for the most part, the game doesn’t offer anything outside of its invisible racing line (which, hilariously, you can pull up visibly at any point in case you lose your way).

And while you’ll encounter few instances where something isn’t scripted, there’s still a lot of atmosphere to soak in. The sound design, in particular, is ridiculous good. You’ll hear the patter of aliens in ventilation system, the terrible groans of aliens behind you, and these astoundingly dramatic crescendos that spurt from nowhere, often sparking you back into a state of high alert. Wear headphones if you have them, it's worth it.

The art and visuals are also particularly inspired. The art manages to parallel the grim undertones of the narrative and the visual work is top-notch.

However, I wish there was more "new" in this game. A lot of the assets and elements of the original Dead Space for PC and consoles, including the enemies, the lockers, the weapons, and so on, are reproduced here. I suppose if you haven't had experience previously, though, this isn't a big deal.

Also, The Retina display visuals on the iPhone 4 look tremendous, though I think the control issues on this specific version of the game are made a little worse because of the lack of screen real estate. Your thumb will almost always obscure part of the game. I lean towards preferring the iPad version myself, but you'll get a similar experience no matter what device you play on.

But, I think what’s best about Dead Space isn’t the art and sound despite their impressiveness; what's best is how good this game is at keeping you thinking about what kind of terrible things can happen — that overwhelming sense of dread that you get from the best horror flicks.

In some sections, the game terrorizes you with traditional video game tropes, having you check bodies that you know will spurt to life. In another section, it plays with vertigo, and still in others, it hammers you with sudden conflicts, bouts of nothingness complimented by a roaring firefight, and hallucinations. It's kind of amazing when you consider just how many ways this game tries to screw with you.

Sure, Dead Space is worth a download based on its production values alone. The team has successfully created a very, very dark title bolstered by a rich atmosphere that oozes everything you want out of a solid horror game. And the story isn't so bad, either. As Vandal, you set off a series of events that it must, in turn, stop. It's almost a revenge narrative, though to really dig into it would kinda kill the experience for you.

But, I feel like the weakness of the combat far surpasses its usefulness as a bolster for the scares. The end of the game turns into a series of unintelligible slugfests that will grate on you, especially on higher difficulty levels. It's a bummer that more imaginative situations weren't created for the last hour or so of the game because the rest of it manages to feel so smart.

This isn't the scariest game on the planet, nor is it the best put together. The combat in particular is a black eye. But there's a lot in Dead Space to keep you engaged and there's some points of great design that I think you'll appreciate — especially if you're daring enough to play this on your sofa with the lights off and some great headphones on. Just keep the minor issues in mind and I don’t think you’ll leave the game disappointed. I suppose there’s also the chance EA could go back and implement fixes like sensitivity sliders or even some kind of aim assist system, but we’ll have to wait and see on that.

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Last September, we reviewed Neuroshima Hex [$4.99/Lite], the iOS adaptation of a highly tactical board game that takes place in the Neuroshima role-playing universe. We enjoyed the title a lot for its deep and satisfying strategic gameplay, and about the only negative about Neuroshima Hex we could find was the fairly steep learning curve and lack of very much in-game assistance for helping new players to the game. Since release, a few updates have hit that addressed some of the game’s shortcomings while adding even more new features, with the most recent update coming last Thursday.

After an initial bug fixing update a couple weeks following release, the second update to Neuroshima Hex in November added a ton of usability improvements. An in-game manual could be easily accessed if a part of the ruleset was confusing to you, an undo button let you undo a previous move, and visual displays of unit information and statuses made it much more clear what was happening during play. Another thing that snuck its way into the second update was Retina Display resolution game board graphics, though the rest of the menus and UI remained at regular resolution.

Neuroshima Hex’s third update last week adds in the rest of the Retina Display support for the remaining elements, and the game looks absolutely gorgeous in high resolution. It has also been updated as a universal build, so iPad owners can now run the game at native iPad resolution and with appropriately adjusted UI elements for the larger screen. Most players in our forums had been perfectly happy running Neuroshima Hex in 2x mode thus far, but I’m sure native iPad support is still a welcome addition. Finally, Game Center is now integrated containing online leaderboards and 54 achievements to unlock.

Neuroshima Hex was a really solid effort on release, and over the past several months it just seems to be getting even better with each new update. Currently, developer Big Daddy’s Creation is looking into adding a form of asynchronous online multiplayer, which would really push Neuroshima Hex into the upper levels of iOS board games along with the excellent Carcassonne [$9.99]. New factions and other new features are also being considered for potential updates. Make sure to update your copy of Neuroshima Hex to check out these latest additions, especially if you’re an iPad or a Retina Display device owner.

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Last week indie developer James Gamble released his newest iOS game SpikeDislike [99¢], and I've been enjoying it a lot ever since (while simultaneously beating my head against the desk due to its difficulty). The goal is to move your bouncing ball to the right as far as possible while avoiding an endless series of spiky objects. As the name implies, you dislike these spikes, as hitting just one will instantly end your run. SpikeDislike is a game that is painfully simple to play, incredibly difficult to master, and even harder to put down.

Your ball will bounce automatically at its own pace, and holding down on the screen will advance it to the right. Spikes are set at various heights throughout the level, and each one you successfully jump over (or bounce under) will net you a single point. A gauge at the top will slowly decrease after clearing a spike, and quickly jumping additional spikes before the gauge runs out adds a combo to your score. Play continues in this fashion as you see how high of a score you can rack up before fatally running into one of the spikes.

It's so simple, yet strangely compelling. The single control mechanic works perfectly, so you always have good control of you ball. The difficulty lies in the risk/reward factor of the combo meter. Playing it safe and carefully jumping each spike one by one will ensure you live a long time, but you'll never approach a meaningful score in this fashion. Trying to move at a brisk pace so as to keep your combo going is what this game is all about, and you can reach some pretty insane scores if you manage to keep it up.

SpikeDislike originally launched with just a single game mode, but has already been updated with a lot more options. You can now choose from 3 overall difficulties, as well as 3 different speeds for the movement of your ball. There's the choice of two different paths of spike placements or the option of having them be randomly placed. Each combination of these options has its own high score associated with it, too. Additionally, there are 4 different graphical skins for the game, which are all various types of retro goodness.

SpikeDislike is one of those games that is frustratingly fun. Every time you die you know exactly what you did wrong, and it's both quick and easy to jump in and give it another shot making it hard to quit playing. The number one thing this game is missing is online scores, as it's just tailor-made for such a thing, and hopefully the developer can add Game Center functionality in the future. He is active in our forums taking in any feedback or suggestions, and although it won't be everybody's cup of tea, SpikeDislike is a simple and fun challenge that's worth checking out.

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In late 2008, when App Store gaming was still fairly new, one title that we really liked was RealArcade's Tiki Towers [99¢/Free]. It was a bridge building physics puzzle game that took more than a few cues from World of Goo, but back then World of Goo was not available on iOS and Tiki Towers provided a similar experience that was executed well with cute graphics and clever level designs. Since that time we've seen additional titles in the same vein like Moonlights [$1.99/Lite], Bridge Odyssey [$4.99/Lite], and of course the official port of World of Goo [$4.99] for the iPad.

That hasn't stopped RealArcade from releasing a sequel, however, and more than two years later we now have Tiki Towers 2 [$4.99]. It doesn't stray too far from the formula of the original, and like any good sequel it builds upon its solid gameplay foundation by adding several welcome enhancements. There are 30 brand new levels to tackle in Tiki Towers 2, with a new overworld map system for accessing them. Some levels will have multiple exits which affect what path you take through the overworld.

Each level also tracks how many bamboo sticks you use in making your structure, with a reward for using less than a set amount. This feature was only available in the original after completing the entire game, but is a part of each level right from the beginning here and adds a nice dose of replayability beyond just collecting every banana when completing a level. Tiki Towers 2 also has improved graphics with more detailed environments and Retina Display support, as well as Game Center integration for unlocking 10 achievements.

If you enjoyed the first Tiki Towers, or even any of the previously mentioned similar games, then chances are you will enjoy Tiki Towers 2 as well. It isn't too different from the first game but the few improvements it does have fit into the original gameplay well, and it really is a lot of fun building precarious structures for your little monkeys to cross. One thing to note is that it does come in at a higher price than the original, but includes universal support for the iPad. There's a discussion thread with further impressions in our forums, and Tiki Towers 2 is a solid choice if you're looking for a fun new physics puzzler.

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Sega's Virtua Fighter series literally spawned the 3D fighting genre back in the early 90s. It has also been one of the most well-received and successful fighting game franchises of all time, spawning numerous sequels, alternate versions, and spinoffs over the past two decades. That's what makes tonight's release of Virtua Fighter 2 [$1.99] on the App Store so disappointing – it's not the highly refined arcade sequel to the groundbreaking Virtua Fighter, but rather its severely gimped Genesis version running in Sega's iOS Genesis emulator.

I have mixed feelings towards the iOS Genesis games. Some of the titles they choose to bring to the App Store turn out pretty good, and remain highly fun and playable even after many years have passed. Some, though, are completely ill-suited to a touch screen platform, and merely serve to scratch my nostalgia itch when needed. The Genesis version of Virtua Fighter 2 is neither of these.

Since the 16-bit Genesis was incapable of doing a 3D fighting game, Sega created a 2D version of Virtua Fighter 2 for its popular home console to take advantage of the huge popularity of the Virtua Fighter series in arcades. It only slightly resembles its arcade counterpart, and honestly it wasn't even that good of a 2D fighter when it released 15 years ago. It completely baffles me that Sega would opt to bring such a poor example of one of its strongest brands to iOS rather than the excellent arcade version, or at least the Sega Saturn version, both of which should be totally possible with the iOS hardware.

This is a random YouTube video of the Genesis version, just so there's no mistaking what the gameplay is like if you're curious about picking up the game:

Chances are there are some folks out there who never knew the beauty that was the Virtua Fighter series in arcades, but had Virtua Fighter 2 on their Genesis and played the snot out of it back in the day. To those people you will be happy to know you can now carry that experience around in your pocket, running fairly smoothly inside of Sega's no-frills emulator. There's even a nifty Bluetooth local multiplayer mode for you. Unfortunately I am not one of those people, and in fact, I don't even know anybody who is. The forum discussion has echoed a similar disappointment to my own, and I can only hope that someday we will see a proper version of a Virtua Fighter game on the App Store.

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Ahoy, Catan [$4.99 / HD] for iPod Touch and iPhone owners! Man the poop decks, tow in the anchor, and put on your eye-patch. Catan has just went 2.0 with the “Seafarers Expansion,” an in-game download that adds two new Catan variants and 16 new scenarios within a new, sea-themed campaign. The price? $3.99.

That name should sound familiar to board game enthusiasts. To get specific, the Seafarers expansion adds ships, which are basically over-water roads.  Hilariously, pirates — another new concept in this expansion — can steal from these ships. Gold rivers (which give you a mineral of your own choice per adjacent city) and extra victory point tiles are also part of the package.

Other than the whole "new content" thing, the coolest part of this expansion is that you can test it out without ponying up the dough — USM has also released a “Lite” version of which includes “The 4 Islands” scenario (of the sixteen) and the two additional game variants.

This delicious game of Catan is brought to us by Deviant Art user Luluriel!

We weren’t too crazy about Catan back when it was released, but this kind of support is always awesome — especially for the people who really love the game being targeted for extra content drops. Hopefully, this’ll give the Carcassonne [$9.99] team a little bit jumpstart. I am more than eager to get my ‘sonne on with some Rivers content or something.

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Angry Birds [$.99 / HD / Lite]. You have it. Your mom has it. And your big brother, even though he’s kind of a jerkwad, has enough heart in his chest to love it. In fact, over 50 million people have downloaded the physics-based puzzle game, so maybe that’s why none of us have been too surprised by the rumblings of an Angry Birds TV series or flick. The IP is, let say, popular.

But rumblings no more! Rovio Mobile CEO Mikael Hed recently sat down for a chat with C21media and confirmed that the Rovio has moved forward with plans to put out an Angry Birds show, though he wasn’t specific about what medium. It could be a web series, a flash series or, God bless ‘em, even a major TV production.

"It was a completely new area for us; we had to get our bearings there, and a sense of how the whole market was,” Hed said. In 2010, Rovio was reportedly shopping around the IP to Hollywood and whatnot, apparently in an attempt to see what people wanted.

Image via The-Bambookazee's brilliant deviantart page.

"That was the first part of the exercise, and now that we've done that, the next part is to move into production, and that's where we are right now.”

The popular opinion among blogs is that the Angry Birds show will be a cartoon, and yeah, that would make sense — but Hed apparently doesn’t flat-out confirm to C21 the form the show will take (puppets please!). He also doesn’t mention when we would see "Angry Birds The Show," which is unfortunate because I’ve just spent the last hour deleting episodes of “The Vampire Diaries”  to clear recording space on my DVR just in case Rovio takes Angry Birds to the TV. Now what am I going to watch!? Huh!?

[Via the NY Post and Finger Gaming]

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A few days ago developer Owlchemy Labs (comprised of the guys who made Super Ramen BROTHers [Free] in 24 hours) released a new video for Smuggle Truck, the first game under their new studio moniker. Smuggle Truck is a 2D side-scrolling physics-based driving game where the object is to reach the finish line of each level while hanging on to as much of your cargo as possible. In this case the “cargo” is actually people who are prone to flying out of the truck bed as you go speeding over the terrain.

Development of Smuggle Truck began back in August of last year as a quick weekend project for an entry into a game jam-style contest. The developers have spent the last two months fleshing out the game, and recently it underwent a complete graphical transformation after the two-man team of Owlchemy happened upon a collaboration opportunity with former LucasArts artist Bill Tiller, whose cartoonish style you may recognize from The Curse of Monkey Island and other LucasArts titles. Smuggle Truck looked alright before, but it looks really fantastic now with the redone art. Have a look at this early teaser trailer for the game:

One interesting aspect about Smuggle Truck is the inclusion of a level editor, which is essentially the same editor the developers have used to create the levels in the game. They have recorded a brief video showing a work in progress version of this level editor in action, in anticipation of a level creation contest they plan on holding in mid-February. Smuggle Truck won't be releasing until March, but Owlchemy will be dropping the level editor before then and anybody will be able to create levels on their computers and submit them as part of the contest. The grand prize will be a character with your likeness added into the final version of the game as one of the people in the back of the truck.

You can keep tabs on the upcoming contest by checking out the Owlchemy website or Facebook page, and the developers have been dropping new information in our forums as well. With a silly premise and great looking artwork, we'll be keeping our eye on Smuggle Truck as it nears its March release on iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and the web.

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Early last month we posted our exclusive preview of Manomio's much anticipated iAmiga emulation system that will shortly be used to bring a list of old school Amiga classics to the iPhone and iPad. In the time since that post, developer and CEO Stuart Carnie has provided us with a number of new builds of the iAmiga development test system which have each brought various fixes and improvements to the environment.

I wanted to list some of the changes that we've seen in these recent builds, for readers who are waiting anxiously for iAmiga to do its thing in the App Store.

• Basic iPad support now working (display appropriately scales to the device's screen)
• TV-out is now supported on Retina display devices and iPad. Hot plug / unplug handed gracefully.
• New mouse control system implemented — greatly enhances the feel of mouse-based titles (behaves nearly identically to a trackpad, now)
• CPU is more stable
  • Shadow of the Beast no longer crashes
  • IK+ no longer exhibits graphics glitches during intro
  • CPU tracing system implemented, able to generate gigabytes of log data for issue tracking, at need
• Audio now pauses properly when switching between Game / Settings tab (no looping)

Carnie has also shared with us a list of near-term "to do's" that we can look forward to, shortly:

• Finish integrating the CRT effects OpenGL ES engine (using GLSL shaders). List includes: No effect, 50% scanlines, aperture 1×2 RB and aperture 1×3 RB
• Aspect ratio selection (full screen, 4:3, whole pixel)
• Save / Resume support
• Defender of the Crown cabinet shell and graphics

It's been loads of fun testing out a slew of Amiga games on the iPhone with these new builds, and I can't wait for everyone out there to get the chance to enjoy so many Amiga classics, delivered through Manomio's emulation system. We'll bring more news from the studio as iAmiga development continues.

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Children of the 80s arcade era get ready, the classic laserdisc arcade game Road Blaster [99¢] has hit the App Store. Developer Revolutionary Concepts, who have experience bringing classic arcade titles to iOS with the likes of Cobra Command [$1.99] and Karate Champ [$1.99/Lite/HD], have given this iteration of Road Blaster a shiny new makeover from its 1985 arcade counterpart. It features remastered FMV sequences that are optimized for Retina Displays, a choice of two different redrawn in-game dashboard consoles, a new soundtrack and plenty of new sound effects, and optimizations over the original.

Road Blaster follows a campy story of revenge (not totally unlike many action movies from the 80s) where you are out to get justice against an evil biker gang who murdered your wife. You'll hop into your modified sports car and go after these heartless thugs across 9 different levels, with the option of 3 difficulty settings. Operate your vehicle using a virtual steering wheel or the brand new tilt controls. Here's a video showing Road Blaster being played on an iPhone:

An iPad version of Road Blaster is also in the works, although a firm release date hasn't been set yet. Owners of older devices should know that the developers have optimized the game to run well across all models of iPhone and iPod touch. Also, Game Center is integrated for leaderboard and achievement tracking. As a special promotion, Road Blaster is launching at just 99¢ for the first week. Impressions are rolling into our forums, and we'll take a closer look at this title after we've had a chance to pump some quarters into it.

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