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Much to our surprise, non-Retina games and apps on the new iPad aren’t anywhere near as terrible looking at the difference between Retina and non-Retina games and apps on the iPhone. Regardless, it’s still really nice to play games that take full advantage of the over three million pixels of that beautiful screen.

Four great games recently had updates land to boost them into higher-than-HD-land:

• Carcassonne [ $9.99 ] – Review – A practically flawless iOS board game.
• League of Evil 2 [ $1.99 ] – Review – A Super Meat Boy-like sequel.
• Ticket to Ride [ $6.99 (HD)] – Review – Another great board game port.
• Zombie Highway [ $0.99 ] – Review – A slick survival driving game.

So, either mash that “Update All” button if you’ve got these games on your new iPad, or check out some of the above reviews. You really can’t go wrong with any or all of these games.

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Back in 2009, Com2uS released Homerun Battle [Free / Free ], which was known as “Baseball Slugger” at the time. We loved it in our review, as it was among the very first iPhone games that featured really slick and seamless realtime multiplayer. Gameplay in a nutshell amounted to getting thrown into a random match with another real person to compete in a home run derby. It was really hard to put down because you could see what your opponent doing in a little picture-in-picture window in the corner of your screen, which only encouraged you to try harder when you see them blast a ball out of the park.

Com2uS followed up Homerun Battle with the sequel Homerun Battle 2 [$0.99 / Free ]. We had a love/hate relationship with the game in our review. We loved the improvements over the original, but hated the insane IAP implementation which was one of the more blatant pay-to-win schemes we’ve seen on the App Store.

Thankfully, Com2uS has listened to player feedback and went back to the drawing board with the balancing of the game. As an established player, it’s a little hard for me to get a feel for how equipment scales as I’ve already got some pretty great gear on my dude. But, if the IAP model Com2uS used previously scared you off, give the game a try again. I’d be very interested in hearing how people feel the power and unlock curve is now. Also, for a limited time the price of the premium version has been lowered to 99¢.

Aside from balance tweaks, the latest update also adds a bunch of new equipment to work towards and a Hell-themed stadium.

In other Com2uS news, they’ve also just released a new free to play game, Magic Tree [ Free ]. When I tried the game it gave me a Frontierville-like vibe, but it comes packed with 3D almost Animal Crossing-ish visuals. Check out the trailer:

So, consider downloading that if it seems interesting. More importantly though, give Homerun Battle 2 another shot. Game balance and IAP was a major point of contention on our forums. If you were one of those people miffed by this game originally, it’s worth a second look now.

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A lot of studios are turning to the casual market to expand their base and diversify portfolios speckled in viscera and splatters of crimson. League of Evil studio Ravenous Games is doing just that with its side-scrolling puzzle game Burger Cat. The result is unique: Ravenous is undoubtedly delivering something that feels like a Ravenous joint, but it’s appropriate for our little ones and game-challenged family members.

It accomplishes this by removing the barrier of entry, while maintaining the vibe and the high-level production we expect from a Ravenous product. In the game, you play as a cat on a quest to find hamburgers. Functionally, this adventures boils down to a bunch of instanced quests where you, as a maestro of landscaping, have to alter the 2D world the cat inhabits in order to get him to a burger. The movement is automatic, but your ability to add and remove blocks of land or introduce an item that changes the way the cat interacts with its world is manual.

For example, in the game’s first level, you’ll need to add a block of land to the corner of a hill so the cat can scramble up the hill as if it were a stairway. In the next, you actually build a similar stairway with three blocks of land, two of which will need to be stacked on top of each other. As the game progresses, you’ll get much more imaginative items: a mouse that re-directs the cat’s attention, a spring that rockets the cat into the air, a pick-axe that removes pieces of the environment, and so on. Actual obstacles that add repercussions, like spinning cogs with blades, are added steadily. The items you’ll receive have a hard cap in each level, and I had the most fun really playing with what I could do with the least amount of stuff, though creating conga lines of items has its simple pleasures, too. In fact, Burger Cat seems to encourage experimentation, as it often gives you way too much.

It’s a different game from the folks who made League of Evil, but it feels similar from a production standpoint. The art is bright and bubbly like the new visuals in League of Evil 2, and the animation work is on par. Music, on the other hand, is exceedingly epic. It almost rewards you before you do anything. Excuse me, but I want my Ode To Joy when I get my hamburger, and not before.

If this looks familiar by the way, it’s because it existed on Flash before. Burger Cat is a new-look port of a WobblyWare title you can play for free right now. In this shot of the original below, take note of how smooth this new iteration looks: no more grids, a less clumsy UI, and less mess in general.

“We updated the graphics to be more cartoony and made some design changes to make another one of our polished iOS releases,” Ravenous told TouchArcade. “The game just felt more suited to touch screen controls and has a lot of potential with the casual market.” And it does play exceedingly better. This game is a breeze to control with your fingers. I’ve zero complaints with what I’ve played so far.

And that’s the thing: we haven’t seen everything Burger Cat has to offer, so stay tuned as we obtain a final build and deliver our final thoughts. My gut says, though, that this is something we’ll be pretty happy with, even though we’re not its market. Look for this to hit April 12 across iPhone and iPad.

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As more and more third-party controllers enter the mobile market, the wicked small base that wants something physical in their hands as they play games becomes steadily more fractured. It’s through this lens that we view the latest controller to catch our all-seeing eye, the Bladepad. It’s an NES-like controller with an admittedly cool hook: it’s thin, slide-out design theoretically makes it possible for you to carry around the phone with the controller firmly attached. Other products, including ION’s upcoming PSP-alike shell, obviously don’t embrace portability like this does.

How it works is explained on its web site:

Bladepad’s case fits around your phone and a razor-thin gamepad slides out from beneath the case. The gamepad can also be removed from the case for enhanced mobility and convenience.

No word on when this will be released, or if it’s even actually in some sort of production phase. The page does mention that the company behind Bladepad is actively looking for developers to support the device, so get ready for some weird splintering or a lackluster show of support upon release.

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This week on The TouchArcade Show, we have to force ourselves out of discussions about WrestleMania and other stupid junk in order to bring you the latest, hottest, and best in iOS. At the top, we dive into several new releases: Hunters 2, Ow My Balls XL, and Motoheroz take center stage. Later, we discuss what Baldur’s Gate for iPad means to us, and we even dabble on the ever interesting subject of why AAA publishers don’t seem to care about the App Store, and why we don’t bug them about it.

There’s much, much more, so feel free to listen if we’ve tickled your interest. You can do so via the handy-dandy links just below, or hey, subscribe to us on iTunes or Zune. We’ll love you forever if you do the latter.

iTunes Link: The TouchArcade Show
Zune Marketplace: TouchArcade.com Podcasts
RSS Feed: The TouchArcade Show
Direct Link: TouchArcadeShow-045.mp3, 42.7MB

… And here are your show notes:

GAMES

• Hunters 2 [$4.99]
• Ow My Balls XL [Free]
• Motoheroz [$.99 / HD]

JARED’S KITTY KORNER

• Kitten Sanctuary [$.99 / Lite]

JARED’S KITTY KORNER REDUX

• Drop a Cat [ Free ]

FRONT PAGE

• Sega To Release ‘PSO’ On iOS… Kinda
• Rovio Gobbles Up Futuremark Games Studio
• ‘Baldur’s Gate for iPad’ Hitting Every iPad and Maybe iPhone, Too
• ‘Dark Meadow’ Free-To-Play Finally Hits

This week’s episode Was Sponsored By Stamp Art Fever.

Stamp Art Fever, Free Stamp Art Fever by independent developer Francesco Chessari is a unique strategy game in the App Store. In the game, you are an art-stamp collector, building your virtual stamp collection by searching over 700 exclusively-designed stamps.

In Stamp Art Fever your objective is to acquire and collect artistic stamps, build up and manage your collection gallery, and trade and compete against other players from all over the world for the most valuable collection. It is not a game just for stamp lovers – if you have a collector mindset and you love art and management games, Stamp Art Fever will strike an immediate chord with you.

Stamp Art Fever for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad is available now in the App Store for FREE.

IMPORTANT EDITORIAL NOTE: Eli will be going to Medieval Times on Saturday, not Sunday. We are sorry for any confusion this mix up may have caused.

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Way back in the summer of 2010 (wow, where does the time go?), I was very pleasantly surprised with Oyatsukai’s Final Freeway [Free], an homage to Sega’s classic OutRun arcade racer. You could tell straightaway that there was plenty of love put into Final Freeway by somebody who absolutely adored the source material, and unsurprisingly this love translated into fun gameplay for those craving an on-the-go OutRun-alike.

While we praised Final Freeway in our review, it was missing a couple of core components that make an OutRun game, well, OutRunny. First was a lack of branching paths when you reached the end of a track segment, which normally would allow you to choose your own path to the end of the race. Instead Final Freeway was just a straight shot through its 6 environments.

The second big thing that was missing was the ability to crash and flip your ride. Sure, this is just a visual thing that doesn’t really affect gameplay, but it can’t truly feel like an OutRun game unless you can barrel into a tree at 160mph, flip your vehicle through the air several times while the passengers are ejected, and have both the car and the people come out completely unscathed. Also, where was the pretty blonde riding shotgun? Maybe she was there, but since the car wasn’t a convertible in Final Freeway, I’ll never know for sure (these things matter).

So there you have it, Final Freeway was an awesome OutRun clone with a few minor flaws. Fast forward to earlier this month, and Oyatsukai has taken all the feedback from the original Final Freeway and put it into the sequel, Final Freeway 2R [99¢], which truly is the OutRun game we’ve been waiting for. All the things we felt were missing from the first game? Those are in Final Freeway 2R, and it even does a couple of neat new things that really differentiates itself from OutRun while still retaining the feel of that series.

The first big thing in Final Freeway 2R is that there are now 13 different environments to race through in total. Each complete game has you racing through 5 of them, with a branching path at the end of each that lets you pick which route to take. It’s super OutRunny! Also, the graphics look a lot better this time around, with more detailed sprite work and a greater draw distance. The sense of speed in Final Freeway 2R is just ridiculous, and puts most other racers to shame. All the while it runs at a rock-solid framerate.

Of course, you can also now flip your ride in Final Freeway 2R, which as I’ve explained is incredibly crucial to the experience. You get a convertible faux Ferrari this time too, so you can actually see your blonde lady friend sitting in the passenger seat. In a cool twist over the original, you can now choose from 3 different drivers in Final Freeway 2R, each with their own set of stats. One of these drivers actually is the blonde cutie, and when you pick her one of the other fellas ends up riding shotgun. Equality!

One other interesting change from OutRun is now you actually have a rival of sorts shadowing you through each environment as you race towards the end goal. If you manage to reach the end of a track segment before he does you’ll get an additional bonus. It’s not integral to the overall experience, but it does add a nice bit of extra motivation to actually have an opponent to race against rather than merely trying to beat the clock.

Overall, Final Freeway 2R is a huge improvement over the original, and I just can’t believe how hooked I’ve been on it since it came out. It’s just pure, simplistic, fast-paced, arcade racing fun. If you’re not really an original OutRun fan but are curious if this sort of gameplay is your thing, then for today only you can grab the first Final Freeway for free to see how it grabs you. If you like that, then just know that Final Freeway 2R improves on everything from the first and will set you back just a buck.

TouchArcade Rating:

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The App Store is a great place to find seedy Minecraft apps. It’s also the best place to find the official Minecraft companion app. Studio 57Digital LLC’s Minecraft Explorer [$.99 / Free] now has the support of Mojang, which makes it a much more stomach-able buy. You can do a lot of awesome stuff with this, by the way, as it functions like an Internet wiki. From the app, you can browse all of the game’s item, enchantment, and crafting recipes, favorite items and server listings, view enemy information, and even watch videos.

… And now you can do more. Specifically, with this latest update, you can now share your character skins and design new ones. It’s also considerably less buggy, if the long list of fixes is to be believed.

Mojang managing director Carl Manneh drew our all-seeing eye to the product earlier today and it’s proving to be a cool tool. We’re thinking that it’ll be doubly useful for the impending Xbox Live Arcade version of the game, since dual-fisting a laptop and an Xbox 360 controller can be pretty rough. Check it out.

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I’m a huge fan of rollercoasters. There’s something about the grandiose structures, raw speed and pure adrenaline that just appeal to me. Maybe that’s why I’m such a fan of Madcoaster [$0.99], an endless runner with a rollercoaster twist. Hitting all the major points for the genre, Madcoaster’s interesting premise is enough to put it ahead of other, more generic titles.

As an endless runner, Madcoaster doesn’t add too much to the genre in terms of innovation. Your rollercoaster moves from left to right on randomized tracks with the primary goal being to jump over track gaps and avoid the chasms. Meanwhile, you’ll encounter a wide variety of birds and animals sitting on the track that earn you extra points if you hit them. A few standard power-ups (such as a coin magnet, speed-up, and rollercoaster jetpack) are also occasionally placed throughout levels. There are also plenty of coins to collect, but they only add to the score and aren’t collected for anything else.

As you progress, the track layouts get more complicated and the rollercoaster (obviously) speeds up. Eventually, the game will end once you lose all your lives, with the game scoring you based on total distance traveled and total points (with leaderboards for both, respectively).

In addition to the standard score chase, Madcoaster also offers a leveling mechanic based on objectives. As you hit all the level’s goals, your rollercoaster gets a visual overhaul and the raw score multiplier goes up. Being able to permanently raise your score multiplier is an interesting feature, but it does take away some score parity and penalizes score chasers that don’t focus on objectives.

Visuals are cartoony and vibrant, and look great on a retina-iPhone. There’s no retina support yet for the new iPad, but Madcoaster looks fine regardless. While gameplay on both device sizes works well, I did find the iPhone screen to be a bit more cluttered with information than the iPad.

As a rollercoaster-themed endless runner, you’d expect the framerate to be fast and smooth and for the most part Madcoaster doesn’t disappoint. The game does a great job with its sense of speed, especially in the latter portions of a run. I did encounter some minor slowdown on a current generation iPod touch, but for current iPhones and iPads, I encountered no problems.

One area that Madcoaster does well is its colorful and varied backdrops. Every 1000m the rollercoaster enters a cave that serves as a gateway to a new location. Environments include a Halloween-themed twilight grounds, the innards of a volcano, deep within a jungle and even the pyramids of Egypt. Each region also has its own music as well as unique animals and birds, which become important with later objectives.

While the variety goes a way towards addressing the inevitable monotony of some endless runners, not every environment is created equal. Each location has foreground flora and fauna with some actually blocking the bottom rails, making it a bit difficult to time jumps and landings if you’re close to the bottom of the screen. Some may consider it a challenge, while others may find it simply frustrating. Another minor complaint is that some locations are locked behind IAP. However, considering that you can eventually unlock all IAP with a good enough run, I don’t think it’s that big of a deal.

As mentioned above, Madcoaster doesn’t stray too far from the endless runner formula, but it does do a good job executing most of the elements we love in the genre. Combine this with the rollercoaster motif and decent visuals and there’s little reason for you not to at least check it out.  Madcoaster may not have the lasting power of a Jetpack Joyride, but there’s still plenty here for an enjoyable ride.

TouchArcade Rating:

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