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We thought we'd seen the peak of innovation this week when ARDefender showed just how an augmented reality game should be made. Revolutionary Concepts and indie developer Nicolai Troshinsky had other ideas though, and have delivered something truly…well, revolutionary. If Augmented Reality is the idea of superimposing a game world onto your real world, then what has been done in UFO on Tape [App Store] can only be described as Transplanted Reality– a window into another world right in your hands.

UFO on Tape is a straightforward concept delivered in the most captivating way. It starts by showing you a re-created view of an iPhone camera (no actual use of the camera is ever made), as if it were pointed out the window of a car. Your girlfriend next to you then tells you that she's seen something strange in the sky. With your camera, you zoom in on the object, only to discover it is in fact, a UFO. As it darts around the sky and weaves amongst buildings, your task is to keep the zippy UFO firmly locked in your sights.

UFO on Tape delivers its incredible realism in two ways– firstly, through a pixel-perfect, photo-realistic representation of a video reel; and secondly, through the use of the iPhone 4's gyroscope, or if unavailable, the accelerometer. These two mechanics go hand in hand to make it actually seem as if you are controlling a camera phone and pointing it at something in the sky, all while looking through its viewfinder.

Naturally, use of the gyroscope is preferred, as it allows you to orient yourself to the ground and move the camera around as if it were actually in your hand, giving the most accurate experience. That's not to take anything away from the accelerometer though, as both functioned well to deliver similar results (if less dramatic on the older devices).

The game itself is extraordinarily simple, but also very challenging. The pesky UFO seems aware of your attentions, darting backwards and forwards at varying heights– frequently trying to lose you amidst the tops of buildings. Not only that, but it occasionally darts into your peripheral vision too, which is restricted by the blur of the outline of your car window. Explaining this in words is already doing it an injustice, but it is the most amazing thing to witness your game world restricted by something as routine as the view out your car window.

The entire experience is further enhanced by the interaction with your girlfriend. As you hone in on the flying saucer she'll make all kinds of comments; ranging from stunned disbelief to utter dismay if you happen to lose your target. If it does get away, she'll quickly start barking orders trying to direct you in the way it seems to have gone. Her fully voiced lines flow seamlessly are surprisingly plentiful– in the 30 or so games I played, I was frequently surprised by the new comments that pop up, there are that many. The dressing down she gives you from time to time– "You idiot! You lost it!"– and certain other memorable comments never tire, either.

The ambiance in UFO on Tape also deserves a special mention, as it has been meticulously crafted to such a degree of accuracy that it almost goes unnoticed, as it does when you're really driving. If you do hone in on it though (headphones help), you'll notice the sounds of the city behind you, from the purr of your own engine, to passing cars, sirens in the background and even the tick-tick of your turn signals as the car presumably negotiates the streets to afford you the best view. A creepy, X-Files like soundtrack really underlines the excellent audio work in UFO on Tape.

UFO on Tape is a singular experience, not for its dramatic level of content and replayability– in fact, the game itself is quite basic, with a standard high score table recorded on Game Center– but for the immense attention to detail needed to successfully bring its world alive in the palm of your hand. The true-to-life look, sounds and handling all come together to deliver something really special that simply must be played to be believed. We're telling you now, screenshots do not do this game justice, so get out and grab UFO on Tape pronto if this review has even piqued your interest in the slightest.

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A little more than a month ago, iPhone giant Gameloft first announced a sequel to Gangstar: West Coast Hustle [$4.99 / Free / HD], an open-world crime game which we liked quite a bit in our review despite a few disappointments. Gangstar: Miami Vindication [$6.99] was released this evening, and while several of our annoyances from the first have been tweaked or massaged to be less problematic, there's still a few things keeping Miami Vindication from being our favorite thug simulator.

Much like the original, Gangstar: Miami Vindication features a full city to explore, a wide variety of vehicles to steal, weapons ranging from baseball bats to flame throwers, and a heap of missions to complete. (75 to be exact.) The game plays exactly how you'd expect it to play if you've ever played a Grand Theft Auto or similar type of open world crime game. You can play through the series of missions which vary wildly from something as simple to going to a particular point in the city to stealing a specific car or even racing. Alternatively, you can just disregard the missions entirely and instead just drive around the city, stealing cars, running from the police, or really doing whatever you feel like doing.

While there isn't a whole lot of innovation to be found in Miami Vindication, it has been improved in some ways over the original. For instance, the game is fully voiced over and the voice acting actually seems to be a little better than your typical Gameloft game– at least for major characters. Gameloft also has been boasting the fact that the game was written in part by one of the writers from the TV show The Wire. This story consists of dabbling in the various sectors of the Miami criminal underground on the hunt for your missing brother. I don't see it winning any awards, but by and large the dialog in Miami Hustle is substantially less cringeworthy than West Coast Hustle.

Controls seem to be a lot tighter than the original, offering three different options: Tilt, a virtual steering wheel, and a slider which I've found myself preferring. When on a motorcycle, tilting your device back and forth executes wheelies and stoppies although riding a wheelie for any length of time usually seems to result in a spectacular crash. Lighting is improved as well, resulting in some fairly spectacular views during sunset and sunrise as the entire city is bathed in warm sunlight.

Unfortunately, even though the lighting is better, Miami Vindication is home to some heinously low polygon models. Cars look decent, but character models look absolutely dreadful. Animations are extremely limited, faces lack depth, there are no fingers to be found anywhere, and no lips move when anyone speaks. Instead, they just flail their arms about and bop their heads back and forth. With how much of the game is spent watching two characters talk to each other, this soon becomes incredibly distracting.

The draw distance is decent, but pop-in is considerable. You can see buildings and terrain from far away, but trees and other small details all appear incredibly close to your character. Much like the original Gangstar, the city of Miami in Miami Vindication is terribly barren. Only a few cars will ever appear on screen at once, and pedestrians are rare as can be. Everything feels entirely too clean and empty. Gameloft did implement some varied areas to the city instead of being totally metropolitan, but all the subareas all feel equally lonely and empty.

If you can get past the relatively sparse graphical environment, there really isn't anything else like Miami Vindication on the App Store. Riding around on motorcycles and boats is a lot of fun, and if you can find a helicopter, flying around the city is really pretty cool. I still prefer Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars [$9.99 / Free / HD], but if you don't like the top-down view and want a full 3D experience, Gangstar: Miami Vindication is worth exploring.

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Open world crime games have been incredibly popular for years now, so it wasn't much of a surprise to see Gameloft release Gangstar: West Coast Hustle [$4.99 / Free / HD] which we liked quite a bit in our review. Following the success of Gangstar, Rockstar threw its hat in to the ring with Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars [$9.99 / Free / HD] which really upped the ante with a real Grand Theft Auto experience with all the depth and complexity that players have come to expect of the series. It's going to be interesting to see what Gameloft includes in the Gangstar sequel to one-up Rockstar, but the good news is we won't have to wait much longer as Miami Vindication is set to be released on the 23rd.

If you're like us and are looking forward to stealing virtual cars on the streets of Gameloft's version of Miami, check out this new trailer:

Something that immediately pops out is how low polygon count everything is, but it remains to be seen how noticeable this is when you're actually playing the game. Thankfully, we don't have much longer to wait, and we should have a review available as soon as Gangstar: Miami Vindication hits the App Store late tomorrow night.

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As usual, there is always tons to be excited for as an iOS gamer, with new games released on a daily basis and upcoming games to look forward to. Here are four games I'm looking forward to trying out, each with their own gameplay trailer.

Danger Derby – There have been quite a few top-down racers released both for the iPhone and iPad, but Danger Derby spices things up by adding a host of obstacles to deal with. Multiple game modes, cars, and upgrades sweeten the deal even further.

People Bucket – Games like No, Human have proven that you can take a simple physics gameplay mechanic and turn it in to an incredibly elegant game. I'm not sure if that's going to be the case with People Bucket or not, but the trailer has definitely piqued my interest.

Silverfish – Chaotic Box posted about this game in our forums, and while they're not revealing much about the actual gameplay yet, I've had fun with their other games so it would stand to reason that Silverfish would be enjoyable as well. Either way, the graphics look pretty cool.

Moral Decay – While I'm not entirely sure that the gameplay of Moral Decay will be half as good as the sky high novelty value of its premise, the Mega Man 2 homage at the beginning of the trailer totally sold me on it.

All four of these games are coming soon, and we'll give them each a look once they're finally released. For more upcoming games, check out both our upcoming iPhone games and upcoming iPad games forums.

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Xpect Games is nearing the release of their upcoming post-apocalyptic racer, Race After 1977 which has been in development since January of 2009. The game takes place after a massive nuclear war of sorts, leaving the world ravaged and the survivors just racing their pieced together racecars around Mad Max style. Xpect has built a completely customized 3D engine for the game with physics tweaked for realistic driving across all different types of terrain, jumps, ramps, and other obstacles as you fight your way to the finish line. (Or, as realistic as any post-apocalyptic racer can get I suppose.)

The developers have released two videos of the game, the first of which is a teaser trailer seen below:

The second video is a hands-on gameplay trailer which shows several different cars being driven around a few different tracks. The game is being played on an iPhone 3GS in this video, so presumably the framerate should be even smoother on the iPhone 4 and new iPod touch:

Race After 1977 is being released this fall, and as someone who loved Mad Max, the Fallout series, and really anything to do with crazy post-apocalyptic stuff, I can't wait.

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Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars [$9.99 / Free] hit the App Store in late January of this year and we absolutely loved it in our review. Prior to its release, there were quite a few good Grand Theft Auto-like games, but none ever really approached the depth and complexity of a true Rockstar game. Chinatown Wars blew everything out of the water with a full Grand Theft Auto experience, complete with tons of missions to complete, a ridiculous amount of cars to steal, and even touchscreen based mini-games for various in-game tasks.

Chinatown Wars worked fine on the iPad, but like so many games with controls designed and optimized for play on the iPhone, it definitely needed some tweaking. Also, pixel doubling wasn't very kind on the game's graphics. Rockstar responded by releasing Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars HD [$9.99] which is the same game from a content perspective, with completely redone controls and graphics for the larger screen of the iPad. The in-game lighting has been improved, polygon counts have been increased, and explosions even look better.

If you own an iPad, and you've ever been remotely interested in Grand Theft Auto games, Chinatown Wars HD is a game you need on your device. There just isn't anything else like it on the App Store, the higher resolution graphics look great, the controls work well, and overall it's really hard to find anything to complain about other than this it its own app instead of a universal update to the existing Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars for the iPhone. However, with any luck, Rockstar might just roll these high resolution graphical assets in to a Retina Display update for the new iPod Touch and iPhone 4.

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The 1986 arcade classic OutRun, with its easy to pick up gameplay and simplistic mechanics, seems like it would be a perfect fit for the iPhone. It's strange then, given the wealth of racing games on the App Store, that no one has taken a serious stab at an OutRun-inspired game yet. Now, developer Oyatsukai.com has risen to this challenge with their first iPhone game Final Freeway, and delivered in fairly impressive fashion. Final Freeway does an excellent job at capturing the feel of the original OutRun, while offering tight controls with multiple configurations and a terrific sense of speed that runs well even on older devices.

Just as in OutRun, Final Freeway is a point-to-point racing game, where instead of trying to beat other cars to the finish you're trying to reach each checkpoint in the given amount of time until finally reaching the end. In total there are six different sections to race through, each with their own unique scenery, but unfortunately there aren't the branching paths at the end of each section as in OutRun. The racing is simple and arcadey, with the focus being to race each leg of the track as fast as possible while avoiding traffic and staying on the track. You don't crash in the game, but will slow down a lot if you hit another car or go off track. If time runs out before you reach the end of the track segment, it's game over.

In another nod to OutRun, you can choose one of three different tunes to listen to while you're racing in Final Freeway. Also, your ride looks suspiciously like a Ferrari, which is the staple car in the OutRun series. The graphics in Final Freeway are very nice, with added support for the higher resolution iPhone 4 and iPad displays. The framerate is ultra smooth, even on my iPod touch 2G, and makes for a blazingly fast sense of speed. There are touch and tilt control options, with various other configurations of onscreen button placement. Either control option works well, but I found myself preferring the touch controls. There isn't the option for auto-accelerate, only separate gas and brake buttons, but this actually benefits the game as it can pay to merely let off the gas when approaching turns rather than slamming on the brakes.

Really, the only fault of Final Freeway is that there just isn't that much of it. The six track locations are decent, and can be played on a normal or expert setting, but I would love to see more. It sounds like that just might happen too, as the developer is active in our forums and has hinted that more levels are on their way, as well as taking note of other suggestions from our forum members for future updates. With a few updates, Final Freeway could evolve into something truly special, although what is here already is quite competent for the price. The bottom line is that Final Freeway is fun, plays extremely well, looks great, and will scratch that OutRun itch whenever you need it to.

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The human intellect is a remarkable beast. Just when we think that all possible Zombie concepts have been duly wrung out from our collective minds, developers renderPaz go and throw us a curve-ball. Picture this: you're driving down the post-apocalyptic interstate, weaving through abandoned vehicles strewn everywhere– when you see a hitch-hiker. Naturally, this being post-apocalyptic America, the rule of thumb (think Zombieland) is to just keep on driving. In Zombie Highway [99¢] you aren't afforded that luxury.

The object in Zombie Highway is to just keep on driving– pedal to the metal, you have only one speed– faster. That's not to say you're get very far, as zombies don't generally take kindly to your brains being cocooned inside an SUV's hard exterior. And unlike the variety in Zombieland, these zombies are willing to work to get them.

Zombies in Zombie Highway will pounce on your car's side rails as you speed past them, doing all they can to bring the car to a stop– generally by using their superhuman undead strength to wrestle it till it topples over. There are 7 types of zombies all up, from the skinny fledgling variety, to the stronger, health-regenerating, weightier monsters that do a world of hurt to your center of balance. As zombies stack up on one side, this is only compounded, with your only recourse being to get the buggers off as quickly as possible.

Fortunately, your own driving prowess and an arms dealer friend in the back provide all the tools you need to get through the zombie horde…at least for a couple of miles. Zombies can be exited from the vehicle by tilting your device to sideswipe them onto one of the many ruined cars littered across the highway. Each zombie has a health bar, and whittling that to zero will ensure they won't be sticking around. To help, your aforementioned friend riding shotgun (ho ho!) has a formidable arsenal that is gradually unlocked as you accumulate collective mileage across all your games. Weapons are fired by touching the corners of the screen– if a zombie is on the right near the front of your car, tapping the top right area will fire at it.

It's a straightforward formula that creates a fun and remarkably gratifying zombie slaying experience. It's also quite challenging, as zombies are super aggressive, and your car's physics are fantastic. For instance, don't expect to steer out of a lean by driving the other way– it'll only tip it further. Instead, a bit of load balancing and fast firing fingertips are required to keep the rubber on the road.

Our only gripes with the game are that for all the great 3D models and presentation there is a notable lack of any real sound effects. Your car is effectively muted until it's being weighed down, and then the creaks it makes are whisper quiet. Not hearing the engine at all detracts from the experience dramatically. In fact, the only sound you'll really hear from the car are the squeaks of your tires as you slide around the road. There is absolutely no music to be found either, which would have done a world of good to further build atmosphere and character.

We're also not quite sure why the developers didn't stick with Openfeint or a similar platform for its social functions, as their current Twitter implementation is rudimentary at best. And though the Facebook option results in a neat competition feature where you can track your friends, those who keep their gaming separate from Facebook are left on the curb. Thankfully neither of these platforms are required to access high scores.

Still, it's hard to stay disappointed with these drawbacks for long because running from hordes of zombies is just so much fun. The further you get, the more obstacles are thrown in your path, until you are eventually wrestling your device to fend off zombies, dodge roadblocks and keep your SUV from going belly up as you're two wheeling back and forth. It's a singular experience seemingly lifted right from classic zombie films and as such is effortlessly recommended. We just hope the developers look at the sound issue, as well as maybe add an achievements system ala Monster Dash [99¢] to pad out the survival game replayability.

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Just a couple of days ago we revealed DeceasedPixel's latest project, Super Mega Worm [$2.99], a game based on the original Death Worm concept by JTR, later made famous by the popular Flash game, Effing Worms. Super Mega Worm is a pixel-art take on the giant worm theme, and is now available.

Super Mega Worm opens with an 8-bit retro cutscene explaining how humans have consumed the earth, and how mother nature now has a bone to pick with us. She tasks her favorite pest exterminator, Wojira the Death Worm, with wiping humans from the earth and restoring balance to the force…you get the idea. It's a nice little setup for the mayhem that is the hallmark of the giant worm game, and an introduction to the glorious mario-like pixel art

In our preview we were ultimately left wondering as to whether Super Mega Worm included the levelling system that propelled Effing Worms to stardom, and we're pleased to find that it has in fact done so. In Super Mega Worm you start as a tiny wormlet, tasked with destroying a number of humans (indicated at the top right of the screen) by burrowing through the ground and erupting from under them (or over them, if you get enough height). To begin with, you can't really jump that high, but as you keep reaching your targets you level up and eventually can propel yourself higher and higher.

Wojira is controlled by either a slider or tilting option, but we found the slider option worked best. Additional buttons appear on your screen as you unlock your spitting attack, EMPs, fireballs, slam attacks and other abilities as you work your way through the worm's 24 levels. One problem we had with Super Mega Worm was that the pacing between levels felt a little off. To start with, you don't actually unlock your first ability until well into the game, and by that stage tedium has settled in as you essentially are attacking the same way over and over. When you finally unlock spit, you have another toy to play with, but this pacing trend persists between each new skill unlock. The game feels as though it has as many peaks and troughs as the path of your worm.

What does help this is the myriad of different food sources you encounter. From talking cows and horses, to elephants, birds, balloonists, moms with strollers (and flying babies), army men, police cars, tanks and airplanes to name a few. You can even reach orbit by propelling yourself from vehicles and chew through the earth's many satellites and UFOs hovering about. Many of these fight back too of course, with RPG-toting army men dropping mines and shooting rockets that are best avoided.

Though it is a lot of fun chewing through everything with a giant worm, we can't help but feel there's more that could be done with the game, particularly to address pacing issues and make it more gratifying early on. There are also no online high scores or achievements in Super Mega Worm; something we thought would have been staple in a game like this, considering its flash origins and focus on scores and multipliers. With the official Death Worm game by Playcreek on the horizon too– toting a number of added game modes, locations and features– we can't help but feel gamers may want to wait to decide for themselves which version is best.

On the plus side, developers Deceased Pixel have also promised additional levels, enemies and modes in future updates, so it seems the battle for worm king has only just begun. In any case, be sure to play Effing Worms on Flash and check out the trailers to see what you're getting yourselves into and visit our forums for our readers' opinions on just how juicy this worm really is.

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It's been a good week for content updates, as not only did Battle Bears -1 [99¢] receive a massive update with new levels, weapons, and enemies but another one of my favorite shooters Puppet War: FPS [$1.99/Lite] has expanded on their original game in equally impressive fashion. Puppet War puts you in the role of an unfortunate janitor who is trapped on the set of a popular kids show. The puppets that star in the show have decided to take over the world, and it's up to you to fight them off with the many dangerous weapons that are inexplicably lying around the studio. The completely silly style of the graphics and story coupled with the satisfying first-person shooting action combined to make for an incredibly enjoyable experience that we really enjoyed in our review.

This new update takes that concept and runs with it, adding some great new features and tightening up the game overall. One of my main complaints about the initial release of Puppet War was the lack of different locations, and this has been remedied with an entirely new map and a variation on the original. Puppet Town is an L shaped arena made to look like a city street. It features cardboard cutout cars that can be destroyed and puppets that pop out of trashcans that fire tomatoes at you. Also, the original Studio map gets a nighttime version. Lighting is dim here, and the set decorations are outlined in bright neon lights. It sets a terrific mood, and while it essentially plays the same it's different enough to feel like a new location. It's also the perfect setting to debut one of the new enemies, the zombie puppet (the other new enemy being a ninja puppet). There is a nighttime version of the new Puppet Town set as well.

Another big addition is a Survival mode. Here, you can choose one of the four locations and battle an endless onslaught of all the various puppets. The goal is to see how many puppets you can take out before dying, and they will occasionally drop ammo and health packs to keep you going, but there is no money to be earned. Instead, you'll use the weapons you've unlocked during the campaign, and the Survival maps are unlocked through the single player story as well. A zombie Survival mode can be unlocked too, and features a foggy haze in the level and strictly zombie enemies. The Survival mode is a ton of fun, and is a good way to jump right into some action when you feel like taking a break from the campaign.

Besides these major additions, a ton of other refinements have made their way into Puppet War. OpenFeint has been integrated for high score and achievement tracking. Also the game plays quite a bit faster in regards to weapon switching and ammo drops, and it feels like an all around tighter experience. There is now 3 difficulty settings to choose from, and options to invert aim and change left/right handed controls have been added, which was another complaint I had from the initial version. Puppet War was a fun game to begin with, and this update has gone a long way to making it even better.

If you haven't picked up the game yet, you can give the game a try with the brand new lite version that was released today and features an exclusive boss fight that will make its way into the full version down the road. Screens of the new boss and player impressions can be found in the game thread in our forums. Previous owners of the game should make sure to update and check out all of the new stuff in Puppet War: FPS.

App Store Links:

• Puppet War:FPS, $1.99
• Puppet War:LITE, Free

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