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The AppStore being the bottomless font of creativity and innovation that it is, developers are constantly finding new ways to engage us with our devices. Tactility is a big draw card here, with simple concepts such as Fruit Ninja proving a hit thanks to the very cool way that we interface with the game. Brainium Studios provided another example of something fresh earlier this year, but their game was pulled due to a new publishing arrangement. Thankfully, it has now re-emerged as Hand of Greed – dodge the blade! [AppStore].

Hand of Greed is an avoidance game with a twist, forcing you to literally put your hand in the hornet's nest. Where Fruit Ninja had you do the slicing and dicing, Hand of Greed makes you the subject of the slashing– tasked with avoiding the whirling on-screen blades to collect each level's treasures simply by tapping on them. Each time you unsuccessfully jab at a target, the screen is caked with blood and a gut-wrenching stabbing sound emanates from the device, along with a sharp vibrate.

There are 50 levels overall in Hand of Greed spanning over 5 differently themed worlds. Each level is beautifully rendered, with the exceptionally crafted blades stealing the show and occupying most of the screen real estate. This is especially true of the latter levels, where you'll have to face off against a number of wicked looking knives that you certainly will not find in the kitchen.

Each level provides several wave of different treasures to collect, with bonus points awarded for collecting chains of like-treasures. The object of each level is to clear it in its entirety without being sliced more than three times. To help, power-ups are slowly introduced along the way, and provide benefits such as refilling portions of your life bubble located at the top of the screen. They're sorely needed too, as Hand of Greed features a sharp incline (pun intended) in difficulty that requires you to study closely each blade's pattern or face being shredded instead.

Scores are accumulated at the end of each level and high scores recorded on the OpenFeint leaderboards. There are also 17 achievements to unlock, with most of them remaining secret until discovered to further up the ante.

It's a winning formula that is as simple as it is effective. Though there's not a lot of depth to the game, it's a terrific time waster that should keep you occupied for a long while, largely thanks to its gruelling difficulty (which may very well be too much for some). Just don't show it off to anyone with a queasy stomach or penchant for fainting at the sight of blood.

App Store Link: Hand of Greed – dodge the blade!, $0.99.

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In just a few days Fabulapps plans on releasing its first game called CrossRoads in to the wild. CrossRoads is yet another line drawing time management game, but it sets its self apart by adding a few extra gameplay features all wrapped in a slick art style.

Similar to existing games on the App Store like Car Mania [99¢], you guide cars to their destinations by drawing lines on a map. Fabulapps takes this concept a little farther by adding unique events that occur on each map. For example there is a map were you have to crush zombies in your path as you route cars around. On others, you will need to pop balloons, shake clouds off the screen, and break ice when your screen freezes over.

The feature that most piqued my interest is the multiplayer mode, which allows you to play against another player with the game via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. Similar to the multiplayer found in Flight Control [99¢] and Harbor Master [$1.99 / Free], you will be able to route cars off your screen and on to your opponents to add even more vehicles for them to manage.

CrossRoads will launch with 4 included maps (one as a free download) and 3 additional maps available as in-app purchases. Each add-on map includes new music, special effects, and new vehicles. The game should be out sometime this week for $1.99.

For more details on the game as it nears release, take a look at the thread on our forums.

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When the original Sword & Poker [$1.99 / Free] was released early this year, it served as a perfect example of a game concept that sounded so insane we just had to try it. The idea of a poker-powered RPG was extremely unique, and the original Sword & Poker was a huge hit, both on our forums and amongst my circle of friends.

The basic gameplay remains identical to the first. From our review:

At the core is a card-based strategy/adventure game where battles take place by making poker hands on a 5×5 grid. When each game starts, nine cards are dealt in to the center of the grid and you take turns with the AI opponent placing pairs of the four cards you're dealt on the perimeter of the game board to form hands down, across, or diagonally. Jokers are wild, and as you play more hands a gauge in the bottom left slowly fills which allows you to swap a card for a joker as well.

There is a surprising amount of strategy in placing cards, as you need to look at what you've been dealt to try to determine the best order to play them as your opponent could also have plans for the same squares you hope to utilize on your next turn. Furthermore, as the game board fills up, you can potentially form multiple hands. A well-planned hand placed on the diagonal could also form many other hands going down or across.

The "Sword" portion of Sword & Poker comes from the roleplaying game layered on top of these poker battles, which could practically stand alone as its own game. Instead of just playing poker battles of increasing difficulty, the games are structured as floors in a dungeon and the challenge differs based on the type of monster you're fighting. …Read More

We absolutely loved the game the first time around, and eventually ended up rating it 5 stars along with the other January iPhone games. The good thing about Sword & Poker 2 [$1.99] is that it's extremely similar to the original, almost to the point of feeling like less of a sequel and more of an expansion. This is also the bad thing about Sword & Poker 2, as if you didn't really like the first one, or simply are looking for more than just even more dungeons to make your way through, Sword & Poker 2 has very little to offer.

If this is the first you've heard of Sword & Poker, I highly recommend at least giving Sword & Poker Lite [Free] a try. If you like it, you should give some serious consideration to picking up Sword & Poker if not Sword & Poker 2 as well.

And chances are, if you played the first one, all you need is the iTunes link to the sequel:

App Store Link: Sword & Poker 2, $1.99

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As if bluetooth iPhone to iPad control wasn't enough, Majic Jungle's followup iPad trick is outputting the iPad game video to a 42" TV while controlling the game with your iPhone:

I know it shouldn't be that much different than the first video, but somehow it feels quite different. While Apple should allow this functionality to be built into future iPad apps, Majic Jungle hasn't committed to delivering it in their release:

This video shows the iPad version plugged into a 42 inch LCD TV via the standard Apple component cable. It is also being controlled with an iPhone over bluetooth.

This setup uses only available public/documented APIs so could technically be made available. However this is only a proof of concept, the initial release of Chopper 2 may not feature this functionality.

Chopper 2 remains in development and will be coming for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch platforms.

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I've said it before and I'll say it again, one of my favorite things about the accessibility and low barrier to entry of iPhone development is some of the shockingly off the wall game concepts that people manage to come up with. Extreme Sheepdog Trials [App Store] is yet another example of a strange game that actually is a surprising amount of fun.

As the title would hint, in the game you control a sheepdog and you make your way through a variety of different levels by either tapping where you want your dog to go or drawing a line for it to follow to herd sheep. The thing with this game is, it has so many neat features that any one of them packed in to the game by themselves would have been cool enough, but the complete package is something you've really got to try.

For instance, while there is a standard level pack where you're herding sheep about the countryside, there's also other level packs included that have you doing crazy things like herding sheep in some kind of futuristic space station. These levels are much more puzzle oriented, with switches you will need to hit with your dog to do things like disable lasers so you don't fry your sheep. These levels also have sheep teleporters, and a bunch of other awesome obstacles to work through.

But if you're thinking to yourself, "I am a professional sheep herder, I don't want to touch the screen when I know how to command my sheepdog by whistles," oddly enough, you're in luck. The absolute coolest thing about this game is that if you're playing on a device with a microphone, you can control your dog by whistling. The game will even teach you how to handle a sheepdog using whistles, and as far as I can tell, all of the whistles are what you'd really use if you were really out herding sheep with a real trained sheepdog.

There's even online leaderboards for you to compare your sheep herding skills with the rest of the world.

The only real down side to Extreme Sheepdog Trials is the amount of levels. Currently there are three different packs with five levels each. Some of them are very difficult and will take a while to complete, but it still would be nice to see more. Even though the game is a little light on content, I still recommend giving it a spin if this review has at all piqued your interest– Just make sure you give the whistle controls a try.

App Store Link: Extreme Sheepdog Trials, $1.99 (iPhone) – Extreme Sheepdog Trials HD, $2.99 (iPad)

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Fancy Factory recently revealed in our forums that the next game that they are working on is one inspired by the 80's computer game Spy vs. Spy. Spy vs. Spy was first published in 1984. Agents! takes the same idea and applies it to the iPhone.

The basic concept behind Agents! is to search the rooms of a building for some secret documents. Of course you are not alone. Another Agent (from the other…the bad side ) is looking for the documents as well. In Agents! the opponent will be a NPC (single player mode) or another player (multipayer). When encountering the other guy its up to you: run or fight. Several weapons (with limited ammo you have to find first) will make this task good fun.

Here's an early video with non-final graphics/UI:

The real fun of the original version was the split-screen mode where you played against another person. One of your main weapons against the other player was setting booby traps that would be triggered against opening doors or drawers. But you weren't without your own defenses — most traps could be disarmed with a simple tool. For example, guns triggered by strings could be disabled with a pair of scissors, while Acid buckets could be avoided with an umbrella.

We didn't see much in the way of traps in the early video, but Fancy Factory reassured us that this key feature will be in the game.

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Gameloft's Naomi and Josh are back again to bring us another look inside of Gameloft. Like most of their video podcasts, they include a good mix of things you've likely already seen if you follow TouchArcade closely along with some new reveals.

This one is much longer than their other video podcasts, so if you don't want to sit through the whole thing, you can skip to these points of interest:

• 0:00 – Gameloft visits the New York City Fifth Avenue Apple Store and talks to some people about the iPad, along with interviewing some of their own developers who discuss how great the iPad is going to be for gaming.
• 2:51 – iPad trailers for HD versions of Shrek Kart, Brothers in Arms 2 Global Front, Hero of Sparta, and Avatar
• 5:13 – Blokus overview, including some tips and video of what playing the actual board game looks like.
• 6:26 – Iron Man 2 gameplay iPhone gameplay footage, as well as revealing that the game will be simultaneously coming to all three devices. They're not clear as to whether or not this means Iron Man 2 will be universal, or if the iPhone version will simply launch with the iPad HD version.
• 8:02 – Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction gameplay video combined with an overview of the iPhone exclusive Potomac River level which apparently is going to feature a rails shooter portion.
• 8:45 – Gameloft officially reveals Prince of Persia: The Warrior Within. They don't show any gameplay, but the cinematic trailer is pretty cool.
• 10:45 – Explanation of the various contests Gameloft is currently running to get free games and even a trip to their offices in Paris
• 11:45 – Gameloft closes their video podcast with a brief Q&A and revealed that their games generally take a year to develop from early concepts, to actual development, testing, and everything else.

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Football Manager is a brand name that extends right back to the very first concept of the round-ball management simulator in the early 80's. In recent years, Sports Interactive has grown the franchise into a title that is consistently (and arguably) the most authentic of the batch and if nothing else, certainly enjoys the most faithful following. To date the iPhone has been the subject of a number of smaller titles in the genre, but nothing has quite made a splash like the release of Football Manager Handheld 2010 [AppStore].

The hallmark of the bigger football management simulators is without a doubt the staggering extent of official licenses included in the game. Football Manager Handheld 2010 supports updated teamsheets for 34 leagues in 11 countries; an impressive amount of statistical data to hold in the palm of your hand. The Football Manager franchise is especially well known for its professional, orderly and clean layout; and we're delighted to see this has been successfully carried over to the handheld adaptation.

One would expect that in order to cram a feasible management sim onto the iPhone, a sizeable trimming down of features would have to occur. Though there has been a little slimming, the majority of content and features– certainly much more than we anticipated– has been retained in full. To cut down on the size, Football Manager Handheld 2010, however, does do away with player portraits and the glossy 3D game engines the last iteration of management sims have been known for. Game highlights only are portrayed in the traditional 2D full-pitch view, so that goals and set-pieces (and gruelling shots-on target that always seem to hit the woodwork) can all be visualized. The rest of the match is played out through text commentary with visual aids to assist you in keeping track of morale and momentum. Match tactics like substitutions, formations, team mentality and also specific strategies (such as the Offside Trap), can all be changed through the Tactics menu during a game, to offer that minute-by-minute control needed to overcome the best tactical minds and teams in the business.

Of the features omitted, the most sorely missed is undoubtedly the customization of individual plays and the ability to create your own formations. When one factors into it the processing undoubtedly needed for the former, and that there are 17 preset formations included to satisfy the latter, it's not that big a deal though. The new touchline instructions added in the PC version of 2010 won't be found here either; though as this was a feature added ultimately to support the 3D match engine, its omission is not unexpected.

To accomodate the issue of portability and the presumably shorter play sessions, Football Manager Handheld 2010 puts more focus on squad management than overseeing staff or stadium facilities. Scouts and assistant managers perform their duties diligently but cannot be replaced. There is still a constantly nagging board to please, who vigilantly watch your performance and spending and are more than happy to replace you though. Though some may disagree, we appreciate the refocus on what's really important in the handheld addition, and the essence of Football Managerdefinitely remains — the sheer depth of control and attention to the very finest detail.

There is potentially more gameplay to experience here than in your entire game library, particularly if you're trying to promote a lowly League club to Premiership level. Coupled with the large licensed player and team rosters that are accurate up to the latest transfer window (with minor omissions noted by readers), Football Manager Handheld 2010 is an authentic port that should have football management enthusiasts champing at the bit. For those that have never played a football sim before, we do recommend caution, as the game is ultimately designed for those who already know their way around (particularly where the football stat lingo is concerned) and already enjoy the genre. If you're eager to try it out though, SEGA have thoughtfully released a free companion application to show you the ropes.

Favorable impressions from our readers have been pouring in to our forums. It has been noted by several readers too that your own music can be played Football Manager Handheld 2010, but only after turning off the in-game sounds in the game options. 1st Generation iPod Touch users should be warned that performance is particularly sub-par on this device, with excessive load times hampering gameplay according to user, ITRocks.

App Store Link: Football Manager Handheld 2010, $9.99 and FMH Manual, Free (Instruction Manual).

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Late last night the TouchArcade Game Jam at 360iDev brought a room full of developers together to build a game in twelve hours with only a single word as the inspiration: "Tiny". After a few cases of Red Bull, a truck load of Doritos, and some Franzia, each participating developer slowly formed workable prototypes for game ideas thought up on the fly. Some people worked in teams, others went solo, but I feel confident in saying that everyone had a good time.

To track the progress of the developers, we opened up a Game Jam Forum that they used to post screenshots and get ideas from the TouchArcade community. Ordered by the number of responses each game got, here are the products of the Game Jam:

Cake Defense by Endloop and Retro Dreamer

From Endloop and Retro Dreamer comes a tilt to shoot game where you must defend a cake from …cake lovers? Various power ups are included, my personal favorite being the multi-cake shot seen in the above screenshot.

Atomz by Owen Goss and Mike Berg

Streaming Colour Studios and We Heart Games teamed up to build this molecular line drawing game where you chain together atoms to clear the screen. Different atoms have various numerical values to them, and matching them together creates huge molecules for massive points.

The Pollinator by Imangi Studios

Imangi Studios' The Pollinator is less of a game and more of a zen garden app, as it is played by tapping the flowers as bees fly by to pollinate the plants to keep them alive. (As the title may hint.)

Punicorn Escape by Mind Juice Media

Mind Juice Media built a Canabalt-like side scrolling survival game where you play as a pretty little unicorn. The game's thread is worth checking out to see the iterations the art style went through.

Chalkboard Wars by Aurora Feint

Jason and Jakob of Aurora Feint built a chalkboard battle game they're describing as "It's like iShoot meets Warheads for your chalkboard!" Check out the above video to see the game in motion.

The Adventures of Pinchy the Angel by Riptide Games and Projkt9 Interactive

This collaboration between Riptide Games and Projkt9 Interactive is said to offer Canabalt-style survival gameplay where you dodge things in the game world by pinching to zoom the game world in and out.

Just Tongue by Limbic Software

A team of three guys form Limbic Software worked through the night to build this game which involves gliding through the air and grappling the terrain to fling yourself forward while avoiding crashing in to the hills.

Gauss by Spiralstorm Games

This oddly beautiful game by Spiralstorm Games involves guiding a particle (named Owen) through a field of magnets. The polarity of the magnets can be switched around to guide said particle through the magnetic field without touching any other magnets.

Big Shark, Tiny Laser by Tapulous

While I'm not entirely sure if Serban from Tapulous ever finished his game, the concept art alone is worth showing off. Since the theme of the Game Jam was tiny, his game is about sharks with tiny lasers.

Tiny Space Thing by Frederic Tessier

Participating remotely via web cam was Frederic Tessier who built a tiny (and accurately named) space shooter game.

The Will of Steve by David Whatley

David Whatley of Critical Thought Games and 360iDev keynote speaker was working on a game entitled The Will of Steve. I'm not entirely sure what the plan was with the gameplay, but if I know David, it likely involved Steve doing something silly with that iPad.

Kayak King by Free Time Studios

Free Time Studios put together this top down kayak racer and was one of the few people to also fulfill the bonus "Owen Goss" theme. Your kayak is controlled by swiping down both sides of the screen, and the game was just barely finished in time with 25 minutes to spare.

Tiny Grave by Digital Hero Games

Digital Hero Games put together a match three based on body parts being dumped in to an open grave. They didn't quite get all the matching logic working, they have plans to finish the game over the next week.

Infectalicious by Brainwash, Inc.

Brainwash, Inc came up with this zombie infection game that features user-modifiable graphics. You can either save the world from zombies, or, if you prefer, save the world from Owen Goss.

Chaotic Monkey by Nanaimo Studio and Tiny Bite Games

Nanaimo Studio and Tiny Bite Games put together this bacon-powered game where you play as a monkey in space with an insatiable love for cured pork products. Shoot monkey cages to free your friends and pick up Slim Fast to, well, go faster.

Canadian Attack by Prop Group

Prop Group came up with this amazing side scrolling shooter. I'd summarize the game, but they already did it perfectly:

The unthinkable has happened. After numerous jokes about snow and hockey, our neighbors to the north have unleashed an aerial invasion, loading up tons of cargo planes with… bacon. You play as the fighter ace with a trusty P-51 mustang, who must shoot down the cargo planes with your trusty WWII plane… armed with heat seeking missiles.

Mini-Gun your FACE! by Rob

This mysterious developer known only as "Rob" or "themuller" on our forums put together a game with a shockingly accurate title. A face scrolls down the screen, and, well, you mini-gun it.

Tiny Dot by Windmill Apps

Markus from Windmill Apps put together this simple game that involves tapping the screen to leave food for the black dot to eat while you avoid the red dot. Graphics are extremely preliminary right now, but the game itself is fully functional.

Magnet Particle Accelerator by Voxilate

I'm not entirely sure if this game turned in to anything more than this mock up screenshot put together by Volilate or not, but it's hard to not get behind anything that involves orbiting cats with laser eyes.

Shake, rattle and roll by Area 161

Area 161 put together a concept for a ball rolling game where you suck up other red balls by rolling over them. The catch is, you have to avoid the pillars which becomes increasingly difficult as your red ball grows in size.

Finally, Ant Master, a picnic raiding game, was posted about in our Game Jam forum but without any screenshots or details aside from the concept of playing two player with opposing armies of ants stealing food from a picnic. Hopefully we hear some more on this one.

And of course, thanks to everyone who came to the Game Jam. The vibe in the room was fantastic, and it's always great hanging around creative people bouncing ideas off one another… Especially when those ideas have to do with rapidly developed iPhone games and Owen Goss. We'll post a followup as we hear from more of these developers regarding the fate of their Game Jam games. I went through and listed everyone who posted anything in the Game Jam Forum in this article, so if your game is missing, it's not too late to post a thread!

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