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Here's a look at a couple of games that I've been having a surprising amount of fun with lately. They both use the same general concept of keeping a ball bouncing for as long as possible, but each accomplishes this goal with their own unique style. Neither will likely be considered the second coming of video games as we know it, but instead are just a quick bit of fun at an affordable price to eat up a spare few minutes when you're bored.

Tilt Ping, 99¢ – Everyone at one point or another has probably tried to see how long you could keep a ball bouncing in the air with a paddle or racket, and Tilt Ping brings that experience to your iPhone in very nice fashion. You hold your device out flat in the air, just like you would with a paddle, and use subtle tilting to keep the onscreen paddle under the bouncing ping pong ball. Adding variety to this idea is the special powerups that will appear every so often. They are designed in a way to try and distract you from keeping the ball going and force you tap icons that appear on the screen. Trying to maintain your bounce while focusing on tapping the bonus icons (some of which alternate between good and bad bonuses, requiring you to be even more careful) can become a really hectic and fun experience.

The game is hard, but keeps you coming back for just one more go. The whole experience of Tilt Ping is done with nicely detailed and colorful graphics, as well as OpenFeint integration for tracking achievements and many different statistics, making for a fairly robust package for such a simple game.

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Juggle!, 99¢ – What we have here is basically the antithesis of what Tilt Ping brings to the table. Imagine you invited a friend over to play Pong in the 70's, but they cancelled at the last minute, so instead you decided to concoct a way to play by yourself. In essence, this is Juggle! Forgoing the pretty graphics of Tilt Ping and instead paying homage to the aforementioned Pong, Juggle! is a deceptively compelling game. You start with a ball dropping from the top of the screen that you must keep in play by continuously bouncing it with the paddle at the bottom. With each bounce on the paddle, the ball (which is technically a square due to the retro theme) gets smaller and smaller, until it's just a tiny pixel. As play advances, more balls are added into play, requiring you to “juggle” them all to increase your score. You must keep at least one ball in play at a time, or else it's game over.

Again, it's an incredibly simple concept but one that's executed really well and is hard to put down. Like Tilt Ping, OpenFeint is included in Juggle! along with stat tracking and a nice set of options.

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Late last week we reported that the new update to one of our favorite iPhone games, Jet Car Stunts, was in review and just waiting on Apple to give it the go ahead. Yesterday afternoon the update finally went live on the App Store, and as great as this news is for fans of the game, it also comes with some minor (temporary) disappointment.

First let's start with the good news, and that of course is the addition of 26 brand new levels that can be purchased within the app for $1.99. I've given the new levels a quick spin and they seem to be of the same high quality design as the original levels, and possibly even more so. There's no shortage of crazy jumps, loops, and even driving on ceilings in these new levels. Another nice feature is that the 8 levels that were previously exclusive to the lite version of Jet Car Stunts can now be downloaded for free in the full version. This may not be especially exciting to those who have played the lite version to death, but it's nice not having to have both icons taking up space on the springboard. Other improvements include iOS 4 support for anti-aliasing and fast app switching support for iPhone 3GS and 3^rd generation iPod touches.

As for the not-so-good news, the graphical enhancement that would have brought retina display support for iPhone 4 seems to have hit a bit of a snag in its journey to the App Store. While the other iOS 4 features are working flawlessly, something seems to have gone awry with the part of the update that was to add the retina display support. All is not lost though, as the developer immediately sprang to action, found and fixed the problem, and has already submitted a new update to Apple – all within a matter of hours. If all goes well with the approval process, this extra eye candy should be available within the next week or so.

One other very cool bonus with this latest update is the addition of a cheat menu. This menu gives you the option of a couple different vehicle colors, as well as the ability to unlock every level without having to beat all the previous ones. This is great news if you want to dive right into the different tiers of levels, and while I won't completely divulge how to access the cheat menu, I will say it's pretty easy to find if you “poke” around the right screen within the game. With the 36 levels of the original, 26 brand new levels available as DLC, and the 8 levels from the lite version, all together Jet Car Stunts has 70 available levels to test your platforming and racing prowess.

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If you've been following TouchArcade, chances are you've already seen this video, but like anything related to the Star Wars movies, it almost seems to be tradition to release things, then re-release them (and often times re-re-release them). This time, the video is narrated by Fluffy Logic designer Tomas Rawlings. Rawlings explains some of the strategies used in the game, such as building trenches and placing infantry in those trenches which offer them a defensive bonus.

Trenches also allow you to funnel enemy units, and the incoming attackers will also fire on your defenses instead of just walking by like most creeps in tower defense games. Star Wars: Battle for Hoth is scheduled for release on the 15th for $2.99, and you can expect a full review as soon as we get the game in our hot little hands.

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Ever since we spotted the online first-person shooter Archetype in limited release, we'd been dying to try the game out. At long last, Archetype was released to the global App Store this past week to much fanfare and a huge marketing campaign. After finally getting our hands on it and spending some quality time playing, we can safely say that Archetype is one impressive game, and developer Villain has, for the most part, followed through on their promises for the title. That's not to say there aren't a few issues with it, or a wish list of things we'd like to see added, but all said, Archetype delivers one of the most robust, beautiful, and most importantly fun FPS experiences that can be had on the iPhone.

For starters, if you have Apple's new iPhone 4 then you are treated to some unbelievably crisp graphics. The textures that make up the levels and player models aren't the most detailed — which is fine, as this allows the game to run at an ultra-smooth clip — but, on the retina display, it really approaches a high definition console game running on the small screen. For all other devices, including the first generation of iPhones and iPod touches, the game is still very graphically impressive and maintains a solid framerate. The five stages available in the game are also visually quite nice, and are all indoor arenas with a high tech industrial look similar to games like Eliminate or the Halo series. It's not a groundbreaking style, but it gets the job done while maintaining good performance across all devices.

Controls in Archetype are a familiar dual analog stick setup that works well, though doesn't leave many options for players that prefer different control schemes. The two sticks are visually situated in the usual spots in the lower corners, but can actually be activated by touching nearly anywhere on either half of the screen. This lends itself well to people who like the “touch anywhere” or “swipe the screen to aim” mechanics of similar touch screen FPS games. Your weapon can be very quickly changed by touching the upper right corner and grenades are thrown by touching the upper left corner. A melee attack is performed by touching the bottom of the screen anywhere in between the two analog sticks, which is also where the radar is displayed. Minor options to invert the aiming axis or adjust sensitivity are available, but the default control scheme described is basically all you get. This isn't really a bad thing though, as they do work very well and are semi-flexible, but surely won't suit every single gamer.

An important thing to note is that this game is meant to be strictly an online affair, so if you are looking for a single player campaign or don't have any interest in online multiplayer then Archetype is not for you. There's a very basic offline mode where you can run through a timed training level taking out stationary cardboard cutout style targets — but that's it. Everything else is matchmaking against live opponents over a WiFi, 3G, or EDGE connection. If you're the type of person that loves online FPS multiplayer, then you're in for a treat. Archetype runs and plays near-flawlessly over all of these connections.

Starting the game will launch you into a lobby that is connected to the server closest to your region, although you can choose to play on any server you wish. The current servers are US East, US West, Europe, Asia, and South America. Matchmaking allows just under a minute to find opponents to match you with, and once the timer runs out the game will start with whatever number of players are in the lobby by that time. Archetype boasts up to five-on-five team matches, but in my experience this is a somewhat rare occurrence. More often I'd get into two-on-two or three-on-three matches on a regular basis, with a fair amount of four-on-four as well. The good news is that I haven't had any trouble quickly picking up a match during my time with the game (US West).

Actually playing matches in Archetype is a blast. The five maps are designed well and feature a nice mix of different elevations, passageways, teleports, and weapon drops. As with any good FPS game, learning the ins and outs of each map is really beneficial. Player movement is fast, and by default your weapon will auto-fire when an enemy enters your aiming reticle, although this can be disabled in the options. A radar at the bottom of the screen shows the position of enemies and teammates (and can also be disabled if you wish). The six weapons in the game run the usual gamut of assault rifles, a shotgun, a sniper-type weapon (minus the zooming capability), and a rocket launcher. Grenades are here as well, with a normal frag grenade as well as an awesome grenade that splits into multiple parts when thrown.

Rounding out your offense is the ability to melee with any weapon available, or even pick up a brutal battle axe that can be used exclusively for close combat. Melee can feel overpowered at times, as you can rush up on opponents and spam the button wildly usually ending up in a kill, although this can also leave you open to an easy counterattack from savvy players. The precision rifle feels a little too strong as well, able to kill players with only one or two shots across an entire map, thanks to auto-firing. While rockets and grenades are also strong, the proximity damage of these will kill you just as easily as the opposition, if you aren't careful. So, there may be room for improvement in the balancing of the weapons, but there are tradeoffs with each, so it's not been a huge issue and gameplay doesn't suffer much for it.

Matches are incredibly fast paced and combat heavy. The match length is determined by the amount of players, so a one-on-one match goes for just one minute, a two-on-two for two minutes, and so forth. Since the matches are so brief, there's not a lot of reason to camp or lie in wait to get the drop on other players. Instead, you'd better keep moving if you want to get a decent amount of kills.  The setup is also really well suited to mobile gaming, as you can quickly pop in and have a match or two with just a spare few minutes. The only available game type is team Deathmatch, with no sort of free-for-all or objective based gametypes like capture the flag available at this time.

With all the great fun to be had in Archetype, it's not without its issues. For the most part it runs incredibly well online no matter what type of connection you're on, but there's inevitably instances of minor lag or even games completely locking up and dropping out altogether. The lobby shows you your current ping rate, so you can have an idea of how solid your connection and that of other players will be. The two biggest points of contention I'm hearing from players in our forums is over the auto-firing nature of the weapons and the ability to actually do damage to your own teammates. Auto-fire can be disabled, but this can just put you at a disadvantage to everyone else who uses it. Teammate damage cannot be disabled, so you'll need to learn to be careful around your own team, especially with tossing grenades around.

My biggest complaint about the game, personally, is the lack of options in setting the parameters of matches. It's very easy to add friends in Archetype, either from the post game lobby following a match or by searching out usernames and sending requests. From your friend list you can then issue a direct challenge to up to 9 other players to engage in a private match together. It works extremely well, giving other players a push notification inviting them to the game, and accepting that notification launches the game and sends you directly into the lobby very smoothly. I would love to be able to set longer matches in these instances, or adjust other variables like weapon types and frag limits. To be expected, match performance can be hit or miss when trying to play with friends in other countries. As it is, the private match feature is extremely basic but is still a nice addition to the overall package.

See our gameplay video for a closer look.

If you've actually managed to read this far, chances are you're really interested in this type of game and, with that, I can wholeheartedly recommend Archetype to you. It does have a few issues, some of which only amount to personal taste, and it does want for variety or progression somewhat, as it is just team deathmatch over and over again. But it's still incredibly fun. It gives you a game that you can quickly jump into and play practically anywhere in a reasonably reliable fashion. It also avoids the two common complaints about its closest competitor, Eliminate, in that you just pay for the game when you buy it, without any sort of in-app purchasing involved, and you don't have to worry that other players' equipment will be more upgraded than your own. Everyone plays on a level field here and, although it's a bit simplistic, it does work wonderfully. If you're liking the sound of what Archetype has to offer, then don't hesitate to check it out. It's personally become my favorite iPhone FPS to date.

Note: Archetype is presently being advertised on this site, but it has no influence on our choice of coverage or the outcome of our reviews. See advertising and editorial policies for additional details.

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It seems that even though Apple rejected Yoot Saito's first attempt at an App Store game for being "unpleasant", Saito is ready for another go, but this time for the iPad. According to sketchy information from his blog in poorly machine translated Japanese, it appears The Tower iPad is coming soon.

Yoot Saito is Japanese game designer known for innovative game design. His first major game was SimTower and it's sequel Yoot Tower/The Tower II which was later remade for Gameboy Advance, and the Nintendo DS. Wikipedia describes the original SimTower:

SimTower: The Vertical Empire is a construction and management simulation computer game developed by OPeNBooK Co., Ltd. and published by Maxis for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS 7 operating systems. It was released in November 1994 in the United States. The game allows players to build and manage a tower and decide what facilities to place in it, in order to ultimately build a five-star tower. Random events take place during play, such as terrorist acts that the player must respond to immediately.

Here's a video for The Tower DS (in Japanese):

And that's all we know so far. We'll keep an eye out for it, and hopefully we'll see an international (not just Japan) release.

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I'm not entirely sure if this is something you'd even classify as a "game", but if there's one thing gamers like it's earning experience points, filling up bars, and just generally leveling up regardless of when, where, or why. The Epic Win app seeks to close the divide between actually doing things in the real world, and this intense desire to level up anything you can in any way possible in the virtual world.

The trailer does a better job explaining it than I could possibly could:

Epic Win has some serious video game design pedigree behind it, both with Rexbox who worked on Little Big Planet for the PSP and PS3 as well as Studio FungFung who is best known for MiniSquadron [$2.99 / Free]. I'm not entirely sure if earning experience points in an iPhone game is enough motivation to get anyone to do anything, and it does seem awfully easy to cheat in the game… But, without truly knowing just how epic the Epic Win app is, all we can do is speculate.

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One of our favorite games of April went free today, Babylonian Twins [Free], while its HD iPad counterpart, Babylonian Twins HD [$1.99] saw a price drop to $1.99. Regardless of which version you get, both are a lot of fun and the game has an amazingly interesting history involving extraordinary conditions during its development in Iraq with economic sanctions preventing its initial release.

As the title would hint, in Babylonian Twins you play as a set of Babylonian twins, with each twin having their own abilities which must be cleverly combined to complete levels. Gameplay is very similar to that of the classic Blizzard game The Lost Vikings, with only one twin able to be controlled at once. We loved how this gameplay mechanic was combined with challenging, well designed levels in our review:

These simple gameplay features form the premise for some of the most interesting and expansive level designs that we have seen to date on the platform. In many ways, Babylonian Twins does away with contemporary trends in gaming, and re-instates the old-school values of a challenging, explorative platformer that refuses to hold you by the hand. There are no directional arrows or maps to point you towards the golden palm trees you must collect each level. In fact, even crucial objects such as the aforementioned broken walls and floors are easily missed unless you're paying attention. And each level is enormous– an adventure in and of itself– many of our completion times clocking in at around 30 minutes each.

The iPad version of the game plays the same, with higher quality graphics as is the case with most "HD" releases. Give the iPhone version a try, and if you like it and own an iPad, Babylonian Twins HD is well worth the two bucks. Regardless of whether or not you pick up the iPad version while it's on sale, Babylonian Twins for the iPhone is a game everyone should download to try out while it's free.

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Every now and then the App Store divulges something that actually surprises me; a previously unheard of game design that sinks its claws into me before I even know it. From its outward appearance, Doodle God [App Store] seems less of a game and more of a periodic table gone wrong, an experiment only of interest to scientists of questionable sanity. It's not until you experience it for yourself that you realise the true genius behind Doodle God's alluring gameplay.

The premise starts off simple: combine the four basic elements of earth, fire, water and air to create 140 objects (referred to within as elements, but not strictly so) in the world around us. Your job is to find the specific combination of two individual elements, or by-products of elements, or by-products of by-products, et cetera; to do so.

And elements don't always bond as you believe they should; the developers employ a far more abstract thought process than a logical one in creating the Doodle God universe. So while combining earth and fire to create lava might be logical, the combination of fire and water into alcohol requires a greater stretch (and that is a tame example). Dare I say it, but God knows what needs to be added together to create a Wizard, of all things.

The end result is that what seems like a relaxing, thought provoking experience, is instead a manic adventure of 'out of the box' thinking, with many results and accidental discoveries evoking laughter just as often as they do sighs of relief as a piece of the puzzle is secured. Because while Doodle God doesn't impose any time constraints on your discovery process, it will test the limits of your imagination and patience.

Elements are neatly categorised into 15 groups that are only made available when they are discovered. Pressing a group will open its list of elements to select from, displaying the groups again on the left of the screen. Selecting one of these groups will in turn display its list of available elements on the left. Choosing two elements from the selected groups will then attempt to fuse them together (if possible).

A successful bonding results in either a quirky or philosophical quote concerning the resulting reaction. Of course, chances are your selection won't succeed (there are literally thousands of possible combinations, after all) and that's where Doodle God's nifty hint system comes to the rescue. Hints are doled out on a timer, so you never feel too bad resorting to that oft-needed light bulb. They take two forms; either showing a feasible byproduct to work towards, or showing two possible groups that have an available reaction.

If I had to put my finger on what specifically appeals to me about Doodle God, it would have to be that insatiable 'just one more go' pull, with the knowledge that some other inane discovery is just around the corner.

If you're open to a new gameplay experience and not liable to just throw out a crazy concept from the get-go, then I recommend giving Doddle God a whirl. An online flash version is available to try first. And let your friends and family in on it too– you won't be short a laugh or two, that's for sure.

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The original Predator movie back in 1987 sparked a huge cult following and a subsequent movie and various crossovers with Aliens. Acclaimed producer Robert Rodriguez is set to rekindle that flame on the big-screen with a stand-alone movie, Predators, with Chillingo and Angry Mob Games stepping up for the mandatory small-screen game tie-in.

Like Guerilla Bob (Angry Mob's last project), Predators is a dual-stick shooter, though distinguishing itself with a unique focus on melee combat to satiate that staple Predator action. Where would Predator be without the wicked arsenal that we all know and love? Angry Mob Games has taken heed and supplemented the melee combat with his many useful longer-range attacks (such as the Plasma Cannon and Disc Weapon) and sensory abilities too.

These all come together in arena-like combat scenarios– 24 of them to be exact– where you are tasked with dispatching the supple human prey wandering into your predatory habitat. To begin with, your Predator has only the use of his claws, which are single target shredding machines, and only a single combo. The first few levels operate as an introduction sequence to familiarise yourself with the 6 melee combos at your disposal. Subsequent levels gradually unlock weapons and abilities that are all required to continue.

The Predator's arsenal provides both the objectives and context for the game's missions. Some missions require you to use your cloaking device to eliminate enemies undetected; others require you to use your thermal detection to take out sniping enemies. Others again require you to perform particular melee kills, or collect trophy scalps with the trophy kill combo after netting your prey. No matter the task at hand, the Predator swiss-army-knife has a tool to tackle it head-on and with deadly force; and it's great to see an effort has been made to make each weapon and ability useful.

Eventually, you are introduced to the overall targets of your bloody alien party; 8 warriors from Earth deemed worthy of being honorable Predator prey. These act as boss levels, which are unfortunately a low point in the game's missions– requiring you to monotonously kill a large number of cannon fodder humans to flush them out– and then killing them when they do. Each of these targets has a unique ability to make your job all the more difficult. In subsequent levels they reappear as standard enemies, the end result being that the final levels are replete with enemies sporting machine guns, samurai swords and sniper rifles are all trying to take you down first, adding considerably to the difficulty.

The on-screen controls are adequate to the task, with the dual-stick mechanics functioning as well as we've seen so far. Weapons are switched with on-screen buttons, and your limited energy bar (responsible for powering most of your weapons and armor abilities) is represented in the top left corner. Melee combat is where the controls really stand out however, with an A and B button activating a number of different combos and attacks. Pressing B while running for example, will cause your Predator to leap attack; a subsequent B will cause him to Impale your enemy, and another 3 A attacks will initiate the Trophy kill to brutally sever their head. It may sound difficult on paper, but combos and attacks are fluid and easily executed and look absolutely gut-wrenching– pun intended!

On the flipside, the levels themselves in Predators attract our largest criticism. The jungle level at first appears lush and detailed, and though not overly large, suffices for the cloak and dagger gameplay required of the Predator. It is still a glorified square arena however, with clearly delineated boundaries containing what is essentially an open area somewhat reminescent of Minigore. And as in that game, the level does not change at all mission-to-mission. It's a real shame that one of the strengths of Guerilla Bob– its varied level design– couldn't be employed by the developers here as well.

The only other issue we had is that the game does suffer from a few minor bugs and graphical glitches that may hamper the occasional combo attack. Predators is also a little light on content, offering only a single difficulty level able to be played through in a couple of hours. Fortunately, the last level to be unlocked also doubles as an endless Survival Mode, in what will undoubtedly be the bread and butter for competitive types.

Throughout the levels, the more difficult kills are awarded with a greater honor bonus, a points system used to upgrade your unlocked weapons. In its current implementation though, honor points seem a little superfluous as we earned far more points than we could spend on a simple run through, and never had to work towards our upgrades. In any case, Chillingo's Crystal platform is used to record these scores online and to provide a set of achievements for completionists to tackle.

Predators is a faithful rendition of the source material, checking off all the gory boxes to satisfy even the headiest of cult followers. More importantly however, Predators successfully combines fun melee combat, light stealth gameplay and missions acutely based on the Predator arsenal to offer a different and engaging Predator gameplay experience on the iOS device. We only hope that future DLC can introduce more interesting level designs and additional missions to flesh out the existing content.

App Store Link: Predators, $2.99 (Universal App for iPhone & iPad).

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While there are tons of these daily free game sites out there, it's not often that the stars align resulting in three games of this caliber all being free at once. Standard freebie disclaimer is in place of course, with these games likely returning to their regular price very soon. Don't waste any time before snagging these.

Soul, Normally $1.99 – An iPhone adaption of a critically acclaimed XBOX Live Arcade indie game, Soul puts players in control of a soul escaping the body of a dead man. You must then use tilt controls to guide the soul out of the maze-like building to heaven. Gameplay isn't anything we haven't seen before, as the game is basically just a tilt controlled marble game with a whole lot of atmosphere.

Soul has some great art and sound design, but the random screaming doesn't take long to start to get annoying. Regardless, this is a really cool game, and at the current sale price of free, there's not much to not like about it.

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Spinzizzle, Normally 99¢ – Yeah there are a ton of matching games on the App Store, but Spinzizzle is definitely one of the better ones. You control a wheel filled with colored balls that you must rotate to make as many matches as possible. Once three or more balls line up, they get locked in to place and you can keep rotating the wheel to get even more matches.

I really liked Spinzizzle when I reviewed it, and I've recommended it to quite a few people who have asked me to suggest some matching games that offer a little more than your typical match three.

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ReBounce: Evolved Breaking, Normally $1.99 – We first discussed ReBounce on episode #10 of our podcast, then later went on to review the game, and admit we liked it a lot more than we initially expected. In ReBounce, you bounce a golden puck around on the game board, eliminating chains of orbs with each bounce. The game definitely has a Peggle feel to it, and the multiple game modes provide lots of variety.

If you like games with bouncing mechanics, clearing huge sections of objects on screen (intentionally or unintentionally), and online leaderboards via OpenFeint, look no further than ReBounce.

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