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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Today Gameloft revealed another upcoming game via their YouTube channel. Not much is known yet about Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Shadow Vanguard other than it's a tactical FPS, but that much was safe to assume given the rest of the Rainbow Six series. The original Rainbow Six game was released all the way back in 1998 and has since spawned tons of sequels all generally revolving around rescuing hostages, thwarting terrorists, and doing other special operations kind of things. Shadow Vanguard will likely feature similar gameplay, and controls similar to that of other Gameloft FPS games.

Check out the teaser trailer starring faux newscaster Ross Halpert, which is both surprisingly corny and curiously devoid of any actual gameplay footage:

No further details have been announced. Although, historically looking at how Gameloft operates, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Shadow Vanguard will likely be available in the next few weeks for somewhere in between $4.99 and $6.99. I've enjoyed Rainbow Six games on consoles in the past, and am anxious to see how the series translates to iOS devices.

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Back in September developers Krabl and FDG Entertainment released the follow-up to the quirky platform puzzler Ynth [$2.99] titled Beyond Ynth [$2.99/HD]. The game used some interesting mechanics, tasking the player with rotating boxes of various sizes and shapes in order to get Kribl, the protagonist bug in the game, to the end of each level. Beyond Ynth had a wonderful art style with Retina Display graphics, clever level designs, and unique gameplay, all of which we noted in our review. About the only thing we didn't like was the oft-frustrating trial and error aspect of the game, something that was mostly remedied with a nifty rewind feature that was introduced in an update last month.

Now, in lieu of a proper lite version of Beyond Ynth, the developers are following in the footsteps of Angry Birds Seasons [99¢/HD] and Cut the Rope: Holiday Gift [Free] and have released a free holiday themed version of their game called Beyond Ynth Xmas Edition [Free/HD]. This free ad-supported version features a nice slice of what you would be getting with the full version. There's an entirely new Christmas story that takes place across five levels, Game Center integration, Retina Display support, and the new rewind feature.

The 5 levels in Beyond Ynth Xmas Edition don't last very long, but they do give you an idea of the types of gameplay you'll encounter should you choose to purchase the full version. The short Christmas story is fully voiced with cute hand-drawn cutscenes, and appropriately some of the levels take place in the snow, though the full version features desert and fire levels as well. There are separate versions for both iPhone/iPod touch and iPad, and if you've been wanting to get a taste of Beyond Ynth before deciding to plunk down the cash then give Beyond Ynth Xmas Edition a download.

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If you were App shopping around Thanksgiving, you probably gobbled up one of two of the usually-premium priced SEGA titles on sale. If you missed out for one reason or another, well, here's your second chance at correcting that egregious error. SEGA has slashed the prices on every single bit of content it has on the App Store. From Chu Chu Rocket HD to Streets of Rage, every SEGA published or developed title's price has been permanently dropped.

Now, you can grab titles like Shining Force and Ecco the Dolphin for a mere $.99, or even grab newer ports like Sonic The Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 for $6.99. In the interest of keeping you fully informed, here's a list, provided via SEGA's own blog, of all the Apps original and new prices:

Chu Chu Rocket: THEN: $4.99, NOW: $2.99
Chu Chu Rocket HD: THEN: $6.99, NOW: $4.99
Ecco the Dolphin: THEN: $2.99, NOW: $0.99
Golden Axe: THEN: $2.99, NOW: $0.99
Gunstar Heroes: THEN: $4.99, NOW: $2.99
Phantasy Star II: THEN: $4.99, NOW: $2.99
Shining Force: THEN: $2.99, NOW: $0.99
Super Monkey Ball 2: THEN: $5.99, NOW: $2.99
Super Monkey Ball 2 Sakura Edition: THEN: $7.99, NOW: $4.99
Sonic The Hedgehog 1: THEN: $5.99, NOW: $4.99
Sonic The Hedgehog 2: THEN: $5.99, NOW: $4.99
Sonic The Hedgehog 4 Episode 1: THEN: $9.99, NOW: $6.99
Streets of Rage: THEN: $2.99, NOW: $0.99

Of course, just because these games are on sale doesn't mean you should go on an all-out Sega buying bender. For example, as cool as Shining Force is, and as fun as it still remains, SEGA didn't optimize it for touch screens. Similarly, all of the emulated games were designed to be played with a physical controller, and your fun will be limited by your ability to adapt to using the virtual controls. So, be wise, be resourceful, and use our forums before you sink all your dough.

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We loved Beyond Ynth [$3.99 / HD] in our review, but went as far as to mention the fact that the game can be frustrating in the review title. Don't get me wrong, I love a good puzzle game that can leave me stumped at times, but needing to redo entire levels due to minor errors in execution caused my shiny new iPhone 4 to nearly become an airborne projectile more times than I'd care to admit. Before I get ahead of myself, here is a brief overview of the gameplay poached from our review:

Kribl (the bug you play as) will start at one side of a level and use a series of boxes to get to the exit on the other side. Boxes come in various shapes and sizes, and once you crawl inside of one you can tilt the box over by pushing on one of the inner walls. You'll “roll” these boxes by tilting them over and over to progress through the level. The puzzle element in Beyond Ynth comes from being able to align the openings of the boxes together so you can make your way from one to the other without accidentally getting yourself stuck. You must also think ahead in order to properly deal with the environmental hazards and other various objects present in each of the levels.

The gameplay mechanics work well, but later levels are incredibly brutal, and to say they test your patience is an understatement. FDG Entertainment thankfully came to the realization that the game could still be fun and difficult without being frustrating by introducing a new rewind system. When the upcoming 1.1 update lands, players will be able to rewind back up to a minute of play. Fall in some lava? No big deal, just hit rewind. They even have an awesome VHS-style effect when you do it:

The only catch? Your score gets reset to 0 as soon as you tap the rewind button. Otherwise, you can rewind whenever you want, as much as you want, with the only limit being that you can only go back up to a minute. I think this is a great compromise, because hardcore types shooting for high scores can still do that, and people like me, who just want to have fun playing through the game don't need to shout a series of expletives when I fall in lava inches from the level goal. In addition, 1.1 will come with Game Center support and onboard videos that show the solutions to the levels if you find yourself really stumped.

1.1 has already been submitted, and according to FDG, its release is "imminent".

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If you're lucky enough to live in New Zealand, these games are already all available. Otherwise, as the world turns and it slowly becomes Thursday in your neck of the woods, all of these games should appear for download on the App Store. For those of us who get our games from the US App Store, this means 11:00 PM EST tonight, or earlier if you're east of us.

Reckless Racing, $2.99 [Forum Thread] – We've had our hands all over Reckless Racing when it was previously known as Deliverace. The project got picked up by EA Mobile, and has seen several substantial improvements including multiple gameplay modes and even online multiplayer. Reckless Racing HD [$4.99] is also coming to the iPad, if you prefer your racin' on the big screen.

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Angry Birds Halloween, 99¢ [Forum Thread] – Rovio Mobile is apparently abandoning Chillingo with this self-published Halloween themed version of Angry Birds. 45 levels are included along with a new story of the golden egg of terror, and there's plenty of pumpkins to smash. Much like the original Angry Birds an iPad version is available in a separate download as Angry Birds Halloween HD [$1.99].

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Samurai II: Vengeance, $2.99 [Forum Thread] – This universal ultra-gory hack and slash is also being released tonight, and with how great the original looked, I really can't wait to see this game in action on the iPad. They're even promising 60 FPS frame rates at Retina Display resolutions on newer devices.

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Other games being released tonight include Gameloft's Modern Combat 2: Black Pegasus HD [$9.99] and a sequel to Namco's Brain Exercise with Dr. Kawashima [$4.99 / Lite] cleverly titled More Brain Exercise with Dr. Kawashima [$4.99]. Keep an eye out for more coverage and reviews on these games later this evening.

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Fans of cinematic interactive movie titles in the style of the Don Bluth classics Dragon's Lair and Space Ace might just sit up and smile at Digital Leisure's recent iPhone release, a port of ReadySoft's 1995 action adventure BrainDead 13 [App Store].

Stylistically extremely similar to the earlier Bluth classics, BrainDead 13 isn't a laserdisc title was never an arcade fixture; ReadySoft released it for DOS initially, with various CD console ports coming soon after. And sage animator Bluth had nothing to do with it.

The story goes like this: The main character is a computer geek named Lance (your on-screen avatar). One day Lance takes a call to go fix a broken super-computer in a rather sinister looking old castle. While there, he learns of the evil villain Dr. Neuro Neurosis' (a snake-like, disembodied brain and spinal cord) diabolical plan to take over the world. Your objective is to guide Lance through the castle, evading Neurosis' bumbling henchman Fritz, in a bid to defeat the evil mastermind, saving the world and getting out of the castle in one piece.

The first thing you'll notice in playing the game is that it really does feel a lot like Dragon's Lair and its ilk. Being a fully digital production, the original game's visuals running on a DOS box or Sega Saturn, would suffer as compared to those of its laserdisc-based forebears. But, running on the iPhone's comparatively small screen, there's little difference in the visual quality of Braindead 13 as compared to the iPhone ports of Dragon's Lair and Space Ace, which themselves are digital conversions, of course. And it's not as if graphics assets were sacrificed in bringing the title to the iPhone — the game is a 575MB download.

Game controls are rather simple; an onscreen controle rose to the right sends Lance in the desired direction, while an action button on the left causes him to perform the task appropriate to the moment. And, as in the aforementioned laserdisc titles, the whole thing about this game really is timing…which you'll more likely than not achieve with lots and lots of trial and error. Though, as compared to Dragon's Lair, there is a bit more granularity to the possibly pathways / choices in the game, and timing, though key, is a little more forgiving.

See the developer's iPhone game trailer, and have a look at a bit of footage of the Atari Jaguar CD version to see more of the action.

BrainDead 13 follows the play style of some pretty oldschool classics and, as such, it feels like a retro title. Which is fine, but make sure you're on board with this type of gameplay before opening your wallet. (After all, though awesome, Dragon's Lair is available as a DVD-player game — all you need is L/R/U/D and an action button…) That said, I'm having a pretty great time with this one, so far.

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Back when Gameloft's Modern Combat: Sandstorm [$4.99 / Lite / HD] was first released, in our review we called it one of the most impressive gaming experiences we've seen so far on the platform, but it wasn't long before it was inevitably bested by other first person shooters (some even released by Gameloft themselves) on the fast paced market of the App Store. Gameloft ups the ante once again with Modern Combat 2: Black Pegasus [$6.99], a game that is by far their most blatant carbon copy yet, but is executed so masterfully that it hardly seems to matter.

If you've played Infinity Ward's Modern Warfare 2, you'll know exactly what to expect out of Modern Combat 2. Single player consists of a similar mixture of combat scenarios that follow the typical plot line of hunting terrorists. Objectives are varied and involve some light stealth elements, protecting caravans, escaping from or infiltrating enemy installations, and others. However, just because this has all been done before in other games (and even to some extent in the original Modern Combat), it doesn't make playing through the single player campaign any less fun– in fact, it's a blast to play through.

The default normal difficulty is incredibly forgiving, with the same health regeneration that has practically become standard in first person shooters. Modern Combat 2 also has an aim assist system that will snap your crosshairs on to nearby targets, taking a lot of the frustration out of controlling the game. In addition, an arrow on the top of the screen constantly points to where you should be going. Of course, if you don't need your hand held, you can crank up the difficulty and turn off all the assist systems– resulting in a surprisingly challenging campaign.

One of the best things about Gameloft games is their incredible consistency when it comes to all the little things that you don't usually notice unless a game lacks them. For instance, you're able to completely customize your controls and the locations of interface elements on screen. You can control your music without leaving the game or even visiting a submenu, it saves your progress when you close the game for any reason and resumes instantly, and when you pause, it displays the time and your battery level. Modern Combat 2 has all this and more, adding to the near-perfect technical execution of the game. Also, if you're playing on an iPhone 4 or 4th generation iPod touch, you'll be able to enjoy optional gyroscope controls and full Retina Display graphics.

Unfortunately, this also means if you play a lot of Gameloft games, you'll also notice many similarities that can ruin your immersion. For example, the quick time event sequences used for your spider sense in Spider-Man: Total Mayhem [$6.99] has since turned in to slow motion interactive cut scenes where you need to tap specific areas of the screen to do things like avoid an explosion, an incoming knife, or grab a ledge. Quite of a few of the events that take place in the incredibly scripted single player campaign feel recycled, and it seems like far too often you're using the familiar mounted turret gun to defend against an oncoming swarm of bad guys. However, once again, all these mechanics go together so well in Modern Combat 2 that they're not much of a distraction even if you stop and notice them.

Much like Modern Warfare 2, the single player campaign in Modern Combat 2 almost seems secondary to the extensive online multiplayer included. Gameloft is boasting MC2 as providing "the most comprehensive FPS multiplayer experience on the App Store," and that's a claim that is hard to argue with. It's almost like Gameloft internally distributed copies of Modern Warfare 2 and simply said, "Make this, but for the iPhone." Initially, you might groan at just how obvious the similarities are, but all that will quickly wash away when you realize just how awesome it all is and how an experience bar with tons of unlockables serves as an unbelievable carrot on a stick, keeping you playing for hours on end without even realizing it.

Seemingly every positive action you make in an online game awards experience. Headshots, kills, assists, revenge kills, and other things result in an explosion of experience points in the center of your screen. Eventually you level up, unlocking new ranks, weapons, and kill messages which work just like the Modern Warfare 2 title and emblem system and displays little tag lines on the screen of the person you killed. (However, unlike Modern Warfare 2, endless drug references are nowhere to be found.)

Multiple game modes are included, and all are a lot of fun. Both standard and team-based deathmatch makes an appearance, as well as a capture the flag and diffuse the bomb game mode. Whatever you play, it will be with up to ten players at once either locally or online. Online multiplayer works incredibly well, and aside from a few rogue disconnects I haven't had any issues playing game after game.

It remains to be seen how much post-launch support Gameloft will provide Black Pegasus. I'd really love to see Game Center supported for matchmaking, as finding friends online with Gameloft Live is a chore and I've really been looking forward to not needing to worry about what everyone's Plus+/OpenFeint/Gameloft Live/Crystal/Agon/etc. names are. Also, I'd love to see more multiplayer maps or even additional ranks and weapons to unlock either via some kind of DLC pack or available as a free update.

As I mentioned previously, Modern Combat 2: Black Pegasus is Gameloft's most blatant clone yet. However, there is absolutely nothing like it on the App Store. Without a doubt, this is a game that absolutely every fan of Modern Warfare 2 should have on their iPhone. The single player, while entirely cliche, is extremely fun to play through and the online multiplayer is incredible. Our forum members have been going crazy over the game, and as it stands, Modern Combat 2 is the king of iPhone first person shooters. For now, anyway.

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Last week we reported that premier '80s game studio Elite Systems would soon begin bringing classic ZX Spectrum game titles to iOS (via emulation) with the coming release of ZX Spectrum: Elite Collection (Vol. #1) [App Store]. This weekend the game went live in the App Store, shortly following a press release issued by Elite, meant to manage expectations of the unreleased title.

In the release, Elite's Steve Wilcox said,

The media and consumer reaction to the announcement, in late September, of Apple's approval of ZX Spectrum: Elite Collection has been extensive and enthusiastic. Our concerns now are to ensure that both groups understand that Vol. #1 of the App is a work in-progress, a rough diamond if you like and that we're committed to developing the App (eliminating some of its more obvious shortcomings and adding new features) over the weeks and months ahead.
…
If we're to achieve our goal of offering (and enabling others to offer) access – via mobile and wireless devices – to many of the thousands of fantastic ZX Spectrum games, we need to restore some order to the market and adjust expectations amongst developers, publishers and players.

Wilcox promises that the application will always be priced at £0.59 (Euro 0.79, US $0.99) and that within a month, six more game will be released via a free update (Vol. #2), with a further free update to come within the following month (Vol. #3), bringing with it an in-app game shop.

This Volume 1 release features the following six popular Spectrum titles:

• Turbo Esprit
• Saboteur
• Chuckie Egg
• Harrier Attack
• Frank Bruno's Boxing
• Buggy Boy

The bundled games in this release features on-screen, directional "key" controls configured for each specific title. Gameplay can be carried out in either portrait or landscape mode, depending on player preference. Audio is fully reproduced, as well, bringing the Spectrum's lavish soundscape to discerning iPhone gamers. (A bit of wit there…)

See Elite's brief trailer video.

I've not yet spent a great deal of time with this one, but can say that the emulation seems to be running games at full ZX Spectrum speed. (And I'm happy to say I've not hit a single R Tape loading error.) We'll be following Elite's progressive releases in this series closely.

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Just a little more than a year ago, indie developer Krabl released a quirky puzzle platforming game with interesting mechanics titled Ynth [$2.99]. You controlled a tiny bug who rotated boxes from the inside in order to traverse a hazardous marshland. In our review of Ynth, we noted that the game was clever with cute graphics and plenty of content, but the trial and error factor of completing levels could be really frustrating. Now, Krabl and FDG Entertainment have collaborated to bring a sequel to the original game called Beyond Ynth [$3.99/HD]. It still retains some of the frustration factors of the first game but also expands on it in every way and ends up being a fun puzzler with a tremendous amount of content.

Beyond Ynth uses beautiful graphics that are optimized for Retina Display. An illustrated story with voiceovers explains the tale of the main character, the tiny bug named Kribl, as you progress through the game. Beyond Ynth takes place in four distinct environments – forest, volcanic, desert, and snow. Each environment has its own hazard to deal with, like getting burned by the sun in the desert or freezing in the snow when you are out of a box for too long. There are 80 levels to play through across each of the environments, accessed from an overhead map. The levels are more openly accessible with at least a few available to play at any given time, rather than the linear progression found in the original Ynth.

The core gameplay remains the same in Beyond Ynth. Kribl will start at one side of a level and use a series of boxes to get to the exit on the other side. Boxes come in various shapes and sizes, and once you crawl inside of one you can tilt the box over by pushing on one of the inner walls. You'll “roll” these boxes by tilting them over and over to progress through the level. The puzzle element in Beyond Ynth comes from being able to align the openings of the boxes together so you can make your way from one to the other without accidentally getting yourself stuck. You must also think ahead in order to properly deal with the environmental hazards and other various objects present in each of the levels.

The entire game is incredibly unique and each level is cleverly designed from beginning to end. As mentioned, however, it can be pretty tough figuring out how to advance past a certain part, and the instant death from touching a hazard that causes you to restart the level can wear pretty thin after a while. There's nothing more frustrating than meticulously working through a level only to suddenly die near the end and have to start over. Moving in the boxes can be slow-going, and it sometimes feels overly tedious to play through the same sections over and over just to get to the point you were previously stuck at. Each level also has a set of diamonds that can be collected in order to earn a medal, and some of these diamonds seem nearly impossible to collect which adds greatly to the challenge.

While this may sound pretty negative, I actually really like Beyond Ynth a lot. The artistic style and story are really charming and you can't help but appreciate how cleverly designed some of the levels are. For me, it's best taken in small doses though, and if I'm feeling frustrated with a certain level I'll try a different one or take a break from the game altogether. With 80 levels to play through plus the added replayability of obtaining gold medals for each one, Beyond Ynth will keep you busy for a long time. There's also achievements and leaderboards tracked through OpenFeint, with Game Center integration set to appear with the game's first update. There are already a lot of players enjoying the game in our forums, so if you like puzzle or platforming games and have a fair amount of patience, Beyond Ynth is worth taking a look at and is definitely a huge leap forward from the original game.

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