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One of the finest puzzle platformers on the App Store, Mobigame’s Edge [ Free ], is currently free for a limited time. Edge was a standout release back in the early days of the App Store in late 2008, and then spent the better portion of the next two years battling a trademark dispute over its name.

Though the trademark dispute hogged many headlines during Edge’s lifespan, it was never lost on anybody that Edge itself was also a stellar game. If you somehow don’t already own Edge then you simply have to download it while it’s free to give it a try.

If you manage to complete all of the levels in the original Edge, a pseudo-sequel called Edge Extended [ $2.99 ] was released last year which added and improved upon many aspects of the original.

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Growing up as an avid Mac gamer in the 1990s, I was a huge fan of RPGs put out by the folks at Spiderweb Software. Not particularly known for their graphical prowess (even back then), these shareware games of old focused more on exploration, narrative and, most important, freedom. Avernum: Escape From The Pit [$9.99] is the second game from Spiderweb to hit iOS, serving as the pinnacle for these RPG tenets and should be looked at as a gold standard for iOS RPGs.

First, a brief history lesson is in order. Avernum for iPad is a remake of the 1999 Avernum title, which itself was a rewrite of the 1995 Mac shareware title Exile: Escape from the Pit. While each iteration brought visual and combat upgrades, the same open-ended exploration system remained. The same holds true for Avernum for iPad, which receives overhauls in both its visual and character/battle systems.

In Avernum: Escape From the Pit, the Empire rules the surface. Anyone that crosses this oppressive regime is banished to underground region of Avernum, a world unto itself that replaces the sun with luminescent moss and the sky with endless caverns. The world, along with all its inhabitants comes to life in the game’s deep narrative which could easily span its own novel. It’s this world that you’re violently thrown into, and it’s in this world that you are free to do what you wish.

It’s this freedom that makes Avernum such a compelling and enjoyable experience. From the moment you customize your four person party at the onset, you are allowed to do what you wish. Sure, you are presented with some overarching decisions as you spend more time in the world (complete with three separate endings), but like all great RPGs, the true reward is in the journey. Whether you choose to be a willing asset of the struggling makeshift kingdom in Avernum, a lone wanderer trying to make do in the cavernous wild, or an agent of destruction and chaos, all paths are available in this title.

In terms of character development, there’re attributes, abilities and traits to customize, each being open to all characters. You really can’t appreciate the sheer amount of options you have as opposed to most other RPGs as a plethora of weapons, armor, abilities and spells supplement the core character stats mentioned above. Fans of the original Avernum series will notice that some of the skills have been streamlined. However, the options have been consolidated for the better, preserving the majority of the customizability while making the game far more accessible.

For those looking for a rundown of Avernum’s gameplay, you need not look any further than our review of Avadon: The Black Fortress, Spiderweb Software’s initial iOS offering that debuted last year. The same isometric, turn-based combat system returns, complete with various difficulties, an auto-save function and a new collection of achievements to earn. As with Avadon, the touch-based control system works well enough, although there are occasions of imprecise tapping, making your characters potentially act in ways you did not mean.

One of the side effects of open-ended gameplay is a shift in exploration and gameplay style. In the world of Avernum, you can and most likely will run into areas that you simply should have not stumbled onto. Enemy fortresses may have hidden rooms (complete with warning signs) featuring overpowered enemies that may wipe your party out. This leads to a lot of saving/reloading as well as a lot of backtracking should you choose to return to previously visited locales to beat that one powerful demon. Fans of streamlined experiences may balk at this gameplay style, but I love the variety as it sets the tone of Avernum as a chaotic world that isn’t as clear-cut as it may appear.

As we mentioned earlier, Spiderweb Software games are homages to classic 90s RPGs in many aspects. That includes the visuals and music, which are simplistic and work just enough to provide ambience. And yet, there were many occasions while playing in which I felt far more attached to the events unfolding than I have while playing any ‘next-gen’ RPG. The amount of effort and care put into the narrative, quests and even level design create an atmosphere that is sorely missed in other titles (assuming you’re willing to lend an able imagination to fill in the gaps).

While Avadon served as a streamlined ‘introductory’ experience to the world of classic RPGs, Avernum (as evidenced above) removes all the handholding in order to create a more open-ended experience. I believe this choice makes Avernum the more fulfilling and satisfying title, as well. The storytelling, customization, and sheer amount of content make this RPG a true powerhouse on iOS. There’s also a certain amount of nostalgic satisfaction as newer gamers are able to experience a world made popular during the Mac shareware golden age. While there will undoubtedly be some who turn away because of the retro look and feel, a truly rewarding experience awaits anyone else willing to dive into the pit.

TouchArcade Rating:

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Fans of 2D Minecraft-ing on iOS have had it pretty good with the excellent Junk Jack [$2.99/Lite], but the developers at Bytebin Studios want to know what would happen if you take a similar Terraria/Minecraft sandbox idea, placed it in a steampunk setting, and let everyone connect to one giant persistent world together online MMO style. The result is Deepworld, and you can get a pretty good idea of what it’s like in this new gameplay trailer.

Deepworld is in an alpha state but is close to entering beta, and as the game stands right now it contains procedurally generated worlds, a robust crafting system, a day/night cycle and weather effects, and a limited number of enemies. It will also be coming out for Mac, and since the game world is stored in the cloud, there will be cross-platform play between the iOS and Mac versions.

Longer-term goals for Deepworld are a dynamic ecosystem that can be dilapidated and brought back to health, a steam-based power source for creating vehicles and machines, and social game types like Capture the Flag and Freeze Tag. While the idea of something like Deepworld is certainly intriguing, it’s also incredibly ambitious for an iOS title. I’ll feel much better once the initial product gets released and I can actually try it out, and much like Junk Jack or Minecraft itself, Deepworld will likely evolve over time.

It sounds like Deepworld is set to initially launch pretty soon, and we’ll keep an eye out for a specific release date. Until then you can swing by our forums to talk about the game.

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Crescent Moon Games’ Paper Monsters [ Free ] hit the App Store earlier this year, and we liked it quite a bit in our review. It’s a slick looking platformer that’s highly inspired by the Mario series, and it wouldn’t be that big of a stretch to make some Little Big Planet comparisons. Regardless, it’s a load of fun, and is available for free on the App Store right now.

I dig the boss battles, the auto-running dash mode is cool, and the game has a great overall feel. If you don’t have it already, make sure you snag it during this promotion.

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We’ve been following the upcoming Jetpack Joyride [ Free ] update since we first caught wind of it back at GDC. Since then Halfbrick has been slowly teasing additional gadgets that are going to be included in the soon-to-be-released update.

Here’s the latest:

In a nutshell, gadgets are going to work sort of like the perk system in Call of Duty and other similar games where you can mix and match two persistent bonuses. It sounds like it’s going to add even more replay value to the game as players slowly figure out which two gadgets they like pairing together.

If all goes as planned, the update should be landing sometime later this month.

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If the latest Call of Duty hasn’t replaced Battlefield 3 in your disc tray yet, then we’d imagine this news could be exciting. EA has just released a companion app for the widely lauded PC and console shooter. It’s an interesting one, too, as it leverages EA’s Origin to bring in a much more meaningful social component than we’re used to with these things. From EA Battlelog [Free], you can message your friends, view their progressions and compare it with your own, and see what servers they’re in. You can also view your own stats, monitor weapon progression, and see where you stand on the game’s leaderboards.

Battlefield 3 launched in October 2011, so this app is definitely coming in much, much later than we would have liked… but we’ve been kinda looking for an excuse to dive back into the game. Those helicopters aren’t going to crash themselves.

[Thanks, Jakub!]

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Galcon [ $1.99 ] creator Phil Hassey, who also released the poultry-themed Galcon parody Chickon [ Free ] on iOS this past November, has revealed his latest upcoming project which is titled Dynamite Jack. In it, you play as a Space Marine who has been captured in battle and enslaved by your enemies to work in a mine. Naturally, you don’t take kindly to this, so you set out to break free from the mine and defeat your captors.

Gameplay in Dynamite Jack is top-down and in “glorious 2D”, and totally looks like a mashup of elements from the classic Bomberman and Metal Gear series, perhaps with a dash of Syndicate thrown in there for good measure. Basically, it looks just about as awesome as you’d imagine that combination of games to be, as you can see for yourself in the game’s trailer.

Right now Dynamite Jack is shooting for a May launch on Mac and PC, but as Phil told me over Twitter, a port of the game to iPad following the desktop version launch is extremely likely, and he even makes special mention of it having iCade support. In another tweet, Phil says he built Dynamite Jack from the beginning with the iPad in mind, so the porting process should hopefully go pretty smoothly.

I’m really loving the look of Dynamite Jack based on the video, and I’ll be anxious to check it out when it hits the Mac and PC next month. As for the iOS port, it sounds like it will become a reality, and I’m sure we’ll have more information on that in the coming weeks.

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This week on The TouchArcade Show, we do another stellar job staying on topic — for the most part. At the top, we spend a good amount of time to the latest releases: Epic Astro Story, Puncho Fighto, and Burnout: Crash eat up a lot of our games section. Topics like the recent Kickstarter explosion and Magic: The Gathering on tablets round out the show. We also answer quite a few user e-mails, which we always appreciate.

If you’d like to listen this week, go ahead and do so via the handy links below. If you would rather get these things the easy way, feel free to subscribe to us on iTunes or, hey, even Zune. The subscription is free and automatic. It’s a win-win. Or something.

iTunes Link: The TouchArcade Show
Zune Marketplace: TouchArcade.com Podcasts
RSS Feed: The TouchArcade Show
Direct Link: TouchArcadeShow-047.mp3, 42.2MB

Here are your show notes:

GAMES

• Burnout Crash! [ $4.99 ]
• Puncho Fighto [ $0.99 ]
• Epic Astro Story [ $3.99 ]
• Blast Ball [ $1.99 ]
• Infinity Blade 2 [ $4.99 ]
• Kitten Sanctuary [$0.99 / Free ]

JARED’S KITTY KORNER

• LoveCat [ $1.99 ]

FRONT PAGE

• ‘Magic’ Coming To iPad
• 2XL’s ‘XLR8′ Isn’t a Game, But it Makes Driving Feel Like One

Also, this owns, thanks @mikemeade:

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The very first post on TouchArcade was over four years ago now, which, for those of you playing along at home, was before the iOS App Store even launched. (Heck, back then it wasn’t even iOS yet, and wouldn’t even be iOS for another two years.) We’ve been hard at work on our own app with the help of Flexibits and Bartelme Design for what seems like forever, and with it being unleashed to the world next week, I figured now was a great time to lay out the features and functionality of the app.

First off, the main screen (seen below and to the left) is what you see when you launch the app. It has a featured story, which usually will be whatever our last review was, or any other story that deserves some kind of special attention. To the right of that is the “Hot Games” list, which is a killer feature of the app. What you’re looking at here is a realtime display of the games that have generated the most interest in our community.

There’s a whole bunch of behind the scenes wizardry taking place to compute this list, utilizing tons of different data points to create a surprisingly accurate display of what the hottest games at the time are. The cool thing about this is that the list is constantly being updated. If you want to know what the most popular games amongst our community are at this exact moment, look no further than the hot games list.

The other views of the app share a similar look, and you’re able to really drill down on reviews for all the games we’ve looked at via a set of drop downs. So, for instance, if you wanted to see reviews of free action games posted in the last month. Totally doable. The “News & Reviews” function gives you a quick glance at all the content on the site. Oh, and if you decide to, you can even get push alerts when we post a new story.

Our forums are (obviously) huge for our community, so we’ve included forum integration in the app. Each thread display also features all the information you’d need about a game at a glance, with ratings from both the actual App Store as well as amongst our own users. You can even assign your own ratings just like you can on your browser. See the little slider with the binoculars? Things with the app get even better.

The watch list, much like the wish list in the AppShopper App [ Free ] is my favorite feature. By flipping the toggle switch seen above, you can add any game, regardless of whether or not it’s released. From there, you can see any stories that have been posted about that specific game. Also, if the push alerts for everything we post is a little too much for you, you can set the app to only send you alerts when articles that pertain directly to your watch list are posted.

So, if we post a preview for a game that interests you, all you’ve got to do is add it to your watch list, and you’ll get alerts for when it’s released, when we post a review, and potentially even if it ever gets updates or a price drop and we cover it.

The app also has tons of information about all the games on the App Store. Once you get into the actual details page of any game (which is accessible by numerous methods within the app) you’ll see our own review scores as well as the rating from out community, and you’ll be able to jump into any forum thread that pertains to the game. Also, obviously, any associated trailers or screenshots are there along with the iTunes text and anything we’ve posted about the game.

We’ve put a ton of work into the TouchArcade app, and we’re all really proud of what we’re about to release. There’s a number of other little features and settings that you’ll discover as you’re using it, but this is the core functionality of the app. We’ve been using it for months now to discover games to cover on the site, and we’re confident that it’ll become your go to app to find the latest and greatest games the App Store has to offer.

If everything goes as planned, it will be available for free, globally, next week.

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