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With the holiday season upon us and the iTunes freeze halting any new games or updates from popping up, there’s been a severe lack of hard hitting iOS news to post about this week. So, with that in mind, we’re going to do what any self respecting website would do during a dry spell – post a cute cat video from YouTube. Everybody knows that cats are the dominating force of the internet, but in this instance, there is actually some relevance to what we do here at TouchArcade.

As pointed out by Halbrick on their Twitter, some crazy cat owner has gone and taught their furry feline friend how to play Fruit Ninja. A cat owner after my own heart, really. Check it out:

So here’s the thing: I actually think this cat might be better than I am at Fruit Ninja. I mean, sure, I’ve achieved higher scores than kitty has, but you can see how his (or her?) technique is nearly flawless, and it’s only a matter of time before my score is overtaken. Halfbrick also points out that their Fruit Ninja movie spinoff Fruit Ninja Puss’n Boots stars a cat, and this may possibly be the real life incarnation of that. Did Halfbrick go out of their way to train a cat to play Fruit Ninja in an elaborate scheme to start a viral video marketing campaign? Nah, probably not, but I’m nonetheless happy to be able to share in the cute cat video goodness.

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Two favorite franchises of the TouchArcade forums, Dungeon Hunter and Zenonia both had sequels drop during the Christmas flurry of releases. Both the good news and the bad news is that these games are totally free to play. Depending on which side of the free to play fence you’re sitting on, this is either great news or horrible news. I’m not sure there’s any wiggle room in between, if arguments on our forums and in iTunes reviews are any indication. In my opinion, regardless of how you feel about the whole free to play thing, both Dungeon Hunter and Zenonia come from a pedigree of games that are worth giving the benefit of the doubt to. They’re free to try, and who knows, you might not find their respective free to play mechanics that offensive… So I say, no harm in giving them a spin.

Dungeon Hunter hit in mid-2009 when we were still totally willing to overlook Gameloft being, well, Gameloft with their highly “inspired” games and were just beyond happy to get a great 3D dungeon crawler on the App Store. Dungeon Hunter 2 hit over a year later and improved upon the original in every way imaginable, most notably, adding online co-operative play.

Dungeon Hunter 3 [Free] departs from the traditional Dungeon Hunter formula in that it abandons all semblance of a story in exchange for a hoard mode which has become a surprisingly popular secondary game mode for all sorts of console games. Choose a class, kill everything as fast as you can, repeat. Like many “premium” games that make the “freemium” leap, progression feels artificially limited and grindy, unless you feel like opening your wallet. Still, if all you’re looking for is to bash some monsters faces in, Dungeon Hunter 3 will do the trick.

Similarly, Zenonia hit the App Store in early 2009, and even though the Korean RPG formula leans heavily on grinding, there wasn’t anything else available that came close to the gameplay offered. Iterative improvements were made both over Zenonia 2 and Zenonia 3 with new art, sound, classes, monsters, and more added with each jump in the series.

The recently released Zenonia 4 [Free] follows this trend, with a free to play mechanic sandwiched in. The controls feel just as clunky as every other Zenonia game, but just like previous installments, don’t take long to get used to. Zenonia 4 is the best looking Zenonia title as well, as it comes packed with full Retina Display graphics. Progression doesn’t feel any slower than other titles (which were never very fast) and the free to play mechanic hinges on a constant pressure to buy ZEN points which can be used to improve your character in basically every way you can imagine.

I just wish both of these games were available as a single purchase game, tuned to provide a fun gameplay experience from beginning to end instead of goading me to open my wallet or play for eternity. This seems to be the case for most of these “premium” games that make the free to play jump, so it’s not like the shift in gameplay should be news to anyone. Regardless, they are free to try, and we still likely won’t see any new games until next week…

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After getting together to pick our official best games of 2011, we also had our writers take a look back at the last year and compile lists of their personal favorites along with their reasons why.

Free to play hit in an even bigger way in 2011, and personally, I wouldn’t mind if the bottom fell out of that whole market in 2012. Here’s the thing: we all love the idea of a free game, but the constant micro-level cash exchanges that these titles usually require aren’t good for gaming as a whole.

We often pay for free-to-play games to skip the game part of the game. This is disastrous, and it’s also bad game design. Instead of focusing on creating sharp and satisfying titles with a beginning, middle, and end, these studios are artfully creating games designed to juice the user. Free to play game design all too often hinges on piling on enough tedium and other garbage to get players reaching for their wallets, and the game only “ends” when the player gets tired of playing (and paying).

The premises of some of these games are compelling and the social hooks are often fun, so people are willing to spend a bit of cash to keep the action going or one-up their friends. This core audience, though, probably doesn’t know a thing about good games like, say, Sword & Sworcery or The Blocks Cometh.

My personal favorites list this year is a shout-out to the App Store titles that I have spent the most time with and don’t have a single free-to-play mechanic. All five are as balanced as any other great game and boast a wealth of content to interact with and to puzzle out. These are satisfying games that show a tremendous amount of creativity in the space. They’re helping to move the medium forward and keep it as popular as it is.

Bumpy Road, $2.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Virtual control sticks or on-screen UI is endlessly frustrating to me because of games like Bumpy Road. Simogo, now one of my favorite developers, crafted a game in 2011 that not only was grippingly beautiful and artistic, but also endlessly fun to play without a d-pad. Its bread and butter is the direct interaction with the game’s environment, which gives you a level of control that rivals what you could do with a controller if it appeared on consoles. Intuitive, simple, and graceful — you’ve got to see this one and experience it.

Rebuild, $2.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Let’s get this out of the way, first: Rebuild looks like a flash title, and yeah, it was at one point. But it’s also mind-numbingly brilliant as a strategy game. It requires the same kind of skill and crisis management you’d expect in a Civilization and then marries that with the town-building of any other simulation out there. Aside from some of the mechanical novelties, what really makes this a delight is its infinite re-playability and vision. This isn’t a game about winning clean; it’s about survival at whatever cost.

EPOCH., $2.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Cover mechanics in most cover-based games are usually boring. They’re a means to get into the act of what’s actually fun: the shooting. One of the cooler aspects of Epoch is that its cover mechanic is entertaining. Jumping, diving, and slamming into barriers is particularly athletic and requires some thoughtfulness. I also dig the writing; instead of force feeding you a story, Epoch invites you to discover it yourself.

Whale Trail, $0.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Whale Trail is kinda tragic because of its sillily weak price, but let’s put that aside for a second. For me, this was easily the best flyer of the year, as it combines some brilliant one-touch controls to atmospherically insane visuals. I love the production side of this game from head-to-toe, but the game part is smooth, furious, and easily playable in spurts between whatever you’re doing.

Machinarium, $4.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Like Sword & Sworcery, Machinarium is a delightful mash-up of experiential production married to solid point-and-click adventure play. Sure, this leans a lot more on the latter, but it’s still delightfully fresh as far as these kinds of games go. It has some awesome puzzles, a beautiful art style, and runs pretty well on iPad 2.

Our game of the year, Sword & Sworcery and our runner-up, Anomaly Warzone Earth, are also two brilliant examples of games that are moving the genre forward while offering everything players could want — at one price, period.

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This week on The TouchArcade Show we kinda forget to talk about things like, say, using our iPads on the toilet. Instead, the first half of our show is dedicated solely to our internal Game of the Year debate. We go through all five of our finalists in detail, and then we reveal specifically what game won and why.

If you haven’t noticed, this little bit of information isn’t on the main page just yet, so this is EXCLUSIVE content exclusively for our exclusive listeners. Exclusive, exclusive, exclusive.

iTunes Link: The TouchArcade Show
Zune Marketplace: TouchArcade.com Podcasts
RSS Feed: The TouchArcade Show
Direct Link: TouchArcadeShow-031.mp3, 41MB

At the back-end, we do fit in a Kitty Korner for all your earholes. In the second half, we tackle some of this week’s less-than-awesome news and then fly straight into your user questions. Speaking of which, we need more so feel free to fire us an e-mail. Podcast@toucharcade.com is where to send ‘em.

Here are you show notes:

GAMES

• Infinity Blade 2 [$6.99]
• Mage Gauntlet [$2.99]
• Sword & Sworcery [$4.99]
• LostWinds [$3.99]
• Anomaly: Warzone Earth [$.99 / UHD]
• SpellTower [$.99]

JARED’S KITTY KORNER

• Longcat Love Adventure [$.99]

NEWS

• ‘Final Fantasy Tactics’ Gets Retina Update
• iMAME Appears On The App Store / iDOS Returns
• Remedy Open To Doing Another Game / ‘Death Rally’ Multiplayer Update Is Go

We won’t see you again until next week, so we wanted to take the chance to say happy holidays and we wish you the best in the coming year. Thanks for tuning in and being awesome, by the way, and know this: we’re going to rock 2012, dawgs.

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Each year before Christmas we’ve put up a buyer’s guide listing the best iOS titles of the year. Looking back at the 2009 Buyer’s Guide and the 2010 Buyer’s Guide, we’ve come a long way. Below you’ll find all of 5 star rated iOS titles, as well as the standout 4.5 star games.

If you just opened an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad for Christmas, this is a great place to get started. To make this list a little easier to digest, we’ve broken these games into a few very vague categories. Oh, and if you also opened an iCade this Christmas, don’t forget to check out our list of iCade supported games.

Casual

Tiny Wings, $0.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – It’s not every day that Angry Birds gets knocked to the #2 position on the top sales charts, but Tiny Wings did it. It comes packed with delightfully simple single button gameplay that even kids could enjoy along with increasingly difficult goals that even hardcore gamers will find challenging. Get this game, now.

Angry Birds Rio, $0.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – As easy as it is to groan at Angry Birds Rio getting a 5 star rating, it’s a fantastic game. It obviously takes the original Angry Birds formula and builds on top of it with the Rio tie in, boss battles, and some spruced up interface elements. There’s also a few extra layers of parallax scrolling that really make this version of Angry Birds look much better than the others as well.

Bumpy Road, $2.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – It’s not often that a game comes along in the App Store that makes you think, “Wow, why didn’t someone think of this sooner?”. Bumpy Road is just that kind of game. The control system to control the game world rather than the car is remarkably clever, and since its initial release it’s even seen some update love from the developers.

Tiny Tower, Free – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – NimbleBit set some sky high expectations with Pocket Frogs [Free], their previous (and first) foray into the free to play world. I’d go as far as to say that Tiny Tower is even better, as it has completely taken over my household.

Temple Run, Free – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Imangi Studios doesn’t release games all that often, but when they do, they sure are good. Temple Run takes the endless runner formula, adds a third person chase viewpoint, some tilt mechanics, and heaps of power ups to cheat death. Additionally, Temple Run was voted the forum game of the week when it was first released.

Platformer

EDGE Extended, $2.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – We thought the original Edge was incredible, and Extended somehow takes that same game formula, applies a substantial layer of awesome, then knocks it out of the park. Clever platforming mechanics combined with fantastic music really just create an experience that you can’t miss.

Bring Me Sandwiches!!, $0.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Adult Swim is batting 1000 lately with fabulous iOS games, and Bring Me Sandwiches!! keeps that tradition going strong. It’s a cross between the collect-everything-you-see gameplay of Katamari Damacy with a platformer game. Additionally, tons of control schemes make the game great to play no matter what your control preference might be.

Sonic CD, $2.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Here we have the best installment of one of the greatest gaming franchises, which received both flawless review scores and game of the year awards when it was originally released ported with complete perfection to iOS. This is a game you flat out need to buy if you even vaguely consider yourself an iOS gamer. Not only because it’s such an impeccable port of an important piece of gaming history, but because we need to vote with our wallets to tell Sega (and anyone else who might be watching) that this is the quality we demand out of retro games brought to the App Store.

Whale Trail, $0.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Most games you can plot along a line graph with “gameplay” on one end and “presentation” on the other. The best games wind up somewhere in the middle, and Whale Trail definitely sits deep into the “presentation” side of things. Still, the game looks fantastic, and the incredibly vibrant graphics almost make you forget the gameplay is so simple.

Wind-up Knight, $0.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Picture Super Mario Bros. Got a nice image in your head? Good. Now imagine Mario could never stop moving and would only change direction if he hit a wall. A little tougher. And what if absolutely everything could kill him in one hit, and there was no such thing as a checkpoint? That sounds like the sort of game that would have you cursing, spitting, and contemplating throwing your controller, and it also sounds a lot like Wind-up Knight.

Adventure

Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, $4.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – This is the closest thing to what we’d call a “system seller” of a video game since the iPad was originally released. Sword & Sworcery is an absolutely incredible experience, a thought that has not only been shared by the gaming press, but also the mainstream media as well. If you have an iOS device and $5 to your name, there’s no excuse not to spend it on this game. If you don’t want to fork over a couple bucks more for the universal version, Sword & Sworcery Micro [$2.99] is just what the doctor ordered.

Machinarium, $4.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – This game generated a heck of a lot of controversy when it was revealed that it’d only run on the iPad 2 only, which had us more than a little worried about its performance if it requires top-end hardware. It turns out, Machinarium runs fantastically, despite its Adobe Air-based innards. If you’ve got the hardware, don’t miss this remarkably clever adventure.

Aquaria, $4.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Imagine if a Metroidvania went underwater with a fantastic touch-based control scheme. That’s what Aquaria is in a nutshell, but you’ve got to appreciate its fine touches and vision even if its formula doesn’t jive with you.

Retro

Forget-Me-Not, $1.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – In our review we called Forget-Me-Not the “retrolicious lovechild of PAC-MAN and Rogue,” and I’m really struggling with a better way to describe the game. An amazing scoring system combines with fantastic retro graphics that only bolster how much fun Forget-Me-Not is to play. If the thought of PAC-MAN combined with dungeon crawling at all piques your interest, stop what you’re doing and download Forget-Me-Not immediately.

The Last Rocket, $2.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Retro-inspired games are fairly common on the App Store, but The Last Rocket is one of the best examples we’ve seen of a modern-day title that could have easily passed as an absolutely fabulous NES game. The Graphics and music are all delightfully 8-bit, but even without all these retro trimmings the gameplay could stand on its own.

Velocispider, $1.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – This fantastic tilt-controlled shooter has sucked up entirely too much of our time. With nods to retro shooters like Space Invaders, awesome pixel art, and universal compatibility Velocispider is simply fantastic.

Another World – 20th Anniversary, $4.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – It’s hard to find a game on the App Store with more history behind it than Another World. Touch-based controls (as well as an optional virtual D-pad) along with both original and remastered graphics make for an outstanding port of this classic adventure game.

Role Playing

Infinity Blade II, $6.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – We put incredibly powerful devices in our pockets and on our laps daily, but rarely do we see games that utterly embrace this like Infinity Blade 2 has. It’s a showcase piece; a technically and visually gifted game that consistently delivers eye-popping stuff. The gameplay is great, too.

Mage Gauntlet, $2.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Almost too many games lean on pixel art and chip tunes just because it’s in style, but Mage Gauntlet draws inspiration from that era and allows it to permeate every aspect of the game. If you have any fond memories of Super Nintendo-era action RPGs, don’t miss this game.

Pocket RPG, $2.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Crescent Moon Games’ latest is this awesome spin on entirely randomized Roguelike gameplay mixed with the action-packed style of a dual stick shooter. It’s a combination that works incredibly well, and being entirely randomized, is infinitely replayable. If you don’t feel like springing for the universal version, there’s also a cheaper Pocket RPG iPhone Edition [99¢].

Strategy / Sim

King of Dragon Pass, $7.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – No lie, I’ve spent more time playing this game than all the other games that we reviewed in September combined. If my exhaustive review wasn’t clear enough, here’s all you need to know: If you like simulation games, you needed King of Dragon Pass on your iPhone yesterday. I’ve still got my fingers crossed for an iPad version, but I’m more than happy managing my clan whenever I’ve got a few seconds to spare on my iPhone.

Great Little War Game, $1.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – As mentioned in our review, this game is anything but little. Great Little War Game is a turn-based strategy game that we consider a must have for anyone even vaguely interested in the genre. The developers are remarkably active in our community, and thus far GLWG’s updates have been fantastic, both in implementing new features as well as forum feedback.

Pocket Academy, $1.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – It seems like ever since Game Dev Story [$1.99 we just can't get enough of Kairosoft simulations. This one in particular puts you in charge of a school, and while many of the mechanics might not be immediately apparent, once the game grabs you, it doesn't let go.

Tiny Heroes, $1.99 - [Review] – [Forum Thread] – geoDefense and geoDefense Swarm cranked tower defense on the App Store up to 11, and, dare I say it, Tiny Heroes makes a great attempt to crank it to 12. Or, at least, 11 and a half. This fantasy-based tower defense title should not be missed by anyone who even vaguely fancies the genre.

Sid Meier’s Pirates! for iPad, $1.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – This pirate sim is a game with a ton of history behind it, and 2K Games did a marvelous job of porting it to the iPad. It has depth on top of depth, and will keep you busy for quite some time if it manages to suck you in. We’ve got our fingers crossed for more ports like this of incredible games that work phenomenally on the iPad.

Anomaly Warzone Earth, $0.99 / HD – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Who knew that turning tower defense in reverse would make for such an incredible game? If you’re even vaguely interested in anything to do to tower defense, Anomaly: Warzone Earth needs to be on your iOS device. The mechanics are solid, the atmosphere is cool, and it’ll leave you wanting for a sequel.

Action / Shooter

Dead Space™, $0.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – “Console quality” is a phrase that’s thrown around a lot to describe portable games, and really, it’s a fitting title for this iOS-exclusive version of Dead Space. We tend to prefer Dead Space for iPad [$9.99] over its iPhone counterpart, but both are fantastic games that should be a part of your collection.

Battleheart, $2.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – This single player game perfectly combines everything that’s good about complex party-based realtime battles found in MMO-style games with wonderfully simple and intuitive touch controls. Multiple character classes are included, as well as equipment upgrades. It’s incredible just how much flexibility there is for tweaking your party and how you play the game. Battleheart is fantastic on the iPhone, but you can’t miss it if you own an iPad.

THE KING OF FIGHTERS-i-, $2.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Back in the day of the arcade fighter arms wars, it was Street Fighter versus The King of Fighters with as fierce of a rivalry among gamers as arguing Nintendo vs. Sega. KoF has arrived on the App Store, and it’s every bit as good as its Street Fighter, although it remains to be seen if they’ll match the online play found in Volt.

Jetpack Joyride, Free – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – This is our favorite game of the month, as this endless power-up packed single-button flying game is responsible for sapping days of productivity across the entire TouchArcade staff. There are so many hooks to keep you playing that you can do “one more game” for hours through achievements, missions, unlockables, and all sorts of cosmetic customizations.

Bug Heroes, Free – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Much like how Dungeon Raid took typical match three gameplay and made it awesome, Bug Heroes takes the dual stick shooter to the next level. The core of the game is based around the typical dual stick shooter formula, but multiple playable characters (each with strengths and weaknesses) as well as elements of both castle and tower defense make this a game that everyone needs to check out. Just keep in mind, it will be very difficult to go back to your basic survival-mode dual stick shooter after this.

Zombieville USA 2, $0.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Tightly-constructed, well-executed, charming, different and entertaining are all words we freely use when describing Zombieville 2. It’s a near perfect iterative entry to the franchise, as it artfully hones in on and turns up the volume on the two best parts of the original: the shooting and upgrade models.

Grand Theft Auto 3, $2.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Even though GTA 3 wasn’t designed for virtual controls, you’ll have a great time with it, even if all you do is drive around Liberty City listening to the fantastic in-game radio stations. (My favorite is the talk station.) As you become more accustomed with the splattering of virtual buttons all over the screen, you’ll find hours upon hours of content to plow through. Having played GTA3 to completion many times in the past, I’m incredibly happy to be able to take it anywhere with me on my phone of all things.

Bug Princess, $4.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Aside from a few small quibbles, Bug Princess offers yet another stellar entry in CAVE’s series of iOS shooters. It’s probably the most straight forward and least complex out of them all, which makes it a great starting point for bullet hell newbies, but it does have its share of depth for those looking to master its strategies.

STREET FIGHTER IV VOLT, $2.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Capcom is following their time honored tradition of relentlessly re-releasing Street Fighter with Street Fighter IV Volt. This time around there are three new characters as well as online multiplayer.

Dark Meadow, $5.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Atmospheric horror is a game genre that never really seems to translates to portable devices very well, but Phosphor Games did a great job of it with Dark Meadow. Set in a creepy hospital, and utilizing the Unreal Engine, the game looks and sounds great. A repetitive combat system drags down this otherwise fantastic title.

Puzzle

Where’s My Water?, $0.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – This super-fun liquid-centric physics game puts you in the driver seat of helping an alligator take a shower. Sure, it’s hard to come up with a more ridiculous premise, but maybe that’s part of this game’s charm. A wacky scrolling mechanic on some levels is the only thing we have to complain about, otherwise Where’s My Water is fabulous.

Dungeon Raid, $1.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – As mentioned in our review of the game, with the number of fish in the match three sea, it takes a lot to make one that’s just as fun (if not more so) than the match three staples like Bejeweled 2 and other classics. Dungeon Raid accomplishes this by distilling the Puzzle Quest formula down to its basics, and providing match three gameplay that retains its simple nature while offering a shocking amount of depth via random equipment and character upgrades. Also, there’s much more to matching than just high scoring, clearing each type of block has a purpose, and the order you clear them in can mean life or death. This game has stolen hours of my time, I can’t recommend it enough.

Casey’s Contraptions HD, $2.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – There are tons of contraption-building games on the App Store, but few are as good as Casey’s Contraptions. The theme of the game is gloriously whimsical, and you can spend hours delving through the clever and convoluted solutions your friends post via Game Center.

Gesundheit!, $0.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – This stealth-centric sneeze-powered puzzle game comes with fantastic controls, some of the best hand-drawn art we’ve seen in action on the App Store, and details like shadows moving relative to your iOS device’s gyroscope readings. We prefer the iPad version, but only because you’ll want as much screen real estate as possible to enjoy this game’s incredible art.

Wooords, $1.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Games where you search for words within a pre-defined set of letters have some serious roots, heck, this kind of puzzle was published in newspapers before video games even existed, and there’s a zillion variations on the App Store. Words totally impressed us with its slick presentation that feels less like playing a word game and more like moving magnetic letters around on a refrigerator.

SPY mouse, $0.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Firemint has managed to de-throne Angry Birds from the #1 position on the App Store with this line-drawing-powered stealth game. Collect cheese, evade cats, use various tricks, and even fight bosses. All the gameplay elements go together incredibly well, and Firemint even managed to remove a lot of things that have historically annoyed us about stealth games in the process.

SpellTower, $1.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Word games can still be fun. Elegant, clever and fun, SpellTower a complete package, brought together by Gage’s trademark use of cheerful colors, simple patterns and elegant typography.

iBlast Moki 2, $2.99 / Universal HD – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – This game sets the standard of what gamers should expect of sequels. It’s got familiar puzzle-centric physics mechanics of the original with tons of new features that add complexity and all kinds of new ways to solve puzzles. Additionally, a perfectly integrated solution system can show you how your friends completed a level if you get stuck.

Monsters Ate My Condo, $0.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Adult Swim and Pik Pok joined forces to bring us one of the craziest matching games we’ve ever seen on the App Store. The game requires matching similarly colored floors while appeasing nearby color-coded monsters, each with a more ridiculous super-power than the last. Also, you can score billions if you’re good. Billions!

Scribblenauts Remix, $0.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Originally released on the Nintendo DS, Scribblenauts is a game that’s so unique that you simply must play it. Remix combines the best elements from both of the DS games along with 10 iOS-exclusive levels. In addition, it’s even universal and boasts complete iCloud save syncing support.

Bejeweled Blitz, Free – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Popcap takes the glorious match-three mechanic of the classic puzzle franchise, pumps up the volume on the jewel and match bonuses, and then condenses it all down into frantic, one-minute bursts of eye-gasmic, point-laden play.

Sports

NBA JAM by EA SPORTS™, $0.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – iOS gamers really couldn’t ask for much more when it comes to EA’s port of NBA Jam… Multiplayer was even added in an update! All of the massive dunks and secret modes are intact, making this a surprisingly faithful port. EA even recently updated the game’s roster, bringing it in line with this NBA season.

Pocket HalfPipe, $2.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – This incredibly awesome skateboarding game is highly reminiscent of the halfpipe in the classic NES series Skate or Die, but with much better graphics and crazy dual stick controls that allow you to pull off all kinds of moves. The game could easily be described as basic, but it’s so much fun that we don’t care. The tricks you’ll be able to pull off after a bit of practice are cool, and stringing a massive chain together is hugely rewarding.

Fight Night Champion by EA Sports™, $0.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – A surprisingly competent boxing game that feels like an equal to its console counterpart instead of a typical watered-down mobile version. Great touch screen controls combine with different game modes to create a boxing experience that is among the best that the App Store has to offer.

Music

Groove Coaster, $0.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – There have been a ton of rhythm games released on the App Store, but none have the amazing presentation of Groove Coaster that almost makes it less of a game and more of an experience– And this is one experience you really can’t miss especially if you enjoyed its creator’s other game, Space Invaders Infinity Gene.

Radballs, Free – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – We fell in love with RadBalls inside of the first few seconds of the trailer, and by the time it was over we were ready to yield our first born to its creator. Oh, yeah, the game is fun as hell too. It’s a music-centric matching game that even allows you to use your own tracks. Check it out.

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Our ratings for games we reviewed in December are now in place, and we now present to you the ones that are on the top of the heap. Each game reviewed receives a 1-5 star rating relative to the other games from that month. Generally, a three-star or higher is considered a “good” rating.

Our final scores are not the product of any traditionally objective measures such as graphics or sound, but simply reflect the games we would most recommend to others. Keep in mind, this listing is comprised of games we reviewed in December, and not necessarily games that were specifically released in December.

5 Stars

Bejeweled Blitz, Free – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Popcap takes the glorious match-three mechanic of the classic puzzle franchise, pumps up the volume on the jewel and match bonuses, and then condenses it all down into frantic, one-minute bursts of eye-gasmic, point-laden play.

Sonic CD, $2.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Here we have the best installment of one of the greatest gaming franchises, which received both flawless review scores and game of the year awards when it was originally released ported with complete perfection to iOS. This is a game you flat out need to buy if you even vaguely consider yourself an iOS gamer. Not only because it’s such an impeccable port of an important piece of gaming history, but because we need to vote with our wallets to tell Sega (and anyone else who might be watching) that this is the quality we demand out of retro games brought to the App Store.

Wind-up Knight, $0.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Picture Super Mario Bros. Got a nice image in your head? Good. Now imagine Mario could never stop moving and would only change direction if he hit a wall. A little tougher. And what if absolutely everything could kill him in one hit, and there was no such thing as a checkpoint? That sounds like the sort of game that would have you cursing, spitting, and contemplating throwing your controller, and it also sounds a lot like Wind-up Knight.

4.5 Stars

Bag It!, $0.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – It’s rare to find a puzzle game that feels so fresh but also so obvious. I’ve never played a game about bagging groceries before, but why not? It should be mandatory training for everyone who moves out on their own, never mind the folks who work at grocers.

Don’t Run With a Plasma Sword, $0.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – From presentation to gameplay to overall fun factor, Don’t Run With a Plasma Sword simply shines. It’s got distinctive character and a great sense of humor. It’s also a treat to look at — great design, excellent color.

Zen Pinball, Free – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Pinball games have been great on iOS devices, and Zen Pinball is one of the best ones we’ve seen so far. It’s totally free to try, and if you like the game engine and the pinball physics (which you will), you can buy additional tables via IAP.

Containment: The Zombie Puzzler, $4.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Containment: The Zombie Puzzler for the iPad from Bootsnake Games is definitely not your typical match-3 game. In fact, you don’t even need to match three of anything. Instead, the goal is to surround zombies with cops, soldiers, scientists or punks.

Grand Theft Auto 3, $2.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Even though GTA 3 wasn’t designed for virtual controls, you’ll have a great time with it, even if all you do is drive around Liberty City listening to the fantastic in-game radio stations. (My favorite is the talk station.) As you become more accustomed with the splattering of virtual buttons all over the screen, you’ll find hours upon hours of content to plow through. Having played GTA3 to completion many times in the past, I’m incredibly happy to be able to take it anywhere with me on my phone of all things.

Bug Princess, $4.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Aside from a few small quibbles, Bug Princess offers yet another stellar entry in CAVE’s series of iOS shooters. It’s probably the most straight forward and least complex out of them all, which makes it a great starting point for bullet hell newbies, but it does have its share of depth for those looking to master its strategies.

Snow Fight, Free – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Snow Fight is a really fresh-feeling real-time strategy game, a fun re-imagining of Capture the Flag that engages you in wintry warfare against scrappy neighborhood kids in a kind of snow battle royale.

The rest of the game ratings can be seen in their respective rating categories (also found in the sidebar navigation): 5 Stars, 4.5 Stars, 4 Stars, 3.5 Stars, 3 Stars, and 2 Stars.

As always, we expect there will be some debate about relative scores, but keep in mind that everyone’s personal ratings may vary based on individual tastes.

For more of our favorite iOS games, check out our “Best iPhone Games” category which includes all of these monthly posts as well as other special compilations of the greatest games the App Store has to offer:

• So You Just Got an iPhone 4S… Here’s What You Need to Know!
• So You Just Got a Verizon iPhone… Let’s Get You Up To Speed!
• So You Just Got an iPhone 4 – An App Store Gaming Guide
• Best iPod Touch and iPhone Games: 2010 Buyer’s Guide
• 2010: TouchArcade Staff Favorites – Eli
• 2010: TouchArcade Staff Favorites – Blake
• 2010: TouchArcade Staff Favorites – Brad
• 2010: TouchArcade Staff Favorites – Jared
• Best iPod Touch and iPhone Games: 2009 Buyer’s Guide

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Normally, I would say “another day, another Chillingo physics puzzle game” as the developer pumps out these high quality iOS titles like it’s nothing, but then I had to take a moment to stop. After all, Home Sheep Home 2 [$0.99] is not just any puzzler, it’s a puzzler starring Shaun the Sheep from the Wallace & Gromit series, and if you have no idea what that is get off this website right now and go find out. It’s that good, and I don’t throw such idle threats around lightly.

The first Home Sheep Home title came out in May and earned a BAFTA award (see review here). Not too shabby since it started out as a free Flash game. Like the first game, Home Sheep Home 2 challenges the player to take charge of the three sheep Shaun, Timmy and Shirley and make their way through a series of levels. Fans of the original game that felt it needed more levels should be delighted that there are 40 in total to be explored here, so you should get more time out of it this go round.

Nothing about the format or controls has changed since the first game: Captivating, simple art with a hand-drawn vibe creates a homey kind of feeling. You control the three sheep and can swap between them with a touch of your finger on each character, or their icons up at the top right corner of the screen. A jump button on the bottom right and the rest of your menu on the top left round it all out, and the placement works well — nothing feels cluttered or in the way.

By figuring out how to get all three of your sheep to the sign at the end, you complete each level. There are collectible items such as socks along the way, which can affect your score, and you’ll also have a time and a star ranking at the end. Each level is quick to play in general, but you may find yourself wanting to go back and give it another go to try to improve your scoring.

Of course, the play is physics-based, so expect to be moving boxes and doing other such things to solve puzzles. The sheep can all jump over one another and even stack (although I do not recommend putting Shirley anywhere but the bottom on that one as she’s a bit large), and the puzzles are a bit more advanced than what the first game offered.

After you’ve plowed through all the levels available, you also earn the chance to check out bonus levels which present a bit more challenge. Each separate area has five of these, and I certainly found they took more effort to figure out, although they never reached maddening levels of difficulty.

It looks like many of you really looked forward to this title on the forums, and I can say that it’s taken all the concepts from the first game and made them bigger and better, and it doesn’t disappoint in its execution. While I did not encounter them personally, it’s worth noting that other players did report crashes on the iTunes shop page, but that fixes are already on the way.

Whether you wait for that to pick it up or take your chances, either way, this is a solid buy and one that will keep you smiling at your phone or iPad for hours. And as an extra touch, this is a Universal build — cheers for that!

TouchArcade Rating:

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Let’s wind back the clocks a bit so those of you who weren’t around for the great iDOS fiasco of 2010. It all started with Apple ever-so-slightly easing up on their approval guidelines which opened the floodgates for quite a few apps (such as the Google Voice apps) that seemed to eternally be trapped in approval limbo. Whether this had anything to do with iDOS or not is debatable, but it seems awfully coincidental otherwise. Anyway, on the morning of October 26th last year, iDOS hit the App Store. It was a shockingly full featured DOS emulator complete with keyboard and mouse support, as well as a basic virtual gamepad, multiple screen modes, and so much more.

The crazy part about iDOS is there seemed to be nearly no limit to what it was capable of. If you scroll down on this story you’ll even find someone successfully installing Microsoft Windows, within iDOS, on their iPad. iDOS was quickly pulled, then re-appeared in late January of this year with quite a bit of its functionality stripped. Regardless, people quickly figured out how to load things into iDOS, utilizing utilities like iExplorer and other Mac/Windows programs that allow you to fiddle with the file system of your iOS device. Once again, iDOS was removed from the App Store.

Yesterday, iDOS hit the App Store once again, this time as Aemula Oldies [Free] for the iPad and Aemula Oldies S [Free] for smaller screen devices. There’s also the Aemula Gamepad [99¢] which works a lot like the other gamepad apps and pairs with an iPad playing a game. It seems that the functionality has been stripped even further, as all the previous command line access has been traded for a simple menu to load the included games.

The freebies packed in with Aemula Oldies are Mille Bornes, Commander Keen 4: Secret of the Oracle, Duke Nukem, Dangerous Dave in the Haunted Mansion, Scorched Earth, CD-Man, The Catacomb Abyss, Bio Menace, Monster Bash, StarMines II: Planet of Mines, 4D Prince of Persia and CHAMP Kong. They all seem to work decently well, too.

I sort of think third time is the charm for iDOS, err, Aemula Oldies, as I’d imagine that there aren’t any holes for slipping other things to emulate in left anymore. Of course, I could be totally wrong on that, so if anyone figures out any tricks, be sure to let us know.

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A lot of people don’t like Square Enix’s App Store prices mainly because they’re so much higher than the norm. Good thing about the holidays, we guess, is that all of these prices tend to fall. And they have. Again. This year. Starting now and extending until after New Years Day, you can grab just about every Square Enix title at a much lower price. For example, Final Fantasy Tactics is $11.99 instead of $15.99. Another example: Chaos Rings Omega is $5.99 rather than $11.99.

Here’s a full list of what we’ve seen. Do note that Square is also offering up a bunch of actual apps at a lower cost, too. Just hit up its publisher page on iTunes to see those:

• Chaos Rings – $12.99 → $6.99
• Chaos Rings for iPad – $15.99 → $7.99
• Chaos Rings Omega – $11.99 → $5.99
• Chaos Rings Omega for iPad – $14.99 → $6.99
• Chocobo Panic – $3.99 → $1.99
• Cooking Mama – $6.99 → $3.99
• Crystal Defenders – $7.99 → $3.99
• Crystal Defenders for iPad – $7.99 → $3.99
• Final Fantasy I – $8.99 → $4.99
• Final Fantasy II – $8.99 → $4.99
• Final Fantasy III – $15.99 → $11.99
• Final Fantasy III for iPad – $16.99 → $12.99
• Final Fantasy Tactics – $15.99 → $11.99
• Groove Coaster – $2.99 → $.99
• Hills and Rivers Remain – $4.99 – $2.99
• Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light – $2.99 → $.99
• Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light for iPad – $4.99 → $.99
• Secret of Mana – $8.99 → $4.99
• Sliding Heroes – $.99 → Free
• Song Summoner: The Unsung Heroes – Encore – $9.99 → $4.99
• Space Invaders Infinity Gene – $4.99 → $2.99
• Summer Story – $8.99 → $3.99
• Vanguard Storm – $3.99 → $1.99
• Victorian Mysteries: The Moonstone – $1.99 → $.99
• Victorian Mysteries: The Moonstone for iPad – $2.99 → $.99
• Voice Fantasy – $2.99 → $.99

All the Taito stuff on sale are must-have kind of games, as we’ve mentioned many times before. Forced to pick a straight-up Square game, we’d say Final Fantasy III is probably the best value on the list. It’s a great game on iPad especially, and has enough touch hooks to feel decidedly less port-y than its other stuff.

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Hey, Shadowgun [$2.99] now has more content via an update. Madfinger has added an “expansion” to the overall package that directly follows the events in the core game. Overall, this new expansion contains a total of four new levels, as well as new little visual tweaks, a new gun, new collectibles, and a new enemy type. All for free, of course.

The update this was rolled in with also includes some fresh improvements for the same price: free. According to Madfinger, Shadowgun now sports improved “effects,” like, say, bullet trails and camera shakes. You can now also roll and apparently face freshly tuned enemies with freshly tuned guns courtesy of this thing, too.

We weren’t so hot on Shadowgun and this update doesn’t really change that viewpoint, but we’re pretty stoked for the pre-existing fans. This is the kind of update they wanted, and they totally got it.

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