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Today we got a chance to try Capcom's upcoming Dead Rising Mobile which is due for release next Thursday. I'm going to reserve most of my comments for our full review which will accompany the official release, but they've given us clearance to do a brief preview piece since we're so excited about the game. Let's start with a little backstory since quite a few of our readers aren't console gamers: Dead Rising for the Xbox 360 in late 2006 (which also recently saw a sequel released). It's a sandbox style game set in a shopping mall which is currently the site of an all-out zombie Apocalypse.

The game had a terrible save system, poor controls, horrible AI, and was generally a little buggy. However, none of this stopped the game from being something that was impossible to put down. Dead Rising was incredibly entertaining, because you could do the missions however you wanted, or just disregard them entirely. The name of the game in Dead Rising was improvised weaponry, and almost anything could be picked up and swung around at zombies. If you wanted, you could exclusively use guns, or dabble in the various melee weapons, or ignore conventional weapons and use only chairs and trash cans to make your way through the game.

Dead Rising Mobile comes packed with all the things that were bad about the original Dead Rising, with some issues that have even been magnified on the device. For instance, the already poor controls are even worse on the touch screen, and the general buggy nature of the Xbox 360 game persists with weird graphical glitches, clipping issues, and crazy camera angles. The objective system isn't very clear, the framerate is low (even on my iPhone 4) and it seems to take forever to load between areas.

The great thing is, none of this seems to matter because the Dead Rising formula is just so much fun. The appeal is hard to explain unless you've actually played it (which makes me hope Capcom eventually releases a lite version), but they've somehow managed to turn this expansive sandbox console game in to a mobile game that comes with enough elements from the original that it doesn't feel like a watered down port at all. The mall that makes up the game world is extensive, and after completing a few missions you begin to remember where the locations of your favorite weapons are, just like the original.

There's something incredibly satisfying about slaying entire swaths of zombies with a chair, running over mad zombies (beastly zombies that are stronger) with a lawn mower, and decapitating entire groups of zombies with an excellent chainsaw-driven spin attack… And just like the console version, you can either choose to follow the various missions, or just explore the mall on your own– Although, missions seem to award tons of experience, making leveling up difficult if you choose to disregard them.

We're going to be playing through the game more over the next week to provide a more in-depth look when it is finally released on Thursday, but so far we're impressed. Much like the original, if you can overlook the general buggy nature of the game and can deal with some lackluster controls, you're really going to be in for a treat of all out zombie mayhem.

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Character can be a dangerous thing. All the narrative, charm, or wit in the world can be churned into mush if the foundation it sits on is unsound. Games that are able to inject doses of character into their tried-and-true fundamentals are special. They're hard to put down, even harder to forget, and inarguably solid.

Corpse Craft [Free] manages to be this type of game. It's no-nonsense approach and mixture of two different genres works spectacularly well, while its clever veneer adds a delectable flavor to the play.

But let's start at the beginning, shall we? Corpse Craft is a castle vs castle title with a matching twist. The UI itself has a built-in matching-game puzzle board. Each color within this board represents a different kind of material that you can use to build your soldiers, which are represented in the game just above the UI. The more dramatic the match, the more materials you'll receive as a result.

Materials aren't figurative and the soldiers are people… sort of. The game draws its name its peculiar choice of castle vs castle troops: cobbled together, reanimated flesh. In a way, this is castle battle "Frankenstein" minus all that stupid "What is it to be human?" crap. Also, there's no stalking.

Once material is gathered, you can build a butcher knife-equipped attacker or even a mix-and-match consisting of a female's head held up by multiple hands. Later, you'll be able to build a disgusting rolling sphere of interconnected parts or defensive creatures with multiple arms.

What's important to get here is that each soldier has its own specialization, as well as a flaw. And while these guys are all separate, they do share one thing in common: a quirky, yet dark and original character.

The weird, but whimsical aesthetic is present throughout the title, soaking the atmosphere in its quirk. You'll notice that Corpse Craft has a delightful pen-and-ink approach reminiscent of Graham Annable's "Grickle." It's an approach that keeps the gruesome in the forefront, but doesn't dish out copious gore. The narrative follows the art's lead, presenting the macabre substance via grim singsong poems.

Since we're dealing with monsters here, it's only natural that there's a day and night mechanic. At night, your abominations can attack and defend at will. But during the day, the entire board is wiped clean of the reanimated, leaving you to gather resources until the next night falls.

Depending on how good you are, you may only see more than a dozen nights, as there appears to be around 16 levels in the game. I wish I could confirm this, but there's a sharp difficulty spike just beyond this "free" title's pay wall. (Yes, Corpse Craft is one of those "Buy the full game" games.) The AI in these later stages turns into corpse grinders, able to blast out many more soldiers than you can within short spurts. A good deal of strategy is required and, unfortunately, luck. I'll note though that nothing seems impossible to beat.

In addition to a campaign, there's a Survival Mode and an online component, which presents 1 vs. 1 or 2 vs. 2 play via Game Center. The online sounds cooler in theory than what it actually is. The simplicity of the matching component lends itself to spamming blocks for massive amounts of soldiers, which turns out not to be so grand when you, and not the AI, is on the receiving end of the punishment. Again, this is where luck rears its head. If you get a bad board, you'll probably lose since there's not much complexity to Corpse Craft.

Regardless, it's hard not to love Corpse Craft for solely for its slick character, so it's really nice that it sits on such a solid foundation. I've enjoyed my time with the game immensely and I expect many others will as well. Go ahead and give the game a download — you'll easily get a good enough indication of how much you'll dig the game before you hit its pay wall.

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Nintendo killed the bowling alley with its spin on the popular "throw spherical hard thing at cone-like hard things" sport in Wii Sports. Now, Freeverse is piling on the pain with its iPhone and iPod Touch game We Bowl [Free], which debuted on the App Store this December 2nd.

As you'd expect, We Bowl is a touch take on the sport, requiring little more than a finger swipe to send a three-holed ball down a virtual alley. The twist is in its avatar creation component, which houses a rather deep pool of items to put on your unique little bowler. And as you compete in the game, you'll unlock even more stuff to put on your fledgling bowler / drunkard / wife abuser, provided you don't opt to just buy items with your real, hard-earned cash.

We Bowl a simple and free game that we have no real problems with… except when we dig into the way they're presenting the game. "Why bowl boring when you can bowl gonzo," asks the game's curious slogan. We've been digging furiously through the game in an attempt to locate this indicated Muppet tie-in to no avail. Gonzo or his chickens — or even Kermit, Rawlf, or that cute little shrimp with the accent, for that matter — simply do not appear in We Bowl.

"Ludicrous!" we've cried to the skies with one fist cocked, the other firmly clenching our phones on numerous occasions. But no matter how frazzled, how depressed we get, we'll continue to try to locate this elusive connection. Muppets have got to be in the game somewhere, right?

Regardless of how you feel about bowling, Muppets, or the apparent lack of Muppets, the avatar system in We Bowl is really cool. We've been told that items you unlock in the game to pimp out your avatar will stay with your avatar across future Freeverse games that also utilize this avatar system. Of course since We Bowl is the only game that's using their avatars right now, we'll have to take Freeverse's word that my awesome Walter Sobchak looking avatar will persist.

Even if you're not interested in the bowling aspect of the game, the avatar system is flexible enough and fun enough that you can sink a stupid amount of time in to just building all kinds of different looking characters. Just keep in mind that We Bowl is a freemium game like the other We games, so expect some ads, in-app purchases, and all that fun stuff.

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Ever since it was announced that Battlefield Bad Company 2 would be coming to iOS, our forums have run rampant with speculation and anticipation. While the Halos and Call of Dutys of the world get most of the spotlight, the Battlefield franchise has had its own dedicated following of hardcore players for years. This same group of players is very keen on not having their beloved franchise butchered in the transition to iOS. At a recent EA Mobile event, I finally got the chance to actually play Battlefield Bad Company 2. While my overall impression of the game is positive, the good news also comes with some bad.

Let's start with the good. Bad Company 2 will feature a single player campaign comprised of 14 missions spread across the typical environments, such as snow, desert, jungle, etc. The missions can be quite lengthy and are full of a variety of different goals. You'll be able to drive several different vehicles during certain missions, including a tank, a turret-mounted armored truck, and a helicopter. The controls are spot-on, both on foot and while driving vehicles. They utilize the familiar "touch anywhere" virtual analog setup, with icons for throwing grenades, crouching, and aiming down your sights. It's all very minimalist and unobtrusive, letting you get a good view of the action taking place.

The graphics in Bad Company 2 have been largely criticized in our forums ever since EA released screenshots of the game. After seeing the game in person though, the criticism is unwarranted. Bad Company 2 looks great and runs smoothly, and while it doesn't quite approach the visuals of something like Modern Combat 2 [$6.99], it's certainly far from a bad looking game. It runs in high resolution with detailed weapon models and environments. It won't blow your mind, but it exceeded my expectations.

So, are you ready for the bad news? First of all, the trademark destructible environments that Battlefield is known for will not be making it to this portable outing. That's not entirely surprising given that this is game running on a mobile device and the technology to offer something like that would be quite taxing. Still, I did have my fingers crossed that they would find a way to pull it off, but it just wasn't meant to be. At least not in this release. You'll come across vehicles that can be blown up and explosive barrels and the like, but the majority of structures and objects will not be affected by the carnage.

The other somewhat disappointing aspect to Bad Company 2 is the multiplayer. It's online over WiFi or 3G, or local over Bluetooth, but will only support 2-4 players in regular deathmatch and team deathmatch game types. Again, this is a far cry from the competition, but that doesn't mean it won't end up being fun. Also, as of this writing vehicles will not be a part of the multiplayer, which is another trademark of the Battlefield franchise. I'm told that it's something that is under consideration and could change in the future, but the game will most likely ship without this feature. Another thing that was unclear during the preview was whether there is any sort of class structure to choose from, but my gut feeling is that there isn't.

A rep from EA was kind enough to let me film her as she demonstrated a bit of the single player campaign in Battlefield. While a noisy, dimly lit bar isn't the ideal recording location this video should give you and idea of some of the game mechanics:

Even with these negative points there is a saving grace with Battlefield Bad Company 2, and that is that the game is a blast to play. It's easy to get wrapped up in bullet points and feature sets when talking about a game, and it would be hard for anything to measure up to the current high-water mark in iOS FPS games that is Modern Combat 2. But the bottom line is that even in the short amount of time I spent with Bad Company 2 it was a lot of fun. The multiplayer seems a bit basic, but I'm really looking forward to the single player campaign. Plus this is EA's first attempt at an FPS for the iPhone, so there's the possibility that the experience will be improved over time with updates or in future releases.

Bad Company 2 is slated for release sometime this month, so it won't be long before we can put the final version through the wringer. Until then you can join in on the active discussion in our forums, and we'll bring you more of Battlefield Bad Company 2 when it hits in the coming weeks.

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Earlier this week Zynga sent out some curious invitations to a conference call to various members of the media, including TouchArcade. That left us scratching our heads to see what exactly it was that Zynga was up to that could possibly interest us. I was half expecting them to reveal plans to bring more games to iOS following the success of Farmville [Free] on the App Store, but this took me completely by surprise.

Zynga has acquired NewToy, the developers behind both Words with Friends [$2.99 / Free] and Chess with Friends [$2.99 / Free]. Where things really get interesting is when you consider that NewToy collaborated with ngmoco to release We Rule [Free] back in March, which has since been reskinned several times in various themes. Ngmoco has since been bought by Japanese social gaming conglomerate DeNA, which currently is one of Zynga's biggest competitors in the social gaming realm.

While many of our readers are (understandably) getting tired of freemium time sinks, it is incredibly interesting watching the international business battle unfold between all of these companies making untold millions on microtransactions and ad impressions. We're not sure yet what this will mean for NewToy other than a shiny new titles for the higher-ups at NewToy as well as the rebranding of NewToy to "Zynga With Friends." Like all these previous high-dollar dealings, it will be fun to see what happens once the dust of the acquisition settles.

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Faithful followers of TouchArcade know this song and dance all too well by now. It seems that the cool thing to do is to set the release date of your game to a Thursday. This means that as soon as Thursday crosses the international date line, games become available in New Zealand. They then slowly filter out to the rest of the international App Store markets as it becomes Thursday for other people, until finally showing up in the US App Store at 11:00 PM EST Wednesday night. This creates a few awesome phenomenons such as everyone cluttering up every game thread with anticipation waiting for things to appear in their neck of the woods, and us having little to do on Monday and Tuesday, but I digress.

This week's haul of releases isn't anywhere near as huge as I was expecting, but we've heard from several developers that today was the last day to submit a game to have it approved before the end of the year. Next week will be insane with the release of Infinity Blade, and the first onslaught of pre-holiday approvals. We've already got a thread in our forum with some people estimating they'll be spending $100+ this month on iPhone games that's worth checking out if you want to get yourself hyped up for future releases.

Rockband Reloaded, $4.99 – Even more Rockband action. This time around you'll be able to sing along as well. Reloaded comes with 29 "free" songs, and additional songs available via in-app purchase.

Backbreaker 2: Vengeance, $2.99 – Similar to the previous Backbreaker, players run down the field attempting to avoid being tacked. A new game mode turns the tables and has you doing the tackling, and new obstacles have been implemented that you must jump over.

Hooga, 99¢ – A caveman platformer that reminds us a lot of Bonk's Adventure. It comes with a bunch of weapons, power-ups, and other goodies. If the controls work well, it should be really fun.

Miro: Color The World!, 99¢ – A physics-powered rolling game. From the looks of it, you're timed by how quickly you can roll around an object to color the world (as the title hints). 25 levels and online leaderboards are included.

Plant Tycoon, Free – I'm not really sure what to think about this game, as I dumped hours of my life in to it on my Palm Treo. It was a great game, with tons of history, which really has my scratching my head as to why it's free. Hopefully it's not laden with consumable DLC required for progression.

Kosmo Spin, 99¢ – The art style of this game is dripping with charm, and the game itself is packed with various objectives and achievements which hopefully will keep the seemingly basic gameplay fresh.

Scarlett and the Spark of Life: Scarlett Adventures Episode 1, $2.99 – A episodic point and click adventure game that's promising both an angry princess with a crowbar and a talking horse with a god complex. These types of games have worked very well on the platform, and I'm excited to play through this one.

All of the above links should begin working as soon as the games are available for download in your region except for Rockband Reloaded, as EA typically releases an international version and a US version of their games for some reason. We'll be taking a closer look at these games throughout the day.

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A couple of weeks ago we took a look at a teaser video for GameResort's Downhill Bowling 2 [Free], the sequel to the well-received Downhill Bowling [$2.99/Lite] that launched way back in January of '09. Earlier today, the game was released in the App Store as a free, ad-supported download. Downhill Bowling 2 has just about everything you would want from a sequel if you were a fan of the original game, but also has a few drawbacks that are hard to overlook. Still, it's a fun game that will keep you occupied for quite some time before conquering all it has to offer, and is worth a look.

The core gameplay in Downhill Bowling 2 remains the same as its predecessor. You steer a bowling ball using tilt or touch controls as it barrels down an outdoor course filled with all sorts of interesting obstacles and hazards. Throughout each course there are ten sets of bowling pins which you will need to knock down in between collecting coins, gems, and powerups. When you finally reach the end of the line, your score is tallied up based on how many pins you were able to knock down as well as how much loot you were able to collect.

It's a formula that worked well in the original Downhill Bowling, and comes with some enhancements in this sequel. The biggest addition is that you can now jump with your bowling ball, which allows for some more interesting level designs with various platforms and hazards which must be leapt over as you go. It almost feels like a third-person platformer at times, which is pretty cool. There's also some nice powerups you can grab which help you on your plight, like a rocket that boosts your speed or an item that turns you into a disco ball that doubles your collected points.

The game takes place in three distinct environments – Green Mountain, Wild West, and The Cave. There are 10 levels in Green Mountain, but unfortunately only one level each for the other two areas. It's obvious that GameResort will be adding additional levels to these environments, but it's still kind of a tease to only have one level in them currently. Levels are unlocked using coins that are collected during play, or if you are impatient, you can purchase packs of 1000 coins for a dollar each. The environments are much more lively and detailed than the original game, though sadly are not optimized for Retina Display. You also don't ever seem to gain as much speed in any of the levels as you did in the first game, which is unfortunate but just a minor gripe.

By far the thing I like least about Downhill Bowling 2 is the inability to disable the iAds. I'm all for the ad-supported model, but please give me a way to pay to get rid of them if I choose. GameResort has stated in our forums that they will consider this issue, as well as all other player feedback, for future updates. Aside from that quibble there is a lot to like about Downhill Bowling 2. Twelve well designed levels with Game Center integration for leaderboards and achievements, and more levels in the pipeline. As a free download, it's definitely worth checking out Downhill Bowling 2, especially if you enjoyed the first.

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Well here is a nice surprise. With Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and whatever other combinations of buzz words/days of the week you can concoct now come and gone, developer Halfbrick Studios still has a monster deal up their sleeve for thrifty shoppers. The iPad native version of their multi-million selling Fruit Ninja franchise has just dropped down to 99¢ for an extremely limited time. 24 hours limited, to be exact.

Most everyone is familiar with Fruit Ninja by now, as well as Halfbrick's penchant for releasing multiple updates that add new features to their games. Most recently, a brand new Arcade mode was added to both Fruit Ninja and Fruit Ninja HD earlier this month, and last September the iPhone version received head-to-head online multiplayer through Game Center. With the recent release of iOS 4.2, the iPad now has Game Center functionality and Halfbrick should be releasing a similar multiplayer update to Fruit Ninja HD soon.

If the recent holiday sale of Fruit Ninja HD for $2.99 still hadn't convinced you to pick up the title, then chances are that you will not be able to resist picking it up for 99¢. The price was just changed and is filtering throughout Apple's servers, so if you don't see 99¢ right away make sure to keep checking.

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Well, as far as strange releases go, EA Mobile's Heroes Lore nearly takes the cake. Back in September, we posted a video from German iPhone site iFun.de that showed an iOS version of the Heroes Lore franchise, an RPG series that has been hugely popular on cell phones in Asian markets for several years. Then early last month, EA released some new details and screenshots, indeed confirming that the title would be coming to iOS as Heroes Lore: Stigmata of Gaia.

Literally the very next day, the international version of Heroes Lore: Stigmata of Gaia was released, which basically meant that everywhere except the US and Canada could buy the game. It is pretty typical practice for EA and some other publishers to release region specific versions of their games, and sometimes this means that the releases of the various versions gets staggered from the rest. Usually this only means a matter of days before the game is available in all territories, so we waited. And waited. And waited some more.

Now, just shy of two full months after the international version's release, Heroes Lore has finally hit the US and Canadian App Stores. Interestingly, and for reasons unknown, the Stigmata of Gaia subtitle has been dropped and the North American version is officially known as Heroes of Lore III [$1.99].

There is a ton of information and impressions available in the thread in our forums from international players who have spent the last seven weeks playing the game, and have compared it to similar titles like the SEED and Zenonia series. So far opinions seem pretty polarized on Heroes Lore III, with some players really loving the game and others deleting it within minutes, so you may want to check out some forum impressions first to decide if this is your particular cup of tea before plunking down your loose change. If you were excited from the announcement two months ago, and your enthusiasm hasn't waned since, then make sure to check out Heroes Lore III in the US App Store.

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When Steve Jobs announced last month that the Mac would be getting its own App Store, we saw quite a few current iOS developers confirm that they would be bringing their iPhone and iPad products to the Mac. One of those products will be Majic Jungle Software's Chopper 2 [$4.99], a universal side-scrolling helicopter combat and rescue game that was released back in July and has since been quite successful.

We really enjoyed Chopper 2 in our full review, and while the gameplay itself is a lot of fun, we also found the array of options for displaying and playing the game to be rather intriguing. Chopper 2 comes equipped with the ability to remotely control the game running on an iPad, iPhone 4 or 4th generation iPod touch over Bluetooth or WiFi using another iOS device. We demonstrated this feature back in April with a video showing Chopper 2 being played on an iPad using an iPhone as the remote. Additionally, Chopper 2 uses the video out function of newer iOS devices to allow the game to be displayed on a larger screen while being controlled with an iPhone or iPod touch, as we posted about later that month showing the game running on a 42” plasma (or this video of it running on a 50” screen, if you're a "size matters" kind of person).

Now, with the impending Mac App Store release of Chopper 2, these features are once again being utilized. Developer David Frampton of Majic Jungle has shot a brief video in his ultra-high tech secret underground testing facility that shows the Mac version of Chopper 2 being controlled with an iPhone.

Also, while the original Chopper 2 is already quite visually pleasing, the Mac edition will benefit from enhanced graphics over its iOS siblings. These two comparison shots show the differences between the two versions (iPad screen on left, Mac on right. Click to enlarge):

Even though TouchArcade is primarily an iOS gaming site, we are also really excited to see what the new Mac App Store will bring to the table. The innovations included with Chopper 2 really tie together gaming on the Apple family of devices, and it will be really interesting to see what kinds of other things developers will think of in the future. We've created a new Upcoming Mac App Store Games section in our forums where you can get the scoop on what games will be coming to the Mac App Store, which should be launching sometime in the next couple of months.

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