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Most everyone who owns an iOS device has heard of Fruit Ninja by now. The definitive fruit slicing game debuted in April of last year, quickly rose up the ranks, and has maintained a steady position in the top of the App Store charts ever since. Fruit Ninja has been downloaded and enjoyed by millions of people, but I don't think any of those millions have taken their passion for the game quite as literally as the comedy group The Misunderstoods.

As Kotaku has pointed out, two members of that group have decided to try and find out what it would be like to be a "fruit ninja" in real life. Or perhaps they just couldn't afford an iOS device and wanted to join in on the fun. Either way, the results are pretty hilarious.

Note: Both of these videos contain shirtless dudes and a couple of naughty words. Either of these things may not be suitable for your current viewing location. You have been warned.

Oh, hey there, pretty funny right? Since you seem to have made it past our first set of warnings, let me offer up one last one for you: Kids, don't try this at home. You don't need to be messing around with knives, destroying your mother's groceries and making a mess in the garage. Leave that to the professionals. For a safe way to be a fruit ninja, grab a copy of the game if you haven't already, as it's one of the most solid purchases you can make on the App Store.

[Via Kotaku]

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Last week indie developer James Gamble released his newest iOS game SpikeDislike [99¢], and I've been enjoying it a lot ever since (while simultaneously beating my head against the desk due to its difficulty). The goal is to move your bouncing ball to the right as far as possible while avoiding an endless series of spiky objects. As the name implies, you dislike these spikes, as hitting just one will instantly end your run. SpikeDislike is a game that is painfully simple to play, incredibly difficult to master, and even harder to put down.

Your ball will bounce automatically at its own pace, and holding down on the screen will advance it to the right. Spikes are set at various heights throughout the level, and each one you successfully jump over (or bounce under) will net you a single point. A gauge at the top will slowly decrease after clearing a spike, and quickly jumping additional spikes before the gauge runs out adds a combo to your score. Play continues in this fashion as you see how high of a score you can rack up before fatally running into one of the spikes.

It's so simple, yet strangely compelling. The single control mechanic works perfectly, so you always have good control of you ball. The difficulty lies in the risk/reward factor of the combo meter. Playing it safe and carefully jumping each spike one by one will ensure you live a long time, but you'll never approach a meaningful score in this fashion. Trying to move at a brisk pace so as to keep your combo going is what this game is all about, and you can reach some pretty insane scores if you manage to keep it up.

SpikeDislike originally launched with just a single game mode, but has already been updated with a lot more options. You can now choose from 3 overall difficulties, as well as 3 different speeds for the movement of your ball. There's the choice of two different paths of spike placements or the option of having them be randomly placed. Each combination of these options has its own high score associated with it, too. Additionally, there are 4 different graphical skins for the game, which are all various types of retro goodness.

SpikeDislike is one of those games that is frustratingly fun. Every time you die you know exactly what you did wrong, and it's both quick and easy to jump in and give it another shot making it hard to quit playing. The number one thing this game is missing is online scores, as it's just tailor-made for such a thing, and hopefully the developer can add Game Center functionality in the future. He is active in our forums taking in any feedback or suggestions, and although it won't be everybody's cup of tea, SpikeDislike is a simple and fun challenge that's worth checking out.

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A couple of weeks ago 5th World Media released Bouncer Boot Out [99¢] into the App Store. It's a fast-paced game built upon an extremely simple gameplay mechanic, and features a wonderful art style with a nice dose of humor. There isn't a ton of depth here, but I've been enjoying the gameplay which is perfect for quick bursts of play. The premise is that you play the bouncer at a series of different clubs who must sort the wheat from the chaff in an endless stream of partygoers trying to get in the entrance to the club. You do this by literally flicking the losers out of the line before they have a chance to enter, while letting all the hip, beautiful people inside. Yes it's a judgmental job, but somebody has to do it.

In the Timed mode of Bouncer Boot Out you have 90 seconds to work the front door. Each successful boot out earns you points, and you can even switch the position of people in line and group the unwanted guests together before flicking them out in unison to earn some combo points. Every time you let in an unwanted guest, or accidentally flick a cool person out of line, you'll lose points. There's even a cute little child that will occasionally try to skip her way into the club, and accidentally letting her through the door results in the round immediately ending.

There are 6 different clubs in Bouncer Boot Out, 5 of which start out locked, each with their own sets of unique patrons. New clubs are unlocked by meeting set score criteria in your persistent score total from previously played games. In addition to the Timed mode, there is also a Survival mode that can be played at any of the unlocked clubs. Here you will face an endless line of people that enter the club in an increasingly rapid fashion. You try to earn as high a score as possible before making 3 mistakes, which will bring the game to an end.

What makes playing Bouncer Boot Out so enjoyable is the humorous looking characters that are full of personality. There are 30 different characters, and although there is a visual indication of who to boot out of line at the beginning of a round, this quickly fades away and you must rely on visually recognizing who doesn't belong in line. It's easy to tell that the pregnant lady, blue-haired granny, and homeless fellow are amongst those who don't belong thanks to the great art. One drawback however is the lack of Retina Display support, and for a game with such a huge focus on visuals it would be nice to see this added in the future.

Besides the lack of Retina Display support, Bouncer Boot Out could really benefit from some sort of online high score tracking, such as Game Center. But even with these two shortcomings, it's still a really solid game. The art and music are excellent, the controls are super tight, and the gameplay is simple and well-suited to the touch screen. There's a lot of positive impressions in the discussion thread in our forums as well, and Bouncer Boot Out is recommended if you're looking for a fun high score game with loads of style.

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It's possible that Hamlet [$2.99 / Lite / HD] for iOS, is indeed "the last game without MMORPG features, shaders, and product placement" as its title suggests, so I wanted to at least give you a heads up about it. Publisher Alaware Entertainment has finished its porting work on the bizarre PC-based puzzle game and you can grab it now on the App Store.

The coolest thing about Hamlet is its take on "Hamlet." Sure, it’s been a couple of years since I’ve sat through those college level English Lit classes, but I’m pretty sure "Hamlet" had nothing to do with time travel. Or an alien with a light bulb on his head. Or guitars. Or crabs. Or tentacles.

As far as the game part goes, the execution is all over the place. Some puzzles are unguided pixel-by-pixel clickathons while others are straight-up bad. The "Corridor" puzzle in particular, which is your standard puzzle game maze construct, is so wildly obtuse that I’ve been struggling with it while using a guide. But if this kick-you-in-the-junk Flash approach (think Samorost) to puzzle design is your jam, I think Hamlet has a lot to offer you. And I do think it does have a few great things to share. The art style in particular is pleasing and some of the puzzles are indeed the kind of satisfying brain twisters that you want from a solid puzzle game.

The original designer of the game is connecting with our TA forum members and I’d imagine that thread is about to explode as more and more people learn about the game. A Lite version for the iPad and iPhone are indeed out there, so I definitely suggest giving them a shot before you buy. Also, a Retina screen update is apparently in the works, so look forward to that.

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Trilobyte's The 7th Guest [iPhone / iPad] is a game with a ton of history that is near and dear to our hearts here at TouchArcade. With that being said, it is an incredibly difficult game. When it was first released, in an era without instant access to sites like GameFAQs I remember being stumped on puzzles for days, or even weeks. Trilobyte decided to make things a little easier for gamers who find themselves stuck while playing 7th Guest by releasing The 7th Guest: Book of Secrets [99¢] a companion app which offers hints, solutions, and a full walkthrough of the puzzles in the game.

Now, I'm not entirely sure why you'd flip out a buck for this considering there are numerous free walkthroughs online. I suppose maybe if you mainly use your iPod touch and/or iPad offline, or you were roaming internationally with your iPhone and didn't want to pay international data rates… But regardless the release of this companion app has given me a good reason to say check out our 7th Guest review, and consider giving the game a shot if you want to see what the CD-ROM glory days were all about. It has even been updated since then to fix some issues mentioned in the review.

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When Pro Zombie Soccer [Free] was first released last summer, it was by far one of the most anticipated games on our forums. Developed by Super Awesome Hyper Dimensional Mega Team, Pro Zombie Soccer is an amusing spin on zombie slaying, in that you play as a soccer player named Jax and take aim with a soccer ball, kicking it in to legions of zombies. We explained in detail how this works in our review, but here's the basics:

By swiping up and down with your left hand you control Jax's shot angle, as you take aim at the approaching decaying horde. Releasing your thumb will let fly a thunderous kick, tearing apart zombie limbs with abandon before the ball graciously returns to your boot. It's a simple game mechanic that belays some pretty frantic action, particularly in the later game. Kicks can be charged by holding down your thumb before releasing, resulting in a power shot that is necessary to kill certain zombies. …Read More

Chillingo recently dropped the price of Pro Zombie Soccer to free to celebrate the launch of its iPad counterpart, Pro Zombie Soccer Apocalypse Edition [$1.99 / Lite]. The Apocalypse Edition seems to play identical to the iPhone version with the main difference being how much more you can see on screen at once. Like some HD versions, this one opts to use the additional screen real estate and resolution to keep the game elements the same size, and instead just display tons more at a time. This allows for some pretty crazy zombie battles as the screen gets completely filled with undead.

If you already own the iPhone version (or are downloading it free today), I'm not entirely sure how much reason there is to spring for the upgraded Apocalypse Edition. The new high resolution art looks great, and it's cool having more zombies on screen, but the gameplay is largely the same. Either way, you should totally download Pro Zombie Soccer while it's free, and if you're enjoying it on your iPad, consider grabbing the Apocalypse Edition.

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In late 2008, when App Store gaming was still fairly new, one title that we really liked was RealArcade's Tiki Towers [99¢/Free]. It was a bridge building physics puzzle game that took more than a few cues from World of Goo, but back then World of Goo was not available on iOS and Tiki Towers provided a similar experience that was executed well with cute graphics and clever level designs. Since that time we've seen additional titles in the same vein like Moonlights [$1.99/Lite], Bridge Odyssey [$4.99/Lite], and of course the official port of World of Goo [$4.99] for the iPad.

That hasn't stopped RealArcade from releasing a sequel, however, and more than two years later we now have Tiki Towers 2 [$4.99]. It doesn't stray too far from the formula of the original, and like any good sequel it builds upon its solid gameplay foundation by adding several welcome enhancements. There are 30 brand new levels to tackle in Tiki Towers 2, with a new overworld map system for accessing them. Some levels will have multiple exits which affect what path you take through the overworld.

Each level also tracks how many bamboo sticks you use in making your structure, with a reward for using less than a set amount. This feature was only available in the original after completing the entire game, but is a part of each level right from the beginning here and adds a nice dose of replayability beyond just collecting every banana when completing a level. Tiki Towers 2 also has improved graphics with more detailed environments and Retina Display support, as well as Game Center integration for unlocking 10 achievements.

If you enjoyed the first Tiki Towers, or even any of the previously mentioned similar games, then chances are you will enjoy Tiki Towers 2 as well. It isn't too different from the first game but the few improvements it does have fit into the original gameplay well, and it really is a lot of fun building precarious structures for your little monkeys to cross. One thing to note is that it does come in at a higher price than the original, but includes universal support for the iPad. There's a discussion thread with further impressions in our forums, and Tiki Towers 2 is a solid choice if you're looking for a fun new physics puzzler.

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Sega's Virtua Fighter series literally spawned the 3D fighting genre back in the early 90s. It has also been one of the most well-received and successful fighting game franchises of all time, spawning numerous sequels, alternate versions, and spinoffs over the past two decades. That's what makes tonight's release of Virtua Fighter 2 [$1.99] on the App Store so disappointing – it's not the highly refined arcade sequel to the groundbreaking Virtua Fighter, but rather its severely gimped Genesis version running in Sega's iOS Genesis emulator.

I have mixed feelings towards the iOS Genesis games. Some of the titles they choose to bring to the App Store turn out pretty good, and remain highly fun and playable even after many years have passed. Some, though, are completely ill-suited to a touch screen platform, and merely serve to scratch my nostalgia itch when needed. The Genesis version of Virtua Fighter 2 is neither of these.

Since the 16-bit Genesis was incapable of doing a 3D fighting game, Sega created a 2D version of Virtua Fighter 2 for its popular home console to take advantage of the huge popularity of the Virtua Fighter series in arcades. It only slightly resembles its arcade counterpart, and honestly it wasn't even that good of a 2D fighter when it released 15 years ago. It completely baffles me that Sega would opt to bring such a poor example of one of its strongest brands to iOS rather than the excellent arcade version, or at least the Sega Saturn version, both of which should be totally possible with the iOS hardware.

This is a random YouTube video of the Genesis version, just so there's no mistaking what the gameplay is like if you're curious about picking up the game:

Chances are there are some folks out there who never knew the beauty that was the Virtua Fighter series in arcades, but had Virtua Fighter 2 on their Genesis and played the snot out of it back in the day. To those people you will be happy to know you can now carry that experience around in your pocket, running fairly smoothly inside of Sega's no-frills emulator. There's even a nifty Bluetooth local multiplayer mode for you. Unfortunately I am not one of those people, and in fact, I don't even know anybody who is. The forum discussion has echoed a similar disappointment to my own, and I can only hope that someday we will see a proper version of a Virtua Fighter game on the App Store.

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I'm not entirely sure what to even say about this. We post our fair share of iPhone game videos, so we know full well just how much time goes in to shooting, processing, and uploading gameplay video (and generally speaking our videos are only a couple minutes long). So when a TouchArcade forum member decides to post three whole hours worth of gameplay footage, split in to fourteen parts, well… That deserves some recognition. I suppose technically this is a Aralon: Sword and Shadow [$9.99] speed run as well, as the whole thing is completed in three hours, stopping only to do quests that are vital to the main plot line of the game.

Here is the first installment of the series:

Here's the complete series, in its full fourteen part glory: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14! Aiti1980, that's some serious dedication. Anyway, if you've yet to play Aralon, you can now watch three hours of YouTube video, or better yet, check out our review and give the game a download. It's an incredibly impressive open world RPG that's still one of the most talked about games on our forums and recently received an update adding a spirit wolf companion to the ranger class along with a bunch of other fixes and tweaks.

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I'm not entirely sure what to even call Today I Die Again [Free]. I suppose technically it's a puzzle game, maybe, because you need to figure out what you need to do in order to "complete" it. Really though, it just seems like a really well done interactive poem. It won't take you much more than ten minutes to get all the way through it, and I'm really reluctant to even explain how it "plays" because discovering each component is all part of the experience.

If this trailer piques your interest, stop what you're doing right now and download the game:

Today I Die Again is a beautifully succinct journey that I won't soon forget. Unfortunately, because it's free, all kinds of people are downloading the game who both don't get it and don't appreciate it… So if you value your sanity, don't check the iTunes reviews. Also be sure not to read any more about the game than this article before you play through it, as I really think this is one of those things that's so much better to go in to not even knowing what to expect.

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