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One glance at Jumping Knights [ $0.99 ] ought to pretty much explain the premise – it’s Doodle Jump with a tokidoki-inspired art style. I was expecting to pick it up, go a few rounds, and be able to name it as a clone and get on with my day. Except hours went by, and I was still playing, and thinking with tinges of guilt about the To Do list that I was ignoring. A little more time spent, and I had forgotten completely what a To Do list even was. Responsibilities? Don’t be silly, I just got sight of the princess, which means I’m getting closer. Who cares about grocery shopping?

Jumping Knights might share a lot of format similarities with Doodle Jump, but one can’t help feel it’s embroidered on the concept. In fact, Jumping Knights is actually one of those genre hybrids that I always tend to be so crazy about, a la Puzzle Quest. It takes a cute, cartoonlike world and puts you in the role of a determined little knight,  jumping from platform to platform with a trusty sword in hand. Just like Doodle Jump, control is managed by simply tilting the phone left and right.

As you go, the aim is to avoid falling, collect power-ups along the way that make your ascent easier, and to beat the bosses you meet at the top of each level in order to save a princess. It’s an action game, but it also has a taste of RPG spliced in since your character can gain levels. It also racks up items as you collect them, so you have a little inventory to use at will. There is no shortage of items either, so it’s a waste to try to hoard them in wait for the boss at the end. You’ll have more than enough to go around.

One area that Jumping Knights improves upon Doodle Jump is variety. Every time I played, I saw different power-ups, and I quickly learned that some were more rare than others. I looked forward to getting items like the kiss, which turns your eyes into hearts and sends you hurtling upwards into a momentary love frenzy. Or the dragon egg, which sets you upon a winged companion that soars towards the goal much more quickly than you can leap. Accompanied by basics such as shield power and weapons power-ups, it keeps you always aware of what’s coming next and what powers you always want to have at your disposal.

There are creepy crawlies in the world too, but they can be avoided fairly easily if you aren’t in a sword swinging mood. Bosses are a bit harder, but I wouldn’t call them difficult. “Suitably challenging” is probably a better descriptor, which means if you don’t defeat them, you don’t feel too frustrated to try again right away (which I consider to be a very good thing). The game is connected to Game Center as well, so you can go there and check out how many other players are whipping your ass.

Bouncy music, crisp and colorful graphics and a basic but effective formula make Jumping Knights the kind of thing that I immediately considered to be one of those games that I will never delete from my phone. When an entire game lasts 25 seconds, it’s all too easy to say “just one more round” and keep going. I did that about thirty times, until I realized that it had gotten dark outside and I had been trying to beat my high score for way too long. Not a deep experience, but when you need something to play for your commute or while you waste ten minutes waiting for your take out order, Jumping Knights is sure to please.

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We all saw some sort of legal drama incoming, right? The creator of Dragon Shout [Free], a brilliant map app for Bethesda’s radical open world RPG The Elder Scrolls 5: Sykrim, has received a copyright infringement notice from ZeniMax Media. In an e-mail to us, Blalock says that Apple isn’t making him remove the app, as “ZeniMax didn’t specify what the app is specifically violating.” Blalock hasn’t received a C&D yet and notes that he’s e-mailed ZeniMax several times to try to clarify what the app is violating.

“I did my best to ensure the app was not violating anything,” creator Blalock tells TouchArcade. “I looked up US trademarks and copyrights for ‘Dragon Shout’ and at the time there wasn’t any. I had the map hand drawn. I intentionally didn’t use any graphics or wording that would possibly be owned by Bethesda. So, I’m still not sure what they say the app violates.”

And it’s hard to tell from what Blalock says he’s received so far. But, ZeniMax does its best to protect its brands. Earlier last year, the publisher squabbled with Mojang over the name “Scrolls.” This April, ZeniMax filed trademarks for the phrase “Fus Ro Dah,” Skyrim’s most Internet-popular dragon shout.

In much lighter news, Dragon Shout is now freer. In version 1.5 , the social add-on — which includes database searching, marker sharing and chat — is available free of charge.

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There’s an overabundance of cute things on the App Store, as anyone who takes time to prowl it knows. Whether or not something will be equally as fun as it is cute is always a mystery, but in this case, Pinch Peeps [ $0.99 ] has managed to pull off that oh-so-desirable perfect balance between sickeningly adorable and fun to play.

The retro gamer in me loves when games are pared down to the absolute basics, and that is the case with Pinch Peeps. There is one gameplay mechanic, which you’ll simply repeat for the whole of the game: pinching your fingers together. In each of the two modes (Timed and Endless), you’ll be faced with the challenge of matching pairs of cutely-shaped blobs with eyes (called “peeps”) to rack up points.

In the case of Timed mode, you’ll have one minute to get matching. There are bonuses for matching quickly and for matching enough in a row, and since this mode is timed you’ll want to make sure you match as fast as your fingers can fly. You’ll also notice that a “perfect” pinch earns you more points. Also, matching clusters of peeps earns you far more than matching those lone singles, so make sure you prioritize those dudes.

Timed mode makes for a good quick game, but in my opinion Endless is far more challenging and fun. In this mode, you have three hearts that symbolize your lifespan, and every time you miss a match or hit an obstacles, you lose one of them. You will also see more bombs in this mode, which you need to flick apart instead of together to keep them from exploding. Obstacles come in the form of thin bars that change in shape and move around your screen. These are truly difficult to avoid when they get rolling, so you’ll want to be a master level flicker by then.

As you complete each section of Endless, you see a big peep surrounded by little peeps you’ll have to touch in a certain order to get a bonus. If you do so successfully, you’ll make it to the next round, which promises to be harder than the one before it.

Pinch Peeps is worlds different than Everplay’s last title, Spellsword [ $0.99 ], but it has that same quality feel to it. I can’t help but be reminded of past arcade titles that have the same simplicity and instant gameplay hook (Doodle Jump [$0.99 / Free / $2.99 (HD)], anyone?). By giving the player a single mission and simply allowing them to hone it well by repetition, you have the chance of making something great. But that one thing you have to do over and over has to be really fun.

Colorful graphics and great music accompany the solid gameplay to make this one a winner. It’s hooked up to Game Center as well, so you’ll have a nice handful of achievements to shoot for (some of them quite challenging). If you’ve been craving that simple arcade experience, Pinch Peeps is the way to go. Plus, there’s just something I can’t resist about the way they giggle when you match them together. All they want to do is be together, you know?

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It seems my favorite board games are about the end of the world. We’ve talked about my love of Elder Sign [$3.99 / $6.99 (HD)], the game about stopping (or failing to stop) the rise of the ancient ones. And now I have a new sweetheart: Yggdrasil [ $5.99 (HD)], a game about stopping the forces of evil from destroying the world tree and changing the fate of Ragnarok. While it has a decidedly more Norse spirit than its eldritch cousin, Yggdrasil is more familiar than it first looks.

That first look might be a killer, though. Like so many board games before it, Yggdrasil makes the mistake of data dumping all over the player on the first glance, which left me completely confused about what lightning strikes had to do with anything, how elves were even involved, and why on earth I’d want to take anything from the World of the Dead. But it’s not nearly as confusing as it seems. One game’s worth of flailing around Yggdrasil was more than enough for me to learn how to play—from there on out, it was all about learning how to win.

Let’s not break this down too far. If the game designers can’t explain it clearly, I don’t expect to have much more luck. But here are the basics: you begin with your choice of up to six Norse gods—you know, Thor, Odin, Freyja and the like. You can play any combination yourself or you can split them up for a cooperative pass-and-play experience; there is no online multiplayer so far. The more gods you add the longer you’ll need to survive. If that’s not enough of a challenge you can also throw yourself a few extra handicaps.

Good and evil take turns. On your god’s turn, you have to complete three actions (though some gods have unique talents that alter that total). Each of those actions must be done while visiting a different world, any of the nine that can be reached from Yggdrasil. In Asgard, for example, you’ll fight your enemies and push them back. In Midgard you recruit more vikings to die for your cause, and so on.

After each god takes his or her turn, one of the evil gods takes one too. One is drawn from the deck, be it Loki, Hel, Fenrir or any of the others, six in total. That one moves forward in Asgard, getting one step closer to Odin’s stronghold and the end of the game. Each enemy also takes a single action as determine by its card—Jormungand, for instance, destroys one of the islands where your Valkyries collect viking souls, and Fenrir requires you spend actions to calm him. Asgard has three lines of defense. If five of your enemies pass the first line, three pass the second, or one passes the third, you’ll only have one final turn to push back back or lose. This is complicated by the substantial strength they gain as they trek across the board.

All this together makes for an intensely strategic experience. Since the enemy is moving inexorably forward, every time you fail to push one back you’re losing ground permanently. So each turn you have to plan your three actions carefully. Elves and vikings can help guarantee your success in combat by lowering the number you need to hit on your dice rolls, but they’re a semi-limited resource and recruiting them costs actions. Weapons are similarly necessary and similarly costly. Early on you might be able to get away with a few full turns spent building up your strength, but if you don’t dig in and hold back the advance you’ll lose before you know it.

There’s quite a bit more to it. You have to manage the flow of viking souls, and move your valkyries across islands to recruit them. You have to defeat Loki’s ice giants as he summons them or they’ll cut you off from whole worlds. And at every step, you’re at the mercy of the cards and dice. Will Fenrir get drawn multiple turns in a row, eating away your actions? Will the dice give you the numbers you need to defeat your enemies? And do you have a backup plan? You’re definitely going to need one.

For all its tension, Yggdrasil isn’t actually extremely difficult to win. Putting together a good team and using their godly powers to their limits isn’t a guarantee, but it improves your odds substantially. And ultimately all you really need to do is survive long enough to wear down the enemy and empty its deck. Once you do succeed, there’s a single Game Center leaderboard to compete on, but no achievements. You’ll be well-rewarded for good performance nonetheless—as you win more games by wider margins you unlock new gods and new Ragnarok scenarios. These can increase the game’s difficulty substantially, so you can customize the game to your skill level.

For the most part, I’m impressed. The Norse theme comes through with surprising depth as each element of the game takes its place in the overall story of Ragnarok. And despite a slightly slow start, the game gets immensely tense. If you’re passing the iPad around to play, expect long discussions about strategy. The evil gods come on like a tide, impossible to hold back forever. Carelessness can mean a loss before you have any idea that you’re failing.

There are a few small quirks of the iPad adaptation, which has some errors in the text and instructions that seem to be written for the physical board game. On the technical side, it’s a bummer that the game isn’t Retina-ready. It multitasks, thankfully, but it doesn’t have any longer-term saving. Longevity might be a problem, too; it seems that once you get a good strategy down it will be up to you to push for harder scenarios.

Those things aside, Yggdrasil is giving Elder Sign a serious run for its money in the field of board games I most like to play solo. It plays beautifully on iPad, and looks nearly as good as it plays. Most of all, I enjoy Ygdrassil because it’s a game that gives me a good measure of control over my fate, and the fate of the world by extension. You’ve gotta be lucky, but the game rides on much more than luck. Board game fans would do well to pick this one up, and maybe pop in to our discussion thread for some tips when you do.

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Dragons Odyssey Frane [ $11.99 ] has the distinction of being the only game that makes me want to reach out and pinch its metaphorical cheek. Not only is it kinda adorable, it’s also all sorts of loveable. Like the fawning, mud-encrusted niece that is never short of questions about unicorns, Exe-Create’s port of their PC-based action-RPG title has a way of making you tilt your head and go “D’awww”.

Actually, before we get any further, the whole ‘action-RPG’ bit needs to be clarified a bit. Those expecting an assembly of eccentric party members, a varied set of skills to manage and all of the other traditional tropes may be a touch disappointed. Dragons Odyssey Frane doesn’t actually have all that, per se. In some ways, the game bears more of a resemblance to a laid-back shoot ‘em up than anything else.

The protagonist, a tussled-haired boy by the name of Kunah, is in charge of all the melee stuff. With every tap of a button, he either swings a yoyo, flails with a dagger or beats on things with an element-driven punch. Those with a preference for ranged attack will have to rely on his loud female companion Riel. She’s the one who inunduates enemies with glowing projectiles every time you hit yet another button.

What’s interesting about all this is the fact that hitting the melee button will cause Kunah to lock onto targets within the screen, thereafter allowing Riel’s attacks with greater ease. Riel, while a separate character that can go into ‘Rage’ mood (when she loses it, she will, quite literally, bounce Kunah across the screen and clear it of enemies that way) if you permit her to be smacked around too many times, neither has a health bar nor real equipment slots of her own. The only customization you’re allowed with her (from what I’ve seen, at any rate) is the ability to change her attack.

Combat follows a similar theme. While there are a fair number of enemies that will just barrel dumbly into you, others will, well, shoot relatively blindly at you. The bosses have slightly more variety. From a trio of sisters to a monstrous, mirage-inducing sand worm, they’ll have you ducking away, chasing weak spots, dodging projectiles and flinging attacks of your own.

Of course, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Dragons Odyssey Frane is considerably more story-driven than most of its brethren in the App Store. The gist of the tale is this: you play as a responsible, mildly perverted boy called Kunah. When his angelic mentor Escude goes missing, he and his friend Riel (both of whom are actually dragons) gain permission from God (Yes, with the capital G and beard and all) to go look for her. Once accorded that sacred duty, they descend onto the mortal plane and begin their quest. Pedestrian as it all sounds, it’s actually rather amusing.

For one, Kunah and Riel actually act their age. More often than not, they stumble and they stammer and they speak out of turn. Many of the denizens of the game treat them the way anyone would treat a precocious child. The God portrayed here is also far from dignified. In one memorable instance, he actually disguises himself as a rather… conspicuous piece of wooden furniture in an attempt to surprise our protagonists.

Unapologetically goofy, Dragons Odyssey Frane is filled with silliness. There are star-crossed feline lovers, a military man with a retinue of giant hamster-like things, and familiar stereotypes played to perfection. For those in search of a serious plot line, Dragons Odyssey Frane will not be your game. For those willing to accommodate its many eccentricities, though, this charming piece has a lot to offer.

Aside from the main storyline (things generally follow the usual ‘get quest, investigate dungeon, defeat big boss’ format), you’ll also be able to engage in more domestic duties. Unlike most RPG protagonists, our dynamic duo are not homeless itinerants. In the beginning, Kunah will actually build the two of them a rather cozy-looking abode and it is within the confines of their home that you will be able to tinker about in a makeshift workshop and mess about a kitchen.

While not particularly deep (it generally consists of combining two items together), the crafting system is oddly satisfying. I have a nagging suspicion that there’s no wrong way to do things here. If bread and rice can produce ‘bread sushi’ as opposed to a virtual eye-roll from the game, anything is possible.

(A nifty detail: people will slowly assemble a village around your heroes’ residence as time passes by. Eventually, you’ll be able to purchase rare equipment, plant vegetables and take part in a few random quests.)

While hardly cutting-edge, the visuals in Dragons Odyssey Frane are rather endearing. I’m not the biggest fan of their character portraits but the sprite work and the tiny, animated details (the game features one of the most attractive d-pads I’ve ever seen) are all things I can get behind. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about the grating, cringe-inducing voice acting. By the end of the first spoken line, I had turned it off in mortification.

Aside from those small issues though, Dragons Odyssey Frane is rather hard to dislike. The characters and the world will slowly grow on you. Combat is brief and brutal, yet satisfying. Personally, I haven’t tried courting any of the characters just yet (it looks like it’s possible but I couldn’t bring myself to even ponder the idea given how young the protagonists look) but the option is present for those interested in such things. If you’re willing to put up with occasional stereotypes, loads of silliness and the relatively high price tag, I can’t recommend it enough for a weekend change of pace.

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Late last week The New York Times published an op-ed debate titled, “Hip, or About to Break a Hip,” a discussion about whether 45 year-old skaters are “embarrassing and risky or inspiring and life-affirming?” Opinions ranged from “inspiring and life-affirming,” to “… do something productive: become an ultimate fighter, get your G.E.D., date an 18-year old.” Um, wow, guys.

Appropriate then is the release of Brisbane-based IV Motion’s Penny Time [$0.99 / Free ], which flies in the face of that rather unnecessary conversation. Shorn of the skating genre’s mechanical trappings, the game is allowed to focus on the sport’s anarchistic roots. Its reply, “Who gives a #$%*?”

Penny Time announces its care-free absurdity with a series of vignettes that see the player character using a Penny skateboard, crashed like a meteorite from the heavens, to freeze time and subsequently summon some spirit animals in the form of a pig, dodo and porpoise. Right. So, the player is off on his or her quest to skate through a series of time-frozen environments with the aid of the aforementioned Ghost Dodo.

Play is similar to rhythm runners like Tomena Sanner [ $1.99 ] and Bit.Trip Runner. The player proceeds left to right, clearing obstacles by swiping when rolling over a series of white (up), blue (left) and yellow (down) targets. Levels consist of three sections: a standard area where one acquires points based on timing of swipes, a multiplier section, and then a “cash-in” portion where the player is given the opportunity to bank their multiplied points, or take them on into the next area and risk bailing and losing the combo.

Touch controls are a little dodgy. There are a handful of times each run where I go flipping over a guardrail or a child or something because the game’s missed my inputs. This is sometimes exacerbated not only by how unforgiving the game can be (I’ve often hit my trick on the periphery of a target only to tumble into a sad pile), but by the minimalism of the flat, untextured 3D models. It borders on gorgeous abstraction in the vein of a Katamari Damacy, but the environments are so busy it’s often difficult to tell exactly what’s ahead. Case in point, during a particularly funny intro I held the iPhone up for my girlfriend, sitting behind me on the couch, who responded, “I can’t see… it just looks like a bunch of shapes.” Indeed.

That in mind, I’m not sure that it’s going to have much of a following among the leaderboard junkies. But, in addition to Game Center leaderboards, the game has a bevy of character and board customization options, along with the requisite Facebook and Twitter support, 84 achievements and a fantastic OST.

A rhythm game lives or dies by the quality of its tunes, and electronic artist and fellow Brisbanite Hunz has crafted a score among the best on the platform. A warm, varied slice of electronica, it’s up there with the Groove Coaster [ $2.99 ] and Beat Sneak Bandit [ $2.99 ] soundtracks, well worth the dollar the game costs. It’s a trump card that staves off mediocrity in what is otherwise an “okay” game, an intelligent pairing that propelled me along on my quest to count the black cats littering the next area. Note: this game has its share of black cats.

With a smart few stylistic choices, IV Motion have made a fine if sometimes frustrating little game, worth the low price of entry. Like the skateboard brand it advertises, it is “designed and built to look good, perform well, and exceed your expectations.” A little rougher around the edges maybe, but a ridiculous, ageless thing that can be enjoyed by anyone. And that’s okay.

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Last month we introduced you to a new collaboration between Blowfish Studios and Crescent Moon Games with a set of impressive-looking screenshots and details for a game called Razor: Salvation. The two studios had worked together previously, producing Siegecraft [ $2.99 ] back in October, but Razor: Salvation looks to be a much different game.

It’s a fixed-position shooter played from a first-person perspective, but unlike many games like this, Razor gives you a full 360 degree view of the environments where the action takes place. You can see this idea in motion in the brand new trailer for Razor: Salvation, which looks fantastic so far.

According to Crescent Moon, the game is nearly finished and they’re shooting for a launch before the month is over. Until then you can swing by the discussion thread in our forums and keep a heads up for Razor: Salvation to hit soon.

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Surprise! A couple of “core” members from Lumines and Rez team at Q Entertainment have just released a brand new game on iPhone and iPad under the brand Monstars Inc. The app is called Kotomon, and it’s available for an introductory price of $2.99 through May 31.

As you’d expect considering Q’s release history, Kotomon appears to revolve around a mix of action and music. In the game, you control an adorable little red monster charged with collecting and firing friendly monsters into bad monsters. Monstars describes it as a little like pinball, except every action you take adds beats and layers to the game’s soundtrack.

Kotomon seems like a neat app, so we’re going to get you something much more detailed as soon as possible. Stay tuned.

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In January of last year, Liv Games’ debut title Legendary Wars [$0.99 / $1.99 (HD)] really redefined the side-scrolling castle defense genre. It had a huge cast of interesting heroes and enemies, a fantastic art style, tons of humorous dialogue, and a huge single-player campaign to play through. But what really made it stand out was how it used so many different iterations of the strategy defense formula, making it feel like many different games in one and a fresh experience throughout.

Exactly a year to the day after the release of Legendary Wars, Liv Games put out its pseudo-sequel Monster Wars [ Free ], which we really liked in our review. It took basically everything from the first game but re-imagined it from the bad guys’ perspective, letting you play with the monsters as the protagonists. Also, it dumped heaps of new content, improved visuals, and lots of new odds and ends that made it an even better overall experience.

Today, you can grab Monster Wars for free for a limited time. In addition, Liv Games has sent over some details of what to expect of the next new 1.2 update which will be hitting soon, along with a teaser image of some of the new tier 4 armor:

-11 New AWESOME Tier 4 Monster Armors! Each with a more powerful special designed to destroy heroes!
-Monster Arena! 12 New Challenges and 2 new bosses!
-NEW LEVEL featuring the Unisis boss (Pegasus Unicorn)
-New Sky Angel boss in 6-2 and Arena.
-New ‘Hero” Difficulty designed for Tier 4 Monsters.
-New Fear status that causes heroes to get scared, miss and run away!
-11 New Tier 4 Achievements and 1 new Leaderboard.

Definitely don’t miss the chance to grab Monster Wars while free, and if you like the game and find yourself curious about what it’s like for the heroes in the game, then definitely check out Legendary Wars at some point too.

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On this week’s episode of The TouchArcade Show, we actually have to turn the car around in order to say something off-topic. At top, we discuss the arrival of the TouchArcade app [ Free ] and touch on its upcoming Universal-ness. Later, we dive into the latest, the best, and the hottest in iOS. From NOVA 3 to Pocket Planes, we’ve got your steamy games discussion covered. And in our front page section, we spend a good amount of time on Rovio’s latest moves and Team Meat’s latest stream of gripes.

If you’d like to give us a listen, go ahead and do so. Just hit up one of the handy links below. Additionally, you can subscribe to us on iTunes and Zune to get our latest episodes the second they hit the ‘net.

iTunes Link: The TouchArcade Show
Zune Marketplace: TouchArcade.com Podcasts
RSS Feed: The TouchArcade Show
Direct Link: TouchArcadeShow-051.mp3, 31.0MB

A couple of house-cleaning notes before the show notes: we fixed our audio issue from last week, so feel free to keep your iPod at a normal volume all the way through. Also, our official Minecraft server is a real thing. E-mail the podcast if you want in, and I’ll hit you back.

GAMES

• Pocket Planes
• NOVA 3 [$6.99]
• Penny Time [$.99]

FRONT PAGE

• Rovio Confirms That It Has Acquired ‘Casey’s Contraptions’
• Team Meat Goes Full Blast On F2P

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