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We were huge fans of Rocketcat Games' original title, Hook Champ [$2.99 / Free], and love Super QuickHook [$2.99] even more– Especially with the updates it has been getting. Super QuickHook came loaded with the fast paced endless Avalanche mode at launch, and the latest 1.3 update added Eruption mode. Eruption mode is even more difficult and requires either playing through most of the game or scoring over 4000 in Avalanche mode to unlock.

In addition, 1.3 adds six new playable characters. Three are unlockable in-game, and the other three are available via in-app purchase. Free characters include Gnomey, Aldora, and Hookbot (the DLC character from Hook Champ). If you're willing to shell out a couple bucks, you can buy Jake and Gunny (also from Hook Champ) along with the new Super QuackHook, the grappling hook equipped duck. Each character comes with their own unlockable grappling hook and unique hats.

They've also packed some new achievements in to the game, with rewards for unlocking some of the difficult ones. In addition, if you've been having performance issues, there's now a toggle in the options allowing you to turn off a lot of the extra effects to improve frame rate. Some members of our forums have been reporting issues with some of the achievements, but the developers have been quick to respond and are already working on another quick update to address these problems.

If you've beaten everything there is to beat in Super QuickHook, make sure you download this update and give the new Eruption mode a try. If you've yet to download Super QuickHook and want to know more about the game, take a look at our full review.

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Not long ago classic iPhone tower defense game geoDefense [$1.99 / Free] version 1.5 hit the App Store, adding support for the Retina Display of the iPhone 4 as well as the framework for DLC level packs. The first of those level packs was just released this afternoon, and a 99¢ in-app purchase unlocks brand new set of 3 medium levels and 3 hard levels. Also, these levels are immediately playable once downloaded so you can dive right in without needing to play any previous levels. While a game as good as geoDefense getting more levels is totally newsworthy by itself, it also gave us an excellent opportunity to pester developer David Whatley who is quite literally floating around the Caribbean as we speak.

Last time we spoke with Whatley he was extremely excited about the potential of the iPad, and told us that a sequel to geoDefense was coming which would be exclusive to the device. Since then, several things have gotten in the way such as the release of the iPhone 4, a Facebook game called Fantasy University, launch day ports of geoDefense and geoDefense Swarm for Windows Phone 7, and the never-ending question of what will make a worthy sequel to a game with the notoriety of geoDefense.

According to David, the recent update to geoDefense had a lot of work done behind the scenes to eventually ramp up in to an iPad version of geoDefense which is going to be the next title to be released by Critical Thought Games. From there, they're going to be testing the waters of the iPad App Store to see whether or not sticking to their guns regarding the iPad exclusivity of geoDefense 2 makes sense or not. Whatley admits that not doing an iPhone version of the sequel would likely be a big mistake, especially given the size of the market.

When talking to David about geoDefense 2, he mentioned the amount of pressure he's under to deliver something that will impress gamers, but not stray too far from what everyone has since come to expect out of the geoDefense series. He wants to take geoDefense to the next level, but he's still not entirely sure what that next level is. The situation seems eerily similar to Galcon [$2.99 / Free] and its successor Galcon Labs [$2.99] which despite the popularity of the original saw a lackluster response from gamers as it felt too much like an expansion pack, and not enough like its own game.

If you've beaten every level in geoDefense over the last year and a half since its initial release, now is a great time to re-download the game and try out the new levels. Admittedly, I'm fairly rusty but so far the six new levels completely live up to the difficulty level we've come to expect of geoDefense and are highly recommended for any fan of the game.

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This isn't a game by any means, so if you're looking for the next cool iPhone game to download, keep on scrollin'. If you like games, RPG's specifically, and have always wondered what would happen if you combined the functionality of a to do list app with an experience bar, Epic Win [$2.99] is right up your alley. Created by Rex Crowle, responsible for the visual design of Little Big Planet, and Tak Fung, the developer behind MiniSquadron [$2.99 / Free], Epic Win is a list keeping app by gamers for gamers.

On your first launch of the app, you choose one of five avatars. Three are unlocked initially, with the other two available via in-app purchase. Which avatar you choose has no bearing on how the rest of the app works, and you can change them at any time in the options. Tapping the pencil icon opens up a new task, at which point you set its "epicness" and date along with what type of feat said task is. These feats range from feats of strength, stamina, intellect, social, and spirit.

As you complete items off your to do list, you're awarded experience for the level of epicness you set and your avatar gains a point on your profile page for the type of feat the task was. When each task is completed, your dude travels down a curvy road, and eventually is awarded various pieces of ridiculous loot… And that's really all there is to Epic Win. Sure, there are more full featured gettin' things done apps on the App Store, but how many of them have loot or experience bars?

Yeah, you can technically "cheat" in Epic Win really easily by just constantly making and completing tasks, but the "game" portion of Epic Win really has no competition, and only serves as a neat little bonus for checking things off of a list. If you've found yourself looking for some more motivation to get things done on your to do list, and filling an experience bar is your carrot on a stick that will actually lead you to do things, Epic Win is what you need.

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One Man Left's Tilt to Live [99¢] has been a favorite of mine for quite a while now. In our review we discuss just how much fun its avoidance based gameplay is, and since then they've updated the game to add new power-ups and game modes not once, but twice.

Announced mere moments ago is Tilt to Live HD for the iPad, which according to developers One Man Left won't just be a simple up-scaling, and instead will be a similar game with an arena that is four times as large… Best yet, it will be free to try with a demo mode and a $3.99 in-app purchase to unlock the rest of the content in the game. Tilt to Live HD will be tilt controlled much like its iPhone counterpart, and although the developers are claiming the controls have been optimized for the iPad, I'm curious to see how well the game works in practice as many tilt controlled iPad games get tiresome due to the weight of the device.

Tilt to Live HD is due to be released on the App Store this September, and as soon we we get our grubby little hands on it, we'll post some more details on the game.

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When we first posted about Office Heroes [Free] earlier this month, I admit I was more than a little surprised with the overwhelmingly positive response the game saw both in article comments and on our forums. It seems that social gaming is a guilty pleasure for many, and as I mentioned in the preview, Office Heroes has an incredibly clever premise in that you're wasting your virtual life away inside of an office as you're wasting your real life away sinking your time in to the game.

In Office Heroes, you have an incredibly customizable avatar who lives inside of a (initially) tiny virtual office. Gameplay is identical to similar social games in that you're managing in-game resources that are both generated by completing tasks in games with others that are gained via an in-app purchase. As you level up and get more friends, you unlock more decorations for your office and various gizmos to waste your avatar's time on. Absolutely nothing you do to earn money in game is productive in any way. For instance, you buy your little dude a computer and he uses it to tweet, or you can get him a phone to make personal phone calls, along with tons of other activities with other office items.

There's not much sense in really "reviewing" a game like this as it's free and you either love these kind of social games or hate them. Office Heroes doesn't do anything other games haven't done before, but it's still incredibly refreshing to play a social game that actually has an original premise. So many of them on the App Store do little more than pick a popular Zynga game and duplicate it, so it's nice to see Astro Ape Studios releasing something that doesn't have to do with tending fields.

If you're looking for people to add to your vast network of in-game coworkers, swing on by the friend finding thread on our forums. Otherwise, happy time wasting!

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The folks at Secret Exit, who are responsible for bringing us the incredible Zen Bound and Zen Bound 2, have just released a content update to their delightful ragdoll physics game Stair Dismount Universal [99¢/Lite]. If you aren't familiar with the title, the first Stair Dismount essentially spawned the inflict-pain-on-a-ragdoll genre on the PC back in 2002. Since then a number of other games on the iPhone have utilized a similar idea, but none have achieved the polish and technical complexity of Secret Exit's offering on this platform.  Gameplay involves pushing a nondescript dummy named Mr. Dismount down a set of stairs, with your score being based on how much pain you can inflict on the poor fellow. It's a satisfying feeling, and has an undeniable "zen-like" appeal as you try to top your previous high score.

Stair Dismount has been updated a number of times since it's release last November, adding new levels and online leaderboards via OpenFeint. A couple of months back, the game was updated to be a universal app, with special enhancements for when running on the iPad. Today's update adds two more brand new levels, bringing the total number to 12, as well as iOS4 support including fast app switching. More significant, however, is the addition of 3 new characters available for 99¢ as an in-app purchase. Besides Mr. Dismount who is an averaged size person, the new characters are Mr. Reach who is incredibly tall and lanky, Mr. Heft who is short and stalky with a huge belly, and Mr. Stalwart who is basically the shape of a gorilla.

These new characters are a ton of fun to use, and actually change the gameplay pretty significantly. Mr. Heft crashes hard while falling down the stairs due to his portly stature, Mr. Reach uses his length to hit many points of the level, and Mr. Stalwart has all sorts of odd behavior due to his stubby legs, long arms, and incredibly top-heavy build. They can all be had for one 99¢ in-app purchase, and really breathe new life into this already entertaining game.

Due to the ability to save snapshots of each dismount, it seems every time I play the game I get at least one hilarious photo of one of the characters in some kind of precarious position, which has been fun to share amongst other players in the game's forum thread. If you find yourself with some funny photos of your own, upload them to our forums for others to appreciate and comment on. And if you already own Stair Dismount Universal, make sure you grab the latest update for the 2 new free levels and new IAP character pack.

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I have been looking for an excuse to post about Armada: Galactic War [App Store], after overlooking its first sizeable update amidst the chaos of WWDC. It was a game I really enjoyed, despite nit-picking on a few issues. It turns out developer Pixel Stream was listening, and have addressed each of my complaints and further added a suite of features in response to player feedback and an entirely new freemium version!

First and foremost, addressing the biggest complaint that readers had, was the introduction of an offline practice mode in version 1.2. Offline mode is still in its infancy, and though you can pick the map and your race, you are restricted to playing 1v1 vs the AI. Additional AI slots and a customizable AI difficulty would all be great to see in future updates.

This update also addressed my other issue with Armada: Galactic War — the ARMS upgrade system. In our review, we took issue with how ARMS set an insurmountable gap in advantage between veterans and newcomers. In order to address this, Pixel Stream opted to completely overhaul their ARMS system. The more powerful variants of each item were removed entirely, and though the player can still equip up to 10 items, items are automatically balanced when players are matched against each other.

The player with the fewest upgrades sets the standard for the match at hand. If Player A has 2 items and Player B and C have 4 items, then only the first two items of each player will have effect in that game. In this way, the developers hope to have remedied the issue of power imbalance between players with access to more and better items.

Update 1.3, just released, further addresses issues noted by players since 1.2. It introduces player divisions by way of rooms; with a newbie room available to allow beginners to play against each other; and an extreme room rewarding bonus credits rewarded to the more daring, experienced players. The full change list is as follows:

Interface and Gameplay improvements
• newly created units are automatically selected if mothership is selected
• mech placement is easier to collect minerals
• improved selection/deselection of units
• Destroying a mothership will top up your resources
• Each mothership destroyed counts as a win

Player matching improvements
• three rooms – newbie, intermediate, extreme
• only newbies can enter the newbie room
• extreme room gives 2x credits
• a second leaderboard for extreme battles

ARMS item improvements
• lowered cost of items
• items increase stats as well as decrease other stats
• simplified the number of items

The developers have also released a new freemium version of Armada. This version is online only, and operates a little like Eliminate; in that you require 'fuel cells' to earn credits. These are used up as you play, and recharge automatically every two hours. Of course, In-App purchases allow you to skip that waiting process by purchasing additional cells.

That app has now hit the App Store, and whilst players can now play entirely for free (with a little patience) on the freemium version, the original paid app with offline mode has risen in price, too. So there are now a slew of options for RTS fans to get their game on; and with an app as feature rich as Armada: Galactic War, there's now no reason not to check out what has been dubbed Starcraft-lite on your iOS device.

App Store Link: Armada: Galactic War, $5.99 and Armada – Galactic War Online, Free (With In-App Recharge Purchases).

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Proud to be indie developer NimbleBit leaked some vague details to us this afternoon regarding their next iPhone game, Pocket Frogs. The story of Pocket Frogs starts back with their previous game, Dizzypad [iPhone: $1.99 / iPad: Free + DLC], a simple jumping game that we loved in our review which recently received an update adding in iOS 4 fast app switching and Retina Display support for the iPhone 4.

Figuring they'd make the various Plus+ awards a little more fun than just increasing your overall Plus+ gamer score, NimbleBit linked these awards with unlocking differently colored playable frogs. The unexpected side effect of this for NimbleBit was it turned out that for many players, the goal of playing Dizzypad for them was to unlock every frog rather than shooting for high scores as originally intended. NimbleBit released several updates to the game which added even more frogs, so when searching for inspiration for their next game, it seemed only natural to make a game with the sole purpose of collecting as many frogs as possible.

Pocket Frogs is a game of raising, breeding, and trading frogs. Each of your frogs will have three specific genetic traits that they inherit from their parent frogs, which according to NimbleBit will result in "many thousand possible emergent species." There are going to be multiple customizable habitats to raise your frogs in, and players will be responsible for keeping the frogs healthy, happy, and well fed by taking them out to explore the Pocket Frog pond.

Aside from breeding frogs, players will be able to get new frogs by ordering them in-game as well as trading frogs with friends via Plus+. There are also plans to have various challenges to breed certain frogs which rotate on a weekly and monthly basis and the frog store will rotate on a daily with new frogs to buy with in-game currency. NimbleBit is still hashing out plans on exactly how they're going to monetize Pocket Frogs, but have assured me that players will be able to access absolutely everything in game for free and whatever in-app purchases they finally decide on will be intended for serious frog breeders and otherwise entirely optional.

One of the core features of Pocket Frogs that NimbleBit feels has been missing from some many of these free social games is a full featured offline mode. If you're an iPod touch user, you will be happy to know that you can play Pocket Frogs without ever connecting to the Internet, you just won't be able to buy any of the in-app purchases or participate in frog trading while offline. Otherwise, you can breed your own little frogs to your heart's content, buy new frogs, and even participate in all the breeding challenges.

Pocket Frogs is currently being developed for all iOS platforms and will include Retina Display support. NimbleBit isn't getting specific with release dates yet, and instead have just told us to "expect to have a handful of little frogs this summer." We've yet to hear whether or not players will be able to release their army of frogs on unsuspecting virgin ecosystems, but for what it's worth, I've got my fingers crossed.

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Back at GDC we sat down with the guys from 99 Games who showed us an early build of The Jim and Frank Mysteries – The Blood River Files [99¢] which has since been picked up by Chillingo and arrived on the App Store. If you've played a Professor Layton game on the Nintendo DS before, The Jim and Frank Mysteries is a shockingly competent Layton lookalike with the professor and his sidekick Luke replaced by Jim and Frank, a team of teenage boys sent off on a quest by their grandfather as part of an odd 15th birthday celebration ritual.

Gameplay is identical to that of the Layton games in that Jim and Frank set out on a strange adventure, moving from screen to screen, talking to the various inhabitants of the game world, and solving 60 unique puzzles. Instead of the "hint coins" found in Professor Layton, Jim and Frank have "eurekas" which are similarly hidden in the game world and are collected by tapping on them. These eurekas are used as an in-game currency of sorts, which explains why Jim and Frank's adventure only costs a buck.

If you get stuck on a puzzle, you're able to unlock hints which will only cost you one of your eurekas for the first hint, and an additional eureka for the second. If you're still stumped, you can skip a puzzle entirely at the cost of many more eurekas. Of the two puzzles I've tried to skip, the first one would cost 15 with 20 required to skip the second. Aside from finding them in the game world, eurekas are currently available as an in-app purchase with 30 for 99¢, 75 for $1.99, and 120 for $2.99. Of course, if you're good at puzzle games, these are entirely optional and you could complete the entire game without burning a single eureka.

The included puzzles are your standard array of math and logic puzzles which you've undoubtedly encountered before somewhere, either in various childhood brain teaser books, similar video games, and other places. Old standbys such as figuring out how to separate liquid to a certain amount using three differently sized containers, sliding puzzles of all types, mazes, map puzzles, and others are all there. I've yet to come across a puzzle type that felt unique to this game, but as a veteran of the Layton series, that doesn't come as much of a surprise.

Mixed amongst the puzzles are several different mini games. For instance, the first one begins when you come across a creepy old man in the middle of the woods who needs help chopping wood. Naturally, this team of teenage boys fulfill the old man's desires and begin chopping away in a reaction-based mini game where you tap the screen to chop as a log scrolls from right to left. These mini games are fairly simple, but serve to offer an even wider variety to the things Jim and Frank will need to do on their adventure.

Jim and Frank includes some limited voice overs, which take over during important parts of the game. The whole beginning of your adventure is narrated, and as far as iPhone game voice work is concerned, it really isn't half bad. The story is silly as you would expect, with dialog that often left me raising an eyebrow. When we talked to 99 Games back at GDC, they seemed excited for the Jim and Frank Mysteries to continue past this first installment, so with any luck there will be many more mysteries for the teenage duo to unravel in the future.

Regardless of how you feel about the incredible similarities between The Jim and Frank Mysteries and Professor Layton games, we'll likely never see Layton on the iPhone, so a highly "inspired" game is just as good in my book. The amount of content included in Jim and Frank borders on ridiculous at its current launch price of a dollar. With hours and hours of gameplay (99 Games claims over 20), 60 puzzles, 8 mini games, and a cast of nearly 30 characters, this isn't a game you should miss.

Sure, it would be easy to get wound up over the in app purchases to buy eurekas, but these are entirely optional especially since it wouldn't surprise me if the Jim and Frank thread on our forums quickly turned in to a great place to go for when you get stuck in game.

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With the Major League All-Star Game right around the corner, America's pastime is getting into full swing. This marks a perfect time for developer Com2uS to release their follow up to last year's popular 9 Innings: Pro Baseball with the aptly titled 9 Innings: Pro Baseball 2011. This year's version features mostly the same simplistic play mechanics, but adds a great deal of authenticity by way of a Major League Ball Players Association license. While this isn't an MLB license (so no actual MLB logos, team names, or ballparks), it's a real boon for the baseball aficionado to be able to play the game with accurate player stats and real player photos. Another huge addition to this year's version is a card collecting mechanic that almost acts like a sub-game of it's own.

The first thing to note about this year's version of 9 Innings is that it utilizes the touch interface much better, whereas last year almost all the game navigation was handled through the use of the virtual controls. It feels more like it's made for this device rather than being shoehorned into working on it. This makes things like navigating the menus and choosing pitch location much more intuitive. You'll start off by choosing a team, and all the same teams from MLB are represented here in a generic form. The team colors and logos are a close enough representation that you don't really miss that they're not the actual MLB franchises.

Once a team is chosen you're given 25 player cards to represent your team's roster. The roster's are according to 2009, so there are a few players here and there that aren't on the correct team, but for the most part you're getting the actual players from that MLB team. The card dynamic is really neat, with each card carrying the real life stats of that player. Certain players will have special attributes as well, like hitting especially well against left handed pitchers or having an extra keen eye at the plate. Points are earned by playing games, with certain special achievements earning additional points, like striking out 3 batters in a row or hitting back to back home runs. These points can then be spent on upgrading each player's card and in turn increasing their overall stats.

A card shop is available to purchase extra packs of cards using these in-game points or even as in-app purchase by spending real life money, if you so wish. These new cards can then be used to swap out players from your team and mix up your roster. There's even cards for the team's manager and for cheerleaders. It's odd, as baseball doesn't have cheerleaders, but they can be looked at as a team's mascot. These cards can add special attributes to your team or players to give you an added boost in the stats department. The card collecting and player leveling adds a nice RPG-ish wrinkle to the game, and is even more fun for people who are into baseball stats, although you in no way have to be a baseball buff to enjoy the game.

Gameplay wise 9 Innings 2011 hasn't changed too much from last year's iteration. Hitting the ball requires just simply timing the pitch and pressing anywhere on the screen to swing, with icons for power hitting and bunting available as well. Pitching has you choosing a pitch type from the player's repertoire and then sliding a small baseball icon to the part of the strike zone you want it to go. When the pitch placement is set, a circle will enclose that position in the strike zone ,and the closer the circle is to that point when you tap the screen the more accurate your pitch will be. This mechanic becomes harder as your pitcher fatigues during the course of the game.

Defense is handled almost exclusively by the game for you, with minor options like deciding which base to throw to after fielding a hit and attempting pick off plays under your own control. A small portion of the offensive strategy is up to you as well, like deciding to advance runners or not, but by and large the game is mostly about batting and pitching, and while slightly basic it ends up being incredibly easy to play and fun.

Everything combined, 9 Innings 2011 makes for a fun, casual game of baseball with an added element of depth due to the player card system and leveling dynamic. It has much better graphics than last year's version, less basic and with more detail, but strangely the entire game is played in portrait view rather than the landscape view of the last game. The dev has stated in our forums that landscape mode will be coming in an update, which should be a welcome addition and provide a more comfortable way to play. It would also be nice to have some sort of roster update to get the statistics and players more current, although this doesn't really hurt the overall experience much.

With entertaining gameplay, a multi-season franchise mode, an excellent homerun derby mode, and endless possibilities for card collection and customization, 9 Innings: Pro Baseball 2011 is the strongest entry in the baseball game genre to date, and is recommended for both baseball fans and regular gamers alike.

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