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Depending on how much you relish your DotA (If the acronym made you raise a puzzled eyebrow, don’t worry. We’ll get into all that shortly), you may either find Plants War [Free] an unexpected treat or a moderately competent RTS. It could go either way. Best described as a heavily diluted, single-player version of the world’s favorite Warcraft III mod, Plants War will have you leading Dryad Forest’s local vegetation in a struggle against some encroaching… animals? Global warming definitely screwed up the environment here.

Gameplay-wise, Plants War – Gamevil’s latest freemium title – works something like this. Before you begin each stage, you’ll be asked to elect an upgradable hero (the first you get for free, the others you’ll have to earn through extensive grinding or buy as an in-app purchase). After that, you’ll be at liberty to select the troops you want to deploy in the upcoming onslaught. Yet again, only the first one comes free.

To unlock the other units, you’re going to have to amass a fortune in gold or green leaves. A fair warning, however – the number of horticultural soldiers that you can utilize is limited by the number of slots and plants points you have available. In order to exceed the quota, you’re going to have to (you guessed it!) make a few choice purchases.

Once you’re done with all those decisions, the action begins. The objective here is to blow up the enemy’s base before they can do the same to yours. At regular intervals, both bases will spawn pre-determined units that will barrel towards their opponent with all the suicidal fortitude you would expect of NPC shock troopers. Needless to say, death is their only inhibition. Though you’re significantly more powerful than the ground troops, you’re not omnipotent. In order to succeed in your mission, you’re going to have to make efficient usage of your unsuspecting meat shields.

You will also have to make full usage of the four different skills available to the Leafy that you’re using. Initially, you’re only going to be able to invest a point in one skill. However, as you gain in level (acquire the last hit on an enemy to gain the maximum amount of experience points possible), you will be able to pour more points into your skills. Alternatively, you can choose to increase your mana pool. The choice is yours. Anything goes so long as it ensures certain victory.

(For those of you who do play DotA, Plants War can be summed up as ‘Middle-lane only DotA with no river, items or neutral camps.’)

And that’s pretty much the whole game in a nutshell. It doesn’t get more complex than that. However, the details are what make Plants War work. Each stage will impose a new challenge to your talent for picking the most suitable troops. Are you facing off against highly aggressive mice with a penchant for gnawing through shrubbery? Be sure to bring along a Tree Protector and a grim-faced Potato Blower. Are you up against some sturdy bears? Try some Seed Shooters.

Though certain combinations work better than others, it’s not impossible to be creative with things. As you progress through the game, you’re also going to have to battle with a variety of enemy heroes, each more difficult than the last. While you can bring a different hero to the conflict (assuming you’ve already purchased them, of course), you can also attempt to make do with the first Leafy you use. How do you bait a fast-moving tiger into being mounted onto a wall? Can you kite a hard-hitting bear around in circles while slowly pepper spraying him into submission? Once again, it’s entirely up to your own discretion.

The controls in Plants War are responsive and extremely simple to learn. To move, you tap on the screen. To attack, you tap on the screen. To use an ability, you – you get the picture. In order to zoom in and zoom out, you’re going to have to alternately pinch and unpinch the screen. My only complaint here is the fact that targeting can be extremely difficult at times when the hero is clumped up with their troops.

With three levels of difficulty associated with each stage, twenty-four achievements to unlock, a multitude of rewards to collect and a menagerie of units to discover, there’s not much to dislike about this stream-lined little title. Unfortunately, there’s also not much to it. Once you’ve beaten the first few levels, things can grow rather repetitive. You can only do so much with the same set of faces. If you want new minions to abuse, you’re going to have to either spend an inordinate amount of time grinding for gold coins or cough up the greens.

All said and done, however, it isn’t too bad given the non-existent price of admission. The problem here is whether or not you like this style of play. If you enjoy this sort of experience, you will probably lose occasional hours to the game. If not, you will probably lose interest after the first three games. It’s all rather binary.

TouchArcade Rating:

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When Activision launched Call of Duty: Black Ops Zombies [$6.99] late last year, we were decidedly underwhelmed with the sequel to the popular 2009 iOS survival shooter based on a mode from the console Call of Duty titles. There were definitely some improvements in Black Ops Zombies over the original, like better visuals and the awesome top-down Dead Ops Arcade mode, but the availability of just a single map and spotty connection issues brought down the entire experience.

In February, an update addressed many of the connection issues and added a couple of new weapons, as well as adding an in-app purchase currency system that allowed people to buy their way to weapons and items more quickly. The new weapons added just a very tiny bit of variety to a title that was desperately needing some, but with just a single map to play on, Black Ops Zombies still suffered from a lack of content.

On Friday, the game was updated once again, this time offering the welcome addition of a brand new map called Ascension that features Soviet Soldier zombies in a Cold War-era launch site as well as zombie monkeys. Yup, zombie monkeys. Also there are 4 new weapons to strap on to fend off the undead: the Thunder Gun, Matroyshka Dolls, Gersh Device, and a sickle. Killing zombie monkeys with a sickle is a pretty big selling point, in my opinion.

In addition to a new map and new weapons, all players who download the update or brand new players who download the game for the first time will receive 5,000 of the in-app currency CoD Points, and players who return to play the game regularly will also receive additional CoD Point payouts. Finally, there are some new Game Center achievements as well as the usual assortment of optimizations and fixes.

If a lack of content has been keeping you from Black Ops Zombies, then the addition of double the original content might change your mind. Granted, double the original content still only amounts to 2 maps, but at least it’s a step in the right direction and hopefully Activision continues to add to and improve this mobile Call of Duty experience in the future.

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It was just last week at GDC that we checked out a host of new titles from EA and their subsidiaries, and one of the ones that impressed me the most was the sequel to Firemint’s successful line-drawing game Flight Control called Flight Control Rocket. As of today, Flight Control Rocket [99¢] is now available in the App Store.

What I really enjoyed about my time with Flight Control Rocket at GDC was just how well Firemint has been able to expand on the base mechanics of the fairly simplistic original game, while still being able to keep things grounded enough that it feels like a true sequel. The sheer variety of new ship types adds a ton of new strategy to the Flight Control formula, and everything is wrapped up in a nice retro sic-fi art style. The presentation aspect of Flight Control Rocket is through the roof, that’s for sure.

The one thing I’m not so sure about yet is just how well the business model for Flight Control Rocket will go over. The game is 99¢ to download, but there is an in-game store filled with additional things to purchase. There are several types of in-game currency which you can slowly earn through play or purchase in various packs for real money.

The rate at which you earn this currency through play seems alright, but I’m not sure how I feel about being able to buy a continuation of your game or items that augment the scores you’re able to earn. I generally like high scoring focused games like this to remain pure, or at the very least have separate leaderboards for those who use these types of items and those who don’t.

It’s going to take some more time to really feel out how well the in-app purchase system has been implemented in Flight Control Rocket, but the one thing I do know is that I love the direction that the series has evolved from a gameplay standpoint. Hopefully this is able to shine through beyond the IAP system, but if you were a fan of the first game I still think you’ll at least get your dollar’s worth of enjoyment out of checking out this new entry in the series.

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Over the last few years, I’ve seen a great number of strange things done to George Romero’s slavering, brain-dead antagonists. They’ve been assaulted by botanical artillery, transmogrified into office workers, made into soccer players and stuffed into a pizzeria. I’m totally okay with that, by the way. Amorous zombies, on the other hand, I’m not so sure about. Google Warm Bodies. You’ll understand. Still, were it not for a certain major flaw (we’ll get into that), Akaoni Studio’s frenetic arcade style shooter Zombie Panic in Wonderland Plus [Free] could have made me into a convert.

Steeped in cherry blossoms and highly destructible architecture, Zombie Panic in Wonderland is the story of a rather troubled land. Once a tranquil environment populated by a mishmash of copyright-infringing characters, Wonderland is now the epicenter of a ghoulish infestation.

Curiously enough, the dude responsible for all this madness has rather little to do with the usual list of suspects (evil corporations, witchcraft, heavy metal – you know the drill). The culprit here is a self-centered prince with an affection for the spotlight. He made a perfume designed to enthrall the masses. As you might have guessed, that didn’t work too well. Consequently, it is now up to you, the heroic and extremely effeminate-looking Mamotaro, to save the day.

Trust me, it sounds easier than it really is. In spite of the unreasonably adorable visuals, Zombie Panic in Wonderland does not hold back the punches. While it starts off on a relatively easy note, the difficulty level ramps up exponentially with every passing stage. Before you know it, you’ll find yourself having dodging putrefied sumo wrestlers, shurikens, demonic energy blasts and an assortment of other projectiles. Along the way, you’re also going to have to gun down everything from desiccated high school children to undead ninja gnomes. As per the grand old tradition set by titles like Time Crisis and House of the Dead, one hit is all it takes to shave off a life from your tally.

Ordinarily, this wouldn’t really be a bad thing but Zombie Panic in Wonderland is infuriatingly tight-fisted with the whole giving lives thing. Unless you make some purchases, you’re only ever going to get a single life and a single continue. That’s it. Good luck. Use those up and you can kiss your progress goodbye. It’s back to the first square with you, my friend.

Fortunately, however, the game doesn’t leave you completely high and dry. Remember what I said about the local infrastructure? It comes down rather easily. While you can always make use of your arsenal, you can also choose to literally bring the house down on your opponents. You even get extra points depending on your aptitude for mass destruction. In addition, there are also a number of exploding figurines capable of assisting you in your quest for total annihilation.

Gameplay-wise, that’s all about it for Zombie Panic in Wonderland. It doesn’t try to be more than what it is really is: a deeply responsive iOS port of Akaoni Studio’s WiiWare title. You progress through levels by filling a meter with your acts of wanton violence. If you succeed, you get to move on. If you don’t, well, you fail. It’s as gloriously simple as that.

I’m going to take this moment to add that the controls are also rather exemplary. To move, you utilize the iPhone’s built-in accelerometer. To dodge enemies, you swipe with a finger. If you want to shoot a barrage of bullets at your foes, you hold a finger down on the screen. To lob grenades, you double tap.

With its eclectic soundtrack (the moderately eerie traditional-sounding Japanese songs are particularly nice), cutesy visuals and approachable gameplay, Zombie Panic in Wonderland should have been something great. It should have been one of those games you openly recommend to your friends. It should have worked in all the right ways. Unfortunately, it doesn’t. Why? The in-app purchase system.

To be blunt, I’m not happy about it. In fact, I’m downright vexed. While it is not uncommon for iPhone games to do their best to entice you into additional expenditure, I have problems stomaching the approach that Akaoni Studio took. $3.99 for the full campaign mode? A little steep but I can deal with it. $2.99 for unlimited continues? $0.99 for a single extra continue? No. Just no.

With but one life and one continue available for free, the message is clear: grow cat-like reflexes or purchase those elusive continues. Take your pick. In all fairness, though, Zombie Panic in Wonderland does offer an all-in-one pack that will bestow every currently available (note the presence of the word ‘current’) asset upon you, but really, all-important consumables should not be exploited in such a manner.

Then again, to abuse a well-worn writer’s trope, your personal mileage may vary. If you’re okay with the way they’ve approached the whole freemium thing, Zombie Panic in Wonderland will probably make you rather happy. If not, steer clear. At the very least it’s nice that there’s no barrier of entry to check out what really is a very cool title, and after playing the included free content you should have a good idea of how much money you’re willing to drop on IAP, if any at all. It’s just a shame to see such a nice game stripped down and sold piece by piece like this.

TouchArcade Rating:

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Robot Entertainment is making good on the promise of more Hero Academy [Free] content, and it sure delivered the other day. In an update, Robot unleashed the game’s third team, the Dwarves, for a one-time $1.99 in-app purchase. These undersized big men specialize in the fine art of explosives and gunpowder, kinda like the Squat in Warhammer 40K except without the exo-armour and all those Land Trains.

Robot has an awesome blog post up that details each of the new classes that the Dwarf army is bringing to the fold. It also spills the beans on all the contents of the new update, which brings about some needed chat bug fixes and several neat tweaks, like auto-forfeiting. Hit it up if you’re especially curious, and check out our review if you still don’t know why everyone is buzzing this. Hint: it has something to do with the amount of little dudes equipped with stabby things.

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One of the nicer surprises from the holiday release frenzy late last year was Robot Invader’s Wind-Up Knight [Free], a game we gave 5 stars in our review. Wind-Up Knight is an auto-running puzzle platformer which has you playing as a tiny knight who is mindlessly charging through each fiendishly-designed level on his own, with the task of avoiding hazards in order to survive to the end of a level left up to you. You do this by jumping, rolling, shielding, and attacking anything that gets in your way.

Wind-Up Knight requires impeccable precision and loads of patience, as to fully maximize the rewards in each and every level it will take countless deaths and retries. It’s that good kind of difficulty though, the kind that makes you want to keep coming back until you get that perfect run.

So yeah, Wind-Up Knight is pretty darn good. Another thing that’s pretty darn good is that you can now get the game for free on the App Store. If you feel guilty getting such a quality title for free, then there’s always some in-app purchase items you could splurge on to ease your conscience a bit. Although, with this latest update the items in the game’s Armory are now discounted, which means any in-game currency you get through IAP will stretch even further. I guess you’re stuck feeling at least a little bit guilty, then. Sorry.

Wind-Up Knight’s levels are split into 4 books, the first being included for free. You can unlock additional books by using the in-game currency, which can be bought in various IAP packs or earned through play, or you can just pay a flat $1.99 to unlock each book. If you owned the original paid version of the game, then all books should be automatically unlocked, provided you have previously played through at least 1 level before updating.

The update also includes some minor tweaks such as social network integration, screen rotation support, and improved interface and gameplay flow. There’s definitely no reason not to check out Wind-Up Knight now that it’s free, so what are you waiting for?

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I may be dating myself here, but there was a time when I was completely obsessed with Windows Solitaire. I wanted to see every pixel of the game’s window covered in the cards that hopped down at the end of the game, and the obsession lasted just as long as it took to make that happen. Since then, stacking cards onto other cards hasn’t held the same charm. Then I picked up Fairway Solitaire [Free / HD] and now I’d kind of like my life back, please.

It’s not that Fairway Solitaire is particularly challenging—quite the opposite, in fact. It follows Big Fish Games’ usual mandate of making everything as player-friendly as possible. But between the dead simple gameplay and the weirdly compelling golf metaphors, I’m totally engrossed. And reading around online and in our forums, I’m not alone. This game gets its hooks into people more than one might expect from a golf-themed card game.

The game is built around one-card draw solitaire. The field is covered in cards that are stacked in various piles, face up or face down, and one card is drawn from the remaining deck at a time. You can put any card on top of that draw if it’s higher or lower by one. You keep stacking them until you have no cards left within one point on either side, and then you draw your next card.

Golf provides the framework in with the game is played. Each game is a single hole of a golf course. The score for an individual hole doesn’t matter all that much because your real goal is to hit below par for the whole course. The beauty of this system is that when you get to those awful awkward moments when the last few cards on the table just won’t work, you can end your game and move on to the next hole.

In fact, a cleared table will land you well under par. Not only does this make successful games particularly rewarding, it also keeps you from getting bogged down in losses. Just pick up your clubs, dust yourself off and move on to the next hole. You’ll even it out in the end.

Speaking of clubs, they play a vital role in Fairway Solitaire. You can find them as you play or buy them with Golf Bucks, and they can be used as cards for cheating. Whenever you’re in a tight spot with few cards left in your deck, you can pull out a relevant club and build off that instead. Again, this design cuts down on frustration and adds a teensy bit of strategy thanks to the relative scarcity of Golf Bucks and the long cooldown on each club.

Not that they’re all that scarce. You earn Golf Bucks for everything you do. They come from achievements, from finishing holes, from really good shots. They also come from in-app purchases, if you’re so inclined. You can use them to buy clubs or gear that gives you other advantages, like letting you see how many cards are left in the deck or clearing away a few hazards at the start of each hole.

Fairway Solitaire starts with one course pack, which contains six courses and about twenty-four holes total. If you choose to pay a dollar to unlock the rest of the courses, there are ten course packs that open up as you progress and one that can be unlocked with Golf Bucks. The differences between holes lie in the card layouts, the hazards present (which generally must be cleared by finding a hidden card or sacrificing a card from your deck), and the number of cards you need to get through to make par. Since most of the holes have their card selections randomly assigned, you can pretty much play forever.

Quirks abound, like realistically banal golf banter (which can be turned off) and overarching story about an angry gopher. The latter only comes up when you draw a wild card, which will throw you into a random gopher-related situation. Some give you clubs or take away your cards, and some are silly little minigames that award you with Golf Bucks.

Some of the other quirks of the game are less pleasant.The HD version doesn’t include Game Center, while the standard version is about double the file size. Multitasking drops off unusually quickly and without it you’ll be sent back to the start of the hole. And prepared to be inundated with ads for other Big Fish Games titles whenever you load Fairway Solitaire up fresh.

Those annoyances aside, this is the new solitaire title to beat in my books. What it lacks in difficulty it makes up for in sheer mindless entertainment, which is arguably what solitaire does best. If you want to push for a bigger challenge you can always go for three stars on each course, but success ultimately comes down to luck of the draw. Instead, I’d recommend enjoying Fairway Solitaire as the never-ending meditative experience that it is. Let other games be challenging. For this one, compelling and fun might just be good enough.

TouchArcade Rating:

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When I heard there was a multiplayer sequel to last year’s Puzzle Family [$2.99/Free], I was pretty psyched. Though the game was stuffed to the gills with in-app purchases, at its core it contained a pretty excellent collection of mini-games. I was looking forward to trying them out against a friend or two. That was not to be. As it turns out, the defining features of Puzzle Family must have been the wacky stylings and in-app purchases, because those are what have been brought to Puzzle Family VS [Free]. I guess the mini-games didn’t make the cut.

Instead, we’re looking at a single Tetris Attack-style game that pits players in a frantic block-matching competition with opponents from around the world. It features much of the lunacy of the original, but little of its variety. The letdown could easily have been enough to turn me off of Puzzle Family VS, but here’s the thing: I really dig it.

I dig it with a caveat, though: this is a good deal at the current price of free. If it returns to the release price of $1.99, I’d stay away, since competitive players will need to dip into consumable IAP. At least Com2Us tries to do right by its audience, rewarding early adopters with a huge pile of in-game currency to make amends for an unusually speedy price drop.

We’ve all seen this sort of game before. There are three columns of colored blocks that make their way down the screen. The blocks need to be matched with like colors in vertical rows of three by being lifted from one column and dropped in another. Because there is so little space to work with, this can be a claustrophobic prospect. I find the experience loosely Hanoi-like, stacking useless blocks back and forth between columns while maneuvering to make combos. This only continues until a block hits the end of a column, as per pretty much every block stacking game ever, so the only way to play involves a lot of risk management and quick moves.

The game follows ordinary match-3 progression, introducing more colors as time passes and levels are earned. Even just one or two extra colors can be crippling on such a tiny field of play. In single-player mode, you can get lucky and save yourself with a well-timed powerup – bombs, row clearing items and the like appear randomly while you play, and your choice of a single equipable item can be pulled out in a pinch. High scores are best earned with combos, and quick-fingered players will be able to chain them into the climactic fever mode.

In multiplayer, as in Tetris Attack, making combos is the best way to destroy an opponent. The more matches made in a row, the more blocks are dumped on the enemy’s field. A good series of plays can knock someone out in just a few moments. It’s advisable, and likely necessary, to enhance that strategy with a good selection of powerups. There are three slots to equip and over a dozen items to choose from, so planning a solid attack takes some thought.

I’m not in a good position to tell you how the value proposition works with these items, because I’ve been given some forty or fifty thousand coins for reasons that were never made entirely clear. Something about picking up the game during its paid period and goodness knows what else. What I can tell you is that you can buy 8000 coins for a dollar, and packs of five of one item cost anywhere from a few hundred coins to over a thousand. If you’re conservative with them, you might be able to string things along with only the coins you earn in battle. Of course, then you won’t be able to buy any equipment, leaving you at a competitive disadvantage.

The non-IAP progression system is engaging, and deserves more focus than it gets. In single player, there are missions that call for things like using an item three times in the same battle or geting a stack of three combos four times in a game. In multiplayer, the only way to progress is by winning. In fact, losing is a blow to your overall rank. There are three rank-defined arenas to pull opponents from, and there is a good-sized community out there to fight. It seems that matchmaking is only done through Com2Us hub, and Game Center simply handles achievements and leaderboards.

Though it’s not exactly what I’d hoped for, Puzzle Family VS is a lot of fun. Most of the multiplayer games I really enjoy are of the ponderous, asynchronous sort, so it’s nice to have a completely frantic matching game to mix things up – even a frantic matching game with its hands deeply in my pocket. Com2Us has proven that they can craft a great multiplayer experience, and we know from past experience that they’re fantastic at building crazy fun mini-games. This is a great start at bringing the two together, but let’s hope they don’t stop here.

TouchArcade Rating:

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We’ve been watching for Furmins [$0.99 / Universal] for a while now, because when you hear Housemarque is launching a game on iOS, you sit up and take notice. These are the guys behind Super Stardust HD, Dead Nation and Outlands, some of the best games on the PlayStation Network. Furmins hasn’t blown us away like their console titles have, but it’s a gorgeous little physics puzzler that’s great fun to boot.

Only one little problem—Housemarque jammed things up a bit with a pretty off-the-wall in-app purchase system. I’ll get into that a bit deeper once I tell you what the game’s all about, but suffice it to say that you may end up stuck behind a paywall before you’re done. It’s a bummer, because you’re going to want to get your hands all over as much of this game as you can.

From the start, great level design sets Furmins apart. Each level has the same goal: get all the fuzz-ball furmins into a basket. You can’t directly interact with either, so you have to play with the environment to create a path. Though the game keeps a pretty tight rein on the tools you can use, each level manages to feel like a new challenge, and some have seriously entertaining solutions.

Those tools you have to work with are a mix between objects that need to be placed with pixel-hunting precision and interactive elements that can be triggered with a tap. At first the game comes off as a pretty by-the-numbers physics puzzler – move a platform here for the furmins to bounce off, a wall there to keep them from going too far. This all changes when timing elements are brought in, and things start to get a little crazy.

If you’re into puzzles because you like slow, thoughtful experiences, Furmins probably isn’t for you. Once you sort out the platforms, ice blocks, and other pre-set bits, the real fun starts. As soon as you set things in motion you’re responsible for quick reflex moves like triggering other platforms at just the right moment or switching conveyor belt directions. This makes it extra hard to manage your positioning since a winning setup will depend as much on execution as anything else. Tap at the wrong moment and you won’t land the jump that sets your whole plan into motion.

This might be frustrating in a worse game, but here it’s occasionally brilliant. Pulling off some of the more difficult levels will make you feel both clever and skilled, which is a pretty great reward. Even better, you’re doing so in a charming game with lovely art and music.

For all the pleasure the game has to offer, though, we must eventually get to the pain. On one hand Furmins does a great job opening up its content, letting you jump around between levels and most worlds whenever you want, playing in any order that strikes your fancy. On the other hand, four worlds are completely inaccessible to start, and unlocking them is a surprisingly obnoxious process.

It’s complicated, but I’ll try to be brief. You unlock worlds with the stars you earn from collecting all the sweets in each level (yeah, a three-star system. What physics game is complete without one, right?). You earn three per level, or six if you pick up the (pretty much free) star-doubling addition tucked away in the store. If my math is correct, you should be able to open up all but one level with double stars and perfect three-star performance. If you don’t notice that optional multiplier right away, though, you may only be able to open two of the locked worlds and a handful of the bonus levels before hitting the wall.

So instead of spending time playing the game, this star doubling option leaves you either spending the start of the game calculating out the possible IAP paths or locked out of a good chunk of content. Then, of course, you’ll have to replay completed levels (and, I mean, at least that is an option, but who wants to replay already-mastered puzzles?) or purchase stars to make up the difference. Conflating achievement with currency looks good on paper, but this is just plain confusing. It’s sure to leave a bad taste in the mouths of players who learned they needed to game the system a little too late.

If you hop into the store and grab the star-doubling multiplier straight off you’ll be pretty much fine, assuming you leave the bonus levels until last and eventually earn three stars on everything. If you pull all that off you can enjoy the game thoroughly with nearly all of its content intact. And Furmins is a great game to enjoy, with gorgeous visuals and a ton of really sharp physics puzzles to work through. I just wish I could have avoided the mind games that came along for the ride.

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Diggin’ Dogs [99¢] from Soap Creative and Chillingo is already being compared to Disney’s popular release Where’s My Water? [99¢],  since both games use the same “swipe-to-dig” mechanism. But the inspiration for Diggin’ Dogs actually came from Soap Creative’s online Flash game Truffle Hunter, which you can try on your computer. Personally, I didn’t think much of that Flash game, but I’m diggin’ Diggin Dogs with its noisy little puppies.

The easy-to-use controls involve a mix of swiping, tapping and tilting. You drag to dig burrows for the dogs to clamber down and swipe to make the dogs jump. Tap to activate and deactivate objects (such as changing gravity orientation), and tilt to make the dogs, coins and various in-game items slide left or right. If you’re not a huge fan of tilt controls (like me), don’t worry your fingers do most of the work.

To keep the dogs safe (and alive) you must make sure they avoid various enemies and objects, like wailing pirate ghosts, wasps, bats, poisonous toadstools, icicles and – perhaps most harshly – steel gin-traps with sharp teeth. You can also use the traps against your nasty enemies as you clear a path downwards. But don’t dig too enthusiastically, because once the screen scrolls downwards it never scrolls back up, so any objects you leave behind are unreachable.

Power-ups come in the form of hats with special powers. Like a magnet-hat that attracts coins through walls, a mushroom hat which transforms toadstools into collectible coins or a spray-can hat for easy pest eradication. Sometimes the dog with a specific hat must assist the other dogs to pass through a level, so you’ll need to split the dogs into their own tunnels.

The five chapters (Forest, Snow, Junkyard, Jungle and Volcano) are unlocked by collecting enough bones, and they deliver 60 levels in total. Each setting has different graphics, sound effects, cinematic music and enemies. Alternatively, you can purchase the “golden bone” as an optional in-app purchase to unlock all levels.

Scoring is based on the number of dogs that remain alive when you reach the golden boot at the bottom of the level, plus the number of golden coins collected. Your score is converted into a gold, silver or bronze medal and can be stored in Chillingo’s Crystal rankings, but there’s no Game Center integration provided this time.

Chillingo have a track record of publishing cute and entertaining casual games and with Diggin’ Dogs they’ve done it again. Although surprisingly, it’s not Universal and there’s currently no iPad native version (but you can play it in 2x mode). For iPhone and iPod touch owners though, Diggin’ Dogs is as entertaining as Where’s My Water?, which is a pretty big compliment.

TouchArcade Rating:

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