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Orbit1 [Free] is an incredibly minimalistic game. It doesn't have Game Center or achievements, it doesn't have game modes, it doesn't even have levels. If you have an iPad, though, you're going to want to pick this baby up. It's the perfect game for playing around the table with a few friends, and even better — it's free.

Caffeine Monster Software has put together the game I wanted when I first got my iPad. When everyone wanted to take a look and see what cool things I could do with it, this was the cool thing I had in mind. It's an arena game for one to four players, and it has insanely simple one-touch controls. If you're ever in a situation where you need a way to kill time with a handful of people without explaining complex rules and controls, this is your game.

You spend each round controlling a small ship orbiting a red ball of doom. Each player has a button in a corner of the iPad. Press it to move away from the center, release it to move toward the center. Hit anything red and you die and lose a point. Hit anything green and you gain a point. And, most importantly, smash into the back or side of an opponent and you earn two points and take them out for a second. Whoever has the most points when the 2, 3 or 4 minute timers runs out wins.

Sounds simple, no? But that's the beauty of it. I brought this game out at a dinner with family and everyone could jump in and pick it up in a round or two. There is no deeper game to dive into, but that's not the niche Orbit1 fills. I'm thinking about lineups at cons right now, and how easily a game like this could break the ice with fellow geeks if you don't mind having their hands all over your iPad. Or playing with your kids, if you have them. There's really no barrier to entry here.

I'd like to see a few small additions. Minimalistic or not, Game Center leaderboards couldn't hurt. You can play solo and track your own high score already, but that's of limited value without an online leaderboard. I also wouldn't mind seeing a mode that's even more minimalistic. When you've got all manner of red things to dodge and green things to collect, it can be a bit difficult to focus on the real fun: obliterating your opponents. A simpler death match might also ease non-gamers into the experience.

But those are just thoughts for improving what is already an excellent experience, one that does exactly what it needs to do. Orbit1 is a cleverly designed ice-breaker, a minimalistic but social time killer. It pulls you into the fun with such conviction that you'll be hard pressed to find people who can resist. And you know how I mentioned that it's free? I meant really, truly free. No ads, no in-app purchases. I'm not sure what sort of madness compelled Caffeine Monster Software to be so generous, but don't waste this chance. If you haven't got someone to play with, grab Orbit1 and go make new friends. It seems like it might just be good for that.

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It's expensive to buy and maintain a real horse, but now you can download a virtual one instead from the App Store– What a world we live in. My Horse [Free] from NaturalMotion Games and MunkyFun is a realistic horse simulation game, which allows you to groom, feed and reward your very own horsey, without ever leaving the couch. Although the true cost of the virtual horse depends on whether you choose to invest in the optional in-app purchases.

The developers goal was to create a horse which is realistic enough for the player to form a bond with. And they've managed to successfully achieve this as the horse graphics and behavior is pretty realistic. It flicks it's tail, grazes, looks around, trots, bucks, walks backwards and neighs. There's no obvious repeated animation loops, or cartoon graphics. You're caring for a real-looking virtual horse.

After meeting and naming your beast (default name was "Beauty", but I chose "GluePot"), Dan the Stable-boy assigns you some tasks, such as "take a photo of your horse" using the in-game camera. Completing tasks or spending time with your horse earns experience (XP) points, which helps increase your overall level.

You can tap the ground to place two markers and the horse will go there, at it's own pace. If a circle appears, you can walk your horse over it to collect XP. However, most of your actions are initiated by opening your leather journal, which has separate tabs for activities, care tasks, work tasks, competing and a marketplace for shopping.

The "Activities" are interactive mini-games, based upon feeding, treating and grooming your horse and caring for the paddock. For example, to groom your horse you swipe dirt from it's body, while feeding it involves buying a recipe and measuring out the right ingredient ratios. You can also buy extra horses. There's eight breeds of horse to collect, but they are all the same generic horse frame (size, shape) with a different texture. You can't make a custom-made mean beast or Shetland pony. You can switch between your horses, but can only play one at a time.

The health and happiness of your animal decrease over time, so you have to complete care tasks to maintain your virtual pet. There's 32 different care tasks to unlock, ranging from mucking out the stall and re-fitting horse-shoes, to giving vaccinations and plaiting the mane and tail. Each task is unlocked by reaching the prerequisite level.

Once you press the button for a task, it counts down to completion, which can range from a couple of minutes to many hours, as done in games like Smurf Village [Free].  Once the countdown reaches zero, the task is completed and you receive XP, while the horse gains health and happiness points. You can use gems (acquired from IAP or from each level upgrade) to immediately complete a task without any delay.

You can assign your animal to 32 different work tasks, to earn the coins needed for care tasks and tack (horse equipment). For example, your nag can be used for riding lessons, television work, or rides at the fairground. Again, you don't actually complete these tasks on the screen, they are simply count-downs. If your horses energy-levels get too low, he won't be able to work, unless he rests or gets a yummy sugary treat.

There's a series of show jumping events to compete in, so you'll want your nag to be in good shape.  Each competition has "entry requirements" such as a certain health level and training. You can either train your horse by completing a mini-game, or pay a trainer if you're impatient. As your horse moves towards a jump, a line moves across the screen and you have to tap a button so the line stops in the right color. If you're successful, the horse clears the jump, but the more you miss the mark, the worse the jump and the lower your score. You can work your way right to the world championships.

There's a market where items like stirrups, reins, saddles and boots can be purchased using coins and/or gems. You're given a few gems (1 gem per level upgrade, 3 gems for rating the app), or you can buy gems as in-app purchases.  The problem is that many items such as the best colorful equipment can only be purchased with gems. Yet, It seems unlikely that players will earn enough gems, without paying for in-app purchases.

The game features a social component too, as you can visit your friends stables to look after their horses.  One of the early assigned tasks is to visit a friend in your friend list, which helps promote the game, but is annoying if you want to play alone. Fortunately, there's a TouchArcade Forum for people seeking My Horse friends.  Also, be warned, the + GameCenter icon doesn't invite just one friend, it adds all of your friends with My Horse from Game Center.

This universal game has two Game Center leader-boards (total XP and total coins). Unfortunately your progress doesn't sync across devices, so you can't play with your iPad horse on your iPod.

My Horse is a wonderful game for horse-lovers and is worth a free download just to check out the realistic horse.  But if you're planning on playing this game for a long time, be prepared to spend some real money on gems, or accept that you probably won't be able to buy the best looking equipment, no matter how many coins you earn.  But, I guess that's still cheaper than a real horse.

Hat tip to Clint.

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Imangi Studios has just announced that their latest release, Temple Run [App Store] — the endless runner that makes you feel like an archaeologist with a penchant for deadly situations — is free, for a limited time.

Temple Run scored 4.5 stars in our recent review and was among the titles in our Best iOS Games of August 2011 roundup. Imangi recently pushed out a v1.2 update that brings the following enhancements:

• Two new characters
  • Scarlett Fox
  • Montana Smith
• Two new powerups
  • Boost (when you pick it up you boost forward at super speed)
  • Head Start (when activated you boost forward 1000m at start of your run)
• Three new achievements
  • Miser
  • Allergic to Gold
  • Head Start

With this updated, players can now earn free coins through offers in the in-game store, but Imangi would remind players that such in-app purchases are optional, and that coins can still be earned in-game.

The next Temple Run update, bringing more new characters and powerups as well as iCade support, is expected soon.

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If you missed out on our WWDC preview, allow me to calibrate your expectations about Tiny Heroes [$2.99], a new tower defense title from Simutronics Corp. You may have heard that the team behind this game was headed up by David Whatley, the developer of the outstanding geoDefense [$1.99 / Lite] and geoDefense Swarm [$1.99]. Already your brain may be whirring along, thinking about upgradeable towers and mazing. Stop that. You won't find those here. And you won't miss them, either.

In Tiny Heroes, you are the master of a dungeon rich with treasure. In classic Dungeons & Dragons style, where there is treasure, there are heroes. Are you going to sit back and let them take your treasure? Heck no! So you set up defenses in their way, and who can blame you if a few of those defenses are a touch lethal? You have liability insurance, right?

Once you push past the first few levels, which introduce you to the basics a bit too slowly, you'll find a game that has more in common with Plants vs. Zombies than geoDefense. The first clue is in the resource management: rather than profiting from killing heroes, you build mana stones that generate mana every few seconds. You use that mana to build your defenses, which are designed to block the oncoming heroes. Why politely leave a path for them to travel down when you can stop them in their tracks?

As you progress through the game, you unlock all manner of vicious defenses. Spike traps, catapults and barricades are just the beginning. You'll get so many that you won't be able to carry them all into battle. Instead, Tiny Heroes requires you to strategize and pick your poison before starting each stage. You'll need to learn how to combine your most brutal traps with static defenses and creatures to effectively guard your treasure, and you'll need to make sure you have the resources to pull your plan off.

But for each imaginative defense you set up, the heroes are ready to counter it. Knights march in with a single-minded appetite for destruction, thieves dismantle your traps from a safe distance and wizards take out your mana crystals, starving you for resources. Once you get a handle on defeating them, you'll find yourself facing epic versions of each. Your unbeatable combo may be able to take out basic knights with ease, but then an epic ranger will sweep in and keep things balanced.

It's the dungeon layouts and pathing that take Tiny Heroes from Plants vs. Zombies clone territory to something quite different, though. Each level has a unique layout, requiring an original strategy. The level layout can help or hurt the heroes, because they don't travel in the ways we've come to expect. In most tower defense games, enemies use basic pathing logic. They'll travel down the path that takes them to their goal most quickly, to hell with the consequences.

In Tiny Heroes, on the other hand, the heroes are a little more complicated. In their tiny brains they have a drive to explore, to find the best path based on what they can see. While this does occasionally lead to weirdness, like heroes wandering back and forth under fire, it also means that they put up a good fight — and that you can trick them.

For a game about the wholesale slaughter of friendly adventurers, Tiny Heroes is surprisingly adorable. Big goofy eyes can be found on the heroes and more of the defenses than you'd expect, and the animations are similarly charming. The only thing that's missing is music. I've spent hours on end with this game and haven't minded the lack, but if you're auditorially inclined you'll certainly miss it.

But otherwise, Tiny Heroes is a complete package. The two included campaigns are huge and challenging, and there's a third coming as a purchasable update. The Game Center/OpenFeint achievements are done beautifully: you're rewarded with new defenses for completing groups of them, adding quite a lot of replayability to the game. You can play through in Campaign Mode, and then replay individual levels for higher scores and achievements in Quick Play. There are also challenge levels to be had, and these put your skills to a serious test.

There is one in-app purchase available, but let me stress that it's totally optional. The Defense Expansion gives you four new defenses that aren't available in normal gameplay. They are very slightly overpowered, but this is by design: they're there to help people who find the game too frustrating. If you're stuck and you'd rather not pay, the developers have a series of walkthrough videos available on their website, and forums to discuss strategy.

iPad users are currently out of luck, but according to the developers an iPad version is planned. It's expected to have it's own set of levels that take advantage of the extra screen real estate, so it should be worth the wait.

I can't say enough about Tiny Heroes. It's a fantastic game, with few flaws to speak of. Challenging, but rarely frustrating, it had me returning to levels again and again to improve my score. By turning genre conventions on their heads, Tiny Heroes succeeds brilliantly. And you don't have to take my word for it alone — our discussion thread is packed with fans. Who wouldn't want to throw down against a bunch of greedy do-gooders, just this once?

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Back in the Summer of 2009, Flight Control [99¢/Lite/HD] had just sparked off the line drawing craze in the App Store. But before the market was completely flooded with “me too” clones that brought nothing new to the formula, Imangi Studios had released Harbor Master [Free/HD], a line drawing game very similar to Flight Control but with its own unique twists.

Obviously, the premise in Harbor Master differed by having the player direct boats into docks rather than planes onto landing strips, but it went a bit deeper than that. Boats that were destined for particular docks came in various sizes and speeds, and you’d need to wait for the ship to unload its cargo before directing it out of the dock to make room for a new ship. This small change added a whole new level of strategy and frantic gameplay, and Harbor Master has remained a favorite in the line drawing genre around the TouchArcade headquarters since its release.

Over the past couple of years, Harbor Master has received a good amount of update love from the developers, adding in Retina Display graphics, a separate iPad version, Game Center integration, and a novel rewind feature that let you back things up if you made a mistake.

Now, for the first time ever, the price of Harbor Master has dropped to free for the day. If you’ve somehow managed never to pick up the title yet, now is your chance to jump on it for zero dollars. There’s also the iPad version Harbor Master HD which has always been initially free and is supported with additional premium features through in-app purchase. No matter which version you end up with, make sure not to miss out on one of the best line drawing games in the App Store during this limited free promotion of Harbor Master.

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We've had our hands on an early build of Halfbrick's Jetpack Joyride [99¢] for quite some time now, and ever since then I've been trying to figure out the best way to approach a review of the game. Between our own hands-on preview and Halfbrick's series of developer diaries (Parts 1, 2, and 3) I'm really not sure what else can be said about the actual gameplay. Between myself, and Halfbrick's own videos, you've seen everything that Jetpack Joyride has to offer. As explained in the previously mentioned preview, Halfbrick hasn't done anything particularly innovative with the game, instead, they've taken a tried and true gameplay package and in essence, turned it up to 11.

If you've at all missed out on what Jetpack Joyride is, please go check out our preview. I'll quote some here to whet your appetite:

Halfbrick has taken the cave flyer formula which has been done to death and via their seemingly trademarked Australian majicks created a game that I simply cannot put down. In fact, just writing this article is proving to be difficult because every time I go back to the game to add something to my notes, I find 15 minutes has flown by as I've endlessly sent Mr. Steakfries to his doom via lasers, missiles, and zappers.

The controls are rock solid, and work via the standard tried and true single button approach where you touch the screen to power up the thrusters of Barry's jetpack, and release to send him falling back down. Powerups are plentiful via vehicles that you can ride in that all behave very differently. These vehicles serve as a temporary shield of sorts, and will allow you to, for instance, take a missile to the face without ending your flight. …more

What makes Jetpack Joyride truly noteworthy isn't the array of power-ups, the endless customization, the various objectives, or the on death slot machine system. It's really the sum of all these different parts that have created a game that has kept me playing to the point of disregarding real world responsibilities for one more go at Jetpack Joyride. And really, I believe this is the highest praise a games journalist could possibly give a game.

In the world of the App Store, there's a never-ending supply of new games to try. We maintain lists of games to check out, and it seems like those lists rarely, if ever, reach a point where we're "finished" for the day. It's a brutal cycle that doesn't often afford us the ability to actually sit back and play the games we enjoy, because there are always other games to play from an endless queue of seemingly worthy titles that all deserve a once-over. This is especially true for me as I keep our team of writers on track and make sure all of our coverage jives.

Jetpack Joyride is the first game in a very long time that has left me lagging behind checking my email, leaving the Adium icon hopelessly bouncing in my dock with new instant messages, and entirely disregarding the fact that my clothes have been sitting in the dryer for nearly four days now. Attending to emails, answering IM's, and even folding clothes just loses out every single time to playing one more round and seeing how far I can go.

Normally this is the part where I'd try to qualify what kind of person would most enjoy Jetpack Joyride with tired cliches like "fans of the genre" and other phrases we love using. But really, everyone I've handed my phone to in the past week to try the game has reluctantly handed it back with a massive smile on their face a few minutes later. Jetpack Joyride doesn't need any kind of "if you like randomized endless games" or any other disclaimers. It is a game you simply must own.

Jetpack Joyride is universal, and will run on every iOS device except for the O.G. iPhone and first generation iPod touch. There's an entirely optional in-app purchase mechanic as well where you can buy coins instead of earning them in game, but since that basically robs you of any kind of progression and replay value I'm not sure why you'd ever do that– But, fair warning to those of you out there who get worked up over the inclusion of IAP, no matter how unnecessary it is. If you for some reason need some additional convincing before mashing that download button in iTunes, swing by our forums where you'll see similar praise for this incredible game.

TouchArcade Rating:

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Just when you thought you were safe from homicidal children’s program puppets, developer Twindigo has released a massive Episode 2 update for their twisted arena shooter Puppet War: FPS [99¢]. Just for a bit of backstory, Pupper War: FPS was released in June of last year, and we really liked it in our review. You played a janitor trapped inside the studio of a popular children’s show trying to fend off endless waves of puppets, who are normally the friendly stars of the show but have decided to turn against humanity.

What really made Puppet War: FPS so much fun was the juxtaposition of the sugary sweet characters and scenery set against such violent gameplay. The variety of weapons was also quite fantastic, featuring things like a mop and wrench that you’d expect a janitor to have handy, right on up to wackier items like a plunger crossbow and razor sharp katana sword. The gameplay itself was good too, featuring solid FPS controls and nearly endless replay value.

A couple of months after release, Puppet War: FPS received its first meaty update which added a Survival mode, a completely brand new map and several map variants, and new Zombie and Ninja puppets to blast the stuffing out of. Things have been a bit quiet on the Puppet War front since then, but this latest 2.0 update blows even that last huge update out of the water with all its new content.

Some of this new content comes at a small price, though, as Episode 2 of Puppet War: FPS is available as a 99¢ in-app purchase. What you get in Episode 2 is 10 new weapons including a flamethrower, grenade launcher, and sniper rifle; 3 brand new maps (2 of which have nighttime variants) featuring locations around the TV studio like the lobby, corridor, and parking garage; 4 new puppets including vampires and magicians; and new boss battles featuring Fluffy from the no longer available lite version of the game and a brand new boss named Smiley the Creepy Clown who will most likely give me nightmares.

Not all of the new stuff is part of the paid add-on, though. Current owners of Puppet War: FPS will also have access to a new perks system which can give your character special abilities during play, and you’ll have the ability to upgrade every weapon in the game. Also, the Fluffy boss fight and the Xmas-themed Survival map have been added to the game. Finally, Game Center support has been added for leaderboards and achievements. All of these additions are free for both Episodes of the game.

Puppet War: FPS has remained one of my favorite shooters since its release. I had long ago gotten my money’s worth in enjoyment from the title, and sort of figured the developers were done updating it. I was more than pleasantly surprised to see such a giant new update for the game, as were many players in our forums. If you haven’t given Puppet War: FPS a try yet, it’s definitely one worth checking out.

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4Towers: Onslaught [$1.99] is the latest tower defense game from LambdaMu, the makers of Infinight [$1.99/Lite] and Dice Soccer [Free]. If the name of this game sounds familiar, that's probably because it was originally released mid-2010 as 4Towers Combo TD: Classic Edition [99c] .

Onslaught is a reboot of their Classic game, as it delivers additional levels, bosses, an features, plus improved vector-style graphics and sounds. The first 22 of the 28 levels are taken directly from the Classic game, but look better and include the addition of equipment which grant special abilities.

4Towers: Onslaught features 13 different varieties of enemy (or "creep"), each with different health, speed and abilities. Creeps travel in waves, along a set path. You set-up towers to destroy them, before they reach the end of the path. Anyone who plays tower defense games will be completely familiar with this concept. The creeps have abilities such as turning invisible, spawning swarms and healing other creeps. And each level features one unique boss to defeat, so that's 28 bosses.

This game is quite similar to GeoDefense [$1.99/Lite/Review], which is an excellent tower defense game from early 2009, although there's three main differences. Firstly, there are set positions in Onslaught where you can install a tower, rather than being able to position towers anywhere. Secondly, some of those positions are specifically allocated for combining two towers together, as a combo-tower.  And thirdly, instead of failing once 10 creeps escape, the remaining health of each escaping creep is removed from your own health, causing you to die if your health reaches zero.

This game is named "4Towers" for a reason. The four basic towers are red (blast tower), blue (slow tower), green (weaken tower) and purple (cannon tower). By combining two towers together, you can create 18 stronger combo-towers, with new abilities, to fight off the swarm.

Here's a couple of examples:  Two linked red towers form a rapid fire tower, blue and green towers form an immobilizing stun tower, while red and green towers form a sniper tower which specifically targets creeps with the highest health points (HP). Four of the combo-towers are achieved by placing towers on special charge platforms, for extra powerful attacks once charged up, although these have a long cool-down period.

The gameplay controls are simple and intuitive. Towers are built by tapping an available marked position, then selecting the tower type. You can tap an existing tower to upgrade or recycle it. Recycling means you get an instant refund for all money spent on that tower so far, enabling you to create a new tower elsewhere. This redeem-and-relocate technique can be used strategically mid-game, to move towers back in front of a wave of creeps after they've passed by.

There's a "fast-forward" button, to make the action play out faster, or you can press pause to make your moves without pressure. A radar shows the next approaching wave of creeps, and tapping it causes the next wave of creeps to spawn immediately. This allows expert players to confront two waves of creeps simultaneously for higher scores. You can also unlock Veteran and Elite modes for more difficult and prolonged game-play.

When you complete a level, you're rewarded with biomatter (in-game currency) and the next level is unlocked, even if you didn't manage to defeat the boss. However, it's only by killing the boss that you collect the items it drops.  Collecting equipment will give you abilities or tower modifications, boosting your stats. You can unlock items using biomatter or if you're impatient, via in-app purchases. Game Center rankings and a healthy 51 achievements are included.

This release was originally planned to be an episodic tower defense game, like their Classic game which features two episodes, however ignore the current iTunes description and game trailer, because the developers have scrapped that approach. Instead, they advise that a future update is likely, but not expected to require an in-app purchase.

If you already have the Classic version, you may not want this game unless you don't mind repeating most of the levels, but otherwise 4Towers: Onslaught is a solid tower defense game which rewards intelligent play, has a lot of depth and improves on the aesthetics of its earlier version.

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Sprinkle [99¢] by Mediocre and Fabrication Games, is a water-squirting platform puzzler. The Swedish developers were pretty brave to take on this project as their debut release, as it's always challenging to represent water in a game, but they've really managed to pull it off. The water flows, splashes, pools up, makes waves, moves objects and surges, just as you'd expect it to. The water physics in this game look wonderful and are definitely the main attraction.

At the start of each level, a cute little red fire-truck arrives at the scene of a fire. You can adjust the height of the trucks crane by dragging it up or down, and you can also tilt the angle of the water cannon by swiping. Once the nozzle is aimed in the right direction, simply tap or hold the red button to squirt water. And the water does actually squirt. You can see the main stream of the flow with little bits shooting off, just like when you turned the hose on your family members as a kid. And it still feels good to squirt that H20!

This game is already being compared to Feed Me Oil [99c/ Review], which is also based on a liquid. However, the game-play of these two titles is actually completely different. In Feed me Oil, you're trying to pour thick black goop into a particular zone on the screen. Whereas in Sprinkle it doesn't matter where the water ends up, providing you put out the stubborn fires before your water supply runs out. And Sprinkle is set on one of Saturn's Moons, so there's little alien creatures inhabiting the levels.

There's four worlds provided at launch, with 46 levels in total. The key to unlocking the levels isn't speed as you might anticipate – instead, it's all about water conservation.  There's a little gauge at the bottom of the screen, which indicates how much of your water supply remains. The less water you use, the more blue water droplets you earn.

The blue droplets are used to unlock levels. If you obtain the maximum 5 droplets for all levels in a world, the next world is unlocked (which isn't made clear in the game). Or, if you can't be bothered with that, you can make optional in-app purchases for worlds 3 and 4, which also unlocks the earlier levels.  My main concern about this game was the number of levels, however I've been assured that additional levels are already planned for release soon.

Each level contains objects like blocks, ice and boulders to drag or hose into position, structures and mechanisms to manipulate with water and buttons to activate. The first world is pretty straightforward and can be solved by squirting water in the obvious directions, but then some puzzle elements are introduced to makes things more challenging. For example, you'll have to plan how to make your water reach each fire, because moving an object to drench one fire may unintentionally block the path to another. And just when you think all the fires are under control, a fireball might suddenly arrive from space, sparking brand new blazes.

Sprinkle has the cuteness factor turned up to high, with the fire-truck and little alien creatures looking adorable. The music deserves a mention too, for being catchy. And it's fun to squirt water through a small gap and have it erupt out the other side, like a geyser. Yup, splashing water around never gets old, so this new visually-appealing universal game will probably make a splash.

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The Secret of Chateau de Moreau [$4.99 / Lite] by 4:33 Creative Lab is an entertaining adventure game, which is quite similar to Phoenix Wright [$4.99] / Review], which has heaps of fans here on TouchArcade. Both of these games are interactive story-telling adventures, where you make decisions which determine the outcome. If you love Phoenix Wright, or murder mysteries, you'll probably enjoy this game as much as we do.

You play as Antoine, the step-son of the wealthy Count Moreau, who has died under suspicious circumstances and now you're the main suspect. Antoine must investigate the crime, solving puzzles along the way, to prove his own innocence. The story is captivating, almost like reading a book, except you're an active participant in the drama.

This is a "who dun it?" murder mystery, with back-story and a decent cast of suspects. I've met 14 characters so far, including family members, a maid, a nanny, an engineer, a house guest…and yes, there's a butler.  Maybe he did it? Maybe he didn't? Perhaps I did it? That's what makes this game so much fun.

There's three different types of gameplay. Sometimes you walk your character around a floor-map of the Chateau, searching rooms for objects, using objects or presenting them to people. During your investigations you'll uncover topics of interest, which are recorded as clues. Once a clue is revealed, you can question the various characters about it and use objects to resolve that clue.

The second type of play is when you present your evidence, at the appropriate times, to solve the mystery. It's this part of the game which is most like Phoenix Wright. If you don't respond to the situation correctly, you might fail to prove your innocence. You're given five candles (lives), which extinguish each time you make a mistake. There's 40 alternate endings, which are presented in this game like achievements. So, in addition to completing the story, you can also try to reveal the other 39 endings.

The third type of gameplay involves puzzles to solve, such as opening an object, entering a code, or putting things in the right position. The developers advise there are over 100 puzzles, so I'll take their word on that.

If you haven't seen Phoenix Wright you may be unfamiliar with how this story is presented. Basically, static images of locations and characters are presented in cartoon format, sometimes with slight animations or flickers, along with subtitles for speech (white text) or thoughts (blue text). Meanwhile,  sound effects and music help create atmosphere. At times, you're forced to tap through several lines of dialog and my only criticism is that this is a bit boring if you're repeating a section, which may put some players off seeking all 40 endings. There's also the occasional line of strangely structured "foreign English" but generally the story-telling is fairly decent.

The controls vary, depending on your position within the game. When dialog or thoughts are presented, you tap to progress. Questioning involves selecting a question from a list. When you're walking around the floor-map, you tap a point to walk there, or tap the "Open Door" button. To search a room, you tap on specific items within the room. And there's buttons to access your inventory, clues, question someone, present an object or switch to move mode, to explore.

During the game, you discover time potions (which rewind time, to let you do things differently) and 'Water of Blessing' (which reveals any hidden mysteries while searching a specific room). These two items can also be purchased as In-App Purchases (IAP), but that's not really necessary.

The Secret of Chateau de Moreau is a really well-designed, nicely-paced game, which captures your attention quickly and makes you want to play detective, searching for clues and solving puzzles, right up to the dramatic reveal at the end. If you love Phoenix Wright, this purchase is an absolute no-brainer – just do it. And if you're not sure, take the lite version for a quick spin, but do it quickly, before someone else gets murdered!

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