TouchArcade.ru

Cave's Espgaluda II appeared in the App Store tonight. This vertical shooter falls in the "bullet hell" subgenre where your job includes dodging waves of endless projectiles. Espgaluda II was originally released as an Xbox 360 game earlier this year and is now making its way to the iPhone.

Due to the number of projectiles in the game, Espgaluda II requires a 3rd generation device. This includes the iPhone 3GS, 3rd Generation iPod Touch and even the iPad. In fact, the game plays pretty will on the iPad with pixel doubling as the added screen size seems to make navigation a little more precise. That's not to say the iPhone 3GS version is lacking. In our brief time with the game, it seems to deliver on the promise of "bullet hell" with smooth visuals and solid controls.

The video shows the manic action involved in the iPhone release:

While you can touch anywhere on the screen, the play field is inset a bit to allow you a bit of room to swipe your finger. It works well prevents any obscuration of your ship with your finger.

The game has 3 levels of difficulty, multiple control setting options, and both iPhone and Arcade modes. The embedded video gives a great walk through of the game and the intense action.

App Store Link: Espgaluda II, $4.99 (3GS, 3rd Gen iPod Touch or Pixel-Doubled on iPad only)

Note: The game will reportedly not install on iPod Touches (even 3rd gen) at this time. This should be easily fixable by the developer in time.

[source]

Apple's surprise media event unveiling the iPhone OS 4.0 is set to begin shortly. We'll be providing live updates, and focusing on things that specifically pertain to iPhone gaming or things iPhone gamers might be interested in like all of our other keynote coverage in the past.

Steve Jobs just took the stage, and started things out by talking about the sales figures of the iPad. On Saturday they sold 300,000, and as of today they've sold 450,000. Apple apparently is making them as fast as they can, but notes that Best Buy is already out of stock. On the first day, 1 million paid apps were downloaded, and since then 3.5 million have been. (In addition to 600,000 eBooks.)

Photo courtesy of gdgt live.

Jobs also mentions that there are over 185,000 apps in the App Store, with over 3,500 iPad apps. He then took some time to show off the more impressive iPad apps in the App Store currently such as the ABC app, Netflix, the Marvel comic book reader, and others. Shifting gears to talk about the iPhone, Steve mentions they've won three JD Power awards for customer satisfaction, and currently holds 64% of the mobile browser market share. Apple has sold over 50 million iPhones, with 85 million combined devices between the iPod touch and iPhone.

iPhone OS 4.0 is coming this summer, with a developer preview available today.

Photo courtesy of gdgt live.

Photo courtesy of gdgt live.

Among the seven "tent pole" features of iPhone OS 4.0 is multitasking. Steve goes on to demonstrate how multitasking is going to work. With multiple apps running, double clicking the home button raises a window that looks a lot like the bottom dock of the iPhone showing what apps are running. Tapping an icon instantly switches to that app.

Photo courtesy of gdgt live.

To explain how this all works while preserving battery life and performance, Steve hands things off to Scott Forstall, SVP of iPhone Software. iPhone OS 4.0 will provide seven multitasking services. The first of which is audio streaming, and Forstall specifically cites Pandora as an example of an app that will shine with this functionality. Developing applications to utilize this functionality is apparently extremely easy, as it only took the Pandora developers a day to make the app background aware. Skype also works fantastically with this new functionality, even allowing you to accept calls while running in the background.

Doodle Jump spotted:

Photo courtesy of gdgt live.

The next multitasking function is background location. Apps that use the GPS functionality such as TomTom will be able to continue routing while in the background. This raises obvious privacy concerns, and a new settings menu will be available to enable and disable location services per application, as well as showing a small arrow icon next to the battery indicator.

Moving on to push notifications, Forstall mentions they've sent over 10 billion notifications since the service went live. Building on push notifications comes local notifications, done entirely on the phone to see alerts from apps you have running in the background. One example mentioned was a popup when a photo was finished uploading to Flickr.

Photo courtesy of gdgt live.

Steve takes the stage again and announces folders to organize apps. The interface seems an awful lot like the various jailbreak app organization solutions. So far Apple is really knocking it out of the park with this keynote.

Photo courtesy of gdgt live.

The iPhone mail client is also getting enhanced, with a unified inbox for each email account on the device along with a threaded email view for reading conversations. Unsurprisingly, the iPhone is also getting the iBooks app which will sync pages and bookmarks with other devices that have the app.

Forstall just announced "Game Center", Apple's own gaming social networking service that seems to handle everything Plus+, OpenFeint, and others do with presumably one unified login tied to your iTunes account. Matchmaking, leaderboards, and achievements are all part of it.

Photo courtesy of Gizmodo.

Also mentioned was Apple's own iAd advertisement services, which we expect to see making appearances in many free games that have historically relied on AdMob and other advertising networks.

iPhone OS 4.0 will be coming this fall, and sadly, multitasking will not be supported for the iPhone 3G and second generation iPod touch. That's it folks, Steve is taking questions now.

[source]

It seems like I just wrote about this game a few days ago but we have some more information to share with you. Just in case you don’t remember, ESPGALUDA II is a bullet hell shooter from Cave, the leader in creating games of this type. Our forums have been buzzing about this game since it was first announced. If you watch the new game play video we have below you will see why.

The official word on the release date is April 10th, 2010 with an introductory sale price of $4.99. The normal price is going to be set at $8.99. There will also be a lite version so you can see if you can handle bullet hell games before you buy. Also worth mentioning is, the game will only run on the iPhone 3GS and the 3rd generation iPod Touch. I can't wait for this one to come out.

[source]

iPhone developer Paul Carter has recently released a game into the App Store that will surely grab the attention of iPhone-toting fans of cave-flyers and gravity games. GravSpace [link] is basically an iPhone take on the classic cave-flyer, Thrust, that keeps fairly close to the original while adding a few modern treatments.

GravSpace puts you in the pilot's seat of a GravShip in a last bid for victory in the war against the evil Zyritons. Your craft has been designed specifically to capture the Zyriton energy pods that have been hidden deep within various planets across the galaxy. These pods, heavily protected by automated defense systems, must be captured and skillfully returned to space, towed through the planets' treacherous system of underground caves and tunnels. As if that wasn't rough enough, your ship has a finite fuel supply and stopping to beam up fuel from scattered fuel storage tanks is an unfortunate necessity.

The game utilizes a combination of accelerometer- and touch-based controls to guide your GravShip through the subterranean mazes. Steering is carried out by a tilt to the left or right while thrust, shields, lasers, and your proximity blast are handled via onscreen buttons. Sensitivity and orientation of the tilt controls can be adjusted.

As mentioned earlier, GravSpace strives to reproduce the Thrust experience, but with certain modern flourishes such as galactic bitmap backdrops, scrolling starfields, and particle effects across 14 missions. (The game also features 14 additional graphically sparse, bonus "retro" missions.) But, still, it's on the basic side as compared to more elaborate takes on the formula, such as Big Head Games' Retro [App Store]. And that's not said as a bad thing; perhaps my favorite Thrust experience is the indie remake for the Vectrex — and that's pretty basic.

The initial release version in the App Store right now, v1.1, exhibits the occasional graphics glitch here and there on my iPhone 3GS test device. They're not show-stoppers, but they do need to be addressed by the developer, and we've no reason to believe they won't.

See the developers video:

I've spent significant time with this title over the past week and, as a particular fan of the genre, find it rather hard to put down. I think it's a no-brainer purchase for anyone with tastes similar to my own, and it's a nice opportunity for those unfamiliar with Thrust and friends, but who are interested in seeing what the cave-flyer excitement all about.

App Store Link: GravSpace, $0.99

[source]

Touch Arcade at GDC met today with Stephane Portha of Eurocenter and had a look at several impressive upcoming iPhone and iPad game titles that will arrive from the studio in the coming months.

Eurocenter is readying an iPhone version of the open source artillery game Scorched 3D developed by Gavin Camp, itself a modern take on the classic, 2D title Scorched Earth. The studio has gotten Camp's blessing on this enhanced iPhone port and, down the road, intends to submit progress made on the iPhone version back to the core project.

Open source PC release

Scorched 3D for the iPhone, like the open source desktop version, is a turn-based game that presents the player with a series of islands to defend by means of highly controllable artillery weaponry. The task at hand is to take the lay of the land and aim your turret at the enemy's tanks as best you can by adjusting the angle, rotation, and power of your ordnance. Cash is earned by successful hits and can be used to purchase a variety of available weapons, including dirt clods, missiles, napalm, and nukes (some, obviously, being more effective than others). Once you've made your adjustments, pull the trigger and your turret, as well as your enemy's, will exchange fire and find out where the carnage will lie.

The iPhone version features a combination of drag-control to manipulate the camera angle and slide-control to turn two onscreen aiming gears. The visuals in the game go beyond the desktop version and, along with the fluidity of the animation on the 3rd Gen iPod touch demo device we previewed, are highly impressive. What's more, iPhone 3GS-class devices feature real-time shadows and shader effects that add to the eye-candy.

Interestingly, the title will be released as two separate games. The first release will feature single-player modes as well as on-line head-to-head action. It will follow the "freemium" pricing model that, in the base release, will offer the full game experience, with an option to pay in to gain more money, islands, and weapons for those wanting to move things along more quickly, as opposed to spending the time required to progress through the game the hard way. A second release will follow, that delivers an MMO-type experience where many players can compete to amass islands, defending them against other players in an ongoing game world. It's really a sort of heaven in your pocket for all the Scorched Earth fans out there.

See our gameplay video for a look at the title in action.

The initial release of Sorched 3D for the iPhone is expected to appear in the App Store in late April. Stay tuned for a closer look when the game goes live.

As for the other titles we previewed from Eurocenter, well, we can't talk about those just yet, but you definitely won't be disappointed. Stay tuned…

[source]

As we reported late last month, Touch Arcade had the opportunity to visit Gameloft's Manhattan offices and spend a bit of hands-on time with their upcoming WWII-based first person shooter, Brother in Arms 2: Global Front. Tonight the game landed in the App Store and, after spending a few days with this final build, we have some thoughts to share on Gameloft's latest.

When the first Brothers in Arms title for the iPhone landed in the App Store back in November 2008, it was a highly notable release and almost certainly the most complex 3D game to be released for the platform at the time. It was (and is) a well executed iPhone take on an extremely popular console / PC franchise, wowing most but drawing criticism for a "difficult" control system.

Brothers in Arms 2: Global Front, designed from the ground up specifically for the iPhone, comes to us over a year later.  So what has a year brought us in the sequel to such a bold initial platform release? Quite a bit, it turns out.

Brothers in Arms 2, weighing in at over three times the filesize of its predecessor, brings to the iPhone a much larger game experience. This time around it's a first person affair, as opposed to the third-person, over-the-shoulder experience that is the first title. Actually, when in duck-and-cover mode, BIA2 does jump out to third person — and that's something you'll see often, as using crates, walls, and tanks for cover is pretty much par for the course in this title. That is, when you're not sprinting across the battlefield, manning the turret in a jeep or tank, or piloting a "glider" through heavy flack. Yea, it's pretty intense.

BIA2 drops you neatly into WWII as the young American soldier David Wilson on a mission to push back the Germans and Japanese and get the backs of his brothers in arms in the thick of battle. But, before long, an ominous bit of correspondence reveals that his actual brother, Eric, has been killed and was given the medal of honor — but that medal was revoked due to uncertain circumstances. It's Wilson's additional mission to get to the bottom of the mystery and clear his brother's good name. Pretty heavy stuff, really.

The tools of the trade are many. Available weapons include bazookas, fixed machine guns, flame throwers, Thompson submachine guns, and grenades. (The default play mode offers targeting assistance, which I find helpful, but it can be disabled.) There are three different modes of play, in all, to choose from. The default is a mission to mission progression through 13 levels across five different locales: Pacific, Sicily, Normandy, Germany, and North Africa. Any unlocked locale can also be chosen for quick play in Campaign mode. And, finally, local network play is possible by way of either WiFi or Bluetooth connectivity.

The game's control system feels a bit more workable than that of the original iPhone release. This is due, in part, to the various refined methods of multitouch, onscreen controls offered, but also to the fact that, during the year that's gone by since the originals release, we've come to know a great many 3D shooters utilizing dual-stick (and the like) controls. We're just far more used to this iPhone control mechanic than we were back in November 2008. Whatever the precise combination of reasons, you're going to find BIA2 to feel more comfortable than did the original release.

While BIA brought impressive visuals when it made its debut, so too does BIA2, and that's said taking into account the significant raising of the bar that's taken place over the past year. The environment models have indeed grown in complexity, but more impressive are the subtle visual touches that BIA2 brings. Shafts of light through the trees, HDR blooms (there's an options toggle there) — it all comes together to make for a pretty amazing looking game, very "modern console"-like (on my 3GS).

The game features various trophies that are granted based upon particularly savvy battlefield performance, as well as for finding as many "Kilroy was here" tags as possible. Performance is tracked by way of the integrated Gameloft LIVE network.

And, while the game offers excellent action, often at a frantic pace, it does have a few shortcomings. Framerate is generally quite high on the iPhone 3GS, but occasional (loading?) lags do occur, causing brief pauses in the action and studders to the audio at times. As well, in an apparent glitch where I went off the expected story line, I entered a room and wiped out everything alive, exited the room, only to find it once again full of enemies upon revisiting said room — though this was an isolated occurrence.

And, about that room full of soldiers, or soldiers anywhere in the game, really — the enemy AI that commands them is quite basic. If you're re-playing a scenario after having died, the enemy does the exact same thing the second time around, making it quite easy to wipe out the lot. A little more complex / varied AI would certainly add depth to the battle experience.

See Gameloft's recent trailer video for a look at a variety of in-game scenarios.

That I can pick a few nits in the title does not mark Brothers in Arms 2 a game to avoid. On the contrary, it is a highly enjoyable, action-packed shooter that offers some of the most intense battle sequences you'll find on the iPhone, making this latest from Gameloft a gaming experience that's rather hard to pass up.

App Store Link: Brothers in Arms 2: Global Front, $7.99

[source]

When Plants vs. Zombies [App Store] was originally announced on April 1st last year, PC gamers everywhere (myself included) were unsure if Popcap's newly revealed game was part of an elaborate April Fool's Day hoax or not. A little more than a month later, the game was released and not only saw universal acclaim from the gaming media resulting in an 88 on Metacritic, but also earned the title of Popcap's fastest selling game of all time.

In Plants vs. Zombies, Popcap takes the standard tower defense formula and greatly simplifies it. Instead of a path to build towers along, you drop seeds in your yard which then grow in to plants that have various offensive or defensive capabilities. The yard is organized in a grid, and zombies move straight across the row they spawn on, munching (or in some cases jumping or flying over) anything that they come in contact with.

A gauge on the top of the screen shows how close you are to the end of the level, with flags indicating when big waves of zombies are going to come. When you clear a stage, you're often awarded with the seeds of one more of the nearly 50 included plants. This seemingly constant progression does a great job of keeping you interested, as it always seems like you have a new toy to play with. To shake things up even more, mini game levels are mixed in, including a bowling game of sorts, a whack-a-mole game with zombies, and others.

Originally designed to be played with a mouse, Popcap did an excellent job of porting Plants vs. Zombies to the iPhone. The resource required to build your defenses is sunlight, and in the PC version feverishly moving your mouse around to click on the small suns falling from the top of the screen got tiring (especially when playing on a laptop with a touchpad). On the iPhone, the sunlight mechanic is also in place, but seems to work so much better when you only have to tap the falling suns to collect them.

Interface elements have been made smaller to dedicate more screen space to your yard, and some things have been moved around. Your available seeds have been moved from the top of the screen to the left, and to plant one all you need to do is tap it then tap the grid square of your lawn where you want it placed. Alternatively, you can tap the seed icon then drag your finger around your lawn. This causes both the X and Y axis of the square you're currently selecting to light up which effectively put an end to me accidentally placing seeds in squares I didn't mean to.

Plants vs. Zombies is absolutely loaded with high quality animations, excellent cartoonish zombies, and silly dialog between your neighbor/shopkeeper Crazy Dave and even notes from the zombies themselves. Throughout the game you'll defend your front lawn during the day, at night, then defend your back yard which introduces water plants that can only be planted in your pool.

As you advance through levels you will come across many more zombies than just the standard run of the mill mindless brain-muncher. There's a Michael Jackson zombie that causes others to rise from gravestones following a Thriller-like dance. There's also zombies that have armored themselves with screen doors, traffic cones, buckets, football pads, and other equally ridiculous equipment. 25 different zombies in all are included, and one end-boss. Each zombie even has their own profile inside the in-game almanac, and they're really worth a look once you unlock it.

Plants vs. Zombies performs well on both my iPhone 3G and 3GS. I did experience some slowdown when there were tons of zombies and projectiles on screen, but overall this didn't cause a problem playing through the game as the only time there was enough things happening on-screen to cause slowdown was at the very end of some levels where you already have your yard fully covered and are just waiting for the last wave of zombies to die.

On the iPhone, Plants vs. Zombies only includes the main story and a quick play mode that is unlocked once you've beaten the game that will allow you to play a few different scenarios and the various mini games you came across in story mode. The endless survival mode from the PC version is nowhere to be found, which is very disappointing, especially since I imagine quite a few people excited about Popcap porting the game to the iPhone have already completed the story mode on the PC.

There is only one difficulty level, and if you're a veteran of tower defense games, Plants vs. Zombies will likely be very easy for you. Personally, I love the tower defense genre, and being able to make it all the way through Plants vs. Zombies without much difficulty at all hasn't stopped me from playing through the game multiple times on my computer, and I'm enjoying the iPhone version just as much. I'm not sure what it is about Popcap games, but similar to Peggle and Bejeweled, Plants vs. Zombies never seems to get old.

The 88 Metacritic score of the original Plants vs. Zombies (complete with 100's from multiple sources) just goes to show how great this game is. The iPhone port is absolutely phenomenal, and even though it's lacking a few game modes, there's always hope for them to be implemented in the future either via an update or a DLC add-on. There isn't a lite version, but there is a free Flash demo that I highly recommend trying if this is the first you've heard of Plants vs. Zombies.

App Store Link: Plants vs. Zombies, $2.99

[source]

I've been a fan of extreme sports games since Skate or Die on my NES, and while there have been a number of really great skateboarding games on the App Store, the available snowboarding titles have left something to be desired. X2 Snowboarding is the first snowboarding game I've played on my iPhone that does a great job of combining all the vital components of a good extreme sports game.

Most immediately noticeable in X2 Snowboarding is the cool cell shaded graphics that encapsulate the entire game. All of the different snowboarders you can choose from look really cool, and both the snow and weather effects are well done. When you're doing good in game, multi-colored snowflakes explode from your character and when you wipe out you often kick up a huge puff of snow. Even with all this visual flair, X2 Snowboarding runs at a really high framerate on my iPhone 3GS, although because of the limitations of preview builds I wasn't able to test performance on previous-generation devices.

The game is controlled with a mixture of tilting to steer and using a number of different on-screen buttons. When you're airborne, or on a rail the buttons disappear and a trick interface shows up as an on-screen snowboard with different tricks you can perform depending where you touch. For instance, nose or tail grabs are executed by jumping off a ramp then touching the top or the bottom of the snowboard.

Doing tricks fills up your "joost meter" at the bottom of the screen, and using this stored up joost you can go in to a slow motion adrenaline mode for a brief period of time, rewind back before a wipe out, or even boost to fly off ramps. The system works really well, and any mistakes you make are easily undone thanks to the rewind function.

X2 Snowboarding is a really in-depth game with many different mountains with different courses, hidden coins to find on each course, and snowboards you can buy with those coins. Each of the riders have different statistics, there's a replay system, and much like other extreme sports games you can string together massive combos for huge point totals. X2 Snowboarding has already been submitted to Apple and is expected to be released very soon. We'll take an in-depth look at the game as soon as its available.

[source]

About a week back I had a chance to visit Gameloft's Manhattan studios and have a look at their upcoming racing simulator GT Racing: Motor Academy [App Store] for iPhone. Tonight, GT Racing has gone live in the App Store and we've got a chance to take a closer look.

GT Racing is a driving simulation as opposed to an arcade racer. Gameloft likens the title to Real Racing, which it considers the only other driving simulation in the App Store. Being a simulation-style racer, it starts off much like the definitive driving sim, Gran Turismo. You are presented with a few initial challenges (accelerate to maximum speed and then come to a stop between the lines, etc.) that must be completed before your achieve your first racing license. From there it's a Campaign journey through a variety of tracks around the world. Though, I will say the game is rather more forgiving than Gran Turismo, partially due to the integrated Break Assist system (like Real Racing), but more due to the overall control scenario.

The game features over 100 cars from 24 different manufacturers to choose from for a race to the finish across 14 different worldwide tracks. The better you rank, the more credits you accumulate, and the fancier cars and equipment you can purchase. Progressive tracks are unlocked in Campaign mode, and any unlocked track can be used for a quick spin in the game's Arcade mode.

GT Racing features three different control methods: accelerometer (default), screen keys (think Vector Tanks – kinda), and wheel. I find accelerometer to be my preferred method that, for what it is, really leaves little room for control improvement. Score tracking has handled through the integrated Gameloft Live network. Like Asphalt 5, Gameloft also offers an online multi-player component that we were unable to test at launch, but we're certainly a feature we're glad to see.

GT Racing is one of the most visually impressive racers in the App Store. On my iPhone 3GS test unit, the game exhibits an impressive, but subtle, HDR effect to the rendered scene and runs at a very smooth frame rate. Six different driving views are provided — three outside, three inside — to allow for the view that bests fits your driving sensibilities. All races can be seen in Replay mode which is, as well, an impressive thing to behold, and videos can also be uploaded to YouTube (example video). One notable issue with the visuals, however, is a noticeably short draw distance resulting in buildings abruptly popping into view which can be distracting.

There are a few other issues we ran across with the initial version. On occasion, my car appeared to aburbtly jolt into a nose-up position, half embedded in the track, with a warning of "wrong way" presented. (One of these incidents is recorded in our demo video.) As well, in-game language suggested that I had access to a particular track before it was supposed to be unlocked. Neither game breaking, but notable for early adopters.

See our brief gameplay video for a closer look.

Overall, GT Racer is probably one of the best racers on the App Store. In particular, racing fans looking for a realistic racer that offers nicely varied racing action wrapped up in a very pretty package should enjoy Gameloft's latest offering.

Impressions from early adopters on the forum have been similarly positive, but similar caveats:

• tadad1 – lots of control adjustments, including driving aids, amazingly crisp graphics, but short draw distance, no crash damage, massive content
• morphman – Lots of options, good but not stellar framerate on 3GS, pop-in apparent, graphics look amazing
• iPhondTouch3G – screenshots from iPod Touch 3G
• Diablohead – huge difference in FWD, RWD and oversteer is a big factor here, can do doughnuts very easily if you power out of corners
• nizy – nice graphics, real life tracks recognizable, pop-in noticeable but not too annoying. early AI not challenging
• howiedeano – handling and controls good, tracks better than NFS shift, best realistic type racing game on platform

App Store Link: GT Racing: Motor Academy, $6.99

[source]

Updates are an integral part of the App Store and its economy. They allow developers to (instead of rushing out new games) draw fresh eyes to their old games by providing more content, crucial bug fixes, and general improvements. Updates are, however, as numerous as they are important, and it's sometimes difficult to find much to say about an update other than "new levels, hooray!"

With this in mind, we've decided to take steps to "update" our coverage of updates with a comprehensive article summarizing the most important updates. Worry not, these lists will not drone on about minor bug fixes and the like; only games that have been updated in at least somewhat substantial ways will be covered.

Battle of Puppets
Current Version: 1.1
[App Store]
[Our Review]

Battle of Puppets really stepped up to the plate to address player complaints, adding in a new tutorial and a complete hint system to help out new players. Other changes include increased performance on all hardware versions and a bunch of random bug-smashing.

TileStorm
Current Version: 1.0.2
[App Store]
[Our Review]

This update has been long-coming, but a lot of user-friendly options have finally been added to TileStorm to make it less of a hassle to navigate the menus. There's now a pause menu, the ability to restart a level without having to exit it and reselect it, and a "back" button was added to the level select screen. The other big fix in this update is the inclusion of the ability to "surrender" up to 10 times throughout the game. This counts the level that you surrendered on as a completed level (sort of) so you can unlock more levels and come back to the difficult levels later.

Parcel Panic – Post Car Racer 3D
Current Version: 1.2
[App Store]
[Our Review]

OpenFeint has been added, and along with that, of course, comes online leaderboards and achievements. Other issues addressed include the ability to add boxes during free ride and some slight texture work to improve the game visually.

Bust-A-Move
Current Version: 2.1.0
[App Store]
[Our Coverage]

OpenFeint 2.4 has now been included in Bust-A-Move, so high-score chasers and achievement lovers can rejoice! Facebook and Twitter connectivity was also added in this update for the social networking addicts out there.

Words With Friends
Current Version: 3.06
[App Store]
[Our Review]

Along with a bunch of various bug fixes, an entirely new dictionary has been integrated into Words With Friends. The dictionary is being touted as "a big improvement" from the developer, and will probably ease a lot of frustrations that people had with earlier versions.

Little Metal Ball
Current Version: 1.2
[App Store]
[Our Review]

A bug in the spotlight levels that was wreaking havoc on iPhone 3Gs has been issued here, but the biggest reason that this update is worth talking about is the substantial performance improvements that you'll notice while playing the game. I really enjoyed Little Metal Ball and made that clear in my review, but it doesn't seem like many of our readers ever really latched onto the game (especially given the low number of comments on that review). I'd like to seriously recommend that anyone who likes Labyrinth-style games check this out, because it's a ton of fun and deserves some love.

Ravensword: The Fallen King
Current Version: 1.2
[App Store]
[Our Review]

This isn't exactly a major update for Ravensword, but I'm sure that plenty of users will appreciate the integration of Crystal for online leaderboards and achievement support. Being a single-player game, Ravensword could benefit from a little bit of community integration, so I'm pretty happy about this particular update.

Battle For Wesnoth
Current Version: 1.3
[App Store]
[Our Review]

Kyle Poole just keeps on delivering with episodic content updates for Battle of Wesnoth, and the newly-added Episode 3 reportedly will clock in at over 10 hours of gameplay for those who delve into it. Not only has an entirely new campaign been added, but a whole slew of bug fixes (including one that reduces memory requirements to make the game more stable) and OpenFeint 2.4 with achievemens has been integrated. That, my friends, is how to do episodic updates. Bravo, Mr. Poole.

Diner Dash
Current Version: 2.0
[App Store]
[Our Coverage]

In an unexpected show of love for one of their original hit games, PlayFirst has delivered an update for Diner Dash that promises enhanced graphics (with a focus on larger sprites to make control easier), difficulty adjustments, and 10 new levels. Facebook connectivity has also been added, just in case there's a single person on your friends list who cares about your progress in an iPhone game.

[source]