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Indie sandbox building game Minecraft has become something of a phenomenon since the Mac / Windows / Linux release of Minecraft Alpha back in June. And, for a rather brief moment, iOS gamers had the chance to get in on the Minecraft experience as well, thanks to Trevor Wilkin's Minecrafted, basically an iPhone Minecraft client (which could connect to Minecraft servers) that was pulled shortly after landing in the App Store.

Those bereft Minecraft fans out there who lament the iOS Minecraft experience having been but a brief flirtation may be pleased to see Kingly Games' new release, Eden – World Builder [App Store]. The game, according to the developer, was inspired by various members of the block building genre, including Minecraft, Infiniminer, and Blockland. And it's apparent.

The game features "a vast pristine world of infinite possibility," dozens of block types, integrated community tools for sharing and, perhaps most important of all, fire and explosives. To the eye, it's pretty much Minecraft, with gameplay more akin to the earlier Classic version than the current favorite and more complex, Alpha release.

Movement through the game world is controlled via an onscreen D-pad with swipe-based view controls. Along the right edge of the screen are buttons for digging, selecting building blocks, lighting fires, jumping, and the like. Happily, the onscreen action is very smooth and fluid, moreso than the Java-based Minecraft on some Mac and PC setups. Eden is optimized for the iPhone 3GS / 3G iPod touch and newer, with iOS 3.2 or better required.

And while there's much similarity to Mojang's indie smash, Eden – World Builder is indeed it's own game and does not connect in any way to the world of Minecraft. I've enjoyed the brief time I've spent with the title so far and expect fans of the block-based world building genre would do likewise.

UPDATE:  Developer Ari Ronen contacted us early this morning to give us a heads-up on a price drop for Eden – World Builder. "Just a heads up — I've decided to lower the price for Eden to 99c so that everyone can check it out."

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Indie sandbox building game Minecraft has become something of a phenomenon since the Mac / Windows / Linux release of Minecraft Alpha back in June. And, for a rather brief moment, iOS gamers had the chance to get in on the Minecraft experience as well, thanks to Trevor Wilkin's Minecrafted, basically an iPhone Minecraft client (which could connect to Minecraft servers) that was pulled shortly after landing in the App Store.

Those bereft Minecraft fans out there who lament the iOS Minecraft experience having been but a brief flirtation may be pleased to see Kingly Games' new release, Eden – World Builder [App Store]. The game, according to the developer, was inspired by various members of the block building genre, including Minecraft, Infiniminer, and Blockland. And it's apparent.

The game features "a vast pristine world of infinite possibility," dozens of block types, integrated community tools for sharing and, perhaps most important of all, fire and explosives. To the eye, it's pretty much Minecraft, with gameplay more akin to the earlier Classic version than the current favorite and more complex, Alpha release.

Movement through the game world is controlled via an onscreen D-pad with swipe-based view controls. Along the right edge of the screen are buttons for digging, selecting building blocks, lighting fires, jumping, and the like. Happily, the onscreen action is very smooth and fluid, moreso than the Java-based Minecraft on some Mac and PC setups. Eden is optimized for the iPhone 3GS / 3G iPod touch and newer, with iOS 3.2 or better required.

And while there's much similarity to Mojang's indie smash, Eden – World Builder is indeed it's own game and does not connect in any way to the world of Minecraft. I've enjoyed the brief time I've spent with the title so far and expect fans of the block-based world building genre would do likewise.

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Nintendo killed the bowling alley with its spin on the popular "throw spherical hard thing at cone-like hard things" sport in Wii Sports. Now, Freeverse is piling on the pain with its iPhone and iPod Touch game We Bowl [Free], which debuted on the App Store this December 2nd.

As you'd expect, We Bowl is a touch take on the sport, requiring little more than a finger swipe to send a three-holed ball down a virtual alley. The twist is in its avatar creation component, which houses a rather deep pool of items to put on your unique little bowler. And as you compete in the game, you'll unlock even more stuff to put on your fledgling bowler / drunkard / wife abuser, provided you don't opt to just buy items with your real, hard-earned cash.

We Bowl a simple and free game that we have no real problems with… except when we dig into the way they're presenting the game. "Why bowl boring when you can bowl gonzo," asks the game's curious slogan. We've been digging furiously through the game in an attempt to locate this indicated Muppet tie-in to no avail. Gonzo or his chickens — or even Kermit, Rawlf, or that cute little shrimp with the accent, for that matter — simply do not appear in We Bowl.

"Ludicrous!" we've cried to the skies with one fist cocked, the other firmly clenching our phones on numerous occasions. But no matter how frazzled, how depressed we get, we'll continue to try to locate this elusive connection. Muppets have got to be in the game somewhere, right?

Regardless of how you feel about bowling, Muppets, or the apparent lack of Muppets, the avatar system in We Bowl is really cool. We've been told that items you unlock in the game to pimp out your avatar will stay with your avatar across future Freeverse games that also utilize this avatar system. Of course since We Bowl is the only game that's using their avatars right now, we'll have to take Freeverse's word that my awesome Walter Sobchak looking avatar will persist.

Even if you're not interested in the bowling aspect of the game, the avatar system is flexible enough and fun enough that you can sink a stupid amount of time in to just building all kinds of different looking characters. Just keep in mind that We Bowl is a freemium game like the other We games, so expect some ads, in-app purchases, and all that fun stuff.

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SimCity, the seminal city building and management series, has had a rocky lifespan on the App Store. The original SimCity game for the iPhone was released nearly two full years ago. At that time it was hard not to be impressed that a fully featured version of the game was running on a mobile phone, but the reality is that game had some pretty serious bugs and performance problems, especially when your population grew to a few hundred thousand.

Then last July EA Mobile pulled the old SimCity title in favor of SimCity Deluxe [$2.99] which indeed was an overall better experience but came with some new problems of its own. Both versions of SimCity suffered from a lack of screen real estate on the iPhone and iPod touch, and neither ever felt like that remarkable of an experience.

After checking out SimCity Deluxe for iPad in person, though, it seems that the franchise has finally found a device that can do it justice. SimCity Deluxe for iPad uses the graphical assets from SimCity 4, so it looks gorgeous on the bigger screen. The biggest benefit however is the revamped user interface and extra screen space that allows for simple and intuitive controls. The content is largely the same as the iPhone version of SimCity Deluxe, with 7 starter cities modeled after real world locations, 7 scenarios with specific goals to work out, and of course the ability to start completely from scratch. An EA rep demoed the game for me and this video shows off a ton of the features in the game:

Being a fan of SimCity, I always wanted to like the iPhone versions but they just felt too cramped and frustrating to play. With most of those frustrations alleviated thanks to the bigger screen on the iPad, I can actually picture myself playing this game a lot more. The highly customizable and easy to use interface is friendly to newcomers or casual players, but doesn't sacrifice the ability to dig in to some of the more advanced techniques. The release date is scheduled for this month, and we'll take another look at SimCity Deluxe for iPad when it finally does hit the App Store.

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EA Mobile has already brought two successful versions of the Monopoly franchise to the iPhone/iPod touch, classic Monopoly [$2.99] and The World Edition [$2.99], but now it's the iPad's turn. Obviously the larger screen of the iPad makes for a more enjoyable experience with a virtual board game, but EA has also added a few interesting twists to the game to make it more than just a straight digital conversion.

First of all, the other iOS versions of Monopoly are pretty hard. I've heard more than one player complain that the AI was “cheating” because they would get whooped badly so often. The iPad version looks to remedy this with Teacher Mode where you play a much friendlier AI, not just in difficulty but also in offering helpful hints and tips. The AI in Teacher Mode will pop up with information like which color properties get landed on the most so you can be sure to place hotels there, and in-depth statistics for both of you so you can see that the AI actually isn't pulling a fast one on you by comparing how each other's game unfolds.

The other great addition to Monopoly on iPad is Tabletop Mode where you can play same-device multiplayer with up to 4 people. What's cool about this mode is that you can just lay the iPad down on whatever surface you want to play on, like a table, and the relevant text and UI will reorient itself around the screen towards each player while keeping the game board in the same spot. It basically feels just like playing the actual board game, only there is no money or pieces to manage and everything is automated for you. In fact I'd say this is the definitive way to play Monopoly, and the only people who will bother to bust out the actual board game anymore are the nostalgic types who want to remember what us old people called “tactile feedback”.

Of course Monopoly on the iPad will also contain plain old regular games with a myriad of difficulty settings, game options, and rule sets. You'll also be able to play local multiplayer with up to 4 players using multiple devices over WiFi or Bluetooth, and in a nice touch the local multiplayer with be compatible with the iPhone/iPod touch versions of Monopoly. Board games have already proven to be a great fit for the iPad, and if you're a fan of Monopoly but hate keeping track of all the pieces, or have an unnatural disdain for thin elongated boxes, then you'll definitely want to check out Monopoly Classic for iPad when it releases sometime this month.

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Mom? Dad? When did you guys get in a game?

It's hard to drop an RTS on iOS devices like the iPod Touch, iPad, and the iPhone, but that's not discouraging Gameloft. The studio has announced Star Front Collision, a classical three-race, top-down strategy affair that will feature a deep, 20-mission Campaign mode and an up-to-four person competitive online mode. This is in addition to a Skirmish mode, unique tech trees for each race, and a cinematic flair.

Gameloft is promising solid controls — a very important thing considering the platform. But what it's neglecting to mention where Star Front is drawing its inspiration. That game is, of course, is Blizzard Entertainment's StarCraft, a worldwide success that has kept many a nerd locked in his bedroom cave for days and days on end. Diamond League is only a few billion CPMs away, right nerds-in-hiding? Right.

Star Front will launch on the App Store in January 2011. You can get your first eyes-on the cinematic portion of the game by watching the trailer Gameloft has just released. Come play spot the likeness with us. Oh, found one! Those bugs look like the Zerg! What did I just win? Nothing? Jeesh. What kind of website is this?

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If you've been wondering when in the world you're going to be able to play Chair's upcoming Unreal Engine powered sword fighter, Infinity Blade, the wait is over. A release date of December 9th was just announced, at a price of $5.99. Infinity Blade will be a universal app, and will run on iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, 3rd and 4th generation iPod touch as well as the iPad.

In addition, a new set of screenshots have been released:

Needless to say, as soon as the game appears for download we'll be reviewing it, and we really can't wait to get our hands on it.

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BREAKING: Kids like expensive electronics. ALSO BREAKING: Kids under the age of 13 want an iPad or an iPod Touch more than any other electronic this season, so says the survey masters over at Nielsen (a research company).

Within the next six months, 31 percent of the respondents (parents) of a recent Nielsen survey say they have an "interest" in picking up a iPad this season. The next highest item are computers and the iPod Touch at 29 percent.

The list that follows includes the Nintendo DS, the PS3, Microsoft's hands-free controller, Kinect, and several other consoles, including other electronic items like TVs and E-readers.

Don't just take it from me; gander at this pretty blue list:

There's a billion ways to analyze this bit of data. We could, right now, scream from our podium that iOS gaming is more attractive to kids than the Nintendo DS or the other "core" platforms. The data certainly looks like it supports that.

Or we could say that parents, who obviously answered the questionnaire that Nielsen blasted out, really want iPads and iPod Touches and wouldn't mind using their really young kids as an excuse to buy one.

Or we could say that Apple has won the platform wars and will now forever since it has become, theoretically, the top dog among kids. These guys'll grow up and evangelize and establish the norm, you know?

Or we could just look at this data and see that, at the very least, iOS is becoming a recognizable platform — one that kids under 13 are certainly excited about. Wait, that's too rational. Forget it. Apple is winning the war against the old guard, guys! Nintendo? Who is that? A coffee maker manufacturer? Pfft!

But seriously, if you're interested in this kind of stuff, swing over to the Nielson site and take a look at the second graph Nielsen has up. This one, for kids over the age of 13, looks more like a solid representation of electronic desires. According to it, teens are more interested in buying a computer or TV than an iPad or iPhone, though both Apple devices are still rather high on the list. Interesting stuff, for sure.

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When Steve Jobs announced last month that the Mac would be getting its own App Store, we saw quite a few current iOS developers confirm that they would be bringing their iPhone and iPad products to the Mac. One of those products will be Majic Jungle Software's Chopper 2 [$4.99], a universal side-scrolling helicopter combat and rescue game that was released back in July and has since been quite successful.

We really enjoyed Chopper 2 in our full review, and while the gameplay itself is a lot of fun, we also found the array of options for displaying and playing the game to be rather intriguing. Chopper 2 comes equipped with the ability to remotely control the game running on an iPad, iPhone 4 or 4th generation iPod touch over Bluetooth or WiFi using another iOS device. We demonstrated this feature back in April with a video showing Chopper 2 being played on an iPad using an iPhone as the remote. Additionally, Chopper 2 uses the video out function of newer iOS devices to allow the game to be displayed on a larger screen while being controlled with an iPhone or iPod touch, as we posted about later that month showing the game running on a 42” plasma (or this video of it running on a 50” screen, if you're a "size matters" kind of person).

Now, with the impending Mac App Store release of Chopper 2, these features are once again being utilized. Developer David Frampton of Majic Jungle has shot a brief video in his ultra-high tech secret underground testing facility that shows the Mac version of Chopper 2 being controlled with an iPhone.

Also, while the original Chopper 2 is already quite visually pleasing, the Mac edition will benefit from enhanced graphics over its iOS siblings. These two comparison shots show the differences between the two versions (iPad screen on left, Mac on right. Click to enlarge):

Even though TouchArcade is primarily an iOS gaming site, we are also really excited to see what the new Mac App Store will bring to the table. The innovations included with Chopper 2 really tie together gaming on the Apple family of devices, and it will be really interesting to see what kinds of other things developers will think of in the future. We've created a new Upcoming Mac App Store Games section in our forums where you can get the scoop on what games will be coming to the Mac App Store, which should be launching sometime in the next couple of months.

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This morning Firemint released some additional details about the upcoming Real Racing 2, along with the best news of all: We'll be playing the game before Christmas. They've also released a short gameplay video which features a Nissan GT-R (R35), but Firemint has stressed that this is still in development, and not representative of the final game.

It gets better yet, they're promising a career mode that will "easily provide 10 hours of gameplay" as players earn in-game money by winning races and increasing their reputation. We will be able to buy and sell cars, unlock tracks and additional championship events, and even customize cars with various performance enhancements and paint jobs. The game will support all iPhones and iPod touch models, going all the way back to first generation hardware while having enhancements for the latest devices as well.

Needless to say, I can't wait.

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