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Did you find yourself salivating at the massive list of EA sales only to discover that the balance of your iTunes account is 32¢ short of actually being able to buy anything? Well, the weekend is saved thanks to three generous developers!

geoDefense, Free – I have absolutely nothing but good things to say about the geoDefense series of games. If you even are vaguely interested in tower defense games, you need to download this one right away. If you like it, make sure to also snag geoDefense Swarm [$1.99 / Lite]

Gravity Hook HD, Free – From the makers of Canabalt [$2.99], here's a game that asks you to climb high instead of run far. You can also play the free Flash version online, but I'm not sure why you'd bother when this is also free!

Zentomino, Free – Little White Bear Studios is a puzzler with gameplay that's simple enough for kids, while still being capable of stumping adults. 200 levels in all are included, which should keep you busy for hours, days, or potentially even longer. If you like this one, give TanZen [99¢ / Lite a try as well. (Note: If this isn't showing up for free for you yet, give it a bit.)

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Back in November of 2008, Illusion Labs’ Touchgrind [$4.99/HD] was a remarkable display of what was possible on iOS devices. It had fantastic 3D graphics, a great physics system, and excellent multi-touch controls that let you interact with a skateboard in a way unlike any game before it. Now Illusion Labs is back with a new entry in the series called Touchgrind BMX [$4.99] that takes the formula into the world of trick biking.

All of the major traits that made Touchgrind so good carry over to Touchgrind BMX, and it even comes with many welcome improvements. But it’s also missing a few features that I would expect in a game like this, and the multi-touch controls come with a steep learning curve much the same way Touchgrind’s did. Such is the cost of innovation though, and Touchgrind BMX is definitely innovative. It’s also a ton of fun once you get the hang of things, and those who persist in the ways of Touchgrind BMX will be rewarded with a truly unique experience.

Like Touchgrind before it, Touchgrind BMX only requires two fingers to play. One finger controls the handlebars of the bike, and the other controls the frame. Using an assortment of different gestures, you can get your bike to perform just about anything you can think of. The gesture control is really organic, and moves are pulled off just how you’d expect them to be, like flicking the handlebars to spin them around while you’re airborne.

A simple 3 part tutorial walks you through everything you need to know about controlling your bike, and it’s all incredibly easy to understand. The challenge comes when actually trying to perform tricks in practice. It takes fast reactions and precise finger coordination to pull off the elaborate tricks and combos that will earn you the most points. It took me a few hours to actually feel pretty comfortable and start performing some more complex tricks, but looking at the developer high score challenges I know I still have quite a ways to go. It’s a lot of fun though, and improving my skills is what keeps drawing me back into the game.

One major change from the original game is the perspective. Touchgrind was strictly top-down, whereas Touchgrind BMX is more of a third-person perspective. This works beautifully, and really opens up the environments in the game and allows you to actually see where you are going, which is nice because the background visuals are beautiful in Touchgrind BMX and are a huge step up from the sterile skatepark in the first Touchgrind.

The 5 courses in Touchgrind BMX are quite varied from one another, offering an assortment of terrain that runs the gamut from very realistic to borderline fantasy settings. There are some jagged edges in the graphics that could use a dose of anti-aliasing, but by and large Touchgrind BMX is gorgeous to look at and runs at an incredibly smooth frame rate.

Another huge change is rather than having a sandbox environment where you’re able to move about freely, the levels in Touchgrind BMX are linear courses with deliberately placed jumps and obstacles. You still have a small range of movement within the width of each track, and you control your forward movement, but you aren’t allowed to stray off course and explore or go back to specific obstacles.

I actually think this design decision is for the best, as there is always a defined finish line to work towards and you must learn to maximize the scoring potential of every object in a level before you reach it. It’s more goal-oriented in this way, and each level is filled with tasks to complete that will slowly unlock new features, like different bikes, paint jobs, and new levels.

The progression in Touchgrind BMX is balanced really well, and it seems like there’s always some new reward or challenge waiting for you. It feels very much like the old Tony Hawk Pro Skater games in this way, which is definitely a good thing. The scoring system is also done really well, with a nice multiplier that rewards you for landing high value tricks, mixing up your variety of tricks, and not bailing. One glaring omission though is Game Center integration to coincide with the in-game achievements and high scores, though I wouldn’t be surprised to see that added in the future.

While the linear nature of the game makes for a better overall experience, I definitely think there should be a sandbox level where you’re allowed to ride around as you please. Part of the fun of Touchgrind was jumping into a free skate session and experimenting to your heart’s content, and this aspect is missing from Touchgrind BMX.

One of the coolest features in Touchgrind BMX is the replay system. After crossing the finish line of any level, you have the ability to watch a replay of your entire run. The game automatically presents the replay from several different camera angles for maximum dramatic effect. You can also choose to save any replay to a list that's accessed from the main menu. From there you can choose to create a video file of that replay and either export it directly to YouTube from within the app or transfer it to your computer by way of the File Sharing option in iTunes when your device is connected. The whole process is simple and works extremely well.

While it’s easy to point out some of the minor flaws, it’s impossible to ignore just how excellent a game Touchgrind BMX is as a whole. Illusion Labs has taken the concept of multi-touch manipulation of an object to the next level, and has fleshed out a great gaming experience around it. It takes a lot of practice for the controls to click, but that process is also part of the fun. There is many hours worth of content to play through, with new levels already planned for updates, so it should keep you busy for a while.

Players in our forums are definitely loving this one, and whether you were a fan of the first game or you're just interested in a challenging and completely unique type of game, then Touchgrind BMX really delivers.

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Hey it's Wednesday again, which means after a cursory not-entirely-too-witty introduction I'll explain that developers can set future release dates for their games on the App Store. When they do, they appear in international regions of the App Store when it hits that date in that particular area of the world. This means that all of these games get released in New Zealand first due to their proximity to the international date line, then they slowly become available in Asian markets, then European countries, then the USA at 11:00 PM Eastern time.

Wait, explaining how Wednesdays work was my witty introduction? Man, things are really slipping around here! To make up for it, here's a fabulous list of games to look forward to tonight, in alphabetical order!

Anodia, 99¢ – Forum Thread – When developers boast about how they've re-invented a genre it invokes a nearly-instictive eye roll… But I think this might be the first game I've seen in quite a while where the claim actually holds water. Anodia takes the brick breaker formula, adds all kinds of moving blocks, crazy power-ups, and more. With over 50 levels, Game Center, and universal compatibility this seems like an easy way to spend a buck.

(Video from PC version of the game.)

Back to the Future Ep. 3 HD, $6.99 – Forum Thread – Have you played the first two installments of Telltale's Back to the Future series of adventure games? Well, here's the third one, continuing where the second left off. In a game like this, it's likely not best to jump in mid-series, so if this is the first you've heard of it, give the other episodes a look first.

Demolition Dash, 99¢ / HD – Forum Thread – Sidescrolling running games have been stupidly popular on the App Store, as have games that involve rampant destruction… So why not combine the two? It's a solid plan, and exactly what's happening here. 24 levels are included currently spread across 8 real-world cities, and there's even an endless mode coming in a planned update.

Kami Retro HD, $2.99 – Forum Thread – The iPhone version of Kami Retro [99¢] hit the App Store a few months ago, and we thought it was rad. Now, if you're an iPad-owning purist who refuses to run things in 2x mode, Kami Retro HD is here. I wish it was universal though, as I'm really digging the recent trend of making "HD" versions universal!

Max Damage, 99¢ – Forum Thread – We got a look at this game back at GDC, and it seemed cool then, and is still cool now. Based on the free Flash game of the same name, Max Damage is a cannon game where your focus is reaching a set amount of financial damage on each level. It's clever how this works out, and how damaging each in-game item is worth a different amount.

Red Ball 3, 99¢ / HD – Forum Thread – A physics-based platformer with 20 levels. Red Ball 3 gets a thumbs up from me for making the HD version universal, but if you want Retina Display graphics on your iPhone, you'll need to upgrade to the HD version. The standard 99¢ game only comes with low-resolution graphics, which is kind of a bummer.

Star Blitz, Free – Forum Thread – If you like reskinned freemium games, Glu had totally got you covered this week. Star Blitz, similar to Men vs Machines seems to be a total reskin of Gun Bros, this time with a space theme. If you're just nuts about Gun Bros-style gameplay, give this one a shot.

To-Fu: The Trials of Chi, 99¢ / HD – Forum Thread – I'm actually pretty excited for this one. It seems like To-Fu combines fling-centric jumping to an almost Super Meatboy-like spike-laden platforming game? I guess that seems like the best way to describe it? Either way, the trailer looks great.

Touchgrind BMX, $4.99 – Forum Thread – I'd consider absolutely every Illusion Labs game a must-have for an iOS gamer, and I expect Touchgrind BMX to be the same way. It seems that they're taking the same style gameplay from Touchgrind [$4.99 / HD] applied to the world of BMX biking. I just hope Touchgrind BMX has a lower difficulty curve, as it took a bit to get to the point where you were doing more than bumping into things in Touchgrind.

Tower Defense: Lost Earth, $2.99 / HD – Forum Thread – You may have played tower defense games, but have you played the officially trademarked Tower Defense?! I'm excited to give it a try, as the trailer sure seems cool. They've also made the HD version universal, which, as mentioned a billion times already, I totally get behind.

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This massive bundle of Wednesday release bundles has so many awesome games in it that I'm just going to order them alphabetically since I'm not even sure which game I'd want to list first if I were ordering them in order of which I want to play first. I think I want to play Bumpy Road the most, which works out well, because it's also first when sorting these games alphabetically!

If this is your first Wednesday as an iOS gamer, here's how this all works: Developers can either set their games and apps to be released the moment they're approved by Apple, or they can set a future release date. Since the App Store is a global market, games with a release date of 5/19 are released first in the first place in the world where it's the 19th. In this case, that's the New Zealand App Store. All of these games will slowly be available as it becomes the 19th in your area of the world, or, if you're in the USA, 11:00 PM Eastern tonight.

Bumpy Road, $2.99 – Forum Thread – Every now and again a developer comes along with gameplay that centralizes around a control method that makes you say to yourself, "Why didn't someone think of this before?" Bumpy Road is a platformer of sorts that is controlled by touching the screen which manipulates the ground which, as the title suggests, creates a bumpy road for a car to travel down. By creating these bumps, you're able to make the car bounce to other platforms. It looks really clever, and I can't wait to give it a try. Oh, and to make things better, it's even universal.

Candy Train, Free – Forum Thread – What's better than a PopCap game? How about a free PopCap game? Candy Train seems to have similar gameplay to a lot of other train routing games on the App Store, but if there's anything PopCap is good at, it's taking established gameplay and making it impossible to put down with a thick payer of… PopCap magic. PopCap has had such a great track record of awesomely fun games that I'd blindly download this game even if it weren't free.

Casey's Contraptions for iPad, $2.99 – Forum Thread – I've been anxiously anticipating this game since we first got a look at it at GDC. Since then, it's been a difficult wait as my Twitter feed has been filled with horribly teasing tweets from beta testers. Casey's Contraptions is a cartoony physics puzzle game that asks you to complete various puzzles with elaborate Rube Goldberg contraptions. Aside from a level creator, you can also see how your friends solved puzzles, as there doesn't seem to be a single solution for any of the included 70 levels.

CHAOS RINGS Ω, $11.99 / HD – Forum Thread – Square Enix's continuation of the iOS-exclusive game Chaos Rings. Aside from the irritating to type "Ω" character in the title, Chaos Rings Ω also comes packed with a whole new story which actually takes place 10,000 years before the previous game. Squeenix has a whole array of updates planned too, which are all outlined in the iTunes text. 7 monthly updates are scheduled, most of which add a "secret boss" and up the level cap.

Draw Jump, 99¢ / HD – Forum Thread – A jumping game by EA, which according to the iTunes description, is totally green. Instead of your character being powered by fossil fuels, he's apparently completely carbon neutral since he jumps using trampolines that you draw on screen. It seems like a weird angle, but I can still sink a stupid amount of time into jumping games.

Ink Ball, 99¢ – Forum Thread – The art style of this puzzle game is really cool, and I can't wait to see it in motion. Gameplay revolves around funneling the ink on screen back into a inkwell. It seems like you're able to draw lines on screen to modify the flow of ink on screen, and doing well involves using as few of these as possible.

iQuarterback 2, Free – Forum Thread – A free game that revolves around tossing footballs, as you might have guessed from the game's title. By earning fame in-game you can unlock a ridiculous amount of things ranging from items for your character all the way to full stadiums. A bunch of different game modes are included too.

Kung Fu Panda 2: Be The Master, 99¢ – Forum Thread – So what do you do if you've got what will likely be a mediocre sequel to a movie and you want to release a mobile game based on it? Apparently incorporate both Fruit Ninja and Mega Jump. Two shockingly familiar mini-games are included in the initial release, and it looks like two more will be coming with updates. I wonder what Jack Black thinks of all this.

Orions 2: The Deckmasters $2.99 / Lite – Forum Thread – The sequel to the original Orions is here. The first game had a considerable following on our forums, and it will be interesting to see how much of that transfers over since as many thought a significant amount of the changes and additions in the sequel were going to be updates to the initial game. Regardless, Orions 2 is a similar card-based battle game. There's full online multiplayer, hundreds of cards, and even a full single player campaign.

Storm in a Teacup, 99¢ – Forum Thread – Sure, there might be a lot of platformers on the App Store, but how many of them have you piloting a magical teacup around? None that I can think of! I'm digging the art style of this game, I just hope it controls well.

TNA Wrestling iMPACT, $4.99 – Forum Thread – To say that wrestling games on the App Store haven't been that great would be a bit of an understatement, but there's always time to turn things around, and TNA Wrestling iMPACT could be the wrestling game that fans have been craving. It's got the ability to create your own wrestler, and then enter a career mode with that wrestler… but why would you do that when you can just play as Hulk Hogan doing these crazy kicks like the above screenshot!?

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It's Wednesday again, which for me means another week where I debate drafting up a template to use for these weekly New Zealand release posts instead of coming up with something new each week. Work smarter, not harder like Scrooge McDuck always says… But, I digress. This week's releases include a couple highly anticipated HD versions of iPhone games, as well as Army of Darkness Defense which, like all things to do with Bruce Campbell, seems almost too awesome for words.

If this is your first Wednesday with an iOS device, or if this is the first Wednesday that has come since you discovered TouchArcade, the App Store works a little something like this: Developers can set a specific release date for those apps, and they then get released worldwide in each region as it becomes that day in that particular region. New Zealand is the region nearest to the international date line, so they get their games first. What does this mean for us Americans? All of these games should be available at 11:00 PM Eastern tonight:

Army of Darkness Defense, 99¢ / HD – Forum Thread – I've had a preview version of this game on my iPad 2 for a couple weeks now, and if you're even close to being an Army of Darkness fan, or just a general Bruce Campbell fan, you need to buy this game the instant it appears. It's a hero-based castle battle game, and while the gameplay is fairly run of the mill for the genre, Backflip Studios have basically redefined fan service in an iPhone game. It wouldn't surprise me to find out that a good 90MB of the 100MB file size consists of movie quotes and other official sound effects.

Bee Farm, 99¢ – Forum Thread – There have been line drawing games that put you in charge of managing all kinds of things from planes, to boats, and now bees. Even though it seems like there's a million of these games out there now, I still like trying out new ones to see if they've managed to add anything new or exciting to the genre. And hey, who doesn't like honey?

Bohnanza, $3.99 / HD – Forum Thread – I'm woefully naive of a lot of crazy board and card games, so it didn't really surprise me to find out just how popular Bohnanza actually is. There's an entire Wikipedia article on the game which details the ridiculous amount of expansions it has had. I'm not sure Bohnanza will be a mass-market success on the App Store, but like most of these semi-obscure board and card games, I'm sure it's release will make some people very happy.

Catch The Candy, 99¢ / HD – A fun little physics game we got a sneak peak of a while ago puts you in charge of a curious little purple creature with a long tongue that's used to reach candy. 53 levels are included, with more on the way via updates.

Chromanoids, 99¢ – [Forum Thread] – The iTunes description of Chromanoids is fairly vague, but I'm intrigued by the screenshots. I'm making an educated guess here in that the gameplay might involve some kind of color-coded Missile Defense-like gameplay. Am I wrong? Am I right? I suppose we'll know in a few hours.

Golden Axe 3, $2.99 – Forum Thread – Same old song and dance here from Sega. Golden Axe 3's release makes for an App Store trilogy of Golden Axe games, which is great if you're just mad about Golden Axe. Hopefully once Sega gets releasing all of these arcade-style games out of their system they get back to releasing some more RPG's from their insanely massive back-catalog.

HECTOR: Ep1 HD – We Negotiate with Terrorists, $6.99 – Forum Thread – We like the iPhone version a lot in our review, and this seems to be the same game, just up-scaled to the iPad. I've greatly preferred these kind of point and click games on the iPad, and Hector is a great one. Hopefully this leads to those followup episodes fans of the iPhone game have been waiting on…

Spoing, 99¢ / HD – Forum Thread – This game looks a lot like Parachute Ninja, except you can control where you put the various slingshots to shoot your dude around. The trailer has definitely piqued my interest, and I look forward to giving this game a spin.

StarFront: Collision HD, $6.99 – Forum Thread – We had positive first impressions of the iPhone version of StarFront, and we're expecting the iPad version to be even better since the increased screen real estate really lends itself to an RTS game. As an aside, am I the only one who is amused by the fact that Gameloft not only has cloned StarCraft, but they're also duplicating the commentary-laden game replays like the above video? Alright, I admit, I'm totally stoked to fire this game up on my iPad 2.

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You may recall back in November when Beeline Interactive (formerly Capcom Mobile) released Smurfs’ Village [Free] into the App Store. It was a Farmville-like freemium sim game that was themed after the popular 3-apple high blue folk many of us remember from our childhood. We actually quite liked Smurfs’ Village in our review, noting that it did incredible fan-service to fans of The Smurfs and had gorgeous Retina Display graphics that brought everything to life.

Unfortunately, the freemium aspect sucked a lot of the joy out of the Smurfs' Village. Crops would wither and die if you weren’t constantly attentive of them and purchasing the IAP Smurfberry currency was basically required to obtain some of the cooler items in the game.

The IAP currency didn’t just suck the joy out of the game, though, but also sucked the money out of many unhappy parents’ bank accounts. The IAP system in Smurfs’ Village allowed you to make multiple purchases with just a few clicks, and in the weeks following the game's release Apple had a huge number of requests for refunds by parents whose younger children had accidentally bought hundreds of dollars of Smurfberries in the game.

Part of the problem was the loose way that Beeline had implemented the IAP functionality, and the other part of the problem was that Apple’s own iTunes account system would keep users logged in for up to 15 minutes after entering a password and making a purchase in a game. This led to parents entering their password for one reason or another and then handing their device off to their kids who would fire up Smurfs’ Village and click away recklessly buying Smurfberries.

Apple was not very pleased with Beeline over the uproar of angry customers, and it turns out that the government wasn’t very pleased with Apple’s in-app purchasing system either, and launched an investigation into how that system works this past February. This led to Apple changing how IAP is handled on devices, requiring a password to be entered every time a purchase is being made from within an app as of the iOS 4.3 update.

Now Beeline is taking this a step further with their latest update to Smurfs’ Village. There is now a cap on in-app purchases which only allows a max of 5 to be made within a 15 minute time frame. I’m curious to know whether Apple required Beeline to add this type of restriction in or if it was of the developer’s own volition, as I haven’t yet heard of any other case where Apple limited how much can be purchased through their IAP infrastructure.

At any rate, there are also a few new items and additional levels to earn in this new update. If you’re a fan of Smurfs’ Village, update your copy of the game and take comfort in the fact that at most you’ll only be accidentally spending $500 every 15 minutes on Smurfberries.

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Pulse: Volume One [$4.99] is a new iPad-exclusive game by Cipher Prime, the developers who created the award-winning Auditorium [Free]. Like Auditorium, Pulse is a simple and elegant music game. This time around, Cipher Prime has moved away from puzzles and into the rhythm game genre.

Pulse is an immersive experience right from the start. Even in the tutorial, the game provides no external feedback. You can learn by experimentation, noting what works and what doesn't with the game's visuals to guide you. You're presented with a series of concentric circles and a musical beat. Glowing rings pulse outwards from the center in time with the music, and dots appear with the beat. Tap the dots as they're hit by the pulse and you'll be rewarded with explosive visuals and the next musical note.

Hit them too soon or too late, and that note is marred with dissonant noise, and the color and beauty leech out of the game. Played successfully, Pulse is a visually exciting experience. Birds and butterflies fly from under your fingertips with each successful tap, and colors light up the screen. It's a game that really shows off the elegance of the iPad's touch interface, an impressive feat for the developer's first time self-publishing on iOS.

Pulse includes eight levels that showcase original music composed by the Cipher Prime team. The music is atmospheric, and ranges from slow ambient tracks to upbeat electronica. As the music gets faster the game gets more difficult, and you'll need to use both your hands and have incredibly nimble fingers to keep up with some of the later tracks. Getting 100% on each level is a challenge, but the music is enjoyable enough to stay fresh through repeat plays.

Unfortunately, eight tracks are all that the game currently has to offer. In total, a single play-through of all the tracks makes up less than twenty minutes of play time. The game doesn't include leaderboards, achievements, or any other way to share your progress, so once you're satisfied with your performance, you're done. That's not great news, but Cipher Prime has at least six months of regular free updates planned, with original music that will showcase independent musicians from Philadelphia. It's also taking music submissions on its website. Upcoming content includes songs from an eclectic mix of genres, including chip-tune, nerdcore and death metal, so there should be plenty to look forward to if you decide to jump in now.

Ultimately, if you're looking for strong gameplay hooks and replayability, Pulse:Volume One won't hit those notes for you. But if you're interested in elegant rhythm gameplay and an immersive audio-visual experience, you'll find lots to enjoy.

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Bummed that the Space Shuttle launch got scrubbed and need a pick-me-up? Have nothing to do this weekend? Are you totally out of iTunes credit and want a new game to play? Well, I have the solution to all three of these problems, and potentially any other problems you can cook up: Physics Gamebox [Free]

While you're waiting for the game to download (you are downloading it, aren't you?) you can check out our review. In a nutshell, Physics Gamebox comes packed with two incredibly popular games that got their start on various Flash game portals out there. Ragdoll Cannon has you shooting ragdolls at goals (and actually was the inspiration behind Ragdoll Blaster) as well as Roly-Poly Cannon which puts you in charge of firing your cannon at Roly-Poly bugs who have invaded. 300 levels in all are included, which should keep you busy for quite a while.

For more freebies, swing on over to AppShopper, or check out our price drops and freebies forum. It seems like there's always awesome stuff to be had for free (or very cheap).

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It seems like only yesterday I was cruising around looking for a silly Wednesday-related image to include with last week's game release post. Time flies when you're having fun, I suppose. Anyway, if this is your first App Store Wednesday, here's the gist- Developers can set specific release dates for their games on the App Store. Since the App Store is an international market, these specific launch dates occur at different times in the world. Games launch in New Zealand first, then slowly appear in other regions as the planet spins and it slowly becomes Thursday in other parts of the world. For us Americans, this actually means 11:00 PM EST tonight. Here's what to expect tonight, or earlier, if you live to the east of North America:

Gears, 99¢ – [Forum Thread] – This hilariously epic trailer for a ball roller still makes me giggle, and we're only a few hours away from discovering whether or not Crescent Moon Games' Gears actually does all the amazing things its trailer suggests. I'm not saying a ball roller can't be epic, as I'd certainly describe the Dark Nebula games that way, but this trailer brings about an entire new era of epic ball rollers. People on our forums are excited about Gears, I'm excited about Gears, and really, you should be excited about Gears. It looks really good, and we've liked what we've seen so far in previews to say the least.

Zenonia 3: The Midgard Story, $4.99 – [Forum Thread] – The Zenonia series has a huge fan following on our forums, and with two Zenonia games already on the App Store we're expecting big things from the third installment. It seems Gamevil is prepared to deliver too, with four unique classes, three single player and two multiplayer modes, and they've even axed the annoying weight and hunger system of previous games. 227 unique maps and 136 quests are included along with 48 achievements, 200 monsters, and a ridiculous amount of equipment to earn. I'm just glad that mobile games like Zenonia 3 didn't really exist before I was, you know, an adult with a job and responsibilities… because wow I can lose myself in games like this.

Snuggle Truck, $1.99 – [Forum Thread] – Smuggle Truck seems to have gotten a cuddly makeover and now features a truck full of stuffed animals instead of the previously planned illegal immigrants. This shift in theme shouldn't make the game any less fun, as we had an absolute blast with it back at GDC and it seems people on our forums who have already picked it up are doing the same with the game. The iTunes description mentions community created levels coming in a future update, potentially allowing for nearly unlimited replay value.

Galaxy on Fire 2, $9.99 – [Forum Thread] – While the game itself is already available on the App Store (and has been for quite some time) the new Valkyrie add on should appear at some point today. It's going to be $4.99, and includes a ridiculous amount of new features and content mentioned in a previous preview post. I'd go as far as to say this addon is a must-have for anyone who has enjoyed Galaxy on Fire 2.

Streets of Rage 3, $2.99 – [Forum Thread] – I think it's about time we all pitch in together and hire one of those planes that tow the banners in the sky to circle Sega's offices to get them to start releasing more RPG's, puzzle games, and other games that actually work well within the constraints of their Genesis emulator. It's the same old song and dance here, yet another action-oriented button masher with virtual controls layered on top. I guess if you're just crazy about Streets of Rage games, this is worth downloading just for completion's sake of having all three games neatly arranged on your phone.

Burn it All – Journey to the Sun, 99¢ – [Forum Thread] – Have you had your fill with rope burning puzzle games? No? GOOD. We got a look at Burn it All back at GDC, and it's a great little game filled with a cool gameplay mechanic, colorful graphics, and tons of content. It's universal too, which is always awesome.

Unpleasant Horse, Free – Popcap's first released by their new studio 4th and Battery. This game is the result of a Popcap game jam, and while it sounds a little basic it's both universal and free. I'm not sure why you wouldn't download it to at least check it out.

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If you haven't seen Evil Dead, Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness, that's a problem you really should think about fixing this weekend. Evil Dead is streamable on Netflix, and both Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness are able to be rented (or purchased) on iTunes. The series follows the battle between Ashley "Ash" J. Williams and his encounters with the deadites, the evil offspring risen by the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis. If you like campy horror movies, there really is no finer trilogy.

Anyway, Army of Darkness: Defense takes the popular hero-based castle battle genre and applies a thick coating of Bruce Campbell to it… A combination that could make any genre amazing, but the setting of Army of Darkness lends itself particularly well to the genre. In the game, you play as Ash, and can dispatch all kinds of different forces in various battles with the deadites. The gameplay is fairly standard for a castle battler with a hero you control, with upgrades that you can purchase for Ash himself, the troops you dispatch, as well as your castle. Where Army of Darkness: Defense pulls ahead is in how incredibly well Backflip Studios has implemented all aspects of the movie into the game. I won't spoil too much, but this game basically redefines fan service.

Army of Darkness: Defense is launching on May 12th for 99¢ on the iPhone and iPod touch along with a HD version for the iPad which will be priced at $2.99. Additionally, each game will have entirely optional in-app purchase where you'll be able to buy packs of coins to spend on upgrades. Keep in mind, you earn these very same coins by actually playing the game, so unless you're the kind of person who wants to dump their money into the game to instantly upgrade everything and completely break the difficulty curve… There's not much reason to buy coins.

Stay tuned for next month, we'll have a full review to accompany the game's release.

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