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Let's get this out of the way, Square Enix's Chaos Rings Ω [$11.99 / HD] is identical to the original Chaos Rings in more ways than one. In fact, its differences are so few, it's hard to differentiate the two and considering Chaos Rings Ω follows the original by a full year, that's going to be a bit disappointing to fans of the first game looking for something new.

By the nature of the narrative in the first game, there is little in the way of expanding the Battle Royale style storyline, which pits you in a fight to the death against a random collection of couples abducted to an arena for the sake of proving their battle-worthiness. Even though this is billed as a prequel, it's still not the "first" time this the tournament has gone down and it's clearly not the last.

Where the first game told the story from several different viewpoints, Chaos Rings Ω decides instead to tell the main story of Vieg (who you'll recognize from the first game, perhaps a bit younger looking). This might be a bit jarring to fans of the multiple viewpoints of the first game, but it does allow Chaos Rings Ω to tell a slightly more cohesive story.

The setting is the exact same and that goes for the dungeons as well. They're varied in layout, but considering the first games dungeon designs were essentially randomly put together screens, that's not really saying much. Since there are different characters, the narrative is tweaked slightly, including a ridiculous mother/child plot involving a not-at-all-pregnant-looking woman who happens to be your wife. Dialogue is on par with the first as well, which is to say, it reads like it's something closer to fan fiction. Because of that, there are plenty of inadvertent jokes — for instance, during a cut scene where your wife is giving birth, an ill-timed achievement called "Pelvic Pummeler" will pop up in relation to a boss fight you just completed.

But if you liked the style and story of the first game, you'll enjoy this one too. Without spoiling things, you'll seen connections between the two games and get a few explanations of how the Ark Arena works and where certain situations and characters from the first game came from.

Combat, movement, the menus; everything else is the same as the first. That includes the ability to turn off random enemy encounters or alternately, to force one into happening. The puzzles are back this time too, but you can skip them if you fail three times. Combat works on the same two-person tactic as the first, which offers entry level RPG fans a clear and simple system to go with and it's mixed with enough complexity that you can take it to some extremes to deal hefty damage, but the game doesn't really challenge you to do so as often as it could. There is also a ludicrously over-done tutorial system at the beginning of the game, which features a tutorial for how to use the "options" menu for no apparent reason.

The same goes for the graphics, which are, to be frank, identical to the first, oftentimes seemingly taking assets directly from the original and changing their color. While Chaos Rings had a bit of a shock-and-awe factor going for it, Chaos Rings Ω doesn't. The weirdly pixelated static backgrounds and poorly textured character designs look significantly dated now. It shouldn't really matter, but as a whole, it looks like they weren't trying too hard.

There are a flurry of post-release updates planned, including increased level caps and bosses (which only makes sense after you finish the game), but based on their descriptions alone, they don't really seem that interesting unless you're an absolute die-hard fan. If nothing else, it's nice to see Square Enix is coming around to the App Store update model, at least a little bit.

By the end of it all, Chaos Rings Ω is solely for diehard fans of Chaos Rings and with the first game currently on sale, you'll be better of starting there if you're just a curious passerby. It's not bad by any means, but it doesn't even pretend to offer anything different or new. More is more — so if that's all you're asking for, you'll be happy with the way the story fills in the gaps of the first, but if you didn't like the first or wanted new battle systems or combat, you'll be disappointed.

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Ticket to Ride [$6.99] is a board game turned digital. It has no great pits to leap across, caves to plumb for loot, or monsters to bludgeon. Ticket to Ride is, without a doubt, a traditional game that requires the old-fashioned stuff: deduction, tactics, and skill. It isn’t for people who want flash and glam; rather, it’s for people who can appreciate sharp, boiled-down design that presents compelling challenges without the mess.

Straight up: Ticket to Ride is good on the iPad, just as it’s always been good as a board game. The things the digitization brings to the table is the streamlining of setup — the end game counting of points, the piece setting, and the shuffling of cards — and online play against or with friends or even random dudes.

It’s not shocking, but it’s still weird how sterile Ticket to Ride is from a visual design standpoint. I can count the number of animations and UI elements on my fingers. The focus here is on the game itself, as it should be. But while it’s nice to not have to deal with clutter, the thriftiness also highlights the questionable decisions.

The main menu turned HUB world in particular sticks out like a tumor. There’s a quick start option and then there’s the train station that hosts the majority of content. Also, the lobbies for multiplayer feel too front-loaded with bits and pieces of needless UI.

That’s enough overheard gazing, probably. The meat of Ticket to Ride is delicious. Like other solid board games, its rules are the main attraction, the sticking point that guides all of the strategy and deduction.

I fancy the contrast of this and Magic: The Gathering, the card game. In M:TG, success is often measured in how well you tap dance around the rules. Ticket to Ride is a regimented title in which you can only do one action per turn — even though you want, and can often do, much more given free reign. I think this bumping and grinding against Ticket to Ride’s rule set is the most enjoyable aspect; the game is teasing and challenging you at all times.

The point is to complete a railroad from one location to another. The initial phase has you being handed three location-to-location cards. If you manage to build that railroad on the card, you’ll earn the points listed on the card. The person with the highest score wins.

The rub is on the board. Certain tracks require a certain amount of colored train cars to fill in the track. In order to facilitate this, you’ll need to draw cards either from a shared pile or the random stack. After drawing cards, however, your turn is over.

If you set a piece or pieces on the map, your turn is also over. Or if you draw a new location card, your turn is over. You can’t mix and match; it’s one and done.

The overall strategy, I think, is tied to how and when you act. Do you set your pieces down as soon as possible before an opponent can tie up a track? But if you do, are you giving clues as to which cards and locations you’re trying to get to? Should you block a person instead? Or do you just sit around and draw cards until you can overtake the map?

The deduction and tactics aren’t subtle, but they’re still satisfying. Ticket to Ride requires a lot of foresight, critical thought, and even some reverse engineering if a person happens to screw all your plans with a surprise move. It’s fun and satisfying to do this and I think it needs to be noted that every game is different and presents its own challenges.

The AI, by the way, seems fairly sharp thus far. Human opponents, however, are where the real fun resides and the game does multiplayer without hitches. I was just in a four-person room and the game reacted well to the crowd, though stuttering was apparent.

This is such an overused phrase, but if you’re a fan of Ticket to Ride, or even its XBLA incarnation, you’ll dig this. Hell, if you’re looking for something in a similar vein to the other tremendous board games turned video games out there this will do just fine. Ticket to Ride is a sharp game that has all the charm of the board game minus a lot of mess. It is as challenging as you can make it and rarely unsatisfying.

NOTE: Ticket to Ride ships with just one map at the moment. You can purchase others through IAP by clicking on a vendor. Each is .99 cents, a steal considering the game is just $6.99 to begin with. Also, there is no pass and play.

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In 2009, Total NonStop Action (TNA) Wrestling was released. Surprisingly, it was a turn-based strategic wrestling game, with RPG elements, enabling your wrestler to "level-up". That game later disappeared from the App Store, with players in the thread suggesting their license expired. Now, another TNA Wrestling game has been released by Bight Interactiveand Namco Bandai.

TNA Wrestling iMPACT [$4.99] opens with bright lights and an electric guitar soundtrack, which introduces the entertainment spectacle that is modern wrestling. It's a good introduction, and perfectly sets the scene for just how over the top this kind of wrestling is.

Career and exhibition modes are offered, with three levels of difficulty. Career mode let's you to play as either your favorite TNA superstar, or a custom made character. There are three career tournaments to play, including TNA heavyweight, X-division and tag-team. Winning matches in career mode improves your wrestler by enhancing their power, toughness, speed and/or charisma. Winning all three tournaments will unlock Hulk Hogan. In Exhibition mode, there's six match types, each with different win conditions, namely: Standard, Submission, Falls Count Anywhere, No Disqualifications, Cage and Tag-Team. Multi Player is available locally via bluetooth or wifi, or online via Game Center.

The game features 24 TNA wrestling superstars, each with their own entrance, costume and signature moves. Alternatively, you can create-a-wrestler, customizing the name, fighting style, signature moves, physical appearance, costume and attributes. Each wrestler is either a brawler, powerhouse or high-flier, which determines their fighting style and special moves.

Wrestling fans will be pleased to know there's a variety of moves available, including: Body Slam, Suplex, DDT, Piledriver, Spinebuster, Facebreaker, and the Backbreaker. Finishing moves include: Blackhole Slam, Border Toss, Running Leg Drop, Olympic Slam and Chaos Theory to name a few. You can also pick-up objects like bats from the crowd, or chairs, as weapons.

The controls consist of a virtual D-Pad, with buttons for attack, grapple and run. Additional special context-sensitive buttons appear when required for finishing moves, pinning the opponent, climbing (turnbuckle or cage), entering / exiting the ring, taking weapons or tagging your partner. Completing attacking moves successfully fills up your "impact bar", which makes your special finishing move available.

High scores and achievements are integrated with Game Center, with over 25 achievements. Extra content, such as outfits and alternative ring themes can be accessed by installing and starting certain other games, to earn the "TNA Stars" necessary to make the purchases.

I'm sure this all sounds amazing if you're a wrestling fan. Really, TNA Wrestling Impact offers a lot of features; but given the dubious history of wrestling games on the App Store, is this one awesome to play? Sadly, the answer is "not really". It's okay, not superb.

The first disappointment occurs during the introduction, when the characters speak without voice overs. With games like FIFA 11 and Fight Night providing quality commentary and other voice work, it's disappointing to see the wrestling characters communicate via subtitles, while their animated mouths flap endlessly and the same hand gestures loop over and over. It's difficult to convey the energy, showmanship and bravado of wrestling via sub-titles.

Once the match begins, the wrestler's movements feel slow and cumbersome, rather than smooth and exciting. Opponents occasionally fall over without any contact being made. Graphical glitches occur regularly, with the opponents boots disappearing inside your body, body parts being obscured by the ring or one wrestler walking straight through another. Brushing against a barrier outside the ring causes your superstar to collapse. The pumping music at the start disappears during gameplay, leaving the unrealistic sound of the crowd, who appear to be related to each other. At least, the same figures, in the same clothes, appear repeatedly. Interestingly, from some angles the audience are all facing away from the ring.

The game sometimes surprises by busting out a new move, like pummeling the opponent while standing on the ropes and pinning them in the corner. There's also satisfaction to be had from pulling off moves successfully, especially of the aerial variety, but overall the wrestling gets repetitive quickly. Overall, TNA Wrestling Impact seems to have a lot of potential, but ultimately fails in overall execution, which seems to be par for the course for most wrestling games– Especially in the mobile world.

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What happens when you combine a skateboard, a bucket, two tennis balls and a balloon? If Casey's Contraptions [$2.99] is any indication, you make a surprisingly deep physics puzzler.

Of course, a lot more than that went into this first team up by Snappy Touch and Mystery Coconut Games. 30 different items introduced over 72 levels, a level editor and a creative solution sharing mechanic are all part of what makes Casey's Contraptions so much fun. But to get the most out of it, you'll need to bring something more to the table as well – a child-like desire to play and experiment.

Not because this game is childish or easy – it's just presented through a child's point of view. Eight-year-old Casey guides you through each level, and it's his toys you'll be playing with. You'll need to build contraptions out of these toys, like magnets, slingshots and darts, to help him through play time and chores. Things start out simple and get more and more complicated as you progress. If you're willing to experiment, you'll have a ton of fun. If you just want to get through each level as quickly as possible, however, you won't be nearly as well rewarded.

Nearly every level in Casey's Contraptions can be solved in many different ways. There is no "right" way, although you'll probably want to collect all three stars each time. Other than that, you're welcome to use the toolbox presented to you in each level however you want, as long as it gets you to that level's goal. If you come up with a solution you think is cool, you can share it with your Game Center friends with a single click.

You can also see your friends' published solutions, including Casey's three-star solution. If you want to check them out mid-level, you can. This keeps things from becoming too frustrating if you just can't find a workable answer, but I'd recommend you keep yourself from peeking when you can avoid it. Trying to copy a solution turns Casey's Contraptions from a game of experimentation into a frustrating game of pixel hunting as you try to find someone's precise positioning. It's much more fun to do it yourself and then check out all the crazy solutions your friends found. You shouldn't get completely stuck, anyways, since the game only requires you to complete three out of every four levels to progress.

Technically and visually, Casey's Contraptions is superb. Though the physics are a bit cartoony, things always behave how you'd expect them to once you see them in action. If you drop a ball onto a spring and it bounces a quarter-inch away from your goal, moving the ball and spring that quarter inch will work every time. This is super important, because in later levels you'll be pulling out a lot of trial-and-error solutions. "But what if I did this?" was a common refrain while I played.

As you progress through the game, you unlock the items you work with for use in the game's level editor. I haven't had a chance to play with many friends yet, but I can't wait to create some crazy contraptions for people to solve. In a particularly smart touch, you're required to solve each level you create with all three stars before you can send it out. My only disappointment is that you can't share your creations with the world at large – just with your Game Center friends. A rating system and some public curation would be a fantastic addition to Casey's Contraptions. A few achievements wouldn't hurt, either.

It sounds like there are a lot more levels in the works, and an iPhone release coming down the road. The developers are taking feedback in their thread on our forums, so let them know what you think. And just to head off one question I know is coming: I don't know exactly how similar it is to The Incredible Machine, and its various sequels, because I missed out on those PC classics as a kid. Coming into it fresh, though, I can tell you this – Casey's Contraptions is a joy to play.

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It's always surprised me when considering both how many games there are on the App Store combined with just how well the iPhone's tilt controls lend itself to the genre that we haven't seen more combat-oriented flight sims. While we had fun with both Ace Combat Xi and F.A.S.T., it has been nearly 2 years since their respective releases, and it is more than time for something new. Z2Live Games has decided to capitalize both on the recent lack of awesome combat-centric flight sims and how popular freemium gaming has been lately with MetalStorm: Online [Free].

Like most (all?) free to play games, it doesn't take long to get introduced to the in-app purchase system that fuels the whole thing. In the case of MetalStorm: Online, in-game coins and tokens are the name of the game when it comes to buying the jets you'll be flying, as well as tweaking them out with upgrades. You'll start out with enough credits to buy yourself a starter jet, although you're really limited to one of three that you'll be able to afford.

After picking up your first jet, you'll be ready to fly. In its initial release, MetalStorm: Online includes 3 game modes to choose from. You can either fight against continuous waves of AI-controlled opponents in either single player or co-op modes, or take the fight online via Game Center. Each game you play awards experience points as well as tokens which allow you to buy new jets, upgrades, and more.

The game's simple HUD compliments the controls very well, with virtual buttons for the various functions of your jets oriented intelligently on screen. They're both simple enough, and feel standard enough that if you try out MetalStorm: Online and you've played any other iOS combat sim you'll pick things up instantly. Evasion is handled in a clever way in MetalStorm with swipe-based gestures to perform various rolls, dodges, and quick turns.

While the previously mentioned single player mode is a fun way to learn the game, as the title hints, MetalStorm: Online was made to be played online. Game Center matches work well, and aside from a seldom rogue disconnect, connections have been perfect. Online dogfights can feel a little slow at time, as each of you are circling each other, but few games can rival the rush of a great matchup of an opponent with equal gear and skill… Which really leads me to my one major gripe about the game.

Each weapon you purchase with tokens or coins has an ammo count. Once that ammo runs out you'll either have to re-purchase them again using the tokens you've earned or downgrade to the standard weapons, which compared to the upgrade options are far inferior. You can still win matches against bettter equipped opponents using the basic weapons, but it is very difficult and can get quite frustrating. The game's match maker also doesn't seem to take into account the equipment level of your opponent, so it's not out of the ordinary to find yourself substantially outgunned by players who have invested in IAP.

MetalStorm: Online seems to be truly free to play in that you really can get all the important upgrades by earning the various in-game credits just by playing, but doing so would require some serious devotion to the game. Currently, you receive one coin per level up. In the early levels of the game, this takes around half a dozen matches. The best plane right now costs 300 coins, and saving up for that just by playing just seems unrealistic– Especially considering the whole time you'll likely be outgunned by people who are buying upgrades instead of stockpiling coins.

$5 worth of coins let me get a new plane and some missile upgrades which allowed me to absolutely dominate the matches I've played since, even going three in a row without dying once. Sadly, it seems buying IAP is basically required if you're at all interested in playing competitively online. Comparatively, before I bought my upgrades, I basically just joined games and got owned. I don't feel like I got substantially better in the skill department between the pre-IAP and post-IAP games, and the vast difference in performance feels directly related to dropping five bucks.

This alone would be annoying enough, but you never really feel like you even can save up your freebie tokens earned by playing because you have ton constantly be buying ammo for your weapon upgrades. This ammo system makes it feel like every time you make two steps forward in saving up for something cool without paying, you need to take a step back and buy some ammo to remain vaguely competitive.

The good news is, the whole in-game economy and how games are matched can be completely rebalanced, likely without even issuing an update to the game itself if MetalStorm: Online is running on a similar infrastructure as other freemium games. If that happens, MetalStorm would be an entirely effortless recommendation. Gameplay (when you're not getting totally smoked by people who bought better equipment) is a ton of fun, the graphics are great, and the controls work incredibly well.

Since it's free, you don't have much to lose by trying MetalStorm: Online. You might really enjoy grinding away in the game while slowly earning coins, making most of my IAP-related complaints a non-issue. I just can't escape the feeling that I'm being nickel and dimed for upgrades, ammo, and IAP doesn't seem anywhere near as optional as it should be in a PvP-driven online game where investing real-world dollars can make such a difference, essentially making the game less about skill and more about who has either spent more money or invested more time grinding up coins.

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Ever since the inception of the App Store, gamers have been crying out for an iOS entry in the ridiculously popular Monster Hunter franchise from Capcom. Indeed, the elements of exploring a huge world, hunting and fighting tons of different monsters, and crafting and collecting an assortment of loot to build up your character would be a great fit for an iOS game. Well, Capcom has officially announced that the series is appearing on iOS in the form of Monster Hunter Dynamic Hunting, reports Andriasang via Famitsu.

While this is definitely great news, die-hard Monster Hunter fans shouldn’t get too excited just yet. Monster Hunter Dynamic Hunting appears to be a fairly stripped-down version of what you would typically expect from the series. It focuses on one-on-one battles against the many popular monsters that have appeared in the game over the years, but based on the hands-on video from Famitsu it doesn’t look like it contains much of the exploration and RPG elements that the series is known for. Have a look:

At the end of the day, I can’t be mad to see that Monster Hunter is coming to the App Store, but it seems strange that Capcom is taking a watered-down approach to the game seeing as it’s been proven time and time again that a full-blown experience would be completely possible on iOS devices. Still, limited exploration one-on-one battling proved to be a great combination for Infinity Blade [$5.99], which Monster Hunter Dynamic Hunting looks very similar to. If it’s well done, then it may be a fun way to give fans a taste of the franchise while on the go.

Monster Hunter Dynamic Hunting is set to launch in Japan in June, and while there's no official word of a US release I'd imagine it will make its way here sooner or later. The lack of some of the fundamental elements of a Monster Hunter game is disappointing, but we’ll reserve full judgment until we’re actually able to play the game ourselves. Until then you can stop by the upcoming thread in our forums to voice your own opinion about the game.

[Via Andriasang]

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You might just lose yourself in the caverns of Spoing [99¢ / HD] Chillingo's newest platformer is a moody affair that sees you playing the titular Spoing, a spiky ball with a lot on his mind. Someone's stolen all the rainbow diamonds on his watch, and he needs to gather them up and find the thief.

To solve this mystery, Spoing travels through long, dark caverns and seeks out friends to guide him. He travels by bouncing from one elastic platform to the next, with your help to aim him (similar to the mechanic in Parachute Ninja [99¢], among others). You can also collect green gems that let you create your own platforms. Sometimes the path will be laid out for you, other times you'll be forging your own way through the caverns. Occasionally you'll need to choose the best path from a few different options.

You'll need to choose wisely, because your performance is rated by how long it takes you to reach the rainbow diamond at the end of each level. You earn Level Points based on your speed. Getting one or two is pretty simple, but the third is often a serious challenge. To master a level you'll need to earn three Level Points and make it through the level without hitting a wall or a monster. You'll be well-rewarded for your success – each level has its own Crystal/Game Center leaderboard and an achievement for mastery.

If gameplay alone isn't enough to keep you going, the lonely environments and minimalistic music might draw you in. While the game offers four built-in music tracks and the option to play your own tunes, you'll be missing out if you don't plug in your headphones and play with the ambient track. There's no rhythm integration, but the music blends beautifully with the sparse piano-note sound effects. It's the perfect soundtrack to accompany your journey through the deep, dark caves of Spoing.

Despite all that, I can't help but feel that games2be, Spoing's developers, spent a too much time on building levels, giving us 50 to explore, while spending too little time differentiating them. The difficulty goes up and down by the level so there's no feel of steady progression. And the environments hardly change at all. This wouldn't be too bad, but you may find yourself grinding to hit experience and Level Point milestones to progress at times. Replaying levels only to unlock the next group of near-identical levels is disheartening

Spoing also suffers from a bit of a clumsy story. The dialog is clunky, so it's probably for the best that there's very little of it. Mysteriously, I also couldn't find the ending. Despite the long set up for a climactic showdown with the rainbow diamond thief, I finished all 50 levels and found nothing. No ending scene, no indication of what to do next, just an open invitation to keep playing. I played a bit longer, hoping to reach whatever milestone the game expected me to have hit, but I never found it. I don't know if this is a bug or if I just needed to keep replaying levels, but it was pretty disappointing.

When it comes down to it though, it's not story that will keep you progressing through Spoing's 50 levels, but solid gameplay and enticing (if repetitive) atmosphere. While I'd love to see more variety in the level dressing, I can't really complain. Spoing gave me hours of fun that always stayed challenging, and that's the core of a great gaming experience. Hopefully games2be will have the chance to improve the game around that core in future updates.

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Dinosaurs still breathe. In our neck of the woods, dinosaurs are the fixture studios that once built great games and franchises. Some like Midway Games have died hard in the recent past, while others like Trilobyte Games and Cyan Worlds staunchly continue to produce. These latter two studios are rolling differently though. Instead of gripping onto the markets they've lost, they're investing in the App Store.

But, in the current climate, is it even possible for these older guys to fit in, no less survive?

For Cyan Worlds specifically, it’s hard to say — at least, if Bug Chucker [$.99], it's latest game, is considered as a valid stargazing device. And, really, why couldn’t it be used as a makeshift crystal ball? It's certainly not a good game, so there’s little point in using it as an entertainment product.

Bug Chucker seeks to capitalize on the millions of fans of “fling” games like Angry Birds [.99 / Free] and the legions of imitators. In Bug Chucker, you control a pipe that spits bugs into space. In each level, the goal is to spit a bug directly into the mechanical maw of a metal sphere.

Boxes and other out-of-place blockades are deterrents, so you’ll spend most of your time clearing these obstructions with your supply of extra bugs. In addition to this, you’ll also be fiddling with a physics engine that focuses on gravity. Masses have their own fields of effect, so often the game is about shooting around objects as opposed to towards them.

It’s an alright idea as far as App Store games go, but the execution is poor and the direction overall even poorer. I think a solid touchstone for the overall woes that plague Bug Chucker is the mishmash art direction. This is a game about Earth bugs in space being fired out of a copper catapult attached to a ship with a tree the size of stars in the hull. Nothing matches, nothing feels right, and nothing jives with the other.

In a way, Bug Chucker also suffers from the same direction problems most were able to overcome with the original Myst. Experimentation was as vital in that as it is in Bug Chucker and the senselessness of testing is every bit as grating. You’re never sure if what you’re doing is right.

End of the day, I look at Bug Chucker as an interactive checklist. It’s an attempt by Cyan Worlds to do a low cost game that has all the elements of a modern Angry Birds clone. It has mascots, a bad bit of senseless narrative, a catapult, physics-based puzzles, clear goals, a lot of levels that don’t fit together, and costs next to nothing.

But the thing that bothers me other than the overall quality, is that Cyan Worlds is capable of better. I’m not entrenched in the camp that believes Myst and its sequels were the greatest bits of interactive fiction to ever touch a store shelf, but Bug Chucker is easily one of its worst products to date. It makes you wonder if Bug Chucker is just the end result of Cyan Worlds trying to fit in — its attempt to try and stay relevant with the new crowd of platform owners.

I’d imagine the rock bottom prices are App Store games isn’t aiding in development matters. Cyan Worlds hasn’t been in business for this long because it’s stupid with its money. It takes lost of sells of low-cost games to merely break even on development costs, so why spend significant coin on a game in the first place if it's probably going to fail in a store packed full of other, more promising one-dollar games? That's the tack, I think, that it's taking with Bug Chucker — and it shows.

On another note, I'm not sure if Cyan Worlds can go backwards and  continue to leverage Myst in its traditional context. In addition to expecting games to be cheap and light, App Store consumers also want games to be fast and simple. Myst was a slow-walking, complex beast. Cyan Worlds was built to create these kinds of complex games and not the throwaway titles it's doing now. It’ll be… interesting to see if this studio will be able to continue to compete without a total change of guard.

I don’t think many people are privy to what exactly Midway’s long term plans were, but it was also once an aging house like Cyan Worlds that was attempting to fit in to a market that evolved beyond its stable of IP and abilities to innovate in a flooded market. Midway's third-person gambling game This Is Vegas was certainly no good, and  Midway's closure proved that it couldn’t leverage its old properties in a meaningful way on consoles. Other studios, unfortunately, have leveraged its properties correctly post-bankruptcy and mass IP sell-off.

That’s not to say Cyan Worlds is digging a hole for itself, but this is an old studio with a great past to be proud of. It might be a dinosaur, but if it can somehow capture the indie game spirit that dominates the App Store, there's a chance it'll thrive in this new environment. I'm not sure that it will, though, if Bug Chucker is a good indication of such matters.

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Grab your whet stone app and find a virtual squire — you’ll need them, no doubt, to best the hordes of Infinity Blade [$5.99] slaves waiting for this bit of news. On this Thursday, May 19, the oft-promised competitive multiplayer update to Infinity Blade goes live alongside some new, though traditional content additions all for the generous price of $0.

The competitive online component has been dubbed “Infinity Blade: Arena,” but aside from its monster-versus-dude twist, point, usage of Game Center, and its titling, we still know almost next to nothing about it.

No worries if you can find the time to spare this afternoon, though. Game creator Chair Entertainment will be doing a special Facebook Q&A session this afternoon at 4:30 EST to answer these lingering pre-launch questions.

Back to those other content additions I mentioned: in addition to “Arena,” this content update will see the release of “two dozen” new rings, swords, shields, and helmets, as well as Facebook integration, and new achievements. Also, Chair will be dropping in a new Boss Rush mode called “Survivor Mode,” that’ll have you fighting against Titan after Titan in an attempt to get a high score. Oh, and holiday helms! Everyone loves those.

That’s one hell of a free content drop for any kind of game, right? I can't wait to hack you dudes up this Thursday.

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Over the years there have been tons of sports games released on the App Store, and as time goes on, each release seems to get better and better as developers refine their offerings. First Touch Soccer [99¢] follows this trend beautifully, with some great AI, awesome graphics, fantastic controls, and even online multiplayer. Released by X2 Games, First Touch Soccer is a continuation of the X2 Soccer series released in 2009 and 2010, which we had a great time with in previous years.

One of my favorite things about First Touch Soccer is how smooth the controls are. X2 Games has really refined their virtual controls, and every function in the game is easily accomplished using a set of three buttons and a virtual joystick. Switching between players is incredibly easy, and through screen tapping you can perform a variety of different maneuvers.

Games are fast paced and can be very challenging at times due to the new opponent AI. This new AI is not only among the best I've seen in a sports game, but at time, actually feels like you're playing against a human opponent. Thankfully, the AI that controls your teammates is also improved, which not only helps to even the odds, but also can result in some incredibly satisfying goals. Your teammates even go as far as to get in proper passing positions while maintaining proper field position. This makes the game feel like you're actually playing with a team instead of just cycling through available players to control like way too many sports games.

Since the AI is a force to be reckoned with, you might want to spend some time in the game's extensive practice mode. You'll be able to hone all your shots which not only will help you in single player, but is practically required to do well in the online multiplayer mode against actual real opponents. Matches are made via Game Center, and so far it seems like there's a decent online playerbase as I haven't had any difficulty finding people to play with. Games are smooth,and I've rarely encountered even minimal lag.

First Touch Soccer has tons of content. There are over 250 club teams, 30 competitions, and 7 different game modes. My favorite game mode is "Dream Team" mode where you play games to win coins which are then used to hire all of your favorite players to create a legendary team. You can even customize your team's uniforms along with practically everything else you'd ever want to tweak.

The graphics in First Touch Soccer are amazing. Character models are great, and the in-game camera does a great job of focusing on all of the action without ever getting in the way. There's even a full instant replay system that gives you complete control of the camera and even allows for YouTube uploads within the game. It's really cool, and perfect for bragging about insane plays you made during a game.

At this point in the life cycle of the App Store there are a ton of different soccer games available, but First Touch Soccer is both the latest and greatest. Even if you've got an existing favorite soccer game, First Touch Soccer is worth downloading because of the improved AI alone. It makes playing the game feel like actually playing a real game of soccer, with real players, which is an incredible achievement for a mobile game. Online multiplayer is the proverbial cherry on top of numerous other great features, making First Touch Soccer an effortless recommendation.

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