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I like to think that Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead is an exploration of character and violence more than it is some grim zombie fairy tale. Its cast is as beastly as its undead. Action is sudden, terrifying, and distressing. Decisions are made in bursts of lust and blood, greed and anger, brains and preservation. This miasma is revealing: we’re not good people. This makes for interesting reading, as you get to glimpse into what makes us forget who we want to be, and become what we actually are.

The first episode of Telltale’s The Walking Dead plays like a celebration of the comic and its themes. It adheres to the Kirkman’s vision, showcasing the series’ violence and grit, choice and character. You’ll make painful decisions, interact with broken people, and participate in some of the most brutal, real-world action that’s ever been shown in a video game. In under an hour of play with a Mac build of the title, I have become one of The Walking Dead’s characters: a liar and a monster in the face of danger.

You’ll play through a vehicle named Lee, a loosely defined character with a mysterious history and an innocence about him. The opening takes place right before the world goes to hell. Lee is in the back of a police car, handcuffed, talking to the officer driving when, suddenly, the officer strikes a walker with his vehicle. The crash is a stomach-churning, and the action after is intense. Lee survives, but finds himself in a world where the dead shamble and the living sprint.

Lee goes on to meet a few characters, including a little girl who becomes something of a companion. As you progress, you’ll make choices that each character will “remember,” perhaps coloring the events in later episodes as you jump in and out of alliances with others, react calmly or violently, or lie. Thus far, I don’t have a great sense of how anything that I’m saying or doing will play out, and that’s perhaps The Walking Dead’s biggest upcoming challenge: these choices need to feel meaningful one way or another.

Mechanically, the game controls like a cross between Jurassic Park and Heavy Rain: you manually move Lee in very specific environments, searching for items and clues that will inevitably lead you to the next story point. The Walking Dead doesn’t rely on puzzles as a bridge. Instead, it leverages Lee’s confusion and desire: you find things for people or for Lee. Action segments challenge you to react fast, as you line up reticules or tap buttons to complete QTEs. The dialogue system, on the other hand, presents multiple flavors of response and a timer forces you to make snap judgements and decisions.

I appreciate the intensity of the writing. The Walking Dead invites you to explore a grim and violent world spotted with people who actually feel like people and react in extreme ways under the pressure of survival. Being able to lie to cover things up or get an “in” with a group of better equipped survivors, or save one person over another are the game’s strongest points of narrative design. I’ve been swaying between unnerved or moved as I progress, and this emotional connection is what appeals to me the most about the game as a whole.

We don’t know how the iPad (or iPhone) version of The Walking Dead will control, though the expectation is that it’ll work similarly to how Jurassic Park did with its basic and functional touch, tap, and swipe controls. We’re also not so sure when we’ll see this episode on our devices of choice. Rumor has it that the iOS versions have been delayed beyond its planned May launch. We’re checking on that.

Regardless, you’ll want to keep up with its progress. Provided Telltale will continue is trend of launching really, actually good ports of its games on iOS post-Jurassic Park, this is something I feel like could be required play material.

All of the assets in this article are from the PC, Mac, Xbox Live Arcade, or PSN version of the game. If it means anything to you, we played the Mac version with medium settings and it still looked fantastic. We expect this level of quality, at least, on the new iPad.

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Most puzzle games would have you believe that fun only lies under a pile of rigid rules. That doesn’t seem quite right, when kids have the most fun playing without any rules at all. Whitaker Trebella’s Polymer [ ] isn’t child’s play, but it only demands one thing: a shape can’t have unfinished edges, or it’s not a shape. Everything else is fair game, and that sure feels freeing.

To create shapes in Polymer, you slide rows of pieces back and forth, columns up and down. When you’ve found a stopping point and slid your last piece into place, tapping the shape destroys it. With that, poof, your hard work is gone. In its place you’ll find a fresh canvas and a big pile of points to soothe you.

Polymer’s first mode serves as a good introduction. Called “Two Minutes,” it gives you that much time to create anything you like. A hundred tiny shapes in a row, cascading into ever multiplying combos? Sure. A few carefully crafted behemoths? Go ahead. Quality generally scores over quantity, but your masterpiece won’t be worth much if you can’t finish it in time.

“One Polymer” mode does what you might expect: it gives you as long as you need to create the ultimate shape. Each piece that you manage to add to it rockets your final score to new heights, but there comes a moment when your shape is so large and complex that every move you make will damage the surrounding structure. The most important skill you can learn here is how best to delay that moment.

“Bombs,” the third and final mode, adds, well, bombs to the mix. These are pieces with timers and four unfinished edges. Working them into a shape doubles its score, but the game ends if a single timer runs down to zero. More and more bombs are introduced as the game progresses. Here you need to know your limitations—how complex of a shape can you make within each time limit?

You’ll begin playing Polymer with only the first mode and two kinds of pieces, a rounded corner piece with two free edges and another that caps ends. Reaching a certain accumulated score unlocks the next piece, and then the next mode. It’s a good system, ensuring that you fully understand how to play with what you have before things get more complicated.

Unfortunately, this same system might prove frustrating for some players. Since the scoring scales on a steep curve, players who can’t pull off large shapes will find themselves pecking away at unlocks for much longer than necessary. There are two ways out of that hole: improve, or pay your way out. Each unlockable can be bought if you don’t have the patience to earn it. It’s a little too easy to see this as a push to make extra purchases.

Better to put your wallet away, though. The game is more fun when you have something to work toward aside from achievements and leaderboards, and playing without pushing yourself won’t get you far. Not only that: it’s entirely possible to get ridiculously high scores without the unlockable pieces. At the highest tier of play, you’re probably going to need them. Before then, though, they can actually get in the way, making the board too complicated for beginners. If you find yourself in over your head, you can toggle the more complex pieces off for as long as you need.

As mentioned in our preview, music plays a big part in the Polymer experience. The mood of each mode is enhanced by its soundtrack, cheery, studious and tense in turn. The tones created when you destroy a shape are equally fitting. This is one of those games you’ll want to play with the sound on.

The visuals are somewhat less appealing, at least at first. The look is clean and minimalistic, but when the pieces are all strung together they start to look a little sausage-like. It’s not the most pleasant association. I forgot all about that slight distaste after making a few complex shapes. I’ve saved pictures of a few of my successes for later, and been tempted to tweet more than one. If waiting to acclimate to the look doesn’t work for you, try one of the unlockable color schemes. Some are quite striking.

The thing that keeps me coming back isn’t color or music, though. It’s not even the selection of game modes. The game draws me in because it lets me be creative. It’s freeing to play a puzzle game that lets the player decide when a piece is finished. It’s great to have the choice to create something pretty, or huge, or sophisticated. Polymer cuts away all but the most necessary of rules, and the game is all the better for that. Take a look, and share your best creations in our forum thread.

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Even though The Heist’s [$.99] puzzle design is sharp enough to stand up alongside some of the better puzzle games on the App Store, its post-game rewards are still what makes waves. If you play and beat all of The Heist’s puzzles, you’ll be given codes for actual Steam titles, which have generally been worth more than the app itself. It’s a neat idea, and now its offerings have been expanded. Starting now, Puzzle Agent and World of Goo can be won by completing the game.

Developer tap tap tap’s math wizards say these two prizes, alongside a third game called Eets, total up to $25 worth of gaming goodness. The Heist is currently sitting at $.99, which makes this entire package something of a, uh, decent value.

A word of caution: World of Goo is only being award to the first 25,000 users who make it to 100 percent completion. Play fast!

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Total War Battles: Shogun [ $6.99 ] is not perfect. Anyone who tells you differently is either lying or particularly forgiving in regards to an absence of visual cues. Nonetheless, while Creative Assembly and Sega’s first attempt to bring their award-winning franchise to the iOS platform is one pockmarked with problems, it doesn’t change the fact that this real-time strategy game remains an excellent addition to the App Store.

Set somewhere in late 16th century Japan, Total War Battles opens to a familiar tune: an overcast sky, one army torching another army’s infrastructure to the ground, a father passing on his final instructions to his son. As the earnest heir, it is your responsibility to seek out those who are responsible for the tragedy that befell your clan and to exterminate them with extreme prejudice.

While hardly the most inspired premise out there, the story works well enough as an excuse to visit slow, well thought-out havoc onto opposing factions. Of course, it kind of helps that the game is also lovely to behold. Though not on par with games like Infinity Blade II, Total War Battles: Shogun still boasts of well-animated military men, excellent weather effects, decent voice acting and a suitably epic soundtrack.

Gameplay in Total War Battles: Shogun consists of you first picking one of the campaign-based missions currently available to you or an EXP stage from the world map. Depending on the nature of the level you’ve selected, you can either expect to be called upon to beat down on a number of units, defeats a certain type of enemy or to participate in a round of city planning.

Yes, you heard me. Should you choose to accept the responsibility, you’ll find yourself taking a break from the rampant warfare to work on stuff like figuring out how to jam eight shrines into a less-than-spacious map. It’s not as easy as it sounds. Buildings here come with their own set of requirements and restrictions. For example, shrines will not permit themselves to be constructed next to the vice-den that is your average trading post but will require the proximity of a lumber mill in order to exist. (No, I have no idea why either).

As for the rest of the game, it’s a little more straightforward. In between assembling the correct assortment of unit-producing buildings and ensuring that they remain in serviceable condition (enemies will do their best to burn them down), you’re going to have to send your army at your foes. Simple, right? There’s a small twist. While you’re capable of manipulating their frontal charge, you will not be able to tell your units to move back. Retreat is impossible for them as they apparently subscribe to the laws of Bushido. Additionally, you’re also going to have to take the fact that your battalions are incapable of turning on a dime and the fact that there’s a cooldown associated with your navigation-related commands into consideration.

Needless to say, this isn’t your average hair-trigger, ‘300 actions-per-minute or bust’ sort of RTS. Forethought is mandatory here. To make matters more interesting, you’ll be able to utilize a certain amount of units at a time, something that can spell life or death. If you throw everything you own into a frontal assault, you may find your home base decimated even as you watch on helplessly. Mistakes aren’t easily forgiven here.

There’s a fairly decent variety of units and buildings, by the way, one augmented by a considerable amount of available upgrades. With more than 10 hours of expected game time, gorgeous aesthetics and half-decent voice acting, Total War Battles: Shogun should represent one of the pinnacles of the iOS-based real-time strategy genre, right? Maybe.

As I’ve mentioned early on, Total War Battles: Shogun is not without its flaws. To be fair, they aren’t big flaws but they’re certainly the sort that can niggle. Units don’t come with health bars and buildings will not provide information about their structural integrity in an easy accessible fashion. There is nary a number to be found; you won’t ever get to figure out precisely how much of a defense boost your monks provide. These issues aren’t exactly game changers but if you’re the sort who likes their statistics, you might find yourself bristling at your inability to accurately calculate the likelihood of a win.

As for the multiplayer, I haven’t had the chance to get someone to sit down to poke at it with me. Unsurprisingly, Total War Battles: Shogun only supports 1vs1 same-device multiplayer, something that is generally best played on the iPad as opposed to its more diminutive cousins.

Still, if you’re willing to overlook the aforementioned issues, Total War Battles: Shogun is a refreshing change from the App Store’s barrage of angry avians, physics-based puzzler and match-3 games.

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Late last year, iOS game developer Two Lives Left released Codea [ $9.99 (HD)]. Originally known as Codify, Codea offered developers everything they needed to rapidly prototype an iPad game… On an actual iPad. Codea has come a long way since then, and today, the first game developed entirely inside of the app has been released.

Cargo-Bot [ Free (HD)] is a puzzle game where players program a robot to move crates around. 36 levels in all are included, there’s a 3 star grading system, and you can even record solutions to upload them to YouTube.

Cargo-Bot is free, and worth a look to see what’s possible inside of Codea. According to the Cargo-Bot site, the Codea Xcode Template used to convert the Codea files into an actual game that can be submitted to Apple will be released soon. Neat!

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Though we generally file match-three titles under the puzzle genre, there isn’t often much that’s puzzling about them. Swap a few gems, watch cascades collapse—all good fun, but not exactly a stimulating mental challenge. Cubis Creatures [$0.99 / Lite] is one of the rare matching games that requires—and rewards—putting on your thinking cap.

Cubis Creatures is based off the popular PC game Cubis. It shares the same fundamentals: an isometric view, a grid of cubes, and loose cubes you shoot into the mix from two of the edges. But Cubis Creatures is entirely its own game, with plenty of great matching and a side of adorable art and cutesy creatures. Not a bad combo, in my books.

If you pick up Cubis Creatures, you’ll get access to four creatures, creatures that must be woken by, err, matching cubes in their mouths. Each one gives you 20 levels to work through, and there are two more critters available for purchase. That’s a hefty chunk of content, but if you manage to burn through it you’ll be happy to know there are also daily score tournaments that are well worth checking out.

Now things get complicated. Cubis Creatures is played on a square grid that has three vertical levels, only the bottom of which you can actively effect. You can slide cubes in from two of the sides, and they’ll continue on until they hit an obstruction. If that obstruction is solid, they’ll stop. If not, they’ll knock it forward a space first. If there happen to be two other cubes of the same color at that location, they’ll match and clear off the screen. If you’re lucky or clever that will set off a chain reaction, a combo (or “cubis”) or more skyrocketing your score.

Each level has two meters: a timer and a cube limit. Hit the latter before the former runs out and you’ll complete the level. But to do things right and claim three stars you’ll need to collect all the star cubes in the level. Suddenly it doesn’t necessarily make sense to make every match, because if you hit the cube limit before collecting all the stars you’ll rake in a lousy score for your efforts. Yeah, that’s right. Strategy time.

There are a lot of ways to manipulate the board, randomly granted as they might be. You can launch bombs that scatter the cubes they don’t blow up. Lasers can take out any single cube, no matter how impenetrable. There are even dual-colored cubes that can (and must) match with both colors before clearing. You’ll need them all, because the level designs get increasingly devilish. Many can be puzzled through, leaving you to pick the right spots to set off the perfect chain reaction. Others require a good dose of brute force.

Cubis Creatures is both smart and fun, making it a worthy successor to the Cubis titles of old. It also fits in nicely amongst its modern peers, with Game Center support, lovely art, and a cheery soundtrack—the whole package when it comes to top-notch presentation. It deserves a look, whether you’re a long-time fan or a first timer. And really, who could say no to such darling creatures?

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A long time ago, in July of 2010 to be exact, a little iPhone game by the name of Prisoner 84 [ $2.99 ] from Hidden Games had me sleeping with a nightlight. See, Prisoner 84 is a 3rd person survival horror game, and despite being on the tiny screen of my phone, it managed to pack in one of the most creepy experiences that I’ve had on any platform.

Now, I don’t want to oversell anything here. At face value, Prisoner 84 is a fairly basic, slow-paced 3rd person action game. It can be completed in just a couple of hours (or longer if you really explore), the various puzzles in the game are pretty straightforward, and the graphics aren’t really anything to write home about.

However, don’t let any of that turn you off. Prisoner 84 absolutely nails one aspect of horror games, and arguably the most important one: atmosphere. Footsteps echo in the otherwise dead silent halls of the cellblock setting. Soft murmurs and growls suddenly sound off in the distance. Gruesome scenes of violence hint that there’s something out there responsible and those who came before you weren’t so lucky. It can be downright chilling.

I could go on and on about how much I love the mood of Prisoner 84, but you can just read all about it in our original review. Really, what I’m more interested in talking about is the substantial update that has just hit this nearly two-year old game. Prisoner 84 launched in 2010, and aside from a maintenance and bug fix update that hit shortly after release, it’s been untouched since. That’s why I was completely blown away to see an update waiting for me in iTunes just the other day.

The game is now Universal and runs at Retina resolution on the iPhone 4 models and the new iPad. Also, on iPads and 4th generation devices additional graphical flourishes and more detailed character models have been included. The original release of Prisoner 84 sported some really blocky characters, and post-update things have really been improved.

It also looks fantastic in Retina resolution, though there are plenty of low-res textures you’ll run into that remind you you’re playing an older game. Still, from where Prisoner 84 was at originally, the difference is night and day thanks to these improvements. (Trailer is from the old version, FYI).

Rounding out the update is multitasking support, an improved user interface, and various gameplay tweaks – all welcome additions. I love when developers spring new updates on their customers, even if a game is years old, and if you missed out on Prisoner 84 before then now would be a great time to check it out. Just keep in mind that it is very slow-paced, and because it’s an older game it’s not quite as cutting edge visually. But if you can appreciate a moody atmosphere that will creep your pants off, then Prisoner 84 is among the best on the App Store.

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As you may know, the App store is drenched with cutesy looking physics puzzlers that all start to look the same after a while. They may seem like overload, but when it comes to the stark difference between them and a game like Crow [$2.99], they simply make it stand out even more than it already does, like a rainbow standing behind a horseman of the apocalypse. Everyone loves their cute time wasters, but watch out with this one, because you’re about to get a distinctly gothic change of pace.

Right out of the gate, Crow has something to it when it comes to atmosphere. The game’s saturated color palette brought up memories of Cyan’s Myst series, which I will take basically any excuse to mention in conversation, gaming-related or otherwise. Suffice to say I felt comforted the moment I fired up Crow. The adventure title puts you in the role of the black winged bird, gliding soundlessly over the skies of a foreign land. You’ll soon learn that a creature called The Scarecrow poses a threat, and it must be cursed by you in order for you to gain its power. If you can vanquish it, other foes will surely follow.

To accomplish this, you’ll play in two separate gameplay sections. In the first, you’ll fly over a patch of land searching for story points and trinkets (the latter which will earn you skill points to buff up your powers).To control the crow, you use your finger to drag it in the direction you want it to fly in. I was not crazy about the controls as I felt like my finger was in the way of the action more than half the time, but I adjusted to it as I found the world very interesting. Once I had collected enough story points, I had the opportunity to challenge The Scarecrow, which takes you to the game’s second mode.

In these boss fights, you fly around with your foe on rails and choose certain options, such as to scratch it with your claws or to shield yourself. Each foe will react to different types of tactics, but the most interesting part of this battle comes at the end, where the player is given a choice to “curse” or “spare” the opponent. Each choice affects what direction the crow develops in, and he can end up very good or very bad. This will also affect your scores after you finish the game.

Crow also has leaderboards and achievements for you to play with, and you can also unlock Challenge Levels using your current skill set (based on what part of the game you are in). These take you back to the on rails gameplay and have you basically collect stuff and rack up points.

Crow’s good looks have to be shook off a bit before you can reasonably decide whether it is fun — because it is VERY pretty. It also feels like a flying version of Infinity Blade at times. I’d say the attractive atmosphere and music buff down the fact that it could have used more fine tuning. The missions where you collect trinkets feel a little boring, for instance, but I really enjoyed the on-rails fights. With a game that presents such a rich-looking world, it almost felt weird to be merely collecting things in it — I wanted to learn more about it, but I wasn’t really given the opportunity.

I think it’s safe to say Crow is a mixed bag, but is still worth picking up because it so much uniqueness to offer. Because it does look so stellar, you can’t help but wish those little design flaws (like trading a d-pad for your finger being in the middle of the screen at all times) weren’t there. Still, developer Sunside shows that their in-house platform (called Radiance) has guts, and I can’t help but wonder what they’ll do with it from here on out.

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I’ll be the first to admit, when the discussion first started on giving Zach Gage’s SpellTower [ $0.99 ] five stars in our review last year, I distinctly remember raising an eyebrow and saying, “Guys, it’s a word game.” Truth be told, until then I hadn’t spent much time with SpellTower, but once I did… I was hooked. So hooked that this simple looking word game wound up as an honorable mention for our game of the year.

Nissa explains what the game is all about:

SpellTower isn’t bogged down with complicated rules or conditional abilities. The tutorial is only a handful of screens expressing a handful of simple rules. You can make a word as long as it’s in the game’s dictionary and it’s at least three letters long. Words that are five letters or longer clear letters all around them. You can’t make the same word twice, and if a letter has a number on it, it needs to be used in a word of at least that length. Finally, uncommon letters like Z, J, Q and X clear their rows if they’re used in a word.

Those rules will carry you through SpellTower’s four game modes, which change up how the board is presented. Tower mode gives you 150 letters to earn the best score you can. Puzzle mode adds a row to the board each time you make a word, and if any column hits the top your game will end. Extreme Puzzle mode follows the same rules, but requires longer words faster and more often. Rush mode adds new rows over time, putting you on the clock.

A fifth game mode was added in a recent update, introducing local multiplayer. It shouldn’t be much of a surprise, but, spoilers, it’s even more fun than just playing SpellTower by your lonesome. This update has also revitalized my love for this game, and I’ve spent the past week absolutely engrossed in SpellTower.

Since the update landed, SpellTower has been rocketing up the iPad charts, and to attempt to push the game over the edge and take on Angry Birds and Draw Something, its price is being slashed to 99¢. If you’re even vaguely interested in word games, you need to pick up SpellTower. Heck, if your mom has an iPhone, tell her to get SpellTower, I bet she’d love it, and maybe love you a little more in the process for recommending an awesome video game.

Tell her TouchArcade sent you.

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