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Matt Rix's Trainyard [99¢ / Free] has actually been available on the App Store for quite a while now, but it wasn't until the recent Retina Display update that it popped up on my radar. Trainyard is a puzzle game which, as the title hints, involves routing trains around.

The games begin with a long tutorial (almost too long) that goes over all the basics of the game. In a nutshell, everything takes place on a 7×7 grid which begins filled with two or more train stations, one that the train comes from and one that the train needs to go to. Initially routing these trains around only involves drawing track between each color coordinated station, but before long you'll be routing multiple colored trains from the same originating stations through various switched pieces of tracks to several different stations. Some puzzles even involve combining trains. For example, one of the levels has a red and blue origin station and a purple destination station. On this puzzle, you need to lay track so the trains collide (oddly enough making one purple train instead of crashing), then send it to the purple station.

All of the elements of Trainyard go together very well, and the variety of the different included puzzles is impressive. What I like most about it though is that unlike a lot of puzzle games where there is usually only one solution (or a slightly more difficult solution to collect whatever bonuses some games have), many Trainyard levels have hundreds. I know this because of yet another clever feature in the game that allows you to submit your solution to an online solution database that shows all the unique solutions to each of the levels that have been submitted. This is useful not only if you're stuck, but also if you beat a level and want to see if someone did it more efficiently (or in some cases, much more convoluted).

Trainyard is currently the target of a limited time 99¢ sale, and I really recommend picking up the game if you've been looking for another great puzzler to sink some time in to. Unlike many train routing games, Trainyard doesn't require fast reactions at all, making it perfect for even the most casual gamers. Also, if you're interested in a behind the scenes look at what went in to Trainyard Matt posted an incredibly comprehensive blog post on his adventures in game development that's also worth checking out.

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Hexage has been responsible for a number of cool iPhone games including the puzzler Totemo [99¢ / HD] which we enjoyed quite a bit in our review and Radiant [99¢ / HD]. We've got some details on their next title, EVAC, and I really can't wait to give it a try.

EVAC is a maze game that incorporates elements from several genres. You play as a bright pink square set in a Pac Man-like maze filled with aggressive red squares that will stop at nothing to pursue you through it. From the sounds of it, levels can be completed in a number of different ways– from playing stealthily and avoiding the red squares entirely, trapping them, flat out destroying them, or using other tactics. Online leaderboards are included, and the game is coming loaded with a soundtrack of electronic music by Kubatko.

The trailer looks awesome:

If all goes as planned, EVAC will be released sometime next month. I really like the art style of the game, and really look forward to playing it.

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So it started off like this, over at ControllerOrBust.com:

Alright, this is ridiculous. The iPhone was introduced over three years ago and there still isn't a game controller peripheral available to the masses. I've seen several prototypes that have kicked around the internet for some time now, but nobody has stepped up to the plate and actually delivered. You know the old saying, "If you want something done right you've gotta do it yourself?" Well, I'm going to follow that wisdom and do it myself. Well, not entirely myself, which is why I'm soliciting the help of the entire iPhone 4 community. I know there are many out there who've wished for an iPhone gaming controller and have a piece of the production process puzzle necessary to create one, but need the rest of the pieces. I'm suggesting that we band together and create a group of talented individuals who can make an iPhone 4 game controller a reality.

Benjamin Morrise got tired of waiting and began seeking assistance from various capable types to form a production team to build the iPhone controller accessory we've all (well, some of us anyway) been waiting for. The team he hopes to assemble consists of an Industrial Designer, a Mechanical Engineer, an Electrical Engineer, and a Software Engineer. The hope is for them to come together and build a controller for the gaming masses.

And it will look a little something like this:

Morisse hopes to secure funding through Kickstarter.com, to whom I'll let Rocket Boom introduce you. It's a project that definitely sounds good to us. Let's hope that Morisse meets his goal, and that other such controller projects see the light of day, as well.

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Yesterday we made a post listing several titles that have gone on sale for a limited time. We wanted to pass along a heads-up on a few more sales and price drops for titles we think readers may enjoy.

Soosiz, Free Ahh, Soosiz. [ review ] Touch Foo's rotational 2D platformer is one of our very favorite iPhone games, and is one of the first titles to which we gave a five-star rating. Soosiz is a stylized cartoonish platformer that challenges your brain to keep up with all of its twists, turns, and inversions. It's incredibly well executed with excellent controls, has a ton of content and is a lot of fun. And it's free this weekend (regularly $1.99). There's no excuse for missing this one.

Need For Speed™ Undercover, $1.99 [ review ] Electronic Arts' Need for Speed Undercover (down from $4.99 for a limited time) is the studio's first iPhone release in their long-running racer series. It's a mission-based racer (as opposed to the "'round the track" variety) that puts you in the role of an undercover wheel man infiltrating a series of street racer / chop-shop gangs to try and bust an auto theft ring wide open. It's a very well-done title that, at the time of its release, was perhaps the most visually impressive game on the platform.

ROCK BAND, $4.99 [ review ] EA's Rock Band, which recently hit the 2000 downloadable song mark, is one of the most immersive rhythm games in the App Store. The game sets you behind a guitar, bass, or drum kit, or lets you take the lead vocals in playing through any of the myriad songs available through its in-game song store. The game features 32 free songs and offers Facebook integration to help jam with your friends. Rock Band is, for a limited time, down from $6.99.

Rogue Touch, $0.99 [ review ] ChronoSoft's Rogue Touch (normally $2.99) is an iPhone adaptation of Rogue, the classic dungeon crawler that dates back to 1980. It's highly faithful to the feel and mechanics of the well-loved early platform releases, but has expanded the game nicely. It's my personal favorite iPhone dungeon crawler and is one of our long-time favorites here at Touch Arcade.

Worms HD, $2.99 [ review (iPhone ver) ] First there was Worms for the iPhone [ link ], then came Worms HD for the iPad. Well, actually, first there was the Worms for the Amiga, which Team 17 released back in 1995. Whichever way you look at it, it's classic turn-based artillery action in the Scorched Earth vein. And the iPad version has been reduced in price, from $4.99.

2XL TROPHYLITE Rally, $0.99 [ post ] 2XL Games' 2XL TROPHYLITE Rally (down from $4.99) is a highly impressive looking desert rally racer featuring 15 different races, WiFi and Bluetooth multiplayer, multiple vehicle views, five control schemes, and leaderboards. The iPad version has also been reduced in price ( $7.99 down to $.99 ).

Enigmo, $0.99 Pangea is running a sale on all of its multiplayer titles, physics puzzler Enigmo (down from $2.99) being one of the three games affected. Starting its life as a Mac game, Enigmo is a physics puzzle game that was voted Best iPhone Game at WWDC in 2008. In the game you move various objects around the game board to direct water droplets to their destination. Levels start easy and get so hard you will be desperately searching Google for the solution.

Nanosaur 2, $0.99 Another Pangea multiplayer title on sale is Nanosaur 2 (down from $2.99). Also starting as a Mac game, Nanosaur 2 was ported to the iPhone in late 2008. It hasn’t aged very well compared to Pangea’s other games, but the premise of piloting a massive dinosaur from the future who is equipped with a massive arsenal of weaponry couldn’t get much more ridiculous and/or awesome.

Cro-Mag Rally, $0.99 [ review ] One of the early iPhone cart racers, Pangea's Cro-Mag Rally (down from $2.99) won the 2008 Best App Ever Award for Best Racing Game. Cro-Mag Rally puts you behind the wheel of a caveman's cart in a bid to cross the finish line first through nine different race tracks, using 11 different vehicles with nine types of power-ups there to help you. The multiplayer system was recently entirely rewritten to ease the auto-matching game process.

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Telltale Games' Puzzle Agent [99¢ / HD] had an update hit the App Store mere moments ago that fixed the graphical issues we mentioned in our review. The graphics seem to be substantially improved, but this all comes at a cost- If you had any kind of save game data from playing the game previously, you will not be able to load it. After you update, when you try to load your saved game you're greeted with a game-ending black screen.

Puzzle Agent for the iPhone is still on sale for 99¢, and if you've yet to give it a try, this is a great time to download it now that our only issue with the game was fixed. (And as a new player not loading save game data from the previous version won't have any effect on you.) Puzzle Agent is a great mixture of Professor Layton-like puzzles and point and click adventuring. Check out our review for more information.

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Zepto Labs' Cut the Rope [99¢] is one of those games that you could tell was going to be something special just by the preview trailer. Much like their previous game, Parachute Ninja [99¢ / Free], Cut the Rope takes a simple and popular gameplay mechanic (in this case, swiping to slice) and turns it in to a game that's almost impossible to put down.

Cut the Rope begins with a brief cut scene showing a mysterious package left at your door with a label on it that clearly reads "feed with candy." Inside you find a hungry green creature known as "Om Nom" who has an insatiable desire for candy… which oddly enough is suspended inside of his box with an odd array of ropes. Feeding Om Nom through the 100 included levels is a task that is easier said than done once you get past the tutorial portion of the game– especially if you're looking to clear each level with three stars.

The above trailer does a fantastic job of showing just what is involved in feeding hungry little Om Nom. Basically, each level begins with a dangling piece of candy and our little green friend somewhere onscreen. Initially, all you need to do is figure out which strings to cut in what order to swing the piece of candy in to Om Nom's mouth. Before long, you'll need to be using multitouch gestures to cut multiple strings at once, juggle the candy with bubbles, avoid spikes, spiders, and electricity, and many other things.

Like many other puzzle games on the App Store, Cut the Rope has a star system for grading your performance on each level. A single star is easy enough to get, as once you figure out the solution to a level, executing it usually isn't too difficult once you get the hang of how the physics work. Getting two or three stars involves clearing levels while collecting all of the stars that appear, which often requires tricky acrobatics or carefully timed cuts to swing the candy in to stars outside of the normal path to Om Nom's mouth. Shooting for three stars seems to take many attempts at the same level, a process made much more enjoyable by an on-screen button to instantly start a level over.

Cut the Rope comes with both Chillingo's Crystal and Game Center support for online leaderboards and achievement tracking, and according to Chillingo in the Cut the Rope thread on our forums, more levels are on the way soon. You really have to get pretty nitpicky to find things to not like about Cut the Rope, but two things I'd love to see implemented in the future are both Retina Display support and multiple game save profiles to allow multiple people to play on one device. (Currently the only game save option the game has is to flat out delete all of your progress.)

If you've found yourself taking a liking to the various slicing games that have taken the App Store by storm, this isn't one you want to miss. Cut the Rope has everything a good puzzle game needs from a technical standpoint, a lovable mascot, and enough things to do between farming stars and achievements to keep any fan of puzzle games busy for quite a while.

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The popular PC and console puzzle game Peggle [99¢] was released in the App Store way back in May of 2009. Curiously, Peggle came without the background music found in other versions of the game, with developer PopCap promising that it was in the works and would be released in a future update. Many months passed without any news of music being added to the game, and it seemed that it would never come. Then this past June, more than a year after Peggle's App Store release, PopCap shocked everybody by nonchalantly releasing the long-promised background music update for the game.

Earlier tonight, PopCap once again released a surprise update to Peggle. This new update adds the entire sequel Peggle Nights to the original Peggle as an in-app purchase for $2.99. There are 6 demo levels for you to try before you buy, and the full Peggle Nights upgrade features 60 new levels across four game modes, with new challenges and trophies to earn. This video from YouTube shows some gameplay excerpts from the PC version of Peggle Nights:

Ever since the release of Peggle, people have wondered if Peggle Nights would also be coming to iOS platforms, but I don't think anyone ever imagined it would come as an in-app purchase to the original game. If you've played Peggle to death on your iOS device and are craving more, then make sure and grab the latest update and buy the Peggle Nights add-on for $2.99. If you don't already own Peggle, now is a great time to pick it up as it's currently still on sale for 99¢.

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A couple of weeks ago we took an exclusive hands-on look at the puzzle platformer GravBot [Free] from Team Phobic, the developer responsible for games like Bounce On [$1.99/Lite], Bounce On 2: Drallo's Demise [$3.99/Lite], and Tunnel Shoot [99¢]. Earlier tonight, the game went live in the US App Store. GravBot is free to download and initially comes with 12 levels. These levels ease you into the game mechanics and give you a great taste of what GravBot has to offer. If you like what's contained in this glorified demo, then there are two additional level packs available as in-app purchase. Each of these level packs contains 20 increasingly difficult levels, and are 99¢ apiece. Here is an excerpt from our hands-on preview talking about the gameplay in GravBot:

In GravBot, you'll play as a tiny robot who must collect all of the batteries on each perilous level. In order to accomplish this, you can spin the entire level either 90 degrees left or right or entirely upside down to change the direction of gravity. Your robot can travel left and right on its single tire, and will fall towards whichever way happens to be down at the time. Levels are filled with hazards like spikes, enemies, and lasers which will kill instantly if not avoided. The batteries can be tricky to get to, and a color-coded system of trapdoors, elevators, and various other obstacles will need to be triggered by switching a lever or pushing blocks onto buttons – all in the name of snagging every last battery on a given level.

While just completing each level is sufficiently challenging and fun, the real hook toGravBot is trying to obtain gold medals for each one. The game keeps track of how many times you switched gravity to complete a level, with bronze/silver/gold medals awarded for using it efficiently. What is really satisfying is when you figure out a way to win gold using fewer gravity switches than is required. Due to the physics engine in the game, you can sometimes make it to a hard to reach area without changing the gravity and instead gliding through the air or just barely catching the edge of a platform and hanging on.

There's really not anything I don't like about GravBot, and it has become one of my most favorite puzzle games that I've played on the iPhone. The graphical style is cute, with support for Retina Display, and the GravBot robot exudes a ton of personality in the game. The levels are all really cleverly designed, and there's a tremendous amount of replay value going back to each one and trying to complete it in the most efficient way possible, earning medals and competing on the Plus+ leaderboards as you go. There's no risk in downloading the game for free and trying out the initial 12 levels, and the IAP level packs offer a great value for money if you're looking for more. In fact, I would love to see some additional level packs released down the line sometime. Players in our forums are enjoying the game as well, and it appears that the talented folks at Team Phobic have another hit on their hands with GravBot.

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We're not sure what has possessed the publishers of dozens of amazing iPhone games to decide that tonight was the night to hold a massive sale — but it's happened. And you can benefit from it.

A huge number of high profile games have dropped in price to all time lows. The number of high quality games you can pick up for $0.99 right now is amazing. We hand picked a few to highlight here, but below we've listed dozens more. Every game on this list is worth the sale price, so now's your chance.

A few notable games dropping to $0.99 include:

Osmos, $0.99 Osmos was originally released in late August of 2009 for the PC, and went on to win numerous awards. The multi-touch controls work wonderfully on the platform and it’s a natural fit for the iPhone. We highly recommend picking this one up. Review

Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor, $0.99 We choose Tiger Style Games’ Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor for our 2009 Game of the Year. Spider is an original concept built specifically for the iPhone by a small self funded team. Review

2K Sports NHL 2K11, $0.99 It wouldn’t be hard for NHL 2K11 to claim the title of best ice hockey game on the iPhone, since the competition is sorely lacking. But it surprisingly goes above and beyond and offers a truly full-fledged NHL experience on a mobile platform. Review

Archetype, $0.99 Archetype delivers one of the most robust, beautiful, and most importantly fun first person shooter (FPS) experiences that can be had on the iPhone. Review

Here's the rest of the list, grouped by price. Unfortunately, this appears to be an iPhone / iPod Touch phenomenon mostly. Only two games (marked below) are iPad native.

$0.99

• Civilization Revolution ($6.99 -> $0.99)
• Soccer Superstars ($2.99 -> $0.99)
• 9 Innings: Pro Baseball 2011 ($4.99 -> $0.99)
• Baseball Superstars 2010 ($2.99 -> $0.99)
• Need for Speed Shift ($6.99 -> $0.99)
• Bookworm ($2.99 -> $0.99)
• Geometry Wars: Touch ($4.99 -> $0.99) Universal
• Puzzle Agent ($4.99 -> $0.99)
• Monkey Island 2 Special Edition ($2.99 -> $0.99)
• The Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition ($2.99 -> $0.99)
• Doom II RPG ($3.99 -> $0.99)
• Assassin's Creed II ($5.99 -> $0.99)
• Zombie Infection ($2.99 -> $0.99)
• Peggle ($2.99 -> $0.99)

$1.99

• Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 2 ($4.99 -> $1.99)
• Risk: The official Game ($4.99 -> $1.99)
• Hybrid 2: Saga of Nostalgia ($4.99 -> $1.99)
• Zenonia 2 ($4.99 -> $1.99)
• Castlevania Puzzle: Encore of the Night ($4.99 -> $1.99)
• Mirror's Edge ($4.99 -> $1.99)
• ACE Combat Xi: Skies of Incursion ($4.99 -> $1.99)
• Myst ($4.99 -> $1.99)
• Doom Resurrection ($6.99 -> $1.99)
• Sonic the Hedgehog 2 ($5.99 -> $1.99)
• Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 ($4.99 -> $1.99)
• NCAA Football by EA Sports ($4.99 -> $1.99)
• Command & Conquer Red Alert ($4.99 -> $1.99)

$2.99+

• NFL 2011 ($4.99 -> $2.99)
• Real Racing ($4.99 -> $2.99)
• Call of Duty Zombies ($9.99 -> $4.99)
• Call of Duty Zomies HD ($9.99 -> $4.99) iPad Only
• FIFA 10 by EA Sports ($6.99 -> $4.99)

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Last month, Handmark released the 3D object manipulation puzzler Blaze: Fire Puzzle for both the iPhone [link] and the iPad [link]. We didn't cover the title at the time, but I've spent a good bit of time with the title this weekend and have had a pretty good time of it.

The first thing you might notice upon seeing our gameplay video or trying your hand at the title is its similarity to Zen Bound. Indeed, the game is basically Zen Bound, but with fire and candles instead of a paint-soaked rope (and classical tunes instead of ambient audioscapes accentuated with plucks of the koto). It's a definite derivative title, but given the ridiculous amount of time I've played the Zen Bounds, it's an interesting variation on what's undisputedly Secret Exit's formula.

Blaze takes you through 45 different candle-adorned 3D objects with the objective of lighting every single candle — and fast. This is done by way of touch controls — one finger to twist, two fingers to rotate — just like Zen Bound or, in the case of the iPhone 4, using the integrated gyroscope if you choose. (I recommend not choosing, though — it's a far inferior method of manipulation as compared to straight-up touch.) You start off with but one of the many candles on your object lit. From there, the goal is to manipulate the object such that all candles become lit, with a gold medal achieved for completing the task in a stated (and short) number of seconds. The physics of fire-lights-what's-above is an interesting twist (ugh…) on the Zen Bound formula.

The iPhone version of Blaze utilizes the Retina display for high resolution rendering, while the iPad version takes full advantage of its screen real estate. Both versions feature social networking integration with OpenFeint, Twitter, and Facebook.

So, if you're a seasoned Zen Bound veteran, is this game for you? I consider myself a member of that camp and have had a great time with Blaze. If you're all wet behind the ears and have clocked zero time behind either title…and have to choose just one, I would probably urge you towards Zen Bound, as it feels a bit more polished, more refined — but the enjoyability of both titles is quite similar.

Anyone on the fence can try out the limited, free version of the game for both devices:

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