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Firemint just announced their first brand new title since the launch of Real Racing and Flight Control.

Play as Agent Squeek, the dashing and debonair undercover mouse. Outsmart ferocious felines and crack fiendish challenges! Sneak, sprint and strategize in your quest to save every precious piece of missing cheese.

Firemint is an Australian game company that has seen a massive amount of success for the iOS platform. They made headlines early in the life of the App Store with their ambitious Real Racing title. But even before Real Racing ever launched, they saw the surprise success of Flight Control which kicked of the entire "line drawing" genre for iOS.

We know there's been a lot of pressure to see what their next original game would be, given the success of their previous titles. We'll have some hands on time with Agent Squeek later this week at GDC 2011. In the meanwhile, they've set up a Facebook Page for the upcoming game.

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This past week Bravo Games, who brought us Touch Racing Nitro, released Volcano Escape [App Store], a game that combines elements of several different genres to create what's best described as an "endless platformer" title.

As the game starts off, you choose one of six different characters to play, some of whom are locked initially, and one who is a $0.99 download as he sports five lives (two extra). And then that character is pitched into an active volcano. Luckily, the volcano in question is arrayed with platforms the whole way down. You land on the bottom platform, just above a pool of lava, but there's no time to gather your wits — the lava is rising. The task at hand is to flee the molten menace by escaping upwards, jumping from platform to platform as nimbly as possible.

Complicating your flight are various tiki men and monsters that you must avoid or kill, and in the higher reaches of the volcano you'll need to use their blasted corpses as floating platforms to continue your ascent. Luckily there are various weapons and power-ups such as spring-loaded boots and even rocket packs to help you along the way — but watch out, some of the items you'll find can do you harm.

One might assume that the driven ascent mechanic would require small, simplistic platform arrangements. And, if the developer's goal were to create a relatively easy game, it would. But Volcano Escape is definitely not an easy game, but one requiring serious skill to rank on the online leaderboard. A significant portion of the challenge in the game is due to the elaborate platform arrangements and the various types of platforms you'll encounter. In addition to nice, solid slabs of stone, you'll find rocks that crumble, hinged surfaces, slabs of fire, and even bear traps. These you must quickly identify and negotiate, all while the searing lava rises to meet you. And, as mentioned previously, at times there are sections without platforms that must be traversed with the help of corpses bobbing in the lava. It's a daunting scenario, but at least you can double-jump and wall-jump like Mario. A nice touch is the random presentation of one of a few different platform arrangements when a new game is started, which helps to avoid monotony.

Volcano Escape borrows — and borrows well — from a number of games I can point to. Like Doodle Jump and its ilk, you are bound endlessly upward, but along the way you have to tap into your basic platformer skills. Unlike the typical endless jumping game, however, you set your own pace of ascent with the encroaching lava as a motivator, similar to the use of fluids in games like Flood and The Killing Game Show / Fatal Rewind.

I found the game highly challenging and extremely difficult to put down in the (many) hours I've spent with it over the last few days. But, in that time, I've identified a few areas that could use some improvement. One issue that is more noticeable as you're just getting a feel for the game is the onscreen control placement. There are two D-pads in the lower corners of the screen, one for movement and one for aiming / firing. (The controls can be rendered invisible in the options screen.) The jump button is positioned on the right edge of the screen, about 60% of the way up towards the top, and that placement, initially at least, feels a bit awkward. An alternate control layout or, better, the ability to customize the control layout would be nice to see in an update.

The "2.5D" graphics in Volcano Escape look downright gorgeous on my iPhone 4's Retina display, with all sorts of nice environmental effects like falling rocks and background tremors. But, perhaps due to its lavish scenery, the game suffers from frequent framerate studders on that device. In my experience, it doesn't significantly get in the way of gameplay, but it is an annoyance, and is something I've heard echoed by folks in our forums.

Volcano Escape really does have a whole lot to offer. Its combination of play mechanics from various genres is beautifully executed, its challenge is immense, and it's got just a whole lot of personality. There are a few issues that I hope will be addressed in a future update but, even so, I'd be quick to recommend Volcano Escape as a "don't miss" title to any iPhone gamer that enjoys a steep challenge.

Disclaimer: Bravo Games is a current advertiser on this site. While we firmly believe this does not influence in any way our review or coverage of the company and their titles, you should be aware.

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Last month we reviewed Mad Skills Motocross [99¢], a fast-paced 2D side-scrolling motocross racing game. We enjoyed the title quite a bit as it had sharp graphics, plenty of different tracks, a nice online challenge system through OpenFeint, and above all else a stellar physics system. One problem many players commented on though was the immense difficulty of completing the single player campaign. The game started out simple enough as it eased you into the gameplay mechanics, but about a third of the way through the career mode the difficulty ramped up pretty quickly, and due to the requirement of completing every race in a division before unlocking a new division many players found themselves unable to progress.

Developer Turborilla heard these cries for help, and have rushed in to save the day with the latest update to Mad Skills Motocross. There is now an Amateur difficulty setting in the options that offers an easier AI opponent to race against, and your bike can withstand more damage before breaking as well. If you liked the original difficulty don’t worry, as the Pro option keeps things the same as they were before. Also, a previous update made it so you only needed to beat all but 2 of the races in a division to unlock the next, thus making it easier to move on if you got stuck on a particularly hard race.

Besides these difficulty tweaks, Turborilla has added an interesting new feature that adds to the competitive nature of Mad Skills Motocross. Before, you could set a time on a race and then send off a challenge to one of your OpenFeint friends for them to try and beat. Now, you can actually choose any of the scores on the leaderboards and take a crack at beating that person’s ghost. Or you can simply watch the replay of how that score was attained, possibly gleaning some tips from how they completed the course. This new functionality is a really nice addition to such a score-focused game, and it makes competing with the best players in the world more accessible to everyone.

I liked Mad Skills Motocross before, but I do admit I had my fair share of moments where I felt like throwing my iPhone across the room due to the difficulty. The new Amateur mode makes things significantly easier, and consequently more fun, and the Pro mode is still there for when I feel ready to take on that challenge. The new ability to challenge ghosts from the leaderboards adds a whole new layer of competitiveness to the game, and I even enjoy just watching some of the top times and marveling at the skill of those elite players. With these past two updates, Mad Skills Motocross has easily become my favorite racing game of this kind, and if you haven’t checked it out yet now is the perfect time as it’s currently on sale for just 99¢ for a limited time.

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NewFX Games just announced their upcoming title Mad Wheels, published by Chillingo. Details are a little vague right now, but the game basically seems like a top-down racing-centric version of the classic game Twisted Metal for various Sony consoles. What we do know is there will be multiple cars, each with their own super power, and tracks will have various power-ups that can be used. There will be 5 distinct environments, online leaderboards, and WiFi multiplayer.

Take a look at the trailer:

The developers have yet to discuss release dates, but they've mentioned the current state of the game:

At this moment in time the core game engine is almost complete, but there is still a lot of work left. We're experimenting with some features, polishing the gameplay and doing our best to make sure you will get the most of your playing experience!

I can't wait to give it a try, whenever it's released. In the meantime, the best place to find information on the state of this game seems to be on our forums where the developers are actively posting.

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OK. So, SEGA is following suit with the other big publishers on the App Store and is now holding its own personal deal-a-thon. Now, until whenever, you can grab around 16 different SEGA games for 80 percent off the usual price or just 99 cents. And we’re not just talking about the pub’s stable of lackluster Genesis ports getting the cut here; those games are part of the deal, for sure, but there’s also a few native gems mixed in.

There are too many games to do a meaningful breakdown with, but here’s a list of what’s being offered and the prices of each:

Altered Beast — $.99
Chu Chu Rocket! – $.99
Ecco The Dolphin — $.99
Golden Axe — $.99
Gunstar Heroes — $.99
Phantasy Star II — $.99
SEGA Columns Deluxe — $.99
Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master — $.99
Shining Force — $.99
Sonic The Hedgehog — $2.99
Sonic The Hedgehog 2 — $2.99
Sonic The Hedgehog 4 — $2.99
Sonic Spinball — $.99
Streets of Rage — $.99
Super Monkey Ball — $.99
Super Monkey Ball 2 — $.99
Space Harrier — $.99
Virtua Fighter 2 – $.99

Not bad, eh? At this point, I’m not sure if we should say that the entire App Store is up for grabs, but it’s getting close as all these publishers start racing to the bottom. Who knew that Valentine’s Day would be giving us so much this year, eh?

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After seeing a ton of success with their massive holiday 99¢ sale, the folks at EA Mobile are once again going on a discount binge. While not quite as extensive as that previous sale, a number of EA titles have temporarily dropped to 99¢ as part of an "I  ♥ 99¢ Sales" sale. Check out the following list of discounted games which are directly linked to the App Store:

iPhone/iPod touch games:

• Battlefield: Bad Company 2
• Mirror’s Edge
• Tetris
• SimCity Deluxe
• Pictureka!
• The Simpsons Arcade

• Need For Speed Hot Pursuit
• Need For Speed Undercover
• Need For Speed Shift

• The Sims 3
• The Sims 3 World Adventures
• The Sims 3 Ambitions

• Monopoly
• Monopoly Here & Now: The World Edition
• Scrabble
• Risk: The Official Game
• The Game of Life Classic Edition

• FIFA 11
• FIFA 10
• NBA Elite 11
• NCAA Football
• Madden NFL 11

iPad games:

• Reckless Racing HD
• Pictureka! for iPad
• Snood for iPad
• Yahtzee HD
• Clue: Secrets & Spies

The sale is said to run for 48 hours, so make sure and grab whatever you like while it's currently discounted. We'll keep our eyes on AppShopper.com to see if any new titles are added to this sale, as several new games were added to the sale just as I've been working on this post. Also, there's still a load of EA titles that are still 99¢ from their last big sale, so it may be worth rummaging through their catalog to see if there's anything you may have missed.

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Call me crazy, but I really want a Real Racing 2 [$4.99] update subtitled “Real Harder.” It would include new animations, tweaked drifting physics, and exciting dashboard options like, say, the choice between tape decks or CD players. But in the real world, where stupid stuff like my fantasy patch never happens, this latest Real Racing 2 update will do, as it includes six new events, leaderboards and rankings, and cool multiplayer tweaks.

Let’s dive in. On the online front, Firemint notes that the update is putting the breaks on unsavory drivers by dropping in “new measures” to prevent idiocy. Also, the servers have been given some sort of spit and shine which should lead to better performance.

Of course, because of the new rankings, two changes have been made: now your starting position will be based on your rank, and more importantly, lobbies will show your rank and point rewards as you earn them.

As for those new events, here’s what you’ll get:

• IEJ Blue Ribbon (Cup)
• Alkeisha Island Dash (Head to Head)
• Volvo STCC Elimination (Elimination)
• NRGee 6 Cyl Cup (Cup)
• Motul Autech Face-off (Head to Head)
• Twilight Time Attack (Time Trial)

That’s a lot of content, eh? Wait — I got a name for this update: “Drive Free or Event Hard.” Not bad, right? I should get a job. Marketers, you got my number. Give me a call sometime. I’m full of this.

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Just a quick heads up that my current favorite obsession Disc Drivin’ is having a 99¢ sale this weekend. Disc Drivin’ is a turn-based racing game that we reviewed back in December that uses an asynchronous online system to allow racing with people all over the world at your leisure. Take your turn, then the game sends that data along to the other players in the race, and when it’s time for your turn again a simple push notification lets you know.

It works wonderfully well, and just a few days ago we detailed the past updates for Disc Drivin’ which included random online matchmaking in the latest one. Players have also been discussing the game and trading usernames in the game’s official thread and the dedicated username swapping thread.

There has always been a fully-featured ad-supported version of Disc Drivin’ available, and the ad-free version usually sells for $2.99. If you’re one of those people who have been enjoying the ad-supported version but didn’t quite feel like ponying up the 3 bucks to upgrade, now’s your chance to do so for just 99¢. If you haven’t yet tried Disc Drivin’ then give the free version a spin, and if you like what you see make sure to grab the full version for a dollar before it jumps back up in price after the weekend is over.

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