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Arguably the biggest addition to this year’s version of the iPad (or at least, the most immediately noticeable one) is the inclusion of a Retina Display screen that ups the resolution to a monstrous 2048 x 1536. As anybody who has upgraded from an older device to an iPhone 4 or an iPhone 4S, you know that the Retina Display screen is a stunning upgrade in person and makes all other mobile device screens look inferior in comparison. Such is the case with the new iPad’s fancy screen, it really needs to be seen to be believed.

For anybody upgrading to a new iPad today, or if this is your first foray into the world of the iPad, then chances are you’re interested in having the games that can show off the new screen as you gloat to your friends. Here we’ve compiled a list of games that have been updated for the iPad Retina Display:

• Infinity Blade II, $6.99
• Sky Gamblers: Air Supremacy, $4.99
• Galaxy on Fire 2 HD, $9.99
• Mass Effect Infiltrator, $6.99
• Flight Control Rocket, 99¢
• Real Racing 2 HD, $2.99
• Foosball HD, $2.99
• Touchgrind BMX, $4.99
• Labyrinth 2 HD, $7.99 / Lite Version
• Joining Hands, $2.99
• Woodroid HD+, Free
• Letris Power, Free
• Monsters Ate My Condo, 99¢
• Save the Pencil HD, 99¢ / Lite Version
• Tractor Beam, 99¢
• FMX Riders, $2.99
• Lab Solitaire, 99¢
• Parlour Solitaire, Free

There is a thread in our forums that’s constantly being updated keeping track of compatible games or ones that will be compatible soon. If you’re a developer with an iPad Retina Display update coming out, make sure to post it in that thread or post in the comments below and we’ll try to keep that thread as well as this article updated as new games hit. Also, Apple is currently featuring a selection of games and apps in the App Store that are new iPad ready.

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Lately it feels like racing titles on iOS place a greater emphasis on realism (whether in visuals or controls) and less on simple, enjoyable gameplay. Retro Racing [$0.99] looks to rectify that with an emphasis on fun, fast gameplay that sacrifices depth for arcade basics. While Retro Racing suffers from being way too short, the experience it does offer does a good job taking you back to the days of classic top-down arcade racers.

As its name implies, Retro Racing harkens back to the old days of top-down pixelated racers. Each track is chock-full of turns, obstacles, and (most importantly) power-ups. Power-ups range from tires (which improve turning), to acceleration and top speed upgrades, to the standard nitro boost. While the goal of each track is to finish in third place or better in order to advance, you’ll find that later tracks essentially require you to focus on power-up collection (while navigating the tracks flawlessly) in order to have a chance at advancement. It plays like a simpler version of old-school console racers such as R.C. Pro-Am.

In this regard, I’m a fan of the gameplay in Retro Racing. There aren’t any deep elements such as a cash or parts system, but it does a good job recreating the classic racer experience, particularly with the limited randomness of the power-up system. The gameplay is fast and the controls are responsive, although they’re not exactly the easiest to maneuver with its limited schemes. Retro Racing is a portrait-only game which makes playing on an iPhone feel incredibly cramped, though it feels just fine on an iPad. It’s baffling that there isn’t support for playing in landscape mode, but hopefully that option can come in an update someday.

Another nice touch that Retro Racing offers is split screen same device multiplayer on the iPad. While I found the experience decent enough for the local play it offers, it’s (obviously) of limited use for gamers that primarily play with others via the internet. Still, it’s better than not including it at all.

Retro Racing comes with full leaderboard support. However, you’ll quickly find that in order to compete on the leaderboards, you’ll have to purchase the extra vehicles with increased stats (the game has three default cars with various attributes plus three souped up cars as a purchase). While the developer has stated that the game will eventually let you unlock them without IAP, the simple fact is if leaderboard chasing is your hobby, you need to shell out more cash.

Another complaint with Retro Racing lies in its longevity. To put it bluntly, Retro Racing is incredibly short. There’re only twelve total tracks, and each can be learned and completed in a short amount of time. Granted, there is some replayability even after completing all the tracks simply based on the aforementioned leaderboard competition. However, I don’t think it’s enough to sustain the game for very long. I really would have liked to have seen more tracks at launch, although features like online multiplayer or a track editor would have really vaulted the game into the spotlight.

At this point, Retro Racing is one of those games with a decent gameplay formula that could have been so much more. The developer has been pretty active in our forums and has stated that more tracks and possibly other wish list features will make it into subsequent updates. Meanwhile, Retro Racing is still worth checking out for fans of classic top-down racers, as long as you don’t mind a lack of substance and a tiny assortment of tracks.

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I love it when a logo explains it all.

You put on your shoes, and turn on the app. In the background, you hear the throaty hum of an engine and the voice of a pilot speaking into her comm. As you walk out the door, she tells you that you’re on a mission. She doesn’t know what kind, and she doesn’t seem to care, either. Your target is Abel Township, one of the last two remaining strongholds within 100 miles of this area. This is weeks, maybe years after a zombie d-day. Right as you hit outdoors and start an honest jog, the story takes a turn. A missile slams into the helicopter. You hear the crunch of metal, warning beacons, and gears grinding.

You’re three miles out of Abel, and maybe a quarter of a mile out on your run. You’re told to jump, so you do. And then you hear the groans of the undead.

Horror and athletics don’t usually mix, but with a heaping of pure passion, these two things can gel just as well as sweat and iron. Zombies, Run, is an exciting fitness app from London-based studio Six to Start. Its goal is to tell you the story of a fractured world as you jog, and put you firmly in the thick of it. You participate as a silent and athletically gifted protagonist that the survivors of Abel dub “Runner 5.” Runners have a single job: run — run to find new materials, or pick up packages, or trade with others. Each mission in the game presents a new piece of scripted story. Each segment is broken into chunks that are cleverly bookended by your own workout playlists.

The stylish Zombies, Run! poster that was given to its backers on Kickstarter.

The effect is sort of like what would happen if Stephen King’s The Mist 3-D ever melded with Nike Plus. The narrators, who hiss into different sides of your earbuds as you run, provide a rough context as to where you are and what you need to do. They bump out pieces of story intermittently, as you picture wandering through the bowels of a messed up hospital or explore an air drop outside of Abel base. After each mission, the app turns into something similar to Fallout’s radio stations; it plays your music alongside radio-style commentary and news from two Abel survivors.

There’s a much more mechanical game part to Zombies, Run, too. As you run, you’ll pick up items that can be used to boost Abel Township’s hospital, food stores, communication station, armory, residential areas, or recreational facilities. It’s a simple mechanic, but it feels like a treat after an awesome run.

Sometimes, you’ll hear the groans of the undead in your ear and have to run faster in the real world to get away from the game’s zombies. This specific part of the experience is its interval training, which is an important element that sets this apart. Most fitness games are horrible at getting you to new heights. Even the good ones like EA Active are bad at this. Band exercises have limitations, and running in place isn’t going to get your bigger or stronger or faster. Pushing yourself safely with intervals in a real world scenario is an important component to any kind of serious training, and Zombies, Run has that.

That’s a great element, but what I really think makes Zombies, Run work, and work so well, is its soul. The studio has one experienced runner with a history of using fitness apps and a staff filled with people who dig and understand proper storytelling. They want to deliver something special. As an organization, Six to Start seems like the perfect fit for this kind of app.

The Origin

Adrian Hon is one of the brains behind Zombies, Run. He’s the runner of the office. He tells me that he’s wanted a better kind of running game since the iPhone made its debut. He’s used a lot running apps, like Nike Plus and Runkeeper, as well as a couple of more visual-oriented apps. The problem he sees with these apps is legion. Running while looking at a screen is dangerous, stopping to see your progress is counterproductive, GPS can send you to bad places, and there’s not an element of fun.

Hon says he used to hate running when he was younger. He, literally, “Couldn’t think of a worse thing to do.” This all changed when he discovered Garmin GPS, which added an element of fun to the mix. Because of this app, he still runs, although its more of a seasonal thing because no-one likes getting out on ice.

There's a Zombies, Run store that sells these.

“One of the things I really liked about the Garmin was the ‘ghost mode,’ where you could race against yourself.” Hon says. “It made me think there was quite a lot that could be done with fitness games. And I think that physical activity — and of course, sports — is inherently fun and good, so it really shouldn’t be that hard to make a game out of them.” He laments what studios are doing now with their fitness games.

“However, developers have been more focused on the more reliably profitable, yet massively competitive, genres of casual games lately. And more experimental folk find it more difficult to combine tech and physical interaction in a way that doesn’t make you want to shoot yourself when you try to play.”

Zombies, Run was the answer to Hon’s issues with fitness apps and a riff on Ghost mode. It’s a viable one, too, because it treats your phone as if it were an iPod Nano. It only spits out audio when you select a mission, and it never asks you to take a gander at it while you exercise. Aside from random zombie horde events, it also lets you decide when you want to push yourself. A lot of fitness games, if they’re not taxing, they’re just screaming at you. It can be a really counterproductive factor in a workout. It’s easier to get hurt this way. Zombies, Run allows you to take care of your body while also torturing your mind.

Zombies, Run was a project that floated around in Hon’s head since his Garmin days. He and Six To Start had a lot of ideas bouncing around, but they settled on this one, as it artfully combines super simple play alongside an actual story. The narrative is something Hon obviously enjoys, too. “It’s a shame that so few developers have made more than a token effort to put proper stories in their games,” Hon says. “I understand that Triple Town and Bejeweled don’t need stories, but then again, I quite liked Puzzle Quest, so there’s a lot of room in mobile for innovation, but we’re still seeing the same old stuff, even from indie developers.”

This is the first promotional image for the game on the App Store.

Six to Start is all about story. If it isn’t obvious from the fact that it created an audio-based running game about the end of the world, check out its web site.

“We are next-gen storytellers,” the studio proudly states. “Great storytelling and great gameplay is at the heart of what we do. Storytelling is a huge part of the world’s culture, and great stories have always had the ability to move and excite us, whatever the medium. Play means a lot to us, too. We draw inspiration from video games, boardgames, casual games and playful applications and services.”

Six To Start believes that through play, people can learn and discover new experiences. When story and play are combined, it gives Six to Start “the opportunity to deeply engage with our audience get them to do new things — as a large single group or individually.” It’s getting me to run away from zombies, and think about the world they exist in as I kill my body, so this place is obviously doing something right.

Six To Start and Hon’s baby became 3,464 people’s baby, too. Zombies, Run was funded via Kickstarter. The team put up the game’s idea, asked for $12,500 and then received over $70,000 in return. The project was funded in six days alone. Backers received all sorts of neat prizes, including their names in the game’s credits, a poster, or the chance to name something in the game after themselves.

Hon has prior experience with Kickstarter, so it wasn’t a big moment when the idea of putting Zombies, Run on the popular crowd-funding service came to him. However, the decision was also a great way to vet the game’s core idea. “Plus, we thought that the public would be easier to convince Zombies, Run was a good idea than the usual gatekeepers.”

Everyday I Hear Zombies Moan

I usually stick to high-impact weight lifting. I don’t run because I’m afraid that I’ll lose my precious muscle mass. Call it a tic. The truly awesome thing about this app is that it is capable of embracing your routine, no matter how weird it is. I normally use the elliptical for my needs, for example, and I can use Zombies, Run. All I have to do is turn off the GPS features and turn on its experimental accelerometer functionality and I can play just like a runner might. Conversely, I can also just chill with it, and listen to the story, although this method isn’t preferable.

I’m taking Zombies, Run into the gym every day. That’s huge because it’s proving to be a tool. On my calf and thigh days, it’s pushing me, reminding me not to fall into casual or relaxed grooves. I need that because I’m usually only interested in sweating if I’m lifting something spectacularly heavy.

I guess games end up changing a lot when the budget suddenly skyrockets.

Plus, the story is tremendously well told. This isn’t a blown-up, bombastic tale of a few survivors just making do. There’s subtlety to its characters and its world, and just like The Walking Dead, there are moments of intense action, bookended by periods of drama and character building. Zombies, Run wants to actually tell you a story. It isn’t afraid to do so, and that comes across, even if you might be slightly too tired to care in sections. I never feel like an idiot while listening to it, either. It’s told with a straight face and with enough touch to make it feel like an honest story, and not just some weird nerd fantasy running app. There’s interesting stuff tucked into each mission — stuff you want to tune in order to learn more about the world Six to Start is building.

Also, of note, this isn’t a trainer. It doesn’t scream at you. It might nudge you with the zombie horde attacks, but the app doesn’t get in your face. It let’s you do your own thing in your own way. It was designed specifically to do this.

“We want to enhance people’s lives by making their workouts fun, not turn into nagging machines,” says Naomi Alderman, the writer of Zombies, Run. Mission accomplished, I think.

Zombies, Run is available now on the App Store for $7.99. An Android version is coming down the pipes, too. Currently, the game has a total of 20 missions. More missions are slated to come down the line as IAP. Check it out if it even vaguely interests you. I think you’ll be surprised by its purity — and its scares.

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One of Apple’s more “magical” features in the past year is AirPlay, which allows you to stream the screen from  your iPhone 4S or iPad 2 wirelessly to an Apple TV and right onto your HDTV. Soon, the new OS X Mountain Lion will allow you to do the same thing with your Mac, beaming whatever is on its screen to your TV wirelessly. In terms of gaming, AirPlay offers an additional avenue for playing iOS games – wirelessly on the living room TV – and some titles like Real Racing 2 HD have taken it a step further and offer a custom interface or additional features for playing the game that way.

While Apple has made it incredibly easy to beam the latest iOS devices to a television, and soon will be able to beam a Mac to a television, it’s strange that there’s not also the ability to stream an iOS device right onto a Mac. Someone else must have thought that was strange too, as there is now a new Mac app called Reflection that allows you to do just that. Streaming to a Mac using the Reflection app is just as simple as streaming to a television with an Apple TV. Just run the program on your Mac, and choose the AirPlay option on your iPhone 4S or iPad 2 and just like that it’s on your computer screen.

This sort of functionality has all types of useful applications, but the first thing on my mind was how well games would play using Reflection. For the most part it works pretty good, and it will largely depend on which game you’re playing whether you have a good experience or not. This is mostly due to the slight lag that is present when using Reflection, where your actions on your iOS device translate to your Mac just a tad off from real time. This tad can make a big difference in games that require precise and timely touches, and I shudder to think of playing something like Beat Sneak Bandit with that slight delay.

For lots of games that lag won’t matter though, and it is pretty cool playing iOS games on my MacBook Pro. Another thing I noticed is that the frame rate in Reflection isn’t as smooth as what’s on the actual device, but it isn’t terribly noticeable. Reflection also comes with the options to view the game in an iPhone or iPad frame, much like the simulator in the iOS SDK, or play in frameless or full screen modes. Reflection reacts accordingly when changing your device’s orientation, and you can lock it in either portrait or landscape if need be.

Reflection is a neat piece of technology, I can see it being incredibly useful to some. But for gaming it feels more like a novelty due to the sluggishness of the performance, but it’s still pretty neat and I think that performance will improve over time. If you own a Mac, you can grab a trial version of Reflection for free to test it out. It gives you just 10 minutes of time per day to mess around with it, but that’s enough to see how it works and decide if it’s something worth buying. If you do, the full version of Reflection will set you back $14.99 for a single license.

Product Website Link: Reflection App, $14.99 / Free Trial

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Some former developers from True Axis and Firemint have banded together to form a new studio called Ninth Ninja and are readying a release of the classic dual-stick shooter Mutant Storm for iPad. Mutant Storm was originally released by PomPom Games for the PC, Mac, and Xbox, and was amongst the first to spark off a rebirth of retro-style arcade games in the past 10 years or so. It was also remastered and re-released as Mutant Storm Reloaded on Xbox Live Arcade in 2005.

You may remember that another PomPom Games release called Space Tripper [$3.99] made its way to iOS last year thanks to the porting efforts of True Axis. It also shouldn’t be forgotten that the Space Tripper iOS project was filled with trials and tribulations before it finally ended up on the App Store after more than 3 years of development. The wait seemed to be worth it though, as Space Tripper’s gameplay held up strong on iOS and the performance was rock solid.

Andy Coates, the former one half of developer True Axis, was responsible for a majority of the Space Tripper iOS port. He’s putting all that previous hard work to good use by using the same engine for the Mutant Storm port, and again the game is running at a solid 60fps on the iPad 2 and is running respectably smooth on the original iPad as well. Check out the developer’s hands on video of Mutant Storm running on the iPad.

Development on Mutant Storm is said to be going a whole lot smoother than it did with Space Tripper, so chances are we won’t be waiting 3 years to get our hands on the game (hopefully I didn’t just jinx it). In fact, Andy says that the game is basically finished, and that all that remains is some work to do on the menus and online integration. Ninth Ninja is hoping to have Mutant Storm out in April or May of this year.

Ninth Ninja has also announced that they are currently working on a brand new iOS project in addition to Mutant Storm. Adrian Moore, who had previously worked on Firemint’s Spy Mouse, will be handling the design. Artwork will be Paul Mitchell’s job, and he most recently has worked on the Real Racing series, also from Firemint. And of course, Andy Coates will be handling the programming of this mystery title.

We expect to have lots more on Mutant Storm and the mystery game from Ninth Ninja, especially with GDC just a couple of weeks away, so keep your eyes on this space.

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Last week, TouchArcade hooked up with Fluttermind’s Dene Carter to talk about his studio and its first release, Incoboto. If you’ve been following the production of the 2D side-scrolling puzzle, er, experience on our forums, you’ve seen enough to make one of those purchasing gut checks. You’ve noticed how good it looks. You’ve got a sense of its scope and scale and tasted its tone. If you’ve been reading especially closely, you might have even been infected by Dene’s quirk and enthusiasm. He got us, at least.

This isn’t an easy game to talk about off-handedly. It’s not as derivative as most mash ups, and it’s also really strange. We asked Dene for his elevator pitch, which revealed something vital about the project as a cohesive whole: it’s about embracing the odd or the irrational.

iTunes Link: The TouchArcade Show
Zune Marketplace: TouchArcade.com Podcasts
RSS Feed: The TouchArcade Show
Direct Link: TouchArcadeShow-Bonus-033.mp3, 20MB

“I kind of gave up doing all of that,” Dene told us. “While you’re developing a game, of course, what you’re trying to do the whole time is try to emphasize the fundamental thing that makes your game, your game, and not a game. It’s so easy to describe your game as other games, with bits of this and bits of that or whatever else, as soon as you start doing that it’s very easy to get distracted.”

“After literally a year doing that and just kind of going ‘god, this is ridiculous, this is turning to Nethack, this is turning to god-knows-what-else. How the hell did we get here?’ And my wife literally beating on my ass for about three weeks, I just said you know what, this is a strange, strange game and I will just make sure everything that I do with this game from now on reflects that.”

You’ll see what he’s talking if you give the game’s trailer, which is embedded below, some of your time. Incoboto’s look is bent, yet whimsical. Its devilishly constructed puzzles are, too.

In our minds, Incoboto has the most in common in Super Mario Galaxy. It revolves around similar physics-based hooks and trickery. Also, its moment-to-moment play, boiled down, is all about traversing and progressing through a series of interconnected “planets” with stars to collect.

When we brought this up, Dene was cool with the comparison. He added, however, that his title departs quickly with its difficulty and puzzles. He’s right. Within an hour of play, you’ll realize that difficulty spikes define the experience. This is a game that isn’t afraid to throw you under the bus with new, unexplored mechanics and puzzles.

In fact, getting you stuck and frustrated in its odd world is kind of the point. Dene told us that he realizes that, in this age of in-game guides and hand-holding, this is a crazy plan. He called it suicide, actually, but he likes the idea of people having to talk to each other about solutions, or having to come back to the game later when their heads are clearer.

“I’m doing things with this game that’s kind of suicide from a business point of view. I kind of decided I didn’t care. One of the things I will not be doing — this is not a game that is ever going to be free. I’m not going to suddenly whack the price down as it nears Christmas. This game is going to come out and be one price, so I already know I’m not going to make any money,” Dene said.

“The difficulty level is another part of that really. I want people to discuss it. If you make it so people are kind of tourists through the entire experience, then it’s literally basically like putting someone in a shopping cart and drag them all the way past everything in the game as quickly as possible so they can move on to the next thing.”

“I want people to get stuck. But because it’s not a game that where get stuck by dying the whole time — I mean there’s no death in there — you get stuck because you haven’t really understood the implications of everything around you. I think that’s a lovely position to be in, when you know that all you have to do is pick up the game again and have another go, and you probably find that it’s something you missed the last time. There’s usually clues around, some kind of hint as to what’s there.”

“If it’s not there, then hell, go out and discuss it with your friends. Please, talk about it. Tell people where you go stuck. That’s part of the fun of the game really. There are no people to talk to in this world, they’re all dead, so go talk to some real ones.”

We’ll have much, much more on Incoboto later this week so we’re going to hold back on the game’s nitty-gritty for the moment. If you’d like to learn more about the game from the guy who made it, however, give this week’s interview podcast a listen. Sound issues aside, it was easily one of our smoothest, most informative we’ve done.

Other topics we cover include Dene’s past relationship with Lionhead, his future with a new studio composed of a few key Lionhead members, acorns, and his thoughts on iOS as a whole.

We’ll be back next week with another bonus podcast.

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Aside from gracing a platform that can also make phone calls, the neatest thing about Hatchi [$.99] is that it can be constantly updated with features that dramatically change up the user experience. Your Tamagotchi couldn’t do that. No way.

Game creator Portable Pixel teased some huge changes coming in the next update about a week ago, and we’ve got some firm details on those. Here’s a run-down of what we know:

On Food. Portable Pixel tells us that it has been “overwhelmed with the popularity” of its title and wanted to get some new features out in front of people as fast as possible. One of those features is additional food options. Joining the game’s basic hamburger is pizza, apples, bread, cake, ice cream, and what appears to be a turkey leg. Weight is now a factor that the game figures in, and different foods will affect your Hatchi in different ways.

On Waste Management. We’ve received inscrutable image confirmation that, in the next update, your Hatchi gain the ability to poop. Steam will come off of its turds, and presumably, the washing feature will have to be used to take care of the on-screen mess. This was the game’s most requested feature, apparently. We salute you for making this so, sirs.

On Evolution. Portable Pixel is adding an “additional evolution” stage, and is also greatly expanding the possible evolution tree. We’ve got a great image right here that’ll give you a couple of clues as to what to expect.

On Death And Liberation. Soon, when your Hatchi dies, he will be laid to rest in a cemetery. Additionally, if you’d like to give up on your Hatchi without killing it manually, you’ll be able to free it in a “forest sanctuary.”

There you have it. We’ve asked for additional details on when this will release, but we’re guessing it’ll be out in just a week or so. Hatchi pre-update is pretty awesome, too. Give that write-up a read if you’re interested in the title.

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George Washington’s birthday is coming up soon, and in our neck of the woods, this means one thing: sales. Check the list of notables below if you’re into saving some dough.

Ever wonder what’s up with these holiday sales? There are a couple of good reasons. The biggest of which is that Apple generally doesn’t bother with coordinated “sale” events like Valve does with its platform, Steam. So, App Store publishers target holidays to do their thing instead since they’re notable days on the calendar anyway.

And now for that list:

• Dead Space – $6.99 – $.99
• Reckless Racing HD – $4.99 – $.99
• FIFA Soccer 12 for iPad – $9.99 – $.99
• End Night HD – $2.99 – $.99
• Plunderland – $1.99 – Free
• ASH II: Shadows (Gold Edition) – $4.99 – $2.99
• Grand Prix Story – $3.99 – $.99

This is just a Cliff Notes version of what’s out there and on sale, by the way. The usual suspects like Telltale and Gameloft, for example, are slashing prices across the board. Check out their respective publisher pages linked above.

[killer image via lustidrike on deviantart]

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