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Developer Halfbrick Studios has just released another significant update to their endless running high score game Monster Dash [99¢]. The Australian dev has noted that they are shooting for a fairly frequent update schedule to Monster Dash, in similar vein to the treatment that their other top-selling game Fruit Ninja [99¢/HD] has received. The first Monster Dash update was released at the end of August, and included a motorcycle powerup that protagonist Barry Steakfries could collect to plow over the countless monster enemies. In addition to the motorcycle, a number of gameplay tweaks and a couple new achievements were a part of the last update that we posted about when released.

This newest update takes things even further than the previous one did. An entirely new level, Yeti Heights, is now a part of the regular rotation. This snow themed level features abominable snowmen climbing up the walls in the foreground to reach the path of Barry while a twisted rendition of Jingle Bells plays in the background. Along with this new level comes a new rocket launcher weapon that can lock on to enemies and does splash damage to anything around the point of impact. The rocket launcher can be a bit tough to use early on in the game, as you aren't moving fast enough to get out of the way of the rocket's explosion. But further on when the game is moving at a fast clip, it can prove an invaluable weapon.

The final big addition to Monster Dash in this update is the inclusion of Apple's Game Center social network for leaderboard and achievement tracking. As with other games that had previously used OpenFeint for these purposes, the Game Center works in harmony with OpenFeint and you're given the option of which service will be the dominant one when initially starting the game. All of your previous scores and achievements will automatically transfer over to Game Center and you can switch between either service at any time from the About screen at the title.

As a small word of caution, since Game Center is still such a new service it can act a little wonky sometimes in certain games. When I first fired up the new update I had trouble logging in to Game Center and getting it to recognize Monster Dash as a Game Center compatible game. Eventually it did work after multiple tries, and while the achievement and high score transfer worked just fine it seems that my friends and recent games list in Game Center have been reset for some reason. A couple players in our forums have experienced problems as well, though it seems most people have been able to play the updated version without a hitch.

I wouldn't let these minor issues deter you from downloading the new update though, as the benefits that it adds outweigh any fussing that may need to be done to get Game Center to work. If you have yet to pick up Monster Dash, make sure to check out our original review as it's definitely one of the best endless running style games in the App Store and we can't wait to see what's in store for future updates.

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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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Typically I'm not a big fan of the sim-management type games. Back in the day I was hopelessly addicted to SimCity on the SNES, but future iterations of that game and of similar franchises just never appealed to me. They all seemed a bit too complicated, or required a hectic style of time and resource managing that turned me off to them, and nothing has quite captured the particular mix of simplicity and subtle depth from that classic SNES title. That changed yesterday when I discovered Kairosoft's Game Dev Story [$3.99] on my iPhone. It offers a sim-management experience that's not overwhelmingly complex, but at the same time has a lot of different elements that meld together well to create compelling gameplay. Plus, it's just a ton of fun to create your own games and see them go on to be huge successes (and sometimes total flops).

In Game Dev Story you'll play the president of a fledgling game development company as you direct your crew of designers, artists, and coders in an effort to create a string of successful video games over a 20 year time period. Beyond just making games, you'll need to grow your own brand name by running a game convention booth, attending awards shows, advertising, and managing an ever-changing fan base. As your company expands, you'll have the opportunity to move into larger offices and hire a bigger team of employees, all of whom can be leveled up and trained (at the expense of  higher salaries) so as to create better games. If you really become a big company, and have employees with the right skill sets, you can even create your own console and compete with the well established big boys in the hardware game.

To start off, though, you're just a tiny company with a few employees and a small amount of start-up capital to work with. You can choose to make games for home consoles or PCs, but each console requires you to purchase a license before you can develop games for it. To earn some extra funding for licenses or projects, outside contract work can be accepted. It's not the most exciting work, but it will pay the bills and help you earn enough money to make games of your own. Once you have the money to make a game, you'll choose which platform, genre, and style of game you want to make. Your own employees can be used to create the story, graphics, and sound, or you can source out that work to other professionals for a fee. A number of factors can affect how your game sells, including your fan base, what time of year you release (holiday season is best), and how the media reviews the game.

One aspect I especially liked about Game Dev Story is how it parodies every major console released for the last 20+ years, and loosely mimics their individual success levels. So when Intendro introduces the first portable game system the Game Kid, you can bet it will be a really popular system to support given the Game Boy's history. However, when they come out with the newfangled Virtual Kid, with its headache-inducing 3D goggles, you'll see it disappear from the market fairly quickly. These are the types of things that you must consider before shelling out the dough for a console license, although one extremely popular game can rewrite the history of a failed console as well.

While the gameplay in Game Dev Story is fun and engaging, the overall presentation falls a bit flat. The 16-bit style pixel graphics are charming and certainly get the job done, but they are a far cry of what is capable from even the oldest iOS devices. The screen size is also oddly small, with plenty of wasted space on the top and bottom. It almost seems as if it's a port from a different device, like an older smartphone or PDA, but I couldn't find any information to that effect. The menu navigations work just fine and the game is still very easy to play, it just seems strange. Another minor annoyance is that despite having an in-game manual hardly any of the game mechanics are explained very well, although the game is simple enough that you catch on after playing for a bit.

Game Dev Story won't impress you with stellar visuals or an iPhone specific feature set, but it is a well thought out and thoroughly enjoyable time sink, and is even more intriguing if you're familiar with the last few decades of video game history. It took me roughly five hours to play through the 20 year career of my company, and at the end of that time your highest selling game and biggest profits serve as the final score, though you can keep playing beyond that time period indefinitely if you choose. There really is just something about this game that keeps me coming back for more over and over again. Further impressions and help discussion are taking place in our forums, and if you've ever had a hankering to create your own video games then Game Dev Story is one you should definitely check out.

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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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We've been following the development of Aralon: Sword and Shadow for quite a while now. The game actually has an incredibly interesting history which we covered in one of our early previews in that it originally was an amazingly expansive 3D RPG with absolutely horrid placeholder art. Crescent Moon Games got onboard for what they called an "Extreme RPG Makeover", and later provided us with some comparison screenshots showing their work in progress. Today they've released a brand new trailer showing tons of iPad in-game footage which looks amazing:

For an idea of just how far the game has come, here is the original trailer for the game:

For more information on Aralon: Sword and Shadow, stop by the thread in our forums which has taken on a life of its own while RPG fans anxiously await its release. Also, in other semi-related Crescent Moon Games news, Rimelands: Hammer of Thor recently received an update with several bug fixes, so if you own the game you should probably download that if you haven't already.

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There has been a surprising amount of great HD versions of games popping up on the iPad side of the App Store lately. If you've been playing some of these games pixel doubled, or have been waiting for a native iPad version to pop up, any of these games are definitely worth downloading:

Across Age ™ HD, $7.99 We liked the original Across Age a lot in our review, and really consider it a must-have for any fans of Zelda-like games. The HD version is home to some incredibly detailed hand drawn art, and even a new dungeon (and boss) exclusive to the iPad.

Baseball Superstars® 2010 HD, $4.99 I can’t get enough of the Baseball Superstars games, as the light RPG elements combined with arcade-style baseball makes for a package I can’t stop playing. Check out our review for more details, but beware, getting involved in this game could suck up a dangerous amount of your time if you’re like me and enjoy filling experience bars.

ARKANOID HD, $4.99 You don’t get much more classic than Arkanoid when it comes to brick breakers, and while we liked the iPhone version a lot, single device multiplayer works really well on the iPad. If you’re looking for a blast from the past, or another fun two player game, give this a shot.

Meow Meow Happy Fight HD, $0.99 This has been one of my favorite iPhone dual stick shooters since it was released in August. The iPad version looks great, and is much nicer to play with proper iPad controls instead of playing the iPhone game pixel doubled.

Cut the Rope HD, $1.99 I gushed over the iPhone version of this game in a big way in our review, and the iPad version is just as good. There isn’t much sense in re-buying this as it plays fine pixel doubled… But the graphics do look awfully nice on the iPad screen.

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Back when Gameloft's Modern Combat: Sandstorm [$4.99 / Lite / HD] was first released, in our review we called it one of the most impressive gaming experiences we've seen so far on the platform, but it wasn't long before it was inevitably bested by other first person shooters (some even released by Gameloft themselves) on the fast paced market of the App Store. Gameloft ups the ante once again with Modern Combat 2: Black Pegasus [$6.99], a game that is by far their most blatant carbon copy yet, but is executed so masterfully that it hardly seems to matter.

If you've played Infinity Ward's Modern Warfare 2, you'll know exactly what to expect out of Modern Combat 2. Single player consists of a similar mixture of combat scenarios that follow the typical plot line of hunting terrorists. Objectives are varied and involve some light stealth elements, protecting caravans, escaping from or infiltrating enemy installations, and others. However, just because this has all been done before in other games (and even to some extent in the original Modern Combat), it doesn't make playing through the single player campaign any less fun– in fact, it's a blast to play through.

The default normal difficulty is incredibly forgiving, with the same health regeneration that has practically become standard in first person shooters. Modern Combat 2 also has an aim assist system that will snap your crosshairs on to nearby targets, taking a lot of the frustration out of controlling the game. In addition, an arrow on the top of the screen constantly points to where you should be going. Of course, if you don't need your hand held, you can crank up the difficulty and turn off all the assist systems– resulting in a surprisingly challenging campaign.

One of the best things about Gameloft games is their incredible consistency when it comes to all the little things that you don't usually notice unless a game lacks them. For instance, you're able to completely customize your controls and the locations of interface elements on screen. You can control your music without leaving the game or even visiting a submenu, it saves your progress when you close the game for any reason and resumes instantly, and when you pause, it displays the time and your battery level. Modern Combat 2 has all this and more, adding to the near-perfect technical execution of the game. Also, if you're playing on an iPhone 4 or 4th generation iPod touch, you'll be able to enjoy optional gyroscope controls and full Retina Display graphics.

Unfortunately, this also means if you play a lot of Gameloft games, you'll also notice many similarities that can ruin your immersion. For example, the quick time event sequences used for your spider sense in Spider-Man: Total Mayhem [$6.99] has since turned in to slow motion interactive cut scenes where you need to tap specific areas of the screen to do things like avoid an explosion, an incoming knife, or grab a ledge. Quite of a few of the events that take place in the incredibly scripted single player campaign feel recycled, and it seems like far too often you're using the familiar mounted turret gun to defend against an oncoming swarm of bad guys. However, once again, all these mechanics go together so well in Modern Combat 2 that they're not much of a distraction even if you stop and notice them.

Much like Modern Warfare 2, the single player campaign in Modern Combat 2 almost seems secondary to the extensive online multiplayer included. Gameloft is boasting MC2 as providing "the most comprehensive FPS multiplayer experience on the App Store," and that's a claim that is hard to argue with. It's almost like Gameloft internally distributed copies of Modern Warfare 2 and simply said, "Make this, but for the iPhone." Initially, you might groan at just how obvious the similarities are, but all that will quickly wash away when you realize just how awesome it all is and how an experience bar with tons of unlockables serves as an unbelievable carrot on a stick, keeping you playing for hours on end without even realizing it.

Seemingly every positive action you make in an online game awards experience. Headshots, kills, assists, revenge kills, and other things result in an explosion of experience points in the center of your screen. Eventually you level up, unlocking new ranks, weapons, and kill messages which work just like the Modern Warfare 2 title and emblem system and displays little tag lines on the screen of the person you killed. (However, unlike Modern Warfare 2, endless drug references are nowhere to be found.)

Multiple game modes are included, and all are a lot of fun. Both standard and team-based deathmatch makes an appearance, as well as a capture the flag and diffuse the bomb game mode. Whatever you play, it will be with up to ten players at once either locally or online. Online multiplayer works incredibly well, and aside from a few rogue disconnects I haven't had any issues playing game after game.

It remains to be seen how much post-launch support Gameloft will provide Black Pegasus. I'd really love to see Game Center supported for matchmaking, as finding friends online with Gameloft Live is a chore and I've really been looking forward to not needing to worry about what everyone's Plus+/OpenFeint/Gameloft Live/Crystal/Agon/etc. names are. Also, I'd love to see more multiplayer maps or even additional ranks and weapons to unlock either via some kind of DLC pack or available as a free update.

As I mentioned previously, Modern Combat 2: Black Pegasus is Gameloft's most blatant clone yet. However, there is absolutely nothing like it on the App Store. Without a doubt, this is a game that absolutely every fan of Modern Warfare 2 should have on their iPhone. The single player, while entirely cliche, is extremely fun to play through and the online multiplayer is incredible. Our forum members have been going crazy over the game, and as it stands, Modern Combat 2 is the king of iPhone first person shooters. For now, anyway.

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The current trend in iPad game releases seems to be for developers to take an existing iPhone game, append "HD" to the end of the name, and increase both the resolution of the graphics and the price– and maybe add an iPad-exclusive feature of two. iPhone developer One Man Left have significantly upped the HD ante this week, releasing one of the best HD remakes I've played in quite a while of an existing iPhone game. We loved the original in our review where we explained the basic premise behind the game:

Tilt to Live [$2.99] is at its core, an object-avoidance game wholly utilising the accelerometer of the iPhone or iTouch to maneuver your arrow around the battlefield. I say battlefield, because that's exactly what is going on here– the dots are out to get you and will stop at nothing. And it is remarkable just how much personality One Man Left have managed to inject into such a straightforward concept. These are certainly no ordinary dots– these perilous periods make a point (ha!) of chasing you around the screen; coalescing into arrows and other shapes then hurling themselves at you at breakneck pace, or circling you like vultures, slowly closing in until it is impossible to escape. Make no mistake, touch even one of the hundreds of dots on screen at once, and you are history.

Tilt to Live HD [Free] offers identical gameplay, with a major twist: Instead of simply making everything bigger, they kept all the in-game objects the same size, and quadrupled the size of the battlefield. In our early previews, I wasn't really sure how much of a difference this would make when you're actually playing the game, but after spending a considerable amount of time with it (in fact, this review itself was delayed because I simply couldn't put it down), I'm totally sold on this HD remake.

Increasing the size of the battlefield makes playing the game much more exciting because of just how many more red dots appear on screen, and how much farther power-ups spawn away from you. Not to say the original Tilt to Live was boring by any means, but this is one instance where much more going on at once on screen is actually much, much better.

To further kick things up a notch, Tilt to Live HD is available for free. With your free download you get full access to a limited classic mode with only a few of the available weapons. If you're happy with this, you can play to your heart's content, competing in a free mode online leaderboard until you're blue in the face. For a $3.99 in-app purchase you then unlock the rest of the game. This opens up additional power-ups to earn, and three additional game modes: Code Red which is just classic mode but much faster and more difficult, Gauntlet Evolved which is pure avoidance, and Frostbite which has you shattering red dots before they thaw at the bottom of the screen. Each game mode plays differently, and has its own associated online leaderboard.

Originally I was thinking that Tilt to Live HD wouldn't be that fun to play because I haven't really found myself liking tilt controls much on the iPad due to the weight of the device. Oddly enough, this doesn't seem to be an issue at all, and hasn't stopped me from sitting perched on the edge of my couch completely focused on my iPad as a bob my head to the music for hours on end.

If you own an iPad, you owe it to yourself to at least try out the free mode of Tilt to Live HD.

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