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Hungry Shark is a tilt-based high score and exploration game that places you in the role of – unsurprisingly – a hungry shark. You'll start as a young shark and must keep eating to grow in size and keep your constantly depleting health sustained. There's an enormous variety of food to munch on, from tiny fish and unfortunate swimmers up near the surface to more exotic deep sea creatures and scuba divers farther down below. In essence, it feels like a mash up of Feeding Frenzy and Ecco The Dolphin, but with a lot more gore. We reviewed the game when it was released a couple of months ago, and found the compelling high score objective coupled with the satisfaction of chomping down on lesser creatures hard to put down.

This past weekend saw the release of a major expansion to the game. Simply titled Hungry Shark – Part 2, this update brings a huge new level that's selectable along with the first one, and is in fact even larger than the original. With different areas to explore, new sea creature fodder to indulge your appetite, more hazards to be wary of, and 10 additional unique items to find, the update effectively doubles the size of the original game. There's even an absolutely humongous crab boss to battle that practically fills the entire iPhone screen. Scoreloop is now integrated to flesh out the high score system, and tilt calibration has been fine tuned. A gameplay video showcases the new level and boss crab:

Hungry Shark was a terrificly fun game to begin with, and this latest update adds even more of a good thing. As if that wasn't enough, developer Future Games Of London has stated in our forums that work is already underway on a Part 3. A release date hasn't been mentioned, and it's unknown whether Part 3 will be a free update as Part 2 was, but we're looking forward to it nonetheless. If you have an insatiable appetite for seafood and careless humans, look no further than the newly expanded Hungry Shark – Part 2.

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Konami's much anticipated PES 2010 for the iPhone has arrived internationally. We'd previewed the game based on the developer's blogs describing the control system they were working on for the game.

The game has been released to non-U.S. countries. No indication yet when the U.S. release is coming.

Here's an early gameplay video run on an iPhone 3G:

A video of 3GS performance shown here.

We'll have a closer look shortly. Meanwhile impressions can be found in our forums.

App Store Link: PES 2010 (Not in U.S.)

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During WWDC 2010, we had a chance to talk with Owens Rodriguez and have a quick look at his upcoming iPhone shooter, Alien Space.

The game, which strikes me as something of a cross between Asteroids and Super Stardust HD (and, as such, Meteor Blitz), is a dual-stick space shooter featuring 50 levels, various upgradeable heavy and light weapons, and online achievement tracking and leaderboards via Apple's Game Center.



Alien Space is pretty much a one-man effort, with Rodriguez working on the code and graphics assets in his spare time over the past year and a half. His Alien Space Facebook page provides some history on the title. According to Rodriguez, the game should be finished in late July.

Have a look at the developer's trailer video, which our forum readers seem to be liking.

Although I only spent a short time with the game during the conference, I came away impressed. We'll take a detailed look at Alien Space once we have the release version in our hands. Stay tuned.

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Illusion Labs' latest iPad game Foosball HD just went live on the App Store after a quick approval process. We previewed the game earlier this week at WWDC.

Focused around a multi-touch interface, the Foosball HD allows two players to compete with each other on a virtual foosball table.

Each player has control of their respective players and can move their men using simple swipe controls. Forward and Back move the players horizontally on the field while Left and Right spin them in the appropriate direction.

We had a great time playing Foosball HD at WWDC as did many others. Illusion Labs' Anders Mårtensson had the game in tow at our TouchArcade developer mixer last night and the game had a constant crowd around it, yelling and cheering for goals. While the game comes with a single player mode, the multi-player is where the game shines.

With familiar gameplay, solid controls and a great implementation, Foosball HD delivers on one of the early promises of the iPad, in-person social gaming. Early adopters are also enjoying it in our forums.

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One of the most beloved and recognizable classics in the relatively short history of video games is Konami's Frogger. The timeless gameplay of getting your character from point A to point B, while navigating a busy highway and hazardous river, has spawned many variations during the years and is still fun even today. Banzai Rabbit (formerly called Frogman) is the newest game from Revolutionary Concepts, who most recently brought us the excellent port of Karate Champ, and it takes the very basic premise of Frogger and turns it on its ear with new gameplay twists, gorgeous 3D graphics, and a comic book style storyline. The overall experience feels more like an actual evolution of the Frogger series than any of the spinoffs ever have.

The story starts in a lab, where scientists are experimenting with building teleportation pods. During some commotion, test lab rabbit Banzai escapes his cage, leaping into one of the pods (with a stowaway flea coming along for the ride as well). The pod then activates with two scientists inside, one getting fused with Banzai and one getting fused with the flea. The results are rabbit and flea humanoids. After the dust clears from the accident, the enemy now known as The Flea plots world domination and kidnaps beautiful lab assistant Mary Beth. Having strong feelings for her, Banzai plots how to stop him, and thus the story begins. Ok, it's basically the plot from the 1986 film The Fly mashed up with elements of Spiderman, but it works pretty well in setting up the story for Banzai Rabbit.

The game is set across 34 levels in various locations such as city streets and railyards. You must guide Banzai from one side of the level to the other while avoiding the hazards laid out before you. On the other side of the map is a human who has been infected by The Flea, and if you don't make it to them in time then they will turn into a fly. Once you rescue that person, the perspective of the level flips around and you must make it back the way you came to save a human who's now on the opposite side from you. This continues until you've rescued 5 humans per level. Two different powerups can be collected, one that let's you jump over one of the hazards if need be, and one that slows down time for a short period making it easier to maneuver between the obstacles. It all comes together extremely well, taking a classic mechanic and wrapping it around some new ideas and fantastic visuals.

The area where the game falters is in terms of difficulty. More specifically, a brutally hard, teeth clenching difficulty. George Costanza couldn't beat this. The levels start to pick up in pace and complexity about a third of the way through the game. It took countless retries to pass some of these levels, which was bad enough, but at about the midway point of the game I completely hit a wall. There was just no way for me to progress, despite trying over and over. Collecting mutagen orbs spread throughout each level allows you to continue. You start the game with 5 lives, and can earn more through bonus levels and by rescuing humans. It takes 10 mutagen orbs to continue once you lose all lives. I started the level where I got stuck with 60 some odd orbs, and went through them all without blinking an eye. That's at least 30 lives wasted on a level where I didn't even rescue one human. Once you run out of orbs, you must frustratingly start completely over from level one. It's just flat out too difficult. I consider myself a fairly accomplished gamer, and have a fondness for the overly challenging games of the 80's and 90's, but I concede to Banzai Rabbit. He beat me. Some truly hardcore players may love this type of challenge, but I highly doubt normal to casual players will have the fortitude to see the game through.

I realize I'm making a pretty big deal about this, but it's honestly the one thing that can keep me from wholeheartedly recommending Banzai Rabbit. I'm not alone, either, as I've only made it halfway through the game and am sitting comfortably atop the Agon leaderboard. Is halfway really the farthest anyone has made it? It's not always necessary to completely beat a game when reviewing it, but you should at least have a pretty broad understanding of what the game offers. I feel like I'm missing out on a big part of Banzai Rabbit that's awaiting me in the second half of the game, not the least of which is the story (I imagine the hero saves the girl, but I'd like to see it).

Luckily, Revolutionary Concepts has been listening to the feedback in the game's forum thread, and will likely address the difficulty in an update. If you feel up to the challenge, Banzai Rabbit really does have a lot to offer, just don't expect to see all of it any time soon.

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As we've had our time spent in meetings and activities this week at WWDC, several notable games have been released that have been getting some positive feedback in our forums. Here's a roundup of a few of them and links to their discussion threads.

2XL TROPHYLITE Rally

The latest racing game from 2XL games, this time they've applied their skill to a rally racing game. See our discussion rhread for impressions.

SuperBlox

A game we first saw some time ago as a preview but finally came out last week. Superblox has been generating positive impressions on our forums.

Pac Match Party

A Pac-Man Match 3? Crazy, I know. Even crazier? People seem to be liking it. A Flash version remains available for web play.

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The fine folks at Cowboy Rodeo are putting their port of 1992 Amiga classic Pinball Dreams free today and despite being a nearly 20 year old game, Pinball Dreaming: Pinball Dreams [Free] offers up some great pinball action, even a year and a half after it's initial release. From Blake Patterson's original review:

I am a huge fan of the original and its various sequels and, years ago, spent days playing them on various Amigas.  I can say with authority that the iPhone version is actually more enjoyable than the Amiga original.  All of the nice elements of the original are here, but in a far more convenient (pocketable) package.  What's more, while the iPhone and Amiga feature the same horizontal pixel resolution, the iPhone's display is twice as tall (pixel-wise) as the Amiga's, and so only slight vertical panning of the table is needed to track the ball on the iPhone (where the vertical panning in the Amiga version was extreme).

If you're a pinball fan and have somehow not already bought Pinball Dreams or tried the lite version, then right now is an excellent time to see what you've been missing. The “video game” feel may turn off some real life pinball table purists, but at the time of it's original Amiga release it was considered to be quite revolutionary and is incredibly fun in it's own right.

If you enjoy Dreams, the sequel Pinball Fantasies [$5.99] is available as well. With 4 tables in each game you're getting a grand total of 8 different tables for 6 bucks. Plus, with this increased support of Cowboy Rodeo comes increased odds that we'll see the third game in the series, Pinball Illusions, ported over sometime down the line. On any account, for a game that has never dropped below $3.99, Pinball Dreams is a must-download during this free promotion.

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Imangi Studios, made up of husband and wife team Keith Shepherd and Natalia Luckyanova, were also in attendance at WWDC 2010. We met up with Luckyanova who sat down and gave us a hands on demo of their upcoming dual stick shooter Max Adventure. We had previewed the game back in April which remains a work in progress. Imangi hopes to have the game ready by the end of July.

The game's plot consists of an end-of-the-world scenario where all the adults have been abducted by aliens. That leaves you, Max, as the only one who can save the other children and save the world.

The game specifics remain a work in progress but currently features multiple weapons (standard, wide spread, dual shot, radial shot), powerups (invincibility, power boost) and 3 different types of enemies. They haven't finalized the number of levels that the final game will contain.

Max Adventure is due for release in late July. Both Natalia and Keith are active participants in our forums as nattylux and kshep.

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While we're busy stuffing our faces with Moons Over My Hammies at WWDC, IGN is listening in on Take-Two financial calls where they revealed an interesting tidbit for any current or potential iPad owner: Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is making its way to the big screen. Unfortunately, there aren't any details to be had currently aside from the mention that it will be available later this month.

We thought the iPhone version of the game was great in our review, and actually, GTA:CW is a game that looks quite good even running at the 2X mode on the iPad. It will be interesting to see what if any improvements Rockstar adds to the iPad version of the game aside from running at the native 1024×768 resolution, which might be reason enough for fans of the series to potentially re-buy the game anyway.

Needless to say, we'll take a close look at Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars for the iPad as soon as we get our hands on it.

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Back in April, Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 [$4.99] finally made its way to the App Store following an odd Twitter announcement by Tony Hawk himself. In our review, we absolutely loved the game:

If you're only familiar with more modern Tony Hawk games, you might be annoyed that it's lacking (and I use that word loosely) things like a story mode, a more structured career mode, greater depth of customization, and other things that have since become common place in recent skateboarding games. But, honestly, none of that even matters, because the actual skating in Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 has an absolutely timeless feel to it.

This is a game I will never delete from my iPhone.

…And I still haven't deleted it from my phone.

For whatever reason, Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 was originally only available in the US App Store, but as of today it appears to be up in most major international App Stores. If you live in one of these areas that formerly was without the awesomeness that is Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2, the wait is over.

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