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Backflip Studios' Boss Battles [Free / HD] is difficult to really talk about in a lengthy matter. After all, you know exactly what the game is based on its title alone and the fact it's free should ensure nobody will hesitate over it too much. Still, the concept alone is interesting enough to warrant a discussion.

The idea of basing a game on boss fights has been done before, Shadow of the Colossus, for instance, and Cave's Japanese only Kesui Death Label, but Backflip's pedigree of casual titles mixes the idea up a little by creating an easier to push through barrier of entry.

Boss Battles is a vertical, bullet-hell shoot-em-up, where you control a ship blasting through space by simply moving your finger across the screen. The game is packed with eight boss battles, each with five different levels of difficulty that reward you with gems based on which level of difficulty you choose to play.

Those gems unlock different power-ups and weapon enhancements, as well as extra lives. The freemium model is employed for those who don't want to grind through the game to get new weapons, but if you've got even just a smidgen of patience, you'll never need to use the in-app purchases.

Technically, Boss Battles is slightly more than just a series of bosses, as each stage starts with a simple, but necessary farming run where you shoot humble enemies as they drop from the top of the screen to get more gems. While the bosses are certainly the highlight and beating them will collect the most gems, farming in the stages early portions will ensure you'll be able to save up for whatever weapon enhancement you've got your eyes on.

As for the bosses, they're visually ridiculous and over-the-top. They're not particularly difficult after the first round provided you've outfitted your ship with the right weapons, and they don't do much to scale the difficulty other than shoot out more projectiles or move a little quicker. Most can be beaten by simply hammering bullets into them and don't require the usual puzzling and tiered elements we're all used to in vertical shooters. Still, the right weapon will make short work of an enemy, so it's possible the studio wanted to stress that more than ripping brightly colored pieces off a boss.

Unfortunately, the free part isn't entirely supported by IAP's, there is also a banner ad on the top of the play screen. Some games can handle this fine, but in a vertical shooter, it cuts down a bit too much on screen real estate and when the ad changes mid-game, it's a distraction from the dodging and shooting you should be doing. It would be nice to be able to buy out of the ads, but no option exists at the moment. It's also a little odd the app isn't universal, but that might have something to do with a complexity of in-app purchase transfers. As you'd expect, the HD iPad version looks significantly better, but it also means the ads are bigger.

If it's even feasible to create a casual shoot-em-up, Backflip has certainly come close. At the moment, it still feels more like a proof of concept than a full-fledged experience, but as a quick and free distraction it works well. It doesn't have anywhere near the visual flair of a Cave shooter, but the core idea is entertaining enough. If a little more love had been poured into the complexity of the battles as they evolve over difficulty tiers, it would have been a more thorough experience.

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Robotriot [99¢] from Glowing Eye Games and Retrobyte, is a Universal 2D sci-fi platform game with retro graphics where you control an armed, hovering, debt-collecting robot, named SLUG. And frankly, each part of that sentence sounds appealing.

SLUG's job description involves helping to repossess spaceships when citizens are late with their tax payments. To do this, he must enter each section of a spacecraft to locate and destroy the power generator. Once all sections have been powered-down, the craft is left disabled and defenseless, allowing a tow-ship to easily tow it away for impounding. And you'll be paid a wee bounty for your efforts, by your boss, Commander Krupp.

There are three ships to disable in this game. The easy ship has two sectors (levels), while the medium and hard ships have five each, making 12 levels in total. This isn't a lot of levels or duration compared to some other platformers, but the developers are currently working on a new ship for the game with more levels, apparently set in a classy Vegas-style robo-strip joint.

The controls include buttons for moving left and right, jumping and shooting. Each time you shoot, SLUG is repelled backwards a little by the recoil from his weapon. And he'll need that weapon, as the on-board defense systems of the ships are still active, so the worker bots and autonomous lazer-turrets will try to protect their vessel.

To locate the power generators, you'll need to fully explore each section, riding on gravity lifts or hover-platforms to move to higher areas and jumping over bubbling pools of plasma. Colored key-passes can be found to unlock doors of the matching color. And there are switches to destroy in order to gain access to new areas, or to disable laser beams. Along the way, you'll activate doors which act like checkpoints and become your re-spawn point. This prevents you from having to repeat hunks of the level when you die.

Some crates can be destroyed to find pick-ups. This includes spanners (repairs), rapid fire weapons and bubble shields. Alternatively, you can keep the crates intact and use them as cover, or to sneak up on enemies. If you're lucky, you might also find a 1-UP icon, which grants you an extra life.

Once you complete a section (level), your total score is based on several factors, including the number of power shards collected from around the level, time taken to destroy the power core, number of remaining lives and points scored by collecting jewels. There's also a special bonus for completing the level perfectly.

Whereas many platform games let you re-play the levels you've already beaten, Robot Riot locks each completed ship, until you start over from the very beginning. This may not be the best approach, as it discourages players from replaying levels for higher scores and prevents easy access to earlier levels the player may have enjoyed.

Robotriot is a nice-looking retro platform game, with a catchy soundtrack, which delivers the standard things you'd expect to see in a platformer. It's reasonably slow paced, but fun to play, however it doesn't really deliver anything new or innovative, except the occasional boss fight and debt-collecting storyline.

Mostly, it could do with more content, in terms of levels (some of which are coming). If you're not sure about buying, there's also a free Flash version you can try on your computer, which looks and sounds the same as the iOS version.

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A few weeks back, we brought you the news that SEGA was bringing arcade title Brick People [$1.99 / HD] both across the ocean and onto the small screen. Before arriving on iOS devices, the brick-folk were limited to arcade cabinets in Japan. You'd gather up physical bricks to place against the screen, and tiny dudes would climb up and over them to collect fruit. I'm sorry I've never had a chance to try it out — it sounds like great fun.

Some of that fun may have been lost in translation when the game moved to iOS. The physical bricks and arcade constraints seem like they would have made the single-player content much more engaging than it is in its current state. It's much better if you can go head to head, but with only Bluetooth connectivity and, in the HD version, single-device multiplayer, you may be hard pressed to find an opponent.

The problem with Brick People's single-player mode is that it isn't very challenging. This makes sense for a game where you need to split your attention between the screen and a bin of bricks, but it's much less taxing to drag those bricks from one part of the screen to another. All you need to do is stack them below your brick people, preferably in piles that will let them climb to the icons floating above their heads. Build a tower that reaches the fruit or numbers or water drops on the screen and the little guys will handle the rest. There's a smidge of strategy — different colors of brick people have three different abilities to manage — but the AI is rudimentary and you can't really go deep.

You're on a timer, with only 150 seconds to complete as many levels as you can. There are twenty or so, interspersed with Brick Monster challenges. The brick monsters require you to stack bricks into specific shapes, something that is never difficult. The time left on completing those levels gets added to your total, keeping you going a bit further, but eventually the clock will tick down. Fear not! When that happens, you'll be offered a nearly consequence-free continue. No matter how many times you've already failed. See the problem?

Whether you perform well or limp your way across the finish line, your score will be totaled when you complete all of Brick People's levels. You'll be ranked on the Game Center leaderboards, the only bit of competition you'll encounter. There are achievements too, but most of them involve playing the game a certain number of times on each of the three difficulty modes. This isn't really "replay value" as I understand it.

The multiplayer fares much better. At the start of the game both opponents are given randomly selected special abilities that can be activated by collecting brick monster symbols in their individual playing fields. It's a race to the finish, so it can be tough to decide between collecting more fruit or messing up your rival. The first player to win three rounds takes it all, so matches are satisfyingly lengthy. It's the most fun when you can see your opponent across an iPad (though I ran into a few bugs with the multitouch implementation), but the Bluetooth play isn't bad either.

Unless you're just dying to play Brick People with someone you're sharing a room with, though, multiplayer doesn't really make up for a lackluster single-player experience. It's cool that SEGA has tried to share a unique arcade experience with the rest of us, but it seems that this is one of those "you had to be there" things. On iOS, Brick People doesn't feel unique, it just feels dull, the sort of dull that adorable art and wackiness can't fix.

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Our ratings for games we reviewed in September are now in place, and we now present to you the ones that are on the top of the heap. Each game reviewed receives a 1-5 star rating relative to the other games from that month. Generally, a 3 or higher is considered a "good" rating.

Our final scores are not the product of any traditionally objective measures such as graphics or sound, but simply reflect the games we would most recommend to others. Keep in mind, this listing is comprised of games we reviewed in September, and not necessarily games that were specifically released in September.

5 Stars

Machinarium, $4.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – This game generated a heck of a lot of controversy when it was revealed that it'd only run on the iPad 2 only, which had us more than a little worried about its performance if it requires top-end hardware. It turns out, Machinarium runs fantastically, despite its Adobe Air-based innards. If you've got the hardware, don't miss this remarkably clever adventure.

Another World – 20th Anniversary, $4.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – It's hard to find a game on the App Store with more history behind it than Another World. Touch-based controls (as well as an optional virtual D-pad) along with both original and remastered graphics make for an outstanding port of this classic adventure game.

Tiny Heroes, $1.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – geoDefense and geoDefense Swarm cranked tower defense on the App Store up to 11, and, dare I say it, Tiny Heroes makes a great attempt to crank it to 12. Or, at least, 11 and a half. This fantasy-based tower defense title should not be missed by anyone who even vaguely fancies the genre.

King of Dragon Pass, $9.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – No lie, I've spent more time playing this game than all the other games that we reviewed in September combined. If my exhaustive review wasn't clear enough, here's all you need to know: If you like simulation games, you needed King of Dragon Pass on your iPhone yesterday. I've still got my fingers crossed for an iPad version, but I'm more than happy managing my clan whenever I've got a few seconds to spare on my iPhone.

Monsters Ate My Condo, $0.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Adult Swim and Pik Pok joined forces to bring us one of the craziest matching games we've ever seen on the App Store. The game requires matching similarly colored floors while appeasing nearby color-coded monsters, each with a more ridiculous super-power than the last. Also, you can score billions if you're good. Billions!

4.5 Stars

Fling a Thing, $0.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – It seems physics-based game that rely on flinging mechanics always work well on iOS devices. Fling a Thing follows this formula, and the addition of a crazy art style, excellent puzzle progression, and, well, things to fling makes it a great little game to have.

Gyro13 – Steam Copter Arcade HD, $0.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – It took way too long, but developers are finally starting to utilize the Unreal Engine in some interesting ways. Gyro13 puts you in charge of a cool looking gyrocopter to rescue miners trapped inside of a shockingly dangerous mine. The graphics and sound are great, and the skill requirement makes completing objectives feel like a major accomplishment.

Where’s My Water?, $0.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – This super-fun liquid-centric physics game puts you in the driver seat of helping an alligator take a shower. Sure, it's hard to come up with a more ridiculous premise, but maybe that's part of this game's charm. A wacky scrolling mechanic on some levels is the only thing we have to complain about, otherwise Where's My Water is fabulous.

Orbit1, Free – [Review] – The iPad is home to a ton of awesome single-device multiplayer games, and Orbit1 is one of the finest we've seen so far. Simple controls combined with incredibly fun gameplay make for the perfect game to play with friends while waiting in line, or doing anything else where you're bored and have an iPad as well as four people hanging around.

GoatUp, $1.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Jeff Minter's Llamasoft is responsible for releasing quite a few great retro-inspired games, and GoatUp is no exception to that. It's an endless climber with a fantastic retro spin, complete with graphics to match. If you've been a fan of Minter's previous works, make sure you don't miss this one.

jAggy Race, $0.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – What do the best kart racers always have? If you answered "TONS of jumps," you are correct. jAggy Race is filled with jumps and all sorts of other aerial stunts to perform in the wide array of tracks it comes loaded with.

Radballs, $0.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – We fell in love with RadBalls inside of the first few seconds of the trailer, and by the time it was over we were ready to yield our first born to its creator. Oh, yeah, the game is fun as hell too. It's a music-centric matching game that even allows you to use your own tracks. Check it out.

1112 episode 03, $4.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – We enjoyed ourselves through the first two episodes of 1112, and the third installment is no different. I'd start with the earlier games first, just so you're playing everything in order. Now… If the developer could start releasing more than one episode a year…

DrawRace 2, $0.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – The original Draw Race was a ton of fun and Draw Race 2 is better in absolutely every way. The line drawing control mechanic is fantastic, and the menu system could potentially fool people into thinking it was a real serious business racing game.

The rest of the game ratings can be seen in their respective rating categories (also found in the sidebar navigation): 5 Stars, 4.5 Stars, 4 Stars, 3.5 Stars, 3 Stars, and 2 Stars.

As always, we expect there will be some debate about relative scores, but keep in mind that everyone's personal ratings may vary based on individual tastes.

For more of our favorite iOS games, check out our "Best iPhone Games" category which includes all of these monthly posts as well as other special compilations of the greatest games the App Store has to offer:

• So You Just Got a Verizon iPhone… Let's Get You Up To Speed!
• So You Just Got an iPhone 4 – An App Store Gaming Guide
• Best iPod Touch and iPhone Games: 2010 Buyer's Guide
• 2010: TouchArcade Staff Favorites – Eli
• 2010: TouchArcade Staff Favorites – Blake
• 2010: TouchArcade Staff Favorites – Brad
• 2010: TouchArcade Staff Favorites – Jared
• Best iPod Touch and iPhone Games: 2009 Buyer's Guide

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Free-to-play and I don’t get along too well. If it’s not the embedded ads turning me off, it’s the oddball paid power-ups and the off-kilter balance and experience boosters. In the worst cases, it's the lack of fun because a developer pulled it out  and made it a paid feature to sponge revenue. I’d rather just pay up-front and get the entire experience from the get-go. It saves me time and frustration.

Steambirds: Survival makes F2P an exceedingly easy pill to swallow. It looks sharp, it seems to function just fine on a mechanical level, and its fun without needing to immediately pump money into it. In the early going of our preview build, at least, it appears to have all the functionality and fleshiness of a paid game, minus the paid part. This is what this new-age of free-to-play is supposed to look like, right?

I don’t think fans of Steambirds [$1.99 / HD] are going to be disappointed or overjoyed with what’s going on in Survival — it’s essentially the same game with free-to-play currency bolted on. Just like in the original, it’s a turn-based 2D strategy game that revolves positioning the gun-equipped side of your plane in smart firing positions. What makes this particularly engaging is the fact that you need to account for enemy movements before your own. The more enemies, the finer the strategy gets, even though there’s all sorts of explosive power-ups that give you a slight edge in confrontations.

It might just be me, but I love this kind of ramped back and dry action experience. I get the same kind of enjoyment from meticulous placement and observation in Survival as I do in a more intellectual puzzle-y type game.

We’ve been told that Survival has 64 different missions and while that’s probably true, the first handful look, feel, and play pretty similar. This is natural issue since Survival is primarily a wave-based “go get the enemies” type of title and all, but the same-yness makes me wonder where the legs are if it has any at all. I think the core mechanics are good enough to keep people interested in bursts, but beyond that?

You know, maybe the legs are in the currency. As you play, you earn coins that you can then turn and use to unlock new aircraft, recruit AI pilots to join you, and buy new levels. You can, of course, buy these coins with real cash, as well as pay to unlock all the levels in the game and disable its atrocious ads. Considering the prices on this stuff, it appears as though it'll take some time to unlock everything.

Survival is coming pretty soon, so we’ll give the full build a good look and probably report back to you on what it has in store. Based on what I’m seeing now, though, Survival seems to be a friendly F2P title that doesn’t dole out the fun part in exchange for money, and that is a pretty big deal in my book. Oh! And the game part is pretty hip.

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Wanna be a baller? I can't help you there, but you might want to take a look at PikPok's Slam Dunk King [Free] for a bit of inspiration. You might have all the coordination and slick moves of a sloth, but if you've got nimble fingers you're most of the way there. And, honestly? You don't need to care a whit about basketball to love this game.

Slam Dunk King is all about the trick shot. Balls are sent your way, and you've got to dunk them like a pro while racking up some crazy combos. Flick them into the net, flick away bombs, and sneak a few tricks in and you'll be well on your way. There are twelve tricks to learn, from the humble Juggle to the Air Gordon, and each will rack up your points. Tie them all together and you'll fly off the charts.

Once a round is up, your score is taken and run through a series of modifiers. How long did you go without dropping a ball, how big were your combos, how cool were your tricks? All of that is taken into account before you get your final score.

There are three ways to play. Time Attack gives you 90 seconds to earn the biggest score you can. Bombs slow you down, but nothing can stop you but the clock. Arcade mode gives you three balls – drop 'em all or let a bomb hit the net and you're done. You can earn balls back with good performance, though. Finally there's Sudden Death, by far the most punishing. One missed ball will end your game. Arcade and Sudden Death can both be unlocked by earning high scores.

Accompanying you on your quest for Slam Dunk coronation is your choice of mascot. Copernicus the robot comes along for free, and when you score enough points you can trigger him to earn bonus points for hitting bombs. There are five others to unlock, each with its own special ability.

To unlock them, and cosmetic upgrades like new courts and balls, you need crowns. Crowns can be earned by playing well. In Time Attack, performing well opens up overtime, where the balls are traded out for bronze, silver and gold crowns. Each one you dunk gives you a bit more currency to work with. You also earn a ranking that can be leveled up as you play. Not only does it give you crowns each time you level, it also increases your score modifiers.

Now, about the whole "free" things — PikPok has been incredibly generous with this freemium model, and I hope it pays off. You can play the whole game, accessing every bit of content for free, without any limits. The only thing you have to put up with is a banner ad in some menu screens, and you can pay to banish it. You can also pay to get more crowns — you earn them fairly slowly while you play, and there are a lot of tempting cosmetic upgrades to use them on. But nothing is locked behind a paywall.

Slam Dunk King masters the frantic, barely-controlled flicking and swiping that makes games like Fruit Ninja so great. Learning to juggle balls, pull off tricks and defend from bombs is a challenge, but the rewards for improvement are great. This game has the makings of a great leaderboard competition on Game Center and OpenFeint, but it's a lot of fun to challenge your own scores too. And it's free, so you really shouldn't miss it. The ball is in your court, and once its yours, you should swing by our discussion thread and let us know what you think.

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If you're constantly disappointed by the knockoffs, cash-ins and "me-toos" of the App Store, then Nicolai Troshinsky's Loop Raccord [$2.99] is the game for you. Best described as a game of video editing, it's strikingly original, much like another iOS game Nicolai designed called UFO on Tape [99¢]. On PC, it's been a finalist at the Independent Games Festival and at IndiCade and was featured at the Experimental Gameplay Sessions at GDC. And now it's available on your iPad.

Loop Raccord is all about motion. In playing, you'll queue short video clips so that the motion of one flows into the other — a raccord, by the game's terminology, Spanish for "continuity." In one clip, a letter might be dropped on the ground. In a clip below, a finger will stroke a hairbrush. It's your job to line those motions up so the finger begins its movement the moment the letter hits the ground, creating a chain reaction of sorts. It's strange and slightly cerebral, but also very compelling.

Don't be scared off by the "experimental" label. Loop Raccord is very much a game, one with all the motivational nudges we're used to. Scores and achievements are tracked with Game Center. Multitasking support seems to be missing, however, so beware of closing the game midway.

There are three game modes: Single Loop, Double Loop and Infinite Loop. In Single Loop, you're tasked with creating a single chain of clips flowing from one to another. You're scored on how accurately you can chain the clips, and how many tries it takes you. Double Loop is the same, but pits two local players against each other on either side of the device.

Infinite Loop is a bit different. In creating an endless raccord, you're scored only for the ones you get right on the first try. A high score in Infinite Loop is based off how many of those single swipes you can chain in a row. It's a tense mode, but one that allows you to keep trying for as long as you'd like.

Controlling the clips is quite simple – swipe left to travel backwards through a clip's frames, and right to travel forward. The clip will play from the moment you lift your finger. If you've successfully connected it to its predecessor you'll earn a ranking for accuracy and be able to move to the next. If not, you'll be informed if you're at least close to the correct solution.

The experience isn't without a few hitches. The clips are largely well-chosen, pulled from Archive.org's massive collection. But a few are just a bit too ambiguous, with multiple motions that could fit the requirements. It's best to play Single Loop until you've seen most of the clips, so you're not surprised mid-combo in Infinite Loop. The interface is also a bit confusing, especially when you complete a Single Loop without any feedback to indicate you're done.

Then there's the sound issue. Each clip still contains its audio. As you chain more and more clips the sound layers become increasingly complex until you hear little more than noise. It's a cool effect at first, but it can get seriously stressful. I can't play more than a few minutes with the sound on without getting anxious, so you might find the mute switch needs to be applied liberally.

But that aside, Loop Raccord is a game worth experiencing. I've never played anything like it. In some ways a successful loop feels like a Rube Goldberg machine, where the momentum from one clip launches the next, over and over ad infinitum. But it's a machine built of strange and wonderful video clips. For that alone, I'd recommend taking a look.

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FlipShip [99¢/Lite] from ByteSize Games is a 2D dodge and shoot'em-up game, which at first glance seems to resemble a bunch of other titles, like Tilt to Live [$2.99/Lite/HD], Geometry Wars [99¢], Hyperlight [$1.99] and Infinity Field [99¢/HD].  However, once you start playing it's immediately apparent that FlipShip features some interesting ideas, adding a strategic element which differentiates it nicely from those other games.

In FlipShip, your craft is maneuvered using tilt controls and automatically fires when an enemy is within range, so there's no fire button. Where it differs from your typical shooter is that the color of your spaceship is important, because you can only destroy enemies the same color as yourself. This is reminiscent of the color-based Japanese shoot'em-up Ikaruga from 2001. For example, if your ship is red, you can destroy any red enemies, but you'd better be careful to avoid the blues.  Over time more and more of the different-color enemies appear, making them increasingly difficult to avoid.

At any time you can tap the screen to "flip" the color of your ship. That's right, the title of this game – FlipShip – actually refers to "flipping the color", not flipping the spaceship over. So now, suddenly your spaceship has turned blue. This means you're now hunting the masses of blue enemies which have built up and avoiding the red ones, basically the exact opposite of before.

At this point, things get a little strategic. You could simply keep changing colors, depending on what's close. But, each time you kill a same-color enemy your combo points are increased, and these combos ramp up pretty quickly, so there's a big incentive to remain one color as long as possible to achieve massive combo points. If you play it safe and change colors, your combo point value is immediately reset. Although, if you wait too long you may get trapped by the growing number of different-color enemies and die. Choosing when to flip becomes a key part of this game.

After you've been playing for a while and destroyed masses of same-color enemies to earn an insane combo-point value, you'll probably expect to have a huge score …BUT…  you won't.  You see, your points don't actually count until you "bank" them, by flipping your color.  If you die without flipping color, you lose all your precious combo-points and score nothing.

This creates a constant strategic dilemma – do you keep hunting the same-color enemies to increase your massive combo-score, or do you feel threatened by the growing number of enemies to avoid, and flip color to safely bank the combo points so they're not at risk?  This simple mechanism elevates this game from a regular arcade shooter into a much more strategic affair.

I'm not a huge fan of tilt controls, but after configuring the tilting in the options, it worked perfectly, allowing the craft to precisely dodge and weave around enemies, squeezing through tight gaps to collect power-ups such as slow-motion, bubble-shield, packs of homing missiles and electrical bursts.

There's three spaceships to choose from, each with different speed, weapon range and a unique special ability which is triggered by tapping the power meter once it's filled by destroying enemies.  There's six levels of difficulty, ranging from 'very easy' to 'insane', each with a Game Center leaderboard, although some users report there's little difference between some of the difficulty levels and no need for so many.

Flipship's neon vector-style graphics are not as flashy, exciting and high-energy as Infinity Field, and there's not a huge amount of variety in the gameplay with just one game mode. However, the strategic color flipping concept works really well, the controls are totally responsive and people are enjoying it in our forums.

The next update will make the game Universal and is already with Apple for release shortly, plus there's a free lite version if you're curious. Playing this game may even tell you something about your own character. How confident and greedy are you – will you gamble for the high score, or flip?

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Simply put, Rescue City [Free] is a worthy addition to the line-drawing genre that has long since been dominated by the prowess of Flight Control. Rather than directly mimicking the open-world environment of the flight-landing title, Rescue City succeeds at implementing a more structured approach to vehicle management that not only still requires strategy and management, but also manages to simplify the core gameplay experience.  A tough difficulty curve and a lack of variety in environments are the only significant obstacles that hold Rescue City back.

Rescue City places you in charge of the police, firefighter, and ambulance services for a section of a city. As various incidents pop up, you must dispatch the appropriate emergency services by drawing a route to the location. Each incident has a countdown timer attached to it, and the game ends if you do not respond to the incident in time. In addition, the game also ends if any of your vehicles collide with each other while on the road.  Obviously, the crux of the gameplay becomes effective route management as you will be trying to respond to each incident as fast as possible while preventing any vehicle crashes.

As mentioned above, veterans of Flight Control will feel right at home with the gameplay and control scheme of Rescue City. However, Rescue City has some important gameplay tweaks that lead to a somewhat different experience. For example, the cityscape environment of Rescue City means that your line-drawing escapades will be restricted to the available streets, rather than the unlimited possibilities of sky navigation.

In addition, each service has different dispatch methods and vehicle stats, which add further depth to the game. For example, the ambulance incident begins at the location of need, and your job is to always guide the ambulance back to the hospital. The fire truck, meanwhile, always begins at the station and must be guided to the fire (and is much slower than the other vehicles). The police dispatch is the most interesting element: initial dispatch begins at the police station, but the car can resolve multiple police incidents without needing to return to the station. However, the police car gets its own timer, which must be reset periodically by returning to the station (and yes, the game will end if you don’t get your car back in time). The different vehicles are definitely what set Rescue City apart from other line-drawing games, and I think it’s a well-done addition to a genre that’s characterized as being full of stagnant clones.

Rescue City falters somewhat with its environment variety as well as its tough difficulty curve. Rescue City does do a good job introducing all the core elements in the first few levels, but it seems as if the difficulty gets turned up significantly once the tutorial period is over. Personally, I don’t have a problem with the difficulty (in fact, I thought it was a refreshing change of pace), but I imagine that some casual gamers may become quickly frustrated with progression. If you are one of those folks, the easiest way to succeed in Rescue City is to play the mission several times, memorize the locations of the initial emergencies (each level is fixed in that regard), and use the extra time to formulate additional strategies.

One other issue with Rescue City lies in its lack of variety in city settings. The overall game is divided into three cities with different graphic styles. However, within each city, maps get reused several times, which can make the game a bit drab and repetitive. More unique maps within each city would have gone a long way towards fixing this issue.  Also, while Rescue City scores each mission upon completion, it would have been nice if the game provided some sort of ranking system and leaderboard, as this would aid in potential replayability. Currently, once you finish all the missions, you really have no reason to return.

At its heart, even with the nice additions to the gameplay, Rescue City is still a pretty simplistic game (as are most line-drawing titles). As such, gamers looking for a particularly complicated or deep experience probably won’t find that here. However, casual gamers looking for a well-done take on the strategic line-drawing game should definitely check out Rescue City – especially since the first fifteen missions are free (the rest of the game can be unlocked as an IAP for $0.99).

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This past week we posted a preview of the first three games set to hit the App Store, marking the launch of the Elite Collection of 8-bit home computer games from noted and long-running studio Elite Systems. The games have just gone live and are available in both iPhone and iPad "HD" versions.

The initial Elite Collection titles that have arrived are Datasoft's 1987 magical platformer Black Magic, Image Works' lovely 1992 release First Samurai, and the frantic 1992 space shooter Enforcer from Manfred Trenz. Every one of these titles is very well implemented in iOS and is among the top tier of games to be found on the 8-bit platforms of decades past.

The the Elite Collection is Elite Systems' initiative to expand on their ongoing retro rebirth efforts and bring a host of classics of old to iOS — those that originated on platforms beyond the ZX Spectrum, which was their initial source platform. For more details on these titles (including videos), see our preview.

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