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Our ratings for games we reviewed in August 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.

5 Stars

Jetpack Joyride, $0.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – This is our favorite game of the month, as this endless power-up packed single-button flying game is responsible for sapping days of productivity across the entire TouchArcade staff. There are so many hooks to keep you playing that you can do "one more game" for hours through achievements, missions, unlockables, and all sorts of cosmetic customizations.

SPY mouse, $0.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Firemint has managed to de-throne Angry Birds from the #1 position on the App Store with this line-drawing-powered stealth game. Collect cheese, evade cats, use various tricks, and even fight bosses. All the gameplay elements go together incredibly well, and Firemint even managed to remove a lot of things that have historically annoyed us about stealth games in the process.

EDGE Extended, $0.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – We thought the original Edge was incredible, and Extended somehow takes that same game formula, applies a substantial layer of awesome, then knocks it out of the park. Clever platforming mechanics combined with fantastic music really just create an experience that you can't miss.

iBlast Moki 2, $0.99 / Universal HD – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – This game sets the standard of what gamers should expect of sequels. It's got familiar puzzle-centric physics mechanics of the original with tons of new features that add complexity and all kinds of new ways to solve puzzles. Additionally, a perfectly integrated solution system can show you how your friends completed a level if you get stuck.

The Last Rocket, $2.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Retro-inspired games are fairly common on the App Store, but The Last Rocket is one of the best examples we've seen of a modern-day title that could have easily passed as an absolutely fabulous NES game. The Graphics and music are all delightfully 8-bit, but even without all these retro trimmings the gameplay could stand on its own.

Anomaly Warzone Earth, $1.99 / HD – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Who knew that turning tower defense in reverse would make for such an incredible game? If you're even vaguely interested in anything to do to tower defense, Anomaly: Warzone Earth needs to be on your iOS device. The mechanics are solid, the atmosphere is cool, and it'll leave you wanting for a sequel.

4.5 Stars

Contre Jour, $0.99 / Universal HD – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – If you take the environmental modification mechanic found in Bumpy Road and combine it with a stupidly cool amount of style, you've got Contre Jour. Chillingo is on a serious streak of releasing incredible games, and Contre Jour fits that description in every way.

Sprinkle: Water splashing fire fighting fun!, $0.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Who knew that putting out fires could be so much fun? In Sprinkle, you've got to control a crazy fire hose to complete various physics-centric water puzzles. As an added bonus, the water looks and behaves beautifully and how well this mechanic is done makes Sprinkle worth picking up even if you're not normally that crazy about physics games.

Rogue Sky, $0.99 / HD – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – This balloon flying and fighting game has fantastically simple controls, both for flying as well as firing your cannons. Great graphics and a cool mood greatly add to the overall experience, and collectable in-game coins do a good job of making the game as difficult as you want it to be. Collectables can be ignored, or hunted down for an additional challenge.

Fractal: Make Blooms Not War, $1.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – It seems that the best puzzle games evoke an argument amongst our community as to whether the game is fun or frustrating, and Fractal certainly has spurred that kind of discussion. We had a great time with it, and loved the ambient soundtrack. This is definitely one game you'll want to play with the sound on.

Mega Mall Story, $3.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Kairosoft's winning simulation formula, this time applied to a crazy multi-level shopping mall. This both seems significantly deeper, and comes packed with a building mechanic that seems to make significantly more sense to us Americans than previous offerings.

Silverfish MAX, $2.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – We had a great time with the pocket-sized iPhone version of Silverfish in our review, but the game really comes alive on the iPad especially when paired with the iCade. A real joystick turns this game into an action-packed arcade experience that makes us glad that the coin slot on our iCades doesn't actually require quarters.

Kickin Momma, $1.99 / Universal HD – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Many developers have tried to duplicate the Peggle formula, but it seems like few if any have had much success. Somehow Hothead Games seems to have broken this trend, and created a game that feels just Peggle-y enough to seem familiar, but different enough to be totally enjoyable on its own.

Special Mention

Pocket RPG iPhone Edition, $0.99 / HD – [iPad Review] – [Forum Thread] – Launching last month as an iPad exclusive that we had a great time with, Pocket RPG iPhone Edition brings the same entirely randomized dungeon-crawling gameplay to the smaller screen of the iPhone and iPod touch.

FINAL FANTASY TACTICS: THE WAR OF THE LIONS, $15.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – After a wait that felt like an eternity with how fast the App Store moves, Final Fantasy Tactics landed with a bang. Hardcore fans will likely overlook all of the game's shortcomings, but the fact remains that this is an incredibly lackluster port with many technical issues that prevented us from having anywhere near as much fun as we wanted to with it.

Full Deck Hold’Em, $0.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – While it's a little difficult to get excited for another poker game, Full Deck Hold'Em feels like a game that should come pre-loaded on every iPad 2. Sporting in-game video chat with up to four friends in real-time multiplayer, it makes playing games without video feel archaic in comparison. Alternatively, if you don't have an iPad 2, you can give Word Chat [99¢] a spin with any iPhone 4 or 4th generation iPod touch to see similar video chat magic.

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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RedLynx's original DrawRace [$2.99] sucked up a large amount of my time, so when DrawRace 2 [99¢ / HD] was first announced, I had a small panic attack thinking of the amount of time it would kill in my day. Turns out, the attack was well warranted, because the sequel steps it up in every way imaginable.

The first game introduced us to the mechanic and it hasn't changed much this time around. You draw a line around a track, moving your finger quickly or slowly depending on how fast you want to go during that time, then you watch your car try to follow the line. The only difference is an added turbo button, which helps keep you engaged while you watch.

Like its predecessor, DrawRace 2 is all about momentum, but just like the first game, and even RedLynx's Trials HD, this is more of a puzzle game than a racing one. You draw your lines not for efficiency in distance, but in response to the physics of driving a car. At a fundamental level, it's a math equation wrapped in a casual title. Simply tracing a line on inside of the track won't get you far and you have to reason with the future tense in plotting your path.

Which isn't to say it's not easy to pick up and play, because it is. It's still challenging though, and by the time you reach the Pro and Champion sections of the campaign you'll be wrecking your brain to get things right.

The campaign itself is massive. You'll have 180 different challenges on 36 different tracks to complete, with each race having three separate gold medals to earn depending on how many racers you're up against. New to the mix is a good amount of vehicle variety — each with its own handling style and each suited for the variety of different track types. Many of the tracks don't let you pick which car to use, but the ones that do force you to think about the environment and the track style while making your choice.

There are also several types of multiplayer built in. There is a single device, pass-and-play multiplayer, where you pass your device back and forth among friends. There is also a friend challenge, where you can race on a track and send your friends your time through Game Center to see if they can beat you. Finally, there is a World Championship mode where you'll log your best times and race against ghosts from players around the world. Each time you level up, you advance a tier and go up against better players.

DrawRace 2 also manages to completely change the look and feel of the original. Where the first game felt like a fun, pocket game with a simple look, the sequel rounds out the already full package of content with visual flare that isn't just pretty on the eyes, but adds to the overall experience. The menu screen is cleaner and easier to understand and even the line drawing mechanic is tightened up to better represent what you're doing both visually and aurally. Obviously the track and car graphics have been updated to 3D models and look great.

DrawRace 2 is not without its issues, though. Some might justifiably find the lack of any real feedback disheartening, because, as mentioned before, this is more about the tactics of racing than actually racing. Because of that, there is a dullness that settles in when you're stuck on a track and aren't able to figure out how to complete it. You will get stuck, but the madness that follows will only serve to help you down the line once you figure out what you're doing wrong. It can be frustrating to watch your car drifting out of control and not being able to help it, but it teaches you how to better approach the style of turn in the future.

This isn't a manic, balls-to-the-wall racer, it's a calculated, slow puzzle game. While the mechanic of the original is intact, the rest of the game sees updates in every single category and its absolutely bursting with content and game modes. It quickly moves from a casual distraction to a painfully difficult obsession, so be weary if you think you can play in bursts.

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If you've ever played a puzzle game on iOS, you're probably familiar with the three-star ranking systems that plague the genre. Is plague too harsh a word? Certainly some games benefit from being able to offer a scale of difficulty, especially physics puzzles. But other games use them as a way to reward failure. Sure, you did the puzzle wrong, but you tried, and that's what matters. Here's a participation ribbon. Feel good about yourself.

Whenever I completed a puzzle in Punch A Hole [$0.99] with one or two stars, I felt that patronizing head pat. I might as well have pressed a level skip button (absent here, but also unneeded), because I certainly didn't solve the puzzle correctly. Played for one or two stars, Punch a Hole is a lifeless thing, barely able to hold my interest long enough to punch the necessary holes. Play for three stars and it comes to life, a mind-bending challenge that kept me captivated beyond any distraction while I tried and retried single levels over and over, knowing the solution was just out of my reach.

Players will certainly start in the right mindset — it's virtually impossible to earn fewer than three stars for far too many levels. Punch a Hole holds your hand too tightly while it teaches you the basic mechanics of the game. You play on a top-down billiards table, with the goal of moving colored balls into matching holes. Swipe a ball in the four primary directions and it will travel in that direction until it encounters something, like another ball, the edge of the table or a hole. You can fail by knocking it off the table or into the wrong hole, but you can always tap undo to go back as many steps as you need.

You can also punch holes in the table to stop the ball from moving, which is where the challenge comes in. Each level has a set number of holes you can create for the best ranking, the fewest that can possibly be used to solve the puzzle. When the game's difficulty eventually kicks in it requires large doses of lateral thinking. You'll need to punch a hole here so that you can bounce this ball off of that one, knocking the other over there, and…you get the idea.

Obstacles are introduced as time goes by. Balls of different colors get in each other's way, they bounce off blocks and slide through tubes. You can even paint them. Figuring out how to best use or avoid each obstacle is great fun, and what works in one level will rarely make the next much easier. There are a few epiphanies to be had, though.

Beyond the lack of conviction in ranking players' performance, Punch a Hole stumbles a few times. The difficulty curve is messy: levels are too easy for too long, and even once the challenge ramps up you'll occasional run into levels that are dead simple. The Game Center achievements are a disappointment. All of them can be earned by playing the game normally, except those for completing with three stars. Those ones can be completed by playing the game correctly. I will note, however, that while the art style and interface look overly utilitarian in screenshots, they're pleasantly simple and clean in action.

When Punch a Hole is bad, it's boring. But when it's good, it's frustrating in the best possible way. I feel well-rewarded for working my way through the slow bits when I'm free to experiment in the hardest of the levels. I can't recommend it wholeheartedly, but on the whole I've enjoyed my time with the game. I'll certainly be watching for releases from its developer, Bartosz Ciechanowski, in the future. If you decide to jump in too, let us know what you think in our discussion thread.

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The original Doodle Jump [99¢] hit the App Store in early 2009, and before the rise of Angry Birds was the undisputed king of casual gaming. The doodler has been spotted on stage at Lady Gaga concerts, and the game has even been mentioned on sitcoms as well as seen on late night talk shows. Doodle Jump was also amongst the first of the true indie success stories, created entirely by two brothers who went on to enjoy millions of downloads of the game.

The gameplay itself is ridiculously simple, and is controlled entirely by tilting, and jumping from platform to platform. Over time, and through various updates, all sorts of different power-ups, enemies, and graphical skins were also thrown into the mix. Doodle Jump was also one of the first game to feature online leader boards displayed in game by little hash marks along the side as you made your ascent, a feature that is now practically standard in any vertical jumper.

When the iPad was released, we continually quizzed developer Lima Sky for when we'd see a Doodle Jump on the big screen, and were met with responses regarding how they didn't want to just put Doodle Jump on the iPad, they wanted to do something special. Well, it turns out that all that special stuff is going to be part of an upcoming sequel, tentatively titled Doodle Jump 2.

So Doodle Jump for iPad [$2.99] is basically exactly what it sounds like: Doodle Jump on the iPad. Playing the game feels a little different since you can see so much more of the game world, and obviously playing a tilt-based game on the iPad is vastly different from the iPhone. The extra heft of the device makes playing feel a little clunky in comparison, but you quickly get used to it. Also, the directional shooting functionality is a little tricky because of the larger screen, but if you can't get a handle on that it's easy enough to turn off in the options.

If you love Doodle Jump, and want it on your iPad, now you can without needing to run the game with pixel doubling. Doodle Jump is still one of my favorite games, and is undoubtedly a true App Store classic, but after this kind of wait I was really hoping for more on the iPad than a (currently) exclusive race-centric theme for the multiplayer mode.

Regardless, the thought of Doodle Jump 2 has me really excited.

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Rubicon’s Great Little War Game [$.99 / UHD / UHD Lite], a turn-based delight that marries conventional micro-based troop management and action with over-the-top art direction and style, can now boast a new campaign and more skirmish maps thanks to a recent update. Dubbed “Call of Booty,” the free campaign adds ten additional levels to an already packed core offering. The skirmish levels number exactly five, which seems like a lot to us.

While that stuff is definitely the most important part of the update, it does also do this: it strips the IAP from the additional voice packages. From now until “forever,” you can grab the additional voice packs for no cost. That’s cool, right?

If you want to know a little bit more about Great Little War Game, there’s no better place than our review, which also highlighted update 1.4. In short, we liked what we played and think that this is a game for anyone who’s into turn-based strategy.

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The “Engineer Update” to Trainyard [$.99 / Free] creator Matt Rix was teasing earlier this month is out now and available as a free download for owners of the title. The big ticket item is the addition of a level editor, but the update also brings a bunch of new stuff to the table including Universal support for those of you with an iPad, Game Center, fresh puzzles, and “hundreds of other bug fixes and improvements,” according to Rix.

Focusing on the level editor for a second, you can see it in action in the video embedded just below. It looks like the natural evolution of the puzzle game that we expected it to be when we reported on the fact that the update was happening earlier this month. Games like LBP have taught me that I should never, ever try my hands at level design, but I think I’ll give this a try. Basically, I just want Matt to smile and say encouraging words to me.

Trainyard is one of those games that really took off when it was released. The really cool part of that particular story is that it’s a solid and inventive game that deserves its time in the spotlight. If you still haven’t checked it out, definitely give our review a read and see if that changes your mind.

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When I hit up the Sega preview event this past Tuesday, there was definitely a running theme. Held at the Kabuki hotel in San Francisco’s Japantown, there was an overwhelming amount of Asian decor in the lounge Sega had reserved as well as a delicious spread of gourmet sushi, pork buns, and veggie spring rolls. It turns out that this choice of venue by Sega was deliberate and fitting, as the main title they were showcasing at this event is a game called Samurai Bloodshow [$1.99].

Out of respect for Sega’s embargo wishes, we weren’t able to talk about Samurai Bloodshow until now, but the game has been available in Japan since June and we have even had a thread in our forums for discussing the game since then. Due to the popularity of the title in Japan, Sega has now officially brought the game to the US App Store.

Samurai Bloodshow is a strategy defense game, very similar to Plants vs. Zombies [$2.99/HD]but card-based and with a striking Japanese scroll art style. The story takes place in 12th century feudal Japan and is loosely based on historical fact. Both the Taira clan and the Minamoto clan are struggling to overthrown the Japanese Imperial government. The Taira clan is eventually successful, and then turns its sights on eradicating the Minamoto clan. This is where the defensive gameplay comes in, as you play the Minamoto clan defending the constant attacks from the Taira clan.

While the story is intriguing, Samurai Bloodshow is all about the gameplay. It’s a card based game, and there are roughly 64 different kinds of cards you can use offering a variety of different kinds of soldiers, characters, and items to use in battle. You have the ability to create multiple decks if you choose, and even trade cards with other owners of the game. Playing cards or making moves costs gold, which is a huge part of the strategy.

You can choose to spend extra gold to draw more cards for your turn, but you might regret that decision later when you’re low on funds and need to make an important move. You’ll also need to be careful when placing your cards into the field of play, as changing their position can cost gold too which can really add up.

The play field can be up to 5 lanes, depending on the terrain. Dragging a card into the field will create the soldier or item on that card. With so many different card types, there are a ton of combinations you can use in conjunction with each other for different results. For example, you may use a warrior with a spear who can reach forward a couple of squares on the gridded battlefield, but place a shield-wielding soldier directly in front of him. The shield will protect your spear while still allowing him to attack incoming enemies. You can also drag additional cards onto the characters you already have in play in order to level them up.

The single player campaign has you defending your General from 10 waves of attackers, and each mission in the campaign has multiple levels of difficulty to complete. Also, a survival mode lets you test out your deck against endless waves of enemies. Then there is a versus mode, either locally over Bluetooth or online via Game Center. Here, you’re not only trying to defend your own General, but you’ll need to be more offensively minded and go after your opponent’s General as well. The multiplayer is a ton of fun, especially since there is so much nuance and strategy to the gameplay, and I can see Samurai Bloodshow being a big hit with online players.

Perhaps my favorite part about this game so far, though, is the visuals. The old-school Japanese artwork is beautiful, and there’s something charming about the simplistic animations in the game. The coolest touch is the actual scroll on the side of the screen that will actually roll up the battlefield scenery as you scroll left and right. I haven’t seen a strategy defense game with this unique of an art style since Legendary Wars [99¢/Lite/HD], and like that game Samurai Bloodshow doesn’t look like anything else currently available.

I’ve been enjoying an advanced copy of Samurai Bloodshow for the past day or so, and have really been enjoying it. I’d definitely recommend taking a look at Samurai Bloodshow, as it feels like a fresh take on a genre that’s been done to death and it has a fantastic visual style to go along with its deep strategic gameplay.

App Store Link: SAMURAI BLOODSHOW : les vagues blanches, les nuages rouges, $1.99 (Universal)

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Maybe it’s just me, but every time I see a new game with the word ‘destruction’ in the title, I have visions of toppling buildings and whole cities a la Blast Corp. I suppose there’s just something about that inherently destructive chaos that appeals to me.

AppMania’s Demolition Master 3D [$0.99 / HD] doesn’t satisfy any of those urges. In fact, I’d argue that Demolition Master 3D is one of those rare games in which you utilize the power of explosive forces to create ordered destruction. It’s interesting, thoughtful, and requires precision in order to succeed. Other than some annoying control issues, Demolition Master 3D is a puzzle game worth checking out.

As is the case with most puzzle games, Demolition Master 3D offers set levels that must be completed before moving forward. Each puzzle has various types of wooden, stone and metal structures along with different types of explosives for your use. The goal of each level is to earn stars by toppling structures, blasting pieces of debris into green and yellow-tinted items littered across the playing field, all while preventing the same debris from hitting red-colored objects.

Typically, a 3D puzzle game is only as good as its physics engine, and Demolition Master 3D does a good job of implementing an intuitive and predictable system that makes it a blast to play. Even as each level gets progressively harder and requires more thought and precision in placing your dynamite, I never thought that I was in a position where I could never figure out the solution.

In addition, due to the nature of the 3D physics, there are multiple solutions to each problem, which I think is always a good way to make a puzzle game less frustrating. Thankfully, Demolition Master 3D anticipates the fact that a lot of levels will be solved based on trial-and-error and allows you to instantly go back to your last explosive set-up should you fail to achieve all the objectives. This lets you go back and adjust your previous dynamite positions with little effort. It’s a small feature, but one I think is overlooked in a lot of similar puzzle games.

As far as content is concerned, Demolition Master 3D has over 60 levels that span three different locations. The locations simply serve as different backdrops and don’t particularly affect the gameplay, although the change in scenery is always nice. You’ll find that it’s relatively easy to breeze through the first 20 or so level, although you’ll most likely start spending more time per level as you get further in and they get more complex. I would have liked to see more content for long term viability and it seems that AppMania will eventually be releasing another level pack.

Whenever a game requires a good deal of precision and strategy, its controls become even more important. Unfortunately, this is where Demolition Master 3D falters somewhat. The control scheme just seems a bit unintuitive at first glance. It takes too many taps in order to actually place a bomb on a structure, and the controls just don’t seem smooth enough if you need to reposition an already placed explosive.

The most annoying issue I had was having the game not register my taps when I was trying to select specific structures in order to drag around specific bombs attached to that structure. Fortunately, Demolition Master 3D does offer a decent tutorial at the onset, and the controls become easier to use the longer you play. However, it may detract some players just starting out, which would be a shame.

Control issues aside, Demolition Master 3D is a solid puzzle game that gets a lot right. There’s enough content to keep you busy, and the three-star rating system, coupled with high score competitions via Open Feint and Game Center ensures that you have the motivation to continually return to each level in the hope of increasing your score. There’s nothing particularly eye-catching or unique about this game, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it can’t offer an enjoyable experience.

With that said, if you’re a fan of puzzle games in the third dimension and willing to endure a small learning curve, Demolition Master 3D may be worth a try.

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We've had our hands on an early build of Halfbrick's Jetpack Joyride [99¢] for quite some time now, and ever since then I've been trying to figure out the best way to approach a review of the game. Between our own hands-on preview and Halfbrick's series of developer diaries (Parts 1, 2, and 3) I'm really not sure what else can be said about the actual gameplay. Between myself, and Halfbrick's own videos, you've seen everything that Jetpack Joyride has to offer. As explained in the previously mentioned preview, Halfbrick hasn't done anything particularly innovative with the game, instead, they've taken a tried and true gameplay package and in essence, turned it up to 11.

If you've at all missed out on what Jetpack Joyride is, please go check out our preview. I'll quote some here to whet your appetite:

Halfbrick has taken the cave flyer formula which has been done to death and via their seemingly trademarked Australian majicks created a game that I simply cannot put down. In fact, just writing this article is proving to be difficult because every time I go back to the game to add something to my notes, I find 15 minutes has flown by as I've endlessly sent Mr. Steakfries to his doom via lasers, missiles, and zappers.

The controls are rock solid, and work via the standard tried and true single button approach where you touch the screen to power up the thrusters of Barry's jetpack, and release to send him falling back down. Powerups are plentiful via vehicles that you can ride in that all behave very differently. These vehicles serve as a temporary shield of sorts, and will allow you to, for instance, take a missile to the face without ending your flight. …more

What makes Jetpack Joyride truly noteworthy isn't the array of power-ups, the endless customization, the various objectives, or the on death slot machine system. It's really the sum of all these different parts that have created a game that has kept me playing to the point of disregarding real world responsibilities for one more go at Jetpack Joyride. And really, I believe this is the highest praise a games journalist could possibly give a game.

In the world of the App Store, there's a never-ending supply of new games to try. We maintain lists of games to check out, and it seems like those lists rarely, if ever, reach a point where we're "finished" for the day. It's a brutal cycle that doesn't often afford us the ability to actually sit back and play the games we enjoy, because there are always other games to play from an endless queue of seemingly worthy titles that all deserve a once-over. This is especially true for me as I keep our team of writers on track and make sure all of our coverage jives.

Jetpack Joyride is the first game in a very long time that has left me lagging behind checking my email, leaving the Adium icon hopelessly bouncing in my dock with new instant messages, and entirely disregarding the fact that my clothes have been sitting in the dryer for nearly four days now. Attending to emails, answering IM's, and even folding clothes just loses out every single time to playing one more round and seeing how far I can go.

Normally this is the part where I'd try to qualify what kind of person would most enjoy Jetpack Joyride with tired cliches like "fans of the genre" and other phrases we love using. But really, everyone I've handed my phone to in the past week to try the game has reluctantly handed it back with a massive smile on their face a few minutes later. Jetpack Joyride doesn't need any kind of "if you like randomized endless games" or any other disclaimers. It is a game you simply must own.

Jetpack Joyride is universal, and will run on every iOS device except for the O.G. iPhone and first generation iPod touch. There's an entirely optional in-app purchase mechanic as well where you can buy coins instead of earning them in game, but since that basically robs you of any kind of progression and replay value I'm not sure why you'd ever do that– But, fair warning to those of you out there who get worked up over the inclusion of IAP, no matter how unnecessary it is. If you for some reason need some additional convincing before mashing that download button in iTunes, swing by our forums where you'll see similar praise for this incredible game.

TouchArcade Rating:

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Just last week we brought you the news that several employees of the now-shuttered Bizarre Creations had formed a new studio, Hogrocket, with a new iOS property hitting the App Store in September. Well time flies, September is here and so is that title, which we're now at liberty to discuss. It's called Tiny Invaders [$3.99] and it's a quest to take over humanity — from the inside out.

In Tiny Invaders you control microscopic aliens who are here to dominate the human race. To take on such a gargantuan task they delve into the bloodstream of the first person they find, a hick stereotype that just so happens to be in the path of their crash landing. Once inside his body they race through his bloodstream, collecting his white blood cells (or so I assume his "human orbs" to be) and infecting him piece by piece.

The target for infection has systems of veins and arteries laid out as tracks. The invaders automatically travel along those tracks, following the path of least resistance. The player has two pieces of input: switching the track to make the invaders take a different path, and tapping them to make them travel faster.

That doesn't sound like much to keep on top of, but it's enough that the game eventually becomes entirely overwhelming. Each level is ranked with time limits, and to earn the top honors you'll need to plan carefully and execute efficiently. The levels become increasingly devilish, wrapping track over track in intricate knots. Getting through the early levels is simple enough, though finding the perfect route to slip in under the time limit is always delightfully difficult. In later levels, however, all bets are off.

As you make your way through Tiny Invaders' 60 levels, you'll run into all manner of things to hinder or assist your progress. The first is the glowing orb: when brought back to your base, this creates a new invader. To earn the best completion times you'll need to think carefully about how to claim those orbs on your first pass. Then come the enemies, who travel along tracks just like your invaders do. Precise timing is required to keep your invaders slipping past them instead of slamming into them.

Then the going gets really tough. Later levels are littered with gadgets that will speed up any critters that pass by, or clone them, or teleport them. These affect foes as well as friends, so staying safe becomes harder than ever. With all of these elements in place, Tiny Invaders strikes a great balance — you'll need to plan your route out in advance and then react quickly to the changing environment.

This is where Tiny Invaders excels, but it's also where the game falters. I appreciate its dedication to one-touch controls, but there have been moments where I've wanted to throw my phone in frustration as the game made a seemingly arbitrary choice between speeding up my invaders, speeding up the enemy units and swapping a track. The death of your invaders holds no serious consequences, but when you're aiming for three stars and an imprecise tap gums up the works it can be a bit irritating. At least the reset button is just a tap away and every level can be skipped freely, so no irritation is too lasting.

Beyond the occasional muddled input, Tiny Invaders is an excellent debut from the folks at Hogrocket. Its puzzles are infused with such urgency that you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat, mashing reset to take one more shot at beating the timer. But speed is no excuse to get sloppy — you'll need to think several steps ahead to master each level. It's a great pairing of action and puzzle, one that deserves your time and attention. If, on the other hand, you think the price is just too darn high, I'm sure you'll find people to commiserate with in our discussion thread.

TouchArcade Rating:

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