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There's so many games coming out tonight that I don't even want to waste time on a witty introduction to this post. It's like this is the Wednesday before the Christmas App Store freeze, this is a veritable stampede of games. Anyway, the way this works is a little like this: Developers can set their release dates on the App Store for a specific date in the future. Since the App Store is a worldwide market, things are released in the various regions as it becomes that date in said region. New Zealand's proximity to the International Date Line makes them first, followed by Australia and eastern Asia, then slowly the rest of the world. All of these games should be available in the US App Store at 11:00 PM Eastern time!

Without further ado-

1-bit Ninja, $1.99 – Forum Thread – We've been looking forward to this game since we first heard about it. 1-bit Ninja combines old-school platforming with a slick 3D gimmick where you can rotate the camera to see what appears to be a 2D plane in 3D, potentially revealing secret platforms. I've been lucky enough to spend some time with a pre-release copy of the game, and it's awesome. You can't move backwards though, which takes a little getting used to.

BackStab, $6.99 – Forum Thread – What do you get when you combine Pirates of the Caribbean and Assassin's Creed? Well, you're looking at it! I spent some time with BackStab at E3, and while the pirate universe definitely seemed cool, it was a little weird to be doing missions that were fairly obviously lifted directly out of Assassin's Creed. Regardless, it's being released as a universal app, which is something I can totally get behind.

Battleship for iPad, $2.99 – Forum Thread – Another game we saw at E3. This is a technically competent port of Battleship, but it boggles my mind why EA releases games like this without online multiplayer. I mean really, with how successful Words With Friends has been, imagine how much more successful similar push-based online multiplayer would be with a recognizable IP behind it.

Circus City, Free – Forum Thread – Have you grown tired of building farms, tending livestock, and other similar tasks? Well, Glu hopes running a circus is something that will entice you into Circus City a try.

Continuity 2: The Continuation, 99¢ – Forum Thread – This game looks really slick, as they've combined platforming and sliding puzzle games into one. It's universal too, making the whole thing even more appealing.

D.A.R.K., 99¢ – Forum Thread – I got a super-early look at this game back at PAX East, and while it looked awesome then, it looks so much cooler now. D.A.R.K. is an action-oriented Sci-Fi RPG with tons of enemies, upgrades, and content to blast through.

Don't Fall Off, 99¢ – Forum Thread – This game puts you in charge of helping Rollie stay on his little paper boat floating down a river. For whatever reason, Rollie can't get wet, making his choice to travel by water extremely questionable.

Fish Odyssey, 99¢ – Forum Thread – I can't help but be pedantic with this game's title. Clearly it's called Fish Odyssey, but it seems the majority of the animals you're helping jump over waves by tapping are actually mammals. I suppose Mammal Odyssey doesn't have that great of a ring to it.

Hills of Glory: WWII, 99¢ – Forum Thread – I'm not sure describing this as a "castle defense" game is the most accurate, but it seems to fit. You defend your base from an onslaught of enemies using various military weaponry. Sure, your base isn't technically a castle, but it's similar.

Ionocraft Racing, $1.99 / HD – Forum Thread – This steampunky version of Wipeout features 13 tracks, upgrades, online leaderboards, and everything else you could ask of a steampunk version of Wipeout.

Kona's Crate, $2.99 / HD – Forum Thread – The above trailer makes this game look like a ton of fun, but I can't get over how weird it is to make a crate the main character that you have control of in this game. Regardless, there's over 60 levels for you to fly your crate through, online leaderboards, and all kinds of other goodies.

Lamebo VS Zombies, 99¢ – Forum Thread – Developers are really reaching these days to come up with things that haven't already been done before in the world of zombie games. This one in particular attempts to differentiate itself by having you control a, uh, sheep. Despite the weird premise, the art style of the game looks fantastic and I'm always a sucker for games with tons of upgrades to unlock.

Monkey Island Tales HD, $6.99 – Forum Thread – Currently, Monkey Island Tales HD Episode 1 [$6.99] is available on the App Store, and Telltale is wasting no time releasing the others. Here's iTunes links for the rest of the series coming tonight:

• Episode 2
• Episode 3
• Episode 4
• Episode 5

Powerslide Penguin, 99¢ / Universal HD – Forum Thread – This penguin-flinging game looks cool in the trailer, but it's another one of those mega-confusing split non-HD and HD releases like Red Ball 3. The HD version is universal, but the non-HD version doesn't include Retina Display graphics, so if you want those, you'll need to spring for the HD version.

Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, $1.99 – Forum Thread – This Mario Kart-esque game seemingly has it all. Tons of recognizable characters, universal compatibility, online multiplayer, and a reasonable price. I'm surprised!

Sunshine Cruise Lines, Free – Forum Thread – This free to play game has a fairly interesting premise that involves customizing your own cruise ship. There's also functionality in game to actually go on cruises, visit various ports, and all kinds of other cruise-related things. I admit, I'm intrigued.

Tiny Tower, Free – Forum Thread – NimbleBit fans have been waiting for this game forever, and it's finally here. They've applied the same free to play style of gameplay from Pocket Frogs where paying for anything truly does feel optional. It's a ton of fun, I had a blast with beta versions of the game and have been building my tower since I got my hands on the final version of the game last week. Don't miss Tiny Tower.

Trenches: Generals for iPad, 99¢ – Forum Thread – The Trenches series of games have been stupidly popular on the App Store, and now Thunder Game Works is bringing it to the iPad. The start of the show seems to be the single device multiplayer, seen above, which looks like a ton of fun.

Watch Out Danger Ahead, 99¢ / Lite – Forum Thread – This super-minimal platformer puts you in control of a simple ball. I'm digging the simple art style. Make sure you check out the above trailer.

War Grimoire HD, $2.99 – Judging by screenshots, this tower defense game has some crazy awesome art in it. 60 kinds of weapons (towers?) are included, as well as 30 different environments. The graphics look fantastic, and it's even got an entirely original soundtrack.

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The name Spiderweb Software is a bit misleading, after all, it's mostly the work of one man, Jeff Vogel, who has for almost twenty years given us some of the most intricate RPGs on PC and Mac. Until now, at least, these were often an inclusive, old-schooler affair. But Avadon: The Black Fortress HD [$9.99] is one of the first to be easily approachable — it's also the first to hit the iPad.

You'd be forgiven if you've glanced at screenshots and balked at the idea of playing Avadon, it's not a pretty game. Visually, it falls somewhere in the '90s, pre-CD-ROM drive, which is to say it's an isometric RPG akin to something like Baldur's Gate, Ultima or even Fallout. It's filled with old-fashioned tilesets, hardly animated sprites and a locked camera that doesn't allow you to zoom nor rotate. While I'm getting things out of the way, I should probably also mention there is no musical score. The sound, when it does exist is hardly worth paying attention to and the amount of modern day polish slathered on here lays somewhere between murky and non-existent.

But none of that has anything to do with what makes Avadon a good game, because it's good based solely on the actual game, not the flair.

Avadon isn't as hardcore of an RPG as it might look on first glance and it's also considerably more approachable than Vogel's earlier games. You start the game by picking one of four pre-built classes and typing in a name. No complex stat sheets, no guessing what abilities you'll need and what you won't. You'll meet other adventurers along your journey who will join your party. You'll level up through your adventure, but it's done mostly through a small skill tree, not a vast collection of unknown abilities leading to more unknown abilities.

Combat is turn-based and works well, provided you enjoy turn-based combat. If you don't, consider this an ample warning. Depending on the difficulty level you chose, you'll need to concentrate on your strategy in different ways. There is, quiet literally, something for everyone here. A complete RPG-virgin can pick it up and walk through the game with little trouble on Casual, but the higher levels should provide adequate challenge for players of all backgrounds. Naturally, you'll pick up loot, outfit your team with different equipment and change around your stats. For the most part, this is all relatively self-explanatory, although the menus don't make things easy if you're swapping items between party members.

It's the story that really matters here more than anything else, it's what's going to keep you going through the night. That story bends to your will and your actions and like the best RPGs, you're not always aware of it when it's happening. The core of the narrative comes from you enlisting as a Hand to the Pact, a high-horse power created by a group of nations bent on protecting the good of itself and its people from a fortress called Avadon. This doesn't just mean they protect the borders, it also means they'll burn down villages, kill helpless creatures and lock people into prisons.

As with most of Vogel's games, the writing in Avadon is well done and sprinkled with enough wit and humor that you don't feel oppressed by the seriousness of it all. Within a few hours you'll have a good grasp on the Avadon's structure, the religions, your fellow fighters and a number of the NPC groups. You'll also start getting the sneaking suspicion the Pact and Avadon aren't all they're cracked up to be.

As you play through the game's 20-30 hour campaign, you'll start to notice how your actions are affecting the larger story, from minor quips in dialogue or descriptions to fully-fledged moments that couldn't have existed had you not done something earlier. The dialogue options aren’t the color-coded morally simple choices of modern RPGs, nearly every time you need to respond to a situation it will sit somewhere on a gray scale between good and evil and you'll never know for sure if you're making the right choice. The plotline is basically linear, save for a fair share of side quests, but you still feel like you're having an affect on the world, for better or worse.

The translation to iPad is relatively fluid. I had a few crashes and memory errors while playing, but nothing that set me back too much. The touch screen works well for this type game, although you'll occasionally accidently move your characters around when you mean to fight because you'll tap on the wrong part of the grid. The item screen, as mentioned earlier, is a bit unwieldy with a touch screen and requires an excessive number of taps to get to business, but you'll get used to it. If you've played Spiderweb's RPGs before, you'll know what to expect, but Avadon is considerably more linear and less open than much of its previous work. That's not a bad thing in this case; it's a good entry point into a deeper RPG for iPad players and a great throwback to people who've been playing for a long time. It's streamlined, yes, but not to the point where you feel like you have no control. You still have to read signs to get directions, take note of what people say and remember (in your head, not in an objective screen) where you're going and why you're going there.

Avadon: The Black Fortress HD might take a little while to sink in, but if you get enmeshed in the narrative and the world, it's hard to walk away from it. It's been a long while since I accidently stayed up all night with a game, but Avadon managed to do that without even bothering with fancy visuals or voiced dialogue. It's not going to be a game for everybody, but if you're weary of spending the completely fair price of $10 on the iPad version, I'd suggest checking out the demo for the PC or Mac versions. The experience is similar, although the iPad version will occasionally run into some frame rate drops and has a lower resolution. If you're a fan of '90s RPGs and have been craving something that doesn't hold your hand or guide you along on the iPad, this is the perfect game for you.

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Back in March, Gameloft announced a new 3D action game called Backstab. Strangely, the game seemed to be an exclusive to the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play phone which also launched that month. Most people speculated that the title would eventually make its way to iOS, and indeed we did get our hands on an iPad version of Backstab at E3 earlier this month, though we still didn’t know when it would be hitting the App Store. Today, Gameloft has officially announced via their Twitter that Backstab will be launching this Thursday the 23rd, and have released new screens and a trailer which you can see below:

As you can see from the trailer, Backstab has a heavy pirate theme going on but gameplay looks really similar to the stealth-style killing of the Assassin’s Creed series. I never played the Xperia version of the game, so am not really qualified to say if that is a winning mashup or not, but it’s definitely intriguing. At least we won’t have long to wait before putting the game through its paces when it launches on Thursday. Until then you can check out the new screenshots at Gameloft’s Facebook page or partake in a discussion of Backstab in our forums.

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Jared did a marvelous preview of 1-bit Ninja early last month, and the game originally was scheduled to be released a few weeks later. Since then, we've gotten comments, emails, and forum threads wondering where in the heck it was. Well, good news, it's coming this Thursday.

Check out the new trailer:

And here's some screenshots to whet your appetite:

Looks awesome, right? I love the idea of a classic Gameboy-esque platformer with the 3D twist to find hidden parts of each level. It'll be out this Thursday, and you can bet on us having a review out shortly afterwards.

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The general rule of thumb for cooking chicken is that you want to cook it slowly so it retains its juices and doesn’t dry out too quickly. It's a delicate balance to ensure you don't walk away with food poisoning, but if you get it just right, you'll have a tasty treat. The same goes for most puzzle games and AQSystem's Toast the Chicken [99¢] is at first a slow burn, but as the difficulty ramps up it becomes clear it's an original concept that doesn't play like much else before it.

The goal of each of the 50 stages is to set the chickens in the room on fire. To do so, you'll be swiping the screen to move a scientist around and tapping an area to set a fire. Each fire you set will spread every time you move across a grid or wait out a turn. As any smart chicken or human would be wont to do, they'll move away from the fire as it gets closer, meaning a bulk of the game is spend figuring out how to corner the chickens and protect the scientists at the same time. Game over comes from your death, or the death of the other scientists sometimes spread around the levels.

Toast the Chicken does a good job of introducing its elements into the mix slowly as the levels progress. Every ten or so levels a new element is introduced and you'll be able to move boxes, drop oil, set up obstacles and even use a Molotov cocktail.

You'll be doing all this on a wide arrangement of level sizes. One particularly difficult level toward the end is only sixteen blocks and requires perfect timing, whereas others are much larger and more spatially oriented, with roadblocks getting in the way of fires or boxes needing to be moved to ensure both your safety and the chicken's death. Like any puzzle game, everyone is going to have a different experience, but the diversity in puzzle type ensures that most people are going to struggle at least a few times.

Thankfully, there is an "undo" function if you mess up. As things start to get exponentially complicated as you move along, you'll be managing several fires at once all while trying to time everything so your fellow scientists don't get set on fire before the chickens. You can undo as many turns as you need to without affecting your final score, which gets a medal award by the end, and you can compare to other players on Game Center or OpenFeint.

Of course, the "undo" function being a necessity also sheds light on the level design's occasional hiccups. On the later levels you'll feel more like you're getting through based on trial-and-error instead of a carefully laid out plan, but considering the game would be near impossible without being able to undo mistakes, it's a necessary evil in this case. Even still, it would be nice to be able to skip levels when one is proving especially difficult.

Visually, Toast the Chicken gets the job done with cute, cartoon graphics that bring to mind early Cartoon Network style art. The music matches the style, but considering it's essentially one song looped over 50 different levels, chances are you'll be muting it relatively quickly. Aesthetically, the stages don't change much as you go along, but since you end up toasting an entire level by the end, it doesn't make much of a difference.

Toast the Chicken is a new experience for puzzle game aficionados. The closest thing it resembles is something like Boxed In and in that same way it's more original than it might seem by just glancing at the screenshots. It might have the look of just another casual puzzle game, but the level design is clearly geared toward people who don't mind losing more often than not. It cooks slowly and once it ramps up toward the end, it's a diabolical, thoroughly enjoyable puzzler.

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Remember last week when we posted a set of borderline unbelievable looking screenshots for Madfinger's upcoming Shadowgun? I admit, even I was skeptical about whether or not this game would look anything like this when it's actually running on a device. Two videos recently appeared with the game running on a Tegra 2-based Android device, give 'em a look:

If this is how the game runs on Tegra 2 devices, I can't wait to see it running on the iPad 2 which is a graphical beast in comparison. Madfinger has committed to releasing the game on the iPad, iPad 2, iPhone 4, and of course, whatever the iPhone 5 is called. No word yet on older devices. If this all sounds interesting to you (and I don't know why it wouldn't), stop by the thread on our forums where people from Madfinger are actively posting and answering questions.

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NaturalMotion Games has unveiled their newest iOS offering called Icebreaker Hockey. Picture NaturalMotion’s highly successful arcade-style football game Backbreaker 2: Vengeance [99¢] and apply it to ice hockey, and you have a pretty good idea what to expect from Icebreaker Hockey.

Players will race down the ice towards the net from a third person perspective, avoiding hits from opposing players using deke and spin maneuvers in an effort to get a clean shot on goal. This arcade-style of gameplay worked really well in the Backbreaker series on iOS, and seems like a natural fit for the sport of ice hockey.

Here’s a set of screenshots from Icebreaker Hockey which is looking quite impressive:

The game is being developed by Digital Legends Entertainment and published by NaturalMotion, and will also use their advanced “morpheme” animation engine to provide smooth and realistic animations to the players in the game. Icebreaker Hockey will come with 2 different modes to play across 3 difficulty levels, and will use Game Center integration for achievements and leaderboards.

Icebreaker Hockey is scheduled to hit the App Store on June 2nd at a price of $2.99. Members in our forums correctly speculated way back in October that we’d be seeing Icebreaker Hockey on iOS, and now it’s actually official. We’ll be sure to check out Icebreaker Hockey when it releases next week.

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Way back in October of last year, just before Halloween, we learned that an official Evil Dead game was in the works. For fans of the 1980s cult-classic horror flick, this was some pretty exciting news, especially with how faithfully the announcement trailer mimicked the original trailer for the actual movie. Unfortunately, since that announcement, the Evil Dead game has somewhat fallen off the radar, with very little new information being released for the title.

The project most certainly was not dead though, as developer Trigger Apps has been occasionally popping into our forums to let our members know that the game is taking longer than expected, but is still very much on the way. In fact, if plans go as expected, Evil Dead will be available sometime next month. There aren’t a ton of details just yet on exactly what the gameplay will entail, but we do know that you’ll be playing through all the major events of the movie plus some additional events unique to the game.

Trigger Apps has released a new batch of in-game screenshots for Evil Dead, which you can check out below (click to enlarge):

We expect that more information will slowly be revealed as Evil Dead nears its release next month. Be sure to follow along with the upcoming games thread in our forums for even more information and discussion of the game. Evil Dead will be launching for 3rd generation iPhone and iPod touch devices as well as both iPads, and we’ll have more details as we get closer to the release in the coming weeks.

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Confession time: some games are so adorable I just can't resist them. Storm in a Teacup [99¢] is one of those games – I saw the screenshots and I knew it had to be mine. Based on the reaction in our forums, I'm not alone. Luckily the game largely lives up to its first impressions.

Yes, Storm in a Teacup is completely adorable. But it's also a great little platformer. In it, you control Storm, a little boy riding a teacup through an imaginary world created by his brother, Cloud. Using on-screen controls, you move him around the game world by flying in short bursts. You can't get far without running out of boosting power, so you'll need to time jumps carefully to get where you're going. You'll also need to solve simple physics puzzles as you work your way through.

My biggest fear going into this game was that the on-screen controls wouldn't work out, but I found them quite responsive. It took a while to get the rhythm of flight down – one full press of the boost button won't always get you where you want to go, so you need to learn to tap it to extend your flight time – but otherwise the controls always worked well.

Thank goodness for that, because you'll need precise control over Storm if you want to pick up all the collectables. Each level of Storm in a Teacup is stocked with sugar cubes and a well-hidden sticker. If you find every sugar cube, locate the sticker, and make it through the level without dying, you'll earn a "perfect" for that level and get to see your best completion time. Crystal/Game Center achievements keep track of your perfects, and provide some interesting challenges for completing levels in unusual ways.

Storm in a Teacup includes 40 main levels. Playing through the whole game took me about three hours, though the fastest completion time recorded so far is 40 minutes. There are also five survival levels that can be unlocked throughout the course of the game. Between those and the challenge of perfect playthroughs, there's lots to replay. The difficulty curve also works well. You're faced with simple levels while you learn the controls, but by the midway point things get challenging. There were a couple frustrating moments when I really wanted to skip a level, but every level can be completed with enough care.

One technical note: Storm in a Teacup is universal, but some of our forum users have complained about low frame rate on older devices, including the original iPad. Hopefully this will be addressed in an update. Given the choice, I preferred playing the iPhone version (I find the on-screen controls uncomfortable after a while on iPad), but there are a few sections where the camera zooms out and the action is difficult to see.

I'm really happy with what Storm in a Teacup has to offer, but I feel like Cobra Mobile missed an opportunity to take it from a sweet, challenging platformer to an instant classic. All that's missing is a good story. I couldn't help but wonder why Cloud had created this wonderland for his brother, and why it got progressively more sadistic as the game went on. Sibling rivalry? Was I dodging spinning blades while being blown into spikes because Storm had played with Cloud's toys or called him names? A story as cute and absurd as the game world would have made Storm in a Teacup come to life. That said, it's a great game and an easy recommendation.

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Words With Friends [2.99 / Free / HD] has dominated the multiplayer word game genre on the app store for a long time, but recently some new competitors have elbowed their way in: Kalimat [$2.99 / Free] and Wordfeud [Free]. We've loved Words With Friends since way back when, but it can't hurt to see what the competition has to offer.

Both games are Scrabble-style word games with asynchronous multiplayer – Kalimat through OpenFeint, and Wordfeud through its own system. Both also have free, ad-supported versions to try (Kalimat's cripples some features). But there are a few things that set these games apart from each other.

Wordfeud beat Words With Friends to Android earlier this year and then made its way to the App Store. It's not pretty, with its muted colors and plain interface, but it's quick. I ran into a few small bugs, but nothing game breaking. Currently, it supports six dictionaries, including Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, and both English tournament dictionaries (TWL and SOWPODS).

Screenshots of Wordfeud

You also have the option of using a randomized board. I've had a good time with randomized games since I've been playing Wordfeud. For example, things get pretty tense when you're trying to keep your opponent from making a word that lands on a clump with two triple-word scores and a double-word score. Meanwhile, the regular board layout is the closest to the traditional Scrabble layout I've seen.

Kalimat, on the other hand, will probably become my new game of choice. It includes Pass & Play (a feature Wordfeud lacks), Open Feint/Game Center achievements and an Arabic dictionary. But what I really love is Remix mode.

Remix mode rewards quick play. If you make your move within one minute of starting your turn, your points triple. Within two minutes, you earn double points and after that, things go back to normal. You can also swap letters once per turn without penalty, and one hidden square on the board awards bonus points.

Screenshots of Kalimat

It's a gimmicky mode, but it can be a lot of fun. Scores inflate like mad. Thanks to a ridiculously lucky move (all seven letters on multiple double-word squares during the first minute of my turn), I managed to get over 1500 points with one word. It was hilarious, but my opponent missed the humor of the situation somehow.

There are two things that keep me from recommending Kalimat wholeheartedly. One is the board layout. It's easy to land on multiple high-scoring squares in a single turn early on, resulting in huge leads even in normal mode. I've also had a lot of difficulty finding random people to play with. I'm not sure whether the problem is the size of the playerbase or the way Kalimat makes matches, but there have been times when I could only find one other player.

Unfortunately, neither game has the missing feature a lot of Scrabble fans are looking for: stat tracking. They both keep track of wins and losses with a list of previous games, just like Words with Friends, but neither keeps a detailed profile with stats. If that isn't a deal breaker, both Wordfeud and Kalimat mix up the Scrabble formula enough to keep things fresh.

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