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Does the name Timo Vihola ring a bell? If you're a card carrying member of the cult of Minigore [99¢ / HD] you're surely familiar, otherwise, he's the artist and co-creator responsible for the Minigore phenomenon as well as a game designer for the recently released Death Rally [$4.99]. In its day, Minigore had an absolutely ridiculous amount of tie-ins with playable characters from other similarly popular games, so it's not much of a surprise to find that John Gore himself is making an appearance in the below video showing off impending Death Rally update.

All of the features of this new update are detailed in our forums, but it basically amounts to a new car, two new weapons, a new challenge mode, as well as oodles of tweaks and bug fixes.

The update is currently "in review" and Timo is expecting it to drop at any moment. Also, the second update for the game is on the verge of being completed, and it sounds like it will be submitted as soon as this one is approved. Death Rally is a fantastic game, is universal, and is one of the few iPad 2 optimized titles out there. For more information check out our review. I've got nothing but good things to say about Death Rally, especially with developers committing to these kinds of update cycles. Actually, I do have one complaint. They included TUAW's Mike Schramm as a playable character with the game's launch, where's the TouchArcade love?!

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DarkWave Games, developers of Master of Alchemy [99¢/HD] on the App Store, have revealed their latest game titled Act of God: Hurricane. It’s similar to a vertically scrolling shooter with one major difference – there’s no shooting. Instead, your main character can turn himself into a destructive hurricane to defeat enemies. It’s a pretty interesting concept, and I had a chance to try out a work-in-progress build at GDC last month and was pretty impressed.

The story in Act of God: Hurricane involves you playing a soldier who, due to a military experiment gone bad, finds himself able to turn into a hurricane. You decide to turn against your former military and seek vengeance for turning you into a freak of nature (literally). Plus, they're just corrupt and bent on world domination, which doesn't sit so well with you. The game employs a comic book art style, with graphics inspired by classic arcade shmups and neat special effects for your hurricane which can be upgraded with additional abilities.

During my time with the game, I really enjoyed the non-shooting aspect of it. It feels like a melee-based shooter, where the focus is on dodging bullets and sneaking next to enemies to pound on them with your hurricane. I love shooters but have always been slightly annoyed at the auto-firing of practically every shooter on iOS, since originally games like this were all about pounding away at a fire button. The concept in Act of God: Hurricane solves this problem and is a nice alternate take on the genre. The controls are also extremely responsive, as they should be for a game like this. Check out the following video which shows a complete playthrough of one of the levels in Act of God: Hurricane.

Act of God: Hurricane is still in the midst of development, and DarkWave is really interested in collecting feedback about what people like or dislike about the game in order to shape its outcome. They’ve opened a thread in our upcoming games forum where they’ll be listening to any feedback and working towards implementing some ideas into the final product. Definitely drop by the forums and sound off with your opinion of the game, and we’ll keep our eye on Act of God: Hurricane and bring you more from the game as it nears release.

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I wish there were more details available than the headline, but that's it. SoMoGa is responsible for the bringing the similarly fantastic old-school RPG Vay [$4.99] to the App Store, and we're expecting Lunar: Silver Star Touch to be of similar quality. We briefly chatted with SoMoGa at GDC, and the one tidbit that we can offer about Lunar is that it won't be a shoddy port by any means, this is a complete from the ground up touch-based port of the game, not a ROM wrapped in a mediocre emulator like Sega's offerings.

(Video of the PlayStation remake of the game.)

Originally released in North America for the Sega CD in 1993 and the PlayStation in 1998, Lunar was chock full of animated cut scenes, voice overs, and all the other fun stuff that they were packing on CD-ROM games at the time. We had a ton of fun playing Vay, and are totally stoked for the future release of Lunar. As soon as we get more details, you can be sure we'll post them.

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This is a little odd, as we've already posted about the latest update to Dungeon Raid [$2.99]. It's standard for us to post about substantial updates to games like Dungeon Raid which we loved in our review, but it wasn't immediately apparent just how much better the game got until we spent the following weeks playing it because so much of what was added involved playing the game lots. We thought "Oh hey, cool, an update to one of our favorite games," posted the changes, and went on about our day.

The biggest change to Dungeon Raid came from the unlockable classes and associated races. Playing as a standard adventurer in normal (or harder) difficulty can randomly result in a special skull dropping a trophy, which then unlocks one of the included classes. Similarly, playing as a class and collecting a trophy levels up that class. Since these drops are completely random, it takes playing quite a while to actually unlock (or level up) anything.

Video by AppBank

Each class and race has its own special ability, which can substantially change both how you play the game as well as your strategy for upgrading as you level up. Since it will take quite a while to unlock everything, here is the list of classes, associated races, and what each of them do to look forward to:

Ranger: Unique skill is Volley (15) – Converts all swords to arrows.
Perk – 5% of swords are arrows (match 1 tile away)
Flaw – -1 armor
Race – Elf, with Slow Poison (poisoned enemies do half damage), and mortal enemy Poisonous (can't remove poison while this enemy's alive)

Raider: Unique skill is Masochism (15) – converts all coins into skulls. This is better than it sounds!
Perk – 100% bonus chance for tracing 10+ tiles
Flaw – Matching only 3 tiles gives you nothing.
Race – Halfling, with Guts (+1 to max armor when you kill at least 15 enemies in one attack), and the mortal enemy Invisible, which causes other monsters to appear with double armor while its alive.

Priest: Unique skill is Wish – single-use skill. Collect all tiles.
Perk – Double effect from regeneration upgrades
Flaw – -20% armour piercing
Race – Faun, with Rejuvenate (HP restored to 25% on level up if it's currently lower than 25%) and the mortal enemy Assassin, which will automatically move down 1 tile each turn.

Barbarian: Unique skill is Berserk (14) – Killing enemies this turn gives health equal to their attack
Perk – +1 base damage
Flaw – -10% bonus shield chance
Race – Orc, with Stun (10% chance of freezing an attacked enemy) and the mortal enemy Corrosive, which reduces your armor to 0 when it first appears.

Mage: Unique skill is Rune (12) – If you trace a closed path this turn, you collect all tiles inside it
Perk – 5% of potions are mana potions (reduce the cooldown of abilities by one turn per potion)
Flaw – -10 max health
Race – Changeling, with Shapeshift (killing a special enemy refills one of your skills (possibly an already full one), and mortal enemy Unstable (teleports you into a room with enemies and no swords)

Rogue: Unique skillis Greed (25) – Kill every enemy positioned next to a coin.
Perk – 10% bonus gold
Flaw – 3% of shields are broken and don't give any benefit.
Race – Sauren, with Search (double the chance of getting a scroll in the item shop) and the mortal enemy Thief, which damages you by double its attack value if it steals gold from your inventory.

Paladin: Unique skill is Last Stand (35) – Refill health completely if you are killed this turn
Perk – Mortal enemy only appears half the time
Flaw – Special monsters appear 1 turn earlier
Race – Dragonkin, with Fire Breath (Ignite a random enemy every time you use a skill (deals base damage at end of turn)), and mortal enemy Freezing (your base damage is halved while this enemy's alive)

Warrior: Unique skill is Charge (18) – collect all tiles around the edge of the board.
Perk – +10 max health
Flaw – Special monsters have +5% max health
Race – Dwarf, with Uppercut (+ damage to enemies swiped upwards, from the tile below to the tile above), and the mortal enemy Chaotic, who can only be damaged by an uppercut.

Assassin: Unique skill is Haste (16) – Creates a chain tile, which allows you to match 2 different tile types.
Perk – -1 cooldown for the 4th skill chosen.
Flaw – all enemies have +1 health
Race – Werewolf, with Cripple (enemies with less HP than armour die at the end of the turn) and the mortal enemy Vampire, which can gain health above its starting health.

If you haven't already, at least check out our review or give Dungeon Raid Lite [Free] a try. Dungeon Raid has become my default "Hey I've got a minute let's play something!" game, and it has similarly absorbed everyone who has seen me playing it. This latest update masterfully combines long-term goals to the game which previously only had short-term session-based goals, giving me the drive to play it even more. Seriously, get it.

Also, massive thanks to LittleCat for compiling this list of classes as I've been playing this game non-stop and still don't have everything unlocked.

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Early last month Team Phobic launched their newest title Undead Island, an action platforming game with a bad ass female ninja for a lead character, cleverly designed levels with tons of hidden areas to discover, and a robust physics system that made hacking up undead enemies a ton of fun. Due to a trademark issue, Undead Island has been renamed to Undead Ocean [99¢], which took effect with the update that just hit for the game. Also added in that update is the ability to swap the controls if you like and various other tweaks and bug fixes.

Far more interesting than the name change update is the simultaneous release of a free, ad supported prequel to the game called Undead Ocean Dojo [Free]. It features 5 levels not found in the full game, and tells the story of how our heroic ninja grew up training in her dojo and the events that lead up to Undead Ocean. It’s a pretty cool way to do a lite version, and offers a bite sized experience that current owners of the full game should still check out. It even features Game Center with 5 achievements and leaderboards for the included 5 levels.

To celebrate the release of Undead Ocean Dojo, the full version of Undead Ocean is currently on sale for 99¢. And to celebrate even further, Team Phobic’s wildly popular platformer Bounce On 2: Drallo’s Demise [Free] has gone free for a day. The sequel to their beloved first platformer Bounce On [$1.99/Lite], Bounce On 2 features a ton of content and is easily one of the best platforming games in the App Store. It’s a must download during the current free promotion, and while you’re at it, make sure to check out Undead Ocean Dojo and if you like what you see grab the full version Undead Ocean while it’s on sale.

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Last month we checked out the video for Mos Speedrun [$1.99], a new platformer from developer Physmos. Mos Speedrun looked unique with its emphasis on completing levels as quickly as possible, and for its use of the ghosts from previous failed attempts running along with you in the background. Today Mos Speedrun is finally available, and it’s every bit as much fun as we’d hoped it would be.

Mos Speedrun contains 20 levels, each with 4 distinct goals to attain. There’s simply completing the level, completing the level within the specified time goal, collecting every coin in the level, and searching out and collecting a hidden skull. The different goals are a great design decision, and give reason to play each level multiple times. You can leisurely explore a level collecting coins and looking for the hidden skull, but this also gives you a chance to familiarize yourself with its layout. Once you have a good feel for a level, you can easily go back on a different try and attempt the speed run with a better idea of what to expect.

The levels in Mos Speedrun are well designed, with all the usual trappings of a typical platform game. There’s environmental hazards like laval pits and spikes as well as various enemy types which must be avoided. You can’t kill enemies, and a single touch to an enemy or hazard will kill your little guy and end your current run. There’s only movement and jumping to worry about, and in this way Mos Speedrun is platforming distilled to its purest form. There’s even extensive underwater portions, which harken back to classic Sonic the Hedgehog levels where you must keep an eye on your oxygen meter and search out bubble areas to breathe from.

It’s actually nice to have such an uncomplicated take on platforming, but it wouldn’t mean anything if the controls didn’t work. Thankfully, the controls in Mos Speedrun are great. The default scheme is a quirky setup where you touch anywhere on the left side of the screen to move left, anywhere on the right side of the screen to move right, and touch them both together to jump. I can see the value of this particular control scheme, as with some practice it would likely offer you quicker reaction times than standard virtual controls. Personally, though, I just could not wrap my head around it.

My much preferred control scheme is a simple virtual button setup, with left and right arrows for movement and a single button for jumping. This scheme works great, and approaches the tightness and responsiveness of the current King of platformer virtual controls League of Evil [99¢/Lite]. My one small criticism is that I feel the area around the jump button could be enlarged, as I occasionally will fat-thumb it and miss the button altogether, but it’s not really a huge issue.

The only other negative I can think of for Mos Speedrun is that there just isn’t enough of it. The first half of the game won’t take long to breeze through, including earning every goal for each level. The second half of the game ramps up quite a bit in difficulty though, and while you’ll likely be able to at least complete each level doing so within the required time limit will be a real challenge. Still, I can’t help but wish for more levels, and the developer has confirmed that more are on the way in future updates. There’s also the ability to unlock special levels by visiting certain links through the Safari browser on your device, but I haven’t had a chance to try out this feature yet.

Another point about Mos Speedrun is that while the ghost aspect is a neat idea, I didn’t really feel like it added anything to the game and in fact found them to be distracting most of the time. They can be turned off, but I’d like to see options for seeing just the ghost for your current best run or maybe even a single previous attempt rather than all of them at once. Some players in our forums really seem to enjoy the ghost aspect though, so your mileage may vary with this particular feature.

Mos Speedrun is definitely another solid entry in the iOS platforming genre. The levels are interesting, the controls are spot on, and the game uses adorable pixel art graphics and an awesome chiptune soundtrack. Plus, despite not having a huge number of levels, the ones that are there will put up a good fight and are a joy to play through. If you’ve found yourself enjoying the many other platforming games in the App Store, and you’re intrigued by the speed run aspect and the retro style of this title, then don’t hesitate to give Mos Speedrun a try.

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I'll be the first to fully admit that I don't really get what made people so crazy about the original Doodle Army [99¢ / Free]. Regardless, the game spawned one of our most popular threads ever which has nearly 12,000 posts in it as of this writing. Its sequel, Doodle Army 2 [Free] hit the App Store last night, and once again, I still don't get it. (This still hasn't stopped the new thread from similarly exploding.)

The second installment of Doodle Army has evolved quite a bit from its predecessor. Instead of just being side scrolling shooter type game, you have complete freedom of movement in two axises thanks to a handy limited-used rechargeable rocket boots. The buttons of the original have been replacement by a pair of virtual joysticks, one that handles your movement in any direction while another handles your shooting.

Doodle Army 2 is the product of massive amounts of feedback from players, and the coolest new feature in my book is the implementation of total online multiplayer via Game Center. Sure it's only four players, but the maps seem to be designed so that you're never really ever hunting for someone to shoot for too long.

Doodle Army 2 is free to download, with a single 99¢ in-app purchase unlock which grants access to the full array of weaponry in online play, the ability to customize your avatar, and the removal of the included iAds. As I've mentioned with games in the past, I really dig this style of IAP as it gives you the option of either playing the game forever in a (somewhat) limited scope with ads, or you can throw out a buck to unleash the beast.

Now that there's a multiplayer component, it's probably best to get in early to hone your skills as I have no doubts that Doodle Army 2 will shoot up the charts just like the original… Resulting in a fresh crop of newbies online to slay on a daily basis.

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Some neat news is spilling from PopCap Games this morning. The publisher and creator of titles such as Plants vs. Zombies [$2.99 / HD] and Bejeweled [$.99] has announced the launch of a brand new label called “4th & Battery,” an eclectic name brought about by the actual position of its offices in Seattle, Washington. The mission of 4th & Battery is simple: to put out smaller, much more adventurous titles to handhelds and the social web without concern for business stuff like, say, profit.

In a press release announcing the formation of the label, PopCap takes great care in positioning 4th & Battery as an edgier development house, home to games that are targeted to adults and combine interesting and experimental components. Here's what PopCap Games' CCO Jason Kapalka had to say about in a statement:

"4th & Battery is a purely experimental, creative label with none of the typical concerns like schedules, profitability, or even target audience. It's kind of the video game equivalent of B-sides or short films,” Kapalka said. “Expect weirdness.”

The first game, dubbed Unpleasant Horse, is a curious one indeed. In it, you'll play as a radical horse that shreds flying animals and hops on more… pleasant horses. Right below is your first taste of the game, which will launch for free on the App Store for the iPhone and the iPod Touch a little later this month.

Looks great, right? This reminds me of Telltale Games' Pilot Program, which gave us Puzzle Agent [$4.99 / HD / Lite] last year. In 4th & Battery's case, though, the designers are taken from PopCap Games' own stock, which will probably bode well for the company as these guys earn experience and try to flesh out unusual ideas.

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Last week, Chillingo released a new gameplay video for their upcoming game Vampire Rush. Vampire Rush is a hack ‘n slash dungeon crawler with tower defense elements, not completely unlike the previously released Dungeon Defenders [99¢]. The difference here, it seems by the video, is that Vampire Rush looks far less complicated and cluttered, which probably bodes well for a mobile title. The artwork is very colorful, which is a nice change from the drab colors that usually make up games of this ilk. Take a look at the video and see for yourself:

Vampire Rush is developed by A-steroids and was released for Samsung phones last October to positive reviews. A-steroids had planned on having an iOS port released this past January, although obviously that date has come and gone. The good news is that the extra development time is going towards making Vampire Rush more than just a simple port of the Samsung version, and should include additional content and enhancements. Also, it’s probably worth noting that despite the vaguely similar style, Vampire Rush doesn’t appear to have anything to do with Chillingo’s previously released Vampire Origins [99¢/Lite/HD].

There’s no solid release date yet, but with Chillingo jumping in to publish the title and releasing this video, I can only hope that this means it’s right around the corner. There’s a discussion for Vampire Rush taking place in our upcoming games forum, and we’ll keep our eye out for any new information on this title.

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As we mentioned in January, we're bringing back our monthly "Best of" roundups. Unfortunately, late February and Early March were absolutely loaded with both GDC and PAX East which left us with little time left to do anything other than handle both events. To make things up, today we've got this awesome "Best of" extra large double feature, with both February and March games.

Our ratings for games we reviewed in both February and March 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

Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, $4.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – This is the closest thing to what we'd call a "system seller" of a video game since the iPad was originally released. Sword & Sworcery is an absolutely incredible experience, a thought that has not only been shared by the gaming press, but also the mainstream media as well. If you have an iPad and $5 to your name, there's no excuse not to spend it on this game.

Forget-Me-Not, $1.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – In our review we called Forget-Me-Not the "retrolicious lovechild of PAC-MAN and Rogue," and I'm really struggling with a better way to describe the game. An amazing scoring system combines with fantastic retro graphics that only bolster how much fun Forget-Me-Not is to play. If the thought of PAC-MAN combined with dungeon crawling at all piques your interest, stop what you're doing and download Forget-Me-Not immediately.

Angry Birds Rio, $0.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – As easy as it is to groan at Angry Birds Rio getting a 5 star rating, it's a fantastic game. It obviously takes the original Angry Birds formula and builds on top of it with the Rio tie in, boss battles, and some spruced up interface elements. There's also a few extra layers of parallax scrolling that really make this version of Angry Birds look much better than the others as well.

Tiny Wings, $0.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – It's not every day that Angry Birds gets knocked to the #2 position on the top sales charts, but Tiny Wings did it. It comes packed with delightfully simple single button gameplay that even kids could enjoy along with increasingly difficult goals that even hardcore gamers will find challenging. Get this game, now.

Battleheart, $2.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – This single player game perfectly combines everything that's good about complex party-based realtime battles found in MMO-style games with wonderfully simple and intuitive touch controls. Multiple character classes are included, as well as equipment upgrades. It's incredible just how much flexibility there is for tweaking your party and how you play the game. Battleheart is fantastic on the iPhone, but you can't miss it if you own an iPad.

4.5 Stars

Fight Night Champion by EA Sports™, $4.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – A surprisingly competent boxing game that feels like an equal to its console counterpart instead of a typical watered-down mobile version. Great touch screen controls combine with different game modes to create a boxing experience that is among the best that the App Store has to offer.

Hot Springs Story, $4.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – If you liked Game Dev Story, this is a game you need to download without hesitation. (If you haven't heard of Game Dev Story, play that first.) It features the same endless simulation style, only this time, focused around running a spa instead of your own video game company. Sure, the subject matter might not be as appealing, but everything that made GDS amazing is there (and then some).

Speedball 2 Evolution, $0.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – This is a wonderful remake of the retro classic, complete with some great touch controls. If you haven't heard of the Speedball series of games, they're about the closest thing you can get to the old Mutant League Sports games on the Sega Genesis. If you have nostalgic ties to any of these franchises, or just enjoy crazy sports games, snag Speedball 2.

NBA JAM by EA SPORTS™, $4.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – iOS gamers really couldn't ask for much more when it comes to EA's port of NBA Jam… Except for multiplayer, which is sorely missing. Regardless, all of the massive dunks and secret modes are intact, making this a surprisingly faithful port. EA even recently updated the game's roster, bringing it in line with this NBA season.

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.

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