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Yesterday, RedLynx announced via a press release posted in their forums that it had been picked up by French publishing giant Ubisoft. Most gamers came to know RedLynx as the creators of the massively popular and critically acclaimed Trials HD on the Xbox Live Arcade, but the Finnish developer has also trekked into the iOS App Store with Monster Trucks Nitro 1 [99¢] and 2 [$2.99], the unique line-drawing racers DrawRace [$2.99] and DrawRace 2 [99¢/HD], and the new-level-a-day platformer Thousand Heroes [99¢/HD].

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot had this to say about the acquisition of RedLynx:

The team at RedLynx has developed exceptionally strong digital brands that stand out for their high replay value, their long tail sales and their multiplatform positioning. We are delighted to welcome RedLynx to the Ubisoft family. Their expertise in asynchronous online games and physics-based game mechanics provides us with a great opportunity to bring their powerful brands, most notably Trials, to an even broader range of fast-growing digital platforms.

Did you catch that? He states how interested Ubisoft is in bringing RedLynx’s powerful brands to fast-growing digital platforms. Hey, the App Store is a fast-growing digital platform! And he specifically mentions Trials, the company’s most notorious and beloved brand. Could this mean there is intent to bring a Trials game to the App Store? Motorcycle physics games have been quite a popular genre on iOS already, like the awesome recently released Bike Baron [99¢], among others. But it would be impossible to deny that despite how good some of those similar games are, in my heart I’d really love to be playing the actual Trials HD on my iOS device.

Time will tell if the App Store will finally get its Trials day in the sun or not, but this latest acquisition by Ubisoft makes it seem like there’s a strong possibility. A Trials HD successor, Trials Evolution, is set to debut in the coming months, and if it’s bound for the App Store in any way then you can be sure we’ll let you know.

[Via Joystiq]

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This past August, Firemint brought us its first release since being acquired by Electronic Arts, called Spy Mouse [99¢]. Taking their expertise in the line-drawing genre that the developer almost single-handedly popularized with their premiere iOS offering Flight Control [99¢/Lite/HD] and applying it to a stealth-heavy action/puzzle game, Spy Mouse offered an incredibly enjoyable and straight forward experience that we highlighted in our review.

The task at hand was to direct the game’s mousey protagonist Agent Squeak safely through a level, staying out of the path of roaming cats and collecting cheese and powerups along the way. It’s a formula that proved quite successful, and most importantly, fun.

Today, Firemint has released the latest update to Spy Mouse which adds in the often requested online leaderboard functionality. You’ll need to sign up with EA’s Origin service which is built into the game and then can track your level scores with fellow Spy Mouse-ers across the globe.

Also part of this update is the addition of 5 brand new Challenges to be found in Agent Squeak’s Backpack. Additionally, Firemint has lowered the required Squeak friends requirement to unlock additional elements in the Backpack to just one. If you find yourself having trouble passing certain levels, Kiska’s assistance is now available once per hour instead of just once per day, and Firemint has posted an online help video on getting past the game’s first boss, and I’d imagine they’ll have similar videos coming out in the future.

Spy Mouse was definitely a fun game to begin with, and a fresh mix on both the line-drawing and stealth genres. Plus, it’s just plain cute pretty much all around. Be sure to grab this latest update to Spy Mouse and check out the new features for yourself.

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Working in the iOS industry since the beginning has filled my head with all sorts of factoids that might not immediately seem that useful, but I’d be a beast on Jeopardy, assuming they ever had a “Random Mobile Gaming Trivia” column. One of these many tidbits I’ve soaked up is that before today there was no “games” category in the South Korean App Store.

Previously, the South Korean government had a very tight approval process that worked similar to a more strict version of the ESRB. Only, while getting rated by the ESRB in the USA is fairly optional, getting government approval was required. This caused a whole lot of friction with Apple, a company who historically hasn’t had that great of a record of compromise. Instead of working with the South Korean government, they just shrugged and axed the game category all together.

Some developers skirted this restriction by releasing their games under the “Entertainment” heading, but this was always highly frowned upon by Apple. But, where there’s a will there’s a way, and these restrictions just caused diehard South Korean iOS gamers to pick up international iTunes gift cards and make their purchases on whatever non-Korean marketplace was the most convenient for them.

Thankfully, pressure from all sides of the mobile gaming market finally lead to the powers that be in South Korean easing up their restriction and finally allowing for games on the App Store. This change should massively benefit iOS developers, as South Korea not only has an incredibly strong gaming culture, but some ridiculously good gamers. (You’ll likely know this first hand if you’ve ever attempted to play a StarCraft game online.) …And now all those people can buy iOS games just as easily as we can.

To celebrate the occasion, South Korean gaming giant Com2uS has reduced the price of all of their games to 99¢. Head on over to their iTunes listing and take a look, due to the global nature of App Store pricing, you don’t even need to be South Korean to take advantage of this sale. Also, since it seems like iOS developers are always anxious for any reason to drop their prices of their games, it probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to keep an eye on the game sales section of AppShopper to snag anything worthwhile as this news spreads and the South Korean App Store sees a flood of new customers.

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Capcom’s ‘alright’ iPhone and iPod Touch take on Devil May Cry 4 has received an update alongside a price reduction. For a limited time, Devil May Cry 4 Refrain [$.99] is (obviously) $.99 instead of its usual $4.99. The coinciding update adds an unlockable “Devil Trigger” for both of the game’s characters. The catch? It’s only available after completion.

If you’re sitting there wondering what a Devil Trigger is, enjoy this academic breakdown of the mechanic by the dudes who run the unofficial Devil May Cry wiki. They take their jobs very seriously:

“Devil Trigger (often abbreviated as D.T.) is a special technique possessed by demons and half-demons which allows them to release their full power. While in Devil Trigger, the user will assume their true form. In this form, many of the character’s attributes are amplified, and the character may have access to upgrades or even additions to their normal abilities like flying or hovering.

When playing on higher difficulties, enemies can enter a Devil Trigger-like state[1] after a certain time limit (which is fixed for each enemy). This causes enemies to strengthen their attributes as well as making them attack more often and more powerful.”

We took a good, long look at Refrain earlier this year and it’s probably in your interests to check that write-up out before you click “buy.” It’ll help get your expectations in line, at the very least. Spoiler: Refrain is a competent re-make of the original game, featuring simpler combos and a few core issues due to its mobile nature.

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Hold on to your butts: a Jurassic Park park-building tycoon game is coming to mobile at some point in “early” 2012. On the heels of the announcement that Telltale Games’ take on the franchise has gone gold, Ludia Inc has revealed plans to release a title that revolves around the IP. According to Gamezebo, players will be tasked with building their own Isla Nublar and discovering new dino DNA to morph into dinosaurs.

“We are excited to have the opportunity to create a game that will allow fans of the film franchise to experience the thrills of managing their very own Jurassic Park,” the company said in a statement. This game won’t have a connection with what Telltale is doing with its series later this November to our knowledge, but it is the result of license-holder Universal coming to the table again and striking a deal with a video game developer.

This is from Tap Jurassic, FYI.

Ludia has substantial experience with this social simulation game with dinosaurs thing — its tap title, Tap Jurassic, released earlier this year and apparently wasn’t too bad as far as social games go. We’ll be excited to see what this one will be like. Please be good.

[Via GameZebo]

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This always happens! We’ve been hitting spacebar all morning, but didn’t see this next-level move coming. Indie developer Mode 7 has announced plans to bring its deceptively clever simultaneous turn-based strategy game, Frozen Synapse, to the iPad in 2012. It hit the PC and Mac earlier this year to oodles of well deserved media praise.

No worries if you’re unfamiliar with the title. It’s an isometric, team-versus-team strategy game that plays similarly to an X-COM. It’s hook is its simulation mechanic that allows players to see how their tactical moves will fare against each other. The catch is that you’re free to change up your moves in-between these phases. All your careful planning and tweaking can nightmarishly go heads up whenever you hit “end turn.”

“Despite my lumpen, sausage-like digits, I am particularly excited about Frozen Synapse coming to the iPad,” Mode 7 Joint Managing Director Paul Taylor said in a statement. “I look forward to flicking my little green men around the place with wanton abandon.”

Mode 7 says Frozen Synapse is currently enterting into a beta state on the iPad and final details, including price and firm release, will be announced next year. You can bet your right hand that we’ll be going hands-on and speaking with the development team before release, so expect some news in the coming weeks. In the meantime, get comfy with this launch trailer of the computer version of the title.

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Long time readers of TouchArcade might remember the announcement of an iOS port of Space Tripper, a horizontal shoot ‘em up from PomPom Games released for PC and Mac way back in 2001 and rereleased in HD as Astro Tripper in 2009. The port was to be handled by True Axis, the Australian developer of Jet Car Stunts [$1.99/Lite], and the project officially began in June of 2008, before the official iOS App Store had even launched. We first caught wind of Space Tripper coming to iOS in December of that year, with a planned release of “early 2009.” Boy, how plans can change.

True Axis was comprised of just two members, and as development on Jet Car Stunts hit its stride during 2009, it didn’t leave a ton of time to work on Space Tripper, and progress on the title lagged. After Jet Car Stunts‘ release in November of 2009, the hope was that Space Tripper would be finished up shortly thereafter, and that following December is when True Axis officially debuted the game in our forums, still optimistic that it was coming soon.

But the development gods just didn’t want to give True Axis a break on Space Tripper. They were striving for perfection with the performance of the game on iOS hardware, and every time they seemed to be getting the game behaving exactly how they wanted a new iOS update would come along and totally throw a wrench in the build, setting their progress back several steps and delaying the game even further.

(Images from mid-2010 build of Space Tripper)

Development of Space Tripper continued on alongside update work for Jet Car Stunts, as well as early groundwork for a Jet Car Stunts 2. We caught up with True Axis at E3 2010 and got the lowdown on what was happening with the Jet Car Stunts franchise as well as got our hands on a playable demo of Space Tripper, which we though looked and played quite well. At this time, True Axis was hoping the release of Space Tripper would be the following month, in July. Again, this did not come to pass.

Following this, Space Tripper pretty much slipped off the radar. Occasionally, somebody would as about its status in our forums and one of the members of True Axis would pop in and say that they were still toiling away, but had run into some sort of new problem that was causing yet another delay. It almost seemed like Space Tripper was perpetually just “a month or two” away, but something would always come along to muck things up. This is exactly what the term “development hell” was coined for.

Fast forward to February of this year, and a bombshell was dropped. One half of True Axis and the main programmer behind the Space Tripper port for the past two and a half years, Andy Coates, decided to retire from the game development business after 25 years. Well, not get out of game making altogether, but move on to do his own thing. This meant that the other half of the team, Luke Ryan, would have to jump in and pick up where Andy had left off, which I’m sure was no easy task. He did just that though, and somehow remained optimistic that Space Tripper would still eventually see the light of day.

Again, development continued as Luke tinkered away at the Space Tripper code, though things were moving even more slowly now since he had jumped into a project that wasn’t entirely his to begin with. Recently, Andy decided to devote some of his free time to his former company and jump back into Space Tripper and get the title finished up once and for all. Since then, things seem to be chugging along quite well with Space Tripper, and despite the newest monkey wrenches that were iOS 5 and the iPhone 4S, it looks like the game will finally see a release sometime this month. True Axis has recorded a new video showing off Space Tripper on iOS, and it looks simply fantastic:

Now, don’t get me wrong, with everything that Space Tripper has gone through over the past three and a half years, I won’t actually feel comfortable until the final release is on my device and there is a real, working iTunes link for the game. Whatever the digital equivalent of holding a physical box for a game in a retail store is, that’s what I need before the doubt will fully fade from my mind. However, seeing this new awesome video and reading along with the developer comments in the upcoming thread in our forums has me feeling that this might actually, maybe, possibly be it. Finally. At long last.

Hopefully we’ll get our grubby hands on Space Tripper sometime this month to evaluate how well a ten year old game with a three year iOS development cycle translates to the iOS platform, including the iPad as it’s set to be a Universal app. Once that’s finally out of the way, then we can begin bugging True Axis about Jet Car Stunts 2…

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There’s something dodgy about Ninja Pong’s [99¢ / HD] premise. You’re telling me that professional ninjas would jump a huge gap onto a tiny platform that has to be manually controlled? And that they’d do it wearing any number of silly hats? I just don’t buy it.

You might want to, though. Silly and simple as it might be, Ninja Pong is a fun bit of arcade play that boasts a surprisingly in-depth list of upgrades. Save ninjas, earn shinies, buy things that let you save more ninjas. Sound good?

As master of the platform, you control life and death for your tiny ninja buddies. They need to get from the building or cliff on the left of the screen to its fellow on the right, and you control the only bridge for the gap between. It’s one-sided Pong and you control the paddle, dragging it back and forth along the bottom of the screen to bounce ninjas and dodge bombs.

The army of ninjas absolutely refuses to go easy on you. They jump at different speeds, for different distances. When night falls, they all jump at once. It’s madness. Some of them jump like jerks, floating in place and falling unpredictable. And all the while, the platform on the right is shelling you with bombs and flaming arrows. It’s super hectic, but quite fun.

Powerups can make things a bit easier, but you need to catch them. Do so and you might find your paddle extended, or the ninjas slowed, or a precious life restored. Coins also fall and need collecting if you want to buy yourself something nice.

“Something nice,” in this case, is a selection from a list of cosmetic (and adorable) hats for your ninjas, upgrades to your powerups and paddles, and a few things that change the gameplay pretty substantially. Three of the items you can unlock add tapping mechanics to the game, and let you tap the screen in a variety of ways to speed your ninjas up, make them worth more points and destroy bombs.

These modifications (and many of the other unlockables) can absolutely affect your final score, and since you can purchase coins with IAP as well as earning them in game big spenders can give themselves a serious advantage.

Alien Worm has come up with a clever way around that: separate Game Center leaderboards for playing with or without shop items. There’s also a leaderboard for the folks who are really into grinding or spending money — access to the Ninja Diamond League leaderboard is only available to those who pony up 2000 coins, about two dollars or a couple hours worth. It’s an interesting strategy for dealing with IAP abuse in a game that’s all about earning the highest scores.

There are two ways to play Ninja Pong: Arcade mode and Endless mode. Endless gives you six lives to play with. You can play as long as you want, but let six ninjas die without replenishing your lives and you’re toast. Arcade puts you on a 60 second timer during which you’ll need to try to earn the highest possible score.

Several factors affect your score. Saving ninjas is good, of course, and saving them in streaks is even better. You can grab multiplier powerups and score powerups. Whipping ninjas to the other side earns you a bonus, as does saving special ninjas and destroying bombs. And most of these things have achievements associated with them, too. At the end of each successful attempt (bombs give you a “game over” without a high score), you also earn bonuses based on meeting milestones.

There’s enough going on that it feels like you can improve in any number of ways. If you can get good enough to avoid dropping any ninjas, you’ll do well. Do that while collecting all the powerups and you’ll be even better off. But even if you don’t manage to improve your score, you’ll earn coins toward buying the next tempting item in the shop. It’s a compelling formula.

Ninja Pong is a simple game. But like many arcade classics, it inspires a desire to improve that will keep it entertaining long after you’ve seen all it has to offer. If you’re the grinding sort, the checklist of an item shop will also prove motivating for quite some time. The simplest games on my phone are the ones I keep coming back to, and I think Ninja Pong will end up on that list in the long run. So check it out, and pop by our discussion thread to let us know what you think.

TouchArcade Rating:

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

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

5 Stars

Bring Me Sandwiches!!, $0.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Adult Swim is batting 1000 lately with fabulous iOS games, and Bring Me Sandwiches!! keeps that tradition going strong. It’s a cross between the collect-everything-you-see gameplay of Katamari Damacy with a platformer game. Additionally, tons of control schemes make the game great to play no matter what your control preference might be.

Mage Gauntlet, $2.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Almost too many games lean on pixel art and chip tunes just because it’s in style, but Mage Gauntlet draws inspiration from that era and allows it to permeate every aspect of the game. If you have any fond memories of Super Nintendo-era action RPGs, don’t miss this game.

Scribblenauts Remix, $4.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Originally released on the Nintendo DS, Scribblenauts is a game that’s so unique that you simply must play it. Remix combines the best elements from both of the DS games along with 10 iOS-exclusive levels. In addition, it’s even universal and boasts complete iCloud save syncing support.

4.5 Stars

Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nation, $6.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Gameloft has had two solid entries in the Modern Combat series so far, and the third is somewhat expectedly the best one yet. A heavily scripted single player campaign is supplemented by online multiplayer with oodles of maps and game modes.

Fruit Ninja: Puss in Boots, $0.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Movie games are almost universally terrible, but I don’t have a problem getting behind this trend of taking a great existing game and adding a layer of movie tie-in on top. It worked for Angry Birds Rio, and works just as well here. Bandito mode is a ton of fun, and would be fun regardless of the Puss in Boots tie-in.

Whale Trail, $0.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Most games you can plot along a line graph with “gameplay” on one end and “presentation” on the other. The best games wind up somewhere in the middle, and Whale Trail definitely sits deep into the “presentation” side of things. Still, the game looks fantastic, and the incredibly vibrant graphics almost make you forget the gameplay is so simple.

Forever Drive, Free – [Review - Forum Thread] – This clever racing game, as the title suggests, allows you to drive forever in community-created tracks. It has a cool atmosphere, and a great spin on the freemium model where paying truly feels optional, something I wish we’d see a little bit more.

Dark Meadow, $5.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Atmospheric horror is a game genre that never really seems to translates to portable devices very well, but Phosphor Games did a great job of it with Dark Meadow. Set in a creepy hospital, and utilizing the Unreal Engine, the game looks and sounds great. A repetitive combat system drags down this otherwise fantastic title.

Slam Dunk King, Free – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – The best part of NBA Jam was always the ridiculous dunks, and Slam Dunk King distills that formula even further to a ultra-casual sports game that focuses solely on wicked dunks. It’s even free, and similar to Forever Drive, paying feels very optional.

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 an iPhone 4S… Here’s What You Need to Know!
• 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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