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Bean’s Quest [$2.99] from Kumobius launched in July of last year, and it was kind of awesome. Actually, it was kind of really awesome. It was just one of many platformers on the App Store that nailed the neo-retro aesthetic, harkening back to the days of 8 and 16 bits. However, there was one key element that separated it from other iOS platformers – you’re constantly bouncing. Picture a sideways Doodle Jump mixed with Super Mario Bros. 3 and you kind of get the idea.

The automatic nonstop bouncing was easy enough to get used to if you’re just trying to make it through the game, but the real brilliance of Bean’s Quest was that it kept track of the number of your bounces and tasked you with completing each level within a certain number of them to maximize your reward. Along with diamonds and a hidden toy creature that had to be collected, Bean’s Quest had come up with an excellent little system for maximizing replay value.

But, you can read all about this stuff in our original review of Bean’s Quest, and there you’ll also find our biggest issue with the game – its severe brevity. At release, Bean’s Quest was a mere eight levels long, all of which could be completed together in just a few minutes. Developer Kumobius had promised that more levels were planned for updates, and in fact seemed to have a pretty ambitious road map for where the game was heading. But as I’m sure many of you have experienced before, it can be dangerous buying a game based on promises of future updates.

However, an update the following month did appear, and added a whole new world with 9 new levels. Then the month after that another update hit adding yet another new world and 10 brand new levels. Bean’s Quest was finally starting to get fleshed out, but for the following several months things went quiet, with no new updates and an “Under Construction” banner in the level select screen teasing that the game still had yet to be finished.

Today, we found out just what Kumobius had been up to for so long as the final massive update to Bean’s Quest has hit the App Store. This time around, the game is getting two new worlds – Dusty Desert with 10 new levels and Wizard’s Lair with 12 new levels. There’s a new intro movie now too, which explains the all-to-frequent problem of having your girlfriend stolen by an evil dude, setting the stage for Bean to traverse the crazy levels and lands. At the end of it all, you’ll square off against the final boss, and then the credits roll, signaling the end of Bean’s Quest.

It’s sad seeing the end of such a fun game, but there’s a positive side to this as well. Bean’s Quest has done well enough that Kumobius is able to push forward with a new project, which I’m sure we’ll be hearing more about once the time is right. It’s crazy to think how far Bean’s Quest has come, initially offering a meager 8 levels and now with today’s update boasting 50 including the final boss fight. Aside from those major additions, this update also tightens up some UI elements and eases the difficulty of bounce requirements across the board, as well as lots of other minor tweaks and optimizations.

If you initially passed on Bean’s Quest because of its length, then I think it’s safe to say you’ve got nothing to worry about any more. It’s a fantastic platformer that puts a twist on the gameplay of more traditional platformers, while offering a huge amount of replay value and an overall stellar presentation. Definitely one that was high on the recommendation list before, and even more so with this new update.

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Fingle [$0.99] should come with a warning. Maybe “Caution: always bring protection”? I mean, sure the iPad is great for co-op games with the fam, but not this time. This time, things might just get a little… heavy.

Finger twister isn’t new, but Fingle is a finger twister game with one purpose: flirtation. A cheesy soundtrack, suggestive backdrops and more than a few double entendres might be enough, but Fingle doesn’t settle for enough. Your fingers will stroke hers, or his. You’ll make terribly lewd gestures at one another. Fingle takes its premise all the way.

Here’s how you play the game: there are squares, and there are boxes, and the two must meet. Some are yellow, some are white. Your fingers rest on one set, hers on another. And then you do as you’re told.

At first this is simple. Drag a box here, hold it there. Your fingers might brush up against one another. Then things heat up. One player finds himself stroking his hand over the other’s. It gets pretty steamy.

Sort of, anyhow. There are a few rules you have to follow to get the full effect. You can’t really play solo, for, um, obvious reasons, and you need to use one hand each. Two hands is easier, but it’s a lot less fun. Stick to those rules, and one of you will basically end up in the other’s lap before long if you want to pull off some of the moves.

So you can see why you don’t want to play with a stranger, or your Grandma. You might also not want to play for too long. While Fingle starts out very flirty, it actually gets pretty hard over time. If one of you has small hands, long fingernails or sweaty palms, you might find it a bit out of your league. Nothing kills the mood quite so much as frustrated failure.

There are over 50 levels to work through, so as long as you know your limit you’ll be fine. If you’re actually playing to tease, work through the first level pack or two. It starts out slightly subtle and gets suggestive quickly. If you’re playing for a challenge, something that’s totally possible, work your way through all the rest. Fingle is missing a lot of the traditional game structures we’re used to — scores, points, achievements and the like — but it’s certainly a good time for two people who are comfortable with a little touching. The design that has gone into this game is truly charming, so it’s hard to say no.

In all seriousness, you need to know your audience if you’re going to play. You can definitely go at it platonically for a laugh, but first be sure you both know where you stand. And you could certainly make someone extremely uncomfortable if you’re not at the point where cheesy 70s-style music, suggestive sound effects and light touching is okay. Fingle is the sort of game that could start out funny and end up sexy, or start out cold and end up with a slap to the face. Judge carefully, and stop by our discussion thread to let us know how it goes – just keep it work safe, tiger.

TouchArcade Rating:

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Last month developer Mountain Sheep released Ice Rage [99¢], a simple arcade title that looked like ice hockey but played a lot closer to a game of air hockey. It nailed the simple, fast-paced gameplay but fell a bit short in terms of content, offering just one-off quick play matches against the AI or a same-device multiplayer mode. Granted, the multiplayer mode was a stupid amount of fun, especially on the large screen of the iPad, but Ice Rage still lacked that single-player staying power.

Over the weekend, an update was released that looks to improve this situation with a new single-player Tournament Mode. Here you’ll take on the 9 opponents in the game one after the other, and their AI increases in difficulty as you progress. Make it through them without dying and you’ll square off against Skar, the new boss character you can see in the icon above. Also, a very simplistic stat upgrade system lets you increase your character’s speed, power, and technique with each subsequent win.

While the Tournament Mode is cool, it’s still pretty thin. Upgrading your player is fun, but only lasts for your current tournament. A persistent profile where you could continue leveling up your player over multiple tournaments would be a neat addition. Still, the new Tournament Mode is a welcome addition, and despite being a bit shallow there’s something about it that just keeps me coming back to play some more.

Beyond the Tournament Mode and new Skar character, this update also brings some improvements to the visuals, animation, physics, and menu UI. In other words, some pretty standard, but necessary, update type of stuff. It sounds like Mountain Sheep have even more plans for updating Ice Rage, and this latest update is a step in a good direction. Definitely worth checking out for some simple arcade fun, especially if you have an iPad and someone to play against.

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Ayopa Games‘ and Drowning Monkeys‘ next title is a 3D, close-quarters strategy RPG with the usual trimmings: ghouls, ghosts, swords, sorcery, dungeon crawling, and leveling are all a part of the package. It’s as functionally classical as its name, Dungeon Crawlers, implies, and nothing mechanical I’ve seen seems to be breaking any mold.

There is this one thing, though. It’s kinda quirky. In the opening moments, one of the party members clearly references Ghostbusters. Roy, the healer, carries around a weapon called “The Unreturned Library Tome.” When you search the first weapon rack you find, it calmly tells you that while there’s tons of weapons here, none of them are indeed yours.

Dungeon Crawlers, which is due out later this month, is straddling a fun line. It’s the video game equivalent of a mullet, reserved and business-like, yet fun-loving and goofy. What makes it a strategy RPG isn’t messed with, but the story, the weapons, and even the item pick-ups are all tinged with a lightheartedness that I’m OK with seeing — especially since fantasy is so stale.

The business part is good, by the way. After putting some time into a preview build, I feel like I can lazily sum up the mechanics as “Shining Force Meets Diablo.” There’s a lot of traditional strategy RPG in the combat, but you also freely move around and explore a dungeon in-between fights.

A typical confrontation goes a little something like this: the battleground morphs into a series of tiles, all of which can be accessed through turn-based play; blue titles indicate a movement can occur, red alerts you to the fact that you can attack, and green lets you know that healing can happen. Simple taps activate the action, while swipes allow you to move fluidly through skill menus. Pop an enemy enough, it dies. Rinse and repeat.

Kill enough dudes, and you level up and gain access to new skills that, of course, allow for a wider range of tactical options. Cleave, for instance, hits in a three square arc, while magic missile attacks from four spaces away. The overall strategy boils down to a touch of structural awareness, a heavy helping of positional wrangling, and a solid understanding of skill sets and AI behavior.

There’s some wrinkles. Boss fights promise some more interesting situational content. In the first fight, for example, the goal is to reach a goblin king in his throne instead of delivering his head on a platter. Later, you’ll see some puzzles and solo action.

Speaking of characters, you start out with three knuckleheads: a womanizing barbarian, a nerdy sorcerer, and a gluttonous healer. Their banter is inviting, and the situation the trio find themselves in is something straight out of Ghostbusters.

Weird influence, right? I asked Drowning Monkeys what’s up, and I was relieved to find that I wasn’t crazy.

“… the actual idea for the story came while we were prototyping the game, and we had created our archetypes. We were designing the characters and noticed the similarities to Ghostbusters, so we ran with it and started creating a story around that basic element.”

“The idea that something ‘big’ was happening, and that the characters were initially motivated by money and not because of a ‘call’ to do great things. I think in the end though, we actually have created a story that is unique and keeps the player interested in seeing what happens next.”

Humor is subjective kinda like quality is, so it’ll be interesting to see how Dungeon Crawlers clicks with everyone. I dig it. More importantly, though, I think the game part of it is on the right track. In its pre-release form, it feels almost as good as any of the great games in the genre, and I’ll be excited to dive in for the haul.

If all goes well, Dungeon Crawlers will see a release this January 26 across iPad, iPod Touch, and iPhone. We’ll definitely keep our eye on it, and I’m thinking you should, too.

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We’ve reached a point in Kairosoft’s output where a pattern begins to form. On one side are Game Dev Story [$3.99 / Lite] and Grand Prix Story [$3.99 / Lite], games mostly about teams and what they can achieve. On the other side are five other titles that are more about building the perfect environment, be it mall, town, school, or hot spring. Their newest release, Pocket League Story [$2.99] falls squarely in column A. This time, you’re creating the perfect soccer team, and you won’t need spreadsheets or a love of soccer to enjoy yourself.

I’d go so far as to say that Pocket League Story is the most approachable game Kairosoft has put out on iOS to date. There are a few tricks to min-maxing the game, but if you do exactly what it tells you to do you’ll be fine. For the spreadsheet geeks among us it may be too straightforward, but ultimately this is the perfect game to serve as an introduction to Kairosoft’s catalog, or for anyone who loves their games but gets hung up on lists of combos and other arcana.

As manager of a soccer team, you’re responsible for pretty much everything your team does, right down to the strategies they use on the field. The only thing that’s out of your hands is how they play in the moment, and even there you have some input.

You’re given control over hiring and firing players, arguably the most important part of the game. You might love your starting team, with their bright-eyed eagerness, but they’re terrible. Just atrocious. They’ll get you through the first few games, but your priority is to court better talent. Think Game Dev Story’s talent pool, but vaster and more costly. You can really customize your team down to the last detail.

Building your team is an ongoing process, one you’ll handle alongside training your players. You earn research points both on the field and off, and you can use those to improve your players stats, build up a fan base, and unlock new content. There is a bit of a building sim tucked in as you set up training facilities, but it’s really low key. Most of your time off the field will be spent managing numbers, choosing basic coaching strategies and courting players, sponsors and fans.

On the field, things get a bit weirder. Like Grand Prix Story’s races, Pocket League Story’s matches mostly play themselves. You pick lines and formations in advance, and basic passing technique during the game. You can also fiddle with your strategy at halftime and trigger auras here or there, but your players are mostly on their own.

So you’re left spectating a lot of the time. There’s a huge selection of matches and league tournaments to work through in the eight years you’re given, but they all boil down to the same thing: watch as your players win or lose. Games can take three or four minutes, and Pocket League soccer just isn’t that stimulating a spectator sport after a few hours.

This is a misstep, for sure, because it takes players out of that non-stop, always-something-on-the-go mentality that Game Dev Story so perfected. It’s much easier to put this game down than any of Kairosoft’s other titles – not that that’s necessarily the worst thing for those of us with other things to do.

Whether you’ll enjoy Pocket League Story depends a lot on where you’re coming from. Aside from a few issues some of our forum users with older devices have run into, this is probably the cleanest Kairosoft game yet. The translation is good, the tutorial explanations are clear and nothing’s left to muddling through foreign cultural references. So it’s easy to get into, and lays out all the traditional sim fun in a very manageable way.

But it’s also quite shallow, with neither the complexity of a proper football simulator or the depth of most of Kairosoft’s other games. If the meta-game of keeping spreadsheets and consulting FAQs is your thing, give this one a pass. But if it’s the first Kairosoft title you’re considering or you’re okay with a streamlined experience, I can recommend Pocket League Story wholeheartedly.

TouchArcade Rating:

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What makes iPad and iPhone cool is that they offer games the Xbox 360s and PSPs of the world straight-up can’t — they allow us to directly interact with games. Touch is an endlessly interesting way to play, and we see some of the most creative games in this space as a whole as a result of this control style.

Some studios, however, aren’t willing to rethink design and offer virtual buttons to compensate for the lack of a physical controller. There’s a lot of these kinds of guys out there, actually, which is probably why we’re seeing a mini-boom in the 3rd party controller market.

The hottest device right now is 60beat’s GamePad. Unlike many other controllers, it requires no technical voodoo. You simply just plug the male end of its luxuriously lengthy cord into your headphone jack, pick the controller in an in-game menu, and then get to work. It’s really that simple; I haven’t had a problem yet.

Big is the first thought that hit me when I picked it up, and it turned out that it was a hair too large for me. Remember the “Duke” Xbox controller? The GamePad is much smaller, but the issues it has because of its size are pretty similar. Both are inarguably useable devices, but they’re not the best designed out there.

To get more specific: this thing has huge wings that, to use comfortably, require me to ride up on the neck of the thick plastic and push my outer palms more towards my chest than I’m accustomed to when using a controller. It’s a weird angle — it’s like you’re squeezing, as opposed to relaxing.

A few minutes of play is a valid cure for the initial awkwardness, but the grip I have to use with this thing makes its ten buttons — four shoulders, four face, and two of those useless analog stick shoe-ins — harder to reach than I’d like. I’m also not able to get my hands comfortably perfectly square with the sticks, which is putting some english on my movements.

Speaking of buttons, I’m digging the feedback. There’s some meatiness to each and some ideal springiness to the shoulder buttons. The d-pad feels good, too, though I’m sure a purist could find something up with it.

The important thing is that, straight-up, the GamePad works. The response times seem just fine, everything is reasonably reachable, and it adds that real, meaningful layer of tactile feedback to the games. You’ll lose game audio unless you connect a pair of headphones to the splitter the device ships with, but this is a forgivable offense considering the technology at use here.

Also, it makes the games that use it currently — Bugdom 2 and Aftermath — much, much better.

In Bugdom, for example, the GamePad eliminates all the dirty UI elements and allows you to play much like you would any other 3D platforming game. It fleshes out the nuance of specific points of design. Like, for example, the hovering mechanic. Also, it gives you significantly more control over the character, which makes touch jumps easier.

The latter applies to Aftermath. With the GamePad, it’s much easier to move and do the things you want to do. Interestingly, the guys behind Aftermath tied camera controls to the face buttons, which caters to its run-and-gun, corridor style of play.

The GamePad might be bulkier than I’d like, but it gets the job done. The bonus here is that it obviously has an ability to make gameplay more potent. Developers will need to work with 60beat in order to get this controller in their games, though, so the future is as up in the air as our recommendation. If you start seeing a bunch of titles with compatibility, this might be something to spring on.

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There’s something about puzzle games that seem to attract the cutest, most vibrant visuals to the genre and SubTub [$0.99] is no exception. However, despite the bright and cheery graphics, this action-puzzler is no slouch when it comes to difficulty. In fact, if you can get past some control issues and bouts of shallow gameplay, SubTub has enough content and challenge for completionists to possibly be worth checking out.

SubTub is a game of naval superiority. You control a cute red sub through four sets of 18 missions that have you destroying the opposition on the open sea. In the case of SubTub, the open sea is a 6×9 grid of blue filled with other subs, aircraft carriers and more. Your weapons are underwater mines that are placed on the grid. While you have an unlimited amount of mines, each one has a fixed timer and a range slightly more than a single square. Complicating matters are a variety of other seafaring units, such as the rubber ducky, a ‘friendly’ unit that you can’t blow up with your mines (or touch on the grid, for that matter). In addition, mines are chainable, adding to the overall strategy.

Players are scored simply by the amount of time it takes to complete each level, with three tiers of medals available depending on how fast you are (you can also simply ‘pass’ the level if you take long enough). While SubTub’s gameplay foundation is sound, there just isn’t a lot of depth to the game, even when you take into account the different enemies you encounter. Your sub doesn’t gain any new weapons or upgrades, which may make your sense of progression seem a bit passive compared to other titles. In addition, the majority of the new enemies you encounter in later levels don’t add much other than slight variations and different skins.

Despite its cuddly exterior appearance, SubTub is actually a pretty challenging game, especially for folks that like to show their supremacy by collecting medals. Once I got passed the first set of missions, I found myself taking too long to even get the lowest tier medal. Granted, for those looking to simply try and pass the levels, SubTub is somewhat lenient as most levels can eventually be completed with patience and some timing. However, if you really want to earn the medals, you’re going to be doing a bit of practice on each level. This is the sort of balance I actually like to see in puzzlers – providing ample opportunity for casual players to pass levels, while still preserving the challenge for those that want it.

One complaint I have with SubTub is with its controls. Specifically, the swipe mechanism for controlling movement isn’t as precise as I’d like, particularly when it comes to sprinting (which is a double swipe in the direction you want to go). This is especially true if you’re trying to go for the medals, which require both pattern memorization and precise timing. Granted, it’s relatively easy to compensate with enough practice, but it’s still annoying nonetheless.

Don’t let SubTub fool you as this puzzler certainly has enough content and difficulty to keep genre fans occupied. On the other hand, casual gamers that may be looking to purchase SubTub simply from its visuals may be surprised at the difficulty of the title. Regardless, if you’re looking for a puzzler with some bite and don’t mind the cartoony visuals or occasional control issues, I’d recommend checking out SubTub for a quick fix.

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A lot of people don’t like Square Enix’s App Store prices mainly because they’re so much higher than the norm. Good thing about the holidays, we guess, is that all of these prices tend to fall. And they have. Again. This year. Starting now and extending until after New Years Day, you can grab just about every Square Enix title at a much lower price. For example, Final Fantasy Tactics is $11.99 instead of $15.99. Another example: Chaos Rings Omega is $5.99 rather than $11.99.

Here’s a full list of what we’ve seen. Do note that Square is also offering up a bunch of actual apps at a lower cost, too. Just hit up its publisher page on iTunes to see those:

• Chaos Rings – $12.99 → $6.99
• Chaos Rings for iPad – $15.99 → $7.99
• Chaos Rings Omega – $11.99 → $5.99
• Chaos Rings Omega for iPad – $14.99 → $6.99
• Chocobo Panic – $3.99 → $1.99
• Cooking Mama – $6.99 → $3.99
• Crystal Defenders – $7.99 → $3.99
• Crystal Defenders for iPad – $7.99 → $3.99
• Final Fantasy I – $8.99 → $4.99
• Final Fantasy II – $8.99 → $4.99
• Final Fantasy III – $15.99 → $11.99
• Final Fantasy III for iPad – $16.99 → $12.99
• Final Fantasy Tactics – $15.99 → $11.99
• Groove Coaster – $2.99 → $.99
• Hills and Rivers Remain – $4.99 – $2.99
• Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light – $2.99 → $.99
• Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light for iPad – $4.99 → $.99
• Secret of Mana – $8.99 → $4.99
• Sliding Heroes – $.99 → Free
• Song Summoner: The Unsung Heroes – Encore – $9.99 → $4.99
• Space Invaders Infinity Gene – $4.99 → $2.99
• Summer Story – $8.99 → $3.99
• Vanguard Storm – $3.99 → $1.99
• Victorian Mysteries: The Moonstone – $1.99 → $.99
• Victorian Mysteries: The Moonstone for iPad – $2.99 → $.99
• Voice Fantasy – $2.99 → $.99

All the Taito stuff on sale are must-have kind of games, as we’ve mentioned many times before. Forced to pick a straight-up Square game, we’d say Final Fantasy III is probably the best value on the list. It’s a great game on iPad especially, and has enough touch hooks to feel decidedly less port-y than its other stuff.

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WOW! This week, or actually, the last two weeks have been insane. We’ve been pulling some crazy hours here getting everything up, and as a result, the front page of TouchArcade has been moving at about mach 3. I’m pretty sure Brad, Jared, and I all Tebowed at one point this week in hopes that the emails would stop coming.

Anyway, here’s a reverse chronological recap of the stories really worth checking out over the past couple of weeks, in case you missed anything! If you’ve already read everything I’m linking here, congratulations, you just earned your TouchArcade holiday season merit badge.

Best iOS Games November 2011

Our ratings for games we reviewed in November 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 three-star or higher is considered a “good” rating.

The ‘Time Ducks’ Trailer Will Melt Your Brain

A couple of weeks ago, Tough Guy Studios released their first iOS game called Time Ducks [$1.99], and I’m going to be honest, I bought it based solely on the fact that it was called Time Ducks. I figured with a name like that, there was no way I could go wrong. As it turned out, Time Ducks ended up being a pretty fun and unique take on line drawing games, and it sort of sat on the back burner as something I’d been planning on writing about.

Controller Update: More on the GameBone, A Bluetooth 4.0 Revelation

iPhone controller accessories have been generating a good bit of news, here lately. More and more existing iOS titles are gaining physical control options via updates, and just last week we detailed the upcoming Gametel Bluetooth controller that will soon become a game-enhancing iOS controller option, alongside the iCade and iControlPad. The more the merrier, true, but long time readers may recall yet another controller we covered over a year ago that has been off the radar ever since. Does anyone remember the GameBone?

Microsoft Releases Official Xbox Live App

Microsoft, via Xbox Live evangelist Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb, has just announced the immediate release of the company’s first Xbox Live iOS app, My Xbox Live [Free]. It’s a free app that basically acts as a mobile companion to some of the more important aspects of the service. You can read and send messages to anyone on your Friend’s List, manage that list or invite new people onto it, edit your profile, gander at all of your hard-earned achievements, or even mess with your Avatar’s apparel.

The OnLive iOS Client is Finally Arriving

At E3 back in June of this year, we got an impressive hands-on demo of the OnLive service running and playable on the iPad. In case you’re not familiar, OnLive is the cloud-based gaming service that allows you to play from a fairly large selection of console and PC games by way of streaming them to an OnLive client running on your computer or a specially designed set-top box that connects to your TV. In simpler terms, it’s a lot like instantly streaming movies over NetFlix, except it’s video games, and you get to actually play them in real time with minimal lag if you’re internet speeds are up to snuff.

Out Now: ‘Batman Arkham City Lockdown’, ‘Mini Motor Racing’, ‘Six Guns’, ‘TXT Fighter HD’, and More

Holy jeez! We’re pretty used to the typical Wednesday onslaught of new releases in the App Store, but today has been a truly insane undertaking. Between Batman making a surprise drop from the shadows and into the App Store with Arkham City Lockdown, the exciting OnLive iOS client finally seeing the light of day (soon anyway), and the normal barrage of new releases we usually see every week, it’s been a wild roller coaster ride of iOS craziness. To top it off, Eli is out in Finland hobnobbing with The Mighty Eagle, ensuring that Brad and I are up to our ear balls in busy work.

Dragon Shout: A Great ‘Skyrim’ Map App

Dragon Shout [Free] has cleared the certification hurdle and it’s available now at the low, low price of $0. What it does, it does well, and it proves a point. Games as deep as Skyrim should be embracing mobile companion apps across the board. Dragon Shout is an app that not only makes Skyrim better, but down the road, it might add an entirely new layer to the experience: social.

‘Chrono Trigger’ Hits the App Store

Hey guys! Here’s a surprise, Chrono Trigger [$9.99] just came out of nowhere. Well, not entirely out of nowhere, since Square Enix had mentioned that it was coming this month… But after the rampant delays that Final Fantasy Tactics saw, my hopes that they’d hit this release window could be best described as “cautiously optimistic.”

Apple’s “App Store Rewind 2011″ Features ‘Tiny Tower’ and ‘Dead Space for iPad’ as Games of the Year

If you’re new to iOS devices, or haven’t been following the scene as closely as you should have been over the last year, Apple’s year end feature App Store Rewind 2011 has an incredible amount of must-have games and apps that, in my opinion, you can basically just blindly download as they did a great job of picking out the cream of the crop.

‘WildChords’ is One of the Coolest Things I’ve Seen the iPad Do

Easily one of my most anticipated games this year, and I’m sure many of yours out there as well, is Warballoon Games‘ Star Command.

‘Kinectimals’ Review – Making Connections

Kinectimals on Kinect is an experiential game that does a solid job of luring its users into forming an emotional bond with its assortment of on-screen, rascally pets.

Out Now: ‘Bug Princess’, ‘Ice Rage’, ‘Marathon 2′, ‘Sonic CD’, ‘Trenches II’ and TONS More

If you’ve been sitting on a massive emergency food supply waiting for the right occasion to open the first gallon sized can of preserved potato chunks, this might be it.

‘Sonic CD’ Review – Absolutely Incredible and Redefines Expectations of iOS Ports

The only way I can start this review is with a little history lesson, both for people who aren’t familiar with Sonic CD, as well as those of you who might not have been reading TouchArcade since the summer of 2009. Let’s start at the beginning, so everyone can truly appreciate just how wonderful the very existence of this game is.

‘Grand Theft Auto III’ Review – Ten Years Later, Still a Great Game

Prior to Grand Theft Auto III I’d say I had fun messing around in Grand Theft Auto games, but never really enjoyed myself. The top-down view felt incredibly claustrophobic, and, at least for me, made getting immersed into the game world incredibly difficult. I don’t think it’s hyperbole at all to say that GTA 3 changed everything.

Carcassonne’ Update Adds Expansion, Baby Mode

Remember when we wrote about the fact that Carcassonne [$9.99] will receive expansion support in the future? It has that right now.

‘Mad Dog McCree’ Coming To iPhone Next Week

American Laser Games’s so-awful-it-ends-up-being-good FMV shooter, Mad Dog McCree, is coming to the iPhone and iPod Touch this December 20, according to caretaker Digital Leisure. This is a port of the original arcade release of the game, so don’t expect anything too fancy, however the team is noting that it has converted the game’s silly footage for phones and even added an “all new casual mode” for those without hardcore gunslinging skills.

‘Bug Princess’ Review – Unsurprisingly, CAVE’s Latest Bullet Hell Shooter is Another Winner

In April of last year, iOS gamers scored big when longtime Japanese developer CAVE decided to task their mobile division with bringing some of their classic shooter titles to the Apple App Store. All of these games – Espgaluda II, Dodonpachi Resurrection, and Deathsmiles – received critical acclaim from media and gamers alike, and set the benchmark for what we should expect from our bullet hell shmups on the App Store.

I told you it has been a crazy couple of weeks! I only cherry picked the really good stuff that we posted for this list too! Now, it’s time for a beer and a weekend away from my inbox…!

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Hello. My name is Cassandra and I have a problem. I’m a recovering trading card game-holic. I used to play them obsessively – just ask my wallet. But I’ve been getting better. I’ve been clean for a while but I have doubts that it is going to last. There’s a new game in town and it’s smart, sexy and exotic. Meet Cabals: The Card Game [Free], ladies and gentlemen, and kiss your productivity good-bye.

Developed by Finnish Kyy Games, Cabals has all the necessary hallmarks of the genre: exceptional artwork, warring factions, creatures to summon, resources to manage, booster packs – you name it, they’ve got it.

The world of Cabals: The Card Game is a familiar one. It’s our own, after all. The key players here are the Cabals, secret societies comprised of witches and steam punk magicians, of Russians and alchemists and faerie pigs. As is often the case with anything eldritch in nature, these Cabals don’t get along too well. This, obviously enough, is where you come in. You’re one of the vanguards and you will fight for the glory of your faction. Or something like that.

One thing I really liked about Kyy Games’ new title is the exceedingly robust cross-platform online gameplay that it provides. I know, I know. This isn’t anything new, per se. We’ve had cross-platform games for ages. But bear with me. Most games have limitations. With Cabals, things are a little different. Not only will you be able to take on players on the iOS platform, you’ll also be able to challenge everyone from Mac Users to Android-wielding associates. In short, if it runs Unity, it will run Cabals and it will run it beautifully. (Facebook and Windows 7 versions are apparently in the works too.)

So, we’ve got kick-ass online services and a delightful urban-fantasy setting checked. What else has Kyy Games brought to the table? A lot, I would say. Cabals: The Card Game is a somewhat nontraditional take on the idea. More a TCG/board game hybrid than anything else, Cabals will not have you safely seated on your side of the metaphorical table as you work on whittling your opponent’s health down to zero. No, sir. Things are much different here.

In Cabals, you’re going to have to either storm the Stronghold (it’s usually the tile furthest away from your own and marked with a little castle-like symbol) or acquire 60 Domination points (this usually entails conquering approximately sixty tiles) in order to win. Your choice. Just be forewarned – it’s not as easy as it sounds. Units can only be brought into play through your Stronghold or a ‘deployment location’ that you control. Does that mean you should rush towards those hot spots? Not really. It depends on your playstyle. Can you afford risking the possibility of being flanked? Can you control your opponent’s wanton expansion in the mean time? What about your Stronghold? Do you worry about it or do you charge for the other guy’s Stronghold first?

But before you get into all of that, you had better damn well make sure you have enough resources at your disposal first. Do you finance spells or units? Do you go for quality or quantity? And if that wasn’t enough to worry about, you’re also going to have to take positioning into account as it is far too easy to maneuver yourself into a corner should you be careless.

As for the rest of it, it’s all pretty straightforward. Movement is accomplished by dragging and dropping a unit onto an adjacent square. Combat is performed when two units are within range (and by dragging and dropping one onto another). Damage is determined by the power that a unit has and occasionally by certain special attributes. Spells work pretty much the same way as units – their individual effects can be found on the cards themselves.

Sometimes, a laborious dance worthy of the grandmasters of chess and sometimes, a mad rush for control, Cabals is easy to grasp and surprisingly deep for something that can, at times, feel like a distilled version of the genre. It currently operates on a freemium model so you’re going to have to spend some real world cash to purchase more cards. Fortunately, you won’t get assaulted by constant demands to spend money so that’s always a plus. As an added bonus, the amount of influence points (which is their name for in-game currency) that you receive when you register yourself is actually fairly hefty so chances are, if you’re going to make this a casual experience, you’ll probably never find yourself reaching for your wallet.

TouchArcade Rating:

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