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Below is the first promotional teaser for Fast Five: The Movie: Official Game, the official tie-in to “Fast Five: The Movie,” a film that will surely earn a place amongst the two greatest films of all time: “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective” and “Gigli.” High praise in advance of an actual viewing, I know, but look at its cast for a minute — Vin Diesel and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson on-screen at the same time? Sounds like Oscar material to me.

Oh, wow, you’re still with me. Here’s the low-down: Fast Five: The Movie: Official Game is a racing game slated to the App Store on April 28, a day before the movie it's based on hits theaters. In the game, you’ll play as the film series’ returning protagonist, Brian O’Conner. O'Conner is a dude who, apparently, needs to race in exotic places in order to… well, er… whatever. Dude just needs to race, OK?  Oh, and blow things up. As you saw, there, this game has an interesting real-time destruction mechanic that you can trigger, presumably, by doing stunts and racing well.

In case you were wondering why Fast Five: The Movie: Official Game looks so much like the racing title Split Second [$4.99 / HD] (right down to its usage of buttons to activate real-time world devastation events), it’s because Gameloft is behind the wheel of the project. These are the same guys who have been "borrowing" core mechanics and concepts from other titles like, say, Zelda or Uncharted or Halo, etc., etc.

Come later this April, if you want a taste of Fast Five: The Game, it may just be wiser to have a friend blindfold you, re-assign all the buttons on a version of Split Second, and then hand you a controller just as a race starts. Am I being too negative here? Probably! We'll see!

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I’m not as learned about The 7th Guest [$2.99 / HD], or as much of a fan of the iOS port as Fearless Leader Eli “7th Guest” Hodapp, but even I’m stoked about this latest shred of news relating to the fabled puzzle game: Trilobyte, the studio behind the original game and its well-received touch-based port, is doing an iPad spin-off called The 7th Guest: Infection, a title solely based around the ridiculous-hard microscope puzzle that had to be cut from the port of The 7th Guest when it came to iOS earlier in 2010.

The microscope puzzle earned its “maddening” descriptor because it was — and still holds up as — one of the most convoluted and stressing game puzzles of all time. And since Infection is based around this very puzzle, I’ll go ahead and let Trilobyte do the describing of the game and its mechanics. See if you can follow! It’s fun, I swear!

Infection is a strategy board game designed to be played by the user against the AI engine; or, by two players. The 7×7 square grid, featuring layers of animated microbial action, is divided into 7 columns and 7 rows of consecutive cells. The object of the game is to make your microbes a majority on the board at the end of the game, by infecting and converting as many of your opponent's microbes as possible…

During their turn, players move one of their microbes either one or two spaces in any direction. Diagonal distances are equivalent to orthogonal distances, e.g. it is legal to move to a cell whose relative position is two squares away both vertically and horizontally. If the destination is adjacent to the source, a new microbe is created on the empty departure square. Otherwise the microbe on the source moves to the destination. After the move, all of the opponent player's microbes adjacent to the destination cell are converted to the color of the moving player. Players must move unless no legal move is possible, in which case they must pass.

The game is over when every cell has been covered or all the microbes are gone. Now, if you’re still interested, here’s a couple more fun details: Infection will feature Game Center, a brand new soundtrack, and, hey, seven difficulty levels if you, somehow, manage to get bored by the “normal” AI.

Trilobyte tells us that Infection will premiere at $2.99. Speaking of that, the game should crop up on the App Store in the very near future — it’s in approval as you read this.

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Last November Capcom released Capcom Arcade [Free], a slick little package that featured a selection of their classic arcade titles in one single app. Capcom Arcade uses an interesting monetary system where you get 3 free tickets per day, with each ticket being good for one play of any of the games. You can also purchase token packs as IAP, where tokens function just like tickets and are good for a single play, or you can purchase any of the arcade games outright for unlimited play. We liked Capcom Arcade in our review, noting that the virtual controls were about as good as can be expected and the performance of the games was pretty solid, though not perfect.

Capcom had promised to add additional arcade games to the package every month, and followed through by adding Street Fighter II Champion Edition in December and Ghosts ‘n Goblins in January. The past two months, though, have not seen any new titles added to the game. Capcom is trying to make up for this with the latest update that hit this past Friday which adds two new games at once to Capcom Arcade. The first game is 1943, the vertically scrolling WWII shooter and the sequel to the already included 1942. 1943 seems to control and perform well, though it feels pretty dated compared to the vast array of shmup options in the App Store and is a fairly underwhelming addition.

The real star of this update is the highly regarded beat ‘em up Final Fight, so much so that Capcom has actually renamed Capcom Arcade to include Final Fight in the title. I absolutely loved Final Fight as a kid, and this version is pretty excellent. The virtual controls work just fine for the pace of the gameplay, with Capcom’s familiar control stick for movement and a button each for attacking, jumping, and performing special moves. The performance is very good too, with only the occasional hitch in frame rate when many elements are on screen at once. The biggest disappointment I noticed is in the sound effects and music, which sound really tinny and lacked the “oomph” of the arcade cabinet.

Other than those small nit picks, I love having the full arcade version of Final Fight in my pocket at all times. Like the rest of the games in the package, it has options for rearranging the controls as you see fit and adjusting their opacity as well as the ability to choose a smaller screen for crisper graphics or stretching it to full screen. There's even a local Bluetooth multiplayer mode that lets you play through the campaign with a friend, which has always been the most fun way to enjoy Final Fight.

As an added bonus, Capcom is having a sale on the purchase of every arcade machine in the app, offering them for just 99¢ each until April 7th. If you have ever been a fan of arcade beat ‘em ups at all, you owe it to yourself to at least download the free Capcom Arcade app and give Final Fight a try, not to mention the solid selection of other available titles. If you enjoy it, then they’re an easy recommendation to pick up for 99¢ each during this sale.

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We've often received criticism from readers that they're tired of paying too little for games on the App Store. When you own a piece of premium electronics like the iPhone, the iPod touch, or even the iPad, scrubbing around for price drop alerts and freebie Fridays just seems so… passé. If you consider yourself among the App Store elite, consider playing these games which bring new meaning to the phrase "premium pricing" whilst sunning yourself on your yacht this weekend:

Buddy Repperton Gold, $399.99 – Why simply play a sports game when you can bet real world money on them instead? Well, with the help of Buddy Reperton you’re going to be getting the hottest, most elite, premium sports picks in the land.

Crossword Pro Service Update, $99.99 – The developers warn that this hundred dollar version of Crossword Pro [$6.99] is just an update to an existing app, but we all know that isn't true. Why restrict yourself to the crossword game of the proles when you can opt to spend substantially more money on a better, premium game experience?

Happyville, $99.99 – When you’re among the financial elite, playing free farming games like Farmville, We Rule and others is just beneath you. Flop out a benjamin for the ultimate in iOS farming. Does Farmville have elephants, dragons, and other mythical beasts? …I don’t know, probably, actually.

Hot Farm, $69.99 – Shockingly similar to Happyville, Hot Farm provides a somewhat similar farming experience, but at the discounted price of $69.99 instead of the standard $99.99 of Happyville. Still premium, but for the conservative high roller we recommend giving this one a shot.

Smurfs’ Village, Free – While at first glance this might just seem like a free app that you’d typically avoid, looking for something with a little more status to it, you would be making a grave mistake. You see, there is no limit to how much money you can spend on Smurfs’ Village and Capcom even made it conducive to the discerning high roller by offering a $99.99 bundle of IAP Smurfberries. Better yet, there’s no limit to how many of these bundles you can buy.

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A lot of great games explore the idea of loss and the tragedy that can come as a result of losing something. The world’s greatest shooter, Crysis, for example, is directionless title with a limp narrative. Its design forces users to experience regret and grief as they travel around a lifeless open-world devoid of contextual clues or activities. Playing the game is experiencing loss first hand, since when compared to other shooters, Crysis lacks brick-and-mortar, taken-for-granted elements like goals, end points, or basic level design.

But how many games deal with finding — finding that thing that is lost? I can’t think of a single one except Find the Rabbit [$1.99] for the iPad, iPod Touch, and Mac App Store. Alas, it’s not a good game.

Find the Rabbit opens innocently, enough. You stare at a captivating mound of grass with bits and pieces of delicious wood scattered about. And in this mound, right below a patch of beautiful golden flowers, are a rabbit’s ears. This is the rabbit, the goal, the end point, the object that guides the ebb and flow of the experience.

But as brilliant as this first area is, it highlights the obnoxious problems with the title — the rabbit is poorly hidden, for starters, but he’s also a cartoon that is poorly implemented into a portrait that looks like it was taken from a royalty-free photo site. And when you click him? Oh, there’s another problem with that.

You see, if this experience was all, really, about finding our dear rabbit, wouldn’t the rabbit be relieved or frightened to see us? Why is he flashing a stupid grin? Who are we to the rabbit, you’ll be left asking as you play, and what does this game have to say about our endeavor to find this hidden animal?

The answers can’t be found in the game, nor are they alluded to otherwise, which is an unfortunate problem that makes Find the Rabbit impossible to recommend. So much more could have been done here, but the rabbit betrays no expression that conjures a meaning to us, nor does he seem intent on actually hiding. Also, the game doesn’t fill us in on the issues surrounding his disappearance or the chase to find him.

The rest of the game features nothing more than several other real-life portraits, some of which feature snow, corn stalks, other flowers, and other odd outside worlds. But the rabbit sticks out like a sore thumb in each, providing little challenge.

Also, it’s harder than I’d like to scroll between environments. You’d figure with a total of three inputs the developer could nail the touch implementation, but no dice here.

Overall, I just want more out of Find the Rabbit. Why do I need to look for him? Why is he lost to me? Why doesn’t he hide better? Where is the Game Center and co-op support? Also, why is the rabbit continuing to run away and into other exotic places? There are no answers or hints in Find the Rabbit, which is perhaps the worst thing about it.

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With the nearly half a million apps on the App Store and a signal to noise ratio on par with a set of walky talkies purchased from a dollar store, instead of spending our time looking for games you'd actually want to spend your time playing, here are ten you should avoid at all costs:

10. Name That Fart, 99¢ – While the thought of fart-centric trivia may be appealing, not even the crisp Retina Display graphics makes this game worth considering. Gameplay consists of a ten question multiple choice quiz where you've got to identify signature farts such as the "lingerer" the "blupper" or even the "flutter blast." Upon completion of the quiz your score is displayed which sadly isn't uploaded to any kind of online leaderboard. We're hopeful for Game Center integration in future updates, but for now Name That Fart is safe to skip.

9. My Virtual Cat, 99¢ – It's clear to see where Hurrikane Technologies was trying to go with this virtual pet simulator. Utilizing Myst-like pre-rendered graphics, players must complete various tasks to take care of their virtual cat ranging from feeding it, playing with it, and even cleaning its litter box. A recent update added the playground locale, but we still recommend skipping this game as it ultimately fails at providing the personality that we feel a virtual pet game requires.

8. stickyStick, $94.99 – A puzzle matching game where players must tap the stick figures in the order that they appear. The game shows significant promise, but we recommend waiting for a price drop, as the current $94.99 price forces us to suggest that readers give stickyStick a pass for now.

7. 优惠券, Free – This appears to be some kind of text-based RPG that we've been unsuccessful in reviewing because no one at TouchArcade speaks Chinese. We assume 优惠券 has some kind of Barcode Battler but without knowing for sure, unfortunately we're going to need to skip 优惠券.

6. Annoing Neighbors, Free – The premise of Annoing Neighbors involves, well, annoing [sic] your neighbors. With gameplay similar to Angry Birds, you fling balls at boxes. We're hoping to see some additional character development implemented in future versions of Annoing Neighbors, but for now this game is safe to skip.

5. Button Trial Challenges by Zincous, 99¢ – What appears to be a typical "hello world" game is actually a not-so-cleverly disguised way to farm up Game Center achievement points. Clearly designed by someone who has gone absolutely mad with collecting video game achievements, Button Trial Challenges by Zincous will put your ability to hold and press virtual buttons to the test. Unfortunately, until online multiplayer or a single player campaign is added, I'm going to have to say… skip this one.

4. Doodle Bird, 99¢, – The iTunes description makes this game sounds like it helps you find your wife and children, of which it does neither. Instead, all we get is a poor Doodle Jump clone. Two words: False advertising. Additional word: SKIP!

3. Cat Translator, 99¢ – I've spent the past few years of my life wondering why my cat does the ridiculous things it does. Cat Translator seemed to provide some promise that I might finally unravel that mystery, but alas, it doesn't seem to work. (That, or my cat is just ignoring me as usual.) Either way, until we can confirm whether or not this actually does anything we recommend skipping this one.

2. Angry Turds, 99¢ – As much as I'd love this to be a witty play on the Angry Birds formula, it falls flat in just about every way imaginable. You play as a monkey, and angrily throw turds at pith helmet wearing adventurers. Totally skippable, unless the name Angry Turds makes you giggle.

1. Uggles, 99¢ – This game is about as captivating as tilting your phone to juggle furry little creatures called "uggles" could possibly be, that is to say, not at all. There are tons of different uggles to unlock, but doing so requires hours of mind-numbingly boring tilting back and forth as you juggle your uggles back and forth. If you like repetitive games, give Uggles a shot, otherwise… Skip it!

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We're back again turning the valve of the ol' rumour spigot to quench our undying thirst for all things secret. This week we've got an overflowing goblet of rumors straight from our most trusted industry insiders planted deep inside the world of iOS. Our first rumour comes courtesy of an unexpected agent we randomly found working the front lines of Apple retail at the Apple Store Friendly Center in Greensboro, NC. While casually wandering around the Apple Store looking to buy an iPod nano, we were approached and asked if we needed any help.

Naturally, we spotted our opening and went in for the kill, juicing the agent for every drop of rumour imaginable. When interrogated regarding the upcoming iPhone, we learned that Apple does in fact release new iPhones every year, confirming our suspicions that an iPhone 5 is in the works. Also, while we were unable to delve in to raw specifics, we confirmed that the device will likely be faster, potentially get better battery life, and even might have additional storage.

In other rumours, we've received direct confirmation from a Gameloft beta tester that the French mobile gaming giant plans to release additional iOS titles. Digging for more specifics we've learned that these future titles spread the gamut of first person shooters, third person action games, and even racing games. When pressed for further details we discovered that these games will not only include Gameloft Live, but also will be controlled using a variety of on-screen controls and even tilt.

Stay tuned for additional rumors.

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Right smack in the middle of Macworld this past January, Liv Games released their first iOS title called Legendary Wars [99¢/Lite]. It’s a castle defense game similar to a plethora of other titles available in the App Store, but Legendary Wars made some smart design decisions that set itself apart from the rest. There are 3 different lanes to manage, which adds a layer of depth to the landscape as you send troops towards the enemy castle or deal with oncoming attacks. There are also a staggering number of different game types that afford a ton of variety to the gameplay. A full armory and upgrade system motivates you to keep on playing just one more game as you power up your offensive squad.

We were really surprised at just how much we enjoyed Legendary Wars in our review, and really the biggest negative we had was that the lovely artwork in the game didn’t support Retina Display resolution, and looked pretty fuzzy on those devices. Today Liv Games has rectified this by releasing an update that includes Retina Display graphics and a number of other goodies. Check out these comparison shots below to see just how big a difference the higher resolution art work makes in Legendary Wars (normal resolution on left, Retina resolution on right. Click to enlarge):

In addition to the Retina Display support, this update to Legendary Wars also includes Game Center integration with 50 achievements and 5 leaderboards for Endless modes. There’s also a brand new armory which unlocks upon completion of the Campaign, and several of the Hard and Legendary difficulty missions have been altered to be more balanced. There’s also a host of other bug fixes and the game has been optimized to load faster and run more smoothly across all devices.

This update comes after last month’s update which included a more casual-friendly control option and various other gameplay tweaks and balances. There is also a brand new lite version of Legendary Wars to try out which includes 7 exclusive levels not included in the regular version, and the full game is currently on sale for 99¢. An iPad native version is in the works too, and Liv Games is hoping to roll that out in mid-April barring any complications.

Players have been loving the game in the very active forum thread, and if you own Legendary Wars grab this latest update to check out the new high resolution graphics and Game Center, and if you haven't picked up the title already check out the lite version for a taste of the gameplay.

Note: A memory bug has crept into this update for owners of 4th generation iPod touch devices which can cause crashes when several titles are in the multitasking memory. Liv Games already has a fix for this which should be submitted this weekend. Until then you can avoid the problem by clearing apps out of multitasking, and an update to officially address the problem should be out soon.

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If you're one of the millions of people out there who have found themselves gingerly stroking their new iPad 2's lately waiting for some more games to truly unleash the beast on, today is your lucky day. The guys from Trendy Entertainment dropped us a note and let us know that Dungeon Defenders: First Wave now fully takes advantage of everything the iPad 2 has to offer. All you've got to do is download the latest version of Dungeon Defenders and turn the somewhat confusingly named "video upscale percentage" slider all the way up.

Doing so makes Dungeon Defenders look and play like this:

It might be a little hard to see in the video, but the difference is insane. Performance on the original iPad was always lackluster (to put it kindly) and it's crazy to see what a difference the iPad 2 hardware makes. Unfortunately, all of our original criticisms of the game's UI still stands, and even though it performs substantially better, it's still incredibly clunky to play due to the incredibly complicated on-screen interface.

Regardless, the game is on sale for a buck for the next few days so if you're looking for something to try on your iPad 2 or have just been looking to check out Dungeon Defenders, now is as good of a time as any.

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Earlier today we posted the news that due to a license agreement expiring between THQ Wireless and Star Wars IP owners LucasArts, the iOS title Star Wars Arcade: Falcon Gunner [$2.99] would no longer be available in the App Store after the end of this month. This also led to strong speculation that all THQ published Star Wars games would need to be removed as well.

We got this information from Kotaku, who since posting their original story had sent word out to all parties involved for further clarification. Earlier today they received confirmation from THQ that indeed all Star Wars games would be getting pulled, then just a few short hours later they were told the exact opposite. In a response email sent to Kotaku, a THQ Wireless spokesperson stated “All Star Wars apps will be available until further notice”.

Personally, that response doesn’t strike a ton of confidence in me that the Star Wars apps won’t be pulled sometime in the future. But for now, it seems that they’re safe. Josh Shabtai of Vertigore, the studio that created Star Wars Arcade: Falcon Gunner, is trying to push forward with his planned updates for the game which include an iPad 2 optimized version (the game doesn’t currently work properly on that device) and a Battle for Endor expansion. Vertigore is currently waiting to find out if they’ll be able to release these updates.

Likely after this story made its way around the ‘net THQ realized that there could potentially be some bad PR fallout from pulling those games, so have tentatively struck a deal with LucasArts to keep them around. Kotaku is currently awaiting an official response from the LucasArts folks, so I guess this could still all take a turn for the worse should they decide against this latest turn of events. We’ll keep you updated if we find out any new information on this situation.

[via Kotaku]

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