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It’s been so long since we’ve heard anything about Square Enix’s iOS port of the PlayStation classic Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions that I was starting to wonder if they really did announce it back at E3 2010 or if I merely dreamt the whole thing up.

The last news we officially heard about the game was back in December when Square Enix announced that Final Fantasy Tactics, which had missed its intended September 15th release, was now slated for a much more vague “Spring 2011” date. Seeing as the end of Spring is fast approaching and there’s been no updates on the title’s progress, some have started to wonder whether the release of this highly anticipated title would slip once again.

Today Square Enix has finally broken their silence and announced on their Facebook page that yes, Final Fantasy Tactics likely won’t be making its Spring debut as promised, but instead will be released shortly after in “late June to mid-July”.

I guess if you’re the ultimate optimist, it conceivably still could make Spring if it somehow hits on the very last day, June 21st, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. Still, having a clearer idea of when the game will launch is appreciated. Plus, Square Enix have released a new batch of screens, which I’ll go ahead and let you check out for yourself:

Another interesting tidbit that Square Enix has shared is that the game will be getting an iPad native release, and that one of their artists is actually redrawing much of the art in 1024×768 resolution so that it looks nice and sharp on the screen of the iPad.

Because of this extra work, you can expect the iPad version to launch sometime after the iPhone/iPod touch version. No word on if the artwork that is being redrawn in high resolution will also make its way to the smaller screen in the form of Retina Display support, though I would certainly hope so.

Mark your calendars and clear some free time in the “late June to mid-July” window for the long-awaited release of Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions, and drop by the massive thread in our forums to share in the anticipation with your fellow gamers.

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Originally starting life as a PSP Mini, Flying Hamster from developer The Game Atelier made its way to iOS this past January. A horizontally scrolling shooter, Flying Hamster’s gameplay harkened back to shooters of days past, with an unforgiving difficulty and strict arcade-style level structure. The old-school design offered no mid-level checkpoints, and losing all of your lives meant starting all the way over at the beginning.

That’s not a bad thing at all though, especially if you like classic shmups, but it’s not everybody’s cup of tea. Aside from the gameplay, the strongest aspect of Flying Hamster was its adorable style and fantastic sound and visuals, which we noted in our original review. There’s almost no end to the zaniness of the enemies, environments, and weaponry in Flying Hamster, and it really is a sight to behold. There’s just something fun about playing this game that brings a smile to my face very time.

Now you can check out Flying Hamster for yourself for absolutely nothing for a limited time. Shortly after the iPhone release in January, an iPad native version was released, and that’s free right now as well. In fact, the iPad version actually tempered the difficulty somewhat by virtue of showing more of the playing area thanks to its larger screen.

Chances are if you even remotely enjoyed watching the above trailer, then you’ll get a huge kick out of playing Flying Hamster. It isn’t the best shmup on the App Store, but it’s certainly one of the wackiest. Definitely give Flying Hamster a try while you’re able to grab it for free.

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We’ve been pretty excited for the release of Casey’s Contraptions ever since we posted the first trailer a couple of weeks ago. This colorful physics puzzler has you building up machines in order to collect lost items for young Casey across over 70 levels in the game. You can then take these collected items and use them in a level editor to create your own puzzles, sending them to friends via email for them to solve.

Another intriguing aspect to Casey’s Contraptions is the ability to share solution replays for each of the levels with friends on Game Center. Yesterday, the developers behind Casey’s Contraptions, Snappy Touch and Mystery Coconut Games, posted some new screens and information in our forums on how this system works (click any image below to enlarge).

This screenshot on the left shows one of the early levels in the game, where you must get down a soccer ball that is trapped on top of some pipes. Upon completing the level, you’re show the screen on the right, which tells you how many stars you earned on that level. Along the bottom of this screen are the 3 most recent solutions that your Game Center friends have shared, and clicking on one will allow you to see their final setup or even replay the level so you can see exactly how it worked.

You’ll notice that among the choices of replays there is one that has a Casey icon in the corner. Casey himself will actually be a friend to everyone in the game, and he wants to share his solutions to levels with you too. The screen above on the left is one of Casey’s solutions for earning 3 stars on that level. The way Casey goes about solving levels is often very direct with no frills, but the beauty of Casey’s Contraptions is that there are many ways to solve every level. The screen on the right shows the solution to the same level, once again earning 3 stars, but using a completely different tactic.

The ability to share solutions like this sounds like one of the most appealing aspects to Casey’s Contraptions. With the somewhat open-ended ability to create solutions to each level, I can see it being incredibly fun sharing a particularly crazy or elaborate solution for all your friends to see, and challenging them to try and one up it. Besides showing the 3 most recent friend solutions after completing a level, you can also expand this and see both your own solutions for that particular level plus all the shared solutions from your entire Game Center friends list.

Casey’s Contraptions is scheduled to launch this Thursday (or rather, Wednesday night in the US) for the iPad at a price of $2.99. An iPhone version is in the works as well, though no date is set for that at this time. You can drop by the upcoming thread in our forums for discussion of the game, and we’ll have a full review of Casey’s Contraptions when it launches later this week.

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Traditionally speaking, Ankama Games' Dofus series is best known for two iterations: the Flash-based MMORPG that was launched in 2004 and the Wakfu series of games which has seen iterations on Xbox 360 and an upcoming version for browsers. Dofus: Battles [$2.99 / HD] takes the pre-existing world and art style from the browser games and drops it onto iOS as a curious little tower, uh, dragon defense game with a set of RPG elements.

Despite the pedigree, you don't actually have to be familiar with Dofus to enjoy Dofus: Battles. Nor do you have to like MMORPGs, because this isn't one. It probably helps a bit to understand the character classes and items, but the uninitiated can pick it up quickly and without too much trouble.

Right out of the gate, after touching the horrendously designed icon, you'll be rewarded with a lavish visual style. The game takes the same three-quarters perspective, grid-based combat as its MMO lineage and despite a curious lack of retina support, character animations, menus and the interface are all well crafted, simple to use and nice to look at.

The game itself operates similar to Plants vs. Zombies, but the added RPG layer and the manner of unit variety means there is a different kind of strategy at play here. Instead of having a system where each unit counters the enemy evenly, you have a collection of twelve different heroes, half of which are support, the other offensive and you can choose any of them any time you want. Each has their own strengths and weaknesses, level up over time, can be fully armored and outfitted, have gender options and varying areas of effect.

It's a bit complex, especially when you toss in an entire economy system where you can buy and upgrade armor, weapons and other trinkets. None of the units are remotely similar either — so choosing a unit type to use and when is integral to setting up your strategy.

At the beginning of each turn, you'll place your units on a grid. Enemies walk down the grid toward your side of the screen, where a dragon is hanging out — if they get there, it's game over. To stop the massive bestiary selection from infiltrating your personal space, your twelve heroes each have different abilities — from the grunt with a one-block range to chop with his sword, to the magician who can call down giant-teethed sheep, you'll have a huge diversity of tactical options and combos to choose from.

After you place your team on the grid, you'll push play and the first wave of enemies will come down for some automated real-time combat. There are two different modes, wave defense and timed defense. As your heroes kill off enemy units, you'll be rewarded with soul fragments — collect five and you can add another hero to the field.

There are 28 different levels in the game and before each match you can decide which of three difficulties you'd like tackle it on. Each difficulty will yield different amounts of experience points, monsters, soul points and rewards. It might seem like a cop-out, but the fact you can drop it down to an easier level in order to progress is incredibly helpful considering the game does seem to retain one facet from RPGs that people are likely going to love to hate: grinding.

It's not as bad as a traditional, fully-fledged adventure-RPG, but there are certain levels that are near impossible to get through without going back and cleaning up some of the earlier ones for a second or third time. That's not to say fans of knuckle biting strategy can't get through certain stages on lower levels, but for those looking to strategize less and use brute force instead, you can grind your characters up instead of overclocking your brain to get the strategy right. The difficulty levels change the gameplay enough to warrant these repeated attempts and you won't be able to use the same strategy on easy as you would on normal or high.

For fans of weird, tacked on mini-games, you won't be disappointed either. Almost without explanation the game also features an odd accelerometer mini-game where you dodge enemies and a rhythm/music game ala Simon Says. Thankfully you can skip those.

The only major complaint I have comes from the equipment screen. Throughout the game, you'll pick up weapons and items and you can buy them if you choose — but this is the only part of the game where the interface feels unhelpful. It's hard to properly compare items and their statistical difference is usually so slight it's hard to justify spending you money on a weapon that only adds one point to your attack score. To be blunt, it would be nice to have an auto-equip function for lazy people who don't feel like comparing stats for a hundred different items.

The high production values and ridiculously in-depth history, bestiary and other reading material alone is enough to make Dofus: Battles an easy recommendation, so it's nice the game itself is actually enjoyable. The difficulty spike can be frustrating at times, but as long as you enjoy experimenting with different strategies or grinding for XP, it won't be much of a bother. It's doesn't have the entry-level appeal of something like Plants vs. Zombies, but if you're looking for a bit more depth in strategy or slightly more open gameplay, you'll certainly get it here, even if it comes at the cost of a high bar of entry.

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Eli and Jared are Hurdle Turtle [$.99] fanatics. It’s a documented love affair beyond that of mortal bounds. And while the either of the duo would love to be the one to pen this blockbuster of a post, they can’t. They’re… unwell after a botched duel to the death over the rights of authorship. It’s with a leaden heart and a rejuvenating tinge of anticipation that I bring you this Hurdle Turtle update news: competitive multiplayer is coming soon.

Version 2.1.0 of Hurdle Turtle will usher in real-time, actual competitive multiplayer to the core game using Game Center as its service. The creators of Hurdle Turtle tell us that you’ll be able to play against friends, foes, or random dudes alike via the support, which should be coming very soon since the update is in Apple’s hands right now.

As you’d expect, Hurdle Turtle multiplayer will support friends play as well as auto-matching, and it plans to make this easier on your end: after picking a match, the game will assign the match a random level where you’ll be able to select your character before it begins in truth. No flashiness, just raw-dog Hurdle Turtle action.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must tend to Fearless Leaders’ wounds. Jared’s Beard of Woe is a powerful weapon indeed.

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Burrito Bison is one of the thousands and thousands — if not millions — of web-based games available on the Internet. You can try the popular “fling” game now with a mouse for $0, or soon you can give it a go on your favorite Apple handheld for a price.

My eyes gloss over when I peruse flash game libraries. There are a lot of games with great ideas, but rare is it when you stumble upon a title that has the mega important hallmarks of a solid game: coherent vision, polish, and sharp execution. I can count on my fingers the number of titles that fit this bill.

Burrito Bison is etched on fist. It’s a solid, realized game that I’m excited to see come to a platform and a wider audience. I got into contact with game creator Juicy Beast late last week to talk about the inspiration behind the title, as well as some specifics about the iOS port, which is slated to come later this summer.

One nugget from our conversation in particular sticks out — Burrito Bison was once a side-scrolling action game similar to Monster Dash [$.99], one of its key inspirers.

“The game actually started out as a ‘run & jump’ type of game, similar to Monster Dash by Halfbrick,” Juicy Beast told us in an e-mail. “We really wanted to give it an interesting twist, so we tweaked it over and over until we were happy with the results.”

“The thing is that it took us around two months of prototyping before we felt like the game was really fun. As you can see, it changed a lot from its original ‘run & jump’ [vision]. “Most people probably think that it started out as a ‘throwing’ game, like Toss the Turtle or Berzerk Ball [$.99], but it didn't, even if the final results are far more similar to TTT than Monster Dash,” the studio explained.

But where did the Mexican wrestler theme come from? I’d call it an accident. As for how gummy bears got involved… well, let’s just say that candy doesn’t make the same kind of mess that humans do when its squashed.

“As I mentioned, the game started out as a ‘run & jump’ type of game, and the theme was supposed to revolving around ‘Heavy Metal.’ We had our kickass metal head guy (kind of similar to the Brutal Legend dude) and the direction was pretty set at the beginning. While sketching some stances for our hero, J-P (our lead illustrator) started dressing our little guy as a Mexican wrestler (which was really funny),” Juicy Beast said.

“Later on in the development process, when the game wasn't a "run & jump" anymore, we decided to switch the theme to something that would fit the actual gameplay better. We then remembered the Mexican wrestler and decided to go with that instead.

“The gummy bear theme came from the idea of literally smashing people without having actual gore elements popping everywhere (blood/guts,etc). We then though of gummy bears, since they can be brought to life easily, and yet still die in explosion without any gore stuff! No need to mention that we usually end up with some pretty twisted stuff regardless of this kind of ‘guidelines.’ “

Juicy Beast says that Burrito Bison was built with iPhone in mind the entire way. Juicy made the fact that it would hit flash markets first a challenge: it wanted a game that could do well in both markets, despite the lead platform.

Mission accomplished. Burrito Bison is simple enough to play in a browser, while still offering the depth that iOS users expect to have come this summer when the game hits virtual shelves. Much like Berzerk Ball, Burrito Bison offers a suite of upgrades that you can purchase with in-game cash earned from playing the title.

Summer 2011 is as close as we can get to a release date. Nothing is set in stone quite yet and that includes the price. Juicy Beast tells us that while it doesn’t know what it wants to charge, it does plan, however, to make Burrito Bison a Universal game.

And there will be new “stuff” in the iOS version, however, you may not be able to get your hands on what will be added at launch:

“The current Flash version is currently being ported by Ravenous Games, but we're working on some potential new features at the same time (as well as finishing some other games we're working on). We're not sure yet if the new stuff will be available at launch, but there will definitely be some new content in the iOS version.”

As for what’s next for Juicy Beast, the studio wouldn’t divulge. One foot before the other, though, right?

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One of my favorite recent releases has been Mos Speedrun [$1.99/Lite] from developer Physmo. This retro-styled platforming game puts the emphasis on completing each of its levels in as quick a time as possible. Each of your failed attempts lives on as a ghost of your previous run, and many failed attempts in a row can lead to a screen full of little Mos characters all running and bouncing along at the same time. Mos Speedrun also controls exceptionally well on the touch screen, and there are goals beyond just speed running through levels like collecting coins, finding hidden skulls, and earning Game Center achievements.

A new update has hit that adds an additional 5 levels into the game. These levels also seem to be a notch above the rest difficulty-wise, so you’ll be in for a challenge collect all items and beat them in a timely fashion. Another new addition is a total time leaderboard for every world in the game. There are 5 worlds in Mos Speedrun that each have 5 levels, and you can now compete for the best combined completion time of all 5 levels in each world.

Along with this new update is a free lite version of Mos Speedrun, which lets you play through all 5 levels of the first world in their entirety, though there is no Game Center integration. If you even remotely like platforming games, you shouldn’t hesitate to give Mos Speedrun Lite a try. It will give you a perfect taste of how the game controls and what the gameplay is like, and you can even transfer your lite version progress over to the full if you decide to upgrade.

I’ve been having a great time with Mos Speedrun ever since we reviewed it in April, and the players in our forums have really been digging this one as well, so grab this latest update to check out the new levels or give the lite version a spin if you’re on the fence.

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In Catch the Candy [99¢ / HD], the new game from BulkyPix and FedoIT, you play a fuzzy little fellow trying reach your one true love: a shiny piece of candy. While a bit reminiscent of Cut the Rope's Om Nom in looks and desires, our anonymous protagonist doesn't have nearly as many resources helping him out. You won't find yourself manipulating strings or bubbles or anything like that – this little guy can only use his tongue.

This limitation leads to some great one-touch gameplay. Your tongue is more like a grappling hook. Tap on something, and your tongue will fly out to it and stick to it or nudge it (depending on the surface type). Early on, it's easy to use these talents to reach the candy. Tap the ground and you'll drag yourself along. Tap an overhead beam and you'll swing into the air. Tap the candy once you can reach it, and it'll come straight to you.

Sounds easy enough, but Catch the Candy doesn't take long to get complicated. You'll need to move objects around, climb sheer cliffs, swim underwater and do all sorts of crazy stunts to get to your precious candy. This can lead to some frustrating situations where you just can't get your tongue to latch onto the right thing, but there's a quick level restart and even a level skip if you get stuck.

That leads me to Catch the Candy's big flaw. Your goal is to get to the candy in the fewest taps possible, but nothing really pushes you to conserve your taps. There are Open Feint/Game Center achievements for finishing the game with the fewest total taps possible (and opposing achievements for using huge amounts of them). But you can ignore those and tap hundreds of times each level if you're having a rough time. This is a game that desperately needs a star system to rate your performance.

It's a shame, too, because otherwise Catch the Candy is a lot of fun. There are frustrating levels – you try climbing over a sheer wall using only your tongue – but most of the current levels are great. Some are even delightful. I'd rather not give any surprises away, but in later levels you'll find yourself playing whole other games‚ with your tongue. Even the more mundane levels often have entertaining backdrops. I never expected to climb Mount Doom tongue-first, but there you have it.

If the achievements are enough to motivate you to keep your taps low, Catch the Candy has plenty of replayability. There are 53 levels currently, and BulkyPix has also said more are on the way. I definitely haven't had enough of some of the mechanics we get to see in later levels, so I can't wait to see what they come up with next.

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If you didn't quite get your fill of wandering around in an empty game world powered by the Unreal Engine in Epic Citadel [Free], you're in luck. Codenrama just released Castlerama [Free], a remarkably similar tech demo that allows you to walk around and similarly look at just what the Unreal Engine is capable of on iOS devices.

Per the YouTube description of the above video, it seems like the developers are running into similar issues as the Dream:Scape developer last month with the memory limitations of older devices:

While developing Castlerama, we had to face the fact that newer devices such as iPhone4s and iPad2s are very different from their predecessors, iPhone3GSs and iPads, in that the former have twice as much memory. In order to have the app run on all devices, we had to compromise quite a bit, pushing the old devices to their limits (risking crash if other applications are left running) while keeping the new devices well behind their capabilities. In the future we believe we will have to develop two versions for each application.

Castlerama looks awesome, and if what they've released is a "compromise" to work with older devices, I seriously can't wait to see what the iPhone 4 and iPad 2 exclusive build is capable of. If you've got some spare time today and want to see another demonstration of the Unreal Engine, give Castlerama a try.

I'm still waiting for some major Unreal Engine-powered game releases, but I suppose tech demos are a good first start.

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Recently I embarked on a quest to see if there was a way I could stream my PC games to my iPad using the various remote desktop apps available on the App Store. Initially, this resulted in countless hours (and dollars) wasted, only to be disappointed time and time again. Some apps had no audio, others were nowhere near responsive enough, and some of them just flat out didn't work– Then came Splashtop Remote Desktop [99¢ / Lite / HD].

Splashtop is a remote desktop client that streams your PC or Mac screen directly to your iPad, iPod touch, or iPhone with amazingly fast response times, and full streaming audio. Installation and setup couldn't be easier. All you do is install the desktop software and download the app and you're up and running. Keep in mind, using Splashtop outside of your local network will require fiddling with port forwarding, and unless you've got an insane internet connection, will bring the response time down to be almost unplayable. However, on the same network, Splashtop is basically a 1:1 representation of what is happening on your PC, and is totally enjoyable to game on.

Unsurprisingly, the biggest limitation while using Splashtop is the somewhat inevitable control issue as you're playing games meant for a controller, keyboard, and/or mouse using an odd touchscreen setup. There is an onscreen keyboard but it obscures too much of the screen to be usable. The onscreen arrow keys are nice, but most games require more than just 4 buttons to play.

Windowed games work OK, but for Splashtop to really shine, you need to be playing something fullscreen. I've found that using the OnLive service is by far the best way to game with using this setup. OnLive allows fullscreen play and automatically sets the resolution to your iPad or iPhone's screen. Also the menus are very controller friendly, and these days OnLive not only has a great selection of games, but has tons of free trials.

Puzzle games seem to work great, as they're mostly mouse controlled which translates well with how Splashtop interprets your touches as mouse movements and clicks. Anything more complex than that really requires a controller. The developers of Splashtop have attempted to remedy this issue by offering a free Splashtop Remote Touchpad [Free] app which you can run on your iPhone or iPod touch, but we've had much better luck using Joypad [$2.99 / Free] which we've already reviewed and liked quite a bit for playing emulated games.

Using your iPad running Splashtop and your iPhone running Joypad, you can do a surprising amount of PC gaming on your iPad. Sure, the setup couldn't be more convoluted since you're using two iOS devices, a reasonably specced out gaming PC, and two different paid apps to do it, but how else are you ever going to be able to play World of Warcraft on your iPad?

Games designed with simple controls in mind work fantastic with this setup. I was able to finish Braid using my iPad and iPhone with minimal interruption or lag. Sure, it might have been better to play with a real controller, but the novelty factor of being able to run (and play) a ridiculous number of PC games this way is sky high.

Depending on your home network, and how powerful your PC or Mac is, most people should be able to duplicate my setup easily with similar results. Keep in mind there are a lot of factors in play when using a remote desktop client like this. This laundry lists includes the speed of your host computer, the overall wireless climate in your area, how fast you can typically transfer data over your WiFi network, how low your local ping times usually are, and more. As mentioned in the Joypad review, if you live in an area where the WiFi selection list on your computer scrolls for ages, there might not be anything you can do to improve things.

While this review has focused on the gaming potential of Splashtop, the amount of things you can do with it is incredible. You're able to use anything you can on your computer, with great response times and audio. Also, seeing how well OnLive works this way really makes me wonder when they're going to turn the OnLive Viewer [Free] into an OnLive Client.

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