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Stop me if you've heard this one before: Game developers are building a game that has various advocacy groups worked up before it's even released. In this particular incident of this all too familiar news story, immigration advocates are up in arms over the upcoming game Smuggle Truck by Owlchemy Labs, creators of Super Ramen BROTHers [Free]. In the game, players take control of a pickup truck loaded with illegal immigrants attempting to cross the US border. Looking at the trailer, gameplay seems similar to a amped up version of Mr. Onions, a seemingly similar physics-powered platforming game that I had a great time with.

News of this hit the Associated Press yesterday, which really couldn't possibly be better for Owlchemy Labs as it seems like everyone (ourselves included) is feverishly republishing this story in one form or another. The good news is, not everyone is taking this so seriously, as thankfully there are still some people in this world who can differentiate video games from reality. The very same Associated Press story also includes the following very choice quote from Steve Kropper, co-director of the Massachusetts Coalition for Immigration Reform:

"In America, we are used to trivializing everything," said Kropper. "I think 'Smuggle Truck' will do to the immigration debate what 'Angry Birds' did to ornithology."

If all goes as planned, Smuggle Truck should be available in March.

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Back in January of last year, developer Gaia released a unique game into the App Store called Sword & Poker [$2.99/Lite]. Similar to how games like Puzzle Quest 2 [$4.99] or Dungeon Raid [$2.99] wrapped a simple match 3 mechanic around an engaging RPG system, Sword & Poker is build around making poker hands from a 5×5 grid of cards and fleshes out the experience with all the usual RPG trappings of leveling up and upgrading equipment. It’s a formula that we really enjoyed when we reviewed the game upon release, and the sequel Sword & Poker 2 [$3.99/Lite] offered even more of this satisfying gameplay when it released several months later.

Then, for whatever reason, both Sword & Poker games and accompanying lite versions disappeared from the App Store late last year. Even more puzzling is that the titles still appeared in the App Store but if you actually tried to download any of them you were met with a message that they were no longer available. I had since emailed Gaia, as did many members in our forums, to see if I could find out what the deal was. Unfortunately none of us ever received a response.

While we still don’t know the reason for their absence, Sword & Poker, Sword & Poker 2, and both lite versions have since become available for download once again. I can’t say for sure if something like this will ever happen again, so I would suggest that if you’ve had interest in any of these titles you should waste no time picking them up just in case. At the very least give the lite versions a try, as both Sword & Poker titles offer a fun and unique experience that shouldn’t be missed, and it's great to see them finally return to the App Store.

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We first reviewed Big Blue Bubble’s Burn the Rope [Link] back in late December, and really enjoyed the unique gameplay despite a few minor complaints. Among these were the lack of Retina Display graphics or Game Center, and an annoying bug that made it difficult to burn a rope around tight corners, thus making it harder to 100% a level for a gold medal. Then last month, Burn the Rope received a substantial update taking care of most of these complaints. Game Center was integrated with leaderboards and achievements, that nasty bug that prevented 100% completion on levels was fixed, and 16 brand new levels were added to enjoy.

I had previously said when the last update came out that the only thing left that I wanted to see out of Burn the Rope was support for Retina Display, and with today’s update my final demand has been met. The Retina Display support really makes the graphics pop, but Big Blue Bubble didn’t stop there. This update also contains another 16 brand new levels, as well as 3 new insects to deal with and new bonus rounds to complete.

The first new bug is the firebug which will explode when ignited by your flame and burn everything within its blast radius. Next are electric bugs which travel in pairs and once one is ignited it will shoot a bolt of electricity to its partner that will start an additional flame burning in a different area of the puzzle. Finally, water bugs will extinguish a flame that comes into contact with them, so you must make sure to have another flame burning somewhere before encountering them.

Also new in this update are bonus rounds which can be played upon completion of certain levels in the campaign. Here you’re given a puzzle that is crawling with a ton of bugs and the goal is to try and burn as many of them as possible before a short timer runs out. These levels are a fun break from the normal ones that can require some intense strategizing.

Burn the Rope was a fun puzzle game to begin with, and it got even better with these past two updates. Now that Retina Display support has been added, I can’t really see how it can be improved any further aside from just adding more levels to play through. There are now a total of 112 levels including all the new ones, so Burn the Rope is definitely a good investment for the amount of content it contains. The game is currently still on sale for 99¢ though the developer has stated the price would to up to $1.99 with this latest update, so it can change any time. If you have yet to grab Burn the Rope, now would be a great time to do so with so much content added since the initial release.

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In my time with TouchArcade, I've played a lot of games. Heck, a good chunk of my day is devoted to picking up where I left off the previous day on the AppShopper new games listing, and looking through every single game that appears on the App Store. Anything that even looks vaguely interesting I'll download and spend a fair amount of time with. Why is this at all relevant? Well, since I'm up to my ears in iPhone gaming the whole week, I try to unplug as much as possible during the weekend, unwinding away from the world of iOS.

But why am I telling you all this? So you realize just how big of a deal it is when I spend the entire weekend playing a game. Not because I'm powering through it to review it, but because it's so much fun that I can't put it down. In fact, I completely drained my iPad batteries twice before just giving up and playing plugged in to the wall. I'm telling you all this so you realize just how fantastic Mika Mobile's Battleheart [$2.99] is before I even get started on why.

Many developers have tried their hands at making iOS RPG style games, Aralon: Sword and Shadow being the latest and greatest example of a traditional RPG arriving on the App Store. But where Aralon and so many other games fail is that they're great games that just so happen to run on the iOS platform, rather than being a great iOS game. It's a distinction that becomes clearer and clearer as time goes on, as developers split between sticking with largely conventional controls adapted to the touchscreen in the form of virtual controls and developers who create games like Battleheart that could only exist utilizing the multitouch interface of iOS devices.

Battleheart takes traditional RPG elements found in party-based RPGs and even to some extent MMORPGs and boils them down to their essence. At its core, gameplay consists of managing a four member party through various battles. There isn't really any story to speak of aside from random flavor text describing characters and levels, characters only have four equipment slots, and there's only two statistics for each class to even worry about. In my early time with the game the latent RPG power gamer inside of me initially thought that how simple everything initially seems to be was a significant drawback, but oh, how wrong I was.

Instead of endlessly delving through menus, min-maxing, and everything else, the entire focus of Battleheart is fantastic party synergy and touch-based battle management. Playing through the game slowly unlocks additional classes available via an in-game tavern where they can be hired. A wide variety of classes are included, but they all fall under the three standard class roles: Damage dealers, meat shields, and support classes. As you progress in the game, intense micromanagement is required of each of these types of classes, and it's incredibly cool how it all goes together.

For instance, the party that I've found myself preferring consists of a monk, a witch, a cleric, and a bard. At the start of the battle I'll get my bard to start playing his song targeting the monk, get the cleric healing the monk, then position them towards the back of the battlefield spaced apart a little bit. I'll position my witch in the center, then put the monk on patrol picking up monsters as they appear on screen. The monk then holds their attention (or tanks them, if you're down with the lingo) while I focus the attacks of both the monk and the witch on individual enemies until everything is dead. Rinse and repeat with each wave of bad guys, paying special attention to prioritizing keeping monsters off both the bard and cleric.

How you do all this really is the clever part of Battleheart. It's entirely touch driven, so having the cleric heal my monk is as simple as drawing a line originating from the cleric and ending at the monk. Similarly, having the monk run after an enemy and attack it is as easy as drawing a link from the monk to the baddie. It's even multitouch friendly, so commanding both my monk and witch to attack a single target just amounts to using two fingers to draw lines from both of them converging on a single enemy. To move your party members around, you draw lines the same way, only ending the line at wherever you want to move them to.

Using this incredibly simple interface method, you're able to run what essentially amounts to a four player MMORPG party all by yourself. It all goes together very well, and really feels like a similar experience as you're rushing to pull monsters off your healer while rotating healing around, focus firing enemies down, and using various forms of crowd control. Enemies aren't completely mindless either, with some that won't just contently beat on your tank, and instead will go directly after your healer. Some enemies are healers as well, and you'll need to drop everything and slay them as soon as possible. The list goes on and on.

Tapping a particular unit during a battle selects it, at which point you're able to use various active abilities by tapping their icons on the top of the menu. These abilities vary wildly, and really encourage you to try mixing and matching different party members to see which ones you like. The whole reason I've found myself preferring the monk, for example, is his starter ability attacks everything on screen which is incredibly useful when a huge wave of monsters appears and they're running everywhere attacking random party members. Similarly, the witch gains an area effect damage over time spell, which works great once I get all the monsters stacked up and attacking my monk. The cleric has an ability that shields its target for a brief period of time, which allows my monk to easily take the damage of everything beating on it.

It's crazy how it seems no matter which classes you mix and match, you always seem to have abilities that compliment each other. Also, as your characters level up, every five levels they unlock an additional pair of abilities that you must choose from. These can be switched at any time in between battles, allowing even more customization and party synergy. Sometimes these choices will be two entirely different active abilities, or sometimes they'll be two similar passive abilities with different effects. In the case of the bard, you're given the option to have his song either give an additional 50% damage bonus, or an additional 50% armor bonus.

As you begin to master micromanaging your party, the game throws curveballs at you in the way of challenging boss battles. My favorite is a slime boss, with gimmicks that will be familiar to anyone who has been through Naxxramas in World of Warcraft. In the first phase, it's a big fat slime that spews pools of acid at your party members. These pools cause damage, causing you to keep your entire party moving to avoid them. Just when you think it's about to die, it splits in explodes in to tons of tiny slimes that get blown to the edges of the screen. They all slowly creep together, and combine back in to the main slime. The fight goes like this until you're successfully able to kill all the little slimes before they reform. It's a ton of fun.

The only real drawback of the game, if you'd even call it that, is the lack of any kind of in-game documentation. I actually found myself enjoying the fact that the game doesn't hold your hand through everything, as it gives it almost a retro air of discovery about it when you figure out what purpose a particular class serves. If this isn't your cup of tea, the thread in our forums offers an exhaustive amount of information about basically every class, ability, and equipment upgrade you'll come across on your quest.

If you can't tell by now, I really have nothing but good things to say about Battleheart. It successfully scratches the MMORPG itch of party-based combat while being a completely pick up and play game single player game. To sweeten the deal, it's even universal, with graphics optimized for the Retina Display if you're playing on a newer device. I've found myself preferring playing on the iPad, but the game is just as good on the iPhone. Another great thing that's been pointed out by our community is that Battleheart works great as a two player game, with each person responsible for half the party thanks to the multitouch input. The fantastic graphics are also cartoony enough and gore-free that you can even share the experience with kids without issue.

Battleheart is an absolutely effortless recommendation.

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Call me crazy, but I really want a Real Racing 2 [$4.99] update subtitled “Real Harder.” It would include new animations, tweaked drifting physics, and exciting dashboard options like, say, the choice between tape decks or CD players. But in the real world, where stupid stuff like my fantasy patch never happens, this latest Real Racing 2 update will do, as it includes six new events, leaderboards and rankings, and cool multiplayer tweaks.

Let’s dive in. On the online front, Firemint notes that the update is putting the breaks on unsavory drivers by dropping in “new measures” to prevent idiocy. Also, the servers have been given some sort of spit and shine which should lead to better performance.

Of course, because of the new rankings, two changes have been made: now your starting position will be based on your rank, and more importantly, lobbies will show your rank and point rewards as you earn them.

As for those new events, here’s what you’ll get:

• IEJ Blue Ribbon (Cup)
• Alkeisha Island Dash (Head to Head)
• Volvo STCC Elimination (Elimination)
• NRGee 6 Cyl Cup (Cup)
• Motul Autech Face-off (Head to Head)
• Twilight Time Attack (Time Trial)

That’s a lot of content, eh? Wait — I got a name for this update: “Drive Free or Event Hard.” Not bad, right? I should get a job. Marketers, you got my number. Give me a call sometime. I’m full of this.

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Fear not, Angry Birds fans, for more content is now available for your game of choice. In between their frequent dips in their money bin, the folks at Rovio Mobile managed to find the time to drop another update to its season version of Angry Birds, aptly titled Angry Birds Seasons [.99 / HD]. This time, it’s Valentine’s Day content.

As usual, you’ll find more swine to slay, though you’ll be stomping the little green fellas in levels with soft shades of pinks, blues, and reds. Also, as you’ll notice here, the structures in levels tackle Valentine’s themes and as if that wasn’t enough, there’s also fluffy little hearts that float. Overall, you're getting 15 levels and several new Achievements to earn.

Both versions of the game, the HD for iPad and the regular iPod and iPhone version, have received this update, so definitely go check this out if you’ve got a few more minutes. Or, hey, if you’re got a lot of time on your hands, send a Valentine’s Card from the game. Kidding (or am I!?)

In other news, Angry Birds [99¢ / HD] proper played a (very small) part in the Super Bowl last night, as a hidden code was featured in an ad for the upcoming movie Rio. Videos of anything to do with the Super Bowl or Super Bowl commercials have been disappearing from YouTube all day, but here's a decent one that's still up of the ad:

To unlock the secret level, go to level 13-12, and shoot the white bird backwards to bomb the hill that the birds are on. A football shaped golden egg will appear, which will then allow you to play a special Rio level. Upon beating said level, you'll be prompted to enter a contest to go to a special screening of the movie in Rio de Janeiro. If you don't feel like jumping through all of these hoops, you could just click here and enter the contest but that seems like much less fun.

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We've seen our fair share of cringe-worthy Gameloft clones over the years, but this one takes the cake. StarFront: Collision seems to be directly "inspired" by StarCraft, complete with Gameloft's version of the Terran, Protoss, and Zerg. These three factions wage a war over Xenodium crystals on the planet Sinistral in realtime strategy battles that actually look pretty decent in the following gameplay trailer:

What's definitely got my interest piqued is the inclusion of four player online multiplayer, which potentially could be loads of fun. I'm also curious how the game actually plays on the iPhone, as RTS games on the device all have fairly cluttered UI's, and it seems like StarFront does as well. StarFront: Collision will be available this Thursday, and it will be interesting to see if Gameloft sticks to the Sacred Odyssey method of payment where the game is free with an IAP to unlock the rest of the game.

Also, according to the description of this trailer, StarFront is also only going to run on 3rd and 4th generation iPod touch and iPhone hardware. Is this the end of Gameloft supporting older devices?

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I have nothing but good things to say about both MovieCat! [Free] and MovieCat! HD [Free]. There are trivia games of all sorts on the App Store, as mentioned in my initial review of the game, but I've yet to come across one that has as much personality as MovieCat!. I'm not sure if it's the fact that every part of the game is absolutely loaded with cats, or that the questions included seem to span everything from questions everyone would know to extremely obscure factoids for movie buffs.

The included content in MovieCat! is incredible, and there's even an optional 99¢ DLC pack with even more. This add-on is by no means required though, as it took a considerable amount of playtime before I even started running across that many questions that I've seen before. If you like movies, and cats, it likely will only take you a few seconds with the game to see why I included it in my list of favorite games of 2010.

Don't miss this game while it's free, and even if you do, it's totally worth the asking price once this freebie promotion is over.

Note: This price change seems to have just gone in to effect. If you don't see it as free yet in your neck of the woods, give the App Store a bit to update its pricing.

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Just a quick heads up that my current favorite obsession Disc Drivin’ is having a 99¢ sale this weekend. Disc Drivin’ is a turn-based racing game that we reviewed back in December that uses an asynchronous online system to allow racing with people all over the world at your leisure. Take your turn, then the game sends that data along to the other players in the race, and when it’s time for your turn again a simple push notification lets you know.

It works wonderfully well, and just a few days ago we detailed the past updates for Disc Drivin’ which included random online matchmaking in the latest one. Players have also been discussing the game and trading usernames in the game’s official thread and the dedicated username swapping thread.

There has always been a fully-featured ad-supported version of Disc Drivin’ available, and the ad-free version usually sells for $2.99. If you’re one of those people who have been enjoying the ad-supported version but didn’t quite feel like ponying up the 3 bucks to upgrade, now’s your chance to do so for just 99¢. If you haven’t yet tried Disc Drivin’ then give the free version a spin, and if you like what you see make sure to grab the full version for a dollar before it jumps back up in price after the weekend is over.

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