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There are already a plethora of Tron inspired games on the App Store, predominantly in the form of light bike games. And while some of them are indeed quite entertaining, none of them are actual Tron licensed games. That changed this weekend as Disney has released its own officially branded Tron game in anticipation of the Tron Legacy movie and Tron Evolution console game, both due for release later this year. While not the greatest game you'll ever play, Tron for iPhone is still pretty cool, and has a great visual style that should appeal to fans of the movies franchise.

What you initially get for this free Tron game is a dual stick tank shooter which we previewed during E3 last month. It's surprisingly fun to play, albeit a little uninspired. Fifteen single player levels have you fighting off enemies as you trigger switches that eventually unlock the end goal of the level. Your tank weapons can be upgraded giving you some satisfying firepower, although these upgrades don't carry over level to level. It can be frustratingly hard at times as enemies swarm you from every direction and can deplete your entire health allotment in the blink of an eye. Still, for a game that cost you nothing to try, it's not bad.

What's more interesting than the single player offering is the multiplayer mode. At the beginning of the game you'll choose what color faction you want to be associated with, and a running total of the weekly performance of each faction can be viewed from within the game. It's a neat idea and gives you the feeling of being part of a team, and apparently according to our forums the orange faction is the unofficial faction of TouchArcade, if you'd like to show your TA pride. Online matches connect very easily and you can choose to partake in 2, 4, or 6 player matches. It's pretty fun, but it's hard to get into matches where people are taking things very seriously and expect to get your own teammates killing you fairly often.

A clever bit of cryptic information is to be found in the games description, which is essentially just a string of binary code. Once solved, it reads “This TRON app will evolve. ComiTRON coming 072210”. Not coincidentally, 7/22/10 is the start of Comi-Con in San Diego, with a Tron panel discussion scheduled for this very same day. We're not sure if that means they'll just be unveiling new information regarding the iPhone game or if Disney actually has the first update to Tron set for release on this day. Either way, we'll be eager to find out, as they've confirmed that Light Bike and Discs modes are planned additions to the game.

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Back in April of last year we ran a story about mobile developer ZodTTD's announcement of the forthcoming platform puzzle adventure game Wizzley Presto and the Mysterious Time Machine. What made the project interesting was the fact that the developers set a goal to complete the development of the game within 30 days, publicly documenting their progress along the way at 30daygame.com.

A cool element of this project is the blog. We are doing this game in 30 days, from an idea to a finished product for AppStore. Best of all we’re showing all of what is involved along the way. Expect lots of interesting posts for all those who wonder what it’s like programming a game on the iPhone & iPod Touch!

Early this month the game (renamed Wizzley Presto and the Vampire's Tomb) went live in the App Store [link]. But hey — wait a minute — that's a lot more than 30 days! I contacted the developers to find out what gives.

I spoke with project programmer Craig Rothwell, who also happens to be the person behind the OpenPandora handheld and the iControlPad iPhone accessory. He indicates that he achieved "mission accomplished" within 30 days, as planned, but the decision was made to expand the title into something overall more complete.

We did indeed complete the 30 day game but it was rather nice and we decided rather than releasing it then as a 'tech demo' we would like to make it bigger and better.

Now one thing a lot of people don't realise is that 90% of 'full' games which have development started are never finished, team members get bored, people move to other projects, the steam runs out and the 'on no! real work!' syndrome starts. Fortunately I've worked on games before (for the Gameboy color and GBA) so I knew how to just knuckle down and get on with it, sleepless nights and all.

So over the space of 8 months we worked on a proper plot, scenes, monsters and dialogue.

By Christmas 2009, the game was ready to go — as developed and tested in the iPhone simulator — but, when it was loaded onto an actual device, it didn't work. (The simulator is not the perfect testing ground…) Work began to get the game running on actual metal, and in March a few extra features (such as egg throwing) were added in before submission to Apple. And, after a rejection / resubmission snafu, Wizzley Presto has landed in the App Store.

It's a pretty nice title, actually. It features extremely impressive oldschool artwork reminiscent of  by pixel artist Ruckage along with a nice audio track. The goal of the game is to traverse screen after screen of obstacle, puzzle, and enemy-laden platforms, by way of button touch controls, in order to make it through all three "chapters," each bringing a save point. It's not so much a Turrican or Mario affair, but more a modestly-paced puzzle solving experience reminiscent of the classic Dizzy series. Stand on a switch to activate a sliding bridge, find the appropriate tool to make it past an obstacle, etc. Less arcade action and more problem solving. Kind of a Babylonian Twins — without the twins, to reference an existing iPhone title.

Wizzley Presto and the Vampires Tomb is lovely, clever, and quite enjoyable. I'm pleased the team took the extra time needed to build the game up to its current form. And, if you have what it takes to be the first to finish the challenge, the developers have a $1,500 prize waiting for you.

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The App Store has its fair share of top-down shoot 'em ups, with the overwhelming majority of them feeling very same-ish and not really doing much to set themselves apart (bar a few notable exceptions such as the recent Espgaluda II). Newcomers to the iOS, Art In Games, are looking to break that mould with the release of AirAttack [App Store] [Lite].

AirAttack departs from the traditional 2D platform of vertical shoot-em-ups and opts for a fully realised 3D world. This is what gives the game its own identity, as you'll see enemies not only fly towards you, but loop-the-loop back over you, too. What's more, Air Attack has an emphasis on bombing runs and laying waste to anything on the ground– something made all the more satisfying when that silo beneath you actually crumbles to smithereens.

The exceptional models and animations really help sell this feature too. Textures are vibrant and detailed across the board too which really helps distinguish the many different level themes. Coupled with the awesome flight and crashing animations and specular and light maps at work, Air Attack is a visual treat on any device.

Despite all this, AirAttack ran silky smooth on the 3GS device we tested it on (the game supposedly running well on 2nd gen devices and up, according to the devs) . The options for controlling your aircraft cover the gamut of tilt, touch, relational touch and on-screen joystick; leaving everyone happy. Controls are responsive and straightforward, with on-screen icons activating the many power-ups collectable throughout the level and a simple double tap activating your regenerating bombs.

Between and throughout the levels is a checkpoint system that doubles as an item store. Items are purchased with funds collected from enemy drops and cover standard upgrades such as cannon firepower and rockets; and special upgrades such as wingmen, lightning guns and even additional lives. The latter levels will see you with enough money to buy power-ups that slow down time, or give a protective shield. The more powerful upgrades have to have certain conditions met before becoming available, functioning alot like an achievement system.

There are 8 lengthy missions divided up into several checkpoints each and a whopping 58 different enemies to defeat. The 8 boss encounters at the end of each level are the fight to look forward to most though, as they're screen-spanning, multi-part battles that are quite challenging even on the normal difficulty. There is both an easy and hard mode though if you're finding it overly difficult or feeling masochistic, respectively.

The only setbacks to AirAttack's otherwise winning formula is that occassionally, enemy fire seems to just disappear into your aircraft, making it hard to see if you've been hit or not. It also feels at times that your hitbox is a bit larger than what it appears on screen, causing you to take hits where you think you've avoided them. The other issue we had was that AirAttack only offers a local high score system; and when online leaderboards are fast becoming the norm, this may disappoint some.

Even still, it's hard to look past AirAttack, particularly if you're a shmup fan. It's a challenging visual spectacle with solid gameplay elements backing it up throughout. Bosses are great, powerups are numerous, and your tenacity is rewarded as it should be in these games by added firepower and lastability as you progress perishing. Graciously, there's a lite version available too, so there's no excuse not to at least give AirAttack a go if you're interested.

App Store Link: AirAttack, $0.99, AirAttack Lite, Free.

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There are few things I like more than an iPhone game with an absolutely ridiculous premise that wouldn't have a chance anywhere outside the App Store, except of course, when said game turns out to be a lot of fun. Such is the case with Cat Run [$1.99], a crazy conglomeration of classic line drawing control mechanics, Frogger-like traffic avoidance, and cats– Lots and lots of cats. In the game, you have to route cats from one side of the street to the other, avoiding traffic in the process as well as several other obstacles once you get to higher levels.

Touching a cat and drawing a line controls the path they take across the street, and arrows indicate which lanes oncoming cars will be driving down next. If you run in to problems, such as an unexpected car or a cat not going quite as fast as you were expecting it to, you can tap a cat to stop it, then draw a new line either back to the side of the street it came from, or on to the other side. Four different types of cats are included in the game, with each having slightly different characteristics such as speed and temperament. Learning the properties of each of the cats is important as you obviously need to allow for more time for the slower cats to get around cars, and you need to prioritize getting the aggressive cats across the street to avoid cat fights (which you need to tap to stop).

Cat Run includes some awesome obstacles you need to deal with as well. Obviously you don't want your cats to get run over, but if a skunk appears, you get rid of it by drawing a path out in to traffic for it to get squished by a car. These skunks can also explode, which cause nearby cats to go crazy from the stench. That's not all though, like any normal street there are sewers with manhole covers, which apparently are home to giant monsters who extend tentacles to grab your cats whenever the manhole opens up and one is nearby.

You can route your cats in four different environments, ranging from a normal street to space, and there are achievements linked to each. Cat Run also comes packed with OpenFeint for all kinds of OpenFeinty goodness such as online leaderboards, achievement tracking, and everything else. Scores are tracked both locally and globally for each environment, and like most games, the online leaderboards are already filled with scores that far exceed my capabilities.

Cat Run is a silly game that is a lot of fun to play. Perhaps my affinity to cats has something to do with it, but having cats flying all over your screen avoiding cars, while managing skunks, putting out cat fights, and avoiding mysterious tentacles is something I never saw myself doing in an iPhone game… Yet somehow, I'm incredibly glad that I finally am.

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The folks at Team Phobic have sent us a heads up that they have issued updates for nearly all of their games on the App Store. The first of these to hit was an update for the lite version of their early platformer Bounce On [$1.99/Lite]. As one of the first true platformer games available in the early days of the App Store, Bounce On remains a forum favorite in the genre. We reviewed the game back when it was released, but since that time it has been updated with improved graphics and plenty of new levels to play, making it one of the more complete packages available. The lite now includes additional levels from the full version.

The sequel, Bounce On 2 [$3.99/Lite], has received the most significant update out of the bunch, and this update has just gone live today adding two additional levels and Universal iPad support. The game will take advantage of the higher resolution screens on both the iPad and iPhone 4  We reviewed Bounce On 2 as well, and found it to be an even more enjoyable and robust experience than the original. The lite version of Bounce On 2 should be updated soon with Universal support as well, for iPad owners looking to try before they buy.

Here's a full rundown of game updates straight from Team Phobic:

- Bounce On Lite is gaining three new levels from the full version.Since its release in December, 2008 Bounce On Lite has seen millions of users and still has a large number of players today.

- Our first iOS game, iTD, is receiving a huge update. We’ve added 4 new levels, sound effects and iPad support. We are also updating the free version to contain every level in the full version, supported through ads. Tower defense fans should not miss out on this!

- The full version of Bounce On 2: Drallo’s Demise is gaining two new levels. Additionally, both the full and lite versions will have iPad support.

- We’ve been working with Backflip Studios to bring an exciting update to our recently released game, Tunnel Shoot. The original gameplay has been sped up a bit and a new mode has been added. Get ready for “Insanity!” The new mode is much faster and contains power ups and new enemies.

All of the games feature iOS4 support for fast app switching. Likely the most exciting of these updates is that for Bounce On 2, giving iPad owners a native platforming game to enjoy. But it's good to see Team Phobic's first game iTD [$1.99/Lite] getting a healthy update after more than a year. Now, if they would only update their underrated WarioWare-like game Micro Mayhem [99¢], then you could truly call me a happy camper .

It's great to see an indie developer like Team Phobic is continuing to take care of their customers with updates like these, even long after release. Keep your eye out for these updates to go live in the coming week or so, and make sure to grab the update for Bounce On 2 which is available now.

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We've all seen those small strips of putting green that corporate-types are always playing with in their fancy corner offices. It's a great way to pass some time when you should be working. Thanks to developer Neon Play, who brought us the excellent Flick Football [99¢/Lite], Golf Putt Pro [99¢] brings you that same putting satisfaction without even having to get out of your expensive leather executive chair. It's easy enough that anybody can play, but challenging enough to ensure you'll keep coming back.

Golf Putt Pro is a nice looking game, with a photo-realistic backdrop of a golf course to look at while you're putting away. While it looks good, there's really only the one backdrop, which gets a bit repetitive but doesn't hamper play in any way. The gameplay is simple. You're given a ground level, behind the ball view of the green, and the shot angle of the ball pans back and forth slowly. Judge the slope of the green and when you feel the trajectory of the golf ball is at the proper angle, tap the ball to send off your putt and hopefully sink it in the cup. That's all there is to it. While the concept is as basic as they come, Neon Play does a great job adding different modes to flesh out the gameplay.

The first is '3 Lives' mode which tasks you with making as many putts as you can until you finally miss 3, and making consecutive putts in a row adds a multiplier to your score. 'Pro' mode is essentially the same, although is much more difficult as the placement of the hole is in a different spot for each putt rather than always being in the middle. 'In A Row' mode is a sudden death gametype where your score is how many putts you can make in a row, which is much harder than it sounds. Finally, 18 Holes mode gives you 18 putts one after the other and keeps score for the entire round, with a point awarded for each made putt. 18 Holes mode can also be played with up to 4 players in pass and play fashion.

All said, Golf Putt Pro offers a perfect way to kill a few minutes of free time during your day. There's global leaderboards for the top 100 scores in all but the 18 Holes mode, and Twitter and Facebook support for every mode.

Forum goers are really enjoying the game based on impressions in the thread, and we agree that for a quick bit of fun, Golf Putt Pro is a great choice.

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Digitoys / Yoot Saito has released some info on their upcoming iPad game The Tower… but it's entirely in Japanese. Google translator offers us this interpretation.

You, as the chief executive of the Bill to extend the building is the only person allowed in the building and see all the information. Your mission is to extend the building while residents pay attention to their stress, is to increase the population goes. Residents in the building is sensitive to stress. The building will go out with higher stress. Set up tenant offices and restaurants, elevators and moving equipment set up, equipment is arranged to move stress-free building is available to residents, please environmental facilities and maintenance rooms and even the security station.

Up a little more residents in the building environment to provide a satisfactory their grade goes up. Population of 15,000 building your personality over time. "Cathedral" to set up 100 ground floor, a holiday, a wedding will be here on a pair of couples. Then you is the best title "TOWER" won will witness the miracle of sight and.

Yeah, so far we're not getting much of a "this is going to be available in English" vibe. We've dropped them a line to get more information. In the meanwhile, here's a gameplay video they've also posted:

The company has also announced an Air Hockey game for the iPad called 4 Strikers Hockey. We'll let you know more if they get back to us.

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It was just a couple weeks ago that we were previewing the iPad version of the iPhone hit Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor. At the time, developer Tiger Style had yet to submit this enhanced version of their critically acclaimed game. Well, good news Spider fans, as since that preview the game had been submitted and approved, and is now available for download from the App Store. As mentioned, this version includes some extra features that set it apart from it's iPhone counterpart. From our preview:

Like similar HD releases, Spider HD is little more than the iPhone game with the resolution of everything cranked up to fill the screen of the iPad. This allows you to see much more of your surroundings, making clues regarding the secrets of Bryce Manor much easier to spot than on the iPhone version, where your somewhat limited viewpoint could result in missing certain things if you weren't properly exploring some levels. Also, like most games built around fantastic art, the entire game experience is so much better in high resolution.

All four of the game modes from the iPhone game are included, as well as a brand new two player "sidekicks" game mode where two spiders are on screen, and each spider is controlled by the finger nearest to it. It's actually a surprising amount of fun, as like most games played in cooperative mode it's entirely up to you whether you want to help each other build webs, or simply race all over the screen trying to munch up bugs before the other player.

This developer video demonstrates the high resolution visuals, larger play area, and iPad exclusive same-device multiplayer:

If you're an iPad owner who's never played Spider, then now is the best time to become familiar with the franchise as Spider: Bryce Manor HD seems to be the definitive version of the game.  Besides the additions mentioned above, it also includes all the Director's Cut content that was added to the iPhone version towards the end of last year.  As always, further impressions are being collected in the game's forum thread.

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After our own Eli Hodapp highlighted three silly games you don't need but should probably have anyway this past weekend, I couldn't help but think this next game could very easily be on that list as well. Magnetic Shaving Derby is delightful in it's peculiarity, and as long as you don't expect too much from it, contains some enjoyable gameplay as well. If you've ever had the urge to shave your face by pulling a razor blade across it with a magnet, all while collecting various fruits, vegetables, and even bubble gum, then you are in luck today.

Using either touch or tilt, move a magnet around the screen that controls a razor blade as you shave a large, colorful, MS Paint quality face. Imagine the Wooly Willy from your childhood, only in reverse. Dragging the razor across the helpless chap's eyes, nose, or lips results in screams of pain and copious amounts of blood lost, not to mention it brings down your score. It sounds odd, and it definitely is, but for some reason I just keep on playing. There's a Time Trial mode that tasks you with shaving the face in as short a time as possible, with each painful nick adding time to your score.

The Time Trial mode is good, but the real fun is to be had in the Score Attack mode. Here, you're given 3 minutes to shave away at the face as much as you can, with the stubble growing back almost instantly. A blood loss meter at the bottom slowly dwindles away the more you cut the guy, and if it empties before the timer is up it's game over. Tons of powerups and hazards litter this mode, and take it to the next level of craziness. Dragging the razor across a falling cucumber puts two slices of it over your eyes as protection, and collecting a ninja star sends your blade spinning like a whirlwind making it much easier to shave. There's so many more things like this in the game, and it seems like I keep coming across new ones as I play.

Magnetic Shaving Derby has that intangible quality of “what the heck am I doing and why do I want to keep doing it?” going for it. The graphics are crude in an endearing way, and just silly enough to bring a smile to your face. The gameplay is interesting, but the controls aren't the best. Tilt isn't precise enough to do what you need to do, and while touch works well it can get tough when dragging near the edges of the screen. Also there's OpenFeint integration for achievement and high score tracking, adding replayability to what is a pretty basic game. Even without any of this, Magnetic Shaving Derby delivers a lot of entertaining moments based on just the craziness alone.

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