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Rovio Mobile’s Angry Birds [$.99 / Free / Lite / HD / HD Free] is a big deal. It and its various iterations have been downloaded collectively over 350 million times, advertisers and marketers are licensing the property’s characters and mechanics at will to promote products like nuts and phones, Wal-Mart is selling official toys in kiosks, and now at least one enterprising retailer is set to start offering a gigantic line-up of dreadful Halloween costumes based on the IP.

Fulfilling the world’s fantasy of being a Pig King for a day is Costume Discounters. The company is now taking pre-orders for a host Angry Birds helmets, baby costumes, and regular costumes based on the brand. It’s hard to tell at a glance if these are official goods, but that point doesn’t drown out the fact that Angry Birds demands a level of awareness so great that retailers reckon people will wrap their babies in it. This is wild stuff.

Anyway, if you’re into looking like a doofus an Angry Birds character this Halloween, you can grab a costume for around $30-$50. Look how happy these people are! You could be happy like them!

[Via MacTrast]

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Need more Zenonia in your life? You know publisher Gamevil doesn’t have a problem with fulfilling that steamy desire. A fourth game in the RPG series — apparently dubbed Zenonia 4: Return of the Legend – is indeed coming down the pipe and a member of our message board snagged the first images we’ve seen of the iOS version in action.

Say what you will about the series’ old-school design and approach to the genre, but you’ve got to admit that the art direction on display is top-notch. Hit up the thread to see the other three images, but also be aware that they're obviously marketing materials.

Our mysterious poster doesn’t know when the game will arrive in the US or at what price, but he or she does seem confident in a couple of features. Zenonia 4 will probably feature retina display support, as well as “thousands of costumes, upgradeable items, and rare items,” they said in the post. As if you didn’t already spend enough time with Zenonia in the first place, right?

We’ll obviously keep our all-seeing eye on red alert and our all-hearing ears to the ground for official announcement and even more assets, so stay tuned.

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If you’re a regular listener of our TouchArcade Show podcast (and if you’re not, then really, shame on you) then you are most likely familiar with my Kitty Korner segment, where I break down games that can be either bad or good but will always at least feature a feline of some kind. This is my promise to you, the listener. During our episode 12 podcast last month, my kitty game du jour was a fun physics arcade game called Sushi Cat [99¢].

In Sushi Cat, the goal is to drop your kitty from the top of the screen and bounce him down through the level in a Peggle-esque fashion, collecting sushi along the way and eventually ending up in a bin at the bottom of the screen. As kitty eats sushi he grows fatter and squishier, which can make for an interesting trip through the many objects that make up a level. I really ended up digging Sushi Cat much more beyond the initial “it’s a cat game” infatuation. The gameplay is surprisingly fun, and I especially love the entire aesthetic and the humorous animated cut scenes that tell the story of Sushi Cat’s plight.

Today, I learned that a full blown sequel to Sushi Cat was released at the beginning of this year, and is available on the Armor Games website. I spent some time with it and it appears to include everything that made the original so great plus some added new features. First, there are new story cutscenes and levels to play through, as well as a new antagonist named Bacon Dog. Perhaps best of all there are now unlockable costumes for Sushi Cat, so you can adorn your fat furry critter in pirate gear and more should you feel the need (I felt the need).

Sushi Cat 2 grabbed me from beginning to end just like the original, but sadly, I can’t find any sort of information that it’s going to make its way to iOS anytime soon. Too bad, really, because if only Armor Games knew that if they brought Sushi Cat 2 to the App Store then I’d pimp it on Kitty Korner and it would literally fly off the shelves. Not literally, though, it’s digital. But we have heard other developer success stories of increased sales following an appearance on Jared’s Kitty Korner, sometimes in the several thousand percent range. How a company, who has millions of unique players across their impressive suite of free online games, could possibly turn down such a tantalizing prospect is beyond me.

For now I can just dream that we see Sushi Cat 2 on iOS someday. In the meantime, you should definitely check out the original Sushi Cat if you enjoy lighthearted physics puzzlers with a great sense of style. You can play the Flash version of Sushi Cat and its expansion The Honeymoon – both of which are included in the iOS game – for free on the Armor Games website if you want to try before you buy.

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There is no shortage of fantastic retro-RPGs in the App Store at the moment, but Muteki Corporation's Dragon Fantasy [$2.99] hopes to set itself apart from the rest with tongue-in-cheek dialogue and an authentic 8-bit look and feel.

The game sticks to its roots in more than just its look, the world is populated with things you've seen before like trees, mountains, plenty of grassland and monsters. But where most retro-RPGs are content to ape not only their context, but also their story and heroic mannerisms, Dragon Fantasy sidesteps the hero-journey slightly by offering a different take on the hero and his enemies.

You take on the roll of Ogden, an ageing bald man with a beard who ends up resigning his post as the captain of the royal guard. Does that sound familiar? Well, before you do that, you first get transported to an old man's house after an evil knight comes and makes the queen sick. Once there, you wake up in a confused state and need to make your way back to the queen as quickly as possible.

A few quests here and there and you get back to her, get her healed up and decide to take on the task of becoming a true hero by finding the hero's armor spread out across the land. Eventually, after six or seven hours, you get to use that armor against the dark knight.

The majority of your time with Dragon Fantasy is going to be spent grinding against a variety of silly enemies. The core of its humor lies in its usage of goofy language to describe fights, and while you'll run into equally outrageous dialogue in each of the towns, you'll find the enemies are where the real charm is. There's a good variety in them as well and it helps make each of the random, turn-based battles less tedious than other RPGs of this ilk.

Of course, if you've played an 8-bit RPG you'll know mostly what to expect, for better or worse. As mentioned above, battles are random and turn-based, and the look and sound is dedicated to keeping within the limits of the 8-bit era. The premise here is to keep things as streamlined and simple as possible at all times. For the most part, the screen is bare, showing you just the world and your character, with a disappearing movement stick and menu screen that only appear when you need them.

The streamlining is welcome here, but it comes with a few serious faults. Equipment, for instance, have no visible stats, so you don't really know how much better a weapon or piece of armor is. You can certainly assume that based on the price, one sword is better than another, but its difficult to decide if you should spend your time grinding to get enough money to buy it or not. Instead, you'll just get a little one-line joke description of the item.

Money is an issue too, but it's mostly due to a very simple and very odd concession Muteki seems to have made in bringing this game to a modern audience. When you die, you get kicked back to the last save spot, but you lose half your money and keep the items and XP you've earned. That alone isn't a big deal, but the fact you can't choose whether you'd like to do that, or just revert back to the last save state makes saving up gold a tedious process. You can force quit and reload, but there is no simple way to do it in-game.

The rest of the game does a fantastic job of retaining its roots and keeping things goofy and interesting. It's not going to send you rolling on the floor in fits of laughter, but it'll make you chuckle now and again, which is more than most RPGs could ever even hope to do. It's always nice to see a story that doesn't take itself too seriously and in that way, Dragon Fantasy gets a lot of things right. It even features a few witty winks and nods to other games and inspirations. If you pay close enough attention, you'll catch some solid jokes strewn about.

The simplicity isn't a bad thing, but the over-simplified death and reload is incredibly aggravating. And while the joke-descriptions on all the items are fun, they don't really help you understand what they do or how well they do it. Despite these shortcomings, and the fact that retro RPGs have been done to death, Dragon Fantasy offers a lighthearted and enjoyable take on the genre that practically everyone can enjoy.

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When Mighty Fin [$0.99] first hit the App Store back in June, it was a fun but flawed experience. The levels were bleak and a bit samey, the music was repetitive and the endless levels were dull, dull dull (something that was fixed in the game's first big update). Still, we enjoyed what there was of it at the time, so learning that Launching Pad Games is releasing a major update this week that addresses literally every remaining concern we had is, well, pretty awesome.

The game is going Universal, so all you iPad owners can finally get in on the fun. Mighty Fin looks fantastic on the big screen, and its one-touch control works just as well on whichever device you choose. New music has been added for each area, all in keeping with the game's original sound. Oh, and I should probably mention that the game's level count will literally double when the update hits, and the new levels are super cool. Interest piqued?

Where the game's first eight areas were largely dark and gloomy, this new batch is exploding with color. I suspect Shady Sal slipped Fin some high-grade hallucinogens to brighten his vacation up, because the little dude ends up swimming through places with names like Candy County, Ninjaville and Tomorrow Town. Ninjaville looks like something right out of Hokusai's The Great Wave off Kanagawa. It's glorious. And no worries about the game being too easy — these levels are vicious. Regular mode is tough enough, and Survival is downright killer.

Seriously, if you haven't picked Mighty Fin up yet, you should mark this Thursday, August 18 on your calendar. If you have it, pull it out again. If new levels alone aren't enough to reignite your interest, then think of the costumes — 32 new ways to dress Fin up. Could we ask for anything more?

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Can you smell that? The early morning air is thick with the stench of App Store price-slashery. Telltale Games has just lowered the prices of both the original Puzzle Agent [$.99 / HD] and its follow-up, the technically challenged Puzzle Agent 2 [$2.99 / HD], for a limited time. Until August 11, you’ll be able to nab the former on the iPhone and iPad for $.99 and the latter for $2.99. We recommend both (flaws and all), so this deal is definitely a good one.

Also, it bears mentioning that the publisher has done another technical pass on Puzzle Agent 2. According to a new blog post over at Telltale, the voice skipping woes, the weird out-of-focus cut-scenes visuals, and puzzle controls and usability have been ‘improved’ in a free update available… well, right now. Go, go, go!

In addition to that stuff, the game also supports 3G devices and can, overall, boast better performance. Performance and lack of older-device support were pretty big sticking points in our review. We’re stoked to see them addressed, as Puzzle Agent 2 is a good adventure game that had silly platform-specific issues holding it back from hardcore acclaim.

With this behind us, we can just say nice things. Yay!

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“Soon” seems to be the default for every iOS game release announcement, and that constant holds true for Forever Drive. In a conversation over e-mail, a representative from Supermono Studios told me that the open-world, sandbox-y racing game is about to enter certification, which can take weeks. “We’re very close,” he said.

While I can’t get you a release date thanks to Apple’s crazy complicated and often lengthy processes, I can try to paint you an accurate word picture of the online element of the game and how it informs everything in Forever Drive, including racing mechanic and its systems. It's just that vital to the experience.

So, here's the deal. Forever Drive's hook is that it has a distinctive and inseparable user-creation element. Like LittleBigPlanet, creative users will be able to tap out their own levels and then share them with the game's community at large. In Forever Drive, you'll be asked to create pieces of racing tracks, which is an important distinction to make, as each piece will eventually be procedurally combined into a much bigger, but singular “mad uber-highway" in the game's fast-paced driving component dubbed "DRIVE."

Provided enough people create in the game, the track you race on might be the product of tens of thousands of user creators. I was told to think of this highway as a playlist of sorts where only the best and brightest will be added to the uber-track. Supermono plans to dish out rewards of in-game currency and unlockable items to the best creators, who will be, essentially, providing the Forever Drive experience to everyone.

“What we've tried to create is a very streamlined experience — something a little different from the "load a track, do 3 laps, stop, repeat" gameplay that's become almost universal in driving games,” he said.

“ We're trying to create something that feels more like an epic journey, with that feeling of discovery and wonder you get driving fast into an unfamiliar land…”

In our original coverage I almost used the word “MMO,’ and I wish I would have. If Forever Drive actually works well, it’ll have a sense of persistence that we only typically see in MMOs. I think the core conceit that will be displayed is really special and I can't wait to see it in action. Count me in, Supermono.

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If you've been waiting for Final Fantasy Tactics for the past few months… Tonight is the night. In fact, there's so many awesome games coming tonight that I'm just skipping the normal pleasantries of easing everyone into the game releases via a smart introduction.

Instead, I'll just go over how this works for first timers out there. iOS developers are able to set specific release dates for their games/apps. Since the App Store is a global market with tons of different regions, and time zones exist, that particular date arrives earlier in some corners of the world than it does other. New Zealand due to their proximity to the International Date Line gets first crack at new releases, followed by Asian markets, then European markets before things finally appear in the US App Store at 11:00 PM Eastern.

Arenas, Trial of Valor, $3.99 – Forum Thread – This universal online turn based strategy game has a feature list that has piqued my interest. There's both a PvP and PvE battle system, five types of arenas, ten available races, thousands of unique objects with more on the way, along with hundreds of different spells and creatures. We'll have to see how big of a component the online stuff is, as a $3.99 price tag combined with a (somewhat) obscure online game never seems to be conducive to building a large online pool of players.

Colosseum Heroes, 99¢ – Forum Thread – These sidescrolling beat 'em ups have been surprisingly popular on the App Store, and Gamevil seems to have nailed the formula very well. Multiple skills to use, along with several playable characters fighting their way through seemingly endless waves of varied bad guys. It looks like there's oodles of things you can customize, with 7 levels of 126 different spells.

Cut The Rope: Experiments, 99¢ / HD – Forum Thread – ZeptoLab seems to be following in the footsteps of Rovio's Angry Birds Seasons and are going it alone in self publishing this Cut The Rope pseudo-sequel. Anyway, it's safe to say that if you even vaguely enjoyed Cut The Rope, this is a game you need. More of the same with a few new twists is hardly ever a bad thing.

Desert Quest, Free – Forum Thread – I'm not entirely sure I'm sold on the gameplay of this game, but I think the art style is really slick. It's free too, so it seems worth checking out if for no reason other than it has a cool look to it.

Emberwind, 99¢ / HD – Forum Thread – This game puts you in charge of a gnome fighting off a legion of gremlins. It sounds crazy, and it looks crazy from the above trailer which seems oddly reminiscent of obscure 16-bit era action-centric platformers. We'll see how that all translates to gameplay, and I'm curious to see how the controls work.

Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of The Lions, $15.99 – Forum Thread – This game hardly needs an introduction. It's Final Fantasy Tactics… Finally on the iPhone after months and months of delays. We're overjoyed it's finally here.

Frankenstein Matchmaker, $1.99 / Lite – Forum Thread – This word game comes with the odd premise of needing you to match various words in order to make Frankenstein some love connections. Hopefully its difficulty level is adult-appropriate, as it seems like it could be a little on the simple side.

Kickin Mama, $1.99 / Universal HD – Forum Thread – If you've found yourself awake at night wondering what would happen if you combined Peggle-like gameplay with kicking babies… Well, here's what happens. This game.

Ninja Fishing, 99¢ – Forum Thread – Despite a hefty amount of drama with Radical Fishing, Ninja Fishing looks like it could be pretty cool– Especially if they deliver on all the planned updates mentioned in the iTunes description.

Puerto Rico HD for iPad, $7.99 – Forum Thread – This game is based on a board game which I have no experience with but it's apparently won all kinds of international gaming awards. It's rated incredibly highly on boardgamegeek.com, which has a massive amount of information on the game.

Shift 2 Unleashed, $4.99 / HD – Forum Thread – We loved all the previous Need For Speed games for iOS devices that EA has released in the past, so it would stand to reason this one would be just as good. Like most EA franchises, this seems to include tons of incremental improvements and boasts Origin support as well.

Snowball Run, 99¢ – A simple looking endless running avoidance game, only this time you're running towards the camera instead of away from it… And you play as a yeti.

Super Granny, Free – Forum Thread – The iTunes description is a little vague on how the digging mechanic of this game works, but it sounds a lot like Lode Runner and it looks a lot like Lode Runner. And hey, I remember my grandma liking Lode Runner, so it makes sense in a roundabout way.

Taco Master, 99¢ / HD – Forum Thread – This time management game puts you in charge of making… Tacos! (If the title wasn't a big enough clue on that for you.) Also, the trailer seems to be voiced by the guy from Zombo.com.

Temple Run, 99¢ – Forum Thread – We've had our hands on Temple Run a few times in the past, and it's safe to say if you love endless runners this is a game you need to get.

Toss The Ball, Free – Forum Thread – Namco's latest foray into casual gaming involves, as you may have guessed, tossing balls. It's free, and offers different bonuses for coming back every day, but the question is, is tossing balls compelling enough for you to want to?

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Last month we checked out the trailer for an upcoming platformer called Roboto from developer Fenix Fire Games, and thought it looked pretty promising. You play as a hoverboard riding robot who is chasing his female robot crush all across the galaxy, in an effort to win her affection. Gameplay appeared to fall somewhere in between a traditional platformer and a fast-paced endless running game, which seemed like a good combination.

Then last week, Roboto [$2.99] was released in the App Store, and after playing through the game it mostly delivers on all the promise that was expected from the trailer. The visuals and level design are the brightest points of Roboto, but a couple of technical shortcomings and less-than-ideal controls hold it back from true greatness. Fenix Fire is already in the process of addressing these issues though, and with just a small bit of post-release update love Roboto could be one of the finest platformers available on the entire iOS platform.

Right off the bat you’ll notice that Roboto is simply stunning visually. The crisp and colorful graphics look fantastic on the Retina Display, and there are loads of little details that give the game a great sense of character. Gameplay is strictly on a 2D plane, but the entire game is rendered in 3D and the usage of the foreground and background give a great sense of depth as you play. Killing an enemy might shoot a gear right into the screen when it explodes, and background elements like huge wrecking balls will swing into the foreground, looking like they might burst right through the screen.

Roboto’s moves consist of running left or right, jumping, hovering, and shooting. Holding down the jump button will cause Roboto to hover for a short period, a la Princess Toadstool in Super Mario Bros. 2. Roboto’s actions will expend an energy meter at the top of the screen, which can be replenished by collecting various energy pickups spread throughout the levels. If you run out of energy and come across a point where you need to hover over a gap, you’re pretty much screwed, so it’s best to keep a close eye on your supply and not overuse any of your moves.

The real brilliance of Roboto lies in its level designs. They are each designed to be completed speed run style if you choose, but if you slow down and take your time there are plenty of items to collect or enemies to defeat. At the end of each of the 30 levels in the game, your score is tallied based on completion time, enemies killed, remaining energy, and whether or not you collected each of the 3 gears hidden in the level. This gives Roboto great replay value, as after merely completing a level it can be a nice challenge to go back and try to get 100% for everything and land a huge score. Game Center integration for achievements and leaderboards adds to this as well.

My biggest gripe with Roboto is the absolutely terrible control stick used for moving your character in the game. The stick is seriously temperamental, and sometimes will drop whatever direction you’re moving without you even realizing it. This can make the game infinitely frustrating, as you’ll literally be hovering over a gap and will suddenly drop right into it due to no fault of your own. I’ve easily died more times from this one issue than from any enemy or challenge in the game. Luckily, Fenix Fire has posted on their Facebook page that an update will hit soon that adds separate left and right arrows for movement, which I think will be a much better option. But right at this moment, the control issue drives me absolutely bananas.

Another issue worth considering is that for such a graphically intense game, performance has been spotty for some players. It’s not really consistent, either, as I’ve had almost no issues running the game on my iPhone 4, except for very minor stutters when a ton of things happen onscreen at once. Conversely, some members in our forums cannot even play the game at all due to an abysmal frame rate grinding things to a halt or the game simply crashing on them. The developers also mention on their Facebook that performance optimization is coming in an update as well, but again, as of this writing you may or may not have any luck getting the game to run consistently well, or at all.

Roboto has all the makings of a classic platforming game. It’s one of the most visually impressive games I’ve seen in some time, and the gameplay itself is well designed and a lot of fun. If the controls and performance issues can be ironed out sufficiently, then Roboto will fall into the “must have” category of iOS platformers. Right now though, expect to be frustrated with the touchy control stick and potential for some technical hangups that might prevent your from playing the game. If you’re on the fence, it might be worth waiting to see how the update resolves these issues.

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Mika Mobile’s third-person, side-scrolling shooter Zombieville USA [$1.99] hit the App Store in early 2009. Considering the growth of the App Store and the amount of different handhelds Apple has released since the game’s initial launch, I think its safe to call it prehistoric. To put another spin on that: I remember reviewing the game at another outlet as part of a new initiative to cover the budding platform. Wild! But anyway, I’m bringing all this up to pound home the point that Mika Mobile isn’t done with the game quite yet despite its relative age. Intriguing, yes?

In a new update, the studio has added fancy retina display graphics, as well as support for “fast app switching,” which is another indication of its advanced age. Also, Universal support has been added, ensuring that you’ll, from now on, get two copies of the game for the price of one. Zombieville has been 2011-ized, in other words.

I’d imagine all of this work ultimately serves the purpose to promote Zombieville USA 2 and perhaps comfort new fans who might flock to the old title. That’s right; Zombieville 2 is a thing that was announced alongside this update and, according to Mika Mobile, it’s coming as soon as this ‘summer.’ Neat!

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