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BulkyPix's MMORPG Yslandia [$4.99] recently hit the App Store after a considerable beta testing period in Canada. Earlier this month we posted an extensive hands-on preview of the game, and found quite a bit to get excited about:

In so far as the gameplay is concerned, MMOs traditionally have been about lengthy solo leveling experiences (read: grinding) with a smattering of teamwork needed in certain encounters. Yslandia on the other hand is more focused all around Player vs Player combat and social interactions (but with its own share of grinding). The three islands that make up the initial release of Yslandia are comprised of respective starting islands for the Simeh'a Alliance and the Zaa'me Coalition (essentially, Light vs Dark), and a neutral territory called Gilda where all the PvP combat goes on. And it's on this latter island that most of your time in Yslandia will be spent.

On Gilda, teams have to work together to capture Totems on the battlefield, thereby claiming territories for their Faction. The game itself encourages this teamwork– particularly teamwork through guild participation– by way of its skill system. Departing from any existing skill-building concepts, characters in Yslandia learn additional skills by "training" with other guild members. Every 10 levels, you accumulate training points in addition to your standard skill points, which can then be invested in other guild members, bestowing upon them a skill you currently have learned. Aside from skills learned in this fashion, characters start with 4 skills, 2 of which are usually passive.

'Usually' in this context is used quite loosely, as Yslandia boasts a massive lineup of 18 different classes to choose from divided amongst 6 very different races (some of which have no passive skills). The developers have also gone beyond the usual warrior/ranger/mage archetypes to offer interesting classes such as the Necrophage, the Lycan Bloodhound or the mana-sucking Nocturn Deceiver.

A thread on our forums is serving as a bit of a staging point with people trading tips and likely banding together as more people pick up the game. Similar to nearly every MMO launch since the beginning of recorded human history, Yslandia has a few bugs and some areas that feel rough around the edges. Thankfully, tthe developers are actively posting in the previously mentioned thread and mentioned that an update to address these problems and implement Game Center support is in the works.

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France-based developers Movingplayer and publisher Bulkypix have been hard at work lately on Yslandia, the latest MMO to shortly hit the App Store. Already released in Canada for testing purposes and set to hit US and international stores any day now (together with the US-based servers), this distinctly European take on the traditional eastern-influenced MMO formula had my attention from early on.

That Yslandia hails from a European developer is not something to be understated. It permeates every facet of the game– just as PC gamers saw a remarkable departure from traditional RPG paradigms in the popular Polish-developed title, The Witcher– so too does Yslandia show off its own influences and underpinnings, for better or for worse.

The most immediate evidence of this in play is in the artwork and in-game sprites. Gone are the cutesy, bright color palettes and heavily cell-shaded artwork usually seen in MMOs. Instead, what we have here are more detailed sprites with a purposefully subdued tone; emphasizing a realistic brush as trees and houses and even characters are painted in modest colors. The artwork in general brings to mind a water-color painting; not as visually striking as the color explosion of most JRPGs, but not without its own charm.

In so far as the gameplay is concerned, MMOs traditionally have been about lengthy solo leveling experiences (read: grinding) with a smattering of teamwork needed in certain encounters. Yslandia on the other hand is more focused all around Player vs Player combat and social interactions (but with its own share of grinding). The three islands that make up the initial release of Yslandia are comprised of respective starting islands for the Simeh'a Alliance and the Zaa'me Coalition (essentially, Light vs Dark), and a neutral territory called Gilda where all the PvP combat goes on. And it's on this latter island that most of your time in Yslandia will be spent.

On Gilda, teams have to work together to capture Totems on the battlefield, thereby claiming territories for their Faction. The game itself encourages this teamwork– particularly teamwork through guild participation– by way of its skill system. Departing from any existing skill-building concepts, characters in Yslandia learn additional skills by "training" with other guild members. Every 10 levels, you accumulate training points in addition to your standard skill points, which can then be invested in other guild members, bestowing upon them a skill you currently have learned. Aside from skills learned in this fashion, characters start with 4 skills, 2 of which are usually passive.

'Usually' in this context is used quite loosely, as Yslandia boasts a massive lineup of 18 different classes to choose from divided amongst 6 very different races (some of which have no passive skills). The developers have also gone beyond the usual warrior/ranger/mage archetypes to offer interesting classes such as the Necrophage, the Lycan Bloodhound or the mana-sucking Nocturn Deceiver. Unfortunately, with the class diversity on offer, what does get left by the wayside is character customization– don't expect that new cloak you found to have any effect on the way your character looks. Even so, the sheer number of classes on offer, and just how different they each look and feel, means it is less of an issue than it could have been.

Unfortunately our pre-release time with Yslandia didn't offer much opportunity in the way of experiencing large-scale battles, so the verdict is definitely still out on whether the PvP-centred approach works or not. What we did see was an ample number of quests to help your character through the initial 10 levels, after which quests spill out onto the contested Gilda island too. The current quests support progression to level 25, and comprise the usual collection and courier quests with a fair bit of grinding in between. We've been told by developers to expect a new island shortly which will extend the level cap to 35, so continued support is definitely on Movingplayer's agenda.

Yslandia does two other things which we really liked, and showed a bit of innovation on behalf of the developer. Firstly, the user interface is sensational: your character is controlled by either tap-moving or by an on-screen analogue stick; and skills and items can be placed absolutely anywhere on screen via an intuitive iOS-like hold-to-move system that I hope is picked up by other developers too. Secondly, some classes have the ability to 'take over' their guild mates as familiars once they have disconnected. The game describes this as proxying, and it's certainly a fresh feature that whilst limited to 1 life only, enables guild mates to assist each other even when they're offline.

If there are any shortcomings to note in Yslandia, it's that character animations aren't really up to par with what we usually see in these games. Spells and ability animations range anywhere from barely serviceable to really great (we loved how ranged spells have a charging animation), but there is a certain lack of believability to standard attacks and hit responses. This may be attributable to the fact that we were only able to play on the European servers— which were not entirely without the expected lag– and so the responsiveness expected of combat was just not there.

Of course, there is also the obvious downside that whilst you hoard your various items, they will never have an effect on your appearance in the game world– one Guardian is essentially indistinguishable from the next. Movingparts is aware of this, and have promised that some form of customization through PvP rewards is just around the corner.

What will be interesting to see is how all these elements mesh together in a fully populated game world, and whether the PvP-centric gameplay will hold up as a fulfilling, engaging MMO. Certainly players will have their own positions on whether a competitive environment will sustain them or not, particularly as there is a pseudo-requirement that players be part of a guild to enjoy all Yslandia has to offer. Personally though, I feel that the European charm and its willingness to push the boundaries of long-held MMO concepts nicely positions Yslandia as something different worth checking out.

Yslandia is currently priced at CAD$4.99. While you're waiting for the US and international release, check out our forums to see what experiences our Canadian readers are already having with Yslandia.

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The Madden series hardly needs an introduction, as football player turned coach turned commentator John Madden has had his name on football games for the better part of 20 years now. On home consoles, it has become tradition for EA to release a new Madden game each year with updated rosters, a few new features, and other various tweaks. As of tonight, the second yearly installment of the Madden series has arrived for the iPhone.

Last year we took a close look at Madden NFL 10 and thought it was a really great football game for the iPhone. Madden '10 came loaded with all the licensed players, stadiums, logos, and everything else you'd expect of a Madden game along with game modes ranging from single exhibition games to full seasons. The two hip new features of Madden NFL 10 for the iPhone were hot routes allowing players to draw on the screen to control players, and "action control time" which switched the game to slow motion mode allowing for precise maneuvers with the virtual controls.

There wasn't much to complain about with last year's Madden, which really left me wondering what EA was going to include in this year's release to up the ante. The preview we got revealed substantial graphical upgrades including Retina Display support, but it wasn't until I got to spend more time with the game today that I realized just how much more fun the other new features made playing Madden NFL 11.

In the interest of full disclosure, I'm not a sports person by any means. I don't remember the last time I watched anything more than the Super Bowl on TV, and the only sporting events I've attended have been the result of friends with extra tickets. I play sports games, but generally gravitate towards arcade style sports games like Homerun Battle 3D [$4.99 / Free], or sports games that have RPG elements such as Baseball Superstars 2010 [$4.99 / Free].

I mention this because I generally never really got into a Madden game, or really any full football game. The weak link for me always came in choosing from an endless array of both offensive and defensive plays, with each yearly iteration of football game boasting even more plays to choose from. I don't know enough about the strategy of football plays to have ever felt like I was making a wise decision, and when it got down to it, play selection just always seemed like a needless interruption every few seconds while playing the game.

GameFlow changes all of this, and I really can't overstate how awesome a feature it actually is. Using some new AI algorithm likely designed by a team of people who know way more about football than I ever care to, Madden 11's GameFlow will intelligently chooses plays for you. It is absolutely insane how much this changes both the feel and the pace of the game. Using GameFlow, endless submenus of plays are a thing of the past. Instead, you just play football. The plays it selects work fairly well too, or at least, much better than my typical choice of plays which usually alternate between the hail mary and the fake field goal kick– both favorites of mine.

What's also shocking is how much this actually speeds up playing the game. You can tap the screen to skip through the extra animations, victory dances, and other junk and play through a whole football game in what barely seems like any time at all. Of course, if you are the kind of person who knows exactly what every play does, all you have to do is flip GameFlow to off and you have complete control of each and every play.

The hot routes functionality from last year has been expanded, and at any point during the game you can pause the action and draw paths for your players. If you're playing offense and do this, you can save those routes as an audible, or if you're playing defense you can just send your players wherever you want. The whole system works very well, and by drawing lines you can send dispatch players to man to man duty, follow the ball, or really anything else. This really makes defense a lot more fun because you can now actually sensibly direct your team around instead of just tabbing in between players and chasing after whoever has the ball. Check out my top secret LOL offense:

As mentioned already, the graphics of Madden NFL 11 look fantastic. The stadium crowd has actual depth now, and they even wave around signs for the home team. The included weather effects look good, and overall it seems like all the player models and animations are more detailed. Every texture in game also seems to have been substantially improved, making going back and forth between 10 and 11 seem fairly drastic.

Madden 11 also is host to some other noticeable tweaks over last year's as well such as controls that feel a little better and a spruced up interface. There's an in-game store which currently is home to a free roster update, but seems like it might be used for future DLC . Finally, Madden NFL 11 behaves beautifully as an iPhone game, gracefully saving your game and resuming quickly when you load it again.

Like last year, the inevitable comparison between Gameloft's NFL 11 [$6.99] and Madden NFL 11 will likely take place in our forums for months to come, but in my opinion, Madden wins by a landslide. Gameloft's offering seems to run at a higher frame rate, but Madden looks better overall– rspecially when it comes to how the crowd and stadiums are rendered. Madden NFL 11 has local bluetooth multiplayer while NFL 11 is single player only, and the commentary in Madden seems less repetitive than Gameloft's. Where Madden really wins though is in the extra features. With how much I've fallen in love with GameFlow I can hardly bring myself to deal with NFL 11's play selection, and Madden's total defensive control makes playing defense in NFL 11 flat out boring in comparison.

At the end of the day, people who like Madden games likely don't need this review, or anything more than the iTunes link to download the game for that matter. Who I really expect to sway into checking out Madden NFL 11 are the casual sports fans, or people like me, who are vaguely interested in sports games but found the various technicalities of football games to generally be annoying. GameFlow fixes all this, and I can hardly believe that I spent the majority of my day today playing Madden 11 on my iPhone– not because I was trying to power through it to write a review, but because I was actually really enjoying a football game for the first time since Mutant League Football on the Sega Genesis.

The iPad and iPhone versions are essentially the same aside from the price difference and UI tweaks to make the controls more comfortable for playing on the iPad. The iPhone version is workable with pixel doubling, and the only thing you're really going to be missing out on is the upcoming "Vintage Voltage Football" mode which is basically just Super Shock Football [$1.99 / Free] with Madden graphics.

International App Store Link: Madden NFL 11

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The amount of post-launch support Spacetime Studios has given their free MMO [Free: iPhone Universal / iPad Only] got even more impressive lately with the release of Pocket Legends 1.2 which adds three main features to the game:

PvP – In team deathmatch arenas vaguely similar to World of Warcraft's arena system, players choose sides and battle the other team. The various arenas have different sizes, player limits, and even power-ups. Points are awarded for killing other players, and when the score limit is reached a scoreboard displays showing the match standing.

Secure Trade – Inspecting other players now give you a new option to securely trade items, gold, and potions. Just like any MMO, a trade window will appear for both players to confirm the trade before the transaction is complete.

Elixirs – Using gold or platinum players can purchase a number of different elixirs which do things like increase movement, experience gain, damage, and even armor. Elixirs last for five minutes and don't stack on top of each other. Also, they can only be used in the story mode so players don't have to worry about buying elixirs to be competitive in PvP.

Spacetime Studios released a new trailer that shows the new PvP arenas:

If you haven't tried Pocket Legends yet, there's really no reason to keep resisting at this point. The game is free to try, and is one of the more impressive realtime multiplayer experiences available on the App Store.

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Pocket Legends was a big hit with us when it released earlier this month. There was something special about having an full-blown 3D MMO playing in our hot little hands that really wow'd us, particularly as Pocket Legends actually had solid match-up mechanics and an action-packed gameplay to write home about.

Since its release, developers Spacetime Studios have been hard at work pumping out server-side patches to address bugs, tweak balancing, and even introduce a new in-app purchasable level pack in the form of 'The Lost Expedition' — a set of levels based on the frigid snowscape of a Yeti Fortress, complete with new ice weapons and armors. Perhaps even more exciting though is their first update to the application itself, requiring a traditional iTunes app update to patch your game to version 1.1.

The full feature list is a long one, comprising of a raft of UI tweaks and bug fixes, but the major gameplay features that have been added (as provided by the developer) are as follows:

• Gifting: Items can now be traded one way (given) to other players
• Stashing: Items can now be stored in a stash, which can also be used to transfer items between your characters
• Vendors: NPCs now sell different items in towne
• Conversations: NPCs now offer backstory
• Consider Mobs: Target display (left of health indicator) shows relative level difference
• Booting: Game hosts can kick players from their game
• Store: Added Platinum for premium items and packages

While most of the new features are self-explanatory, we'll expand on that last point to clear any confusion. Being the busy, supportive developers that they are, Spacetime Studios have encountered an issue with the in-app content process– chiefly, they are creating content too fast for Apple to approve it in a timely fashion, and as each in-app download has to be separately submitted, approved and priced, this has caused quite the delay and frustration.

Their solution is a simple but clever one that has financial benefits for its customers too. In-App downloads will now comprise solely of 'platinum' purchases, a new form of currency introduced to Pocket Legends. With that platinum, you can then purchase from a (now much larger) list of in-game items and content, some which may potentially be below the Apple-mandated in-app price of $0.99. This means that Apple only has to approve the platinum in-app purchase once, and the rest of the items are handled by their faster, more regular update processes. Note, the developers have indicated that until the new system is fully migrated and the old in-app system removed, they won't be able to review their prices, so you may want to hold out on item spending until they do so.

With all these updates and both PvP and Secure Trading promised in the next update (the current patch introduced only a lightweight 'gifting' system), there is certainly a lot to look forward to in the world of Pocket Legends. We'd also like to mention that the entire interface has been given a nifty face lift with an emphasis on help tooltips and assisting new players, so there's never been a better time to get on board Pocket Legends!

App Store Link: Pocket Legends for iPhone, Free & Pocket Legends for iPad, Free.

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If there's one thing RPG fans on our forums love, it's the Zenonia series. The original was insanely popular amongst our community, and the sequel seems to have the same appeal. I thought the first Zenonia [$2.99 / Free] was a ton of fun, and the sequel Zenonia 2 [$4.99 / Free] was just as good, if not better.

Here's the basic gist of Zenonia 2 from our review:

The plot of the first game followed a young boy named Regret in the midst of a war between the Holy Knights of the land and a clan of dragons. This sequel traces a new story in the same universe with one of four selectable characters as the stars. A half-naked swordsman, gun-toting blonde, animal-man hybrid melee guy, and generic, emo magician make up the cast, and each play quite differently. Choosing one character over another won't change the story in any significant ways, but each character does come with some side-quests specific to them. I wasn't extremely impressed by the quality of the game's story as a whole, but I can say with some confidence that it's an improvement over the one in the original game. …Read More

The lite version includes 5 main quests and 6 sub-quests to complete, as well as full access to the PvP arena. (Although, expect to be owned.) If you've been on the fence for whatever reason on this game, you really should give the light a spin. Also, another great thing about Gamevil releasing a lite version of Zenonia 2? I totally now have an excuse to post this awesomely ridiculous video again:

YEAH!

App Store Links: Zenonia 2, $4.99 / Zenonia 2 Lite, Free

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The last few months have seen an explosion of online games hitting the iPhone. Developers are waking to the fact that in today's WiFi world and speedier mobile internet, online content delivery for the iPhone has finally entered the mainstream. Com2Us have tapped into the mother load of online genres, the behemoth (to pronounce) Massively Multiplayer Online RPG, through its release of IMO: The World of Magic [AppStore].

IMO adopts the controversial 'freemium' model, where games are released free to the public, but charge an in-app fee for premium services and items. Instead of just recommending you an app that you can try for yourself, this review should assist to shed light on what is actually available to premium users, and what free users may be missing out on.

Many would be surprised to learn that IMO is in fact a port of a 2006 release on older mobile devices in Korea. The in-game artwork is a give-away in this respect, not being as high-resolution as you would expect from a native iPhone app, but still sporting the vibrant colors and cute characters that the Korean game market is known for. Another apparent symptom of the port to iPhone is an ever-present stutter as the game world scrolls around the character, a factor that detracts from the fluidity of the game and lends it a sometimes lag-like quality.

This shouldn't detract people from enjoying The World of Magic though, as it also happens to be a surprisingly comprehensive MMO that is a heap of fun to play with friends. There are three unique characters to play; a warrior, mage and archer, each of which has a well-developed skill tree up to level 50. These characters can have their appearances customized to a small degree at creation, but to a much greater scale through the many different armor and weapon sets expected of an MMO. IMO also features a full-scale guild and party system, as well as PvP battlegrounds, challenging dungeons and an expansive, open world.

What is more astonishing is that all of the above is available completely gratis. Where your wallets do come into play though is through the auction system. In the middle of town are two traders, both of whom are inaccessible to 'free' players. On purchase of a 'Starter's Pack' for $2.99, the player is bestowed with a Premium Member Ticket. This ticket enables players to access the auction house system, as well as removing in-game AdMob ads that pop up on occasion and cause minor irritation. Prospective traders may also choose to dig further into the purchasable items, as they can have their trading slots expanded to 10 and then to 15 for $0.99 each.

To entice players to pay, the 'Starter's Pack' opts for the carrot rather than the stick. Together with the Premium Ticket, you are given a 7 slot bag (an otherwise expensive in-game item), a random Costume Hat (I got kitty ears!), and a slew of consumable items that cannot be purchased through the in-game currency (and cannot be found either, from what I can tell). Each of these consumables have special effects such as resurrecting on the spot, summoning friends, insuring against item breakage or — strangely — permitting you to shout to all regions. If you had to buy them on their own, they cost between $0.99 and $2.99 for between 3 and 10 items, making the Starter's Pack a bargain.

It really seems as though the Starter's Pack is enough for most to get by with, but in any case IMO is not as restrictive as other 'freemium' games. In fact, it has no inherent requirement to purchase anything at all– so long as you are happy with the ads and aren't using the auction system. The consumable purchases are of questionable use, particularly as they are offered in rather paltry bundles. Whether they become more useful in the latter game is yet to be seen though, as IMO also features a steep levelling curve that appears to require a substantial amount of grinding for both gold and experience.

If you can get past the MMO grind– a fact made easier by the regular PvP battlegrounds that are a real spectacle– IMO has alot going for it in both its social features and its huge game world. It may prove inaccessible to those not willing to ask questions though, as the game documentation is currently a little sparse. Having said that, this is an enjoyable, practically-free title that is capable of consuming countless hours and have you still clamouring for more. Our readers are certainly responding well to IMO, with hundreds of impressions already streaming in to our forums. IMO: The World of Magic can be played over both WiFi and 3G internet.

App Store Link: IMO: The World of Magic, Free (With In-App DLC).

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Apple's surprise media event unveiling the iPhone OS 4.0 is set to begin shortly. We'll be providing live updates, and focusing on things that specifically pertain to iPhone gaming or things iPhone gamers might be interested in like all of our other keynote coverage in the past.

Steve Jobs just took the stage, and started things out by talking about the sales figures of the iPad. On Saturday they sold 300,000, and as of today they've sold 450,000. Apple apparently is making them as fast as they can, but notes that Best Buy is already out of stock. On the first day, 1 million paid apps were downloaded, and since then 3.5 million have been. (In addition to 600,000 eBooks.)

Photo courtesy of gdgt live.

Jobs also mentions that there are over 185,000 apps in the App Store, with over 3,500 iPad apps. He then took some time to show off the more impressive iPad apps in the App Store currently such as the ABC app, Netflix, the Marvel comic book reader, and others. Shifting gears to talk about the iPhone, Steve mentions they've won three JD Power awards for customer satisfaction, and currently holds 64% of the mobile browser market share. Apple has sold over 50 million iPhones, with 85 million combined devices between the iPod touch and iPhone.

iPhone OS 4.0 is coming this summer, with a developer preview available today.

Photo courtesy of gdgt live.

Photo courtesy of gdgt live.

Among the seven "tent pole" features of iPhone OS 4.0 is multitasking. Steve goes on to demonstrate how multitasking is going to work. With multiple apps running, double clicking the home button raises a window that looks a lot like the bottom dock of the iPhone showing what apps are running. Tapping an icon instantly switches to that app.

Photo courtesy of gdgt live.

To explain how this all works while preserving battery life and performance, Steve hands things off to Scott Forstall, SVP of iPhone Software. iPhone OS 4.0 will provide seven multitasking services. The first of which is audio streaming, and Forstall specifically cites Pandora as an example of an app that will shine with this functionality. Developing applications to utilize this functionality is apparently extremely easy, as it only took the Pandora developers a day to make the app background aware. Skype also works fantastically with this new functionality, even allowing you to accept calls while running in the background.

Doodle Jump spotted:

Photo courtesy of gdgt live.

The next multitasking function is background location. Apps that use the GPS functionality such as TomTom will be able to continue routing while in the background. This raises obvious privacy concerns, and a new settings menu will be available to enable and disable location services per application, as well as showing a small arrow icon next to the battery indicator.

Moving on to push notifications, Forstall mentions they've sent over 10 billion notifications since the service went live. Building on push notifications comes local notifications, done entirely on the phone to see alerts from apps you have running in the background. One example mentioned was a popup when a photo was finished uploading to Flickr.

Photo courtesy of gdgt live.

Steve takes the stage again and announces folders to organize apps. The interface seems an awful lot like the various jailbreak app organization solutions. So far Apple is really knocking it out of the park with this keynote.

Photo courtesy of gdgt live.

The iPhone mail client is also getting enhanced, with a unified inbox for each email account on the device along with a threaded email view for reading conversations. Unsurprisingly, the iPhone is also getting the iBooks app which will sync pages and bookmarks with other devices that have the app.

Forstall just announced "Game Center", Apple's own gaming social networking service that seems to handle everything Plus+, OpenFeint, and others do with presumably one unified login tied to your iTunes account. Matchmaking, leaderboards, and achievements are all part of it.

Photo courtesy of Gizmodo.

Also mentioned was Apple's own iAd advertisement services, which we expect to see making appearances in many free games that have historically relied on AdMob and other advertising networks.

iPhone OS 4.0 will be coming this fall, and sadly, multitasking will not be supported for the iPhone 3G and second generation iPod touch. That's it folks, Steve is taking questions now.

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When I wrote the closing thoughts of my four-star review of Across Age a couple of months ago, I commented on the fact that the game marked a continuing increase in the quality of App Store RPGs, and I wondered if Zenonia 2 [App Store] would be able to keep the pace. Zenonia 2 has been out for a few days now, and I've finally been able to put it to the test. The conclusion that I've come to is that while this isn't markedly better than any game before it, it is a massive improvement over the original game and stands among the best RPGs on the App Store.

The plot of the first game followed a young boy named Regret in the midst of a war between the Holy Knights of the land and a clan of dragons. This sequel traces a new story in the same universe with one of four selectable characters as the stars. A half-naked swordsman, gun-toting blonde, animal-man hybrid melee guy, and generic, emo magician make up the cast, and each play quite differently. Choosing one character over another won't change the story in any significant ways, but each character does come with some side-quests specific to them. I wasn't extremely impressed by the quality of the game's story as a whole, but I can say with some confidence that it's an improvement over the one in the original game.

Spelling and grammar errors, a clunky menu system, and an annoying hunger system held the first Zenonia back from greatness, but its enjoyable real-time battle system made it into a game that many loved. While the story in Zenonia 2 might not be especially better, numerous other elements are. The menu system in particular is leagues better than the previous game's (although it does still need some work; combining items and dealing with duplicate items is a big pain in the bum).

The game still uses SNES-era-inspired graphics, so it looks good for a mobile port. The hunger system is back, but in a much more manageable fashion that doesn't grind on one's nerves. I still can't believe that your equipped armor and weapons show in-game on your character. That's a feature that rarely makes its way into 2D games, but certainly should more often. One feature that has been showing up more commonly in App Store RPGs is online PvP matches. I was a bit disappointed that it isn't "real" PvP (the computer controls a downloaded version of your opponent's character) but it's cool that Gamevil included the option.

The core of Zenonia 2 is largely the same, but for some reason it just feels bettter than before. The game has some of the most customizable controls I've ever seen, so maybe that combined with the new touch-controlled menu system is what makes the difference. The best part of the game is still the battle system. The auto-turn-to-face-enemies feature and easily accessible skills gives everything a clean, fast-paced feel, and fans of RPGs know what I'm talking about when I say that there's just something fun about dashing around leveling up and increasing a character's stats.

Zenonia 2 still has its flaws. Having to repair items sucks, plain and simple, and the item combination system is pretty boring. A couple of times I ran into a glitch where it seems that items I picked up failed to show up in my inventory. The cutscenes are generally well-done, but the opening cutscene in particular is way too long, even to the point of being tedious. I did some lurking in our forums and found that other users have been experiencing the problem as well, so I hope that Gamevil addresses the issue with an update soon.

Honestly, if you really disliked the first game, you probably won't feel differently about Zenonia 2. If you're like me and you enjoyed the first game but had a few grievances with it, however, this game fixes those problems. I hate to fall back on Across Age as a reference point, but in my mind it's the App Store RPG to beat. The fact is, Zenonia 2 is just as good as Across Age, and those who've gotten their money's worth out of that game shouldn't hesitate to drop the cash to download this game. I can nitpick all day about the lame item-repair system or that awful opening cutscene, but the most important part of this game is how the battles feel, and Gamevil hit that nail on the head.

App Store Link: Zenonia 2, $4.99

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Ngmoco's acquisition of Freeverse was the big surprise news tonight. The move has generated a lot of questions and concerns regarding the direction of both companies. We have interviews set up with Freeverse's VP Colin Smith tomorrow and Ngmoco's Neil Young tonight.

In the meanwhile, Freeverse Senior Producer Bruce Morrison assured us that they are not making any major changes to their existing games or their much anticipated game Warpgate.

We are not making changes to our current titles (well adding Plus+ awards and leader boards to a lot that need them). The current titles you know about, the stuff about to come out (Zombie Cannon Carnage and Warpgate) are not changing and are going to be the games we promised.

We'll have more news and information to come soon.

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