Dark Incursion is a retro 8-bit side scrolling shooter game, with the added bonus of a red/green stereoscopic 3D mode (glasses, sadly, are not included). Players who appreciate the genre will find a lot to love in Dark Incursion, and anyone who grew up with an NES will not be able to avoid some pleasant nostalgia.

Squids is an underwater action game with spineless heroes. Really, they have no spines. Neither do the bad guys you encounter (but that’s because they’re crustaceans). The graphics are pretty nice, the background music is light and doesn’t get annoying or attention grabbing, and there are enough things to discover and acquire for your characters that this game can easily keep you busy. It definitely gets my vote for the next plane trip.

Pick a Piggy HD is a pork-based puzzle game that sees the player launching adorably porky pigs through barriers, climbing up platforms, and bouncing their way to freedom. Collect stars along the way for extra points, but watch out for the pitfalls. Nefarious rats, electrified barriers, platforms that move, and puzzles that require some clever engineering lie between your piggy and freedom.

Hercules – Curse of the Hydra is a solid platformer that combines all the essential elements. Your main character is Hercules, you will be tasked to go through a linear game progression: facing various enemies, jumping from one place to another, hacking creatures into destruction, unlocking rewards and bonuses. The game features 16 levels set in the streets of Athens, deserts, the underworld and other mythical places which you’ve probably studied in your literature class.

Kart racers suffer from “sameness.” There’s really not a whole lot to separate one from the other; pretty much just track design and characters. But when they’re done right, they can be quite fun. The latest I’ve played is Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 2, and it gets enough right to rise above much of the competition.

In terms of physics-based games, this one is in some ways unlike many of them I have seen, but is familiar in other ways. In short, Toy Physics involves toys falling from the top of your screen, hitting random obstacles on their way down, and then attempting to fall into a toy box that moves along the bottom of the screen. While most physics games are extremely fun and addicting if done right, I’d say this one is entertaining enough to be near the top.

Switchword is pretty simple yet challenging, as it involves strategy and not just your typical form-the-most-complex-word-and-you-win type of approach. East of the Web, the game’s creator, wants you to exercise your brain. As such, Switchword combines strategy, word knowledge and puzzle solving skills. The objective of the game is for you to capture your opponent’s squares by forming words while preventing your words from being taken by your opponent.

I sometimes worry I’m too easy of a reviewer; that I dish out fours and fives by default, remember only the good parts of games, glossing over the rough edges, and just generally giving designers the benefit of the doubt. Then I run into games like Pitz and Pang, now out for the iPhone and iPod touch. It’s not that they’re bad games, it’s just that the controls are so wonky—for both of them— that I feel like I’m fighting with the interface rather than the game itself.

The unfortunately named iSink U plays mostly like the classic game of Battleship, in which you place your fleet of ships on a grid and then randomly call out attacks on your enemy. If you hit, fire again in that same row or column. Miss, and try again elsewhere. The first player to sink his opponent’s fleet is the winner. But the gameplay/strategy of iSink U (seriously…if you can’t come up with a good name for your game, hire someone else to do it) goes much deeper.

Tap Tap Revenge is an incredibly fun game for the iPhone and iPod touch. It’s somewhat of a clone of the popular game Guitar Hero for other consoles, except that you use your finger to hit the notes. The game allows single and multiplayer functionality, the ability to download more tracks to use with the game (although its old functionality of allowing you to use your own songs for the game has been removed due to Apple’s strict rules on App Store apps), and the ability to participate in Tapulous’ tournaments to win cool prizes.

Full review after the break.