Apple App Store gaming update for the week of January 26 – February 1, 2009

At the time of writing, it’s Super Bowl Sunday! Which means you probably won’t be looking at this list today! So let’s jump into the Way Forward machine to tomorrow.

Happy Monday after the Super Bowl! Chances are you ate and or drank a little too much yesterday so your productivity is probably in the slumps today. Hey, why not lay low and kill the work day with some iPhone games then. Here’s what we have for you this week:

Games That You Might Like

Super Monkey Ball Lite
“Let’s roll! Guide a cute little monkey encased in a transparent ball to victory by tilting and rolling him through a variety of slopes and turns. You must navigate a large variety of obstacle courses to reach goal lines within set time limits. Collect as many bananas as you can along the way and you’ll be able to increase your remaining lives. Enjoy rich 3D graphics with an easy-to-master control system that utilizes the accelerometer inside your device. Insanely fun and addicting! Features a tutorial and 3 stages from the full game.”

Word Eater: Price: $0.99
“Word Eater offers a fun and challenging way to improve your vocabulary skills. The object of the game is to match words hidden in the jumble of letters, within the time given. You receive points for each correct word, and lose points for inaccurate selections. If a full row of letters reaches the top of the screen, it’s GAME OVER!”

Circuit Defenders: Price: $2.99
“Circuit Defenders is a fast paced Tower Defense style game, where your challenge is to defend computer circuits from attacking virus armies that are infiltrating the circuits via the communications port.”

Lock ‘n’ Roll Pro: Price: $2.99
“Lock ‘n’ Roll is an intriguing puzzle game requiring a combination of luck and skill. Roll four dice at a time and arrange them on a 4×4 grid. Receive points for various combinations according to number and color. You must place all four dice and once you lock them down, they are fixed in place! The most difficult combinations are cleared from the board.”

PileUp! Candymania: Price: $0.99
“The long awaited sequel of the online hit PC game, PileUp!, is finally here! Now you can head off to candy cosmos and give your iPhone or iPod Touch a real treat! Clear 60 levels of increasingly difficult, sugar-fueled fun in 6 different environments. Drop sets of three candy pieces onto a pile and match colors to make the candies vanish. The game’s realistic physics makes candies drop and bump into each other, adding an extra challenge to the exciting gameplay. Collect huge bonuses from consecutive matches and clear levels with the help of amazing power-ups.”

What’s Free

Box Run (FREE)
“The evil Red Empire is up to no good, they kidnapped princess Boxia and are now out to kill prince Boxo. Help guide Boxo in his quest to save his true love, and restore order in the Box galaxy.”

CosmoHero Lite
“It’s a great spacefighter where you will face lots of dangerous enemies with sophisticated skills and heavy armaments. Every minute you’ll be facing extreme danger and you’ll need best armaments to face the enemy. If you don’t want to die at the very start of the game, you need to start with strong weapons! To give you powerful weapons, we’ve developed many cool guns from common machinegun to plasma gun and ion shell. In time of need you can’t go without homing missiles, which annihilate a part of the enemy. Other various bonuses will also make your life easier in merciless battle environment.”

Just Fillin’ Free
“Use your fingers to blow bubbles until the screen is filled up. But its not that easy. Vicious spikey balls are flying all over the screen, ready to burst your bubble. Its an amazing physics and water simulation, Just Fillin’ will keep you entertained and addicted for hours or just minutes. Use advanced techniques like tilting and tossing bubbles to trap the spikeys and clear space to fill the screen. Compete against the world on our online leaderboard. Enjoy!”

Super Monkey Ball Lite
“Let’s roll! Guide a cute little monkey encased in a transparent ball to victory by tilting and rolling him through a variety of slopes and turns. You must navigate a large variety of obstacle courses to reach goal lines within set time limits. Collect as many bananas as you can along the way and you’ll be able to increase your remaining lives. Enjoy rich 3D graphics with an easy-to-master control system that utilizes the accelerometer inside your device. Insanely fun and addicting! Features a tutorial and 3 stages from the full game.”

MiZoo Lite
“Welcome to MiZoo Lite, the companion version to the full MiZoo game on the Appstore. This game is a separate game in its own right, being an endless, untimed single level, using the same gameplay mechanics from the full game. The objective is simple, swipe an animal towards another animal to swap places with it, in order to make lines of 3 or more of the same animal. Only those moves that make a line are valid. However, to achieve big high scores, make multiple combinations of moves in quick succession before the new animals drop into place to achieve combo bonus scores, and special ‘sparkly’ animals that eliminate 9 animals when used in a line. The game is over when there are no valid moves left to make.”

Cuorbs Lite
“This simple but addictive action game will challenge your wit and your coordination. The seemingly simple task of matching the blue Cuorbs to the blue energy field and the yellow Cuorbs to the yellow energy field will put your hand eye coordination to the ultimate test.”

Evade Blocks
“The game is simple. Avoid the moving blocks for as long as you can.”

iGeo Game Lite
“Test your geography knowledge and have fun playing iGeo Game on your iPhone or iPod Touch with iGeo Game Lite, the free lite version of iGeo Game. The Lite version includes two mini-games.

- Flags Quiz: choose the right flag for every nation
- Cities Quiz: choose the right nation for every city”

Fisherman Lite
“Tilt your iPhone to move the fisherboat. Tap anywhere on the screen to throw the spinning rod, tap again to hall in. You’ll need a good timing to catch the fishes while picking up the fishing rod. You will earn money for each fish you catch. After each round you’ll be able to upgrade your equipment. The first level you will begin with a short line, a slow spinning rod an a low line strength.”

Sneezies Lite
“Grab a cup of tea, sit back in your favorite plush chair, and enjoy the soothing relaxed gameplay featuring fantastic graphics and sweet melodies. Touch the screen to drop a burst of sneezing powder into the field of floating Sneezies and watch as they sneeze themselves out of their bubbles in a marvelous chain reaction. Try to rescue as many Sneezies as you can in one go.”

SmashWord Lite
“SmashWord is a fast-paced blend of speed and vocabulary. Connect the letters Boggle-style – vertically, horizontally, or diagonally – to form words of three letters or longer by dragging your finger from one tile to the next. Valid words are removed and new letters fall into place when you lift your finger.”

Platelets
“In this puzzle you have to move the tiles until no piece overlaps the other, and no tile is outside (or partially outside) the screen. Simple as that. The level generator makes new layouts everytime, so you can enjoy this game indefinitely.”

Word Squares Lite
“A word square is a grid of letters where each row and column forms a valid word. In Word Squares Lite, you start with a scrambled word square, and it’s your job to unscramble the letters. Simply drag and drop the letters to the correct place. We give you a few hints to get started, and you can always use the hint button if you get stuck.”

Word Popper Free
“Word Popper is a fast moving word game. Pop letter bubbles as fast as you can to complete words. Perfect when you need a quick break. Unlike Boggle, Wurdle or Scrabble you can pop any letters you see to make a word. This makes the game a fast moving bubble popping frenzy. Shake the game to pop a bunch of letters to complete your word.”

What’s New

Action

Payback: Price: $6.99
“Payback is a critically acclaimed GTA-style game that has been continuously refined over a decade of development.”

Just Fillin’: Price: $0.99
“Use your fingers to blow bubbles until the screen is filled up. But its not that easy. Vicious spikey balls are flying all over the screen, ready to burst your bubble. Its an amazing physics and water simulation, Just Fillin’ will keep you entertained and addicted for hours or just minutes.”

Happy Canteen: Price: $0.99
“You and your couple have a tacit understanding it? Couple would like to work together to open a restaurant it? Here are the couple,Amy and David.They open a small cafe.Boys do in the kitchen is responsible for the delicious food. Girls greet customers outside. Give it a try! When playing game,to remember what customers want the food, and select the food.if select is right,you will be bonus points.”

Gummibär: Price: $4.99
“The Gummibär game is a classic jump and run action game that includes three different minigames. Explore mysterious islands and face deadly challenges, impress everyone with your dance moves, and escape disaster and doom by navigating a river full of sharks and a sky full of angry rain clouds.

Gummibär is taking a trip in his plane to a dance competition when a sudden storm forces him to make an emergency landing on an unknown island. To his surprise, he discovers that the island is inhabited by a tribe of fierce savage gummy bears. To his even greater surprise, he discovers that this tribe possesses special instruments and dances that would help him to win the dance competition. However, the chief of the tribe will only give him the special instruments and dances in exchange for magical fruits that are hidden on the nearby islands. Help Gummibär as he embarks on a dangerous adventure to find these fruits and trade them with the chief for the special instruments and dances so that he can win the championship competition.”

Wedding Dash: Price: $4.99
“Featuring the hilarious ups and downs of wedding day drama, Wedding Dash® incorporates the plate-spinning fun of the Diner Dash® series with the added challenge of pulling off the perfect wedding reception. Can you keep the bride and groom happy while keeping Quinn’s business afloat? You’ll help couples select all the details–from tasty cakes to gorgeous flowers–and watch out for obstacles that might ruin their perfect parties, such as tipsy guests, falling cakes, and catty bridesmaids. It’s a fast-paced, on-the-go challenge to execute a flawless event, but for the determined Quinn, it’s all in a day’s work! ”

Escape I: Price: $0.99
“Meet Johny, the boy who were accidentally trapped in a haunted house. Find supporting objects for him so he does not fall off to the dark dungeon at the bottom. Try to survive as long as you can. This classic escape game where you control your character by tilting iphone. Download and play over more than 100 levels. You can compete against the world via our site.”

Sushi To Go: Price: $1.99
“Dive into the exciting underwater world of Tony Tortuga. Sushi is a hot item on the reef and as a delivery turtle you are facing many challenging obstacles. Manage your time and outsmart your enemies in this amusing action adventure. Order up, Arigatou!”

Circuit Defenders: Price: $2.99
“Circuit Defenders is a fast paced Tower Defense style game, where your challenge is to defend computer circuits from attacking virus armies that are infiltrating the circuits via the communications port.”

Whack-A-Quack: Price: $0.99
“Rack up the points as you Whack, Whack, Whack those pesky ducks that go Quack, Quack, Quack!!! This new game brought to you by Quantum Quackers, the maker of Animal Talk, will have you whacking away at those malevolent mallards in an attempt to build up your points and beat your old scores.”

Pirates : Sea Battle 2: Price: $0.99
“Only real pirates can live free life. You can try to be a pirate in this awesome game. You have only one pirate ship with a crew and cannons on it. Lots of different ships want to destroy you. But you have to do it first. Gather gold from breaking ships and upgrade your one. You can also engage enemy ships in close combat. If all the enemy crew is taken out, you can plunder the ship.”

Adventure

Treasure Chase: Price: $0.99
“It was a beautiful sunny day. You are walking on the street and heard the latest news on the radio: “The Central Museum is robbed! Unique treasures of Caribbean sea pirates are stolen!”. And suddenly you found a gold coin lying on the edge of the pavement. Here it is! The treasure is somewhere near. On the other side of the street you saw an another coin and realized that it’s time to act! Enjoy an interesting adventure full of hazards! On your way there will be the city streets, dark forests, rivers and trains, but no one barrier will stand in front of you!”

Arcade

Hell’s Kitchen™: Price: $5.99
“Hell’s Kitchen is a US TV phenomenon as renowned Gordon Ramsay puts aspiring chefs through rigorous tests. Experience the show’s pressure-cooker atmosphere as you go through a series of kitchen and dining room challenges. Success depends on how well you can cook and serve meals, so master each time management test to progress. Each meal is scored by Gordon Ramsay- do you have the talent to be a “Five-Star” chef in the hottest kitchen around?”

Rocket!: Price: $1.99
“It’s a rocket flying game. In space. It’s has realistic simulation of gravity. You are controlling tiny rocket with only one thruster. Control it by tilting and thrusting. And shoot the cannons!”

Crazy Frog: Price: $0.99
“Toncho, the crazy frog, looooves to jump!!!! He also loves sticking his tongue out and catching bugs. It is pretty funny when he does that. Help this crazy frog catch and eat as many of the cute flying bugs as he possibly can. Beware of the deceiving little bees that will sting when swallowed. Progress through levels and discover new bugs. Toncho will slurp when he catches a bug, scream when he gets stung, and you will laugh the whole time.”

Pachinko: Price: $0.99
“Pachinko is a game that is somewhat similar to pinball machines in the United States. In Japan, Pachinko machines are used as gaming devices in Pachinko parlors, where people play to win prizes or money. The original machines were totally mechanical. Our game emulates the early mechanical models. A bit of skill is involved to launch the ball to certain areas of the machine, but it also takes some luck to get the ball in a “wing” or “drop bucket” to receive a jackpot of balls from the bank.”

Peggie: Price: $3.99
“By turning your iPod Touch or iPhone into a mini physics simulator your task is to launch a ball through a collection of pegs with the aim of hitting every yellow peg in the game arena before you run out of balls.”

Board

The Grid: Price: $0.99
“Fill The Grid with numbers from 1 to 100. Start anywhere you like. Place the following number only where allowed – moving 3 positions up, down, left or right, or 2 positions diagonally.”

Slide-Ball Puzzle: Price: $0.99
“Slide-Ball is a sliding puzzle, similar to Flip-Side. It consists of a set containing 10 numbered balls in two rows of five. Each row can slide left or right. Three central positions are intended to swap three balls in the top row with three balls directly beneath them. Simply slide up the balls to swap.”

Game of the Generals: Price: $0.99
“Game of the Generals is a classic turn-based board game that requires planning, logic, and memory. The objective is to capture the opponent’s flag, or reach the end zone with your own flag.”

Greed: Price; $0.99
“The objective of the game is to get the most points. The players take turns placing stones on the board. If you place a stone on top of a square with points, you get those points. If the points are negative, you loose those points. Stones can only be placed adjacent to other stones.”

XOCubed: Price: $0.99
“Play Tic-Tac-Toe, not for 3-in-a-row, but for 4-in-a-row inside a 3-dimensional playing field. Play against the computer, or a friend.”

Card

Chinese Poker Pro: Price: $2.99
“Chinese Poker(十三張) is a popular card game in the Asian community. Each player is dealt 13 cards that must be arranged into 3 poker hands ranging from the strongest on the bottom to the weakest on the top.”

Casino

NOTHING!!!

Dice

Lock ‘n’ Roll Pro: Price: $2.99
“Lock ‘n’ Roll is an intriguing puzzle game requiring a combination of luck and skill. Roll four dice at a time and arrange them on a 4×4 grid. Receive points for various combinations according to number and color. You must place all four dice and once you lock them down, they are fixed in place! The most difficult combinations are cleared from the board.”

Educational

iSpell Me: Price: $2.99
“iSpell is foreign language spelling trainer from iSpell/iDrill/iCards series. For a word displayed in your native language (and we do support a few – Deutsch, Español, English, Français, Italiano, Русский to name a few) you gotta slide the letters to come up with right English spelling only to get another word to spell. If spelling in foreign language is not your thing, you could always press “skip” button to get the next word.” NOTE: Also available in “The Basics”, “Animals”, “Home”, “Food”, “Leisure”, etc…”

CatDoku – Cat Sudoku: Price: $0.99
“Cat Sudoku – you read it right, it is a Sudoku game based on images of cats. Why, you ask? This is a game that marries two of my wife’s favorite things – Cats and Sudoku. 20,000 solvable puzzles that are sure to keep you entertained for many hundreds of hours.”

Bailout World: Price; $0.99
“The world is in recession! With power and money, the fate of the world is in your hands. This app is the place to demonstrate how superior your wisdom is.”

Smarty Pants: Price: $0.99
“Here is your job, name the colors, Do NOT read the words… rather, touch the button that matches the color of the word. For instance, if the world “Black” is printed in a red color, you should touch “Red”. Do this as fast as you can. I promise it is harder than you think.”

iPlanets: Price: $0.99
“There are three planet levels to complete (so far). Sun to Mercury; Mercury to Venus; and Venus to Earth. To get to each planet involves flying to space stations where you can refuel. Each space station is about 10 million kilometres (6 million miles) apart. You pick up fuel along the way by flying through rotating space gates hidden among the asteroids. It’s important you fly through the asteroids as they guide you to your destination. If you head off course you risk ending up drifting in space.”

Family

Choo-Choo Interactive Train: Price: $0.99
“SHAKE SIDE TO SIDE TO MAKE CHUG CHUG SOUND EFFECTS! Your kid can become their own imaginary steam train conductor just by shaking the iPhone or iPod Touch. Shaking side to side produces fun chug chug noises.”

Stax: Price; $0.99
“Stax is a fun and easy to learn 3D puzzle game where you direct stacked shapes from one platform to another. A shape can only be moved from one platform to either an unoccupied platform or to one where the top most object is larger in size. The level is only complete when all the shapes on a platform match the marker hovering above the platforms. Great fun for adults or kids.”

Music

SAX MAN: Price: $2.99
“SAXMAN is the first application for the iPhone simulating a real saxophone. By blowing into the microphone while pressing on the key touches you can easily play the saxophone on your iPhone or iPod Touch (2nd generation users should notice that Apple’s special microphone hardware is necessary).”

Puzzle

SmashWord: Price: $0.99
“SmashWord is a fast-paced blend of speed and vocabulary. Connect the letters Boggle-style – vertically, horizontally, or diagonally – to form words of three letters or longer by dragging your finger from one tile to the next. Valid words are removed and new letters fall into place when you lift your finger.”

PileUp! Candymania: Price: $0.99
“The long awaited sequel of the online hit PC game, PileUp!, is finally here! Now you can head off to candy cosmos and give your iPhone or iPod Touch a real treat! Clear 60 levels of increasingly difficult, sugar-fueled fun in 6 different environments. Drop sets of three candy pieces onto a pile and match colors to make the candies vanish. The game’s realistic physics makes candies drop and bump into each other, adding an extra challenge to the exciting gameplay. Collect huge bonuses from consecutive matches and clear levels with the help of amazing power-ups.”

Black Sheep: Price: $3.99
“Black Sheep is a funny, brainteasing puzzle game. Help the Black Sheep to escape from the feed lot!”

Racing

NOTHING!!!

Role Playing

C.E.O : Chief Elevator Operator: Price: $0.99
“Being a good C.E.O is not that easy, you need to have a fast action and good memory; remember which floor your guest what to go and stop at that floor. Make sure you don’t keep them inside the elevator too long, otherwise they will fall asleep and never get out from your elevator.”

Simulation

Real Puppy 3D: Price: $1.99
“In a great looking realistic room you are going to take care of a little puppy who needs you! Handle many aspects of his life while interacting with the room. The dog artificial intelligence makes him fun and realistic to look at, while he reacts at your attentions. A great soundtrack (touch the stereo to choose the songs) will play througth your game experience.”

Sports

Deluxeware Bowling: Price: $0.99
“Choose your bowling ball, and simply flick to bowl. Vary your speed and direction to get the best score and aim for the ‘Perfect’ 300. Play Deluxeware Bowling solo, against up to 3 friends using ‘hotseat’ multiplayer or against a choice of iPhone opponents!”

Deluxeware Darts: Price: $0.99
“Enjoy one of the world’s favorite pub games on your iPhone with Deluxeware Darts. Choose from Fast 500, 301, 501, Clock or Cricket and play against a friend using hotseat multiplayer, practice with a solo game, or versus a choice of iPhone opponents!”

Strategy

Armada – Pirate Mancala: Price: $1.99
“This game is based upon the rules of Mancala but you can choose to include special events, which can quickly reverse the tides of battle. Will the Gold Ship arrive and raise the moral of the Spanish fleet or will the sight of the dread Flying Dutchman rally the Pirate crews? In Armada, you will need all your cunning to defeat your wily opponent as you both race to sail your ships to your home port. Beware though, your opponent can capture an unguarded fleet and add your strength to their own!”

LinesUp: Price: $1.99
“LinesUp is a simple yet addictive game that will keep you entertained for hours. You have a very simple objective: Keep the board clean by forming vertical, horizontal or diagonal rows of at least five balls of the same color. The rows will disappear, leaving more space for new balls. The game features top notch graphics, cool sounds, enjoyable animations and intuitive interface.”

Trivia

Star Trek 101 – TNG – Quizner’s Trivia: Price: $0.99
“Test your knowledge of Star Trek – The Next Generation trivia and have fun at the same time with Quizner’s Star Trek 101 – TNG. Fight boredom anywhere, anytime, and in those “in-between” times. For extra fun, compete against your friends or play together with your family. Stuck on a question? Quickly get an assist by emailing a friend directly from the quiz.” NOTE: Also available in The Simpsons, Bruce Springsteen, and various sports.

Actor NaimGaim: Price: $2.99
“NaimGaim is a simple but fun game to play – the computer starts with a name and you have to follow with a name that starts with the first letter in the last name of the previous name.”

Word

Word Eater: Price: $0.99
“Word Eater offers a fun and challenging way to improve your vocabulary skills. The object of the game is to match words hidden in the jumble of letters, within the time given. You receive points for each correct word, and lose points for inaccurate selections. If a full row of letters reaches the top of the screen, it’s GAME OVER!”

Site [iPhone app store]