The Apple App Store gaming update is Gamertell’s weekly look at the previous week’s Apple App Store game releases. We cover them all – good and not so good – in their respective categories with a breakdown of the great games and the free games right where you want ‘em, at the top and in your face. The list is available every Monday, right as you are about to start that long work week.
Did you folks get your iPhone 3GSs yet? If not, I highly recommend you do it, especially if you are going to be doing a lot of gaming. The differences between 3G and 3GS are like night and day and it really makes you wonder why the 3G was ever released at all.
Of course, you can still play games without the speeds of the 3GS, so here’s this week’s gaming apps:
What’s Free
My Brute Lite
“My Brute Lite is a crazy, off-the-wall game of combat that gives you the chance to challenge fighters from all over the world. You simply take on a series of challenges, gain experience, unlock new skills and crush your enemies with ever-greater speed.”
Jungle Bloxx Free
“Hunt for the mythical city of El Dorado by exploring the depths of Jungle Bloxx, an addictive puzzler that will keep you wanting more! Get a taste of Jungle Bloxx and play 8 levels in the Free Version. Purchase the Full Version to complete your quest in finding the mythical city of El Dorado with over 70 additional levels, 9 match-three puzzles and more! Crack open temples, destroy blocks and solve puzzles in the fewest moves possible in order to achieve the highest score. Get ready to explore the mysterious Jungle Bloxx with stunning art, colorful characters, hilarious monkeys and high quality production values.”
iCombat Lite
“Finally you can play a modern version of the classic arcade tank games on your iPhone! Steer your powerful little tank by tilting the screen while tapping anywhere to fire your missiles. Like with the original tank games, your missiles bounce so you have to think carefully about how to navigate the levels using the ricochet to kill enemy tanks. In addition to being able to drop mines, you can collect bonus items like invisible, shield, grenades and homing missiles and use them to try to beat 10 challenging levels (50 in full version).”
Roll The Dice Lite
“‘Roll The Dice Lite’ is an application in which you can throw 3D embodied dice. You can roll the dice by pressing ‘Roll’ button or shaking touch. A physics engine enables realistic movement of dice colliding with other. Roll them and bet on a bottle of beer with your friends! You can make the one with the lowest or highest number to pay. It’s really fun!”
Mindracer Lite
“Release your inner geek in this intense math racing game. The goal is to finish the race as fast as possible by solving math problems – and thereby earn infinite glory, hot babes and an awkward award for the best looking math geek. You can play alone against the time and train you ridiculously underdeveloped mental arithmetic skills until exhaustion. This will reward you with the speed and accuracy of a mighty math demigod (or your head will explode). Yes we know it, this text is crap – but the game is great! Go get it!”
Heroes
“Turn your amateur hero into the most prestigious, powerful force in the world.”
What’s New
Action
Mass Effect Galaxy: Price: $4.99
“WHEN THE GALAXY IS IN PERIL—ONLY A BIOTIC-POWERED SUPER-SOLDIER CAN SAVE THE DAY
You are Jacob Taylor, a combat power-house in this story-telling adventure, made exclusively for your iPhone and iPod touch! Enjoy the stunning art in this stylish animated graphic novel experience. Control Jacob’s actions with a new combat and narrative wheel interface.
ENGAGE IN A GRIPPING STORYLINE
Only you can foil a star-spanning plot to knock humanity off the galactic stage. Alien terrorists are preparing to unleash a devastating biological assault. You must stop them!
UNLEASH A TORRENT OF FIREPOWER
Armed with the latest weaponry, technical countermeasures and awesome biotic energy, you will defeat heaps of enemies in your quest to maintain the delicate balance of power amongst a host of alien species.
GET COOL INSIDER INFORMATION
Two of the main characters in Mass Effect Galaxy will also appear in the upcoming Mass Effect 2 game for PC and Xbox 360. Discover their backgrounds and get a deeper insight into their motivations in the Mass Effect universe.”
Avian Swine Defense Force: Price: $0.99
“Defend yourself against the Avian Swine invasion with this contagious action game.”
Archon : Price: $3.99
“Archon is the ultimate battle between light and dark as you fight in the action-packed Combat Arena to claim each square. Be a Dragon, Goblin, Unicorn Phoenix or various other characters…each with their own unique ability. No combat is the same, so no outcome is the same…you control the fight, so you control your destiny. ”
Gremlin Empire: Price: $2.99
“Webcomics meets gaming! Take control as Bee, the rambunctious entrepreneur as she ventures into the cavernous homes of the gremlins that have stolen her treasure! See how long you can last against the nearly unlimited and tenacious gremlin horde armed only with a shotgun and a grin. Unique enemies await you, such as the Piker, a weak gremlin that normally you can simply shove out of your way by running into them. Be warned however that an enraged Piker isn’t so easy to push aside. The long lived Bloomer, the tanks of the Gremlin Horde, will block your escape paths. The deadly Sapper, armed with a barrel of TNT and the IQ of pudding, INSANE pudding.”
Adventure
Jungle Bloxx: Price: $2.99
“Hunt for the mythical city of El Dorado by exploring the depths of Jungle Bloxx, an addictive puzzler that will keep you wanting more! Visit 10 different ancient cities of the Gods in your hunt to find the mythical city of El Dorado. Crack open temples, destroy blocks and solve puzzles in the fewest moves possible in order to achieve the highest score. Get ready to explore the mysterious Jungle Bloxx with stunning art, colorful characters, hilarious monkeys and high quality production values.”
Arcade
Annie’s Wild Shot: Price: $0.99
“The tomboy heroine Annie has the time of her life taking down the outlaws in this 2D shoot-’em-up!
Could she be the long-lost descendant of a legendary sharpshooter who once blasted 6 holes in a flying card in the blink of an eye?! She’s got the name and the guns, but do you have the skills? Take full advantage of the touch features of the iPhone and iPod touch to shoot down a constant stream of outlaws one after another. You can also cause a little mayhem of your own by shooting windows, wagons and more. And if an enemy pops up off-screen, just turn the iPhone or iPod touch left or right to scroll the screen and take ‘em out!”
Board
SPORTS mania: Price: $0.99
“Challenge the sportsman inside yourself! SPORTS mania is the new and exciting game that allows you to challenge yourself and your memory in a number of levels, each one dedicated to a different sport, with the goal of discovering pairs of identical cards. Complete the game in the shortest possible time and qualify for the online world rankings!”
BuggOut: Price: $0.99
“Hello, my name is Sparky and I need your help! I am on a quest to visit each location in BuggWorld. Unfortunately I keep getting stuck – not cool! To help me reach my goal, you must move my fellow Buggs out of the way so I can keep movin’ on. The catch is to make as few moves as possible to get me out. You’ll even earn a medal for your efforts. Oh, and if you don’t get the diamond medal on your first try, I won’t mind if you take some time and try again. So hurry up and come meet me and all my friends in BuggWorld!”
HandyChess Online Chess: Price: $2.99
“HandyChess Online Chess is a simple yet powerful iPhone and iPod Touch online chess client. It is designed to be handy for both novices and experienced chess players, it usually takes just three taps to start a new chess game. HandyChess is focused on making things simple, but no simpler than an experienced chess player needs. HandyChess uses FICS – Free Internet Chess Server (www.freechess.org). This is the most popular chess server in the Internet with more than 310,000 registered users and at almost any given time more than 1000 people online ready to play with you. There is no problem to find an opponent of your desired level in seconds. When you seek an opponent, HandyChess gives the option to resume any paused games, then looks for other users that meet your formula.”
Card
Twenty One (Blackjack, 21, Cards, Vegas, Poker): Price: $0.99
“Are you ever playing cards with friends or in Vegas and can’t remember all the rules to blackjack? Did you get one of those handy reference cards in the airport on your way and now you can’t find it. Now it is all in the palm of your hand. The reference card, general blackjack overview, tips, strategies, quick reference guides, insurance, double downs, splits, its all here! Landscape viewing available.”
Card Tower: The House of Cards: Price: $0.99
“With a good technique and a little bit of patience, you can build a three or four story (or even higher) card tower with our very addictive and interesting iPhone and iPod Touch game. Now you can explore your inner architect in the comfort of your palm of the hand. No more winds, pets, or family members to destroy your creations! With more than two decks of cards and unlimited time, you can compete with people around the world (online score submission will be added in the future versions). For now – top ranking with screenshots available. Beautifully designed game, with accurate physic rules and an undo feature to give you a chance to correct small mistakes not to ruin an entire tower you’ve spent hours to build.”
Casino
NOTHING
Dice
Roll The Dice!: Price: $0.99
“‘RollTheDice’ is an application in which you can throw 3D embodied dice. You can roll the dice by pressing ‘Roll’ button or shaking touch. A physics engine enables realistic movement of dice colliding with other. You can roll upto three dice at one throw. Roll them and bet on a bottle of beer with your friends! You can make the one with the lowest or highest number to pay. It’s really fun!”
Chutes and Ladders Classic: Price: $0.99
“Chutes and Ladders Classic is a board game. It is called Chutes and Ladders in America and called Snakes and Ladders in most other parts of the world. This game is built for playing between two players (Device and User). Each player rolls the dice and then the respective bead moves according to the result. And if the bead reaches at the bottom of ladder, then it climbs up the top of that ladder. On the other hand when the bead reaches at the top of a chute, then it goes down to the bottom of that.”
Educational
MathMaster Algebra: Price: $0.99
“Great tool that people of all ages can use to fine tune their math skills. Keeps track of high scores providing a competitive element that will keep your you coming back for more.”
iCue Memory Numbers: Price: $0.99
“iCue Memory Numbers is a standalone version of the Numbers game found in the full iCue Memory game. If you enjoy this game, please consider purchasing the other stand-alone games (iCue Memory Binary and iCue Memory Cards) or the full suite (iCue Memory).
Family
NOTHING
Music
Tap Pad – Tap Dance Challenge: Price: $2.99
“Ready for some real dancing? Tap Pad gets your fingers tapping in classic tap dance style. From a single step to the Cincinnati, Tap Pad challenges you to keep up the rhythm as it leads you through the steps and combinations of real tapdances. Learn each hop, brush, spank, and dig in moves like the Buffalo, the Maxie Ford, the Waltz Clog and the Shirley Temple.”
Jukebox: Price: $0.99
“With Jukebox you can find out how well you know your music collection through an addictive, attractive music quiz. Challenge yourself to better your highest score by identifying your songs as quickly as possible, or test your knowledge of a particular artist’s work. Jukebox’s sleek wood design and extensive collection of statistics and highscores, such a ‘longest streak’, ‘average score’ or ‘time played’, mean you will find yourself instantly addicted.”
Jamble: Price: $5.99
“Introducing Jamble: An entirely new way to create and experience music on your iPhone or iPod Touch. Jamble makes it easy to instantly create flawless music mashups. Within seconds, Jamble makes you sound like a pro-DJ and mash-up master.”
Puzzle
Ballz! – Pro Version: Price: $1.99
“Following on from our successful Ballz! puzzle game we now bring you Ballz! Pro Version. The graphics are superbly animated and there are lots of new features to make this additive game even more additive. Our testers were so addicted they played for hours and hours at a time because they wanted to not because they had to!”
Plantastic!: Price: $0.99
“Plantastic! is a blooming marvelous combination of puzzle and strategy game. Create bouquets from groups of brightly colored flowers to clear them from the garden and achieve the bloom target! Five play modes, each with different planting patterns, will keep you challenged as blooms can only be placed near your last flower in the pattern shown. Blooms drop into the queue and you must plant them in the garden before the queue fills up!”
Racing
iSR: Price: $0.99
“The inaugural season of the ‘virtual league’ has yet to get underway, but already the commission has opened several ‘Speed’ courses. Teams who’ve completed the designs for their vehicles early have been granted access to the first section of the Race Center, ‘Section 0Z’ [zeer-oh Zed]. While only one team has reported, many more are expected to follow.
To allow the best environment for manufactures to stress test their machines, and give chance for Pilot’s to condition their reflexes, the SRC has put together a simple set of rules for the initial runs.
Launching at 100km/h vehicles gradually increase in speed at the rate of 2km/s. Each session lasts 60 seconds, but is able to be extended through pick-ups placed along the track. Pick-ups, that when flown through, also supply a short burst of speed. Spread along the course is a series of obstacles. So long as the Pilot doesn’t fly through them, their craft continues to increase in velocity until the session has completed, at which time the results of the run are shown.”
Role Playing
NOTHING
Simulation
Moons: Price: $0.99
“Moons is a dynamic simulation game for developing sense of timing, coordination and inner focus. It is also gives you a beautiful view of far away galaxies.
Your goal is to dock spaceships on the planets safely. The spaceships can easily crash into each other. Make sure that their paths are safe. Be aware of moons which orbit the planets. They will destroy any spaceship that gets in the way.”
Sports
AllStar Pro Baseball: Price: $3.99
“AllStar Pro Baseball”
Strategy
perplexed: Price: $1.99
“Perplexed is an always exciting, amazing and sometimes frustrating game of matching! Are you up to the challenge? The main goal of Perplexed is to use the objectspieces on either side of the screen and to make a matching shape. Sounds easy enough? You will do this by tapping, dragging, moving, flipping and rotating the pieces.. All the while combining them to try and make the match! Ok Guru! Once you think you have the solution, tap the check mark and see if you are correct-o-mundo! Do you have the wits to solve all 35 level faster than your friends?”
Trivia
NOTHING
Word
boooom: Price: $0.99
“The most explosive word game available! Should not be missing on any party! The player with the bomb has to answer the question to pass the bomb to the next player. If the bomb explodes, the current player loses one life. The following categories are available:
Shaken: You have to find a word with more than four letters. If you find the complete word in the shown anagram, you can wait for the next round.
Syllable: Find a word that inherits the shown syllable. The dots show where to place the syllable.
Question: You will have to answer the shown question with a single word.
Celebrity: Find the first name of a celebrity with one of the shown letters. If you find the first and last name of a celebrity with both letters, you can wait for the next round.”
Crazy Wheels: Price: $0.99
“Crazy Wheels is a riddle adapted to everyone, simple to understand, hard to solve. It will put you to the proof and help your intelligence, memory and astuteness keep active.”
iPhone/iPod Touch
Appletell: [iPhone 3G S video capability exponentially increases mobile YouTube uploads] [Macintosh/iPhone software update roundup - June 26, 2009] [Free Apps roundup for June 26th, 2009] [Find My iPhone in action]
I now have the top 4 scores on BallzPro!