Apple App Store gaming update for the week of October 19 to October 25, 2009

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.

It’s the last week of October (2009) and we are counting down to the holiday release rush on the App Store, which kicks off with a handful of new Halloween apps including CDE’s Crush the Zomibes, the free Wordsearch Halloween and Little G’s Halloween Adventure. Other big notables are Guardian Soul, Groovin’ Blocks and NBA Live. So get tricked or get treated or simply get some apps my friends.

What’s Free

Hip Hop All Star Lite
“Rise to Hip Hop DJ Stardom by scratching and beat matching the hottest Hip Hop tracks from Busta Rhymes, Kid Cudi, DJ Green Lantern, Kool G Rap and more! Hip Hop All Star turns your iPhone and iPod Touch into virtual turntables!”

My first words Lite: Constellations
“Kids age 2 to 7 will now have fun learning basic words. The aim of the game is to arrange the letters in the correct order to make up a word. Letters are pronounced when touched. When word is completed, it’s pronounced and provided letters were arranged in the correct written sequence an animation is displayed. This version includes only 4 different constellations.”

Groovin’ Blocks Lite
“Get ready for a puzzle game unlike any you’ve ever seen! Groovin’ Blocks brings a unique mix of Rock Band-style beat matching to classic puzzle gameplay. It’s addictive! Maneuver colorful blocks and drop them in like-colored clusters to clear the board. But this is not your average puzzle game—this is the first puzzle game where you get rewarded for playing to the rhythm of the music. An original soundtrack with all new beats really drives the puzzles in Groovin’ Blocks. Drop the blocks on the beat for higher scores and bonuses—and really let the music take over! And for the first time, you’ll be able to take this successful Wii™ title on-the-go with a whole new iPhone edition! Play to the music with Groovin’ Blocks!”

Neanderbal
“Neanderbal is a game of logic.. and brawn! The dinos have taken over your prehistoric home and it’s up to you to save you and your family from these dangerous predators! How? Go for the nests! But dino eggs are notoriously hard – too hard to simply smash with your club (unlike those exploding mushrooms and balloon plants!). Luckily, there are plenty of giant boulders hanging around to help you with your cause? Smoosh the dino eggs by rolling boulders on them, but watch out! You only have so many boulders to use, and you can’t risk letting even a single dino egg hatch!”

Worderus Lite
“Can your brain perform under pressure? Worderus Lite is an ad-supported version of the fast-paced word game Worderus. Tap the falling letters to spell words and make the letter blocks disappear. Don’t let the blocks pile up to the top of the screen, or its game over!”

Reebok iSprint
“Do you think you’ve got quick fingers? Well test them out on Reebok’s iSprint, probably one of the most addictive games you’ll ever play! Set your fingers in the starting blocks and wait for the gun… then sprint to the finish line by swiping your fingers down the screen.”

Hangman Free
“Think you have a good vocabulary? Take on your iPhone or a friend in this chalkboard classic and find out how good your vocabulary really is. Hangman Free is the best Hangman game available for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The game faithfully captures every detail of the classic Hangman experience, right down to the chalk dust. Hangman Free supports one player and two player gameplay, so you can let a friend choose a word or have your phone select a word from a broad range of categories.”

WordSearch Halloween
“For a limited time only… get this free Halloween treat! You get to solve countless puzzles in this special holiday edition of AFKSoft Word Search. And you can keep playing long after the holiday.”

What’s New

Action

Guardian Soul: Price: $3.99
“Summon Action RPG! Summon the Guardian!! This romantic action RPG is about a novice knight, Leica, who defends her town Agnus from invasion of the Kingdom of Largo for the treasure, Agnesian. Starting the journey, she encounters a guardian master by chance and they get closer as time goes by. Revolving around main quests for defending Agnus, Leica faces many other guardians and guardian masters. Guardian Master: One with special power that summons guardians. Items obtained from guardians enable you acquire other guardians, weapons, armors and potions from an alchemist.”

Roswell Fighter: Price: $2.99
“Roswell Fighter is the ultimate classic arcade style shooter, but with improved and fresh game-play. Tons of aliens wait for you! And do not forget, mother earth is in danger – so be fast and blow up everything in a beautiful mixed 2D/3D environment. Roswell fighter will charm you with its great 50’s art style and music! The game-play starts classic but will get more and more challenging through the time while you face totally new and innovative game features. Mini-games and huge bosses will force your adrenalin to the limit.”

Crush the Zombies: Price: $0.99
“The aliens have invaded your hometown. Most people in the vicinity are infected with the alien zombie virus. There is no cure for this virus. You found a road roller in your backyard and you decided to use it to get out of your house and search for survivors who are not infected with the zombie virus. You need to guide them to the exit door so they can escape from the zombies. The game controls are the wheel control to move and the right and left steering controls for direction navigation. Basically, you need to use the wheel control and the steering controls to navigate your road roller to crush the zombies. The more zombies you crush, the more combos you obtained. There will be no lack of zombies to crush as they keep coming in waves to swarm you and your vehicle. There are five types of enemies in this game. Two children zombies and a big deformed zombie which you have to deal with while navigating your road roller. The worst has yet to come. There is an green alien that will shoot lasers at your road roller to damage your getaway vehicle. Fortunately, you have in-game items to help you in difficult situations. These items usually appear after you completed several combos by squashing more zombies with your road roller.”

Adventure

Nicky Boom 2: Price: $0.99
“Nicky Boom 2 on iPhone : Nicky Boom strikes back! Following the thrilling adventures of little Nicky Boom, retro platform game that combines adventure, puzzle and 90′s graphics, is now available on the App Store to try to solve a new riddle. With his magical goose by his side, help Nicky Boom to find out who removed the ladders and blocked the entrance of the caves in his country of origin. Enjoy your new weapons, go look for keys to secret passageways, and get ready to fight hordes of toadstools that divide when they’re attacked, of killer wasps which fire at you, spiked wheels, and even hungry grizzlies.”

Endless Defence: Price: $0.99
“A shaman summoned a lot of monster, And began attacking the city through the teleport , You are THE HERO, THE ONE, Only you can save the city! Take up your sword and FIGHT BACK!! You must prevent enemies from attack the stronghold. Let’s see “How long can you survive?”

Little G’s Halloween Adventure: Price: $1.99
“Out to Play Entertainment brings you a magical holiday game experience based on the award winning animated short, Little G.’s Halloween. It’s Halloween Night, and it’s up to you to help guide our small ghostly friend as Little G. encounters menacing Pumpkin Guards, spinning Treatbags and other surprises. His goal is to collect all 13 treat bags in numerical order and get back home as quickly as he can. But be alert. Little G. must avoid the flashlight beams of roving Trick-or-Treaters or find himself whisked back to the beginning of the street. Can you brave this spooky challenge? As a special treat, this adventure is paired with the original, short animated film Little G.’s Halloween. This charming film has been screened at film festivals around the world and featured in children’s programs at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.”

Arcade

Crystal Gems: Price: $0.99
“Crystal Gems is a cool remake of the famous breakout classics with the additional touch. Navigate your transporter ship with the finger, deflect your crystal gem collector ball over the power shield and try to collect all crystal gems to clear a stage. If the gems start to shine while you collect them your score will double. On your trip you will find different power ups, monsters and a challenging level design.”

Warp Fighter: Price: $1.99
“Warp Fighter is a aerial dog fight game through time in different ages from first world war 1 until a futuristic UFO to fight air to air with them. In the 3rd century of the earth’s life the human became a confederation and the industry pollution was the major problem , this caused a collapsing of the entire temperature system that create holes on the ozone , the solar shadow make a chain reaction that create an overlapping of ages between the old and the new worlds. Old and new country start to be face to face with different cultures and war concept was never forgiven , so each country of this different parallel world decide to race against each other creating the warp fighter challenge. Scope of the challenging is to beat all the other airplanes and survive to this one to many air combat game This game is dedicated to enthusiasts of ’80 shoot’em up game is a remix of the old time pilot game with a new completely renovated sound and graphics plus more weapons for a full nice extended game.”

Alien Outpost: Price: $1.99
“Like defense games, but sick of “flicking” enemies around a screen with your finger? If so, then you’ll love Alien Outpost! Alien Outpost is a fast paced defense game with awesome shooter gameplay mechanics! Defend your base against wave after wave of alien attackers, and manage your assets wisely as you upgrade your defenses. Alien Outpost will have you on the edge of your seat!”

Penguin Break: Price: $0.99
“Penguin Break is an exciting, captivating game of runaway penguins and your efforts to stop them. Reaction, strategy, split-second timing, and careful aim – you’ll need them all to get the highest scores in this light-hearted, easy-to-pick-up, can’t-put-it-down flock of fun for your iPhone/iPod Touch.”

Board

The New York Times Sudoku Daily: Price: $4.99
“Bring the gold standard of Sudoku to your iPhone and iPod Touch with The New York Times Sudoku. Officially licensed by the puzzle experts at The New York Times, Sudoku fans of any level can now play daily puzzles, post solve times and compare their performance with this challenging game. 5000 puzzles are included, plus great features for the ultimate Sudoku challenge. Whether you’re playing the included puzzles, creating your own grids, or playing the daily downloaded puzzles, this Sudoku game is sure to become a favorite app on your iPhone for a long time.”

Jewel Master: Price: $0.99
“Jewel madness is a crazy little gem that once played you will have a hard time letting it go. This Jewel Puzzle game is Tetris Bejeweled and simon all rolled up into one. As the Jewels drop you must press that matching colour. This game starts off slow but don’t let that fool you. As you progress they will come faster and faster. At the end you will see your best run and your global score. If your running out of Power watch out for Star Power. This little item will boost your power back to 100%.”

Pumpkin Peg: Price: $0.99
“”a Pumpkin Peg” is an “Solitaire/Peg” board game in the “Halloween version”.

The Sudoku: Price: $2.99
“This sudoku game has 5 different levels. Each level has thousands of grid design.”

Card

LetsHoldemPoker: Price: $3.99
“Lets you meet people who share your love this great card game. You can enjoy the various games with high qualities at this “LetsHoldemPoker”. You can enjoy playing the game “LetsHoldemPoker” under some different levels, such as normal,master or legend with many other players. And it will be very interesting yo you. The game offers realistic game playing,very smooth graphics and vivid sound effect.”

Casino

NOTHING

Dice

NOTHING

Educational

Little Cook: Price: $0.99
“Now kids can plan and create a wide variety of meals in their very own virtual kitchen! Little Cook is an engaging game that helps children learn from and be entertained by their own decisions. No chef is too small in the Little Cook kitchen – select your favorite meal from pizza to ice cream sundaes, and add whatever ingredients appeal to you! Want to put candy in your soup? Go ahead! Just be prepared to have your creation tested by a professional kid-taster at the end of the game. She will not be shy when raving about perfectly prepared meals, or about criticizing wacky ingredients. Onion and peanut butter sandwich? Ewww! Whether you stick to the rules, or play as a zany chef, children will enjoy the colorful graphics and range of responses from their food taster. A game of trial and error, you can return to the kitchen again and again to experiment with new dishes and improve your culinary skills! Learn to cook with Little Cook, and best of all, have fun trying! Recommended for children ages 4-7.”

Animal Tracks Quiz: Price: $0.99
“Animal Tracks Quiz” is a quiz game which invites you to test your knowledge of wild nature and its inhabitants. It may be used for testing and educational purposes for people well-informed about tracks and footprints of wild animals. Game consists of 30 questions. The question contains the photo of animal’s tracks you need to name. Each question has 4 possible answers. When you tap one of the answers, the default color of the pressed button is changed to green (when it was the right answer) or to red (wrong answer). You have 3 attempts to give the right answer. If you give it at the first attempt you will receive 3 points, at the second attempt – 2 points, at the third – 1 point. After 2 wrong answers the country name will be shown at the bottom of the screen to help you. Play the “Animal Tracks Quiz” now and find out how well you know world of wild nature!”

My first words: Constellations: Price: $0.99
“Kids age 2 to 7 will now have fun learning basic words. The aim of the game is to arrange the letters in the correct order to make up a word. Letters are pronounced when touched. When word is completed, it’s pronounced and provided letters were arranged in the correct written sequence an animation is displayed. This version includes 18 different constellations.”

Family

Shopping Crazy: Price: $0.99
“Shopping Crazy is a puzzle game in which you have to help the Smith family get home after a long and accident-laden shopping trip. You will need to use all your wits to rearrange the obstacles and help the get out of the maze of the mess they got in!”

Balls to Holes – 250: Price: $2.99
“Balls to Holes – 250 is a super interesting !!! Which will make you to be addicted from the beginning. Balls to Holes – 250 is a fun game that you try to land colored balls into adequate holes, by drawing ink strokes. Balls to Holes – 250 gets challenging as you level up. Different color balls, puzzle like walls, acceleration of the balls will make the game challenging but yet enjoy full experience. Each level gets more challenging yet enjoy full to play. 250 levels are there for you to get started your journey.”

Fish Dish: Price: $0.99
“Fish Dish is most fun and famous fish style game available for the iPhone. Eat the fish which is smaller than you, and avoid which is bigger than you. You can have a wonderful time with various kinds of cute fish. As your fish gets bigger, prettier fish that you can get will appear. Feed your fish which is hungry. You can also check your score by online ranking system.”

GameBox Classics Gold: Price: $0.99
“The fun-filled, award-winning, most popular game collection for iPhone! GameBox Classics Gold is a collection of six highly addictive arcade games to keep your mind stimulated and your finger tapping! This Gold edition is the updated version of the all-popular free game, Gamebox Classics. If you liked the free version, you will definitely love this one too!”

Robinson Crusoe’s Story: Price: $0.99
“This time instead of fairy tales, Digital Media brings you classical adventure book written by Daniel Defoe about adventurous life of Robinson Crusoe. Kids will love to see what happened on the island and who is Friday. What’s more – We give you digital coloring book so your kids will have twice fun with this application.”

Asteroids vs Planet: Price: $0.99
“Meet Planet. One day floating peacefully in the universe and the next, bombarded by an endless asteroid field. Use tilt controls to avoid the asteroids and attempt to maintain the optimum planetary position. While your score constantly grows, staying close to the center increases your score even faster. Keeping Planet in the center adds combo multipliers to help build your score to astronomical heights. When things get too hairy, tap the screen to activate a temporary shield. Use them wisely though – you have three to use and when they’re gone, they’re gone for good… How high can you score before the inevitable armageddon?”

Music

Groovin’ Blocks: Price: $1.99
“Get ready for a puzzle game unlike any you’ve ever seen! Groovin’ Blocks brings a unique mix of Rock Band-style beat matching to classic puzzle gameplay. It’s addictive! Maneuver colorful blocks and drop them in like-colored clusters to clear the board. But this is not your average puzzle game—this is the first puzzle game where you get rewarded for playing to the rhythm of the music. An original soundtrack with all new beats really drives the puzzles in Groovin’ Blocks. Drop the blocks on the beat for higher scores and bonuses—and really let the music take over! And for the first time, you’ll be able to take this successful Wii™ title on-the-go with a whole new iPhone edition! Play to the music with Groovin’ Blocks!”

Touch Lyrics: Price: $1.99
“Touch Lyrics is a intelligent music player that magically displays lyrics for your iTunes songs. Play music using a familiar iPod like interface while singing along to those songs. Beautiful, fully featured with a massive lyrics database for your iPod and iPhone.”

The Club: Price: $5.99
“Welcome to The Club where the best parties take place. In this music arcade game you’re trying to match couples and score as big and as often as possible! Make your moves and dazzle your partner. It’s time to start clubbin’! Use the touch screen to make different dancers meet and spend the night together. Your score depends on the qualities of the dancers and the general party mood. But beware, if the wrong people bump into one another a fight might break out and that will definitely ruin the vibe. Thank goodness there’s always a chance a celebrity will enter the game and look for the right people to join the afterparty.”

MusicQuiz – How well do you know your favorite music?: Price: $0.99
“Play MusicQuiz and find out how well you know the music collection on your iPhone/iPod touch! Here’s how it works: Randomly selected music pieces from your own iPod music library will be played for a few seconds. Then 5 possible answers will be displayed, from which you have to choose the right one. One game runs for several rounds. All your collected points can be recorded in a global Highscore list. That way, you can compare your score to other players worldwide. ”

Puzzle

Pang Pond The Hero Begins: Smoky Orge: Price: $2.99
“From the popular comic that captured Thai reader for over 20 years and onto the animation that made international success. Today let joining the wonderful experience together with Pang Pond in his newly exciting Action Puzzle game. You will be taking a role of little super hero who has an importance mission to saving the world from the dangerous monster which having a toxic gas as a weapon. Go through this exciting and challenging mission in “Pang Pond Smoky Ogre the Game”

Paired Sounds: Price: $0.99
“Paired Sounds is game that a player looks for the same sounds, just like a pairs card game. The purpose of this game is to find the exact same sounds. There are many different sounds such as animal, people, House, Army, and Midi. As you keep clearing the stages the boxes of sounds keep increasing, which means the game gets harder. while playing the game, a player can hear the voices, it provides interesting hearing. More sounds will be added later such as instruments and Languages.”

Star Paint: Price: $0.99
“Each level in Star Paint is dynamically created, offering a new puzzle each time you play. Stars will appear on the screen, with lines connecting each one. Move the stars until none of the lines are crossing to clear the level. Sound easy? Watch your time, because if you take too long, it’s game over. To help, use multiple fingers to grab and move different stars at the same time. Make it through normal and medium modes and you’ll unlock Hard mode – turning off the timer, and opening up some really devious puzzles.”

Racing

Zombie Karts: Price: $0.99
“Eeek! The zombies have taken to the streets… in custom go-karts! Pick a zombie and race til you drop. Use power-ups and shortcuts to defeat the others and become top zombie. It’s wacky Halloween racing fun.”

Role Playing

Stranded!: Price: $1.99
“Stranded! is a desert island survival game set in the Space HoRSE universe. Four passengers on a space ship were on a mission to colonize a new planet when the ship crash landed on a planet that is almost completely covered by ocean. You are the only survivor – an upper-management executive from the Decoo corporation, the company that sponsored the original mission. Now you must use your survival skills to stay alive long enough to get rescued. Build shelter, find food and drink, and collect salvageable parts from the wreckage that wash ashore. Use the parts to build a space radio and call for a rescue team to win the game. Search for natural resources, then use them to create other items using various combinations.”

Dungeons: Price: $2.99
“Scour the undead infestation in 99 dungeons, fighting in four differently themed worlds. Defeat reanimated skeletons in the fiery lava world. Try to escape being frozen solid by zombie wizards in the icy snow dungeon. The lush jungle and abandoned castle have monsters ready to raise their blades against you, the intrepid adventurer. Luckily, you have tricks of your own! Use four customizable abilities to put down your foes. Spend synergy points to decide how your magic spells evolve. Collect treasures held by the dungeon’s inhabitants to improve your chances against the relentless horde of creatures that await. At the end of each labyrinth, a ferocious battle-hardened knight awaits. You’ll need all your wits about you to defeat him and gain access to the next level. Best of all, each time you enter a dungeon it’s completely different! Create the spells you want. Wear the items you think will give you the best chance against evil. No two adventures are quite the same in Dungeons.”

Simulation

3D Rollercoaster Rush Bundle Pack: Price: $7.99
“Take a wild ride with this 3-in-1 Bundle Pack of the Original, Jurassic, and Haunted 3D Rollercoaster Rush games, an award-winning and top downloaded brand in June! This Bundle Pack is a steal with a whopping 120 different 3D action-packed rollercoaster tracks! 120 ways to feel the rush of zooming through the highest peaks, biggest drops, underwater, and haunted pumpkin patches in Career Mode! You can even go head-to-head with your friends via Bluetooth in both Jurassic and Haunted themes. Please be warned to eat lightly before playing or you may lose your lunch due to the thrill seeking INSANITY!”

Kitty BubbleWrap: Price: $0.99
“POP, POP, POP — no one can resist making those little plastic bubbles explode! Now your experience never ends with this computerized bubblewrap you can pop again and again. But wait, there’s MORE — our bubblewrap comes with a new and surprising picture revealed at the end of each sheet! With hundreds of pictures of kittens and cats, the real test is how fast you uncover them all!”

Magic Earthwand: Price: $2.99
“Enter a fairy tale world where three enchanted princes are turned into Magic EarthWands and sent into a dark world to catch love that the evil wizard Duche Baggums stole from them. Using an original 3D algorithm written expressly for the iPhone platform, the Magic EarthWand simulates the behavior physics of the classic Cup and Ball game. This charming and beautiful game takes you through the journey of the three princes of Earth in their quest to restore light to the world and return to their original selves.”

Sports

NBA Live by EA Sports: Price: $9.99
“NBA LIVE by EA SPORTS™ delivers the most realistic 5-on-5 action available for iPhone® and iPod touch®! AUTHENTIC TEAMS, REAL STARS, TRUE LEGENDS
With real NBA rosters, you can dominate the game as Dwight Howard and other All-NBA stars. Or unlock legends from favorite NBA teams like the Lakers, Celtics, Sixers, and more. Match up all 30 NBA teams in the new 82-game Season Mode. Play a casual game in Exhibition Mode, or battle all the way the Finals in the ultra-intense Playoff Mode. Control the game with a virtual analog stick. Use the accelerometer to accurately shoot free-throws. Press the clipboard to pick from multiple plays on offense or to set your strategy on defense. Stay in the zone with the beat of15 music tracks from artists like Matt and Kim, Snoop Dogg, and Xzibit. Hear legendary announcer Marv Albert accent the action as you rain 3s from downtown. Tip-off anytime, anywhere, and watch your game come to life in vivid 3D. It’s intuitive enough for the casual gamer, but delivers the authenticity that hardcore fans demand.”

Strategy

NOTHING

Trivia

SPLINTERS: Price: $0.99
“The third dimension of puzzle games is just one fingertip ahead. In SPLINTERS you have to rotate a three-dimensional point cloud. From the right perspective, the cloud merges into an image. Play against the clock to win a place in the worldwide highscore list. 30 Levels are waiting to be mastered with skill and spatial ability.
SPLINTERS takes full advantage of the graphic chip of the iPhone / iPod touch to ensure a direct and smooth gameplay.”

776 Things You Didn’t Know: Price: $0.99
“776 Things You Didn’t Know is a collection of interesting facts and trivia. Board at a bar? Killing time during class. Pull out your iPhone/iPod Touch and fire up this 776 Things You Didn’t Know. This application is a great way to start up conversation. Did you know that every time you lick a stamp you consume 1/10 of calorie? Did you know that rabbits can not vomit. There is no such thing as naturally blue food. Even blueberries are purple. 776 Things You Didn’t Know is great for random facts, curious situations, conversation starters, parties, and settling bets.”

Word

Aero Frenzy: Price: $0.99
“Aero Frenzy is an engaging word game with high-flying fun! Race your airplane to the finish line by building words from the available letters. Can you reach the finish before your opponent does? It’s high-flying fun as you race across the sky!”

Hangman Pro: Price: $0.99
“Think you have a good vocabulary? Take on your iPhone or a friend in this chalkboard classic and find out how good your vocabulary really is. Hangman Pro is the best Hangman game available for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The game faithfully captures every detail of the classic Hangman experience, right down to the chalk dust. Hangman Pro supports one player and two player gameplay, so you can let a friend choose a word or have your phone select a word from a broad range of categories.”

iPhone / iPod Touch Links

Appletell: [Macintosh/iPhone software update roundup - October 26th, 2009] [Appletell reviews Keep Defenders for iPhone, iPod touch] [First iPhone firewall soon to be in Cydia]