Apple App Store iPad gaming update for the week of April 19 – April 25, 2010

The Apple App Store gaming update is Gamertell’s weekly look at the previous week’s iPad 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 been a slow week for the iPad but that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy some games like The Pinball HD.

What’s Free

WarChess HD
“WarChess is an action packed 3D interpretation of the game of chess, with the use of animation and special fx to visualize the battle of various chess pieces. Combining powerful 3D graphics, animated battle sequences, multiple themes and a speed chess mode, it promises to deliver the ultimate interactive chess experience.”

Touch Boards for iPad Classic Board Games
“Welcome to your most stylish replacement of the traditional board game box. It requires 2 players to play the 3 games (Chess, Go or Checkers). Get Checkers for Free. Buy Chess and Go in the app for an introduction price. The realistic boards and pieces will make the game experience as real as possible. Touch, slide, make moves. The basic idea is to grab a friend and play the board games TOGETHER. Touch Board gives the boards and the pieces.Yes, you need a second person to play. No playing against the computer here! Instructions about the games explain how to play Chess, Go or Checkers. Now you can take your classic box of board games with you on the road, to the park, or play it at home with family and friends. No lost pieces. No mess after the car has hit a pot whole. Touch Boards looks great on the coffee table. It’s a “must have” app for the iPad that demonstrates how the device is for more than just one person. Touch Boards for iPad brings people together!”

Pegs HD Lite
“Peg for iPad is a game where to try to reduce the number of pegs on the screen by jumping pegs one over another. The aim of the game is to have as less as possible pegs on screen. There can be one more more moves sometimes, you might have to select which move you would prefer.”

ReversiLite For iPad
“Reversi is a board strategy game with 8 rows and 8 columns and a set of black and white pieces for each side. The goal for each player is to make pieces of their color constitute a majority of the pieces on the board at the end of the game, by turning over as many of their opponent’s pieces as possible. You play a piece by touching on an unoccupied square. This puts one of your pieces into that square. The idea is to trap one or more opponents pieces between two of your pieces. Those opponents pieces then change color to become your pieces. If you cant move, your opponent gets to move again. When both you and your opponent cannot play another piece, or if every square on the board is filled, the game is over. You count up the number of black pieces and the number of white pieces and the winner is the one with the most pieces. (The ipad counts for you automatically.)”

Concentration Classic
“concentration, the classic playing card game.”

GameRoom
“Never worry about losing pieces again! GameRoom is the best way to play board games with your friends anywhere you go. Just pick a game from the library and start playing! We make each game as intuitive to play as possible. Move any piece by tapping and dragging it. Turn on Player Assist options, and GameRoom handles common tasks like flipping Reversi pieces and clearing jumped checkers for you. Don’t know how to play a game? GameRoom includes complete but concise rules for every game we can think of so that you can learn new games anytime, anywhere. Don’t see the game you want in the library yet? Use the Custom Game option to build your own board and pick your own pieces. Don’t agree with our game rules? Turn off Player Assist, and you can move everything freely around the board. The free introductory version of GameRoom contains rules, pieces, and boards for English Checkers and Reversi, plus a Custom Game mode that lets you modify the pieces and boards from these games to make your own. We’re adding new boards and rules every couple weeks, and the app’s built-in news feed will inform you when updates and new gamesets are available through the App Store.”

Construction Zone HD Lite
“This is a classic physics based puzzle game. Build your contraptions, test, and complete a variety of challenges.”

Baby Farm Lite – Animal Sounds
“To make all people happy and entertained! Explore farm animal sounds. Enjoy!”

What’s New

Action

Super Sniper 2 HD: Price: $0.99
“LAUNCH SPECIAL 80% off! This is the iPad version of the smash hit SUPER SNIPER 2. Now in 3D and HD!
Terrorists have taken over the city, armed with machine guns, bombs capable of taking out entire buildings, choppers to supply more terrorists and more! You are the Super Sniper, best there is and it’s your job to take these terrorists down….”

James Cameron’s Avatar for iPad: Price: $9.99
“Enter the beautiful and dangerous world of James Cameron’s Avatar. Go deeper into Pandora than you ever thought possible with HD graphics that bring the war between humans and Na’vi to life on your iPad. Embark on a new, original journey of redemption and discovery two decades prior to the film’s events. As the first experimental avatar, experience the amazing powers your new body bestows. But will you use those powers to save the Na’vi, or will you work with the humans to destroy their world?”

Adventure

Nitro Bae in DoodleLand HD: Price: $1.99
“I’m Nitro Bae, I like to stomp on DoodleBugs and destroy blocks with my hardhat. Yesterday my doodle friends disappeared and I’m on a quest to find them.”

Herod’s Lost Tomb for iPad: Price: $4.99
“Explore the ancient biblical world, uncover hidden archeological clues and help researchers solve the mystery of Herod’s Lost Tomb in this hidden object game from National Geographic. Based on a major television event, Herod’s Lost Tomb allows players to join archeologists as they excavate masterpieces of ancient architecture and examine clues that reveal the final resting places of one of the Bible’s most infamous characters. Using classic hidden object gameplay and controls designed specifically for the iPad, players must explore a variety of environments and find the hidden items in each location. Can you find the clues and uncover the grave? Find out in Herod’s Lost Tomb from National Geographic! The game consists of 16 environments, and 5 mini-games and a iPad exclusive image gallery featuring National Geographic’s stunning and world-famous photography.”

Arcade

Barney In Chocoland HD: Price: $0.99
“It’s time to test your arcade skills of speed, quickness and reaction! Special offer at 66% off for limited time only! You are controlling Barney. Chocolates are falling down, and you need to catch and insert them into the barrels. When you miss a chocolate, it is eaten by Coco. 3 misses and the game ends. There are power-ups, which will give you some additional bonuses like clearing a miss, boosting speed etc.”

iSandcastle for iPad: Price: $1.99
“The No.1 Battle Game.
You are the ruler of a Sand Castle and your mission is to protect your kingdom against enemy battleships. Shoot with your cannon and sunk all ships in each battle before they destroy your Sand Castle.”

Castle Bash: Price: $2.99
“On the outer far edge of space lies the charred black planet they call… “Bash-8″. Here, four mighty kings fight each other for the throne. Waging epic battles for centuries over who would be ruler, each built a fortress more massive than the next. Their fear of each other drove them to build ever more deadly weapons until one of them unleashed an out-of-control raging fireball upon the land, destroying everything in its path. The fireball raged on for years, leaving the planet a scorched black wasteland and rendering all of its inhabitants extinct. Now, the four Kings are left to defend their mighty castles from the fireball of death that would most certainly destroy them.”

iCopter HD: Price: $1.99
“The best Copter game for the iPhone and iPod is now here in HD! NEW TO HD: We took advantage of the iPad’s giant screen to allow you to play head-to-head directly against a friend. Pilot your helicopter through a treacherous cave, avoiding obstacles in your way. Simply tap to fly up, and release to let gravity take the copter down. If you liked iCopter FREE, you’re going to love Copter HD!”

The Pinball HD: Price: $2.99
“The Pinball HD – this game will change you conception of pinball on iPad. Each table – WILD WEST, THE DEEP and JUNGLE STYLE – is a masterpiece, every part of it is a separate mechanism and you will be stunned by the level of realism, when you will see how it all works together. This is REAL pinball simulator with stunning 3D graphics.”

Brick Breaker!: Price: $0.99
“Brick Breaker…….. is a very interactive and addictive game. As you progress with the game by removing the bricks, it becomes more exciting. It will act as your favorite pass time, while traveling or when you are getting bored.”

iDuck Hunt HD: Price: $2.99
“You need to kill as many ducks as you can, try to shoot bonus. Level ends after 60 seconds.”

Board

Checkers Premium HD: Price: $0.99
“The best-selling iPhone checkers application is now available for the iPad! If you’re looking for a killer Checkers app at a reasonable price, this app is for you. Checkers Premium HD is the premier checkers application for the iPad. Checkers Premium HD supports both 1 player and 2 player gameplay, so you can play against friends or test your skills against a challenging computer opponent.”

Card

iFreeCell: Price: $0.99
“Simple and intuitive: double tap to move cards up to free cells, drag and drop cards. 100% ad free. Just play without being bothered by annoying ads. Undo (Unlimited!!!). You can also restart the same deal if you get stuck. Supports both landscape and portrait modes.”

Klondike for iPad (Better one): Price: $0.99
“Klondike iPad is very famous game. You may already know lot about game play or if you don’t know, follow instructions as below. You will love it.”

Casino

NOTHING

Dice

NOTHING

Educational

ABCs iStickerBook Adventure: Price: $0.99
“It’s Your ABCs. It’s a book, it’s a stickerbook, it’s an iStickerBook. Kids learn the ABCs by dragging letters and images onto the stickerbook. When they touch the image, the item’s name is said and a sound effect is played for most items. It’s a fun way for kids to learn their ABCs.”

Family

NOTHING

Music

Tune Runner HD: Price: $3.99
“If you can draw a shape, you already know how to play! Using a single finger, guide Groov-EE the dancing boom-box through the songs in your music library. Trace obstacles to turn them into musical energy that keeps Groov-EE dancing! Every song creates a fun level with its own worldwide scoreboard. Because each song is its own unique level, you can compete with anyone in the world, anytime, anywhere. Use your favorite track or try your hand playing the most popular songs on Tune Runner’s Hot Tunes chart for an extra challenge! Post your highest overall score to OpenFeint leader boards.”

Puzzle

PowerUp! HD: Price: $0.99
“PowerUp is a very simple, yet addictive puzzler. The instructions are simple — to solve the puzzle, all you have to do is rotate the tiles on the board. Your goal is to connect every tile on the board to the power source in the center. You’ll notice the tiles not connected to the power source are grey. This is one of those puzzles which is easy to learn but take ages to master. PowerUp generates random puzzles on the fly for you to create a seemingly infinite variety. Don’t worry, puzzles are generated by first creating a solution and then messing the tiles up for you to play. That guarantees that all puzzles presented to you have at least one solution.”

slidR HD: Price: $0.99
“The slidR HD is a cool puzzle game. Use your finger to slide the shuffled segments of the selected picture. slidR HD is a puzzle game. The goal is to piece together the segments by sliding them into order using the gap. Multiple objects can be moved simoultaniously. There are 27 beautiful pictures to choose from. By pressing the Continue button in the main menu, you may continue the previously started game. Attention! After modifying the game settings, it is still possible to continue the game, but in this case the interrupted game setup remains unchanged. The new options will be activated in case of starting a new game. To see the picture to be pieced press Pause.”

Sudoku! HD for iPad: Price: $1.99
“Comes with 20,000 Sudoku puzzles for the iPad ranging in 5 difficulties from Easy to Devilish to keep you entertained for hundred hours. Unlimited Undo and redo. 5 Different Difficulties – 4,000 puzzles in each difficulties ranging from Easy to Devilish. Save and Resume. Online Best Time – Includes both local device and global best time so you can compete with you family and friends all around the globe. Includes Sound effect and game Music – That will keep you relax while solving your puzzles. Automatic Notes – If you don’t want to note the puzzle yourself, the game includes a automatic feature that will create notes for the entire board for you. Hint – Don’t worry if you get stuck on a puzzle. You have 3 hints to help you on each puzzle! Puzzle Validation – Check if the numbers you have added are correct. Game Customization – Includes option to turn on or off game helping functions such as Show Repeated numbers, Use Smart Buttons which will show number that are still valid and Use Smart Note unhighlight invalid notes in each cell.”

Makeout Mania HD: Price: $2.99
“This chain-reaction puzzler puts you in the shoes of a cupid playing match maker! As the God of Love and Mischief, you’ll shoot unsuspecting students with your magic love arrows and watch them grab somebody for a kiss! It’s up to you to help kids find love and avoid the hall monitors. Play through 28 levels of frenzy inducing puzzles and then graduate to Mania Mode where you can compete with friends on Twitter. But be careful – that makeout frenzy spreads quickly! High School has never been this much fun!”

Line 5: Price: $0.99
“Line5 is a simple yet addictive game where you have to create lines of similarly colored marbles by moving them around the board. Of course there is a catch. You can move a marble anywhere one the game surface as long as there is a clear vertical and/or horizontal path between where it is and where you want it to go – there is no jumping in Line5. However, you will also have to face more trouble. Each time you move a marble without creating a line, more marbles will appear on the board. When you do manage to line up 5 marbles (vertically, horizontally or diagonally), that cluster will disappear and you will score points. Note that you can get more points by creating longer lines, so plan carefully. You will find 5 levels of play ranging from trivial to brutally hard.”

Maze Raider HD: Price: $2.99
“Maze Raider HD for the iPad! This is the iPad version of the highly popular iPhone game. Maze Raider HD is simple to understand, but is also challenging, fun, and addicting. Use the touch screen to navigate yourself through a maze with obstacles such as land mines, sentries, and gates. Get special powers and points by landing on specific places. Set your own mines to kill the sentries or cause a chain reaction of landmine explosions. After you finish a maze, move up through an infinite number of levels. All of the mazes are programmatically generated at random so that each time you play, it is a different game. There is a 2-player game, which you can play with a friend using a Bluetooth connection. In this game, race to get to your opponent’s base before they get to yours while setting your own mines for your opponent. Since it is Bluetooth based, you don’t need to have a network connection and you can play anywhere like in a car. Practice levels before you get to them in the actual game. The practice mode also has an option for maze only which allows you to do an unlimited number of programmatically generated simple mazes with no obstacles.”

Racing

NOTHING

Role Playing

NOTHING

Simulation

NOTHING

Sports

Simple Hockey: Price: $0.99
“Simple Hockey is amazing air hockey game that needs no introduction! Just start the game and let the fun begin! Simple Hockey features extremely intuitive interface which puts you on the playing board the moment you start the game. No splash screens, no nasty loadings. Just instantaneous fun!”

Cricket T20 Fever HD: Price: $3.99
“Cricket T20 Fever HD is the most complete cricket game for your iPad.You can play in a variety of modes including tournaments, ODIs, T20 Matches and the exciting Powerplay style match.Upload your scores and challenge your friends to beat your highscore.Connect to Facebook and make your friends a part of your team in a ‘Facebook Match’.Post to Facebook and let your friends see your achievements.”

Strategy

Space Station: Frontier HD: Price: $4.99
“As overseer of a deep space mining operation you’d expect it to be a peaceful job. No such luck with a mysterious alien race violently contesting your claim to the territory!
Harvest precious energy, fortify your station, build up your firepower to defend humanity’s domain on this new frontier!”

Trivia

NOTHING

Word

Jirbo WordSearch HD Premium: Price: $1.99
“Take advantage of the huge touch screen to enjoy hours of relaxing fun. No timers or scores to pressure you. Playable in landscape mode with a word list or in portrait with the list hidden for an extra challenge. Click on words to see their definitions. You’ll never see the same puzzle twice!”

iWordSearch3: Price: $1.99
“Word Search #3 is the first of several in the series, is a fun and exciting game of finding words amongst scrambled characters. Locate the word in the grid and then selecting by touching the screen and dragging from the first to last character. Do it in a timely manner to try and get the fastest time.”

Word Adventure 01 for iPad: Price: $2.99
“The wait is finally over! Word Adventure 01 for iPad is the ULTIMATE crossword game! This revolutionary crossword game is the FIRST in bringing animated entertainment to your crossword gaming experience. Besides a super-rich set of features, there are 30 FUN and entertaining Thomas Joseph crossword puzzles included in this game. All kinds of FUN animations are displayed along the way. What you get to see depends on how well you do and how many games you have completed. Your experiences are truly unique to you, as no two players will have the same experiences! You will never worry about getting stuck! You can get hints, send tweets for help, and search the Internet without even leaving the game! If you run out of all the options, you know you can always cheat as a last resort ”

iPad Links of the Week

AppleTell: [iPad: Joys after my second week of use] [Free apps roundup for April 23rd, 2010] [Mac, iPhone, iPod and iPad product news - April 22, 2010] [Appletell reviews iDisplay for iPhone and iPad] [Mac, iPhone, iPod and iPad product news - April 21, 2010]