castlestorm-free-to-siege_726232588_ipad_03It is another crazy busy week of new iOS releases, so if you ran out of money last week, don’t worry, I’m going to start with some great looking freebies.

If you are lucky enough to still have some App Store credit to spend after last week’s onslaught, then there are plenty of tempting paid titles releasing tonight as well.

CastleStorm is a big departure from Zen Studios’ usual pinball wizardry, however this genre-mashing destruction / defense game is loads of fun to play. Select your hero and join a campaign which takes you through a varied set of levels where you might have to fend off attackers for a specific time, take down an enemy castle or manually control your hero in battle, all while meeting certain performance-based star goals. There is a lot going on in this game, including a nice collection of unlockable and upgradable weapons, spells and troops, and while free-to-play, this is plenty of content that wont cost you a shilling. I’ve been playing on an off for a few days now (prior to release) and I have yet to hit a pay-wall. I highly recommend downloading this one!

I suspect many of you will “flip” for this next one…Noodlecake Studios along with developer Spokko are spinning off their mega-hit Zombie Road Trip into a sequel called Zombie Road Trip Trials. Still free-to-play (optional IAPs are available to increase the rate at which players upgrade and advance), this new Zombie Road Trippin’ adventure “swaps the endless driver genre for a level/challenge based trials game” and adds a cool sounding new turn-based multiplayer mode, allowing players to compete with their friends.

mlb-perfect-inning_819833813_ipad_02.jpgWith baseball season already in full swing (I’m pretty punny tonight), it is the ideal time for GAMEVIL to launch MLB Perfect Inning. Draft your favorite Major League players from 30 MLB licensed teams and 215 distinctly modeled players to build the ultimate baseball team. Train, trade, level up and compete in everything from Batting Practice to the Post Season. There multiple game modes to satisfy individual play styles and make this mobile-exclusive easy and fun to play.

After a soft-launch in Canada, SEGA is releasing their Japanese mobile hit, Dragon Coins worldwide tonight. A peculiar mix of coin-dozer, RPG and monster (dragons in this case) collector / battler. “Players must master the drop by strategically placing coins, building combos, charging monster attacks and leveling up their dragon army.” This looks one mash-up that might just be crazy enough to work.

After a bit of a break from the App Store, Endless Wave Software, the team who gave us the awesome and unfortunately underrated Par Out Golf (seriously…download it now!) are back with a fun little brain burner…Simply Twisted. You must rotate a series of hexagonal tiles such that the correct pathways are illuminated to connect the dots and pass through each of the tiles containing the stars. It sounds easy enough, but some of the puzzles are pretty devious.

dextris_844153422_ipad_02.jpgIf you are a fan of dexterity and reflex games then you’ll definitely want to check out Chaotic Box’s latest offering, dEXTRIS. Players must try to quickly dodge an endless rush of spikes and obstacles using a simple tapping control scheme. Tap and hold on the right side of the screen for your two magnets to go to the right side of the screen, tap and hold on the left for them to go to the left. Hold both sides of the screen for one to go to the left and one to the right (avoiding center obstacles) or release for both to snap back to the middle to avoid obstacles on the outer edges. dEXTRIS is really fast and punishing, so if you like a challenge you should certainly check this one out.

With Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures’ new GODZILLA motion picture coming out on May 16th, it only makes sense that we’d get a movie tie-in game. Godzilla: Strike Zone lets fans “experience the breathtaking high-altitude sky jump from the movie as you air-drop into a devastated San Francisco and embark on a series of first-person rescue missions to evacuate survivors before it’s too late.” The graphics look pretty decent, so I’ll prob give this one a download and check it out after I’ve seen the film.

Next up, from the creator of Daddy Was A Thief, we have Aliens Drive Me Crazy, another game that involves a lot of smashing. Jump in your car and blast your way through the city to reach an alien’s base and then defeat the invaders to unlock more powerful weapons, cars and power-ups as you try the save Earth.

2-bit-cowboy_850089184_ipad_02.jpgCrescent Moon Games gets all retro this week, with the (original) Gameboy-inspired Western action platformer, 2-bit Cowboy. With a classic look and feel, huge levels to explore, loads of unlockable cowboy (and cowgirl) costumes and game controller support, I must admit, I’m pretty excited to try this one, it really looks like an authentic classic Gameboy title.

Fans of JRPG-style games (of which I am not) may want to check out TouchMint’s new medieval fantasy-themed game Adventure To Fate : A Quest To The Core JRPG. It features 5 character classes, 5 races, a leveling system that goes up to 30 levels and over 700 rooms to explore. The game is on sale for 33% off for launch.

Another studio which we haven’t heard from in a while is Elevate Entertainment, who were responsible for some casual dexterity games I rather enjoyed back in the day including Knife Toss Float . This week they launch a rhythm game called Lumena which involves flinging a colored disc toward a matching colored light. While the instructions sound simple enough, I’ve been told that the game is quite difficult. So once again, if you like a challenge, this one may be for you.

Several years back I reviewed the jack of all trades PDF reader app, GoodReader. Since then a number of other PDF reader apps have hit the App Store, but GoodReader has remained on my iPad. After years of free updates, Good.iWare is launching a brand-new reincarnation of the app called GoodReader 4. As it is a new app, this will be a paid upgrade for existing users, however, for the first time, GoodReader will FINALLY be a universal app! (hallelujah) GoodReader 4 will be priced at just $2.99 for a limited time to give existing users a chance to upgrade at a discount. With the new version comes new features which the developers claim will give users “the ability to do virtually anything they’d like with documents on an iPhone or iPad”. They can now insert blank pages for notes and drawings, rearrange pages in a document, rotate individual pages – or even all of them, delete any pages from a document, extract individual pages as separate files, and split PDF files into halves, email individual pages rather than the entire document and append pages from other PDF files. The new version also comes with a Migration Assistant to allow users to migrate all files and settings from an older version into GoodReader 4 with a single tap of a button. If you are in need of a robust, universal, PDF reader app, I’d recommend jumping on this one while it is still on sale.

peepo-unfinished-story_862452203_ipad_02.jpgIf you have younger kids, then you’ll definitely want to check out this next title from the talented folks at SlimCricket. Peepo and the Unfinished Story is a entertaining interactive book for 4 to 10 year-olds that follows the adventures of Peepo the elf as he discovers that he is a character in a story and then (with your kids’ help) tries to fix the mistakes and finish the story properly. There are some clever interactive bits and my daughters (ages 4.5 and 7) have been really enjoying this one. Peepo is available at a special $1.99 launch price (50%) off through Saturday night so definitely pick it up before then.

Bulkypix returns this week, publishing the nearly Kickstarted atmospheric running game Dark Lands, which mixes in a hack and slash combat element to the game as you run and fight your way through hordes of enemies. The premise sounds a bit like God of Blades, which I enjoyed, so I’m curious to see how this one plays and if the combat mechanic helps elevate it out of the somewhat over-saturated runner genre.

last-inua-an-arctic-adventure_868259619_ipad_02.jpgQuite likely the paid title I’m most interested in tonight is Last Inua – An Arctic Adventure, developed by Glowforth Game Studio. It is a gorgeous looking platform adventure game centered around the bond between an Inuit father and (gifted) son as they embark on an “epic quest for survival against the elements.” Players control both characters, each with their own unique abilities; the father is very strong, while the son has supernatural abilities. The artwork looks really nice, just check out the trailer on the third page of this post.

Finally, we have another entry in the Warhammer 40,000 franchise, Warhammer 40,000: Carnage. Developed by Roadhouse Games and based in the iconic Warhammer 40,000 universe, you are a Space Marine armed with your Boltgun and Chainsword and tossed in the middle of ‘chaotic destruction’ in this fast-paced action side-scroller with dynamic environments. There are more than 50 levels across 2 maps with 6 more maps on the way. The graphics look nice and gameplay I’m not really sure what this means, but the App Store description says “The Founders’ First Blood Edition will be available for a limited time.” So I guess if this one interests you…buy it now.

Update: We received the following information regarding the The Founders’ First Blood Edition from Roadhouse Interactive’s President, Tarrnie Williams:

“The first blood edition is packed full of as many levels and weapons as we could cram in there. We will have more ‘campaign packs’ continuing the story arc and those who buy the First Blood edition won’t ever have to pay for any additional campaign packs.

We’ve had a look at other great premium games and think that the value and depth of content is phenomenal for $6.99. It compares to games we’ve seen at a lot higher price point.

Effectively the First Blood edition is the big value pack for big fans of Warhammer 40k.”

And that will do it for this week.
Please let us know if we missed any must-have titles in the comments section below.





Go to the second and third pages of this post to watch the trailers for these games.

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