Games based on comic books have been almost as hit or miss as games based on movies in the past, so I think my cautious optimism for Gamelofts recently released Spider-Man: Total Mayhem [$6.99] was well deserved. Sure, there are some absolutely fantastic comic book games such as the quarter-sucking X-Men Arcade Game, and a few others over the years. Unfortunately, many fall in to the same pit that movie games fall in to where they lean far too heavily on whatever intellectual property the game is based on instead of actually having good gameplay. This is true to some extent in Spider-Man: Total Mayhem, but the whole package is comprehensive enough that it doesnt even seem to even matter.

Like all Gameloft games, many parts of Spider-Man are clearly borrowed from other titles of theirs, and Total Mayhem is no different. A lot of the combat feels like a mix of James Camerons Avatar [$4.99 / Free / Free] and Iron Man 2 [$4.99 / Free / HD]. Spider-Man is host to the same wall climbing and rail sliding sections as nearly every other 3rd person action Gameloft game, and just like almost all of their other titles, the voice work is laughable at best and face palm worthy at worst. They even managed to sandwich the upgrade system from Hero of Sparta II [$6.99 / Free] in that nearly everything in the game drops orbs of various colors which are then used to upgrade Spider-Mans various abilities.

What saves the whole game is that even though they recycle all these different elements, they seem to combine extremely well to create a game that just feels like a Spider-Man game should. There are endless thugs for you to bash, a heavy reliance on the spider sense, and a surprising array of extremely recognizable bosses that anyone who has read a Spider-Man comic or watched a Spider-Man cartoon will know. The levels included are fairly linear, but feature a great mix of fighting standard enemies, bashing mini-bosses, swinging around, climbing, and the varied events leading up to the boss encounter.

The combat system works well, and even though it feels a little button mashy at times, its a lot of fun to watch Spider-Man execute his combos filled with punching and web slinging. However, even fighting bosses is a little too easy because of how well the spider sense evasion system works. Whenever youre fighting, when theres an incoming attack youre able to slam your thumb down on a virtual button that appears just to the left of the joystick. A successful button mash kicks the game in to slow motion, and Spidey evades the incoming blow and counter-attacks. It all flows together great, and these spider sense moves usually look really cool.

Theres a surprising amount of content in Spider-Man: Total Mayhem, including a hefty amount of unlockables to boost replay value. Twelve levels are included, and in each of the levels are tokens you can pick up to unlock bonus art to look at. In addition, theres an "ultimate" difficulty to unlock as well as a boss rush mode. Theres even the black Spider-Man symbiote suit to unlock to play through the game again with Spidey powered up. Also, when fighting bosses you have opportunity to take photos of them, and these photo opportunities seem fairly easy to miss. If youre a completionist, you will be playing through Spider-Man: Total Mayhem many times.

Total Mayhem is loaded with high resolution graphics that look absolutely fantastic on the iPhone 4. Its not universal, but like most Gameloft games it wouldnt surprise me if an iPad-specific HD release was on the horizon. Gameloft did a great job of making a game that plays like a Spider-Man game needs to. The spider sense seems entirely overpowered in combat, and it wont take long for you to get tired of the spider sense quick action sequences that are liberally used in cut scenes, but beating up an endless array of nameless thugs is just as fun as it should be.

Its hard for us to say enough good things about Halfbricks Monster Dash [99�] and Ratloops Helsings Fire [99�]. One game takes the running right forever gameplay formula thats become so popular, spices it up, and adds weaponry. The other is an incredibly unique puzzle game which is unlike anything weve played on the iPhone, a claim thats almost impossible to make with puzzle games. Both games have received recent updates, so be sure to download them if you havent already.

Monster Dash now comes packed with an additional power-up for Barry to pick up, a motorcycle that makes you temporary invincible while riding it. Along with the motorcycle comes new motorcycle-related stat tracking and achievements as well. Halfbrick also made some fixes and other tweaks to the game such as fixing heart placement so theyre a little easier to pick up. Best of all, this update just shows that theyre committed to supporting the game much like Fruit Ninja [99� / HD] which has also been host to several great updates.

Helsings Fire 1.2 adds an entirely new campaign to play through, a new character, a new enemy, additional puzzle mechanics, and even a cool online system where you can solve puzzles for bounties to compete against other players online. The new campaign also comes with an additional survival arena, and you can now replay, save, and share puzzles youve played in the past.

If you still dont own these games, we have overwhelmingly positive reviews for both Monster Dash and Helsings Fire that you should check out. The two games combined would probably be the best $1.98 youll spend today, but if you already own them, be sure to mash your update button in iTunes as soon as possible.

A little over a month ago I first posted my review of Godville [Free] and was entirely amused by the concept behind the game. In essence, Godville is barely a game at all, as your interaction with the world is limited to either encouraging or punishing your hero who otherwise just goes about his business. You play as your heros god, and the "game" basically consists of you reading the events that transpire in your heros life. Depending on how you treat your hero either through punishment or encouragement, your hero will either be a cold hearted bastard killing everything in its path or a happy go lucky lover of all things living� Or something in between.

Godville is a community driven game, and once your hero reaches level 10 youre able to participate in the idea box. You can submit ideas for items, equipment, quests, enemies, combat actions, and tons of other things. Users then vote on these entries, which are eventually implemented in the game. Initially, the adventures of your hero in Godville when the game first launched were fairly repetitive, but after a month of idea box submissions from users, the game has only grown more amazing.

Not only is Godville getting better from user submissions, but the developers have been hard at work releasing updates both to the Godville client itself, and the web-based backend that powers the whole game. Special artifacts are one of my new favorite inclusions. These are new items that your character will loot from monsters or win from duels that have special abilities. Of course your hero is entirely too stupid to operate said artifacts themselves, but you can spend your god power otherwise used for punishing and encouraging to have them operate the item. These items can teleport them back to town, put a gold brick in their inventory, strike a death from their records, and many other things.

The amusing part of all this is that if you dont catch that your hero has one of these special artifacts in their inventory, chances are theyll just give it away, sell it, or otherwise get swindled out of it before you even have a chance to use it. Even if you do use it and it has some marvelous effect, theyll usually just hawk it for beer money anyway. How little control you have over your hero is part of what makes Godville so much fun for me, as my hero almost never does what I want him to do, but seemingly has developed his own fairly stupid but evil personality of his own.

Previous to the recent update, your character would randomly find themselves in duels with the heroes of other players. Now, every few hours, you can send your hero off to an arena to immediately participate in these duels. Aside from potentially humiliating another god with defeat, winning a duel also awards you all the coins that the opponent is holding along with some other swag� This is often lost anyway as your heros ego grows and he bites off more than he can chew in combat, then endlessly begs you to be resurrected.

I decided to post about this game again not only because it has had significant updates since our initial review, but also because Im downright amazed that a game that isnt really even technically a game has held my attention for so long. Checking up on what my Godville dude is doing has somehow managed to slip in between checking my email and checking my Twitter feed on my phone. Admittedly, when I first tried the game I thought Godville had sky-high novelty value, but I didnt see it lasting for me as most novelty-heavy games are only amusing until said novelty runs out.

The buckets of creativity being dumped in to Godville seems to always make loading up the game amusing. Initially I only saw Godville as a clever jab at the grind of RPGs as instead of you spending your time grinding, your hero does it for you. After spending an immense amount of time with the game over the last month, Godville seems to be the most captivating virtual per experience Ive had so far on the iPhone. If you havent yet, you really need to give this game a try to see if it grows on you just as much as it has grown on me.

Cut the Rope Already drawing comparisons to the incredibly popular Angry Birds [99�/Lite/HD], Cut the Rope is a new physics puzzle game developed by Zeptolab and being published by Chillingo. In the game, youre tasked with feeding candy to a hungry little creature named Om Nom. For whatever reason, the candy is tied up by ropes, and you must cut each rope strategically in order to let it swing and fall or sometimes rise into Om Noms mouth. Hazards like spikes and spiders look to make feeding Om Nom even more difficult than just swinging the candy to his mouth, and bubbles can grab a hold of your candy and cause it to float away.

This game trailer gives a glimpse of the gameplay on offer in Cut the Rope:

There will be 100 levels in Cut the Rope, and each will be able to be played through quickly, but all the stars on each level must be collected if you intend to get the best score. Much like Angry Birds, it will be easy to keep retrying a level until youve achieved perfection. Expect a similar three star scoring system, as well as Chillingos Crystal service for achievement and leaderboard tracking. You can join in on the discussion of the game in our forums, and expect Cut the Rope to be hitting the App Store in the coming weeks.

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Lost Company Announced at the beginning of July, Lost Company is a new tactical turn-based strategy game from developer Tome Studios. Its an online multiplayer focused game, with a single player element that is designed to teach you how to play the game before battling it out online. The style is reminiscent of Team Fortress 2 meets Final Fantasy Tactics, and the art and character design is looking very nice so far. Youll choose a team of five from the available unit types, which include a sniper, flamethrower, engineer, melee expert, and more. Winning matches unlocks new weapons, perks, and abilities for your units as you evolve and level up your persistent online profile. Matches will take place on various terrains that feature high grounds, half cover points, water, bridges, and other elements that add to the strategy of play.

This short video shows some of the tactics necessary in dealing with the terrain, and other gameplay videos can be found on the Tome Studios YouTube page:

One of the coolest things about Lost Company is that game data will be stored on the server side. The game will be universal for iPhone and iPad, and available on Mac OSX as well. So, if you start a game on your iPhone, you can then pick up in the same game where you left off later on your iPad or Mac. Lost Company is shooting for an October beta, with release to follow sometime thereafter. Once the server is up and running, you will be able to log in and create an account even before the game is available, earning an undisclosed in-game bonus for doing so. The developer is actively discussing the game with members in our forums, so be sure to check out the thread for a ton of concept art as well as details on how to log into the server when it goes live.