Gameloft's�BackStab [$6.99] was released for Xperia Play a few months back as a timed exclusive, but now that it has finally arrived on iOS as a universal app, we get to take a look at the studios take of�Assassin's Creed via�Pirates of the Carribbean. Which is to say, it's an open world action adventure game with lots of jumping around and stabbing things.

The core of the game relies on the same parkour and action mechanics of the�Assassin's Creed games on consoles. That means the bulk of the game requires you to run around a somewhat open world and jump from object to object. Control wise, you'll get a virtual thumbstick and some buttons to control sword swipes and jumping. Combat is a button mashing affair and while you get some counter moves, you don't get a block, so most battles can be won by hitting the attack button repeatedly. Touching and scrolling anywhere on the screen moves the camera around. It's tolerable, but there will be plenty of instances where you miss jumps, balk stealth sequences or attack thin air because you can't quite get the camera settled properly.

The same goes for free-running, which only works in certain contextual situations. Occasionally you have to push the jump button and sometimes the game does it for you. It's confusing at best, unpredictable and annoying at its worst and you'll die a lot if you don't get the hang of it.

You'll be doing all of this dying, running, jumping and stabbing across several locales in what can only be described as one of the most insane, brain-melting stories I've played through in a long time. From the outset, you play as Henry Blake, an officer in England's Royal Navy who ends up with a faux-hawk and a badass biker jacket after being double-crossed by a man who was apparently an old friend. This puts you into shackles, gives excuse for a daring escape and eventually provides the reasoning for the crux of the story, your revenge. To get your revenge, you'll kill chickens and rabbits to make food for a buxom lady, run errands for random people and explore a few different Caribbean Islands in a series of missions only slightly related to the main story arc.

I'm wary to "spoil" the strangeness the game takes on around its mid-point, but let's just say it pulls an�Uncharted and goes off the rails of reality and spills into something totally different. This wouldn't be a big deal if it made a lick of sense, but the game seems to push you to want revenge, not to run around caves searching out different artifacts to reverse an infection. The world simply doesn't justify the twist, but it's a point only a few will likely quibble with.

As far as the open-world is concerned, it's a mix between�Assassin's Creed and�Red Dead Redemption, in that you'll be running around and taking on missions from random people, saving people from being killed by the Spanish and picking flowers. The kitchen sink approach is admirable, but the game is so buggy it's difficult to really dig into. If you can deal with it, there is tons of content to explore, even if it's all a bit familiar. You can play through the main storyline in about four or five hours, but if you explore the extra missions and side stuff, there is plenty of gameplay to be had.

The engine is likely the place to put the blame for the bugs. Characters will fall through the ground, get stuck in jumping loops or disappear altogether. Design wise, several of the NPCs seem pulled directly from�Assassins Creed II, but the low polygon count and often humorous animation means you'll never really mistake this for anything but a mobile game. While those are minor annoyances and are mostly expected in open world games, they happen far more than they should and even worse, happen to your own character sometimes. The game does a decent job of magically pulling you out of stuck corners, but I had to restart a few times after getting trapped on a ledge or in a wall.

That said,�BackStab runs well on the iPad and only occasionally chugs on an iPhone 3GS. Control-wise, it's far better suited for the iPad's bigger screen and you'll likely be accidently touching buttons far more often on an iPhone. The world looks great on all of the devices, even if the characters don't.

The characters are fully voiced, but the dialogue isn't particularly noteworthy and the voice acting, while an admirable inclusion, doesn't really add to the experience. For their part, the sound effects and music do a good job of sounding like what they're supposed to, but don't plan on being blown away by the sound design or the acting. It's better than previous Gameloft titles, but still has a lot of room to grow.

If you've been desperately craving an�Assassin's Creed game set in an 18th Century pirate wonderland to play on the go, this will do the trick, but don't expect too much from it. If you can deal with all the bugs, you'll certainly be taken on a bizarre ride and you'll have a ton of stuff to do in the world.

P1XL Games, who brought us RPG Quest: Minimae [App Store], has just released an original collection of simple, C64-styled retro games entitled P1XL Party [App Store] � and it's a collection that retro gamers won't want to miss. The initial release brings three titles � Splatform, Wandererz, and Marz � but there's more on the way in free updates to come.

The first game on the list, Splatform, can best be described to readers as a side-scrolling take on Doodle Jump / Papi Jump � although it preceded both titles by years. It is a perfect recreation of the 2002 C64 title of the same name, 1st place winner of that year's Mimigame Programming Competition. In the iOS version, you tilt to send your bouncing ball from platform to platform in a quest for the greatest distance and highest score.

Wandererz is a mini-RPG, retro styled (of course), that puts you on a pixellated quest to rescue the seven lost daughters of the king. Your mission is to find the daughters, bring them back to the castle, and contend with the ghoulish creatures wandering the land along the way. There are potions, weapons, armor, treasure chests, dangerous swamps, and encroaching nightfall. It's a great little RPG experience packaged up for quick, mobile play sessions.

Marz is something akin to Space Invaders, but in reverse. You are in control of a space craft in a decaying planetary orbit. You will soon land, but you must first clear the surface of obstacles to avoid a crash. This involves precise timing and adaptation to your dwindling height from the surface. Once all the obstacles are cleared, it's thumbs up and you're planted firmly on the alien surface. A C64 color palette brings the nostalgia.

The developers indicate that coming titles in this collection include puzzle games, strategy games, racing games, and more. I'm pretty anxious to see where this goes. If you dig the retro, don't miss P1XL Party [App Store].

P1XL Games was formed in 2009 by Robin Harbron who worked with Jerri Ellsworth to bring the C64 DTV to market, and designer Sam Washburn. Harbron made the jump from Nintendo DS to iOS development in late 2008.

If you enjoy arcade kart-racing games, do yourself a favor and download Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing�[$1.99]�by Sega. �There's currently an introductory price of $1.99 which ends on June 25th, when it increases to $4.99.�The game is universal, so it runs on iPad and iPhone. The console version came out last year, so you may already know this game involves racing, drifting around corners and shooting opponents. It's a playful light-hearted game, rather than a racing simulation and the characters and courses are based on Sonic and Sega game-worlds.�Seriously, if you like Kart racers, just go download it.

Need some more convincing? Alright.

This game opens with a fan service filled animated intro to introduce the Sega characters, after which you create a Sega driving license for yourself by choosing your name, character and flag. You can create multiple drivers licenses, allowing more than one user to have a profile for the game. As you race, "Sega Miles" are added to your license, which help you to unlock courses or characters. You get to choose which order you unlock the levels or characters in. Right from the start, you'll be impressed with the way this game is presented. Even the menu systems look great.�

And there's plenty of gameplay options. There are four single player modes, including 25 missions to unlock, 3 grand prix cups to win (with easy, medium and hard modes), plus single race and time trial modes. For 'single race' you can specify the number of racers, laps, difficulty and whether power-up items and gimmicks appear. For 'Time trial' there are ghost racers to beat.�But here's�the best part: � there's also multiplayer modes. You can race or battle against one friend locally via bluetooth, or as four friends online. A battle involves finding weapons and eliminating opponents by attacking them three times.�Many games with online multiplayer initially have trouble with having a player base to be matched with for online games, but on day one, in my first attempt, I joined a multi-player quick-match within seconds.

Let's examine the characters and courses. The 10 Sega characters in this game include names like: Sonic, Tails, Dr Eggman, and Ryo Hazuki. Each has their own vehicle with different attributes for speed, acceleration, handling and turbo. The vehicles include car, monster truck, bike, plane and even a banana vehicle. There's enough variations for you to pick a favorite vehicle which matches your preferred handling preferences. There are 15 courses, such as Whale Lagoon, Icicle Valley, Lava Lair and the Sewers. The tracks have turbo patches on the ground and curved loop-the-loop tracks, which will be familiar to anyone who played Sonic the Hedgehog.��There's jumps and drops too, but If you fly off the edge of a cliff, you're teleported back to the track.�Each course is detailed and quite distinct from the others, with lovely HD graphics, for example Whale Lagoon features waterfalls, split tracks and a whale/shark/dolphin/fish-like thing jumps out of the water.�

Once you've got a license, a tutorial is provided, to explain the controls. There's two�control schemes available� The default uses auto-acceleration, with tilt movements to steer, a brake button which reverses (quite quickly) when held down and the frequently used "drift" button for sliding around corners. The alternate scheme uses touch controls for steering, but instead of left and right buttons, there's a slider. Personally, I'm not a fan of slider controls, so I preferred the tilting option. There's a setting for "Steering Assist" which the pros may want to turn off and tilt-sensitivity can also be tweaked in the settings.

The racing gameplay is build heavily upon the idea of "drifting" around corners. The more you drift, the bigger the speed boost you receive, which also helps to smash through obstacles on the track. There's plenty of power-up capsules to collect, such as turbo, mines, shield, the mega-horn, heat-seeking rockets and 'K.O gloves' which bounce of the walls and hopefully hit your opponent. Some of the items are more comical, such as a power-up which transforms your vehicle into a large rolling ball, crushing other vehicles, or the rainbow item which causes your opposition (or you) to be temporarily blinded by beautiful, yet track-obscuring, colors.��Each Sega character also has a special "all-star move" to unlock.�

With all these features,�Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing�is an easy game to recommend and it's likely to climb the charts. People are loving it in the forums, where it's already being crowned by forum members as the best kart-racing game on the App Store. �Nice work Sega… Now, how about those emulator games?