On this week's bonus edition of The TouchArcade Show, Eli and I spit some mad game at Retro Dreamer's Gavin Bowman. At the top of the interview we really dig into his studio's latest game, Velocispider [$.99 / Free], but we also take the time to discuss Bowman's past, what Retro Dreamer is all about, the iCade, and the free to play model.

If you'd like to download the show, go ahead and do so via the link at the bottom. Heck, you can even stream it from there, too. If you'd prefer to get these episodes the second we can upload them, go ahead and subscribe to us on iTunes and the Zune. That's what all the cool kids do. Like, the really cool kids.

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iTunes Link: The TouchArcade Show
Zune Marketplace: TouchArcade.com Podcasts
RSS Feed: The TouchArcade Show
Direct Link: TouchArcadeShow-Bonus-011.mp3, 19MB

Of course, we'll be back in your earholes later this week with another normal episode of TAS. Fill free to shoot us a line: podcast@toucharcade.com.

Oh also, that radical new album art up there? That's courtesy of Mountain Sheep's Timo Vihola who totally went out of his way to whip it up for us. If you haven't yet, check out his games: Minigore [99� / HD] and Death Rally [99�] � Two titles you should totally have on your phone, and if you don't, you should really fix that.

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I had my greasy fingers all over Halfbrick's upcoming Jetpack Joyride in our hands-on preview last week, and one thing I neglected to mention something that got my goat playing over the weekend: The game itself starts in a really weird way. There's an explosion, and suddenly you're flying through this underground lair. Well, Halfbrick's trailer for the game that was released today fills in any potential plot holes by showing what happens just before:

I suppose the only question that remains now is where does Jetpack Joyride land in the life of Barry Steakfries? Presumably he just got the machine gun jetpack now, making Monster Dash a sequel of sorts? Maybe? But then where does Age of Zombies fit in? A better question is, what is wrong with me that I think about these things?!

Jetpack Joyride will be out this Thursday, and you better believe we'll have a review. Spoilers: It's great.

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It seems like physics-based puzzlers are always popular with fans of iOS games, but the genre is undoubtedly saturated. Mikrotie's take on it is prettier than most � in fact, graphics are likely to be the first thing to suck you into Treemaker [$0.99], which has a modern, atmospheric look to it that certainly is easy on the eyes. I admit that I am totally a sucker for extremely pretty games, so I was interested to see if Treemaker could offer great gameplay to accompany its uncommonly good looks.

Some iOS games like to supply a story, but Treemaker doesn't bother, and it's just as well. You play a silent, smiling character who uses frondlike arms to swing from platform to platform in each level, collecting orbs,setting smaller creatures free as you go and planting trees in the process. The levels are very short ( I admit I would have enjoyed it if they were longer), and each gives you the opportunity to score one, two or three stars, depending on how you play the level. You have an unlimited number of connections at your disposal when it comes to casting your branchy arms about, but only certain connections that allow you to score three stars in each level, so there is replay value in figuring out the best way to play each level.

Touch controls are very responsive, but getting the swing of things (yeah, I went there) takes some practice if you don't have a lot of experience with physics-based titles. The movement is pitch perfect, and after you learn to control the treemaker, you'll be swinging him all over the place to land on the platforms you want. You can also pinch the screen to zoom in or out, which makes it easier for you to plan your next move rather than go sailing of finto the abyss.

While Treemaker is a lot of fun to play and really lovely to look at, I have to admit that I was disappointed with the lack of variety when it came to the appearance of the levels. The level design is great as far as gameplay goes, but the look of the levels only changes by way of color, and there are only a total of four platforms in the game to land on. Some new elements are introduced as you progress, such as exploding blocks and spring blocks, but the game feels like it could have benefitted from a wider variety of things to do.

The other letdown in Treemaker is that it has absolutely no online compatibility, so you can't share your scores with friends with GameCenter or any other similar service. Considering the scoring aspect, I think this would have made it more fun. The game itself has a great vibe, and I enjoyed my time with it, but it feels like the ball was dropped when it came to the social elements that people seem to enjoy in iOS titles. Achievements would have been great oto and given the game more of a replay value. In other words, what's there is great, but if you play these types of games often, you can't help but see the missed opportunities that feel as if they should have been fleshed out.

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I'm kind of at a loss as to what to do with EA's Madden 12 [$6.99 / HD]. I mean, a game like Madden we sort of need to review, but I've spent a considerable amount of time with the game and honestly couldn't even say what's different between Madden 11 and Madden 12 aside from adding one more to the numerical suffix, redesigning some menus, and updating the roster. So, I've just updated our Madden 11 review:

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The Madden series hardly needs an introduction, as football player turned coach turned commentator John Madden has had his name on football games for the better part of 20 years now. On home consoles, it has become tradition for EA to release a new Madden game each year with updated rosters, a few new features, and other various tweaks. As of tonight, the second third yearly installment of the Madden series has arrived for the iPhone.

Last year Two years ago we took a close look at Madden NFL 10 and thought it was a really great football game for the iPhone. Madden '10 came loaded with all the licensed players, stadiums, logos, and everything else you'd expect of a Madden game along with game modes ranging from single exhibition games to full seasons. The two hip new features of Madden NFL 10 for the iPhone were hot routes allowing players to draw on the screen to control players, and "action control time" which switched the game to slow motion mode allowing for precise maneuvers with the virtual controls.

There wasn't much to complain about with last year's two years ago's Madden, which really left me wondering what EA was going to include in this year's release to up the ante. The preview we got revealed substantial graphical upgrades including Retina Display support, but it wasn't until I got to spend more time with the game today that I realized just how much more fun the other new features made playing Madden NFL 11 12.

In the interest of full disclosure, I'm not a sports person by any means. I don't remember the last time I watched anything more than the Super Bowl on TV, and the only sporting events I've attended have been the result of friends with extra tickets. I play sports games, but generally gravitate towards arcade style sports games like Homerun Battle 3D [$4.99 / Free], or sports games that have RPG elements such as Baseball Superstars 2010 [99� / Free] Baseball Superstars 2011 [99� / Free].

I mention this because I generally never really got into a Madden game, or really any full football game. The weak link for me always came in choosing from an endless array of both offensive and defensive plays, with each yearly iteration of football game boasting even more plays to choose from. I don't know enough about the strategy of football plays to have ever felt like I was making a wise decision, and when it got down to it, play selection just always seemed like a needless interruption every few seconds while playing the game.

GameFlow changes all of this, and I really can't overstate how awesome a feature it actually is. Using some new AI algorithm likely designed by a team of people who know way more about football than I ever care to, Madden 11 12's GameFlow will intelligently chooses plays for you. It is absolutely insane how much this changes both the feel and the pace of the game. Using GameFlow, endless submenus of plays are a thing of the past. Instead, you just play football. The plays it selects work fairly well too, or at least, much better than my typical choice of plays which usually alternate between the hail mary and the fake field goal kick� both favorites of mine.

What's also shocking is how much this actually speeds up playing the game. You can tap the screen to skip through the extra animations, victory dances, and other junk and play through a whole football game in what barely seems like any time at all. Of course, if you are the kind of person who knows exactly what every play does, all you have to do is flip GameFlow to off and you have complete control of each and every play.

The hot routes functionality from last year has been expanded seems the same, and at any point during the game you can pause the action and draw paths for your players. If you're playing offense and do this, you can save those routes as an audible, or if you're playing defense you can just send your players wherever you want. The whole system works very well, and by drawing lines you can send dispatch players to man to man duty, follow the ball, or really anything else. This really makes defense a lot more fun because you can now actually sensibly direct your team around instead of just tabbing in between players and chasing after whoever has the ball.

As mentioned already, the graphics of Madden NFL 11 12 look fantastic. The stadium crowd has actual depth now still, and they even still wave around signs for the home team. The included weather effects look good, and overall it seems like all the player models and animations are more just as detailed, if not a little more. Every texture in game also seems to have been substantially marginally improved, making going back and forth between 10 and 11 12 seem fairly drastic.

Madden 11 12 also is host to some other noticeable tweaks over Madden 10 as well such as controls that feel a little better and a spruced up interface. There's an in-game store which currently is home to a free roster update, but seems like it might be used for future DLC. Finally, Madden NFL 11 12 behaves beautifully as an iPhone game, gracefully saving your game and resuming quickly when you load it again.

At the end of the day, people who like Madden games likely don't need this review, or anything more than the iTunes link to download the game for that matter. Who I really expect to sway into checking out Madden NFL 11 12 are the casual sports fans, or people like me, who are vaguely interested in sports games but found the various technicalities of football games to generally be annoying. GameFlow fixes all this, and I can hardly believe that I spent the majority of my day today playing Madden 11 12 on my iPhone� not because I was trying to power through it to write a review, but because I was actually really enjoying a football game for the first time since Mutant League Football on the Sega Genesis.

The iPad and iPhone versions are essentially the same aside from the price difference and UI tweaks to make the controls more comfortable for playing on the iPad. The iPhone version is workable with pixel doubling if you don't mind big pixels.

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With the release of Madden 12, EA also seems to have removed Madden 11 from the App Store. Unless you're really into having the most up to date roster, there really isn't much reason that we can see to upgrade. They've also shoved EA's Origin into the game as well, so if that service ever takes off in a big way, there's that too. On the other hand, if you're into the Madden series, and hadn't picked up Madden 11 previously, 12 seems to be just as good as a game.

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If you needed one more reason to be jealous of folks who live in Austin, TX, aside from having nearly unlimited access to the best barbecue on the planet, try this on for size: This weekend, Tiger Style's new game will be playable at Juegos Rancheros at The Highball. If that sentence doesn't hold much weight for you, allow me to explain.

Tiger Style is the team of guys behind Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor [$2.99 / HD], which not only was our 2009 iPhone Game of the Year but also took home several other awards such as the Independent Games Festival's best iPhone game. Juegos Rancheros is an equally awesome monthly gathering of independent game developers that started as a casual thing and since turned into an event that even has attracted the attention of Adventure Time creator Pendleton Ward.

Details on what Lost Mars is all about will likely be incredibly limited until the event this weekend, but the Juegos Rancheros site offers this tidbit:

What do you get when you mix one part METROID, one part 1970's-era sci-fi film, and one part… gardening?!

I don't know what you get when you mix those three things, but I do know I couldn't possibly be more excited about it. The second we get more details we'll post 'em.

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Looks like we were right. Kairosoft's next English iOS release will indeed be Grand Prix Story, the racing simulation game that hit Android devices earlier this year. According to a small blurb on the studio's page, it's heavily suggested that it'll see a September 8 launch, which gives it exactly four weeks worth of breathing room from Mega Mall Story [$3.99 / Lite].

Previously, we reported on the game's launch on the Japanese App Store and speculated that, since the English translation work is already done, it would be the next release. Word on the street was that this specific version also included an English language toggle, so no wonder we're receiving it so soon.

Grand Prix Story thrusts you in the role of a manager of an auto racing team. As such, you'll be expected to gather sponsors, drivers, and develop new cars and their respective parts. The app description on the Android market says that no formal racing knowledge is needed, just like how you don't need to be a hot spring owner to really come to grips with Hot Springs Story [$4.99 / Lite].

Obviously, we'll be all over this when it hits. As a personal aside here, I'm ready to explode from anticipation. Kairosoft makes my gym time that much better.

[Thanks for everyone who sent this in - via App Advice]

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Just over a month ago, we checked out some screenshots for the upcoming fixed-turret battling game Siegecraft from Crescent Moon Games and Blowfish Studios. The goal here is to control the siege team for one of several different races and wreak havoc on your opponents using all manner of catapults, crossbows, battering rams, and more. As you do well in the game, you'll earn cash that will let you purchase upgrades for your various weaponry.

Siegecraft was looking pretty darn good in still shots, and today Crescent Moon has offered up the first trailer for the game, showcasing what it looks like in motion. Spoiler alert � it's looking pretty awesome so far:

Siegecraft is boasting some impressive bullet points for "the back of its box", including 6 different campaigns over 27 unique levels, universal iPad support and specific enhancements for the iPad 2, and a same-device multiplayer mode exclusive to the iPad. Things seem to be shaping up well for Siegecraft, and if all goes according to plan the game should drop sometime in early October as a Universal app, so keep your eyes peeled for new information both here and in our forums leading up to release.

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Last month, developers Polarbit and Pixelbite Games delivered Reckless Getaway [$2.99] into the App Store, a game we liked a lot in our review. In Reckless Getaway, you play as a bank robber who is desperately trying to evade a police pursuit immediately following a bank heist. The goal is to make it past the police barricade that marks the end of each level while racking up as many points as possible along the way, and avoiding taking too much damage in the process.

Despite being a fun, arcadey, and explodey experience, one of our chief complaints with Reckless Getaway was that it was a rather short game, containing just 16 levels. With a new update that was released last week, the developers have done a good job of addressing this issue, and have effectively doubled the amount of content in the game.

This update brings a new "Wreckless" mode in addition to the normal Getaway mode. In Wreckless mode you'll take the driver's seat of a big, green semi-truck; and rather than worry about collecting coins for points, your only task is to run into as many cars and cause as much damage as possible before the finish line. You'll play through all the same levels that are in Getaway mode, but with their own separate 4 star grading systems for Wreckless mode, giving you twice the amount of goals to shoot for as before.

Reckless Getaway was a fun game to begin with, and with the new Wreckless mode there's now even more to like about it. Pixelbite has also said on their website that more updates are already in the works, with another brand new mode and new levels planned for the future. I can't wait to hear more about that, but for now the Wreckless mode update is more than satisfying, and players in our forums are enjoying it as well.

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