Kairosoft's Grand Prix Story [$2.99] feels more like Game Dev Story [$3.99 / HD] than any of the other studio's subsequent releases following the launch of the overly-cutesy and absorbing simulation game about making games. In both games, there's a lot of overhead before you can see any practical applications or meaningful progress. There are also a ton of hidden systems and mechanics to find and discover as the game moves you along with its forty foot stick with a dangling carrot on the end. Also, in both games your race to be the best is often determined by the time you put in being the worst. You have to click with and then master both games' mechanics in order to see profit and, yeah, that can a tall order for mobile.

Grand Prix Story specifically is a painfully slow-burning simulation with a familiar set of problems that plague almost every Kairosoft release � lack of feedback, too many hidden or unexplained systems or mechanics, a bad tutorial, and a steep difficulty curve � but it's also a fun title that hits all the notes that it needs to. Its systems are deep and defined enough, the racing is oddly entertaining even though its just a conglomeration of dice rolls, it's burst-y, and the overall atmosphere, action, and theme play well off each other.

In the game, you'll play the manager of several racing teams. You'll never strap into a car, but you'll make them and research them, tune parts and find new ones, set up and cancel a conga line of lucrative sponsorships, and subtly guide your guys to victory by putting all the materials and constituent parts of the simulation into your cars. It's a bit heady, but once you put in a couple of hours, you'll quickly grasp all the concepts. I realize that we all can't spend our lives indebted to Kairosoft though, so if time is an issue, this isn't the game for you at all.

At first, you'll be given a single car and a few races to compete in. You'll need to hire mechanics to fix your car, contract a driver, add new parts, and discover research points while racing this vehicle. There are tons of cars to build and even more parts to apply to your car, most of which have standard "you get this, but you lose a bit of this" stat-lines. Interestingly, Grand Prix Story sets itself up for you to compete against the simulation; by increasing the parameters of your driver, mechanics, and your parts, you'll receive way better performance results from a car and in races.

There are no actual racing mechanics � when you enter into a race, you simply watch how your driver and car perform… over and over and over and over again. It's really quite mind-numbing to watch hundreds of of races over the haul of the experience, yet there's something oddly compelling about each outing. Hilariously, I'm personally connecting with my team and my cars and I want to see races through regardless of the outcome. I know that's cheesy, but when you spend hours and hours of time beefing up team members, vehicles, and individual parts, there's a certain thrill in seeing the fruits of your labor in motion.

It's important to note that you'll randomly earn research points as you race. And as you place higher and higher, you'll earn more points with sponsorships. After enough of the latter, you'll receive new parts and new sponsorships, as well as a little side-dough to spend on better drivers and better team members.

"Team" is the most interesting concept introduced in Grand Prix Story. You'll eventually get to control several and you'll have to babysit all of them. Eventually, you'll be able to race a handful of cars at once, ratcheting up your potential to earn research and extra cash in a single race. Once a year in the simulation, you'll participate in the Grand Prix, which is a series of races. When you conquer it, you'll get a chance to upgrade your garage and give yourself even more to do.

Aside from the frustration of having to wait and watch for most of the game's finer points of its simulation � and that might be more a result of the reviewing process than anything else � I've been having a positive and good time with Grand Prix Story. Sadly, for those of you who really like fancy outros with big and impactful things to bear, Grand Prix Story has been entertaining me for the exact same reasons that Game Dev Story did. It's a sharp simulation with a ton of systems to look at, use, and then abuse wrapped up in a playful and cutesy little package. It's great on the go, fun to play regardless, and a neat little break from the studio's more recent games. I recommend it.

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Musical game-like apps have had a great life on the App Store. Smule seemingly launched the genre of musical toys with Ocarina [99�] (if my memory serves me correctly) and later expanded out to fully licensed titles like Glee Karaoke [99�] and I Am T-Pain [99�]. Songify [Free] was one of the next major musical crazes to hit, which made the auto tuning process found in I Am T-Pain even easier. Tonight, Harmonix, creators of Dance Central and Rock Band up the ante even further with VidRhythm [$1.99].

In VidRhythm, you can quickly and easily create video remixes of a series of videos you shoot to have a product that's vaguely similar to some of the incredibly in-depth video remixes found on YouTube. The process couldn't be more simple. You shoot a small handful of clips, the app suggests what you should try to make one sound like, and then it auto-magically makes a video like this:

There's a number of different themes you can use, and exporting then uploading the videos to YouTube, Facebook, and/or your camera roll couldn't be simpler. I'm amazed at both how easy this whole thing is and how well it works. I mean really, it can take the weird sounds my dog makes and turn it into a coherent musical video. That's pretty awesome. I can only imagine what people will start creating once people with actual musical talent grab hold of the app.

Seriously, if you've had fun with these weird musical game-y apps in the past, you need VidRhythm. I've been having a blast with it. Also, if you like my weird dog videos, you'll love my dog's Facebook page.

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Man, after so many of these Wednesday night release features I'm really scraping the bottom of the barrel for relevant thumbnail images to accompany 'em. I mean, I suppose I could go image-free, but why stop a good thing? So today is Bead Table Wednesday. Will I be able to tie beads and tables into all the games coming out tonight? Well, I guess you'll just have to read on to see!

All of these games should be immediately available tonight at 11:00 PM Eastern, and earlier if you're in a region that's east of North America� Potentially much earlier depending on how much farther east you are.

ArkanoArena, $1.99 � Forum Thread � This brick-breaker comes with the interesting twist of coming with an interesting theme that seems to be almost steampunky military based? I'm not even entirely sure how you'd describe it, but other screenshots feature massive zeppelins, and there's even a store to buy power-ups from.

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DMBX � Mountain Biking, $1.99 / Free � Forum Thread � This mountain bike stunt game seems vaguely familiar to the X-Games game for the O.G. PlayStation. It's got 10 levels, 8 mountain bikes, multiple riders, and even a career mode.

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Fruity Jelly, 99� � Forum Thread � This platforming-centric collection game from BulkyPix utilizes both tilt mechanics and rotation mechanics to get around the levels. It almost reminds me of those bonus stages in old Sonic games, which could be a very good thing.

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GameSlam, Free � Forum Thread � It seems like this free baseball "game" isn't much of a game at all, but instead, is an app you can use to watch baseball and football games live and make predictions. It seems pretty ambitious, and I definitely look forward to giving it a try during the next baseball game I'm watching.

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Grand Prix Story, $2.99 � Kairosoft is pumping out their library of games like nobody's business following the runaway success of Game Dev Story last year. Unlike previous installments in their catalog, Grand Prix Story actually plays a lot closer to Game Dev Story without any weird building mechanic, which likely will be a welcome change to some fans of their games.

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Gum Drop, 99� / HD � Forum Thread � This odd puzzle game from Chillingo puts you to the task of matching words to objects. It seems a little on the simple side, but as forum member Sanuku suggests, it might be an excellent language learning game. Assuming you're into edu-tainment, of course.

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King of Dragon Pass, $9.99 � Forum Thread � Don't let the price point turn you off of this game as it's absolutely fantastic. I was lucky enough to score an early copy of it, and the depth is just incredible. It's like they took the best parts of Civilization games and combined them with the best part of Choose Your Own Adventure style game books. This game kept me busy all weekend and I haven't even scratched the surface.

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Kula Blox, 99� / HD � Forum Thread � I'm not entirely sure how you play this free-falling game, but it involves making your way up the food chain. How you do that while going down is something I'm anxious to find out. I am digging the art style, and according to our forums, "Kula" is a naughty word in Hungarian. Who knew?!

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Machinarium, $4.99 � Forum Thread � This game caused quite a stir when it was first announced and the developers revealed that not only was it going to be an iPad exclusive, but it also would only run on the iPad 2. Machinarium has won a ridiculous amount of awards, and is an all around fantastic adventure game from the makers of Samorost. If you've got an iPad 2, you need to give this game a try.

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NFL Rivals $2.99 � Forum Thread � NaturalMotion essentially took the Backbreaker games and applied a hefty layer of official NFL licensing on top. It plays very similar to their other football games, and features the awesome swagger mechanic seen above that I seriously can't help but smile at while playing.

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Plushed Gold Fever, Free � Forum Thread � So as part of a promotion, this game is launching for… free. Three individual game types are included that all involve sucking up as much gold as possible. I can't think of much reason to not grab it while it's free, as it looks pretty rad.

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Race Illegal: High Speed 3D � Forum Thread � I'm really not sure what the catch with this game is as it's 99� and it looks like with EA's blessing and proper branding it could pass for an iOS version of Need For Speed Underground, which is one of my favorite Xbox racers of all time.

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Running Sheep HD, $2.99 � Forum Thread � You really need to at least click this iTunes link and read the description because it is absolutely insane. From what I can gather, it's a puzzle game involving sheep, and the levels are dynamic, which is good enough for me.

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Snood Free, Free / HD � Forum Thread � Hey it's Snood, but free, with ads. Snood is a pretty classic puzzle game, and worth a try if you haven't played it yet… Especially for free.

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To-Fu 2 99� � Forum Thread � We had a great time with the original To-Fu, and this seems to be everything you'd want out of a sequel. New levels, new obstacles, and it's even universal.

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VidRhythm, 99� � Forum Thread � This title from Harmonix is more of an app than a game, but Harmonix has a heck of a history of making cool rhythm-centric experiences and VidRhythm is no different. You can take clips of whatever you want, in this case my dog, and turn them into songs automagically.

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We've already covered the vague unveiling of Tiger Style's upcoming Lost Mars, but this afternoon they released a gameplay video which connects a lot of the dots in the mysterious screenshots. Give it a look:

We'll go into much greater depth this coming Monday when we have the developers on our bonus podcast, but Lost Mars is an "action farming" game set in the caves of Mars. With similar controls to Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor [$2.99], moving is all accomplished by touching on screen in the direction you want to go. Seeds are collected and thrown into fertile ground to satisfy goals to progress to the next area as you spread alien life throughout the caves. We've had our hands on a very early preview version of the game, and you can definitely see where the game is headed, even in its early form.

Stay tuned for the bonus podcast on Monday, where you'll be drowning in Lost Mars details.

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Back at GDC we had our greasy hands all over Éric Chahi's iPad which was running a very promising looking early build of Another World. Today publisher BulkyPix announced that the game will be available as a universal app on September 22nd for $4.99. The iOS port will sport both remastered graphics (which can be toggled on and off) as well as both touch controls and a virtual D-Pad. In addition, Another World comes with additional difficulty levels, both harder and easier, than the original.

Originally released in 1991, the game was known as Out of This World in North America. It was among the first game to rely on cinematic effects, sounds, and cut scenes to tell the story, and has since gone on to be ported to a ridiculous number of platforms. The game has a difficulty level which I feel comfortable describing as "brutal," as you'll die in one hit, and a big part of the game is discovering and learning what can kill you and how to avoid it. I'm concerned with how the controls with translate to the touch-based interface of iOS devices, but I remain optimistic that Another World will play just as awesomely as I hope it does.

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We don't often post about Kickstarter stuff, but lately three separate vaguely related projects have caught my eye. Just for the sake of clarification, I'm not posting these to encourage anyone to contribute to the projects (unless you feel compelled to, of course) but rather, to raise awareness of awesome indie game stuff in the works that I think both iOS gamers and developers will appreciate. With that out of the way, behind door number one we've got Star Command:

We've had our eye on Star Command for quite a while now between our initial unveiling and the release of additional screenshots. In a nutshell, War Balloon Games is taking the casual simulation gameplay formula that Kairosoft has seen so much success with and applying in to a totally native iOS game… Instead of, err, a weird and obvious port of a mobile phone game. It sounds like it has some serious potential too, as the above trailer has succeeded in getting me totally excited for the game.

Door number two reveals Venus Patrol:

If you're not familiar with Offworld, you really should be. It's a video game site that focuses more on the whole "games as art" thing, covering various indie games, projects, and studios that often get passed over by the more "mainstream" gaming press. Initially ran by Brandon Boyer, Offworld really hit its stride under his command from 2008 to 2009. Since then he's gone on to become Chairman of the Independent Games Festival as well as one of the three founding members of Austin-based indie collective Juegos Rancheros.

Venus Patrol aims to pick up where Offworld left off in providing analysis of the creative culture of video games with the hopes of showing a "wider creative world" that there's so much more to video games. If you're into swag, the bonuses the Venus Patrol backers get are a indie swag hound's dream come true with contributions from:

• Wallpapers by Keita Takahashi, creator of Katamari Damacy
• Minecraft skins from Pendleton Ward, creator of Adventure Time
• Four exclusive games from Canabalt creator Adam Atomic, Vlambeer, Superbrothers, and Johann Sebastian Joust
• A unreleased Sword & Sworcery 7" vinyl EP composed by Scientific American
• Various other physical swag like 'zines, trading cards, embroidered patches, and more.

And last, but certainly not least, behind door number three is IndieCade 2011 Conference Videos:

I've heard so many good things about the IndieCade event, but like most people out there, I haven't been able to make it to one yet. IndieCade has been referred to as the "Sundance of videogames" and features talks, sessions, and workshops from some incredibly huge names in the indie game development scene. There's art exhibits, and tons of playable games, both upcoming, already released, and massive-scale real world games. If their KickStarter project gets off the ground, this year's entire event will be documented and viewable online so you can check out all the potentially inspirational and thought-provoking content found at the event from the comfort of your home.

For more crazy projects, head over to KickStarter yourself. There's absolutely no shortage of great ideas with tons of potential (and usually very entertaining videos to go along with them).

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Maybe it's just me, but I have a hard time getting into trailers anymore. Spend enough time following the games industry and you eventually develop an elephantine level of skin thickness to ward off promotion and hype. Even being as jaded as I am towards anything but gameplay footage, every so often, I see a video or promo and I just know in my gut that I'm going to love the game.

It happened for me on the PC with Magicka's brilliantly funny video campaign earlier this year, and when I saw the trailer for Radballs [$2.99] a gigantic smile spread across my face. I knew that if the execution of the gameplay was even half as clever as Glow Play's promotional efforts that I'd have a pretty wicked time on my hands. Now that the game is out? Well, I shan't mince words any longer; my expectations were both met and exceeded.

Radballs is first and foremost (for me) an 80's retro lovefest. Don't confuse my meaning here; I'm not talking 8-bit sprites but rather the type of art style that screams Breakin'. The colors, the patterns, and entire aesthetic are simply spot on nailed. As a gamer raised in the 80's, I found myself awash in memories of parachute pants, Z Cavariccis, Hypercolor t-shirts, Front 242, KMFDM, Ministry, New Order, and adolescent shame grown fuzzy over time.

The music for the game is fantastic, and kudos to Neil Voss' (New Tetris, Tetrisphere) work producing the soundtrack. I know I just mentioned a bunch of new wave and industrial bands, but that's not what this game is about. It's a mix of original electro tunes, tracks from lesser known artists but excellent dudes like Daze and Com Truise, and even some remixes of a few songs by Ok Go. Despite being from contemporary musicians, the electro/synth angle on all the tracks complements the games 80's vibe, dare I say, to the max?

Honestly, the phrase "match-3" has such a stigma on it now that it's hardly fair to use it for fear that you will turn people off before they've given a game a fair shake. But, that's the inspiration for Radballs' gameplay. Instead of lining up 3 Radballs, the goal is to build at least a 2�2 formation that then fuses into a MegaRadball. You can add additional Radballs to the formation to increase the size. The larger the MegaRadball is when it is cleared from the board, the more radness gets added to your meter. I'll come back to the meter in a bit.

The way music is integrated into the game mechanics is simple and elegant. Timed to the beat of whatever track is playing, a wave will periodically travel down the screen and clear any formed MegaRadballs it passes over. The cool mechanic here is that you can directly manipulate the wave. Touch the wave and flick it back upwards, and you can buy yourself more time to build larger/more MegaRadballs to increase your bonus.

Even more tubular, however, is the fact that you can grab the wave and scratch it back and forth over a MegaRadball to charge it up for extra radness. Manipulating the wave directly affects the music as if you were scratching or cutting on a record. It's this integration of the auditory experience driving the gameplay and vice versa that transforms what might otherwise be horribly vanilla into something unique and outstanding.

Now, back to the radness meter. Radballs handles its difficulty curve better than almost any game I've ever seen on the App Store. The game is not over when your screen fills with Radballs, it just gives you more material for matching. The only way you can lose is if your radness meter depletes over time. As you progress through the different levels, the meter depletes faster. This requires you to employ more advanced tactics and learn to effectively use the few available power-ups to be successful.

For example, setting up a cascade where a MegaRadball being cleared results in another fusing together creates additional radness. Even though it took me some time to get the hang of setting up those complex formations in advance, if the meter ever started running low, I could buy myself just enough time on the radness meter to keep from losing by relying on the techniques I'd already mastered.

So, while the game forces you to get better, you aren't punished as you're learning. The skills you've practiced will keep you alive enough to evolve your strategy as the game ramps up. This makes for a smooth and enjoyable ride throughout the course of the game, and eliminates the ragequit factor so prevalent in titles where time is a factor. This gives Radballs a bump up in the "just one more round" category.

Contributing to the game's longevity are two important features. Going to the settings on any level will allow you to switch from arcade mode (which ends when you clear 8 radness meters) to an endless mode that only stops when your meter depletes. This is perfect for when you just want to zone out to the music; pick a difficulty level that works for your chilling out needs and then just kick back and get rad.

Taking nothing away from the stellar soundtrack that comes included with Radballs, the music for any game gets old over time. Glow Play's masterstroke here was to build in the ability for players to use their own music tracks. Following the trail blazed by games like Audiosurf and Beat Hazard, this feature takes your songs and synchronizes the beat wave accordingly. You aren't just listening to your music � you're playing to it. Scratching with the beat wave has the same effect on imported tracks as native ones, making for some fun emergent experiences with songs you know and love.

Add tight and responsive touch controls to a list that includes fabulous art design, awesome music, a new twist on an old mechanic, and the ability to bring in your own tracks and you end up with an experience easily worth your time and money. Oh, did I mention it's universal? Well, it is, and I highly recommend it. Your friends and peers in the forums already know what the score is. Fire up a John Hughes flick and download it when you get a chance.

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It was just yesterday that we heard about the Atari Arcade Duo Powered joystick peripheral for the iPad, but it looks as if the folks over at DVICE have already gotten their hands on one and given it a proper review. While yesterday's info on this interesting add-on was limited to a small promotional shot and a single line of an App Store description, DVICE has unearthed pretty much every unknown about the Atari Arcade joystick. Unfortunately, this also leads way to some facts that make the peripheral sound not quite as cool as we initially thought it might be.

The first thing that was assumed about the Atari Arcade joystick based on its promotional image was that it would work in landscape as well as the portrait position it was shown in. Apparently this isn't the case, though, as the joystick actually connects to the iPad via the official Apple 30-pin connector. This means that unless some sort of extension type of cable can be provided, there's no way to use this joystick with a landscape oriented game, aka fighters and side-scrolling beat 'em ups, aka exactly the types of games that would rule with a joystick. Bummer. Even the rival iCade can support a landscape iPad device, though not in an official, secure fashion.

There's some cool benefits to having the joystick connect through the 30-pin port though, too. For one, you have to worry about batteries, as the joystick is powered by the iPad itself. DVICE seemed to be able to get about 8-10 hours of juice out of their iPad and joystick combination. This is a big improvement over the notoriously battery-draining Bluetooth connection used by the iCade and iControlpad peripherals. This extra battery life isn't that great of a tradeoff though when you're forced into using portrait mode only. The Bluetooth connection route is also much simpler for developers to implement into their games too, and can work with multiple peripherals rather than having to cater to a single proprietary device.

And that's really my biggest issue with the Atari Arcade stick. While I could likely deal with the portrait-only drawback and even the stiffness of the control stick and buttons noted in the DVICE review, it really doesn't matter anyway if the only game compatible is Atari's Greatest Hits [Free+IAP]. I guess it's possible Atari could open up development support for the device, but given the fairly niche appeal of the iCade so far I can't imagine too many developers who would be keen on putting in the extra work to support an even more potentially limited peripheral.

Be sure to check out the original DVICE review for additional information and a ton more screens. They also note that the Atari Arcade joystick will launch on October 2nd at Target stores, followed by Walmart and Toys 'R' Us stores in November. The device will retail for $60. Though I'm kind of disappointed to discover that the Atari Arcade joystick isn't everything I hoped it could be, I'll likely still be convinced to pick one up just out of curiosity, and will reserve final judgment until I can actually get my hands the joystick myself.

[Via DVICE]

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With such a huge selection of platforming games on the App Store, the debate is always raging as to what the best "Mario-like" platformer is. For my money, it's Pizza Boy [Free], and not just because of the main character's glorious beard and the fact that I myself used to deliver pizzas. In fact, currently you don't even need money to see for yourself if you feel the same as I do. Pizza Boy is free for today, September 7th, to celebrate its one year anniversary since release.

In case you haven't heard, Pizza Boy is an exceedingly cute and colorful platforming game done up in the classic 16-bit style. It contains all the coin collecting, enemy killing, and platform hopping that you would expect from such a title, and it really nailed the proper feel of speed, jumping and character movement that gave it that Mario vibe.

We totally dug Pizza Boy in our review, with the only negative comments having to do with what a short title it was. Developer Acne Play rectified that pretty well with an update last December that added a bunch of new levels and other assorted goodies, extending the experience quite a bit.

Of course, one of the best things about Pizza Boy is the nearly flawless virtual controls. I'm not sure what kind of magic voodoo the developer has infused into the game, but Pizza Boy comes as close as anything to making me forget that I'm using touchscreen virtual buttons. Several platformers have emerged since that have proven worthy in the control department as well, but a year ago Pizza Boy was easily the epitome of great virtual controls, and still is really.

What I'm really trying to boil this down to is that you're nuts if you don't grab Pizza Boy while it's free. If you're already a fan of iOS platformers but hadn't got around to getting�Pizza Boy yet, then you're in for a real treat. If you've thus far been a doubter of virtual controls being precise enough for a traditional platforming game, then you owe it to yourself to try out Pizza Boy. If you can't like these virtual controls, then you probably won't ever like them period.

Hurry and pick up Pizza Boy while it's free for today and check out the game discussion in our forums.

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1112 Episode 3 [$4.99/HD] is the latest addition to the graphical mystery adventure game series from Agharta Studio. It's also the best of this ongoing series, as it delivers more: More game-play, more puzzles, more characters, more locations and a whole lot more mystery.

We first meet the games protagonist, Louis Everett the antiques dealer, in Episode 1 [$4.99/Lite/HD]. Louis bears a striking resemblance to Johnny Depp, but he's having bad dreams, marital issues and work stresses. As you help him complete his daily tasks, it becomes apparent that something weird and mysterious is going on. There's a gap in his memory which Louis can't explain, and the number '1112' seems to keep recurring in his life. This game is about solving that mystery, but don't expect a final outcome yet, as each episode concludes with a cliff-hanger ending, to entice you into the next release.

After a long wait,�Episode 2 [$4.99/HD] was released in 2010. It resumed the same storyline and continued in a similar fashion, but with a few more characters, locations, and puzzles, including the addition of three suduko puzzles as mini-games, which sent some players off to find online sudoku solvers.

Episode 3 opens with a brief recap of the first two episodes, which is a useful reminder if you played it years ago, but wouldn't really enlighten a newcomer about the storyline and atmosphere of this game. You could easily play this series starting with Episode 3, but that would be like starting with the third Harry Potter book. If you want the full experience, we recommend starting at the beginning.

Episode 3 features the same high-quality graphics and music that we've come to expect. Each object in your inventory is presented as a 3D rendering, which you can rotate or zoom with your fingers to examine more closely.� Like any graphical adventure game, the goal is to find, use, give and combine objects to solve problems and progress the storyline.

You also need to converse with various characters, for clues or to reveal the next objective. This involves tapping on any green words in their (unspoken) subtitles to collect "conversation starters". Alternatively, you can use a keyboard interface to enter certain words manually, such as answering riddles, or just try entering "1112" to see what various characters think of the games mysterous title.

Prior to release, we were told Episode 3 would contain a longer campaign than the first two episodes combined; and that has eventuated. It's considerably longer and more involved and could easily take 10+ hours to complete. Despite the longer storyline, the English translations are much improved this time around.

One of the main changes from earlier episodes is that specific objectives are now listed and ticked off once accomplished, which prevents players from getting lost within the longer plot and larger game-world. Fourteen Game Center achievements have also been added and are listed without descriptions, to avoid spoilers.

This game will be a challenge for most people to complete without some assistance. There's a lot of returning to previous places and people, even though you may think you've already covered them off, which requires patience. But don't fret, as there's plenty of hints from the developer in our forums, plus step-by-step walk-thrus for each episode are easily located via Google, so you won't get stuck for long.

If you're not ready to purchase this game, consider checking out the lite version of the first episode, as 1112 is easily one of the better quality adventure games on the App Store. This series is getting better, but since it takes the small development team at least a year to produce an episode, this intriguing mystery may not be resolved for a few more years; but we'll be waiting.

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In speaking with a representative with Big Blue Bubble, we get the sense that the studio's follow-up to Burn the Rope [$.99 / HD], Burn the Rope: Worlds, is a blow-it-out-of-the-park iteration, as opposed to a "well, we need to do this so let's just improve what we can" kind of sequel. A lot of thought has been put into the actual value proposition, and as a result, you'll get more Burn the Rope classic content, fun twists, and even some bonuses.

A new teaser trailer for the upcoming title seems to confirm what we're gathering. According to it, the follow-up�will boast a total of four worlds, 100 new levels, four new kinds of flames, and an added "Endless Mode," which bears a mechanical resemblance to Snake, but obviously adds a little something extra to an overall package that seeks to change up the formula a hair or two while still giving fans more of what they want.

You can check that trailer out right here:

We're also being told that new worlds will be added via DLC down the road and daily puzzle players will be able to play daily in any world of their choice � two decisions we can really get behind. Sadly, we're still not quite sure when Worlds will see the light of day this September. I mean, it's not like the wait is going to be long, but still. We would like our fix, please.

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If this review had the same layout as Avalon Wars [Free], here's how you would get a feel for what the game is like. First, you'd go to the reviewer's home base screen. For now, ignore the individual game-mechanic analysis buildings titled Combat, Resource Management, Base Building, Troop/Hero Development, and MMO Elements; we'll come back to those later in the tutorial. To start, simply click on the Review Overview Command Center. Once on the Overview Command Center screen, you'll select the Review Introduction tab. Choose "Two Paragraphs" as your option from the Review Length sub-menu.

Now, exit the Command Center and scroll over to the Reviewers' Barracks. Enter the Barracks and select my name from the list of recruited reviewers. Drill down into the Writing Skills menu and click the sub-menu tab for Add New Skill. Spend 30 TAPs (TouchArcade Points) to activate the skill "Analogy Synopsis". If you lack the necessary TAPs to activate the skill, a modest in-browser purchase will get you more to speed up the process. Now, launch the reviewer and see him crank out a brief overview of the experience of playing Avalon Wars in the style of Avalon Wars.

If you're still reading at this point, you may just be the kind of person who will love the hell out of this game.

Avalon Wars is a strategy MMO which places you in charge of a regiment from one of 3 initial factions. By developing your base, your technology, and your troops, you prepare yourself to face off against players from other factions or against the computer controlled Rogues. Why all the fighting? Well, the planet of Avalon is the only source of a valuable substance called Domistal, and he who controls the Domistal controls the universe.

Incidentally, Domistal is also the basis for being able to charge micro-transactions to players who are bottle-necked in their production process. Thankfully, this is not a common occurrence. If the intro didn't properly convey my point: this game is thick. There are many different types of resources in Avalon Wars, and they're not all required for every action. There's always some facet of the game to be focusing on that won't require the resource you're short on.

The main focus of the game is in building and upgrading your base. There are a multitude of structures to erect, and the options for prioritization in your build order are legion. Focusing on resource management alone will prevent you from earning all the rewards that come from winning battles, but focusing on troop development too much will find you quickly overmatched once you begin running into enemies with better tech than you, which will send you right back to develop your base/troops more.

Thankfully, the game does offer some valuable assistance in the form of a lengthy and detailed tutorial. The poorly localized but thorough tutorial text is distractingly presented on the generous cartoon cleavage of your lieutenant, who will guide you through the functions and strategy for your initial base-building and combat skills. Once she's done showing you the ropes, you're free to tackle the insane number of quests, jobs, and challenges the game has to offer.

Once you have your resource gathering structures functioning well, you'll move on to focusing on generating troops and recruiting heroes to lead them. Once you've got them on your team, you'll research new technology to equip them, train them to raise their stats and gain new abilities, outfit them with an endless stream of purchasable gear, and then put them in charge of a regiment of soldiers. This is where the min/maxing gets crazy, as certain hero stats match perfectly with different troop types. Jack-of-all-trade heroes are worthless in combat.

Combat is where the game begins to fall short, unfortunately. There's the illusion of strategic depth when it comes to the way you build formations of different troop types, but beyond the obvious "put your tank units up front and your weak death-dealers in back", you won't find a lot of variation in the tactics required to succeed. Victory is almost entirely predicated on how well you've developed your team and their stats prior to the fight. Once the fight begins, the game automatically plays out the turn-based affair, doles out your rewards, and sends you home to pick up your shovel and go back to digging through sub-menus.

The MMO aspects of the game are nice to have, but like the core gameplay are extremely cumbersome to manage. Avalon Wars offers the ability to form legions (read: guilds) with other players, and offers chat-rooms to organize and shoot the breeze. Unfortunately, it's all so unwieldy that you're hardly compelled to jump through the additional hoops to engage with other players. Taking into consideration that most PvP battles leave you either dramatically overpowered or underpowered compared to your opponent, treating this game as a single player experience might be wise.

Some gamers love the experience of crafting the perfect fighting force and sending it out to annihilate the enemy. The building, the tweaking, and the arcane knowledge of every tiny sub-menu are the draws of this type of game for them. Like Sun Tzu said in The Art of War, "Every battle is won before it is fought."

Others thrive on the uncertainty of the moment and the adrenaline that comes with the possibility of defeat. These sorts will be absolutely turned off by the labyrinthine user interface, the lack of balance, and the insane amount of patience it takes to really begin succeeding at the game's core mechanics.

As for me, I found myself fascinated at first and impressed with the level of depth the game offered. However, the lack of combat challenge wore on me, and I disliked having to relearn all the menus whenever I had to put the game down for a while. I really appreciated that I never felt forced to rely on IAPs to get to the fun aspects of the game, but I didn't find myself compelled to dive into Avalon Wars for the long haul. At the low price of free, it can't hurt to pick it up and make up your own mind if you've had the interest and fortitude to see this review to its conclusion.

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