This past week we took a look at the upcoming Paper Monsters from developer Robots vs. Wizards. The game employs a 2.5D perspective with a charming cardboard-cutout art style, and in a follow-up post we learned from the developer that Paper Monsters is aiming to be more of a traditional platforming game along the lines of a Mario Bros. title.

While the wonderful visual style of the game is what caught our attention, savvy forum goers may remember that Paper Monsters was actually announced back in September of last year, and used to look quite a bit different. The idea was still basically the same, a 2.5D platformer with cardboard cutout-style characters and backgrounds, but it looked more in line with a previous Robot vs. Wizards title called Doodle Monster [99�].

Now, we've come to find that the sudden drastic change in visuals is due to Crescent Moon Games jumping into the fray and lending their expertise in art design to the development of Paper Monsters. You may recall that Crescent Moon Games has done similar extreme makeovers on both Gears [99�] and Aralon: Sword and Shadow [$9.99] in the past with fairly stunning results. Crescent Moon will also be publishing Paper Monsters when it finally releases.

Just for fun, here are a couple of before-and-after comparisons of Paper Monsters so you can see just how far it has evolved (click to enlarge):

Paper Monsters is still a ways off, and there is no set release date or pricing known at this time. But it's definitely interesting to see the transformation the game has undergone since last September, and based on Crescent Moon's previous reputation of overhauling games during development I'm really excited to see how Paper Monsters turns out.

There's a busy thread in our forums where members are discussing the game and both Crescent Moon and Robot vs. Wizards are dropping nuggets of new information, and we'll definitely keep our eyes peeled for more news about�Paper Monsters in the coming months.

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Released in July of last year, Villain's Archetype [99�] was easily the most robust online first-person shooter available on the App Store at the time. It featured smooth Team Deathmatch multiplayer for up to 10 players over WiFi, 3G, or EDGE connections. We really liked the game in our review, and in the months following release Archetype received several updates adding Capture the Flag and Free For All modes, new maps and game types, and loads of other enhancements. An iPad native version, Archetype HD [$2.99], was released as well.

While other FPS games have since offered similarly impressive online multiplayer functionality, Archetype has remained a popular choice among fraggers on the go. Now you can test drive the game for free with the recently released Archetype Cadet [Free/HD]. Archetype Cadet gives you access to 5-on-5 Team Deathmatch on 2 available maps, Invidia and Pride Rocket Arena. Check out our gameplay video of the release version of Archetype to get an idea of the gameplay:

The full version of Archetype has you creating a persistent profile that is tied to your device. Archetype Cadet simply assigns you a generic gamer tag that is unable to earn experience or rank up in any way, so there's no hassle with trying to sync profiles between the two versions if you decide to upgrade to the full. If you've been wondering what all the fuss is about with Archetype but haven't yet been able to pull the trigger on purchasing the game, then grab Archetype Cadet for a free glimpse of the gameplay.

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You may recall back in November when Beeline Interactive (formerly Capcom Mobile) released Smurfs' Village [Free] into the App Store. It was a Farmville-like freemium sim game that was themed after the popular 3-apple high blue folk many of us remember from our childhood. We actually quite liked Smurfs' Village in our review, noting that it did incredible fan-service to fans of The Smurfs and had gorgeous Retina Display graphics that brought everything to life.

Unfortunately, the freemium aspect sucked a lot of the joy out of the Smurfs' Village. Crops would wither and die if you weren't constantly attentive of them and purchasing the IAP Smurfberry currency was basically required to obtain some of the cooler items in the game.

The IAP currency didn't just suck the joy out of the game, though, but also sucked the money out of many unhappy parents' bank accounts. The IAP system in Smurfs' Village allowed you to make multiple purchases with just a few clicks, and in the weeks following the game's release Apple had a huge number of requests for refunds by parents whose younger children had accidentally bought hundreds of dollars of Smurfberries in the game.

Part of the problem was the loose way that Beeline had implemented the IAP functionality, and the other part of the problem was that Apple's own iTunes account system would keep users logged in for up to 15 minutes after entering a password and making a purchase in a game. This led to parents entering their password for one reason or another and then handing their device off to their kids who would fire up Smurfs' Village and click away recklessly buying Smurfberries.

Apple was not very pleased with Beeline over the uproar of angry customers, and it turns out that the government wasn't very pleased with Apple's in-app purchasing system either, and launched an investigation into how that system works this past February. This led to Apple changing how IAP is handled on devices, requiring a password to be entered every time a purchase is being made from within an app as of the iOS 4.3 update.

Now Beeline is taking this a step further with their latest update to Smurfs' Village. There is now a cap on in-app purchases which only allows a max of 5 to be made within a 15 minute time frame. I'm curious to know whether Apple required Beeline to add this type of restriction in or if it was of the developer's own volition, as I haven't yet heard of any other case where Apple limited how much can be purchased through their IAP infrastructure.

At any rate, there are also a few new items and additional levels to earn in this new update. If you're a fan of Smurfs' Village, update your copy of the game and take comfort in the fact that at most you'll only be accidentally spending $500 every 15 minutes on Smurfberries.

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