In 2009, Total NonStop Action (TNA) Wrestling was released. Surprisingly, it was a turn-based strategic wrestling game, with RPG elements, enabling your wrestler to "level-up". That game later disappeared from the App Store, with players in the thread suggesting their license expired. Now, another TNA Wrestling game has been released by Bight Interactiveand Namco Bandai.

TNA Wrestling iMPACT [$4.99] opens with bright lights and an electric guitar soundtrack, which introduces the entertainment spectacle that is modern wrestling. It's a good introduction, and perfectly sets the scene for just how over the top this kind of wrestling is.

Career and exhibition modes are offered, with three levels of difficulty. Career mode let's you to play as either your favorite TNA superstar, or a custom made character. There are three career tournaments to play, including TNA heavyweight, X-division and tag-team. Winning matches in career mode improves your wrestler by enhancing their power, toughness, speed and/or charisma. Winning all three tournaments will unlock Hulk Hogan. In Exhibition mode, there's six match types, each with different win conditions, namely: Standard, Submission, Falls Count Anywhere, No Disqualifications, Cage and Tag-Team. Multi Player is available locally via bluetooth or wifi, or online via Game Center.

The game features 24 TNA wrestling superstars, each with their own entrance, costume and signature moves. Alternatively, you can create-a-wrestler, customizing the name, fighting style, signature moves, physical appearance, costume and attributes. Each wrestler is either a brawler, powerhouse or high-flier, which determines their fighting style and special moves.

Wrestling fans will be pleased to know there's a variety of moves available, including: Body Slam, Suplex, DDT, Piledriver, Spinebuster, Facebreaker, and the Backbreaker. Finishing moves include: Blackhole Slam, Border Toss, Running Leg Drop, Olympic Slam and Chaos Theory to name a few. You can also pick-up objects like bats from the crowd, or chairs, as weapons.

The controls consist of a virtual D-Pad, with buttons for attack, grapple and run. Additional special context-sensitive buttons appear when required for finishing moves, pinning the opponent, climbing (turnbuckle or cage), entering / exiting the ring, taking weapons or tagging your partner. Completing attacking moves successfully fills up your "impact bar", which makes your special finishing move available.

High scores and achievements are integrated with Game Center, with over 25 achievements. Extra content, such as outfits and alternative ring themes can be accessed by installing and starting certain other games, to earn the "TNA Stars" necessary to make the purchases.

I'm sure this all sounds amazing if you're a wrestling fan. Really, TNA Wrestling Impact offers a lot of features; but given the dubious history of wrestling games on the App Store, is this one awesome to play? Sadly, the answer is "not really". It's okay, not superb.

The first disappointment occurs during the introduction, when the characters speak without voice overs. With games like FIFA 11 and Fight Night providing quality commentary and other voice work, it's disappointing to see the wrestling characters communicate via subtitles, while their animated mouths flap endlessly and the same hand gestures loop over and over. It's difficult to convey the energy, showmanship and bravado of wrestling via sub-titles.

Once the match begins, the wrestler's movements feel slow and cumbersome, rather than smooth and exciting. Opponents occasionally fall over without any contact being made. Graphical glitches occur regularly, with the opponents boots disappearing inside your body, body parts being obscured by the ring or one wrestler walking straight through another. Brushing against a barrier outside the ring causes your superstar to collapse. The pumping music at the start disappears during gameplay, leaving the unrealistic sound of the crowd, who appear to be related to each other. At least, the same figures, in the same clothes, appear repeatedly. Interestingly, from some angles the audience are all facing away from the ring.

The game sometimes surprises by busting out a new move, like pummeling the opponent while standing on the ropes and pinning them in the corner. There's also satisfaction to be had from pulling off moves successfully, especially of the aerial variety, but overall the wrestling gets repetitive quickly. Overall, TNA Wrestling Impact seems to have a lot of potential, but ultimately fails in overall execution, which seems to be par for the course for most wrestling games� Especially in the mobile world.

When I first saw the trailer for Simogo's Bumpy Road [$2.99], I immediately knew it was something that I wanted to play. The graphics, music, and unique controls appealed to me on so many levels. I was given an early version of the game for our hands-on preview, and despite being unfinished and limited to just one mode, I absolutely loved it. Really, though, it just made me even more eager for the final version to hit the App Store. That day has finally come, as Bumpy Road is now available, and it's easily one of the most beautiful and fun games I've had the pleasure of experiencing.

The biggest standout in Bumpy Road is its innovative control mechanic. A car carrying a cute married couple drives automatically to the right, but you don't actually control the car itself. Instead, touching anywhere on the screen raises the elevation of the ground and creates a bump in the road. Using this, you can create a sort of wave to push the car back and forth or quickly tap under it to pop it into the air. This mechanic is dead simple to understand, but definitely takes some practice for it to click. Once it does, however, you'll be bouncing the little car all over the screen like an old pro, and it truly feels great.

At its core, Bumpy Road is a high scoring game that contains two different modes to play. The first, Evergreen Ride, is an endless trek along a randomly generated set of track designs. You try to make it as far as possible without running out of fuel or falling into a watery pit. Along you path, various types of gizmos are lying around waiting to be collected. Grabbing these will continuously fill your fuel gauge, and if you fill the gauge completely you'll trigger a bonus sequence that speeds up your car and removes any pits, allowing you to concentrate on picking up as many gizmos as you can before the sequence ends.

The second mode is Sunday Trip, and gives you another randomly generated level to drive in but one that has a finish line. The goal is to get to the finish line as quickly as possible. There aren't any water pits to worry about here, and collecting boost or clock items will improve your time at the end. There are gizmos to collect in this mode too, but no fuel gauge, and they simply go towards improving your time at the end as well. Both Evergreen Ride and Sunday Trip have their own Game Center leaderboards to compete on and a number of achievements to earn.

While Bumpy Road is indeed a solid high scoring game, it's the peripheral elements that transcend it from being merely a well-made video game to an unforgettable experience. I'm a strong believer that games can have a soul, and I can feel the love in Bumpy Road with every tap of the touch screen. The artwork is undeniably charming, simplistic but elegant and full of life. The music is catchy and inviting, and in a great touch collecting gizmos actually creates sound effects that enhance the soundtrack. Even touching the ground emulates the sounds of rolling across a toy piano, which actually make you feel like you're part of the game while playing it.

There is also a mild story element to Bumpy Road. As you drive along in Evergreen Ride, you'll occasionally come across old photographs to collect that each reveal a snippet of the married couple's life together. You can then view all of the collected photographs in a gallery accessed from the main menu. This gallery takes the form of a dimly lit room where the photographs are projected on a screen in front of a silhouette of the couple nestled closely on the couch in the foreground. This is such a simple feature, and yet, it feels so personal to be experiencing the lives and memories of this couple right along with them that it adds tremendously to the experience.

Taken at face value, Bumpy Road is an excellent high score game. The unique control mechanic offers an organic way to interact with the game, even if it's a little tricky to get the hang of. The pacing, scoring elements, and randomly generated levels all contribute to a game that's both enjoyable and highly replayable. But, Bumpy Road is much more than the sum of its parts. The real magic lies in the emotional attachment to the characters and the whimsical sounds and visuals that permeate every inch of the touch screen. There is a chorus of praise for the game in our forums as well, and if you like high scoring games or touching works of art, then you won't want to miss Bumpy Road.