The Hexog are coming, and it's up to you, as the ARC pilot, to stop them. You'll need to bring your best Bust-A-Move skills to the table if the Hexog threat is to be eliminated, and the universe of Current [$0.99] is to be saved.

While some action match games let you play calmly, Current demands nothing less than your best reflexes. The Hexog breed, you see. Let them get a foothold, and they'll spread swiftly. The green ones grow exponentially, each one spawning into every surrounding hex. The red ones fill straight lines. The blue ones… well, let's not talk about the blue ones.

To fight them, you need take your ship to their systems and yank them out of the sky. Firing them back at a matching Hexogs will destroy both, and take out others around them. You have a limited number of shots per level, so make them count. Each of Current's 56 levels is a struggle as you fight to swiftly defeat the multiplying hordes before you run out of ammunition.

In the first sets of levels, your only weapon is your shot. But eventually, you discover the game's namesake "current," a force you can use to arm yourself against the Hexog. You unlock weapons that use their multiplying powers against them, blowing them to bits when they breed and forcing them to infect each other. This is war, and it isn't always pretty. Well, actually, it is quite pretty, with all those wireframe Hexog exploding all over the grid.

The whole thing happens to the beat of an original techno soundtrack � make sure to wander into the music menu and play with the different songs. They take Current from a pretty interesting Puzzle Bobble clone to something really cool. The beat of the music rules everything � the Hexog breed to the beat and you slaughter them to it as well. It gets downright hypnotic at times, when you get in the zone and polish them off with style.

Other times it's a little more frustrating, but a recent update addressed that problem. Now not only can you switch between three difficulty levels, you can also toggle the game to a turn-based mode at any time. The Hexog will only breed once per each of your shots in this mode, avoiding the utter chaos of the original action. Things can still get completely out of control if you're not careful, but it's all a little more strategic and a little less reflexive.

If you can't get enough of Current, you can replay on higher difficulty modes or try to get three stars on each level. The levels are procedurally generated, so it shouldn't be the same experience twice. Game Center Leaderboards seem like an obvious addition, and hopefully they'll show up in an update some day. It sounds like there are more levels, game modes and songs in the works, so there should be plenty of opportunities to destroy the Hexog yet to come. Good thing, too � I just love to watch them disappear.

Have a Snake-shaped hole in your app collection? Longing for light cycles? Check out Hard Lines [$0.99], by Spilt Milk Studios. It's the perfect mix of point-gobbling and line-racing arcade action in one little package.

The basic gameplay is simple and familiar. You take control of Lionel, a line that can take only 90 degree turns. You've got a choice of controls, with Tappy's on screen buttons, Swipey's swipes to turn, and Turny, which divides the screen into two tapping zones (yes, the game presents its controls with those rather tongue-in-cheek names). If you crash your line into itself, another line or a wall, it's toast. Your goal, as in Snake, is to survive and earn as many points as you can in the process.

Don't write this off as just another knockoff. Hard Lines takes the formula further with six great game modes. Yes, you can play Snake mode, where your line grows ever longer as you gobble up glowy things. Or you can play Survival mode, which is a light cycle battle that pits you against a couple opponent lines. Deadline gives you three minutes to pull in the highest score possible, while Gauntlet sends an endless supply of enemy lines at you. There's also Pinata, where the lines you kill explode into piles of point-bearing glowy things, and Time Attack, which requires you to keep earning points to keep going.

What you get out of all that variety is a high-score race that doesn't get dull. Hit a plateau in one mode and you can move to the next. Unfortunately the leaderboards are currently only OpenFeint, not Game Center, but Spilt Milk Studios plans to address that in an upcoming update. They'll also be adding Retina support and tweaking the difficulty to get players right into the action. You can keep tabs on their plans in our forums.

What Hard Lines is missing in those features, it makes up for with charm and humor. The lines are chatty little things, always ready with quips to entertain you or to lament their deaths. On a long enough timeline these might get old, but so far the developer has been adding more quips to keep them fresh. The graphics and sound have a retro-stylish appeal that brings to mind the games Hard Lines owes its existence to. Oh, and make sure not to miss the vocal theme in the tutorial � it's really something to hear.

I expect that the lack of Game Center support will be a deal-breaker for many of our readers. If you can let that go, there's a great arcade gaming waiting for you in Hard Lines. I'll be waiting for you on the leaderboards if you decide to jump in.

When I originally played the outstanding game Osmos [$2.99/HD], the unhurried gameplay and soothing music lulled me into a calmer state. �People have made similar comments about the relaxing effects of Zenbound 2 [$2.99] and�Spirits [$2.99/HD].�It's been a while since another game had this effect on me, but Wisp: Eira's Tale [$2.99/Lite]�by Triolith Entertainment seems to�exert a calming influence.�There's no timer or score, just a little glowing fairy (wisp) named Eira who's lost in the forest and needs your help to return home.

The controls are tilt-and-touch. Tilting your device moves Eira left or right. Tapping and holding the screen causes her to float upwards. Using these controls, you can search each level to discover three blue crystals and an exit portal.�This is one of those games where you're constantly doing little taps and tilt adjustments to tweak your character's floating direction and speed. And�there's nasty things to avoid. Apparently, an ancient creature named Fafnir is bleeding and his black blood is corrupting the forest with evil and monsters, which Eira mustn't touch. She has no weapon, so avoidance is her main strategy.

There are three elemental shrines which assist your journey, by providing temporary abilities based on earth, fire and ice. If you discover an 'Earth shrine' it lets you carry rocks to crush stone barriers, although they make Eira's movements slow and heavy. 'Fire shrines' allow you carry flames, to burn cobwebs that block your path.�While 'Frost shrines' let you freeze any evil "corruption" , making it icy and passable, but if you fly into a wall while holding frost, Eira will shatter to pieces. Fortunately, plenty of save-stones are available, which save your position within the level, as a re-spawn point.

The game includes 3 worlds to complete, with 10 levels per world (30 levels in total). �There are 15 achievements via Game Center. The first world is fairly straightforward as enemies move predictably in fixed paths. In the second world, new more aggressive and intelligent creatures are introduced that actually pursue you. One of the best features is the wind effect, which carries you quickly around the level on a gust of air.

I haven't unlocked the third world yet.�The developers advise that additional levels are planned, but a decision hasn't been made regarding pricing. Given that only 30 levels are provided initially and there's no incentive to replay levels for better scores or time, I wouldn't be surprised if the additional levels are eventually provided as free upgrades to boost the overall gameplay duration. Time will tell.

The graphics are beautiful, especially the images of a forest in mist, which forms a suitably ethereal backdrop for this fantasy game. The main menu includes a button to toggle between high and low quality graphics, if performance is an issue, although the high quality mode ran smoothly on the iPad 1.�The 2.5d graphics are accompanied by nordic folk music and ambient bird and insect noises, which one might associate with an earlier age of faeries. My only complaint about the graphics is that if you introduce three "worlds", they should each appear distinctive, whereas the first two worlds (at least) share common graphics.

In our forums, the developers describe Wisp as "an ambient nordic-inspired puzzle adventure which emphasizes exploration and navigation rather than intense action". �That's a pretty good description, but don't expect "puzzles" in the form of brain teasers to solve � the puzzles they refer to relate to searching the level, avoiding danger and opening doorways, not solving brain-teasers. Also, although the�title "Eira's Tale" implies a storyline about Eira's forest adventure, there's no cut-scenes or elaboration on the background story by the mid-way point.

Many modern games are characterized by frantic gameplay, bullets, killing, and explosions; but Wisp: Eira's Tale is intentionally the opposite. At least initially, as it does ramp up in difficulty as you progress. At $2.99 for a universal app and with a brand new lite version to try, this game is suitable for those who enjoy chillaxing with a graphically-appealing game, with tilt controls and no emphasis on score or best times. If that sounds like you, then Wisp: Eira's Tale is worth checking out.