For more than a year now, CAVE has had a reputation of releasing high quality shooters on the App Store that featured hefty amounts of action, depth, and replay value. Their bullet hell shooters Espgaluda II [$11.99/Lite] and Dodonpachi Resurrection [$11.99/Lite] are two of the finest shooters around, and they proved they could translate their particular brand of manic gameplay to a more traditional action game with Mushihimesama Bug Panic [$6.99/Lite]. CAVE's latest title, Deathsmiles [$11.99/Lite], furthers their reputation of offering top quality shmups and us yet another excellent shooter to add to our collection.

Like the aforementioned CAVE shooters, Deathsmiles consists of a mode that mimics the arcade version of the game as well as an iPhone-specific mode with exclusive features. The arcade mode features 4 different playable characters and 8 total stages to play. The underlying gameplay mechanics are fairly straightforward. Your character automatically fires, and a button in the bottom corner toggles firing to the left or right. There's also a button to toggle between a regular shot and a laser shot, and a third button that performs a lock-on shot.

Enemies approach at a dizzying pace, and every level from start to finish you are constantly being bombarded by an assortment of awesome baddies in all shapes and sizes, as well as absolutely massive boss battles. Slain enemies will drop items which can be collected and go towards filling a counter in the lower left corner of the screen. When that counter reaches a thousand, you can activate a powered-up state that will give you increased firepower for the duration it takes the counter to return back to zero.

These base mechanics are pretty standard shmup stuff, but as with most CAVE games the real brilliance comes from the hidden depth in the scoring systems. Playing through Deathsmiles simply to complete the game is an exhilarating (if brief) experience, but players who want to score big and are looking for an extra challenge must take advantage of the many nuances to how enemies are killed and items are collected. If you want to take the game to the next level and really learn the ins and outs of the gameplay, our forum member ColdCoffee has put together this excellent�detailed FAQ thread that explains pretty much all you need to know about arcade mode and scoring tricks.

Then there's the new iPhone mode which is similar to the arcade mode but is played with a brand new exclusive character that has an interesting alternate storyline. It also features a sweet weapon and equipment system that lets you customize your character with different items that have unique attributes. You can buy items from a shop in the game or collect them when they are randomly dropped by defeated enemies. The ability to collect items adds a very slight RPG element to the game, which is awesome, and your items and gold are carried over persistently to each new play of iPhone mode.

Just about the only flaw I have found with Deathsmiles isn't something that's the fault of the game itself, but rather it's an inherent problem due to actually controlling the game right on the touch screen. It's a horizontally scrolling game rather than a vertical one, and enemies come at your from both sides of the screen rather than just the top, so your character spends a lot of time right smack in the middle of the screen. This means that by nature of controlling your character with your thumb or finger, you're going to be blocking a good amount of enemies and bullets that enter from the sides of the screen. It doesn't entirely hinder the gameplay, and it's manageable with some practice and experimenting with the 3 available screen sizes, but it's really the only area where Deathsmiles falters and is worth noting.

If you can deal with the less than ideal control situation, Deathsmiles offers a just as robust and enjoyable shooter experience as their previous efforts, if not more so. On the easiest settings, the game can be enjoyed by even the biggest shmup newbie, but deeper below the surface lie advanced difficulties and complex scoring mechanics that will tax even hardcore veterans of the genre. Multiple characters and storylines as well as Game Center achievements and leaderboards ensure that Deathsmiles can be played over and over again for a long time to come.

So far, CAVE is 4 for 4 with top-notch game releases on the App Store. If you're any sort of shmup fan then you'll definitely want to at least try out the lite version of Deathsmiles, and if you do be sure to check out the scoring FAQ thread and the general discussion game thread in our forums to get the most out of the experience.

<!-- PHP 5.x -->

Early yesterday morning we posted a trailer for Ninja Fishing, an upcoming title by Gamenauts which centralizes around a fishing mechanic, then gathering up those fish to kill them with your katana once they've surfaced. The trailer shows how all the gameplay works:

We saw the trailer and thought it looked pretty cool, and decided to toss it up here because we often do that with trailers of upcoming games that seem neat. Unfortunately, the Twitterverse woke up a few hours later and started raising awareness of just how similar Ninja Fishing is to Vlambeer's Radical Fishing which predates Ninja Fishing by nearly a year. How similar? Well, here's the trailer for Radical Fishing:

What makes this even more interesting is that Vlambeer had been secretly working on a reboot of Radical Fishing entitled Ridiculous Fishing, and had just been sitting on the announcement, presumably until they were a little further along. Things obviously changed in light of the impending release of Ninja Fishing, and Vlambeer sent us the following screenshots of the upcoming Ridiculous Fishing re-imagination:

Now, this isn't the first time we've seen such blatant "inspiration" in the life of the App Store. Looking back, we were incredibly excited for Super Mega Worm before a remake of the original Super Death Worm was announced a day later. And, hell, Gameloft releases new cringeworthy "inspired" games all the time. In regards to this particular fishing drama, we've reached out to both developers involved for reactions.

Vlambeer mentions how they've been contacted by Gamenauts who admit that Ninja Fishing was in fact inspired by Radical Fishing, although Vlambeer wishes Gamenauts would change things to not resemble Radical Fishing quite so much. Gamenauts' told us their side of the story, and here's what they've got to say:

…we wanted to provide a more family friendly experience while incorporating elements such as humor, explosive gameplay elements, such as mines and dynamite, and a slicing gameplay mechanic. We brought the fishing mechanic into the game, but wanted to deliver it in a new way. We intend to give the proper credit to Vlambeer for the original inspiration.

As far as TriplePoint, Gamenauts' PR agency is concerned, they were unaware of Radical Fishing before this all came to light yesterday. Unfortunately, the App Store has become a fairly welcome home to games that are either direct clones, or highly inspired by other games, making this particular story fairly familiar. After all, Angry Birds is the result of inspiration from Crush the Castle just like Papi Jump planted their flag first in the vertical jumping scene before Doodle Jump grabbed it.

With that being said, I'm looking forward to both Ridiculous Fishing as well as Ninja Fishing, and sincerely hope that there's enough to differentiate the two to make two crazy fishing games worth keeping around on my iPhone.

<!-- PHP 5.x -->

Hey it's Wednesday again and there is a lot going on in the world of Apple. Maybe not specifically iOS, but Lion was released today along with new Mac Minis, MacBook Airs, and a really sweet Thunderbolt-powered LCD that I've been fighting the urge to order for most of the morning. Our sister-site MacRumors has been doing a bang-up job of covering all this, as well as the Apple investor call yesterday which included some ridiculous statistics on just how well Apple is doing as a company.

Anyway, here's how these Wednesday releases work: iOS developers are able to set future release dates for games. Since the App Store is an international market with regions all over the world, things get released in each region as it becomes the pre-set date they're supposed to be released on. Thanks to its proximity to the International Date Line, things pop up on the New Zealand App Store first, followed by Asian markets, then European markets before appearing on the US App Store at 11:00 PM Eastern.

Here's what's coming tonight:

A Cloudy Adventure, 99� � Forum Thread � Apparently, a gang of evil squares have stolen a bunch of wheels of cheese and because of this you need to help a cloud on an adventure? Even though the premise doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense, I love wacky physics-based platformers, and have high hopes for this one.

Allied Star Police, Free � Forum Thread � This free game is the latest from Popcap's 4th and Battery. Better yet, it's the product of 9-year-old game designer, Owain Weinert who helped Popcap make the game via the Make a Wish Foundation. It's a lane-based battle game, and I'm expecting it to be just as much fun as 4th and Battery's previous freebies.

Back to the Future Episode 5 HD, $6.99 � Forum Thread � The exciting conclusion to the Back to the Future series of adventure games. If you've managed to make you way through the previous four installments, you might as well snag this one too, in the interest of not being left hanging on what happens.

Deadlock: Online, Free � Forum Thread � This dual stick shooter has a number of interesting twists: It's universal, played online with up to 8 players in multiple game modes, oh and it's free. There's daily tournaments to play in, 5 maps with more on the way, and tons more.

Dream Track Nation, 99� � Forum Thread � This physics-based sidescrolling stunt-centric racing game just looks awesome. Really, this is the kind of game I'd have been happy to spend $10 (or more) for on Xbox Live Arcade available on the App Store for a buck. I hope the game is successful enough to spawn a community of track makers, as Dream Track Nation could have infinite replay value.

Feed The Duck, 99� � Forum Thread � I think forum member Nullroar described this game the best in its thread: "It uses the wildly successful 'physics-based' genre, combines it with equally acclaimed 'cute, flightless birds-as-projectiles that you control' trope and introduces some clever twists." Yeah, I don't know how this one won't do well either.

Hero Teams, 99� � Forum Thread � This game looks an awful lot like Worms, but I've got to admit, I'm totally digging the art style. Hopefully gameplay follows suit.

Jet Set Go, 99� � Forum Thread � Crazy about time management game? Well, this one is apparently made by the team that had their fingers all over Sally's Spa. Themed with a travel agency, you'll need to make sure all of your customers happy through typical time management style actions and mini games.

Leap Worm, 99� � Forum Thread � In this game, you jump from planet to planet collecting stars. Yeah, the gameplay mechanic has been done more than a few times before, but Igloo Games always seems to make great games, so I've got high hopes for this one.

Mega Bad, 99� � Forum Thread � It seems like this game is a cross between Tilt to Live and several weird themes ranging from Zelda to Star Wars. Yoda, apparently, even is a boss in the game. Curious.

P-47 � The Phantom Fighter, $1.99 � Forum Thread � This game has a heck of a lot of history behind it through various ports and arcade machines, and I'm happy to finally see it on the App Store. Heck, now I can play it for eternity for what amounts to 8 plays of the old arcade.

Pet Society Vacation, Free � Forum Thread � EA's latest free to play game revolves around cute looking endlessly customizable pets. It doesn't do much for me, but I wouldn't be shocked at all to see this high up on the top grossing lists in a few days.

Qvoid, $1.99 � Forum Thread � This clever puzzle game centralizes around moving a cube around to clear colors from each level. Check out the above trailer, it looks really cool.

Sid Meier's Pirates!, $3.99 � Forum Thread � The Pirates! series has been amazingly popular, similar to basically everything Sid Meier touches. In the game, you take control of one of 27 different included ships, and do various pirate activities. Oh, it's even optimized for the iPad 2.

The Jolly Gang's: Spooky Adventure, $1.99 / Lite / HD / Lite HD � Forum Thread � I had a great time with Hamlet, even though some portions of the game involved puzzles that were beyond insane. I'm hoping for a similar adventure with The Jolly Gang.

Wooords, 99� � Forum Thread � Alright, so there have been a ton of similar word making games in the life of the App Store, but I really like the style of this one. Who doesn't love refrigerator magnets?

Zombie Gunship, 99� � Forum Thread � The coolest levels in Call of Duty games are always the AC-130 shooting levels (alright, and the sniper levels). Zombie Gunship takes that similar AC-130 gunning gameplay and puts you up against zombies, and I'm all for it.

8 Ball Pool, 99� � Forum Thread � 8 ball pool on a timer, and you've got to pocket as many balls before the time runs out. The Flash version apparently has been played over a billion times as well.

<!-- PHP 5.x -->