Most music-based games are based on the same premise: interaction with the rhythm or beat of the song in some form or fashion. That's why Say What?! [Free] seems like such an interesting take on the genre; rather than interacting with the musical composition, the game challenges you to interact with the actual lyrics. While I think that Say What?! is definitely one of the more interesting takes on the genre that I've seen, a very limited selection of music coupled with a lack of gameplay diversity leaves it somewhat wanting.

The premise of Say What?! is simple: as lyrics to a song are displayed at the top of the screen various images scroll across the bottom portion from right to left. When portions of the lyrics light up, you must tap on the image that corresponds to the highlighted lyric.

On easier difficulties the relationship between image and lyric is simple. However, as the difficulty ramps up, the relationships become more abstract and require greater thinking and comprehension. This is further amplified by the fact that a lot more images start going by faster on the harder difficulties.

Make no mistake, while Say What?! may be classified under the music genre, this is less of a music-based game and more of a puzzle/word comprehension title oriented around music lyrics. Fans of Rappin' Granny [$0.99] will be somewhat familiar with this type of gameplay and should enjoy it, as well as anyone that can handle games that require snap thinking. However, for everyone else this game will probably seem like a frustrating exercise in futility.

Until you play it a few times, that is. One of the biggest issues I have with Say What?! is that the highlighted lyrics and images associated with them appear to be set pieces. This means that, assuming you play the same song enough, you should be able to memorize the patterns for each song and thus raise your score with ease. Sure, the surrounding wrong images appear to randomize each time, but if you know exactly what image to look for, you really won't care about the other 'noise' images.

This is further compounded by the fact that Say What?! only has three free songs, with a paltry seven more songs available as IAP for $1.99 each. The IAP seems a bit expensive considering that there's not even any way to preview the songs being purchases (although I suppose one could just search online for a preview of them). Finally, while I don't have a problem with the songs I tried, I feel that the limited variety of genres will be a turn off for some players.

While I did enjoy Say What?!, it's a game of limited appeal and limited content. If you're looking for an interesting twist on the puzzle/music genre, I'd say give Say What?! a try. Unfortunately, even if you enjoy the experience, it ends up being way too short. Hopefully the game will continue to expand and add more songs of various genres, which would be a good first step of creating a�fan base�around this interesting game.

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If you've never heard of Ragnarok Online, I'd have to assume that you've been living under a rock since about 2002. The popular Korean MMORPG came to American shores in 2003, but by that time it already had a rabid fanbase among Korean gamers (50,000,000 million players worldwide to date). The game originally started as a Pay To Play title, but a Free To Play version came along later down the line, which only amped its popularity. What more could you ask for from a fun little MMO like this? Why, to make it portable, of course … and with Ragnarok Violet [Free], that's just what you've got.

In Ragnarok Violet, you will play the young hero who hopes to become a knight and eventually gets drafted to stop the Dark Lord from reawakening. Okay, I know that that doesn't sound particularly new or creative, but hey, it's an RPG. Sometimes you just have to breathe your way through the cliches and get on with the gameplay. Speaking of, the game goes with the good old top down format that you'll fondly remember from so many Super Nintendo RPGs of old.

If you love grinding, leveling your character, boosting stats and doing the whole fight in the fields/go back to town schtick, Ragnarok Violet's got you covered. You'll be given quests right off the bat and soon be on your way to exploring. The control scheme works just fine, although the D pad on the left bottom corner of your screen is a bit large and will impede your vision on occasion. Slots for quick spell access on your right bottom corner are particularly handy and make it easy to start using those skills you're racking up.

Fighting is … well, it's pretty standard hack and slash stuff that consists of hitting the same button over and over. Leveling happens pretty quickly, which means you can start getting comfy with the stat and skill point systems. Unlike many of the retro titles that likely inspired it, Ragnarok Violet doesn't torture you to get your character stronger in the beginning, which is a blessing as far as I'm concerned. Who wants to be murdered by a slime before you even hit level three? That does not make you feel like a hero, I can tell you that.

Ragnarok Violet does feature one thing which most RPGs don't, and that is a pet system. You can tame these guys at a pet shop in town and they will offer little benefits to your quest, such as aiding HP or gathering items, as long as you remember to keep them fed. They also offer chatty commentary and are just generally cute. No doubt this feature is a great hit with fans of ultra cute characters in RPGs (in other words, all of Asia), but let's face it: If �you're playing Ragnarok Violet in the first place, you obviously already have a soft spot in your heart for cute stuff.

You can earn money in-game to buy stuff to beef up your arsenal, or you can hit a little shop button in your top right corner and make In-App Purchases with real money. A lot of the stuff is just for fun, like hats for your pet, but there are also useful items for sale like instant revives. I'm not a fan of buying items in games personally, but if you are, I think you'll find there's a decent selection of fun, inexpensive things to choose from.

There are a few major weaknesses in Raganarok Violet. Firstly, the skill tree is just kind of sad and underdeveloped-looking, and doesn't offer a lot of exciting skills to get. I also found the minimap more or less useless, as it just looks like a tiny sprite map with an icon of your head on it and does not really point you in the direction of any destination you might need to find. Lastly, the dialogue hovers somewhere right below average, and on occasions is downright awful. It feels really rushed, and I spotted a lot of�misspellings. Also, our hero has an attitude that makes me want to kick him into next week, but that's just my opinion, mind you.

Regardless of any weaknesses, however, fans are sure to go rabid for Ragnarok Violet, even if it's based just on the nostalgia factor of having played Raganarok Online in the past. Although it has its flaws, it still offers a huge world to explore and plenty of solid (if not terribly innovative) gameplay. Some of that might make you pause and consider whether it's worth your hard earned dollars, but wait � it's free. No reason to hesitate now, yes?

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While some traditional publishers are resisting the trends towards lower-cost software in the handheld gaming space, others are actively working to figure out how to make these sorts of experiences work on their existing platforms. While not a shining beacon of success, the PSP Minis campaign does demonstrate a good faith effort on the part of Sony to cater to the direction that portable gaming seems to be heading. A few growing pains are part and parcel of adapting to a changing market, and there have been a few notable early wins scattered through the program.

One of the largest of these successes has been Frima Games' A Space Shooter for Two Bucks, which recently reported a healthy figure of 150,000 downloads over PSN. Given the type of game they made, and its popularity on PSP, it's no surprise that the developers worked to port the title over to the iPhone. Making its debut on iOS as A Space Shooter For Free [Free/HD], this game retains all the good elements from its PSP origin and joins a catalog of solid shmups available on the platform.

A Space Shooter For Free is the story of P. Jefferson, an optimistic and nerdy kid who is relentlessly tortured by bullies at school. Much like our own Brad Nicholson, Jefferson turns to obsessive weightlifting and unjustified xenophobia as a means of dealing with his repressed rage issues. Equal parts bravado and libido, he's essentially a mash-up of Zap Brannigan and Duke Nukem.

However, unlike the Duke, this universe does not celebrate his misogyny or misbehaviors, making the character much more tolerable. The story and dialogue are snappily done in comic-book panel style, and Jefferson's pathetic attempts to "court" the older woman who runs the upgrade store were just cheesy enough to keep me coming back to see if the idiot could pull it off.

Let me start off the gameplay discussion by stating that this game is no Cave title; if you're looking to have your socks blown off by god-tier bullet hell action, this is not the one for you. That being said, Frima blends a cornucopia of strong elements into ASSFF that give the game tons of depth and replay value.

In standard vertical-scrolling space shooter fashion, enemies of varying types will converge on your ship from all directions. Memorizing their attack patterns and behaviors will be the key to your success, as will scooping up the power-ups that destroyed baddies leave on the screen. The usual suspects are all here: shields, missiles, and main gun bumps give your ship a temporary boost in fighting power. Some missions will be against standard waves of aliens, and some will feature boss characters to defeat. Clearing a boss stage will provide your ship with one of five special weapons that is persistent throughout the rest of the game.

Speaking of persistent, along with your temporary power-ups, you'll be collecting scrap/currency that you can use in-between missions to purchase permanent upgrades to your ship. There's a great deal of variety here, and the desire to grind out enough scratch to get the next upgrade kept me motivated to pew-pew bravely on. Adding spread to your main cannon, magnets to pull scrap in for you, devices to increase the power or reduce the energy cost of special weapons, and items that maximize the efficiency of temporary power-ups are all options.

Difficulty between stages can vary wildly, and so if you play solely in the campaign mode you'll find yourself needing to grind in order to upgrade enough to tackle later sectors. This is the perfect time to take a break and check out the survival mode. It's your standard wave-after-wave affair, but the high-score push is a draw, and Frima smartly allows any currency you earn in survival mode to carry back over into the campaign.

ASSFF falls into the same control traps that many iPhone shmups do. The touch controls feels right and auto-fire helps the cause, but especially when the difficulty begins to mount you'll be covering vital parts of the action with your finger. The position of special weapons also make them difficult to activate without leaving your ship unprotected in a sea of murderous plasma bolts while you trigger them.

The game (as you'd rightly expect by the title) is free to download, and there's more than enough content before the pay wall to help you make up your mind. If you find yourself sucked in like I did, a reasonable $.99 IAP will unlock the rest of the campaign content. Additional IAPs are available for those who want all the ship upgrades from the get-go. A Space Shooter For Free does a lot of different things, and juggles them very well. For the quality and quantity of shooter on display here, the value proposition is dynamite. For an initial price of free, I'd definitely encourage downloading and checking out this title.

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Let's talk about big money (no big prizes) for a second. Financial news site Bloomberg is reporting that�Angry Birds creator�Rovio Mobile is 'considering' taking a strategic investment from an 'entertainment company' to expand their wares to China and fund the upcoming movie. If it goes through, unnamed sources indicate that this investment would give Rovio the value of about 1.2 billion. I love it!

These mysterious sources aren't indicating what parties are interested in investing. We agree with analyst superstar Michael Pachter when he suggests that EA, Zynga, or even Disney are the likeliest possible investors. All of these companies have a huge stake in the mobile space, and obviously wouldn't mind getting a piece of the Angry Birds action. Disney definitely needs the most cred out of all of these publishers.

Fake, but you get the idea.

If you needed an indication of how popular Angry Birds is outside the world of the App Store or Android, look no further than your local Wal-Mart. Kiosks with Angry Birds plush toys are starting to appear. Also, several stores are carrying shirts with the iconic catapult games' various winged mascots.

Love it or hate it, you already knew Rovio's bird game is a powerhouse. I wonder how much longer this can last, though.

[Via Bloomberg, Joystiq - Image 1 via A Kid's Pencil, Image 2 via Gadget Sin]

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