We've received word that InMotion Software, the creators of I Dig It and Dungeon Defense, has slashed the prices of a chunk of its iTunes portfolio. As of yesterday, several of their titles became cheaper than before:

I Dig It, Free - [iPad] � [Review] � In I Dig It, you play as Farmer Lewis, a man who is in a bit of a monetary pickle and needs to pay the mortgage on his farm. Naturally, when faced with financial difficulties, the first thing that comes to mind is retrofitting an old bulldozer into a digging machine to search for over 60 types of subterranean treasures beneath your homestead. The iPad version, I Dig It HD [$2.99] is also on sale, and sports many improvements mentioned when we first got our hands on it.

I Dig It Expeditions, $0.99 - [iPad] � [Review] � Continuing on his adventure, Farmer Lewis strikes it big from the original I Dig It (spoilers?) and decides to take his digger on the road. In Expeditions, you dig in many different locations, including a crazy underwater level. If you liked I Dig It, Expeditions is as close to a "must-have" as you can get.

Dungeon Defense, $0.99 - [iPad] � [Review] � An odd twist on tower defense that puts you in charge of a dungeon, and you need to place various minions to defend it. The iPhone version has been 99� for a while, but if you've got an iPad Dungeon Defenders HD [$1.99] is worth picking up while it's on the cheap.

Professor Wordington's Spellatorium [$2.99] is one of the few InMotion-developed joints that didn't receive a cut. The reason is probably tied to the fact that the game just released on the App Store on December 19 � a mere few days ago.

Prof Word seems pretty cool based on our limited time with it so far. It's a word in which you and an opponent take turns adding letters to a word fragment. The point is to not be the dude who ends up spelling a word, or, additionally, be the first dude to point out that a word cannot be spelled from the growing letter cluster. Basically, the game boils down to tricking someone and knowing the dictionary.

Also, there's a layer of RPG elements that spice up the adversarial play. Each word fight has multiple rounds since each opponent has a health bar. You earn and find items that magnify the amount of damage you can do in a round, as well as blunt the impact of screwing up. And if that wasn't enough, there's InMotion constructed a hip, limited environment to explore and find dudes to fight inside.

Prof Word is available for the iPad now and we've been told that a Universal app update has been submitted to Apple. Check it out if this all sounds hip to you, or, hey, grab I Dig It's bangin' follow-up on the cheap.

2XL Games have made a fantastic name for themselves on the App Store with a series of games based on extreme motor sports. These include 2XL Supercross [99� / Lite / HD], 2XL ATV Offroad [$4.99 / Lite], 2XL Trophylite Rally [99� / HD], and as of this coming January, Ricky Carmichael's Motocross Matchup. As the title hints, Ricky Carmichael is the front man for this game, and boasts an impressive resume of various trophies, medals, and other awards from all kinds of different Motocross events.

According to 2XL, the upcoming game is going to feature five supercross tracks (odd, considering this is a motocross game), two outdoor tracks, a race shop, and "an exciting line-up of super-charged Suzuki bikes". We're still waiting for additional clarification on how it will work, but the game also includes a "match-up mode" which will allow players to compete head to head online for positioning on leaderboards. It isn't entirely clear if this is realtime, or merely racing other people's ghosts, but we hope to find out soon.

We thought 2XL Supercross was a really cool game, but a bit shallow in our review. If they take similar gameplay, and add some additional depth through more tracks, a bike upgrade system, or even this new match-up mode, they're going to have a great game on their hands (and in our hands).

Last month EA Mobile's newest entry to their Need For Speed franchise -�Hot Pursuit -�launched in the App Store. Hot Pursuit toned down most of the things that were aimed at hardcore gearheads and instead focused on a more casual but fast-paced arcade experience. The game is definitely a fun ride, if somewhat shallow, and we generally enjoyed it in our review.

One thing we didn't like so much, however, was the single-sided career mode in the game. Hot Pursuit is based on high-speed chases with law enforcement, but there was only ever the option to play as the police and not the perp getting chased. This was especially perplexing since EA unintentionally announced during a Japanese media event in October that Hot Pursuit would contain two career modes for a total of 48 events. When it shipped with just one career and 24 events, we were a little disappointed.

This is no longer an issue now as EA has apparently tracked down the missing half of the game and issued it in an update earlier today. There is now an additional career mode for the "racer" that contains 24 events over 4 different modes with an entirely new set of achievements to obtain. The racers share many of the same cars as the cops do, with some exclusive ones as well, and you can now change the color of your car when playing as the racer. You can also use the racer's different arsenal of weapons � overdrive, jamming, and oil slicks � when trying to ditch the boys in blue.

I must admit I'm not typically a big Need for Speed fan, although there have been entries in the series over the years that I've really enjoyed. But I've been having a great time with Hot Pursuit on iOS mostly because of its stripped-down nature and simple focus on driving. Maybe I was their target audience for this game. Still, it got kind of old always having to play Johnny Law when sometimes you just wanted to be the outlaw breaking the speed limit. Now that is finally possible thanks to this gigantic new update. Also, don't forget that if you have yet to pick up Need for Speed Hot Pursuit that both the iPhone/iPod touch version and the iPad version are currently going for just 99� for a limited time.

Oh hey, speaking of retro-style 2D platformers, my current favorite of the bunch Pizza Boy [$1.99] just got a pretty nice little update. Pizza Boy was released back in September, and when we reviewed the game we noted its wonderful 16-bit style pixel art and absolutely spot-on controls. In fact I would say that Pizza Boy has the best controls out of any traditional platform game on iOS that uses virtual buttons. About the only thing we didn't like in the game was how positively short it was, and as enjoyable as the gameplay is in Pizza Boy it just feels like it ends much too quickly.

Developer Acne Play realized this shortcoming and has rectified it somewhat with the game's first ever update. They have added additional levels to the game, but you're going to have to work for them. As you traverse through the original levels, you can now seek out and collect 8 different keys hidden throughout the game. Each key then unlocks one of 8 new bonus levels to play. For a game that originally came with only 12 levels, an additional 8 is quite a nice thing, and is good incentive to replay the original levels over again.

Also part of this update is the badly needed critical fix to the P-I-Z-Z-A letters that you can collect in each level. Some levels were missing certain letters, preventing you from collecting the entire word, and this update rectifies that. Also, there are new monsters and graphics along with general bug fixes and optimizations. If you like 2D platforming games, you owe it to yourself to check out Pizza Boy, and there is a forum thread full of positive impressions to back that up. I'm happy to see Acne Play adding new content to the game, even if it did take a few months, and hopefully they won't stop here and will come out with additional updates for Pizza Boy in the future.