While we weren't too crazy about Dungeon Defenders: First Wave [$2.99] in our review, we have no problem getting behind any developer committed to continually supporting their games. We've already posted about Trendy Entertainment's intentions to add completely cross-platform multiplayer, and on Christmas Eve, they released this teaser trailer for Dungeon Defenders: Arena.

Trendy is referring to the arena as a "PvP expansion", so we're not really sure quite yet whether this is going to be a free update, a whole new app, or some kind of DLC. We hope with all of these feature additions they have time to address some of the control issues, as once all of these Dungeon Defenders updates hit, we're going to have an iOS game on our hands with an insane feature set.

For more information on Dungeon Defenders, check out the game's thread in our forum. Alternatively, if you've already got the game and are just looking for people to play with, we've got a thread for that too.

We'd like to extend our thanks to TouchArcade forum user Crex who worked tirelessly over the holidays to put together an epic thread. Originally asking everyone to list their top games of 2010, Crex went through and compiled the top ten games in to a poll which closed last night.

Epic Games' Infinity Blade [$5.99] put up a fight, but in the end, the unofficial TouchArcade Forums Game Of The Year award goes to Crescent Moons' ambitious and expansive open-world RPG Aralon: Sword and Shadow HD [$6.99] for the iPhone and iPad.

Aralon grabbed the award with 22.8 percent of our user votes in the unofficial message board poll. Infinity Blade came in second with 20.15 percent, while Real Racing 2 [$9.99] was third with 14.6 percent.

In our review, we noted that Aralon is unlike any other experience you'll have on the iOS so far. In brief, the game is wicked big and boasts tons of customization, quests, and areas of interest. Solid character movement, helpful quest logs, and the game's combat are just some of its other positive features that our forum readers have come to love.

Aralon is Galoobeth Games joint, but back in May, Crescent Moon stepped in and gave the RPG a well-document makeover, helping generate even more interest in our upcoming games thread, as it reached more views than any other thread in TA forums history. Now that it's out, the threads on Aralon continue to grow.

Crescent Moon is still working on Aralon, by the way, and our message board is undoubtedly proving vital. The studio is implementing forum suggestions and is obviously dedicated to listening to what you guys have to say. Keep it up! Also, congrats to�Aralon and Crescent Moon!

Pixelocity Software is a development team of two brothers who have previous experience in the game industry working on big name console titles. They decided to branch out and form their own studio in an effort to create smaller, more fun-focused titles. Based on their first iOS offering Disc Drivin' [$2.99/Free], they're off to a pretty fantastic start.

Disc Drivin' is a turn-based racing game that can be played locally or online with up to 4 players in each race. If "turn-based racing game" sounds weird to you, you're not alone, as I had trouble envisioning how something like that could work or even be fun when I first heard of the game. However, once I actually tried Disc Drivin' it quickly became clear just how brilliant an idea it is. If you've ever played the board game Pitch Car, this is essentially the video game equivalent. It's missing a couple of online features that keep it from realizing its full potential, but the foundation is solidly in place for what I can only describe as Words With Friends [99�/Lite/HD] meets racing.

In Disc Drivin', cars are replaced with tiny discs that are advanced down a race track one flick at a time. Choose what direction to aim your disc, and the power and angle of your flick determines the course the disc will take. Physics play a role as your disc will slide along the ground like a shuffleboard puck and bounce off of walls and other objects along the track. Once you've flicked your disc and it finally comes to rest, it's the next player's turn, and play continues like this as you each make your way around 3 laps of a track to complete a race.

Various special move can also be used to spice up the racing. Sliding your disc along the track or bumping into other players' discs fills up a power gauge, and once this gauge is full you can unleash one of the 6 special moves in the game. These include a speed burst, the ability to stop on a dime (handy if you're about to fly off a track), and a jump for leaping over obstacles or taking shortcuts, among other moves. Also, each of the 12 different tracks are filled with obstacles, like speed boost pads, pinball-like bumpers, and ramps.

The way that players each take turns moving is what makes Disc Drivin' a perfect fit for the asynchronous online play it contains. You'll take your turn, close out of the app and go about your business, and once the other players have taken their turns you'll receive a push notification that it's your turn again. In addition to online play, there is also local play over WiFi or Bluetooth and a single-device pass-and-play mode for up to 8 players. Sadly, there is no single-player component with computer AI to race against, and Disc Drivin' is strictly a multiplayer-focused game at the moment.

What's funny about Disc Drivin' is that it has actually been out for a couple of weeks, but I didn't start to notice it until practically everybody in my Twitter feed was talking about the game and setting up matches with each other. And this brings me to my biggest complaint about Disc Drivin', which is that there is no built-in way to find new players or match up with random people. You have to know the username of who you'd like to add to an online race beforehand, and there's no friend list to keep track of who you play with. Both of these problems could be handled with the use of Game Center, but for now you'll need to rely on reaching out to your fellow Man using social networks and the like for exchanging usernames.

There are a couple of really nice features included in the online games, though. First there is a simple text chat that is easily accessible anytime during a game, and while in my experience it's mostly used for trash talk it can occasionally come in handy to compliment an opponent on a particularly nice move as well. The other great feature is the ability to watch a replay of each opponent's previous move, which is extremely helpful to get you up to speed when jumping into a game after a period of time. Also worth mentioning is that while the graphics are fairly simple, they're actually quite attractive. The tracks and landscapes are colorful and support the Retina Display, and the game runs at an incredibly smooth frame rate.

Even with the somewhat limited matchmaking, Disc Drivin' is a total blast to play. The flicking mechanic works well and the physics in the game are floaty and fun. The special moves and the extensive number of well-designed tracks adds a lot of variety to the gameplay, and you'll no doubt experience a lot of epic moments during races, like blasting into the lead with a speed boost, knocking an opponent off a track, or nailing a perfect shortcut jump to take a huge lead. Something about the gameplay is just so satisfying, and the turn-based nature fits into a busy lifestyle. In fact, I've been playing almost the entire time while I've been writing this review, and you can have up to 20 games going at once if you wish.

If Pixelocity can find a way to streamline matchmaking and add a friends list, and possibly even a single-player component for offline play, then Disc Drivin' could be really huge. For now, you can check out the game's thread in our forums to pick up some usernames and start up some matches. Even in its current form, Disc Drivin' is still a fun and unique experience, and the free version is actually the full game supported with ads, so there's no reason not to download it and take these discs for a spin.

I know what you're thinking, but despite the name,�Big Blue Bubble's newest iOS game Burn the Rope [99�] has nothing to do with the popular title Cut the Rope [99�/Lite]. It's actually a completely unique kind of puzzle game that tasks you with burning a design made out of rope by igniting just one point of the picture and guiding the flame, earning a medal based on the percentage of the entire picture that you burn. Various insects and spiders affect how you're able to burn the rope, and the 80 levels contained in the game get increasingly more difficult and complex as you go. There are a couple minor annoyances about Burn the Rope, but the core gameplay is engaging and there's enough content in the game to keep you busy for some time.

The basics of Burn the Rope involve touching a single point of the rope design to start a flame burning. The flames that ignite will only burn upwards, so you must spin your device around as the rope burns to keep the flame always moving up. It's possible to have multiple flames burning the picture at once if you can keep them all pointing upwards, but once a flame sits stagnant sideways or downwards for too long it will burn out. Torching at least 60% of a puzzle will net you a bronze medal, 80% for a silver, and the entire 100% will land you a gold medal.

As you progress in the game, bugs will begin to appear in the levels crawling along the rope. Different colored ants will change the color of your flame if you burn them up. Some levels contain pictures with portions made out of colored rope, so you have to strategically burn the correct colored ant to change your flame to the same color as the rope you're trying to burn. There can also be colored beetles crawling in some levels that add to your level completion percentage when burned, but again your flame must match their color in order for it to count. Finally there are spiders that will shoot out a string of web when burned, enabling you to reach portions of the rope picture that would normally be inaccessible as they aren't connected to the rest of the picture.

I don't normally like having to twist and turn my device around to play a game, but it doesn't bother me in Burn the Rope because the motions are mostly subtle, and there's an almost hypnotic feeling to slowly turning your device in your hands as you follow the flame along the rope. In this way, Burn the Rope has more in common with the Zen Bound series than any other game I can think of. The levels get fiendishly clever and complex the farther you go, and it will be a real challenge for anyone to attain gold medals on all 80 of them.

While the gameplay is interesting and fun, there are a few small things I feel could be better about Burn the Rope. It has a really cute art style, but it would definitely benefit from being enhanced with Retina Display support to make it stand out more. Also, I'd like to see Game Center integration with some neat achievements tied to the game's progression. The developers have stated in our forums that both of these features are already planned for the first two updates, and I think that once those hit it will add a lot to the overall package.�One small problem I noticed was that the way the rope burns can sometimes be odd, leaving a very tiny chunk of rope unburnt when it shouldn't be. This forces you to replay a level if you're going for 100% completion, and although it happens infrequently it can be pretty annoying.

Despite any minor issues, Burn the Rope is a pretty great experience. I came very close to just glossing over the game because I assumed it was some sort of Cut the Rope ripoff, but I'm really glad that I checked out the trailer and gave the game a shot. There's plenty of content to play through, with 80 levels currently in the game and more coming in updates. Burn the Rope is definitely worth a look if you're interested in a unique puzzle game, and if you aren't afraid to spin your device around in public.