Right smack in the middle of Macworld this past January, Liv Games released their first iOS title called Legendary Wars [99�/Lite]. It's a castle defense game similar to a plethora of other titles available in the App Store, but Legendary Wars made some smart design decisions that set itself apart from the rest. There are 3 different lanes to manage, which adds a layer of depth to the landscape as you send troops towards the enemy castle or deal with oncoming attacks. There are also a staggering number of different game types that afford a ton of variety to the gameplay. A full armory and upgrade system motivates you to keep on playing just one more game as you power up your offensive squad.

We were really surprised at just how much we enjoyed Legendary Wars in our review, and really the biggest negative we had was that the lovely artwork in the game didn't support Retina Display resolution, and looked pretty fuzzy on those devices. Today Liv Games has rectified this by releasing an update that includes Retina Display graphics and a number of other goodies. Check out these comparison shots below to see just how big a difference the higher resolution art work makes in Legendary Wars (normal resolution on left, Retina resolution on right. Click to enlarge):

In addition to the Retina Display support, this update to Legendary Wars also includes Game Center integration with 50 achievements and 5 leaderboards for Endless modes. There's also a brand new armory which unlocks upon completion of the Campaign, and several of the Hard and Legendary difficulty missions have been altered to be more balanced. There's also a host of other bug fixes and the game has been optimized to load faster and run more smoothly across all devices.

This update comes after last month's update which included a more casual-friendly control option and various other gameplay tweaks and balances. There is also a brand new lite version of Legendary Wars to try out which includes 7 exclusive levels not included in the regular version, and the full game is currently on sale for 99�. An iPad native version is in the works too, and Liv Games is hoping to roll that out in mid-April barring any complications.

Players have been loving the game in the very active forum thread, and if you own Legendary Wars grab this latest update to check out the new high resolution graphics and Game Center, and if you haven't picked up the title already check out the lite version for a taste of the gameplay.

Note: A memory bug has crept into this update for owners of 4th generation iPod touch devices which can cause crashes when several titles are in the multitasking memory. Liv Games already has a fix for this which should be submitted this weekend. Until then you can avoid the problem by clearing apps out of multitasking, and an update to officially address the problem should be out soon.

Vocal members of our community have long since written off ngmoco as a lost freemium cause, leaving us hardcore gamers in the dust as they move on to greener (and more casual) free to play pastures. The Rolando series seemed poised to become the Super Mario of the iOS platform when the original Rolando [99�] hit in in late 2008. In July of 2009, Rolando 2: Quest for the Golden Orchid [99�] was released, and is better than the original in every way imaginable.

Unfortunately, even though Rolando 3 was announced, poor sales of Rolando 2 combined with the wildly successful freemium-powered Eliminate [Free] seemed to be all ngmoco needed to seemingly give up on the Rolando franchise.

Check out the trailer to see what Rolando 2 is all about:

With a 99� price drop and a Retina Display update, I recommend everyone download Rolando 2, and you might as well snag Rolando while you're at it. Put simply, Rolando 2 is a fantastic iOS platformer that intelligently utilizes both touch and tilt to create one of the first "iOS-only experiences." It looks great with the new graphics, and the gameplay still stands on its own today. While we're incredibly excited that some of our favorite games are getting some entirely unexpected Retina Display treatment, it's still dreadfully disappointing that there hasn't yet been (and from where we're sitting likely won't be) a Rolando 3.

Recently Gameloft announced yet another upcoming title on their Facebook page. In the wake of N.O.V.A. [$4.99 / Lite / HD] and N.O.V.A. 2 [$6.99 / Lite / HD] comes N.O.V.A. � Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance Elite. Aside from the following promo image, that's all we know right now.

Now, even though Gameloft is being incredibly vague with details currently, we can likely make a few semi-safe assumptions here. First off, Gameloft never shows off games that aren't at least somewhat close to being released, so it seems unlikely that we'll be waiting that long for this game. Also, last month Gameloft announced that they will be using the Unreal Engine in the future. Given that the N.O.V.A. series is one of their more popular franchises, it seems reasonable that Elite might be one of the first Gameloft UE3 games.

We'll just have to wait to find out!

If you're one of the millions of people out there who have found themselves gingerly stroking their new iPad 2's lately waiting for some more games to truly unleash the beast on, today is your lucky day. The guys from Trendy Entertainment dropped us a note and let us know that Dungeon Defenders: First Wave now fully takes advantage of everything the iPad 2 has to offer. All you've got to do is download the latest version of Dungeon Defenders and turn the somewhat confusingly named "video upscale percentage" slider all the way up.

Doing so makes Dungeon Defenders look and play like this:

It might be a little hard to see in the video, but the difference is insane. Performance on the original iPad was always lackluster (to put it kindly) and it's crazy to see what a difference the iPad 2 hardware makes. Unfortunately, all of our original criticisms of the game's UI still stands, and even though it performs substantially better, it's still incredibly clunky to play due to the incredibly complicated on-screen interface.

Regardless, the game is on sale for a buck for the next few days so if you're looking for something to try on your iPad 2 or have just been looking to check out Dungeon Defenders, now is as good of a time as any.

Back in January we learned that Remedy Entertainment, developers of Max Payne and Alan Wake, would be resurrecting their first ever PC game Death Rally for an iOS remake. Today, that new version of Death Rally [$4.99] went live in the App Store. I never played Death Rally when it came out in 1996, so my opinion of this remade version won't be colored with knowledge of the original. Approaching it as strictly a new iOS title, Death Rally is one of the finest top-down racers in the App Store. Death Rally isn't perfect mind you, but it's an absolutely gorgeous title with satisfying combat-heavy racing and an engaging upgrade system.

The thing that sets Death Rally apart from most racers is its focus on combat. Each vehicle is equipped with a standard machine gun and a second stronger weapon of your choosing. These weapons, along with the vehicles beyond the first one, are unlocked by collecting items spread along the track while you're racing. Money is earned with every race you enter, with more money awarded based on what place you finish, how many cars you destroy, and other performance factors. Your winnings go towards upgrading the 5 available vehicles in the game in the areas of speed, handling, armor, and weapons.

Upgrading your cars and equipment is the real hook of Death Rally, and I was constantly wanting to play just one more race so I could fill up some more of my upgrade bars. The combat is also very satisfying, and there's nothing better than blowing the snot out of the car ahead of you in order to surpass them and win a race at the last moment. Controlling your vehicle is slightly awkward at first. A virtual control stick is used for both acceleration and turning, and there is no brake button. This isn't really necessary due to the arcade nature of the gameplay, but it caught me off guard at first. After just a few minutes though, I quickly warmed up to the controls and actually grew to really like them.

Death Rally offers 5 different tracks to race on, which doesn't sound like a whole lot, but the game does a good job of maximizing the variety in them. Each track has a reversed version, a rotated version, and a combination of both providing 20 variations of the same 5 courses. There are also several types of race variations, and in a clever design move you always have 6 races to choose from, with those 6 options refreshing after each race. This ensures that there's always something interesting to choose from in addition to the standard 6 vehicle race.

The highlight of Death Rally is the fantastic visuals, with support for Retina Display devices and full screen anti-aliasing on the iPad 2. The levels are incredibly detailed, as are the vehicle models which display damage during the course of a race. When a race is finished you'll get a close up view of your damaged vehicle in your garage and can watch it morph back to life when you repair it using your winnings, which is a cool effect. The visuals are made all the better by running at a rock solid frame rate throughout the game.

It will take about 6-8 hours to play through everything in Death Rally, but once finished there's not really a reason to come back unless you're compelled to earn the 50+ achievements or improve your lap times on the Game Center leaderboards. More tracks, vehicles, and a multiplayer mode would greatly extend the experience, and Remedy has said that these things are all planned for future updates. For an initial release though, Death Rally still contains a good amount of content, and it's a ton of fun to play through. There are a lot more positive impressions in our forums, and those looking for an action packed top-down racer would do well to check out Death Rally.