Little known fact about the Araknasaur: its eggs are delicious. And the evil CEO of the Robot Seafood Corporation wants them for breakfast. He wants them so badly, he's willing to bring the full might of his aquatic robot army to bear against the Araknasaurian hero of Velocispider [$0.99], a Universal retro arcade shooter that's as ridiculous as it sounds. It's created by Retro Dreamer, creators of Linkoids [2.99/Lite] and Sneezies. [$0.99/Lite/HD]

Velocispider is a fixed-view shooter with ultra-simple tilt controls. You fire continuously upwards at the Aquabots as they come to kill you and steal your eggs. They start out in Space Invaders-style formations, but switch up often and come at you from all angles. Some randomly drop power-ups that improve your shots, restore a life or give you extra points.� You can charge up a powerful shot by holding down anywhere on the screen. I killed a lot of Aquabots before I learned about the charge shot, but it makes destroying bosses much easier. The tilt movement can be a little touchy and caused me occasional trouble. I wouldn't say an alternate control method is necessary, but it might be a nice addition for a future update.

The game is broken up into 20 individual waves. They unlock as you complete them so you can start from your highest completed wave, but that's just a convenience to help you progress through the game. The real challenge is playing through without dying by losing all three of your lives or all three of your eggs. At its heart, Velocispider is a high score competition, with Game Center leaderboards that will be topped by those who can get through all twenty waves in a single play-through. It's that challenge that will keep you coming back for another shot long after you've seen all that the game has to offer.

But enough about the technical stuff. Velocispider is a ton of fun, but the mechanics aren't what caught my eye. The game is gorgeous, in a pixel art and chiptune sort of way. The art is full of character, and that character is super ridiculous. I can't decide if I love the drop sharks (manta rays?) or the bomber whales more. The game also has a great soundtrack, though I wouldn't mind if a few more tracks were mixed in.

The story is the exact sort of campy over-the-top tale you'd expect from a game like this. There's not much to it, but I looked forward to the moments between each wave that illustrate the evil CEO's growing desperation and failing grasp on reality. Sadly, you might miss a few of them if you're doing well, since they only show up before boss waves or when you start playing.

If you're anything like me, the thrill of fighting off waves of aquatic-robot monsters with a well armed half-spider, half-velociraptor Araknasaur makes Velocispider an easy buy. Fortunately, it's also a challenging arcade game that will keep you scrabbling for a high score. Players seem to be enjoying the game in our forums too, so give Velocispider a look and let's go shoot some squid.

Nitako's�Popstar Physics (Save Toshi 2) [Free] is a puzzle game wrapped in a weird exterior. It's also a sequel to�Save Toshi [Free], a game that got a lot of love for how odd it was, how gaudy it was and ultimately, how fun it was. So�Popstar Physics has a lot to live up to both from a technical and a critical standpoint.

Save Toshi was all about saving a pop star who had forgotten how to walk and using physics to transport her to the dance floor.�Popstar Physics picks up where the story left off with Toshi once again being kidnapped by demons, but this time they've cloned her and turned her into zombies � and no � before your eyes drift away, this isn't a zombie game, it's still a 3D physics game � it just happens to have zombies in it.

The difference between the two games is that now you're killing the Toshi-zombies instead of saving Toshi this time. It's a simple enough change that Nikato can keep the Unity-powered engine and game style, but offer a wholly new experience. On the surface, nothing has changed, you still fire balls with a tap to the screen and you'll rotate the camera around the self-contained mini-levels with a swipe of the finger. Your goal is to trigger a reaction from the environment by starting with shooting balls at the puzzle pieces and ending with those pieces collapsing onto the zombie-Toshi's. If it sounds a bit like a 3D version of�Angry Birds, you'd be right, but although the premise is similar, they don't play out the same.

Much like the first game, where�Popstar Physics really shines is in its level design. Simple looking puzzles quickly become more complex as you start to dig into them and some of the later levels become improvisational Rube Goldberg devices where you have to toss your balls in a specific sequence while timing your subsequent throws based on the reaction the level gives you. For the star-obsessed, there's replayability here in getting all three stars by using a limited number of balls, but most will likely begrudgingly pass on to the next level with the one or two awarded for the logical puzzle solving.

Which is why it's too bad there are only 20 levels included here. While the game is free that's nothing to complain about, but if they're going to bump it up into the paid space, they'll need to include at least another set of 20 to keep people happy. That shouldn't be too hard to do, the last five or so levels of the game begin to explore the dynamic, multi-tiered pathways far enough that by the time you finish, you'll be begging for more in the same key.

Visually, the game keeps the same simplified look of the original, all rendered in Unity and recognizable as such. That's not a bad thing, but you're not going to walk away thinking about anything other than the fact the graphics are functional. There is a lot of quirk mixed in for good measure, the zombies look like they're trying to dance and they'll moan awkwardly when you hit them with a ball, but overall there is a lack of the same weirdness the first one had, but that might just come from the lack of J-Pop dance sequences at the end of each level.

By the end of the 20 levels,�Popstar Physics feels more like an add-on pack of levels for�Save Toshi than a verifiable sequel, but considering it's free for the time being, it's difficult to complain. The new mechanics show a lot of promise and although the core remains the same, the switch from "save" to "crush" is interesting enough you'll likely be begging for more.

Monster Hunter: Dynamic Hunting is a competent hack-and-slash title from the studio that brought the actual mega franchise to market. That's a good sign. But, while all the mechanics are serviceable, in the early parts of the game, combat seems to suffer from weird design decisions that slow the frantic pace of battle it tries to conjure.

Over-the-shoulder perspective fighting games are nothing new on the App Store. Chair Entertainment, however, possesses the crown thanks to Infinity Blade [$2.99], a sharp and fast-moving action joint that prioritizes sword control. In that, you can hack wherever you desire and the movements will translate to the screen.�Hunting doesn't do this. You can only swipe your sword in two directions: north and south and east and west.

This is… odd because Hunting wants you to hit specific parts of the humungous monsters that it puts in front of you. In this sense, the game sort of requires accuracy, but the lack of fine sword movement makes this lofty requirement hard to fulfill. Instead of dancing around a monster and hacking at its ankles, I've instead been rolling almost aimlessly in circles until I accidentally slash at a behemoth's legs.

To be fair, the early game, at least, isn't so concerned with where you hit the monster, so long as you make contact. That makes this concern moot to an extent, but I think you can understand some of the frustration I've been experiencing � I want to drill monster's in their obvious 'open' places, but I can't because I'm fumbling with a system not really built for you to exploit such fine details.

In addition to slashing, you can also pull off some defensive moves. By placing two tips on the screen, you'll go into a guard pose. By swiping those two fingers, you'll roll.�If you slash after successfully pulling one of these moves off, you'll perform a counter-attack, which are some of the most devastating moves in the game.

The study of monster habits is integral to the Monster Hunter experience, so that little fact nugget doesn't come as much of a surprise. You're supposed to know your foe and then act on its quirks or hesitations. And when you can conquer the sword and really get into the diving, guarding, and countering the game feels great � it clicks.

The loot and grind components are fantastic drivers in the early going. You don't level up in this specific joint, but you do earn loot from monsters each time you defeat them, which can then be used to make even better weapons and armor. Some of the enemies in the game are absolutely vicious, so it relies on this hooking you. As you beat more monsters, you can unlock more weapons to build, so I'm looking at this as the "leveling" component.

I think there is a hearty caveat that I should note about the guard and counter mechanics, though, and it ties into the game's hearty UI. The entire bottom quarter of the screen is obscured by your health bar and the like, so when you place two fingers, you're really eating up screen space and obscuring possible counter cues that may arise.

We'll be doing a full review on Hunting in the near future and I encourage you to give that write-up a look. For this impressions piece, I've taken a narrow glance at the battle system in first "chapter," so you're not getting the full story here.

Who knows? Maybe there's a pivot point that can sway my opinion of the battle or maybe there's good justification for the rigidness and design decisions. Definitely check back with us later to get the full run-down of what Hunting as a complete product.

App Store Link: Monster Hunter Dynamic Hunting, $4.99 � Available in the USA at 11:00 PM Eastern, earlier in other regions.

Here's a fact that might not be entirely too surprising: People are hungry for World of Warcraft. Seriously, I still know people who spend hours upon hours a day and have been playing with the same fervor since it was released in 2004. Also, tickets for Blizzcon, Blizzard's yearly almost entirelyWoW-centric convention, sell out within seconds of going up for sale. So, really, Gameloft couldn't have picked a better game to clone with Order & Chaos [$6.99], especially judging by the fact that the company just announced that they've managed to make $1,000,000 in the first 20 days that it was available on the App Store.

In addition, there's also an update on the way which fill add some new quests, the ability to migrate characters between servers, and separate chat channels for each language. After that, future updates are planned which will include things like new dungeons and PvP arenas. Something tells me that with the kind of cash Order & Chaos is making, Gameloft will be supporting it very well.

If this is the first you've heard of Order & Chaos, we posted both some early impressions as well as describing what it was like leveling from 1-10. The thread on our forums is massive, and worth checking out as well. If you've even vaguely dabbled in WoW, consider giving O&C a download. It's crazy just how much Gameloft has duplicated.

Straight up: you'll have to forgive me if some of the nuance of Shadow Cities [Free] � one of the newest geo-centric MMO games available on the App Store � has evaded me. It's not good at telling you what it is and how you're supposed to interact with it. Although, a lot of that might have to do with the fact that I don't exactly live in a dense metropolitan area, rendering the location awareness of the game moot since there's no one around me playing.

The PR isn't much better, though the press releases and the buzz around it are the things that drew our attention in the first place. Shadow Cities is billed as a PVP-centric ARG that uses wherever you are as the game's map. Like an MMO, it supposedly offers a cool and deep leveling system and a ton of missions and 'activities.'

That's real high-concept stuff. What I actually see is a weird, blacked-out Google Maps-style world with little purple, blue, red, and green orbs floating around like neon snowflakes. With a couple of flicks of my wrists, my orange orb can decimate these other colored orbs. Then, I get experience points and, I guess, the implied promise of further orb decimation.

It seems like the point of the game revolves around killing these orbs. With each victory, I come closer to dominating my urban center, which happens to be a small city deep in the American south. I don't see any progress bars or anything of that sort, though, so I'll just assume that the forthcoming tyranny will take some time to seed.

In Shadow Cities, you play as a mage of one of two sides. I picked the "tech priest"-type of dudes assuming that the meld of man, psychic powers, and machines would fair better against the earthy, organic types of mages. I don't think there's a substantial difference in what "team" you pick. At least, I don't get that impression.

There are two chat rooms available to you once you start the game. It isn't, at least here, specific to your urban center. The guys talking in the chat are from my state in general and they're looking for people to battle because app hasn't reached the kind of critical and consumer response that it needs to flourish and become more than a proof of concept that sounds neat in press releases.

Over on the game's official blog, proof of stuff that can happen in the game can be found. Earlier in May, users were encouraged to join battle groups, which are, essentially, global communities of 100 mages assigned to a country. There was a campaign in which one team won over another by keeping large cities to themselves, while destroying the other team's big cities. That sounds pretty cool, actually.

I'd like to get a sense of that scale, but through the app, I can't. I just see city streets and AI-controlled wisps of color that dance around my orange wisp. I destroy these wisps and then more generate and then I destroy them. If I could see where my battle is going, how my individual fights are factoring into a larger picture, or if I actually felt like I was interacting with a larger world, Shadow Cities would click better with me.

There's a lot of promise here. I mean, think about it. Just by whipping out your phone and spending the 15 seconds it takes to crush an orb, you could be helping to decide the fate of a global battle. That's heavy, man, and fun-sounding idea to boot. Or, additionally, if you live in a dense area, this could be like Yelp!, except with mage battles. You walk into a store some jerk checked-in to and then BOOM � you take him out.

I should note that the studio behind Shadow Cities, Grey Area, is behind the project and willing to keep iterating on top of the existing software. Gamasutra caught up with its CEO recently and he said as much, adding some specifics on new mechanics being added in the future:

"We want to develop it further and enable people to interact in the way that they want," he said, "we've been really conscious and paying attention how people want to create the battles… that's what people want to do: strategize, plan, raid locations together, and all of that, so it's definitely in the works, if you will."

Cool. Come next update, I hope someone, anyone, around here picks up the game so I can put a spell all over his face.

This morning Apple announced plans for the WWDC keynote which will take place this coming Monday June 6th. As usual, details are vague and the inevitable "one more thing" is veiled in secrecy, but here's what they've said so far:

Apple CEO Steve Jobs and a team of Apple executives will kick off the company's annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote address on Monday, June 6 at 10:00 a.m. At the keynote, Apple will unveil its next generation software � Lion, the eighth major release of Mac OS X; iOS 5, the next version of Apples advanced mobile operating system which powers the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch; and iCloud, Apple's upcoming cloud services offering.

I'm anxious to see what iOS 5 and iCloud bring to iOS gaming. We likely won't know any details until the keynote itself, but I'm hoping for either an updated (or greatly refined) version of Game Center. Also, it would be super-sweet if iCloud functionality included some kind of cloud-based save game syncing across iOS devices.

Man, that was fast. Just earlier this month, word spread that Monster Hunter was coming to the App Store. Tonight at 11PM EST, said game will hit in the US for the first time. It's available in New Zealand now.

As the proper name implies, Monster Hunter: Dynamic Hunting is a pared down experience, but not one that neglects the series' roots. In a nutshell, Hunting is all about the sweet science of bringing down monsters � the bread and butter of the franchise. You'll also be able to collect elements from these monsters that can be crafted into armor and weapons, which is another super important part of the Monster Hunter formula.

To be more specific on the latter note, Dynamic Hunting will feature three different types of weapons � 'Sword and Shield,' 'Great Sword,' and 'Dual Sword' � that can be turned on their heads in about 40 different ways. There are also 13 different types of armor that you can make or, possibly, customize further.

How the battles themselves feel I can't speak to just yet � a review is forthcoming, when the game hits the US. But, Capcom has stated the basics. When faced with a foe, you'll be able to 'attack,' flick to do a fast attack, evade, counter attack, and guard. Here's a video of it in action.

If you ask me, it sounds like Capcom took some notes from Chair Entertainment which is a welcome change from previous efforts of theirs.

Looking forward to Dynamic Hunting? We are, too. The cool thing is that the wait isn't long, nor should the one be for our first impressions. Stay tuned, folks, and keep those claw fingers nimble just in case.

Hudson is doing a fantastic job of keeping a fresh batch of new games pouring into their excellent TurboGrafx-16 emulator app called the TurboGrafx-16 Gamebox [Free]. The app launched last December with a decent selection of titles, all of which could be purchased from within the app for $2.99 apiece with one rotating title per day available for a free timed trial. We really enjoyed the TurboGrafx-16 Gamebox in our original review, and within a couple of months a new selection of titles was added improving the game further.

Earlier this month, yet another update hit adding another 5 brand new games to the package, including the classic pinball game Devil's Crush and the third entry in the Bonk's Adventure series. Now, just a few weeks later we already have another new update to the Gamebox adding 5 more new games.

Likely the most recognizable of the titles is the vertically scrolling top-down shooter Raiden. Raiden was an absolute classic in the arcades a couple of decades ago, and remains one of my very favorite shmups of all time. The TurboGrafx-16 version is obviously highly scaled down from the arcade original, but while it lacks the graphical oomph it still contains excellent gameplay. Performance-wise, Raiden can slow down a bit when action gets intense on screen, but overall it's pretty solid.

A far more exciting addition to the Gamebox, at least for me personally, is Dragon's Curse. You may know it by its former name, Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap, as it was called on the Sega Master System back in 1989. This was one of my all-time favorite action/puzzle/platforming games back then, and it still holds up extremely well today.

It has a Metroidvania vibe where you must take on the roles of different animals that each have unique abilities that allow you to access new areas of a huge non-linear world. There's a number of different weapons, armors, and items to buy which adds a nice RPG element to the gameplay.�Dragon's Curse is colorful, clever, and just plain fun, and I'm really excited to have the game in my pocket to play through for the umpteenth time.

The three other titles in this latest update to TurboGrafx-16 Gamebox aren't as familiar to me, but they may hold a special place in your own heart. These titles are: Shockman, Moto Roader, and Out Live. There's plenty of other classic TurboGrafx-16 games I'm still waiting on too, like Keith Courage, Super Star Soldier, and Legendary Axe, so hopefully Hudson continues to crank out the updates. Currently, I think they're doing a pretty darn good job, and the TurboGrafx-16 Gamebox continues to be a shining example of how to do emulators right on iOS.

One man development studio Chaotic Box has released a video for his upcoming iOS release Match Panic, a followup to last year's excellent Silverfish [$1.99/Lite]. Whereas Silverfish had a hardcore, old-school-arcade style of gameplay and a striking visual style, Match Panic appears to be on the opposite side of the spectrum with an extremely simple gameplay mechanic and an overly cutesy style.

One thing the two games seem to actually have in common though is a frantic pace and a focus on high scoring. As you can see in the video below, gameplay involves sorting an incoming lineup of sprites to their designated side of the screen. The line moves as fast as you're able to sort, so it's in your best interest to move quickly if you're shooting for a high score. Sometimes you'll need to match more than one image per side, and there's special items and a multiplier aspect involved as well.

Match Panic has already been submitted to Apple and is due out in the next few weeks. It will come equipped with Game Center achievements and leaderboards and a dozen unlockable characters. The gameplay may look incredibly simplistic, but sometimes it's the simple games that have the deepest hooks, and I haven't seen this particular type of gameplay on iOS before. Plus, I'm a total sucker for cute pixel art.

You can drop by�the thread in our forums for Match Panic discussion and we'll be sure to check out this title when it hits the App Store soon.