We get off the rails as we discuss on-rails and more this week on TAS. In the Front Page section of the show, we give a shout-out to a couple of fabulous-looking Unreal 3 Engine games, Epoch and Afterlife. We also pour over the EA acquisition of PopCap Games, the rising international prices of App Store titles, and toss our opinions on iOS clones. Limp Bizkit's new release provides a break in the action as the Internet sidetracks us.

In the Games section, Eli talks about his latest card game love affair with Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer and Jared gives the skinny on Reckless Getaway. Somehow, someway, I end up talking about THQ Digital Warrington's XBLA release Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team on top of Kairosoft's Pocket Academy.

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Here are the show notes and thanks for all your questions this week. If you'd like to get in touch with us, just rip off an e-mail to podcast@toucharcade.com. Your letter will get read on the air and you'll finally leave an impression on the Internet.

GAMES

• Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer [$4.99 / Lite]
• Reckless Getaway [$2.99]
• Pocket Academy [$3.99 / Lite]

FRONT PAGE

Crescent Moon Games'�Pocket RPG [$2.99] got off to a bit of a rocky start on launch when it was released with some game killing bugs and pulled immediately from the store, but now those have been smoothed over, everyone with an iPad can freely stick an RPG in their giant pockets and take it for a spin. It's equal parts RPG, shooter and light-brawler depending on how you play and although it might seem shallow based on its name, it has a lot to offer.

Pocket RPG can be played with three different character classes, Dark Ranger, Battle Mage and Blade Master. Each has their own skill sets and each play completely differently. If you're looking for a more straight-up duel-stick shooter, the Dark Ranger is for you. If you're into hack-and-slash, go for the Blade Master and if you're looking for a strange combo of the two, go for the Battle Mage. Each character is well defined and changes the way you play the game on a fundamental level.

Each character class gets their own save file, one each. It's a bit confusing at first, because it will initially appear that you only get one save file across the game. As people have pointed out in our forums, the Resume button on the main screen will lead you to the most recently played character and if you select New Quest and another character, you'll continue where you were last at with that character, even though it gives you a warning your file will be overwritten. It's far too confusing of a system and needs to be cleaned up in future updates.

As an actual game,�Pocket RPG delivers on its title. It's essentially a looting, mini-roguelike that plays similar to a dual-stick shooter. The main difference is your character's progression isn't tied to the game as a whole, but rather to each individual dungeon. You'll have certain power-ups and skills you upgrade over the course of the game, but after beating each dungeon, your experience points and loot disappears and you start all over again.

It's a strange system, but it works surprisingly well, albeit at the cost of incentivizing any hardcore loot hoarding. You won't get attached to any weapons, there isn't any real armor loot and you won't ever have to struggle with inventory management, but the games title should be enough of an indication this isn't a hardcore experience. As far as XP is concerned, you level up quickly in the later levels and it's hardly noticeable that you have to start over in each dungeon. It plays like an incredibly short roguelike. The one difference is that you'll usually pick up an item early in each dungeon that'll grant you a single extra life. If you die a couple times, you have to start the dungeon over.

The persistent upgrades you make to your character at the end of each dungeon are important and add enhancements to the character progression. You get these by bringing in gold and stars from each dungeon encounter, both successful and unsuccessful. Each character has their own set of skills and special moves controlled by different gestures. For instance, if you're playing as the Dark Ranger, you can add a skill that shoots out poison if you quadruple tap the right stick. It all works well and adds a feeling of character customization lost by the lack of persistent XP, but it would be nice if there was a move-list in-game in case you can't remember which gestures create which attacks.

As we've come to expect from Crescent Moon, the character designs are cutesy and cartoony. The environments are well thought out and almost everything on the ground is destructible for loot hoarding, which is a nice touch. Since the dungeons are partially randomly generated, you'll be able to play though multiple times with a new experience, but since each character plays so differently, it's more worth playing through with each of them once then with one of them multiple times. The dungeons are never overtly complex mazes either, there are a few forking paths throughout, but you'll rarely find yourself wishing there was a map.

There is quite a bit of content here too, with six different areas to explore and as many bosses. Despite it's seeming simplicity, the game can get pretty tough toward the midway point. It's not enough to send anyone home in tears, but chances are you'll have to repeat a few dungeons here and there to grind your skills up enough to beat the final boss.

Pocket RPG is a little different than you probably expect from a looting game, but that's not really a bad thing. It's bite-sized, but versatile, which means you get a lot of length out of it even if it's pretty simple to get through initially. RPG fans and dual-stick shooter fans will have a lot to love here and provided they can add a few tweaks to the menu system they'll have a remarkably solid game. For those looking to get the action into a reasonably sized pocket on iPhone or iPod Touch, Crescent Moon Games has said a new version will be available in around a months time.

Phosphor Games, a collective of game creators with ties to Midway Games, has revealed its latest announced project, The Dark Meadow. It's an ambitious FPS that seeks to blend long-range projectile combat with Infinity Blade-inspired [$5.99] melee combat. And as its name conjures, it's set in a fantastical and twisted storybook world. The goal of the project is to do more than entertain you � it wants to scare you, too.

Like I said, it's an ambitious game. We don't see many handheld or tablet games fiddling with the horror genre, no less the FPS one. Aside from a Kinect mini-games project, this studio is also behind the wheel of an unfunded open-world action game called Awakened, which is just as ambitious as The Dark Meadow.

Inspiration was a big theme in the exclusive Pocket Gamer interview that revealed this project. Phosphor notes that the story and world resembles, to some extent, del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth, while Infinity Blade and even Fruit Ninja [$.99 / HD] inspired the sword-based melee combat. A duo of id Software titles were name-dropped for the long-range stuff, as well as Time Crisis, which is a notable duck-and-cover arcade game that you play with a plastic gun and a pocket full of quarters.

For the better, Phosphor notes that organic, gesture-based controls seem to work best for these two platforms, so it'll use them in The Dark Meadow. That gives us a fair bit of confidence in the project � natural, uncluttered games tend to be the better ones. But, of course, it's wise to remain cautious. Big games like this one always sound eye-poppingly amazing on paper. We'll keep an eye out for this as it rolls to release.

[Via Pocket Gamer]

Nostalgia can be a dangerous thing, in your memory, you might adore a title to death, but when it's ported and released to a modern system, you often find your favorite games broken or boring. Bitmap Brothers' Z [$4.99] was a favorite of mine when it was originally released in 1996 and for better or worse, Kavcom Limited's port hasn't changed much in the games structure.

Other than a few tweaks to the user interface, the core of Z is exactly as you remember it. An expanded view of the battlefield is enough to make the bigger screen on the iPad the more enjoyable experience, but it's not impossible on the smaller screen of an iPhone/iPod Touch. All that said, it is a fifteen year old game, so don't expect a whole lot of bells and whistles here. Or a tutorial for that matter, but we'll get to that later.

Z is technically a RTS game, but although cut from the same cloth as Dune and Command and Conquer, it's a different suit altogether. There is no resource management and units can be built up ad-infinitum provided you have control of an area. To gain control, you capture a flag and subsequently get access to a building that produces units on a small plot of land. To finish a map, you need to capture all points and destroy the enemy's stronghold. The faster you complete all these tasks, the higher your score, which can be viewed and compared through Game Center.

At your disposal are six robot soldier types and several types of tanks, jeeps and armored carriers, all of which you'll be deploying over the course of twenty levels. The premise for all this war mongering is a thin story about two warring robot factions, one of which is lead by your leader, General Zod. While the plot is about as loose as it can be, cutscenes in-between missions tell the story of two bumbling robots named Brad and Allen, who are something of a cross between Bill and Ted and Beavis and Butthead. In its humor and its presentation, Z is bleeding the mid-'90s all over the place.

Control is handled with a single tap to select and another tap to set a destination. You can select multiple units by pinching, but each unit is generally grouped together in twos and threes already. The same goes for picking which units to build out of your base, tap once to bring up a build menu and hit the scroll marks to pick a unit. As these things often tend to go, more units become available as you advance through the campaign. Unlike most RTS titles, your ground units can pick up different weapons and grenades off the ground and they can get into enemy vehicles if you're lucky enough to kill the driver without blowing up the whole thing. It's an added layer that replaces resource management in your strategy � if your snipers can pick off a driver, you get a free vehicle, but it's a heck of a lot easier just to blow it up with a tank.

I'm only telling you all this because the game doesn't. Some of it is tucked away neatly in the Help menu, but most players are used to booting up a game and running through a tutorial � you won't get that here and the already difficult game is a bit harder because of it. There's also a difficulty toggle hidden awkwardly away in iOS's system settings.

Where Z still stands out is in its auxiliary presentation. Sound effects and voice work still add a humorous glow to the whole experience and the music, which ebbs and flows with the combat sounds great. This isn't a game you'll find yourself muting after ten minutes. Graphically, the game holds up on style alone. You're not going to find fancy 3D, fantastic animation or even that much diversity in the environments, but it looks good, albeit clearly created in a far simpler time. Plus, there's really nothing better than robots in cowboy hats yelling at you.

The only feature that's truly lacking is the multiplayer, which, if memory serves, was rather entertaining over a 28k modem back in the day. This seems like a perfect fit for a mobile version, especially over Bluetooth or WiFi and it's a weird omission from the iOS version.

While the look and play of the original is intact, it also means some of the problems have carried over. Pathfinding is still a bit off and you'll often find units walking into walls. The same goes for the enemy AI, which seems to randomly fluctuate between brilliant and idiotic on a whim. The humor will appeal to some more than others, but it never gets too in your face or offensive to totally put anyone off. For their part, the controls take a bit to get used to and you'll often find yourself sending units in the wrong direction with a miss-tap. It's an easy remedy, but an annoying quality nonetheless.

There is a deep point of entry and the difficulty curve ramps up pretty quickly, but if you can handle it, there is a great RTS game hidden in here that's unlike anything else. The controls could certainly have been tweaked a bit further and the interface cleaned up, but overall, it's a solid strategy game with different mechanics than most. At first glance, Z might scare off people, but once you figure out how it works it's perfect for fans of both casual and deep RTS games, it's just too bad there isn't a little more handholding from the outset to bring in new fans.

Earlier today, Taito tweeted out a link that led to a teaser site for a game called Groove Coaster. On the site, we learned that Groove Coaster is "an exhilarating next-gen groove game" being developed by Reisuke Ishida, the creator of Space Invaders Infinity Gene [$4.99/Lite]. Unfortunately that, along with the below image, is all there is to know about the game at this time.

In case you're unfamiliar, Space Invaders Infinity Gene is the retro-rebirth of the legendary arcade game Space Invaders. It was released way back in July of 2009 and basically blew everybody away with its incredibly stylish visuals, fantastic music, and manic gameplay. The game is utterly phenomenal, and if you asked anyone what they would consider the top iPhone games of all time you would hear Space Invaders Infinity Gene's name frequently.

As for Groove Coaster, all we can really do is speculate at this point, but it does sound like it will be some sort of rhythm or music game. If you think about Space Invaders Infinity Gene, the awesome music in it was a huge part of what made it so special. There was even the ability to create your own levels from songs in your iPod library. It will definitely be interesting to see what sort of gameplay will be involved in Groove Coaster, how it will utilize music or "grooving", and just how the Space Invaders brand will come into play.

We'll definitely keep our ears open for any information for Groove Coaster, and in the meantime you can head over to our forums to talk about the game.

This past May, we came across one of the crazier trailers that we've seen for a game called Techno Kitten Adventure [Free] from Elite Gudz, and it featured a large man in an awful cat suit. But the silly video wasn't the important part, as amazing as it was. What was important was that Techno Kitten Adventure, which previously had been been released as an Xbox Live Indie Game, was making its way to the iOS platform in a new enhanced version.

Techno Kitten Adventure dropped into the App Store last month to a hail of glitter and rainbows, and I even shared a few thoughts about the game on our podcast that week. Basically, Techno Kitten Adventure is a cave flyer where you travel automatically to the right, raising and lowering your position to avoid obstacles along the way. Gameplay-wise it's about as barebones as they come, where you literally just travel for as far as possible without crashing. The farther you go, the higher your score, and that's pretty much it.

However, where Techno Kitten Adventure earns its stripes is with the spectacularly crazy sights and sounds that blast your every sense during play. There are bright, flashing colors and all sorts of things going on in the foreground and background that are just dying to distract you during the game. There can be so much happening that it's nearly impossible to make out the floor, ceiling, or objects in between that you're supposed to be avoiding. This sort of artificially created difficulty would normally be frowned upon, but it's actually kind of the point of Techno Kitten Adventure and is part of its charm.

One of my favorite parts about the game are how well integrated the visuals are with the audio, starting out fairly tame and then kicking things into high gear as the beat of the song builds up and finally lets loose. I actually find myself laughing out loud at just how obnoxious things can get during a song's peak. I'm waiting for the inevitable seizure, but so far that threat hasn't stopped me from continuing to play.

The reason I'm bringing up Techno Kitten Adventure this time is that the game just received a new update that adds in the star of another strange cat experience � Nyan Cat. The Nyan Cat seems to pop up everywhere over the internet, and recently in progress bars as well, and is now a playable character in Techno Kitten Adventure. Unfortunately (or possibly not), the original Nyan Cat music is not part of the deal, but the Pop-Tart body and rainbow trails of the Nyan Cat fit perfectly into the world of Techno Kitten Adventure. Besides the added feline, this latest update also adds in Game Center with leaderboards and 20 achievements.

Techno Kitten Adventure is one of those games that some people will absolutely fall in love with and some will just plain not get the appeal. Luckily, this problem is easily solved by downloading the free, score-limited demo and trying it for yourself. If it ends up tickling your fancy, there are 3 different theme packs to buy from within the demo for 99� apiece. They each feature their own unique songs, visuals, leaderboards, and playable kitties. If you think you can handle the flashy pizazz and window thumping beats of Techno Kitten Adventure, then bust out those glow sticks and give the lite version a go.

Quiz Climber [Free/$1.99] is about as simple as a trivia game can be. The game asks a question, you pick from one of four options, and then you move to the next one, bam, bam, bam. It'd be easy to write it off as a game that's not worth noting � if I could just stop playing.

As trivia games go, this one does the job. It's published by Chillingo, but it was created by Relentless Software, the developers behind the Buzz! trivia game series. At the very least, this should give you some faith in the questions. Relentless does a great job of bringing in a variety of topics � pop culture, sports, history and literature feature heavily � with well-designed questions and answers. They're a British studio, but the questions offer a good mix of British and American influences, and they're occasionally surprisingly funny.

But the questions aren't what keeps me coming back. Rather, it's the way the whole game hinges on a single failure. Your Quizzel, some sort of chubby squirrel, ascends into the branches of a pair of trees as you answer questions, and the questions get more difficult as you reach new heights. You keep climbing until you fail to answer a single question, and with that one screw-up, you're done. Your position is marked and your high score is noted, and you're left to start over again.

I never stop wanting to start again when I fall, because the games are so quick and it always feels like that one mistake that cost me my run could have been avoided. It's even worse if you take the plunge and sign into Facebook, because then you're competing with your friends for who can reach the highest branch. I've had a running competition with a friend since the game was released � right now I'm on top, but I know it won't be long until I'm overtaken. Even with a strong lead, scores are reset every week.

If avoiding even a single mistake is too much pressure, you can give yourself a break with a lifeline. You earn them by answering enough questions correctly, or you can buy them with in-app purchases. You can only use one per game so it hardly gets abusive, but it's nice to have the option. When you miss an answer while sitting right under another Quizzel and a new high score is within reach, you aren't going to want to sit back and accept failure.

When it comes down to it, Quiz Climber is an extremely straightforward game. If it weren't so totally addictive, I'd have a hard time recommending it. But at the low, low price of free for the ad-supported version, or $1.99 for the ad-free version, it's worth roping a few Facebook friends into competing with you. When you leap right past their Quizzels, leaving them frowning in your dust, you'll be glad you did.