Earlier this year, Liv Games made a nice sized splash on the App Store with Legendary Wars [99�/Lite/HD], their unique take on castle defense games that featured fantastic art, humor, and gameplay. Now they are teaming up with developer subzero.eu software to publish a new iOS game called Zen Wars.

Zen Wars is an arcade strategy title where you're tasked with building up a base with both offense and defense in mind. Once finished, you'll take on incoming attacks during the game's multi-level campaign. When a battle is finished and you've come out on top, you'll need to quickly repair the damage to your base and add any necessary offensive upgrades before the next attack hits.

It's this rebuilding aspect in Zen Wars that sounds really interesting to me. Rather than just building up an epic base in preparation for a single battle, you'll need to think on your toes in order to make the correct preparations for multiple attacks, adding an extra layer of strategy and planning over other similar games. You can see much of this in action, as well as the cool art style, in the following trailer for Zen Wars:

One of the most promising parts of Zen Wars is that beyond its single player campaign, you'll also be able to engage in up to 3 player online multiplayer over Game Center. This type of gameplay definitely seems well-suited to some online play, and I'll be interested to see how that turns out in the final version. The developers are hoping to submit Zen Wars in the next couple of days, and are shooting for a release at the end of July or the first week in August. It will be launching for an introductory price of 99� with a regular price of $1.99.

We'll keep our eyes out for Zen Wars and will take a closer look at the game when it hits the App Store in the coming weeks.

Shattered Horizon creator Futuremark Games Studio has been teasing a trio of games, but the most interesting one of the bunch was revealed this afternoon. Unstoppable Gorg is a tower defense title that draws heavy inspiration from World War II-era sci-fi and the new theatrical trailer released certainly proves that FGS has a handle on the gag.

To get just a tad more specific, Unstoppable Gorg will have you protecting the entire solar system from alien attack. In order to beat back the alien hordes, you'll be tasked with deploying satellites around planets, moons, and even space stations. Curiously, and this is a point made very clear in the announcement materials, you'll be able to grab and move your satellites after placing them down.

"With Unstoppable Gorg we have been inspired by classic sci-fi films to create a game of flying saucers, rubbery aliens, dodgy effects, and earnest heroes," an FGS representative said in a statement.�"[It] builds on the core tower defense mechanics that fans love while shattering the genre's conventions to provide exciting new experiences."

Shattering genre conventions is something Unstoppable Gorg will need to do in order to succeed on the App Store. There are a billion other tower defense games to choose from, all of which have benefitted design-wise from the genre's sudden explosion on the 'Store. Here's a free weapon idea, Futuremark: cat cannons. No other game I know of has them. Oh, wait, here's another one: nets, like the kind Cyrax throws. I know, I know � I'm a genius.

No release date has been set, by the way. Thus far we've only got a general 2011 release window for iPad, PC, and Xbox Live Arcade.

A mere two days after Chaos Rings�O hit the App Store, Square Enix decided it was fabulous time to release a trailer for Chaos Rings II, which is being billed as a true sequel to the original Chaos Rings. Flash forward to now, please � we've got some images and a teeny-tiny bit of information to give you about the upcoming follow-up.

Famitsu has posted a small Chaos Rings II update on its site promising further coverage in issue 1180. Aside from the screenshots below, Famitsu has also posted several teaser trailers from a couple of the voice actors in the game. If you can understand Japanese, I don't doubt you'll be able to pick something up from the conversation.

Did you find out something new? Great! You're ahead of the game. I'd like to note that the monsters in the images do look new, which is a good sign. Omega was disappointing in some respects because it failed to add anything substantially fresh. If Chaos Rings II is hoping to be considered more than an expansion, it'll need to deliver the goods. New foes is a step in the right direction, sure as sure.

You can check out the Famitsu page for yourself. Obviously, Google's translation tech is shaky at best, so I wouldn't expect to get too much out of the endeavor. We've contacted Square Enix for an English take on what is being shared here. We'll get back to you when or if the publisher decides to get back to us. Until then, enjoy your Chaos Rings II news.

[Via Famitsu]

On this week's bonus episode of The TouchArcade Show we speak with Derek Laufman, one half of The Blocks Cometh [$.99] developer Halfbot. We cover a lot of ground in the interview. After a brief discussion of his birth, we dive into topics like how Derek got into games development, what made him leave his old gig and co-found a studio, and the controversy surrounding the release of Halfbot's first iOS game.

Other topics? Sure, we got those. I started up a "masocore" conversation, though in hindsight, I think the game fits into the genre because I'm terrible at it. Also, we dig into the flash game model from a developer's perspective.

You can listen to the podcast just below via direct download or streaming. Additionally, you can grab us on the iTunes �the Zune Marketplace. If you happen to swing by either of those lovely services it'd be awesome if you rated us. World domination is just a few five-star clicks away.

iTunes Link: The TouchArcade Show
Zune Marketplace: TouchArcade.com Podcasts
RSS Feed: The TouchArcade Show
Direct Link: TouchArcadeShow-Bonus-005.mp3, 20MB

And here's a few musical notes: The Blocks Cometh theme music, which we use in this episode, is provided courtesy of Hyperduck Soundworks, the creators of said music. You can visit them on the web here. Jim Guthrie's Audio Pepsi, of course, opens and closes the 'cast.�You can buy the entire album or stream all the songs�at his Web site. Guthrie is also responsible for the�Sword & Sworcery [$4.99] soundtrack.

I have a +20 resistance against video games trans-media, but I think I'm going to have to do a saving throw because of these. Toy Wiz, a company that produces Angry Birds as well as Magic: The Gathering, Harry Potter, Pokemon and many more branded toys, is set to produce a line Om Nom plushies for shipment later this October. Om Nom, if ya' didn't know, is the lead in Cut The Rope [$.99 / HD / Lite], the fantastic bubble-popping game that stars the cutest monster this side of Alf or that huge duck-thing in that George Lucas flick. No, really.

While we're on the subject of Cut The Rope, we'll alert you to this choice bit of news: a set of brand new levels is coming "soon" via a free update. We're talking 25 levels in total, with new puzzle mechanics and concept art to collect. The package has been dubbed Toy Box.

Alongside this update, Chillingo will be adding in an IAP option called the "Star Key." After purchased and used, the item unlocks all the sets of levels in the game, essentially ridding the need to collect enough stars to progress further and further.

Before you grumble, remember that this is an optional purchase and probably intended for the uber-casual crowd that just wants to see and experience the entire game without the hassle of… solving puzzles.

Gamenauts, creators of an iOS title we liked very much called Stickbound [Free], have released a video for their newest project called Ninja Fishing. Basically, it takes the novel slicing gameplay of Fruit Ninja [99�] and couples it with… fishing. It may sound like a pretty strange premise, but after watching the trailer I actually think it looks pretty intriguing. You'll use tilt to control a fishing line as it lowers into the depths of the water, hooking fish along the way. Then, as you reel them up and above the surface, they are flung into the air where you must quickly slice 'em and dice 'em with your katana, Fruit Ninja style.

The key to success in Ninja Fishing is getting your line as deep as possible into the water before it hooks a fish and begins its ascent, giving you more time to hook additional fish on the way up. The more fish that you slice up, the more gold you earn which can be used for upgrades to your katana and hook, as well as other gameplay modifiers. Ninja Fishing sounds like it might just be wacky enough to work, and we'll be able to find out when it launches on August 4th for 99�. We'll be sure to check out Ninja Fishing when it releases, and be sure to stop by�the game's discussion thread in our forums.