On this week's bonus edition of The TouchArcade Show, a crew of three � count 'em! � chat with indie games visionary and creator of Canabalt [$2.99], Semi Secret Software's Adam Saltsman. The conversation kicks off with a light discussion of Adam's oddly elaborate sandwich and then into other much more hard-hitting topics such as the themes and ideas that went into, ultimately, the creation of Canabalt, what Adam offers the indie games community, and several of his other games including Zits & Giggles and Wurdle [$1.99], one of the first iOS word games to hit the App Store.

You can download this episode directly or stream it via the links provided below or, hey, you can even subscribe to our fair podcast via iTunes or the Zune Marketplace.

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Direct Link: TouchArcadeShow-Bonus-006.mp3, 30MB

This is an awesome and honest discussion that I think you'll like. We'll be back, of course, with another bonus episode next week with another developer chat. Also, prepare yourself for another flagship podcast this Friday. Yay!�If you want to get in touch with us and get your name in the show the e-mail is podcast@toucharcade.com. You can also hit us up on the Twitter and the Facebook if social media is your thing.

Interstitial for this episode is all via Overclock Remix's Daniel Baranowsky, the man who composed the iconic song for Canabalt. A snippet of Jim Guthrie's Audio Pepsi opens and closes the 'cast. Here's a track list of what we used:

• Jurassic Park Before Time OC ReMix
• Final Fantasy VII 'Damn Those Turks!'
• VVVVV 'Clubbed Baby VVVVVeal'

You know what the App Store needs? More imaginative and psychedelic rhythm games, that's what. Conveniently for the purpose of this news story, a new one is on the way from the same man who is responsible for dropping Space Invaders: Infinity Gene [$4.99 / Free] on us eons ago, Taito's Reisuke Ishida. It's called Groove Coaster, and it appears to be as simple as the titling suggests: you listen to some trance-y / new wave-y music and tap out the beat as a blink-y thing glides on rails.

Japanese publication Famitsu scored the first look at the new title. The first video here demonstrates the basics of the game in what must be one of the easier levels:

The second video shows what appears to be a more difficult level, with tons more beats to hit and visual effects to accompany them:

For what it's worth, you can tell this is Ishida's. As Joystiq notes, it's all wire-framed out and ready to grab some glow sticks for this evening's rave. Infinity Gene had a similar look and feel and that certainly panned out well for a title, that, overall, really had a spring in its step and some awesome mechanics to share. Here's to hoping this has more than meets the eye… but even if it didn't, I think I'd be pleased with it.�Our collective gut says that this is definitely a game to watch and review whenever it's slated to hit.

Stray Robot Games is a New Zealand based studio, formed late in 2010 who have just released their first iOS game: Wooords [99�], a minimalistic word game, which involves sliding fridge-magnets around the screen. You've probably seen puzzles in newspapers (or on the App Store) which involve forming as many words as possible from nine letters. One of the letters is the "key letter" and must appear in each word, and if you manage to put all the letters in the right order, you form an elusive "big word" and earn bonus points.

In Wooords, instead of typing words in (or writing them in a newspaper), you simply slide fridge-magnets around to form words, anywhere on the screen. The letters don't have to be perfectly lined up, just adjoining, as the game is clever enough to detect when a word is formed and you'll be rewarded with a burst of stars, a happy sound and some points. An awful lot of effort went into this design decision, too.

For instance, as you move the fridge-magnets, they make little clinking noises as they collide with each other. If you drag a letter between two other letters, they ease apart to make room. And if you form a larger word, the letters subtlety decrease in size, so the word fits on the screen. If you shake your device the letters are randomly re-arranged. It's shocking how well this all works.

There's three game modes to choose from. In 'Classic' mode you have unlimited time to form words, which are rewarded by points and stars. Achieving one star unlocks the next puzzle (30 in total), but real satisfaction comes from obtaining the maximum three stars. This mode is about skill and persistence, rather than speed. The second mode is 'Daily Words', which is a daily competition to rank yourself against yourself, friends or the world. A fresh set of letters is released every 24 hours, which gives this game daily re-playability. And lastly, there's 'Word Jam' which places an emphasis on both speed and skill. The goal is to reach the target score within the word and time limit. This involves completing quick-fire rounds, so speed is definitely a factor here.

Wooords can be played casually for fun, but don't let the cute magnets fool you, this can also be a competitive game of speed, skill and strategy as you climb the Game Center leader-boards. The scoring in the old newspaper puzzles (and similar games) was based on the quantity of words found, with bonus points for nine-letter words. But in Wooords the scoring is far more advanced with multipliers, taking into account word complexity, the "IQ level" of a word, and more.

This cute little game has already become a part of my daily routine. It's fun to fling the magnets into words as quickly as possible and as the developer points out, you're also exercising your brain, by testing your "vocabulary, speed and concentration". Wooords is even a universal game, which sweetens the deal even further.

Even though you might already have a ton of similar word games on your device, the clever refrigerator magnet-powered gameplay feels surprisingly fresh, and makes the UI used in previously released word games flat out seem archaic in comparison. Before downloading, be warned: Wooords will make your actual refrigerator magnets seem unresponsive and far less interesting!

Square Enix's Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions was getting close to becoming the Duke Nukem Forever of the App Store. It was announced back at E3 of last year. Since then, it missed its original September 15th release date, then got pushed back to "spring 2011". Spring came and went, then Squeenix announced it would be coming in June or July. That original estimate didn't turn out to be too good either, as not long after, it was pushed back again. As long as I'm linking all of these relevant stories, I should also mention our Final Fantasy Tactics hands-on preview, which still is one of my favorite April Fools Day posts, even though it sure did make a lot of people angry.

ANYWAY! With all that backstory out of the way, I can get to the good news: Final Fantasy Tactics has been submitted to Apple for approval. I blasted out a tweet polling developers for recent App Store approval turnaround times lately, and assuming there aren't any show stopping bugs or other reasons for apple to mash the big red "REJECT" button we could be playing FFT potentially as early as this Thursday, but more likely next Thursday, if Squeenix sees similar approval times.

This is exciting news, as Final Fantasy Tactics is basically the perfect game for the iPhone. (Yeah, I went there.) I'd still love to see them port more of the Final Fantasy games to iOS devices, and with how successful they all seem to be on the App Store, I can't think of much reason why they won't eventually. Either way, if you're looking for a place to party with people similarly excited for FFT, swing by the thread in our forums.

Marvel Pinball is a big deal in some circles. It's often hailed as one of the best digital pinball translations known to man, which isn't saying a whole lot since the lion's share of these kinds of games are bad-to-middling. But, anyway, its reach will expand in the near-to-mid future. At Comic-Con in San Diego, it was revealed that the game is coming to iOS and every other console or handheld device (including Android) under the sun by the end of 2012.

No other specific details were noted about any upcoming version, but it appears as if the port work will remain in the hands of Zen Studios � a move that bodes well for the game since Zen knows what's what with digital pinball and pinball physics in general.

Notably, a new DLC pack was announced, too, at the event. It will bring in a total of four new tables later this winter. One of them will be Ghost Rider-themed, as you can see from the above screenshot.

I can imagine a scenario in which, if this iOS version is significantly late to the party, this update as well as the others is rolled into the overall package. Then again, that doesn't make the best business sense… Zen Studios would probably love the extra revenue stream IAP could provide. Regardless of the business plan, we'll be keeping a look out for this one out as it creeps towards release.

[Via Destructoid]

Super Mega Worm [$.99/Lite] is one of several games on the App Store that I think would be even better with peripheral support. And, hey, conveniently enough, it now supports two of the biggest, new-fangled controllers/apps on the market: the Joypad [Free] and iCade. This support comes packaged in a new update which rolls in a much-needed bug fix for the side-scrolling action game's IAP, which was prone to crashing according to user reviews.

Also, if you're still in the seasonal mood, Super Mega Worm vs. Santa [Free] also now supports both of these controllers since it's been included in Super Mega Worm proper as of this update, too. Neat!

For those of you not on the controller beat, the iCade is a peripheral that looks like a mini screen-less arcade machine. Just plop your iPad in, pick one of the few games that supports the device, and enjoy using joystick and buttons. We reviewed it earlier this year, so you can check out our write-up if you want something a lot more specific than this. We also gave the Joypad, a multiple-controller extension that uses the iPhone, a good look, too.

Overall, we'd love to see more games adopt these alternate methods of control. Both devices flesh out the experience in non-standard, virtual stick iOS titles in satisfying ways. It's always a win when a game supports either of them, but sadly, it doesn't happen often enough.