On this week's episode of The TouchArcade Show, I do my best to stop nerd-gasming over Relic Entertainment's Space Marine long enough to discuss the hottest iOS games and App Store news of the week alongside my co-hosts. At the top, we really dig into Grand Prix Story as well as Bungie Aerospace's and HareBrained Schemes' Crimson: Steam Pirates. Eventually, we get into other new releases such as King of Dragon Pass and, of course, that Max Payne HD story we ran the other afternoon.

We've got one heck of a running gag this week courtesy of Eli's neighbors, so I hope you have as much fun with it as I do. If you'd like to give us a listen, you can do so just below via all these links. Of course, you can also subscribe to us via iTunes and the Zune Marketplace if you want to get each and every episode of TAS as soon as they're uploaded.

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A bit of spring cleaning here before I toss you the show notes for the week. The Bearded One will be on a short hiatus starting next week, so we're bring in some fresh meat to fill his shoes for the two week period. We've got a savage line-up of guests coming down the pipe that I really, really think you'll enjoy (although no-one can actually replace Jared's dulcet tones.)

Here's your show notes!

GAMES

JARED'S KITTY CORNER

• Cat Game [Free] [Universal]

FRONT PAGE

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If you missed out on our WWDC preview, allow me to calibrate your expectations about Tiny Heroes [$2.99], a new tower defense title from Simutronics Corp. You may have heard that the team behind this game was headed up by David Whatley, the developer of the outstanding geoDefense [$1.99 / Lite] and geoDefense Swarm [$1.99]. Already your brain may be whirring along, thinking about upgradeable towers and mazing. Stop that. You won't find those here. And you won't miss them, either.

In Tiny Heroes, you are the master of a dungeon rich with treasure. In classic Dungeons & Dragons style, where there is treasure, there are heroes. Are you going to sit back and let them take your treasure? Heck no! So you set up defenses in their way, and who can blame you if a few of those defenses are a touch lethal? You have liability insurance, right?

Once you push past the first few levels, which introduce you to the basics a bit too slowly, you'll find a game that has more in common with Plants vs. Zombies than geoDefense. The first clue is in the resource management: rather than profiting from killing heroes, you build mana stones that generate mana every few seconds. You use that mana to build your defenses, which are designed to block the oncoming heroes. Why politely leave a path for them to travel down when you can stop them in their tracks?

As you progress through the game, you unlock all manner of vicious defenses. Spike traps, catapults and barricades are just the beginning. You'll get so many that you won't be able to carry them all into battle. Instead, Tiny Heroes requires you to strategize and pick your poison before starting each stage. You'll need to learn how to combine your most brutal traps with static defenses and creatures to effectively guard your treasure, and you'll need to make sure you have the resources to pull your plan off.

But for each imaginative defense you set up, the heroes are ready to counter it. Knights march in with a single-minded appetite for destruction, thieves dismantle your traps from a safe distance and wizards take out your mana crystals, starving you for resources. Once you get a handle on defeating them, you'll find yourself facing epic versions of each. Your unbeatable combo may be able to take out basic knights with ease, but then an epic ranger will sweep in and keep things balanced.

It's the dungeon layouts and pathing that take Tiny Heroes from Plants vs. Zombies clone territory to something quite different, though. Each level has a unique layout, requiring an original strategy. The level layout can help or hurt the heroes, because they don't travel in the ways we've come to expect. In most tower defense games, enemies use basic pathing logic. They'll travel down the path that takes them to their goal most quickly, to hell with the consequences.

In Tiny Heroes, on the other hand, the heroes are a little more complicated. In their tiny brains they have a drive to explore, to find the best path based on what they can see. While this does occasionally lead to weirdness, like heroes wandering back and forth under fire, it also means that they put up a good fight � and that you can trick them.

For a game about the wholesale slaughter of friendly adventurers, Tiny Heroes is surprisingly adorable. Big goofy eyes can be found on the heroes and more of the defenses than you'd expect, and the animations are similarly charming. The only thing that's missing is music. I've spent hours on end with this game and haven't minded the lack, but if you're auditorially inclined you'll certainly miss it.

But otherwise, Tiny Heroes is a complete package. The two included campaigns are huge and challenging, and there's a third coming as a purchasable update. The Game Center/OpenFeint achievements are done beautifully: you're rewarded with new defenses for completing groups of them, adding quite a lot of replayability to the game. You can play through in Campaign Mode, and then replay individual levels for higher scores and achievements in Quick Play. There are also challenge levels to be had, and these put your skills to a serious test.

There is one in-app purchase available, but let me stress that it's totally optional. The Defense Expansion gives you four new defenses that aren't available in normal gameplay. They are very slightly overpowered, but this is by design: they're there to help people who find the game too frustrating. If you're stuck and you'd rather not pay, the developers have a series of walkthrough videos available on their website, and forums to discuss strategy.

iPad users are currently out of luck, but according to the developers an iPad version is planned. It's expected to have it's own set of levels that take advantage of the extra screen real estate, so it should be worth the wait.

I can't say enough about Tiny Heroes. It's a fantastic game, with few flaws to speak of. Challenging, but rarely frustrating, it had me returning to levels again and again to improve my score. By turning genre conventions on their heads, Tiny Heroes succeeds brilliantly. And you don't have to take my word for it alone � our discussion thread is packed with fans. Who wouldn't want to throw down against a bunch of greedy do-gooders, just this once?

WayForward, the studio that's just finished cleansing and manipulating Majesco's Bloodrayne franchise into something that's actually fun to play with Bloodrayne Betrayal for Xbox Live Arcade, is porting the second game in its original Shantae franchise to iOS. In a couple of weeks, the studio plans to launch Risky's Revenge on the App Store for the iPhone, iPad, and the iPod Touch, a representative has confirmed with us.

Risky's Revenge debuted on the Nintendo DSi e-store in 2010. Despite the relative obscurity of the platform, people have been downloading and embracing the action-platform game. Heck, its even gathered some lofty awards with the media at large, which isn't something download-exclusive Nintendo DS games do.

To be clear, this is a port and it will have virtual controls as a substitute for the DS' control functionality. And while that sounds like a bummer, it's important to note that WayForward is actively tweaking the design of the original game to cater to iOS. In our Q&A below, the studio specifically says it's tinkering with the spacing of environmental objects and the behavior of AI, in addition to overhauling the UI and how moves are triggered.

We've played a bit of a developer build and love what we're seeing � Risky's Revenge is undoubtedly poised to be a technically and mechanically sound game that we'll be happy to have with us on the move.�As for what's next on iOS for WayForward? We realize we're getting ahead of ourselves, but it sounds like its interested in sticking with the App Store in some capacity down the line. The first priority for it, though, is to get this out of the door in the best possible way.

Q&A

Let's pretend that the entire iOS audience hasn't had a chance to see Shantae: Risky's Revenge on the DS' digital store. What is it and what makes it so awesome?

Shantae: Risky's Revenge is a modern day sequel to the Game Boy Color classic Shantae, originally distributed by Capcom. In it, players guide a hair-whipping, belly dancing genie on her quest to defeat Risky Boots, a sexy pirate who's determined to rule the world. Nintendo fans will notice the influence of Zelda, Castlevania, and Metroid right off the bat. There are puzzle-filled dungeons, gigantic bosses, magical upgrades, and a humorously flirty-girty storyline. Having developed 3rd party Nintendo titles for over 20 years, we've got a good handle on this kind of thing.

What makes it a good fit for the iPhone and iPod Touch?

Shantae is famous for three things; high ratings, hips that don't lie (whatever that means), and being difficult to find. We're bummed when we get letters from gamers who want to play it, but don't have the means. So, moving to iOS should help fix that.

Technically, the game runs silky smooth at a rock solid 60 frames per second, which is essential for an action game. The character artwork gets a huge boost on retina display, and our love of dot pixel graphics is perfectly preserved since there's plenty of resolution to go around. The iPad version is especially engrossing, since the visuals really stand out.

You're going to have to make do with virtual controls, right? What kind of enhancements, tweaks, or concession have you had to make as a result?

Virtual D-Pads are my personal arch nemesis, so I'm happy to report that ours does the job incredibly well. I should explain that this was not a quick and dirty port… it's been almost a full year of nonstop work, and we're preparing a release candidate now. The game has changed over time. Early on, our focus was to make it play exactly like the Nintendo DS game, but over time we saw the need to make it play "proportionately" the same. Meaning, if the player put out X amount of effort as in the DS version, they should get an equal sense of accomplishment in return.

Using that philosophy we made tweaks throughout the game. Platforms are slightly wider, chains dangle a little bit closer to the player's grasp; enemy behaviors are just a bit different. Players familiar with the Nintendo DSi version will probably enjoy discovering the subtle changes. We also overhauled every menu interface and changed how many of the player's moves are triggered. We also optimized each version for use with Fling and Fling mini joysticks, and came up with an inspired list of Achievements for Game Center. Overall, there are many more enhancements than concessions.

What do you hope new fans or consumers will get out this particular version of the game?

I hope players will get a kick out of our bizarre sense of humor and appreciate core gameplay fundamentals, maybe fall in love with the characters too. But mostly, we're just happy to have a stage to entertain on.

I've read that WayForward often uses Shantae to demonstrate its abilities with new technology. We're all under the impression that this is a cohesive and whole game, but is Risky's Revenge iOS a sign that more is to come from the studio on this platform?

Yes, we've done that a lot in the past, and this is indeed a full product. I think with this title, we're officially on every popular platform out there. As to whether or not there's more to come? Probably. But rather than porting something akin to a $29.99 retail game, we'd more likely make something specific to iOS from the get go. Right now we're extremely jazzed to bring Shantae: Risky's Revenge to iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad.

What I like about the Hector: Badge of Carnage games is how comparatively different from one another they are. The gap between We Negotiate With Terrorists and its follow-up Random Acts of Justice [$4.99 / $6.99] highlights not only the breadth and scope of the adventure genre, but also Straandlooper's willingness to use episodic content as an avenue for experimentation and iteration.

There are some technical improvements to note � Straandlooper have added helpful on-screen cues to show players precisely where they're tapping, and Random Acts of Justice is significantly longer than its predecessor � but Hector's cirrhotic core remains largely unchanged: it's still a competent adventure, smartly written and well-designed.

Random Acts of Justice doesn't stray particularly far from established tropes � puzzles are solved by navigating dialogue trees and manipulating items with a cast of quirky townsfolk�� but Straandlooper is deft in their adjustments. There are some particularly clever setpieces. There's a section in Hector is trapped in a building and Lambert must rescue him (after adopting a child) that's particularly nice. Oh! And the bit with the date-rape drugs!

Straandlooper's most effective change was structural, though. The first game in the series was fairly strict in its pacing � titular Detective Inspector Hector is given three assignments, born fully-formed from creators Dean Burke and Kevin Beimers' collective thigh. The game ends when they are completed.

Ep2 loosens its grip, letting players suss out the game's objectives for themselves. It's not enough for players to solve a puzzle � figuring out the puzzle itself is often the first step toward progress.

In other words, Hector felt like a (well-voiced and fully animated) flunky in Ep1, but he becomes a cop in Ep2: each step following logically from the next. The first game tasked Hector with simply completing assignments, but Ep2 is about gathering knowledge, using that knowledge to formulate a plan, and then executing that plan by blackmailing people in a brothel.

It is, to lift a term from television, procedural. From beginning to end, Random Acts of Justice drip feeds new places to explore and new people to interrogate, each piece fitting snugly into another like a giant matryoshka with villains at the center. Random Acts of Justice develops and unfolds, with a well-defined arcs for both story and gameplay.

The puzzles in "Random Acts of Justice" are, on the whole, better and more varied, but it's really Hector's up-grade from tchotchke-hoarder to investigator that pulls the game together. In Ep1, Straandlooper lampooned crime shows with pithy-one liners; here, they do it by taking the jumpy, outsized logic of Legally Blonde and creating a set of puzzles and narrative beats to exploit it.

The way Random Acts of Justice couples its investigative puzzle-solving with Hector's job title is an effective, though perhaps genre-specific, tweak, but it stumbles sometimes in execution � there's a long middle-section that, by and large, consists of navigating dialogue trees just so. These types of "puzzles tend" to be least fun of any adventure game because they get so repetitive and feel so strict.�Ep2 also breaks the fourth wall with annoying regularity � it was a cute, knowing wink Ep2, but that humor technique, too, can become repetitive.

My only serious issue with the game, though: Lambert, Hector's bumbling partner. The Hector series allows players to ask Lambert for hints and presents it as a viable, in-game option � it is, in other words, not cheating. Unfortunately, Lambert's dialogue options are often based on information that the player hasn't learned yet, effectively turning Hector's hint system into a de facto spoiler machine. This type of cagey gating is annoying in any case, but doubly so in a game that depends on the slow osmosis of knowledge and lateral thinking.

Lambert also reveals � at the end of the game � that he had solved the case hours ago and kept the information to himself. This, I think, was originally conceived as a hilarious joke about both Hector and Lambert's incompetence, but it just serves to undermine all of the work the player has so skillfully been doing for the last several hours.

Nevertheless, Random Acts of Justice is so well-designed and -written so often that I'm willing to forgive. The game stands well enough on its own, but in the context of the Hector: Badge of Carnage series as a whole, it's a valuable lesson is just how much experimentation the adventure genre can stand while still feeling familiar and grounded. Straandlooper have an eye for characterization and parody, and they were smart to put their faith in the genre veterans at Telltale Games � it's served them well so far and, I suspect, will continue to do so when Hector: Badge of Carnage wraps up in its third episode.

Earlier this summer, Limbic Software did what I thought couldn't be done: it created a zombie game with a unique mechanic in its inaugural Zombie Gunship [$.99] [Universal]. Since release, the developer has yet to take its foot off the pedal � it has dropped two updates since July, the latest of which is pretty newsworthy.

Version 1.2 introduces brand new audio commentary to the game, a noteworthy improvement since it mixes up the bland and once-super repetitive speech. It has also dropped in a new inverted controls setting, bug fixes, and a headline-worthy in-game "upgrade" that doubles the amount of friendly fire casualties you can have in a single round. Brad Nicholson doesn't play when he's in an AC-130, so people � undead or not � tend to die in droves. No doubt, this will extend his playtime by minutes, if not hours.

We reviewed Zombie Gunship when it hit and, yeah, we dug it quite a bit. If you still haven't given it a try, check out that write-up and see what you think about it after the fact. It's definitely worth your time.

On the heels of a cool new content update to Plants vs. Zombies for iPhone and iPod Touch, creator PopCap Games has slashed the prices of the vast majority of its App Store catalogue. From now until whenever the studio decides to call it quits, you can grab its best games on the cheap, including the aforementioned Plants vs. Zombies as well as Peggle.

Here's a Quick Hits list for your pleasure:

• Bookworm � $2.99 ? $.99
• Chuzzle � $2.99 ? $.99
• Escape Rosecliff Island -$1.99 ? $.99
• Escape Rosecliff Island HD � $2.99 ? $.99
• Peggle � $2.99 ? $.99
• Plants vs. Zombies � $2.99 ? $.99
• Plants vs. Zombies HD � $6.99 ? $1.99

It's hard to believe that everyone doesn't own Plants vs. Zombies or Peggle already, so I thought I'd plug Chuzzle real fast. It's another neat match-three game in a long line of match-three titles that don't quite do enough to distance themselves from Bejeweled, but it's hip in bursts and has a ton of character to spare. At this price, it's worth a shot if you're into puzzle games.

We recently brought news of the BulkyPix announcement that the much anticipated iOS port of Eric Chahi's Another World will be landing in the App Store on September 22nd. Xavier Liard of DotEmu, the studio developing the iOS version, put us in touch with the game's renowned author to discuss details of the upcoming release.

As we indicated yesterday, Another World for iOS will feature both the graphics of the original game as well as re-mastered "HD" graphics done specifically for this release. (A two-fingered swipe up the screen will toggle the visuals at any time.) In speaking with Chahi, I learned that this 20th Anniversary Edition of the game is running a tweaked version of the core script from acclaimed 15th Anniversary Edition, as executed by Chahi's own custom script interpreter that has been converted from 68000 assembly to C++. All of the sounds in the game have been re-mastered as well, to deliver an enhanced audio experience as compared to the original.

The preferred control method on the Amiga original was the keyboard. The iOS version brings two different methods of controlling our hero. The first and easiest to visualize is an on-screen virtual D-pad. The second method is a system that the developer refers to as "Touch Mode" and indicates that a great deal of time was put into it, to get things just right.

Touch Mode presents almost no visual control interface on screen. Lester's movement is controlled in this mode by tapping on, or dragging outwards to, the left or right side of the display. A double-tap sends him into a sprint, and sliding up or down initiates a jump or a duck. Chahi likens this control mode to the system used in Mirror's Edge. One difficulty the developers faced in engineering this mode was the number of simultaneous actions that Lester can perform, such as running and jumping. To make this work, once Lester is running, a swipe up the screen will send him into a long jump � there's no need to sustain a touch to keep him running. Chahi indicates that this mode is particularly useful on the iPhone and iPod touch, where one's fingers obscure a much greater portion of the screen as compared to the iPad.

The developers demonstrate the game's controls and difficulty settings in a brief gameplay video.

I pressed Chahi to try and get a hint as to what we might have to look forward to in the way of future iOS projects like, oh…I dunno,�From Dust, maybe… Well, it turns out that his excellent XBLA God game is not presently slated to make an App Store appearance (though he did speculate that the next iteration of the iPad's CPU might just be able to pull off such a game). But that's not to say that Another World is all we'll ever be seeing from this talented designer on our devices. In fact, during my conversation with Chahi, he expressed clear enthusiasm for the iOS platform and the flexibility that its multitouch interface and rich, sharp display bring to gaming. The generous physical display size of the iPad, in particular, excites him, making it the member of the iOS family that holds, for him, the most interest. Chahi tells me that the overall development opportunity that the iOS platform brings to gamemakers reminds him of the long-gone days of developing for the late '80s game consoles such as the Gameboy and the Atari Lynx.

It was a real pleasure to chat with the master about his masterpiece, and iOS gaming in general. Another World is an exquisite work and had a significant impact on me when I first experienced it 20 years ago. I am so very pleased to know that a new generation of gamers will soon have the opportunity to experience Another World for themselves. I encourage anyone familiar with the game or simply intrigued by what they've read here to watch Eric Chahi's excellent GDC 2011 presentation, Classic Game Postmortem: Another World / Out of this World, hosted at the GDC Vault.

You can count on our in-depth look at Another World as soon as the game arrives in the App Store on the 22nd of this month.

This past May, SNK Playmore surprised everybody by releasing The King of Fighters-i [$4.99], a mobile version of their popular fighting series, into the App Store. Until that time, Capcom's Street Fighter IV Volt [$6.99] had been the pinnacle of touch screen fighters, but just like the 90s arcades that I grew up in, King of Fighters gave Street Fighter a worthy opponent for the title of best iOS fighting game. We gave the nod to The King of Fighters-i in our review, but just barely, and in reality both titles are extremely evenly matched when it comes down to gameplay and features. It really may just boil down to personal preference which one you like more, or if you're like me, you just play and enjoy both. Problem solved.

Anyway, The King of Fighters-i has just gotten even better with a brand new update that adds 6 new playable fighters as well as an interesting new Challenge Mode. The new fighters are Iori Yagami, Mature, Vice, Elisabeth Branctorche, Shen Woo, and Duo Lon, bringing the total character count to 20, the same as in Street Fighter IV Volt. I'm not as familiar with The King of Fighters series' characters as I am with the Street Fighter ones, so I don't have any real attachment to any of these new additions, but I am pretty stoked to have 6 new people to learn how to use.

The next big addition in this update is a single player Challenge mode. Here you are given a list of tasks to complete using whichever character you want. You can earn extra coins in this mode to spend inside the in-game shop on various bonus items like collectible cards or gallery art. The selection of these items has also been expanded as part of this update. Challenge mode is a bit similar to Street Fighter IV's Dojo, and is a cool way to spend some time with the game solo when you don't feel like playing the regular Arcade mode ladder of opponents.

Finally, to celebrate this latest update SNK Playmore has slashed the price of The King of Fighters-i from $7.99 to $4.99. If you haven't yet, now is a great time to grab one of the two best fighters on the App Store in The King of Fighters-i, now even better following this pretty awesome update.

If you're a regular listener of our TouchArcade Show podcast (and if you're not, then really, shame on you) then you are most likely familiar with my Kitty Korner segment, where I break down games that can be either bad or good but will always at least feature a feline of some kind. This is my promise to you, the listener. During our episode 12 podcast last month, my kitty game du jour was a fun physics arcade game called Sushi Cat [99�].

In Sushi Cat, the goal is to drop your kitty from the top of the screen and bounce him down through the level in a Peggle-esque fashion, collecting sushi along the way and eventually ending up in a bin at the bottom of the screen. As kitty eats sushi he grows fatter and squishier, which can make for an interesting trip through the many objects that make up a level. I really ended up digging Sushi Cat much more beyond the initial "it's a cat game" infatuation. The gameplay is surprisingly fun, and I especially love the entire aesthetic and the humorous animated cut scenes that tell the story of Sushi Cat's plight.

Today, I learned that a full blown sequel to Sushi Cat was released at the beginning of this year, and is available on the Armor Games website. I spent some time with it and it appears to include everything that made the original so great plus some added new features. First, there are new story cutscenes and levels to play through, as well as a new antagonist named Bacon Dog. Perhaps best of all there are now unlockable costumes for Sushi Cat, so you can adorn your fat furry critter in pirate gear and more should you feel the need (I felt the need).

Sushi Cat 2 grabbed me from beginning to end just like the original, but sadly, I can't find any sort of information that it's going to make its way to iOS anytime soon. Too bad, really, because if only Armor Games knew that if they brought Sushi Cat 2 to the App Store then I'd pimp it on Kitty Korner and it would literally fly off the shelves. Not literally, though, it's digital. But we have heard other developer success stories of increased sales following an appearance on Jared's Kitty Korner, sometimes in the several thousand percent range. How a company, who has millions of unique players across their impressive suite of free online games, could possibly turn down such a tantalizing prospect is beyond me.

For now I can just dream that we see Sushi Cat 2 on iOS someday. In the meantime, you should definitely check out the original Sushi Cat if you enjoy lighthearted physics puzzlers with a great sense of style. You can play the Flash version of Sushi Cat and its expansion The Honeymoon � both of which are included in the iOS game � for free on the Armor Games website if you want to try before you buy.