We've been keeping tabs on Madfinger's Shadowgun since its first batch of ridiculously impressive images hit our message board. At times, we've speculated that it might not be as beautiful in motion as it is in images, but soon we'll all get a chance to go hands-on with the supposed technical marvel and judge for ourselves when it hits the App Store on September 28. And to be clear: it's hitting both the iPhone and the iPad at that time.

Shadowgun is a sci-fi shooter, inarguably inspired by slam-and-shoot third-person games like Epic's Gears of War. You'll play as a muscly bounty hunter tasked with taking out Dr. Edgar Simon, a geneticist who is creating his own personal army of mutants, cyborgs, and other genetically modified monstrosities. You'd figure by the year 2350 society would be able to identify the crazies before they construct fortresses and mutants, but here we are.

Hopefully, we'll be getting our grubby hands on a build before release. Naturally, we'll bring details as soon as possible if we do. As for now, marvel at those images and, hey, if you'd like to see the game in motion, check out this post or look above!

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Crescent Moon Games' Pocket RPG [$.99 / UHD] for the iPad, a device that could only fit in the pocket of a JNCO brand pant, has gone Universal. Naturally, if you've spent the cheese on this specific version, the Universal-ness will come to you free of charge. The same goes for new purchasers, too, and �now don't you feel better about waiting it out now, mister smarty-pants? In related news, a similar update is live for Ambrosia Software's puzzler, Hypnoblocks [$1.99], but a one-dollar price hike accompanies it.

This update for Pocket RPG also rolls in a pretty important fix and a tweak. According to Crescent Moon, the game now loads faster in its post-update state. Also, the studio has fixed an endless dungeon � a fix that I imagine several of you are pretty happy about.

In Hypnoblocks' patch notes, Ambrosia notes that numerous tweaks and fixes have been added in its Universal update. This update also rolls in multiple language support and some new Game Center achievements to nab.

Pocket RPG got off to a pretty rough start, but we were able to enjoy the game after all the rubble was cleared. Hypnoblocks was awesome from day one.

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Nimblebit's Tiny Tower [Free] [Universal] has been update, roughly, a billion times since our original review and we haven't covered them all, but the latest strikes us as special. Starting now, you can share those hours you've spent meticulously upgrading your tower on the world wide web via an option from the game's main menu. This seems like a sure-fire way to make mom and dad, sister or brother, or even loved one proud, if you ask us. Neat!

Additionally, this latest update adds new floors, new costumes, new settings for audio, and rolls in a staggering amount of crucial bugs, including ghost-painting and a crash bug that triggered when you viewed certain neighbors. The entire list of fixes, if you're really into this sort of thing, is available right here.

Despite its free-to-play model, Tiny Tower has managed to wiggle its way into our hearts. I think a big part of that reason is the fact that its balanced non-aggressively and isn't what I would dub "pushy" about taking your hard-earned coin. Give our review a read if you've not bothered with the tower simulation game quite yet.

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The first major content update to Halfbrick's relentlessly awesome Jetpack Joyride [$.99] [Universal] is exactly what we wanted from an inaugural attempt to make the game better. Version 1.1 packs in a new fire-breathing robot dragon vehicle dubbed Mr. Cuddles, a fruit-spewing jetpack that makes a jolly mess all over the lab, and addresses several issues relating to achievements, missions, and other things like coin bankrolls.

Most importantly, it adds the studio's own person wizard Phil Larsen, the most amazing Australian I've ever shared a crab cake with, to the core game. Tragically, he's only making this single cameo appearance as of this moment, but I suppose it's only a matter of time until he succeeds Barry Steakfries in future games, right Halfbrick?

All of these improvements have been rolled in as a free update to the game, and it's totally up for grabs right now. If you're unfamiliar with Jetpack Joyride, go read our review and do the right thing: buy it.

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Excuse our tardiness on this one. Boulder Dash XL, the recent Xbox Live Arcade re-make of the classic coin-op game, is coming to mobile, the parties involved in the port announced earlier last month. Specifically, the title will see re-releases across Windows Phone 7, Android, and more relevant to our interests, iOS at some unspecified date later this year.

From what we gather, Boulder Dash XL on mobile isn't slated to be an overhaul, which come to think about it, doesn't seem like a bad thing at all. Provided touch control is implemented in a smart way, the rest of the game should translate pretty well. Developer Herocraft has been pegged as the studio behind this port.

"We're huge fans of the original Boulder Dash and are thrilled that we have the opportunity to bring this game up to date with stunning new graphics for the latest cutting edge smartphones and tablets," Herocraft's marketing dude Alexey Sazonov said in a statement.

The media generally liked Boulder Dash XL when confronted with it on the fringe of the Summer of Arcade despite some audio and technical problems, so we're pretty excited to see it on our platform of choice. Also, it should scratch that horribly distracting retro itch that we have if the port comes through unscathed.

[Via Pocket Gamer, GamePro]

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Sometimes I'm the mood for a puzzle game, and sometimes, I'm in the mood for a word game. Or the rare occasion that I'm in the mood for both, I don't have a lot of choices on my iPhone, but I believe Chillingo has fixed that with the addition of Gum Drop! [$0.99 ] to their library. A hybrid of both genres, Gum Drop! is a very attractive game that I believe will have staying power with kids and adults alike.

Like a lot of other Chillingo titles, Gum Drop! has a great look. Pastel colors and jazzy music will usher you into the title menu, which is so basic that there aren't even any instructions before you begin to play. This could be slightly disorienting if you're used to being instructed in the games you play, but really this one is so self-explanatory you hardly need it.

A stack of gumdrops sit on the far left corner of your screen, and the rest of it is dominated by a series of squares with pictures on them. A closer look at the gumdrops will show that each has a word on it. As you see the word represented by a picture on one of the squares, you touch it with a finger, and it vanishes. The gumdrop with the word on it deflates, and you take out as many as you can in order to drop another set of them and proceed to the next level of squares.

Simple, right?

Gum Drop!'s challenge begins as you make progress. To begin, you only have nine squares to match, and the gum drops don't expand too quickly. It's when you hit level 7 and the blocks increase to sixteen on a grid that things get tougher. It's also around this time that the items you have to identify on the blocks all start coming up one color, like yellow or blue. Let me tell you, this is where the game starts to become a total pain (albeit in a really challenging, kind of throw your phone at the wall kind of way). You'll have to speed up to keep going. If you make a mistake and stab a block with an image that is not represented by one of the gumdrops on the left, guess what happens? One of them expands, doubling in size. Isn't that super?

One thing you can use to your advantage is keeping an eye out for the items on the level above you. As you take blocks out, eventually, the upcoming level that's above you will fall. You'll be able to see one row of the blocks coming, and if you can match one to a word on a gumdrop, it takes out everything in the current level and moves you immediately to that one, which earns you a sweet little points bonus. It deflates the gum drops too, so you have a precious few moments of time to get your bearings on the new level. And believe me, you're going to need them.

In addition tot he basic gameplay, you also have 25 achievements to dig into and Game Center functionality to brag about your scores. There's a Facebook button too, so you can easily let people know you're digging the game and encourage them to check it out too.

I like how simple Gum Drop! is. Typically iPhone games are pretty easy to learn to play, but this one is so effortless that it reminds me a little of the "jump in and play" mentality of games from the early retro era. I miss that sentiment, and while obviously many wonderful games are in the world that require a bit of instruction, on occasion it's a breath of fresh air to play one that lets you jump in and play basically on instinct. It's an elegant formula, and it works. Now if I could only get a little better at the levels where all the items are the same color…

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Last month we posted a short preview of the upcoming GoatUp [link] (then to be called Goat Goes Up) from ungulate adoring game developer Jeff Minter. GoatUp is a retro-inspired platform game � Llamasoft's first ever, in fact � and is a title I've spent a great deal of time with over the last week or so. The game has just gone live in the App Store, so let's take a look.

GoatUp is a platform game of the endless climber sort that, according to Minter, draws inspiration from several oldschool platformers, including�the Atari 2600 title�Man Goes Down,�Nebulus, and�Rainbow Island. The game puts you in control of a cute little nanny goat faced with a never-ending, downward scrolling tower bristling with platforms. Your job is to climb as high as you can by deftly jumping from platform to platform as they scroll off the bottom of the screen. It's a mechanic that's pretty well represented in the App Store, but GoatUp is full of twists (so to speak) that make it something special.

You start the game off at the bottom of the tower in a zone of grassy platforms. As you run back and forth, making your way up the ever-scrolling tower, you eat the grass and reveal eclectic arrays of bonus items that, once found, can be picked up for points � the higher up the tower, the more points per item. Every so often you'll encounter an amorous billy goat who you can "kiss" to start your belly growing. A bit more grass consumed and it's � plunk � time for congoatulations, mommy goat! Your new little kid follows along right behind you as you do your thing on the platforms. Kiss lots of billy goats to build up a chain of kids that follow you around like a tail and help pick up bonus items, gain more points, and knock off the baddies wandering the platforms a little higher up.

Like most of Minter's games, GoatUp bundles up a focused style of gameplay, trippy visuals (watch out for the poison mushrooms!) and a pixellated retro style that, together, evoke a sense of arcade gaming as it once was. This latest from Llamasoft, however, takes the stroll down memory lane to another level, thanks to the particular designs of the various zones you encounter in ascending the tower. After the grassy zone, you find yourself moving through a progression of zones with platforms and baddies styled after various well loved games of days gone by, such as Miner 2049er, Manic Miner and Canyon Climber (whence came your goat). And, with the various platform styles come different platform behaviors. Remember Manic Miner's disintegrating floors? That's what we're talking about here.

GoatUp is a universal app that runs natively on both the iPhone and iPad. It features mirrored swipe / tap goat control, as well as a tilt option well suited to the smaller devices. Just after the game was submitted to the App Store, the developer added (and demonstrated) iCade support, which should arrive in an update soon. Both OpenFeint and Game Center are integrated to track scores and keep things competitive.

At a glance, and especially in static screenshots, GoatUp might look fairly dismissible given the plethora of endless climbing games in the App Store. The large number of unique elements that mix up the gameplay along with the progressive variation that the heights of the tower bring, however, really set this game apart. Now, that's not to say that it's without fault � some lively background music would be a nice addition, and the storm of nostalgic icons flying about might seem a shade, well, confusing to the uninitiated. Even so, in the week I've been evaluating GoatUp, it's grabbed as many (and "many" is the word) hours of my time as has a certain other game involving a little fellow wearing a jetpack. That "just one more game" draw is in full effect, here.

I have long counted Jeff Minter's�Minotaur Rescue [link] and�Minotron: 2011 [link] as two of the very best games in the App Store, and I can tell you that GoatUp solidly lives up to the greatness of those titles. It's quite a different sort of game, but the pieces come together just as nicely.

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