Who would've thought there was room for a new endless runner in the App Store? Imangi Studios, apparently. They surprised us in early August with Temple Run [link], an excellent new take on the formula that�scored 4.5 stars in our review and was among the titles in our Best iOS Games of August 2011 roundup. I think our own Nissa best summed it up as, "the endless runner that makes you feel like an archaeologist with a penchant for deadly situations."

The only complaint I've had with the game is its lack of native iPad support. Well,�I'm happy to report that the game's third update, which landed last night, takes Temple Run universal.

The v1.3 update brings the following enhancements, as listed by Imangi:

• Universal iPad Support! Run for your life on the big screen!
• Two new characters to unlock! Barry Bones, a city cop with an attitude, and Karma Lee, the fastest legs in the Far East. To unlock new characters, just go to the Store and scroll down.
• More objectives to increase your score multiplier!
• You can now Tweet your score at the end of a game! That way all your friends will know you're the Temple Run champ!
• More ways to get free coins! Go to Store > Get More Coins to check it out!
• Lots of performance enhancements and bug fixes! Temple Run should run smoother than ever!

I've been running this latest version of Temple Run for a while now and it's definitely more fun than ever. It's surprising how much richer an experience the game is on the iPad with its 10-inch screen. But, entrenched leaderboard kings watch out � I quickly found that playing on the iPad is conducive to much higher scoring.

A couple of weeks back, at the release of their v1.2 update, Imangi made Temple Run a free download, which is something iOS gamers seem to have appreciated. I recently managed to pull some stats from developer Keith Shepherd regarding the game's activity across its life-so-far in the App Store. As a paid app, in its first month, Imangi saw 10 million games played. Three days after going free, Temple Run hit 20 million games played, and after a week as a free app, it hit the 100 million games mark. All told, right now 350 million games of Temple Run have been played. Not a bad run…so to speak.

Imangi is working on iCade support for Temple Run and hopes to bring it in the next update.

Steve Jobs unveiled iOS 5 back at WWDC this year. Since then, those of us with an iPhone 3GS or later device have been anxiously looking forward to the array of new features and functionality introduced in the update. At last week's Let's Talk iPhone keynote, Apple revealed that today was the lucky day for iOS 5, and if you've got a device that'll run it� Plug it into iTunes, make sure you sync, and mash that update button.

My favorite improvement so far has definitely got to be the entirely revised push alert notification system. That nasty blue popup that interrupts everything you're doing when you get a text message, your Tiny Tower is ready for something, or the zillion other things that used that type of been notification is a thing of the past. Now there's an incredibly elegant notification center where all these alerts are stored, and the actual popups themselves simply scroll in from the top instead of stealing focus.

If you've got an iPad 2 (or are getting an iPhone 4S in a few days), you'll be able to do display mirroring via AirPlay. Doing cool things with this is largely dependent on developers utilizing it in interesting ways, but so far Firemint is doing awesome things with Real Racing 2.

In addition, Game Center has seen a few tweaks. One I'm most excited for is turn-based support. If developers utilize it, Game Center can handle all of the matchmaking and turn data management between players. I've heard from developers that this functionality does not degrade gracefully to previous versions of iOS, but once iOS 5 adoption picks up we could see a rush of great turn-based games now that developers can offload their entire online infrastructure onto Game Center.

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iCloud isn't something that should be underestimated. Out of the box it'll keep your device backed up to Apple's data centers and in the event of device failure, loss, theft, or whatever else you'll be able to re-download the entire contents of your phone regardless of the last time you synced. Also, once developers start embracing it, you'll be able to seamlessly sync save game data between devices. As someone who often plays games on both my iPhone and iPad, I can't wait for this to pick up steam.

iOS 5 is an incredible upgrade. I've been running the developer version since the gold master hit last week, and much like the upgrade from iOS 3 to iOS 4, my iPhone 4 feels like a totally new device. iOS 5 boasts a feature list of over 200 additions and improvements, so if you want to know everything that is new and different, check out this huge list over on MacRumors.

5th Cell's and Iron Galaxy Studios' Scribblenauts Remix [$4.99] is a work of utter genius. Think of a noun, type it in, and then the game conjures whatever you chose to aid you in a puzzle. Need to find a way to reach a button on a cliff above the sliding door it controls? Hop on a pegasus. Want to bury a dead man? A�stylish�coffin, a shovel, and a spot of dirt will do the trick. Remix's brilliance is in its ability to let you use any tool to solve any puzzle. It cradles creativity unlike any other game, and Remix isn't shy about letting you play in its world, to create all the fire-breathing dragons or toasters you can handle.

If you said Remix is a Best Of port of Super Scribblenauts and Scribblenauts, you wouldn't be wrong. Remix is the sum of those core experiences with added touch controls that can, in some instances, feel inorganic. It strikes me as more of an upgrade, though. The game engine has a noticeably sharper look and feel, extraneous movements and navigation elements have been stripped or streamlined, the play is generally snappier, and some new levels have been thrown in for good measure. While 5th Cell didn't re-invent the wheel with Remix, it did bother with the balance, weight, and treads on the thing.

The setup goes like this: you, as a curious boy named Max, are thrown into dozens and dozens of puzzles or challenges that all revolve you satisfying certain objectives with nouns or the use of adjective and nouns. The progression is incoherent � in one level you'll tune a race car, in others you'll carry around a dead man, set up a school for the first day of class, or hide a lion in front of a magic show's audience. The constant is the gleaming Starite, which is your reward for fulfilling all what is required.

The majority of scenarios aren't really the hotbed of creativity that I'd love for them to be. Sure, you could conjure a winged dragon or a vampire in the school house level, but what the game is going to credit you for are the basics: chairs, desks, podiums, and all of that rather dull school-y stuff. There are some significantly more open experiences to be had. The first level, for example, simply charges you with sniffing out the actual Starite in a tree filled with impostors. I used a flamethrower against the tree to burn everything out of it because I'm a jerk, but it totally worked.

I can go either way with the duller scenarios. Most of the time, I use them as extra encouragement to think outside the box. Sure, I could give the hairdresser scissors, but wouldn't it be a funnier if I gave her an exceedingly more creative object to snip her client's hair? Some of the more open levels, on the other hand, do require critical thought. Creating a mass extinction event without asteroids is harder than you think. If you ever get stumped, the game does a decent job with its hint system giving you all the teases you need to succeed while still not robbing you of those glorious "A-Ha!" moments.

Like in other Scribblenauts titles, you'll need to do a measure or two of moving, probably most often to mount that flying dragon you just created. The touch controls function well for the most part. A simple tap to the levels borders steers Max, while shakes remove everything you created and two-finger swipes allow you to look at the map. Actions like jumping and climbing are automated to maximize your leisure and sharp radial menus handle all the "remove or give object" kind of functionality. The iPad's regular virtual keyboard is your magical conduit to the game and noun creation.

Probably the best thing about Remix is that movement is important; it's the creation. And what you can do almost magical. Want to watch God fight a T-Rex? Make it happen. Want to see what happens when you throw a caveman or a toaster into a pond with a shark inside of it? Go ahead. The casual disregard of the actual objectives is actually an empowering side-mechanic that really, somehow and someway, allows you to experiment and conjure alternative solutions to the fairly simple problems the game might throw your way.

The introduction of adjectives and the adjective-leaning puzzle levels really flesh out the experimental play. In one level, for example, you'll be asked to make a man into a dragon with some mad genius potions. Thinking of which attributes you think are important to dragons and then applying them to potions is nothing short of entertaining, just like the game's open and sandbox-y world. If you want to do it, you probably can. It's insane and great all at the same time. It's indescribably fantastic to wield so much power.

It's pretty cliche to write in a game review, but I really think you'd be doing yourself a disservice by not checking out Remix. It's an utterly fascinating game that isn't afraid to put significant power in your hands. It utterly embraces creativity and brims with extremely satisfying moments and stories to share as a result.

Publisher WBIE could have easily had this phoned in and still made stupid amounts of money, but it didn't; this is a rock-solid pseudo-port that plays extremely well on mobile and displays a measure of technical and mechanical grace none of us expected it to. Oh, and it's Universal and supports iCloud saves across devices � icing on the cake, folks.

It seems like a recent trend on iOS is for developers to band together on projects, putting all of their various resources together to create a better final product. This past July we learned of one such project called Bike Baron, a collaboration between Mountain Sheep, Qwiboo, and music composer Ari Pulkkinen. Bike Baron is a side-scrolling motorcycle stunt game in the vein of the popular Trials games from Redlynx, but ditches the overly-industrial visuals for a more cartoonish look and a heavy dose of humor.

Today, the developers have sent along information regarding pricing and the release date of Bike Baron. You can look forward to the game hitting the App Store on October 20th at a price of just 99�. They have also sent over a new gameplay video featuring one of the extreme levels in the game, and in this case the word "extreme" seems to mean "really freaking difficult", as you can see for yourself:

I'd like to stress again that this was a demonstration of an extreme level, and you shouldn't expect all of the 40 levels in the game to be lined with explosive barrels, though there should be plenty of danger to be had in the game's normal progression. Also, you'll be able to create levels with as much danger as you'd like using the included level editor. Other features of Bike Baron will include iOS 5 and Universal iPad support, Game Center integration, and enhanced visual effects for the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S.

We'll be looking to get our hands on Bike Baron just as soon as possible, and while you wait for the game to drop on October 20th you can stop by our forums for a discussion of the game.

We first caught wind of the Crescent Moon Games and Blowfish Studios collaborative effort Siegecraft [99�] back in July with some early screenshots, and got our first glimpse of it in action the following month with a brief teaser trailer and an intended release date of early October. And, just as promised, earlier this week Siegecraft went live in the App Store.

Siegecraft is something of a fixed-turret tower defense game, but with a more hands-on approach than your typical title. Your job is to defend against approaching enemies by firing on them with various weaponry, like arrows, catapults, and more. You accomplish this by simply touching and dragging on the weapon to set the speed and/or trajectory of its ammunition and letting go to fire.

It's a bit like pulling back and firing the slingshot in Angry Birds, except instead of launching birds into rickety structures you're launching brutal objects through the bodies of medieval warriors in spectacularly gory fashion. Check out the official launch trailer for Siegecraft to get an idea of what the game is like:

We'll be bringing a full review of Siegecraft shortly, but since it has launched at the introductory price of 99�, we thought that many of you might just be happy downloading the game and checking it out for yourselves. I've been playing around with the game since it came out, and despite some instances of inaccurate aiming, I've been enjoying the game a great deal. Especially the same device multiplayer mode, which is exclusive to the iPad. It's just too much fun.

Speaking of features, besides Universal iPad support with the same device multiplayer, Siegecraft will also have asynchronous multiplayer via Game Center just as soon as the iOS 5 software update is available. On the single player side of things, there are currently 25 levels across 5 campaigns to play through, with 3 different factions to play as � the Vikings, the Knights, and the Samurai � as well as an endless survival campaign. For a dollar, there really is a ton of content here.

Keep your eyes peeled for our review of Siegecraft in the coming days, or if you like to live life on the edge and recklessly spend dollar bills, the download link is below.

For many gamers, especially those in their late twenties and early thirties, the first experience with gaming on an Apple computer would have to be with the iconic The Oregon Trail. I know that that was my own personal first experience with an Apple computer, as we were allowed to play the edutainment title in my early grade school years in the computer lab on our modest collection of Apple II machines (not before we had finished up our math learning programs, of course).

In early 2009, Gameloft brought an updated take on the classic game to the App Store with their modernized The Oregon Trail for iOS. The core gameplay of the original was kept mostly intact, but with brand new visuals and an assortment of touch-centric mini-games added into the mix. Despite the huge potential to alienate a countless number of fans who have emotional ties to the original game, this new The Oregon Trail was actually quite well-received and paid proper respect to its roots. Even 30 years later, the core concept was still pretty damn fun.

Now, Gameloft's version of The Oregon Trail has at long last come to the iPad. I have no idea why it took two and a half years to make it here, but it's definitely a nice fit for the larger screen. Everything appears to be mostly identical to its smaller screened counterpart. Best of all is that currently the iPad version can be picked up for just 99�. If you own an iPad and want to relive your classic Apple gaming days, then definitely check out The Oregon Trail for the iPad.