As a huge Jurassic Park fan, I only need to hear about three notes of the theme song before I instinctively get… Well, probably more excited than a nearly-30-year-old should get over dinosaurs. We've heard more than a few rumblings of Telltale's plans to release the Jurassic Park-themed adventure game on the App Store, and it's finally here along with a brand new trailer that goes over all of its iPad 2 exclusiveness.

Jurassic Park: The Game 1 HD [$6.99] (say that three times fast) is the first installment in the series, and takes place during the events of the second half of the first Jurassic Park movie. I've always thought the Jurassic Park universe was fantastic, and am beyond stoked that I'll be able to delve into a new adventure on my iPad 2. It's unfortunate that Telltale has dropped iPad support, but if you've played any of their recent games on the device it'll be more than clear why they did it.

We'll have a review for the game as soon as we can sit down and spend some time with it, but in the meantime, if you don't feel like waiting feel free to mash the download link below.

It's no secret we love the various gamebooks available on the App Store, and as veterans of classic choose your own adventure books, it's hard to put them down. Anyway, Tin Man Games, the guys who are responsible for the Gamebook Adventures series on the App Store, just dropped us a note mentioning they've secured a deal with the folks from 2000 AD to produce a Judge Dredd-centric interactive gamebook. It's set to be released in Q2 next year for the price of $4.99.

Now, I know what you're probably thinking, "Oh wow, Judge Dredd, I hope I can contain my excitement!" But, consider this: This is a great first step to get bigger gamebooks on the App Store, packed with recognizable characters and other popular IP. Not to say that Tin Man Games' existing series of gamebook adventures aren't good (because they are), but it seems like integrating at least a semi-popular character into things on the App Store can be a great way to get a much wider audience interested in something. More people interested in gamebooks means a larger customer base, which only means more gamebooks.

And I, for one, am always excited at the prospect of more gamebooks.

This past weekend, Elite Systems released their third round of 8-bit games brought to iOS through their Elite Collection of 8-bit computer games effort. The three games in question are stand-alone titles and each comes in both an iPhone and iPad "HD" version.

Denaris

One of the better scrolling shooters to appear on the C64 was�Denaris [iPhone, (iPad coming)] by Manfred Trenz. Published by Rainbow Arts in 1989,�Denaris was a re-release of the previous year's�R-Type-alike shooter,�Katakis.

Denaris pits you and your craft against a slew of evil robot enemies that arose from a typical Skynet-type scenario. (Silly humans.) Like�R-Type,Denaris features multiple side-scrolling levels, plenty of asteroids to dodge, power-ups, and end-bosses.

The Denaris releases are available in both English versions and "DE" German language versions. A video of Katakis (the same game) playing on a PC under VICE emulation can be seen�here.

Paradroid

The star of these releases is certainly Andrew Braybrook's Paradroid [iPhone, iPad] one of the most well loved games ever released for the Commodore 64. Originally published in 1985, Paradroid puts you aboard a large space vessel, in control of the "Influence Device," a special droid that must roam the many rooms and decks of said craft and destroy every other droid on the ship. All of the droids on board, including your own, have a certain power level indicated by an integer -- the higher the number, the more powerful the droid.

Each deck of the ship features a variety of rooms, doors, elevators, and computer terminals that can provide useful information about the ship.�You can destroy enemy droids by shooting or ramming into them, though droids much more powerful than your own present a rather significant challenge. It is possible to take over another droid (even a more powerful one) by way of a timed mini-game, featuring logic gates and circuit diagrams, that challenges you to out-wire the enemy droid.

Paradroid is a highly unique game that has something of an eerie feel, for lack of a better word, and significant replay value.

Alternate Reality: The Dungeon

Following last month's release of Alternate Reality: The City [iPhone, iPad] is Alternate Reality: The Dungeon [iPhone, iPad], an RPG originally published by Datasoft in 1987. These two games are actually the first game, split into two pieces, of a planned six-game series that never materialized. But, despite this, they have gained something of a cult following.

At the beginning of the story, you find yourself captured by aliens and standing in front of a gate with a row of changing attribute values. When you step through the gate, the attributes freeze and you have become a new person in an alternate reality, possessing the attributes shown. While The City is played in an open area, The Dungeon takes place in the confines below the city and features improved graphics over the original.

Gameplay involves freely exploring the very large game world, interacting with a variety of characters along the way, and keeping your vital attributes in balance. Interestingly, some of the attributes of your character are not revealed to you, the player, directly, but can be gleaned through the manner in which other characters interact with you -- such as your character's alignment (good, evil, or neutral). It's a very open and free play experience, and perhaps to a fault; there is really no story behind the game and there is no real stated goal other than to interact with the vast game world and amass experiences there.

A bit of gameplay of the Atari 8-bit version can be seen in a somewhat rough video here.

Each of these titles features Elite's customizable "iDaptive" control system allowing for a variety of control systems for both portrait and landscape play and iCade support is on the way. We expect each of these titles to make their way into the currently-delayed Elite Collection and Elite Collection HD game collections with in-app stores.

NOTE: Denaris HD and DE HD are still in review at Apple. They should be available shortly.

It's the little things that matter. You know what I'm talking about, right? It's not the bacon that he brings home, it's the breakfast he wakes you up with. It's not the fact that Ravenmark: Scourge of Estellion [$2.99] is probably going to be one of the definitive names in turn-based strategy for the iOS, it's the way the commanders bellow at their troops to merit their wings.

Food metaphors aside, there's a lot to like about Witching Hour's debut title. If you're anything like me and have spent some amount of time bemoaning the paper-thin worlds that populate the App Store, Ravenmark: Scourge of Estellion is going to make your heart beat faster. The setting is exhaustive. Every character has a detailed biography, every unit type a set of statistics and a matching description. There are social hierarchies, self-serving matriarchs and imperial ranks. There is history. There is substance.

Paradoxically, the actual plot itself feels a lot less deep. You can blame it on a childhood diet of Ursula K. Le Guinn and Terry Prachett but I can't shake the feeling I've seen it all before. The first part of the game, for example, is centered around the soft-spoken Calius Septim. Determined to make his way up the ranks, he must deal with things like an overprotective older brother and a superior officer who loathes him. It's a familiar story, one that has been related a thousand times before in various forms. Nonetheless, that doesn't make the tale any less compelling.

Delivered in a visual novel-esque manner, Ravenmark: Scourge of Estellion's greatest strength lies in the fact it is not pretentious. The protagonists are not larger-than-life heroes; they're men. They're people we can empathize with. While it is doubtful that the dialogue will win the Pulitzer prize anytime, it's still some of the best I've recently seen. You will care about them, regardless of whether you intended to or not.

But let's get to the real reason you're reading this. An exquisitely-crafted world is good and all but is Ravenmark: Scourge of Estellion fun? The answer to that is: it depends. Did you want something you could fiddle with and forget while you're on the bus or the loo? If so, you're not going to be very happy with what the Witching Hour has to offer. Ravenmark, to put it succinctly, is heavy stuff.

Utilizing a rock-paper-scissors (swordsmen beat spear-men, spear-men trump cavalry, cavalry wins over archers and archers have the edge over swordsmen) sort of approach to things, battles in Ravenmark are played out through a series of turns. Each round consists of two rather self-explanatory phases: the Command Phase and the Battle Phase. In the Command Phase, you give orders. In the Battle Phase, you watch as they're carried out. Units will move. Abilities will be used. If they find themselves within range of one another, they will attack; an action that consists of nothing but some artwork sliding around and numbers dwindling where appropriate.

Simple as that might sound on paper, the reality is significantly more complex. To begin with, you'll never have enough Command Points. You'll also have to ensure that you're constantly aware of the order in which the various units will move. One false move and you might find your foe neatly eluding your grasp even as you beat your head against the wall. On top of all that, you'll also have to worry about being flanked and whether your army's current Formations are sufficient for its needs. Do you break up a Formation into Daggers to allow for greater mobility or do you make use of the raw strength that such a contingent can offer?

If that wasn't enough, you'll also have to take geographical constraints into consideration, worry about active skills and passive abilities and give Standing Orders whenever appropriate.�The Standing Orders battle system is a stroke of minor genius, by the way. With a Standing Order, you'll be able to command a unit to pursue an enemy till it or the foe dies, or to rest until it has recovered much-needed HP.

It's an absolutely glorious mess of details. The in-game tutorials are informative and well-done. The controls are exquisite; the large buttons and concise radial menus make me want to name my first-born child after the UI designer. The gameplay, once you've mastered its nuances, is a complete and utter joy; Ravenmark gives me honest-to-god, no-hyperbole-intended hope for serious iOS gaming. Sure, you're going to find yourself beating your head against a wall in frustration whenever�you find yourself outmaneuvered by the infuriatingly clever AI, but the satisfaction of a hard-won victory is incomparable. Ravenmark probably would have benefited from a few customization options or even just the ability to select what kind of troops you want to bring into battle but those are minor quibbles. Nitpicking, if you will.

I seriously couldn't be happier.�Witching Hour's maiden project Ravenmark: Scourge of Estellion is almost everything this iPhone-touting strategy game aficionado could ask for, and as long as you're a fan of its somewhat hardcore nature, I will eat my fuzzy hat if you don't find yourself thinking the same.

Ivanovich Games, who have previously brought the Operation Wolf-inspired gallery shooter Operation Wow [Free/HD] to the App Store, are at it once again with their homage to the classic arcade-style platforming game Bomb Jack, called Katana Jack. Just the news of a new Bomb Jack style game coming to the App Store is reason enough to get excited, but even more interesting to me is how Katana Jack has been developed. All of the artwork in the game was created using the excellent Brushes [$4.99/HD] app on an iPad, and the music was also composed on an iPad using GarageBand [$4.99].

Now, I absolutely love the Brushes app, but I've never personally been able to create anything with it that didn't look like I drew it by haphazardly dragging my nose around the screen. I have a ton of respect some of the amazing art people are able to make using the app, and as demonstrated in the following video Katana Jack's visuals are just that much more impressive considering how they were created.

Katana Jack is set to launch on November 17th as a Universal app for just 99�. It will feature 90 levels across 15 hand-painted environments, and will include two game modes, Game Center, iCade support, and iCloud integration. There will also be 28(!) included videos showing the behind-the-scenes creation of the game on the iPad, which is a pretty neat inclusion. I'll be anxious to see just how the game was made, as well as how good of a Bomb Jack clone the actual game is, when Katana Jack launches later this week. Be sure to stop by the thread in our forums for early discussion of the game.

I think one of the reasons people are drawn to certain formulas in gaming is because they flick some silent switch within them, and from then on, it's forever in the on position. Clearly birds and physics are one of those�irresistible�combos, and for me, there's something about zombies and anything that should not be a zombie that is like a drug I must get my hands on. In this case, it's zombies and the elderly, apparently. Which is why I had to find out what was going on behind the clever and attractive look of a game with a name like Corpse Granny [$.99/HD].

I mentioned earlier that Corpse Granny was a nice looking title, and I feel like I have to repeat myself on that because this is an unusually good looking game. Like, if it was a girl and it walked past you at a party, you'd turn�around�to look again. But could you catch up with said girl and have a worthwhile conversation? Well, yes, you could, but how long the conversation would remain interesting for, I can't say. Or let's throw that metaphor out the window and say that we've seen some of this ground before.

Corpse Granny offers three worlds to explore and a total of 45 levels to make your way through. Each level is very simple: You're presented with a puzzle which you'll need to solve, and you'll need to use the world's items to do so. This mostly means cutting fireballs free and aiming them at unsuspecting zombies, but as the levels grow more complex, you'll also use other�obstacles�such as boards, bombs and boulders to make sure you take out everything in your path to clear it.

As you progress, three different types of fireballs will be at your service: orange ones which are ... well, basic fireballs, blue ones which you can tilt the phone to move, and green ones which you will inevitably hate because they will vanish after touching anything near it three times. As annoying as they are though, the green fireballs do add a level of complexity to solving these puzzles that I enjoyed, as I had to work harder to think through how I would complete each of these levels once they came into play.

The game dices up the formula a bit by tossing in some boss levels that allow you to actually go up against the decaying grandmother of the title, who moves around as you try to use your�environment's�advantages to take her out. For an old lady, she's pretty spry. Must do yoga or something.

A cool extra is that you can unlock levels players have created, and there's also a little sign that gives it away that more content is coming later down the line, so if you're a fan, you can look forward to more zombie bowling in the future.

The heart of Corpse Granny is trial and error, and it works as long as you like to play in bite -sized bits and puzzle your way through how to solve each level. This game is chock-full of personality, and it also uses OpenFeint to track scores and such so you can compete with your friends. The art style is really cute and reminds me a bit of the The Behemoth's humorous take on character design, but it still has its own unique bend. I think personally I'm a bit burnt out on trial and error titles, but that doesn't mean I can't call something quality when I see it -- and Corpse Granny certainly has it in spades.

Look up. Are pigs flying? Ok, just checking, because in case you hadn't heard True Axis' Space Tripper [$3.99] is now available in the App Store. If you've heard the tale of Space Tripper's perilous development cycle that spanned more than three years, then you might be apt to think that pigs flying would be about as plausible as the game being released. However, after a late push from the developers these past couple of months, they have finally released Space Tripper out into the wild.

As a quick recap, Space Tripper started as a Mac and PC game created by PomPom Games back in 2001. In 2006, it was rereleased on the PlayStation Network as an enhanced version by the name of Astro Tripper. True Axis began working on an iOS port of the game back in mid-2008, but were riddled with setbacks that pushed the release back many times.

It features 14 different levels across 4 worlds in Campaign, Time Attack, and Challenge modes. There is OpenFeint and Game Center integration for leaderboards and achievements, and there's even a built-in cheat menu if you're finding the game a bit too difficult (though this will disable leaderboard and achievement tracking), just like the old days!

Now I don't think anybody would argue that Space Tripper doesn't look quite gorgeous, with vibrant colors, interesting enemies littering the screen, and huge boss fights. But, I'm betting at least a few of you are feeling hesitant about the game's tilt-only control scheme. Heck, I'm not typically a fan of tilt controls either, unless they're done extremely well. After playing with Space Tripper for just a short while, I can see that the tilt controls are indeed rock solid, although I would really like a way to calibrate my position.�However, as good as the tilt controls are, if enough people request it True Axis will look into a touch control option. They've tried it already and weren't happy with the results, hence why they aren't included already.

At any rate, Space Tripper seems to be good arcade shooter action already. We'll be taking a closer look at the game in the coming days, and you can check out early impressions of Space Tripper from gamers in our forums.

The goal of Rocket Riot [99�] from Chillingo and CodeGlue is to fly around an arena on a jetpack destroying enemies with your bazooka. And you can also destroy ...well, pretty much everything. You see, the entire level is destructible, so even the walls can be blown apart. Everything can be shot to pieces. But once you've blast a little short-cut through a wall, the level is not permanently destroyed, because it slowly regenerates.

Rocket Riot was released in 2009 for Xbox and featured multiplayer modes, but the iOS release focuses solely on a single player campaign. That's a shame because an arena shooter like this is ideally suited for multiplayer mode, but the developers have no current plans to implement that - unless the Rocket Riot becomes super popular. Fortunately, the single-player campaign mode is an entertaining arena shooter fill of rockets, destruction and heaps of cool power-ups.

The campaign mode includes 48 levels, which are a mixture of four different game types: "Death-match" is a free-for-all arena battle. While "Destroy the object" involves blasting certain items (such as golden boots) within the level while also shooting opponents.� In the "Rugby Riot" levels, you grab a football and run around the opponents to shoot the ball over the opposing team's goal post. And lastly, there's boss-fights against larger enemies like BlockBeard the legless pirate.�Apparently there are 150 characters you can unlock to play, such as pirates or robots. Some of these characters (like a bazooka-carrying taco) are unlocked by gifting it to friends, or via an in-app purchase. The other characters are unlocked in-game. Each character has a jetpack instead of legs, enabling them to fly around the levels.

The controls handle well ...most of the time. Occasionally your character does get snagged on the remnants of the destructed environment, but this doesn't happen enough to be a problem. The left side of the screen is used for moving around the arena, while the right side determines the direction and power of your rocket attacks. The firing can be done using either swipe or joystick options. Tilt controls can be used for movement on the iPhone or iPod, but the tilting option is not presented on the iPad. If you fire your weapon in close proximity to an enemy, you'll do a punch instead. But mostly, Rocket Riot involves frequent attacks, often in quick succession, so your poor rocket-launching fingers may need an occasional rest.

There's heaps of temporary power-ups to collect (20). Some are traditional power-up's, like missiles or extra health. But there's also more creative ones, like rainbow colored explosions, increasing the size of particle explosions or gaining rockets which bounce around the level endlessly until hitting an enemy. Once you have some decent power-ups you can really destroy the level in a spectacular way, with particles flying everywhere. The red-colored power-ups are actually "power-downs", as they do negative things, such as turn you into a rocket-magnet or replace your bullets with a harmless "bang" flag, so you're powerless until it times out. This game has a sense of humor.

The 8-bit pixel-art graphics in Rocket Riot are good (especially the blocky explosions), although it's an odd mix, combining the 3D level designs with your 2D character, who flips over when changing direction. The levels have graphical themes like laboratory, army, computer chips and pirates, to name a few, with matching enemies. For example, you can expect pirates in the pirate levels and robots when you venture inside the computer. The level themes all fit into the overall story, which is told via occasional cut-scenes. It's a simple story, but does tie the level themes together.

Three rockets are awarded for each level, based on your score, which is managed by Game Center and Crystal. Bonus points are awarded for really destroying the level or being "manly" (ie: not camping-out in the safety of the corners). Kill shot bonuses are given for long distance shots, punching, killing with large rockets or shooting a launched rocket down. And combo points are gained from successive kills. Surprisingly, there's no difficulty levels to make the enemies smarter or more aggressive, although aiming for three stars will increase the skill requirement.

Like the rest of the game, the high-energy music is also noteworthy in that it contains lyrics and fits in nicely with the general craziness of the non-stop action. The music in the trailer (above) is featured in the game. Overall, Rocket Riot is a blast to play (quite literally), thanks to the range of fun power-ups, destructible levels and best of all, the eye-catching particle explosions and the banana with a rocket launcher!

Way back in February we brought you the news that Paradox Interactive, a highly regarded developer of PC and console titles, was getting ready to dip its toes into the world of iOS gaming with their upcoming tower defense game Defenders of Ardania. While the tower defense genre is a well-treaded path on the App Store already, that hasn't stopped titles that used innovative ideas from standing out from the pack. For example, this year's Anomaly Warzone Earth [$1.99/UHD] flipped tower defense on its ear by having you play the attackers trying to take out the defense towers, rather than the other way around.

Defenders of Ardania will utilize this "tower offense" style somewhat too, while actually still remaining a traditional-style tower defense game at its core. You'll place various types of towers around each map strategically in an effort to stop the oncoming stream of attackers, however you will also be able to send out your own stream of offensive troops to battle against the enemy head on in the field. In addition to these two attack types, there will be some pretty intense looking magic spells to cast upon your enemy as well.

The tricky part of all this is that your towers, magic spells, and offensive troops will all be powered from the same pool of mana. So, you'll need to figure out how best to utilize each one while not completely depleting your mana resources. It all sounds quite interesting, and a nice departure from most other tower defense games. Defenders of Ardania is slated for a December 6th release on multiple platforms including the iPad. We'll certainly be giving it a look when it hits the App Store early next month.