You get two game modes, but one is basically just an endless version of the other. Your task is to use the accelerometer to guide the water droplet from a leaf into a container around obstacles. That's it. Just like the marble games.

The water effect actually looks pretty realistic, don't get me wrong, but it's disappointing to see that they didn't come up with a better physics simulator game, and instead just made another move-the-marble-into-the-hole game. It's $5 in the App Store, but we prefer the original Aqua Forest for $8. [iTunes]

The screenshots also show the inherent problem of having a touchscreen be your screen and your control interface. It's much worse here, with the buttons taking up a good 1/4 or 1/3 of the real estate. But it is only $4, and if you're the kind of guy who enjoys games based on series that are more than 20 years old, boy has Sony Pictures got the app for you.

Seriously, how awesome would it be to have 5 person multiplayer over Wi-Fi/Bluetooth, using the iPhone 3.0 SDK, with one person piloting a piece of Voltron? Then you could join together and then do some crazy junk. Pew pew. [iTunes]

It's $10, but it's an RPG, which supposedly implies more gameplay hours than non-RPGs. Even when you're not actually playing the game, you can level up your guys by listening to the music that's bound to each character, giving you an added bonus to use your iPhone/iTouch more. [iTunes (Full Version) and iTUnes (Lite) via Kotaku]

Its basic premise remains unchanged: select a part of a body, an angle, and then a level of power that you want to shove him down the stairs with. By varying the three, you get different types of tumbles, with the final goal being to hit as many parts of his person on the ground as hard as possible.

If you're sadistic and enjoy seeing ragdolls get hurt, this is the game for you. The injury process is made all the more fun by the added Facebook Connect feature Secret Exit put in. You can only choose your friend's default profile photo, which eliminates a lot of your friends that don't just use their faces, but still gets you fun results, as seen in the screenshots above.

Basically, you already know if you're the kind of person who would enjoy the game. Either you laugh at people getting hurt, or you don't. And Secret Exit tells me that, depending on sales of this game, they'll consider releasing Truck Dismount (the followup to Stair Dismount). That's undoubtedly just a ploy to get more sales, but this game is good enough as is to warrant a purchase.

The current iPhone version (not out yet, but supposedly will be by Thanksgiving) has a larger number of stairs and stair types, but seems to be a little slower in rendering the "falling" animation than its PC ancestor—probably because the emulator is running as well as the recording software. It still has the delicious crunching sound and wiggly ragdoll physics, which means we'll still be first in line to get this for our iPhones. [YouTube via TUAW]

Rock Band suggests that you play with your thumbs on the bottom of the phone, supporting the weight of the phone by gripping it at the base. People with normal-sized hands will find the position cramp-inducing, but bearable. I would recommend that you lay the top of the phone on the edge of your desk to support some of the weight and give you more freedom to lift your thumbs up to move around without worrying about dropping your phone, but that's just me.

The guitar/bass gameplay is essentially a port of the Rock Band you know from previous Rock Band and Guitar Hero games, and what you're familiar with if you've played the Tap Tap games on your iPhone. The singing is unfortunately NOT singing, and you'll have to tap one of the four pedals on the side to "sing". The drums are just like drums, and just like the guitar gameplay, so that's not that surprising. So it's only the singing that's kind of a disappointment.

For $10, it's not that bad of a game, even though the limitations of the control scheme put a hard barrier on how difficult the songs can be. Even with hammer-ons and pull-offs in place, the guitar difficulty can never really progress beyond having you play with two thumbs at once and moving one thumb around really fast.

There is multiplayer, but only over Bluetooth and only locally (obviously). I didn't test this out.

Your other consideration is that the base game is 158MB already, and each song comes somewhere between 10-20MB each. If you have a smaller device, you might have to delete some stuff to fit this. It would be nice if buying a song also added an iTunes version of the song to your library, but that's pretty unlikely. And although the game ships with 20 songs, only 15 are available at the start, and you'll have to unlock the other five. [iTunes]

They're not up to par in today's console or PC graphics, but they do look about the same as what I remember in the first few C&C games in the '90s—which isn't all that shabby. No exact release date yet, but it will launch in October and it will have 12 levels to play through, and two maps for skirmish mode. [Kotaku]

Tsk Tsk. Manomio has this to say:

Unfortunately, Apple has pulled the C64 Application from their store as it was discovered by some users that it was possible to enable the Basic program through the interface. We have now fixed the issue and our application has been re-submitted for approval by Apple.

We thank you all for your support and fingers crossed we hope to launch again over the next few days.

The $5 app supports licensed game images sold by Manomio, and $5 gets you 5 games. Included are Dragons Den, Le Mans, Jupiter Lander, Arctic Shipwreck, and Jack Attack. More licensed games are expected to cost about 99c to $2 each.

Hopefully Manomio can sort its shit out soon. Stay tuned. [Touch Arcade]

Devising a decent control scheme for a GTA3-style third-person on the iPhone sounds laughably hard, so I see the fact that GTA: Chinatown Wars will be a top-down shooter, a la the original 90s crime simulators we all fell in love with back in the late 90s, as a good thing. Plus, the DS version of this same game was pretty great, aside from the terrible graphics. The forthcoming PSP version, pictured above, looks way better, as should the iPhone's (no screens yet, oddly enough), which is due in "fall." [Rockstar Games]

While yes, the new iPhone 3GS brings twice the RAM, a faster processor and better 3d imaging to the table, Ngmoco isn't going to make games that are unable to run on the regular old iPhone 3G. This is the Rolando and Star Defense developer's plan:

"We're scaling the imagery based on the performance of the device, so if you've got a 3GS, the game's going to look better and run at a great frame rate. And if you're on an iPhone 3G, the game will look a little bit different, but the frame rate will be the same, 'cause obviously performance and speed are actually an important part of a cool first person shooter gameplay experience."

Just like PC games! Makes sense to us. But this is but one developer (albeit a great one); don't expect this to be a path all devs take. Inevitably, there'll be a port of some slick game that they claim they just can't get to run on the wussy iPhone 3G hardware. And it will suck so very much. [MTV Multiplayer via Kotaku]

This version of Brain Training has a bunch of new activities, built-in Soduko and the ability to challenge up to three friends on the same iPhone/iPod touch. It also includes global, cross-platform leader boards and the ability to compare test scores via Facebook built right in. Available now for $5.99. [iTunes Link via Kotaku]

I've personally found most racing games on the iPhone to be seriously difficult to control, with the steering controls sending me veering back and forth across the track with no chance of winning. NFSU feels tighter, with a quick twist of the iPhone putting you into drift mode rather than sending you careening across the track. I actually got the hang of it pretty quickly. You accelerate automatically, with one finger anywhere on the screen acting as a brake. A quick swipe up is a nitro boost, while a quick swipe down puts you in Speedbreaker mode.

The graphics are really solid, with no noticeable framerate hiccups and reasonable load times. They're easily as good as the graphics you'd expect to find on the PSP. The music is a bit too aggro for my taste, but your mileage may vary. Overall, it's definitely one of the best looking games I've seen on the iPhone.

The game has a storyline that involves standard-issue undercover cop stuff that has you infiltrating a street racing scene that has vague ties to smuggling or some such activity. Full-motion video comes up between races to move the story forward via mediocre acting, but they never quite explain why cops actually arrest you when you yourself are an undercover cop. In any case, the trials where you need to take out cop cars are much more difficult than regular races, as they make you both ram cops and beat time limits, which was hard for my lousy-driving ass to do. There are 8 different modes overall that you'll encounter throughout the game, keeping things nicely varied.

There's a good amount of content here, with many races and game modes and a system in place to buy newer and better cars as you advance. It doesn't feel like a half-game made for the iPhone, and you could put many hours into this thing if you're a completist. For fans of racers who are looking for a solid game with good graphics and solid controls, this one is definitely worth the scratch.

[Need for Speed Undercover]

There are lots of play modes, but the main one is you, as a ninja, shooting blow darts at incoming jerks before they get to you. Like a ninja Galaga, essentially. Inbetween levels there are mini-games to earn money, which then lets you buy weapons inside the weapon store, which improves your blow gun to something that's not from the 9th century.

The Ask a Ninja guys—hilarious dudes whose book you should buy—say that the game should be approved by next week. Cannot wait. [Ask a Ninja]

From the video, it's pretty much the same game. You go around a pre-rendered world solving puzzles in order to something something something—I never actually finished it. It does look like a pretty decent iPhone game, despite it being older than half the kids in high school right now.

How heavy do you think Myst is going to come in at? 100MB? 200MB? [Appvee]

The Price: $6 for full version, with a free Lite version to try as well.

The Verdict: I miss arcades! Galaga Remix does a great job at bringing one of the tried-and-true game forms of our time—the shoot-shit-in-space-that's-falling-at-your-ship form—and does it up right.

The classic version is great, but I actually prefer the remix—mainly because the fundamentals of the game are completely unchanged. The remix adds power-ups, boss battles and the ability to save your game to start back up at the level you achieved when you had to quit playing before.

You've got three options for controls, which is nice: three virtual buttons you can tap to move left/right and fire, a slider that you can drag like the iPhone's default unlock slider to move your ship, or accelerometer tilting. As you might expect, the accelerometer control is a little awkward, but the other two methods are actually very intuitive.

One weird thing: the controls, and the game in general, feel much more responsive on the updated Remix version than they do in the classic one. This is a shame.

But like I said, the Remix is pretty faithful to the original—with the same great sound effects and music (which are both totally awesome throughout), so it's a fun diversion. And like several of Namco's other games which were initially released with sluggish performance, an update could fix it.

Overall, a great game.

Gameplay video via Touch Arcade:

Totally faithful Galaga gameplay, with excellent sound and music

Lots of options for controls, which are responsive

Continue feature in Remix lets you pick up where you left off

Classic version runs slower and is less responsive than Remix

Saltsman notes: "I think the defining thing is how quickly you can describe your product to someone else." That is to say, the most successful apps are straightforward and can be described to potential customers quickly and easily. He used the strategy game Galcon versus a "crappy" mood ring app dubbed Mood Touch as an example. The latter broke the top ten in downloads while the former languished below the top 100. Why? Because Mood Touch could be described in five seconds, making it easier to sell to the masses.

Anyone who has taken note of the popularity of fart apps could have guessed that quality had fallen by the wayside. The bottom line here is that consumers need to discriminate a bit more to prevent the throngs of new developers out there from churning out nothing but crap in search for a quick buck. [Kotaku]

The system, developed by PlayMesh, basically allows you to buy additional premium content for the MMO-esque game, where you point and click your way through life as a kingpin, but it also packages games from outside developers in with the premium content. In this case, you're essentially receiving points to "level up" everytime you buy an app inside iMafia.

What this means for you, is that if PlayMesh's model catches on in iPhone app development, you could be seeing alot more "premium apps" being sold for zero dollars. Here's why:

First, they've found a way to monetize free apps without resorting to advertising. Companies can profit by selling in-game bonus material. Apple still gets their usual cut of the profit, from any apps sold within iMafia, but then PlayMesh will take an additional (still undisclosed) cut from those developers working with them. Everyone wins.

Second, they've developed a way to promote and distribute apps outside the App Store, which gives new developers a chance to get their foot in the door against the already-established "popular apps." So if you're an up and comer in the iPhone developing world, you can basically pay for extra promotion.

That said, all apps still have to go through the usual approval process.

According to founder Charles Ju, in the two days this system has been live, iMafia has pushed two games into the top 100 of overall paid iPhone games. iMafia, which is free, currently ranks seventh among the iPhone's most popular games.

Ju says he's willing to talk to any interested developers, and hopes to eventually get this in-game marketplace working with future PlayMesh games. While it's very possible this could be a double edged sword—for every company that pays to have their quality app promoted more effectively, I'm sure there will be five others hawking really crappy ones— the idea of subverting Apple's App Store, and getting them to support it, is kinda impressive.

iMafia Launches Virtual Goods Marketplace For iPhone

iMafia Enables Parent Company Playmesh to Introduce First-Ever Virtual Goods Platform to the iPhone

San Francisco, CA – February 24, 2009 – PlayMesh, a gaming company focused on bringing the power of social gaming to the iPhone, today announced the launch of their virtual goods store in iMafia, a free graphically-enabled asynchronous massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). On the iPhone, iMafia was ranked as the seventh most popular game and is ranked the first social game and RPG.

iMafia's virtual goods store allows players to receive virtual goods when they download premium games through Apple's app store. PlayMesh founder Charles Ju explains, "The difference between our virtual goods store and those traditionally found online is that we encourage players to download fun games with real value. Our goal is to refrain from coercing our audience into useless subscriptions or credit cards. We believe that by doing this, all the parties involved will benefit. Premium game developers will receive more downloads, while casual game developers have the chance to monetize their free games. Additionally, Apple will profit from each transaction. This is a new concept that we're introducing into the iPhone's micro-economy, and we are thrilled to announce this release."

PlayMesh developed iMafia due to the disparity of social games available to iPhone users. Ju says, "I have always been intrigued by the power of social gaming. It just didn't make sense to me why any of these popular online games were not on the iPhone." iMafia hopes to take the first steps to empowering casual developers with the tools to leverage and monetize social gaming. According to Ju, "After extensive research into why social games were missing on the iPhone, we realized that there were two missing components: a social network infrastructure and an easy way to monetize through virtual goods. We took a gamble and developed both of these and it has paid off well beyond our wildest expectations."

In iMafia players do quests and compete with other real players to be the best mafia in the underworld. Games similar to iMafia are found to be especially popular with Facebook's and MySpace's audiences, taking the tenth and eleventh game spots on Facebook and the first and second overall spots on MySpace applications. Additionally, iMafia has an engaging graphical interface, a full-fledged social network, free SMS text sharing, and a never before seen twist on purchasing virtual goods.

About PlayMesh

Founded in July 2008, PlayMesh is the leader in social gaming on the iPhone and a premiere game producer that has had multiple titles break into the top 25 applications on the iPhone. PlayMesh is focusing on bringing the power social games, traditionally found on sites like Facebook and MySpace, onto the iPhone.

The most popular game produced by PlayMesh is iMafia, a fully-graphically enabled massively multiplayer roleplaying game. iMafia was ranked as the seventh most popular game and is ranked as the top social game and RPG.

www.playmesh.com

Cooking Mama on the iPhone looks graphically similar to the Nintendo DS iterations, except that you only have one screen, and now you use your finger to control the action (notice the control overlay). Offworld's Brandon Boyer was generally impressed with the game, proudly pointing out his Gyoza-making skill. If you want to try it out for yourself, it's available now in the App Store for $7. [iTunes via Offworld]