Mini Squadron is a throwback type game that offers engaging dog fighting with cartoon fighter planes. The game itself is manic in it approach to action packed dog-fighting and will test your arcade touch. Mini Squadron offers 8 increasingly difficult levels each with multiple stages. As for your plane, the game offers 50 unlockable aircraft with different handling, weapons, and stats to use throughout the game. Other features include:

• Over 50 planes to unlock and collect for your mini squadron.
• 8 Levels combat levels each featuring multiple levels of enemies to battle
• 7 different weapons to use including Homing Missile, Drop Bomb, Laser and BIG Laser!
• Shoot down ducks, seagulls, UFOs, devil planes, propellor planes, and even squids!
• Simple yet fluid gameplay systems featuring in-flight physics to allow for acceleration control
• More than 8 different boosts for your plane.
• Local WiFi Multiplayer – challenge your friends to a one-on-one dogfight to the death!
• Rock out to the genius of Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaichovsky, and other dead composers

Mini Squadron is worth every penny (currently $2.99 in the App Store). I’ve found this game to be a lot of fun and very engaging. If you are going to buy one dog-fighting game, this is the one.

Tak Fung (ex Lionhead and Sony Graphics Coder) had this to say about Mini Squadron:

The idea and ethos with Mini Squadron is to bring a high quality, frenetic shoot-em-up to the iPhone, taking inspiration from old-skool games such as BIP on the Amiga (or BiPlane War I think before that on PC?) Wings of Fury, JetStrike and many other similar shooty games with lots of lil’ planes. I also love the games by Treasure (especially Ikaruga), and crazy japanese shooters such as Parodius, and I hope to get some of the originality and silliness of those games into Mini Squadron to make people chuckle whilst playing!

Mini Squadron Game Play Video

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPYUXhZLxCg

Fayju Ball is currently free to purchase in the App Store. Fayju Ball is an outstanding labyrinth / ball roller game that will test your patience.

To manipulate the balls in Fayju Ball you tilt your iPhone (or iPod touch). The objective being to get the balls into their correct holes. Fayju Ball uses real world gravity in a multi-level 3D physics puzzle game. If the wrong one goes in, don’t worry. Just turn your phone upside down and the ball will fall out.

• 60 awesome levels
• Auto saves your best time on each level
• Medal achievement system
• Intuitive controls using the built-in accelerometer
• Gameplay in 3D physics
• Stunning 3D graphics

Check out the Fayju Ball game play video:

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOV3tBfM5As

Ngmoco has announced the change to energy recharge time will stay in effect, ‘until further notice’. The update was put in place as an attempt to keep players playing Eliminate in the face of the recent release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. I highly doubt this update will sway too many COD players, but it’s worth a try. In short, the rate at which energy recharges has been reduced from 240 minutes to 60 minutes.

Fire up Eliminate now and you can play more often, earn more credits, and get more upgrades.

Also, Ngmoco has Eliminate 1.1 in the works. You can expect a new map, and new options for armor (that you can buy with the credits you are going to earn from the additional play time!)

Doom Classic has finally been released to the App Store by id Software. This is one game I’ve been waiting with baited breath for as I grew up playing it with a passion. Included in the release are the original three episodes along with Episode Four, Thy Flesh Consumed, spanning thirty-six levels and, of course, a new UI adopted for the iPhone touch screen. The legendary John Carmack, was behind bringing this classic game to the iPhone so you know it’s going to be worth the $6.99 price tag. In fact, John has taken the time to craft Development on Doom Classic detailing the development of the game.

One of the coolest things I noticed right from playing Doom is the manner in which you can customize controls by dragging and dropping them to wherever you feel comfortable. This certainly makes for a more user controlled gaming experience that I found refreshing.

The customization goes beyond the sticks. Not only does Doom Classic offer the ability to fix your sticks in custom locations, you can also remove them entirely and control via the left and right sides of the screen. Of the two, I prefer to keep my sticks visible.

Finally, the initial release of Doom Classic offers multiplayer functionality, but it is local multiplayer only (WiFi). Let’s hope Carmack upgrades Doom to offer full blown internet based multiplayer in a future upgrade.

Angry Mob Games is ready to share their latest masterpiece with the world. Behold, Guerrilla Bob, a new twin stick shooter headed our direction. Based on the video footage and screenshots below, I think we’re all in for a great game.

Like many games for the iPhone (especially shooter games), Guerrilla Bob is a classic survival game. As you move through the world of canyons, deserts, and urban environments, you’ll be confronted by a seemingly never-ending onslaught of baddies. No problem for Guerrilla Bob though, armed with an assortment of high powered weapons including a machine gun, a rocket launcher, a flame thrower, Bob can more than hold his own on the field of battle against run of the mill baddies and the occasional epic bosses.

Guerrilla Bob is targeted for release in early December making it the perfect birthday gift to myself! Happy birthday to me, yahoo!

Learn more about Guerrilla Bob.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIqhQbSIPRY

Catcha Mouse 3 was recently released as the third installment in the Catcha Mouse series from Odasoft Games. The latest version offers the opportunity to play against friends in multiplayer mode via Bluetooth or WiFi.

The game itself is a great puzzle game whereby your job is to trap a mouse that is constantly on the move by placing mousetraps to block his path. I found Catcha Mouse 3 to be both entertaining and somewhat challenging. In the hour I spent playing it I got pretty adept at trapping the mouse, but still found it difficult to grab the bonus ‘cheeses’. This bonus system is a nice way to differentiate between playing well (captured the mouse) and playing very well (captured the mouse and the cheeses).

I found the audio to be a fun addition to the game. The mouse noises are cute and the audience laughter is cued at appropriate times to let you know when your performance is, ummm…less than optimal…

Catcha Mouse 3 offers 240 levels spread out across the galaxy giving the game the feel of a quest rather than just a puzzle. I enjoy this style as the idea of a quest gives me a bit of a storyline to grab hold of.

The art assets are fun and don’t take away from the overall game experience. The mouse makes cute expressions I enjoyed – especially when I was able to trap him.

I all, I found Catcha Mouse 3 to be a very entertaining puzzle game I’m sure I’ll kill plenty of time with. I doubt I’ll get lost in it for hours at a time, but it’s a great game to play in small bursts. Given my daily commute to work on the bus, Catcha Mouse 3 will get plenty of use!

Chillingo and Axolotl Studios have released a gameplay video for their upcoming release, The Relic. The game plays out like a hack-and-slash tour de force with nonstop fighting and seemingly endless enemies standing between you and The Relic. Touch Arcade tabbed it, “Gauntlet on steroids”, and I would have to agree with them.

The Relic will be playable by two players via Bluetooth and up to four players via WiFi. The game is expected to be released this November.

The latest from Chillingo reads as follows:

Long ago, craftsmen of legendary art conceived an artifact of immortality; an engine of life to overthrow death and usher in the rule of peace. Yet one thousand years the Quinotaur reigns and fills the holes of the earth with horrors. Ascend from the deep where he has buried you, end the tyrant and destroy the source of his power – The Relic.

Play alone or with friends the intense hack and slash game that pits you against hordes of skeletons, spiders and evil wizards. Live the story, consume potions, collect spells and complete quests through a number of levels to uncover the secret of The Relic and finally restore peace to the world. Enjoy stunning graphics, animation and music that make the world of The Relic come alive.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXxHNUiemBI

In the continuation of my ongoing series of games I would like to see on the iPhone, I offer you Dolphin Olympics 2 from Alan Rawkins.

I first discovered this game when I was teaching high school students how to create games in Macromedia Flash (that’s right, before the Adobe buyout). Actually, my students discovered it…as they did many, many other online games. It was a serious challenge keeping them working and not playing.

Dolphin Olympics 2 (or Dolphin Olympics) is a classic example of a game that is a near perfect fit for the iPhone platform. The game play relies on simple, repeatable user interaction – flips, twists, and acceleration. Moreover, the landscape layout ability of the iPhone lends itself nicely to the side-scroller swimming the dolphin can do and tailslides, of course.

The challenge I see is the fact that the user has three interactions to control and only two hands to control them with. Flipping and twisting can easily be handled with a right and left button, but what about acceleration? I think I would make the iPhone dolphin be in a constant acceleration mode thereby eliminating the need for that user interaction. As long as the player keeps landing the jumps and incorporating flips and twists, the dolphin keeps accelerating. To be honest, I don’t think I ever take my finger off the accelerator when I’m playing Dolphin Olympics.

The latest Eliminate gameplay video has been released from Ngmoco. The video showcases the user interface of the game and lets excited fans see exactly how the game is played.

During game play, you can clearly see players competing head-to-head via the Ngmoco Plus+ social play network.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TF_MSvxRtos

Just when you thought the weekend giveaway from Donut Games was over, it seems to still be live! You better get it while you can…it was supposed to end yesterday. Thanks, Donut Games. What a deal!

Lucky Coins

(Marked down from $1.99)

LUCKY COINS is a bumping fun mix of the best elements of Pinball, Pachinko and casino style games!

Feelin’ lucky? Drop the golden coin and watch it bounce off bumpers, pins and moving gizmos. Magnets will trap the coin and allow you to aim and blast the coin in new directions to grab more bonus items than you can think of.

Combine your skill and luck to rack up loads of points in this updated version of LUCKY COINS.

Rat on the Run

(Marked down from $0.99)

Help Ratty get FATTENED UP for the winter in this hilarious platform game!

Ratty has just found the house of his dreams – a house full of cheese blocks and doodles.

There’s just one big problem. All floors are full of slimey blobs, mean spiders and other baddies who try to stop Ratty from getting the goodies.

Includes the bonus game: RAT ON A SCOOTER

Spikey’s Bounce Around

(Marked down from $2.99)

Bounce with SPIKEY through the magic gardens on a quest to free all his friends.

The sacred butterflies have all been trapped inside glass jars, and it’s up to Spikey to smash them open using his wild bouncing skills!