The big ones in the AppStore seem to be very very thankful this year. Guess they all made a penny or two selling their games on the AppStore. ;)
Anyway, for the rest of us this means a lot of fun during the holydays and beyond. The big ones like Namco, Electronic Arts and Gameloft reduced many of their titels to as low as $0.79! So, just get wild and buy some…

After the break we have a list of the games that we consider the ones you have to buy. If new ones are added, we will let you know!

(Note: All these links are affiliate-links. So by clicking on them and buying something, we get a small bonus to feed our developers. For you it doesn’t make a difference! You don’t have to pay more!!!)

Monopoly Here & Now
Monopoly (Classic)
Tetris
Spore Origins
Sim City
Scrabble
Command & Conquer: Red Alert
Trivial Pursuit
Auditorium
The Sims 3

Heros of Sparta
Blades of Fury
Brothers in Arms
Shrek Kart
Terminator 4: Salvation
Castle of Magic

Galaga Remix
Dig Dug Remix
Garters & Souls
Pac Man Remix
Time Crisis Strike
Pac Man
Ms. Pac Man

[UPDATE 1]
C64

[UPDATE 2]
Flashback is down from $4.99 to just $1.99

So, If you ask me, this game looks absolutely fantastic…will give it a try someday soon…for now, here’s the official game trailer for you:

But…this time around it was a bit different: Gravity Sling and Eliminate got my attention and both are free with a limited set of levels or play time. Basically these are the free trial-versions we’ve been waiting for since day one. So I grabbed both and tried them. More Levels or play time can be purchased from inside each game as an In-App-Purchase. So, I played as far as I could…I liked both games and…didn’t buy anything afterwards. Why? Well, just because I had enough for the moment afterwards. But the games still reside on my iPhone and surely enough, whenever I like to play some I wont start looking around on the AppStore but play the games I allready have and like.

So, under the line I think IAP are a great mechanism to get the foot in the door at customers. People are free to try the App as long as they like and can enhance it if the need more levels, playtime, ammo, cars…whatever. On the other hand, People who don’t like it will probably give the App one of the infamous 1-Star ratings just because they were “tricked” into downloading the app and now “wasted valuable amounts of their lifetime” (I actually read this in one rating once…was a rating for a free(!) movie!). I don’t know what you think about app-reviews by users on the AppStore but I think they should be eliminated…but that’s another story!

I for one really like the mechanism behind IAPs very much and I’m happy to see it is becoming more and more adopted by developers. I’m thinking about it myself but right now I don’t see any of my apps suitable for IAPs…but maybe in the future…

What are your thoughts on this? Are IAPs cool or not? How would you like to have it? Share in the comments…

Now what do you say? Finally C64 made it back into the AppStore! After a short time in there being thrown out again with many people wondering why it disappeared. Now it’s back and just looking at it makes me feel young…like a little boy again.

Or maybe I should feel reeeeeeaaallly old now since the C64 is so long gone that it’s almost, no, it actually IS part of history! But anyway, it’s great fun of days long ago and every one who every had one of theses “breadboxes” or loved to play at one should get this App at once! It’s not just an option, it’s a must!

Everyone else, who got used to computer games by playing at a Playstation or something more advanced should definetly have a second guess about it! Maybe you first have a look at the video I embedded after the break for you and then decide wether this is for you or not.

With Commodore 64 you´ll get 8 games for free to get you started:

• Dragons Den
• Le Mans
• Jupiter Lander
• Arctic Shipwreck
• Jack Attack
• International Soccer
• International Basketball
• International Tennis

More games should be available as In-App-Purchases later on (haven’t tested the App so far)…which reminds me that I wanted to write a post about IAP itself someday… ;) …so, anyway, here’s the Video of the App in action:

As you might be aware of by now, I’m somehow a fan of linedrawing action-games. I’m not saying I’ve played them all but today I found a new one that certainly looks interesting! I’m talking about Harbor Havoc 3D, which was relesed just yesterday and is now available on the AppStore for $ 1.99.

As with all of these linedrawing games you play from a birdseye perspective and look down onto the terrain. Your goal is to command a group of vessels from their entrance point somewhere at the boundary of the screen to their destination. To do so, you simply draw a line from the vehicle to the airport for example. As time goes by more and more vessels enter the screen, you draw more and more lines, the lines cross, you get a little distracted and confused and…BOOOOM! Two of these tiny and stupid…things…just crashed into each other destroying your high score.

All right, that’s what you all know by now. But here’s the thing: Harbor Havoc 3D just doesn’t put planes at your command and you don’t play only in one layer…you play in three of them! You have to command submarines under the water. These can of course be crossed by ships and boats above them (unless they fire at them :o) …just kidding). And a bit higher above there are the planes we all know and love to command. ;)

So…this will definetly make you sweat! Everyone who thinks FlightControl is just too easy and plays without even looking should grab a copy of it! Below I’ve embedded a gameplay video for you. It’s shows all the action and features a score that somehow reminds me of Apocalyptica! :)

Just yesterday I found a game that made me try it and today there is another one coming straight at me. This time it’s Little Runner. This game is somehow similar to Canabalt since your goal is as well to run as long as you can but yet it’s completly different! :) In Little Runner you don’t control the runner but the environment he’s running on. The little fellow keeps running from left to right on it’s own, slowly first but gains speed as you go on.

To make it a little easier for the player you don’t have to grab your (virtual) shovel and move serious amounts of gravel. In the game you rather just slide up and down 4 or 5 plattforms to make sure the height difference between them is not too big. Otherwise little runner will bump into the wall or fall down. Both results in a lost game of course!

The game is about 15.4 MB big so this seems like a little…heavy and unsporty if you ask me! ;) But well, this might be due to the heavy use of comic-style graphics on the one hand and that the game was built using Unity on the other hand. Oh and of course there is a pretty cool soundtrack included as well that might add to the load.

Funny detail: This is, as far as I know, the first Indy-Game that sells it’s soundtrack standalone on iTunes! You can buy the Little Runner Soundtrack here. You don’t *have* to buy it of course and for my ears that’s not even an option. :) Don’t get me wrong! The soundtrack is kind of cool – in the game. Without the game…not so much. But that might as well be due to my ears being stuck back in the 80s! :o)

Oh and before I finish this post: Here’s one wish for the next update! Maybe the developers could include a second runner to choose? Maybe…something more like…this one?!

Space Master is a new entrant in the line-draw-category of games. So just as in FlightControl you simply draw lines to control your game. Instead of airplanes you have to land space-ships on the moon or – at higher stages – other planets with varying gravity and traffic density.

Space ships enter the screen at the top and “fall” to the planets surface, increasing speed due to gravity. Your task is to draw a line that will fire the ships rockets to make the ship fly in the indicated direction. For example: drawing a straight line to the right will fire the left rocket to move your ship to the right…sounds easy…BUT… while your ship is moving right it is also still falling. So, to make the long story short, steering your vessel is quite complicated at first but once you get the idea, it’s much fun to play!

Graphics are fantastic, the music playing in the background is very cool as well! OpenFeint-integration let’s compare your scores to that of your friends and the App ask for permission before connecting to the network! Thumbs up for this!

All in all Space Master is a really cool game and if you liked games like FlightControl or Wild Wild Train you can’t go wrong! Space Master is available on the AppStore for as low as $0.99 or €0.79.

Pinball Dreams was THE pinball simulation for the Amiga – at least if you ask me. Now it’s going to be the same for the iPhone. The tables were fun to play, the graphics were jist awesome and the sound was superb. Now, the graphics were revamped to match the new amount of available colors but the rest of the game was ported one to one. Just hearing the music gives me this nice warm and comfy retro feeling… :-) What’s best is that the tables are still fun to play and not overcrowded with gadgets, bells and whistles like in many other modern pinball sims. The graphics might look a little old and not as fany as with other pinball games for the iPhone but if you ask me this is a feature, not a bug!

One that was especially fun because of the light gun you could use it with was Time Crisis. Namco now released a version of the “shooter on rails” for the iPhone. To me this was the first First-Person-Shooter I played more than once. Granted, with the light gun missing it might be a little less fun but still it looks like a great way to waste some time.

If you don’t have the money to buy a Ferrari just yet you may want to consider to train how to get rich by playing Monopoly! The old time all time favourate of many of us is now available for the iPod touch and the iPhone. It’s pretty much the good old game enriched with some modern features: connect to up to four other players on the same network to play against each other, shake your device to roll the dice (and vice versa?!), use the built-in chat to talk with other players or…hey…just talk to each other IRL while you play! Fancy idea! :o) Anyway, graphics look great and it’s a game port that has been well thought trough and adapted to the iPhone! So go grab it!

Last not least: If you want to get rich the easy way, keep your money, download the free Version of Reign of Sword and learn how to attack the monsters and grab their gold! If you survive long enough you might make enough money this way to still get your Ferrari in the end. :-P

In this game you have to help Armado to become a hero and guide him through the landscape while jumping rolling or running. I’ve not tried this game myself bt it looks like good fun and it’s just cute! :-)

The other two games are in the store for quite some time now Asphalt 4: Elite Racing and Raging Thunder. Both games offer WLAN-Multiplayer racing action with your iPhone or iPod touch. Asphalt 4 is on sale now for a limited time, still even after rebates Raging Thunder costs less. I can’t say which one is better by now since I only played Raging Thunder but I can say that it takes some getting used to if you come from a Playsattion or any other console using controllers. But in the end it’s really a great way to use some time! So, go get it while it’s hot!

If you play either of these games, let us all know what you think in the comments!