Time for a new roundup of games that have flooded our inbox for the last couple of weeks. We thank all developers for their submissions, but as you might understand it is hard for us to review all games individually. If there is any game you want me to make a full review of please leave a comment below. Now lets get going with this massive 20-game roundup.

Hanged - slow but emotional hangman

Hangman is a quite boring game in my opinion, and I generally relate it to having had one too many in school. Hanged from Freeverse manages to infuse the hangman formula with emotion, and actually makes it interesting to play. Just like in your ordinary game of hangman you select a letter, and if it is correct the word rustles and the letter gets added. If it on the other hand is wrong you see a short animation showing the deterioration of the onscreen couple’s relationship. This goes from bad to worse, and needless to say the man is the one drawing the shortest straw. Stellar production with lovely rain and water effects paired with a slow blue jazzy theme turns Hanged into a piece of art. The fact that the main mode lets you write love letter between the two further packs the game with emotion. Once that is complete it turns into a never-ending hangman game. Hanged is addictive, and I enjoy it a lot. The pacing is a bit slow at times, and I would like to be able to speed the game up a notch. If you are looking for a beautiful game to pass hours with this is definitely one to get.

Hanged $1.99
Version: 1.0
Seller: Freeverse, Inc.

WordCrasher - Intense arcade word game

English is my third language after Swedish, and talking gibberish. That affects my proves in word games quite a lot, and I generally avoid them or at least avoid mentioning my meagre high scores. WordCrasher is a word game gone arcade, and thus also adding urgency to the word creation. You select letters, and build words by touch. New letters fall from the top, and you have to make sure that it doesn’t fill up completely. Two game modes are available, and the marathon mode is more suited for me as it is a bit slower. I found the Flood Panic mode to be more fun though as the letters drop down into a glass of water. The water fills up with time, and the only way to lower it is by creating new words. It is a real panic, and my synapses to get flooded making the name of the mode perfect. WordCrasher boosts nice clean bright graphics, online leaderboards and achievements through OpenFeint and good music. At a dollar it is definitely worth picking up if you are in the market for a quick word game. Now if someone would only create a game where my gibberish skills can be utilised.
WordCrasher $0.99
Version: 1.02
Seller: Kevin Ng

Tetryon - Challenging puzzler with slick presentation

Match 3 games generally are all about matching three by getting blocks or objects next to one another. Tetryon adds a new twist to this genre by introducing new rules, and limited varied grids. To make a match in Tetryon you have to make sure that you get the same coloured glyphs matched by placing the third in the middle of two prior glyphs. Furthermore new rules are introduced such as the bracket rule letting you make even larger combos. This makes the game really strategic, and as a puzzler it reminds me a bit of the brilliant Primrose in feeling and demand. Graphics remind me a bit of those found in Paradox 3000 with dark backgrounds and bright glyphs. What Tetryon has got going is the depth of strategy, and it is easy to spend way too much time with it. 75 different glyphs to combine over 62 levels add gamelife. Nice spacey aesthetics, powerful sound effects and challenging gameplay make for an interesting game. It is on the expensive side of things, and I definitely recommend you to try the lite version before forking out for the full version.

Tetryon $3.99
Version: 2.1
Seller: Adam Wiggins
Tetryon Lite

Gyrotate - Match 3 rotation puzzle

Match 4 games litter the App Store, and it is hard finding originality in the crowd. Gyrotate is a match 4, 5, 6 game where you rotate layers of differently coloured and shaped blocks. You have to align at least 3 to remove them. For each level you have set goals on the amount of blocks of each colour to remove. Once all the goals have been met you progress to a harder level. Each level has got a timer counting down. The game controls really well, and is quite fun to play once you get past the lacklustre presentation. Three levels of difficulty, powerups and hints help the rookie get going. Definitely worth getting for a buck, and the value will rise with the next update that promises OpenFeint support.

Gyrotate $0.99
Version: 1.01
Seller: Goos Trix Ltd

iPirate - Fingertraining combined with frantic pirate battles

Harr, harr, harr, fire ye cannons musky see mongrels. In iPirate you get to fire all the cannons on your ship. Being a pirate is hard work, and iPirate demands quite a lot of finger work to progress. Four cannons need to be loaded by dragging cannon balls into them, and fired by tapping them. There are a lot of different cannon balls to buy, and you have to use the appropriate ammo for the target ahead of you barrels. Steel balls is best against towers, and stone balls is enough against most slow moving ships. Between levels you get to repair your ship, buy more cannon balls, upgrade your ship and buy better cannons. This is a fun addition to the game, and it is easy to play that extra round just to get a better set of cannons to spew death with. The presentation is really nice with smooth frame rate even with enemy ships cluttering the screen, and four cannons firing madly. The only real downside to the game is the fact that it becomes quite tiring to loading, and firing constantly. Variation is nowhere to be found, and my fingers need to rest. I am a teacher with baby smooth hands, a true landlubber, and I have to rest more than your average pirate. It is fun to play iPirate in short spurts though, and it is definitely worth checking out the lite version. OpenFeint leaderboards and achievements are there for the real pirate to battle for.
iPirate $1.99
Version: 1.0.1
Seller: Dmytro Lukash
iPirate Lite

Squism - Unique color puzzler

Some games really look boring, and Squism is one of those. It is a colour matching game where you have to make matches by dragging across all connecting blocks of two different colours. It comes with a host of different game modes: action, classic, time attack and endless. Achievements and leaderboards through OpenFeint. I have had a hard time getting into Squism as it doesn’t grab me graphically or by letting me feel any urgency to the gameplay. I progress through levels, and get game over after a while. But unlike most other games I don’t really care much about it. As a way to pass time it works quite well, but there are still many other games much better suited for the task. A dollar isn’t much to argue about but somehow I feel that for most players it will be a game easily forgotten. Highlights are the colour-blind mode, the clean presentation, and the short load times.

Squism $0.99
Version: 1.2
Seller:Luke Dixon

Bridge Blast - Non-volatile demolition game

I have played quite a few demolition games the last year, and the quality goes from great like in Implode! to really poor like this game. Bridge Blast is not a good game, and playing it has not been fun at all. The graphics feels stale and boring, and the actual explosions are laughable. Placing the dynamite is a chore as the controls aren’t really there. Once you are done placing the explosives you press the plunger one of two things might happen. One, nothing other than that you get to see the worthless explosion. Two, things slowly fall apart. The physics seem off, and to be blunt the entire game feels off. I can’t recommend Bridge Blast at all.

Bridge Blast $0.99
Version: 1.1
Seller: Pulse9 LLC

SwipeHead - strange abstract path puzzler

I am a patient gamer, and seldom resort to bad language when playing games. When however fish start laughing at me I get mad. I get medieval on games that taunt me with ugly fish sticking their tongues out at me. I couldn’t complete more than a couple of levels due to being slightly annoyed. My wife managed to help me out, and after some tweaking of mindset I managed to understand the game. SwipeHead is a logic puzzle game where you have to follow the correct path to succeed. If you go the wrong way you will get laughed at by fish. I can just say one thing about SwipeHead: buy it! It is really fun to put in the hands of anyone, and look as their puzzled expressions when fish start haunting them. A perfect game for those occasions when you want to break some ice with someone. The puzzles gets really gnarly, but once you grasp the logic you will stand a chance of avoiding being abused by fish.

SwipeHead $0.99
Version: 1.0
Seller: Vive Technologies Inc.

ShatterBall - avoid shattering balls

Some games are harder than others to master, and Shatterball is way up there in the top of difficulty. You flick the ball of glass by swiping within a zone at the bottom of the screen. The game is really good at interpreting the speed and power of swipes, as well as how you are aiming. Initial levels are quite easy, and the game feels really fun when you manage to bounce the ball around obstacles. There are 50 levels in the game, and they get really hard. Timing of the swipe along with the angle is key to avoiding moving obstacles, and hitting the goal. There is no way to skip a level, and I got stuck at a quite early stage. My patience vanes quickly when I have to retry the same level more than 20 times without making progress. The description at the App Store page tells you to try different angles and approaches. But when you I tried all I got for ten minutes on the same level the fun runs out. The Shatterball looks quite good, and the levels are easy to understand albeit a bit barren of detail. If you look for a challenging game with cool physics, and don’t mind hearing the sound of a shattering glass ball definitely get Shatterball. For me it is not worth all the time and effort to progress as it doesn’t feel rewarding enough.

ShatterBall $0.99
Version: 1.0
Seller: Troy Tegeder
ShatterBall Lite

Diaballic - survival ball jumping from left to right

A ball moving from left to right jumping, and avoiding obstacles doesn’t sound too original. And Diaballic certainly isn’t trying to be original. Lasers, explosives and sinking platforms are all there to hinder you as you bounce your ball from left to right. The game is controlled by two arrows, and a jump button. It is really easy to control the ball, and to jump higher you can press jump again mid-air. You collect diamonds for points, and get awarded the further you progress to the right. Four levels of difficulty, and global highscore add challenge and incentive to play. I didn’t think that I would enjoy such a simple game as Diaballic but I was wrong. Once I got going I couldn’t stop as the game balances the level of challenge perfectly. The presentation is a bit unpolished but in terms of gameplay it is definitely a competent game in the move a ball from left to right genre.

Diaballic $0.99
Version: 1.1
Seller: Thomas P. Mullaney II

World’s Hardest Game - the title is a correct description

A title that both challenges and provokes me. I simply had to get it after breezing through the lite version. In World’s Hardest Game you have to move a red square to a safe zone. For some levels you also have to pick up yellow dots before being able to complete the level. Obstacles in the shape of moving obstacles make the game really hard. Actually too hard at times, and that is the entire point of the game. There is even the possibility to set even harder difficulty settings if you actually manage to complete the 30 levels on the hard setting. You are judged on the number of deaths, and you have to keep them down as much as possible. Still most levels are completed by trial and error, and severe luck as well. The deaths tend to rack up quickly for me. There are three different control methods: touch(great), tilt(too slow) and keys(horrible). World’s Hardest Game is definitely a hardcore kind of game, and if you enjoy the gameplay in The Inferno you will definitely enjoy this game as well. For most gamers I reckon it will be enough to just try the lite version, and skip the full version completely.

World’s Hardest Game $0.99
Version: 2.1
Seller: MTV Networks
World’s Hardest Game Lite

Avoid Hitting Piano - Canabalt on drugs, perhaps too much drugs even

Weird games are always appreciated on my iPhone. And oh boy have I got a weird one for you now. Avoid Hitting Piano is a game simulating Beethoven’s mad dash in Vienna 1826. He was supposed to deliver a musical score, and he was in a bit of a hurry. As Beethoven you have to run avoiding people by jumping. Just like in Canabalt there is only one control for jump, and you get more points the further you run. Unlike Canabalt it isn’t really obvious what ends the game in Avoid Hitting Piano. When Beethoven hits someone you get his name in writing, and has to avoid hitting the word piano. It is the same gameplay but in a strange parallel universe. The music is classical music, and both music and game increase in speed the further Beethoven runs. I have yet to try any other game that is as trippy as Avoid Hitting Piano. At times it is really too much, and I feel like it is a piece of art I don’t get. Upon game over you get the high scores recorded locally. Try the lite version for a trippy run, but be sure that you are completely sane before you dive into Avoid Hitting Piano.

Avoid Hitting Piano $0.99
Version: 1.3
Seller: Georg Dudas
Avoid Hitting Piano Lite

Review disclosure: Any games reviewed on this page may have been provided to us by the developer for the purposes of this review. Note: the resulting review score is never impeded by this fact, all opinions are that of the TouchGen reviewer and not the developer. This is in keeping with our O.A.T.S oath. Read more about O.A.T.S here

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