The art style is bright and happy, the music suitably atmospheric. Characters are cute and reasonably well-rendered.

On the whole, I think Kairosoft has done a good job dressing up the basic formula. It's still fun, and the fighting is a welcome addition. I admit I would like to see the company do something completely different in the future, but as far as this goes, it's my favorite title of theirs yet.

CitiRacing feels like a game perpetually on the edge of being great. This theme seems to permeate most aspects of the game, from the multiplayer to the tracks and beyond. As it is, I still had an enjoyable time with CitiRacing and would recommend it for racing fans simply because of the locales and core gameplay.

You might not find a challenge, but you'll find a lot of charm.

Coco Loco isn't a strikingly original game, even without the checklist of familiar interface elements, but it is one of the most thoroughly solid and entertaining physics puzzle games I've played in some time.

The over-the-top weapons and graphical effects look great, but even those aren't implemented perfectly. Regardless, outside of those features you're still left with a competent arcade dual-stick shooter.

Light the Flower has a cheerful, cartoon-inspired look, and it does present some replayability if you want to try to snag all the stars in every level or improve your time.

Madcoaster doesn't stray too far from the endless runner formula, but it does do a good job executing most of the elements we love in the genre.

A huge improvement over the original, and I just can't believe how hooked I've been on it since it came out. It's just pure, simplistic, fast-paced, arcade racing fun.

If super careful timing sounds good to you, then you're probably going to like this game.

It's immersive, it's expansive (I've been playing it for a week), it's simple, it's something you can teach to your grandparents and your three-year old niece. As long as you're OK with some minor quirks, Battleloot Adventure is one that you don't want to miss.

I liked the concept of Carota! but I thought it could have been executed better. If the controls were as responsive as I expected, I think it could have helped with the challenge of later levels, but fighting against that issue and the difficulty at the same time made me feel as if I was struggling to have a good time.

"Raving Dead" is easily stronger than "Moai Better Blues" and more interesting than, if not executed as well as "Ice Station Santa." Here's hoping the last two episodes keep up the good work.

While the incremental upgrades probably won't win over gamers that weren't fans of the original, Hunters 2 still offers a compelling turn-based strategy experience.

So while there are frustrations and a handful of small bugs, they're blips in a solid eight hours of entertainment.

I also have no doubt that a lot of gamers will simply glance over this game for its lack of gameplay. However, the sheer psychedelic nature of the game is worth noting and at least struck a chord with me.

If you enjoy this sort of experience, you will probably lose occasional hours to the game. If not, you will probably lose interest after the first three games. It's all rather binary.

Rune Raiders is simple, but it isn't mindless. It packs several layers of strategy into a casual frame. More than that, it's rather charming, with characters and quips to make you smile.

Draw Something is a perfect witch's brew of Facebook integration, word scrambling, and asynchronous two-player Pictionary.

Captures something fun that has been left fallow elsewhere, one that turns a small spark of inspiration into a solid, well-rounded new form.

If you have a new iPad, this is clearly one of THE games to get, as its boasting some of the best 3D, high resolution visuals at the moment. If you dig explode-y things and moving really fast, you'll probably want to give this a look, too. Smart design bolsters both of these aspects. Check it out.

Angry Birds is the Super Mario Brothers of mobile devices, and Angry Birds Space is so successful in redefining the Angry Birds formula that everyone should give it a try.

While I think the 'hardcore' nature of the gameplay will appeal mainly to the hardcore fans, the supplemental league ghosts and leaderboards do a good job of providing additional goals that might appeal to a wider audience.

If there's any part of you that craves those drop and match combo chains and the increasingly ecstatic chirps and score-splashes that accompany them, this is where you'll want to look.

Minus the free-to-play shenanigans, Flight Control Rocket is easily the best entry in the series so far, as it sports a lot of fresh and fun ideas, as well as a groovy new theme that Firemint fleshes out splendidly throughout. It's also one of the best looking new iPad games.

One of those games with a decent gameplay formula that could have been so much more.

If you're okay with the way they've approached the whole freemium thing, Zombie Panic in Wonderland will probably make you rather happy. If not, steer clear.

If you must have it portable, it's not the worst choice But if you just love the game, there are fine versions of it on XBLA and PSN that are simply easier to maneuver.

Incoboto is elegant and subdued, unafraid to juxtapose the vastness of the cosmos and the terror of inevitable burning out with the intimacy and charm of a small boy befriending a star.

Pacific offers nearly everything you need for an enjoyable and deep tower defense game.

Tinkering and experimenting is rewarded- it's a joy to see every moving part a half-moment from lining up. The elegance of the later levels, as each piece takes its part in a grander pattern-that's something worth experiencing. Assuming, of course, you can get that far.

While the lack of a story may turn some folks off, it may not be that important. The more I played, the more I realized that Lightopus isn't a game of destinations; it's a game about journeys. Each play through is a new and somewhat unique adventure through this beautiful world.

It's fun for a while if you're in it for the RPG, but it's great for a lot longer if you're the sort of person who can't resist a checklist or a spreadsheet. On the whole, this game is a steal-but only for the right sort of person.

While Sminis always looks good, it tends to take big, scary dives in puzzle quality. At the same time, it's hard not to recommend it alongside a few caveats. Sure, it can be a tad ruthless, and yeah, the mechanics can feel clumsy, but in bursts, Sminis feels good.

Spider was an amazing experiment in storytelling; Waking Mars raises the bar on quality in long-form iOS games. Neither should be missed under any circumstances. Get this game. Whether you adore it as I do or not, it's worth experiencing.

Fans of classic shooters like Gradius ought to get a lot of fun out of Neoteria. It comes up with plenty of challenge and gives the proper nod to the old games it's clearly inspired by, but it delivers the action in bite size pieces and is easy to pick up and play at anytime.

Tobe & Friends' Hookshot Escape is a fine game and I say this with only a minimal amount of bias – a Dragon Punch-enabled character just makes things so much better.

A very tense game. I found myself gripping my phone tightly, jerking it out of the way of this oncoming girder or that platform I hadn't noticed. A prayer under the breath seemed suitable after some tight escapes. It was more than enough to convince me I'm not cut out for BASE jumping, but I sure enjoy the facsimile.

Whether you have reason to be nostalgic for Gridrunner or not, it's worth checking out. It's a best-of-both-worlds sort of remake: faithful to its forebearers but filled with clever modern enhancements. If you're dead-set on believing that the original is best, you can go ahead and play that instead.

If Mafia Rush sounds a little basic, that's because it is. However, it's still a solid dual stick shooter that's currently being offered for free. At that price, it's certainly an offer you shouldn't refuse, at least for fans of dual stick shooters.

My favorite thing about Ziggurat is that it dismantles the hardcore-casual myth that has so long plagued videogame culture generally, and iOS gaming specifically. An "endless" shooter with Peggle controls doesn't make for good advertising, but Ziggurat is a game that forces its players to pay attention, to process and react to constantly shifting situations, to do the (literally) impossible.

All of this builds up into a feeling of sincerity rarely encountered in games. There is no hint of irony in Lume's message, and that makes it hard to disagree: self-sufficiency is admirable, and why shouldn't it be?

The game's middle section may stumble about, but its climax is deft: the identity of "Moai"'s volcano-deity antagonist is a perfect marriage of Steve Purcell's surrealist vision and his acknowledgment that Sam & Max fans need to feel that each episode is connected for the series to work.

I'm not the biggest platformer fan in the world, but I'm in love with this one anyway. Though I could have done with a few more collectibles and a deeper story, there's not much to complain about here.

Overall, the game quality is so high and the gameplay so fun that it was well worth the download for me. Now, if only future updates could somehow make one of those fruity drinks with all the umbrellas appear next to me (preferably in a coconut bowl with a Krazy Straw), it would be pretty much near perfection.

Even though Blockolicious ends up light on the content, it's still a decent little Match-3 game with enough interesting gameplay elements to stand on its own. The visuals, music and overall presentation also do a good job complementing the core gameplay and making the game stand out.

A safe bet. While not the kind of game that will eat away hours of your time before you realize what's going on or the sort that would be branded as revolutionary, Little Acorns is the sort of title you'll find yourself constantly going back to, the kind of game that fits too easily into a spare five minutes. In short, pick it up if you have an appetite for well-executed and adorable 2D platformers.

If you're looking for a hefty tower defense title and you've got an appetite for darling designs, you ought to check this out.

UI annoyances aside, Mailmen is an entertaining game and a great addition to the iPad stealth library. The team-based gameplay and silly story simply makes for a title that's an enjoyable experience. If you're a fan of stealth game that requires planning and patience, you won't be disappointed with Mailmen.

Hyper Snake is great for a quick game, has heaps of replay value and is quite challenging. However it's crying out for Game Center, which the developers plan to add.

As a puzzle game, Train Titans is certainly on the right track with its premise. It's mainly in the execution of its ideas and gameplay elements where the game falters somewhat. Still, if you're willing to look past some annoyances, Train Titans is worth a play through.

Most of the multiplayer games I really enjoy are of the ponderous, asynchronous sort, so it's nice to have a completely frantic matching game to mix things up – even a frantic matching game with its hands deeply in my pocket.

Ragdoll Blaster 3 is more inviting than the series has ever been before, and it's filled with fun physics challenges at the cost of relatively little frustration.

It's possible to grind the fun right out of this game, but if you stick to playing modes you enjoy and challenge yourself with three stars when you want to, there's no reason this skeleton-crushing simulator should lose its charm.

It's rare to find a game that does something so original so well, with every element of gameplay and design falling into place. Simogo has pulled it off with Beat Sneak Bandit. In my books it's a must buy, and such a shame it would be to miss out.

If you can put in the time to learn its intricacies, Lyst Ignition offers a fun experience if you're in the mood for a new puzzler.

It really is just what you would expect - another solid Cave release. However, as good as all of their ports are, I can't help but wish that Cave would come up with another built-for-iOS experience like Bug Panic!

Your mileage may vary with Steve Purcell's brand of absurdist humor, but "Ice Station Santa" is a solid port of a well-designed, compact adventure game.

100 Trials is still a good mission-based puzzler and worth checking out. Just don't expect anything particularly groundbreaking with it.

It's a heck of a game, gorgeous, challenging and long-lived in turn. I've hardly been able to put it down, and listening to music without the game just doesn't feel as cool right now.

Bubbles in Paradise is a simple title, but well-executed and very enjoyable. I'm probably biased since I like to spell and learn new words.

For iPhone and iPod touch owners though, Diggin' Dogs is as entertaining as Where's My Water?, which is a pretty big compliment.

A great game to enjoy, with gorgeous visuals and a ton of really sharp physics puzzles to work through. I just wish I could have avoided the mind games that came along for the ride.

Where End Night fails is in providing a reason to keep playing. The pretense toward randomness is promising, but once you've improved your stats and put together your final cure there's really not much call to replay the game.

Pinball Arcade is simply one of the best pinball games I've ever played, and should be put at the top of the class with other iOS pinball elites.

Things are repetitive and sometimes annoying.

I just wish there was more of everything. I want a reason to pull out more skills and level them higher.

Visually speaking, Baseball Superstars 2012 is definitely the best-looking of the pack.

A solid title that's more challenging than it looks. The limited flapping mechanic sets it apart from the many similar simplistic arcade games on the App Store, and it's a good value for a dollar.

In the end, I found myself trying to slow down and simply enjoy being in the game's atmosphere. I really didn't want the game to end, and I suppose that's the best compliment I can give anything I play.

The comprehensive career mode, wealth of maps, and tweaks to the arcade racing formula has made this game more enjoyable in the long term. Add in the amazing visuals and music, and there's not much to dislike here.

Gorilla Gondola is a quality release, with responsive controls, good graphics and energetic music. The gameplay feels fresh and there's definitely skill involved with bouncing the gondola through the tight spots.

I have no problem with encouraging players to spend some cash on premium items that are not necessary for normal gameplay. The restrictions in Spice Invaders do not fit that example, especially since all these design choices are solely made to encourage folks to spend money (rather than designs that encourage fun).

Above all else though, The Hacker does a great job at making you feel like a bad ass international hacker, which is what it should really all be about anyway.

The only problem here is that not everyone likes a talker. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective's only real flaw (which is also, paradoxically enough, its strongest quality) is the fact that it is extremely heavy on the narrative. More than half of your time in the game will be spent reading.

With some tweaks to the controls and interface, and perhaps some sort of filter for what kind of keywords are utilized, then Tweet Land could end up being something pretty special. It feels like it's just a couple notches off of being something great, and I hope it gets there someday.

I imagine some folks may complain that Monster Wars feels too much like its precursor without much of a change to the core gameplay. I say, why mess with a good thing? While the game does feel like a re-skin at times, Monster Wars still does a great job taking the classic gameplay from Legendary and transplanting it in a new setting.

A game that instantly drew me in with its visuals, and then backed it up with a ton of solid action.

I'm really sort of shocked by how much I find myself enjoying this game. The difficulty curve seems great, Jetpack Joyride already proved that this payment model works, and I love how they take the foundation that worked so well for Halfbrick but created what feels (and, really, is) an entirely new game around it.

Though considerably shorter than I would have liked it to be, My Little Monster is a reasonable amount of bang for your buck.

Its nuanced changes to the standard gameplay and overall visual presentation do a decent job of differentiating itself.

Blot blows most of its competition out of the water with style alone. It's delightful, plain and simple, and when given the choice between equally solid games, I'll take the one that delights me any day.

By fudging its rhythm mechanics, Frederic -- Resurrection of Music actually presents itself as more of an interactive cartoon than a game. But when viewed as such, Resurrection often comes off muddled and directionless and, even at the end of the game, it's not clear why Chopin was resurrected, who he's "saving" music from, or if he really succeeded.

Perhaps the biggest issue with DvO is simply that the game is too slow. Units plod along at a very sluggish pace, with only the special "fast" units seeming to move at an appropriate speed. Even early battles seem to drag on, and as you get further into the campaign and the likelihood of temporary stalemates rise, missions take forever. Even worse, there aren't any ways to speed up the gameplay, meaning each map starts painstakingly slow as you're initially collecting minerals.

The level designs are varied and interesting, and ramp up in difficulty as you'd expect with the last chapter requiring more thought than the fairly easy first levels. The difficulty increases because there's more game elements placed on the screen to navigate through.

Well-made, clever and fun, Niko is definitely a platformer that's worth your attention. If you explore the first six levels for free, and if you find you're hooked, it's pretty cheap to score the rest. Then you can slingshot, jump and fly through the air to your heart's delight.

A cautious recommendation will have to do. If you're looking for an old-school strategic romp through some very traditional dungeons, you're in the right place. But these aren't play sessions you can cram into five minute smoke breaks. Dungeon Crawlers is built to last - for better or worse, you'll get hours out of it. If you're a sit-back-and-be-patient sort, you'll be just fine.

There's just no reason to go back to something that might have been an okay (if slightly familiar) title two years ago when there are so many fantastic games coming out right now.

Fingle is the sort of game that could start out funny and end up sexy, or start out cold and end up with a slap to the face.

A well-crafted – though hardly groundbreaking – puzzle game. It's fun and extremely well-executed, with enough challenging puzzles to keep you occupied.

Its slow, turn-based gameplay is a much different take than most tank games I've played on iOS, and it's bound to turn some heads, but only for pretty hardcore puzzle or strategy fans.

Star Warfare: Alien Invasion is a pretty good first-person shooter for a dollar, despite the expensive weapons, emphasis on IAP and need to buy bullets with in-game money.

It seems the developers set out to make a throwback to some of their favorite old-school platformers, with awesome graphics and solid controls, and at this they completely succeed with Paper Monsters.

Run Roo Run isn't the most original game ever, but it takes the best out of a lot of worlds, and then owns that stuff. Its entertaining in big or small chunks, and those challenge levels are a whole new world of hurt. Give it a shot.

There are undoubtedly some JRPG fans out there that embrace this style of play. Considering that Fantasy Chronicle gets a lot of the underlying gameplay and controls right, I'd actually recommend it to those types of gamers as a title worth checking out. However, if you're looking for something a bit less formulaic or a game with more emphasis on story quality, Fantasy Chronicle may not be the RPG you're looking for.

It's a shame that the best way to monetize the game was to make it frustratingly slow, because that will undoubtedly turn away many potential players. Don't make their mistake. Slow and steady wins the restaurant race, so take it easy and cook up something nice.

It's nice to see developers using touch controls in new and innovative ways, especially when it involves car chases, 360 degree burn-outs, ramming, and slow motion vehicle smashes.

I like the story and want to see more of it, but I want the systems to get more engaging before plopping out more cash, especially because it's so easy to see that the fundamentals are already in place. Ash II: Shadows is an improved game over the original in many ways, but until some tweaks are made and we see how the rest of the episodes shake out it's hard to gauge if it's ultimately an overall better experience.