Out at GDC 2012 I sat down with publisher Ayopa Games and, in the time of an hour, ran through seven different titles in a sort of marathon session. It was a lot to take in, but there are some real stand-outs here. Some are new, some are updates. Let's have a look. MacGuffin's Curse Created by Brawsome and Green Stripe Snake, MacGuffin's Curse is a game that falls under the category of Werewolf Comedy Puzzle Adventures. It is the tale of out-of-work magician and (hence) not-so-cunning thief Lucas MacGuffin who attempts to rob a museum to pay the rent, and finds himself bound to a magical amulet with the power to turn him into a werewolf (and back again). The game consists of 150 different rooms across 11 different environments, such as junkyards, parks, mansions, museums, etc. Each room is its own grid-based puzzle that must be solved using Lucas Read More

I love video games as much as the next guy, as long as the next guy doesn’t spend hours a day grinding through the upper levels of Call of Duty or the latest Super Mario creation. So for casual mobile gamers, as promised in this week’s App Smart column, here’s a list of my top 10 new iPhone gaming apps for 2011. Scribblenauts Remix ($1) A beautifully-designed cartoon adventure game for children, Scribblenauts Remix is the mobile version of the popular Nintendo DS title. (For ages 9 and older.) Where’s My Water? ($1) A charming, light game in which you help an alligator find water in increasingly complicated conditions. (For ages 4 and older.) Tiny Tower (free) Build a tower within the limits of your ever-changing virtual budget. It’s creative problem solving, wrapped in graphically cute packaging. (For ages 4 and older.) Tiny Wings ($1) An adorable, seductively simple and addictive Read More

Barry Steakfries has to be one happy camper today. The hero of Jetpack Joyride (US$0.99) from Halfbrick Studios was the runaway (or shall we say fly-away?) winner of the voting for the best iPhone game app of 2011. Barry's adventures trying out experimental jetpacks came away from the TUAW Best of 2011 voting with 39.2 percent of the votes, handily beating second-place winner W.E.L.D.E.R. That $1.99 word game was surprisingly popular as well, grabbing 26.9 percent of the reader voting. Many thanks to the TUAW readers who nominated their favorite iPhone game apps and then voted in the competition. Congratulations to the team at Halfbrick Studios for winning this category in the TUAW Best of 2011. Read More

The nominations are in, and the poll is ready to go! The TUAW Best of 2011 awards are all about you -- the readers -- and what you think is the cream of the crop of Apple or third-party products and software. To vote, select one entry from the top nominations made by readers. We'll be announcing the winner in just a few days. Vote early and often! TUAW is asking for your vote for the best iPhone game app of 2011. The apps that made it into our final voting have provided hours of fun for millions of iPhone users. The first app on the list is Jetpack Joyride (currently free) from Halfbrick Studios. Barry Steakfries, the protagonist of Jetpack Joyride, would love your vote. This app has a 4.5 star rating out of 5 possible with over 15,500 ratings on the App Store, so it is an incredibly popular Read More

WELDER is an interesting take on the word game "genre" for iOS -- it is indeed a puzzle game where you need to make and spell words to score points, but this one is sort of a weird mix of Bejeweled and Scrabble (kind of like Bookworm, actually). You get a grid of letters (and some special blocks) on the screen, and you have to move those around in different ways to line up words and get the points rolling. The game isn't actually timed, so the focus is all on making as many words as you can in as few moves as possible. What makes the game so unique is its premise -- not only does everything in the game window look great and "feel" real (even the points counter spins and dings as if it were an actual object), but the whole aesthetic behind the game itself, highlighted in Read More

In last week’s App Smart column, I let the experts lead me toward a handful of great mobile games that I had somehow overlooked in recent years. There were puzzle games, kids’ games and shoot-‘em-up games, but strangely, none of my sources mentioned word games. Let’s remedy that, with a couple of oldies and one new game that will give word lovers reason to call in sick tomorrow. That new game is W.E.L.D.E.R. ($2 on Apple), which is short for Word Examination Laboratory for Dynamic Extraction and Reassessment. It’s wordy. Get it? Players are given a game board of 64 tiles with random letters and blank wild-card tiles and bonus tiles, à la Scrabble. The trick is to create words by swapping letters, but if you use too many swaps, you lose. Start it, and watch the hours fly by. Scrabble players who are great at using one or two letters to build Read More

Highline Games have released W.E.L.D.E.R. [$1.99] which stands for 'Word Examination Laboratory for Dynamic Extraction and Reassessment", The amusing game trailer (below) suggests that words are at risk of becoming extinct, but that's not really part of the gameplay. It's just more interesting than saying: "Move letters around to form words", which might sound dull and done-to-death;  but this intriguing word game is neither of those things, it's unique and will activate your brain. The game features an 8x8 grid which is full of letter tiles. The idea is to form words with four or more letters, by moving letter tiles around in various ways. The "Basic Swap" involves tapping any two neighboring letters (horizontally, vertically or diagonally adjoining) so they swap positions. The words must be written from left-to-right or top-to-bottom, much like a crossword puzzle. There's no time limits (thank goodness), although a certain number of words must be Read More

+ Universal App $0.99 Our Review By Jason Wadsworth on November 7th, 2011 Rating: :: WONDROUS WORDPLAY This word building puzzle game requires some very strategic thinking. Developer: Price: $1.99 Version Reviewed: 1.0 Device Reviewed On: iPhone 3GS Graphics / Sound Rating: Game Controls Rating: Gameplay Rating: Replay Value Rating: Overall Rating: W.E.L.D.E.R. isn’t a typical word game. Sure, it asks players to build words out of randomly generated sequences of letters, but the game is structured in a way that makes it feel more like a block matching puzzle game than a word game. In fact, W.E.L.D.E.R. finds a great balance between wordplay and puzzling that players will find both unique and refreshing. The gameplay is straightforward and focused, but complex enough to require a good amount of strategic thinking. The game is broken down into levels, and in each level the player must create a required number of words Read More