Touch Arcade

I guess this is really just a long way of saying that if you've played more than a few Ravenous titles over the years, you know pretty much what to expect with Gravity Duck Islands. Again, that’s not bad. Just… a bit of a letdown.

The campaign, with it's short-n-sweet and varied missions is a definite improvement, and the light weapon upgrade system is kinda neat. I'm not sure I love the new visuals yet, but it's still refreshing that they are trying something a little new in that area. Overall, there's some good and some bad, but--as I said--it's still Worms. You ready for war, big brother?

Beat da Beat doesn't break any conventions, though it does attempt some rather neat things with its musical focus. While I would have preferred a full-on Bit.trip-esque commitment to the rhythm aspect, most shooter fans will find a lot to like here.

In all, it's an incredibly impressive package that's well worth your five dollars--so long as you're prepared to put in a little effort on the (apparently small) chance you have any of the control issues I did.

I wish I could say that applied to me, though. I can appreciate the things The Deer God does well, and I don't regret playing it, because those moments were stunning. But it wasn't quite enough to balance out the clunky action, the inadequate camera, and the numerous bugs.

Blocky Highway is a surprisingly engaging racing game that happens to be mashed up with an endless format. It's easy to just go and take a whimsical ride with no energy involved, and if I get a reward -- great -- otherwise I'm just having fun.

There are a lot of great roguelikes and tower defense games on iOS that offer up nearly-instant rewards, but that's not the way this particular game is set up. Its bizarre genre-crossing means that you're going to have to learn a lot of new things, even if you've played plenty of games that share certain elements with it. That aspect is going to turn off some, while sounding like sweet music to others. One thing is for sure, however. If you've been looking for a deeper experience in either genre, you'll want to find a home for this game on your iPad.

Ace Maverick looks great, controls well, and is pretty fun in the beginning. Unfortunately, the difficulty juts up incredibly fast and left me feeling a bit of whiplash. Plus, that last level is… well, I’m not sure what’s going on there. But I feel like all of my issues with the game could be ironed out pretty easily with some updates in the future, and I look forward to them.

There is a terrifying sense of claustrophobia as the jellyfish character squeezes between cave walls and dodges falling debris, which makes the small pockets of breathable space even more enthralling. Seashine is a game with a lot of spirit, great artistic direction, and a clever blend of wonder and terror.

The game still takes an obscene amount of time to get challenging, but a long list of missions across three different worlds definitely helped to keep me interested. The addition of tricks, a neat little camera mode, and local multiplayer are also pretty welcome, and for only two dollars I see this as an easy recommend--especially if you never played the first one.