Astraware® announced the availability of three games on the Mac App Store – Astraware Solitaire, Astraware Mahjong, and OddBlob.

“We’re eager to extend our success with iOS gaming to the Mac,” said Howard Tomlinson, CEO of Astraware. “We look forward to reaching even more customers with our new games on the Mac App Store."

Astraware is delighted to bring three of its classic family-friendly games to Mac users. Astraware Solitaire includes 12 of the most popular single-player card games, each with customizable rules, and a choice of card backs and backgrounds. OddBlob is a fun arcade puzzle game where the graphics were entirely created by hand from modelling clay, and Astraware Mahjong takes the ancient tile-matching game and gives it a modern twist with 3D graphics, more than 30 puzzle layouts, multiple difficulty levels and a daily puzzle challenge.

Some cool updates today…

Today is a big day. 

Today is the first OFFICIAL day of activity over at CES in FAH-abulous Las Vegas.  Its also the day that Apple is launching the Mac App Store.  Now you can find, buy and install apps right from iTunes, like you do with all of your iOS devices.  Apple also released a minor (115MB) software update to OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard (version 10.6.6) that specifically enables this ability and includes all the necessary support files and stuff.  What I think is col, is that now your desktop apps can be managed, redownloaded, etc. just like your device apps.  If you ever have to rebuild your Mac, reinstalling everything just got a whole lot easier.

Today, Astraware announced the release of Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space for the iPad.  I have played and thoroughly enjoyed Adventures in Infinite Space for Windows Mobile a number of years back.  Weird Worlds is the sequel to that fantastic game which also made its debut on the Mac and PC just a couple of months ago.

So do you have what it takes to be a star-hopping galactic hero?  Or will you be killed in action in valiant combat or sucked into a black hole?  These are the choices that you’ll have to make.  With each game taking place in a randomly generated universe, the possibilities are endless!  Stay tuned to JAMM’s in depth look at Weird Worlds for the iPad.

Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space is available in the Apple App Store for $4.99.

Games studio Firemint today announced that it has acquired fellow Australian studio, Infinite Interactive. The move further boosts Firemint’s strength in designing and developing original games, while providing the Infinite Interactive team with a channel for independent publishing.

Firemint was founded by Rob Murray in 1999. It became a highly regarded work-for-hire mobile games studio before shooting to fame with iPhone hits “Flight Control” and “Real Racing” in 2009. Firemint has recently expanded to additional platforms including Nintendo DSiWare, Sony PlayStation Network, and Steam (PC and Mac). The studio now works exclusively on self-published original games.

Infinite Interactive was founded by Steve Fawkner in 1989, and is best known for the “Warlords” and “Puzzle Quest” series of games, both designed by Fawkner. Fawkner is one of the games industry’s pre-eminent innovators, and has created more than 30 games in a career spanning more than 25 years. He takes on a product management position at Firemint, and will continue to work with his current team on a game already under development.

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Really…how can you go wrong with a game called Death Worm.  So, when I saw this one as the featured app on www.freeappaday.com, how could I pass it up? The basic premise is pretty simple really, you play a  tunneling giant worm, a la Tremors.   You burrow your way under the surface, diving out of the ground only to attack people, animal, and vehicles passing by overhead.  If this sounds a little too easy, don’t worry it does get more complicated. 

While you will start off chasing harmless animals and unarmed people, before long, you will find yourself chasing enemies with guns, helicopters with machine guns and rockets, and even mortar firing tanks.  Those all will cause some serious damage.  Once your health meter runs down to empty, your game will come to and end.  So, you want to try eating everything in site, without getting hit by any of their firearms and other weapons. 

I did think, though, that it would have been nice if there had been some way to replenish your health, especially after reaching the more powerful enemies like flying saucers.  Which is not to say there is nothing out there to help you.  Eat through enough enemies, and you will earn an upgrade.  You can choose from increased size, speed, skin, and other upgrades.  You can even earn fireballs, which you can fire at your enemies to blast them out of the sky; or nitro, which allows you to flu high into the sky, knocking down higher flying airplanes.

There are two main playing modes.  In campaign mode, you will be given goals (such as eat 10 people) which you need to complete in order to advance.  complete enough levels to unlock the next stage.  In survival mode, you need to…well, you need to survive.  That’s it, just survive.  See how many people you can eat without taking enough hits to run down your health.   Additionally, there are two mini games (with more to come) which add an extra layer to the game.

The controls for the game are also easy and intuitive.  Use the virtual joystick on the left to control your worm.  The buttons on the right fire fireballs or activate the nitro power.  You can even use the zoom slider to zoom in for a closer look at the action.

Like many new games, this one also links into Apple’s new Game Center, allowing you to earn achievements online and check out the worldwide leader boards). 

I downloaded Death Worm on a whim when I saw it posted on Free App A Day, because…you can never go wrong with free.  I have to say though, I have been absolutely thrilled by it.  The graphics are fantastic, and gameplay is smooth and original.  This is probably the best free game I have ever downloaded on my iPad.    Head on over to Free App A Day to download this one while it is still free.