There are some games that are just well made, but they go into the black morass.  Such is it with MonsterGila’s NovaRift: Arena.  Given away for free a number of months ago on FreeAppAlert, this little gem had me lost in the depth of space defending the galaxy from 5 different kinds of drone enemies in single player and human enemies in online multiplayer.  After many hours of play, suddenly the online game servers no longer worked.  The game seemed to fizzle out of MonsterGila existance, and the little software company in New Mexico could not be reached for comment as to what was happening.  You can still read the manual at http://www.novarift.com/manual.html or view the old teaser trailer still on YouTube.

So why bring up a dead game that seems to have been sucked into a blackhole? How about because of the countless hours spent playing which earns it one of the most addicting games that I’ve touched?  Yes, dear readers, this game was beautifully made.  (On a side note, do you backup your iPad?  If not, then it certainly is something that should be considered as this is the only way I can load NovaRift: Arena onto my devices now as it is no longer sold.  Stay tuned on an upcoming article on backing up your iOS device and having the ability to version your software.)

One of the best parts about this game was the ability to play multiplayer.  Even with the multiplayer component being disabled due to the missing NovaRift server, the offline arcade mode is loads of fun.  How many drones can you kill?  The game provides you with the choice of 4 different ships – each with its own style of play with different speeds, maneuverability, and weapons.  Your weapons include not just plasma guns, but also spreadfire cannons and proximity missiles.  The ships all have different weaknesses and realistic damage will be taken into consideration – you can fly a ship with damaged wings which affect your movement or even your weapons!

After choosing your ship, you’ll head into battle.  Your two main resources will be shield energy and gun energy.  Shields protect your ship – if they ever become depleted, try not to get hit for a duration of about 5 seconds (those sure seem like long seconds) and you’ll get an immediate 20% recharge of your shields.  Time your shots and make sure to keep moving – else you’ll be bantha fodder!  In the single player arcade mode, you’ll be faced with continuous waves of enemies which become stronger.  It becomes quite the challenge to dodge asteroids while taking out the baddies.  After blowing up the bad guys, there is a chance in getting some powerups.  6 powerups exist that range from refilling shield or gun energy, giving rapid fire, repairing your ship, getting an extra life, or getting invulnerability for a short while!

And hence, we’ve dug up a gem that seems to be gone.  I certainly hope that MonsterGila will bring back this wonderful game.  Until then, know that such a gem exists – and if you’ve downloaded but haven’t given this game a try and it’s sitting in your iTunes library – go ahead and install it…you’ll find this to be one of the best space shoot-em ups of all time which could have been developed into something like SubSpace (now Continuum), an equally exciting Windows 3rd person space shooter.  Until next time, game on!

Want an easier way to create and edit documents on the iPhone?  How about handwriting recognition?  Now, you’ll be able to use inline gestures and shorthand features coupled with context analyzers to quickly get your thoughts onto digital paper.  WritePad will “learn” how you write and enable to you to synchronize your work with Dropbox, Evernote, iTunes, and even Google Docs!  If you wish, you can also email, tweet, sms, print, or post FaceBook updates using WritePad 5.  Check out the new WritePad 5 for the iPhone – only $9.99.  You can also add additional language support for $3.99 each.

Check out PhatWare’s website for an in depth look at the new features as well as to check out a video demo.

G5 Entertainment is excited to share Mushroom Age for iPhone as well as the HD version for iPad for free to celebrate Valentine’s Day.

In Mushroom Age, you’ll be helping Vera track down her lost love through thrilling epochs of earth’s past and future! Vera’s fiance, Tom, has gone missing a few days before the wedding. So she embarks on a race against time and through history to find him and save the world from evil powers that want to change history and destroy the world. Solve interesting puzzles and play mesmerizing mini-games with pre-historic characters like a dinosaur and a caveman, historic personages like Socrates and Nostradamus, robots and bad guys from the future, not to mention characters not bound by the confines of time! Featuring eye-popping puzzles and brain-bending mini-games, Mushroom Age is a wild adventure for the whole family.

Mushroom Age features:
• 23 Chapters in 45 Levels
• 41 Mesmerizing mini-games
• Strange and amazing landscapes
• Save the past and future!
• iPhone 4 Retina Display support
• iOS multitasking support

Get the iPad HD version of the iPhone version today.

Wow!  What a mouthful for a name (we’ll call it PvZvNvP for short).  It sounds like some extreme combat where everyone goes for a free for all!  So, what’s this game about?  Well, if you like Angry Birds (you have played Angry Birds right?) then this game is right up your alley.  This game for those not familiar with Angry Birds is a physics puzzle shooter which Instead of dealing with cute little red birds and blue birds and the such, this time you’ll get to use kick-butt Pirates, Ninjas, Zombies, and Pandas to fight each other  (and just recently as of February they all get to fight Football players)!  Being provided with a review copy of the game, lets head out and see whether is worth your hard earned dollar (or 2 for the HD version).

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What crazy volume….10 billions downloads from the Apple App store with Neon Play’s Paper Glider application. 

Neon Play CEO Oli Christie received a telephone message from Apple saying, "Mr Christie. This is Apple in Cupertino. We have some good news to share with you…"

"We’ve been eagerly discussing the 10 billion app countdown in our game studio, so when I got a call from Apple Cupertino saying they had some "good news", I thought they might tell us they were featuring one of our apps on the App Store," said Oli Christie, CEO of Neon Play.

"So when they said that Neon Play’s Paper Glider was the 10 billionth app, I was completely and utterly dumbstruck. It’s a great piece of news for the whole Neon Play team. Paper Glider was already the number one app in the UK, so this is a double piece of great news for our studio."

Paper Glider is a free to download iPhone app. The aim of the game is simple – you need to flick a paper plane with your finger to try and get it out of the office window while avoiding ceiling fans. Once you’re out of the window you need to fly the plane as far as you can by using your limited amount of wind boosts.

The game has received over 2.5 million downloads to date and is currently no. 1 in the UK free apps and no. 2 in the US charts.

Congrats to Apple for 10 billion app downloads as well as Neon Play for making a wonderful app that got the 10 billion download award.