The Walking Dead
Released: July
Platforms: iOS
Developer: Telltale Games

Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead is groundbreaking in more than one way. An episodic adventure game in the classic style, today? Turns out, it’s a winner due to brilliant storytelling, solid controls, and, well, zombies. It’s based on the award-winning The Walking Dead comic book and television series, and by making this into a video game, it allowed for the introduction a new lead and set of supporting characters — a brilliant move. This enabled its authors to explore the same themes and ideas as the TV show and the comic book, but with a different emotional tone. Lee Everett and his young charge, Clementine, fill the emotional heart of the story in a way that Rick and his wife never quite do.

Curiosity
Released: November
Platforms: iOS
Developer: 22cans

The first release from Peter Molyneaux and 22cans is an experiment in massively multiplayer gaming with a simple yet compelling premise: “What’s in the center of the cube?” Like a huge virtual Tootsie Pop, the curiosity cube has layers upon layers of colored squares. You simply tap squares to remove them from the top layer of the world-sized cube — you and half a million players others using their iOS devices. Curiosity distills the very essence of its namesake, with teasing lines of prose scrolling across layers, various pictures buried in the skin of each cube layer, and some random coin earning mechanics. All of this seems to add up to one very innovative tapping experience that’s of a less game and more of a participatory experience.

Draw Something
Released: February
Platforms: iOS, Android
Developer: OMGPOP, Inc.
Draw Something was Zynga’s big gamble. Developed by indie team OMGPOP, Draw Something went viral and became as well known as Words With Friends or even Angry Birds. Why did this game become so popular? On the face of it, it’s a simple concept: This is nothing more than multiplayer Pictionary. Get a word and draw a picture that a friend attempts to guess. If they choose the correct word, you both get more points. Playing Draw Something is a lot more compelling, however. Artistic individuals challenge themselves to illustrate more and more abstract words with more and more elaborate, even painterly, images. Unfortunately, the Draw Something bubble burst soon after Zynga spent an obscene amount of money to acquire it. Still, the game continues to have a loyal following, with folks spending real money to buy new colors, word lists, and the like.

Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition
Released: December
Platforms: iOS
Developer: Overhaul Games
One of the pillars of RPG gaming from BioWare recently showed up on iOS, and it still made a huge splash with retro enthusiasts and hardcore RPG fans alike. While the enhancements include new playable characters with new backstories and touch-appropriate controls, this is essentially the same game as came out for PC 14 years ago. The game uses Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules, making it as hardcore and difficult as the original PC game. While RPG games continue to streamline and simplify to interest new players, this 1998 gem remains as true to the form as ever, which is a powerful draw.

The World Ends With You
Released: August
Developer: Square Enix
The World Ends With You made me sit up and take notice when it first released in North America in 2008. The J-Pop flavor of the score; the quirky angst of protagonist Neku and his spunky, optimistic partners, Shiki, Joshua, and Beat; the fun mechanics of searching for and then fighting demons; the overarching storyline of The Game and its Reapers — this is not a typical handheld game. When it came to iOS this year, the loss of the dual-screen combat mechanic proved to have less of an impact than I feared. It’s still a ton of fun to play, with an irreverent wit and unique gameplay mechanics I’ve not seen anywhere else.

Bastion
Released: August
Platforms: iOS
Developer: Supergiant Games
Supergiant Games had a monster hit on its hands with Bastion, one of the best downloadable console games of the last several years. That it’s now available on an iPad or iPhone for five bucks is a revelation. Players follow The Kid through a dying world that somehow re-assembles itself ahead of the main character. The soundtrack is an oddly joyous combination of future-Western loops, guitar work, and haunting vocals — be sure to get the soundtrack if nothing else. The narration makes it all come together, as it tells its simple but compelling story about saving the world, one hammered monster at a time. It works exceedingly well on the touchscreen, too.

Plague Inc.
Released: May
Platforms: iOS, Android
Developer: Ndemic Creations
You’d think that a game featuring the travel paths of a viral plague would be dead boring, but Ndemic Creations proves that a game that’s essentially a spreadsheet simulation of a deadly viral plague across the globe is compelling entertainment. It has no fancy 3D graphics, cutscenes, or voice work, just a map of the world, several choices about how to best spread the disease most effectively (rats? air travel? mosquitos?), and a well-built simulation of how the world responds to your pandemic infection. It’s a chilling and realistic look at how disease can and does spread from place to place.

Angry Birds Star Wars
Released: November
Platforms: iOS, Android
Developer: Rovio Entertainment
Rovio somehow put two of the strongest intellectual properties together into one incredibly lust-worthy combination. Star Wars plus Angry Birds seems like an odd match, but it hit number one in the iTunes app charts within the first two and a half hours of release. It likely sold a huge number of copies via the Google Play store as well: Who can resist Angry Birds with lightsabers and officially sanctioned Star Wars sound effects? No one, that’s who.

Letterpress
Released: October
Platforms: iOS
Developer: atebits
Letterpress is like Boggle with friends with a particularly nasty twist: When you tap out words using the letters provided in the grid, they turn blue, taking points and potential victory from your opponent, chosen at random or from your Game Center friends list. The longer the word, the more points you get, and the less your opponent can rack up. It’s Othello or Go with letters and words, all built with care and a clean, modern design aesthetic.

Fieldrunners 2
Released: July
Platforms: iOS
Developer: Subatomic Studios
Tower defense games are all over the various mobile platforms, perhaps more than any other type of game. The opportunity for deep strategy exists with the tower defense genre, as does quick, pick-up-and-play instant gratification. Fieldrunners 2 is the apogee of tower defense games, as it boasts a variety of sub-genres, like open fields, fixed path, and survival wave modes. It has plenty of towers for you to buy and upgrade, more enemy types, and three levels of difficulty to try your patience and skill.

Infinity Blade II
Released: November 2011
Platforms: iOS
Developer: Chair Entertainment Group
Infinity Blade II came out in November of 2011, so it just missed our top iOS games post last year. Let’s rectify that now. This is a showcase title on any mobile device, though it does only exist on iOS at this point.  Infinity Blade II is a must-own title for iPad an iPhone gamers wanting to see the cutting edge of mobile gaming and visual design, due to the combination of console-level graphical quality and surprisingly tactile combat. It makes good on the promise of the first title, adding more story, more giant beasts to slay, and a continually satisfying challenge throughout.

Horn
Released: August
Platforms: iOS, Android
Developer: Phosphor Games
Horn surprises with a well-developed fantasy world, solid controls, and a quirky sense of humor that permeates across encounters, levels, and character design. Horn is a delight to play; it’s also farther away from Zynga’s core casual business as I thought was even possible. The platforming is well done, the three-dimensional environments are fun to explore and play through, and the enemies are a striking mix of science and magic.

Super Hexagon
Released: August
Platforms: iOS
Developer: Terry Cavanagh
Those who like punishing, tough retro arcade games are bound to thrill to Super Hexagon, developed by indie darling Terry Cavanagh. The point is to rotate your triangle-shaped avatar around a pulsating, spinning, chip-tune spewing hexagon, avoiding the walls that close in on the center in wave after endless wave. Survival is the point of Super Hexagon, moving minimally and staying one step ahead of things as they spin, flash, and pound like a bad trip at a rave.

Waking Mars
Released: February
Platforms: iOS, Android
Developer: Tiger Style Games
Waking Mars takes you on a trip to the red planet to explore, trapping you underneath the surface. You’ll need to navigate a maze-like system of caves, teeming with varieties of plant life that you’ll need to harness to survive, and, eventually, terraform Mars with. If you liked Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor, you’ll enjoy Waking Mars for the story, the gorgeous artwork, and a compelling science fictional storyline set on one of our favorite planets to dream about.

Rayman Jungle Run
Released: September
Platforms: iOS, Android
Developer: Ubisoft
The smartest thing Ubisoft could have done with its popular Rayman franchise was to release it to iOS and Android, not as a copycat game full of poorly translated controls schemes, but as a mobile title built specifically for the platform’s touch-based control systems. Rayman Jungle Run is an endless runner, like Canabalt or Jetpack Joyride, but it trades on the glorious cel-shaded illustration, cartoony animation, and delightful ukulele-infused soundtrack that made the console version of Rayman: Origins such fun to play. That joy translates well to the mobile version of Rayman as you jump, swing, and soar across several well designed levels with smooth touch controls.

It took a while, but Twitter finally lets its users add a header image at the top of their profiles. Take advantage of this to show off your favorite hobby with our collection of video game-themed pictures.

We’re releasing seven days’ worth of artwork, each with a different theme:

• Monday: The modern era
• Tuesday: Popular franchises
• Wednesday: PC
• Thursday: It came from Japan
• Friday: Mobile
• Saturday: Retro arcade
• Sunday: Consoles

Today’s batch of headers features 10 entries from hit mobile games. Right-click (or Ctrl-click for Macs) the picture you want and hit “save image as” to save to your computer. To add the header to your Twitter profile, please follow these steps:

1. Sign in to your account.
2. Go to “settings” and click on the “design” tab.
3. Scroll down to the “customize your own” section.
4. Click on “change header” and select the image you want to upload. No need to scale.
5. Click “save.”

Bad Piggies

Minecraft: Pocket Edition

Cut the Rope

Wipeout

Temple Run

The Simpsons: Tapped Out

Police Escape

Super Hexagon

Infinity Blade II

N.O.V.A. 3

For gaming-themed Timeline covers for your Facebook profile, click here.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Developer Chair Entertainment’s iOS adventure Infinity Blade II has been crowned the most profitable title publisher Epic Games has ever produced (with some caveats). Since the sequel’s release last December, Infinity Blade II has received two major expansions featuring new items, enemies, and locations. This week, it receives its third and presumably final free expansion: Skycages.

“The most action-packed Infinity Blade II expansion to date,” claims a press release from the developer, “Skycages invites players to delve more deeply into the story of the Deathless, as new areas are unlocked and relics from the past come to light. While battling all-new enemies such as the Headsman, Petrified Noc, Xyloto, Ryth, and others, players can now harness the power of the sun with the Solar Transport Energy Blades, a completely new weapon type to be mastered.”

The new weapon type in question is essentially a Star Wars lightsaber (pictured above), available in normal, dual, and heavy flavors. Each Solar Transport weapon costs $1,000,000 gold (equivalent to 25-50 real-world dollars depending on which in-app purchase you’re looking at) and may seem overpriced at first, especially given the hefty price tag, but any socketed elemental attack gem will have its power magnified 10-fold.

Other new items include a chainsaw and a set of scuba equipment from Chair Entertainment’s first Xbox Live Arcade title, Undertow. While not overly expensive if purchased outright, I was able to get the entire Undertow collection consecutively by using the special prize wheel items.

The 1GB+ update also seems to have patched the infinite gold trick where players could exploit a specific cutscene to sell an endless supply of free Infinity Blade weapons. Now the weapon can no longer be sold during that sequence.

For those looking to get the most of their time with Infinity Blade II, the makers of the game recently shared a few tips and tricks for the ClashMob mode:

• On treasure challenges, try to pick up tightly grouped bags as quickly as possible and leave the others alone.  New gold bags will spawn a few seconds after you stop picking up bags.  Picking up that one extra bag resets the timer and could cost you even more bags!
• With parry challenges it is best to use dual or light weapons as they have a better reaction time. Don’t waste time attacking the enemy during a break, hit him once, wait for him to recover, then start parrying again (same with dodge challenges).
• During “kill the titan” challenges, learn to sneak a ‘scratch’ attack in after every parry to increase the overall amount of damage, while still being able to obtain a parry break. Also, always go with a heavy weapon so you can deal as much damage as possible.
• Due to the time limit on some ClashMobs, try to get as many parry breaks as possible to get stab points that will do extra damage, and then continue on when they get dizzy with slashes and combos.
• When doing any Parry challenge and the enemy becomes dizzy, attack him to bring him out of the dizzy state faster so you can get more parries. If you wait without attacking, more time will come off the timer and you’ll lose potential parries.
• Be sure to have one of each class of weapon in your inventory (sword and shield, two hand, and heavy) to be ready for any type of challenge.
• Use Dual weapons for the Stab challenge. Damage doesn’t matter and you will be able to get 40+ stabs with dual weapons rather than 18 stabs with light sword.
• Don’t worry about your health, exhausted dodges, or broken blocks.  Achieve the objective at all costs, since the costs go away once you’re back in SP.
• Dodge/block/parry/stab/survival challenges are more friendly to low-level players than boss-killing challenges.
• Set reminders for future ClashMobs and the game will send a push notify when the event is about to start.  If you didn’t allow Infinity Blade II to access push notifies, you can go into the iOS settings to enable them.

So why is this likely to be the last major update for Infinity Blade II? While the game is undoubtedly a well-reviewed cash cow, Chair is already setting its sights on the upcoming Infinity Blade: Dungeons, a prequel to the original game. And for those of us who have seen the true ending of Infinity Blade II, I’m sure we’re more than ready to get our hands on Infinity Blade III….

To celebrate the release of Skycages, Infinity Blade II is available at the discounted price of $2.99  on the iTunes App Store for a limited time.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Below are all the reviews from GamesBeat in 2011. They are listed in reverse-chronological order by the date the review was posted, NOT the release date for the game.

12/19
Minecraft
Star Wars: The Old Republic

12/15

Grand Theft Auto III: 10th Anniversary Edition

12/13

Gears of War 3: RAAM’s Shadow

12/01

Infinity Blade II

11/29

Saints Row The Third

11/23

Sonic Generations (3DS)

11/22

King of Fighters XIII

11/20

Need For Speed: The Run

11/19

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

11/17

Super Mario 3D Land

11/15

Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary
Kinect Disneyland

11/14

Assassin’s Creed Revelations
Rayman Origins

11/13

Kinect Sports: Season 2

11/10

The Elder Scrolls V: kyrim

11/05

Dark Souls

11/03

Forza Motorsport 4

10/31

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

10/27

Battlefield 3

10/21

Batman: Arkham City

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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The sales include both the original Infinity Blade, launched in December 2010, and Infinity Blade II, released just a month ago for iOS. The game was developed by Epic’s Chair Entertainment division as a marquee title for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch platform.

Epic said the sequel is selling faster than the original. The first title took three months to hit $5 million in sales at a $5.99 download price (later discounted to $2.99). The second title hit $5 million in a month at a $6.99 price. That’s far short of major console game releases, but the numbers show that games released as exclusives for the iOS platform have become a big business.

Epic is also branching out with franchise extensions, including a digital novella, Infinity Blade: Awakening, from bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, Infinity Blade: Original Soundtrack, and Infinity Blade FX, a coin-operated version of the game in arcades.

“The success of the Infinity Blade franchise is testament to our talented team who is devoted to making games we want to play, all while using Unreal Engine technology to redefine what is expected from games on iOS devices,” said Michael Capps, Epic Games president. “We have so much more in store for players, and will continue to make great content for Apple’s evolving platforms.”

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Infinity Blade II is debuting today, and the mobile game reminds us of the attractions of iterative game development. The risk is low, the potential for gain is high. While an innovative game can change the course of development in its own right and become the fastest selling game in iOS history, a well done sequel can polish what the first game got right to a high gleam, and add just the right amount of extras and enrichment to become something even sweeter. We’ve seen it with a series like Games of War, another Epic Games property, and now we can see it again with Infinity Blade II, my pick for the most console-like experience on the iOS platform to date.

Infinity Blade II (Epic Games & Chair Entertainment) is out for the iPad 2 and the iPhone 4S [update: Chair informs me the game is also compatible with the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad, iPod
Touch 3 (16GB+) and iPod Touch 4].

There’s something primal about the way combat happens in this game. It would seem as though, on paper at least, that swiping and tapping on a glass screen wouldn’t feel so damn, well, tactile. Infinity Blade, the first game, gave us all a sense of place and a sense of impact with stabbing, blocking, dodging and slashing our way through the same path of evil warrior beasts and humanoids again and again, only to die at the hands of the God King at the end of each hard-fought road. Death became us, though, as we were reborn after each successive death at the hands of our arch-nemesis, and we again picked up the heavy mantle of hero, trudging ever onward to our doom.

Infinity Blade II is a game of polish, solidity and ever-present light effects. The combat system is deeper, allows for more varied gameplay styles, and just feels dangerous. Weapons can again be upgraded with in-game earned money, but also not contain slots for enhancing gems of different shape and effect. New weapons can be purchased with the same in-game currency, which is also able to be purchased as an in-app micro transaction by the impatient or excessively rich.

Game play will seem suddenly familiar to players of the first game – move from place to place in the stunningly beautiful world with a tap on a pulsating circle, tap on the guardians in the way, and then fight. Fighting involves breaking the enemy’s attack with a series of blocks, parries, or dodges, then slashing across the screen as fast as possible to do as much damage. There are special attacks only available after a timed charging period is active, like the super strike button to the upper left of the screen, and magical attacks that are unleashed with a tap on the upper right onscreen button and drawing a rune-like figure center screen. It’s all great fun, most likely due to the intensity with which players must decide whether to block, parry, or dodge and in which direction. The sound effects and camera shake fully embrace the combat; more than once I found myself on the edge of my seat, slashing and parrying my way to victory. It’s all very palpable and intense.

In contrast to the first game, there are now three types of weapons: heavy, light, and dual wielded. The light weapon is similar to the swords of the first game; equipped with a shield, the protagonist warrior is a dead ringer for the hero of the first game, all shiny armor and fluid motion. The dual weapons are smaller, faster, and one is held in each hand. Parrying becomes easier, perhaps, but there is no shield to block with – a trade-off to be sure, even with a ducking motion now allowed. Dual weapons allow for faster combos, adding in tapping to the standard swiping or slashing motions of the single-handed sword/shield combo, and a special damage bonus comes in after a three hit combo is performed. The heavy weapons include axes and bizarre two-handed affairs, slower but doing incredible damage per connection with an enemy. Attacking in the same direction twice in a row allows a special attack, triggered by a slash in the same direction as an onscreen prompt, to do extra damage. Heavy weapons preclude dodging, so the directional buttons are used to block in those directions.

Visually, Infinity Blade II again sets the bar high for any iOS game, faster processor or not, wishing to compete. The world is brilliant, the lighting is much more realistically alive, the textures of characters and environments are richer, more detailed. Dust motes shine in the cathedrals, birds of prey fly off in the distance, cherry blossoms fall delicately to the ground. Big giant monster-things beat the ever-living crap out of the hero when a dodge is missed, or a block broken. The soundtrack, while suitably epic, is also at times creepy, even creating a subtle anticipatory soundscape, most notable after each new “rebirth” as the hero warrior stands on the brink of returning to the tower to free the Maker.

The story is new, here, too. We’re given tantalizing hints from early on that all was not what it seemed in the first game. The first scene includes a partner, a similarly armored woman with a crossbow and as many questions as answers. She plays a pivotal role in the final bit of the introductory scene, moving us forward to our first revelation. The storytelling is much more confident here, and – perhaps more interesting – much less melodramatic than I expected.

The menu screen has some interesting surprises – one tab touts a feature called ClashMobs – a massively social online challenge system – while another tab us that there will be new titans, new bosses, new areas, and – thank goodness – new weapons, shields, armor, magic rings and gems to collect. All these updates are promised to come free to game purchasers. If the first game is anything to go by, the chances are good that these are not idle boasts. The original Infinity blade had four content expansions during it’s little over a year lifespan. In addition, there are tabs to directly purchase the first game and a novel based on the infinity Blade universe, by author Brandon Sanderson, on the iBookstore. Now that’s cross media!

Overall, Infinity Blade II is a worthy successor to the already well-received original game. The game play, while similar in feel, is expanded enough to provide players of the original – as well as newcomers – a satisfyingly rich experience. It’s a fine day indeed when we carry around in our pocket or messenger bag such a compelling and graphically amazing video game, one that only a few short years ago would have been only seen on highly powered gaming consoles. Yes, Infinity Blade II is more of the same, but the first game was fantastic; this one is even that much more so. While owners of “older” Apple devices are out of luck, I highly recommend this game to owners of an iPad 2 or iPhone 4S; this is the benchmark, state-of-the-industry level game that everyone should have a chance to play. Our review score is 90 out of 100.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Mainstream consumers may be drawn to the iPhone 4S because of its Siri personal assistant. But gamers will want to pick up the iPhone 4S for its ability to play games. The new smartphone from Apple has the ability to run games that are much better-looking than those on the iPhone 4.

That’s because the iPhone 4S has the A5 microprocessor, the same one used in the iPad 2 that launched earlier this year. The A5 central processing unit (CPU) is two times more powerful than the iPhone 4′s A4 chip, and the iPhone 4S’s graphics run seven times faster.

As a result, the iPhone 4S is going to be a very powerful game platform. That’s important since it will compete against two new portable gaming systems, the Nintendo 3DS that launched earlier this year and the Sony PlayStation Vita which arrives early next year. Gamers are sure to notice that some of the titles are starting to look as good as console games from the not-so-distant past.

Here’s a rundown on some of the games that will shine on the iPhone 4S.

The most anticipated game will be Infinity Blade II (pictured at top), which has been optimized for the A5. The game, from Epic Games’ Chair Entertainment division, was highlighted at Apple’s press conference for the launch of the iPhone 4S. The game looks pretty awesome and it will sell millions of copies if it does as well as the original game, which launched in 2010. Mike Capps, president of Epic Games, says the quality of this game is pretty close to console quality.

In the original game, you could use your fingers to simulate sword strokes across the screen. Your warrior takes on increasingly tough swordmasters and beasts before reaching the evil boss. If you lose, you start over and appear doomed to run the same gauntlet for all eternity. The touchscreen-based game play should be awesome again on the iPhone 4S. And this new version has also been enhanced to let users created hundreds of customizable weapons. The Infinity Blade II game debuts on Dec. 1.

Real Racing 2 is one of the cool racing games from developer Firemint, which was recently acquired by Electronic Arts. This game is easier to handle than a lot of early mobile racing games.

You can tweak the controls on the game so that they are easier to handle. The game has 40 miles of tracks and 15 locations. It has 16-player online races, with eight players able to play in the same room via Wi-Fi. The game comes with 30 different cars and has a career mode with more than 10 hours of game play. You can play it from five different camera angles.

One nice feature of Real Racing: You can play it on a high-definition TV via AirPlay, which is one of the cool features of Apple’s new iPhone operating system, iOS5: It lets you control the game on your iPhone and see it on your TV set.

Shadowgun from Madfinger Games uses the Unity game development platform, the browser-based technology that is the main rival to Epic’s game platform. Shadowgun features some very cool 3D graphics in a third-person shooter game. The sci-fi game features some nice explosions, cool shadows and lighting, and decent voice acting.

In the game, you play a professional bounty hunter named John Slade in the year 2350. Your mission is to hunt down Edgar Simon, a geneticist who is tucked away in a mountain fortress and protected by a personal army of mutants, cyborgs and genetically-enhanced people. As you fight, you can take cover and use a variety of weapons to take on enemies. It has some technical flaws, though, so the company recently put out a new version.

Game publisher NaturalMotion has launched a realistic horse simulation game called My Horse that should look very cool on the iPhone 4S. The game, developed by MunkyFun, looks like one of the most sophisticated to date in terms of the quality of its graphics for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.

The game users realistic animation and physics technology to create some of the best-looking horses you’ll ever see in a game for children. The motions of the horses are physically accurate and you won’t see dumb-looking repetitive movements. Ideal for kids, the game lets you take care of a unique horse, groom it, ride it, and enter it into tournaments. You can wash and feed your horse as if it were a real thing, and you can pay real money for virtual goods in case you want to buy fancy reins or better food for your horse.

Galaxy on Fire 2 HD from Fishlabs has such high-end graphics that it will run only on the iPad 2 and the iPhone 4S. In the game, you play the role of a daredevil space adventurer and mercenary. You are catapulted to the other end of the galaxy as a result of a hyperdrive accident and have to take on an armada of alien space ships. You have to arm your ship with weapons such as lasers or auto-cannon and take on the bad guys.

The game has more than 20 star systems and dozens of planets, a bunch of alien races, dozens of customizable spaceships and 100 3D space stations. You can trade around a bunch of commodities.

The sound is of your guns is riveting and the music is dramatic. You’ll see lots of cool views of space nebulae and explosions of enemy ships as you boldly go where no iPhone game has gone before.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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