The Download Blog

Like I've mentioned here several times before, I'm one of the people who is still using the iPhone 3G. Like many, I'm waiting for my two-year contract to be up so I can get whatever the next-gen iPhone is. It doesn't bother me too much (aside from a few app features that require 3GS), but I do long for the faster processing power and extra features found in the latest iPhone. Especially when it comes to (surprise!) games.

To give you an idea of the difference between the two iPhone processors and how they effect game performance, fellow CNET editor, Josh Lowensohn, put the two iPhone models to the test. In Josh's article, he offers up several side-by-side comparisons of many of the top iPhone games with analysis. If you're an iPhone-gaming fan or just want to see how the processing power matches up between the two models, check out his article.

This week's apps are both games, with the first complete basketball game for the iPhone and a fun sequel to one of the more unique games in the iTunes App Store.

NBA Live ($9.99) is the first fully licensed and complete basketball game for the iPhone and iPod Touch. You can play as any of the 30 NBA teams featuring the actual players and stats. You can play a quick exhibition game, play through an entire season, or just play through the playoffs up to the NBA Championship. The control system includes an onscreen joystick for movement and two buttons that take care of most basketball action (shooting, passing, etc.), but with a clever system for pulling off more advanced moves. The graphics are not on par with what you'll find in the current basketball games on consoles, but for an iPhone game, it looks fairly good and plays well enough to satisfy basketball game fans.

NBA Live packs a lot of features into the game using only a couple of buttons. Advanced moves like cross-over dribbles and hardcore dunks require you touch a button then flick in a direction. Holding down on the pass button brings up icons you can touch to pass to specific players. If you want to go deeper than just running and gunning, you can touch the clipboard icon to call a play and set up an open man for an easy shot. While I'm happy with NBA Live as an iPhone basketball game, I may be spoiled by the smooth experience on console versions. The graphics are pretty good, but not great and the movement can be a bit jerky. Overall, I think it's a pretty good basketball game, but it might be worth waiting a little while to see if it goes on sale. Hardcore fans should get this game.

JellyCar 2 is the sequel to the unique squishy driving-puzzle game, JellyCar. JellyCar 2 expands on the hand-drawn, cartoon puzzle game with several more levels, new game types, and the capability to customize your car and create your own levels. The controls involve touching the screen on either side to go forward and backward and you can tilt your iPhone to right your car when it flips over. Play the game in the Classic Mode to navigate your car through a level to the goal in the least amount of time. You have three skill levels in classic mode with a number of tracks for each level. Long Jump mode lets you drive down a long ramp and use obstacles in the level to project your car the longest distance. The third mode adds a new game entirely, requiring you to direct Tetris-like puzzle pieces to their associated bins--strange sounding, but it's pretty fun with the JellyCar physics in play. Adding to your options for solving puzzles, you can touch the car to "go big" like the original JellyCar. You also get two extra skills you can grab while driving: a balloon that lets you take to the air and one that makes your wheels sticky--each of which you will use at different times to pass levels.

JellyCar 2 also adds a few other features to play with and will amount to a lot of replay value. You can customize your vehicle and wheels with different colors, but you can also choose different vehicles, each with their own physical properties to change how you attack various levels. A new editing mode even lets you create and save your own levels from the ground up. Overall, I think JellyCar 2 is in a class by itself, with a fun, stylistic feel to the game and plenty of challenging levels that are very enjoyable to play.

What's your favorite iPhone app? Do you think NBA Live is worth the price to play? Is JellyCar 2 a worthy sequel to JellyCar? Let me know in the comments!

Is the iPhone finally coming to Verizon? According to an article over at Apple Insider, sources in the Taiwan handset supply chain say Apple has contracted to produce a UMTS/CDMA hybrid iPhone, making it compatible with more networks worldwide. The sources say the move indicates that Apple is specifically targeting Verizon and that we may see Verizon iPhones by the end of next year.

Whenever I talk to anyone about the iPhone, they always say the same thing; they love the device, but wish that AT&T had better coverage. I happen to agree, because even where I work in San Francisco (a supposedly "hot" AT&T zone), I get really bad coverage at my desk and often need to walk to another part of the building to get decent reception. I even have to walk over to a window to send text messages! Maybe these new Verizon rumors will light a fire under AT&T to improve its coverage, because you can bet a lot of people will be jumping ship if Verizon gets the iPhone next year (including me!).

This week's apps include a free app to explore the latest NASA info and a game where you race at high speeds on a cushion of air.

The NASA app (free) gives you all the latest news, images, and video of current space missions from NASA. Get up-to-the minute updates of current missions with this official NASA app and follow the path of your favorite spacecraft. The interface is extremely easy to navigate, with buttons across the bottom for current missions, images, videos, and news updates. The missions screen lets you sort by your particular interest with info and multimedia about the International Space Station; NASA's recently unveiled ship, the Constellation; the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter; and several others.

The NASA app is perfect for those interested in science and space exploration with plenty of images and video to get a window into projects NASA is currently working on. The ability to follow current and future missions is particularly interesting because if you hear about a launch, you'll be able to track a ship's progress and follow along with the latest news from the mission. Anyone with an interest in science, space exploration, and current NASA missions should definitely grab this free app. When the next mission comes, you'll have a free tool on your iPhone to follow along as astronauts trace their path across the sky.

Ground Effect ($3.99) is a hovercraft racing game with beautiful 3D graphics and challenging gameplay. Tilt your iPhone or iPod Touch to steer your hover craft and use onscreen controls to accelerate and break. The game is set up with tracks laid out across a ring of islands in a tropical setting. Choose from 10 different styles of hovercraft and race through check points around 14 different tracks you will unlock as you progress. You can race to unlock new tracks or choose Ghost Race to try to go for your best time against a ghost of your previous best lap.

Ground Effect has excellent 3D graphics and a control system that's easy to pick up and play, but difficult to master. Your hovercraft automatically accelerates to it's cruising speed, but you'll need to use the gas pedal to get a momentary boost to push you past opponents. Once the boost meter goes down, you'll need to wait some time before you can initiate another burst. As the game progresses and you race on harder tracks, you'll need to use the brakes at just the right time to quickly navigate sharper turns. Anyone who likes racing games and wants something a little different than the usual auto-racing type of game should check out Ground Effect. Unfortunately, there is no multiplayer option at this time, but a solid Wi-Fi multiplayer might be the thing to make this game truly great.

What's your favorite iPhone app? Are you excited that the iPhone may soon become available on Verizon? What other good science apps have you tried? What do you think of Ground Effect? Let me know in the comments!

The evolution of the app store witnessed another milestone recently, with the release of a game that doubles as a very effective advertisement. One of my favorite iPhone games of the year, Firemint's Real Racing, just got a Lite version that doubles as a promotional tool for both the app and an outside company. Real Racing GTI (Free), sponsored by Volkswagen, lets you race on a few of the tracks of the full game using the 2010 Volkswagen GTI. You only get a small taste of the action in the full game, but it should be enough to help you decide if you want to spend the money. You also can choose between several different paint jobs on your GTI.

Though there are plenty of movie-based game apps, and other promotional offerings at the iTunes Store, this particular marriage of a popular racing game with a large car company really strikes me as a great idea. It will be interesting to see if more companies start using the iPhone app store as a way to effectively promote their products through context-appropriate game titles (not just simple ads). I could even see other car companies promoting a new line of cars using the same or similar titles. In any case, if you haven't tried Real Racing, check out Real Racing GTI to get a taste of the game and to get a look at the 2010 Volkswagen GTI inside and out.

This week's apps include a comprehensive and customizable to-do list program and a simple, but challenging game where you use a grappling hook to escape treasure filled caverns.

Awesome Note ($3.99) lets you manage messages, memos, and ideas in several unique ways. An intuitive interface lets you use themes to help categorize information the way you want and get to the information you need quickly. Awesome Note includes a few demo categories (shown as folders) that you can use to see how your notes and info will be laid out. You can create new folders by hitting the add folder button in the lower right, selecting your preferred color, and adding a title. Opening a folder displays your notes for that category laid out as thumbnails so you can quickly find the specific note you want. You can also configure the program to display to-dos as a running list or as a separated list with completed items on top.

Once you have your category folders set up, simply open a folder, add a note, and start typing using the regular portrait view or in landscape mode by turning your iPhone sideways. You can also customize your notes by choosing from a wide variety of themes and fonts. When your finished, you can easily drop your note into other category folders or e-mail the information to whoever you want. Overall, if you are looking for an easy-to-use to-do list manager and note taking app, the folder-based note management and customizable themes of Awesome Note make it a worthwhile option.

HookChamp ($2.99) is a fun (and funny) platform type of game where you swing through caves carrying stolen treasure using your trusty grappling hook to get to the exit. The game offers fairly simple graphics and reminds me of older console platform games. The control system is extremely easy to pick up and understand, but takes some practice before you'll be able to swing smoothly through the caverns. Along the way, you'll need to pick up gold coins, some of which require you to be creative with your high-flying grappling techniques. As you progress in levels, the action gets more difficult, as you'll be chased by a giant unnamed ghost-like creature with large teeth. Some of the most exciting parts of the game are when you're on the run, trying to swing your way to safety.

Once you've managed to escape a level with your treasure, you'll be able to enter a shop to buy equipment that will make your escapes easier and maps of new locations to plunder. You can buy items like the shotgun, for example, that you can use to slow down the chasing ghost. You also can buy better shoes that help you run faster, or even rocket shoes to make you fly higher. If you like the swinging action of classic arcade games like Bionic Commando, or if you're looking for a platformer that doesn't require you to remember too many buttons, HookChamp has just the right mix of challenging gameplay, item collecting, and fun character dialog to keep you entertained game after game.

What's your favorite iPhone app? Do you think we're going to see more sponsored versions of popular games like Real Racing GTI? What's your favorite note-taking app? Do you have harrowing stories of escape in HookChamp? Let me know in the comments!

Do you have a "jailbroken" iPhone? Ever since the iPhone first came on the scene, there has been a large group of users who believe Apple tries too hard to control what works and what doesn't on the iPhone. The minute a new iPhone firmware update is released from Apple, a whole slew of people search for ways to unlock the device, letting them download apps that have never had to go through the App store acceptance process. This means that apps that would have otherwise never seen the light of day can be used on an unlocked (or "jailbroken") iPhone.

I personally have no opinion about those who jailbreak iPhones because I believe in the free-flowing open-source idea of software, while also believing a company ought to have some control over their products. In other words, I guess I fall somewhere in the middle. But I have never jailbroken my iPhone because part of my job is to review apps that everyone has access to (in the iTunes Store) and I need to have the same user experience with the iPhone that most people have. Also, I would say I'm happy with the iPhone as is.

According to AppleInsider, a recent release to Apple's iPhone firmware makes the device invulnerable to the usual jailbreaking tactics. I guess we'll have to wait and see how long it takes the community to jailbreak the latest version (if they can), but you can bet they're working on it right now. If you have a jailbroken iPhone, please tell us all about it in the comments.

This week's apps include an excellent product bar code scanner and a four-wheeling ATV game that's probably the best of its kind in the iTunes Store.

RedLaser ($1.99) lets you "scan" products to give you a list of prices from online retailers. There are a few products that perform a similar function at the iTunes Store and several have been made for other devices, but RedLaser is surprisingly effective using only the built-in camera on your iPhone. Simply tap the lightning bolt icon and line up the bar code in between the guidelines on your screen. You have to remain still for about a second, but soon RedLaser beeps, indicating it has scanned the code. Once scanned, you are presented with a list of matches from various stores so you can find the best price.

I tried RedLaser on a number of products including old game guides, CDs, and books I had lying around, and in almost every case, RedLaser was able to identify the item. The app also saves all your previously scanned items in a list making it easy to check back once you're ready to buy it online or at the store. Overall, if you like to comparison shop or just want to make sure you're getting a good deal when out and about, RedLaser is a fun and useful app to have. Frankly, it's fun just to try to stump RedLaser with the most obscure object you can find.

ATV Offroad ($7.99) is made by 2XL games, the same company that made SuperCross, a motocross racing game I talked about in an earlier post. Not only does ATV Offroad add two more wheels (instead of dirt bikes, you're on four-wheelers), but it adds the feature I and many other reviewers complained Supercross lacked: a career mode. Now, in addition to amazing graphics and excellent physics, you'll be able to race through challenges and multirace competitions to unlock more tracks. There also are freestyle, quick race, and multiplayer modes, but you'll need to be on the same Wi-Fi network to race against your friends.

ATV Offroad sets itself apart from other racing games the second you hit the track with smooth-looking graphics and excellent accelerometer-based controls. You can even pull off huge tricks while in the air by hitting onscreen trick buttons. You can choose between three skill levels, though I found even the medium skill level to be very hard to beat. If you don't like the look of your racer, you can easily switch between multiple ATV designs and different-color leathers with a swipe of your finger before a race. Overall, ATV Offroad adds just the right amount of core features to be the great game SuperCross could have been. If you like off-road racing, I highly recommend this game.

What's your favorite iPhone app? Have you priced all the products in your house with RedLaser yet? Do you think the addition of the career mode makes ATV Offroad the dirt racing game to beat at the iTunes store? Is your iPhone jailbroken? Let me know in the comments!

Apple released an update today for iPhone which addresses some issues and fixes some crashes in specific situations. According to Apple, iPhone 3.1.2 resolves a sporadic issue that may cause the iPhone to not wake from sleep; an intermittent issue that may interrupt cellular network services until restart; and fixes a bug that could cause an occasional crash during video streaming. If you've experienced any of these issues (or even if you haven't), make sure to plug your iPhone into iTunes to get the latest update. Be aware that the update is over 200MB so will probably take some time to get through the process. When you're done, come back and check out my latest apps!

This week's apps are both games, with an American football skills challenge type of game, and a long-awaited soccer (football) game with unique onscreen controls to pull off advanced moves.

Backbreaker Football (99 cents for a limited time) is not a "complete" football game like Madden 2010 or NFL 2010, but instead focuses on the challenge of running around defenders to make touchdowns. Control your runner by tilting your phone--forward to run and left and right to turn. Onscreen buttons give you a variety of moves to make defenders miss including right and left juke moves, spin moves, and a turbo button to break free for the touchdown. There's also a showboat button so you can high-step into the end zone. Each move has a certain point value and when you string moves together (or showboat for more yards before the endzone) you get more points to add to your score.

The great thing about Backbreaker Football is that it doesn't take an enormous amount of time to play a few waves (running the distance of the field), so it's easy to get some quick playing time in. You get two game modes including Challenge and Endurance. Each challenge round lasts 10 waves as you try to get past defenders to score touchdowns. As you progress, red lines will block out parts of the field forcing you to dodge defenders within a smaller space. The Endurance mode has you run through wave after wave (50 waves) with an ever increasing number of defenders and difficulty. Get high scores to unlock extra items like different uniforms and new touchdown celebrations. Overall, if you're looking for an American football game minus the need to play an entire game or sift through giant playbooks, Backbreaker Football offers enough football action to be a lot of fun.

FIFA 10 ($9.99) is mostly a great soccer game, letting you play full games in exhibition and tournament modes and offers a control scheme that's fairly effective once you get the hang of it. You can play as the whole team (with the player switch occuring once a player receives the ball or with a button on defense) or you can play the "Be a Pro" mode to control and advance a single player on the team. The biggest strength of FIFA 10 certainly is that you can play any of 570 teams across 30 leagues with a total of 12,620 players, each with their own skill set. This amazing amount of team choice will appeal to hardcore soccer fans because you'll likely be able to play your favorite team, no matter how obscure.

FIFA 10 for iPhone obviously follows a long line of console soccer games (of which I've played many) and while it does a fairly good job, the control system can be difficult to master. You get buttons for passing and shooting, but to pull off more advanced moves like through passes or slide tackles, you need to hit multiple buttons in succession (A to B to A, for example). It takes some getting used to and you won't be able to pull off some moves every time simply because of the lack of physical buttons, but I found it to be effective with some practice. Overall, FIFA 10 satisfies the need to get in a game of soccer, and even without all the extras of console versions, offers enough to be worth the money for soccer fans.

What are your favorite iPhone apps? Does Backbreaker Football have enough features to be your favorite football game? Is FIFA 10 the soccer game you've been waiting for? Do you know how hard it was to decide how to differentiate between the two sports without offending fans here at home or abroad? Let me know in the comments!

Back in March I wrote about a skee-ball-type game called 10-balls 7 cups that was surprisingly fun. It had great sounds and graphics, and the gameplay consisted of a flick of your finger to send the ball down the alley and a tilt of your iPhone to redirect the ball into the cups. I said at the time that the only problem I had with this simple yet fun game was that the silly prizes you could buy at the end with your points didn't have pictures.

I just received word that longtime Mac gaming publisher Freeverse has gotten onboard with this unique title (and apparently worked out the licensing) to publish an upgraded version, appropriately named Skee-Ball (99 cents). Some flashier graphics have been added, but for the most part the gameplay remains the same with a couple of notable changes. You can now buy custom balls with your points; challenge friends and view score tracking, achievements, and leader-boards on the Plus network; and they've added an entirely new prize system with (you guessed it) pictures of every prize in a nice-looking loot room. Though not as involved as some of the other games I review here, this latest version of Skee-Ball is a great casual game to kill time and collect funny prizes.

This week's apps include a new image capture app and a 2D survival shooter with all the right stuff to keep you playing for a long time.

Snapture ($1.99) offers a unique way to take pictures with your iPhone with some added features to make sure you get the perfect shot. Instead of a button at the bottom of the interface like the iPhone's regular camera, you can simply touch anywhere onscreen to take a shot. An onscreen level aid helps you make sure your shot is perfectly level. You can choose between four image sizes (800x600, 1,280x960, 1,600x1,200, or 2,048x1,536) before you take your picture. The zooming feature lets you reverse-pinch to zoom up to 5x. You can also toggle between single shot or multiple shots so you can take three consecutive pictures with only one touch of the screen. When you're done, you can quickly send your picture to a friend with an integrated e-mail option or just save the picture to your photo library; images are only saved when you're happy with the shot.

I think part of the charm of Snapture is the unique interface. Once you take a photo (or multiple photos) the last four shots show up as thumbnails on the left side of the screen. You can touch and hold a thumbnail to make it zoom to its original size (with a smooth animation) or you can slide the image across the screen to bring up options for e-mailing or deleting the image. The zooming feature is also a nice touch, letting you pinch or reverse-pinch to zoom to just the amount you need. Overall, Snapture might be a little too precise for regular picture taking, but if you really want to perfect specific shots, this app has some nice features to help you make it happen.

Meteor Blitz ($1.99) is a challenging 2D survival shooter arcade game with smooth graphics, tons of cool power-ups, and great gameplay. Like many games of this type on the iPhone, Meteor Blitz uses dual onscreen joysticks, with the left one to move your ship and the right to fire your weapons. A double tap on the left joystick gives you a momentary burst of speed to help you get out of particularly sticky situations. Just over the right joystick is a button to switch between three weapon types: regular cannons, a flame thrower, and ice bullets--all of which can be upgraded by spending rings you collect in the game. Each weapon type is more effective against specific enemies (ice bullets for red meteors, flame thrower for ice meteors, etc.) so knowing how to quickly switch between them becomes part of the challenge as well.

Meteor Blitz has two game types. An arcade mode challenges you to fight your way through several levels of mayhem with a boss at the end of each level. In Survival mode your mission (obviously) is to stay alive as long as possible as more and more aliens and meteors try to take you out. But in addition to the incredibly intense gameplay of both game types, I really liked that I could watch my global ranking rise as I played the game. Knowing where you are in the global high-score list as you play gives you even more incentive to survive the endless onslaught of aliens and different types of meteors. Overall, Meteor Blitz is an excellent game for fans of this classic arcade genre with plenty of power-ups unique enemies to keep you coming back for more.

What's your favorite iPhone app? Do you like the simple, but challenging gameplay of Skee-Ball? Is Snapture the photo-taking app you've been looking for? How high in the global rankings have you gotten in Meteor Blitz? Let me know in the comments!

If you're a strategy gaming type of person, you know there is no shortage of tower defense games in the iTunes Store. It shouldn't be that big of a surprise, I suppose, because the iPhone and iPod Touch touch screens might be the best interface for games of this genre. Using your finger to choose and place towers couldn't be more intuitive. But even with the huge amount of tower defense games, some manage to rise above the rest. One of my apps this week is a sequel to one of the more popular games in the genre, and after having played several rounds, I can tell you it's definitely worth the price for tower defense fans.

This week's apps include a program that lets you control your music library through screen gestures and a new open-field tower defense game.

FluxTunes (99 cents) is a simple but extremely useful app that lets you control your music using onscreen gestures. Simply start up FluxTunes and you'll have access to your music just like running the iPod, but now you can use a number of different gestures to switch songs, change playlists, and much more.

FluxTunes is particularly useful when you don't have time to go through the regular controls such as while driving or when you have it in a shoulder strap while working out. Touch and drag your finger up or down to raise or lower the volume. A swipe to the right or left skips to the next song or skips to the previous song. A two finger swipe to the left or right switches between playlists. You also can touch and hold your finger in place to get the full list of available gestures. Anyone who uses their iPhone to play music while driving or those with limited vision will appreciate this simple, but effective new way to interact with your music library.

GeoDefense Swarm (99 cents for a limited time) is the sequel to GeoDefense, the hit tower defense game I wrote about in a previous post. The original game became known as the thinking man's tower defense game, requiring players to work out a strategy for the more challenging levels (and they were very challenging). GeoDefense Swarm continues in this tradition with another very challenging tower defense game, but moves the game from a set-path type of experience to an open-field game where you need to create your own maze of towers for creeps to navigate through.

GeoDefense Swarm has 30 playable levels split between the easy, medium, and hard categories, all offering the same vector-based graphics, pixel bursts, and warp effects found in the original. But now, along with the open-field gameplay in a hexagonal-grid, certain tiles have new properties to make the game even more challenging. Some tiles heal creeps or speed them up, forcing you to develop a strategy to stop creeps before getting to these tiles. Another type of tile can only be used by creeps, requiring you to work-around these tiles while trying to slow their path to the goal.

Along with the new maps and tile types, you get a new tower to experiment with as well. Called the Thumper, the new purple tower gives off waves of damage in its immediate area. Upgrades to the Thumper increase the damage and add a higher frequency of waves. Overall, GeoDefense Swarm is an excellent followup to the original game, but just like the original, might be better suited to those with a lot of experience in the genre or at least a high threshold for frustration.

What's your favorite iPhone app? Are you happy to finally find an app that lets you switch songs easily while doing other things? Is GeoDefense Swarm too hard for its own good? let me know in the comments!

Have you updated your iPhone to version 3.1 yet? Among the fixes and feature enhancements in the latest update, Apple added the Genius feature (formerly found in iTunes) to the App Store. Like its iTunes counterpart, Genius for iPhone apps looks at the apps you have on your iPhone and makes recommendations for apps you might like. I should point out that you need to digitally agree to Apple's terms and conditions, which you should read carefully before turning the feature on. The potentially objectionable part (that I have no objection to) is that Apple will track information, like which apps I use most and how long I use them, to make future recommendations.

With the app store now boasting more than 75,000 apps, this feature might be a good way to find stuff you like without having to sift through everything. If you're OK with the terms and conditions, check it out and let me know what you think in the comments.

This week's apps include an app that's a whole suite of useful tools and the football game that everyone has been waiting for.

AppBox Pro (99 cents for a limited time) gives you a whole slew of apps that cover basic functions like a Flashlight, a unit converter, and a tip calculator. In all there are 21 apps included in the suite and each is well made. There is nothing particularly flashy here, but there are plenty of useful items that just about everyone will need at one time or another. For 99 cents, AppBox Pro is a no-brainer.

To list some of the applications in the suite, there is a Battery Life app, to tell you how much battery time you have left based on whether your talking on the phone, playing games, or listening to music. You get a nice looking Clinometer (level) tool to help you hang pictures or perfect your home building project. For those who like to travel, there is a Currency Converter so you know you're spending the right amount on an item, for example, and you also get a Translator (for several different languages) so you can haggle the price. The System Info app shows you what is using up memory on your iPhone and lets you know how much space is left on your hard drive. You also get a few Web-based apps including Google Books, which will let you browse and read books from an enormous database. Overall, getting a huge suite of well-made apps for 99 cents is a steal. Grab it quick before the price goes up.

Madden NFL 10 is finally here and I'm glad I told football fans to wait when I talked about NFL 2010 in an earlier post. Though the two games are pretty similar and NFL 2010 is still a worthy purchase, Madden NFL 10 offers smoother graphics and overall, better gameplay. Madden NFL 10 is fully licensed by the NFL just like the other game, so you get all of the NFL teams and every NFL player that's on each roster. Like NFL 2010, you control your player with an onscreen joystick, but instead of the contextual buttons that would put the game in a sort of bullet-time (slow motion) in NFL 2010, Madden always gives you the option to go into bullet-time, with more options for moves once the game has slowed down. Madden also has a button to give you a burst of speed that works great for getting out of tight situations.

It's difficult to describe how Madden NFL 10 is better than the NFL 2010 because many of the game mechanics are similar. It might be the smoother graphics, or it might be that the control system somehow feels more accurate. Whatever it is, Madden NFL 10 just feels more immersive; like I'm actually a part of the game. Both have enormous playbooks, both use similar controls, and both let you play through seasons, right up to the Super Bowl. But playing Madden NFL 10 is definitely closer to a platform experience and stands out as the better game. If you waited to find out which was the better football game for the iPhone, I highly recommend Madden NFL 10. It also doesn't hurt that John Madden makes comments on some plays--it's hard not to like that old pro.

What is your favorite iPhone app? Do you think the added Genius support for iPhone apps is truly genius? Have you tried out AppBox Pro? Do you have both football games and disagree that Madden is the better choice? Let me know in the comments!

Apple recently announced that September 9 will be the date of their 2009 iPod event. For the past four years, Apple has hosted these events in San Francisco to unveil its latest generation of iPods. This year, there has been much speculation at rumor sites that Apple will introduce camera capabilities to its iPod Nano and iPod Touch media players. Many sites are also posting that we will see iTunes 9 with rumored social networking features. As with all things Apple, you can never know what its going to announce at the event, but as we get closer to September 9, check our Download blog for the latest rumors.

Both of this week's apps are games. The first app is a close remake of a physics-based motocross Flash game, and the second game is a new survival shooter with RPG elements to keep you playing.

Moto X Mayhem (99 cents) is a fun physics-based side-scrolling game that's been popular at the iTunes store in recent weeks, but I've been reluctant to write about it. In the game, you use your accelerometer to lean forward or back, and press the screen to accelerate as you navigate your way through a 2D course. You get five lives to try to complete seven different courses in a row to finish the game. The graphics are cartoon-smooth and the controls are excellent, but once you've played a few games, you'll be able to finish fairly easily.

I was reluctant to write about this game because I used to play what I assume was the original--a free game called TG Motocross--at Teagames.com a couple of years ago. At the time, I was obsessed with getting the best times and thought it was a great free time waster (and so was the sequel), but now that it's on the iPhone, I feel as if it isn't enough. Teagames hasn't had any new games for quite awhile, so maybe this iPhone game is its new endeavor. In any case, Moto X Mayhem is quite a good game, but if it added more levels or a way to pull off tricks, I would feel better recommending it at 99 cents. I guess the good news is that you can try it online before you buy.

Alive4Ever is part survival shooter and part RPG in which you'll fight off zombies using onscreen joysticks. It's similar to iDracula: Undead Awakening, a survival shooter game I've reviewed here before, but adds several new elements to make it even better. In Alive4Ever, you choose between four characters with varying strengths and weaknesses, and you play through 30 missions of increasingly hard zombie mayhem. When you're low on health or ammo, you can often fight your way to pickups to replenish your supplies. As you complete missions, you'll earn experience to increase your character's capabilities and extra cash to buy new and more powerful weapons.

While it is a top-down 2D survival shooter, Alive4Ever also borrows a lot of elements from Left4Dead (yes, even the name is similar), the 2008 game-of-the-year first person shooter from Valve. There are four characters to choose from and even some of the zombie characters resemble those in the popular PC game. But probably the best element borrowed from Left4Dead is the capability to play co-op multiplayer over a Bluetooth connection with your friends. We tried it here in the office with a couple of iPhones and had a great time working together to stay alive as long as possible. Overall, Alive4Ever is an excellent and well thought-out app that combines good elements of two popular games to make probably the best survival shooter for iPhone. One word of warning: it can get quite bloody so it might not be right for the whole family.

What's your favorite iPhone app? Is Moto X Mayhem just fine the way it is or do you agree with me that there should be more? What do you think of Alive4Ever? Let me know in the comments!