It’s the weekend, people, so prime your downloading finger and get ready to make good use of it as I guide you through the latest picks from the App Store.

Thanks to the release of OS 3.0 and the iPhone 3GS, there’s been a constant stream of Apple happenings. Before we get to the apps, let’s take a glance at the week’s news.

First up, good news and bad for the iPhone 3GS’s new video functionality. The bad news is that keen eared early adopting customers have discovered a high-pitched whining noise on their iPhone 3GS video footage.

However, the incessant whining (of the 3GS, as opposed to disgruntled amateur video makers) hasn’t stopped video uploads to YouTube, direct from the iPhone. Just six days into the device’s release and YouTube has seen a surge of 400 percent in daily mobile uploads, attributed directly to the iPhone 3GS.

With the official release of OS 3.0 also came an updated jailbreaking tool, enabling upgraded users to install non-Apple certified software on their device. I tested the jailbreak software earlier this week and, although it was surprisingly user-friendly, I couldn’t find a good reason to keep it: My iPhone now has copy/paste, tethering and more, straight out the box.

Speaking of tethering, Bryan Schuetz, one of our new arrivals at TheAppleBlog, posted a link to an excellent guide on how to activate tethering on your iPhone. I managed to test out tethering yesterday and had mixed results; it worked perfectly initially, until an hour in when I lost my data connection entirely. It makes me wonder if some carriers will be on the lookout for illegitimate tethering and throttle bandwidth accordingly.

Our own Sultan of Statistics and Maestro of Economic Mathematics, Darrell Etherington, posted news featuring a rather large and impressive number this week. Indeed, Etherington revealed that an utterly unprecedented 1 million 3GS iPhones were purchased during the first week of the device’s release.

And finally, Apple hasn’t been the only ones launching awesome, new products into the consumer nether. British dev studio UsTwo has updated MouthOff, a sound-reactive mouth toy, for iPhone. The MouthOff Signature series includes a selection of 37 weird mouths, including 12 specially commissioned mouths by artists including Jon Burgerman, Pete Fowler and, my fave, Mikko Walamies, the artist behind Rolando’s gorgeous graphics.

Check out the vid I tweeted of the app in action and, if you decide you want to get a new mouth on with MouthOff, then you can win a free promo code for the app. Simply leave a comment at the end of this post telling me why you should get your MouthOff to be in with a chance of winning.

Moving onto the picks, this week I’ve been looking at Jukebox, App Gmail, Star Defense and Taxiball.

Jukebox (99 cents)
My favorite feature back on those early iPods was the music quiz. With an ever-expanding collection of digital music, I loved to test my muso abilities with the Name That Tune-style game bundled with the iPod, courtesy of Apple. Come the release of the iPod touch and iPhone, the game was curiously absent from the new devices — despite the potential for an even-more muso-centric gaming experience. That is until now, thanks to the iPhone’s new 3.0 update, giving developers access to the music library. Jukebox is a gorgeous implementation of this old game, incorporating album artwork and custom gaming modes.

App Gmail (Free)
Apple’s own Mail for iPhone might do the job, but in the meantime, Google has been squeezing a raft of new features and improvements into its Gmail web app for iPhone. Navigational elements have been tweaked, making it easier to skim and sort messages, but the real head-turning feature is offline Gmail, via the web app. All well and good, but there’s still no dedicated app for Gmail, making accessing the web app via Safari feel a tad sloppy. App Gmail meets us halfway to solve the issue — embedding the Gmail web app within the app itself — ridding us of the Safari interface elements. It’s still not an official, dedicated app, but it’ll do the job for now and it’s free.

Star Defense ($5.99)
It may have come out earlier this month, but Star Defense is only just coming into it’s own, thanks to the iPhone OS 3.0 update. The game itself is traditional tower defense given a graphical overhaul — the game features all the usual staples of the genre — multiple towers, waves of baddies — but the 3D graphics and Mario Galaxy-esque palm-size planets make it a thrilling experience. The 3.0 update integrates ngmoco’s Plus+ network. Think of it like the iPhone’s version of Xbox Live, which means multiplayer mode, challenging your friends and gamer points. What’s more, if a friend issues you a challenge, the game sends you a push notification.

Taxiball ($2.99)
As a student, sharing a house with a bunch of messy guys, we’d settle cleaning disputes with a game of Virtua Tennis on Sega’s Dreamcast. The console, sadly, died a premature death, criminally under-appreciated for what it was and the games it offered. Aside from Virtua Tennis, one of my other favorite Dreamcast games was Crazy Taxi. For those who aren’t familiar, driving your cab against the clock, you had to race across town delivering folk where they needed to go. It was massive, thrilling, looked gorgeous, and played like GTA without the constant death or Good Fellas voiceovers. With that in mind, Taxiball replaces the taxi with a big, yellow ball and brings the game to the iPhone. It’s frantic and moreish, well worth checking out.

That’s all the picks for this week. I’ll be back in seven days with more news from the week and picks from the App Store.

In the meantime, what apps have you been using this week?

Mixing neon visuals and techno music with top-down shooting action and inertia-based movement, circuit_strike.one pushes the limits of Apple hardware, and possibly the patience of the casual gamer.

Setting

The player is pilot of a virtual ship that hacks network nodes, in a stylized metaphor for a computer network. A mission is completed by destroying a shield generator protecting the data core, then by destroying the data core itself. Against the player are enemies rendered as wireframe polyhedrons, attacking by ramming and/or shooting the player’s ship.

Player firing laser and missing badly

An animation sequence follows loading, complete with an ancient modem sounding over a phone line, which is a nice touch. There’s a lot of that in circuit_strike.one. Die, and you are mocked in l33t speak. Attacking enemies pulse to the bass of the background music. The graphics are lavish: transparent overlays, trailing, lens flares, a visual experience designed as much to impress as to kill with distraction, as if the game wasn’t good at that already.

Controls

Basic control scheme

Everything about circuit_strike.one is deceptively easy to understand. The zoomed playing field is a wraparound with the shielded data core located in the center. You rotate the ship using the thumb-control on the left. Fire button is on the right. Tapping accelerates the ship, while swiping downward brakes. Braking is crucial because movement is inertia-based, though a ship in motion will not remain in motion forever. It feels not so much like flying through space, as sliding across ice, but the learning curve is steep. Here are a few tips.

• Don’t move. Seriously, that’s the most important advice for beginners. New players should practice turning the ship and firing at enemies before ever using thrusters.
• Tap, then swipe. That’s the way to learn moving and stopping the ship.
• Chasing powerups is a good way to learn basic movement.
• Intermediate movement begins with thrusting forward, spinning the ship and shooting back along the flight path.
• Learning to circle enemies by rotating the ship and thrusting, while strafing, too, is an advanced technique (at least for me).

Two enemies, ship, green Ghost Data

Gameplay

The main form of enemy attack is ramming the player’s ship. Enemies differ in that some are fast, some slow, some take multiple shots to kill, some split into more enemies or swarm, and at least one shoots back. One other common characteristic is that destroyed enemies leave behind Ghost Data, and Ghost Data means Bullet Time.

Bullet Time, 1.83 seconds left

By shaking the device, the player can induce a kind of slow-motion mode of play. While the player’s ship speed remains constant, enemies are perceptibly slow. In addition, the player’s ship becomes temporarily invulnerable, and that’s an invaluable feature for completing the level.

Top left, Shield Generator, bottom left, Turret, center, Imminent Death

Shield generators are defended by stationary turrets which track the player’s ship and shoot projectiles. While taking out the turret is not required to destroy the shield generator, it’s a good idea. However, it’s also a good idea to do so without using Bullet Time.

Data Core, top left, overlaid by timer, 4.04 seconds left

Once all the shield generators are destroyed, the data core, which is located in the center of the playing field, is vulnerable. It will take several seconds of constant fire before the data core is destroyed and the level completed. This is the best use of Bullet Time, as it also slows the self-destruct timer. Advancing to the next level means more enemies, more shield generators, and less time to destroy the Data Core. That’s circuit_strike.one, and that’s why I hate it.

Summing Up: Silver Rating

I hate circuit_strike.one, and that’s the highest compliment that I can pay any game. It’s the kind of hate that brings me back again and again to try to beat it — not play it. That is the difference between “hardcore” and “casual” gaming for me, and that’s why circuit_strike.one may not be for everyone. There’s also the occasional freezing glitch during play, most likely from my iPhone 3G receiving a beat down rendering the visuals. I contacted the developer, and an update will be forthcoming. It addresses memory overhead and allows the player to reduce visuals and other CPU-intensive settings.

At 99 cents, it’s not about the money, but your time. Whether or not you want to make the kind of investment required to play circuit_strike.one comes down to how much of a challenge you are looking for. I strongly recommend finding out.

It’s the weekend people, so prime your downloading finger and get ready to make good use of it as I guide you through the latest picks from the App Store.

Thanks to the release of OS 3.0 and the iPhone 3GS, there’s been a constant stream of Apple happenings. Before we get to the apps, let’s take a glance at the week’s news.

First up, good news and bad for the iPhone 3GS’s new video functionality. The bad news is that keen eared early-adopting customers have discovered a high-pitched whining noise on their iPhone 3GS video footage.

However, the incessant whining (of the 3GS, as opposed to disgruntled amateur video-makers) hasn’t stopped video uploads to YouTube, direct from the iPhone. Just six days in to the device’s release and YouTube has seen a surge of 400 percent in daily mobile uploads, attributed directly to the iPhone 3GS.

With the official release of OS 3.0 also came an updated jailbreaking tool, enabling upgraded users to install non-Apple certified software on their device. I tested the jailbreak software earlier this week and, although it was surprisingly user-friendly, I couldn’t find a good reason to keep it: my iPhone now has copy/paste, tethering and more, straight out the box.

Speaking of tethering, Bryan Schuetz, one of our new arrivals at TheAppleBlog, posted a link to an excellent guide on how to activate tethering on your iPhone. I managed to test out tethering yesterday and had mixed results, it worked perfectly initially, until an hour in when I lost my data connection entirely. It makes me wonder if some carriers will be on the look out for illegitimate tethering and throttle bandwidth accordingly.

Our own Sultan of Statistics and Maestro of Economic Mathematics, Darrell Etherington, posted news featuring a rather large and impressive number this week. Indeed, Etherington revealed that an utterly unprecedented 1 million 3GS iPhone’s have been purchased during the first week of the device’s release.

And finally, Apple hasn’t been the only ones launching awesome new products in to the consumer nether. British dev studio UsTwo have updated MouthOff, a sound-reactive mouth toy, for iPhone. The MouthOff Signature series includes a selection of 37 weird mouths, including 12 specially commissioned mouths by artists including Jon Burgerman, Pete Fowler and, my fave, Mikko Walamies, the artist behind Rolando’s gorgeous graphics.

Check out the vid I tweeted of the app in action and, if you’ve decide you want to get a new mouth on with MouthOff, then you can win a free promo code for the app. Simply leave a comment at the end of this post telling me why you should get your MouthOff to be in with a chance of winning.

Moving on to the picks, this week I’ve been looking at Jukebox, App Gmail, Star Defense and Taxiball.

Jukebox (99 cents)
My favorite feature back on those early iPods was the music quiz. With an ever-expanding collection of digital music, I loved to test my muso abilities with the Name That Tune-style game bundled with the iPod, courtesy of Apple. Come the release of the iPod touch and iPhone, the game was curiously absent from the new devices — despite the potential for an even-more muso-centric gaming experience. That is until now, thanks the iPhone’s new 3.0 update gives developers access to the music library. Jukebox is a gorgeous implementation of this old game, incorporating album artwork and custom gaming modes.

App Gmail (Free)
Apple’s own Mail for iPhone might do the job, but in the meantime Google has been squeezing a raft of new features and improvements into their Gmail web app for iPhone. Navigational elements have been tweaked, making it easier to skim and sort messages, but the real head-turning feature is offline Gmail, via the web app. All well and good, but there’s still no dedicated app for Gmail, making accessing the web app via Safari feel a tad sloppy. App Gmail meets us halfway to solve the issue — embedding the Gmail web app within the app itself — ridding us of the Safari interface elements. It’s still not an official, dedicated app, but it’ll do the job for now and it’s free.

Star Defense ($5.99)
It may have come out earlier this month, but Star Defense is only just coming in to it’s own thanks to the iPhone OS 3.0 update. The game itself is traditional tower defense given a graphical overhaul — the game features all the usual staples of the genre — multiple towers, waves of baddies — but the 3D graphics and Mario Galaxy-esque palm-size planets make it a thrilling experience. The 3.0 update integrates ngmoco’s Plus+ network. Think of it like the iPhone’s version of Xbox Live, which means multiplayer mode, challenging your friends and gamer points. What’s more, if a friend issues you a challenge, the game sends you a push notification.

Taxiball ($2.99)
As a student, sharing a house with a bunch of messy guys, we’d settle cleaning disputes with a game of Virtua Tennis on Sega’s Dreamcast. The console, sadly, died a premature death, criminally under-appreciated for what it was and the game’s it offered. Aside from Virtua Tennis, one of my other favorite Dreamcast games was Crazy Taxi. For those who aren’t familiar, driving your cab against the clock, you had to race across town delivering folk where they needed to go. It was massive, thrilling, looked gorgeous and played like GTA without the constant death or Good Fellas voiceovers. With that in mind, Taxiball replaces the taxi with a big yellow ball and brings the game to iPhone. It’s frantic and moreish, well worth checking out.

That’s all the picks for this week. I’ll be back in seven days with more news from the week and picks from the App Store.

In the meantime, what apps have you been using this week?

Mixing neon visuals and techno music with top-down shooting action and inertia-based movement, circuit_strike.one pushes the limits of Apple hardware, and possibly the patience of the casual gamer.

Setting

The player is pilot of a virtual ship that hacks network nodes, in a stylized metaphor for a computer network. A mission is completed by destroying a shield generator protecting the data core, then by destroying the data core itself. Against the player are enemies rendered as wireframe polyhedrons, attacking by ramming and/or shooting the player’s ship.

Player firing laser and missing badly

An animation sequence follows loading, complete with an ancient modem sounding over a phone line, which is a nice touch. There’s a lot of that in circuit_strike.one. Die, and you are mocked in l33t speak. Attacking enemies pulse to the bass of the background music. The graphics are lavish: transparent overlays, trailing, lens flares, a visual experience designed as much to impress as to kill with distraction, as if the game wasn’t good at that already.

Controls

Basic control scheme

Everything about circuit_strike.one is deceptively easy to understand. The zoomed playing field is a wraparound with the shielded data core located in the center. You rotate the ship using the thumb-control on the left. Fire button is on the right. Tapping accelerates the ship, while swiping downward brakes. Braking is crucial because movement is inertia-based, though a ship in motion will not remain in motion forever. It feels not so much like flying through space, as sliding across ice, but the learning curve is steep. Here are a few tips.

• Don’t move. Seriously, that’s the most important advice for beginners. New players should practice turning the ship and firing at enemies before ever using thrusters.
• Tap, then swipe. That’s the way to learn moving and stopping the ship.
• Chasing powerups is a good way to learn basic movement.
• Intermediate movement begins with thrusting forward, spinning the ship and shooting back along the flight path.
• Learning to circle enemies by rotating the ship and thrusting, while strafing, too, is an advanced technique (at least for me).

Two enemies, ship, green Ghost Data

Gameplay

The main form of enemy attack is ramming the player’s ship. Enemies differ in that some are fast, some slow, some take multiple shots to kill, some split into more enemies or swarm, and at least one shoots back. One other common characteristic is that destroyed enemies leave behind Ghost Data, and Ghost Data means Bullet Time.

Bullet Time, 1.83 seconds left

By shaking the device, the player can induce a kind of slow-motion mode of play. While the player’s ship speed remains constant, enemies are perceptibly slow. In addition, the player’s ship becomes temporarily invulnerable, and that’s an invaluable feature for completing the level.

Top left, Shield Generator, bottom left, Turret, center, Imminent Death

Shield generators are defended by stationary turrets which track the player’s ship and shoot projectiles. While taking out the turret is not required to destroy the shield generator, it’s a good idea. However, it’s also a good idea to do so without using Bullet Time.

Data Core, top left, overlaid by timer, 4.04 seconds left

Once all the shield generators are destroyed, the data core, which is located in the center of the playing field, is vulnerable. It will take several seconds of constant fire before the data core is destroyed and the level completed. This is the best use of Bullet Time, as it also slows the self-destruct timer. Advancing to the next level means more enemies, more shield generators, and less time to destroy the Data Core. That’s circuit_strike.one, and that’s why I hate it.

Summing Up: Silver Rating

I hate circuit_strike.one, and that’s the highest compliment that I can pay any game. It’s the kind of hate that brings me back again and again to try to beat it — not play it. That is the difference between “hardcore” and “casual” gaming for me, and that’s why circuit_strike.one may not be for everyone. There’s also the occasional freezing glitch during play, most likely from my iPhone 3G receiving a beat down rendering the visuals. I contacted the developer, and an update will be forthcoming. It addresses memory overhead and allows the player to reduce visuals and other CPU-intensive settings.

At 99 cents, it’s not about the money, but your time. Whether or not you want to make the kind of investment required to play circuit_strike.one comes down to how much of a challenge you are looking for. I strongly recommend finding out.

Support is growing for some kind of ratings system for the games found in Apple’s App Store for its iPhone and iPod touch platform. Adding its voice to those already calling for ratings implementation, including the ESA and the ESRB, is the National Institute on Media and the Family (NIMF), a not-for-profit organization dedicated to “watch[ing] what our kids watch,” or basically conducting research on the effects (both positive and negative) of media on children.

Unlike the ESRB, which, as at least one commenter pointed out in a previous post, may have a vested interest in pushing Apple to adopt its ratings system, NIMF simply wants some kind of ratings system in place to protect children, but not necessarily an ESRB-controlled solution.

Letting someone else handle App Store ratings would take a big bite out of the ESRB’s dominance of electronic game rating authority, which currently extends to all major platforms. The one exception are Microsoft’s Community Games (soon to be renamed “Indie Games”), which receive a rating as part of a peer review process. These ratings don’t work with the Xbox’s automated content blockers, but they do come in handy if you’re using parental discretion instead of locking down your console.

For its part, the ESRB is still pushing to provide ratings for the platform, arguing to everyone and no one in particular over the weekend that not only can it scale to deal with the massive influx of work rating every single iPhone game would entail, but that it can do so at a cost that isn’t prohibitive to Apple and its development partners. That’s possible, according to the organization, since its usual fee gets discounted up to 80 percent for any game that costs less than $250,000 to develop, which represents a fair chunk of the App Store crowd.

It also claims that any suggestions that it may be after Apple for the considerable cash it would bring in are unfounded. Instead, speaking to Kotaku, it discusses its “actual” motivation:

Apple’s integration of ESRB ratings into its parental controls for iPhone games would afford parents the ability to block those video games that carry an ESRB rating utilizing the same tool they are being offered to block video content that has been rated by the MPAA or carries an official TV rating.

For what it’s worth, I don’t think the organization cash-motivated in this instance, either. But its eagerness to answer objections raised not by Apple, but by forum posters and online tech writers, is a clear indication that it’s afraid of losing relevance if Apple bypasses it and implements a solution of its own. Still, there is something to be said for cross-platform standardization, in terms of helping parents out when interpreting ratings. Whatever the outcome, this could be a watershed moment in how game content is rated and controlled.

You may or may not have noticed that among the new features coming in iPhone OS 3.0, due June 17, are parental control settings that prevent users from downloading audio and video material from the iPhone store that comes in above a certain rating, determined by whomever sets the iPhone’s content filtering password. My money’s on tech-savvy teens finding the settings pane and creating a password before their parents even hear about the feature.

One of the problems with the system, considering the current set-up of the iTunes’ store, is that game content is not rated like movie and music is, so if no further changes are made, the filter won’t prevent kids from downloading any game they want. The Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) would like to do what they already do best, and help make sure that doesn’t happen.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: There is a restrictions pane that applies to apps in iPhone OS 3.0, so in theory Apple is working to implement their own ratings system in order to allow exactly the kind of filtering the ESRB is looking for. Not so. Apple’s standards have yet to be revealed or discussed, and the exact criteria probably won’t be open for public scrutiny even once it does go into effect.

The nice thing about the ESRB is that if nothing else, it is consistent. It has standards (it’s right there in the name!) that have been tried and tested via actual lived experience in the field. You may disagree with some of the metrics they use to determine what qualifies a game as rated “M” for mature, for instance, but at least you know why a game got that rating. And ESRB standards are subject to change as social mores evolve and change.

For Apple, allowing the ESRB to take control of game ratings makes sense for a couple of very good reasons. First, they won’t have to deal with an onslaught of negative press and the hurt feelings of spurned developers whenever an app is rejected for being in poor taste or receives a highly restrictive rating. Second, they can probably redirect the work hours they save as a result of not worrying so much about the nature of content to making sure that apps meet more important quality and polish standards. It’d be nice not to install so much alpha- and beta-quality software based on the assumption that developers will fix bugs in upcoming iterations.

The ESRB isn’t the only one that wants this to go down, either. The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) wants to see the same thing happen. ESA CEO Michael Gallagher called for iPhone game ratings while speaking to reporters recently. At this point, I think it’s an inevitability, but there’s still the matter of how it gets implemented. My vote is for bringing in the ESRB, since this is exactly their expertise. What do you think should happen?

You may or may not have noticed that among the new features coming in iPhone OS 3.0, due June 17, are parental control settings that prevent users from downloading audio and video material from the iPhone store that comes in above a certain rating, determined by whomever sets the iPhone’s content filtering password. My money’s on tech-savvy teens finding the settings pane and creating a password before their parents even hear about the feature.

One of the problems with the system, considering the current set-up of the iTunes’ store, is that game content is not rated like movie and music is, so if no further changes are made, the filter won’t prevent kids from downloading any game they want. The Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) would like to do what they already do best, and help make sure that doesn’t happen.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: There is a restrictions pane that applies to apps in iPhone OS 3.0, so in theory Apple is working to implement their own ratings system in order to allow exactly the kind of filtering the ESRB is looking for. Not so. Apple’s standards have yet to be revealed or discussed, and the exact criteria probably won’t be open for public scrutiny even once it does go into effect.

The nice thing about the ESRB is that if nothing else, it is consistent. It has standards (it’s right there in the name!) that have been tried and tested via actual lived experience in the field. You may disagree with some of the metrics they use to determine what qualifies a game as rated “M” for mature, for instance, but at least you know why a game got that rating. And ESRB standards are subject to change as social mores evolve and change.

For Apple, allowing the ESRB to take control of game ratings makes sense for a couple of very good reasons. First, they won’t have to deal with an onslaught of negative press and the hurt feelings of spurned developers whenever an app is rejected for being in poor taste or receives a highly restrictive rating. Second, they can probably redirect the work hours they save as a result of not worrying so much about the nature of content to making sure that apps meet more important quality and polish standards. It’d be nice not to install so much alpha- and beta-quality software based on the assumption that developers will fix bugs in upcoming iterations.

The ESRB isn’t the only one that wants this to go down, either. The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) wants to see the same thing happen. ESA CEO Michael Gallagher called for iPhone game ratings while speaking to reporters recently. At this point, I think it’s an inevitability, but there’s still the matter of how it gets implemented. My vote is for bringing in the ESRB, since this is exactly their expertise. What do you think should happen?

Gallery: Parachute Panic

Just when you thought the weekend couldn’t get any better, along comes a selection of the freshest picks from the App Store.

This week I’ve selected four playful picks for you to toy with over the weekend. It’s not all fun and games, though, as before we get to the apps, I’ve got a roundup of the week’s news.

Another week closer to the release of the iPhone 3.0 update means another leaked addition to the new OS. This time, Apple is bringing video purchasing to the iPhone. All well and good, but I can’t imagine how downloading a 2GB movie is going to work over 3G.

Our own Nick Santilli procured a selection of apps that raise the potential for photos taken with the iPhone’s camera. It’s essential reading for iPhone owners who are disappointed with the device’s awful camera. My pick of the bunch is QuadCamera — it makes shooting with the iPhone fun again.

The iPhone made the front cover of The New Yorker this week, though not in the way you might expect. Using Brushes, a cute little painting app for iPhone, artist Jorge Colombo created the cover illustration for the latest issue. Brushes isn’t exactly a pro-level art package, but it can generate stunning results — budding artists can grab the app for four bucks (it’s currently on offer) and start practicing now.

Tweetie for Mac, the excellent older sibling to the iPhone Twitter client Tweetie, received a fun little upgrade this week. The app now allows video tweeting, via the iSight camera or a quick .mov file drag ‘n’ drop. This article is particularly worth checking out because you get to watch a Twitter video of me, playing Sigur Rós, on the glockenspiel — blog-based musical interludes do not get better than that.

And finally, there could be an Apple game console on the incredibly distant horizon. This is according to the CEO of gaming giant Ubisoft. Frankly, I don’t see it happening, but then who am I to argue with the CEO of the company that brought us Splinter Cell and a refreshed Prince of Persia franchise?

Moving on to the picks, this week I’ve been looking at Space Ace, Light Wars, BeatRider Touch and Drum Tracker.

Space Ace ($4.99)
A quick refresher for readers who may not have come across Space Ace — the game is a gorgeously illustrated animated adventure from the folks behind Dragons Lair. Those who remember the original will be pleased to note that, visually, it’s still as vibrant as ever; however, it’s also just as frustrating in terms of gameplay. The game is essentially one long animation in which you just perform the correct actions at the correct time to keep the story moving forward. Frequently silly, regularly annoying, but it’ll have you coming back time and time again.

Light Wars (99 cents)
One glance at this game and any seasoned gamer will tell you that it’s a direct rip of Geometry Wars — an excellent console mini-game that brings classic messy shoot-em-up Robotron to mind. Light Wars is incredibly fast-paced and frenetic, throwing tron-style nasties at you from all angles as you speed across the vector map, dodging enemy ballistics and racking up insanely high scores. Currently on sale at 99 cents and definitely worth checking out for fans of arcade-style shoot-em-ups.

Beatrider Touch Lite (FREE)
Tap Tap Revenge may be the current king of rhythm-action games on the iPhone, but that shouldn’t stop other titles from trying to topple the game from its well-earned throne. Beatrider Touch incorporates more sliding than tapping, plus it brings something entirely new to the genre — song uploading. Upload your favorite tune and you’re able to play it as a level in Beatrider. The free Lite version supports one song upload, the premium version — retailing at five bucks — lets you upload up to 20.

Drum Tracker ($1.99)
If you’re not in the mood for gaming, but beats are your thing, then Drum Tracker may be the app for you. The developers, a team calling themselves Simple is Beautiful, have squeezed a fully-featured drum machine down into one gorgeous-looking iPhone app. This is a tool that, while it could be tons of fun for anyone looking to toy around with a few beats, could prove useful for electronic music producers on the go. Worth checking out for the more musical readers of TheAppleBlog, especially as it’s priced so competitively for a sound app.

That’s all the picks for this week. I’ll be back in seven days with more news from the week and picks from the App Store.

In the meantime, what apps have you been using this week?