Assassin’s Creed debuted in the iTunes Store for a premium price of $9.99 a copy, but the game can now be had for a price of only $5.99. We previously discussed about this game, which seemed to fit the bill for fans of the also-popular console game.

Siberian Strike made its appearance in the iTunes Store at $5.99 on April 30, 2009. Six days later, it was dropped by a dollar to $4.99. As of this moment, the game is climbing steadily towards the top of the list with a limited time offer of only $0.99 each. An old title resurrected for the modern times, the game features high quality graphics and sound effects. For less than a buck, it’s a steal.

Get both must-have titles from the iTunes Store before they return to their original selling prices.

Assassin’s Creed – $5.99 (iTunes link)
Siberian Strike – $0.99 (iTunes link)

Related Posts

• Discounts Galore – Second Annual New Year’s App Blowout!
• Origin8’s Sentinel Takes Off with Version 1.4 Update
• Coming Soon: Terminator Salvation for iPhone
• Gameloft Releases Assassin’s Creed: Altair’s Chronicles
• Digital Chocolate’s Pictoplay Plus on SALE

Humanities’ war for the planet rages on in the post-apocalyptic future of 2018. Led by resistance leader John Connor, the last remnants of human civilization take their stand against Skynet and its army of Terminators in this highly anticipated Warner Brothers release of the latest installment of the Terminator film franchise: Terminator Salvation.

Get ready to battle it out with the Terminators on your iPhone or iPod touch with this upcoming licensed game from Gameloft. Check out the debut trailer below! Terminator Salvation will be available in the iTunes App Store soon.

Related Posts

• Coming Soon – Origin8’s Sentinel 2: Earth Defense
• Assassin’s Creed and Siberian Strike – On Crazy Sale!
• The Sims 3 – See You on June 2nd, 2009
• Toki Tori Promotion Contest
• Sneak Peek – Handmark’s Phaze for iPhone

Dubbed Assassin’s Creed: Altair’s Chronicles, the game brings up to seven hours of intense stealth, action and puzzle-solving gameplay to the platform.

Assassin’s Creed: Altair’s Chronicles is a direct prequel to the critically acclaimed console hit title, Assassin’s Creed. It promises to deliver all of the excitement and action to an anticipating crowd that is iPhone and iPod touch owners.

In Altair’s Chronicles, you again play the role of Altair, a Master Assassin sent by The Order of Assassins. Your mission this time around is to steal “The Chalice” from the Templars before it is too late, thus bringing an end to the Crusades and restoring peace throughout the land.

Carry out your missions with weapon and character upgrades, a variety of acrobatic combat moves and much more. Choose you fighting tactics based on six weapons (swords, daggers, grappling hook and bombs) for both close-combat and long-range attacks. Skill-based mini-games put your patience and dexterity to the test: perform tasks like pickpocket maneuvers to carefully steal precious items from the crowd and make informants speak. Orbs help upgrade your health and weapons. Altair’s Chronicles lets you immerse yourself in a realistic Medieval Middle East environment intensified by 3D cinematic cut scenes and voice acting.

Assassin’s Creed: Altair’s Chronicles is available from the iTunes App Store at $9.99 a copy and is published by Gameloft.

Related Posts

• Assassin’s Creed and Siberian Strike – On Crazy Sale!
• Coming Soon: Terminator Salvation for iPhone
• Review: Block Breaker Deluxe 2
• Merry Christmas from Gameloft
• Gameloft Releases ‘Hero of Sparta’

Like many other Gameloft titles, this one’s no exception when it comes go graphics and presentation-wise. You get mind-blowing next-gen quality visual effects, smoothly animated bricks, obstacles and explosions. Sound effects are crisp and the soundtrack sets for a blazing mood.

BBD2 comes with eight different environments of play, divided into eight levels each, with the last level being a boss level where the bricks are actually a different sort of puzzle. As with most Gameloft titles, the levels are introduced by good looking gals or hunks.

Playing the game is as simple as any other breakout games. Power ups fall when you hit certain blocks. You have two choices, collect them using your pad as they reach the bottom of the gameplay area, or tap on them to collect them immediately. Gameplay is enhanced, giving you the chance to avoid bad power ups. Some power ups that you collect takes effect immediately, while others may be stored and used later. Slots on the top of the screen shows what power ups are currently active and what you have in store. A progress bar tells you how long the effects remain. As mentioned earlier, you might want to avoid red-colored power ups that do nasty things, such as reducing the speed of the pad, or worst, reducing the size of your balls *gulp*.

Accelerometer use is termed as gravity within the games menu. I’d suggest leaving both options on. They are helpful in their own ways, like controlling the pad simply by tilting the device left or right. Also, some block pieces move when you tilt your device, which helps you when angling the hit. Lastly, when you have a few blocks left, moving the device in a quick forward tilt lets you control the movement of the ball.

There are eight game modes to be unlocked; Endless, Multiplayer, Time Attack, Versus Mode, Crazy Mode, Frenzy, Block Master and Survival. Once unlocked, they are accessible from the main menu’s Game Mode option. I would suggest that you finish the first environment, Neon Rose first as this will unlock the Endless mode. This shall give you an unlimited number of randomly generated levels for the purpose of collecting money, which can be used to purchase upgrades.

Speaking of upgrades, the Shop in the Island allows you to buy power ups that are common in the game. However, you’ll need to earn the credits and collect the required number of stars from the game before an power up is available for purchase.

Multiplayer on this game is achieved thru a single-device hot-seat method. Control is thru opposite sides of the device, made possible thru the iPhone’s multitouch capability. Note that multiplayer is co-operative as both players share the same number of lives given.

Not all games are perfect. I managed to play using the accelerometer only during the early stages of the game. Since I’m not providing input to the game via touch screen taps, the device would automatically switch off, requiring an annoying unlock procedure. Not much of a problem, but may be an annoyance to some. Also, I noticed that the More Games menu (helps Gameloft promote its other games) of the game are sometimes buggy and slow. I have had the game crash on a number of occasions when checking out the other games available. It would be good if there’s an option to delete the More Game menu once I’m done exploring it. After all, it helps to save a little on storage requirements since the game about 42.2 MB in size.

Overall, breakout lovers should give this game a try. It’s one of the best available. Also, the current selling price is only $0.99 as of this writing. The game is compatible with both the iPhone and iPod touch running firmware 2.0 and above.
Rating: 4.0/5.0 Taps

Check out the game by following this iTunes link. Also, be sure to check out other titles by Gameloft.

Related Posts

• Review: World Cup Ping Pong
• Review: F.A.S.T – Fleet Air Superiority Training!
• Review: The Sims 3
• Assassin’s Creed and Siberian Strike – On Crazy Sale!
• Review: The VOID

This week’s release sees titles from EA, Square Enix and Apple themselves. Titles released are, Trivial Pursuit, Crystal Defenders and Chinese Checkers.

EA’s Trivial Pursuit promises to bring the pursuit of happiness to your iPod. Simple to control and play, challenge yourself to about 1,000 questions from categories like entertainment, geography, history and many more. Play either Classic mode and fill up your pie piece-by-piece or go fast-paced in Pursuit mode and challenge the AI. The game is available for $4.99 each via the iTunes Store.

Apple brings Chinese Checkers to iPod click wheel gamers! Enjoy the original board game that everyone’s accustomed in a mobile fashion. Game features stunning looking graphics and easy-to-use controls. Who says the click wheel can’t do wonders for games?. There’s also a pass-and-play multiplayer feature for gaming with up to 5 friends. Choose from a variety of board designs and backgrounds to suit your taste. Chinese Checkers has never been this fun. Check out the game via the iTunes Store for only $0.99 each.

Coming in third is Square Enix’s Crystal Defender. Simply, its a tower-defense game based on characters from Square Enix’s popular Final Fantasy world. Deploy units and fend off encroaching enemy hordes whose main objective is to steal your party’s crystals. The game comes with 200 stages in different iterations of W1 and W2. I assume the W stands for World. In World 1 mode, players get to learn the basics of the game and hone their skills, in preparation for World 2 mode, where bigger and meaner mobs await. Easy-to-learn controls and up-tempo play makes Crystal Defenders a very accessible game for home and mobile alike. Crystal Defenders is available in the iTunes Store for only $4.99 each.

Additionally, last week’s iPod Games update brought us Lode Runner, Wonder Blocks and Reversi by Hudson Soft, Gameloft and Apple respectively. I missed this and didn’t write about it. Here it is.

Classic game Lode Runner comes to the iPod with a twist, thanks to Hudson Soft. Collect goal from each level and escape; simple as that! But its easier said than done when there are hordes of attacking robots coming your way. The game comes with 130 stages of various difficulty: Standard, Expert, Master and Gold Rush. Puzzle mode leaves the robot out of the equation so that you can find the answers to each stage. Get the game from the iTunes Store for only $4.99 each.

New from Gameloft is Wonder Blocks. The game aims to challenge players in block-stacking and precision. Fight against time and instability while trying to get as high a block as possible. The game is based on a theme of building various wonders across the world. Rebuild marvelous wonders like the Egyptian pyramids and the Eifel tower. Be sure to also check out this title, available for the usual $4.99 each.

And lastly, but not least is Apple’s very own classic board game, Reversi. Uniquely, this is the first title to be priced at only $0.99 each. Perhaps Apple would like to trigger developers into lowering the prices of their iPod click wheel titles, pushing for more sales. Similar to Chinese Checkers, the game provides for themes and backgrounds that can be chosen to suit one’s taste. Challenge the iPod in several difficulties, or pass the iPod around and play it with a friend. Reversi by Apple brings gorgeous graphics to the modern version of this classic game. Give it a go for only $.099 each via the iTunes Store.

Remember that these games are only compatible with recent Click Wheel iPods. Check out if your iPod is compatible here.

Related Posts

• More iPod Click Wheel Games
• Gameloft’s Asphalt 4 for iPod Click Wheel Released
• Complete Listing of All iPod Click Wheel Titles
• iPod Click Wheel Games
• Cake Mania 3 for Click Wheel iPods Released