[Updated] Mid-week iOS releases: Venture Towns, Bug Princess, Sonic CD, and more
Spin, build, shoot, take over Liberty City
![[Updated] Mid-week iOS releases: Venture Towns, Bug Princess, Sonic CD, and more](https://media.pocketgamer.com/artwork/na-lug/mid-week-sonic.jpg)
Welcome back to Pocket Gamer's round-up of the iPhone and iPad's mid-week release explosion.
As you all probably know by now, Apple drops a bundle of new iOS games on the App Store every Wednesday. To save you the hassle of loading a million different news stories, we throw the best of the bunch into one handy write-up.
These games have recently hit the New Zealand App Store, and thanks to the unique curvature of the Earth and the dutiful spin of our planetary home, they will be available to download in the UK and US from around midnight this evening.
Grand Theft Auto 3Rockstar Games - £2.99 - Download on iPhone and iPad
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It's been ten years since we single-handily wiped out the prostitute industry of Liberty City with a baseball bat. A decade since we blew a pile of police cars sky high on the bridge downtown. Yes, Rockstar's infamous crime sim is ten years old.
To celebrate its birthday, Rockstar has brought the game to iPhone and iPad in this special anniversary edition. As well as capturing the PS2 game we loved so much, this mobile re-release sports spiffy new visuals, touchscreen controls and a few bonus features.
Trenches IIEA - £1.49 - Download on iPhone / £1.99 - Download on iPad
Trenches II promises to be bigger than its much-loved strategy prequel in just about every way. To that end it offers a huge army of 20 different units (each of which can be upgraded), a huge campaign that goes through 50 locations across Europe and online multiplyer through Game Center.
New military units and weapons appear, too. You'll be able to crush your enemies with flamethrowers, cluster bombs, rail guns, and the ultimate World War I vehicle – the tank. Plus, the cavalry is here, with bayonet-sporting troops on horseback.
Bug PrincessCave - £2.99 - Download on iPhone and iPad
There's more bonkers bullet-dodging fun from Japanese game lab Cave, in this lavish port of arcade shooter Mushihimesama. Bug Princess is about saving the village of Hoshifuri by darting in and out of bullets, and gunning down some seriously mean bugs.
It comes with three modes - Original, the intense Maniac mode and the utterly ludicrous Ultra mode - and four difficulty levels. As ever, the controls have been meticulously tweaked to fit the touchscreen, and Game Center support gives you achievements for your hard work.
Sonic CDSega - £1.49 - Download on iPhone and iPad
Sonic CD is one temporally-twisted game. As our favourite hedgehog zips about Little Planet, he'll find himself leaping between the past, present and future in his hunt for Dr. Eggman and the robotic Metal Sonic.
This retro platformer was first seen on the Mega CD, but Sega has given it a fresh coat of polish, some retina graphics and a handful of new features for its comeback. Game Center leaderboards, for example, let you boast about your best time to your buddies.
The soundtrack, on the other hand, features both the American and Japanese tunes, as fans demanded they both be included.
Tongue Tied!Mojo Bones - £1.49 - Download on iPhone and iPad
Mick & Ralph, two lovable littles pooches, have got their tongues tied together. Don't ask us how it happened, but it did. So as they bound over 50 levels they'll need to work together to overcome obstacles and grab loot.
For the most part, one dog walks along the top of the screen while his canine buddy hangs down in the area below. You'll have to use the game's novel physics-based mechanic to swing Ralph over pits, away from lava and into doggie treats.
It's also got 30 DogHouse challenges, Game Center stuff and the developer guarantees at least 12 months of free content in upcoming updates.
Kaptain Brawe: A Brawe New WorldG5 Entertainment - Free - Download on iPhone or iPad
It's the latest PC point and click adventure to appear on iOS. A Brawe New World is an interstellar comedy adventure about a cosmic cop named Kaptain Brawe.
You've got to follow the trial of two kidnapped scientists, and you'll set foot on four different alien planets during the chase. There are plenty of characters to meet and tough puzzles to solve - though there's a casual setting if the riddles are giving you pause.
Save the FurriesBulkypix - £1.99 - Download on iPhone
Furries, in this case, means little fuzzy green creatures, and not people who dress up as foxes at the weekend. Anyhoo, this is a puzzle game about guiding the Furries to safety.
A bit like a space-age Lemmings, these critters plod on oblivious to the dangers around them. With your god-like ability to fiddle with the environment you can tap all manner of objects to help create a safe path and re-route your clan of creatures from obstacles.
Marathon 2: DurandalSoli Deo Gloria - Free - Download on iPhone and iPad
Before Halo (yes, kids, there was a time in history before Halo was released on Xbox), Bungie made a trilogy of Mac-only blasters called Marathon. The first game hit the App Store earlier this year, and now the sequel joins it.
It's a faithful version of the retro computer game, complete with all the nine-chapter story and favourite weapons like the Zeus Class Fusion Pistol and the devastating SPNKR-X17 rocket launcher. The game's free, but in-app purchases let you buy new costumes and cheat codes.
Real Football 2012Gameloft - Free - Download on iPhone and iPad
Real football! Not like all that fake football on the App Store. This footballing is real. And it's back for a new season.
One cool new feature is "Hypergame", which lets you instantly recreate a match-up you've just watched on TV. After Manchester United beats Arsenal on Sky One, that game will appear in your news feed for you to play for yourself.
Other than that you've got a proper football sim with various league and exhibition modes, a manager thingy, real players from the world of footy and a custom kit maker. Sounds very real.
Venture TownsKairosoft - £2.49 - Download on iPhone
More Kairosoft! More simulation! More utterly obsessive, time-sinking fun for us to waste a day on. This time it's all about building up a Sim City-style metropolis, with a huge urban dreamland as your toybox.
You'll have to choose which buildings to plop down, and where, to craft speciality districts which give you big cash bonuses. All the while your little city denizens will go about their business, buying cars and walking dogs.
Monkey Island Tales 2Telltale - £2.99 - Download on iPhone
Telltale is slowly bringing its iPad adventure series, Tales of Monkey Island, to the smaller-screened cousin in Apple's fleet. As such, you can now play episode two of this quick-witted comedy adventure on iPhone.
The Siege of Spinner Cay sees mighty pirate Guybrush dawdle about on a teensy group of islands, solving puzzles and chatting to ambigiously-gendered merfolk. It might not be the best episode of the series, but it's still funny and has some clever puzzles.
SnoticlesAdult Swim - 69p - Download on iPhone and iPad
Adult Swim, one of the most barmy developers on the entire App Store, continues it's trek into the world of weird with Snoticles. In this puzzler you've got fight off huge invasion of spiky black blots with various projectiles
Zit chucks rocks. Dread hurls backpack bombs. Spark shoots fireballs. And Snot? Well, if his name wasn't a dead giveaway, he lobs giant goopy globules of phlegm. Yuck.
