New releases round-up: Asphalt 8, 4 Thrones, Grindcore, and more

At the end of every week, we take time out to look at the new and noteworthy iOS games from the past seven days in both words and video.

This week, the App Store's virtual shelves are a little bare. I guess most developers thought it would be a bad idea to release a game when most of the gaming press was in Germany. Drunk.

But, all is not lost. There's still a feisty arcade racer, a clever new card game, and a police pursuit sim worth playing. And a few games that really aren't. Let's take a look.

You can see this week's new games in motion in the video below. Or you can skip all that and just read the text for words, pretty pictures, prices, and App Store links.

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Asphalt 8
By Gameloft - buy on iPhone and iPad (69p / 99c)

Asphalt 8 is, to my great surprise, a lot of fun. It's a feisty, nitro-fuelled arcade-style racer with impossibly fast cars and loopy barrel roll leaps. Furthermore, Gameloft borrows some ideas here from the best racing games.

It's got car-on-car takedowns from Burnout, Ridge Racer's absurd drifting, happy blue sky tracks from Sega's arcade favourites, and multi-path tracks that make it feel like MotorStorm.

It looks outstanding, too. The cars are stunning; the tracks are packed with an absurd amount of detail; and the screen is constantly covered with dust, debris, and airborne shards of metal. And it's full of content. Do check it out.

Smash Bandits
By Hutch Games - buy on iPhone and iPad (Free)

Last year, we fell in love with Smash Cops, a little top-down driving game about shunting your cop cruiser into criminals.

With sequel Smash Bandits, Hutch Games aims to shake things up a bit. For one thing, you're on the other side of the law and you're trying to shake the cops to boost the ratings on your World's Wildest Police Videos-type show. For another, it's an endless-runner, of sorts. Oh, and it's free-to-play.

It still has Smash Cops's excellent control system, mind, where you steer the car by trailing your finger along behind it. Plus, those gorgeous graphics and lots of surprises (just wait until you drive into the lake). Worth a download, for sure.

The Impossible Line
By Chillingo - buy on iPhone and iPad (Free)

The Impossible Line is, at least as far as I'm aware, a unique puzzle game. The goal is to guide a little arrow around some obstacles and into a finish zone. But the obstacles disappear as soon as you start moving.

So, you'll have to use your memory, a little radar, and some handy power-ups (bought with in-app purchases, of course) to figure out where the barriers are.

It's a perfectly enjoyable little game with a cool chalkboard art style. The constant adverts will quickly drive you nuts (okay, we're hardly ones to talk!), but you can pay £1.49 / $1.99 to kill them off for good.

4 Thrones
By Simple Machine - buy on iPhone and iPad (69p / 99c)

4 Thrones is a very clever, and very addictive, twist on solitaire. There are four cards on the table, and you've got a deck of 48 more cards. In each turn, you take one card from the deck and must place it on a card of lower value on the table.

Colours and suits don't really matter until you get to Jacks, Queens, and Kings, which you can replace with lower cards provided they fit the right suit (you can replace a King with any spade, say).

The plan is to distribute your entire deck on the four card slots. If you can't place a card down, you've got to throw it back on the deck and lose a life. Use up your entire deck before you exhaust all your lives, and you win.

It's a simple concept, but it works really well and is perfect for five-minute sessions. All in all, 69p / 99c well spent.

ControlCraft 3
By Cybernate - buy on iPhone and iPad (Free)

You've played ControlCraft 3 before. Whether it's called Tentacle Wars or Mushroom Wars or Eufloria, you've played this simple strategy game before.

The idea is that you send out armies of troops to capture more and more bases until you can simply overrun your opponent with unbeatable numbers.

There are some twists like different unit types and power-ups. And your soldiers will trade fire with other units as they go to the next base. But it's far from unique and not the best take on this well-worn idea.

Senses Fall Presents: Grindcore
By GameChanger World - buy on iPhone and iPad (69p / 99c)

I don't know who Senses Fall is, but I do know Tiny Wings. And Grindcore is a very cheeky Tiny Wings clone.

So, you choose your favourite Senses Fall band member - be it Zack, Buddy, Mr Blobby, Matt, or that talking dog - and try to ride your skateboard for as far as possible by riding down dips and rocketing out the other side.

It's all a bit rough around the edges and is packed with in-app purchases. Oh, and you're constantly being nagged to join something called "GameChanger". Soon enough, you realise you should probably just be playing Tiny Wings.

I'll leave you with a band fact, which I unlocked by running a total of 6,900 metres...

"Dan Trapp's favourite food is Mexican." Fascinating. That was worth 69p / 99c of my money, right there.