Amongst this week’s Chillingo releases, we find a top-down western style shooter entitled Cowboy Guns for iPhone and iPod Touch. You’re The Kid, and don’t be fooled by your name because you’re fearless and taking on the deadly gang named Crimson Jackals in the Spaghetti Western steting of this nice-looking game. Hook-up with locals, take on different types of missions and become the ruler of the western worlds in this game by developer C2EStudio. Get the game in the App Store for 99 cents.

No longer do blocks randomly fall out of the sky in a random box with no context. In Zzed, you are an alien who is cleaning space of meteorites. This is done by shooting coloured meteorites at other coloured meteorites. When the same colour touch in a group more than 3, they will disappear. And when a meteorite crashes into your spaceship, you receive damage; a very similar concept to Tetris, but with a twist.

So what makes this better? Well it doesn’t end with just firing meteorites. The cleaning company who have hired you to clean space are surreptitiously planning something, and you want to find out what. There is an alleged rumour of a conspiracy. Intriguing huh? But it doesn’t just end there (I told you they’ve done this well and I wasn’t lying). Our very own space alien has a girlfriend. Just when you thought this game couldn’t get any better, it has.

Zzed brings context and meaning to Tetris. It gives you the motivation to guide our little space character further and assist him in his quest for love (and if you’re playing this on a Saturday night while your friends are out clubbing then it’s probably the only girlfriend you’re going to have for a while), and at 59p, it’s worth every penny.

There are 10 zones and 60 levels in total. They start off easy but they get difficult quickly so this game is likely to keep you interested for a long time. The physics are also pretty realistic, and the ability to bounce the meteorites off the walls is a very good feature (and yields bonus points if you cause an explosion of meteorites). If you’re struggling and the meteorites are slowly closing in on you (a nice function – I imagine it is replicating the light gravitational force of all objects), you can actually drive your spaceship away to a more tactical position. Sometimes the game is kind and throws you a bomb or rocket which causes mass destruction.

This game is going to hit it big time. It is such a simple concept, but they have approached it with such flair that they have made it into an app of its own. This has gone into my “Games” folder and I look forward to testing the new updates.

iPwnGames Score: 5/5

Maybe it’s just me, but attacking cute, fluffy, pink rabbits on Bunny Shooter isn’t quite as gratifying as annihilating those patronising pigs on Angry Birds. It just makes me feel bad. They’re bunnies! But once I got past my self-righteous moral concerns and actually started popping some caps, one thing became very clear….

It was an hour later and I hadn’t mowed the lawn, I hadn’t emptied the dishwasher and I hadn’t fed the cats. I looked at the clock and thought, ‘5 more minutes and then I’ll do it’. Naturally I was still sitting there after a further half an hour, murdering adorable bunny rabbits. Occasionally I’d receive texts, but I didn’t have time to reply. Not now. I was busy.

If this game is anything apart from cruel, it’s addictive. The format of the game is very similar to Angry Birds. You are given a bow and arrow, and have to kill as many rabbits as possible with the fewest number of shots. At the end of each level, you get 3* if you’re a totally awesome rabbit killer, 2* if you’re an average rabbit killer and 1* if you’re, well… me. They make things a bit more exciting in the latter levels with the introduction of anvils and rocks which are precariously positioned directly above rabbits’ heads (seems a bit unfair if you ask me). But you can only fire an arrow at a rabbit so many times. Angry Birds has the added touch of having different types of birds to fire (some explode, others go fast, etc). If Bunny Shooter added this kind of functionality, I think they’d be onto a real winner. At the moment, the game just needs more flair to keep it interesting for longer than an hour.

The other downside to this game is that there are only 15 levels (oops, I stand corrected. Turns out there are 60 levels. My apologies). In comparison to Angry Birds, which has well over 100, this game is relatively short and won’t take you all day to complete. Then again, Angry Birds is a paid app whereas this one is free, so I suppose you get what you pay for. Although there is still hope for all you sadistic bunny murders out there, because those 15 levels are part of World 1. There are purportedly an additional 3 worlds being released soon in later update which hopefully will include some nice extra features to keep us all interested.

At the moment, I wouldn’t pay for this. It’s just too repetitive and feels like the whole Angry Birds idea has simply been ported over, replaced with bunnies and arrows, and given a new name. It’s a nice way to pass an hour, but until more functionality is added, I will be deleting this from my iPhone.

iPwnGames Score: 3/5 4/5

Mecapix is a simple concept at its core. Various arrangements of blocks (called Mecas) fall from the top of the screen. The player must draw his or her own block figures (PIXes) at the bottom of the screen to send upwards and combat the falling arrangements. For each block that gets past your defenses, you lose a life. Lose too many lives, and it’s game over. Simple, yes, but Mecapix intensifies the complexity as you progress through the levels.

To start, you cannot simply fire an endless array of blocks upward. A Pix Points counter in the corner of the screen limits the amount of blocks you can draw. Draw too many blocks too quickly, and your firepower will be temporarily disabled. Additionally, the “enemy” block clusters become increasingly more complicated as the game advances, culminating with boss battles at the end of each world.

Thankfully, many of these enemy clusters also have a weakness. Found within many of the large Mecas are power-ups to be used to your advantage. Much of the fun of the game is in discovering these powers and using them to their maximum potential. However, sometimes that maximum potential will not be easily recognizable.

This fact is perhaps the game’s one weakness. The Mecas often come toward you at a frantic pace, and determining the correct method for utilizing the power-ups before you have died a time or seven can be challenging. Like in the best iPhone puzzle games, once you do decipher the patterns and the best way to proceed, you will feel like a genius. I found this degree of difficulty as an incentive to play the game more. That “One more try” mentality was very much present, but for those used to playing more relaxed games, be forewarned that it may take several frustrating deaths before you reach your epiphany.

Overall, Mecapix is a blast to play. The simple, colorful visuals and catchy soundtrack draw you in to its unique puzzle-shooter world. The drawing mechanic is a brilliant use of the iPhone’s touch screen, giving the retro-inspired game a very tactile, modern feel. As mentioned, the game does demand and reward your full attention. Even once you have figured out the best way to survive, it will take several more tries before you can start increasing your high score. With three full worlds and an endurance mode, Mecapix is a great value. If you’re looking for a retro challenge with a modern touch, Mecapix is a fantastic choice.

iPwnGames Score: 4/5

The game itself is pretty straightforward.  It’s a one-on-one multiplayer western style shooter.  It takes advantage of the iPhone’s anonymous multiplayer features and allows you to challenge other players across the globe.  The point of the game is to become the most hated/feared bandit in all of the old west by increasing your level through repeated duel victories.  Each time you pair up there is a specified “reward” if you kill the other.  As you get more infamous (kill more folks) your level and your reward will all continue to rise.

In terms of controls, the game is pretty simple.  It relies fully on the accelerometer to draw your weapon, aim, and reload.  At times it can feel a bit finnicky in that it likes to jump around a bit, but overall it really isn’t too terrible.  You should also be sure to be on a wi-fi connection as opposed to 3G for the best results.  If you’re competing on 3G sometimes you can make a winning shot and it won’t register before their killshot and you wrongfully perish.  That has only happened to me a few times though, so it’s not really worth complaining about.  Otherwise its straight ahead with this dueling first person shooter.

In addition to the basic gameplay there are plenty of things to add to the fun.  You can purchase things like ropes and flour sacks in the General Store that you can throw at your opponents to hinder their vision or abilities to aim.  These are purchased with the two in-game currencies: gold and wampum.  Gold is earned each time you defeat an opponent (you can also steal gold from other opponents…it’s cool until the sheriff catches you), and wampum is earned each time your character levels up.  With these currencies you can also purchase new guns, different clothing options, and multiple other things.

There really are only two limits to the game, in my opinion.  The first is that if you use your wampum, it takes a lot of time to get more, especially enough so that you will be able to purchase the fancy stuff you want.  Here’s where the catch comes in that makes it a free app…you can purchase more wampum with cash or you can earn it by installing other apps from their company on your iPhone.  The second limitation is that you have an energy bar.  If you exhaust it by taking part in a lot of duels you have to wait a specific amount of time for it to refill so that you can keep fighting (or you can use wampum to increase it, but we know what that takes).

Despite these two small inconveniences, I’ve been hooked to the game since I downloaded it a few days ago.  I wish I would have heard about it a lot sooner, but hopefully all of you can check it out and come bring the fire to me and my character…”Rocky Mountain Rick.”  In the mean time, go challenge each other to some duels and shoot away!

In Dead Man’s Dungeon your a prison guard at one of the most creepy prisons in the world. One night, all dead inmates have returned to collect some of their lost jewels. Your job is to get rid of all skeletons and to steal their precious diamonds. Here’s a feature list of this nice looking 3D first person shooter for iPhone and iPod Touch:

-Big guns
-Flashy jewels
-Awesome FPS action
-Creepy ambient music
-Online high scores
-Probably some other cool stuff too!
-Skeletons with attitude problems

Developer Vector Box Games is planning to do an update for the game with multiplayer death match and bigger guns to kill the skeletons in the game even faster. The game is now available at the App Store.

Paramount’s iPhone and iPod Touch games have been very succesful so far, so they decided to develop another game based on their movie Shooter. SHOOTER! The Official Movie Game is a sniper-like game with tilt controls and touch screen controls. Paramount is releasing Shooter for iPhone and iPod Touch next week in the App Store.

• Over 30 High Stakes Sniping Levels: Earn medals and rewards through the successful completion of dangerous assignments while progressing through training sessions and multiple missions that feature challenging bosses.
• First Person Sniper Perspective – Use the accelerometer to zero in on your targets with your binoculars and scope. Distance and wind must also be factored into your shot.

Hill Billy is a new first person shooter for iPhone and iPod Touch with plenty of mutant bunnies and awesome weapons. Your goal: rescue all the carrots in the game by killing all of the weird bunny creatures that protect their precious orange vegitables. It sounds pretty innocent, but when you watch the new trailer you’ll find out that it’s a pretty bloody adventure.

Source IT Software has released Zombie Mansion in the App Store. In October the developer announced that the game would come out in November, but Zombie Mansion had some trouble getting through the approval process. This $4.99 game is the first true First Person Shooter (FPS) for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The game uses the iPhone’s accelerometer for controlling your character. Source IT Software also released a new gameplay video of the game.