Plants Vs. Zombies was a huge hit for Pop Cap on the desktop, and quickly became the number one selling game in PopCap’s history. PvZ is a great, yet simplified tower defense game modified with thought for the iPhone.

The Great App Bake Off Returns!

They did it last year, and now it’s back. The Great App Bake Off 2009. Developers, put down your keyboards, xcode testing tools and virtual paintbrushes, and instead pick up those baking trays and oven mittens, because today my friends, you’re about to cook for your pride, your glory and .. cool stuff! Yes, the Great App Bake Off is back. A time of the year for App Store developers to stop, think and ask themselves that all important question: “Can I actually bake a cake?”

But it’s not just for developers! Oh no, you can enter too, and there are prizes involved – lots of them. Hosted by Gavin Bowman of Retro Dreamer, also the developer behind the App Store hit Sneezies, The Great App Bake Off is a (so far) annual event which sees anyone from anywhere baking for the fun of it! Here’s how it works. You pick an App Store application of your choice, and then you bake a cake which resembles that application. Whether it be in the shape of the app’s main character, or a mouth-watering version of the app’s current App Store icon – You simply have to bake it and take a few shots of it.

It’s simple: pick an App, bake it, send us the pictures, win prizes.

Checkout these awesome first entries into the contest below. The first depicts the cool App Store icon of the app Story Tracker, and the other sees one of the main character’s of Elf Command, come to sponge! .. I mean life!

Once you’ve done that, there are two ways you can send Gavin and the team your cake entries. You can either e-mail them to appcakes at retrodreamer.com, or you can tweet them as an @reply. You’ll find App Cakes on Twitter @AppCakes.

But your awesome bakery efforts will not go unnoticed. Far from it! Apart from the delicious reward of eating your (hopefully) scrumptious creation afterward, you’ll be entering to win yourself a tonne of cool App Store goodies, including all of this:

- A £50 iTunes Gift certificate provided by Chillingo
- A $50 iTunes Gift certificate, provided by Antair
- A $15 iTunes Gift certificate and promo codes for Sneezies and Eyegore’s Eye Blast provided by Retro Dreamer
- 2 promo codes for Story Tracker provided by Andrew Nicolle
- Promo codes for Rocket Santa and Star Fusion provided by Bytesize Adventures
- 5 promo codes for Serving Sizer, provided by Creative Algorithms

.. With more on the way!

I’m told by Gavin that he expects this prize pool to grow over the next few weeks, as more and more developers take to their kitchens and get involved, and the contest gets more coverage. Of course, all prizes will be distributed over the best entries when judged in January. The closing date for new entries into The Great App Bake Off 2009 is January 4th .. so get baking!

Timeloop is a cute & crafty cartoon time travel game that has you thinking of what puzzles need to be solved in order to save the poor scientists! The concept is quite ingenious and provides one of the better experiences on the app store.

Urban Ducklings may sound like the subtitle of a really bad Howard the Duck sequel, but it’s actual a pretty nifty new casual arcade game. Thanks to the Iphone’s unique controls, Urban Ducklings gives the classic “cross the road” genre a new twist (pun intended).

I was skeptical at first, but this game is surprisingly fun. I found myself saying “just one more time” way too many times. For only a buck, you get some entertaining trademark infringements, entertaining screams of demise, and happy fun time.

I think we need more pinball games in the app store. When they are done right they are such a treat. WildWest has some pinball-tastic game play and at that price you have to get it, seriously – Now!

Sally’s Spa is a time management game that is fun, challenging, interesting and in addition to playing it I wanted to be in it! Mmmmm spa!

Harbor Master is an addictive, fun, competitive game where your goal is to dock & unload cargo from as many ships as possible. With 3 levels to test your Harbor Master skills, get it now before I dominate all the Highscores!

Monster Pinball has a great sound and colour along with 6 tables of pinball action all in the same game. The ball shoots from table to table making you play longer than what you may have initially intended!

Buka is a game with a slightly different twist. It’s not the most action-packed iPhone game filled with swashbuckling adventure, but it is entertaining and easy to pick up and put down. It’s a surprisingly nice piece of art too.

FaceFighter reminds me of early versions of Mortal Kombat. I had a lot of fun with that game, especially when friends and beer were involved. I never got great at it because of all the buttons, combos, and fatality moves were hard for me to remember (was it the beer?). Thankfully, FaceFighter solves all of these problems and has simple controls (4 buttons), simple rules (hit & don’t get hit), and fast gameplay.

SEGA brings Sonic the Hedgehog to the iPhone. Loop dee loops, dives and jumps are all here in the quest to stop the evil Dr. Eggman and his world domination scheme. Springs, traps, bridges and all sorts of monsters are there to stop you all the while collecting rings (cha ching).

Kaloki Adventure manages to master that fine line between too easy and too tedious while also being very complex without being complicated. The game is a solid buy to say the least for anyone who likes a tycoon style of gameplay.

A simple game that is twister for your fingers – with a friend. It encourages team play by trying to get the highest score together, which is why I think this is such a great application.

This game is an action / strategy game where you have to plan the flight paths of the airplanes coming into the landing strip. Sounds easy hmm? Don’t be too confident, this game is addictive, fun and difficult to land all the planes!

In this game, you need to build a path to save the city from the nuclear waste that has been released from a faulty reactor. There is also a puzzle mode, which is really where it becomes a great challenge and slightly unusual from the other pipe style games.

This application brings art to your iPhone. It’s a version of the Jackson Pollock web application, and it’s fun to be able to paint like the master! You will find yourself showing people this application …and then, not getting your iPhone back because they want to keep painting.

This application is a singing book designed to entertain a young child. However, it is much more than that. It has multiple languages, instruments and recording support, turning it into a great educational tool.

Yet another match three game, Gemmed differentiates itself by including little colored monsters which you’re charged with getting to the exit. The game is fun but it’s hard to say that it will appeal to everyone. Hard core match three gamers may find the extras as gimmicky, and others may find the game a bit too busy and lacking of real challenge.

A collapse style game with an added twist. Manipulate the coloured ball positions by clicking one of the circles with an animal in it! The adjacent balls rotate clockwise, and you can score much higher.

Pinball Dreaming: Pinball Dreams is a remake of a classic Amiga game from the early 1990s. Updated graphics add to the sound effects, music, and game play, and all combine to make this not only a great recreation of the original but also a fun diversion.

Platform game with action and logic rolled in to one! You are Archibald, a skateboarder, who fell down a pipe. Find your way out of each pipe (level) by getting from the start position to the exit door. This door can be locked on certain levels and requires you to solve puzzles to unlock it.

Cosmovox is a great little musical toy

iShooting Gallery is a fun little diversion

This game has potential to be a great puzzle game — but for now there are just too many jagged edges

iChalky is a fun little dancing stick figure that you can control. 99 Cent Gem

Face Melter is a very fun photo manipulation app that gives you the ability to push the pixels around to give your image an interesting stretched look.

Part fun tool and part drum beat composer, this application is lots of fun for anyone who likes to think they have a little bit of hidden musical ability.

A fun toy — but something you will get tired of quickly.

Crazy Mouth / Crazy Eye are fun little toys that little kids of all ages will enjoy annoying the heck out of you with.