“A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away,” a young child was enchanted by the Star Wars Universe. In more recent history, that same boy came down with a chronic case of pinball addiction. So you can only imagine how the child rejoiced when learning of Zen Studios’ intentions to meld their passion for pinball with Lucas’ brainchild. If you haven’t read between the lines yet, allow me to clarify that the aforementioned child was me, cleverly shrouded as an adolescent, in hopes of hiding the fact that I am a grown man rendered shamelessly giddy by the proposition of my beloved Star Wars bleeding into my favorite past time. Oh well, so much for that.

Much to my glee, the good folks over at Zen Studios invited me to get some early hands on time with their newest masterpiece: Star Wars Pinball. The base install will be its own stand-alone pinball hub, consisting of a healthy collection of three tables at launch, set to the themes of The Empire Strikes Back, everyone’s favorite bounty hunter Boba Fett, and the animated Clone Wars franchise. Before moving on to the meat of the preview, it is worth mentioning that each of the tables will also be available for individual purchase in the Zen Pinball 2 hub as well, but there are special features associated with the specific Star Wars Pinball app that you wouldn’t want to miss out on.

Trying to please Star Wars fans has become an increasingly difficult task over the decades. With that in mind, the creative team at Zen has taken every necessary precaution to make sure their tables are the definitive embodiment of the franchise, only featuring a steel ball. Lightsabers, sound effects, and even reasonably similar sound-alikes have been brought in to re-create seminal moments of the series. There is no greater example of this than the Empire Strikes Back table. Players have the opportunity to relive the most important scenes of the film, all while still playing an authentic pinball game. Everything from downing Tie Fighters to dueling Darth Vader are on the list of highlights, so it is certainly not to be missed.

Boba Fett is a character from the Star Wars mythos that has taken on a life of his own. A relative bit character in the original trilogy, fans have clamored to know more about the mysterious masked man. Drawing heavily upon his actions freezing Han Solo in carbonite and the resulting events on Tatooine, the Boba Fett themed table follows the notorious bounty hunter in his manhunts across the galaxy. Featuring a set of bounty missions that can scale in difficulty depending upon the user’s confidence, this is sure to once again be a fan favorite.

The last, but certainly not least of the trio of tables takes place in the fairly recent Clone Wars animated franchise. Tom Kane, the narrator from the television program and film reprises his role, informing the player of their immediate activities throughout the action. Of the three tables in the set, this is by far the biggest opportunity to run up the scoreboards. A big key to success is managing to chain together long combos, thanks to the fluid layout heavily favoring ramp play.

No matter what your level of appreciation is for the Star Wars brand, you will find something to appreciate in these tables. Even those that don’t like the franchise will still find plenty of fantastic pinball shenanigans to enjoy, because they are simply awesome tables to sit down and pick away at. We look forward to seeing what other tables are waiting in the wings for the coming months. Stay tuned for our full review of Star Wars Pinball, coming soon.

If you’re an obsessed baseball fan like me, who can watch any teams play anywhere at any time in any stadium or on any TV channel, you can’t wait until Spring Training finally ends and the real games finally begin. To help tide you over before the boys of summer take the field, Smashed Fly has a different take on the baseball game genre with Hit the Deck Baseball. Combining baseball with pinball, a la the mechanical baseball games of the 80′s, you have to hit a pinball that drops toward your flipper, which is appropriately enough a bat, and hit it back up toward targets that represent a variety of baseball outcomes, your goal being to score as many runs as possible, of course. The game features 3D graphics, a built-in physics engine, five different game modes, and hotseat multiplayer. So, while the baseball season has yet to start with any meaningful games, pinball is always in season! Play ball!

$0.99

HIT THE DECK Baseball for iPhone

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2011-03-17 :: Category: Games

$0.99

HIT THE DECK Baseball

iPad Only App - Designed for the iPad
Released: 2011-02-22 :: Category: Games

As the year winds down and we look ahead to the next decade it’s time for all those wonderful end-of-year lists we all get so excited about. Today we have some exciting news, as Apple has detailed all the top paid and free apps for the iPhone and iPad, as well as the top grossing apps on each platform. Here’s the full rundown, for your edification.

Top 10 Paid iPhone Apps

1. Angry Birds
2. Doodle Jump
3. Skee-Ball
4. Bejeweled 2 + Blitz
5. Fruit Ninja
6. Cut the Rope
7. ALL-IN-1 GAMEBOX
8. The Moron Test
9. Plants vs. Zombies
10. Pocket God

Top 10 Free iPhone Apps

1. Facebook
2. Angry Birds Lite
3. Words With Friends Free
4. Skype
5. Tap Tap Revenge 3
6. The Weather Channel®
7. Paper Toss
8. Bing
9. ROCK BAND FREE
10. Talking Tom Cat

Top 10 Grossing iPhone Apps

1. MLB.com At Bat 2010
2. Angry Birds
3. Call of Duty: Zombies
4. Bejeweled 2 + Blitz
5. FriendCaller 3 Pro
6. Zombie Farm
7. TomTom U.S.A.
8. TETRIS®
9. Plants vs. Zombies
10. Doodle Jump

REad even MORE lists after the jump.

Continue reading Apple Lists 2010 Top Apps »

Gameprom, the 2010 winners of the elusive Apple Design Award in Games, have just launched Pinball HD 4 iPhone, an iPhone only version of the top-selling iPad game, Pinball HD. It’ll set you back $1.99 and, in return, provide you with three tables and a plethora of new and exclusive features.

The first of such new features is full 326ppi display support – meaning iPhone 4 owners will reap all the benefits of their immensely clear screen. This particular version of Pinball houses all three tables: Wild West Pinball, The Deep and Jungle Style Pinball. In addition, multiplayer support means “as many players as you like” (according to their press release) can challenge each other, assuming they are on the same Wi-Fi network.

“If you have an iPad, you already know how incredible playing Pinball HD can be. With the release of Pinball HD 4 iPhone, anyone with an iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS or iPod touch third generation can get in on the fun” writes the official press team. “Featuring the Retina Display on the iPhone 4, the graphics really pop and the new multiplayer feature brings a new level of involvement and thrills to what is already the best Pinball experience in the app store.”

Other features include an option between portrait and landscape view; built in help for each table; local and global high scores to bring out your competitive nature; unique soundtracks, sound effects and voices and camera tilt, which provides 3D dimensionality without the need of 3D glasses (although if you do own a pair, they’ll work with the application to give you a full sense of immersion).

Given its unique features, the application is not universal – meaning iPad owners of the application will have to shell out an extra $1.99 if they want to enjoy the game on their iPhone. In addition, it looks like multiplayer mode is only available on iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad or a third generation iPod Touch. It’s currently unconfirmed whether the iPhone 3G will support multiplayer mode. Confirmed: iPhone 3G, iPod Touch 2G and models older than this are not supported. The game is available to download now through iTunes. You can click on the link below the YouTube video to take you there.

$1.99

Pinball HD for iPhone

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2010-08-07 :: Category: Games

It’s Friday! Hurray! Of course, for me it’s summer vacation and Fridays aren’t quite as exciting. But, we’ve still got our traditional sampling of delightful new releases from the past week, so that’s something. Big names like ngmoco and Illusion Labs make an appearance this week, as well as a few more mainstream companies like ESPN. Enjoy!

Godfinger
Godfinger from ngmoco allows you to build up a little world of cartoony followers and exert your godly powers on them. In Godfinger, you can be a kind, caring deity—performing Wonders and helping your civilization prosper—or a wicked demagogue, leaving a path of destruction in your wake. You can control sun, rain, lightning, floods, and fire. As you play Godfinger, your actions shape the terrain and your populace’s opinion. It’s almost ngmoco’s answer to Pocket God. Go on, give it a try and test out your godly abilities…Godfinger, like many of ngmoco’s newer games, is free.

FREE!

GodFinger

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2010-06-17 :: Category: Games :: Action

Geometry Wars: Touch
Geometry Wars was already a classic Xbox game, but it made its iPad debut back in March. Now, it’s a universal app, meaning that iPhone and iPod owners can get in on the action! Geometry Wars is a simplistic arcade shooter with basic, geometric graphics and a strong retro theme. It also was one of the first major games to make good use of the dual-stick shooter system that’s so popular on the App Store today. The iPhone/iPad version also includes a brand-new mode, Titan, in which you gradually break giant foes apart into swarms of smaller pieces.

$0.99

Geometry Wars™: Touch

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2010-04-01 :: Category: Games

ESPN Pinball
In honor of the World Cup, ESPN has a released a pinball app with some football-themed tables (ahem, soccer for us Americans). There’s also a Basketball table. The new pinball app is full of flashy graphics and boasts pass-and-play multiplayer, global and local leaderboards, and voice-overs from ESPN Sports Center host Jay Harris. It’s a marriage of a TV network, sports, and pinball…if that sounds a little strange, well, it is, but the game looks like some solid pinball fun nevertheless.

$1.99

ESPN Pinball

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2010-06-14 :: Category: Sports

Onion News Network
Where would we be without the Onion? In case you haven’t heard of this magnificent publication, the Onion is a completely satirical news network with both an online and a print publication. (Yes, that’s right: you can get a real Onion newspaper.) Their stories are funny, witty, snide, and clever; you’d be crazy not to enjoy browsing them. The Onion’s new app gives you mobile access to the entire Onion archives, including both textual stories and videos. There’s not much more to say: it’s a typical newspaper app. The only difference is that the Onion is anything but a serious, esteemed publication. It’s here to make you grin, and, perhaps, think.

FREE!

Onion News Network

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2010-06-11 :: Category: News

Foosball HD
Illusion Labs has long expressed an interest in touchscreen gaming on larger screens (think back to their tabletop demo of Touchgrind) and now they’ve released an impressive iPad-only title: Foosbal HD. Foosball HD takes full advantage of the iPad’s large screen, transforming it into a top-down view of a foosball table designed perfectly for “local multiplayer”: both you and your friend just play foosball! You can also play against the computer, of course, but multiplayer is the real draw. Foosball seems like a natural fit for the iPad, and it’s great to see Illusion Labs putting the iPad to good use. Sorry, iPhone users; this one isn’t for us.

$2.99

Foosball HD

iPad Only App - Designed for the iPad
Released: 2010-06-11 :: Category: Games