Hello and welcome to the very first installment of Mac|Life’s new iOS gaming column! Every week we’re going to be breaking down the most exciting upcoming new projects in the iOS gaming world, and giving you a sneak peak at what’s worth getting excited about.

We’re also going to try to break down some of the most important news stories of the week while we’re at it. (If anything interesting happens, that is.) We used to cover all of the biggest news daily, but that format seemed a little messy to us. Hopefully this will be a more manageable way for the average reader to keep track of the ongoing events of the iOS gaming scene. And hey, if you don’t care about the week’s news then you can always skip down to the gallery and go straight to the games!

The Weekly News

The two biggest stories of the week just dropped on our desk this very morning. One of the biggest handheld games of the last few years, Scribblenauts (originally on the Nintendo DS) was just announced as an iOS game, and it’s out on the App Store already. And another big console game is on its way as well.

Scribblenauts Comes to iOS

Scribblenauts is a truly remarkable game that you should try out at least once to see how it works. It’s a mini-adventure/puzzle game in which you can type anything you want into the game and it will appear as a useable item. Want your character to surmount a task by trampling it to death with an elephant? Just type that in and ride your elephant to glory. Or maybe you’d rather have a scimitar…with some juice…and a princess…on a dragon! Well, hey, that works too. It’s an amazing game to see with your own eyes.

Burnout Crash Coming to Mobile Platforms

It’s a big week for high-profile games coming to mobile platforms. Scribblenauts was good enough news, but now we’re hearing that EA and Criterion are bringing their recent Xbox Live Arcade title, Burnout Crash, to mobile platforms as well. No release date has yet been announced. The entire game is focused on driving your car into an intersection and causing as much of a pile-up as possible. We seriously cannot wait.

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Upcoming iOS Games You Should Keep an Eye On

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  Fara

  A couple years ago we couldn’t even keep track of all of the indie RPGs that were hitting the iPhone every day. Fresh, but flawed indie projects and rejects of the Super Nintendo-era flooded our 3GSes back in 2008 and 2009, but these days RPGs (even mediocre ones) are much harder to find on the system. So we’re actually kind of jazzed to see Fara in development by a couple of great, experienced developers.

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  The game takes place in a lush, hand-painted world. What’s most exciting about this game is its unique attention to the iPhone itself. This game is built from the ground up for iOS and the controls reflect that. The touch screen is used extensively, and not just for virtual buttons, and context-sensitive menus utilize the iPhone’s capabilities (e.g. aiming a turret with the touch screen, or guiding a character over a fire in a magic floating bubble.)

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  Zombieville USA 2

  One of the iPhone’s simplest games is also one of its most successful. Zombieville USA attracted an audience of millions, and now the sequel is coming along to try to keep the party going.

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  There are some relatively big new additions to the series coming with this latest installment too. ZUSA 2 will introduce three dimensional movement, allowing you to move into the foreground and background of the level to dodge enemies. It will also boast a robust character creator and a host of new weapons.

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  Botanicula

  This title is still something of a “maybe,” but we’ve got a very good feeling that this will be announced for iOS soon. It’s a new point-and-click game from the developers of the awesome, and beautiful Machinarium.

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  Machinarium proved to be a huge success on iOS for developers Amanita Design so we’re assuming they’ll eventually announce this unbelievably gorgeous new game for iOS pretty soon. We don’t know much about how the game will play just yet, but come on! Just look at it! This is the most adorable game we’ve ever seen!

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