I caught some flak on my critical review of Star Wars Trench Run the other week. Apparently I am in the minority thinking that the gameplay was somewhat shallow and repetitive for the $4.99 price tag. This week, I want to give a prime example of why I stand by that belief by showing a game that is, in my opinion, amazingly fun and addictive with countless hours ofgameplay for the current price of only $2.99. Defender Chronicles mixes some RPG elements into a classic Castle/Tower defense type game to create a game that is often hard to put down but doesn't require hours of dedication (a la Civilization Revolution).

I very much wanted to give Star Wars Trench Run for my iPod Touch (or iPhone) a strong recommendation for a couple of reasons. First, it's Star Wars and despite George Lucas' attempts to destroy my fond childhood memories of his creation, they still persist. Second, it was created by a local company, Infrared5, and I had met one of the principles of the company at my Boston event. However, I can't truly recommend this game mostly because its gameplay is too shallow and repetitive to warrant its $4.99 price (which is moderately high by App Store standards). To be clear, this isn't a bad game per se, just not one I'd highly recommend.

Read the rest of the review after the break.

Castle of Magic is a platformer in the style some readers may remember in the days of Sega Genesis. As with some of those classic Genesis games, the fact that it is designed with bright colors cartoonish graphics does not mean that this game is made for children. It's both clever and fun but succumbs frequently to the fatal flaw of all platformers I have tried on the iPhone/iPod, and that is a mistake-prone on-screen control scheme.

I'll admit I didn't have high hopes for this game. Back in the day, I was addicted to Civilization I which ran off 3.5 inch floppies for by 386. Since then, my fondness for the Civilization series seemed to be tested with each release beyond Civilization II. Part of the problem in my mind was that the game became overly complex and lost much of the basic fun that I found in early entries in the series. So, it was with some hesitation that I spent the $4.99 for Civilization Revolution for the iPod Touch (and iPhone). However, once I got used to the controls on the iPhone, this has quickly become by far my favorite iPod/iPhone game yet.

Returning to my ongoing series of reviews of applications for the iPod Touch, today we will look at a handful of free applications. As with most free applications, none has enough depth to warrant a review of its own. There are enough free applications in the App Store to fill your iPod but are they worthwhile and do they work as well on an iPod Touch (versus an iPhone). This post will look at Twittelator (a Twitter client), Facebook and two games, PegJump and Cannon Challenge.