Fresh iPhone Apps for Jan. 12: Star Marine, Run Roo Run, Hero Academy, Zombie Wonderland 2 (Appolicious)

The weekly iTunes App Store games dump is here, bringing lots of great new titles for the weekend. Star Marine: Infinite Ammo starts our list today, bringing side-scrolling shooter action in the vein of Contra to?the iPhone and iPad. Run Roo Run, from the makers of Scribblenauts Remix, is a side-scrolling jumping game requiring some expert timing to complete. We?ve also got multiplayer strategy title Hero Academy, a turn-based game you can play against Facebook and Twitter friends, and arcade title Zombie Wonderland 2, which involves both zombies and time travel for your enjoyment.

Video game fans will remember the Contra series from years ago, originally on the Nintendo Entertainment System. Star Marine: Infinite Ammo is an iOS answer to that game, capturing the old-school graphical aesthetic and feeling of side-scrolling shooters in the same vein. As a star marine pitted against hundreds of murderous robots, you need to bust out of captivity and destroy all the enemies you can, using twin-stick shooter controls as you run through each level.

Blasting robots earns you points, and the more you take out in a row, the higher your score climbs. Earning points eventually converts to gems, which you can use to upgrade your weapons and items to become a more effective fighter. Star Marine also includes ?Game Center support, delivering achievements and leaderboards for players to see how well they perform compared to other players around the world.

The next title from?Scribblenauts Remix developer Warner Bros. is Run Roo Run, a side-scrolling one-touch arcade title in which reaction time is everything. You play a kangaroo navigating the Outback, jumping over obstacles to reach each level?s goal. The key is just planning your jumps in order to avoid hitting the things in your way; the faster you complete each level, the better your score. But if you hit an obstacle, you?ll be sent to the beginning of the level and your time will increase.

Each time you beat a chapter in Run Roo Run, you?ll unlock harder ?Extreme? versions of the level. Each level also has something new with which to contend. One throws bouncy rubber tires at you that you?ll need to clear larger obstacles, for example. The game includes 420 levels right now, with 10 new levels due each week in free updates. There?s also Game Center support for achievements and leaderboards.

Turn-based strategy title Hero Academy takes a page from other popular games in the App Store, like Words With Friends. Each player gets a series of things they can deploy on a battlefield as they take on another player in an online multiplayer battle, like magic spells, weapons and characters such as knights and archers. Those forces fight off the other player?s forces, and each tries to destroy a pair of crystals owned by the other with their troops. The first to knock out both of the other player?s crystals wins the game.

You can expand your roster of fighters with additional teams that you can get through in-app purchases, and Hero Academy lets you play multiple games with multiple opponents simultaneously. It also allows you to challenge your friends through Facebook and Twitter, and chat with during battles with your challengers in real time.

Arcade shooter Zombie Wonderland hit the App Store some time ago, tasking players with keeping zombies from overrunning a building, blasting them through windows and cleaning up the mess before the night passed. Zombie Wonderland 2 maintains much of the same mechanics from the first game ? protecting buildings, earning different weapons and lots of cartoonish zombie mayhem ? while throwing in a little bit of time travel to mix things up.

There are a number of varieties of zombies you?ll have to deal with through the course of Zombie Wonderland 2, and you?ll have to earn various new weapons to take them on during the course of the fight. You?ll fight in Egyptian pyramids, Viking halls and Samurai dojos as you jaunt through time, and you can measure your progress and your skills with Game Center achievements and leaderboards.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/applecomputer/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/appolicious_rss/rss_appolicious_tc/http___www_appolicious_com_articles10739_fresh_iphone_apps_for_jan_12_star_marine_run_roo_run_hero_academy_zombie_wonderland_2/44154628/SIG=147op4poq/*http%3A//www.appolicious.com/games/articles/10739-fresh-iphone-apps-for-jan-12-star-marine-run-roo-run-hero-academy-zombie-wonderland-2

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