Look, I can't help it, games with primitive, goofy graphics on the App Store immediately grab my attention. From the second I laid eyes on Pumping Muscles I knew I wanted to play it. Even then I knew that a buck was too much. Well, that didn't stop me and I bought it anyways. I played it once and that's pretty much been it. Just because I took the plunge doesn't mean you have to. In fact, until the end of the week it's free, free, free!

The game is extraordinarily simple. The faster you swip your fingers upwards on the screen the more strength you give the body builer. With each level you increase the amount of weight he lifts and once you get to about 600 lbs you're swipping your screen with your finger like a psycho, it becomes shockingly hard. But don't take my word for it, get while you can on someone else's dime.

I have a relationship problem. No, this doesn't have to do with my crippling fear of commitment or the time my mother told me she had no son. No, my relationship problem has to do with a certain gaming genre. You know the type, "flight simulators" or "flying games" I think they call them. I've never had a strong interest in them and while I've given plenty of them a chance they're not really my thing. While we haven't been the best of friends there appears to be a glimer of hope on the horizon. Her name is Aera and she looks awfully nice.

iChromo has released a trailer for their upcoming 2.5D flight simulator and so far it looks extremely promising. The framerate is exceptionally smooth, the controls and animations look fluid and most importantly it looks like a ton of fun to play. The game will come with built in wifi multiplayer mode, controls with the acceleromater and handles more like a side scroller than a full 3D experience.

Check it out in action:

Welp, that Tweet above from Flow creator Jenova Chen just about covers it. Earlier today we covered the release of Aquatica, a near exact clone of 2007's PSN hit Flow. Well apparently the similarities don't end at gameplay or appearance, Aquatica's source code was supposedly lifted from Flow itself. Apparently Chen released the source code a while back so budding developers could learn from his work. Instead Ketara Software took the code and released a game without giving Chen any credit. Oh no they didn't!

It looks like Ketara might be getting a guilty conscious about the whole ordeal. Since the games release Aquatica's description on iTunes has gone from a paragraph of self congratulatory language about creating a fresh original title to calling it a port of the "classic Flash/PC game". For shame, Ketara, for shame.

Microorganism, petry dish and clone lovers gather 'round. Ketara Software, makers of SpaceX, have launched their latest effort onto the app store for free today. Aquatica is more or less a miniaturized, scaled down version of Flow. Flow came out on the PS3 in early 2007 and gained a bit of notoriety for sparking philosophical "is it a game or not?" and "what makes a game a game?" debate among some circles.

In Flow (and Aquatica) you play a geometrically stylized aquatic microorganism who swims throughout the ocean consuming other microorganisms. The more you eat the larger you grow in size and the larger organisms you'll be able to dine on.

The game was unique in that it played more like an 'interactive experience' rather than traditional points and objective focused video game. The music was calming, the gameplay was relaxed and there really wasn't an end goal to the title. You sat there, controlled your microorganism and vegged out to the pretty audio visual presentation.

While the PS3 version of Flow is a fantastic experience I'd recommend anyone to try out I wish I could say the same based on the little time I've had to play with Aquatica. It gets 'the basics' down but is missing the polish and finesse that made the source material really shine. If you've never played Flow prior it's worth getting since you'll likely experience something new and will appreciate it dispite it's differences, afterall you'll be seeing everything with fresh eyes. If you're a Flow veteran, however, you'll be plenty happy sticking to the original.