TUAW's Daily App: Ring Blade
Ring Blade is an interesting take on the top-down shooter genre (sometimes called "bullet hell," though that specific genre is a little tougher than Ring Blade actually is). Games of this ilk on the iPhone have struggled a little bit with control schemes, and Ring Blade tries something original -- rather than dragging your ship around the screen or blocking the action with a finger, you can flick your ship back and forth on the bottom of your iPhone's screen. You charge shots with a touch, and then you can flick shots up off the "walls" on-screen; they'll bounce back and forth and hit enemies as they go.
It's a weird little twist on the controls for the iPhone, and it works pretty well. Of course, as you can see above, Ring Blade's other selling point is the graphics -- they're all based on tribal tattoos, making for some interesting enemies and bosses. The game also features 30 levels and OpenFeint integration as well (no Game Center, sadly). It's available on the iPhone right now for just US$0.99.
