Fresh iPhone Games for Jan. 14: Shape It Connect & Make, Hero Princess HD, Burn the Rope update

The popular casual game Burn the Rope just received a big update with 16 new levels and Game Center support, and to celebrate, developer Big Blue Bubble has halved the price for a limited time. And while you’re waiting for Burn the Rope to download, check out a few other games we found interesting on our list below.

Shape It * Connect & Make (iPhone, iPad) $1.99

Shape It puts your skills of quick thinking and hand-eye coordination to the test by requiring you to draw lines connecting several colored circles together. The circles are laid out randomly in three columns, and you score points by drawing a line between them with your finger or by drawing closed shapes with the connections. The catch, however, is that the line can’t go up and down, but only horizontally or diagonally. You’re challenged to try to connect as many circles of the same color as you can before the timer runs out, but you also have to avoid a saw blade that occasionally drifts between the columns, interrupting your lines and causing you to lose your points.

Shape It packs some easy but addictive puzzle gameplay. It uses Game Center to provide you with leaderboards to track your scores and achievements and includes two different game modes, one based on levels and the other providing you with specific challenges. It’s not the deepest arcade puzzler you’ve ever played, but Shape It is engaging and can get fairly challenging, too.

Hero Princess HD (iPhone) $1.99

This fast-twitch casual arcade game puts you in the role of a distressed princess who takes her defense into her own hands. Vikings are scaling the walls of your princess’ castle, and you’ve got to drop bricks, pianos and even ponies on them to knock them off the wall. You’ll be quickly running enemy ladder to ladder, taking out soldiers and keeping them from reaching the top of the wall.

Hero Princess features Game Center support for leaderboards and achievements, and will keep you bouncing bricks off viking heads to up your score for quite a while.

Burn the Rope update (iPhone) $0.99

Simple and addictive Burn the Rope has a really easy premise — a rope, arranged in a shape, is set on fire, and you try to earn the top rating in each level and on each rope by burning it. To do that, you need to tilt your device to keep the flame burning along the rope, and since flames rise, that means you need to keep the flame moving up along the rope or it’ll go out. It gets challenging as different colors of rope and flame are introduced, asking you to keep track of multiple things at once.

A new update to the game sees the price cut in half to a dollar and adds 16 new levels. Burn the Rope also features Game Center support for leaderboards and 30 achievements, plus iPod support so you can listen to your own music as you play the game. And, to add some challenge, there are three new flame types to change up the way you play.

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