Best of FingerGaming: From Ridge Racer to N.O.V.A.

[Gamasutra rounds up the week's top news and reviews from sister iPhone site FingerGaming, as written by editor in chief Danny Cowan and authors Louise Yang and Jonathan Glover.] This week, FingerGaming highlights recent releases like Namco's Ridge Racer: Accelerated, EA's street racing sim Need for Speed: Shift, and Gameloft's Halo-like FPS N.O.V.A. The site also checks out the top free and paid iPhone games of the week, as well as examining an update to hit title Canabalt, and other notable App Store debuts such as SNK's Metal Slug. Here are the top stories from the last seven days: - Top-Grossing Game Apps: Where's Waldo? Beats Call of Duty "Activision's Call of Duty: World at War Zombies drops to second place in today's rankings, as Ludia's iPhone adaptation of the Where's Waldo? series of puzzle books climbs up to the top." - Gameloft's N.O.V.A. Now Available for iPhone "Gameloft's sci-fi first-person shooter N.O.V.A. turned heads when it was revealed earlier this year, both for its impressive graphics and because of its obvious similarity to Bungie's Halo series." - EA Releases Need for Speed: Shift for iPhone "Shift is a sim-styled street racing title that features a lineup of 20 licensed cars. Each vehicle can be customized in both performance and in appearance -- players can choose from a variety of spoilers, rims, and specialized paint jobs." - Top Free Game App Downloads for the Week "Donut Games' Traffic Rush tops the free charts for the second week in a row. RuneScape developer Jagex comes in at second place with its debut iPhone title Bouncedown, as Storm8's iMobsters takes third place." - Canabalt Updates with Global Leaderboards, New Obstacles "Think you've finally beaten your Canabalt addiction? Think again. Semi Secret Software has rolled out a Canabalt update that includes new gameplay elements, a new music track, and global leaderboards." - Ridge Racer: Accelerated Premieres for iPhone "Accelerated features much of the same drift-heavy racing that defined previous entries in the series. In a controversial move, however, Namco has locked the majority of the game's content away as optional in-app purchases." - Top-Selling Paid Game Apps for the Week "Where's Waldo? tops the paid app charts in its debut week. The recently updated Doodle Jump drops to second place, as Bejeweled 2 follows at third." - SNK Playmore Premieres in App Store with Metal Slug Touch "Metal Slug Touch is simplified take on SNK's run-and-gun franchise -- one that could be better suited to the iPhone's capabilities. Players control the Metal Slug vehicles using the accelerometer, with an on-screen button triggering alternate fire."