Bungie's Marathon, Swords and Soldiers now available on the App Store

Two games we've been eager to see on the App Store have arrived. First up, the unofficial version of Marathon (that's officially approved anyway) is out and ready for you to play. It's a free app by programmer Daniel Blezek, who translated Bungie's old FPS from the Mac to Apple's tablet. This is excellent stuff; old-time gamers will enjoy the nostalgia hit, while younger players should be interested to see what Bungie did before Halo. It's an excellent game, and we couldn't ask for a better way to get it ported to the iPad.

Second, Chillingo has published Swords and Soldiers, a cartoony 2D real-time strategy game that was originally released for the Wii. I like both the console and iOS versions, which offers Game Center integration, three campaigns and a skirmish mode, with controls that are well adapted for the touch screen. Unfortunately, it isn't universal -- the game's US$2.99 for the iPhone and $4.99 for the iPad -- but given how different the two versions are to play, maybe that makes sense. At any rate, this one didn't quite get the spotlight it could have used on the Wii, so maybe on iOS (like World of Goo, another Wii title turned iOS hit) Swords and Soldiers will the audience it deserves.