When Danielle Cassley and Jason Citron introduced Aurora Feint: The Beginning in July, they weren’t kidding. Since then, they’ve followed up with three more titles, Aurora Feint II: Arena in November, and Aurora Feint II: The Beginning and Aurora Feint II: Tower Puzzles this week.

Aurora Feint is no longer a game, it’s a franchise. There are now four variations of the title, all based on the same premise: Line up a row of three identical objects and they’ll vanish with a bang. If you’re familiar with Bejeweled, Tetris and similar match-three games, then you know what I’m talking about.

The difference with the Aurora Feint series on the iPhone and iPod touch, is that three out of the four games feature role playing, character creation and more complex game play such as requiring you to complete challenges using blueprints and magic books.

Aurora Feint The Beginning came out in July, and after a false start due to the app’s instability and privacy concerns, it became one of the most highly rated and downloaded — more than 1 million downloads — free app in the App Store. AppCraver gave the game a 9/10 when we reviewed it in September, for the second time.

Cassley and Citron added to their first success with Aurora Feint II: The Arena in November, which the developers said at the time was an “upgrade” from AF: Beginning. You have to think they were exaggerating because it’s an entirely new game that went from free to a $9.99 price tag.

AF II: Arena contains all the elements of AF: Beginning and adds a multi-player mode, player versus player dueling, chat, news feeds, more character classes, player profiles, friend and global leaderboards and richer graphics.

You can transfer your characters created in AF: Beginning to AF II: Arena but only if you haven’t switched to a new iPhone or iPod touch. Note, you should uninstall AF: Beginning after installing AF II: Arena and transferring your characters.

This week, Cassley and Citron introduced two new games: Aurora Feint II: The Beginning and Aurora Feint II: Tower Puzzles.

AF II: The Beginning is a true upgrade of AF I: The Beginning. This latest iteration features better game play, enhanced graphics and real-time chat, which happens in the Tavern, a location absent from the first AFB. There’s an introductory price on this one of $0.99 but only until January 1. After that, the price goes to $2.99. The good news is that the original AFB will continue to be available for free.

AF II: Tower Puzzles also is a match-three game. This time, the idea is to line up spheres, instead of blocks, on a “Floor,” of increasing complexity. Tower Puzzles also goes a step beyond the original AF: The Beginning with 30 more puzzles. That game also has a limited time offer of $0.99 and it will go to $1.99 starting New Year’s day.

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category: Breaking News