The moment my iPad or iPad Touch's screen illuminates my finger hones in on the blue icon with the pencil, ruler and paintbrush formed into a stylized 'A', no matter what my previous plans for the device might have been. I know the shop lurking behind the icon is only updated at certain times, but I have to look…

Released last month in Japan, the official iOS Pokédex application is now available in North America and beyond, giving Pokémon fans around the globe access to the ultimate pocket monster compendium. Just don't expect a kindly tree-named professor to hand it over for free.

Legendary comic book creator Stan Lee only had his hand in one of the five Gaming Apps of the Day this week, but I'm pretty sure the rest of them were probably his idea at some point anyway.

Space. The final frontier. These are the voyages of the Week in Gaming Apps. Its continuing mission — to explore strange new apps, seek out new games and game applications; to boldly make thematically incorrect quotes in an article with a Star Wars title.

As Owen Good often reminds us, not every Gaming App of the Day is a good one. For every Bad Piggies, The Room or Bar Story 2 there are a dozen NFL Pro 2013s, and he seems to wind up playing them all.

This is the new iPod Touch, announced at Apple's press conference today. It's got the iPhone 5's screen and the A5 processor, which makes it about as fast as the iPhone 4S.

Witch right now. Witch right now. I could use some spears or some monsters or a witch, or to get back to some gaming apps much simpler than this. Because after all the crashin' and matchin' and thrashin', the monster bombin' and the droppin' and hack-and-slashin'... Okay, that's enough of that. It's the Week in Gaming…

Apple's newest iPad came out last week, and, as expected, it's a gorgeous device. With more RAM, a beefier processor, and that super-shiny Retina Display, the third-gen iPad is certainly a powerful tablet. And a great gaming system.

It came in stealthily, like a Navy SEAL on a night mission. And now Battlefield 3: Aftershock 's been dishonorably discharged after seemingly falling below EA's expectations.

Let's get that first niggling thought out of the way: this Mass Effect iOS game isn't going to feel like that Dead Space iOS game.