Best of FingerGaming: From Vanquish to Assassin's Creed II

[Every week, Gamasutra sums up sister iPhone site FingerGaming's top news and reviews for Apple's nascent -- and increasingly exciting -- portable games platform, as written by editor in chief Danny Cowan and authors Mathew Kumar and Jonathan Glover.] This week, FingerGaming covers Gamevil's stylish brawler Vanquish, Ubisoft's iPhone adaptation of Assassin's Creed II: Discovery, and Gameloft's Cooking Mama competitor Pocket Chef. Here are the top stories from the last seven days: - Top-Grossing Game Apps: Rock Band Overtakes Chinatown Wars "EA's iPhone edition of Rock Band surpasses Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars to become today's biggest-grossing game title, as Activision's Call of Duty: World at War Zombies holds steady at third place." - Ubisoft Releases Assassin's Creed II: Discovery for iPhone "Assassin's Creed II: Discovery features many of the same stealth-action gameplay elements that defined the franchise's console titles, and adapts them to fit in the context of a side-scrolling platformer on the iPhone." - Words With Friends Developer Partners with ngmoco in Upcoming We Rule "We Rule's social gameplay mixes elements from SimCity and Zynga's Facebook app FarmVille; in addition to collecting taxes and managing businesses, players will be able to grow, harvest, and sell crops for extra cash." - Gamevil Debuts 'Artistic Action-RPG' Vanquish: The Oath of Brothers "While the in-game action plays like an arcade-style brawler, players are able to upgrade weapons and learn new abilities between levels, using experience and items earned in battle." - Top Free Game App Downloads: Kinetic Balls Rises to the Top "Motion 9's executive toy simulator Kinetic Balls tops the charts this week. Cobra Mobile's arcade-styled bombing game iBomber follows at second, as last week's chart champion Rock Band falls to third place." - Konami Releases Lyric-Matching Rhythm Title RhymePlayer "RhymePlayer's gameplay closely resembles Konami's iPhone dance game Dance Dance Revolution S. Scrolling lyrics appear at the bottom of the screen and must be tapped when they reach a timing line at the top." - Gameloft Challenges Cooking Mama with Pocket Chef "The 3D graphics are more realistic than Cooking Mama's cartoony style, making completed dishes seem that much more appealing. Pocket Chef also includes a selection of unlockable real-world recipes for culinary experts." - Top-Selling Paid Game Apps: Shopping Cart Hero Beats Skee-Ball "MonkeyWantBanana's extreme stunt sim Shopping Cart Hero earns second place in today's sales rankings, while Doodle Jump once again finishes as the App Store's top seller." - Bulkypix to Publish Rhythm Platformer Maestro! Jump in Music Later This Month "Created by French indie developer Pasta Games, Maestro! Jump in Music challenges players to 'strum' platforms to the rhythm of a background music track to make a bird jump, collect items, and avoid bottomless pits."