FingerGaming

VentureBeat’s MG Siegler says that SimCity is slated to appear in the App Store in December with an expected price of $9.99.

According to Siegler’s impressions, the EA Mobile title has the “look and feel” of SimCity 3000, but with touchscreen controls for tasks like zoning. Players can also use the platform’s multi-touch capabilities for zooming in and out of cities, as well as other functions.

The SimCity 3000 comparison is interesting, as modified and touchscreen-enabled versions of the game were also released for the Nintendo DS, developed by now-shuttered EA Japan and later Hudson Soft. Could the iPhone/iPod Touch game be a further modified version of those titles? And if so, which game is it based on — SimCity DS or SimCity Creator?

Siegler also says that the demo he played suffered “loading time issues,” but an Electronic Arts representative promises that the game will run smoothly by launch.

Tags: ea mobile, simcity, simulation

Following Apple’s briefing on iPhone games yesterday, where ngmoco showed off puzzle/platformer Rolando, the studio announced two upcoming games — Dropship (shown above) and Dr. Awesome, Microsurgeon M.D.

According to Offworld, both titles will be released as “fast apps,” ngmoco’s category for its bargain-priced games, like Maze Finger (free) and Topple ($0.99). The company has five iPhone and iPod Touch games planned for the holiday season, with 14 titles currently in development.

Dropship appears to be a flight game with vector environments; presumably, players pilot their craft around stages and shoot at enemies, while picking up stranded people to transport them.

The trailer for Dr. Awesome, embedded below, reveals a lot more — it’s a Qix-styled title with a light-hearted surgery premise and humor/graphics similar to what we’ve seen with Atlus’ Trauma Center and Capcom’s Phoenix Wright series for Nintendo platforms.

An interesting feature allows you to admit one of your address book contacts as a patient, essentially allowing you to operate on your friends (and enemies) for kicks. Neat!

Tags: dr awesome microsurgeon md, dropship, ngmoco

With the success of the iPhone (and the iPod Touch, which can also access the App Store), there has been a huge influx of games to the platform, which is currently the best-selling U.S. consumer mobile phone.

At a recent game-related briefing in San Francisco, Apple’s senior director of marketing for iPhone, Bob Borchers, showcased a range of upcoming iPhone game titles, and laid out his company’s vision of why the uptake has been so swift.

Though most people think of the iPhone as the single target platform, the iPod Touch also works with the vast majority of applications. Borcher noted: “If you’re a hardware developer you’ve got two great platforms to develop for.” On top of that, Apple has “worked very hard to develop [the SDK] in a very comprehensive way.”

While Sega’s Super Monkey Ball, one of the launch games for the App Store and a 500,000 unit seller, was an early indicator of what the platform is capable of — Borcher described it as “a posterchild of what’s possible” — he believes that “things have gone so much further than that.”

Of course, this is true in terms of choice as well, perhaps making it more difficult to sell that many in today’s iPhone game market. There are over 8,000 applications available on the store in 20 different categories; according to Borcher, over 200 million applications were downloaded in the first 100 days of availability, from July 10, 2008.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: ea mobile, ferrari gt evolution, gameloft, hand circus, ngmoco, rolando

According to Kotaku, puzzle/RPG hybrid Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords for the iPhone and iPod touch will appear on the App Store next month for $9.95, courtesy of D3Publisher and TransGaming.

TransGaming also previously helped bring the addictive Infinite Interactive-developed title to Macs in May. Since debuting in March 2007 as a handheld game, Puzzle Quest has been ported to nearly every conceivable console and download service.

D3P and Infinite Interactive have two other puzzle-themed titles scheduled to release for other platforms in the next several months — Galactrix and Puzzle Kingdoms. Perhaps one or both of these will eventually appear on the App Store, too?

(The screenshot above is taken from the Xbox 360 version.)

Tags: d3publisher, infinite interactive, Puzzle, puzzle quest, rpg, transgaming

Fernlightning’s first-person shooter Cube (free) is finally on the App store, over six weeks after the company submitted the iPhone/iPod Touch game to Apple for review.

Billed as a technology demo, the opensource title is available for free and includes multiplayer support, in-game editing, cooperative editing, demo recording, and more.

Some technical details on the Cube engine:

Cube is a landscape-style engine that pretends to be an indoor FPS engine, which combines very high precision dynamic occlusion culling with a form of geometric mipmapping on the whole world for dynamic LOD for configurable fps and graphic detail.

Most of the engine design is targeted at reaching feature richness through simplicity of structure and brute force, rather than finely turned complexity.

Cube’s sequel, Sauerbraten, can be downloaded for free on the PC.

Tags: cube, fernlightning, fps, shooter

Gameloft has added classic card game Uno ($7.99) to the App Store, taking advantage of the platform’s touchscreens and allowing players to drag and drop cards to get rid of their hands as easily as possible.

Uno features:

• Action Cards are here: Wil, Reverse, Draw 2, and more
• Customize your game with nine different rules including 7-0 and Jump-in
• Play online or with your friends through a Wi-Fi connection
• Take on increasingly hard challenges in Tournament mode

Gameloft also posted a gameplay video for Uno:

Tags: cards, gameloft, uno

Polarbit released an 1.0.3 update for arcade racing game Raging Thunder ($3.99) that now includes “online, real-time competitive multiplayer,” which the studio claims is a first for any App Store game.

The updated game is available for purchase on the App Store, but anyone who already bought Raging Thunder since its release in late September can grab the beta at no extra cost. The company cautions players to keep in mind that the online multiplayer feature is still in its beta stage and likely has a few issues still.

Polarbit co-founder Mitri Bautista-Wiberg commented:

We’ve received *a lot* of positive feedback from gamers about Raging Thunder. The reception has been really tremendous. The one thing that people seemed to miss was the ability to play against each other over the Internet. This was something we’d been talking about amongst ourselves, so when we had a few hours to spare we decided to give it a try and threw together a beta.

Tags: polarbit, Racing, raging thunder

Field System has put up an official teaser site and a screenshot for Newtonica2, a follow-up to August’s sphere-rotating iPhone game Newtonica ($4.99). Presumably, game designer Kenichi Nishi, whose credits include Chibi-Robo! and Incredible Crisis, is returning to develop the game along with composer Kenji Eno.

Interestingly, Newtonica2’s colorful 2D graphics hardly resemble the original game’s simple 3D sphere. Instead, the sequel looks more like the Nintendo-published Orbital and Orbient games for GBA and WiiWare, which were developed by Nishi’s old studio, Skip Ltd. In those titles, players navigated a tiny star using gravity and anti-gravity, absorbing and collecting celestial objects while avoiding bigger stars.

Here’s our review for the original Newtonica.

Tags: field system, Music, newtonica, newtonica2, orbient, Puzzle, route24, skip

There’s been no shortage of racing games available in the App Store, and today another one joins the fray in Atod AB’s Fastlane Street Racing ($5.99). Fastlane Street Racing, an arcade-style racing game, aims to be the fastest and best-looking racing game, and offers these features:

• 5 Game modes
• High detail 3D graphics
• Advanced lighting and effects
• 10 Original cars
• 8 Fun and challenging city routes
• 2 High speed race circuits
• 6 Challenge tracks
• Save replays

One thing worth mentioning is how much I like the minimalistic and speedy menu system in the game. Too often App Store games try to be too flashy and make it a tedious process just to navigate the menu.

A gameplay video showcasing Fastlane Street Racing below:

Tags: atod ab, fastlane street racing, Racing

oeFun has made their fast-paced shape-matching puzzle game, Cosmic One (Free), free for a limited time, originally the game sells for 99 cents. Cosmic One has the unique distinction of being friendly for both left and right-handed people. We posted a preview back in October, which also includes a high-quality gameplay video. A low-quality version can be seen below.

Use your catcher at the bottom of the screen to capture the falling tiles. Simply move the catcher by turning it with your thumb to match the symbol of the falling tile. If you want to drop the tile faster for more points, tap the top of the screen.

Cosmic One features an integrated online leader-board for high scoring and a scoring system that rewards quick and accurate play.

Tags: cosmic one, free, oefun, Puzzle