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Simon Edis of Ezone met with us at WWDC to show off their latest creation. Ezone has been responsible for such titles as Crazy Snowboard, Scarecrow and many more. When we first heard about that they were working on a hoverboard game, my initial thought was that they would simply be reskinning their existing snowboard game. But, instead of another downhill racer, they actually have created the beginnings of what feels more like a 3D exploration platformer.

Explore a turbo-charged 3D world of the future with your fully customized avatar. Hover World features high-speed racing, half-pipes, grinds, loops, exploration, fighting, puzzles, and infinite unlockables. Coming soon to iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.

Central to the game is a world hub where you can fly around and get upgrades and customizations. From there, you can go to any one of many portals that take you to different levels with independent missions. We're told these missions can be one of various goals including collecting gems, tricks, fighting and potentially more. The early version of the game that we were shown showed how you could get from one mission to another and the various environments possible.

On the hoverboard, you can perform tricks on supplied obstacles such as ramps, half pipes, loops and more, along with a trick system planned. Some of the other features they've listed show a pretty ambitious project:

• Collect gems (the in-game currency) to unlock items, upgrades, and character accessories
• Customize: play as male or female, change face, hair, hats, skin, clothing, boards, accessories, etc
• Discover hidden secrets by solving puzzles and completing challenges
• Create your own skate-park area with items you unlock
• Social game-play lets you visit your friends' customised skate-park
• Episodic updates with additional content including new gameplay areas, missions, items and character accessories
• PhysX engine for realistic motion and collisions

Here's Edis showing us the game hands-on at WWDC:

Edis also reports they have plans for allowing you to dismount your hoverboard as well to participate in some types of missions. It's still early, and the final game remains a few months off, but the early prototype had a great feel and shows a lot of potential. We're looking forward to see if they can fill in the game content with missions and goals to match. Hover World is expected to be released as a Universal Binary with support for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch.

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One of the most beloved and recognizable classics in the relatively short history of video games is Konami's Frogger. The timeless gameplay of getting your character from point A to point B, while navigating a busy highway and hazardous river, has spawned many variations during the years and is still fun even today. Banzai Rabbit (formerly called Frogman) is the newest game from Revolutionary Concepts, who most recently brought us the excellent port of Karate Champ, and it takes the very basic premise of Frogger and turns it on its ear with new gameplay twists, gorgeous 3D graphics, and a comic book style storyline. The overall experience feels more like an actual evolution of the Frogger series than any of the spinoffs ever have.

The story starts in a lab, where scientists are experimenting with building teleportation pods. During some commotion, test lab rabbit Banzai escapes his cage, leaping into one of the pods (with a stowaway flea coming along for the ride as well). The pod then activates with two scientists inside, one getting fused with Banzai and one getting fused with the flea. The results are rabbit and flea humanoids. After the dust clears from the accident, the enemy now known as The Flea plots world domination and kidnaps beautiful lab assistant Mary Beth. Having strong feelings for her, Banzai plots how to stop him, and thus the story begins. Ok, it's basically the plot from the 1986 film The Fly mashed up with elements of Spiderman, but it works pretty well in setting up the story for Banzai Rabbit.

The game is set across 34 levels in various locations such as city streets and railyards. You must guide Banzai from one side of the level to the other while avoiding the hazards laid out before you. On the other side of the map is a human who has been infected by The Flea, and if you don't make it to them in time then they will turn into a fly. Once you rescue that person, the perspective of the level flips around and you must make it back the way you came to save a human who's now on the opposite side from you. This continues until you've rescued 5 humans per level. Two different powerups can be collected, one that let's you jump over one of the hazards if need be, and one that slows down time for a short period making it easier to maneuver between the obstacles. It all comes together extremely well, taking a classic mechanic and wrapping it around some new ideas and fantastic visuals.

The area where the game falters is in terms of difficulty. More specifically, a brutally hard, teeth clenching difficulty. George Costanza couldn't beat this. The levels start to pick up in pace and complexity about a third of the way through the game. It took countless retries to pass some of these levels, which was bad enough, but at about the midway point of the game I completely hit a wall. There was just no way for me to progress, despite trying over and over. Collecting mutagen orbs spread throughout each level allows you to continue. You start the game with 5 lives, and can earn more through bonus levels and by rescuing humans. It takes 10 mutagen orbs to continue once you lose all lives. I started the level where I got stuck with 60 some odd orbs, and went through them all without blinking an eye. That's at least 30 lives wasted on a level where I didn't even rescue one human. Once you run out of orbs, you must frustratingly start completely over from level one. It's just flat out too difficult. I consider myself a fairly accomplished gamer, and have a fondness for the overly challenging games of the 80's and 90's, but I concede to Banzai Rabbit. He beat me. Some truly hardcore players may love this type of challenge, but I highly doubt normal to casual players will have the fortitude to see the game through.

I realize I'm making a pretty big deal about this, but it's honestly the one thing that can keep me from wholeheartedly recommending Banzai Rabbit. I'm not alone, either, as I've only made it halfway through the game and am sitting comfortably atop the Agon leaderboard. Is halfway really the farthest anyone has made it? It's not always necessary to completely beat a game when reviewing it, but you should at least have a pretty broad understanding of what the game offers. I feel like I'm missing out on a big part of Banzai Rabbit that's awaiting me in the second half of the game, not the least of which is the story (I imagine the hero saves the girl, but I'd like to see it).

Luckily, Revolutionary Concepts has been listening to the feedback in the game's forum thread, and will likely address the difficulty in an update. If you feel up to the challenge, Banzai Rabbit really does have a lot to offer, just don't expect to see all of it any time soon.

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Pankaku is about to release a sequel to their Lightbike game called Lightbike 2. The original Lightbike was a Tron lightcycle inspired game that was released in January 2009. It was playable and did well on the charts, but we thought the gameplay was a little boring at the time.

Clearly inspired by the newest Tron movie, Lightbike 2 looks far from boring.

Pankaku reports that they've made great improvements to the visuals as well as adding new gaming elements including "jump" actions, 3D stages, and customizable cycle bodies. They've also incorporated online multiplayer with up to 4 people at the same time.

The game will be coming out tonight and will be free. Lightbike 2 is powered by their own social networking service Pankia which promises massively real-time multiplayer gaming features. This game seems to be a demo of their social gaming platform which also supports the usual friending features and more.

App Store Link: Lightbike2, Free

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Pankaku is about to release a sequel to their Lightbike game called Lightbike 2. The original Lightbike was a Tron lightcycle inspired game that was released in January 2009. It was playable and did well on the charts, but we thought the gameplay was a little boring at the time.

Clearly inspired by the newest Tron movie, Lightbike 2 looks far from boring.

Pankaku reports that they've made great improvements to the visuals as well as adding new gaming elements including "jump" actions, 3D stages, and customizable cycle bodies. They've also incorporated online multiplayer with up to 4 people at the same time.

The game will be coming out tonight and will be free. Lightbike 2 is powered by their own social networking service Pankia which promises massively real-time multiplayer gaming features. This game seems to be a demo of their social gaming platform which also supports the usual friending features and more.

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At WWDC 2010, we got a chance to meet up with New Zealand developer David Frampton who had his latest creation in hand to show off. Frampton was a long time Mac developer turned fulltime iPhone developer after the success of his original App Store launch title Chopper. Reminiscent of Choplifter, Chopper put you in tilt-control of a chopper with missions to save your comrades while taking on enemy forces.

After a year in development, Chopper 2 hopes to add a number of improvements to the game. Frampton has worked hard on improving the graphical engine for the game. The sequel offers a 3d terrain over which to fly as well as offering both iPad and iPhone/iPod Touch support. The level designs have also been tweaked by adding a variety of goals. Goals can include saving your men, pick up and drop off goals, as well as defending a structure from spawning enemies. The game comes with 4 different terrains each with 3 different missions. Meanwhile, these 12 missions come in 3 different difficulties offering 36 total distinct levels.

One eye-catching feature that Frampton will be adding to the final version is the inclusion of the Bluetooth remote control that allows the iPhone to act as a controlled for the iPad version.

The game will come in a single universal binary that can be used on either device and includes the remote functionality within. So, a single purchase can be used for both devices.

We shot some video of the current version of Chopper 2 at WWDC. This shows a couple of terrains as well as the Bluetooth iPhone/iPad interaction.

Chopper 2 is expected to be complete in the next couple of months and the base price is going to be $4.99 (Universal) but with an introductory sale.

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During WWDC this week we met with Glu to get a peek at their upcoming game lineup, along with the not entirely surprising news that they're going to be shifting towards the freemium market towards the end of this year. In the meantime, they showed us four of their upcoming games, which will all be coming out in the next few months.

Escape From Nom – A physics-powered puzzle game where you have to aim a colored circle (named Alan) to get to the bottom of the water at the bottom of the screen. You can control where you drop Alan, and levels often involve either using existing or placing new gizmos in to the game world to bounce off of to avoid being eaten by the Noms, multi-colored blobs which are either stationary or moving about.

Much like Enigmo, later levels require a quite a bit of thought and manipulation of various objects to bounce Alan about. Some levels even have Alan starting out as a different color than the water, at which point you must have him bounce off an appropriately colored bumper in order to change to the correct color to complete the level.

Escape From Nom also comes with a full featured level editor which will allow you to create and share new levels. Aside from user-generated levels, the game will come with 30 pre-made levels of increasing difficulty across 3 different game worlds. Escape From Nom will be released soon, potentially even before the end of June.

Build-a-Lot 2 – This is a sequel of the original Build-a-Lot, which came out in early 2009. We liked the original in our review, and it sounds like the sequel is more of the same with additional enhancements. There are new blueprints to unlock, and a new curb appeal system that adds another level of depth to the game as curb appeal increases as a house is built closer to a playground and other desirable structures.

Tons of other parts of the game has been tweaked, and it's safe to say if you enjoyed the original you will also like the sequel. Build-a-Lot 2 is expected mid-July and Glu is also working on an iPad-optimized version of the game.

Deer Hunter African Safari – More of the same Deer Hunter action, this time set in Africa. You'll be able to do 3 different hunts in 4 separate locations and shoot exotic game like lions, zebra, kudus, elephants, and other virtual African animals begging for your bullets. Like the other Deer Hunter games, there will be DLC to purchase additional equipment and other fun hunting toys to allow you to more efficiently cleanse the land of life.

Deer Hunter African Safari will be available mid-August.

Deer Hunter 3D for iPad – The original Deer Hunter 3D is making its way to the iPad, with 16 different hunts in 4 different locations. 7 different types of animals are packed in to the game, and there are 13 different weapons to shoot them with. Everything is up-scaled to 1024×768, and the game looks just as good as you would expect on the iPad.

Deer Hunter 3D for iPad is coming in early July.

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Only a few days following the release of the movie, Gameloft's Prince of Persia: Warrior Within [$9.99] has made its way to the App Store. They're promising a "console-quality" game that pushes the limits of the iPhone throughout a dozen chapters filled with enemies, traps, and everything else you'd expect from a Prince of Persia game. We're going to be putting the game through its paces and plan on posting a full review soon.

If Prince of Persia's switch to 3D isn't your cup of tea, last week Ubisoft released Prince of Persia Retro [99¢] which short of mediocre controls is a shockingly faithful reproduction of the original game. Stay tuned for our Prince of Persia: Warrior Within review, and really, give some thought to picking up Prince of Persia Retro if for no reason other than to see where the whole series started.

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Our hands-on time with Highborn several weeks ago left us extremely impressed with what the ex-Westwood Studios developers (think Command & Conquer) at Jet Set Games had done with the turn-based strategy game and hopeful that its submission time with Apple would be a short one. Well, our prayers have been answered, as Highborn [App Store] is now available!

A strategy game clearly inspired by the richly inked, high-fantasy tilesets and characters of the acclaimed Heroes of Might & Magic series, but played similarly to other popular TBS titles such as Rogue Planet and Mecho Wars; Highborn takes the best credentials from these hits and takes them in a direction distinctly its own.

Highborn follows the story of Archie, an overbearing do-gooder Knight that more often than not frustrates his followers with his overt sense of righteousness, but who nevertheless follow him in his battles against the Arch-Lich, Floyd. The larger-than-life characters are a highlight in Highborn, from the flamboyant, once-famous mage Enzo to the many villains of 'Decay' whom you face off against (such as a Chef who holds entire towns hostage to his dreadful cooking); when characters clash the banter that results is consistently hilarious and peppers the 9 campaign missions with easily some of the best dialogue we've seen on the platform.

The gameplay in Highborn poses an alternate take on the TBS genre, foregoing the usual requirement of mass-producing units to overwhelm the enemy and instead placing a strategic focus on unit value, by placing a finite number of units at your disposal from the onset. The only way you can swell your ranks beyond what you begin each mission with is to capture strategic buildings. Capturing a monastery, for example, will bestow upon you a monk, whilst capturing a Tower will grant you a Mad Wizard.

Some of these strategic buildings double as defensive structures, providing an additional attack at the beginning of any battle initiated within their range. Combat in Highborn is typical of a TBS, where units are marched around on a hexagonal grid until in range of an enemy, upon which they can initiate their attack. Combat sequences are automatically generated with Highborn's great looking 3D combat engine– a welcome addition to the otherwise 2D overview. Though largely static, the results can be influenced by hero 'powers' collected from captured Monoliths around the map. These powers are only available to the aggressor however, placing particular importance on getting the first shot in.

Though Highborn is flawlessly presented, the gameplay itself is not without its issues. Units are sometimes moved by mistake or to the wrong grid as simply double tapping on a valid location will move the character there and movement commands cannot be undone (a feature we would love to see in the future). The special powers afforded to the attacker are also quite potent, often rendering the defender helpless. This generally isn't an issue in the campaign as powers do activate a cooldown to mitigate their usage and the AI is mostly defensive, with many of the monoliths starting as neutral awaiting your capture. In multiplayer however, the issue is more notable, as monoliths are secured early and even overwhelming odds can be turned by the use of these powers. Still, it does pose a strategic consideration that is available to both players, so we're not willing to call this entirely unbalanced.

Multiplayer in Highborn is provided through Facebook integration, a fact that may prove difficult to swallow for some, particularly in light of the recent scrutiny Facebook has come under. Fortunately, Jet Set Games has been thoughtful about privacy and your name is not shared with the public at all. Games are initiated by selecting members of your friends list, so games are restricted to amongst those you've already approved of. We aren't rapt about the decision to use Facebook, as many gamers network beyond their local social groups and Facebook is at its core a depository for mostly personal information. A means of accessing gamers without requiring them to be added to your Facebook friends list would certainly be preferred.

In any case, the actual handling of asynchronous multiplayer (functional over 3G and WiFi connections) is seamless and effortless. You choose from a number of small or large maps, take your turn, then wait for your opponent. Once they've made their move, their actions are clearly animated for you at the beginning of your next round. You can have a number of games going at once so that you are constantly occupied while waiting for other players. Jet Set Games have gone as far as providing a nifty numerical indicator on Highborn's icon to show when you have pending multiplayer moves.

Highborn comfortably sits as one of the best turn-based strategy games we have played on the iPhone. Beyond its dialogue and characters, which raise the bar entirely for humour, creativity and personality (and ability to plough right through that fourth wall); Highborn looks and plays fantastically, with a depth and attention to detail in its presentation that constantly surprises (just take a look at the character descriptions to see what I mean). If you look past the Facebook integration (which we understand some of you won't, though we strongly urge you to), Highborn also has a lasting and engrossing multiplayer mode that is excellently paced and perfect for portable devices. With additional campaigns promised beyond the 9 lengthy missions currently available (they'll take you hours to complete), Highborn is a robust and content-heavy turn-based strategy game that will surely leave you impressed.

Impressions from our forums are very positive thus far, but do check them out if you're after another take on Highborn. We're confident though that Highborn will remain a fixture on our devices for a very long time. Jet Set Games are also hard at work on an iPad version of Highborn, which should be ready later this summer!

App Store Link: Highborn, $2.99 (Special Introductory Price).

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Deadly Dungeon is a new 3D dungeon-crawling hack 'n' slash game for the iPhone and iPod touch. It seems to be somewhat Diablo-esque in the way the dungeon is presented, the real-time enemy combat, and loot collecting. It doesn't appear that there's much in the way of weapons or gear to equip on your warrior, but there are two playable main characters with a female warrior able to be purchased with in-game gold. The graphics and animation shown in the video are really impressive, with huge enemies and nice lighting and magical attacks.

Details from the developer:

• 8 levels
• 3 enemy types: Skeletons, Ogres and Goblins
• Collect gold to unlock extra playable Female Warrior and extra swords
• 4 magic spells per playable character
• Great 3d art/animations, music and sound effects
• OpenFeint achievements and leaderboards integration

While we're certainly impressed with the visuals portrayed in the video, we do have some reservations about the game. First, it doesn't appear that there's much variety in the dark dungeon setting. Playing through 8 levels of the same environment may get monotonous. On that same note, only having 3 different enemies seems a bit lacking, although those huge ogres are pretty cool. It may just be a bit too basic for gamers who are normally into this type of game, although that remains to be seen until we've actually played it. Still, it has a great look to it and a lot of potential. The magic attacks seem interesting and the ability to play as a female character is a nice addition.

Deadly Dungeon was submitted on Sunday for review from Apple. Barring any unforeseen complications, we should be seeing the game arrive in the next week or so. The price is said to be at 99¢ or $1.99, with the possiblility of being free at first release for early adopters. Due to the graphical intensity, it's recommended for newer hardware (2^nd generation iPod touch and above). We'll be taking a closer look at the final version when it's available.

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We are going to be attending both WWDC in San Francisco as well as E3 this month. WWDC runs from the 7th to the 11th at the Moscone Convention Center, and E3 goes from the 15th to the 17th at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Readers can look forward to an avalanche of news, game previews, and other interesting things from both events.

Coverage from these events in 2009 is viewable either by taking a look at the E3 Expo 2009 or WWDC 2009 categories.

WWDC will likely bring about the official announcement of the new iPhone, even more iPhone OS 4.0 details, and potentially several other things floating around the Apple rumor mill during the keynote on the morning of the 7th. While game coverage from WWDC will likely focus on games by the various indie developers in attendance, the big players of the gaming industry will be in full force at E3. We're expecting a Sonic 4 hands on, and many other exciting developments from well known console game developers/publishers throwing their hats in to the iPhone ring.

If you're a developer or publisher and would like to meet up at either WWDC or E3, send us an email at tips@toucharcade.com or send me a message via AIM to schedule an appointment. Our event schedules usually fill up very quickly, so don't wait to long if you have something you'd like to show us.

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