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X2 Games, makers of X2 Snowboarding [$1.99 / Free] and last year's X2 Soccer 2009 [$4.99 / Free] just released this year's version of their amazing full 3D soccer game, X2 Soccer 2010 [$6.99].

Soccer fans on our forums are going crazy over this year's iteration of X2 Soccer, and I've got to agree with the positive reactions forum members are having playing the game. X2 Games took everything that was great about the original X2 Soccer 2009 and added new game modes, even more teams and competitions, further refined controls, better graphics across the board as well as 3GS-specific optimizations, and even smarter AI.

On top of all that, X2 Soccer 2010 comes with a full suite of multiplayer options covering local WiFi or Bluetooth as well as online multiplayer which actually works shockingly well for a fast paced sports game. The in-game commentary is decent, there are different weather effects, and if something cool happens in your game you can even save the replay.

We'll have a full review up shortly, but in the meantime, it would be difficult for our initial impressions of X2 Soccer 2010 to be more positive.

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When we first had a look at the recently released Pocket Creatures [App Store] back at GDC, it didn't take us long to be enchanted by the too-cute, pikachu-like pet sim with an apparent wealth of things to explore.

Pocket Creatures begins in a temple, with you choosing the name and color of your critter. Hatching its egg and proceeding with the tutorial (which continues throughout the game in the form of stone tablets you pick up) introduces you to the basic mechanics of the game. Moving your little guy and navigating the game-world is straightforward, simply requiring double taps and familiar screen gestures.

On leaving the temple your creature is introduced to a respectable-sized garden of eden, teeming with life, hidden treasures and creature comforts. The tutorial continues here, introducing a few important friends that double as the tools to bringing your garden to life; a platypus that digs holes when you shake it; an anteater that ingests large bodies of water (and anything else around it); a woodpecker that, well…pecks things; and any one of these three to double as instant fertiliser factories.

Gardening is essentially the meat of the gameplay, with other activities being largely ancillary. You'll continually be digging holes all over your garden to find hidden items (that randomly spawn) and magical seeds to plant with. These seeds then require water and fertiliser to nourish to life, and may grow into either a simply food item, or a larger plant or tree that sprouts creature-altering fruits. Many of the achievements and rewards in the initial release are tied to gardening, either as a result of what you've grown, or instead what you've found by digging.

Though gardening is fun at first, it soon becomes monotonous, as new seeds are either too slowly revealed (and we didn't come across them in our extensive play), or the really interesting ones (ie. like the one that turns you into a tiger) are just too few in number to hold your attention. Plants require frequent fertiliser and water upkeep, and so your game eventuates into one where you're mostly concentrating on your green thumb or digging holes, with not much else required of you.

That's not to say there isn't anything else here to hold your attention, but that we wished there wasn't such a focus on gardening. Certainly, we have yet to mention the star of the show, who injects his own sense of life into the environment.

Your Pocket Creature is a moody little fellow who visibly responds to your actions. You can pat him, poke him or slap him to grant him a unique ability, such as a healing rainbow, a thunder cloud or a rain cloud above his head respectively; able to be directed by your gestures to effect the game world. If a pest comes to steal your crops for instance, you can fry him with a lightning bolt after prodding your creature into an angry fit. Fruit from magical seeds can give further powers, such as transforming your creature into cupid (or a carebear), able to make creatures fall in love with each other.

How you treat your creature and how you direct him to act molds his overall countenance. If you continually have him in an angry state, frying creatures with abandon, your character will inevitably develop an evil streak; terrorising the world around him when you're not actively directing him. Alternatively, feeding creatures when your creature is around conditions him to care for them in turn, developing a a happy angelic complex instead.

Many of these actions are means to achieve a very sizeable collection of achievements and rewards. Rewards are in the form of wearable items, affording you the opportunity of personalizing your creature beyond his initial coloring. There really does seem to be an extraordinary amount of items to unlock here, though there is no real direction given in the game as to how to attain them. Trial and error is the key, and though this adds to the game's longevity, we can't but help but feel a little more instruction (indeed, there are no tooltips at all in the game, something sorely missed) would serve to keep players that much more engaged.

As far as pet games go, Pocket Creatures is unlike anything out there. It doesn't have any of the social features of the popular Touch Pets (though it does use OpenFeint to record achievements) but it does present one of the more memorable and funny creatures to play with. Unfortunately, many of the objects you find at release currently do not have a purpose in the game (the developer promising updates to come which will flesh these out), perpetuating that directionless quality we mentioned earlier. We also experienced a few crash bugs on our 3GS testing device when transitioning between the two available areas, though these were infrequent.

Pocket Creatures is a charming pet sim with a lively, sandbox world that promotes exploration and experimentation. We're not convinced it's the definitive pet-sim we hoped it would be, but it certainly has the potential to be, particularly if the developers focus on keeping players engaged and entertained. iPad users will be pleased to hear that this is a universal app with an added Hi-Definition bonus' for the bigger screen and the developers have provided an iPad gameplay video which shows the difference the bigger screen makes.

App Store Link: Pocket Creatures, $2.99.

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Over the weekend I got some hands-on time with Disney's upcoming action-packed racer, Split/Second. Developed in house utilizing scaled down versions of the assets from the XBOX 360 and PS3 version of the game, Split/Second for the iPhone is a fun racing game with a great sense of speed and a cool gameplay mechanic that involves blowing up portions of the track to change the layout of the course and sabotage opponents.

In Split/Second, you compete in a fictional reality television show where you compete for fame and fortune. Included are three gameplay modes: Season mode where you play through the TV show, quick race where you can play any unlocked track, and multiplayer mode which not only can be played locally via bluetooth and WiFi but also online.

While racing, you build up your powerplay meter by driving well, drifting, going over jumps, and other things you're going to be doing anyway as you rocket around courses. You can then spend this earned powerplay resource to do things like cause a bus to explode and come flying out on to the track, or even take out entire bridges in one massive fireball to act as a shortcut for the rest of the race.

The pace of the game is incredibly fast, so much so that I couldn't help but crash once in a while, without the AI opponents needing to sabotage my race. The framerate great on my iPhone 3GS, and Disney did a good job of replicating the feel of the console version which currently has free downloadable demos available on both the Xbox Live Marketplace and the PlayStation Network store.

Of course the down side to having a freely available console demo to compare this game to is you can see exactly how much they needed to strip out of the game to get it to run as well as it does on the iPhone. The XBOX 360 version is loaded with particle effects, insane explosions, and all sorts of other graphical flare that does a great job at setting the action-packed mood of the game.

Split/Second for the iPhone is still pretty cool, but I can't help but feel that a little of what makes the console version so great was lost in translation. Check out the series of gameplay trailers compared to the above gameplay video to get an idea of what I'm talking about.

Regardless of what may be missing from the iPhone version of the game, the online multiplayer functionality could turn out to be the true killer feature of Split/Second. If the community takes off, I could see having a ton of fun with this game– I suppose we'll see when the game launches on the 18th of this month.

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It was little more than a week ago that we were lamenting that Starcraft 2 would not be coming to the AppStore any time soon. Unbeknownst to us, indie developer Pixel Stream has been working on the silver lining to that news for almost 8 months, with the release of their Starcraft-esque real-time strategy game, Armada – Galactic War [AppStore].

Firstly, let's dispense with one important fact early– Armada is a no-nonsense, online-only RTS, at least until a promised future update releases offline play too. This means from your very first game you'll be facing real competitors over your WiFi or 3G networks and won't be charging through a pre-scripted, story-based set of missions. Fortunately, you aren't thrown entirely in the deep end, as a brief page-by-page tutorial offers an introduction to the game's mechanics and features.

Each Armada army, of which there are 3 — the Humans, Cyborgs and Aliens — has 4 distinct classes of units. There are no buildings to concern yourself with, so the scope of your campaign is entirely in considering whether to deploy your Mechs, Tanks, (flying) Ships or your solitary Mothership. Unit effectiveness is determined by a loose rock, paper, scissors formula, where Mechs are effective against Ships, Ships are best against Tanks (who are the only units that can't attack air units) and Tanks use their splash damage to chew through Mechs. Each unit class (with the exception of the Mothership) is further broken down into 3 units of increasing strength and cost. The Mothership is the hub of each team, a goliath of a ship that is both your source of units and a competent fighter against all the other classes. Its destruction serves as the overall objective to achieve victory in Armada.

Your entire army is funded by sending your Mechs to harvest the green crystals scattered across the map (sounds familiar?). Selecting units and ordering them to a task is ingeniously simple in Armada. You enter select mode by holding one finger on the yellow square at the top left of the screen and can either drag a box around your units, or tap them individually to select them. Releasing the select box allows you to then issue commands by tapping on-screen, such as sending Mech units to mine crystal.

It's a wonder that many developers have cited difficulty in translating traditional mouse controls to the touch interface as the major reason RTS games aren't featuring on the AppStore (just read the comments from Blizzard above). Pixel Stream have managed to come up with a control scheme that feels both intuitive and responsive and allows for a surprising amount of micromanagement too. That's not to say we were completely satisfied with the control options, as we would have liked to see a way of de-selecting units and assigning control groups (to on-screen buttons perhaps?) or selecting all units of the same type to better co-ordinate your army in combat, but the basis for a successful system is certainly in place. A few tweaks could make it really exceptional.

We were very impressed by the online service provided via Pixel Stream's Zing Network. Private matches were simple to setup and the matchup system found opponents nearly instantly, or would revert to an AI player if players weren't available. Games played on WiFi naturally ran very smoothly but we were surprised to find that 3G connections were just as capable. Armada's netcode and graphics performance also appeared to be in peak form, as we piled scores of units on screen at once, upwards of 30 or 40, and noticed no perceivable performance hit on our 3GS device. Our 2G Touch device skipped only a few frames too, but combat certainly remained playable.

The 5 maps initially available in Armada can be played in any configuration from 2-4 players, with 4 player battles being a (manic) highlight in our time with the game. The maps all have different configurations and slightly different themes, though their function is more strategic than aesthetic, as each has a number of crystal farms for you to expand to in order to gain a leg up on opponents. The units themselves are crafted in simple 3D; they are evidently low-poly with low resolution textures. That's not to say they don't look nice though, as they are all easily recognised on the battlefield and get the job done. Each race has a completely unique style individual to their personalities too (for example, the Cyborgs are clean-lined and shiny, whilst the Humans are more rugged looking).

Armada also features an underlying upgrade system called A.R.M.S in-game, which we are admittedly on the fence about. 10 customizable upgrades (in total) can be applied to your profile, each one boosting the abilities of 1 particular unit in your arsenal. For example, a Mech 1 speed upgrade will boost the movement speed of any 1st tier Mech that you create by 30%. There are hundreds of upgrades to choose from covering the whole gamut of attributes for each unit (and the mothership too). Upgrades are purchased by credits which are awarded for playing matches, with wins and larger scale matches equating to larger returns.

The A.R.M.S system was intended to offer an additional layer of strategy, but it ends up playing out more like a ranking system on FPS games, where players that stick with the game have a significant advantage over those who play infrequently. To give an example, one player on our forums, backtothis– who is currently on top of the leaderboards– claims to have upgraded his level 1 Mechs to the point where they can destroy level 3 Tanks. This costs an exorbitant amount of credits to do however and won't be an option available to the average player for quite some time. We sincerely hope the developers will keep an eye on this, as the upgrade system could be a major source of serious imbalance issues in future match-ups, something that is far more detrimental to RTS' than other genres.

Armada makes serious inroads into capturing the essence of popular real time strategy games on a portable device. It is clearly influenced by the greats such as Starcraft, and in some ways actually manages to distil the epic unit-to-unit match-ups and combat strategy that made that game a hit. Its focus on unit management over building management ensures a narrower scope of battle that is well suited to shorter, more intense matches. It already has a tight control setup in place (which could still use some tweaking) and a match-up system that works– and works well. Our major concern is with the potential abuse of the upgrade system, the effect of which largely remains to be seen, and whether the developers can keep up with the inevitable balancing updates required.

At this stage though, we're ultimately impressed by what 3-man developer Pixel Stream have done; they have catered for RTS fans in a way that other larger developers had thought too difficult. With the promise of offline play in the near future, Armada is an effortless recommendation to any RTS buff looking to test their APM on the touch devices in a competitive environment. To check out the gameplay for yourself, take a peek at the developer's trailer above or hit up our forums for other readers' impressions.

App Store Link: Armada – Galactic War, $0.99 (Introductory Sale Price).

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It seems our love affair with monsters and zombies is still as strong as ever, as there seems to be no let-up on these apps appearing on the AppStore. Well, at least Chillingo thinks so, releasing Monster Mayhem [AppStore] — a castle defense game which seems a mash-up of MonsterKill, Zombieville and even a dash of Plants vs Zombies.

The game begins by introducing a horde of incoming monsters, all ready to descend upon the graveyard over which you are custodian. Naturally, this gravekeeper happens to have an arsenal of weapons at his disposal (don't they all?), and that's about all there is to the story. Monster Mayhem plays a lot like MonsterKill, but instead of enemies coming in waves down the screen, they use the horizontal screen real estate to stage their charge. The whole game has a great look that closely resembles the aforementioned PvZ.

At first, Monster Mayhem seems much like other castle defense games. Though you don't have to flick characters around in finger-seizing fits typical of the genre, there is still the need for endless swiping, particularly as you begin with a knife. Here it draws parallels with MonsterKill, where knife attacks are effected by swiping across an enemy. Unfortunately each swipe seems only to hit one monster, only worsening the inevitable digit agony.

Fortunately, the gameplay offers a reprieve of sorts by introducing firearms that are all tap-tap-tap. It means that your finger isn't being worn to a nub by tricky gestures, instead going back to a simple shooting range gameplay where your finger is the trigger. Having said that, you'll be faced with a lot of mad tapping, where finger soreness is still a reality (indeed, a likelihood), something that may still turn people away but at least is a step in the right direction for the genre.

There are 7 different weapons on offer in Monster Mayhem from handguns to flamethrowers and then the ol' room-clearing nuke. Each of these can be upgraded several times, which changes the type of weapon to a more powerful variant (think an Uzi to an MP5). It's nothing amazingly original, but it's still a nice touch to see. What's more, each weapon handles a little differently; grenades are lobbed at the screen for instance, whilst flamethrowers are waved around to devastating effect. Chances are though, you'll stick to powering up and using only a couple of these, as shotguns don't scatter as expected, and the more powerful weapons cost a heap to keep supplied with ammo.

As far as cannon fodder goes, there are 20 different types in Monster Mayhem, from frankensteins to creepy crawlies and 5 additional, huge bosses to defeat. Every time you encounter a new enemy, you get a cool little scorecard that details their strengths and weaknesses, and what weapons will not work on them, and it's all stored in a Monster Handbook available from the menu. It offers a light layer of strategy as you consider what weapons to use on what enemies and which monsters to engage first. Special mention has to go to the use of the old-school Chinese vampires too, which are creepy even in their cute PvZ-like form.

There are over 30 levels to mow through here, with some really gory-but-cute combat spread over 6 different worlds. After completing the game, you'll unlock the Madness difficulty, a self-explanatory Endless mode and a Boss Rush Mode which includes waves of boss-only monsters. The latter is an interesting addition that is unique to Monsters Mayhem.

On the face of the game is a simple looking castle defense game, but peel that back and you'll find more of a gallery shooter than the flicking frenzy of other castle defenders. The various game modes included should keep you engaged for a while, particularly as the campaign mode's high score is recorded on Chillingo's Crystal platform (which also includes a nice selection of achievements). We did encounter a few intermittent stuttering bugs during our play on the 3GS device (where the game pauses for a brief moment) which we're hoping will be remedied in future updates, but other than that Monster Mayhem is a great monster mash that should get castle defense fans thoroughly excited but may still prove too prohibitive to those protective of their fine motor skills.

Be sure to check out the developer's trailer above for your own look at the game, and have a look at our forums to see other users' impressions.

App Store Link: Monster Mayhem, $1.99.

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Our April game ratings are in place now, and here are the top of the heap. Our monthly "best of" round-up summarizes the top rated games that we looked at in the previous month. Each game reviewed receives a 1-5 star rating relative to the other games from that month. Generally, a 3 or higher is considered a "good" rating.

Our final scores are not the product of any traditional measures such as graphics or sound, but simply reflect the games we would most recommend to others.

5 Stars

Chaos Rings – One of the most ambitious RPG games we've seen so far for the iPhone. The graphics and gameplay are exactly what you'd expect out of a Square Enix RPG. Battle in parties of two in classic turn-based battles as you make your way through a story that's just as ridiculous as any other Japanese RPG. (Review, App Store: iPhone)

4.5 Stars

Babylonian Twins – Sixteen years in the making, Babylonian Twins delivers an amazingly challenging yet satisfying iPhone and iPad puzzle platformer. In many modern platformers, I've felt like I'm just mindlessly going through the motions to make it to the end of each level. Babylonian Twins, however, really keeps you enthralled throughout. (Review, App Store: iPhone, iPad)

Pocket Legends – This free online multiplayer game for both the iPhone and iPad that is a ton of fun and playing in a party with your friends is especially impressive while you're playing via 3G as the netcode does a great job in providing a lag-free experience. Additional content is available via in-game DLC, but you can really get a good feel for the game before you ever need to buy anything. (Review, App Store: iPhone, iPad)

Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 – A surprisingly competent port of the classic skateboarding game. Everything is included from the original, and once you get used to the virtual controls, you'll be performing endless combos in no time in the many included skating locations.(Review, App Store:iPhone)

Espgaluda II – Bullet hell at its best on the iPhone. Even not being a huge fan of the genre, we fell quick and hard in love with Espgaluda II. It is the best 2D shooter experience in the App Store with great touch controls. Note: It will only run on the latest generation devices. (Review, App Store: iPhone 3GS, 3rd Gen iPod Touch, or pixel-doubled on iPad)

Honorable Mentions

There were several additional games this month that we felt we should highlight even though they didn't fall in the highest tiers.

Warpgate – A space conquest game with an amazing sense of scope. Warpgate has cool graphics, an interesting faction system to get involved in, and a dynamic in-game economy that can keep you busy for as long as you remain interested in the game. (Review, App Store: iPhone, iPad)

Geometry Wars iPad – A marvelous port of the XBOX Live Arcade game, it includes all the different game modes and has individual online leaderboards for each of them. The graphics are great, the music fits perfectly, and overall we just really want this game on our iPhones as the dual stick control method doesn't feel ideal for the iPad. (Review, App Store: iPad)

Sketch Nation – While the gameplay of the games created in Sketch Nation are generally just simple vertical shooters or other very basic games, the ability to draw and create your own game is one of the best uses of the iPhone camera we've seen. Even if you can't draw, you can still have a great time making a terrible game based on your own art that you photograph. (Review, App Store)

The rest of April game ratings can be seen in their respective rating categories (also found in the sidebar navigation): 5 Stars, 4.5 Stars, 4 Stars, 3.5 Stars, 3 Stars, and 2.5 Stars.

As always, we expect there will be some debate about relative scores, but keep in mind that everyone's personal ratings may vary based on individual tastes.

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For those of you who had issues installing Espgaluda II onto your 3rd Gen iPod Touches, the new update now fixes that. Along with a few other bugs being fixed:

- Fixed install error for 3rd generation iPod touch
- Fixed issue where sound does not play when receiving a call
- Fixed issue where save data is not saved under certain conditions
- Fixed issue where some achievements do not unlock due to data not being
saved.

The game is a bullet hell-style shooter by Cave Co. that we reviewed earlier this month and really loved.

However, due to the number of projectiles in the game, Espgaluda II requires a 3rd generation device. This includes the iPhone 3GS, 3rd Generation iPod Touch and even the iPad (works great even in pixel doubled mode).

In addition to releasing an update to the full version, a free Lite version is now available to try out to see how you like the game. It is also suggested that you install the Lite version to confirm that the game is compatible with your device.

Compared to the full version, the Lite version only includes the first stage, one character, one difficulty mode, and OpenFeint is not integrated.

Here is a video of the game in action:

App Store Link: Espgaluda II, $8.99, Espgaluda II Lite, Free (Both games; 3GS, 3rd Gen iPod Touch or Pixel-Doubled on iPad only)

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Venan Entertainment's Space Miner [$4.99 / Free] seems to be universally loved by nearly everyone who touches it. We couldn't get enough of the game in our review, and it is one of the few iPhone games video games I've ever played where I enjoyed playing through it so much the first time that immediately after I beat the game the first time I started a second play through on the next higher difficulty.

From our review:

In short, it's Asteroids meets the RPG. But that description really doesn't do the game justice.

Space Miner places you in the role of the nephew of good ole' Uncle Jebediah Gritstone, proprietor of the galactic Gritstone Mining Station. Uncle Jeb has hired you on to help with the ore mining and it's with much excitement that you make your way to his mining station in your veritable space jalopy. Once on board, things get complicated (it's a long story, enjoy it in-game) and Uncle Jeb is desperately counting on you to go out into the neighboring sectors, blast asteroids, and bring back the precious ore contained within. The more ore you collect, the bigger your cut of the profits. But the pitiful ship you start off with is hardly up to the task.

As you accumulate profits, the money can be spent in Uncle Jeb's shop, where more powerful ships, weapons, shields, ore collectors, power plants, and the like can be purchased. It doesn't take long to find yourself sitting in a decent ship with multiple ore blasters, a sizable cargo bay, and an ore collector that can get the job done. And the whole package is done up with a great deal of spot-on humorous dialog and even an amusing banjo-based audio track that fits ole' Uncle Jeb's operation to a T. (There's no doubt that he's got a still hidden somewhere on that rock of his.) …Read More

This update makes this amazing game even better. If you've got an iPhone 3GS or 3rd generation iPod touch, you will be able to enjoy new shader effects on the asteroids that really make the game look a lot cooler. If you don't have a new device, you'll still be able to enjoy the rest of the new features which include a new level 7 pilot's license which unlocks even more spaceship upgrades. Also, five new pieces of alien technology are floating about somewhere in space for you to find.

My favorite addition is the new even harder UltracORE perma-death difficulty mode. Perma-death always adds an amazing sense of danger to a game, and seeing how far I can get in Space Miner on UltracORE has pretty much owned my evening so far.

The difficulty curve of the game has been slightly tweaked, and to go with all of these new features comes another set of Plus+ achievements for players to unlock as well as Facebook and Twitter integration to make sure your friends know exactly how good you are at the game.

If you haven't picked up Space Miner yet, this is an excellent opportunity to do so. It's on my short list of games I tell people to check out after buying an iPhone, and if nothing else, you really should give the lite version a spin. Space Miner is a fantastic game made even better by this update.

App Store Links: Space Miner: Space Ore Bust, $4.99 – Space Miner: Space Ore Bust Lite, Free

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Back in January, we caught wind of plans for a Sega emulator that was going to serve as a repository for all kinds of different classic Genesis games. Originally slated for release in February, the Ultimate Genesis emulator was planned to be free and come loaded with Space Harrier II. We haven't heard anything about it since then, and it's hard to say where the fate of the emulator lies as Sega is still releasing standalone emulator games such as Sonic 2 [App Store] which was released mere moments ago.

Much like the original Sonic [App Store], Sonic 2 is wrapped in a seemingly identical emulator wrapper with a fairly awkward menu system glued on top of the original game to handle the various in-game view options as well as starting and resuming your game. Sonic and Tails are controlled with a virtual D-pad and lone button to handle jumping. Just like the original Sonic, these controls work, but things get dicey as soon as you get far enough in the game to need to do more than just run to the left and jump once in a while.

The game can be played in two modes, either full screen and up-scaled or in a smaller window in the native resolution of the game. Like all the other emulated Genesis games, performance is the best on the iPhone 3GS with substantial frame rate drops in previous-generation devices. The performance drop is somewhat mitigated by playing in the smaller native resolution view, but even then significant slowdown is experienced when you drop a lot of rings or when there are a ton of enemies on screen.

The following video shows the performance differences between the devices, although it is much more noticeable when you're actually playing the game:

I feel like until Sega substantially improves their Genesis emulator, we really can just have one review for all of these games, as the following statements really apply to all of them: If you were a fan of the original game, and own a iPhone 3GS or 3rd generation iPod touch, they're worth a look. The controls are far from ideal, but having your favorite classic games in your pocket playable on your phone can be a lot of fun. If you're not particularly tied to the games Sega has released so far, they're completely skippable.

If you have a iPhone 3G of previous device, and haven't played Sonic 2 before, don't let this be your first experience with the game.

App Store Link: Sonic 2, $5.99

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Back in February we reported that, in an interview with Retro Gamer magazine, Stuart Carnie of Manomio (who brought us C64 for iPhone [App Store]) indicated that he was currently in the process of readying an Amiga emulation system for the iPhone to be used to wrap licensed Amiga games for release as individual iPhone game titles in the App Store, the emulation layer being invisible to the user.

Manomio has just released a video demonstrating the system that shows the Amiga games International Karate + and Turrican running quite smoothly in an alpha version of their emulation environment on an iPhone 3GS.

This morning, I spoke at length with Stuart regarding his Amiga emulation system. He indicates that his hand-coded 68000 emulator (the Amiga's CPU) was well worth the effort in terms of performance and that the iPhone 3GS is a perfect platform for playing Amiga games in this fashion. Unfortunately, devices lower in spec — that is, anything that's not an iPhone 3GS, a 3G iPod touch, or an iPad — are not quite up to the task and, as such, Manomio's coming Amiga releases will not support that hardware. Happily for iPad users though, the coming Amiga games will be universal applications that feature high resolution artwork and interfaces appropriate to the iPad's large screen.

Manomio's emulation system is based on the UAE4All emulator tied to Manomio's own ARM-optimized emulated 68000 CPU core. The system emulates a fairly standard Amiga 500 computer.

As for what Amiga games we can expect to see in the App Store, Stuart indicates that International Karate + is a definite, and that he is currently in negotiations with the Turrican IP holder to bring that classic title to the iPhone. Talks are underway with a number of IP holders who licensed their C64 games to Manomio for use with C64 for iPhone, as well.

An Amiga game that Arnold and I have both long enjoyed is the scrolling space shooter Battle Squadron. Upon informing Stuart that securing this favorite was an obvious necessity, I was shocked and quite pleased to hear that the IP holders of the title had recently contacted him, seeking to bring that very game to the App Store through their emulation system. The deal is in negotiations and both parties are excited about the prospect.

Aside from the games already mentioned, Manomio has tested various other titles, including Xenon II, Ghosts 'n Goblins and R-Type (not that these are necessarily among the IP they have secured for release in the App Store), all of which "are just perfectly smooth." The first Amiga game from Manomio to hit the App Store will be International Karate +, which should land sometime in the late June timeframe.

And, while getting their Amiga emulation system finished and in the App Store is Manomio's main push right now, it's not their only one. Alongside the Amiga demonstration video, the studio posted a video demonstrating an Atari 2600 console emulator they've been working on for the iPhone. The video shows an iPhone running the Atari 2600 versions of Space Invaders, Berzerk, and Frogger.

Unlike the case of their Amiga emulation system, the Atari 2600 emulator is not a sure thing for App Store release, as Manomio is still rather early in talks with Atari over the needed rights to make such a system happen.

We will bring further details about Manomio's upcoming efforts as we hear them.

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