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Last year we posted early details surrounding the forthcoming iPhone game controller accessory from 22moo, the GameBone, which will offer official iOS 4 support (read: no jailbreak necessary). The accessory-maker has recently posted additional details on the item to their website.

Features listed by 22moo:

• 8-way D-pad (directional pad)
• 4 action buttons
• 2 shoulder buttons
• Built-in 1600 mAh Lithium battery for additional power for your iPod touch / iPhone
• Rear button and LED to check charging state and capacity
• Built-in stereo speakers
• Omnidirectional MIC
• 3.5 audio headphone jack
• Rear kick-stand
• iDevice independent volume control
• Charge and sync for all iDevices (except for the iPad)
• Interchangeable core for compatibility with iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad devices

The company is currently in the process of finalizing the device's new PC board and updated case design for mass production. A new availability date will be announced in early October, so stay tuned.

Stuart Carnie of Manomio has indicated that the studio's C64 for iPhone will offer eventual support for the device when it hits market.

The GameBone will support the following iOS devices: 2G, 3G, 4G iPod touch, iPhone 3G, 3GS, 4, and iPad.

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Yesterday during Sega's iPhone Games Day, easily the most impressive and fun game that I had a chance to play was Sonic 4. It finally feels like the Sonic game that we've all been wanting for the past 15 years, with no gimmicks, unnecessary characters or outlandish stories. Just pure 2D side-scrolling Sonic goodness, with heaps of Blast Processing. We previewed Sonic 4 during E3 in June, where we had a chance to play an early version of the game. Yesterday at Sega I was shown a nearly complete build of the game that included the previously unannounced Labyrinth Zone, two exclusive iPhone levels, and the special Chaos Emerald bonus stages.

The best thing about Sonic 4 is that it's incredibly simple to play, to the point of almost rendering the virtual controls a non-issue. I say almost because it still can be tricky playing a platformer without tactile feedback, but with only an analog stick and one button to worry about it certainly simplifies matters. Sonic 4 plays similarly to the original trilogy where you can run down hills and roll through loops or perform a spin dash by crouching and mashing the button to build up speed, but one significant new maneuver has been added to Sonic's repertoire. After performing a jump, you can hit jump in mid-air and execute a homing attack that will send Sonic spinning into nearby enemies or interactive objects which get target locked automatically. This adds an interesting dynamic to the game and makes it far more playable on the touch screen, as you don't have to be quite as precise when trying to defeat enemies.

Previously, Sega has shown off the first area of Sonic 4 called Splash Hill Zone. This zone is reminiscent of the beginning stage in earlier Sonic the Hedgehog games, with bright blue skies, green grass, and plenty of loops and hills. Yesterday they revealed Labyrinth Zone, which is also akin to levels from the old Sonic games. It's an underground cavern area with moving platforms, boulders falling from the roof, and underwater portions. This is also where one of the iPhone exclusive levels is based, called Lost Labyrinth Zone. This level has Sonic riding in a mine cart that is controlled by tilting the device while negotiating maze-like caverns. Sonic 4 deviates from the linear level progression of the originals, and once you've completed the initial Splash Hill Zone all three areas in each of the four zones are made available to play in any order. The catch is that you will not be able to play the fourth boss area for each zone until you've completed the previous three.

Another returning feature from the classic Sonic games is the addition of bonus levels. If you complete an area with at least 50 rings in your possession, you'll have a chance to jump into a gigantic spinning ring at the end which will take you to a special stage and give you an opportunity to earn a Chaos Emerald. These stages are re-imagined versions of the ones from Sonic 1, and if you remember those stages you'll understand just how well suited they are for tilt control. Whereas you controlled Sonic himself as the stage spun around you in the originals, in this iPhone version you'll actually be controlling the stage by tilting and twisting the device while trying to get a stationary Sonic to the Chaos Emerald in the middle. Collecting a total of 7 Chaos Emeralds and completing the game will yield an alternate cliffhanger ending that will hint at things to come in Sonic 4: Episode 2.

Yes, Sonic 4 will be an episodic release. Sega couldn't comment on how many episodes will make up the entire experience, but have assured me that there is a definitive end to Sonic 4 and they won't just be releasing a new episode whenever they feel like adding a new set of levels. Sonic 4 is also looking quite stunning visually, and will be nearly identical to the console versions save for the 2 exclusive iPhone levels and tilt controls. Remarkably, the game runs at an incredibly smooth rate, and I didn't experience even one hiccup during my time with the game. Also of interesting note is that Sonic 4, the long awaited spiritual sequel to the classic original trilogy that fans have been clamoring for for years, will not be appearing on either the Nintendo DS or Sony PSP. While this may have Marcus in a huff, it shows just how committed Sega is to this platform and its fans.

This hands-on video from our E3 preview in June demonstrates Sonic 4 in action:

I can hardly describe just how much I enjoyed Sonic 4, and I cannot wait for the final version to be released. Sega won't pin down anything more exact than “sometime this Fall” but the game was looking mostly complete and hopefully it won't be too much longer before we can all finally play Sonic 4: Episode 1.

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Japanese gaming company CAVE seems to be on a roll with the App Store. After the release of excellent Espgaluda II and Dodonpachi Resurrection games, CAVE has announced their first original title for the iPhone and iPod touch.

Mushihimesama Bug Panic is an original title featuring Bug Princess Reco, star of the Arcade and Xbox 360 game “Mushihimesama Futari”. They aren't offering many details on the new game but provided this trailer:

The game is categorized as "Bug Busting Action". Of note, CAVE seems to have drawn a line in the sand and will continue to only support high-end devices. This new game will be compatible with the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, 3rd Gen iPod Touch and iPad only. The game will be released in the Fall of 2010.

Update: Here's an early gameplay video from December 2009:

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France-based developers Movingplayer and publisher Bulkypix have been hard at work lately on Yslandia, the latest MMO to shortly hit the App Store. Already released in Canada for testing purposes and set to hit US and international stores any day now (together with the US-based servers), this distinctly European take on the traditional eastern-influenced MMO formula had my attention from early on.

That Yslandia hails from a European developer is not something to be understated. It permeates every facet of the game– just as PC gamers saw a remarkable departure from traditional RPG paradigms in the popular Polish-developed title, The Witcher– so too does Yslandia show off its own influences and underpinnings, for better or for worse.

The most immediate evidence of this in play is in the artwork and in-game sprites. Gone are the cutesy, bright color palettes and heavily cell-shaded artwork usually seen in MMOs. Instead, what we have here are more detailed sprites with a purposefully subdued tone; emphasizing a realistic brush as trees and houses and even characters are painted in modest colors. The artwork in general brings to mind a water-color painting; not as visually striking as the color explosion of most JRPGs, but not without its own charm.

In so far as the gameplay is concerned, MMOs traditionally have been about lengthy solo leveling experiences (read: grinding) with a smattering of teamwork needed in certain encounters. Yslandia on the other hand is more focused all around Player vs Player combat and social interactions (but with its own share of grinding). The three islands that make up the initial release of Yslandia are comprised of respective starting islands for the Simeh'a Alliance and the Zaa'me Coalition (essentially, Light vs Dark), and a neutral territory called Gilda where all the PvP combat goes on. And it's on this latter island that most of your time in Yslandia will be spent.

On Gilda, teams have to work together to capture Totems on the battlefield, thereby claiming territories for their Faction. The game itself encourages this teamwork– particularly teamwork through guild participation– by way of its skill system. Departing from any existing skill-building concepts, characters in Yslandia learn additional skills by "training" with other guild members. Every 10 levels, you accumulate training points in addition to your standard skill points, which can then be invested in other guild members, bestowing upon them a skill you currently have learned. Aside from skills learned in this fashion, characters start with 4 skills, 2 of which are usually passive.

'Usually' in this context is used quite loosely, as Yslandia boasts a massive lineup of 18 different classes to choose from divided amongst 6 very different races (some of which have no passive skills). The developers have also gone beyond the usual warrior/ranger/mage archetypes to offer interesting classes such as the Necrophage, the Lycan Bloodhound or the mana-sucking Nocturn Deceiver. Unfortunately, with the class diversity on offer, what does get left by the wayside is character customization– don't expect that new cloak you found to have any effect on the way your character looks. Even so, the sheer number of classes on offer, and just how different they each look and feel, means it is less of an issue than it could have been.

Unfortunately our pre-release time with Yslandia didn't offer much opportunity in the way of experiencing large-scale battles, so the verdict is definitely still out on whether the PvP-centred approach works or not. What we did see was an ample number of quests to help your character through the initial 10 levels, after which quests spill out onto the contested Gilda island too. The current quests support progression to level 25, and comprise the usual collection and courier quests with a fair bit of grinding in between. We've been told by developers to expect a new island shortly which will extend the level cap to 35, so continued support is definitely on Movingplayer's agenda.

Yslandia does two other things which we really liked, and showed a bit of innovation on behalf of the developer. Firstly, the user interface is sensational: your character is controlled by either tap-moving or by an on-screen analogue stick; and skills and items can be placed absolutely anywhere on screen via an intuitive iOS-like hold-to-move system that I hope is picked up by other developers too. Secondly, some classes have the ability to 'take over' their guild mates as familiars once they have disconnected. The game describes this as proxying, and it's certainly a fresh feature that whilst limited to 1 life only, enables guild mates to assist each other even when they're offline.

If there are any shortcomings to note in Yslandia, it's that character animations aren't really up to par with what we usually see in these games. Spells and ability animations range anywhere from barely serviceable to really great (we loved how ranged spells have a charging animation), but there is a certain lack of believability to standard attacks and hit responses. This may be attributable to the fact that we were only able to play on the European servers— which were not entirely without the expected lag– and so the responsiveness expected of combat was just not there.

Of course, there is also the obvious downside that whilst you hoard your various items, they will never have an effect on your appearance in the game world– one Guardian is essentially indistinguishable from the next. Movingparts is aware of this, and have promised that some form of customization through PvP rewards is just around the corner.

What will be interesting to see is how all these elements mesh together in a fully populated game world, and whether the PvP-centric gameplay will hold up as a fulfilling, engaging MMO. Certainly players will have their own positions on whether a competitive environment will sustain them or not, particularly as there is a pseudo-requirement that players be part of a guild to enjoy all Yslandia has to offer. Personally though, I feel that the European charm and its willingness to push the boundaries of long-held MMO concepts nicely positions Yslandia as something different worth checking out.

Yslandia is currently priced at CAD$4.99. While you're waiting for the US and international release, check out our forums to see what experiences our Canadian readers are already having with Yslandia.

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About a month ago, we detailed the announcement from Capcom that the female character Crimson Viper would be added to the roster of Street Fighter IV for iPhone. And as we speculated then, she won't be alone. Today they have announced that original Street Fighter II combatant E. Honda will be joining her in the forthcoming update, following the previous update that added Cammy and Zangief as playable characters. Personally this announcement has me really excited, as E. Honda marks the completion of the original cast of characters from the arcade game, and he is also one of my favorites to play with. Capcom has released some new screenshots and video of E. Honda in action (click to enlarge):

And here is some gameplay video of E. Honda on the iPhone:

As with the last update, this one will be free to previous owners of the game. Besides the addition of Crimson Viper and E. Honda, Capcom has hinted that some other surprises will be in store for fans of Street Fighter IV. The previous update hit the App Store a few weeks after the announcement of the second character, so hopefully this news of E. Honda means that we'll be seeing these new characters in the game within the next month. Be sure to check out our preview of Crimson Viper for additional screens and video of her in action as well.

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With the iOS 4.1 update that added Game Center out in the wild today, we're seeing an avalanche of new updates for older games that are utilizing these new features. Previously we've only seen games that received achievements and leaderboards, but now it seems that three games from Pangea Software are the first to offer real-time multiplayer. Here is the information for each game provided in the press release from Pangea:

Nanosaur 2, $3.99 Nanosaur 2 is a 3D action-adventure game where you pilot a time traveling pteradactyl from the future.  Previously, Nanosaur 2 was just a single player game, but new in version 2.0 are six new levels and three new multiplayer modes including Capture the Eggs, Battle, and Race.  Thanks to iOS 4.1, users with Game Center enabled devices can now play against each other by inviting friends or using Auto-Match to play against people around the world.  In Capture the Eggs mode players are on teams, and they have to retrieve all of their team’s dinosaur eggs before the other team.  Battle mode, on the other hand, is pure excitement as players collect weapons and blast each other out of the sky.  The race mode also involves a lot of heat seeking missiles, blasters, and cluster grenades, but your primary goal is to race around a track.  Up to four players can play together in Nanosaur 2, and the game uses the Voice Chat feature of iOS so you can smack-talk your opponents while you unleash a barrage of firepower on them.

Cro-Mag Rally, $2.99 Cro-Mag Rally is Pangea Software’s caveman racing game where you race primitive vehicles such as the Bone Buggy, Geode Cruiser, Logmobile, etc. around prehistoric and ancient racetracks.  The new 2.0 version of Cro-Mag Rally now supports multiplayer networked racing thanks to Game Center, so up to four players can race against each other using any of the vehicles in the game.  Additionally, version 2.0 is now a Universal Binary app so it runs on the iPhone / iPod Touch and the iPad.

Enigmo, $2.99 Enigmo is one of the all-time best selling iPhone games with well over a million units sold, and it is the winner of an Apple Design Award for Best iPhone Game.  Enigmo is a physics based game where you try to direct flowing streams of liquids to solve puzzles.  Version 4.0 of Enigmo adds a new multiplayer mode where up to 3 players can compete to solve puzzles.  Like Nanosaur 2 and Cro-Mag Rally, Enigmo also supports Voice Chat.

We've had a chance to try out these new multiplayer features and are really happy with the results. Connecting into an online game is incredibly simple as you can choose to search out a game against random people or very easily invite one of your Game Center friends. The voice chat also works really well, and trash talking while racing against forum moderator Zincous in Cro-Mag Rally was a ton of fun indeed. Voices are clear and there is a mute button if you get tired of hearing how badly you are getting beaten by your opponent.

We didn't experience any lag while playing, but this could be due to Game Center being so new, and it will be interesting to see how the experience holds up in the coming weeks as more and more games get online multiplayer. As of right now, the Game Center integration in these three titles breaths new life into the experience, and they are definitely worth checking out for the multiplayer and voice chat functionality. We'll be anxiously awaiting to see what other titles receive the Game Center online multiplayer treatment down the line.

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Being so involved in video games, I fully admit that I'm often woefully unaware of really awesome board games and it isn't until they get an equally awesome port that they even pop up on my radar. A couple of days ago I hadn't the slightest idea what Neuroshima Hex! was, but after watching the trailer and checking out the game, it's high up on my most anticipated game list. Neuroshima Hex! is a tactical hexagonal board game set in the Neuroshima tabletop RPG universe. This universe is host to fantastic things like nuclear war, rebellious sentient artificial intelligence, carnivorous vegetation, mutants, and humans that are just trying to survive in the middle of all this.

The board game is playable by up to four players (or single player against AI opponents), utilizing four different factions each with their own strengths and weaknesses. The goal of the game is to take over the enemy headquarters by placing tiles on the board. There are a number of videos on YouTube detailing exactly how the game is set up and played, and it sounds wonderfully complicated.

Neuroshima Hex! is being released this month, and after seeing exactly how awesome board games could be on the iPhone with Carcassonne [$4.99], I'm really excited for the game. It's fully licensed, features all of the original art, and there's even plans for an iPad version in the works.

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Slice It! from developer Com2uS is a new puzzle game where you must dissect various shapes into equal parts. It may sound painfully simple, and can be if you're just dealing with straight circles and squares. But Slice It! throws some seriously crazy shapes at you that will have you scratching your head in how to approach them. A hint system helps prevent you from getting stuck on some of the harder shapes, and a nice five star scoring system urges you to retry puzzles in an effort to get a perfect score. With 60 levels to tackle, and room for more to be added in the future, Slice It! provides a surprising amount of slicing fun.

Right off the bat you'll notice that Slice It! has a very nice presentation, utilizing a hand drawn colored pencil look with graphics enhanced for iPad and Retina Display. Levels are displayed in groups of twenty on a stage select screen, and are unlocked one after the other as you complete them. There are five tabs on the side to select the different groups of levels, though only the first three currently have content. Tapping the fourth and fifth hints that more levels should be coming in future updates. It's slightly annoying to see these empty tabs in the game, but the 60 levels are more than enough to occupy most gamers attention for a good amount of time.

When you select a level, the shape that must be sliced is drawn for you. Touching a point outside of the shape anchors a starting point for the slicing line, and dragging across the shape gives you a dotted line of where the slice will take place. The real trick to Slice It! is that you must slice the shape into the required amount of segments for each level, as well as use up all of the slicing lines. This can call for some more creative thinking, even with basic shapes. Once you've fulfilled the segment and slice line requirements, the shape is sliced up, and you are graded on how accurately you can get each segment to be the same percentage of the entire shape. For example, a square cut into fourths would require each segment to be as close to 25% of the entire shape as possible to earn 5 stars.

If you slice too many segments, don't use all your slices, or have segments that are a much different proportion than the rest then you will fail the level and have to retry. If you do well and get 5 stars on a stage, you earn a hint to be used on one of the future stages. Each hint will tell you where a slice line needs to go to get you started, and in my experience with some of the more odd shapes, the hints can be invaluable.

A couple of small issues stick out in Slice It!. For starters, it can be hard to accurately place the anchor point on the iPhone's smaller screen, and I sometimes found myself having to try multiple times to get a line started where I needed it to. Related to this, if you draw a line and decide it's not where you want it to be, you can drag the end point of the line back to the starting point to not draw a line at all. Unfortunately the game often ends up drawing the line anyway, which can easily be erased with the undo button but is annoying nonetheless. Finally, sometimes multiple slice lines can intersect in the middle of a shape and cause a very tiny segment to be made, unbeknownst to you until you actually try to complete the level. This causes you to have to retry the level since that extra segment goes over the requirement.

These are all minor issues in an otherwise fun game, and merely serve to annoy rather than ruin the overall enjoyment of Slice It!. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed playing, and there is a strong “one more try” factor when aiming to get the most equal segment proportions possible. Even when I had already achieved 5 stars, I found myself retrying a level anyway just to see if I could get exactly equal segments purely for my own satisfaction. Players in our forums are enjoying the game as well, and if you're looking for a new type of puzzle game with a charming style that's easy to pick up and play, take a look at Slice It!.

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