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Hey what do you know it's Friday and once again we've got a huge list of games that are on sale and free. As usual, because of the nature of iTunes pricing, these can change at any time. All prices are current as of this posting, but if you've had your eye on any of these games you're better off not waiting around because you never know when they'll return to normal price.

One game you should really check out while it's on sale is Revolutionary Concepts' Cobra Command [$4.99 → $1.99], especially if you've never played an old laserdisc game. We enjoyed the game in our review and even included it in our year end listing of best retro games.

There's also a free version of the game and to celebrate their one year anniversary, Revolutionary Concepts is also making the two games developed by their sister studio Collect3 free as well: SNAP! and Animal SNAP!.

To promote the launch of Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy II, Square Enix dropped the price of most of their other games. They haven't drastically slashed prices, but if you've been looking to pick up some of these games, Square Enix sales are fairly rare:

• CRYSTAL DEFENDERS, $7.99 → $5.99
• Hills and Rivers Remain, $6.99 → $4.99
• SLIDING HEROES, $2.99 → 99¢
• SONG SUMMONER: The Unsung Heroes – Encore, $9.99 → $7.99
• VANGUARD STORM, $4.99 → $3.99

And of course there is a whole bunch of freebies:

• AirBear, 99¢ → FREE
• Compression, 99¢ → FREE
• Kachina, $1.99 → FREE
• Rasta Monkey!, 99¢ → FREE
• Sky Force Reloaded, $1.99 → FREE
• Vector Tanks (Classic Version), 99¢ → FREE

TONS of great games are on sale this week, this is just my pick of games we've covered that have had price drops:

• B-Boy Beats, $2.99 → 99¢
• Battle Blasters, $2.99 → $1.99
• Battle of Puppets, $1.99 → 99¢
• Bird Strike, $1.99 → 99¢
• Bridge Odyssey, $2.99 → 99¢
• Castle Frenzy, $1.99 → 99¢
• Doodle Bomb: Physics Puzzle with a Bang, $1.99 → 99¢
• Geared, $2.99 → $1.99
• Giana Sisters, $2.99 → $2.99
• GROUND EFFECT, $1.99 → 99¢
• Isaac Newton's Gravity, $3.99 → $2.99
• Riddim Ribbon feat. The Black Eyed Peas, $2.99 → $1.99
• Robot Rampage, $4.99 → $1.99
• Speed Forge Extreme, $2.99 → 99¢
• Space Harvest, $1.99 → 99¢
• Scoops – Ice Cream Fun For Everyone, $1.99 → 99¢
• VANQUISH: The Oath of Brothers, $2.99 → 99¢
• Zombie Cannon Carnage, $1.99 → 99¢

And while we haven't given The Quest series much love here on TouchArcade, I know quite a few people who absolutely love these old school style 3D RPG's.

The Quest Gold, The Quest, and all the expansions are on sale:

• The Quest Gold, $9.99 → $5.99
• The Quest, $5.99 → $2.99
• The Quest – Hero of Lukomorye I, $2.99 → $1.99
• The Quest – Hero of Lukomorye II, $2.99 → $1.99
• The Quest – Hero of Lukomorye III, $2.99 → $1.99
• The Quest – Islands of Ice and Fire, $2.99 → $1.99
• The Quest – Mithril Horde, $2.99 → $1.99

This is just a small selection of games with recent price changes. For the full list, check out AppShopper where you can find all games and popular games with recent price drops.

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It's time to head off to the nearest Coinstar machine to turn the treasures lost to your couch cushions in to iTunes credit, as this week has some sales you likely won't want to miss. As usual, all of these prices are current as of this posting and because of the nature of App Store price fluctuations it's usually not a good idea to wait very long if any of these games interest you.

The star of the show this week is Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, a game that we not only loved in our review but also awarded 5 stars in our January "Best iPhone Games" round up. For a limited time to celebrate the Chinese new year, Chinatown Wars will be available for $6.99, down from its original $9.99. If you haven't bought this game yet, this is a sale you won't want to miss.

There are also a ton of Namco games on sale:

• ACE COMBAT Xi Skies of Incursion, $6.99 → $2.99
• BurgerTime Deluxe, $1.99 → 99¢
• Dig Dug REMIX, $2.99 → 99¢
• Galaga REMIX, $2.99 → 99¢
• Garters & Ghouls, $4.99 → 99¢
• I Love Katamari, $4.99 → $2.99
• Inspector Gadget, $2.99 → 99¢
• Isaac Newton's Gravity, $3.99 → $2.99
• Mr. Driller, $1.99 → 99¢
• Ms. PAC-MAN, $4.99 → $2.99
• PAC-MAN, $4.99 → $2.99
• PAC-MAN Championship Edition, $2.99 → 99¢
• PAC-MAN REMIX, $2.99 → 99¢
• RIDGE RACER ACCELERATED, $2.99 → 99¢
• Time Crisis Strike, $4.99 → 99¢
• Star Trigon, $1.99 → 99¢

Other noteworthy game sales include:

• Airport Mania: First Flight, $2.99 → 99¢
• Angry Birds, $1.99 → 99¢
• BATTLE BEARS 1.5, $1.99 → 99¢
• Catan, $4.99 → $3.99
• Family Feud, $4.99 → $2.99
• Flower Garden, $2.99 → 99¢
• Low Grav Racer 2, $2.99 → FREE
• MonsterKill, 99¢ → FREE
• Neocell Fighters, $1.99 → 99¢
• Underground , $3.99 → 99¢
• Star Wars The Force Unleashed, $5.99 → 99¢

Of course as usual there are a ton of other games on sale, to see other games with recent price changes, AppShopper has listings of both "popular" games with recent price changes and all games with recent price changes.

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Our January 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 traditionally objective measures such as graphics or sound, but simply reflect the games we would most recommend to others.

5 Stars

Broken Sword – The remake of this 1996 point and click adventure was wonderfully brought to the iPhone. The story and all around high-quality production values of Broken Sword sucked us in. Whether you're an old fan of the original game, a newcomer to the series, or even someone who's never played a point-and-click adventure before, Broken Sword is a game with mass appeal that will draw you in. (Review, App Store)

Sword & Poker – Mix poker with a loose RPG and you get one of the most surprisingly compelling games from January. The variety of monsters, weapons and levels adds enough content to kept us coming back throughout the month. Even if the premise sounds strange to you, give the Lite a try. (Review, App Store, Lite)

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars – A great adaptation of a DS/PSP game, Chinatown Wars offers a level of depth rarely seen on the App Store. If you complete everything in game, playtime will need to be measured in days, not hours. The weapon targeting system can use improvement, but barely detracts from an otherwise phenomenal game. (Review, App Store)

4.5 Stars

Cogs – Cogs is a mechanical puzzler that challenges you to bring to life a series of increasingly complex machines by way of arranging sets of tiles, gears, pipes, and the like in such a way as to connect varying energy sources to their ultimate outlets across 50 different 2.5D and 3D environments It has become one of our favorite iPhone puzzlers. (Review, App Store)

The Deep – The Deep is all about exploring environments and finding important items that allow access to other parts of the map or give unique abilities to the main character. Unique level designs, the pleasant art, and that addictive, upgrade-focused exploratory gameplay kept us captive for hours (Review, App Store)

The rest of January 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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TouchArcade forum member Ozzytheking has been on a roll lately discovering cheats inside of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars [App Store]. Each of these cheats are entered by moving the magnetic letters around on the mission replay board to spell out the various cheats. These mission replay boards can be found inside of any safe house.

Entering any of these codes will change your weapon load out:

LOADOA – Grenade, nightstick, pistol, minigun, assault rifle, micro SMG, and stubby shotgun.
LOADOB – Molotov, tazer, dual pistols, flamethrower, carbine, SMG, and dual-barrel shotgun.
LOADOC – Mine, chainsaw, revolver, flamethrower, carbine, SMG, and dual-barrel shotgun.
LOADOD – Flashbang, bat, pistol, RPG, carbine, micro SMB and stubby shotgun.

Entering these codes have other effects:

CASHIN – Grants $10,000 extra cash.
LIFEUP – Refills your life to full.
SHELLY – Refills your armor to full.
TRIPPY – Unknown
COPIN – Raises your wanted level by 1 star.
COPOUT – Lowers your wanted level by 1 star.

A cheat is successfully entered when the letters return to their original position and a message is displayed at the bottom of the screen. Other cheats are actively being searched for in this thread on our forums and for more information on Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, check out our review.

App Store Link: Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, $9.99

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In the wake of Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars [App Store] our forums have been host to a great discussion surrounding the game, and something that has been popping up quite a bit of debating the merits of each of the different platforms that Chinatown Wars is available for. The iPhone currently holds the advantage when it comes to pricing, but without real physical controls or good targeting system for fighting, both the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP versions hold their own in this battle.

The DS obviously lags behind in the graphical department, but makes up for it with the second dedicated screen for navigation and stylus mini-games– All of which feel much more immersive than the button mashing alternative on the PSP. In regards to whether the PSP or iPhone is host to better graphics, it really seems to be a toss up. The textures in the PSP version appear more crisp and detailed, especially when looking at any signs and the PSP features better shadows, lighting, and reflections. The higher resolution (and seemingly higher quality) iPhone screen combined with the softening of textures and edges of in-game objects makes the iPhone a worthy competitor in visual quality, especially when combined with the high frame rate the game runs at.

Something that isn't immediately apparent until you're comparing the games side by side is how quiet Liberty City is without the pedestrian chatter. You can go rampaging through the streets and it seems everyone is yelling at you on the DS and PSP. It creates a noticeable lack of atmosphere on the iPhone when switching back from the other two versions.

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Which version is the "best" is really a matter of personal taste. The PSP's higher quality textures can often look gritty at times, and while some may prefer the softer look of the iPhone textures, others could see them as blurry. It's hard to compare the DS, especially because of how different the game feels with two screens and how obvious it is that the touchscreen mini-games were designed for a stylus, not buttons or fingers. Also, neither the PSP or iPhone can compete with the requisite DS microphone gimmick of actually whistling to hail a cab.

So which version do we recommend purchasing? Really, you should buy Chinatown Wars for whatever platform you have with you the most when you want to play games. For many people this will be the iPhone, but if you prefer to conserve your battery and play 3D games on a dedicated gaming device, both the DS and PSP versions are totally worth having. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is a great game, and it doesn't really matter what platform you're playing it on, as long as you're playing it. You really shouldn't miss this game.

App Store Link: Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, $9.99

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Back in 1997 when the first Grand Theft Auto hit the PC, I doubt anyone at Rockstar (known as DMA Design at the time) expected it to spawn a series that would span ten different games and four expansions over the next thirteen years. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars [App Store] for the iPhone is an excellent adaptation of a game previously only available on the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP. These prior versions of the game were met with universal acclaim, and according to Metacritic.com Chinatown Wars for the DS holds the title of the highest rated game available for the platform. On the PSP, Chinatown Wars is a close second, beaten only by God of War: Chains of Olympus by a single point.

The recently released iPhone Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars seems to be a hybrid of both the DS and PSP versions, with graphical quality that lies somewhere in between the two games, tutorial elements that reference PSP buttons, as well as some of the cell shaded graphics and all the stylus mini games from the DS. The main difference is how the controls have been adapted to the on-screen virtual joystick and buttons of the iPhone. Like other games that use a similar control scheme, there is always an inherent lack of precision without physical buttons that take a little getting used to, but this didn't hamper my enjoyment of Chinatown Wars in the least bit.

While on foot, a virtual joystick controls character movement, with a button for using whatever weapon you have selected (or your fists) as well as buttons to kick and leap over short fences. When you approach a car, a button appears on the bottom of the screen that you can touch to get in. If you're stealing a parked car, this will often trigger a timed touchscreen mini game where you need to turn a screwdriver in the ignition, twist some wires together, or even insert a PDA and crack the car's security system in order to get the car running without triggering its alarm.

These sequences are pretty neat the first few times you do them, and do an excellent job at adding suspense to police chases as you hastily hotwire a car before the cops converge on your location. Once you're in a car, one of five in-game radio stations start playing and the on-screen controls switch to buttons for accelerating, braking, firing your gun, and by default two buttons to steer right or left. Also available is an analog stick for steering, configurable in the game's options.

The biggest control hurdle new players will come across is learning how to cope with Chinatown Wars' driving assist system, which will automatically keep your car going straight down a road. This can be disabled, but without it perfectly lane splitting on a motorcycle seems to be nearly impossible. I've found myself preferring the default steering buttons over the optional joystick because very little control is required when driving. You really only need to hold a direction to turn, or just tap a direction to make minor adjustments to your position on a road. It feels a little strange at first, but after you make it through the tutorial missions you will be flying through Liberty City without issue.

The plot of the game is classic Grand Theft Auto, with an asian spin, made obvious by the game's title. You play as Huang Lee, the son of a recently murdered Triad boss who comes to Liberty City and unsurprisingly enough winds up knee deep in gang drama. Initially you complete tasks assigned by your Uncle, but it doesn't take long for you to meet other contacts who also require your services. The game continues like any GTA game with missions that involve killing people, stealing cars, driving people around, and other often illegal activities.

Of course, like other games in the series, once you complete the short array of tutorial missions you can disregard the main storyline entirely and instead spend your time roaming around the city, completing the various submissions, seeing how long you can survive with a high wanted level, and dealing drugs to increase your net worth.

Chinatown Wars is packed with a surprisingly fun and full featured drug economy that is highly reminiscent of the Texas Instruments calculator game Dope Wars (Originally a DOS game released in the mid-80's.) that I spent an embarrassing amount of my teenage life playing. As you drive around the city you will meet drug dealers, who are all selling or buying various drugs at different prices. Prices change depending on whose turf you're in, but you have to exercise caution because if you get busted with a car load of coke, you lose it all.

Drug dealing is just one of the many other activites that exist inside the game. Of course Chinatown Wars also has the standard taxi, ambulance, firefighter, and other driving games along with tons of secret items and locations to find. There are scratch off lottery tickets you can try your luck on, and random encounters with pedestrians who will also have various things to ask of you. The amount of depth in Chinatown Wars is unbelievable.

Since the inception of the App Store, quite a few developers have tried their hand at making an open-world crime game. Without much serious competition, most of these games seemed quite good– But even the best pre-Chinatown Wars iPhone games pale in comparison to a real Rockstar Grand Theft Auto. The level of depth is completely unmatched, but most importantly, Liberty City feels alive.

Games like Gangstar are far too sterile, with spotless city streets, stereotypical characters with no personality, and very little to make the environment the game takes place in feel like anything more than a basic sandbox. The streets of Liberty City are filthy, filles with cars, pedestrians, trains, people fighting, and emergency vehicles racing through the streets responding to randomly spawned traffic accidents. The mood and lighting of the city changes with the clock in-game, and even though the story and characters you come across aren't really anything revolutionary compared to other Grand Theft Auto games, the people you meet are usually amusing and of course the game is absolutely loaded with expletives and other racy material that the GTA clones haven't dared come close to.

There are a few issues with Chinatown Wars, the most serious being the lack of a solid targeting system. When you hold down the attack button to shoot or punch, you simply attack whoever you're facing. There isn't a way to cycle through targets, and the only way to stay locked on one target is by holding the attack button which often results in quite a few wasted bullets. It seems like there is a lot of lost potential in not having a touch-based targeting mode.

Chinatown Wars also doesn't have any kind of save state system to save your progress if you get a call or need to answer a SMS when you're in the middle of a mission. Instead the game just quits, and the next time you launch it you're back at your apartment. This can be annoying, but thankfully Chinatown Wars was designed to be a portable game, and as such the missions are usually never more than a few minutes long so the amount of progress you lose is fairly minimal.

One of my favorite things about Grand Theft Auto games is the soundtracks, but the radio stations in Chinatown Wars are fairly limited and it seems that all the pedestrian chatter was also cut. However, once you get sucked in to the game these problems fade away as you immerse yourself in Liberty City.

Chinatown Wars is a massive game, so much so that the few things I've mentioned in this review barely even scratch the surface of what there is to do and all the different features that help you to do them. An excellent in-game GPS system guides you around the city, periodic email messages tip you off to new missions and other things to do, safehouses scattered around Liberty City can be purchased once you're wealthy enough, and there's even multiple save slots so more than one person can play the game on a single device.

Performance on my iPhone 3GS is absolutely outstanding, and according to forum members, Chinatown Wars also runs without issue on the entire iPhone and iPod touch product line. The game is restricted and won't install on the first generation iPod touch, but apparently with a little tinkering can be played just fine. Something worth mentioning is while the download itself is only 188MB, Chinatown Wars requires a little over 600MB free on your device to install.

There is so much to do in Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars that completing the whole thing will likely necessitate a trip to GameFAQs to consult the various guides and maps to find every hidden object and complete every mission– A task that will likely take days of concurrent playtime. For $9.99 App Store gamers can get their hands on a game that sells for two to three times as much on other platforms, representing a substantial value even at a price point reserved for "premium" games on the platform.

Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America's vice president of sales and marketing described Chinatown Wars' sales on the DS as "frustrating", and sadly the PSP version didn't perform any better. In less than 24 hours following its release on the App Store, Chinatown Wars is already the #1 top-grossing app– Something that hopefully other giants of the gaming industry are noticing, as I doubt I'm alone in hoping even more of these "full" console games make their way to the iPhone.

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If you're at all interested in open-world crime games, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is by far the best available on the platform and simply cannot be passed up. The sheer amount of content, the amazing graphics, and gameplay that will keep you coming back for more whether you choose to follow the story or rampage through Liberty City on your own is absolutely fantastic.

Now, if you'd excuse me, I've got $50,000 worth of heroin to unload.

App Store Link: Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, $9.99

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Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars [App Store] was quietly released into the App Store this evening. Chinatown Wars for the iPhone seems to lie somewhere in between the DS and PSP versions in regards to graphical quality, but as far as pure GTA gameplay, everything so far seems intact. (Complete with an awful lot of swearing.)

Much like other versions of the game, screenshots barely do it justice. Liberty City in motion on the iPhone is amazing, and all the jagged edges in the screenshots quickly fade away when you're racing down a street, under elevated train tracks, and through alleys as you escape the police. The realtime clock in-game also changes the lighting of the city, shifting from the orange glow of a sunset to the street lights turning on at night. It really looks awesome.

The basic premise of the game involves a man named Huang Lee, the son of a Triad gang boss who was recently sent to sleep with the fishes. He flies in to Liberty City with a heirloom sword his father won in a poker game, deciding to deliver it to his uncle. Of course things never go as planned, and not long after landing Huang finds himself in the middle of a gunfight and winds up getting kidnapped. After stealing the sword, the assailants assume Huang is dead, and looking to dispose of the body drive the car he's in off the side of a pier. In the same vein of other GTA games, story isn't really anything revolutionary, but it gets the job done.

Chinatown Wars is controlled very similar to Gameloft's Gangstar, with virtual buttons and a joystick that handle all the driving, running, shooting, and other activities in game. The iPhone port of Chinatown Wars retains the stylus minigames that filled the DS version, appearing in a little popups where you do things like tap to smash the window of the car you were trapped in at the beginning of the game, slide your finger around to turn a screwdriver to start a car you're stealing, etc.

When the Nintendo DS version was first released, I devoted hours to playing through the game. So far the iPhone port seems like a faithful reproduction with quite a few expletives. I obviously don't have the full text scripts of both games to compare, but everything I've come across so far has fit with what you would expect out of a GTA game, and it would appear that very little if anything was actually censored for the App Store release.

Chinatown Wars seems to be a complete GTA experience. You have your apartment that serves as your character's hub with a "Fruit" computer you can check emails on, a garage you can stash a car in, and when you're on the road there is a full GPS system with a map of Liberty City that you can plot your destination on to easily get from one side of the city to the other. There's all kinds of stat tracking that will tell you everything from how many bullets you've fired to how many fish you've fed and in-game options that offer all kinds of different tweaks to the interface and gameplay.

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We weren't initially sure if this release was intentional, as we expected some amount of pre-release fanfare from Rockstar, but we are going to be working on a full review of this version of the game.

App Store Link: Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, $9.99

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We're not entirely sure if this release was intentional, or another iTunes Connect fat-finger like Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed II Discovery, but Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars was released this evening in several European countries. We will have more details shortly, including a gameplay video.

For the time being, here are the screenshots from iTunes:

App Store Link: Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, $9.99 – Currently available in European countries only.

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To say that The Sims series of games have been successful would be a massive understatement. The original PC version was the best selling PC game of all time, and the ridiculous amount of expansions and sequels all were remarkably successful as well. The iPhone game, The Sims 3 [App Store] rocketed up to the #1 top selling paid app on the App Store almost instantly following its release, and stayed there for quite some time.

EA hopes to duplicate that success with the upcoming pseudo-sequel The Sims 3 World Adventures. In the game, you'll be able to travel to three locations: "Al Simhara" in Egypt, "Champs Les Sims" in France, and "Shang SimLa" in China. Along with new personas, careers, and quests you will also have 52 new goals to achieve as well as 4 new mini-games to play with your sim.

Of course World Adventures also comes loaded with new clothes, furniture, and face types for you to choose when customizing your sim, and if you've purchased DLC in The Sims 3, you will be able to transfer those purchases to this game. On top of that, you will be able to import and export your characters between both games on your iPhone.

Last, but certainly not least, The Sims 3 World Adventures will feature musical accompaniment of popular songs sang in "Simlish". LeAnn Rimes is the only artist that EA has specifically mentioned so far, and you can hear her song sung sim-style here.

EA isn't ready to discuss release dates yet, but we will post more information (and hopefully more "Simlish" songs) as we receive it.

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There's no doubt that 2009 has been an amazing year for iPhone gaming, but in looking ahead to 2010, compiling a list of the things we're looking forward to the most proved to be just as challenging as listing the games we most enjoyed in the past. To wrap up our series of year-end "best of" articles, let's take a peek at things we're excited to see released or hear more about in 2010.

Without a doubt, the current elephant in the room of indie iPhone gaming would have to be the recent news of Unreal Engine 3 running on the iPhone 3GS and 3rd generation iPod touch. Details are still hazy at best as to how licensing this engine is going to work, as well as how much (or how little) effort it will take to port existing projects which utilize the Unreal Engine 3 to the iPhone. There are a ton of great games either already released or in the works that rely on Unreal Engine 3.

Interestingly enough, BioShock not only runs within Unreal Engine 3 on the PC, XBOX 360, and PS3, but in late May of 2008 was "coming soon" to the iPhone. It seems unlikely that over a year and a half later that we'll ever see something similar to the BREW demo, but if 2K Games was interested in bringing BioShock to the iPhone at one point… It may not be much of a stretch to think that if porting a existing Unreal Engine 3 game to the iPhone engine isn't that involved that we could be harvesting Little Sisters on the go in the undersea city of Rapture at some point in the future.

Similarly, in February of this year, Bethesda Softworks' Todd Howard indicated that one of Bethesda's next projects is an iPhone game. Bethesda is famous for its extensive RPG's, so it is somewhat conceivable that a project typical of Bethesda's scope is still in development. Howard is the executive producer responsible for both The Elder Scrolls series as well as Fallout 3, and with the fan following both game series have, anything they release on the App Store should do well.

In late August, Rockstar Games announced that Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars was coming to the iPhone. Originally slated for fall of 2009, little is known about the current state of the game. Given the subject matter of previous titles in the Grand Theft Auto series, it's not hard to imagine that Rockstar may have missed their target release timeframe by going back and forth with Apple attempting to get the game approved.

Originally announced at GDC this year, OnLive is a gaming-on-demand service which aims at applying the cloud computing model to gaming. Allegedly, all you will need is the OnLive "microconsole" and a fast enough internet connection to play the latest and greatest video games streamed over the internet. Apparently, OnLive also works on the iPhone. We didn't originally report on this due to the vaporware nature of OnLive in its current state, but if it does turn out to work as advertised, it could shake the foundations of mobile gaming.

Augmented reality games have shown great promise in tech demos, but currently all of the games that use the iPhone's camera, the 3GS compass, or both have seemed like more of a gimmick than an actual enjoyable game. New user input methods seem to always start out as feeling gimmicky, as anyone who waggled a Wii controller through Twilight Princess can attest to. As augmented reality matures on the platform throughout 2010, we could potentially see some extremely innovative projects that we never could have imagined.

The App Store went largely ignored by Activision following their release of Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D [$2.99], a game released very early in the life of the iPhone. We were surprised when Call of Duty: World at War: Zombies [$9.99] appeared out of the blue, especially with such a full featured online component, and one can only wonder what else Activision will surprise us with.

In other Activision news, a video (which has since been removed) of Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 running on the iPhone appeared on YouTube one day which was later confirmed to be real by iPhone developer LTI Gray Matter. At the time it wasn't clear if the port would ever see the light of day, and months later we still haven't seen or heard anything. We didn't know about Call of Duty until the day it was released, so here's hoping for Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 appearing out of nowhere sometime in 2010. (Another skateboarding game we're looking forward to is Mike V – Do or Die.)

As Gameloft continues smashing the top selling and top grossing charts with games inspired by console classics, it's hard to say how much longer their reign of the top of the App Store will remain unchallenged before even more of the original creators of said inspiration throw their hat in to the ring with their own original iPhone games. There are a great deal of big-name publishers that dominate the home console and PC market which have yet to launch a game on the App Store. As the market gets larger with every passing day, it's anyone's guess as to how much longer these same publishers and developers can ignore the platform.

Speaking of Gameloft, it should be interesting to watch how their partnership with Ubisoft evolves and translates in to iPhone games such as the previously released H.A.W.X. [$6.99] and the yet to be released Assassin's Creed 2. Gameloft is an independent sister company of Ubisoft who have a massive list of games that we'd love to see adapted to the iPhone.

During our recent interview with John Carmack, he mentioned the next Id game that will grace the iPhone will likely be Quake Classic, followed by the rest of the Quake series. He indicated that Id hopes to release a new iPhone game every 2-3 months, and judging by the quality of the previous Id games available on the App Store, the Quake games should be just as amazing.

While classic PC gamers may be puddy in Carmack's hands, everyone seems to love PopCap games. This year we saw Peggle [$1.99], Bookworm, [$1.99], Chuzzle [$1.99], and even a awesome update for Bejeweled 2 [$2.99] that allows you to compete in weekly high scoring competitions with your Facebook friends. We expect to see Plants vs Zombies in early 2010, and hope to see Peggle Nights along with many other PopCap classics in the future.

EA has had a fantastic year on the App Store, with too many great games to even list. All indications point to 2010 being just as chock full of big-name games, inevitable sequels, and other must-haves. Mirror's Edge and Spore Creatures will likely be available early in the year, and 2010 should be accompanied by EA's entire updated lineup of sports titles and other surprises such as the yet to be released SSX that was part of an early report of games they had in the works.

Capcom's Phoenix Wright is presumably coming to the American App Store, although it apparently has already been released in Japan with a questionable requirement of a constant connection to the internet as the game itself is only 2MB, with the rest of the content downloaded on the fly from Capcom's servers. It's unclear how much this will change (if at all) when the game is released internationally, but Phoenix Wright is near the top of my list of most anticipated games.

In a sea of mediocre Sega games, a previously unknown indie developer came from out of nowhere with a Sonic CD remake for the iPhone. Christian Whitehead revealed the iPhone Retro Engine and Retro Engine Development Kit which apparently greatly speeds the process of bringing these classics to the platform with phenomenal performance to boot– A significant change from Sega's previously released emulated titles which still don't perform very well even on 3rd generation hardware. We're not sure where the fate of this project lies currently, but we've got our fingers crossed that Sega and Whitehead have teamed up to work on some amazing super-secret project which may or may not have anything to do with Sonic CD.

Earlier this year some Unity developers threw together a decent clone of Portal that we were able to get our hands on. We haven't heard anything from them since, and while it's likely that they got a cease and desist letter from Valve and completely abandoned the project, we're still holding on to a hope that the game gets released in some form in the future.

Retro gamers have two big titles to look forward to a likely 2010 release: R-Type and Marble Madness. We don't really know anything beyond the information we've already posted, but both games would be an excellent fit to the controls of the iPhone as well as the existing retro game lineup available on the App Store.

We've also got our eye on quite a few indie titles which have been in the works and should be released next year. In no particular order, I want all of these games on my iPhone yesterday:

• Warpgate
• World of Goo
• A Skeleton Story
• Power Pill
• Riddim Ribbon
• Cogs
• 100 Rogues
• Galactic Keep: Dice Battles

Really, I could go on listing all the cool games that get posted in our upcoming forum for hours. This is hardly even a fraction of what we're looking forward to, there is so much on the horizon that it's impossible to mention everything without even taking in to account the future possibilities of both the rumored Apple tablet and 4th generation iPhone and iPod touch hardware improvements.

2010 is going to be incredible.

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