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Capcom's Street Fighter IV [$9.99] not only is proving to be a fantastic fighter for the iPhone, but also one of the best supported games we've seen from big-name developers who historically haven't had that great of a track record when it comes to free content updates. We loved the game when it was first released, as evident in our review. Since then, both Cammy and Zangief have been added, and this most recent update includes E.Honda and C.Viper. Each come with two costumes, their own associated set of moves, and combos to master. Also included are some new costumes for Ryu and Chun-Li available via in-app purchase.

If you haven't picked up Street Fighter IV yet, now is a fantastic time to get on board. Capcom did an amazing job adapting the controls to the touchscreen of the iPhone, the graphics look great, and you really can't argue about four additional characters being added since release for free. Hopefully Capcom keeps the update train rolling.

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Backflip Studios has released their latest free game to the App Store. The release of Buganoids follows their other summer launches including Tunnel Shoot, Graffiti Ball, and Ninjump. We profiled Backflip Studios' success in the App Store back at WWDC. As of this writing, they report that their games have seen over 48 million downloads with up to 2 million unique players playing each day.

For this latest App Store entry, Backflip enlisted the help of a developer we're very familiar with around here – Dan Bliss. Bliss' App Store career [iTunes link] has been pretty much exclusively dedicated to retro-inspired games, so his involvement made a lot of sense for Buganoids.

The developers accurately describe Buganoids as "Tempest" meets "Centipede" with a dash of "Gyruss" thrown in. The game is a circumferential shooter where your goal is to destroy the spawning bugs coming up from the planet. Your only ability is to shoot down — straight into the planet. So, in order to adjust your aim, you need to walk around the planet. If a bug makes its way to the surface, you're going to have to shoot form the opposite side to take it out. It's a pretty simply mechanic that offers a surprising amount of depth.

The game offers five different weapons across seven different globes and includes 3 levels of difficulty. Like all of Backflip's free games, they are ad-supported by offer the customer the ability to buy-out of the ads.

There's both an iPhone and iPad version of the game, and they are both free. So, no reason not to try it out.

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Xpect Games is nearing the release of their upcoming post-apocalyptic racer, Race After 1977 which has been in development since January of 2009. The game takes place after a massive nuclear war of sorts, leaving the world ravaged and the survivors just racing their pieced together racecars around Mad Max style. Xpect has built a completely customized 3D engine for the game with physics tweaked for realistic driving across all different types of terrain, jumps, ramps, and other obstacles as you fight your way to the finish line. (Or, as realistic as any post-apocalyptic racer can get I suppose.)

The developers have released two videos of the game, the first of which is a teaser trailer seen below:

The second video is a hands-on gameplay trailer which shows several different cars being driven around a few different tracks. The game is being played on an iPhone 3GS in this video, so presumably the framerate should be even smoother on the iPhone 4 and new iPod touch:

Race After 1977 is being released this fall, and as someone who loved Mad Max, the Fallout series, and really anything to do with crazy post-apocalyptic stuff, I can't wait.

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An App Store favorite of our readers who relish the retro is surely Manomio's Commodore 64 [link], the C64 emulation system / game store that does a great job of putting an expanding list of 8-bit classics right in our pockets. We first got wind of Manomio's emulation effort in June of last year, when it was submitted to Apple and rejected, as it was determined to be in violation of the iPhone SDK agreement.

Then said Apple,

Thank you for submitting C64 1.0 to the App Store. We've reviewed C64 1.0 and determined that we cannot post this version of your iPhone application to the App Store because it violates the iPhone SDK Agreement; "3.3.2 An Application may not itself install or launch other executable code by any means, including without limitation through the use of a plug-in architecture, calling other frameworks, other APIs or otherwise. No interpreted code may be downloaded and used in an Application except for code that is interpreted and run by Apple's Published APIs and built-in interpreter(s)."

It was the system's included BASIC interpreter that was the sticking point for Apple, it turned out. Manomio disabled (and then removed, as it was deemed necessary) the BASIC interpreter and the app finally found its place in the store, and in Apple's good graces.

Last Thursday, Apple made significant changes to the iOS SDK agreement, relaxing restrictions on development tools used to create iOS applications. One of the areas of the SDK agreement affected was section 3.3.2, the specific part of the agreement that Apple determined Manomio had violated with the initial releases of C64. Upon hearing this news, Manomio CTO Stuart Carnie was quick to read over the new Apple document and found the following, updated section 3.3.2.

3.3.2 An Application may not download or install executable code. Interpreted code may only be used in an Application if all scripts, code and interpreters are packaged in the Application and not downloaded. The only exception to the foregoing is scripts and code downloaded and run by Apple’s built-in WebKit framework.

As can be seen in the new language, interpreted code is now acceptable under certain circumstances. In light of this fortunate turn of events, the developer has put together an updated version of C64 (v2.0) with BASIC enabled. Wanting Apple to be fully aware of his re-inclusion of the BASIC interpreter, Carnie extensively underscored his changes in the Reviewer Notes section of the submission form and additionally sent a courtesy e-mail to Apple on the issue. Since then, the developer and Apple have had further correspondence regarding the update and the response so far is positive. Apple will, understandably, spend additional time reviewing the application, but Carnie says he remains cautiously optimistic.

If Apple does end up rejecting the update, Manomio's plans are to remove the BASIC interpreter, but leave in place the other enhancement that this update brings, Carnie tells us. Those other enhancements include:

• FIX – fix crash when attempting to use the "Download All" feature and many games are queue
• FIX – Add additional controls to Hunter's Moon
• FIX – iPad landscape view is no longer partially off the screen
• NEW – Upgraded to OpenFeint 2.6.1 (includes time-scoped leader boards)
• NEW – iOS 4.1 tested
• NEW – New "Always use keyboard" option to access additional in-game features

Apple's recent update to the SDK agreement gives developers of all manner of apps more flexibility, but is a particular boon to developers of retro system emulators and games. We've got our fingers crossed that C64 with BASIC enabled is given the nod by Apple and that other developers are inspired to bring others classic systems and games to our favorite mobile device family.

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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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Apple recently unveiled a new Game Center web page detailing the features of the service and revealed that the 2nd Generation iPod touch will also be a Game Center-capable device. After delaying the Game Center release to iOS 4.1, Apple had previously announced that it would only be available on 3rd generation devices and newer. This latest development only leaves the first generation iPod touch and both the original iPhone and iPhone 3G out in the cold.

Game Center is launching soon with iOS 4.1 and already developers are committing to supporting it in their games. Forum member Project-79 has been maintaining a thread of assembled announcements and press releases from developers that will be supporting Game Center on (or soon after) launch. Notable titles include Flight Control [99¢], Angry Birds [99¢ / Free] and many others.

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Swedish iPhone developer Acne Play released their second game on the App Store today. With fantastic art similar to their other title, Comet [99¢], Pizza Boy [$1.99] is a platformer with some of the best controls I've seen in the genre. The story is ridiculous as expected, told through fantastic comic book style sequences that explain that an evil bird has stolen your pizza– of course you need to get it back. Unfortunately, between you and your beloved pizza pie are all kinds of obstacles, enemies, pits, trampolines, and everything else a good platformer needs.

Pizza Boy's graphics are highly reminiscent of excellent platformers of the 16 bit era with some perfectly paired chiptune music to go along with them. (They even put the whole soundtrack up online to listen to.) The game is host to all the gameplay mechanics required for a good platformer, with an odd culinary twist. Instead of collecting coins you pick up strawberries, and 100 strawberries award an extra life. Instead of tossing fireballs you throw soda bottles which are available in a limited quantity from soda machines that you stomp on. In addition, you can collect letters to form the word "pizza," and you can even rescue cats on each level for bonus points.

Where Pizza Boy really shines is in the control department. Pizza Boy's iTunes description mentions something Acne Play is calling the "Smart Touch System," which I'd normally write off as just a gimmick, but the controls are just fantastic. I'm not sure how much magic is in the Smart Touch System but while playing Pizza Boy I never ran in to issues I usually have with platformers on the iPhone such as missing buttons, sliding my finger off the D-Pad, and other fat fingerings that often result in death.

What kills me about Pizza Boy is how little content there is in the game. The developers even went as far as to say in the iTunes description that it would only take a half hour to play through. They later clarified this via email by saying that it was a guesstimate for how long it would take an experienced player, and it took me close to 45 minutes. The worst part about all this is that Pizza Boy is great, and the entire game really leaves you wanting more. The only online scoring there is in the game is the ability to brag via Facebook or Twitter, which pains me even further because a short score-centric game like this could have a decent amount of replay value injected in to it with some form of online leaderboard.

Pizza Boy really reminds me a lot of the recently released physics puzzler No, Human which also was over before you knew it, leaving you wanting much more. Just like No, Human, if you decide to give Pizza Boy a try you'll be rewarded with an awesome platformer, but the credits roll just as you really start to get in to it.

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We've been excited for the Parrot AR.Drone since we first heard about it early this year. After a few different hands-on opportunities at various conventions, it was hard to not see the amazing potential the device had once you got it outside of the little 10 foot by 10 foot tent that was home to its demonstrations. After spending an entire week with the Parrot AR.Drone, it does have some down sides, but is still the coolest RC toy I've had a chance to play with.

The Parrot AR.Drone is a quadricopter that is piloted using an iPhone, iPod touch, or even an iPad. When the device is powered up, it starts broadcasting its own WiFi network. Using the companion Free Flight [Free] app, you connect to this wireless network and begin controlling the unit. The network it creates isn't encrypted at all, but the AR.Drone does bind itself to the first device that connects to it to prevent other people from hijacking your flight session. Unpairing your phone is as simple as pressing a small button on the underside of the device.

Once you're connected to the AR.Drone via the Free Flight app, you're immediately shown whatever the front facing camera sees. The top left button cycles through what is displayed on the screen between the front facing camera, the bottom facing camera, or a mixture of both. With both displayed you can continue pressing the button to swap whether the front facing or bottom facing camera is shown in the corner or filling the screen.

Just below the camera cycling button is a button that allows you to edit the settings of the device. From here you can tweak nearly everything such as how quickly it will climb, how much it will bank on turns, how sensitive the iPhone controls are, and even the SSID the AR.Drone broadcasts. Also in the settings is what kind of shell you're currently using and whether or not you're flying outdoors.

Included with the Parrot AR.Drone is the large indoor shell which protects the propellers from bumping in to things as you fly it around your house as well as the much sleeker outdoor shell. Swapping these is easy, they fit over the front facing camera and are secured on the back with a magnet. Outdoor hulls are available in three different colors for $20 each, and a replacement indoor hull will run you $30.

The first thing you notice with the AR.Drone when you pull it out of the box is just how incredibly light and fragile the whole unit feels. The two different hulls and the body of the unit itself are made of EPP, or Expanded Polypropylene, a material that is widely used in most RC aircraft. It's able to bounce back and retain its shape, but just like other RC aircraft, I don't see the AR.Drone being able to handle much abuse. Thankfully, Parrot has an entire online store with every part you'd need to completely rebuilt your AR.Drone if you had to.

Flying the device itself is very easy, although doing anything more than just basic maneuvers requires a bit of getting used to. In the Free Flight app, tapping the button at the bottom of the screen causes the AR.Drone to either take off or land. From there, holding your thumb on a button on the bottom left side of the screen allows you to move the unit forward, back, or side to side by tilting the device you're running Free Flight on. Turning side to side and adjusting your altitude is accomplished using a virtual joystick of sorts on the right. If you get in trouble, an emergency button on the top of the screen immediately kills power to the propellers.

It's amazing just how much the AR.Drone does for you. It comes packed with some fairly advanced circuitry that will do everything it can to keep the device level. If you ever lose your connection to the AR.Drone WiFi, it just stops itself then slowly lands. Using sensor data from the bottom of the device, it can keep itself hover in place, even outside in a light breeze. Aside from actually running into something, the AR.Drone is also very difficult to crash, even when you're intentionally trying to get it to lose control. If it senses that it's about to tilt too far to one direction or otherwise lose control, it will abruptly correct itself.

It's really cool to see all these systems working in tandem, and if you've ever fiddled with other RC helicopters before, how idiot proof the AR.Drone is in comparison will amaze you. Unfortunately, because flying the device is such a cool experience, the first thing you immediately come to grips with is just how short the battery life is. On a full charge, I was able to fly the unit outside for around a half hour (or less depending on wind conditions) and indoors I was able to juice an additional 15 minutes or so out of the battery for a total flight time of about 45 minutes. Charging the battery back up takes an hour and a half.

Another unfortunate drawback to the AR.Drone is just how mediocre the cameras on the device are. The forward facing camera sports a resolution of 640×480, and Parrot claims it delivers this video feed at 15 FPS, but in my testing the frame rate was rarely anywhere near that, or very constant for that matter. The bottom camera is a much lower 176×144, but can display 60 FPS according to Parrot. In my testing, video from the bottom camera is a lot smoother, but it is very difficult to fly the unit using only the bottom facing camera. Because of this, more often than not I just flew the AR.Drone like I would any other RC toy in that I just watched it in the air and used my iPhone as an incredibly elaborate controller.

Without a shell on, the AR.Drone can lift very light loads, allowing for things like high definition helmet cams to be strapped to it for some better video. For instance, I found this video on YouTube of an AR.Drone with a Contour HD 1080p camera onboard:

Once you spend more time with the AR.Drone, other limitations begin to become increasingly noticeable. For instance, with the height limiter enabled in the options, the AR.Drone will only climb to around 20 feet off the ground which is as far as the sensors under the craft can detect. With the height limiter disabled, you can climb much higher, but flying the unit becomes incredibly difficult as it's no longer capable of hovering in place once you exceed the capabilities of its bottom-fancing sensors.

Testing the vertical capabilities of the device was the only time I had to use the emergency button. Once you take away the AR.Drone's ability to figure out where it is in relation to the ground, it loses its ability to correct its location. Flying the device on what I'd call a fairly calm day resulted in it almost being blown into some trees when a small breeze picked up. In comparison, in similar conditions closer to the ground the AR.Drone barely moved at all.

Also, since the whole device operates on WiFi, you're constrained by the range limitations of both the AR.Drone and the iPhone. Parrot is claiming you can operate the device from 150 feet away, which seemed a little optimistic in my testing. Thankfully, all the cool auto-pilolting stuff I mentioned earlier comes in to play when you lose your connection to the AR.Drone and it just flies in place waiting for you to get back in range and resume flight.

Overall the Parrot AR.Drone seems like a very 1.0 device with loads of potential both in future hardware revisions and in future development with the AR.Drone API. Improved battery technology, higher resolution cameras, and more powerful sensors to allow for higher flights are all things I would love to see in future models. Currently the only companion app available for the AR.Drone is the Free Flight app, but Parrot has promised other apps such as augmented reality games where two players with their own AR.Drones can have virtual dog fights, and other similar things. None of these were available at the time of this review, but I definitely can see the amazing potential for future software development.

Parrot is boasting a completely open API for developers to program their own apps to interface with the AR.Drone. While I'd love to think that there are going to be all kinds of different third party apps for the device, I really can't imagine many developers devoting resources to projects that not only require you to own an iPhone or iPod touch, but also a Parrot AR.Drone– Especially considering the mediocre uptake that iPad-only games have seen, and the iPad's market is likely exponentially larger than that of the Parrot AR.Drone.

However, if you're interested in RC aircraft and have dabbled in iPhone development, I really can't think of a much better toy to own than the AR.Drone. Throughout all my testing, I kept thinking "The AR.Drone would be cool if it did _______." If you're capable of utilizing the API to build an app that fills in the blank for whatever awesome functionality you come up with, $300 for the AR.Drone seems like a worthy investment for hobbyists.

While the Parrot AR.Drone is the coolest RC Toy I've ever played with, it's hard to give it a strong general recommendation given the current lack of software. It also would have been nice to see Parrot bundle a second battery in with the unit since additional batteries are pretty much required if you're serious about flying the device. If you're OK with waiting to see what additional apps get released, and you're patient enough to deal with 90 minute recharge cycles, flying the AR.Drone will likely be one of the most awesome things you'll ever do with your iPhone.

The Parrot AR.Drone is currently available at Brookstone for $299.99. They offer a number of accessories with it, including extra batteries for $29.95 and both two- and three-year service plans– although it's not entirely clear if crashing the device in to a tree constitutes as "normal wear and tear" in the eyes of Brookstone's warranty department.

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We were huge fans of Rocketcat Games' original title, Hook Champ [$2.99 / Free], and love Super QuickHook [$2.99] even more– Especially with the updates it has been getting. Super QuickHook came loaded with the fast paced endless Avalanche mode at launch, and the latest 1.3 update added Eruption mode. Eruption mode is even more difficult and requires either playing through most of the game or scoring over 4000 in Avalanche mode to unlock.

In addition, 1.3 adds six new playable characters. Three are unlockable in-game, and the other three are available via in-app purchase. Free characters include Gnomey, Aldora, and Hookbot (the DLC character from Hook Champ). If you're willing to shell out a couple bucks, you can buy Jake and Gunny (also from Hook Champ) along with the new Super QuackHook, the grappling hook equipped duck. Each character comes with their own unlockable grappling hook and unique hats.

They've also packed some new achievements in to the game, with rewards for unlocking some of the difficult ones. In addition, if you've been having performance issues, there's now a toggle in the options allowing you to turn off a lot of the extra effects to improve frame rate. Some members of our forums have been reporting issues with some of the achievements, but the developers have been quick to respond and are already working on another quick update to address these problems.

If you've beaten everything there is to beat in Super QuickHook, make sure you download this update and give the new Eruption mode a try. If you've yet to download Super QuickHook and want to know more about the game, take a look at our full review.

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