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XS Games, a New York based publisher, announced Friday that they plan to release an iPhone and PSPgo port of “The Red Star” early this spring. The Red Star was a popular shooter/action game for the Playstation 2 that was based off the graphic novel of the same name.

The game was a blend of top down shooting and side scrolling beat ’em levels. It also had some RPG elements, with characters being able to upgraded abilities at the end of levels.

Here is a trailer for the PS2 version:

XS Games says that both the PSPgo and iPhone are the perfect new home for the game. They say by releasing the game on these platforms it will allow them to improve the game play and graphics of the game while keeping the price fair. We will have to wait till spring to see if they deliver.

Screenshots of the iPhone version:

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Facing the possibility of bankruptcy in 1987 after a string of failed titles, SquareSoft (now Square Enix) only had the resources left for one final game. Hironobu Sakaguchi was in charge of the seemingly insurmountable task of saving the company. Aptly named, Final Fantasy needed to succeed, and with the help of artist Yoshitaka Amano and composer Nobuo Uematsu, Final Fantasy not only was massively successful, it also spawned the series that has since become the benchmark that nearly all roleplaying games are compared to in one way or another.

Final Fantasy tells the tale of four "Light Warriors" with mysterious backgrounds that have joined forces to restore light to the world and vanquish the evil that has spread across the land, illuminating four elemental orbs in the process. While the plot of the game is entirely cliche by today's standards and the in-game dialog is succinct and non-sensical at times, Final Fantasy was unlike anything console gamers of the late 80's had ever seen before with an epic world map spanning three continents, party customization, and unmatched gameplay depth.

Final Fantasy

The original Final Fantasy [App Store] was not an easy game by any means. The magic system didn't make much sense, the death and save system was extremely unforgiving, and some of the later dungeons required tons of grinding to earn experience and money to buy the provisions needed to make it through alive– And even then, a string of random encounters could put an end to hours of progress. A strategy guide was practically required, and in its day, Funco Land (now GameStop) sold the used Final Fantasy NES cartridge for far more than its original retail price after the supply dwindled following the surprise success of the game.

Final Fantasy has since been remade and rereleased several times over the years, and while the basic story and gameplay mechanics have remained the same, many tweaks and refinements have been applied in the process. The iPhone port of Final Fantasy includes the high resolution graphics and reworked soundtrack of previous revisions, the additional "Soul of Chaos" and "Labyrinth of Time" dungeons, as well as a greatly reduced difficulty level which has served as a point of contention amongst Final Fantasy fans.

Your party seems to level up much faster, you can save anywhere outside of battle, and ineffective attacks are a thing of the past. (Previously if you assigned a party member to attack a monster and that monster dies before they attack, they just swing at nothing instead of the next available target.) Like any good iPhone game, your progress is saved when you quit the game. When you load the game again, you will be able to resume from where you were in a dungeon or on the world map. This has one side effect though, in that you can cheese your way through skipping random encounters by just quitting the game when you enter battle. On your next launch, you'll be right where you were before the battle and can keep on truckin' through the dungeon.

SquareSoft never imagined Final Fantasy would be a smash hit, as the game in no way lends itself to a sequel. A year after the original Japanese release of Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy II hit the streets, starting the trend of releasing Final Fantasy sequels that all feature a similar theme with a new game world as well as tweaks, refinements, and modifications to things like the battle and leveling systems. Again you play as a party of four (this time without the ability to customize which classes were in your party like the first) and once again save the world from evil.

Final Fantasy II

The most drastic change in Final Fantasy II [App Store] is way your characters level up. Instead of strictly increasing in level as you earn a certain amount of experience, the more you use certain abilities, the more powerful they become. For instance, by taking damage you will eventually earn more hit points and by casting spells you eventually earn more magic points. This often confusing cause and effect system was supposed to allow players greater customization of their characters instead of the rigid class types of the original Final Fantasy, but also allowed several opportunities to cheat the system to artificially inflate the various attributes of your party members.

Final Fantasy II also comes with a new system to interact with the various in-game characters where players can memorize certain key terms, then recall them to question townspeople. While there is more interactivity than finding the correct character and talking to them until they tell you the next part of your quest, the new dialog system introduces tons of trial and error as you explore multiple conversation trees with each character you come across.

While advancing the plot may be tedious at times, Final Fantasy II is the first game in the series where you can have less than four party members, with new characters rotating in and out as the plot progressed instead of playing the part of silent protagonists in the first. New vehicles were added, and the chocobo was first introduced, a rideable bird that allows players to move around the game world without random enemy encounters.

Final Fantasy II wasn't available in the US until 2003, as before then what we knew as the Super Nintendo Final Fantasy II was actually Final Fantasy IV, a confusing numbering scheme that wasn't rectified until the release of Final Fantasy VII for the Playstation. The iPhone port of Final Fantasy II also comes with bonus content released in previous remakes of the game. Both the "Soul of Rebirth" and "Arcane Labyrinth" dungeons are included.

Final Fantasy II features the same save system, allowing players to save anywhere. The game also will resume where you left off, and is susceptible to the same random battle cheesing as the original Final Fantasy where you can just quit the game and load it back up before the random battle occurred.

iPhone Adjustments

Both Final Fantasy games are controlled via an on-screen D-Pad for character movement and a button to run while in town or dungeons, with similar menu systems as previous releases, except now the various menu items are all touch sensitive. Movement and menu navigation works well enough to get the job done, but the D-Pad feels stiff and much larger than it should be. Also, navigating the menus can be irritating at times, as the touch areas for scroll bars and some menu options are annoyingly small. Regardless, this didn't hinder gameplay much as neither Final Fantasy game really requires quick or precise movement or menu work.

In battles, the menu system as you may remember it is gone, instead replaced with a row of icons on the bottom of the screen to attack, cast magic, use items, etc. Targeting is as simple as touching the party member or monster you want to select, and overall the battle system works well although like most games with random battles, can get very tedious, especially when backtracking and potentially fighting much lower level enemies that you can kill in one hit but still have to go through all the motions of attacking and targeting.

Conclusion

As far as which game you should get, both are substantial pieces of gaming history. If you weren't around when Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy II were released, keep in mind these early RPG's lack many of the features that have since become commonplace. Because of that, you might require a trip to GameFAQs to figure out what to do or where to go next as it's not always spelled out for you. There's also no quest log if you forgot where you were supposed to be going.

Personally, I love the original Final Fantasy. I've played through the game more times than I can even remember, on more platforms than I'd even care to admit starting with the NES and ending with the iPhone. I'd recommend anyone who considers themselves a fan of RPG's or the Final Fantasy series to download the iPhone port immediately. If like me, you've been around since the beginning, the iPhone version is a competent port and an excellent blast from the past, even with the mediocre controls.

The sequel is good as well, but I've never been a fan of the wacky leveling system, and the new dialog trees that are the result of the key term memorization system will quickly have you heading to GameFAQs. I'd really recommend playing through the first before downloading the second, as if you can't make it through Final Fantasy, you likely won't have the patience for Final Fantasy II.

As an aside, I'm absolutely ecstatic that Square Enix has decided to start porting Final Fantasy games to the iPhone. I think I speak for every iPhone-owning fan of the series when I say: Please, don't stop. Bring them all.

App Store Links:

• Final Fantasy, $8.99
• Final Fantasy II, $8.99

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We're not quite sure just how we missed it, but while Touch Arcade was at Macworld 2010, Gameloft posted a short teaser video spreading the news that Ubisoft's classic (and cuddly) platformer Rayman is on its way to the iPhone and iPod touch.

Rayman made his debut in 1995 on the Atari Jaguar and MS-DOS, followed closely by Playstation and Sega Saturn releases. The 2D platformer featured some of the most lavish console graphics ever seen at the time and was immensely playable. I, personally, threw several weeks of my life into the game, glued to my shiny new Playstation back in early 1996. And, while the game was followed up by a number of 2D and 3D sequels, it's really the first that feels the best, and which we believe (and hope) is the version that's headed to the iPhone.

The game's backstory is as amusing as its colorful, cartoony graphics.

In Rayman world's, nature and people live together in peace. The Great Protoon provides and maintains the harmony and balance in the world.

Sorry Folks, this apparently can't last.

… one fateful day, the Great Protoon is stolen by Mr. Dark, an evil being! The Electoons who used to gravitate around it lose their natural stability and scatter all over the world! Troublesome, isn't it? (and untidy, too!) In this now-unbalanced world, strange phenomena begin to occur: freaks and hostile characters appear, capturing every Electoon they can find! They definitely need a HERO to save them now, don't you think?

Rayman must recapture the Great Protoon from its mysterious kidnapper, free the Electoons and reasseble them all to restore the world's harmony. But will the bad guys let him do it?… After all, he doesn't have arms or legs… but don't panic, neither do the bad guys.

Have a look at a bit of gameplay from the Playstation version of the game.

We'll be sure to let readers know when they can expect to begin their own iPhone-based search for the Great Protoon as soon as we get further details.

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Keita Takahashi, game developer and apparent future playground designer, is best known for Katamari Damacy and its sequel We Love Katamari. Both games are extremely creative and have spawned an incredibly devoted fan following, there's even an iPhone game– I love Katamari [$4.99 / Free]. Takahashi kicked things up a notch with his next game, Noby Noby Boy which was first revealed at a Sony event in 2007, and didn't make it to the PS3 PlayStationNetwork store until 2009.

In the PS3 game, you take control of a multicolored worm character that the game refers to as "BOY". With the analog sticks you can move BOY around the 3D environment filled with various buildings and animals. You can also stretch BOY, and points are accumulated by making BOY grow as long as possible. As players stretch their respective BOYs, points are collected by an online character called GIRL which causes GIRL to stretch through the various planets of our solar system as more points are submitted by everyone playing Noby Noby Boy.

This surreal sandbox PS3 game saw generally favorable reviews, but there was a clear division between those who absolutely loved the game for how crazy it is and those who hated it. For instance, Eurogamer said the game "inspires creativity, curiosity and simple, careless glee" while ArsTechnica said "Noby Noby Boy has no point, or fun".

In honor of the one year anniversary of Noby Noby Boy's release on PSN comes Noby Noby Boy [$1.99] for the iPhone. So far reactions to the game seem extremely polarized, with people either absolutely loving the game, or not understanding why anyone would waste their time with it. In the iPhone version, you have access to a full toolbar of toys for you to play with. BOY can be stretched across maps utilizing the iPhone's GPS, you can write and store memo's using BOY's body for a notepad, use BOY as a clock, and oodles of other crazy things ending in you submitting your BOY's length to GIRL online.

Here is the first of a twelve part series of movies made showing the various features of Noby Noby Boy:

I'm not sure there's much point in attempting to "review" this game, as Noby Noby Boy is just a collection of toys that you will either love, or not understand at all. If you're among the group of people who were crazy about Noby Noby Boy for the PS3, chances are you will like the similar insane sandboy play of the iPhone game. If you've never heard of Noby Noby Boy, you can attempt to watch the previously mentioned series of videos to try to make some sense of it, but much like the thread on our forums I expect the reaction to this story is going to be similarly split between people who are excited the game exists and people who don't know why we would bother posting about it.

App Store Link: Noby Noby Boy, $1.99

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On the last day of Macworld, I met with Allister Capati, founder of a new iPhone gaming company called Objectify, LLC. Capati actually works for Sony Playstation during the day, but over the past 6 months, his (and his team's) evenings have been occupied with the development of Drift Sumi-e an upcoming iPhone game which is trying to intersect art with racing.

The idea for the game was a collaboration between Capati and his friend Calvin Wan, a professional Drift racer. Drift Sumi-e caries the style of Ink and Wash (Sumi-e) painting throughout the game and incorporates it as a line drawing element to control your car. At first glance, the game is reminiscent of Draw Race, though with a far more elegant style.

The game will launch with 8 tracks and a single type of car, though iterative updates are planned. You must achieve a certain score in order to unlock the next track. Each track also carries a set of unlockables that can be obtained on subsequent repeat plays. These unlockables include a customizable signature stamp, the ability to take snapshots, as well as day/night and snow/clear sky toggles.

The game involves drawing a single stroke along the racetrack as the path for your car. You must try to hit and connect all the red clipping zones and try to make it through the course as fast as possible. After you draw your single stroke, you sit back and watch the playback in 3D as your car drifts around the corners. Multiple camera angles are provided along with drifting smoke effects. Your ultimate score is based on the smoothness of the line and speed of your run.

Here's a gameplay video:

Overall, the game really stands out for its style and presentation. Drift Sumi-e is expected in the App Store on Tuesday, February 16th.

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Hudson Entertainment just released an iPhone version of the classic turn based strategy game Military Madness (or Nectaris). The hex map strategy game predates Advance Wars and was originally released for the TurboGrafx-16 back in 1989. The game has since seen a number of revisions including last year's revival for WiiWare, Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network.

The iPhone version is an adaptation of Military Madness 2 and is said to take full advantage of the iPhone's touch control and graphics capabilities.

Military Madness: Neo Nectaris delivers a complete, turn-based strategy game from the masters of the genre. Through 50 levels of blistering tactical gameplay, you'll be wrapped up in every battle, every move, every step of the way.

We'll take a closer look at this game later this week.

App Store Link: Military Madness, $4.99

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A trailer was recently released for Glu's exploration and collection game, 1000: Find 'Em All!. In the video, Chris White, head of Glu's London studio, reveals the three different ways the game can be played. First off, with a GPS-capable device, you can wander around in the real world visiting locations shown inside the game with presents to be found. Travel there, and the game awards you with one of the many items available.

If you don't have a device with GPS, or the thought of wandering city streets to collect virtual goods doesn't appeal to you, there are two other way to collects in-game presents: Exploring in-game, coloring the black and white landscape in the process or finding random WiFi hotspots. Item generation based on WiFi data sounds a lot like Monster Rancher for the PlayStation, a game that used data from music CD's inserted in to the system as the seed for the random monster generator.

The idea behind the game seems cool enough, and there's no doubt that there are people out there who love games with tons of things to collect and unlock. I just can't quite decide if the GPS functionality and the exploration Glu asks you to do with the game is going to turn out to be a really neat gameplay element, or a gimmick players will ignore, choosing instead to just run around in-game.

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With the year coming to a close, I feel confident in saying with as much authority as I can muster that 2009 has been an amazing year. Soon we will be posting the results of weeks of deliberation on what we feel were the best games, a holiday buyer's guide for people who opened an iPod touch or iPhone this Christmas, and other year-end stories highlighting the various games we feel are the "must-haves" of 2009– But it hardly seems right to summarize the year in a few simple lists of game titles, brief synopses and links to reviews when so many remarkable games were created and events transpired that were still highly noteworthy or influential but fall outside of the rigid boundaries of "best of" listings.

When the App Store first launched on July 10th, 2008, very few people, myself included, realized the full potential of a reasonably open platform with a $99 entry fee that allowed developers building games in their bedrooms to be on equal footing with industry giants. The success of the pioneers of the App Store created a gold rush of talent, with new eager developers hoping to see even a fraction of the success of the stories that motivated their migration to the platform. 2009 was filled with even more inspirational tales of developers quitting their day jobs and building full-fledged businesses off of the App Store.

2009 also marked the year that the indie developer dreams of Imangi Studios, Bolt Creative, InMotion Software, Tiger Style Games, and many others were fully realized with titles created out of basements and on kitchen tables without a single cent of outside financing that were able to compete with the likes of EA, Activision, Sega, Namco, and other giants of the gaming industry. Everything they created was their own, a feat nearly impossible on any other platform.

Before 2009, no iPhone gamers cared about or likely even knew the name Tim Langdell, a man who has now become infamous amongst the community for relentlessly disputing ancient trademarks and consistently keeping Mobigame's EDGE off the App Store. We were impressed by the game when we first posted about it on January 4th, before anyone even had a clue of the legal battles to come. Since its was taken down, EDGE has briefly appeared for download several times throughout the year, but even as 2009 is coming to a close the fate of this game still is unclear.

Five days following the release of EDGE, Pocket God [99¢] made its debut on the App Store. At the time, not even Bolt Creative realized the cult following that the game would soon have. We didn't even post about it until months later, as in its earliest form Pocket God barely resembled what you would call a game– But the Pocket God phenomenon was growing too large to even attempt to ignore. Since then the game has seen 29 episodes, each representing a substantial content update and according to the Independent Games Festival trailer, Pocket God has over 1.6 million worldwide fans– A number easily confirmed by the blitz of forum members swarming each and every Pocket God thread posted on our forums along with countless other Pocket God fan-made spinoff sites.

February was an even bigger month than January for iPhone games, with Rogue Touch's [99¢] release and its continued dominance throughout the year with the developer consistently implementing community feedback, solidifying its position as the best implementation of Rogue on the platform. iDracula [99¢ / Free] was also released, and was the first dual-stick shooter to rise to the #1 position on the overall paid app sales chart– Its success no doubt inspiring countless other developers to throw their hats in to the dual-stick shooter ring.

In a sea of tower defense games, February also saw geoDefense [$1.99 / Free], a game that challenged fans of the genre with its brutal difficulty level which was designed from the ground up to never create a situation where the player is able to sit back and watch as waves of creeps are slaughtered by their defenses. Since then, geoDefense Swarm [$1.99] appeared on the App Store, after much anticipation from the fan base of the original game, which had grown so hardcore that they even challenged developer David Whatley to post the source code controlling one of the game's towers to verify its functionality.

On March 5th, Flight Control [99¢] hit the App Store with a bang, in essence creating the line drawing chaos management genre which was spawned an army of games with similar gameplay elements or control mechanics. Games like Harbor Master [99¢ / Free] were among the first in expanding on the Flight Control formula, but none of the spinoffs even saw a fraction of the success of Flight Control, a game which has held a firm position near the top of the paid apps listing since its release with a fan following of celebrities such as Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore challenging each other via Twitter.

Doodle Jump [99¢] was also released in March, a simple tilting game which has since seen several updates and to this day still hasn't left the second screen of my iPhone 3G, along with being among the very first batch of essential apps and games that were synced to my iPhone 3GS shortly after unboxing it on the day of its release. Doodle Jump has become the gold standard that most simple games are compared to on TouchArcade, and it seems impossible for us to record a podcast without mentioning it at least once.

One of the most memorable games for me of April (aside from Ow My Balls! [99¢]) was Hysteria Project [$1.99], a game that combined live action footage with simple gameplay elements reminiscent of Sega CD or LaserDisc full motion video games. Ultimately the game fell flat due to a short playtime and nearly non-existent replay value, but I still have to admire the amount of talent, planning, and production that went in to creating the many video clips and impressive horror/thriller atmosphere. Hysteria Project seems to be abandoned now with updates released only addressing existing bugs and iTunes reviews flooded by users requesting additional content. Regardless, if you're a fan of games like Dragon's Lair [$4.99], you will likely appreciate the direction Bulkypix attempted to go with Hysteria Project.

May brought Manomio's port of Flashback [$1.99 / 99¢], a game which curiously enough was only an interpreter of the original game files based on the REminiscence engine by Gregory Montoir. On the first launch of the game it downloaded 3MB of the original DOS data files in order to play the game. No one knew it at the time, but this mechanism foreshadowed the dramatic release and re-release saga of their Commodore 64 Emulator [$2.99], an app which sparked countless debates over the merits of Apple's approval process as its fate on the App Store slowly unfolded.

Sega's Sonic The Hedgehog [$5.99] was also released around this time, and it didn't take long for clever members of the community to pick the game apart and discover that it was little more than Sega's own emulator– And with a minimal amount of tweaking could be made to play any Genesis ROM file. Emulation on the iPhone was punctuated in late December with the release of Nescaline, a NES emulator based on NES v3 available on Cydia. Only available for a few short hours, retro fans willing to cough up $6.99 during this time are now among a small group of gamers capable of running any NES game on their device without jailbreaking.

While we were at WWDC, the talk of the town seemed to be InMotion Software's I Dig It [App Store], an amazing game that came completely out of left field and seemed to captivate anyone who got passed an iPhone with it installed during the event. After each night of the conference when our own Blake Patterson insisted on taking us to his favorite bar in San Francisco, The Tempest, I'd run my battery completely out searching for diggins while drinking gin and tonics. I Dig It eventually hit #1 on the iTunes sales charts, and in the wake of its success, InMotion Software released I Dig It Expeditions [99¢ / Free]– A sequel and vast improvement on the original.

After a tease at the WWDC Launch Party that was co-hosted by TouchArcade and MacHeist, Doom Resurrection [$1.99] was available for download. Launched at the premium price of $9.99, Doom Resurrection utilized the same assets as Doom 3, and while there were many 3D games available on the App Store prior to its release, Doom Resurrection was likely the first title that truly opened the eyes of iPhone gamers allowing them to see the true graphical potential of the platform.

SGN's F.A.S.T. [Free] also went live on the App Store in late June, and was among the first games for the iPhone to offer seamless realtime action oriented multiplayer. Following its release at $9.99, F.A.S.T. has slowly had its price reduced and is now free and funded by in-game downloadable content– A feature available to developers following the release of the iPhone 3.0 OS on June 17th.

The iPhone 3GS hit the street on June 19th, packing a faster processor, more storage, a compass, and most important to gamers: OpenGL ES 2.0 capabilities. It would still be some time before this new functionality would realized by developers, and 2009 is coming to a close without the compass being used for anything more than gimmicky augmented reality tech demo games and with developers only barely scratching the surface of OpenGL ES 2.0– With a select few games even taking advantage of the additional shaders and other graphical effects available on the 3GS and later released 3rd generation iPod touch.

The entire month of July was overshadowed by the release of Enviro-Bear 2010 [99¢] an experience which polarized gamers in to two camps: Those who thought Enviro-Bear 2010 was the worst game that they ever played and couldn't understand why we would post about it, and those who agreed with me that it was the Citizen Kane of iPhone games. Featuring the most realistic simulation of a bear driving a car available on the platform, Enviro-Bear 2010 is still talked about on our forums and referenced in a few other games, most notably the recent Minigore [$1.99] update.

Also first available in July, Newtoy's Words With Friends [$1.99 / Free] joined Chess With Friends [$2.99 / Free] in providing the iPhone equivalent of correspondence gaming to the games of Chess and not-quite-Scrabble. CEO Paul Bettner later revealed some amazing usage statistics at GDC Austin in mid-September: the Newtoy games had 50,000 active players daily. While Pinch Media reported the average iPhone app user spent less than 5 minutes on an app per day, Chess With Friends and Words With Friends players spent an average time of 1.5 hours playing each day.

The most notable game to come out of August was by far Tiger Style's Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor [$2.99]. Released without a single preview, Spider instantly captivated our entire community. The allure of such a mysterious yet high quality game was irresistible as Bryce Manor itself held a mystery which the player could either follow their human curiosity choose to explore the story of the game, or simply enjoy the game as a spider catching bugs and completely ignore it. This was just many of the remarkably ingenious design decisions found in Spider, and the game's entire design process perfectly embodied the indie development spirit of the platform.

Beating EA to the punch by an entire month, Gameloft's NFL 2010 [$2.99 / Free] was the first fully licensed football game available on the iPhone which was soon followed by Madden NFL 10 [$5.99], a game we got an early preview of at the Penny-Arcade Expo in Seattle. Which is the better football game was hotly debated among sports fans on our forums, with both games competing in feature wars involving multiplayer, complete NFL rosters, stat tracking, and other things only hardcore sports fans cared about. Regardless, gaming franchise staples like Madden only further legitimized the iPhone as a gaming platform.

At the end of September, Hi, How Are you [99¢ / Free] hit the App Store, a game based on the life, art, and music of Daniel Johnston. When I first played the game, I had no clue who Daniel Johnston was, or why this game was so amazingly strange. All I knew was that it had a really cool cell shaded art style, and in researching the game I became aware of everything that was Daniel Johnston. As I explained in a blog post, this completely transformed the game for me. Much like the work of Daniel Johnson, Hi, How Are You is completely off the wall, and likely one of the most under-appreciated games on the App Store. In the few emails I sent back and forth with the developer, it seemed this realization was not at all uncommon and the game's single fault is that it may just simply be too strange.

In October, Canabalt [$2.99] was released, the iPhone port of a flash game playable online for free. Our community was wholly divided amongst players who were absolutely in love with Canabalt, and others who still leave comments on front page stories and post threads in our forums upset both with the positive reception it received and its $2.99 price point. Regardless of which side of the fence you sit on, it is a remarkable feat to be among among the few iPhone games that are not only noticed, but also talked about for months following their release. Canabalt was later updated with a few new obstacles and online leaderboards– Clearly quantifying exactly how bad I am at the game compared to the rest of the world.

Following Canabalt came another game with similar pixelated retro graphics: Hook Champ [$2.99 / Free]. Taking a similar swinging mechanic made popular by other games and introducing RPG elements in an equipment shop where virtually everything about your character can be upgraded, Hook Champ was an instant classic. Featuring among the best and most seamless integration of online leaderboards I've seen, Hook Champ provides a silly amount of replay value as each run through a level is timed, uploaded and compared to everyone else's performance.

October also saw what seemed to be one of the most substantial announcements from Apple since the unveiling of 3GS hardware: Changes to the downloadable content system on the App Store allowing free apps to have in-app purchasing. Previously, DLC was only available to developers who sold their apps, with the intention that free apps would always be free. Aside from substantially changing the dynamic of the top 100 lists, we also speculated that lite versions could be a thing of the past as developers migrated to free demo apps which were unlocked to the full version via an in-game microtransaction. Very few games ever actually implemented this purchase model, largely in part because appearing on the top 100 free list requires exponentially more downloads than what is required to chart on the top 100 paid listings.

What this new DLC change did usher in was games like ngmoco's Eliminate [Free], a free to play game with optional in-game purchases to buy energy, a sort of virtual currency used inside of the game. Touch Pets Dogs [Free] also utilizes a similar model, as do several of the Miraphonic Epic Wars games.

In November, Activision surprised us all with the release of Call of Duty: World at War: Zombies [$9.99], the cooperative online multiplayer enabled port of the zombie-slaying game mode from Call of Duty: World at War for home consoles– Leaving iPhone gamers wondering what could possibly come next out of the industry giant.

Wheeler's Treasure [$1.99] also hit the App Store, following a thread with beta testers absolutely raving about the game. Featuring flick controls, and a really strange game premise where you're chasing a wheel down a hill, Wheeler's Treasure is yet another example of an extremely high quality game that really could only exist on the iPhone. The developer has already implemented a few new power-ups in game based on (and named after) forum members who provided feedback, and Wheeler's Treasure joins Hook Champ as another game that has fabulously seamless online scoring, marked by headstones that appear in game based on the distance other players travelled before their wheel was destroyed.

November and December were met with a blitz of games from Gameloft, who at the start of the year went from releasing a few mediocre games to the nearly becoming undisputed king of iPhone game production. Aside from the remarkably complete port of the PlayStation/PC classic Driver [$6.99], Gameloft delivered several other games including N.O.V.A. – Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance [$6.99], a Sci-Fi first person shooter with four player online multiplayer and among the best graphics of any iPhone game released this year.

December also saw several fantastic classic games, starting off with Sword of Fargoal [$4.99], which is by far the most approachable roguelike and one of the best examples of a perfectly remade retro game. The previously released Space Ace [$4.99] was also joined by two other LaserDisc arcade classics: Cobra Command [$2.99] and Dragon's Lair [$4.99].

With 122,660 available apps on the App Store as of today, even this seemingly comprehensive listing of major events and releases barely even begins to scratch the surface. One could spend weeks analyzing the App Store notating the trends in sales, releases, genres, and borrowed/modified gameplay mechanics. The fact that this is even possible is amazing by itself, and when you consider that the App Store is only a year and a half old, it's hard to imagine what the year-end wrap-up of 2010 will include.

Notable things on the horizon include the Unreal Engine 3 coming to the iPhone, potentially unlocking countless ports of existing projects developed for the Unreal Engine as well as the unimaginable unannounced games from the industry leaders of the App Store. Looking at what Gameloft, ngmoco, Illusion Labs, and others have produced this year alone, it's impossible to even guess what they will have accomplished next year.

Apple seems to be updating the iPhone and iPod touch hardware on a yearly basis, and rumors are already rolling in on potential inclusions for next year's model. With the Nvidia Tegra-based Zune HD and numerous Android devices either released or due to be released soon, the iPhone's advantage currently lies in the power of its software rather than its hardware– A fantastic position to be in, especially as more apps are submitted to the iTunes App Store on a daily basis than the total number of apps available in the entire Android Marketplace. Not to mention you barely need two hands to count the number of games available for the Zune HD.

Depending on which rumors you believe, the legendary Apple tablet may also run a shared OS to the iPhone, and run the same games and apps available on the platform. If this turns out to be true, the gaming implications could be massive as a large problem with iPhone games is often how much of the screen is obscured by controls. It's still much too early to even begin to speculate what the future of the Apple tablet will hold, and you can drive yourself crazy attempting to piece together the opinions of industry insiders and analysts.

In regards to TouchArcade, we've grown substantially over 2009. At the beginning of the year Blake and Arnold were holding down the fort, I've since joined the team full time, and we've even acquired some new writers recently who are producing some fantastic reviews. At the various conventions and meetings we've attended throughout the year we've made some great friends, heard some amazing stories, and scored a lot of great previews. We've grown to just under 9 million page views a month, and since we started recording our podcast we've maintained a position in the top ten video game podcasts on iTunes. We even have some great things to come for TouchArcade, both in improving existing features of the site as well as a few top secret projects and partnerships in the works which will be revealed soon.

Our readers and excellent community are directly responsible for our success, and we'd like to thank you for your continued support. From everyone at TouchArcade, have a safe and happy holidays.

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It seemed to make more sense this month to do our ratings a little earlier than usual to make room for our upcoming best of 2009 articles. With the pre-holiday release rush we've seen, it seems unlikely that there are going to be that many more games coming out this month especially with the iTunes connect holiday downtime– But any games released after this post will be included in January's ratings.

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.

December was a huge month for some great iPhone game releases, this month's "Best iPhone Games" are highlighted here:

5 Stars

Need For Speed: Shift – Racing games seem to be a natural fit to the tilt controls of the iPhone and EA's latest entry in to the genre can easily stand next to the best racing games on the platform in terms of the amount of included licensed materials, different game modes, and overall fun-factor. With control settings and driving assist options that range from the game practically playing itself to a competent racing simulation complete with a manual transmission mode, Need For Speed: Shift is a must-have for any fan of racing games. (Review, App Store)

N.O.V.A. – Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance – Drawing inspiration from Sci-Fi console classics, NOVA is a surprisingly complete and full featured iPhone first person shooter. With an epic single player campaign that will take you several hours to complete, graphics which are among the best currently available on the platform, and four player online deathmatch modes, NOVA has successfully lived up to the insane amount of pre-release hype. (Review, App Store)

Sword of Fargoal – By far the most approachable roguelike, Sword of Fargoal is a classic dungeon crawler with randomly generated levels which provide nearly infinite replay value. Aside from being a fantastic game, Sword of Fargoal also serves as an excellent example of how retro ports should be done. The iPhone version preserves the look and feel of the original while adding new OpenGL effects and other modern graphical flare. If you've never played a roguelike before, Sword of Fargoal is a great introduction to the genre. (Review, App Store)

4.5 Stars

Labyrinth 2 – The sequel to the game that pioneered the marble rolling genre on the iPhone before the App Store even existed, Labyrinth 2 takes the standard wooden labyrinth game and adds even more obstacles, fantastic 3D graphics, and a full featured online level editor. The user created content community has already exploded and you can load up Labyrinth 2 every day and have a new batch of levels to play through, all of which download almost instantly inside of the game. (Review, App Store)

PAC-MAN Championship Edition – Developed by the original Pac-Man designer, Tōru Iwatani, Pac-Man Championship Edition succeeds in breathing new life in to this arcade classic. With great controls, colorful graphics, and fast-paced game modes, Pac-Man Championship Edition is by far the best Pac-Man game on the platform. (Review, App Store)

Driver – An excellent port of the PlayStation/PC game, Driver includes all of the content of the original with updated graphics and an iPhone-friendly interface. Players complete missions in four full in-game cities and on top of that there are additional game modes that are just as fun as the single player campaign. (Review, App Store)

The rest of December 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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It doesn't seem that long ago that I was completely blown away by Ridge Racer on the original PlayStation (which actually was a port itself) along with most of the gaming press at the time. Nearly 15 years later and here we are playing a comparable game on our phones. Namco's recently released Ridge Racer Accelerated [App Store] provides a lot of the same arcade racing feel as the rest of the game series, but similar to Ace Combat Xi or Pac-Man Championship Edition, the game has launched with part of the total content– the rest either requiring in-game microtransactions or apparently coming via future updates.

Like most racing games, steering is controlled by tilting and other functions like braking or changing gears with a manual transmission are linked to on-screen buttons. Auto-acceleration is configurable in the options and defaults to off. The controls work well enough, but it seems like the tilt steering is a little touchy, even after fiddling with the sensitivity in the options. It wasn't anything game breaking, just noticeably less smooth compared to other racing games on the platform.

The arcade driving style will be instantly familiar to anyone who has played a Ridge Racer game before, but may seem strange to newcomers to the franchise as performing well in races requires a great deal of drifting around corners. Drifting is easy to initiate, all you have to do it steer in to a turn, let off the gas, and press it again and your car will be going sideways. Learning to control your drifts instead of just spinning out takes quite a bit of finesse and a lot of trial and error until you get a feel for how much to turn in to them.

The graphics of the game pale in comparison to other racing games available on the iPhone– Especially when it comes to the shockingly low complexity car models. You would think these comparatively low levels of detail would be part of a trade-off for an insanely high framerate, but Ridge Racer Accelerated's iTunes description mentions that the iPhone 3GS is the "recommended" platform with 3G optimizations "coming soon". Except the game doesn't even perform particularly well on the 3GS, and forum members are reporting the game is flat out unplayable on older devices. (Something we haven't entirely been able to replicate in our testing.)

For reference, here is me racing poorly on an iPhone 3GS:

Much like other recent Namco games, Ridge Racer Accelerated is a veritable DLC piñata. Initially coming loaded with only two tracks (or four if you count driving the opposite direction on those same tracks) and 18 different Class 1 and Class 2 vehicles are available (6 unlocked, 12 unlockable). 6 (3 + 3 in opposite direction) additional tracks are available for $2.99 and 9 Class 5 vehicles available for $1.99.

Early reactions have been mixed on the game. Basically, it seems if you can get past the disappointing performance, long time Ridge Racer fans can still have fun with the drift-heavy racing style the game offers. The ultimate goal of each level is really to beat your previous lap times across the tracks and cars included. There's no career mode or global high scores offered. Ridge Racer offers Arcade, Duel and Survival modes using the same tracks and cars.

Further discussion and impressions can be found on our forums.

App Store Link: Ridge Racer Accelerated, $2.99

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