While we were busy covering Apple's WWDC in San Francisco, SGN released their air combat title F.A.S.T. -- Fleet Air Superiority Training [App Store] for the iPhone and iPod touch. We've finally had a chance to spend some time with this rather impressive title.

A flying shooter very much in the spirit of the popular Playstation franchise Ace Combat, F.A.S.T delivers iPhone aerial combat action in spades.  The game dispenses with any real storyline, takeoffs, and landings, putting the player in the thick of the action from the start of each mission.  There are 30 missions of increasing difficulty in all and a nice variety of aircraft to choose from (three available initially, with a total of 10 unlockable through mission progress), such as the F-4, F-15, F-16, Eurofighter 2000, F-22, and even a "secret" plane only accessible through successful victory in the "Insane" difficulty missions.

F.A.S.T. throws the player into the thick of an aerial combat scenario involving multiple closing enemy targets over a variety of ground environments.  The combat arsenal includes radar guided and heat seeking missiles for long-range attack, 20mm miniguns for close-range dog fighting, and flares for dodging in-bound enemy missiles.  The game features accelerometer aircraft control that is pretty much perfectly implemented -- it's just exactly right, surprisingly so.  And while it does not provide an X-Plane-style true-flight simulation experience (nor does it strive to), it's more involved flying than more casual air comabt games, such as Top Gun.

Aside from player vs. AI, the game offers both (online) WiFi- and (local) Bluetooth-based multiplayer in head-to-head and 2-on-2 arrangements.  In my experience battling online combatants over WiFi, I've seen gameplay that is smooth and responsive, with no dropouts.  And, I have to say, waxing the tail of online players is a pretty satisfying experience (I hear it's possible to get waxed yourself, but I've never experienced it...).

We first caught wind of this title early last month, when SGN had a somewhat different release plan in mind.  But as SGN's Dan Brazelton points out in our forums, this initial release provides the aforementioned 30 missions, head-to-head, and 2-on-2 play.  But when "the war breaks out," a free update will allow players to use their skills in "the war."  It seems much larger scale multiplayer action is in store this summer.  But even if the war were not headed our way, F.A.S.T. is meaty enough to stand, as is, on its own as a solid aerial fighter. Perhaps the most convincing endorsement comes from Sci Fly 2 developer Josh Rosen:

I'm the developer of SciFly, so I guess I'm a "competitor." But, even I'll say this game is great It's definitely the first practical (aka fun) mutliplayer iPhone game to actually hit the store, congrats developers!

Ace Combat fans, this game is for you.  And anyone else who enjoys a little modern day dogfighting action will likely find F.A.S.T. -- Fleet Air Superiority Training worth the price of admission.  The game is currently available for a limited time price of $4.99 (standard price is $9.99).

See the developer's game trailer for a closer look.

App Store Link: F.A.S.T. -- Fleet Air Superiority Training, $4.99 (limited time)

SGN and a dozen other companies are presently sponsors of this site, but that does not affect our choice of coverage or influence our reviews.

"Holy crap, this thing is fast"

So claims iPhone developer Daniel Pasco of Seattle-based Black Pixel, in reference to the performance of the new iPhone 3G S.  Upon receiving the iPhone 3G S, Pasco wanted to put the device through its paces to see what kind of performance the unit's beefed up hardware delivers.  He decided to run several different configurations of Plasma, a CPU-intensive application featuring particle animation that his company is developing for Tap Tap Tap.

For the test, he pitted the 3G S against the second generation iPod touch (the previous speed king of the iPhone family).

iPod Touch 2g:
CPU: Arm 6 running at 533 MHz
GPU: PowerVR MBX Lite

iPhone 3G S:
CPU: Arm 7 running at 600 MHz
GPU: PowerVR SGX

And the result?  According to Pasco, the trend was "starkly apparent."  The iPhone 3G S ran Plasma about twice as fast as the 2G iPod touch in every test.  It's worth noting that the application is only running OpenGL ES 1.1 code and has not been modified to take advantage of any of the improvements in OpenGL ES 2.0, an API no previous member of the iPhone family can utilize.

Pasco also isolated the new device's Cortex A8 processor to assess its particular performance level as compared to the family's previous CPU.

The question of the CPU contribution to performance was nagging at me, so I dug up the C source code for the Scimark2 benchmark suite from NIST and put together a quick test application for the iPhone. Scimark2 is a set of numerically intensive tests including FFTs, successive over relaxation (SOR), Monte Carlo calculations, matrix multiplications and LU decomposition - calculations similar to the ones we do in our application.

I ran the test on the Touch and the 3gs with both small and large (cache-blowing) datasets to see how they compared.

And the results?

In the CPU tests, the 3G S showed itself to be around 20% faster than the 2G touch.  A notable improvement, but based on these tests, it would seem that the real benefit to game developers will come from the new unit's PowerVR SGX. Of course, the real test of the iPhone 3G S will come as games begin to support the Open GL ES 2.0 programmable pipeline.

Have a look at our iPhone 3G / 3G S comparison, posted yesterday.

ReactGames let us know that they had submitted Archon Classic to the App Store. Archon Classic is an official licensed game based on the original Archon from 1983.

This version (1.0) plays really well, which we’re really excited about! The combat is fast and fun, the characters are more evenly matched and the Phoenix KICKS BUTT! The Easy setting is VERY easy so everyone can get used to the controls on the iPhone (if you’re not yet) and win a few battles fairly easily. The Hard setting is pretty challenging, even for the veteran player. There is a ranking system that works nicely and in subsequent versions, we’ll be able to upload to a server for global scores and global rankings…it keeps track of your total game time, fastest combat time, how many pieces you’re won/loss, etc. In combat, you can control the characters by using the Dpad (which works excellent) or the Accelerometer.

They've also posted this first gameplay video from the iPhone version. The video starts off with scenes from the original 1983 version and then later shows the iPhone gameplay:

You can almost hear the groans coming when you start talking about a "casual" sports game. Somewhere along the way, the term "casual" has become a euphemism for "crappy mini". But Com2US's Baseball Slugger [App Store] is a notable exception and is a really fun game for both sports and non-sports fans alike.

The game is structured as a home run derby. You must hit as many home runs as possible before a designated number of outs is achieved. Simple goal, but Baseball Slugger shines in 3 different areas that make it a great game: 1) gameplay mechanic 2) online realtime multiplayer 3) upgradables.

The make or break aspect of all games is the control mechanic, and sports games are particularly sensitive to this aspect. In the end you are substituting some combination of buttons and directions to emulate an actual batting swing. We've seen various types of controls attempted, but Baseball Slugger's system seems to work best. Batting uses the accelerometer to aim your bat at the pitch. Different types of pitches will break differently and you need to be able to anticipate and properly aim at where the ball is coming. When the moment comes, you simply tap on the screen to swing. Tap too soon or too late and your ball will fly into foul territory.

It's a simple mechanic and one we've seen before but it adds enough individual player skill into the mix to make it enjoyable and something you can actually work on improving.

Next, Baseball Slugger offers real-time head-to-head online multiplayer over both Wi-Fi and Cellular connections. You can pick "Matchup" from the menu and find yourself a random player to compete against. Baseball Slugger also contains a "rival" list in which you can add your friends. (A list of TouchArcade players has already been started in the forums). Different matchup rooms offer different skill sets so you can try to match up with someone that's ranked about the same as you.

Once the match starts, your opponent's game is inset into the top right of your screen (like picture-in-picture). The goal is to get your score bar filled before your opponent. Home runs, obviously, fill the bar faster. You can keep an eye on your opponent's progress and also see his hits and misses in real time. Special balls (gold balls, multipliers, etc...) appear at random times and can help boost your score and at least one ball can directly affect your opponent (blurs his/her perspective) -- that is, assuming you can hit the home run. The match ends when the first player fills their score bar. Multiplayer really adds a lot of long term playability to the game.

The final nice component to the game is an extensive upgrade system. The official count is 114 items that can be used to equip or customize your player. This can include physical changes such as hair, face, skin, uniform, shoes etc... but also equipment upgrades such as bats, gloves, and helmets. Besides making you look more intimidating, the upgrades also improve your abilities which should improve your game performance. The only way to earn these items is to keep playing and earning more gold with each game.

This video shows me playing very poorly, but should give you a taste of the game. (It's hard to play through a video camera LCD and I kept trying multiple times to record a respectable online match, but it was not to be). Arcade (single player) and Matchup (multiplayer) are shown:

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All these together make for a surprisingly fun game that could last some players a very long time. The game's also been really well received by our forum members.

App Store Link: Baseball Slugger, $2.99

The iPhone 3G S launched today, and we've managed to pick up our new iPhone 3G S devices and play through a few games to see if we noticed any differences. The most obvious immediate difference is the quicker launch times of many apps. It may not be the most relevant to gaming itself, but is the easiest to demonstrate on video:

A more dramatic difference in this user posted video of Peggle:

2nd Generation iPod Touch owners have already benefited from a faster processor and have enjoyed comparably faster launch times for some time now. In our additional testing, the 2nd iPod Touch was much closer (but still behind) the iPhone 3G S in launch times.

In other more casual testing, most 2D games felt about the same on both iPhone devices -- which would be expected. The most notable improvements were seen in 3D games such as Real Racing and Star Defense where the animations seemed significantly smoother. The findings, again, were most notable between the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3G S. The differences between the iPhone 3G S and 2nd iPod Touch were far less apparent. iLounge has posted a video comparing launch times and in-game play between the 2nd Gen iPod Touch and iPhone 3G S.

We did run across one strange hardware-specific bug in Snowboard TnT. On the iPhone 3G S, the graphics were clearly wrong (left, below). On the right are the usual graphics as seen on the iPhone 3G and iPod Touch. All devices were running iPhone firmware 3.0 so it was a hardware specific issue with this game:

It seems to have been the exception so far, as all the other games we've tested have been working as expected.

As we have more time playing games on the various devices, we'll be able to give you a better feel for the differences between devices. The most dramatic differences are yet to come as developers further utilize the new iPhone 3G S graphics chip which allows for more advanced 3D techniques.

Photo by Lisa Byrne

At long last, the iPhone 3G S launch day has arrived!

Apple retail stores opened at 7 a.m. in all time zones to facilitate the launch of the iPhone family's new flagship device.  At some of the major Apple retail stores around the world, lines began to form as early as yesterday afternoon.

Reports are in that, lines aside, the process of purchasing and activating a 3G S is quick and painless -- in and out in just a few minutes.  Those who setup mail pre-orders should be receiving their units today (although we've heard reports from a few users seeing a shipping indication of Monday).

As we described in some detail last week, the iPhone 3G S features a significantly faster main processor and a much more capable graphics processor as compared to the iPhone 3G.  Additionally, the unit features twice the system RAM of the iPhone 3G, which should improve the overall stability of apps running on the device.

While many existing games will automatically benefit from the added muscle of the iPhone 3G S, we're anxious to see the first titles that appear with features that specficially target the new capabilities of the device.  The first games supporting iPhone OS 3.0 have already appeared -- stay tuned for upcoming games with GPU shader support and other such goodness.  Watch out Sony and Nintendo....

After our profile of Owen Goss earlier this week, some commenters were insistent that "new and original" was the way to find success in the App Store.

While Steph Thirion's original game Eliss may have seen some moderate exposure after having been nominated for GDC Mobile's Innovative Game Design award, it's still far from being a App Store success story despite it's unique design.

We reviewed the game back in March and found to be a wonderful game.

Simply stated, Eliss perfectly demonstrates what iPhone gaming can be. It's a highly challenging game that's near impossible to put down and it could not exist on any other platform.

Thirion has just put out a Lite version of Eliss which offers you 3 levels of the multi-touch game. The game presentation is sparse, however, so new players may be a bit lost at first.

The game is separated into levels in which planets appear. Like colored planets can be combined to make a larger planet (pinch) or pulled apart to create smaller planets (spread). The goal of the game is to eliminate the planets by dragging them into the "squeezars" (think black…err…multicolored holes) of matching size and color that blink in and out of the universe. After a set number of planets have been eliminated it's on to the next level. And the most important thing to remember? Don't let planets of different colors touch!

We recorded this gameplay video of the Lite version as it's much easier to see than to explain:

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The first three levels included in the Lite version just introduce you to the very basics of gameplay, while the full version continues to introduce new and challenging elements as you progress. The full version of Eliss remains available at $2.99 and we still highly recommend it.

App Store Link: Eliss Lite, Free, Eliss, $2.99

Ngmoco has posted a new gameplay video from the upcoming Rolando 2. The walkthrough is narrated by Simon Oliver of Hand Circus, the independent developer behind the Rolando series.

We finally met Simon and had some hands on time with Rolando 2 at WWDC.

The game's control mechanics are identical to those in the original Rolando, but in addition to the new "2.5D" display mechanic, much has been added to the game. The Rolandos take on various new abilities this time around, such as eating chili peppers and inflating like a balloon, floating about under accelerometer control, as well as climbing walls with the aid of a gripping set of spikes. Bombs growing on vines can be tapped loose and rolled into place to shatter obstacles. Vehicles have been added to the mix, as well — in a certain level we played, the Rolando had to hop into a mine cart in order to traverse part of the level.

The new video shows of the first level and some of the puzzle elements found in the new game.

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The game is due this summer.

Imangi Studios has released their latest game into the App Store: Harbor Master [App Store]. This $0.99 chaos management game can really only be classified as an unabashed Flight Control clone.

Like Flight Control the game involves the use of the swipe gesture to safely guide your boats (planes) into their docks (landing strips). Imangi's version does do justice to the gameplay mechanic and adds a number of nice twists to make it interesting.

Besides successfully docking your boats, you must also wait until they unload their cargo and then safely guide them out -- all while avoiding hitting other boats. The situation can get relatively manic quickly requiring you to move some ships into holding patterns while waiting for a dock to free up. Larger boats move slower and also have more cargo to unload. In one of the three included maps, a cyclone can even send your ships off track which adds another dimension to the game. Online leaderboards allow you to see how well you've done on each of the three available maps.

The video shows the gameplay. From 13s to 30s it shows a sped up "time-lapse" version of the game while the later video shows actual gameplay speed:.

The game is very well put together and feels "right". I suspect there are those that will prefer Harbor Master to Flight Control and vice-versa, but for only $0.99 it's certainly not a gamble if you already love the genre. It already seems to be a hit amongst our forum early adopters.

App Store Link: Harbor Master, $0.99.

Gameprom's Wild West Pinball game is now free [App Store]. It was originally priced at $2.99 and tries to offer a more authentic pinball experience than many of its competitors. The game was very well received and praised for its accurate physics model. The most recent update (1.1) added an improved graphics engine, new icon design and better support for global leaderboards.

Here's our early gameplay video.

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It appears the game will be free from now on and support will stop after the 1.2 update. We suspect the price drop is an effort to promote their next title The Deep Pinball. A gameplay video of this new upcoming pinball game has been provided:

App Store Link: Wild West Pinball, Free

After a brief hiatus in the App Store, Sega last month released Sonic the Hedgehog [App Store], the Genesis / Mega Drive classic apparently wrapped in an emulator, for the iPhone and iPod touch.  This morning the studio followed Sonic up with another emulated classic for the iPhone, the Genesis / Mega Drive version of the 1989 arcade classic Golden Axe.

Three mighty heroes, a powerful Fighter, a female Amazon, and a mighty Dwarf have a score to settle with the evil Death Adder who has captured the King and his daughter, and holds them captive in their castle. Choose your hero in this classic action game, as you fight through Adder's henchman as you battle through dark castles, on the back of a giant turtle, and even on the wings of an enchanted eagle with weapon & magic; and even ride the fearsome, fire-breathing beasts.

Golden Axe for the iPhone features the original's choice of three heroes to choose from: the battle axe-wielding dwarf, Gilius Thunderhead, the male barbarian, Ax Battler, wielding a two handed broadsword, and the long-sword-wielding amazon female, Tyris Flare.  All of the heroes have magic, as well as steel, at their disposal in their fight against the levels' various enemies.  The iPhone version of the game, like the Genesis version that it really is, features two additional levels not found in the arcade original.

As with Sonic for the iPhone, Golden Axe offers virtual D-pad and buttons as the default control arrangement, with the option of accelerometer-based controls.  As well, there are two display modes to choose from: a full-screen stretched arrangement with semi-translucent control icons and a framed, original size view (320 x 240 pixels) which runs at a slightly higher framerate.

And how does it play?  Well, it's pretty much the Genesis experience (which is pretty much the arcade experience), but played with iPhone controls. The iPhone controls seem to hold up pretty well all things considered (see video). The accelerometer option is a nice addition in case you just hate virtual d-pads. Meanwhile, overall performance seems more consistent than it did for Sonic, and held up well in the early levels.

For those who call the game an old favorite, the iPhone version is worth a look.

App Store Link: Golden Axe, $4.99

After Apple's announcement of the iPhone 3.0 firmware, we've been looking forward to the possibility of iPhone and iPod Touch gaming accessories. These could come in the form of virtual control pads (such as iControlPad), steering wheels and more.

While we're not convinced these accessories would ever achieve more than a niche marketshare amongst iPhone gamers, the possibilities are intriguing. Apple's iPod Touch page is now listing "fun new game accessories" as one of the features of 3.0. These accessories will connect either through Bluetooth or the 30-pin connector.

Obviously, Apple is working on these accessories with 3rd party manufacturers, so we expect to hear about them soon.

Mobigame's award winning game EDGE [App Store] has returned to the U.S. App Store after a questionable trademark dispute. TigSource provides a summary of the events, but comes down to a trademark dispute from an individual named Tim Langdell

But it’s not obvious (to me, anyway) what Tim Langdell has actually created, aside from trouble for the various people who have had the misfortune of dealing with him and his trademark during its 30-odd years of existence. My hope is that, by helping to bring out the story, real creators can avoid him (and others like him) in the future.

Edge puts the player in control of a colorful cube that moves about a series of 3D, isometric maze environments full of puzzles to solve and hazards to avoid. The game utilizes touch control (default) or accelerometer for control of the cube and, as the developer's gameplay video demonstrates, requires some quick thinking to successfully negotiate the various moving parts of the mazes.

Overall, a game we really enjoyed and we recommend. Meanwhile, David Papazian let us know that EDGE 1.2 is currently in review with 3 huge new levels.

App Store Link: EDGE, $4.99

Hopefully, you've been able to get the new 3.0 firmware installed and activated on your iPhones or iPod Touches. If you are looking for do something with the new functionality, here are a few new 3.0-updates that were announced today. Besides push notification support, peer-to-peer play, and iPod music support, we're already seeing in-app purchasing add ons.

The actual updates are free for those who own the apps, but a couple introduce in-app purchasing which may require additional money to gain new content.

• Vans SK8: Pool Service ($2.99) - allows you to select music from your iPod playlists.
• Leaf Trombone ($0.99) - New Duet mode with peer-to-peer Bluetooth and "Achievement Alerts" using 3.0's push notification service.
• Enigmo ($2.99) - New in-app purchasing level packs. There are currently two new Level Packs available: Kid’s Pack #1 and Kid’s Pack #2. The new levels in each of these Level Packs have been designed specifically for kids.
• Flick Fishing ($0.99) - Peer to peer networking support with new game mode (Fish Jack), and inclusion of a new In-App Purchase: "Private Beach Pack" which includes new fishing location, 4 new fish.
• Topple 2 ($2.99) - playback music from your iPod playlists within Topple 2.
• Star Defense ($5.99) - A new planet in Challenge Mode, Plus+ network integration (online leaderboards and more) and 3.0 Push Notification support: direct challenges sent to your friends.

Apple's long-awaited iPhone OS 3.0 is now live.  The upgrade is a free download for iPhone users and can be purchased for a price of $9.95 for the iPod touch.  Grab it through iTunes.

Features brought by the new OS include:

• Peer-to-peer gaming support
• Third-party game accessory support
• Push notification
• Internet tethering
• Stereo Bluetooth audio
• MMS messaging
• Cut, copy & paste
• Spotlight search
• Landscape keyboard in Mail, Messages, Notes and Safari

And while this upgrade is a major overhaul of the iPhone's operating system full of new features and general enhancements, it adds rather significantly to the capabilities of the iPhone and iPod touch as a game platform.

Improved peer-to-peer capabilities along with push notification extend the social aspect of iPhone gaming and will better integrate the game experience into our daily routine.  The support for third-party gaming accessories (think control pads, joysticks, maybe even electronic maracas...) will add depth to supporting titles by giving the platform even more input choices.  And in-game micro-transactions will extend the long-term playability of titles (BAM!  A whole new galaxy in my pocket!!).

iPhone OS 3.0 is supported by all current iPhone platform devices and comes standard on the new iPhone 3GS, which launches Friday, June 19th.