Flash version

TouchArcade met with Brian Robbins of Fuel Games to discuss their ongoing iPhones projects and games. Fuel Games is the development group behind Van's SK8: Pool Service and we've been told that there will be a Lite version of that game shortly. Brian also gave us a preview of their upcoming Lifeboat game which we will detail in a later article.

The other big news they had for iPhone gamers was that the massively popular Desktop Tower Defense flash game is coming to the iPhone.

Fuel Games is working closely with Paul Preece of Handdrawn Games to bring this classic to the iPhone. While iPhone-only gamers may have been introduced to the Tower Defense genre through Fieldrunners, for a large number of people Desktop Tower Defense was the game that brought it to the masses. From Wikipedia:

The game is played on a map resembling an office desktop. The player must stop a set number of enemies, known in the genre as "creeps," from reaching a set point on the playing field. This is accomplished by building and upgrading towers that shoot at, damage and kill the enemy creeps before they are able to reach their objective. Unlike many other tower defense games, the path of the creeps themselves is not set; instead, the towers built determine the path of the creeps, who take the shortest path they can find to the exit. The game prevents making an exit inaccessible.

Original creator Paul Preece is said to be taking an active role in the port and is working hard to stay true to the original game. Robbins stressed that the game has always been seen as a light hearted puzzle/strategy game, different from the more seriously themed action TD games that have followed.

The game will essentially be a port of the 1.5 version of the Flash game but will have updated graphics and other iPhone-specific features. Fans of the original should be reassured that a "Retro" mode will also be available to relive the original feel of the game. The iPhone version will also feature the original easy / medium / hard levels and eventually incorporate other modes of play.

The game is due later this summer. We'll provide more information and screenshots as we receive them. The Flash version of the game can still be played at HandDrawnGames.com.

We sat down with IUGO's Sarah Thomson (an active forum member here at Touch Arcade) and Hong-Yee Wong in the lobby of the San Francisco Marriott where we were shown both of their upcoming games, Star Hogs and A.D.D.

Star Hogs

The best way I can describe Star Hogs is Worms on crack, really premium high quality crack. They have taken the tried and true Worms formula, heavily modified with a system where you can level up (to a maximum of 32), buy new ships and weapons, play across three difficulty levels and best of all: Complete online multiplayer.

Multiplayer, which reportedly works great regardless of whether or not you're using WiFi or playing over EDGE/3G due to the turn-based nature of the game, can be played with a maximum of four players. The game is presented well and seems to have a great soundtrack.

Each turn is limited by a certain amount of "energy" which can be used for firing or moving. Additional energy or money for upgrades can be earned through finding "ore" scattered in the play field. Firing is performed using a familiar tap-aiming while power is determined by how long you hold the fire button. About 20 different weapons will be available on the initial release, including bombs, cluster bombs, lasers, and mines.

The gameplay video shows the game from launch:

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A.D.D.

Meanwhile, A.D.D. IUGO's take on WarioWare, offering the same type of micro-game experience in little 10 second blocks.

Included initially are going to be 72 "channels", with three free updates to bring the total to 108. Gameplay involves simple tasks using the iPhone's various control systems set in various humorous scenarios. These mini games are presented in rapid succession and part of the challenge is figuring you what you need to do. The game does tip you off with what control mechanism needs to be used (tilt, shake, tap etc...).

Despite some of it's edgier content, they seem fairly confident that the first version of A.D.D. will be approved by Apple. Subsequent updates will push that edge a bit more.

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Star Hogs is set for submission to the App Store next week, and A.D.D. is already working its way through the submission and approval process.

At WWDC Touch Arcade had the opportunity to interview Gameloft President and CEO Michel Guillemot concerning his views on iPhone gaming and what the announcement of the new iPhone 3G S means to his studio.

Guillemot's involvement in the game industry began with the formation of Ubisoft Entertainment by him and his brothers in 1986.  Ubisoft quickly became a very successful publisher as gaming evolved into a major industry.  But as Guillemot tells it, he longed to get back to the days of home computer gaming, when people owned a computer primarily for reasons other than gaming, but would engage in casual gaming as a matter of course.  Seeing the rise of the mobile handset, which he (correctly) believed most everyone would soon be carrying, Guillemot saw an opportunity to provide games in a model analogous to the home computer days of old.  And so was born Gameloft in 1999.

The highly successful Gameloft of 2009, with 4,000 employees worldwide, develops games for around 1,200 different mobile handsets as well as most major home and mobile consoles.  But Guillemot makes no effort to hide his particular excitement for Apple's iPhone platform.

When Steve Jobs announced the App Store and the business model, I said they are going to do as well on the App Store and on the business model as what they did on the iPhone itself, which is creating something which is quite mature, quite balanced, quite sustainable in the long run.  And that's why, as a company, we decided to really invest and support it, because it was, to me, really a kind of very advanced thinking to have these three elements [iPhone, iTunes and the business model] connected and together, reaching consumers with a very comprehensive approach.  So, I think it was very much 21st century in the making and a clear cut from anything we had seen so far.

In his view, Apple set the tone for the mobile gaming device of the 21st century.

What I think is that two years ago, handset makers and carriers were a little bit lost. We were telling them that they should bet on the game side -- to make sure that the handset would be game friendly. But, for some reason, they were not. And then Apple came and convinced many people -- the right way: see, it works! And now what we see is that everyone is trying to emulate them. Apple came from outside and took the lead.... And so I expect that, in the race where the leader is still running and still accelerating [ laughs ], it's challenging. Because, if they already overtook you and they're still accelerating, you really have to consider that seriously if you want to remain in the race.

And while he is dedicated to supporting the newly emerging units that seek to surpass the iPhone, he points out that for gaming those companies are at a disadvantage.  The just-launched Palm Pre, for example, Guillemot considers to be a nice device, but feels its webOS HTML5 development model puts it just about where the iPhone was for gaming before the SDK was announced.  The Android devices, he feels, also hold less promise for gamers as compared to Apple's device.

Android is Java ... Java takes two-thirds of the power.  So, when you drive a car - if you take the same car with 1/3 of the horse power, you will not have the same experience.

Guillemot was pleased by Apple's announcement of the iPhone 3G S on Monday and is eager too see what advancements the new hardware will enable for his studio's games.  And while he feels the more capable device will raise gamers' expectations and make the coming year more challenging than the last for iPhone gamemakers, he appears to be rather undaunted.

Perhaps no surprise from a man whose studio creates games for most every mobile platform on the planet.

We first reported on Craneball Studios' beautifully drawn blimp game back in April. The game has finally arrived in the App Store for the low price of $0.99 [App Store].

You are a blimp pilot. A war veteran, who wants to live the rest of your life in quiet and peace. Working your day job on a trading planet, everything seems to be ok. Suddenly the planet is assaulted by an evil empire. Your blimp is upgraded with bombs and you are going to save the planet…

The game requires you to pilot around the various levels accomplishing specific missions and destroying enemy blimps. Controls are implemented with a mix of accelerometer for direction and virtual buttons for bombs and thurst. Blimp features 20 levels, particle effects, 5 different locations, and global high score with Facebook integration.

The game has been getting rave reviews amongst the early adopters in the forum with many pointing out the wonderful sound effects (headphones recommended). For the introductory price of $0.99, it's probably an easy pick up. The full price of the game is expected to be $2.99.

This developer video shows how the controls work:

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App Store Link: Blimp - The Flying Adventures, $0.99

We just sat down with Simon Edis of Ezone.com, creator of Crazy Snowboard [App Store] and the soon to be released Galactic Gunner, which we previewed not too long ago:

Australian brothers Jamie and Simon Edis have taken an unconventional approach to the genre–Instead of having the player control the flying and shooting like Galaxy On Fire 3D [App Store], Galactic Gunner is a shooter on rails. As the title hints, you play as the gunner and shoot by tapping where you want to fire on screen.

The most intriguing part of meeting with Simon was hearing his plans for the future, and specifically how he is handling the impending Galactic Gunner launch. The Edis brothers aren't going to be idly sitting by waiting for the game to quietly appear on the App Store. Instead, they're designing an entire alternate reality game, where the Trepidoids slowly invade the Earth and its Internet. It all started with this brief cryptic video of a mysterious looking crop circle designed to lead followers of the alternate reality game to the Trepidoids twitter feed:

Following this video a second even more mysterious video was released, along with the launch of a web site for the Trepidoids.

I'm not entirely sure how this all fits together myself, but we have a thread on our forums where people are being recruited to join the Galactic Gunners to fight the Trepedoids and win promo codes in the process. As Simon briefly laid out his plans for the promotion of the game, I found myself completely amazed that so much effort and creativity was going in to its launch.

I'm not going to spoil anything, but they've got some really cool stuff planned for not only the release of Galactic Gunner but also the potential future of the series and spinoff games that all take place in the Galactic Gunner universe. Simon also showed interest in porting some of their more popular games from the Ezone.com web site, specifically mentioning the game Sling.

Two Tribes' excellent puzzle platformer Toki Tori [$4.99] now has a Lite version [Free]. We reviewed this game a couple of weeks ago and really loved it.

Overall, Toki Tori is a wonderfully challenging puzzle game that has been very well adapted to the iPhone and comes highly recommended.

The game perhaps hasn't seen the we expected it to have, but if you like these sort of puzzlers, you should really try Toki Tori. Here's our gameplay video from earlier:

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App Store Link: Toki Tori, $4.99, Toki Tori, Free

This morning at WWDC we met with John Owens of the Belfast-based iPhone development studio Wee Man Studios to discuss their upcoming futuristic 3D racer Galactic Racer.

Galactic Racer is a Wipeout-like racing game that pits the player against a variety of adversaries in a high-speed run down a series of 3D tracks littered with obstacles and barriers, in a bid to make it across the finish line.  The experience is actually more akin to flying down a tube than hovering in an anti-gravity groove, with ship control available in all four directions.  Loops and other particularly "3D" twists, as well as sections of transparent walls, add a sense of depth to the feel of the courses.

Along the way, a variety of weapons and power-ups can be picked up to help fend off the competition.  The game's power-up items are more akin to those of Mario Kart than the typical Wipeout-style racer, Owens tells us -- one example being a wormhole that can transport the player to a point further down the track.

The initial release will feature Championship and Single Race modes, while future updates will bring multiplayer, online leaderboards, and other enhancements.  Though we were unable to play the current build of the game, we were shown a short video and various screenshots that show promising gameplay and an impressive texture quality.  Wee Man Studios will shortly be releasing a public trailer video to giver readers a taste of the gameplay.

No release date has been indicated for this title.

Some of Owens' previous game development involvements include Argonaut Games' iNinja and Cat Woman for other platforms.

While Flight Control [App Store] may be Australian developer Firemint’s runaway hit, they’ve been hard at work for months on Real Racing [App Store]. Prior to last week, all we saw of Real Racing was a screenshot or new trailer randomly pop up here and there, leaving iPhone communities all over the internet speculating what the final product would be like.

I’ve found most iPhone racing games somewhat unappealing. While accelerometer tilt controls translate great to driving controls, they’ve all just felt a little flat. EA’s recently released Need For Speed Undercover [App Store] came close to quenching my thirst for a great racer on the platform, but fell short for a number of reasons, in my eyes. Poor AI combined with races that were hard to lose had me quickly growing bored of the game, despite its doing a great job at capturing the Need For Speed feel on the small screen.

Real Racing is an entirely different animal. In my previous hands-on, first impressions post I mentioned how great the AI is, and countless races later I still feel this is Real Racing’s greatest asset. The AI opponents play how they should play; they’re not mindless drones following a simple line around the track, they’re extremely competitive racers that just flat out won’t put up with you trying to cut in front of them, or leaving yourself open on a turn.

It really feels like you’re playing against human players. It’s crazy. Just like on XBOX Live, how you would ram someone’s rear corner as they pass you to try to make them lose control, the AI in Real Racing does the exact same thing. It’s a night and day experience from other iPhone racers that I’ve played where you’re largely ignored by the slow moving AI opponents and the difference this makes in the overall feel of the game is hard to put into words.

While Real Racing also includes quick race and time trial game modes, the meat of the game is in its career mode. Also available is a local WiFi multiplayer mode, and online tournaments utilizing Firemint's Cloudcell system for score tracking. (Also like previous Cloudcell games, full Twitter, FaceBook and even YouTube replay uploading is implemented.)

There are three types of cars: Hatchbacks, sedans, and muscle cars. Each car has its own set of races in career mode, starting with a qualifier, then two sets of events. After your first qualifier you unlock the Monacato 500 Hatchback Championship C class.

Win the three races that make up the championship and you will unlock its B class as well as a new car and the NrGee Super Sprint C class event. The rest of career mode continues in this manner, and each car or track you unlock becomes available in quick race and time trial.

I fully admit I was as skeptical as everyone else when the trailers were released, but Real Racing is something you really have to see to believe. Firemint honestly deserves some kind of award for the technical accomplishments made with the graphics engine powering Real Racing. It runs at a higher framerate on my iPhone 3G than most 3D games at a level of detail that is comparable to what you would normally see on the PSP. I can’t even imagine how this game will play on the upcoming iPhone 3G S.

Real Racing defaults to the cockpit view and, with a pair of headphones on, the only game that even comes close to rivaling the immersion experienced is 2XL Supercross [App Store]. Instead of any kind of on-screen HUD, your speed, position in the race, current time, and other relevant data are displayed on the steering wheel and pillar mounted gauges. One thing that I would really like to see added is some kind of mini-map. While I appreciate their HUD-less interface, a mini-map would be extremely helpful in learning the tracks and allow you to more accurately determine when to brake, approaching corners.

Real Racing has no customization of the included cars, which may disappoint some racing fans looking for a true simulation style racer on the iPhone. There isn't any kind of upgrade system, and while the different unlockables no doubt add quite a bit of replay value to the game, it pales in comparison to Gran Turismo-style car collecting and upgrading.

All in all though, it is a mobile game, and one of the most detailed and complete racing experiences offered on the App Store, so I have a hard time getting too worked up over not being able to add turbo boost, spoilers, and custom exhausts to my cars. The racing experience in Real Racing is unrivaled, and that's what counts.

Yesterday's announcement of the iPhone 3G S has notable implications for both gamers and gamemakers alike.  The new device features a faster ARM-based central processor, a new graphics processor (almost certainly the PowerVR SGX, an evolution of the MBX GPU used in the rest of the iPhone family), and likely other enhancements such as a faster overall system bus and more application RAM.

While these enhancements give game developers more power to work with in creating mobile titles, they also fracture the iPhone family.  (Well, it's been a somewhat fractured family for a while now, really.)  This forces developers wanting to take real advantage of the improved hardware to handle -- gracefully -- running their apps across the striated iPhone line.

Pocket Gamer has recently spoken with a number of studios about the new iPhone and what it means to them as developers.

Paul Schade of Fishlabs points out that, while the new iPhone provides a significant boost in performance for games, the effort to utilize the new hardware is hard to justify for every title.

But others go even further than comparing iPhone 3G S to other mobile handsets. "The OpenGL 2.0 support will push the iPhone beyond PSP," says Michael Schade of Fishlabs, although he points out that this brings its own challenges for developers.

"As graphic assets need to be designed from scratch to benefit from 2.0 shaders it will be very hard to monetize the extra effort in the early days," he says. "It's definitely not worth it for $0.99 apps."

Touch Arcade spoke with Rob Murray of Firemint, the studio behind the much anticipated title Real Racing, which hit the App Store on Monday.  He has been working with a reference hardware kit of similar architecture to the new iPhone, porting test code to put the system through its paces.  While he's excited about the prospect, he underscores the fact that making the new iPhone really show its stuff will definitely take work on the part of the developer. To Pocket Gamer, Murray said:

"It is possible to do some really interesting lighting and rendering effects with the shaders that will be available, but some of these effects may impact the asset processing pipeline and make it difficult to deliver one reference build that targets both OpenGL 1.0 and 2.0 optimally," says Murray.

So how to approach this? "I expect that the bigger developers will start to make two separate versions, especially if you want to take advantage of OpenGL ES 2.0," says [Nigel Little of Distinctive Development].

Time and trial will tell what ends up being the best approach for developers to make use of the new iPhone's muscle, but one thing is for sure: the iPhone as a gaming platform just moved up a rather notable notch.

See Pocket Gamer's full article for more developer reactions.

We had the opportunity to meet with Bight Games at WWDC to discuss their upcoming games coming into the App Store on June 18th. Bight Games is a mobile gaming company that was founded in 2004. As seems to be the story of many mobile developers, Bight Games started doing primarily contract work. While they tried to publish their own original IP to mobile devices, the realities of traditional mobile distribution made it near impossible.

The iPhone, of course, has changed many of these rules, giving developers an opportunity to much more easily bring their own titles to market. Bight Games has two of these original iPhone games coming out on June 18th.

Big Top 10

Perhaps most efficiently described as "Wurdle with numbers", Big Top 10 is a puzzle game that will debut at only $0.99. Similar to Wurdle [App Store], the game revolves around sliding your finger across the board to make the proper combination of tiles. Instead of letters and words, however, Big Top 10 requires you to add a sequence of numbers up to 10. The longer the combination, the higher your score.

The game begins by giving you only 1 minute to make as many combinations as possible. Time is extended, however, as you make bigger sequences or pick up specific time bonuses. The numbers found on the board start off small but as you progress, the difficulty increases with higher valued numbers. If you find yourself stuck, you simply shake the iPhone for a new set of numbers.

Special items including bombs, clocks and multipliers aid in your task while negative numbers make it possible to make super long combos.

It's certainly a rather simple concept for a game, but sometimes those are the best. Here's a developer video:

Puzzlings

Another original iPhone game coming from Bight Games is called Puzzlings which is described as a console-quality puzzle adventure game. At its core, the game is a variant on match-3 but adds achievements in the form of unlockable clothing for your Puzzling avatar. These unlockables serve as both an incentive system to progress further as well as a sort of high score to show off to your friends.

Unlike most Match 3 games, Puzzlings is a bit more flexible in its swapping mechanism. Besides swapping two adjacent tiles, you can reverse the entire line by dragging across all the pieces. Additionally, pieces can be rotated by drawing a square around them. A combination of these moves can result in some careful planning for the optimal combo. Game difficult increases with the introduction of large blocks that can require some quick work. These changes do seem to make it much more interesting than the traditional formula.

Overall, the game offers a fit and polish that makes it feel like great title and should provide puzzle gamers something a little different to enjoy.

Kill All Bugs

Finally, one title we didn't have much hands-on time with is a mobile port called Kill All Bugs. It's a Tower Defense game claims to offer some new an interesting twists to the genre, but we'll have to take a closer look when it comes out. We've included this gameplay video for you to see for yourself:

We'll see the first of these games on June 18th, and Bight Games expects to continue introducing a number of games throughout the year.

Touch Arcade today had the opportunity to sit down with Simon Oliver, author of the highly popular Rolando [App Store] and the forthcoming Rolando 2: Quest for the Golden Orchid, at Ngmoco's WWDC press event and spend some time with the indie developer's latest and greatest.

Rolando 2's quest for the Golden Orchid ranges across five different game worlds, with 46 levels to play, in all.  Within each world, the player can choose different level-to-level paths, making for a varied, non-linear game experience reminiscent of New Super Mario Brothers.  Part of the motivation to provide these alternative paths to reach the same final goal was to adapt to differ player's skills levels -- allowing players to try a different path if they run up against a wall. The various worlds and levels are browsed and chosen in an impressive-looking 3D, in-engine island foyer.  Very polished.

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.

In our brief hands-on time with the title we were very impressed.  The game looks even better when played in person than it appears in the videos.  Simon indicates that Rolando 2 runs at a solid 30 frames per second on every device in the iPhone and iPod Touch family.

Both seasoned Rolando vets and newcomers alike are in for a treat when ngmoco's Rolando 2: Quest for the Golden Orchid rolls into the App Store.

Chris, Clive, Joseph, and several other extremely helpful ngmofos spent quite a bit of time this evening at the ngmoco event answering my endless array of questions about their in-development FPS game tentatively named LiveFire.

In the demo I saw today, four players sat around a set of iPod Touches all playing online via the hotel's WiFi. Since all the games in LiveFire are played online through ngmoco's matchmaking servers, Chris was directing people when to start their game to guarantee everyone got matched. After a lively countdown the players were thrown in to a heavily modified Quake 3 engine to play one of the most impressive online multiplayer experiences I've seen for the iDevice platform which according to ngmoco works equally well when played over either 3G or WiFi.

The controls for LiveFire are so intuitive I had already figured out how everything worked before they even started explaining it to me. They call it a "touch anywhere" control scheme, where the right half of the screen regardless of where you're touching controls your aiming and the left half controls your movement. Since they're working with a limited set of input methods, firing is handled automatically. If you get someone in your crosshairs, you automatically start shooting.

The gameplay is very similar to the old Quake II Lithium mod. There are six weapons, a whole set of power ups, and even a grappling hook. Having played more hours of Quake II Lithium than I'd care to admit, this really grew on me quickly. The maps are small and perfectly tailored for playing with four people. There was never much time where I was ever without someone to shoot at, and respawn timers are quick when you die.

The genius in LiveFire is the online ranking and matchmaking system. ngmoco has an algorithm which they wouldn't disclose too much of which basically tracks your performance to compute your overall ranking using how well you've done against whatever ranking the opponents you're playing against are and some other ngmoco magic. Also, there will be XBOX Live! Halo-style player groups, so you can play with your friends and an online friends list which will be a part of their "Plus" online system which they were also reluctant to talk about until it's all ready.

As you rank up, you will have access to different colored armor, so people will instantly be aware that you're a skilled player when you join the game. Overall, the entire ranking system I think will lead to a highly competitive community of gamers at the top, while allowing a comfortable level of play for casual gamers at the bottom.

Players will be able to choose from several armor types, and depending on which you choose you will have slightly different abilities. For instance, the heavy armor obviously gives you better defenses and the flight armor gives you the ability to jump farther. These armor types are cleverly tied in to the story of the game, in which you play a live human test subject for Arsenal Megacorp. It is an extremely amusing premise for a game, and I highly recommend reading the memo from the CEO on the LiveFire site.

I know in the past due to the downloadable content demonstration, players have been apprehensive about LiveFire due to the stigma of being nickle and dimed in being forced to buy weapons or other key components to gameplay. When I asked Joseph, the co-founder and COO of ngmoco about this he assured me that nothing that in any way would upset game balance is going to be sold as an addon. You will not be able to get any kind of advantage over other players by buying anything. He wouldn't say for sure what they were planning, but it sounds like cosmetic addons like skins and other personalization options above what is included in the game may be coming.

I asked several of the other ngmoco people at the event about their plans with DLC and every one of them assured me that if they do it, they're going to do it right, and provide a good value for gamers. Overall I walked away with a really good vibe from the event, and an intense anticipation for all the games exhibited.

Ngmoco held a press event tonight at WWDC detailing their upcoming titles due this summer. The games on display included the just released Star Defense as well as unreleased titles including Rolando 2, Touch Pets and the first-person shooter formerly known as LiveFire. This was first time any of the press has had hands-on time with Rolando 2 or the new and improved LiveFire and we'll cover those separately.

While we'd seen Ngmoco's Touch Pets before, today's build had progressed notably towards completion and the core gameplay remains the same. The game taps into the virtual pet market allowing you to own and care for your own virtual dog.

Simply petting your dog can be a very tactile experience on the iPhone by actually rubbing the screen with your finger. As you care for your pet, his or her caretaking, training and socializing scores rise, giving you a very happy canine. Neglect the dog, and well, you'll have to put some quality time in to make up for it.

The game includes 9 different locations that you can play in, as well as various clothing items, toys and accessories for your pet. Special shirts, hats, colors and even advanced toys such as boomerangs eventually become available for use. One feature that I hadn't seen before was the use of touch gestures to instruct your dog to do tricks. Swiping in a circle, for example, instructs your dog to roll over. And, as you advance, additional tricks are unlocked.

This basic care video provides a look at the game:

Touch Pets is due sometime this summer.

Meanwhile, we had a chance to speak to Neil Young of Ngmoco to hear his reactions to the upcoming iPhone 3G S. What we hadn't been aware of was the fact that the demos during today's keynote were actually run on the iPhone 3G S. And the biggest reaction from the Ngmoco founder was that the new device is fast. Both in execution and launch time, Young found that Star Defense loaded in entirety in 6 seconds on the new device, notably faster than on previous generation devices. He also observed that another developer's game was running so quickly that they had to frame limit them.

We still don't have specifics on what processor the new iPhone 3G S has, but it seems clear that the 2nd Generation iPod Touch is no longer on the top of the heap.

As mentioned in an earlier post, Apple's WWDC keynote took place this morning and the new iPhone 3G S, the fastest member of the iPhone family, was announced.  On the software front, iPhone OS 3.0 took center stage and a number of games and apps were demonstrated that utilize OS 3.0 functionality.  Among them were Gameloft's Asphalt 5 and ngmoco's (just released) Star Defense.  We were able to capture brief videos of the games in action during the keynote.

Gameloft's Mark Hickey demonstrated Asphalt 5, which he calls the best racing game on the iPhone.  Featuring online (WiFi) multiplayer and peer-to-peer (Bluetooth) one-on-one, Asphalt 5 will take advantage of iPhone OS 3.0 by offering content packs for sale ($.99 for a new racetrack + three new cars).

Neil Young and Stephanie Morgan of ngmoco demonstrated Star Defense, which launched today for $5.99 [App Store].  When iPhone OS 3.0 debuts, the game will feature additional, downloadable universes for a small fee.

iPhone OS 3.0 is set to debut on June 17th, free for iPhone users and a $9.95 upgrade for users of the iPod touch.  The iPhone 3G S will be available on June 19th at a price of $199 for the 16GB unit and $299 for the 32GB unit.

ngmoco's Star Defense [App Store] is finally here for $5.99! I competed in the Twitter Challenge a while ago and I've had my hands on the final copy for a few days now. So far, Star Defense has been an enjoyable spin on the tower defense genre. Expect a full review soon, but for now, here's part of the press release ngmoco sent out:

In Star Defense, players battle hordes of alien S’rath invaders in their quest to save human outposts across the galaxy. Using innovative Multi-Touch controls, players twist, spin, and zoom-in on breathtaking 3D planets and examine the terrain to plan their defenses.

Armed with a powerful arsenal of five classes of towers, for a grand total of 15 different weapons, players strategically place turrets that unleash everything from burning hot plasma to high-voltage decimation. The S’rath regularly fortify their troops with new unit types, new formations and new armor. Survival depends on the player’s ability to respond to their maneuvers in real time.

Innovative integration with social networks allows players to expand their campaigns and compete with friends over Twitter, Facebook, or email. They can also check out scores posted by other Star Defense players and take on all challengers by searching for #StarDefense on Twitter.

With seven unique planets, two different game modes, more than 50 Medals and Commendations to be earned on the field, and three different difficulty settings available at launch, Star Defense offers endless replayability for newcomers and war-hardened veterans alike.

ngmoco will provide regular updates to the game with expansion packs, bringing new weapons, planets, invaders and new modes of gameplay to the Star Defense universe.

As I mentioned in the keynote post, we have a ngmoco press conference to attend at 4:00 PM PST. I'm not sure what is going to be discussed, but hopefully we'll find out a little more about their plans with the future of Star Defense.

Update: ngmoco posted on our forums clarifying the content of the game and future updates:

For $5.99, you are getting the full SD experience. That's an entire seven-planet galaxy, three difficulty modes, and a challenge mode. We'll also be regularly updating the game with free content.

Once 3.0 launches, we'll be offering much larger expansion packs for sale.

App Store Link: Star Defense, $5.99