Mobile developer Big Blue Bubble has released an iPhone version of its popular mobile turn-based role playing game Elven Chronicles [link], winner of the Pop Vox awards, through the App Store.

Turn-based RPGs, such as SoMoGa's popular Vay, are few and far between in the App Store.  And so, if our forum readers' reactions are any indication, iPhone RPG fans may find fondness with this release, reworked from its mobile original for the more capable iPhone platform.

Features as listed by the developer:

• Classic Console RPG design
• Massive World Maps
• Captivating Story
• Countless Spells, Weapons, Armour and Accessories
• Random Dungeon Maps
• Stunning Characters and Scenery
• Over 20 hours of Gameplay

Pocket Gamer spoke with Big Blue Bubble regarding the challenges faced in porting the game to the iPhone platform.

...We ported the game from BREW using our own code converter tools and the iTorque engine. This port went very smooth and we had a playable game in a matter of days.

Re-doing all the art took much longer than anticipated and we had to put several artists on the project. Also, as we didn't have the same memory limitations as on the cell phones, it was hard to resist adding more art content so this took some time as well.

Finally, we had to re-do all the controls and menu system. Even though fully functional, it just didn't feel right. This is last thing we need to complete before sending the game to Apple.

The studio indicates that they have their ear to the ground and updates, including expansion packs, will be forthcoming, including features added via microtransactions.

Elven Chronicles is currently being offered at a limited time, introductory price of $3.99.

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

App Store Link: Elven Chronicles, $3.99 (limited time)

David Frampton of Majic Jungle Software has released to us the first gameplay video from his upcoming game Chopper 2. Chopper was one of the original launch titles for the App Store and has been a huge success over the past year. The original Chopper [$2.99 / Free] has sold over 300,000 copies and continues to do well.

Chopper 2 adopts a new 3D look while keeping the basic 2D gameplay. Frampton's goals for the sequel included "realistic and beautiful graphics" alongside approachable gameplay.

Chopper 2 is still in development and will expand on the basic gameplay of the original with many different enemies and mission types, including defending towers from attacking enemies and destroying moving caravans of enemy troops. Here's an early look at the new 3D effects:

Chopper 2 is expected to be available by the end of the year.

Namco Bandai has a demo version of their upcoming game Ace Combat Xi on the floor of the Tokyo Game Show. Several reports are coming in from those who have had hands on time with the title. The Ace Combat francise has been around since 1995 with versions of the game appearing on the Playstation, Playstation 2, Xbox 360, and PSP.

Akihabara News reports the game was "fantastically smooth and easy to play". While the game was demoed on an iPhone 3GS, Namco says they are working on delivering a good experience on the 3G as well.

IGN's Mark Bozon, a huge fan of the Ace Combat series, felt the game succeeded in encapsulating the franchise:

iPhone Ace Combat plays pretty much how you'd expect it to, but for a series that's as huge on control and precision as Ace Combat it's awesome to see that Project Aces managed to squeeze all the controls from the main game into the tiny platform.

Despite the small size of the elements on the screen, Bozon reports the buttons were 100% accurate. Tilt controls were solid but no options for sensitivity were found on this build. The demo mission offered to TGS attendees was a basic dog-fighting round. In the end, the game was described as looking "very, very, good".

Finally, +D Mobile was able to get some photos of the control setup:

And even managed to get video of the game in action:

There's still no indication when the game will be released.

EA held a special media event for several French iPhone sites on Monday night and showed off a build of FIFA 10 for the iPhone. Les Mobiles posted an actual hands on gameplay video and it looks pretty damn nice.

The game is controlled with an analog stick on the left with A/B buttons for actions. The player in the video can be seen tapping on their team characters to change control/focus.

iPhoniacs.fr described their time with the game. They found the menu system well organized. The welcome menu gives a choice of playing a Quick Match, accessing Career Mode, Wi-Fi mode, various other little games and allows the user to adjust the settings.

The game is said to have intuitive commands that are easy to learn. There is both Joystick or Accelerometer control. The accelerometer takes some getting used to and can be difficult to control the direction of movement. The two buttons are A for passing, B for receiving. Swiping from A to B results in a long-pass.

iPhonezine.fr reports only local Wi-Fi with a local Bluetooth mode coming in a future update. They specifically say 3G online play is not currently planned.

REAL LEAGUES. REAL TEAMS. REAL PLAYERS.
Match 30 leagues, 570 teams, and 12,620 players from around the world. Play up to 20 licensed tournaments and cup competitions.

"BE A PRO" MODE: A FIFA 10 EXCLUSIVE!
Create your own future superstar -- ONLY with FIFA 10 by EA SPORTS™. Track his play in multiple seasons. Earn skills in competition against the world’s finest soccer players, and build your legend!

CONTROL THE GAME WITH FINGERTIP EASE
Easily dictate tempo with the accelerometer. Pull off defense-splitting passes, rifling shots, and pro-style tricks with intuitive touchscreen controls.

TRUE SIGHTS AND SOUNDS
Hear the roar of sold-out stadiums, and catch close-up the pride and passion on the field, from team presentations to goal celebrations. View from 6 angles, plus the "Be A Pro" camera. All in 3D.

TURN UP THE COMPETITION
Access Local WiFi Multiplayer Mode for friendly head-to-head action. Test your skills vs. your personal rivals.

PICK UP AND PLAY. ANYTIME, ANYWHERE.
From Barcelona to Brazil, manage the world’s best, and play for prestige and glory. Load in seconds and get ready for action!

The game is expected to be launched around October 1st.

Thanks WunDaii and dazzyk

Tak Fung, an ex-Lionhead and ex-Sony graphics programmer, has announced his first iPhone game Mini Squadron. Fung previously worked on titles such as Fable 1 and Fable 2. He has now set his sights on making "a really fun shooting game" for the iPhone.

If his game trailer is any indication, it really does look like a lot of fun:

Mini Squadron offers old-school shooting gameplay with over 50 types of planes that can be unlocked as well as different weapon types and power-ups. You can shoot down enemy planes, bombers, UFOs, and even ducks.

He describes the idea behind the game:

The idea and ethos with Mini Squadron is to bring a high quality, frenetic shoot-em-up to the iPhone, taking inspiration from old-skool games such as BIP on the Amiga (or BiPlane War I think before that on PC?) Wings of Fury, JetStrike and many other similar shooty games with lots of lil' planes (^3^). I also love the games by Treasure (especially Ikaruga), and crazy japanese shooters such as Parodius, and I hope to get some of the originality and silliness of those games into Mini Squadron to make people chuckle whilst playing!

Mini Squadron is due for release in October.

If you're an iPhone developer and you've been struggling to figure out a way to get your game back on to the top 100, just get a celebrity to mention how they can't stop playing your game on a talk show. Megan Fox appeared last night on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon and explained how addicted she is to the time management game Sally's Spa [$2.99 / Free].

The iPhone chat begins at around 3:20 remaining in the video:

Since Megan Fox's plug on this nationally broadcasted talk show just last night, Sally's Spa is back on the top 100. (Position #92 and climbing as of this writing.) This isn't the first time we've seen celebrities mention iPhone games, between Demi Moore tweeting about battling Ashton Kutcher in Flight Control [99¢] or American Idol winner Jordin Sparks tweeting high scores from Harbor Master [99¢ / Free] among others.

This just goes to show how shockingly mainstream both iPhones and iPhone gaming is becoming, something I'm not sure many people expected when the iPhone and the App Store launched.

Glu's Family Guy: Uncensored finally appeared for download last night. Family Guy: Uncensored is a series of minigames loosely tied to the television show. You will play as Brian running from Stewie, Quagmire swinging through a jungle, Chris shooting down flying Meg-pigs in a sidescrolling shooter, Stewie fighting Bertram in a MegaMan-like game, and of course the battle with Peter versus the chicken.

The problem is, none of these minigames are particularly fun once the initial novelty wears off which only takes a few moments. On top of that, some are easy to fail, and when you do the entire level must be reloaded. If you're doing poorly, you will spend more time waiting for the game to load to try again than you will actually playing the game itself. Robo Stewie is probably the best game of the bunch as a sidescrolling platformer, but even it can't really stand alone in terms of gameplay.

Overall Family Guy: Uncensored has a feel to it that is very similar to the movie or TV show based games of the 8 and 16 bit era. The game doesn't at all utilize the Family Guy elements in a particularly amusing way, and instead leans heavily on catch phrases and attempts at humor to prop up a decidedly mediocre set of mini games. Amusingly enough, for a game branded as "Uncensored", Family Guy is only rated 12+ on iTunes.

If you do happen to like any of the mini games, you can play higher levels of difficulty once you've unlocked them, and 3 additional mini-games are promised in a free update. At this point, we believe only the most die-hard Family Guy fan will likely derive enough entertainment from this game to warrant its purchase.

App Store Link: Family Guy: Uncensored, $4.99

2XL Games has posted some actual on device video from their upcoming 2XL ATV Offroad game. We previously posted a trailer video but some readers were disappointed there was little actual gameplay footage.

Here are a couple of the videos posted by 2XL showing some of the different gaming arenas.

First is an ourdoor race showing various camera angles as well as some tricks:

The next video is a Freestyle mode where you can perform various tricks in an open area:

2XL ATV lists a large number of features including 16 tracks, 2 freestyle levels, 16 unique stunts, massive career mode, multiplayer and adjustable difficulty. The game is expected this month.

Thanks arta

If there's one genre on the App Store that is completely saturated, it would have to be matching puzzle games. With so many similarities between most of these games as developers all try to provide their "unique twist" on the Bejeweled formula, it's not every day that we come across a game that is actually different enough to be worth mentioning. SnakeHead Software came up with a combination of gameplay elements distilled in to the matching format we're all familiar with that actually works quite well.

In Texas Tea [App Store], instead of matching a series of similar shapes together, you have to find matching sets of dice, but there's more to it than that. You can just play it like a regular matching game and match identical dice in a straight line up or down, but to really boost your score you need to look for poker hands within the dice.

One pair is the most basic match, followed by two pair, then three of a kind. Following that, you can find dice matching a full house, straight, four of a kind, or even a straight flush. Looking for these poker hands made of dice adds a deeper level of game board analysis and planning ahead than you have in most matching games.

The levels in game are laid out as some kind of road trip across Texas from El Paso to Austin. As you progress through the game, the different levels will have game boards with areas that are blocked out (seen below), hindering your matching capabilities. Completing a level involves turning the game board from green to black, within the time limit. This is accomplished by matching dice in each square, as every time a dice is cleared from the game board its square turns black.

If you enjoy these kinds of matching games, Texas Tea is worth a try. I've had fun playing it so far, and once you get over the initial hump of learning to scan the game board for poker hands, the game turns out to have much more depth to it than your average match 3.

App Store Link: Texas Tea, 99¢

We got word from Merdian today that Alive 4 Ever [App Store] had its first major content update submitted to Apple for review. They seem to have listened to some of the criticism that forum members had in the Alive 4 Ever thread and implemented quite a few changes.

Two new game modes are being introduced, "Survival Battle" and "Horde Battle". In survival battle, you try to stay alive as long as you can through endless streams of zombies. If you survive for ten minutes, a special golden Desert Eagle pistol will be awarded. Horde battle has you fighting waves of zombies, and a P90, golden AK-47, and a M4 Super 90 will be rewarded for clearing waves 8, 16, and 24.

Some interface elements have been improved. You can now change the transparency of the dual sticks, and on the scene selection screen a small icon will indicate whether or not you have completed the challenges of that level.

Meridian provided us the following trailer showing the new features of Alive 4 Ever 1.1:

[ Full HD version | Low Bandwidth version ]

We really enjoyed Alive 4 Ever in our review, and with the news of this upcoming patch, we highly recommend all fans of dual stick shooters to give the game a try. The 1.1 patch is coming soon, and should be available inside of the next two weeks if all goes well with the approval process.

App Store Link: Alive 4 Ever, 99¢

Korean game developer Gamevil released their latest entry in the Baseball Superstars series last night with Baseball Superstars 2010 [App Store]. According to Gamevil, the original Baseball Superstars is the best selling baseball game on the App Store, and given my experience with Baseball Superstars 2010 so far, it's safe to say they've got another hit on their hands.

Baseball Superstars 2010 is a full featured baseball game with multiple game modes ranging from simple exhibition games to full seasons or homerun derbies. What sets the game apart from the pack are the RPG elements that allow you to create your own pitcher or batter and build their statistics in "My League" mode.

Various exercises and social events are available to train your players along with items to purchase such as bats and shoes with your annual salary. Once you have built up your players (up to 4 batters and 2 pitchers), you can use those players in the full season mode where you will need to manage your team's ability to work together as well as their morale.

If this sounds crazy, that's because it is. Both Baseball Superstars games have this odd mixture of really solid Baseball gameplay and these strange RPG elements that seem silly at first but start to have the same allure as leveling up any character in an RPG. I've never really been a sports gamer, but the RPG elements in the original Baseball Superstars really sucked me in, and the sequel is doing the same.

There's an additional level to the lovable absurdity in Baseball Superstars 2010 with the included "super" players. There is a pitcher that's a robot, a batter who is some kind of nurse, and in a game I just played the opposing team's pitcher performed a super move turning all the baseballs they pitched into bombs. These crazy components to the game with the RPG elements mentioned earlier somehow really make this game appeal to me, and I'm not even a baseball fan.

Baseball Superstars 2010 also offers an interesting solution to online multiplayer. Everything is done via a asynchronous match mode where you can go online to search for teams to play. In this mode, you're essentially downloading the player statistics of the team you select and playing against them locally on your device.

Sure, it's not real-time multiplayer, but the ability to download your friend's team and play against them when you have time should fit in well with the portable gaming habits of a lot of iPhone gamers where you're only playing in small increments while you're on the go.

If you don't want to get involved in a full baseball game, the homerun derbies and missions are great for playing for a few minutes at a time. Competing in both of these game modes will earn points that you can then spend to unlock additional characters and buy items.

Gamevil released the following gameplay trailer:

[ Full HD version | Low Bandwidth version ]

Similar to how the Madden games work, Baseball Superstars 2010 is the annual evolution of Baseball Superstars. There are many small tweaks and refinements that make the 2010 edition worth owning if you enjoyed the original. If you haven't played a Baseball Superstars game, there is no lite version for 2010, but there is a Lite for the original Baseball Superstars [Free] that can give you an idea of what to expect out of the sequel.

App Store Link: Baseball Superstars 2010, $5.99

We've known for quite some time now that a Lumines port for the iPhone was in the works, and with the flurry of releases lately it likely slipped to the back of everyone's mind. Tonight LUMINES - Touch Fusion [App Store] appeared for download along with an associated lite version, and so far the reaction in our forums has been all over the place.

The game is completely Lumines, with everything from flashy visual flare to the signature Lumines soundtrack. If you're unfamilar with the series, here are the basics:

Lumines is a color matching block dropping puzzle game. Squares made of four smaller blocks appear on screen that can be rotated and then moved in to place on the game board. A line moves from left to right across the screen synchronized to the music. When this line passes over groups of four or more matched blocks, those blocks disappear.

As the game progresses, the line moves faster and faster. Getting a high score hinges heavily on your ability to set up massive matched groupings of blocks between each pass of the line moving across the screen to clear them. Lumines is played with different unlockable "skins" that change the appearance of the board and the soundtrack.

Video by AppBank
[ Full HD version | Low Bandwidth version ]

The problem with the iPhone port of Lumines, predictably, are the controls. Lumines is a fast paced game that obviously relies heavily on quick rotation and accurate positioning of the blocks to survive for very long. The control scheme of the iPhone port involves swiping to move blocks and tapping to rotate them. This sounds good on paper, but in practice the game can rarely determine what your intentions are unless you play much slower with much more deliberate on-screen gestures than you normally would.

In my time with the game, I've started to get used to the controls, but I'm still nowhere near the level of speed and precision I had moving blocks around in the PSP version of the game. Meanwhile, many others are finding the game unplayable in its current form. Aside from the controls, another point of contention on our forums is the inclusion of DLC skin packs that can be purchased for $1.99. Currently there is only one additional DLC pack available, and here is a video of the skins in the "Comic Pack":

Video by AppBank
[ Full HD version | Low Bandwidth version ]

If you've never played a Lumines game before, give the lite a try just because the mechanics of the game are worth experiencing. But even if you're a fan of the game series, I'd still recommend sticking with the lite first to test out the controls.

App Store Links:

• LUMINES - Touch Fusion, $2.99
• LUMINES - Touch Fusion Lite, Free

Yesterday we posted a few screenshots of Chillingo's Horror Racing [App Store], not expecting to see the game again for a few weeks while it made its way through the approval process. Much to my surprise, it popped up on the App Store this afternoon, and I've been having a great time playing it today.

In the sneak peek I thought it looked a lot like Blizzard's Rock'n'Roll Racing and that comparison couldn't possibly be more spot on. The game has various weapons to use to attack your other racers, and a whole slew of upgrades to purchase with your winnings between races that cover every aspect of your vehicles offensive, defensive, and racing abilities.

Burning around the 15 included tracks is a ton of fun, especially with ramps everywhere and tight corners that will get your car up on two wheels. There are 5 included characters to play as (each with different stats), and two unlockable characters that you need to complete the championship modes to play as.

The only bad part about the game (and I'm using "bad" very loosely here) is that there aren't any included options to modify the control method. The only way to play the game is with a little virtual steering wheel in the bottom right corner. Whatever way the arrow on the steering wheel is pointing is the direction your car goes. It takes a little getting used to, and once you do, the game plays fine. It just seems like an odd omission to not at least have the ability to swap what side of the screen the wheel is on.

The level of difficulty in the game is adjustable (easy, normal, hard). Also included aside from championship modes and quick racing is the skirmish mode which is much more focused on combat than racing. Even if you race through the championship modes, I think Horror Racing is fun enough to have decent replay value especially with multiple characters to play as.

[ Full HD version | Low Bandwidth version ]

If you look back at games like Rock'n'Roll Racing or other isometric racers with fond nostalgia, you owe it to yourself to at least try Horror Racing Lite. If you've never played an isometric racer, the same goes for you. People on our forums have really been enjoying the game, and while I don't know if I'd call Horror Racing the best racing game I've played on the iPhone, it's certainly one of the most fun.

App Store Link: Horror Racing, $2.99 - Horror Racing Lite, Free

At the Tokyo Game Show, Square Enix also announced a couple of new games for the iPhone and iPod Touch: Song Summoner and Hills and Rivers Remain.

The first game they showed off was turn based strategy game Song Summoner: The Unsung Heroes for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The game was originally released as a click-wheel iPod game back in 2008. From the 2008 click-wheel iPod version was well reviewed:

At first glance Song Summoners bears a strong resemblance to Squeenix's other SRPG series, Final Fantasy Tactics. And in some ways, they are similar. Both features tiny sprites fighting from a fixed, isometric perspective, as well as a variety of different unit types. But Summoners is also a much more simplified experience.

The game's hook was the unique unit creation method in which you choose songs from your iPod's library and the class and skill sets depended on the song selected. These units can then be leveled up in battle.

The iPhone version of the game is labeled as an "encore" and appears to be a distinct from the click-wheel version. This gameplay video of the preview version shown was recorded by AppBank:

The next game that Square Enix showed at the Tokyo Game Show was a real time strategy game called Hills and Rivers Remain. The game has existed for mobile platforms in Japan and was described (mobile version) as follows:

Hills and Rivers Remain isn’t a full blown strategy RPG. It’s more like a mix of tower defense and the world map from Dragon Force where units automatically invade towns. Even though it’s just a cell phone game, Square Enix included a story mode where you lead Alan and his army to victory. Beyond story mode there is a free play mode and a downloadable maps.

A video of the game can be seen here, courtesy of AppBank:

No release dates for either title are known.

The Tokyo Game Show launched today and brought some big announcements from Square Enix.

The first news was the launch of their Sliding Heroes game we reported on last week. It was described as a "real time strategy" game in which you control units by tilting your iPhone. We've been able to spend some time with the game, and it's truly a strange mashup between a tactics game and a Labyrinth-type game. Yes, that Labyrinth.

Like most Labyrinth games, your goal is to make it from one end of the maze/level to the other. While there are the traditional hole obstacles that you must avoid, there are also enemy creatures which you must attack. You create new units by simply pressing on the spawn button. There can be up to 8 units at a time on the field. The goal is to destroy all the enemies and make it to the exit of the level.

Since it is essentially a ball roller, all your troops move en masse as you tilt your iPhone. Attacking enemies is as simple as rolling your troops directly into them. There is some strategy in pacing the deployment of different troops depending on the enemies, though you don't really have individual control of any of them. Defeating the level in record times provides some incentives.

It's really a strange game and one that made us utter "what were they thinking" more than once. I suppose big fans of ball rolling games may find it to be a refreshing take on the genre, but I suspect fantasy/strategy gamers won't be won over. Fortunately, there is a Lite version that you can try yourself, and we suggest you do, if nothing else, for the novelty of it all.

App Store Links: Sliding Heroes, $4.99, Sliding Heroes Lite, Free