We first got a look at Sniper Vs Sniper: Online [App Store] back at PAX, and it was clear then that the game had as much potential as their previous online multiplayer title, Homerun Battle 3D [App Store] once it went live and the online community started to grow.

The most succinct way to describe Sniper Vs Sniper is Where's Waldo? with guns. The gameplay involves scanning various buildings with binoculars to scout out enemy snipers, quickly switching to your rifle, and taking them down before they take you down. It's a fast paced hybrid between a sniper shooter and a hidden object game, playable online against other players.

The online component consists of two game modes, 1 on 1 sniper battles and cooperative levels. When playing against another player, you will both be randomly positioned in opposing buildings at the start of each round. As quickly as possible you tilt your phone to move your viewpoint around to find the person you're playing against, who will likely also be looking around with their binoculars. While you're doing this, you will be able to choose from a series of ridiculous taunts which all play different quotes like "What would you like on your tombstone?"

Once you find your opponent, you need to take your rifle out and shoot them, but there's more to it than that. Both of you have life bars, and the match is over when you run out of life. Like most video games, head shots do more damage so accuracy is key when it comes to actually firing your rifle. Once you damage your opponent, a new round starts and you both get new positions in the buildings.

The catch is, if you shot your opponent in the previous round, they get a hint showing where you are in your building. Winning online matches usually requires being fast enough at scanning the other building to be able to find the other sniper before they (much more easily) find you.

If competing against other players in the 1 on 1 mode isn't your cup of tea, the cooperative mode will pit you and another player against a building loaded with snipers. Whoever shoots more of these AI controlled snipers wins the round. This is also how the single player mode of the game is played, although given how full featured the online component is, single player feels significantly less entertaining in comparison.

Just like Homerun Battle 3D, online play is ranked on global leaderboards and you have a list of friends that you can challenge. There's even a lobby you can chat in between games. Com2Us also deserves some kind of merit badge for being one of the only game developers that includes a toggle in the game's options to disable the intro movie.

Sniper Vs Sniper is such a strange combination of gameplay elements that put together just work. It's part hidden object, part shooter, with a rich online component that is rivaled by few other games on the App Store. If the community takes off like it has with Homerun Battle 3D, I could see myself getting far too involved in competing online in Sniper Vs Sniper.

App Store Link: Sniper Vs Sniper, $4.99

Volkswagen and Firemint's Real Racing GTI free promotional game for the iPhone has been released to the App Store. The 59.3MB download offers a Volkswagen branded racing experience with one main track and six 2010 GTI sport hatches.

The free Real Racing GTI App is available worldwide and spares no detail, allowing players to experience every thrilling aspect of the all-new 2010 GTI right in the palms of their hands on iPhone and iPod touch. From the redesigned exterior with more aggressive headlights and the famous red-striped grille, to the sporty interior with a race-inspired steering wheel, the all-new 2010 GTI races its way to life on the screen for a thrilling gaming experience.

The three game modes include Quick Race, Time Trial, and GTI Cup Championship (across three tracks). Aside from being a great ad for Volkswagen, Real Racing GTI also serves as the Lite version of Firemint's widely acclaimed Real Racing [$6.99].

As part of the launch promotion, Volkswagen is giving away six limited edition 2010 Volkswagen GTI MarkVI prize cars to six U.S. players of the game. Details of the giveaway will be posted at http://www.VW.com/RealRacingGTI.

We loved the full version of the game, so this free Lite version is a "must try" for anyone who hasn't played the game yet.

App Store Link: Real Racing GTI, Free, Real Racing, $6.99

We finally got our hands on the demo version of Ace Combat Xi that was shown at the Tokyo Game show last month. The early impressions from this build were positive, and after seeing it first hand, I can confirm all the great things that were said about the game.

Overall, it just looks and feels like an Ace Combat game. They did a surprisingly good job at capturing the essence of the console games, and the tilt controls work great. This development version of the game lacks any kind of sensitivity configuration, so there were times where I felt like I was tilting the phone a little too much, but other than that flying a jet in Ace Combat Xi is a ton of fun.

In the right hand corner of the screen are a series of buttons to fire your various weapons and switch targets, the bottom left side of the screen controls your throttle. The rest of the screen is framed in a somewhat cluttered but really cool looking heads up display showing other information like the location of enemies and how many there are left.

This version of the game is very limited, but even as a brief demo, the overall experience of the Ace Combat console games is absolutely thriving on the iPhone. The constant radio chatter, the great texturing of the ground and sky and the sound of your afterburners rumbling all come together to create one of those "Wow, this is running on an iPhone?" moments.

For increased immersion, you can switch in to first person view and fly your plane using nothing but the HUD. I found this to be a little disorienting, but your visibility is definitely improved without your jet taking up the bottom third of the screen.

[ Full HD version | Low Bandwidth version ]

Namco hopes to release Ace Combat Xi this winter and we will continue to post preview information as it's revealed and while this version of the game is little more than a mid-development preview, it is remarkably impressive.

Volkswagen held a press conference in New York City tonight for the launch of the Volkswagen 2010 GTI. During the presentation, they announced Real Racing GTI a free iPhone game based on Firemint's Real Racing game.

Announcing the all-new 2010 GTI! But this is [no] ordinary announcement. Breaking the traditional mold, the all-new 2010 GTI is the first car to be launched through an iPhone / iPod Touch app!

VW teams up with Firemint to present a special GTI edition of the award-winning Real Racing app! Log on to the App Store tomorrow morning to pick up your FREE copy of Real Racing GTI

The game will be free to download and should appear in the App Store by the morning.

Part of the presentation was recorded live here, talk of the app starts at about 7 minutes in, gameplay at around 10 min 30 seconds in:

The free game will presumably serve as both a promotional app for Volkswagen as well as a lite version of Firemint's Real Racing [$6.99]. We expect more official information to be released soon.

Update: Now available!

Two new lite versions of games we can't say enough good things about appeared on the App Store recently. If you haven't already bought either of these games, I really recommend giving the free versions a spin

Baseball Superstars 2010 Free - Baseball Superstars 2010, $5.99

With a nearly flawless 4.5 star rating here on Touch Arcade, Baseball Superstars 2010 took everything that was good about Baseball Superstars 2009 and made it better. If you like baseball games or roleplaying games, Baseball Superstars 2010 can potentially consume your gaming life as you find yourself batting through just one more season before going to bed to make your super batter even more powerful.

And of course, like most Gamevil games, there's even a completely off the wall commercial for the game that is totally worth a watch just to see an angel and some type of demon having some kind of epic baseball battle.

Hook Champ Lite - Hook Champ, $2.99

Hook Champ may very well be my favorite game that has been released lately. Fantastic pixel art graphics combined with physics-based gameplay that somehow always keeps me coming back for more (even after falling in to lava for the 100th time) would be enough to interest me in this game, but there's also a whole in-game store with all kinds of both useful and useless character upgrades.

You swing through caves, evade an oddly hungry ghost, and plunder relics along the way. As if Hook Champ wasn't awesome enough, your performance in every level is seamlessly tracked online, and after you beat the game you can go back and try to make it to the top of the score boards in your favorite levels.

So, Ghosts 'n Goblins it is.

Exactly which historic name Capcom would finally adopt for the iPhone version of their upcoming sidescroller has finally been revealed. IGN has scored some of the first screenshots for the iPhone version of Ghosts 'n Goblins.

We had first heard of the port back in September at the Tokyo Game Show 2009. Capcom a then unnamed game that used 3D models in a 2D side scrolling game. In that respect, it shares many characteristics with the PSP's Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins which was also rendered in 3D.

The iPhone version of the game appears to use a 4-direction virtual pad along with 2 on screen buttons.

No other details were revealed about the game, though we hope to see it soon. Gallery of images from IGN.

Return to the Ghoul Realm as the legendary Arthur or impetuous Lancelot in Ghosts‘N Goblins™: Gold Knights for the iPhone and iPod touch. Explore six stages of peril as you attempt to recover the missing maidens and learn the secret of the demons’ return.

Battle with sword, lance, arrow and axe against swarms of demons, monsters and undead minions in one of the most exciting platformers on iPhone.

Key features

- Brilliant 3D graphics and classic platform action!
- For the first time, play as two different heroes each with a unique play style.
- Master six different weapons per character and power up each weapon with magic.
- Destroy treasure chests to uncover weapons and more powerful suits of armor.
- Further customize your Ghosts ‘N Goblins experience with DLC.

Earthworm Jim [App Store] is a game that should need no introduction if you are old enough to have been around to enjoy the golden age of 16 bit gaming. Originally released in 1994 for the Sega Genesis, and quickly ported to several other platforms shortly thereafter including the Super Nintendo and a "Special Edition" on the Sega CD. Recently this Sega CD version of the game made it to the Wii Virtual Console, and as of this evening Earthworm Jim has yet another new home-- The iPhone.

So what's Earthworm Jim all about? Well, you play as an earth worm (named Jim) who was powered up by a super suit that crashed down to Earth. Like all good video games, your quest involves saving a princess from her evil captor, in this case, Queen Slug-for-a-Butt. Along the way you'll jump, whip, and shoot yourself through different obstacles and bosses in pure-16 bit platforming bliss.

The best thing about Gameloft's Earthworm Jim for the iPhone is that it's Earthworm Jim for the iPhone. Consequently, this is also the worst thing about the game as Earthworm Jim shares some of the relative control imprecision that is unavoidable when mapping traditional joysticks to on-screen virtual controls.

A virtual D-Pad (or joystick, configurable in the game's options) controls your movement, and a set of three buttons in the opposite corner of the screen handle jumping and attacking. The controls work well enough for the game to still be fun, but if you remember playing the game on previous consoles, you will likely have a awkward adjustment period as you bumble through the first level.

If this is your first foray into the Earthworm Jimiverse, just be aware the game has numerous tiny platforms to jump on and airborne monsters to shoot. So, depending on how good you are with virtual D-Pads, this can either be very fun or very frustrating.

Between levels, Jim will take out his pocket rocket and you will race Psycrow (another one of the in-game baddies) to the next level. These levels play exactly like the tunnel racing games that have become so popular on the App Store. Tilting the iPhone moves your rocket right or left and you complete the level by beating Psycrow to the finish.

The odd part about these levels is they feel remarkably natural on the iPhone. Tilting right or left to move your rocket works just as well as all the other games on the platform with a similar racing gameplay mechanic. This provides a stark contrast between the regular levels of the game, which work, but feel just as out of place as most other games with virtual controls.

So do I recommend picking up Earthworm Jim? How could I say no? Earthworm Jim is a classic, and the iPhone port has completely remastered art and sound, making it quite possibly one of the best looking and sounding versions of the game. (Note that Jim does have different voice acting, so fair warning for you Earthworm Jim purists.) The controls are as good as can be expected, and the game only saves your progress as you complete each level, but Earthworm Jim for the iPhone can still be a lot of fun.

[ Full HD version | Low Bandwidth version ]

If you played the original release of the game, Earthworm Jim will stoke the coals of nostalgia in to a blazing inferno of worm whipping and rocket riding. If this is the first you've heard of the series, it still may be worth navigating the virtual control scheme to enjoy Gameloft's refined version of one of the best platformers of the 90's.

App Store Link: Earthworm Jim, $4.99

Namco has unveiled new details about their upcoming action adventure game Garters & Ghouls.

Unearth the strange and undying world of Garters & Ghouls! Control and command the newly-dead Marie Dupois as she battles the minions of The Thrum and horrors beyond description! With over 25 levels, randomized level generation and downloadable content, the action never dies!

Based on the screenshots released, the game appears to be a dual-stick survival shooter the likes of which we've seen before, but wrapped in a pretty extensive story and with a progressive level design. There also appears to be a wide variety of locations presented in the game.

This teaser video just shows some of the artwork, but no actual gameplay:

The following screenshots show more details of the actual gameplay:

Ground Effect, developed by Glenn Corpes, has been in development for a few months now. Posting as "GlennX" on our forums, Corpes has posted constant updates since May of this year, along with utilizing the Touch Arcade community as a beta testing pool. It's always great to see projects like this with so much involvement from our forums, and having played a preview build, it seems that polling the community has paid off.

Ground Efect is an arcade style Ekranoplan racing game that takes place around a series of 14 different sets of islands. The relative simplicity of the geometry of these islands allows for an extremely impressive draw distance in the game along with silky smooth framerates on my iPhone 3GS. The game is controlled utilizing either tilt or touch controls, and they work just as well as all the other racing games on the platform. Acceleration is handled automatically, but there are two on screen buttons for boosting and braking. Doing well in the game requires intelligent management of boost, which slowly recharges when you're not using it.

Ground Effect features atmospheric music from the Danish band Diefenbach, which fits perfectly with the mood of the game, 10 different race craft to choose from, along with both daytime and night races. According to the developer, this fun arcade racer is only a few more days worth of tweaks and unless a beta tester finds a major bug, Ground Effect will be submitted to Apple very soon.

If you have questions about the game, feel free to stop by GlennX's latest thread on Ground Effect on our forums.

Crescent Moon Games' upcoming Ravensword game has received a lot of attention from our readers since its original announcement. It is certainly one of the most ambitious iPhone games we've seen coming out of such a small studio. Ravensword is an open-envirornment 3D RPG that sports some impressive graphics.

The one potential hurdle that we (and our readers) saw in early builds of the game, however, was the adoption of a seemingly awkward control system. We discussed in our recent podcast that it seems clear the major developers had already settled on a somewhat standardized "swipe to look" control mechanism for these 3D games.

Fortunately, Crescent Moon has modified their game to adopt a similar control scheme that they detail in this new gameplay video:

The developer also demonstrates other features including auto targeting and the various scaling options provided to boost performance on previous generation devices. Ravensword is in the final stages of development and should be submitted in a matter of days to weeks.

Rake in Grass recently released their latest iPhone game Undercroft, an old-school styled turn based RPG. The game has been receiving only positive comments in the release thread.

The developer describes the game:

Undercroft is a dazzling, epic adventure set in a fantasy world full of magic and monsters. It combines the atmosphere of classic role playing games with plenty of new features, and brings it all together with cool graphics and sophisticated level design.

The game features multiple environments, hundreds of items, and over 20 hours of gameplay. The developers have provided a lite version to try which will give you a feel for the game before committing to the full version.

App Store Links: Undercroft Lite, Free, Undercroft, $4.99

On Sunday night, we recorded our first podcast covering some of the latest games for the iPhone and iPod Touch. If you ever wanted to hear from the writers behind TouchArcade, here's your chance.

Eli Hodapp, Arnold Kim, and Blake Patterson were joined by developer guest Natalia Luckyanova of Imangi Studios for our first ever (public) podcast. Here is an outline of the topics we discussed.

The Big News

• Apple Allows Free Apps to Sell In-App Purchases

Games We Played

• Soosiz
• Boost 3D
• Canabalt
• Mr. Bounce - Video
• Tap-Fu

Upcoming Games

• Hippo High Dive - Imangi Studios
• EA's Naughty or Nice Event with talk of NBA Live and Command & Conquer
• Warpgate - Freeverse
• Zen Bound 3GS - Secret Exit
• Ravensword - Crescent Moon Games

As our first podcast, the format remains a work in progress -- be sure to check out the outtakes at the end of the show. We plan on continuing this feature on a weekly basis. The podcast can be directly downloaded below, through this RSS Feed, or on iTunes
Podcast music provided by Overclocked Remix.

Download Podcast: TouchArcade Podcast - Episode 1 (M4A / 31MB)
iTunes Link: Podcast on iTunes

Bryan Mitchell's Geared [99¢ / Free] is an excellent puzzle game that revolves around a very simple gameplay mechanic: Arranging gears on screen to make a working set of gears that connects from the yellow gear to the blue gear(s).

Geared starts simple and quickly progresses to levels that require pixel perfect accuracy to complete. We greatly enjoyed Geared in our review, and it even spent some time as the #1 paid app in both the USA and UK back in August.

Version 1.1 adds 40 new levels, new gameplay elements like gears that can't move and will jam your other gears if you get near them, along with a bundle of various tweaks and bug fixes. For instance, a new interface to move gears around makes getting them in their pixel perfect positions much easier, and if you find yourself stuck on a level you can skip forward.

If you've enjoyed Geared, now is the time to mash "Check for Updates" in iTunes and get started on the new levels. If this is the first you've heard of the game, I highly recommend at least trying the free version. The developer has started a thread for the new version in our forums, so if you have any questions about the game, that's probably the best place to ask them.

If you've really found yourself stuck in levels 1-80, a fantastic guide was posted on the Mac Rumors forum. Just beware, this will spoil the entire pre-update game for you-- Geared Levels 1-80 Walkthrough

App Store Links: Geared, 99¢ - Geared - Free, Free

Gameloft recently released this new gameplay video for their upcoming racer Asphalt 5:

As well, the company announced that Earthworm Jim will be released October 21st.

Earthworm Jim originally appeared on the Sega Genesis in 1994, and since then saw ports on numerous platforms soon to be including the XBOX 360 via XBOX Live Arcade, the PS3 via PlayStation Network, and the Wii via WiiWare.

Rhythm games have been a part of gamer culture since Bemani popularized them outside of Japan with Dance Dance Revolution in the late 90's. Since then, the core game concept of DDR has varied widely from things as obscure as shaking maracas in Samba de Amigo on the Dreamcast to emulating a full band in EA's newly released Rock Band [App Store] on the iPhone.

Rock Band allows gamers to choose from playing the guitar, bass guitar, drums, and even singingwhile rocking out to a particular song. In console versions, you use plastic guitar, drum kit, and microphone. On the iPhone and iPod Touch, each of these instruments are played by tapping four areas on the screen to match up with the musical notes coming down the screen.

We extensively previewed the game, and preferred it to the other available rhythm games:

Where Rock Band pulls ahead of the pack of rhythm games on the iPhone is when it comes to overall immersion while you're playing the songs.

Obviously there's only so much immersion that you can achieve when you're pretending to play a guitar by tapping on the screen of your iPhone, but playing the tracks in the iPhone Rock Band works just like its console big brother in that every note you miss causes the music to be interrupted. This seems to add so much more to the game than just tapping along to a song like other similar games on the platform with music that just keeps playing regardless of how poorly you're doing.

Rock Band for the iPhone comes loaded with 20 songs, and additional songs can be purchased in game in packs of two for 99¢. This is not only cheaper than buying the songs themselves from iTunes, but also significantly cheaper than buying them inside of any other iteration of Rock Band.

Also included is four player local bluetooth multiplayer, achievements, Facebook connectivity, and along with both single song game modes and a "World Tour" career mode. Keep in mind, because of the in-game DLC, Rock Band requires the 3.0 OS.

The iPhone version of Rock Band does a great job at emulating some of the feel of the console original, and thanks to the four distinct playable tracks in each song, the game also offers an experience not found in competing games on the App Store. With the cheapest DLC to be found in the Rock Band series, the iPhone version will be hard for fans to pass up. Reactions so far seem positive in the thread our forums, with the main complaints relating to veterans of Rock Band finding the iPhone version to be too easy, along with the somewhat expected complaint regarding the track selection.

App Store Link: Rock Band, $9.99