While we won't be on the floor of CES until tomorrow, the internet is already on fire with buzz surrounding the Parrot AR.Drone remote control quadricopter that is controlled by creating its own WiFi network that either an iPhone or an iPod Touch connects to. The Parrot AR.Drone is then maneuvered using the accelerometers of the iPhone combined with a video feed from the forward facing camera on the drone itself.

A smart piloting system intelligently compensates for wind and other environmental conditions, and utilizing a second camera which faces the ground can perform a flawless stationary flight on its own. If at any point you take your fingers off the iPhone autopilot engages stabilizing the drone, and if you quit the controller app or lose your connection to the Parrot AR.Drone's WiFi network the drone will stabilize itself and land all on its own.

As seen in the following video, the Parrot AR.Drone has two different hulls-- A fully enclosed hull that protects the rotors from bumping in to walls and furniture indoors, and a hull for outdoors that sacrifices rotor protection for better maneuverability.

As if being able to fly around a drone using nothing more than your iPhone wasn't cool enough, an additional video on the Parrot AR.Drone web site demonstrates some augmented reality games you can play with the Parrot AR.Drone complete with picture in picture showing what the video feed and in-game HUD looks like. It apparently can even recognize shapes in 3D space to overlay different 3D models, such as the boss fight seen at the end of this video:

On top of all this, Parrot even has a developer zone featuring whitepapers that detail how to develop third party games that use the Parrot AR.Drone via an open API. All of these resources are available for free, and while the games shown in the above video were cool, I can't even imagine the potential if third party development support takes off.

Needless to say, we'll be keeping a close eye on the Parrot AR.Drone, and will post more information as it becomes available.

Earlier this week, Apple announced that they had reached over 3 billion downloads in the App Store over the past 18 months. Of course, that number includes both free and paid downloads.

Adding more color to the number is the fact that Gameloft announced today that they had successfully reached 10 million paid downloads themselves.

“We have had a remarkable year on the App Store,” said Michel Guillemot, chairman and CEO, Gameloft. “Our success is defined not only by great production values, but a vested interest in bringing to market games that are commercially friendly and appeal to a mass consumer base. Taking into account that the App Store is only 18 months old, 10 million paid downloads is an achievement we are quite proud of.”

Their numbers were helped by holiday sales which typically see massive boosts in App Store traffic and downloads due to an influx of new iPod Touch and iPhone owners.

Doodle Jump sales

In fact, Lima Sky's much beloved Doodle Jump [App Store] saw this massive burst in sales as it held the #3 spot during the Christmas holiday.

According to their sales numbers, they saw nearly 80,000 paid downloads of Doodle Jump on Christmas day alone, with a total December download count of over 500,000.

The App Store originally launched in July 2008 and has since been a massive success.

One of the features that piqued the interest of quite a few people when iPhone OS 3.0 was originally announced was Apple finally allowing developers access to the iPhone/iPod touch music library. Gamers were anxious to see something similar to Audiosurf, a PC game that turns music tracks in to actual in-game tracks for you to race on. Unfortunately, the limited access developers actually ended up with to the device's music library prevented much more than the in-game music player menus that have been implemented in some games.

Avatar Labs' recently released Rhythm Racer [App Store] doesn't allow you to play your own tracks, but it does a good job of providing a similar Audiosurf-like experience. You race down a track, tilting to move your ship right or left to follow the notes and fly over jumps to collect bonus rings.

The controls work well, and the music combines with the gameplay to create a really neat experience, especially if you've never played Audiosurf. Rhythm Racer is even free to try, initially loaded with a single track. Within the game, you can buy a second track for 99¢, but that's all the extra content that seems to be available currently.

The sensation of speed is good, and while there isn't much to do in the game after you race through the two tracks, the game uses OpenFeint for both online leaderboards and achievements which could provide some replay value if competing on online laderboards is your thing. Since the game with one track is free, it's definitely worth a download, if for no reason other than to hold you over until Riddim Ribbon arrives.

App Store Link: Rhythm Racer, Free (DLC Track: 99¢)

In late October of last year we first posted about Super Awesome Hyper Dimensional Team's Pro Zombie Soccer, a game which seeks to merge the internationally popular game of soccer with the even more internationally popular pastime of killing zombies. We got our hands on the game this evening, and can safely say that Pro Zombie Soccer will likely quench the zombie slaughtering urges of all soccer fans.

In Pro Zombie Soccer, you play as Jax, a soccer fanatic who is now homeless following an embarrassing performance at the tryouts for the local super-team thanks to a wicked hang over. While digging through the trash one day he was bitten by the mysteriously zombified Julinho, the star player of the aforementioned team. Apparently transmitted through the bite, Jax inherits all of Julinho's soccer prowess.

Also, being fully aware of how zombie bites work, Jax also realizes that he doesn't have much time before he too is turned in to a zombie. So, he does the next logical thing and decides to grab the soccer ball out of Julinho's bag and murder as many zombies as possible before then.

Pro Zombie Soccer has simple single-thumb controls. You drag your thumb up and down the left side of the screen to aim your kicks, and by holding down your thumb longer before releasing it you can power up your kick-- A necessary technique to take out some of the stronger zombies in game.

As you slay zombies, a bar on the top left corner of the screen slowly fills up. Once full, you can tap an, on-screen button that illuminates to select one of three available power-ups: A lightning ball which seems to move much faster, a ball which cuts through multiple zombies instead of bouncing off them, and last but certainly not least, kicking your ball in to a satellite which fires a massive laser killing everything.

These power-ups can be seen in the following gameplay video:

Pro Zombie Soccer is still in development, but even this limited demo was a ton of fun. The animations are incredibly detailed, the game premise is ridiculous, and the gameplay itself is simple yet incredibly rewarding when you manage to unleash a massive satellite strike seconds before being overwhelmed by an entire screen full of zombies.

For more information on the game, check out the developer's web site or the thread on our forums.

If you've been paying attention at all the tech media, you will have heard about the rumored Apple tablet. Apple is widely expected to announce a new tablet device at the end of January, for possible release as early as March. The upcoming 10" tablet (or iSlate) is believed to be based on the iPhone operating system and adopt the App Store model for 3rd party developers.

We discussed the implications of such a device for gaming in our recent podcast, but weren't entirely sure what it would mean. A large screen multi-touch device might open up some interesting possibilities in the realm of gaming, but the adoption of a more expensive device will certainly be slower than the explosive growth of the iPhone and iPod Touch.

We were reminded, however, of Illusion Labs' tech demo showing their iPhone games Sway [$4.99] and TouchGrind [$4.99] on a massive multi-touch table:

We thought it would be a good discussion piece as we await to see what Apple will unveil later this month.

Kepa Auwae of Rocketcat Games joined us for our podcast this week and provide us some exclusive details about their next major Hook Champ update as well as their planned followup title.

In case you missed it, Hook Champ was listed amongst our list of best games of 2009.

In Hook Champ, you play as an Indiana Jones-like character equipped with a grappling hook trying to escape from various haunted ruins before you're eaten by a ghost. The core gameplay mechanic revolves around using your grappling hook and rope to swing through these ruins as quickly as possible.

Hook Champ's 3rd is almost complete, but Auwae provided details of the subsequent update. The 4th major update to Hook Champ will have a Minigore crossover in which you can play as John Gore in Hook Champ with a Minigore level set complete with gun. He describes it as a "Bionic Commando / Megaman style" gameplay within Hook Champ.

Meanwhile, the next game Rocketcat Games is going to set their sights on will be about trying to outrun an avalanche across a procedurally generated mountaintop. Terrains will include grassy plains, meadows, inside and outside of caves, as you try to escape the avalanche. The graphics will be upgraded from the 8-bit inspired Hook Champ graphics to a 16-bit inspired ("Super Mario") style. And don't worry -- a Hook will be one of the tools at your disposal.

App Store Link: Hook Champ, $2.99

Kepa Auwae of Rocketcat Games joins us this week in our first podcast of 2010. We sat down and talked about Hook Champ, some future iPhone games and the recent rumors of an Apple Tablet.

Rocketcat Games

• Hook Champ - We talk about Hook Champ, the development process, and their plans for the future.

Upcoming Games and News

• Unreal Engine 3
• Mirror's Edge for iPhone
• Marble Madness
• Apple Tablet Rumors

Podcast: Subscribe in iTunes or Direct Download (M4A, 41MB)

I've personally never wished for a puzzle game hosted by the ghost of Dutch painter Piet Mondrian, and I'm fairly confident that most people could say the same thing. In spite of this, the good people at Fuzzi Tail Software have delivered that exact experience in Mondrian, a challenging and visually pleasing puzzler brought to you by Piet Mondrian, who needs you to unscramble his masterpieces so he can enjoy the afterlife in peace.

While the puzzles in Mondrian are similar in design to the artwork of Piet Mondrian, they are not identical, as some concessions had to be made to make the game playable (they don't have the same grid-like black lines that Piet used in his art). Your goal is to duplicate each image provided in as few moves as possible. The target image can be checked as often as a player needs by touching the "solution" button in the bottom-left of the screen, and Piet Mondrian can be summoned to provide tips should a player get stuck.

The game board is populated with various tiles which can be moved about freely. Tiles are moved across the screen by a swipe, but their movement can only be stopped by another tile or wall. Basic, colored tiles can be used to block each other's path, black tiles can't be moved, numbered tiles must be moved precisely the same number of times as the number displayed on the tile itself, grey tiles adapt the color of the tiles they touch, and "merge" tiles can occupy the same space as indentically colored tiles.

Mondrian takes players on a mission to solve puzzles through numerous countries and continents around the world (beginning in Canada and ending in the USA). Each time one of the aforementioned game elements is introduced for the first time, Piet will come out and give a short lesson on how things work, so players won't ever be completely lost so long as they pay attention to the famous painter. If you're like me, that won't be hard to do, as the game's depiction of its namesake is pretty charming; Piet's dialogue made me chuckle on more than one occasion.

Although there aren't a massive number of levels in Mondrian (69 total) the levels that are included are so challenging that anyone who downloads the game is in for quite a few hours of brain-tingling puzzles. Also adding on to the total number of hours that players can get from the title, levels feature a par that indicates the minimum number of moves needed to complete so those interested can redo them later if they wish to improve their scores.

While I like the challenge that Mondrian offers, I think that the difficulty level might ramp up a little bit too quickly for most players. Levels do start out simply, but from about the second world location on to the end, puzzles are REALLY hard. This makes the puzzles much more satisfying to complete, but simultaneously could alienate less deft players.

The worst part about the difficulty is that all the levels in a world location must be completed before players can move on to any other level in the game. This is the sort of design mistake that can really cause problems, bottlenecking players on one or two levels that they just don't understand when the game should simply allow players to move on and come back to a particularly difficult level later if they so wish.

Mondrian offers up a hearty challenge for anyone who enjoys a good brain-teaser. The difficulty is a tad high on this one, so if you're not often in the mood to get the brain juices flowing, it might not be for you.

Update: I've learned from the developer that an update for Mondrian that addresses my complaints about the level progression has already been submitted and approved. Here is the official description of the update, directly from Jef Armstrong of Fuzzi Tail Software:

"Now any location/level can be unlocked. Simply touch the icon on the map and choose to unlock. Of course, the ghost of Mondrian may not be happy with your choice to skip ahead and will tell you so, but there is no penalty and once a location is unlocked it stays that way. Also, the timer is now optional and is turned off my default."

App Store Link: Mondrian, $2.99

With the holidays, we still feel like we're catching up on iPhone games from the past few weeks. Here are a few releases we skipped for various reasons, though each game seems to have their own following in our forums.

Two of the games (Trenches and Shaun White Snowboarding) have also seen price drops since their release to $0.99, adding to their appeal.

Trenches

Trenches by ThunderWorks Games has drawn comparisons to Flash game Warfare 1917. The game was original released on Christmas Eve at $2.99. Early reactions were mixed due to a short campaign and some early bugs. One of our writers also felt that any strategy in the game could be overcome easily by building an overwhelming number of basic infantry.

The game has since been updated to 1.0.1 addressing various bug fixes, and also dropping the price to $0.99 which should make it a better value.

App Store Link: Trenches, $0.99

Paperboy

The revival of the classic Paperboy also arrived right before Christmas. Perhaps we weren't hardcore enough fans of the original Paperboy, but we couldn't get very comfortable with the supplied control schemes. There are three modes to choose from.

The default mode is D-pad and speed bar, where there are touch areas for left / right in the lower left of the game screen, with a vertical slider control to the right for speed control. Full D-Pad mode presents a 4-directional control in the lower right, while D-Pad and Tilt Speed mode puts left / right controls at the far edges of the screen with forward / backward tilt for speed control (at three sensitivity settings).

Early adopters seemed to have little issue with the controls, but certainly represent long time Paperboy fans.

App Store Link: Paperboy, $4.99

Shaun White Snowboarding Origins

Shaun White Snowboarding first appeared in early December, and has since gained a following in our forums.

The game features only four slopes, but each is impressively long as compared to other such games in the App Store. As well, the trick control system feels surprisingly "free," providing a feeling of particular control during stunts. Graphics aren't particularly great, however, and overall, it's still a far cry from snowboard staples found on other platforms.

But the game has recently dropped to only $0.99 and offers enough fun. For the time being, it seems to offer one of the better snowboarding experiences in the App Store.

App Store Link: Shaun White Snowboarding: Origins, $0.99

As a match-three game on a platform already overcrowded with such games, Compression, developed by Little White Bear Studios, had to do something to set itself apart from the crowd. Its developers realized this and created a new kind of puzzle game, while still managing to capture the familiar, fun feel of classics like Tetris or Bejewled.

Compression works very similarly to Dr. Mario. There are various colored pieces scattered across the game board, some hollow, some filled in. You control blocks that drop from the top of the screen and attempt to match these blocks to the hollow pieces in order to get three of the same color in a column or row, which removes the pieces from the game board. Removing all the hollow pieces from the game board will take players to the next level, where the difficulty will be raised slightly by the presence of even more hollow pieces and faster-falling pieces to be dealt with.

The twist in Compression's gameplay is in the walls, which move in closer and closer in a set pattern after every third piece is dropped into the board. A set of white dots appear on the section of the wall (either bottom, left, or right) that will compress inward next, so players can tailor their placement of blocks to best deal with the walls, which can remove blocks from the field if there is no more room for them after the board gets compressed.

A player's score in a game of Compression is calculated by a number of different factors. Getting rid of as many blocks as possible in one sweep will reward a player with a lot of points, but finishing a level early is important as well, as all available empty squares are worth 50 points each. The game has a full set of leaderboard features via OpenFeint, which should please anyone who is into achievement points and all of the community features that OF offers.

Compression's art uses a rather dark palette unusual in puzzle games, but everything is done in a clean resolution, so the game looks great on the iPhone screen. The game's music is good, but not great, although the track does feature a slow drumbeat that nicely matches up with the dropping of the falling blocks.

Compression is one of those puzzle games that seems to get everything right. The core gameplay is different enough to set it apart from the umpteen-million other match-three games on the App Store and simultaneously familiar enough that anyone can pick up the game and be relatively adept within minutes. This is a game that should give players something fun to distract themselves with for a very long time.

UPDATE: Give the game a try with the just-released Compression Lite [App Store] featuring five playable levels as a free download.

App Store Link: Compression, $0.99 , Compression Lite, Free

As part of the iTunes 12 Days of Christmas promotion, Gameloft has provided their game Let's Golf game for Free for download. While the promotion is typically limited to Europe, it appears the free Let's Golf pricing is reflected in App Stores worldwide.

Let's Golf was listed amongst the best games for 2009 and offers a great arcade golf experience for the iPhone.

Let’s Golf plays remarkably similar to the Sony PSP’s Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee and does a great job in duplicating all the fun things about the Hot Shots series. The graphics are superb for an iPhone game and the only noticeable frame rate dips are minor and only seem to occur when the camera pans out quickly.

If you haven't picked this up yet, this is certainly a must-download while it is free.

App Store Link: Let's Golf, Free (for a day)

While Hironobu Sakaguchi may not be a name you recognize, the titles of many of the games he played a vital role in have become classics along with forever influencing the landscape of roleplaying games. Since creating Final Fantasy in the late 80's, Sakaguchi has directed, produced, supervised or was behind the original concept of most of the Final Fantasy series as well as several monumental games of the time such as Chrono Trigger, Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, Xenogears along with Parasite Eve and its sequel among others.

Following his resignation from Square, Sakaguchi founded Mistwalker and since has released games on both the XBOX 360 and Nintendo DS, most notably Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey. Currently he is working on a mysterious "large scale project" that very little is known about, and per a Happy New Year blog post, Mistwalker is also working on a project for the iPhone.

We don't know anything about this iPhone project yet, and with the secrecy surrounding Mistwalker, it's hard to say when we will. Regardless, you only need to head over to Hironobu Sakaguchi's Wikipedia entry to see the full scope of his influence on the history of video games. Needless to say, anything he has his hands on will be a welcome addition to the App Store.

Some clever Plus+ sleuths recently discovered two new games popping up on the recently played list on certain ngmoco employees' Plus+ accounts, GodFinger and We Rule. We don't know anything about these games yet, but it isn't hard to speculate what they may be about based on the Plus+ awards and high score listings.

The first game, GodFinger sports an icon with two rolandos and a lightning bolt, and if you played Rolando 2 you would remember being able to power up your finger to destroy certain things in the game world-- A god finger of sorts. Judging by the list of awards which involve killing skeletons, throwing followers, and using various wonders... Could ngmoco be making a Pocket God-like game set in the Rolando universe?

There are online leaderboards for both gold and experience points, possibly pointing to a game with some RPG elements. A tweet from ngmoco's Clive Downie from November 23rd mentions leveling up:

Unfortunately, there isn't as much information to be had on the second game, We Rule. The icon includes a crown and a castle, and the award listing includes different ranks of Castle Builder, Social Butterfly, City Builder, Forester, Tax Collector, and Banker:

Hopefully details on these two games will be revealed shortly, but until then, this is all we know.

The App Store's low-grav racing space certainly is starting to get crowded, which is just fine by me. And it looks like the latest release to join the ranks, Speed Forge Extreme [App Store] from Rat Square / Chillingo, may just be the best of the lot.

It’s 2142, and the colonization of Mars is underway. Vast settlements have been created to house miners seeking the valuable raw materials of the Red Planet. Crime is rampant, time is abundant and the citizens are looking for some entertainment ...

The mining gig on 22nd-century Mars must be a rather fruitful one, considering how much raw materials would be needed to construct a large-scale racing arena made up of 12 futuristic racing tracks. But then, the miners, just like iPhone gamers, need their entertainment. And Speed Forge Extreme delivers.

While Speed Forge largely follows the standard Wipeout-inspired racing formula, it does add in a bit of a twist. To start, most of the game's 12 tracks deliver the typical low-grav racer experience. Choose from among six different craft (unlocked along the way) in a race against five computer-controlled opponents in a bid to cross the finish line first. Along the way, you can pick up power-ups such as weapons to knock out opponents, shields, and repair kits and make use of speed-pads (while avoiding slow-pads) to help get the job done. In addition to these traditional tracks, Speed Forge includes various arena levels where you and your opponents are placed in a large enclosed space smattered with power-ups, in an effort to destroy the most opponents as fast as possible to come out on top. It's a nice variation on the formula that helps break up long race sessions. It's a nice mix.

The game features five different control configurations utilizing different combinations of accelerometer, D-pad, and slider controls, some featuring auto-acceleration. I was able to enjoy the game playing with each method, but favor the tilt-controls. It shouldn't be hard to find a configuration you're happy with. Invert-Y and vibration effects are toggles.

Speed Forge is quite impressive, visually. The interesting ship designs, track architecture, and dark Earth- Mars-tone palette lend a very nice atmosphere to the game. (The visuals and overall feel of the motion puts me in mind of UBI Soft's late '90s racer POD - Planet of Death.) But where the game's graphics really shine are on the iPhone 3GS and 3G iPod touch, where the developers were able to take advantage of OpenGL ES 2.0 to deliver a full-screen motion-blur effect that makes for some of the best looking polygons ever seen on an iPhone screen. Unfortunately, such eye candy doesn't come without a price; the framerate of the game running with motion-blur enabled on my iPhone 3GS feels lower than that of the game running (without motion-blur) on my 2G iPod touch. Happily, the developers allow users to disable the motion-blur effect as well as set its intensity on the latest devices -- and Speed Forge running without the effect on my 3GS is as smooth as silk. All that said, the game still looks great on older devices -- don't get me wrong. But, for the record, I prefer playing with motion-blur on despite the framerate impact -- it's just too lovely to miss.

An optional 'Overbright' display toggle, available on devices old and new, delivers magnified lighting blooms that give the game a stronger HDR-lighting feel at little or no cost to the framerate.

[ Full HD version | Low Bandwidth version ]

Having spent considerable time with the v1.1 release (a recent update), I can confidently call Speed Forge Extreme my current favorite futuristic racer in the App Store. The camera angle, the well done tracks, the visual effects, the excellent sense of speed -- they all come together to deliver what really does feel like a "console" title on the iPhone. I do wish that the developers had opted to add-in online leaderboards and, perhaps even, multiplayer support to really take things to the next level but, lacking these, it's still a great single-player racing experience. I'd urge everyone to at least have a look at the free, lite version [App Store].

App Store link: Speed Forge Extreme, $2.99, Speed Forge Extreme Lite, Free

One glance at Little Metal Ball (by Debacle Software) will immediately elicit comparisons to to the ever-popular Labyrinth, but LMB sets itself apart from other games on the app store by applying its ball-rolling gameplay in a fun adventure/platformer setting. With 40 levels, controls that are tuned to perfection, and gameplay that encourages limitless high-score chasing, LMB is a great little game that demands attention.

The 40 levels included in LMB are spaced out evenly across 4 different areas (jungle, ice, fire, and "techno" themed). Progression is made by completing the first five levels in each area, which unlocks the next area. The difficulty ramps up at a pretty reasonable pace over the course of the game, but I recommend that most players play the last five levels in each area only after beating the first five in all of the areas, as these are generally much more challenging and will demand a total grasp of the game's controls in order to get a gold ranking.

In each level in LMB, the goal is to reach a little checkered sphere that marks a finishing line of sorts. To get there, players will have to navigate narrow platforms, hard-to-avoid-bumpers, and various inanimate obstacles that threaten to send the little metal ball into the abyss. In each level, there is a time limit, but this time limit is usually quite generous. Most levels can be completed in 2-5 minutes, although there are some more difficult levels later in the game that can require either a lot of skill or a little more time. The time limit is included not intended to make players fail; it's a way to encourage high-score chasing and improvement of best times.

A bit of needed variety spices up LMB through the use of several powerups, all of which are activated by jumping (which can be done by tapping on the screen for a short hop or holding and releasing for a larger jump) while on a purple powerup location. Powerups include a smaller ball (which allows passage through tiny gaps), a giant ball (to roll over otherwise dangerous holes), or the activation of nearby moving platforms. Those moving platforms play a large part in some of LMB's levels, forcing players to react swifly to avoid oncoming obstacles while avoiding falling off the edge and tumbling to a time-consuming doom.

Every moment of LMB's action requires a mental balancing of the risks vs. the benefits of pursuing nearby stars. On the first run through most levels I ignored stars, collecting them only if they were directly in my path. On second playthroughs I often got more risky with my star collecting, taking dangerous jumps to get to a blue star in hopes that the few extra seconds earned would pay off in a gold medal. Aside from the usual "race" levels, there is a fair share of bonus levels in LMB that ask players to collect all of the stars in a level as quickly as possible. These levels are generally less linear than their not as "bonusy" counterparts, and do a lot to help improve the game's pacing.

Unfortunately, there are no online leaderboards in LMB, but Debacle Software has confirmed in our forums that they (and tilt calibration, another omission from the first release) will be coming in an update. Another small complaint that users in our forums have expressed is the seemingly low-resolution of the artwork, which is otherwise fantastic.

While there are some key features that needed to be added via update to Little Metal Ball before it's a truly great game, I have no qualms about recommending it in its current state. LMB is good, simple fun, and is great for quick pick-up-and-play sessions. For those who like Labyrinth, Little Metal Ball is a great game with a similar feel, but expanded and unique adventure-style gameplay.

App Store Link: Little Metal Ball, $0.99