Capcom has finally released screenshots for the iPhone version of its classic shoot 'em up 1942. It was hinted that 1942 would make its way to the iPhone back at E3 2009, but we haven't heard much of the game again until now:

1942 was first released in 1984 for the arcade. It gave way to the sequel 1943: The Battle of Midway. Stay tuned.

Gameloft has released a trailer for their upcoming iPhone game Ultimate Spider-Man: Total Mayhem.

We should have more details throughout E3.

Before E3 even started we met up with Nathan Vella of Capybara Games, creators of Critter Crunch [$1.99 / Free]. They've teamed up with Superbrothers and Jim Guthrie to create what we thought was the most amazing game at GDC this year. Three months later, and while the game looks very similar, they've significantly refined everything from the menus, to the camera system, and everything in between. Also, since the release of the iPad, they've also committed to releasing both an iPad and iPhone version of the game. Today we were shown the iPad version, and Superbrothers' pixel art looked absolutely fantastic on the larger screen.

I grabbed my camera and had Nathan explain "side A" of the game, which covers all the new controls, inventory system, additional in-game goodies, and the consequences of your actions in the world of Sword & Sworcery.

Since the developers are shooting for Sword & Sworcery to be an experience similar to an EP, the game is split in to two different sides. "Side B" isn't finished yet, but here is as much of it as they're willing to show at this point:

Sword & Sworcery looks gorgeous on the iPad screen, and as you can see from the videos is extremely simple to play. The team behind the game don't plan on releasing it until it provides the exact experience they're shooting for. The game itself will be content complete at the end of this month, and according to Vella, will then require a few months of polishing which should hopefully mean a release sometime in August.

In the meantime, here is a whole new set of iPad-resolution screenshots to whet your Sword & Sworcery appetite:

We've been told that there's a new trailer in the works that should be released in the next couple of weeks. We're following this game very closely, so stay tuned for even more Sword & Sworcery action.

Back in January, we got pretty excited about the Parrot AR.Drone Quadicoptor. The Parrot AR.Drone remote control quadricopter 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 stationary flight on its own.

We had some hands-on time with it back at CES, and were impressed:

Of course, the big question on everyone's mind was "when" and "how much". Ars Technica reports that the Parrot AR.Drone will finally go on sale this September at a price of $299. The device itself is only so exciting on its own, but combined with its open SDK, Parrot is hoping that developers will take advantage of the device's controls and cameras to create augmented reality games. At least a couple of these titles are said to be available at launch.

We knew SEGA would be at E3 showing off their latest Sonic title, so it should come as no surprise that Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 is part of their press pack that they have started distributing.

Unfortunately, SEGA didn't seem to bother placing any iPhone screenshots amongst the assets. So here's the closest approximation that we have.

Sonic 4 was previously confirmed for iPhone but isn't due until the second half of 2010. The previously released this trailer last month as a teaser for the game.

We're hoping to see a playable iPhone version of Sonic 4 at E3 this week.

Last week at WWDC we ran in to Kevin Beimers, the writer, programmer, and game action director for Straandlooper, creators of Hector: Badge of Carnage [$3.99]. Hector is an episodic point and click adventure game where you play the role of a disgruntled police officer in the town of Clappers Wreake. Like similar games, advancing the plot involves solving puzzles using items found in the game world either by themselves or combined in interesting ways with other items. There are also dialog trees to work through with the various citizens of Clappers Wreake and your conversation skills also become a large part in accomplishing the goals set out in front of you.

We really enjoyed the game in our review, and after hearing the story behind Hector, I can't help but enjoy the game even more. Before the filthy world of Hector was even imagined, the guys behind the game actually created a 52 part childrens' series, Lifeboat Luke, which is currently being aired in Ireland. Lifeboat Luke goes on nautical rescue missions and teaches children about safety at sea. Interestingly enough, Hector originally was pitched as a TV show as well, and there was even ground work for a pilot episode laid. Some clips of Hector can be seen in Straandlooper's showreel of animated clips they've worked on:

Aimed at a primetime UK time slot, Hector was meant to go up against South Park and other raunchy evening shows. Unfortunately, the insane popularity of reality TV has significantly cut in to the willingness for anyone to fund an animated project. Or, as Kevin put it, with reality TV all you need is a dozen people in a room with a camera and you've got a show. With the future of Hector as a TV series getting increasingly bleak, Straandlooper decided to turn their ideas in to a point and click adventure game.

Originally they debated building it as some kind of Flash game, but the lack of any strong way to monetize Hector as a browser game pushed them to the App Store-- A place where, as Beimers explained, people are more likely to pay for and appreciate the amusing gameplay and animation quality of Hector: Badge of Carnage. Since the developers have been long time fans of point and click adventure games, the transition from animated short to interactive adventure was fairly natural. (And as fans of the genre, Kevin noted how awesome it was to have his works compared to classics such as Day of the Tentacle or Monkey Island.)

The project so far has been a success for Straandlooper, as from the first episode on the App Store alone they've already made more than they have on any of their other short animated projects. Hector's initial popularity has practically guaranteed the release of the second episode, where players will explore the police station that Hector works with as well as spend time getting to know Hector's various coworkers. They hope to release episode 2 within a year.

Some other fun Hector facts came out of our conversation such as the entire game being voiced by a single person. As many people in our forums have mentioned, Hector is a shockingly raunchy game to be approved on the App Store. Straandlooper actually planned for this, and had contingencies in place to do things like replace the porn shop with a store similar to Wal-Mart. Hector was under development for 6-7 months, with another 2 months spent on the "last 2%" of the game making sure everything was as refined as Straandlooper wanted it.

An iPad version is in the works, but since so much was tweaked and customized for the resolution of the iPhone screen, it may be a while until we see its release. However, they do plan on releasing the second installment on both the iPhone and iPad.

If you haven't played Hector: Badge of Carnage yet, you really need to give the game a try if you've ever enjoyed a point and click adventure game. For more about the game, take a look at our review.

Hungry Shark is a tilt-based high score and exploration game that places you in the role of – unsurprisingly – a hungry shark. You'll start as a young shark and must keep eating to grow in size and keep your constantly depleting health sustained. There's an enormous variety of food to munch on, from tiny fish and unfortunate swimmers up near the surface to more exotic deep sea creatures and scuba divers farther down below. In essence, it feels like a mash up of Feeding Frenzy and Ecco The Dolphin, but with a lot more gore. We reviewed the game when it was released a couple of months ago, and found the compelling high score objective coupled with the satisfaction of chomping down on lesser creatures hard to put down.

This past weekend saw the release of a major expansion to the game. Simply titled Hungry Shark – Part 2, this update brings a huge new level that's selectable along with the first one, and is in fact even larger than the original. With different areas to explore, new sea creature fodder to indulge your appetite, more hazards to be wary of, and 10 additional unique items to find, the update effectively doubles the size of the original game. There's even an absolutely humongous crab boss to battle that practically fills the entire iPhone screen. Scoreloop is now integrated to flesh out the high score system, and tilt calibration has been fine tuned. A gameplay video showcases the new level and boss crab:

Hungry Shark was a terrificly fun game to begin with, and this latest update adds even more of a good thing. As if that wasn't enough, developer Future Games Of London has stated in our forums that work is already underway on a Part 3. A release date hasn't been mentioned, and it's unknown whether Part 3 will be a free update as Part 2 was, but we're looking forward to it nonetheless. If you have an insatiable appetite for seafood and careless humans, look no further than the newly expanded Hungry Shark – Part 2.

Originally a PC game that was released in 1998, Carnivores places you into a first person hunting game where your targets are dinosaurs. I haven't figured out the fact that you are fictionally hunting extinct animals will placate or enrage the anti-hunting crowd, but I'm sure we'll find out soon.

The game features a 3D first person perspective to hunt down dinosaurs using up to six different weapons. Here's a gameplay video from the developers:

The game comes from Tatem Games who were also responsible for Racer for the iPhone. Fans of the series have been happy with the iPhone conversion of Carnivores.

Secret Exit has started posting some "work in progress" screenshots for the iPhone/iPod Touch version of Zen Bound 2.

The sequel was originally scheduled for an iPhone 3GS release but was later diverted to an iPad specific release. Secret Exit is still working on an iPhone and iPod Touch version of the game and promises it will run both on new and older devices. Of course, the newer devices will see the benefit of specific visual tweaks.

The iPad version of the game includes more levels of shorter length offering a larger variety of themes and gameplay modes. Visuals were enhanced with new textures, reflections/shadows and dynamic shift. Finally, they included a new game element called "paint bombs".

Of course, the company is reluctant to provide a specific release date for the project, but it still appears to be a number of months off.

WWDC 2010 wrapped up this past week, and we have almost recovered from the activities.

Of course, the big Apple announcements that were made last week included the announcement of iPhone 4 as well as details of the iOS 4 launch. For gamers, the new iPhone 4 represents a few notable changes.

A much higher resolution display (640x960) and faster A4 processor should be able to deliver a much better experience -- for games that bother to take advantage of it. Also included in the iPhone 4 is a new gyroscope that promises much more accurate spacial positioning. While a combination of compass and accelerometer controls have been able to provide similar data in the past, I've been told that the gyroscope input is a significant improvement. It also should be able to handle extreme positions -- such as laying in bed while playing a tilt-game.

But, if experience has taught us anything, the new features won't become mainstream for some time. The biggest iOS 4 feature that the rest of us should be waiting for is Game Center - Apple's leaderboard/acheivements system. Apple was talking about Game Center at WWDC, but only behind closed doors to developers. Apple had originally announced the release of Game Center for "this fall" and hasn't publicly revised that timeframe yet.

Prominent iPhone developers, of course, were on the scene. Pictured above are Igor Pusenjak of Lima Sky (left) and Alexandra Peters of Firemint (right) during the TouchArcade developer mixer. Both companies were honored during Apple's WWDC 2010 Design Awards for Doodle Jump (Limasky), Flight Control (Firemint) and Real Racing (Firemint).

Limasky is working on an iPad version of Doodle Jump while Firemint is working on brand new games. Neither company was ready to talk about details, however. Korean developer Gamevil mentioned that they were hard at work on Hybrid 2, but weren't yet ready to release screenshots or video just yet. We did manage to talk to a number of other developers throughout the week and posted articles on their upcoming games. A few more WWDC stories may still trickle in over the next few days as we prepare for E3.

E3 kicks off on June 15th and TouchArcade will be there. Based on early info, the iPhone's presence at E3 has increased dramatically from last year. We expect announcements/demos from a number of major companies including Square Enix, EA, and SEGA.

Developers looking to meet up with TouchArcade should email us for details.

Konami's much anticipated PES 2010 for the iPhone has arrived internationally. We'd previewed the game based on the developer's blogs describing the control system they were working on for the game.

The game has been released to non-U.S. countries. No indication yet when the U.S. release is coming.

Here's an early gameplay video run on an iPhone 3G:

A video of 3GS performance shown here.

We'll have a closer look shortly. Meanwhile impressions can be found in our forums.

App Store Link: PES 2010 (Not in U.S.)

During WWDC this week we met with Michael Schade, a developer of Galaxy on Fire 2 by Fish Labs, who walked us through some of the features of the upcoming iPad game and gave us a brief hands on. This sequel of Galaxy on Fire [$5.99 / Free] has similar roots, and actually started as J2ME game that weighed in at a meager 1 megabyte. Galaxy on Fire 2 is a space conquest game, with a massive galaxy map to explore, multiple factions to align yourself to, a dynamic economy, and tons of other neat features that all add up to an impressive amount of depth.

Specifics are a bit vague at this point as the iPad game is still in development, but from our time with it we were shown an extensive listing of achievements to unlock, as well as just the tip of the iceberg of ship customization with all kinds of different weaponry. As you play through the game, the faction system will become an important gameplay component as the missions you choose to do effect your standing one way or the other with the various organizations floating about space. Combat seemed to work similar to the original Galaxy on Fire, with completely free and open battles in space with whoever you feel like shooting at (or running from).

Fish Labs recently released a developer diary discussing the art of the game. What piqued my interest the most from this is the screenshots showing the clear evolution of the Galaxy on Fire series of games.

Starting with the original J2ME version compared to Galaxy on Fire for the iPhone:

And finally, Galaxy on Fire 2 for the iPad:

Fish Labs plans to launch the game on the iPad in September for $9.99 with an iPhone version coming later at $7.99.

During WWDC 2010, we had a chance to talk with Owens Rodriguez and have a quick look at his upcoming iPhone shooter, Alien Space.

The game, which strikes me as something of a cross between Asteroids and Super Stardust HD (and, as such, Meteor Blitz), is a dual-stick space shooter featuring 50 levels, various upgradeable heavy and light weapons, and online achievement tracking and leaderboards via Apple's Game Center.

Alien Space is pretty much a one-man effort, with Rodriguez working on the code and graphics assets in his spare time over the past year and a half. His Alien Space Facebook page provides some history on the title. According to Rodriguez, the game should be finished in late July.

Have a look at the developer's trailer video, which our forum readers seem to be liking.

Although I only spent a short time with the game during the conference, I came away impressed. We'll take a detailed look at Alien Space once we have the release version in our hands. Stay tuned.

French development studio Coladia first crossed our radar back in December 2008 when they announced that they were developing an iPhone port of their Mac prehistoric point-and-click adventure Secret of the Lost Cavern [App Store]. The game went live last year, as did their iPhone port of point-and-click adventure Return to Mysterious Island [App Store].

We had a chance to meet up with Coladia here at WWDC and to hear about a few iPad titles they've got in the works.

The existing iPhone versions of Return to Mysterious Island and Secret of the Lost Cavern are rather abbreviated titles as compared to the PC originals (or Mac ports). CEO Frédéric Aloe informed us that his studio is currently readying iPad ports of both titles that deliver the complete original game experience to Apple's largest touchscreen device. Both iPad titles clock in at around 800MB in size.

Additionally, Coladia is bringing a feature-complete iPad port of Destination Treasure Island to the App Store. As the studio sets up the title,

Four years have passed since the end of the adventure recounted in Robert Louis Stevenson's novel. Jim Hawkins has become an upstanding adventurous young man, attentive to those around him. Imagine his surprise when, one morning, he sees a parrot enter his bedroom window : none other than Captain Flint, Long John's own companion. The bird brings him a message from his master. In the message the old pirate announces that he has buried a marvelous treasure on the secret isle where he retired : Emerald Island. Jim is going to have to hurry though. Pirates, old enemies of Long John, are on his trail.

The iPad version of Return to Mysterious Island should be appearing in the App Store any day now. Destination Treasure Island is set for a release late this month, while Secret of the Lost Cavern is slated for release in September. All titles are expected to launch at an App Store price of $9.99.

Coladia plans, in time, to bring most of the adventures of PC studio Cheops', responsible for the original aforementioned titles, to the iPad with full PC assets and a touchscreen interface.

CDE Humble Gaming was at WWDC 2010 showing of their upcoming trading card game Arena 9. Game developer and long-time Magic: The Gathering player Jeff Lyndon described how they were trying to create an iPhone suitable experience for a collectible card game.

High amongst their priorities was an accessible game that was easy to learn, but also one that didn't overwhelmingly advantage those who had simply collected better cards. The game revolves around a collectible cards that are earned by the user. An initial set is provided, but over time, new cards can be collected by earning in game experience or through in-app purchase. Cards are organized into 5 card decks that you can take into battle.

Battle will primarily be on-line against live opponents. While single-player (offline) mode does exist, it's primarily intended for practice and training as experience points aren't earned.

Battle is waged on a 3x3 grid. Each player's hands is in plain view to the other player, and cards are placed on the grid in alternating turns. The goal is to win as many cards as possible by "turning" opponents cards to your own. The initial rules are simple. If the adjacent number on your the card is higher than the opponent's number when side-by-side, then you turn the other card to your own. Additional rules, however, such as lining up same numbers on two sides or surrounding an opponents card with similar elementals can act as special moves. In addition, the board also has randomly placed elemental-marked tiles that either enhance or detract from a card's power if placed on that space.

Each battle should take about 3-4 minutes and a matchmaking system tries to match you with a comparable opponent. The game is expected to launch during the first week of July and will be free for the base game. Additional cards can be purchased in packs or can simply be earned with enough experience points and wins.