Developer Cyan Worlds, who have previously brought their classic graphic adventure game Myst [$4.99/Lite] to the iPhone, have just released their newest iOS game Stoneship [$2.99] into the App Store. We first brought word of Stoneship last month, followed by a gallery of exclusive screenshots and a look at a teaser trailer provided by Cyan Worlds. Just over a week ago, coincidentally on International Talk Like a Pirate Day, we took an extensive look at a near-final build of Stoneship that the developer had sent us. Here are a few excerpts from that preview that explain the gameplay found in Stoneship:

Stoneship sets you and your first mate on the high seas, charged with exploring, controlling, and protecting vast oceans and islands, under continual threat of pirate sieges and tangles with ghastly monsters from the deep. The game is played by moving about any given level, uncovering obscured blocks of both land and sea in an attempt to discover ports, and temples (and, as a result, weaponry) as well as rafts of men lost at sea who will join your forces, as well as the location of any pirate ships that make your forces necessary in the first place.

Once you find a port, it becomes your own…as well as a target for pirates in the area. Each level has a set number of moves you're permitted to execute before the inevitable pirate onslaught ensues. Multiple ports can be linked together to allow resource (battle-ready men) sharing, which is all about shifting men from port to port in the 10 second count-down before the pirate attack comes. Of course, you can only set things up to your advantage here if you've uncovered the location of the lurking pirates in your set number of turns. If not, the pirates come from one of the remaining hidden blocks on the map (which is pretty much a bad thing).

The core play mode is Campaign, which is a round-to-round push through the eighty three included levels (with additional levels to come later via update). A Challenge mode is also offered, which is a sort-of pick and choose affair.

In the following video from our preview, we detail practically the entire tutorial to give a thorough idea on how the game works. It's a bit slow-going, although highly  informative, and if you like you can skip ahead to the 6:00 minute mark to catch some footage of in-game battles playing out in Stoneship:

Make sure you take a look at our entire preview for even more information on Stoneship, and as always you can find impressions of the game in the Stoneship release thread in our forums.

We've been following Sega's development of Sonic 4 for most of 2010. In February, we weren't even sure if Sonic was coming to the App Store, and only assumed based on a cryptic image on the Sonic 4 web site that it might be. It wasn't until late may that Sega even confirmed that the game was coming to the iPhone, but unfortunately that announcement also came hand and hand with Sega pushing the release date back to the second half of 2010. In mid-June we got a hands on at E3, and even though the game was obviously an incredibly early build, it still knocked our socks off. Finally, early this month we were given a hands-on of a fairly complete build of the game, and once again, our jaws hit the floor.

Today Sega announced the official release date for Sonic 4, and strangely enough, it will hit the App Store before all the other platforms on October 7th. Following that, it will appear on the Wii on October 11th, PlayStation Network on October 12th, and Xbox Live Arcade on October 13th. Needless to say, as soon as we get our hands on the final game we'll post a full review.

Halfbrick Studios, developer of both Fruit Ninja [99¢/HD] and Monster Dash [99¢], has officially announced today the port of their hugely successful PSP Minis game Age of Zombies to the App Store. There had been speculation in our forums for over a month that the game would be making an appearance on iOS devices, with a “coming soon” banner on the Age of Zombies website and a product description on Halfbrick's online merchandise store providing hints of an intended App Store release. Early this morning, Halfbrick updated their website and sent out a press release with Age of Zombies iPhone screenshots, thus confirming the game will indeed be coming.

Age of Zombies is the original adventure of Monster Dash hero Barry Steakfries. When Barry uncovers the plot of Dr. Brains to send zombies to different points in time to destroy mankind, he decides to take action. He'll travel through five different time periods battling zombified versions of cavemen, mummies, ninjas, and dinosaurs. The teaser trailer for the PSP Minis version shows some of the gameplay in action:

The game will include the full five worlds of the story mode as well as a Survival mode featuring online high scores, and is set to be an improvement over the PSP version in a number of ways. It will contain better graphics, a reworked user interface, and dual-stick touch screen controls for controlling Barry. Click through the following gallery for a look at some screens of the iPhone version of the game:

No word on pricing just yet, and the release date doesn't get any more specific than sometime in October. Halfbrick does note that Age of Zombies will be a universal build that will run on both iPhone and iPad, which is good news for gamers with both devices. We are definitely looking forward to taking Age of Zombies for a spin when it releases this October, and until then drop by the upcoming game thread in our forums to join in on discussion about the game.

Elite Systems, one of Europe's most long established video game publishers (founded in 1984), today informed us that Apple has just approved their upcoming ZX Spectrum: Elite Collection (Vol. #1). Themselves publishers of over 50 game titles for the British Sinclair ZX Spectrum home computer (which may be little known to most of our readers in the states), Elite plans to bring a bevy of venerable Spectrum titles to our favorite mobile games platform through future volumes of the collection.

For those unfamiliar, the ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit home computer that was released by Sinclair Research in the UK in 1982. It is based on the Z-80 processor running at 3.5MHz and features a 256×192 pixel display in 16 colors (with notable restrictions). The Spectrum was available with either 16K or 48K of RAM and was followed up by several models offering more memory, enhanced audio, and such. The American gamer who was around to see home computers in the '80s probably best remembers Sinclair Research from the Timex Sinclair 1000, an extremely inexpensive, black & white 4K computer sold in America, itself a take on the European Sinclair Zx81. A later attempt was made to actually bring a modified version of the ZX Spectrum to the US in the form of the Timex Sinclair 2068, but it failed badly for a number of reasons and is remembered by few.

Elite's Steve Wilcox comments,

We have long range plans for ZX Spectrum: Elite Collection. Starting with the games bundled with this inaugural volume, our goal is to offer access - via mobile and wireless devices - to many of the thousands of fantastic ZX Spectrum games. Simultaneously, we're offering the developers and publishers of those games the opportunity to monetise their work by bundling them with future volumes, offering them as In-App purchases or by commissioning us to create bespoke bundles which they can then publish themselves.

Notable features of the ZX Spectrum: Elite Collection package, as listed by the studio:

• 100% original and "officially licenced" ZX Spectrum games
• game-specific play controls
• extensive playing instructions
• option of portrait or (full-screen) landscape play / display modes
• authentic 'Spectrum' sound

While I, personally, have only modest experience with ZX Spectrum games -- and through emulation -- I've followed its history closely through every issue of the superb UK-based Retro Gamer magazine. And what experience I do have with the platform allows me to tell you that the ZX Spectrum game library coming to the iOS platform is a very good thing.

The release date of ZX Spectrum: Elite Collection (Vol. #1) will be announced later this week, along with a preview video. Stay tuned for more on this when it hits the App Store.

I suppose I should start this out with a little history lesson since the roots of this game are likely obscure enough that they won't be apparent to some readers. The House of the Dead is a video game series that began its life as a light gun rail shooter arcade machine in 1996. The games all share common themes in that you play as an agent (or pair of agents in two player mode) fighting various flavors of zombies, mutants, and mutant zombies. Many of the games have since been ported to other platforms such as the PC and quite a few home consoles. Typing of the Dead made its debut in 1999 in arcades of Japan, and just like the House of the Dead games, eventually made its way to the PC and home consoles as well.

Based on House of the Dead 2, Typing of the Dead had similar gameplay to the light gun shooter series, except the light gun was replaced by words appearing on screen which must be typed to "shoot" each zombie. Typing of the Dead is a cult classic, so it can be difficult to track down, but I highly recommend picking it up if you ever come across one just for the sheer "WTF" factor that the game is dripping with. This is what the game looks like:

Today our friends over at ScrewAttack.com released their first iPhone game, Texting of the Bread [$1.99], a fantastic homage to Typing of the Dead. The gameplay remains mostly the same, with two main differences that are hinted at in the title. First of all, quite a few of the things you'll be typing are commonly used acronyms in text messages, internet slang, and video game lingo. Secondly, zombies have been replaced by gingerbread zombies of all shapes and sizes. Sticking with the cookie theme, when you're in a pinch you can shake your device to unleash a tsunami of milk to wash everything on screen away as well.

Texting of the Bread comes with three game modes: Arcade had you fighting your way through waves of zombies, with some sparse story elements sprinkled throughout. Freeplay allows you to then go back and replay any of those waves you've unlocked in arcade mode. Finally, survival mode is exactly what it sounds like-- Typing as fast as you can to see how long you can survive. To spice things up further, there are a bunch of achievements to farm and online leaderboards for both arcade and survival modes.

I'm really surprised how much fun I'm having with the game, although, I'm sure a bit of that has to do with my love for just how ridiculous Typing of the Dead was. Texting of the Bread shares an identical gameplay mechanic, and I appreciate ScrewAttack upping the ridiculousness ante by arming you with some kind of typing-powered milk bullet chain gun up against an onslaught of gingerbread zombies.

The only real down-side to the game is that currently it's only playable with the horizontal iPhone keyboard. I've always been a portrait mode typer myself, but according to the developers they've found that the vast majority of people out there are horizontal typers. Either way, portrait mode is on the list of things that we could potentially see in future updates.

If you're part of the cult following of Typing of the Dead, you need this game. Otherwise, Texting of the Bread is a fun and silly way to either brush up on your iPhone typing skills, or in my case, come to the depressing realization of just how fast you can type on your phone. (And the subsequent realization of just how much time you have had to spend typing on your phone to get that good.)

This past Friday we took a look at the upcoming Augmented Reality game ARDefender from developer Int13. What sets ARDefender apart from other Augmented Reality games is its use of a special printed image that is placed in the camera's view and is recognized by the software to create a 3D model of a tower inside the game. Int13 was nice enough to promptly send over a preview copy of ARDefender so that we could try it out for ourselves, and after spending some time playing with the game over the weekend, my feelings are largely positive. The game works just as well as was demonstrated in the video from our preview, and beyond being a really interesting piece of technology, ARDefender offers up a pretty fun gameplay experience as well.

The first thing you'll need to do before playing ARDefender is print out the PDF image from their website that creates the tower in the game. After printing and cutting out the square image, you'll place it down on a flat surface where you intend to play. Loading up the game and hitting the play button will bring up the view from the device's camera, and once it recognizes the PDF image it will instantly create a little tower out of thin air.

Gameplay involves using the weapon mounted on top of the tower to fend off waves of enemies as they attack. Touching anywhere on the screen places an aiming reticule at that spot and holding down a button in the lower right corner fires your weapon. There's a regular cannon with unlimited ammunition, and limited missile or laser attacks at your disposal. Occasionally an airplane will drop off a crate full of ammunition for you to collect. The tower has a health gauge in the upper corner and the goal is to keep the tower alive for the duration of each round, which seems to always be 60 seconds. More difficult enemies appear with each round, and if your health gauge runs out the tower crumbles and it's game over.

The first portion of this video shows one round of gameplay in ARDefender, with a few toys I laid out next to the tower just for fun. Then I tried to pan around the tower to give a closer look at the 3D model it consists of. Finally, I printed out the PDF image at four times the size of what the default is, to see if it would give me a larger tower in the game, which it indeed does. It doesn't seem that the game will recognize both towers at once though, but I did find that I preferred playing with the larger tower rather than the smaller one. This will also depend on how far away you plan on being from the surface where the tower is set.

Overall I really liked what I've played of ARDefender so far, despite its fairly simplistic game mechanics. It's hard not to be impressed with how convincingly the tower is created in the real life space where you play the game, in my case a coffee table and kitchen floor. It's worth noting that the game had trouble creating a tower when I tried playing on an uneven surface like carpet, so it seems to require a smooth flat surface for best performance. Also, it's a really bare-bones package. There's no sort of cohesive campaign or storyline to play through, or any type of persistent stats or score tracking. This can easily be rectified with an update down the line, however, and I'd personally love to see some additional downloadable images that give you different styles of towers to play with.

Despite any shortcomings, the game still manages to be pretty fun. ARDefender has already been submitted to the App Store, and we'll take a closer look at the game when it becomes available, hopefully sometime in the next couple of weeks.

Better known for their gory zombie shooter, Alive-4-Ever [$2.99 and its sequel, Meridian takes on an entirely different genre in Airport Terminal, pitting you in the shoes of an entrepreneurial airport mogul. In doing so, they show off the spectrum of their creative output by not only being capable of gory zombie shooters, but also charming time management games.

In each of the whopping 70 levels in Airport Terminal you are faced with a variety of different customers from all walks of life. Basketball players, movie stars, snotty kids; each have distinct needs that must be catered for. Firstly, this involves delivering them to their respective First, Business or Coach class check-in, before sending them off to a number of different amenities and services invariably found in an airport terminal.

What separates Airport Terminal from other time management games on initial observation, is the dual-screen challenge presented by the check-in and boarding process. If you manage to incur the wrath of a patron or incur delays at check-in, expect these patrons to be equally sour and tardy come boarding time. This is especially so when faced with the endless customs queues that we're all so fond of.

Activities are different between the two screens (though some actions are shared, such as hitting each customer up twice at duty-free) and comprise events such as passport stamping, customs scanning, restroom stops and even a chow-down while waiting for your plane. As seems to be the trend with the better time management games, sending a customer to a facility triggers one of 8 mini-games that require your immediate attention. These range from fun to effortless (read: mindless) but all importantly add up to further time sinks and distractions that compound the frantic pace of the game.

Besides its huge number of levels, spanning 7 different airports, each with individual setups, customers, assortment of minigames and strategies; Airport Terminal also features 70 individual upgrades to customize and improve your terminal. These include upgrading the light rail between areas, increasing the staff at various service points, and increasing staff competency levels (to name but a few). Though these upgrades promote bettering your score (and thus earning more money to spend) even the most expensive items never seem too far out of reach.

Airport Terminal is an endearing time management game that will hold your focus for hours as you coordinate the activities and improvements of each world famous airport. Though not as complex as titles such as Mystic Emporium [$2.99], Airport Terminal still offers enough frantic timely tapping to satiate any fan of the genre.

City simulation games on iOS devices generally haven't been that amazing, with very few developers creating a small handful of worthwhile games in the genre. Virtual City [$2.99] by G5 Entertainment is an attempt by one developer to buck that trend, strongly drawing from the earlier SimCity games by Maxis.

Each level in Virtual City sets you up with an impending crisis, supply-line hiccup or urban restoration to resolve (to name but a few scenarios), giving you the tools as chief transport contractor (and budding city planner) to address them directly. The central hub for each of your cities is therefore your garage, from where you can deploy a range of vehicles to transport goods, transport civilians or collect garbage-- all vital instruments to achieving a happy, productive city.

Initially, Virtual City starts you off slow, holding your hand through some of the basic functions, such as earning income by shuttling civilians to malls, or creating a simple clothing supply line. Supply lines are comprised of different production centers which require a number of inputs to function. Transport therefore plays a pivitol role in fuelling your economy. Eventually you'll be introduced to how environmental concerns have an impact on happiness (and thus population) and how a healthy city is a clean city. Yes, you'll be taught to take out the garbage.

Moving on, subsequent levels will open up trade with neighboring towns and more difficult, interconnected supply lines. Eventually factors like sickness, fires, disrepair and income concerns will emerge to boost the difficulty of levels encountered. If there's one thing that Virtual City gets right, it's that it has an excellent sense of progression and learning curve; only dropping you in the deep end when it has provided you with the tools to stay afloat.

The following levels, of which there are a total of 50 spread across 5 different states, are given an interesting context selected from a possible 18 scenarios. With only the help of a hint or two, you are sent on your merry way to make things right. These scenarios can get quite complex, so it is fortunate that Virtual City features an easy to understand interface that clearly delineates end goals and interim goals to work towards to complete each level. Menus are easily navigated, and holding down on each item will reveal a tooltip detailing its cost and other information (something that may not be apparent while playing).

Virtual City's difficulty is further compounded when demands on supply ramp up; forcing you to upgrade your production structures and vehicles to boost their output and carrying capacity. This places an enormous toll on your finances, and often you'll spend much of your time devising ways to first fill your coffers. If your scenario dictates the construction of a complex landmark such as a Space Shuttle launch pad, then the entire process needs to operate as a well-oiled machine. Virtual City is no walk in the park, demanding considerable efforts in both attention and organisation of your city and structures.

For this reason alone, Virtual City takes a hefty swing at the best city simulators currently out there on the App Store. But G5 Entertainment have not rested on their laurels in creating Virtual City-- from the ground-up it is a fantastic looking, smartly designed simulator host to an enormous amount of content. From research and development upgrades, public events, the construction of transit systems and even urban landscaping, the many gameplay nuances of Virtual City keep it constantly engaging, often surprising but relentlessly demanding of your attention.

Virtual City currently has a blanked out Sandbox mode on the main menu, a feature meant to be arriving in the next update. We'll let you know when this goes live. In the meantime if you're looking for help or reader reviews, check out the thread in our forums.

DeceasedPixel just released an update to their people-chomping action game Super Mega Worm [App Store] that makes the title a universal application, adding native support for the iPad. It's an update I was pleased to note, as I've lately been somewhat addicted to the iPhone version, and this update make all those blocky pixels that much bigger and sharper.

Super Mega Worm opens with an 8-bit retro cutscene explaining how humans have consumed the earth, and how mother nature now has a bone to pick with us. She tasks her favorite pest exterminator, Wojira the Death Worm, with wiping humans from the earth and restoring balance to the force…you get the idea. It's a nice little setup for the mayhem that is the hallmark of the giant worm game, and an introduction to the glorious mario-like pixel art.

Wojira the subterranean worm is controlled by a slider, a tilting mechanic, or a D-pad control, the last being a new feature brought with this update. Additional buttons appear on your screen as you unlock your spitting attack, EMPs, fireballs, slam attacks and other abilities as you work your way through the worm's 24 levels. Another new feature is Game Center support, a most welcome addition.

Super Mega Worm, based on Death Worm, is a an exercise in basic gameplay that's a whole lot of fun. The golden moment in the game for me is when you see two people walking innocently across the countryside and you erupt from the ground to devour one of the pair, filling the remaining human with panic and dread. (That's got to be a surprise.)

Super Mega Worm is currently on sale for 66% off, at $0.99.

Developer Rocketcat Games, who have previously brought the swinging adventure games Hook Champ [$2.99/Lite] and Super QuickHook [$2.99] to the App Store, have just announced they have a new hooking game in the works titled Hook Swing Worlds (tentative title). According to the Rocketcat blog, Hook Swing Worlds will be a collection of three different style endless hooking games, which sounds similar to the Avalanche/Eruption modes from Super QuickHook. The developer has given some details about each of the three game styles to be featured in Hook Swing Worlds:

Game World #1: Curse of the Death God

Play as adventuring family patriarch Theodore "Gramps" Hooker as you swing through jungles, caves, and volcanoes while clutching stolen treasure. Beware the guardian spirit of the idol!

Features: Chaser Survival, Quick Recharge Rocketboots Ability

Game World #2: Dungeon Gunner

Zelle finds herself trapped in a huge dungeon filled with precious, ancient gold coins. Also monsters, spikes. Luckily she brought her revolver, armor, and her coat with the really big ammo pockets.

Features: Looting and Shooting, HP Meter, Revolver Ability

Game World #3: CyberGnome 202X (Early content patch)

In the grim dystopian world of the future, the Gnome Police rule with an iron fist. One rebel Gnome stands alone against the totalitarian rule. Can *YOU* help Gnomey escape the grim future?

Features: Obstacle Survival, Gravity Flip Ability

Rocketcat notes that they are aiming to make Hook Swing Worlds more accessible to brand new players of their particular brand of swinging gameplay, while still bringing new challenges to test veteran hookers. Also, despite Hook Swing Worlds being a collection of endless survival type games, there will still be story elements as well as unlockable hooks, hats, dialog, and exclusive content for early buyers. Rocketcat will be releasing more information in the coming weeks on Hook Swing Worlds which they are shooting to have released by late October for 99¢.

Last month, Handmark released the 3D object manipulation puzzler Blaze: Fire Puzzle for both the iPhone [link] and the iPad [link]. We didn't cover the title at the time, but I've spent a good bit of time with the title this weekend and have had a pretty good time of it.

The first thing you might notice upon seeing our gameplay video or trying your hand at the title is its similarity to Zen Bound. Indeed, the game is basically Zen Bound, but with fire and candles instead of a paint-soaked rope (and classical tunes instead of ambient audioscapes accentuated with plucks of the koto). It's a definite derivative title, but given the ridiculous amount of time I've played the Zen Bounds, it's an interesting variation on what's undisputedly Secret Exit's formula.

Blaze takes you through 45 different candle-adorned 3D objects with the objective of lighting every single candle -- and fast. This is done by way of touch controls -- one finger to twist, two fingers to rotate -- just like Zen Bound or, in the case of the iPhone 4, using the integrated gyroscope if you choose. (I recommend not choosing, though -- it's a far inferior method of manipulation as compared to straight-up touch.) You start off with but one of the many candles on your object lit. From there, the goal is to manipulate the object such that all candles become lit, with a gold medal achieved for completing the task in a stated (and short) number of seconds. The physics of fire-lights-what's-above is an interesting twist (ugh...) on the Zen Bound formula.

The iPhone version of Blaze utilizes the Retina display for high resolution rendering, while the iPad version takes full advantage of its screen real estate. Both versions feature social networking integration with OpenFeint, Twitter, and Facebook.

So, if you're a seasoned Zen Bound veteran, is this game for you? I consider myself a member of that camp and have had a great time with Blaze. If you're all wet behind the ears and have clocked zero time behind either title...and have to choose just one, I would probably urge you towards Zen Bound, as it feels a bit more polished, more refined -- but the enjoyability of both titles is quite similar.

Anyone on the fence can try out the limited, free version of the game for both devices:

Happily for the sports fans out there, there's no lack of full-featured football / soccer titles in the App Store. And, that list grew by one this morning when Gameloft released Real Soccer 2011 [App Store], the latest iteration in their mobile soccer series, featuring revamped graphics targeting the iPhone 4's Retina display.

The game features 350 teams across 14 leagues (compared to 245 teams and 8 leagues in RS 2010), with the licensed names of nearly all real-life players. A History Mode sets up notable games of the past for the player to jump in and play and, like Real Soccer 2010 before it, the game features WiFi and Bluetooth multiplayer play modes, as well. The ability to upload memorable replays directly to YouTube from within the app has also been maintained in this release.

While I've only spent a very brief time with the game as yet, the detail afforded the playfield by the iPhone 4's high resolution display is impressive. While Real Soccer 2010 received Retina display support in a recent update, this latest from Gameloft features reworked graphics created using motion capture technology for enhanced realism, the studio indicates.

According to a tipster that contacted Kotaku, an official line of Angry Birds [99¢ / Free / HD] swag is coming next year. They provide the following spy shots of prototype plush birds spotted on the streets of Manhattan:

Angry Birds has been sitting comfortably at the top of the App Store sales charts for quite some time now, and seems to have nearly universal appeal both to gamers and non-gamers alike. We loved the game in our review, and if you haven't yet, you really should at least try the lite version of the game. We've heard rumblings for a while that Angry Birds developer Rovio was looking to turn the game in to something bigger than an iPhone game, and it looks like plush toys are part of whatever that master plan might be.

Either way, I'm not ashamed to admit that I'd totally buy a plush set of birds.

In the wake of how much fun I've been having with MovieCat!, I've been on the hunt for other trivia games to add to my arenal. It was at this point that I stumbled across Go Native! [99¢], which offers an oddly amusing untraditional take on trivia. In Go Native! you play the role of a native trying to, well, fit in with the natives. Fitting in involves answering an onslaught of questions, but instead of needing to answer questions correctly, you're trying to guess the answer that the majority of other players picked.

This involves a silly thought process that forces you to decide whether the players you're playing with are going to answer questions seriously or just pick whatever the silliest response is to the question asked. You can play with up to 30 players at once, and questions range from multiple choice, simple yes/no, or even filling in the blank where you're able to type whatever answer you'd like.

The goal of answering questions correctly is to advance from island to island, collect coconuts, and eventually meet up with the legendary Princess Mango. Different islands have different risks associated to them such as islands with quicksand and questions that need to be answered quickly. There's also an island where instead of answering the most popular answer, you need to choose the least popular as well as islands that cause you to lose all your coconuts with a wrong answer among others.

It's a cool premise for a game, and I like the idea of playing in a pool of 30 players online racing to the finish in a crazy popularity-based trivia contest. Unfortunately, there's no one to play with yet. I've only ever seen a few players online, and when I originally thought the game I was in was filling up with active players, I was incredibly disappointed to just see the player list filled with generic bot names.

The developers of Go Native! seem to have fallen in to a similar situation that quite a few games dependent on online players have found themselves in. In order for the game to be fun, there needs to be a large number of people playing online, but without a large number of players playing online, the game isn't captivating enough to play against bots waiting for other people to show up.

If Go Native! takes off and you can actually participate in 30 player games without issue, I could see it being a really great time. Unfortunately, with so few active players, all that Go Native! seems to have is a whole heap of unrealized potential.

We've been following Gameloft's upcoming Modern Combat 2: Black Pegasus very closely, as the original Modern Combat: Sandstorm [$4.99 / Free / HD] was a game that we enjoyed in our review and served to further raise the bar for first person shooters on the platform. Gameloft released a launch trailer today, which shows quite a bit of gameplay including a glimpse at what appears to be ten player online multiplayer-- Complete with an experience system.

Normally I'd groan at such blatant "inspiration" from Modern Warfare 2's online multiplayer system (right down to how it pops up in the middle of your screen) ...But, I played Modern Warfare 2 online like a maniac, and I'm not sure what it will mean for my social life if Modern Combat 2: Black Pegasus allows you to prestige. I guess we'll see when the game is finally released early next month.