Konami

Frogger for the iPhone is an adaptation of Konami's 1981 arcade original featuring updated graphics, an updated soundtrack, and a choice of touchscreen or accelerometer controls–or both combined.

Like the original, the goal of the game is to direct five frogs, one by one, from the starting point at the bottom of the screen to their homes at the top before the timer runs out.  It's a treaturous journey.  The lower half of the screen consists of a busy roadway with five lanes of speeding traffic.  The upper half contains a rushing river filled with logs, turtles, alligators and other such hazards.  The challenge is getting the frog home safely without getting flattened, drowned (this was always puzzling…), or eaten.  It sounds simple, but can be rather frustrating challenging.

The iPhone version offers both accelerometer and two types of touchscreen controls.  Moving your frog with the accelerometer involves "jerking" the iPhone in the intended direction of travel.  Touchscreen control works with either a tap in the intended direction relative to the frog's current position or a swipe (anywhere on the screen) in the desired direction, akin to the "swipe" control mode of Ms. PAC-MAN for the iPhone.  Both control systems are active simultaneously by default, but either can be turned off in the game options.  After spending time with all control methods, the swipe technique seems the most precise.  The iPhone's vibrate feature is also utilized by the game.

Frogger for the iPhone is…well…Frogger–not much more, not much less.  If you're a Frogger fan, then you'll enjoy this outing. If not, you may find a better value in some of the other $9.99 games.

As Pocket Gamer reports, Konami is enthusiastic about the iPhone as a gaming platform and will be bringing more content in the near future.

"We see the iPhone platform as an opportunity to showcase the legendary Konami brands in a truly unique fashion," he says. "We look forward to releasing more of our popular titles for the iPhone soon."

One thing to note: The official line from Konami is that right now Frogger is iPhone-only (not iPod touch compatible), despite iLounge reporting that they successfully installed it on an iPod touch.  Konami indicates it will be releasing a verison compatible with the iPod touch soon.  (Thanks chrisb3)

THQ (Toy Headquarters) is a massive worldwide game developer with a library of hundreds of titles and over $1 billion in revenue in 2007. Until now, they had made no announcements of iPhone support. THQ publishes games for multiple platforms including the Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii and Xbox 360.

As THQ describes de Blob,

The evil I.N.K.T. Corporation has declared "Color is a Crime!" and leeched Chroma City of all its beauty and interest. With no means to fight back, the citizens of Chroma City have been forced into a hypnotic state. Only the unlikely hero de Blob can defeat the hordes of tank battalions, speedy I.N.K.T. racers and elite Inky soldiers that have invaded his home. Flip, bounce and smash your way to launch a color revolution and save your city!

Wii version

While the forthcoming Wii version of de Blob is set in a fully 3D world, the iPhone version is set in a semi-3D world featuring a fixed, top-down view with 3D buildings, but otherwise 2D graphics. The player controls de Blob as he moves about the depressing, grey landscape collecting colors and liberating the repressed.  de Blob is presented with certain goals to complete and is required to color certain buildings with specific colors that must sometimes be obtained through mixing (eg. red + yellow = orange), reminding me, in this respect, of Archer MacLean's Mercury.

While not as graphically advanced as the forthcoming Wii version, de Blob for iPhone does feature unique, engaging gameplay.  But we have to wonder why THQ chose to bring a "dumbed down" version of the this game (presumably similar to the forthcoming DS version) to the iPhone rather than a more faithful conversion of the Wii original.  After all, the iPhone is closer to the Wii than the DS in capability.

A choice of touchscreen or accelerometer-based controls are offered within the game. The video below demonstrates the touch control which can obscure the gameplay at times. Meanwhile, the accelerometer control is flexible allowing you to calibrate the settings (screenshot) including choosing the neutral position and sensitivity.

YouTube gameplay video:

Game Details

Name: de Blob
Developer: THQ
App Store Link: Buy
Price: $9.99
Compatibility: iPhone and iPod Touch

Developer Lazrhog who brought us the port of Kenta Cho's excellent Noiz2sa has been busy porting the Super Monkey Ball-inspired Neverball to the iPod touch.  He recently released v1.0 to the public; it can be accessed from Installer.app.

From Wikipedia:

The main gameplay of Neverball is based on moving a ball using gravity by tilting the game world, not directly controlling the ball (it is somewhat similar to the game Labyrinth without the holes in the middle). The mouse (or a similar pointing device), keyboard, or joystick tilt the level to help guide the ball to a goal, via an obstacle course, with a set time limit. Moving platforms and other crazy objects get in the way, making levels progressively harder. To unlock the goal on each level, the player must collect a required amount of coins. Coins come in three different colors: yellow, red and blue. Yellow coins are worth 1, red are worth 5 and blue are worth 10 coins or points. Collecting 100 coins gains an extra life.

Neverball is free software under the GNU General Public License and is also avaialble for Mac OS X, Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, and the Sega Dreamcast.

Neverball is not currently slated for release through the iTunes App Store because the developer does not own a Macintosh and, as such, cannot utilize the iPhone SDK for development.  He is currently trying to raise enough money through donations on his product pages to secure a Mac and release his titles for iPhone 2.0 devices.  Looking at the quality of his ports, we hope Lazrhog reaches his goal, and fast!

Block Puzzle is, as one might expect, a puzzle game in which the player must slide a large red block through the exit by sliding it and other blocks of various colors and sizes around the playfield. There are 10 levels, each with a different combination of block sizes.  A gameplay timer effects the score, and as incentive to get times as low as possible, the game is tied to an online, web-based hi-score page allowing players around the world to see how they rank.  A nice touch.

It sounds like a rather basic game–and it is, but somehow it seems to just "get it right." If you've got a jailbroken iPhone, you won't want to miss it.

Block Puzzle and Soneso's other iPhone games and apps can be acquired through their Installer.app repository: http://www.soneso.com/iphone.

Cyber-Dinosaurs!
Our planet was their home for millions of years. Now they want it back!
The ultimate mix between a 3D shooter and an adventure game.
Explore 6 stunning planets (11 maps fully 3D) with outstanding backgrounds!
Navigate through the solar systems using the interactive 3D map and destroy the robosaurs!

Features:

• 11 full 3D levels, 6 different planets and environments
• 3D engine with "astonishing" lighting system
• 3D audio engine
• Full 3D animations
• Different characters–every enemy has different AI
• Adventure gameplay style

The game features a combination of accelerometer and on-screen button controls for negotiating the landscape, selecting weapons, and firing.  While movement in the 3D world is currently fluid, Darxun points out that an update due in approximately two weeks will utilize the iPhone's 3D hardware acceleration and improve the game's framerate and render quality. (Cybersaurus is currently using a software-based rendering engine.)

Cybersaurus can be installed on any jailbroken iPhone or iPod touch via Installer.app and can be found at Darxun's repository: http://iphone3dgames.com. Users can try out the game in demo form with the option to unlock the full title for $9.99 USD.

The game is great fun and makes good use of the iPhone's accelerometer for screen orientation and multitouch display for pinch-and-zoom playfield manipulation.

CubicMan can be had via Installer.app from the ModMyiFone repository for users of a jailbroken iPhone or iPod touch.  We hope to see this available through the iTunes App Store at launch.

A fourth-generation game console that debuted in the late '80s, the TurboGrafx-16 (known as the PC Engine in Japan) was arguably the most powerful 8-bit game console. Featuring particularly advanced graphics hardware for the time, the TurboGrafx-16 ran some of the most accurate arcade conversions of the day and is very highly regarded by retro gaming enthusiasts. Some of the best games available for the Nintendo Wii's Virtual Console are TurboGrafx-16 titles. Youtube movie:

As the above video demonstrates, the emulator is already running smoothly and with working audio.  The ability to play the many great TurboGrafx-16 titles on the iPhone, whenever the mood strikes, is something any retro game-loving iPhone user should be excited about.

temper4iphone is currently in beta.  Stay tuned for more information about this project as it nears release status.

iCube is a "native" iPhone app that can be installed via Installer.app (just addhttp://repo.ispazio.net to your sources list and the game will show up in the Games category).  Being a native app, users will find it to be more responsive than the aforementioned Rubik's Cube game.  Depending on preference settings, iCube can be played with cubes anywhere from 2×2x2 to 5×5x5 blocks in size.  There is also a race-against-the-clock mode to add a bit of urgency to the gameplay.

[ via Phones Reviews ]

Like the classic wood and steel Labyrinth, aMaze! challenges the player to maneuver a playfield filled with holes and other obstacles in order to reach a set goal location.  Some levels require the player to pick up bonus stars along the way, adding variation to the standard Labyrinth formula.  The game features over 70 levels, most of which can be completed in under 90 seconds, making it a rather ideal pick-up / put-down time killer.

Simiotica CMO Alex Dubov indicates that, while an Installer.app title right now, aMaze! will appear in the iTunes App Store when it goes online.

Large multi-touch screen, OpenGL ES and OpenAL support, built-in accelerometers make iPhone most powerful mobile gaming device on the market. We have developed aMaze to meet expectation of the iPhone owners for games with innovative gameplay not yet possible with other devices. While awaiting the launch of the official App Store, we make it available through the Installer.App to let iPhone entusiasts enjoy it as early as possible

A 10 level demo version of aMaze! can be downloaded for free, while 70 additional levels can be unlocked for a $9 USD registration fee.

The game presents an over-the-shoulder view of the player's avatar in the 3D game world.  On-screen controls are used to negotiate the terrain, do battle with enemies, collect treasure, etc.  Both portrait and landscape orientations are supported and on-screen indicators keep the player aware of current health levels, selected weapons, etc.

The author indicates that Kingom Lores is and will remain a free game but he is uncertain as to whether it will appear in the iTunes App Store due to the fact that he has no Mac and, as such, no access to the iPhone SDK (the game is being developed using Win Toolchain on the PC).

The game is not currently available through Installer but can be downloaded here and manually installed via FTP/OpenSSH on any jailbroken iPhone or iPod touch.

A video of the game in action can be seen here (3:30 into the video).