As IGN reports, game developer Fireglow Games is partnering with Mac games publisher Virtual Programming to bring the Plumeboom franchise to various mobile platforms including the iPhone and iPod touch.

Three specific titles that will arrive for the iPhone are Plumeboom The First Chapter, The Golden Path of Plumeboom, and A-B-O-O - Plumeboom’s Friends.  The Plumeboom games are color-based puzzlers of the “match-three” sort, each with a different style of gameplay.

Fireglow sets the story for Plumeboom The First Chapter,

Orniland is a paradise for birds. Thousands live here in peace and harmony. But two villains, Crowbeak the Wizard and his servant, Cornix the Scientist, seek to undo the tranquility of the land through darkness… with an evil potion that they spread across the country using conveyors. The potion turns birds into Warriors of Darkness serving the villains. Only Plumeboom the Peacock can destroy the system of conveyors and save Orniland! Help him in his mission!

No solid date has been given for Plumeboom’s arrival in the App Store.  A taste for the gameplay of The First Chapter can be seen in a demo video of the PC version.

As Gamasutra reports, Electronic Arts has announced that Need For Speed Undercover, the twelfth installment of its popular racing series, will be released for the iPhone and other platforms.

According to EA CEO John Riccitiello, Need for Speed Undercover will bring better innovation and gameplay than the series’ previous incarnations.  

Also notable is the fact that the game will star Mission Impossible III actress Margaret Quigley.

As a handler, she will recruit and guide players as they go undercover to infiltrate and take down an international crime syndicate. Players will complete dangerous jobs, compete in street races, and take part in cop chases along the way. 

Need for Speed Undercover is set to ship to stores in North America on November 18 and in Europe on November 21.  It is unclear at this time whether the game’s appearance in the iTunes App Store will occur in that same timeframe.

See the teaser movie released by EA for a loose glimpse of what’s to come.

Swedish game developer Resolution Interactive has released a preview of their forthcoming flight / action / sports hybrid Clusterball 2.

Clusterball 2 for the iPhone is a conversion of the developer’s existing PC title (pictured) and offers unique, fast-paced gameplay that, as the demonstration video illustrates, translates well to the iPhone’s accelerometer-based control systems.

Clusterball is a high-paced, adrenaline pumping flight sport demanding skill, tactics and ball control - designed as a first person shooter but without the splatter and gore. Played in midair with high tech aircraft, your objective is to gather and score as many balls as possible while trying your best to keep your opponents from doing the same. As your tail grows longer, your ship will gradually slow down, making you more vulnerable to attacks. Thus, each extra ball gathered involves a calculated risk.

According to Resolution Interactive, the game will feature various online components including gamer profiles, public scoreboards, and challenger features and sport graphics that are above and beyond what is available for the iPhone today.

Clusterball® 2 for iPhone will aim to make a mark on the iPhone market by offering the highest quality of graphics and maneuverability through the gyro controls. With a fast-paced gameplay and obstacle rich environment, Clusterball® 2 for iPhone will be an adrenaline filled experience for young and old alike.

“Clusterball® 2 for iPhone is very exciting, and will be a new start for us.” Say Lars Lindstrom, founder at Resolution Interactive. “We look forward to present our new demo as well as our coming titles at the GC convention next week”.

Resolution Interactive will be demonstrating the title at next week’s Game Convention in Leipzig Germany where we hope to hear additional details including an App Store release date.  Stay tuned.

A demo video of the PC version offers an additional glimpse at gameplay.

[ via Pocket Gamer ]

Noah Witherspoon has released Tris [App Store], a free version of Tetris, for the iPhone.

The game is a port of a Jailbreak version by the same name. This free game offers a no-frills Tetris experience for those who don’t want to spend $9.99 for the official version [App Store].

Touch controls move pieces left, right, down and even up, while tapping allows you to rotate your piece. The actual game is nicely implemented with attractive graphics and smooth animation. Tris also offers a global high-score system so you can compare your play with others. A lack of sound effects or music, however, makes the gameplay a little unsatisfying. Fortunately, you can play your own music in the background.

Still, it’s hard to complain about free. Witherspoon’s game has already hit the #1 spot in the App Store. Download it in the App Store.

The folks over at iLounge have taken on the daunting task of reviewing every Solitaire game on the App Store to come up with the following list.

There are 19 games of solitaire in the App Store from 12 different developers. Apps prices link to the App Store:

• Acid Solitaire Collection ($9.99, B-) - 3 games, good gameplay
• Cookie Bonus Solitaire ($2.99, B-) - cutesy interface, online mode
• Cookie Bonus Solitaire - Free (Free, B+) - same game but ad supported
• Demon Solitaire ($0.99, D) - very plain
• Las Vegas Solitaire ($2.99, D) - very plain
• MobilityWare Freecell ($1.99, D) - mediocre, limited single game
• MobilityWare Pyramid ($0.99, D) - mediocre, limited single game
• MobilityWare Solitaire ($1.99, D) - mediocre, limited single game
• Mondo Solitaire ($9.99, B+) - one of the best, over 100 types of solitaire, lots of play
• Platinum Solitaire ($3.99, B) - interface and depth are only so-so compared to others
• Pyramid Solitaire ($4.99, C) - simple pyramid solitaire game
• Pyramid Solitaire Lite (Free, D) - a few less options
• Solebon Solitaire ($9.99, C-) - 20 games, limited audio
• Wee Spider Solitaire ($4.99, C-) - 7 games
• Sol Free Solitaire (Free, B) - 3 games, very nice for free game
• Solitaire CAO ($4.99, D) - Klondike, demo-quality
• Solitaire City ($9.99, B) - impressive, online leaderboard, 13 games
• Solitaire Forever ($5.99, A-) - slick, 3D engine, over 150 games
• Solitaire Top 3 ($3.99, D-) - 3 games, simple

iLounge picks Mondo Solitaire ($9.99) and Solitaire Forever ($5.99, pictured above) as their top paid picks and Cookie Bonus Solitaire - Free (Free) and Sol Free Solitaire (Free) as their top free picks.

Solitaire City ($9.99) should get an honorable mention, however, due to its unique inclusion of an online leaderboard.

iLounge gets into far more detail and provides screenshots of every game in their extensive roundup.

Retro gaming fans take note: StarByte has released Space Invasion [App Store] for the iPhone.

Space Invasion is a remake of Taito’s 1978 classic Space Invaders with a few perks.  Since there can’t be a person reading this post who hasn’t heard of Space Invaders, I won’t get into a detailed description of gameplay.  Suffice it to say, you contol a laser turrett that can be moved left and right and your objective is to destroy the advancing alien horde.  Aside from more lavish graphics than the original, Space Invasion features various power-ups that drop from the occasional blasted alien, such as power shots (destroy a column of aliens with one shot), shields, extra lives, and bonus points.  Adding challenge, the “mystery ship” that moves across the top of the screen drops bombs, as does the occasional blasted alien.

Space Invasion features multitouch control (one thumb for ‘left’ / ‘right’, one for ‘fire’) that works well and feels responsive.  This is a solid Space Invaders port.  If you love that classic, you’ll likely find Space Invasion worth its space on your iPhone or iPod touch.

Space Invasion is available for $3.99 [App Store] through the iTunes App Store.

StarByte has posted a sample gameplay video (which lacks sound, unlike the game):

Interactive Fiction (IF) fans will be pleased to hear that Craig Smith has released Frotz [App Store] for the iPhone through the iTunes App Store as a free download.

Interactive Fiction, better known as “text adventures” was a popular game genre in the ’70s and ’80s when computers were text-based or offered, at best, very limited graphical capabilities.  The first text adventure, Colossal Cave Adventure (also known as ADVENT due to a six-letter filename restriction on the PDP-10 for which it was originally written and available [App Store] as a stand-alone iPhone game) was created by Will Crowther.  It was quickly ported to virtually every machine of the day and spawned an IF industry, the most commercially successful games of this sort coming from the now defunct Infocom.

The IF titles most gamers may remember is the Zork trilogy, published commercially by Infocom.  Infocom published dozens of quality IF titles for most every computer platform available during its heyday.  To make the development of such games for multiple platforms as simple as possible, the company created the Z-machine virtual machine interpreter which allowed a common game format, Z-code files, to be used for all versions of its titles, with only the interpreter program being written natively for each platform (not unlike the SCUMM VM, which is available for jailbroken iPhones). The Z-code format became popular among indie IF authors for creation of public domain adventures.

Frotz for the iPhone is a port of the popular Frotz Z-machine interpreter that was created in 1995 and is available for a great number of platforms.

Frotz is capable of playing most Z-code files out there (version 6 and above, which allow graphics, are not supported at this time).  Frotz comes bundled with a number of public domain IF titles, with more accessible through a download repository integrated into the application.  Users are able to specify other download repositories if they wish.

Frotz presents the player with a menu through which titles can be loaded and, once loaded, renders the adventure in a text window with a pleasant, parchment-colored backdrop.  Games can be played in portrait or landscape mode and the standard iPhone text entry keyboard is used for input.

For iPhone using IF fans, Frotz is heaven.  For those unfamiliar with the genre, this free download is definitely worth a look.  IF may have sprung from hardware restrictions, but many gamers feel that the mind, rather than the graphics screen, is the best tool for rendering out an adventure.  Some of the best games I’ve personally ever played are text adventures.  Don’t knock it ’till you try it.

In early August, mobile gaming company IUGO released some interesting screenshots of their upcoming game called Toy Bot Diaries. Like many other companies, they claimed to understand the iPhone and promised that they had utilized its accelerometer and touch controls in a “very natural way.”

After playing Toy Bot Diaries [$3.99, App Store] tonight, I think IUGO was right about their controls and, in doing so, they have succeeded in creating one of the first true iPhone games.

iPhone gaming controls is a topic that I keep coming back to (Ms. Pac-Man, Digga) because it’s frequently a major issue when gaming on the iPhone. With many games, you find yourself acutely aware that you are playing on an iPhone. This is because the tilt control or the touch control didn’t respond in the manner you’ve come to expect. With Toy Bot Diaries, IUGO has created a natural control system that blends in and stays out of your way.

I don’t mean to single out the control system as anything extraordinary by itself. It’s not. In the end, the strength of the game is its natural control system on top of a very well executed physics platform puzzle game. In fact, I forgot I was playing “an iPhone game” and instead was simply immersed in a great game.

The premise of the game is a bit unclear, though, it appears that is by design:

Tiny Toy Bot has awakened within a strange machine and now he needs your help! Use Toy Bot’s handy grappling hook and magnet boots to navigate him through environments teeming with physics-based challenges as he plunges into an unfamiliar world. Search for Toy Bot’s lost datapads to recover his memory and guide him on his top secret mission.

The lack of instruction or background can be a bit disorienting, but the game gets you up to speed very quickly (see video).

Tilt controls move Toy Bot forward and backward, while touch controls trigger your grappling hook and magnet boots. You’ll find yourself tackling some clever obstacles as you negotiate through the stages. While you can make your way through a stage without collecting all the datapads, trying to get gather them all is also part of the challenge.

IUGO has decided to take a unique approach and release this game in a series of episodes. This is episode 1 (”Entry 1″). I suspect this will result in shorter but cheaper games. Toy Bot Diaries appears to have four stages (comprised of many sections) and is priced at $3.99.

While I haven’t completed all the stages during my brief time with the game, I already feel $3.99 is a very fair price for this polished and immersive game.

Discovery Communications recently released Cannon Challenge [App Store] through the iTunes App Store.

A free download, Cannon Challenge puts the player in control of a Non-Line-of-Sight (NLOS) cannon with the objective of determining the proper projectile angle and acceleration in order to deliver ordinance to enemy targets obscured by landscape features such as buttes, mountains, etc.  It’s a simple game but the feeling of having accurately gauged the lay of the land and destroying each enemy target on the game screen is very satisfying.

Cannon Challenge is an iPhone rendition of a formula that was popular on early home computers in the ’80s.  The graphics are well done, the interface stays out of the way, and the quick pick-up fun is hard to resist.

Cannon Challenge [Free, App Store] is one of the more playable free titles available through the iTunes App Store. A web version is also available at the Discovery Channel’s website.

Eliza Block has released a free version of her popular crossword puzzle app, 2 Across [App Store].

The Lite version of the application provides a free demo of the game with a more limited selection of puzzles.

With the Lite Edition, you can download and solve puzzles from the New York Times, The Onion, and the Sydney Morning Herald. With the full edition, tens of thousands more puzzles become available, from an ever-growing list of sources.

We previously reviewed both 2 Across and Crosswords and found them both to be quite capable. 2 Across offered a few unique features, such as Pen and Paper modes, and the ability to reveal individual letters. The full version of 2 Across is also cheaper than Crosswords at only $5.99 [App Store]

See our full review for details and gameplay videos. Meanwhile, the Crosswords developer also recently released a free version [App Store] of their application, so you can compare them directly yourselves.