We're not entirely sure what to make of this, but here's what we know so far:

Sega has been teasing the reveal of "Project Needlemouse" since September of last year, which we found out tonight was officially an episodic sequel to Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles to be released on WiiWare, PSN, XBOX Live Arcade, and a yet to be revealed mystery platform. Sonic 4 is abandoning the 3D platforming that has plagued recent Sonic games and going back to its 2D roots as you can see in the following trailer:

Where things get crazy is when it comes to a few details which will be unlocked when a few different timers hit zero on the Sonic 4 web site. According to SonicStadium.org and a post on NeoGAF, finding out what lies behind promo1_locked.png and promo2_locked.png on the web site was as simple as removing the "_locked" from the URL. Of course these files are nowhere to be found now, but here are the two images that allegedly were found on Sega's servers:

Now, it's entirely possible we're being pranked here, but, at the same time, Sega is revealing a fourth platform that the game will be on soon. Episodes of Sonic 4 are obviously being distributed digitally, and aside from the Wii, PS3, and XBOX 360, there really only is the DSi, PSP, and iPhone left that Sega would even conceivably release the game on… So, if nothing else, we've got a 1 in 3 chance of seeing Sonic 4 on the App Store.

Freeverse's Parachute Ninja [App Store] has been getting some much deserved positive first impressions in our forums since its release last night.

Parachute Ninja's story isn't exactly the standout part of this game; some dude set your hut on fire so this weird little yellow guy with wicked eyebrows tells you that you need to put on some funny clothes and bounce around a 2D platforming-based world until a game over screen pops up. Something like that.

The core of Parachute Ninja's gameplay is based around launching a tiny, round ninja from little floating slingshots all around an area and using his parachute to float around the environment. Slinging the ninja from the vines that form the game's slingshot/platforms works much like the slingshot mechanic from Bird Strike. Once in the air, touching anywhere on the screen will cause the ninja to whip out his tiny parachute, which will slow his fall and allow the player to control the direction of his descent by tilting the device.

There are two modes in Parachute Ninja: Story mode and Survival mode. Story mode tests your little ninja with 30 levels in each of which the goal is to reach the exit while collecting as many fireflies (generic floating shiny things) as possible to get a high score. There is no time limit or penalty for taking a long time in these levels, and there is no way to "lose", as a fall into the always-rising (and yet completely unexplained) watery abyss will simply restart your character at the last checkpoint you touched and deduct a few points from your score. Levels are ranked using what is essentially a three-star system, with the highest award going to those who were able to rack up a huge score by collecting numerous fireflies within a short time period, creating a combo. High score chasers out there will be happy to hear that Plus+ has been integrated into the game, making scores and achievements fully featured and online.

The second playable mode in Parachute Ninja, Survival mode, plays quite similarly to Doodle Jump. In this mode the goal is to get as high as possible while constantly being chased by a deadly wave of rising water. While the starting area of this mode is always the same, players who get higher up will start to discover that the obstacles and various items are all randomly generated, making Survival mode a part of the game that many people will find themselves returning to long after beating the Story mode.

There's a decent amount of variety to Parachute Ninja's platforming mechanics due to the different types of platforms like trampolines, slingshots, fans, etc. The introduction of these new mechanics are spread out pretty evenly throughout the Story mode, so the game stays fresh for the whole ride.

The one gameplay element that I had some trouble with was the tilt-controlled movement of the parachute which auto-calibrates to the iPhone's position when you tap on the screen. If you're not paying close attention, this can result in some wild overcompensation due to the sensitive controls. In the end, I found using the parachute in quick short bursts worked much better.

After only a few minutes of playing Parachute Ninja, I knew I'd be writing a very positive review. The art style is cute, the gameplay is fun and well-suited to the iPhone, and the two modes are neatly packaged and make the game easy to look at and play. Parachute Ninja is an easy purchase.

App Store Link: Parachute Ninja, $.99

TouchArcade Rating:

Assassins's Creed 2 was extremely well-received on the PS3 and X360, numbering amongst the stand-out titles of 2009. It's no surprise then that Ubisoft would want to strike while the iron is still hot, and capitalise on the popularity of the franchise. Assassin's Creed 2: Discovery [App Store] is their (somewhat late) answer to that, but does it do justice to its bigger brother?

The Assassin's Creed universe is undoubtedly one of the more unique intellectual properties to hit the gaming world, and offers a rich source of story and background to draw from. The iPhone off-shoot of Assassin's Creed 2, as in the console version, focuses on the protagonist Ezio and his battle against the Templars throughout Italy and Spain. The story operates as an aside to that of the console storyline, and follows Ezio as he tracks down another threat to the Assassins; a hunt that takes him across the seas to Spain.

Assassin's Creed 2: Discovery is essentially a 2D platformer that employs the Assassin's formula of deception, agility and deadly force. There are a few types of missions to complete in Assassin's Creed 2: Discovery; some which require stealth, where being discovered too many times will see you caught; others that throw Ezio into an acrobatic chase sequence; and those where Ezio must simply reach a predefined target. At the end of each level you are (quite ruthlessly) graded for the time you have taken and kills made, and awarded synch points which can then be used to unlock a number of "animus hacks", such as hard mode and a number of cheats.

Ezio is controlled by a left and right slider dictating his walk/run speed and a number of context-sensitive thumb-buttons to control his aerial and combat abilities. Ezio has two speeds of movement: a stealthy creep and an all-out sprint; the latter of which is responsible for some concerns with Assassin's Creed 2: Discovery.

In the first few missions the high speed at which Ezio runs simply means a few important leaps are missed, requiring you to traverse to the top of the level again, resulting in heavy hits to your time score. This would be fine if we were playing a Sonic-of-old where such speed is encouraged by the level design, but when the chase missions begin Ezio's blazing speed will see you unwittingly running into guards, falling over blind jumps into deadly pits, or scaling walls when you intend to drop down them — failing the mission time and time again until you have memorized the level in its entirety. One of our early frustrations with the game was a lack of clear goals at the start of each mission, resulting in some excessive trial and error as you learn about the different types of levels.

Despite it being a 2D platformer, the levels are crafted in 3D, and the attention to detail in both the levels themselves and the characters that populate them is outstanding. The animations, particularly the many 'kill' and counter animations that Ezio performs, are terrifically life-like and a delight to watch; easily some of the best we've seen on the platform to date. The combat mechanics are simple but effective, utilising two buttons to attack and counter in order to dispatch your foes. In fact, if the game didn't tie you so strictly to a timer in many levels, the combat itself may have presented a more enjoyable distraction, rather than something to be avoided.

Assassin's Creed 2: Discovery features 8 memory blocks (read: missions), each comprising a few different sequences. There is a solid amount of content on offer here. While there are some things in Assassin's Creed II that make the game feel like it could have been left in the oven a little bit longer, it's still easily one of the better platformers on the App Store. Be forewarned that the performance on the 3G is rather lackluster, but the game is a visual treat on the 3GS and has a few enhancements (graphics, audio, extras) over the DS version.

App Store Link: Assassin's Creed 2: Discovery, $9.99

TouchArcade Rating:

Mobile Bros' puzzle platformer Trundle [App Store] was released yesterday, and is getting nowhere near the attention it deserves. Trundle is a free game with a neat art style all tied together with simple tilt and touch controls that create a great (but short) gameplay experience.

The object of the game is to simply roll a black ball from one side of the screen to the other. Tilting the phone controls your movement, and tapping on the screen jumps. Along the way you'll come across different vehicles to ride in, switches to activate, platforms to navigate, and other obstacles that often have different physics-based challenges to overcome.

Trundle itself is rather short, and shouldn't take you much more than an hour to finish. However, the iTunes description mentions additional level packs available in the future via an in-game purchase. I had a lot of fun playing through the game, and I think this kind of DLC model is great, especially since the amount of content in Trundle doesn't make the game feel like a demo at all.

The few people who have downloaded the game already in our forums are really enjoying it so far, and I doubt I'm alone in hoping they hurry it up with the additional level packs.

App Store Link: Trundle, Free

The iPhone has attracted a notable number of Amiga game ports since the App Store went live. Worms, Pinball Dreams / Fantasies, Krypton Egg, Beneath a Steel Sky — the list goes on. For those unaware, the Amiga was an extremely innovative platform, released in 1985 by Commodore, that saw rather limited success outside of Europe. It featured a lean yet powerful operating system and a great deal of custom hardware that made it the choice gaming platform of the day (for those that were aware of its existence). Despite Commodore's demise in 1994, a few stragglers still carry the Amiga torch.

In an App Store first, the iPhone is about to receive a port of a highly praised Amiga game…that never was.

In 1993, Iraqi developer Rabah Shihab, part of the Mesopotamia Team, began work on the Amiga title Babylonian Twins (with basically no budget), inspired by what he saw of other games' depiction of Iraq. As he explained in an interview with Amiga Games That Weren't,

…My real dedication for this theme came during the early nineties after I saw a computer game in which you control a warplane with the goal of bombing Iraq. Putting the bombing aside (I was in Baghdad during the first gulf war and I saw the human suffering that resulted from the real bombing ), I didn't like the way they depicted Iraq in the game, as a primitive and uncivilized place. I wanted to build a game that counter that image, a game that shows the vibrant history of Mesopotamia. In Babylonian Twins, the game takes you to different historical places, from Babylon to Assyria. We relied on authentic history books to design many of the graphics in the game.

Shihab was impressed by the smooth scrolling of Team 17's Amiga title Superfrog and set out to deliver similar visual finesse in his title. Another inspiration was Konami's MSX release Maze of Galious. The team released a very well-liked demo version of the game, but no full Amiga release ever came. And although he, later, targeted the Xbox Live Arcade, it's the iPhone that will at long last receive the final release. And, befitting the game's history, the full Amiga release is also imminent.

The forthcoming game is a puzzle platformer with an authentic historic feel and unique two-character gameplay. It features the puzzle elements of Maze of Galious with the multi-character control of Lost Vikings, along with the glass-smooth animation of Superfrog. The author indicates that the iPhone version features an original soundtrack, excellent graphics, and over a dozen large levels.

See the developer's trailer video for a look at the updated version.

[ Full HD version | Low Bandwidth version ]

Videos of the original Amiga demo version can be seen here, here, and here. Amiga screenshots are also available.

UPDATE: In putting together this post, we sought further information from the developer, but he got back to us a bit after the post went live. Shihab wants to make sure readers are aware that the iPhone version of Babylonian Twins is an entirely new game that borrows no graphics or audio from the Amiga version. He assures us that all aspects of the game have been enhanced specifically for the iPhone by a dedicated team (and this time around on a healthy budget) over the course of the game's six-month development cycle.

We're quite anxious to get our hands on the final product and will bring further news of the iPhone release of Babylonian Twins as we get it. Stay tuned.

One of our very favorite iPhone games — one that we come back to and actually play "for fun" (perish the thought!) — is Rocketcat Games' Hook Champ [App Store], which we reviewed back in October.  We discussed the game in detail with Rocketcat's own Kepa Auwae in TouchArcade Podcast #9. He gave us a look at what went into the making of the title and assured us that Rocketcat intends to keep the game very much alive down the road, with updates and enhancements.

Fans of the title will be pleased to hear that the first update since our discussion with Kepa (and the third update to the game since its release) has just hit the App Store.

Features as listed by the developer:

• New challenge level set: The Forbidden Hats! Put your hooking skills to the test like never before!
• New 'simple' ghost mode allows you to gauge your progress when racing a friend or competing against your own best time without being distracted by the in-game avatar.
• New cosmetic-only DLC character: Bounty Hunter Zelle! Zelle is equal to Gunny in abilities, but has her own sense of style and new dialog. Zelle also features her own collection of incredibly fashionable hats!
• Change: Rope lengths tweaked to create a smoother experience for beginning players.
• Bugfix: Personal best run ghosts now saved even if ghost display is turned off.
• Bugfix: The Addiction hat achievements and Celebrity local scores achievements should be properly awarded now.
• Performance: Stunning performance enhancements across the board on both older model iPhone/iPod Touch devices and newer 3GS models!
• Even more hats!

What's more, Rocketcat tells us that Update 4 should be available around the end of this month and will feature a number of new, more causal levels featuring John Gore of Minigore, who will shoot his enemies Bionic Commando-style. A new "Duel System" will also appear in the next update.

Have a look at the game in action. (Video is prior to Update 3)

[ Full HD version | Low Bandwidth version ]

As we said in our review, Hook Champ is an absolutely fantastic game that all fans of retro styled sidescrollers should own. If you've not added this one to your game library as yet, now's the perfect time. At least give the free, lite version [App Store] a swing.

And hats off to Rocketcat Games for keeping this one going strong.

App Store Link: Hook Champ, $2.99

It's no secret that the iPhone is a highly attractive target platform for developers, not only because of the excellent app distribution model that Apple has put in place with the App Store, but also because of the quality and accessibility of its freely-available development tools. They are great tools, indeed, but we wouldn't go as far as to say you could get a game out the door in a single day, or anything. Well, at least…we wouldn't have, until developers Alex Schwartz (who brought us Spring Fling) and Yilmaz Kiymaz (who brought us Rocket Monkey) did just that.

Schwartz and Kiymaz decided to try and develop a full-featured iPhone game, including all of the art, animation, music, sound effects, and everything, all within a single day — 24 hours. And before the starting pistol fired, the duo opened up the design to the iPhone gaming community.

The design will be based around one word: 'Absurdity'
You're the designer. Go.

After amassing ideas from the community, the timer started and the code began to flow. The team live-blogged the entire process in a thread in our own forums (which they've since summarized on their own blog).

And did they succeed in their mission? Well, despite delivering the game one entire minute late (we'll cut the guys some slack…), we'd definitely call the effort an impressive success. With the help of the online Touch Arcade community for ideas (forum member Sailor Jensen provided the winning concept) and a few developers from the Boston indie community for assistance with art and music (Matt Board, Beth Beinke, Steve Trenkamp), Super Ramen BROTHers quickly sprang to life, and is now available as a free App Store download [link].

And what's this hastily wrought title all about? Well, you control both of the Ramen brothers as they flee down the cashier's conveyor belt in an effort to avoid that laser scanning thing and, ultimately, two cups of boiling, stovetop death. In their flight, down the three-lane conveyor belt, they must jump or dodge (tap or drag) other grocery items, as every collision jolts the Ramen packs back one notch closer to doom. Soy sauce packets picked up along the way help the Ramen brothers edge back forward towards freedom. AGON community integration provides leaderboard tracking — an impressive touch for a one-day app.

See the devs' video for a look at the gameplay.

Super Ramen BROTHers is certainly not the best iPhone game we've ever played. But then, that wasn't really the point. Hats off to all involved in showing that it doesn't necessarily take a year of your life to get an iPhone game to the App Store. Surely their efforts here will inspire a number of would-be iPhone developers to give it a shake. What's more, the game is actually pretty fun to play. Give it a try.

App Store Link: Super Ramen BROTHers, Free

TouchArcade Rating:

As much as I'd like to be reporting that Mirror's Edge is out and it's awesome, instead I have to break the bad news that we may not be seeing the game as early as we originally hoped.

We just recieved the following from EA:

The launch Mirror’s Edge for iPhone and iPod Touch has been postponed to early 2010. This will allow the development team to add features and enhancements that will expand the gameplay experience. Stay tuned for more details in the new year.

This comes as somewhat of a surprise because as mentioned in our hands-on preview of the game last month, Mirror's Edge played well, had great graphics, and felt like a complete iPhone game. One can't help but wonder what extra "features and enhancements" EA is going to be including in the game.

Whatever these extra additions are, it's nice to know that EA is taking their time with the game to make the initial release as strong as possible. We will keep you updated as we hear more from EA on the status of Mirror's Edge.

Plushed is a by-the-numbers platformer for the iPhone with exceptional art and some fairly challenging level design.  As the young girl’s plush rabbit now brought to life, you’ll navigate you way through each level collecting golden ladybugs and helping fairytale folks solve their problems.  One level features a family that has lost their son and some pigs in bales of hay.  Another has crying babies in need of candy.  As a young bunny knight in a fairytale kingdom, it’s your job to help these folks as you work your way towards saving your little girl.

Controls in Plushed are both simple and responsive.  You’ll have the option of touch or tilt control for directional movement, and tapping anywhere on the screen with make your little bunny jump.  While responsive, the jumping wasn’t quite as perfect as we’d have liked it to be.  There were moments in the game that became far more difficult than they needed to be due to the low height of the rabbit’s jump.  Every now and then there’d be a certain enemy or chasm that would lead to our death because he simply couldn’t lift his rabbit feet high enough.  As well, on more than one occasion jumping proved far more frustrating than it should have due to a few holes in the game’s otherwise excellent level design.  A few unintended alternate paths stick out like a sore thumb and lead to jumps that seem possible but never are.  One particular moment in the third stage had me ready to give up until I finally realized that this wasn’t the route the developers intended.  Other situations like this crept up from time to time and marred an otherwise top notch experience.

In addition to having a great deal of original personality and charm, Plushed pulls from the world of gaming and internet culture on more than one occasion to draw some inspiration for its fairytale world.  The “pizza eaters,” a family of creatures that lets you complete epically large jumps, are a clear visual homage to Critter Crunch.  Explore one level deep enough and you’ll find a character in appropriate attire doing the “peanut butter jelly time” dance of internet meme fame.  There’s even a Doc Brown hiding up in the clouds.  The unique characters and environments of Plushed are the highlight of the game in their own right, but adding in these delightful little homages felt like a perfect fit.

The level design really comes together in the second half of the game and offers up some great platforming action.  The downside is that the first few levels are so easy that some gamers might walk away before getting to the good stuff.  There’s a gradual build in the challenge of the game that leaves the first 2 levels feeling like a little too much like a children’s platformer.  Thankfully things ramp up from there.

There are a number of boss fights you’ll tackle during the course of the games 9 levels, each of which showcases the skills you’ve learned up to that point.  Boss battles are a real highlight in Plushed, as you’ll need to think each scenario out instead of simply exploring like you do in the rest of the game.

Once you’ve finished your adventure, the package also includes 3 mini-games that you’ll unlock by earning golden ladybugs throughout the course of the game.

Overall, despite the aforementioned issues, the art design in Plushed is wonderful, the level design was ultimately fun, and the in-jokes and pop culture references delightful. If you like twisted fairytales and fun, it’s going to be $1.99 well spent.  Just try not to get too frustrated if you find yourself headed down the wrong path.

App Store Link: Plushed, $1.99

TouchArcade Rating:

If you haven't gone crazy with Avatar fever by now in the wake of what may very well be the most hyped movie in modern history, and are looking for a platforming adventure game set in the fantastic jungles of Pandora, an alien world inhabited by the blue skinned Na'vi, James Cameron's Avatar [App Store] for the iPhone may just be what the doctor ordered.

From our hands-on preview late last month:

The game itself merely takes place in the Avatar universe, and tells the tale of the events leading up to the movie as a sort of prequel to the film itself. Gameloft apparently had complete access to all of the assets behind the movie, as well as recording some original voicework by the cast for use within the game– Creating an experience that (to this skeptic of movie games) was quite shocking.

Avatar somehow manages to stand on its own, and instead of feeling like a game that was created for the sake of yet another marketing avenue for a movie, it feels like a game that just happens to take place in the same world as the movie. Controlled using a mixture of a virtual joystick and on-screen buttons, there are portions of the game that are reminiscent of traditional 3D platformer games like Mario 64 or Crash Bandicoot, with a combo-friendly combat system straight out of games like Hero of Sparta.

The following video shows some highlights of the first couple levels:

Later in the game you come across a Na'vi village, ride some crazy six legged horse, and there's even a Panzer Dragoon-like flying level where you pilot a banshee which can be seen in this video (which regrettably doesn't have very good sound) that was shot at the Gameloft event in Paris:

We will have a full review soon, but in the meantime first impressions and other comments are being collected from forum members in this thread.

App Store Link: James Cameron's Avatar, $9.99