Fans of the classic Amiga artillery game Worms will be happy to hear that ZodTTD (whose TurboGrafx-16 emulator we covered in a previous post) is working to get Hedgewars ported to the iPhone.  Hedgewars is a free, turn-based strategy game modeled after the aforementioned Worms that features network play and is currently available for Windows, Linux and FreeBSD.

Each player controls a team of several hedgehogs. During the course of the game, players take turns with one of their hedgehogs. They then use whatever tools and weapons are available to attack and kill the opponents’ hedgehogs, thereby winning the game. Hedgehogs may move around the terrain in a variety of ways, normally by walking and jumping but also by using particular tools such as the “Rope” or “Parachute”, to move to otherwise inaccessible areas. Each turn is time-limited to ensure that players do not hold up the game with excessive thinking or moving.

A large variety of tools and weapons are available for players during the game: Grenade, Cluster Bomb, Bazooka, UFO, Shotgun, Desert Eagle, Fire Punch, Baseball Bat, Dynamite, Mine, Rope, Pneumatic pick, Parachute. Most weapons, when used, cause explosions that deform the terrain, removing circular chunks. The landscape is an island floating on a body of water, or a restricted cave with water at the bottom. A hedgehog dies when it enters the water (either by falling off the island, or through a hole in the bottom of it), it is thrown off either side of the arena or when its health is reduced, typically from contact with explosions, to zero (the damage dealt to the attacked hedgehog or hedgehogs after a player’s or CPU turn is shown only when all movement on the battlefield has ceased).

Have a look at the game in action:

Worms was amazing.  Hedgewars with its online gameplay takes the fun to the next level. This is a most welcome addition to the iPhone game library that you won’t want to miss.

The veteran Mac developers at Ambrosia Software have announced their first iPhone game already well into development. Ambrosia is bringing their Aki Mahjong Solitaire game to Apple’s new mobile platform. A desktop version of Aki is presently available as a $20 shareware application for the Macintosh.

Ambrosia’s first game for the iPhone elegantly blends the ancient Chinese game of Mahjong with an enchanting journey across Japan. It’s a modern fusion of two ancient Asian cultures, and is as much an experience as it is a game. Aki is easy to learn even if you still haven’t mastered chopsticks, so don’t hesitate to dive right in. We think you’ll soon find yourself captivated.

The goal of Aki Mahjong Solitaire is to remove all the tiles on the board by matching identical tiles within the allotted time. Tiles, however, can only be selected if they are unblocked on either side by other tiles.

Ambrosia takes advantage of the iPhone’s Core Animation to provide smooth tile animations and a Cover Flow interface for selecting levels. Players will also be able to download additional levels over EDGE, Wi-Fi and presumably 3G when it is available.

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The developers at Mobileage are readying two new iPhone game titles to appear in the iTunes App Store: Blackjack 21 and touchTile Mahjong.

Blackjack 21 brings the words most popular cardgame to your iPhone/iPod with compelling realism. Incorporating actual game play gestures, true-to-life animation and high resolution graphics Blackjack 21 plays like the real thing.

Tap the chips to quickly place a bet, Swipe down to hit, double tap to double down and as the cards glide onto the table you swipe across to stand. Gameplay is super fluid and the perfect way to fill in that extra five minutes.

Blackjack 21 offers customized cards and tables, score tracking through an online Blackjack community, several gameplay variations and built in achievements.

touchTile Mahjong brings the ancient Chinese game of skill, strategy, and calculation to the iPhone and iPod touch.

The classic tile matching game for iPhone and iPod Touch. Finally you can transform those brief moments of downtime into extended moments of downtime. Choose from hundreds of layouts and stacks of alternative tile and background art.

HermitWorks, who recently ported id’s classic Quake 3 to the iPod touch, isn’t simply resting on its laurels with that one, notable achievement.  No, as Inside Mac Games reports, the development group is “madly coding” a port of their own action / strategy game Space Trader to the iPhone as well as the classic iPod.

Sure enough, HermitWorks has set their sites on Apple’s mobile gaming platform the iPhone, but their goal isn’t to enable armies of iPod-wielding Apple fans to play Quake III; instead, they’re “madly coding,” says Tofer, to port their own Space Trader to iPod and iPhone, hopefully in time to be released in June with the official iPhone App Store. “I’d love to have it by June; we’re just in a kind of porting frenzy right now.” Problem is, in order to be a part of Apple’s official offering, they’d need at least minimal support in the form of the official Apple SDK, which has been rather late in making the rounds. HermitWorks doesn’t want to be viewed as a group of iPod hackers: they want “people to be able to go to iTunes and download” their games through an official channel.

And if that’s not enough, they are also working on a role playing game for the iPhone and iPod touch, based on a modified Quake 3 engine, known as Quest.

…Details were scarce, but HermitWorks has something else hidden away in their dusty straw hut: the underpinnings of a casual iPhone RPG, tentatively called Quest. Before you call up memories of King’s Quest, Puzzle Quest or even Peasant’s Quest, know that this game isn’t your average 2D Fetch Quest. Using the same modified Quake III with the graphics “kicked up a few notches,” HermitWorks promises a heavy-duty 3D single-player role-playing experience with one very ambitious addition: instead of NPCs, characters you meet will often be other players.

Stay tuned for more coverage of HermitWorks’ commendable efforts in developing for the iPhone platform.

Dope Wars, one of the more popular turn-based strategy games out there (with parents: less popular) has landed on the jailbroken iPhone and iPod touch in the form of iDope.

As Mobile Magazine reports,

A native application available through Installer, iDope is “an amazing accurate port of the popular Dope Wars game.” You get all the features that you’ve grown accustomed to, including the ability to “pay off loan shark loans, location hopping, a wide variety of ‘product’ to choose from, randomized police chases,” and much more. There’s even a “hospital” option for treating your injuries.

iDope brings all of the playability of the desktop versions to mobile gamers, including online leaderboards, thanks to its rich connectivity.