The iPhone PAX Panel hosted by Pocket Gamer’s Tracy Erickson started with a medly of iPhone game clips — everything from Sway to Doom Resurrection as well as the upcoming RPG game Chronicles of Inotia 2 by Com2Us.
Erickson then showed slides of iPhone screenshots and explained the history of the iPhone and emphasized how much the iPhone and the App Store has transformed mobile gaming. He covered the strengths of the iPhone such as its constant internet connectivity, bluetooth multiplayer capabilities, the wonders of the iPhone’s unique touch interface, and, of course, the instant gratification distribution system that is the App Store. He also described the availability of in-app commerce and downloadable content (DLC) citing Star Defense and Enigmo as examples.
He proceeded to discuss the sales of all the handheld consoles, obviously showing the iPhone behind the pack in overall sales, but then showed a second chart displaying units sold relative to the launch of the iPhone and iPod Touch. Apple’s 45 million units sold dwarfs the sales of the PSP and DS when compared to an equivalent time from their initial launch.
Games were then shown that he felt rivaled the competition’s games. 1112, Above & Beyond Air Combat, GeoDefense, and Mecho Wars were examples targetting the hardcore gamers, while Flight Control, Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor, and DrawRace were shown as examples of great casual games.
Erickson then went on to debut EA’s upcoming Spore Creatures, where you play as a land-based creature as somewhat of a sequel to Spore Origins. There are boss battles, camera support, and new creature parts that you will evolve across 20 levels in 4 different zones.
Also shown for the first time ever was Namco’s new Solitaire: Deck of Cods, a strange fishing/solitaire hybrid which has all the core mechanics of solitaire, with a scoring system that awards fish depending on how well you play the game. It looks as strange as it sounds, and even has bluetooth multiplayer to go head to head in a, um, solitaire battle? There is a free PC version. The game is published by Namco and developed by Red i Software.
Moving on to Glu, Erickson let loose some details on Super KO Boxing 2. Shown were two additional boxers: Dynamo is a electric based enemy with lightbulbs for hands with an electrical gimmick to his attacks. Meanwhile, Shogun the other new enemy’s special power causes the screen to black out and only his fists will glow.
Don Lim of Com2Us then took the floor and started talking about their yet to be released game, The Chronicles of Inotia II: A Wanderer of Luone. Six classes are included: Knight, Magician, Priest, Templar, Rogue and Rangar and up to three can be controlled at once in a party system. The game is completely network enabled, and users can join guilds and compete against other to do things like conquer castles, and items and gold can be sent around via an in-game mail system. Chronicles of Inotia II will be available this winter.
Lim ended his presentation challenging the audience to beat him in Homerun Battle 3D.
Next up was Gameloft. Starting with the trailer for Dungeon Hunter, Erickson went over the great things about the game and then showed some the titles we previewed yesterday. (Dungeon Hunter, Blades of Fury, Earthworm Jim, Shrek Kart, Asphalt 5)
In conclusion, Erickson went over upcoming games like Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars and explained how the strengths of the iPhone and the App Store will undoubtedly bring even more big name developers to the platform. He also pointed to Ngmoco’s Eliminate as an example of a game leveraging the various strengths of the iPhone (internet connectivity, DLC, touch interface) that he had previously detailed.
