There are no buttons on the iPhone*. That should stop most console-style games from working on the device, despite power comparable to the PSP.

That didn’t stop Gameloft from bringing the “Brothers in Arms” series to Apple’s handheld, however, and I have good news to report: it actually works.

I booted “Brothers in Arms: Hour of Heroes” with low expectations. The game promised dual analog controls on a device with no analog sticks.

No way, I said! Yet, it works. Here’s how:

*When we say iPhone, we also mean iPod Touch, unless noted.

The iPhone “Brothers in Arms” moves the perspective to third person, a viewpoint found in the console “Brothers in Arms” when you line up against cover. The aiming has been simplified — you need only hover the reticule somewhat near an enemy and auto-aim takes cares of the rest — but character movement has been kept intact.

Because the iPhone’s screen is multi-touch, Gameloft has included a way to move and aim at the same time. With one finger, you look around the environment. Movement is a little trickier. In the bottom-left-hand side, there’s a small circle simulating an analog stick. By moving your thumb ever so slightly, it’s possible to run ‘n gun, thanks to the game’s auto-aim. By all expectations, it shouldn’t work.

But it does, and it works extremely well. By the end of the tutorial, I was zipping around the war zone without trouble. Despite Gameloft’s inventive use of the touch screen, however, they can’t get around the downsides that come with it. You will constantly be blocking what’s in front of you with your finger. Once you become accustomed to the auto-aim, it’s not such a big deal.

It’s ambitious that Gameloft attempted to re-create the authentic “Brothers in Arms” on the iPhone with as few compromises as possible. While not a perfect port, many of the hiccups seem rooted in the limitations of the device to support this style of play. For what it is, though, “Brothers in Arms: Hour of Heroes” is a step in the right direction for big, bold 3D games on the iPhone.

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The organizers of the Independent Games Festival Mobile have revealed a total of 107 entries for the second year of the event, more than doubling the amount of entries seen in the inaugural competition.

The entries were bolstered with a strong showing from the emergent iPhone and iPod Touch platform, but entries spanned platforms including mobile phones, DS, PSP and the Zune.

The event (organized by GameSetWatch parent Think Services) is a sister competition to the long-running Independent Games Festival, which announced record entries last week.

IGF Mobile itself, founded in 2007, has seen a host of notable independent projects enter the contest -- for which $30,000 in prizes are to be awarded at GDC 2009 next March. Nvidia is Platinum and Founding Sponsor for the event, and the prize pool includes a Best iPhone Game, presented by Gold Sponsor ngmoco.

A full list of IGF Mobile 2009 entries is now available, including screenshots and details on each of the entries. As always, many of the top IGF Mobile games will only come to the fore during the judging process -- and there are many high-quality titles not listed below.

However, a diverse set of entries have come from many different mobile formats and multiple continents, with the diversity of mobile platforms being reflected in some of the following entries:

Zen Bound [iPhone/iPod Touch] (Secret Exit)
"Zen Bound is a calm and meditative game of wrapping rope around wooden sculptures -- a simple task that can become surprisingly complex."

Soul Trapper [iPhone/iPod Touch] (Realtime Audio Adventures)
"Soul Trapper is a 3+ hour interactive audio adventure that follows the turbulent life of Kane Pryce, a 27 year-old drifter who possess a mysterious device known as the Soul Trap, a supernaturally charged object that allows him to hunt down, capture, and send ghosts from the earthly realm to the afterlife."

Picopoke [MMS] (Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab)
"Picopoke is an interpretive photo game which brings flexible play to a new level. The game revolves around weekly challenge rounds, involving fulfilling challenges by taking photos and voting to determine winners. Picopoke takes advantage of the social networking community. Picopoke can also be played with mobile phones via multimedia messaging service (MMS), capturing moments spontaneously with camera phones."

Rhythm of War [Playstation Portable] (SME Dynamic Systems)
"Rhythm of War is a rhythm action strategy game where the player must travel through different time epochs to fight aliens and saves the planet. The struggle takes place on the four tracks, where the player has to defend himself in accordance with musical rhythm of each track."

Ruben and Lullaby [iPhone/iPod Touch] (Song New Creative)
"Ruben & Lullaby is a story you play like a musical instrument. Two lovers are fighting. You can control what they're feeling, where they're looking, when they speak, and when they listen. Your actions conduct a moody jazz soundtrack that reflects the feelings of the characters as they change in real time."

UZA: The First Journey [Nintendo DS] (Multiple:Option)
"Arcade action meets abstract art in UZA: The First Journey, an arcade action game similar to Robotron/Geometry Wars. Watch as your gameplay performance creates a piece of real-time abstract art. With only one life, how long can you survive, how much can you score, and what will your actions look like?"

FastFoot_Challenge [J2ME] (urban team)
"FastFoot-Challenge is a multiplayer GPS action game. 4 to 5 players with mobile phones and GPS receivers play in an area of 1km radius. One player escapes, the others have 25 minutes to catch him. His advantage: continuous updates of the chasers' positions, while those only see his position every 6 minutes. "

Wardrive [Nintendo DS] (and-or)
"Wardive captures the wireless networks in the immediate area, like a wardrive tool, and creates a game. it reads the names of the hotspots in your immediate area and turns them into enemies which try to take your wardrive-crystal."

Laser [Flash Lite] (CreatePlayShare)
"Creation and customization, community and sharing, single and multiplayer; endless levels with a variety of gameplay. Laser."

Circuit Swap [Zune] (Teabag Games)
"Circuit Swap is an exciting new puzzle game targeting mobile devices. Players are given the task to power up the city as they move battery pieces and get them inserted to the socket 'goal' pieces."

Finalists in the IGF Mobile competition will be announced on January 26th, 2009, and more information is available on the official IGF Mobile website.

BURNABY, BC, Dec. 3 /CNW/ - With almost 60 per cent of Canadian consumers
planning to purchase entertainment-related gifts this season, and another 47
per cent planning to purchase consumer electronics, Best Buy Canada is a must
visit for Santa this holiday season.(1)
But, we know Santa’s number one shopping rule this season is to stick to
the budget! This doesn’t mean consumer electronics and the hottest
entertainment goods are off the list. The Best Buy elves have picked their top
10 picks for affordable consumer electronics that won’t break the bank.

No. 10 - This year why not give the gift of music? Our number 10 pick
this holiday season is the Coby Clip Style MP3 Player for approximately $20.
For a special touch, you can even pre-load it with their favourite artist and
songs (and Jingle Bells, for good measure)!
(http://tinyurl.com/cobyclip)

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The Good:
Changing the voice of the frontman is a nice touch
The drum controls almost feel like playing the drums
Charming characters and family-friendly presentation.

Reviews:

Hasbro Game Night

Block Party Wii

Pet Pals: Animal Doctor

Top 10 Franchises We Want Resurrected

The Gameplay Mechanic: Fixing Sonic

Capcom-Unity Blog: You Want It, You Got It

Considering that Shaun White Snowboarding: Road Trip was the closest game to something I would actually consider hardcore that Nintendo spent a respectable amount of time on at E3, we assumed that Ubisoft was going to be putting some solid development time behind the game. I was even thinking that they were so keen on the new Balance Board that maybe, just maybe, they would actually put the same amount of development time into the Wii version as they did the 360 and PS3. Considering the two latter system’s games are completely different from the Wii version it would seem that way indeed.

Of course the amount of development time and attention paid to the game isn’t what’s hot on everyone’s mind. The real question is does the Balance Board work well with a third-party game that has nothing to do with Yoga and push-ups.

After playing through the entire game with my feet I can tell you two things:
1. My television is at an awkward angle for Balance Board based snowboarding games that results in me getting a crook in my neck.
2. You’ll have to read the review to find out.

I guess the first question to answer is whether or not Road Trip is just another title shoveled onto the Wii because the Wii does exist and thus major companies want to have their games on all three systems. To this I would have to answer in the negative. Road Trip is a surprisingly well thought out game that was actually designed around the Wii’s strengths and not around downgrading the graphics to a point where the Wii can handle a 360 game. After coming off of the crapfest that was Quantum of Solace on the Wii, I was overjoyed to see a company actually paying attention to the little white box and delivering a game that clearly someone cared about.

Of course plenty of developers care about games that turn out to be total failures so that doesn’t mean that Road Trip is enjoyable, but it is. Players take on the roles of Shaun White’s friends, starting with just two and unlocking more as the game goes on. Each friend has different stats like speed and air and handling, and as players unlock more they’ll find the right one for them. The game features stages throughout the world that are broken down into four levels with each level containing two challenges and each challenge featuring multiple achievement levels. For instance, you can unlock the next level by scoring a certain amount of points on a run, but score another higher amount of points and you’ll also get an unlockable piece of artwork or a random “funny” email.

Shaun White is evidently a dickhead and invites his friends to come snowboarding with him in Canada. Of course once everyone gets to Canada, Shaun has moved on because he has the attention span of a goat or something. Shaun then proceeds to ditch his friends and make them chase him around the world competing in different snowboarding events and recording them for prosperity. The camera feature is actually a nifty liitle trick Ubisoft has put into the game. The player’s point of view is actually the cameraman, who is selected at the same time the player’s snowboarder is. At the bargaining of each level, players actually get to see the camera guy strapping in and pressing play. It’s a nice touch, but that isn’t all the cameramen do. Each one grants a special boost power that can help players out down the slope. Some give more air, others more speed and depending on the level different cameramen (or women) come in handy. I can’t say it’s an entirely necessary feature, but it is a fun one.

Fun is basically what Road Trip is about. The graphics are in a cartoony but well done style. Though for a snowboarding game I could have used better snow effects. Still, I was pleasantly surprised by how good the game looked on my screen and the character design for the plethora of friends you meet works really well in the high flying world of Shaun White. This is clearly more Tony Hawk than it is Skate. If you’re looking for realistic snowboard than steer clear of this one. I’m pretty sure I’ve landed tricks off of jumps that would kill a man five times over in real life.

Then again, maybe this is the most realistic snowboarding game ever. After all it’s the only one that I’ve ever played standing up. The Balance Board controls work like a charm, unless you’re uncoordinated like myself in which case they work more like an old engine; it takes some time to get up to speed. I probably ran through the tutorial levels more than any other just because I felt so unsure of my feet’s ability to control myself. Once I got it down though, it felt pretty good. The boards sensitivity can be adjusted to three different settings and once you find the right one for you, steering becomes pretty easy. Though not as spot on as a controller (I’m not sure if that is more realistic or less, but it sure can be frustrating).

Jumps are executed by applying pressure down with both feet like you’re about to jump off the board. There wasn’t much of a delay between my action and the character on screen, and most of the crashes in the game were my own damn fault. Once in the air, players execute tricks by leaning one way or another or applying pressure to certain areas on the board that make sense. Players can do a one-off trick by pressing forward on one foot and back on another. I had a lot of trouble doing these, but since they’re pretty minor tricks it wasn’t that big a deal. For bigger tricks, players hold down a button on the Wii Remote and lean in a direction. Want to backflip while holding the front of the board? Hold down A and lean back. The only real problem I had once I got into the groove of things was overcompensating when I came back to the regular position. This would trigger another trick sometimes and mess up my landing.

Really the most fun thing to do with the board is go fast. The timed courses are a blast on the Wii Board, especially since leaning forward on it makes you go faster. The screen does a bit of a motion blur thing and every once in a while I’d catch myself actually leaning full force forward like I was on a board. Very fun.

Ubisoft didn’t forget that not everyone owns a Balance Board though. It is possible to play the entire game with just the Wii Remote. In this case the remote kind of becomes the board. Steering is done by tilting left and right and jumps are triggered by flicking upward. Tricks are pulled off with button presses and remote motions. Unfortunately the game was clearly designed around using the Balance Board and the difficulty doesn’t increase when the Wii Remote is chosen. Thus most of the levels become far too easy when the Wii Remote gets used. It’s just too simple to pull of stunt after stunt and keep the multiplier up when using the Wii Remote. It’s not not fun, it’s just easy.

This goes along with the entire nature of the game which is basic through and through. Ski down a mountain and win. Do it well and get some bonus features. Not much more depth to it than that. Luckily, depth isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. The multiplayer in the game features not only a competitive mode but a co-op mode too. In co-op, two players can take on the entire game together with their scores adding up to one whole. Once again, not deep, but hella fun. The game doesn’t go online, which is sad since I wanted to flex my balance boarding skills, but far from a surprise.

So the board works, the graphics look good and most importantly it’s fun to play. What is the second thing we’ve learned? That if a developer puts effort into its Wii version of a game than it isn’t going to be a flaming pile of dog poo. Sounds like simple logic, but doesn’t seem that everyone got the memo. If you’re hardcore into the whole skateboarding/snowboarding genre this might not be the game for you since the Balance Board’s controls aren’t as precise as button presses, but for all the rest out there, it’s a new and far more fun way to play a game like this.

+

• It’s fun to play
• Cartoony graphics look good
• Co-op through the entire game

-

• Wii Remote play is way too easy
• No online
• Not too deep

Bemani fans, lend me your ears. And fingers. The latest iteration of Korean-developed rythm game DJMAX, which found some stateside popularity with its PSP Ports, is now being tested at two locations in the Los Angeles area. This beta version of DJMAX Technika can be played at UCLA's Ackerman Union arcade, Coinz, or at Game Play in Long Beach.

The game still features its trademark synth-tek soundtrack and beautifully animated Korean art background videos, but gone is the furious, rapid-fire button assault we've grown used to. Instead, DJMAX Technika uses a touch screen, (which is reportedly more sensitive than that of an iPhone), and has players poking at dots and tracing their fingers over lines to keep the groove going.

Some Bemani purists might groan at the idea of this new interface, but it looks pretty awesome if you ask me. PM Studios producer Michael Yum will be hanging around at the UCLA test looking for feedback, so if you're in the LA area, go check it out and see what you think. At worst, it might mean that the few remaining arcades in this country would have something more interesting to play than DDR and Golden Tee. 

[Via Bemanistyle - Thanks Eddie!]

In just a few months, the iPhone has become a gaming handheld to be reckoned with, uttered by some in the same breath as the Nintendo DS.

While day-to-day charts give us a glimpse into what people are buying for the device, Apple has just released the most downloaded applications of 2008.

“Texas Hold ‘Em,” “Moto Chaser,” “Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D,” Super Monkey Ball,” “Cro-Mag Rally,” and “Enigmo” took spots in the top paid applications period, across all iPhone applications, while “Tap Tap Revenge” was the first most popular free application that was a game.

But games specifically, what were people interested in playing on their iPhone this year? Apple divided the list into the ten top paid and ten top free games.

*When we say iPhone, we also mean iPod Touch, unless noted.

Top 10 Paid Games:

1. Texas Hold’em
2. Moto Chaser
3. Crash Bandicoot: Nitro Kart 3d
4. Super Monkey Ball
5. Cro-Mag Rally

6. Enigmo
7. Air Hockey
8. Bejeweled 2
9. Flick Bowling
10. Line Rider iRide

Top 10 wFree Games:

1. Tap Tap Revenge
2. Labrynth Lite Edition
3. Sol Free Solitaire
4. iBowl
5. Pac-Man Lite
6. Touch Hockey:FS5
7. Cannon Challenge
8. Audi A4 Driving Challenge
9. Sudoku
10. reMovemh

What these lists don’t tell us, however, is which game was most popular — period. Was there one game people were willing to seek out, regardless of price? Or does the prospect of paying nothing for entertainment trump everything?

Did you download any of these?

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EDISON, N.J., December 2, 2008-Rising out of the rich soil sprouts Gardening Mama, a new Nintendo DS™ gardening simulation that was announced today by Majesco Entertainment Company (NASDAQ: COOL), an innovative provider of video games for the mass market. Developed by Cooking Mama Limited, the team that created the award-winning Cooking Mama franchise that has sold 2.5 million units domestically, Gardening Mama brings back the beloved matron to cultivate a cornucopia of fruits, flowers and vegetables in her backyard.

“Mama has become a certifiable icon since her original introduction in Cooking Mama DS,” said Jesse Sutton, Chief Executive Officer, Majesco. “Her first brand offshoot captures those features that made the Cooking Mama series a best seller-an innovative concept, full Touch Screen control, approachable gameplay for everyone and, of course, a charismatic mentor who pushes you in her own endearing way to give a gold medal performance every time.”

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