Star Wars Trench Run Released on iPhone

Beginning today you’ll be able to use the Force on your iPhone and iPod Touch thanks to THQ Wireless’ release of Star Wars: Trench Run. Available via iTunes for $4.99, this Star Wars themed game developed by Infrared5 in conjunction with Lucasfilm Ltd., uses simple motion controls to recreate one of their favorite scenes from Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope.

The goal of the game is to use the Force (and your piloting skills) to destroy the Death Star before it can fire on the small Rebel base on Yavin’s jungle moon. As part of the Rebel Alliance’s Red Squadron, players will have to dogfight with TIE fighters above the Death Star’s surface, dodge obstacles and laser-fire and maneuver into position to target a small thermal exhaust port to destroy the Death Star, and the Rebel base from impending doom.

The game’s force powers consist of slowing down and speeding up time to bring TIE fighters into shooting range and dodging obstacles while flying down the trench. Other key features include special effects (lighting, advanced shaders, explosions and lifelike models), 3D graphics based on the original Star Wars movie, multiple points of view (chase cam and cockpit), multiple modes like Mission Mode (with story boards, music and dialogue) and Arcade Mode (pure action without all the backstory), multiple difficulty and leaderboards to post your high scores on.

You can download the game right now at iTunes.

Fishing Cactus releases Minim on iPhone

After the success of its iPhone game Shift (which was downloaded more than 1.4 million times), Fishing Cactus has released its fourth iPhone game - Minim - on the App Store. In Minim your goal is to obliterate molecules by combining connected atoms, reducing the subatomic matter to a single particle. Can you The game promises about 50 levels of this kind of gameplay if that’s your cup of tea.

Minim is compatible with the iPhone and iPod Touch, and requires iPhone OS 3.0. The game is available on the App Store: the full version costs $1.99/€1,59 (including 50 levels and more to come) or for free in a lite version (offering the first 5 levels of the game).

Find out more by visiting www.fishingcactus.com.

OnLive does iPhone

OnLive founder and CEO Steve Perlman, in a recent blog post, confirmed that the streaming game services works on mobile devices too. Yesterday during a presentation at the Wedbush financial conference in New York City, Perlman showed the a tech demo of the service running on multiple devices including 2 iPhones, a television and a PC.

While Perlman was excited to show this tech demo running on the iPhone, he was not so keen on sharing an actual launch date for mobile devices. He cited much more development time and agreements with mobile service providers as challenges the company faces. So don’t expect to hear any dates any time soon. For now, he says, OnLive on mobile is only a tech demo.

Here’s what he sees as the most important part of putting OnLive on a mobile device like iPhone:

“..it’s important to understand that a cell phone is a very different beast than TV, PC or Mac. And while we’re thrilled about eventually bringing many new games to cell phone platforms, currently, games on OnLive are tuned for TVs and computers. So initially, it’s the Community and Social elements of OnLive that we’re most excited about on mobile devices. It’s amazingly cool whipping out your phone, checking out what your OnLive friends are up to, and then spectating their live game play: Unscripted live user-generated content, available anywhere.”

It’s an interesting application of the technology, for sure, but users will probably be happy with simply being able to use it via TV and the PC.

Source: OnLive Blog via PaidContent

Survey finds video games top holiday wish lists

Call of Duty World at War: ZOMBIES now on iPhone

Activision Publishing and developer Treyarch have released an iPhone & iPod Touch app called Call of Duty: World at War: ZOMBIES. The mobile version of the multiplayer game mode from Treyarch’s first-person shooter Call of Duty: World at War, offers single player and co-op gameplay action experience featuring lots of undead extras. Up to four players can play together via Wi-Fi, locally or across the Internet, and up to two players can get together via Bluetooth.

If you want to experience this mode on the go, then visit the App Store and plunk down $9.99. The Call of Duty: World at War: ZOMBIES App was developed by Ideaworks Game Studio. Grab it from the App Store by visiting www.itunes.com/appstore.

Home Sweet Home now on iPhone

Big Blue Bubble’s Home Sweet Home has arrived at Apple’s App Store. Home Sweet Home lets players become an Interior Designer, where you choose the furniture, patterns, and colors to create the perfect decor for your client.

 Learn about your clients to ensure you are designing the perfect room for their tastes and then get to work on choosing the furniture, colors and patterns. Next you place items around the room until the design is perfect and then direct your build team workers to assemble it all in real-time.

You can download the app from iTunes or check out the trailer at YouTube.

Carmack: iPhone a serious threat to other hand-helds

In an interview with Chris Morris for CNBC, id Software founder and chief programmer John Carmack said that Apple’s iPhone may be a serious threat to the hand-held gaming market - specifically Nintendo’s DS and DSi.

It’s a pretty interesting comment if you consider that earlier this week a prominent analyst (who I won’t name here) said that the iPhone - in the long term - will not be a viable game platform. Carmack sees it another way - and he should know, he’s been working on the platform and selling his games via Apple’s app store for quite some time.

Earlier this week it was announced that there are now 100,000 apps available on the iPhone, and while not all of those are games, a good portion of them are and many of them sell for anywhere from 99 cents to $9.99 USD.

“I think mid- to long-term it’s a significant threat,” he says. “I don’t carry a DS or a PSP around, but I’ve got my iPhone everywhere. So if it plays good games, I’m less likely to pick one of the others up. … I think the stars could align and it could start to eclipse those other systems in terms of unit sales.”

While Carmack is a PC guy through and through, he has fallen in love with developing games for the iPhone. He describes his time developing games on the system “fun.”

“I wouldn’t be shocked if someone has one in development right now, though they probably don’t realize it will run that high yet,” he told CNBC. “If a title could do well at $9.99, you could put [Nintendo] DS level development expenses into it.”

id Software has made it their goal to release one iPhone game every quarter over the next year. Most recently the company released an iPhone remake of the classic DOOM game called “Doom Classic.” iPhone versions of one of my favorite id Software titles - Quake - and a follow-up to the popular Doom RPG are also in the works. id Software is also planning on having its latest game, RAGE, ready to go for the iPhone when it is released in 2010.

Source: CNBC