Spore is all the rage right about now. The PC/Mac game came out to a range of media attention, from varied gameplay to DRM issues. EA is extending Spore’s reach by releasing Spore Origins for the iPhone. In this mobile version, you get a chance to make and evolve your creature, but only through the early stages of the game.
For an iPhone game, Spore Origins looks terrific. The graphics and textures are all done very well. Some of the cut-scenes will show some signs screen tearing, which is something I haven’t seen on the iPhone before. Sound-wise, Spore does a pretty good job. The background music is nice and the sound effects work well for the game. I’d recommend using headphones since the iPhone speaker isn’t the loudest and clearest.
EA is dropping a ton of new content on the iPhone. I’m pretty excited for most of these titles. Yahtzee Adventures, EA Mini Golf, Lemonade Tycoon, Mahjong, Monopoly: Here & Now The World Edition, SimCity, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 09, Need for Speed Undercover, and The Sims 3 were all announced.
To go along with that, EA confirmed that Spore for the iPhone should be shipping September 7th along with the retail release of the game. Works for me.
The rumor mill is twirling with this little piece of information, it looks like Belkin is busy working on a JoyPod. It looks to slide over an existing iPhone and act as a controller, which would strengthen the already growing presence of the iPhone in handheld gaming. The fact that it is being developed by Belkin means that it will be supported by Apple, which is big since any other controllers we have seen until this time have all been from knock-off companies.
The ad copy promotes using the Joypod to squeeze the most out of your iPhone or iPod Touch to play App Store games in the easiest way. Other features listed include:
- 8 buttons total (6 on the front)
- Audio output
- Dock connector for power and syncing
I’ve been intrigued by de Blob ever since the first Wii videos and info were released. When I heard the game was coming to the iPhone, it seemed like a logical step. The iPhone’s tilt and touch controls fit the game’s style and theme nicely. de Blob looks to be a solid hit for the Wii, but does it translate well to Apple’s mobile device?
I sort-of knew about this, but I thought it was corrected with the announcement of Scrabble Bonjour, where users can play against other iPhone Scrabblers over WiFi. Well, it turns out, Apple has no implementation in their SDK to allow for gaming over the internet. You will only be able to play locally on the same wireless network.
Everyone is talking about the iPhone being better than the DS or PSP in terms of mobile gaming. Until Apple allows online play in the SDK, there is a big hurdle for larger games to try to make their way to the iPhone. For a device that is always connected to at least a cellular network, it’s shocking that Apple isn’t allowing this. Hell, you could probably play some of these games against other players using 3G data and not WiFi.
Here is a look at the ever growing lineup of EA inspired mobile games for the iPhone. Their lineup continues to look impressive and EA will make some decent amounts of money off of these games just like they did off Super Monkey Ball, hopefully making it more accessible for others to jump on board to this medium.
Perhaps one of the funniest comments I have seen in a while:
“THEY INVADED!!!
aww crap iphone revolution is here…R.I.P. PSP”
User garc4475 commented and there may be some truth in his jest.
Pokemon on your iPhone is pretty interesting, but I think that this game is a bit silly seeing as the people that own an iPhone are not in the right age group to enjoy Pokemon. Typically Pokemon is for a younger crowd that can not afford or does not have access to an iPhone, but still very cool to see more and more games being brought over to this medium. One thing Apple will need to improve quickly is the battery life on the iPhone, that thing does not even last a day if you use it moderately let alone try to play a game on it.
The iPhone continues to show off some interesting games and Spore: Origins is no different. The iPhone version of Spore lets you take full control of your creature and use the accelerometer to move it around the environments to eat and attack enemies. The creature creator portion looks to be fairly in depth and take advantage of the touch screen very well. Looking forward to seeing more of this title and possibly seeing how it can link tot he full PC title.
I’m going to be all over this like a fat kid on a cupcake. iPhone gaming is really ramping up and THQ looks to take full advantage of the new platform by bringing The Force Unleashed to Apple’s mobile phone. Check out a bit of the game in action and drool until we can actually play this.
Looks like Apple is really standing behind its product and letting people know just how great it really is. Not only does it play music, take photos, have applications, make phone calls and it will shred at video games as well. The iPhone is the hottest piece of technology out right now and at QuakeCon 2008, Carmack (id Software co-founder) let everyone know just how great it is and what it could spell for the handheld market.
While Carmack sees graphics memory as a potential limiting factor on the iPhone, he’s stoked about the intuitiveness of the iPhone SDK. He also described the handset’s hardware as equivalent to that of the Sega Dreamcast living room console, and almost on par with Sony’s PlayStation 2 and Microsoft’s original Xbox.
When it comes to portable gaming systems, the iPhone is ‘more powerful than a Nintendo DS and PSP combined,’ he added. Apple’s revenue sharing deal that offers developers 70 percent of the sale price was also cited as a plus.
That is a pretty fierce claim that a small phone has the power of a console, but after playing around with my iPhone it can easily be believed. Carmack didn’t hold back and really let people know his stance on how great the Apple product is, perhaps a money hat was a flying or maybe just cheap gin, who knows?
We're like Spaceballs... we're making Loot Ninja everything. Coming soon we'll have hats, shirts, hoodies, possibly banana hammocks if one Editor has his way...
Check out the shirt prototypes here and the hats here
