Released this June, the iPhone 3GS added a magnetic compass, video capture capabilities, more built-in memory and a faster processor when it hit.

But it hasn’t been until recently that games designed specifically to take advantage of the new guts have started hitting iTunes.

Gameloft’s Asphalt 5 is one of those games. While the racing title will play on an iPod Touch or any model iPhone, it plays best on the 3GS when it hits later this year.

That’s because when the game first runs the software detects which hardware it has been installed on and launches the appropriate software. The game pack includes different files to load depending on which handset runs it, a Gameloft told Kotaku.

It’s a clever way to hide the fact that the iPhone is starting to nose its way into the sticky issue of having a potentially fragmented audience, something that could have serious implications for developers and gamers alike.

The new game has you controlling the laser cannon with your finger, breaking it free from its fixed horizontal path to let you sweep the thing around the screen. While auto-fire is the default, you can set it to allow you to start and stop the cannon’s shots.

With the promise of evolution both in the title and the design, can this latest Space Invaders drum up the attention that the original failed to achieve?

Loved
Space Invaders Reimagined: On some level I hold games like Space Invaders sacrosanct. Space Invaders, Asteroids, Pac-Man, they’re all proto-games representative of a genre they either created or popularized. Trying to reimagine them makes no sense because countless other titles have already done that in the evolution of the genre they represent. These new versions are often pointless and annoying to retro-fans like myself. But there are times when it works. Space Invaders Infinity Gene is one of those moments.

Infinity Gene works because, while it stays anchored in the aesthetic of the original Space Invaders, it ditches just about everything else, turning the heartbeat pace of the steady shoot-em up into something frantic and ever evolving. While the game’s enemies include a wide range of shapes and ships, the familiar iconic space invaders always loom, slipping in and out of the background in pulsing lines. The weapons too evolve from a single horizontal dash to energy waves, twin guns, gravity bombs and curving lock-on rays.

Infinite Space Invaders: The game initially comes at you in a series of increasingly long levels, 19 of them in total. But as you play you unlock evolutions which give you new weapons, new music, new art, and a few new levels. The really amazing thing about Space Invaders Infinity Gene, though, is its ability to draw inspiration from your iPod Touch or iPhone’s music library and create new levels. I tried this a half dozen times so far, playing through Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire,” Vampire Weekend’s “A-Punk” and Jimi Hendrix’s “Once I Had a Woman,” to name a few. Each level was different enough to convince me that something new was going on, that the levels really were born of a Hendrix guitar solo and Cash’s gravely voice.

Hated
Nonsensical Evolutionary Tree: There’s a lot going for Space Invaders Infinity Gene, but the game’s namesake evolution tree isn’t one of them. On paper it sounds like you’ll be choosing evolution paths, like in a role-playing game, as you progress through the levels. That’s not really the case. Really the tree is just a handy way to show you all of the stuff you’ve unlocked, none of it really building on each other to create re-playability or different paths.

There are few games worthy of a permanent spot on my iPhone’s increasingly bloated screens, Space Invaders Infinity Gene is one of them. It’s not just because I have an affinity for Space Invaders, it’s because I feel that the ability to play unique levels based on whatever I happen to be listening to at the time will keep this game from ever feeling dated.

Space Invaders Infinity Gene was developed and published by Taito for the iPhone and iPod Touch on July 27. Retails for $US4.99 USD. Played all game types in both single player mode and multiple music-created levels.

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The 42.0 station, the frequency itself a reference to marijuana, is called Legalize It. It’s one of four radio stations of original music in the game, which models its story of Latino L.A. street crime off of the storytelling and gameplay style of the GTA games. (Here is Kotaku’s preview of Gangstar: West Coast Hustle.)

A quick pot reference — not even, as far as I could see, any hint of pot use— might go unremarked in other forms of entertainment. Plenty of Hollywood actors, athletes rock stars and musicians have discussed their pot use and their desire for the drug to be legalized in the United States. It’s not rare to see a character in a film casually discuss smoking pot or advocate for its use.

Drug use is less common in games, and any expression supporting drug use is virtually absent. Take gaming’s most notorious series, Grand Theft Auto. In GTA: San Andreas, the pot-farmer voiced by Peter Fonda, a guy who goes by the name of The Truth, offers the game’s protagonist, C.J., some pot. C.J., who, with the aid of the player has shown little hesitation to kill cops and even, late in the game, try to blow up the equivalent of Hoover Dam, turns him down. It’s a line the game won’t cross. In the most recent GTA, Chinatown Wars, the player can deal pot and other drugs referred to by their real name, but, as with the rest, marijuana is treated as nothing other than a money-making commodity used by characters not worthy of starring in a game.

As is the case for all the games on Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch platforms, Gangstar: West Coast Hustle, won’t be rated by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board. According to a publicist at its publisher/development studio Gameloft, it will be rated for 16 and up. The game is slated for an August release.

elpablo / CC BY 2.0

Word first leaked about Gangstar: West Coast Hustle earlier this month. It’s another GTA-like game coming to a platform that Rockstar Games hasn’t yet graced its presence with.

I played Gangstar yesterday at the New York offices of the game’s publisher and developer, Gameloft. And I even found a few ways it’s different than GTA.

What Is It?
Gangstar is an approximation of Grand Theft Auto game design that puts the player in the shoes of Pedro, a man recently returned from Mexico and caught up in the violence of the game’s primary locale, Los Angeles. The core car-jacking and and cop-shooting elements from the 3D GTAs are in the game; sleeping with prostitutes, I was told, is not.

What We Saw
I played the game’s intro missions and tried a flashback set in a prison yard. In my first mission in L.A. I had to find a pay phone, where I needed to beat up a gang member who said that my guy wasn’t wearing the right colours to use a phone marked in blue. Then I jacked a couple of cars, learned to shoot at people, bought some armour at a shop called Bullet Time and ran afoul of the law. Later, I drove a limousine while a couple made love in the back (The game will be rated 16 and up, but it’s violent, not risque).

How Far Along Is It?
Gangstar is set for August release, but given that it is a downloadable iPhone/iPod Touch game, that should leave plenty of time for tweaks.

What Needs Improvement?
How It’s Cruder Than GTA: Sure, the game looks like GTA, but possibly due to the horsepower of Gangstar’s platform, some things aren’t quite as you’d expect. For example, I could drive through trees as if they weren’t there. I saw a pedestrian who should have been dashing down the street. Instead, she was snagged on a park bench, running in place as if she was at a nightclub in the 90s. Any bit of polish on this kind of stuff would be great.

The Police System: Do bad things and the cops will come after you, as represented by an increasing number of badges displayed in the upper right corner of the screen. These badges would go away if I hid or if I ran/drove through the game world, picking up badges strewn across the landscape. Not bad, in theory, but in my effort to evade the cops and drive to a badge marked on my mini-map, I invariably got spotted by the cops again. I couldn’t shake these guys.

What Should Stay The Same?
The Controls: This game was comfortable and easy to control. It is played with the iPhone (or iPod Touch) held horizontally. The player’s left thumb controls a virtual analogue stick. The right thumb can tap an action icon which will make Pedro punch, kick, shoot or whatever else suits what he’s armed with. Tapping the weapons icon changes weapons. Tapping the game’s mini-map enlarges it. Tapping on an enemy will lock on to them so you can attack. Driving options are varied, allowing for a virtual steering wheel under your left thumb, pedals under your right — or accelerometer-based driving if you want to tilt your phone. For the most part, these controls worked very well. I was stymied only by a third steering option involving a control stick.

How It’s Different From GTA: The game’s got a few things that GTA doesn’t have, and more of that is to be encouraged. What gamer just wants to play a clone? As mentioned above, there is a playable flashback set in a prison, so we’re experiencing a narrative told out of standard chronological order. Possibly more troubling for some people is the game’s non-GTA-like rewarding of cash to players for every kill they make. It’s not just that some downed enemies drop money, as in Rockstar’s series. Nope. In this game, killing a cop or running over a civilian makes the player money.

How It’s Similar To GTA: The fact that a game made in the style of a 3D Grand Theft Auto can run on an iPhone or iPod touch is impressive. It shows just how capable Apple’s hardware is. As a test case or proof of processing prowess, it’s a positive development. Musically, the game also draws inspiration from GTA, offering four in-game radio stations or — for those with 3.0 firmware — integrating music on your pone/iPod into the game.

Final Thoughts
I’m always a bit uncomfortable playing a game that so slavishly imitates another, but without having played all of Gangstar, I can’t say that that is all this game is. And, if that is all it is, it’s still an achievement that will probably please many who own Apple’s handheld.

Is this really what Rockstar would do on an iPhone? It’s hard to imagine that. But it certainly has been made to play a lot like what Rockstar has done elsewhere. A GTA wannabe on an Apple handheld. Interested?

You could even say we get too many games, because it’s been revealed that there are now over 13,000 games on the App Store. 13,000?!?! It’s like a gold rush, only there’s more money to be had, and people have better teeth.

For reference, in March, there were only 6000 games. What, is somebody feeding these things after midnight?

Over 13,000 iPhone games on App Store [GI.biz]

Edge, for the iPhone and iPod Touch, may remind you of Marble Madness with its other-dimensional motifs and tactile controls. But is it more than just pushing around a cube where spheres once rolled?

Loved
Controls: In Edge, you control a block that moves about its gridded environment by “rolling” on its edges in the four cardinal directions. Picking up multicolored prisms increases your rolling pace. You can hang on the edges of your environment by rolling partly up and then holding your position, rocking back and fourth. The time you spend “on the edge” is subtracted from your level time. You accomplish this by means of three controls – with a finger-drag motion that’s a little difficult to pick up at first, by tilting the iPhone, or by touching an onscreen directional pad. Touch-dragging is the default mode, and you’ll probably want a protective screen (mine developed a split and a bubble before Edge arrived, and so I removed it). With oily fingers and a smudgy screen, the touch-drag-hold control can be slow to respond. The accelerometer would be the most difficult option. It does have a calibration and sensitivity feature, but as is the problem with most iPhone games, you’re still moving the screen. But for those who want to see every level through to the end, regardless of the time or score they earn (some can take 10 minutes) the touch pad is there. And with 40 levels, it is a long lasting experience regardless of how you approach it.

Cubism: Those who loved Crystal Castles and Marble Madness will adore Edge’s high-contrast geometric plane of existence. It’s one of the best imagined games for this new platform, and would still be outstanding in a straight port to a larger console. The levels you play are so deep and enriching you forget they are formed of, literally, building blocks. One early stage, “Metro” really got my attention for how well it interpreted a subway stop at night.

Soundtrack: So excellent it deserves its own specific mention. This is the best soundtrack of any iPhone game, period. The electronica mix is pensive, soothing, energetic, mysterious – in short, perfectly matched to the tone of your current soundings. The chiptones for the level “8-Bit”, in particular, will bring a smile to your face. I even found myself, before going to bed, just starting up Edge and listening to its opening-screen music. You can download the entire 19 track score for free from Mobigame (donation suggested), but it really should be experienced inside the game.

My only disappointment is that, for gamers less skilled with the accelerometer or touch modes, the onscreen D-pad can feel like a cop-out. This is unfortunate but necessary because on some later levels (I played all 40) I simply couldn’t see how they can be completed using touch or tilt. Granted, I was reviewing the game to its completion, and not taking my with it the way many casual gamers would.

Despite all that, Edge is a must have game, moreso than any racer or puzzler out there. So much of the iPhone’s desirability is wrapped up in its design, and the simplicity and elegance of its interface. Likewise, Edge is a game with a very simple purpose, elegantly rendered, and altogether desirable.

Edge, for the iPhone and iPod Touch, was developed and published by Mobigame. Currently available from iTunes store for introductory price of US$4.99. Completed all 40 standard levels on iPhone (three more are unlockable) testing all methods of control.

Last week gave us geoDefense – tower defence rendered in a Tron-esque, vectorized look and feel. Apple mobile gaming is paying off for good, simple ideas delivered with high production values. Does geoDefense qualify?

Loved
Challenge: Well, more like “seriously respected” the challenge. geoDefense can get downright frustrating at times, but tower defence, done well, is difficult. You won’t be blowing through this in a matter of hours. For all the trouble it’ll throw at you, it still teases you into picking it up and killing a good half-hour trying to figure out the level that’s giving you trouble, and persistence will deliver the eureka moment where you figure out the winning build. That, or you just start frenetically throwing up gun towers to stanch the bleeding (which, surprisingly, works sometimes). On harder levels, the resource cost and availability is such that precision placement of the correct tower through the first three or four waves is the only way to win. That’s not my cup of tea, but I respect the fact that it is for many fans of the genre. Still on top of all this is a hardcore mode that is way beyond my capabilities.

Presentation: Drawing heavily on the kind of visuals that made games like Geometry Wars so appealing, geoDefense is very well rendered and ladles you with eye candy. The sound for big weapons and major explosions will overwhelm your speaker (and framerate) at times, but that’s the only drawback. Tower defence follows a well established gameplay, so it’s left to graphics and sound to distinguish a first-rate game from others. Geo-Defense’s vector-style graphics, pixel bursts, and warp effects more than set it apart from the crowd.

Hated:
Curse my Fat Fingers: There are still some minor quibbles worth pointing out. Anyone with large digits is going to have some difficulty making precision placements. geoDefense attempts to compensate for this by spreading out a range circle much larger than your finger tip, with X and Y axes highlighted, but even then the screen’s sensitivity was such that some placements were incrementally off. Trying to aim a laser tower down odd angles is tough. Forget using your thumb for anything. Also, the pause button is in a bad location. You’ll be pounding it like a TV remote with dying batteries trying to restart a level at first. Try aiming your finger tip off to the left of it. Last criticism – your high score registers only if you beat a level. Considering how downright unfair some of the later challenges are, it would be kind of the developer to at least allow me the partial victory of seeing a seven-figure score on the level that has been kicking my arse for the past six days.

geoDefense is easily recommendable for tower defence enthusiasts. Those looking for an introduction should know they are getting a serious challenge after about five levels. Still, for both types of gamers, geoDefense supplies enough to keep you coming back – for how long depends on your competitiveness and commitment. After finishing a draft of this critique, I went back and attacked the last level giving me trouble, and figured it out. While I immediately put it down to savor my victory – quit while I’m ahead – I’ll start on the next level sooner or later.

geoDefense, for the iPhone and iPod Touch, was developed and published by Critical Thought Games. Currently available from iTunes store for introductory price of $0.99. Full price will be $3.99. Played all 30 levels on iPhone on standard difficulty.

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Really, Konami, the best you could manage for an iPhone Metal Gear game was a re-skinned Duck Hunt? How depressing. Still! There are enough Metal Gear tragics out there who just won’t care.

For you, then, in the absence of help, comes information: the game will be out on Apple’s App Store next week, March 18, and will cost you US$10.

‘Metal Gear Solid Touch’ Releasing on March 18 [G4]

Games make up nearly a quarter of all applications available for the iPhone and iPod Touch, according to mobile analytics site Mobclix.

The site shows that there are currently 6,165 games available in the App Store. Of those 1,485 are free and the rest are for purchase.

Mobclix also has an interesting breakdown of categories within iGames, with puzzle titles making up more than 23 percent of the mix, and arcade in a distant second with 13 percent of the titles. It is heartening to see that educational and kids games tie board and strategy in the mix.

App Store [via 1Up]

Don’t you just love it when outdated consumer electronics and semi-obscure game characters meet? Hope you do. Because they sure as shit meet in this rare Samba Di Amigo iPod.

A 3rd Gen iPod, only a handful were ever made, and were handed out last year at the Nintendo World Store in NYC to winners of a Samba Di Amigo comp held there during the game’s launch.

The owner has left the iPod sealed, leaving the design on its back a mystery, but the front is subtle enough to make it worth looking into.

Samba de Amigo iPod Contest Prize [GameSniped]