[Every week, Gamasutra sums up sister iPhone site FingerGaming's top news and reviews for Apple's nascent -- and increasingly exciting -- portable games platform, as written by editor in chief Danny Cowan and authors Mathew Kumar and Jonathan Glover.]
This week, FingerGaming covers Rockstar's
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars and takes an early look at Square Enix's upcoming ports of
Final Fantasy I and
II.
Here are the top stories from the last seven days:
-
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars Debuts for iPhone
"App Store customer response indicates that
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is every bit as big of a game as it was on the DS and PSP -- an impressive technical feat, considering the wide variety of its featured content."
-
Top-Grossing Game Apps: GTA Chinatown Wars Takes Over in Premiere Week
"Rockstar Games' recently released iPhone port of
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars takes the top chart spot in today's App Store sales results by revenue, pushing Activision's longtime sales leader
Call of Duty: World at War Zombies to second place."
-
Square Enix Announces Final Fantasy I and II for iPhone
"After testing the App Store market with releases like
Song Summoner and
Sliding Heroes, Square Enix will at last bring its flagship
Final Fantasy franchise to the iPhone later this year with remakes of
Final Fantasy and
Final Fantasy II."
-
Flower Garden Sees Major Sales Boost Through In-App Purchases
"Snappy Touch founder Noel Llopis has charted the lifetime sales of his iPhone gardening sim
Flower Garden, revealing a number of interesting details about the App Store marketplace and documenting the effectiveness of in-app purchases."
-
Top Free Game App Downloads for the Week
"Poulet Maison's physics-based bungee jumping sim
Bungee Stickmen 2010: Space Edition earns the top spot this week, as last week's chart winner
iDrag Paper Free drops to fourth place."
-
Pocket God Becomes First App to Sell Over 2 Million Units
"Introduced as a casual-oriented entertainment title with limited player interaction,
Pocket God has since seen 29 gameplay-expanding 'episodes' released over its lifetime, each featuring new gameplay mechanics and interactive environments."
-
Sega Launching Official Genesis Emulator App Next Month
"The
Sega Genesis Ultimate Collection app will be released as a free download bundled with an emulated version of
Space Harrier II. In a strategy similar to Manomio's
Commodore 64 app, Sega plans to make additional games available as in-app purchases."
-
Top-Selling Paid Game Apps: Doodle Jump Back on Top
"Last week's surprise hit
Trenches drops to fifth this week, after previously taking third.
Paper Toss: World Tour and
The Game of Life remain steady sellers at sixth and seventh."
-
Sword & Poker: An RPG-Puzzler in the Vein of Puzzle Quest
"
Sword & Poker is an RPG-like adventure with puzzler mechanics. Players and monsters engage in battle by placing cards on a playfield. Once either side makes a valid poker hand vertically, horizontally, or diagonally, the opponent takes damage based on the strength of the hand played."
