Rather then battle to the death, setting up 100% natural defenses in the way of the Jackson estate lawyers, PopCap have decided to remedy the issue by doing an update which removes the dancing zombie. Be warned, though, the update apparently makes the iPhone 4 version crap out.

The leaked shots can be taken with a grain of salt, but given the anticipation it’s not unlikely that shots could be leaked before the rumoured June launch date. Keep in mind last time we saw such leaked shots, they accurately depicted the iPad!

Check engadget for the full scoop and pics!

You wouldn't be far off the mark comparing this to a happier version of Streets of Rage

In case you didn’t spot Chris’ post yesterday, we now have a Game Deals section of the site where we’ll list deals and offers for you to get your grubby mits on. Being Easter, it’s a bumper weekend for sales with everyone having an extra day to game with. So, if you’re mobile and want some bite-sized gaming experience you could do worse then the Simpsons Arcade iPod Touch/iPhone app store title. 80% means the game is now worth a mere 79c to you. Given it has such lush graphics, it’s worth the price of admission already.

The app store update lists EA as saying there are other titles going cheap, too, but so far nothing seems to be at a discounted rate. Other EA titles include Tetris, Sims and SimCity.

The cartoon graphics complement the PSP's lush screen

You star in the role of a plucky vampire called the Duke, who’s beloved Princess was stolen. By monsters. Probably. Que some quite funny, often raunchy (“Save me with your sexiness, Dukie!”, says the Princess at one point) dialogue that only appears through text and muffled voices between the Duke, the princess and a various array of accused monsters.

Gameplay is simple and basic. So simple that it perhaps emulates Doodle Jump on the iPhone too closely. The object is to knock out accused monsters to find out if they have the princess. The monsters will climb up, skyward, and you must chase them by jumping onto various platforms – with jump and double jump being your only friend. Your objective is completed when you double-jump into the fleeing monster three times in a row. Which sounds easy, but the monsters are quite fast, and on the first and second time you hit them, you also launch the monster further into the stratosphere of the level – thus meaning you’re constantly playing catch up.

Yes, that is a giant spider skull thing.

While the game has cute graphics and a funny set of dialogue, the sound design can often be annoying. It’s uninspiring at best, and out of sync at worst. The Duke’s clogs make a clippity-clop noise as he walks and jumps, but the sound design is out of sync with the number of jumps or steps he takes, which is distracting. The game can also be quite frustrating to play. It feels almost artificially difficult when you’ve done well to hit a monster twice. The second hit often sends the monster near the finish line (a bar on the left of the screen shows your distance from the monster), giving you an impossible task – which you must then repeat. Over, and over again.

Another annoyance was the gameplay. Although tried and tested, and it works quite well, it would have been nice to see some more variation. Level design changes, but realistically that’s just changing textures and creating a new monster to chase after. Ultimately each level is the same.

The game, if a little uninspiring, is quite a solid effort, and does come in at the 95mb size, just 5mb short of the limit for a Mini game on the platform. PSP owners will enjoy a quick burst of jumping on the bus, but if you own an iPhone you could do a lot worse then just spend 79c on Doodle Jump, or even Mediatonic’s own must.eat.birds.

“It’s clear that Apple is taking share from Sony’s PlayStation Portable, and to a smaller level, the Nintendo DS,” says Flurry Analytics’ report. Sony’s market share fell from 20% in 2008 to 11% in 2009, and Nintendo fell from 75% in 2008 to 70% in 2009.

“It’s getting to the point where Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft need to be looking seriously at the iPhone and iPod Touch; Apple’s devices single-handedly gobbled up 5% of all video game revenue in 2009. That’s up from just 1% in 2008.” The report went on to say “Apple has already established broad third-party game publisher support. With the iPad featuring a larger screen and more processing power, games on the tablet take a step closer to PC and console gaming. Unless the other major video game platform providers (ie, Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft) respond accordingly, Apple could continue to roll up video game market share. With these figures, our main finding is that iPhone (and iPod touch) is a gaming platform to be reckoned with,” Farago wrote. “Controlling 5% t revenue of a $10 billion industry in just a year and a half is significant.”

It’s hardly a shock to anyone that the 79c pricetag on small, puzzle type games are popular on a platform that’s in the hands of nearly every single student and yuppie the world over. What’s more interesting is the fact that Apple are sitting up and paying attention to gaming for the first time in their illustrious career making hardware and software. OS X will be the next battleground in an attempt to take market share from Windows by bringing Valve’s acclaimed Steam platform to OS X, also bringing Source-engine based games with it. Those with licenses for games on Windows can re-download their titles in Steam for Mac entirely free, too.

The big question on everyone’s lips is: are the controls any good? The answer is: meeeeaaah kind of. Using Ken and Ryu to do their classic moves is pretty reliable but not always consistent. Trying to slide Ken into a Dragon Punch will sometimes result in a less then desirable skip and punch or worse – he will just crouch and stand back up again. These characters are not as bad as the fighters with charge moves though; I don’t think I ever landed a sonic boom or flip kick with Jedward fan Guile and M Bison only dived across the screen when I rubbed the screen so hard it squeaked before some clear liquid came out the head phone socket….. A shame because besides my two boys Ken and Ryu, Bison was the only other of the fighters I had any interest in playing as.

The best strategy seemed to be rubbing in the general direction you think a move should be inputted and hope for the best. I was able to launch fireballs pretty consistently using the arrows around the left hand side of the screen as a marker but that was the only move I could hand on heart say worked when I wanted it to ever single time.

The roster is pretty meagre and with that hefty price tag – a little bit of a disgrace, what Dhalsim and Abel are doing there I don’t know. I would have much preferred to get Sagat or any of the new characters apart from the very boring Abel. €7.99 is high end for the app store and where as the production values are nice (particularly the character models) a few unlockable characters may have been enough to pop another half a star onto the score. There is always the chance to update the roster via the app store but I get the feeling from the Super Street Fighter 4 trailer that plays after you beat the game (eh, where’s the Manga intro’s and endings?) that its not something that’s at the top of Capcoms things to do list.

The game runs pretty smoothly with one area of the screen dedicated to your fighters super moves and a simply touch launches into a fast (if obviously ripped from the console game) cut scene of the character charging up for his or her attack.

I couldn’t find anyone rich enough to test the Bluetooth multiplayer with and tournament mode lasts all of 11 mins. Yes, there is a Dojo mode for you to test your screen squeaking combos in but come on, its not enough. The technology is obviously there for Wifi matchmaking (the inclusion of which would have made the game more then worth the price) but sadly its no where to be seen and Capcom have said that its never going to be included.

So what are we left with? SFIV is a pretty but expensive distraction that will excite at first, with its flashy visuals and easy to do super moves but once you beat the 10 minute tournament 3 times in a hospital waiting room your unlikely to ‘touch’ it ever again.

The portable fighter line up is a little on the light side featuring 8 characters: Ryu, Ken, Guile, Blanka, Chun-Li, Dhalsim, M. Bison and Abel

Credit to Kotaku for the heads up

and yes it looks freeking deadly :p

Take a look below

Pop Caps Plants Vs Zombies is probably the best port of a PC game to iPhone we will ever see. The ‘Garden Defence’ game uses the iPhone touch screen better then most games that are designed specifically for the device. Its look and feel is translated perfectly from the PC version and apart from some distracting slowdown during huge battles, runs like a dream.

Each level starts with a quick tracking shot of your lawn followed by the player been given his or her choice of plants to use in defence of their cassa. So far, so castle defence’y; what sets PvZ so far apart from every other game in the massively over saturated TD genre is Pop Caps now patented super slick and humours level design and visual style. Not to mention the soundtrack which is amazing(not even counting the Michael Jackson Zombies entrance music)

At the end of each level you unlock a new plant or upgrade to help you defend your house and brains. It’s this constant carrot on a string that keeps the ‘just one more level’ vibe alive at the start of the game but once the difficulty ramps up and the later night time levels get their claws into you its shear will that keeps you shooting flaming peas at the opposition.

After level 2 you will unlock the ability to use a shop where more upgrades become unlocked as well as extra plant slots to fill in your load out. Fight the urge to purchase the Gatling gun upgrade first, believe me, you need that slot!

Levels are also broken up by mini games that help curve the pacing without feeling like filler; the touch screen controls are great here and I really can’t go on enough about how much this game is suited to the iPhone.

There is one technical hitch that as I mentioned above does become pretty distracting, once you have more then seven Zombies on screen the slowdown does turn the whole speed of the game down by about 10% and it’s a shame because once your array of weapons start firing from land and sea (well, swimming pool) the game can look fantastic in its bedlam. Luckily as with most iPhone games, after game support is almost a certainly and I’m sure this will be addressed in due course.
Anyway this is a short review for a great game, chances are you went out and splashed down the 2.39 the game costs (seriously this is a steel) the minute it hit the app store. If you didn’t then do it, fast.
When you see the winter Olympic zombies you will thank me. Go purchase the shit out of it!

Coming Soon? I say expect it in the next week or two!