Apparently the folks at LucasArts and THQ Wireless (they own the rights to mobile Star Wars apps) didn’t care too much for their licenses being used without permission. They contacted the app’s creators and rather than sending them a good old fashioned cease and desist letter, they offered something of a proposal.

Essentially, the app needed to be removed, but they want to work with the creators (TheMacBox) on creating an officially licensed iPhone app along the same lines. At least the story has a (mostly) happy ending. At least those of us that already grabbed PhoneSaber can still enjoy it.

[via CrunchGear]

The concept is simple, you have a bunch of comets floating around that you need to mine. There is a rather large area that you can navigate to find them. Once you have found one, you tap the screen and draw a lasso around it, then tap again to draw it in for mining. You can lasso more than one at the same time for double points. It’s relatively simple, and the four levels you get don’t last very long. It’s fun enough, but won’t keep you entertained for more than a few minutes. There is a full version of the game that you can purchase for $4.99 (as opposed to the Lite version, which is free) however, they don’t list how many levels there are on the paid version.

When you download Frogger, you’ll be happy to see that the graphics have been updated since the game debuted in the early 80′s.  In addition to having better graphics, the game can also take advantage of the accelerometer for movement controls, though this can be disabled for the use of the touchscreen instead. The $9.99 price tag seems just a little steep for a game that’s nearly 30 years old, but it is a classic.

The app is relatively straightforward. You are presented with the image of a Magic 8 Ball, and you shake your iPhone when you need an answer. You will be greeted with one of the 20 classic responses that we all remember from the real thing. There’s really not much else to this freebie.

The game is just as simple as it sounds. You have a keyboard, and you type in letters. The only real complaint I have about this game is that it’s a little too lenient. You can pick up to 11 incorrect letters before the game ends. That aside, it’s still a pretty fun game, plus it’s free.

In this puzzle game you are trying to get your subway car to its destination. The problem is that other cars are blocking your path. Each car can only move along a path that is the same color. It’s a fairly simple concept, and is pretty fun to play. It also keeps track of the number of moves it took you to solve the puzzle, and tells you how many moves it should have taken you to get there. The Lite version is free and includes 10 levels. You can pay $2.99 to get the full version, which has a total of 50 levels.

I thought that since the game keeps track of how long it takes you to complete a maze that it might be fun to see how quickly I could complete them. However, the navigation is horrible. In the screenshot above, you can see where the ball is. It took around 10 or more tries just to get it to sit there, as when you tilt the iPhone, the ball goes all the way to the next barrier, rather than slowly going in the direction you’re tilting. This takes any of the fun out of the game. It’s free, but I wouldn’t bother.

Dice Bag gives you several options for rolling, including some of the more complex rolls. Simply tap on the one you need, and it will produce a randomly-generated number. It would have been cool to see some sort of animation when you tapped the screen, but it’s free, and it works.

Apache Lander

First, the controls are horrible. Just the slightest tilt forward sends you flying up again. One of the best things about a helicopter is its ability to hover in one spot, however, trying to do this task is next to impossible. You also have a fuel limit, which runs out rather quickly as you continually get launched back up into the air. After around 10 minutes of frustrating gameplay I was finally able to land the chopper, and was given some sort of point ranking. I’m guessing that the amount of fuel left and completion time had something to do with this, but they don’t bother telling you.

I wish that the horrible controls were the worst part of this game. Unfortunately it seems that after you crash, the the bottom 10-15% of your screen is an invisible advertisement. Essentially, if you tap this area, Safari will open up and take you to the developer’s website. Since this is immediately where my thumb tends to go, I opened up more windows than I’d care to count. This game isn’t worth your time, so don’t even bother.

He went on to say that it was “more powerful than a Nintendo DS and Sony PSP combined.” If that really is the case, then I really can’t wait to see some Wolfenstein or Doom on my iPhone.

[via Joystiq]

Most people may not care to pull up info on their character (or someone else’s) when they’re away from their computer, however, I could see how it might be useful now and then. The app is fairly basic in its current form, only really showing basic stats about your character. I will say that it runs really well, and does still give a useful overview of your character.

This is only the first version of the software, with many features planned for the future. The creator is working to add in features like a talent pane, item viewing and more. Warcraft Characters is free, and only takes up 0.1MB on your iPhone.

Not long ago we heard that former EA big shot Neil Young left the company to found his own company solely dedicated to creating iPhone games. So what has this new company been up to? Well, they have just secured a nice chunk of venture capital from Kleiner Perkins, which if you don’t recall, is the force behind Apple’s $100 million iFund.

There is no word on just how much cash the company was given, or what they might be working on currently. We do, however know that former EA CCO Bing Gordon has also decided to join the Ngmoco team, which makes the outlook of this company even better.

[via Gamasutra]

Recently Activision and Blizzard merged to form Blizzard Activision, which is now one of the largest gaming companies in the world. Unfortunately in the process, one of the smaller companies was virtually eliminated. Vivendi (the smaller company) happens to have their own mobile gaming division, which was most likely to be the one working on the mobile WoW title.

While Blizzard never confirmed that they were indeed going to make a mobile version of WoW, it seems that this recent merger may very well destroy any chance that it had. I still have my hopes up for an application that will allow me to buy and sell my goods on the auction house, and perhaps even chat with my guild mates via the iPhone. Perhaps we’ll hear something at Blizzcon later this year.

[via WoWinsider]

To break it down, 20% of the available apps are free, with a total of 90% costing less than $10. It’s good to see that with the flood of applications that most are reasonably priced. I remember trying to get software for my old Windows Mobile phone and having to shell out $20 for even the most basic of software that I can find for far cheaper on the App Store.

While Apple revolutionized the phone market with the original iPhone, the App Store is really what is going to make sure that the iPhone is here to stay for many, many years to come.

[via Fortune]

PegJump is certainly one of the more simplistic games that I’ve seen for the iPhone. You’re greeted simply with your peg board, full of pegs. You then select which slot you would like to be empty, then tap which peg you would like to move, and tap where you want it to go.

The game is fun until you finally figure unlock the mystery of how to solve it. It’s free, and only takes up 1MB of space on your iPhone. If you’ve ever been stumped by this game, now’s your chance to finally figure it out without having to carry around a piece of wood an 14 golf tees.