Gaming News Roundup

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Each week MobileCrunchArcade compiles the biggest news from the world of mobile gaming.

A little news has leaked out about the upcoming mobile game Final Fantasy IV: Return to the Moon. The game is a direct sequel of Final Fantasy IV. But you could probably guess that from fanstasy screenshot.jpgthe title. The DNA results are in and it is confirmed that Theodore is Cecil’s and Rosa’s son. The divorce petition has been withdrawn. All of the original characters in Final Fantasy IV will be returning to the mobile sequel, go figure. The mobile version will have episodic chapters to master and a story update every month. A free demo will be distributed as the story’s prologue so there is no good reason to pass up a little fantasy when the game is released.

The first game for Google’s mobile operating system Android is in development. Wi-Fi Army is a game where you try and track down other players with you phone and take their picture. The earth is your battlefield and your phone is your weapon. You have to search for other players while you are out and about. Your phone can detect anyone else who is running Wi-Fi Army within a 300-foot radius. Once you shoot a picture of them it is compared to photos in a data wifiarmy.jpgbase and if a match is made you get one hit. The beta version only supports 500 players per city so if it is to become popular in large cities the number will have to increase. Power-ups and weapon upgrades will be available for a nominal fee. I’m not sure what they mean by weapon upgrades but if it is legal why not do it?

Earlier this week, Verizon in partnership with Hand-On Mobile and Activision released Guitar Hero III Mobile. Much like the console game players must hit keys in sync with colored notes that appear on a scrolling board. Verizon Wireless customers get 15 song tracks from the Guitar Hero guitar.bmpconsole series and can add new tracks as they become available each month. The game can be purchased monthly for $4.49 or can be bought for a onetime price of $12. The game won’t teach you to read music but it will help you irritate people while you wait for a connecting bus.

N-Gage was supposed to be softly launched this week with little fanfare. It was so soft that nothing went into the air. N-Gage has been postponed again and is now rescheduled for next year. Space Shuttle launches haven’t been aborted this many times. Here’s what a post on the official N-Gage blog reads: “Unfortunately, as can sometimes happen in software development, unexpected difficulties can occur. We have been doing an internal run with more than 1,000 nokia6.JPGglobal testers this week, and during this process we uncovered an issue we feel we need to address. Overall, the games and service are working smoothly, but because of this issue, we feel we could not release N-Gage First Access before the holidays as planned.”

If you are in for a little nostalgia, or you want to know what gaming was like in ancient times, Atari is releasing Atari Legends Volumes 1, 2 and 3. The graphics and game play are right out of asteroids.gifthe 1980’s and can be played in the palm of your hand. You don’t have to lug a big 25” screen television around to play pong or asteroids and you don’t have to fight everybody for the joystick that isn’t broken.

That is this week’s Mobile Gaming News Roundup. Remember to exercise those thumbs, recharge the battery and never take your eyes off the screen.