Sega: The iPhone is as Powerful as the Dreamcast

Speaking with SEGA of America president Simon Jeffery earlier today he noted that the iPhone is about as powerful as the publisher's console the Dreamcast. Jeffery said the company is delighted with how their iPhone version of Super Monkey Ball has been received by the phones many owners and detailed how the developer plans to take advantage of what he calls an upcoming and potentially major new platform for gaming.

Apple iPhone Games Officially Live

Yesterday those willing to get fancy with forced firmware updates and such were able to sneak into the iPhone's App Store and buy games for the device early. Today, firmware 2.0 and access to those 30 or so games are official.

If you're looking to buy a game for your iPhone than make sure to check out our Ultimate Guide to iPhone Gaming which includes quick impressions of 20 or so of the games as well as screenshots, videos and details for most of the games currently available and a bunch yet to come.

Our most recent update to the guide includes impressions of Tetris, EA's Sudoku and Crash Bandicoot Nitro Racing. Personally, I've played around with 15 different iPhone games and my favorites so far include Super Monkey Ball, Bomberman Touch and Trism... oh Trism. Oh, I also really like Zen Pinball.

By: Brian Crecente, Michael McWhertor and Leigh Alexander

The iPhone Games are here. The iPhone Games are here. Things are going to start happening to me now!

As of this morning you can download iTunes 7.7 and add the App Store to your iPhone. Why would you do that? So you can check out the spiffy new games they have available. Yeah, I'm sure some of the games currently available will be shovelware, but that doesn't mean there won't be some gems.

Hit up our guide to what's to come on the jump. We'll also be updating this page throughout today and tomorrow with hands on impressions of the games as we play through some.

Feel free to make requests in comments.

Ignore, for a moment, the commentary indicating the game's propensity for crashing. Raging Thunder isn't exactly a big-budget title. What it is, however, is a shining example of just why the iPhone holds so much potential as a gaming device. If some backyard coders can come up with something that looks this good, and takes such precise advantage of the iPhone's accelerometer, imagine what proper devs can do. Or, at least, what a creatively engineered copy of Mario Kart could do.

[via Gizmodo]