I mostly-loved Mecho Wars when I reviewed it this summer. But one of the big things the game was missing was online multiplayer.

Earlier this week game developers Oyaji released an ad-supported free version of the game that allows players to battle one another over a WiFi connection.

The game, which uses OpenFeint for online support, allows you to select turn time limits ranging from 5 minutes to 24 hours. There are also four game modes: Conquer, gold differ, assassination and annihilation.

If you'd rather not deal with the ads, which are pretty low-key, and want access to the full game, including several single-player campaigns, you can buy the full version of Mecho Wars for $.99 which also includes the online play.

SteamPirates is described by Oyoji Games as a role-playing game for the iPhone and PSP Mini by the team behind Mecho Wars and Fried Green Apps.

The images show a woman and animals in steampunk Victorian garb. No date has yet been set.

The latest patch for fairly fun real-time strategy game seems to answer a lot of the issues brought up in my and other reviews of the game. Most significant is the addition of info tiles for each piece that can be brought up by tapping on a character. This tile tells you their movements, attack range and strengths and weaknesses against other classes of units.

The patch also includes two new maps to play through in the story-free challenge mode that you can only access after beating the original campaign. The biggest pleasant surprise is that the game's update included a complete new single-player campaign, this time played from the point of view of the Landians.

New maps and a new campaign for free? All they need to do now is add online mulitplayer support and Mecho Wars is going to be a must have for the platform.

But loaded down with absurd design decisions that have you playing as a commander of the Wingians taking on an army of the Landians, can Mecho Wars solid design make up for its silly aesthetic?

Loved
Advance Wars On iTunes:The iPhone and iPod Touch need more strategy games. Of all the genres available for a developer to tap into, you'd think it would be obvious what a perfect fit this one is for the touchy portable. Mecho Wars is one of the few out there and its heavy use of the design and mechanics of popular Nintendo franchise Advance Wars makes it the best.

Environmental Effects: I would have been happy with a straight-up Advance Wars clone on the iPhone, but the developers added one little twist: A changing environment. Every turn is measured in hours, not days, and when you slip past midnight the plentiful water of most levels freezes over allowing you to march troops across it. Better still, come morning the ice melts and all of the units still out on the ice fall into the water and are immediately destroyed. It's a minor change that can have a major impact on strategy.

Hated
Art Style: I just can't stand the art style of the game. The unit types are so whimsical that it's impossible to tell at a glance what exactly they are supposed to be, and more important what sorts of attacks they have. That's a major issue with strategy games of this type. Better to be bland than indiscernible in a strategy title.

Mecho Wars, despite its over-the-top art style, is a great little game for the iPhone. It is slightly too short, and without the inclusion of multiplayer, that could be a deal breaker. Fortunately, I'm told that the developers plan to add multiplayer to the game as a free update in the near future.

If you're into strategy titles and need a fix of Advance Wars, Mecho Wars is the best thing currently out for the Touch and iPhone.

Mecho Wars was developed and published by Oyaji for the iPhone and iPod Touch on June 13. Retails for $4.99. Played through the campaign and all challenges.

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Remember back when we reported that Mecho Wars was due out in March? We were a little off. It's available on the iTunes App Store now for $4.99 though, and that's what matters. Mecho Wars is a colorful take on Advance Wars, which tells the story of the war between the Winged Crusade and the Landians that eventually led to the events in the Steam-released Eternity's Child.

I've played it a bit now, and it's a nifty little game that borrows extremely heavily from Advance Wars, with a few interesting twists, like the waterways that freeze over at night, causing careful strategies to go to the dogs as everybody starts walking on water. They've even included single-device head-to-head play, for those of you who don't mind passing their iPhone to a friend.

Not sure how good a judge I am of this sort of game play, but so far the game has a four and a half star average rating in the App Store, and all of those people can't be wrong. It's kicking my ass, but perhaps your ass is more resilient and supple than my own.

Mecho Wars tells the story of the war between the mechanical Landians and the Winged, which left protagonist Angel as one of the last of his kind in Eternity's Child. Inspired by Advance Wars and Fire Emblem, among other things, it looks to be exactly the sort of tactical strategy game that could be perfect for the iPhone format. The game contains nine different units on both sides of the conflict, with three gameplay modes - Campaign, Tutorial, and Challenge.

Once again Luc teams up with Sean Beeson, the award-winning composer of the Eternity's Child soundtrack, to provide music for Mecho Wars.

So it looks pretty, and it should by all means sound nice. How does it play? We'll find out later this month, when Mecho Wars hits iTunes with a $4.99 price tag.

I maintained close communication with Luc Bernard throughout the development of his PC platformer Eternity's Child, and when the game was released I gave it the most honest review I could. While Bernard was a bit shaken by the negative feedback the game received, he soldiers on, working on forming a new development company in the U.S. while finishing up Mecho Wars, a turn-based strategy game for the iPhone, partially inspired by my review.

Well, when Mike Fahey of Kotaku mentioned in his review of Eternity's Child that he wanted to know more about the plot, I thought about a game that would focus on the expanded story and the events prior to Eternity's Child, so that's essentially where development on Mecho Wars began.

While I am extremely flattered to have my name noted as the partial inspiration for a video game, it must be noted that if the game ends up not doing well, Bernard was actually talking about the Mayor of Omaha, Nebraska, who I hear is a very inspiring sort of fellow.

Mecho Wars itself looks quite interesting. It's a turn-based strategy title that takes Bernard's signature art style and applies it to a strategy game along the lines of Advance Wars or Fire Emblem for the Nintendo DS. The lead programmer on the title remains shrouded in mystery, but Luc has stated that it is an ex-EA man and "the best programmer I have ever worked with."

Sounds rather promising! Check out the link below for more on what Luc is up to these days.

Luc Bernard talks iPhone Mecho Wars, Rose Princess, and future projects [Pocket Gamer UK]