We've featured Advent calendars as a gaming theme before, but this one appears new. Started by Juuso Hietalahti, the owner of Finland-based Polycount Productions (who also writes at GameProducer.Net) each day reveals one or more Indie games, some with YouTube trailers. Of course there are links to download or play the games, be they application or browser-based. All carry the reminder that buying them supports devs directly.

There were four games behind Door No. 20 today, and there are four more days to go.

The Indie Games Xmas Calendar [site]

Yes, Capcom Mobile and Discovery Communications have teamed up to bring Cash Cab to the iPhone. Players take a simulated taxi ride, answering increasingly difficult questions on their way to their destination, with three strikes getting you kicked out of the backseat, hopefully in a nice neighborhood. The game features pictures of the actual show's host, comedian turned cab driver Ben Bailey, heightening the sensation of playing a game set inside a taxi.

Seriously, this show has been running for four years now, and has won an Emmy award, and despite my scorn, whenever I catch a glimpse of it while sifting through my channels I have to sit and watch, and god help me if there's a marathon on. I can't explain it. Maybe I'm waiting for someone to get knifed.

Cash Cab is now on sale in the iTunes App Store for $4.99.

ZeniMax, which of course now owns iD software, filed the DMCA complaint with Google. Developer L!TH!UM told the site Android and Me that Doom for Android, offered for free, was built with open source code but "My mistake was allowing the download of the Plutonia and TNT WADs, at least that is what I suspect."

"Although I may not be able to distribute the application through the Market, the APK can still be downloaded and installed through the web," the dev said.

Other ports pulled include: Ultimate Doom; Quake Platinum; Doom II; Wolf 3D: Spear of Destiny (two versions); Wolfenstein 3D; Quake GL; Wolfenstein 3D Lite (Beta 2) and Doom Soundboard.

iD Software frags Doom, Quake, and Wolfenstein ports for Android [Android and Me via Game Politics]

The game will feature an arcade mode, faithful to the content of the original cabinet game, and a home mode that includes extra scenes. Space Ace, the other Don Bluth animated game on the iPhone/iPod Touch, was $4.99. No word on price point here, and delivery is listed as just "December 2009."

Man, I remember this thing cost 50 CENTS. You whippersnappers probably have no idea what balls it took for an arcade game to charge that in 1983. I never beat it in the arcades but I did 15 years later on a port to the Mac - after dying about 80 times. On the first board.

Lead on, adventurer ... your quest awaits!

The ESRB's entire ratings database is searchable, with full certificates available for titles back to July 1, 2008. Said the ESRB president Patricia Vance: "This new rating search app puts all this information at parents' fingertips when they need it most, right at the store. It's a powerful tool that will help assure parents that the games they give as gifts are not only fun but also appropriate for their children."

Not sure how frequently it updates; for the core, I guess it's another way to spy on what's been approved, and spoilers in games we know are in the pipeline. You can grab it here (link will open iTunes.)

The app launched with the following PSA. I would have loved it if she read off the ratings summary for BioShock 2 instead.

ESRB Launches iPhone Ratings App [Game Politics]

360 Live automatically retrieves your friends list when you sign into your Xbox Live account with it; organizes and groups your friends the way you'd expect to see them on a console; lets you change and update your Gamer Profile info and, most usefully, allows you to send and receive messages over XBL, even to multiple recipients.

Left unsaid is how this fits with Microsoft's edict last year that all iPhone/iPod Touch apps pertaining to Xbox Live be offered for the super-low price of free. For now it's $1.99, a nominal-enough fee if you just have to have the capability. Otherwise, keep an eye on it, this might attract attention from Redmond. Or, if Microsoft insists that it go for free, it might get pulled. So then you might want to buy it now. Who knows.

360 Live [site via Joystiq]

This is no small feat, as A.D.D.'s lite version - which was pulled back after three months because IUGO couldn't get an answer on the full version - featured body hair removal, peeing in the snow, butt cracks and other juvenile humor. It's only for sale to those 17 and up and carries a warning rap sheet longer than your arm:

Frequent/Intense Realistic Violence
Frequent/Intense Cartoon or Fantasy Violence
Frequent/Intense Mature/Suggestive Themes
Frequent/Intense Sexual Content or Nudity
Frequent/Intense Simulated Gambling
Frequent/Intense Horror/Fear Themes
Frequent/Intense Profanity or Crude Humor
Frequent/Intense Alcohol, Tobacco, or Drug Use or References

The full title features 70 mini-games, all animated in the same zany style, which you zip through rapid-fire using the touch controls or accelerometer. For the record, A.D.D. means "Addictive Dumb Distractions." It'll run you $2.99.

A.D.D. From IUGOME Released: OMG! It's That Booger That Won't Go Away! [The APPera]

This is interesting because, as MacWorld points out, smaller developers had welcomed Android as an alternative to the sometimes inscrutable policies and decisions of the iTunes App store. Not Gameloft (though hardly a "smaller developer,") which says it sells "400 times more games on iPhone than Android," according to the finance director Alexandre de Rochefort, speaking at an investor's conference.

Moreover, "we have significantly cut our investment in Android platform, just like ... many others," Rochefort said, as reported by Reuters. "It is not as neatly done as on the iPhone. Google has not been very good to entice customers to actually buy products. On Android nobody is making significant revenue."

Reuters says that iPhone applications generated 13 percent of Gameloft's revenue in the last quarter.

Gameloft Says It, Others Reining in Android Plans [Reuters via MacWorld]

Red Alert for the iPhone is a new handheld version of the classic real-time strategy game. It's trimmed down quite a bit, but it uses the iPhone's multi-touch capability to pinch-zoom and maneuver units around the map, so there's definitely enough new there to warrant a purchase. Plus, once you make it through the Soviet and Allies campaign and 12 levels of Skirmish gameplay, EA already has six more skirmish maps you can download for $.99 directly through the in-game store, with an Empire of the Rising Sun expansion pack in the works that introduces a third faction to the mix.

Purchase the game now for $9.99 to get some practice in before the free multiplayer update hits, allowing friends to take to the battlefield via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. It looks like EA is planning to squeeze as much out of the iPhone Red Alert as they possibly can. Will you be buying?

A news release from EA mobile promises "live Bluetooth multiplayer" - OK, that part was all-capped, but we chose to spare your eyeballs. If you want to rock with friends not in the same room, the app says it will synch you up with bandmates via Facebook invitation. Yes, you read that right.

You get the same four instruments in the mobile version - git-tar, drums, bass and vocals. Multiplayer functions like it does in the console game - you'll hear your bandmates' missed notes and be able to save their ass with overdrive.

EA says it ships this month. It arrives with 20 songs (listed below) with more to come through an in-game music store.

The track list in the core game:

Attack-30 Seconds To Mars
Girls Not Grey – AFI
Move Along - All American Rejects
Sabotage - Beastie Boys
All The Small Things - Blink-182
Hanging on the Telephone – Blondie
Learn To Fly - Foo Fighters
Everlong - Foo Fighters
Bad to The Bone - George Thorogood & the Destroyers
Hymn 43 - Jethro Tull
Bad Reputation - Joan Jett
Simple Man - Lynard Skynard
Ace of Spades '08 – Motorhead
Debaser - Pixies
Ladybug - Presidents of The United States of America
Give It All - Rise Against
Lazy Eye - Silversun Pick Ups
Cherub Rock - Smashing Pumpkins
Take The Money and Run - Steve Miller Band
We Got The Beat - The Go Go's

Mobigame rebranded the game in the United States and United Kingdom markets specifically to neutralize any claim Tim Langdell's Edge Games - notorious for challenging any use of the word "Edge" by video game developers - might make against the game. A news release from Mobigame stressed that no agreement or settlement had been reached with Langdell.

The game was originally available as EDGE on the App Store in the U.S. and U.K. from March to about May. Its takedown was largely attributed to Langdell, although he says Mobigame itself asked Apple to remove the application in light of the legal dispute.

"We renamed to 'Edge by Mobigame' for the U.S and the U.K market only to have the approval from Apple (and we have it now)," Mobigame's David Papazian told Kotaku. "On the legal side, he cannot claim anything against "Edge by Mobigame" and Apple knows that, so we hope everything will be alright now."

Papazian expressed confidence that Electronic Arts will prevail in its recent appeal for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to cancel five Edge-related trademarks held by Langdell, on grounds they both have been abandoned and were fraudulently obtained. EA's suit arises from a dispute over its 2008 title "Mirror's Edge." Langdell vehemently disputes EA's claims.

In iPeePee, by Mobiguo, you play an inebriated male trying to get your stream into a urinal or other receptacle as the room spins. You can pee on powerups or debuffs (the radio = ouch) but watch out, adding beer to charge up your pee stream makes the room spin worse. There's a hold button, but no "hop on one leg" dance.

Remember, all Kotaku employees must wash hands thoroughly before returning to work.

iPeePee Tinkles All Over the App Store [Pocket Gamer]

Now, we already know that Beaterator, produced with Timbaland, is on the way to the PSP next month. Nobody said anything about iPhone, though. And don't ask me why I'm reading a friggin' Vogue fashion model blog, OK? But Wheeler seems awful certain that's the game and that's the platform on which she saw it. Verbatim, here's what she wrote back on Aug. 12:

I stayed the last two nights with my dear friend Anouchka, her hubby Sam and their two adorable kids. It was heaven waking up every morning to their gorgeous little faces in my bedroom saying good morning Auntie Jac. Sam, who works at Rockstar Games, introduced me to Beaterator, a game that's about to come out, produced by Rockstar Games together with Timbaland. It is genius. I don't have an i-phone yet but think I'm going to have to buy one now as this game is so much fun and you can play it on your i-phone wherever you are. You are basically a DJ and the game enables you to create your own mixes. Hook it up to some speakers and you've got a party going on. You don't have to know anything about mixing, no prior experience required, and yet you are left wondering whether you should pack up your current career and move to Ibiza to become the next Sven Vath. Its a LOT of fun. Have a look: www.rockstargames.com.

If so, Beaterator would be Rockstar's first ever game for the iPhone.

And whatever the case, Sam Houser might want to think about making his houseguests sign NDAs from now on.

Jacquetta Wheeler's Blog [Vogue UK]

"I expected we'll see a PlayStation 3.5 before we see a PlayStation 4 and an Xbox 560 before we see an Xbox 720," Rich Hilleman told Dean Takahashi and VentureBeat."The biggest shift is how fast packaged goods games are changing and going away."

That means online distribution. And by that, he means mobile gaming, and delivery of mobile games. Hilleman pointed out that with the DS, PSP and PSPgo, and iPhone, mobile units outnumber consoles two-to-one. The iPhone especially is part of the "democratization of game development," both increasing competition for EA, but also lowering development costs.

On the console side, Hilleman blameed piracy and used sale for what he says is the end of games' long tail. But, he said, markets like Korea show there's plenty of growth upon which a corporate behemoth may feed.

"If I want to go to see the past of gaming, I go to Japan," Hilleman told Takahashi. "If I want to see the future, I go to Korea." There, he says, are 28,000 parlors where Internet gamers pay by the hour, and the establishments reap high margins off of concession sales. Hilleman also pointed to Webkinz as a forward-facing brand, less so Burnout, where 2:1 ratio of users to games sold makes apparent the influence of used sales and piracy to a publisher's bottom line.

Also of interest in this piece: Takahashi's back-of-the-envelope calculations based on the idea that EA typically spends two or three times as much on marketing and advertising as it does on developing a game.

That's because advertising is critical to getting a game in the top ten rankings. If you have a $10 million game, don't be surprised if the the TV advertising costs drive the ad budget to $30 million. If a $60 game yields revenue of $35 for EA, then (according to my math) the company has to sell 1.1 million copies just to break even.

EA'S Chief Creative Officer Describes Games Industry's Re-Engineering [Venturebeat via Blue's News]

Although the news release says only "September 2009," (October '09 in the rest of the world), an accompanying email to Kotaku said the game would be available "in time for opening day on the App Store." That is Thursday, Sept. 10. No price was suggested in the news release.

EA let slip Madden - as well as FIFA - was in the works for the iPhone back in July, so this is not a total surprise. Today's announcement, however, certifies that Madden, at least, will be an actual football game, and not the adjunctive iPhone app for the management of your console season - a product already announced.

From these screenshots, the control mechanic looks similar to that of NFL 2010 - virtual analog stick, and specialty buttons aligned to whatever player (or side of the ball) you're manipulating. In a news release, Madden 10 on the iPhone also promises a season mode, the same as NFL 2010.

On top of that, the same release also promises adjustable game-speed, hot-route audibles, full roster management that includes trades and free agents, and authentic stadium settings. These are all features not in NFL 2010. The voices of John Madden and console announcers Tom Hammond and Cris Collinsworth also will call your action.

Here are two more screens, of Packers Vikings QB Brett Favre, and Pittsburgh running back Willie Parker.

Loved
Comprehensive Coverage: Gameloft managed to pack what is basically a Nintendo 64 version of Madden football into an iPhone - and not as an emulated ROM, but built from the ground up. Some might find this alone enough to reward its $4.99 price, and if so, Gameloft earned it. NFL 2010 delivers a playbook more than 100 plays deep, live announcer commentary, pre-game animations, post-play reactions, configurable depth charts, a 17-week NFL season with its real players, and a playoffs mode if you want a smaller-size multigame experience. It's the most complete sports experience on the iPhone/iPod Touch platform.

Hated
Camera, Inaction!: The video rarely stays at the same angle or framerate. Sometimes it's because the size of the game is overwhelming the iPhone's processor. Other times, its deliberately slowing the action down so you can hit a special move key, whose appearances are not entirely predictable. There is a horrible camera zoom every time your runner reaches the line of scrimmage, whether you're breaking it to the outside or running up the gut. You're zoomed so far in you can't see the next blocker coming and when you run past the camera position you're often off the screen entirely. The zoom in on receivers catching a pass is likewise terrible. I was rarely able to run after a catch.

Go Back, Jack, Do It Again: If you intend to play a full game for keeps, or any game in a season mode, don't take any calls. Yeah, you can mash the pause button or turn the phone off to go take a dump or feed the dog or whatever, and come back and pick up where you left off. But leaving the application idle as you do something else in the iPhone will take you back to the beginning of the most recent incomplete quarter when you return. That's bad. It commits you to doing nothing else in your device for 30 minutes, or at least to finish the quarter at risk of having that lead-changing 80-yard drive wiped out. Sure, I don't expect to be able to save my game mid-play on a console. But Mom doesn't call me on the Xbox. A mobile game has to reasonably cope with real life interruptions, and NFL 2010 forces you to schedule around them.

As a proof of just how deep an iPhone game can be, NFL 2010 is a stout achievement. It's definitely playing in a console-game league. But of course, if this game was on a console, it'd get crushed in comparison to Madden. So it's grander than just an arcade-style football game, but still very limited next to console season simulators that hardcore football fans, if they're interested in trying one on this device, are probably already playing.

Many will find its price a bargain if they're promised an entire season of football on their iPhone, and for $4.99, NFL 2010 over-delivers. But as a game it's in a limbo of sorts, with long-lasting games at the expense of pick-up-and-play appeal, and a season experience that does plenty but nothing particularly eye-popping. It's both too much and not enough.

NFL 2010 was developed and published by Gameloft for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Released to the iTunes App Store on Aug. 4. Retails for $4.99 USD. Reviewed on an iPhone 3G. Played quick play, season, and playoff modes.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

Interplay has granted Gameloft exclusive rights to develop, distribute, and publish Earthworm Jim as a downloadable title across the current crop of titles, as well as mobile devices, meaning an iPhone Earthworm Jim might not be out of the question. Gameloft is understandably delighted.

"We are delighted to partner with Interplay to bring Earthworm Jim to multiple downloadable platforms," said Gonzague de Vallois, senior vice president, Gameloft. "The game, with its humorous and edgy style, is a great fit for today's gamer who craves a fully immersive experience that is fun and easily accessible. We look forward to delivering a fantastic game."

It should be easy enough, seeing as the fantastic game already exists! And it shall exist again, sometime during the final quarter of 2009, with the Xbox 360 getting one-month worth of timed exclusivity.

Duke Nukem 3D for the iPhone is a complete port of the original 1991 shooter. That means the over-the-top soundbites, the gratuitous pixelated borderline soft porn and the more than 20 hours worth of gameplay.

The most important thing with a iPhone game, though, is the controls. And for a first-person shooter that goes double. This iPhone port, developed by Machineworks Northwest, uses something they call TapShoot which the company describes as a "unique way to play first-person shooters on the iPhone and iTouch."

"Once you've experienced TapShoot," they write "you'll wish all FPS games on the iPhone had this breakthrough feature."

Really?

No, not really.

Maybe with some time spent getting used to the controls and tweaking the settings Duke Nukem 3D would play as smoothly as a shooter like Wolfenstein, but my initial, albeit brief impressions of the controls were an exercise in frustration.

TapShoot means that if you want you can set up the game to allow you to tap on a target to shoot it, not having to worry about lining up your targeting reticule. And I suppose it works well enough, though there's really nothing innovative about it in the real of iPhone shooters.

The problem with Duke Nukem 3D's controls though like in the interface for movement, which uses the increasingly popular dual virtual thumbsticks. The problem is that the default setup is far too touchy to make the game enjoyable. I spent about 30 minutes tweaking the controls and managed to make the game playable, but it still wasn't as smooth as a slew of other shooters I've played on the platform. And TapShoot isn't without its issues too. Because of the way the screen is set up, with players taping the bottom to change weapons, it's very easy to accidentally access the weapon change screen in the middle of a fire fight when taking on low lying enemies.

Touchy, awkward controls aside, the game does everything else quite well. The graphics, the sound, the level design all remain faithful to the original. And Duke Nukem 3D certainly holds up to the test of time.

I have no doubt that at some point the developers will release a patch to smooth out controls, but until they do I can't recommend picking the title up, even at $3.

Loved
All the Rage: This is a straight-up emulation of the Genesis original, so of course everything you love and remember from the 16-bit sidescrolling beat-em-up is here, right down to the sound tests in your start menu. The chop-socky music, Adam's "whooul-yah!" flying attack, Blaze's upskirt when she's thrown to the ground, and, of course, suplexing those screeching biker chicks, it's still a great trip down memory lane.

Hated
Outta Control: Unfortunately, since this is a straight-up emulation of the Genesis original, that means the control system is what's getting reviewed. You're given three options, all with serious drawbacks. By default, Streets of Rage overlays a translucent D-pad and A, B and C buttons. This gives you the best view of the action, but when bad guys go hide on the edges of the screen, as they usually do, it's hard to see them under your thumb and fingers. An alternate view, setting the D-pad and buttons inside a frame surrounding the screen, solves that problem. Unfortunately, it shrinks the playing screen by more than a third. Still, for the game's later levels, this mode is recommended. Finally, there's an accelerometer mode replacing the D-pad. It's gimmicky at best, and feels disconnected from the action, particularly for the grappling attacks. The throw combo is nearly impossible to pull off with it. Your best bet is one of the two D-pad modes, remembering that light touches will move your controller just fine. Otherwise your hand will cramp up, especially if you're hellbent on beating the game in one sitting.

Whoa, framerate: This game was reviewed on a second-generation iPhone. With a lot of enemies on the screen, or the rudimentary environmental effects like waves, rain, blowing trash, etc., I found the emulator really bogging down and slowing both the framerate and the soundtrack - especially, it seemed, if the accelerometer was enabled. This is a significant problem, notably in a boss battle with a lot of supporting henchmen. The game's App Store page says a patch is on the way to improve performance for 3GS versions.

What kept Streets of Rage from being repetitive - relative to its time of course - was the two player cooperation and the fighting combos you could pull off. On the iPhone and iPod Touch, it's single player only, and the combos are slightly more difficult to execute with this control scheme. Especially that satisfying B+A back attack. Further, when I played the original, I seem to recall that I could grapple, knee-butt a boss twice, vault, disengage and grab, butt him twice more, and rinse-and-repeat my way to fast victory. With this scheme, not so much. You'll find yourself a lot of the time whacking the B button just to get through a level, rather than using the vaults and throws and grab attacks that make the game a creative diversion.

But if the point is to give you old-school console action to kill time on your mobile, then, OK, Streets of Rage will, within the limits of the device, provide the complete single player experience you recall.

Streets of Rage was developed and published by Sega for the iPhone and iPod Touch on July 14. Available on iTunes App Store for $4.99. Played all characters on standard difficulty using all control schemes, completing the game with Axel and beating ass galore with Blaze and Adam.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

An announcement on the Community & News board of the official Web site Catan.com declared today that "the game is being developed by Exozet Games in collaboration with Catan designer Klaus Teuber." It will be published by United Soft Media. Exozet was also responsible for last year's Catan, the First Island on handset mobiles (pictured).

As an iPhone owner and a recent convert to Catan - my friends here in Oregon play it obsessively - I'm delighted by the news. Perhaps this won't be as social as the tabletop game, as trading makes up a good chunk of the decisions until someone gets squarely in the lead. But it's still one of the more thought-provoking strategy games out there, video or otherwise.

My newbie advice - go for the 3:1 trading ports, build the longest road - with no more than one spur - instead of the largest army, and squat on ore if its dice number is favorable.

Official 'Settlers of Catan' Coming to iPhone [TouchArcade via PocketGamer