Stories By Nadia Oxford

Game Developers Conference (the kids "in the know" call it GDC) got underway earlier this week. In between the drinking and the schmoozing, there was a bit of time to take a look at what developers are brewing in their basements. Beard-stroking and solemn conversation about the state of the game industry followed.

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A kiwi is a flightless bird native to New Zealand. The average kiwi is about the size of a chicken, mates for life, and dreams endlessly about soaring to the final frontier. Okay, if you present Fly Kiwi, Fly! as scientific fact in your biology class, you're going to end up in summer school. Just sit back and enjoy the game for what it is: A goofy side-scrolling flight game for the iPhone and iPod Touch that's full of fun, personality, and the power of love and dreams.

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The news about Capcom's intention to release Street Fighter IV on the iPhone and iPod Touch this month is intriguing, to say the least. The very idea of the ambitious fighting game running on the iPhone has my heart split in two directions.

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By now, you've heard all about how Apple mobilized their Protect The Children™ SWAT team last week, which pulled over 5,000 “sexy” apps from the App store. Now we can all bunk down peacefully tonight, knowing our most precious natural resource (even more precious than coal!) is safe.

Or is it?

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I've learned two truths since Apple announced the iPad last month. First, like teenagers, big-name hardware and software developers are currently obsessing over objects and anatomy that sit below the human equator (Wii, iPad, Google Buzz). Let's hope they grow out of it. Second, any major announcement by Apple spurs the rest of the handheld electronics industry to trip over each other in their drive to tell the rest of the world that Apple poses them no threat.

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Dead Strike has been improved thanks to some improvements scattered over a few updates. The game controls like a true third-person shooter now: Your character can run while aiming his or her weapon, the targeting sight is much clearer, and weapons can be aimed up and down.

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Attention K-Mart shoppers! Haul butt out of this suburban strip mall hell and start dreaming big. What if you could manage your own mall? Where would you put the clothing stores? The shoe stores? The trendy restaurants? (Hint: Don't put them near the pet stores. Feeder crickets are notorious escapees.)

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At some point in your childhood you probably asked, “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?” Bloodlines: The Alexa Holmes Chronicles will take you back to those hours you spent in your school's Apple II computer lab, chasing down that red-hatted female scoundrel, except now you'll be asking your iPhone, “Where in the World is that Bloated Vicious Vampire?”

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Filmmaker George A. Romero's talent for working with moaning piles of rotting flesh has earned him the nickname “The Grandfather of the Zombie” (imagine having him as a real grandfather; how wicked-awesome would your Halloween parties be?). Romero's film credits include Night of the Living Dead and its spiritual successor Dawn of the Dead, which remains a beloved classic in a genre crawling with the putrid damned.

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Pack your harpoon! The Deep by 3G Studios snares treasure hunters by pretending to be a mere warm-water frolic, but quickly reveals itself as an impressively deep adventure game done up in the style of 1994's beloved Super Metroid for the Super Nintendo. You'll hunt treasure, explore aquatic ruins, and find some old guy's false teeth. Before you know it, you'll be snared like the main course at Red Lobster.

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Calvin of “Calvin and Hobbes” comic strip fame once made a convincing case for proof of intelligent life beyond Earth's: If there are any alien races out there, they're obviously smart enough to stay away from humanity. In the far-flung future presented in Space Station: Frontier, aliens still regard us as property value-lowering space hogs. The subsequent race for resources lays the foundation for one of the most intuitive and addictive real-time strategy/tower defense games available for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

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Manomio has updated the C64's library with some old-school must-haves. Prepare to wallow in your childhood.

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Aside from owning our own Tyrannosaurus Rex, flying without the aid of an airplane is the one childhood dream we all carry with us through adulthood. Who hasn't had a recurring fantasy about opening a pair of sail-sized wings and diving off a cliff, falling for a heart-stopping few seconds before being thrown upwards by a thermal draft?

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In 1983, arcade game heroes were usually a triangle or a squat sprite. Former Disney animator Don Bluth conceived Dirk the Daring, a bumbling but well-meaning knight, for his own laserdisc-powered adventure. The final product, Dragon's Lair, was visually stunning, and easily comparable to Disney's best animated theater fare at the time. Bluth's production stood out in the arcades like a knight's steed in a field of shrews and bugs.

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In a futuristic world dominated by soulless machine soldiers, music is the key to unlocking the power of humanity's freedom fighters. Of course, there are still plenty of swords and axes lying around. Those help the cause a bit.

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If kids ran the world, doubtless a few worldwide booger-throwing wars would begin with botched games of Monopoly. Parker Brothers' finance-based board game has kept children (and their parents) sane through countless rainy days, but let us not forget the violence that erupted over corrupt “bankers” and siblings who just didn't want to bother with basic math.

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Touch Pets Dogs is for the animal lover in you. It's also for the little person inside your heart who wants to dress up your dog, but doesn't want to risk getting both hands stapled by a pair of angry jaws.

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Dungeon Raiders is an adventure game that promises a journey packed with magic, humor, and mayhem. Indeed, there is magic: you summon it by sliding your finger in an awkward manner not experienced since the dawn of the Nintendo DS's stylus input. There is humor: you can't help but laugh at the game's bad writing and baffling jokes. And thanks to the loose controls and chunky character movement, Dungeon Raiders definitely delivers the mayhem.

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In Rogue Planet, machines have taken it upon themselves to destroy all humans, and it's up to Commander Geoffrey Parker to do something about it. Agharta Studio's turn-based strategy game, coming November 24, pits men and robots against each other in a challenge that might be as deep and engaging as Nintendo's famous Advance Wars series for the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS.

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Path-drawing games on the iPhone typically put you in charge of directing planes, boats, and other soulless machines. If you screw up (and you will), well, that's just one less vehicle for Giant Corporation X. But in Craneballs Studio's 33rd Division, you're responsible for the lives of soldiers who can talk, bleed, and die. The humanity of the little dudes, in addition to intense gameplay that alternates between stealth and speed, helps 33rd Division stand out from the path-drawing genre like blood on the snow.

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