"Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn..." but not for long. A company called Digital Jokers, in conjunction with a subsidary called Mayhem Studios, is bringing HP Lovecraft's cuddly, horrible, insanity-inspiring Great Old One to the iPhone in the form of a graphical adventure game called Call of Cthulhu: The Darkness Within. It looks like fun, although if the laughable trailer is any indication, they'll need to do some spell checking and additional translation before the game actually goes live.

Still, Cthulhu fans will slog through some pretty bad software if it means there's a good Lovecraftian story in the mix. We'll keep an eye on this one -- graphical horror-based adventure on the iPhone done well could make for a good (or should we say evil?) time.

[via Macworld]

Spore Origins has wriggled its way out to the iTunes store for the iPod. The game is a slimmed-down version of the early microbial stages in the upcoming PC game -- in the main game, you'll be able to take your little microbes up through the evolutionary ladder all the way up to space travel, but in the iPod game, you just guide a little cellular organism around in the primordial muck, eating what's smaller than you and running away from what's bigger.

We haven't played the iPod version, but the iPhone version, which we got a hands-on with at E3 earlier this year, is due out later this week, according to the game's creator, Will Wright. Both games pale in comparison to the creativity and polish that the full Spore game will offer -- running a creature around in the muck isn't nearly as fun as guiding it through the history of time itself, and unfortunately, as we were told at E3, online play and character transfer never made it into the final version, so the portable games have no relation to the full game at all.

So what you're left with is a little arcade game, which probably isn't actually worth the $5 it costs. There are, after all, better games out there for less.

I thought Line Rider kind of "jumped" the shark (so to speak) when they sold out to McDonald's, but apparently the little sandbox physics game is still kicking around. InXile, the company that makes it, is working on a version for the iPhone. There was a version available for jailbreakers, but apparently the company put the kibosh on it when they found out.

Not much else to say about this -- Line Rider is currently available for free online, and if you like it there, you'll probably like it on the iPhone, too. Personally, it's more fun to watch than to play -- whenever I try to make a run, my little guy always dies on the first curve. But maybe with a little more iPhone-based practice, I can finally get him to do that loop-de-loop I've been wanting.

[via Touch Arcade]

I mentioned Super Monkey Ball this afternoon, but I neglected to mention Freeverse's update last week to Wingnuts Moto Racer -- now named Moto Chaser -- to version 1.1.

The update adds new music tracks and pause functionality, as well as moves the "punch" button to the right side. The default difficulty setting is also lower. All the changes were made with feedback from users, with the exception of the name: that was due to an unspecified copyright issue.

Our own Mike Schramm noted the app as one of his favorites for the iPhone.

The updated Moto Chaser is now $5.99 for new users, and free for registered users. Freeverse lowered the price from $9.99. It's available in the App Store.

SEGA has released an update to the popular Super Monkey Ball, which appears to address issues with control sensitivity. The update was expected to drop last month. No release notes were available online.

In cursory testing (by yours truly), it does appear the update improves player control. As promised, the "dead zone" where the ball stops moving altogether is larger, and movement overall has become less erratic. I noticed that when trying to slow down, the monkey ball is less likely to turn around, which makes it easier to navigate tight corners and control speed.

Also included is a new tutorial designed to help you get accustomed to the controls. Additionally, you can resume where you left off if you press the home button during a game.

Super Monkey Ball [App Store link] is a free update for existing users, and $9.99 for new users.

Thanks, Adiz!

Update: Belkin reps have contacted us to say that the JoyPod, while a fascinating idea, is not a product they have in development. Oh well!

I guessed that we'd see a more official iPhone controller sooner or later, but I didn't think it'd be this much sooner -- Touch Arcade has unearthed this photo of a Belkin-branded game controller/case for the iPhone and iPod touch called the JoyPod. Looks pretty slick, though as Engadget points out, the ratios don't really work out -- odds are that the final product will have to be a little longer to fit the iPhone in there.

Very interesting, though -- now I'm curious to see if Apple really will support stuff like this. Supporting a third-party controller would seem to go against His Jobsness' suggestion that a multitouch screen could be used for anything (even typing on an awkward non-tactile keyboard), but clearly there's a demand, from consumers if not from devs themselves, to move game controls off the screen and onto buttons you can feel while pressing. How else will you be able to "exprimir al maximo tu iPhone o iPod touch"?

Gamers, are you excited for next weekend's release of Spore? We sure are (even though the iPod game got pulled from the iTunes Store, darnit). I've created my first species in Creature Creator and he (it?) is ready to go.

If you're also anticipating the game, and happen to be at London's Regent Street Apple Store on Sept. 3rd at 3:00 PM, you can meet Spore creator Will Wright. He'll be talking about the game and showing it off. Here's your chance to talk with Will!

If you just can't wait, or if you want a little background to help you formulate a killer question, check out this interview Will did with cnet.

As you might imagine, my iPhone is more littered with games than useful stuff like Steve's or Victor's. Sure, I've got Twitterific and NetNewsWire, but my most-used apps are of the video game variety.

The game that's most grabbed me so far is Aurora Feint. When it was first released, I didn't get much out of it, but since it's been updated a few times, Aurora Feint has turned into a pretty deep puzzle/RPG. There have been some security scares, unfortunately, and the game's "MMO" promises haven't yet come to fruition. But for sheer matching puzzle gameplay (it's similar to the great Poker Smash on Xbox Live), it's probably the most addictive game on the App Store.

My second favorite is Characters (I originally wrote about it on WoW Insider). If you play World of Warcraft and have an iPhone, this is the closest thing you'll find to an official Blizzard app. It lets you see every bit of information on the Armory in a very nice-looking iPhone app format. We're still waiting on Blizzard to provide us with an iPhone version of the in-game Auction House or mailbox, but until then, this is a great way to look up the WoW characters of folks you meet.

And finally, I've been really impressed with Midomi (and also the similar Shazam), a music recognition app. Hit the app, let it listen to a song you're hearing (or even you singing the song or saying the lyrics), and it'll tell you exactly what that song is. And once you've find it, you can listen to it, find it in iTunes or on Youtube, or see band pictures and reviews. Midomi is the kind of app I've never had on any other devices I've owned, and yet I've put it to great use a few times.

Honorable mentions go to Freeverse's (renamed) Moto Chaser, which is consistently the game that most impresses people playing with my iPhone; Trism, which turned out to be an excellent game, and Frotz and Sketches, both of which I've written about here before.

And I'm still waiting for two things: some great persistent pet gameplay (Wil Shipley, what happened to all of those ideas?), and some great location-based MMO gameplay as well. There's good stuff out there, but we're still just getting started in the App Store.

A few weeks ago we took a first look at Astraware's GTS World Racing for iPhone; now they're back with another title -- Golden Skull. Golden Skull was developed by Deluxeware and published by Astraware.

If you're familiar with the Bejeweled 2 genre of jewel-matching games, then you're well on your way to understanding Golden Skull. In this game, you're introduced to a character who has gotten into debt and needs money, so he takes on the job of finding the Golden Skull. In each stop along the way, you tap groups of jewels of the same color to make them disappear, which accumulates points -- more points for more jewels eliminated. When you get to a certain point level, you get a gold coin. Five gold coins gets you to the next village on your journey.

As the game progresses, more types of jewels are added to the screen, making it even more difficult to match them. When you get to the last village, accumulating a certain number of points reveals your goal -- the Golden Skull. There are four different skill levels, and you can either listen to the built-in soundtrack or your own music. To see a video of Golden Skull in action, click here.

Golden Skull should be available in the App Store today (August 27th) for US$2.99. Check the gallery below for screenshots!

Update: Golden Skull is now in the App Store (September 1, 2008). Click here for more info -- click opens iTunes App Store.

About a week or so ago, I spent $0.99 at iTunes to pick up a copy of Koi Pond. With all the software that constantly moves onto and off of my iPhone, it should say something that over a week later, Koi Pond is still installed. It's a little treasure.

Koi Pond provides exactly the experience its title suggests: it puts a virtual Koi Pond onto your iPhone, allowing you to place plants and feed the fish. The fish in question swim around the screen and run away from the rippled waves you create when messing with the water. If you leave your finger still enough, eventually a koi or two will investigate and nibble on your finger before darting off on its pre-existing fishy business.

In theory, there is no point to Koi Pond. It's there to experience and enjoy. In practice, my elder children issue each other challenges: "Make the worst pond" (no fish, no plants, no sunlight, brown rocks, rotting food) or "Make the most psychotic koi" (one fish, sunlight, lots of splashing), etc.

For $0.99, it's a great deal on a little toy. Turn off autolock and cheerfully burn out your screen by sitting it on a stand on your desk. The fish will swim and burble ad infinitum. (It helps to have the iPhone docked while doing this.)

Koi Pond is available for iPhone and iPod touch. It costs $0.99 at the iPhone App Store.

Update: Tipster Mike writes in to note that the game has disappeared from the store. As of 5:45 pm ET today, it's gone.

iPhone-wielding gamers rejoiced when EA announced a version of Spore for the iPhone, set to debut in September of this year (check out our hands-on with Spore). This week, click wheel iPod owners got a leg up, as Spore: Origins is now available in the iTunes Store [link].

Origins, as the name implies, lets players experience the 1st level of the game, in which you guide a single-cell organism through the primordial ooze. Game play is straight forward: Use the click wheel to guide Jr. around, and the center button to eat other organisms he finds. No word on sharing your progress with the full game once it's released on September 7th.

If you really can't wait, you can also download the desktop Creature Creator. Spore: Origins for iPod costs $4.99US.

An employee of Cyan Worlds (proprietors of the legendary Myst series of games) has announced that they will be porting the original Myst to the iPhone. Apparently it's an "outside-funded" project -- though who might be funding it isn't yet clear -- and is apparently proving to be an "interesting and fun" project with a small team of just three people. No word yet on how it might work (or work differently) from the original, but the classic puzzle/exploration of Myst is good gaming no matter what platform you're playing it on.

Starting with the NES emulator, the iPhone was following the evolution of gaming pretty well -- at least until the App Store started mixing things up a bit. After Myst, I think we're right around Wolfenstein and Doom at this point -- those were available jailbroken, but it's about time we get an FPS officially as well. Carmack, you interested?

[via TouchArcade, which is strangely down as of this writing]

Rounding out the last of our back to school giveaways, we'd like to give you a shot at wasting time. School can't be all about studying and learning, can it? Of course, if you happen to be in school for game design this could actually be homework... Plus, if you don't win, there's always Jared and SimStapler. The point: we want you to have fun.

Big thanks to Freeverse for the prize package, which includes your choice of a Freeverse iPhone game (Wingnuts Moto Racer and Sudoku iPhone are currently available), plus the following games: Hordes of Orcs, Kill Monty, Neon Tango and Big Brain Games. That should give your Xbox 360 a break.

To enter, tell us your favorite non-videogame game from your childhood (like chess, Parcheesi, Risk, etc.). The other rules (same as always) are below.

• Open to legal residents of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are 18 and older.
• To enter, leave a comment telling us your favorite game (not a video game) from childhood.
• The comment must be left before August 24, 11:59PM Eastern Time.
• You may enter once.
• One winner will be selected in a random drawing.
• Prizes: One iPhone game (up to $10), Hordes of Orcs ($24.95), Kill Monty ($19.95), Neon Tango ($24.95), Big Brain Games ($29.95)
• Click Here for complete Official Rules.

As if Mac gaming needed more problems getting off the ground. Transgaming has proudly announced that in the future, their games will include Sony's SecuROM digital rights management software. They don't mention which games will be getting the extremely restrictive DRM (that some folks have compared to malware), but we're guessing all of them, which means the Mac version of Spore will be on that list, as well as those upcoming Ubisoft titles, and anything else produced with the Cider technology.

Bummer. Why is it a bummer? Because all the evidence we can see actually shows that DRM hurts sales. While Transgaming is obviously proud of this decision, claiming that SecuROM will help them prevent piracy and unauthorized copying, most of the evidence shows that piracy will happen in spite of, and sometimes even because of restrictive DRM setups like Sony's. Transgaming is making a serious mistake here -- they want to protect their games, which is fine. But choosing DRM, especially SecuROM, as a way to do it is a mistake. It'll cause more problems for the company and their users before it prevents piracy in the way they think it will.

[via IMG]