Earlier this morning, developer Taito briefly announced on their Twitter the existence of a game called Bubble Bobble Double for iPhone and iPod touch devices. The initial tweet had nothing more than the shot of the title screen that you can see to the right, but just about an hour ago they uploaded a video of early in-game footage of Bubble Bobble Double. Taito had originally announced the existence of a Bubble Bobble game for iOS devices back at E3 in June, and this is what our own Eli Hodapp had to say about the possibility of such an immense classic coming to the iPhone:

The next retro classic Taito is bringing to the App Store is�Bubble Bobble, and I doubt I'm alone in hoping this game gets the same amazing treatment as�Space Invaders did in�Space Invaders Infinity Gene [$4.99]. Today all they were able to show is a basic demo of the game running with touch controls, but they assured me that�Bubble Bobble for the iPhone would feature both a "retro" mode, and a new game mode they weren't willing to talk any specifics beyond telling me to not "expect something just like the original."

The video that Taito released tonight shows the new gameplay mode hinted at at E3:

I have to admit, I have no idea what is going on in this video. But I'm definitely intrigued. Taito notes in one of their tweets that Bubble Bobble Double will include a faithful recreation of the original arcade game as well as this brand new mode. A decent version of the original running on my iPhone is enough reason for me to get excited about this release, and Taito has proven that they can deliver a fresh take on an old gameplay concept with Space Invaders Infinity Gene giving me reason to be excited about this new mode as well. No word on a release date or pricing yet, but you can join in on the discussion of the game in our forums and we'll bring you any new information on Bubble Bobble Double as it becomes available.

Developer Cyan Worlds, who have previously brought their classic graphic adventure game Myst [$4.99/Lite] to the iPhone, have just released their newest iOS game Stoneship [$2.99] into the App Store. We first brought word of Stoneship last month, followed by a gallery of exclusive screenshots and a look at a teaser trailer provided by Cyan Worlds. Just over a week ago, coincidentally on International Talk Like a Pirate Day, we took an extensive look at a near-final build of Stoneship that the developer had sent us. Here are a few excerpts from that preview that explain the gameplay found in Stoneship:

Stoneship sets you and your first mate on the high seas, charged with exploring, controlling, and protecting vast oceans and islands, under continual threat of pirate sieges and tangles with ghastly monsters from the deep. The game is played by moving about any given level, uncovering obscured blocks of both land and sea in an attempt to discover ports, and temples (and, as a result, weaponry) as well as rafts of men lost at sea who will join your forces, as well as the location of any pirate ships that make your forces necessary in the first place.

Once you find a port, it becomes your own…as well as a target for pirates in the area. Each level has a set number of moves you're permitted to execute before the inevitable pirate onslaught ensues. Multiple ports can be linked together to allow resource (battle-ready men) sharing, which is all about shifting men from port to port in the 10 second count-down before the pirate attack comes. Of course, you can only set things up to your advantage here if you've uncovered the location of the lurking pirates in your set number of turns. If not, the pirates come from one of the remaining hidden blocks on the map (which is pretty much a bad thing).

The core play mode is Campaign, which is a round-to-round push through the eighty three included levels (with additional levels to come later via update). A Challenge mode is also offered, which is a sort-of pick and choose affair.

In the following video from our preview, we detail practically the entire tutorial to give a thorough idea on how the game works. It's a bit slow-going, although highly �informative, and if you like you can skip ahead to the 6:00 minute mark to catch some footage of in-game battles playing out in Stoneship:

Make sure you take a look at our entire preview for even more information on Stoneship, and as always you can find impressions of the game in the Stoneship release thread in our forums.

We've been following Sega's development of Sonic 4 for most of 2010. In February, we weren't even sure if Sonic was coming to the App Store, and only assumed based on a cryptic image on the Sonic 4 web site that it might be. It wasn't until late may that Sega even confirmed that the game was coming to the iPhone, but unfortunately that announcement also came hand and hand with Sega pushing the release date back to the second half of 2010. In mid-June we got a hands on at E3, and even though the game was obviously an incredibly early build, it still knocked our socks off. Finally, early this month we were given a hands-on of a fairly complete build of the game, and once again, our jaws hit the floor.

Today Sega announced the official release date for Sonic 4, and strangely enough, it will hit the App Store before all the other platforms on October 7th. Following that, it will appear on the Wii on October 11th, PlayStation Network on October 12th, and Xbox Live Arcade on October 13th. Needless to say, as soon as we get our hands on the final game we'll post a full review.