It's written in the United States' constitution that every holiday must be honored with a sale or two on the App Store. No joke � it's a new law according to yet another wiki page that I just finished vandalizing. If you're interested, the law is sandwiched between the "freedom of press" thing and that other law about how all American babies should be named after me.

Anyway, it's with great honor that I tell you about Gameloft's massive $.99 Father's Day sale, a sale meant to stir your loins and your wallet. I can't pin down a rhyme or reason for what games are being offered at their discounted rates, but hey, they're cheap and I think that's all that matters at the end of the day.

Here's the list. The first link you'll see is connected to a write-up of ours about the game, while the second will take you straight to the App Store:

Eternal Legacy � 99�
Eternal Legacy HD � 99�
Fast Five: The Movie: Official Game � 99�
Fast Five: The Movie: Official Game: HD � 99�
Fishing Kings � 99�
Gangstar: Miami Vindication � 99�
Gangstar: Miami Vindication HD � 99�
NFL 2011 � 99�
NFL 2011 HD � 99�
Order & Chaos Online � 99� [Universal]
Real Soccer 2011 � 99�
Real Soccer 2011 HD � 99�
Spider-Man: Total Mayhem � 99�
Spider-Man � Total Mayhem HD � 99�

You know, maybe these are supposed to be games that father's dig? My dad refuses to play anything without the words "King's Quest" or "Hearts" in the title, but to each his own I suppose.

Last night, TechCrunch leaked some details of a new initiative taking place over at Facebook called "Project Spartan." This project aims to utilize HTML5 to free Facebook (and Facebook games) from App Store dependence, essentially putting the ball back in Facebook's hands for control over their platform. If you're not privy to the differences between HTML5 and native apps downloaded through the App Store, I'll break it down for you real quick so you can understand why this matters:

Currently, if you want to release an app or game on the App Store, you need to build it in Xcode using C, C++, or Objective-C, using the documented API's available for developers. To submit said game/app to the App Store, you need a valid developer account which costs $99 a year and your game/app needs to abide by Apple's guidelines. Updates to existing games/apps need to go through the same process, and pushing an update out not only requires an additional trip through the week (or more) long approval process, but also depends on users to actually download said update. When you think about it that way, there sure are a lot of hoops to jump through.

Alternatively, your can build your game/app using HTML5. This won't allow you to access many of the features and functionality of the device as easily (or, really, at all) compared to a native app, but taking this road puts the developer in the driver seat instead of Apple. There are other drawbacks as well, such as requiring online connectivity, although clever resource caching can get around this to some extent, and until WebGL support matures there's not really an easy way to do any kind of 3D.

Where a HTML5 distribution model greatly favors Facebook and social game developers like Zynga is that they can instantly and seamlessly push out updates to their platform. In fact, one of the original criticisms that Zynga had, and one of the reasons why Farmville [Free] took so long to be released on the App Store is that the week or longer delays for each update doesn't jive with Zynga's rapid-fire update model. Those of you who are familiar with Zynga Facebook games are fully aware, but it seems like there's something new being added on a near-daily basis.

In addition, by utilizing your own payment infrastructure with your HTML5 game/app, you're able to completely sidestep Apple's required 30% cut. While coming up with an entire payment system might be too much for most developers to handle, Facebook already has their credits system in place that millions of people are already using today. Also, when you're looking at things in the scope of Facebook's massive userbase, that 30% savings that would have gone to Apple can easily add up to millions of dollars.

HTML5 works great for games as Sarien.net proved a while back, and it's fantastic for apps as well. Give Google Docs a spin on your device for a great display of just what's possible with some clever coding. With these two examples, it's not hard to imagine what Facebook and Facebook game developers could come up with.

TechCrunch also notes another interesting aspect of Project Spartan: Even though Facebook is essentially pushing to distribute its content outside of the bounds of the App Store (and with 700m users, they likely have the muscle to do it), transitioning developers like Zynga to HTML5 and away from Flash only serves to further diminish Flash reliance in the gaming world.

Allegedly, 80 developers are currently involved in Project Spartan. It's hard to imagine this having much of an impact on the App Store in general, but historically speaking, underestimating the power of Facebook has been a terrible thing to do.

[via TechCrunch]

When EA released Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 [99�/HD] last December, it struck me as kind of a strange release. It wasn't a direct port of the original arcade game, though it did retain the original music and sound effects. Instead it was a brand new version of that game completely redone with 3D graphics, and it also came with a healthy cut in the roster and number of arenas. The move to 3D visuals was puzzling as it somewhat alienated the fans of the original game, but at the same time they looked pretty sweet. The character models were kind of blocky, but the new 3D backgrounds looked absolutely fantastic, especially at high resolution on the Retina Display.

So looking past the dramatic visual change, whether you loved it or hated it, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 was actually a competent little fighter on the iPhone, and I wound up liking it quite a bit in our review. The virtual buttons worked about as well as you could expect them to in a fighting game, despite some instances of inconsistent responsiveness. An iPad version was released a couple of months later, and came with an interesting (but not very practical) same-device multiplayer mode and more detailed graphics. Personally, I also found the game easier to play on the iPad with the larger screen.

The major issue I had with Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 on iOS was that for some reason the developers only included roughly half of the original fighters, and only 10 of the arenas. I can deal with new graphics and less than ideal controls, but at least give me the complete experience when I'm trying to get my Mortal Kombat nostalgia fix while waiting for the bus. Thankfully, today EA has released a major update to Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 that does just that. You can now choose from the full roster of more than 20 characters from the original game, and the 6 arena backgrounds that were missing in the initial release are included too.�I'm also happy to report that the weird occasional control lag that I mentioned in the review of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 seems to have disappeared as well, though there's no mention of this in the update description.

Check out the paltry selection of fighters in the pre-update screen on the left, compared to the full roster of the arcade game post-update on the right:

With my two major complaints now taken care of, the lack of characters and the wonky controls, I'm now having even more fun with Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 on iOS. It's not perfect, and it's not quite up to par with Street Fighter IV [$1.99] as far as touch screen fighters go, but as a huge fan of the series I love having a version to carry around in my pocket at all times. If you're also a Mortal Kombat fan then you should easily get a dollar's worth of enjoyment out of the game. The iPad version is slightly superior in my opinion, but it also comes in at five times the price.

Even though it took a while, I'm glad EA came through with an update for Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 that completes the game, and I would really love to see other entries in the series brought to iOS in similar fashion.

Last month, FuzzyCube Software released iQuarterback 2 [Free] for the iPad and we thought it was pretty fun in our review. Gameplay involved tossing footballs into targets that were either stationary or moved laterally across the field. Just touching where you wanted a pass to go would send the football flying there, and the real fun was in trying to lead your passes to compensate for the moving targets. Being able to correctly judge where to put the ball so it intercepts a particularly fast-moving target was a hugely satisfying experience.

You can now get this experience in a more diminutive package for your iPhone or iPod touch called iQuarterback 2 Pocket Edition [Free]. We checked out Pocket Edition at WWDC this year, and when I first saw it I thought for sure the smaller size would make the game more difficult to play. Then I got my hands on the game and found out that iQuarterback 2 actually plays wonderfully on the iPhone and iPod touch. Both versions of the game were recently updated with improved hit detection on the targets, and the accuracy really feels much tighter now, even on the smaller screen.

As with the iPad version of iQuarterback 2, the Pocket Edition is completely free to download and play. It's ad-supported, and this is one aspect where the Pocket Edition comes up short compared to its bigger brother. Whereas on the iPad the ads run at the bottom of the screen and are almost completely unobtrusive, on the iPhone a full screen ad runs after the end of a round. It's completely in your face and awkward to skip past, so if you like the game then I'd definitely recommend disabling the ads through the 99� in-app purchase.

Other than that though the two versions are pretty much identical, and both are a lot of fun. There's a couple of different modes to compete in with Game Center leaderboards and achievements, and there's also some cool unlockable outfits and items which can give you some unique abilities when playing, and are also quite humorous. Best of all is that iQuarterback 2 is free, and the new Pocket Edition plays great, so there's really no reason not to download and check out either version of the game.