While we covered the game's announcement last week, today we had time to see the game in person at GDC. After spending time with it, Pocket Creatures seems a surprisingly complex experience. Soendergaard didn't want this to be considered just another pet game. Instead, he describes the game as an open world sandbox experience partly inspired by Black and White.

The game opens on a deserted island where you find a mysterious egg on an alter in an ancient temple. The egg hatches and you are responsible for the care of the creature. You can treat your creature with love or hate and condition it's behavior based on positive or negative feedback. Environmental objects and creatures can be used and combined in surprisingly complex ways.

Morten Svendsen walked us through the various interactions in the game:

Rubbing on screen will give your creature love/affection while swiping across the screen will slap/hit your creature. Feed it a banana and then slap it, and it will learn to hate bananas and avoid them in the future. Various objects and tools can be combined in different ways (seeds + water + manure = growing plant).

The game keeps running track of all the relationships between the creature and its environment, and the creature will act autonomously even without your interaction and will behave based on this previous conditioning. Meanwhile, different achievements unlock cosmetic add-ons, such as horns or wings, so you can customize your creature's look.

The game remains in pre-beta so the video does not represent the final visuals, which will be further enhanced. Overall, though, I was surprised and impressed at the depth of interaction for the creature and its environment. It was definitely beyond my initial expectations of a "pet" game, so I recommend at least watching through the video to see it in action. The game is about to go into beta, and should be coming in the next month or two.

Following a series of complicated business deals involving his former company, Simutronics, Whatley will soon be focusing full time on game development. Formerly, Critical Thought Games was a very small operation that existed entirely out of David's spare time. In the not too distant future, Critical Thought Games will be expanding, adding employees and setting up a brand new office to build iPhone, iPad, and various Facebook social games.

Fans of the geoDefense series will be happy to know that one of these new games they're working on is geoDefense 2. Initially the sequel will be iPad-only, with levels and gameplay that take advantage of the increased screen real estate available on the device. It will share the same graphical style, only this time instead of a small array of towers with deep upgrade paths, Whatley is debating a Plants vs. Zombies style game that just has tons of different towers to utilize.

Things with geoDefense 2 are still in the air while the new Critical Thought Games offices and staff get settled, but David assured us he does have plans to adapt the iPad version of the game to the iPhone as well. Needless to say, once more details are available on geoDefense 2, we'll post them.

The Graveyard is not really game, I feel more comfortable describing it as interactive art or poetry. You can argue that’s what games are but after playing this I feel that the word game doesn’t do it justice. But to make writing this a little easier I will pretend I can call this a game.

You play the game as an old lady visiting a graveyard. Your only clear objective is a park bench at the end of the path. I could tell you more but I would spoil it for you. I know that sounds amazingly too simple, but when you play the game you will see there is so much more. I don’t understand it myself, but the game really makes you think about life.

I would suggest downloading the lite version and giving it a try. I would also wait to play the game when you’re alone in a quiet place to get the full effect.

The developer says that there are only a few differences between the computer and iPhone versions. If you do end up trying the lite and enjoying it, download the full version and it will introduce death into the game. I know that doesn’t sound like much but it adds the sense of urgency.

App Store Link: The Graveyard, $1.99, The Graveyard Lite, Free

[via CreativeApplications.net]

Details about the new game are extremely limited. At the moment all we have is a blog post on Nitrome’s website and a trailer you saw above. If you want to get an idea for how the game will play you can check out the flash version on their website. The game reminds me of Hook Champ, which was a big hit last year.

No release date set yet but they plan to have the game out later this year. Keep an eye on the discussion in our forum for more details.

The game is beautifully illustrated and animated super hero game. You control your hero by using a virtual joystick in the bottom right corner, and can speed up by mashing the on-screen button on the bottom right corner. The controls work well enough, although making precise movements can be challenging as you can't just stop in mid-air and turn around, your hero has to go through his whole turning around animation before you can go the other way.

Here's our hands on video:

First impressions from our forums seem positive, and we'll take a closer look in the near future.

App Store Link: The Hero, $1.99

GDC also includes the usual other game related activities, booths and announcements. The IGF mobile finalists will be on demo with a final award ceremony later this week.

One interesting pre-announcement we were sent was from Steph Thirion, the creator of Eliss. Thirion will be introducing his next game Faraway at GDC.

Like Eliss, Faraway is an original concept, and is set in space, but the new game drastically increases the scale of the play area. While Eliss was about planets and space management in sectors, Faraway will be about constellations and infinite space travel.

Faraway will be one of six "one button games" that will be featured at Gamma 4 on Wednesday.

We expect there to be an avalanche of iPhone news coming throughout this week. If you are an iPhone developer in the area, come to the IUGO iPhone Developer Party which we are co-sponsoring. Or track us down via twitter (@arnoldkim, @hodapp, @blakespot) for after hour events.

The party is on Wednesday, March 10, 8pm in the Marriott Lobby Bar, right across the road from Moscone Center West. Drinks sponsored by Team Phobic, Touch Arcade, Venan Entertainment and IUGO.

XS Games, a New York based publisher, announced Friday that they plan to release an iPhone and PSPgo port of “The Red Star” early this spring. The Red Star was a popular shooter/action game for the Playstation 2 that was based off the graphic novel of the same name.

The game was a blend of top down shooting and side scrolling beat ’em levels. It also had some RPG elements, with characters being able to upgraded abilities at the end of levels.

Here is a trailer for the PS2 version:

XS Games says that both the PSPgo and iPhone are the perfect new home for the game. They say by releasing the game on these platforms it will allow them to improve the game play and graphics of the game while keeping the price fair. We will have to wait till spring to see if they deliver.

Screenshots of the iPhone version:

Our final scores are not the product of any traditionally objective measures such as graphics or sound, but simply reflect the games we would most recommend to others.

5 Stars

Space Miner – It's probably no surprise that this game topped our list for February. Space Miner: Space Ore Bust has an unusually broad appeal successfully mixing shooter and RPG genres into a humorous and well scripted package. Whatever sort of gamer you are, don't miss out on this one. (Review, App Store)

Plants vs. Zombies – Popcap's breakout hit for PC has come to the iPhone — and it's great. Popcap took the standard tower defense formula and greatly simplified it. Instead of a path to build towers along, you drop seeds in your yard which then grow in to plants that have various offensive or defensive capabilities. While it does lack a few gameplay modes from the original, the iPhone adaption is very well done and highly recommended. (Review, App Store)

4.5 Stars

Doom II RPG – Like Wolfenstein RPG before it, id Software’s latest venture into the world of Doom has more in common with turn-based dungeon hacks than twitch shooters. While it may seem like a strange direction for the franchise to explore, it really works. The excellent game design kept us on the edge of our seats throughout. (Review, App Store)

X2 Snowboarding – We were happy to report in February that a quality snowboarding title had finally landed on the iPhone. X2 Snowboarding from Exient is a highly enjoyable romp on the slopes that sets itself apart from the crowd in graphics, controls and gameplay. With a great sense of speed and immersion, this is our snowboarding game of choice for the iPhone. (Review, App Store / Lite)

The rest of February game ratings can be seen in their respective rating categories (also found in the sidebar navigation): 5 Stars, 4.5 Stars, 4 Stars, 3.5 Stars, 3 Stars, and 2 Stars.

As always, we expect there will be some debate about relative scores, but keep in mind that everyone's personal ratings may vary based on individual tastes.

Mole is a game that, on the surface resembles classic Dig Dug, but is really a deeper game (sorry) that's much more about scoring up in order to better equip your character than simple arcade action. In Mole, you start off as a rather ill-equipped Mark the mole that can't do much beyond burrow about the top-most layer of the six-layer underground world that hides the fabled Terracore Gem (in the deepest layer, of course). While burrowing, you can pick up various precious metals and gems, and they can be used to up your gear in the equip shop — and better gear is what really opens up the game. It's a gear-to-gameplay dynamic that's reminiscent of that in Hook Champ.

The aforementioned shop offers air tanks, pick axes, gem detectors, and the like for the player with enough metal. All of them help you on your quest, but the most important upgrade would have to be the air tanks, for, despite the occasional pockets of air that can be found in some (but not all) of the underground layers, you're not going to get very deep without some serious tankage. And the Terracore Gem lies deep.

The game offers very simplistic controls that work quite well; tap out some distance from your mole and he'll move there or just hold and drag in the direction you want to travel. The arrangement of on-screen indicators can be adjusted for left or right players, as well.

See the developer's gameplay video.

This is one of those games that delivers just a really nice balance between light playfield strategy (how deep should you go with your limited oxygen supply?) and asset allocation (how best to spend money in the shop?). If break-neck arcade action is what you're after, then Mole – Quest for the Terracore Gem! will disappoint, but for the gamer that can weigh risks and keep their eye on the goal, this one is a true hidden gem.

In honor of the Game Developers Conference 2010, Mole is free until Sunday, March 14th.

App Store Link: Mole – Quest for the Terracore Gem, Free (limited time, normally $1.99)

Earlier this year we posted screenshots of Zen Bound 2 running on a 3GS with very little details about the finished game. The new screenshots we were sent today only show the iPad. At this point it seems like they are focused on the iPad version for launch, with iPhone version possibly coming at a later date.

What we do is know, the new version will include upgraded versions of the levels in the last game and brand new levels with new kinds of gameplay. It will also include the same great sound track from Ghost Monkey with a few new songs thrown in. You can listen to one now on sound cloud.

They plan to have the game ready in time for the iPad launch in April. There has been a lot of discussion in our forums about this highly anticipated game.

Screenshots: