Best of FingerGaming: From Crystal Defenders to Passage

[Every week, Gamasutra sums up sister iPhone site FingerGaming's top news and reviews for Apple's nascent -- and increasingly exciting -- portable games platform, as written by editor Matt Burris and guest editor Danny Cowan.] This week's notable items in the iPhone gaming space, as covered by FingerGaming, include Square Enix's Crystal Defenders, a port of Jason Rohrer's Passage, and the upcoming release of IGF-winner Crayon Physics for Apple's portable. Here are the top stories: Crayon Physics Gets iPhone Port in 2009 "Hudson Entertainment will be bringing the Independent Games Festival Grand Prize-winning Crayon Physics to the iPhone and iPod Touch. The title is scheduled to hit the App Store in early January, and possibly as soon as next week." Passage Debuts in iPhone App Store "Previously available as a PC freeware title, Passage comes to the iPhone this week as a direct port with a new touch-based control interface." Radio Flare Makes Intriguing App Store Appearance "Radio Flare takes the lock-on shooting mechanic found in console games like Rez and Panzer Dragoon and adapts it to fit the context of a touch-based shooter — one finger moves your ship, while another can be used to target multiple enemies in a single swipe." Square Enix's Crystal Defenders Makes iPhone Debut "Console RPG publisher Square Enix has released Crystal Defenders, a Tower Defense-styled strategy game featuring character classes from the Nintendo DS SRPG title Final Fantasy Tactics A2." i Love Katamari Patched, Features Improved Performance "The patch arrives in response to widespread reports of sluggish performance and unresponsive controls, which many buyers noted after the title’s release last week." MSX's Aleste Downloadable Now "The release is significant, as this new version of Aleste appears to be running via emulation software. All original aspects of the game are preserved — including the original MSX BIOS bootup screen — with an iPod/iPhone-specific control overlay added to the bottom of the gameplay screen."