The narrative about the demise of portable gaming has persisted since before the iPhone’s release and continues with last month’s release of Sony’s PlayStation Vita. Industry analysts cited the lower cost and high popularity of the iPhone as a death knell for portable gaming with its dedicated devices and $40 games. The truth is, mobile gaming and portable gaming are really two different markets and cross-pollinate more than people like to think.

iOS and Android games have exploded into their own market. Angry Birds is a genre defining cultural phenomenon. How many Words With Friends games do you have open right now? The market for free/chap, easy-to-play, casual experiences is booming and there is no better place to play those games than on a smartphone or tablet. But that’s slowly changing.

The mobile gaming development community designs games for rapid consumption on mobile devices. Sony has had trouble in the past with regurgitations of console experiences on handhelds, which doesn’t work well all the time; only a small segment of society want to play a 40 hour RPG on their bus rides. As a result, mobile developers oftentimes cut their teeth in the iOS/Android market and then use their mobile acumen to design games for the 3DS or Vita that are more robust but distinctly portable experiences.

The sales figures on the PS Vita – 1.2 million worldwide as of Feb. 2012 – are impressive by portable standards, though not as staggering as smartphone sales. Comparing the PS Vita to the 3DS makes sense, while comparing either device to a smartphone doesn’t. They’re essentially different platforms with different abilities and different properties.

Mobile gaming hits a different market of consumers than portable gaming. Sure, the two overlap to a point, but the people who buy an iPhone or an Android do so to have a phone and a mobile device first. How many consumers rush out and purchase an iPhone 4S for an Angry Birds update? The games on these platforms are just an added bonus and not the reason to purchase the device in the first place.

The market for portable consoles is controlled by other desires. Buyers want the newest launch titles and the depth of gameplay that most mobile games lack, according to Brendan Sinclair from GameSpot. They want buttons for their games, not inaccurate touchscreens! They buy the platform that supports the titles they want to play — exclusive titles in many cases. If players want the newest Mario game they need to buy a 3DS and many are more than willing to shell out the cash. Of course it’s not the same number of people who will spend 99 cents on an iPhone game they might play once and never look at again. The mindsets behind the purchases are totally different.

The numbers behind the failure of the handheld gaming consoles don’t stack up either. The original DS beat the Gameboy as the highest selling portable console in U.S. history (51 million sold). In the first year of its life the 3DS sold 4.5 million units in the U.S. alone. There’s little doubt it won’t beat the original DS in terms of sales in the long run, but it’s unrealistic to think it could. Not to mention, the ‘failure’ is more of a moderate success. It doesn’t mean the end of portable gaming but rather a shift, according to Eric Caolli of Tiny Cartridge.

The mobile market is already cornering the casual crowd, while the market for systems like the PS Vita and 3DS is moving to a smaller base, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing for dedicated gamers. It means Nintendo might stop mucking up their systems with third-party stinkers and get back to some solid titles for once. If portable gaming has to ‘die’ for that to happen, I hope the zombie corpse that comes back has some cool games on it.

Mobile Linebacker puts you in the defense line of football as a linebacker. The developer guys at VIVA! Vision Inc. and VODA digital LLC probably figured that kids nowadays are woosies and should learn to catch some hits. After all, offense is just a matter of having guts; defense is all about being a real man and fighting ’til the end!

The game includes about 20 new plays, and was developed in collaboration with some kings of defense such as Joe Tafoya of the Arizone Cardinals, Chike Okeafor of the San Francisco 49ers and Running Back Kerry Carter of the Seattle Seahawks amongst others.

Today, a new update for the game was released, a reason for us to finally write about this game as it’s unique in the field of sports games for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

Galcon
There are a handful of great space-themed games on the iPhone, but Galcon sets itself apart. It’s a re-spawn of the classic Galactic Conquest, but optimized for the touch screen and multiplayer. In Galcon, you start with a home planet (or planets), and then attempt to conquer those around you. If you control a planet, it creates ships for you. You can send out the fleet all at once, or stockpile part of them to wait in defense. Sending out 70 percent of your ships could be the difference between keeping and losing your home planets, but you may not be able to conquer enemy-controlled planets without more.

Despite the seemingly complex gameplay, the mechanics are simple. Touch a planet to travel to it or to attack, and then indicate what percentage of your ships you’re sending. Consider yourself warned, though — the game is highly addicting. People tend to run down their cell phone batteries quickly trying to conquer the galaxy.

FieldRunners

Tower defense games have become almost cliché since Plants vs. Zombies blew up the genre. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t great games out there that have the same addictive powers minus the Miracle Grow.

FieldRunners is more of a classic take on tower defense that gives you nine different types of actual towers to protect your base with. You’ll have some success with just placing as many towers as you can around the base, but if you set up the towers to guide enemies into a maze of destruction that you control, you’ll really start seeing results. Some of the towers are designed for slowing enemies, whether by ice or by goo, while others like the lightning and mortar towers are built for raw force. They also all have different attack ranges, and some can do area damage while others are focused. The combination of several maps with different towers keeps the game interesting long after you’ve gotten your $2.99 worth of entertainment out of it.

Catan:

Tabletop gamers rejoice! The ever-popular board game Catan is on the iPhone. For those unfamiliar with the game, it centers around building up a medieval civilization by claiming spots on the interchangeable map that have access to brick, wool, grain, lumber, gold and ore. Build up your settlements into cities, and then protect them by fortifying them and adding a knight.

The principle seems easy enough, but when you’re racing for victory points against friends or the built-in AI, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact it’s just a game. You’ll likely find yourself looking up guides and reading about the different strategies. Between natural disasters, robbers, and competitions to see who can get the longest road, Catan is the most fun you’ll have for $3.99. Once you get the hang of it, you can also download the Seafarer expansion for even more fun with ports and shipping lanes.

Minecraft, perhaps the first game to have its own con before its official release, still isn’t coming to the iPhone just yet. Thanks to a nice deal made with Sony Xperia, indie darling Mojang has said that it will come to iOS, but Sony and Android will have a period of exclusivity. Details on exactly how long that will be haven’t surfaced yet, but publishers are saying it will be later this year.

For those who have missed it, Minecraft is a sandbox game that lets users build the world. Though it sounds a lot like Little Big Planet, Minecraft is more like virtual Legos, and LBP is like paper dolls. The world is seemingly endless, but the farther you go from point zero tends to have more bugs. Sound too constricting? The biggest map so far is nine times the size of the earth.

There are two versions of Minecraft in the Beta version. The first is creative mode, which lets users build structures without taking damage. Creatures still appear, but they can’t hurt players. Creative mode also gives you unlimited building supplies, similar to the first unpaid version of the game that surfaced. Survival mode features a health and hunger bar, and players can take damage by falling or because of creatures. They have to mine or find their own items, and they’ll need to acquire their own tools. The survival mode is new for the paid beta, and it’s proving a perfect challenge for experienced Minecraft players.

The free, classic version of Minecraft still thrives on the internet, but it’s no longer receiving updates. Likely, the world will continue existing for a few months after beta is released and developers will rely on the shiny bells and whistles of the paid version to draw free users in. The classic version will function nicely as a free-to-play lead-in to having players make the jump.

Minecraft, for those who enjoy living under their rock, has been rocketed to cult-status. It’s being used everywhere, even in classrooms. Joel Levin, an elementary school teacher has been using Minecraft to teach students about sharing, filling leadership roles and even settling disputes, giving new meaning to online education.

Minecraft is also being used to create music videos, dog parks and more.

When it does come to the iPhone, users can look forward to a version much like the Sony Xperia version. It will be scaled down slightly and probably use a mix of touch and traditional controls, which will be simulated on the iPhone. Since the iPhone is based on touch-controls only, chances are decent that if developers haven’t taken a lot of time on the project, it could come out slightly buggy.

However, that shouldn’t stop fans of the series from downloading it, and it certainly shouldn’t stop new devotees from joining. If you’re looking for a Minecraft-esque experience now, check out Minecraft World Explorer, which lets you download your Minecraft world into your phone. There are several other versions available, but World Explorer isn’t buggy and the controls work well.

Today Rushing Ninjas by the guys from Frostware Entertainment, the studio known for The Starchildren and Skycat, rushed into Apple’s App Store for iPhone and iPod Touch. This arcade-like game is the perfect way to test your multitasking skills in ninja style. Rushing Ninjas challenges you to get as many ninjas as possible through the screen without having them chopped into tiny pieces by cool but dangerous creatures like evil dragons. The game has Game Center support for all the leader board and achievement whores among you. Rushing Ninjas can be yours for $0.99.

Idyllic might sound a bit very idyllic for an iPhone game, even though it sure looks idyllic from the info and first media of the game. The game wants you to put on your jumping shoes to start jumping around in the idyllic world of the game to collect coins that allow you to upgrade. While jumping you need to defeat monsters that are trying to stop you. As you grow stronger, the world starts to evolve, the music idyllically changes and in turn makes the game even more… idyllic. Fatcow Games promises that the game’s concept is fresh and new, and that it should make the boarder that divides casual gamers from hardcore gamers even thinner. The game is due to appear in the App Store on September 22nd for both iOS devices.

Many mobile gamers still fancy Flipping burgers and a twist of strategy added to it, which is why G5 Entertainment released its third installment of the Stand O’Food series in the App Store for both iOS devices and the Androids. Ronnie the Chef is back in his Stand O’Food chain in Tinseltown where he meets Mr. Clarence and Nikki with whom he hooks up to tackle the evil Mr. Torg. Let’s see if your burger flippin’ skills are good enough to flip this troublesome douche! Stand O’Food 3 is now available for iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad.

Amongst this week’s Chillingo releases, we find a top-down western style shooter entitled Cowboy Guns for iPhone and iPod Touch. You’re The Kid, and don’t be fooled by your name because you’re fearless and taking on the deadly gang named Crimson Jackals in the Spaghetti Western steting of this nice-looking game. Hook-up with locals, take on different types of missions and become the ruler of the western worlds in this game by developer C2EStudio. Get the game in the App Store for 99 cents.

If there’s one game due for release this fall we easily got excited about, it must definitely be Shadowgun. The fine folks over at Madfinger Games announced that their much anticipated iPhone and iPad game is set for release in the App Store this September 28th. Shadowgun caught the attention of many mobile gamers at E3 and Gamescom when it first became clear how good the graphics are in the game. Take a look at the screenshots yourself, and you’ll immediately see that this game almost looks as good as a coneosle game.

Not only the graphics make this a much promising game, its unique concept that combines third person action with tactical combat will most likely also make us fall in love with the game. You play the role of John Slade who’s on a mission to hunt down Dr. Edgar Simon, a geneticist who used to work for the evil Toltech Enterprises corporations. The game’s story takes place in the year 2350, which means that you’ll come across a lot of futuristic, scary looking mutants, cyborgs and other space litter with some life in it.

When Crime City debuted, sweeping conclusions were made that it would fill the void in the iOS market for a new Grand Theft Auto (GTA). Others drew on the fact that former Zynga GM Ken Chiu was CEO of the new company and claimed his debut game would lean more towards a standard Farmville or Mafia Wars, backed by the bland, generic name.

In a rare display of universal foresight, it turns out that everyone was right.

Like Farmville, you have to build your city up. Depending on the strategy and the goals of the gamer, it can end up as an urban ghost town of empty buildings or a metropolitan culture mecca with statues, decorations and stores.

Like GTA, the game boasts a variety of cars and weapons you can acquire. Unlike it, though, most of these are gained by spending money, but you gain that money by fighting, mugging and robbing. A crime boss has to keep his city in line, and that requires no small amount of effort. As anyone with a criminal justice degree can tell you, controlling a group of criminals requires a firm hand and lots of time.

Also like Farmville and Mafia Wars, the game’s lifeblood exists in social media. Though you can play with no social interaction whatsoever, the structure of Crime City wholly encourages the game to act as a virtual thug-life playground for your network. You can connect with other players by sharing your unique nine-digit code. Once connected, the success of others in your mob helps your own progress in the game.

If you find you need some time to devote to other activities (school, work, sleep), you don’t have to worry about your empire falling out of your grasp. The program continues to run while you’re away so you can collect money, participate in fights and build your influence in your neighborhood without being on the app.

With a little effort and some money, your inventory can boast hammers, combat shotguns, pistols or even a tommy gun. The game’s graphics look innocent enough, but you can use these weapons to execute other gang members and pull off heists. Players reach new areas each time they level up until they reach level 40. Assuming you have some time to do the initial leveling up, the app is totally worth trying out.