The funny thing is, Phantom Hourglass would make an almost flawless transition to the iPhone. I haven't played Spirit Tracks yet, but I'm guessing it probably would, too.

Nordlead makes the crucial point, though. Apple's touch platforms have moved hardware units comparable to the DS and sold billions of apps. It's had DS ports. It's had exclusive games developed for it which might have been made for DS instead (lots of iPhone apps showing up on DSiWare). The DS platform hasn't noticed a thing.

I still think that it's a looming threat, but it certainly hasn't materialized as a real challenger yet. It's mostly selling games to people who had no intention of buying a handheld console.

not the iphone as it is now, not at all. Graphically the iphone is fine, but the controls won't work for many games. They have to someone make it a gaming device without taking away from the phone. Nintendo will probably come up with a new innovative device that the iphone can't replicate while still being a phone anyway.

While you are right in that the support is not as strong as the DS (it is surpassing the psp, imo), I can't really take your opinions on those games you listed, because they are that, your opinions. Like I said though, the support is new, and slow right now from japanese publishers.  square enix has about 5 full games, koei has an ROTK, atlus has 1, while konami has published 11 titles.

If we are just looking at big support from any dev (not just japanese), American and european devs are utilizing the device better.

EA, for example has about 41 premium apps, and ubisoft+Gameloft have 6+57 apps. Activision even released an exclusive CoD game.

Then you have the big name iPhone specific indie devs like ngmoco, freeverse and Tapulous.

http://www.9to5mac.com/flock_gaming_568999

"Looks like Apple’s got a chance of eclipsing Nintendo in the gaming space, with developers flocking to the iPhone at the relative expense of the Wii. Game Developer Research observes the sea change, saying developers creating games for mobile phones increased to 25 percent, up from 12 percent a year ago - and of these, three in four are creating for the iPhone OS.

There’s more than twice as many developers making iPhone games as there are making games for the Nintendo DS or Sony PSP. These claims come from a survey of 800 game developers in North America and published inside a 100-page report on the State of Game Development."

They may not all be from big name devs, but that's still a damned impressive numbers no matter how you try to spin it.

Iphone + onlive = epic win.

No, they aren't just my opinions. Those games are merely remakes/ports, not new games and RE: Degeneration game has a flawed gameplay, bad soundtrack and bad plot, it's a technical fact. We can't even compare this game to the RE: Director's Cut and I doubt you played it beause you would agree with me that there are a lot of technical problems in this game.

SE has 5 full games and they aren't remakes or a ports? Can you name a few games, please?

Which of those EA or Ubisoft games aren't similar to cellphone games or crap games (more from the Ubisoft side)? Remember, I had an Iphone, so I know what I am talking about.

Are you talking about "Call of Duty World at War: Zombies"? If you played this game you know that it has nothing to do with a normal COD game, it's just a mode from "World at War", we can say that it's another remake, but this time, a remake from a "mode" and not from a full game. The gameplay (again) is flawed, you can give it a try in your Iphone as I did or watch this video. Also, the DS has 3 normal COD games and 1 has a completely new campaign exclusively for the DS.

As for PSP and Iphone:

-PSP has a strong line-up of RPGs and racing games, we can't say the same thing about the Iphone (yes, there are a few racing games on the Iphone like Asphalt but not with the same quality, quantity and variety of the PSP games)

-PSP has a strong line-up of sport games with quality and variety and you can't play a decent Tony Hawk on the Iphone (this is what happens when you try to play a skateboarding game on the Iphone or ZuneHD, bad gameplay). 

-PSP has a strong line-up of fighting games and you simply can't play a decent fighting game on the Iphone.

"There’s more than twice as many developers making iPhone games as there are making games for the Nintendo DS or Sony PSP."

Which is not necessarily a good thing, since they can make mediocre games, good support isn't equal to quantity alone, but quantity and quality.

Did you noticed something? The Iphone is an incredible and strong device, but the lack of physical buttons is killing the poor thing (as a portable gaming device). I can see it as a strong platform but not with a strong line-up (in general) if it doesn't works with some popular genres.

An impressive number of games doesn't mean an impressive number of quality and diversity, that's the problem with the Iphone.

Iphone + physical buttons = more quality, better gameplay and better support.

As I said, the Iphone is a strong device and I understand that some people will be upset with me (and I am sorry) but the Iphone has 2 big problems making it impossible to kill the PSP or DS.

Can the next Apple handheld kill the next Nintendo/Sony handheld? No, because the DS and PSP has a strong and known first party support (Mario, Zelda, Metroid, God Of War, Gran Turismo, Pokémon etc etc), but I believe that the next Apple handheld can come close to the next traditional handhelds if it has physical buttons.

Everything you just said completely applies to the DS and PSP regarding what games developers make. Escpecially your comment about EA and other such big name devs.

Yes, the lack of physical buttons hurts the device, but it doesn't mean good gaming experiences can't be had on it. It doesn't kill every game made on the device. But games adapt. For better or worse, like with the psp and it's missing second analogue stick.

But I am not saying the iPhone library is better than those libraries. In terms of new releases, iPhone has a load more variety than the psp does (that's what I meant by passing the psp). The iPhone gets new games every day. Psp is lucky to get a new game(s) a month. The DS has no problem. But I think that more Western devs are starting to support the iPhone over it in terms of big games.

I just think iPhone can other both hardcore and casual games on the device. And the digital distribution model is very, very attractive for devs.. It won't take traditional handhelds out soon, but in the future there won't be a need for them when every cellphone and multimedia device has some kind of game market. It's all about convenience. I'm not saying I support it, but in the future I can things going that way. Does it mean it will be a better device for playing games? Definetly not. But when everybody already has the system, you can see how dominance can be gotten.

Non-traditional handheld devices have the tech to support the games, and developers are throwing support at it.

oh yeah, iPhone is also getting the Phoenix wright series :-p

i have a Ipod Touch , and its games suck..for me at least..sure it has a few good ports. but why not get them on PSP or DS with BUTTONS ? And IMO PSP does games Video and Music better then Ipod touch while DS Does GAMING far Better then Both , only thing really better then psp/ds on the ipod touch is its Internet Browser and App store , i was always hearing about how great the app store is. this and that, its not that great.

When Ipod Touch Gets real Buttons , And great Exclusives let me know

I keep hearing quantity=/= quality from you.. But do you look at the libraries of the DS and PSP? Shovelware outnumbers good games on both systems. You might say that they still have more high quality and impressive game, but think out the release dates of all of them:

2004/05 for the PSP and DS, while the iPhone OS app store came out in 2008. The psp and ds libraries are about 5 years old, the app store is only 2 years old. I would say just give it time. The late ports still bolster the iPhone library, whether you like it or not. The fact is, devs needed to see if it would be a viable platform, and it is. And while they were busy analyzing, indie devs reined, and created new dev powerhouses with growing legitimacy.

Nonetheless, people are buying up digital distributed games for the iPhone. Nintendo and sony sensed this and launched their own digital services. You can't think that was sure coincedence?

Probably not untill some game comes out that everyone wants to play. For now I say just use it as a paperweight.