Veteran Developers Turning to Smart Phones, Stan Lee and Hiroyuki Ito

It seems to be the big trend these days. Aging entertainment veterans and game developers are taking to the iOS and Android markets to crank out a few pet projects. Recently, Mega Man creator Keiji Inafune released his free-to-play run n' gunner J.J. Rockets for the Android market in Japan, and Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi released a silly little surfing game of all things called Party Wave.

Two more familiar names have followed in step. First up is a man who needs no introduction: Stan Lee, co-creator of just about every major Marvel superhero, recently announced a new iOS game he will be creating with Controlled Chaos Media called Verticus.

The teaser trailer starts with an armored hero staring down at Earth being bombarded by an alien race, penetrating the Earth's mantle to create a doomsday device at the core. Only the hero and his velocity empowered suit can create reach the speed needed to crack the planet and reach the core in time. The aliens aren't going to make it easy on him, so he has to dodge obstacles, destroy enemy ships, and collect rings during his descent.

Another industry veteran has also turned his towards a personal project as well. Hiroyuki Ito might not be as well known as a few other Square Enix big hitters dabbing in Final Fantasy since the beginning, but his contributions to the series have revolutionized the RPG genre. Mostly focused on reworking the familiar battle systems, his greatest claims-to-fame are creating Final Fantasy IV's Active Time Battle system, which has been used in just about every game in the series since, and reworking Final Fantasy into a strategy game in Final Fantasy Tactics.

Obviously knowing a few things about creating battles, his iOS game is a free-to-play card based RPG titled Guardian Cross that's published by Square Enix. Travel the world hunting Guardians to create magic cards, and use them to defeat ancient beasts rising from their eternal slumber. Fan reaction is pretty strong at the moment, so check it out. It's free, after all.