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The Rumour Mine: Final Fantasy Tactics and Dungeon Defenders out in December, Mega Man II for Capcom Arcade

Two gaming gifts just in time for the holidays

The Rumour Mine: Final Fantasy Tactics and Dungeon Defenders out in December, Mega Man II for Capcom Arcade
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Prepare yourself for a deluge of iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad games. Every year the holiday season comes with a slew of new titles and 2010 is no different, with all kinds of promising role-playing games, shooters, and puzzlers in the pipeline.

While we know a few of the big games expected over the next few weeks - Infinity Blade, RAGE: Mutant Bash TV, Dungeon Hunter 2 - there are a few in this week's mine that are sure to make you double-take.

Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions looks on track for December, as does the colourful Dungeon Defenders.

What games do you hope make it out in time for the holidays?

Mega Man titles to be released via Capcom Arcade

You're among friends if you were disappointed with the initial launch of freemium arcade game compilation Capcom Arcade. While there are many, many, many problems with it, the biggest issue is the games themselves. That may change if Capcom can nail ports of early Mega Man games.

Mega Man II is first up, though it needs work to play better than the standalone version released two years ago. Capcom has attempted to address complaints about the controls, and they need tuning to ensure tight control for this tough side-scrolling action game.

If Capcom can deliver a workable control scheme, releasing Mega Man instalments would be a great way of saving Capcom Arcade.

Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions scheduled for December

Final Fantasy TacticsAfter failing to hit the original September 15th release date, Square Enix looks to have shifted the release of Final Fantasy Tactics to December.

While a hard date can only be speculated, it's looking likely that the game will appear for sale just in time for the holidays.

Newly released video footage of an unrelated role-playing game, Secret of Mana, points to a release for that game before the end of November. As such, that makes it unlikely that Final Fantasy Tactics would be released in November.

The extra development time may been spent improving the game's presentation and performance. Calls for Retina display support for iPhone 4 and fourth-generation iPod touch devices have been strong, so it's conceivable that the game has been upgraded with that in mind. Keep your fingers crossed.

Tower defence RPG Dungeon Defenders out next month

Dungeon DefendersIt's crunch time for developers hoping to release games before the end of the year, especially for studios like Trendy Entertainment, which is working around the clock to hit that deadline. The company's highly promising tower defence role-playing game Dungeon Defenders is gearing up for a December debut.

Revealed for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad a few weeks ago, the game has been on a development fast track. Certification failures have resulted in the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC versions being delayed until 2011. However, the portable editions are still on track for the end of the year.

If the rumour is true, Dungeon Defenders will join Sonic The Hedgehog 4, Episode 1 as yet another console release one-upped by iPhone and iPad.