The third installment of the widely popular mobile phone translation of the Metal Slug franchise is now out! I-play, together with games publisher SNK Playmore, has announced the global launch of Metal Slug Mobile 3.

This time around, players take hold of the bald muscle-bound soldier Sergeant Allen O'Neill as he plows his way through guns, tanks, helicopters, and more tanks to stop an alien zombie invasion to save his army. This newest addition to the classic arcade game franchise is jampacked with a slew of arsenals and a heavy dose of humor, which is characteristic of Metal Slug.

As you can see with the screenshots, Metal Slug Mobile 3 has several realistically-detailed levels drawn in that classic cartoony Metal Slug style. They look sweet so far, and we can't help but wish that our mobile phones batteries can hold out just enough for us to finish enjoying the game.

   

More screenshots after the jump!

International market research and market data company Research and Markets just announced that it has added "The Market for Portable Video Games" in its huge roster of studies. If you are not familiar with this company, you can actually think of it as a one-stop shop for market research reports and industry newsletters.

Anyway, like we said, a new report has been published that tackles the market for portable game systems. The study itself contains a detailed five-year forecast for each platform. Aside from that, the study also discusses the potential impact of yet-to-be released gadgets.

Aside from the above mentioned, a sub-report has been attached to the study that concerns the mobile game market and you can get a lot of insights from it given the round table discussion with leading players and visionaries in the mobile game space. The companies included in the study are:

• Atari (Atari Lynx)
• Bandai (Bandai Wonderswan)
• NEC (NEC Turboexpress)
• Nintendo (Game Boy, Virtual Boy, Game Boy Advance and Nintendo Ds)
• Nokia (Nokia N-Gage)
• Sega (Sega Game Gear and Sega Nomad)
• SNK (SNK Neo Geo Pocket Color)
• Sony (Sony PSP)
• Tiger (Tiger Gamecom and Tiger Telematics Gizmondo)

Quite interestingly, the study also gives a detailed history of the portable game market as well as an overview of failed systems. Video game genres were also discussed aside from complete business models for third-party software sales broken down by platform.

Refer to the Read link below for more details and how you can get the study.

Hudson Entertainment, the North American publishing arm for Hudson Soft, today announced that they are planning to bring the fan favorite arcade fighting game, Fatal Fury, to cellphones. The new version of the game, which is based on Fatal Fury 2, is titled Fatal Fury Mobile. The game is expected to launch on both Brew and Java platforms in the North American market during fall 2006.

“It is our distinct pleasure to bring this much loved SNK fighting game to cellphones.” said John Greiner, President and CEO of Hudson Entertainment. “It is quite impressive how all the action-packed essence of the classic title fits on a small device. It serves as a great compliment to our library of games."

Fatal Fury Mobile features:

• 8 Combatants: Terry Bogard, Andy Bogard, Joe Higashi, Big Bear, Jubei Yamada, Cheng Shizan, Kim, and Mai Shiranui• Each character has unique special moves
• Controls and combos have been optimized for play on cellphones
• Numerous play modes, including Quick Play, Single Match, Training, Survival, and Tournament mode, which features an unraveling story
• 8 unique locations with beautiful parallax scrolling backgrounds

Go ahead and check out the screenshots for the game by clicking on the thumbnails below.