As the popularity of the iPhone and iPod Touch as a gaming platform continues to grow, developers are throwing serious amounts of time and money into creating games for the App Store. That doesn’t mean those games are anything new, though. A lot of them have roots in more established parts of the gaming industry. Hell, some of the best titles are coming from big studios like EA. Others, though, are capitalizing on the platform by selling simple knockoffs.

If you’ve played Gangster you know what I’m talking about. Or Modern Combat: Sandstorm. The two titles from Gameloft are completely transparent spinoffs of games like Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto, they’re actually making some money. Gameloft had a chance to show off their latest creation at Apple’s media event today: NOVA. The game puts you in the suit of a space marine, where you’ll be blasting your enemies with futuristic looking battle…er…assault rifles. Yes, assault rifles.

Obviously Gameloft’s latest spinoff is a Halo clone, but it actually looks pretty decent, and there’s a multiplayer feature. NOVA will have both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth multiplayer support so you can frag your friends virtually anywhere. Imagine jumping on the subway and hopping into a game CTF. There are worse ways to pass the time, right?

One of the biggest improvements to the iPhone 3GS was its graphics capabilities. The upgrade allows for technologies like OpenGL 2.0, which means texture mapping, real-time shadow rendering, and all sorts of other eye-candy. That is, if the developers will develop it.

Unfortunately the upgrade means that games that run on the 3GS may not be able to run on the regular 3G (3G games will work in the other direction though). This means developers have to decide whether to support the “new” platform, or simply continue to offer games that will be compatible for both.

IndustryGamers recently asked a few developers if the new plan was worth developing for.

According to EA Mobile, it absolutely is. For many games it sounds like EA will develop two versions, one to run on each of the phones. Other developers, though, don’t share EA’s enthusiasm. Sega, for instance, will only be developing multiple versions for select games, while the rest remain compatible with the 3G. Digital Chocolate is the downer of the group, saying the 3GS will improve existing products to the point that there is no need for a separate release.

Right now this might not mean much since we’ve not yet played a 3GS optimized game. The guys at Firemint, though, are eager to show off 3GS capabilities in their new racer. Check out the demo video on YouTube. It’s pretty damn impressive.