Assassin's Creed leaps onto the iPhone

We've been watching the iPhone crowd very carefully, waiting to spot a shadowy figure moving stealthily through the App Store with a knife up his sleeve and a murderous glint in his eye.

Last night, Altair revealed himself on the global App Store, with one of the most significant iPhone releases of the year.

Assassin's Creed weighs in at full price, and seems to borrow quite heavily from the DS adaptation, Assassin's Creed: Altair's Chronicles. All the running, jumping and fighting appear to be intact, though responses to the DS game were mixed so we can probably expect the iPhone version of Assassin's Creed to divide the crowd in the same way.

Regardless of anyone's overall opinion of the gameplay, there's no denying that this is one of the best look 3D iPhone games we've seen so far, and that's got to help establish the iPhone as a serious platform for all future big game releases. Indeed, Assassin's Creed 2 is already on the horizon for the super consoles.

With games like Assassin's Creed being converted it proves the iPhone has really arrived on the video game sene. How well it performs will determine how long Apple's device remains there...