ION Audio has unveiled the next iterations of its iCade system (MacRumors). I reviewed the iCade in May last year, and was later dumbfounded by Taito and Atari churning out its own equivalents. A recent iCade fire-sale in the UK led to me finally buying a unit of my own (my review having been done on a loaner from ION), and, in hindsight, companies knocking anything up to 50 per cent off of the iCade should have been an indicator a new model was due. However, ION unveiled three.

First, there’s the iCade Core. This is essentially the iCade without the cabinet—you just get the plastic base with a joystick and eight buttons. It’s hard to tell from the photography on offer, but assuming the iPad can rest in landscape as well as portrait, I think this is a smart move on ION’s part. The cabinet version is cute and quirky, but it’s also a space-hog and very much geared at old farts like me. The iCade Core looks more like a standard games controller, which means less character but wider appeal. Bar more support from developers, the price will be the biggest factor in its success. I was happy paying 40 quid for my iCade, but there’s no way I’d have paid double that.

Next up, there’s iCade Mobile. This makes an iOS device like an iPhone or iPod touch resemble a PSP. You get a D-pad, four face buttons and four shoulder buttons. There are two clever pieces of engineering that put this above other controllers I’ve so far seen: the device sits very snugly in the controller’s rubber enclosure, and it can be rotated 90 degrees, enabling you to use iCade Mobile for portrait games. Again, support and pricing could be a problem: $79.99 seems a bit high.

Finally, there’s iCade Jr, which is on the wrong side of mental. It’s a miniaturised version of the original iCade, designed for the iPhone and iPod touch. I know I should hold judgment until actually using the unit, but it just seems bonkers. The original iCade is just about big enough for what it’s trying to do and be: a home arcade. iCade Jr looks like it will be extremely fiddly, and unless it has a brick in the base, it won’t have the weight to hold your device steady while you play. (If you’ve used an iCade, you’ll know that’s not a problem with the original unit.) Also, putting four of the buttons on the back of the controller seems like a recipe for usability nightmares.

Still, two out of three isn’t bad. I’m still not a huge fan of additional controllers for iOS, and I strongly believe that even most ‘traditional’ games (racers, platformers, and so on) can work fine with touch controls if the developer is careful. However, if there are going to be more typical controllers for iOS, I’d hope they’d be of a high quality and, crucially, designed specifically for the system. The iCade Mobile certainly seems like it nails the latter of those things, and I’m looking forward to checking out the former when I can get my hands on a review model.