No-one could accuse Namco Bandai of putting all its eggs in one basket, its iPhone line-up – Ace Combat, Pac-Man and Ridge Racer – complimented by its enthusiasm for Android.

Indeed, senior director of production and deployment Rob Schoeppe set out the publisher's position back in March, commenting that gamers could expect an Android avalanche from the company throughout the course of the year.

News that Namco Bandai has released a version of Flash and iPhone hit Crush the Castle for Google's OS, won't come as a surprise, but it does stand up as firm evidence of the publisher's continue cross platform assault.

Spreading the wealth

"With consumers becoming increasingly connected on a 24 hour basis, it is extremely important to bring great games to as many platforms as possible," commented VP of marketing, Carlson Choi.

"Armor Games witnessed great success with Crush the Castle on iOS and Flash, and we couldn't be more excited to reach even more fans by extending the game's reach to Android."
Crush the Castle, which has amassed downloads of 1.5 million to date and will retail for 99c on Android Market, follows the release of Pac-Man, Pac-Man Championship Edition and Harvest Moon: Frantic Farming - amongst others - on the platform.

"Android is working well," Schoeppe added in June.

"We're seeing a lot of support and marketing spend from carriers in terms of devices and Google's Android 2.2 OS release is amazing. I have high expectations for the future."

Big on bada?

But Namco Bandai isn't content with simply backing two horses.

The company has confirmed that Tekken Resolute will soon be available on Windows Mobile and BlackBerry, as well as Java and BREW.

Fresh platforms are also likely to receive support from the publisher in the future, with Schoeppe having previously confirmed both bada and Windows Phone 7 will see releases once commercially viable.

Earlier this month Namco Bandai merged its PC and mobile divisions in the US, with the company aiming to leverage talent from both parties to develop and publish games across multiple platforms.