SGN launches its mafia game for the iPhone

Social Gaming Network is joining the mafia game fray on the iPhone today with the launch of Mafia: Respect & Retribution.

The social networking game has 3-D graphics and location-based gameplay. Players complete various jobs in either real-world locations or on the iPhone or iPod Touch with the ultimate goal of becoming the “Don” in their city. With the optional location feature turned on (which takes advantage of the iPhone’s Wi-Fi location finder feature), players can play each other in real-world areas.

The iPhone is starting to get crowded with mafia games, which have been exceedingly popular on Facebook because of the social nature of the game play. PlayMesh launched its iMafia game two weeks ago and rose quickly through the ranks of top games on Apple’s App Store. The iMafia title is No. 1 for role-playing games and No. 7 for all games.

Players can play in real-world locations that include the Empire State Building, the Central Park Zoo, Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood, the Miami Seaquarium, and the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Players can start with a free game and work their way up the ladder, spending anywhere from 99 cents to $99.99.

It will be interesting to see if SGN can catch up with someone like PlayMesh’s iMafia game, or with iMob, a free game, and the paid game Mafia Live. Charles Ju, founder of PlayMesh, says it’s quite possible for the games to coexist. On sites such as Facebook and MySpace, there are multiple mafia games in the top game ranks because users sign up for more than one. That’s because the games often restrict what a user can do in a given 24-hour period.

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