With the unveiling of the iPhone's software development kit, it turns out the iPhone may be a serious handheld contender in the mobile gaming market on top of being a smart phone killer.

We're not just talking Pong and Tetris, either — gen-u-wine games rendered in the glorious third dimension. All the iPhone is missing is buttons, but those could be replicated in a virtual fashion just like the unit's keypad. It's touchscreen and accelerometer couple tilting and tapping together, which is a surprisingly effective way to control a game with a little creativity on the developer's part.

Just how effective? That's what we got to wondering. Click Continue to find out.

1. Spore — coming to the iPhone

Overview: Spore is a world-building strategy game being developed by Will Wright and Maxis (the folks behind the SimCity line of games), and will be published by Electronic Arts. In Spore, you design a civilization from its most humble beginnings on a cellular level, all the way to its inevitable wars with other planets. It's one of the most hotly anticipated titles this year, and has been confirmed for the PC, Mac, Wii, DS and now the iPhone, for which it's due in September.

On the iPhone: Where a player would normally use a mouse and keyboard or a directional pad on a controller, now he only needs to tilt the iPhone to control what he is viewing, and touch the screen to interact with the world.

2. Super Monkey Ball — coming to the iPhone

Overview: Sega's Super Monkey Ball compiles a variety of party games featuring cutesy monkey characters inside American Gladiator-style rolling balls. Players go head-to-head in hang gliding competitions, race on obstacle courses and battle it out in a variety of other minigames.

On the iPhone: Super Monkey Ball has already taken advantage of the Wii's motion-sensing controller, and should feel right at home with the iPhone's accelerometer, allowing players full control with just a tilt of the unit — tilt it, and watch your monkey run in the direction you're slanting.

3. Touch Fighter — coming to the iPhone

Overview: Reminiscent of arcade-style space sims such as Star Fox 64, Touch Fighter has players blasting through the stars in a throwback to the glory of space combat. Just like with Spore and Super Monkey Ball, the developers had only two weeks to work with the software development kit and get their game onto the iPhone, though Touch Fighter is a fresh idea from the ground up.

On the iPhone: Players tilt the iPhone to steer their spacecraft and touch the screen to fire — so simple and effective it looks like you can effortlessly guide your Touch Fighter with just one hand.

4. Advance Wars: Days of Ruin

Genre: Turn-based strategy

Platform: DS

Overview: The Advance Wars series of games are simple yet engrossing, with cartoonish armies waging strategically-deep wars. Also take into account the sprite-based graphics that aren't taxing to pull off and it ends up representing a style of video game that would be easily ported to the iPhone.

How it'd work: No big tricks here — Advance Wars can be played on its native DS simply by using the unit's touchscreen, which the iPhone already has, and the iPhone's tilt could allow the player to explore each game map. The iPhone is also tall enough that it'd probably be able to fit both of the DS's screens stacked vertically.

5. Switchball

Genre: Puzzle

Platform: PC, Xbox 360

Overview: Ever play Marble Madness for the NES? Switchball is reviving the classic title's crazy maps rife with traps and obstacles to stop you from getting your marble to the end of the maze.

How it'd work: Like Super Monkey Ball, tilting the iPhone would, in essence, control the direction of your ball, either by leading it one way or by tilting the entire game world, causing the marble to list in one direction or another as you guide it toward your goal.

6. Space Siege

Genre: Role-playing

Platform: PC

Overview: Space Siege, a successor of sorts to Gas Powered Games fantasy series, Dungeon Siege, pits players against all manner of alien monstrosity as they have to choose between sacrificing their own humanity with cybernetic upgrades to more easily save their crewmates, or keeping their body intact while facing a tougher fight.

How it'd work: Graphics may be a larger obstacle than control here. It'd be easy enough to move your character around and navigate menus on a touchscreen, which would replace clicking — think Diablo. Better yet, tilting the iPhone could control the character's direction, and tapping could attack.

7. Supreme Commander

Genre: Real-time strategy

Platform: PC, Xbox 360

Overview: When Gas Powered Games unleashed Supreme Commander on the PC, it caused many-a-gamer to go out and buy a new rig just to run it. The iPhone wouldn't be able to handle it, but the strategy game has since been confirmed for a hop over to the Xbox 360, showing the company is willing to scale it down. The game features enormous battles on even bigger battlefields between four different factions.

How it'd work: Supreme Commander might not seem a logical choice given its demanding graphics, but the game designers also thought it important to streamline the interface as much as possible and make control easier for the player. This would allow commanding your army as simple as tapping to select units or navigate menus, tilting to pan across the map, and maybe even using the pinch to zoom in and out.

8. Gran Turismo 5

Genre: Racing

Platform: Playstation 3

Overview: The Gran Turismo series is the king of racing games for fans of real-world racing. It doesn't allow players to crash, which can kill a bit of the realism, but the cars are all licensed virtual duplicates of their out-of-game counterparts and handle as they would if you were really driving them. The Gran Turismo games also maintain a high visual quality, which would need to be scaled down for the iPhone.

How it'd work: Well, driving a car in automatic would be easier enough: tilt forward and backward to accelerate and brake, and steer by dipping the iPhone to the side. But who would want to drive those beefy race cars in automatic? Virtual controls on-screen may work, but could be intrusive. What if the player could flick the iPhone forward to register a change in shifting gears? Away from them shifts up; toward them shifts down. The degree of tilt could also act as a throttle.

9. Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops

Genre: Action

Platform: PSP

Overview: If any designer could pull off the impossible, it'd be Hideo Kojima of Konami. He has taken his Metal Gear Solid series onto nearly every platform, finding clever ways to implement a console's control features into his games — from using vibration to simulate telekinesis in the battle against Psycho Mantis to using the Playstation 3's motion sensing in the upcoming Metal Gear Solid 5. A full-on action game on the iPhone would be a feat to be sure, but Konami managed to bring a solid version of the game to the PSP, known as Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, that wowed players with how far it could push action on a handheld.

How it'd work: The series has always been known for its intricate and complex control schemes, so boiling all the different actions you can perform, from combat to maneuvering to hiding, seems downright impossible. However, with the tilt to guide the hero of the series, Snake, through to his objective, the player may be able to do most of what they need simply by moving the iPhone. Pressing up against walls, running, hand-to-hand combat — all of this could be taken care of by the angle and degree the player tilts the unit with the aid of context-sensitive cues, while the touchscreen could be freed up for shooting enemies and navigating menus.

Any genre you think would suit the iPhone well, or games you're dying to see playable on it? Sound off in the comments below.