While I was in Saigon for a holiday last weekend, indie developer Villain has released their highly acclaimed iPhone based MMOFPS, Archetype, for the Apple iPad in the form of Archetype HD.  The best part is, you can take part in cross platform matches between iPhone, iPod touch and iPad players! Check out the press release below for more information:

Archetype HD Brings Stunning ‘iPwnage’ to the iPad with Exclusively Optimized Version of Popular Multiplayer First Person Action Shooter

Highly-rated Online FPS from Villain Delivers High-res Large-screen Mobile Mayhem for Just $4.99; Launch Celebrated with Special ‘Ten Days of iPad’ Giveaway

San Francisco, CA – August 19, 2010 – Villain™, an independent publisher of fiendishly entertaining portable game titles, announced today the launch of Archetype HD, an all-new fully optimized iPad version of its top-selling and critically acclaimed online first-person shooter game for the iPhone and iPod touch.  Now available in the App Store worldwide, Archetype HD stays true to the Archetype lineage of console-style online FPS experience but delivers an even higher-resolution display that has been optimized for the larger screen iPad platform. Archetype HD features multiplayer team deathmatches through an expansive set of levels and game types for Apple iPad for US$4.99.

“Archetype HD brings a whole new scale of iPwnage with intense FPS gameplay that is jaw-droppingly good on iPad,” said Dane Baker, Lead Producer at Villain. “Everything that has made our game such a hit with fans, including the recent additions of the Avarice level and the Rocket Arena, is featured in Archetype HD. In addition, the in-game HUD was redesigned to take advantage of the iPad screen size so, fans of the device can dive into our special brand of multiplayer mayhem.”

Players enter team deathmatch battles starting as lowly cadets and advancing to higher ranks as they earn experience points and medals, including each match’s coveted “MVP” medal. Up to ten players can compete at one time with up to five players per team battling across six different levels using six unique weapon types and two kinds of grenades. Players wreak havoc using the game’s precise dual joystick-style controls in a new big screen HUD configuration designed for the iPad, bringing the best aspects of FPS gaming to the revolutionary Apple device.

Archetype HD players can join cross-platform online matches with the robust community that has quickly grown to more than 280,000 Archetype fans on iPhone and iPod touch while enjoying a full set of FPS features including player rank-based team matchmaking, melee combat, buddy lists, and radar-based player tracking. Archetype HD offers a console-style experience over Wi-Fi or 3G that gamers can enjoy on the go—or on the couch at home. Players can share their exploits via Facebook™ and go online to track and compare their stats to other players while competing to reach top-10 leaderboards.

Archetype HD is published by Villain and developed by San Francisco-based MunkyFun, Inc. The game is available on the App Store, visit https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/archetype-hd/id380751457?mt=8 for $4.99. To follow Archetype on Facebook, visit https://www.facebook.com/archetype and on Twitter, visit https://twitter.com/archetype.

To celebrate the launch of Archetype HD on iPad, Villain will be giving away one iPad a day for the first ten days of launch. For more information and to learn how to enter, visit madebyvillain.com/archetype.