Gameloft’s N.O.V.A. (Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance) first person shooter app for the iPhone/iPod Touch has just been approved by Apple, and is available for purchase for $6.99 in the app store.

The current version is 1.1.0 and weighs in at 161MB and is iPhone OS 3.0 compatible. You’ll be playing as Kal Wardin to “prevent mankind’s annihilation”.

“With Earth no longer able to sustain life, huge artificial satellites called “near-orbitals” were constructed for people to live on. To protect themselves, the near-orbitals banded together to form N.O.V.A., the Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance. Now, a strange threat has emerged from the darkness of space. A Marine ship, reported missing just a week ago, has suddenly reappeared and is headed directly for he near-orbitals, ignoring all communications. Against his will, retired Marine hero Kal Wardin is forcefully returned to active duty to prevent mankind’s annihilation.”

There are 13 ‘insane’ levels, 5 different environments, and 6 different weapons (the basic set of FPS weapons, such as a shotgun and rocket launcher).

The game also features multiplayer, where you can play locally (bluetooth or wi-fi) or online against players online (wi-fi, doesn’t mention anything about 3G). You can play with 1-4 players (don’t you think 2 should be the minimum?) on 5 different maps. The multiplayer features uses ‘Gameloft LIVE!’.

Compared to ngmoco’s Eliminate, you only have to pay the one-time fee of $6.99, which gets you both single player and multi player gaming. Eliminate requires people to purchase ‘power cells’ once they run out (usually take 5-10 minutes). Players of Eliminate have to wait 4 hours until their ‘power cells’ replenish. Alternatively, they can purchase these ‘power cell’s. With N.O.V.A., you jus pay $6.99, and play whenever you want without having to worry about such a ridiculous thing.

Have you purchased it? Let us know how it is in the comment below. Feel free to link to your own screenshots (direct links please, imageshack.us is preferred).