Games for the iPhone/iPod Touch

So, the iPhone has made it's way into the deepest levels of our culture, and we continue to suckle ever so gently at Steve Jobs' ginormous cock while paying him to do so. Ever since the release of the App store last year, the iPhone has been touted as "the handheld gaming system killer". While it is still far from that, there are some wonderful games out there for the iPhone.

I suggest that we come up with a good list of games for the iPhone here. We will eventually create a thread with the best games, so it can become the definitive iPhone/iPod Touch newbie's guide to handheld video gaming.

I humbly request that faggotry and debate over the platform itself be kept out of this thread. Instead we will discuss what games are out there, and why we like them, or why they are utter shit.


If you can, add prices & whatnot

Fieldrunners

Tower defense game.

PROS: Pretty colorful graphics and smooth controls, the promise of new content that has been partly delivered on.
CONS: Lack of depth-- only 4 weapons with 3 upgrade levels each.

Orions: Legend of Wizards

Collectible card game with base-building/base conquering overlay.

PROS: CCG component works very well on this platform. Cards have decently varied abilities.
CONS: Base building and conquering component isn't exactly compelling and honestly seems rather unnecessary. As is usual for CCGs, some balancing probably would help. Themes are not cohesive in each card type. Documentation could have been better, and text on cards is sometimes ambiguous in meaning.

Arvale is a lovely little RPG. My favourite iPhone game so far...

Games on my iPhone are as follows:

Crash Kart: I think I have played it twice, pretty boring and not worth the £4.99 I paid for it!

Brain Challenge: Great game for a month or two, found myself continuously going back to it everyday to try and beat my average brain scores.

Trace: I think this game is free, if so then I would definitely download it. You control your little stick geezer and you have to draw platforms for him to climb on to to get to the end, very addictive.

Live Poker: Realistic poker game and it links up with the application on my Facebook (required to be online)

Real Football 09: Not as 'Real' as they make out. Graphics are ok but nothing to rave about, controls are pretty hard to get used to and it has a few bugs in it.

ESPN Cameraman: Another great free game. Just basically spot the difference with sports photos. There are loads of photos and it's always being updated.

TV Show King: I am a big fan of the Buzz! line of games so though I would try this out. Very similar in game play with a couple of different rounds. Too easy to win though.

Scramboni: A free online word jumble game. Worth checking out.

Monopoly: The classic board game on the iPhone. It's pretty good and is an EA game so the graphics are great. Spinning around the table starts to make you a bit dizzy after a while though.

Fieldrunners: This is the "best" TD game on the iPhone and, quite frankly, it sucks compared to what's available freely in browser-based format. The iPhone would be a great platform for this genre, but this delivery is pretty weak. There are only 4 towers, each with 2 possible upgrades. There are two maps (a great upgrade from when there was only a single map.) The strategy disappears pretty quickly when you're basically trying to get upgraded lightning towers as quickly as possible because the range and effects are so limited that any strategy involved in your layout quickly disappear without the first 30 waves. This is a decent timewaster, but not a good TD. It lacks any type of scenarios; just two maps (horizontal wave and horizontal + vertical wave) and either challenge (survive 100 rounds) or endless mode.

7 Cities TD: This is a more novel idea for a TD. Towers gain levels through experience, boosting their damage. Each time a tower levels, you get a gem, which can be spent to upgrade towers. Building new towers requires cash, generated from killing creeps. This would be an excellent game if it weren't set-path. The creeps will only follow a prescribed path based on the current level. Some of the 7 maps are one path, while others (the bullshit ones) have a split. You learn quickly that, unlike traditional TDs, you build starting from the end and moving forward, giving all new towers access to valuable experience. This game has a lot of potential, and I think it's about on-par with Fieldrunners. For $5 each, I would buy one and skip the other.

Orions: Legend of Wizards: Gameplay is fantastic, both the strategy and CCG-combat elements play well. There are supposed to be expansions released, as well. Unfortunately, it's a translation from Finnish and, frankly, it sucks. There's a lot of inconsistancy in the wording on cards (for example, some cards say "lose 2 Death" and mean "if you have 0 Death, you lose none" and others mean "pay 2 death to initiate this effect.") It plays very similar to Magic: The Gathering. I enjoy this game, but the lack of a save feature while in the middle of combat is fucking annoying. I think it's only $2.99, so I definitely recommend it.

Aravale: Journey of Illusion: Best RPG on the platform. Might be the best RPG released in the past year or two. Interesting, tongue-in-cheek story, good mechanics. My only complaint is that all items (including weapons and armor) have a prescribed number of uses, which is annoying. This game is under $5 and should be a no-brainer.

Topple: BUY IT RIGHT NOW BECAUSE IT'S FREE. It's from the same team that made Rolando, and involves stacking objects in sequence to build a tower to a targeted height within a time-limit. The accelerometer is used to shift the tower, so if it starts leaning one way, you better tip your iPhone the opposite way. It's easy, entertaining (the blocks themselves have amusing animated faces on them), and it's free as a limited-time offer in celebration of the release of Rolando. The best part? You don't even need to buy Rolando to get it.

Cuberunner
Tap Tap Revenge (I think taht's what it;s called)

Also I think MGS4 is coming out soon.

Here are the games i've purchased.. I had a $30 iTunes GC so I put it to good use.

I'm just going to list the games you should get:

Up There ($1.99), TapDefense (free), Dactyl (free), PapiJump (free), Topple (free?), Touchgrind ($4.99), PriceIsRight ($4.99), HoldEm ($4.99), Cube Runner (free)

Other apps I have which are useful:

Shazam, Wikiamo, Urbanspoon, Zippo Lighter, Pandora, iTV, Flixster, Facebook, AIM

Those are the ones I have on my phone.. all of them are good.

Sauerbraten runs on iPhone.

Okay, time to go back into hiding.

I downloaded iDracula this a couple weeks ago and it started out a very simple time waster and since a couple updates is now pretty great. You play a 3rd-person perspective Van Helsing-like character and kill all manner of undead creatures. There are now multiple maps, and a couple different play modes. Movement is controlled with two touch areas in the bottom corners (one for aiming, the other for movement); shooting is constant and automatic as long as you touch the aiming area.

There are multiple weapons and character upgrades and each game lasts under 10 minutes. Graphics are pretty good and gameplay is simple and fun. It's a pretty basic action game from Chillingo (which has produced some other great games like, uh, Orions) that seems to be getting regular updates and adding a lot of content. It was only $.99 when I bought it, so I definitely recommend it.

iDracula is pretty good. However, I really couldn't get far into Orions. The "strategy" over-layer is completely unnecessary and annoying, and the way that they've implemented deck building along with it makes very little sense to me.

I would much rather have a port of Spectromancer for the iPhone, a game which is much better crafted and less gimicky.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Narcowski

Sauerbraten runs on iPhone.

Okay, time to go back into hiding.

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No it doesn't.

I picked up Oregon Trail last week.

I can't stop playing it.

God, I loved this game as a kid.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DaiTengu

I picked up Oregon Trail last week.

I can't stop playing it.

God, I loved this game as a kid.

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I will have to look into this, good sir.

Also, like most iPhone games, the price is right at 5 bux.