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The Official iPhone/iPod Touch Gaming Thread

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Melhisedek said:
Just talked to him on the phone and he said building empire is also ok :)
Will ask him to check simcity
Besides Civ Rev, he might want to check out the Kings. It's an empire building game I've been playing lately, and it's good if you don't want something overly complicated. There's a demo and it's $2 now for new year's sale. They fixed most of the grammar and spelling issues most people complained about in reviews.
 
Benedict said:
Any games worth getting here?

http://www.newyearappblowout.com/

I've got Battle of Wesnoth and Hi how are you?
Easy: Sword of Fargoal. It's a terrific, accessible Rogue-like which is a remake of a C64 classic. I've never been a huge fan of Rogue-likes in general, but it's very polished, relatively forgiving on the earlier levels, and a ton of fun. I bought it at $5 and thought it was worth the money...at $2, it would seem to be a no-brainer if you like that genre at all.
 
For what it's worth...here are some games that I've spent a lot of time with on my iPhone. (I know there are some people new to iPhone or iPod touch gaming lurking this thread...just wanted to put in my two cents.) I should also point out that there are games I've picked up on the cheap that I still haven't had time to get around to yet (<cough>Rolando</cough>), so just because you don't see something here doesn't mean it's not good...

Essential Games (In No Particular Order)

Azkend
Doom Classic and Wolfenstein 3D
Drop7
Edge
Eliss
Fieldrunners
Flight Control
Galcon (and/or Galcon Labs)
iShoot
MiniSquadron
Quordy
Space Invaders Infinity Gene
Strategery
Sword of Fargoal

Quick Amusements

Angry Birds
Ramp Champ

Too New For Me To Rate, But Promising

Hook Champ
Labyrinth 2
Rolando and Rolando 2

Best Apps That Aren't Games (In Order Of Use)

Byline
Instapaper Pro
Simplenote
BeeJive IM
CameraBag and Photogene
 
wondermega said:
Started playing Nimblebit's Textropolis. I DL'd it when it went free (it's back up to $2) and it sat on my phone for quite a long time untouched (my first impression "I don't get it") Recently I loaded it up to check out the UI and totally got sucked in for a good few hours. Every now and then I will load it up just to see "if I can find a couple more words!"

Definitely recommended and worth the asking price!

Heh, I also got this when it was free and it has the same addictive effect on me. Except now I have at least 6 stars for each city and it's becoming a lot harder to find words. It doesn't help that the words I'm missing are probably some medical/biological/cultural terms that I've never heard of before :/. For example, I doubt I'll ever find those remaining 12 or so words for Kingstown.
 
Dilbert said:
Essential Games (In No Particular Order)

Fieldrunners
Fieldrunners is really not worth it anymore. They give you 4 maps for $3 and the 2 DLC maps are $2 more.

Spend the $3 on The Creeps and geoDefense: Swarm. You get a lot more for your money (at least 40 maps) and better games too.
 
Hello Dilbert; boo to your list! :)

You forgot SPIDER.

Though props for Drop 7 and Space Invaders Infinity Gene.

Path Pix is great too.


Dilbert said:
For what it's worth...here are some games that I've spent a lot of time with on my iPhone. (I know there are some people new to iPhone or iPod touch gaming lurking this thread...just wanted to put in my two cents.) I should also point out that there are games I've picked up on the cheap that I still haven't had time to get around to yet (<cough>Rolando</cough>), so just because you don't see something here doesn't mean it's not good...

Essential Games (In No Particular Order)

Azkend
Doom Classic and Wolfenstein 3D
Drop7
Edge
Eliss
Fieldrunners
Flight Control
Galcon (and/or Galcon Labs)
iShoot
MiniSquadron
Quordy
Space Invaders Infinity Gene
Strategery
Sword of Fargoal

Quick Amusements

Angry Birds
Ramp Champ

Too New For Me To Rate, But Promising

Hook Champ
Labyrinth 2
Rolando and Rolando 2

Best Apps That Aren't Games (In Order Of Use)

Byline
Instapaper Pro
Simplenote
BeeJive IM
CameraBag and Photogene
 
bjork said:
Is the Ridge Racer any good?

Also, is there such a thing as an ipod case that's solid (not that gel sock stuff) that has an open front? That isn't like $50?

Ridge Racer is terrible. The game feels unfinished
 
If're looking for a free game I'ld recommend "Zombie Puncher". It was developed by a friend of mine and is a little arcade / action game. It's fun, try it.

I'm playing currently "Spikey". Love it :D
 
If you haven't played Dark Nebula...

damn. It's super awesome, especially the speed zones thrown in for good measure. What an awesome game, I just wish it had a soundtrack while playing.
 
So I had a pretty weird scare with my iPhone today... A bunch of my app icons (including stock ones, like Notes and Calendar) got visually fucked up. Like, they loaded the wrong pictures, or the pictures got warped... It was really trippy and made it look like shit. Anyway, I tried restarted and my phone wouldn't boot at all. I figured something got corrupt. I finally did a hard reset, it took maybe a little under 10 minutes, but it eventually booted with everything intact.

Not really gaming related, but it was odd nonetheless. Anyone else have any odd problem like that?
 
What's 'Edge' called this days? Was finally going to buy it today after getting some iTunes vouchers for Xmas but can't find it anywhere?? I thought it was now called 'Edgy' but that's not coming up with anything either....
 
mr_sockochris said:
What's 'Edge' called this days? Was finally going to buy it today after getting some iTunes vouchers for Xmas but can't find it anywhere?? I thought it was now called 'Edgy' but that's not coming up with anything either....
Its still called EDGE. It's back up on the iTunes store. Perhaps its not available in your countries' iTunes store?

Kinda bs how stuff can't be international so easily on something on the damn internet.
 
Yeah, I had the same problem trying to find Edge earlier. Looking at their Twitter, it would appear that it's available everywhere but the US and the UK.

Probably due to the name, etc.
 
wondermega said:
Our game iFist is free for one last day (today), then we will charge for it again following the New Year.

Thanks man :)

--

Is there a website or blog that posts when games go free or on offer?
edit found: http://pocketfullofapps.com/ for the above

Had a 32gb 3GS for 2 weeks now, must of spent £20 £30 on apps easy, cant see any reason to jailbrake it right now, what reasons are there other than wifi hotspot software, emulators and themes?
 
c2morg said:
Thanks man :)

--

Is there a website or blog that posts when games go free or on offer?
edit found: http://pocketfullofapps.com/ for the above

Had a 32gb 3GS for 2 weeks now, must of spent £20 £30 on apps easy, cant see any reason to jailbrake it right now, what reasons are there other than wifi hotspot software, emulators and themes?
http://appshopper.com/
This as well. They cover many many apps. They have every single sale there.
 
c2morg said:
cant see any reason to jailbrake it right now, what reasons are there other than wifi hotspot software, emulators and themes?

apart from what you already mentioned, you can get "tweaks" like the following

3Gunrestrictor - fool apps that its on wifi while on 3G to get better streaming/downloading (HQ youtube vids, no more 10mb limit in AppStore)
Haptic Pro - vibrate on keypresses like the keyboard and have sound on mute etc...
iBlacklist - block or forward calls/sms/mms based on lists & contacts
SnapTap - use the volume side button to take pictures and movies

Oh yea and phone unlocking... there are just so many other things you can do (everyone has different needs) but those are my must haves after every restore
 
I just got an iPod Touch and my first two games so far are Mass Effect Galaxy (I want that reward!) and MotionX Poker (surprisingly addictive poker game that I saw recommended in this thread) - that should satisfy me on the games for a while (I may get Metal Gear Solid Touch but I'm not sure yet).
 
Dreamwriter said:
Doesn't the base version at least come with the main game, the normal 5 minute mode from the Xbox 360 version? None of the reviews really explain how these modes are like the Xbox 360. If so, then that's all I ever really play, I don't need more.
Mission mode is just basic tasks and pretty much pointless if you already know the game. Only reason to do it is for completion sake.

Championship mode is more or less what the 360 did, 5 minutes on a course for score. There are 5 courses in the base game, with 10 more in the DLC. The last course is the 360's Championship mode course, I think it also has some of the other ones as well. The first course (of the base game) is a new one, it's kind of a weird rejiggering of the 360 one in a way. Parts of it are familiar, but it's easier (probably for phone controls), like more obvious patterns and more power pills.

Here's a replay of some guy on the new course (he used swipe controls):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mq50LvvGZsU
Here's an old high score run of mine on the 360 course (used screen button controls):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6xli8ElDBM

Challenge mode uses the same courses as Championship I think. For the first 10 it has "the ghosts are fast", when you eat a power pill...they're fast (harder to catch), and I think that's the only change. For the last 5 it's "the course is dark", basically like that one course on the 360 where...the course is dark.

If it weren't for the 360 level I'd say the DLC isn't worth it. The first course in the base game plays well enough, and the extra missions and Challenge mode are pretty boring. For someone that's never played the 360 version and wouldn't care about it I don't think there's much reason to get it.
Red.Devil said:
So, the other day i switched from a 2G iPod Touch 8 Gb. to a 3G Touch with 32 Gb. As far as i know, the 3G touch has a more powerful processor and that some games look better. Is that right? For example: I already had NFS:Shift on the old iPod and played it on the new one but i didn't see any change in graphics quality. Do i have to download it again?
Some games have improvements but I don't know which, and I think for now the only extras they're doing are little details like some shader effects to improve visuals a bit. If it doesn't have anything specific you'll just get improved performance in everything.
 
japtor said:
Mission mode is just basic tasks and pretty much pointless if you already know the game. Only reason to do it is for completion sake.

Championship mode is more or less what the 360 did, 5 minutes on a course for score. There are 5 courses in the base game, with 10 more in the DLC. The last course is the 360's Championship mode course, I think it also has some of the other ones as well. The first course (of the base game) is a new one, it's kind of a weird rejiggering of the 360 one in a way. Parts of it are familiar, but it's easier (probably for phone controls), like more obvious patterns and more power pills.

Yeah, I just bought PacMan CE today. I don't really like the changes they made - the original game was *all* about getting the high score - it was a great throwback to the days of yore, with modernized gameplay. But this one is about finishing the current level to unlock the next. Sure, you *can* play for score of course, but it's diluted, because which level are you going to play? The original game had a very obvious main game, which is where you spent most of your time going for score, and then a few challenge boards for when you wanted to take a break from the main game (all unlocked and available to play right from the start). But you'd always come back to the main game, and it was about figuring out the best paths to take on each new board half, when to go for ghosts and when not to, etc. - it was actually quite tactical for a PacMan game. But how many people are going to go that deep with this one, when there are 15 board sets to choose from?
 
DoctorWho said:
Anything out there like Trials HD for the iPhone?
I'd argue that Jet Car Stunts is a lot like Trials HD. Speaking of which, I'm replaying it on Casual and it's hella fuuuun.
 
Dreamwriter said:
Yeah, I just bought PacMan CE today. I don't really like the changes they made - the original game was *all* about getting the high score - it was a great throwback to the days of yore, with modernized gameplay. But this one is about finishing the current level to unlock the next. Sure, you *can* play for score of course, but it's diluted, because which level are you going to play? The original game had a very obvious main game, which is where you spent most of your time going for score, and then a few challenge boards for when you wanted to take a break from the main game (all unlocked and available to play right from the start). But you'd always come back to the main game, and it was about figuring out the best paths to take on each new board half, when to go for ghosts and when not to, etc. - it was actually quite tactical for a PacMan game. But how many people are going to go that deep with this one, when there are 15 board sets to choose from?
Yeah that's basically how I felt about it. In terms of going for score before I found out about the 360 level being in there I only played the first level, just cause it seemed like the most balanced/varied of the lot while the rest felt relatively kinda like gimmick levels.

Of course the real problem is that it doesn't have online leaderboards. I'd play the first level more often but I have nothing to compare to other than that one guy's crazy good score on it. With the 360 one at least I can compare to my own and friends on the 360.
 
Benedict said:
Labyrinth is free today as a part of Apples 12 days of christmas app

Don't see it on the app store. :( Was going to wait for it to get to 99 cents, but free works :p. Labyrinth 2 looks a little too crazy for me, I just wanted something more pure like the old game I played as a kid at grandma's house.

Ah, apparently it's a UK only thing :(.
 
Psy-Phi said:
Don't see it on the app store. :( Was going to wait for it to get to 99 cents, but free works :p. Labyrinth 2 looks a little too crazy for me, I just wanted something more pure like the old game I played as a kid at grandma's house.
I think it's UK only.

Or if not, I found it yesterday for free by going to Labyrinth Lite, and then it was in the "other games by this dev" section, so that's worth a try
 
The update to Ridge Racer Accelerated is out (been said already?) and it works at a solid 30fps now on my touch... but they had to remove the car reflections and some lighting around the tracks to do so, I believe they are still there on the newer faster devices but not on the older ones.

None the less it plays much better now and a few other things were fixed like the menu music playing for me finally.
 
Did a GOTi 2009 on our site yesterday (as part of my weekly "appetite"-series). This is, in my opinion, the ten best games released on iPhone/Touch during 2009 (the links goes to the Swedish App Store, so might not work everywhere).

10.
TNA Wrestling
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09.
Mini Squadron
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08.
Unify
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07.
Jet Car Stunts
ddcroz_th.png


06.
Drop7
2uhoh3p_th.png


05.
Soosiz
2qx70ut_th.png


04.
Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor
110kdpy_th.png


03.
Canabalt
js0rxh_th.png


02.
Space Invaders: Infinity Gene
2hz3bk6_th.png


01.
Hook Champ
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One of my first favorite iPhone titles was Tiki Towers. To this day it's a fantastic game that really uses the iPhone well.

Right now it's only 99c, I highly recommend it if you've never tried it. There's a trial version if you want a look.

127125_4.jpg


127125.jpg


127125_3.jpg


It has the building structure of World Of Goo, but is more puzzle based - setting everything up, and then making the monkeys go through it, but their movement can rock or break weak sections of it.

http://appshopper.com/games/tiki-towers
 
truth-lasers said:
Did a GOTi 2009 on our site yesterday (as part of my weekly "appetite"-series). This is, in my opinion, the ten best games released on iPhone/Touch during 2009 (the links goes to the Swedish App Store, so might not work everywhere).

10.
TNA Wrestling
21271bt_th.png


09.
Mini Squadron
2n10nm_th.png


08.
Unify
ohifle_th.png


07.
Jet Car Stunts
ddcroz_th.png


06.
Drop7
2uhoh3p_th.png


05.
Soosiz
2qx70ut_th.png


04.
Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor
110kdpy_th.png


03.
Canabalt
js0rxh_th.png


02.
Space Invaders: Infinity Gene
2hz3bk6_th.png


01.
Hook Champ
210ym21_th.png
Great list. I just want to say that I reeeeally like pacman ce now. Number 11?
 
RPS37 said:
Great list. I just want to say that I reeeeally like pacman ce now. Number 11?

I'm not totally comfortable with controlling Pacman CE, which is somewhat ruining my enjoyment with the game.

Angry Birds, Iblast Moki, Skullpogo, Orbital and Word Ace would take the 11-15 spots, I think.
 
Psy-Phi said:
Don't see it on the app store. :( Was going to wait for it to get to 99 cents, but free works :p. Labyrinth 2 looks a little too crazy for me, I just wanted something more pure like the old game I played as a kid at grandma's house.

Ah, apparently it's a UK only thing :(.

At least EU, since it is available in Sweden.

But I guess you need to download the 12 days of Christmas app from Apple to get it.
Did a search for it on Itunes and it seems they have taken down the app, so that it's only available through the app today.
 
So I took a dive and bought Pac-Man CE. Very addictive and cool, couldn't put it down, that is until I get to mission 21 and this comes up on the screen...

"PURCHASE EXPANSION PACK TO PLAY"

Seriously, WTF!? $3 for the game then not even halfway through, I find out I need to pay $4 to keep playing.
 
Finally got my 3gs!

I bought Canabalt and Simon the Sorcerer 1 (great port!) so far.
Can anyone just name the absolute must haves? Any other good adventure games in there except for simon ,monkey island and flight of the amazon queen?
 
evil ways said:
So I took a dive and bought Pac-Man CE. Very addictive and cool, couldn't put it down, that is until I get to mission 21 and this comes up on the screen...

"PURCHASE EXPANSION PACK TO PLAY"

Seriously, WTF!? $3 for the game then not even halfway through, I find out I need to pay $4 to keep playing.
It does say pretty clearly in the item description that you only get 20 missions.
 
Has anyone bought N.O.V.A? I'm really curious about it. I haven't really liked the F.P.S's on the iPhone so far but for some reason this one seems different. Any impressions?

Also

I'm terribly addicted to Sally's Spa and Cooking Dash. My girlfriend wanted them so I bought them for her but now I can't stop playing them. Sooooo much fun.
 
protonion said:
Finally got my 3gs!

I bought Canabalt and Simon the Sorcerer 1 (great port!) so far.
Can anyone just name the absolute must haves? Any other good adventure games in there except for simon ,monkey island and flight of the amazon queen?

Beneath A Steel Sky. It's one of the best adventures in the world, but also features what is BY FAR the best iPhoneified control scheme of the genre.
 
KingOfKong said:
Has anyone bought N.O.V.A? I'm really curious about it. I haven't really liked the F.P.S's on the iPhone so far but for some reason this one seems different. Any impressions?

Also

I'm terribly addicted to Sally's Spa and Cooking Dash. My girlfriend wanted them so I bought them for her but now I can't stop playing them. Sooooo much fun.

i have NOVA but haven't really played it all that much. the control scheme still takes some getting used to. The graphics are pretty good but the level design is boring.
 
So far the only Atlus game on iPhone is Droplitz.

What are the chances of them releasing more?

I think the platform would be perfect for the type of games they usually produce.

Disgaea and other turn based strategy games as well as JRPGs would be nice.
 
Benedict said:
So far the only Atlus game on iPhone is Droplitz.

What are the chances of them releasing more?

I think the platform would be perfect for the type of games they usually produce.

Disgaea and other turn based strategy games as well as JRPGs would be nice.

Unfortunately, there you come to the iPhone's biggest problem, game prices. It just isn't very profitable to do big games like Disgaea or JRPG's on the iPhone, because the most anyone seems ever willing to pay is $10, and the $10 games that sell well are not common at all. For a traditional publisher like Atlus, they could have a game made for DS or PSP and make $20 to $25 on every copy sold, with a customer base of 50 to 100 million dedicated gamers, or for iPhone and make $7 on every copy sold, with a small percentage of customers interested in "hardcore" games like that. That's why you rarely see console-quality games on the iPhone - only companies like EA who doesn't really care about making a profit on the iPhone as much as improving their reputation, while having the marketing money to really get the word out about their games.

That and there are like 45 new games released on iPhone *every day* - it's very easy to get lost in all that. You need a lot of marketing, or luck, to get past that.
 
Dreamwriter said:
Unfortunately, there you come to the iPhone's biggest problem, game prices. It just isn't very profitable to do big games like Disgaea or JRPG's on the iPhone, because the most anyone seems ever willing to pay is $10, and the $10 games that sell well are not common at all. For a traditional publisher like Atlus, they could have a game made for DS or PSP and make $20 to $25 on every copy sold, with a customer base of 50 to 100 million dedicated gamers, or for iPhone and make $7 on every copy sold, with a small percentage of customers interested in "hardcore" games like that. That's why you rarely see console-quality games on the iPhone - only companies like EA who doesn't really care about making a profit on the iPhone as much as improving their reputation, while having the marketing money to really get the word out about their games.

That and there are like 45 new games released on iPhone *every day* - it's very easy to get lost in all that. You need a lot of marketing, or luck, to get past that.

Make the game episodic. First chapter is free, one dollar afterwards. Atlus makes a fuckton of money and it's a great way to get the game to the players quickly.
 
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