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The Official iPhone/iPod Touch Gaming Thread

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Dreamwriter said:
Pretty smart move of them, since they are going to be releasing Asphalt 5 soon...
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The graphical leap between 4 and 5 is damn amazing, they somehow made the cars have great looking shine, interiors and none of that "ps1 graphics" virus :P

and that's not on a 3GS :o

A shame it's an speed overkill arcade game, I love them but it looks like you wall ride around the track it's so fast and twitchy.
 
Stoney Mason said:
A few good physics based puzzlers all for currently 99 cents.


Moonlights

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Glass Tower

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Perfect Balance: Inferno

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How is Moonlight? It looks kinda cool.
 
billy.sea said:
How is Moonlight? It looks kinda cool.
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For $.99, it's a pretty good take on the physics bridge building games. There's a lot of cool elements worked into the gameplay. I like it. I just wish that it showed a preview of the next "plot" instead of having to tap and then see if it was too far away to form another strut or not.
 
Flunkie said:
Anyone want to TOFTT (I HATE this phrase.. it's the first reply on every damn thread on TA) on Castle of Magic?
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Already half way into the game from a lenghy play session last night.

It's good classic platforming fun, the touch dpad can be a little annoying mainly because it's way too easy to accidently press down in a jump and slam the ground below you causing many deaths when trying to jump over holes on little platforms. Also despite being on a touch 2g I get a lot of frame rate problems and sometimes a button press may not register.

Apart from those two slightly annoying problems the game is a solid platformer and fun, I think it was a mobile game before this as one of the ingame diagrams shows you a different unit then the iDevice, but for £3.29 it's worth it to me.
 
Star Defense got an update.


Video


New Planet added to Challenge mode. Pit your skills on Rhydon with extra money and harder enemies.

Plus+network integration: Create an account to earn points for commendations, access online leaderboards and more. Find your friends to compare scores, awards, and send them direct challenges.

3.0 Update: Send your friends direct challenges via push notification.
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Ngmoco CEO talking about what they want to do with Plus+

Neil Young on Plus+ and iPhone Social Gaming
ngmoco CEO explains the Plus+ vision and how it will change iPhone gaming.
by Levi Buchanan
June 17, 2009 - ngmoco wants to put Xbox Live on your iPhone. Facebook and Twitter, too. And to do so, the iPhone publisher behind hits like Rolando and Star Defense is launching an iPhone-specific community service called Plus+. This service combines many of the socially competitive aspects of Xbox Live, such as achievements and the ability to issue challenges, with easy-to-use tools for organizing your social tribe. Plus+ allows you to create an evolving online profile for the world to see as well as a friends list so you can neatly challenge colleagues and associates as well as track their gaming prowess.

ngmoco founder and CEO Neil Young spoke to IGN Wireless about the launch of the service in today's update to Star Defense. To see how Plus+ works, all you need to do is update the game on your iPhone or iPod Touch. A Plus+ button is added to the main menu that takes you directly to the service -- but it does not leave Star Defense. Plus+ exists within the framework of the game, making it convenient to use. After setting up your account and creating your profile, you can explore many of the Plus+ features, such as awards and leveling a direct challenge at other Star Defense players. These direct challenges make use of one of the best new 3.0 OS features: push notification. You aren't forced to go into Star Defense to see if you have been challenged. Now, you get a crisp note that somebody thinks your S'rath-busting skills are insufficient.

Sounds more than a little like Xbox Live, doesn't it? It's the social aspect of Plus+ that Young believes sets it well apart from existing online services. "Xbox Live or PlayStation Network has sort of one dimension of functionality that is relevant to gamers," says Young, referring to matchmaking for online games. "The process of adding a friend to Xbox Live is painful compared to adding your friends to your social network."

Spend a little time with Plus+ on Star Defense today and you'll see precisely what Young is talking about. The ease of locating friends on Plus+ is much smoother than having to ask a friend what their gamer handle is -- or worse, exchange Friend Codes. The phone -- in this case, the iPhone -- is a central hub of your social life (if it's not, you're doing it wrong). "What better device to do this with than one with all your friends already in your contact list," says Young.

By its design as a portable communication/Internet device, the iPhone seems like the perfect candidate for a social gaming service. However, multiplayer gaming on consoles and the PC is very appointment-based. You agree to meet your friends at 9PM to play a little Left4Dead or Call of Duty. That's not necessarily how mobile gaming has worked in the past. Mobile games were played in stolen moments while life was happening all around you.


Young is quick to note than mobile gaming and iPhone gaming are very different monsters. He cites that the average Rolando play session is 22 minutes, which he says is very similar to a PSP or DS play session. Those are appointment-based gaming platforms despite their portability. So, if there are indeed appointment iPhone gamers that do sit down with every intention of hovering over their iPhones or iPod Touches, then a Plus+ service not only makes sense, but according to Young, "it gives your gaming experience relevance."

That relevance comes from not only having leaderboards and achievement-like awards, but from the increased connection to a game when that game is somehow connected to your personal tribe. "All too often in PC and console gaming, we've been trained to play with anonymous masses," says Young. "Going to an event with anonymous masses and going with friends have very different feelings."

A social gaming service for to-go gaming is not exactly a new concept. Twice, mobile gamers have been promised viable services: Microsoft's vanished Live Anywhere that was supposed to bring mobile under the Live umbrella and Nokia's N-Gage service. What is to prevent Plus+ from popping and fading like either of these concepts? Seeing Plus+ appear in Star Defense is a promising start, but Young explains that ngmoco's commitment to the Plus+ service will be borne out over the coming months. For one thing, all ngmoco games going forward will have Plus+ functionality, including Rolando 2 and the first-person shooter now known as KillTest (formerly LiveFire and will certainly undergo another name change over the summer). Young also confirms that ngmoco will go into its back catalog and retroactively fit certain games with Plus+ functionality. With over nine million downloaded ngmoco games alone already, the potential spread of Plus+ through just these means is apparent.

But Plus+ will not be limited solely to ngmoco titles. This is where ngmoco's newest executive, Simon Jeffery, comes into play. The former SEGA president just joined ngmoco to oversee the Plus Publishing arm of the game maker. Through Plus Publishing, other developers and publishers can sign on to use Plus+ publishing in their titles. ngmoco has been in active discussions with other game makers and we should see some announcements in the near future about Plus+ partners. Asked if we could see major App Store players like Electronic Arts and Gameloft sign on to Plus+, Young says, "We'd like to see those companies join the network. They are prominent players in the market. But the story of the App Store is not that one company or product is defining the market. The market is defining the market."

The next six months will also define Plus+. In addition to the features of the service live today, Young has ambitious plans for Plus+. Naturally, in-app commerce made possible by the 3.0 update will be a part of the service. Facebook and Twitter integration are also on the horizon, although Star Defense itself connects to those social networks. Young also outlined the idea of "feeds," which would give a sort of running commentary as you as a gamer. "The basic idea is that when you play a game, you leave a lot of data in your wake," Young says.

ngmoco already uses that data for development, such as designing updates based on user experiences. "You can extract that data and make it player-readable and then post it to a feed that makes it player- or game-specific." A feed of this data then could become a vital part of your Plus+ profile, updating friends and followers about your skills in a specific game.

More intriguing, though, is the concept of what Young calls the "rewards mechanism." Here, your involvement with the Plus+ community, would translate into achievements that go beyond just your overall score. "We have the concept of rewards where the more you play, the more people you invite, you accumulate an ever-increasing amount of redeemable points," explains Young. "Those are redeemable for things that have value: virtual good or discounts on software."

This feature would be another major differentiator from a service like Xbox Live or PSN as well as foster a sense of loyalty within iPhone gamers. Consider how this could be used in a shooter like KillTest. Offering a super-weapon for sale via in-app commerce threatens to wreck game-balance. A player could just buy their way into a prime position. But give the weapon to players that put the time into the game to unlock it and you no longer have a reason to begrudge a player that is using it.

The iPhone gaming scene is already robust, but the deployment of successful social gaming network would only help solidify its place as a real-deal gaming machine in the industry. Plus+ would also assist in the unification of iPhone gaming, too, something that has certainly helped Microsoft stay ahead of Sony in the console market. Gamers like push-button access to their friends and their content. If Plus+ comes to complete fruition as described, Young's vision for the service could make it the most important next step in the critical second year of the iPhone as a gaming platform.
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http://wireless.ign.com/articles/995/995791p1.html
 
Stoney Mason said:
Ngmoco CEO talking about what they want to do with Plus+




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http://wireless.ign.com/articles/995/995791p1.html
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Thanks a lot for that article! You're awesome.

As I keep saying due to all the missed/delayed oppurtunities...my first iPhone is Friday so I can't even grab the username I want for Plus+. I really love ngmoco, though. Apple should buy them.

edit: finished reading it. I hope that Plus+ gets adopted as the online community of iPhone vs. a bunch of other random communities popping up, like an official Gameloft one or something. Everyone should join forces like ngmoco describes.
 
Edge is back up in America finally. For those that missed it Edge was one of the real standout games and a personal favorite of mine. They ran into some legal issues with the name but apparently those have been worked out because it's up again. I'll post it like a new game since a lot of relatively new people are in the thread who might have missed it early on.



Itunes Link
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zomboid said:
The reason you like that game is because it isn't a tower defense game. You hate tower defense games - so that makes perfect sense.
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I said defense games - as in, games where you defend a target against wave after wave of attackers. Tower defense games, which are a sub-genre of the defense game, are on a different level of dislike. It may be a generational thing, like hating rap music. If you ask me, tower defense games are just gaming's Jonas brothers. But I'm old and I remember when gaming wasn't so one note.
 
I know it's slightly off topic but if anybody has 3.0 and the latest MLB At Bat App, you can watch the Dodgers/Athletics game right now LIVE. Pretty good quality too. Looks like they are doing 2-3 games per day.
 
pdk27 said:
I know it's slightly off topic but if anybody has 3.0 and the latest MLB At Bat App, you can watch the Dodgers/Athletics game right now LIVE. Pretty good quality too. Looks like they are doing 2-3 games per day.
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They are supposed to have the full schedule up within the next couple of weeks. Very clearly makes this the best app in the store. Absolutely amazing.
 
pdk27 said:
I know it's slightly off topic but if anybody has 3.0 and the latest MLB At Bat App, you can watch the Dodgers/Athletics game right now LIVE. Pretty good quality too. Looks like they are doing 2-3 games per day.
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Now I need an NBA version of that app...
 
Stoney Mason said:
Now I need an NBA version of that app...
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That's part of what makes it "best app evaaar" in my book. Everyone else is going to have to follow suit.

MLB iPhone is now a strong contender with MLB09 for game of the year!
 
Stoney, your post just sold me on Edge. I just bought it and look forward to playing it, the style and gameplay looks to be something special.

Does anyone else wish iTunes had a wishlist or tracking/radar feature? There are a couple games that I don't feel the need to buy right now, since I have soooooooo many to play first, but I don't want to forget about. Would be cool to be able to keep tabs on it.

I guess I could email myself or make a text file, but a tracking feature would be ideal.
 
jonnybryce said:
Does anyone else wish iTunes had a wishlist or tracking/radar feature? There are a couple games that I don't feel the need to buy right now, since I have soooooooo many to play first, but I don't want to forget about. Would be cool to be able to keep tabs on it.

I guess I could email myself or make a text file, but a tracking feature would be ideal.
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There is Pandorabox or AppSniper.
 
Is it just my phone (3G) or does Let's Golf have some serious frame rate problems? Also, would it be too much to ask for dev's to build options to allow us lefties to move controls to the left hand side of the phone?
 
Kryten said:
Is it just my phone (3G) or does Let's Golf have some serious frame rate problems? Also, would it be too much to ask for dev's to build options to allow us lefties to move controls to the left hand side of the phone?
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Next you're going to start asking for equal rights and left hand goods stores, aren't you?
 
What ever Apple are doing with 3.0 downloads it's seriously zapping the store and other functions, the app store on my pc times out, loads slowly on my touch, youtube on my touch does not connect any more and if I do try to download something like an update then it takes forever and times out.

Annoying as shit.
 
Pretty much every even remotely serious game that's free, I'll download. I skip the shitty "Bob's First Game" stuff, but otherwise...
 
Kryten said:
Is it just my phone (3G) or does Let's Golf have some serious frame rate problems? Also, would it be too much to ask for dev's to build options to allow us lefties to move controls to the left hand side of the phone?
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It does, the frame-rate is awful, I even have problems sometimes getting the power meter to stop where I want because it is so jumpy.

I wonder if it will be smooth on the new iPhone.
 
Wow. EDGE game looks pretty amazing. I completely missed out on that, and was just about to post that it's back in the store (why was it gone in the first place?)
 
Any Picross fans? What's the best Picross game?

I tried all the Lite versions I could find, and thought PicGrid was pretty good. The other two Lites that I tried were bleh, but I noticed there's a couple on the App Store with no demo version.
 
The past two days I think I've bought like ten new games. All for a dollar. Except Edge which I just bought 'cause I wanted to play it back before it got tossed off.

With my luck it'll get a sale in like a week. D:
 
Jonnyram said:
Signed up (jonnyram), and tried to find you but no luck yet.
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I've added you both... Hope that's ok.
My plus account name is abu.

Really enjoying star defence! Look forward to the competition.
 
Khanage said:
I've added you both... Hope that's ok.
My plus account name is abu.

Really enjoying star defence! Look forward to the competition.
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Go nuts, I want to see how this is going to work. If successful (and adopted across publishers) it could be pretty excellent. Definitely adds some entertainment to an otherwise straightforward TD game.

Interesting, it uses a sort of twitter system which doesn't require accepting a friend request, just puts em in a "followers" tab.
 
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