[AussieMacGamer]

There's a lot of hits and misses on the app store. I'm going to list my favorites, and my least favorites.

The Worst!

• Billy Frontier
  I cant believe i paid 6 Bucks for it
  
• Bugdom 2
  Horrible control scheme, don't bother with it
  
• Cube
  Get it right before releasing it on the Store (Apple, don't pass it till it is playable)
  
• Most of the Pangea Titles
  They really seem to lack the sparkle they had on the Mac. I still havent gotten enigmo yet, so i'm not sure about that one

The Best!

• Rolando
  Innovative platform fun, that just works on the Iphone
  
• Fastlane Street Racing
  The only racing game I've played that actually is fun to play using the accelerometer, great visuals. As soon as you get it running you can feel how much fun it is to play
  
• Cube Runner
  Ton of fun to verse your friends. Best free game in existance
  
• Fieldrunners
  Last for a reason. This game is freaking awesome. If i were to say to you that i even find myself playing it at home, instead of my PS3, would that explain it? Its a fresh take on the Tower Defense Genre, that just works! Buy it!

Those are my best and some of my worst.

I am awaiting a burst of effort in which i will go down to coles and buy more itunes credit so i can buy Platypus, cause i loved that game on the Mac! I am also awaiting News on a port of Cave Story. I would pay 10 bucks of that... 20 even.




WBU Guys?

[JCdragon]

AussieMacGamer, on February 11th 2009, 06:25 AM, said:

There's a lot of hits and misses on the app store. I'm going to list my favorites, and my least favorites.

The Worst!

• Billy Frontier
  I cant believe i paid 6 Bucks for it
  
• Bugdom 2
  Horrible control scheme, don't bother with it
  
• Cube
  Get it right before releasing it on the Store (Apple, don't pass it till it is playable)
  
• Most of the Pangea Titles
  They really seem to lack the sparkle they had on the Mac. I still havent gotten enigmo yet, so i'm not sure about that one

The Best!

• Rolando
  Innovative platform fun, that just works on the Iphone
  
• Fastlane Street Racing
  The only racing game I've played that actually is fun to play using the accelerometer, great visuals. As soon as you get it running you can feel how much fun it is to play
  
• Cube Runner
  Ton of fun to verse your friends. Best free game in existance
  
• Fieldrunners
  Last for a reason. This game is freaking awesome. If i were to say to you that i even find myself playing it at home, instead of my PS3, would that explain it? Its a fresh take on the Tower Defense Genre, that just works! Buy it!

Those are my best and some of my worst.

I am awaiting a burst of effort in which i will go down to coles and buy more itunes credit so i can buy Platypus, cause i loved that game on the Mac! I am also awaiting News on a port of Cave Story. I would pay 10 bucks of that... 20 even.
WBU Guys?

Raging Thunder,
Tap Defense (which is free so makes it even better)
iBowl (also free)
Midnight Pool which is fun and tactical but still kinda easy, fun nun the less,
Cannon Game
and Hero of Sparta ( damn sweet game )
I've so far mostly downloaded Card and Board games and some art apps like Brushes and ComicZeal

[teflon]

Its a shame that Rolando had to rip off its art style from Loco Roco... I mean come on! theyre practically identical looking!
Having said that, it does look like one of the first games to really take advantage of the capabilities of the iPhone's tilt without being a hash of a console title, gimmicky steering or completely pointless.

as for Enigmo, my brief play time with it had me finding it to be way too small for the necessary precision

[DaveyJJ]

I bought SlotZ Racer last night to keep Bruce Morrison and the crew at Freeverse in NY in swanky digs Will report later (was coding Dead Words word arrays last night and didn't get play time).

[charmin]

Tap Tap Revenge and Bejeweled are both good timewasters.

[Janichsan]

Rolando is pretty good. It's not completely without flaws, but still one of the better games for the iPhone I've seen so far. Tap Tap Revenge (I have the NIN edition) is also awesome, as is i Love Katamari (even though it has some performance problems).

I'm a bit ambivalent about Archibald's Adventures. On the one hand, it's a great puzzle game, on the other hand, the touch screen controls simply suck. They are bearable in the first two dozens of levels, but after that there are so many levels that require absolute precise control of the bubble or the Professor's flying machine that simply isn't achievable with the game's control scheme.

I absolutely cannot recommend Super Monkey Ball. It's very well made, but becomes frigging difficult early on. To make things even worse, you have to replay the whole frigging world when you cannot finish it in one sitting. That makes the whole game a bloody annoyance.

EDIT: Oh, I forgot one must-have game: Trism. Best puzzle game on the iPhone I met so far.

[rebelzeppelin]

Why the heck isn't there a Sid Meier's Pirates! clone for iPhones yet? Speaking of Sid Meier... where's my Civilization Touch??

Anyways, the one game I keep coming back to is Beer Pong. It's stupid and silly, but satisfying.

I hear Bethesda is making an iPhone game though (Fallout Touch?? Morrowind Mobile??), so hopefully it's good.

[Pegasus]

Meh. I think the whole hoopla about iPhone games isn't worth much. I finally got to try a few of said games (good and bad) at an Apple store today, and I was more than underwhelmed. Sure, the visual and audio quality tends to be quite nice, but, IMO, the controls on all of them were just terrible. I'll stick to my DS for my handheld/mobile gaming, thank you very much.

[Eric5h5]

The controls for the games that AMG listed as his best couldn't really be any better on any device. Games that have excellent controls are made specifically for iPhones; games that have not so good controls tend to be ports from other platforms where do things like slapping a virtual joypad on top, which, as Janichsan points out in regards to Archibald's Adventures, don't usually work very well.

For example, Lock'n'Roll...a nifty little free game that I downloaded on a whim and ended up finding pretty addictive (there's also a paid version now). You wouldn't really want to play that on anything other than an iPhone/touch.

--Eric

[AussieMacGamer]

I'm itching to buy a copy of Platypus. Anyone tried it?

[Greg Gant]

I'd say the best game I've bought so far is I love Katamari, it feels the most like a full fledged game even if is Katamari light. The latest update has the speed issues finally quelled . At the price of iPhone games, I've already purchased in the month of having an iPhone 8 games, several of which were under $4.

My recommendations
I Love Katamari - Its the full fledged feeling game. It controls nicely, plays well and is a blast. It just could be longer but at the same time, it also costs about $14 less than any other version has new.

Brain Challenge - A wannabe Brain Academy or whatever the DS game is. Its more arcadish but plenty of fun puzzle and logic games. I've played it probably the most frequently

The Creeps - Its only a $1 at the moment, if you have any interest in Tower Defense games, its totally worth a buy at the price. It has a few nice twists and pretty graphics.

Hero of Sparta - A wannabe God of War but shows the iPhone is capable of gaming more normal styled games. This is the game to make people jealous with.

My recommendations for non-gaming

Jaadu VNC - Unlike the other VNC clients, it works better, doesn't have a resolution limit, works with multiple monitors. I use it rather frequently. Worth every penny of the $25. I connect to my home Mac Pro and my office Mac Pro and office iMac. Works great for network trouble shooting.

Brushes - Finger Painting! Multiple Undos! I love it

Beatmaker - An MPC like sampler that lets you make beats on the go. I've actually used it to make percussion lines and exported them to use in Cubase and Logic, or cut up into a .REX. If they add polyphony zones and a second bank, I could make entire beats on it .

Simplify Media - The best $5 I've spent in ages. I can access my 120 GB Music library anywhere with my iPhone that I have service.

Mobile News - Simply a AP News wire app, its free and isn't slow like the NYTimes app that I so dearly wished functioned like the Mobile News app.



The only game I really haven't liked is Slotz Racer. I bought it out of respect for Strange Flavour but its just not very fun. Just press the button to go and let off to stop. It doesn't get very exciting even with the big update.

What I really hope is that the iPhone starts developing more expensive larger titles, while the games I bought are fun, they're not "big games". I'd gladly pay $15 or $20 for a full fledged game like an iPhone Fallout, or preferably a new game. I know Bestheda is making an iPhone game and we've seen Bioshock was announced. I'm also looking forward to Zen Bound. I keep hoping I'll see a new Adventure game developed as the iPhone would be perfect for an adventure game. As whole the iPhone as a platform is outstanding. The Apps are well beyond my expectations. Last.fm, Pandora and iheartradio all are reasons never to buy Satellite radio as they're FREE. Then Simplify Media means never being without any of your music library again. There's creative apps that let you express yourself, mobilely, and there's even utility Apps like VNC, Speedtest and SSH. Honestly the iPhone is the coolest tech thing I've bought..... ever? I'm not sure but its certainly up there. I'm still getting over the fact I finally have one after pining for ages.

I haven't played much games for months but I'm taken by the iPhone. I think I'll be playing more with the recent "relationship status" change. Being single means catching up on some gaming.

[Greg Gant]

I broke down and bought Fantastic Contraption. Its hardly changed from the Flash version but that's not a bad thing. It works pretty well on the iPhone, and features all the levels (even in the flash version you needed to pay to have at the full version) and sports ability to play user made maps. Its partly out of the hours of office joy I bought this as a nod to the developer for a job well done that I bought it and its the best of the physics games I've played. I bought Crayon Physics (which functions are gaming art that is a visual and audio treat) but its not nearly as fun as Fantastic Contraption. If the two had a bastard love child of beautifully drawn childlike Crayons and the ability to make machines in the mode of Fantastic Contraption, you'd have like the most avant-garde gaming experience.

Still Fantastic Contraption's design of burst gaming makes it an ideal for games to play while waiting at the Deli/Cafe.

I'm hoping World of Goo goes to the iPhone...


It'd be nice to see User reviews on IMG of iPhone games. That way we can help each other find the gems.

[AussieMacGamer]

I shall start posting reviews once i get more gametime in with some of the bigger titles. Where's the port of Jet's 'n Guns already anyways? and cave story? i will freaking buy cave story in an instant. What a freaking awesome game that was!

[Magnum]

AussieMacGamer, on February 20th 2009, 07:32 AM, said:

port of Jet's 'n Guns already anyways? and cave story?

Jet's 'n Guns on the iPhone sounds like, AWESOME. Cave Story is being ported to the Wii as a Wiiware title though, dunno if they'll do it for the iPhone, but it's possible.

[dojoboy]

I've been playing iDracula, a fun "Van Helsing"-type shooter. Replay value isn't great right now, but the developers are going to add levels and more. I'll probably play around with SlotZ Track Editor now that it's out.

[Blany66]

Armageddon Squadron is great although there's little replay value.

[rebelzeppelin]

iDracula is very fun, it's just not very deep or complex. I'd feel like it'd be a lot more fun if it were a Diablo-clone type game.

Also, I've been play Payback, which is frustrating to control but a decent game if you like old-school GTA games. And Words Worth which is fun because I like words.

It's really hard for me to resist the $0.99 so it sucks that there's so many haha.

[Greg Gant]

iDracula is completely worth the $1 but they really outta expand this into a Diablo clone. I'd pay $10-15 if it offered a diablo experience of multiple levels, inventories, and such and maybe $20 if I could play it online with friends. Its a great proof-of-concept game.

If you like word games Textropolis is the game to get....

Right now I've been playing the crap out of Textropolis, its a completely relaxed variation of find the word games. There's no time limit, just find the words leisurely. Each puzzle is a city name, and you build words using the said city name. Once you've found 10% of the words you unlock the next city at which point you can keep finding words in the city you're in or leave at anytime and go to new city or any of the previous. You can bounce around cities as much as you like. As you find words you increase the population of your world, and as you attain more stars, the city gains more buildings. There's really no point other than for the fun of it.

I'd really like to see some sort of online index of stats like textropolis world population, average user population, words found averages on cities etc. That'd really be the icing on the cake... and maybe more variety in city graphics to really urge you to get as many stars as possible. Still at $3 or whatever it was, its completely worth it.

[nagromme]

I'll try to rank these with the best on top--but to each his own, and my own ranking changes daily!

Fantastic Contraption
Misc. Tower Defense (see below)
Dr. Awesome
Quick Draw (IF the player base builds back up--the devs had terrible luck with an OS update breaking the game--fixed now)
Galcon
Enigmo
Trism
Asphalt 4
Blue Attack
Snail Mail
I Love Katamari
Block Breaker Deluxe 2
Blackbeard's Assault
iDracula
Fuzzle
Scramboni
SpaceX
Aurora Feint
Virtual Pool
2 Across
Spin
Magnetic Joe
Platinum Sudoku
Stone of Destiny
KuGon
Ivory Tiles
Blue Defense
The Plateau
SlotZ Racer
Moonlight Mahjong (just because the 3D is cool)
X-Plane (listed last simply because it's not exactly a game)

Tower defense: I only ever played Hordes of Orcs before, but to my surprise the iPhone has proven to be a great TD platform and gotten me into the genre more. I have 4 TD games, all excellent and very different, and I'd buy them all again. In order of my current preference:

7 Cities (deepest and most complex, with unique pirate theme)
geoDefense (most unique gameplay, most difficult, best special FX)
The Creeps (best TD for beginners, lets you shoot the scenery for extra points, cute art style)
Fieldrunners (open play, vs. the maze style of the others)

I've been known to play all of the above repeatedly. Zen Bound, Heavy Mach, Edge and maybe Pharos IV and Sway are on my short list to get next. And so many more... (Zombie Attack might be my next TD purchase--once I try the lite version.)

In Pangea's defense, you'll note that Enigmo is one of my favorite iPhone games (maybe I would mind the small screen had I played the desktop version, but I found pinch-zooming gave me enough precision). I thought Nanosaur and Bugdom 2 both had poor controls at first try, but Bugdom 2 got an update with new controls--I haven't tried it again yet, but keep that in mind. And I'm glad you say Nanosaur keeps you coming back--I will definitely give it another shot. (I kept crashing into the ground--and had so many other games that I haven't yet gotten back to try it a second time.)

For non-games, my must-haves are Pandora, Jaadu VNC, Air Sharing, Ocarina, Ambiance and Graffitio (which I hope takes off).

[Dark_Archon]

Sim City is kinda neat, but I never really find myself playing games on my iPhone. I'd rather listen to music and/or web browse.


The only apps I use that didn't come with the phone are Guitar Toolkit and Pandora. I only just started using Pandora because the new update enabled a "higher quality audio" mode which enables streaming of stereo files (used to be 1 channel over data network).