Recommended iphone/ipod touch games

Not sure how many people have one but I think we should have a thread. I was very skeptical about the platform initially but the first 6 months have been pretty good. I’ll list my favorites.

Galcon- simply yet satisfying strategy game. Kind of like Risk in space but faster.

Wurdle- a good word jumble game is nice to have around. This one fits the bill.

I heart Katamari- the initial release was crap but most everything has been fixed with the update. It’s katamari on my ipod and it works!

Dr. Awesome- it is Qix with a Trauma Center type story and Phoenix Wright graphics.

Reign of Swords- a decent (and short) Advance Wars copy with a fantasy theme.

Add yours but let’s keep it to games.

Sexual... oh games.
None to report yet.

Tap Defense
Enigmo
Super Monkey Ball
Galcon
Trism
Aurora Feint

Are the best ones I got. I hope they port Wesnoth soon.

Any opinions on Fieldrunners?

I'm really curious about I Heart Katamari. I swear, I can't get enough of those games.

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PSN: kidkorg

What do you want to know?

There are 5 stages- each with a story mode (i.e. get this certain item), a time attack, exact size challenge and eternal modes. There might be more stage but I've only beaten 2.

I am enjoying the heck out of Warfare Inc- a conventional RTS

How does it control? I mean, does it use the accelerometer? Because that seems like THE most ideal control for a Katamari game ever.

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PSN: kidkorg

Controls fairly well in most respect. Obviously, forward and turns are best/ easiest. Backing up is a bit wonky. For 90% of the situations, it is great. Small radius turns are tricky and slow.

Speed works okay with the accelerometer. Tilting doesn't really speed it up that much. There is an on screen button for switching to the other side of the ball. You can tap twice to "run" and swipe right or left for a side step.

I've been programming the iPhone/iPod Touch to see what it can do and it's pretty impressive considering it's not a game player first and foremost.

The iPhone's acceleratometer in itself is a bit limitting.
You can't really set a "home" position and still get a full range of movement too easy and using the immediate position changes in an app makes input jittery. I've seen that if it's oriented to landscape you just don't get too much range considering a normal viewing angle.
Devs have to interpolate detected motions to get it smooth. The more that's done, the less responsive control is.

I'm gonna buy a few apps and see what others came up with.
I'll probably have a couple games on the app store in a few weeks, I'll let you know what they are.

Monkey Ball and Katamari are obvious purchases, I'm curious as to what else people find good. Are there any good uses of motion and physics? I'm trying something pretty neat but the processing doesn't keep up and any fast motion results in general collision crappery.

I hear Rolando is one of the best games as far as motion control goes.

Warfare Inc, Rolando, and Field Runners are some ****ing awesome games.

Flick Fishing is fun (and only .99 cents, but I think it was a sale).

Super Monkey Ball is OK - definitely the best hand held Monkey Ball. The motion controls work decent, but I find it way too sensitive.

iDracula is cool as hell, but it's not a real game (also only .99 cents). If they made it into a Gauntlet or Diablo type game, it would rock, right now it's just survival in a small area.

HeavyMach is a cool little shooter. Controls and looks great.

I got Pac Man and Ms. Pac Man for the hell of it, and they look and play great, too.

iPhone is actually a pretty kick ass little gaming device. The next best thing to DS/PSP, probably in the history of handheld gaming (so that makes iPhone the second best non-Nintendo handheld, behind PSP).

Finally got around to playing Rolando and holy **** - this game makes Loco Roco completely and utterly obsolete (seriously, it's that much better). I almost ordered Loco Roco 2 from amazon.ca a few days ago (it's like just over 20 bucks), but after playing this it would be pointless.

All the time playing Loco Roco I always thought how cool it would with tilt controls - well this game does that, and with more/better interaction. Sometimes you have to use the touch screen to manipulate the stages, you can make your ball things jump - the game just has so much more going for it. Graphics and style are far superior, too, IMO (no Japanese kids singing - or whatever it's supposed to be - in this game).

Played a few more games:

Touch Grind is cool in theory and looks great, I just can't get the finger board thing down. I can ollie and move, the odd rail slide, that's it. I need to give it more time.

Arcade Hoops is pretty cool. It's just a 4 basketballs, and a net you shoot them into by grabbing with your finger, then flicking it towards the hoop. Simple fun. It's got instant daily, weekly, monthly and all time leader boards, too.

Tennis '09 kinda sucks. Graphics are like high-res PSOne, and the touch controls are kinda sloppy.

Bounce On is a straight up, kick ass platformer. It uses the tilt to move, and you can jump like Rolando, but this is a point A to point B, collect all the crap you can platformer. If Mario was a ball and his mushrooms and flowers turned him into soccer and tennis balls and gave you different abilities.

FerrariGT is a nice arcade style racer. Graphics are good (close to Outrun 2 on PSP), controls are great, it's got a nice career mode. You can can control using the touch screen or using tilt, I prefer the touch screen.

The Quest is basically an early 90's PC RPG. If it was a Might & Magic installment, no one would know the difference. It's fun as hell, and honestly one of the better handheld RPGs I've ever played.

My friends company just released Word Fu, and its actually really good and only $1 or $2.

I'll buy it, I need to get some iPhone games because I wanna see how I stack up. I made a few cool touch and motion sensing things but I don't know what kind of workload the iPhone can really take.



I have some more work to do on textures and physics.