iPhone Games Test vol.1

iPhone is one of the most famous multimedia devices, claimed by many for the best video and audio playback device available to this day. However, it lacked games or any type of interactive software. This was a big con to people who were looking for the ultimate multimedia device. Now, thanks to the appearance of the App Store, Apple will try to change this, providing content which was up till now available only through Jailbreaking your iPhone. Over seven hundred games (and growing) are available, including some marvelous achievements and some rather disappointing experiments. We will take a look at a very small fraction of them, carefully picked according to our personal taste and categorized by price tags. We will show you our top favorites and some games that you should know about.

Free games:

Keep in mind that up untill now games were downloadable only through Jailbreaking the device and were always free, sacrificing quality. After all, without the prospect of making money or gaining fame, programmers didn't really work that hard to make their games beautiful and perfect. However, App Store is now open and sadly (but not unexpectedly), there are only a few free games. Despite that fact, some of them are awesome and others are literally masterpieces.

Cube Runner:

This game will not impress you with its looks and doesn’t seem to be an application someone should shed sweat upon. But on the contrary, Cube Runner is extremely addictive. Its essence consists of controlling a triangular object, using the accelerometer with the goal being to evade cubes, which will block your way. The game is 3D, but those two shapes (triangle and cube) are the only ones you will see. However, you will still remain addicted, because of its simplicity and the incoming obstacles and increasing speed. At a certain moment you will get tired of it and stop playing, but then you will see your score is barely 300 and you will pick up the iPhone again with the lifetime goal to hit 1000. Cube Runner even supports the integration of other level packs so that when you get tired of evading random incoming cubes, you can download some man-made runway.



Jirbo Break:

We’ve all played Arkanoid and we all know that breaking flying blocks with a ball can turn into a passion. In our quest for similar free games, we found out that the best looking one is actually free! Jirbo Breaks’ graphics are very impressive as both lightning effects and art. The backgrounds look great and the explosions and power-ups are pure eye candy.

Like any other Arkanoid clone, here you also have to break blocks using a steel ball and have a platform to bounce the ball off. A wonderful innovation in this game is the presence of a small button in the middle of the bottom screen, which detects the slightest movement and thus you can manipulate the platform with the least amount of effort and with full visibility. Unfortunately, the game is not bug-free and you will have to get used to the fact that the platform doesn’t always bounce the ball back, even though you might slide right below it.  You’ll have to get used to the periodical glitch, because it seems Jirbo Break is not fully optimized to run on the iPhone.



Aurora Feint:

Everyone else reviewed it, why shouldn’t we? First of all, we must note that the game is claimed to be a massive multiplayer online role playing game, but no matter how you look at it, it’s just a puzzle. All the noise that it is “the first iPhone MMO” is more of a marketing strategy to increase the interest of the hardcore gamers looking for another platform on which to compete with the rest. Unfortunately, Aurora Feint is not what it is claimed to be and even though it’s great in its own way, it has nothing to do with the word “Online”.

If we ignore those reproaches, Aurora Feint is actually pretty nice. It’s played like Diamonds, but instead, you will be arranging trios of cubes bearing the signs of the natural elements. Collecting three or more cubes on the same horizontal or vertical line, you win the respective resource (element), which you later on use to enhance your abilities. Aurora Feint even has its own world map, which is basically a menu divided in Blacksmith, Mines (The place you collect the elements and play the puzzle), Tower (You overview your progress here) and a few others, which unfortunately, just like the rest of the game, are overdressed and force you to think you are playing something complicated. For example, you level up by collecting resources, and then you play a bonus level in which you collect resources. When you collect enough resources, you’ll have to craft a weapon, which to help you collect resources faster, but in order to do that you have to play a mini game in which… you collect resources again.


But let’s not be rude, the game is entertaining, the leveling system makes it addictive, the music is beautiful and motivating, the art is equaled to none in any other iPhone game and as a whole, it deserves some praise. And even though it is not an MMO, you’ll still get the chance to form a “party” with some other player, creating the illusion that you’re actually online.



Comet Lite:

Here is another game that grabbed our attention. This one is a bit more innovative from the rest of the arcades. In Comet Lite, you take the role of a space cowboy! Using your finger, you will have to make laser lassos around meteorites and the beauty here is that the form of the lasso itself depends strictly on what you will draw. There is a time trial in which you must collect a certain amount of meteorites or you will fail the level. The comets in this free (demo) version vary in size and are either normal or made out of “dark matter”. The last ones are invisible to the radar. The game is truly addictive and if it didn’t have to end on level five, we would have played it a lot more. Unfortunately, in order to go on you will have to buy the full version from App Store for $3.99.



TanZen:

This is an interactive application which, we are sure, will appeal to the elderly iPhone users. TanZen is a very pleasant puzzle game where your goal is to arrange the geometrical pieces in the shape of something that has already been drawn on the ground. You can move every figure wherever you want, rotate it 360 degrees using two fingers or flip it around by double tapping.

The game is obsessive, mostly because the levels are not mercilessly hard and there are 100 of them. This gives you over 6-7 hours of gameplay and considering this is a free application, that’s a godsend!

Up to $3:

Circulate Prologue:

For the modest price of $0.99 you can get your hands on this arcade game, which utilizes the iPhone’s built-in accelerometer. Here we have the following situation: You must put together balls of the same color in a washing machine type of environment and manipulate the piles formed by them, by turning the phone in different angles. When you collect three or more of a same kind, they disappear and from the center of the “washing machine” pop out more. The first three levels are easy, because only blue and red balls fall out. But later on start to appear other colors and even metal balls. The last can be destroyed only by another kind of special balls that look like underwater mines. When you click on them, they explode and take out all balls they are in contact with.


As a matter of fact, Circulate Prologue is an unique arcade, which unfortunately, gets boring in a while, but some people might feel the opposite. The graphics and sound are perfect – beautiful, dynamic and well designed. We think it is worth the buck and won’t disappoint you, at least the first thirty minutes.



3-D Vector Pong:

The phenomenon called accelerometer is truly a revolutionary idea, but sometimes it can be a real pain in the butt. No matter what they say, this type of control cannot possibly compete with the comfort of a joystick/keys or a mouse, mostly because in order to play, you have to be looking directly from above so that the device is in a neutral position. At least this game has an option, which allows you to calibrate the angle up to 50-60 degrees, which is cool, but still not enough.


Vector Pong left us with mixed feelings. We loved the idea, but hated the way it has been realized. The game is a “Tennis” clone, but here it is 3-Dimensional, which strongly complicates your situation. When you play against a computer, you will be defeated countless times, as he is rather hard; even in easy mode, our wins are just a few. When you play in multiplayer, your chances of success increase drastically, because the other player will also suffer from the horrible controls: they are very choppy and suddenly change the speed of movement in the worst moment, which will piss you off numerous times. As a whole, we couldn’t recommend this game to anyone and still keep our conscience clear, even though the multiplayer is a good reason to have 3-D Vector Pong and the price is just $1.99.

Serpents:

The name immediately implies that we are talking about some analogue of the world famous Snake game, but in fact, it is a bit different. In Serpents, you will have control of a yellow snake using the accelerometer and the background is completely black, lacking any charm or designer thought. Against your serpent, there will stand up to three others. The goal of the game is not to hit the head of your serpent into the walls or the bodies of the other serpents, while you all grow and thus increase the chance of collision. There are three difficulty modes and even though it sounds trivial, this game is absolutely addictive!

As for the graphic design, Serpents will send you back to the 80’s and this feeling will be reinforced by the musical score, which strongly reminds of Jean Michel Jarre’s works. We stumbled upon some bugs too; sometimes the angle to which you have leaned the device is not sharp enough and the snake will suddenly turn in exactly the opposite direction and thus commit suicide, and you won’t even see when and why. Whether or not you going to give $1.99 for this game, depends solely on you. We definitely recommend it.



Solar Quest:

Side scrolling space simulators are nothing new, but they will always be around. However, since Galaxian, there has been a huge progress. Solar Quest is a pleasant simulator, in which you will not be shooting anything, but instead you will be evading collisions with the sky, ground, mines, platforms and lasers. At the same time, carelessly spread around those dangers, there are some bonuses, like coins, extra lives or repair kits.

After a lot of games in which we had to use the accelerometer, we are positive to say that this is a very inconvenient control method. Solar Quest is no different. It even has a very buggy calibration, which will irritate you in the beginning. You also have a button on screen which will allow you to speed up, when you feel like it.


As for graphic and sound design, the game will not disappoint you. The 3D models have excellent texturing, the backgrounds are pretty and the explosions are pleasant to watch over and over again. The music fits the atmosphere of the game perfectly so we have no complaints there. But as a whole, we were left with mixed feelings and the question “Is it worth $2.99?” We think that the pros of Solar Quest are more, so if you like side scroll space simulators, do not forget to check out Solar Quest.

Ikanoid:

The war against the bricks goes on. No originality here, but at least the final result is decent! Ikanoid looks and tastes good; lots of bonuses fall down from the destroyed bricks, visual effects are eye candy and the controls (a finger under the platform) are moderately comfortable.

There isn’t much to say about Ikanoid, since there is nothing revolutionary here, but it is still a pretty good game walking on a beaten track. There is a con, though, and that is the extremely buggy platform for the ball. You will often try to save a ball and visually succeed, but the ball will refuse to turn around and after a collision bug, it will slowly pass through the platform no matter what you do, leaving you one less life. This will definitely push a large number of people away from Ikanoid. For those who really want to play such a game, you will have to pay $2.99 to have it on your iPhone.

Up to $6:

Vay:

One of the games that surprised us, while we browsed the App Store, was none other than Vay. It’s an RPG in which you take the role of a young prince, whose royal family has been murdered by invaders in large metal armors. If you are familiar with the Final Fantasy series, the gameplay and plot development structure of Vay will look very familiar.

The prince Heibelger, who loses his parents and finds out that his fiancée was kidnapped during the attack, stands against technologic super soldiers, while at the same time, he is from a sword wielding medieval empire. This storyline will be warmly accepted by the fans of JRPG’s (Japanese Role Playing Games). It will get them addicted to the game and will bring them back to reality at the very end of the story.


The graphic design and art is kind of ugly, though. The characters are ugly and unimpressive squares on the map, the game screen uses too little of the available space and the art itself looks rather amateur. The music reminds of SEGA soundtracks, but there is nothing bad about that. It even suits Vay. You will also be pleasantly surprised by the anime cut-scenes that will appear at some key moments.


The gameplay, as we’ve already mentioned, is typical for an RPG; you will be able to sell and buy weapons, form a party with more than one character and engage in combat both in random battles on the map and in such, important for the plot development. The combats are very dull and annoying, mostly because they are a bit more frequent than they should be. The characters take turns and their options are only a few, although eventually you get new spells, but that doesn’t really make it any more fun. The navigation on the map is also a big drawback; you click the place you want to go. Sounds easy, but thanks to the small square screen, your clicking will turn into a huge chore.

Is it worth $4.99? If you like that kind of RPG’s, it most certainly is.

ZEN Pinball Roller Coaster:

Where are you going without a pinball table in your pocket!? Years ago, even some grayscale phones had pinball games. This one here is a real eye-candy. It will keep your eyes busy with all of its shiny art and will definitely appeal to the pinball maniacs. Unfortunately, as in most iPhone games, you will face yet another gameplay issue: fast reactions when playing fast-paced arcades are a must, but ZEN Pinball Roller Coaster makes some serious lag, which obstructs the complete enjoyment of the game. You will be forced to push the buttons not at the moment you like, but 10-20 milliseconds before the hit itself. That is not exactly “fatal”, but is not a minor inconvenience either.

ZEN Pinball RC costs $4.99 and we do not have a solid opinion or advice whether it’s worth it or not.



Pool:

The billiard table is ready for a game and this time it is right in your pocket! Pool was available some time ago with the iPhones that had been Jailbroken, but here we have a lot of new features and upgrades. You can play the game against an opponent, lots of editable options, more precise aiming with the cue and the best feature: two players on one device.

The game is isometric, looks decent, the balls move subtly and all in all, there isn’t something we can rant about. The game costs $5.99, which is a good price for what Pool offers.



Tank Ace:

Yet another 3D war game, only this time it is neither exactly a shooter, nor simulator. In Tank Ace you take control of a tank that will stand against hordes of enemy vehicles. The standard objective is, of course, to kill everyone else. As for the controls, it is both comfortable and uncomfortable and to a certain degree, this was the goal of the programmer. You will be able to move the cannon and the tank itself autonomously from one another. In the beginning it’s confusing, but eventually, it’ turns out to be fun. Your enemies are usually faster and target you much easier, but that shouldn’t scare you, because unlike your tank, their tanks are just 2 shots away from incineration. There are also trucks that appear randomly on the map and they apparently carry ammunitions, because when you shoot them, you recharge your tank. The choice of a model extends to the selected side in the battle: Allies, Axis or Soviets.


The gameplay is a bit monotonous and so is the graphic design. The camera will drive you insane, because it doesn’t really follow you, but instead it positions in a certain location at a certain angle and until you leave that area, the camera will not switch. On the good side, you can change the view of the game from landscape to portrait and vise versa, just by flipping the device at anytime.

The game is $5.99 and we think it is great. Tank Ace is playable and fun, but the camera will send a lot of players packing.

Up to $10:

Enigmo:

Enigmo is a unique and addictive game in which you will have to solve series of puzzles by directing drops of liquid into a certain container. Sounds simple, but is actually quite twisted and random at times. It slightly resembles The Incredible Machine, but here you won’t have the luxury to waste time thinking, because there is bonus score if you solve your puzzles fast. Later on, you will have to solve puzzles with more than one type of drops (green drops, fiery drops) and you will have to simultaneously direct them into their respective containers.

Mildly put, the game is beautiful. Its 3D engine and perfect controls send it to the top of our favorite iPhone games. The sound is not very impressive, but if you play the game with it turned on at all times, you will frequently visit the toilet, thanks to the constant water drop noises. $9.99 is a good price for this game, it’s really worth it!



De Blob:

Even professionals like THQ are involved with iPhone games. Their offer on the App Store is called De Blob and it can be played with either the accelerometer or the touch screen. You take control of a weird ball-bunny, whose goal is to paint everything in its way with random pastel colors. The story is about the character’s war against an evil corporation that has turned all the buildings grey. Despite the deep symbolism, the game is rather simple. Accelerating your ball-bunny in random directions, you will have to paint in raving colors all the buildings using your body and evading the “paint patrols”. You will jump from one level to another and you must accomplish every mission for a certain amount of time.


As for the music and design, De Blob is extremely pretty; after all, we are talking about one of the most powerful computer game studios and we would never think that THQ would fail to make a good iPhone game. There are a lot of options to choose from and everything seems to be perfectly optimized with glitches or lag being very rare.

We’re not sure why It didn’t appeal to us, but maybe it’s because of the gameplay itself, which quickly gets boring or maybe because of the atmosphere. You might like it, though, so make sure to check it out; it performs excellent in all categories and costs $7.99. In addition, if you are a fan of THQ’s games don’t miss this one.



Galcon:

Was it because of the absence of strategy games for the iPhone (which is blasphemy, because touch screen technology is perfect for this genre, and the leading WM games are strategies) or because of lack of originality within others, but we fell in love with Galcon. It’s not exactly a strategy even, but is the closest to one that you’ll get from App Store for now.

Galcon allows you to command triangular ships that will lead wars with other planets as the main objective of the game is to occupy all enemy planets. The game is very simplified:  You just have to click on your planet and drag your finger to the enemy planet and ships will launch in an onslaught. Their number depends on the percentage chosen in the right bottom of the screen. When ships attack a planet, the only rule is simple “add and subtract” algebra. You can select more than one friendly planet so that you attack with much more ships at the same time. Another awesome option is to select a squadron already in flight and redirect them to another planet.

The simplicity of the game is pure bliss and will keep you in front of the screen for hours to come, mostly because of all ten difficulty levels and the five different types of game mode. They are respectively 1 on 1 battle, 3-way battle, Beast (All planets are controlled by a red enemy, attacking with incredible amount of force and you must take control of everything, before your few planets are taken over), Vacuum (game mode in which you have to race time and take over all the neutral planets before the timer hits zero) and Stealth (in this mode you do not see the enemy ships).

Galcon is absolutely impressive and even though it lacks any sound or a “wow” graphic design, you will get addicted to it very fast. We feel it is certainly worth $9.99.



Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D:

One of the most famous Playstation games is now available for the iPhone too! Crash hasn’t changed at all; graphically it is almost the same, the weapons and characters are identical with small changes here and there, while the racing tracks are completely modified and full of obstacles! For those of you who are not familiar with the series, Crash is an epic racer in which you can collect bonuses, weapons spread all over the tracks and defeat your enemies in more than one way. Despite single races, you will have the option to race for the cup (a series of games) or to play “story mode” and get to know the characters.

Graphically and musically, the CBNK 3D is equal to none and for $9.99 it is definitely worth it! However, there are a few bugs that need fixing; a lot of glitches, for example, will give you the feeling that you are playing an emulated CD version of the game on a very old computer. The speed will slow down and the FPS will drop rapidly. This is something that should not happen to a game that demands fast responses. Despite the glitches, during most of the time you will have enough frames per second to fully enjoy playing CBNK 3D.

Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D has some competition in the AppStore in the face of Cro-Mag Rally, about which we will say only a few sentences. Cro-Mag Rally is a racer in almost the same genre with the same gameplay – Collecting weapons and racing in (pre-historic) carting vehicles. It also has a bit more complicated interface and you will have to hold a button for the gas, because there is also a key for backward movement. Despite that, the game is not as intuitive as CBNK 3D and the additional controls are rather irritating. Cro-Mag Rally is more dynamic as gameplay, but is not much different from its adversary Crash. It has the same price tag and the choice between them (or maybe both) falls solely on you.


South Park Imagination Land:

Do you remember the episode of South Park in which terrorists took over USA’s imagination? And how the government immediately decided that nuking it was the best course of action? Well, now you will be able to join this epic saga in the face of the most inappropriate character - Butters. You are in the role of the blond kid, who has the “power of imagination”. Using it, you will have to pass through different stages, jumping around with a charge of “imagination” and collecting rainbows.

Believe it or not, we played South Park Imagination Land for more than three straight hours and we were still not bored with it. In short, the idea is to jump off walls and mushrooms using the charge of Butters’ imagination, which depletes every time you jump. Recharging is done by colliding at high speed with other objects. Even though we failed to explain it perfectly, there are training missions that you will have to take anyway and everything will be described step by step. You will travel through different imaginary worlds and completing every stage will give you more “imagination power”, which Butters must use in the end to save Imagination land. The game costs $9.99 and we liked it a lot. Even if you are not a fan of the series, you will like it too, because it is very addictive, user-friendly and innovative.



Bomberman Touch:

Classics, classics… Bomberman is one of those games that just don’t seem to get boring… for a good reason! Some time ago, it was one of the most addictive console games. And it still is. In Bomberman Touch you will meet our old mate who has now decided to bomb his way through a sacred temple called Ka-Boom. You can sense the Japanese style in both the music and character design, which is somewhat great, because it is fresh, but at some point in the game, everything will look too “kawaii” to bomb.

There’s only one word to describe the game controls: Perfect! No accelerometers, no weird clicks and unresponsive navigation. Wherever you put your finger on the map, a directional pad appears with which you move Bomberman. Bomb planting is even easier – Just press the large bomb icon in the right. Everything is easy to use and so far, we couldn’t find better controls for an iPhone game.

The gameplay is the perfect combination between a simple storyline, diverse enemies and bonuses for your character. Progressing ahead, you will be able to move faster, plant more than one bomb and eventually be able to detonate bombs at your mark. Bomberman Touch stunned us with quality and comfort on all fronts and we recommend it with both thumbs up. The game costs $7.99 and if we have to be completely honest, it’s worth every penny.



Aqua Forest:

The last and final game we will review today is “nature’s wonder” – Aqua Forest. It won’t be a lie if we say that we have never seen such a marvel devised for a phone! This is a physical engine that can make miracles using different materials and shapes, and using the accelerometer, you can create a true storm in your iPhone!

The main idea of Aqua Forest is for you to use different combination of elements in different environments (with and without gravitation) and to move a certain amount of water (or other element) to the designated spot. In most cases, this is not as easy as it sounds (although there are some pretty simple puzzles). For example, when water touches the element fire, it turns into smoke, which later on can be turned into liquid again if it gets in contact with the element ice.

The possibilities are hundreds and the game itself is pure eye candy. You can burn trees, move objects using water, push jellies around… Everything is possible here. In Free Game mode you will have everything available at once and the ability to do anything you imagine. You can even make a small boat made of wood, put it in water… and light it on fire or crush it under the power of the water, if you use the accelerometer hard enough. The game is priceless. Well, maybe not priceless, it is worth $7.99, but we feel this is a symbolic price for what is offered. And when you get tired of the built-in puzzles, you can always make your own and store them!

Games we do NOT recommend:

There are games that no matter how you look at them and how generous you are, just don’t seem to offer any entertainment, but cost money… We decided to give an opinion on those we came across, because there are people who can’t really buy apps by the dozen. Here are a few games with which we had only one good moment and that was when we deleted them.

Metal Angel:

It costs $3.99 and the screenshot looks rather intriguing, but the moment you start it, you will be sorry. We expected an interesting and comfortable arcade, but we were strongly disappointed, because it is overflowing with bugs, including the stupid fact that no matter where your ship is, if you click somewhere else, it will appear there. Metal Angel reminds us of some Alpha version of an unfinished game and it definitely doesn’t deserve four bucks.



Tunnels:

It appears that there are some games that have not been created for the purpose of entertaining the user, but rather torture him. One of these is Tunnels. This is supposed to be a “fun and addictive” application in which you drive a spaceship through narrow tunnels and the score is calculated by the times you survived without crashing. The problem is that this is extremely hard and after 10 minutes of attempts to beat our own record of 32 seconds in the tunnels, we just got sick of it. The game has horrible design, as if it was made using Game Maker Studio. Words like “gameplay” do not exist in the world of Tunnels, because each game session continues for an average of 20 seconds if you are a normal person and 50 seconds if you are from Korea. The sad thing is that we played Easy and higher difficulties are absolutely pointless. This “game” is not worth $1.99. Even if it was free, we’d still not recommend it to anyone, unless you find restarting a game every 15 seconds entertaining.

Conclusion:

As a whole, iPhone now has an arsenal of almost a thousand game applications. When we started doing this article, they were barely five hundred. This huge amount of entertaining software fires Apple’s creation to the top in the multimedia category. No matter how we turn words and hope for something better, there isn’t much on the market that can rival the multimedia capabilities of the iPhone… unless of course PSP turns into a phone. Also keep in mind that this is just a tiny fraction of all the games that are available in the AppStore and what we wanted to show you was barely what we decided is best , even though, with such competition there is definitely a lot of other marvels out there. Now if you excuse us, the evil woodland critters are waiting for Butters to reach the final stage…