The Best iPhone Games
Sep 3, 2008
It's been about a month since the iTunes App Store opened, offering downloadable games, tools, and utilities for the iPhone and iPhone Touch. Although the iPhone looks much more like a phone than a fully fledged portable games platform, it's already acquiring an impressive library of treats for games enthusiasts.
Games from the App Store are much cheaper than offerings on Nintendo's DS or Sony's PSP, and the store itself has that classic Apple ease-of-use, meaning you can purchase, download, and be playing a game in seconds. Perhaps best of all, Apple lets just about anyone develop iPhone games, whereas creating games for commercial publication on other portable platforms is an extremely expensive, difficult affair. For consumers, this translates into a ton of imaginative indie offerings.
Thanks mostly to this easygoing policy, the App Store is already overflowing with literally hundreds of downloadable games. Some are good, some are bad, some are -- you guessed it -- ugly. Join us as we sort the wheat from the chaff.
Note: Links require iTunes installed on your computer.
GAMES UNDER $10
Super Monkey Ball: $9.99
Sega's Monkey Ball was the first iPhone game demoed, and once you play it you'll see why. The gorgeous 3D pops off the screen at you, and the sound is as crisp as any full-size console. So it's a shame that it doesn't actually play very well. Tilting the iPhone to move your monkey sounds like a good idea, but in practice it's way too sensitive. Even seasoned Monkey Ballers will struggle to complete the first set of levels without frustration setting in. Unless Sega takes steps to tweak the controls, let this one roll by.
Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D: $9.99
In contrast, the other big-budget, big name iPhone release from a traditional video game publisher is really good. Nitro Kart 3D uses the tried-and-true tilt-to-steer control method, and it works well. The sense of speed is excellent, the graphics are nearly as detail-packed and colorful as Monkey Ball, and it includes plenty of game modes and racers. Give it multiplayer and a few more tracks and it'd be a must, though it's worth the dough as is.
Texas Hold'em: $4.99
This offering comes directly from Apple, and as you'd expect, it's finely polished. Your opponents are played by real actors, the sound is excellent, and the AI will give most hold'em junkies a workout. About the only bad thing about it is the hefty download size - at around 125 MB, plan to find a wireless network before clogging up your bandwidth. Texas Hold'em is easily one of the best iPhone games around, and at only 5 bucks, is one of the best bargains, too.
Asphalt 4 Elite Racing: $9.99
Another big-budget racer, Asphalt 4 bears considerable resemblance to the Burnout series, and that's a thoroughly good thing. It packs a seriously impressive set of licensed cars (including the epic, iconic Bugatti Veyron) and motorcycles, three control methods, smooth 3D graphics, plenty of tracks, and networked multiplayer. If games of this quality and scale are what we can expect from the iPhone, Sony and Nintendo may need to look to their laurels.
Galcon: $9.99
From big-budget to no-budget, Galcon is a space strategy game with a difference. Two differences, in fact: it's incredibly easy to play, and its pace is so blistering it could strip paint at ten paces. Balancing your forces and coordinating your attacks is key to success, but there's a lot more to it than that. Galcon is a touch pricy, but one of the most original iPhone offerings so far.
Toy Bot Diaries: $3.99
This cute puzzle platformer casts you as a robot with magnetic boots, and gives you a series of tricky levels to tilt your way through. It's episodic, meaning it offers a few hours of gameplay for a low price - and if you like it, there are more episodes planned.
Solitaire Forever: $5.99
How many different kinds of Solitaire can you name? Solitaire Forever features over 150 variants, so you're sure to find your favorite in here, no matter how obscure. The 3D graphics are flashy, but occasionally hurt the cards' clarity; sometimes you'll find yourself squinting a little. Still, the sheer variety is enough to secure our crown for the best paid Solitaire app so far.
Enigmo: $5.99
Puzzler Enigmo is reminiscent of the physics-based Flash games that are all the rage on the PC. It tasks players with arranging beams, trampolines and other objects in order to direct streams of water and fire into various receptacles; difficult to explain, but dead easy to learn thanks to its clear visuals and simple controls. There's lots to do here, and it's good value for money.
Par 72 Golf: $7.99
You'd think the iPhone would be the perfect platform for a golf game: it's got the graphical horsepower to bring the links to life, and that touch-screen offers tremendous potential for clever control systems. Par 72 Golf, however, is a double bogey disappointment. The graphics are terrible, the controls are depressingly basic, and it lacks any sort of challenge. Swing and a miss.
There's no such thing as a free lunch -- but there is such a thing as a free iPhone game. (OK, so when you take into account the cost of buying the hardware, not to mention the cost of maintaining an AT&T account, these games are anything but free, but that's not the point.) iTunes is home to a bewildering variety of free games for the iPhone and iPod Touch, and here are some of our favorites.
FREE GAMES
Aurora Feint
If you think free cell phone games lack production value, boy, are you in for a shock. Aurora Feint rejuvenates block-sliding puzzle games by giving them a compelling, RPG-like framework, much like the classic Puzzle Quest did for match-3 Bejeweled clones. It's a touch on the buggy side, but hopefully the developers will address that before long. Even so, it's tremendous value for its (non-existent) price.
Frotz
Text adventures never die -- they just turn up on the App Store, apparently. Frotz brings classic text adventures like Zork to your iPhone, and backs them up with a huge catalog of free "interactive fiction" tales, yours for the taking. As a side benefit, after half an hour with it you'll have developed mad iPhone typing skillz. If you're up for discovering a long-forgotten style of video game storytelling, and you possess the asking price of $0.00, don't miss it.
Sol Free Solitaire
If all you want out of a Solitaire game is classic deal-one or deal-three Klondike, you're actually better off with this free version than with the paid one above, thanks to its crystal clear and unflashy visuals. Sol Free offers a couple of additional Solitaire styles, but nothing like the variety of Solitaire Forever. Hey, that's what you get for free.
CannonGame
Yup, it's a game with cannons. Call it Scorched Earth, call it Worms, call it what you like, but the classic turn-based combat game where you shoot by choosing elevation and shot power is timeless. This version is simple, but well presented and easy to control.
Hanoi
Looking for something to exercise your mind? Hanoi is a simple, elegant retelling of the classic Towers of Hanoi puzzle -- you know, the one with the three vertical columns and a stack of decreasing-radius discs you need to move from one column to the next. You've probably played it a thousand times, so why not play it a thousand more?
1337pwn XBOX Live Friends Application
This unwieldy title hides a very simple app - it displays the online status of any Xbox Live player together with their gamerscore. Add your friends, and you'll be able to see when they're playing without needing to be in front of a console or a computer. Simple, free, slick -- a must for any Xbox owner.
Morocco
This clean implementation of the classic board game Go (also called Othello) is a gem. The controls couldn't be easier, the learning curve is non-existent, and - hooray - if you get a call or are distracted midway through a game, Morocco automatically saves the game's state so you can pick it up again later. Although the AI is more than good enough to clobber our novice Go-playing butts, we suspect it'd give considerably more skilled players a workout, too.
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