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[iPhone] Game thread!
eobet
8-bit childhoodSwedenRegistered User regular
8-bit childhoodSwedenRegistered User regular
I'm suprised nobody here is gaming on the iPhone. Sure, there aren't perhaps any serious games you can get down and dirty for a longer period in, but since you often game on the go lots of games are perfectly suited for that.
Let me kick this off:
Cube Runner
Ok, so the game doesn't look like much, but this was the first app with motion controlled steering, and basically still is only a tech demo (and free), but with additional level packs, it's actually pretty fun for a quick spin. The motion controls work pretty smoothly (sometimes too smooth for quick turns). Slap some Wipeout or Star Wars graphics on this one and it could probably be a great commercial hit!
Critter Crunch
Again one of the first games released for the iPhone (ported from other mobile devices), but it's extremely bloody well made! It's just a mash up of Tetris/Puzzle Bobble (ie a match-three-colors game) but I find it entertaining, especially since they introduce new gameplay elements for almost every level. And the graphics are absolutely gorgeous and comes with quite a big dose of cute overload!
Dizzy Bee
I held off buying this game for a long time because frankly it looks like crap on the screenshots. But here's something rather new: Not only can't screenshots justify this game, movies can't either! You have to play it in person to get it. This is one of the most polished titles on the iPhone once you get to try it! It's a physics based puzzle game, with basically no gameplay features, and yet it is fun. All you do is rotate your iPhone to try to roll/drop your thingys into a hole without having bad thingys roll/drop on top of you. There's a free demo out, but the thing that sold me was that even the text in the menus rotate. Great detail!
Aurora Feint
Great graphics, great innovation, crap game, but it's free. Let me explain: The developers who did this game had a great idea, a great artist, but no idea how to do a game. Again, it's a standard Tetris/Bejeweled clone but with a twist. A twist that's mentioned briefly in the game "oh, and you might try this". Morons! The fact that you can rotate the iPhone affect how pieces drop should be the central part of the game, yet there is no gameplay elements that revolve around this. In fact, there doesn't seem to be any special gameplay elements at all, just the same colors on every level. Apparently, you do "level up" and get skills in some sort of MMO part of the game, but it's so porly put together that you don't get half of it, and you don't want to either, because even though the game has good framerate, the menus somehow have horrible framerate. Well, at least it's free.
Alphalt 4 Elite Racing
Oh, Gameloft. Just like the title, they try to cram too much into this little game and they fall short on almost every mark (like they usually do). They have licensed cars, car upgrades, unlockable girls (wait, what?), take downs, helicopters flying around, nitro, money pick ups, a "wanted" level indicator, cop chases, three different control methods, portrait mode, landscape mode (including menus), glowing lights, projected shadows... the list is bloody endless! And because of that, not one single feature feels polished. The skid marks are lighter than the asphalt, the lens flares don't match the light source at all, the tire smoke due to skidding looks like it's coming from the exhaust, the mini (and maxi) map is completely useless and unecessary, and the motion blur streak thingys are barely noticeable. Sorry Gameloft, but I can smell the "casual" despite your efforts (but Brain Challenge for the DS is really professional, so they can if they want to). If you want to buy this for the graphics, go ahead. It's quite smooth, 25fps I'd say (if you turn off sound), but it's just good textures, not a high poly count, and the controls are sluggish.
X-plane
I'd be interested in hearing how the heck this works, because it's one of the most advanced flight sims ever made and I have no idea how they crammed that into an iPhone...
Dice-O-Mania
Ehm... what? Uh, que? I'm getting a headache just by watching that!
Clusterball 2
I really, really want this. I remember the first game from... I don't know... 1995? It was very entertaining in multi-player, if I remember correctly.
Well, those are the games I felt like posting about right now (I don't think Brain Challenge deserves more exposure, the DS version is superior anyway, and Koi Pond isn't really a game, even though it's completely awesome). If you want to pimp a good game, knock yourself out!
Oh, and someone I guess should post impressions of Spore Origins if they bought it...
Let me kick this off:
Cube Runner
Ok, so the game doesn't look like much, but this was the first app with motion controlled steering, and basically still is only a tech demo (and free), but with additional level packs, it's actually pretty fun for a quick spin. The motion controls work pretty smoothly (sometimes too smooth for quick turns). Slap some Wipeout or Star Wars graphics on this one and it could probably be a great commercial hit!
Critter Crunch
Again one of the first games released for the iPhone (ported from other mobile devices), but it's extremely bloody well made! It's just a mash up of Tetris/Puzzle Bobble (ie a match-three-colors game) but I find it entertaining, especially since they introduce new gameplay elements for almost every level. And the graphics are absolutely gorgeous and comes with quite a big dose of cute overload!
Dizzy Bee
I held off buying this game for a long time because frankly it looks like crap on the screenshots. But here's something rather new: Not only can't screenshots justify this game, movies can't either! You have to play it in person to get it. This is one of the most polished titles on the iPhone once you get to try it! It's a physics based puzzle game, with basically no gameplay features, and yet it is fun. All you do is rotate your iPhone to try to roll/drop your thingys into a hole without having bad thingys roll/drop on top of you. There's a free demo out, but the thing that sold me was that even the text in the menus rotate. Great detail!
Aurora Feint
Great graphics, great innovation, crap game, but it's free. Let me explain: The developers who did this game had a great idea, a great artist, but no idea how to do a game. Again, it's a standard Tetris/Bejeweled clone but with a twist. A twist that's mentioned briefly in the game "oh, and you might try this". Morons! The fact that you can rotate the iPhone affect how pieces drop should be the central part of the game, yet there is no gameplay elements that revolve around this. In fact, there doesn't seem to be any special gameplay elements at all, just the same colors on every level. Apparently, you do "level up" and get skills in some sort of MMO part of the game, but it's so porly put together that you don't get half of it, and you don't want to either, because even though the game has good framerate, the menus somehow have horrible framerate. Well, at least it's free.
Alphalt 4 Elite Racing
Oh, Gameloft. Just like the title, they try to cram too much into this little game and they fall short on almost every mark (like they usually do). They have licensed cars, car upgrades, unlockable girls (wait, what?), take downs, helicopters flying around, nitro, money pick ups, a "wanted" level indicator, cop chases, three different control methods, portrait mode, landscape mode (including menus), glowing lights, projected shadows... the list is bloody endless! And because of that, not one single feature feels polished. The skid marks are lighter than the asphalt, the lens flares don't match the light source at all, the tire smoke due to skidding looks like it's coming from the exhaust, the mini (and maxi) map is completely useless and unecessary, and the motion blur streak thingys are barely noticeable. Sorry Gameloft, but I can smell the "casual" despite your efforts (but Brain Challenge for the DS is really professional, so they can if they want to). If you want to buy this for the graphics, go ahead. It's quite smooth, 25fps I'd say (if you turn off sound), but it's just good textures, not a high poly count, and the controls are sluggish.
X-plane
I'd be interested in hearing how the heck this works, because it's one of the most advanced flight sims ever made and I have no idea how they crammed that into an iPhone...
Dice-O-Mania
Ehm... what? Uh, que? I'm getting a headache just by watching that!
Clusterball 2
I really, really want this. I remember the first game from... I don't know... 1995? It was very entertaining in multi-player, if I remember correctly.
Well, those are the games I felt like posting about right now (I don't think Brain Challenge deserves more exposure, the DS version is superior anyway, and Koi Pond isn't really a game, even though it's completely awesome). If you want to pimp a good game, knock yourself out!
Oh, and someone I guess should post impressions of Spore Origins if they bought it...
Heard the proposition that RIAA and MPAA should join forces and form "Music And Film Industry Association"?
eobet on
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This discussion has been closed.
Posts
The touch screen provides no tactile response, so anything that has any actual buttons onscreen feels really awkward.
Any of the movement based ones are pretty cool, but can't really be played on the move, and look a bit odd to play in public.
Those are my thoughts anyway.
Ok, let me just stop you and anyone going "touch screen sucks" without owning one right here and now:
I've never typed messages so fast on a mobile device as on the iPhone. Your body has something called "muscle memory" and it absolutely doesn't give a shit about any "tactile response". Once you get used to it (one or two weeks for me), you just type and touch away without thinking.
Games both provide audio feedback upon touches, graphical feedback and if you really need tactile feedback (which you don't) some games even rumble the device.
But looking like a moron when you turn the device round and round on a subway, I can agree with. Unless you live in Japan where everyone has a gaming device in their hands. 8-)
And it was also car/subway... any of the movement ones you bounced around too much.
You're so wrong there.
Aurora Feint is a great little puzzle game with an sideline in RPGing.
The unique gameplay element allows you to clear levels much faster and makes the whole block matching and combo stringing thing much more flexible. Not only that, rotating the screen to allow the blocks to drop in different directions is the only way to complete some of the set puzzles used for crafting. They are set up as a one-shot brain teaser, where you need to figure out the exact sequence of screen rotations and gem switches to clear the screen in the set number of moves.
Tris
Not sure this is till available, but if it is, get it. And avoid the EA one like a pile of bastards.
Columns
This is shit. Okay, I'll explain. Columns is a game that demands a lot of vertical space.Puyo Pop too. And the iphone does indeed have a lovely portait high resolution screen.
So why the merry fuck sega chose to force one to display the game horizontally is beyond me. It makes tzhe game worthless.
Removem
Jawbreaker clone. Worth getting.
Monkey Ball
Not worth the money. Too difficult to be playable, and none of the extra modes that made the GCN and XB versions so charming.
Frotz
A interactive fiction thingy. Works perfectly well. Of course, being "perfectly adequate" is damning praise in this climate. Get it only if you can still stomach text adventures.
It's also Tetris Attack apparently, which makes it wonderful on its own.
Hell yeah. All conquering solar systems on the can. It's one of those games I'll forever associate with the smell of poo. In a good way.
Toy Robot Diaries is pretty good too. It's a funny sort of puzzle platformer with a bit of LocoRoco tilting action and a bit of Bionic Commando grappling hook action.
Moto Chaser is terrible, avoid like plague, know that anyone who says otherwise is a disease ridden retard, brain destroyed by pox.
Also apparently the default difficulty is too easy. Here are instructions to change it to hard: http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/blog.php?b=2479
Zeboyd Games Development Blog
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire, Facebook : Zeboyd Games
Fuzzle - free for the week (and pretty cool)
MotionX Poker - really bloody cheap now (impressive but boring)
Supposedly Monkey Ball has been patched and is greatly improved, though I haven't had any hands-on time with it either way.
Basically, a bunch of really nice looking matte paintings, with PS1 level characters. Your character proceeds by himself... When you get to a decision point, you can draw symbols to use the Force... The stormtroopers shoot at you a bunch (missing usually, as stormtroopers are wont to do.) and when a shot is goingto hit you, a red square with a quadrant filled in appears over their head. Any swipe you draw that goes in that general direction will deflect the blaster bolt and sometimes (usually) kill an enemy.
You can draw a wavy line to use a Jedi mind trick to confuse enemies and you draw a roundabout little symbol to Force lift/grip and then swipe in a direction to throw.
You draw a circle to Force Heal.
It's kind of impressing the crap out of me and it's only 20MB.
Spore Origins and this game are the only two games I have picked up on the App Store.
I REALLY appreciate finally having a game I don't have to tilt to play. The game can be played in widescreen or upright. It adjust automatically.
The touchscreen makes those symbols super accurate and it's hella cute/fun.
EDIT - Costs 10 bucks. I felt it was worth it. Also, there is a survival mode you can unlock.
Here's a video: (It starts off easy/a little too simplistic, but skipping to 3:06 starts to show the combinations of deflections and Force powers that make this fun.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngn5kHiBTVs
Just had my delivered today ...
LIZ: Different.
VOICE-OVER: It's September 24th, I'm Liz Parker and five days ago I died. But then the really amazing thing happened. I came to life.
Other than that, Dizzy Bee is the best thing I've played on the iPhone. It's really brilliant.