iOS recommended games and applications

[NekoFever]

The basic idea of tower defence is that there are waves of enemies that are heading from a spawn point to your base along a set route, and if a certain number of them reach it you lose. You place towers with turrets - obviously these vary by theme - along the route, trying to maximise the coverage of your towers and force enemies to bottleneck under them.

Star Defense is good and I hear that it's one of the best; it certainly looks the best. There might be better ones to get started with, though, because you're kind of left to fend for yourself very quickly in this one. I've got within one enemy of finishing the second stage, which is 40 waves, so I dread to think what the later ones will be like.

[JP]

Doom Resurrection is out next week.


There's a few details on Venture Beat.

[dc-arena]

I get my first iPhone next Friday so I am new to this, are there always demos or 'lite' versions (like Cooking Mama and MGS) or is just when the developer chooses to?

Interested to see how this plays as its a fast moving game.

[nonny]

Yep Im not really a fan of tower defence games but they suit the iPhone and some people love them. Some of them are very impressive though, and if you want an Advance Wars clone try UniWars... plus there are a few others coming out.

Saw the Doom Resurrection news today on TouchArcade... Is it just me but between this, Doom and Wolf 3D it seems John Carmack is in love with the iPhone and just sitting there churning out his old classics once again? Thats not me complaining, just an observation.

What next? Quake 3 iPhone style?

[VR46]

I get my first iPhone next Friday so I am new to this, are there always demos or 'lite' versions (like Cooking Mama and MGS) or is just when the developer chooses to?

Yes it's up to the developer, some do some don't. Fine line between a demo increasing actual full game sales and putting people off paying for the full product. Demo's are always labelled "Lite" and are obviously free, so are easy to spot.

https://www.toucharcade.com

https://www.pocketgamer.co.uk

carry quite a few iPhone game reviews, usually very quickly after release so are worth checking out before splashing the cash.

[Square]

Peggle now only 59p until midnight! Go go go!

[PrayforMojo]

Yep Im not really a fan of tower defence games but they suit the iPhone and some people love them.

Fieldrunners is aces once you get into it. I was told off by the other half the other night because I was playing it in bed and woke her up. It's well addictive, but it can take a considerable amount of time to play. Not really a game for quick blasts when the boss isn't looking, unlike most games for the iPhone.

Downloaded iDracula yesterday on a friend's recommendation, and it's one of the best shooters I've played. The wheel controls are ingenious - left wheel to move and right wheel to fire, and some of the weapons you get to deal death with have a nice satisfying kick about them.

[Silvergun X]

The game you should be looking out for if you're an FPS fan is ngmoco's LiveFire.

It recently got demonstrated a bit more and it looks ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC.

I was a little bit skeptical but I think I could really grow to like the control method. They've made it incredibly smooth and done a 'touch anywhere' style control scheme, or zonal control as some games like to call it. The entire right side of the screen works as a right analogue stick where as the left side of the screen does the same thing

Tapping in certain corners does certain things like pause, change weapon, etc. There's an in-game friends list, complete online live play with matchmaking, etc. Support for online play over 3G aswell as WiFi, and push notifications. They demonstrated it a while ago where he would send a push notification to a friend's iPhone, no matter what he was doing, and tell him to come join his game. If he accepted it it logged on with his 3G signal and immediately joined his team in his game.

The firing is automatic, and I know that's going to be a huge HUH? for some people but I like how it looks. It's an incredibly fast, Quake 3 style shmup (and even uses it's modified engine) and as soon as you've got your target over an enemy, it'll automatically open fire on it. It looks like it could make the whole gameplay experience very smooth and fantastic and I can't wait.

Also recently come out, forgive me if i've backtracked is Beatrider.

This is absolutely superb for music rhythm fans! You upload your own MP3's to their server and it will automatically generate a notechart based on the song, then you can download it on your iPhone. The full version will let you hold 20 songs at one time whereas the lite will let you hold one, but is fully functional.

If you turn the key sounds off, as they get in the way, you're in for a much, much harder and better music rhythm experience than tap tap, in my opinion, and i've gotten some serious gameplay in with it. It's superb.

As nonny mentioned, Real Racing just came out and it's the most technically impressive title on the iPhone to date. Absolutely stunning semi-sim racing game that absolutely any racing game fan NEEDS to check out.

Circuit_Strike.One also just came out and this one... wow.

I'm going to be making a first play thread on this one so I can go into more detail about it so watch this space.

I've got to confess i've been spending more time playing games on the iPhone than I have on either my DSi, PSP, Even in some cases my Xbox 360. What with the very quickly increasing quality of games and the very attractive price point of most games, it's hard not to get addicted to iPhone gaming...

[JP]

I've got to confess i've been spending more time playing games on the iPhone than I have on either my DSi, PSP, Even in some cases my Xbox 360. What with the very quickly increasing quality of games and the very attractive price point of most games, it's hard not to get addicted to iPhone gaming...

It's the same with me for the DSi & PSP, I don't think they come close at the moment.

I do miss having proper digital controls at times though as the screen just doesn't work as well with some types of games.

SnakeGalaxy


Admittedly it's just Snake, but I've had a good laugh with it and the graphics reminded me straight away of Super Mario Galaxy.

[JP]

Anybody tried Buka?

No idea what the hell's going on but I love the look of it and it's only 59p at the moment.

[nonny]

Agree LiveFire looks like it should deliver some FPS multiplayer goodness even though I am still a bit skeptical of the controls.

As for Real Racing. I am hooked. With 4 different controls schemes there is something for everyone and they've really nailed the accelerometer sensitivity with a slider to tweak it to perfection. News on toucharcade.com today reveals an update will add 6 player Wifi multiplayer to this which quite frankly is going to kick butt.

I think its safe to say the iPhone is now officially a viable gaming platform, in both the eyes of the consumer and developers alike. With Firmware 3.0 imminent and adding stuff like Bluetooth and in-game micro-content I have a feeling this is only going to expand at an alarming rate.

I've not touched my NDS in months since owning an iPhone which speaks volumes... Its now officially my go-to handheld gaming device. Who'd have thought it?

[JP]

Doom Resurrection is out next week.

There's a few details on Venture Beat.

I'm going to be tempted to buy this next week as long as it reviews OK and the price isn't silly.

[nonny]

Im not liking the on rails nature of the game to be honest.

It looks good though and effectively its going to play like House of the Dead but it might all be over too quickly as its only 8 levels. I guess it depends how its priced?

[Silvergun X]

Don't forget doom classic is still coming out.

[VR46]

Agree with John that Snake Galaxy is a great Snake game, and it paced just right for a quick blast, 90 seconds from a slow paced start to mayhem when you eat your 15th+ goodie.