The iOS gaming thread

[MK-1601]

I really like it, I think it's his best iOS work yet design-wise. Being Jeff, though, he's still managed to find some sloppy way to b0rk it up - it runs at about half the speed on 3rd-gen machines that it does on 4th-gen ones, so the leaderboard is a massively uneven playing field. My (3rd-gen) iPod Touch highscore is about 50 times my iPhone 4 one. At least it maintains a local device highscore so you can compete fairly against yourself, but it messes the online scores right up. If you're going to use so many fancy shader effects or whatever that a 3rd-gen machine can't handle a Doodle Jump clone, bloody well detect the hardware and either switch some of them off until it can handle it, or have separate leaderboards.

Blimey, I thought I was a bit good at it. (Playing on 3GS - I assume that's what you mean by third gen, and that a plain 3G can't run it at all.)

It munches through battery at a ridiculous rate as well.

[gospvg]

Just completed Guardian Saga - nice to revisit playing an old-school RPG.

Next - Sword & Poker 2

I am looking forward to playing this, love the first game "one of the best gaming experiences on the iPod Touch", interested to see what changes they have made to the gameplay.

Hope the developers are working on a third game.

[Voodoo-child]

Loving DrawRace 2. Think my finger occludes the track too much?

[Ben]

I thought the dev of S&P went out of business?

[Mike1812]

Arcade "docks" seem to be the new must have accessory. So much so that Taito/SquareEnix have got in on the deal with a official Space Invaders dock.

Image removed

Eurogamer reckon it's going to be £150

Why does this site ask for authentication every time I loads this page on my phone?

[Dandy_Sephy]

Why does this site ask for authentication every time I loads this page on my phone?

Dunno, just had the same so i've removed the image and link and replaced it with the Eurogamer one. You'll need to edit your post as the quoting has the same effect

[LaveDisco]

Just completed Guardian Saga - nice to revisit playing an old-school RPG.

Next - Sword & Poker 2

I am looking forward to playing this, love the first game "one of the best gaming experiences on the iPod Touch", interested to see what changes they have made to the gameplay.

Hope the developers are working on a third game.

Erm, didn't they go bust? In fact I thought they took S&P off the store because of it?

Also, yeah, keep getting asked to log in on my mac. Looks a bit dodgy to me.

[toythatkills]

I alphabetised all the games on my iPhone because I'm anal like that. It struck me though, that it'd be interesting to come up with an iPhone A-Z. Each letter gets one game. So, what's the best game for each letter? Here's what I've got so far, though I appreciate some of these may have to change 'cause I haven't played everything! It's kinda difficult to narrow each letter down to one game.

0-9 - 100 Rogues

A - Angry Birds

B - Blockoban

C - Carcassonne

D - Denki Blocks!

E - Espgaluda 2

F - Flight Control

G - Game Dev Story

H - Hypership out of Control

I -

J - Jet Car Stunts

K - KENKEN

L - League of Evil

M - Marblenauts

N -

O - Orbital

P - PathPix

Q - Quarrel Deluxe

R - Rythmatic

S - Sword & Poker 2

T - Tiny Wings

U - Undercroft

V - Vector Rally

W - Words with Friends

X -

Y -

Z - Zookeeper DX

A has to be Angry Birds, really, regardless of what else is available for that letter. G is pretty tough. I'm not sure if Game Dev is better than Groove Coaster, but it's still the best Story game and so it feels like it should be there. That also means no geoDefense though!

What needs adding/changing to make this the ultimate (0-9)A-Z?

[Davros sock drawer]

Zombie Gunship should be at Z!

And U is for Undercroft!

[toythatkills]

I've put Undercroft in, but Zookeeper's not moving

[Rev. Stuart Campbell]

Anyone tried Another World or Stardust yet?

What's Stardust?

[Rev. Stuart Campbell]

0-9 - 100 Rogues

A - Angry Birds

B - Blockoban Beyond Ynth or Bankshot (the fun version of Magnetic Billiards)

C - Carcassonne or Canabalt or Catan (mainstream votes: Cut The Rope)

D - Denki Blocks! You're having a laugh, right? Drop7 or Dungeon Raid

E - Espgaluda 2

F - Flight Control or Forget-Me-Not

G - Game Dev Story GeoDefense or Galaga 30th Collection

H - Hypership out of Control

I - iSlash (wrong people will say iBlast Moki) or Infinity Blade

J - Jet Car Stunts Jetpack Joyride (26 hours and counting)

K - KENKEN

L - League of Evil

M - Marblenauts Mechanic Panic

N - Need For Cheese or Ninja Honda Karate

O - Orbital

P - PathPix Push Panic or PicoPico Fighters or Phoenix HD

Q - Quarrel Deluxe or Qwak

R - Rythmatic Ready Action!

S - Sword & Poker 2 Strimko Gold (best logic puzzle since Slitherlink) or Slingo Supreme or Soosiz

T - Tiny Wings or Tower Runner or Trainyard or Truckers Delight

U - Undercroft

V - Vector Rally Veggie Samurai (if Fruit Ninja isn't going in for F)

W - Words with Friends

X - X Baseball

Y - Yahtzee Adventures

Z - Zookeeper DX

[Zero]

EA are having a sale on their Ipad games this weekend, from IGN:

Scrabble

($2.99) - (Previously $9.99)

Risk: The Official Game

($2.99) - (Previously $6.99)

Sim City Deluxe

($2.99) - (Previously $6.99)

Monopoly

($2.99) - (Previously $9.99)

Monopoly Here and Now: The World Edition

($2.99) - (Previously $9.99)

Shift 2 Unleashed

($2.99) - (Previously $4.99)

Command and Conquer: Red Alert

($2.99) - (Previously $4.99)

Max and the Magic Marker

($0.99) - (Previously $2.99)

Battleship

($0.99) - (Previously $2.99)

Clue: Secrets and Spies

($2.99) - (Previously $4.99)

Reckless Racing

($2.99) - (Previously $4.99)

Snood

($2.99) - (Previously $4.99)

The Game of Life

($2.99) - (Previously $6.99)

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit

($2.99) - (Previously $6.99)

NBA Jam

($2.99) - (Previously $4.99)

Yahtzee HD

($2.99) - (Previously $4.99)

Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3

($2.99) - (Previously $4.99)

Dead Space

($2.99) - (Previously $9.99)

Mirror's Edge

($2.99) - (Previously $4.99)

Tetris

($2.99) - (Previously $7.99)

Battlefield: Bad Company 2

($2.99) - (Previously $9.99)

[Davros sock drawer]

Dungeon Raid should totally go in, as should Geo Defense.

[toythatkills]

0-9 - 100 Rogues

A - Angry Birds

B - Blockoban

C - Carcassonne Canabalt or Catan

D - Dungeon Raid

E - Espgaluda 2

F - Flight Control

G - geoDefense

H - Hypership out of Control

I - iSlash

J - Jetpack Joyride

K - KENKEN

L - League of Evil

M - Marblenauts Mechanic Panic

N - Ninja Honda Karate

O - Orbital

P - PathPix Push Panic or PicoPico Fighters or Phoenix HD

Q - Quarrel Deluxe

R - Ready Action!

S - Sword & Poker 2 Slingo Supreme or Soosiz

T - Tiny Wings Tower Runner or Trainyard

U - Undercroft

V - Vector Rally

W - Words with Friends

X - X Baseball

Y - Yahtzee Adventures

Z - Zookeeper DX

Updated!

I'm happy to put geoDefense in ahead of Game Dev Story, but it felt like the Story series should be represented somewhere, and that's the best one! You're definitely not getting rid of Blockoban for Beyond Ynth, Blockoban is the best puzzle game on iPhone by some distance, and with something like 4,000 hand-made levels will last basically forever. I'm a massive fan of logic puzzles and didn't think much to Strimko, it's certainly nowhere near as compelling as Slitherlink and is obviously more closely related to Sudoku. Haven't played Slingo but Soosiz is great, dunno that I'd rate it higher than Sword and Poker though, which I've lost many hours to. Dungeon Raid is in. Fruit Ninja isn't going in for F because it's boring, so I'ma assume Veggie Samuarai is the same and thus not as good as Vector Rally is! Man, I dunno if I can choose between Tiny Wings and Trainyard

Bolded games need more comments. Anyone else have thoughts?

[Bushtopher]

A - Angry Birds

I would also suggest Ascension instead of Angry Birds. I do enjoy Angry Birds, but I can see Ascension keeping me interested for much longer.

C - Carcassonne Canabalt or Catan

I'd definitely go with Carcassonne over Catan or Canabalt. The former is good, but doesn't have as well implemented a multiplayer mode as Carcassonne, and whilst Canabalt is great, there are other endless running games already represented in the list (and personally I think Carcassonne has more lasting appeal).

F - Flight Control

Field Runners instead of Flight Control perhaps?

T - Tiny Wings Tower Runner or Trainyard

Stick with Tiny Wings - oozes cuteness, charm, and that 'just-one-more-go' effect

[Meatball]

Bolded games need more comments. Anyone else have thoughts?

Mechanic Panic

Similar to Jetpack Joyride, the concept is simple, to keep on climbing up a lift shaft, jumping off the sides of outrunning a fire from below. But it mixes it up each go giving you different missions to complete such as knocking the lights off, rescuing ten falling civilians in the dark and hitting steaming pipes, all while dodging falling debris and lifts, or catching a ride up for a while on a lift.

Just one more go...

[Rev. Stuart Campbell]

there are other endless running games already represented in the list

There are?

[Mike1812]

Say What You See should be there!

1000 Heroz

[toythatkills]

1000 Heroz would have been on the list if I'd done this about a week ago

[boxoctosis]

T - Tilt to Live needs a mention surely.

[Rev. Stuart Campbell]

T - Tilt to Live needs a mention surely.

Okay: "The list definitely shouldn't feature Tilt To Live".

(Even if it wasn't rubbish, it'd have the misfortune to be in just about the most competitive category of all, surrounded by millions of top-notch "T" games. If it was called Quilt To Live it might have a bit of a case.)

[Rev. Stuart Campbell]

Blockoban is the best puzzle game on iPhone by some distance, and with something like 4,000 hand-made levels will last basically forever.

It would last me about two minutes, because I wished for death before the tutorial was over. Just seems like yet another dull block-sliding game, more trial and error than the pure, beautiful logic of Strimko. But if you don't like Beyond Ynth, did you check out Bankshot?

Fruit Ninja being "boring" is an.... unconventional view.

[ZOK]

Okay: "The list definitely shouldn't feature Tilt To Live".

(Even if it wasn't rubbish, it'd have the misfortune to be in just about the most competitive category of all, surrounded by millions of top-notch "T" games. If it was called Quilt To Live it might have a bit of a case.)

Hang on, let me get this straight...are you suggesting that Tilt To Live, the best iOS game OF THEM ALL, is rubbish?

Are you drunk?

EDIT: And you're suggesting that Trainyard and Trucker's Delight, lovely as they are, are better? Oh my stars!

[Rev. Stuart Campbell]

Hang on, let me get this straight...are you suggesting that Tilt To Live, the best iOS game OF THEM ALL, is rubbish?

No. Evidently we're thinking of two completely different games that happen to have the same name, because I can't imagine that anyone alive would think the boring ball-dodging one with the crappy control was even the best game that rhymed with "krill poo sieve".

[ZOK]

As there is but one, drunkenness is your only excuse.

Proceed.

[toythatkills]

It would last me about two minutes, because I wished for death before the tutorial was over. Just seems like yet another dull block-sliding game, more trial and error than the pure, beautiful logic of Strimko. But if you don't like Beyond Ynth, did you check out Bankshot?

Fruit Ninja being "boring" is an.... unconventional view.

Well, it's a block sliding game and if you don't like block sliding games you'll never like it. It is, however, the best block sliding game I have ever played, and I've played a lot. For anyone that even remotely enjoys them, this game is amazing.

And, well, I thought "Fruit Ninja is boring" was a pretty common view actually.

[Davros sock drawer]

I couldn't get on with tilt to live at all.

But then I am drunk. Nice Shiraz Grenache down from £9.99 to £5.99 in Tesco.

[boxoctosis]

Rev Stu's bitterness is palpable.

It's quite sweet how he wades into this topic every few weeks, spouting bile like some lemon-sucking internet-warrior has-been, while everyone rolls their eyes and tries to ignore the tramp in the corner.

[Rev. Stuart Campbell]

Rev Stu's bitterness is palpable.

It's quite sweet how he wades into this topic every few weeks, spouting bile like some lemon-sucking internet-warrior has-been, while everyone rolls their eyes and tries to ignore the tramp in the corner.

Aw, bless. It did seem odd that there'd be a nice thread of pleasant game discussion somewhere on RLLMUK free of my tedious stalker gang and their kneejerk hate-vomiting.