The iOS gaming thread

[Gotters]

Just now, Pob said:

My son has asked for a decent management sim or strategy game for his iPad. I know nothing about the genre, or iOS games. He wanted Prison Architect but it's 17+ and seems pretty adult. Is there anything similar? I also want to avoid any kind of freemium bollocks as well.

 

Any recommendations for an 8-year-old?

 

For light management sim the paid for Kairosoft games are pretty good - Game Dev Story being a classic. 

 

For sheer variety what about Apple Arcade - hundreds of games and new ones every month, no ads, no IAPs and really something for everybody ?

[Pob]

3 minutes ago, Gotters said:

 

For light management sim the paid for Kairosoft games are pretty good - Game Dev Story being a classic. 

 

For sheer variety what about Apple Arcade - hundreds of games and new ones every month, no ads, no IAPs and really something for everybody ?

Cheers! Kairosoft have made a tonne - which other ones of theirs are good?

 

I want to steer clear of another subscription

[Gotters]

13 minutes ago, Pob said:

Cheers! Kairosoft have made a tonne - which other ones of theirs are good?

 

I want to steer clear of another subscription

I think there is a kairosoft thread or it got discussed recently in the apple arcade one, know it was chatted about the other day.

 

In truth the pid kairosoft ones follow a similar template, of the ones i played, so the setting is important to the hook working.

 

Bad North is a nice strategy game which is simple but has some depth.

 

Slay the Spire is pretty solid too but ios not the best version of the game, but perfectly servicable.

[Pob]

1 minute ago, Gotters said:

I think there is a kairosoft thread or it got discussed recently in the apple arcade one, know it was chatted about the other day.

 

In truth the pid kairosoft ones follow a similar template, of the ones i played, so the setting is important to the hook working.

 

Bad North is a nice strategy game which is simple but has some depth.

 

Slay the Spire is pretty solid too but ios not the best version of the game, but perfectly servicable.

Yeah he has Slay The Spire and likes that. It's something akin to Prison Architect that he's after, so I'll check out those Kairosoft games. I sent him a few other links and he liked the look of one called Pocket City.

[Dudley]

53 minutes ago, Pob said:

My son has asked for a decent management sim or strategy game for his iPad. I know nothing about the genre, or iOS games. He wanted Prison Architect but it's 17+ and seems pretty adult. Is there anything similar? I also want to avoid any kind of freemium bollocks as well.

 

Any recommendations for an 8-year-old?

 

Rollercoaster Tycoon Classic is a conversion of the first PC one.

 

Do not confuse this with some of the free to play crap with very similar names.

[AlexM]

1 hour ago, Pob said:

My son has asked for a decent management sim or strategy game for his iPad. I know nothing about the genre, or iOS games. He wanted Prison Architect but it's 17+ and seems pretty adult. Is there anything similar? I also want to avoid any kind of freemium bollocks as well.

 

Any recommendations for an 8-year-old?

 

Pocket City is good fun, my son and I played that a lot. Not too in-depth, but enough. 

[milko]

Yeah Pocket City is a nice casual-ish Sim City, would be great for a nipper I think.

[Gotters]

Bomb Club which got released this week is almost too good to be true.

 

It's a very nice puzzler where you set off a chain reaction with bombs on a grid based level, but the bombs all have different properties/abilities so you really have to plan your placement to trigger them all. It's very clever.

 

What makes it too good to be true is its free, has no ads at all, loads of levels, no timers, no in game currency and the only IAP are for extra levels which it says don't buy til you've done the main game as they are quite advanced - there is loads of content on the main map I can see.

 

Don't be put off by the shite looking icon or screen stills, it exudes way more charm in the flesh and seems a really slick game

 

 

[shirubagan]

QQ — which is the best 8bitdo controller for iOS/Mac? I left my Xbox pad at home by accident so need something to use while away for Remote Playing/XCloud streaming. Also, I could use a dedicated Mac controller anyway. 
 

Eyeing up the SN30 Pro+ … any good?

[gospvg]

9 hours ago, Gotters said:

Bomb Club which got released this week is almost too good to be true.

 

It's a very nice puzzler where you set off a chain reaction with bombs on a grid based level, but the bombs all have different properties/abilities so you really have to plan your placement to trigger them all. It's very clever.

 

What makes it too good to be true is its free, has no ads at all, loads of levels, no timers, no in game currency and the only IAP are for extra levels which it says don't buy til you've done the main game as they are quite advanced - there is loads of content on the main map I can see.

 

Don't be put off by the shite looking icon or screen stills, it exudes way more charm in the flesh and seems a really slick game

 

 

 

Thanks @Gotters
it's also on android. Completed the first area. Really good to see a game with no ads and agree they have given a generous amount of content for free.

[disperse and recoagulate]

Anyone else playing Retro Goal?

 

From the New Star Soccer/Retro Bowl creators, I believe.

 

First 10 games are free and then it’s 99p, although I’m not sure if it’s 99p per save/career. I’ve just played my 11th game with Blackpool, normal difficulty and full season. Spending all my money on upgrades for the club rather than players, but no idea what’s for the best.

 

I am bad at it, I know that much. So many times I try to change running direction and instead just wallop it out for a throw in. 

[Eighthours]

On 10/07/2021 at 18:16, disperse and recoagulate said:

Anyone else playing Retro Goal?

 

From the New Star Soccer/Retro Bowl creators, I believe.

 

First 10 games are free and then it’s 99p, although I’m not sure if it’s 99p per save/career. I’ve just played my 11th game with Blackpool, normal difficulty and full season. Spending all my money on upgrades for the club rather than players, but no idea what’s for the best.

 

I am bad at it, I know that much. So many times I try to change running direction and instead just wallop it out for a throw in. 

 

I've tried it out. I like the passing and shooting, but I'm not sure the on-field running needs to be QUITE so sluggish. 

[T Pot]

On 07/07/2021 at 16:27, Dudley said:

 

Rollercoaster Tycoon Classic is a conversion of the first PC one.

 

Do not confuse this with some of the free to play crap with very similar names.

 

I second this @Pob. They actually got the original dev in to lead it. Brilliant update.

[Gotters]

I'm enjoying a couple of very nicely put together Microsoft games under their 'Casual Games' banner.

 

Their solitaire has loads of modes and good explainers and as a bonus perk for Gamepass Ultimate subs you get the full ad free game included in your sub.

 

Mahjong is also really good and suits touchscreen brilliantly, unfortunately this isn't ad free unless you sub (£10 a year, 1 month option available). Shame its not in ultimate but for a tenner for a year of ad free it's not a lot - I'm playing the 5 daily challenges most days so not hard to get my moneys worth out of it.

[Alex W.]

Having very recently jumped from a 2016 SE to a 13 Mini, can anyone recommend any games for showing off either the new technical power or the OLED screen? Especially on my Arcade free trial. I'm thinking that I'll play Sayonara Wild Hearts last because the neon-on-black will burn my retinas off.

 

I went through my old purchased iPhone games list and was disappointed at how few of the really splashy ones like Dead Space even run any more. Mobigame's Edge, of trademark infamy, of all things, is still working and looks very nice on OLED.

[Jonny5]

There’s a dedicated thread for Apple Arcade with loads of recommendations. 

[Uncle Nasty]

Been messing with Townscaper today, This is more of a software toy than a game, just a really chilled and ambient app for intuitively creating mini towns and cities. The results are beautiful, super cute with a lovely aesthetic.

 

On the desktop (GOG) version you can export your creations as OBJ files - sadly not avaialble on the iOS version (yet?) but I suppose you could screengrab and import into Photoshop for a quick and dirty way of working with your creations.

 

Could be useful for level designers as a quick kitbashing tool. But a lovely little experience in its own right.

 

 

[The Bag]

Oh cool, I missed this was out on mobile.  I’ve been watching his gifs on Twitter through development.

[Gotters]

New game called Punball from the makers of Archero, I never really liked that but know a few did here.

 

The core game is one of those where you fire a ball off from the bottom of the screen and have to take out various blocks which have hit points, so you need to generate lots of bounces (like an old iOS classic called Holedown which I loved).

 

Game is nice with power ups and different enemy blocks but seems to have the most OTT confusing and tedious number of currencies, power ups and maguffins to get you to part with gems, coins and real money. Not many ads and none enforced but on opening up the game can take a few mins to clear all the alerts and various things you need to go into to power up items, claim rewards and generally get annoyed.

 

I'm 50/50 on keeping it on the phone, like the actual gameplay loop but the rest is crap. 

[Gotters]

I'm not normally a fan of these one button single screen auto runner platformer things but Jump Jerboa is pretty good - looks like shite but plays really nicely.

 

Free download with a single £1.79p IAP to remove ads, which I did after just a single world. 

 

 

[Dr Nookie]

On 10/11/2021 at 09:38, Gotters said:

New game called Punball from the makers of Archero, I never really liked that but know a few did here.

 

The core game is one of those where you fire a ball off from the bottom of the screen and have to take out various blocks which have hit points, so you need to generate lots of bounces (like an old iOS classic called Holedown which I loved).

 

Game is nice with power ups and different enemy blocks but seems to have the most OTT confusing and tedious number of currencies, power ups and maguffins to get you to part with gems, coins and real money. Not many ads and none enforced but on opening up the game can take a few mins to clear all the alerts and various things you need to go into to power up items, claim rewards and generally get annoyed.

 

I'm 50/50 on keeping it on the phone, like the actual gameplay loop but the rest is crap. 

I still play Ballz for this this type of thing.  Just about as basic as it can get, but just makes for the perfect little game. 

[Gotters]

Hell yeah, think this one pre-dates Angry Birds and was one of my first iPhone game obsessions, probably back on an iphone 3g - touch arcade reports it's going to be $10 so at least should not be riddled with IAP (hopefully)

 

 

[Sureshot]

Playing an interesting little game called SpotRacers at the moment. It has a nice simple one-button control system which is fun, but the interesting part about it is you can use your camera to ‘spot’ cars in the real world and it’ll add them to your collection. Quite a unique concept.

[Gotters]

On 13/02/2022 at 11:44, Sureshot said:

Playing an interesting little game called SpotRacers at the moment. It has a nice simple one-button control system which is fun, but the interesting part about it is you can use your camera to ‘spot’ cars in the real world and it’ll add them to your collection. Quite a unique concept.

 

I've been playing this, controls are better than you'd expect for being 1 button and you can scan good cars by just finding google images of them, saving all the Pokemon Go like hard work

[Gotters]

Angry Birds classic for 89p and Crush the Castle collection both released today.

 

It’s like when I first got an iphone 3g and used to sit in the works bogs amazed at the games it played

[Gotters]

Kings Path Solitaire is my favourite new game in a while, free with an option one off IAP of £2.49 to remove ads and add some extra modes.

 

You get a layout of cards on the screen and have a couple of simple rules explained about how you can move from one to another, its very simple and the aim is to clear the complete grid with a single path or get a high score in another mode (on a much larger grid layout).

 

Very simple, you'll get it in seconds and it doesn't then layer up complexity of rules on top of that, lovely clean look and a nice pair of daily challenges with a score table (felt so good being no1 a few days back even if there were only 60 or so entries).

 

Perfect type of game for the phone.

[Stejay]

Sounds like my kind of phone game.  Checking it out now.  👍

[andyw]

Looks like there’s a whole load more controller support coming in iOS 16, including Switch joycons and pro controllers: 

 

[Rayn]

I've been hooked on Mighty Doom the last few days: 

 

 

 

It's basically Archero, but in a Doom setting but it works great. Some of the bosses rely on lucky builds but overall it's balanced enough to not feel unfair. 

[K]

I'm not totally sure whether to post this here or in Retro, but suspect more people might see it here. I'm looking for an old iOS game that I can find no evidence of ever having existed. It was called Pong 2 (or Pong Squared) I think, and it was a kind of RPG version of Pong. It started out with a conventional game of Pong, but when the ball goes out of bounds, you go with it; the game consisted of you guiding the ball through this Pong-like world, exploring and finding things, with it all being done in visuals that were a more colourful version of the style of the original 1972 Pong. 

 

The controls were very unwieldy, in that you pressed on the screen and held to apply momentum to the ball, but the actual process of exploring the world was quite good fun. It reminded me a bit of a kind of cross between Pong and VVVVV. It had this mad swing / jazz soundtrack.

 

I would assume that it was deleted from existence as it was pretty clear it wasn't an officially licensed Pong product, but I can't find any videos, screenshots, or any discussion of the game online. There's no evidence of it in my iOS download history. It feels like I might have imagined it, but that can't be right - I'm sure I downloaded it, and remember playing it.

 

Am I going mad, or does anyone else remember this game?