Phone Games & Apps

[retroed]

That's sad. It's for stuff like this that I really want an iPhone. I think my current contract is due to expire in March, I was planning on going pay as you go as I don't use my phone much, but web browsing plus games could sway me. We'll see.

[retroed]

Help a RLLMUK forumite with his iPhone app, Pop. He's edited the first post with the relative info.

http://www.rllmukforum.com/index.php?showtopic=198134

[Hendo]

I'll try to hold off being nasty, and instead be a bit more constructive.

I bought Pop when it came out on WiiWare and thought it maddeningly mind numbingly dull. I had really high hopes for it since it was first featured in GTM but I actually regret buying it. I saw it was on the App Store a while ago and there's no way I'm buying it.

It does do some things well on the WiiWare version, like some decent online highscore boards but the gameplay itself is just far too simplistic for it's own good, especially compounded when you're just moving the pointer and pressing one button.

If we're talking simple score attack games, then I've been completely addicted to Skybound and it's my most played iPhone game by a long stretch. In theory it's just as simplistic as Pop but it has a "one more go" thing about it, whereas my first play through of Pop I was starting to lose interest.

Also, bought Rolando last night and it's pretty good. Not quite the amazing game that it had been hyped up as, but then I've only played through the first world. The potential is definitely there though and along with LocoRoco it also has bonus stages which are straight out of Dizzy Bee, which is no bad thing.

The music is pretty funky, done by Mr Scruff.

[Hendo]

Somehow, I got an iPhone developer stalk follow me on Twitter today so I figured I'd play his game and check out what he was pimping. Not much to see, but interesting nonetheless.

Apparently out beginning of February - Hysteria Project by Bulkypix (billed as "You will feel like in an hitchcock movie").

[Hendo]

Some quick recommendations:

Zombie Attack!

I bought it for the sale price of 59p but it's back up to £1.19 now.

It's a Tower Defence clone but with zombies. Or as one of the user reviews says, "Zombies and guns, result".

Adventure

The old 2600 game ported across and is free. No idea how long it will take Atari to get pissed off and demand it's taken down so grab it while you can. Not surprisingly, it hasn't aged well.

Sol Free

There's tons of free Solitaire games on the Store, I'm not saying that this is the best but the only one I've tried and it's a good game of Solitaire, so job done.

KamiCrazy

The full version is £2.39 but there is a free demo version that has 8 levels. Basically it's Lemmings and it's really well done, though I haven't bought the full version yet as it's apparently bastardly hard.

Still playing tons of Skybound, as everyone should.

In App news, Neil from ngmoco announced on his Twitter that Topple Too and Word Fu are being published within the next month along with "another couple of games that we just can't mention yet "

Also this email I got made me laugh this morning.

Bomber Online is coming to App Store

For a limited time Bomberman will sell for 0.99USD / 0.79Euros

One of the most famous arcade games ever is coming to the Appstore with real internet multiplayer mode with up to 5 players!

Rules are simple: Guide your robot to the victory by bombing up your opponents. To be successful collect bombs, power glove, remote bombs and kamikaze bombs and use them to be the last robot alive.

You can play alone trying to defeat the powerful army driven by the computer or enter in the online multiplayer arena with player driven robots from all countries.

Feature list

- 6 different worlds: Snow, Beach, Underground, Town, Classic, Lava

- Offline mode with easy to follow tutorial, computer driven robots and adventure mode

- Real internet multiplayer mode with automatic matchmaking, player profile with picture, friend list and more

- Easy controls using touch screen and virtual joystick

- 8 music tracks

They're not even trying to hide the big rip off! It even says, "Bomberman" in the second line. Because it's cheap and Hudson will probably take it down soon, I bought it.

I'm expecting nothing but an unplayable mess so I could be pleasantly surprised.

[Manicm]

Well i got my iphone, a refurb 16gb one, and blimey its nice!! not a mark on it, its just superb. My 95 will be used until i get a case for my iphone then the n95 is going where it deserves the bin!

So what should i be downloading?? on the free to start with then what apps/games are recommended at a nominal fee!

So far ive downloaded the facebook app, anyone know of an mp3/4 to ringtone converter i can use?? and whats the name of the app that knows the names of songs??

[Manicm]

Just been told by a mate its just a fancy toy, but it is nice!!

[Hendo]

Merged this onto here.

Check out the first two post of this thread for a good list of apps and games, though just grab anything in there that's free for starters.

Game-wise, I would point you towards Aurora Feint (free), Chess With Friends (free), Dizzy Bee (free demo or £1.79), Maze Finger (free), Skybound (59p), Sol Free (free, surprisingly), Topple (free), Toy Bot Diaries (check out the free demo of the first one) and Trace (free).

If that's not enough, I'd look at Dr Awesome, Dropship, Rolando, Fieldrunners, Snail Mail, etc.

For apps, you should certainly get AroundMe (shows you things of interest in your area using GPS), Flixster (movie trailers, what's on and when in your local cinema, etc), MyRail Lite (if you use trains from time to time), Stanza (eBook where you can download loads of out-of-copyright books for free) and either Palringo or fring for instant messengers. All of those apps are free.

[Manicm]

All downloaded!! and installed having a play now, only one i couldn't find was myrail lite but other than that all done!

Might get a few games on payday, simcity has caught my eye, loved that game on the PC all those years ago!

[Hendo]

Got another recommendation of a free game.

Scramboni has been mentioned by John Davison (1up Yours / What They Play) a few times so I took the plunge and it's really good.

Oddly, the game is rated 2.5 stars overall but all the UK reviews rate it very highly.

It's basically an anagram game where you're given a bunch of letters and have to put them together to make a word, the twist is that it's online so you're playing with quite a few people at once. You start up and enter a room (that tells you how many people are inside) and start playing. It's competitive in trying to get the word first, but nothing anyone does will affect you, you can't hurl abuse at people and if you or anyone else drops out it doesn't affect the game at all, so it's a very relaxing experience.

Also worth mentioning (and I knew this would happen) that Rolando has dropped in price to £3.49. Oh well.

Great game though, much better than I originally thought, and not actually a LocoRoco clone, only take the art style and the fact that these blobs roll around. In actual fact, LocoRoco is very much an action game and Rolando is a puzzle game, in the same vein as Lemmings or Krusty's Super Fun House but more where you have direct control over the characters you want getting to the goal.

[Jimboxy]

i almost brought that last night, but chickened out at the last second. Looks alright though.

[Hendo]

Audio interview with ngmoco's Neil Young (not that one) here.

Very good stuff and he speaks a lot of sense.

Skybound had a big update the other day and it gives it the layer of polish that it was missing, in the menus at least. There's an Easy mode included and a How To Play bit for the stupids who couldn't figure it out. Free demo version also now available.

Have recently been messing about with:

Pocket Gamer

wiivo pointed me toward this - a free app version of the Pocket Gamer website. Good for news and reviews of stuff, so I can search on there before buying a new game. Not sure why it's got a rating of 2 stars though.

newtonica2

Sequel to the weird score attack game by Keni Eno and friends, this is nothing like the first but actually a kind of pool tricks kind of thing - bouncing spherical objects off others to get to a goal, basically a physics-based puzzle game.

Bought it ages ago and kept forgetting to mention it. Only 59p so go for it, but in doubt there's a free demo available.

There's also "newtonica2 resort" for 59p, not sure whether this is a re-skin of the full game or brand new levels.

Edge

This came out on Christmas Eve and has been praised by all sides since then, and I'd agree that it's an essential purchase at £3.49.

There's only about 26 levels and the first few are dead easy but I'm stuck on the second to last one as it really pushes your relexes.

It's an isometric platformer/puzzle game with some 8-bit graphical and sonic styles. You can use either touch controls or tilt but I'd advise sticking with the default of touch.

I've also been mucking about with Mafia LIVE! which I can't decide if it's rubbish or brilliant. Either way it's a text-based RPG that works within it's own browser so it's continually playing, even when you're not playing it yourself. Come back to it after a few days and you might find you've lost or gained money or health and been in several fights. It's an MMO, more or less so you can add people to your family and fight other families.

It's very cheap-looking and acting but it is very addictive and it's on sale now for £1.79 so give it a try and join my family.

[Sly Reflex]

We played a Mafia game called Omerta over at Now Loading. Only problem was, when you died, you stayed dead.

[Hendo]

If that's the same one that they play at GTM, no, it's completely different. Which is a shame as that would make a really cool game for the iPhone. This is more like a text-based GTA, where if you lose a fight you lose money, with added RPG levelling and losing health or stamina points when you do jobs (steal a car, rob a shop, etc). It's not bad for the couple of quid that I paid for it, but it could really do with a layer of polish adding to it.

[Sly Reflex]

No, this wasn't the forum game on g™, it was a browser game called Omerta. It is a text based game that runs 24 hours a day. You might get killed when you are away from the game, which is a pain. You can do crimes with other people dependant on your level. There is other stuff to do such as smuggling, stealing cars. The only problem is that it is really monotonous typing in the codes (to stop bots from auto levelling) and the fact that when you are dead, that is it, no respawns, no nothing. It ends.

[Hendo]

I wrote a reply to this the other day and then my net exploded as I hit "add reply".

Yeah, that sounds exactly like what this Mafia game does. I haven't touched it in a couple of days so I'm sure I'm broke and half dead by now. I don't think you can actually die though - if you lose a fight, you lose money. If you lose enough money then the godfather will start taking items you've bought off you.

I bowed to John Davison and finally bought WordJong and although it's an extremely well put together and polished game, it's not for me. In fairness I should've known that beforehand as I'm crap at Scrabble and stuff like anagrams. It would make it much easier for me is if you could finish the daily puzzle with letters still unused, but you only finish the puzzle by using all the letters.

The only other criticism I have is that there's only the daily puzzle mode to play, nothing else to do. However you can go through any previous day's puzzles so there's still plenty to do.

I'd say that if you love word games like Scrabble then you should definitely buy it as it's only £2.99.

Also, I've mentioned it before but I'd really like to put out another massive recommendation to Snail Mail. It's the kind of game that if you spent 20-30 quid on it as a DS or PSP game then you'd feel quite good about what you're getting for your money, and yet it's only £1.19 which is just crazy.

There's 50 levels, I've been playing for ages off and on and I'm only 30-something now. There's also a Time Trial mode and Challenge mode. It's one of the most complete and polished games in the App Store and is a very much essential purchase.

Still haven't tried the touch controls as the tilt works flawlessly.

[Hendo]

Anyone that has been listening to John Davison on either Rebel FM or ListenUp recently will have heard him talk about a game called Yard Sale, or to give it it's full title, Yard Sale Hidden Treasures : Sunnydale.

I downloaded the free demo the other day and went through it today and promptly bought the full version.

It's the kind of thing you'd see on the Wii or DS and dismiss as shovelware/casual crap, but 3 quid is a decent price and it's highly addictive.

Pretty much a Where's Wally/Waldo or I Spy game where you have a background picture that you can zoom in 2 or 3 times and have to find certain objects in a given time. The picture is full to the brim of stuff so it's not super easy but it's not majorly difficult either.

After you finish that there is a piss easy bunch of minigames which do let the side down.

I'd expect by the "Sunnydale" bit tacked onto the title that there's gonna be a load of these, but I can see this one whiling away an afternoon so maybe I'll buy some more.

Also spent some more time with Dr Awesome, Dropship and Snail Mail. On level 40 of Snail Mail I think. I don't know how people finished Dropship so quickly as it's getting pretty tough.

I've also got stuck very early on with Fantastic Contraption. Need to spend more time with it I think.

[Oliath]

I LOVE fantastic contraption.

Its brilliant fun.

Even better is that you can go online and click the people icon to see how others have solved levels.... but it only lets you check out the ones you have already completed.

[Hendo]

Ah that would help a lot.

I've been hammering Yard Sale. So much that my battery died with still a couple of hours to go in work.

[Oliath]

Ha ha lol.

That sucks. Do you have to take a bus home or can you drive?

Worst thing is when you have a bus ride and no entertainment... i have got so used to being absorbed in something i really start to freak out when i am paying attention the fact that i am on public transport... aaaaargh.

So... in lieu of Hendo's great list of games he is playing.... here is mine (without direct links cos i am not that awesome)

My Top ten iphone games... in order of currently most played:

1. Distant Shore

Its not a game so much as an annonymous messanging app. Its from blimp pilots who brought you Koi Pond. Basically its a chillout game. Put headphones on... walk the sandy beach and listen to the waves come crashing in... very peaceful. You collect shells on the beach. Five shells gives you a bottle. With each bottle you can write an annonymous message and toss it into the sea where it will wash up on another users shore.

The more bottles you send the more you recieve.

What makes this nice is that you can reply to bottles you recieve and start a bit of a conversation going.

My favourite thing is that its totally annonymous which means you can really get people to open up. Most the users are fairly mature too so i have had some really great and deep conversations with total strangers.

The trick seems to be to engage them... ask questions like... what is your biggest regret...... what would you change about yourself... that sort of stuff.... seems to me that this game is a sort of therapy... a great way to get stuff off your chest and share things with people you will never meet.

So yeah... i KEEP coming back to this... checking my mail.... having a few ongoing chats and so on. Brilliant stuff.

2. POP

A simple chain reaction bubble popping game.

Pop bubbles to get a high score. Smaller bubbles give you higher points while larger ones add more time to your game. Miss a bubble and the timer takes a hit.

THere are powerup bubbles and ones that nail your time too.

Chain colours together for higher multipliers.... Very simple but really cool for pick up and play.

Unfortunately there is no leaderboard, but i still keep trying to beat my own score.

3. Fantastic Contraption - already covered by Hendo.

If you want a feel for what it is check here for a free online version

http://fantasticcontraption.com/

4. Crayon

This is the OFFICIAL crayon physics ported to the iphone. There have been previous clones but this is the actual one.... last years WORLD OF GOO in terms of independant games. Great fun... very imaginative and perfect for the iphone

5. Katamari

Yeah... it got bad initial reviews, but they patched it really quick and i have always wanted to get into this game. Missed the boat with the playstation version and couldn't justify the xbox version so now i have it for under a fiver on my phone and its great fun. Crazy humour that always makes me laugh and very simple relaxed gameplay. The controls are MUCH improved now and it really is a pleasure to play. Again i have never played a previous version before so i can't say how faithful it is, but your roll around... pick everything up and have fun :-)

6. Tiki Towers

A bridge building game with monkeys and banannas.

Good fun.... bit frustrating at times, but nonetheless a good puzzle game. If you have played a bridge building game before in your life then you already know what this is like.

7. Bomber Online

An online version of bomberman - its 59p at the moment too which is why i got it.

Its really well done... controls have been improved and the online stuff is very well implemented. You essentially have matchmaking!

It gives you a friends list... you can send friend requests and invites.... chat during the game... edit your profile.. add a pic AND play over 3G!

Its a bit laggy now and then, but apparently this is being fixed already.

8. Rolando

But i got stuck :-(

9. Platypus

Still love it... still retro

10. Guitar Rock Tour

Until they bring out and official Guitar Hero on the phone THIS is the closest you will get.