Tiny Toots
Tiny Toots can be purchased for 0.99 on the App Store.
Tiny Toots is a recently (as of yesterday) released game that I’ve been playing for a while and it’s safe to say that it’s pretty damn fun. If you’ve played Tiny Wings then Tiny Toots is right up your ally with virtually the exact same gameplay. Now I didn’t play much of Tiny Wings so I’m going to stop comparing the two and just tell you what’s cool about Tiny Toots. In it you play as a dinosaur called Houston who just escaped from the laboratory of Dr. Beanstalk and to help Houston escape you’re going to need to eat beans to keep up your speed (SEE WHAT THEY DID THERE?). As your sliding from hill to hill you’ll eat beans to fill up a boost meter that you can then use to give you a bean powered boost to launch you into the air (smell not included). A neat feature I liked was that when you lose/get captured and start over you’ll see a ghost of your previous run so the game has a sort of ghost mode melded into the regular game. I will admit that I’m quite rubbish at the game, I don’t think I got further than stage 5 or 6, but I still had fun with what I played and highly recommend it to any players of Tiny Wings.

Jetpack Joyride
Jetpack Joyride is FREE on the App Store.
If you’ve been living under a rock for the last few months you probably haven’t heard of Jetpack Joyride, or if you’re an Android/Windows phone user like myself then you’re probably cursing anyone who can play it (luckily I have an iPod for my iOS needs). In Jetpack Joyride your task is to travel as far as you can without dying from electrical currents, missiles, or lasers all while collecting gold coins. With these coins you can then purchase outfits to deck Barry out in and you can even get new jetpacks with various visual effects. A few jetpacks you can expect to get include the piggy bank that shoots money, the bubble jetpack, fruit jetpack, laser jetpack, and my personal favorite the rainbow jetpack. There are even objectives given to you such as reaching a certain limit without hitting any coins or dying a certain amount of times to earn more coins. The only thing cooler than a jetpack is piloting one of the sweet vehicles you can pick up while playing like the robot dragon, Terminator influenced motorcycle (complete with shotgun), a mech and many more.

The Heist
The Heist can be purchased for 2.99 on the App Store.
The Heist is a neat little game where you’re hired by a mysterious woman to help her break into a vault that she says is full of riches galore, your job is to simply crack the code. You’ve got your typically infuriating sliding block puzzle game where you’ll need to move various blocks around to plug the electric circuit into the outlet, an even more infuriating sliding block game where you need to match wires up correctly (sorry, I really hate sliding block puzzles), a brilliant matching game where various rocks need to be placed in the right spot to achieve perfect zen, and a neat game where you control a robot that needs to move the blocks into the right spots. With four different types of puzzles all adding up to a total of 60 stages, The Heist will definitely give your brain a much needed work out for a few hours. Did I mention that if you fulfill a required amount of puzzles you’ll unlock a code to activate a Steam copy of the puzzler Eets? If you like Lemmings style games then Eets is right up your ally, and it’ll only cost you $3 plus the time it takes to unlock it (which isn’t long).

Knight Defense
Knight Defense can be purchased for 0.99 on the App Store.
As a fan of Chess I picked this game up thinking it was just a neat looking chess game. Instead I was given a sort of tower defense game with a chess setting. This is NOT a chess game and there is (unfortunately) no chess mode in it; this is straight up tower defense with a chess twist. Each round starts with your pieces in predetermined spots but you can’t move them and you can’t add more or pick which pieces you start out with. Each piece has a specific power that it can use such as the pawn being able to freeze enemies, the queen can give all her surrounding pieces a shield, and the Rook can fire powerful lasers in a cross formation. Now all these powers a fueled by an energy bar that all the pieces use so it’s wise to use a power when you really need it or else you’ll find yourself low in energy and with a fresh wave of enemies incoming. Now the enemies will spawn from various points in the map and beeline straight for your king so it’s wise to plan ahead what pieces need upgrading (which will also bring them to full health) and where to make the best use of your powers. These enemies don’t share the same skills you do so the only difference you’ll see with them is that some pieces do/take more damage such as the Rook having and dealing more health than a Pawn yet being slower. With a few dozen levels separated by easy, medium, and hard sections you’ll find quite a lot to do with this game.

Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP
S:S&SEP can be purchased for 2.99 on the App Store.
Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP has been on everyone’s radar for months since it was first announced and it’s finally out for us to get our hands on. It first released in April on iPad devices but since many of us don’t own an iPad we had to wait until May to get the iPhone/iPod Touch version dubbed the ‘micro’ edition. They’re the same game, it’s just that purchasing the 4.99 version will allow you to play it on your iPad and iPhone/iPod Touch while purchasing the cheaper one will only allow you to play it on your iPhone/iPod Touch. The first thing you’ll notice when you start up the game is it’s gorgeous pixilated look. Everything has been done in such a beautifully done way, especially with the animations, that playing the game feels more like an interactive music video than an adventure game. This is the type of game that absolutely needs a pair of good headphones to enjoy the fantastic soundtrack that you’ll be treated to while playing. Everything seems to wonderfully sync together with the music and what you’re supposed to be doing perfectly and it’s pretty exciting to see in action. The gameplay itself is more of a point/touch action/adventure title where you’ll guide the protagonist around various environments and solve numerous puzzles while facing off against enemies. When it’s time to get your sword dirty with the blood of your foe you’ll have to twist your iOS device vertically and that’s when the music picks up for the fight to start. Some enemies are fought simply by blocking their attack and then attacking right after, boss fights on the other hand are a bit tougher since some will launch orbs at you that you’ll have to swing back at them. All of this matches perfectly with the music playing of course. That’s as far as I’m going to get into the game since I really don’t want to spoil much to anybody since this is really something everyone should own for their iOS device. You can expect to get a few hours out of the game with various side-quests hidden throughout the environments and there’s a neat Twitter feature that plays a part in the game as well. I’d also recommend purchasing the soundtrack online if you ever get the chance since it truly is a fantastic piece of work.

NBA Jam
NBA Jam can be purchased for 4.99 on the App Store.
I know many of you, like me, played the shit out of NBA Jam with your friends back in the day. Shouting the catchphrases with your buddies, getting on fire and slamming a sweet dunk, and stealing the ball from your friend to score the winning shot is how I’d describe my time with the game back then and it’s how I’d describe it now. The graphics got a *very* crisp update that are pretty close to the console versions with added touch screen control. You control your character with a virtual joystick and you have three buttons on the right side: a sprint button, steal (for stealing the ball, duh), one to jump to toss the ball and while holding the sprint button the steal button changes to a push and the other to an instant dunk. The buttons themselves are small enough to not obstruct your view yet still large enough so you don’t accidentally hit one you don’t want, it also helps that they’re transparent. Everything feels nice and smooth so there’s no issues at all when it came to switching from consoles to an iOS device. The first mode you’ll see is the basic arcade mode where you can jump into a game instantly with any team you want and face off against your opponent of choice. You’ll have over a dozen teams with multiple players within each team and you’ll be able to unlock hidden teams such as the mascots, the Beastie Boys, the stick-men, the republicans, & the democrats. The characters have 2D heads popped onto 3D bodies which gives everything quite a charming look as the characters make humorous faces when pushing other players, dunking, or just generally being awesome at the game. The other mode tasks you with picking a division, a team from that division, and then facing off against other teams in 30 matches to win. There isn’t any Game Center support but NBA Jam does have it’s own achievement system with dozens of achievements to get which unlock new players, hidden teams, and cheat codes such as big head mode.

Vector Runner
Vector Runner can be purchased for 0.99 on the App Store.
I love vector/retro styled games like Geometry Wars so I instantly picked this up when I saw the graphics and the fact that it was a racing game of sorts. The basic gist of the game is that you control a small square ‘car’ and you basically drive as far as possible without crashing into one of the many obstacles 3 times. There are extra points to pick up, shields, and invulnerability power ups to get along the way. I’m enjoying my time with it but most people may get tired over there only being one mode. I can’t complain much since I managed to get it when they made it free for a day, but there’s tons of fun in this simple time-killer.

Spirits
Spirits is can be purchased for 0.99 on the App Store.
Spirits is an interesting lemming-styled game I found where you have to guide a couple ‘spirits’ around an area to a portal. Your spirits are given various abilities to help you navigate your environment such as turning into a vine to walk on, becoming a cloud that blows wind in various directions, and digging a hole into a wall. These actions will kill that spirit instantly so it’s up to you to use your spirits intelligently to make sure you have the most amount as possible going into that portal. There are also little flowers you can pick up on the way to the portal to get that perfect score.

Puzzle Draws
Puzzle Draws is free for a few puzzles and upgradable for 0.99 on the App Store.
This is pretty much the exact same game as Puzzle Man from my last post, the difference is that the puzzles are full of abstract artwork. The game is still free with around 5 puzzles but can be upgraded for a dollar to get around a couple dozen. This version doesn’t have an Expert mode unfortunately. Now if you didn’t read my last App Attack I’ll let you know that I’m copy/pasting the summary from Puzleman since they’re pretty much the same thing. I’ve loved puzzles since I was like 3 and I’ve finally been shown the best puzzle simulator on iOS. You can expect to have around a couple dozen puzzles that range in difficulty from very easy to hard with the number of pieces increasing as you go up in difficulty as you’d expect. The controls work fantastically with the ability to zoom in and out by pinching the screen and you can rotate any piece with a simple double tap. All the pictures are of high quality and you’ll get quite a variety of them too. The leaderboards aren’t full of glitched/hacked times so that’s a bit of a bonus over the previous title. The game does time you on each puzzle so if you like going back to beat your times that might be some incentive to go back to some of them.

Tiki Totems 2
Tiki Totoems 2 is currently free for a limited time and will go back up to 0.99 soon on the App Store.
I love physics puzzlers so when I heard Tiki Totems 2 had come out I just had to get it and now it’s free for a while so you have no excuse to not pick this up. In the game you play as a mysterious stranger who has the power to set things on fire and your only goal is to burn/smash everything except for the stone blocks, the only problem is that if the totem touches the ground the gods will get angry and burn your village down. You’ll encounter various blocks like ice, magic, and bouncy ones in the many levels. There are also 3 modes: Classic, Altar, & Love. Classic has you doing the exact thing I mentioned above, burn evreything except the stones (because stones won’t burn) and keep the totem from touching the ground. Altar tasks you with landing the totem on an altar and love requires you to combine the two totems together. You’ll find over 250 levels in the game with more promised to come so whether you get this for free or .99 it’s still something that needs to be added to your iOS library. Did I mention you can make your own levels?

Helsing’s Fire
Helsing’s Fire can be purchased for 0.99 on the App Store.
Helsing’s Fire is a quirky little game I found recently where you follow Professor Helsing and his assistant Raffton as they try to stop a terrible Blight that has unleashed hordes of fantastical creatures upon the land. It’s a puzzle game where you use a torch to light up the monsters and blast them with tonics of the correct color. As you progress through the game you’ll acquire red, blue, & green tonics to use as you try to thwart Dracula’s horde of monsters. The game shakes things up periodically with a new monster (or two) every so often, boss battles, mirrors that reflect your torch’s light, and crystals that fire off a different color than what you might be using. You’ll get to face off against 15 different monsters that all have their own special ability and 7 bosses that include Frankenstein, the Grim Reaper, and Dracula himself. With 120 randomly generated levels, Endless mode, & a bounty mode where you can race other players to collect the bounty (coins) on tons of new puzzles you’ll be sure to be playing Helsing’s Fire for quite a while.

Hunters Episode One
Hunters Episode One is free and upgradable for 4.99 on the App Store.
I’m not a huge fan of turn-based games so it takes something special to get my interest and Hunters has done exactly that. You control a squad of basically space marines as you undergo various missions that task you with protecting a scientist, killing all enemies in a base, assassinating an enemy leader, or defending locations. The neat thing about this game is that it will update you with new missions after a few hours, but these are all pretty much the same type of missions, just in a new area. As you play the game you’ll level up your units and collect phat loot. You’ll have a certain amount of action points available to each unit depending on their class (light, medium, & heavy) and the enemies follow this rule as well. The graphics are gorgeous, especially on the newer iOS devices, and the game supports multi-touch which makes zooming/moving around the map a breeze. A friend of mine said the game was quite similar to X-Com, I have yet to play that but I’ll take his word for it and say if you you liked X-Com you might like this. Hopefully the next episode adds some variety to the weapons and level objectives, but you should definitely try out Hunters now for yourself.

Mike Tyson- Main Event
Mike Tyson- Main Event is free on the App Store.
Alright let’s get this over with since I only added this on here to fill up some space. This is a complete Punch Out clone and it’s not even a good one. For some reason the art-style just annoys me and I’d much rather have some old-school pixel look. The controls are a odd since the game is pretty hit-or-miss when it comes to dodging a punch. You’d think that moving to the left to dodge a right punch would make sense, yet at times you can still be hit by the punch and even dodging right to a right punch can have you dodging. Since this is a free game you can expect to be told to go see Mike Tyson’s new show constantly via in-game ads. I think this had achievements if you want some motivation to play through this.

Shift 2
Shift 2 can be purchased for 0.99 on the App Store.
If you missed out on Shift then shame on you, but all can be forgiven if you get Shift 2. The basic idea of Shift is that you play in a black/white world where your goal is to reach the door. The trick to actually getting to the door involves ‘shifting’ which makes your character flip from whatever colored area they are on to the one below them. Spikes from a black square will suddenly become spikes in a white area, holes will suddenly become new platforms, and you’ll have to do this fast because one small mistake and you could either be facing a spike or saying ‘hello’ to the timer that’s counting how long you take. The game definitely gives off a Portal feel with the levels containing messages of false hope that border on being snide, which I like since isn’t done enough to make it feel played out. There are over 100 levels plus over a dozen bonus stages and hidden games you can find by scanning special bar codes by the developers so you can expect to be playing this game for a while.

Enigmo 2
Enigmo 2 can be purchased for 0.99 on the App Store.
I’m the kind of person who loves RTS games even though I’m complete garbage at them and the same case applies here with the puzzle game Enigmo 2. You start out having to simply move drops of water from one nozzle to another using tubes, trampolines, and platforms. This eventually evolves into needing to move lasers and plasma energy with tons of new items help manipulate the path they take. I’m only a few levels in but this is something I can already tell I’m going to enjoy my stay at the Enigmo hotel. There are also around 50 levels with new items added after a few levels to keep things fresh.

Overkill
Overkill is currently free on the App Store.
I’m usually pretty wary about shooters on iOS devices but when I heard Overkill is basically a shooting gallery styled game I had to pick it up, plus it’s free. There are 4 levels with 20 waves each but the waves can be considered levels since they’re all separated, and a ‘hell wave’ which I assume is a harder wave since I have yet to reach it. Each level is merely a stationary picture and the enemies come out like a shooting gallery where they’ll wait a few seconds before beginning to fire at you. There are 12 guns to unlock with various upgrades for each gun that you’ll unlock by getting money from completing or failing a wave (of course not as much for failing). You’ll also be able to get various upgrades while in a wave such as faster reloads, health bonuses/packs, & faster firing. Graphically it’s decent at best and the gun sounds aren’t the best around, but it is a nice diversion for it’s price tag of free.

Infinity Blade Update
Infinity Blade can be purchased for 5.99 on the App Store.
Infinity Blade needs no fancy introduction since I’m sure you all know what this game is. If you don’t then just know it’s a pseudo-hack/slash game where your goal is to fight your way up a castle to kill the God King who killed your father. There are tons of different weapons, helmets, shields, rings, and armor to get while you make your way up there. This time they added a massive update that includes a raised level cap, tons of new loot to get (giant finger sword here I come), enemies, new-game+, and the ability to visit the dungeon. When you enter the dungeon from one of the two entrances you’ll be able to face off against some pretty ticked off enemies that include a new dual-wielding monster, but the biggest addition are the 3 Deathless Kings you can fight and a special extra boss once you defeat them. If you somehow haven’t updated then hurry up since it’s obviously free, and if you haven’t purchased Infinity Blade yet then you’re missing out on one of the best iOS games out.

Land-a Panda
Land-a Panda can be purchased for 0.99 on the App Store.
Land-a Panda is probably my app on this list due to it’s deviously sneaky puzzles and charming arty-style. You play as Yang Guang, a panda just trying to get to his girlfriend but somebody thought it would be funny to fill his path with a quick death. Each level tasks you with navigating your way across spikes, steel walls, ghosts, angry birds, and ninja stars that want to stop you from reaching your pretty panda girl. You’ll move around by blasting out of cannons, Donkey Kong style, which come in a variety with stationary/moving cannons, timed, rotatable, rockets, and portal cannons. If you feel like going the long way to your girl then you can expect to find 3 golden coins to collect in each level. Besides crisp graphics Land-a Panda has a pretty catchy soundtrack that you’ll here in it’s 4 stages that each have 20 levels within them.

Piyo Blocks 2
Piyo Blocks 2 can be purchased for 0.99 on the App Store.
Piyo Blocks is an interesting Bejeweled clone where a wacky Japanese art-style and a more frantic feeling while playing. As you’d expect your goal is to match up blocks of the same color to reach the target for that stage to move on to the next one. For example if the stage says you need to hit a target of 6 for each color then matching 2 groups of 3 blue blocks will give you 6 points, or a group of 4 and 3, just any combination to hit that target. There are different modes but they’re all pretty much the same with slight differences such as Time Attack, Endless, Disco, and Hyaku. The most interesting mode is Three Seconds where you have three seconds to make a single combination of any color, each time to match 3 or more the timer will reset for another 3 seconds. It is pretty much a Bejeweled clone but since you’ll be focusing more on getting matches of certain blocks to get to the next stage it feels like a frantic race to hit that next target.

Dead Space
Dead Space can be purchased for 6.99 on the App Store (9.99 for the HD version).
Dead Space finally makes it to the mobile platform and it’s glorious. The game looks pretty crisp on the iphone and even better on the ipad’s HD version. The game takes place right before the Necromorph infection is unleashed on the Sprawl and has you playing as a miner codenamed simply as Vandal. The motion controls work perfectly with movement mapped to a virtual d-pad, the camera moves by swiping the screen, and the shooting works simply by tapping the gun to bring it up and tapping anywhere to fire it. There are also buttons for kinesis/stasis and the only issue I had with the controls were when I wanted to reload since it would always fire it instead of reloading. Besides having such crispy fresh graphics the game also has fantastic audio so I’d definitely recommend playing this game with the best headphones you have, trust me your ears will thank me later. You can expect to get a good few hours out of this title with multiple difficulties, achievements, and rewards for Dead Space 2 when you link your EA accounts together. This is a complete Dead Space game made for mobile devices so if you’re a Dead Space fan with an iphone/ipod touch/ipad then you owe it to yourself to pick this game up.

Hook Worlds
Hook Worlds can be purchased for .99 on the App Store.
If you love runner games like Canabalt you’re going to lose yourself with Hookworlds. Rocketcat Games takes the classic runner gameplay and adds grappling hooks to swing you around the various hazards of the levels and each world has a unique twist to it. World 1 has you hanging out with Gramps as he escapes the guardian of the treasure you just stole and you’ll use your rocket boots to boost you over high walls in forest, cave, and lava themed areas. World 2 brings you along with Zelle the bounty hunter who’s tasked with hunting ghost pirates. Here you’ll have six shots in your gun to shoot pirates or walls blocking your path while you collect treasure. Every so often a boss encounter will occur where you’ll face off against a horde of zombies, 2 giant enemy crabs, or multiple floating ghost skulls. World 3 tosses you into the grim future where you play as Gnomey who is a gnome running from the cops. This level will test your skills with the ability to change gravity and having to pick the right moments to change it or else you’ll go flying into the sky.

Now this game just got a pretty nice update with Game Center Support, World 4 being unlocked for anyone who didn’t purchase Hookworlds the first week it came out, and also includes dlc packs for new clothing, hats, and hooks for all 4 characters. World 4 is pretty similar to the first world in that you’re being chased by a monster who’s treasure you just stole and you also have the rocket boots, but it also includes the anti-gravity parts from World 3 as well so this pretty much makes this world a huge cluster fuck of fun with spikes and lava included. Did I mention it’s got a retro look and also includes more hats and hooks besides the dlc packs that you can unlock for free?

Super Soviet Missile Mastar
Super Soviet Missile Mastar can be gotten for free on the App Store.
From the creators of Alien Hominid and Castle Crashers comes Super Soviet Missile Mastar, a quirky little gem you can pick up for free on the store that has you directing a giant missile to go blow up America. I’ve heard some people complain about having issues being able to look at the screen for long periods of time due to it being in just red and white but I had no problems, just thought I’d mention that. It’s a pretty simple game where you use your finger to move the missile up or down while dodging incoming airplanes, helicopters, and birds all wishing to stop you from spreading Mother Russia’s love to American pigs.

Backbreaker 2: Vengeance
Backbreaker 2: Vengeance can be purchased for .99 on the App Store for a limited time.
Remember how pumped people were for the console version of Backbreaker that promised a football game with the Euphoria engine made popular from GTA4? Remember how it wasn’t that great? Well NaturalMotion Games jumped ship to the mobile platforms and made Backbreaker Football a while ago. Now they have Backbreaker 2: Vengeance which adds the ability to jump over players/obstacles and tackling (trucking) to knock some of those damn guys off you or to duck under obstacles. In B2:V you’ll be able to select from two different modes; Tackle Alley & Vengeance. Tackle Alley teaches you the basics and tasks you with simply reaching the end of the field before somebody on the other team tackles you. Vengeance mode takes everything you learned and now forces you to tackle the player running with the ball while his buddies are trying to take you down. Both modes contain 10 levels that each have 5 waves within them so you’ll get some decent time for your buck. These modes are all about racking up big points by dodging players, obstacles, and hitting point squares so expect to replay the modes multiple times to secure the coveted Backbreaker helmet and put your spot on the leaderboards.

Stenches
Stenches can be purchased for .99 on the App Store.
Stenches is probably my favorite game in this list since it’s just a blast to play. When you start up the game you’ll see three modes: Waves, Distance, & Multiplayer. In Waves you’ll have to simply survive as many waves as you possibly can while protecting your base, Distance has you trying to move as far across the battlefield as you can, and finally multiplayer is basically the same as waves but with a partner. The thing I like about Stenches is that it has you protecting your base from a horde of zombies and you collect gold for each kill that funds new soldiers you can bring to the battlefield to protect your base. It’s pretty similar to a tower defense game but it’s just one straight line between both bases and you can manually control your squads to place them in strategic places to stop the enemies. You can purchase squards of riflemen, shotgun men, snipers, machine gunners, and more. Out of all the titles I talked about this one is definitely at the top of my recommendation list.

Angry Birds Seasons/Cut the Rope Updates
Angry Birds Seasons and Cut the Rope can be purchased for .99 on the App Store.
I’m sure you already know of the fantastic Angry Birds and Cut the Rope games, but maybe you’ve forgotten you had the ability to update them? The latest update to Cut the Rope & the ‘seasonal’ version of Angry Birds have included a Valentines world for both games and new gameplay too. While the Angry Birds update doesn’t really add much besides candy to smash for extra points and clouds you will get 15 new levels plus 3 more bonus ones for ‘liking’ Angry Birds Seasons on Facebook. Cut the Rope on the other hand adds a new Valentine Box with 25 new levels and a new game mechanic where you now have to combine two broken pieces of candy to form a complete one before the little guy can eat it.

“On iPhone, you know Apple’s policy that we can’t talk about a release until it’s ready to release,” said Lucasarts CEO Darrell Rodriguez to Joystiq when asked about iPhone and iPod Touch versions of older games. “But it would make sense that we would do something like that if we were to go in that direction … wink wink, nod, nod.”

Boasting accelerometer motion and tecnhical aspects, the game will be available at a premium of $10. Currently only offering a singleplayer campaign at launch, future updates hold the promise of Blutooth functionality and cooperative multiplayer.

An on rails shooter at heart utilizing assets from Doom 3, Resurrection is the result of nine months of hard work at Escalation. The title is controlled by tilting the iPhone to manipulate the on-screen cursor.

Hey for once I actually like an Apple product and it only took gaming to make me see the other side!

Apple, indirectly, is approaching the mobile gaming in a groundbreaking way. The App Store has made available a streamlined interface for people to pick and choose what games they want to download and play. With the average price of games ranging around $1.99 to $5.99, it provides the monetary incentive for gamers on a budget.

Ultimately, the functionality of touch gaming is the revolutionizing feature. Built in multi-touch and accelerometer action eliminates the need for any physical controller. Here’s a demonstration of me making a complete ass out of myself playing Metal Gear Touch.

Yet, I’m still enjoying it nonetheless. Asides from the glaring technical problems that the Apple platform has to overcome in order to be the game changer of the industry, the potential is already there.

In an interview with Shacknews, Carmack has announced that the Quake franchise will becoming to the iPhone platform in a multitude of releases.

“We will be trying to put some other developers on the future classic titles,” said Carmack. “I don’t think I’m going to be doing all of the work on Quake, Quake 2 and Quake Arena on there.”

The Zenimax acquisition doesn’t look to put a damper on id Mobile’s offerings with Wolfenstein RPG, Doom 2 RPG, and Doom Classic coming for release and even Rage being considered.

The iPhone (iTouch included). The single most innovative phone and iPod ever created. The multi-touch interface, the app store, the countless number of applications available, the Mobile-Safari browser, it is an amazing phone, an amazing iPod, and with the July 2.0 Update, is it an amazing handheld console?

 

On that July 11, many remember the rejoice that finally the long-awaited promises of the WWDC keynote promised. That day the iPhone 3G came out, the iPhone 2.0 update came out, the app store came out, the disastrous Mobile-Me service came out. Everyone who was alive that day will remember that, even though it was an amazing day, it was also the most frustrating day of the summer. That day, apple decided to magically make everything appear on their server. Do you get where I’m going? There was traffic for days ( I was lucky to get in on some goodies on the second day), but well, sooner-or-later there was relieve with that came the new app store.

 

The first few days of the App Store were unforgettable. About five different beer applications (get the free ones, they have the same effect, no beer, but you don’t have to pay), hundreds of flashlights (one in every color, and one in every pattern sure to make people get strokes), thousands of useless games, thousands of useless applications, and the few famous applications, like what is probably the most famous of them all. “I am rich”, “I am Rich” a completely useless application that does nothing but shoes people you have nothing going on in your life, oh, by the way, it is $999.99 USD. 

 

Yes the first few days of the app store were certainly fun. Then the rejections came, and a lot of applications went “poof” (Yes the “I am rich” app is gone, so if you won the lottery don’t plan on wasting it on this app). 

 

While there are a lot of games out there. I have to give you a guide, a guide for the technologically handicapped. A guide on the must have applications for iPhone.

 

 

 

 

Tap Tap Revenge

 

The iPhone Guitar Hero. This is very self explanatory. Guitar Hero, one of the most successful games of all video gaming history, gave off a rip-off-esque game “Rock Band”, inspired so many sequels and even cheap Chinese rip-offs (refer to ashen). The Tap Tap Revenge game is an amazing application that delivers a lot of frustrating fun. I love playing this game, well most people do anyway, this game is defiantly must get. It is hard to explain the game, but well, it is just way to fun to pass up, with the touch controls, with the ability to download new tracks, with all the challenges constantly being posted. It is a must. 

 

 

Namco-Bandai iPhone Classic games

 

You can not resist getting Pac-Man, you just can’t. Namco brings a lot of their classics to the iPhone. While I do not know how much they cost. And indeed, I do not know all the games, (I don’t have all of them) I can only recommend one thing. Get Pac-Man Lite. This is an amazing example of how these games work.

 

The controls range from D-Pad, Touch, or Tilt. I personally use the D-Pad and the Touch commands (try moving Pac-man through tiny little passages on a tilt control system) they are much easier. It is just amazing to play these classics on the iPhone.

 

Aurora Feint: The Beginning

 

This game is free, this game is challenging, this game is absolutely a perfect example of why the iPhone is so popular right now. This game was famous for being so perfect and being free. There has to be catch right? No. There is no catch, it is simply that amazing. It is a RPG, fantasy mixed with the essential puzzle game essentials. It is simply to entertaining, it has an amazingly simple and great control system. THE GAME HAS THE CHEASY RPG BACKGROUND MUSIC! There just has to be something bad about this game. It is really just too good to be true.

 

Jelly Car

 

You know how people say “Don’t trust a book by it’s cover”? Well this is exactly the case. When first seeing it I say five-star reviews, it was featured. It was everything but appealing. It just seemed ridiculous. Well I was proven wrong. I tried it, and became addicted to the fluid like motions, all controlled by your finger and tilt. It is hard to describe this game. It is simple, beautiful, complex and extremely difficult on a lot of levels. I would get this immediately it is just amazing once you actually play it.

 

Cowabunga

 

This game is hard on tilt so I just use the touch controls. Once I saw a cow jumping into a lake, I could not resist to get it. It is indeed all too cartoon like. It is fun and entertaining. The problem though is, this is one of the simples and most bland plots ever. “Save a cow from drowning”, well “Moo”.

 

Dizzy Bee 

 

This game was known for being a great amusement. It is fun it is so interesting. It has such a great plot. Oh by the way, it crashes the iPhone. Do I hear a “moo”? Why yes I do, the  cows are calling, I’ll go play cowabunga.

 

Hanoi

 

An ancient game reinvented a little with a twist for the 21^st century. If you want to entertain yourself (or frustrate yourself) moving coins, or even you don’t, please do. It is just so fun, so relaxing, so well hard on the latter levels. Get it, you will be caught playing over an over again.

 

Labyrinth 

 

It is Labyrinth on the iPhone. It is fun, cool and hard. Not much to say. I can only say “get it”.

 

Tetris

 

Do I even have to explain why? Good job EA.

 

Spore Origins

 

Here is one up for debate. While it is very entertaining and is much like the original Spore in terms of some goals. This version is also available on regular iPod. (the iPhone version is much better) Spore Origins is hard to explain other than it will be one of the single most addicting games you will ever play on the iPhone. It really is like playing a mini version of Spore.

 

Ipint

 

The Free Beer. Minus the real Beer. Really this is THE MOST POINTLESS app of all, but one of the best of all the apps, especially of all the many virtual beers out there. It’s a small world out there, with a lot of nice little apps to help like this to help you do less.

 

BubbleWrap

Pop the bubbles before time runs out. Who could have ever gotten that idea? And from where? Well anyways get it, it’s super fun. And now the winner of the best app is next.

 

The Best App out there for the iPhone is… “Moo”, no not that, anyways the best App out there for the the iPhone is.

 

 

 

Moto Chaser

 

It is the most over-used concept ever. Yet when the iPhone does it, it really comes alive. The tilting is just so much more realistic than what other games have. The game is just the most addicting thing out there, a true showcase of the ability that the iPhone has and generally one of the fun-est games out there. 

 

 

While it is still young, the iPhone is simply amazing as a console. The games are mostly 2-D-esque but I highly recommend you get one. The gaming experience is amazing.

 

(I will also post separate reviews on some of these games later.)