iPhone/iTouch app and game thread

[Canuck]

So we've got a couple of iPhone threads going on in the console game forum right now but since the iPhone isn't quite THE popular console medium (yet) I thought that I might make up a single thread where we could consolidate all the stuff that we happen to be playing.  If we manage to gather lots of good reviews of certain apps and games then I'll modify this first post to include direct links to individual posts where people have given good impressions.  If a thread like this has already been made then I apologize.  Also I wasn't exactly quite sure where to put this since I plan on discussing both apps and games so I thought off-topic might be as good a place as any.  I actually don't have an iPhone but I'm planning on getting a touch because the one thing I DON'T need is the actual phone capabilities of the iPhone.  Because the games and apps are so cheap, I can see myself getting a lot of them so once I get my iTouch I'm sure I'll be posting here a lot and I hope you all do as well!

[Canuck]

Ok got the introduction out of the way! First off, I want to say that I really feel sorry for all the PDA owners out there (like myself) who have been paying big bucks (usually around $15 or $20) for games that are usually not much more than casual distractions and then the exact same games (improved in most cases) are released for the iPhone for like $1.99.  What in the hell is up with that?  Not that I'm complaining about the cheap prices but in most cases, these companies are not reducing the PDA prices of their games despite the fact that they're selling the exact same thing on the Appstore for about 1/10th the price! Way to screw over the people who gave you all the business in the first place!

Take for example PDAmill Game Studios.  They've got some crappy looking game called Corsair where you shoot pirates-sort of a shooting booth type of game.  The price for the PDA-$14.95.  Price on the iPhone? $2.99.  Friggen ridiculous!

[Clay]

Here's what I have and play, with links to the iTunes store:
Field Runners is a great tower defense game.  I've played for hours.  Highly recommended.

Topple, currently free, is like tetris with crabby blocks that gravity affects.  The point is to build a tall tower.  Great fun for the price. 

Texas Hold'em, produced by Apple, is a great little game.  I've played for dozens of hours.  Note: I suck at Texas Hold'em and had no interest in it prior to this game.

Frotz allows you to play text adventures, like Zork, on your iPhone. 

SimCity: I haven't played much, but it seems pretty robust and controls fairly well.  A tad sluggish.

Vay is an old Japanese style RPG.  It's good if you like that sort of thing, though the inventory management is a little clunky.

Flick Fishing is a pretty slick little fishing game.  It's fun and shows the iPhone/iTouch off pretty well.  It's more of a distraction for me, but I like fishing, so I enjoy the game.

Enigmo is a puzzle game, requiring you to place parts that will guide water drops, fire, and oil into their proper containers.  It's pretty fun and some of the puzzles are challenging.

Everest: Hidden Expedition is a hunt-for-the-named-objects game.  Good way to pass some time, though it gets repetitive after 3-4 hours and the gameplay is straightforward and simple.  I play it a lot, but that's only when I'm in for brain dead activity.

Dr. Awesome is a lot of fun.  You cure viruses in patients...  except the patients' names are your contacts, which is pretty funny.  They only use the names for the purposes of enhancing the game, they don't spam your friends, etc...

And the best game of all...
Rolando.  Imagine Loco Roco (PSP) with more units, cool music, interesting levels, etc...  I like Loco Roco, but I think that I like Rolando more.  It's one of my games of the year.  At $10, it's expensive, but I'm more than happy to shell out that money if it means we'll get more quality games. 

Finally, I hear that Hero of Sparta is awesome, but I haven't played it. 

[Purge]

I want an app that records voice AND phone calls well, and can stay running regardless of incoming calls and the like. I'd also like to have it's default SAVE if interrupted; iTalk (griffin) does not do this.

[Zero]

For a fun free game try Space Dead Beef!  Large download, but worth it - its like a robotech shooter with unlimited missiles  

My kids likes Scoops, simple game concept where you try to catch ice cream as it falls down from the sky - the more ice cream you catch the faster you go up (into space!).  The game uses the motion sensor on your iPhone/iTouch.

[corruptrelic]

Agreed with us PDA (pocket pc especially) having been over charged all this time. I saw the thread for wizards of orion at $4.99 when I just paid $19.99 for it on windows mobile.

Now Warfare Incorporated has come out for iPhone (think of starcraft/command and conquer RTS clone type) I bought that for $30 on pocket pc. I don't even want to look up what the iPhone pricing is! But doing a check for it on pocket pc, it goes for $20-$30 these days even though it's years old.

If I had ATT I'd go with the iPhone in a heart beat. Stuck in my Sprint contract for a little longer so I'm going to ride out with windows mobile in the mean time.. and maybe give google android a look when we get our first phone later next year. Hopefully their app store games are comparable to the iPhone pricing.

[Biyobi]

If I had ATT I'd go with the iPhone in a heart beat. Stuck in my Sprint contract for a little longer so I'm going to ride out with windows mobile in the mean time.. and maybe give google android a look when we get our first phone later next year. Hopefully their app store games are comparable to the iPhone pricing.

I'm stuck that way with Verizon until Saturday.  I take care of all the electronics for an older client of mine (including helping him figure out his iPhone) and as an Xmas bonus this year he's paying for half of my iPhone.  Another client gave me a $75 gift card for Best Buy, and Best Buy is having a $10 off on iPhones deal until the end of the year, so all I have to do is put down the remaining $65 plus whatever taxes.  Woo-hoo!

[lildrgn]

I don't have an iPhone, but thought you guys would love this:

iBoobs

Nuff said.

[Canuck]

Well it looks like Puzzle Quest is out for the iPhone now.  But it has been broken into 3 different chapters with the first chapter starting at $9.99.  Sounds like they're going to use a downwards pricing model for the other chapters though.  People on QT3 are reporting problems with the game (notably it's suckage on the iPhone) so caveat emptor

[Jeff]

Here's what I have and play, with links to the iTunes store:
Field Runners is a great tower defense game.  I've played for hours.  Highly recommended.

Thanks for the heads up. This game is addicting! Only $4.99 too.

 I'm gonna grab Rolando next. Waaaay too much positive feedback on that one to resist.

[depward]

Picked up PuzzleQuest. Was a huge fan of the DS version. Played it, beat it, loved it.

That being said, what a horrendous port to the iPhone. Unresponsive touch controls (expect to wait a bit sometimes when you first get into a menu... it seems like you'll be able to touch menu options, but it doesn't register for about 3 - 4 seconds or so.

Actual map interface is to be expected. It looks and functions fine.

The battle interface is chuggalicious. I mean, even on the DS version there were some hitches. But it's really bad here.

Text is hard to see, especially when you're selecting a spell to use. Gotta squint (and I have better than 20 / 20 vision here!). Using a Bard since using the Mage was easy-peasy for the DS version and selecting a spell, takes me awhile to read what it does!

That being said, it's Puzzle Quest. It's a fricken awesome game. But it's most definitely not the definite version.

[Misguided]

Picked up PuzzleQuest. Was a huge fan of the DS version. Played it, beat it, loved it.

That being said, what a horrendous port to the iPhone.

Oh no! Is the combat interface really as fuzzy-looking as the screenshot is?
I'll never be able to play that without getting a headache!

[Jeff]

I've been going a little crazy getting games for my ipod touch. So far:

Fieldrunners

Rolando

Dr Awesome (currently on sale for 99 cents)

Topple (currently on sale for free)

Bejeweled 2 (currently on sale for $2.99!)

... still shopping too.  Great thread! 

[Godzilla Blitz]

Flick Fishing is a pretty slick little fishing game.  It's fun and shows the iPhone/iTouch off pretty well.  It's more of a distraction for me, but I like fishing, so I enjoy the game.

Flick Fishing was a big hit on some family airplane trips recently. I played with my 5-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son. We'd take turns and see who could catch the heaviest fish. We must have played for about an hour on each of three legs of a journey. Good humor. They'd crack up when one of us would catch a shoe.

[Jeff]

... still shopping too. 

Just added Orions Legends of Wizards. Somebody stop me!

[Canuck]

Why stop?  These games are like $2.99 on average.  You could play for as little as an hour and get your moneys worth.

[Misguided]

This doesn't really need a separate thread but I've found a really nifty little brain bender called the Plateau.
Basically you have a set of dots connected by lines. You have to drag the dots around until none of the lines cross.
It sounds simple, but the formations start to get really complex.

Good looking and nice, ambient music. Controls are great.
A one-trick pony, but definitely pick this up if you like thought/logic puzzles.

[Gratch]

Finally, I hear that Hero of Sparta is awesome, but I haven't played it. 

Woah, that looks awesome.  Anyone here tried it yet?

[Gratch]

I got a chance to play Hero of Sparta on a friend's iPhone this morning.  It's a seriously impressive piece of software.  The virtual thumbstick takes some getting used to, but the graphics and gameplay are damn near as good as the PSP God of War game.  It's apparently down to $5.99 now, and I'd highly recommend iPhone users give it a look.

[Dreamshadow]

The LED Football game is free today due to some big football game being played tonight.

[Misguided]

My newest obsessions:

Hexxagon Labs
Stitch'em Words
Jabeh

[Purge]

Spore Origins is flOw. Which is a good thing.

[kathode]

iDracula just debuted today for 99 cents and it's quite a bit of fun.  Overall it's a very simple Robotron-style game where one circle controls the direction you're moving and another circle controls the direction you're firing.  Hordes of monsters come after you in a medieval graveyard type setting, and you fight them off.  The fun lies in the different weapons you can get, like flintlock pistols and crossbows on up to apparently grenades and chainguns.  And also you get perks as you level up.  There are standard perks that give extra health, make you move faster, and instantly heal you, and more exotic stuff that allows you to block enemy attacks, get more powerful as your health goes down, and a "last stand" perk where you become invincible but die after 20 seconds.  Also the game is very nice looking with rich 2d sprites and backdrops. 

The game has two modes - the standard where you survive and level up as long as you can, and enemies drop new weapons, health potions, and ammo.  And then there's Rush, where you get a chaingun and survive as long as possible against a horde of enemies who don't drop anything.  Right now there's only one level but the developer is promising two more coming along soon for free, along with a possible story mode later.  For 99c, it's hard to go wrong.

[tiktokman]

Thanks for the heads-up kathode, I'll grab that tonight and check it out.

[ROTC1983]

Thanks Kathode...that looks amazing.  Gonna have to purchase that

[rittchard]

Very excited about this release:

http://toucharcade.com/2009/02/20/a-look-at-dungeon-crawler-rogue-touch/

Rogue Touch finally brings Rogue to the iPhone, hooray!  Let the dungeon crawling commence (and I can finally erase that crappy Phat Lewt game).

[Gratch]

Very excited about this release:

http://toucharcade.com/2009/02/20/a-look-at-dungeon-crawler-rogue-touch/

Rogue Touch finally brings Rogue to the iPhone, hooray!  Let the dungeon crawling commence (and I can finally erase that crappy Phat Lewt game).

Will certainly be checking this one out today.

[kathode]

The Quest is also out today:

http://toucharcade.com/2009/02/20/the-quest-3d-adventure-released/

Haven't picked it up but I'm very interested.  Looks very much like Elder Scrolls: Arena at first glance.

[rittchard]

Cool!  I've been waiting for The Quest too, I think it was an old Windows Mobile or Palm game.  Looks a ton like the Might and Magic series.

[ROTC1983]

Cool!  I've been waiting for The Quest too, I think it was an old Windows Mobile or Palm game.  Looks a ton like the Might and Magic series.

iDracula is pretty dang fun.  The Quest looks awesome, too.  Dang it, these mini-transactions are killing my wallet

[ROTC1983]

Wow, check out Oregon Trail if you get a chance.  I can't believe an iPhone game has me hooked for so long

[Gratch]

Very excited about this release:

http://toucharcade.com/2009/02/20/a-look-at-dungeon-crawler-rogue-touch/

Rogue Touch finally brings Rogue to the iPhone, hooray!  Let the dungeon crawling commence (and I can finally erase that crappy Phat Lewt game).

Now that they've patched it a couple times, I can confirm that Rogue Touch kicks an absolutely epic amount of arse. 

[ROTC1983]

Very excited about this release:

http://toucharcade.com/2009/02/20/a-look-at-dungeon-crawler-rogue-touch/

Rogue Touch finally brings Rogue to the iPhone, hooray!  Let the dungeon crawling commence (and I can finally erase that crappy Phat Lewt game).

Now that they've patched it a couple times, I can confirm that Rogue Touch kicks an absolutely epic amount of arse. 

I am going to have to take a look at this

[Jeff]

iDracula is just 99 cents, and Fieldrunners is now on sale for $2.99.

Anyone else have a problem getting new apps to sync? I just got iDracula and The Quest, and both show up as purchased items in iTunes, but neither will sync to my ipod touch.

edit: nm, fixed. somehow game syncing got turned off in the Games tab.

[kathode]

iDracula is about to go up in price maybe as early as tomorrow.  They submitted the update with extra levels, game modes, and enemies to Apple and as soon as it's live they're upping the price to (I think) $2.99.  So buy now if you're interested and you'll get that free.

Another game I wholeheartedly recommend is Flight Control.  Very simple and extremely addictive game where you have to route aircraft to their landing pads.  It gets hectic very fast, but it's a ton of fun and only $.99.

[ROTC1983]

Deus ExZeus looks amazing if you haven't seen it yet

[rittchard]

2 recent "casual" games I'm really enjoying:

10 Balls, 7 Cups - skeeball game.  They did a wonderful job with this, very addictive. 

Word Fu - Boggle like game with kung fu sound effects. 

[ROTC1983]

Just picked up Rogue Touch

[Jeff]

Just picked up Rogue Touch

How is it?

I picked up Flight Control for 99 cents on kathode's recommendation, and I love it. I've only played for a half hour (my lunch break) and it will definitely have that 'just one more try' addictive quality to it. So far my best is 25 planes landed.

Grabbed "The Quest" based on all the positive reviews, and i've gotta say ... wow... this is essentially a full blown, in-depth RPG. The amount of detail is incredible. Amazing for a hand-held phone/ipod game.

[Gratch]

Just picked up Rogue Touch

How is it?

It's an updated version of Rogue, for better and worse.  All the gameplay mechanics are exactly the same as they were 30 years ago, but it looks purtier.  I've been spending a ton of time with it, and think it's probably the definitive version (at least that I've played).

This reminds me that I never finished my review of Rogue Touch for the site.  Might have to wrap that up today. 

Grabbed "The Quest" based on all the positive reviews, and i've gotta say ... wow... this is essentially a full blown, in-depth RPG. The amount of detail is incredible. Amazing for a hand-held phone/ipod game.

Damn you Jeff, I don't need another handheld distraction right now!!