The Top 20 iPhone games
It’s been a month and countless hours of play since Apple Inc. began selling games and other applications for the iPhone and iPod touch. It’s high time for Herald Interactive’s Top 20 list of games.
Does this endeavor mean our editors played all 504 games available for download on iTunes? No. Instead, I tried out the titles that caught my eye and kept tabs on reviews at gaming websites. So titles that received rave reviews elsewhere were given a look. Some of those games made it onto our list while others were not good enough.
With so many games flooding iTunes, there’s little doubt that one or two games would have cracked the top 20 had I downloaded and played them.
This list will evolve. In December, when we publish our picks of the top iPhone/iPod touch games of 2008, it would not surprise me to see more than a dozen different games earning honors.
With blockbusters on the horizon - a new Star Wars game and an iPhone version of Electronic Arts’ Spore come to mind - and developers learning how to integrate WiFi play into their work, the next few months should see the debut of many great games.
So, without further delay, here are Herald Interactive’s Top 20 iPhone games:
1) Texas Hold ’Em- Apple Inc.- ($4.99) - Great graphics with near live-looking cutaways. Easy to play, if you know poker. The WiFi gaming is a breeze and sets this game apart from the others. Don’t miss the Apple memorabilia tucked into the background. Great price.
2) Moto Racer - Freeverse – ($9.99) -- A compelling racer that delivers speed and the added attraction of an occasional fisticuffs. Even on the easy level, this game is challenging.
3) Enigmo - Pangea Software – ($9.99) - Playing on the water theme, this game captivated my children for several hours as they tried to catch drips, followed by lasers and plasma, to their final destinations by using whatever movable gadgets and gizmos happened to be on the screen. This game won an Apple Design Award as the best iPhone game.
4) Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D -Vivendi Mobile Games – ($9.99) - Fun, quirky, very addictive. Using weapons against your opponents is what driving should be all about. What, someone cut me off on Massachusetts Ave? Where’s that ’switch places’ button.
5) Scrabble – Electronic Arts – ($9.99) - I’ll admit this ranking may be swayed by the fact that I’m a Scrabble fan. This version makes me a better player with scores coming in the 300s, even without using the ’Best Word’ cheat. Somehow other reviewers missed the fact that when you shake your device, the tiles rearrange themselves on your easel.
6) Monkey Ball - Sega –($9.99) - Given the buildup this game received, the little monkey rolling inside a pet hamster-type plastic ball delivers challenging fun. I say this even though I have yet to get past level 7
7) MotionX Poker – Fullpower Technologies Inc – ($4.99) - Not as sophisticated as Texas Hold ‘Em and certain to give non-poker players a skewed view on the likelihood of getting three straight flushes in a row, this game nonetheless is a great play. Also check out the free MotionX dice – great for when you lose the real dice that go with your board games..
8) Aurora Feint – Danielle Casley and Jason Citron – It’s free, but also it is not finished. This mixture of a puzzler, see number 9, and the best elements of role-playing games. Mining in the puzzle zones will earn you gems to buy all sorts of goodies. Can’t wait to see the finished version (and it’s price.)
9) Solar Quest –Neon Surge – ($2.99) - This scrolling arcade-style futuristic piloting game moves up a few notches because of its great price. Static background graphics are superb.
10) Aqua Forest- Hudson Entertainment –($7.99) -What is this game? Please, someone let me in on why sloshing water, creating areas of containment, cutting cords, and doing dozens of others tricks is so much fun. Is there a point to it? Does there have to be one? Is there anything else like this? Is it bad writing to throw in four consecutive questions?
11) Space Monkey – Glu Games Inc. – ($4.99) - An arcade game that puts the iPhone vibration function to perfect use. When those batteries hit the monkey astronaut, it almost feels like you’re getting shocked.
12) Trism – Demiforce LLC – ($4.99) - Anyone tired of three-in-a-row puzzlers? Apparently not everyone, and several different versions have made it onto our list. This one is very different, with touch controls allowing the movement of triangles in several directions and the accelerometer allowing you to define gravity.-
13) Critter Crunch – Publisher X – ($7.99) - When does the breakfast cereal by the same name, featuring the loveable critters, arrive? Gobbling up forest dwellers has never tasted so good.
14) Cro-Mag Rally – Pangea Software Inc. – ($5.99) - The third racer to make the list, this one is a classic, fun-filled lap or two around the old Stone, Ice and Iron ages with a loveable caveman and cavewoman,
15) Bubble Bash - Gameloft – ($4,99) - Took me awhile to get into the swing of this game but after I reluctantly read the rules, I soon discovered life on a tropical island isn’t as bad as it looks. Wait, it looks pretty good.
16) Chimps Ahoy! - Amaze Entertainment/Foundation 9 Entertainment - ($4.99) - Can’t have a Top 20 without one breakout game. This one is the best of the lot, with cute graphics and funky monkey music.
17) Brain Challenge - Gameloft – ($9.99) - Okay, I stink at the logic questions, but there’s still a lot to love about this brain teaser. . If I let you in on the percentage of brain I use, as calculated by this game, you’d realize it doesn’t really matter what I think.
18)Diamond Twister - Gameloft – ($4.99) - Are three-in-a-row matching games losing their charm? Gameloft spices up the genre - a little - with a bit of a story line between the scenes. Travel to exotic locales, meet beautiful men and women, try not to fall victim to their addicting charms.
19) Tetris- Electronic Arts – ($9.99) - Can’t teach an old game new tricks, unless there’s a new gaming platform and a mega-successful developer handy. Can’t say I ever liked Tetris, but this version is the best I’ve come across.
20) Bejeweled 2 – PopCap Games Inc. – ($9.99) - One of the three-in-a-row puzzlers from years past, this gem is as fun on the iPhone as it was when you first played it several years ago on that tiny-screened flip phone. If my boss managed to kill this game from my iPhone, he’d get a lot more work out of me.
Labels: iphone apps, iphone games
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