xkcd

by **novax6** » Fri Jul 30, 2010 9:40 pm UTC

I searched but didn't find anything, and i'm surprised there's not already a thread about this. Now that the iPhone is rapidly becoming one of the more successful (profitable) platforms, there are actually some seriously great games out for it. I'm sure people here have some favorites, lets hear em!

I can't say anything about other operating systems (although I hear android is starting to do pretty good), but there's an insane amount of stuff out there now. Some of my favorites for the iphone OS:

Super Quick Hook - 16 bit style retro platformer, feels like it would have been right at home along side Sonic on the Sega. Addicting and seriously challenging, especially the levels that have been recently added by the developer, which are murderously hard. It's 8-bit predecessor, Hook Champ, is also great.

Peggle/Plants vs Zombies - Perfect ports of the pc games. Not much more needs to be said. Almost the exact same content as the computer versions, for a quarter of the price, if that.

Words with Friends - as seen on penny arcade. Easily the best video game of Scrabble. Able to be played over long periods of times (weeks sometimes), each person taking their turn when they feel like it.

Carcassonne - near perfect adaptation of the board game. Like words, can be played online with people over turns. It looks, feels, and plays beautifully.

Tilt to Live - great tilt/motion controlled game. A little similar to geometry wars, but not really a shooter. You grab weapons that are insta-use, like nukes, or laser beams, to kill the red dots who attempt to destroy you. Frantic and awesome.

Edge - insane isometric platformer/puzzler. Hard to describe, but amazingly well made, and really tough.

Fargoal - Remake of the very very old pc roguelike. Great graphics and controls. It's no Nethack (which there is also a iphone version, albeit not a great port), but it has a surprising amount of depth and challenge.

I could name more, but those are probably my favorite at the moment. How about everyone else?

by **Enderb** » Wed Aug 04, 2010 12:30 am UTC

My personal favorites are Doodle God, and Lux Touch. Love to squat and play if you know what I mean. World domination from the crapper

by **Josephine** » Wed Aug 04, 2010 4:21 am UTC

Enderb wrote: Lux Touch. Love to squat and play if you know what I mean. World domination from the crapper

That's a fun one. What's your favorite map?

by **Endless Mike** » Wed Aug 04, 2010 12:28 pm UTC

100 Rogues is a pretty fun, if simple roguelike. Angry Birds is a neat physics puzzle game. The various line drawing games like Harbor Master and Flight Control are fun for a bit. Civ Rev is pretty good. Strategery gets a lot of play from me.

by **Felstaff** » Wed Aug 04, 2010 12:52 pm UTC

Wolfenstein 3D, Myst, Broken Sword, Beneath a Steel Sky and Monkey Island 1&2 are very, very faithful ports/reinterpretations of classic games. I recommend them all. Haven't yet tried Doom, but I was always more a Hitler-crushin' Nazi-stompin' Wolfie fan (until the latest disastrous reimagineering of the series. ick.)

Angry Birds is one of the most frustrating games I have ever come across. I prefer Crush the Castle, but it's far more limited in scope and tactics than AB. Doodlejump is pretty addictive for a few minutes when you're unsure of how else to waste your time.

I need a good RPG. I'm having a try of Ravenblood, or Darkraven or whatever (just checked: Ravensword) but it's so far pretty standard 'kill 10 foozles'-esque questing in an imaginative, but unoriginal Elder Scrollsish setting.

Also, even though I'm shite at them; what's a good racing game? (...Under £/$/€5.00?)

by **Endless Mike** » Wed Aug 04, 2010 1:23 pm UTC

If you want a JRPG, Rings of Chaos is supposed to be really good. I haven't played it, though. Song Summoner is kind of neat, as well.

by **Kag** » Fri Aug 06, 2010 12:54 am UTC

EspGaluda II is a pretty excellent port of an awesome bullet hell shmup.

Drop7 is the best puzzle game since Tetris.

Bit Pilot is 8-bit Asteroids with no gun. Also great music!

by **el_loco_avs** » Fri Aug 06, 2010 8:34 am UTC

I'm noticing that the iPhone is pretty far ahead when it comes to games. I have managed to find a ScummVM port for android, and am now playing Monkey Island 1 & 2 again while i'm traveling :mrgreen:

by **Enderb** » Fri Aug 06, 2010 4:45 pm UTC

nbonaparte wrote:
Enderb wrote: Lux Touch. Love to squat and play if you know what I mean. World domination from the crapper

That's a fun one. What's your favorite map?

I just played the free one

the real on any good?

by **phider2** » Sat Aug 07, 2010 3:58 am UTC

Best phone game I ever played was easily Doom RPG. I sunk more time into that game than some console RPGs. When I lost my phone after putting about 30-40 hours in, I was working through each level for 100% kills/100% secrets, and most of my stats were level 99 (max). Yet I never got bored of it. I would still play it now, but my new phone doesn't support it.

by **Josephine** » Sat Aug 07, 2010 4:27 am UTC

Enderb wrote:
nbonaparte wrote:
Enderb wrote: Lux Touch. Love to squat and play if you know what I mean. World domination from the crapper

That's a fun one. What's your favorite map?

I just played the free one the real on any good?

very. There's a large map repository.

by **Felstaff** » Mon Aug 09, 2010 9:10 am UTC

Civilization Revolution is free on the App Store! (was $6.99) I heard only for 24 hours, but it's been 3 days so far.

by **novax6** » Mon Aug 09, 2010 9:17 am UTC

Felstaff wrote:Civilization Revolution is free on the App Store! (was $6.99) I heard only for 24 hours, but it's been 3 days so far.

Yes, picked that up yesterday, pretty fun actually, as far as a light Civilization game goes. I don't know that i'd pay 7 bucks for it, but for free it's definitely worth it.

Helsing's Fire is another one I just finished the other day. Great puzzle/logic game, with an awesome theme and great art.

by **stillfocus** » Mon Aug 09, 2010 6:30 pm UTC

I'm going to throw in a recommendation for Pocket God. I got it back when there were just a few updates, but the free expansions are the selling point for me. It's been a while since I played it and I'm sure there are a bunch of things I haven't seen yet.

The other one I really like is Doodle Jump. It's a really simple game that a lot of people have. If you get good at it it's a great way to impress at parties. It sad but it's true.

by **GhostWolfe** » Tue Aug 10, 2010 1:53 am UTC

Fruit Ninja! Halfbrick make the prettiest graphics I've ever seen, and the fruits make the most incredibly satisfying splat sounds (different fruits make different sounds too; the coconut doesn't splat, but makes a sort of hollow thock sound). The game is so simple and addictive and really easy to pick up and play at any skill level; the classic mode just gets harder and harder until you can't keep up anymore.

/angell

by **Felstaff** » Thu Sep 16, 2010 7:26 am UTC

Epic Citadel. Get the tech demo now, it's free, and it's the best-looking thing on the thing out of ALL the things. Srsly, it's like Oblivion on the iPhone.

I think I'm going to like unleashing the Unreal 3 Engine on teeny tiny gadgets !

by **Endless Mike** » Thu Sep 16, 2010 1:19 pm UTC

I got Epic Citadel, played it for about five minutes. That was literally everything I needed to say "okay there's nothing to do, it looks pretty, and I hate the controls."

(But damn does it look good!)

by **SecondTalon** » Thu Sep 16, 2010 1:20 pm UTC

Hating the controls is fine, but.. uh.. isn't it still a tech demo proof of concept thing? It.. shouldn't be surprising that there's not much to do beyond walking around.

by **Endless Mike** » Thu Sep 16, 2010 1:42 pm UTC

No, I know. I'm not really complaining about a free tech demo. People should definitely check it out.

by **Felstaff** » Thu Sep 16, 2010 2:28 pm UTC

I hope they adopt the gyroscopic tilt-lookspring of N.O.V.A. So responsive!

I'm still impressed by precision gyromechanics in technology. Gyromancers should be proud of their achievements.

Also N.O.V.A. is goshdarn Halo-cloning excellence.

by **existential_elevator** » Wed Oct 06, 2010 2:35 pm UTC

For iPhone: Sushi Cat. It's like peggle, but with CATS. And SUSHI. I'm really not sure what else you need to know. It's beautiful and it has a CAT that you feed SUSHI.

For Android: Everlands. It's a pretty awesome tile-placement strategy game. I definitely recommend at least giving the demo a go, and the full version was definitely worth it.

by **Felstaff** » Fri Jan 21, 2011 5:12 pm UTC

Street Fighter IV is so boss. So is Streets of Rage, but I prefer the sequel.

And - eyyyy - The 7th Guest is also awailable. Get Broken Sword II, also.

I've been informed Infinity Blade is just a jive turkey. Any positive experiences?

by **ProZac** » Fri Jan 21, 2011 6:08 pm UTC

The few I play (on my droid) would be Game Dev Story, Bonsai Blast, and Robo Defense Force,

Bonsai Blast is free, RDF has a free trial. Game Dev Story is worth every penny and then some.

RDF is generic Tower Defense game. Or at least I think it's generic. I've never really played any others, but it's fun. Difficulty steadily increases and you earn xp to upgrade your towers as you see fit so you can complete more difficult stages.

Bonsai Blast is a clone of some puzzle game I've seen before, though I'm not sure what it's called. Colored bals are approaching hole, shoot matching colored ball to make sets of 3 and prevent them from reaching said hole! Yeah, that one.

Game Dev Story is probably my most played game of the past couple weeks. You create a game company and basically run it. Decide what games to make (genre, theme, direction), how to advertise, who to hire/fire. Based on how good your team is your games are better, hence getting better reviews, and therefore better sales. Get high reviews and you can develop sequels. Become big enough and you can release your own console. There's a yearly game convention to attend, yearly game awards, companies release new consoles over time which are mostly parodies of the real progression of consoles (complete with the virtual boy failure).

by **GhostWolfe** » Sat Jan 22, 2011 4:32 am UTC

I've played Game Dev Story, and it was fun at cute at first; but you also can't beat the game under its own rules, and this pisses me off. It's kinda like cheating the players.

/angell

by **big boss** » Fri Feb 25, 2011 9:28 am UTC

does any1 know of a place where I can get angry birds for the pc? Ive only found ones for windows xp/7 and I need one for vista.

edit: im talking about a legal version of course.

by **Felstaff** » Fri Mar 18, 2011 9:57 am UTC

Street Fighter IV is £0.59/$0.99 with all proceeds going towards the Japanese disaster relief. Go get it!

by **setzer777** » Sat Mar 19, 2011 12:04 am UTC

GhostWolfe wrote:I've played Game Dev Story, and it was fun at cute at first; but you also can't beat the game under its own rules, and this pisses me off. It's kinda like cheating the players.

/angell

What do you mean by that? I've managed to get best game of the year multiple times and have every game top the sales charts (actually my big complaint is how easy the game can get after about 10 years). If you just hire every available hacker, and then level up some of your workers to hackers, you can get insane stats for every game you release.

by **GhostWolfe** » Sat Mar 19, 2011 6:24 am UTC

I was having this discussion with a friend, and he has agreed to the challenge. If he can get game of the year within 20 years starting from a fresh copy of the game (having wiped all levelling and stat-improving from previous games), then I will redact my statement that the game cheats its players.

Lots of people have won Game of the Year, and lots have won it multiple times. But none that I've spoken to (and as I've said, I'm willing to change my tune if someone can demonstrate that it is actually possible) were able to win on their first attempt. The game appears to have been designed to "force" you to keep playing by making it too hard** to win on the first go, and that makes me feel cheated.

/angell

*Obviously, it shouldn't be designed so that every man and his dog wins Game of the Year on year 19.

by **novax6** » Sat Mar 19, 2011 7:05 pm UTC

Yeah, i dont' see how you'd beat Game Dev Story on the first go, before it gives you the ending score and whatnot. Still a decent game though.

I've been playing Infinity Blade, which has completely ridiculous graphics, and is amazingly addicting. Fun combat, great graphics, and a basically impossible end goal (maxing out your character and getting all the items).

Dark Nebula: episode 2 is free this weekend, if you have an iOS device you should at least check it out, damn impressive game for what's basically a ball-roller.

by **legopelle** » Sat Mar 19, 2011 11:25 pm UTC

big boss wrote:does any1 know of a place where I can get angry birds for the pc? Ive only found ones for windows xp/7 and I need one for vista.

edit: im talking about a legal version of course.

The more important question is of course, why are you still on vista? Upgrade, dammit!

by **Jupiter** » Sun Mar 20, 2011 2:14 am UTC

I never heard of Epic Citadel, no idea why, shame shame on me, the shots in google images look gorgeous.
Gonna get this, just to see how it looks in my ipad

Thanks for the tip

by **Izawwlgood** » Sun Mar 20, 2011 2:18 am UTC

I really like Gem Miner for droid, but it's not particularly amazing or compelling, just a fun way to kill time.

by **SecondTalon** » Sun Mar 20, 2011 6:27 am UTC

If you're in to the oldschool First Person Computer RPGs of the Lands of Lore/Ravenloft/Dungeon Hack variety, The Quest is relatively swanky. The first two bits are overly easy if you max out your Magic Resistance as the spellcasters can't touch you and most monsters don't hit all that hard, but I'm finding later stuff more difficult as my character never learned how to wear armor and is getting one-shotted (presuming I don't one shot the enemy first)

Anyway, there's a lite version, but... like I said, it's very rough looking. Still, game has the basic adventure and something like eight expansions. I've beaten the first two and am on the third and think I've sunk something like 30-40 hours into the game, probably more.

by **archeleus** » Sun Mar 20, 2011 9:34 am UTC

I have Fruit Ninja, Cut the Rope, Cat Physics, Angry Birds, Traffic Rush and Fall Down at the moment. I don't really game on my phone but they're fun at times.

by **archeleus** » Sun Mar 20, 2011 9:35 am UTC

Forgot, I've Robot Unicorn Attack.

by **novax6** » Sun Mar 20, 2011 6:55 pm UTC

SexyTalon wrote:If you're in to the oldschool First Person Computer RPGs of the Lands of Lore/Ravenloft/Dungeon Hack variety, The Quest is relatively swanky. The first two bits are overly easy if you max out your Magic Resistance as the spellcasters can't touch you and most monsters don't hit all that hard, but I'm finding later stuff more difficult as my character never learned how to wear armor and is getting one-shotted (presuming I don't one shot the enemy first)

Anyway, there's a lite version, but... like I said, it's very rough looking. Still, game has the basic adventure and something like eight expansions. I've beaten the first two and am on the third and think I've sunk something like 30-40 hours into the game, probably more.

I played through the base game, and the first two expansions a while back (islands of ice and fire, and hero of luky-whatever part 1). Pretty fun, but got repetitive after a while; the quests are pretty basic, and after snagging a sword from one of the starting expansion islands, my mage with almost no strength never needed to cast an attack spell again, because it was so much freaking stronger than all of my magic spells. Which is probably helpful, since like you, i was starting to get instantly murdered as soon as I tried to go up against many of the expansion monsters with magic, because they resisted almost everything magical.

I started hero of luky-whatever part 2 but couldn't finish it, just too much of the same.

Undercroft is another one that's similar and pretty good, except that you control a group of 4 instead of just one guy, like the old M&M games. Not as long for sure, but interesting and worth the price (free).

Jupiter wrote:I never heard of Epic Citadel, no idea why, shame shame on me, the shots in google images look gorgeous.
Gonna get this, just to see how it looks in my ipad
Thanks for the tip

Also, if you're interested in that, the game I mentioned earlier, Infinity Blade, is the game that the same team (who made Epic Citadel) went on to make using that engine. It's very very impressive, and you should check it out if you get a chance.

by **SecondTalon** » Mon Mar 21, 2011 3:38 am UTC

novax6 wrote:Undercroft is another one that's similar and pretty good, except that you control a group of 4 instead of just one guy, like the old M&M games. Not as long for sure, but interesting and worth the price (free).

I'll look into that one. Thanks!

by **Felstaff** » Mon Mar 21, 2011 9:06 am UTC

I'll second Undercroft. It's quite handy and old school.

by **mike-l** » Thu May 05, 2011 2:32 am UTC

GhostWolfe wrote:I was having this discussion with a friend, and he has agreed to the challenge. If he can get game of the year within 20 years starting from a fresh copy of the game (having wiped all levelling and stat-improving from previous games), then I will redact my statement that the game cheats its players.

Lots of people have won Game of the Year, and lots have won it multiple times. But none that I've spoken to (and as I've said, I'm willing to change my tune if someone can demonstrate that it is actually possible) were able to win on their first attempt. The game appears to have been designed to "force" you to keep playing by making it too hard** to win on the first go, and that makes me feel cheated.

/angell

*Obviously, it shouldn't be designed so that every man and his dog wins Game of the Year on year 19.

Uber Necro, but I just played for my first time and got GotY on year 19.

by **GhostWolfe** » Thu May 05, 2011 10:58 am UTC

mike-l wrote:Uber Necro, but I just played for my first time and got GotY on year 19.

Can you screenshot the game stats from the one that got GotY? I want to see how it compares to my best-but-not-good-enough release.

/angell

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