iPhone Apps
There’s an app for this and for that. My PSP is gathering lots of dust and the DS has become pretty much the province of my 7-year old son. Most of my mobile gaming comes from my iPhone. Since some of you might have Apple’s magical device, or something similar, I thought I’d mention the apps I’ve been playing most. Here we go!
Rock Band – The app version of Rock Band is about as good as we could hope for. Lots of songs for the money, even if the downloadable new stuff is almost unbearably slow to appear – look Harmonix, I want to spend my money, start loading up new music. Best of all, compared to Tap Tap Revolution – which I also enjoy, I have the DANCE version, the regular version and the DMB version – Rock Band is best because there are four ways to play. Bass, Guitar, Drums and a sorta Singing option – which doesn’t involve singing. It involves hitting buttons. If they release a Beatles version, my wife is going to kill me for the money I will definitely spend.
Plants vs. Zombies – One of the best PC/Mac games ever, the best Tower Defense game ever is now one of the best Apps ever. Well worth the $3, I can’t keep my hands off of it. I also really dig Bookworm and Peggle, both perfect on the go and for kids. My son is immersed in the world of plants and zombies, as any 7-year old boy should be and my daughter (9) loves her some Peggle.
Tiger Woods PGA Tour – Who cares who Tiger is screwing? Not me. I’m too busy playing the links and enjoying the graphics and excellent control scheme. Wonderful game, even in multiplayer.
Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor – such a simple adventure of jumping and web-building, how could I have forgotten it. Seriously, this is one of the top apps for good reason. It just plays so well – plus you get to tackle wasps. Always a good thing.
Kindle – Yes, I’ve read now something like 15 books on my iPhone. I never imagined it would make such a good reader. My wife is asleep and unlike a real Kindle I can boot up a book and read to my heart’s content – and eye’s content, the font can be enlarged – without turning on any lights and waking her up. Awesome for an insomniac like me.
Eucalyptus – a cool page turning reading app that accesses Gutenburg, which means every public domain book (which means everything before 1930 or so, for free) terrific as a reference or just a good read. I also dig the Lovecraft app I bought.
Sonic the Hedgehog – I wasn’t a Nintendo nerd back in the day – I loved Sega and the blue hedgehog. It’s nice to have a portable version.
Tris – Apple deleted this because it was a violation of the Tetris rights, but I nabbed it before that happened. Sorry Alexei, I’m playing this version because the official EA version is of lesser quality and is too expensive.
Wild West Guns – a cool app. Turns out that tapping to shoot is fun as hell.
I’ve also tried and enjoyed the Resident Evil game, Call of Duty Zombies, Brothers in Arms – the cover system is fantastic, RC Flight – because I really want a version of Red Baron that’s like the one at the PS3 store, that rally game with cavemen and I wish, wish, wish, wish we could have some Mario on the iPhone. Come on Nintendo, please?
What apps, for whatever phone/device, are your favorites?
February 26th, 2010 at 2:28 pm
‘The Creeps’ and ‘Geo defence’ are the tower defense games I play most.
Unblocked is the best free game I’ve downloaded so far. On beginner I hit 250 puzzles before switching to intermediate.
But My go to game is iAssociate. It’s a word association puzzle game. The same developer makes another good word game called Moxie. Both have excellent free versions.
And, of course, Puzzlequest. Not perfect on the iPhone but a great game for the bus. My only complaint is that you are forced to listen to it’s soundtrack and not whatever you have playing on your playlist.
But I couldn’t list my favorite apps without mentioning Distant suns. It’s a great night sky guide for learning the planets, stars and constellations. They also have an excellent free version. If you try this take the time to use the tutorial, this program is very good and you’ll love it even better when you learn to adjust the setting to fit your desires.
February 28th, 2010 at 4:25 am
I’ve been feeling the same way. Cut off from my Wii and 360, I have my DS and my iTouch… the poor DS is rarely out of its case. The biggest reason is that the iTouch fits right in my pocket and is always ready to play.
I’m hoping to write up some of my favorites more “officially” soon, but I do a lot of PDF reading with GoodReader, my book reading is mostly through Stanza (because there are more free books available for it), although if I buy new books I put them on the Kindle (easier to buy books.)
I went through XenoWars and Judgement Day War until I was fairly tired of them, but played them a LOT. For some reason, I like FieldRunners the best for my tower defense game. Lately, I’m checking out Plants vs Zombie and Peggle. Both are solid and I’m enjoying them (P vs Z for the first time).
Kid-games wise my 3 1/2 year old loves BubbleWrap, Feed Me! (a cool app with simple questions that you can even get in French), iWriteWords (tracing letters), and AnimalMatch (simple matching game). He also loves drawing with DoodleBuddy and making music with Baby Piano Lite (I really need to buy the full version).
February 28th, 2010 at 7:07 pm
I forgot another good one – Flyloop. You draw circles around colored butterflies. Just nice and gentle and then frantic and crazy! You’ll love PvZ Matt, once you’ve unlocked everything there are some crazy fun minigames and variations – including endless mode and one where you get to play the zombies!
Prime – I’m gonna check out some of your picks!
March 4th, 2010 at 6:30 am
FreeAppADay has Uniwar freatured as a free app. It’s one of the best (if not the best) turn based stratetgy titles on the iPhone/ipod Touch. Think “Empire” rather than “Civ”… I highly recommend it. Jot me a note if anyone wants to challenge me (you can play vs other people in multiple games, if you want. Each person logs in and takes their turn whenever it is convenient for them…