Review
Games Without Boxes: The iPhone Edition
July 14, 2008
After working out the launch kinks, Apple fans can now gorge themselves on the iPhone App Store and its buffet of software: some free, some cheap , and all of it a mystery. Among the 500 downloads you can make on your iPhone (be it 3G or plain ol’ last year’s goods) are a monstrous number of launch games such as Super Monkey Ball. As a portable game device, the iPhone could be the best thing to happen since the original Game Boy. Let’s see if any of these Day One games make the DS and PSP sweat their pants just yet.
SUPER MONKEY BALL
Sega, $9.99
The Big Daddy of the launch games is Sega’s cult favorite action-puzzler featuring a lovable variety of creepy apes who are trapped in transparent spheres, rolling around Marble Madness inspired worlds. Graphically, it’s incredible: 3D landscapes and backgrounds feel at least as good as anything the DS has ever done. The controls sound like a great idea: tilt the iPhone’s motion sensors, and the monkey ball moves around kinetically. In practice, Sega’s made it a little tougher than it needs to be. For 110 levels and this much technological showmanship, though, it’s highly worth the coin.
TEXAS HOLD EM
Apple, $4.99
Apple’s own game, one of the few apps in the App Store made by them at all, is a full-featured version of Hold ‘Em that pulls out some impressive graphical stops. Horizontally, the game plays like cellphone poker , but with touch controls for betting. Vertically, a player’s view perspective shows video-clip animations of the dealer and all the players, betting and folding in silly but impressive ways. If there’s Wi-Fi, the game hooks you up with other players online. It should have multiplayer anywhere, but the total package of this poker game, for only five dollars, is a better fix than we had any right to think it would be. It gets the job done when you’ve got a fix for a flop.
MS. PAC MAN
Namco, $4.99
Namco’s eternal maze game featuring Mr. Pac’s tarted-up gal has been around the block quite a few times—and has already been a staple in the iPod game stable for years. The iPhone addition doesn’t add anything new, but it’s a nice test for how well the iPhone touch controls can substitute for a control pad. The answer? Not bad at all. Using a fake-o D-pad feels crummy, but the much more inspired “swipe” mode allows the control of “Ms.” Using thumb slides from anywhere on the phone’s screen. The game emulation itself, though, feels a little slower than versions we’ve played before. And it’s hard not to get just a little sick of the yellow dude tte from time to time. Namco, it’s time to give us a Pac revamp.
DAS VERDICT: Buy Super Monkey Ball and Texas Hold ‘Em—hold off on Ms. Pac Man unless you’re a former member of Twin Galaxies.
–Scott Stein
One Response to “Games Without Boxes: The iPhone Edition”
I’ve seen some SWEET mobile gaming content for the motorola krave recently (motorola.com/krave). It has a flip WITH a touch screen, so most of the gaming controls can be accessed without even flipping the phone open. Definitely worth checking out by any serious gamer.
By m goode on Oct 29, 2008