iPhone/iPod Touch Games Thread

Adree · 2010-10-19T03:52:12.000Z

Bahimiron:

Sadly the system for people who love recent space shooters with fantastic controls is only available in Narnia.

Star Battalion has a virtual stick option, it works great. I played the first level and it’s sort of a cross between Star Fox and one of Terminal Velocity’s old shooters… you have a limited mission area but you can fly around as you please. The autoaim is a bit much but at least you don’t have to fight the controls. Looks great but it’s Gameloft so the story is totally soulless.

Also tried Cartoon Wars 2 which is yet another castle defense type game but very polished and I like how it has some brawler/shooter sections to break up the pacing.

Bahimiron · 2010-10-19T06:05:37.000Z

Adree:

Star Battalion has a virtual stick option, it works great. I played the first level and it’s sort of a cross between Star Fox and one of Terminal Velocity’s old shooters… you have a limited mission area but you can fly around as you please.

Starpagga’s similar, but there’s also an absolute limit on going up and down, so you can’t do space-loop-dee-loops. Which makes it more like Starfox than most might want from a space shooter. Still, it’s free.

Tyjenks · 2010-10-19T06:34:04.000Z

Sat down to try out Undercroft during the Monday Night Football game and missed about 3 hours of the game. Perfect for iPhone RPGing.

TriggerHappy · 2010-10-19T07:19:16.000Z

roBurky:

I don’t remember there being any difficulty level choice. But I wasn’t complaining of it being too easy. What really annoyed me was that many levels seemed to be completely impossible to fully complete with the tools I was given when I encountered them. It seemed I was supposed to be satisfied to come back and finish them later when I had been given more power.

I don’t have any other tower defence games on the iphone. But I don’t go searching for games to play unless they’re recommended in threads like this.

Sounds like you brute forced the game, which is possible, but really sells it short. I beat the first difficulty level on every map without grinding for tokens or levels. It’s a very tactical game, a one spot difference for an archer can make or break you at times.

If you didn’t even realize there are difficulty levels you haven’t even beaten all the maps. Each map has 5 (or 6, I don’t remember exactly) difficulty levels, and you often need to take a different approach on higher difficulties.

It’s one of my favorite games, and it’s probably not for everyone, but your complaints are all pretty strange to me.

Hugin · 2010-10-19T07:26:35.000Z

TomChick:

RE: Defender Chronicles

I hate to be the guy who says “if you play on the harder difficulty level, you’ll see more of the intended gameplay systems emerging”, but if you play on the harder difficulty level, you’ll see more of the intended gameplay systems emerging. :) And I’m pretty sure you can’t get very far without the difficulty ramping up. Mages are great and all, but I haven’t found them to be an I-win button as the game progresses. I do love my Archmage, but it’s my experience that he still has his limitations.

I’ve found a fair bit of strategy when it comes to figuring out how best to deal with the waves of different creatures. It basically breaks down to fast frail creatures, slow hardy creatures, and flying creatures. Then there are some “boss” creatures in some of the waves. I’ve also found there are a few different approaches: halflings to farm for money or to level up to poison for DOT; archer heavy; magic heavy; melee heavy; or some combination of those, all of which can be complemented by your choice of general and equipment.

As for information, Defender Chronicles actually sells you some of the detailed data in one of the stores. You have to buy a book or something, IIRC. Weird approach, but it’s nice to see numbers.

Anyway, that sucks that it didn’t work for you. I lurv Defender Chronicles and I bummed that everyone with an iPhone doesn’t share my enthusiasm for it. :) Out of curiosity, what would you say is your favorite iPhone tower defense game?
  -Tom

roBurky · 2010-10-19T07:49:36.000Z

TriggerHappy:

Sounds like you brute forced the game, which is possible, but really sells it short. I beat the first difficulty level on every map without grinding for tokens or levels. It’s a very tactical game, a one spot difference for an archer can make or break you at times.

If you didn’t even realize there are difficulty levels you haven’t even beaten all the maps. Each map has 5 (or 6, I don’t remember exactly) difficulty levels, and you often need to take a different approach on higher difficulties.

It’s one of my favorite games, and it’s probably not for everyone, but your complaints are all pretty strange to me.

It had been a long time since I last played it :). I loaded it up again, and found what Tom meant by difficulty level - the choice after you choose a map. I had been looking for something in the options screen, or on campaign start.
I was attempting to complete levels on all difficulty levels, and with no losses. Which I did finally do effortlessly when I came back to them after the last level.

Cubit · 2010-10-20T11:32:38.000Z

EA is buying Chillingo:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2010/10/ea-buys-iphone-game-publisher-chillingo.html

Tracy_Baker · 2010-10-20T11:48:23.000Z

Cory:

EA is buying Chillingo:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2010/10/ea-buys-iphone-game-publisher-chillingo.html

For less than $20 million? That sounds like an incredible bargain based on other recent acquisitions.

TheTrunkDr · 2010-10-20T12:02:41.000Z

So, I don’t quite understand iPhone publishers. What do they provide developers? Getting your app on the app store isn’t difficult or costly, is it just marketing/PR that they provide?

Tracy_Baker · 2010-10-20T12:09:33.000Z

TheTrunkDr:

So, I don’t quite understand iPhone publishers. What do they provide developers? Getting your app on the app store isn’t difficult or costly, is it just marketing/PR that they provide?

Mainly the IP they own.

OrfBC · 2010-10-20T12:19:33.000Z

Tracy Baker:

For less than $20 million? That sounds like an incredible bargain based on other recent acquisitions.

Ngmoco sold for over $400 million according to the article. $20 for Chillingo seems teeny.

roBurky · 2010-10-20T12:20:55.000Z

Yes, I think so. I know a dev who signed their game up with chillingo, and they were talking about getting their game advertised from within Angry Birds, for example.

PeterGinsberg · 2010-10-20T12:33:24.000Z

TheTrunkDr:

So, I don’t quite understand iPhone publishers. What do they provide developers? Getting your app on the app store isn’t difficult or costly, is it just marketing/PR that they provide?

Chillingo got in touch with us, and I asked them the same question what they’d do for us. I have no idea what they charge (didn’t get that far in the conversation), but what they give you is marketing basically. Pretty powerful marketing.

Bahimiron · 2010-10-20T13:10:36.000Z

roBurky:

Yes, I think so. I know a dev who signed their game up with chillingo, and they were talking about getting their game advertised from within Angry Birds, for example.

I think someone was messing with your friend, because Angry Birds isn’t a Chillingo game and there’s no advertising in it. Or did they mean through Crystal*?

*It kind of burns me that Angry Birds achievements are all through this shitty service. I have every star, but you wouldn’t know it from Crystal, which doesn’t even show that I’ve unlocked the blue bird.

Cubit · 2010-10-20T13:11:59.000Z

Chillingo published Angry Birds.

Bahimiron · 2010-10-20T13:13:35.000Z

The iPad or Android version?

Sorry, I just assumed all versions would’ve been published by Clickgamer, like the iPhone version.

Edit: Or does Chillingo own Clickgamer? I see Angry Birds on the Chillingo website. Weird that Chillingo is mentioned nowhere in the Angry Birds credits.

Edit edit: Ah, TheTrunkDr’s link explains it all. I’m now officially surprised that $20m is all EA’s paying, since Angry Birds and Cut the Rope have to be pretty close to worth that themselves.

Also, fuck Cut the Rope. I’m done with it. I got 296 stars, so obviously I didn’t hate it, but when I hated it, oh man, I hated it.

TheTrunkDr · 2010-10-20T13:17:39.000Z

This might shed some light:
http://www.mobilegamefaqs.com/newsstory.php?id=2170

Cubit · 2010-10-20T13:19:03.000Z

Yeah, that is it. I was confused for a bit there too. Clickgamer is a division of Chillingo.

PeterGinsberg · 2010-10-20T14:25:59.000Z

TheTrunkDr:

This might shed some light:
http://www.mobilegamefaqs.com/newsstory.php?id=2170

This might shed more light, clickgamer is just a publisher too: http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/20/angry-birds-chillingo/. But in any case, it’s clear chillingo does not own it in any way:

Vesterbacka told TechCrunch,”We only did the first iPad/iPhone integration with Chillingo and aside from that we’ve published everything ourselves. We will not use Chillingo again.”

Vesterbacka also added that the role of the publisher has diminished in modern game development; “You don’t need publishers.”

TimElhajj · 2010-10-20T20:31:46.000Z

Not really an iPhone game, but does anyone know of an iPad app that can do eye gaze? By eye gaze, I mean software that allows you to interact with the device using only your eyes?