iPhone/iPod Touch Games Thread

datter · 2011-02-06T08:56:04.000Z

Re: Dungeon Raid, which was covered briefly far upthread…

Tracy Baker:

…

Piyo Blocks 2 and Push Panic are completely different animals compared to this. Dungeon Raid is incredibly Spartan and the pace is a bit slow, but it obviously was designed by someone who has a good grasp on how to craft a compelling game.

The big difference in the gameplay here is that you connect together chains of items (linked vertically, horizontally, or even diagonally) that all disappear when you lift your finger up. There aren’t many items – just shields (increase your defense), potions (restore health), coins (give you money), swords (do damage when linked to skulls), and skulls (enemies that do damage if left on the screen after your turn).

You level up as you kill stuff, which lets you pick a number of spells that work on long timers (only available every 14+ turns) as well as perks that provide passive bonuses. Collecting enough money automatically brings up a shop window that lets you upgrade your weapons, armor, and trinkets. Skulls get tougher as the game progresses, but there’s a nice balance between that and your perks.

The neat thing about the game is that board control is increased over most match-X games because of the spells and the fact that you can link chains diagonally. That latter design decision is huge, as it lets you easily set up long, powerful chains. Spells do things like let you change all of one item into another item, or immediately grab all of one type of item, or boost stats tremendously for one turn (among lots of other things).

The graphics are crisp, and the sounds are fantastic. The latter give that sort of ‘gamer casino’ vibe that crappy games lack. A number of stats are tracked and listed when you die, so you can get a little hall of fame going, and there are three difficulty levels. Unlike a lot of other games that cram a lot of tiny icons onto the screen I haven’t had any trouble with the controls.

I’m pleased I bought this. The game does precisely what I’d hoped it would do (albeit at a slower pace for upgrades than I’d prefer) and is an elegant diversion that fills a void left when I burned out on Puzzle Quest. It sounds like the dev is preparing an update that adds different abilities to the generic skulls so they can fight back in more interesting ways than simply doing damage, which is awesome because this is one of those games that makes you think about all the possibilities that could easily be bolted onto the tight, simple core mechanisms. I haven’t been this impressed by an iOS game from a design perspective since playing Sword & Poker (although I was more impressed by Sword & Poker).

I finally picked this up and it’s fantastic. Nicely designed, addictive, worth trying. I am genuinely surprised this isn’t getting more love around here.

Gameplay vid

Aristophan · 2011-02-06T09:20:44.000Z

Dungeon Raid has been my go-to quick game the past month. It’s straightforward and very addictive. As I said upthread, I’ve found myself a winning combination of spells, and although I’m on the easy level, I’m seeing how many levels you can get. So far, it’s more than 300. I’m not playing it for hours on end, but a few times a day I’ll pick it up and advance 10 levels or so.

Dave_Perkins · 2011-02-06T10:31:54.000Z

Dungeon Raid has my heartfelt love.

Demolira · 2011-02-06T10:48:18.000Z

I hit over level 1000 on the update before last. I eventually gave up, as I think I was growing stronger faster than the enemies, and suicided. Too bad the game crashed before it posted to Game Center!

The latest update put caps on the +xp/up/gold upgrades and gave diminishing returns to some stats, so it’s less likely that some absurd level will be reached.

Volbard · 2011-02-06T11:10:09.000Z

I just wanted to throw out some of my favorite games. They’ve all been mentioned in this thread, but I wouldn’t want anyone to miss them.

I’m still playing a lot of Tilt to Live, it’s a good game with a really slick style. It’s perfect for short sessions, especially with the more difficult mode, and it makes great use of accelerometer controls. The lite version is the full original game, minus the extra modes, so there’s no reason not to check it out.

I also play Soosiz pretty often, though I’m stuck on a difficult level. It’s a good platformer and really well suited to the iphone, I’m surprised it doesn’t get more attention.

Slay is a really rad strategy game. The PC version has been out for a long time and you can check it out here, but it’s perfect for iPhone.

Disc Drivin’ and UniWar are the go-to multi-player games. They’ve been discussed a ton in this thread, but if you have any interest in turn based strategy or turned based awesome racing, get off the fence and play em.

krayzkrok · 2011-02-06T15:53:15.000Z

Chris Nahr:

Finally beat krok’s Super Blast 2 highscore on Hard! Only took me a couple of months, too. Now to work on Silverfish…

Nice work, but good luck with the Silverfish score.

Trouble is, now that I’m back in Darwin and the humidity is high I can only play Silverfish in the evening - the screen’s too “tacky” during the day (file that under weird touchscreen anomalies you probably didn’t know about). That’s also why my Disc Drivin’ moves are more prone to mishaps in the morning.

TheJare · 2011-02-06T23:22:47.000Z

Volbard:

I also play Soosiz pretty often, though I’m stuck on a difficult level. It’s a good platformer and really well suited to the iphone, I’m surprised it doesn’t get more attention.

I tried to like it, but the controls just aren’t good enough.

Tyjenks · 2011-02-07T08:27:37.000Z

Renier Knizia’s Ra is $3.99 today and Medici is $1.99. Have you guys tried these?

And what are your favorite board game adaptations currently?

There are a bunch of Knizia games out there. Is his name just slapped on some of them or does he actually develop all of them?

Tracy_Baker · 2011-02-07T09:03:35.000Z

Tyjenks:

Renier Knizia’s Ra is $3.99 today and Medici is $1.99. Have you guys tried these?

And what are your favorite board game adaptations currently?

There are a bunch of Knizia games out there. Is his name just slapped on some of them or does he actually develop all of them?

Knizia designs all the games, but they are licenced to and programmed by various dev houses. Ra works great on both the iPhone and the iPad. Medici had some teething problems but the devs fixed most of them and it’s worth playing now.

Other than those the best board games adaptations for iTouch/iPhone are Neuroshima Hex, Carcassonne, Samurai, Hive, Ingenious, Triazzle, Keltis Oracle, Kingsburg (if you’re familiar with the game – the UI kind of sucks for learning), Labyrinth (the Knizia one), Marple and/or Sherlock, Disc Drivin’ (much like Pitchcar), Button Men, Rush Hour, Solitaire Chess, and Kingdoms. Throw in Strategery if you like Risk but don’t want to play Risk.

If you want to include card games the best are Tichu, Mu, Money, and Poison. Battleline has a lot of potential and they’ve updated it a lot, but the AI is still a bit crap.

Bahimiron · 2011-02-07T09:06:07.000Z

Renier Knizia develops three new boardgames before he sits down for breakfast.

And my favorite boardgame that I play frequently is probably either Carcassone or Neuroshima Hex. The update for the iPad has made the latter probably one of the top strategy games on iOS period. I also like Zooloretto, even though the tutorial was fuck-awful.

I’m tempted by Kingsburg, but the lack of easing a person into the game’s play prevents me from taking the plunge. I got Rolling Through the Ages because it sounded really neat, but haven’t really played it once after finding the interface utterly incomprehensible.

Noterist · 2011-02-07T11:02:50.000Z

Oh man, QWOP is free for the next 6 or so hours!

I hope it’s as terribly bad (and therefore brilliant) as the flash version.

Clay · 2011-02-07T15:24:16.000Z

Noterist:

Oh man, QWOP is free for the next 6 or so hours!

I hope it’s as terribly bad (and therefore brilliant) as the flash version.

That is the most difficult game I have ever played, I think.

Tracy_Baker · 2011-02-07T19:06:48.000Z

Tons of EA games just dropped to $.99.

PeterGinsberg · 2011-02-07T20:53:45.000Z

Tracy Baker:

Tons of EA games just dropped to $.99.

Yeah, everything is going to go on sale this week as everybody tries to get their games into the top charts for the verizon phone release.

Jaws_au · 2011-02-08T02:13:00.000Z

Any of those EA games specifically worth getting? I’ve no idea…

LMN8R · 2011-02-08T11:22:44.000Z

Bad Company 2 is surprisingly decent, the latest SimCity is a fantastic version, and I’ve heard great things about Mirror’s Edge. Tiger Woods is a great golf sim too. I’m sure I’m missing some others.

forgeforsaken · 2011-02-09T11:48:05.000Z

SF4 is on sale for .99. Anyone haven any opinions of the iphone version of it?

liquidben · 2011-02-09T12:36:27.000Z

Based on recommendations in this thread, I picked up Dungeon Raid. It has been awesome so far. I’m enjoying it very much. My only complaint is that I’m not quite certain about the armor point mechanic, but aside from that it’s a lot of fun. I really don’t think of it as a match 3 game.

Bahimiron · 2011-02-10T04:16:35.000Z

Dungeon Defenders, Legendary Wars and a whole passel of Sega games are only $.99 at the moment.

forgeforsaken:

SF4 is on sale for .99. Anyone haven any opinions of the iphone version of it?

It’s a great adaption and I’m pretty sure this is the first time it’s ever been on sale. I paid full price for it and feel like I’ve gotten my worth. Ignore the stupid DLC extra costumes bullshit, though. They’re supporting the game plenty with extra characters.

Fugitive · 2011-02-11T18:26:11.000Z

Ascendancy is $2 off, down to $5 now.