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| iPhone/iPod Touch recommend-it-up; tiny cheapy game fest | |
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| Topic Started: May 8 2009, 12:06 PM (15,751 Views) | |
| CraigGrannell | May 8 2009, 12:06 PM Post #1 |
Your thumping bass surrounds you
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It's pretty clear Retro Gamer's often on a hiding to nothing with a certain type of reader, and Darran puts up with a lot of shit from certain quarters. He constantly gets accused of bias, when the only system he's obviously biased towards is the CPC, which gets fuck-all coverage. People bitch about 'platform a' not being included and when it is, a bunch of other people bitch that it shouldn't be included. Ultimately, it's a mag for people who enjoy classic gaming, and the contents should reflect that, whether it's an article on an old series, an interview with an ex-Atari dev, or a look at a relevant title for the PS3. The iPhone thing pushed me over the edge, due to all sorts of libellous shit getting flung around regarding backhanders from Apple. Never mind the fact the iPhone, due to the efforts of really great indie devs, now largely pisses all over the DS from a great height. Never mind the fact Missile Command is fucking fantastic on that platform. Never mind the fact you can buy a Thrust-like game that's better than Thrust and 80p cheaper than Thrust was in 1986 (and that'd cost £15+ if it was on the DS). While the article Darran ran made the mistake of not yelling about iPod touch (a standalone and affordable unit with no contract), I really didn't get what the fuss was about. I expected some of the anti-Apple crowd to put the boot in, but really didn't expect so much absolute bullshit to fly around. Luckily, this is mostly balanced by people who understand just how niche and unlikely the mag is and enjoy it regardless. Sure, Live imploded, but if we forget that for a moment, Retro Gamer is about to hit issue 65. That's quite an achievement for a mag about old games. I just wish everyone would realise that before spouting off that 'article x' shouldn't have been allowed because it had the audacity to cover something that they personally don't consider 'retro' for some bizarre reason. |
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| No Name | May 8 2009, 02:15 PM Post #2 |
Kentucky Fried Chicken
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Name? |
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| CraigGrannell | May 8 2009, 03:16 PM Post #3 |
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Your thumping bass surrounds you
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Dropship. 
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| No Name | May 8 2009, 03:26 PM Post #4 |
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Kentucky Fried Chicken
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Thanks. :-) |
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| Marc | May 8 2009, 03:39 PM Post #5 |
Waiting for the punchline
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I'm feeling more and more intrigued by the iPod Touch, especially at the price some of the games go for. |
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| CraigGrannell | May 8 2009, 04:16 PM Post #6 |
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Your thumping bass surrounds you
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It's a really good platform, assuming you don't have an inexplicable hatred of Apple, understand that there are some things it just doesn't do well (notably platformers that requre digital controls and racers), and don't expect games that cost 59p to provide as much depth as one that costs 20 quid on the DS. (That said, Flight Control has now provided me with as much game time as the vast majority of DS titles I've bought.) Along with the likes of Dropship, there are plenty of great remakes from major studios, like Centipede and Missile Command. You quite often get the original and a 'modern' take, and with Centipede, the latter wants to be SIE. It isn't SIE - it's nowhere near as good - but it's great value for three quid.  There are also people doing new spins on old classics by way of the touch-screen controls. Reflexion is essentially Arkanoid where you draw the paddle whenever you want to move it. That doesn't sound like much, but when you play, it makes the game much more frantic and fun than any Breakout variant I've played since Traz on the C64.  Elsewhere, Saucelifter is a fab Choplifter clone, based on the vector-oriented PC original.  I'm also a big fan of Vector Tanks, which is essentially Armor Attack baddies shoved into Battlezone gameplay. Because the iPhone/iPod touch has a multitouch screen, you use yuur thumbs to control the tank's treads, akin to the arcade game's controller in miniature.   Spheroids is also good - a tilt-based Asteroids that wraps the arcade classic around a shpere, adding 'hunt' gameplay to the equation. Max price of these games: three quid. Most of them are a lot cheaper. Bear in mind that this is the same price as budget games in the 1980s, but most of these games are a whole lot better and are regularly updated. Where the platform shines for me, though, is with action puzzlers. Aside from the best version of Bejeweled around, there are a bunch of fairly frantic games totally tuned to the platform's controls, including superfast RISK-style battler Galcon...  The frenetic and relentless Frenzic, which is essentially iPhone's Tetris...  And the utterly beautiful and hugely challenging multitouch classic Eliss...  Total cost of every iPhone game mentioned in the above list (and I could easily have listed a whole bunch more great games, but, hell, go read iPhoneTiny.com): £20.28 - about the same as one discounted DS game. Edited by CraigGrannell, May 8 2009, 04:42 PM.
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| Cadmium Lemon | May 8 2009, 04:30 PM Post #7 |
#$%&*!
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PLEASE STOP I CANNOT AFFORD TO BUY IPOD TOUCH KTHXBYE |
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| VOTE LIBERAL | May 8 2009, 05:55 PM Post #8 |
Washable Sushi Towpath
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I would really like an iPod Touch, liking iPods anyway, and previously having an iPhone. I have now a G1 instead, which I like a lot more as a phone and PDA thing, but which has only shit games available for it (the best so far that I have seen being the same Pacman game available on the iPhone). The last time I looked there was an absolute dearth of anything worth playing, that was specifically designed for it. Still, it is superb for playing ScummVM games and text adventures though, and that keeps me happy-ish. I shall definitely be looking to get an iPod Touch for Xmas, methinks. |
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| RevMarzikins | May 8 2009, 06:02 PM Post #9 |
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LOAD"*",8,1. READY. RUN.
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Did anyone ever try the earlier iPod Games for more traditional iPods? I've got Sonic 1, Pole Position Remix and Bomberman as the purchased additions to my iPod Classic. I must say I originally had a very negative opinion on all of them due to the control mechanism throwing you completely off course the first time and leaving you to spend a good deal of time trying to work it all out (especially Pole Position). But since then, I've loaded up PPR 15 times according to the stats my Classic reports, Bomberman in second place (it doesn't play bad at all I must say). Sonic I'm still not 'feeling' as I obviously miss the more precise and instant control a Mega Drive pad would give me. I am also too poor to have an iPhone/iTouch. (Although my mum has the latter.) |
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| RevStu | May 8 2009, 06:28 PM Post #10 |
Laird/Beast Of Glencairn
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Are you boycotting the subscriber forum or something? The current price of an iPod Touch to a WoS Subscriber is £5... |
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| Tippy | May 8 2009, 06:41 PM Post #11 |
I weld dogs
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Phase on the iPod fatlad is a fab little game, becoming a surprisingly competent stripped down Amplitude/Frequency. I confess I've been quite disappointed with most of the iPhone games I bought, but the above post gives me a few pointers. Cheers, Craig! |
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| CraigGrannell | May 8 2009, 07:10 PM Post #12 |
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Your thumping bass surrounds you
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In addition to those already mentioned, I recommend Azkend (nicely done match-three), Cube Runner (Deathchase), Dr. Awesome (Volfied), geoDefense (neon tower defence), iPolygon (sort of like twist-based Breakout within polygonal shapes), MazeFinger (dexterity game), Pocket God (amusing point-and-click Sims 'lite'), Sneezies (curiously compelling chain-reaction game) and Wurdle (frantic word game). EDIT: and, again, bookmark http://iphonetiny.com/, which also works nicely in Safari on iPhone and even has a pretty iPhone icon if you bookmark the site. iPolygon: 
Edited by CraigGrannell, May 8 2009, 07:11 PM.
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| romanista | May 8 2009, 07:38 PM Post #13 |
Rick Lindeman
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yup, i recently realised that when it hits 65 it has as much issues as ap,and it is now 5 years old.. you're right about the iphone/ipod touch of course.. sometimes it feels like it must have bene like this in the speccy era, with every week a new cheap game to try console of the year 2009, for sure |
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| Molloy | May 8 2009, 10:19 PM Post #14 |
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Have you thought about maybe doing some Apple game reviews Rev? Maybe Future doesn't have quite the same stranglehold on the iPod/iPhone games magazine market. Writing reviews for mobile games strikes me as alot easier than for hardcore games. You don't have to spend 20 hours playing them and risk loads of nerds harping on you afterwards. |
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| RevStu | May 8 2009, 10:32 PM Post #15 |
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Laird/Beast Of Glencairn
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That's the main reason for me getting an iPod. I'm up to my shins in MP3 players. |
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| CraigGrannell | May 9 2009, 12:29 AM Post #16 |
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Your thumping bass surrounds you
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I think that's right, primarily because there is no iPod/iPhone games magazine market at all. So far, there's one Imagine 'bookazine', filled with inaccurate reviews of all apps, little sections in Mac mags (MacFormat's by deputy editor Chris Phin and games chap Andy Dyer, Macworld's entirely culled from the US publication, and MacUser's from, er, actually I don't know what they do, but I doubt it's much). There's also iPod User, which I've started writing for, but they don't have all that many games reviews. No-one's been remotely interested in any pitches for even a 'pilot' iPhone games mag. The perception is that because the games are too 'casual' and too cheap, no bugger'd buy a mag on the topic. (I'm not convinced—I wonder whether people would, because there's so much shit out there, and it'd be good to get recommendations, hence why the articles on Cult of Mac that I've been writing have attracted so much attention.) Online isn't much better. There's a handful of iPhone review websites, most of which are awful, and the larger sites are mostly just dipping a toe in the water. (EuroGamer, for example, is "handling everything internally" for the platform.) I still think there's money to be made in the market, and if I could clone myself, my domain that's sitting doing sod-all would be an iPhone gaming website by the end of the month. And if it started making enough money, I'd happily commission Mr. Campbell to write some stuff.
Heh—you'd think. I got a lot of flack for my Galcon comments, when I had the audacity to suggest that they retain the numbers when you got to later levels. I've also got stick for certain other comments I've made. I would also say that you should be careful with the 'easier' comment. Although there are a whole bunch of iPhone games you can see through in 30 seconds, others creep up on you only after extended play, despite them seeming really simple at the outset. Two such examples—for me, at least—are Sneezies and iPolygon. I liked neither one a whole lot for the first few goes, but they grew on me, and I now consider both to be excellent games. However, they are precisely the kinds of game that someone could dismiss via slap-dash reviewing. |
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| Burai | May 11 2009, 10:15 AM Post #17 |
Disappointment
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My personal iPhone/touch recommendations; Flight Control - fucking amazing action puzzler. Drop7 - Slow to start, but terrifyingly addictive puzzler. Wolfenstein 3D - It's Wolfenstein 3D. Doom's coming too. geoDefense - Geometry Wars meets tower defense. Pinball Dreams - Better than perfect Amiga port with improved graphics and a portrait mode to see the whole table on one screen. Shot Watch - The nifty Hudson Shooting Watch handheld converted into iPhone format. Lacks the tactile response of the original, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. iDracula - A take on the twin-stick shooter. Tap Tap Revenge 2 - Great little rhythm game. And it's free off the bat with a new free track to download each week. UniWar - Excellent light strategy base capture game. Tiger Woods PGA Tour - Incorporates a flick-swing mechanic. Slightly more expensive at £5.99 but comes with a shit-ton of courses, commentary and all the gubbins you'd expect from a big console Tiger Woods. Pop - the Wiiware game, but better because you can multitouch and using a thumb is more intuitive than the Wiimote. |
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| Chopsticks | May 12 2009, 05:35 PM Post #18 |
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Facing poo, with poo, since 1974.
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GeoDefense - Awesome, and just got a nice 1.2 update as well which improved the tower AI somewhat and added new levels. Unfortunately I've completed everything on hardcore mode now, but for 59p I think it's been the best bangs for bucks I've ever had on any format. (Like, ever, in my entire gaming lifetime.) Fieldrunners - More tower defence, I bit more involved than GeoDefense and longer levels, but still great fun. 'Quite expensive' at £3 (or is it £4 even?). Tiki Towers - Charming monkey based game, build towers so the monkeys get the bananas, rules of gravity apply. Bejeweled 2 - Perfect on the touchscreen, always worth a bash if there's ten minutes to kill. Let's Golf - Lovely golf game that's easy to play, for some reason it evokes the spirit of Microsoft Golf on the Amiga (this is a Good Thing). Drop7 - Is still yet to really click with me, but I can imagine it being very moreish if it gets its hooks into you. B0ookworm - Popcap do a word puzzler, unsurprisingly competent although not fantastic. Flight Control - Not sure it quite deserves the praise it gets, but it is good. |
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| RevStu | May 12 2009, 07:20 PM Post #19 |
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Laird/Beast Of Glencairn
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Just had a look at that on the store, since one day I'd like to enjoy a tower-defence game, but it seems to be £2.39, not 59p. |
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| jerry | May 12 2009, 09:22 PM Post #20 |
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Hi all. I'm reading this from the beach in Jamaica.. I'm on my honeymoon! I'm interested in the ipod touch, but is it possible to jailbreak it? I don't mind paying for the games, but for mp3's I don't want to have to use itunes. |
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| Chopsticks | May 12 2009, 09:44 PM Post #21 |
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Facing poo, with poo, since 1974.
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Hmmm I do recall it being a special offer kind of deal when I got it. For £2.39 it's still bargaintastic though. |
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| CraigGrannell | May 13 2009, 12:19 AM Post #22 |
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Your thumping bass surrounds you
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@Chopsticks: Wurdle > Bookworm (although I still like PopCap's game). @RevStu: App Store prices go up and down a lot. Always avoid buying games as soon as they appear unless they start discounted. geoDefense will no doubt drop at some point, once the sales dry up. (EDIT: It was 59p initially as an 'intro sale', but went up in price four weeks ago.) Try the 59p AppSniper to maintain a watchlist that also tracks how much you're willing to pay for each app. (AppSniper alerts when 'targets' are reached, so you can grab bargains.) @jerry: You can jailbreak iPod touches, although Apple updates may subsequently brick your unit. Edited by CraigGrannell, May 13 2009, 12:24 AM.
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| RevMarzikins | May 13 2009, 05:06 PM Post #23 |
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LOAD"*",8,1. READY. RUN.
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Craig, what are the emulators for the iPhone/iTouch like nowadays? Have they become any more useable in recent months? I just read that Temper4iphone (PC Engine HuCard/CD emulator) got released recently. |
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| CraigGrannell | May 13 2009, 05:57 PM Post #24 |
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Your thumping bass surrounds you
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I've no idea—I don't hack my devices, because they're critical to my work. |
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| Burai | May 14 2009, 10:24 AM Post #25 |
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Disappointment
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That AppSniper is a double-edged sword. It's saving me money on apps, but I'm having to fight the temptation to keep making silly impulse purchases on reduced apps I've never seen before. These 59 pence purchases add up! |
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