For those who love to rifle through the iPhone App Store to find fun, engaging, and original games, the task can seem overwhelming. There are thousands of games available, and most of them are utter garbage. Wading through the mass of throw-away games in the App Store can waste a lot of time, and a lot of money.
Here is a top ten list of iPhone games that deserve your attention:
1. Fieldrunners
Fieldrunners fits into a more recently developed genre of games called “tower defense.” The object of the game is to hold off hordes of enemies that are trying to get into your strongholds by building various towers to kill your foes before they get to you. Each of the towers has their own abilities such as slowing enemies, causing damage to a large group of enemies, shooting down airborne enemies, etc.
Fieldrunners is different from a lot of other tower defense games in that it allows you to build your towers into a maze that the enemies will follow to get to your stronghold, succumbing to your might as they try to navigate the winding passages that you create to stave them off.
2. Tap Tap Revenge 2
This game fits into the growing trend of music-based games and gives you the ability to turn music into an incredibly engaging game. Watch a visual representation of the song come at you in the form of small bubbles and arrows that you must pop with your finger or emulate with a shake of the iPhone to keep with the song. Fast-paced and fun, this game is destined to entertain any music lover.
Tap Tap Revenge 2 takes the game one step further by allowing you to download new songs as they become available for free. Choose songs that fit your own musical tastes, and enjoy listening to some of your favorite artists while interacting with the game, and then submit your high scores to be ranked against other players worldwide.
3. iDracula
IDracula is a fun and exciting twist on the survival action game. Hordes of undead, mummies, werewolves and vampires come at you from all sides in an unending assault, and you must fight them off with your arsenal of guns, crossbows, grenade launchers, and the like.
This game might be the most frenetic game available on the App Store. Once you have played for only a few minutes, the hordes of monsters set on ending your life come at you so quickly and unrelentingly that when death finally comes, you will breathe a sigh of relief, stare at the screen, and jump back into the fray once more.
4. MotionX Poker
MotionX Poker is a casual dice game that can be picked up and played any time, whether waiting for someone to be ready to leave, heading to the bathroom, or trying to fall asleep at night. Roll the dice with a shake of the device, and watch the dice bounce around the screen with real physics before settling in their final position. Then pick and hold the dice that you wish to keep, and roll again to create straights, pairs, full houses, and five-of-a-kinds.
This app has a secondary use in that the scoring and resets can be turned off to allow the playing of other 5-dice games. This can be extremely useful on road trips and other times when people want to play games together, but carrying physical dice is inconvenient.
5. Aurora Feint II: the Arena
Aurora Feint is a puzzle game similar to Bejewelled that places the character in a world where they must mine for elements to become more powerful. Story aside, the mechanics of the game are extremely fun. Try to link three of the same type of element to obtain and remove it from the playing field. Elements continually rise from the bottom, and if they reach the top, your session is over.
The real genius of Aurora Feint is in its creative use of the built-in accelerometer. Need to shift all of the elements to the side? Turn the iPhone on its side and watch gravity do all the work. Flip the screen and cause everything to fall more quickly. Combine all of this with combos and powerups to create a truly addictive game.
6. Pocket God
There are very few of us who never experimented with the sun, a magnifying glass, and an ant hill, and most of those who didn’t still experience that same curiosity. Well now the iPhone has given us the opportunity to do this very thing without harming anything, and it is infinitely more fun! Pocket God places you in the role of a malicious godlike being who can flick your people into volcanoes, strike them with lightning, throw them to the sharks, turn them into vampires, and yes, even burn them with the sun.
While this game is already incredibly engaging with all of the options listed above and tons more, the developers of Pocket God are constantly listening to their consumers and creating new and innovative ways of harming your poor islanders. While this game sounds cruel and unusual, it can be a great stress reliever, and always elicits a laugh.
7. Zombieville
Zombieville is an iPhone release of the flash game of the same name, but it is no less fun in its portable form. Players assume the role of a grumpy looking man in a trucker hat as he moves from house to house looking for money and ammo to help him survive the zombie apocalypse.
The fun of this game is destroying the hordes of cartoon undead with the various weapons that can be bought from the shop at the end of each level. While the game does have you chopping up zombies with chainsaws and torching them with flamethrowers, the graphics are typical fun cartoon flash animation, which makes for a quaint, fun game that even those who are afraid of zombies can enjoy.
8. Zen Bound
By far the most creative game on this list, Zen Bound is like no other game out there. The ultimate in relaxation games, Zen Bound has no time limits, no enemies, no fear of imminent danger. The app was designed as a stress reliever, and accomplishes what it sets out to do with style.
The concept is this: you have a collection of wooden blocks, each with a nail in one end and a long string attached. Your object is to color the entire wooden block by wrapping the string over every inch of the puzzle. Sounds simple, right? Some of the puzzles are very challenging, but seldom frustrating or annoying. Overall, this is the most innovative game the App Store has seen in a long time.
9. Galcon
The ultimate in galaxy conquest. Galcon pits you against the rest of the galaxy in an easy to pick up and quick to play game of world domination, on a galactic scale. Start on your home world and spread out quickly to gain a foothold against your enemies. Reinforce your worlds, send massive forces to attack, and do your best to hold your ground.
What sets Galcon out from the rest is that it allows you to play against real people, up to four at a time, over the internet and 3G. Just when you think you have what it takes to beat the computer opponents, you realize that there is a world full of people who are waiting to wipe the floor with you. Can you become the master of the universe?
10. Bowman
The last of this list is a simple game, and one that has seen many iterations, but none-the-less remains just as fun as it has always been. In Bowman, players assume the character of an archer attempting to kill his foe. Drag your finger across the screen to create both angle and power for your shot, and then let your arrow fly. After each shot, readjust your angle or power by sliding your finger once again to pull the bow back and let the arrow fly.
This game can be played alone against the computer, or with friends on the same iPhone. It is great for carrying on conversations and enjoying a game at the same time. If you tire of that, then try your hand at bird hunting!
