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Rating:

• Price: $4.99 (Get It)
• Version: 1.3.3
• Developer: Gameloft

Diamond Twister is basically a Bejeweled clone, but instead of mimicking it, Damond Twister actually expands upon it, and does a number of things better than PopCap’s classic version. For one thing, there’s an actual story to follow along, which takes you to 8 different locations around the world to steal gems. Sure, it’s hokey, but it adds a bit of depth to the game. There are 8 game modes, spanning 64 difficulty levels. There are stats and high score boards that track your progress.

You can use the accelerometer to cause gems to fall in a certain direction. Swiping gems around is fluid and much better than Bejeweled sluggish animation. My one gripe with the diamonds are that they are too small and it’s easy to move the wrong diamond with your fingers.

The graphic style is pretty unique. Gems explode when a match is made, and the various powerups you create adds a nice flair to the gameplay. Sound effects, music, and the intentional cheesy voice-overs are all of great quality, and complements the gameplay.

Thanks to the variety of gameplay modes and challenges, Diamond Twister has a lot of replayability going for it, making it a good long-term game to have on your iPhone/iPod Touch. If you’ve already got Bejeweled, Diamond Twister may not provide enough over it, but if you don’t, Diamond Twister is worth getting over Bejeweled and any other similar games in the App Store.

Tags: bejewled, diamond twister, gameloft, Puzzle, touch

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Rating:

• Price: Free (Get It)
• Version: 1.0.0.1
• Developer: Danielle Cassley and Jason Citron

Much like everyone else’s response when playing this game, “I can’t believe this is free!” went through my mind when I fired up this game. Aurora Feint is a high-quality game with great graphics, great sound, great music, and fun gameplay. Since there are no tutorial or documentation, watching the demo movie may prove helpful when digging into the game.

While it isn’t complete yet, in its current state though, it’s very solid and will keep you busy for hours. The mining game is the main portion of Aurora Feint, but there’s RPG in there, where you create a character, level it up, develop new skills, and buy items from the store. The RPG part of the game isn’t complete yet, but it hints at a promising element to an already great game.

The game takes advantage of the iPhone, using both multi-touch capabilities and the accelerometer to add strategy to the mining game. It all comes together and works really well in the game.

Besides the controvery that cropped up about privacy, the game also can suffer from stability problems, crashing constantly at load, or during gameplay. It happened to me less when I deleted the game entirely from my iPhone and iTunes, and redownloaded it. Now the game is rock solid.

Aurora Feint could easily have been a $9.99 game, but it owes much of its success to the fact that it is free, polished, fun, and hints at some very promising updates down the line.

Tags: accelerometer, aurora feint, Danielle Cassley and Jason Citron, free, Puzzle, touch

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Rating:

• Price: $4.99 (Get It)
• Version: 1.11
• Developer: fullpower Technologies

I don’t like poker. I don’t like dice games. Yeah, I thought the same thing, but fortunately this game got so much attention and praise, I finally gave it a try. I suggest you do the same, even if you do not like poker or dice. MotionX Poker isn’t poker in the normal sense, but a simplified version, called dice poker. My first experience with the game is in a mini-game for the critically acclaimed RPG, The Witcher. Anyone can play it instantly, because it’s easy to get. Just to be sure, MotionX Poker even comes with detailed instructions, even giving you statistics on each hand you can win with.

You start out only being able to play on one table, but you unlock the rest by earning coins. Once you’ve earned enough coins, you can unlock another table.

This is the most polished, fun, and complete game I’ve played so far on the iPhone. fullpower uses their own physics and motion engine to simulate the rolling of the dice, and does it to superb effect. Not only does it look great, and realistic, but it sounds great and realistic. As the dice roll around on screen, the iPhone vibrates in tune with the rolling and rattling around of the dice. Each table, there are 5, each have their own particular surface, therefore sound different, depending on the material of the dice. Plastic dice on a wooden table, titanium dice on a felt table, wood dice on a metal table, and any combination thereof. They all have their own unique, realistic sounds.

As mentioned above, the graphics are perfect. Even the menu is pleasing, and easy to use. Selecting dice, checking out gems (achievements), checking out your overall stats, and the settings menu are all there. As you progress in the game, and win against your opponent, you earn new dice. The variety of dice aren’t gimmicks, some are even luckier than others. Some are easy to see and make out, while others are entirely unique and creative. Like I mentioned above, each dice sounds different depending on the material it is made of.

Not only do you win new dice, but you can win achievements, called gems. This is a bit gimmicky, but it still is a nice touch, and gives you a sense of achievement (hence achievements!) Another real nice touch is the stats page, which lists all kinds of information; length of time played, hands played, win ratio, overall amount of coins you’ve won, amount of times you’ve won with each hand (five of a kind, four of a kind, straight, full house, etc.), longest win streak, best sessions, longest session, and many more.

There’s no pause, but even better than that is the game saves the state of the game for you when you quit, so you never really lose your session data, and statistics. You can turn off and on the sound effects and music. Both are really great and don’t warrant turning off, but if you need to (quiet library, restaurant, etc.) then it’s nice to have that option. You cannot play your own music’s library by default, however a trick to do so is to press the Home button twice while the loading screen is loading the game.

MotionX Poker is quite easily my favorite game up to this point of writing this review. I’ve played it just about everywhere, and have thoroughly enjoyed the game each time. This game is worthy of being on everyone’s iPhone/iPod Touch.

Tags: accelerometer, dice, fullpower technologies, motionx, physics, poker, touch

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Rating:

Price: $0.99 (Get It - Free Demo)
Version: 1.2
Developer: Storybird

Update for version 1.5: As noted in this post, Ikanoid is now known as Space Buster. The updates to Space Buster in this version has improved an already great game even better. The rating has been changed from 4.5 stars to 5 stars as a result to reflect the changes the update brings.

What does Ike Turner and Arkanoid have in common? Absolutely nothing.

There are numerous Arkanoid/Breakout clones in the App Store already, but Ikanoid has developed a reputation to be one of the better ones. Therefore, I decided to check it out. After playing it for a while, I wasn’t disappointed. It was one of the more action-packed and engaging amongst its competition.

That’s not to say it is without its flaws. For example, there’s no real option or variety of gameplay. The main menu just has one button, New Game. There’s no ability to pause, there’s no high score list, or any gameplay modes. However, the developer stated that these will be forthcoming in an update.

What it does have is great, responsive control, slick graphics, lots of powerups, and solid sound effects. You control the paddle by sliding your finger across the screen, it’s intuitive and works great. There’s no music, but you can play your music library within the game. Once an update adds more features, levels, options, and variety, Ikanoid will easily be a 5-star rating.

Tags: arkanoid, breakout, ikanoid, touch

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Rating:

Price: $1.99 (Get It)
Version: 1.2
Developer: Gyrocade

Before the Wii, there was the Nintendo Power Glove. An accessory that you would put on your hand, and via a motion sensor, allow you to control your games with your new glove. It was an idea that wasn’t very fun, but it was a glimpse into the future, for sure.

When I received my Power Glove, thanks to some cheesy marketing in a movie suckering my parents into buying me one, it came with a game, called Super Glove Ball, which came to mind when I played Vector Pong on the iPhone.

Except I didn’t lose as constantly as I do in Vector Pong. This game has quite the learning curve, as you try to adjust to the 3D dimension, guiding your paddle along to keep the ball from getting past you. You do this by using the iPhone’s acceleromater to move the paddle up, down, left, and right. The controls are fluid and good for the most part. This one will take some practice to get good at. My guess is that it might help to have the camera angle adjust slightly to give you a better feel of the 3D space when guiding your paddle around with the accelerometer.

A nice touch that proves handy is before each game it calibrates based on the position you have the iPhone/iPod Touch. Before you would have to hold it flat, which was uncomfortable after a while.

You can play single player against the A.I. in Easy, Medium, and Hard modes. Although the Easy mode feels too hard. You can also play two-player mode if another person has the game and is on the same network as you. I didn’t test this feature, so I have no idea whether it works or not, but it sure sounds interesting.

The graphics are quite nice, and has that Tron feel to it. Sound effects are nice, the ball hitting the paddle, the walls, and the opponent’s paddle. There is no music, but you can play your library’s music just fine while playing Vector Pong.

Tags: accelerometer, Multiplayer, pong, touch

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Rating:

Price: $5.99 (Get It)
Version: 1.0
Developer: Freeverse

Wingnuts Moto Chaser has the honor of being the very first iPhone game I purchased from the App Store. Since there was very little reviews, I took a huge gamble with this game and its $9.99 price. Considering I’ve played it a grand total of 3 times in the two weeks that the App Store has been open for business, I’d say I have a bit of buyer’s remorse.

One of the issues I’ve had with the game is the sensitive controls, and the terrible camera angle preventing you from seeing the road ahead of your properly. You’ll spend half a game wondering where the road is going to turn at any given moment, and the other half cursing at all the oversteering and overcompensation you’ll be experiencing. You hold down on the lower-left corner of the screen over the Gas button to accelerate. When an opponent gets within view and range, a button pops up in the upper-left corner of the screen that you press to punch the opponent, which puts it in an uncomfortable and awkward place.

The idea behind this evokes fond memories of Road Rash on the Sega Genesis (Dude! Road Rash on the iPhone would be huge!) Except the combat is weak, and doesn’t really do much at all except get an opponent out of your view.

The graphics are sharp enough, providing a nice game to show off the iPhone’s prowess, even though we’ve yet to see games take full advantage of the iPhone just yet. The sound effects are a hit and miss affair. At the beginning of the race, the engine idling sounds like a meaty lion, but when you start racing, the engine turns into a castrated kitten. The music is pretty riveting, and helps set the mood and tone of the game, but it doesn’t let you play your own library’s music, as it fades it out when you start the game (and doesn’t fade it back in when you quit the game.)

Tags: accelerometer, motoracer, Racing, touch

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Rating:

• Price: $4.99 (Get It)
• Version: 1.0
• Developer: Demiforce LLC

Trism was an early pioneer of being a game that took advantage of the iPhone’s accelerometer to add gameplay strategy to the mix. It was first seen in a demo on jailbroken iPhones before the App Store came about. Even in such an early state, it was polished and fun.

However, being a native app available in the App Store, Trism is even better. It’s even more polished, has a lot more features, different gameplay modes, a tutorial, high score boards, ability to pause, saved game states so you can continue from a previous game, and more. It’s one of the few games available in the App Store right now with a large set of features and with a shiny sheen of polish.

The graphics are bright, colorful, and pleasing. The animation is crisp and done in a timely manner to allow for you to add an element of strategy to your game plan. The sound effects are spot on, and sparse enough to not be annoying. There’s no music to speak of, however you can play your own music library while playing the game.

Long after many games will be downloaded onto my iPhone and removed, Trism will likely stay on my iPhone indefinitely.

Tags: accelerometer, Puzzle, touch, trism

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Rating:

• Price: $2.99 (Get It)
• Version: 1.1
• Developer: Manta Research

Cubes is a puzzle game that looks similar to a Rubik cube. Like many puzzle games of the sort, you match two or more blocks to earn points. You have to reach a certain score to advance to the next level. Obviously the more blocks of the same color you match up and remove, the more points you score. It sounds easy, but the challenge is certainly there.

Once you match up the blocks, double tap to remove them, and cubes above will fall downward, adding a level of strategy to line up cubes of the same color as you remove them. You can adjust the main cube up, down, left, and right.

The control can feel frustrating at times. It’s not as fluid as I would like, although it does manage to get the job done. Fortunately there is no time limit, or otherwise the control would be a major dealbreaker. The graphics are a little on the unpolished side, but it isn’t an eyesore either. Sound effects are sparse, but nothing to complain about. There is no music, but the developer is interested in adding some soothing music in a future update. The price is just right at $2.99, and the developer has shown a willingness to continue fleshing out the game.

Tags: cubes, Puzzle, touch