Time to pay attention to this handheld system.
There are a number of gamers that simply will not accept the iPhone as a legitimate gaming device, one capable of competing with the DS or the PSP. There are certainly debates to be had regarding the battery life and the lack of buttons, but those are for another day. For now we would like to highlight 5 games that could have been fully fledged DS or PSP releases but instead can (or will) be found exclusively on the App Store.
Zenonia
As you may have seen in our recent preview feature Zenonia is a traditional RPG a la The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past. It features gorgeous scenery, well animated sprites and rock solid combat. Don’t think this is an RPG by numbers with decent fundamentals, Zenonia also boasts tremendous presentation and a number of nice touches of it’s own such as day and night cycles and the ability to feed the protagonist to keep his stamina up. This is also one of those wonderful games that manages to pull off the implementation of virtual buttons on the iPhones multi-touch screen. As you press down on the virtual controls they visually depress giving a great illusion of tactile feedback that helps dispel any concerns that your input isn’t being registered. Look for this to arrive in May and in the meantime be sure to check out our preview and exclusive gameplay video.
Car Jack Streets
You can take the man out of GTA but you can’t take the GTA out of the man, indeed former DMA veterans Paul Farley and Jamie Bryan (along with a very talented team) are days away from releasing Car Jack Streets (or CJS) on the iPhone. This ambitious title brings everything you loved from the first and second top down Grand Theft Auto games and marries them with its own unique gameplay elements. CJS uses the iPhones internal clock and takes place in real time. Paul Farley explains “If you play at night it’s night time in the game. If Danny tells you he needs a driver at the bank in five minutes – well that’s five real minutes and so on”. Car Jack Streets is a hugely ambitious game and while it may not quite match Chinatown Wars for polish we’ve been told by TAG Games that the sequel will. Car Jack Streets is due to hit the App Store next week.
Real Racing
Do you remember how impressed you were when the first Gran Turismo was released on the original Playstation? Well prepare to feel that sweeping sense of awe one more time. Real Racing is visually stunning. Such is the technical feat that when Firemint decided to build the game a website the only content they included was a video of the game in action, after all actions speak louder than words. Unfortunately embedding a video would mess with the formatting of this article so you’re stuck with words. Besides the graphical prowess on display Real Racing also boasts some snazzy Internet integration allowing gamers to upload videos of their best laps to YouTube and to rank themselves against the world or against friends on Facebook. Real Racing is due to hit the App Store sometime in April.
Galaxy On Fire
The enemy fighter on my six is giving me grief; laser fire is skimming past my cockpit and my wingman is otherwise pre-occupied. Fortunately I’ve seen a lot of dogfights in movies and have a trick up my sleeve, time to pull the old loop’de loop technique! I jerk sharply down on the virtual analogue stick and thrust violently upwards eventually forming a loop. BAM the hunter has become the hunted, the once cocky Vossk fighter is in my cross hairs and about to suffer my wrath. Sound like fun? It is. Galaxy On Fire puts you in the role of a mercenary for hire in an epic space adventure filled with 3D aerial combat, space trading and a perpetually dangling carrot in the form of upgrades for your precious space ship. The presentation is superb and the graphics boast detailed 3D models and real time lighting effects. For the price of a McDonalds you’re getting a twenty hour game with over 500 planets and space stations to travel to. Galaxy On Fire is available now. Check out our in-depth review for our complete verdict.
Lets Golf!
Lets Golf! could sell for £24.99 on any other handheld system but no, for you dear reader Gameloft ask a modest £3.40 (or $5.99 for US readers). This is a fully featured game of golf; no corners have been cut here. You’re getting four varied and complete 18 hole courses fully realised in 3D, 4 unique golfers (each with their own unlockable clothes and accessories) and four modes of play including Tournament, Instant Play and Multiplayer. The real kicker is that the touch screen lends itself beautifully to virtual games of golf. Just like in Tiger on the Wii you can zoom in on the map and drag your aiming grid around and then tweak it by fine tuning your trajectory. Once the ball is airborne you can add spin by literally spinning an onscreen representation of the ball with your finger. It all just works and the end result is a sublime game of golf on a device that you would be forgiven for forgetting is also your mobile phone. For more check out our review.
There you go. Five games that you could easily imagine on the Nintendo DS or Sony PSP. Guess what? The iPhone has more than traditional gaming experiences up it’s sleeve, indeed some of the most creative minds in gaming have been busy putting out unique experiences like Zen Bound and Rolando to name but a few; games that require the iPhones multi-touch screen and accelerometer to really shine. iPhone games may not be as glamorous or have the huge marketing budgets its competing products enjoy but it does have value and (if you look for it) quality on it’s side. If you are yet to become a believer I can only suggest you give the format a chance. Who knows, you might even enjoy yourself.
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