RSIgamers

The iPhone is enjoying unrivaled success as a mobile gaming platform.  Even major development studios like EA, SEGA and Konami have taken notice and released for iPhone, such as Spore, Star Wars: Force Unleashed, and Metal Gear Solid.

What makes it so successful?

Quite some time ago, Nokia thought it would be a good idea to combine a mobile phone with a gaming handheld.  After all,  the Gameboy Advance was selling like hotcakes while millions of phone users worldwide were killing time playing snake on their phones waiting for the train to arrive.  Surely the idea would be a hit?

The final product was a confused mess and failed fusion that was neither phone nor gaming machine.  Phones back then weren’t exactly compact, and the NGage didn’t help by adding a D-pad and additional face buttons. The system was also plagued by several stupid design issues.  Like the Gameboy, the NGage used cartridges for games, except on the NGage, the cartridge slot was behind the battery, meaning users would have to switch off their phone and remove the battery just to change games.

Unconventionally, the NGage also had the speakers on the side of the phone.  This earned the NGage the nickname of “Taco Phone”  and as a result, it became impossible for anyone to take a call on the phone without looking like a total goof.  These factors, combined with it’s ridiculous price point and low quality of the games made the NGage unappealing to both gamers and the mobile phone market, and sealed it’s fate.

Much time has passed since then, and a new challenger has appeared to take on the challenge. But this time it’s different.  Enter the Apple iPhone.

Unlike the ill-fated NGage, the iPhone has several things working for it.  First and foremost, it is a phone, and a very good one at that.  The wide array of gimmicks makes it very appealing to the mass market,   not just gamers.  With such a widespread audience, major studios such as Electronic Arts, Ubisoft and even Konami have taken notice and porting some of their IPs such as SimCity, Need for Speed, Assassins Creed, and even Metal Gear Solid to the iPhone (though it’s quite clear they don’t put as much effort into these ports).

Next is the touch interface.  I believe the greatness of the Nintendo DS lies in the touchscreen feature.  The best games on the system are the ones that make full use of it, such as Ouendan/Elite Beat Agents, and Trauma Center.  The iPhone has a touchscreen as well,  but because the iPhone doesn’t actually have any buttons, developers are forced to actually use this feature to create new and interesting control schemes for games.  ATC for example, requires you to direct air traffic by drawing paths to help planes onscreen reach their destination without colliding into another.  Other games such as xPlane make use of the iPhone’s accelerometer to simulate a plane’s controls, requiring you to actually tilt the phone to fly around.

The touch screen also makes games that normally require a mouse, such as strategy games, possible.  Warfare Inc. on the iPhone is pretty much a rip-off the Command and Conquer series, and the touch screen can emulate mouse controls well enough to deliver the same kind of experience.  Just don’t expect that uber-micro that comes with the keyboard.

Users who have jailbroken their phones also have access to a wealth of classic games, with NES and Genesis emulators available, as well as ScummVM, which runs old LucasArts adventure games such as Monkey Island, Sam and Max and Full Throttle.

The phone can also make use of the 3G connection for online play on the go.  Aurora Feint for example, has implemented a online player vs player feature.  Okay, so in this day and age where 3G connectivity is shaky and mobile download quotas are small, bandwidth intensive games aren’t exactly feasible.  But how about turn based games?  It’d be great to see games like Civilization, Master of Orion with netplay on the iPhone.  Even shortplay games like UNO or Monopoly would be great if online play was implemented.

The best part about gaming on the iPhone for me is the convenience factor.  Unlike the DS or PSP,  I’ll always have my phone on me.  The DS and PSP are large by comparison, and most of the time I don’t see myself playing them enough to constantly carry them around with me.  The games on the iPhone are of a decent enough quality to keep me amused on the train ride home and there’s no UMDs or cartridges to worry about, making it truly “mobile”.

Because it’s rather easy and inexpensive to publish a game on the App Store, we’ve seen a large number of small and independent developers take advantage of this to break into the industry.  Sure the quality of games varies greatly, but there are some creative and interesting games out there.

With the rumours that the next iPhone model is to get a new graphics chip, and Apple are hiring in house game developers, we’re starting to see that Apple are really getting serious about the iPhone as a mobile gaming platform.  I’m hoping more major studios will follow suit by increasing their production values and making original games for the iPhone.  There are already clones of several popular games such as C&C and GTA on the App Store,  it would be great to see Rockstar step up and make an original GTA game as they did for the DS for example.

Here’s some of my picks for the best iPhone games available on the App Store at the moment.

• SimCity - almost a straight port of SimCity 3000.  If you were ever into SimCity, this game will steal your life away.
• Aurora Feint II - deceptively addictive game that’s like Bejewelled and Tetris combined…and you can play against other players too
• Bejewelled 2
• Fieldrunners - if you loved tower defence games from Warcraft 3, you’ll love this game.
• ATC 4.0 - great original game where you have to correctly guide all planes to their destination
• Orion - the closest thing you’ll get to Magic the Gathering on your phone.  If only it had netplay!

Special Mentions:

• 1112 - This game is reminiscent of old point and click adventure games.  The artwork is really beautiful, but at times I found it frustratingly hard to progress.
• Sonic - pretty much Sonic 1 straight off the Genesis/Mega Drive.  The controls feel a bit laggy at times, but hey, it’s Sonic!

YJ would kill to play Phoenix Wright and Ouendan on iPhone