My iPhone Home Screen — San

The third page of my iPhone home screen is devoted entirely to games, and is the absolute most dynamic page on my iPhone. In fact, before I started writing this post, I changed this page two or three times in an attempt to get the best selection from my existing apps and the new ones I’d recently downloaded.

[IMAGE APPEARS TO HAVE GONE MISSING, SO USE YOUR IMAGINATION]

As always, from top-left to bottom-right (I’m skipping the Dock because if you don’t know what those four are, you’ve been living under a rock:

• 7 Cities – I love tower defense. The first game I remember picking up for my iPhone when iPhone OS 2.0 hit was TapDefense. So it’s to be expected that some form of tower defense will be on my iPhone at any given time. The problem is that I am a perfectionist when it comes to tower defense and will often stop playing a game in frustration because I let only one enemy through my defenses. Nevertheless, 7 Cities is one of the most unique tower defense games I’ve ever played, as it has set paths for the enemies to travel but doesn’t use a square grid system for placing towers, but rather a hexagonal grid, allowing some fairly unique methods of tower placement. I highly recommend you look into this game if you are a fan of tower defense, even if just for the opportunity to fire at a sea monster as it heads toward the town you must protect.
• Civilization Revolution – I have never been a big fan of Civilization, mostly because I prefer real-time strategy games on the computer. However, it is a perfect fit for the iPhone with a lot of customizable gameplay based on which particular civilization you choose to play as and whether you aim for a diplomatic or conquering gameplay style. I was pleasantly surprised by how polished this game turned out to be.
• Dr. Awesome – I haven’t really been a big fan of games released by ngmoco. In fact, aside from MazeFinger and Topple (both of which have been free for quite some time), I was not interested in any of their games. When they announced the full launch of the Plus+ network and released Dr. Awesome and Topple 2 for free, I was initially frustrated, as Topple 2 was completely unplayable on my iPhone. But thankfully, Dr. Awesome played great, and was a lot of fun. If you’ve ever played Qix, you already know how to play this game. If you haven’t, then I weep for you. I fully recommend getting this while it’s currently free.
• Elven Chronicles – This is a classically-designed RPG with excellent controls (something that can be difficult to accomplish with a Japanese-styled RPG on a touch-screen device). While not as robust or as beautiful as some other RPGs on the iPhone, it’s still an excellent game and a lot of fun.
• Minigore – The iPhone has no shortage of dual-stick shooters, so it takes something special to stand out. Minigore has gorgeous graphics and the promise of periodic updates to add new features. With OpenFeint integration for high scores and achievements, it has several advantages over the competition.
• Pocket God – More of a toy than a game, Pocket God is sort of like an ant farm. Only in this ant farm, you get to torture the ants without all those pesky moral dilemmas. This is an excellent time waster when you only have a few minutes to kill.
• Pocket Tanks – The best artillery game on Mac and PC for years is now the best artillery game on the iPhone, as well. Unlike most artillery games, Pocket Tanks includes 105 different offensive and defensive weapons to use against the computer or your friends.
• Reign of Swords – Turn-based strategies lend themselves very well to the iPhone, and Reign of Swords stands out above many. With a rather extensive campaign, a large number of units, an extensive upgrade system for making more powerful units from lesser ones, and Internet multiplayer, it will keep you busy for quite a while.
• Reign of Swords: Episode 2 – More of the same above. If you like one, you’ll like the other. This one is currently not on the App Store, due to a pending update. I will update the link once it’s back.
• Rogue Touch – Rogue is the first top-down adventure game ever created. It used ASCII characters to represent the game world, character, items, and monsters. It has seen two releases on the iTunes App Store and this is the better of the two, though it is not free like the other one.
• The Creeps! – This is the cutest tower defense game I’ve ever played. It centers around the premise that monsters are coming out of some sort of door to a nightmare world and are approaching your bed. You must build towers to destroy them before they reach you. Unlike other tower defense titles, The Creeps! has various decorative objects in the level that you can destroy for money and that also get in the way of building new towers in effective locations until destroyed.
• Underworlds – This is a remarkable Diablo clone. If you tried out this game in its early releases, you’ll be pleased to hear that the controls have been fine-tuned quite a bit. The developers also recently added an entirely new episode free of charge to the game if you’ve already finished the initial story.
• UniWar – I think I recommend this game more than any other game I have, mostly because it frequently goes on sale and has an excellent multiplayer component. If you like real-time strategy games, it’s a pretty great buy. The developers also frequently fine-tune the gameplay to make it more balanced.
• Vanguard Storm – Final Fantasy transfers well to the iPhone as long as the games are not traditional JRPGs. In this unique take on defensive simulations. It’s a very strategic title with familiar characters and a nerve-wracking time-limit that really pushes you.
• Warfare Incorporated – This game plays very much like Command & Conquer, which is a good thing. An update was released yesterday which added online multiplayer, that actually works fairly well over 3G (though I haven’t tested it over EDGE). If you’re interested in picking this game up, let me know, because I’d love to play with you.
• Words With Friends – Fake Scrabble. For iPhone. With online play. Tell your friends.

Thanks for stopping by. Now go buy some new iPhone games. There are plenty to choose from.