Macenstein’s Top 20 iPhone games of 2008
10. Bejeweled 2 ($2.99) (honorable mention ChocChoc Pop, which is essentially a cutesy version of the same thing) Odds are if you have ever had a mobile phone before your iPhone, you already know what Bejeweled is. A true casual game/time waster in the league of the almighty Tetris (which did NOT make the list) Bejeweled’s shiny gems have enchanted millions. Even if you’ve played Bejeweled on a regular cell phone, the game feels new on the iPhone, as the touch controls bring a speed and life to the game that was missing.
9. Critter Crunch ($4.99) This was one of the first 4 or 5 games I ever bought for my iPhone, and I still think it is one of the most charming and creative. In the game you play a little monster who tries to clear the board of descending “critters” by feeding them to each other. Nature’s law of “big eats little” applies here, and you explode the big critters by feeding the little ones to them until they burst. The game design is beautiful, the power ups (“food chains”) are cleaver, and the different critters and obstacles that appear with each level are truly creative. This is one game I may drop for a month, but I always come back to.
8. Asphalt4 Elite Racing ($5.99) This game defines racing simulators for the iPhone (for now), and there is no doubt a ton of effort went into it. It is a testament to this game how much I love it since I have yet to come in first place in a single race, even after 3 months. I don’t know why I suck, I seem to be able to do pretty well, in Crash Kart, but still, this game feels like a console racer, just miniaturized.
7. MotionX Poker($1.99) (and the new MotionX Poker Quest ($2.99)) Another game I reviewed earlier in the year, I found this game was totally addicting, and really just needed another 1 or 2 boards to unlock to make it perfect. The realistic dice throwing physics, unlockable gems and dice sucked DAYS of my life away in 2-40 minute increments, and even after unlocking the Dragon Table I still find myself coming back to play occasionally. MotionX just released a new MotionX Poker Quest with new boards and a story mode which will likely eat up days of my free time as well (although I still think MotionX should update the orignal with a new board or two).
6. Enigmo ($1.99) This is a game that has been in iTunes’ top 10 almost since its debut, and has dropped in price almost every month, so by now probably all of you own it, but it does kick butt, and should be applauded. The game has 50 levels of physics-based puzzles (although I’m not sure what planet the physics apply to) which you must solve by successfully moving various flowing liquids into containers. Additional user-created puzzles can be downloaded from the web, and you can make your own as well. Enigmo has one of the most creative “touch” interfaces to date, and is a real gem that pretty much everyone should use as their introduction to iPhone gaming.
5. Dizzy Bee ($2.99) This was the first game that took advantage of the iPhone’s tilt sensors that I enjoyed. (Yes, I bought Super Monkey Ball, but that was a waste of money). In Dizzy Bee, you try to navigate various mazes full of badies while trying to rescue as many of your friends along the way. The game is so cute and sweet, you actually might get diabetes playing it, but it is truly one of the hidden gems of the iPhone. Go get it.
4.Frenzic ($4.99) This addictive puzzler encourages you to come back again and again by showing you impossibly high scores that other players from around the world have gotten. I can barely get to 1000, and someone has gotten 8564?!? The gameplay is simple, like most good puzzlers – simply place the pie pieces that appear in the center circle into one of the 6 blank pie holders. The problem? The pieces must be placed in the orientation they appear, so if you get a “top” piece, and no blank “top” slots are open, you lose a life. Extra points for making entire pie wheels of the same color. The game is very fast paced, well-designed, and how the hell did someone get 8564?!?!
3. Warfare Incorporated ($4.99) About as far from Dizzy Bee as you can get, Warefare Inc. is a 2-D strategy/war game, somewhat akin to the Civilization franchise which literally stole months of my life. The story behind the game is that in the year 2065, a rare gem called Galaxite has been discovered on the planet Icarus, and you are hired by the ACME mining company to set up camp and mine as much of the gem as you can while doing battle with the evil forces of OMNI Industries, who are also after the precious stones. To do this, you create buildings, miners, power plants and storage warehouses, and of course you’ll need some soldiers, tanks, rocket towers, and corporate raiders to defend and takeover the competition. This game is fairly massive, with online expansion packs and add-ons to keep the game fresh. If you like strategy games, check out Warefare Inc., my current time-waster of choice.
2.Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D ($5.99) Asphalt4 might hold the title of best racing sim, but Crash Kart is the undisputed leader when it comes to racing fun. Despite a few slowdowns on some of the more intense worlds, Crash Kart is an amazingly fun driving experience full of creative environments, racers, and weapons. This was one of the first iPhone games on launch, and it’s still one of the best. If there was Wi-Fi play vs friends, this would take the top spot easily (one can dream). By the way, I can’t seem to unlock Yaya Panda, anyone know how to do it?
1. Fieldrunners($4.99) And then there was one game to rule them all. Fieldrunners is classified as a “tower defense” game, a gaming genre I had never heard of until now, but one that I have since become addicted to. The basics of the game are simple – stop the bad guys from crossing the field and getting to your headquarters. To do this, you construct a maze of goo towers, missiles, Gatling guns and lightning (yes, lightning) designed to fry them before they reach your base. As the levels increase, so does the strength of your enemies, and it will take some real cunning maze design to survive. This game is so good, it hurts.A recent update to the game added a second board and a couple new enemies, with the promise of more in the next update. When I first discovered this game I did not write an article for about 4 days straight, and no joking, got only about 16 hours sleep in that time. The key to a good game is it has to adversely affect your health, and Fieldrunners nearly killed me. I can’t wait for the next update.
So here you have it. There is no arguing, no discussion, this is the list. Every game you love that did not make it simply isn’t as good as you think it is. I encourage you to now go and buy all of these games, starting with #1 and working all the way backward to #20 until your iPhone screen looks like the image below (Top 20 left – and runners up to the right).
Above: (Left)This is what your iPhone’s first two game screens should look like. (Left – The top 20… Right – honorable mentions.
My God, it’s beautiful.
I only bought Super Monkey Ball and Spore and play them like once a week when i have time
anyways, its pretty cool how all kinds of games are coming to the iphone/ipod touch, its such a cool device
Keep up the good work doctor 🙂
I might quibble with the order, but there are some good ones here, and I can’t argue the top 5. Fieldrunners and Frenzic kick ass. Nice List.
Thanks for the list Dr. Macenstein. I haven’t really played many games on the iPhone because when I find time to play games I would go for my expensive PC, Wii, or PS3. Now that I’ve got my mophie I will be looking for some good standing in line, car, shop, mall, etc. time killers and now I know where to start!
I really enjoy Missile Command. The option to play in retro mode is amazing reminds me of the good ol’ days.
I’m looking for the Top 20 iPhone Games for 2007 but can’t find a list anywhere. Any help?
I hope you didn’t spend from 3:03PM to 5:40PM rearranging icons. 🙂
Bejeweled on the iPhone is fun.
Fairies Fly? Really? Looking at the screens, it certainly has some nice production values, but one kinda assumes most of the time games based on movie and cartoon licenses are gonna be pretty lame. So I’m looking forward to your inevitable review on it.
Also, you may have tried it, but if you like Balloonia, you should take a look at Paradox (which has a Lite version). It’s also a ‘pipe’ game – though from the looks of it, a bit different – but I’ve had a lot of fun with it.
No love for TouchGrind? Pshaw.
Yeah! Fieldrunners!
No Trism??
Lux rules! Free, too!
Worst captcha system ever!
There has to be a mention for Virtual Pool somewhere…
Ok, the ‘storyline’ is a bit hackneyed, but the gameplay is awesome and it’s easily as much of a time-waster as bejeweled!
OMG I didnt know about Missle Command. I just downloaded it and it does totalyl ROCK!
jess
http://www.anonymity.pro.tc
I completely agree with your #1 pick… 🙂
http://www.rantsandstuff.com/2008/12/02/iphone-app-review-fieldrunners/
No, no, no! Not complete! Mouse About MUST be here.
“The game is very face paced,” spell checks be damned 😉
Memals,
Well, spell check wouldn’t catch that, technically those are real words. That’s why I have you guys.
🙂
-The Doc
You forgot Lux Touch. it’s a Risc like game and free 🙂
Why are there no free games on the list like Lux, Aurora, Cube, Cube runner, etc?!
Any top 20 iPhone games list without Galcon can’t be taken as all that great. But nonetheless, you hit upon some great ones anyway, thank you.
I DO hope you guys realize I was being sarcastic when I said that it was possible to make a definitive “Best of” list… But these are all kick ass games.
– The Doc
Yeah no doubt, of course it’s not a complete list… just thought it was odd the there were zero free games.
Good list either way
TouchSkate definitely deserves a spot on this list.
What about BombBlocks?
Awesome. I’ll have to try some of these.
Trism is an excellent game. I rank it higher than Frenzic.
C’mon no one likes enigmo?
I second that no top iPhone games list is valid or complete without Galcon. Still enjoying multiplayer games after several months.
Venger is probably my favorite of the year.
Scrabble!
I just bought Warfare Incorporated and am blown away by how good it is. Watch the video review. Perhaps there’ll be a free demo later. It’s such a breeze to scroll around on the map, select units, even select multiple units with a pinch. This is how you’re supposed to use multi-touch. In ways, it’s actually easier than using a mouse. Looking forward to play it some more.
I wouldn’t support Critter Crunch after they switched publishers and won’t allow any of the previous owners to update to the newer version without paying $4.99. That’s right, if you bought it for $9.99 when it came out, you can’t update from 1.0.5 to 1.0.6 without paying another $4.99, lame.
Just putting this out there: would you do a Top 20 Free Games list?
Thanks for taking the time to post this. Something that would have been useful would be providing some kind of voting or ranking of these applications don’t you think?
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The Best iPhone and iPod Touch Accessories at the Best Price!
You’ve never played a tower defense game but you’re reviewing games?
What about doing a top list of sudoku games. There are like 40 of them on iTunes so I think there is a need. I’d like to mention that I recently started playing Zen Garden Sudoku. It’s pretty cool as it uses no words in it’s interface so it’s truly an international game.
Good list either way!!! Thanks
Where’s Papijump(+)?!
It’s free and the payed version (1$) is even better! Most addictive iPhone game ever!
Balloonia is descended from a older game called Pipe Dream, which was an update of the 1989 Amiga game Pipeline (thanks Wikipedia). I remember spending too much time playing Pipe Dream when I should have been studying.
Why isn’t Tap Defense on this list??? It’s by far one of the best free games in the App store. It should make the top 10 out of all the games in the App store.
no aurora feint?
hmmmmmmm
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I really enjoy Missile Command. The option to play in retro mode is amazing reminds me of the good ol’ days….
Does the person who wrote this article not realize that it’s impossible for our first two screens to look like that? I mean, the bottom four doesn’t change with each page, it stays the same unless you change it so we would have to be constantly switching Applications around.
Any top 20 iPhone games list without Galcon can’t be taken as all that great. But nonetheless, you hit upon some great ones anyway, thank you…
The review is great this was used as reference before I bought FieldRunners and Crash Kart Nitro
the great thing about fieldrunners is that it u build ur own maze, unlike tap defense or any other TD’s i played. and it has more variety of enemies and allows a bigger diversity of strategies, such as juggling the enemies back and forth by switching guns.