The 30 Best iPhone Apps + 14 Games — Part 4 — Games

The earlier bits covering Apps in case you missed them.

So, I’ve covered quite a few Apps, and hope the list has been useful. Games are a bit trickier, because there is a lot more subjectivity just in terms of what kinds of games a variety of people are going to like. I explored a lot of games, and I’ll tell you right now that I don’t necessarily love all of these games. I tried to include some games that just work really well, look really good, and will probably appeal to others. I don’t love them myself, but I appreciate that they are good games.

Before I start the actual list, I want to mention a couple quickly.

Apple‘s own Texas Hold ‘Em works great, has a lot of options, and carries you through several different games at different buy-in levels. It’s funnish for a quick game of poker to distract yourself while you’re in line, or whatever. On the other hand, it has the most ludicrous, unreal, and totally unhelpful AI the poker game world has ever known. The whole game is pretty much all-in preflop all the time.

Next things I want to mention are the two very similar games – iBowl and iGolf. They are actually pretty cool, but they are just sort of a gimmick, and there’s only so long you can take them. They’re worth checking out though. They both use the iPhone to control the game by swinging the iPhone through the air.

Here goes.

14. Everest: Hidden Expedition

This is one of those find the object games, and its actually pretty cool. It’s a nice time-waster, with nice graphics.

It does occasionally have confusing and/or unhelpful names for the things you’re supposed to find. In the picture here, “birdie” means “shuttlecock,” which is not that bad I suppose. In one picture the word is “avian,” and there seem to be several birds around.

This manages an excuse for a clock by way of a supposed race against other teams.

It can get old after a while, but it is nicely put together.

13. Sudoku – EA

It’s just Sudoku, but it’s a very nice looking version, and it plays well. Easy to use, a lot of puzzles, and I’ve never had any problems with crashing or errors.

It has a nice interface, and it is built around simplicity without looking cheap.

Other than that, it’s Sudoku, there isn’t much to explain. There are several choices at the AppStore, and this is definitely the one to get if you’re interested in the game.

12. Trism

This is a puzzle game much like many others, but the idea is matching the triangles. It’s incredibly complicated though, because you can tilt the iPhone and the new triangles will slide in from a different direction.

Matches of more than three triangles give bonuses, and there are a variety of styles of gameplay.

Problems crop up as well. Triangles will randomly get screwed down so that you can’t move them, and bombs will show up that force you to try and remove specific triangles in a certain number of moves.

It gets a little crazy after a while, and it can be addictive.

11. JewelQuest II

I think it’s safe to say that most people are going to be familiar with this game. Even if you aren’t, you actually are, because it’s just the same old matching similar items and getting more to fall game.

The twist here is that making a match on a square turns it gold, and you have to turn all the squares gold.

A weird story goes along with this one, and that leads you from level to level.

It’s a solidly built game, but it is of course just the same old thing. On the other hand, the game seems to work for a lot of people, and this is a very good version.

10. Cro-Mag Rally

Now this one is slightly unfortunate in the sense that it is hardly necessary to put it on anyone’s list. It keeps living on top of the charts at the AppStore. It’s outrageously well-known, gets featured on Apple‘s iPhone commercials, and quite simply doesn’t need any help from me.

It’s a racing game, with a caveman spin. You race weird carts from, I suppose, the dawn of the wheel, and you cruise around tracks with dinosaurs and tar pits, and all manner of such bonesy nonsense. You steer by turning your iPhone, as you’d expect, and everything is pretty simple and straightforward. There are many tracks to choose from, and a variety of “cars.”

I’m compelled to include the game for several reasons. It’s cheap, works surprisingly well and looks great, and it’s just wicked fun. It’s another one that gets old before too long, but give it a while and you’ll go back to it. It has the drawback of not having anything as far as much progression to the game, but with a lot of different cars and a lot of tracks, it doesn’t matter that much.

9. Puzzloop

Yes, it’s another puzzle game. This one is oddly addictive to me. I don’t actually play it all that often, but once I start I can’t seem to stop.

The colored balls wind their way down the track, and you, as the little whatever in the center, shoot colored balls to try and match at least three. Destroy the whole chain before the balls reach you, or it’s lights out.

Another game that gets in, apart from its addictiveness, based partially on its functionality. So many games, even ones that are very cool and/or expensive, crash at times, or hang, or do other odd things. I’ve never had a problem with this one.

It’s goofy fun, but it’s still fun. Tap to play, distract me for a while… there you are.