Image: lawlmart
If you own an iPhone, you’ve probably come to the conclusion that it’s simply the handiest piece of technology you’ve ever laid eyes let alone hands on. It’s a laptop, a mobile phone and an MP3 player rolled into one. In short, it’s incredible. You’re probably aware that it’s about as addictive as crack. Come with us now as we look at 10 iPhone games that will take over your life…
10. iBasket
Image: Ideateca
From a side-on view you launch basketballs into a net. Very simple; very linear; very, very addictive. As with a lot of these games, it’s the satisfying control system that makes it so irresistible to pick up and play, and the immense feeling of self-righteousness one feels upon scoring a basket and bettering your buddy’s coveted high score.
9. Doodle Jump
Image: Lima Sky
Doodle Jump is the epitome of simplicity. You use the tilt function of the iPhone to help a jetpack-wearing alien travel upwards from platform to platform. The higher you get, the higher your score; if you miss a platform – you lose! Can’t get much simpler than that, right? The thing is, it’s so damned addictive it isn’t true. If you have a friend with Doodle Jump on their handset then wave goodbye to any conversation at the bar, ’cause there’s nothing more enjoyable than wasting an hour beating their high score before smugly entering your name.
8. Stick Golf
Image: Jordan Schidlowsky
It may just be us, but we find mastering this particular game intensely satisfying. Unlike many of the games on offer for the iPhone, with this one there is no time limit or ADD interface; no mad graphics or split-second pitfalls. Like real golf, it’s a case of teeing up the shot, taking a deep breath, adjusting for wind, and aiming just right. The underrated side scrolling time waster is like a cross between Tiger Woods PGA Tour and Worms 2. You aim with an arrow and charge up the shot. Simple but beautiful!
7. Flick Kick Football
Image: Prodigy Design
Assuming you’re a soccer fan, it’s not necessarily all about the big budget EA offerings if you just want an annoyingly addictive distraction from yawning at nil-nil MLS draws. Download a copy of Flick Kick Football and prepare to lose yourself in – arguably – the most rewardingly difficult game on this list. The principle is incredibly simple. You use your finger to flick a football in first-person-perspective past an increasingly tricky arrangement of defenders and moving goalkeepers, and into the net. Again, the simple approach appears to have worked perfectly in this instance. The motion becomes ridiculously pleasing and has helped us lose hours of sleep lying in bed beating our high scores.
6. Touch Hockey Extreme: FS5
Image: FlipSide5
Remember when you were a kid and your free time was divided between poking things with stuff and going to the arcade or bowling alley to play games like this? Maybe it’s just us… Either way, for an irresistible trip down Nostalgia Boulevard we suggest you play Touch Hockey. Its piece-of-cake controls and intuitive physics engine make it a perfect waster of free time, and it requires little to no commitment. Making it the ideal game for a wait in a bar or a short journey. Or a long journey.
5. Guitar Hero
Image: Activision Publishing
Personally, we’re not big fans of the Guitar Hero console games. They seem to lack the satisfying nature of actually conquering a mean riff or rippin’ a solo in real life. So we were more surprised than ever when we test drove a copy of the iPhone Guitar Hero app. From the off it feels much more satisfying, truly taking into account the delicate and dexterous nature of handling a real instrument. What’s more, it utilizes enough notes per riff to make it feel like you’re actually playing what you hear. Easily one of the most addictive games to just pick up and play on the iPhone!
4. Angry Birds
Image: Clickgamer Technologies
The most addictive quality of Angry Birds, aside from the intensely satisfying catapult finger motion, is the sheer size of the game. It’s always more worthwhile working at a game if you know there’s gonna be a new and different level ahead to reward your efforts, and in this case there are tonnes of levels of increasing difficulty and varying features. Angry birds uses spot-on physics to make this as close to perfectly satisfying as an iPhone game can possibly get. Oh, and the premise? You shoot varied types of birds at armored green pigs hidden behind collapsible fortifications. Well who said fun has to be logical? Angry Birds is available in the iTunes store.
3. Cut the Rope
Image: Zepto Lab
Another physics-heavy puzzle game, Cut the Rope involves feeding a little green alien guy a boiled sweet which is suspended from an ever-more complex system of ropes. Pitfalls and handy benefits include spikes, balloons, bubble wrap and air blowers. The increasing difficulty of the levels is the key to the compulsion, requiring genuine brain power for you to advance further. We decided to give it the seal of approval after it accidentally took a whole afternoon out of our day as we tried to conquer the early levels.
2. Hotshot Pool
Image: Neon Play
The smartest pool game we’ve played. It utilizes a very simple system of aiming and firing, and depends entirely on the understanding of angles. As with most puzzle or strategy games, it increases in trickiness as you progress through the levels. The most addictive thing about it? The short sharp phone vibration you feel in your hand when ten minutes of trial and error finally pays off.
1. iCopter
Image: lawlmart
This is easily the most love-it-or-hate-it game on the list. To the aficionado, iCopter is insanely, outrageously, inexplicably addictive. To the cynic? Mind-numbing. You simply control a side scrolling helicopter which travels through a tunnel from left to right, and retain stability by constantly tapping on the screen. Occasionally a floating object appears in front of you, which you must avoid. That’s it. Just try it, we dare you. It’s like the heroin of the gaming world.
[…] 10 iPhone Games Apps That Will Take Over Your Life! […]
[…] Read 10 iPhone Games That Will Take Over Your Life […]