It’s time for part four of our list of the 100 best iPhone games. We’re now at number 40, so you can be sure that every one of these titles is a must-download classic. On the list we have a point ‘n’ click adventure from the 90s, a spruced-up version of a genre-defining brawler, an all-new casual smash and an innovative take on Sudoku, this time with numbers.
There’s just one more part to this iPhone gaming journey, which will be up on the site tomorrow morning. For now, give your eyeballs a workout with the rest of our round-up –
100 Best iPhone games 100-81
100 Best iPhone games 80-61
100 Best iPhone games 60-41
100 Best iPhone games 40-21
100 Best iPhone games 20-1
40. Street Fighter IV Volt
By Capcom
Released June 2011
Street Fighter IV Volt is a cynical move on behalf of Capcom – it’s a minor update to the original Street Fighter IV, but if you don’t own that one-on-one brawler, this is the edition to go for. It features 17 classic characters (Volt’s extras include Balrog, Cody and Vega) and the classic beat ’em up action you may – no, should – remember from the classic Street Fighter titles. It was the first game of this genre to prove that the beat ’em up can work on a smartphone touchscreen.
39. Doom Classic
By id Software
Released October 2009
Few lists of classic games, regardless of platform, are complete without a spot of Doom. Originally released in 1993, this was many gamers’ first experience of a full-3D first-person shooter. Boy, was it exciting. And scary. Wolfenstein 3D may have come out the year before, but Doom made it look rather sillyin comparison. The iPhone port is a faithful translation of the original, featuring four episodes comprised of 36 levels. Grab that shotgun and get blasting, we say.
38. Tilt to Live
By One Man Left
Released February 2010
It’s not hard to imagine the gaming equation that resulted in Tilt to Live. Boiled down to the basics, the game’s an accelerometer-controlled take on Geometry Wars. You control a little cursor by tilting your iPhone, as hordes of little circular enemies creep towards you. With no weapons of your own, you have to roll over power-ups to destroy these enemies before they hit you. Difficult, addictive frustrating – Tilt to Live is one of the most compulsive “high score” games on iPhone.
37. Civilization Revolution
By 2K Games
Released August 2009
Once upon a time, Civilzation was a game that would suck days from your life, as you progressed from a meandering settler in 20,000BC to a nuclear nation complete with a space travel programme. Civilization Revolution takes the best bits of this geekiest of gaming classics and make it accessible for newbies and consumable on a mobile device like the iPhone. It looks and feels the same, but it’s simpler and a lot quicker. For those who remember the old days of Civilization II, it’s one to get downloading now.
36. iBlast Moki
By Godzilab
Released September 2009
iBlast Moki is a game that proves cute graphics and casual gameplay don’t mean a game can’t challenge your grey matter. In each level, you have to blast a little moki creature into a portal elsewhere – by placing bombs right under him. How the blighters survive without being able to move on their own is anyone’s guess. After the first few levels you’ll need multiple bombs to get the moki moving to the right place too, requiring split-second timing of each of the bomb’s fuses. A perfect blend of cute and clever.
35. Drop7
By Area/Code
Released December 2008
Drop7 was a huge viral hit, and all without the help of cute characters or funny sound effects. This, dear readers, is a maths game. A very, very addictive maths game. Think of it as a blend of Sudoku and Tetris, and you’re half-way there. Numbered blocks fall from the top of the screen, and if the number on the block matches the number of blocks in the same row or column, it’ll disappear Give it a go and that’ll make a lot more sense. There’s a free ad-funded version of the game available on iTunes.
34. Mirror’s Edge
By EA
Released September 2010
Although rendered with high-quality 3D visuals, your interactions in Mirror’s Edge are curiously simple. Your character, Faith, runs automatically, leaving you to simply jump, duck and change direction. A fancy take on Canabalt, that Mirror’s Edge is now available for just 69p seems a big ridiculous to us. Stylish, fun and fast it mixes the gameplay style of a casual title with the production values of an AA game.
33. Game Dev Story
By Kairosoft
Released October 2010
What gaming fan hasn’t one day wished they could make their own game? Game Dev Story tickles – if not quite satisfies – these dreams. It charts the life of a game studio, from the early days of gaming right up to today’s consoles. You hire a team, buy a dev license, pick the type of game you want and work your way through a 20-year career in the industry. A remarkable array of elements are included, from annual awards to a selection of different marketing types.
32. Bejeweled 2
By Popcap
Released August 2008
Bejeweled 2 isn’t just a game, it’s the perfect encapsulation of a gaming archetype. It’s a pure match-3 puzzler at its core, but in true Popcap form the game mechanics have been sharpened and perfected so that it’s virtually impossible to better. There are just the right number of special bonus gem types to spice up the gameplay without weakening its rock-solid central mechanics.
31. Broken Sword: Director’s Cut
By Revolution
Released January 2010
Ahh, 1996. ‘Twas a simpler time. Broken Sword was released as the adventure game genre was just at the beginning of its dwindling. We still had Grim Fandango to look forward to, but otherwise the big adventure game players had already made most of their best games. Broken Sword was a surprise entry to the graphic adventure hall of fame, coming not from the usual suspects of LucasArts and Sierra but relative newbie Revolution. Broken Sword had beautiful graphics, full voice acting and a riveting story. It still does. The iPhone edition has new character graphics for conversations and better-looking, more readable text.
30. Monopoly
By EA
Released November 2009
Monopoly is surely one of the greatest board games ever made. Ever. And EA has converted it almost perfectly to iPhone. Surprisingly, this “vanilla” take on the classic wasn’t the first conversion to hit iOS – Monopoly Here and Now: World Edition was released almost a year earlier in December 2009. This is the definitive edition though. It includes multiplayer over Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or good old pass ‘n’ play.
29. Bookworm
By Popcap
Released March 2009
Popcap is a master of taking a simple gaming premise and absolutely nailing it. With Bookworm, Popcap nailed the word search game. Aside from the eponymous wormy character, Bookworm is a pure word game, but it has enough bonuses and score-multiplying elements to keep the sense of reward riding high – along with your motivation to keep playing. This is one of the best iPhone games for “non-gamers”.
28. Puzzle Quest 2
By Namco
Released December 2010
The Puzzle Quest series merged RPG-style adventuring with match-3 puzzling better than any other. The result is a game that’s involving, but still has that pick up and play edge. Each match-3 round is a battle between your own character and a monster, or is representative of a task like breaking through a door. To help you to succeed, you have spells cast using the mana attained from the symbol matches. The original Puzzle Quest suffered from some significant control issues to begin with, but these niggles were all solved for its successor.
27. Let’s Golf 2
By Gameloft
Released January 2011
EA owns the serious side of golf on iPhone, with the Tiger Woods series, but on the casual, arcadey end, it’s Gameloft’s territory. It’s all down to the wonderful Let’s Golf series. Featuring courses with over saturated colours and golfers with over-sized heads, there’s no stuffiness here. It’s almost enough to convince you golf isn’t a game just for old fogeys. It includes a mammoth 108 holes.
26. Asphalt 6: Adrenaline
By Gameloft
Released December 2010
There are sides in the race of iPhone driving game supremacy – the arcade racer and the realistic racer. Asphalt 6 plants its tires in the arcade lane. The series is forever pitching its games against the best efforts from EA and its Need for Speed, but Asphalt 6 pips the most recent Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit to the finish. It lets you race cars and bikes, tears along at blistering speed and features 42 vehicles, including fully-licensed models.
25. Galaxy on Fire 2
By Fishlabs
Released October 2010
Games don’t come much more massive than Galaxy on Fire 2. It’s a space shooter and trading sim that encompasses more than 20 solar systems, each full of planets and space stations to discover. It’s not an aimless free-for-all though – Galaxy on Fire 2 also offers a full story mode held together by structured, scripted missions. You can head off the beaten path if you’d prefer, make your millions and buy the biggest ship in the galaxy.
24. Flight Control
Before Angry Birds came and won its position as the
iPhone game on everyone’s lips, Flight Control was the iPhone gaming scene
darling. It was Firemint’s first game, initially intended to be a side project
to release some pressure while they beavered away on their magnum opus Real
Racing. Four million downloads later, it has been revealed to be a bit more
than that. You take on the role of air traffic controller, directing planes and
helicopters to their landing spots with your finger. Simple, addictive and
infuriating – in the best possible way.
23. Fruit Ninja
By Halfbrick Studios
Released April 2010
If you were to simply tell someone Fruit Ninja’s premise, we doubt whether your patter would sound very convincing. “It’s a game where you chop up fruit, as fast as you can”, you’d say, then look dismayed as they raised an unconvinced eyebrow and went off to play Angry Birds once again. Many of the best casual games have bizarre concepts, and a few minutes of playing Fruit Ninja was enough to convince us it’s an insta-classic. Perfect gaming timing, giving those fruit-chopping combo awards such weight, is what earned Fruit Ninja its six million plus downloads.
22. Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor
By Tiger Style
Released August 2009
Not many games let you take control of a spider. Fewer still weave a human story, while letting you get about the daily fly catchin’, web slingin’ life of an arachnid. The odd combination won Spider an unusual amount of coverage in the wider games press, even though it’s not the typical casual 59p (sorry, 69p) smash that usually cracks through the shell of the iOS gaming scene. The levels chart the spider’s progress through a grand old house, full of family artefacts telling the story of the Bryce family. More importantly though, zooming about as a spider is fun in its own right.
21. Fieldrunners
By Subatomic Studios
Released October 2008
Through a mixture of fortuitous timing and rock-solid gameplay, Fieldrunners quickly became “the” iPhone tower defence game, and the one to incite curiosity about the genre in the wider iPhone gaming masses. In some ways though, it’s curiously generic. There’s no pre-made path – just a blank field of war with entrances and exits. You have to dam the flow of oncoming enemies with careful tower placement. It’s an excellent primer for tower defence fans in waiting, and for iPhone gaming in general.
We’re nearly at the end of our iPhone games quest with just twenty more games to go. Will your favourite take top prize? Stay tuned tomorrow to find out.