I think drawing on the iPhone is a lot of fun and a great way to pass the time or jot down quick ideas. The free app Doodle Buddy goes even further with the ability to connect two iPhones and work together. You can also select a background, like a tic-tac-toe board, which can come in handy. You can draw on top of your own pictures as well.
You’ve got two flavors to choose from 3D Good Vs Evil and Good Vs Evil. This game reminds me of an old Apple II game in the 80s. You play a chess-like game that results in quick melee combat when pieces encounter each other.
Here’s another game that simply wouldn’t work on any other device except the iPhone. Lifeboat is a game where you literally rock the boat. By moving your phone you can direct passengers into lifeboats. If they fall into the water, you can throw them a life ring. Did I mention there are sharks in the water?
Well the Wii might allow you to control your video games with motion, but can you use your own breath? With Air Sail you need to blow into the mic to propel a little sailing ship through different levels. You can even race against a friend using two iPhones connected to a wifi network. The only problem with this game is that it takes guts to play it on the subway.
You’ve probably seen this App featured in one of the iPhone TV commercials. Urbanspoon is basically a restaurant finder with reviews, but it stands out in a few ways. It allows you to do much more than just review a restaurant. For instance, you can use your iPhone to take a picture of the menu and upload it to Urbanspoon. This is incredibly useful, as so many restaurants still don’t get the Internet and still don’t provide online menus.
Instead of just being another breakout clone, Radial 50 makes things more interesting with a circular design, allowing your paddle to move all the way around the screen. There’s plenty of complexity here, but at the same time the game play is simply to reflect the ball. The design is interesting enough to keep you playing time and time again.
So sliding puzzle games are easy. Child’s play, really. But what if the image wasn’t just an image? What if it was a ball moving around as you tilt your iPhone? You’d need to figure out which pieces are supposed to go where before you starting putting them into place. Behold: Bedeviled.
This odd game is like tower defense combined with whack-a-mole. In Knights Onrush you defend your castle by picking up and flicking the attackers with your finger. Oh, and you can sacrifice some of them to dragons, or detonate the little bombs they carry with them. Lots of fun!
You’d think there would be a default drawing program on the iPhone. After all, with a touch screen, it should be easy to sketch out ideas and make visual notes. SimpleDraw fills in this gap. It is a free app that allows you to draw on your screen and save the image to your photo gallery.
While the iPhone is capable of good 3D games, rarely do you see this in use. In Vans SK8: Pool Service there are 3D graphics and gameplay, coupled with nice controls. Even if you aren’t into skating games, it is worth looking for the lite version of this game to check out the graphics.
Time for some shameless self-promotion as we pick Chicken And Eggs as the featured iPhone app of the week. This is the first CleverMedia game in the app store and it is a version of one of the most popular Web-based games we’ve produced over the years. Give it a look.
Sometimes it is incredible to see how much 3D artwork goes into some iPhone games. International Athletics is one such example. In this game, you use the touch screen to compete in track and field events. It reminds us of the old Olympics games on the Apple II and in the arcade.
Are you up for a good tile-based side-scroller? Brave Dwarves is colorful and action-packed. It uses a very intuitive combination of touch gestures and accelerometers for controls. You definitely get a lot of gameplay for your money.
While not the most impressive or fun app, AT&T myWireless Mobile is essential for U.S. iPhone users because it is AT&T’s official app for checking your account status and changing some settings. You can pay your bill, check usage, and even add some features to your account.
If you are an astronomy geek than you have already probably used your iPhone to look up planet positions and star charts. Star Walk is a handy app that will do just that using your GPS coordinates. But its easy-to-use interface makes it fun for anyone who simply wants to know what constellation they are looking at. Just run it and hold it up to the sky and it is easy to learn a little something.
Want some good old RPG action on your iPhone? Underworlds reminds us of the excellent Baulder’s Gate series, but tinier and in your pocket. You’ve got all the standard RPG elements: you character, 2.5D views, combat, inventory, quests, and so on. So go ahead and kill a giant rat with your iPhone. Treasure awaits!
A simple travel and trading game would seem a natural for the iPhone, and Space Trader: Moon Madness fits the bill there. But it goes beyond that, with excellent 3D graphics that enhance the game without getting in the way. Basically, you travel around in space buying and selling goods and taking on missions. Great for a quick game or for extended multi-session play.
There’s finally a good way to use Skype on your iPhone to make calls, and it is causing a bit of a stir. The Skype iPhone app is free, but you get the most out of it with a paid Skype account. Of course you can only use it to make calls over WiFi, not the 3G network. Some are complaining that AT&T shouldn’t restrict data in that way. Regardless, it is still a must-have application for anyone who uses Skype.
There’s more than one way to listen to podcasts on your iPhone. Stitcher Radio turns podcasts into a radio station, streaming episodes and stitching them together according to preset categories or your own preferences. If old-fashioned radio isn’t already dead for you, then this will surely finish it off.
