iPhone/iPod Touch as a portable game console

Some months ago when I bought my Touch, I mentioned its potential as a gaming platform. I saw this potential for the first time when reading an article about the SDK on RoughlyDrafted. Now that hundreds of games are available in the App Store, I feel like a kid in a candy shop. Murray from Palm-Mac might not feel the same way about these games, but I sure love them. Sure, a lot of rubbish and copied games are to be found in the App Store. But there are also a number of paid jewels; like the famous Super Monkey Bal, Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D, Asphalt 4 Elite racing, Enigmo and Texas Hold’em.

As you can tell from my application screen, I bought three games. The other ones are lite or free games. I must be careful to not spend too much in that dangerous App Store… Super Monkey Ball needs no explanation, Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D is really awesome with Mario Kart style fun. Texas Hold’em is made by Apple, which shows. Pleasant jazz music in the background, coverflow style menu. A funny detail: at the first table (in a garage), you can see a number of Apple Mac posters hanging here and there. I played Enigmo on my Dell Axim X51v back in the days, and I wasn’t exactly good at it. If I’m done playing Nitro Kart, I might download Asphalt 4 Elite Racing as well. It’s just too hard to resist! The accelerometer being the main control, a big, gorgeous screen and more processing power then a Playstation Portable simply make the iTouch my game console of choice.

Some free games are also worth mentioning. Tap Tap Revenge was one of the first free games available, and the rythm game has been updated with new downloadable tracks and a slicker menu. How do they keep one of the most popular downloads free? By making it ad-supported. You have to love the possibilities that this platform brings into play. I’m not trying to be a fanboy here, but we have never seen something similair on other operating systems… You are probably wondering what that Audi A4 icon is doing there. Well, it’s a promotional game. But don’t bother to download it though, as it’s very crappy. The comments already pointed this out, but I wanted to see it for myself. I do hope that more manufacturers will pay attention to mobile platforms in the near future with special content though, but they will have to put some work in it.

Tris is an excellent, free Tetris game, but unfortunately it appears to be taken out of the App Store. The same rights problem happened with Phone Saber. That’s a serious bummer for the people who haven’t already loaded it on their device. People coming from Palm OS will probably recognize Sol Free, as it was the best, free solitaire game for that platform. I sure loved it. It is nice to see them jumping on the Apple bandwagon, and their game turned out to be very impressive- especially being freeware. Be sure to check it out if you own an iPhone/Touch. The remaining applications are pretty much self explanatory, being lite editions or demo’s of paid games. They are often cheap, and I might consider buying (some of) them.

Looking back at the expectations of the iphone as a gaming platform, I for one haven’t been dissapointed. I’m just as eager to see new games as I was before the big launch. I’m also confident that after a year of gamedeveloping for this platform, it will be even more of a rival for portable gaming consoles like the Nintendo DS and PSP. Let alone being a serious threat to other smartphones with its plethora of advanced applications…

Check out this wacky gaming controller for the iPhone from Belkin! (via the iPhone Blog)