I've seen some intriguing stuff on the machine - fuck knows how you play something like this though;

I can't take it seriously, I'll only be interested once genres emerge specifically for a device such as this.

I'm interested now that the third gen touch is out, mainly as a music player, but also keen for the new Space Invaders game thats out.

Decided against the iPhone though, not enough buttons...

I think there are great swathes of really bad shovelware at the moment, and a handful of gems that 'real' game devs have put out to see how they do. I'm not interested in crap like Peggle whatsoever.

I'm a full-on iPod Touch addict and can recommend you a ton of games, should any of you buy a handset.

It really reminds me of the glory days of the Amiga, when a lack of gatekeeping on the publishing side allowed all kinds of original ideas to bubble up, even if they weren't so polished.

You really can't argue with 59p games that download directly to your handheld either.

@Suar, that's completely bonkers how the hell are you supposed to play that? Do the developers even understand what a fighting game is?

@Paper, that's why I went for the G1. The keyboard is just about usable as a pad proxy. None of the emulators are quite up to scratch yet, but with time they will be. afaik you and Jib are androided up too. You should dl NOIZ2 from the marketplace. It's a little jittery on the G1, but a really lovely OpenGL port of a Kenta Cho game. Bullet Hell FTW!

Another one that looks very difficult to play;

Just look how difficult it is to align the crosshair! I tried this on my iPhone and never got on with it. The screen cannot distinguish more than a few presses every other second either, it could've benefitted from rapid fire as a default setting, too. But it's really not worth engaging the ganados at all, it's such a hurdle to get into position you are better off just running past them.

Which games really are worth getting then?

That LocoRoco thing looks awful, and most iPhone games seem to be in that cheap rip-off mold. I wouldn't mind a portable tilt Monkey Ball, and mentioned that Space Invaders game, but racking my brain to think of much else worth getting. I've tried having a look in the Apple shop, but that place is hard going. Its worth going to remind yourself why Apple products are generally best avoided.

Does the iPhone have anything genuinely innovative and unique, or is it more bolt-on functionality, derivative crap to squeeze a few more pennies out of game-blinkered Apple followers?

http://www.ntsc-uk.com/review.php?platform=mob&game=SpaceInvadersInfinityGene

Is this the game you're playing Paper? Sounds like a must have based on that review.

Not played it, read about it and very keen, looks good.

Rock Band iPhone then:

http://kotaku.com/5377582/iphone-rock-band-delivers-20-songs-and-multiplayer

balls.

Guess you'll be getting a facebook account then

Not an iPhone either, but a third gen touch is more appealing.

I really need to figure out if there is much else worth getting though... nothing has really grabbed me, but there must be some.

As a platform the problem is where to jump on. I mean the 3GS has a juicier processor, so you'd assume that it will be able to do more gamage than the earlier harware revisions. If they stick with that processor for a couple more iterations then it might be worth considering a 3rd gen unit once the 4th gen is out. By then there should be some proper decent games too (maybe).

Looks like there is no need for that iPhone any more:

http://www.console-arcade.com/2010/06/10/space-invaders-infinity-gene-earmarked-for-psn-xbla/

... just about the iPhone game I've been really keen to get hold of.

Cool that's great news.

When is somebody going to man up and release a phone with a discrete d-pad?

I've been experimenting with the Wii remote hookup on my G1 and it's a bit buggy at the moment, but has the potential to be interesting. The end game surely is HDMI out with wii remote over bluetooth to give you a very portable retro games solution. You can probably already do that with the EVO 4G come to think about it.

I had ambitious plans to spend more time with S&P2 but I have been playing Cave's DoDonPachi Resurrection instead on my 3GS. The pixel work is stunning and looks quite good on the screen since there's little in way of upscaling to be done. The game and the bullet patterns are optimised for touch control so it works quite well, you move much faster because of this and with a dexterious finger some nice maneuvers can be achieved. DDPR is a much faster game than their previous release, Espgaluda II, so it drains your stamina quickly unless you find a comfortable position.

Sent from my iPhone.

I really liked the iPhone Dead Space game, manages to be enough Dead Space to be fun. Not sure on length, or repetitiveness, but I had an enjoyable 30 mins with it.

I thought Mirror's Edge on the iPhone was a decent enough game. Some nice presentation and good controls too.

Pizza, your post on DoDonPachi has got my conservative alarm bells ringing. What you're describing is a very different beast to a traditional shmup. My only frame of reference is Kenta Cho's Noiz2, which use touch screen controls on Android.

Sounds like Cave have designed the game around the controls, which is the right thing to do as opposed to overlay a new control style atop a game that was designed for an arcade stick.

I'm really glad that devs are starting to work to the hardware, but my beef with the iPhone has and always will be the input limitations of the devices as a gaming platform. Don't get me wrong there are and will be some stand out examples of good solid gameplay on iOS, but my heart does sink whenever I'm shown the latest iPhone game craze, which appears to be some sort of glorified flash game or the latest and greatest app, which is just a custom skin for a website.

The app skinning of web content frustrates me the most. A fucking glorified bookmark in most cases. If a site has been optimised for mobile devices then these should be largely redundant. There's too much momentum behind them now to stop it. Every bloody site on the internet is going to have a stupid app in the app store before long. No thanks. I'll stick to the stock browser in Android and Beyond Pod rss feed reader and pod-catcher rather than have to click on a dozen fucking apps to get the content I want.

Cave's efforts so far have been rather good on the iPhone. I see your point about other ports being superficial shells - these are not completely exempt of that. While you can easily steer the ships you are sacrificing finer control over the shooting mechanisms which are activated by buttons. It doesn't feel very intuitive to move your index finger to press these when things get busy so the arcade original (or 360 port) will always be the best version.

There's a free demo of this called DDPR Lite, it's listed in the App Store next to the full game

Well...!

I came by an iPad 2 recently (it was a gift!), and I've finally gone through the few iOS games I was keen on.

The device itself is kind of balls, classic Apple form-over-function, along with that big fat assumption that the user is an idiot who doesn't understand how technology works. The OS makes me feel ill. The device itself is heavy and unwieldy, unless you are holding it flat or on a table for reading, it is uncomfortable. A fondle-pad it isn't.

As a browser it is kind of OK given the screen size, but otherwise not much doing. I find the screen on my SGS2 easier on the eyes (AMOLED, higher pixel density), so I've not really felt the need. Other than that, its kind of an OK iPlayer in bed device, but I haven't felt the need for that either. The OS itself is frustrating and antiquated, although iOS 5 next week will go a long way to fixing (android-ifying) a lot of dumb stuff.

However, compared to other mobile platforms, and despite the 99% of dross, it does seem like a legitimate games machine, if only because of the size of the user base, and the uniformity of hardware. In fact games player is probably the best thing it does.

There are only a handful of really great games (so far two that I've been returning to), but a lot of interesting ones, and lots of experimentation with connectivity and (sadly) 'monetising' cheap stuff.

Some of the things I've looked at, in order of how much I've probably played them:

Ju-Beat - I had no idea this was out, but it is a pretty great version of a pretty great arcade game, and without a ridiculous custom controller probably the only one. Had to pick this up from the JPN AppStore, where the cost of song packs is eye watering, but it is available in the UK with a much worse songlist as Jukebeat.

Groove Coaster - really nice, simple rhythm action game from the Infinity Gene devs. They've cottoned on to the fact that iPad controls are always arse, and simplified this to little more than button taps. They have that polished to perfection though, and it looks and sounds great.

Minotron - Llamatron sequel, and it is pretty fantastic. The controls are sort of fixed, but also sort of borked, it takes a little too much adaptation, but is an improvement once you get there.

Taiko no Tatsujin - Another JPN AppStore game, and a really nice version of the game. Touch controls half kill it though, impossible to make progress in Oni mode.

Mirror's Edge - very polished, nicely implemented platform runner controls, they've done a great job of getting the main game's vibe across.

Super Monkey Ball 2: Sakura Edition - The best Monkey Ball I've played in a while, the iPad version ups the ante by adding some properly challenging (and new!) levels.

Tap Sonic - nice little Rock Band alike from the developers of DJ Max, which takes bits of that game, and bits of DJ Hero, mashing them together for the touch screen. Pretty neat, and a weird but cheap enough pay-to-play system.

Goatup - for anyone familiar with 8-bit platformers, this is brilliant. Takes most of it's queues from Miner 2049'er and Nebulus/Tower Toppler, with an acknowledgement of Doodle Jump. Perhaps slightly too difficult for the relaxed vibe it aims for though.

Brick People - yep, a version of the Sega block stacking arcade game. Super simple, way too easy, but like the arcade version also very charming.

I will probably post later on some of the interesting stuff, like a version of Sega's Karaoke service, all the weird Prope games, VidRhythm, and Real Racing 2 HD.

Some genuine reasons there to own an iOS device. It's such a difficult purchasing decision. Part of me feels like I'm missing out on some interesting games, but then I know that there are more interesting alternatives out there, Eee Transformer for one, which deliver a more rounded tablet experience.

Android does appear to be attracting more game development recently and plenty of iOS ports too, so I'm going to hold off for a while and see if the game catalogues start to converge. Interestingly it seems that some devs are using android as a beta platform, where they can quickly roll out bug fixes before releasing the iOS version.

The iPhone 4S is bit of a kick in the balls. I think Apple have basically screwed themselves this time by not raising the bar at all in the 18 months since the release of the iPhone 4. The SGS2 is in my opinion the best phone currently available. It's something of a marvel.

I think the iPhone 4S is totally fine really - decent spec improvement, I don't see much else they could have done with the hardware.

They are focussing on the software I guess, which seems like a good idea to me. I would not want to use iOS as a phone at all. The android notify bar they are adding in iOS 5 will be a huge improvement, but everything else is so locked down it would still be more trouble than its worth. I really don't like the way the AppStore is controlled, of the fact there is only one hardware supplier...

I don't think that much of the AppStore or Marketplace when it comes to games, things seem to succeed despite them rather than because of them. I think the reason iOS works better for games so far is because there is a limited number of hardware specs to develop against.

I always liked what Microsoft were doing with Windows Mobile 7 around this - better consistency in hardware spec, but a more open platform. Shame it has been too late to make a dent so far.

You could always get a 3GS, and dual boot it with android Although I think it would run like jelly breeze blocks.

Galaxy Nexus and ICS are looking pretty damned great eh

Another recent iOS music game, jpn only:

http://www.konami.jp/products/touch_beatgather/

http://www.appannie.com/beat-gather/

This is is quite clever, it takes elements of DDR, Tap Sonic, Ouendan, Reflec Beat, Technika, and then adds and it's own thing (crazy moving hit bar).

The clever bit is - you generate your own song charting, a bit like iGoBeat but slicker, either automatically or by hand, and can even share them. The auto generator does a really good job. It is all free as well.

You play to unlock additional song slots, clever but grr.

A Reflec Beat iOS game is on the way soon as well:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflec_Beat

blimey.

Can't comment on all this iOS goodness, but yes ICS is looking bloody good. Hopefully in time this will go some way to addressing the fragmentation problems. I'm still waiting for HTC to announce a successor to the G2/Desire-Z, but if they wait much longer I'll be looking at something minus a QWERTY.

Also have you seen the Asus Transformer Prime. DO WANT!

iOS is definitely good for music games, there have been quite a few decent ones in the last 6 months.

Irritating, considering the Android OS and devices are much better otherwise. Not found a single Android game to hold my attention so far, and anything mildly diverting has usually been an iOS port...

Yeah, the new Transformer looks great.

I am going to be a launch bunny for Transformer Prime, although its actual usefulness as an idea i.e. The tablet has yet to be proven and its cost is silly for what is essentially a sofa surfer, but I like the concept of a Transformer and ASUS have been right ontop of OS releases and roll outs and I expect the prices to crash on first generation Honeycomb tablets when the Tegra 3 ones trickle out.

It's the (docked) battery life that sells it for me. You could get a full day of use out of it without power anxiety. Hopefully with the 5th low power core on the Tegra 3 the battery performance in the Prime will be as good as the original transformer

First "mainstream" game I bought on Android recently. Worms. Which is the most phoned in, pun present, representation of the game. It is fundamentally fine but the touch screen controls are massively naive at best, first there is zero keyboard control, stupid, second the way you control the cursor / target thing is massively confusing and like most of these things I've seen there is no concession that your finger isn't a single pixel and not transparent... Meaning targeting is basically impossible within the typical Worms time constraints.... So for a quid 50 its as disposible as its price.... Its a shame because mouse games like Worms would be ideal for this format if they actually thought that human fingers might be involved somewhere. Oh and also the interface to select weapons and that whole thing is quite speculative and more odd than it has to be. Needs more thought.

Oh man, I could have saved you the money. You do get used to the control eventually, but forget about using the ninja rope in any meaningful way, which does change the focus of the game significantly.

The challenge mode isn't too shabby either. I think I cleared most of it up to the high 20s (or mid 30s?) in level numbers. The starting positions on the latter levels though are so much to the AI's favour that you have to go dark pretty early on.

Does this support netplay? Can't remember if it does then I could be up for a game or two.

However if you do play it for any significant length of time you will start to notice quite a few bugs to do with worms not being placed correctly on the landscape. Perhaps these have been fixed in the updates though.

I'm now bored to death with the iPad, with the exception of the 3-5 games that were worth playing.

Looking at the AppStore for new releases is just depressing - its a sea of shite. No different from the Android marketplace in that regard, 99% of the time.

Indeed the content is as follows

1: Tower Defence games
2: Runner games
3: Freemium MMORPG balls
4: Console-lite gaming with horrific touchy tilty control.

The music games you've posted made perfect sense for iPad and those are the right games to get excited about on the platform.

With my GameGripper I've been enjoying Shadow Dancer on the Megadrive on my phone. In fact 16 bit emulation is just brilliant with some decent physical controls, which is why I'm pumped for USB host controller in ICS. Although in theory I can hook up PS3 and wiimotes to my phone now, but it's quite a hassle.

I just wish they'd put a bloody hole in the GameGripper for the headphones, I need to get my drill out...

Its this that the iOS stuff seems to be afflicted by most of all, worse than Android really.

Things like those tower defence games etc, as soon as a 'new' mobile game mechanic becomes popular, no matter how niche, a bunch of clones quickly appear. There was a bunch of coin shove games that appeared quite recently on iOS, for example. It is totally shameless, and for the most part derivative and a waste of people's time.

I suppose you could make the comparison to early arcade days, eg. the number of Space Invaders clones that appeared. It is as if this generation of mobile game developers are starting from scratch in that regard, and I guess age wise they probably are. The whole thing is very opportunistic, and reeks of ignorant plagiarism.

they've fucked themselves really and mobile gaming as a whole the £0.99 to £1.99 price point means zero innovation and zero inspiration. It's become a commodity market, which just isn't right.

MAME!

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.seleuco.mame4all

This totally passed me by O_o

I've just played Shinobi arcade on my phone and it's brilliant with the Game Gripper. OK so this doesn't support the full set of mame roms, but most of what you need is there

I guess it's just me

Shinobi on my PHONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've got this on System 16A (non-working); System 16B (working); PS3 (Sega Classics Collection); and Master System.

I'm sucking so heavy now on this Mission 3-1 is just kicking my arse and I used to be ace at that one. It's the bit at the end where all the different coloured ninja's phase in. I'm getting done by a pesky green one who keeps phasing in on top of Joe. He's going to find a new definition of pain when I'm done with him

How does this treat the battery life then?

I'm not very good at being enthsiastic about MAME, the legals freak me out, you're probably safe mind.

Not sure I'm 100% safe, but morally I don't have a problem with this as I own the hardware and would definitely buy an official Sega release of the game on Android if that ever happened.

Battery life, it's no worse than any app that has the screen on full blast, so yeah it drains the battery pretty hard, but can't give you more specific details than that.