For a while now I’ve been meaning to talk about some of the iPhone games I’ve been playing, as it’s somewhat amazing how much gaming you can get for such a low cost (at least for the games themselves, the iPhone and it’s service plan is certainly not that cheap). The big ‘problem’ with the app store and the iPhone is that for every game worth downloading, there are 10 or 100 that are just downright awful. Along with that, there are plenty of games which work for some people, but might not work for you, so finding a good title can be tough even on a platform as easy as the app store.
Paper Toss is a fun little diversion of a game, and fits that ‘pick up and play’ space the iPhone does so well. The object is simple; flick a piece of paper into a basket, taking into consideration the direction the fan-generated wind is blowing. With three difficulties (basket is further away, so the ‘target’ is smaller), an online scoreboard, and solid simple controls, Paper Toss is a great way to kill 5-20 minutes. Best of all, it’s free!
Field Runners is still on my iPhone, and with all its updates it’s still a very entertaining Tower Defense game with nice graphics. It’s also one of the only Tower Defense games on the iPhone that allows you to build your maze rather than having the monsters run along an on-rails course, which adds a lot of reply value. Endless Hard mode will keep you challenged for a long time. At $2.99, I highly recommend it to anyone who has yet to play it.
Finally, Defender Chronicles has been keeping my busy lately (iPhone + DarkFall harvesting FTW) with its mix of Tower Defense and RPG-lite gameplay. Unlike Field Runners, Defender Chronicles is an on-rails TD game, but in a nice twist you place different buildings that spawn defenders. So when you build a barracks, one or two (depending on upgrades) soldiers come up, and those soldiers will stop and fight one monster each as they run along the path. The unit types include soldiers (hard hitting melee), hobbits (quick hitting melee), archers (long range), mages (short range, slow big damage), etc. Each map (a total of 8 I believe?) is a different path with different locations for buildings, along with a variety of monsters that try to reach your gate. At that gate stands your hero unit, who can level up and who you can buy gear for. The game is also very challenging with great replay value, and at the current sale price of $0.99, it’s a great buy.
That’s it for now, but I’m sure as time goes on I’ll post again on titles keeping me entertained. Feel free to post your recommendations as well.
Hardcore Casual 
No Civilization yet?
Just got the demo last night, but I was never a huge fan of the Revolution version of Civ. From the 15 minutes or so that I played, the iPhone version seems solid though.
I’m always a bit amazed by people that own an iPhone. I’d love to have one, they’re slick to look at and the OS implemented so well.
BUT Apple has chosen to lock them down and continues to show they’re willing to punish those that have chosen to jailbrake their iPhones simply so that they can have the same choices on what apps to run as they have on their other computing devices.
So, although I’ve always owned a Mac since ’96, I’ve decided to boycott the iPhone and iPod Touch and being the IT guy in my family and group of friends, steer them away.
To bring back on topic (a little), games have never been an incentive to me to buy one. I’ve always preferred to read a chapter or two of my current book rather than play a mini-game to occupy some downtime.
I just got an iPhone about 3 weeks ago. I’m a big fan of tower defense type games, and I find that geoDefense is a great iPhone game. Very challenging, yet rewarding :)
iPhone shmiPhone