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The Official NeoGAF Best iOS Games of All Time

KAL2006

Banned
Love the thread, will try out many of these games now
the ones I own from the top 30 are:
-Tiny Wings
-Flick Kick Football
-Doodle Jump
-Peggle
-Angry Birds
-Scribblenauts
 

Mario

Sidhe / PikPok
Flick Kick Football makes the cut! My required validation from GAF is fulfilled for another week.


Many games I still haven't played up there, so will try to check a few more out.
 

WanderingWind

Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
Awesome work guys! Perfect little time wasters when waiting for the missus to finish trying on clothes or when stuck riding shotgun in traffic...and now there is a master list of stuff to try out!
 

Reese-015

Member
Rimfya said:
Cannot believe Jetpack Joyride rated so highly amongst people that like games. The most blatant example of soulless modern game design I have ever seen.

Harsh words but personally I kinda agree, feels just like a very typical okay flash game to me.
 

KAL2006

Banned
Im looking for 3 types of iphone games
-poker
-snooker or pool
-minogolf or crazy golf

I need the games to have active online userbase and for online play over 3g, any recommendations?
 
D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
I need to get on board with the Jetpack Joyride hate. It's a nice looking game, but I typically dislike simple score-based arcade games. It doesn't help that there are cheap deaths abound, and the item prices are obviously set to a point that encourages people to spend real money on the in-game currency.
 

Rimfya

Banned
Reese-015 said:
Harsh words but personally I kinda agree, feels just like a very typical okay flash game to me.
Recipe for an iOS game according to Jetpack Joyride:

Step 1: Take an established gameplay mechanic
Step 2: Add levelling, XP, unlocks, mini games, micro transactions, collectables, grinding
Step 3: Dedicate 95% development time to Step 2

Success.
 
solid list. Don't like how the 'quotes' don't have any names associated with them. Gaf isn't 1 person. =P

With the speed the app store moves, I do think doing a new 'list' semi annually or annually would be cool.

Heck maybe do

"Top ios games of 2011" with games that only came out this year. I'm sure most of the games on this list don't need help promoting, but there are many gems in the app store that could use promoting ;)

Heck, modern combat 3 is easily the best portable mp shooter ever.

Great job though!

And I do feel that list of all the votes should be promoted somewhat more, because pretty much all the games on that list is noteworthy.

Party-based arcade style RPG with touch screen mechanics? It may sound like a mess but this is one of the most addictive games you will ever get your hands on. Charming style, fn gameplay.
typo
 
That pull-quote for Jetpack Joyride cracked me up.

"So much fun, the small goals really made this one for me. I never even really cared about getting a high score."

Kinda says it all, doesn't it? About the game. About most popular iOS titles. Whole lotta thinly disguised touchscreen treadmills.

I think Jetpack Joyride is pretty OK as far as these things go though. It looks worlds better than most popular iOS games, with lots of cute little touches sprinkled throughout. And the music is just great. Really, that's 95% of the game's appeal. The music. Shame it's not a well designed game. But that music. It's great.

Game Dev Story at #2 is a real shame. Yes, it's "addictive" -- and boy, it's real worrying that to many people this is the highest praise you can lavish upon a video game -- but it's a terrible, terrible game. It's Progress Quest with a video game skin slapped on top of it. Has anyone come remotely close to failing in it? I'm not certain it's possible unless you intentionally set out to do it.
 

jax (old)

Banned
Rimfya said:
Recipe for an iOS game according to Jetpack Joyride:

Step 1: Take an established gameplay mechanic
Step 2: Add levelling, XP, unlocks, mini games, micro transactions, collectables, grinding
Step 3: Dedicate 95% development time to Step 2

Success.

the unlocks are pointless in JJ - cosmetic. Something like temple run is better; hell even the grindcore in infinity blade is better.

and the game is too tightly enclosed to make the "endless" mode playable once you get going. Its pretty badly designed. Just horrible. I think it made the top of the list because its dirt cheap so every
 

thebeeks

Banned
Just bought Dragon Pass since I saw it was on sale. Looking forward to it.

Thanks for putting the list together, Jedeye.
 

sp3000

Member
Someone recommend me a good 4X game on the Ipad. Is there seriously no Master of Orion type of game that has been made yet?
 
Machinarium being so low blows my freaking mind. I can only assume it's because it's newer. It's easily top 5, and almost certainly #1 if we're only scoring production value.

Do not be fooled by the fact that it didnt make the top 30, game should be played by every single person who enjoys thinking and adventure
 

thetrin

Hail, peons, for I have come as ambassador from the great and bountiful Blueberry Butt Explosion
A great list. You might argue that better games should be at 1, but you can't argue that the top 5 are bad.
 

Gaspode_T

Member
I tried to organize the games on our iPad into folders, and it was surprisingly hard, and there is one giant "casual" folder for all the Angry Birds/etc type games and one "Skill Games" for things I had hard time categorizing like Mr Ninja and Ninjatown Trees of Doom. Then I have a whole folder for things like Runners and Match-3, RPG, Adventure. Basically, there are too many games on iOS so having genre specific lists would help a lot, because myself I didn't know about Piyo Blocks until the other day or Blockobon but I would have loved to know about those months ago.
 

Fjordson

Member
Good list.

Some interesting stuff I didn't know about. Probably going to pick up Civ Rev and King of Dragon Pass thanks to this thread.
 

Mista Koo

Member
thewesker said:
Universal just means built for both iPhone and iPad within the same app.
I know, but look at World of Goo and Sword and Sworcery they both have universal and iPhone versions. Would they be any different on iPhone?
 
Jedeye Sniv said:
mzl.hsrcujjn.480x480-75.jpg

Why did some dumb motherfucker put sunflowers anywhere but in the back rows? Infront of peashooters?
 
Getting Scribblenauts and Battleheart now...

This is the kind of list i've been looking for since I got my iPhone years ago. List of good iOS games by well-rounded gamers. Thats my testimonial!

I'm not too frequent in the iOS thread but a list like the OP, for all the games people think should be on the list, would be great for newcomers or people like myself who ever so often jump back into iOS gaming.
 

Tain

Member
From what I've played, I can't wrap my brain around Canabalt, Plants vs Zombies, Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja, Peggle, Infinity Blade, and Game Dev Story being considered great, let alone better than the Cave releases. Looking at the whole list, it says to me that there's not much for me on iOS more than it does suggest that I grab our iPad and take another look at the App Store's games.


Rummy Bunnz said:
That pull-quote for Jetpack Joyride cracked me up.

"So much fun, the small goals really made this one for me. I never even really cared about getting a high score."

Kinda says it all, doesn't it? About the game. About most popular iOS titles. Whole lotta thinly disguised touchscreen treadmills.

I think Jetpack Joyride is pretty OK as far as these things go though. It looks worlds better than most popular iOS games, with lots of cute little touches sprinkled throughout. And the music is just great. Really, that's 95% of the game's appeal. The music. Shame it's not a well designed game. But that music. It's great.

Game Dev Story at #2 is a real shame. Yes, it's "addictive" -- and boy, it's real worrying that to many people this is the highest praise you can lavish upon a video game -- but it's a terrible, terrible game. It's Progress Quest with a video game skin slapped on top of it. Has anyone come remotely close to failing in it? I'm not certain it's possible unless you intentionally set out to do it.

Glad I'm not the only one who felt that way about Game Dev Story.
 
D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
cpp_is_king said:
Machinarium being so low blows my freaking mind. I can only assume it's because it's newer. It's easily top 5, and almost certainly #1 if we're only scoring production value.

Do not be fooled by the fact that it didnt make the top 30, game should be played by every single person who enjoys thinking and adventure

Machinarium only exists for the iPad 2. I'm pretty sure that the vast majority of people who voted are playing on other iOS devices, but I may be wrong.
 
Tain said:
Glad I'm not the only one who felt that way about Game Dev Story.

haha indeed. kairosoft games are pretty much 1 trick ponies.

Spend 5 hours or what not to finish a playthrough and be done with it.

But it's a glorious 5 hours. Straight.
 
sp3000 said:
Someone recommend me a good 4X game on the Ipad. Is there seriously no Master of Orion type of game that has been made yet?

Starbase Orion? Ascendancy? Distant Star? Eclipse is coming, as well.
 
D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
Rummy Bunnz said:
Game Dev Story at #2 is a real shame. Yes, it's "addictive" -- and boy, it's real worrying that to many people this is the highest praise you can lavish upon a video game -- but it's a terrible, terrible game. It's Progress Quest with a video game skin slapped on top of it. Has anyone come remotely close to failing in it? I'm not certain it's possible unless you intentionally set out to do it.

Shit, I just played it for an hour the other day and had the nagging feeling that none of my decisions really mattered. After about my third game, I was making enough money to just keep doing new projects over and over again while leveling and improving my employees.

It was fairly enjoyable, but I couldn't shake the feeling that my input didn't matter, because there was no way I was constantly making great decisions on my first game.
 

Jedeye Sniv

Banned
sp3000 said:
Someone recommend me a good 4X game on the Ipad. Is there seriously no Master of Orion type of game that has been made yet?

There actually is a game, I think it may even be Orion, that a few of our regulars have been playing for a few weeks. Head over to the main thread and ask them.
 
Zefah said:
Machinarium only exists for the iPad 2. I'm pretty sure that the vast majority of people who voted are playing on other iOS devices, but I may be wrong.

That's an unfortunate truth, but it's still one of the most polished, well-designed games available on iOS. I mean it's obvious why it didn't get the votes, but anyone who meets the requirements should really play this game because it really is that good.
 
Rummy Bunnz said:
That pull-quote for Jetpack Joyride cracked me up.

"So much fun, the small goals really made this one for me. I never even really cared about getting a high score."

Kinda says it all, doesn't it? About the game. About most popular iOS titles. Whole lotta thinly disguised touchscreen treadmills.

I think Jetpack Joyride is pretty OK as far as these things go though. It looks worlds better than most popular iOS games, with lots of cute little touches sprinkled throughout. And the music is just great. Really, that's 95% of the game's appeal. The music. Shame it's not a well designed game. But that music. It's great.

Game Dev Story at #2 is a real shame. Yes, it's "addictive" -- and boy, it's real worrying that to many people this is the highest praise you can lavish upon a video game -- but it's a terrible, terrible game. It's Progress Quest with a video game skin slapped on top of it. Has anyone come remotely close to failing in it? I'm not certain it's possible unless you intentionally set out to do it.

That's very true, plus that list is populated with a lot of belated ports as well. Mind you though, you do have the likes of Fruit Ninja, Cut the Rope, Tiny Wings and Flight Control on that list (though all but one of them are available on other platforms I guess...)

But that's what iOS games are to a lot of people, time wasters. And for that purpose, these skinner boxes are exactly what they're looking for; something that they don't have to put much thought into, but give them a sense of accomplishment and progression. (Hey, I'm just trying to keep things positive here!)
 

Pachimari

Member
There's no 1112 games on the list either.. I know the first one weren't that great, but especially episode 03 got praise.
 
Jedeye Sniv said:
There actually is a game, I think it may even be Orion, that a few of our regulars have been playing for a few weeks. Head over to the main thread and ask them.

Yep, Starbase Orion. Amazing game. Should have voted for it, actually. I'm a dolt.

Still, more folks need to play it. Greatest asynch multiplayer on the platform for length and depth.
 

Gaaraz

Member
Great list, thanks for all of your hard work Jedeye!

Is it sad that I've actually played all of the games in the OP? :D

It's a shame not to see brilliant ports like Monkey Island Phoenix Wright in there, since IMO they are very deserving. Also odd to see Real Racing 2 not higher up, or FIFA for that matter... seems most people opted for smaller bite-sized games which ims I didn't expect on a games forum.
 

Tunesmith

formerly "chigiri"
Pylon_Trooper said:
Yep, Starbase Orion. Amazing game. Should have voted for it, actually. I'm a dolt.

Still, more folks need to play it. Greatest asynch multiplayer on the platform for length and depth.
More praise to this gem of a game!
 

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
My sister brought back a bunch of ipad2s 3G for the family from her honeymoon in Thailand, I've been messing with mine a few hours now and it seems rather limited in what it offers. What are some essential apps and stuff to get and what are the best free games? From paid stuff I'm downloading Infinity Blade right now to see what the fuss is all about but I won't be paying for much else at this point. Except maybe for that Sword & Sorcery thing. Help? Oh, and is there anything to play flash stuff with?
 
I still feel that Phoenix Wright should be in the top 20...

That might get people to buy it and get Capcom to bring the other ones to ios. Probably sell better than wiiware =/
 

Milla

Neo Member
That's an awesome list. I don't have nearly as many of them as I'd have expected.

It's a buzz that Flick Kick Football made it :)
 
It's funny, people are so dismissive of iOS gaming, but will look back at this period as some kind of golden dawn of casual, fun and highly versitile portable gaming. Like how I look back in the feeling of when Game and Watches and gameboys first launched, but way better.
 

yophlow

Banned
Cool lost, represents a lot of top-tier games for me.

Definitely happy to see JJ and FN in there of course, this community has been very supportive. Happy to chat about the controversy of JJ, feel free to wing some questions my way :)
 
HalfbrickPhil said:
Cool lost, represents a lot of top-tier games for me.

Definitely happy to see JJ and FN in there of course, this community has been very supportive. Happy to chat about the controversy of JJ, feel free to wing some questions my way :)

There was controversy about Jetpack? The only flaw I can see in that game is that skill seems to be largely irrelevant due to most of deaths being 'unavoidable'.

Doesn't prevent it from being addicting, but it does lose some of the punch.
 
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