Patrick’s 15 Must-Have iPhone Games

With so many crappy iPhone games out there it’s hard to know which ones are worth buying. This list was created to help you decide what to spend your pretty pennies on. Some of the games on the list are free so it looks like we all win. Check out my 15 must-have iPhone games in order.

15. 2079 Tilt! – This game has to be the closest game on the market to the XBLA title Geometry Wars. It’s a very simple but impressive dual-stick shooter, and it’s only $0.99 so that’s awesome. iTunes Link

14. Sudoku Unlimited – I was never really into Sudoku until I got an iPhone. This version is one of the best I’ve played so far. I like how you can customize the look by changing the background. This game will run you $2.99. iTunes Link

13. Touch Hockey: FS5 - This is a simple but very polished air hockey game that lets you play vs. a computer, another person on the same phone, or another person over wi-fi. Oh, and it’s free. iTunes Link

12. Harbor Master – Maybe it’s a rip-off of Flight Control (with ships) but it’s a pretty great rip-off. With regular updates this game doesn’t get old. Direct the boats to their ports by drawing a line. Harbor Master is a steal at $0.99. iTunes Link

11. Flight Control – I think everyone knows about this game. You direct the airplanes to their landing strips by drawing a line with your finger. The object is to make sure they don’t crash into each other. FC is only $0.99. iTunes Link

10. Modern Combat: Sandstorm – This game is kind of like Modern Warfare on your iPhone. It’s the first FPS that really caught my eye out of the whole bunch. MC:S is currently $4.99. iTunes Link

9. Sol Free – This is a simple solitaire app that is free, hence the name. It’s the best looking and playing free solitaire app that I’ve seen so far. iTunes Link

8. Stone Loops! of Jurrassica – Even though it’s temporarily unavailable due to a copyright complaint it’s the best match-three zuma clone in the appstore. It’s very polished and quite lengthy.

7. Peggle – I’m sure you’ve played Peggle on just about every gaming console you own but this is the most intuitive version. The touch controls work great and the screen resolution makes the game look super sharp. Peggle on the iPhone is the cheapest you’ll see it on any console at $2.99. iTunes Link

6. Eliss – I can’t even explain this game but it’s one of the my favorite because it breaks the mold of your typical iPhone game and brings multi-touch into the picture. Eliss is only $2.99. iTunes Link

5. Edge – I would consider Edge to be one of the classics but it still outshines so many of the current iPhone games out there. The object is to roll the cube from point A to point B in a certain amount of time. It’s not as easy as you think. Edge is temporarily unavailable due to the stupid “edge” name copyright issues.

4. Labyrinth 2 – Labyrinth 2 is probably one of the most polished iPhone games I have come across so far. With the option to download user-made labyrinth levels as well as create your own this game really brings the concept of a labyrinth to the next level. Labyrinth 2 is $4.99. iTunes Link

3. iDracula – Minigore? I don’t think so. iDracula is easily the best survival game on the iPhone. It’s full-featured and highly addictive. This is the only game on the list that made me sweat while playing it. It’s currently $2.99. iTunes Link

2. Star Defense – I’m a sucker for tower defense and Star Defense is the best TD offering on the market if not one of the best TD games I’ve ever played. Forget Fieldrunners. Star Defense is beyond a steal at $0.99 (originally $9.99). iTunes Link

1. N.O.V.A. – This was an easy pick. NOVA is a Halo clone for the iPhone and it’s easily the best game available. If you want a solid, highly-polished FPS that isn’t a struggle to play then NOVA is the way to go. It’s also great for making your non-iPhone/iPod Touch friends jealous. NOVA is currently $6.99. iTunes Link

Honorable Mentions: GTA: Chinatown Wars & Guerrilla Bob – At the time of this writing I hadn’t had a chance to play either of these games. I did play the DS version of Chinatown Wars so I know how great of a fit it would be on the iPhone. As for Guerrilla Bob, it’s the dual-stick shooter in where you have to get from point A to point B. GTA is currently $9.99 while Guerrilla Bob is $2.99. GTA Link. Guerrilla Link.

There you have it, my 15 must-have iPhone games. Don’t agree with the list? Think there is a game that I forgot? Express your opinion in the comments section below.

Modern Combat: Sandstorm

I’ve always been longing for a solid First Person Shooter on my iPhone and never have I truly been satisfied. A lot of the FPS games I downloaded were horrible. Not just the controls but the polish and graphics. The FPS on the iPhone was not something that was looking too good, until Modern Combat arrived. I knew that with Gameloft being the developer this game was going to be something different from the rest, not necessarily different from First Person Shooters in general but different from the ones I had seen on the iPhone.

Gameloft has done a great job with Modern Combat, first off, the controls work great. There are three control options and the only problem I had with them was the fact that all of them worked so good and this made it hard to just choose one and stick to it. I decided to stick with the default control scheme. This control scheme has a left virtual thumbstick which you use to move forward, backward, strafe left, and strafe right. The way you look around, what would normally be the right thumbstick, is by touching anywhere on the screen, the best place to touch is right by the cross-hairs, this is where you get the most accuracy. Then you touch a button located on the right side to shoot. There are other actions like crouch, throw grenades, zoom to cross-hairs, reload, and switch weapons. All of these controls feel great and never once did it feel like I was struggling (like when playing an FPS on the PSP). My only suggestion is to turn the sensitivity the whole way up. This was the only way I could play.

Modern Combat is an FPS similar to the console versions, everything we’ve seen before but nothing we’ve seen on a mobile device. I was playing it on a 3GS so there was no lag at all, everything ran smooth, the graphics looked great. The gameplay has a lot of variety, at one point I was using a sniper rifle to take down enemies on a ledge in an underground passageway, the next moment I was defending a palace from tanks and RPG’s. The gameplay definitely gets switched up and it’s easy to get sucked in. There are 10 levels total and most of them are completed in 15 minutes on average.

Overall Modern Combat: Sandstorm is a must buy for FPS fans. Gameloft put a lot of effort into the game and it came out very polished. Not only is it a lot of fun but it’s a great game to show off to people and say “Yea, my phone can do that.” The thing is though, this phone doesn’t really feel like a phone anymore. With games like these the iPhone is a tough competitor to the handheld gaming market. Modern Combat is currently $6.99 in the app store and I also hear there is a multiplayer mode in the works as a future update.

Check out some footage of the game below: