Gaming

Forum Review: Line Rider for iPhone

By Staff, Monday, Oct 27, 2008 a 3:55 pm

[The Lightning Reviews are over, but from their ashes rise... the Forum Reviews! TiPb has assembled a crack team of App-aficionados, and every week we'll be bringing you a few of their very best reviews right here on the blog. And be sure to check out TiPb's iPhone App Store Forum for even more!]

Line Rider Forum Review by cjvitek

The Line Rider concept game is a simple one. You draw a line. A sled travel down the line as if it is a hill.

Tetris Gets Another App Pulled: Only 5 Hours to Get Your Shaker On!

By Rene Ritchie, Tuesday, Oct 7, 2008 a 7:46 pm

Brian passed on this tip from Kevin Doel. Looks like Tetris is being ever-zealous in broadly defending their "look and feel" trademarks:

Phunkware's Shaker game is being pulled from the market in about 5 hours. The Tetris Company contacted Apple claiming the game is too close to Tetris for comfort.

If this is legit, and you read this post in time, and the FREE game at all interests you, walk -- don't run -- to the App Store and grab Shaker now!

iPhone Gaming: Block Breaker Deluxe Developers Speak!

By Rene Ritchie, Friday, Sep 26, 2008 a 6:55 pm

With all the hubbub surrounding the App Store these days, the blogophiles among us may forget that, for casual users, everything is pretty sweet. Browse. Tap. Download. Launch. For mobile gaming fans this is especially true. Check out the Top Apps list, and you'll routinely see games hogging most of the spots. Don't think this has escaped attention either. Says Block Breaker Deluxe (available via the iTunes App Store) developer Gameloft:

Apple and Video Games: Should Sony and Nintendo be Worried?

By Jeremy, Thursday, Sep 18, 2008 a 5:55 pm

For the last two weeks we here at TiPb have been taking a deeper look into Apple's "Game On" push. Can anyone really doubt Steve Jobs is trying to make the iPhone/iPod Touch into the next big portable gaming device? Stop and think about it, he took the idea of a portable MP3 player and made it into a device that has dominated the music business ever since. Now, according to Jobsy, "you could make a pretty good argument [the iPhone is] the best portable device for playing games on."

Michael Gartenberg, vice president of Mobile Strategy at Jupitermedia's MobileDevicesToday.com, chimed in:

Review: Spore Origins for iPhone

By Dieter Bohn, Thursday, Sep 18, 2008 a 3:55 pm

(Not one, but two premiere game reviews on TiPb today. If you haven't already checked out the review of The Force Unleashed for the iPhone, go get your Star Wars on)

Given all the hype these past couple of weeks -- heck, these past couple of years -- you probably don't need much introduction to Spore, so we'll keep it quick. Spore is a game about evolution that works via a little intelligent design: you start out as a helpless, single-cell organism and work your way up the food chain. On the console and PC versions of the game, this eventually leads you to intergalactic conquest.

In Spore Origins for the iPhone ($9.99 at iTunes), that process is scaled back quite a bit. Over the course of 30 levels you stay pretty much at the single-cell level, adding various eyeballs, feelers, spikes, and the like as you tilt your way through the primordial sea, gobbling up smaller creatures and avoiding the larger ones.

We at TiPb have been waiting for Spore ever since it was announced. Heck, we were hoping it would come to the iPhone well before that. Does it live up to our expectations? Read on...

Review: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed for iPhone

By Rene Ritchie, Thursday, Sep 18, 2008 a 9:55 am

(Not one, but two premiere game reviews on TiPb today. If you haven’t already checked out the review of Spore for the iPhone, go get your evolution on!)

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (Mobile) for the iPhone by THQ Wireless is available for $9.99 via the iTunes App Store. Alongside Spore, it's one of the highest profile games released so far for the "funnest iPod (and iPhone) ever".

Now, Star Wars was the first movie I remember seeing in the theater (which, yes, makes me old and tells you something about how big a deal actually going to a movie theater was in the days before PPV, torrentz, and home cinema!) I had a lot of the toys. I played a lot of the video games, from the early Nintendo fare that drove the sound track so far into overuse I still cringe when I hear Jawa, to the truly epic Battlefront II on the original Xbox. I even have had the prequels Jedi-mind-tricked out of my consciousness ("not the Star Wars you were looking for...")

So yes, Star Wars is in my DNA every bit as much as Apple. Put them together and -- even absent Megan Fox -- and The Force Unleashed pretty much had me at announce. But would it hold me? Does THQ deliver Empire-class sizzle, or Phantom-style fizzle?

Check out the review, after the break!

Ultimate Gaming Handheld: Apple iPhone vs Nintendo DS

By Casey Chan, Monday, Sep 15, 2008 a 1:00 pm

When Steve Jobs uttered the statement that “Now you can make a pretty good argument that the [iPod Touch/iPhone] is the best portable device for playing games on”, did you nod your head in unison? I have my money on you saying no—the iPhone is a great device, to be sure, but a gaming device? Leave that to Nintendo you probably thought.

Why? Because the Nintendo DS has sold close to 80 million units since its inception. The numbers speak for themselves, the Nintendo DS is the king of portable gaming. So what would it take for the iPhone to knock the DS off of its throne? Well, that’s what we are here to tell you.

Read on to see how the iPhone can take on the Nintendo DS!

Real Soccer/Football 2009 Scores on the iPhone

By Rene Ritchie, Saturday, Sep 13, 2008 a 7:55 am

Tuesday's "Let's Rock" event brought a sneak-peak of Gameloft's latest iPhone (and iPod Touch) offering, Real Soccer/Football 2009. Well, it's now available via iTunes App Store, and according to Gameloft:

Ultimate Gaming Handheld: Apple iPhone VS. Sony PSP

By Jeremy, Friday, Sep 12, 2008 a 2:55 pm

Everyone loves a big prize fight, whether it's Tito Ortiz vs Chuck Lidell or Brock Lesnar vs Randy Couture or... the iPhone vs the PSP?!

With their recent "Let's Rock" event, Apple made a huge play for the handheld gaming space, but can the iPhone really step into that Octagon and tap out the reigning champions?

Only time will really tell, but that won't stop TiPb from taking a look at each device to see how they stack up. Round 1 starts with the Sony PSP... After the jump!

Phone Saber Unleashed Coming This Month?

By Rene Ritchie, Monday, Sep 8, 2008 a 11:53 am

Phone Saber was one of the most popular and talked about apps pretty much since the day Apple's on-board store launched. Hey, turn your iPhone into a sound-a-like Star Wars lightsaber? What's not to love?

Well, for THQ -- exclusive Lucas licensor of all things Star Wars for all things Mobile -- infringement for one. Too their credit, however, rather than just getting Apple to yank the App, THQ brought it onboard, and now they write in to tell us: