The iPad is an all new gaming platform, and one that may prove to be a serious contender to established platforms already on the market. While the iPad suffers from a severe lack of standout titles, the potential for great gaming is no less evident with the following ten games.
The Secret of Monkey Island
The fact that The Secret of Monkey Island is one of the best adventure games ever made is not up for debate. You play the role of Guybrush Threepwood, pirate-in-training. The fact that he has a funny name is established very early in the game when you speak to a pirate named Mancomb Seepgood.
Guybrush wants to become a pirate, and to do that, he has to go through three perilous trials. Along the way, Guybrush encounters Elaine Marley, with whom he falls in love, and incurs the wrath of the evil ghost pirate LeChuck.When Elaine is inevitably kidnapped by LeChuck, Guybrush must prove himself a mighty pirate and rescue her.
Made in the early 90s, The Secret of Monkey Island has since been remade for a new audience, featuring completely new high resolution graphics, voice acting, soundtrack and a new point-and-click user interface. The iPad version of the game is easily the best version thanks to the touch-based interface. Realizing that I’ll have to clarify what I mean by that, I’ll go on to state that the original game was played through a keyboard and mouse driven interface, requiring you to select an action before interacting with an object. The new interface is entirely context-sensitive, and allows you to simply select an item without choosing an action to perform, removing the tedious process of trial and error.
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge
In “LeChuck’s Revenge”, you once again take on the role of Guybrush Threepwood, now a mighty pirate. Little is known about the events that take place between the “Secret” and “LeChuck’s Revenge”, except that Guybrush unwittingly resurrected the ghost pirate LeChuck. LeChuck, now a zombie, plots revenge against Guybrush, while Guybrush attempts to win back Elaine’s love, which he somehow lost. To prove his love to Elaine, Guybrush must make his way across the Caribbean in a quest to acquire a mythical treasure called the Big Whoop.
Like the first game, “LeChuck’s Revenge” is completely redesigned with new high resolution art and plays with the new touch-based interface on the iPad.
Being a standalone title, it is possible to play “Monkey Island 2” without first playing “Secret”, but it’s a much better experience if you play them both in proper order.
Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars
It’s hard to come by an intelligently written game with a story fit for a mystery novel–but “Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars” has a story that Dan Brown himself could’ve written. Don’t get me wrong–I’m not calling Dan Brown an amazing writer, but as far as mystery novels about the Templars, he’s the man to go to.
It should be surprising to many that “Broken Sword” was made years before Dan Brown’s “The DaVinci Code” became a bestseller. Those acquainted with the genre would note that both “The DaVinci Code” and “Broken Sword” were both inspired by the conspiracy novel “The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail”.
Having read the book and its follow-ups, I can say with some authority that “Broken Sword” is the defining conspiracy game, staying very true to its source material. “Broken Sword” even references persons like Pierre Plantard, a key character of the aforementioned books. In the real world, Plantard is a discredited journalist who more or less invented the Templar conspiracy theory for personal gain. But in the books, the man is an enigma with a world of fiction built around him. It’s an interesting fiction, and “Broken Sword” immerses you in it.
Originally developed for the PC, “Broken Sword” for the iPad features new high resolution graphics, context sensitive controls and a touch-based interface. The game has never been better.
Need for Speed Shift
"Need for Speed Shift" for the iPad brings the adrenaline pumping action of the PC and console game to the iPad platform, and it does so without sacrificing the heart of what makes it great on other main platforms: the racing. "Shift" is by far the best racing game available on the iPad and makes for a great change of pace (shifting the gears, so to speak) from the casualness of the platform's other titles.
Angry Birds HD
“Angry Birds” is a fun game with a simple concept. You use a sling shot to launch angry birds into pigs, demolishing their houses and knocking them out. With a limited number of birds to use as ammunition, you have to take careful aim with your shots and hope for the best.
Originally designed for the iPhone and iPod Touch, “Angry Birds” is no less fun to play on the much larger iPad, retaining all the qualities that made it great in the first place.
Words With Friends
…And along came a spider and sat down beside her. But she didn’t notice the spider, because she was lost in another casual game of “Words With Friends”.
“Words With Friends” is basically “Scrabble” by another name–one that the company presumably used because they couldn’t get the “Scrabble” license. There’s a few slight variations in the rules, but the game is largely the same. It’s played without a time limit and a single game can last from an hour to a week depending on how active the participants are. “Words With Friends” a game you can play with friends (or random strangers) across multiple platforms.
ZombieSmash HD
Killing zombies has never been more fun or satisfying than with “ZombieSmash” for the iPad. With your fingers as weapons, you must squish, pick up, and throw zombies like rag dolls before they invade your home.
As you progress through each round of the game, you encounter new types of zombies, and with those zombies, new weapons to improve your zombie-killing efforts. Weapons include everything from a runaway windmill you can control with your finger that slices zombies to bits, to meteor showers that obliterate everything on the screen.
“ZombieSmash” is stupid amounts of fun.
Infinity Blade
“Infinity Blade” is the joint effort by Chair Entertainment and Epic Games to bring big games to the supposedly “casual” iPad platform. Sporting the Unreal Engine 3, “Infinity Blade” looks better than any other game on the platform, with gameplay mechanics that take full advantage of the iPad’s touch interface.
Taking the role of nameless warriors whose lineage is cursed to forever do battle against the God King, you must clear the castle, build up your strength and attempt to slay the God King or die by his hand. Even though you’ll die the first few times, you’ll undoubtedly earn the power necessary to beat the God King as the progress you make with each bloodline carries onto the next.
It’s a simple, yet deeply satisfying game that requires you to use quick reflexes and quick thinking to defeat your opponents as you dodge, evade, and strike them with finger swipes controlling your actions.
Yoot Saito’s The Tower
“The Tower” is Yoot Saito’s masterpiece. Originally released for the PC as “Yoot’s Tower” in Japan, and later localized for an international audience by Maxis, “The Tower” became a well known and well loved title under the name of “SimTower”.
The concept of “The Tower” is simple. You’re a building manager who’s tasked with constructing a tower from the ground up. You start with a simple lobby and open up new floors as you earn money from the rent and sale of office units. In the beginning, you’ll only have access to office units, residential apartments, a car park and small shop lots. As you advance through the game, you’ll gain access to escalators, boutiques, restaurants, cafes, hotel apartments and even a subway station beneath your tower.
Managing the building can be hectic and requires a lot of patience and strategy, as apartments and offices won’t tolerate the noise of stores next door, and no one likes standing in long queues to the elevator. You’ll have to keep the building’s population happy and manage and meet all of their needs.
“The Tower” is back now for a new audience on the iPad and with it, a redesigned touch-based interface that works better for The Tower than it ever did with the keyboard and mouse.
Plants vs. Zombies
“Plants vs. Zombies” for the iPad is arguably the best version of this tower defense game. The game previously graced the Mac, PC and console platforms to great fanfare, and picked up some very well deserved awards for the fun and innovations to gameplay it delivered.
In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past year, “Plants vs. Zombies” puts you in the role of a homeowner who must defend your home against an invasion of zombies who want to eat your brains. Instead of guns or explosives, you have at your disposal seeds for mutant plants to deal with the undead onslaught. You’ll have giant pea shooters, cabbage catapults, potato mines and many other bizarre plants that can only grow with the help of sunlight (the game’s only resource, besides money that you can use to unlock new plants) that you’ll have to collect with sunflowers.
I mentioned earlier that the iPad version of “Plants vs. Zombies” is the best. That’s because it has more modes than any of the other versions as well as a touch-based interface that’s well suited for how the game plays. The game also lasts longer than most other titles for the platform, so it’s well worth the purchase.
