5 Reasons iPhone Games Will Take Over The World!

We know, Nintendo can do no wrong and the new DSi is selling like there’s a free Angelina Jolie in every box, but the real gaming powerhouse at the moment is not the camera-packing wonder, nor is it Sony’s powerful yet underappreciated Playstation Portable device – it’s the Apple iPhone.

Those unimpressed by the iPhone’s lackluster initial App Store line up or the shonky Cro-Mag Rally need to remember, the European launch titles for the Playstation 2 were a physics simulator and arguably the worst Ridge Racer game in the series.

The titles being created at the moment for the iPhone are some of the most graphically impressive, innovative, and wallet-friendly titles in the marketplace right now!

Before you go spending a fiver on new costumes for Chun-Li and Cammy, see what kind of gaming experience it could get you on an iPhone…

1. Graphics

We can try and avoid it, but the best looking games get the most attention…just like people. 90% of the iPhone’s gadget-y allure occurs once seen in person, but those looks aren’t just skin deep.

Underneath the Cupertino baby’s sleek exterior beats a PowerVR MBX Lite 3D Graphics Chip, built to handle both the innovative graphics-heavy UI with ease and, once OS 2.0 introduced the App Store, powered gaming experiences light years ahead of the Java-powered morsels mobile gamers had put up with.

Finally, mobile games rivalling the quality handhelds were possible, and whilst the first wave of titles showed off the potential of the iPhone whilst disappointing in terms of gameplay, what could not be argued is how these games looked.

Easily surpassing the Nintendo DS and offering graphics comparable to the heavyweight PSP, stunning titles like Kroll and Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart were enough for the iPhone to immediately be considered (by those who mattered) a gaming platform to be reckoned with.

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2. A unique gaming experience

Why are the Nintendo DS and Wii second and third in UK console lifetime sales figures (8.8m and 4.9m, stat-fans), with the former soon to overtake even the mighty Playstation 2?

Unique. Control. Method.

Both machines emulate experiences which almost everyone is familiar with, transferring them to input controls in a gaming context. Most know how to use a pen, which easily translates to using a stylus to swipe and poke on the DS, or even write in the case of Brain Training. In the case of the Wii, everyone knows how to use a television remote control, and the WiiMote uses that as a simple analogue to build on.

The big, big problem of the PSP is that people do not necessarily want the exact same performance and experiences on a home console that they do from a mobile.

The button layout is almost identical to all three Playstations, and the omission of a second analogue stick means that the multitude of third person shooters that are converted cannot be controlled nearly as well without it.

Mobile gamers want “something new, not something they’ve already chewed,” to quote Utada Hikaru.

The iPhone? Well, the iPhone has no buttons. None. Well, one, but none which can be used for gaming.

The iPhone games developers have seen this as an asset rather than a liability, creating new methods of play and even new genres to overcome what shortsighted people might consider a hurdle.

Would the charming puzzle/platforming gameplay of ng:moco’s Rolando been quite so endearing if the internal accelerometer was not used to allow tilting and even turning over the iPhone to literally ‘roll’ the cute characters around?

No, as you would have the very similar, yet infinitely more forgettable Loco Roco for the PSP.

Could the brilliant calming and meditative gameplay of rotating and wrapping an object in 3D space in Zenbound be done quite so adeptly without the fluid movement and dexterity a touchscreen allows?

Quite frankly, no. Granted, many more traditional games are controlled via ‘virtual’ buttons or directional pads, area of the screen reserved for emulating traditional input, yet with the iPhone you are not shackled to that singular method.

With some of the unique ideas coming from the bleeding edge iPhone developers, high end graphical power is being married with unique input methods, making games that would not be possible on any other current format.

Star Defence is a new take on the tower defense genre of game, where players are twisting and spinning complete 3-D planets, examining terrain to plan tower defenses and “selecting from a broad range of turrets that unleash everything from burning hot plasma to high voltage decimation.” There is certainly no game quite like it.

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3. Price

Never overestimate how deep the consumer’s pockets are. The App Store might be successful for a myriad of other reasons, but it is definitely successful for only one – how much the apps cost. The days of being fleeced by one of those annoying ringtone companies for buying a single game were gone. Overnight.

£1.19 games. 59p games. Free games. This was something unprecedented for mobile gamers. A wealth of content (admittedly of varying quality), available directly through the App Store and subsequently your phone. iTunes provided the world’s most slick and inviting shop window for these new wares on a home computer, and users for whom things like Steam and GreenHouse were fanciful alien concepts were happily consuming downloadable content through it by the gigabyte.

Java games immediately seemed a tad overpriced, paying £7 or £8 for little more than a sprite demo was unacceptable, especially whilst iPhone owning pals were enjoying the delights of MazeFinger and Touch Hockey: FS5…for free!

Whilst few iPhone games match the scope, depth and quality of a PSP or Nintendo DS title, the chasm in price difference becomes more apparent than ever with the ones that do. The circa £20 pricetag of dedicated handheld titles may reflect the amount of time and people working on it, but they certainly are not indicative of their quality. There are one man efforts raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars on the App Store, just by being good or different.

Rumour has it that a premium section of the App Store may be reserved for games with higher production values, and a higher general standard of iPhone game, or a separate section for the cream of the crop can only be a good thing.

Perhaps these big development houses should rethink their strategy, become more innovative and exciting with their releases on these formats. DSi and WiiWare, download-only PSP games are all great steps to create these little renegade efforts on a popular format, although how much of this shift is down to fear of piracy rather than innovation?

Even more frighteningly, if the mighty Grand Theft Auto can’t sell like ice creams on a hot day when released in DS flavour, perhaps it’s time to rethink your strategy, or question your supposedly loyal ‘hardcore’ demographic?

iPhone games lauded as the best on the format, initially simple titles for all the family like Trism and Field Runners are both only £1.79, and apps released at an inflated cost by big names like Namco and EA soon fell in line once they came to understand that a high price point was poison.

Whether it be the BlackBerry App Store, Samsung’s Application Point, Nokia’s Ovi Store etc…all pretenders be scratching their heads in six months when the mountains of App Store cash are not quite come rolling in as the business analysts predicted.

It all comes down to money, and once phone consumers realise that they are being nickle and dimed over these services, rather than being offered lots of great free and paid unique stuff, they will vote with their wallets, and keep them closed. Or worse still, buy an iPhone.

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4. Portable survival horror, done right!

The most difficult of genres, titles evoking a sense of tension, dread, and death at every corner. Not too easy to plunge the user into a world of fear and danger on a 3 inch screen…plus London is scary enough. Left 4 Dead might be the current pant soiler of console and PCs, but what of portable gaming?

The DS has got a passable port of the original Resident Evil, however the handheld’s technical shortcomings meant titles attempting to add a third dimension such as Dementium and Touch The Dead, unfortnately fell flat…

The new wave of titles to be released on the iPhone, however – the impressive 3D blasting in 7 Days of Apocalypse, a lighthearted take on the End of Days in Zombieville USA, and the seminal twitch shooter iDracula show that the platform is perfectly capable of putting the fear of heck into gamers anytime, anywhere.

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5. Practicality

Above all else, the iPhone is an iPhone. A communications device for contacting other people by voice, text and (soon) video, to tell them that you’re going to be late or that you’ll “be there in five minutes” judging by most calls made on public transport. It is on one’s person on all items, due to being a perceived item of necessity. A gaming device is the iPhone’s secondary (if not tertiary) function, and yet it remains on one’s person due to the primary function of texting rude messages to others.

For most people over 20, even the Nintendo DS cannot manage that feeling of necessity. Space in people’s pockets is at a premium, now more than ever. The iPhone already cannibalised the iPod’s precious pocket space by offering the most advanced music player currently available from Apple, and with a few clever marketing moves could easily convince many of its gaming credentials.

The Sony Ericsson W995 and Idou typify these efforts at convergence from manufacturers, offering a high end Walkman, a CyberShot camera and a phone in one device, whilst the Nokia N97 tries to be a 21st Century filofax…not the first time the Finnish manufacturer has tried to provide a device that doubles as a user’s social support system.

Sad fact is, the iPhone is already here. And in the days and weeks following the June announcement of their inevitable third generation of iPhone, Apple will make the most convincing bid for that pocket real estate ever heard, and there simply won’t be room for a DS, and iPod and a phone in your (increasingly laden) pockets.

No console offers the level of connectivity that a phone can bring, and the PSP’s Skype client or unwieldy DS GPS add-on are all pale imitations of software which comes as standard or a simple app on the Apple iPhone.

All in all, the iPhone is just too good on too many fronts to be challenged by hardware. The fluid nature of the iPhone as a platform which can undergo small incremental upgrades yet maintain the same upgradable architecture is completely at odds with the 3-to-5 year console cycle. By the time new features are added to the iPhone, the DSi will barely be stretching its legs. The incremental changes in consoles are glacial compared to the iPhone, and occur at substantial consumer cost. £50 for two 0.3 megapixel cameras and improved piracy protection on the DSi? Thanks, Ninty!

So, the iPhone is poised to take over the world, and will simply be taking games and the App Store along for the ride. With a reported one billion apps downloaded as of the 23rd of April, perhaps it has already taken over, just so quickly that we haven’t realised it yet?

Tags: iphone games, top 5 iphone reasons