RSSA big week for the iPhone-as-game-console
By Tim Conneally | Published December 18, 2008, 5:35 PM
Last week, Apple evangelist John Geleynse reportedly called the iPhone a gaming console in various capacities. With a deluge of top-tier licenses coming to the iPhone this week, we have begun to see what Geleynse was presaging.
Apparently Geleynse's comments at last week's Apple Developer Conference in San Jose weren't so much predictions as fanfare preceding a veritable onslaught of iPhone games.
In May, Konami announced that Hideo Kojima's iconic twitch game Metal Gear would be hitting Nokia handsets through N-Gage; and this week, the company announced that the iPhone would also receive the game, in addition to Silent Hill, Dance Dance Revolution, and the company's Frogger titles.
But big titles were plenty this week, as Namco released an iPhone installment of its cult Katamari series called I Love Katamari; Electronic Arts Mobile released SimCity, and EA subsidiary Hasbro released Monopoly Here and Now: World Edition and Yahtzee. Producer ngmoco released a title aesthetically similar to Loco Roco this week for iPhone as well called Rolando.
Console gamers may scoff at the idea of the iPhone as a viable gaming device, but even more big name titles are expected to hit soon, with no signs of slowdown. An iPhone version of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 is anticipated before christmas. The J2ME version of that game is actually an extension of the console version, and allows users to play the mini-game on their phones to build the stats of their "full sized" characters. Gold medal swimmer Michael Phelps is expected put his name on an iPhone sports game this year as well.
PocketGamer released its Best Mobile Games of 2008 list, based not on sales numbers, but rather on enjoyabililty and innovation. Nearly half of the 30 games listed are iPhone titles, ranging in price from $4.99 to $12.99.
Game developers are quite confident in the platform, head of ngmoco and former EA executive Neil Young said: "We're excited to get to the place where you get the first thing that's been built for the device, so the gamer could go, 'You know what, this is every bit as good as a DS or a PSP game and, not only that, it's actually built from the interface out."
http://gizmodo.com/50194...t-microsoft-should-make
This will make iphone and psp obsolete :-)
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|*sigh*
Just give the Nintendo DS phone capabilities. The call quality couldn't be any worse than the iPhone...
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|Might be worth reminding readers that Square-Enix released the 'Song Summoner' iPod game a while back and that SEGA has been releasing big franchise titles for a while -- and while they were first adopters who did not benefit from the full-hearted push towards promoting the iPhone as a gaming platform, it's worth mentioning their hard work in establishing it!
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|Sounds like a good way to kill your battery life.
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|Sounds good to me. :)
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|Logitech or somebody will probably release a thing you snap an iPhone into that has a d-button and 4 action buttons. And since its a closed platform it will likely be self-configuring. What I wonder is..will these games work on an iPod touch, and if not, why not? This would greatly increase the desirability of that device, which is basically an iPhone w/o the phone part - that costs more than an iPhone!
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|The iControlPad has been in the works for a while but I haven't heard anything since around june. They got it working on jailbroken iphones with emulator apps. it would be cool if someone would make such a device soon so game makers can support it in their games.
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|Game makers will generally code for the lowest common denominator on consoles, I would assume the same would apply here.
Re: The HDD on the XboX. How many games make good use of this (other than save-games)?
It may work if it simply maps functions from the keypad, so the game devs don't have to alter their code at all, though.
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|Having played games on the iPhone... It's a good platform in terms of the power of CPU.
However, I think the lack of a good d-pad, and action buttons will limit the iPhone games a lot. I kinda get the same vibe as the Wii. The "Look, we've got motion controls which allow you to do all this great stuff." However... None of this great stuff really seems to be done very well, and it turns into more of a gimmic then something you can actualy enjoy playing with.
I own a Wii, and most of the time when I play, I get annoyed with the whole motion thing, and plug in the classic controller, and then start enjoying the game again.
Mario Kart + Motion = BLEH!
Mario Kart + Classic Controller = WIN!
With this in mind, I think the DS and the PSP are much stronger gaming platforms if only for the actual controls on them.
I enjoy my DS a lot... even if the graphics may not be able to "compete" againts what the iPhone can do... the pure enjoyment of the games negate that. A super preatty game that doesn't play well gets surpassed by a not so preatty game that plays very well, and in enjoyable to play.
All the games I've played on the iPhone to date have looked fairly well, but the playability and controls just make me put it down after 5 minutes, because it's not fun to play with... and I think at the end of the day, most people will react the same way.
Only time will tell.
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|I agree completely. it's like trying to play a racing game on the PS3 with the Sixaxis. I hate tilting controllers, which is why I hate playing the Wii.
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|I love the Wii, but there are times that people are just too fixated upon making use of the motion controls ... it's a nice 'bonus' feature and is perfect for games like Mario Galaxy ... I've been playing with Homebrew games and am horrified by the Doom port which relies on the wiimote for motion. Can you imagine how absolutely difficult it is to use this? I can understand the wiimote being used with gestures for swapping guns, etc...
And yeah, back onto the iPhone - they do need actual buttons - we'll probably see some controllers like the Guitar Hero attachment made for the Nintendo DS.
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|Here in lies the problem.. The iPhone doesn't have any other controls then the motion system. Unless you add a 3rd party add on..
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|"so the gamer could go, 'You know what, this is every bit as good as a DS or a PSP game"
LOL no.
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|Why not? It really depends on the game. If we're talking about games that fully utilize the hardware of the DS and PSP - sure, they have better graphics acceleration -- but for franchises that don't full utilize these abilities or compensate creatively, it's fine.
Not to throw crap at you, but there are 8-bit titles that are every bit as good as a DS or a PSP game. The iPhone is quite a bit more capable than an 8-bit system.
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