iPhone Games of the Week : 3/1 - 3/5

• by Ryan Rigney
• March 05, 2010 15:14 PM PST

It's a well-documented fact that hundreds of apps and games hit the iTunes App Store each week, but how many of these pocket-sized endeavors are worth your hard earned cash? Each week, we pick out the best (or simply the most notable) of the bunch.

Let's skip the pleasantries; Sparkle is a shameless rip-off of Popcap's Zuma. You know the formula: as the player, you control a launcher in the center of the screen and shoot various colored orbs at a snaking chain of similar orbs to create match-threes and stop the orb train before it wrecks your face by reaching the end of the track. You'll earn equipable amulets that provide bonuses as you progress throughout the "Quest" mode, and random powerups can be collected to lay down massive destruction on the evil marbles that plague you.

Sparkle might be a copycat, but it's also a fantastic game. Out of all the games on this list, this is the one that I had the most trouble writing about, largely because I couldn't make myself put the thing down. I literally took a break in the middle of writing the previous sentence to play another level. The touch controls are surprisingly accurate, even on the iPhone's 3.5 inch screen. If I ever placed a ball in the wrong slot -- even from a ridiculous angle or distance -- I always felt like it was my fault, not the controls'. I have a feeling that the reason Popcap itself hasn't yet brought Zuma to the iPhone is because of worries about the controls, but it looks like they made the wrong call; Sparkle has beat them to the punch, and it's a blast.

Spirit looks like a generic Geometry Wars clone in screenshots, but it's actually a unique top-down arcade game with no shooting mechanics whatsoever. You control your character by dragging on the screen, and as the Spirit moves, a temporary breadcrumb trail is left behind. Running over your own trail will create a vortex, which sucks in and destroys all enemies within reach. 

Spirit is a bit difficult at first, especially when you're trying to create vortexes in quick succession to get some bonus points, but as long as you remember that speed and reasonably-sized vortexes are key, you'll do fine. Too often I'd zip around the screen with delusions of creating a massive vortex when I'd suddenly slam into an enemy and die a horrible, multicolored death. You can't expect to be great at Spirit the first time you pick it up, but it's definitely a unique and well-crafted game that's worth a look.

Tilt to Live's name is pretty self-explanatory. You control an arrow-shaped ship across a colorful playing field while using the iPhone's tilt function to avoid death. Crazy little dots come at you from all angles in the game's "Lone" mode (which is essentially a survival mode) and the only way to defend yourself is to run away and take out as many dots as possible with unlockable powerups that randomly appear in the levels. 

This is a terrible way to phrase this, but Tilt to Live is a dual-stick shooter sans the dual-sticks and shooting. Since the only way to take the offensive to the enemies is through collecting powerups, the game allows you to wholly concentrate on carefully tilting the device to slip between thin cracks. I especially appreciate the numerous calibration option that the game offers -- finally, I have a game that I can play while attempting to accomplish a full 360 degree orbit on a swing set.

It's unclear to me why anyone would ever need to use a cannon to launch ragdolls at targets, but after spending a considerable amount of time with Ragdoll Blaster 2 and its realistic physics engine, I feel like I'm prepared for such a situation should it ever happen to me. Tapping on the iPhone's screen launches a ragdoll in that direction (the power of the shot is determined by how far away from the cannon you tapped), and numerous puzzle elements like Portal-style teleporters, multiple cannons, and destructible environments keep things fresh and challenging.

Even if I did poorly on a given level of Ragdoll Blaster, I still had fun. At one point I decided to see if I could create a horrific little pile of ragdoll corpses and then knock it down -- mission successful. There's no shortage of levels to play through, but I almost wish Backflip Studious would integrate some sort of playground mode that I can goof off in. Either way, this game is a lot of fun. 

The iPhone is not the first or even second platform that Blast Off has graced (it's already available on Xbox Live Indie Games and PSP Minis) but it just might be the best fit yet. The goal in each level is to launch your ship and use the gravitational pull of various scattered planets to slingshot to the level exit as quickly as possible. In most cases astronauts must be picked up before a level can be completed, so what may look like a simple challenge at first can quickly become a complex situation.

I'm usually terrible at physics-based puzzle games like this one, but since it's possible to steer the ship Asteroids style after launch, the whole game is much more manageable and fun. My favorite part of the game is the endless mode, where the goal is to collect as many astronauts as possible before running out of air or fuel. Pickups replenish supplies, so it's technically feasible to make a game last "endlessly," but the mode is pretty difficult and demands complete understanding of Blast Off's physics system. The arcade-style nature of this release should make it appealing to most anyone, regardless of whether or not you especially like puzzle games.

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