The iPhone Sucks for Gaming

Not reviewing iPhone games for quite some time gave me a sense of clarity today. I wrote up a review for Soccer Sudoku 2010, an app that dresses up the tired Sudoku game in a World Cup, for Game Revolution today. All of my previous writing about iPhone apps can be found at theiphoneappreview.com and here at PLAY READ WRITE.

Thinking back about all that criticism, I think I've gone FAR too easy on iPhone apps. In fact, my misaligned mulling of iPhone apps in general falls far below how I actually feel about playing games on my iPhone. Maybe I pity those developers struggling to make a dime off the back of a zeitgeist that only taps the Top 25 button and leaves their expeditions in mobile gaming at what's near the top of that list.

I feel like every gaming experience I've had on the iPhone has been a spectacularly shallow commercial endeavor. I don't pretend to be an expert on this subject, but I think I'd be more involved with my iPhone if there were more games (and apps) of any real value.

Anyways, I'm sick of Twitter and Facebook integration. I'm sick of notifications that never seem to work, and I'm sick of the constant reskinning of the same game by different developers hoping to play off of whatever is buzz worthy in a given month.

Can anyone point me to a decent iPhone game?

Soccer Sudoku 2010 Review on GR

I was assigned an iPhone App review from Game Revolution. I haven't reviewed an iPhone app in quite some time so this was a difficult task to take on. In a straightforward sense, I think I got really tired of the iPhone app market.

In a less straightforward sense, I think it's just too goddamn hard to process these small, insignificant "games" in comparison to the kinds of games I've been working on for Game Revolution. Frankly, I think the App Store is a death trap honestly. It's too bad that so many talented, creative developers have to be turned away from "real" game development (big budget or not). The job market certainly doesn't help this situation.

Anyways, check out my Soccer Sudoku 2010 Review over at Game Revolution, and look for more thoughts on iPhone gaming tomorrow.

REVIEW: Depict for the iPhone

Depict is an iPhone app from Makeshift Games. In the same vein as Pictionary, Depcit challenges players to draw a representation of a set word in order to get other players to guess the word. While a competent game for on-the-go drawing multiplayer, Depict falls a little short.

This is primarily due to the fact that nearly every single game of Depict I've played has been broken thanks to someone cheating the gameplay. Depict gives te player one word to draw, while it gives the other players five words to guess from. Many users break the game by simply writing out the word they're supposed to be drawing.

Of course, this is near impossible to guard against from a programming stand point. I can't blame the developers for the way users break the game. There's an included "cheating" notification, but I can't tell how those notes are being used to police the game. Is there anything being done at all?

Multiplayer games rely on the other people you play with as much as they do the game, and with the iPhone user base this prone to game breaking playstyles, I can't give Depict a decent recommendation to anyone serious about games. Maybe as a free download I could suggest it to others, but at a cost you might be better spending your iTunes account balance on something else.

The actual game of depict isn't all that bad, no matter how shallow it is. You can easily hop on, score some points, and have fun drawing. Open Feint in Depict works great as well.

Check out Depict, if you don't mind the cheating you can find a lot of fun, especially if you can get a couple of friends on at the same time. Otherwise, avoid the exploiters!

PLAY READ WRITE / REVIEW SCORE: 3 out of 5