It’s been a year of ups and downs for mobile gaming on Apple devices.
We saw brand game new concepts come from a mix of established and upstart developers. There was a notable upsurge of games made in Canada, with projects coming from all across the country. And a console-to-mobile port of an action game was finally done pretty much perfectly in Skylanders: Trap Team (by, it just so happens, a Canadian studio).
But it wasn’t all good.
Many developers leaned more heavily than ever into the concept of free-to-play games with annoying in-app purchases, and in the process ruined what could have been terrific experiences (I’m looking at you, PopCap/Electronic Arts, and your utterly tragic Peggle Blast).
And there was no shortage of controversies, one of the most interesting of which was the incredible rate at which clones of a math puzzler called Threes! spawned and spread across browsers and mobile platforms – at least one of which (2048) became much more successful than the game that inspired it.
But when it was all said and done, there was no shortage of great fun to be had. I played only a tiny fraction of the thousands of games released for iOS this year, but sifting through them to pick ten favourites was hard.
Enough preamble. Here are my top 10 iOS games of 2014.
XCOM: Enemy Unknown
This port of a console and PC expansion to one of the best strategy games of the last decade is crazy addictive. It launched in the middle of the fall crush of console games and yet I still found some way to devote around 50 hours to it over the course of a few weeks. I just couldn’t get enough of its incredibly deep turn-based sci-fi tactics. I’m already planning on playing it over again in 2015. I’ve won once. Now I want to win better.
Monument Valley
It’s not very long, and sometimes it isn’t even particularly challenging (my nine-year-old daughter aced it). But this beautiful, ethereal, mind-bending M.C. Escher-inspired puzzler is absolutely unforgettable. Maneuvering your tiny little stick figure through three-dimensional mazes in which shifts of perspective create new paths through the labyrinth’s cleverly designed architecture is an utter delight.
Hitman GO
I don’t much like the Hitman games for PC and console, but this board game-like take on the series’ stealth formula is a blast. Broken into dozens of quick levels perfectly suited for commuting play, your goal is to quietly move a bald assassin token around a beautifully rendered wooden board filled with traps and roaming guards to reach your target. It’s usually not too tough to win, but completing a level as efficiently as possible can be a real challenge.
The Banner Saga
I’d already played this Nordic-tinged tactical fantasy RPG on PC before it arrived on iOS, but its turn-based play seemed so perfectly suited for tablets (and larger phones) that I gave it another go on iOS. And I think I may have enjoyed it even more. Tapping to move my motley crew of giants and warriors across tiled battlefields feels great. The stunning hand-drawn presentation is merely a bonus.
Threes! and 2048
Indie developers will probably despise me for giving equal treatment to Sirvo’s Threes!, which was designed and developed over the course of a year, with Gabriele Cirulli’s 2048, a clone developed by a teenager over a single weekend. Here’s the thing: I give full props to Sirvo for its numbered tile sliding concept. Its game is prettier and has loads more personality than Mr. Cirulli’s. Threes! even requires a bit more strategy than 2048. But you know what? I like working with even numbers more than I do odd ones. So I love and play them both.
80 Days
Text-based storytelling games only work if the writing is good. Happily, the writing in 80 Days – an alternate reality retelling of Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days – is terrific. It captures the tone and spirit of the classic adventure novel while adding in steampunk elements to inject a bit of mystery and make your choices of how to travel a bit more interesting. It’s not the sort of game you can play while watching TV, but it can – rather fittingly – make a long train ride zip by.
Bardbarian
You know how chefs sometimes make the best dishes by mixing seemingly uncomplimentary ingredients? Edmonton-based Treefortress did the video game equivalent by the mixing cheesy heavy metal riffs, tower defense-style strategy, and shoot-em-up action in Bardbarian. It’s tough to explain why they go together so well – even if you happen not to like one of the constituent ingredients (screaming guitars usually aren’t my bag) – but its pretty hard to deny this motley medley.
Joinz
If there’s one game on this list that you haven’t heard of, this is probably it. A low-profile puzzler from Saskatoon-based Noodlecake, Joinz is a tile-swiping puzzle game that tasks players to join coloured bricks to create specific shapes. A surprising amount of strategy is required, especially when it comes to deploying the game’s clever board-altering power-ups. My whole family has been playing it for months, challenging one another to beat our top scores.
Bonza Word Puzzle
I love word games, but I didn’t encounter many in 2014 that captured my interest – except Bonza. It provides players with partially completed pieces of a themed crossword with the objective of putting them together to complete the puzzle. It starts off pretty easy but gets hard in a hurry – especially when you encounter themes that test your common vocabulary (I know next to nothing of herbs and spices, much less how to spell those with tongue-tripping names).
Castle Doombad
Taking on the role of assistant to the awesomely-named Dr. Lord Evilstein, your job in Castle Doombad is to set up traps to kill and maim hordes of heroes coming to rescue the blond, blue-eyed princess kidnapped by your master. Funny, colourful, and unexpectedly deep – each type of do-gooder is best defended against with a specific sort of trap, all of which can be upgraded – this is a great 10-minute time-killer for doctors’ office waits and people with tardy dining companions.
Source:: National Post
