Five and four
The 9.7in, LED-backlit, multi-touch display of the
iPad means that it's not just great for social networking, watching
videos and browsing the web, but it's also an excellent device for playing
games.
Being the relatively hardcore gamers that we are, far more used to
playing
MMOs on PC or frenetic shooters on console than Angry Birds on iPhone
or Greedy Spiders on Android,
we usually delve into the App Store looking for hardcore game
experiences rather than its multitude of casual offerings.
Given the nascent rise of tablets, 2011 has been the best year yet for games on Apple's two-pronged assault on the market, with some
developers proving that console-quality games can be ported to iOS
effectively, with intuitive touchscreen controls adding to the experience rather than ruining it.
The following five games are our top picks for 2011.
5
Superbrothers Sword & Sworcery
EP
Developer: Capybara Games, Inc
Price: £2.99
Costing just $1,000 to make, Superbrothers Sword & Sworcery EP has
also made an appearance in this year's App Store Rewind 2011 lists,
which showcases Apple's favorite games of 2011.
Billed as a 'brave experiment in I/O cinema,' due to its heavy focus on
sound, music and imagery, Capybara Games' role-playing title reminds us
of the 8-bit era with its blocky, pixelated design.
Playing as a wandering monk, Superbrothers offers a mixture of
laid-back exploration, careful investigation, mysterious musical
problem-solving and hard-hitting combat encounters.
Making good use of the iPad's touchscreen and gyroscope
function, gameplay has a dream-like pace to it enhanced by the
brilliant
audio work that complements the old-school graphics.
Though it can be incredibly slow paced, and its attempts
to be rather too artistic almost all of the time occasionally distracts
from the gameplay, Superbrothers is a hypnotic game that has the
ability to absorb you with the immense audiovisual experience.
Buy
Superbrothers Sword & Sworcery from the App store.
4
Machinarium
Developer: Amanita Design
Price: £2.99
Exclusive to the iPad 2, the goal of Machinarium is to solve a series
of puzzles and brain teasers. The puzzles are linked together by an
overworld consisting of a traditional "point-and-click" adventure
story.
Machinarium is notable in that it contains no dialogue, spoken or
written, and apart from a few tutorial prompts on the first screen, is
entirely devoid of understandable language. The game instead uses a
system of animated thought bubbles to convey emotion and humour and it
does a great job at telling the story without the need for cut-scenes
or dialogue.
The hand-drawn graphics are beautiful, the level design exquisite and
the puzzles challenging and fun to solve. Machinarium is a true
point-and-click adventure with items to pick up, logic puzzles to
overcome, item-based conundrums to solve and a huge inventory of
objects to carry around with you.
Machinarium blends great artwork with an award-winning soundtrack and
dozens of challenging puzzles to deliver an engrossing point-and-click adventure.
Buy
Machinarium from the App Store.