Windware CEO blog

These are the iPhone games I’ve enjoyed in the past.

GeoDefense

This is the best tower defense game I have played. The game does not provide much in terms of graphics, although neither does it look bad with its simple wire frame objects with colorful effects.

It’s quite a typical tower defense game as in, ‘enemy’ forces go through pre determined path wave after wave and you place your attackers beside those paths and stop them from reaching their goals.

What makes this apart from the rest is that the balance of difficulty is just amazing that even if you get to know the game well, it is still challenging and thus some levels may feel way out of balance on the first few tries but eventually you will get to know how to beat them.

There are plenty of levels to play from easy, medium and hard and there’s a single additional level pack you can buy to add some more. All in all, this is a great fun and it can last too.

GeoDefense Swarm

This is a variance of GeoDefense, which does not have much of a pre determined path but the ‘enemy’ forces move freely to their exit from the entry points and you will need to create the path yourself to make that hard for them.

Some people prefer the freedom of path creation but I liked the pre determined path style better. But still, this is pretty enjoyable that comes with a lot of levels with variety of difficulties which once again puts you into hair pulling moments as some are pretty hard and needs couple dozen tries to figure out to get any close to beating it.

But like the author states, what good is a game if it is not challenging at all?

GeoSpark

This is a totally different type of game from its predecessors but only brings the same ‘enemy’ force characters down to a different play style.

Your screen is filled with enemies which just randomly move around and you drag a type of enemy and crash it onto another that is the same type and they both vanish and you score but letting a type hit another type, game is over. This is what you have to do throughout the entire game.

The more you keep dragging the same enemy around to crash the same type, the more you will score but it will slowly generate gravitational power to it to bring other types closer and sooner or later you need to start taking care of other types not to crash onto different types.

This is a very simple concept and can be addictive if you got some free time. But in my opinion, wasn’t as fun as the first 2 games but still not bad. There are no levels but all you can do is score more and more and more…

DungeonDefense

This has been a pretty superb experience on me and too bad its nowhere to be seen these days in the ranking.

This is another tower defense type game, except you can only place attackers on a pre determined spot against enemies going through a pre determined path.

For one, the game has a great graphic and what’s better, the graphic is still detailed even if you zoom in.

For second, I think the game balance is very good and while generally thinking, the game should end up the same with pre determined spot and path as you place and upgrade your attackers the same way, they can end up quite differently upon slight different maneuvers by the characters which you don’t have much control over. And while you can’t freely place your attackers everywhere, you still get to think quite a lot on how the levels can be beaten, because if you don’t know what you are doing, you are dead in no time.

It has 3 levels to play which are all great but I have figured a seriously challenging way to play this game for those who think the game is already too easy. If you can beat the level that is inside the castle with the big ‘lord’ at the end of the path WITHOUT using the middle 8 attack points sitting close to each others in medium difficulty (because hard difficulty is impossible this way), you are totally great. I actually got to beat that about a few times out of maybe 50 tries. This game is interesting because while its genre is strategy, it sometimes rely on luck partially.

They have recently released a higher definition version for iPad with a fourth level. Although I’d say the initial 3 levels were more polished.

Nick Chase : A Detective Story

This is a novel reading style game with interesting puzzles packed here and there. It has a very good graphic (or rather drawing), voice acting and at the same time puzzles are pretty entertaining throughout. These days, these good games are hard to be found buried since they are released at older dates and there are practically no way to find them unless someone get to tell other people about it.

Everest / Buckingham Palace

This is created by the same developer as the above and it’s about finding objects in a picture. While the goal is simple, it’s quite entertaining trying to find items within various locations.

Settlers

I never really like games that just take so much time to get the fun out of it but this can be quite entertaining. You manage villagers to create a settlement and avoid enemy troops from taking your areas. It has a lot of elements and you need to control a lot of aspects, but that becomes the fun part of the game. Initially things look kind of complicated, but once you get the idea, things look logical and watching all those people work is quite fun.

iDracula

This is an action game viewed from the top to stop waves of monsters approaching to you from all directions. You get to use various weapons and perks to upgrade to save yourself. The graphic is very nice and it has a lot of fun due to the nature of involving luck to be able to get real far.

OMG Pirates!

The developer has a great sense of creating a simple, intuitive and fun game. It is side scrolling action game and it has a lot of fun while keeping everything simple. Quite comical and even addicting to challenge the survival mode.

MetalWars 1 / 2

If you like machines fighting each others, this may be of some fun. At first, things look simple, but the game is quite challenging. Being able to upgrade machines reminds me of Front Mission game series.

Supercross

This is one of the earlier games I have played on iPhone but this has a real good graphic and it gives a lot of excitement as the game balance is pretty well done. You race on a bike on various tracks. Exciting nice game.

X Games SnoCross

This is the snowmobile version of the above game. Graphic stays very nice set on snow fields. The game is probably a little easier than above.

Virtual Pool Online

Game of billiards. The controls are decent enough and the graphic is quite good. If you like billiards, you might like it.

Solomon’s Keep

This is little like rogue-like, except of course, it doesn’t have as much elements as real rogue-likes but then again, it has a good balance and can be enjoyable. The developers are very motivated to make good games and keep updating the game with new features.

Solomon’s Boneyard

This is an upper view survival game based on the previous game. It is pretty well balanced throughout (until to a point where things are simply impossible… this needs a fix) and can be quite fun with upgrades and many items to use.

Labyrinth 1 / 2

This famous game of rolling a ball to an exit is very well implemented on iPhone device and can be quite fun. The second version has much more new features than simply roll and win and looks really polished. Recommended for some quick fun.

Sentinel 1 / 2 / 3

I think this is one of the most famous tower defense game on iPhone. The first installment already gave a surprisingly high quality with serious great balance even for expert players with great graphic. Second and third installment gives extra features, new levels but the balance has somewhat got easier in my opinion.

CAUSE OF DEATH

This is a reading novel style game that you get to read stories and pick actions from time to time. The pictures are well drawn (even though they have limited scenes and you get to see same locations repeatedly on different stories), characters are developed individually, story is quite entertaining and they keep making new episodes weekly, so you get to enjoy it continuously. Good fun overall.

Sword & Poker 1 / 2

This is a really polished game with unique ideas involving the card game poker. It mixes in RPG element and you get to fight opponents by using cards based on poker rules and the developer has blended good amount of extra ideas on top of it to make it a fun game. It has plenty levels to play from and can get you hooked for hours. Good one.

Where’s Wally?

Developers polished this one out pretty well. Instead of just presenting the users with static pictures and just be done with it to grab some cash out of the franchise, they made changes such as giving motions to some of the characters and other parts look polished as well. Very nicely ported.