Can you guys recommend some iOS games that are worth playing?

Specifically, something that feels like an actual game, and not a lot of the garbage timewasters that somehow become popular on the iOS store.

As an example of a real-time game, I quite enjoyed 10000000, having heard it get a recommendation on the 8-4 podcast.

And as an example of a turn-based game, Hero Academy is surprisingly well balanced and I can actually manage to keep a pretty decent win rate going.

I appreciated what Sword & Sworcery was trying to do, but fuck the writing in that game; there's a way to be self aware without coming off as a snarky asshole who thinks they're so fucking clever. And I've played the first Infinity Blade a fair amount and enjoyed it, though it becomes evident pretty quickly how little content there is in the game, plus it burns through battery like there's no tomorrow.

And I'm pretty much not interested in anything that remotely resembles Tiny Tower, Pocket Planes, etc. I guess I'm alright with endless games like Canabalt or Jetpack Joyride, though they do straddle that line of "legitimately fun Flash-style game" vs. "pointless timewaster that goes nowhere".

Why yes I can. But first have you discovered all the secret stuff in infinity blade? That takes a while. Anyways get Cut the Rope, World of Goo, Minecraft PE, Plants vs. Zombies, Frotz, and QWOP.

Hook Champ and Super QuickHook are AWESOME.

I only ever played it at PAX a couple of years ago, but the puzzle game Shibuya was pretty simple and fun. I'd probably have bought it by now, but I don't own any iOS devices.

People like Ghost Trick, which I hear is pretty great on iOS, haven't played it myself, though.

@BisonHero: I felt the exact same way about Sword & Sworcery. I think it does have some legitimately interesting parts towards the end, but much of the rest of the game felt like little more than a contrived vehicle for Jim Guthrie's demo tape.

As for suggestions, Where's My Water? is an absolutely delightful puzzle game. And I don't know how many of them are out on iOS, but most of the various "(blank) Story" games by Kairosoft are pretty decent (they can be fairly addictive, though they tend to fall more into the "time waster" category). Also, if you are using an iPad (a phone screen really isn't big enough for the interface) and like puzzles/bashing your head against a wall, you might want to try SpaceChem.

A second vote for Where's My Water. That game gets updated consistently with free and in-App purchase DLC (which I think it's worth the price of admission) as well. Same goes for Cut The Rope and it's sequel Cut The Rope: Experiments.

Also Osmos is a great physics-based puzzle game.

Squids And Squids: Wild West are great. And a really good puzzle game is Puzzlejuice.

Cut the Rope, Bike Baron, League of Evil 1/2, Triple Town, world of Goo, Trainyard, Infinity Field, Run Roo Run, Whale Trail, Bloons TD

I enjoy the IOS version of Scribllenauts and Cut the Rope is pretty fun.

Plants vs zombies is one of the greatest games ever made if you haven't played it on any other of the million platforms its available.

If you enjoy 10000000 maybe check out Dungeon Raid - the original in this genre.

iBlast Moki 1 and 2 - don't be fooled by the cutesie art style.

As far as platformers check out jazz - trumps journey, frogatto, waking mars, nyxquest.. Theres also league of evil 2 if you are into the whole meat boy style.

Infinity Field is an amazing dual stick shooter - what geometry wars wished it could be.

As far as simulation style games, anything by Kairosoft is pretty good, although their games become a bit of a mindless grind after the first 3 or 4 you play to completion. They are best known for game dev story.

Simcity deluxe is available, as is Sid Meirs Pirates and Civ Rev, Majesty and The Settlers,. Starbase Orion is a pretty good masters of orion style space sim. Pandemic or Plague inc (basically the same game)

Other interesting/decent games in no particular genre Glowfish, Crow, New Orbit, Epoch, Battleheart

Groove coaster and beat sneak bandit, on the rhythm side of things.

Enviro bear 2010 is the greatest bear driving sim available on the market, 30 second life is an incredible distraction.

There are 100's of other small gems hidden away, unfortunately i cleared a bunch off my phone and itunes recently (i have purchased so many fucking games on itunes my 32 gb Iphone cant hold half my games and i have full screens of foldered games) and i can't remember a lot off the top of my head.

I understand your distaste of the time waster games, theres a couple like ski safari and seal force that are worth the money imo though.

If you have any interest in any particular genre i could probably rattle a few more off if you are interested.

The Simpsons Tapped Out. It's free and quite addictive.

Ghost Trick.

@McGhee said:

Hook Champ and Super QuickHook are AWESOME.

I agree with this wholeheartedly.

Most games by Kairosoft (Game Dev Story, Dungeon Village, etc.) are a safe bet, and Plague Inc. is somewhat similar, except you play as a disease, and your mission is to wipe out all life on Earth. For a good German board game fix there's Catan and Ticket to Ride. There's also Dungeon Raid and, better yet, Puzzle Quest.

But if you want some serious games first off there's Ascendancy, which is a port of an old PC sci-fi 4X strategy game, a bit like the Civilization series, but not simplified like CivRev was. Just be aware that it eats battery power like no other game I've played.

But my personal favorite is King of Dragon Pass, which defies easy classification (it's a fantasy themed, turn based strategy, 4X-ish, town management sim, choose your own adventure, role playing game). It's hard to recommend to everyone, being very niche and pretty damn expensive for an iOS app ($9.99 for cryin' out loud), but it's something to look into.

I thought that Superbrothers was interesting with a good soundtrack. Plays much better on iOS than pc.

Shibuya is bomb

I have heard good things about PuzzleCraft

Also:

• Age of Zombies (Twinstick shooter)
• Aquaria (Metroidvania made for touch controls)
• Battle for Wesnoth (Turn-based strategy RPG)
• Beat Sneak Bandit (Rhythm sneaking game)
• Civilization Revolution (Yo, it's Civ)
• Continuity 2 (Dimension warping puzzle-platformer)
• Cut the Rope (Physics puzzle game)
• Fieldrunners 2 (Tower defense game)
• Magic the Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013 (Magic that's fun for all levels)
• Pinball Arcade (Faithful recreations of classic pinball tables)
• Plague Inc. (Strategy game to kill the world population)
• Super Mega Worm (Arcade style destruction score-attack)
• And anything by Kairosoft (Sim/strategy games)

@TooWalrus said:

People like Ghost Trick, which I hear is pretty great on iOS, haven't played it myself, though.

If you haven't played ghost trick, its pretty good. Although I only played it on the DS.

I own an android, but if I know that Game Dev game is on Iphone.

Ghost Trick and Phoenix Wright are great on iOS.

Tiny Wings, Beat Sneak Bandit are fun too.

Cut the Rope and Cut the Rope Experiments are probably my favourites though, they are constantly updated with new levels too.

Also Envirobear 2000 is the best game I have ever played.

The World Ends With You -Solo Remix- should be out on the North American app store soon, assuming that's where you are of course. I can't really recommend it from knowledge, both due to not playing Solo Remix and the fact that there's some new features and a changed battle system, but the soundtrack is pretty great and the original is one of my top DS games, so what could go wrong?

Thanks for all the interesting suggestions, guys! I ended up going with:

• Game Dev Story
• Beat Sneak Bandit
• Plague Inc.
• Shibuya

Plague Inc. is oddly compelling.