This is great - I also remember the whole Kairosoft surge, but a few years earlier when Game Dev Story initially launched. Thanks for sharing!
Some of the most memorable memories for me... Infinity Blade 1. I played a couple battles of this on my friend's ipod touch4, which prompted me to buy my own iptouch4 the week after, and bought IB right away, and i loved it. Started iOS gaming for me. After i finished the game the first time, i couldnt believe this was on mobile, and that it was the first all-touch controls game i loved. The sequels were of course insta-bought, insta-loved, and im still playing IB3 until now. EPOCH.1 and EPOCH.2. Im a scifi nut so these were instabought. Needless to say, it was love at first sight. The sequel is still one of my alltime favorite iOS games. When the melee-finisher got introduced in the sequel, my inner child was fangirl-screaming. Absolutely loved the boss fight in the first game, so the multiple bosses in the sequel was pure joy, and i can hear myself scream inside again. I believe this was all possible because of how intuitive the controls are in this game, no other cover shooter came close. Monster Hunter Freedom Unite. This is my favorite game of alltime right beside Vagrant Story. So when this was announced for mobile, it was nothing but excitement.when the game came out in JP, i had to go through crap to buy JP credits for it. Of course a month later i instabought on its worldwide english release. I could never forget how much i loved the game back on the PSP, and i was enjoying each moment on this iOS version. I even ignored my wife a couple times while playing this. LOL. She knows how it is with me and MH games, so she understood. HAHAHA
one of my fave memories was in 2012. so many great games came out that year. final fantasy dimensions, bastion, the world ends with you, Lili. amazing year. Another one was Feb 2016? was really sad about going to college and then Final fantasy 9 came out in the morning so i was so happy and kinda played it when the professor wasn't paying attention... sorry
Ipod Touch 4G I started out on an iPod touch 4Gen. Convinced my family it was for school (And I actually used it for everything, Notes, Scheduling, Music, Class you name it). Cube Runner was my first...Followed by some of the Greats Archetype (God I miss it) This one is my Sentimental Favourite. Elimination The Infinity Project Infinity Project 2 Modern Combat 2:Black Pegasus The original Galaxy on Fire (And it's sequel) EDEN: World Builder Pocket Frogs <3 The Smule Apps (Ocarina, Piano, Etc) Need For Speed (one of the early good ones) Warm Gun Beta (Remember when THAT was supposed to be good? Unreal engine hurrah!) Infinity Blade (Series) Desert Zombie: Last Stand (loved it until the studio disappeared :<) Monkey Ball NOVA NOVA 2 NOVA 3 Modern Combat 3 (The series is dead to me after that one) Minecraft PE There are more, but I cannot remember them anymore...perhaps they just didn't leave an impression on me as much....but I will always look back to the early days as a Golden Age of gaming for me, Amidst all the mainstream games at the time, these indie hits were golden for me, even the Gameloft "Ripoffs" like MC and Nova (I loved em)....and I ALWAYS Paid for the premium titles....I will always remember and miss those days gone bye....surely those were better times for iOS in terms of Quality and Originality (at least for me)....maybe one day we will return to that beautiful Zenith....one day <3
The drop7 era. A game as appealling in depth as Tetris, it was brilliant. The flicking and line drawing era, what games could be made using them.
My fondest memories of the App Store games , must be surprising release of XCOM EU , then having EW show up.. loved also the indie games by mika mobile , BATTLEHEART was special. Then I was so excited awaiting BATTLEHEART LEGACY. I also loved Aralon , that was seemingly unreal! The sports games have been great too. I remember when the AppStore had very few decent games, then it exploded into great games every week. Tony
Sorry, I forgot my favourite part of iOS gaming: NINTENDO games on my iPhone!! Having a Mario game on my phone , and fire emblem (my all time fave) has changed the whole thing for me personally!
My first experience with the apple was the first Tap Tap music game. At the time I had a flip phone and had a 2DS with this wonky cartridge insert attachment with four big buttons and a stylus that I swiped madly to guitar hero. Co worker had a iphone 3g, showed me tap tap. I borrowed his phone a dozen times over the next three days to play it. Ended up buying a iphone shortly after. My first hardcore addiction on the apple was We Rule from ngmoco. No other developer since has put out a city builder with quite the level of customizability as We Rule had. Sure gameplay wise We Rule wouldnt likely stand a chance in todays market but still, no other game let you build and customize your kingdom quite like it.
Chronicles of Inotia: Legend of Feanor. Some of my fondest iOS gaming memories came from playing that game. The year was either 08' or 09'. I just sold my Xbox 360 because I was expecting my first child and I didn't want hardcore console gaming to distract me from my responsibilities as a new dad. So my plan was to get a smart phone that would allow me to play games both on the go and in small chunks. I had gotten the early Google smart phone aka the G1, but eventually I got rid of it due to its poor craftsmanship. Most importantly, I got rid of it because it lacked good games. I remember the early Android App Store having minimal games and they were mostly awful except for Spiral Defense! Anyway, my ex-wife bought her new iPhone 3G and I downloaded Chronicles of Inotia: Legend of Feanor onto it. I was blown away by this western RPG mobile game that played like Diablo. Soon I got my own iPhone 3G and I downloaded that game again. It was like I had a portable Diablo in my pocket! Dude, life was perfect. I just had my first boy and I was carrying a portable RPG in my pocket 24/7. I was ready to play it anytime, anywhere. For what it's worth, that was a awesome little game. It had random loot, random enemy spawns and multiple levels. I know It couldn't compete with today's games, but it was something special.
When i 1zt heard of an iPhone i wuz set out to get one. ##Thank You Very Much Steve Jobs##. I wanted to find some cool Shmups & Bullet Heavens, to doubt the possibility of a game similar to those beasts of CAVE- never again. I searched for Third Blade & Demon Hunter 4rm my Android ventures & our Awesome AppStore had it! I wuz Amazed ? it seemed like every game i typed in the search bar it took me to something wonderful especially when i find gems through TA. It has not been a dull moment since
The first play through of Space Miner:Ore Bust. I loved every second of that game from the cute goofy story, insanely tight controls, spot on physic's, fantastic graphics, perfect degree of difficulty without ever being frustrating. I had soooo much fun leveling up in that game. Also had a ton of fun with original bug heroes, hero of Sparta, nova, Uncharted clone, final fantasy clone by gameloft. To be honest I miss the #### out of the game loft clone days... they were some of the very best gaming experiences I had on iOS. The very early FPS WW2 Shooters also gave me a ton of fun. The first few years of App Store gaming was outstanding but after gameloft started releasing their games ftp and the market went that way... imo it's never had the same feel. No more dead spaces... true epic gaming experiences that require a lot of money invested to produce. I have not seen one game in over 2 years that was anything like all the games I've mentioned already.
Deadspace Ah the EA Deadspace game, I loved the absolute crap out of it, as well as Mass Effect, 2 masterpieces up until the downfall of the App Store in to the F2P Hell it has become <3. Anyone else remember that Starcraft Rip-off? I absolutely LOVED that game, watched all the devlogs and trailers for it, day 1 purchase and never looked back... And FF was a good moba for a while too....ah memories
Yep, loved that clone! Think it was Gameloft once again... Say what you want about Gameloft... but they brought some amazing gaming to early iOS. To be honest ever since they melted away from the FTP gaming has never been the same. They had a final fantasy clone that was released around Christmas a few years back that was fantastic.
Despite having to get used to touch screen controls, I remember still being amazed at the variety and graphics and price that iOS games provided! I had only ever bought a handful of mobile games for my old Nintendo DS but suddenly found myself collecting games for my phone (and soon iPad) at a rate I couldn't believe - it was heaven! haha Briefly: :: Loved the graphics for Geodefense and that introduction to the genre was my gateway drug for all things tower defense. :: Similar graphics style, but the gameplay and multiplayer for Orbital was countless hours of entertainment. (To this day!) :: I remember when it seemed like every.single.person I knew was trying to finish all the levels of Angry Birds and sharing tips - similar to how it felt seeing everyone walking around like a zombie when Pokemon came out recently, lol. :: I was so stoked when arcade classics like Centipede and Missile Command and Galaga became available. Not to mention THPS2! (Damn, I wish that one still worked!) :: I enjoyed the days when Gameloft was rapidly trying to recreate all the popular console games since the bigger developers weren't on iOS. (Seriously, why didn't more games like Starfront Collision ever get released??) :: Loved all the daily games back in the day, like Pocket Frogs and WeRule - good times. Turns out so many of those early games I first played on my 3GS back in 2009 are still on my phone today - great for nostalgia, not to mention still great time wasters.
Quite the question... =oP In the beginning (ha!)... There were a few games that made me a firm believer in iOS gaming. Hybrid: Eternal Whisper-- This action RPG was the first of the genre that I had ever really gotten into. I wound up playing through it about 3 times in a few months. The story, while pretty corny, was something that hit me in just the right way at just the right time in my life... The sort of... Arena based gameplay had me hooked as well. While incredibly repetitive I found myself doing my best to master all the different combos until it was second nature and using the touchscreen finally clicked for me. Grokion-- For anyone who doesn't already know (I bring it up a lot here), Metroid II is my favorite video game ever. So even though Grokion was my first experience with planned episodic content that frustraitingly never materialized, it was also my first Metroidesque gaming experience on the iPhone. I played through it, seeing that locked door at the end of the episode at least 50 times. The controls took some finesse to get, but if/once you could/did, the game went from great to freak'n magical. This one also got me to join TA! =oP Soosiz-- This was the first traditional platformer I ever got into on the iOS. I can't really say too much about it, as... Well... I think it's pretty much considered a classic by a whole heap of iOS gamers. The level designs and physics/inertia mechanics were a blast to play around with and experience. It had the whole Mario vibe without having to resort to cloning Mario. Hook Champ-- Another classic. It was the first time I had played anything at all like it, and while I absolutely sucked when compared to best world-times... I couldn't help but keep trying to better my own times and find a way to reach every route in each stage. Spirit-- This little arcade based high-score chaser got me into dodging which eventually turned into a full blown obsession with the bullet hell genre. I spent countless hours playing through each separate mode (with Pulse being my favorite - finding a way to aim for those little nodes and get the timing just right was a magical feeling). There were more games after this that I've absolutely loved, sometimes more-so than these titles... But I was already won over by the iDevice at that point and the impact they had on me wasn't near what it was with these 5 titles.
Almost forgot Star Hogs! Loved that game until a version update reset my game. And it still plays on my 6 Plus Not sure about multiplayer.
