Everything you’ll ever need to know about multiplayer games

NOTE: Please see Chapter 6, Updates to this article, for more info on how this guide is updated. Current version / last updated: 11/22/2009.

Gaming, despite the lack of hardware buttons and controls (D-pads), has traditionally been one of the strongest sides of the iPhone / iPod touch (iPhone for short - for simplicity, I use 'iPhone' when referring to the iPod touch too) platforms. The iPhone received way more games in the slightly less than one and a half year since the opening of AppStore than any of its smart phone competitor platforms (see for example my dedicated Windows Mobile multiplayer gaming guide HERE - Windows Mobile, during the last about 9 years of existence, received about an order of magnitude less(!) multiplayer-enabled titles), including even Java.

A sizeable part of the iPhone games support wireless multiplayer; that is, letting two (or more) players take part in a game at the same time. The iPhones’ being always-connected and networked, this is pretty much understandable – after all, adding multiplayer features to an existing single-player game may highly increase its popularity and playability. Just a well-known example from the desktop (Windows / Mac OS) world: the single player mode Starcraft becomes very boring for an experienced player after a while – the artificial intelligence (AI) simply isn’t strong enough to beat a good player even in 7v1 games. Not so with multiplayer games where one can meet far better players than the AI.

In the following, after quickly explaining the connection and notification (Push etc.) types iPhone multiplayer games employ, I go over the most popular gaming categories and show you the (currently) best games available for the platform so that you can pick up some decent games without even consulting my huuuuuge main chart containing (almost) all the multiplayer-enabled games ever released for the platform.

1. Connection types

1.1 Strictly local connections

1.1.1 Bluetooth (BT)

Bluetooth is the cleanest solution if you’re next (in the same room) to your friend. Then, you won’t (even) need to be connected to the same Wi-Fi access point or to the internet. This also means you can use Bluetooth where there isn’t any kind of a Wi-Fi access point – on public transport vehicles, in cars etc. In these cases, the (compared to local Wi-Fi) independence of Bluetooth can be a godsend.

Note that, while commuting, you can still have cellular data connections, but

- it requires both parties to have independent access to the Internet via cellular connections (this rules out iPod touch devices)

- the game you plan to play doesn’t necessarily support remote connections (which is particularly the case with action games like Doom Classic where quick response and minimal lag are a must)

- and, if it’s supported at all, the lag may be just too high (effectively, communication packets from the two phones travel through at least the country center, resulting in between 300-500 ms ping / lag times), making games that require fast response / action mandatory unplayable. Also keep this in mind when playing games offering both local and remote multiplayer – whenever possible, try using local connections.

The disadvantages of Bluetooth are as follows:

a. It doesn’t work on 1st generation iPhones or iPod touches (it does between the iPhone 3G , the 3G S and the 2nd-/3rd-generation iPod touch)

b. At times, you may have to disable Wi-Fi for Bluetooth to work better (and vice versa, particularly on the 3G S, where disabling Bluetooth altogether may result in significant Wi-Fi connection speed increase.) This requires a lot of additional tapping (unless you install / use Cydia-only [requiring a jailbreak] shortcut manager like SBSettings ). Note that OS version 3.1 is stated to have considerably enhanced the co-existence of Wi-Fi and BT; with the new OS version, it might be not any more required to switch off either to achieve the best performance possible.

c. BT gaming has only been introduced in OS 3. That is, if you don’t want to upgrade your iPhone 3G or iPod touch 2G to OS3, you won’t be able to make use of it at all. (Some iPod touch users refuse the upgrade because it isn’t free.)

1.1.1.1 Using Bluetooth

It’s basically very easy to create a BT connection between two devices. In some games, you just tap the multiplayer Bluetooth icon / menu item on both phones to start discovery; in some other, you need to tap the Host (on one device to "host" the game) and Join (on the other one to "join" the existing game) icons.

Note that, in general, the first BT connection may take a bit more time to build up than subsequent ones. Also, if they remain slow (or unreliable), you might want to completely disable Wi-Fi when using BT for multiplay.

When the two phones find each other, just tap the newly-displayed name of the other phone on one of the phones. After a while, the "Accept" and "Decline" buttons will be displayed on the other phone. Then, just tap "Accept".

An example of all this can be found HERE at around 0:25.

1.1.2 Wi-Fi

Local Wi-Fi connections require the two (or more) of you to be connected to the same Wi-Fi access point. As opposed to the BT approach explained in the previous section, it works on even OS 2.x and on the first-generation iPhones and iPod touches as well. However, it’s way more restricted than BT; for example, if you don’t have a Wi-Fi access point to connect to, you won’t be able to play. This completely rules out playing your friends / buddies in, say, a vehicle, a bus, a train, on a trip etc. Of course, games only supporting local Wi-Fi connectivity won’t work if you only have cellular data connection but not a local Wi-Fi access point, either.

Note that, unlike with some BT games, with Wi-Fi local connections, there must almost always be an originator (host) and a client machine (there may be more of the latter with games allowing more than two local players; an example is Real Racing). This is why with local Wi-Fi games there’s always a "Host" and a "Join" button. You need to tap Host on one of your phones and Join on the other(s).

Note that these explicit icons may completely be missing. For example, with Doom Classic, if you go to the "Multiplayer" (the lower left icon in the main menu) on one of your phones, the other phones running Doom over the same local Wi-Fi network (that is, connecting to the same Wi-Fi access point) will automatically sense a host being started on the network. This is shown HERE. At 0:05, I enter the menu on the iPhone on the left. You can see that the color of the same "Multiplayer" icon on the right device almost immediately lights up (and also displays the iTunes name of the other phone), showing there’s a Doom host on the network. Then, all you need to do is tapping this icon and, after selecting the game type on the left iPhone, just tap "Start game" on the same phone.

The traditional "Host" / "Join" scheme can be seen for example in THIS video.

1.2 Remote connections

So far, I’ve only discussed connections that can only be used on either the same Wi-Fi local area network (connecting to the same Wi-Fi access point) or Bluetooth device.

1.2.1 Direct IP

The approaches explained above involve auto-discovery based on (local) broadcasting. That is, the two (or more) phones (iDevices) magically and automatically find each other. (Physically, this is done by for example using broadcast discovery protocols over Wi-Fi and the inherent discovery mechanisms built into Bluetooth.) Some (VERY few) games, however, also allow you to enter the direct IP of your buddy. (And one of them, namely, Quartz 2, mandates you to do so - there aren't other, discovery-based ways of connection in it.) In these cases, you just enter the IP address (which is always displayed on the other party’s device) of your buddy and off you go.

THIS demo video shows entering direct IP. It’s worth skipping the first 28 seconds to avoid confusion (at first, I messed up creating the network). The left iPhone is started in Host mode. Its IP address (192.168.1.103 , which is a local area network address) can be seen at the bottom of the screen. This is what needs to be entered on the client machine (the one on the right); you can see this being done between 0:37 and 0:50.

Direct IP entering, while it does have its problems (manually entering an IP isn’t the easiest thing) has some advantages over the other networking forms: as opposed to local Wi-Fi and BT, you can play your buddy on the other end of the world. All you need to do is telling him/her your IP address (if it’s you that host the game); this can be done via, say, any instant messaging application. Note that this only works if your buddy isn’t behind a firewall or any kind of address translation but has a direct Internet address. Many (but in no way all!) cellular providers hand out direct(ly connectable) addresses.

When compared to the "remote lounge" approach explained below, this approach has both advantages and disadvantages. Let me elaborate on them a bit more. The disadvantages are as follows:

- Manual IP entering (which also involves actually getting this address from your buddy, which, at least on the iPhone, may mean you end up having to give a call to someone or "meeting" him using an instant messenger app)

- Doesn’t work when both phones are behind a firewall. (If at least one of them have a direct IP address, if it’s being used as the host (and not vice versa), the connection will work.)

- Lack of centralized goodies like ladder, high scores, chat with strangers etc. - stuff that can only be implemented when there is a third layer (negotiator), a game lounge between the two phones.

The biggest advantage, on the other hand, is the independence of any server hosted by the developer. This is more important than you think. Developers come and go (out of business); their networks and servers going with them, rendering all the games running on the iPhones of their ex-clients useless in multiplayer. Or, there can "only" be some pauses or temporal breakdowns – as was the case with, for example, iMech by Flying Dino, which had days(!) of pauses, during which the game stopped to operate.

No such problems with direct IP-based solutions – they will work even after 100 years. (Assuming there will be IP-based networks then, of course.)

1.2.2 Lounge

Lounge-based remote play allows you to play anyone from anywhere in the world. The advantages are as follows:

a. If you don’t have a buddy around to play but / or would like to play a stranger (instead), you may want to go for this option. If you use a more popular game with more online players (e.g., Galcon and a lot more), you have a big chance to run into someone to play you.

b. Note that you can play your local buddies too, even if both of you are connected to the same Wi-Fi access point. This needs to be kept in mind when playing a game only offering remote (lounge)-based play but not local Wi-Fi (or Bluetooth) one.

Incidentally, note that, should you want to play your buddy only, I’ve elaborated on whether you can select your buddies to play in the lounge of the games (or, alternatively, invite him/her explicitly, based on his/her nickname). With most titles, manual opponent selection is possible. With the rest (that is, games not offering manual opponent selection but using automatic matching instead), you can still make sure the both of you join the multiplayer server at about the same time to maximize the chances of the server matching the two of you.

The inherent disadvantages of this approach are as follows:

a. As has also been explained with the direct IP scheme: When the lounge server is down, you won’t be able to play. Upon testing, I haven’t ever run into problems like that. This, however, doesn’t mean the case will definitely be the case after three or five years. Developers may exit developing and even supporting their existing games, including running their proprietary servers. That is, don’t take being able to play forever for granted. (This also means you should ask / force game developers adding some kind of local connectivity to their games – preferably BT-based so that it can be played anywhere.)

b. As the connection is generally routed through a lounge server (some games do try to build up a direct, much faster and more reliable connection between the two devices but it’s only a minority of the titles), the lag will be considerably more than with local games. This is why few for example first person shooters or racing games support internet (lounge-based) play – most of them are Wi-Fi (or, lately, BT) only – with them, even 300-400 ms lag can result in a totally unplayable game. (This is why the developers of Doom Classic have completely abandoned going the remote way.) No such problems exist with less demanding game genres like board games (chess and the like).

1.2.2.1 Fooling the iPhone into using cellular connections via 3D Unrestrictor

Some of the games (for example, the great arcade racing game Asphalt 5 by Gameloft) doesn’t work over cellular (GPRS / EDGE / UMTS / HSPA) connections when operating in remote lounge mode. A quick solution to this is explicitly configuring 3D Unrestrictor to make the operating system treat the given title as one that does allow cellular connections.

Please consult THIS for more info.

Note that some titles aren’t hackable. For example, Call of Duty: World At War: Zombies by Activision does support remote (lounge-based) play but only via a Wi-Fi connection. It’s not possible to make it work (at least as of version 1.0.0) over cellular ones.

2. Notification types

When playing remote games (that is, where your opponent isn’t necessarily in the same room as you), you may find it necessary to notify your buddy of your having done your turn (in a board / turn-based strategy game) or invited him/her for a game.

Sure, you can do this via the traditional approaches: IRC and other means of instant messaging, SMS, phonecall, Skype, e-mail etc. - there are several ways of notifying your buddies of their turn. However, the cleanest and most effective way to do this (which also makes sure you don’t have to add your temporary enemy in your IM app or flood your mailbox with mails telling you it’s your turn) is Push notification introduced by OS 3.

If you read my Instant Messaging (IM) bible , you become aware of the brand new and revolutionary feature of the new iPhone OS: Push. It lets you notified of certain events even when the phone is suspended (by, for example, pressing the Power button – this will only work via cellular connections, not Wi-Fi ones; that is, iPod touch push notification won’t work in this state). With IM apps, these can be, among other things, new messages sent to you by your buddies.

Some (unfortunately, not all) multiplayer games also incorporate Push notification. This lets the players send out game requests in real time that will surely be received pretty quickly. This also means you don’t need to use the traditional, manual ways (email, IM, giving a call etc.) of notifying your buddies of your invitation. Much cleaner, it involves much less effort on both (but, particularly, on the person that invites the other – no need to fire up an IM / mail client and enter your invitation etc.) sides and, as opposed to e-mail, it surely gets read by the invited buddy at once (or with some minutes later). That is, the person sending out the invitation can safely stay in the game: if his (her) buddy does want to play, he (she) will see him (her) joining the game in 1-2 minutes at most. The situation on the invited buddy’s side is equally easy: when an invitation arrives, he’ll be notified right away. Then, he (she) only needs to tap "Play" and will be immediately taken to the game. (Unfortunately, for example UNO doesn’t take you to the game started by your buddy – you must search it yourself. Nevertheless, this doesn’t really ruin the easiness and simplicity of the concept.)

Currently, very few games support Push notification: currently, of the tested games (this doesn’t necessarily mean I haven’t missed one or some!) UNO by Gameloft, the excellent musical instrument game Leaf Trombone: World Stage by Smule, the excellent and free poker app "Live Poker ", some of the turn-based strategies like UniWar by Xpressed and Mecho Wars by Luc Bernard, board games like Chess Elite by 99Games, Chess / Words with Friends by Newtoy, StarPagga by Funsuma Games, Real Soccer 2010 by Gameloft etc.

An example screenshot of showing the system-level Push configuration dialog under Settings / Notifications :

(Here, "Racing" and "Vampires" are Storm8 titles.)

(BTW, the same screen can be seen at 3:17 in THIS Chess Elite video.)

Hope that, currently now that I’m recommending Push notification for multiplayer game developers, more of them follow suit and implement this functionality.

Let me show you some examples of how this works. First, let’s create a game (in UNO) and tap "Invite ":



There, tap the buddies (here: Menne2 ) to invite. An invitation will be sent out to him; at the same time, on the inviter’s screen, "Waiting for Menne." will be displayed:



Your buddy’s iPhone (assuming it’s not switched entirely off [by pressing and holding the Power button and slide the "Power off?" slider], has cellular coverage and Push isn’t disabled), a new dialog will be shown telling you you’ve been invited for a game:



(Note that, here, "Menne2" should be the inviter instead. I didn’t want to swap iPhones on the sync cable and collect screenshots from two of them – instead of one -; this is why I show you a screenshot of an invitation coming from another iPhone and not the state of it.)

Just tap Play and, then, navigate to online play (again, UNO doesn’t automatically take you to the game created by your buddy – you need to find it manually) and select the game created:



Finally, note that, in order to make a certain UNO instance know of another player, you will be required to send a Friend request to your buddy and approve it from inside the "mailbox" at "Gameloft Live" (accessible from the main menu). These mails aren’t delivered to your regular e-mail address but will only be accessible here. (I don’t think this is the best [read: most newbie-friendly] solution: a regular e-mail with an online activation / "make friends" link would have been much easier.):



THIS video also shows Push notification in action. Note that Chess with Friends (as with the other multiplayer titles of the same developer) has always had a bit of delay (1-2 minutes) with push messages arriving. In this case, on the right phone, I make a move (after making sure I quit the game on the left) at around 0:55; the message only arrives at 4:25 to the left phone.

With regard to the already-linked Chess Elite demo, you can also see Push work. At 2:20, I’ve stopped Chess Elite running on the left iPhone. After making my turn on the right one (which was playing against the left iPhone), the Push message immediately arrived (at 2:27) to the left iPhone. I immediately restarted Chess Elite (on the left phone) and, then, tapped the newly-listed game in the "Your turn" section (there’s also a red "New notification" badge in the menu where it is so you’ll quickly find this from the main menu). At 2:42 it fetched (and displayed) the move that had been made on the right phone. After this, I exit Chess Elite on the right iPhone; nevertheless, for some reason, the Push notification doesn’t arrive on it (this is why I immediately checked System / Notifications in the video to see whether notifications are enabled both globally and in the given game). After realizing there’s some problem with receiving Push notifications on the right phone, I return to sending out Push messages from it instead: restart the game and make my move at 3:38 (exiting the left phone before so that you can see Push works). The left phone does receive the new message almost immediately (at 3:48). Note that the Push problem on the 3G I emphasized above is promised to have been fixed in the 10/8/2009 upgrade (my video was taken a little bit before that date).

I’ve produced another Push demo (see THIS); this time, showing Push working with UniWar, the great turn-based strategy. At 0:44, I exit the game on the left phone; on the right one, at 0:47, I finish my move (and, therefore, notify the left phone on its turn). Then, I suspend the phone to see whether I get Push messages in that state. I did – the UniWar icon received a "1" badge, showing there has been one incoming Push message. The sole reason for not having any audio feedback on the Push message arriving is because UniWar (as opposed to almost all other Push-capable applications and games – the only exception I know of is Rock Band by EA) only supports Badges but no Alerts / Sounds. This is why you’ll only notice you having a turn when you actively take a look at the SpringBoard home screen showing the UniWar startup icon.

3. Some of my favorite titles

First, let’s go over the official genres of Apple – I show you some of the best titles in each. This way, you can save yourself the time needed to take a really thorough look at my chart, which contains (almost) every multiplayer game ever released for the platform - as of 11/22/2009, 198 (!) - yes, almost 200!

3.1 Action

(Note that some common genres – first-person shooters and platformers – not having dedicated categories by Apple are mainly listed here.)

3.1.1 Bomber Online by Eurocenter

Should you not know what the Bomberman genre is all about, please check out THIS. There are a lot of online Bomberman Flash games too (for example THIS one), should you want to get known to the genre before deciding whether you’d like to purchase this game. HERE is a pretty nice, full (!) single-player review of the game.

I’d prefer this Bomberman clone over the other Bomberman clones (e.g., BOMBERMAN TOUCH 2 - Volcano Party by Hudson) because of the much better controls and the much more versatile lounge-based game (with online players always around).



3.1.2 Alive 4-ever by Meridian (iTunes, YouTube.)

This is a top-down (two-dimensional) game, supporting both local Wi-Fi and BT and up to four players, is one of the best shoot’m’up titles around with cooperative play (that is, you work together to eliminate the foes).



A French-language video review is HERE, English-language ones are HERE and HERE; trailer HERE. The probably most visited discussion thread dedicated to the game, the available weapons, strategies etc. is HERE.

3.1.3 Blades of Fury by Gameloft (iTunes, YouTube)

If you loved Street Figher in the nineties on either home computers or consoles, you’ll equally love Blades of Fury, which is quite much a visual feat.



Trailer HERE and HERE. A review HERE (unfortunately, it’s badly underexposed)

3.1.4 First-Person Shooters (FPS)

3.1.4.1 DOOM Classic by id Software (iTunes, Cooperative and Deathmatch YouTube videos)

An undoubtedly "retro" game. Retro also means you won’t really want to check it out it you dislike a game that is exactly the same as the original one – that is, visually not really something the iPhone is capable of. Nevertheless, not taking Call of Duty: World At War: Zombies by Activision and Eliminate into account (the latter is disliked by some people – see THIS if interested in discussions like this), there’re so few multiplayer-enabled First-Person Shooters on the platform (and the available ones – iFPS, Cube etc. – are so much worse) that you will still want to give this title a try.



There’s a single-player video HERE and HERE.

3.1.4.2 Call of Duty: World At War: Zombies by Activision (iTunes, YouTube)

Another great FPS title is COD: World At War: Zombies. If you have latest-generation hardware (but not an older one - it's plain slow on them), you may definitely want to check it out.



3.1.5 Flight Control by Firemint (iTunes, YouTube.)

This is one of the games you absolutely must check out. Basically, you need to control the route of landing airplanes without them crashing into each other. In addition to cooperative multiplayer, it also supports online high scores.



Single-player demo / review videos you might want to check out are HERE. HERE there’s a short one with tons of planes on-screen so that you can have an idea how it looks like when the screen is full of action.

Note that there are quite a few spin-offs of the same genre; for example, Harbor Master by Imangi Studios (which is also multiplayer-enabled; it, as opposed to the Firemint title, is plain parallel only, as opposed to the [better] cooperative approach). I, personally, consider Flight Control the best of the subgenre; that is, it should be the first title you should also check out.

3.1.6 iSamurai Bluetooth by Toy Kite Software (iTunes, YouTube)

This one is a fun accelerometer-based game; offers definitely more than other "simple" accelerator-based multiplayer "games" like Quick Draw Cowboy Gunfight by ACME Mobile Products - here, the accelerometer is not only used to track the quick change from being in a vertical position to horizontal, but also other positions, movements, strikes and blockings.



3.1.7 Hyper Puck by Kieffer Bros. (iTunes, YouTube)

(Note that, by default, this game is categorized in the Entertainment / Family / Arcade category. As I don’t know of any classic arcade game having Shufflepuck or the broader Air hockey, I took the liberty of re-categorizing it to the better-matching Action category.)

A recommended Shufflepuck (which belongs to the (broader) category Air hockey) clone is Hyper Puck.



The trailer / official demo video is HERE; a low-quality singleplayer demo HERE.

3.1.8 iNinja by Geppetto Inc. (iTunes; lite; YouTube)

A very decent Air Hockey / Shufflepuck title, particularly in single player.



Trailer HERE, another one HERE. Both mostly concentrate on single-player gaming; nevertheless, the latter, at 0:55, also shows multiplayer for some seconds. As you can see, in multiplayer, there aren't obstacles; still, it's great fun against a human opponent, just like the comparable Hyper Puck by Kieffer Bros introduced in the previous section.

Note that the free version (iTunes link) is perfectly playable in multiplayer - as opposed to most other titles.

3.1.9 Touch Hockey FS5 by FlipSide5 (iTunes, YouTube)

An excellent Air Hockey title also having a lite version. The only disadvantage of it is the ads displayed for about 10 sec when starting each and every game.



A single-player demo HERE (unfortunately, technically, isn’t of better quality).

3.1.10 DinoSmash Online by Eurocenter (iTunes, YouTube)

This is a strictly online, great 2D platformer game much better than any of the comparable alternatives (WiFi Warfare by Jesse Starks or NanoMechs by Theorian).



An in-game video HERE and HERE.

3.1.11 StarPagga by Funsuma Games (iTunes, YouTube)

A 3D space shooter title. Not recommended if you only have a previous-generation (pre-3G S) phone.



A gameplay video (without commentary) HERE.

3.1.12 MiniSquadron by MrFungFung (iTunes, YouTube)



A great dogfighting game.

3.2 Adventure games

It seems many of the game developers don’t really know what "adventure" really means. Let me cite the Wiki: "An adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story that is driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical challenges such as combat."

Unfortunately, none of the multiplayer games fulfill this definition. (And the ones that do contain some kind of puzzle solving are either traditional Color Matching, Puzzle, Strategy or RPG games. Some are totally miscategorized; for example, iMech by Flying Dino, which is neither a RPG nor an Adventure but more of an Action or Arcade game.) This is why I don’t list any titles here. This, however, doesn’t mean there aren’t any (single-player(!)) adventures for the iPhone. There are; for example, Myst, Secret of the Monkey Island, Transylvania Adventure etc.

3.3 Arcade

As opposed to the previous category (adventure), there are numerous titles really belonging to this category. (In a nutshell (citing Wiki): "An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, typically installed in businesses such as restaurants, public houses, video arcades, and Family Entertainment Centers. Most arcade games are redemption games, merchandisers (such as Claw crane), video games or pinball machines.")

Note that there definitely is an overlap between the Action category (see above) and this one. I definitely consider for example 1942 (Wiki page HERE) clones like Siberian Strike by Gameloft belonging to this category (more than Action) as 1942 is a well-established arcade category.

3.3.1 Siberian Strike by Gameloft (iTunes, YouTube)

This cooperative (you work together with your buddy eliminating your foes on the same screen) multiplayer 1942 clone is definitely worth checking out, particularly at the current price ($1).



Note that while, technically, are definitely better 1942 clones (for example, SkyForce Reloaded by Infinite Dreams (lite version HERE)), this is the only one to have multiplayer.

Trailers HERE and HERE; a review HERE. Note that the latter states the game is very prone to locking up; I haven’t encountered problems like this with the current version(s).

3.3.2 Pong clones

3.3.2.1 Pong - iPhone Edition by Jonah Grant (iTunes, YouTube)

If you’re really into vintage arcade games (and, particularly, Pong – Wiki page HERE), then, this title may be of interest to you, particularly because of the low price tag and the versatile (you can use it anywhere, unlike local Wi-Fi) Bluetooth support.



Single player review HERE.

3.3.2.2 SteamPong by RIVE Entertainment (iTunes, HERE)



It uses a slightly different (almost 2D) approach to Pong, adding some twists like being able to touch the ball more than one times a turn to get bonuses.

3.3.2.3 3-D Vector Ball by Gyrocade (iTunes, YouTube)

Of the 3D Pong clones, I recommend this title the most.



A review HERE.

3.3.3 Office Tanks by ET NETERA (iTunes, YouTube)

Should you like the original (1980) namco title (original video HERE), you will definitely like this reimplementation too.



Note that this title isn’t officially in the Arcade category - only the definitely weaker Tank War - Bluetooth Battle by 6tags.com is. (I, nevertheless, took the liberty to put it in here.) The reason for this is that it involves a lot of strategy too (capturing bases to increase tank production), particularly in games with more than two players, while the 6tags.com game is more of a "just" a plain reimplementation of the original, strategy-less idea.

A quick single-player demo is HERE. Unfortunately, it doesn’t really elaborate on the importance of capturing flags particularly on larger, multiplayer maps.

3.4 Board

Should you need a game incorporating more than one type of board game, you may want to take a look at Astraware Board Games by Handmark, Inc, which have several. Be warned, however, that you may have a very hard time finding an opponent – I haven’t seen any. Some of the other players also complain about the sometimes very bad AI, should you want to play in single player. Separate games for a given genre (particularly: chess) are far better when it comes to the number of online opponents.

There are several excellent board games. First, let’s start with chess titles.

3.4.1 Chess

3.4.1.1 FICS / ICC vs. the rest

Currently, there are two main types of online chess games: ones that use either FICS (Free Internet Chess Server) / ICC (Internet Chess Club) or proprietary servers. Both approaches have their advantages:

- FICS / ICC-based games are not dependent on a server deployed by a (relatively) small developer and are guaranteed to work 24/7 (that is, all the time) – and will continue working in the future too. In addition, they (may) have orders of magnitude more (online) players at a given time, FICS (and, to a lesser degree, ICC) being THE standardized, worldwide, multiplatform chess network.

- proprietary servers may offer advanced game modes FICS / ICC cannot; for example, asynchronous moves (making a move while the other party is offline), Push notifications, playing more than one buddy at the same time etc.

Let’s start wih FICS / ICC first.

3.4.1.2 FICS-based games

FICS is supported by several games. Of them, I recommend the following ones:

3.4.1.2.1 iChess by myMobileApps (iTunes, YouTube)

If you want a FICS client strictly for free, the Free version of this title is the way to go – fortunately, the ads are in no way disturbing, unlike with the free version of Chess with Friends.



If, on the other hand, you are ready to pay for your FICS client, look elsewhere: the commercial version of iChess isn’t as good as those of some of the alternatives costing the same $2.

Unfortunately, I could only find one review of the game (see THIS). Now you can see why I keep stating my multiplayer videos are, technically (better shot etc.), vastly superior to most of the YouTube iPhone videos out there ;-)

3.4.1.2.2 Magnus' Super Online Chess by Magnus Lidman (iTunes, YouTube)

Compared to the direct alternatives (currently, Handy Chess Online (FICS) by Anton Zemlyanov and the commercial (!) version of iChess by myMobileApps), I recommend this title over the other ones.



3.4.1.3 ICC-based games

I recommend Cyber Chess - FICS & ICC by clickgamer.com (iTunes, YouTube) should you need an ICC client.



This game has tons of features (and is, of course, also compatible with FICS); however, it has a pretty hefty price tag.

3.4.1.4 Proprietary server-based titles

Of the (currently, very few) multiplayer chess titles available, I recommend Chess Elite by 99Games (iTunes, YouTube) the most.



A video review HERE.

3.4.2 Torpedo (Battleship)

Of the bunch, I recommend Sea Battle Classic by A. Kurulenko (iTunes, HERE) the most. (BattleAtSea by Pelted Software (iTunes, YouTube) is just too expensive ($5) and Wi-Fi Battle Boats by Inner Four, Inc. ($1; iTunes, YouTube) seems to always be crashing as is also reported by several other users; in addition, it doesn’t support single player at all.)



HERE’s a single-player video review – technically, it’s pretty bad but still gives you an overview of how the genre should be played, should you not know it.

3.5 Card games

3.5.1 UNO by Gameloft (iTunes, YouTube)

Technically, UNO is one of the best titles around – it supports Push notification (see above on using it) and, as with Gameloft titles in general, it’s pretty polished.



Trailer HERE, a review HERE.

3.5.2 Poker games

Note that some TouchArcade folks state World Series of Poker Hold'em Legend by Glu is superior to the other (multiplayer-enabled) poker games out there. Myself not being an avid poker player, I couldn’t verify whether this claim is right.

3.5.2.1 Texas Hold'em by Apple Inc. (iTunes)

This is one of Apple’s own (very few) native iPhone titles. This also means there will always be a lot of online players.



Two (technically, pretty bad) reviews are HERE and HERE.

3.5.2.2 World Series of Poker Hold'em Legend by Glu (iTunes, (limited) YouTube)



By poker players, this title is stated to be the best of the bunch. (Again, not being a poker player, I couldn’t test this). You might want to carefully read the AppStore feedback of the title to see whether it’s worth purchasing. Note that it may (still) have far fewer online players than the other, better-known poker titles – that is, Texas Hold'em by Apple Inc. and Live Poker by Zynga.

Trailer HERE, a (silent) demo HERE.

3.5.2.3 Live Poker by Zynga (iTunes

This poker title also boasts several online players; therefore, if you do want to play as many folks as possible, it should be the first to check out – along with Texas Hold'em by Apple Inc.



A single-player review is HERE. Note that it uses on-screen annotations to introduce you to the GUI (and not human speech); that is, you’ll want to watch it on a platform that does displays these tooltips.

3.6 Casino, Dice and Educational games

I don’t list anything in Casino category as the vast majority of the titles overlap with the already-reviewed Card – and I feel Mahjong titles (for example, SG Mahjong by GameFront Singapore (iTunes, YouTube), which, officially, is in the categories Card, Entertainment and Casino) don’t belong here at all.

As fas as Dice is concerned, the only multiplayer game currently in this category is liar's by Hey Buddy Software (iTunes, (limited) YouTube). Too bad it has so few online players that it’s (almost?) impossible to find anyone to play online. It requires at least three players so you can’t play 1v1 games either.

Educational only has one entry, Leaf Trombone: World Stage by Smule (iTunes), which also belongs to Music, which is a better fit.

3.7 Family and Kids games

Family is a category I don’t really see any point in. Probably it’s meant for games playable by even the youngest, while having appeal to elderly people as well as opposed to games requiring for example strategic thinking and, consequently, more grown-up people – for example, Kart racing. Interestingly, none of the kart racers are categorized here.

Kids seems to be similar, but games meant strictly for the youngest people. Interestingly, the titles that should belong here (e.g., 321 Jump! (Bluetooth Multiplayer Jump!) by MASQ Interactive Limited (iTunes, YouTube)) officially doesn’t, while I don’t think Harbor Master by Imangi Studios (iTunes, YouTube) (or other Flight Control-clones) are a perfect fit for this category.

Therefore, I don’t list any games in here but in their respective category instead.

3.8 Music games

Currently, all multiplayer music titles, except for Leaf Trombone: World Stage by Smule, belong to the rhythm game category; that is, games where players must tap the screen at a precise time corresponding to a sequence dictated by the game.

Note that there is another title, Pocket Jockey by Muse (iTunes, (limited) YouTube), which isn’t strictly a rhythm game but a more casual one. It (as of the current,1.0 version), however, seems to be incompatible with the latest, current operating system version, 3.1.2 - as opposed to between 3.0(.1)-based iPhones, where it still did work.

3.8.1 Leaf Trombone: World Stage by Smule (iTunes)

This title isn’t exactly a game but, strictly speaking, a musical instrument instead.

A pretty nice (albeit, technically, not the best – autofocus should always be disabled when shooting stuff like this) video review is HERE. Some promo stuff is HERE; a Composer Tutorial is HERE.

3.8.2 Rhythm games

Opinions differ on which of the (strictly) rhythm games are the best. Your choice should also depend on your music preferences; for example, if you’re a fan of Metallica, you may want to prefer Metallica Revenge by Tapulous (iTunes, YouTube). If you look for a more generic title, you might want to prefer Rock Band by EA (iTunes, HERE) instead, which is, in general, considered to be better than alternative titles. (See THIS for a dedicated thread.)



A video review is HERE and HERE.

3.9 Puzzle

As on almost all mobile platforms (particularly on Windows Mobile), the puzzle category is really over-crowded as it has every genre from Bejeweled to Tetris. This is why I’ve broken up this category into several subcategories to cover all these more popular ones.

3.9.1 Tetris clones

There are some Tetris clones. While I consider Mino (YouTube) by Xio (comparatively) the best, it has long been removed from AppStore. The second best may be The Reactor by Facet Studios LLC (iTunes, YouTube).



The official demo showing both single- and multiplayer is HERE.

3.9.2 Physics-based building games

There are some building games based on physics. Of them, a very good pick is Topple 2 by ngmoco (iTunes, YouTube).



Official trailer HERE, a review (of, unfortunately, pretty bad technical quality) HERE.

3.9.3 Other physics-based titles

ShapeShape by inXile Entertainment (iTunes, YouTube) is one of the better titles you might want to check out.



A nice play demo is HERE.

3.10 Racing games

The iPhone hardware is perfectly suited for racing games – it, particularly with the latest-generation, OpenGL ES 2.0-based hardware, has excellent 3D acceleration. In addition, it has a pretty good accelerometer, which also helps a lot in creating quality racing games.

I’ve broken up this category into several subcategories.

3.10.1 Kart clones

Kart games constitute a sizeable category on all mobile platforms; for example, on Windows Mobile, there have been several Kart titles as well (see my all-in-one roundup HERE). The situation is pretty similar on the iPhone as well – with, fortunately, strong multiplayer support.

There are several quality Kart clones for the iPhone. Of the available titles, it’s probably only Krazy Kart Racers by Konami Digital Entertainment (iTunes for the US version; use the built-in search in iTunes to find the versions meant for other countries; YouTube) that I don’t recommend. The others, which I do recommend, are as follows:

3.10.1.1 Cocoto Kart Online by Eurocenter (iTunes, YouTube)



A demo video HERE; the official Eurocenter video (of much higher quality) HERE.

3.10.1.2 Shrek Kart by Gameloft (iTunes, YouTube)



You will most probably want to prefer Cocoto Kart Online to this title if you "only" have a previous-generation iPhone; it’s only on the latest hardware that Shrek Kart runs without stuttering, as opposed to Eurocenter’s title.

A review HERE.

3.10.2 Slotcar Racing games

There are multiplayer Slotcar Racing (with powered miniature autos (or other vehicles) which are guided by grooves or slots in the track on which they run) titles for the iPhone as well. I recommend both titles belonging to this category:

3.10.2.1 SlotZ Racer by Freeverse (R, iTunes, YouTube)

This is strictly a one-device only multiplayer title; in this regard, it’s vastly different from all the other titles in this roundup (except for Orions, which, because of its very high quality, I also deemed it necessary to include).



Review HERE. Unfortunately, the sharpness of the video leaves a lot to be desired; nevertheless, it shows all the important features of the game, including even the track editor.

3.10.2.2 slotCar Mania by feelThere (iTunes, YouTube)

This one should be your pick if you do need wireless multiplayer.



Other than that, technically, I think SlotZ Racer by Freeverse is better – particularly in single-player mode because of the 3D display.

3.10.3 ATV

There currently is only one real ATV title, ATV Offroad by 2XL Games (iTunes, YouTube). Nonetheless, I don't really miss the competition: this title rocks, particularly on older / slower models, where it’s equally nice and fast as on the latest-generation ones.



Reviews / single player demo videos are HERE, HERE (technically, a lower-quality one but still shows the visual qualities of the title) and HERE (a longer one; unfortunately, of somewhat lower quality too).

3.10.4 Racing simulators

It might be important to state there’s a difference between racing simulators and "plain" racing games, including arcade racing like Gameloft’s Asphalt series – just like there’s a vast difference between flight simulators (like the X-Plane suite) and simple 3D shooters like F.A.S.T. Fleet Air Superiority Training! by SGN – or, to use a desktop PC comparison (from the early nineties), the difference between Microsoft Flight Simulator and Ocean's F29 Retaliator. Simulators, generally, put more emphasis on simulating a car (even if it’s much simpler than an airplane). The most important (and recommended) of them is Real Racing by Firemint (iTunes, YouTube), which has been produced by the same folks that developed Flight Control, one of the best games.



A single-player review video HERE (preferred) and HERE.

3.10.5 Arcade racing

These games are more likely arcade games in that you need to, for example, run into other cars, pick up and use power-ups etc. – unlike in Real Racing.

One of the best such titles is Asphalt 5 by Gameloft (iTunes, YouTube), which is way better (except for the somewhat lower frame rate) than its predecessor, Asphalt 4.



Trailer HERE, a (low-quality) WWDC video HERE, a hands-on video HERE.

3.10.6 Tron clones

Light Riders 3D by DS Media Labs (iTunes, YouTube) is, in my opinion, the best Tron clone. Note that this game is completely useless in single player mode – the AI is very-very weak and dies very quickly. That is, this game should only be used in multiplayer.



A video review HERE. Note that the one HERE only shows the game in top-down, 2D view, which you may not like.

3.10.7 Others

There is another racing game you might want to check out: DrawRace by RedLynx Ltd. (iTunes, YouTube) It can be great fun and I’ve always run into several online players.



Single-player review HERE.

3.11 Role Playing

There are very few true role playing games for the iPhone with multiplayer support.

3.11.1 MMORPG titles

Unfortunately, while some other mobile phone platforms do (or, at least, used to) have some excellent titles (e.g., SmartCell's Shadow of the Legend on Windows Mobile), MMORPG (Massively multiplayer online role-playing games) titles are painfully missing. Probably the best of them – if you don’t take into account the pretty hefty subscription price – is Outer Empires by Ironwill Studios (iTunes, YouTube), a space-based game.



Trailer HERE. As of this writing, there still isn’t a decent video review out there.

3.11.2 SevenSwords Prologue by Asobimo (iTunes, YouTube)

This game is more like a first-person shooter (with pretty low frame rate even on a new-generation device like the 3G S) with few(er) RPG or communication capabilities. Nevertheless, as it’s free, you may really want to give it a try.



A video review (of a previous version – later versions have many more maps and online players) is HERE.

3.11.3 Browser-based RPG titles

There are quite a few online, (technically) browser-based (because of being based on a "slow" Web browser without for example 3D capabilities) "static" RPG’s. There isn’t much interaction between individual players of these games; therefore, they can’t be called MMORPG’s.

Probably the best browser-based title is CozyQuest by Nils Munch (iTunes)



A (technically, low-quality, but, otherwise, decent) video review is HERE.

Another browser-based title is Ancient Legion by DigitalFun iTunes, YouTube), in which you can indeed challenge other players.



Very nice trailer HERE; a demo video HERE.

3.12 Simulation

Currently, mostly flight simulators are available for the platform (therefore, I only list titles related to flying in this section). Of them, the X-Plane franchise should be recommended to (multiplayer) flight simulator folks.

There are several X-Plane simulation titles with multiplayer capabilities. They are all pretty expensive but if you do like full-fledged simulation games (as opposed to "simple" shooters), they should be the way to go.



A decent (albeit, technically, low-quality) video review is HERE.

Note that the X-Plane series shouldn’t be mistaken for "casual" shooters. Of the latter genre, there are quite a few titles. Of them, I recommend F.A.S.T. Fleet Air Superiority Training! by SGN (iTunes, YouTube). It’s a casual shooter – but a very nice one at that!



A video review is HERE and HERE (both, particularly the latter, is of low technical quality – guys, please DO use a tripod and, whenever possible, put the iPhone on a flat surface!). A trailer is HERE.

3.13 Sports

There are quite a few sports games for the platform.

3.13.1 Snooker / Pool

Pool games are perfect candidates for even remote, lounge-based games because it’s basically a two-player, popular game and the networking lag can’t cause problems, as opposed to for example action games or first person shooters.

Of the pool genre, I recommend Adrenaline Pool Online 2 by Eurocenter (iTunes, YouTube) the most, particularly if you want to make use of the speech chatting capabilities. (If you don’t, then, there are a lot of other, quality multiplayer pool titles as well.)

In my demo video HERE, at around 1:50, I show voice chatting in practice: I speak to one of the iPhones and put the speaker of the other next to the mike of the camera. Just listen to the echo – yes, the speech is transferred.

If you don’t need speech, you may also want to check out I-play’s two titles (Ronnie O'Sullivan's Snooker and Pool Star Online with Earl Strickland) and Virtual Pool Online by Celeris Inc. The latter, when it comes to the number of average other online players, is by far the best. In addition, according to some pool buffs, it has an excellent pool engine.



Of the latter title, I could only find one (technically, low-quality) video review HERE.

3.13.2 Soccer

Of (European) soccer games, I recommend FIFA 10 by EA SPORTS (iTunes, YouTube) the most.



An in-game video HERE, a video review HERE. A much more thorough (but, technically, much-much worse) two-part review & comparison to Gameloft’s Real Football 2010 (the most important alternative) is HERE (part I) and HERE (part II).

3.13.3 Golf

Adrenaline Golf Online by Eurocenter (iTunes, YouTube) is, in my opinion, the (currently) best title – particularly because there aren’t other (wireless) multiplayer golf (or minigolf) games (yet).



A review is HERE; another demo video (without speech but with (almost) full screen display) HERE.

3.13.4 HOMERUN BATTLE 3D by Com2uS Corp. (iTunes)

A baseball game loved by many.



A video review is HERE.

3.14 Strategy

3.14.3 Turn-based strategy (TBS)

Particularly turn-based multiplayer, remote strategies are a perfect match for the iPhone. They, in general, don’t require as high a screen resolution as real-time strategies (where low-resolution device – including the iPhone – users would be handicapped because they simply can’t see as big a map as possible / control units as easily as, say, a desktop user with multi-button mice and keyboards with hotkeys). The independence of the network lag (as with pool / snooker titles) is also a big driver behind making TBS multiplayer titles.

Therefore, there are tons of excellent multiplayer TBS titles. I review them all.

3.14.3.1 Reign of Swords Ep 2

This is (was? It seems to have been removed from AppStore at least a month ago) one of the best and deepest TBS titles.

Please see the update dated 08/23 12:14 CET HERE (alternative links: HowardForums, MoDaCo, MobilitySite, TouchArcade) for more info on how multiplayer should be played.

3.14.3.2 Orions: Legend of Wizards (iTunes)

Orions: Legend of Wizards is probably the best and deepest game on Windows Mobile (see THIS for more info). The iPhone version, unfortunately, certainly lags behind the WinMo one as it hasn’t received the two add-on packs of the Windows Mobile version and it doesn’t support wireless multiplayer either. Nevertheless, if you can put up with a hotseat TBS game, Orions is one of the best titles.

3.14.3.3 UniWar by Xpressed (iTunes, YouTube)

UniWar is another substantial TBS title with excellent multiplayer support taking advantage of, among other things, Push notification. Highly recommended!



My guide to one of the missions is HERE.

3.14.3.4 Mecho Wars by Luc Bernard (iTunes, YouTube)

This is another highly recommended title with as strong multiplayer support as that of UniWar.



3.14.3.5 Rogue Planet (iTunes)

As with all titles of Agharta studio, this is another excellent RTS title. Highly recommended!

3.14.4 Real-time strategy

I list most titles here; except for Quantum Collapse (RTS) by Javier Davalos, which I don’t consider an excellent title. Note that the recently-released Red Alert is promised to receive multiplayer some time. Also note that if you’re used to the best desktop titles (e.g., Starcaft), you’ll most probably be hugely disappointed by the (current) titles available for the platform. (Until the multiplayer update for Red Alert arrives, at least.)

3.14.4.1 Warfare Incorporated by Spiffcode Inc. (iTunes, YouTube)

One of the best RTS games out there. Unfortunately, for a seasoned desktop player, even some basic functionality is missing; for example, you can’t order your units to move but, at the same time, counter-attack attacks or shoot at enemy units coming along (A[ttack] + click in Starcraft). In this regard, even Windows Mobile is better, where Isotope244’s Machines at War supports this.

3.14.4.2 Robocalypse - Mobile Mayhem by Vogster Entertainment, LLC (iTunes, YouTube)



Another RTS title. Don’t expect anything similar to Starcraft, though – as with all current multiplayer titles for the iPhone, seasoned RTS fans may want to avoid this one too.

3.14.5 Artillery

There are quite a few artillery games for the iPhone too (see the Wiki page for more info on the game genre).

3.14.5.1 Star Hogs by IUGO (iTunes, YouTube)



A review is HERE.

3.14.5.2 Iron Sight by Polarbit (iTunes, YouTube)

This one happens in 3D, as opposed to the traditional 2D of artillery games.



Trailer HERE, a (technically, low-quality, but I couldn’t find any other review with speech) review HERE.

3.14.6 Other titles

3.14.6.1 Galcon by galcon.com (iTunes, YouTube)

This game is one of the best games. It is also one of the very few titles to support team play (not strictly one-on-one games) with more than two players.



A review is HERE.

3.15 Trivia

There are only few multiplayer trivia titles for the iPhone. Of the available ones, I prefer TV Show King by Gameloft (iTunes, YouTube), which I consider much better than the rest (much faster response, graphics, music etc.).

3.16 Word

As opposed to (multiplayer) trivia titles, there are way more word games for the platform. Note that you may not like these games if your native tongue isn’t English. (Note that WordFu has German, French and a Spanish versions [the list may not be exhaustive] too.)

3.16.1 SCRABBLE by Electronic Arts (iTunes, YouTube)



A review HERE.

3.16.2 WordFu by ngmoco, Inc. (iTunes, YouTube)

Official trailer HERE; a (quite lengthy; you may want to fast-forward to about 2:00) video review HERE.

4. The videos

I’ve created demo videos for almost all the titles in the chart. Let me explain clearly that these are just meant to demonstrate how multiplayer should be started, how special features like chat, Push or buddy invitation works. I operate the two iPhones myself alone; that is, in non-turn based (board / turn-based strategy etc.) games, you can’t have as quick reactions and play as in the ideal case of two individual players operating both phones individually. In addition, I’ve positioned the camera very close (some 10 inches / 25 cm’s at most) to the two iPhones so that I don’t need to use zoom. This helps in both keeping the depth-of-field as big as possible (to keep everything in focus even with the phones occasionally in my hand) and make sure as much light enters the camera as possible to keep the CCD read / amplification noise down (the lens on my camera, as with most non-higher end lens, stop down when zooming in, letting in less light). Please do not complain about this – I’ve still done my best. Please check out the single-player videos released by (mostly) the developers themselves for a real demonstration of the game’s capabilities - I've linked to several of them in Chapter 3. Nevertheless, note that those videos, technically, are, in general, lower-quality videos made with non-quality gear and non-well-controlled settings, unlike my videos, were I put enormous emphasis on producing as quality a HD video footage as possible.

The YouTube videos are all accessible from the "Remark" (last-but-one) column of the chart - and, of course, the links named "YouTube" above, right after the name of the title and the iTunes link. Look for links named of the form "YouTube demo video HERE".

Note: most of the (newer) videos have been made in order to make use of as big screen (video) estate as possible in order to provide you with as high-resolution videos of the actual screens as possible. (Taking a video of two iPhones in landscape mode – as you can see HERE, in one of my earliest [and, now, officially deprecated] videos – would have resulted in a far worse screen estate usage. Just compare it to the newer-generation video of the same game HERE – see the difference? Pretty huge, isn’t it?) This, however, also means you will want to watch these videos on a Portrait-mode display. This isn’t a problem on an iPhone (just keep your phone in Portrait mode) or a tablet PC. If it really annoys you, save the videos to an offline file and use VLC Player to rotate the video 90 degrees while playing back.

Also note: there is an iPhone 3G and a 3G S on the videos. In some (earlier) videos, the iPhone in the transparent case is a 3G S; the one without any case is a 3G. In some (also earlier) other videos, the 3G S is the one with the charger cable plugged in; with all the newer ones (filling in the entire screen estate), the one on the left. You can, of course, also easily spot it by
- it simply much faster loading games
- it having a somewhat more washed-out, worse-quality screen (the biggest disadvantage of the 3G S compared to the older model).

Also, it's on the 3G S that audio is played (I turn up the volume on it all the time, while, on the 3G, I do the opposite in most games). Finally, you can easily spot the 3G S based on it having an inserted SIM card (unlike the 3G) and the battery level also displayed in percentages (in the upper right corner) on SpringBoard.

5. The chart

In Chapter 3, I’ve only listed the best titles, while there certainly be other games you may still like. Also, I didn’t include info on the networking model, game type, lounge usage etc. All this information is included in the CHART (click the link! Beware: as of 11/22/2009, it’s about 480 kbytes in size – yes, it contains a LOT of information! –; that is, loading it may take some time). Below, I explain the information you can find in it and how it should be used to find the info you’re looking for far more easily.

5.1 Columns

The first three columns, App (Application), iTunes link(s) and Official genre speak for themselves. The latter lists (all) the categories the developer felt the title belongs to.

Genre given by me lists the genre I’ve given to a certain title. In most cases, it’s a much stricter and more exact description of the genre it belongs to. (Note that you can’t filter to this column, unlike the "official" genre.)

Price: this column speaks for itself. I’ve listed all prices in $US.

Game speed / playability on 3G / 3G S? Any problems?: I’ve thoroughly evaluated the speed of each title on the two most common platforms, the new and much faster one (iPhone 3G S and iPod touch G3) and the, speed-wise, previous generation. The latter covers the iPhone 2G/3G (they are approximately of the same speed); note that the first-generation iPod touch models are even slower and the second-generation ones are significantly faster. Nevertheless, iPod touch G2 models are still much slower than the latest models (iPhone 3G S and iPod touch G3).

Note that, as all my videos show the 3G and the 3G S next to each other, you can have a clear picture of the speed of each – even compared to each other. Again, don’t forget the 3G S’s speed is roughly the same as that of the third-generation iPod touch and much faster than anything earlier. The second-generation iPod touch is considerably faster than the iPhone 2G/3G but still isn’t anywhere near the latest-generation hardware. Finally, the first-generation iPod touch is by far the slowest of the bunch – considerably slower than the 3G. That is, despite the lack of the videos directly showing the missing models, you will still know their speed.

Game type: here, I listed the multiplayer game type. There are several different types of multiplayer games:

Head-to-head: one of the most widely used traditional multiplayer game type meaning you play against your opponent. The majority of action / board games belong here; however, games like Tetris or 1942 clones, which are, essentially, single player games from ground up, naturally, can’t really be made "real" head-to-head games.

Collaborative: another very widely used game type. As opposed to you the head-to-head approach, you mutually help each other fighting the common enemy. A perfect example of these games is Siberian Strike.

Parallel: in some game genres (for example, Tetris), it’s plain impossible to implement any kind of head-to-head or collaborative gameplay. There, the much more boring "parallel" scheme can only be used. This means the two (or more) players can only see the progress of each other – in most cases, as a minimap in some of the corners of the screen. In some games using a somewhat more advanced approach, one of the player’s losing a game results in the other’s winning it.

Team: some (as of this writing, few) games also support teaming up with friends against gangs of other people. This is, of course, only available in games supporting more than two players – for example, the excellent Galcon.

Number of concurrent players: most of the games allow for two concurrent players; some even more. Very few need more than two players to run; the latter should be kept in mind when playing these, particularly if it’s a title not frequented by other people.

Networking model: in Chapter 1, Connection types, I’ve already elaborated on the meaning of this column. Please consult it, should you still have doubts about what for example "local Wi-Fi" means.

The following three columns are exclusively related to online (remote) play. With games not supporting this kind of networking, I’ve used n/a (as "not applicable").

If remote, in-game chat?: can you chat while in game? A lot of remote games (already) support this; (unfortunately, still very) few of them even support voice chat.

Number of remote players in lounge? Currently playing / waiting in a new game: in addition to the number of ratings (which is also directly related to the popularity of a given title), I’ve also listed (in some cases, several) tests of the number of currently online players ready for play – and, when applicable (the GUI shows this), even the ones already playing (that is, those who won’t join games at a given time). When no such data could be collected (the title doesn’t display the number of currently playing players or players online), I’ve waited for some 5-10 minutes (at least) to see whether there are people joining the games I’ve created. (All timestamps are in CET; that is, European time.)

Game lounge?: here (the last remote lounge-specific column), I’ve listed the capabilities of the remote lounge.

Some remote play-enabled games automatically join you with other players. This, in some cases, is highly annoying when you want to play your buddies and you just can’t do it because there are so many online players that you can’t even ask him (via, say, a phonecall or an IM message) to join the lounge at a given second. BTW, this is why I wasn’t able to play myself when recording the video of the excellent 2D racing game DrawRace by RedLynx Ltd. In most cases, however, manual enemy / buddy selection is possible by either inviting people, creating password-protected (private) games (see e.g. the Call of Duty: World At War: Zombies by Activision video, where I also show this) or creating public games listed on everyone’s screen (e.g., the approach used by Galcon and the Eurocenter games).

Some titles (e.g., the excellent Sniper Vs Sniper: Online by Com2uS Corp) even allow for in-lounge chatting.

In-game sound / music? Does it allow the iPod playback in the background?: here, I’ve listed whether, in addition to in-game sounds (which are supported by almost all titles), there is in-game music as well. Far fewer titles support the latter; basically, free ones don’t, unless they’re just "lite" versions of full commercial titles. Finally, I list (for about half of the games) whether you can listen to your own (iPod) tunes while playing. Unfortunately, not many titles support this. When there are special tricks that need to be done in order to allow this, I’ve elaborated on them too; for example, disabling in-game sounds and restarting the game. Hope more and more developers make use of the new, OS3 feature of in-game access of the iPod music library to avoid the hassle of having to select / start the music from outside (unless you use a headset with remote controls or Voice Control on the 3G S).

Control method? If tilt control used, calibration? Can it be played while lying on your back?: in this column, I’ve elaborated on how the given title is controlled: with the touchscreen or the accelerometer. If the latter is used, I also listed whether the particular title can be used while lying in bed (on your back), one of my favorite playing body position and whether you can recalibrate the accelerometer.

The following six columns contain the (US) AppStore (the first three columns) and my ratings (the rest of them) of a given title. They will help you in determining whether a given title is worthy enough and, when it comes to the distinction between the average rating of the current and all versions, whether the latest, current version is significantly better (or, in cases like the 2.0+ series of the free "… with Friends" series, worse) than the older ones. Note that, at least when it comes to AppStore ratings, sometimes my ratings and recommendations are definitely different from theirs.

All version avg rating: the average rating of all versions released so far. It may be vastly different from that of the current version, particularly if:

- The latest version has few ratings and they’re typically from enthusiasts / fans of the game giving out much better ratings than Average Joe's just running into the title in AppStore

- The latest version has major improvements (or vice versa: downgrading / intrusive ads)

Current version avg rating: see above – to reliably track whether there have been improvements in the last version, I also publish the average rating of the current version. Note that, as opposed to the number of all voters for all versions, I don’t keep track of them here as they change quickly and you will always want to prefer taking a look at how many users bothered to install and, then, select a rating of a given title. The latter is (somewhat) connected to the popularity of the title (unless the ratings are very low), which also means more players you can run into remote lounges (when supported).

Nr. of voters for all versions: see above

The next three columns strictly reflect my opinion on the given game. Currently, all my ratings are integer numbers, unlike those of the AppStore folks (where the granularity is higher by using steps of 0.5); that is, 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5. As with the AppStore ratings, 1 is the worst and 5 is the best.

My rating: MP: stands for how much I liked the title as a generic multiplayer title - compared to all the other MP games (not just the ones in the same genre). Note that, again, my ratings may be, in cases, pretty different from those of the AppStore users.

Single Player: this column explains how a given game behaves when playing in single player. Now that, currently, I’ve rated few games in this column (as opposed to the two other, new columns); in the future, I’ll also try to fill these columns. Basically, the point of this column is conveying information on whether a given title is worth playing in single player (against the iPhone) at all – if there’s a single player mode and whether the artificial intelligence is worthy enough. As has already been stated in a previous update, for example Light Riders 3D by DS Media Labs has a very weak AI you won’t ever want to play against.

My rating for the play in the same category: this directly compares to games in exactly the same category or genre. The rating here may be different from the multiplayer rating. For example, I’ve given a general rating of 3 (average) to Foosball World Cup by Better Day Wireless. However, comparing it to the other foosball (table soccer) games, I’ve given it a four, taking into the account that very few foosball games support wireless multiplayer and the ones that do are even less reliable than this title. The same is true with iFPS Online by Pick Up And Play. I’ve given it a general rating of "2" (meaning it’s better to avoid it altogether). However, given that there’re so few first person shooters on the iPhone, I’ve given it a 3 in its (closer) category, basically telling FPS fans they may want to check it out if they really need a FPS game after checking out the, in the same category, better titles (Doom Classic etc.).

Recommended?: this column basically lists whether a given game is recommended. Note that, in some cases, I haven’t provided an answer to the question here - this column, in cases, is pretty redundant (also see my ratings in the previous columns).

Remark?: another summarizing column; it’s here that I linked to my YouTube videos. You can also find some review links here. Note that I also posted some review and news item links (mostly pointing to TouchArcade) to the second (iTunes) column; to save space, I denoted them with the abbreviations R and N, respectively.

Demo screenshots: here, I’ve made the official iTunes screenshots directly available. NOTE:

- By default, nothing is visible for you to avoid excess data use

- Not all titles have all the five demo screenshots – some only fewer. That is, if you don’t see anything when selecting "5 of 5", you can still give a try to 1 of 5 and the like. Just remember to click the left/right arrows.

- Several titles (e.g., iChess by myMobileApps) use TIFF (as opposed to JPG or PNG) as the picture format, which isn’t rendered by popular browsers like Internet Explorer 8, Mozilla/Firefox 2.x or Opera 10. In these cases, you will want to invoke iTunes to watch them instead. Nevertheless, I’ve kept these records in the column, should you need an easy way of saving these TIFF files into the local file system.

5.2 Filters

Let me explain the filters, which you WILL need to heavily reduce the information displayed on-screen at the same time in the chart. They are a must, should you want to just hide records / columns you aren’t at all interested in. You surely will want to use them in order to filter out information you don’t really need.

Basically, there are two kinds of filters: one set of them hides rows (games) fulfilling a certain criteria; the other set hides columns. (And vice versa: these are toggling controls; that is, clicking them again will result in the given rows (records) / columns be displayed again.)

5.2.1 Hiding individual records (games) based on some criteria

First of all, at the top of the page, between Hide the following (selecting it again will show it again; that is, you can toggle between the enabled/disabled state): and Hide / show toggle, you can hide columns based on some criteria.



This means you can just select, for example,

- "No Bluetooth" in the "Connection type:" drop-down list to disable displaying games that don’t support local Bluetooth games;

- "Head-to-head" in the "Multiplayer game type:" drop-down list to hide games where you need to play against someone. (The two other game categories are "Parallel", where you only indirectly play against someone – because you both play against the time (examples are most Tetris clones and other color matching titles); and "Collaborative", where you need to join forces with another player (a well-known example is Siberian Strike)). Note that, here, selecting "No team play" hides all games where teaming up with a buddy against other people is not possible.

- "Only 2 players" in the "Number of players" list, should be there more than two of you and you wanted to quickly find a game that supports more than two players at the same time. A well-known example is Real Racing (when not operating over Bluetooth).

- "More than $1" in the "Price" menu to quickly hide titles costing more than $1.

- Finally, you can quickly hide titles that received a given rating (for both the current and all versions) from the US AppStore users. The same stands for my ratings; selecting a rating in "My rating for the multiplayer play" and "My rating for the play in the same category" quickly gets rid of games I’ve given the selected rating.

This is a quick way of hiding games that received too low a rating from me or the AppStore users.

Note that

- If you re-select something, it’ll be enabled (shown) again (that is, menu items have a "toggle" functionality)

- In order to make re-selecting (toggling) work, you must select some other menu item in the same list. Should you want to avoid hiding (showing again) anything else, just select the (by default, when (re)loading the page, active) "Select!" menu item at the bottom and, then, you can select the to-be-toggled menu item again. It’ll work.

- The conversion to the new, dynamic form has been done entirely from a program and, after that, I haven’t fixed some of the inconsistencies resulted from my, so far, not keeping in mind that, some time, I would switch to a dynamic chart. That is, before the switch, I didn’t pay attention to using exactly the same expressions or notations. I’ve tried to handle the most widely used forms of my past entry in the converter program; however, it, of course, wasn’t able to convert each and every record. Sorry for these. (Nevertheless, the vast majority – about 97-98% – of the records are converted without problems.) When I have some more time, I’ll try to fix them all.

5.2.2 Hiding everything in one step

Immediately under the section above, there’s a single checkbox, "Hide / show toggle", which can be used to quickly hide/show everything.



The best use of this checkbox is quickly hiding everything and, then, enabling records (making use of the "toggling" functionality of all the controls) that you’re interested in. That is, let’s assume you only want to know which of the titles have received the rating "4" from AppStore users. The easiest and fastest way of listing these records is (after a fresh (re)load of the chart) is unchecking (disabling) "Hide / show toggle" and, then, selecting "4" from the "AppStore rating for all versions:" drop-down list at the top. It’s this easy! In this way (using this toggle), you can save yourself from having to select everything but "4" from the "AppStore rating for all versions" list to hide everything else.

There is only one caveat when using "Hide / show toggle". When you hide everything and, then, show them again, the demo images won’t be accessible any more. I may fix this bug some time when I have the time to tweak the DOM tree of the chart.

5.2.3 Hiding individual columns

In addition to hiding certain games (that is, chart rows) based on their rating, networking type, genre etc., you can also hide entire columns (except for the title) if you find some of them uninteresting. Just un-tick the checkboxes of the columns you don’t want to clutter the view in the control section immediately under "Hide / show toggle":



You will want to extensively use these checkboxes as they help REALLY a lot in making the chart far more readable.

6. Updates to this article

Readers already knowing my past articles know I, in general, use the "don’t modify the basic article, only the chart; on the other hand, constantly post separate updates" approach so that readers that have been following the article right from the beginning (when I first published the initial version) don’t need to re-read it entirely whenever a new update / piece of news comes.

As this article concentrates on the "big picture" and lists "best of the best", most recommended titles "only" (as opposed to the constant stream of my multiplayer gaming-related news), I keep posting the chart update, video uploading, new release / title update announcements in the old article / thread; that is, HERE. In this article / thread, I don’t post any updates as separate posts, not even about major releases (titles that do belong to the bunch of best titles). That is, if you really want to know what’s happening with multiplayer in general, what (even minor) releases and updates there are, make sure you follow the updates posted at the end of the just-linked, old articles – it’s there that I continuously post new posts concerning the new releases.

As updating (and re-posting, along with breaking it up into smaller chunks – right now, the size of it is well beyond the 64k limit) an entire article always involves a lot of manual work (breaking up the article in consecutive chunks that can be posted here), I plan to only update the main article every, say, 2 week, depending on the number of new, major updates and games that must be mentioned as a highly recommended title. You can always check the current last update timestamp right at the start of the full article. For example, if it reads "Current version / last updated: 11/22/2009", it means you will only want to check out the updates posted in the above-linked "sister" thread between 11/22/2009 and the current date so that you can see what has happened since the last update of the "main" article. Note: always scroll down to the full article (or, to the final page) to see the latest updates. Hope you’ll find this approach a decent tradeoff between that will offer readers both following my article from the beginning (no need to re-read the entire thing when new updates come) and new ones that prefer reading an all-in-one article (without having to read (almost) any updates) having as updated info as possible.