I bought a pair of these: http://toucharcade.com/2011/06/14/fling-vs-fling-mini-hands-on-video-plus-impressions/ http://toucharcade.com/2011/06/03/fling-mini-on-sale-now/ They were only $15 on ebay, and they're a fun gimmick, but they don't work nearly as well as Hodapp or the Fling's website would have you believe. Does anyone else own them, and if so, could you recommend some games that work well with them? If you own a pair, what are your thoughts on it in general? My impressions on the device: One of them won't even stick to the screen, as the suction cup is larger than the area between the edge of my screen protector and the place where it cuts off to make space for the camera, so I can only use one until I find suitable screen protectors. They DO obscure the screen and they AREN'T as easy to use as the virtual joystick alone. Depending on the game and the way the joysticks work in it, they range from slightly less effective to horribly inaccurate. It's possible to play Street Fighter and KoF with it, but it's very annoying when your opponent is on the left side of the screen. Also, a quick quarter circle forward + punch requires you to exaggerate the movement too much for it to feel natural and fluid; they simply don't feel or function like joysticks at all. Super Mega Worm works great with it, Pew Pew 2 works decently, Aralon doesn't work at ALL with it (it's listed on the company website as one of the games designed to be compatible with it), I'm sure plenty of 3D adventure games could benefit from it (Gameloft's entire back catalog of terrible games). Grand Theft Auto 3 and FIFA work okay with it; they both have floating joysticks, but the problem with that is, if you move the joystick in a direction without applying pressure, then apply pressure, it will place the floating joystick in the incorrect location. Also with GTA3, you can't switch the radio station while they're attached. I mean, unless you bend it upwards long enough to change the radio station. So I'm not sure if this thing is useful, but it's still kind of cool, and maybe if it's NOT a usable JOYSTICK, it might still be a decent control option once I get used to the fact that I can't use it exactly like a joystick; it certainly provides tactile feedback. Or if not, then hey, it's a cool gimmick for $15, and since I'm playing on a 4S (can't jailbreak/download emulators) it's the only controller device I could justify purchasing. I like tiny inexpensive gimmick-y things, and since I rarely struggle with any game's controls or the fact that my thumbs cover the screen, I figured, how difficult could this thing be to use? Well, if you ARE annoyed by virtual analog sticks and thumbs covering the action, you won't like this, so I guess it was designed for people like me who like to buy creative, tiny, inexpensive gimmicky things, rather than people who long for actual analog sticks.
When I first saw them I expected them to be rather useless on an iphone. iPad with enough screen space sure, but too big for iphone. I would say you could currently justify any controller that emulates iCade as there are plenty of games (77 according to thread, including the brilliant Terra Noctis) that support it, and all signs point to jailbreak for 4s very soon so emulators and blutrol can be used making controllers infinitely more useful.
First the 4S is jailbreakable, secondly, the fling are excellent, and I played with it for a lot of games like death Rally, Pocket God and above all, Infinity Field !!! All gameloft games are compatible but I recommend you to try Infinity Field. If you want the full list of compatible games : https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?authkey=CJP39ZwN&key=0Ahx3P4THvNWcdGMybUtrbmNITXhrRkZSRWl0R2FrM3c&hl=en_US&authkey=CJP39ZwN#gid=8 Also, My fling doesn't stick well anymore...
I got one waaaaay back when for my iPad, they aren't great. 1.) They slide around quite a bit - this is the kiss of death for me, maybe mine had some defects but you couldn't push the nub to the extremes (hitting itself) without it sliding around. No matter how much I tried to get them to sit correctly, after a few minutes of play they have slipped and are no longer making the correct type of contact. 2.) There is a bit of distance between the "stylus" of the analog nub (where it hits the screen) and the screen itself, this always seemed akward to me as you needed to push down towards the screen to make a contact, THEN push left/right/up/down. This added an extra movement, and just kinda sucked in general.
I have the original Flings for iPad, and they work pretty well. I was really impressed when I first tried them. However, there are definitely drawbacks. The main one for me is the slippage. I can really only use them with games that have a floating joystick, and even then, I have to keep resetting it. Controlling a car in GTA3 with the Fling is just sublime though... Same with Real Racing 2 if you have the control options set up just right.
