The iPhone/iPod Touch Multiplayer Gaming Bible

It has always had remote (lounge) multiplayer in addition to Wi-Fi; that is, it wasn't added later. I referred to mostly titles like Ferrari GT: Evolution.

 

UPDATE (10/14/2009 13:10 CET):

1. I’ve uploaded the videos (again, check the last column of the chart - http://winmobiletech.com/sekalaiset/iPhoneMPchart.html - for the YouTube links!) of the following games:

ATV Offroad by 2XL Games: just released, brand new (see the TouchArcade thread HERE, frontpage news HERE), pretty nice racing

Topple 2 by ngmoco: very nice game – for the price, a must buy

Adrenaline Pool Online 2 by Eurocenter: it’s particularly the voice chat that makes this title probably the most recommended one

LightBike Online by Pankaku Inc: a Tron clone. Useless when played against a mate using the same Wi-Fi router to connect directly or via the Net. Otherwise, nice.

Quick Draw by Swipe Interactive: this is a must – another excellent game

WiFi Warfare by Jesse Starks: wellwell – go for Dinosmash instead, unless you’re a retro fan...

2. There are two other, brand new releases already entered in the chart (demo videos will follow – I’ve already made them but uploading from my home ADSL is very slow):

The Reactor by Facet Studios LLC 1.1: another color matching / Tetris clone. In my opinion, it isn't better than the comparable titles (e.g., Mino) - apart from being able to be played offline, via BT.

Ancient War by Triniti Interactive Limited 1.2: It's pretty much like the mobile (heavily dumbed-down) version of Civilization 4.

 

Thanks for pointing this out - I'll try to include it in the chart ASAP.

 

UPDATE (10/15/2009 12:09 CET):

1.) I’ve posted the videos of the following titles:

Pool Star Online with Earl Strickland: a pool game. The game isn’t bad at all (particularly at this price point) – I particularly like displaying the trajectories or showing the player the wrong targets). I, however, would still prefer Adrenaline Pool Online 2 by Eurocenter to it, which even has voice support and is only slightly more expensive ($3 vs. $2).
XPilot by 7b5 labs: an XPilot port: check out if you’re a fan of the genre. If you aren’t, there are definitely better multiplayer games.
Ronnie O'Sullivan's Snooker by I-play: If you’re only a casual snooker player, Pool Star Feat. Earl Strickland from the same developer may be a better (and much cheaper – this one costs $5) choice. It’s very similar to this one. I’d also prefer Adrenaline Pool Online 2 by Eurocenter to it.
SCRABBLE by Electronic Arts: a scrabble game. As with most Electronic Arts titles, it’s pretty expensive ($5).

2.) There is also a major update of Quantum Collapse (it has received Bluetooth support and will receive both local Wi-Fi and also remote lounge, along with chat), an RTS, by Javier Davalos 1.2. It is certainly not the best RTS, but, given that there're not many RTS'es for the platform, you may still want to give it a try:



I’ll post a video of it very soon, along with Play Marbles by Darkside Entertainment (a decent Marbles game), which, with version 1.2, has also recently gained wireless (Bluetooth) multiplayer support.

3.) Let me emphasize that the multiplayer demo videos I post have almost all been made by only one person (me). This means you will NOT see the full potential of the non-turn-based (for example, racing - as opposed to for example chess or other board titles) games in these videos. Please do not complain about this - I do my best when shooting these videos (if you do compare them to the other game demos on YouTube, you'll see that, technically, my videos are far superior - HD, much better exposure, truly 30 progressive fps [as opposed to the sometimes even less than 25 fps videos posted by some other people], no focus / exposure problems, fixed camera and iPhones, the use of the available screen estate as good as possible, stereo sound etc.) but cannot "emulate" two full-time human players playing at the same time. Nevertheless, as I shoot these videos showing both an iPhone 3G and 3G S, you will also see the speed difference between the two models. (See e.g. the Ancient War by Triniti Interactive Limited video on how the 3G slows down when animating more than 10-15 sprites at the same time – which I also mentioned in my yesterday’s post.)

Again, this only refers to action games like racing titles. Videos taken of turn-based titles like chess or other board games or turn-based strategy games like UniWar don't suffer from this problem.

 

UPDATE (10/17/2009 23:59 CET):

1.) I’ve posted the multiplayer demo videos of the following titles:

The Reactor by Facet Studios LLC 1.1[/i]: another color matching / Tetris clone. In my opinion, it isn't better than the comparable titles (e.g., Mino) - apart from being able to be played offline, via BT.

Ancient War by Triniti Interactive Limited 1.2: It's pretty much like the mobile (heavily dumbed-down) version of Civilization 4.

Quantum Collapse (RTS) by Javier Davalos : Not the best, but, given that there're not many RTS'es for the platform, you may still want to give it a try

Guitar Rock Tour 2 by Gameloft: Mostly for music lovers

Heroes Battle Online by Vincent Bellet: Don’t expect anything traditional RPG – it’s an asynchronous (see UniWar’s approach) spellcasting on other player(s).

iBot Sumo by Beorn Software: You might like the idea – check out the lite version. You need to knock out each of the bots of the arena.

Play Marbles by Darkside Entertainment: very nice title

Pocket Jockey by Muse: not compatible with 3.1.2 3G vs. 3G S phones, it seems.

Galcon by galcon.com: a real must

Warfare incorporated by Spiffcode Inc.: a decent RTS receiving multiplayer support – at last.

Ancient Legion by DigitalFun: Web browser-based RPG. If you don’t like the genre, you may still want to watch the built-in trailer video (of which I also show most of in the demo YouTube video)

iFishing by Egerter Software: if you need a fishing “simulator”…

liar’s by Hey Buddy Software: a board game. Note that the video doesn’t show how the game itself is played as there were only two players (and the game needs at least 3).

Rising Blocks by Michael Le: Very simple – I’d go for e.g. Aurora Feint II[/i]: Arena instead

SevenSwords Prologue by Asobimo: a 3D hack’n’slash; pretty slow even on the 3GS

TV Show King by Gameloft: another quiz game

UniWar by Xpressed: another VERY strong TBS game. A must try – particularly at the current price tag ($1). Also see my dedicated strategy guides.

UNO by Gameloft: a card game

WordFu by ngmoco: a word game

X-Plane by Laminar Research: a flight simulator. Note that, for real shooters, look elsewhere – for example, F.A.S.T. Fleet Air Superiority Training! by SGN. It’s also 10 times cheaper.

Zoot by tranquo: a game with a pretty new concept

SlotZ Racer by Freeverse: this is a one-device MP title only. Nevertheless, as it’s big fun, I’ve included it here.

2.) There is also a major update of Mecho Wars: it has received pretty good remote lounge support.



Basically, the gameplay, switching between games etc. are pretty similar to that of UniWar. Nevertheless, I consider the latter a bit more polished and thought-out in this respect; particularly because it supports Push notifications (which Mecho Wars doesn’t).

And I’ve already mentioned Warfare incorporated by Spiffcode Inc., a decent RTS, has also received decent multiplayer support – at last.

 

UPDATE (10/19/2009): I’ve added three new columns to the chart to make your choice even easier: they reflect the user / purchaser voting for each game.

The first column, All version avg rating, shows the rating all the versions (including the current one) received. The number of voters in the third column, Nr. of voters for all versions.

The second column, ‘Current version avg rating’, is a bit different: it only lists the average of votes for the current version. This, in cases (for example, with UniWar, which has become great with the changes in the new version), may be vastly different than the average with gradually (or quickly) improved titles. Leaving this info out would have resulted in titles that have become excellent lately ignored by some readers. Note that I don’t provide the number of voters here. Also note that “n/a” stands for “game is still at 1.0; that is, there hasn’t been a previous version.”

Finally, note that n/e means “not enough votes”.

 

UPDATE (10/19/2009 16:32 CET): 1. I’ve posted the videos of the following games:

Air Sail by Readdle: Pretty funny game: by default, you need to blow into the mike of the phone for your ship to advance. As it’s free, highly recommended!
Atari Football by Atari: Only check out if you like the top-down, 2D rendering (as opposed to the 3D rendering fo some other baseball games) of this retro title.
Catcha Mouse 2 by Odasoft: IMHO, you may want to prefer Catcha Mouse 3 instead. In my opinion, it’s a great (while cheap) puzzle game well worth checking out.
CurveBallz Deluxe by Mehboob Charania: a 3D Pong title. As opposed to 3-D Vector Ball by Gyrocade, free, but a bit less capable (e.g., no accelerometer support). It’s free; however, I still think you want to prefer 3-D Vector Ball instead.
slotCar Mania by feelThere: Pretty nice – if you need real wireless multiplayer (which SlotZ still deosn’t support), go for it. Otherwise, if a one-device MP is sufficient, SlotZ Racing should be the one to prefer.
Smackarooni by Spinapse: I don’t really see the point in this game. (Neither do other reviewers – it got 2.5 points.)
Trivial Pursuit by Electronic Arts: a trivia game. I think TV Show King by Gameloft is better worth the price ($1), particularly because it’s much faster-paced and allows both players to answer simultaneously.

2. Rock Band has been released by EA. TouchArcade preferred it to the other available rhythm games http://toucharcade.com/2009/10/08/rock-band-hands-on-preview-with-video/ . I’ve also posted the demo video HERE.

3. Krazy Kart Racing has been updated; the changes are as follows:
- Updated title to Krazy Kart Racing
- Bugfixes
- Improved Multiplayer function and menu, including guidance and help
- Tweaked grand prix flow
- Removed "Bomb Chaser" from Krazy GP

4. another brand new release: Air Force Online by CDE. In my opinion, it has nothing to write home about – if you want a 2D top-down collaborative shooter, go for Siberian Strike (by Gameloft) instead - and it too is $1 only (note that $1 seems to be only the intro price of this game).

 

UPDATE (10/20/2009 12:43 CET): 1. I’ve posted the videos of the following games:

Crossbones by New Insect Overlords LLC : a puzzle game. You might like it – I myself haven’t bothered with learning the rules so I can’t really comment on the quality and the addictiveness of the game. Unfortunately, there don’t seem to be any online players at all and it costs $3 (while some other, in my opinion, very decent puzzle games like Catcha Mouse 3 by Odasoft only cost $1).

Bomber Online by Eurocenter : I’d prefer this Bomberman clone over BOMBERMAN TOUCH 2 –Volcano Party by Hudson 1.5 because of the much better controls and the much more versatile lounge-based game (with online players always around). Sure, it’s a bit pricey but, IMHO, well worth the $4.

Board@Work by Spigot Games : another puzzle game.

AirFight by Ocko AB : a pretty poor fighter pilot game.

Air Force Online by CDE : IMHO, it isn’t worth bothering either - there are way better 3D shooters around.

Ace Tennis Online by Eurocenter: as with all Eurocenter titles, it’s well worth checking out.

2. There is a considerable sale: “Foosball World Cup” by Better Day Wireless, now, costs only $1 (instead of the regular $3). If you do want a wireless foosball (table soccer) game, go get it as soon as possible.



3. (Still) speaking of foosball games, the commercial version of Pocket Football by Rashid Nasibulin (another foosball title with wireless multiplayer) seems to be removed from AppStore. I don’t know whether this has happened because of the absolutely unreliable and useless wireless multiplay support (at least between the 3G and the 3G S under both 3.0 and 3.1.2). Nevertheless, the free versions (both single-player only) remained in the AppStore.

 

A Pana ZS3 (by far the best P&S camera when it comes to HD video) with manual settings, manual focus, H or SH (super-high quality) mode, disabled OIS, together with a professional Manfrotto tripod.

 

UPDATE (10/21/2009): I’ve added the following videos:

KarmaStar by Majesco Entertainment: a puzzle game. Note that I didn’t really bother learning all the rules; that is, the MP demo isn’t a true representative of how the game should be played.

iNinja by Geppetto Inc.: a very decent title, particularly in single player. In multiplayer, there aren’t AI enemies or obstacles; still, it’s great fun against a human opponent, just like the comparable Hyper Puck by Kieffer Bros.

Wave Blazer by Polarbit : an, in my opinion, pretty average boat racer

Tower Bloxx Deluxe 3D by Digital Chocolate : while this game doesn’t support wireless, it’s big fun when played on the same iPhone.

Pocket Football by Rashid Nasibulin : as has been stated in yesterday’s update, this game has major problems in multiplayer rendering it completely useless – at least when played between an iPhone 3G and 3G S. This is demoed in this demo video. Probably this is why the title seems to be removed from the US AppStore.

Wopiti Words by Wopiti : another word game

Wi-Fi Battle Boats by Inner Four : I’d go for Sea Battle Classic by A. Kurulenko 1.1 instead: it looks cleaner, also supports BT and allows you to play the CPU too – for the same price.

Quartz 2 Deluxe Crystal Drop by Chillingo Ltd : this game is pretty unique in that it doesn’t support automatic Wi-Fi local network discovery. This means you must manually enter the host’s IP address into the client (which is also demoed in the demo video). However, this also means you will be able to play even remote opponents (not only local ones) if they have a direct IP – even without a lounge.

Krazy Kart Racers by Konami : Konami’s kart title. Not as good as that of Gameloft or Eurocenter, in my opinion.

Headsup Poker 3G by Haolan Qin : a poker game without any visual goodies.

Foosball World Cup by Better Day Wireless : as has been stated in yesterday’s update, this game has some glitches in multiplayer – at least when played between an iPhone 3G and 3G S. This can also be seen in this demo video. (Not only the initial disconnects, but also the desynchronized in-game animation.) Keep this in mind when purchasing it and you have this particular set-up (I don’t know whether there’re similar problems between similar models; say, two 3G’s or 3G S’es). Nevertheless, it’s on sale now (as has also been announced yesterday) and is still far better suited for wireless multiplayer than the only other alternative, Pocket Football by Rashid Nasibulin .

Aera by iChromo : I don't think you want to prefer it to F.A.S.T. Fleet Air Superiority Training! by SGN - the latter seems to be far better (and even cheaper). Note that, as I didn’t want to learn all the different accelerometer-based tricks for control (which I quickly show – by showing the built-in help – in the beginning of the video), I don’t show a real one-on-one fight in the demo video, much more just a demo on how fast the game is on the two iPhone models (3G and 3G S), how reliable the communication is etc.

BattleAtSea by Pelted Software : Sea Battle Classic by A. Kurulenko seems to be a much better choice.

Light Riders 3D by DS Media Labs: 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.

 

I've posted the multiplayer demo video of the just-released Sniper Vs Sniper: Online by Com2uS Corp. to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuUKOw_760E showing most aspects of multiplayer gaming.

As usual, it's a HD video with stereo sound also showing the speed difference between the iPhone 3G and the 3G S. The game is perfectly playable on the former (of course, the loading times are far higher).

 

UPDATE (10/22/2009 13:25 CET): Catcha Mouse 3 by Odasoft, which I consider one of the best multiplayer puzzle games, has just been updated to version 1.2.

The new version allows to listen to iPod music while playing the game.

 

Today’s news:

First of all, I’ve converted the so far static main game chart (direct link HERE) to be dynamic. 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 same rating.

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

This feature has long been asked for; now that I had some spare time, I implemented it. (For the programmers / geeks around: I’ve also published the automated script that creates the “class” attribute for the “tr” tag. It’s HERE. It uses a MySQL database table as a data source. Dumping the original HTML chart to the database is really simple (basically, can be achieved through some search/replace operations in a simple text editor; these search/replace operations, using the Word syntax, are also listed in the script file, right after the table creation script); nevertheless, I also provide you with that script. It’s HERE, should you be interested in it. Finally, you can find the purely JavaScript runtime code doing the visibility toggle right in the beginning of the chart file. The original, fully static chart is HERE.)

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 anything else, just select the (by default, when (re)loading the page, active) “Select!” menu item 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 the inconsistencies resulted from my, so far, not keeping in mind that, some time, I would indeed 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 Java converter program above; 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 fix them all. (Not now: I’ll leave for some two hours of swimming in about ten hours and I really want to take some long sleep before that.)

Second, I’ve added three new columns, all reflecting my opinion on the given game. (Incidentally, I’ve also referred to these new columns above – see my explanation of hiding titles having received a given rating.) Currently, all my ratings are integer numbers, unlike those of the AppStore folks; that is, 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5. As with AppStore, 1 is the worst and 5 is the best.

“My rating: MP” stands for how much I liked the title as a general multiplayer title. Note that my ratings may be, in cases, pretty different from those of the AppStore users (which you can find in the also recently-added – see my previous article updates – “All version avg rating” and “Current version avg rating” columns).

The following column, “Single Player”, 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.

Finally, “My rating for the play in the same category” 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 category, basically telling FPS fans to check it out if they really need a FPS game.

I’ve added two new games to the main chart, the excellent Sniper Vs Sniper: Online by Com2uS Corp (see the TouchArcade review / thread links in the last, “Remark” column) and the, in my opinion, pretty mediocre Harbor Master by Imangi Studios (a Flight Control clone, which has just received Bluetooth support).

Finally, note that I’ve uploaded multiplayer video demos for most of the games. These are exceptionally high-quality videos made with quality gear and well-controlled settings, not just some blurred, low-fps, stuttering cr@p made with a lousy mobile phone. Note that, as usual, I operate the two iPhones myself alone; that is, in non-turn based games, you can’t have as quick reactions and play as in the ideal case of two individual players operating both phones individually. Do not complain about this – I’ve done my best. Rest assured that, technically, my videos are far better than most other videos out there.

 

UPDATE (10/24/2009 14:00 CET):

1. I’ve further enhanced the chart and made it even more user-friendly. Now, you can disable any of the columns (except for the title) if you find some of them uninteresting. Just un-tick the checkboxes of the columns (at the top) you don’t want to clutter the view.

2. There’s a new version of Play Marbles, which is a pretty nice game:

 

UPDATE (10/28/2009):

1. DOOM, with local Wi-Fi multiplayer support, will very soon be released. See THIS and THIS for more info.

2. Ronnie O'Sullivan's Snooker by I-play (iTunes link) has a super-sale – it only costs $1. A must buy at the price!



Also see THIS for my multiplayer demo video – and, of course, the comments in the chart.

3. There is a new demo video of the forthcoming online multiplayer deathmatch game Eliminate HERE. Additional info HERE.

4. Pollys Popping Parrots Reloaded by p13development has been updated:



5. Two new major releases: Catan (info HERE; hotseat multiplayer only) and Fish Labs' Rally Master Pro 3D (a rally racer; more info HERE; online top scores only).

 

UPDATE (10/28/2009 16:40 CET):

Some additional news:

1. Metallica Revenge by Tapulous has been released. See THIS for more info. ITUNES link; YouTube multiplayer demo video HERE.

2. I’ve added Breakspin by Walt Disney to the chart. ITUNES; TouchArcade threads HERE (review) and HERE (regular discussion). THIS thread compares it to other Brick Breaker games. YouTube multiplayer demo video HERE.

3. There is a new, bugfix version of Ancient War by Triniti Interactive Limited. As far as the iPhone multiplayer 3G bug is concerned (see the earlier video), I havent’ had the time to test it; will do it some time.

4. There are some new, downloadable songs for Rock Band by EA (see my earlier quick review & video). Select “Music Store” from the main menu to access. Currently, two of them are free. A screenshot:



5. I’ve also tested PANDORUM by Artificial Life, Inc. Unfortunately, all it supports is sharing add-on features or game progress with friends via Bluetooth and comparing scores and best times on the global leaderboard and compete with friends using Facebook Connect

6. Finally, last but not least, frontpage at iPhoneMVP.com. The associated image:



I don’t think this image needs to be commented on ;-)