The iPhone/iPod Touch Multiplayer Gaming Bible

UPDATE (11/21/2009):

1. Harry Potter: Spells by Warner Bros has been released. If you're a HP fan, you might like it. If, on the other hand, you aren't, you may want to look elsewhere – there are far more interesting titles.

Note that, at first, the gestures won’t be easy (actually, this is why this title has received so many one (worst) stars in AppStore); also see THIS demo video showing using them. Also note that in my demo video I also show these – hence the bigger-than-usual distance between the camera and the two iPhones. TouchArcade thread HERE.

2. Now that EA has completely abandoned (and removed it from the AppStore) its previous (special edition – non-regular) monopoly title, MONOPOLY Here & Now: The World Edition, they have come out with a better-looking and, at last, regular one simply called “MONOPOLY”. Dedicated TA thread HERE; frontpage news item HERE. YouTube demo video HERE.

3. I’ve posted to videos and other info (to the chart) of two other, new puzzle titles, EXtreme Puzzle Mania: Rock Paper Scissors by EXintricity (YouTube demo video HERE) and NoyZyoN Online by GFG (YouTube demo video HERE)

4. There are some bugfixes / updates; probably the two most important are that of Robocalypse (added saving during game) and Play Marbles (major bugfixes).

 

UPDATE (11/22/2009): the article has officially been deprecated. Please read http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?p=661005 instead. This thread remains only as an update catch-up thread as is also explained in Chapter 6 of the new article.

 

UPDATE (11/25/2009): Major price drop for the holiday season: Blades of Fury for $1 only!

One of the best Street Fighter clones is Blades of Fury (iTunes link) - no wonder I've featured it in my recently-published "Everything you’ll ever need to know about multiplayer games" (and also the paper version of it, which, hopefully, gets published in the newsstand version of iPhone Life). Now, it’s offered for $1 only during the Thanksgiving season. For this price, it’s a steal!

 

UPDATE (Later, the same day):

1. Gameloft has made some other multiplayer-enabled games $1 for the holiday season; all of them well worth this price:

Real Tennis 2009 (iTunes link)
Shrek Kart (iTunes link)

Note that there are some other single player titles too; please see THIS for more info. The following single-player titles are on sale:


Castle of Magic ($1.99 -> 99¢)
Terminator Salvation ($4.99 -> 99¢)
Brothers in Arms – Hour of Heroes ($4.99 -> 99¢) (ouch! I’ve paid some $7 for it back in March!)

BTW, speaking of single-player titles, EA also runs some sales. Not as outstanding as those of Gameloft (titles are only up to sale at 50%); nevertheless, well worth checking out if you like their titles. See THIS for more info. Among the titles, there are some multiplayer ones too:

FIFA 10 ($9.99->$6.99)
Monopoly ($4.99->$2.99)
Command & Conquer ($9.99->$6.99) (this is promised to receive multiplayer support some time)

Their single-player titles on sale:

Wolfenstein RPG ($2.99->$1.99)
Surviving High School ($2.99->$1.99)
Auditorium ($2.99->$1.99)
Command & Conquer ($9.99->$6.99) (again, this MAY get multiplayer some time)
NBA Live ($9.99->$6.99)
Mystery Mania ($1.99->$0.99)
Madden 10 ($9.99->$6.99)
Boggle ($2.99->$0.99)
The Sims ($6.99->$4.99)
Tiger Woods Golf ($4.99->$2.99)
SimCity ($4.99->$2.99)
Tetris ($4.99->$2.99)
Need For Speed Undercover ($4.99->$2.99) (some half a year ago, I’ve paid $10 for this…)

IUGO, celebrating the release of A.D.D. (see THIS for a discussion), also has a black friday sale. The following multiplayer titles are on sale: Star Hogs ($4.99 => $2.99) and Cliffed ($1.99 => 99¢), both nice ones (and a lot of single-player ones; for example, the highly recommended Toy Bot Compilation / Diaries). Please see THIS for a discussion.

2. It seems (fortunately) there is a constant flow of turn-based strategy titles for the iPhone - Battle for Wesnoth has just been released. Please see THIS for additional info / the TouchArcade story; dedicated thread HERE. Note that it has some performance issues – most people state it only runs on the 3G S without major speed problems. I’ll post my remarks later.

3. Still speaking of turn-based strategies, Rogue Planet has also been released and is an excellent title I’ve purchased right away - also as a "thanks" for their excellent, earlier titles: 1112 for the iPhone, Fade for Windows Mobile and Acedior for Palm OS. BTW, speaking of 1112, the developers have told me they've been working on the long-demanded Episode 2 for two months. Hope it indeed gets released soon - based on the excellent quality of Ep 1 (and Fade on Windows Mobile, which 1112 is based on), it will surely kick some serious butts.

I’ve also posted a multiplayer demo video of it HERE. Please see THIS discussion; there, we’ve been discussing, among other things, strategies to missions. TouchArcade’s first impressions are HERE.

Again - all of these titles (except for the just-released Battle for Wesnoth) are elaborated on in my recently-published Everything you’ll ever need to know about multiplayer games - consult it for more info on each of these titles.

 

UPDATE (11/27/2009):

1. I’ve added a video of Line Racer by inXile Entertainment, a line racer game, which received Wi-Fi / BT local multiplayer support some days ago. TouchArcade discussion HERE; I especially recommend THIS mini-review .

2. As far as multiplayer game sales are concerned, Warfare Incorporated (the excellent RTS) is at a $1 sale – go get it! So is SlotZ Racer, which, along with Orions, I’ve found worthy to be the only one title to be included in the (otherwise, wireless-only) Multiplayer Bible.

3. My full, recently-released, brand new multiplayer guide has been considered worthy enough to be included in the “User Reviews” section of TouchArcade (see THIS).

4. Speaking of new TA reviews, there’s a nice user review of Battle for Wesnoth (see previous update) HERE. THIS frontpaged, official Rogue Planet (an excellent TBS also highly recommended in my Multiplayer bible) review is also worth reading.

5. You may want to urgently (some of the sales end today) check out THIS TouchArcade list of the games currently in sale. In this (and previous) post, I’ve already listed the multiplayer titles on sale; however, the full list (which has single-player titles as well) contains some other, nice stuff; most importantly, C64 (review HERE) for $3 (as opposed to the regular $5). (I’m still happy I purchased it right after being released in September because I can still play hacked games under version 1.0. With version 1.1, as far as I know, no one has managed to find out how hacked games can be added.)

 

UPDATE (11/27/2009, somewhat later):

1. MiniSquadron (iTunes link), one of the best multiplayer retro 2D flight shooters, is also at a $1 sale. Don’t forget to get it if you’re into the genre – you’ll like it. (Also see my video HERE and TouchArcade’s article HERE; dedicated thread HERE)

2. The Line Racer (inXile Entertainment) video (see previous post) is HERE.

 

UPDATE (12/20/2009): there is a LOT to report on - with Christmas approaching, a lot of decent titles have been released or updated to support wireless multiplayer.

1.) The following major titles have received true wireless support: Worms by Team17 and COMMAND & CONQUER™ RED ALERT™ by Electronic Arts; both excellent titles.

2.) Need for Speed Shift by Electronic Arts has been released; a very nice racing game with local multiplayer. Not very fast on the iPhone 3G, though.

Other notable releases:

3.) Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. by Gameloft: a really cool dogfighting title of about the same (or even better?) quality than the previous king of the genre, F.A.S.T.

4.) N.O.V.A. – Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance by Gameloft: an excellent first person shooter. I myself consider it better than Eliminate Pro (opinions surely differ).

5.) Modern Combat: Sandstorm by Gameloft is also a brand new release – as with N.O.V.A., with support to all the three major connection types (Lounge, Wi-Fi, BT). It’s too an FPS; however, on previous-generation hardware, it isn’t as nice as, say, the brand new N.O.V.A. – Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance by the same company.

6.) Red Conquest! by John Kooistra: an excellent real-time strategy. I haven’t really had the time to thoroughly learn its philosophy so I cannot comment on whether it’s indeed better than, say, COMMAND & CONQUER™ RED ALERT™ by Electronic Arts. Some say so.

7.) Super Monkey Ball 2 by SEGA: if you liked the first part and don’t mind the high price tag, you may like this one too.

8.) Two excellent golf games have received wireless multiplayer support: Let's Golf! by Gameloft and Tiger Woods PGA TOUR® by EA SPORTS. Of the two, I much prefer the latter (commentary etc.). If you come from Windows Mobile, you may even have read my article on golf games for the platform published four years ago in the paper-based Pocket PC Magazine. On that platform, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR was also superior to all (non-minigolf) titles. On the iPhone, this advantage seem to have remained – at least for serious players. (For girls, I recommend Let's Golf! Instead – they may find it “cuter”.)

9.) If you’ve used IBM PC’s in the late eighties / early nineties, you may remember the (for multiplayer) excellent game Arcade Volleyball:



Now, a decent wireless clone has arrived: Slime Ball by Pinger, Inc.

10.) Some other classic game genres have also received some very strong contenders; for example, there is an excellent Battleship title released by EA (named Battleship), which I consider to be at least as good as the previous “best buy” of the genre, Sea Battle Classic by A. Kurulenko. They’ve also released a Connect 4 implementation – while some state it crashes a lot (and it did in my BT tests!), it’s pretty much better than some of the previous Connect 4 titles. Finally, if you loved International Karate on the Commodore 64, you’ll certainly welcome ZANSHIN by e4c Solutions, LLC. Its only drawbacks are the somewhat clumsy default control (you may want to change it to, say, swipes in Options) and the lack of in-game music / the lack of iPod background playback support. Unfortunately, you can’t run any kind of music player in the background to play, say, the original SID tune of International Karate.

11.) Lovers of rhythm games may welcome AeroGuitar Samurai Rock by Five Any Inc. I’m not a fan of the genre so I don’t want to decide whether it’s better than the previous titles; for example, Tap Tap Revenge 3 by Tapulous, which even supports remote (lounge-based) multiplay and always has a LOT of people to play.

And there still are some other, newly released or updated (to support wireless multiplayer) titles – I’ve added no less than 28(!) brand new or just-updated-with-wireless games to the chart, most with demo videos. Please scroll down to the bottom of it (again, it’s HERE) to see all the new titles with links to my YouTube demo videos, TouchArcade discussion threads and a thorough elaboration of other features of each and every title.

 

Thanks, will include in the next update.