iPhony

Blog

Jul 17th 2008 at 16:00 by Michael French

So beginning a column about the recent launch of the 3G iPhone and its supporting App Store requires, I guess, some kind of accusation that if you don't know what I'm talking about you're living under a rock or some other dank place. But let's skip the preamble and get to the point: although populated with great content, I've been left a bit wary by the launch of the iPhone games despite starting out, last Friday, as an eager reporter thinking it might herald the next big thing.

iPhony

The problem is that, as can often be the case with new games platforms, the best-selling games aren't the best ones available.

The arrival of the App Store heralded the release of, according to Apple CEO Steve Jobs, over 160 games. And there are, of course, some truly amazing things about that.

Undeniably, it's the biggest launch line up ever for a games platform.

Definitely, the 70 per cent revenue split is spectacular - trumping Xbox Live, PSN and WiiWare overnight.

Plus, the fact that small developers - puzzler Trism was developed by one man, for instance - can stand shoulder-to-shoulder on a (relatively) open platform for distribution to a piece of fixed hardware is something almost no one else can offer.

And yes, Super Monkey Ball being the best-selling App says a lot about the tastes of the downloading consumer - they do want games, and they will pay for them from day one without a demo.

But once the excitement calms down - what next?

Super Monkey Ball is a bit of a red herring, I'd say. Backed by Apple and Sega (hardly anyone else will be able to claim similar support with their iPhone/iPod Touch games), and a games brand that's six years and a variety of iterations in the making, it's in fact the exact kind of game that I was dreading would dominate the iPhone. A predictable, franchise game made by a big publisher.

Case in point: a number of better games came out at launch, including the above mentioned Trism, plus a number of games by Publisher X, which includes excellent mobile game Critter Crunch, and the physics puzzler (and potential UGC revolutionary) Aqua Forest - and while they were backed with press releases, they aren't even in the top 30 of iPhone Apps. Predictably, Crash Bandicoot and Bomberman are.

The problem for me is that the iPhone/iPod Touch is a platform full of potential - but the most popular games on the system don't really prove it.

Of course, that in itself is an opportunity for the rest of the industry. But game developers need to make that decision and not follow the herd. Indeed, Super Monkey Ball could be a textbook example of what not to do for casual games - the title seems to be battery hungry and the controls can be alienating (there are no instructions and it can't be calibrated - user-friendly it is not).

So when the good games - many of them probably casual ones - appear for the iPhone and iPod touch, making use of the features and bringing new ideas into the mix, that's when we'll know the App Store and its touch-screen platforms have truly arrived.