jaxphp.org|The best in online games.

I’ve been having a look around the app store on the iPhone and had a search for some old Amiga games, I never find anything! Games I used to play like New Zealand Story, Rainbow Islands, James Pond and the Double Dragon series just arent available. It’s so disappointing. I managed to find a few including Golden Axe which had terrible controls. The problem with a lot of games on the iPhone is that because the controls have to be shown on-screen, if you have big thumbs like me you end up covering the whole screen, then all it takes is a baddie to walk underneath your thumbs and you end up getting beaten to death! I think this is possibly where an iPad would come in handy the larger screen would make such a difference. Sega have started releasing some of their old releases. Sonic the hedgehog and Sonic the hedgehog II are now available, but again i’m put off even trying them with the controls issue. I didn’t think the control would be such a deal-breaker for me but it just ruins the whole experience, give me a good old joystick anyday!

It is possible to have good controls on the iPhone though. Gangstar is an amazing game that is a Grand Theft Auto-style game and uses the built in accelerometer in the iPhone so you basically tilt your iPhone when driving to turn corners in any vehicle you happen to steal! If only all retro conversions had this amount of time spent on the controls then they might actually be worth paying for.

As i’ve mentioned before, one of my fave game series of all time is Monkey Island, this works perfectly on the iPhone, point and click lend themselves very well to the iPhone’s interface, so how about some more? How about Indiana Jones and the fate of atlantis? Sam and max? Leisure Suit Larry? (OK maybe not Leisure suit Larry) but there are some great point-n-click adventures out there, I just hope they make it to the iPhone.