The Free iPhone game Trawler Report: H.A.W.X. and Speed Forge Extreme offer hi-tech thrills while iBasic gives us a blast from the past
5th January 2010
Free games are changing, and the Lite version’s days could be numbered if the new overlord of freebies has his wicked way.
Rather than just plain old demos, you can expect to see many more games that look like they’re full freebies in 2010, except that they’re not. In-app payments mean that game makers can now release just a single free version of their game, one where most of the game’s features are locked up until you lay down some cash.
It might be buying more levels, more cars, or even more lives, but these sorts of games are set to be mighty popular in 2010. We’ve got an early example this week with Pirate Climber, so check it out if you want a look at how many of your games will be delivered this year.
It’s a brave new world, and one that causes a whole cocktail of emotions to start bubbling up inside us. Let’s calm those nerves with some good old fashioned freebies.
The best free iPhone games on the App StoreTom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. Free
By Gameloft
Type Demo
2009 saw a handful of aerial shooters engage afterburners and touch down on the App Store. F.A.S.T. is the only one that managed to win itself a gold award, but now you can try out Gameloft’s rival offering H.A.W.X. for free.
And no, we don’t know what all the fuss is with these initial-based names either. H.A.W.X. lets you get behind the flightstick of fighter jets packed with enough missiles and guns to take on an army - which you’ll have to do, naturally.
You can control you plane either with the accelerometer or using a virtual stick, if you’re not overly keen on looking foolish in public. This free version of H.A.W.X. lets you check out the first few missions using one of two planes.
By Chillingo
Type Demo Since the mid-'90s, if you’ve preferred hovering cars to ones with wheels - y’know, ones like your granddad probably had before hover boots took off - there’s been a healthy stash of fancy 3D racers to choose from. While we’re still waiting for the official WipEout to grace the App Store, the same is also true on iPhone. Speed Forge Extreme is Chillingo’s entry to this particular race, and judging by the free version it’s not a bad effort at all.
Nippy and chock-full of weapons with which you can pulverise other racers, the Lite version lets you try out two hovering craft across a race and an arena deathmatch.
By Amazing Games
Type Freemium Traditional platformers tend to have trouble dealing with the iPhone’s lack of buttons, so it’s often better to take a sideways look at the genre, just like Pirate Climber. There are just two virtual buttons involved for the most part: 'left' and 'right'. Hold both and release and your pirate will jump.
Apart from being a standard platformer, Pirate Climber is also a wall climbing game, like RastaMonkey and Sway. Here, the two buttons dictate which was your pirate will swing.
In each level, you’re looking for ingredients to help the chef - that’s your character - find enough to make grub for the pirate crew. Whether it’s enough to spur you on to buy new levels or not, which you can do in-game, it’s certainly worth a download for a quick blast.
By Blue Bear Studio
Type Demo B.I.T.S. Pinball starts like most of the best pinball games out there - fast, bright and almost entirely incomprehensible. We’ll admit that we haven’t quite got a full grasp of it yet, but you’re basically left trying to whack the coloured pins that pop up around the table using your standard silver pinball.
Knock away a whole set and you’ll finish a level, although - in the Lite version at least - the levels carry on within the same table.
B.I.T.S. Pinball doesn’t quite have the realistic pinball chops of classic freebies like Wild West Pinball and The Deep, but if you’ve already tapped out those tables, this game offers something a little different from your bog-standard ball-slinger.
By Chen Dong Lu
Type Demo (with full games included)
We’re spoilt as gamers these days. Everything’s 3D, backed by a full orchestra and - if you’re on the App Store at least - costs less than a pint of beer for the most part.
takes you back, way back to the days before graphics. Back when men were men and dragons still roamed the streets of London, busking for silver sovereigns.
Okay, so it’s too far back for us to remember perfectly, but you get the diea. iBasic Lite features four ancient games - The Wonderful World of Eamon, Life, Tictac and Hamurabi King.
Now that modern conveniences have mushed our brains into so much baby food, we could only really get on with the first of these, which is a text adventure. Whether or not you can remember these dubious glory days of gaming, it may well warm the heart, like gaming comfort food.
The craps apps box of shame awardMy BIC Lighter
By Societe BIC
There are few more annoying things in life than when you go to see one of your favourite bands only to find that you spend half the concert looking through the arm of some idiot intent on spending the whole night taking blurry photos with his mobile. Jump around or stand still by all means, but put your phones away, people.
Well, BIC has come up with an idea to encourage even more of these irritating folk to get their hands digging into their pockets with My BIC Lighter. It emulates a cigarette lighter being held aloft, as you might have seen in a movie from the late '80s.
Okay, so the fact that it reacts to your movements demonstrates a respectable bit of programming, but it’s adding to the inevitable downfall of live music as we know it. Oh, and at the time of writing, the app’s description reads merely ‘To Do’. Come on BIC, get with the programme.