Mad Agents is a throwback to the 1-room platformers of the NES or Atari generation, with a strong emphasis on identifying enemy movement patterns and timing jumps correctly to avoid confrontation. It plays almost like a small-scale Lode Runner, with bite-sized levels that feel right at home on the iPhone.
In terms of compatibility, both the Standard and Extended layouts work fine on both iPhone and iPad, though be warned – when the game tells you to press the button, it actually means the button. Hopefully this mistake will be resolved soon. Otherwise, controller compatibility is fine.
Other than that one control mapping error, I can think of no reason NOT to download Mad Agents. Itâs fun, lightweight, Universal, and compatible with any MFi controller you throw at it.
Oceanhorn was designed, in many ways, to translate the formula set by Zelda into a mobile game. In that goal, it succeeded excellently. Like the Zelda games, Oceanhorn features an engrossing storyline, beautiful graphics, top quality sound and music, tons of content, and well polished and fun gameplay.
This is no mere Zelda clone, though. Whereas the Zelda games usually revolve on saving the titular figure from some sort of harm, or performing some sort of quests at her behest, Oceanhorn tells a more insular story about a boyâs quest to solve the mystery of his parents disappearance and learn the story of the Oceanhorn monster that stalks his world. Itâs a well told, adequately compelling story, and it supplies enough of a motivation to drive further through the story.
Augmenting the main story is a decently sized world filled with optional islands, difficult dungeons, the occasional side quest, and an optional gem collection activity that has you searching the world for some fiendishly cleverly hidden red crystals. Itâs enough to keep a completionist busy for quite some time, while at the same time never feeling like too much of a grind
As an iOS app, Oceanhorn serves as a shining example of the correct way to make a premium game. The price may be high, but the quality of the experience is right up there with it. Universal compatibility, MFi controller support, achievements, smooth framerates, retina resolution – almost everything youâd want out of a top-tier iOS app. The only thing missing is iCloud storage – a shame, but by no means a deal killer.
Controller support is adequate and universal, with compatibility for Standard and Extended layouts on both iPhone and iPad. Oceanhorn features perfectly serviceable touch controls, but playing with physical controls absolutely improves the experience. I wish a little bit more had been done to optimize the experience for hardware controls – it would be nice to assign special moves to specific buttons for quick access, instead of having most of the buttons remain blank and a submenu still being required to switch special moves – but this is a minor nit-pick. The controls here are very well implemented.
Oceanhorn manages well the difficult task of being inspired by a great thing, while at the same time carving out an identity of itâs own. Fans of Zelda will find a lot to love here, and that is equally true for people whoâve never played a Nintendo game in their lives. Oceanhorn isnât just a great mobile game – itâs a great game, period.
Today marks the 30th anniversary of the original Macintosh computer. In that time, the Mac has been home to some of the best games every made. From revolutionary games like Myst (built in HyperCard!) to newer classics like Halo (long story), the Mac stood at the forefront of where game developers wanted their games to be.
Now that Apple stands at the forefront of the mobile gaming revolution, we have this opportunity to look back on some of the important games that helped Apple reach the heights they are at today.
As the focus of this site is MFi game controllers, I’m just going to focus on the games that have already been updated to support Apple’s latest and greatest play for the hearts and minds of gamers. Read on to see which classics make the list…
1) Spectre 3D
The Spectre series was one of the first game series I ever dumped a serious amount of time into. I was just a kid when I played the first game, and the sheer intensity of action on display here hooked me immediately. At its core, Spectre is an arena-shooter that tasks the player with collecting flags and destroying enemies in order to reach the next stage. Through great execution of that simple premise, Spectre managed to become one of the most intense and action-packed games I’ve ever played.
A good game can do a lot with a simple premise (source)
I followed the series throughout its various incarnations – I remember playing Spectre, Spectre VR, and Spectre CD at various times – and it filled me with a good deal of sadness when no Mac OS X port was ever made available. I even kept a partition on my drive for the “Classic” Mac OS, to play this and other games. But time marches on, computers come and go, and eventually Spectre was left simply as an old memory of a game I used to play.
Mac gamers really were spoiled with the best packaging ever (source)
Thankfully, our inability to play this classic game has been SPECTACULARLY remedied. With Spectre 3D, developer Brilliant-Bytes Software has managed to release that rare port that succeeds in enhancing virtually everything about the original game, while at the same time preserving the elements that made the original good and the nostalgia that would bring a longtime fan back to play.
Aside from including all of the original classic games, Spectre 3D brings a whole host of new game modes and modern features. MFi controller support, achievements, multiplayer, universal iPhone / iPad support – everything that makes a great iOS game is here.
Spectre plays as well now as ever
It seems like Spectre will be coming back to the mac before long, bigger and better than ever – a fitting next step in the history of a true classic Mac game.
I can still remember waking up on the morning of my birthday to find that my dad had placed a copy of Prince of Persia 2 in front of my computer monitor while I was sleeping. I remember very little else from that day except the hours of playing it.
A classic game deserves a classic package! (source)
I’d been a fan of the first game as long as I can could remember, sinking hour upon hour into the brutally difficult, unforgiving, yet deeply engaging game. This underrated sequel pushed everything up another level.
Gone was the black-and-gray blandness of the first game. In it’s place, Prince of Persia brought some of the best hand-drawn 2D graphics to ever grace a video game, then or now. The claustrophobic dungeons of the first game were broken up with beautiful, slower paced outdoor sequences. The more traditional platforming of the first game was augmented with puzzles that really required thinking outside-the-box. Some fans of the first Prince of Persia took issue with these changes, but I feel like they made Prince of Persia 2 into to a much stronger game.
These aren’t just great graphics “for the time” – these are simply great graphics (source)
Unlike the other games on this list, Prince of Persia: The Shadow and The Flame for iOS is a true top-to-bottom remake of the classic, with completely new resources and completely updated design. Developer Ubisoft decided to take the feel of the classic game, as well as certain plot points and overall level designs, and create a new game for a new generation.
While this iOS remake is definitely more approachable, there are more than a few regressions. Some of the simplifications come at the expense of some classic moments of the original game. For example, the first level of the original game tasks you with running, jumping and clinging to the edge of a boat just before it sails off screen. In this remake, the boat is stationary and the challenge nonexistent. Easier, but a lot less exciting. While I still remember that original challenge 20 years later, the remake’s version is easy and unmemorable.
2.5D graphics, arrows flying everywhere, and no more turban on the prince… don’t call it a remake, it’s “reimagined”!
As an iOS app, Prince of Persia 2 is a mixed bag. It hit’s a decent amount of checklist features for a real game – achievements, universal binary, controller support – but it also bundles a fair amount of player-hostile baggage.
Ubisoft has decided that it’s appropriate to beg players to watch commercials or connect to Facebook throughout the course of the game. This isn’t a freemium version either – this is a full game, begging you to connect to Facebook or watch commercials in exchange for a few gold coins. There is a lack of respect for the player in nonsense like that, and it is disheartening to see. If you have to bribe one of your paying customers to use one of your features, that “feature” probably shouldn’t be there in the first place.
Prince of Persia 2 is still a classic, and is ultimately worth a download. Still, I can’t help but wish that the developers had treated their customers with a little more respect, both in terms of dumbing down the game and in force-feeding us freemium components we don’t want and didn’t pay for.
While Nanosaur is the newest game on this list, it is still an undisputed classic Mac game. It’s also likely the first Mac game many people were exposed to. That’s because Nanosaur has the distinction of coming bundled with one of the most important computers Apple ever built – the iMac G3.
The late 1990s was a very dark time for Apple. A decade of bad management decisions had left Apple with only a few months of money left in the bank before they’d have to declare bankruptcy. While the iMac was not exclusively responsible for saving Apple, it stands as a symbol of everything the New Apple stood for – personal computers with beautiful aesthetics, modern features (often at the expense of backwards compatibility), and a real sense of being designed by people who actually wanted to make something great. People bought these computers in record numbers. And on every one of those computers came Nanosaur.
It may look a little dated today, but don’t kid yourself – this changed everything
Nanosaur was a third-person action game where you played as a dinosaur from the future, tasked with finding and preserving dinosaur eggs before the coming meteor caused your species’ mass extinction. Armed with a jetpack and laser gun, you were given a limited amount of time to retrieve all the eggs and fight off other dinosaurs.
All of this took place in some of the most beautiful natural environments possible at the time. The graphics were beautiful, the framerate smooth, the levels big, and most importantly, the game was really fun.
A dinosaur with a laser gun and jetpack – maybe not reason enough to buy an iMac, but it made those of us who already had one extra happy with our purchase! (source)
While Nanosaur itself is not available for iOS, the also-excellent sequel is.
Nanosaur 2 takes the same formula as it’s predecessor and transplants you from the ground to the sky. In doing so, it plays to the strengths of iOS – tilting the device to control your dinosaur ends up feeling more natural than using a keyboard ever did.
Beautiful levels to fly through.
As an iOS game, Nanosaur 2 is about as good as it gets. Developer Pangea is one of the true standouts when it comes to iOS development. They were there on day 1 of the App Store (on stage at WWDC demoing games, in fact). They’ve hit every major development to happen to iOS gaming – Airplay, universal iPad and iPhone support, Game Center, multiplayer, retina graphics, widescreen display, 64 bit A7 – every key feature Apple wants to promote as iOS gaming related, Pangea’s games supported it.
Many of Pangea’s games would up bundled with various Macs throughout the years, but Nanosaur on the first iMac still stands out as a particularly important release. It represented why we bought Macs – to get top quality experiences that were years ahead of where the rest of the industry would be. Mobile devices running iOS continue this tradition, and Pangea’s games are just as welcome a sight in the App Store today as they were in our old Mac OS 9 Applications folders.
I am not the best judge of sports games – it isnât my genre, it isnât something I have years of experience with – but I am a good judge of quality. And I can say, unequivocally, that NBA 2K14 is a quality experience.
NBA 2K14 hits all the marks on what youâd want in a game like this – great graphics, a decent selection of music, fluid frame rates on all devices, decent audio commentary, and tons of content. This feels like a real, complete console experience. But itâs an experience that feels right at home on iOS.
I always appreciate it when a developer takes advantage of platform-specific features, and 2k manages to hit all the bullet points youâd want in an iOS optimized game: universal iPad and iPhone support, Game Center achievements, iCloud storage, Multiplayer (both Game Center and Bluetooth), and – of course – MFi controller support.
Equally notable is what ISNâT here. Namely, all the horrible nonsense that lesser developers force in at the expense of their players. This game doesnât show you ads, it doesnât try to trick you into spamming your Facebook or twitter friends, it doesnât try to sell you currency. Basically, 2K sports opted to treat the player with respect; more developers could learn from that.
The integration of MFi controller support here is top-flight. No noticeable issues on iPhone or iPad using any variety of Standard or Extended controller. Extended controllers support both d-pad and joystick control, in-game text dialogs are correctly mapped to the hardware controls, an accurate control diagram is presented upon connecting a controller – all the details are there. The only thing missing is menu navigation, which still requires touch.
$7.99 USD is a lot to ask for an iOS game. Thankfully, NBA2K14 delivers exactly the experience youâd expect for your money. Playing this with an MFi controller feels like a real, true console gaming experience.
TowerMadness 2, sequel to a well-regarded Tower Defense game, seems to be the first example of a TD game getting controller support. Itâs interesting, because although there were hundreds of games like this in the early days of the App Store, the genre seems to have fallen out of vogue in recent years.
Tower Defense is one genre that works particularly well with touch screens. Itâs interesting seeing this one launch with controller support. Iâm not sure if playing this game with a controller will be a superior experience to just touching and dragging the screen.
Impossible Road has been updated for compatibility with both Standard and Extended MFi controllers.
I missed out on this game before, but let me say, itâs a real classic. Beautifully simple and brutally difficult, but with the type of difficulty that gets you to keep playing just one more time. Of course, with the best games, itâs never just one more time; Impossible Road is the type of game you can sink a whole afternoon of “one more times” in to.
This game was one of Appleâs runners-up for Game of the Year 2013, and I can absolutely see why.
Beach Buggy Blitz is a 3D driving game in which the goal is to travel as far as possible before running out of time – collecting coins, dodging pitfalls, and passing time-increasing checkpoints along the way. In practice, it plays like a 3D endless runner in the same vein as Jetpack Joyride, with a few caveats.
The graphics are nice, the music and sound design appropriate, and navigating the game world feels responsive and provides a decent level of challenge. The interface is a little rough around the edges, but not distractingly so.
The biggest weakness here is in the repetitiveness of the level design. The game promises procedurally generated levels, meaning every run is different. In practice, this often breaks, leaving you stuck playing the same course over and over again. When it does work, the only parts of the run that end up feeling different are the parts at the very end – the early stages of the course pull from a very limited pool of level designs. And thatâs when the course bothers to change at all.
For a game like this to be a classic, it is essential for each run to feel different than the previous. Jetpack Joyrideâs addictiveness comes not just from the gameplay, but from the way each run feels like a fresh experience with fresh challenges.
Beach Buggy Blitz sufferers heavily from a lack of variety. The lack of change in course design makes it quickly apparent that no amount of skill in the world will get you past certain checkpoints – you must upgrade your car, and you canât upgrade your car without coins, and you get coins by driving the same time-limited track designs over and over again. Progress feels governed not by skill, but by grinding.
Beach Buggy Blitz supports both the Standard and Extended layout, though in-game only; menu navigation requires touch. Navigation is mapped for the D-pad for both controller layouts, but can be manually reassigned to anything you want in the settings – Extended controller users will likely want to map navigation to the joystick. Controls feel responsive, and are a noticeable improvement over playing the game with Touch or Tilt controls.
Beach Buggy Blitz could have, and should have, been better than this. Developer Vector Unit is responsible for the much superior water racing game Riptide GP2, and the difference in quality between these games is noticeable. Riptide GP2 is a newer game, and it is obvious that developer Vector Unit has learned much in the time between these games. Lets hope they bring some of that knowledge back here, and update this game with more than just controller support.
There just isnât that much to see here, and thatâs unfortunate – It feels like a decent game engine is wasted on such a short experience. There is potential in this game, but it is severely underexploited. As a free game, this is an entertaining way to spend a half hour or so, but there just isnât much to come back to when the initial thrill wears off.
Behind-the-scenes information is great to have, but some of the claims they present and conclusions they draw donât quite fit the facts.
Price and Value
9to5mac tries to answer the question of why these controllers seem to be so expensive:
One of the biggest pain points for consumers so far has been the price of MFi controllers: Does the added engineering that goes into having an iPhone dock right into the controller via Lightning connector really justify the roughly $40 -$50 premium over your average game console controller?
[â¦]One issue is that Appleâs MFi program requires manufacturers to source their pressure sensitive analog switches for buttons and thumbsticks from a single Apple approved supplier.
This is the primary issue that 9to5mac dives in to, but there is a bit more to the story than that. It isnât simply a matter of âadded engineeringâ to connect to a lightning connector.
The current crop of controllers include integrated batteries for powering the iPhone – 1500mAH for the Logitech and 1800mAH for the Moga. Buying a decent battery case can easily cost more than these controllers – JUST for the battery.
Audio output is another factor, at least in the case of the MOGA. Unlike the old 30pin dock connector, Lightning does not include analog audio output. Any device that purports to output sound out of the Lightning port – every speaker, dock, and adapter cable – actually include an entire integrated USB sound card. If youâre wondering why the iPhone 5 dock took so long, or why the lightning-to-30pin cable costs so much, theres your answer – they include a relatively high quality digital-to-analog converter chip small enough to fit in the end of a cable.
Developer Adoption
9to5mac asks:
Why arenât more developers updating their apps with controller support? Implementing Appleâs APIs in iOS 7 for game controller support is relatively painless, but some app developers weâve talked to arenât satisfied with the controllers
This article keeps implying that developer support for these new controllers is minimal. The facts donât bear that out.
There are about 175 games out right now that support these new controllers to varying degrees. Not bad games, either – serious, major releases are already supporting MFi controllers.
Keep in mind, MFi controllers have only been out for about 2 months. 175 games are supporting this ânicheâ product In 2 months. Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft would kill for a âfailureâ like that.
A Different Conclusion
9to5mac concludes that unless Apple steps away from their draconian MFi policies, this entire experiment is doomed to failure:
With Apple TV, MFi controllers, and mobile devices becoming increasingly powerful every year, iOS devices could quickly become a serious competitor to traditional console gaming in the living room. Before that happens, however, Apple and manufacturers will have to go back to the drawing board to come up with something developers and gamers will embrace.
Thats not what I see happening here.
This first crop of controllers arenât sub-par because of Appleâs policies. Contrary to how the controller manufactures might be framing it, analog pressure switches donât cost THAT much.
There is no need to look for conspiracy here – these controllers are less than perfect because they are first generation products that were (probably prematurely) rushed to market by their manufacturers in time for the holidays. This isnât the first time products have been rushed out for Christmas, and it wonât be the last.
Even with rushed and buggy controllers, far from flopping with developers, controller support has been embraced by a huge number of major publishers – Sega, Namco, Rockstar, Zynga, Square Enix, Ubisoft, Rovio – and thatâs just the console guys. Important, respectable independent studios – Hello Games, Crescent Moon, Team17, Bulkypix, True Axis, FDG – all have jumped on board and launched major releases with controller support. All this within 2 months of the launch of this new platform.
This is not developerâs ignoring a platform – not by a long shot.
Apple has historically failed to understand gaming. Their success in gaming has historically been accidental, sometimes even in spite of some of their decisions. I donât see anything different about now. No matter what Appleâs MFi policy is – no matter what mistakes they make – it hasnât mattered much before, and it wonât now.
Developers are already supporting the platform, hardware manufacturers will figure out how to get the prices down and the quality up, and a whole generation of gamers who grew up on iOS games will be begging for these things next Christmas.
The latest update to Bike Baron is here. If you havenât had enough of your side-scrolling stunt bike fix from Joe Danger Infinity, be sure to check out this classic gem from Mountain Sheep. This is more of a platforming game, as opposed to the emphasis on speed in Joe Danger.
This has been one of the classics of the App Store for several years, and Mountain Sheep has faithfully updated it with features and compatibility to the point that it feels the equal of any game released today. Well-implemented controller support is just the latest in a line of great features. Be sure to check this one out.
Crescent Moon has a great track record when it comes to making games, but many of their games only work with one MFi layout. Iâll be sure to test this one as soon as it becomes available.
