The original, classic Lego action-adventure game LEGO Star Wars was just updated to support game controllers.
Originally developed by Traveller’s Tales, this game was the first of the modern “Lego Game” series, and has been ported to countless consoles. This particular version is based on the full-featured console version, as opposed to other iOS Lego games, which are generally ported from mobile DS versions.
Lego and Star Wars, together at last
There isn’t much to say about this game that hasn’t already been said. It’s a modern classic in the action-adventure genre, ridiculously fun, and appropriate for all ages. This Complete edition includes both the Original Trilogy and Prequel Trilogy games, which were originally released separately.
This iOS port of the game had a rocky start, with low resolution graphics and poor framerate. Subsequent updates have polished it into one of the best versions ever. Retina graphics, universal compatibility, Game Center, and now controller support round out all the features you’d want in an iOS app. The first episode is completely free to play, with subsequent episodes unlockable via in-app purchase. The entire game can be purchased for $9.99 – a more than fair price for the massive amount of content included here.
If you’ve never played this game, download it now – you’re in for a treat.
Classic Gameboy Advance emulator GBA4iOS has been updated for MFi controller support, and can be installed without jailbreaking.
This site generally doesn’t cover jailbreak information, emulators, or anything like that, but this particular app is kind of a big deal. It can be installed over-the-air on any iOS7 device, no jailbreak required. It appears to have been signed by a Chinese website of questionable origin – proceed with caution. I can confirm it seems to work well enough, but I have no idea what is happening behind the scenes.
The GBA lends itself particularly well to emulation on iOS. The games run fast, don’t require too many buttons, were mobile-focused, had great graphics – lots to love about that system. Many games that originally debuted on the GBA have subsequently received enhanced iOS ports, but many others have never been rereleased outside of this system. Now, they can be played on the iPhone – the best portable console ever made – and they feel better than ever.
I’m torn on how to recommend this. Emulation is a controversial subject, even today. The ability to preserve old consoles is important, not just to players, but to historians. But some people view emulation as a slippery slope towards piracy. Before you press install on this app, ask yourself where you fall on this topic.
Ninja Hero Cats, a top-down adventure game where you control a swarm of cats in an effort to traverse levels and take down bosses, now supports game controllers. Even before controller support, this was already a fun game with a really nice art style, almost reminiscent of Bastion – a classic iOS game, also with support for game controllers.
The biggest issue with this game is the aggressiveness of the ads: the entire top of the screen is covered in a banner, the game starts with a giant ad splash screen for the developerâs other apps, there are ârate this appâ dialog boxes, âwatch this video for currencyâ – all that stuff. Some of this can be removed with an in-app purchase, and doing so improves the game greatly. The splash-screen ad at the beginning doesnât go away, though, even after purchase. All of this is unfortunate – the ads leave a bad impression of an otherwise beautifully presented game, and ads after paying to disable ads are inexcusable.
Otherwise, there would be a lot to recommend here. Itâs still worth downloading and trying – no harm in that – but itâs hard to recommend paying to get an ad-free experience when that isnât what you get.
Side-scrolling stunt bike racers seem to be a very popular choice of game to support MFi controllers. Motorbike HD joins Joe Danger Infinity, Bike Baron, The Trial XTreme series, and many more side-scrolling bike games.
Perform tricks and stay balanced on your way to the finish line
Despite this being a relatively crowded market, Motorbike HD is still a fun game. Fans of the genre might as well download this lite version – there’s nothing to lose by giving it a try.
While there are many racing games on the App Store, the Real Racing series has always had the best graphics, and been the most realistic. This third entry in the series ups the ante with realtime shadows, lighting, and reflections, as well as bigger courses and expanded draw distances. Thatâs in addition to the ridiculous number of cars and courses you can choose between.
Racing fans have been waiting for eagerly awaiting this update – now itâs mostly here. I say âmostlyâ because the controls arenât quite perfect. DPad controls and buttons arenât pressure sensitive, which means light steering requires quickly tapping the direction you want to steer in. While this isnât that big of a deal, varying finger pressure would be a better experience.
One place that Real Racing doesnât drop the ball anymore is multiplayer. Although it originally shipped only with something they called âtime shifted multiplayerâ – basically driving against ghosts of other players, not multiplayer at all – theyâve subsequently added back true multiplayer with up to 4 people over Game Center.
The biggest problem with this game isnât its controls or its graphics, but with its presentation. Sleaze drips out of every orifice of this game. Ads are everywhere, timers with premium currency are unavoidable, the game attempts to bribe you with gold into spamming your friends on Facebook after every match, you must maintain an active internet connection to play – every horrible thing youâd expect a company like EA to do, they did. As such, I canât really recommend this game. There areotherracinggames with MFi controller support on the App Store. Itâs tough to recommend a game that constantly feels like the developer actively dislikes you as a player.
If youâre looking for the most realistic racing game with the most features and the absolute best graphics, and you donât mind being spammed and bled at every step of the way by the developer, this is the one for you. If youâre just looking for a fun way to drive around a track, maybe with some friends⦠there are less sleazy games than this to play.
Clius recently updated a few of their driving games to support MFi game controllers.
Real Parking 3D is one of a growing genre of âparking simulatorâ games that seem to have popped up over the past few years. The goal is to park your car as well as possible in a series of increasingly difficult levels. As far as I can tell, this genre grew out of software originally designed to help educate teens about how to park, and quickly took on a life of itâs own as a legitimate genre. There are no shortage of parking sims on iOS, but this is the first with controller support.
Trigger on the Road is a more traditional driving-platformer game, with outlandish platforming levels across interesting backdrops. It controls identically to Real Parking, but due to the level design, it plays more like a game than a simulation.
Both games are entertaining enough top-down driving games, for fans of that genre. I strongly prefer the more free-form gameplay and level design of Trigger to Real Parking, but parking game fans might prefer the former. Both games are free to try, so if either seem intriguing, give them a shot.
SteelSeries got back to me with a firmware patch that seems to fix the lag completely. Theyâre targeting the end of the week to publicly release the firmware update.
Personally, Iâm really impressed. This is a fast turnaround time for something that I wasnât sure could be fixed at all.
Iâll have a full review of the SteelSeries Stratus controller coming soon, but for now, with this problem fixed, I can absolutely recommend the controller for iPad gamers.
Original Post:
The recently released SteelSeries Stratus controller is excellent in a lot of ways, but a rather serious bug has recently come to our attention regarding input lag. Pressing any button while holding the D-Pad causes a half second delay in that button press being registered. This can be a pretty serious issue in twitch based platformers such as Sonic or Mikey Shorts.
Hopefully this problem will be fixed soon. The SteelSeries Stratus (and all MFi controllers) can receive firmware patches – with any luck, SteelSeries will issue a patch sooner rather than later, because the Stratus is otherwise an excellent controller.
To clarify, this problem only occurs with a button press in addition to the D-Pad being held down on the SteelSeries Stratus controller. The analog sticks are unaffected, and the problem doesnât occur on any other MFi controllers.
A full review of the SteelSeries Stratus, as well as full reviews of the other controllers, will be coming soon. For the time being, I feel that it is still appropriate for this warning to be up.
Classic Neo-Geo shoot-em-up Blazing Star was recently updated for MFi controller support.
Blazing Star joins other classics of the genre R-Type and R-Type II in supporting the game controllers on iOS.
This particular port is published by the SNK Playmore company and ported by DotEmu. This is the same team behind adding controller support to other iOS ports of classic games. Several of the games these companies have released together still have yet to receive game controller support, however. iOS versions of the all-time classicMetalSlugseries have yet to see updates. With any luck, these games will be updated to support game controllers soon.
Much like last weekâs R-Type game releases, Blazing Star is a classic side-scrolling airplane shooter. The port is handled excellently, with smooth framerates and great iOS integration. Fans of the genre will find a lot to love here. For those whoâve never been exposed to this sort of shoot-em-up, Blazing Star is a great game to start with, and a strong recommendation.
Since iPhone controllers were first announced, people have been clamoring for a Minecraftstylegame to be updated to support them. CraftedBattle is NOT one of those games. It is, however, a competently executed first-person-shooter with a Minecraft aesthetic.
Although this isnât the sandbox everyone has been waiting for, there is still a lot to enjoy here. Deathmatch combat works well in a voxel-based world. Multiplayer is handled through Game Center, and can be played as a free-for-all or team based. Additional maps can be imported at any time.
The only real negative here is that the game only works with Extended layout controllers, and crashes when connected to the Logitech. Hopefully that will be fixed soon. Otherwise, thereâs nothing wrong with this game. It may not be Minecraft, but it isnât trying to be, and what it is can still be enjoyed.
There is something strangely compelling about this game. Itâs a somewhat traditional side-scrolling platformer with a unique art style, great presentation, great music and sound effects, and some really well designed levels.
Side scrolling platformers are plentiful on iOS. Beyond that, manyofthemhavesupportforMFicontrollers. But I donât know of any other that includes the words âFloyd now dies when he rides an elephant off a cliffâ in itâs release notes. And thatâs pretty awesome.
