It looks like this Apple tablet thing is actually going to happen. The iPad (possibly the worst name ever) releases tomorrow to rave reviews and rampant criticism. But since this is a blog about board games, and not technology, we’ll ignore all that dreck and talk about something more important…gaming on the iPad.
Apple has done a great job of owning the gaming sphere in the last few years. In fact, as of the writing of this post, Apple’s App store sells more games than any other platform (XBox, Wii, etc.) More games will be available as soon as the iPad releases tomorrow morning.
So what kinds of games can you expect for the iPad. Well, aside from the typical Solitaire, Checkers, and Chess, you’ll have a ton of great options and on a device that allows you to actually see what you’re doing (unlike the iPhone and iTouch where the screen is too small for some.)
So here’s what we have so far:
- Ngmcoco is lauching seven games: GodFinger, We Rule, Charadium, Flick Fishing, NBA Hotshots, Warpgate, and CastleCraft.
- Electronic Arts has five games for the iPad: SCRABBLE, Need for Speed SHIFT, Mirror’s Edge, Command & Conquer Red Alert and Tetris.
- SGN is launching a third-person shooter called EXO-Planet exclusively for the iPad.
- Rhythm game maker Tapulous is updating its Tap Tap Revenge franchise with Tap Tap Radiation, a big screen music game.
- Sega is bringing Super Monkey Ball 2 to the iPad.
- Paramount Digital’s Top Gun jetfighter game is ready to go on the iPad.
- PopCap Games, makers of Plants vs. Zombies on the iPhone and web are releasing Plants vs. Zombies HD for the iPad. (Woo Hoo!!!)
- Aurora Feint of Burlingame is launching Aurora Feint 3, a massively multi-player social game on the iPad that will include OpenFeint X, a new social component.
- Gameloft has apparently eight iPad launch titles including N.O.V.A. HD, UNO HD, Dungeon Hunter HD, Let’s Golf HD, Asphalt 5 HD, Modern Combat Sandstorm HD, Real Soccer 2010 HD, NFL 2010 HD.
- Firemint has Flight Control HD ready for the iPad.
- Fieldrunners for iPad by Subatomic Studios is also on the march.
- TellTale is bringing the Sam & Max series over to iPad.
- And many, many more….
So what’s all this mean to us board game geeks? Well, you can look forward to these games and I can only hope that some of our favorite games will also be available on the new platform soon. I can foresee a day playing Tichu online with my friends via the iPad, have an ongoing game of Risk, and save the world from the Pandemic all at the same time.
The iPad is about the right size to be useful to multi-player games, and the screen resolution and quality would make it great for the genre. While I’m not planning on running out and buying one tomorrow morning, I will probably have one eventually. I can only hope that developers out there are working on putting the games I love there for me to enjoy.
(And if they’re not, then I just might have to learn the SDK and do it myself.)
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