The 10 best iPhone and iPad games: December 2011
A Decalogue for December
2011 is officially over. All the Christmas decorations have been shoved in the loft, we've already broken at least four of our resolutions, and we're back at work. Like it or not, the new year is here.
But, there's still a little time left to look back at the tail end of 2011 and reminisce. December might have been swamped by Christmas, tyrant deaths, and mince pies, but don't forget - a handful of great iPhone and iPad games came out, too.
To jog your memory, we looked over our reviews and picked out the best-received games from December 2011.
Expect plenty of swords, hedgehogs, and vehicular manslaughter.
Infinity Blade IIBy Chair Entertainment - buy on iPhone and iPad
If there was any suggestion within the industry that Infinity Blade was just some kind of tech demo - a nifty digital curio to reveal the flexibility of Unreal Engine - this sequel should close the case.
It's bigger and more feature-complete than its predecessor in just about every measurable way. It has new ways to approach its gesture-based combat, and more opportunities to dress up your tenacious warrior.
The most impressive upgrade, though, is to the castle. Infinity Blade's tiny keep is replaced by a monstrous fortress with snaking passageways, criss-crossing corridors, and a mess of secret rooms. Just exploring this sprawling citadel is an adventure in itself.
Grand Theft Auto 3By Rockstar Games - buy on iPhone and iPad
There are few better ways to celebrate a game's anniversary than to simply re-release it - in all its glory and gory - on an up-to-date platform. This way, we can zip back through time to the first day we started playing it, and let the nostalgia wash over us.
So, for anyone who played Rockstar's lawless crime sim back in 2001, starting up Grand Theft Auto 3 on iPhone or iPad will immediately bring back memories. Of evading cops, of messing about in ambulances, of dead bodies in boots, and of tabloid headlines.
This spiffy Anniversary Edition brings it all to iOS, almost entirely unchanged and uncensored. It even offers touch controls that are more often succesful than not.
Assassin's Creed RecollectionBy Ubisoft - buy on iPad
Card games aren't exactly renowned for being 'exciting'. They're either deeply tactical but slow, or fast but a little bit simplistic.
Assassin's Creed Recollection, however, is exciting. It's all about frantically deploying agent cards (like assassins and soldiers) to the three locations on the board, hoping to score enough points to dominate two of them.
But, a timeline washes over the board to dictate days, and you'll have to wait 12 in-game hours to power-up cards and get into fights. By mixing a real-time pace with this rigid time-based structure, it keeps keeps everything moving smoothly, but always gives you just enough time to consider the perfect next play.
Sonic CDBy Sega - buy on iPhone and iPad
Sega is no stranger to dropping retro games onto iTunes. Every few days, a new Golden Axe appears, or Sega grafts an ineffectual virtual D-pad onto some dusty Mega Drive antique. So, why should we care about Sonic CD?
Because Sega turned the game over to a fan. The sort of super-fanatical follower who would build an entirely new engine to most accurately emulate an old game like Sonic CD. So, Christian Whitehead's remake of this decades-old game is blazingly fast and terrifically responsive.
And because fan appeal is Sonic CD's biggest asset, the game rocks both the Japanese and English soundtracks. No stone has been left unturned in this conversion.
Kingdom RushBy Armor Games - buy on iPad
We feature a lot of tower defence games on our virtual pages.
Ones set in fantasy kingdoms, and ones in near-future Bahgdad. Ones that are passive, and ones where you leap into battle yourself. Reverse ones, ones with strict paths, and ones where you build the attack route as you go.
Kingdom Rush doesn't have any particular gimmick - though the special powers that you can call on and the giant bestial boss monsters are pretty cool - but it just does the genre right with a clever mix of tactics, the right difficulty level, and a wonderful comedic twist.
Bug PrincessBy Cave - buy on Phone and iPad
If Kairosoft is best known for launching a new simulation every three seconds, Cave might well have the same reputation in the world of bullet-hell shmups. Not a month goes by, it seems, without Cave launching a new game about piloting a prepubescent girl through nightmarish oceans of neon bullets.
Not that we're complaining, mind. Cave's games might be soul-crushingly hard and make as much sense as a trout in a stetson, but they're joyous slices of Japanese game design. Games about reflexes, concentration, and understanding smart scoring systems.
Bug Princess isn't necessarily the best arcade shmup in Cave's arsenal, but it's a worthy addition to any shooter fan's collection of bullet-hell titles.
Sleepy JackBy SilverTree Media - buy on iPhone or buy on iPad
Developer SilverTree Media made a cutesy and accomplished platformer in Cordy for Android and iOS. Now, it hopes to enjoy the same success with its ode to Rez-style arcade shooters: Sleepy Jack.
The levels represent the subconscious of dozy Jack, with endless tunnels composed of "planets, meteors, dinosaur bones, trains, cacti, submarines, shellfish, and anything else likely to invade Jack's dreams." As our review puts it.
You'll dart about these psychedelic stages, avoiding obstacles and shooting down malicious dream enemies. We liked it on Xperia Play, and players reckon it works just as well on the iPhone.
FlickPigBy Prope - buy on iPhone and iPad
Since leaving Sega, Yuji "The Father of Sonic" Naka has been making some weird games at his start-up dev Prope. There's the question-marked DS platformer Ivy the Kiwi? and Wii game Let's Tap, which came with a cardboard box.
FlickPig isn't particularly barmy (piggybanks chasing down wolves isn't too different from birds doing kamikaze dives into pigs), but it shares with Prope's other games a sense of simple playfulness that works well on iOS.
Pigs endlessly run into the screen, and you can flick them onto one another's backs ('piggybacks', I suppose) to make piglet towers. You use this mechanic to avoid obstacles on the road and duck under bridges. Simple but sweet, and just a touch addictive.
Chrono TriggerBy Square Enix - buy on iPhone
Time-bending RPG Chrono Trigger spends much of its life towards the top of "best game ever" lists. But, that's just what you get when you put the boffins behind Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Dragon Ball Z in a room and don't let them out until they've made a SNES game.
The result is an epic fantasy adventure that spans millennia, as your clan of unlikely heroes leaps between eons in a quest to save the world from destruction.
This iOS port isn't perfect, but it doesn't wreck the most fondly remembered RPG that doesn't have a guy named "Cloud".
CheeseManBy Hicham Allaoui - buy on iPhone
Don't hold your breath for an iOS version of rock-hard protein-filled platformer Super Meat Boy. Seriously, don't. "I have no intentions on doing anything for iPhone or iPad ever," Super Meat Boy co-creator Tommy Refenes rather unequivocally blogged.
But, thankfully, we might have the next best thing. The dairy-themed CheeseMan is everything that Super Meat Boy was, only trading a hunk of beef for a cube of cheddar. It's hard and fast and hyperactive, and somehow works on touchscreens.
It's not just a cheap clone, either. Team Meat is given a shout out in the credits, and you might just see some familiar meaty faces in cameo roles.
The 10 best iPhone and iPad games: November 2011
The 10 best iPhone and iPad games: October 2011
The 10 best iPhone and iPad games: September 2011
