The not very secret six hardcore iPhone games
But will they work?
You can raise dogz, run chocolate shopz, race kartz and match, erm, threez until your thumbs are worn down to the knuckle, but sometimes the casual experience is just no match for gunning down something slimy or finally collecting that orc repellant armour you’ve quested so hard for.
Having claimed so much play time from gamers and late nights from developers, the iPhone is starting to stretch its legs in what is affectionately known as the hardcore space. We've already had Brothers In Arms: Hour of Heroes, Kroll and Hero of Sparta.
Rumours about a premium section on the App Store and Digital Chocolate’s Trip Hawkins getting nervous about the whole thing are certainly telling signs too.
There’s a trend on the way people, or at least that’s what we’re predicting using our arcane knowledge of all things pocket gaming and, of course, our giant brains.
Some imminent hardcore iPhone games are confirmed and promoted, while others are still loitering in the forest of rumour. Here are six games we variously know or suspect are on the way.
Metal Gear Solid Touch is imminentWhat we know…
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Look out PSP, Apple’s trying to nick your boyfriend. Yep, Solid Snake is definitely coming to the iPhone, but oddly, more for the shooting than the sneaking. Metal Gear Solid Touch is a gallery shoot-'em-up where various outlandish foes from Metal Gear Solid: The Guns of The Patriots take it in turns to dance in front of your aiming reticule.
The production values look lush and the fact that the house that Kojima built is opting for a purpose coded iPhone title, as opposed to a hastily ported version of Metal Gear Ac!d say, speaks volumes about the developer's future plans.
What we want…It does seem like a shameful waste of a perfectly good camo-suit. We will miss the stealth but when a game is set to contain mooing bipedal mechs, robot ninjas and a hero that’s basically a carbon copy of Kurt Russell’s astoundingly macho Snake Plissken, asking for more just seems churlish.
Bioshock rumouredWhat we know…
This one’s destined to languish in a gloopy rumour soup for a good while yet, but there are some interesting clues. The enormous 2K games is yet to make its iPhone mark and the usually prolific IG Games, which holds the license for BioShock on mobile, has also kept a low profile on the App Store so far. Is something big brewing?
There’s also those shiny graphics to consider. Recouping development costs on mobile alone for such a lavishly presented title will be tough, especially considering that the game will surely only run on high-end handsets.
And then there are all those rumours that sprouted just prior to IG Fun's Sean Malatesta taking the stage at GDC, to deliver a speech about mobile and iPhone gaming. Sadly the confirmation of an iPhone version of BioShock we were hoping for never came.
What did transpire however, is that IG Fun is planning three mobile titles. This is where things get murky. Is that a series of three on one platform, or three slightly different games each attached to a different mobile platform?
What we want…Slower, more measured, one on one gunplay would suit the iPhone’s user interface better than the original’s more frantic pace. That all important narrative and scorching visual splendor would be better left untouched though. Oh, and it would be nice to finally see what a Big Daddy’s face looks like.
Bethesda is making a gameWhat we know…
Absolutely nothing apart from the fact that something from Bethesda is definitely in the works for iPhone. The law of averages would suggest that the game will be an RPG of some sort, which would be nice considering the App Store’s dearth of quest-'em-ups.
Surely the earlier Fallout games would be easy enough to port to the iPhone, and they’d likely find a ready audience too. Anything as long as it isn’t a port of the frankly poor The Elder Scrolls Travels.
How about a new third-person hack and slash-'em-up featuring The Grey Prince from Oblivion, or a Syndicate Wars style real-time-strategy, centered around the Brotherhood of Steel from the Fallout series?
Prey is on its wayWhat we know…
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This one is definitely coming. After announcing it for mobile aeons ago, Hands-On Mobile recently shifted development of Prey to the iPhone and the game is on track for a release in the not too distant future.
Making a top class FPS work on iPhone will be no mean feat however, so developer MachineWorks Northwest has its work cut out getting that crucially important control scheme pitch perfect.
What we want…Two words: Online. Multiplayer. The iPhone needs some deathmatch action, and Prey would be a great place to start with its topsy turvy world of portals and errant gravitational laws.
Maybe it’s too much to hope for in the initial release, but that’s what updates are for. MachineWorks, if you’re reading…
Grand Theft Auto Touch a remote possibilityWhat we know…
We know something you don’t know and that’s that you don’t know what we think we probably know, but don’t, though we will at some stage. possibly. I think.
Okay, so we don't actually know anything concrete, but there has been the odd smoking gun. First of all there was that mysterious mention on the 1UP podcast of a new non-console GTA game coming to an unamed handheld.
The analysts over at Janco Partners have also reason to suspect that Rockstar's touchscreen love doesn't stop with the DS.
If GTA can work on the DS, and the very promising GTA: Chinatown Wars is compelling evidence of that, then it’s not such a stretch to imagine that Rockstar might consider an iPhone GTA game at some stage.
What we want…
We want something purpose built, we want something with polish and we want something that’s more robust than a sundry compendium of criminal themed mini-games.
The App Store offers a great opportunity to deliver excellent episodic content too. How about a flat price for the open world playpen then 99p for monthly mission packs? If it’s good enough for the Xbox 360...
id Software is porting Quake III, RPGs, and X...What we know...
Given that it invented the first person shooter, sporting a lineage that includes Wolfenstein, Doom and Quake, id Software couldn’t be any more hardcore if it tried. One of the key minds behind the operation, John Carmack, recently revealed his love of the iPhone and plans to release versions of all of ID Software’s most popular franchises on the device.
That’s set to include an upscaled version of Wolfenstein RPG, a retooled version of Quake III and something relating to Doom. There’s also talk of a mysterious, purpose-built, as yet unannounced title making its way onto the platform too. Exciting!
What we want…A slick, ad-funded version of Quake III: Arena with a robust online infrastructure and ranking system. A deluxe Doom package featuring every officially released version of the game (sparing Doom III of course), a selection of id’s favourite mods, online multiplayer, a level editor, and a means of sharing your creations.
A nice 3D version of Wolfenstein RPG with slick touchscreen controls and a completely new franchise exclusive to the iPhone. You got all that, Carmack?