Civilization Revolution

Battle of the Block

Scrabble

This classic board game Scrabble needs little introduction, as it continues to dominate both the App Store and its original scene. But one of the things we didn't like about the iPhone version was that juggling tiles was sometimes more difficult than it needed to be, and not being able to see the entire board at once in great detail was a pain. Both of these issues should be non-existent on the iPad, making it even easier to rack up the points with a seven letter word. The sleek design, intelligent AI and intuitive multiplayer options makes this a must-have for iPad owners.

Monopoly Classic

Monopoly Classic is another classic board game that can capitalize on the iPad's release: The main problem with Monopoly on the iPhone is that it doesn't let players look at the board when trading properties. Action buttons are also too small and require a lot of hunting-and-pecking. Ideally, EA will update the title to take full advantage of the iPad -- a fully visible board would top the list -- but even in its current iPhone form, Monopoly will prove to be a fantastic addition to the iPad. Rather than dusting off the actual gameboard and shuffling paper money, a family could conceivably place an iPad on the coffee table and start playing right away.

Mirror's Edge on iPad

EA's iPad Game -Mirror's Edge-

What's dated, expensive, and launching with Apple's iPad this Saturday? If you guessed EA's late 2008 dystopian action-parkour adventure Mirror's Edge, ding-ding-ding, take a bow.
It seems EA plans to charge a whopping $15 via Apple's App Store for the iPhone version of the game (a side-scroller, unlike the first-person original) with a few extra multiplayer maps. Let's run that again in EA-speak: "All-new multiplayer features made just for the iPad."
Here's what I can't figure out. Was it supposed to be $10 originally? Was it always planned at $15? Will it still be available for the iPhone and iPod Touch? Or is it now iPad-exclusive?
It's not the first EA game to raise the traditional $10 App Store maximum price ceiling by 33 percent. Command & Conquer: Red Alert--also an iPhone app--will carry a $15 price tag as well.
Yes, that's still less expensive than the PC version, which currently retails (discounted) for $20, or the console versions that originally sold for $60 a pop. But it's still an effort to raise established an price range commensurate with the iPad's marketing position as a device that sits somewhere between a mobile phone and a laptop.
Is $15 too much for an iPad game? Cheap apps, utilities, and games arguably made the App Store what it is today, a distribution platform with some 150,000 third party apps and over 3 billion downloads. Raising the price risks stymieing that growth, though it's also arguably a toe in the water to see where the ceiling really is.


Matt Peckham

iPad as game system: Is this the next step from the iPhone?

The iPod Touch and iPhone, defying many disbelievers, have, as a collective platform, succeeded in transforming gaming as much as they have transformed the smartphone industry. Low prices and a massive App Store library, it can be argued, helped the iPhone and iPod Touch out more than the platform's often better-than-expected graphics. We expected Apple gaming to take off, and indeed it has--in the portable space, at least.

The new Apple iPad hopes to take gaming even further, but the hurdles are higher this time. Everyone doesn't need a tablet, which is a significant challenge to iPad adoption. Millions of iPhone/Touch game players proliferated because millions of people need portable media players or phones, and found that it was easy and cheap to game on the same device they had in their pocket already. On the other hand, at $499, a 16GB iPad will have the same storage capacity as a PSP Go, which costs $249. Though the iPad lacks a memory card slot, its screen and battery life look to be far superior.

The good news is, the iPad looks set to run all App Store games, playing them in original resolution in a smaller window or doubling the pixels to full-screen mode on its 9.7-inch IPS screen. The iPad sports a custom A4 processor that should be much more robust than the iPhone/iPod Touch processor, which opens up potential for even more impressive iPad-specific titles.

With a nearly 10-inch screen, however, it could be argued that the tablet is really trying to overtake the TV as a primary source of gaming rather than the Nintendo DS and PSP. We expected that the iPad keynote would focus more on social games such as Farmville, making gaming more an adjunct to communication than high-end graphics, but the iPad does look capable--with its Wi-Fi and optional 3G antenna--of offering more PC-like game experiences with larger screens and submenus than its smaller iPhone cousins. The sky could be the limit for iPad development once developers learn to use the device, with the exception of one category of gaming:augmented reality. The iPad has no camera.

With a larger screen, however, comes a need for a different control scheme. A virtual control pad such as theones that grace many, many iPhone games will be difficult to control on a larger-scale device in their current form, begging for a reoriented or redesigned virtual control pad. That might be a welcome development: virtual buttons could lurk on the sides instead of taking up nearly a third of iPod/iPhone screen real estate as they currently do. Gameloft's demo of its first-person shooter, NOVA, demonstrated its tap-to-aim system with ease, showing that faster games could find their way on the iPad with relative ease.

The only question is, does a 1.5-pound device present a portable game option that's no longer that portable? Would you prefer a pocket-size iPhone or iPod Touch instead, or an iPad? Or would you just use the iPad at home to play games? Would the iPad be a more interesting gaming purchase than a Netbook or a smartphone? Sound off below.

cnet