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It's obvious from all the previous posts that there are a lot of great productivity tools and media players for iOS/ iPad OS but we don't have a forum devoted to iPhone/ iPad games. Now I know lots of you must have favorite games on your portable devices. Even if you're not into animated board games, second person role playing or Mario Brothers style adventure games there are a lot of other genres. The hard part is to weed out the rubbish without spending money or an excessive amount of time downloading and deleting.
To that end I have made up a short list of my favorites acquired by my trial and error over some years.
I prefer board games or puzzles that are visually pleasing and intellectually challenging. I like to be able to close or even quit them at any point and pick up where I left off and most of these games allow that. I also prefer a game that can be played in free mode without ads that are so intrusive as to ruin the gameplay. Ads at the end of a game I can handle and if I like the game a lot a can always pay for it and get rid of the ads completely. I have not done that very often.
There are some developers that consistently produce great games and one of those is MobilityWare. They have a great range of Solitaire type card games, all with good graphics, preference options and game play and most with landscape mode which increases the size of the cards for us older players on iPhones like my SE2.
They all have daily challenges and levels of achievement including personal statistics like best time, least moves, number of undos etc.
Addiction; a totally original and challenging solitaire card game which is exactly what the name suggests. There is no luck involved, each game is solvable, replayable and numbered. The objective is simple, get all four suits on separate lines, in ascending order from ace to king.
Hearts; a card game between yourself and three AI generated opponents. A follow suite game with one trump suite and a penalty card, where the object is to lose every hand. Lowest score wins.
Spades; is similar to Hearts except you play with an AI generated partner against another team of two AI generated opponents. In this game the first team to 250 points wins. You must nominate the number of hands you will win and your partner does too. You are penalized if you do not collectively reach your combined target.
Free Cell; is my oldest favorite, many hours spent on night shift in various hospitals and medical centres playing the MS version of this game and it’s still just as much fun to play today.
Solitaire; this is MobilityWare’s version of Klondike with the same features and preferences as their other games. If Klondike is your favorite form of Solitaire this is the best version I have found.
The other developer I must mention is Zach Gage. Zach has created a number of totally innovative, original games as well as some novel variations on more traditional games and they are all ad free and free to play. In-game purchases are optional and I have found largely unnecessary.
Flipflop Solitaire; is one of my all-time favorites. Every game is solvable and numbered. The layout is like Solitaire but cards are large with only 5 columns. Like all of Zach’s games the gameplay itself is quite easy to understand but the level of difficulty can be increased as your skill improves making this a constantly challenging game.
Sage Solitaire; is essentially a card game where selecting 2, 3, 4 of a kind, straights, royal flush or more, all listed under the “Tap For Hand List” removes cards with the object being to remove all the cards while scoring the highest score. Like the previous game cards are quite large even on an iPhone SE2. My wife is addicted to this game.
Then there is Typeshift; this is a word puzzle. Scroll vertical rows of letters up and down to spell out the required number of words. There are dozens of word packs with different numbers of letters and levels of difficulty. It is linked to Merriam Webster’s dictionary so if you find a word you don’t know the meaning of you can click on it at the end of the game and get a definition. You can earn or buy clues and some word packs cost money but you will find as I did that you can get many hours of play without buying anything especially as there is a new free Daily puzzle every day and a fresh allocation of clues. I haven’t bought anything yet.
Lastly there is Really Bad Chess; a game that follows all the rules of chess except for the number and ranks of the pieces. You may find yourself with four queens, three rooks, four knights etc. The total number of pieces for each player remains unchanged as does the objective but this means no set plays or gambits. Anything goes, plus unlimited Undos in Freeplay mode. You can play against an AI who learns your skill levels and adjusts your ranking or even play a friend but for that you must purchase the game AU$4.50.
Last but not least for those numeric people, as visible at the bottom of the above illustration there is also a Sudoku game by Zach. I have not played this but I’m sure it will be an original and interesting version of the game as are all the rest.
I hope there will be something here for everyone. If nothing else this was an interesting exercise in creating a post with multiple illustrations on our new look, new featured Mac-Forums page.
To that end I have made up a short list of my favorites acquired by my trial and error over some years.
I prefer board games or puzzles that are visually pleasing and intellectually challenging. I like to be able to close or even quit them at any point and pick up where I left off and most of these games allow that. I also prefer a game that can be played in free mode without ads that are so intrusive as to ruin the gameplay. Ads at the end of a game I can handle and if I like the game a lot a can always pay for it and get rid of the ads completely. I have not done that very often.
There are some developers that consistently produce great games and one of those is MobilityWare. They have a great range of Solitaire type card games, all with good graphics, preference options and game play and most with landscape mode which increases the size of the cards for us older players on iPhones like my SE2.
They all have daily challenges and levels of achievement including personal statistics like best time, least moves, number of undos etc.
Addiction; a totally original and challenging solitaire card game which is exactly what the name suggests. There is no luck involved, each game is solvable, replayable and numbered. The objective is simple, get all four suits on separate lines, in ascending order from ace to king.
Hearts; a card game between yourself and three AI generated opponents. A follow suite game with one trump suite and a penalty card, where the object is to lose every hand. Lowest score wins.
Spades; is similar to Hearts except you play with an AI generated partner against another team of two AI generated opponents. In this game the first team to 250 points wins. You must nominate the number of hands you will win and your partner does too. You are penalized if you do not collectively reach your combined target.
Free Cell; is my oldest favorite, many hours spent on night shift in various hospitals and medical centres playing the MS version of this game and it’s still just as much fun to play today.
Solitaire; this is MobilityWare’s version of Klondike with the same features and preferences as their other games. If Klondike is your favorite form of Solitaire this is the best version I have found.
The other developer I must mention is Zach Gage. Zach has created a number of totally innovative, original games as well as some novel variations on more traditional games and they are all ad free and free to play. In-game purchases are optional and I have found largely unnecessary.
Flipflop Solitaire; is one of my all-time favorites. Every game is solvable and numbered. The layout is like Solitaire but cards are large with only 5 columns. Like all of Zach’s games the gameplay itself is quite easy to understand but the level of difficulty can be increased as your skill improves making this a constantly challenging game.
Sage Solitaire; is essentially a card game where selecting 2, 3, 4 of a kind, straights, royal flush or more, all listed under the “Tap For Hand List” removes cards with the object being to remove all the cards while scoring the highest score. Like the previous game cards are quite large even on an iPhone SE2. My wife is addicted to this game.
Then there is Typeshift; this is a word puzzle. Scroll vertical rows of letters up and down to spell out the required number of words. There are dozens of word packs with different numbers of letters and levels of difficulty. It is linked to Merriam Webster’s dictionary so if you find a word you don’t know the meaning of you can click on it at the end of the game and get a definition. You can earn or buy clues and some word packs cost money but you will find as I did that you can get many hours of play without buying anything especially as there is a new free Daily puzzle every day and a fresh allocation of clues. I haven’t bought anything yet.
Lastly there is Really Bad Chess; a game that follows all the rules of chess except for the number and ranks of the pieces. You may find yourself with four queens, three rooks, four knights etc. The total number of pieces for each player remains unchanged as does the objective but this means no set plays or gambits. Anything goes, plus unlimited Undos in Freeplay mode. You can play against an AI who learns your skill levels and adjusts your ranking or even play a friend but for that you must purchase the game AU$4.50.
Last but not least for those numeric people, as visible at the bottom of the above illustration there is also a Sudoku game by Zach. I have not played this but I’m sure it will be an original and interesting version of the game as are all the rest.
I hope there will be something here for everyone. If nothing else this was an interesting exercise in creating a post with multiple illustrations on our new look, new featured Mac-Forums page.
