iPhone It In: Top Gun
Listen, as the writer of Joystiq's only iPhone-related column, I do my fair share of playing licensed garbage. For example, I played a Land of the Lost-themed game that makes "Punch the Monkey" look like The Orange Box. I'm not even going to link to it, for fear that you'll play it. Seriously, it was the game equivalent of watching my immediate family die in a house fire.
You can imagine my confusion then when I say that Top Gun is shockingly good. No, don't laugh, it's true.
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As a new fighter pilot, you'll steer through enemy lines with the tilt functionality, using locking missiles and Vulcan cannons to fight enemies on air, land and sea. I'd go so far as saying the control actually feels more fluid and natural than using a standard controller. It's arcadey and on rails (think Afterburner), which is a perfect fit for quick phone gaming sessions.
Helping to spice things up are "Danger Zones" which you have to stay out of when they pop up to avoid being hit by missiles. It's a more simplistic form of defense than you're use to in this sort of game, but, on the iPhone, it works.
There's a decent challenge in each of the missions too, and not, as in so many other iPhone games, because you have to fight with the controls.
What's more, it's all presented in perfectly attractive 3D and with the Top Gun theme and "Highway to the Danger Zone" cover you were praying for. And yes, Ice Man and Maverick are in it.
It's available right now for $1.99 and, with a price hike coming soon, you'd do yourself a favor by purchasing it immediately.
Top Gun (Freeverse, $1.99):
