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TUAW Best of 2011: Vote for the best iPhone game app
The nominations are in, and the poll is ready to go! The TUAW Best of 2011 awards are all about you -- the readers -- and what you think is the cream of the crop of Apple or third-party products and software. To vote, select one entry from the top nominations made by readers. We'll be announcing the winner in just a few days. Vote early and often! TUAW is asking for your vote for the best iPhone game app of 2011. The apps that made it into our final voting have provided hours of fun for millions of iPhone users. The first app on the list is Jetpack Joyride (currently free) from Halfbrick Studios. Barry Steakfries, the protagonist of Jetpack Joyride, would love your vote. This app has a 4.5 star rating out of 5 possible with over 15,500 ratings on the App Store, so it is an incredibly popular iPhone game. Next in the lineup is the popular word game W.E.L.D.E.R. (US$3.99). This app has been a past iPhone Game of the Week on the App Store, and according to Tested.com, it "takes Bejeweled, Boggle, and Scrabble and smelts them into one mining-themed word puzzle." Want a board game in your pocket? Ticket to Ride Pocket ($0.99) has sold over 2 million copies, achieved Apple Game of the Week in Europe, and was #1 in the strategy games category in 32 countries. I'm betting that we'll see a lot of votes for Ticket to Ride. Scribblenauts Remix (currently on sale for $0.99) is another big hit in the App Store, gaining a 4.5 out of 5 rating with over 10,800 total ratings. It's one of the few games out there -- perhaps the only one -- where you can create just about any sort of object. The latest update even supports creating objects using voice dictation on the iPhone 4S. Our last entry in the voting for the best iPhone game app of 2011 is Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing ($1.99). It's an app that made it into an iPod touch ad, and it features Sonic the Hedgehog and a bunch of other SEGA characters racing in cars, monster trucks, bikes, planes and bananas... Be sure to vote for the iPhone game that you think is the top for 2011. The winner will be announced in a few days. %Poll-72086%
Daily iPhone App: Ticket to Ride Pocket
Days of Wonder's Ticket to Ride is one of the most acclaimed board game titles around, and the iPad version has done very well on the platform so far, bringing the "collect cards to build railroad routes" action of the board game to Apple's tablet. But the game didn't arrive on the iPhone until just recently -- last week, Days of Wonder finally released a smaller version that the first tutorial video calls "the simplest adaptation yet." And I'm happy to report that not only is that adaptation done as well as possible on the small screen, but it's also one of the best (and easiest, not to mention cheapest) ways to play yet. The biggest drawback of playing the game on a small screen is obviously its scale -- on a game board, you're building out trains across the country, and connecting your pieces, which is almost as fun as playing itself. On the iPad's larger screen, that physical scale holds up well, but on the iPhone's screen, Ticket to Ride feels much more like a video game than the original board game -- the main indication of the routes you're trying to build is just the green indicators on screen, not the tickets themselves. But Days of Wonder makes up for that with some really excellent music and sound effects that keep the game moving. The great tutorial system from the iPad version has been recreated here, so even if you don't know how to play, the game will do an excellent job of teaching you the rules. And once you know what you're doing, there's just as much depth and fun here as the board game itself offers (for a really small percentage of the board game price). Unfortunately, the iPad version is the only one that has online multiplayer, but the iPhone version offers up local multiplayer as well as a well-done pass-and-play mode for one device (that of course depends on your honor to keep players from sneaking a peek at their opponents' cards). Days of Wonder says that it's "unwilling to compromise" the online multiplayer experience with the various issues of cell tower Internet, but that's kind of a weak argument -- it hasn't stopped other turn-based titles from providing rock-solid multiplayer that works just fine. The other omission is expansions -- Days of Wonder says the smaller screen doesn't fit the Europe and Switzerland expansions already available via in-app purchase on the iPad, but those aren't really needed to enjoy the core game. Given the price of the game, however, you can't really argue that there's not enough to do here, even with online multiplayer missing. There's lots of AIs to play against of varying difficulties, as well as Game Center achievements and leaderboards to chase. And the game itself is only 99 cents, which is an outright steal compared to the board game's $50 price and even the iPad version's $6.99 tag. Ticket to Ride Pocket is a great title for fans of the board game, and even those who haven't checked this one out should invest the buck and see what they think.
