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TUAW's Holiday Gift Guide: Great casual games for iOS
Welcome to the TUAW Holiday Gift Guide! We've sorted the treasure from the junk and are serving up suggestions to make your holiday gift-giving a little easier. We're about to enter what has been, in the past, the busiest weekend for App Store purchases. After people everywhere unwrap new iPhones, iPod touches and iPads during this Christmas weekend, they'll run to their computers to set up iTunes, then go shopping out on the App Store for software for their new devices. But there are a lot of different games to choose from on the App Store, and especially for people who only use software casually, it may be tough to find a few solid titles beyond the usual suspects. That's what we're here for, and we've got a list of 10 great iOS games meant specifically for casual game players. If you're a more hardcore gamer, you'll know that there are lots of other titles on the App Store to enjoy, from the recent Infinity Blade to the classic Plants vs. Zombies. But the titles below aren't about strategy or action, necessarily -- they're just good, clean fun, using just one button (or in some cases, no buttons at all) to have a good time. Read on for some great suggestions on what to download first, even if you're not a gamer.
Wii Warm Up: Are they still playing?
Most of us know someone unusual who bought a Wii, or just played it a lot in the beginning. You know who we're talking about: the parents and grandparents and cousins and friends who never showed much interest in your football and space marine shoot-out games. The casual gamers. Are they still playing? Have they bought more games, if so, ore are they just sticking to things like Wii Sports? Share your observations and anecdotes.
Cheating wife caught out ... by her lover's Mii
Here's one you probably won't find on My Wii Story. A young soldier goes to war in Iraq, taking his DS and (eventually) Wii with him. While he's away, playing Wii Sports with his army buddies, his wife begins to conduct an affair with a ten-pin bowling champion. A little over a year later, the soldier returns to wagging tongues, tips from friends about his wife's indiscretions, and e-mails that reveal plans for his wife and her lover to run away together.Heartbroken, he turns on his Wii to reminisce about the friends he made in Iraq, and comes face to face with the final piece of incriminating evidence: the Mii of his wife's lover, and a list of the times and dates the pair played Wii Bowling together, forever secreted in his Wii's Calendar mode.This, if you were wondering, is the rather poignant tale of "Tony," who courageously sent his story to Go Nintendo. You can read his email in full at the link below.
Wii Warm Up: Preaching the word of Wii
One of the Wii's most striking achievements to date has been its ability to draw in those who previously couldn't give two hoots about gaming. Whether they're young, old, or older, Ninty's console has its fair share of gaming converts.Today, we want to hear about those conversions. Have any of you personally managed to convince family or friends to embrace videogames through the power of Wii? We want to hear about how your Aunt Ethel now plays Metroid, or how your grandfather dabbles in Zack & Wiki. More to the point, we want to know how you got the message across, and brought them over to the light side.Maybe you're even reading this as a fresh, wide-eyed convert yourself, in which case, tell us about what won you over!
Rob Pardo and the Success of Warcraft
Joi Ito has a post up about Rob Pardo and the success of World of Warcraft as a casual game. And, while a lot of people (myself included) believe the game stops being so "casual" when players hit level 60, the experience up to that point is much more casual and accessible than in other games of this nature. And even at level 60, the raiding experience can be casual as well - if you can find, or build, the right type of guild.
Casual Gamers and The Burning Crusade
The recent announcment of the Hellfire Citadel componant of the expansion (now up on the official site) has started me thinking about the casual, non-raiding gamer, and how they'll fit in to the new content. While some forum-goers are already calling out the expansion as bad for casuals (due to the fact that hard-core raiders will have a gear advantage in tackling new content), the two instance dungeons announced thus far make me wonder if it will be as bad as the early doomcallers predict. Previously announced Karazhan is designed for 10 players and Hellfire Citadel is a 4-wing dungeon - three wings are capped at 5 players, and the forth is designed for a full raid. While this both of these do require group play, they're small groups, which seems to leave an opening for more casual players who can't fit a 40-player raid into their schedule.
