My Personal Top 10 Free Games for the iPhone

In general, free games for the iPhone and iPod Touch pretty much suck. They are either very stupid, very ugly, very boring or have very bad controls. After using an iPod Touch for almost half a year now, I have pinpointed just a small number of titles worth the place on the dashboard. I really wished for more, but maybe my expectations are too high. One way or another, here is the list of 10 free iPhone games that are not utter rubbish, and should give you more gameplay than the usual start-playonce-remove scheme of most of the free games in the App Store. Enjoy!

1. Angry Birds Lite

Most of the Lite version are like good old demos, giving you just a small piece of the fun. This is kind of the case for Angry Birds, but this game is so much better than anything else out there, that even the Lite version tops the standings. It’s a-must-have app, and if you can spend a dollar for the full version, then you really should.

Ok, but what’s the fuss about? Well, you are controlling a bunch of birds whose eggs were stolen by evil pigs. You shoot the birds into the constructions guarding the pigs to kill them all and get your eggs back. Each level is different, with different strategy to destroy the building, and different objects to interact with. You also, each time, get a different set of birds to make the mayhem.

There are birds which pierce through glass, there are birds that explode, and there are birds that poop egg-bombs. And a couple other species. Likewise, there are different pigs, with different strength. So basically, it’s fun, it’s diverse, and it’s addictive.

2. Traffic Rush

This is a very simple yet addictive game. The point is to control cars at an intersection, so they pass by without collision – by either ordering them to stop, or speed up. If you are a fan of pixel-art, this is a game for you. It’s beautifully made, the gameplay is straightforward, and it is quite difficult to get a decent score, at least at first. My record is 1059 cars.

3. Waterslide Extreme

This is another simple game that puts you into a water park, sliding down the tube. The cool thing about it is that it’s the one of the rare apps that are playable using tilt controls – it just feels right and natural to tilt around the water tube. It is not the case with most car games for example, where tilting is awkward.

You will find gems and crabs, and ducks on your way, and it’s not an easy game too. I didn’t finish it yet.

4. Tournament Reversi Free

If you are looking for a quick and simple game for 2, this is a perfect answer. The rules are obvious, the graphics and sounds are very pretty and pixel-perfect, and the hot-seat mode will shorten these long flights or train rides remarkably.

I was looking quite some time for a good 2-player iPhone game to play when bored, and this game delivered us hours of fun, and fierce competition too :)

5. Crack the Code Free

I don’t know if you ever played Mastermind® as a child, but this is essentially it. The point is to guess a color combination based on one of 3 clues – either your color and position are correct, or just the color is correct, or neither. By trying different combinations you can deduct the correct one, but you have a limited number of moves before you lose.

If you ever wanted to crack a code, here’s a fun way to start it.

6. Flood-It! 2

This is one of these very demanding logic games which idea is dead simple. You need to fill the game field with a single color, but there are many colors spilled on it. You move on by changing the color of your starting area and merging with the neighboring areas, so it grows. The catch is, you have only 22 moves to fill the entire game area.

And while it sounds simple, is very tricky. And after you master that, there are even bigger challenges, for example to end with a specified color.

7. Tiki Totems

This is an interesting game with nice physics similar in “bounciness” to those of the Angry Birds. The point here is to get the totem down by removing the blocks it’s standing on, to all but one – because the totem cannot touch the ground or fall. It sounds simple, but with different kinds of rocks and arrangements, you quickly run into fairly challenging levels.

I like this game, because it’s as delicate as the bridge-building game, but so opposite at the same time :)

8. Enso Dot Zen

This is a beautifully made game to chill out, or rather – zen out. The goal is to link all the dots according to a given pattern. Of course, you can go through each dot only one time, plus you have to end where you started. Calm sounds playing in the background, reinforced by blissful graphics, result in one of the most heavenly game in the App Store.

The only problem here is the challenge, and since I found this game a little less exciting than the others, that’s why it’s in the back of the list.

9. LetsTans

Do you know these puzzles where you have various geometric shapes and you have to fit them into a given area? Well this is it. And a lot! There’s like a hundred levels for free, and you can expand by purchasing more, but even the free ones will give you quite some playtime.

10. Deep Green Chess Lite

Ok, I know chess are considered boring, but on the other hand they are the ultimate classic. However, it was really difficult for me to find a decent chess game in the App Store. Some where ugly, some had glitches in controls, others were too childish. But Deep Green Chess seems the best. They are as beautiful as the Reversi, they have hot-seat mode, and a pretty competitive AI player.

Honorable mentions

Four in a Row Free, Labyrinth Lite Edition, Live Poker by Zynga and Paper Toss are other 4 games that might be interesting to try out, but I personally played them a lot less than the top 10. Anyway, as you can see there are some interesting free titles in the App Store, but ironically virtually none of them appear in the Store’s top 50. Its ranking is mainly occupied by Villes and Wars, which are made to addict you and cash in on micropayments. Not that this model is not a way to go when developing for the iPhone, but it’s not necessarily something we, the devs, want to play with :)

If you know other free games, please share them in the comments.