With the iPhone 5’s imminent arrival, “app” developers have been testing the new device’s technical limits In order to see how much more complex their new applications can be. This is definitively true when comes to touch screen game developers. The iPhone (and iPod Touch) becomes much faster and more powerful with each generation, thus there being more and more powerful games that are coming out for the devices. A notable game is the recently released “Shadowgun”, which has amazing graphics and gameplay quite similar to Epic Games’ “Gears of War”. A favorite among the touch gaming circles has to be “Infinity Blade”, who many declare it being the best looking game for the iOS and uses a unique reaction based combat system that forces you to slice, dice, counter and parry your way to victory.
The appeal of smartphone and/or “touch” gaming is that it’s already embedded into your cell phone or MP3 player. Almost the entire market of touch games run on either the iOS (iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad) or Android (HTC/ Motorola/LG) operating systems, and considering the general popularity of these products already, it’s a fairly huge base. Another plus is the pricing and quality of the games. While there’s a few “stinkers” out on the market, that can be said for any medium, whether movie, tv, music or even proper video games. On the other side of the spectrum, there’s long, detailed and intricate games such as “Aralon: Sword and Shadow”, which is a vast RPG, “Asphalt” , a very detailed racing sim, and the popular “Angry Birds”, a simple puzzle game which is now one of the most popular games in general as of current. With their prices ranging from quite literally free, all the way to $10, there’s plenty to choose and the genres are well rounded.
Many critics argue that touch gaming isn’t exactly a form of gaming, but rather brief “five minute distractions”. Now the distraction part might be true, there’s still a form of criteria that all games follow: the player must make steps and decisions towards a certain “victorious” endpoint, and touch gaming meets it just like any other video game. Plus, various gaming companies such as EA, Capcom and Square-Enix, who already made their name in the console gaming world also have their grip on the touch gaming world. Miniaturized versions of popular games such as Dead Space, Resident Evil, Final Fantasy and more have been very popular on the app store marketplace. Gameloft, a (almost) touch gaming exclusive company has made more of their share of games replicating various mainstream titles and for the most part, their strategy seems to be working.
Touch gaming will probably never replace standard portable gaming, such as the Nintendo 3DS and Playstation Vita mainly because there’s only so much you can do on a touch screen game. The average touch game ranges from 10 megabytes to one gigabyte. Standard portable consoles have the luxury of much bigger file storage, so developers can put even more detail into story, graphics, gameplay and replay value. Because of that, and the fact that the marketbase has always been incredibly solid (even moreso as of now thanks to the Nintendo DS), standard portable gaming will always have a stronghold on the general gaming market. Touch gaming however will have its stay for the next few years, mostly because it’s nice to have that “five minute distraction”.