Matt Carlson: iBoardgames

I’m headed to Europe in a few months on a big trip (anyone know of any game conventions in France in the winter/spring?), and that was the last excuse I needed to pick up an improved MP3 player/PDA solution.  Up until now I’ve been running off an old Palm T2 and a cheap reprogrammed Sansa MP3 player.  I’m too cheap for the $100/month cost of an iPhone but I am willing to shell out some money to try my hand at an iPod Touch

The iPod Touch/iPhone has a great interface for playing card or boardgames, the touch screen interface makes moving cards, bits, and pieces around an easy chore.  To help separate you from your money, the Apple application store has some of the cheapest prices around.  Since I don’t get to do face to face boardgaming as often as I want, I frequently pick up versions of boardgames that play on various consoles and handhelds.  Games on the iTunes application store run from $1 up to “high end” prices of $5 or so.  Downloaded games on systems such as a Nintendo DSi or Xbox Live tend to be significantly more expensive (anywhere from $4 to $15 or more).  With prices so low, I succumbed to the temptation and put down cash on my iTunes account.  On a recent long car trip I put some games through their paces, and here is a short list of my thoughts on the half-dozen boardgame related titles I found.

Zooloretto $5
This is a very pretty, full featured game of Zooloretto.  It supports 3 to 5 players (you need to unlock players 4 and 5) and also includes the Polar Bear expansion.  Players can be set to computer or human controlled and thus it supports multiplayer via passing the iPhone/iPod Touch around.  The interface is excellent, with relevant information displayed or easily accessed with one tap.  The whole game just exudes cuteness with the little animals animated in their pens, and when you get a “pair” of animals little hearts appear between them and then a baby appears.  The computer players are reasonable, but not great.  I’m no Zooloretto expert, but I still manage to take first or second place most of the time.  At $5, it is more expensive than most other offerings in this list, but is far and above the best looking and seemingly best polished.  One big caveat, the game has been fairly buggy at times.  I have experienced crashes or lockups in nearly a quarter of the games I played.  They usually can be resolved, but one or two times I had to resort to turning off the handheld completely..

Xeno Sola $3
A sort of unofficial sci-fi homage to Carcassonne, Xeno Sola comes close enough to the popular game so that a gamer will feel at home but it is unique enough in its own right that players burned out on the actual Carcassone may want to give it a try.  Draw a tile and place it on the board to connect up docking areas (ie. cities), corridors, or nodes (that end corridors.) When you place a tile you can also place a betting token (there are no “meeples” – the horror!) Here’s where the game differs from Carcassone the most.  You only have three betting tokens, and they’re used as a multiplier (x1, x3, and x5).  When you complete an area (a corridor, a docking area, or complete all the corridors that lead off of a node) you multiply the points by the value of your betting token and can then reuse your token in future rounds.  With only three scoring tokens available, you have to be careful what you commit them to, a viable strategy is to churn out plenty of 2-tile landing areas using your x5 token to quickly bump up your score.  The computer is capable, but not brilliant, and I’d expect most veteran players to win almost all the time.  The game handles 2 to 4 players set to computer or human.  Multiplayer games are performed by handing the game around when someone’s turn comes up.  A solid game all around, not as many bells and whistles as some of the other titles on the list but it has a clear boardgame feel, due to its Carcassone style roots.

Knizia’s: Robot Master $1
Several games designed by Reiner Knizia have made their way onto the iPhone/iPod Touch platform.  I had not heard much of Robot Master before trying it out here, and have found it quite addicting.  A 5x5 grid is filled in with tiles of value 0 to 5.  Scores for each row and column are calculated based on the sum of the tiles.  However, pairs in a row or column score x10 and three of a kind (any kind) score a flat 100 points.  The game can be played solitaire where you place tiles as you draw them (they have to be played adjacent to previously played tiles) in order to form a square with the largest minimum value of columns or rows.  Alternatively, you can play a game vs the computer or another player (by passing the game back and forth) where several tiles are dealt out (either 5 at a time or all 12) and one player tries to form scores from the rows while the opponent forms scores out of columns.  A neat little game with a lot of variations, it is an absolute steal at only $1.  High scores in solitaire can be uploaded online (and I have no hope of getting anywhere close to the leaderboard in the near future.) I’m not normally attracted to overly abstract and themeless games, but I’ve had quite a bit of enjoyment out of this one.

Knizia’s Knights of Charlemagne $2
This is a direct adaptation of Knizia’s game published in the US by Playroom Entertainment.  I remember being mildly intrigued by this card game that reminded me somewhat of Lost Cities.  Players have hands of cards made of five colors and numbered from 1 to 5.  There are ten locations to play cards on the board, any card can be played on a spot matching its number or its color.  Whoever plays more cards on a spot wins points at the end of the game, either its numerical value or 5 points in the case of the color piles.  However, don’t discount the low numbered areas too much as whoever wins the first two piles (scored from low to high) will earn an additional 5 points and the lowest point piles are also used as a tiebreaker.  The implementation is good and clean with things fairly easy to read and use.  The text on the cards are a bit small, but that does allow the entire board to be visible at the same time.  I had no problems but anyone worried about small text should be wary.  There are three computer difficulty levels, with the toughest one fairly decent, but not overpoweringly great.  I haven’t played too many games but am holding my own fairly easily at the highest level.  For more of a challenge, the game can be played with two humans.  The game is passed back and forth each turn, with opponent cards blacked out during the switch.  At $2, it’s twice as much as Robot Master, which I prefer, but it’s still a good deal at that price.

Bananagrams $5
There are plenty of word games to be had in the App Store, and Bananagrams is one of the more popular ones.  I have a friend who carries his physical copy of the game in the car, ready to bust it out at any time.  As word games go, it is fairly easy to introduce to people and doesn’t necessarily favor players who know a lot of strange, long words.  The basic premise is a pile of letter tiles which you use to form into a crosswords style column and row layout.  The first to get all their letters into a single layout wins.  At $5, it is on the expensive side when compared to other games, but it is a very professionally done game and has quite a bit of depth.  There are solo modes where you compete against a time clock as well as multiplayer modes via the internet.  As you play you earn points which can be turned in to purchase frills to use in your games such as new colors of letter tiles or patterns for the game table.  There are even some achievements to unlock.  While there are free versions of similar games around, this one is well produced and is worth the purchase if you enjoy the boardgame.

Free Games
There are a bunch of games available on a “try before you buy” basis.  The following games all have a “pro” version for sale, but also have a scaled down version available for free.  I haven’t purchased any of these, so my evaluation is based off of the free versions…

Conquest Free or $6
Risk-type games are a dime a dozen on nearly any platform and the iPhone/iPod Touch is no exception.  Of the ones I looked at, I prefer this version entitled Conquest.  The computer opponents are very aggressive and intelligent, without having to gang up on the human player.  Even in the Lite version there are many options, such as different settings for card rewards.  The default is a set value depending on the cards turned in (4 for three soldiers, 12 for one of each kind) and with this setting the computer players are quite respectable.  (In fact, a good portion of the negative comments are from players whining that the computer cheats on dice rolls – a fact explicitly denied by the designer.) I haven’t played much with escalating card values, as that tends to favor a more intelligent opponent.  You can control the number of players (up to 8 human or computer using the same handheld) and the AI level (which simply handicaps computer players by having them occasionally skip their attacks).  The game board is just a bit small to fit on the entire screen (you can scale it up and down to fit, but at full screen it can be hard to access smaller countries reliably).  However, the game freely spins from portrait to landscape mode, depending on the user’s preference, a nice feature.  The full game expands things by adding in new world maps to play on, and also lets you change the starting conditions (choose territories and place armies, random territories but place armies, or random everything – which is the only option in the free version).  At $6, it is more than I’m willing to play for a Risk clone (I’m notoriously cheap, remember), but if I keep playing it enough I may have to break down and reward the programmer with my hard-earned cash.

Kibosh Free or $2
This is a clone of Blokus, the tile laying game where you try to put all your pieces on the grid-lined board with them only touching on the diagonals.  I haven’t played Blokus much, but this version adds in a twist where you can return a piece to the owner’s hand if you can surround the majority of diagonals on it.  (This can be turned on or off on the setup screen to have a standard Blokus type game.) The free version only allows one player vs the computer and limits the AI to easy difficulty.  The full version supports 2 and 4 human player modes (via passing the handheld around) as well as three levels of difficulty.  Both versions support a sliding scale that limits the time granted to each player, to keep the game moving along.  Since I’m not a Blokus player, I can’t evaluate the strength of the computer player, but the user interface is pretty good, and I think a Blokus fan would be well served spending the $2 for the full version.  (Of course, since there is a free version, you might as well try before you buy…)

Croke Free or $2
This is a version of Crokinole, the disc flicking game.  Players can choose from a finger-flicking style of launch or a more sedate rubber-band style of launch.  The free version provides solo play against the computer, while the full version has a few more modes and options including two player play using a single handheld or via the internet.  As a dexterity game, Crokinole loses a bit of something in an electronic translation, however the game still transfers well to a touchscreen format.  Fans of the game should check out the free download at a minimum, and then see if they want to spend a couple bucks for multiplayer play.

Hanto (reviewed free version)$1
This game is a type of Hive clone.  I only recently obtained Hive via a boardgame trade, so I am no pro at this abstract game of hexagonal tiles.  The goal is to place and then move your pieces to surround the enemy’s “king” (a butterfly in this case).  Each type of piece has different movement abilities, but no piece can ever be separated from the main layout, thus players can “lock” pieces in place because if they move they would cause a separation.  There are three difficulty settings (the easy setting is the only one available in free mode) but even the designer warns the advanced AI takes a little bit of time to think as it tries to work a few moves ahead.  In my first game or two, the computer easily beat me as I tried things out.  What I found fascinating about this elegant implementation (very nice, simple graphics and interface) was the sheer number of options available for play.  The game provides six types of pieces (including the butterfly) but those pieces can be assigned any number of movement and other abilities.  Some walk (may move), others run (must move), fly (can move over other pieces), jump (over pieces in a straight line), and so on.  There are also a bunch of special abilities like trapping (move on top of a piece to lock it in), swapping (trade places), etc… These abilities can be assigned to the six pieces and stored as a game “set” and then the game is played by these rules.  The free version only has two default rules sets (a simpler one and an intermediate one) while the full version allows two player play (on one handheld) and provides eight fixed rules sets and five customizable rules sets.  While I’m not yet a huge Hive fan (or even an abstract fan), I find the game intriguing and for only a buck, it seems highly likely that I will pick up the full version at some point in the near future.

All the non-boardgame stuff:
So, there are many non-boardgame type games on the iPhone/iPod Touch as well, and I thought I’d sign off by listing a few I enjoyed because they provided a bit of strategy and tactics.  Feel free to tune out at this point if you’re just looking for a boardgame fix.

To begin, I have to mention that the “Tower Defense” style of game is perhaps over-supported on the platform.  (In Tower Defense, lots of enemy creatures leave one point, attempt to get to another point, and you put down weapons and barriers to try to prevent them reaching the end of the path.) Fieldrunners ($3) is typical of the genre.  It is a pretty standard version, well done, but I like it because it is one of the few that has a totally open area, so that the path for the monsters has to be constructed from your weapons.  TapDefense is another good one.  It is free, but has some moderately in-your-face ads.  I like this one because you earn interest on any money you don’t spend each round.  This means I’m challenged to ride the knife-edge and only spend and upgrade what I must to survive each round.

Other games I like include the very popular Flight Control ($1) where you guide planes into landing on airport strips by dragging their flight path (it gets hard when several are on the screen and they can’t touch) and Cartoon Wars ($1, free version available) which is a game where you send streams of monsters at the enemy tower to try to take it out.  (It is very reminiscent of an old Apple II game where you sent off streams of army trucks and people to take out the enemy base as they did the same to you.) The ingenious part of Cartoon Wars is the upgrade system.  You have many types of units you can send out, and as you earn money from round to round you can make individual types more and more powerful.  For $1 it is a steal when compared to games on other systems.  There’s the ubiquitous Uno ($5, or a free version), and a game called The Plateau ($2) where you have a pattern of connected circles and you have to drag them until none of the connecting lines cross.  For simply showing off the graphics capabilities of the system, the Diablo-like game called Dungeon Hunter is simply gorgeous.  It’s fairly steep at $7, and I’m not far enough through it to see if it is worth the comparative cost.

Finally, there are some nice kid-friendly games around, too.  iWriteWords (Free, $1 for a small set, $2 for the full package) has you trace out letters and numbers on the touch screen by following the dots.  Do it correctly and you slowly spell out a word and are shown a cute cartoon-y picture of the word.  Wriggle (free, or $1) is a puzzle-style game where you drag worms around a maze to free up a path for the blue worm to escape (it’s actually pretty good for adults, too!).  Finally, there is Monkey Preschool Lunchbox ($1) which is a series of short minigames aimed at preschoolers.  For a buck it’s a pretty well done series of questions on shapes, colors, and counting.  Of course, the big question is whether you could trust a preschooler with a couple hundred dollar piece of equipment.  (At 3 years old, my eldest plays some, but only when directly supervised.)

That’s the end of my journey into iPhone app addiction so far.  While the cost for programs is very low, it can also be dangerous as you tend to spend a little here or there and it will add up on you.  Hope you might have discovered one or two things of interest for you to try out (if you have access to an iPhone or iPod Touch).  If you know of more, feel free to recommend some in the comments.  (I know I left off the fairly large card game and solitaire market.) I also wanted to point out the BGGeek list of boardgames for the iPhone, where I found a few of the titles mentioned above.

Comments: