It’s not your fault if you’ve missed out on any of these apps from our best iPhone games 2012 roster; the iTunes store is vast. And now that we’re already into the weekend, today is obviously as good a day as any other to download a few games to keep you entertained through the week. Whether you’re into casual gaming, RPGs, MMORPGs or racing titles, we’ve served up a course for all sorts of palates. So don’t forget to tip us after you’re done.
1. Sonic & Sega All – Stars Racing
Racing first to the finish line, Sega has played with our hearts before and this particular title tries to do the same. You can choose to take on 15 courses as any of the 10 famous Sega characters, in a car, monster truck, plane or bike. For some strange and therefore cool reason, a banana is also included among your choice of rides. The replay value is high with 25 missions, three Grand Prix cups and a dueling Battle mode to pick from. But it’s not just a simple race to the end, with traps to be dodged, power ups to be grabbed and special offensives like the Super Sonic and Banana Blitz to be launched.
Price: $0.99
2. Real Racing 2
Need your racing action to look more convincing in order to get the adrenaline pumping? Real Racing 2 has a garage stuffed with a fleet of swank wheels covering no less than 30 officially licensed cars. These span over a 2010 Ford Shelby Mustang GT500, a 2010 Nissan GT-R (R35), a 2010 VW Golf GTI (A6), a 2012 McLaren MP4-12C and a 2010 Jaguar XKR, to name just a few. With a career mode stretching through almost 10 hours of gameplay and visuals powered by Firemint’s Mint3D engine, the game need not try very hard to get you hooked onto it.
Price: $0.99
3. Galaga 30th Collection
Hardly anyone who’s played a video game can claim to be ignorant of Namco Bandai’s most famous arcade shooting classic, Galaga. Celebrating the 30th anniversary of the title, the developer dropped Galaga 30th Collection into iTunes and it’s bounced into our roster of iPhone games 2012. Stripped off Score Attack mode, only Galaxian G 30th Edition can offer any evidence supporting the adage about the best things in life coming for free though. The rest of the remakes involving Galaga G 30th Edition, Gaplus G 30th Edition and Galaga ’88 G 30th Edition arrive through in-app purchases.
Price: Involves in-app purchases
4. Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nation
Suspend reality on your coat hanger for a bit and get into combat gear in this Gameloft title that takes you through a 13-mission campaign which travels from Los Angeles to Pakistan. There are several types of gameplay experiences including 4 x 4 chase, escort, destroy and helicopter as well as a sprint and slide feature to watch out for. Possibly the most inviting element to be slid into the mechanics is the multiplayer mode which can accommodate up to 12 players within 6 maps and 7 different modes.
Price: $6.99
5. Infinity Blade II
What happens when the God King has been beaten and the journey of young Siris must continue on its way to discovering more about the Infinity Blade? You get Infinity Blade II, of course. While there may be many things to love about the Chair Entertainment Group offering, our favorite is the ability to forge weapons with the objects picked up along the path. The ultimate goal will eventually lead you towards the realm of the Deathless Sayadhi and the Worker of Secrets, spellbound and all.
Price: $6.99
6. Order & Chaos Online
Shopping for an MMORPG title in this list of must have iPhone games 2012? Try Order & Chaos Online from Gameloft. You’ll be treading familiar territory if you’re a World of Warcraft fan and have finally come to terms with the idea that Blizzard Entertainment won’t look in this direction. Next, welcome that feeling of déjà vu as you opt to slip into the skin of an elf, orc, undead or human and pick a class, gender, appearance and talent. The whole gig entails more than 1000 skills, 2000 pieces of equipment and over 500 quests to perform.
Price: $6.99 and further subscription
7. Dead Space
Bringing an unforgettable survival horror third-person shooter to our games register is EA with Dead Space. We’re not the sort of folks who can be scared into blobs of trembling jelly by a mere 3.5-inch display being splattered with blood and gore. But battling Necromorphs in this game which picks up the thread from where the first one ended and sets the stage for the next installation, is not as simple as it looks. 3 years have passed since the original story unfolded and you’ll embark on a mysterious mission in the Mines of Titan in this iOS exclusive. Need we say more?
Price: $0.99
8. Flood-it!
Well, there are things worse than being heckled to shame by a flock of riled Angry Birds fans. So we’ll just say it without anything more than a tremble upon our lips – Flood-it! can actually be more addictive than the Rovio title. If you have an eye out for color-matching games, that is. Basically, you start on the top left corner of a board tiled by various shades. Tap on a ball of your current area color to turn each adjacent square that particular hue. The main idea is to flood the entire board with one shade in less than the permitted number of steps.
Price: Free
9. Invader
GameHunter has a refreshing role change to offer you with Invader. Instead of the usual plot where you’re required to be the guy defending Earth from an alien invasion or the likes, this title lets you step into the opposite role. It’s your job to mobilize the Invader machine and attempt to conquer the world while stamping out humans all along. But these aren’t helpless rebels you’re dealing with. They’ll block your path with the EMP for temporarily freezing up the machine and strive to inflict some damage upon you with the Spider Bomb among other things. Whatever you do, time yourself well in anticipation of the Heatup-Bullet System which will put you into slow mode as it cools down, no permissions asked.
Price: $1.99
10. Dr. Awesome Plus+
Okay, so you’ll need a Plus+ account before you can start saving your friends in this next one featured on our iPhone games 2012 catalog. That’s only for freebie hunters though, because the standard Dr. Awesome version can be downloaded for $0.99. And when we said ‘saving your friends’, we meant it. A deadly strain of virus happens to be attacking people in your Plus+ network and contact list. Prove that you are indeed Dr. Awesome, while performing microsurgery with nothing but the accelerometer controls and discover as well as destroy 16 kinds of viruses and lethal bacteria.
Price: Free
11. Epoch
To get into the proper mood for Epoch let’s invoke I, Robot and start with V.I.K.I. was right – ‘human beings pursue ever more imaginative means of self-destruction. They cannot be trusted with their own survival’. The game in question describes itself as a post-apocalyptic robot combat that follows the echoes of a lost civilization. The humans have been wiped out and a never-ending war between animated steel continues. Fight against waves of robots in arena-style combat and because you’re a robot, you can upgrade yourself with pieces torn from your fallen enemies. Does that make the killing any less brutal? We don’t think so.
Price: $3.99
We clearly don’t need to sell games like Worms to anyone who has played the turn-based-strategy title from Team17 Software. Crawling back with the authentic Worms gameplay reeled out in cartoon-style visuals, the app hides some new weapons and utilities in the trunk. And they’ve got inventive names like Sentry Gun, Drill, Earthquake, Electromagnet, Napalm Strike, Petrol Bomb, Super Sheep, Armageddon and Poison Strike. There are 30 single-player missions spread across 5 new themes in Campaign mode, while Body Count mode will have you battling hordes of increasingly tough enemies.
Price: $2.99
Now surprise us and say you’ve already played all of the aforementioned titles in our best iPhone games 2012 lineup.
