Rob Fahey at Eurogamer posts an interesting article about the popularity of Apple’s iPhone as a gaming platform:
The limits of what can be done with this technology will take years to explore, but the potential is vast. From the existing library of genres, it’s obvious that puzzle games, strategy games, board games, word games, rhythm games and their ilk will all translate to the platform rather nicely. Curiosities such as flOw would play very well on iPhone, too – and while promising early examples like Monkey Ball fall slightly short (see our review), they have enough merit to draw some praise and have performed well enough to encourage their parents to make a greater effort going forward.
More importantly, there’s potential for games that break existing conventions completely. The things developers could do with GPS, a camera, an internet connection and the assumption that you’re mobile and moving around are limited only by imagination – and thanks to the lack of conventional controls, we’ll hopefully see plenty of that imagination, and not so much in the way of cheap, tacky ports.
Three cheers for the iPhone! A muffled whimper for the Mac…
