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iPhone Games for the iPad

These are the apps we think will work great on the iPad's 9.7-inch touch screen.

February 8, 2010

Let's face facts: The iPad is not simply a plus-sized iPod Touch. To run your existing apps, the iPad will either display them at original size in a tiny window or it will scale them up at "2x" resolution to fill the 9.7-in. screen. Neither is certain to make App Store games intrinsically bigger, better experiences. Some apps are still best kept in your pocket.

But a 9.7-in. touch screen is also much more than a few extra inches. It's a qualitatively new way of handling, seeing and playing games - a new medium. These are the games I think will change noticeably on the iPad.

 

Credit: Chillingo Ltd

Defender Chronicles

The most unorthodox tower-defense game in the App Store might find a better fit in the iPad. Unlike most of its ilk, Defender Chronicles displays towers and units in profile rather than from a bird's-eye view. Playing the game on an iPhone means frantically scrolling up and down to counter dense armies attacking from multiple directions. To be able to see the entire battlefield at once would make the difference between a master strategist and a near-sighted foot soldier. $2.99

Credit: Zach Gage

Unify

The scope of Unify changes dramatically as you progress, and the game's breathtaking late stages cry out for a sizeable screen. Plus, consider this: What was a nudge of the thumb on the iPhone is an arm's swipe across the iPad. With blocks that enter from both left and right, this version of Unify could be one of the most kinetic puzzlers since Boom Blox. $1.99

Credit: Steph Thirion

Eliss

Steph Thirion's hard-to-define creation -- twitch game, puzzler, or interactive art? -- is also notoriously hard to play. (You think Stage 15 is rough? Thirion's last laugh awaits in 17.) An expanded playing field will open Eliss to the less dexterous in two ways. Your fingers are less likely to cramp on the iPad, and now there's room for a second player to share the challenge. In retrospect, co-op is all that Eliss has been missing. $2.99

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