Best iPhone iPad Games

Absolutely love Reiner Knizia Samurai  侍 and recently started playing it again Samurai online after a long absence. Very strategic abstract game.

There are buddhas, rice and high helmets you attempt to capture with your colored tokens by exetering your influence on them.  When a piece is completely surrounded you determine who has the most influence for each paticular piece to see who captures it.  Rather easy game to understand there is one swap pieces token and one reuse existing piece token.  Hardest part to fully understanding Samurai are the various winning conditions.  Basically whoever has two majorities wins but that’s not always going to happen.  If really interested in this game you can see my detailed overview which I wrote in 2006.

I love Tikal.  Recently introduced the boardgame to a few friends who are relatively new to German boardgames and they loved it.  Well I’m back to playing Tikal online again but this time I won’t have 10 simultaneous games going on at once.

Score points of temple (1,2,3,4,5,6, etc.)  if you have majority in a temple when one of four scoring rounds occurs when three volcanoes are drawn and at end of game.  Majority is determined based on number of workers.  Each player has one head worker who is worth 3 influence points. On your turn you have 10 action points.  Move workers to temples costs 1 action point to deploy at base or at one of your two tents.  Uncovering temple level cost 2 action points. Recovering a treasure cost 3 action points. Capping a temple so no one else can claim it costs 5 action points. Swapping a treasure with another costs 3 action points.  So during your turn there is quite a bit to do and I love the intimidation of this game and the general hatred and bad feelings it leaves amongst the players. It’s pretty competitive and for that reason I do quite enjoy it.

Had China boardgame since like 2006.  Didn’t realize you could play China online though since June 2009 and it uses the mabiweb.com backend.  Play 3, 4, or 5 player games turn based games (not realtime). On your turn you have 3 cards to play (replenish back to 3 when turn is over) which determine which region you can place a house and/or emissary in dragon circle).  Three methods of scoring are Regions (houses), Alliances (emissaries), Roads (four or more houses connected on roads). Two or more cards of the same color you can use as a wild card.  Can only place in a single region during your turn.  Only one house if nothing currently exists in that region. Emissaries can be placed but are limited to how many depending on the current 1st place majority of houses.  For instance, check out Wei it has 3 emissaries (1 red & 2 blue) since blue has a house majority of 3. Game ends after deck is exhausted for the second time.

Region Scoring – I’m purple I got 19 points for Regions (majority scoring). Shu region I get 2 points since I’m tied for 2nd place with green and red and score how many houses 1st place has which is two yellow houses.  In Chu I’m tied with yellow for first place so we both score entire region which is 8 points. In Lu I’m in 2nd place so score 2 pointssince 1st place has two green houses.  In Wei I’m tied for 3rd place with red so we both get 2 points since yellow in 2nd place has two houses. In Zhao I’m tied for 1st with blue so I get 5 points.

Alliance Scoring – got 20 points. You go and look at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc. in order when scoring in real life. Must have majority or at least tied for majority in both regions of the alliance.  Purple for Alliance #5 I have 1 in Shu and tied for majority in Chu so I score that alliance which is 1 + 3 = 4 points. Alliance #6 I score 5 points (2 in Lu and 3 in Chu). Alliance #12 I score 6 points (3 in Han and 3 in Chu).  Alliance #13 I score 5 points (3 in Han and 2 in Lu).

Roads – only one who scores with roads is green 5 points as he is only one who has a houses on roads with four or more.

used to play Ticket to Ride a lot online using Days of Wonders codes of games I bought.  Since then they’ve changed it to pay only.  Game costs $10 for either the PC 44MB/ Mac 30MB / 29MB Linux java version or $10 for xbox live version.  I honestly didn’t care for the XBLA version as I felt you needed to zoom in too often so that was a pass.  The download version enhances the graphics and increases screen size to 1024 x 768 and can toggle fullscreen if you wish.  Also allows solo play against bots and of course vs online human opponents.  Each expansion is an additional $5 each for Europe, Swiss Map, or USA 1910. Pretty sure I’ll buy the USA 1910 expansion. My favorite Ticket to Ride game is the Marklin edition and of course they don’t have that on the computer.

Screenshot of downloaded java version 1024 x 768. (downsized).

Screenshot of online java version 800 x 600.

For those new to Ticket to Ride it’s very easy to play.  You build train routes by collecting the respective colors of cards to lay down track.  On your turn you either lay down one track or draw two cards.  Everyone has two or three hidden destinations they’re trying to complete (like Seattle to New York) that are worth points at the end of the game if completed.  If not completed they’re negative points.  You can get more destinations if you wish throughout the game.  The tension comes from not knowning if you’ll be able to complete your destinations and trying to block your opponents from completing their destinations.  I left a few rules out but that’s the gist of it. Even better explanation just watch this 7min video.

Recently went throught about twently plus kids MMO games trying to figure out which ones were good for my kids. Not sure which one we’ll ultimately pay for, if any at all. I’ve narrowed it down to the following which I believe to be the Best Kids MMO Games. Some of the criteria was it also had to work on Mac so most are flash based.  All these games can be played for free for an unlimited amount of time but obviously they want you to pay the $6 per month which is $72 a year for access to new areas, additional items to purchase, etc.

clubpenguin.com October 2005 debut – pricing is $6/mo | $30/6mo ($5/mo) | $58/yr ($4.83/mo)

moshimonsters.com November 2007 debut – pricing is $6/mo | $30/6mo ($5/mo) | $48/yr ($4/mo)

smallworlds.com – October 2009 debut – pricing is $8/mo | $20/3mo ($6.66/mo) | $35/6mo ($5.83/mo) | $45/6mo crossbow & skates ($7.50/mo) | $65/yr skateboard ($5.42/mo)

Been playing last two days this nice free game called Elements the Game.  Most collectible card games are free but want you to pony up money for this or that.  In this case they accept donations but it really is free.  Tons of work though to progress through the game but having a blast doing it.  It is played in flash elementsthegame.com and put in a username and password and go through the tutorial.  I still haven’t played a real opponent yet and probably won’t for awhile till I learn most of the cards and build my deck a tad bit better and get at least a few rares. It has the following elements:  Entropy, Death, Gravity, Earth, Life, Fire, Water, Light, Air, Time, Darkness, Aether and to summon a card you’ll need to generate the respective elemental cost. Both players start with 100 health points and first to kill wins. You purchase new cards with money you win from winning or by selling existing cards. To give you an overview of the cards available and some FAQs check out Elements the Game wiki.

Was reading through the Ultimate Werewolf PDF rolechart and the roles I want to try out next time are:
Diseased – If the Werewolves eat you, they skip feeding the following night.
Prince – Survive a lynching and reveal your role.
Spellcaster – At night, indicate a player who must not speak the following day.
Cursed – You are a Villager until attacked by Werewolves, at which time you become a Werewolf.

Last night couldn’t fall asleep. So instead of going downstairs and cranking up the home theater system downstairs and risking waking up my wife, I looked into iphone apps that stream movie and tv shows (btw, my favorite keeping track of tv shows iphone app is TV Shows) so I could watch a flick in bed on my ipod touch.  Best one I found was Air Video $3.  I initially played with the demo as the only limitation it has is it displays three random movies in selected directory but you can hit refresh repeatedly to locate one your looking for.  Air Video is awesome as it transcodes xvid video files on my NAS on the fly with my iMac dual core 2.66GHz as the transcoding server. No you can’t do .iso or video_ts but can do just about anything else xvid, divx, mkv, avi, etc.  It takes 10 seconds for it to start playing while it prepares by transcoding  and buffering.

I like to set Quality to about 75% which looks fantastic.  You can lower that if your on a 3G connection instead of a wifi.  Love to change the Target Resolution and adjust the zoom slider.  Got to decide how much your willing to crop off (don’t do too much) and trying to get some nice fill screen by increasing the height of the video. Seek to any point in the video and it’ll start playing in 10 seconds. Does not stream itunes videos purchases as that is DRM protected.

Japanese 101: Kansai Dialect
I remember being at  Kinokuniya in Umeda,　a Japanese Bookstore, and just amazed at their selection.  I believe a popular title, or at least it was prominently featured was some dirty Osaka-ben slang book. Fast forward to modern times and now we have a popular Japanese iPhone app that features Kansai-Ben otherwise known as Osaka Japanese Slang.  My wife is from Osaka and she was getting a kick out of listening to some of them and honestly didn’t even realize some of the dialogue was in fact Kansai-Ben.  She just was raised and never thought about it as it’s just a natural way of speaking for those from that area.  Categories include Feeling Bad, Greetings, Food, Apologizing and nine others. In total has about 250 phrases or so each recorded by a native Osakan.

It’s not really that hard for a native Japanese or with a semi decent commmand of Japanese to pick up.  It’s just like being thrown a curve ball in language learning and adapting.  So what good is this app?  Well, if you plan on visiting or especially living there it’ll give you a head start and when they start ripping like so:
Kansai Ben = Japanese equivalent

honma kaina ほんまかいな = honto ni　ほんとに
ee na ええな　=　ii desu ne いいですね
akanあかん = dame　だめ
nambo なんぼ = ikura いくら
shiran しらん = shirinai しりない
hokasu　ほかす = suteru すてる
chau ちゃう　= chigau ちがう
dekihen できへん = dekinai できない

Japanese 101: Kansai Dialect features Categories where you can browse throw the phrases and memorize them.  Each phrase is spoken by a native Japanese female who sounds like those Yanki girls with dyed hair. That’s a compliment btw. Then in the flash cards even study further.  Tapping the flash card will reveal the English and explanation on the backside. You can select multiple categories for your quiz which is a four multiple choice.  I always like to not look at the answers and just hear the phrase spoken and formulate the answer in my head.  You can always tap again if you didn’t quite catch the spoken phrase the first time.  End of a quiz you can review your wrong answers if any. Overall this is a nice application now if someone comes up with a recording device that slows down my Bachan in realtime so I could understand a bit more of what she is saying then I’d be all set.  Until then I’ll have to keep asking my wife “What in the world did she just say?”

I’m not a stranger to boardgames.  On spielbyweb.com couple years ago my record is Amun-Re won 14 out of 65 games 22%, Hacienda won 28 out of 61 games 46%,  Hoity Toity won 33 out of 56 games 59%, Santiago won 27 out of 72 games 38%, and Tikal won 110 out of 174 game 63%. Played on mabiweb.com 63 games of Knizia’s Samurai.  I play boardgames in real life too although not nearly as much as I used to. So for $5 can I get entertainment out of Zooloretto for iPhone?  For me it’s a no brainer and already have as I have sunk probably about 20 hours of gameplay so far into Zooloretto.

When Zooloretto came out for the iPhone  I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it.  True it’s not online boardgaming but rather against computer opponents so I was a bit skeptical. After a few issues with the initial release, Zooloretto 1.1 was released and it seems all bugs are fixed and just has some typos and corrections that need to be made in the included manual.  Zooloretto isn’t like zoo tycoon so don’t be fooled into thinking it is.  Don’t let the childish cartoony graphics deceive you as this is a strategy board game.

Play three, four or five player games against AI opponents.  Also you can play other humans via pass and play mode.  Initially you can only play three player games but after play a few games you unlock third AI opponent and few more games the fourth AI opponent. Resuming a game is possible which is imperative since games do take quite awhile to play. In Options you can set Music and SFX Volume to 0%, 50% or 100% respectively.  So you can listen to your own music while playing.

Objective of the game is to score the most points which are all tallied at the end of the game.  Game ends when the 15th animal tile is drawn then that round is played to the end.  Each player has their own zoo with three enclosures although one could have four enclosures if one pays 3 coins to expand your zoo. Swiping your finger down or tap curtain ring to reveal overview.  Swipe up to close curtain.  Swipe left or right to reveal opponents individual zoo’s or simply tap on a player.

Scoring
- Each enclosure contains two numbers (for instance the five space enclosure has a 5 / with a coin bonus.  Six space enclosure has no coin bonus.
- Fill an enclosure completely you get points of the higher number. Example, five space enclosure you’d get 8 points.
- If one space short then you get lower number instead. Example, five space enclosure you’d get 5 points.
- Enclosures with two or more empty spaces if a vending stall is next to enclosure you score one point per animal.
- For each vending stall type (remember each different stall) score 2 points. So if you have three green vending stalls and one red vending stall you don’t score 8 points but rather 4 points (2pts for green and 2pts for red)
- Each animal type in barn (not how many but type) is minus two points.

Scoring Example – Pink Hair Lady has 18 points at this point near the end of the game. 3 points for 3 pandas since she has a vending stall near the enclosure.  3 points for 3 monkeys which also which has a vending stall by that enclosure. 4 points for two red vending stalls and one yellow vending stall (2pts for red ones and 2 pts for yellow). 4 points for the three camels since she is one space short of filling the four space enclosure so she scores the lower number which is 4. 8 points for the flamingos filling the five space enclosure getting the higher number which is 8. So 3 + 3+ 4 + 4 + 8 = 22 points. However, minus 4 points for two different animal types in her barn.  Thus 22 – 4 = 18 points.

Each animal type has 11 tiles consisting of 2 males and 2 females and 7 regular animals.  For instance, there are 7 monkey tiles with 2 male monkeys and 2 female monkeys for a total of 11 monkey tiles. Each player starts with 2 coins. 12 vending stalls total with 4 types and 12 coin tiles.
Three player game consists of six animal types and 3 trucks.
Four player game consists of seven animal types and 4 trucks.
Five player game consists of eight animal types and 5 trucks.

On a player’s turn usually you draw a tile which can be either an animal, vending stall or a coin.  You choose which delivery truck you wish to place it on with a maximum of 3 items per truck.  If you see a truck that looks beneficial to you snag it before an opponent does and place the items in your enclosures or barn. Only one type of animal can be place in an enclosure.

However, before you take a truck (thus ending your turn for the round) during your turn in lieu of drawing an animal tile you could perform a single money action.
- Expand (3 coins) adds another enclosure
- Move (1 coin) single animal/vending stall from barn to enclosure
- Swap (1 coin) same animal types from barn to enclosure OR from one enclosure to another enclosure
- Buy (2 coins) animal/vending stall from another player’s barn. 1 coin to bank. 1 coin to that player.
- Sell (2 coins) discards animal/vending stall from from barn.

Making babies if you place a male and female into an enclosure they’ll make a baby.  So in the screenshot above I added a male elephant to the enclosure with lonely female elephant and baby dumbo is born.  Note: if you place them in a barn they won’t reproduce until in an enclosure.  However, if part of a swap action that produces a baby that fills the enclosure you won’t receive coin bonus, if any.

Example of a turn thinking process – I only have two coins so not that much I can do.  Should I choose a truck and draw a tile?  Hmm…the top truck has a male monkey.  If I put that with my other male monkey those two won’t pop out a baby. Ok screw it, I’ll just get the fourth truck with a female monkey which will make baby monkey and fill my four space enclosure so I’ll get the one coin bonus too and 5 points for completely filling in the four space enclosure.  Plus I have a panda already in my barn which perhaps in future round I can swap out with another enclosure.

Showing all players barns with animals within.  Would be nice to show male/female symbols in this overview as currently you have to choose BUY action to see symbols for all players barns. Also showing ones own barn. Remember this would be minus 8 points.  (-2 one flamingo, -2 four pandas, -2 one zebra and -2 one kangaroo).

Conclusion – this is an excellent computerized implementation of Zooloretto.  The artificial intelligience of the computer opponents is decent to give you a challenge.  If you’ve never played board games (German board games that is, like Settlers of Catan) Zooloretto might have you shaking your head thinking what the heck did I get myself into.  So perhaps it’s not the best intro German board game to play.  However, it is rather a light affair compared to some heavier board games so as long as you like strategy and agonizing decisions with some tactical screwage then Zooloretto on the iPhone is something to consider. For those in the United States if you really like this boardgame perhaps it’ll get you to buy the real deal Zooloretto $31.50 and the Polar Bear expansion $7.50 that Zooloretto iPhone verision will be adding in a future update.

Japanese Idioms is targeted to those with intermediate Japanese understanding. It contains 101 Japanese idioms. What is an idiom? Like a “chip on your shoulder” or “hit the nail on the head” are examples of English idioms. Has three sections, namely, Categories where you browse through and learn idioms.  Flash Card mode lets you choose display order either by Japanese or English and choose either Phrases Only, Examples Only or All.  Front of the flash card shows the English equivalent translation with practical usage.  Tap on flash card to flip over and it’ll show Japanese kanji with romaji and sound button you can hear it too. Quiz mode has you choosing multiple choice.

Covers a broad range of topics.  While your learning an idiom of interest to you it’ll give you the English equivalent translation alonog with the literal translation. Clicking sound button let’s you hear the Japanese idiom, English equivalent translation, Example sentences in Japanese and English.  I could easily see someone making a list of 101 idioms with sound and selling it but they go in depth with pratical usage information and example sentences to reinforce when to properly use such an idiom.

I absolutely love Quiz mode.  Best way is to just hear the idiom and form the answer in your head and then look at the choices.  If you look at the choices you may be cheating.  It’ll auto advance and speak the next idiom after answer the question.