Gamers Get Ready, Get Set, Get iPadding
Posted 04/02/2010 at 9:51am
| by J Keirn-Swanson
Soosiz HD

Touch Foo's Soosiz might just be one of the more addictive simple game concepts and it's almost as cute as Super Monkey Ball 2. With Soosiz HD, you still jump from planet to planet, try to score as many points as possible while being affected differently by each new planet's gravity, but now it's twice as beautiful. One reviewer called this game the Super Mario Bros. for the iPhone OS and it's hard to argue with that characterization. With seven worlds and seven bosses to beat on Soosiz's 65 levels, our iPads will probably be glued to our hands for days after launch.
BoardBox

We mentioned iChess above, but Movile takes things to a whole new level with BoardBox, bringing fifteen classic board games to the iPad. That's right, fifteen games in one and it's all your favorite old wooden games come to spectacular life with three different board styles (Mahogany, Granite, and Old School). Not just one kind of chess either, but six variants on the classic, as well as Go, Checkers, Reversi and more. Unlike the tininess of the iPhone screen, the iPad means sharing as you and your mates gather around.
Stone of Destiny

Avalon Alliance's Stone of Destiny, the iPhone's first ever hidden object game, might have just gotten a little easier with all this expanded screen space. Whether or not that's true for the game's challenges, this Indiana Jones style quest was a treat for the eyes the first time around, and the iPad ups the ante. Remember those comic book panel pages of exposition you had to scroll around on? Yeah, say goodbye to all that with big big big screen love.
Dopey Dopey Dodos!

We're not quite sure how close Nonsensical's Dopey Dopey Dodos! comes to copyright infringement when we consider a certain other game from our childhood, one involving hippopotami, but we are sure how adorable this game is. Like so many other games that are taking advantage of the screen size, Nonsensical's game features solo or multiplayer modes meaning everyone gets to get their hands on the iPad. Everyone. From the biggest to the smallest.
Call of Duty: World At War: Zombies

Something else everyone can agree on? Shooting zombies is not only necessary, it's dead fun. And Activision has made it even better on the big screen. Call of Duty: World At War: Zombies makes the brain splatter all that much gooier and tastier as you go for the headshot again and again and again and again...and that's pretty much it, right? What more are you looking for?
Plants Vs Zombies

Somewhere between the cutesiness of Dodos and the sheer awesomeness that is Call of Duty, we get Plants Vs Zombies from noted gamemaker PopCap. Promising to be more the PC version than the much scaled down iPhone version made bigger, Popcap promises to bring quick play, minigames, and the ever popular survival mode to the tablet, leaving the iPhone's adventure mode in the dust. Can the older, littler brother get no love anymore?
Gameprom

Gameprom takes their pinball games to the next logical level with iPad versions, and to read their laundry list of graphic improvements is to just marvel at the artistry. They're not live in the App Store just yet, except as iPhone versions, but they're hard at work. Ball mirror, surface reflection, redesigning the table's geometry, and new lighting are just some of what they plan to bring to their makeover. Just look at this table for The Deep. Cue up your Tommy soundtrack, because you know you're going to want this one, pinball wizards.
Fieldrunners for iPad

Subatomic Studios gets it like everyone else. Bigger screen solves tons of problems. And Fieldrunners for iPad flaunts it like there's no tomorrow. No more scrolling around your map to where the action is. Now you can see it all as it happens or you can zoom in to the hot spots. The must-have iPhone game is an even bigger must-have for the iPad (pun intended, naturally).
Command & Conquer: Red Alert

We've saved one of the biggest players in the market for last. That's right Electronic Arts is one of the major cornerers of the iPhone game market and we expect nothing less than the very best and brightest from them when it comes to the iPad. And if screenshots are to be believed, they aren't going to disappoint.
In the RTS category, Command & Conquer: Red Alert is just about insane with greatness now that the big screen does away with the iPhone's strategy limiting size issues. This iPad redo is packed with 6 additional skirmish maps, expansion packs, and incredible 3D graphics. The faster processor means faster battles with improved playability. Want to save the world, one game at a time? Here's your chance, private.
Scrabble

We never downloaded the iPhone Scrabble just because we had the iPod Classic version a couple years back and we figured it'd be more of the same, even if a little bigger. That is, a lot of squinting at teeny tiny letters. Well, rejoice word-lovers, because all that extra space on Scrabble for the iPad means extra big screens that won't tax your eyes. Triple word scores, here you come.
Mirror's Edge

Mirror's Edge not only brings fast-paced excitement to the table, but the visuals have been improved almost to the point of a true sensory experience. Your "Runner," Faith Connors never looked so good, and a game like this has never been so intense. Want to challenge your friends to a race against the ominous forces arrayed against you? Yeah, EA brought the multiplayer greatness here too.
We could go on and on, and no doubt we'll keep on alerting you to the best iPad titles as they arrive. Did we leave something out you're living and dying and aching for on your iPad? Let us know in the comments.