It's not about bringing console games to mobile phones anymore; it's about transforming traditional console genres to suit the smart phone format. See what I'm rambling on about as you browse the Week in Gaming Apps.
Mobile games are beginning to embrace what they are rather than attempt to emulate what they could never be. Take Luke Plunkett's Gaming App of the Day pick, Total War Battles. Instead of attempting a slimmed-down version of the hit PC series, Sega's morphed the series into a strategy board game, perfect for the iPad.
On the darker, Owen Good side of things, Big Win Hockey's pay-to-really-play action demonstrates the simplification of the sports genre into something more easily digestible by the masses.
What other radical transformations will mobile gaming inspire? Tune in next week to find out!
If you have a suggestion for an app for the iPhone, iPad, Android or Windows Phone 7 that you'd like to see highlighted, let us know.
Glitch Tank Cleverly Turns Your iPad into a 8-Bit Board Game Battlefield
If Battlezone and, say, Risk had a baby, it'd look a lot like Glitch Tank. Michael Brough's aggressively retro game turns your iPad into an 8-bit theater of sci-fi warfare. More »
Spellsword Keeps Endless Battling Addictive And Fun
Sometimes you just want to wander around a room and slash things with a sword. While listening to great 8-bit tunes. And squishing adorable baddies like bees and slimes. And collecting spell cards that poison or freeze or incinerate your opponents in glorious violent fashion. More »
Total War Battles Brings a PC's War to the iPad
Sadly, you cannot play Creative Assembly's Total War games on an iPad. What you can now do, though, is play an iPad game by the same developers, which has almost nothing in common with the series with which it shares a name, but is still worth a look. Total War Battles isn't an attempt by CA to bring the Total War experience to a tablet. It's instead an attempt by the team to create something new, a blend of puzzle game and RTS that makes the most of the platform while still keeping things quick and simple enough to be able to play in short bursts. More »
Saving Alien Lifeforms One Tentacle War At A Time
There is something really fitting about a puzzle game on a mobile device. I'm not sure if its how pensive or relaxing the activity can often feel, or if it's to do with the nature of distractions people typically opt for. More »
I've Seen the Future of Mobile Sports Gaming and, for Better or for Worse, It Looks Like Big Win Hockey
After two years of playing console ports with virtual control pads on my iPhone, I think I'm starting to grasp the future of team sports video games on mobile devices. And it is nothing like what I play in my living room. More »