Puzzle Agent 1 & 2 are only $0.99 right now. Oddy was talking them up last year, so I pounced in them.

Two hidden gems on the App Store are Rhythm Spirit and Radiant. Rhythm Spirit is a classic " tap the button when it hits this point" game, but it has a cool battle feature and an entertaining story. Radiant is Space Invaders esque, but it has a weapon shop where you can buy and upgrade weapons and is quite addictive.

Max Payne is great.

Correction: I was talking up Puzzle Agent 1. 2 was a profound disappointment, but at least it completed the story and you're only paying one-tenth of what I paid for it.

But it has virtual buttons and virtual sticks.

...did someone hack your account?

Yeah I'm really unsure about Max Payne on iPhone. I'd really like if it was super playable but I kinda don't trust the small screen and potentially imprecise aiming.

When did I say I had a problem with virtual sticks and buttons

Oh right, actiong game. Rockstar got it right. Controls really nicely.

On the iPad. No idea if it plays well on iPhone, because they're very different gaming platforms.

Not long ago, as a bit of an experiment and to build a list for future reference I put together a list of 72 iPhone/ iPad games that were for serious gamers - as in, full game experiences that played well on the iPad (and to a lesser extent, the iPhone):

Puerto Rico HD
Avadon: The Black Fortress
Romance of the Three Kingdoms Touch Plus
Minecraft Pocket Edition
Groove Coaster
Quarrel DX
Call of Cthulhu: Wasted Land
Civilization Revolution
Adventure Bar Story
Battle Academy
Chaos Rings
Chaos Rings 2
Final Fantasy III
Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions
Ascendancy
Ash 2: Shadows
The Bard’s Tale
Contre Jour
Dark Meadow
Infinity Blade

Infinity Blade 2
Dungeon Crawlers
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective
Galaxy on Fire 2
Grand Theft Auto 3
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
Shantae: Risky’s Revenge
Reiner Knizia’s Cluster Master
Reiner Knizia’s Samurai
Soul Calibur
Sega & Sonic All-Stars Racing
Zen Pinball
F1 2011
The Quest Gold
Puzzle Quest 2
Wizardry Labyrinth of Lost Souls
Ravenmark Scourge of Estellion
Anomaly Warzone Earth
Command & Conquer Red Alert

Greed Corp HD
History Egypt Engineering an Empire
Max and the Magic Marker
NyxQuest HD
Sid Meier’s Pirates
Sim City Deluxe
Game Dev Story
Real Racing 2 HD
Ticket to Ride
Epoch
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12
Scribblenauts Remix
Sky Gamblers: Air Supremacy
Batman Arkham City Lockdown
Mechinarium
Hunters 2
Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nation
Dead Space for iPad

Mass Effect Infiltrator
NBA Jam
The Sims Medieval
World of Goo HD
NBA 2K12 for iPad
Football Manager Handheld
Dungeon Defenders
Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP
Sky Gamblers: Rise of Glory
Secret of Mana
Chrono Trigger
Motoheroz HD
Bit.Trip Beat HD
Katamari Amore
Devil May Cry Refrain

It amazes me that people insist the iPhone/ iPad can't be good games devices in the face of all this evidence.

Game Dev Story only lasted about 3 days for me.... Loved it at first. Then, there was no more drive to keep playing....

My favorites would have to be Air Wings, Pinball HD, Infinity Blade, and Peggle. Then again, most Popcap games are pretty awesome!

FYI guys... iOS 5.1.1 is out if you haven't gotten it. The description said minor stuf, like bug fixes, etc. Just thought I'd say that.

I have bought

&

Weebl Musicator and Russian Dancing Men.

With Musicator, I'm quite interested in being able to isolate the track channels in some of the Weebl's great songs, but it only comes with four. Fortunately, it isn't Saints Row the Third, and the extra tracks don't cost much at all, so I'll definitely be getting them.

As for Russian Dancing Men, has anyone else played it yet? It's a rhythm game, but it isn't quite as sophisticated as the ones I'm used to, and I'm not acustomed to playing games with the iPod Touch (it looks easier on the iPad). Also, I reckon I've got a fairly good sense of rhythm (after playing Ouendan on the DS), but I'm not sure if some of the cues are off beat.

It might be to do with my model of iPod Touch.

I've gotten through the first dificulty (whereby you only have to tap the screen to evade the many different obstacles), and can see a lot of hours in this. Each level is graded after all.

NOVA 3 is really, really, really fun. The multiplayer, apart from a few balancing issues, is outstanding. I only wish I had an iPad 2 so I could play on the bigger maps without ridiculous framerate issues. Even the indoor maps see some pretty frequent drops, but the fact that I keep coming back for more despite all that says a lot about how much fun it is.

The support for pre-iPad 2/iPhone 4S is pretty terrible though, so unless they smooth out the framerate you should approach with caution if you have an older device.

It's probably also worth pointing out the really obvious here: This is a Gameloft game. Only buy if you can stand hopelessly derivative and cheaply made copies of better games.

It amazes me when people praise something to prove their point, and then turn around and knock it to prove another.

Gameloft makes no pretenses about being original. They make technically impressive mobile shooters with incredibly solid (and fun) multiplayer.

I haven't played the mighty Halo or masterful Call of Duty — all I know is that I've had a damn lot of fun with GL's shooters, and if you're looking for multiplayer FPS fun on the go you could do a lot worse.

Let's be clear here. There's not a single redeeming feature to these games in my opinion. However, I added Modern Combat in there as proof that the iPad/ iPhone can do a FPS that's popular and well received by the majority.

I'll just stick to playing the other 71 games on my list

I have a SNES emulator which can be played with a wiimote.
That + 3DS stand = Public Badassery.

"stumbles into front door"

Well I'm sorta back in the Mobile game market again. Got a Galaxy Player 5.... if anyone has any good suggestions on games or such let me know.

Got it mainly for drawing though

This morning on the train I saw a dude playing an emulated version of Pokemon Blue/ Red on a Sony Xperia Play.

That was pretty awesome.

Hah, is that legal?