1. Car Wars
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Original Car Wars "Pocket Game" Box Art
Published way back in 1981 |
There are a few noteable real time car combat games out there such as
Death Rally,
Auto Mangle,
Indestructible, and
Horror Racing. I've had fun playing them all, but there's but nothing that's turn based. A while ago I went through a period of playing
Dark Wind which is a 3D turn based combat game, it was fun for a while but the interface was a bit clunky on my old mac. there's a massive gap in the market here for a top down, turn based car combat game with an RPG/Tournament community angle. Come on SJG this needs to happen alongside the re-launch of the Car Wars boardgame you promised during the OGRE kickstarter.
2. Citadels
There's an iOS version of San Juan which sports a similar theme and variable abilities mechanic, so I don't see why there's not been a Citadels app. I don't know how difficult it would be to program the AI element but surely it's not be too tough a nut to crack. If you solve that problem I think you're half way towards a version of the other Bruno Faidutti classic
Mission Red Planet.
3. Formula D / Formula De
When Asmodee re-launched Formula De as Formula D an inbox flyer promised "raceronline", an online version of the game with tournaments and the usual multiplay options. Well that never really happened (unless you spoke french) and the online site has since gone belly up. Before anyone calls foul, yes I am aware of
Racer Feud, which whilst a pretty good version is not officially licensed and personally I've found a bit buggy on my iPad2.
4. Robo Rally
This is one of my favourite and a classic of the "programming" style games. Once again a talented developer has released their own unlicensed version in the guise of Parcours.Robo, sadly it's a one player puzzle game and not the multiplayer anarchic deathmatch so typical of every game I've ever hand the pleasure to play. I don't know who holds the licencse for this one as it's been through the hands of several different publishers since it was originally printed in 1994. It's last reprint was in 2006 and it's high time that this got some appification.
5. Thebes
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| Thebes by Queen Games |
Whenever I feel the itch to be Indiana Jones, I dig out Thebes (no pun intended). There's just so much variety in it but the game itself is quite simple to play, you either travel, research or dig. I'd love to play it more often but the pre-game set-up takes a while to resolve in exactly the same way as Settlers of Catan. It's probably not on any developers wishlist, but it's a game I love and I'd relish the opportunity to buy it in app form.
Honourable Mentions
I was going to add
Battlelore to this list, but it appears that
Fantasy Flight are in the process of releasing an iOS/Android/PC version, (albeit single player) of the game in time for Christmas. I'll also be checking out the Bloodbowl app, maybe do a video review in the not too distant future.
