The iPad’s screen is four times as big as the iPhone’s screen. That opens up a lot of new possibilities for all kinds of applications, but it also allows more extensive games. I have two questions
- What existing iPhone games would look really nice on the iPad?
- What kind of new games can be developed just for the iPad alone?
I’ll start by giving a short overview of games I think will look really nice on the iPad. The second part goes into a new type of games specially developed for the iPad.
What existing iPhone games would look really nice on the iPad?
The “2X” option on the iPad is nice and allows you to play iPhone games and run iPhone applications in fullscreen mode. I think playing Tower Defense games on such a device would look real good. A game like Fieldrunners [App Store] or Sentinal 2 [App Store] would look amazing on such a big screen. The 9.7-inch screen also allows for more buttons on the screen, which means a game can have much more options added to them. It will also be a lot easier to control the game if the buttons are twice as big compared to the buttons on the iPhone.
Another genre of games that would look much better on the iPad is Boardgames. Games like Monopoly [App Store], Catan [App Store] and UNO [App Store] would be perfect for the iPad. I’ve played Catan on my iPhone several times, and although the controls work great, I think the iPad would be much more suitable for such a game. Maybe the iPad can even act like the game itself. Place the device on the table and everybody can watch the game and play together. It’s also a lot faster when you have to put away the game: just click the home-button.
A third category of games that can have more potential on the iPad I think, is Strategy games. A game like Red Alert [App Store] is much better of on a larger screen. I think it works just fine on the iPhone, but to have a touchscreen-version of Red Alert on the iPad would be far better.All the buttons of the game is making the iPhone version of Red Alert look very crowded. On the iPad there would be much more space for all the necessary buttons.
What kind of new games can be developed just for the iPad alone?
This is a hard question, because there are already so many questions in the App Store. What more can we ask for. Graphically the iPad is capable of much more sophisticated games. A game like N.O.V.A. looked very cool on the iPad, as was demoed during the January 27th keynote. Racing games, Tower Defense games, Strategy games, Boardgames, First-person shooters, they would all look amazing on the 9.7-inch touchscreen. But what kind of games can we expect for the iPad?
One of the games that would do really well I think, is Bioshock. I don’t think it would work on the iPhone, because the screen is too small to deliver the scariness of the game. The iPad would be much better at that. Another game I would like to see is Settlers 7. I know that game is not even available on the PC yet, but it could be a smart decision to bring an iPad version of The Settlers 7 on the market.
Last but not least, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare would be amazing on an iPad. The graphics of the PC versions look stunning and I think the iPad is capable of delivering the same type of graphical look of the game. Developers now have at least two months to create the first iPad-only applications. At the keynote they showed us games they developed in just 2 to 3 weeks. I think we can expect a whole bunch of new games by the time the iPad is officially launched.
Video
Below is a video from JoyStiq showing the iPad running a couple of games: Need For Speed, N.O.V.A. and Scrabble.
