Stop watching movies on your iPad. Stop browsing the web.
Your iPad can play some great games.
iPad games that shine use the extra screen space and sharper resolution to deliver touch gaming that captivates. Which games do that best? Read on.
Update 11/16/2012: Osmos HD gives way to The Room and Mirrors of Albion knocks off Quarrel Deluxe in this latest revision of our list of Bests for the iPad.
Beat Sneak Bandit
You've got to give it up to a game that makes it feel like your fingers are dancing and Beat Sneak Bandit does exactly that. The indie rhythm/stealth/puzzle hybrid turns players into a thief out to reclaim all the timepieces of a hapless town after they've been abducted by the evil Duke Clockface. The Bandit can only move in time with each level's music, which makes navigating the puzzle-like structure of Clockface Mansion both extremely tricky and fantastically catchy.
A Good Match for: Folks with dance-floor insecurity. Maybe you're an ungainly tangle of limbs when you and friends go out to hear bands play, despite being able to hear parts of the various songs that make you want to move. This happens to some of us. Because you can only take steps on the beat, BSB can help you groove with confidence. We promise you'll feel cooler.
Not for Those Who Want: Musical variety. While Beat Sneak Bandit's funk jazz instrumentals are nigh-irresistible, they don't diverge from the game's groove-centric norm. Those wondering how different genres of music—like, say, country or classical—might affect the experience can only dream of pilfering to the sounds of Stravinsky.
Here's how it looks in action.
Purchase from the App Store.
Ghost Trick
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective was a triumph on the DS, a super-cool story/puzzle game drowning in great style, cool animation, and a funny, truly touching story. It makes the transition to iOS even better than you'd think, and many of the Rube Goldbergian puzzles work even better with the iPhone or iPad's touch-screen.
A Good Match for: People who like jokes, animation fans, music buffs, pomeranian owners.
Not for Those Who Want: A lot of gameplay, a non-linear story, a game without any pomeranians.
Here's how it looks in action.
Purchase from the App Store.
Hundreds
Remember the first time you counted to 100? Felt like a powerful achievement, right? It was as if you successfully uttered a powerful incantation for the first time. In its harder levels, Hundreds captures that feeling perfectly. To play Semi Secret Software's clever masterpiece, all you need to do tap one or more spheres on the screen so that they add up to 100. The one caveat is that the globes can't touch anything when they're red and growing. What you wind up with is a unique game that challenges your brain and reflexes to an equal degree.
A Good Match for: Recovering mathletes. While the game starts off deceptively easy, but it eventually becomes a maddening endeavor to complete a simple task. The counting isn't the challenge in Hundreds; it's working around spolier circles (which you can't add to your tally), floating buzzsaws and other obstructions that pop up in your way.
Not for Those Who Want: Sudoku-style game design. Hundreds isn't just a static cerebral experience on a grid. You're going to have multiple track objects moving randomly to get to the magic number so make sure your eyes are freshyou're your fingers are limber.
Here's how it looks in action.
Purchase from the App Store.
Infinity Blade
Players who enter Chair Entertainment's medieval epic get embroiled in an endless skein of mano-a-mano duels with giant ogres and demonic knights. The combination of treasure grabbing, loot acquisition and slash-&-dodge combat will keep players glued to their tablet for hours.
A Good Match for: Console game players. Infinity Blade raised the bar on the level of persistent visual detail developers could accomplish on iOS and its swipe-and-tap controls make each swordfight immersive in way that button-pressing on a gamepad can't match.
Not for Those Who Want: Variety. Infinity Blade doesn't over-reach in terms of what it offers. It does what it does well, but you'll get the entire gist of the game in about 15 minutes.
Here's how it looks in action.
Purchase from the App Store.
Kingdom Rush
This tower-defense title initially distinguishes itself with a cartoony renaissance faire motif that makes identifying your units easy and eye-pleasing. Its more crucial improvement is in offering permanent incremental upgrades that you can carry over from session to session, making it so that you get persistent rewards from dedicated play. That's how you build a relationship that lasts, my liege.
A Good Match for: Folks addicted to upgrades. Players just don't get better structures as in loads of other similar games. Kingdom Rush also delivers stronger spells for your buffed-up emplacements, too. And you know what? You can level up those spells, too.
Not for Those Who Want: Quiet strategy sessions. The characters who war with each other blurt out corny catchphrases that will annoy you really quickly. It's enough to make you wish death on your own soldiers.
Here's how it looks in action.
Purchase from the App Store.
Mirror's Edge
Adapting a first-person, 3D parkour adventure into a 2D sidescroller seemed like folly but anyone who plays Mirror's Edge on iOS will see that the portable version maintains the kinectic sense of flow as the original console version.
A Good Match for: Folks too scared to actually do free-running. If you've ever looked up at city rooftops during you work commute and wondered what fun could be had bounding across them, then you should make the acquaintance of Mirror's Edge messenger heroine Faith. It also helps if you like Canabalt, since this game's similar.
Not for Those Who Want: Gunplay. Mirror's Edge favors forward momentum and the biggest enemies you'll face are your own reflexes and simulated gravity.
Here's how it looks in action.
Purchase from the App Store.
Mirrors of Albion
The hidden object genre is too big to ignore on the iPad, which is sort of ironic if you look at it the right way. Amidst a storm of romance, mystery and horror-themed games saunters Mirrors of Albion, a story-driven affair that takes place in an alternate version of Victorian England that's been invaded by the characters of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. The Mad Hatter, Constable Cheshire and other familiar faces guide you on a merry chase through countless variations of hidden object games. It's rather wondrous.
A Good Match for: Folks with a penchant for flights of fancy and a keen sense of sight. Mirrors of Albion will delight fans of Carroll's work with its whimsical twists and turns, but a keen eye is required lest frustration rob you of your enjoyment.
Not for Those Who Want: Action. There is much to be poked at here, but nothing you have to urgently poke at. The genre is about kicking back with a glass of wine and wandering through painted works of art, pointing out things. Making shooting noises with your mouth when you touch the screen won't help.
Here's how it looks in action.
Purchase from the App Store.
The Room
There is a room. Inside the room is a box. The box is covered with knobs and dials, cryptic messages and foreign mechanisms. Figuring out how those work is key to opening the box. And inside? Another box, more convoluted that the last. There is a mystery here, and the solution lies in the center of this intricately assembled, gorgeously rendered assemblage of brain-skewering puzzles.
A Good Match for: People that believe they are incredibly intelligent. The Room exists in-part to confirm or disprove that belief.
Not for Those Who Want: A long-lasting experience. Once you've made it to the center and unraveled the mystery behind this intricate puzzle box there's no reason to go back.
Here's how it looks in action.
Purchase from the App Store.
SpaceChem
You'll need to turn atoms into molecules in this scaled-down version of Zachtronics Industries' PC hit, which turns controlling the building blocks of all matter into unexpected fun.
A Good Match for: Middle management. Sorta like a manufacturing chain employee, SpaceChem tasks you with drawing supply routes and juggling resources in order to reach each level's required quota. But there's no people to yell at, so it's better than reality
Not for Those Who Want: A Wealth of Resources. The margin for mistakes is very low in SpaceChem and you'll do a lot of trial-and-error runs to figure out ways to win.
Here's how it looks in action.
Purchase from the App Store.
SpellTower
Word games proliferate on the App Store like mushrooms after a rainstorm, but SpellTower stands out because its acrobatic spin on the word-find model. Nouns, verbs and other parts of speech wind sinuously throughout a vertical grid and each move shifts the game board, making you the architect of your own fate.
A Good Match for: Scrabble fanatics. Playing SpellTower feels less like being at the mercy of letters doled out to you and more like you're fighting your own perception of the game board.
Not for Those Who Want: Multiplayer competition. Zach Gage's alphabet assemblage is a one-player-at-a-time affair and the only bragging rights come from notching a higher score when a session ends. (SpellTower has added multiplayer since this list was last updated, see below for a new complaint.) Roadblocks. It's maddening how the combinations of blackout squares and numerical requisites—gotta have six letters to use this letter, buddy—can stop you just short of nabbing an awesome scoring word.
Here's how it looks in action.
Purchase from the App Store.
Sword & Sworcery
A retro-styled adventure that pays homage in equal parts to Robert E. Howard and Shigeru Miyamoto, this indie release uses a grainy impressionistic art style to draw players into a lo-fi fantasy quest.
A Good Match for: Folks whose last gaming hardware was the Atari 2600. Not only will Sworcery's visuals ping their nostalgia, the ease of the game invites lapsed gamers back and its clever presentation shows off how sophisticated gaming's become.
Not for Those Who Want: Fast-paced action. You're encouraged to meander and explore in this game and soaking up its decompressed experience matters more than winning out its battles.
Here's how it looks in action.
Purchase from the App Store.
World of Goo
Built by a two-man team, the clever construction game tasks players with connecting lovable globs into gooey assemblages to get from point A to B. Already loved as one of the biggest indie successes ever, 2D Boy's hit feels like it should've been on the iPad all along.
A Good Match for: architectural fanatics. The Goo balls become a drippy erector set and the challenge of completing the levels while using as few as possible presents a fun, addictive puzzle archetype unique in its execution.
Not for Those Who Want: Hyper-realism. While the tee-totter physics in World of Goo are well-simulated, the humans and Goo Balls look like they're straight out of grade school sketchbooks.
Here's how it looks in action.
Purchase from the App Store.
NOTE: This list will be updated if and when we discover better games. We will only ever list 12 games, at the most.
The 12 Best Games for the iPad