Not all iPhone games require you to pay 99 cents or more to download
them. So what are the best free games for the iPhone? These selections
are worth paying for even though they won’t cost you a dime.
Who would have though that Apple’s iOS platform was the perfect platform for extended games of
Scrabble-like board games? Words With Friends Free is exactly that -- a brand of
Scrabble
that you can play against your friends by taking turns, over the
Internet, at your own pace. Each player places a word and submits it to
Words With Friends, which vets it to make sure it really is a word, and
keeps score. You can play up to 20 games at a time, with as much time as
you want between turns -- it’s all up to you. And best of all (yes,
better than free), you can play Words With Friends cross-platform,
against players on Android phones as well as iPhones or iPads.
Mentioning
Angry Birds here feels like paying homage to the king, but the free
version of Rovio Mobile’s inescapable and iconic casual bird-flinging
masterpiece is actually a really solid game. First off, it features 15
levels that aren’t available in any other version of the game, which is
at least something of an incentive to check it out. Secondly, it
features the same very solid gameplay mechanics that make the paid
version of Angry Birds work so well. Angry Birds Free is ad-supported
and not nearly as cool as the full version of the game -- that sometimes
gets updates with additional levels -- but it is a free version of
Angry Birds that rewards your frugality with unique stages to play
through.
Anyone
who’s given Sudoku a try in the puzzles section of a newspaper knows
how addictive it can be. The logic game has a simple premise, yet can be
incredibly difficult. You have a grid of 81 squares, and that grid is
divided into larger blocks that each contain nine squares. The key to
the game is to make each column, row and block contain all numbers 1
through 9 without repeating. Once you understand the rules (for example,
when you fill in a blank square with a 6, there can’t be another 6 in
the same line either horizontally or vertically), the game becomes
interesting as you start to use logic to fill in blank squares and
eliminate numbers that could potentially fill them. Sudoku 2 is a
beautiful, free way to play Sudoku on your iPhone, and it’s as addictive
as it is elegant. The game provides all the features you would get if
you were playing with a pen and paper, including the ability to mark
squares with hypothetical numbers that
could occupy them as you
continue to eliminate options. It’s packed full of puzzles of varying
difficulties and seems to go on forever.
There
are tons of puzzle levels in Unblock Me Free, even though it’s a demo
game for its paid counterpart. The premise is simple, even though the
game is challenging: in each square level, you have a series of wooden
rectangles that are placed together in the grid. One of the pieces is
colored, and this one you’re trying to slide off the screen. The blocks
can move horizontally or vertically, but only in the direction that
they’re smallest side is facing – in other words, you can’t move the
blocks sideways. Even the beginner puzzles are a decent challenge.
Unblock Me has an addictive nature that will draw you into its free
puzzle-solving charms for a good long time.
After the hugely successful
Words With Friends, Zynga’s new take on the traditional hangman game is another winner. With the same drop-in-and-play vibe as
Words,
it’s a game that players can dip in to at their own pace. Create words
for your opponents and see if they can solve them. There are lifelines
and hints available if you get stuck (plus an in-app store where you can
buy more coins), but get five words wrong in a game and you’ll lose.
This word game doesn’t pack the same strategic punch as
Words With Friends, but it’s still fun to pick up and play now and again.
The follow up to mega-hit
Paper Toss
offers even more time-wasting fun for free. The original game was
downloaded more than 100 million times, but the sequel takes things to a
new level. More than just paper, you get to throw bananas, grenades,
tomatoes and more, all in new, improved settings with crisper, cleaner
graphics. The game’s dynamics remain similar, but the gameplay has been
refreshed and improved to increase replayability. Factor in more
power-ups, more people to throw things at, more unlockable items and
Game Center leaderboards and Paper Toss 2.0 adds up to a heap of fun.
Here’s a prediction. A few minutes with the free, trial version of
Fruit Ninja, and you’ll probably want to fork out the 99 cents for the
full experience.
Fruit Ninja Lite lets you sample just the classic mode, but omits the
excellent arcade, Zen and multiplayer modes avaiable in the paid-for
version. Still, what you get for free is a lot of fun: as fruit flies
across the screen you must slash it with your finger like a samurai, but
watch out for bombs or it’s game over. It’s a dynamic that’s perfectly
suited to the iPhone’s touchscreen and furiously addictive.
There’s
an awful lot to explore in Six-Guns, and what’s more, it’s all free.
Sure, you can use in-app purchases to speed things up a bit, but
developers Gameloft make it clear in their description that you can play
through the entire game without spending a dime. Set in an old West
environment, Six-Guns is an open-world cowboy adventure with plenty of
varied missions to enjoy, usually involving gun-totin' and horseback
ridin'. Though the storyline and plot isn’t the greatest, play often and
your character will gain access to better weapons and you can hone your
cowboy skills no end.
Developer
Zynga hit the jackpot with this one — it’s the most popular Texas
Hold’em poker game in the App Store and on Facebook with an an estimated
6 million people playing their hands every day. If you’re just a
beginner, it’s easy to pick up and learn, but if you’re a more seasoned
card shark, there are also plenty of competitive tables available. It’s
easy to chat with your fellow players and various tournaments could see
you winning thousands of chips to keep you playing that little bit
longer.
This free, trial version of
Amazing Breaker,
is an excellent physics-based puzzler with plenty of ice-smashing
action. There’s 16 levels to try here, and you’re pretty likely to get
hooked and want to upgrade to the full game. With universally positive
reviews, this challenging puzzle game sees you blasting ice sculptures
with bombs. You need to destroy at least 90 percent of each sculpture to
move on, so the trick is to demolish every little fragment of ice, and
therein lies the challenge. It’s easy to learn, but hard to master like
the best and most addictive games.