Gaming At Your Fingertips

With over 2 million sold already, what can the iPad bring to the gaming community?

Indie developers developed new-found love with Apple with the release of the iPhone and iPod Touch thanks to the App Store. With few barriers between the developer and the growing popularity of the iPhone, the possibilities have been nearly endless for small teams or solo developers to get their games to the masses. And the iPad, whether you deem it innovative or just 'an oversized and overpriced iPhone', is all set to take that to the next level.

Even the most vehement of Apple-haters agree that the physical design of the iPad is simplistic- a single button on the main interface leaves the rest of the 9.56 inches (okay, most of the rest of it) to be a multitouch playground. And a playground is exactly the path Apple seems to be going down. Here are five games that have been given a new lease of life on Apple's newest gadget.

Need For Speed: Shift

A racing game on a system with no physical controller sounds a little odd at first; until you remember that the iPad is equipped with an accelerometer, which is exactly what EA have kept from the iPhone version as the way to power through the streets and throw your car- of which there are now at least 20- into a point-scoring drift. The inclusion of a cockpit view on the larger screen may go far to make the player feel more a part of the vehicle, and the ability to physically move the iPad as if it were a real steering wheel could be how driving games are meant to be played.

However, accelerometers can never be relied upon to be able to follow movements perfectly 100% of the time; and this may just be one of the falling down points of the game. And regardless of the iPad's relatively low weight (0.68kg or 0.73kg for the WiFi and WiFi + 3G models respectively), long stints of 'driving' are likely to take their toll on the arms.

Worms HD

For many people, the inclusion of a Worms game on the iPad was a forgone conclusion. The popularity of the iPhone version pretty much confirmed that these kamikaze invertebrates would seem another outing on the larger screen. And it is the screen that gives the new release an advantage over it's iPhone predecessor; let's face it, most of the fun of playing Worms is going head to head against a friend, which proved less than ideal on the small viewing space of the iPhone. Opening up to a bigger screen makes the task of passing the device around for multiplayer that little bit less annoying.

However, it seems that the worms don't always do just what you want them to do. A swipe slightly off means one of your valuable team-mates backflipping to their watery doom instead of making a much-needed leap to higher ground. This is one game that would also benefit from a Bluetooth or WiFi multiplayer mode, allowing each player to constantly survey the battlefield as moves are made.

Sam and Max The Devil's Playhouse

In my opinion, it's games like these that were meant for something like the iPad. Point-and-click adventures are a match made in heaven for the multitouch interface, with the screen size able to give enough of the environment to make for a pleasant gaming experience. Easily a game that is accessible to all, whether you are a habitual gamer or someone who just needs something pass the time on commutes; you need nothing more than a brain and a finger.

The main issue with this game seems to be the 3D environment; as powerful as the iPad is, it still has moments of struggle with rendering the environments and characters in all their 3-dimensional glory. Aside from that, Telltale Games seem to have faithfully adhered to the comedic scripting and the episodic release of the new story, which has worked well with their Steam-based releases so far.