Fishing Frenzy for the iPhone should not be confused with Rapala’s Fishing Frenzy, as the two games are completely different, both literally and figuratively. Whereas Rapala’s was a fairly realistic attempt at a fishing simulation, the iPhone’s Fishing Frenzy is a strict arcade style fishing game, and a very limited one at that.

Fishing Frenzy is controlled entirely via the tilting action of the iPhone. You move the phone left and right to move your boat around atop the water, and jerk it up and down to raise and lower your line in the water.

Fishing Frenzy’s biggest problem is that it ignores the most interesting aspect of fishing games (and real life fishing for that matter) by eliminating the battle once the fish is hooked. Instead of intense battles that could’ve been controlled in a number of creative ways, the fish simply flies out of the water the second you hook it, at which point you must manoeuvre the boat around so the fish lands inside the boat.

This gameplay mechanic also has the effect of making the game zip by far too quickly. Without prolonged battles for fish in place, the game instead uses a timer and a points system to determine success, and levels are extremely short, with the early levels clocking in at under a minute to beat. With only twelve levels, you can surely guess that there isn’t much gameplay to be had. The game could easily be beaten in less than half an hour.

The only real variety to the basic gameplay is the inclusion of a few obstacles that you need to avoid, in the form of electric eels and swordfish, and the fact that different fish award varying amounts of points. Other than that you simply move your hook around to the fish and then your boat around to catch them.

The graphics are adequate, but not much more than that. Most of the fish are nice and colourful, but the background and character art is very uninspiring. It doesn’t help that the same background is used throughout the entire game.

The developer has touted the fact that their game is currently free for a limited time, which is hard to imagine given the game’s current state. How they could realistically expect to charge money for it at present is beyond me. Even as a free game I can’t really recommend it to anyone. Sure, some people may enjoy what little gameplay there is, but that could be said for thousands of free games on the iPhone and PC.

Until the gameplay is more diverse and interesting, there’s more variety in backgrounds and levels, and more levels themselves, this game is nothing more than a waste of time, albeit a small amount of time.

Pros:

• Cute fish

Cons:

• Ignores the meat of fishing, the battles
• Far too short
• No variety

Score: 3/10

Price: Free

Fishing Frenzy on iTunes

While most sports feature representation from at least two major series, EA’s Tiger Woods PGA Tour series has really been the only game in town for years. In fact, off the top of my head it’s difficult to even come up with another golf game in the last decade that has used real golfers (the only other notable golf series is the arcade friendly Hot Shots Golf series). So it’s not surprising that Tiger Woods’ foray onto the iPhone heralded the first major golf game to hit the device. Like on consoles, the iPhone has seen a smattering of arcade style golf games, but nothing to please the hardcore simulation fan (which most golf fans likely are, golf not exactly being the most accessible sport in the world).

I’ve played the Tiger series since before it was even the Tiger series, back when it was simply PGA Tour Golf, and Tiger was still in high school and already shooting lower scores than I ever will. As I already had the ’08 version on PC, and had a plethora of iPhone games to keep me occupied I wasn’t all that worried about picking it up on the iPhone. It wasn’t until I saw a friend playing it on his iPhone that I decided to pick it up, as it was far more impressive looking than I imagined it would be.

The first thing that jumps out at you is the quality of the graphics. I seem to continually underestimate the power of the iPhone, as it seems every week there’s a new game popping up that wows me. The courses in Tiger Woods look great with long draw distances and impressive looking character models and animation.

Anyone familiar with golf videogames has surely seen a swing meter or two in their time, and while previous Tiger Woods games added their new True Motion control scheme, the tried and true swing meter was still present if desired. Tiger does away with the swing meter, forcing you to use the touch method of control, which Is similar to the True Motion controls found in other versions. I’ve always preferred the swing meter, as that’s how I grew up playing golf games, but the touch controls in this version work well.

On the right side of the screen is a pyramid shaped device that accomplishes all your shot making desires. After choosing a club and aiming, you simply run your finger down the pyramid to set the power, with the bottom of the pyramid being the height of your power, and then run it back up the pyramid to set your accuracy. Running your finger left or right as you bring it back up the pyramid (either intentionally or unintentionally) will have the result of hooking or slicing your ball. This is ideal for avoiding obstacles or coming into difficult pins at the perfect angle. The controls are simple and easy to master without much difficulty, though those without steady fingers may run into some difficulty. It would also be unwise to play this one while riding in a car or in any area where you’re bound to get jostled, as the slightest jerk can send your ball careening into the bushes from whence you may never return.

You create your own character to begin the game, and progression through the game is centered on finishing well in tournaments, pulling off good shots to earn extra money, and developing your character so you can move up through the ranks and eventually face down Tiger himself. There are plenty of different courses, events, and challenges to partake in, which could keep you busy for weeks.

Really the only thing lacking from Tiger’s arsenal is online play. The real-time online play of the console versions made online golf more viable than ever, but there’s no online component to speak of in this iPhone version. Not even an online leaderboard.

Despite the lack of online play, Tiger Woods PGA Tour is a great portable golf game. Find yourself a quiet place to play and keep it in the short grass.

Pros:

• Courses and characters are rendered with great detail
• Controls are simple to pick up and fun to play with
• Plenty of events and challenges to go through

Cons:

• No online play
• The classic swing meter is nowhere to be found

Score: 9/10

Price: $9.99

Tiger Woods PGA Tour on iTunes

As big a sports fan as I am, there’s one sport that towers above all the rest in my heart, and that is baseball (and I could lose my Canadian citizenship for saying that, though hockey is second). Sadly, on the videogaming front, baseball games have largely missed the mark. The simulation style games tend to excel with stat tracking and realism but ultimately fall flat in the realm of fun, while the arcade style games simply don’t have the depth a hardcore baseball fan wants. There have been a few games over the years from each category that have impressed though, with MLB’ 09 The Show and MVP Baseball 2005 being standouts on the simulation side, while classic games like Baseball Stars and Extra Innings were simple but fun arcade style versions.

Extra Innings is the game that immediately jumped to my mind when I first saw Baseball Superstars, and there are definitely some similarities. The graphics are colourful and charming, with superdeformed (big-headed) players, and cute animations. Another series it draws inspiration from is Konami’s brilliant Jikkyo Powerful Pro Yakyu series, which we finally got an English version of a few years back in the form of MLB Power Pros, after years of it remaining a Japan exclusive.

Baseball Superstars’ My League mode is very similar to Power Pros’ character and team development modes, mixing RPG and baseball into one beautiful package (at least for an RPG and baseball nut like myself that is). In this mode you can train and develop your character, right down to developing his social life off the field. It’s like a bizarre fusion of baseball and Persona that works quite well. While lacking the level of depth seen in the Power Pros games, it’s an impressive feature that I had a ton of fun playing around with. In addition to the My League mode there are plenty of other modes available to test your skills in, such as the homerun derby mode, the season mode, or just a simple exhibition game.

Baseball Superstars does not feature an MLB licence unfortunately, so the teams and players aren’t real, but this is relatively common for arcade style games and not a huge detriment. There are 10 teams available and a number of different stadiums to play in.

Baseball Superstars is played entirely via a virtual d-pad and buttons on the touch screen which was perhaps a curious choice, though it works out fairly well. Touch screen controls could have easily been implemented for pitching and hitting and likely would’ve been both more intuitive and fun to play around with than the onscreen buttons, but regardless the game plays well with the virtual pad. Games play fast, while featuring just enough depth to keep the more serious baseball fan interested.

An excellent addition to the iPhone’s growing library, Baseball Superstars mimics well the classic arcade style baseball games of the past, while adding new features to make it stand on its own merits. Every iPhone toting baseball fan would do well to pick this one up.

Pros

• Many play modes to choose from, including the excellent My League mode
• Cute graphics and animations
• Fast and fun baseball game

Cons

• No real teams or players (though this isn’t surprising)
• Curious choice of control scheme when direct touch screen could’ve worked well

Score: 8.5/10

Price - $2.99

Baseball Superstars on iTunes

Bowling games are fairly rare, and good bowling games even more so. They need just the right amount of skill and randomness to succeed, lest the game become too easy or too hard. The first great bowling game I played was Brunswick Bowling on the SNES, which featured real pros, tournaments, and a great career mode, all stuffed around a good engine that made the game challenging without being too random. Sadly, Flick Bowling is nowhere near this level of play.

The most distressing thing about Flick Bowling is that for a gaming platform that has so many games devoted to realistic physics, one of the few games that actually needs a good physics engine is completely inept in that regard. Rather than pins being affected by a combination of ball velocity, weight, and angle, the pins just randomly fall down in completely unpredictable and illogical patterns. Not only do they function completely unrealistically, but there’s so little pin action that it makes getting strikes and what should be routine spares infuriatingly random.

Game options are very limited. You can practice your skills in free play mode, or take on an opponent in versus mode, be it human or computer. You can’t create your own bowler or even rename the existing characters, all of which come with horrendously generic background stories that sound like they were written by a third grader. There also aren’t any unlockables, like new balls, character outfits, etc.

Things get better once you hit the lanes, at least at first. The graphics are outstanding, and really capture the feel of shiny lanes and balls, with lights reflecting nicely off everything. The bowling alley is deserted though, with every other lane barren, which somewhat ruins any feeling of immersion.

You can choose between different balls, but have no choice over ball parameters. Once your ball is chosen you step up to the line (there’s no animation of your player taking a real shot, they simply release the ball right at the line), at which point you notice the giant bowling ball is bigger than your player’s head, a rather unsettling sight.

Drag your finger around to position your bowler and then release your finger and flick to toss the ball. You can add mild amounts of spin to the ball after release by swiping your finger across the screen in either direction, though you can never seem to throw a true curve shot.

That’s all there is to it. There’s virtually no skill involved, and even if there were, the random pin physics would completely negate it. You simply position yourself randomly and flick, hoping for the best.

With few bowling games on the market, this game may still prove of some interest to gamers, as evidenced by its status as one of 2008’s top selling iPhone games, despite being one of the lowest rated games with a substantial number of reviews on the iTunes store at just 2 ½ stars.

Unless you’re desperate for a bowling game on your iPhone, approach with caution. Don’t let the good graphics fool you into thinking the gameplay follows suit.

Pros:

• Nice shiny graphics

Cons:

• Limited options
• Bad pin physics

Price: $1.99

Score: 4/10

Flick Bowling on iTunes

Being a huge sports fan, and in particular a huge hockey fan, I knew I had to check out the new Backyard Hockey. While my sports gaming tastes typically skew to the more stat heavy, simulation side of the scale, there have been a collection of great casual sports games over the years which have been a blast to play above all else, and it’s this I was hoping to find in Backyard Hockey.

The Backyard sports series has been around for a few years now, typically thrusting you into the shoes of your favourite sporting superstars, complete with small bodies and super-deformed heads. It’s like a twisted homage to RPG’s from yesteryear, wrapped around the motion captured, multi-million dollar bodies of today’s sports icons.

I had briefly played the GameBoy Advance version of Backyard Hockey shortly after it was released, and had some fun with it, despite the limited season mode and stat tracking. Playing around with super-deformed versions of Jarome Iginla, or as original characters with their own unique abilities kept me busy for a couple short seasons worth of play.

So the fact that Backyard Hockey for the iPhone was developed by Atari and available for a measly dollar convinced me that there was no way this could go wrong. Unfortunately, I was wrong, as it could go wrong, and did.

The most obvious change is in the gameplay department. Instead of the 3 on 3 games of past versions, what you get here is basically a glorified game of air hockey, solely limited to 1 on 1 games, with no netminders, simply a gaping slot where a super-deformed Martin Brodeur or Nikolai Khabibulin should be.

On that front there are no real players at all, another major disappointment. You’re stuck playing as Pablo against his motley crew of friends. To make matters even worse, you can’t even see any type of character features during game play. You get an almost 2-D vertical view that show’s little but the player’s helmets.

Anyone who’s played air hockey will know the drill here. You take a shot from your side of the rink and try to score into the net, either by simply blasting it by your opponent, or by using the boards to bank it in. After a goal, or should you fail to score and the opponent recovers in their zone, it’s now their turn to shoot, and you must attempt to defend your goal.

Banking in shots earns bonus points which add at least some element of variety and strategy to the game. Despite this, the game gets very boring, very quickly, with little incentive to drive you on. There are a few different players to beat, and that’s it. Backyard Hockey controls well enough, though there really wasn’t much that could go wrong. You simply move Pablo around by touching and dragging him, and tap the ice to take a shot in that direction.

Perhaps my expectations were so wildly different from the reality that it was tough for me to objectively view the game as it is. With lower expectations, there may be the possibility of some fun here, and for a dollar I guess that really isn’t too bad a deal (although Touch Hockey FS5 is free, and basically does the same thing as Backyard Hockey). As a hockey game carrying a recognizable brand name though, this was a complete disappointment for me, and I’m hoping Atari will not release slipshod iPhone games like this in

the future.

Pros:

• The air hockey style may prove fun for some

Cons:

• Presentation is weak
• Little replay value
• Strays far from the standard formula of the series

Price: $0.99

Overall: 4/10

Backyard Hockey on iTunes