Medici for iPhone, the latest of Dr. Knizia’s board games to make its way to the iDevice, has been released by Sage Board Games and is now available from the app store. This auction-based title offers Knizia’s traditional balanced strategy gameplay for a slightly confusing, yet ultimately wholly satisfying, experience.

Medici for iPhone Pros:

Nice Renaissance-era theme
Deep [...]

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Dominion, a futuristic Risk-type game by Dot Matrix and published by Chillingo, is now available from the app store. A collection of different maps and efficient push-notification online multiplayer make it an amazing world domination game.

Pros:

8 maps of various world areas to play on
3 game modes with complete customization
Brilliant online multiplayer with [...]

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Reiner Knizia’s Samurai, another Dr. Knizia offering brought to the iDevice by Conlan Rios, is now available from the app store. As usual, the “everything in moderation” philosophy is in full force in this turn-based strategy game that’s both thought-provoking and enjoyable.

Reiner Knizia’s Samurai Pros:

Faithful adaptation of the board game
Online multiplayer
Simple touch controls
Highly strategic gameplay
Helpful [...]

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[ Reiner Knizia’s Samurai Review is a post from 148Apps ]

HexaLex is familiar yet different to the word games you know and love. It is at its core similar to Scrabble-derived word games played on boards, but the unique shape of the board creates some new wrinkles. The main one is that you can form a pair of two-letter letter junk words in the course of making a legitimate play, which is put in place because of the complexities that the hexagonal board brings – you have so many more tiles touching, so some leeway was necessary to allow the game to flow. Beyond that, other tweaks like varying word values and bonuses for using 5, 6 or 7 of your tiles exist, to alter your usual word game strategies.

HexaLex certainly is different, and it stands out in that regard compared to other Scrabble clones like Words With Friends, where the hexagonal board really makes things feel familiar, but different. There are plenty of options available in the game to tweak the gameplay experience for local games against either real players or AI bots, where you can play against up to 4 players at once and can tweak the junk word rules or disable them altogether. HexaLex, as of its 2.0 update, features an online mode, and as of 2.1, allows you to play against random opponents. The online mode only lets you play with default rules, but you can chat with even random opponents, and you get push notifications when it’s your turn to play. Unlike Words With Friends, which only sends notifications to the most recent device to log in, push notifications come in on all devices your account is registered to, and playing on a different device doesn’t require a long reloading process – Newtoy could certainly take some tips from HexaLex’s technical backend for their own game. As well, iPad owners will be glad to know that due to the game’s scaling methods, the zoomed out board appears pixel perfect in 2X mode. It’s an odd visual trick that makes the game look great.

But the problem with HexaLex is that what makes it unique is what keeps it from being great. By trying to change up the Scrabble formula, it takes away from some of the simplicity that it and similar games like Words With Friends have brought. In part, the junk word rule shows the flaws of the concept – it just doesn’t work as naturally as similar square board games work, and it never quite feels normal playing the game. As well, the game’s relative obscurity makes finding online matches difficult – prior to the recent 2.1 update that enabled random matches, I was unable to find anyone sharing their HexaLex username, and even now, the random matching takes a long time to find games.

HexaLex is sort of a paradox in the way that it exists because of its differences, but also suffers from them at times. HexaLex will not be a particularly memorable game because of its quirks, but there will certainly be players who get absorbed by what it does. If the concept intrigues you, HexaLex isn’t bad, but word game purists and fans of populated online word games would do better searching elsewhere.

[ HexaLex Review is a post from 148Apps ]

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Keltis, the 2008 German Board Game of the Year, has been brought to the iDevice by United Soft Media and is now available from the app store. Despite a seemingly complicated set of rules, Keltis is quite easy to grasp and a fun exercise in strategic gameplay.

Keltis Pros:

Fun, strategic gameplay
Simple controls
Great Irish music

Keltis Cons:

Some difficulty [...]

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Price: Free    Score: 9/10    By S. Campbell

I’m a big fan of classic board games, and the iPad is really the perfect device for them. The large screen allows for the type of natural gameplay that you would expect on a traditional wooden playing board. Developed by Metaversal Studios, GameRoom is a 100% free app for iPad that features three great two-player games: Reversi, Checkers and Chinese Go.

To get started you simply find a friend, choose your game, check your settings (i.e auto-king, movement validation) and you’re good to go. The Game Setup page also features a rule book with clear and concise game rules that you can check at any time.

Gameplay mechanics are the same for all three game types – simply tap and drag to move your pieces across the board. There are “undo” and “redo” buttons at the bottom of the screen which you can hit at any time if you make a mistake.

The boards themselves look great on the iPad, with crisp, high-resolution visuals. It’s worth noting that GameRoom doesn’t currently have a versus computer option, and so is best thought of as a “virtual game board” app. It’s a great idea, and one that lets you play your favorite board games with your friends, but it would good to see some AI added in the future.

GameRoom also features a Custom option, wherein you can create your own custom playing board. Simply choose your board size (e.g 8×8, 9×9), board type, board style, play set and you’re ready to start. Besides the custom option, which allows great flexibility in the types of games that can be played, GameRoom will also be updated in the future with new games and boards.

GameRoom is compatible with iPad and requires iOS 3.2 or later. A small expedite fee was paid by the developer in order to speed up the publication of this review.

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