Now that we've had a couple days with the iPad, some apps are rising to the top and monopolizing our lounging time. We'll have some more roundups for you in just a little bit, but we thought we'd start off with one of the iPad's most natural talents: gaming. The large screen and hardy processor offer a wild in-between space, much more immersive and "stunning" than a PSP, DS, or iPhone game, but hardly on par with modern laptop or desktop graphics. We haven't leapfrogged any platforms here, it's just an evolution, but it's a pretty fun evolution, complete with multitouch gestures, accelerometer tilts, and cheesy soundtracks pumped out over the iPads surprisingly loud speaker. Of course, these games aren't cheap anymore -- most clock in at $9.99, often with the threat of "introductory pricing" -- so we thought we'd wade through the masses and pluck out some of our favorites as well as a few titles to be wary of. Follow along after the break.
N.O.V.A. ($9.99)
The quintessential Halo-esque shooter for the iPhone has received an "HD" upgrade, but probably could've used some more time in the oven. The jumbo-sized graphics look alright on the iPad, but it's certainly not the best 3D we've seen on the machine so far, and the textures are very low resolution -- almost like the game has just been directly scaled up for the iPad (like it has). The game runs pretty smoothly, and loads rapidly, but unfortunately the gameplay UI hasn't been scaled up well. In theory all the controls should be accessible with just your thumbs, but in reality you have to do a lot of moving your hands to reach the gun reload / swap control at the top of the screen, or to pull off the slightly gimmicky two finger grenade launch swipe. At least the oversized "analog" d-pad on the left is a pleasure to use. All in all, N.O.V.A. should be an iPhone + iPad app (that is, a free download for people who've already bought it for iPhone), not a $10 standalone product. [See in iTunes]
Mirror's Edge ($12.99)
EA has experimented with side-scrolling Mirror's Edge before in an excellent Flash incarnation, but for the iPad they really blew out the concept. With gorgeous full screen 3D graphics and a very intuitive swipe interface (you'll feel like an expert before you're even done with the tutorial levels), this is one of our favorite iPad games so far. It's a steep price, but with 14 multi-part levels to play through, it should keep you busy for a little while. Add in speed runs and some really excellent split-screen multiplayer (check it out in the video above) and we'd say it's actually one of the few iPad games worth the price. [See in iTunes]
Touchgrind HD ($7.99)
We'll make this simple: we loved Touchgrind for the iPhone, despite its steep learning curve, and it's a blast to play on the iPad with all this screen real estate, but the addition of larger views (it's the same graphics with just a wider viewpoint) and split screen multiplayer hardly justifies the separate purchase or $3 premium over the iPad app. Or maybe we're just feeling cheap today. [See in iTunes]
Real Racing HD ($9.99)
We confess, we haven't played Real Racing on the iPhone, but we can attest to the fact that it's both real, and racing. Real Racing HD bumps up the graphics and doubles the price for the iPad. Of course, Real Racing was perhaps a bit of a steal at $5, with a very in-depth career mode, plus plenty of tracks and cars to choose from. We understand that developers have to make a living, and at least Real Racing really does have some truly stunning graphics, and controls beautifully on the iPad, but as an overall trend we're not sure we like spending double the price just for the extra pixels. We suppose the open market will settle this in time! [See in iTunes]
[Via engadget]
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