Playing games on the iPhone

Gaming on the iPhone is just great. The screen makes the games look great. The games run fast, and more importantly; without any glitches. The gameplay has become a lot more interesting because of the accelerometer inside the iPhone. And perhaps the best thing is that you don’t have to go out to a store and buy games, but you can just buy games from the iTunes App store…anywhere you like, whenever you like. There are a lot of free games available and some great premium games that sell under $10.

I won’t describe myself as a hardcore gamer. I am more the casual type of gamer, I hardly ever game. The only gaming I have done in the past year were on a Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii. Now that I have an iPhone, its much easier to see what titles are available and try a game every now an then. Because the iPhone is my phone, I carry it everywhere, so whenever there is a dull moment and I feel like gaming, I just grab my iPhone and a few seconds later I am happily gaming. So I am still a very casual gamer, but I do game a lot more then I used to.

But is this it? 

No.

I mean, considering gameplay, if I’d have to choose between an oldskool Gameboy and an iPhone, the Gameboy would still win, hands-down. For me, touching, swiping and tilting  can’t beat the D-pad

For a long time now Nintendo has had a real winner in the product line up for mobile gaming, which is the Nintendo DS. The DS combines a D-pad style of gaming with touch based gaming…

iPhone D-pad accessory 

So to me it would make perfect sense if someone would bring out an accessory for the iPod that would add physical D-pad controls to the iPhone. This would make the iPhone and the iPod a serious competitor for the Nintendo DS, and not to forget, the PSP.

Well, some guys are cracking away at this already. What started being just a proof of concept: 

is gradually moving forward to becoming a real product. Here are some product renderings for the iControlPad, a D-pad accessory for the iPhone: 

And here are some (pre) production samples for the iControlPad’s housing: 

 So they’re really getting along well. Exiting!

The design looks allright. What’s more important is that it looks like this will be a viable solution that will increase the gaming experience a lot! It will be interesting to see if it will remain necessary to have a jailbroken iPhone or that this accessory will carry the ‘Made for Iphone’ logo, which right now seems not to be the case. This is a shame since there are a lot of people who don’t want to jailbreak their iPhone, but do want to be able to have D pad controls in their games. We’ll see how it all pans out. 

iPhonenilla will keep you updated on the progress iControlPad makes. 

Go over to the iControlPad website for more information and to sign up for their newsletter. 

What about the Apple + Nintendo rumor? 

My take on this is that Apple and Nintendo already have something in the works. Apple and Nintendo together could design a great D-pad accessory. Nintendo can port their most popular Gameboy/DS/NES  games to the iPhone,  and become the all time nr. 1 game seller in the App store. It could hurt their DS sales, but I think it would be a wise move, both for Apple and Nintendo. 

And this would be another strategic partnership for Apple, something along the lines of what they’re doing with Nike. I could see it happening. It would be sad for the folks of iControlPad, but in the end it would be better for the consumers. They will then have access to quality Nintendo games, and hardware that is 100% compatible with the iPhone.