I've fallen in love with 100 Rogues, an iPhone game that's a very nicely implemented, oldschool rogue-like in the spirit of Nethack (see my article on that classic here), but reinvented with cool cartoon art, some impressive Nethack-like functionality, and a wry sense of humor. For example, much of the soundtrack is meringue music. Ken Levine, lead developer of BioShock, is also a big fan. Here's a look:
It brings back most of the pleasure of rogue-style, turn-based dungeon crawling, and all the quizzical pleasure of being trapped in tenuous situations, surrounded by enemies, but having dozens of options for what to do next. It's all that with a hip, ironic sensibility. So you're not just fighting demons and goblins -- there's also Satan's Henchmen, who have little horns and wings and wield .45 handguns. Not to mention the evil clowns riding around on rainbow balls, who can summon poisonous rats on you. Or the big beefy Schoolyard Bullies who shout "Nerd!" and throw surprisingly lethal dodgeballs at you. Also, to keep you from overly obsessing, the game crashes on you every other hour or so. (Least it does so on my aging 3G.) Anyway, more on it here.
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