Must have free offline iPhone/iPod Touch Games

When the iPhone was first launched, it was never intended to be a gaming platform. This was largely because the first set of applications launched for the iphone were web-based and this didn't turn on the developers. However when the iPhone was jailbroken and the Cydia installer became popular (before the appstore was launched), the potential of the iphone as a gaming device was slowly being explored thanks to the built-in accelerometer and the touch screen that gave novel game play ideas. When the appstore did launch finally, thousands of games were developed and now the iPhone has a niche place in the gaming market. It also helps that the recently launched iPhone 3GS has a faster graphics processor and a CPU that should help push the iphone as a gaming device to a larger market. Now getting on to the list:

1) Labyrinth:
This is the game that started it all for the iphone. The first game to properly demonstrate the accelerometer. With the objective to tilt the iphone in different directions to navigate a ball bearing to a goal clearing an obstacle course is quite a challenge and a lot of fun.




2) Word Warp:
Honestly, I am not a big fan of playing games on a phone when I have a 2000$ gaming rig sitting at home. But then when I am travelling or am stuck at some place without much to do, I like taking out my phone and killing time. Wordwarp is a game that came highly recommended and I instantly fell in love with it, whipping out my phone every single idle moment I had to form 7-letter words from 7 alphabets that are given. Having achieved my target of 10000 points (11,500) I don't play the game much anymore but it is one of the best iphone games out there in my opinion. The game also helped me pick up a lot of 3 letter words that I hadn't heard of before to improve my scrabble skills.



3) Cops and Robbers lite:
Cops and Robbers lite (there is a paid version) is a nice 3D adventure game for the iphone and the lite version is a good technology demonstration game combining the accelerometer, touch and 3D. When I first saw the game I was shocked that the iphone was even capable of 3D graphics. This is one nice looking game that looks like a lot of fun though the lite version has only one level.



4) PapiJump:
This is as simple as a game can get and is fun. Yet another accelerometer based phone where Papi (a smiley circle) is always jumping and the player has to keep tilting the phone to ensure that papi lands on tiles and keeps making upward progress and not fall into a bottomless pit.



5) Paper Toss:
When I saw the game in the appstore highly rated, I wondered how something that sounded so silly could be so popular. All you have to do the in the game is launch crumpled paper into a waste bin in an office room with a pedestal fan that causes disturbance in the air. The magnitude of the wind caused by the fan is indicated by a number and the player has to compensate the angle of launch based on this magnitude. There are three difficulty levels to choose from and the game is surprisingly addicting.