The Lamer Gamer

story at gamespot.com

I’ll leave it alone that the bone shapped design is pretty lame, but does anyone think this is a good idea otherwise?

I do feel like the iPhone is slightly limited in the realm of input, at least in the traditional sense.   However, I wouldn’t want to carry around such a semi-portable peripheral and then have to prop the phone itself up on something so I could play a game, it sort of defeats the purpose of handheld, no?

I saw someone playing Brothers in Arms: Hour of Heroes today, and it took me a bit by surprise.  Not, mind you, because I find WW2 based games to be a little too played out.  It was because it was a shooter on the iPhone.  Apparently it’s old news as the game has been around since early December, but hey, it’s new to me.

I didn’t want to interrupt the guy’s game, but asked a couple questions and watched him play.  The controls are based on a virtual left thumbstick and making swipes with the right hand to move the camera, essentially the look control.  

Graphically it reminded me of a less than polished PS1 game, but for the iPhone that’s not terrible.  Controls-wise it probably shares some components with the Nintendo DS, but it’s the lack of any real D-pad like control on the iPhone that makes it interesting.  The guy playing mentioned it was a little hard to control particularly since you’re basically supporting the thing in your hand by pinching with your left thumb as well as trying to use that same thumb as the left stick, but he seemed to be doing okay with it.  Too bad I’m not an iPhone guy or I’d check it out.