Our list of the best iPad adventure games is a confession of our love for this genre when it comes to passing time while on the go. Admittedly, a lot of folks may feel that action and FPS titles can be more engrossing than any other sort of game. But if you’re on the move and stuck with nothing but a tablet for company, the options noted below definitely offer some engaging mobile entertainment that’s a bit more superior to what Plants vs. Zombies or Angry Birds can deliver.
1. Waking Mars –
It’s the year 2097 and humans have finally discovered life on Mars. You play Dr. Liang who must explore a subterranean environment to learn all about the strange and wonderful alien life forms inhabiting it. There are few ways to describe this offering which is more about discovery than anything else.
The pace at which it plays out can strike most people as meandering, but the premise itself is ethereal. Here, you are required to work as a sort of interstellar nurturer as you solve the problem of increasing the biomass by cultivating plant and animal life. This is the only way you can clear pathways blocked by various creatures’ membranes and continue on your quest to find robot OCTO.
Price: $4.99
2. Machinarium –
If you haven’t heard of Machinarium yet, stop wasting time and download it already. One of the most loved in the genre we’re exploring right here, the plot drops you into post-apocalyptic robot world settings. The charming graphics are designed using somber colors and have a sort of steampunk theme running throughout.
This point-and-click puzzler will have you stumping around as a heartbroken little robot who must find his girlfriend and stop the bad guys from setting off a bomb. In order to do so, you must solve a lot of extremely trying puzzles whose walk-through hints get tougher as you progress. All along the way, you’ll be serenaded by a hypnotizing soundtrack mixed with clinkety-clank noises and no dialogue except for speech bubbles.
Price: $4.99
3. Frotz –
Nerd alert, we’re steering through interactive fiction waters at present and your playtime is only going to involve reading, thinking and using the keyboard. Frotz is a text based application which allows you to engage in works of interactive fiction that can be downloaded for free from various authors.
The app reads content written in the Z-Machine format. Those who’re old enough to have indulged in this kind of entertainment, Trinity, Zork, Bureaucracy or Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy may come to mind. It’s like reading a book and letting your imagination work at the graphics. All the while, you take action within the story at whichever points the plot permits you to.
Price: Free
4. Bastion –
Feeling the need for some good old action after checking out our first 3 options? Try indie creation, Bastion. After the Calamity shreds your world to pieces, you wake up as the Kid, a warrior whose main goal is to collect the Shards and take it to the Bastion in the hope of averting the Calamity. But the plot has more complicated layers than just that.
The title is set in 40 alluring environs and much of the Kid’s surroundings appear to materialize as he moves around within this surreal world. That, combined with the comments recited by a shrewd old narrator makes you feel like you’re living out a fantastical myth. Using tap-to-move control mechanics, you can battle various enemies while wielding two weapons at a time, executing attack moves, collecting potions or picking up items to be used as currency.
Price: $0.99
5. Gemini Rue –
If you can picture sci-fi, neo-noir and pixelated graphics in one frame, then you already know what Gemini Rue is going to look like. Josh Nuernberger’s point-and-click creation takes players through 2D environments screaming ‘old-school’ as they step into protagonist, Azriel Odin’s shoes in an attempt to find his brother.
Two stories are entwined here – that of assassin-turned-law enforcer, Odin and that of a prisoner in a mysterious ‘medical facility.’ You’ll thank us for stopping before we can accidentally plant a plot spoiler here and for telling you that the title’s totally worth $5. Expect a lot of puzzles, a very slightly putting off combat system and a cool storyline.
Price: $4.99
6. Year Walk –
Stay away from this one, unless you have a strong heart and a lot of patience. If any game in recent memory ever came as close to proving you have a morbid fascination for hallucinatory drugs, it’s Year Walk. The name is a translation of Årsgång, an ancient Swedish tradition which involved the ‘walker’ who craves for a glimpse into the future, strolling into the woods on a Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve night.
The developers ditching point-and-click for swipe-and-touch gestures apart from making the most of the iPad’s integrated sensors, adds to the out-of-body experience here. Here, you walk through the forest and encounter mythical beings from Scandinavian folklore and also a creepy horse-thing in a tuxedo, all the while haunted by your footsteps muffled in the snow, blood where there was none before and crazy mind-boggling puzzles.
Price: $3.99
7. MacGuffin’s Curse –
Lucas MacGuffin hates fire hydrants. Why? Well, he’s a werewolf when he’s not busy being a man. After a museum burglary gone wrong, you’ll find yourself unable to shake off an ancient amulet which gives you the switching powers. A patch of moonlight shining through a window and ‘change tiles’ are all you require to turn into man or beast as you prowl through this room-by-room adventure.
If you like games with a sprinkling of humor and puzzles which won’t have you tearing your hair out, then MacGuffin’s Curse will serve you well. In human form, you can swim, crack safes, open/close doors, use consoles and more. With your fangs on, tasks like moving crates, digging, scaring guards and breaking stuff can be done. The trick is to ensure you have a ‘change tile,’ moonlight or the smarts to not get trapped as a human when you really need your werewolf strength or vice versa.
Price: $4.99
8. Walking Dead: The Game –
Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead has already come to life on TV and now here’s a playable fest for you to indulge in. The zombie apocalypse is in full swing and you get into the role of Lee Everett who has to fight for survival while protecting an orphan girl named Clementine. There are two things the title does not skimp on – gore and drama.
You may bump into a couple of lags while playing, but they’re not enough to take away from the experience. You’ll find that zombies aren’t the only creatures to fear and the way you choose your dialogues (you get limited time for this) while dealing with fellow humans will also determine how the adventure plays out. The game is divided into 5 episodes and there’s also a 400 Days special for you to download. Just one thing you may want to note though; the replay value is kind of limited here.
Price: $4.99 per episode
9. BlindSide –
It’s pitch black all around you. There’s a breath in the air, a growl in the dark and you feel a movement you cannot see. What do you do? Switch on the lights, of course. How about playing an entire game without being able to see what’s around you? In Blindside, you plug in your earphones and wake up as assistant professor Case only to find that you’ve lost your sense of sight, just like everybody around you.
Your first mission is to navigate across the street along with your girlfriend and get to your office land-line which is your only means of communication. There are unseen and therefore nightmarish monsters to avoid. Two things stand out as being unnatural in this otherwise brilliant game – some of the dialogue delivery and the fact that players bump into objects instead groping around like they would in the dark in real life.
Price: $2.99
10. Organ Trail: Director’s Cut –
So you think it’s the graphics that make or break a game, especially if it’s one filled with zombies? We dare you to download Organ Trail: Director’s Cut and not feel the chills as you try to fend off the walking dead. This survival simulator is The Oregon Trail with zombies in it! The graphics are all in nostalgia-inducing, blocky 2D and the player’s resource management ability is what counts the most.
But don’t let this fool you into assuming it’s going to be a bore. After the leader of the station wagon you’re traveling in turns into a zombie and has to be put down, it’s your turn to guide the rest of the group. You have to make the miles while stopping to put infected companions ‘to sleep’ and scavenging for food. All along the road, there are zombies to fight, depleting ammo and fuel to worry about, med-kits to replenish and car maintenance to look after. Enough said, just get it.
Price: $2.99
11. Dominique Pamplemousse in “It’s All Over Once The Fat Lady Sings!” –
Welcome to the world of claymation in black and white. Dominique Pamplemousse is an incredibly unique detective adventure which is played out in stop-motion animation. You throw on Pamplemousse’s trenchcoat and start off in a rat-infested apartment waiting for a case to come by and that’s when a woman looking for pop-star, Casey Byngham, walks in.
All the hard work developer, voice actor, composer and singer, Deirdra Kiai, has put into the clay and cardboard sets which make up the graphics, is very apparent here. And the characters are just as enchanting and quirky as the artwork. But we’d advice you to check out the video posted above before buying it. Constant peppy music in the background and sing-along dialogues aren’t everybody’s cup of tea.
Price: $4.99
12. Monkey Island Tales 1 HD –
The Monkey Island series is back with a bang in this new Telltale offering which is centered on the (mis)adventures of the lovable Guybrush Threepwood. Launch of the Screaming Narwhal is the first of 5 episodes and plays optimally on iPad 2 or later. Packed full of hilarious dialogues, the game begins with you beating the villainous Pirate LeChuck and accidentally letting loose the Pox of LeChuck all across the Gulf of Melange.
A lot of your progress in the game falls on your ability to combine items and solve puzzles. The great part about it is that the puzzles are not difficult to the point of invoking frustration and neither are they simple enough to bore you. It would have found a higher place on this list if the developers had opted for letting players tap on an area they wanted the character to go to instead of the virtual analog stick for controlling his movements.
Price: $2.99
13. Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP –
If you’d choose one game over a comparably similar option for its amazing artwork, then you’d probably want to go for Super-brothers over Monkey Island. With an amazing soundtrack that mingles perfectly with the pixel-art styled graphics, Sword & Sworcery is a point-and-click which requires you to stay in Sworcery (landscape) mode for solving puzzles and flip to sword (portrait) mode when in combat.
Think it’s unreasonable for a certain part (we’re not giving away spoilers) of the game’s progress to depend on the actual lunar cycle? You can always cheat by turning your device clock accordingly. Apart from requiring you to be armed with a lot of patience, you will need to know some basics about music too. So you need to check all the boxes before diving into this title. It’s not for everyone, but very rewarding for those who choose to immerse themselves in it.
Price: $4.99
Conclusion:
So have you played any of the titles mentioned above? They wouldn’t be in this collection of the best iPad adventure games if we didn’t think they measured up. Why don’t you give them a try and also give us a shout and tell us what we missed?