In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, several developers put their games on sale in the App Store. And since, following St. Patrick’s Day, the chances of any of us getting any work done are slim to none, we might as well grab some low-priced games to try out this Friday. Check out the phenomenal, challenging puzzler League of Evil, EA Sports’ football franchise powerhouse Madden NFL 11, and the deeper-than-usual match three game, Super Match 3.
League of Evil (iPhone, iPad) $0.99 (was $1.99)
If you don’t already own League of Evil, I really don’t know what’s stopping you — it’s among the best platformers currently available on the iPhone, with what are probably the best controls you can get on the device, period. It’s a ton of 2D, 8-bit side-scrolling fun, with lots of challenge, bite-sized stages and an addicting nature.
Snag League while it’s on sale and you get more than 100 levels of platforming action, along with Game Center support for achievements and leaderboards. An update from the end of February also added a bunch of additional super-difficult “Impossible Missions” that will require you to step up your game. Seriously — this is one of the best games available on the iPhone. Get it.
Super Match 3 (iPhone, iPad) Free (was $0.99)
Super Match 3 is a step forward in the evolution of the match three genre, which is populated by what feels like millions of games trying to hit the same nerve as Bejeweled. In Super Match 3, you get a similar experience to other games that use the Bejeweled formula, in which you swap gems on a 2D grid in an attempt to match three or more of the same color and clear them from the board. But Super Match 3 gives you more options — you can actually make additional moves beyond just the ones that clear gems, adding a layer of strategy.
Super Match 3 packs five different game modes that all tweak the match three formula slightly. It carries additional difficulty modes that you can get through in-app purchase, packs OpenFeint support to give you achievements and leaderboards to measure your skills against, and even lets you take on a friend using a local Bluetooth connection for multiplayer.
Madden NFL 11 by EA Sports (iPhone) $2.99 (was $4.99)
Football on your iPhone, care of the publisher that brings gamers everywhere the extremely the popular Madden series on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii. Madden NFL 11 stands up to the level of quality one would expect from one of the biggest franchises in gaming, and provides some serious football gaming action — akin to the kind of deep experience you’d get playing on a bigger video game machine.
Madden is packed with real players and NFL teams from this year’s roster and features four game modes, including head-to-head Bluetooth multiplayer. The iPhone’s touch controls give you the ability to draw routes for your receivers when you’re playing on offense, and the game features amped-up defensive controls as well. Take on a whole 16-game season, play one-off games against another team when you’re just looking for some action, or experience last year’s playoffs in playoff mode and see if you can take home a Super Bowl ring.
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