Fairway Fever is simple to explain: it's solitaire mixed with the Bejeweled Blitz formula. You have to match as many cards as possible with a one minute time limit. And there's a golf theme, for some reason. It may sound incredibly basic and derivative, but that doesn't stop it from being a good amount of mindless fun.
If you're thinking that Ticket to Ride Pocket is simply a shrunk-down version of the iPad adaptation of Ticket to Ride, you're dead wrong. Well, you're sort of wrong. Or maybe you're sort of right. Ultimately, it's hard to qualify this as a port of its bigger cousin because, while the base components feel identical to the glorious iPad edition, Ticket to Ride Pocket has been stripped down so much that it doesn't really count as the same product.
For lovers of the tower-building party game Jenga, the digital version promises the same, dexterity-testing fun. The best part? You'll be spared the heartache of losing blocks to black holes like the cracks between couch cushions, or a hungry-but-confused pet.
When it comes to family game night around my house, there are a few games that always seem to be in heavy rotation. Kids of Carcassonne is one. Hey, That's My Fish! is another. But if there's one game that seems to get more play time with my kids at the kitchen table each week than any other, it has to be The aMAZEing Labyrinth. And now that it's on the iPad? It's even better.
If you've never heard of Reiner Knizia, you really should take a moment to look him up. Claims that he's "the world's most accomplished game inventor" seem pretty reasonable; after all, the man has created over 500 published games (most of which are pretty highly regarded within the board/card game communities). That said, many of these games have yet to be ported to digital platforms. However, based on Reiner Knizia's Callisto, more of these games deserve such releases.
I've never played the first Fairway Solitaire game, though I've heard it was quite popular. As such, I can't offer an opinion on how one compares to the other. But I can say this: If the first game is anywhere near as good as Fairway is, well, I might just have to go back and check it out. Fairway is, well, it's excellent.
Have you ever played a game, and within moments of booting it up for the first time, realized that you've just stumbled upon something that's destined to become the next big thing? I know I'm setting up lofty expectations here, but that's exactly how I felt about Poker Pals even before I'd finished the tutorial.
Over the last year or two, digital translations of existing board games have made a big splash on the App Store. Yet for all of the big names that have jumped into the world of mobile gaming feet first, Fantasy Flight Games - arguably one of the biggest publishers of niche board games today - has remained relatively standoffish. With the exception of Hey, That's my Fish! and a couple of player aides for print titles, they've remained completely absent from the App Store. That is, until now.