Space Combat Sim with online multiplayer.... ON MY IPHONE !
But the game had numerous flaws.
#1 The missions were all clones of just 3 different types of missions: escort, assault and space junk destruction. There were 100's of missions based on just these 3 types. Needless to say, the game has plenty of replay value but it doesn't get any better once you've played it for a couple days.
#2 It had no multiplayer option.
STAR PAGGA. despite its silly name, is a new and improved space combat sim for iPhone/iPod touch that addresses these two main issues and does a great job of it.
#1 The singleplayer game has 13 missions. These are designed around escort and assault, but, the scale has been upped so that you will find yourself battling fighters, and then battling large warships.
Fighting the fighters is easy. You're iphone accelerometer allows you to guide your ship while onscreen controls let you fire weapons such as lasers or missiles. The downside is that the enemie's fighter models are the same as your's (there is just one fighter model).
during battles, there are red and blue energy/ missile restoration points and you can fly to them to recharge. You must fly through the ring or end up crashing into the frame of it.
The warship battles are a little tricky. You must fly inside their open space and fire a missile into their core. Then you have just 10 seconds or so to escape the blast radius of the ship which will send out a damaging shockwave. You repeat this process twice and destroy the ship.
The games graphics are regular polygons and colored light. They aren't as good as GOF, but, they are good enough to pass.
The sound is pretty good - complete with music and weapon fx, and earns a high grade.
The MULTIPLAYER however is where the game shines. You can play with up to 5 other players over the internet - a mixture of humans and bots if you like. (6 players max)
Though I haven't been able to play a competant game on 3G (and definitely not EDGE) over my home FIOS WiFi, this game performs nearly perfectly and there is virtually no lag.
There is no way to talk to the other players to help coordinate hosting/joining matches (isn't this a phone with a mic?) but, you can easily host or join games with a few button presses. You can also see people waiting in a pre game lobby to get an idea how many people total are available to play. Right now there are very few players online but, over time this should get better when people realize this game is so good.
Right now, there is no way to join in to games already in progress.
For the $1 that I paid for this games, its beyond fantastic. When you consider that you can play games with other people of this quality ON A CELLPHONE for less than $1 you cannot ever doubt the power of the iphone as a gaming system on par with the SONY PSP.
I thoroughly recommend this game if you have an iPod touch/iPhone.