sway posts

The first full year of the App Store is coming to a close, and so let's take a look back at our favorite games of 2009. Note that these aren't best-selling, most important, or even the best games of the year -- we'll leave those lists to other sites. But these are our favorite games -- the games we played this year that we feel stand out as our favorite experiences on the App Store.

The list begins after the read more link below, and be sure to agree, disagree, or share your own favorite games as usual in the comments.

This is only slightly Mac-related but it is really cool. We've posted about two of Illusion Labs' popular iPhone games here on the site: Touchgrind is a 3D simulation of a touchboard, and Sway is a really fun little platformer-esque swingathon that has you swinging from side-to-side using the touchscreen. Both games are pretty original in how they use multitouch controls, and so when Illusion Labs got their hands on a big tabletop touchscreen, there was only one thing to do: blow the games up and play them in a big way.

You can see how it looks above -- seems like a lot of fun. And it makes you think, too -- multitouch seems to be where its at for the future of user interfaces, and the iPhone is really a breeding ground for testing out the technology and coming up with new ways to use it. It may be a long time before we all have huge multitouch screens like this in our kitches and living rooms, but considering how ubiquitous the iPhone already is (and the fact that almost anyone with some time, $100, and an idea can publish an app on the App Store), we can start seeing the kinds of applications that will live on those screens right now.

If you haven't yet tried Sway, the game from Illusion Labs and ReadyFireAim, now's the perfect time to do so. They've released a free version of the game that limits you to three levels and just two characters, but it's enough to try out the really unique control scheme. Back when I first posted about the game, I hadn't tried it yet, but it's now been on my iPhone for about a month, and it's excellent. Each of your thumbs is a "hand" on your characters (i.e., to grab something with your left hand, in game, you just touch your thumb to the left side of the screen), and then once you've grabbed something, you can swipe that thumb back and forth to sway the character around. It gets pretty complex, but practice makes perfect, and a few stages in, you'll be swinging from grip to grip with the greatest of ease.

The full version still costs $4.99, and if you enjoy the free version, I highly recommend it: there are many more characters that you can pick up and choose from, and the stages actually get really tough, as there's a lot of precise swinging that you'll have to do to explore the whole area and find everything there is to find. Sway might be a sleeper hit for the iPhone -- it took me a little while to figure it all out, but once I did, I found a control scheme that's delightfully original. If you haven't tried it out yet, definitely take advantage of the free version.

Illusion Labs is probably best known for their first app, iPint, but have been making splashes since then with interesting apps that make great use of the iPhone's features and touchscreen. I tried out their Touchgrind app, and while it was a fascinating demo of how to combine an in-game physics system with the sensitive touchscreen controls, it was a little too tough for me to use (you have to really be a skateboarder, since the app really is a fingerboard, basically).

But Sway looks much more casual, and still puts the touchscreen and tilt abilities to great use. Like Rolando, it's a cartoony, physics-based platformer, but unlike Rolando, the mechanic here isn't rolling, but swinging. You swing the little characters around, and then use the touchscreen to grab onto various parts of the environment while exploring it.

Very intriguing. Like Touchgrind, the controls might be a little too sophisticated to appeal to all players (it looks tough coordinating which hand is which and exactly when to grab and let go), but we'll have to see how it works out -- if it starts out in an accessible way, Sway might be really impressive. Illusion Labs didn't tell us a price yet (their two other paid games are $5 and $7), but the game is set to hit the App Store soon.