Image via Complex Original
You broke the bank to buy an iPad 2. Then you burned $40 for a Smart Cover that really doesn’t seem all that smart. There was another thirty bucks for a car charger, and another cool Ben Franklin for one of those fancy-schmancy docks that has an alarm clock and five other things you’ll never use. And did you really need to buy that $10 screen cleaner?
Of all the tablets, Apple's is the most expensive. That's why it's the one that needs free games the most. Good thing we scoured the outer reaches of iTunes to find the 15 best free games for the iPad. (And yes, iPhone users, most of these games will work for you, too.)
15. Shape Shift HD (iPad only)
Shape Shift HD provides you with a glittering screen filled with colored shapes, tasking you with swapping the shape icons to create clusters of similar colors. That’s no-tutorial-needed simple, and it only grows slightly more complicated when time bombs start showing up around the fourth level. It still makes for a fun and relaxing game, although those pop-up ads for other Backflip Studios games might get to you after awhile.
14. Angry Birds Rio Free
Angry Birds is certainly no secret. This might be a “been there, done that” game for many of you, but if you somehow haven’t experienced the sheer anti-PETA joy of sling-shotting birds into buildings, this is your big chance. The free version of Rio isn’t a full game, but you still get nine levels. (Psst! Just don’t cave and buy the other 81.)
13. Ultimate Gem
Don't let the jewels and gem-popping lead you on; Ultimate Gem is actually significantly different from Bejeweled. This is primarily due to its new spin on the gem-popping mechanic. Touching a gem results in a cluster of nearby gems to simply disappear. We’ll admit it: it’s probably not as intuitive as Bejeweled, but there’s no denying how fun it is once you get used to its differences. And, unlike Bejeweled, it’s completely free.
12. Sol Free
Somewhere in the want-to-be-a-computer-without-being-a-computer canon there’s a rule that a machine must include some sort of Solitaire game. It’s a fun and simple game, and just about everyone knows how to play it. There are myriad iTunes apps that can do this, but Smallware LLC’s game is the one that caught our eye thanks to its iPad/iPhone compatibility, a variety of additional games, and its nonexistent price tag.
11. Flood-It! 2
There’s nothing complicated about this puzzler. Your objective – should you choose to spend the next four hours of your life doing nothing but tapping your iPad – is to change the gridded board presented before you into one color. You do this by tapping the colored keys below the gridded board. The trick? Do it in as few turns as possible. Is this earth-shattering? No, but it is fun.
10. 3D Checkers
What’s another gaming mainstay? A simple game of checkers. 3D Checkers doesn’t do anything wild or crazy to this classic, but it does add a handful of board options (metal or wooden), difficulty levels (don’t be afraid to try the “Hard” levels) and multiplayer compatibility.
9. Break-Out Mania (iPad only)
Yes, folks, this is pretty much an iPad version of BrickBreaker with two major tweaks. First off, you can change the speed of your ball. That sounds cooler than it is but, really, we all want to keep the pinball going as slowly as possible, right? The other adjustment – the ability to pick up certain boosts to alter the properties of your pinball – is nifty to say the least. There’s nothing quite like using an acid ball to break apart an otherwise unbreakable brick. Unfortunately, the game only includes a handful of levels before it asks you to purchase the full version.
8. Pilgrim’s Punch-Out
Who says all movie tie-in games suck? NBC Universal made this little effort to pimp out last year’s “Scott Pilgrim Versus the World,” and any game based on the NES classic – Tyson’s Punch-Out – instantly earns our attention. We could have lived without the motion-controls for dodging, but the actual punching controls are smooth. The game is shorter than the movie, but at least you can go back and beat your top scores.
7. Dactyl
Take Whack-A-Mole, add bombs, put it on an iPad and you have Dactyl. Sure, it doesn’t sound tremendously exciting, but once the bombs start approaching fast and furious, your index finger will be begging you for relief, and your mind will be in frenzy. The crystal-clear visuals add to the appeal, although one thing detracts. You guessed it: more in-game advertisements. That’s the price we pay for not paying a price at all.
6. Crush the Castle HD (iPad only)
Armor Games Inc.’s Crush the Castle HD is essentially Angry Birds set it in medieval times and fleshed out with the barest hint of a story line. Double-tapping to fire the trebuchet takes a lot of getting used to, but it works fine once you get your timing down. Overall, Crush the Castle is a bit stodgy and lacks the avian version’s undeniable charm, but it makes up for it by letting you see blood (yes, actual, virtual blood!) whenever you kill one of its mannequin-like soldiers.
5. NinJump
Like most games on this list, NinJump isn’t complicated, but it is addictively fun. Your ninja is scaling a wall, and he must leap from side to side while avoiding enemy shurikens and strangely violent birds (don’t ask us why) as he progresses. The higher he makes it, the higher your score and the happier you are to show off your NinJump skills to your friends. A variety of shields and boosts spice up the gameplay just a bit, too. Only a handful of in-game ads mar the experience.
4. Dropship
Anyone who grew up playing Atari’s ‘80s arcade hit Gravitar will feel right at home with Dropship: a simple game that has you navigating a dropship against gravity while destroying enemy guns and trying to save friends and family. Sounds like a lot going on, right? But that’s the challenge, and beauty of Dropship. The spot-on controls are the cherry to ensure that you’ll have tons of fun.
3. Tekken Bowl
One of the Tekken series’ most beloved minigames finally got the full-version treatment last month and, boy, did it work out well. You can bowl a standard 10-frame, 10-pin game as one of three Tekken characters (Jin, Lin or Panda). The real fun, however, comes in the trick challenges. These obstacles are well thought-out, and you’ll even earn medals for effective bowling. Shame there weren’t more character options, though; we were looking forward to playing as Nina.
2. Underground Basketball (iPad only)
There are no opponents, no announcers, and no cheerleaders. Just you, a ball, some old-school music and a scoreboard. Sounds boring, right? Except Underground Basketball is actually ridiculously fun and addictive. The iPad-only game tasks you with making as many shots as you can using a simple trajectory meter in a two-minute span. Good luck beating your newly set top score. Therein lies the addictive part we told you about.
1. Words with Friends
The top game on our list is a Scrabble clone that hasn’t been monopolized and monetized by evil EA; just Zynga. Words with Friends looks and plays just like everyone’s favorite word game (minus the differences made to avoid copyright infringement, of course) except it’s completely free. The only thing that will mar your gameplay is a series of in-game ads. Still, the interface is clean and simple, it’s fun to play online, and it includes a few smart iPhone touches like shaking the device to swap out letters. If the in-game ads really bug you, you can always get rid of them by buying the $1.99 version of this game.