4 Annoying iPad Game Trends that Are Plaguing the iTunes Store

HOW TO: Make Your Website an App Icon on Your iPad, iPod Touch or iPhone [tutorial]

HD title abuse

I’m not sure if you’ve noticed this yet, but every frickin’ iPad game in the iTunes store starts or ends with the letters HD. It’s as though iPad game developers believe that no one will believe their games are HD unless that spam it in the title. I’m not kidding, HD is now synonymous with iPad in the iTunes store and at this point, I think we “get it.”

Tilt to play

Tilt-to-play games started with iPhone and iPod Touch games and are motion controlled games that require players to tilt their iDevices to control in-game elements. Tilt-to-play games are to iDevices what minigames are to the Nintendo Wii – they are everywhere. Unfortunately, for the iPad, tilt-to-play just doesn’t work as well as it did with smaller iDevices like the iPhone and iPod touch. The larger screen and of the iPad makes it hard to view the entire screen while tilting and the heavier weight makes the whole “tilting process” a bit more challenging.

The port

Speaking of things taken from smaller iDevices – like the iPhone and iPod Touch – and passed onto the iPad; tons of iPad games in the iTunes stores are only ports of iPod Touch and iPhone games stretched to fit on the iPad. I have no problem with games that have been adapted and made better for the iPad, but with the iPhone app stretch function built into the iPad, there really isn’t a need for a game to be ported to the Apple iPad.

Musical instrument apps

You might be thinking that musical instrument apps aren’t games and I’d have to totally agree with you. Unfortunately, lots of iPad music apps are classified as games – and boy are there lots of them in the iTunes store. Any instrument that you can name from the accordion, piano, harmonica, guitar, drums, and even the notorious vuvuzela have iPad and iPhone apps. Music apps are bad, but the amount of music apps hogging up the iTunes store is ridiculous. Seriously, how many piano apps do we need?

For more, read 5 iPad Apps that I Absolutely Could Not Live Without, 5 Must Have Cydia Apps After You Jailbreak Your iPad, and iPad App Overload: How to Buy iPad Apps Without Hating Yourself Later.

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