Retro Games for iPad

I never really played any Galaga games until Galaga 30th Collection came out for the iPad. The games are modernized remakes so don't expect exactly the same old game.

The app is 'free' but you only get to play "Galaxian G 30th Edition" for free. You also get to watch a cool opening sequence with a space fight between space ships and giant bugs.

If you want to play the other 3 games, "Galaga G 30th Edition," "Gaplus G 30th Edition," and "Galaga '88 G 30th Edition" then you can make an in-app purchase which I haven't done yet... it looks like it's $7.99 for if you want to get all the games and I think I'll pass until I beat some of my other games like Pac-Man, Frogger, etc!

Woo hoo, I got PAC-MAN for iPad. You know, I was never really good at Pac-Man growing up. Maybe I didn't have enough quarters or patience, but I don't believe I ever beat the game.

Lucky for me, Pac-Man for iPad has easy mode where you get more lives and there's also a stage select so I can see parts of the game I've never seen before. Oh, wait a minute, all Pac-Man levels look alike..... but the ghosts are much faster in stage 8, and a little smarter too. Maybe someone game them an energy drink.

Controlling Pac-Man
You can set the controls to swipe, swipe [classic], joystick or accelerometer. When I want to actually do good, I use 'swipe.'

I don't like 'joystick' because I'm not good at keeping my finger on the virtual joystick.

Accelerometer is worse because you have to tilt the iPad in the direction you want Pac-Man to go and it is a bit too much moving around of the iPad for my taste, plus Pac-Man dies a lot more than usual when I play that way.

Swipe is supposed to have more precision than swipe [classic] and so I usually just keep it on swipe.

Free Pac-Man for iPad
If you want to try Pac-Man for free, get PAC-MAN Lite for iPad.

If you want to use a real joystick for playing Pac-Man on the iPad, check out the iCade.

Pac-Man was lonely on my iPad so I got Ms. PAC-MAN for iPad to keep him company. Ms. Pac-Man also has easy mode, stage select, and the same controls as Pac-Man (except no Swipe [classic]). Using 'swipe' to control Ms. Pac-Man on the iPad works just fine for me.

Free Ms. Pac-Man for iPad
And yes, there's also a free version of Ms. Pac-Man for the iPad so you can try before you buy. It's Ms. PAC-MAN for iPAD Lite.

Frogger, now on the iPad as Frogger Pad (US), is a retro game where you are a frog and first need to jump across the street without becoming road kill, then you have to cross a river carefully jumping on moving logs and turtles (poor turtles!) and then finally land in a safe spot when you get to the top of the screen. But you knew that, right?

The iPad version of Frogger will let you play with the classic graphics, or new graphics. I've done a little of both and it's fun to play either way. In the options, you can set the controls to either tap or slide. I have it set to 'slide' because 'tap' didn't work out so well for me (or maybe I just didn't know what I was doing!) but slide works so I'll leave it at that.

Free Frogger for iPad. It has Ads.
You can also get a free version of Frogger for the iPad: Frogger Pad Free. Watch out, it has ads.

I remember first playing the classic falling block game, Tetris, on NES and Gameboy. TETRIS® for iPad has better graphics and different music than the Tetris I remember (but really, they are falling blocks so graphics don't matter so much.) I like to go into the Ambiance Options in this version of Tetris and listen to some of my own music.

In the game options, you can turn the D Pad on or off... I think I like it on because it's weird to me not having the buttons to press when moving the blocks around.

With Atari's Greatest Hits you only get Missle Command for free, but you can currently get all 99 games in this app for $9.99 (it used to be $14.99 and could have changed by the time you read this..) And they also have 25 different game packs for 99 cents.

The 99 games you can get with the in-app purchase includes games like Crystal Castles, Centipede, Millipede, Pong, Breakout, Super Breakout, Asteroids, Gravitar, a bunch of Realsports games, and many other games that I didn't really remember from when I had an Atari as a kid.

Unfortunately, Atari isn't including games from all the third parties so you will NOT be able to play Space Invaders and many other games you might recognize so when you're in the app be sure to check the list of games for Arcade A-Z and Atari 2600 A-Z to see if you really want enough of the games to make it worth buying.

I personally haven't bought any of the in-app games yet and just played a little Missile Command but the games that are tempting me are Super Breakout, Centipede and Crystal Castles.

If you want to use a real joystick for playing Atari's Greatest Hits on the iPad, check out the Atari Arcade-Duo Powered 'joystick' and the iCade.

I never really played the original X-Men arcade game, but I got X-Men for the iPad because I like X-men plus it was cheap.

Easy mode really is easy

X-Men in Easy mode isn't that challenging because there's no real consequence when you die... you just pick up where you left off. Not sure about the other modes yet.

On easy mode I went through the game starting at Level 1 with Cyclops (it defaulted to him and I just went along with it) and rescued Professor X in one sitting, then it ran the credits and said the game is not over... and before I knew it, it put me back to the beginning of Level 1 and I was playing through the game again with Cyclops, but I had to stop because my fingers had the same feeling I get when I've played too much Guitar Hero and it's too painful to go on.

Anyway, in easy mode you get 7 lives and it seems as many continues as you need. I lost count how many times I continued. I plan to try normal mode next, maybe with Wolverine.

X-Men for iPad Controls

The controls are pretty easy in this game, you get a virtual pad, an arcade button, jump button, and a special button. I liked to spam the special button at first but you only get to use it so much and I quickly learned to save it for when there's a lot of bad guys on the screen (or a boss). The virtual pad is not as good as using a real joystick and sometimes I was facing the opposite direction than I intended, but it worked out ok (at least on easy mode).

X-Men for iPad has a Local Multiplayer Mode

It also has a local multiplayer mode which I haven't gotten the opportunity to try out yet since it seems you need someone else with an iPad who also has the X-Men game to play with you. If you've tried it, let me know in the comments at the bottom of this page what you thought of it.

You might be wondering "What games does the iCade work with?"

Here are a few of the popular games for iPad that are compatible with the iCade:

• PAC-MAN for iPad
  
• Atari's Greatest Hits
  
• Frogger Decades
  
• Commodore 64
  

There are a lot more so check out the official list at: iCade Games at the ION Audio website