iPad Games Reviewed: Is it Good For Gaming?

Aurora Feint 3

Developer: Danielle Cassley and Jason Citron
Price: Free from the AppStore

There are plenty of tile-matching games on the AppStore and many of them are completely free too, so games in this genre really have to be very good in order to stand out. Aurora Feint 3 tries to do this by going along the MMORPG route, much like the previous games in the series.

The MMO-ness of Aurora Feint comes from the OpenFeint social network, which lets you share achievements with friends and even call allies to aid you if you’re having trouble beating certain enemies – which is done by matching blocks of three together as fast as possible.

One of the other things which distinguishes Aurora Feint 3 from similar tile-based puzzlers though is the fact that you can only slide blocks sideways, not up or down. That might not sound like a big change admittedly, but it does hugely change the type of tactics you’re likely to use – such as stockpiling tiles in towers so that they can be dropped down into nearby troughs.


The RPG-ness of it all is fairly lightweight and simple. You earn XP for killing enemies and recover from damage in between attacks, both of which are done by matching tiles. There’s an underlying health and lives system, but it feels like it’s only really there to justify the microtransactions – the core game is free, but you have to pay for extra lives if you run into trouble.

Visually Aurora Feint 3 is hugely impressive, with luxurious fantasy artwork that looks simply glorious on the iPad’s screen, and the sound is equally good. Unfortunately though, the core gameplay feels a tiny bit slow and tedious and being constantly reminded of the extra DLC and OpenFeint support quickly starts to grate.

Verdict: Slow and samey, Aurora Feint 3 looks and sounds great, but is overshadowed by other, better tile games in the AppStore.

Pool Pro Online 3

Developer: Namco
Price: $4.99 / £2.99 from the AppStore

The games of Pool and Snooker shouldn’t need much of an introduction, so there’s little point in going over the rules of the games themselves; just remember that in the game of Pool it’s important never to let your opponent see your pieces. Or something. Truth be told, exposure to so many computer game has completely eroded our attention to games which don't feature non-stop violence - that, or maybe Pool Pro Online 3 just isn't very good.


Totally 3D and supporting both singleplayer and multiplayer in both online and hotseating variants, Pool Pro Online 3 sounds too good to be true. Like most thing that sound that way though, the reality is that Pool Pro Online 3 is far from perfect, mainly because it’s overcomplicated itself with background graphics.

Simply put, the framerate isn’t what it should be. Balls will often visibly jerk across the felt, mainly because the game tries too hard to impress with fancy eye-candy and visuals. We honestly don’t understand it – we’ve had some of the best Snooker games ever running easily on platforms like the Amiga, so why shouldn’t the iPad be up to the task?

Putting the framerate troubles aside for a moment, Pool Pro Online 3 is almost overflowing with features and the interface is easy to use, if a little finicky. Really, the only problem that the game has is the poor performance – but that’s enough of an issue to put us off, frankly. Pool games on the iPhone are hardly rare, so it’s probably only a matter of days until the same is true for the iPad…

Verdict: Functional, but not exactly enjoyable. Pool Pro Online 3 is simply best avoided for the time being.