Games should be replayable, IMO. So many of these $1 and $2 games are "play 3-4x and get bored". Particularly annoying for me are so-called "RPG's" which have no roleplay, no character development besides a skill-tree and stat assignment, and the equipment is alway about improving your item progression, ie a sword II to a sword III.I did think Tiny Heroes was impressive, the War on Terror is humorous, Elder Sign is a worthy contender, BattleHeart is highly replayable (and while it is one of those 'RPG-like' games I described, the gameplay mechanism is quite fun), GodVille is truly unique (and funny & free w/o IAP), PuzzleQuest is awesome, Protector was interesting/challenging, Anomaly was fun but lacked replayability, Neuroshima Hex is a fav, Ascendancy has potential as a 4x (but UI was challenging), Battle for Wesnoth should be a 'genre breaker' (amazing strategic combat), and I also liked The Lord of the Rings: Middle-earth Defense (had some good value for unique LOTR character based TD game),
Disappointments were King of Dragon Pass (which had a great review but was less than thrilling), King Cashing (supposedly unique/amazing game, but I found it lacking), Legend of Yore (an 8-bit Rogue-like w/o anything beyond hack & slash), & Mage Gauntlet (great review, less than exciting 8-bit retro game). Also bought Chaos Rings awhile back & found that very disappointing.
I've also tried a bunch of CCG games for iPhone, incl the 'big' Shadow Era (ok game, hate the clumsy UI), Dungeon Solitaire (good fun, some strange new cards), Kard Combat (was fun for a few plays, then boring), as well as Cabals (strategic game with potential, UI was awkward & heckling IAP is annoying), Orions 1 &2 (both fun, dev's not so great), Stack & Deploy (interesting CCG-like game w/action elements, UI takes practice).
Big fan of Speedball 2 (fun!), Words w/Friends (my g/f is hooked & have a few regular ongoing games, new IAP is annoying), Dungeon Defenders & Defender Chronicles (fun twists on TD),
Non-game props for apps on my iPhone go to --> TuneIn Radio, DropBox, TapForms (a DB), Pandora, Garage Band, NetFlix (I can watch whole movies or anime episodes on my phone? WOW!), Adobe Ideas (my fav sketch app), ComicBook, Yelp (but bogus & weak reviews are annoying), SoundHound, SoundCloud, USB Disk Pro, CraigsPro+, Mint, Blogger or Blogger+, Google Voice, Genius Scan +, Evernote.Dungeon Raid may be my all-time favorite game -- the developer started with an excellent game and improved it, dev is very responsive and committed to their community of players, and the mechanic is a lot of fun AND the sounds are great (and I can play my own music behind it).
