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Ah, Taito. Many, many hours whiled away in arcades playing Taito games: Space Invaders, Qix, Arkanoid, etc. Much of my dad’s money spent. Now, here I am nearly 30 years on, and I’m still whiling away the hours (more accurately, minutes) playing Taito games.

But I’m no longer spending a lot of money to do so (which is good, because the money’s now mine, not my dad’s), and I’m doing so at restaurants, waiting rooms and my office, not at arcades. Having released games for pretty much every gaming system ever made in the history of everything, Taito has moved on to the iPhone with three of its classic titles: Space Invaders, Cooking Mama and Cameltry. Does the jump to Apple’s touch screen devices work? Gather ‘round, we’ll take a look.

Space Invaders

• Price: $4.99
• File Size: 2.8MB
• Requirements: iPod touch or iPhone, iPhone 2.1 software
• Appletell Rating: 3/5

I don’t need to tell any of you what Space Invaders is or how you play it. You understand, therefore, that you normally play it with a joystick. You need something to slide left and right, correct? And a button with which to fire? The iPhone has neither. Thankfully, Taito gives you options. You can tilt, you can tap and drag on a virtual joystick, or you can tap and hold virtual buttons. The latter two are done with your thumb at the bottom left of the “cabinet.” At the bottom right is a fire button. There, simple as can be. It does take a bit of getting used to, but you’ll have it down after a couple games. My brother preferred the buttons. I preferred the joystick. Neither of us liked the accelerometer. Whichever method you choose, the gameplay is so simple that tapping a screen to move and fire doesn’t become an issue.

The gameplay and controls aren’t really the draw, here; it’s the packaging. Taito nailed the nostalgia of this release, right down to the cabinet graphics. There are no fancy gameplay updates. This is Space Invaders of arcade fame, not the recent DS updates and such. It’s as basic as can be. What they did do is include the appearance of various arcade incarnations. I can select the cellophane overlay look? Are you kidding me? Absolutely I’m going to play with the cellophane color overlays. You can also play in color or traditional monochrome. What you can’t do is select that funky DayGlo purple and green background of Space Invaders Part II.

The graphics and sound are pretty much dead on, except that they dropped the four beat descending accelerando that adds a great deal of flair and stress to the game. It’s a shame that’s gone. Even with it, though, Space Invaders wouldn’t really be much more than a novelty on the iPhone. Quite honestly, it’s much more fun to show people than it is to play. I’ll keep it on my iPhone for that exact purpose, but I’m certain I’ll rarely launch it to play on my own.

Buy Space Invaders.

Cooking Mama

• Price: $6.99
• File Size: 8.8MB
• Requirements: iPod touch or iPhone, iPhone 2.0 software
• Appletell Rating: 5/5

Now, here’s what an idiot I am. When I install these apps for review, I put the ones I think I’ll like on my iPhone, and I give the others to my wife. I gave Cooking Mama to her, and now I find myself fighting her, my daughter and the battery for a chance to play it.

I absolutely love Cooking Mama on the iPhone—so much, in fact, that I bought it for the Nintendo DS and quickly took it back because it just wasn’t as enjoyable there. The game involves Mama giving you simple, but sometimes oblique instructions on how to prepare numerous meals. For instance, you cut onions by dragging your finger across a blue, dotted line. You strain spaghetti noodles by turning the phone. You butter a pan by tilting the iPhone around. It’s a game of speed and precision and plenty of practice if you want to get the higher scores.

See, you have to keep Mama happy. Prepare the ingredients quickly and precisely, and Mama will be pleased. Fail, and you’ll be admonished. Fail too often, and the game’s over. The lack of instructions on some procedures will leave you very frustrated (I have yet to successfully separate egg whites from the yoke), but the game is so cute and quick that it’s hard to stay angry.

This is a rare case where the combo of the touch screen and the accelerometer provide a level of gameplay that can’t be had on the DS and Wii. It’s like combining the WiiMote with the DS stylus to create a single, nearly perfect version. It doesn’t have as many dishes as the DS and Wii versions, but this isn’t a major issue because most dishes use the same ingredients, anyway; you’re just preparing them in a different order. So, whether you’ve got 15 or 50 meals to prepare, it’s all pretty much the same. That won’t stop App Store reviewers from screaming bloody murder, but it’s their own fault. If Taito could sell the game for $20, they’d put in $20 worth of dishes. But they can’t. iPhone users would freak. So, for $7.00, 15 dishes is on par the more expensive DS and Wii versions.

Buy Cooking Mama.

Cameltry

• Price: $4.99
• File Size: 9.5MB
• Requirements: iPod touch or iPhone, iPhone 2.0 software
• Appletell Rating: 4/5

Perhaps the least well known of the three is Cameltry. It has been around for quite a while in various incarnations, but my only exposure to anything like this has been the bonus levels in the first Sonic the Hedgehog. The premise is that you’re a ball trapped in a maze, and you need to find your way to the goal. You do so not by moving the ball, but by rotating the maze itself. Your ball wants to move down on the iPhone or iPod touch, so you tilt the phone to spin the maze so that the direction you want to go is, indeed, pointing down.

Obviously, this is again great use of the accelerometer, as you can rotate the maze by tilting the phone left or right. You can also do so by simply touching the side of the screen, and I preferred that method; easier to do, and easier to watch. But the game isn’t just about spinning your way through a maze. There are coins to collect, obstacles to avoid, power-ups to grab, and a dreaded timer to beat.

The graphics in the game are outstanding (although there are some annoying frame rate issues), and the music is appropriate in a creepy kind of way. There are many levels to puzzle through, with just enough variation to keep things interesting. Unfortunately, there are a couple problems as well. First, the controls are difficult to master no matter which method you choose. Plus, they interfere with one another. If you prefer the touch screen method, the accelerometer will still take over if you tilt the phone. There should be a way to turn off the method not in use. Second, there’s no way to save your progress. If your game is interrupted by a phone call or you just want to quit playing, you’re forced back to the start every time.

Ultimately, then, how much you enjoy Cameltry will depend upon how well you handle frustration. If you see it as part of the gaming experience, you’ll be well rewarded. If you see frustration as something you shouldn’t have to deal with outside of traffic jams and Post Office lines, you’re going to bail on this game early.

Buy Cameltry.

Summary

Taito has put together a solid line-up of games for their first foray into iPhone gaming. Cooking Mama is definitely the best, but each game works in certain ways. Hopefully, Taito has more titles in the wings. I’d love to see Arkanoid and Qix come our way, as they each seem well-suited to the iPhoneS’s control scheme and graphics capabilities. In the meantime, all these balls, aliens and bowls of soup will keep me plenty busy.