A few weeks ago EA Games slashed the prices on a bunch of their classic games including The Game of Life, Clue and Battleship to .99. Battleship is a blast to play (bad pun intended). It’s addictive fun; one minute turns into an hour. The game matches last quite awhile, an average of 10 minutes or more (with the cut scenes) and it doesn’t remember the last position when you quit, so you are forced to play until the match is over. On the one hand it’s a flawless mobile game experience, but the match length means you have to be in a place where you can devote the time to finish a round. There are neat little RPG elements that let you level up your character and rank, doing this unlock new weapons you can use in the Super Weapon mode.
There are several modes to play to help speed it up including Salvo where you start by launching up to 5 missiles at time, as the game progresses you get down to a single missile but hopefully you’ll have a good idea where the enemy ships are by then. There’s a Super Weapons mode that lets you use things like Air Strikes, Sea Mines, and Frag Missiles. Of course the game includes the original single missile mode.
Multiplayer lets two iPhone Users play against each other via WiFi or Bluetooth and there is a pass and play option that lets a user take his turn, then give your iPhone to your friend to take a shot. The graphics on the game are surprisingly good and the cut scenes of the ships and your super weapons are fun. Eventually you’ll want to turn them off for a faster match. Battleship is a perfect use of the iPhone’s Touch screen controls. There’s a lot of game here for .99.