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It’s not that Brizzly’s perfect, or that it does justice to its source material (the unassailably pretty, wonderfully lean Birdfeed)—it’s that it comes close enough, and it’s free.

First, a quick lesson in the history of iPhone Twitter apps! Once, there was an app called Birdfeed. It was clever, fast, and visually distinctive. In fact, it was (up until just now) quite possibly one of the best Twitter apps available. It was also expensive, at $5. The developer, who was tired or something, sold the app to a little startup called Brizzly, which aggregates Twitter and Facebook feeds into a single interface (it’s actually kinda neat, as an online service.) And so here we are.

Brizzly’s rerelease (not an update; Birdfeed is no longer in the store) of Birdfeed changes the name, tweaks the UI, and slashes the price down to zero. The interface isn’t as dazzling as it was before, and Birdfeed’s trademark lack of a menu bar has given way to a standard row of icons. Brizzly actually adds a few new features, including a trending topics-esque News tab, for explaining what’s going on in your feeds, and the same lovely pull-down feed refreshing as the other best iPhone Twitter app, Tweetie.

Even its apparent shortfallings aren’t so bad: Yes, you have to sign up for a Brizzly account in order to use the app, but one you have, it’s completely transparent. It’s like Meebo in that sense. And no, the app doesn’t have push notifications of its own, like Echofon does, but premium Twitter apps have long offloaded that responsibility to dedicated push apps like Boxcar. (Which is great beyond Twitter, by the way.)

In short, if you need a Twitter app but don’t want to pay, Brizzly’s the one. [iTunes]

Sam Fisher will be a busy man next month. Just as Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Conviction rolls across Xbox 360 and PC in April, the former Third Echelon agent is also infiltrating the iPhone. At the Game Developers Conference today, I sat down to ride shotgun through a handful of missions in the upcoming iPhone stealth action game.

Conviction on iPhone borrows a lot from the console edition. The plot is very similar, with Sam being pulled back into the world of Third Echelon and international intrigue. Michael Ironside voices Fisher in the iPhone game, as does the remainder of the cast. Conviction also mirrors several gameplay concepts from the console game, such as the use of mark and execute to tag enemies and then eliminate them with lightning fast shots before they can react. Fisher can also use a last known position technique to lure enemies into disadvantageous positions, which is something I employed in the windowless building mission to get an enemy to step into Fisher’s home turf: the shadows. As he investigated where I was recently spotted on the rooftop of a security checkpoint, it was easy to creep down and pull him into a hand-to-hand kill.

These hand-to-hand kills are critical in Conviction because that’s what awards you the ability to use mark and execute actions. There are multiple types of kills, from pulling an enemy over a ledge if you shimmy beneath them to drawing them into a human shield position, which protects you from incoming fire.

Please remove your belt and shoes before stepping through the scanner.

Though the version of Conviction I played was in that nebulous zone between alpha and beta, it was already featuring some nice touches, like the painting of objectives on walls. The controls are a little touchy right now, but moving Fisher around with the virtual stick was fine. Scrolling through gadgets such as frag grenades and camera grenades, though, needs some tightening. Too many times I wanted to use a camera to spy on an enemy outpost, only to roll a frag into their midst and reveal my position.

Conviction on the iPhone lacks multiplayer, so no co-op missions or deathmatches. But with 10 missions stretched from Malta to Iraq, there should be plenty of action to keep gamers busy. As Conviction draws nearer, look for additional details on IGN.

Vlingo: Vlingo’s updated their popular (well, BlackBerry popular) voice transcription app with a new interface. The core functionality—voice actuated calling, web, Facebook and Twitter updates and mapping—is still there, and the newly organized homescreen literally spells out how to use each function. The catch, though, is that to use the new features, like the email and SMS transcription, you have to pay either $8 each, or $10 for both. This feels steep, considering that equally capable transcription apps like Dragon Dictation are free, and offer shortcuts for copying transcribed text for pasting into emails or SMSes. There’s still enough in the free version to justify a download, though.

Hot Tub Time Machine Soundboard:

Step one: watch this preview.
Step two: watch it again.
Step three: Make your friends watch it, so they understand why you keep injecting this soundboard into your conversations.
Step four: Bask, smugly, in your role as king of a miniature comedy empire that you created, and that you’ll rule until the day this movie comes out. Then, it will crumble. But hey!

Buzzie: The first native iPhone app for Google Buzz sadly isn’t free, but it’s good enough to justify its $2 price for avid Buzzers (whoever you are):

As the first iPhone app for Buzz, Buzzie gets a lot right. The minimalist UI recalls thhttp://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ragdoll-blaster-2/id353846826?mt=8e classier breed of Twitter apps, like Tweetie, why the local and map views are a treat to see rendered natively, in the app and on a Google Map, respectively. My only reservations? I don’t see a way to post images in a new Buzz, which is kind of a big deal for avid users. That, and I’ve found that even when I check the “Remember Me” box, I’m sometimes logged out when the app starts up.

Poynt: Another BlackBerry transplant (Hey, BlackBerry devs, why now?), which works as a multi-purpose concierge app—you can search through businesses, restaurants, movies and people. “But there are other services that do that,” you might say, “like CinemaSource and SuperPages and CitySearch and OpenTable!” Well, what this app does, basically, is draw directly from all those services. So it’s really just four apps in one, and it works fairly well. Free.

Fart Hero: Rhythm games are popular, and a lot of people resent this. Fart apps are also popular, and even more people begrudge that. So, it is a proud moment for me when I can present to you the most resentable app of all time: Fart Hero! It’s like Guitar Hero, except instead of playing an imaginary guitar, you’re playing an imaginary anus. You may max out the game’s humor potential in a matter of seconds, but using it will bring you one broad step closer to understanding the ineffable essence of the App Store, as we know it today.

Ragdoll Blaster 2

This game is philosophically problematic. Why must these poor human-like things be launched into dangerous situations? And in the service of solving a seemingly infinite set of puzzles? I don’t know. The ragdolls don’t know. It’s a sad situation. It’s also an extremely catchy game, especially if you appreciate a good physics game.

Kid Care: If I suddenly found myself possessed of a child, I would panic. (For a variety of reasons!) Beyond the issue of the child’s mere existence, I would flip the hell out at every tiny problem I encountered. When are you supposed to feed this? How much does it eat? Why is it making these noises? Kid Care tries to answer newbie parent questions of a medical variety, so you don’t rush your kid to the hospital every time his vomit changes viscosity. Free.

Movie Mystic: A movie finding and ticket booking app, with a small twist: select an occasion, like “Date Night” or “Time for Tears,” shake the app, and it’ll actually suggest a current movie, and offer your the option to buy tickets to see it at a local theater. The aesthetic can be a bit garish, and I ran into the occasional slowdown, but it’s a fun alternative to more straightforward movie apps like Fandango or Movies, and beyond the crystal ball start screen, it can do just about everything those apps can. Free.

Expedia: Expedia’s updated their TripAssist app to include trip itinerary importing from other sources (like individual airlines), a revamped interface, SMS and email alerts, and flight seating charts. Free.

Happy Hours: Finds you nearby bars with running drink deals and happy hours, with a respectably full and well-maintained database. It’s useful in the cities where it’s available, and obviously useless in the ones where it’s not. Either way, it’s free.

All-In-1 Gamebox: We’ve written about how there’s massive pressure on app developers to hit rock bottom prices in the App Store, wondering, earnestly, how can a developer thrive in a 99c economy? It as an interesting question! Well, ha ha, we were so naive. All-In-1 Gamebox is a single app with 25 unique games packaged inside. They’re all distinct. Most of the are fine. Some of them are good. A couple of them are worthless. A handful of them could have easily been sold for 99c. And each is sold here for roughly four cents, minus Apple’s cut.

Granted, it’s not like 25 developers are going in on a single app here—the games all come from one source, as far as I can tell—but still, an app like this sets our price expectations hilariously low. Alas, you are not devs, so here’s what you need to know: aside from the best of the best of the $1 games, it’s hard to imagine a better timewaster that AI1 Gamebox, at least for the price.

Android’s been around for more than a year, and in that time developers have whipped up some great apps. Whether you’re a new Android owner or a pro looking for new tools, these 10 great and free apps belong in your arsenal.

Photo by lwallenstein.

We’re going to skip right over the apps that are just so common, universal, and well replicated on the iPhone or other mobile platforms that a user with a need will probably hunt them down—Facebook, Yelp, Evernote, Remember the Milk, and endless Twitter clients, widgets, and apps. We’ve also skipped over Google’s own neat apps, like Google Voice, Navigation, and Goggles, that are (or will be) included standard on new Android phones. Instead, we’re aiming to shine a little light on apps that quietly offer excellent functionality for those who download them.

10. Layar

In some ways, this is a vote for the potential of Layar as much as the practical application. Walking around with your phone and seeing Wikipedia subjects, apartments for sale, and what Twitter users have raved about through your phone is a pretty neat thing, and potentially helpful when you’re looking for things to do in a new city. But as Layar continues to add new layers, and as camera and mobile processing power continue to improve, Layar could become a lot more interesting than it already is. One thing worth mentioning is that if you don’t like the 3-D camera view, or like the looks of yourself while using it, Layar can just show you points of interest on a Google-type map. Either way you use it, it’s an intriguing look at what’s happening just around the corner. (Original post)

9. Listen

Until the latest upgrade, we couldn’t have really called Listen a king among podcast apps—it had a few irksome bugs, one of them being the loss of episodes and, sometimes, subscriptions. Now, however, Google’s own app does a great job not only of finding audio content, but it exports your subscriptions to be managed in Google Reader, ensuring a full feed backup and easier retrieval of past episodes you want to head back and hear. If you need more fine-grained podcast control, try ACast, but Listen will work for most. (Original post)

8. AnyCut

You can drop a lot of neat things on your Android home screen, but you can’t quite get one-click access to everything in your phone’s settings and extras. AnyCut doesn’t have a great interface, and it might take some trial and error before you get to exactly what you’re looking for. Soon enough, though, you’ll have access to the deepest guts of your settings, so switching 3G on and off, enabling location services, and other tricks are easy to pull off. (Original post)

7. Secrets

There’s no browser syncing on the Android—yet (c’mon, Mozilla, get on that Firefox Mobile!). In the meantime, there’s Secrets, a secure, KeePass-compatible, master-password-locked vault for all your passwords. It’s not that hard to export your passwords from your desktop or laptop onto your SD card, and with full-text search finally implemented, Secrets is a lot more convenient for those oh-shoot-what’s-that-username-again moments. (Original post)

6. SlideScreen

You use your Android smartphone differently than your desktop computer. You don’t work with files and shortcuts, so much as you check in on the streams of data you care about—email, text messages, Facebook and Twitter, chat, and the like. SlideScreen replaces, or just augments, if you’d like, your phone’s home screen, creating row after row of messages and feeds. Slide the center info bar up and down to look at more or less of your items, swipe to the right to dismiss items as read, and revel in having all your data on hand at once. SlideScreen also replaces the standard application tray, giving you 8 slots to put your most frequently accessed apps, and tucking all the others into a rolling deck below. It’s a total makeover for your phone, in other words—one that might just make you fall in love all over again with the concept of mobile data. (Original post)

5. Shopper

Okay, at first we were pretty skeptical of Google’s Shopper app, since it seemed like just a mashup of Google’s own Goggles and barcode-smart apps likes ShopSavvy. Then we actually used Shopper, and were amazed at both how accurately it picked up both barcodes and simple cover shots, and at how very fast it worked. Turns out, according to one developer who appeared on This Week in Google, Shopper is actually uploading image data to Google’s servers as it captures it, and decodes barcodes right on the phone. Speed for speed’s sake is nice, sure, but it’s pretty nice not to have to stand in front of a book display for a whole two minutes, waving your phone around a bunch of books you’re trying to competitively price. Shopper answers the “Can I buy this cheaper” question, and answers it quickly.

4. PDANet

PDANet is the easiest way to use your phone’s cellular net connection as a makeshift internet access point, for those hard-up situations when you just need to get online somehow, anyhow. The free version always offers basic internet access, but restricts secure site connections after a trial period. The paid version isn’t cheap ($30), but it is the easiest of the three ways we know how to tether an Android phone. For the cost of nothing, we’ll take some basic web site browsing—because, hey, can’t you get to Gmail on your phone if you really need it? (Original post)

3. TasKiller Free

Like your regular computer, your Android phone runs more slowly and bogs down more often if it has a multitude of apps running constantly in the background. Few apps provide a direct, easy “Quit” option, though, and the phone’s own process manager is a pain. Enter TasKiller, a free multi-app closer that works from its standard icon, or as one of a number of widgets you can add to your home screen for one-click streamlining. The free version serves up ads and lacks a few advanced features, but generally serves the needs of anyone who’s sick of needing to actually reset their phone just to clear up space for, you know, phone calls and such.

2. WaveSecure

This one’s only free until March 31, so be sure to jump on it if you think there’s even a remote chance you’ll want some killer security tools available to you. WaveSecure not only backs up your contacts, SMS messages, photos and videos, and other files to the developer’s cloud for later restoring if your phone gets lost, but can lock down a phone when you’re stashing it for a while, locate a phone with GPS or text message triangulation (seriously), and, as a final option, pull off a total and complete remote wipe if you fear all is lost. Powerful peace of mind, especially for the price. (Original post)

1. ASTRO File Manager

This is one of those apps you hope gets some attention, if only to be bought by Google or otherwise integrated into the basic phone software. ASTRO File Manager does a great job of letting you navigate files on your SD card and accessible internal memory, sure, but it also has its own built-in task killer, backs up applications, can send files as email attachments (not all that easy or intuitive from the mail client, for some reason), and much more. It’s the Leatherman of Android utilities, and a must-have on any serious geek’s phone

Final Fantasy I & II: An extremely faithful pair of ports. The original FF1 and FF2 are old enough that Square Enix decided to revamp the artwork for the iPhone, making these versions noticeably prettier than the originals. Gameplay doesn’t suffer too much on account of the touch controls because of the games’ slowish pace, and honestly, even if it did, FF these games are basically a lock for Final Fantasy fans anyway. My only reservation is that the games costs $9 each. $9 for both would’ve been more like it.

Aha: Last time we saw this app, it was a mere traffic reporter. It had big buttons, and it aggregated voice messages from other users, but still: traffic. Now Aha’s expanded its big-buttoned philosophy—that philosophy being, I think, that if you have to fiddle with your phone while you’re driving (you don’t!) then it may as well be as easy as possible—to Facebook, Twitter, local points of interest and streaming podcasts. And its voice reports system has been expanded into a full-on set of community radio stations, populated by the voices of other Aha users, who will yell about whatever they while driving, I guess? Anyway, free.

Colorbind: This one falls into that vexing category of dead-simple, dead-hard, dead-brilliant iPhone puzzle games. Extract what little comfort you can from the game’s soothing aesthetic, because until you really get a feel for the gameplay concept, it’s going to be a rough ride. As far as how it works, I’ll leave the explaining up to the video. $2, though a lite version is available.

Skeptical Science: Hey, guess what’s not fun! A discussion about a scientific issue in which both parties have access to the same data, yet still disagree, angrily and forever! If you’re frustrated by deniers, Skeptical Science offers a handy guide for debunking common claims about climate science. You’re still probably not going to change anyone’s mind, but at least you’ll feel good about proving someone else wrong on some granular point, and that’s what debate is about, right? Right.

Gibson Learn & Master: A free entrant into the category that GuitarToolKit dominates, Gibson’s app is good. It’s not great. It’s not going to replace GuitarToolKit. Here’s what it will replace, for the most part:

• Your metronome
• Your guitar tuner
• Chord charts, printed or online

Wilson, Gizmodo’s resident closeted band-haver, calls this a “classy value-added way to advertise products,” but says it’s “chump” compared to GTK, lacking varied metronome sounds and multiple guitar types, and possessed of a much less navigable chord guide, and no way to hear how a given chord sounds. A feature-to-feature comparison like this could go on forever, but that’s not the point. The point is the Gibson’s app is free.

Brothers in Arms 2: The first Brothers in Arms game had problems ranging from blocky graphics to awkward controls, which weren’t bad enough to ruin the game, but just bad enough to prevent it from being great. Brothers in Arms 2 upgrades the graphics considerably, improves the controls marginally, and opens up gameplay options immensely. If you enjoyed the first one, you’ll love this one. If you’ve never dabbled in a 3D shooter on the iPhone for fear of utter terribleness, this is a good place to start. $8.

Angry Birds: Terribly violent little casual game, to birds. A terrible addictive little casual game, to humans. It’s a bit like a cross between a scorched earth game and a physics tool—your goal is to launch an avian cartoon into precariously stacked structures. The more you knock down, the higher you score. If you’re not ready to throw down a dollar based on the concept alone, there’s a pretty solid lite version, too.

Camera Pro Plus: There’s a lot of overlap in camera apps, so interface and novel features are generally what determine the best. (I’m partial to Snapture.) But Camera Pro Plus, already a great alternative camera app, now records video, which it competitors generally don’t. Trump card, folks! (Until everyone else does it too.)

Vogue Stylist: Prancing awkward back and forth across the line that separates advertising from, you know, stuff you might voluntarily subject yourself to, the Vogue app is a sort of pocket wardrobe catalogue, compiling both pre-listed items and stuff you’ve added yourself into a toy for fiddling with outfits, which is something I can speak about with little to no authority. I will say this, though: It’s pretty.

Moto X Mayhem: Who knows why, but good trials games are hard to come by on the iPhone. This is a good trials games, albeit of a very specific type. Think Teagames-style, don’t-fall-over-but-don’t-go-too-slow type of stuff, not the crawling, puzzle-like trials you find in games like Trials HD. Tons of playability for $1.

NASA Lunar Electric Rover: Lets you simulate the various tasks and challenges involved in supporting a functioning lunar outpost. As Jesus notes, it’s also a heartbreaker:

There are over 170,000 apps available for your iPhone. Sorting through the crowded App Store to find the best downloads for your iPhone or iPod Touch is time consuming and fraught with the risk of dropping good money on a bad app. Because even though most apps cost just a few dollars or Euros, that still was your hard-earned coin. So, IGN is starting a series of Top 5s for various genres and categories in the App Store to help you make the best download decisions. If you’re new to the App Store, we hope to make the discovery of new apps and games more fun. And if you’ve had an iPhone for years, perhaps you’ll find something new and fun. Because that’s what makes the App Store such an exciting place: there is always something new behind each click.

Because the iPhone was born out of Apple’s revolutionary iPod line, it includes all of the functionality of those successful music players. But thanks to the cleverness of developers, the iPhone and iPod Touch can do so much more with music than just replay it. Now you can interact with your music, create your own sounds, and play rhythm games. Our inaugural Top 5 charts the best music apps in the App Store, ranging from a brilliant little puzzle game to a voice-altering app that turns you into the next hip-hop star.

Pandora Radio
Publisher: Pandora Media
Price (as of 2/26/10): Free
Download this app

Pandora is an unparalleled music source. This Internet radio service is one of the world’s most popular music destinations for good reason. It’s easy to set up your very own personalized stations so you listen primarily to the bands and music genres you like, but Pandora’s smart DJ pulls. I cannot tell you how many forgotten songs and new bands were introduced to me by Pandora. The free iPhone app works just as well as the website, easily streaming music through your device (as long as you have a connection) and its integration with iTunes right on your handset means you can buy new tracks with just a few taps.

Beat It!
Publisher: Glu
Price (as of 2/26/10): $2.99
Download this app

We named Beat It the best iPhone music game of 2009. And unless somebody steps up their game, it might end up coasting through 2010 as a top choice, too. Beat It is a rhythm-puzzler. You must recreate music on a grid, tapping in notes and beats until you successfully mirror the sample track. Over time, tracks grow more complex, adding new instruments to the mix. As you match the music, the backgrounds explode in color and light with a distinct 16-bit aesthetic that will please classic gamers or any fan of cubism. Glu recently updated Beat It so the music making mode now lets you share created clips with friends and other players, which was our lone sticking point with the original release. So now, it’s pretty much perfect.

Shazam / Shazam Encore
Publisher: Shazam Entertainment
Price (as of 2/26/10): Free / $4.99
Download this app

Many of the best apps are those that offer a solution to a problem that wasn’t exactly pressing, but present all the same. Shazam identifies music. We’ve all caught the back half of a song on the radio, loved what we heard, and then screamed at the DJ for not telling us what it was called or which band performed it. Quickly fire up Shazam, point your device at the speaker, and within seconds, the app tells you the name of the song and the band, as well as offering links for buying the track or sharing it with friends. Like Pandora, Shazam is about exploration. As you tag songs you like, Shazam starts offering recommendations. The Encore edition of Shazam will cost you, but it offers increased speed and additional features, like a car mode that monitors the radio and keeps a running playlist.

RjDj
Publisher: Reality Jockey Ltd.
Price (as of 2/26/10): $1.99
Download this app

Your iPhone or iPod Touch is already loaded up with your music, but why not make a little of your own? RjDj is a reality mixer of sorts. Though there are a number of downloadable songs to pull into RjDj, the thrust of the app is to using the noises around you to affect the tracks. You can also move your fingers around scene to change the song, creating new sounds. It’s a trippy little app and one that is easy to sink a lot of time into if you connect with it. You’ll bust it out when you go to new places to see how the ambient sounds of that environment affect the music. You can save the music you make with RjDj and either listen to it later or share it with friends via the usual social networking suspects. This is precisely the kind of crazy-cool app that makes the iPhone such a unique experience.

I Am T-Pain
Publisher: Smule
Price (as of 2/26/10): $2.99
Download this app

Auto-Tune is everywhere now, for better or worse. Smule’s I Am T-Pain lets you use a simple version of the voice-altering software that defines hip-hop artist T-Pain’s sound. Using the iPhone mic or an mic input on a Touch, you record your voice (either by itself or over a backing track) and then run it through Auto-Tune. You select keys to determine the results. Using freestyle mode over no backing track is a fun way to make little messages for friends, but I Am T-Pain is much more engaging when you sing over a backing track, really experiment with the Auto-Tune settings to create something unique, and then share it via Smule’s global network. (Really, there is a globe you can spin to select I Am T-Pain creations from all over the planet. And this app is indeed global.) Oh, and lest we forget: shawwty.

Although we intended to just highlight the absolute top five, we cannot help but steer you to one more music game that is also worth your attention. Though not the best in class, it has all of the elements to be one of the best rhythm games on the App Store with revision and the addition of new artists:

Riddim Ribbon feat. Black-Eyed Peas
Publisher: Tapulous
Price (as of 2/26/10): $2.99
Download this app

Tapulous is the most successful music game publisher on the App Store, thanks to its catalog of Tap Tap Revenge games. However, the Guitar Hero-like gameplay of just tapping notes as they stream down the screen is just no longer fresh. That’s where Riddim Ribbon comes in: this is a cool riff on the rhythm game. Instead of touching notes, you tilt to steer a marble through lines that represent the song. Depending on which route you take at branches, you mix the song. PlayStation 2 gamers will see hints of Frequency and Amplitude in Riddim Ribbon, but considering those were the first music games by Harmonix (inventors of Guitar Hero and Rock Band), that’s pretty good inspiration. If you don’t like the Black Eyed Peas, there are additional tracks to unlock in Riddim that may be more to your liking. Plus, Tapulous has franchise plans that will branch out into other genres and artists.

Final Fantasy II has a special place in the pantheon of RPG classics for a handful of reasons. Due to Square’s skittishness to bring Final Fantasy II stateside, this adventure went unplayed by Western audiences for years as the Final Fantasy II we got received was really Final Fantasy IV. Plus, Final Fantasy II is the game that introduced fan-favorite Cid Highwind to the cast and rolled out the first chocobos.

The iPhone edition of Final Fantasy II is based on a 2007 PlayStation Portable remake, which features updated visuals and audio as well as a new dungeon. The old-school 8-bit graphics have been completely refreshed, but thanks to the high-res 16-bit aesthetic, maintain their retro charm. On the iPhone, the sharp sprites and bright colors look outstanding. The remixed themes also sound great, especially to ears that think Final Fantasy II remains a highlight in composer Nobou Uematsu’s extensive career. (And if that name means zero to you, no worries. Just know that this is some great, classic game music.)

Final Fantasy II benefits from an improved narrative over the original adventure. There are essentially two teams of heroes, though you stick with one set for the majority of the quest. You are in search of Leon, a hero with a dark core seen in the opening scene. On your journey, you must bring down a giant airship called the Dreadnought, help the last surviving dragon, and enter a hellish underworld. If you downloaded Final Fantasy I and found its story lacking, there is a little more drive to this sequel.

Bow before me, behemoth.

I admire Final Fantasy II’s attempt to break outside the traditional leveling up mechanic of most RPGs even if I don’t necessarily like it. Instead of amassing general experience, the proficiency system improves your aptitude with a weapon, magic, or skill the more you use it. The less you use something, the lower your proficiency with it. This sounds better than it is. To gain HP, you must take damage. Wait. What? I have to let myself get hammered to become stronger, which in turn places me in risk of just getting killed outright? No, you can turn this system on its head and just injure each other to raise stamina. That’s pointless.

Final Fantasy II also uses an awkward learning system. When you speak to other characters and important words or phrases are uttered, you need to tap a button to learn it. Memorizing words gives you the option to use them later as passwords and whatnot, or bring them up with a character as a way to glean additional information. It’s clunky but effective as an early indication of where conversation in RPGs might go with a few years of evolution.

Final Fantasy II uses the touchscreen to control the action. Just like Final Fantasy I, this system is slow but entirely workable. You touch an action icon and then tap the enemy you want to attack. Because of the proficiency system and excessive random battles (really, it gets a little silly when you cannot take seven steps without being attacked), battle scenes played during your skill- and HP-grinding phases take a lot of time. Hours, in fact. If you aren’t ready for this – meaning, you aren’t already a Final Fantasy II fan – this may drive you crazy and right back into the arms of a breezier game.

Closing Comments
Final Fantasy II is indeed one of the odder entries in the main canon. The proficiency system can seriously frustrate, as you are actually punished for trying new things rather than sticking to set patterns. But this lengthy adventure certainly has a better narrative than the original Final Fantasy. I recommend Final Fantasy II primarily to existing fans that will enjoy seeing one of their favorites all dressed up and looking good on the iPhone. Newcomers are likely to be put off by the slower pace and proficiency system.

Final Fantasy is not just a videogame, it’s an institution. At some point, these titles became critic-proof, which is too bad because recognizing that shortcomings of classics is how games get better. That being said, Final Fantasy on the iPhone is a visually dynamic remake. The upgraded visuals – pulled from a recent PlayStation Portable version – look good on the iPhone’s crisp screen. So if you don’t mind some of the more archaic features of Final Fantasy, then by all means rush over to iTunes, drop that $8.99 and take that first step down memory lane.

Alright, now that the purists are over at iTunes, let’s really talk about Final Fantasy I. Based on the PlayStation Portable and Game Boy Advance remakes, Final Fantasy I for the iPhone is a hair easier than the original and includes extra dungeons, such as the Soul of Chaos. The story has not been changed, which means it’s still very thin. The plight of the kingdom of Coneria and the battle of the Light Warriors just lacks the power of better, later yarns.

Zap McKraken.

On the iPhone, you control the action via the touchscreen. Weirdly enough, this actually slows the game down a bit. Remember how you used to be able to hammer through easier battles by just laying on the A button? Now, you must select the action then choose an enemy. Without a default button, you spend a lot of time tapping here, tapping there… and after a while, that time adds up.

Because Final Fantasy I is an older game, I’m not going to level my general complaint about random battles. With the slower touchscreen controls, they can really grate, but this is a remake not a revision and Square never said it was doing anything more than that. To be sure, I think it would have been cool if Square did something about that and populated the world with actual monsters.

Final Fantasy I borrows its new look from the 2007 20th anniversary edition for the PSP. Though it’s almost three years old, it still looks great. If you like retro style, you’ll appreciate how Square stuck to the designs of the 8-bit classic but nudged them into razor-sharp, colorful 16-bit territory. Really, it is a visual pleaser.
Closing Comments
If you download Final Fantasy I expecting a lively, modern RPG, then you’ll waste $8.99. This is a remake of a classic that deviates only in appearances, not in spirit. The upgraded visuals are attractive (though not as much as the refreshed Final Fantasy II) and the remixed music sounds great. But the touchscreen controls mixed with the slower pace of a classic RPG may turn off gamers that don’t appreciate the curve that takes us from Final Fantasy I to newer games, such as Zenonia.