Infinity Blade / Ghost Trick / Golden Sun: Dark Dawn / Flick Buddies reviews (Boston Herald, 1/18/2011)

In winter, the weather will trap you. Maybe you were snowed in last week. Maybe you lingered for days in an iced-over airport. My wife spent most of last week stuck in a hotel in Stone Mountain, Ga. Weather hates us.

That’s why you should always have a fully charged iOS device (such as an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch) or handheld gaming system on hand. You can ignore the world around you and focus on games. Let some other guy blow his heart up shoveling that heavy snow.

Mobile games tend to be easy to pick up and understand. Then there’s “Infinity Blade,’’ an iOS game from the companies behind “Shadow Complex’’ and “Gears of War.’’ It’s not complicated, but it is deeper than “Angry Birds’’ or “Doodle Jump.’’ With beautiful graphics, RPG-style character progression and complex yet responsive touch-screen controls, this sword-fighting game proves that console-quality experiences are possible on an iPhone or iPad.

Bane Games’ “Flick Buddies’’ fits the stereotype of the iOS game: It’s simple, repetitive and cheap. It’s like air hockey; whoever flicks the most balls into a goal wins. Spikes, bumpers and whirlpools muck things up, and your balls can bounce off and destroy your opponents’ balls. It takes less than 30 minutes to play through every board, but theoretically you can enjoy it for hours with up to three friends. There’s no online play so players have to sit around the iPad, blocking the screen with their hands as they awkwardly flick weird hamburger-shaped icons around the board. It’s more mindless than “Angry Birds’’ but with none of the addictive fun.

If you don’t have one of Apple’s new-fangled contraptions or just prefer your games on devices dedicated solely to gaming, you can idle away those hours at the airport with “Golden Sun: Dark Dawn.’’ This role-playing game for the Nintendo DS offers hours of epic adventure with the old-school turn-based combat of “Final Fantasy’’ and the clever puzzles of a “Zelda’’ game. It’s long enough to last through three blizzards.

Shu Takumi’s “Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective’’ is also new to the DS. Like Takumi’s “Ace Attorney’’ series, “Ghost Trick’’ is a light-hearted romp with idiosyncratic game play and ridiculous characters and scenarios. It’s a puzzle game in which you create Rube Goldberg-style chain reactions by possessing and moving inanimate objects. It makes no sense, but this absurdly entertaining game beats watching late-night ESPN at an airport bar.

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