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With the iPad, the larger screen and extra clout from Apple’s A4 chip creates a gaming experience markedly superior compared to that on the iPhone, and there are plenty of fantastic titles available.

• Apple iPad review (Wi-Fi version)
• Apple iPad 3G review

Those games marked ‘universal’ will work on both your iPad and iPhone. So ere are our favourite iPad games.

1. Plants vs. Zombies HD (£5.99)

PopCap’s bonkers tower defence game Plants vs. Zombies HD should appeal even if you’re sick of the genre. On iPad, the graphics are fantastic, and the multi-touch screen perfect for positioning your plants to battle the undead. There’s also an iPad-only minigame, ‘buttered popcorn’, where you ‘butter’ multiple zombies and fire corn-cob cannons at them.

2. Flight Control HD (£2.99)

Firemint’s line-drawing classic Flight Control HD brings its iPhone baggage to iPad, offering all the original airfields in big-o-vision. However, new stuff makes the game worth three quid, including improved controls and three ‘HD’ airfields. These feature two landing areas and are like juggling two Flight Control games at once.

3. Pinball HD (£1.79)

Gameprom cornered the iPhone pinball market with three great tables, which are compiled for the iPad release of Pinball HD. Each table now gets three viewpoints (overhead, 3D, dynamic) with optional ‘camera tilt’, along with a major boost in detail and performance. For the record, The Deep’s futuristic, feature-packed table is our favourite.

4. Civilization Revolutions for iPad (£7.49)

This action-packed ‘Civ lite’ works much like it does on other handhelds, but Civilization Revolutions for iPad hugely benefits from the iPad’s large screen, enabling you to rampage around a virtual world, conquering your foes. The iPad version also boasts a customisation feature, enabling you to adjust parameters and create almost limitless scenarios and game types.

5. Real Racing HD (£5.99)

If you’ve played Real Racing for iPhone, Real Racing HD is basically the same game with a few upgrades (replays, ghost racers, car skins). However, what was a little fiddly on an iPhone suddenly becomes immersive and far more exciting on iPad, with you using your device as a virtual steering wheel, careering round courses to take the chequered flag.

6. Labyrinth 2 HD (£4.99)

Roll a marble to the exit. It doesn’t sound exciting or even good, but Labyrinth 2 HD is a surprisingly compelling iPad game. Part of the magic is in how tactile it feels—your view updates using a subtle 3D effect as you tilt your device. The rest is in the excellent course design—things start simple, but levels soon resemble an explosion in a pinball factory.

7. Strategery (£1.19, universal)

Strategery is a hugely addictive simplified Risk. Conquer countries by tapping and automated dice rolls, and be mindful of the fact that since there’s no stockpiling (each country can hold a set maximum number of army units), you need to think ahead to win. Online one-on-one play is also available.

8. Zen Bound 2 (£1.79, universal)

Zen Bound for iPhone was a surprise hit, with many thousands of people infatuated with tying bits of rope around sculptures. Along with offering superior visuals and a 45-minute soundtrack, this iPad-exclusive sequel, Zen Bound 2, provides even more tactile controls, and a bunch of new levels and features, such as paint bombs.

9. Geometry Wars: Touch (£2.99, universal)

Although we’d like to kick squarely in the goolies whichever idiot placed the bomb button in the middle of the screen, Bizarre’s dual-thumb shooter Geometry Wars: Touch for iPad is a triumph on iPad. Including seven gameplay modes (one exclusive to iPad), the game provides ample short bursts of adrenaline-fuelled carnage for any wannabe destroyer of vector-based alien scumbags.

10. Let’s Golf! HD (£2.99)

Tiger Woods has yet to make his way to iPad, but Gameloft’s Let’s Golf! HD effort is a suitable alternative. In some ways, it’s actually more fun than EA’s stalwart, the cartoonish graphics bringing some Nintendo-like vibrancy to what’s otherwise a somewhat serious sport. Customisable players, 63 holes, Wi-Fi multiplayer and optional advanced controls ensure you get a lot of game for your three quid.

11. Osmos for iPad (£2.99)

If there’s a game likely to convince someone to buy an iPad, it’s Osmos. The simple physics-based gameplay tasks you with absorbing smaller ‘motes’ and avoiding larger ones that will absorb you. The environments feel alive, due to the lush visuals and ambient soundtrack; and the finely-tuned controls (including the ability to warp time) ensure that even tougher levels are a pleasure to play.

12. Mirror’s Edge for iPad (£5.99)

In gameplay terms, Mirror’s Edge isn’t a million miles away from 59p iPhone classic Run!, tasking you with swiping your ‘runner’ around an environment in vaguely Parkour fashion. But whereas Run! goes for cartoon aesthetics, Mirror’s Edge wraps Hollywood-style production values around its core gameplay, marrying fluid controls to an exciting, engaging futuristic landscape and dystopian storyline, thereby justifying its price tag.

13. Denki Blocks! HD (£2.99)

Rarely do puzzle games get the balance right, but Denki Blocks! HD looks great, has a smooth difficulty curve, and offers enough challenge to baffle even the brightest of iPad users. The game’s mechanics are simple – swipe to move all the blocks, aiming to join those of like colour—but achieving your goal (and each level’s ‘master challenge’) most certainly is not.

14. Scrabble (£5.99)

Aside from the odd dictionary issue, this is a successful iPad version of Scrabble. The graphics are clear, the solo game is challenging, and the app happily connects over Wi-Fi to the iPhone version.

15. Broken Sword: Director’s Cut HD (£4.99)

Revolution’s multi-BAFTA nominated title comes to the iPad with newly rendered graphics, along with Easter Eggs that when found unlock a Dave Gibbons comic. Broken Sword itself otherwise mirrors the classic PC original, rapidly drawing you into a globe-trotting adventure full of mystery and murder.

16. Moto X Mayhem for iPad! (£0.59)

Fans of Trials HD (or, if you’re old enough, Kikstart) should lap up this side-on motocross game. The ragdoll physics sometimes irks, but the game’s controls can be tweaked to assist you in shaving seconds off your course times. Three islands are included in Moto X, and frustration is lessened with infinite ‘lives’—although each fall costs you an extra second.

17. N.O.V.A. (£3.99)

Gameloft mashed all the Hollywood sci-fi clichés into a sticky pulp before shoving them into this action-packed first-person shooter. Forced out of retirement against your will, you play a (previously) retired marine, whose duty is to prevent mankind’s annihilation – largely by annihilating plenty of aliens. 13 levels make up the single-player campaign in N.O.V.A., and there are local or online death-matches when you’re done.

18. Polyhedra XL (£1.19)

Fill games are common on the iPhone, but less so on the iPad; luckily, Polyhedra XL is the best game of its type. You press to blow up shapes, with the goal of filling two-thirds of the screen. Enemies bounce around and destroy growing shapes, but you can use gravity to trap foes under shapes you’ve previously created.

19. Need for Speed Shift for iPad (£7.49)

Vroom! Real Racing owns the track, but Need for Speed Shift owns the streets, enabling you to drive 28 different cars in a suitably reckless manner around 18 city tracks. The handling’s great, there’s customisation if you want it, and you can race friends over Wi-Fi.

20. Zombie Infection HD (£3.99)

There’s been yet another zombie outbreak in South America, and you’ve been dropped right in the middle of it. Your mission: rampage through 12 levels, blowing zombie scum to smithereens. And bear in mind: some of these guys can run! Minor control issues aside, Zombie Infection HD is a fun, exciting game—and, we admit, it made us jump a few times.

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