The Apple iPad gets big attention for e-reading and Web browsing, but its gaming prowess is what often keeps users tied to the tablet computer for hours a day. The iPad’s innovative touch-screen and accelerometer, which allows users to turn and tilt it to control game play, make it a uniquely immersive gaming experience. Those features have been quietly keeping iPad users — this columnist included — up at night since the iPad’s April release. We took 25 of the top-selling paid games for a spin. Here are the nine best.
“Little Things”
This beautifully simple game asks players to find objects that are grouped together to form a larger picture. Inside the dog, for example, you might be asked to find the eight pairs of scissors. Developed by a sheep farm resident in the Australian Outback, some of this game’s items are lost a bit in translation. For instance it turns out a Q-tip is also called a cotton bud. But this app gives hours of rewarding play as you work toward putting together a larger puzzle.
Cost: $2.99
“Stand O’Food HD”
In this game you’re building sandwiches for hungry, demanding customers. Challenges arise when customers have to wait too long or the ingredients aren’t available in the right order. As you build profits, you can buy more equipment and ingredients to offer more expensive sandwiches. A free version is also available.
Cost: $4.99
“Angry Birds HD”
This has been the top-selling paid iPad app almost daily since its release. Here, you use a slingshot to shoot birds into stacks of wood and glass that contain pigs. The goal is to get the perfect trajectory to knock down the structure and kill the pigs. The best part is the near-endless gaming that is possible. Even when all the levels are accomplished, playing them again to get even…