Greedy resource mongers of the world, take note: Your favorite way to waste time is now on the iPhone.
Settlers of Catan now comes as an app called Catan — The First Island. The decidedly un-techy, but addictive board game (which pits players against each other to build cities, roads and armies) went through a design overhaul to fit gameplay from a large board onto — well, the iPhone.
Apart from a few criticisms, including those that cover the UI (the colors are hard for some players to distinguish) and a lag in speed, most users generally consider it a decent game app that’s truer to the original than could’ve previously been imagined. But there is one giant hole: Remote play. The app doesn’t have Wifi or Bluetooth functionality. For a game that relies on multiplayer interaction, this is a glaring omission. Instead, friends compete by passing the handset around.
On the plus side, the app does offer single player mode, so no need to wait for other people. Individual users can go against colorful virtual players, to keep those resource-hoarding skills nice and sharp. And since it’s a v1, that means future updates could bring a host of other features, like more game scenarios and maybe even that pesky Wifi/Bluetooth feature.
Catan is also available as an online game, and a scaled-back version exists for feature phones, but iPhone users can pick up Catan – The First Island for $4.99 via iTunes.
