Appropriately enough, there’s a practically endless supply of Endless Runners to choose from across the App Store. Which ones are the best and most worthy of your attention, though? We took a look at our favorite 4 in recent times and explain just why they’re worth diving into.

Solipskier
Solipskier has been quite a hit both commercially and amongst the developer crowd. It’s not strictly an Endless ‘Runner’, instead focusing on skiing but it is fantastic fun. Players must draw the ski slopes while picking up speed and completing some impressive jumps and tricks. It also offers some innovative and memorable music thanks to a feature that means music ‘pops out’ when skiing fast, adding to the sense of speed as you solely hear the sound effects rather than soundtrack for a time.

$0.99

Solipskier

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2010-08-12 :: Category: Games

Tiny Wings
Yes, it’s nearly as huge as Angry Birds (and continues the bird theme well) but it’d be impossible to not mention Tiny Wings when rounding up the best Endless Runners. All about flying endlessly, players control a cute bird as they bounce across many hills. One tap is all that’s needed to control momentum with numerous challenges encouraging players to improve for next time. The latest update included an extra mode for even more fun. It’s a wonderfully calming yet gripping experience.

$0.99

Tiny Wings

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2011-02-18 :: Category: Games

One Epic Knight
One of the more recent entries to the genre, One Epic Knight combines dungeon crawling with endless running, pitting a knight against a never ending dungeon as he attempts to collect up all the loot, clear the evil creatures and dodge some fearsome traps. Swipe controls ensure none of this feels too complicated and it’s a great change of pace for a normally predictable genre.

FREE!

One Epic Knight

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2012-08-23 :: Category: Games

Ski Safari
Many games have included avalanche chases, Ski Safari focuses solely on this big problem with Sven the skier desperately trying to escape the cavalcade of snow while using animals to help his escape. Each animal offers a different ability to speed Sven up plus a selection of objectives add extra purpose to the game. It’s adorable and addictive in equal measures.

$0.99

Ski Safari

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2012-04-26 :: Category: Games

Starting about a week ago, Andreas Illiger, the creator of Tiny Wings started tweeting some rather obtuse notes on his timeline. Odd posts like “There will be no new game by me any time soon. But there will be something new from me…” Then today, came a countdown and then a link to a YouTube video.

At the end of the very well done teaser video was the payoff — Tiny Wing 2.0, coming to the App Store on July 12th. The follow up to the amazingly refreshing Tiny Wings will be released next week.

At this point we aren’t really sure if it’s version 2.0 of Tiny Wings or a whole new app. But either way, we are really looking forward to this one. Stay tuned!

[via: Touch Arcade]

$0.99

Tiny Wings

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2011-02-18 :: Category: Games

Part One: Games 16 – 25
Part Two: Games 6 – 15
In what was another fantastic year in the world of iOS gaming, we are here to bring you the titles that we, the staff of 148Apps, thought were the best of the year. Here are our top five picks for the Best Games of 2011:

5. Tiny Tower: Listening to some of the most prominent voices in gaming journalism right now, so-called ‘social’ and ‘free to play’ games are the scourge of the industry, and will bring forth the end of gaming as we know it, or at least a cowpocalypse. Of course, the problem is more that these games tend to be designed for nefarious purposes, to try and suck every last penny out of players’ wallets. Tiny Tower was one of the few to not do this. It does a lot of the little things right – from giving out its credits through completing in-game actions, to providing things for players to do while actually checking in on the game, to feel compelling yet fair.

I spent weeks on end compulsively checking my tower, managing where my little bitizens should be working, and making that building go higher and higher. I eventually stopped – my tower was very large, and I didn’t necessarily feel the need to make it bigger, and I had other ways to spend time when on my iPod. But there’s just a satisfaction in knowing that a game is designed in a way that if I wanted to get back in, I could, and wouldn’t have any negative effects waiting for me if I did so. This is a shining example of what the industry needs to do with their free to play titles, as it is infinitely more satisfying than the ones that make me feel like they just want my money.

FREE!

Tiny Tower

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2011-06-23 :: Category: Games

4. Tiny Wings: This wasn’t supposed to happen. A game made almost entirely by one guy in Germany, with no promotion whatsoever, shooting to the top of the charts? Sure, in the early days of the App Store, back in 2009, it would seem believable; but here in 2011, for this to happen? It seems impossible. But it’s clear to see why it did just that: its watercolor graphics, adorable bird protagonist, and simple-yet-unique gameplay mechanic all combined to make a hit game that just happened to be picked up by people…then by a few more…then a lot more…then suddenly everyone was talking about this ingenious little game made by some unknown developer that now everyone was playing. I still don’t know how it happened, but I’m sure glad it did.

$0.99

Tiny Wings

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2011-02-18 :: Category: Games

3. Infinity Blade 2: There was one iOS game that made me cry this year. This was not it. It should have, though. Due to glitches with iCloud, I lost my built-up characters twice. On consecutive nights. A lesser game would have made me throw it down in frustration, delete it, and never speak of it again. I guess it says a lot about a game that I could pick it up again for hours on end, after any practical benefit to playing it had eroded, whether it had been to simply review the game or even after I had beaten it. There I would sit on my couch, continuing to hack away at enemies, managing my equipment to keep mastering it and improve my stats. I’ve lost a lot of time to this stupid game, and though it may be inherently repetitive, and largely only iterative on its well-known prequel…it was still some of the most fun I’ve had this year.

$6.99

Infinity Blade II

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2011-12-01 :: Category: Games

2. Where’s My Water? – Physics games can be distilled down to a pretty easy formula these days: combine an endearing protagonist to create an emotional connection to the player with gameplay that uses the physical interaction of objects in a simple enough way that even casual players can become hooked to for great success. Combine these two things, and profit is the hopeful result. Plenty of games attempt this. Very few succeed at it, though. Where’s My Water did just that.

The goal of the gameplay, which is simply to cut through dirt to guide water to Swampy’s bathtub, hits the notes of being deceptively simple with added complexity. Soon, dangerous substances are added, along with pipes, bombs, moss and other hazards. But that simple mechanic of cutting through dirt to guide the water with understandable physics, remains the core.

Of course, the fact that Disney makes Swampy come alive doesn’t hurt at all. Swampy is fantastically animated, as one would expect from, well, Disney. His worried and pained expressions while wearing his shower cap and waiting in his empty tub for his bath water causes that hook to sink in; I’m not just doing this for myself, I’m doing this for that little guy! He gets so happy when he gets his water that it becomes difficult to not become attached, to want to keep trying to get that water to him.

Disney found a way to create that kind of emotional connection to players, and look where they sit on this list. They earned it.

$0.99

Where's My Water?

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2011-09-22 :: Category: Games

1. Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP – In reality, a lot of the hype for this game was in part due to its visual style: sure, retraux pixel art is en vogue among a lot of games this year, but it was the detail, the usage of it to become something more than just imitation of the good ol’ days of gaming. The mystery played a large part of it too – we knew how it looked, but how would it play? What was the setup for this game? What will happen?

What we got was a truly beautiful experience. The combat is simple and somewhat repetitive, sure. But everything else about it raises the experience to another level. The art and animation are splendid, of course. The music, composed by Jim Guthrie, is an incredible feast. The writing is at times humorous, but helps to set up a scene of a world with mystery and wonder, explaining only just enough when it needs to. The ending is so powerful it brought me to tears. It takes a powerful piece of art to do that, and it is something that few games have ever done to me. As a pure game, it is imperfect. But as an experience – I can’t say I experienced anything greater on iOS this year. This will stick with me for a while, and it is an easy choice for our game of the year.

$4.99

Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2011-03-24 :: Category: Games

$2.99

Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP Micro

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2011-04-21 :: Category: Games

That’s it, there’s our list of the best of the year in iOS gaming. Did you have a preferred title? Let us know in the comments! We look forward to another great year of iOS gaming in the year 2012!

This week, July 25-29, the freemium/free to play revolution continued as Carter Dotson explored the recent decrease in premium game revenue on the App Store. Dotson writes, “Not only are free to play games now becoming the biggest source of revenue for games on the App Store, they’re also potentially more open for competition. The top 10 publishers of free games account for 27% of the total downloads of the top 300 free games, versus the top 10 publishers of the top 300 paid games generating 54% of those downloads, and one of those publishers is one-man developer Andreas Illiger of Tiny Wings fame.

Read the full story here.

$0.99

Tiny Wings

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2011-02-18 :: Category: Games

Over at 148apps.biz, Sharon L. Cohen explored app developer’s needs for solid, substantive analytics, and suggested Chomp as a good source: “The latest Chomp stats…provide continued insights into the way that users are searching for apps. Previously, 148apps.biz reported that fewer and fewer queries are for specific app names: For every one hundred searches, only nine were for the name of an application. This statistic flopped in May. ‘Compared to April, the ratio of non-app name versus name queries shifted 9% in favor of name searches.’ Ah, the fickleness of users. The moral of this story is continue to place an emphasis on key words and search engine optimization including brand promotion. In other words, cover all your bases.”

Read the full story at 148Apps.biz.

GiggleApps reviewed Creative Genius on the Go, an app designed to stretch kids’ imaginations, even as they are trapped in the back seat during long trips: “This app offers 150 different scenarios for everyone to consider: 50 ‘What Ifs?’ that prompt the players to describe how the impossible may be possible; 50 ‘Imagine That,’ which are mind-stretching challenges for boosting brainpower and relieving boredom and screams from the back seat, and 50 ‘Wack-tivities,’ or silly diversions for when everyone is tired and can’t wait to stop at a hotel and get something to eat.”

Divert yourself to the GiggleApps review for the full story.

$0.99

Creative Genius On-the-Go!

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2011-05-13 :: Category: Education

That’s it for this week! Be sure to stop by our Top 148 Lists page to view the latest price drops as well as the top free and paid apps and games. See you next Saturday.

Now available at competitive rates!

On This Episode:

Who We Are:

Contact The Show: Email | Twitter

Music:

“Beatnes7 (Theme to The Portable Podcast)” by The Eternal – Download on iTunes here:

How to Listen:

Apps Mentioned in this Episode:

$0.99

$4.99

Fight Night Champion by EA Sports™

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2011-03-01 :: Category: Games

FREE!

Smurfs' Village

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2010-11-10 :: Category: Games

$0.99

Tiny Wings

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2011-02-18 :: Category: Games

$3.99

Game Dev Story

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2010-10-09 :: Category: Games

$4.99

Hot Springs Story

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2011-02-28 :: Category: Games

The king, Angry Birds has been, at least temporarily dethroned by a pair of Tiny Wings.

We reported last night that Tiny Birds had quickly risen to number 2. But today they break into the top spot in the overall paid charts in the US. Pretty amazing for a indie developer out of no where. It’s pretty amazing to see a story like this after the App Store has been open now for two and a half years. Early on seeing an indie developer break the top ten was wonderful, these days it’s downright amazing.

If nothing else, I hope this serves as inspiration to other indie developers. You can still make a splash in the App Store, you just have to make a really unique, compelling, and interesting game. Congratulations to Tiny Wings and Andreas Illiger!

If you haven’t picked up this game yet, do so now. If you don’t love this game, you won’t love any game.

$0.99

Tiny Wings

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2011-02-18 :: Category: Games