So we all think it is ridiculous that they are making a movie out of the game Battleship right? But I guess if it worked for the Transformers, it should work with Battleship.
Anyway, suppose you’re completely disheartened by Hasbro’s sell-out and want to relive some of the fun of Battleship with your child. The EA implementation of it is pretty good on the iPad.
They have a variety of single player modes – Classic, Salvo, and Super Weapons. Classic is just how you remember it as a kid – taking turns taking shots at your opponent’s naval fleet. Salvo gives you as many shots per turn as you have ships remaining – helps the game go a little faster. And Super Weapons introduces, well, super weapons. Play more games to unlock more super weapons even!
Multiplayer mode works great too. You can pass and play, or if you’re lucky enough with two iPads in the house, each of you can play on your own iPad over wifi or bluetooth. Doesn’t seem like random people on the internet are able to be chosen as opponents, which is fine by us. Don’t really need Game Center matching here. Again, the different modes of Classic, Salvo and Super Weapons are available. And you can play 1 game, or best of 3 or best of 5 for bigger bragging rights.
How to make it like the real game (making it a bit more taxing mentally):
- Settings: Turn off cut scenes (takes too long and exposes which ship was hit – in the real game you don’t know what you hit)
- Settings: Turn on hidden targets (again, you don’t know what you it in the real game – only works in Classic and Salvo mode)
- And mom likes it better if you do the coordinate calling out and lookup verbally instead of just tapping the screen. I can see how that is fun at a younger age, but gets in the way of the strategy later on.
Overall, I liked it as a way to talk about some basic head to head strategy and search patterns. Fun conversations about what kinds of conclusions are valid and invalid as one plays the game.
And, the AI is pretty decent. I didn’t win every game…but I did want to try and unlock more super weapons.
$4.99
