2009 has been a bumper year for Nine Over Ten 9/10. I had plenty of press releases, news, previews and even video games to review for two of my favourite platforms, the PS3 and the iPhone.

The iPhone games were of particular interest, as I was given the opportunity by both PR companies and developers alike to review indie games, something that bigger sites rarely touch on.

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So what are the top 5 indie iPhone games that caught my eye? Lets start off number 1:

  1. Vernx – I simply love the graphics and the physics involved in this game. A deceptively addictive 2D-puzzler, the guys involved in making this take an unprecedented effort to upgrade the version, making the game run smoother and better.
  2. Hi, How Are You – This 3D platformer will make you think that you are inside Michel Gondry’s brain. The game art is so stylized, I can’t help but recommend it.
  3. Hook Champ – This 2D platformer’s retro graphics, interesting gameplay mechanic (involving a grappler) and surprising production values for a indie game makes it a must have for the iPhone.
  4. Battle Trivia – With 1200 sports trivia questions, Battle Trivia is certainly the one to be in the sports trivia game category and I had the good fortune to review it. It’s an amazing game considering the guy who made it, was doing it part time!
  5. iTreasure – Basically a remake of the old Nintendo Game & Watch Octopus game, iTreasure brings the old school charm and addictive gameplay to 21st century standards

The bigger game studios came up with pretty impressive titles as well. Disney came up with Breakspin whereas Freeverse had over a million downloads for Flick Fishing. Up and coming guys like 99Games had Chess Elite and AddictingGames, a division of MTV, had numerous ports of their popular web games over to the iPhone platform.

With games from both indie and established studios shaping up nicely in 2009, you can bet 2010 to  be one heck of a ride for iPhone games.