Best iPhone 5 Games of 2012: Handheld Awesomeness

Best iPhone 5 Games

Thanks to the popularity of the iPhone—and especially the iPhone 5—gaming has never been easier. You can now whip out your phone at any time, any place, and play indulge in your favorite game without worrying about carrying a dedicated handheld gaming device to get some play time on your hands.

Games range from the simple to the relatively complex, sometimes even rivaling those on gaming consoles. And thanks to the iPhone 5’s powerful processor, games now have the potential to look just as good as their console counterparts. All this and more, locked into the palm of your hands and only a swipe away from Twitter, Facebook, or your e-mails. What more could you ask for from a gaming device?

In this article, we take a look at seven of the latest, and greatest games to come out for the iPhone 5, which you can download and play right now if you want to. And believe us, you'll want to get these titles.

7. Ziggurat

You're the last human on Earth, standing atop a stratosphere-high stone pyramid. With only a laser rifle to fend off endless waves of alien freaks, you must make humanity's last stand and kill as many of them as you possibly can before you fall.

You'll have to make every shot count if you want to kill as many of them as you can. Hold your finger on the screen to steady your aim, and your gun's blast will grow and shrink in power. Hitting enemies in the eyes will cause them to explode, killing all those around them.

6. Jetpack Joyride

Jetpack Joyride is a simple, one-button action game where players control the height of the game's main character, Barry Steakfries, as he rockets through the air on his jetpack while spraying bullets towards the ground.

You must overcome a wide variety of obstacles as you propel Barry forwards through the levels, including electricity fields and fast moving lasers. Along the way, you can also grab a variety of cosmetics and vehicle pickups.

5. Lili

It's an adventure game where the point is to basically pick flowers, players take on the role of Lili, a naturalist who is given the opportunity to explore the island of Geos, learn about its inhabitants, and experience the game's writing.

It's a game that not only allows you, but encourages you to play it at your own pace. Perfect for a hectic workday, we think.

4. Tiny Tower

Tiny Tower is a simulation (of sorts) which shares some similarities to SimTower. The point of the game is to build a tiny tower and manage the businesses and citizens (or bitizens as they're called in the game) who live there.

You'll make money by collecting rent and profit from their businesses and build new types of floors to attract more bitizens to live and work inside.

3. Temple Run

It's not a game you'll want to play for longer than a few minutes  straight, but it's one you'll find yourself coming back to day after day after day thanks to its addictive qualities.

Designed in the same vein as Calabalt and Unicorn Robot Attack, the point of the game is to keep on running for as long as you can. With the camera positioned above and behind the character, you have to avoid pitfalls and obstacles as you run from spirits chasing you.

2. Asphalt 7: Heat

Asphalt 7 is the latest entry in Gameloft's long-running franchise of street racing games for the iPhone. This time around, players can compete to be the best racers in the world with over 60 cars to choose from on 15 different tracks, which are separated into 150 different events.

The game's campaign includes a wide variety of race types including Knockdowns, Drift Challenges, and Time Trials.

More elegant than any of its predecessors, Asphalt 7 controls surprisingly well with the iPhone's touch screen.

1. Bad Piggies

Like its predecessor Angry Birds, Rovio's Bad Piggies is a physics puzzler. It builds greatly on the formula with a modular, vehicle-building premise that has the bad piggie construct a vehicle to transport him to a destination somewhere within the map.

Given a small set of parts to use, you'll have to assemble a vehicle to carry the bad piggie through the stage and to the finish line while collecting stars along the way.

Highly intuitive and fun to play, Bad Piggies offers great value with plenty of levels to go through.