iPad 2: The Missing Manual, 3rd Edition

Chapter 9. Play Games

With digital music, videos, and books tucked inside your iPad’s slim glass-and-metal form, you have plenty choices for entertainment. But if you want to play instead of just sitting back and pushing Play, your tablet makes a nice high-def game console as well. You can zap zombies, thwart governments, and channel your inner Dale Earnhardt Jr. You can also relive your glory days at the arcade, but instead of facing a machine the size of a phone booth, your fate lies in your hands—literally.

iPad games aren’t simply iPhone games blown up to tablet proportions, either. Savvy game-makers have taken popular titles back into the shop to super-size them for the iPad’s big 9.7-inch screen. As a result, you get richer graphics and more precise gameplay, with plenty of room to move around. That bigger screen makes it easy for two people to play against each other, too. And thanks to Apple’s online Game Center network, you don’t even need to be in the same room as your fellow joystick jockeys.

The iPad can handle everything from basic low-speed card games like euchre, all the way up to high-speed shooters with detailed 3D avatars and pulsating soundtracks. This chapter shows you how to find the games you want and get them onto your iPad. It doesn’t tell you how to win, though—you have to figure that out for yourself.

Find iPad Games

To start your big-game hunt, hit the App Store ...