I have been really intrigued and surprised by all the artistic and unique looking iPad games released or coming out lately. It seems a lot of iDevice and small-house development studios are thinking outside the box to make new content standout in the crowded App Store space; whether it is gameplay, graphics or both.

One of these games I want to mention with great artistic concept and visual style has a name just as creative as the gameplay itself. The recently released Hamlet or the Last Game without MMORPG Features, Shaders and Product Placement HD is a point-and-click adventure game set in a fictitious but creative Shakespeare-inspired world.

Besides the art direction a game needs funny or likeable characters and a fun gameplay mechanic to really stand out though. From what I have been reading, this title hits many of these aspects dead on — although TouchArcade writer, Brad Nicholson, might disagree.

When I started reading about this game I realized it is similar to another artistic and highly-rated iPad game called Drawn: The Painter Tower HD that came out about a month back or so. IGN gave the game a score of 9.0 and, like Hamlet, it is a point-and-click adventure game.

I think the point-and-click adventure genre fits will on the iDevices — and iPad in particular — and the creativity as well as the touch screen interaction on the platform makes the games some of the App Store’s best offerings. Also the price in these games seems to be higher than any other genre in general. It could mean iPad owners really enjoy these types of games and are willing to spend more for them. The Painted Tower HD is currently $10 and I haven’t seen a price drop since it was released.

Both of these games have great art, design and really bring up an old and forgotten PC-game genre into the modern day. The genre being point-and-click adventure games with interactive scenery and lots of puzzles to solve. Many such titles have actually been ported from the 90s to the App Store and they include the 7th Guest, Myst (iPhone only or playable in 2x) and Riven (also iPhone only). But, the genre offers new scope with a more immersive experience due to the touchscreen interactivity of iOS.

When I play games with attributes that I would also describe as very ‘artistic’ in nature, I find dreaming about the game even when not playing it or just wanting to go back to it. I think art direction and creativity can really go a long way to inspire new types of experiences and gameplay.

I keep seeing great art and innovative design in iOS games not just the genre of point-and-click adventure games. Some other recent examples of artistic iPad games I want to point out from other types of genres are Trundle HD, They Need to be Fed HD and Tiki Towers 2 HD. All of these games are just visually appealing and have a lot of charm that really draw me into their worlds. I also think that the App Store offers something unique in this respect because innovation and creativity can be done without as much of a risk on the platform since Apple opened it up to anyone.

Most of the popular console games by big development studios seem to be quite similar to each other or sequels these days. I found that Nintendo is really the only major first-party gaming company that relies on art assets and animation in their games outside of just realism and action-oriented flair. Nintendo’s recent ‘Kirby’s Epic Yarn’ was a joy to play and experience — but not many similar ideas or experiences are shown by other development studios these days on consoles (I admit the Nintendo DS did offer many though as well). Titles, like the ones mentioned here for the iPad and ones released on Steam or other digital distribution networks like ‘And Yet it Moves,’ ‘Limbo,’ ‘ or ‘Machinarium’ — are all indy-studio games.

There are times when a larger studio takes a risk and will release something that ends up a hit like Capcom has done with ‘Okami’ a few years back and recently ‘MaXplosion’ on iPhone; although it may be a rip off of ”Splosion Man’ the art is a lot better and original in my opinion due to relying on animation and not 3D rendering. I also think the versatility of the App Store platform, with the creative aspect that the touchscreen offers, will produce more innovation and interaction. Games on the App Store are even blurring with other iPad offerings like interactive novels-books. An example would be the recently released Fabled Lands HD; so what exactly is a game vs. an experience anymore?

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