Of course, this doesn't necessary mean these games are great, or even good in terms of the offered gameplay experience. Only that they encapsulate an important trend in the iPhone games business.
So let's get down to business with numbers 10 through to 6. The second half of the run down is available here.
10. Terminator Salvation (Gameloft)
Released in May, Gameloft's tie-in to the Christian Bale movie wasn't a bad game. For the time the graphics and control method of the thirdperson action shooter were impressive, and it reviewed fairly well.
No, the reason for Terminator Salvation's inclusion is it demonstrated to the big publishers how incredibly sensitive gamers had become to pricing.
A short game - at about an hour long and with little replayability - Gameloft was forced to cut the launch price of $9.99 to $5.99 within days. It was down to $4.99 two weeks later, and since has experienced 10 changes of price getting as low as 99c on five occasions.
The silver lining was this was a lesson that Gameloft learnt well, as it proved with the games it released in the last three months of 2009.
9. Flight Control (Firemint)
The game that kicked off the line drawing genre on the App Store needs little introduction.
Simple to play, with a clean interface and an addictive quality, the air traffic control sim was the first iPhone game to announce it had sold a million, and has since gone on to sell 1.5 million. There is no free version, but sales momentum has been maintained since its July release with six updates that added extra planes and airfields.
The only downside is the fact its success has spawned dozens of generally inferior and more complex clones.
More widely, it was also one of the first 99c app success stories that encouraged developers to flood the App Store with all manner of cheap and simple games; something that lead to massive price deflation during the latter half of 2009.
8. Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor (Tiger Style)
One game featuring heavily on the best of 2009 lists is the debut from Tiger Style. In-and-of-itself, that's not enough to be significant. That comes from the genesis of the two-man studio as founders David Kalina and Randy Smith left highly paid jobs at EA's Los Angeles studio to try to make their own way in the world of iPhone gaming.
Sure, plenty of people attempted something similar in 2009, but with Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor, Tiger Style managed to combine their previous professional experience with gameplay and an art style that perfectly matched the platform. Indeed, the success of the game demonstrated the opportunity for developers committed to taking their time and making something special. Spider took eight months to develop.
Equally important, Tiger Style also proved it understood the App Store business model by releasing the game at $2.99, maintaining the price throughout, but supporting it with the release a free promotional game in the shape of Spider: Hornet Smash.
7. Pocket God (Bolt Creative)
You can argue whether it's a game or an entertainment app, but there's no doubt Pocket God was one of the key releases of 2009.
Selling over a million units mainly to teenaged boys who owned iPod touches, the driving force of its year-long sales drive was the commitment of US developer Bolt Creative to keep churning out free content updates. Such was the burden of this, combined with the game's 99c price point, programmer Dave Castlenuovo started to worry about the company's longterm sustainability.
Luckily the decision to implement in-app purchases for additional content, which arrived with Pocket God's 26th update, proved successful. Still, Castlenuovo says the team's next game (which will also use IAP), will be released at a higher price.
6. Rolando 2 (HandCircus/ngmoco)
One of the most anticipated iPhone games of 2009, Rolando 2 reviewed fantastically well, yet its relative commercial failure (relative to the anticipation at least), demonstrated how much the App Store audience had changed within the space of eight months since the release of the original.
One aspect that didn't help was Rolando 2 only supported the then just released iPhone 3.0 OS, limiting take up until 2.1.1 OS support was added two weeks later.
Once again though, wider sensitivity to the $9.99 price point was a major factor, especially with the first game available for $5.99. (Interestingly ngmoco's attempt to remove the first game from the App Store to drive sales of the sequel was knocked back due to fan pressure).
The title eventually gained a high chart placing however as it became the first free game to support in-app purchases: another reason for its inclusion in this significance list.
You can read the top 5 most significant iPhone games of 2009 here.
