The Wirelessinfo Blog

We recently set our resident iPhones up with the newest version of the NES emulator. We put on a diverse set of sample roms, including action, puzzle, and RPG. We can say, after playing all our test games, that the emulator needs a lot of work before its final release.

First of all, regardless of any other control issues, the touch screen button layout as it is is simply not meant for this type of gaming. There isn't any tactile feedback, and the display only sporadically shows what button you're actually pressing. This wouldn't be so bad if the d-pad graphic wasn't mapped so poorly. As it is, it's placed about a quarter inch to the right of where it should be, meaning hitting right requires you to press part of the game display. In addition, it feels more like left, up, and right are completely in line with each other, meaning you'll most likely hit left and right a few times before you score an elusive up; you can't even hit an exaggerated up. It's also near impossible to hit more than one button at a time on the d-pad, meaning you'll need to steer clear of games where you need to crawl, or any game with Street Fighter type moves. In the same vein, you can't hit A & B simultaneously, making Duck Tales and Double Dragon games far more difficult. Don't think you're safe with just hitting one button at a time either; the controls are very unresponsive, and sometimes completely ignore inputs. The last problem with control is it seems as though you can't simply tap a direction without it being held in for a period of time. This makes any sort of platforming game simply not worth downloading. In fact, downloading anything other than RPGs or non-action-based puzzle games will just result in frustration.