First games to use iPhone 4 gyroscopes impress on video

When the iPhone 4 was first announced, I wasn’t quite sure what the big deal about the gyroscope was. What can you do with it that can’t be done with an accelerometer? Well, now I know – it’s amazingly accurate, which leads to fun-looking games like Eliminate: Gun Range…

The idea behind Eliminate: Gun Range is simple – you point a variety of guns by physically moving the phone and shoot at all the targets that show up. Doesn’t sound like much but it looks pretty impressive – the gyroscope is so accurate that it almost feels real.

Check out the video to see the game in action:

If it looks this good on video, I bet it’ll be even better in real life. And though the Eliminate: Gun Range doesn’t have the most complicated gameplay, just think of all the first-person shooters that will become available for the iPhone 4 sooner rather than later.

Eliminate: Gun Range is the first game that is exclusive to the iPhone 4. Other games from the Eliminate series work on the old models, but the controls aren’t as impressive.

It’s not just FPS games though, the other obvious use is in racing games – turn the iPhone 4 into a steering wheel for a virtual car. Here’s a video of one such game, the imaginatively named Real Racing:

A whole bunch of other games are getting updated to support the iPhone 4, though most of them just bump up the graphics to take full advantage of the high-res Retina Display. Still, it’s the motion controlled games that seem more interesting – they change how the games is played, rather than just make things look prettier.

Source: ngmoco, Firemint