It’s a fairly big week in the app store for game releases. Maybe the developers and Apple are teaming up to scare us reviewers (get it, Halloween… I thought it was clever) into working overtime to get all these reviews done. Just to name a few of them, we now have Doom Classic, Command and Conquer, Eliminate, NBA Live (last week), Asphalt 5, and Alice in Bomberland running wild in the app store, most of which are just dying for a review.

Productivity, Lost

I must say that working for an app review website is just about the best thing ever, but there is a major drawback. The reason half of the apps were made was to completely wipe out productivity. Some of the apps that are self proclaimed ‘master time wasters’ are in fact master time wasters. Every once in a while I’ll download something, you know, for work, and it’ll just decimate my productivity. This time, the culprit is ‘Words With Friends’, a Scrabble-like game that takes me back to my days of playing Scrabulous on Facebook. The game is paced however fast you and your opponent choose to play, and you get a handy push notification when it’s your turn.

If you ever want to play, my SN is chris148apps. Let’s make a pact though that if you beat me, you won’t tell too many people… I have a reputation to maintain!

Words With Friends

Our Rating: :: ADDICTING

Category: Games / Word
Released: 2009-07-19
Price: $2.99

There will be a new iPhone… shocker

I love reading Apple rumors, and today I found one that blew me away (brace for it). There may be a new iPhone sometime in 2010. Over at Gizmodo, they have pictures, from a seemingly reputable source, of what they are calling the ‘iPhone 4 Generation Midboard’.

Does anyone else see that Verizon logo in the bottom of the left panel? No? Am I just trying to start something?

My US pride is hurt
ngmoco:), the only company happy enough to put a smiley face in their name, made me quite sad last week. While waiting for Eliminate to grace my iPhone, I discovered that the Canadians… CANADIANS!!!(????)… got the game first. What, first the Winter Olympics, now Eliminate? What’s next… more new games, the iPhone, the next Taco Bell taco?

They can't have it!

Worried about the devs
I’ve talked to quite a few developers in my time, and they all seem to have a similar concern. They are just not sure how they are going to make any money in the app store without breaking into the top 100 apps, and even then are worried that the 99 cent pricing structure ruins their chance to make any money at all. After taking a look at the top grossing apps in the App Store, I can see why they are concerned. Only one app in the top 20 is made by an ‘indie’ dev, and the game, Pocket Devil, is just a knock off of Pocket God. Maybe EA’s $9.99 price scheme is really the way to go, as they have 9 of the 20 top grossing games out there.

This weeks sign of the apocolypse
There are so many fantastic apps in the App Store, but while digging through the list of top grossing apps, I found that the 28th app on the list is ‘Truth or Dare – 18+’. This makes me sad.

Truth or Dare - 18+

Category: Entertainment
Released: 2009-09-25
Price: $1.99

“Push News” is about as literal a name as you can get: this is a news app that sends you push notifications whenever an update from your favorite source comes in. For now, there are ten sources to chose from, and you can add as many as you like (I’m subscribed to NPR and CNBC, for example). Unfortunately, the app isn’t perfect, and I’d rather just use Google Reader.

Subscribing to news feeds is done in the “options” pane; there’s a simple on/off switch for each source along with a note detailing how many notifications you can expect to receive. CNN Breaking News provides only 1-2 messages a day; others, like Google News, send up to to ten notifications per hour. It’s all up to you.

When a notification comes in, the app opens up, and you can see a full queue of all the news items you’ve missed. Well, not quite all. My current queue seems to contain up to day’s worth of headlines, which really isn’t much. Anyway, each entry has both the post’s headline and a small blurb of text, just as you’d see in your typical RSS feed. Tapping on an entry allows you to view it on the source’s mobile site, all while staying in the Push News app…at least, it should.

This is where I began to experience problems. Most NPR stories view fine, for example, but others present only text blurbs when you open them; it took me a little while to realize that these were audio-only stories that required clicking through to the full version. I couldn’t get CNBC to load at all, which kind of defeats the purpose of the app. Other sources were also strangely buggy. Sometimes I don’t get notifications at all; other times, I get repeats. Sometimes previously-checked sources mysteriously switch to “OFF.” And too many of the sources either don’t have mobile versions, or the app doesn’t use them, resulting in needlessly long load times. There’s no “open in Safari” option within the app itself, either.

And then there are features that I really wish the developers had included. You can’t delete already-read stories from your queue. You can’t load older posts (there’s no “read more” or “load more” button), and scrolling through the list without any interface feedback (no scrollbar on the side, for example) makes it hard to tell where you are; there’s also no “tap header bar to scroll to top” feature, which I rely heavily on.

For the most part, Push News works, and I know that plenty of avid news readers will appreciate the instant gratification of quick news delivery. But there are just so many little quirks that annoy me, and I personally don’t need to be reminded to check the news—RSS feed readers work fine for me. A few tweaks could make Push News a contender for a part in my daily routine, but for now, it’s just a half-decent execution of a relatively good idea.

Push notifications are lovely things; I just wished that all of the services I used supported them! Enter Boxcar: a so-called “Free+” app and one of the best Push notification solutions for Facebook, Twitter, and email. It’s by far the simplest, most intuitive notification app I’ve used so far, and the fact that you get one service for free makes it a steal.

Boxcar offers a number of services: Facebook notifications, email alerts, or Twitter alerts. I’m going to go through a brief explanation of how each service works:

1. Facebook
This is what I use Boxcar primarily for, since I’m not too active on Twitter. Facebook Connect logs you into your account, and then you’re set; all of your notifications get pushed without any problems at all. I love this for a somewhat silly reason: my Scrabble games. Finally, I don’t have to keep re-opening apps to check and see if it’s my turn to move!

Note that Push notifications are supposedly coming in the next official version of the Facebook app, so this function may become obsolete. For now, however, Boxcar delivers a much-needed service that the official app can’t match.

2. Email
Boxcar’s method of email notifications is somewhat unique, and it’s very different from how applications like GPush handle things. You’re given a Boxcar email address, and then you have to set up email forwarding to that address. In gmail, this is a cinch to do, but I’m not sure about other email clients. Either way, it’s well worth the effort. Boxcar says that they don’t store the emails, and with this method, you never have to reveal your password.

3. Twitter
Boxcar has quite a few delectable options for Twitter users. Not only can you get @replies and DMs pushed to your iPhone, but you can also get you’re whole timeline pushed out. Now, I wouldn’t recommend this if you’re following more than a handful of people, but it’s a nice option. (And, thankfully, it is optional.) The best part, however, is that Boxcar will connect with your Twitter client, and you can chose to automatically open that app instead of Boxcar when you get a new notification. (Popular ones on the list: Tweetie 2, Twitteriffic, and Echofon.)

Okay, so there’s the functionality of Boxcar in a nutshell. The real joy, however, is found in the execution. Notifications are sent relatively quickly; my Facebook ones are nearly instant. Then there are the levels of customization: choosing different sounds per service, setting how to open each push notification (Facebook mobile? Gmail.com? Boxcar?), and being able to turn certain portions of each service or off at the flick of a switch. There are many other great features: the way that new notifications are stored within the app itself, for example, and the option to have generic, “private” alerts that simply read, “You have a new message on Twitter!”

There are some features I’d like to see: the ability to set a “quiet time” when notifications aren’t sent or a giant “silence switch” would be fantastic. But all told, Boxcar pulls of everything with flair and ease. The interface is slick, the services work wonderfully, and I love getting my notifications. And then there’s the fact that it’s free—well, for the first service, anyway. You’ll have to pay $0.99 for extra ones. But honestly, Boxcar is by far the best Push notification app I’ve used, and it just works.

So. Go on. Download it already!

By far the most fascinating application I’ve reviewed in a while, QuickReader is designed to improve your reading speed. I was cautiously skeptical at first, but after a few sessions with the app, I can actually feel myself improving. Anyone willing to invest the time in developing their speed-reading skills should grab this app immediately.

As one iTunes store reviewer put it, QuickReader is like a metronome for reading. By default, the app is set to 3 “stops” per line and 300 words per minute. A “stop” is essentially a highlighted portion of the text; it’s the digital equivalent to traditional methods like using a pen to track your progress. The highlight steadily moves across the page according to the pace you set, and you’re supposed to follow along with it. It’s supposed to allow you to focus on groups of words and to read properly from side to side, because your eye focuses naturally on movement.

If it sounds simple, that’s because it is. I can’t explain the science behind it myself, but after using it for just a few days, I can see a marked improvement in my speed. There’s a speed test included with the application, and I was reading around 325 words per minute at the beginning; now, I’m hovering between 585 and 608. I have to put forth a conscious effort to read quickly, but it feels comfortable. What shocked me most was that I was able to retain what I had read, at nearly double the speed—and I haven’t even been using QuickReader for a week! Granted, that speed hasn’t quite translated into the offscreen world, but if I focus, I can approach similar speeds.

There are three modes within the application: Guided Reading, Normal Reading, and Speed Test. I recommend taking a Speed Test prior to starting with the app, so that you can nudge the words per minute rate just a little higher than your current speed. Normal Reading is good if you just want to read the bundled classics. Thankfully, you can switch freely through the modes mid-read without having to navigate back to the menu. You can also fully customize font and color schemes, which makes QuickReader a solid eBook reader as well as a reading-improvement device. Both landscape and portrait reading modes are supported.

The application comes with 21 classic eBooks for you to practice with. I’m working with Sherlock Holmes, which might account for my speed; though a classic, it’s hardly as dense as, say, a textbook. The developers apparently have plans to incorporate an eBook store in the future, but I’d love to be able to upload my own eBooks into the reader—I have quite a few sitting around on my hard drive.

I suspect that your mileage may vary with QuickReader. I was already a relatively fast reader (a little over a page per minute with a real book?), and I adapted to the methods used here quickly. Others may struggle. Still, for me, it’s an incredibly useful tool, and I’m glad that I downloaded it. If you’re a frequent reader, you should definitely give this application a try; even if the price makes you hesitate, you need to check out the lite version. The effects are nothing short of magical.

ngmoco:)’s hotly anticipated titles, Touch Pets: Dogs and Eliminate, have finally made their way past Apple’s approval process. For those who don’t know, Touch Pets is a pet sim that focuses on raising and training “the ultimate puppy” and also includes a wide array of social features. Eliminate, meanwhile, is a multiplayer online first person shooter. Both games will be free (yes, you read that right!) but will feature In-App Purchases. Note that IAP’s won’t be necessary to play the game; you’ll just need them to unlock extras. With Eliminate, for example, you get to play a certain number of games per day before your “energy” runs out; you can play without energy but you won’t be able to earn any in-game credits.

While both apps are approved, don’t get too excited: ngmoco is doing a Canada-only release first, to make sure that “all Eliminate systems are online and all puppies are house broken before unleashing upon the world,” according to their tweet. It’s an interesting strategy that will have non-Canadian fans grumbling, but given that ngmoco is releasing two extremely hyped games with heavy online components at once, it makes sense. Once the games make their USA debut, we’ll post our reviews; for now, you can check out our preview coverage from earlier this month.

Update: Eliminate is now out worldwide. Make sure you grab it! It generally takes a few hours for new apps to show up in the App Store, so don’t worry if you can’t see it yet.

Canadians can get Touch Pets here, though the rest of the world is still waiting.

Command and Conquer: Red Alert is the latest blockbuster game to be ported to the App Store, landing in the somewhat lacking RTS genre. But does it transfer well?

One of the best parts about Red Alert is the great story line that is likely familiar to many. The game is set in an alternate reality in which Einstein has invented a time machine and gone back in time to kill Hitler, thus preventing the rise of Nazi Germany. However, without the Nazis to keep them in check, the Soviets begin taking over the entire continent and escalating a huge war between Soviets and Allies. The implementation of the story into the game is sub-par, however. Cut-scenes are noticeably absent and the dialogue in campaign mode hardly advances the story. As for the gameplay, Red Alert is a classic RTS through and through. There is construction of buildings such as factories and radars, all of which you can place anywhere, and construction of units, which vary depending on which faction you’re playing with and can be moved individually or in a group. The goal of the game is to strategically build up units and resources and infiltrate the opponent’s headquarters. Unfortunately, there aren’t as many elements as say, the PC version, and there are a limited number of units and special abilities. I fear this game will fall in between being a casual RTS like Robocalypse and something that hardcore players crave. That’s not to say that it’s not a fun game, but will likely be either too easy or too frustrating for the majority of players.

When it comes to content, $9.99 doesn’t get you a lot. There are five campaign levels for each faction (Allied or Soviet) and two skirmish maps. Tragically, there is no semblance of online multiplayer. There is one DLC expansion pack in the initial release that gives you six skirmish maps for $.99, essentially half the content of the main game for 1/10 of the price.

The controls work surprisingly well. Building units and the like is handled through touch-enabled menus, and moving is as easy as selecting a unit and then tapping a spot. To select multiple units, you touch the box icon and then drag a box around your desired units. I had doubts about this system, but it works surprisingly well. You can additionally zoom in and out using the standard iPhone pinch gestures. The interface is a bit overly-bulky, as it is situated on either side of the screen, though it gets the job done.

The graphics are high quality and fully 3D, and though they are blocky in some places, overall they’re pretty impressive. I do have a bone to pick with the animations however. First, they are frequently choppy. In addition, the movement of units’ legs is oddly disjointed and makes it look like you are moving action figures around. Be warned that the app crashes regularly, though progressive saving somewhat alleviates this. The music is great, as is to be expected, and the voice acting is pretty good.

If you were to strip the “Command and Conquer” label off of this game, it’d just be a good, but excessively priced RTS. I’d still recommend it to fans of the genre, but be wary. There are only a few games that earn their $9.99 price tag, and Red Alert is not one of them.

33rd Division is the second release from Craneballs Studios. Their first release, Blimp, was a very interesting and beautifully created pseudo-platformer, this new release delves into the hugely popular path drawing genre.

The latest entry into the path drawing / casual management / chaos management genre popularized originally by Flight Control. This game you are drawing paths for soldiers as they pass enemy lines. It’s an interesting take on the path drawing genre and that ends up being a decent casual game. You start off the game with 1 play field with 3 additional unlockable different play fields.

Each different play field provides a different set of obstacles and enemy formations helping to keep the game fresh. There are also two different play modes. One mode you play with a certain number of lives, the other, a certain amount of time. For each mode you get extensions based on how well you play.

The OpenFeint social gaming network is integrated with this game. This provides global leaderboards and the ability to check your rank with everyone or just your friends. Always a good thing for a game.

Overall, 33rd Division is an interesting take on path drawing genre. While I’m not sure if the game will have the lasting appeal of other games in this genre such as Flight Control or Harbor Master, it has enough unique characteristics to be compelling in it’s own right.

With geoDefense Swarm being my current favorite game in the App Store, I decided that it would be fun to post a complete solutions guide to all of the levels (that can be beat, I omitted the endless levels) on our forum. Two weeks and countless angry moments of defeat later, my guide is finally finished, sitting on the forum for all to enjoy. Here is the link!

Now that it’s done, I feel that my life is an empty void… I need another game to post a walkthrough for. Leave me some ideas in either the comments section or in the forum.

On November 28th 2008 Apple hit a landmark for their iPhone App Store. They reached 10,000 approved applications for their device. Less then a year later, Apple has hit another landmark in approving their 100,000th app. This number is mind boggling when you think about the amount of development man hours that have gone into it.

Recently I’ve read some other saddening numbers in that some developers are seeing piracy rates of upwards of 90% on their applications. I firmly believe that Apple’s recent move to allow developers to sell in game purchases in their free apps is a direct response to the massive pirating we see going on. If developers, publishers, startups and the like are going to make money consistently on the device in a complete sea of pirates and the race to $0.99 they are going to do start thinking and doing things completely differently. A lot of people are starting to expect a lot of game for almost no money. The problem is very few companies can exist by merely selling their app for such a low price, but then you’ll almost never get noticed if you price yourself higher. It is definitely a catch 22 for many devs. What I see happening in this space is that the devs who take the model of giving their game away for free and then convincing me to go farther by spending $0.99 or $1.99 will more likely succeed. The other approach is to lock people out of the game based on a timed events similar to how iMob does it. There may even be a 3rd or 4th solution to this problem that has yet to emerge.

This flood of apps will not stop, and some analysts are saying that we’ll see 250,000 applications by this time next year and that number may even be low if we look at the growth pattern over the last year and half. Crazy as it sounds, I think this is just the tip of the iceberg that will be the app store. Everyone will be developing stuff for the iPhone. At some point, Apple will be changing it’s slogan to “There are 100 apps for that” as extreme over saturation hits in all areas. Even Adobe is releasing a Flash game converter that allows you to make your Flash game into an app and with that every Flash game will get converted in no time.

It’s going to be interesting where the store goes from here. I don’t think Apple, even in their wildest dreams, expected such a large community surrounding their store to grow so quickly. I really hope we’ll see a revamp for the store soon. The sea of apps is expanding at an insane pace, and it’s current form doesn’t really do the enormity of it justice.

It’s an interesting community to watch grow, and right now the growing pains are there but in the end I think all this innovation is amazing and reminds me of some of the early days of the internet. We’ll be watching all of this closely at 148apps, and will keep you up to do date on the trends and changing atmosphere of the store as best we can.

Developers, up to now, have had an interesting time making sports games on the iPhone. We’ve seen all sorts of attempts at a true genre showcase, but people just can’t seem to figure out what consumers actually want. Companies like Freeverse have the Flick series that takes games to their most basic components, providing people with stripped down, but addictive time wasters. Other companies like Gameloft have found their niche creating seemingly realistic games that have some arcade elements to speed up gameplay. Being the grandaddy of all video game sports, EA has decided that they will just port their hit console titles directly to the iPhone, cramming in as many features and do-dads that they can get onto the small screen.

What I’ve noticed about EA’s other games (Madden, FIFA, Tiger Woods) is that they provide what seems to be the most complete simulation available, but the games lack heart. Part of the difficulty with these games, and especially reviewing these games, is that while they are all fairly impressive, I stop playing them shortly after reviewing them. Thus far, there just hasn’t been enough in any of them to grab me… to make me just want to play another game like I would on their console alternative.

Cool replay, but what is the defense looking at?

Now comes NBA Live, one of EA Sports’ most storied franchises. The brand has lost a bit of its luster on the console side with some uninspiring versions after the ‘05 season (I personally think it went downhill after ‘03), but being the first on the iPhone, I had high expectations. To me, my biggest fear with something like NBA Live is that it would try to do too much. The graphics don’t have to be great, but they need to be fluid. Same with the gameplay and the controls. Well, much like Madden before it, after firing up NBA Live, everyone around me said, “Wow”, and I said, “Meh”.

After starting the game up, I quickly started an exhibition game. I figured that a good Rockets vs Lakers rematch would be good, even if my team would be Yao and T-Mac-less. To my surprise, standing in the center of the court was Yao, and he tipped it directly to T-Mac! Oh geeze. Apparently the game just uses the rosters and disregards player injuries that have completely devastated teams. Don’t get me wrong, I like playing with Yao, but little details like this bring up red flags. After the tip, I noticed that the game was rather choppy, but I’ll attribute that to my ownership of an old 3G. With that said, I would definitely think twice before picking this up on anything less than a 3GS.

Von Wafer isn't even in the NBA anymore! Come on EA!

My first drive resulted in a rather acrobatic T-Mac dunk… shocking after that micro-fracture surgery. The next drive ended with a similarly acrobatic Trevor Ariza dunk. Then a Yao dunk, then a Battier dunk… and so on. I pulled up for a 3 eventually and it fell right in. On defense, I didn’t even bother trying to steal the ball. I found that if you just stand near the other player the computer will either get a 24 second violation or miss the shot. (On a side note, trying to get the ball faster will stop Marv Albert from saying, “he sets the pick” every 5 seconds) The bots will score occasionally, but with the newly revamped dunkfest Rockets, I had no problem winning by 15. The final score was a whopping 52-37. After convincingly beating the best team by 15, I figured that I would up the difficulty or see if I could slide some sliders… something. Well, after jacking up the difficulty a bit, my next game started a little tougher. The computer made its first two shots, but really just couldn’t compete with the beast man that is T-Mac. I think I put down 15 windmill dunks (the exact same windmill dunk) in a row, which made an LA comeback pretty improbable. For a while, I thought that passing would be a good idea, but then the ball landed in the hands of T-Mac, which again resulted in the same windmill dunk. For the record, there were no crossovers or pump fakes that got me a free pass to the basket, all I had to do was sprint to the hoop and hit the shoot button. If you do this, you’ll win, I promise.

(One odd thing of note… If the ball goes for a long bounce off of the rim and clearly goes out of bounds, don’t think that it could be blown dead. I was caught off guard multiple times by computer players landing whole body lengths out of bounds and then taking shots over the back of the rim. They don’t typically go in, but it would certainly be nice to know what out of bounds is.)

Yeah, that stat line seems pretty correct.

I thought about starting a whole season of this, but thought that a season long T-Mac dunk fest would get old pretty fast. There is just no challenge in running to the hoop and hitting shoot. No tough shots, no amazing crossovers, no crazy passes… just run and dunk. Maybe I should’ve been the Suns!

Aside from the gameplay, the rest of the game was fairly well put together. The opening menu looks quite nice and has the traditional big name NBA Live rap tracks backing it. The options are fairly light, with the only play options being season, playoffs, and exhibition. There are no online features as of now, but with defense being as pointless as it is, I don’t really think watching a back and forth windmill dunkfest would be too exciting.

Well, NBA Live unfortunately turned out to be exactly what I thought it would be. It’s basketball, but it certainly won’t make you want to come back for more. There’s only so much that Marv Alberts voice and EA’s logo can do to make you want to keep playing. I know that this is fairly impressive for a cell phone, but just because the concept is cool doesn’t make the game fun. Someday, developers will learn that they need to start with the basics. Maybe a little NBA Jam is all the iPhone gamer wants. Just give me some 2 on 2 and let me do somersault dunks. Let me get on fire and run around with my glowing red ball. BOOMSHAKALAKA!

Please come to the iPhone!

EA is looking to release three classic board games in time for the holiday season: Battleship, Connect 4, Monopoly Classic.

Battleship

EA will bring a few twists to the classic game of skillful coordinate guessing. You’ll use touchscreen controls to battle your enemies in three different modes – classic, salvo, and super weapons. Not wanting to miss out on the social aspect of the game, EA has included local multiplayer (both bluetooth and Wifi).

Connect 4

While EA couldn’t quite recreate the joy of pulling the lever at the bottom of the board and watching all of the pieces crash to the ground, Connect 4 will nonetheless be a faithful recreation of the timeless game. Connect 4 will contain single player and multiplayer (local Wifi, bluetooth, and one device sharing). Single player includes classic, challenge, and advanced modes with Powerchips, Max Score, and PopOut. In addition, EA has included 25 unlockable achievements and some fancy visual effects.

Monopoly Classic

While EA has already released Monopoly: Here & Now onto the App Store, they will provide a more traditional experience with Monopoly Classic. Because the cutthroat intensity of property management doesn’t quite transfer over to single player mode, you’ll be able to play your friends on the go with local Wifi, bluetooth, and single device “pass and play” multiplayer. EA is also including some nice iPhone features such as progressive save, an accelerometer shake to role the dice, and the ability access your iPod library in-game.

Check the jump for more screenshots.

Giving a presentation isn’t always fun, per se, but it doesn’t have to be difficult. My main gripe with PowerPoints is simple: making a PowerPoint progress without darting back to my laptop every five seconds usually requires a friend or teacher tapping patiently on the “Enter” key. Slideshow Remote from LogicInMind finally puts the controls in your hand, and allows you to focus on what a presentation should really be about: presenting rather than wrestling with technology.

In order for the app to work, you’ll need to download and install the Logic Server application. I initially had some trouble getting it to work, but their support team is very helpful. I had Skype running, which apparently uses the same port as Logic Server, so I had to close it. No biggie. Pairing your device with Logic Server is simple after that; once paired, your iPhone will automatically connect upon opening the app, though you can always add more networks. Note that a WiFi network is required, and Slideshow Remote takes advantage of Apple’s Bonjour service, so you’ll need that too.

So, once you have the application working…now what? The first order of business is to open your PowerPoint file and start the show. An image of the current slide will appear on the screen (assuming that you’re in the “Main” tab).

Click over to the “Controls” tab and you can accomplish basic functions: next slide, previous slide, first slide, and last slide. Navigating to next and previous slides can also be done with a simple forward or backwards swipe, or, for the next slide, a simple tap. This allows for eyes-free control of your slideshow, which can be a huge boon. There are also “Start” and “Stop” buttons on the control screen.

In addition to simply controlling your presentation, Slideshow Remote has a few extra features. One is a timer, which provides a handy meter if you need to keep your presentation within a time limit. The other is a “Notes” view, which presents your PowerPoint notes in a discreet, easily accessible format. I must admit that the notes function never really made sense to me; after all, you don’t want to stare at the screen while giving your presentation. But keeping your notes in the palm of your hand? Now they’re actually usable!

Slideshow Remote isn’t perfect. For one, it’s Windows-exclusive; secondly, the fact that a second piece of software is required is a (necessary) annoyance. Setup isn’t completely seamless, and it may take a small amount of tweaking to get everything working perfectly. The controls available in the app aren’t exactly complex, either.

But what more do you really need? Slideshow Remote is meant to accomplish one task: remote control of your PowerPoint presentations. And it does that rather well. While I certainly wouldn’t rely on your presentation hall to have an open WiFi network that you can use, it could come in handy in plenty of situations, and Slideshow Remote is just the app for the job.

Typically, when it comes to 3D graphics and apps that cost more than a dollar, you can count me in. With a price tag like this, along with the promise of some great 3D gameplay, I’m expecting a pretty good game. Unfortunately, I’m just not feeling this app… I mean the 3D graphics suit this genre perfectly, but the gameplay just isn’t very so complete.

Most 3D graphical games these days a very admirable titles from distinguished developers. With the App Store evolving the way it is, the indie iPhone dev’s are now playing their hands in more advanced designs. Remember how successful Pocket God became… the indie developer (Dave Cazz) went from un-noticable to one of the best dev’s around, and still is today. Many indie dev’s are trying as hard as ever to compete with the big devs with advanced 3D titles, but it’s certainly an uphill battle.

Bumpoid, developed and published by Cigra Games, is a bizarrely different 3D space game. Essentially, you’re in space with space-aircraft, and your mission is to get as many points as possible before time runs out. I must warn you about the awkwardness of this game. You start by bumping into other space-craft to get them bouncing around. When you bump into a specific color, you’ll change into that color as well. You mission is to keep bumping into the same color you are, which earns you points. You’ll notice a variety of colored circles on the space-craft(s) that represent the color of them.

My issue with the game is that it can get very bland and boring. I find it hard to stay concentrated for longer than 20-30 minutes at a time. The reason being is that bumping into colored, circled, spacey, octagon-shaped, space-craft just isn’t enough to grab my attention. Doing basically the same task over and over again through 99 levels becomes extremely tedious without much of a reward in return.

For $2.99, the app really isn’t a terrible value, as long as you don’t burn yourself out too quick. You have 99 levels and 3D graphics that genuinely work, so if you are looking for a decent looking time waster, you wouldn’t be doing yourself too much of a disservice by giving this one a shot.

Following on from the immersive RPG that was Return to Mysterious Island, iPhone publisher Chillingo have announced they’re bringing a sequel to the store, announcing Jules Verne’s Secrets of The Mysterious Island is coming to both iPhone (and iPod touch), shortly. The first of the series hit App Store shelves in May of this year, and like most adventure based titles seemed to go down in a storm with the iPhone crowd. Recently I seem to be saying that a little too often about various titles, but having actually owned (and played) this title myself, I can say quite honestly say the adventure was thoroughly enjoyable to play through.

Based on a graphic novel by Jules Verne’s, and carrying on from titles such as 1112 and Cassandra’s Journey, the game sees you take the role of Mina, a sailor who becomes stranded on an island, somewhere in the Pacific ocean. As you trail and tap your way around the island, trying your up-most to survive, and finding objects and (more importantly) food along the way, you try to unlock the mysteries hidden within.

Described by Chillingo as an experience which will mirror that of Robinson Crusoe, this new release will carry on from where you left off. The game will start off with a helicopter crash, and continuing the theme of being stranded, you will have to guide Mina to safety. This time will also see you visit new locations including: Captain Nemo’s base and scouring the ruins of an unknown civilization. Eventually, you will realize the cause of the threat to the island, and will aim to prevent it.

For approximately 700 Mb, the player will find out the end of the adventure of Mina. Jules Verne’s “Secrets of The Mysterious Island” contains stunning 3D graphics, many ambient sounds, music designed to enhance the mysterious atmosphere and feel.

The real big news though is this sequel will see the addition of special feature only available to OS 3.0 and 3GS users. In Jules Verne’s Secrets of The Mysterious Island, you the player will have the ability to navigate the entire island via not only placing fingers on the screen (nothing new there then – but wait!) 3GS users will be able to further enhance this experience by harnessing the true power of the built in compass, and therefore bringing full 360° compass direction navigation to the title. I don’t know about you, but I’m quite excited about this, especially for an adventure game like this one. While touch and drag navigation is cool, doing it by physically moving your phone around – I’m sure you’ll agree – is even cooler! Although, do be careful – I wouldn’t want you to knock out the person sitting next to you while searching for melon!

All in all, with the title said to offer even more mini games and puzzles to complete, Jules Verne’s Secrets of The Mysterious Island is at first looks looking to paint a great sequel to the original Jules Verne adventure. My previous experience with both this genre of game, (and the Jules Verne saga inparticular), has me on the edge of my seat for this one!

Said to give a respectable 15 hours and gameplay, and priced at $6.99, the sequel to this hit adventure game should be with us “within weeks”. International readers will be glad to know that the written in-game dialog of this initial release will be translated in: English, German, French, Spanish and Italian.

Jules Verne's Return To Mysterious Island

Our Rating: :: ADVENTUROUS

Category: Games / Strategy
Released: 2009-05-29
Price: $2.99

Remember .™? If you don’t, the title was the debut of London-based iPhone development studio ustwo™. The game was 2D and involved the user guiding a white dot around a playing field, trying to avoid red matter (triangular), and collecting blue matter (circular). It hit the mainstream for a number of reasons, firstly for its design ethics, but secondly and most importantly being that it was the first ever application to have hit the App Store, whilst having been designed from concept to final within a 48 hour period.

This had never been done before. The thought of developing a polished title such as .™ within such a short period of time, to most other developers I imagine may have started their worst nightmare. There are going to be 6 titles within this ‘exclusive’ set of apps – sorta a “collect em’ all” diddy. The first was .™ which we profiled a few weeks back, and the next is supposedly Inkstrumental™ CRAZO™ (although as we mentioned in our previous first look, the studio themselves isn’t sure if that’ll ever see the light of day, yet.)

In the meantime the studio isn’t standing still, today announcing the sequel to their debut hit title. Calling it ..™. Having not seen the game yet myself, or had chance to play with it, I can only go off this visually stunning teaser trailer which the company has just released above, which to me seems to convey we might just be in store for some 3D goodness – (well .. I hope so)! While it’s not clear if this sequel will follow the 48 hour development method ustwo™ are now famous for, you have to admit that ..™ trailer is pretty damn trippy.

Having played .™, it’s addictive nature tends to bring with it high replay value, and as with any title, high replay usually means value for money. With no word on price yet, it’s hard to judge if ..™ will live up to it’s original – but according to ustwo™ we won’t have to wait long to find out. The title is expected to hit very, very soon.

Update: In a stark move, the studio has created a fully interactive online version of the upcoming game. Part of their new ‘48App’ section, you can now play both .™ and ..™ flash versions – here. Looks like ..™ will be 3D after all! Although, it’s still unclear whether the game will use touch and drag gesture controls, or take advantage of the accelerometer. We’ll see!

.™

Category: Games / Kids
Released: 2009-09-17
Price: $0.99