Froot ‘n’ Nutz Review

By Blake Grundman on June 19th, 2013
Our Rating: :: VISUALLY DICEY
Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad

While Froot ‘n’ Nutz may not look very modern, it is very likable.

There once was a time when certain iOS games had a sheen of flash to them. We are not talking “flash” as in the “flashy presentation” kind of way, but rather, they shared a striking resemblance to a browser-based flash game. These occurrences have subsided somewhat over the last few years, but every once in a blue moon a title still ends up on our radar, despite its somewhat lackluster visuals. Froot ‘n’ Nutz is just that game, hoping to channel the likes of Fruit Ninja, while taking a couple of nutty liberties with the gameplay mechanics.

It goes without saying that we have more than a few Fruit Ninja clones cross the review desk each year. Froot ‘n’ Nutz is unabashedly one of those titles, but what sets it apart is the unique approach to objective based slashing. Instead of mindlessly hacking away at the screen like a samurai on a bender, the game asks the player to be conscious of what order they are destroying their precious produce. In one mode, much like the name would imply, the player must alternate between slicing fruits and nuts. Sure, that may sound simple on paper, but once the screen becomes flooded with flying items, it will take a whole new set of skills to discern what order to dispatch with the madness.

Another mode actually counts on the player (pun totally intended) to be able to dice up projectiles in the correct order, depending upon how they are labeled numerically. Being able to both pick out the numbers as well as effectively cut them in order is another unique skillset that requires the player to use a bit more of their gray matter than what would be traditionally found in its peers within the genre.

The one big issue with Froot ‘n’ Nutz, other than the title’s obvious need for a quick run through a spellchecker, is how it appears visually. To put it bluntly, the game is ugly. Inclusion of split screen multiplayer and boss fights do attempt to add a bit more variety to the core product, but it is still very difficult to get past the bad animations and lackluster sprite design.

A game like Froot ‘n’ Nutz is a hidden gem that is likable, even despite itself. It will certainly not be winning any awards for art style anytime soon, but for those looking for a unique twist on something they already enjoy, this may prove to be a diamond in the rough. If nothing else, start out with the free version and see if it suits your fancy.

Froot n Nutz HD

Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Buy Now: $1.99
Released: 2013-06-12 :: Category: Games

Swipes Review

By Jennifer Allen on June 19th, 2013
Our Rating: :: SIMPLE PLANNING
iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad

Keeping it simple, Swipes makes it easy to keep track of today’s To Do list, without being confused by future tasks.

Swipes is a minimalist To Do app designed for people like me: those who get easily overwhelmed by a huge list of things that need doing. It’s simple and quick to use, and I rather like it.

The idea behind it is that it allows users to focus on the day ahead, rather than the potential muddle of including tasks for other days or weeks. Add various entries of what needs doing by typing a few words, then it’s just a matter of swiping to the left to indicate that the task has been completed or swiping to the right to postpone the task for another day. We’ve all had those moments where we’ve looked at the To Do list for the day and realised that some stuff can be put back. Swipes makes it easy to implement.

Scheduling isn’t just restricted to the next day either, with options available to postpone to any day, either by tapping on the day itself (if it’s quite soon) or by choosing a date on the calendar. Once pushed back, the item then goes to a different screen on the app, leaving today’s entries unsullied. Completed tasks go to a separate screen too, with the option always there to resurrect it or schedule it for another day. Something that’s ideal for regular events.

Tagging plays a role too, enhancing the options when searching for a task. It’s something that’s not so important when there’s only a handful of jobs, but ideal for the very organized. Being able to separate tasks according to home, work or other is a useful move too, with filtering rounding things off well.

Swipes keeps it simple, so there’s no social network sharing or even email functionality here, but it’s not really needed. Swipes is an insular package, solely for the user’s needs, rather than for collaborative efforts. It’s an attractive package, made all the better by the free price tag.

Swipes - Plan your daily tasks

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Buy Now: FREE
Released: 2013-06-15 :: Category: Productivity

Sheep Shack Review

By David Rabinowitz on June 19th, 2013
Our Rating: :: COUNTING SHEEP
Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad

Sheep Shack is an arcade game with a strange concept that blends Whack-A-Mole with elements from games like Fruit Ninja.

Mini-games and bonus levels are always one of my favorite parts of video games because they often times task players with interesting objectives that normally wouldn’t make sense. To me, Sheep Shack felt like one long mini-game because it lacks a substantial storyline or plot and the gameplay is strange and doesn’t make much sense. It seems like the developers decided to take Whack-A-Mole and add a few more elements to it without thinking how it would all fit together.

Sheep Shack centers on a cube that has tiles of animals, which randomly appear around the surface. The cube has to be rotated around so all the tiles can be tapped before time runs out. This part of Sheep Shack reminded me a lot of Whack-A-Mole. Sometimes the tiles have to be tapped twice and some tiles can only be cleared after they have been tapped and the cube is rotated upwards to launch an animal into the air.

When one of the multiple types of animals does get launched into the air, each one has something special that has to be done to it. When a sheep flies into the air, it can only be swiped, not tapped. Wolves on the other hand have to be tapped, not swiped. The challenging thing is that it’s not immediately obvious whether a sheep is going to be launched into the air and they only remain air-borne for a short period of time.

Each level is organized into multiple waves with a brief respite in-between. Sheep Shack is fast paced and although the game description in the app store says it’s partly a puzzle game, in reality it’s too fast to really allow for much deep thinking.

Sheep Shack left me wanting more, both in terms of game mechanics and something else to the app than just gameplay. It comes off just like a regular arcade game where the goal is to focus and repeat the same tasks over and over again with slight variations. Considering how many game are in the same price range, it’s hard to recommend that people buy the game. Instead, if it does sound appealing, downloading the free version is a cheap way to try it out. The free version of Sheep Shack has 15 levels and isn’t hampered with any limitations so it gives a good sense of how the full version will be.

Sheep Shack

Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Buy Now: $1.99
Released: 2013-06-12 :: Category: Games

Runaway: A Road Adventure Review

By Campbell Bird on June 18th, 2013
Our Rating: :: COMBINE ITEMS TO WIN
Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad

Runaway is a classic, old-school adventure experience, for better and for worse.

Runaway: A Road Adventure is a classic, old-school adventure game developed by Bulkypix. In the game, players take control of Brian, a science scholar who finds himself getting mixed up in a mobster plot while on his way to graduate school. Throughout this adventure, Brian (i.e. the player) must use his science knowledge and other logical thinking to make it through the journey successfully.

Fans of traditional, point-and-click adventure games will feel right at home playing Runaway, as the game’s story serves as the window dressing for placing the main characters in pre-rendered backgrounds and collecting/combining items to solve puzzles like escaping a hospital room or analyzing an ancient artifact. Thankfully, the game’s story is serviceable–despite some awkward voice acting–and the environments are changed up enough to keep players driving the story forward.

I say this not because adventure games do not have good enough gameplay to keep players moving, but in Runaway‘s case, the game just feels a bit too old to stay compelling on its mechanics alone. Much like other, older adventure games, players are often left with little direction to go on when it comes to advancing the story. On top of this, the game demands players to follow the logic of the game designers, which is not always as clear as it seems it should be. As a result, I found myself increasingly consulting a walkthrough because trying to get inside the minds of the game’s creators was just too cumbersome.

On the other hand, if I ever did find myself figuring out the game logic on my own, I did feel quite empowered, but sometimes this empowerment was short-lived due the game’s control scheme. Even when players know exactly what items they are supposed to be combining or which objects they should be interacting with, tapping on the exact right spot or dragging an item that needs to be used with something else can be similarly frustrating. Perhaps this problem may be solved by playing on the iPad.

All that being said, though, Runaway does a great job of scratching that old adventure game itch. If players have some reverence for that genre, or are just interested in seeing a modern re-creation of the exact mechanics that made those games what they were, Runaway is a quality get. Its story is engaging enough to keep players experimenting with items, and the game does a good job of looking like a “great looking” older game. Just don’t expect mind-blowing gameplay, maybe keep a walkthrough handy, and stay patient to have the ideal experience.

Runaway: A Road Adventure

Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Buy Now: $4.99
Released: 2013-06-06 :: Category: Games

Pinball Rocks HD Review

By Blake Grundman on June 18th, 2013
Our Rating: :: QUARTER MUNCHER
Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad

When players have the chance to buy free balls at the end of a game, that speaks volumes about the motivations of pinball game’s publisher.

Looking back on the history of the steel ball, the likes of KISS, The Beatles and, of course, The Who (Pinball Wizard, anyone?) have each been immortalized behind the glass of a pinball table. Really, what could be more rock and roll than loud sound effects, a noisy music track and repetitively flashing lights? With that in mind, it should come as no surprise that Sony has decided to channel their massive back library of musicians into a collection of digital pinball simulations. But can Pinball Rocks HD manage to live up to the gauntlet that has already been thrown down by the likes of Farsight and Zen Studios?

It seems like it has been forever since Gameprom released AC/DC Pinball Rocks as a standalone table on iOS. Back then, there were few contenders for pinball supremacy, and thusly it stood out as one of the better simulations on the platform. This same engine seems to have carried over into Pinball Rocks HD, and hasn’t aged quite as nicely as one might expect. Something about the physics model being used seems floaty, almost as if the ball was ever so slightly filled with helium. It is nothing overly egregious, but it also effects the flow and momentum of the ball, which will undoubtedly send drive enthusiasts up a wall.

The base game, which is a free download, consists of a single table, the aptly named, Pinball Rocks. The decidedly mediocre offering consists of several missions that offer very little variation in how to play the table. Just randomly hitting ramps and bumpers will undoubtedly complete these objectives, most of which aren’t even clearly laid out to the player to begin with. Each ball is accompanied by another track from a rock artist signed to Sony’s label, which is the one positive thing that makes the experience at least slightly worth repeating more than a couple of times.

As far as pinball hubs go, there are a handful of decent DLC tables available for purchase at launch. It would be nice to be able to provide more feedback on the new Alice in Chains and Bullet for My Valentine offerings, but the game offers no option to preview the content they are selling. How is the consumer supposed to know if the add-ons are worth buying if they can’t have a free taste? Frankly, if one were to base the decision to plunk down money purely based on the experiences of the base table, Sony probably wouldn’t be selling many downloadable packs. Plus, to rub a little salt in the wound, Sony is hoping to resell their previously released AC/DC and Slayer tables, which have also been available as DLC in Pinball Collection HD and their own stand-alone games.

Presenting a passable pinball experience is nothing that is overly offensive to the hardcore pinball audience. However, Pinball Rocks HD crosses the line of acceptability with the addition of the ability to purchase in-game cheats using real cash. It is so obvious about the seedy motivations that it even offers to sell players extra balls after the final is drained. The casual audience may find this type of shameless behavior acceptable, but it provides a disturbing glimpse into what the future holds for pinball simulations on iOS. Here is hoping that more developers don’t chose to follow their lead.

Pinball Rocks HD

Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Buy Now: FREE
Released: 2013-06-12 :: Category: Games

Videon Review

By Jennifer Allen on June 18th, 2013
Our Rating: :: GREAT ALL-ROUNDER
iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad

Offering mostly everything one could want from a video recording app, Videon is quite the success.

It’s quite difficult to fault Videon. It’s a video recording app that offers mostly everything anyone could want from such a tool. Something that’s bound to be welcomed amongst those planning on recording plenty of videos this summer.

Aligning towards many different needs, users can go straight into recording something or choose to change some settings around first. The former is ideal for when the opportunity arises, such as when a child or pet is doing something cute. The latter is great, when planning ahead.

At the touch of a finger, it’s simple to hold the focus lock, with it just as easy to set exposure or white balance, too. Further options are within the settings menu, offering different resolutions as well as video quality and frame rate settings. It all defaults to the most popular setting, i.e. 100% video quality at a high definition resolution of 1920×1080.

There’s also my favorite option of them all: the ability to turn off audio recording. As someone frequently trying to encourage cats or guinea pigs to look at me while I record them, while not wishing to hear my own voice, this is a great minor feature.

Zooming is a breeze to adjust, involving a separate bar away from the various locks. It’s quick, too, much like the rest of Videon.

The options don’t just end once the video has been recorded either, with plenty of post-production settings. Various effects can be applied, such as adjustments to the hue and contrast, as well as adding a black and white effect to the creation. Muting, temperature changes and resizing is also available. Similarly, merging of videos, trimming or splitting is just as easy to apply.

That’s the convenient thing about Videon. It really does cover a multitude of different scenarios and eventualities. On the iPhone 5, I found it consistently speedy too, which is exactly what I want from such an app. It’ll certainly be sticking around on my device, proving quite the all-rounder upgrade to the stock app.

Videon - Video Camera with Zoom and Editor

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Buy Now: $2.99
Released: 2013-05-24 :: Category: Photography

Galaxy At War Online Review

By Rob Rich on June 18th, 2013
Our Rating: :: THE FAMILIAR FRONTIER
Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad

Galaxy At War Online has all the familiar trappings of many compelling freemium games. The problem is that it’s a very familiar formula. And it’s not actually free at the moment.

I don’t inherently have a problem with freemium games. In fact, the most-played game on my phone (Rage of Bahamut, naturally) is free-to-play. However, when freemium title after freemium title incorporate the same underlying structure I find it more and more difficult to develop any enthusiasm for them. Unfortunately Galaxy At War Online is one such game, but even though I’ve essentially played it several times before I can certainly appreciate the change of scenery. Although despite a very free-to-play structure it’s not actually free.

Galaxy At War Online’s gameplay has three major elements: Management, production, and combat. While taking care of things at the base players can upgrade a number of different structures, build new ones, and research new technologies; all in order to produce more resources (harvested automatically and in real time), defend against rival players, and otherwise incrementally get better at everything. Their research and resources can then be used to create or enhance a number of different ships and base defenses. Players will have to construct entire fleets of various ships that can number in the thousands, then send them off to other planets in order to (hopefully) plunder a few goods. Ever play Kingdoms of Camelot? It’s pretty much the same exact thing only set in space.

The thing is, even though I’ve already played Galaxy At War Online several times over under different names, it’s still a gameplay model that works. I’ve always been particularly fond of the hands-off resource accumulation as it gives me a good excuse to check back in every now and then. It’s also got a number of sim elements to satisfy micromanagers and caters to both PvP and PvE fans. And despite the visuals being overrun with menus, it’s still a pretty good-looking game. At least as far as the character portraits, buildings, and development icons go.

Of course, as I’ve said, it’s a game I’ve played multiple times before. The only thing that really differentiates Galaxy At War from other freemium games that use the same gameplay structure (aside from not actually being free) is its aesthetics. If someone doesn’t enjoy the formula, or they’re burned out on other similar titles, there’s not really any incentive for them to sign up for Galaxy At War Online. That said I happen to prefer the futuristic theme, and will probably keep it on my phone well after the review is finished, but it’s still something to keep in mind.

Galaxy At War Online is nothing new, but how much of an issue that may be will vary from person to person. Some will take issue with the similarities, others won’t want to pay $0.99 for it, and still others may consider it to be the adaptation of this particular brand of sim that they’ve been waiting for. Personally I’d consider myself a part of the third camp.

Galaxy At War Online

Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Buy Now: $4.99
Released: 2013-05-22 :: Category: Games

Kung Fu Robot Review

By Jordan Minor on June 18th, 2013
Our Rating: :: READING RAINBOW
iPad Only App - Designed for the iPad

Further proof that reading can be just as fun as playing.

Although it’s technically a comic book, Kung Fu Robot is so fun, kinetic and interactive that young readers may be convinced that it is actually a game. If that’s what it takes to get today’s kids reading, then so be it. Call it a trick but it’s a trick that works.

For obvious reasons, Kung Fu Robot pours all of its efforts into its story and its presentation. In this first installment, readers are introduced to the titular mechanical superhero as he attempts to make the perfect peanut butter and jelly sandwich. But, much to the dismay of his young boy companion, all of his karate chops and special techniques end up making a mess instead of a meal. It’s totally kid’s material but that’s the point. That’s the target audience and for them, the light, funny, action-heavy plot is just what they are looking for.

Kids will also get a kick out of Kung Fu Robot’s slick, interactive, comic-book style layout. Swiping down the pages causes panels, text, and characters to slide into frame in whatever way the scene demands. Metallic hands slice through loaves of bread while gongs chime and plates smash. The art style has a great, retro cartoon look with thick outlines and expressive eyes. Kung Fu Robot himself has a memorable design and the frequent sound effects combined with lively dialogue give him a well-defined personality. Tying it all together is a groovy, 60s bass line that funkily drives the whole thing forward.

This first book and its cliff-hanger ending are clearly meant to be the start of a franchise. That’s fine but it’s hard to shake the feeling this, admittedly free, initial impression could have had more content. Kids like rereading books so the fact that they can probably breeze through the three chapters in ten minutes isn’t the issue. Rather, the bonus content, while appreciated, feels underdeveloped. Between chapters two and three there’s a Whac-A-Mole game written into the plot that can then be replayed. Aside from the soundboard, it is the only extra feature. Perhaps another minigame between chapter one and two would’ve helped flesh things out.

Still, parents who want their kids to get a little more out of their iPad apps should check out Kung Fu Robot. It’s not like you can find it in a library.

Kung Fu Robot

iPad Only App - Designed for the iPad
Buy Now: FREE
Released: 2013-05-21 :: Category: Books

Sherlock Holmes 2 Review

By Jennifer Allen on June 18th, 2013
Our Rating: :: ROUGH ADVENTURING
Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad

Lacking great looks and style, Sherlock Holmes 2 is still quite fun for the adventure game book fan.

Lacking the finesse and general classiness of other adventure game book games on the App Store, Sherlock Holmes 2 is pretty rough round the edges and slightly confusing at first. That mixed quality continues throughout, but it’s still quite an interesting read and change of pace for the adventure game book fan.

Providing an original story that uses the characters of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson is always a risky move, but “The Black River Emerald” is quite an interesting story. It doesn’t have the depth of the classic novels but I still enjoyed seeing how things developed.

The interactive elements come in the form of quite familiar adventure game book mechanics, thanks to a character sheet and a plentiful supply of choices that must be made. Along the way, clues can be gathered too helping the player determine the culprit in the mystery.

There are vital dice rolls too, which dictate what happens next to the adventurer. These offer three different types of roll: the typical virtual dice roll, as well as picking a number by random either through a selection of cards or by tapping on screen at the relevant moment. It’s a small change, compared to the usual method, but mixes things up a bit.

Where Sherlock Holmes 2 falters most is its instructions. It all feels a little convoluted at first and not as self-explanatory as I’d have liked. In the end, throwing one’s self in is the best method to figuring things out, but it can be off-putting.

Sherlock Holmes 2 is certainly a little rough, but as a fan of the genre, I still quite enjoyed it. It made a change from the typical fantastical worlds that are usually featured in such games. Don’t expect it to have the replay value of something like Tin Man Games’s offerings, though.

Sherlock Holmes 2

Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Buy Now: $1.99
Released: 2013-06-11 :: Category: Games

Mail Ninja Review

By Jennifer Allen on June 17th, 2013
Our Rating: :: SIMPLE MAIL SORTING
iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad

Favoring simplicity over complexity, Mail Ninja won’t be the email solution for everyone but it does make sorting through new mail a fairly quick process.

There’s been quite the influx of new email apps in recent times. Mail Ninja is one of the latest, determined to offer the most efficient e-mail processing possible. Its gesture driven interface will take a brief while to truly get comfortable with and it lacks some handy organizational features, but its simplicity offers some benefits.

Supporting Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, AOL Mail, iCloud Mail and general IMAP services, Mail Ninja takes hardly any time at all to set up. Depending on the size of one’s inbox, that’s mostly likely to be the part that takes longest. A fairly comprehensive overlay explains all that the user needs to know about interacting with the mail.

Swipes are the key thing to remember here, with everything only ever needing a finger to initiate. Hold a finger over the header within an email, or within the inbox, and a swipe to the left deletes while a swipe to the right archives. Throughout, a shake of the device initiates the undo function meaning it’s simple to correct mistakes.

These gestures aren’t without their problems. For example, I found it mildly awkward to retrieve new mail while at the inbox. Pulling down updates the mail, but it also leads to creating a new email. The difficulty is in getting the right balance. Given that retrieving new mail isn’t overly tactile, with no message or sound to indicate that new mail is coming through, this is where Mail Ninja falters slightly.

The more one uses it, the more it becomes apparent how many useful features are missing too. There’s no Select All option, or the ability to browse All Mail, only the inbox, sent mail, trash and mail recently archived by the app. There’s no way to browse accounts separately either, with mail placed in an unified inbox.

Mail Ninja does hold promise though. The ability to work with email while offline is particularly handy, offering comfort for people like me who don’t always have the most reliable of phone signals.

Focusing on simplicity is often a double-edged sword, which is clear here. While I found it handy to use while on the move and wanting to quickly prune my work inbox, I found Mail Ninja most valuable as an app to deal with my personal mail as I don’t need more powerful features here, just a simple way to check what’s going on. With label support and a select all gesture, though, I could see this app working its way up my favorites list.

Mail Ninja

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Buy Now: $2.99
Released: 2013-06-13 :: Category: Productivity

Beejumbled Review

By Jennifer Allen on June 17th, 2013
Our Rating: :: SIMPLE WORDPLAY
Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad

A simple but cute word game, Beejumbled should keep word game fans bzzzzy for a time.

Beejumbled offers an immensely simple concept, one that has almost certainly been seen before by word game fans. That’s not to say that it isn’t fun, but don’t expect it to change the course of word gaming forever more.

At its core, players must create words by linking together letters, each located amongst a piece of honeycomb. This concept resides throughout the various modes available to players, encompassing single and multiplayer. Each are quite simple, yet offer enough to keep players returning for more, even if it might just be for short bursts.

Solo mode comes with both a Time Trial and a Challenge mode. The former gives players 2 minutes in which to create as many words as possible, each of three letters or longer. The latter mode offers more direct competition, in that players must race an AI opponent to a pre-defined score, in order to unlock the next stage. Along the way, by defeating a bee, the player unlocks them for use as an aid in other modes of play.

For the more competitive gamer, a tournament mode enables them to compete against a number of people at once, while One on One is quite self-explanatory.

In every case, the gameplay remains the same. Link together letters to form words, and watch as the score hopefully increases steadily. Using a Scrabble style scoring model, some letters are worth more than others so it’s worth plotting wise moves. Against opposition, words can’t be reused so there’s also the battle to ensure that one spots the higher scoring words before the opposition.

Unlocking new bees to use comes with more than just aesthetic benefits, too. Each comes with their own ability, or bonus, such as offering extra points when using specific letters or even when using themed words, such as the wild west or baseball. Further bonuses come from the Helper drones which cost honey, but offer some kind of score-based aid along the way.

That honey is where the in-app purchases emerge. Working as a form of energy system, given that players must use a Helper in each game, it’s fortunate then that I rarely came across a problem in running out. A daily bonus is offered, mostly keeping players in check. It does highlight how Beejumbled isn’t really a game to play for hours at a time, though.

Keeping it simple works quite well for Beejumbled. It’s not a game that can compete against more alluring propositions but it’s quite fun to dip into for short spells throughout the working day. It particularly shines when playing against friends or family.

Beejumbled

Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Buy Now: FREE
Released: 2013-06-13 :: Category: Games

Perfection. Review

By Carter Dotson on June 17th, 2013
Our Rating: :: REALLY GOOD
Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad

Perfection is a line-slicing puzzle game with no stars, no scores, just gameplay.

Perfection is a challenging line-drawing puzzle game that eschews much of the trappings of modern gaming to be a pure, untouched package.

Shapes are presented, along with an outline pointing out what the shape should look like. So, players need to cut the shape with straight lines in order to make it fit in the outline. Three difficulties, each with an additional mechanical challenge, are available. There’s just cutting, there’s cutting with the need to also rotate the shape into place, and cutting with rotation and pinching to modify the size to get it in the outline. Thus, the challenge becomes to analyze the shape, and to see just how one must slice it to cut it perfectly in the perfect number of moves, because the name of the game is Perfection, after all.

Surprisingly, despite plenty of opportunity for the game to be chock-full of progress indicators, scores, and rankings, Perfection prefers a more abstract approach. There are virtually no progress indicators at all, so players are largely left to just play, and not to pursue tangible objectives other than the minimum number of cuts on a shape. Of course, this does mean that motivation for playing comes solely from wanting ot play the game itself.

Frustration is largely alleviated thanks to multiple design decisions. Correcting mistakes is very easy, by tapping the “undo” button in the upper-right corner. Prepare to tap it a bunch on more complex puzzles, where it may be necessary to go back to step one. An easy way to reset to the beginning, perhaps by just tapping and holding on the undo button, would make sense? Is a puzzle too hard? Just call up the menu, and tap the icon that looks like a shining sun to call up a new one. Or, choose a new difficulty.

The game is thankfully somewhat lenient as well: edges that stick out slightly or don’t quite make the border will still allow for success to be attained. Just be very careful about matching angles. Control-wise, the game is a better fit on larger screens because more accurate cuts are easier, but the point indicators showing where cuts are being made makes even iPhone play work really well.

Perfection is largely for the self-motivated, and those more interested in the raw mechanics of play than those who prefer attaining status through play. Still, a clever mechanic handled in multiple ways, and with little in the structure getting in the way of players from achieving their goals, then that just means there’s a lot to like here.

Perfection.

Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Buy Now: $0.99
Released: 2013-05-07 :: Category: Games

Gangstar Vegas Review

By Blake Grundman on June 17th, 2013
Our Rating: :: BUSTED
Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad

It is always unfortunate when bugs derail what could have been a great game.

What do guns, misogyny, and crime sprees have in common? They sell games. If the Grand Theft Auto and Saints Row franchises have taught us anything, it is that a little societal counterprogramming can go a long way. Gameloft seems to be venturing down the same road with the newest iteration in their Gangstar series, Gangstar Vegas. It more than lives up to the setting of Sin City.

Guy meets guy. Guy pays guy to take a dive in an MMA match. Guy accidentally wins the match anyway. Guy ends up spending the rest of his days running for his life. It is a tale as old as time. Players take control of fighter on the lam, Jason Malone, as he tries to make a name for himself in Vegas, while still covering his own hide in the process. He is willing to do just about anything in order to clear his name, even if it means getting his hands dirty in the process.

As the game progresses, the massive world of Gangstar Vegas is unfurled, revealing a wealth of areas to explore, rob, or otherwise eviscerate. Completing missions allow the player to upgrade Jason’s stats or weapons, in order to turn him into the most deadly hoodlum ever to saunter through the streets of Sin City. Much like other titles in the genre, the traditional star wanted system is also present. Be sure to try to keep a low profile, though. Otherwise, the military will come out of the woodworks and look for Malone’s head on a proverbial pike.

What could have been a potentially fantastic open world adventure is hampered by a litany of problems that could have been avoided, given more time and polish. For one, there are visual presentation and AI bugs from the start. For example, it is a bit difficult to complete an assassination mission when the target is stuck clipping through a wall. This is just a brief taste of what unfortunately seems to be a fairly common occurrence. And don’t even start on the control issues, because quite frankly, they are sluggish, unresponsive, and borderline unusable when in any sort of time-sensitive sequence.

By all accounts, Gangstar Vegas should have been a good game. Had more care been taken to address the countless technical issues that plague the title, it could have provided a much more compelling reason to explore the streets of Vegas. Potential players may have better luck putting their seven dollars on black than spending that on this ultimately disappointing experience.

Gangstar Vegas

Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Buy Now: $6.99
Released: 2013-06-07 :: Category: Games

1968 Review

By Lee Hamlet on June 17th, 2013
Our Rating: :: CHEESED OFF
iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad

1968 has the potential to be a fun little time-waster, if it weren’t for the unnecessary difficulty caused by slow gameplay and unpredictable controls.

“In 1968 the USA sent a small car to the moon… and all they found was cheese.”

That’s the not-so-historically-accurate opening to 1968, a cutesy retro-style casual game that has players navigating around floating moon rocks while collecting triangles of luminous cheese. Once they have obtained all of the floating dairy goodness, they have to get to the American flag as fast as possible to complete the level.

The developers have hit the nail on the head with the cute black and white cartoon visuals and smooth jazz soundtrack, both of which compliment the gameplay perfectly. There’s even the mocking “wah, wah, waaah” novelty trumpet sound to accompany a failed attempt. It’s a combination that is bound to raise a smile or two from players and have them tapping their feet while playing (jazz hands not recommended).

Unfortunately, the controls are unforgiving, and in a game that is all about maintaining control and speed, this is a real problem. The car can sometimes change direction or brake suddenly, even if the player is clearly holding down a finger on one side of the screen. If the car is flipped upside down, it is sometimes impossible to flip it back over, which triggers an inconvenient auto-restart.

A few levels in and some players will already find the game too difficult, a testament to the fact that temperamental controls can make a game much harder than it needs to be. This may be due to the anti-gravity environmental effects, but it just makes the gameplay feel sluggish. The ability to control the car in mid-air and to flip it easily once it is overturned would be welcome additions to a game that has casual players as its target audience, but fails to provide the ease of play that makes similar games such as Bike Baron such classics.

There are five worlds, five cars and five different flags to unlock, which is a superb amount of content for the asking price. The issues with controls and therefore the difficulty are the only things holding this back from being the great little game it has the potential to be.

1968

Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Buy Now: $0.99
Released: 2013-05-23 :: Category: Games

Man of Steel HD Review

By Carter Dotson on June 17th, 2013
Our Rating: :: BATMAN'S BETTER
iPad Only App - Designed for the iPad

Like a speeding bullet, this game hurts.

Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh.

That’s what Man of Steel makes me do. Let out an overly-elongated sigh. It’s a mediocre Infinity Blade clone that’s half-complete at best. It makes last year’s Avengers Initiative look inspired by comparison. That game at least dared to have multiple settings! This game is definitive proof that Batman is better, at least at Infinity Blade knock-offs: Arkham City Lockdown is a rather respectable title.

Man of Steel is a carbon copy of the Infinity Blade combat model: one-on-one fights, attacks in the cardinal directions, blocking, parrying, dodging, two different special attacks that charge up, tapping on the screen to win grapples, all that fun stuff. It’s nothing new. There’s no exploration outside of combat, any progression is done through menus. Players earn experience which can be used to upgrade Superman to higher levels, and fight in the Survival mode to grind for additional XP, though that mode also provides the bulk of the replay value. Thankfully there’s no hackneyed “forced to start over” mechanic like in Avengers Initiative.

The game is dominantly familiar, but let me at least praise what little good it does. Dodging used as ninety-degree turns, which can be used to send enemies careening into the environment, which can cause experience bonuses and additional damage, is at least original. Sending enemies flying into the sky to be wailed on is pretty cool. Yet, there’s something about the way that Superman just senselessly damages his surroundings that feels out of touch with the character. It’s part of the phenomenon that Zack Stentz, co-writer of the Thor movie, describes well. All in all, the game is okay, but I never really had much fun with it. It’s a very short game, and the fact that $4.99 doesn’t even get players a universal app is an insult.

The biggest insult is that the game is seemingly half-complete. There’s notably only one environment: Smallville. Sure, there’s different parts of it, but the action never actually leaves there. It gets to just be so dull after a short while. Then, the final level comes around, which is a triple-decker insult: it rehashes bosses, including rehashing the first boss as the last boss in a three-boss sequence, and then it turns out that it’s the end of the game. No big fight against Zod–it’s “to be continued.”

What’s not to be continued is this game’s continuing presence on my iPad.

Man of Steel HD

iPad Only App - Designed for the iPad
Buy Now: $4.99
Released: 2013-06-13 :: Category: Games

Defense Technica Review

By Michael Carattini on June 17th, 2013
Our Rating: :: FUTURISTIC TOWER DEFENSE
Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad

Defense Technica is a futuristic tower defense game with some uniquely strategic gameplay. Solid graphics and challenging levels make it worth a try.

There are countless tower defense games available in the App Store, each offering their own unique environments and weapons. Defense Technica attempts to stand out from the crowd by offering beautiful graphics, futuristic battlegrounds, and a much stronger emphasis on strategic gameplay. Players not only build towers, but also position them in a way that alters the enemy’s path, so as to achieve the most devastating attack. Solid graphics and challenging gameplay make it a worthwhile download.

After a brief guided tutorial, players can immediately jump into the gameplay. For those not familiar with this genre, the purpose is to defend a base, or in this case a core, from multiple waves of enemy attack. This is done by building weapon towers in strategic locations along the enemy path. There is some limitation here, as there are only a few preselected locations to build towers, in contrast to other popular tower defense games we all know and love.

The towers are placed by tapping on an available square, selecting a tower, and tapping once more to place it on the grid. Towers may also be upgraded or sold later on in the game. It’s very important to understand which towers will do the most damage to certain types of enemies. Some towers won’t do any damage to the enemies in that level and would be useless to purchase. Furthermore, these towers must be strategically placed, not only to inflict damage upon enemy units, but also to alter their path. Each level has an optimum path for enemy units that allows for maximum tower coverage. Enemies travel on their own path until players build obstacles and towers that block certain paths in order to shape the optimum one. After each wave has been defeated, and the core is still standing, the level is complete.

Defense Technica really has everything that makes a tower defense game successful: beautiful graphics, addictive gameplay, and challenging levels. While there really isn’t much to complain about, it would be nice to have the ability to rotate the field 360 degrees, so that players can view the battle from any angle. Other than that, this is absolutely a worthy addition to the genre. Go check it out.

Defense Technica

Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Buy Now: $2.99
Released: 2013-06-04 :: Category: Games

9th Dawn Review

By Rob Rich on June 17th, 2013
Our Rating: :: THE NEW OLDSCHOOL
Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad

Combine a large open world from a modern RPG and the elegant simplicity of a classic, and we end up with something pretty freaking awesome called 9th Dawn.

9th Dawn has some pretty lofty ambitions. The App Store description likens it to both open, modern RPGs and old school favorites like Ultima. That’s a pretty big claim for just about anyone to make, let alone an iOS RPG that’s essentially appeared out of nowhere. The crazy thing is, the developers actually pulled it off.

Bad things are happening all over the continent, as is usually the case. Players get to choose between three different playable classes (Knight, Archer, and Mage), then the set out to do pretty much whatever they want. There’s a brief introduction to the immediate area surrounding the town of Agaria, but once that’s over with the landmass is their oyster. A set of virtual sticks move and attack, and a contextual button is available for chatting, but most of the interaction is done via tapping on various objects such as chests and barrels. There are lots of goodies hidden throughout the environments, many of which might be hidden behind secret doors or otherwise off the beaten path.

As simple as it may look I’m still a big fan of 9th Dawn‘s graphics. The slightly better than 16-bit sprites look great. I was also amazed by just how much of a world there is to explore. The tiny slice of land players will spend their early moments is only a sliver of the rest of the continent, and every single area of the map could potentially hide caves, dungeons, or other little nooks worth checking out. Of course none of that would be very interesting without the promise of loot, but there’s plenty of that to go around as well. I recently acquired a pair of gauntlets that boosted my character’s defense and attack power that I’m still fairly excited about.

While 9th Dawn does an admirable job of realizing its own ambitions, it isn’t without a few problems. The story is, for the most part, a complete throwaway. And while many of the character interactions can be charming, all dialog is presented in massive text boxes that fill the entire screen and disrupt the presentation. I also had trouble figuring out where I was supposed to go on several occasions due to vague directions and some features (such as cave entrances) blending in with the environment. The hints for each quest make this problem less painful, thankfully.

I was somewhat skeptical going in to 9th Dawn at first. It didn’t take long for my mindset to change. Now I can’t stop thinking about the little pixely world sitting inside my phone and the treasures hidden within it. Just waiting for me to find them.

9th Dawn

Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Buy Now: $2.99
Released: 2013-06-06 :: Category: Games

Solstice Arena Review

By Rob Rich on June 14th, 2013
Our Rating: :: BRB, LOL
Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad

Solstice Arena is a very solid attempt at a mobile MOBA, but actually playing against other people can be a chore.

League of Legends may not have invented the MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) genre, but it certainly had a hand in popularizing it. It’s actually become so popular that there have been more than a few attempts at recreating such an experience on iOS. And I have to admit that while Solstice Arena has a few snags, it’s probably the best mobile iteration I’ve played yet.

The basic gist of a MOBA is that two teams of players beef over turf until one has wiped out the others’ base. What makes things a little different than every other team-based multiplayer game out there is that the characters feel more like MMORPG classes than anything; each with specific skills that are meant to pair well with other characters’ and each with their own role to play. In Solstice Arena, players must take down the other team’s towers in order to weaken defenses, while simultaneously battling other player characters who are trying to do the same to them. There’s no major penalty for death except for waiting to respawn, although it’s a good opportunity to spend gold on better gear for the match.

I never went near League of Legend. Not because I had anything against it but because I’d lost several friends to its clutches already and didn’t want to fall victim myself. After playing Solstice Arena, which is essentially the mobile “lite” version, I’d say it was a good call. Even this slightly simplified take on MOBA has been incredibly difficult for me to put down. Especially after finding the character that suits my playstyle best (FYI: it’s Hamhock). Each character can be developed independently and their skills customized with various tweaks as they level up, which is great. The skills are also nicely balanced and can make a big difference in a match when used properly. And therein lies the rub.

It could be due to Solstice Arena’s relative infancy, but regardless I found myself having more fun playing solo/co-op against bots than I did in 3-on-3 matches. It’s possible that I just had a string of bad luck but virtually all of my bouts against other human beings degenerated into a game of “stare angrily at each other across No Man’s Land and see who blinks first.” In other words, no one ventured too far away from home, which resulted in very little action and a whole lot of frustration. Especially when my own team was doing the same thing.

Solstice Arena has shown me the MOBA light. It’s just a shame that the majority of the current player base is so timid. With a little time it’ll definitely be a worthwhile multiplayer experience but it’s still a lot of fun solo or in co-op.

Solstice Arena

Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Buy Now: FREE
Released: 2013-06-12 :: Category: Games

Shelter Review

By Campbell Bird on June 14th, 2013
Our Rating: :: SHUFFLING DEAD
iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad

Survive the zombie apocalypse in this story-driven collectible card game.

Shelter is a single-player, story-driven card game that asks players to survive the zombie apocalypse. With a great comic book style presentation and solid card game mechanics, Shelter is a great experience despite a few notable flaws.

The very beginning of Shelter‘s story mode sets up a fairly unsurprising, but effective, zombie narrative. The main character is trying to find someone and must make whatever necessary stops to resupply or defend himself as necessary. The very beginning missions are all meant to teach players how to play the game, but then things quickly splinter off to allow players to complete side missions for extra gear or survivors.

Upon undertaking a mission, players see the game board, complete with a display of action points and menus to look at both their hand as well as that of their opponents. To play the game, players should imagine they have taken “shelter” within some sort of building, as zombies must break through structures like wooden doors to begin attacking the player character.

While the zombies try to break through these barricades, players can spend action points (AP) to play cards from their hand or use items already played on the game board. These items are usually guns, but players can play all sorts of other cards directly from their hand like short-range weapons, fortifications, power-ups, or even cards that change things like the amount of AP available per round. The objective of each encounter is to kill all the attacking zombies, while also fortifying defenses as necessary to prevent zombies from breaking through and doing 50 points of damage to the player character.

This task seems simple enough in the beginning of the game, but Shelter quickly ramps up its difficulty such that players have to make tough strategic decisions about when to play which card to ensure survival. Players find themselves gaining new cards and gear as they progress through the game, which then have to be selected through a deck customization menu before each mission.

The card gameplay and comic book aesthetic makes progressing through the game feel like playing Magic: The Gathering through an issue of The Walking Dead. Unfortunately though, this mashup would be much more compelling if there weren’t problems like a progress-halting bug and slow-ish game progression.

To explain, Shelter broke on me a few times by apparently thinking that I had two fingers on screen when I did not. This resulted in every in game action being read as a “pinch-to-zoom” maneuver, and the game did not fix itself until I forced a restart. Perhaps the game felt slower than normal because of this bug, but regardless, consider this a fair warning.

That being said, Shelter still offers enough as a game concept with solid core mechanics that I would easily recommend it as a satisfying turn-based zombie card game experience.

Shelter

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Buy Now: $1.99
Released: 2013-05-31 :: Category: Games

FocusTwist Review

By Angela LaFollette on June 14th, 2013
Our Rating: :: TWIST AND SHOUT
iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad

FocusTwist re-focuses images after users take them and is a cheaper alternative to the expensive Lytro camera.

Photography can be an expensive hobby, which is why iPhoneography has become so popular. With just an iPhone and an arsenal of apps, many photography enthusiasts are able to capture breathtaking images.

Many apps offer the same features like filters, adjustments and frames. A new app takes a step away from tradition and has brought something new to the table.

FocusTwist is a replacement for the expensive $400 Lytro light field camera. It allows users to focus on photos after they are taken by capturing several pictures automatically, each with different focus points.

The interface is quite basic. Once it is started, users can begin capturing images, browse a library of photos already taken or look at pictures that others have taken with the app.

When it’s time to take a photo, it’s essential to follow the app’s directions carefully. The iPhone must remain still at all times, so users must either place it on a tripod or rely on their steady hands. The object in the foreground should be placed around 3 to 4 inches away from the iPhone and the object in the background needs to be more than five feet away for the best results.

The app takes several photos in a matter of seconds. Different parts of the image can then be focused to create unique images. The pictures can then be saved and shared with friends.

While FocusTwist is a refreshing break from the traditional photography apps, it can be a little frustrating at times. If users don’t hold the iPhone perfectly steady or don’t place objects at the right distance, the re-focused photos won’t be of the best quality.

FocusTwist does work as long as users have a little patience. Those who consider themselves iPhoneographers should add this app to their photo collection, but it shouldn’t be a replacement for the native Camera app.

FocusTwist

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Buy Now: $1.99
Released: 2013-04-21 :: Category: Photography

Pet Rescue Saga Review

By Jennifer Allen on June 14th, 2013
Our Rating: :: PREDICTABLE YET FUN
iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad

Far from an unique title, Pet Rescue Saga is still a quite fun, if in-app purchase heavy, Match Three-style puzzle game.

So, I think we’ve all figured out that Candy Crush Saga has been quite the hit for casual gamers, both on iOS and Facebook. In the UK, there has even been TV adverts, something unheard of for any other free to play game. Since its release late last year, King.com has clearly been hard at work on Pet Rescue Saga, a title that’s fun but highly similar to its treat-based predecessor.

This time round, players must clear colored blocks in order to drop pets to the bottom of the screen and save them from the evil Snatchers. That’s about as in-depth as Pet Rescue Saga gets. Really, all that needs to be known is to complete certain objectives and gain stars in order to progress to the next level. Things start out simply with plenty of room for error. In keeping with Candy Crush Saga‘s style, extra blocks aren’t added, meaning players must plan each move carefully. The margin for error reduces steadily as players progress through the 72 levels.

That number of levels is an immediate problem for regular players of the Facebook game, as it’s significantly fewer than the social network version offers. Presumably, new levels are on their way in the near future. Restrictions aside, and Pet Rescue Saga is pleasantly fun to play. Objectives include things such as clearing a certain percentage of blocks to saving a set number of pets. It’s simple stuff, but it’s not always straight-forward to complete.

Failing a level is one of the many places where in-app purchases play a prominent role. One loses a life and has to wait a set time in order to regain a turn. Of course, it’s possible to skip ahead with an in-app purchase, much the same as numerous helpful power-ups can be bought with real money, too. I found it a little frustrating after a time, as I was quite enjoying working my way through the game. There is always the potential that those who don’t fail can, potentially, play for hours, though.

It’s far from an original game, but Pet Rescue Saga still whiles away time quite nicely. Once the full complement of levels are added, it’ll be a particularly successful hit for those who have already played it on Facebook. Sure, the borderline reliance on in-app purchases is a little frustrating, but it’s tough not to be at least a little charmed by this title.

Pet Rescue Saga

Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Buy Now: FREE
Released: 2013-06-12 :: Category: Games

In the Deep Review

By Lee Hamlet on June 14th, 2013
Our Rating: :: BURST YOUR BUBBLE
iPad Only App - Designed for the iPad

In The Deep will submerse players into a soothing experience of bubble-popping joy, until each round inevitably ends in a frustrated kerfuffle.

In the Deep is a game that takes players into the deepest depths of the ocean, minus all of the crushing pressure, deep sea uglies and nasty drowning parts and focuses more on the lovely bubbles instead.

While descending, players have to tap the blue bubbles to add to their oxygen supply. Combos can be achieved by swiping between blue bubbles, which–when combined with star-filled bubbles–will set off chain reactions and multipliers and culminate in a euphoric bonus points bonanza. Tapping red bubbles before they have turned into blue ones, however, will result in a loss of oxygen, so players should avoid them like they would some kind of crazy deoxygenated red bubbles in real-life.

The real star of the show here is the music. Soundscapes, whale sounds, popping bubbles and various chimes all contribute to the ambient, relaxing atmosphere. The visuals are pleasant, and everyone loves popping bubbles, but the sense of depth isn’t quite there. There is no real visual difference between ‘Depth 100′ and ‘Depth 700′, besides the on-screen indications. Despite this, In The Deep is visually and sonically hypnotising in its minimalism.

The deeper you go, however, the more chaotic the experience becomes, which really contradicts the ‘relaxing’ vibe the developers are trying to create. Tapping rapidly and getting annoyed after repeatedly hitting red bubbles made me want to punch a whale rather than listen to its soothing communicative sounds. The concept of a ‘relaxing game’ has always seemed flawed to me anyway, because at some point the difficulty and pace of play must increase, which will then lead to a more intense experience, defying the original point.

This doesn’t mean that In the Deep is a bad game (far from it), but it’s quite a jarring experience when one minute I’m nonchalantly popping bubbles whilst listening to the sounds of the deep sea, and the next minute I’m sat bolt upright as I try to stay alive and avoid those damn red bubbles. Still, it didn’t stop me playing it again and again, and it probably won’t deter other players either. Just don’t expect to be put into a state of zen, because that just ain’t happenin’.

In the Deep

Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Buy Now: $0.99
Released: 2013-06-12 :: Category: Games

PicsPlay Pro Review

By Jennifer Allen on June 13th, 2013
Our Rating: :: VARIED PHOTO EDITING
Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad

PicsPlay Pro is a highly flexible photo editing and effects app.

It’s not quite the “one size fits all” of photo editing apps, but PicsPlay Pro is quite close to it.

The app offers a multitude of different ways of adjusting a photo. It’s possible to take an image from within the app as well as import it, through a fairly simple to use interface. It’s then just down to the user to interact however they wish. PicsPlay Pro offers plenty of clear buttons and menu options, ensuring it’s never fiddly to figure out what can be done.

Logically working from left to right, the options start out with cropping and rotation, before moving onto more sweeping changes such as adding special effects, filters and even stamps and text. In each case, a clear to see Undo button ensures it’s always possible to take a step back, no matter how many steps have been completed. There’s also a button that can be held to demonstrate how the photo looked originally, proving convenient for those seeking more subtle changes to their imagery.

In all, there are 200 effects available to apply, each relating to a different category such as Vintage, HDR and Black & White. Conveniently, it’s possible to see a brief preview of each effect before applying, saving the user some valuable time. Further effects can be applied, too, such as a color splash look and tilt shifting. More editing based features such as adjusting the exposure, white balance and sharpness of the photo are all here too, each proving simple and effective to use.

That’s the big advantage to PicsPlay Pro: it’s consistently straight-forward to use, making great results quite simple to implement. I particularly appreciated the Histogram feature for a quick automatic fix when in a hurry to change a photo around. While I don’t tend to apply stamps or text to my image, it’s handy to have them bundled in if I ever choose to at a later date.

Finishing things off with plenty of sharing features, including Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr and Flickr, PicsPlay Pro is a great all-rounder. A layering feature would have been nice or the ability to save a process but, otherwise, I was quite impressed with PicsPlay Pro.

PicsPlay Pro

Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Buy Now: $3.99
Released: 2012-11-15 :: Category: Photography

Hiversaires Review

By Jennifer Allen on June 13th, 2013
Our Rating: :: EERIE MINIMALISM
Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad

Eerie and quite lonely, Hiversaires is an intriguingly minimalist adventure game, but it won’t appeal to everyone.

Hiversaires is a quite mysterious game. Dropping players straight into the deep end with no sign of a menu or introductory sequence is a bold step with a format not so keen to be welcoming to all. For that reason, it won’t be for everyone. Hiversaires relies on those with an adventurous spirit to be intrigued enough to keep exploring.

That world waiting to be explored might not be the biggest, but it’s certainly full of mystery. It’s not clear where to go or what to do, with players being left to simply wander by stepping forward or moving to the left or right. Interaction with objects involves a simple tap, although such simplicity can still offer up plenty of potential. Its minimalist approach is backed up by similarly simple graphics, sticking with a black and white look that offers up plenty of eerie shadows.

Navigating such a place is still interesting though. Although, I’d strongly recommend drawing up a map to keep track of what’s where. In keeping with the minimalist appearance of the game, there’s no sign of a feature like that within the game. Notably, it’s worth tracking where different objects and symbols reside, as they play quite the role. There’s a lot of symbol based gameplay within, with players frequently having to figure out why something might change once tapped and how this helps them in some way. Again, there’s no guidance here. It’s not so much that the puzzles are tricky, just that it’s all too easy to try to overcomplicate matters. Expect to sigh at oneself often, when it becomes apparent that the solution was right in front of one’s nose.

Hiversaires really isn’t going to be for everyone. It reminded me of how relatively lazy I am these days, used to games holding my hand for far too long. This title harks back to the old days where it was common to be thrown into the deep end with little help and no sign of a hints button. However, for those who have been gaming for quite a while, it’s enjoyable going back to days gone by. Hiversaires might not be the longest of games, but it’s certainly like little else currently out there.

Hiversaires

Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Buy Now: $2.99
Released: 2013-04-20 :: Category: Games

Color Zen Review

By Angela LaFollette on June 13th, 2013
Our Rating: :: GORGEOUS
Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad

Color Zen is a puzzler that’s not like the rest thanks to its intuitive controls and relaxing gameplay. Instead of flying through levels, gamers will want to savor the experience.

I am a sucker for puzzle games, especially ones that are relaxing and fulfilling. When I stumbled across Color Zen, I knew that this game wasn’t going to leave my home screen anytime soon.

Color Zen is a puzzle game that’s not like all the rest. Players are encouraged to sit back and relax as they work their way through the abstract universe of various colors and shapes. The game doesn’t have scores and there aren’t any penalties for wrong solutions. In fact, there is only a simple set of rules to follow.

The interface is rather intuitive. The main objective of Color Zen is to match objects of the same color to fill the screen. In order to clear a level, players must clear out all the shapes and fill the screen with the border color at the end. Players who fail will have to restart the level, but it never feels discouraging.

The various colorful shapes are dragged and flicked across the screen with simple finger movements. Not all objects can move though, and there are obstacles that will block passageways. Additionally, Color Zen includes fun surprise colors like white—which pairs with any color.

Color Zen may sound simple at first, but the levels become increasingly more difficult. I found that the harder levels required a bit of strategic thinking, but nothing that gets frustratingly hard.

What’s great about Color Zen is that it’s a relaxing puzzler. Gamers can plug in their headphones to listen to the ambient track while mindlessly completing each of the 120 levels that are packed into six chapters.

The downfall is that the game isn’t for everyone. Hardcore players may not enjoy how calm the game feels, and it may be disappointing that there’s no competitiveness involved. Additionally, those who really enjoy it will find themselves flying through levels at a fast pace. Hopefully additional levels and game modes are added in an update.

Overall, Color Zen is a beautiful puzzler that’s easily recommendable to players of all ages and types. It’s a refreshing break from the typical puzzlers that flood the App Store, and it definitely has an addicting element that makes it hard to put down. For less than one dollar, it’s well worth considering.

Color Zen

Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Buy Now: $0.99
Released: 2013-06-06 :: Category: Games

DWD Review

By Rob Rich on June 13th, 2013
Our Rating: :: DRAB WIZARD DEFENSE
Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad

DWD is a gorgeous game with a disappointing lack of genuine entertainment.

As I know I’ve stated repeatedly I always love it when I assume a game will be “okay,” but it turns out to be awesome. Such is also the case here. At least the assuming part. Unfortunately they can’t all be fun surprises, and DWD never manages to amount to much more than an admittedly pretty but rather awkward middle of the road first-person defense game.

Players assume the role of a recently deceased wizard by the name of David William Dagenhart (get it?) as they attempt to fight back against an invasion from the Dark Servant’s army. With each successful defense of a magical artifact they’ll unlock new powers to help them face off against more and more powerful hordes. After a couple of introductory levels they’ll soon be unleashing the fury of the elements with area effect attacks, defensive barriers, and more. Of course the Dark Servant’s forces aren’t about to sit idly by and get vaporized. Each new level introduces another monster into the mix; some of which use different tactics or have elemental resistances. At least it seems that way although nothing ever specifically states this.

It’s pretty obvious that DWD is a great-looking game but there’s also a decent amount of variety to the enemies, although their animations can be a bit awkward. I was also impressed with the variety of spells to acquire and their various strategic uses. It’s also possible to activate temporary abilities and bonuses by blowing open barrels and chests scattered throughout each level, although sometimes there won’t be enough time for that as skeletons and gargoyles and such close in from all sides.

While DWD is impressive looking, it’s not quite as impressive to play. Dagenhart stays rooted to the spot for the most part, although he can sometimes warp to specific areas throughout a stage at specific times. So players pretty much just sit tight and keep an eye out for any nasties headed their way, which involves a ridiculous amount of spinning around over and over again. Sixth Sense helps by activating temporary wizard radar of a sort, but its use and range are fairly limited. Aiming also doesn’t feel quite right as lining up a shot can be difficult in a pinch and it’s possible to miss by inches. Then of course there’s the issue of running out of mana while frantically casting as many spells as possible, which leaves the zombie wizard open to attack with no hope of retaliation for a few precious seconds.

I do think DWD has some cool ideas, and it’s definitely pretty, but it’s more than a little awkward to play. And it’s just not that much fun, honestly. It’s hard to care about stopping the Dark Servant’s armies when it feels like such a chore.

DWD

Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Buy Now: $2.99
Released: 2013-06-11 :: Category: Games

Avengers Alliance Review

By Rob Rich on June 13th, 2013
Our Rating: :: BE PATIENT
Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad

One of Facebook’s most popular superhero games comes to iOS, albeit with a couple of nagging issues.

For several months now I’ve been seeing little Facebook updates about friends and their Avengers Alliance progress. I had about gotten to the point where I was going to see what all the fuss was about when I found out it was coming to iOS, so naturally I decided to check out the more portable version instead.

The Earth is in danger (again) from some sort of enigmatic presence. Also super villains. As a new S.H.I.E.L.D. recruit, players must team up with a host of notable Marvel heroes as they try to thwart nefarious plots and figure out just what in the heck is going on. The majority of these missions involve turn-based battles with various baddies, but it’s also possible to send characters off on side missions (over a set period of real time, of course) for extra cash and experience. Players can also train their heroes when they’ve acquired enough experience in order to access new abilities that can make a huge difference in a fight.

Avengers Alliance uses a fairly simplistic 2D animation style, but the illustrations are detailed enough and the movements varied enough for it to work really well. There’s also a surprising amount of complexity to the underlying RPG mechanics with an assortment of fighting styles (Blaster, Infiltrator, Generalist, etc) that are weak/strong against each other, as well as a bunch of attack and support abilities to make use of. Being able to send heroes off on missions for several minutes to 24 hours is also a fantastic way to make use of time spent away from the game.

I ran into a fairly major issue with Avengers Alliance pretty early on, though. Specifically, because there’s so much importance placed on allies (i.e. friends), I hit a wall. I needed to complete a specific quest that required a new aircraft and flight crew–for sending heroes out on side missions–but the only way I could acquire a crew was to either pay a gold to fill each slot or recruit friends. Problem is, I had used up most of my gold already, and I’d just started so had no friends to recruit yet. So my only choice was to wait and hope someone would accept my invitations. I got through it, but it was a pretty severe stumbling block. I also find the lack of cross-platform integration (no Facebook-to-iOS play here) to be a huge omission.

I did enjoy my time with Avengers Alliance, but it required a bit more patience than most freemium titles I’m used to because of all the down time. However, it’s still an entertaining game about recruiting a bunch of superheroes and fighting lots of supervillains, and who doesn’t enjoy stuff like that?

Avengers Alliance

Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Buy Now: FREE
Released: 2013-06-12 :: Category: Games

Bucketz Ride HD Review

By Jennifer Allen on June 13th, 2013
Our Rating: :: DUNKING GOODNESS
iPad Only App - Designed for the iPad

Throwing rocks into moving buckets with faces has never been quite so much fun, no matter how weird it may sound!

It takes a few minutes for Bucketz Ride HD to really click. It’s immediately quite fun, but I wasn’t overly convinced whether I’d continue to find it fun after extended sessions. Of course, I was mistaken. Bucketz Ride HD only seems to get better after repeated plays, and I found myself seeking better high scores frequently throughout my sessions with it.

The idea is much like the original game, albeit with a focus on competitive play against others around the world. The bottom of the screen contains a series of colorful buckets, each of varying sizes, with a plethora of meteorites and other objects flurrying down the screen. In order to score points, players must dunk these objects into the buckets, ensuring that balance is constantly maintained. If one bucket ends up too full and tips the balance, it’s game over as the buckets fall off the screen. Oh, and did I mention that the screen goes upwards of its own accord, so sometimes these rocks can fall into a bucket by themselves?

It’s such a simple idea but one that’s surprisingly fun. The objects might slowly appear at first, but things turn frantic as one nears better high scores. The challenge is mixed up further with the various positive and negative bonuses that appear. A tap of a flying clock might slow the action down, but mistap and hit a grenade and the screen is covered in dark smoke, making it tricky to see what’s going on. Umbrellas, balloons and karma signs all go some way to helping matters, too.

It’s a great combination, remaining alluring throughout. There are in-app purchases available, in the guise of coins that can be used to buy upgrades, but these are still quite accessible to those who want to earn coins the old-fashioned way. Challenges help matters here, encouraging players to pursue certain goals, and rewarding them with extra coins. It’ll just take a little longer than succumbing to using real money. Such upgrades further enhance the game, giving players the sense of progression as they battle it out to beat friends and random competitors to the highest score.

All in all, Bucketz Ride HD is a really entertaining title. It’s ideal for any age range, given its cute and deceptively simple nature and is the kind of title I can see sticking around on my iPad for a while to come. After all, who can resist chasing their friends’ high scores?

Bucketz Ride HD

iPad Only App - Designed for the iPad
Buy Now: FREE
Released: 2013-06-12 :: Category: Games

Thesaurus Rex Review

By Ruairi O'Gallchoir on June 13th, 2013
Our Rating: :: OTHER WORDLY
Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad

Without a doubt the best thesaurus app available, combining offline access with an incredibly comprehensive feature-set.

As a writer, I rely on words to make a living. So suffice to say that when a new app is released from the crowd that developed my dictionary app of choice (the aptly named Dictionary.com) I jumped at the chance to review it.

A synonym of a word is basically other words that share the same meaning – and these alternative words are exactly what Thesaurus Rex is here to help users discover.

As far as apps that deal specifically with synonyms go, Thesaurus Rex is perfect. The user has to simply enter the word that they want alternatives for and a list of them will immediately be presented to them. Rather geniusly, the list of synonyms is actually ranked on how similar it is to the word that the user inputted. This is an incredibly handy feature and definitely will make the user more confident in using the app for high-profile assignments.

I was also impressed with how the app prompted the user to select which meaning of the word they inputted in the case it had several. Take “run” for example. I could either mean “to be fast moving or foot” or to “operate, drive.” Thesaurus Rex leaves nothing up to chance in ensuring that the user selects the right word, and this level of detail really does shine through.

The interface of the app isn’t exactly appealing, adapting a stale and ugly orange, black and grey color scheme. I also had a small bit of trouble trying to navigate the app when I first opened it, with the brief video tutorial offered on the main screen not being of much assistance.

Although it won’t appeal to everyone, Thesaurus Rex also allows users to read up on the origins and histories of whatever word they looked up. Some will see this as fascinating, whereas others will see it as mundane. Thesaurus Rex also supports offline access, which is an incredibly useful feature to have in any reference app.

Although lacking in the user interface and usability department, Thesaurus Rex manages to pull through thanks to the incredible features offered accompanied by very convenient offline support. 

Thesaurus Rex by Dictionary.com

Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Buy Now: $2.99
Released: 2013-03-11 :: Category: Reference

Rando Review

By Carter Dotson on June 12th, 2013
Our Rating: :: SUBSTANTIALLY INSUBSTANTIAL
iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad

Rando is an app for photo sharing, without being social. It’s strange, it’s different, and it’s wonderful.

“You have no friends.”

This is a tagline for Rando, a photo-sharing app from ustwo. Initially the statement seems hostile, but it reveals the philosophy behind this app: it’s anti-social. It’s not about status or appearance, like Instagram, the service that this app stands in marked contrast to. It’s all about sharing photos to someone, or no one in particular.

See, how Rando works is that it lets users take a circular photo, and then launch it into the universe. It’s saved to the camera roll, but there’s no way to share that photo to any social networks from within the app itself. Later on, a push notification may be received that will say that someone in a certain spot will have received one of the user’s Randos, but that’s it. This is about sharing to just one person. One random person out there in the universe. They might like the photo, they might not, the photographer won’t know at all.

The fun of the app comes with just taking photos on a whim, sometimes without any context whatsoever, and sending them out to someone. What’s cool is that the wide-scale location of the person who gets the photo can be seen, so it’s at least possible to get an idea of where a photo is going.

But really, the best part of the app is receiving photos. Generally, a new photo comes in for each photo sent out. Cat photos, people walking in front of a Starbucks, a painted fingernail…all tagged with wide-scale location data. These are all random photos that someone just decided to share with the world for no discernible reason, and with no reward for doing so. I’ve gotten photos from Korea, Russia, and Canada. There’s just something compelling about how…unimportant and inessential it all is. It’s all about getting back exactly what one puts in to Rando.

Compare this all to Instagram, which is an inherently self-focused network. That’s all about modifying photos to make them perfect and popular, to the point of stripping any reality out of them. In contrast, Rando photos can only be modified by setting the focus. There’s no way to import photos. There’s no contest for getting so many likes by posting food photos, it’s just about sharing a photo with a stranger. One stranger.

Pretty much the only bad thing I have to say is that the account registration is completely unintuitive – something like Twitter or Facebook authentication would help out greatly! Given that the rest of the app is so clean and unobtrusive, it stands in marked contrast to the rest of the app, and makes using Rando for the first time a real issue.

Really, for a lot of people, Rando will just seem bewildering. The lack of any point whatsoever will make it seem not worth using. But if it clicks, its brilliance shines through.

Rando

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Buy Now: FREE
Released: 2013-02-21 :: Category: Photography