SoundHound is one of those apps that you aren’t going to use everyday, well most people won’t. If you are familiar with Shazam, it’s a similar application — one that lets you use the microphone in your iPhone to recognize music that’s playing. SoundHound takes that concept further though, recognizing not only recorded music, but also humming and singing into the mic. Rather uncanny how well it works really.

Here’s a video overview of SoundHound from the developers:

The use of the app is pretty simple — touch the large “What’s That Sound?” button and play music, sing, or hum into the microphone for a few seconds. Once the recording is done, it takes just a few seconds for the sound to be recognized. From there you are given a list of possible songs. Each of the songs you can get more info about and many you will be able to play clips from.

In this latest iteration, SoundHound easily beats out Shazam. For one, it’s much faster than Shazam in song recognition. Also included in this update are some interesting statistics. You can view what other people are searching for and see what’s popular. SoundHound is highly recommended if you are looking for a music recognition app, though if you already have that other one, I’m not sure that SoundHound offers enough for the casual user to justify buying it.

This past week, I’ve spent a lot of time with Across Age, a fairly crisp action RPG from FDG Entertainment. I really wanted to beat the game before reviewing, but with an entire week invested so far, and no end in sight as of yet, I think I’ve spent enough time with Across Age to give it a fair review.

I’ve been a very anti-action RPG person for quite some time, at least when it comes to iDevices. I played many of the other action RPGs on the market, and found the control scheme really made it difficult for me to play. I don’t have small hands, and as a lifetime gamer, I get frustrated when I play games that just feel flimsy. I usually get tired of playing without giving the game a chance, and never really fully enjoy what a game has to offer.

I decided to review Across Age because I knew it would force me to really get the hang of the Action RPG control scheme that is used fairly common in the genre, and I am happy to say that I have the control scheme down pat. I am extremely glad with the game choice I made to learn on.

Across Age’s story line brings a lot to the table. For the sake of giving as few spoilers as possible, I’ll just include that the game involves a certain level of time travel, and the game mechanics behind making this work are done the correct way. It follows less of a Chrono Trigger time travel mechanic, and much more of A Link to the Past time travel mechanic. In fact, those who have a familiarity with the pre-next gen and/or handheld Zelda games will find quite a bit to like about this game. Puzzles oftentimes require the ability to time travel, which adds a lot of depth to the game.

Certain parts of the game seem a little sloppy at first. For instance, to attack with a melee weapon, the character must only run up against the mob to get the kill. It didn’t take long for me to realize that such a simple methodology can become extremely complicated. Different sword techniques, and two character system that allows switching back and forth between sword user and magic user, and a complex set of puzzles that require using both party members together and separately, add a level of depth to the game that made me wanting more.

The most difficult area I experienced is with upgrades. More and more games become linear anymore, so having a game based in one city that continuously branches out to different quests is rare. With that in mind, I failed to upgrade my equipment after the first set of quests, and paid dearly for it. I had to farm for the gold to upgrade my gear to even have a fighting chance. That level of difficulty is something I really appreciate.

The developers advertise a 15 to 20 hour game, and I imagine that’s without having to repeat levels, getting lost in puzzles, and getting stuck for long periods of time on that one part that completely stumps you. I’m 10 hours into the game, and I can’t imagine I am anywhere close to beating the game, given the amount of stuff I know I still have to do. I’m hoping to eventually beat the game, but for the sake of time I had to put it down and move on. I very much plan to return to the game and beat it, probably sooner then I really have time for.

I’m excited about this opening up the Action RPG genre for me, and look forward to playing some of the greatly respected titles in the genre. For a title that seemingly crept under the radar in my world, this title really has a lot of great qualities about it. I hope all of the fans of this genre get a chance to check it out. It’s a bit on the pricey side at $5.99 but I can tell you it’s well worth the investment. Available now at the App Store.

Apple’s Genius feature is great in theory, but less than awesome in practice. Sometimes you don’t want a playlist based off of a certain track, but rather one based on a general mood; it also seems to focus too much on genre. At any rate, Genius gives you scant control over the playlists it generates. Moodagent is a free alternative. As the app name suggests, it generates a playlist from your library based on five different attributes: Sensual, Tender, Joy, Aggressive, and Tempo. It isn’t perfect either, but it’s a great way to dig deeper into your library and often turns up some solid playlists.

The first thing you’ll want to do is profile your music—in layman’s term, make sure that Moodagent has enough data to use them. When you start up the app, Moodagent will automatically load data for your tracks if they already exist in its database. Unless you have extremely mainstream music, however, you’ll likely have a chunk of “unprofiled” songs. For me, about a third of my songs were unprofiled. Moodagent provides a simple desktop application (for Mac and PC, though both are in beta) that will create profiles for your songs, and it works easily, quickly, and well. After running that, I only had 9 unprofiled songs on my iPod. Not bad!

Now for the real deal. Moodagent’s main interface provides you with five sliders, which control corresponding attributes: Sensual, Tender, Joy, Aggressive, and Tempo. Adjusting the sliders will automatically change the playlist, which appears on the bottom half of the screen. It’s all instant, which is great; almost no time is spent analyzing! Tweaking the sliders allows you to set the music to your mood. So, for example, if you’re looking for upbeat music, dialing up the Tempo and Joy sliders with maybe a dash of Aggressive is the way to go.

The correlation between the different attributes isn’t always obvious, however. What exactly is “Tender”? “Joy” can sometimes trigger sad songs, and even “Tempo” doesn’t always give you faster songs. Still, I was mostly pleased with the combinations of music it produced. Even if it didn’t always match my intentions, a few tries were all it took to generate some good playlists. Most of the time? The app worked as advertised, and the playlists matched pretty well with the sliders. You can save and name playlists that you like for later playback.

The other drawbacks are mostly minor. First is that song lists are limited to 25 songs; a 50 or 75 song option would be nice. Also, when you delete tracks from the list, Moodagent doesn’t add more to fill the space. Other than that? Everything works.

The app might not always be reliable, but Moodagent will still provide you with a solid mix of music. For a free app, it’s phenomenal, and the idea of creating playlists based on mood rather than by more generic attributes (i.e., genre) allows you to really create a playlist for the moment. In short? If you’re looking to mix up your listening experience, go grab Moodagent now. Genius pales in comparison.

There once was a time I owned a Blackberry. If there was one feature it performed flawlessly, time and again, it was the “push” email feature. When I switched to the iPhone, I was dismayed when I learned it did not support/possess “true” “push” capabilities. I naively assumed that a phone which can pretty much do everything my laptop (not to mention my old Blackberry) does (and better) would offer me “push” email capabilities through my Gmail account.

I rely heavily on my phone’s ability to quickly/efficiently manage my email. The iPhone’s “Fetch New Data/Push” features do “push” data to my phone, but lack the instant notification features I need daily. It checks for email at specific intervals (15 minutes, 30 minutes, hourly and manually), but it’s not “instant,” and provides no visual alerts/notifications.

Conversely, true “push” clients/services, such as instant messaging programs, maintain a constant connection between the client/service and their server, forwarding a “push” notification to users as content becomes available. Google does provide iPhone Gmail users “push” services by using Google Sync to link an MS Exchange account with Gmail, but this service lacks visual alerts/notifications and other features offered by paid “push” apps (such as “Quiet Hours” settings). This is where Push for Gmail (formally Gmail Push) comes in.

Push for Gmail provides “true” push notifications to its users, accompanied with visual alerts that show users a preview of the email (sender, subject and message preview). Additionally, users can view new emails with the in-app Gmail mobile browser or with the iPhone’s native mail app. When receiving a notification, a prompt message appears on the iPhone’s screen, providing users with the choice to Cancel or View the email:

Pressing “Close” simply removes the alert/notification from your screen. Tapping “View” opens Push for Gmail but, instead of opening/bringing you to the email, it brings you to the application’s main screen.

Among Push for Gmail’s features:

• Instant and reliable Gmail push notification with sound, text and badge(s),
• Support for Gmail and Google Apps account(s),
• Full-screen and landscape mode viewing,
• The ability to set “quiet hours” to disable notifications as you need,
• Customizable notification text displays with 28 different notification sounds,
• Forwarding capabilities,
• Auto logging into Gmail mobile browser,
• Options to open new mail with Push for Gmail’s in-app mobile browser or native mail app,
• In-app browser with tab support to allow users to read email and browse web pages at the same time,
• Advanced privacy settings (users can turn off sender, subject, mail preview in notification text),
• SSL-enabled security, and
• Offline access capability.

There are a number of Gmail applications in the app store. A search of “Gmail” yielded approximately 61 results. Narrowed down, approximately 6 of these are “push” email apps or offer Gmail “push” functionality. When reading customer reviews for the afore-mentioned paid “push” apps, “Push for Gmail” had consistently favorable reviews (approximately 64 of 77).

Setting up your Gmail account using Push for Gmail is simple. Launching the application brings you to the “Settings” screen. Simply enter your account and password and press the “Activate” button. The program then “validates” your account and allows you to set your configurations, e.g. Ringtone, Customization Notification options (Badge, Sender, Mail Subject and Mail Preview), Forwarding Mode, Pass Code Lock, etc.:

Push for Gmail features an option which allows users to set “Quiet Hours,” i.e. the days and times they want Push for Gmail to remain silent without “pushing” notifications, so they can use their iPhone at night, while sleeping, etc., without being bothered/awakened by push notifications. This feature is only available in Push for Gmail, but should be standard in every app featuring push notification capabilities. Users can configure “Quiet Hours” on multiple days, at multiple times:

In addition, from the main screen (top), users can compose a new email, search emails, refresh email and access their folders/labels. The bottom of the screen contains a “sign-out” option and a link to Google Mobile Help:

As far as functionality, Push for Gmail allows users to perform those functions available using Gmail in their mobile browser, such as labeling, conversation threading, starring, etc. and automatically syncs with your desktop account.

Push for Gmail’s main screen is basically a browser devoted to Gmail and provides its users with those options found in its desktop counterpart, e.g. read, label, archive, mark as read/unread, etc. It also allows its users to access other Google features/programs, such as “Talk,” “Buzz,” “Calendar, etc. The font size, relative to the device’s display is adequate, but can present problems, making finger-gestures sometimes challenging (mentioned below):

Push for Gmail’s main screen toolbar (located at the bottom of the screen) displays 8 icons (from left to right): “Previous Page,” “Next Page,” “Home,” which returns users to their main mail menu screen from other screens, “Compose New Mail,” which, according to Push for Gmail’s developer, currently does not work correctly, opening the “Folders” page instead of new mail, a “Settings” icon, “Rotation Lock,” “Show Address Panel,” which pulls up an embedded, tab-enabled web browser (you can hold down on a link to open it on another tab) and a “Show/Hide Toolbar” icon, which toggles the appearance of these icons (show/hide):

Push for Gmail is not without flaws: The main screen toolbar icons are small (so as not to “impose” on the main screen’s real estate) and may take users multiple taps before the icon responds to their touch (and visa-versa). Moreover, the screen’s relatively small size can inhibit touch accuracy. While other users may find this frustrating, it is not a problem for me and the added bonus of being able to “hide” these icons is a nice feature. Push for Gmail currently only supports one Gmail account and because it offloads push- processing onto its servers, users must rely on Google/Gmail and Push for Gmail services/servers to remain uninterrupted/on-line.

Also, if you are reading your Gmail using Push for Gmail and you receive a push notification, the on-screen prompt (mentioned above) does not take you directly to the message; it takes you to the app’s main screen, instead. As for battery life/usage, because I spend so much time on my iPhone, I’ve not noticed a decrease while using the application. That’s not to say it doesn’t affect battery life; I’ve just not noticed.

I’ve used Push for Gmail shortly after its debut in the app store and, when compared to similar apps, find it is a superior alternative to its app store counterparts. It’s fast, reliable, works as advertised and I’ve never missed an email using the app. Push for Gmail is a quality third-party resolution which dutifully answers the failure to support “true” push email with visual notifications.

In all, at $1.99, Push for Gmail is a simple, straightforward, decently-priced (considering what you get), application providing “real-time” visual Gmail notifications. If you simply want “bare-bones” “push” Gmail without visual alerts/notifications, you can hit the jump to learn how to use Google Sync to get your Gmail pushed directly to your iPhone.

Regardless of your Gmail use frequency/intensity, I heartily recommend this app to Gmail users who want “push” email with visual alerts and the option to defer the service on days (and at times) they choose.

Push Gmail for iPhone

Instapaper has been around for a while, but it doesn’t show a speck of age. This sleek app allows you to download text from websites for on-the-go reading. Sound simple? Sure, but Instapaper reigns supreme when it comes to finesse, functionality, and elegance. Think of it like an RSS reader or document storage…but simpler, less rigid, and better suited to the iPhone.

The concept is a simple one. Bookmark a website from your computer or the iPhone’s browser using a special bookmark, and it’ll be added to your Instapaper account. From there, you can read it in the app. Instapaper removes superfluous ads and other assorted clutter, and displays it in a clean, easily readable interface. Once it’s downloaded to Instapaper, you can read your articles offline, anywhere you can take your iPhone. It’s extremely convenient, especially for longer articles and blog posts that might take a solid chunk of time to read.

The cornerstone of Instapaper is simplicity, but the app provides plenty of features and options. First, when it comes to reading articles, you can customize your display. Font choices include Helvetica, Georgia, and Verdana; you can shrink the font size; a night mode inverts the background (white-text-against-black-screen works better at night). To scroll through an article, you can flick the screen as you would normally in Safari, or use the other two options: tilt scrolling and pagination. Tilt scrolling works fluidly and simply: tap a button to enable the mode, and the text scrolls based on angle of your device. Pagination requires a single tap to advance a page, much as you’d expect from an eBook reader. I don’t really like pagination—you have to tap the bottom of the page, not the right, and there’s no real animation to show the transition—but all three options work just fine.

This version of Instapaper also includes a bevy of other features. You can organize your articles in folders, and even set up folders that automatically import articles from RSS feeds. For example, right now I have a 148apps.com folder that automatically downloads all new posts, as well as a few others like ArsTechnica and PoliticsDaily. You can share articles via Tumblr and Twitter, and look up word definitions without leaving the app. You can lock rotation in the settings menu. Instapaper even remembers where in an article you stopped reading…perfect for if you get interrupted during a super-long article!

What Instapaper does is simple on the surface, but doing it well is another thing entirely. Instapaper looks, feels, and acts like a native Apple app: it has the same level of polish and a well-designed user interface. And, more importantly, it’s incredibly useful…especially if you’re a WiFi-bound iPod Touch user or don’t have a data plan. Last year, I used the free version extensively for storing AP US History notes for quick studying between classes and on the bus; having the full version’s features makes it even better. For long blog posts and articles, it’s also a very nice touch; sitting down to read an enormous post might not fit with your browsing habits, but it’s easy to set it aside for later.

I really don’t have any complaints about Instapaper Pro. Well…I wish I could download images along with the text, but with the option to view the original file in Mobile Safari, it’s not as necessary as it might have been. Other than that small caveat? This is perfect. If you’re a literate internet user, you owe it to yourself to get this app. At the very least, give its free version a spin!

Instapaper Free

Category: Productivity
Released: 2008-07-11
Price: FREE

Moneybook is a home finance app that provides the user with tools that record income and expenses, and allows tracking and summary information to be analyzed without much work. I recorded a month worth of expenses in interacting with the app, and was surprised at how detailed the line items could become, and how easy it was to add said detail. Within 5 minutes of turning the app on, I had income already recorded and was working on recording expenses.

The entire philosophy of Moneybook is simplicity, as explained by the developers in the help section. The approach to this app is to buck the complicated financial recording systems that, while powerful, create user interfaces that are cluttered and complicated. Instead, Moneybook takes a minimalist approach, displaying information in easy to read forms and offering quickly read reports of spending habits.

One of the nicer attributes of Moneybook is its seamless operation. Rather then add four or five summary buttons, if the iDevice is turned to landscape mode while on the transaction page, a bar graph that details income and expense trends comes up for the specific month. If you want to check out a previous months graph to see if there are any changes from month to month, there is a History icon that brings up previous months, where transaction history is saved and bar graphs can be reviewed. Overtime a line chart begins showing month to month comparisons of spending and income as well.

The ability for Moneybook to set up re-occurring expenses automatically each month makes tracking expenses MUCH easier. Without much work at all, these transactions automatically upload on the day specified, and do not limit the ability to add in additional one time transactions in any way.

Unfortunately, some of these additional offerings from Moneybook are not obvious. Unless you click the settings icon on the overview screen, and then click the help button, and then make your way through the frequently asked questions, you’ll never know that some of these options exist. My initial use of the app was great, but I didn’t know there is a separate set of categories for expenses, and an entire set of alternate income transaction options, until I found the help button. Being the stereotypical man that I am, I don’t usually ask for directions. Had I not been trying to be as thorough as possible for this app review, I might not have ever found those options at all.

Being an MBA graduate, tracking finances is extremely important to me. I use a complicated excel spreadsheet that calculates monthly trends, divides out re-occurring charges and one time charges, and tracks accumulated money versus possible future issues. This app does a lot of what my excel spreadsheet does, without the added effort. It’s not a fool proof fund tracker, and certainly not a replacement for a check register, but Moneybook does a great job of warning the user if the total monthly income versus expenses gets close. The overview screen shows a meter, I’ll refer to it as a fiscal health meter, which shows if your habits are eating up too much of the total monthly income available. Additionally, the three top expense categories, and an average expense per day calculation, help to show if maybe there needs to be a re-evaluation of spending habits.

Moneybook is a simple and efficient daily finance tracker that offers powerful options without sacrificing simplicity. For those of you frightened of anything involving numbers, you can be sure that Moneybook’s simplistic user interface will have you tracking the flow of personal finances in no time. This is a must have for anyone looking for simple, but powerful, assistant in home finance monitoring.

I’m a big fan of the idea that knowledge should not come with a price tag, but conventional policies dictate that most things become a money making adventure. That’s why an app like 101 Classic Novels is so appealing to me. This free app contains some of the great books that helped establish the literary standard.

When Classic Novels is loaded, a nice easy to read scrollable listing of all the books is the first screen that pops up. In case there is some concern about how to use the app, the very first listing is the SunScroll Manual. It explains the page transition system as well as how to interact with the different menu settings.

The display settings of 101 Classic Novels are extremely detailed. Font can be adjusted completely. The type, color, and size of font are all customizable, making 101 Classic Novels completely customizable depending on the needs of the reader. Text alignment, the spacing between lines, the width at each side of the page, and the colors of external links all are customizable as well.

Additionally, there is a very nice setting for night reading that I greatly appreciated. It made reading in bed a much more enjoyable process. Something else that always bugs me is the flimsy way that the iPod seems to handle landscape to portrait transitions, and vice versa. 101 Classic Novels allows for the rotation of the screen to be locked in portrait specifically if that is the preferred reading style. The final setting is one that I couldn’t really review, and that’s the ability to turn on or off the network information for the iPhone. I’m not sure if this is an issue for iPhone users or not, so if someone would like to share the relevance of such a setting, that would be great!

101 Classic Novels boasts an extremely attractive graphical background for the pages. Each page turns upon screen transition, and there is a setting to include a sound with the page turn. The colors of the background give the feeling that an aged book is being read, and this adds to the overall experience of reading a classic novel. I’ve read a few books on both the Kindle app and the Classic Novel app at this point, and I can say that I appreciate the graphical offerings of 101 Classic Novels much better. That is to say I haven’t messed with the Kindle app settings enough to know if there are comparable features.

Overall, this is a great app for those looking for a plethora of classic novels for no cost at all. The superior settings and graphics of this app really enhance the overall reading experience, and the ability to access this many books on the go makes it an easy download for most reading enthusiasts. Even if you aren’t sure how many of the 101 Classic Novels you’ll get into, the free price tag means that it’s worth the download for even 1 of the books.

Pocket Reference is one of those “Why didn’t I think of that?” apps. Its premise is simple: It’s a comprehensive list of alphabetized reference topics containing links to more than 500 reference websites. It allows users to find information regarding virtually anything and is alphabetically organized, giving users quick and easy access to its content.

Pocket Reference advertises the following features:

1. In-app links to more than 500 references, how-to, news-feed, time-waster and information websites, grouped into 50 categories.
2. More than 185 mobile-friendly websites.
3. The option to bookmark favorite or most frequented sites for quicker access.
4. The ability to suggest a link/website to the app’s developer for inclusion into the reference link library.
5. Links to language formatting guides.

Pocket Reference was created using MEDL Mobile’s App Incubator. I have the App Incubator app, but apparently a Benny Hill first aid reference is not an appealing idea to its developers.

Anywho, the idea was submitted with the intention of creating one application that consolidates as many possible stand-alone reference apps into one.

Pocket Reference is certainly the most comprehensive and efficient reference app/research tool in the app store. As stated earlier, it contains 500 reference websites, 185 of which are mobile/Safari-friendly, sorted alphabetically into 50 categories. To aid in the efficiency process, users can bookmark their favorite sites.

Also, the developers of Pocket Reference added a feature which allows users to request the addition of a new/additional reference site; so expect this app to grow even larger!

Pocket Reference’s main screen is as simple and straightforward as it gets. The top of the screen contains a search box, upon which the alphabetized category list rests (there are actually 51 categories). At the bottom of the screen is a menu option and “info” icon:

Opening the menu options brings up the following features:

“Home” brings you to the home screen, “Favorites” is your list of preferred sites, “About” allows you to suggest a link and “Extras,” like the “Info” icon on the main screen, pulls up the following screen:

After choosing a category, in this case “Dictionaries,” the reference sites are listed in alphabetical order. The “M” stamped entries indicate sites that are mobile-friendly:

Obviously, mobile-friendly sites load faster and are easier/quicker to navigate than their regular-web counterparts. Here’s a screen-capture of mobile-friendly Dictionary.com (the “+” in the upper, right corner gives you the option of adding the site to you “Favorites.”):

Here’s a screen-capture of non-mobile-friendly AmericanHeritage.com:

It’s much busier and, although the information is there, you have to pinch, flick and swipe your way to the information you are seeking. Further, because it relies on 3G/WiFi, it’s not as fast as its individual counterpart apps. However, those apps only contain a fraction of what Pocket App offers, so this is easily overlooked.

One other thing worth mentioning is that I found when selecting a topic/link which brings you to a webpage (excluding mobile-friendly links), the resulting page is not opened in Mobile Safari (future request alert). It’s opened using the app’s built-in browser. As a result, I was unable to advance and backtrack within the site, as there are no forward/back buttons. I had to exit the site and re-enter to get to a previous page/location.

All things considered, it’s hard to find any meaningful fault with Pocket Reference. Considering what it does and how much information it gives you access to, it’s an amazing app and well worth its asking price of $1.99.

I don’t know what cool kids do with their Fridays, but last week I spent mine at an Academic Team competition. You know—random trivia in a quiz bowl format. That sort of thing. So when I got home and saw Quizarium, it seemed like a fitting app to review!

I’ve already played (and praised) Charadium, On5’s other title, which is an online iPhone incarnation of Pictionary. Quizarium clearly borrows much from Charadium’s structure, but this time, it’s an online trivia app. With Plus+ integration, offline play, and a variety of topics to choose from, Quizarium is a fairly comprehensive app. However, the lack of time-limited games and a mediocre question pool keep it from being as phenomenal as its Pictionary-style sibling.

If you’re not familiar with Plus+, it’s ngmoco’s online networking system for the iPhone that includes achievements, leaderboards, etc. You’ll need a Plus+ username to play Quizarium. Once you’ve got that out of the way, you can jump straight into a game. The main screen allows you to set some preferences (color, theme, auto-correct) and also displays a list of available lobbies. These range from the free-for-all “Lobby” to rooms divided by topic and difficulty. The list of topics is pretty solid, ranging from Science to Sports to Music. You can also create your own game.

Gameplay is simple. The question/answer box and the chat box are combined into the main display, and the rest of the screen hosts your keyboard. The game will display a question, and from there it’s a race to see who can answer it first. Points are awarded based on speed and question difficulty. As time goes on, the game will reveal the length and initial letters of the answer as clues, but there are still plenty of cases where you’ll be stumped.

Now here come my complaints. For the most part, the game flows smoothly, but there are still a few glaring problems. First, the keyboard lags, which can easily delay your answer and cost you points. Secondly, the questions simply aren’t that good. Many have grammatical errors; others are simple confusing. Because only one answer will be accepted, you often have to guess what the game’s looking for. Case in point: at one point, I was asked, “Ants live in a what?” We tried anthill, colony, and all manner of other guesses. It took almost all of the word being revealed before someone stumbled upon “formicary.” In another case, “marsupial” was not accepted, while “marsupials” was. And what about this question: “Capital of an South American country”? First there’s the grammatical issue with “an” instead of “a”, but more important is the vagueness. Simple problems like these show the limitations of the app. The topics covered were pretty good, but the actual implementation…not so much. You can vote questions up or down, so hopefully the pool will improve with time.

My other gripe is a less important one, but it still bothers me. Currently, all of the lobbies are in an unlimited-play format. To have an actual round-limited “game” with a winner, you must create a room yourself…and even then, the game starts without waiting for others to join! And when you finish a limited game, the winner isn’t even announced…you have to check the scores yourself. It seems like an afterthought, which is a shame; isn’t direct competition half the fun? According to the developers, default lobbies with limited rounds may be coming in the future, however.

Don’t get me wrong; Quizarium isn’t a bad game. It’s free (for now, at least), and it offers a number of excellent features like offline play, graphics customization, and Plus+ integration. And for the most part, the online trivia is a lot of fun. I just wish that the questions were better and that the keyboard didn’t lag as much. As it stands, grab it while it’s free; if this jumps up to a paid app, you might want to wait a bit before buying.

So it was my intention to get a review of Astro Ranch out much earlier than today, but the game is so immersive that I felt I needed additional time to really get a feel for the playability. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised at the elements existing within this game, and while not perfect, definitely provide a lot of excitement.

Astro Ranch is a farming style game that follows elements from the Harvest Moon series. Being a Harvest Moon enthusiast since it was released on the SNES, and since recently playing Animal Parade for the Wii, I was ecstatic to hear that this title was coming out. The game play in this game, while a little rough around the edges, certainly doesn’t disappoint however.

In Astro Ranch, players take on the role of a boy or girl who has crash landed on a planet. The only way to survive is to turn the surface of the planet into a farming haven. The game is complete with a stock system that shows a fluctuation of crop prices, so it is to the player’s advantage to monitor those changes, and only sell crops on days where the going price is high.

Additionally, there is animal raising, fishing, gold sifting, and a whole slew of other tasks to complete throughout the game. The ultimate goal is to rebuild your spaceship, with help of the quirky scientist that just happens to be on the planet’s surface. As actions occur, experience is awarded, and your farmer gains levels. As the levels increase, and additional options are opened, the goal becomes closer and closer to achievement.

Astro Ranch is complete with my favorite part of games like this… upgrades. I’m a sucker for upgrading tools and buildings, and in Astro Ranch as you level, upgrades become available for your items, the barn, the house, and the different seeds and animals available for use. I tend to speed as quickly as I can to that top level house upgrade, for what purpose I don’t know.

Astro Ranch provided me with a vast amount of fun, but the game is not without its glitches. The first I experienced is upon starting the game up, it froze and I needed to completely reboot my iPod. Additionally, it’s unclear in the tutorial exactly when to water your plants. In similar games, the soil goes from dry to wet upon watering, but the soil in this game went from wet to dry, implying to me that I should water my plants two and three times a day.

The fishing and gold mini-games are rough to get the hang of because of awkward controls, but they certainly aren’t impossible. I found myself spending a lot of time trying to center my fishing cast, only to be brought back to the world screen and have to start all over again. Don’t even get me started on trying to learn the gold mini game. It involves shaking the iPod, and apparently I shook it too hard, for the first 20 times I tried to get it to work.

Overall Astro Ranch is a great, yet flawed, addition to the farming style games available on the market. If you find that games such as Farmville, Animal Crossing, and Harvest Moon are your cup of tea, then Astro Ranch is a definite purchase. If the idea of watering crops just sounds like work to you, maybe you should stick with something else.

I must admit, when I first read about Radio Flare Redux, I was not impressed. While I appreciate its artistry, I’m not a fan of techno, club or house music (which I’ve never heard in any house I’ve been in). Neither am I a fan of any activity which could cause my retinas to pop (out or otherwise). That said, my expectations going into this game were admittedly low. The game, however, would prove me wrong (and keep my retinas intact).

Radio Flare Redux is the anticipated successor to the hit debut from Studio Radiolaris, Radio Flare, which was a finalist in the 2009 IGF Mobile and IndieCade competitions.

Radio Flare Redux is described as a “highly stylized, side-scrolling, multi-touch shooter” which claims to “redefine the shoot-‘em-up and rhythm action genres,” utilizing the iPhone/iPod Touch’s multi-touch capabilities:

At the beginning of each level, the game screen lists the “Track Title” and “Artist.” The upper-left screen contains the pause feature, the score/score multiplier and the length of the song track. Level play time is defined by the length of the song.

The upper-right corner contains the player’s star-status indicator: Each level begins with 5 “empty” stars. As you gain points, you gain life and your stars slowly fill until they’re all completely full. Each time you die, however, a star (whether full or empty) is taken away and that’s one less life available to you. If you run out of stars, the level ends.

There are six “pick-ups” or upgrades available during play. When a player “picks up” one of these items, it is used immediately/ automatically, i.e. the player does not have the option of using the item when he/she wants:

In order to advance in the game, players need to earn at least three stars for each level. At the conclusion of each level, players are shown two screens, displaying their play statistics for that level:

You can’t go to the next level (planet) unless you’ve reached a certain point level. On this point, I can say that as a player goes from one level to the next, it does get harder, even requiring players to switch/alternate thumbs.

As stated earlier, game play is fluid and frenetic. The action’s pace is dictated by enemy movement and the pulsing rhythm/beat of the song track. Scores of enemies will target you in waves, requiring dexterity and fine-tuned “thumb oppositionality.” The game play, visuals, and soundtrack, independently, are quality components, but the game’s integration of all three is what makes it so unique.

The game is not without flaws, however. While I had no problems with the game’s controls, some may find they take some getting used to. For example, lifting your left finger from the screen by accident can default your ship’s location to your right finger’s position. This can become annoying, but actually helped me in many instances. As the game and enemy movement progress, you will find your fingers fumbling over and around each other in an effort to quickly dispatch the oncoming horde while remaining untouched. While awkward at first, I quickly learned how to switch fingers to adapt to enemy movement and game play.

Parts of the game became a little mundane, also: While each level’s background, music, etc. are different, the basic template remains the same throughout all levels and the different types of enemies, most of which are little more than cell-shaded, embellished shapes, eventually become repetitive. Also, ironically, one of the game’s “main ingredients,” the sound track, somewhat restricts the game play experience, in that players need to wear headphones (or hook the iPhone up to a good external speaker system) in order to experience all this game has to offer. Moreover, if you use the iPhone’s ear buds/ear phones accessory, the wire (at the jack site) frustratingly impedes your play, i.e. it gets all up “in your business,” so I would strongly suggest using headphones having a 90-degree jack.

Radio Flare Redux is a visually pleasing, charming, addictive, quality side-scrolling space shooter experience whose game play (enemy movement/actions, background animation, etc.) is driven by the rhythm and beat of its quality sound tracks. Its bright, pulsating immersive environments and game play will completely engage you audibly and visually (I was drinking punch and cooking a quiche, so all my senses were engaged), have your head and heart pumping and your thumbs wiggling throughout every level of play. I thoroughly enjoyed playing through its 33 levels over and again.

Moreover, the star unlock feature, combined with Crystal online high score and achievements, give the game high replay value. At $2.99, Radio Flare Redux is well-worth its price and I recommend the game to anyone who enjoys or is looking for a quality, 2-D, cosmic side-scrolling sensory adventure.

My wife and I are expecting our first child in a couple of months, and like any overzealous new parents, we are reading as much as we can to be sure we know everything there is to know once that little bundle of joy joins the family. We both realize how ludicrous such an idea is, and that nothing really “prepares” you for having children, but that hasn’t stopped us from trying.

In the course of looking for information, I turned to my iPod, knowing full well that there was an app for that. I found a wonderful app that my wife could use called “What to Expect”. This app brings a lot of important information into a nice small easy to navigate app that makes following the progression of the baby fun and easy. Each day and week, the app is updated with new information. These transitions are based on the expected due date that we inputted.

The first screen in What to Expect is a summary screen that includes information on the estimated due date, how long the babies development has left, trimester and gestational age, and the current size of the baby. From a father’s perspective, the biggest fun from this entire app comes from this page, and specifically the current size of the baby. This app doesn’t just summarize based on weight, but includes physical objects that you can compare the baby’s size to. These are mostly vegetables, and last week we had an ear of corn growing in my wife’s belly, this week it’s an eggplant.

The next two parts of What to Expect include weekly and daily updates. The weekly updates are geared towards women, and unless you’re a father who is really into the whole medical side of the process, I would steer clear of these updates. They usually are extremely descriptive to help the mother know exactly what is going on, but the one update I did catch wasn’t exactly something I needed to know. My wife however, loves these updates, and shares all of the great changes that are occurring to the baby. This week, the baby’s eyes are opening for the first time!

The daily updates are more generalized, and provide good eating tips and healthy habits that assist in the healthy development of the baby. At certain points throughout the pregnancy, certain daily updates are time specific however, including the recent one we received about being able to possibly hear the baby’s heart beat now by putting an ear up to the belly. I haven’t been able to get this to work, but I would love to know if anyone else has.

The final two parts of the app include a photo upload section, to monitor the growth of the belly, and a link to the forums at whattoexpect.com. We weren’t very interested in photo monitoring, and haven’t done much with the forums, but I am sure that these two options are great for those that need it.

“What to Expect” is an amazing app that has increased mine and my wife’s enjoyment of this process. It’s a wonderful and education heavy app that provides excellent information on things your doctor might not cover in the visits each month. With a high price of free, every pregnant or hopeful family should check it out.

I’ve never been one to need a lot of complex passwords. If someone would like to read my various Viagra ads and the honey do list I got emailed from my wife, by all means hack my email account. There are, however certain websites where I need a more complex password. Being the super intelligent individual I am, I spend just as much time creating new passwords, after I forget my original one, that I do on the websites I need these websites for.

That’s why reviewing uP@ssw0rdz!: The Ultimate Password Generator is something I am very interested in using on a continued basis. It offers me the chance to establish a password and have it stored right on my iPod for future recovery. Well, that is before I actually got my hands on it.

Now don’t take that the wrong way. uP@ssw0rdz! is an extremely powerful and useful app. For those of you that need to generate individual passwords that are of varying complexity and able to be stored in one collective area, this is absolutely the app for you. If you’ve followed a few of my reviews however, you know I am much simpler in my approach to things. I experienced a steep learning curve and difficulty navigating the app at first, but it went smoothly once I got the hang of it.

uP@ssw0rdz! uses varying degrees of complexity, using three different specific rule categories to create its passwords. Certain letters are replaced in words, certain words are adjusted, and the order switched, depending on how complex of a password needed. These password rules can be adjusted and made standard through saved profiles, so that it’s easier to keep a standard approach to all password generation. These passwords can then be saved into the app and retrieved for later use.

This app comes complete with a fairly comprehensive set of options to adjust, a nice tutorial that eases the learning curve, and a pin that locks the entire program up. This pin is especially important if you plan to store bank account and website passwords that are important to you on this app. There is also a copy and paste feature to ease the input process from app to website.

I find myself thinking on this app, the same way I do on others. It’s a lot of initial work to get the app up and running, and additional work for upkeep as passwords require updating, new passwords are needed, etc. I don’t have a lot of free time as it is, and the additional work involved in the complexity of the app just doesn’t really fit my needs. My simplistic approach to apps shouldn’t defer anyone from using this app that might need a powerful password generator though. As I review more and more apps, I find that the more time an app takes to set up, the less chance I will spend with it past the time I invest for the review.

Most likely, you’ll know if something like this will fit your needs. I can certainly vouch for its ability to generate passwords, but personally had difficulty making good use of it.

My iPhone 3GS screen real estate is a precious commodity. I have 11 pages of apps and will seize any opportunity allowing me to conserve or consolidate my precious screen space. The developers at Fossil Software, LLC obviously share my sentiment and released 50 In 1: APPZILLA! specifically for people like me, i.e. everyone.

50 In 1: APPZILLA! cleverly enhances an idea first purported by the developers of AppBox Pro. While AppBox Pro (and subsequent similar apps) houses multiple utility or productivity applications, 50 In 1: APPZILLA! expands on this concept by featuring an assortment of applications included within the social networking, music, utility, productivity, lifestyle, reference, photography and entertainment categories.

As its name implies, 50 In 1: APPZILLA! currently houses a record 51 commonly (and not-so-commonly)-used applications, allowing iPhone users to save a considerable portion of precious screen space, not to mention money, priced at only .99, by taking popular, unique and commonly-used applications and consolidating them into one, multi-purpose application.

When describing 50 In 1: APPZILLA!, this analogy has been used ad nauseam, but I can think of no better way to summarize its use/contents: It truly is the “Swiss Army knife” of iPhone utility apps.

While there are other similar apps in the app store, 50 In 1: APPZILLA! is currently the only multi-purpose app containing a whopping 51 applications spanning the entire app store category spectrum. So, how does APPZILLA compare to its competition? How does its apps/features compare to its individually-priced counterparts?

First off, the mere idea of having 51 applications conveniently contained within one app is incredible. APPZILLA’s competition features, at the most, 34. Currently, APPZILLA features the following:

50,000 Famous Quotes

Twitter/Facebook Tools

Currency Translator

Language Translator

Touch Anywhere Camera

Timer Camera

Whiteboard

Dictionary

Digital Clock

Trip Wire

Unit Converter

Voodoo Doll

Sleep Sounds Generator

Glow Paint

Battery Life

Book Lamp

Tip Calculator

Game Buzzer

Clinometer

Bubble Level

Plumb Bob

Protractor

Ruler

Price Compare

Hot Topics

Coin Flip

Cook Timer

Crystal Ball

Tesla Meter

Decibel Meter

Advanced Random Number Generator

Sale Price Calculator

System Info

Flashlight

Music Box

Grill Timer

Homeland Security

Concert Lighter

Moon Phase Calculator

Morse Code Flasher

Password Generator

Massager

Color Picker

Metronome

Pitch Pipe

Sound Box

Strobe Light

Tally Tracker

Dice Roller

Location Tool

Fake Call

I’ll try not to cover every app in detail, but will focus on those commonly-used features/apps that have individual, dedicated counterpart apps in the app store.

There seems to be no “Golden Standard” or formula to follow when developing multi-purpose apps like 50 iN 1: APPZILLA!. Based on the existing multi-purpose apps in the app store, developers choose features using different criteria, resulting in many multi-purpose apps having at least one “much-needed” feature non-existent in its rivals. Because of this phenomenon (I like to call the based-on-the-existing-multi-purpose-apps-in-the-app-store-developers-choose-features-using-different-criteria-resulting-in-many-multi-purpose-apps-having-at-least-one-much-needed-feature-non-existent-in-its-rivals phenomenon), I find myself using multiple multi-purpose apps (What?…What?).

Visually, APPZILLA’S main menu interface is simply gorgeous and literally “out-shines” its competition. The icons are beautiful, detailed and well-designed and app animations are clear and fluid. Its sound effects, e.g. “button-clicks” are crisp and pleasing.

From APPZILLA’S main menu, users can control sound options, such as button clicks and the option to have the app “roar” when its opening doors slide open, by tapping the “Settings” icon in the main menu’s upper-right corner. Conversely, users have the option to toggle door animation, i.e. have them slide open to reveal the main menu or simply transition to the main menu without animation:

In addition, the icon in the upper-left corner allows users to customize the order of their apps, but does not provide them with the option to remove or exclude apps from the list, a badly-needed feature, given the number and variety of apps within the program. I would like to be able to display only those apps I use, without having to sift through or display pages of apps I don’t use.

APPZILLA’S apps all have a built-in help feature and customizable settings, dependent on the application. For example, the “Book Lamp” app allows users to adjust the brightness and the color of the light, although I don’t know why one wouldn’t just use the “Flashlight.” Both appear to provide the same level of brightness, but “Flashlight” doesn’t have the option to adjust its color:

The individual menu interfaces for 50 iN 1: APPZILLA!’S apps are clean, user-friendly and well-developed. While APPZILLA contains many very useful apps, it has its share of the “entertainment only” variety, such as “Voodoo” and “Buzzer:”

Conversely, 50 iN 1: APPZILLA! contains very useful, unique features/apps not found in other multi-utility apps (or possibly as individual apps within the app store), such as “Color Calculator,” which helps you choose colors based on visual selection from a color swatch, showing users the RGB, HSV and HEX values for the color they choose:

“Decibels,” a decibel meter that measures sound:

“Dictionary,” which requires an internet connection and offers users the option of emailing entries:

“Coin Flip,” which gives users the option to have the coin always land on “heads,” (for cheaters):

“Grill Timer,” (which tracks up to 4 simultaneous grilling durations; as each timer expires, the app sounds an alarm, tracks time whether you’re in the app, on a phone call or playing a game and contains a list of “Ideal Meat Temperatures.”):

“Tally” provides users with the option of counting/tracking 1-4 numbers simultaneously and even allows users to set pre-determined beginning figures:

“Music Box” and “Sleep Aid,” (both of which show the thought 50 iN 1: APPZILLA!’S developers put into their app). These apps are all well-developed and are easily comparable to their individual app-store counterparts (providing they exist):

50 iN 1: APPZILLA!’S version of those apps commonly featured in multi-utility apps, such as “Level,” “Tip Calculator,” “Currency Converter,” “Unit Converter,” “Battery Life” and “System Info,” are all intuitive, well-developed and easy to use, with, as mentioned before, a built-in “Help” screen:

I also tested “Teslameter” and when I cranked up “Love Song,” I thought my iPhone was going to spontaneously combust.

Conversely, 50 iN 1: APPZILLA! does contain its share of popular utilities that are rudimentary and/or suffer from a lack of options, such as “Ruler,” “Clock” and “Fake Call,” (3-4 out of 51 is easily overlooked):

“Locator,” while providing users with Latitude/Longitude, Altitude, Course and Speed, does not offer the option to plot users’ location on a map or find their current address:

As mentioned above, 50 iN 1: APPZILLA! also contains not-so-useful unique features/apps not found in other multi-utility apps or as individual apps within the app store. However, they are still quality, well-developed apps, such as (mentioned earlier), “Voodoo” and “Buzzer,” “Crystal Ball” (you can input 5 custom “answers”), “Homeland,” (an updated Homeland Security Advisory System; I’m sure this feature has a niche’, but I have no use for the chart, not to mention I can’t understand it) “Massager” (which has 5 different settings) and “Quotes.”:

As it turns out, “Crystal Ball” is useful. I asked it if I would finish this review in time to enjoy my Saturday and it replied:

50 iN 1: APPZILLA! also offers two additional features not commonly found in its app store counterparts: “Auto Camera” and “Full Camera.” “Auto Camera” allows its users to take pictures, using a built-in timer, in increments of 5, 10 and 30 seconds and 1, 5 and 10 minutes. “Auto Camera” allows its users to take a picture by tapping anywhere on the screen:

When taking pictures with the camera apps, the resulting photographs were comparable to the iPhone’s built-in camera, but the iPhone camera’s built-in focus provided slightly-clearer pictures. It’s all relative, however, as under proper lighting and conditions, APPZILLA is capable of taking quality photos. However, I did find that, when sometimes opening these apps, I was merely introduced to a camera screen with no options, a bug APPZILLA’S developers can easily resolve.

All things considered, 50 iN 1: APPZILLA! is truly a “beast-of-an-app” and, while it does lack useful features found in other apps, such as a date calculator, I believe after it’s next update(s) it will reign as “King” of the multi-purpose apps. Its graphics, animation and interface are beautiful, fluid and well-developed.

50 iN 1: APPZILLA! is not without flaws, however: Users need more customization when it comes to the app icon list. I would like to be able to display only those apps I use, without having to sift through pages of apps I don’t use. Other apps can be tweaked, to appeal to more users. For example, I have no use for APPZILLA’S “Voodoo” app, but providing users with the option to add a customized photo to its face, etc., would have me beating that silly, little doll mercilessly! All-in-all, the bugs I encountered were few and minor, given APPZILLA’S monstrosity of a feature-set.

Despite its flaws, while there are other similar apps in the app store, 50 In 1: APPZILLA! is currently the only multi-purpose/multi-category application-housing app containing a large number of well-developed, quality applications equal to, if not better than, their separate counterparts. Its crisp sound effects and visually-appealing, clean, fluid, user-friendly interface/animations/icons allow it to “out-shine” its competition and “stand out” as the current front-runner in a growing genre.

If you love multi-purpose apps and/or are looking for one app to consolidate utility, reference, productivity and entertainment apps, thus freeing screen real-estate, I strongly recommend 50 In 1: APPZILLA!. At only .99, it’s an invaluable app you’ll use over and over again.

]]> http://www.148apps.com/reviews/50-1-appzilla-2/feed/ 1 http://www.148apps.com/reviews/50-1-appzilla-2/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/148apps_reviews/~3/QKYfVl4IrAE/ http://www.148apps.com/reviews/spirit/#comments Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:18:01 +0000 Arron Hirst http://www.148apps.com/?p=29120

Developer: Marco Mazzoli
Price: $0.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0
Reviewed on: iPhone 3GS

Gameplay Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Controls Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Graphics and Sound Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Re-use / Replay Value Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Overall Rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars

I don’t know about you, but I’m a sucker for good-looking games. Recently, I came across another … Spirit. Spirit is a game that didn’t get much air time or pre-launch hype for that matter. It just … appeared. Resembling an art style much like Critical Thought’s geoDefense, Spirit is a tower defense title with a twist. Most tower defense titles in their genre are at this point pretty generic. They usually consist of a bunch of enemies following a pre-defined path, with your aim being to stop them in their tracks using any means necessary. Instead, Spirit’s wildly varied array of enemies choose when and were that path will be, and how they move along it.

In the game you control a vector shaped spirit with the touch of your finger. As your enemies pile into the gridded room, your aim becomes to avoid capture at all costs by dragging this little spirit around your enemies, encapsulating them. As you do, you’ll create a vortex like structure which will suck up any immediately close enemies. As with most of Spirit, the use of smooth animation makes this a kind of addicting experience. Of course, dependent on the amount of enemies you capture in the circle, you’ll earn a certain amount of points. Its important to note that you will only be able to capture your enemy or (group of enemies) if the speed of your circuit around them is fast enough. Visually, this circling of your enemies is accompanied by a stream of ghostly mist. Your speed within the room will trigger the environment to bounce at move, like elastic. Along the way you’ll meet a number of colour-coded enemies all of which will take a different path around you.

As with other tower defense titles, Spirit works off enemy waves. As you move on to defeat more waves, the games difficulty increases. Whether it be in the way of your enemies getting faster and more agile than you, or becoming elongated and twisted, as you progress through the game your enemies will become tougher to defeat. The more and more waves you manage defeat the more bonus levels you will unlock. Bonus levels are simply a frantic grab for points. In bonus levels, the game throws down hundreds of different coloured virtual chips … and against the clock, you aim to collect as many as you possibly can. The more you circuit around and manage to collect, the higher your overall total score. If you come into contract with your enemies or they touch you, you die. To re-spawn you simply tap anywhere on the screen, and you will re-spawn from where you tapped. Handy for when you’re in a sticky situation and need to get out of it!

Visually the game has an arcade modern-retro feel to it, with bright neon-like elements playing a huge part. If you’ve ever seen geoDefense, you’ll probably understand what I mean. They’re the sort of visuals you can’t really explain in full details, other than to say they look pretty damn gorgeous. The controls are extremely responsive and with the ability to tweak this responsiveness on the app’s options menu, controlling the spirit is a pleasant experience.

Overall, I enjoyed my time with Spirit. Being an avid fan of geoDefense and Spirit’s visual style resembling parts of that, the game just seemed to click with me. Controls were both fluid and responsive. I for one highly recommend you give this one a look!

]]> http://www.148apps.com/reviews/spirit/feed/ 3 http://www.148apps.com/reviews/spirit/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/148apps_reviews/~3/urq2kVSxkHo/ http://www.148apps.com/reviews/hills-rivers-remain/#comments Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:12:12 +0000 Bonnie Eisenman http://www.148apps.com/?p=26800

Developer: Square Enix
Price: $6.99
Version Reviewed: 1.1.0

Graphics / Sound Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Game Controls Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Gameplay Rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars

iPhone Integration Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
User Interface Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Re-use / Replay Value Rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Unlike Square Enix’s recent ports of Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy II, Hills and Rivers Remain is far from a flagship franchise. Unfortunately, it shows. Hills and Rivers is a solid real-time strategy game, but its good foundations are undermined by lengthy battles, limited content, and unfriendliness towards newbies. This one will be enjoyed by hardcore fans of RTS games, but few others.

The game is a set to a feudal military theme, in which you control the Julius armies as you conquer enemy lands and defend your own. Naturally, your goal is to crush all of the enemy’s forces. The battle maps are dotted with towns, which are connected by angular roads. To conquer a town, you’ll have to send enough troops towards it in order to crush those stationed there. Each turn, your headquarters—you pick which town this is—generates more troops. And that’s all there is to it. Spread out your troops, fortify your towns, and chase your enemy from the map…it all sounds so simple on the surface, doesn’t it? There aren’t even any unit types or other variations; troops are simply troops.

Hills and Rivers Remain isn’t what I’d call simple, though. When you start a map, the enemy troops are massed at their spot, and you start at your own. However, the existing towns won’t go down without a fight, either, so while they won’t attack you, you have to be careful about where you spread your troops. When you reach multi-enemy maps, it quickly becomes a desperate juggling act between offense and defense that should provide a good challenge even to hardcore RTS fans. Key nuances of gameplay—where to place your headquarters, when to use items like attack boosters, which towns to attack first—must be mastered in order to succeed. Some “towns” have special attributes: capturing a stable improves your troops’ speed, while a castle is harder to overcome.

The controls are a bit on the rough side. Though there are only two functions—moving your headquarters and directing your troops—it’s harder than I expected. Managing to send the right number of troops in the right direction is harder than it should be, especially since this is a real-time game and therefore you can’t cancel your orders. They’re functional, certainly, but just not as precise as I would like. At least relocating headquarters is easy; you just tap and hold on the intended base. The camera is also a bit on the rough side; it’s hard, and sometimes impossible, to get a view of the entire map, so figuring out where to send your troops can be an aggravating experience.

As for the graphics and sound, they’re nothing special, but it works. The colors aren’t the bright cartoony hues that seem to populate the App Store, which is a nice change, and the pixel art definitely screams “old-school games!” Sound effects are unimpressive, but at least you can turn them off when they become monotonous. Compared to Square Enix’s full capabilities, it’s clear that this was designed with a mobile platform in mind.

My biggest gripe with the game? Its brevity. There are only ten main missions, in addition to a free-play mode, and that just doesn’t feel like enough for a premium-priced game. Because the thing is, Hills and Rivers Remain is actually fun, if you like the blend of strategy and stress that defines a real-time strategy title. It’s a simple premise, but with a solid mechanic and an often-ruthless AI. But at $6.99, with somewhat finicky controls and only ten campaign missions, Hills and Rivers Remain will only be worth it to true genre fans.

]]> http://www.148apps.com/reviews/hills-rivers-remain/feed/ 0 http://www.148apps.com/reviews/hills-rivers-remain/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/148apps_reviews/~3/nZSkAV8nImk/ http://www.148apps.com/reviews/idid-optimize-time/#comments Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:55:27 +0000 Ryan Wood http://www.148apps.com/?p=29531

Developer: Counterwinds
Price: $2.99 / Lite version available
Version Reviewed: 1.2.1

Controls Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
iPhone Integration Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
User Interface Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars
Re-use / Replay Value Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Overall Rating: 3.44 out of 5 stars

If you are looking for an application that will help you monitor your daily activities, then iDid is the perfect app for you. Its simplistic interface and superior design allow plenty of customization for the active lifestyle.

I decided to use iDid over a 5 day period to really identify all that it could do for me. I kept the categories and headings the same, and just operated within the guidelines available without any additions or adjustments. What I found was that the ability to customize is extremely useful. Take Thursday for instance. I came home, fired up Final Fantasy XIII, used the step machine while playing FF13, cooked dinner for my wife and me, and then headed to a buddies house for my weekly geek-gasm of Dungeons and Dragons. iDid could have categorized each of these items, and without that customization you cannot hope to effectively utilize the full potential of this app.

iDid allows you to input the different amounts of time spent on any individual category, and feeds that information into a line chart. Switching to view the line chart shows you a week long summary of activities by category, neatly differentiated by different colors. If you’re looking to take a more in-depth look at your current habits, there are criteria that you can input that change the length of time analyzed, which categories are displayed, and what time period you want the program to review.

I immensely appreciate this apps effectiveness at monitoring activities on a day to day basis. It’s extremely effective for those individuals looking to commit to a vigorous workout routine, and want to monitor progress over a large period of time. Additionally, those busy individuals trying to budget time for their families can see how they’ve been doing lately using this app.

While I do enjoy this app, I find myself having difficulties with the upkeep that something like this takes. Additionally, I have offered a couple suggestions on ways to possibly use it, but I am also having trouble figuring out a reason to spend the extra time keeping up with this app. Maybe if you are a student trying to ensure equal amounts of study time, or a multiple sport athlete trying to condition for all of your sports equally, but again, I feel like I am stretching to offer a real reason to use this app.

iDid really is a well designed app, and I encourage those of you that are big into time management apps to share some uses with myself and the readers here at 148apps.com. My narrow focus tells me that the little time I do have would be better used NOT monitoring how I spend all my non-free time, but then again I might be unique case. If you’ve been looking for a way to monitor patterns in your daily activities, iDid is a sure fire way to do so. If you’re like me however, you may find that it doesn’t last long on your iDevice before it’s deleted for good.

]]> http://www.148apps.com/reviews/idid-optimize-time/feed/ 1 http://www.148apps.com/reviews/idid-optimize-time/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/148apps_reviews/~3/IdVoRjPlB9o/ http://www.148apps.com/reviews/invasion-2/#comments Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:52:16 +0000 Arron Hirst http://www.148apps.com/?p=29437

Developer: Viderea
Price: $2.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0
Reviewed on: iPhone 3GS

Gameplay Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Controls Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Graphics and Sound Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Re-use / Replay Value Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Overall Rating: 3.25 out of 5 stars

Personally, I’ve never been a fan of flight simulators … But X Invasion 2 is a little more than your bog-standard flight simulator. As part of the arcade-style flight combat genre and serving as the sequel to X Invasion, the game centers around the city of San Francisco. As you join the game you’re informed that hostile aliens and UFOs have invaded the entire the city. You are the city’s only hope.

As with most flight simulators, the game initially plays out in two modes. Campaign and Arcade, with a third, Tour thrown in for giggles. In arcade mode, you’re thrown up into the skies with one sole mission objective; destroy as many UFOs as humanly possible. The aim of this mode is to gain the highest score in the shortest amount of time possible. Campaign mode on the other hand is quite a bit different. In this mode you take the role of the planes pilot as you fly through 16 unique missions aimed at getting you from rookie to professional. These missions will include performing a number of air-borne flight tasks, including: bombing runs, helping support cargo drops, follow the leader and ariel roller-coaster. The real test comes when you and left to face the alien mothership .. and once you do, your training is complete. Tour mode however steps out of the ‘gaming’ box to take you on a virtual tour of the San Fransisco bay area. Find something of interest, simply take a photo and share it with friends.

To my surprise, the tilt controlled flying was fairly easy. Usually, with accelerometer based controls, I tend to hit some sort of snag … but in my experience and short time playing the game, X Invasion 2 controls are fairly accurate. In the top left hand corner is your radar navigation system. This depicts your current virtual location on the game map, as well as your enemies. In the bottom right of the screen you’ll see your altitude meter. This measures the height at which you are flying, and increases as you tilt your device further up or down. Getting close enough to one of your enemies will cause your arms system to lock onto that target. This is signified by a yellow diamond encapsulating your target. Once you’re happy you’ve got your target in your sights just tap the missile button located on the left of the screen.

Graphically, X Invasion 2 looks pretty much the same as we’ve seen from other flight simulators. While the game does claim to use photo-realistic environments, obviously moving closer to the landscape will reveal that these are ‘bitty’ and ‘pixelated’ 2D environments, with only the points of interest like, for example, airports being rendered in further, clearer detail. While this didn’t seem to detract from the gameplay itself, considering the game is focused around this underlying landscape, I do think a little more time could have been well spent on making this landscape feel more realistic.

That said, moving back to positives, the graphical explosions seen both when destroying enemies and crashing are extremely realistic. The sounds are a little off in my honest opinion, but nothing an update couldn’t sort I’m sure.

Overall, X Invasion 2 is a fun flight simulator with a quick and entertaining sideline gameplay. While its probably not as graphically exciting as perhaps some other flight simulators like F.A.S.T, its still a respectable punt at providing the simulated flying experience you might be looking for.

]]> http://www.148apps.com/reviews/invasion-2/feed/ 0 http://www.148apps.com/reviews/invasion-2/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/148apps_reviews/~3/IYc7N6KPZ5U/ http://www.148apps.com/reviews/pocket-labeler/#comments Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:44:15 +0000 Chris Hall http://www.148apps.com/?p=29435

Developer: More Blu Sky
Price: $0.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0

iPhone Integration Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars
User Interface Rating: 3.9 out of 5 stars
Re-use / Replay Value Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars

Overall Rating: 4.13 out of 5 stars

Photo editing on the iPhone is big business. The App Store, for reasons unknown to me, is lined with photo editing apps trying to make something out of your severely underpowered iPhone camera. There are about five million flashes, zooms, color adjustments, and such, but in my opinion, these apps are really missing the point of the camera. Aspiring photographers really aren’t using the iPhone as their camera in droves, particularly the 3G which doesn’t even have image stabilization. People are using the iPhone camera to take quick memories when they are out and don’t have time to pull out a real camera. They are also using the cameras for fun to send around goofy pictures to friends and family. These are the niches that the guys at More Blu Sky try to fill.

Pocket Labeler, the latest photo editing app from the guys at More Blu Sky, is a bit like their last app, Ransom Letters, but with a bit more polish and a better UI. The app basically consists of not a photo editor in the color correction sense, but a way to make photos more fun by adding words. Like the title implies, Pocket Labeler adds labels to pictures, much like you would do with a pocket labeler.

The UI is fairly straightforward and does just about everything that you would expect the app to do. Once you type in your labels, you can pinch and twist your way into making each label as large as you want and at any angle that you deem necessary. While you’re at it, you can choose between any of the eight label color options to give your picture just a bit more flair. Nobody likes plain black or white labels anyway. Once you are done with each photo, you can send it off by e-mail, to Facebook, or straight to a Flickr stream. You can also save it to your camera roll, but sharing is caring guys. Don’t hoard your pictures.

The overall build quality of Pocket Labeler is very nice, instantly putting it in the upper echelon of funny photo apps. It’s obvious from the get-go that the app isn’t just a garbage app that the developers pumped out for a quick buck, it is a well thought out app that does what it claims to do very well. Obviously the app isn’t for everybody, but if you happen to enjoy sending random labeled pictures to your writers on a daily basis (like me), this one is definitely for you.

]]> http://www.148apps.com/reviews/pocket-labeler/feed/ 0 http://www.148apps.com/reviews/pocket-labeler/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/148apps_reviews/~3/Mu8pX8LoHzU/ http://www.148apps.com/reviews/train-dragon-flight-night-fury/#comments Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:47:54 +0000 Ben Terrett http://www.148apps.com/?p=29270

Developer: Glu Mobile

Price: $2.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0.0

Graphics / Sound Rating: 3.25 out of 5 stars
Game Controls Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars
Gameplay Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Replay Value Rating: 3.25 out of 5 stars

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

I personally believe that dragons are an underused creature in video games these days. Sure, everyone loves zombies, and ninjas, and pirates, and maybe a few other things, but who doesn’t love dragons? They make a great foe, and an even better buddy. Who’s gonna mess with you when you’ve got a dragon to back you up? Well that’s exactly the situation you find yourself in when playing How To Train Your Dragon (HTTYD), the new free flight game from Glu. Based on the forth-coming animated film from Dreamworks, HTTYD is brought to us by the makers of Glyder and Glyder 2 and shares many similarities to those games.

Playing as the main character of the film Hiccup, you spend your time flying your dragon around the varied game world, completing tasks, discovering locations and collecting items. Movement is governed through tilt controls, allowing you to guide your dragon by tilting forward to dive, backwards to climb etc. Rather than in Glyder where you had to find upward drafts to raise your flying machine, in HTTYD you are able to climb courtesy of your dragons flying abilities, allowing quicker and easier access to many of the games locations. The controls work very well, and it is clear that with each successive flight game, Glu are really nailing down their tilt controls.

There are 3 different locations to fly between, each with varying landscapes. Following the story mode will allow you to explore each of these, but there is nothing stopping you from flying off towards a distant landmass from the start. Dotted around each world are various collectibles which offer a distraction to the story mode (although collecting items is often what you find yourself doing while following the story). There are also a number of achievements for completing tasks whether it be exploration, item collection, or a combination of different things.

Unfortunately, there is nothing new here. The game is essentially a watered-down Glyder 2, maybe even Glyder 1, with a movie tie-in. The landscapes in How To Train Your Dragon are quite plain in comparison to the varied, colourful settings in either of the Glyder games, and there are fewer of them. In general there just seems to be less to do. It’s nice to fly as a dragon for a change, but that’s pretty much all this game has over the Glyder series. It’s a fun little game for a while, but I’d find it hard to recommend to anyone but real fans of the genre. The real target market is young fans of the film, who will probably get plenty of enjoyment out of the game.

However, this game is yet to be given a price (at time of review) and it’s possible that it may be free as there are pop-up adverts in-game. In that case it may compare well to Glyder 2 which will set you back $3. I’d say though, that if you find yourself an hour into How To Train Your Dragon and still enjoying it, then spend the money on Glyder 2 to enjoy Glu’s market leader in this genre.

]]> http://www.148apps.com/reviews/train-dragon-flight-night-fury/feed/ 0 http://www.148apps.com/reviews/train-dragon-flight-night-fury/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/148apps_reviews/~3/w4brgYYtkKg/ http://www.148apps.com/reviews/street-fighter-iv/#comments Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:34:15 +0000 Jason Fanguy http://www.148apps.com/?p=29360

Developer: CAPCOM, USA Inc.
Price: $9.99
Version Reviewed: 1.00.00

Graphics / Sound Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Game Controls Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Gameplay Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
iPhone Integration Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
User Interface Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Re-use / Replay Value Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Overall Rating: 3.98 out of 5 stars

If Street Fighter IV’s loading time is any indication of how good it is, playing it should summon unicorns, pixies and rainbows to my living room and my wife should exhibit an uncontrollable urge to hand-feed me cocktail sausages while I “labor” through the game’s levels. It took 55 minutes to download the game. Will it live up to the hype?

CAPCOM boasts that Street Fighter 4 is the iPhone/iTouch’s first true fighting game, featuring the same beautiful graphics and visceral game play the series is infamous for. Long-time fans (at the time I downloaded it [a $9.99 game mind you], it already had 73 User Ratings Reviews) can jump right into the action, while casual players can focus on training, using 1 of several settings and tutorials to hone their fighting skills.

Among it’s feature-set, Street Fighter 4 advertises multi-player/head-to-head play via Bluetooth (not WiFi), eight Street Fighter characters in seven different environments, new move sets including Unique Attacks, Special Moves, Focus Attacks, Super Combos and Ultra Combos, a robust “Dojo” boot camp which transforms neophytes into Street Fighter masters in five in-depth lessons, customizable controls for your style of play (players can move the virtual buttons/joystick anywhere they want on the screen and set their level of transparency), the ability to unleash “super moves” with a tap of the “SP” button, or toggle it off from the “Options” menu if you want to enter the button combo manually and four levels of difficulty: Beginner, Normal, Hard and Grueling.

Street Fighter IV’s animations, graphics and art-style are simply beautiful. To ensure the game’s performance integrity, CAPCOM reduced the original game’s impressive 3D models to sprites, a transition which is practically impossible to differentiate on the iPhone’s screen. While a tad clunky at times, the animations are visually fluid and the game features the same art style, visual style and character move sets seen in the console and arcade versions. When starting the game, its cinematic intro is extraordinary, inter-weaving gorgeous hues of color and animation against a gorgeous, animated, black-and-white backdrop.

Street Fighter IV’s Title Screen offers Solo Play (Tournament, Free-Sparring, Dojo and Training Room), Versus (Head-to-Head Bluetooth play), Stats (Stats), Invite A Friend (via email), Get More (opens Capcom iPhone webpage in Safari) and Special (Special Movie Footage). There are also Settings and Help icons:

For those of you who have the memory of a gerbil, like me, you can access the (moves) Command List for instructions on how to do moves by pressing “pause” from anywhere within the game.

Game play is fluid, but the “virtual touch” control scheme can take some getting used to, proving tricky to pull off moves/strikes requiring complicated thumb-stick/button-combo motions (CAPCOM claims ten months alone went into the unique virtual control system). After practicing in “Dojo” mode, I was able to navigate the game’s virtual controls problem-free.

As stated earlier, the controls are customizable. Players can move the buttons anywhere they want on the screen and set/adjust their level of transparency, enabling them to adjust the controls in a manner which works best for him/her:

This was a very smart move/feature on CAPCOM’S part, because everyone responds to/uses touch controls differently, especially while engaged in a fast-paced duel to the death, so proper placement and comfort are key issues. While the touch controls may take some getting used to, I was able to navigate, i.e. pwn other fighters in no time, although I was playing on Beginner in the Dojo. Advanced controls will take some practice, especially during high/advanced levels of competition requiring precision. That said, my only concern regarding Street Fighter IV for the iPhone is a major one: its capability of offering the same game play depth as its console counterparts. Players able to master the game’s virtual controls will reap the fruits of their labor, while those unable to will be exposed to restricted game play. There is hope, however, in the form of the Dojo mode, which allows players to practice/train until they gain the skills needed for advanced game play.

Multiplayer support is currently restricted to “Head-to-Head” battle, via Bluetooth. Hopefully, multiplayer via WiFi is on CAPCOM’S future update agenda.

Speaking of “restrictions,” Street Fighter IV’s current line-up consists of only eight fighters: Abel, Blanka, Chun-Li, Ryu, M. Bison, Dhalsim, Guile and Ken, all of whom possess different fighting styles, “special” moves and abilities. Hopefully, future updates will introduce additional fighters, whether as “unlockables,” or in-app purchases (preferably the former).

All aside, I love this game. CAPCOM spent a lot of time developing it and it shows. Street Fighter IV for the iPhone/iTouch is a complete, quality port of its console counterpart that will appeal to both hardcore veterans and newcomers. It features a slew of extra/additional content and although the game currently features only eight fighters, as opposed to its console brethren, these fighters (with the exception of newcomer, Abel) are classic CAPCOM characters who have retained their classic moves/abilities.

Street Fighter IV’s $9.99 price tag is indicative of its superlative quality and, considering you’ll have Street Fighter IV at your disposal to play anytime, anywhere, it is money well spent. I highly recommend this game to any/all lovers of the Street Fighter franchise or anyone who enjoys a quality 2-D fighter.

]]> http://www.148apps.com/reviews/street-fighter-iv/feed/ 0 http://www.148apps.com/reviews/street-fighter-iv/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/148apps_reviews/~3/zb-Y4meoHFs/ http://www.148apps.com/reviews/newsalert/#comments Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:47:07 +0000 Bonnie Eisenman http://www.148apps.com/?p=28902

Developer: Dan Hassin
Price: $0.99 (sale)
Version Reviewed: 1.3

iPhone Integration Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
User Interface Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Utility Rating Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Re-use / Replay Value Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Overall Rating: 3.63 out of 5 stars

If you want news custom-tailored to your liking, you should look at NewsAlert. This news app delivers news based solely on your specified keywords, presumably saving you the trouble of wading through RSS feeds. For the most part, it’s a solid experience, and the app pulls from a wide array of sources to make it worth your while.

The first thing you’ll want to do is pick some keywords. The app suggests keeping tabs on your favorite bands or your hometown as well as traditional keywords (i.e., “education”). These keywords then appear as list items in the main view. Whenever NewsAlert finds a new article relating to one of your keywords, you receive a push notification. The app tracks all of the articles that come in, and then you can view them based on the tag. You get 10 keywords to use, with more available via in-app purchase.

The viewer itself is nothing special—like most in-app web browsers, it’s slower than Safari and some of the screen space is wasted by the app itself. Pinch-to-zoom is also a bit jerky. I wish that opening articles in Safari could be selected as the default action (it’s still there, but it takes a few button taps.)

For the most part, getting news articles based on keywords is a good experience. It’s not perfect, however; too often, I get duplicate articles when major events happen. I don’t need to read the results from the latest Maryland basketball game ten times…in fact, I wish I could filter sports results out of my “Maryland” keyword altogether, but that’s not an option. Still, the app does turn up some interesting articles. I wouldn’t rely on it as my sole source of news, but as an addition to my daily routine, it works. It also works particularly well if you’re tracking an artist rather than a general keyword, because then you’re more likely to get interesting interviews or news about albums or tours.

It’s ultimately your call whether or not a simple dollar is worth getting keyword-specific news. The app is well-built, so no complaints there. For me, this is more of a novelty app than a real news source—I’ll stick with my old-fashioned RSS, because I like reading from specific sites. But if you’re the type who needs news on a specific topic from a variety of sources, NewsAlert won’t disappoint. It all depends on your individual needs.

]]> http://www.148apps.com/reviews/newsalert/feed/ 0 http://www.148apps.com/reviews/newsalert/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/148apps_reviews/~3/jsX3lIvNtZ4/ http://www.148apps.com/reviews/hero/#comments Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:24:05 +0000 Chris Hall http://www.148apps.com/?p=29284

Developer: Traplight Games
Price: $1.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0

Graphics / Sound Rating: 4.65 out of 5 stars
Game Controls Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars
Gameplay Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars
Re-use / Replay Value Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Overall Rating: 4.16 out of 5 stars

Much like going to the movies, there are two ways of going into a new game. You can either go in thinking that it is going to be fantastic, or you can go in with no expectations at all. Rarely do high expectations pay off, but when they do, it makes for the best experience possible. Unfortunately, my expectations for The Hero were through the roof after seeing what I called at the time “the best app trailer ever”.

Much like the trailer showed off, The Hero is a superhero action game where you, The Hero, protect the world from the very Dr. Robotnik-like Dr. Hubbub and his band of evil militants. The game basically amounts to you flying around the screen while running into all the bad guys and potential disasters that you see. There are no punching or kicking moves, although you are given a few superpowers along the way… the majority of the time it is just up to your ability to ram into targets. The enemies, as expected, vary greatly from the stationary bombs to slow moving, high hit point tanks, to high flying satellites with laser beams. There are no real hit points in the game, only a “fame” bar, tracking how much the people adore you. Every time you get hit, hurt civilians, or let babies fall out of windows (seriously), your fame drops, but it can be regained by high-fiving supporters and killing bad guys. Once your fame meter runs all the way down, you lose.

The game really works on a number of levels, mostly being the graphics. There is something extremely satisfying about seeing a game on your iPhone that looks like it could just as easily be on XBLA. On my iPhone 3G, there were no slowdowns of any kind, and apparently on the 3GS you can enable a better graphics mode that runs at 60fps. I can’t imagine the game looking any better than it already does, but I’d love to see it try. The other winner here are the controls, which are almost simple to a fault. The Hero is controlled with a floating virtual joystick that works no matter where your thumb is on the screen. For the first hour or so the controls were spectacular, but I noticed after awhile that all the quick moving on the glass screen was giving my thumb a blister. Never being the kid that complained about thumb blisters, I played through the annoyance, but it was quite annoying.

My real gripe with The Hero is the story. After watching the trailer a few times, I was really excited about learning the story behind The Hero. I was hoping that the game would be an epic, taking you from the heyday to the point that he is in the video… depressed and smoking. I wasn’t expecting anything amazing, but I was hoping for a humorous Raging Bull-like downfall story. Instead I got a few screen before each level of a doting police chief and a press girl that seemed like a sexed up version of Moneypenny. On its own, the story isn’t awful, but my expectations were far too high for what I ended up getting.

While I certainly enjoyed playing all 15 levels of The Hero, I didn’t finish the game with the excitement that I wanted to. Unfortunately, this was a case there the trailer was so good that it actually took away from the overall experience. With the campaign mode and the survival modes afterwards, I’d expect a few hours of gameplay… certainly enough to warrant a purchase. Just don’t expect the app to be nearly as good as the trailer.

]]> http://www.148apps.com/reviews/hero/feed/ 0 http://www.148apps.com/reviews/hero/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/148apps_reviews/~3/Lj9WrRYPmyg/ http://www.148apps.com/reviews/graveyard/#comments Tue, 09 Mar 2010 23:16:35 +0000 Ryan Wood http://www.148apps.com/?p=29272

Developer: Tale of Tales
Price: $1.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0

Graphics / Sound Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Game Controls Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
Gameplay Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Re-use / Replay Value Rating: 0.5 out of 5 stars

Overall Rating: 2.38 out of 5 stars

I recently picked up Heavy Rain, for the PS3, and played it through in one setting. After being locked to the television for 8 hours straight, my wife had to come peel me from my chair. The game was an amazing experience, and really expanded my interest in cinematic gaming experiences. When I saw The Graveyard out for iDevices, I jumped at the chance to once again experience this style of play.

I believe it’s silly to assume that you’ll find a similar scope in a PS3 game that you will in an iDevice game, but I was surprised at how fast my gaming experience ended in The Graveyard. My best comparison would be assigning Heavy Rain a full motion picture length, and The Graveyard being a YouTube video. There isn’t anything wrong with YouTube videos; they just usually aren’t all that long.

Length aside, The Graveyard provides an extremely powerful message, though I think that message will be lost on a lot of people, especially the younger crowd. The game boils down to a look back on the life of an elderly woman, as she passes through the graveyard of people who have come and gone before her. At the end of the long stretch of graveyard is a bench that the elderly woman sits on to rest.

The goal of the game, for lack of a better term, is to slowly walk this woman through the long corridor of the graveyard and sit her down on the bench. Once there, the real message of the game begins.
Control wise, the game plays fairly rough. My first play through found me moving from side to side, not truly understanding how to get the woman to move straight down the path. After getting to the bench, I wasn’t sure how to sit down. I checked out the instructions by pressing the bottom right hand corner. They explained how to sit down, but when I tried to close the window in the same manner I opened it, I was tossed to an internet site. I closed out and restarted the game, and had to make the slow walk once again.

I’m having trouble really coming to a conclusion on if to recommend this game. At $1.99 it doesn’t provide a LOT of gaming potential. As an art form, it’s an amazing experience. It’s an easy recommend based on its merits to artists. It’s visually appealing; the impressive graphics matched with the soft black and white environment make it great to look at. I keep coming back to the short game play for the price, however.

My recommendation for the reader would be to try out the free version if you appreciate various forms of art. If you have a very powerful experience, grab the full version to support the developer. The only difference between the two, according to the developer, is that death is a possibility in the full version. Not the best marketing plan, but I am a big advocate for supporting developers who create a worthwhile product.

If the hidden messages and deep meanings behind song and art really don’t fit your fancy, The Graveyard is not for you. You would be better to try the free version if your curiosity is still peaked. That said, my own personal opinion is that it was a beautiful display of how game and cinema can be joined together for a fully interactive experience. I hope more developers follow suit with this approach.

]]> http://www.148apps.com/reviews/graveyard/feed/ 2 http://www.148apps.com/reviews/graveyard/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/148apps_reviews/~3/LtoPn9YzESA/ http://www.148apps.com/reviews/readdle-docs/#comments Tue, 09 Mar 2010 07:26:52 +0000 Bonnie Eisenman http://www.148apps.com/?p=28900

Developer: Readdle
Price: $4.99
Version Reviewed: 2.1.0

iPhone Integration Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
User Interface Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Utility Rating Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Re-use / Replay Value Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Overall Rating: 4.38 out of 5 stars

Rarely do you find such a versatile, functional app in the App Store. Readdle Docs is pretty much the only document storage/reader app you’ll ever need—the viewer is clean and functional, grabbing documents from a variety of sources is easy, and you can’t beat the interface or the vast array of features. Readers take note: if you ever need to handle documents on your iPhone, Readdle Docs is the reigning champ.

Importing Your Files
The first step with any file management app, importing files can be a headache depending on the range of choices available. With Readdle, you’ve got a lot of options. You can import files from a MobileMe iDisk account (either yours, or a public one), Google Docs, Dropbox , Box.net, or filesanywhere. Readdle also gives you a free 512 MB online storage account with your purchase of the app. Files can be downloaded from any of these sources, or you can connect your iPod as a wireless drive and transfer files straight from your computer. You can also use the built-in browser to download files from the web. It’s all quick and easy. No complaints here!

File Types
Readdle supports PDFs, Microsoft Office, and Apple iWork file types, as well as image files. Again, pretty much what you’d expect; if you need a non-supported document format, just print it out as a PDF. (I recommend the free doPDF utility.)

The Viewer
This is where Readdle really shines. I’ve tested the viewer fairly rigorously—I’ve read three novels on it so far—and it performs consistently and well. One tap brings up the interface, which otherwise stays invisible and out of your way. Here, you have the option to lock the screen orientation (a godsend!), add or jump to a bookmark, scroll through, or—if it’s a plain .txt file—make changes to the text. The reader handles large files fairly well. From time to time the app would freeze for a second or two, but scrolling through my ebooks was mostly a pleasant experience. The “BookReader settings” aren’t as varied as you’ll find in other, more specialized apps (there’s no inverting font and background colors, for example) but you can still change the font and its size. All formatting was perfectly preserved, and I really can’t fault the viewer for anything except the occasional lag.

It’s All About the Details
All the nice touches are here, too; for example, the app automatically opens to the last document and close to where you stopped. Many of the awesome features aren’t immediately obvious. For example, you can forward any email with attachments to a special address and have those attachments show up in your Readdle storage account. You can password-protect your files, and save entire webpages for offline reading. The interface is easy on the eyes, even if the icons don’t quite look native. Readdle is a mature app, and it shows.

Overall
I’ve used numerous document viewers on my iPod, but none of them are quite perfect. Readdle isn’t flawless, but it’s so incredibly close that I can’t imagine using anything else. For me, the Dropbox integration seals it as an amazingly easy method of keeping all my documents close at hand; your mileage may vary depending on what sorts of files you need to carry and how large they are. Still, if you ever need a document viewer or file manager app, Readdle is my number-one recommendation. It’s a complete, complex workhorse of an app with a broad feature list, good performance, and a solid interface. What more do you want? For $4.99, Readdle Docs is an easy recommendation.

]]> http://www.148apps.com/reviews/readdle-docs/feed/ 9 http://www.148apps.com/reviews/readdle-docs/