= 3 stars

Shoot characters set in the Helvetica font in this slide-and-shoot arcade style game.

The Good

• Fairly inventive design, with all game elements derived from the ubiquitous Helvetica font. Your ship is the intrepid character “A” and your enemies are different characters, each with unique attack abilities. Most notable are level bosses constructed from several characters grouped together.
• Simple gameplay; your ship auto-fires, so your only task is to move your finger around the screen.

The Bad

• Not as well-designed as the other design-themed game Kern.
• The unique design doesn’t quite overcome the common, slide-and-shoot, kill bosses gameplay.

Conclusion

Decent shooter game, but only for those who care about fonts, which eliminates many. Instead of Vetica I’d recommdend giving this a spin.

iTunes Store Link: Vetica — Speed Noise Movement

= 3 stars

Play classic Atari 2600 and Atari arcade games on your iDevice.

The Good

• Overall, decently-implemented translations of arcade controls to the iPhone’s touch screen. The Tempest spinner-knob is replaced by a touch-strip, and a surprisingly responsive D-pad allowing for swipes replaces a trackball (Centipede, Missile Command, Crystal Castles).
• Attention to detail in amusing places: each arcade game has settings for tweaks like difficulty, control type, bonus lives, and a “cheat” mode. The 2600 console features the original console switches to toggle game modes, and even switch the television from color to black-and-white. Each game contains a photo gallery featuring original art and manuals — and in the case of the Swordquest games, their associated comic book. Now that’s retro-nerdy.
• This app is more successful on the iPad’s larger screen, plus you can then purchase the iCADE — a shell that surrounds your iPad and turns it into a video game console complete with joystick and buttons.
• Bluetooth support for multiplayer between multiple iDevices.

The Bad

• The 2600 games are Atari-only, and I soon realized some of my fondly-remembered titles (Pitfall, Kaboom!, Chopper Command, H.E.R.O.) were from Activision, and therefore, make no appearance.
• Some controls are less successful: Asteroid’s odd combination of rotate and thrust into one D-pad renders it personally, unplayable.
• Free only gets you one game — either Pong or Missile Command, with the rest obtained through in-app purchases which may frustrate your digital miser. I eventually just ponied up for the entire package of over a hundred games at $14.99.

Conclusion

Despite the game selection and some quibbles about controls, this here is an entire retro gaming arcade in your pocket with unlimited plays, which blows the mind of my inner, past child who spent a crap load of time, money, and youth in quarter-sucking, neon-lit arcades. Sure, the full package is $14.99 — but that’s personally, not that many quarters — particularly when spread over several decades. If you can justify that price and have faith Atari will release future tweaks — you’ll have fun.

= 3 stars

Sing along with favorite ABBA songs and receive a rating of your performance.

The Good

• ABBA-themed, mini-karaoke experience, complete with a Rock Band style scrolling meter to judge your pitch and rhythm skills. Post your scores to a web-based leader board or Facebook.
• Each song includes an associated, original music video featuring Agnetha, Bjorn, Benny, and Anni-Frid in all their Swedish-seventies glory.
• Contains a bio plus pictures and a discography. Tap on an album cover to find a link to album purchase in iTunes.

The Bad

• Costs $1.99 but comes with just one song, Dancing Queen. Additional tunes are 99 cents a piece. After a few songs, you may be better off purchasing ABBA Gold.
• Song selection is currently limited to 11 songs of their most familiar hits, including (Fernando, Happy New Year, Super Trouper, Waterloo), but probably omitting some obvious ones and personal favorites (Lay All Your Love On Me, Knowing Me, Knowing You).

Conclusion

Solid app in terms of technical performance, but having to purchase additional songs and the limited selection tinges this app with the odor of Money, Money, Money.

iTunes App Store Link: ABBA Singbox

= 3 stars

Help Daisy Mae fend off an alien invasion with a variety of weapons, including: sexy poses.

The Good

• Familiar dual controls, movement on the left and firing on the right, plus options for different setups. The “button shoot” mode makes for easy gameplay: just hold the shoot button and Daisy’s guns automatically aim at enemies.
• Cartoony, 3D graphics, loosely resembling the old arcade game Smash TV, plus a grainy, B-movie film effect. The silly aliens recall Mars Attacks.

The Bad

• Awkward details, specifically the aliens move in predictably similar ways (right toward you), controlling Daisy is a little difficult, and things can get frustratingly, suddenly difficult. You think you’re kicking ass one moment only to die seconds later.
• The sexy trailer chick aesthetic may not be everyone’s cup of tea. The ridiculously leggy Daisy sports cut-off jean shorts and a tight T-shirt, plus the “smart bomb” that destroys all aliens nearby involves Daisy striking a sexy pose. Your bonuses for killing tons of aliens are different outfits for Daisy to wear — I have unlocked the leopard print bikini; my life is so complete.

Conclusion

Decent game, but unless you’re particularly enamored with the sexy babe aesthetic, there are better dual-joystic games, namely, iDracula or Meteor Blitz. I won’t be spending more time on this one.

iTunes App Store Link: Daisy Mae’s Alien Buffet — IUGO Mobile Entertainment Inc.

= 3 stars

Mr. Montblanc wants a clean lawn. Get to work, Mario doppleganger.

The Good

• Retro-pixely graphics resembling some imaginary NES console.
• Simple gameplay: tilt the iPhone left or right to move; shake up to jump. Position your broom over brown patches on the lawn to clean them up. Avoid obstacles: relentlessly pooping dog, flying birds, giraffes, and pigs. After a death, you re-enter the screen by falling from above, which gives you an opportunity to pop a balloon, sending a bone to the ground — a welcome distraction to that craptastic dog.
• Free

The Bad

• The bizarre setup soon results in strange questions: Why can’t Sweep Man leave the right side of the screen and appear on the left side like the animals? What does the dog eat that generates yellow “bonus” poop (and why should poop of any sort generate a bonus)? As poop flies from birds, pigs, and dogs at a rapid rate, one wonders if money ever exchanges hands, because this is the worst job ever? Sweep Man looks like Mario, is this some subtly sick joke on the Nintendo franchise?

Conclusion

Seriously odd game. Free is the best thing going for it — I’d be much harsher if this game cost even a cent. A moderately amusing “meh.”

iTunes App Store Link: Sweep Man — Poppy

= 3 stars

Pixel-cartoony version of the “five finger fillet” game, where you bounce a knife between fingers and try not to stab anything.

The Good

• Super simple gameplay: tap the screen to drop the knife as it moves from side to side. Earn bonus points for hitting gaps in sequence.
• The pixely, retro graphics prove highly amusing — small lines appear on fingers after near misses. Chop a finger and see the amusing reaction from bearded Brave Man.

The Bad

• Almost too simple; more of a novelty than a game with any attempt at longevity.

Conclusion

Amusing diversion, certainly the type of game you’ll show to friends — but there’s a good chance they’ll chuckle not at the app, but your misguided purchase.

iTunes App Store Link: Brave Man — Poppy

= 3 stars

Monster throws Apple into the air. Bounce Apple higher by drawing lines that act as trampolines.

The Good

• Retro pixely graphics, like some game platform circa 1984 that never was. Personally, a step above the doodle aesthetic.
• Simple gameplay. Swipe up, and Monster throws Apple into the sky. You then draw carefully placed lines across the screen that act like trampolines and bounce Apple ever higher. Short lines are more elastic, resulting in higher bounces. Guide Apple towards pencils before you run out of sketching power.

The Bad

• Can’t apply any gravity english to Apple by tilting the iPhone.
• Monster only appears at the start of the game. The dude looks cool; wish he was more integral to the gameplay.
• Wanted more variety after only a few go-rounds.

Conclusion

Wish Apple And Monster had more compelling gameplay to match the oddly appealing, retro graphics. Still, amusing diversion, priced appropriately at 99 cents.

iTunes App Store Link: Apple and Monster — Poppy

= 3 stars

Eat dots, power pills, and ghosts in this classic arcade game update.

The Good

• Inspired effort to modernize Pac Man, most notably the dots only fill portions of the screen, and eating them all results in a new formation along with a fruit.
• Mission mode consisting of 120 levels, and a timed championship mode where you must survive for five minutes. Neat in the latter is a large chart following each level, showing your accomplishments at particular times.

The Bad

• Despite four different controls to choose from (D-pad, directional buttons, joystick style “thumb swipe”) and settling on the four button arrangement, I never got comfortable to where I could just concentrate on the game and not worry about going in the wrong direction. The awkward feeling is especially taxing during the final moments of a level when everything is zooming about at high speed. The controls also overlap the lower left and right corners of the screen.
• The mission segment has 120 levels, only 20 of which are included in the original purchase price. To get more you’ll have to pony up for an expansion pack for an additional $3.99. I haven’t yet pulled the trigger.
• Messages about levels appear in the iPhone dialog box, above the game screen.
• Repeated crashes on launch, to where it’s a crap shoot whether you’ll actually get to play.

Conclusion

Pac-Man Championship Edition is undoubtedly a great game, but the awkward framing — particularly the unsatisfying controls — results in a game I couldn’t really get into. Careful with this one.

iTunes App Store Link: PAC-MAN Championship Edition — Namco Networks America Inc.

= 3 stars

Try to knock down various targets with balls in this amusement park game simulation.

The Good

• Great graphics throughout. Choose from several beautifully rendered variations on the toss a ball and whack stuff theme, from clowns to aliens, and my personal favorite: an icon garden, featuring old Mac icons like a paint bucket and watch (where’s Clarus?).
• An area where you can trade in acquired tickets for virtual prizes, from fuzzy dice to stuffed animals — including a Twitterrific bird. No, you can’t play stuff on the kazoo, but it’s still pretty fun to collect all this digital nonsense.

The Bad

• When throwing, the ball doesn’t feel right — it lacks any heft or weight. Its size should get smaller as it travels toward the targets, conveying distance, and respond better to the length of a finger swipe. As is, it feels like throwing a balloon, which is enough to knock the game down a few notches.

Conclusion

The combination of beautiful graphics but lackluster gameplay results in an odd game that looks great but isn’t enough fun to play — no matter how much I want that Twitterrific bird. I’ll call it a wash and give it a middle of the road rating.

iTunes App Store Link:

= 3 stars

Help the rolling and jumping Gomi clean up colorful garbage on colorful worlds.

The Good

• Amusing combination of Rolando and Katamari. Use the iPhone’s accelerometer to roll a circular blob with eyes from left to right along a world that moves beneath you, and even flips upside down. Jump with a screen swipe, and pick up progressively larger objects scattered about the environment.
• Like how your Gomi chararcter is always in the center of the screen and the background shifts behind it.

The Bad

• The initially inspiring concept doesn’t result in a great game. The Katamari aspect of picking up objects is occasionally tedious (s0 many things to pick up), and the levels could be better designed — some border on frustration.
• The cutesy graphics eventually look amateurish; awkwardly caught between the sketchy, doodle aesthetic and the simple colorform design of Rolando 2.

Conclusion

Gomi has a cool idea and slick gameplay, but personally, the amateurish and off-putting graphics knocked the whole affair down a few notches. I’ve drifted back to Rolando 2 and haven’t picked up Gomi since.

iPhone App Store Link:

= 3 stars

Destroy the Imperial Death Star in this action shooter simulation.

The Good

• Actual footage from the first Star Wars movie.
• Gameplay is largely based on the classic Star Wars arcade game (think of the vector graphics as a wireframe for this game). It’s all rendered in expected computer game graphics.

The Bad

• Ultimately fails due to lackluster game play. The X-Wing doesn’t feel like it swings far enough in any direction. Most silly is your fighter’s slow cruising speed in the trench — you rather saunter along at what feels like 20 miles per hour, and the final encounter with the exhaust port (set on easy) is laughably slow. It seems the game makers should have referred to the classic arcade game, or at the very least, the original movie, for pacing. The vector arcade classic is inexcusably better.

Conclusion

Close to being a great game, but unfortunately ends up being something the original movie certainly wasn’t — boring. Someone should just port the classic Star Wars arcade game.

iTunes App Store Link:

= 3 stars

Retro arcade game where you draw lines to guide a bouncing ball to hit a plethora of objects.

The Good

• Simple gameplay: use the iPhone’s touch screen to draw lines. A ball bounces around on screen, bouncing off of your drawn lines and various walls scattered about the playing field. Your lines disappear after a few seconds, and the ball can disappear off one edge and wrap around to the other side. Controlling the ball is easier said than done, and the fun comes from the rather helpless feeling of getting something done with limited tools; think catching a fly with chopsticks.
• A “fast game” mode with a wall around the screen perimeter and a shorter amount of time to eliminate all the objects within.

The Bad

• Not too keen on the graphics: there’s a lot of unnecessary stuff going on in the background. I seem to be more partial to retro vector or bitmap graphics than this particular style.
• No settings to adjust.
• After several go-rounds, not enough variety to maintain continued interest.

Conclusion

Moderately amusing game with initially appealing, simple gameplay, but lacks that special something to elevate it into addiction.

iTunes App Store Link:

= 3 stars

Serve up food for hungry customers and run a restaurant in this time management plus visual hide-and-seek game.

The Good

• Solid and challenging game play: fill customers’ orders as quickly as possible, by tapping ingredients hidden on the screen. The needed ingredients are listed on each order ticket in a recipe of sorts. The mix of time management and hide-and-seek is pretty compelling, and I nearly missed my train stop while progressing through several levels.
• Bonus levels where you drop ingredients into a scrolling array of holes based on shape.
• Lots of variety in terms of food ingredients and different restaurants (coffee cafe, pizza joint, sushi bar) of increasing difficulty.

The Bad

• The scenario plays out with a disturbing lack of logic. The kitchen you’re presented with is a complete mess, with food piled up all over the place and in ridiculous locations — no self-respecting chef would run a kitchen this way, or after a few days of trying to cook in this mess, would get a clue and clean things up. The logic also fails in the recipes, where you’re making hot dogs with cucumber and parsley, and making ketchup, mayonnaise, and parsley pizzas (not kidding).
• Some strange glitches, the graphics are an odd mix of illustration and photographic elements, and you can tap and drag on the entire background, revealing the black screen behind.

Conclusion

If you can get beyond the nonsense scenario — and the paranoid feeling that Gordon Ramsay will appear at any moment to scream at you — Gourmania is a strange sort of fun.

iTunes App Store Link:

= 3 stars

Balance game where you stack blocks on a tipping plank of wood, trying to keep the pile balanced before everything falls into oblivion.

The Good

• Simple gameplay. Just tap anywhere to place a random block on the screen, which then falls toward the bottom of the screen. The size of each block represents its weight, and your task is to keep the blocks arranged on the plank in a way that keeps everything from falling into oblivion. Some blocks change size soon after their creation.
• Interesting graphics, the blocks look slightly translucent like colored ink stamps on paper.

The Bad

• Seems the accelerometer could have been worked in somehow.
• Pretty difficult, I haven’t yet lasted a minute.
• You can’t drag a block after it’s been created (think Topple).

Conclusion

Decent game based on a simple idea, but I haven’t returned to it much since the initial purchase.

iTunes App Store Link:

= 3 stars

Read recent articles from BusinessWeek magazine, plus current business news articles and stock quotes, on your iPhone.

The Good

• Serves up articles from BusinessWeek magazine. Another section tracks stock quotes and latest news. The UI is pretty bare bones but easy to figure out.
• Option to share articles via email or Twitter.

The Bad

• The font for the headlines is a little small. Would be nice to have an option to increase font size.
• The stock section with latest news section is less successful. The charts are on the very small side with no option to see a larger view, which both Bloomberg and Yahoo! Finance provide.
• I know business news is generally rather dry, but none of the articles have pictures.

Conclusion

Since this app is free, and is essentially a free subscription to BusinessWeek on your iPhone, it’s hard to find much fault with it. I wouldn’t bother with the stock quote sections however.

iTunes App Store Link:

= 3 stars

Utility app thats cans bar codes and searches for the product on Amazon and Google product search.

The Good

• Once the bar code is scanned in, the app works as advertised, quickly consulting Amazon and Google and returning a list of product results with a little thumbnail and price.
• A keypad so you can type in UPC codes directly.

The Bad

• I found the scanning part to be problematic. You have to line up the iPhone with the bar code, lining up the bar code between two arrows, and then (the hard part) hold absolutely still until the app can take a proper scan. Sometimes it would work quickly, but other times, the process was no faster than just typing in the UPC code numbers or the product name into Google proper. It works best with flat objects resting on a table. I couldn’t get a label on a rounded can to scan, nor while holding an item in one hand and the iPhone in the other. I’d say 50% of the time it doesn’t or takes too long, leaving you feeling like you’re doing something wrong.
• A pretty specific use case. Kind of pointless to look up stuff you already own, therefore it is most useful if you’re out and about in a store and trying to comparison shop — but good luck trying to hold your iPhone perfectly still in a store.

Conclusion

Impressive demo of the iPhone + camera + web connectivity — but only when it works, with the key hurdle getting the app to scan a bar code properly. This is the type of app that you stop demoing to friends because odds are even you’ll end up looking bad. Recommended with caution.

iTunes App Store Link:

= 3 stars

Roll a ball around various mazes using the iPhone’s accelerometer, hitting objects for points while avoiding others.

The Good

• Silky-smooth gameplay; definitely simulates the satisfying sensation of rolling a ball around a maze and bouncing off of walls or objects.
• Great graphics: flashing lights, bursting cubes, flashy animations; ooh, shiny.
• Amusing high-score presentation screen with a rotating globe (global, glow-ball, get it?) showing the location of other players world wide.

The Bad

• On the easy side. I passed several levels just randomly rolling the ball around. I think in order to achieve awesome scores one must replay the levels trying to maximize points rather than speed, but I’m not particularly motivated to do so.

Conclusion

Although not really my style, GloBall is a moderately fun game, providing passable entertainment. That said, I shall continue playing geoDefense Swarm.

iTunes App Store Link:

= 3 stars

App that plays pleasant background sounds to help you fall asleep or concentrate.

The Good

• A handful of truly relaxing sounds, that late at night made me drowsy almost immediately: Amazon jungle, beach waves crashing, crickets chirping.
• A timer that shuts off the sound after a certain period of time; hopefully you will have fallen asleep by then. The timer can be set to count down an amount of time (stopwatch) or at a particular time (clock). There’s also an alarm
• Some welcome settings for sound playback: volume, balance, pitch.

The Bad

• The lite version has about about ten sounds, of which only two I liked (rushing water and rain fall). The full version has forty sounds, but again, I’d say about half are a wash. Some of the sounds I have a hard time believing anyone would find relaxing (thunderstorm, oscillating fan, dish washer, hair dryer blowing, vacuum cleaner [!]).

Conclusion

Does as advertised, with the biggest negative the odd choice of sounds.

iTunes App Store Link:

= 3 stars

iPhone App that hooks into the Yahoo! Finance website to provide financial information on your iPhone.

The Good

• Plays Yahoo! Tech Ticker videos which aren’t viewable through the iPhone’s Safari because of lack of Flash support.
• The stock section UI has some interesting ideas: stock quotes appear in modular boxes that can be modified into several sizes (just a quote, a quote and a chart, and quote / chart / articles). Tapping on a box calls up a more detailed view, featuring a larger graph and headlines to recent news articles. The graph appears at an even larger size when the iPhone is tipped into landscape view. This section of the app is the best at recreating the functionality of the website within the confines of the iPhone, and with some added functionality familiar to iPhone users.

The Bad

• The UI in other sections leaves a lot to be desired, particularly in comparison with the excellent Bloomberg app.
• Could be better about presenting its content. The UI feels a little clunky, and several of the articles I tapped on came up with the error message: “News not available.”

Conclusion

I visit Yahoo! Finance multiple times a day, and was therefore initially excited to check out this iPhone version. I must admit to being let down by the way it serves up news articles — which should have been the easiest part. The end result: I’ll use this app for Tech Ticker videos and checking stocks, but in regards to everything else, in particular; news articles: Bloomberg.

iTunes App Store Link:

= 3 stars

Whack a ball back and forth in this 3 dimensional, futuristic ping pong simulation.

The Good

• The neon blue and purple on black background looks like TRON.
• Use the iPhone tilt to control your paddle. The motion of the paddles and ball behave as expected.
• You can play against another someone else with Vector Ball installed on their iPhone.
• Settings to calibrate controls or use the touch screen instead of the tilt controls.

The Bad

• Ultimately I didn’t find much game here. Hit the ball back and forth, you miss, you lose. Personally, needs more variety like power ups or different levels with obstacles, etc.

Conclusion

Despite not enough variety to hold my interest, 3D Vector Ball effectively recreates 3-D ping pong on the iPhone. If that’s what you’re looking for; here it is.

iTunes App Store Link:

= 3 stars

Navigate a space ship through several different scenarios in this flight sim action game.

The Good

• Satisfying gameplay, once you get used to the controls. Tilt the iPhone to both determine direction and move a crosshair, and tap to fire. Friendly space ships have green contrails while foes red. It’s definitely a challenge to chase down and target the enemy. Better than Top Gun in that the game is not on “rails” — you can fly in all directions.

The Bad

• The background image of planets never gets any nearer.
• The scenarios with their cut scenes of different characters with low quality graphics, feels a bit tacked on. The story has something to do with trade between planets.
• Some scenarios have kind of pointless / boring parts where you fly to a particular location.

Conclusion

Don’t let the spacey tutorial, boring cut scenes, and initially unclear controls intimidate you. It took me a while to get into Galaxy On Fire, but I’ve found it to be a pretty fun recreation of Top Gun in space.

iTunes App Store Link:

= 3 stars

Knock pins down with a heavy ball in this bowling simulation.

The Good

• Simple gameplay: move a hand holding a bowling ball to the left or right to aim, then swipe upward toward the top of the screen to send the ball hurtling toward ten pins. Swiping further up the screen adds more velocity and swiping diagonally directs the ball to either side… but make sure you don’t hit the gutters.
• The overall simulation is fairly accurate, specifically how the pins interact with one another after the ball hits. They will fall to either side and knock over additional pins, so there is some physics behind things.
• Pleasing, nostalgic graphics: a choice of two bowling venues complete with a glossy shine to the wood of the bowling lane, reflecting the ball and pins. After each frame, a friendly black-and-white score board (Bowl-O-Vision) descends to track your progress. One expects Danny Zucco and Sandy to show up.

The Bad

• Slightly unresponsive: there’s a slight delay following a swipe upwards to the ball actually flying into action.
• If you roll the ball at a slow velocity, the ball can get trapped in the gutter, causing the next frame to take a while to appear.
• The app occasionally got stuck on its last screen leaving no way to start the game over.

Conclusion

I’ve played several Skyworks games over the past few months, and this one comes closest to achieving the casual, highly satisfying fun of Arcade Bowling. This app is definitely better than 3 Points Hoops Basketball. However, since there are quite a few other bowling apps, others are surely worth a try before settling on this one.

iTunes App Store Link:

(This review requested by developer)

= 3 stars

Fly a spaceship and blow as many enemies up as possible in this top view space shooter.

The Good

• Cool graphics, especially like the little glowing exhaust trail that traces a bit as you move.
• Has several control options. By default, the ship’s movement is controlled by iPhone tilt, and firing is a d-pad on the right. I’m not a big fan of navigating with tilt alone, so thankfully there is an option for a d-pad to the left to control movement.

The Bad

• It took me a while to realize your ship runs out of shots after a period of time. A green bar above the play field represents your gun’s energy which depletes with each shot. You replenish energy by moving. It’s a strange feature which I found personally more annoying than fun, and seems more motivated by some odd logic that you shouldn’t be able to rotate and fire while standing in one place for too long. This wasn’t a problem for Asteroids.
• No added variety in terms of power ups, additional weapons, or crazy bad guys and bosses. There’s a “quad laser” and a variety of enemies, but they aren’t compellingly varied enough.

Conclusion

Occurro is a solid foundation for a great game; it just needs more variety to take it to the next level.

iPhone App Store Link:

= 3 stars

Shoot down as many airborne enemies as possible, rendered with a crazy doodle aesthetic.

The Good

• Looks like kids drew all the artwork which makes for some imaginative, occasionally laugh-out-loud moments. Enemies include suns, birds, angels, other random crap that loosely has a theme of stuff inhabiting the atmosphere.
• Control your ship’s movement through iPhone tilt or touch screen.

The Bad

• Rather obvious gameplay which eventually becomes repetitive. The ship is on auto-fire which although appreciated, means you can get by just slowly tipping the iPhone from side to side.
• Around level four, difficulty switches from lazy to downright insane, with bosses that take serious persistence to destroy.

Conclusion

The nutty artwork makes for a highly amusing game, despite pretty average gameplay. Recommended if you want more of that Doodle Jump aesthetic.

iTunes App Store Link:

= 3 stars

Ride a ridiculously huge, twisting water slide through a cityscape. A tie-in to a recent Barclay’s smart card commercial.

The Good

• Decently simulates a water slide experience. Tilt the iPhone left or right to bank in either direction. Avoid crabs which slow you down and pick up green diamonds for points.
• Options to change gender (big plus for that one) and camera placement.

The Bad

• More simulation than game, and without enough variety, ends up not moving past novelty.
• Depending on how cynical you are, the advertising tie-in may hamper enjoyment of this app.

Conclusion

Provides the entertainment it promises and little else — harmless entertainment while you stand in line at the ATM. Best of all: it’s free.

(This review requested by developer)

iTunes App Store Link:

= 3 stars

Wander a dungeon, killing baddies and collecting treasure.

The Good

• Seems inspired by Gauntlet (food) with some modern improvements, namely your chararcter’s movement and firing isn’t limited to 8 directions. Missile weapons, different colored keys, treasure, mazes; it’s all here.
• Variety through crazy enemies (love the giant rat and the snakes) and inventive level design (mazes, shoot-fests).
• Zoom in or out from the maze by pinching the touch screen.

The Bad

• The pencil on folder paper aesthetic — seen in so many iPhone Apps — occasionally hampers gameplay: there’s no reason for the walls to wiggle and menus appear in a hard-to-read handwriting font.
• Not a fan of the controls: movement is controlled by iPhone tilt. A dual D-pad (movement on the left, firing on the right) would have been preferable, and it’s good for games to at least offer the option.
• You must start over from the beginning each time you die. Some of the levels are very maze-like and not fun to play again, so the lack of a save or regular checkpoints becomes a detriment to repeat play.

Conclusion

Solid game with amusing gameplay, but the lack of progress saving really killed my incentive to see this game through to its end. As a result, I haven’t been playing it that much, despite a killer price of 99 cents. Hopefully a future update will fix this flaw so I can descend into this dungeon again.

iTunes App Store Link:

= 3 stars

Never miss the best parts of a movie again with this app that suggests the best times to hit the john.

The Good

• Does what it claims: choose a movie from a scrolling list to call up a few suggested whizzing opportunities. You get the approximate time from the movie’s start, what activity on screen to look for, and a synopsis of what you missed while away.
• Includes a timer for activating at the beginning of the movie.
• There’s also a website version.

The Bad

• As of this writing, there were about 30 movies listed, centering around current releases. Personally, that’s not enough movies.
• Didn’t agree with a few of the app’s suggestions for pee breaks: The strip scene in The Proposal was, IMHO, one of the film’s funniest parts.
• Cell phones are supposed to be turned off in movie theaters. You may feel guilty constantly checking your RunPee timer.
• Only really useful in a movie theater situation; as periodic urination was surely a huge reason for the invention of the home DVD player “pause” button.

Conclusion

Although it needs more movies to be truly useful, RunPee is an amusing idea with decent execution. It sure would have been handy back when those Lord Of The Rings movies came out, when the only pee break rule was: “Liv Tyler.”

iTunes App Store Link:

= 3 stars

Kill or be killed in a scary dungeon where the graphics are ASCII characters. Port of the old-school UNIX game of the same name.

The Good

• Uses color (yeah!) ASCII graphics, just like the original. Your hero is represented by an “@” symbol, monsters various capital letters, tunnels with a “#”, etc. Events occur in text only. Yes, this is cool as far as I’m concerned.
• Because the iPhone lacks an old-school keyboard, commands are given using multi-touch gestures. Tap the screen at any side to move in that direction. Swipe from the middle toward any direction to attack. Double-tap in the center to view inventory. But gestures get more complex than that: draw a capital “W” starting in the upper left corner to wield a weapon, or an “E” to eat food, etc. The gestures are listed via a “commands” button which pops up a scrolling menu. Thankfully, the game is turn-based so you have some time to decide your next move. If you have no desire to remember the gestures, you can launch them from the scrolling menu instead.
• A new, randomly generated map for each game.
• Even with simple graphics and being turn based, things move surprisingly quickly.

The Bad

• Very tiny screen — the whole map is shown at once without any zoom in or scrolling. The characters are literally squint-worthy.
• The multi-touch gesture / scrolling menu set-up is a bit awkward.
• Crashed on me several times.
• Extremely limited appeal to old nerds — most likely limited appeal to those with no memory of the original.

Conclusion

I downloaded this game out of sheer nostalgia and was actually surprised to find it still pretty playable, game-wise. The biggest downers are its poor use of the screen real estate and an awkward command system. But my complaints only have so much weight because: this app is free. Let the questing commence.

iTunes App Store Link:

= 3 stars

Port of an old-school computer game where you pick up as many crystals, avoiding an endless number of baddies trying to kill you.

The Good

• I originally played this game on an SE/30 in several vivid shades of gray, so the color in the classic mode plus the modern mode are welcome, new enhancements.
• Variety is achieved through a crazy amount of aliens (too many to list, but particularly scary are tentawarbles and parasites) with various death-dealing capabilities, and stuff to pick up (smart bombs, bonus points) or avoid (mines).
• Sound effects: same as the original, including the strange gasp when you exit a level, plus the addition of background music.
• A screen of options for music, sound effects, “swipe” (multitouch) control, and tilt control. Especially handy are volume / sensitivity options for all.

The Bad

• Not very satisfying controls. The original game relied on the mouse for movement, so the iPhone uses the multitouch screen instead. Unfortunately, entire screen is sensitive, meaning it’s easy to get your fingers in the way of the action. Also annoying: firing is achieved through a screen tap, which means taking a finger off of the screen. So continuous movement with a left thumb and firing with right thumb taps is problematic, as you end up having to lift your left thumb in order to fire. The best solution I’ve found, is to have both tilt controls and multitouch active (with the mutitouch set to a high sensitivity), so you can tilt the iPhone for large, arcing moves across the screen while stroking with a left thumb for finer control, and the right thumb for firing. Yeah, that sounds complicated, and a D-pad on both left and right would be a simpler solution.
• Price of $4.99 feels a bit high.

Conclusion

I have fond memories of Crystal Quest, but the slightly odd controls and the price put a damper on my nostalgia buzz. Recommended you loved the original, but if not, there are better games to spend your hard-earned five dollars on.

iTunes App Store Link:

= 3 stars

iPhone version of the old-school Apple game Through The Looking Glass, developed for the original Macintosh computer.

The Good

• Simple, straightforward game play:“eat” all the opposing chess pieces as quickly as possible. On the first level, you (the Alice character) starts out with the moves of a queen, and each subsequent level reduces your moving ability until you reach the hobbled ability of a pawn. Adding to the challenge: the moves happen in real time, as opposed to merely alternating in standard chess.
• Some variety is added through different game speeds which add difficulty, and different game piece designs, displaying some irreverence — you get hip hop and “Bush memorial pieces” where your opponents are caricatures of the former administration, and the sound effect each time one of them is removed is an Obama “Yes we can.”
• The nostalgia element is pretty high for those of us that remember the original Mac. The story of the original game’s development is on Folklore.org, as written by original developer Steve Capps which resulted in the cool book, Revolution In The Valley.

The Bad

• Lacks variety in the form of special power ups or crazy graphics, and hence will likely lack appeal to a modern audience with no nostalgia for the original Mac.

Conclusion

If you have any interest in the early days of the Mac as I do, this game has a lot of quirky, retro appeal. But otherwise, I don’t think modern casual gamers will find much to like. As a result, AliceX is an appealing novelty for Mac nerds — but not much else — hence a three star rating.

Anyhow, check out the video below and see if it’s something you’d be into:

iPhone App Store Link: