= 4 stars

Help catball eat everything.

The Good

• Simple gameplay: touch the screen sides to roll in that direction, hold down both to jump, and tap repeatedly to float into the air. Your goal is to eat all the treasures littered between the level’s objects, and then eat the objects themselves — hence the game’s title.
• Unusual cut-out collage look; catball is a bizarre, legless entity more similar to tribble than feline. Each level is much larger than catball and seems based around a theme of spooky animals. And when the timer runs out, a ginourmous dog zooms in from behind to put a stop to your efforts. It’s all quite bizarre but definitely sets the game apart from others.
• Free download; additional levels are 99 cent purchases.
• I love cats.

The Bad

• Slightly derivative gameplay of Katamari and world-tipping games like Rolando, which suggest the accelerometer would be a better control.

Conclusion

Although similar to other games, the unique, collage-art look pushes Catball over the edge (pun intended). Recommneded.

iTunes App Store Link: iPhone: Catball Eats It All — Broken Compass Studios, Inc.
iTunes App Store Link: iPad: Catball Eats It All — Broken Compass Studios, Inc.

= 4 stars

Build a base and maneuver units in this sci-fi real-time strategy game featuring three races — yes, this is an iPhone StarCraft clone.

The Good

• The strategy of duping StarCraft proves sound: instantly familiar gameplay plus the winning formula of three races battling via different buildings and units.
• Very interesting work-arounds to enable StarCraft-style controls on a touch screen: two-finger taps to select multiple units, double-taps to designate a target for selected units, a drawer to store unit groupings, and a mini-map. Creating a building involves dragging the map behind the desired building rather than the building itself. Overall, it’s quite impressive how much functionality is crammed within the relatively tiny iPhone screen and touch controls.
• Very good value for the money: a campaign mode introducing the capabilities of all three races, battle mode against AI, plus multiplayer.
• The free app contains an extremely limited tutorial with a full app is unlocked via an in-game purchase. This saved a second download — and sucked up my money a lot faster.

The Bad

• Graphics and animations could use improvement and gameplay feels a little unintentionally retro and jumpy.
• So derivative of StarCraft that some elements seem like parody, specifically unit names “drudge” instead of “SCV,“ “myriad” instead of “Zerg” plus a Kerrigan stand-in. At times the mimicry feels like a cheap knock-off, making one wish for the genuine article.

Conclusion

Gameloft’s Dungeon Hunter was essentially a Diablo dupe that stood on its own merits. Starfront falls just a bit short — it doesn’t completely satisfy the craving for the real Blizzard game. Of course, knowing Blizzard’s chronic slowness in releasing games for any platform — I’ll enjoy playing this doppelganger.

iTunes App Store Link: Starfront — Collision™ — Gameloft
iTunes App Store Link: Starfront: Collision™ FREE — Gameloft

= 4 stars

Escape a grid of cards featuring various symbols.

The Good

• Simple game play: navigate from one card to another through swipes in any direction, which reveals another card. The first three cards reveal the pattern — say you have a yellow bee followed by a green turtle and a white duck — your next card should return to a yellow bee. If not, you’re headed for a dead end, indicated by a jeering monkey. You could exit a level by swiping randomly, but you’ll do much better by memorizing the sequence of the symbols displayed on each card.
• Steadily increasing difficulty through larger mazes and more complex symbols.
• Amusing variety of symbols: ants, stick figures, different colored clothes, etc.

The Bad

• There is an initial tutorial level, but its avoidance of text — while a cool aesthetic — still left me unclear of the rules. A clearer explanation resides in the App Store.

Conclusion

Solid, easy to play game teaching pattern recognition in a novel way. Recommended.

iTunes App Store Link: PatternHead — Wizkeit Games and PatternHead Free — Wizkeit Games

(This review requested by developer)

= 4 stars

Puzzle game featuring sliding wood pieces on a hexagonal board.

The Good

• Simple game play: your goal is to slide a reddish brown piece through an exit, which is blocked by other hexagonal pieces of various lengths and positions. Pieces are limited to sliding lengthwise.
• Addicting, I’ve played during two commutes and burned through nearly two hundred levels. Some levels are easily polished off in a few seconds, while tricky ones require use of the reset level button. The mix results in a great casual game experience.
• A staggering 10,000 levels (yes, the number is correct) ensuring months of puzzling pleasure.

The Bad

• Graphics could use some polish; the wood design less like the iBooks bookshelf and more like smeared paint.
• Other similar puzzle games (Slice It) introduce variety through special pieces, new rules, or obstacles.
• Would save time if you could slide two pieces simultaneously, by having one piece push another in the same row.

Conclusion

I’m presently addicted to this almost-too-simple game. What it lacks in variety is made up for in terms of sheer magnitude — 10,000 levels at 99 cents is a solid casual gaming deal. Recommended.

iTunes App Store Link: Hex Slide 10,000 — Tiny Bite Games

(Review requested by developer)

= 4 stars

Draw lines across a shape to divide it into parts of equal area.

The Good

• Super simple gameplay: drag across the screen to draw lines across a shape, in order to divide it into a given number of smaller pieces, which must be close to equal in size to pass a level.
• Levels get progressively more challenging, with variations like odd shapes, particular numbers of lines and resultant shapes, blocks limiting where you can draw lines, and reflectors that bounce your lines in other directions.
• Multiple levels of challenge: upon completion you get a star rating from one to five stars, plus the mythical “perfect” rating. 1 star might be a lucky guesstimate, but to achieve five stars or even “perfect” your lines must be drawn with mathematical precision.

The Bad

• Personally became prohibitively difficult; my head started hurting with uncomfortable flashbacks to high-school geometry, and the feeling I might actually need to calculate some areas using the graph paper beneath the shapes.
• Overall design is a bit too kid-oriented for my taste.

Conclusion

I found Slice It! fun in the earlier levels where I could get away with visual guesstimations, but math soon took over. It’s a frustratingly fun game, which programmers might find very compelling, but I felt some pangs of regret for not studying more maths way back when.

iTunes App Store Link: Slice It! — Com2uS Inc.

= 5 stars

Move a drifting orb amid others in a quest to become larger or die.

The Good

• Inspired, simple to learn basic idea: tap on the screen, and a little piece of your circular orb-thing flies in that general direction. Your orb then moves slightly due to the velocity of ejecting that piece. The goal is to grow by colliding with and devouring smaller orbs. Avoid colliding with larger orbs, as the opposite occurs.
• The rules result in unique gameplay: less becomes more. Tapping madly to move faster means shrinking in size, plus the orb bits you eject help the opposition, so you’re often better off planning every nudge and drifting.
• As with Eliss, understands the similarity between micro and macro environments — the drifting orbs, depending on the level, resemble sub-atomic particles or paramecium swallowing prey, while the levels using gravity turn the same orbs into planetary masses orbiting a sun. The glowing, bio-luminescent graphics are similarly abstract and non-committal. Your mind decides whether to use a microscope or telescope.
• Extra details at that final polish: gravity, reflections off the screen sides, pinch to zoom, a slider to adjust the rate of time, cool ambient music, and different level styles and modes that unlock as you progress.

The Bad

• At one of the orbital levels, I hit a wall — it’s always frustrating to believe you’re progressing nicely only to get stuck.

Conclusion

A near perfect game, my only complaint relating to level design. Highly recommended.

iTunes App Store Link: Osmos — Hemisphere Games

= 4 stars

Tap along with a variety of popular songs in this musical rhythm game.

The Good

• Simple gameplay: circles move toward three buttons at screen bottom. Tap a button when a circle passes over it, which occurs in time with the music. The surrounding graphic elements change to match the aesthetic of the artist’s song you’re tapping along with.
• The over a hundred free tracks are supplemented by premium songs by a large variety of artists and genres, including Lady Gaga, Foo Fighters, and Blink 182. I had to dig around to find something I actually liked; namely several Jackson 5 songs and recent Ingrid Michaelson material. The latter actually instigated a minor skirmish over the iPhone with my wife. Never encountered such passion with any other iPhone game.

The Bad

• Free songs are largely by artists unfamiliar to this Gen-Xer, and songs I actually wanted to listen to repeatedly meant paying money. And even then, the artist choices are seriously limited.
• Interface loaded with prompts to purchase additional songs, other apps, and ads — even a preroll video plays on first launch. Be wary of possible, accidental in-app purchases.
• Interface was occasionally slow when switching between different sections.

Conclusion

Addictively entertaining app with an insidious dark side which can be summed up thusly: despite the initial price of “free” expect to spend some money in order to get music you actually like.

iTunes App Store Link: Tap Tap Revenge 3 — Tapulous, Inc.

= 4 stars

Tap along to Kings of Leon songs in this musical rhythm game, based on the popular Tap Tap Revenge.

The Good

• Instantly familiar to anyone who has played Tap Tap Revenge, but even newbies will find it easy to get into: circles move toward three buttons at the bottom of the screen. Tap a button when a circle passes over it, which occurs in time with the music. It’s Rock Band simplified, and justifiably, in order to work on the small iPhone screen. The interface is redesigned to fit the band’s aestheic, with album art and photographs of the band members in the background. The result is addictive fun — lost in the tapping challenge, I somehow whittled away nearly an hour.
• Variations add longevity. There are four difficulty modes (easy, medium, hard, and extreme), a challenge mode, a chat room, and current tour info.
• “Boss songs” where beating all tunes on a particular difficulty level unlocks a new song featuring four buttons and the iPhone tipped into landscape mode.

The Bad

• Being unfamiliar with the band (hey, I’m an aging Gen Xer), would appreciate a biography section.
• Occasionally slow and unresponsive when moving between sections.

Conclusion

Despite being unfamilliar with Kings of Leon beforehand, I can now recognize their songs. That’s the true power of this insidiously fun game, to introduce you to new music without really realizing it’s happening. If you’re already a Kings of Leon fan, you’ll love this app — download it right away. As for this relative oldster: hello Tap Tap Revenge Coldplay.

iTunes App Store Link: Kings Of Leon Revenge — Tapulous, Inc.

(This review requested by developer)

= 4 stars

Take revenge on the green pigs by launching angry birds at their towers.

The Good

• Simple gameplay: tap the sling shot and drag up or down to aim at the right side of the screen. Lifting your finger launches the angry bird at a tower at the far right. Watch the results and plan your next move. Your goal is to eliminate all the green pigs hidden within each tower to pass the level.
• Increasing challenge results from more complex level design. The towers you must destroy are built of rocks, glass, and wood of different size, weight, and arrangement, that react to gravity when falling. The challenge becomes a solid mix of skill and luck.
• Interesting details add variety as you progress through the levels. You start out with red birds, then tiny blue ones that split into three if you tap the screen after launch, and yellow, triangular ones that speed up for ramming capability. With all three, feathers fly upon impact.

The Bad

• After every shot, the screen awkwardly shifts from the screen’s far right to your slingshot at the far left. Timing could use some tweaks; it takes a little too long for points to tally up or the level to reset — I found myself manually hitting the reset button to speed things along.
• Would like the ability to have the bird-launching overlap more, or allow several birds to  be launched simultaneously. Terrible strategy, but would be fun.

Conclusion

Despite a few fussy details that slow the game down, solid entertainment. Am sticking with it to see if any cats show up. Recommended.

iTunes App Store Link: Angry Birds — Clickgamer.com

= 4 stars

Hungry customer wants hot dogs with ketchup.

The Good

• Retro pixely graphics.
• Super simple gameplay. Two co-workers send hot dogs down a conveyor belt, toward a hungry customer who hates mustard. When hot dogs laden with mustard pass before your character, tap the screen to grab and toss them away. Your task is to let the ketchup hot dogs through and toss the mustard ones. That’s it.
• Long list of (unintentionally?) funny elements: Co-workers continue making mustard hotdogs when they clearly aren’t wanted — they should just — stop with the mustard. What happens to the hot dogs tossed on the floor? The customer has an endless, voracious appetite, and never gains any weight. Will he ever settle the bill? What does the letter “P” on your hat stand for?

The Bad

• Wanted more variety after a few go-rounds.
• Don’t believe there’s any way to win.

Conclusion

A completely retarded, simplistic app. But because it’s so odd, I can’t stop playing. Recommended.

iTunes App Store Link: Hotdog Panic — Poppy

= 4 stars

Track deliveries with this iPhone app.

The Good

• Supports a ridiculously large number of delivery services: UPS, USPS, FedEx, DHL, but also major ecommerce websites like Amazon, Apple, and Google Checkout.
• Simple interface: to add a new delivery, tap edit in the lower right corner, then plus in the lower left corner. Once entered, a light yellow box displays the most important info, particularly a big day number so you can tell how long you’ve been waiting. Tap the box to see more details including a map so you can locate your package.
• Works in conjunction with a Dashboard widget so you can track deliveries on your Mac.

The Bad

• Wish it updated faster.

Conclusion

One of the most tedious parts of ordering stuff online is the anticipatory waiting for a physical delivery. This app does a good job of easing your impatient, real-time web addicted soul. Recommended.

iTunes App Store Link: Delivery Status touch, a package tracker — Junecloud LLC

= 4 stars

Keep better tabs on all your hard earned money with this financial services aggregator app.

The Good

• Solves a common problem: you have several financial accounts, and are losing track of what’s where. Mint pulls all your financial information into an easy-to-understand web interface and this iPhone app, providing the big picture.
• Straightforward setup with the most tedious part, entering in login information for several accounts. Along the way were welcome reassurances that the process wouldn’t take long, and the whole set-up is secure. The iPhone app includes a PIN to prevent prying eyes.
• You can set up a monthly budget on the Mint website, and the iPhone app will alert you when your spending drifts out of line.
• In-app alerts whenever you receive an avoidable fee — I got one in regards to a non-bank ATM withdraw (yeah, that was bad), and an annual credit card service fee (maybe I should get a new card). I can already see where Mint can help me save money.

The Bad

• Doesn’t update quickly enough. The process of checking each of your financial websites can take minutes. Don’t expect to your minutes-ago ATM withdraw to appear instantaneously.
• Mint relies on each service to play nice and allow access to your information.
• Doesn’t let you perform transactions. You won’t be able to move money from one pile to another with this app.

Conclusion

Although I wish it updated faster, the Mint iPhone app definitely makes me feel more on top of my finances. Recommended.

iTunes App Store Link: Mint.com Personal Finance — Mint.com

= 4 stars

As Dante, journey through several circles of Hell to reach your lover Beatrice, before time runs out.

The Good

• Simple to play, just move in any direction to gather blue stars to open up a gateway to the next level.
• Challenge comes from the complex level design and large variety of hell-inspired obstacles: fireballs, bats, skulls, collapsing bridges, gas vents, and moving platforms. With no weapons, just the ability of movement, progress comes down to a matter of timing, but with several simultaneously moving objects, things get tricky fast. Checkpoints get heavy use.
• Feeling of impending doom as a timer set at several hours clicks down, slowly but surely.
• Very cruel sense of humor, as with each new level the game taunts you with one-liner insults.

The Bad

• Some levels are difficult to the point of frustration; I nearly gave up on this game several times, and finally threw in the towel very close to the end.
• Really unsure about having left / right buttons and up / down buttons separated, on different sides of the screen.

Conclusion

It certainly says something about Inferno’s addictiveness that I made it through over 100 levels — but eventually the towel was thrown, when I died about fifty times on one particularly ornery maze. While this trip through hell started with solid, quick fun, it eventually became relentless, tiring, and frustrating. Based on the cutting sense of humor, perhaps that’s the point, but still — boo hoo hoo.

iTunes App Store Link: The Inferno — Xpressed

= 4 stars

Control your Mac with your iPhone.

The Good

• No helper app constantly running on your Mac, connects through your Mac’s built-in Screen Sharing VNC access instead.
• The track pad screen has left and right click buttons plus a unique, rotational scrolling button at bottom: tap and run your finger clockwise or counterclockwise to scroll up or down. If that’s too much, scroll using a two-finger swipe.
• A “keyboard” button in the upper left corner calls up a touch screen keyboard.
• Contains app-specific profiles, meant to control particular apps. I was personally looking for Hulu, Boxee, DVD Player, iTunes, Plex, and FrontRow, and they’re all here. Also included are Gmail, Keynote, Windows Media Center, and XBMC. Yes, this app can control a Windows PC.
• While in a particular app, a button bar at screen bottom displays common, appropriate commands (like “back” and “reload” for Safari). Tap “more” to find even more commands, plus the ability to record your own.

The Bad

• The app launcher is one level too deep; you must tap on the currently-active application at top center, then tap All Profiles. App launching uses Spotlight, so you’ll see the Spotlight search field pop open and typing appear, which personally looks a bit awkward.

Conclusion

Despite my relatively minor gripes, Hippo Remote is a solid remote control app, with the biggest plus the lack of a constantly running helper app. Recommended.

iTunes App Store Link (HippoRemote):
iTunes App Store Link (HippoRemote Basic):

= 4 stars

Control your Mac using this iPhone track pad / remote simulator.

The Good

• The touch screen trackpad has both left and right click buttons (and an option for three), double-tap to initiate a tap-and-drag, and multi touch — swipe with two fingers to scroll. Tap and hold on the “Keys” button in the lower menu bar to bring up an on-screen keyboard.
• A “scrolling” trackpad lets you swipe up and down to scroll up and down, and pinch with two fingers to resize a window. You can also activate “circular scrolling” that simulates an iPod click wheel.
• The “Launch Pad” contains up an app launcher where you can load up your favorite apps. Currently running apps are listed with white text, with the currently “forward” app in green. Quit any app by tapping the “x” icon at right.
• The app requires a helper app called Snatch Server to be running on your Mac. Setup was so easy, I can’t recall how I did it. Snatch Server works with both Mac and Windows.
• You can create your own remote layout using a remote control editor where you drag buttons and assign shortcuts, using a “record” feature. Actually, with AppleScript support, one could create a remote to for all sorts of things on your Mac besides just launching and controlling multimedia entertainment apps.
• Has support for user-created, custom remotes. Enterprising users have already made ones for Hulu, Plex, iTunes, Safari, VLC, Gmail, Google Reader, and even Adobe CS 3 apps. Below is a snazzy iTunes remote:

The Bad

• Save for some of the custom remotes, the overall interface doesn’t look as polished as AirMouse or other iPhone remote apps (stay tuned).
• “Quirky.” Don’t like the tap-and-hold on the keys icon to bring up the on-screen keyboard — wish it were more easily accessible from the trackpad(s). Applications must be running on your Mac before they appear on the iPhone app to be bookmarked. Remote customization feels odd: resizing buttons is difficult on the small iPhone screen, the editor could use a “duplicate button” and “align” option (for lining up several buttons). Installing custom remotes takes several steps. I’ve also gotten stuck in places, like double-tapping an icon on the bottom turns all the other bottom icons grey and it took me a while to figure out double-tapping on the same icon turns this off (this is a feature?).

Conclusion

Since hooking up a Mac Mini to the television I’ve been on a quest for a good iPhone computer control app. Snatch is a great contender. Despite the lack of polish and the feeling that some of its features aren’t as straightforward as they could be, the ability to create your own remote control layout essentially means the sky’s the limit — one could create a personal, peculiarly nutty remote layout that’s ideal for your own obsessive home entertainment needs. Recommended.

iTunes App Store Link:
iTunes App Store Link (Snatch Test):

= 4 stars

Navigate a metal ball through a futuristic, obstacle-ridden maze.

The Good

• Simple controls: Control metal ball by tipping the iPhone side to side. The ball movement is responsive yet slightly delayed, simulating momentum and inertia, lending the ball a satisfying heft.
• The rest of the game is provided through thoughtful level design (essentially, a vertically-scrolling maze) and obstacle variety: oscillating walls that push your ball, colored gates where you must “charge” your ball with the same color to pass through, instant death through spinning spikes or holes where you fall through the maze to your doom, trampolines to bounce your ball over gaps, and even small circles that must be nudged into place in order to open doors.
• Graphics are detailed and expertly done, simulating a futuristic factory complex.

The Bad

• My own personal taste: wish the ball had a laser gun or bombs to set off. Pew pew pew.

Conclusion

Dark Nebula is a satisfying, well-executed variation on the ball-in-a-maze game. Recommended.

iTunes App Store Link (Dark Nebula):
iTunes App Store Link (Dark Nebula Lite):

= 4 stars

Add mustaches and beards to photographs using this photo-enhacing iPhone app.

The Good

• Highly detailed mustaches, including transparency so you can slightly see things beneath — essential for a realistic look. The resultant pictures can look surprisingly good.
• In addition to mustaches, there are beards, head-hair and even a pair of shades and fake teeth. In total are 43 elements with silly names like “magnum’stache,” “travolta’stache,” and “wtfstache.”
• Increase or decrease the size of any added element, plus rotate to get just the right positioning, all done intuitively through the iPhone’s multitouch.
• Can add multiple elements to any one photograph.
• Options to save to your camera roll, email, or post to a public gallery.

The Bad

• Would be nice to change mustache / beard color.

Conclusion

‘Stachtastic is a silly app, but does what it claims in a straightforward, competent manner. Could some enterprising developer combine ‘Stachetastic with Cat Paint?

iTunes App Store Link:

= 4 stars

Reduce stress using this iPhone app featuring mind-body healing expert Deepak Chopra.

The Good

• Pretty much everyone would benefit from less stress in their lives.
• Deepak Chopra (authority in the field of mind-body healing), makes regular appearances in the form of videos, audio narration, writings, and even email — you receive daily advice and reminders of your progress, and Chopra himself promises to regularly answer selected questions sent from app users. Although Chopra’s presence is an illusion of technology, it feels like a direct conversation, which is a big help toward sticking with the program.
• A path consisting of six keys is unlocked through sequential activities. I personally found this linear approach more satisfying than the circular, do-what-you-like method of the Live Happy app (also made by Signal Patterns).
• I believe the exercises contained within (relaxation, music therapy, yoga, meditation, savoring good things) can work to reduce stress. They are well thought out and the makers of the app seem sincere in their intent to help people — this isn’t a quick fix. The biggest barrier is the user’s discipline over time, which is no fault of the app.

The Bad

• Different volume levels between videos and audio files; I found myself regularly adjusting the iPhone volume to compensate.
• The interface could use a little more polish. Some scrolling text areas are draggable while they’re scrolling along with audio narration, resulting in a tug-of-war. The navigation is sometimes confusing, as I’ve had trouble revisiting some of the videos (hint: tap the “i” icon in the upper right).
• Relieving stress may be priceless, but $9.99 feels a little high.

Conclusion

Stress Free With Deepak Chopra is an improvement over the Live Happy app because of a more linear approach, plus it has the persuasive power of Chopra’s calming personality to help one stick to the program. And did I feel less stress while testing the app? Well, let’s just say I’ve gotten through both Thanksgiving, a winter holiday, and a blizzard without any weight gain. Namaste.

iTunes App Store Link:

(Disclosure: This review requested by developer, and I received a free review copy of  the iPhone app)

= 4 stars

Kill undead monsters or be killed in this stylized action shooter.

The Good

• Resembles an animated graphic novel with line-drawn art. The overall theme is creepy gothic, “steampunk” genre, from the graveyard and creepy carnival environments to odd weapons like the “steam powered machine gun.” The main character Marie Dupois is pale with red hair and a dark blue skirt, appealingly hiked to show a fair amount of leg and garter.
• Straightforward controls and gameplay: movement d-pad on the left and weapons firing d-pad on the right. Killed monsters drop progressively stronger weapons (crossbow, machine gun, grenade launcher), ammo, money, and one-time use weapons (power glove, Nietzsche cap). There’s a progressive adventure mode and faster arcade “survival” mode. The progressive game includes stores to purchase character improvements, and you must destroy all monster-generators to complete a level.
• Some objects other than monsters react to your battles; you can destroy gravestones and carnival posters.

The Bad

• Rather derivative of the vampire-hunting game iDracula, which has a similar theme, runs faster, is more adrenaline-pumping, and has more appealing, efficient, pixel-art graphics.
• Occasional “grinding” moments, and down times when all the monsters are killed and you’re aimlessly wandering to find an exit.

Conclusion

Although I prefer the more exciting iDracula, Garters and Ghouls is a solid game, with particular appeal to creepy graphic novel fans.

= 4 stars

Embark on various quests in this first person, adventure role playing game.

The Good

• Impressive graphics by iPhone standards: the world is three dimensional, which fully draws you in once you leave the safety of the town.
• Immediately familiar gameplay: slaughter stuff for experience and treasure, equip your hero with better weapons and armor purchased from various stores, and learn of new quests through conversations with villagers.
• Necessary variety is eventually revealed: a bow and blast arrows make an indispensable weapon. Quests range from killing a scary monster hidden above a series of winding staircases to saving a child in spooky dungeon. Landscapes include snow covered mountains, burning lava, to rolling pastures.

The Bad

• Awkward controls: A left D-pad allows movement in any direction, but it doesn’t control which direction you’re facing. To rotate, you must swipe the screen in any direction. Running in a circle requires a rather odd, two-handed maneuver. This could have been solved with having left / right of the D-pad control your rotation (Doom Classic).
• Initially confusing quests: I wasted time shooting beehives before realizing I had skipped over several simpler tasks.
• Occasionally odd graphics: You can end up suspended in mid-air at the world’s edges, dead bodies appear to fall partly beneath the ground, treasure boxes don’t open, and the killer rats and imps just look ridiculous.

Conclusion

Ravensword took a little time to get into, but I soon became hooked and played obsessively through to its eventual end. Yes, it’s yet-another-role-playing-game like many others, but it’s on the iPhone — which makes all the difference.

iTunes App Store Link:

= 4 stars

Decorate your photos with a variety of cute cats.

The Good

• Performs as advertised. Just tap anywhere on the screen to place a cat there to the sound of a random cat meow. The experience oddly, highly amusing based on the limited functionality. But of course, I’m a cat nut.
• Tab a red tab at screen bottom to call up some painting options. You can choose from eight different cats, change the cat size with a slider, save a photograph to your camera roll, email, or an online gallery, or call up the camera so you can take a new picture to cat-paint.

The Bad

• Even more cats would be nice, or the ability to add your own.
• Could use more editing options: would be nice to rotate the cats, or erase.

Conclusion

If you’re a cat fiend — and only such individuals are likely still reading this review — you’ll like this app. Meow.

iTunes App Store Link:

= 4 stars

The classic action shooter comes to the iPhone. Blow up increasingly scary monsters with increasingly powerful weapons.

The Good

• Straightforward port; if you played the game before, it’s exactly as you remember. The level design still comes across really top notch — you’re subtly guided toward specific goals — and there are various contrasting moments to induce tension: moving platforms, dark passages, poisonous floors, and suddenly charing enemies. I enjoyed recognizing once-forgotten yet immediately familiar rooms concealing scary surprises.
• The serviceable controls consist of a d-pad on the left and a fire button on the right. An action (opening a door or flipping a switch) is initiated by tapping the top of the screen.
• Myriad of other control schemes, available under settings.
• Multiplayer mode over your local network.

The Bad

• Tapping the top of the screen to perform an action is a bit awkward, since it means momentarily lifting your thumbs from the controls. Also, the basic controls don’t include the ability to slide-to-either-side while facing forward (if memory serves correctly, this was originally performed by holding down shift while tapping a left or right arrow key). You’ll have to delve deep into the custom settings to remedy either issue.
• Would be nice to have multiplayer via the Internet, like iMech.
• $6.99 feels a little high.

Conclusion

Despite my complaints, Doom Classic is more fun than not, as I’m presently determined to re-encounter the game’s boss, which I vaguely recall was a horrific brain on robot legs. And that’s the whole point of Doom Classic: another terrifying go-round with a barely remembered digital nightmare.

iTunes App Store Link:

= 4 stars

Variation on the “match three falling items” genre, featuring objects that morph into others, making the game progressively harder.

The Good

• Simple gameplay that results in a solid game due to simple rules. Three or more of the identical adjacent item removes them from the board, and a new item appears in their place. Then get three of those new items next to each other, and that new piece begins appearing in the pair of items that drop from the top of the screen. The challenge increases quickly, because matches become more difficult with each new item appearing in your dropping-repertoire. Soon the board fills up and you lose.
• The variety of objects inspires repeat gameplay. I’ve only gotten up to snowflakes (number 9) and there are many more to go (27).
• A recent update added some additional modes for variety: “Blitz” mode features a smaller screen and only seven elements to deal with, and “Gone In 20 Seconds” mode has no falling pieces to control; just tap on the screen to rearrange elements into matches. Both modes are much faster paced.

The Bad

• The menu screen and settings surround the game itself are oddly designed. It’s hard to tell what to tap on, and the three-dimensional font used is difficult to read.

Conclusion

Great game based on a deceptively smart variation of the match-falling-items genre. Recommended.

iTunes App Store Link:

= 4 stars

Photography app that creates “tilt shift” photos, where a life-sized location or subject ends up looking like a tiny, miniature model.

The Good

• Intuitive UI: a row of icons along the bottom of the screen, several sliders, and lots of room to see the results on your photograph.
• Several options to tweak your photo: a blur filter where you can adjust the location, diameter, and amount of blur, a color area to adjust saturation, brightness, and contrast, and vignetting adds some shadow around the edges of your photograph.
• Options to use photos from your existing camera roll or take a photo within the app. Once done, you can save the photo to your camera roll or export it to email or Twitter.

The Bad

• Results vary widely and don’t automatically look miniaturized. You still have to have an eye for composition and appropriate subject matter. Without much care, photos will merely end up looking “blurry.”

Conclusion

Although the results don’t always end up looking like an expertly-done “tilt shift” photo, I still recommend this app as yet another, welcome cool effects generator for photos taken with the iPhone. The iPhone camera needs all the help it can get and this app provides some.

iTunes App Store Link:

= 4 stars

News app delivering the familiar weekly news magazine TIME to your iPhone.

The Good

• Clear navigation. A menu bar at top (that also scrolls horizontally) takes you to subject sections of the magazine (headlines, politics, U.S., world, business, etc.). Buttons at the bottom lead to different app sections (news, lists, quotes, popular, and media). There’s a toggle button at top to switch between a more familiar thumbnail image and text headline view to a more graphically oriented large image, horizontally scrolling “image flow” view.
• The media section consists of photographs and videos. Videos display using the familiar iPhone UI.
• Button to share articles via email or Twitter.
• Can adjust font size.
• Can read articles in landscape view.

The Bad

• Don’t care for the default “image flow” view, and prefer the more standard thumbnail plus headlines view for articles. Thankfully, you can turn off “image flow” view for all sections by tapping the settings “gear” icon in the upper left corner.
• Personally find the “Top 10 Lists” and “Quotes” sections pointless.
• One bug: when reading an article in landscape view, and tapping the next article button, the next article’s text width is formatted for the vertical view and therefore too narrow. To get the text to flow to the full width, you have to tip the phone 90 degrees and back to “reset” the view.

Conclusion

Despite occasionally klunky article display and lacking the “wow” factor of CNN app’s videos, TIME Mobile is free, and as such this is essentially a free subscription to TIME magazine on your iPhone. As far as I’m concerned it’s good enough to forgo the TIME magazine “dead tree” subscription.

iTunes App Store Link:

= 4 stars

Remote control app that lets your iPhone control a Netflix / Roku Box.

The Good

• The iPhone has to be on the same WiFi network as the Netflix / Roku Box, which is kind of a given if you’re at home in front of your television ready to watch a Watch Instantly flick. The app found our Netflix / Roku Box automatically on first launch.

The Bad

• The buttons don’t auto-repeat when held down, which would be useful in the case of scrolling through movie titles. So you have to tap the next button repeatedly to get to a movie you like.

Conclusion

Performs as advertised, and brings the iPhone one step closer to replacing my universal remote.

iTunes App Store Link:

= 4 stars

News app that serves up text articles and video clips from CNN, the ubiquitous television news channel.

The Good

• Pretty intuitive navigation based on other news apps. The menu bar at the top slides to the left and right, revealing more options, and a row of icons at the bottom indicate sections.
• If you don’t like reading, there’s a video section which focuses just on the video content, which coming from CNN, there’s a lot of. All the videos played just fine, and utilize the iPhone’s built in controls for volume and scrubbing, etc. Helpful is a total time indicator beneath each clip. The text articles also have preceding bullet points summing up the major topics.
• Button lets you share content via a text message, email, Twitter, or Facebook.
• A “My CNN” section lets you personalize content. Your location can be used to serve up news, the weather, and traffic conditions. The “Followed” section lets create particular topics and content is served up based on those keywords. A numeric indicator next to the “My CNN” icon updates when new articles are found based on your topics.
• An “iReport” section lets you watch user-created content and even submit stuff you’ve recorded yourself, namely a photograph or video taken with your iPhone. There’s even an “Assignments” section listing topics budding journalists can work on.
• Tilting the iPhone into landscape mode shifts the UI into a “cover view” mode that’s a bit less elegant than Apple’s iTunes version, but is still kind of cool. You can browse news articles visually, and tapping on an image shows you the article’s bullet points.

The Bad

• Can’t read articles in landscape mode.
• Doesn’t have any complete CNN shows. This is just about serving up news and news clips.
• A fair amount of banner ads, a little irksome seeing how this is a paid app.

Conclusion

This app does a great job of serving up the CNN content — in particular, video — on the iPhone. Recommended.

iTunes App Store Link:

= 4 stars

Photo editing app that brings some basic features of Photoshop, Adobe’s powerful image editor, to the iPhone.

The Good

• Performs several useful image editing functions in intuitive ways: crop, rotate, flip, exposure, saturation, tint, black and white, sketch, soft focus, and an area that applies a variety of amusing filters. Once an effect is chosen, the amount of effect is controlled by swiping across the screen. A numeric indicator shows the level.
• Undo and redo.
• Works with the iPhone camera and camera roll so you can take a new photograph within the app or edit a photo already stored on the iPhone. Once done editing, you can save the edited photo to your camera roll.
• Account at Photoshop.com not required for image editing. But if you do have a Photoshop.com account you can upload, store, and share all your iPhone photos using that service.

The Bad

• Any regular Photoshop (or Photoshop.com) user will think of additional functions that would be nice to have, such as blur or focus, or multitouch to zoom in and out. This isn’t by any means a Photoshop replacement or even equivalent. I hope this app will get better over time with the addition of more features.

Conclusion

Adobe’s first entry into iPhone apps is solidly comparable to other iPhone editing programs — and the best part: it’s free.

iTunes App Store Link:

= 4 stars

Reference app that hooks into IMDB, allowing look up of movie, television show, actor, and director information. You’ll never wonder who that guy in that movie nobody heard of, ever again.

The Good

• One requirement when using any app that pulls in data from a website: must be quicker than just firing up Safari. Movie Genie passes. The standard iPhone list menus are put to good use for scrolling and tapping, and further information slides in from the right, a big improvement over the dense IMDB website proper. Fast and responsive.
• Some nice user interface additions: When drilling down into “Cast & Crew” there is a touch-strip on the right side with abbreviations for sections (director, writer, cast, etc.).

The Bad

• Doesn’t support IMDB’s photos or message board. Also doesn’t have episode listings for television shows, but a future version will support this.
• Could use a settings area to adjust display, or a button to clear everything in the history at once. I don’t want to be reminded of looking up Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past.

Conclusion

This app is certain to get a ton of use from this self-confessed movie junkie (isn’t it obvious?). Recommended.

iTunes App Store Link:

= 4 stars

Kill or be killed in this multiplayer, first person action shooter where you control a walking robot that blows up robots piloted by other iPhone users.

The Good

• Familiar dual D-pad controls; movement on the left and firing on the right.
• Variety of weapons chosen by tapping icons at the bottom center. Choose from a machine gun, laser (hold down to increase power and release to fire), a flame thrower, and a highly destructive missile.
• 3D graphics, with your view from just behind your robot.
• Way cool demo of multiplayer gaming on the iPhone. Just enter a game and you’re fighting other iPhone users, somewhere, playing the same game. It worked flawlessly over WiFi and a 3G connection.

The Bad

• Could use more variety in terms of weapons or power-ups.

Conclusion

Fun multiplayer shoot-em up with the seamless multiplayer feature as the best part. The game itself needs a little more variety to earn that extra star.

iTunes App Store Link: