Daily Archives: September 7, 2010

Top iPhone Game Apps: Zombie Highway, Slice It! Makes Chart Debuts

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Top iPhone Game Apps: Zombie Highway, Slice It! Makes Chart Debuts is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website

Every week, FingerGaming rounds up the most popular paid and free iPhone and iPod Touch applications, as current that day on the iTunes App Store. This week’s top paid titles are:

  1. Angry Birds ($0.99)
  2. Fruit Ninja ($0.99)
  3. Slice It! ($0.99)
  4. Monopoly ($2.99)
  5. Words With Friends ($2.99)
  6. Pac-Man ($4.99)
  7. Where’s Waldo? ($0.99)
  8. Doodle Jump ($0.99)
  9. Zombie Highway ($0.99)
  10. Scrabble ($0.99)

Mobile publisher Com2uS enters the iPhone charts this week its item-halving puzzler Slice It!, while Halfbrick’s Fruit Ninja and Clickgamer’s Angry Birds finish as the platform’s biggest sellers.

Gameloft’s The Oregon Trail drops out of the top ten after claiming second place last week, as EA’s Monopoly returns to the charts at fourth place. Renderpaz’s Zombie Highway debuts at ninth, meanwhile, as Where’s Waldo? overtakes Doodle Jump for seventh place.

  1. Hoggy
  2. Sky Burger
  3. Pirate Nation
  4. Mini JewelSmash!
  5. The Creeps!
  6. Stair Dismount Universal
  7. Pizza Shop Mania
  8. Flip Cup Free
  9. Doodle Pool
  10. Fuzzle

Raptisoft’s puzzler Hoggy leads as today’s top free game download in the App Store. NimbleBit’s Sky Burger takes second place during a day-long free download promotion, as MiniNation’s Pirate Nation finishes third.

Former paid apps The Creeps! and Stair Dismount Universal also see chart success after being released for free for a limited time, while Pizza Shop Mania beats out Flip Cup Free for seventh place in today’s results.


Unity Extends Mobile Generation Education Project Deadline

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Unity Extends Mobile Generation Education Project Deadline is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website

Unity Technologies announced a deadline extension for its Mobile Generation Education Project, a campaign that aims to equip selected academic institutions with multiplatform Unity development technology.

The project seeks applications from university instructors who wish to incorporate mobile and tablet PC development in a game design curriculum. The application for entry is September 30th.

20 winning applicants will receive a free copy of Unity Pro for Android and a Google Nexus One phone, and will advance to the next round of judging. Participating instructors must then submit a proposal for a full-semester mobile games curriculum, including example lectures.

Three chosen winners will receive 20 Unity Pro licenses and 20 Google Nexus One phones for use in a proposed game development curriculum.

Unity notes that a number of game development programs across the United States have adopted Unity technology, including Georgia Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Carnegie Mellon University.

“The pace of game/application development is so rapid that it’s almost impossible for educators to keep up on their own,” said Davey Jackson, Educational Outreach Director for Unity Technologies. “We believe it’s crucial to work closely with educators to provide them with technology and expertise to help them structure courses that will teach their students the skills necessary to begin a successful career in the games industry of tomorrow.”


‘Pizza Boy’ Review – A Bite-Sized Pizza-Packed Platformer

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‘Pizza Boy’ Review – A Bite-Sized Pizza-Packed Platformer is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website

Swedish iPhone developer Acne Play released their second game on the App Store today. With fantastic art similar to their other title, Comet [99¢], Pizza Boy [$1.99] is a platformer with some of the best controls I've seen in the genre. The story is ridiculous as expected, told through fantastic comic book style sequences that explain that an evil bird has stolen your pizza– of course you need to get it back. Unfortunately, between you and your beloved pizza pie are all kinds of obstacles, enemies, pits, trampolines, and everything else a good platformer needs.

Pizza Boy's graphics are highly reminiscent of excellent platformers of the 16 bit era with some perfectly paired chiptune music to go along with them. (They even put the whole soundtrack up online to listen to.) The game is host to all the gameplay mechanics required for a good platformer, with an odd culinary twist. Instead of collecting coins you pick up strawberries, and 100 strawberries award an extra life. Instead of tossing fireballs you throw soda bottles which are available in a limited quantity from soda machines that you stomp on. In addition, you can collect letters to form the word "pizza," and you can even rescue cats on each level for bonus points.

Where Pizza Boy really shines is in the control department. Pizza Boy's iTunes description mentions something Acne Play is calling the "Smart Touch System," which I'd normally write off as just a gimmick, but the controls are just fantastic. I'm not sure how much magic is in the Smart Touch System but while playing Pizza Boy I never ran in to issues I usually have with platformers on the iPhone such as missing buttons, sliding my finger off the D-Pad, and other fat fingerings that often result in death.

What kills me about Pizza Boy is how little content there is in the game. The developers even went as far as to say in the iTunes description that it would only take a half hour to play through. They later clarified this via email by saying that it was a guesstimate for how long it would take an experienced player, and it took me close to 45 minutes. The worst part about all this is that Pizza Boy is great, and the entire game really leaves you wanting more. The only online scoring there is in the game is the ability to brag via Facebook or Twitter, which pains me even further because a short score-centric game like this could have a decent amount of replay value injected in to it with some form of online leaderboard.

Pizza Boy really reminds me a lot of the recently released physics puzzler No, Human which also was over before you knew it, leaving you wanting much more. Just like No, Human, if you decide to give Pizza Boy a try you'll be rewarded with an awesome platformer, but the credits roll just as you really start to get in to it.

App Store Link: Pizza Boy, $1.99


GPS Games Get a Third Dimension in Ghosts Attack

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GPS Games Get a Third Dimension in Ghosts Attack is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website

If you are like me, then use of the GPS functionality in your iPhone consists of nothing more than swearing at Google Maps as it sends you lord knows where, when you just wanted to cross the street. There have been a few games that have made use of the feature in interesting ways, but implementing it as a core mechanic has been fairly rare. Well that is about to change if Tarver Games has anything to say about it.

From Chris Cross, the design director originally behind the first console releases of the Medal of Honor franchise, comes Ghosts Attack, a vehicle based combat game that generates the game world from your own surroundings, using GPS data.

Read the rest of this article on The Portable Gamer.

FREE!
$2.99

Ghosts Attack

+ Universal App – Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2009-12-10 :: Category: Games / Adventure

[ GPS Games Get a Third Dimension in Ghosts Attack is a post from 148Apps ]


Miriel the Magical Merchant HD Review

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Miriel the Magical Merchant HD Review is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website

Developer: 10 Tons
Price: $4.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0

iPad Integration Rating: 4 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: 4.33 out of 5 stars

A sign of a good Game App is one that prevents you from writing a review about it, as you’re too busy playing it to get around to write it up. Miriel the Magical Merchant HD is just such an App. For fans of Time Management Games (like Diner Dash or Cake Mania), this is a goldmine. While obviously people who are not a fan of this style of gameplay will automatically steer clear, finding a decent Time Management game can be difficult sometimes. Developers really need to know the balance of the game, and lucky for us, 10 Tons does a great job with Miriel.

The game starts out with a sort of Story Mode, about how Miriel’s father mysteriously left, and she’s working at the store to save up to go to Magic School (or something along those lines). The object of the game is to serve your customers in a timely manner. This begins quite simply as you only have a few items for sale that can be requested. The games difficultly level slowly increases with ‘baked items’ (where you have to combine two or more ingredients in the oven) that take 2x or even 3x the amount of time to prepare. Your goal is to serve as many customers as you can, as quickly as you can, to reach your daily (or Master) goal for money each day.

Nearly every new day offers a unique challenge or reward. Sometimes you’ll get a new item for sale, or sometimes you’ll get a new customer type. At the end of each week you move on to another town and get the chance to upgrade your equipment by playing a matching mini-game. A nice feature of this App is that you can go and play the mini-game on your own at any point if you want to from the main menu. There are fun little features like The Haste Machine (which speeds up your cooking, and movements) which you can use by collecting gold wings, by serving customers quickly.

As you progress, the items get more and more difficult, and you get more and more items. While you frantically run around stocking, baking and serving, you’ll have a blast. The only feature I would add is the ability to quit or restart mid-level (as sometimes you simply get too far behind) and the ability to re-play a level of your choice.

As addicted as I was to Cake Mania, I think that Miriel has taken the cake (no pun intended) as my new favorite game of this style. The art work is stunning, and playing on my iPad is a breeze compared to PC or DS gameplay. This game is a bargain at this price point, and I highly, highly recommend it.

[ Miriel the Magical Merchant HD Review is a post from 148Apps ]


All-In Yoga HD for iPad Review

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All-In Yoga HD for iPad Review is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website

Developer: ARAWELLA CORPORATION
Price: $4.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0
Device Reviewed On: iPad

iPad Integration Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
User Interface Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Re-use Value Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Overall Rating: 4.33 out of 5 stars

The iPad is quickly establishing itself as more than a simple media consumption device — more than just a viewing/listening device for movies, books and music. Some developers are beginning to see the potential for the iPad as an actual teaching device, one that can interact and grow with students as they develop skills. All-In Yoga HD is part of this new vanguard of apps. It is not without a few minor issues, but it does show how the iPad can improve on the standard book or even video approach for teaching a skill.

Opening the All-In Yoga app presents users with a small, simple number of options. You can look at the pose base, a composite encyclopedia of all available yoga poses in the app, or the “My Programs” section, which allows you to choose from several ready-made yoga routines (ranging from beginners to advance/guru) or design your own based upon your own needs. Once you have selected or created a program, you can save it and run it at any time.

When you start a yoga program, you have the option of having pose instructions spoken, playing background music (currently limited to in-app music – no integration with your iTunes library at this point) and even having pose videos play in some cases. Each pose is timed and will automatically proceed to the next after the assigned time passes.

Once you have completed a yoga routine/program, the calendar on the home screen marks the date of your yoga, the time you spent in the routine, and which routine you worked through. This is a handy feature for anyone wishing to track their development as a yoga student and a great inclusion in the app.

If there is one nit to pick with All-In Yoga HD (and, thankfully, there seems to be only this one), it’s that it is severely gender-biased towards women. Everything, from the app icon to the background screens in-app, is pink with flowers everywhere. The poses are all performed by women, though, strangely, the audio instructions are spoken by a man. I’m not proposing that the developer have a male version and a female version – just a more gender neutral app. I’m sure there are many men (myself included) who practice yoga and would like to feel included in an app as strong and useful as this.

All-In Yoga HD is an impressive app for anyone interested in beginning a yoga routine or growing further as a yoga student. Gender bias aside, it is a fantastic app, and one that shows the potential of the iPad as a teaching/learning device.

[ All-In Yoga HD for iPad Review is a post from 148Apps ]


iArrPirate Quenches My Pirate Look-a-like Thirst

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iArrPirate Quenches My Pirate Look-a-like Thirst is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website

Yeeearrrghhh, I have an insatiable appetite for taking silly pictures of myself and sending them off to others. I (sadly) do it all day with PhotoBooth, but nothing can prepare people for my next batch of email picture goodness.

iArrPirate, my new favorite toy, turns me into whatever kind of pirate I want to be. I can wear a big scary pirate hat (arrr!), or a swashbuckling bandana (aieee), or a whole mess of other piratey stuff.

The auto email that the app makes for you though is really lame (“Check out this cool photo I just took with iArrPirate”), but you can easily erase that. I’d recommend changing it to something like, “Arrrrgh, this may be the last face you see today, you son of a biscuit eater. Savvy?”

Oh, and a quick hint on using the app. To get rid of items, you have to expand them til they pop off the screen. You have no idea how long I was stuck with pirate wench hair after accidentally clicking on it.

To celebrate the launch, user that tweets the best photo from iArrPirate by Talk Like a Pirate Day (September 19th) will win a $50 iTunes Gift Card. Just make sure you use the #iArrPirate50 tag, or you won’t be seen. Check out the Riptide Games website for if you want to read the fine print.

So go on you scalleywags, I have about 50 more emails to send out. I’ll strike fear into the hearts of all you landlubbers.

$0.99

iArrPirate

iPhone App – Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2010-08-29 :: Category: Photography

[ iArrPirate Quenches My Pirate Look-a-like Thirst is a post from 148Apps ]