Category Archives: $3.99

One Man Left Announces ‘Tilt to Live HD’ for the iPad

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One Man Left Announces ‘Tilt to Live HD’ for the iPad is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website

One Man Left's Tilt to Live [99¢] has been a favorite of mine for quite a while now. In our review we discuss just how much fun its avoidance based gameplay is, and since then they've updated the game to add new power-ups and game modes not once, but twice.

Announced mere moments ago is Tilt to Live HD for the iPad, which according to developers One Man Left won't just be a simple up-scaling, and instead will be a similar game with an arena that is four times as large… Best yet, it will be free to try with a demo mode and a $3.99 in-app purchase to unlock the rest of the content in the game. Tilt to Live HD will be tilt controlled much like its iPhone counterpart, and although the developers are claiming the controls have been optimized for the iPad, I'm curious to see how well the game works in practice as many tilt controlled iPad games get tiresome due to the weight of the device.

Tilt to Live HD is due to be released on the App Store this September, and as soon we we get our grubby little hands on it, we'll post some more details on the game.


Friendly — Facebook Browser Review

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Friendly — Facebook Browser Review is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website

Developer: OECOWAY, Inc.
Price: $3.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0
Device Reviewed On: iPad

iPad Integration Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
User Interface Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Re-use Value Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

Overall Rating: 2.83 out of 5 stars

Facebook was notoriously late in the game getting their iPhone app into the App Store, and so far there’s been no sign of a Facebook iPad app. So it’s left to third party developers to fill the gap. One recent entry into the App Store is Friendly — Facebook Browser, a usable-enough app that is light on features.

Friendly is a pretty close cypher for what I would expect an official Facebook app to look and feel like. It carries over the site’s blue-and-white color scheme, post layout, and pretty much everything else. What it has over simply visiting Facebook through Safari is readability — everything here is optimized for reading on the iPad, with larger fonts, less clutter, and no ads for Pirate Bay or Mafia Wars. There’s give and take, though, because you also lose the little sidebar touches, like Friends Online or the Information snapshot in a profile. But if you’ve simply not been happy with the way Facebook looks on the iPad, Friendly could offer you a more palatable choice.

Where Friendly falls short of just accessing Facebook from Safari is in the amount of things it doesn’t do. It is limited to feed and message services — no access to games or quizzes, no photo uploading, no chat. In fact, even some types of posts don’t make it into the Friendly feed, like “tagged in an album” posts; while these aren’t the most important things in the Live Feed, they’re still something that should be there, and it’s strange that they are excluded. All in all, a lot is missing from the Friendly browser experience, which will annoy dedicated users who like those features.

There were a couple of times I wanted more in terms of interface, too. For example, I’d love to be able to swipe through photo albums instead of static button taps to progress. Also, there’s no way to refresh the live feed to check for new posts. Only by navigating away and then back can you bring up new posts. A Refresh button would be most welcome.

So, should you buy Friendly, or should you continue using Facebook on the web? It depends upon what’s important to you. If you prefer the fullest Facebook experience possible on the iPad, then stick with Safari. But if you favor readability and less clutter, and if you’re less interested in the more ancillary Facebook features, then Friendly might be the app for you.

[ Friendly — Facebook Browser Review is a post from 148Apps ]


Wide Angle Review

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Wide Angle Review is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website

Developer: Taylan Pince
Price: $3.99
Version: 1.0.0

Design Rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars
Features Rating: 2.75 out of 5 stars
Integration Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Overall Rating: 3.17 out of 5 stars

Wide Angle is a news photography application that takes images from “big picture” posts – a collection of stunning snapshots, usually at least ten, from a single news story. Short captions are then applied, with the images being the centre of attention.

Presently, there are only two sources to view – The Big Picture and CBC Photo Galleries. There are a significant amount of galleries to view from within these two sources, but this is nonetheless a heavy limitation on the application. We hope that future updates will add more sources.

Navigation is simple, with a single vertical column along the left that lists the titles of all of the galleries. A circle beside them highlights which ones you’ve looked at fully (grey), partially (half grey half blue) and which ones you haven’t seen yet (blue). Viewing the images themselves reveals the Apple-style fast scroll feature, first seen on the iPad and now introduced on the iPhone with iOS4. This is very nice integration – it gives Wide Angle a much more official, respectable feel to it and makes it easier to navigate your way around particular galleries. The images are of reasonably high quality, making good use of the iPad’s generous display.

The captions have some opacity to them, and are limited in size which focuses the attention on the pictures. Captions can turned off with a single tap and remain that way for that particular gallery. Everything bar the picture (and caption, if you have them on) fades away after a few seconds, allowing the picture to take up the entire screen with no distractions. You can scroll the pictures manually with flicks of the finger if you wish.

Its drawback is its lack of sources. It operates by pulling pictures from specific RSS feeds, but there is no way to add your own. In addition, there is no search for a specific gallery. You can share a gallery link over e-mail, but Facebook and Twitter users are left empty-handed. What Wide Angle provides it does with precision: high quality, mesmerising images. It just needs to offer more.

[ Wide Angle Review is a post from 148Apps ]


Domino Box HD

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Domino Box HD is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website

Developer: Renato Pessanha
Price: $3.99
Version: 1.0

Graphics / Sound Rating: 3.25 out of 5 stars
Gameplay Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Re-use / Replay Value Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Overall Rating: 3.25 out of 5 stars

Dominos was my favourite game as a kid (heck, it’s still in my top ten now). The idea is simple: you have to match one end of a domino tile to another end on the board. For example, if there’s an open “5″ on the board then you can only put another domino that has a “5″ on either end of it by that particular domino. If your tiles don’t match anything on the board, you’ll have to take more dominos until you have a match somewhere. Once you’ve reached a certain number of points – the amount of which is customizable – you’ve won. Getting rid of all your dominos will get you points.

Domino Box HD keeps things easy – the gameplay is refreshingly simple. Whenever you tap on a domino in your own box, the game highlights where it can go. You tap on the space where you want it to go and it sorts out the rotating and positioning for you. Although you could theoretically “cheat” with this method, it is the same technique employed in similar games. An ability to drag a domino manually, and rotate it manually, would resolve the issue altogether.

The game can be played in single player against a bot, or by multiplier with three other friends. Each friend’s tiles are hidden once they’ve made their move, as the idea is you pass the iPad around. There are three sets of rules to choose from, each explained within the application: draw game, international and points by 5’s.

The dominos and board are customizable with mix and match. There are five different boards to choose from – wood, chalkish and red, blue & green carpet. Dominos can be in black with white spots, wood with black spots or wood with coloured spots. The sounds are optional, and you can choose to play your own background song through iTunes.

And that’s really all there is to it! You aren’t faced with a myriad of options or configurations, the focus is on simplicity and gameplay. Resultantly, there aren’t any structural flaws to the application. Its only drain is its re-use value – like any game, after a while it gets repetitive. With the limited amount of action in Dominos, that feeling of repetitiveness does come quicker than usual – even to a domino lover like myself. There’s no online play, meaning your stuck against a single AI – an ability to play against multiple AI wouldn’t have gone amiss.

Overall, Domino Box HD is a nice addition to your iPad – it’s fun, simple and brings back fond memories to those of us who used to play the game long before even the iMac was around.

[ Domino Box HD is a post from 148Apps ]


‘Babylonian Twins’ 75% Off, Marking Amiga’s 25th Anniversary

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‘Babylonian Twins’ 75% Off, Marking Amiga’s 25th Anniversary is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website

As someone who's been a gamer for 30 years now, I must say things have come a long way from those distant, humble beginnings.

A few crude black and white blocks turned into somewhat less crude color blocks, which became much nicer looking high-palette pixel art and — flash forward 20 years — we've got expansive 3D worlds rendered sharper than a high-definition feature film. Technology marches ever on and, along the way, has brought gamers a vast array of computers and consoles, each a step forward from the one that came before. And the largest single step forward along these lines that ever took place was unquestionably the arrival of the Amiga from Commodore.

At half the price of the Macintosh and a quarter the price of IBM's meatiest desktop, the Amiga, which PC World called the seventh greatest computer of all time, delivered vastly more capable hardware than either, along with a fully preemptive multitasking UNIX-like operating system. Nothing of the likes of its graphics and audio capabilities had ever been seen before. It excelled in gaming and this new sort of thing called "multimedia" that, at the time, people really didn't know what to make of. It really was 10 years before its time.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Amiga and a number of tech sites are taking the opportunity to pay tribute to this infulential platform with retrospectives and historical pieces. And, we're happy to report that Amiga and iPhone developer Rabah Shihab is honoring the occasion by dropping the price of Babylonian Twins for the iPhone [App Store] by 75% this weekend.

We took a close look at this reimagining of his 17-year old Amiga title back in April and found it to be one of the very best iPhone games out there (we gave it 4.5 stars). An iPad version is also available [App Store].

Babylonian Twins is s a puzzle-platformer with two-character tag-team type play. You control brothers Nasir and Blasir in order to solve each levels. Each character has some special abilities, but only one can be active at once. Switching between the two is as simple as tapping on a button — leaving the unplayed character as a statue. You'll find you need to tag team to make your way past puzzles and obstacles, and even use the other character as a springboard to jump higher. Blasir can jump higher, and dash into walls, while Nasir spin to break through weakened floors. The game is a collaborative effort between the two characters.

The game has been entirely revamped since the original Amiga version and includes all new graphics and audio.

And, while Babylonian Twins is a truly excellent title, it's not the only quality Amiga conversion in the App store. Not by a long shot. And, thanks to Manomio, among others, we're in for a lot more Amiga game goodness in the App Store later this year.

Related Amiga links:

App Store Link: Babylonian Twins, $0.99
App Store Link: Babylonian Twins HD, $4.99 (iPad Only)

TouchArcade Rating:


‘Sword of Fargoal’ Updated with Retina Display Support, More Goodies Coming Soon

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‘Sword of Fargoal’ Updated with Retina Display Support, More Goodies Coming Soon is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website

We've posted about Sword of Fargoal [$3.99] and its iPad counterpart Sword of Fargoal Legends [$6.99] numerous times now, even including it in our Best iPhone Games of 2009 listing. The thread on our forums has been going strong since March, and is filled with close to 2000 posts of people suggesting new features and telling tales of their adventures, with the developers participating constantly in the discussion.

From reading comments we get on articles, as well as endlessly pouring over our forums, it seems above all what our community seems to unanimously love is any developer who sticks with their game, and there is a short list of developers I can even think of who have done as much with their games as the Fargoal team has done over the life of Sword of Fargoal. Since its initial release on the iPhone, all kinds of new items and treasures have been added, along with new monsters, sound effects, potions, dungeon levels, and graphical effects. New traps have been thrown in, as well as multiple difficulty levels to make the game both more forgiving to new players and more brutal to veterans.

This latest update adds high resolution graphics, allowing players with iPhone 4's to enjoy the game at full Retina Display resolution. If you've been following the development of the game, specifically its pre-iPhone origins, it's really great to see how far Fargoal has come while still maintaining a retro feel. The original Sword of Fargoal was a 40×22 ascii game that ran on the Commodore 64, which can be seen in the bottom corner of the following comparison screenshot:

On the horizon for Fargoal in future updates is a complete overhaul of the random dungeon building system. Instead of the current 40×30 tile area that every dungeon floor is made of, floors can be any length and width. The developers are hoping that this will give Fargoal a much more "architectural" feeling to the dungeon generator. Dungeon generation is also said to be getting more purposeful, with things like guard rooms, store rooms, underground lairs, vaults, oubliettes, and other rooms for players to come across.

There is going to be more environmental interaction and danger outside of combat, and with these two things are coming even more descriptive text to help set the scene a little better. Fargoal will also eventually have an even wider variety of monsters that vary in intelligence and ability. Some will even use battle tactics and strategy, with certain enemies organizing with other enemies when appropriate to quicken your demise.

If you haven't updated Sword of Fargoal recently, now is a great time to do so. If you still haven't downloaded Sword of Fargoal, it's among the best roguelikes available on the App Store, and certainly the most approachable, especially with the recent difficulty settings. Sword of Fargoal is one of my favorite games, and it's really easy to recommend, especially with how committed the developers have been to both updating the game in the past and continue to update it in the future.

App Store Link: Sword of Fargoal, $3.99


muBlip Review

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muBlip Review is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website

Developer: PARA9

Price: $3.99
Version: 1.1.0
Device Reviewed On: iPhone

Graphics / Sound Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars
User Interface Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars
Gameplay Rating: 4.75 out of 5 stars
Re-use / Replay Value Rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars

Overall Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars

There’s a fair number of music rhythm games on the iPhone. One of the more unique takes on the genre is muBlip, the cool rhythm game from Para9. By introducing novel touch controls and a club-inspired soundtrack, muBlip makes for a memorable experience.

When I play a game, I generally start by trying to classify it akin to other games. With muBlip, that’s difficult, a testament to its design. It’s a rhythm game, for sure, and reminiscent of rock-n-roll games like Guitar Hero or Tap Tap Revenge; but it also reminded me a bit of the sound-and-colors game Auditorium, as well as Bit.Trip Beat (a WiiWare game that is under development for the iPhone). Reminiscent of, but certainly not like.

As in all rhythm games, the basic goal of muBlip is to play along with the beat. In this case, the music is a synth-infused club electronica sort of soundtrack, and to “play along” means more than just tapping buttons. This is muBlip’s secret, and the reason it is so much fun. There are no five fixed buttons, but patterns of geometric shapes that change from song to song and screen to screen. And you don’t just tap; you tap, slide, move, or hold depending upon the beat, sometimes using both thumbs at the same time. It’s more complex, which makes it much more enjoyable.

You’re scored based on both timing and accuracy, and trust me when I say that you will not get a perfect score the first time through. The music is generally fast-paced, which means good reflexes are required. And since you need both thumbs to play, there’s also a fair level of dexterity involved — otherwise you’ll end up, like me, tripping over your own digits. [In my defense, I have big thumbs.]

I only have two real complaints about muBlip. One is a touch control issue. Occasionally, there seemed to be a disconnect between my touches and the game’s recognition. Touches that seemed to be timed right did not register, or touches that seemed to be in the right place failed to score. Timing and accuracy are both part of the game, so I cannot discount that at least in some instances I was simply off; but on a couple of occasions the flaw seemed technical, not user-oriented.

The other is the length of the game. There’s only thirteen tracks here, most ranging from 90 seconds to 3 minutes. Thus, you’ll experience all of the game’s offerings in about a half an hour. While there’s a lot of replay value in trying to up your accuracy score, it still feels like a short game.

Short or not, muBlip is a game worth experiencing. It’s a music rhythm game with a fresh spin and some neat music, and I thoroughly enjoyed playing it.

[ muBlip Review is a post from 148Apps ]