Backflip Studios are going all-out in unleashing their lineup of freemium games onto the App Store. After launching Buganoids on both the iPhone/iPod touch and iPad last week, Backflip Studios is now going through their back catalog of games released this summer, with NinJump now getting an iPad version, appropriately called NinJump HD.

NinJump HD is the same game as the iPhone/iPod touch version, just now with graphics and gameplay optimized for the iPad. The game really does look much more detailed and crisp than the original version did scaled up to 2X. As well, for players who may have been playing on their iPad and may occasionally have missed a jump due to tapping on the blank part of the screen in 2X scaling, you won’t have this problem any more. While it may have been coincidental, I set a new high score the first time I played the iPad version.

Speaking of high scores, the game is similar to Buganoids where high scores are synchronized between the two versions, so you can track your high scores on whatever device you play on, as long as you use the same OpenFeint login. All the OpenFeint leaderboards are the same as the iPhone version, as evidenced by the over one million entries present before the iPad version was publicly available.

NinJump HD is currently free (with the possibility of being a paid download in the future, according to Backflip Studios), with $0.99 in-app purchase to remove ads, similar to other Backflip Studios freemium games. However, the game may go to paid at some point according to CEO Julian Farrior, so downloading it now is recommended. The gameplay is the same great addictive ninja jumping action that the iPhone version presented, just now in iPad form.

Backflip were also kind enough to drop some details on the future of NinJump. First, Android will be getting a free version of NinJump later this year. As well, a new paid version of NinJump will be released, expanding on what the original free version presented, featuring “new levels, enemies and other content, with plans to add frequent updates on a regular basis” according to Backflip Studios CEO Julian Farrior. NinJump fans could have a lot to look forward to in the coming months for their ninja jumping game of choice.

FREE!

NinJump – HD

iPad Only App – Designed for the iPad
Released: 2010-09-21 :: Category: Games / Adventure

[ NinJump Gets iPad Version and a Planned Content Expansion is a post from 148Apps ]

Bookmark this Best Iphone App Review Post

Hide Sites

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Nestled in middle of the desolate Nevada desert rests a little oasis that is best described in a quote by one Obi Wan Kenobi: “You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.”  While that could be used to describe the city’s seedy, mob ruled past, people prefer to just shorten it up and call it by the much sexier, “Sin City.”  After all, the “City That Never Sleeps,” was already taken, and the tourism board thought that, “City that Shouldn’t be Visited by Epileptics After Dark” seemed too long to fit on a brochure.

With the city’s newly adopted “cleaner” demeanor, the ARIA Resort and Casino has decided to make the experience of being a tourist that much more efficient by releasing three groundbreaking apps meant to put the city at your fingertips.

ARIA
Considering how massive resorts are getting nowadays, it only seems like common sense to have an application that at least acts as a map for the haphazardly navigating visitor.  Not only will you be able to find your way around with relative ease, but you can also make reservations at your establishment of choice, all without ever leaving the program.  If your meal left an impression on you, there is even an option to rate your location, so that others can see what you thought.  At the end of a tough day, you can even use the tool to hail the aid of concierge service, which is always at your beck and call.  Talk about being in total control!

FREE!

ARIA

iPhone App – Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2010-07-08 :: Category: Travel

CityCenter Fine Art Collection
Scattered throughout the sprawling ARIA Resort are numerous pieces of art, strewn about.  Think that wall near you looks odd and maybe even out of the ordinary?  You can use this app to verify if in fact what you’re looking at is a work of art, or just the pipe dream of an overambitious interior decorator.  With a collection that is made up of contributions from fifteen different artists, you can make a scavenger hunt out of art watching.  That sure sounds like a heck of alot more entertaining than looking at a painting from behind a velvet rope.

FREE!

CityCenter Fine Art Collection

iPhone App – Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2010-07-06 :: Category: Travel

Vegas Reality
In what is probably the most useful software of the trio, Vegas Reality is your one stop shop for information about everything on the Strip.  Through a simple scan of an image, you will get updated information about what you are looking at, how to book reservations, and interesting anecdotal facts about the location in question.  Those that are navigationally challenged, like yours truly, something like this would be irreplaceable as I attempt to stagger from casino to casino, looking for my chance to finally hit it big.

FREE!

Vegas Reality

iPhone App – Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2010-04-30 :: Category: Travel

[ New Apps Assure What Happens in Vegas, Well, You Know… is a post from 148Apps ]

Bookmark this Best Iphone App Review Post

Hide Sites

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

[ We City Completes The “We” Trilogy is a post from 148Apps ]

[ Filemaker Go Gets Huge Update is a post from 148Apps ]

Dual stick shooters, like tower defense games, word puzzles, physics puzzles, match-3 puzzles, and line drawing games are a dime a dozen these days. Plop a Rambo-like guy down onto the screen and let him go around killing anything and everything, and there you have it, a winning dual stick shooter. Well, you had a winning dual stick shooter. After the Minigore craze died down, so did the monotonous genre.

Etolis aims to end the monotony by changing the formula: they’re putting the game in a space/Halo-like setting and adding some environmental segments to aid the gameplay. By “environmental segments,” I mean walls, something that not many dual stick shooters go for. Instead of the drab square map with arbitrary borders, the “arenas” in Etolis rope you in with walls and holes and such, making the game seem more like a real shooter than a gimmicky dual stick killfest.

Etolis also offers a Gladiator type of story, where you, the brave UFA (United Frontal Alliance) soldier gets captured while saving escaping civilians. Instead of being killed though, you are assigned to fight in the arena for the Queen’s entertainment.

With the gladiator arena type setting, it is up to you to kill wave upon wave of enemies with a whole slew of weapons and special abilities to work with. Judging on the action in the preview movie, I’d say that that Etolis could possibly be good enough to revive this slumping genre, but we’ll all get to be the judge of that upon launch.

Expect Etolis to launch sometime in mid October to late November.

[ Etolis: Arena – Dual Stick Shooting In Space is a post from 148Apps ]

Bookmark this Best Iphone App Review Post

Hide Sites

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

[ Lyricists Find Their Muse with Songwriter’s Pad is a post from 148Apps ]