Trainyard express is a spartan (as in bare bones, not Greek) puzzle game with a simple task to boot. The simple goal is to get a few trains from their departure point to their ending point without crashing them or breaking the dreaded color rules.

The first few levels are incredibly easy, easing you into the monster challenge that will soon come. All you have to do from the get-go is to get the blue train out of the blue departure point and into the blue terminal. As you progress through the game, you have to deal with switching tracks, color blending, timed collision blending, and obstructions. The extremely shallow learning curve for the first bunch of levels gets incredibly steep once you get to Quebec (the levels are all named after Canadian provinces).

As for the details, the game is pretty bare bones, with just a black background, a grid overlay, and some simple track graphics. Any additional graphics though would be unwanted because it would just make the game more difficult.

Trainyard Express certainly isn’t for everyone, but I don’t think the developer intended it to be that way. There really aren’t any graphics or sound to speak of, and there are no exciting action sequences to go through. There is also no time limit and no lives, so there’s no need to hurry.

Overall, it’s about as exciting as doing a Sudoku puzzle, which for some (including myself) is the perfect way to spend a bit of free time. If you like slow paced puzzlers that will actually give you a good challenge, Trainyard Express is a good buy.

For a bit of back story, Trainyard Express is technically the free version of the original game, Trainyard. In Matt Rix’s promo email, he writes that, “I prefer to think of it as a “prequel” rather than a ‘lite’ game, because it’s WAY bigger than most lite games. I spent a lot of time creating 60 brand-new puzzles just for it, so it can really be considered a full game on its own.” If you do in fact enjoy playing Trainyard Express, don’t hesitate to pick up Trainyard too. It’s not free, but it’s always good to support good devs.

[ Trainyard Express Review is a post from 148Apps ]

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You know you have a problem on your hands when you are playing a puzzle game that gives you four hints per puzzle and you still have problems winning. Maybe that sentence should’ve started with, “you know your a redneck when…”

Zentomino is described by the developer as a game of pentominoes. Since most of the world has no idea what a pentomino is (including my spell checker), it is a game that gives you one big shape, and you have to exactly fill it with a bunch of odd shaped blocks (each block is made up of five squares, hence the “pent”). While the individual shapes never change per se, it is up to you to rotate and flip them to get them to fit in the puzzle. Pieces can only be used once, and not every piece is used in every puzzle, so you must pick wisely.

If/when you get stuck, you can ask the game for help up to four times. Some of the levels, as explained earlier, are pretty rough even after hint #4, but I suppose that the dev might as well turn the game into a YouTube video if they are just going to give you a fifth clue.

With 240 levels to begrudgingly march through, you’ll have plenty of Zentomino to play from now until the end of time. If you get too upset about not being able to solve a puzzle, just ease your ears into the soothing zen sounds that the game throws at you in your moments of fury. In all fairness, Zentomino really is a great game that will certainly test even the most senior of puzzle masters. If you are a fan of the genre, you won’t be disappointed with Zentomino. You may be upset by your lack of pentomino prowess, but don’t blame it on the game.

[ Zentomino Review is a post from 148Apps ]

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Word puzzles, along with tower defense and line drawing games, were the coolest things in the beginning stages of the app store. Unlike other genres, word genres were the perfect storm for the original iPhone, a slightly underpowered gaming system that was owned by the masses. Now with crisp retina displays and fancy processors that would make my $3,000 computer circa 1997 jealous, iPhone gaming has moved on to bigger and, well, bigger things. Better is what we’re striving for though, and word puzzles have a bit more jive than the average chicken.

Jumbline 2 is a word puzzle game that is comprised of three word puzzle minigames, all three of which are variations of the same anagram game.

Here’s a quick recap of what an anagram is, because some of us have been out of 1st grade for too long to remember. Anagrams are word jumbles that you have to mix up to find real words. For example, if you had the letters, DSOWR, you could make the words, SWORD, WORDS, WORD, ROWS, RODS, etc.

Ok, now that we’ve gotten past that, it’s back to the review.

As I was saying before, all three of the minigames in Jumbline 2 are variations of the same thing. The key in every game is to pound out anagrams, using as many words as you can possibly use, in speeds slightly faster than your brain is supposed to think. What’s great is that once you’ve decided that you’re too hardcore for regular anagrams, you can move onto the “expert words”. Being the cunning linguist that I am, I went on to this mode, but then failed to beat level 1 after failing to unravel the word “belleek”.

I don’t want to sound like a sore loser, but I’m fairly certain that belleek is a made up word. Situations such as this are typically solved by using the in-game dictionary (which is a fantastic addition), but “belleek” came back with the unexpected message, “No Definition Found.” I then went to wikipedia and found that it “may refer to” one of two villages in Northern Ireland. I’m fairly certain that names of villages are proper nouns, and that proper nouns shouldn’t be included in word games like this. Maybe it can be used as an adjective describing the pottery that comes from the village. Seems like a reach to me.

Regardless of my opinion of the game’s (outrageous) use of the word “belleek,” Jumbline 2 is a fun puzzle game that will be appreciated by any fan of the genre. As far as word games go, It’s not quite as exciting or original as Word Fu or Wordsworth, but it is definitely a worthy purchase.

[ Jumbline 2 Review is a post from 148Apps ]

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[ Ninjatown: Trees of Doom HD for iPad Review is a post from 148Apps ]

An alarm clock app is arguably one of the most important apps you’ll use — if it doesn’t work, you miss important events. It’s also the first thing you’ll see in the morning, and often your first stop for basic information such as the weather. Alarm Clock Connect is yet another candidate in this massive field, and while it lacks the curious, psuedo-scientific features of apps like Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock, it delivers a basic, sleek alarm clock with plenty of extra information packed into one manageable package.

Alarm Clock Connect wakes you up according to the alarms you specify (multiple alarms are supported, naturally). You can pick a song, a default sound, repeat frequency, and add a note. Individual alarms can be saved and switched on and off as necessary.

The extra features, however, are Alarm Clock Connect’s real strength. By flicking through the panes you can check the weather, control your music, view your calendar events, and scroll through your Facebook or Twitter feeds. The app always remembers what pane you were viewing, so you can always wake up to the weather, for example. None of these features are revolutionary, but it’s nice to have a simple app that delivers basic-but-important information.

The app itself works fairly well. Sometimes it suffers from lag, but closing and re-opening the app usually solves that. My biggest complaint is the app’s lack of full background support…apparently you need it to leave Alarm Clock Connect running for the alarm to really work. Local notifications are sent if the app is closed, but those are hardly disruptive enough to awaken a heavy sleeper. It’s not a dealbreaker, but the battery drain may be annoying.

Alarm Clock Connect isn’t some mind-blowing new technology—but it doesn’t need to be. Instead, it delivers a sleek, visually appealing alarm clock with support for all the necessities. For many of us, that’s exactly what we need.

[ Alarm Clock Connect Review is a post from 148Apps ]

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Some of you gamers out there may remember a GameStop ad campaign from a couple of years ago featuring a foul-mouthed little bunny named Buck who would find himself in funny situations as he made his way through fake versions of Mario-like 2D platforming games. For reference, there is a nice montage video on YouTube showing some of Buck's commercials. The ads were a hit, and there was even a short-lived game available on GameStop's website that let you play through a level featured in one of the commercials. Now, GameStop has given Buck another chance at video game stardom in a new iPhone game just released on the App Store called Buck and the Coin of Destiny [99¢].

Buck and the Coin of Destiny is an auto-running platforming game that have become quite popular with the success of games like Canabalt [$2.99] and Monster Dash [99¢]. There's a Story mode that has Buck running through five different video game-themed levels in an effort to get from the start to the finish of each level as the story of the Coin of Destiny unfolds. For example, one level is reminiscent of the Legend of Zelda games, one is very Castlevania-esque, and before and after each level are some funny animated Buck the Bunny cutscenes. Buck automatically runs to the right and tapping the screen allows you to jump or double-jump as you collect coins and powerups while avoiding spikes, pits, and enemies.

The five levels of the Story mode are fairly short, and it won't take too long to complete the whole campaign. However, there is an Arcade mode that lets you play through any of the five level themes in randomly generated endless fashion. This mode has the potential for unlimited replayability, but I do have one small gripe about it. You start the endless portion with only one heart, meaning if you hit any hazard it's instantly game over. Like the Story mode, you can pick up additional hearts along the way, up to a total of eight. That's fine for the Story levels that have a definitive ending, but in endless mode the ability to pick up additional hearts can cause a game to drag on for a pretty long time. I'd much prefer to see how far I can make it with the threat of instant death looming, or even just a cap of 3 or 4 hearts instead.

The gameplay in Buck and the Coin of Destiny isn't the best available in the running platform genre, but it's really not bad at all. The jumping controls are responsive, the level designs are interesting, and it's simple and fun to play. I'm really surprised by how much I continue to come back to Coin of Destiny. The Story portion is pretty short, but a fun ride while it lasts. The end of the game offers a “to be continued…” so the brevity may be rectified in the future with updates. The endless Arcade mode is a great addition to lengthen out the game, even if it does tend to drag on a bit. There's also a number of achievements to earn in the game, and local scores are kept for the Story mode and each individual Arcade level. Sadly there's no Game Center integration or online functionality other than the ability to share your scores over Facebook.

If you were familiar with the GameStop Buck commercials, like many of the players in our forums, then you'll likely get your dollar's worth of enjoyment on the cutscenes alone. If you don't really care about the Buck character but are looking for a new running platform game, then Buck and the Coin of Destiny really isn't a bad choice at all. I'd really like to see the game evolve with updates to add more content to the Story mode, some tweaks to the endless Arcade mode, and some sort of online functionality for achievements and high scores. There's a really nice foundation in place here, and even in its current state Buck and the Coin of Destiny is a solid running platformer for the price.

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