Golden Miner Christmas is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website

Back in the day I was a fan of the flash version of Golden Miner and I liked Colorme Info Tech’s iPhone port when I reviewed it earlier this year… but this Christmas version of the game is kind of… meh.

The thing about the “classic” version of Golden Miner that makes it fun is that there are levels to clear and new obstacles to deal with as you progress through the game. Golden Miner Christmas, however, is basically just one neverending level that features all kinds of cool little Christmas things like candy, tree ornaments, and toys (iPhones included!) but the game gets pretty old pretty quick.

Obstacles are also a part of this Christmas version of the game but they seem to be more of a nuisance than strategically placed barriers. Several different kinds of critters crowd the screen and there’s some weird flying demon thing that you’re supposed to fight off by pressing the fairy button in the bottom right corner. Once again… meh. Not really buying it.

If you know this game from playing it online and want it on your iPhone, go for the original or Colorme’s Golden Miner 2. This Christmas game you can skip right over.

iTunes Link – Golden Miner Christmas
Version 1.2
Reviewed on iPhone 3G OS3.1.2

I dunno what the flying demons are up to – all I care about is reeling in that iPhone

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Christmas Sudoku is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website

Hey sudoku nuts, are you ready to tear your hair out? Christmas Sudoku is a holiday-themed sudoku game where the typical rules apply… even when you’re playing with “goodies” instead of numbers.

That’s right, in this game you can choose to play with either numbers or nine little Christmas goodies like candy canes, snowmen, and jingle bells. I’ve never been good at sudoku to begin with, and it only gets harder when you take away the numbers and throw in the tiny pictures.

Not only does Christmas Sudoku come with the fully functional sudoku game, it also includes a bunch of other extras like “Hug-a-Friend” for creating and sending a Christmas card from within the app, “Tug-a-Friend” which pits you vs. another player via bluetooth as you race to finish the puzzle first, and several different background themes for the game.

I have absolutely no complaints about the sudoku part of this app… it offers hints, a “campaign” mode which is timed, and a “Quick Game” mode which isn’t timed, and you also have solve and undo options. I’ll say again, playing sudoku with the goodies is a LOT harder than playing with numbers, but if you really love this kind of puzzle then it should be a refreshing departure from the hundreds (or thousands?) of puzzles you’ve already completed.

The Hug-a-Friend holiday card thing, on the other hand, could use a little work. It’s hard to expect this part of the app to be perfect since the main focus is the game instead of greeting cards, but as long as the greeting card is there it would be nice if the text would behave better than it does. The card starts off with a “To:” field, but when you input a name the “To” disappears. No big deal, just type “To: So and So”, right? But when you go to email it, the word “Dear” is inserted in the stock email that’s appended to your card, leaving you with “Dear To: So and So”. The actual creation of the card is done pretty well, though, and if you have a child it might be fun to dress up one of the four different card backgrounds with stars, holly, ornaments, and a lot of same “goodies” that are featured in the game.

I haven’t tried the two player Tug-a-Friend mode because, as always, I have no friends, but I’m impressed that it’s there.

If you’re up for a new sudoku challenge that’s in keeping with the holiday spirit, Christmas Sudoku should be worth the $2 price tag. It’s a fun take on a classic game, albeit agonizingly difficult for sudoku noobs like me.

iTunes Link – Christmas Sudoku
Version 1.1
Reviewed on iPhone 3G OS3.1.2

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App Sale: iSanta 2010 is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website

iSanta 2010 is on sale for free – normally $.99

If you need a diversion to keep the kids busy, iSanta 2010 might fit the bill. I repeat… if you need a diversion to keep THE KIDS busy… see, this isn’t really a grownup’s game. The goal is to drop presents down chimneys and you need to drop presents of the right color into houses that match, and the action is pretty slow but it’s probably about right for the tots.

I don’t know that I’d pay a dollar for iSanta 2010 ‘cuz I don’t have any kids, but if I did I’d think about it. The graphics are decent and it’s a very Christmasy game, so there’s no harm in trying it for free.

iTunes Link – iSanta 2010

Ho Ho Ho Merrrrrrrry Christmas you little chowderheads!

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App Sale: Santa’s Sack is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website

Santa’s Sack is on sale for free – normally $.99

Normally I don’t bother announcing that an app’s on sale unless it’s really good, but I feel compelled to announce this one in case you come across it when it actually costs money! Santa’s Sack has the potential to be a good game with its nice graphics and all, but there’s not a lot of good stuff to say about the gameplay.

The object of the game is to catch all the falling presents in Santa’s big sack, and to do this you have to tilt your iPhone left and right. Sounds fine, but the way Santa slides around just seems too buggy to make this a fun, playable game. Sometimes he’s very slow to respond, sometimes he doesn’t respond at all, and I found the whole thing to be pretty frustrating. Yes, I restarted my iPhone, and that seemed to help a little but I still wasn’t impressed.

Luckily this game is free so there’s no harm in trying it. If you do give it a shot, come back and lemme know if it’s as bad as I think it is or if I’m just an idiot!

iTunes Link – Santa’s Sack
Version 1.0
Reviewed on iPhone 3G OS3.1.2

Santa's big green sack isn't very good at sliding around on the snow

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App Sale: Flight Before Christmas is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website

Flight Before Christmas is on sale for free – normally $.99

Flight Before Christmas reminds me a lot of ATC and Flight Control, except instead of directing jumbo jets you’re steering Santa’s sleigh! All you need to do is drag a path from the sleigh to all the houses you need to visit, all the while dodging the other air traffic that could bring Christmas to an abrupt end.

There’s no global scoreboard and basically nothing in the features department except for an instruction screen and a pause button, but for a Christmas app this is really pretty good. Enabled Solutions took the time to make the game pretty and for the low, low price of nothing this game is worth taking for a spin.

Enabled says the sale lasts this weekend only, so hurry up and get it!

iTunes Link – Flight Before Christmas

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App Sale: Holiday Smash is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website

Holiday Smash is on sale for free – normally $1.99

‘Tis the season to… download all the Christmas-themed apps that descend upon the App Store at this time of year! Holiday Smash is basically a jacked up version of Breakout, and the stuff you’re breaking is all in the shape of various holiday things like snowmen and Christmas trees. Your paddle moves left and right with finger drags, and it also shoots lasers! So even when your balls are flying around (powerups make multiple balls possible) your lasers will be hard at work as they hack away at the stuff floating above.

Sea Li0n Games just released this app the other day at $1.99 and immediately dropped the price to free, so who knows if it’ll actually go back to costing money. Either way, it’s free right now and it’s not bad! Kids tend to get antsy this time of year, so even if you’re not a fan of this kind of game yourself it could at least serve as a distraction for the little monsters in your life.

iTunes Link – Holiday Smash

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App Sale: Styx Halloween is a post from: Best Iphone App Review Website

Styx Halloween is on sale for free – normally $2.99

The further you go, the more different kinds of Halloween faces you have to contend with

Styx Halloween is one of those match 3 games where you run your finger across matching units that are either touching or diagonal from each other. I guess that technically makes it a “match as many as you can” game and the combination of great graphics and tons of powerups makes this a pretty fun Halloween diversion!

The game comes with three modes: Chains, Time Trial, and Puzzle. Chains and Time Trial are both very similar in that your goal is to find as many chains as possible, and Puzzle forces you to figure out how to eliminate groups of Halloween icons in the right order so that no individual pieces are leftover.

EMV Software built in a global scoreboard and made Styx Halloween iPod-friendly, so I’d advise you to go get this app while it’s still free! The App Store page says this game is on sale for 2 days only, and the price went down 2 days ago, so it may go back to its original $2.99 price any minute now.

iTunes Link – Styx Halloween
Version 1.4
iPhone 3G OS3.1.2

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MouthOff is a post from: Best Iphone App Review Website

I’ve never been a huge fan of apps that show a mouth that you hold in front of your face, but I have to admit that ustwo has put together a pretty good app here! I mean, if you’re gonna replace your mouth with your iPhone, you might as well do it with MouthOff.

When you hold this app over your face and start talking, your selected mouth will react to your iPhone’s mic and move along with you. Naturally this means that if you have an iPod Touch you’ll need a headset & mic to get that effect… imagine what a jackass you’ll look like… but it can be done!

MouthOff comes equipped with no less than 41 mouths created by a group of top-notch illustrators. Four “Hell-oween” mouths are included along with 12 “Signature” mouths and 25 Original mouths. Show-offs can make a MouthOff video by uploading your silliness to YouTube and tagging it with the word showusyourmouthoff and your video will appear on the ustwo website.

If you’re looking for a way to incorporate your iPhone into a Halloween costume this weekend, this might be the way to go!

iTunes Link – MouthOff
Version 2.1
Reviewed on iPhone 3G OS3.1.2

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GhostWriter is a post from: Best Iphone App Review Website

Scrawling evil messages across photos in blood is soooo messy! GhostWriter will do it for you, and after you take your photo it’ll even throw in some Ghoulish Miasma if you want it to.

Ghoulish Miasma is really just some weird-looking orange fog that you probably won’t want on very many of your pics (don’t worry, it’s optional), but the spooky fonts comes in two varieties, Angered Spirit and Blood Writ, and they ain’t bad. GhostWriter comes with six innocent default messages that you can select individually or at random, and if you want to really damn someone to hell you can type in your own custom message! Sweet.

The thing this app does that’s a little different is that, after you take a pic, the app will fade the text and Miasma in slowly while it plays a Halloween sound effect. This feature may not sound like much, but I guess it adds a little something to that moment of unbridled excitement when you first show the pic to whoever just said ‘Cheese’ for you. The animation and sound are strictly in-app, but the pic you just took can be saved or emailed with a quick tap.

If this app has one major shortcoming it’s the inability to apply the Ghost Writing to camera roll pics! You’d think this very basic feature would be included, yet “Take Picture” is the only option available. What this means is that you need to set your text (unless you’re cool with going random) before you take the pic. If you’re not satisfied with the bloody text that gets automatically applied to the pic you just took, then you gotta do the photo again and listen to everyone groan while you go into Settings to choose or type in the text you want.

Hopefully Cute Logic will remedy this with a future update, but until that happens all I can say is Buyer Beware! What GhostWriter currently does, it does well, but I think the omission of the apply-to-pics-already-taken feature is going to be a dealbreaker with a lot of Halloween partygoers and trick-or-treaters.

iTunes Link – GhostWriter
Version 1.0
Reviewed on iPhone 3G OS3.1.2

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