We’re moving!
Michael (Admin) | May 31, 2009 Website Stuff
User rating: 
(5 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
(5 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
Loading ...If you notice any weird site behavior, it’s because I’m working with my engineer friend to move iPhone App Reviews to a new dedicated server. Please bear with me for the next day or so while we set up a much more stable (and hopefully faster!) home for the site.
Update: I lied… the server switch hasn’t been completed yet, but it will be soon. Shared hosting is for amateurs!!
Update #2: The server move will be happening near the end of June in case you’re curious. It’s gotta be done right, and I’d prefer to do it at month end so as not to piss off the sponsors!
Thanks,
Michael
Q&F: Fishing Frenzy
Michael (Admin) | May 30, 2009 Games, Quick & Free
User rating: (4 votes, average: 2.00 out of 5)
(4 votes, average: 2.00 out of 5) Loading ...
Near as I can tell, there are two main reasons that Fishing Frenzy has earned a crappy 2-star rating in the iTunes App Store:
- Instructions on how to play are nearly non-existent and it seems a lot of people can’t figure out how to play it
- The game has only 12 levels, so the fun is pretty short-lived
Here’s the answer to #1: Tilt the iPhone left and right to move the boat around the water, and tilt it backwards and forwards to move your fishing line up and down to hook the passing fish. When you get a fish on the line, it’ll jump out of the water and you have to catch it in your boat in order to score any points. As for #2… uh… can’t help you there!
This game isn’t perfect, but it’s pretty decent for being free even if you’ll have it beat in one sitting. Kind of reminds me of Cannon Challenge… nice gameplay, but just not enough of it.
Tintash Ltd. claims the “free” price is a “special introductory offer”, but at this point the game has over 7,000 App Store reviews and it’s still free so I wouldn’t take that line too seriously. In its current form, Fishing Frenzy feels like a good Lite version, but I’d only be willing to pay for it if a lot more levels and various types of challenges are added.
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- Fish you need to "watch out" for will slow you down by cutting your line temporarily or frying your brains out
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- Getting electrocuted by eels is so much cheaper than getting an actual X-Ray
Tags: free
Road Rage Ahead
Michael (Admin) | May 28, 2009 Games
User rating: 
(2 votes, average: 3.50 out of 5)
(2 votes, average: 3.50 out of 5) Loading ...
I often fantasize about mounting a gigantic megaphone on top of my car so that other drivers can hear all the filthy things I’m yelling at them when I’m behind the wheel. Yes, everyone sucks at driving but ME!!!!! This has nothing to do with Road Rage Ahead, I’m just letting you know.
Now, about this app… it’s both annoying and addictive at the same time! It’s annoying because I hate “scrolling” across screens with multiple swipes like an inchworm (but maybe that’s on purpose?), and it’s addictive because it basically puts you in the role of a hugely over-glorified crossing guard which sounds really simple but it’s totally not.
Your mission in this app is to control the flow of traffic through various scenarios by tapping on intersections and other traffic zones (ie: construction areas and railroad crossings). Luckily nobody on these roads ever seems interested in turning, but it’s still hard enough as it is with traffic moving in mostly straight lines.
Q&F: FantasyLens
Michael (Admin) | May 28, 2009 Photo & Video, Quick & Free
User rating: (2 votes, average: 3.00 out of 5)
(2 votes, average: 3.00 out of 5) Loading ...
There must be a zillion apps that let you stick photos behind silly templates, so why did I pick FantasyLens? I dunno… I guess I liked the icon? Plus I wanted something simple to mess around with on Memorial Day at my dad’s house.
Widgetize provides 24 templates with face cutouts to fuel your need for photo wackiness. Most of them look like old paintings that I’m guessing were chosen for their ‘public domain’ status (ie: the dev didn’t need to pay for them) but that shouldn’t stop you from giving the app a try. You have to take a new photo with every new pic you want to make… no choosing from the camera roll here… but if you can get the camera angle and distance just right it’s possible to produce a pretty seamless photo fake.
The seamlessness is courtesy of several controls for adjusting image settings like brightness, contrast, and saturation, and it’s also possible to undo/redo/reset/save. These features are a big part of why FantasyLens is worth downloading; the app is by no means perfect… app rotating/resizing is more or less absent… but if you just wanna goof off there’s no harm in trying this one out.
For the record, the kids at my dad’s house LOVED FantasyLens. Their parents didn’t give a crap but the 8-year-olds just went ga-ga for it, just in case you (a) don’t mind them passing around your iPhone, and (b) need to keep them occupied for a while.
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- Some of these templates take a steadier hand than others
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- I was impressed by my dad's girlfriend's son-in-law's ability to choose the right angle for this pic!
Tags: free, funny, photo editing
Promo code giveaway ideas?
Michael (Admin) | May 27, 2009 Website Stuff
User rating: (No Ratings Yet)
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...I know the current method of giving away free promo codes isn’t the greatest… if you have ideas on how to improve it, please say so in the forums! I don’t have a ton of time to be managing free codes, but I do want to improve the process and if you have a brilliant idea I definitely want to hear it. Thanks!
Here’s the forum thread:
Best way to give away promo codes?
Ant Hill
Michael (Admin) | May 27, 2009 Entertainment
User rating: (4 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
(4 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5) Loading ...
If you feel conflicted about tormenting little island folk, how about burning and squashing ants instead?!
Ant Hill is no Pocket God… yet… but there’s potential in this insect-control app from Concrete Software, Inc. Much like Pocket God, Ant Hill allows you to play friend or foe (but mostly foe) to the tiny lifeforms you hold dominion over. You can drop rocks on them, throw them strawberries to devour, hold contests to see which team of ants is badder, and of course there’s the classic move where you burn the crap out of them with a magnifying glass! Ahhh… it’s like I’m 10 years old all over again.
Tags: $.99
Tapeline
Chris J. | May 26, 2009 Utilities
User rating: (3 votes, average: 1.67 out of 5)
(3 votes, average: 1.67 out of 5) Loading ...
A lot of my choices for app reviews are based on first impressions. The app name, description, or image on iTunes will catch my eye. With Tapeline my first impression was, “Is that even possible?” So far as I can tell the answer is “No.”
Tapeline’s promises are pretty incredible, according to the developer you can use your iPhone/iPod Touch to measure any object. In my numerous tests I only came close to an accurate measurement once, with an object approximately 6 inches long. Objects longer than a foot in length I never even came close to an accurate measurement on. I varied my methods, I calibrated my iPhone, then I recalibrated, I re-recalibrated, I re-re-recalibrated (and so on), and yet nothing I did seemed to work.
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Kids vs. Zombies
Swain Valasek | May 24, 2009 Games
User rating: (6 votes, average: 3.67 out of 5)
(6 votes, average: 3.67 out of 5) Loading ...
It took awhile for me to review Kids vs. Zombies, virgin effort from new developers Monkey Wrench Games LLC. Not on purpose mind you, just one of those things but the point is 2 events occurred during that time which are great for the consumer: a 1 dollar price drop and a lite version! Anyway on with the review. KvZ is close to being a CD (castle defense) game but innovates on several fronts to where I can only loosely associate it with that genre. Yes, the core of the game is defending a static fort from an endless onslaught of zombies but beyond that the execution is vastly different from what you might expect. First of all, it’s freakin’ zombies and that’s already a plus in my book but I digress so let’s start at the beginning.
Tags: $1.99, castle defense, Swain Valasek, zombies
Box of Sox
Mike Lightman | May 24, 2009 Games
User rating: (38 votes, average: 3.11 out of 5)
(38 votes, average: 3.11 out of 5) Loading ...
Sure my iPhone makes calls, but I use it more like technological Ritalin – able to distract this toddler with a new shiny object the moment life gets the slightest bit tedious. Stopped at a red light? Check email! Waiting for the subway? I’ll put a mustache on a picture of my wife! Prarie doggin it? Instapaper to the rescue!
The one thing I’m not really into are big platform games that’ve been shrunken down to fit my phone. I’m not looking for an iXBox i360 in my iPocket, I want a shiny ball to chase until I can regain my composure. Which is why I LOVE Box of Sox. With perfect graphics & a simple, simple, simple premise, Box of Sox is a perfect casual game that erases all moments of tedium.
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Tags: $0.99
Glandarius Wing Strike
Michael (Admin) | May 22, 2009 Games
User rating: (3 votes, average: 4.67 out of 5)
(3 votes, average: 4.67 out of 5) Loading ...
If you’re into shmups you should take a good look at Glandarius Wing Strike! It’s a little frantic, there’s tons of shooting, and there’s definitely no shortage of targets to beat down.
Probably the most unique thing about Glandarius is the control scheme… you can literally play this game with one finger. Tap to the left or right of your little fighting vessel and it’ll speed over in that direction while spitting out a whole lotta bullets, and for smaller movements you can simply drag the finger a little. In a way, one-finger control is pretty cool because it means you can play just about anytime, anywhere as long as you have a free hand. At the same time, though, this control scheme also restricts your ship to left and right movements which is kind of limiting in the gameplay department.
BubbleClock
Michael (Admin) | May 21, 2009 Utilities
User rating: (5 votes, average: 2.40 out of 5)
(5 votes, average: 2.40 out of 5) Loading ...
A lot of developers provide extra promo codes to hand out to you guys… usually just a handful, sometimes 10 or even 20… and I’ve never let those extra codes affect my decision to review an app or not… UNTIL NOW!!
The truth is BubbleClock isn’t what you’d call “great” and under normal circumstances I’d probably skip writing this up, but River Beane Software provided 49 39 promo codes to give out! Yeah, forty-nine thirty-nine. Whoops, I miscounted!
That’s still a ton of codes. If River Beane is crazy enough to drop that many codes in the comment box, I suppose the least I can do is take a look at it.
Tags: $1.99
Popper!
Michael (Admin) | May 21, 2009 Games
User rating: (2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5) Loading ...
In the mood to pop some pills? The object of Popper! is to fire colored pills (or think of them as candies if you prefer) from the bottom of the screen into the colored pill mass that occupies the top part of the screen. If you launch a white pill and hit red, then your pill gets added to the mass; successfully launched pills will knock out like-colored pills when they make contact.
There are ten levels in all and each one behaves a little differently. Sometimes the pills you need to knock out are flying around in a circle, sometimes they slide left and right across the top of the screen, and sometimes the accelerometer comes into play just to make things interesting. Clever Twist also built in powerups that you have to tap quickly before they fall out of sight, and other than that Popper! is a fun game that’s very simple and straightforward.
Tags: $1.99
