Available on iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad

Ski on Neon is currently #1 in the Top 25 Free section in the App Store

Yes I know… Ski on Neon is a stripped down clone of Tiny Wings. Press and hold to to make your little skier guy tuck and gain velocity while going downhill, release to let the momentum launch him uphill and into the air. So it’s not too original… but it’s fun as hell!

If you’ve never played Tiny Wings, this is a game of timing. Each time your skier goes airborne you need to try and get him to land cleanly on a downhill slope so that the forward momentum continues to build, and if you stink it up by making (or just letting) him land in a bad spot then you’re faced with the somewhat painful task of trying to regain speed with incremental jumps. If you manage to string together four good jumps in a row without hitting a hill the wrong way you’ll get a nice speed burst that temporarily turns you into an airborne comet-looking thing.

Timing your jumps, gaining massive air, and timing your landings is a pattern of gameplay that’s both fun and frustrating. This is the kind of game where certain personality types will be hitting the restart button constantly because of that nagging feeling that one bad landing can ruin an entire run.

A bunch of different gameplay modes are included with the game, and all are basically the same thing but they use different metrics for measuring success. For example, Speed Trials demands that you finish a course within a certain amount of time, while Tech Slopes combines time and altitude requirements, and Challenge Air Time rewards you for staying airborne. A multiplayer pass-n-play mode is also included which is pretty cool.

If you like Tiny Wings or just need a new casual gaming addiction, head to the App Store’s “Top 25 Free” category and grab Ski on Neon. It’s #1 as of right now so it should be easy to find.

Available on iPhone & iPod Touch

Imagine you’ve got a motorcycle and you have a chance to race it around a dirt track. Sounds good, right? Now imagine that your bike can only make left turns. Uh… WTF? And welcome to Speedway 2012.

I understand why Caps Off decided to make this game’s motorcycles a left-turn-only deal. It makes for a simple control scheme, and it also allows for four different people to put four different fingers on a single device and race against each other. That’s all cool and whatnot, but this thing really takes some getting used to. Tap once to get your bike going, and from then on you tap and hold to make your left turns. It’s easy in theory, but after smashing into the wall 50,000 times it’s really gonna piss you off.

Speedway 2012′s production values are pretty good and I like the idea of multiple players on the same device, but I’ll be gosh darned if this game isn’t so frustrating that it feels more like casual torture than casual gaming. Can’t I at least bounce off the wall instead of having the race end instantly when I crash? When playing vs. the computer, crashing is so common that if you manage to finish the race at all there’s a good chance you’ll win by default. Even the computer isn’t too good at avoiding the walls.

To be fair I played this game on my iPhone which, given the scale of the graphics, is a pretty small screen. I’m sure this game would play differently on an iPad, but I’m guessing it would still be hard to finish races.

Bulbs and Wires ($0.99) by handsmade

Available on iPhone & iPod Touch

Bulbs&Wires is a puzzle-solving game with a simple objective: connect all the bulbs. Each game begins with a single lit bulb that attaches to unlit bulbs via one or more wires, thus lighting those up as well. Once you have a completely bright network of bulbs, you win. At first, I thought I’d get tired of this pretty quickly but discovered there are seven levels of difficulty, ranging from not too hard to borderline insane. In the easiest mode, you have under twenty bulbs to connect. Once you get to the hardest level, it’s over a hundred.

If you like challenging yourself, this game can be pretty fun. I’ve been coming back to it when I’m bored and setting the difficulty level higher. The game awards one to three stars depending on fast you solve the puzzles. I haven’t managed to get three stars yet, so you have to have wicked fast puzzle-solving skills to manage that, I guess. One thing I would advise is to use the zoom feature on all the levels higher than the easiest, otherwise you’ll keep accidentally tapping on the wrong bulbs and that can get frustrating.

Overall, I like this game and would recommend it to puzzle-loving folk. It’s a good way to spend a few minutes when you’re bored. What kept me from giving the game a higher score was that its entertainment value, even with the many levels of difficulty, is kind of short-lived. But it was fun well it lasted! Also, I really like the retro-futuristic look of this game and want to use that font for something. It had me thinking of Aperture Science in the 50s.

Available on iPhone & iPod Touch

I confess. The only reason I gave this app a try is because the icon is so dumb it’s funny! A badly drawn bird and a crying kid with a bird sitting on his head… it screams campy.

The game itself could be described as a little campy, but mostly it’s just dumb. Tilt your device left and right to make BirdieBoy move, and your goal is to catch the badly drawn birds that are falling out of a nest, onto a trampoline, and hopefully into the basket on poor BirdieBoy’s head. There are eggs that occasionally fall from the sky, but as far as I can tell they only result in “slow” or “+1″ which gives you a bonus life. Lives, marked by the BirdieBoy heads at the top of the screen, are lost when you fail to catch a bird.

As a casual game it’s not very original, but I do like the crying kid and the terrible artwork for their sheer camp value, and the campiness is further supported by the Atari 2600-era background music and sound effects.

Should you buy BirdieBoy? YES, but only if you’re a blood relative of BirdieBoy or a close personal friend of Jonas Bager.

Available on iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad

After downloading apps that promise to teach something and finding their formats neither fun nor particularly memorable, I thought I’d had it with anything containing “educational” in the description. But, it’s 2012. Why not get crazy? There have been 2 or 3 instances in the last month where a friend and I were strolling outdoors and wondered what kind of bird we were looking at. So when I saw Five Ravens’ app up for review, I figured it was a sign.




Cue My Bird World. There are 20 types of birds ready for you to win them (by way of fun games), put them in one of the available habitats and feed them. It’s almost like a bird Tamagotchi, except you have to jump through a few extra hoops to get your pet and feed it. Not that I mind. Games include tried-and-true favorites such as memory, quizzes and speed games. There is a lite version available for free, so if you test it out and are craving more aviary adventures, there’s an iPhone version and HD for the iPad. Not to mention, the realistic bird noises can really drive a house cat nuts.

This app is a pleasant, game-filled educational experience for all ages. And unlike trying to learn French, the bird skills you learn could actually come in handy. You know, so during the next picnic you can swear at that pesky, winged thing stealing your lunch by name.

From Five Ravens:
Leave a comment below and you could get this app for FREE… preference will be given to those who *promise* to post an honest review in iTunes! If you are selected to get a free code, we will send it to you via Facebook.

Available on iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad

Since On5′s first iteration a year ago with We Doodle and Charadium, I’ve been a loyal fan of their game and could absolutely not wait for its successor, Charadium 2. Charadium 2 is a fun Pictionary based game to showcase your artistic drawing ability. Pictionary has always been a fun game to play growing up and now you’re able to relive your childhood on your very own iOS device. The idea itself is amazing and so is the gameplay, especially trying to guess what your friends are able to draw. I cannot begin to explain how many times I’ve broke out laughing from sheer joy and embarrassment from my own pathetic drawings.

Charadium 2 comes with a new Ping Pong game mode which plays more like a turn based game, giving players time to play at their convenience which differs from the other two game modes that are live. The gameplay is simple, you’re given a random word from the game and your goal is to draw it the best to your ability. The better your drawings are, the easier it will be for the other players to guess. It might seem odd that you would want to help the other players by drawing well, but each correct guess scores yourself points. Once your turn is over, you’ll have a chance to guess the other players drawings with a set time limit.

The only problem I’ve run into playing this game was the amount of cheaters when playing with random players. Instead of drawing the word that’s given to them, they would instead spell the word out across the screen. There are ways of punishing the player caught cheating with the ‘warn’ button but it doesn’t seem like it does much at all. Aside from the random online jerks who ruin the game, I find playing this game with friends and family seems much more enjoyable.

Having played this game for a month, I can honestly say Charadium 2 could give any Zynga game a run for their money.

Available on iPhone & iPod Touch

Gamania offers this app for free for two more days so I wanted to get the word out in time! From the looks and tutorial of Subcat, you would think this game that has you wiping away fog to find and catch sea creatures is a walk in the park – or the ocean floor. However, this game is not as it seems. A training sea is followed by four more levels. Each challenge has you catching a certain number and / or combination of types of fish and although completing the challenge has you move on to the next, the faster you accomplish the task at hand, the more stars out of three you receive.

Clown fish, jellyfish and starfish are your target but submarining cats, beware! There are black lantern fish that, when caught, make you restart the challenge. Some of those bloody things practically stalk the fish you’re trying to catch and can really make things interesting … not that I ever started yelling at my iPod. Where’d you hear that from?

The cutesy graphics catch you off guard when levels start getting difficult with fog that regenerates more quickly and fish that just don’t want to be caught. Aside from what I suspect to be a couple bugs (tapping on fish that don’t get caught and wiping away fog that gets you in trouble for tapping lantern fish) this game is pretty fun and gets challenging. By the end of the first level I wasn’t even able to get full stars on the tasks anymore. I enjoy an app with an utter disregard for its user’s ego.

Available on iPhone, iPod touch, iPad

What’s in a name? A tower defense game by any other name would be just as fun to play. Well, UFOlocaust is not the best of the bunch, but it’s not the most boring either. Your mission: protect the anxious, humanoid masses from alien abduction. Seems easy enough, and in some cases it is. The graphics are pretty cool, as are the visual themes. You are started off with the basics which consist of plasma-collecting machinery and offensive weapons. The more points you gather, the more weapons you can buy in the Laboratory. But there are a few facets where the game is lacking.

When it comes to maneuverability, UFOlocaust can make it somewhat difficult – to add weapons or energy reserves, you have to go back to the main munitions menu and then click back into the bank of whichever type you want. Also, the little human sprites running back and forth across the bottom of the screen get a little monotonous, to the point where a player may not really care to save them anymore. And, not to mention, a few glitchy bugs while trying to place weapons have been noticeable. UFOlocaust isn’t the best game out there, but maybe it’s just not for me.

From Priware Entertainment S.L:

Available on iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad

Wopple bills itself as the merging of “America’s most popular TV game show” with “the most popular mobile word game”. I’m taking that to mean it’s a cross between Wheel of Fortune and Scrabble or, as most people know it these days, Words with Friends. Wopple is definitely modeled after Wheel of Fortune and not much else, so if you’re looking for a kinder and much gentler version of Wheel then you’re in the right place. As far as similarities to the “popular mobile word game”… uh, sorry guys, not seeing it!

So like I said, this is like Wheel of Fortune but it’s waaayyyyy easier and not nearly as exciting, partially due to the fact that the computer is dumb as dirt. Your mission is to solve word puzzles that come from categories like Food or Celebrities, and in typical Wheel fashion you can buy vowels and guess at consonants. There’s no wheel to speak of, just some randomized cards that determine how much “bamboney” you’ll earn if you guess a letter correctly, and unless you’ve got the IQ of a doorknob you’re pretty much guaranteed to win every time.

The main reason the computer is such a pushover is that it won’t buy vowels until ALL of the consonants are used up! And it’s clearly guessing randomly, as evidenced by the fact that it will inevitably guess “J” or “Z” when it’s painfully obvious that neither of those letters belongs in the puzzle you’re solving.

Wopple is free, though, so if you’ve got a little group of pals with whom you’re constantly killing time it could be fun. If you’re playing by yourself, though, expect it to be about as exciting as a trip to the DMV.

Wopple comes with plenty of free puzzle packs

Available on iPhone & iPod Touch

Tamagochi were cheap, electronic toys popular in the 90′s. It’s basically a battery-powered keychain pet game. To prevent your little pixel based buddy from dying, you have to feed, bathe, and play with the thing constantly.

If you know what I’m talking about, you’re probably feeling nostalgic and/or bitter right now. I know I was obsessed with my little critter. Once, I forgot to take him on vacation and cried the entire car ride (RIP Flippy). Tamagochi is some serious stuff.

Hatchi bills itself as the app store’s first Tamagochi emulator. That’s right- you can relive the joys and pains of your childhood for only $0.99. The artwork is the same retro black pixels. Everything is done by pushing a button. You can only ‘lose’ if you don’t check on your creature frequently. The app can send notifications, in case I feel like being woken up at 3AM being told Henry is bored or hungry or smelly. In that way, it’s like owning your own pet.

You either love Hatchi or you don’t. It’s neat and quirky- great for showing off to friends. But in the game play sense, there isn’t much here. Check back in, press a few buttons to feed, bathe, play with, and read to your pet. It’s feels like playing Sims on a graphing calculator.  After a few days, your monster evolves to new forms. If there’s no nostalgic connection between you and Tamagochi, Hatchi would offer much.

Hatchi’s description says that monsters take different attributes depending on how you treat them. I didn’t notice this, unless Henry transformed into a smelly, perpetually starving monster when I wasn’t looking. Oops. Sorry Henry. I hope you’re taking care of your Hatchi better than I am.

Have vaguely positive memories about Tamagochi? Want a pet, but aren’t responsible enough to remember to feed them? Well, Hatchi has a new shipment of critters up for adoption.

Look ma, arms!

Me Red: The Ultimate Adventure ($0.99) by Playcompass Entertainment

Available on iPhone & iPod Touch

iOS action games are a dime a dozen. I can only take so many $0.99 rehashes of tired concepts before I throw my iPhone into a lake and start beating people with a large ax. By all accounts, I should hate Me Red. For some reason, I don’t. So what makes Me Red unique and why am I hopelessly addicted?

Me Red: The Ultimate Adventure is a runner or platform jumping game. You control an endlessly running red blob. Jump with your left thumb, attack with your right. Watch out for enemies. If you die, too bad, start over. There are dozens of games like this languishing in the dark recesses of the app store, each with varying levels of suck.

But Me Red stands out. Start up the app and you’re thrown into a cute, quirky introduction. The graphics and soundtrack are bright, colorful, and happy- perfect contrast to my dark New England winter. Controls are responsive; animation is smooth. Everything is structured and polished. For a game by an indie developer, Me Red is seriously impressive. It’s looks are on par, if not better than, some of the top action games in the Apple app store.

Some award-winning plot development right here

Jump to avoid chasms and use your attack to temporarily transform into a fireball, knocking away enemies. Collect blocks to gain a powerful super attack that makes you invulnerable. After running for a while, you enter advance to new levels with a different theme. There’s a nice variety of enemies in Me Red, enough to keep you on your toes. After each round, you gain experience points. This classic formula is Me Red’s backbone. Easy to pick up and insanely addictive.

Died 2 seconds after taking this screenshot

But for only 99 cents, I can’t be too picky. Me Red does what it sets out to do. It’s good looking, responsive, and has it’s unique, quirky style. There’s no gimmicky in-app purchases. It’s hard to dislike something so endearing. Writing bad things about Me Red is like kicking a puppy.

So, Me Red wormed its way into this reviewer’s stone cold heart. For fans of a casual action game, step right up.

iSo Kingdom ($0.99) by Zleepy Ztudios

Available on iPhone & iPod Touch

Solve puzzles! Battle monsters! Solve more puzzles! I hope you like solving puzzles, because there’s a lot of them. A clever mix of a puzzler and an action/adventure game, iSoKingdom makes some advances in uncharted territory.

iSoKingdom is based around the concept of an isometric puzzle. You get a complex 3D shape and must deduce the 2D images of different sides. It requires a fair amount of spatial reasoning and patience, and is something you’d expect to find on IQ tests and brain teaser books.

Since I have the reasoning skills of a plant, I didn’t plan on doing so hot. Thankfully, the app foresaw my incompetence, and provided a thorough tutorial. Needless to say, after completing a few puzzles, I was hooked. After a few hours, I wouldn’t be surprised if my IQ doubled.

In iSo Kingdom, you are a brave block-warrior sent to fight monsters and complete some forgettable storyline. But that’s not what the game is about. Whenever you battle an enemy, you are sent to complete a sequence of isometric puzzles. All the while, you have to contend with a time limit and a set number of lives. Fail the puzzle too many times, then bye bye block-warrior, hope you bought life insurance. This puzzle-action combination is addictive and surprisingly enjoyable. Most puzzle games either fly over my head or fail to catch my attention, but iSo Kingdom is a novel concept. I like it.

The controls aren’t flawless, but get the job done. The quirky, cartoony graphics are endearing. The storyline follows a somewhat cliched rpg story arc, making battling sea monsters with the ‘power of puzzles’ even more entertaining. iSo Kingdom has a fun, indie charm, but is polished and well-executed.