iPhone App Reviews

iBattleships

Chris J. | Apr 29, 2009 Games

User rating: (131 votes, average: 3.22 out of 5)

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Who else played Battleship when they were a kid? If so, then iBattleships needs no explanation. For those who never crossed paths with the classic two-player board game, I’ll explain. Two players secretly place five ships of varying sizes on a grid. They then take turns guessing at where their opponent’s ships might be. First to sink all of their opponents ships wins.

You can choose to play against the iPhone or against another person over wifi. Unfortunately there is no option to pass-and-play, which would be nice in cases where wifi isn’t present or the other person doesn’t have an iPhone.

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Tags: $3.99, Chris J.

Robot Wars 3d

Chris J. | Apr 21, 2009 Games

User rating: (1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)

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There are many things I could say about Robot Wars, but what struck me most was how detailed the 3d environment was. Perhaps my expectations have been set low by many of the 3d games I’ve seen so far, but Robot wars looked so much more realistic than any other 3d app I’ve come across. Barrels had rust and warning labels, the arena was stained and even damaged in one section, and the vans actually looked like real vans. Even with all the detail, I never noticed the framerate drop even when the action was heavy.

Seeing how much effort was put into the design of the app, I really wanted it to work as well as it looks. Unfortunately this is not always true. The controls can be difficult to master and at times even a little frustrating. I frequently found my robot to be going in the opposite direction I intended. Although  I could usually recover and gain control after a few seconds, the first few moments were usually anyone’s guess. My wife (who graciously volunteered to help test the app) is a much less experienced gamer than I and had even more difficulty with the controls. She gave up trying to move the robot at all and just concentrated on aiming. One last word of warning, don’t expect to be sniping in this game. The aiming is much to jerky for anything but face-to-face confrontations.

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Tags: $0.99, Chris J.

Air Mouse Pro

Chris J. | Apr 6, 2009 Utilities

User rating: (5 votes, average: 4.40 out of 5)

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Air Mouse Pro is an impressive app that turns your iPhone into a mouse or touchpad. So far I have found it useful enough that I sometimes find myself using the Air Mouse rather than my computer mouse even when sitting at my desk. I would not go so far as to throw out my mouse and only use my iPod Touch to control my computer, but it is definitely very useful.

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Tags: $5.99, Chris J.

Organizer

Chris J. | Mar 21, 2009 Productivity

User rating: (6 votes, average: 3.50 out of 5)

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Some apps are easy to review. They either do or don’t do what they claim to do, Organizer is a little more difficult to explain. In many ways Organizer has more in common with a drawing app than most organization apps. Confused? Me too, but I’ll try to explain.

To start with, when you look at a page in the app, you see what looks like a page from a datebook. The numbers and lines you see are purely a background image, which means that you can write over them as you want. On the other hand, they do not help in terms of guiding where in the day your activity may be happening. Depending on personal preference, you might see this as a good thing or a bad thing.

Text is inputted in text boxes, which can be placed anywhere on the page. You have a few options for the font, color, and size of the text. Once the text box is on the page, you can move and rotate it wherever you want. Being able to rotate and move text is nice, but I can’t really figure out how that will keep me organized (maybe someone else will know).

You can also add pictures, drawings, icons (emojis), and import contacts from your Contacts app. Any of these can be moved, rotated, shrunk or expanded to fit whatever you have in mind. Again, this might make for a good looking page in my Organizer, but I’m not sure that this will really help me stay more organized. In trying to experiment with the app to really use all the features, I ended up with something that looked more like a scrapbook than an organizer.

One nice feature is the Cut, Copy and Paste buttons. If you want to have the same thing appear on more than one page, or if you want to move something, simply Cut and Paste. On the down side, you can only copy one thing at a time, so if you need to move text, a picture, and a drawing it could take a while. Being able to group items when cutting and pasting would be helpful.

Most apps of this type will give you the option of an alarm when an appointment is imminent, but with Organizer it would not even be possible. Since there is no way for you to input the time anything is to happen any more specifically than the day, even if the option was added the app wouldn’t know when to alarm.

One more thing this app does need is better directions. When first starting up, the instructions are included on the current day’s page. If you want to access them after that you have to flip back to that day. A button that would allow access to instructions at any time would help the learning process.

For most people, I think that this app is probably not useful enough to justify the price. There are some out there who I am sure will put this app to good use, and if you are one of those, good luck. The app is certainly well built, it just wasn’t built for everyone.

Tags: $6.99, Chris J.

Update: Pocket God

Chris J. | Mar 16, 2009 Entertainment, Updates

User rating: (38 votes, average: 3.11 out of 5)

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Back at the beginning of February I reviewed a little app called Pocket God. You can take a look at my previous review here: http://www.iphoneappreviews.net/2009/02/08/pocket-god/. At the time the app held a lot of promise, but was not fully developed enough for me to really endorse. Since that time Pocket God has climbed its way up to become the top paid app in the App Store. I have become a big fan of this app as well, and eagerly wait for each new update.

The key to Pocket God’s success lays primarily with the steady updates. Updates have been arriving about once per week, and there have been five updates since I first reviewed Pocket God, hence my updated review. These updates expand the capabilities of app and broaden the experience.

The creators of Pocket God, Bolt Creative, have really taken a hands-on approach with their fan base. They have a blog (the Pocket Blog), a Facebook page, and an account on Twitter. All this allows them to keep users informed on updates and take feedback on ideas for future updates. As a result, they have developed a following I have yet to see with any other app. Check out the plushie made by one adoring fan:

If you are one of the few who haven’t taken the plunge and picked up this app, what are you waiting for? At $0.99 this app is one of the best bargains in the app store, and every subsequent update is included in that price. At the rate this app is expanding, I predict that the price will go up eventually, so now is the time. It is certainly not going to get any cheaper.

Look through the gallery below to see the updates that have come through since my last review. You can refer to my previous review to see updates that had come through before then.

Tags: $0.99, Chris J.

MyMovies

Chris J. | Mar 15, 2009 Productivity

User rating: (5 votes, average: 3.00 out of 5)

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As an app, MyMovies is simply to collect a database of all of your movies. It does that, but little else. You can input movies manually or use the IMDb.com database to find and input titles.

What cripples MyMovies from the outset is the absence of features that would truly make it useful. Most notable in my view is the lack of any way to keep track of movies loaned out to others. I have used database programs on my computer for that very purpose, and the lack of this feature instantly put this app on my “to be deleted” list.

Visually the app is a mixed bag. The background looks nice, but the images that make up the movie titles can be difficult to see. The author wanted to show off the slick background, which means the images are so small that I have to squint to tell what they are. The option to show the movie titles doesn’t help much unless you carry a magnifying glass.

Being able to import title information from IMDb is helpful, but not foolproof. The image may not look anything like the DVD you have sitting on your shelf, which means you either get used to it or manually change it. If your collection includes foreign titles (in my case kung-fu films) you may search in English, but your results will likely be in the original language.

On top of all these other issues I have with the app, it has crashed twice on me in the short time I used it. If the app were in good shape otherwise I would generally ignore that, but as things are it was one more frustration.

Sure, I can look on my iPhone and see what movies I own, but I can also look on my shelf at home and see the same thing. Without any way to track titles  that I loan out, the app becomes nearly purposeless. Maybe for those who are very forgetful or like to brag about their collection this app will hold some promise.

Update 3/29/08: There’s a new update out for MyMovies which answers my biggest complaint. Now you can mark movies as loaned out and link them to a person in your Contacts. It’s a nice feature and adds usefulness to the app.

Unfortunately the screen is still awfully small and the app has crashed on me numerous times. The update was supposed to fix the crash problem, but honestly I haven’t notices much of a difference.

I have loaded about a hundred movies into the app now and I notice that it slows down substantially when I try to scroll through the movies. Scrolling quickly also increases the likelihood of a crash, in my experience.

In all I’d say that it isn’t a bad app, but it still needs quite a bit of work.

Tags: $1.99, Chris J.

Sentinel

Chris J. | Mar 5, 2009 Games

User rating: (9 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)

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It’s always a pleasure reviewing an app that has the time and money invested to make it a truly quality game. Sentinel is a tower defense game that rises to the top with spectacular graphics, great sound, and intuitive controls. Origin8 Technologies Limited has put a lot into developing this app, and it shows.

If you’re not familiar with the tower defense game genre, here’s a short primer. You are guarding your base from the hordes of enemy who will follow a convoluted path of attack. Place towers to fire on the enemy and hopefully stop them from reaching your base.

The controls are simple and easily learned. Drag and drop to create towers, and tap existing towers to either upgrade or sell.  Use two fingers and spread apart to zoom in for a better look at any area then scroll around the battlefield with one finger.

There are three different maps of increasing difficulty. Beating a map unlocks the next map. One interesting feature on the maps in Sentinel was multiple entry points for enemies. The second and third maps both had more than one path enemies could take to get to the base, making the defense more challenging.

Included on the maps are barriers. These are blockades on the path which enemies must destroy to pass. If kept intact, the barriers will add to your score and possibly make defense of your base a little easier.

For the most part Sentinel is a lot like most other traditional tower defense games out there, which is its main weakness. The tower choices are your basic weak and fast attack tower, cannon-type tower, slow enemies tower, strong and slow attack tower, and sniper tower. Enemies also fall into the usual types: slow walkers, fast swarmers, flying, and boss.

One addition is the ability to have up to three repair robots. These robots will repair damages to the base or barriers. When not repairing, they will mine resources to add to your money.

I admit that I am not the best at tower defense games, but I had hoped to make it all the way through on Easy mode. On the third map I was destroyed just I made it to Wave 100 (out of 120). It is a little frustrating to make it that far then have to start over from the beginning. It would also be nice to have a checkpoint or two along the way considering how long it takes to get that far.

At $4.99 this is one of the higher-priced games out there. Looking at the app, it is easy to see the reason for the price tag. Development of a quality app costs money, and Sentinel is definitely a high-quality app. If you enjoy tower defense games, Sentinel will certainly not leave you disappointed.

Tags: $4.99, Chris J., strategy

Kex

Chris J. | Mar 2, 2009 Games

User rating: (2 votes, average: 4.50 out of 5)

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When I encountered Kex, I was intrigued by the YouTube video of a character leaping, shooting, and dodging his way around a single glass tower. In fact, the whole of Kex is much like you might find in a boss battle of a platforming title.

You control a super-hero character who circles a glass tower. Dodge missiles, bombs and other devices while trying to shoot at the windows that are green. All the while the timer counts down. Take a hit and you lose time, but if you hit a green window you gain time. The game is over when the timer reaches zero.

While not as refined as some of the more expensive games out there, Kex makes a good impression. The game design is simple yet functional, and the character animation is smooth. Whether running, leaping or taking a hit, the character is well-designed and the animation looks great.

For me, the most frustrating aspect of Kex is the controls. In a fast-paced game like this controls need to be fluid and intuitive. The intuitive part is mostly there, but they are not fluid as fluid as I would have liked. For instance, sliding your finger left and right to run is simple and transitioning is quick, but if you want to jump you cannot simply slide your finger upward. You must first lift your finger before sliding it up to jump. The double tap for shooting was often frustrating for me. I just couldn’t jump then quickly tap twice in the same spot and actually hit what I was aiming for. With some practice I am improving, but it is still imperfect at best (see update below).

With the multi-touch capability of the iPhone, it would be nice to see that integrated into controls. It would be simpler to simply use a second finger simultaneously to jump or double-tap rather than to have to use only one finger at a time.

With the lack of backstory on Kex, I decided to fill in some of the gaps myself. Find out more about this mysterious warrior and his enemy  in the gallery captions below (not endorsed by Flying Sickle Studios).

Update 3/15/09: Kex has been updated to address some of the issues with controls. Now included is a “Fire” button at the bottom of the screen, although you can still double-tap if you prefer. Also, jumping no longer requires that you lift your finger between movements. I gave it a try and on the first time out nearly doubled my previous high score! Props to Flying Sickle Studios for listening to suggestions and updating the app to improve the users’ experience.

Tags: $0.99, Chris J.

Malevolent

Chris J. | Feb 27, 2009 Games

User rating: (9 votes, average: 2.11 out of 5)

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It’s difficult to review Malevolent and not find myself making comparisons to Pocket God, one of the top selling entertainment apps for iPhone. The basic premise behind both games is remarkably similar, yet each has taken it in a different direction.

As its name suggests, Malevolent is an app that lets you torment, dismember and incinerate a horde of tiny people. This is done by dropping traps, blocks, explosives, and other items of destruction on or among them. Make no mistake, this one is definitely not for the kids. The people may be tiny, but you can still make out the little bloody pieces flying across the screen.

The app certainly doesn’t look very polished. The tiny people just walk around lemming-like until they hit a wall, then walk back the other way. The animation for the walking is only about three or four frames cycled over and over. The levels are simplistic and most are no more than a few drawn lines. Even the menu is unimpressive, and lacks any style at all. Keep in mind that you can add a lot of people, which will slow your iPhone way down. If you throw in a stick of dynamite with a mass of people, your iPhone will come to a near standstill.

There are several different maps to make use of. You can also create your own maps by drawing them or importing pictures. Drawing on the iPhone is tricky, but still works better than trying to get a photo to work. Even after erasing the background the photo didn’t work, the people just stayed at the top of the screen.

Also available is challenge mode, which is more of a puzzle game. You must find creative ways to kill all the people on the screen. Unfortunately there are only five challenges to try. The challenges were moderately difficult, but over quickly.

Perhaps I’m just not vicious enough to enjoy watch tiny people killed, burned, or turned into zombies (that is an option). Their tiny screams, the explosions didn’t keep me interested enough to think about coming back for more. Maybe those with a more blood thirsty attitude will enjoy this game more.

Comparing two similar apps like Malevolent and Pocket God is usually something I try not to do. I begin to feel like the parent complaining to a child, “Why can’t you be more like your older brother!” Yet, I can’t help but wish that Malevolent was more like its older brother. Pocket God is much more attractive in art style, more creative in the various ways of interacting with the people you control, and makes better use of the iPhones accelerometer. On top of that, Pocket God is half the price of Malevolent! You can find the review and subsequent comments for Pocket God here so that you can make your own comparison.

Tags: $1.99, Chris J.

What Would Jesus Say?

Chris J. | Feb 24, 2009 Entertainment

User rating: (5 votes, average: 4.20 out of 5)

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If you have always wanted a little cartoon Jesus to spout Bible quotes on demand, today is your lucky day. “What Would Jesus Say?” is an app that does exactly that, and not much more.

There are a lot of these random quote generating apps out there, both paid and free. The concept is pretty much the same across the board, press the button and get a random quote. In this case, the words appear in a little thought bubble above a cartoon Jesus. His mouth moves and he waves his finger in the air, which is what I guess people are expected to do if they are saying something profound.

One thing that does help this app is the ability to access BibleGateway.com to get the context of the quote. This is helpful for those who will want to know exactly what was meant by the quote. Of course, being that all the quotes are from the Bible, a simple chapter and verse reference would be almost as good and wouldn’t require me to go to the web browser.

There are some features that are absent from this app that I have noted in other quote generating apps. Most notable is the lack of any sound effects or music. Being able to browse through quotes if you want to see all of them or select a particular one can be helpful.

There were a couple of things that did annoy me about the app. First was the use of incomplete quotes. Some quotes were too long to fit in the thought bubble, but instead of paring them down or enlarging the bubble they just end mid-sentence. If that doesn’t annoy you then you must…

Also annoying to me personally was the use of quotes not from Jesus. A few of the quotes came from other parts of the Bible and were said by other people. While not a big problem the app is named “What Would Jesus Say?”

The drawings are fine and other than the issues I noted above, the app does what it is supposed to. Since I already have a Bible app, I personally don’t feel the need to have a random quote generator.

Tags: $0.99, Chris J.

Chess Quest

Chris J. | Feb 18, 2009 Games

User rating: (2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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Hearken to me fellow chess nerds! I call all those who find entertainment in a good chess puzzle. While not a master in any way, shape, or form; I enjoy a chess puzzle and Crazy Zebra LLC has provided me a simple way to do so.

Put simply, Chess Quest is a collection of chess puzzles arranged by difficulty level. For those who don’t already know, chess puzzles are a pre-arranged chess board with an identified solution. The idea of a chess puzzle is to improve the endgame, helping a player to find checkmate more easily.

There are  six levels of difficulty for players of differing ability levels. Novices will want to start with the “basic” level puzzles before moving on to more challenging puzzles. More advanced players may start on an advanced level or jump from level to level to get more variety.

If you get stuck there is a “hint” button which will prompt you with the next step. I personally would like to see a hint that would tell you what you are looking to do (such as checking the opponent) before telling you the piece to move.

Unlike many of the chess puzzles I have previously tried my hand at, with Chess Quest the objective varies with puzzles. Most of the time you will be seeking Checkmate, but sometimes you will be trying for a draw (important when you’re in a tight spot), or simply a winning position.

A helpful feature in Chess Quest is the variation tree. The app will of course respond with the best move in any situation, but there are other possibilities. After you have solved the puzzle you can go back and see other possibilities and find your way to the solution through each variation. This allows you to find out how your moves trap the opponent to an inevitable finish.

In my experience, I have learned as much about chess from my failures as my successes. All those who still remember the humiliation of a fool’s mate know to never let it happen again. Therefore, it bothers me somewhat that there was no opportunity to truly fail in Chess Quest. If you select the wrong piece the square flashes red and you cannot move it; likewise if you try to move the correct piece to the wrong square. I would like to see the catastrophic results of a bad move, so that I can learn why I should never make that move again.

For the beginning to advanced chess player this is a great source of puzzles that will keep you thinking for some time. However, beginning chess players will need additional help in understanding the game. This app won’t help with opening strategies, special moves like “en passant”, or learning chess terms.

If you want to try out the “Lite” version for free, there are 120 puzzles available, as opposed to the full version which contains 1200.

Tags: $4.99, Chris J.

Duelo

Chris J. | Feb 13, 2009 Games

User rating: (4 votes, average: 4.25 out of 5)

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If you’ve watched a few too many spaghetti westerns, then you will probably enjoy Duelo. Imagine yourself standing in the middle of a dusty street in a western town. You scowl at your opponent, facing you from the opposite end of the street. A tumbleweed drifts across the street. Draw! You whip out your shooter and blast the varmint to kingdom come.

Duelo is simple to play and stylishly designed. Hold your iPhone at the ready, pointing downward. When you hear the rattlesnake, whip it up as quick as you can. Win, and your opponent will eat hot lead. Lose, and you will be the one pushing up daisies. The visuals are simple images rather than video but are well-designed.

Playing against a computer opponent is easy enough, and the interest fades quickly. That is why 2 player mode is available via wi-fi. Face off against your friend (if you have one that also has an iPhone/iPod touch). This will be the main draw for most users, as beating a computer opponent is a lot less satisfying than beating a friend.

As simply designed as the app is, I would have liked to see more variety in the opponents, as well as the win or lose screens. The simple addition of a few more images would build more variety into the game. Additionally, customization of your character and weapon would also help add more depth to the game even if the gameplay itself remains the same.

Of course the biggest issue with games that make use of the accelerometer is holding onto your iPhone. Waving around an expensive piece of technology would make just about anyone nervous. Fortunately there really isn’t need for too much movement as a simple tilt will suffice. While not as cool as the “quick draw” motion, it is a lot less risky.

One last issue: At the moment this app won’t work on the older iPod Touch, so if you were one of those that got an iPod Touch early on, sorry. Hopefully that will change in a future update.

Tags: $0.99, Chris J.