iPhone App Reviews

Bugz

Michael (Admin) | Dec 19, 2008 Games

User rating: (3 votes, average: 4.33 out of 5)

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Bugz from Didev Studios is hilariously simple. In fact, it may even be the only game in the iTunes App Store that you don’t even need hands to play! You only need to tap the screen once per round, so you could use whatever body part you want… your toe, your elbow, your nipple, or some other appendage :mrgreen: …it’s really a refreshing change from the tap-til-your-finger-falls-off genre of mobile touch gaming.

In each level you have a goal, and you get one shot at tapping the screen at the right time to achieve that goal. When you tap, a bubble grows and then shrinks away, and any “bugz” that touch the bubble will pop and form their own bubble, and bugz that touch those bubbles will pop, and so on, and so on.

That’s pretty much all there is to it! Difficulty increases by requiring you to pop more and more bugz, popping specific bugz, and adding obstacles such as floating flowers that slow down bugz they collide with.

The first 17 levels are all pretty easy except for levels 15-17 where you need to pop all or nearly all of the bugz on the screen. Same goes for levels 18-34. After that, timing suddenly becomes something you have to really think about on a regular basis, and things only get harder from there.

Bugz is extremely cute and nicely done, and you can listen to iPod music during the game if you go to the iPhone settings screen to turn off the sound. It comes equipped with a global high score board and multiple players can create new “profiles” for storing scores and game progress.

I think it’s definitely worth a dollar, and like most new-ish games in the App Store it’s being offered at an “introductory price” although the non-intro price isn’t stated. If you’re looking for the casual-est of the casual games, Bugz is worth trying.

Tags: $.99, good for kids, simple

Snowdome

Michael (Admin) | Dec 14, 2008 Entertainment

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

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You couldn’t pay me to put a real snow globe on display in my hole-in-the-wall apartment unless it was filled with naked ladies, and even then I’d have to think about it! Snowdome, however, is an impressive and super-accurate reproduction of the real thing that I would gladly show off to anyone who wants to see what a quality App Store product looks like.

Snowdome comes with six different holiday songs including Auld Lang Syne and Blue Danube for post-Christmas relevance, and all of the songs sound like they could be playing from one of those pin-and-cylinder contraptions that goes inside a real wind-up snow globe or music box. Also included are six different background scenes that all look awesome behind the swirling snow flakes, and there are a few different ways to affect the snow’s movement which all look pretty right-on in the physics department.

As improvements go, it seems natural to wish you could stick your own photos in the snow globe, so hopefully Yotta Digital will make that possible in a future update. Another improvement that would be nice to see is the option to play all of the music in a row or randomly because the songs are pretty short as they also tend to be when you wind up the player on a real snow globe.

Yesterday I wrote about three free snow globe apps that ranged from weird to buggy to nice-but-not-actually-a-snow-globe. Although I looked at about six different free apps before settling on those three, not one of them even came close to achieving what Yotta Digital has created in Snowdome… and I’m not saying this because Yotta Digital is advertising the app on this site! It’s just that good.

If you’re gonna pay a buck for a snow globe, get this one. It’s abundantly clear that a lot of care and attention went into making Snowdome and you won’t be disappointed.

Click to watch Yotta Digital's Snowdome video

Tags: $.99, Christmas, good for kids

Lightastic!

Splash Jackson | Dec 13, 2008 Entertainment

User rating: (4 votes, average: 3.50 out of 5)

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(UPDATE: Two things: first, I just want to say that my comment in my review about exporting a lightwork video was a little unjustified, because I was uninformed of the fact that Apple doesn’t allow third-party access to their video app. Second, FoggyNoggin Software has just released an update to Lightastic! which allows you to LOOP your lightwork animations! I tried it as soon as I updated, and let me tell you, this is one sweet update! Thanks FoggyNoggin!)

First there was Light Show, then came Bright Lights, and now entering into the pocket Lite-Brite arena is the fantastic Lightastic!

FoggyNoggin’s Lightastic! gets you all giddy and excited with just the name alone: Lightastic! (I say the name with two thumbs up and a cheesy talk-show host smile). Once I got past my excitement, it was time to see if the app lived up to its name as I created my first “lightwork” masterpiece.

When you initially open up Lightastic!, you expect the same run-of-the-mill peg coloring program. While exhibiting the same basic features of other light programs, Lightastic! takes this form of artistry to the next level! What you first notice after launching the app are the tools at the bottom of the page; more specifically the play, fast-forward, and rewind icons. This could only mean one thing: animation creation! My mind then began to swarm with all kinds of ideas I could animate to make my Lightastic blockbuster. Should I make a fourth Matrix? Ooo, the sequel to Glitter! No, wait, High School Musical 4: Being a Teen Mother while obtaining my GED… The possibilities are endless… that is if you can achieve your goals on what is a “low-res” light board. Lightastic! could benefit from adding various board resolution sizes to meet the needs of the more demanding light peg artist.

When you begin to embark upon the creation of your first frame, there is a slide-out menu of peg colors to choose from:

• White
• Red
• Green
• Blue
• Burnt Orange
• Purple
• Yellow
• Erase Peg (which leaves you with black, but no peg)

Needless to say, the lack of color variety is a bit disappointing. Nonetheless, a true artist will make the best of what he/she has to work with. When your finger touches the board for the first time, the “peg placement” is very satisfying. The colored peg sort of “pops” into place with a little “bleep” sound to let you know it has been inserted. You can also use two or more fingers to place pegs simultaneously AND you can slide your finger(s) across the board to fill in scenery in a flash!

When you arrive at the completion of your first frame, you then have the option to export your image into your photo library or create a duplicate of the current frame (so you have two frames). This allows you to make some minor tweaks to the duplicate frame in order to string an animation together. Repeat duplicate process, tweak next frame, duplicate, tweak, duplicate … until you have numerous frames that can then be played as a moving picture. Though my movie didn’t get past twenty frames, I did go duplicate-button crazy to see if you could exceed 100 frames (which you can). Rest assured, you can make some very intricate animations.

A word of warning: the camera button at the bottom of the tool bar is NOT the export to photo library button! It is the duplicate button. The export option is under the settings icon at the bottom-right corner of the tool bar. This left me cursing my iPod as I kept searching for my masterpieces in my photo library. On the plus side, when you open Lightastic! again, your work is saved from the previous session.

Once you have a good amount of frames in place, you can then press the play button. The screen will initiate a countdown (from 5) and then play your frames in order. The movie playback feature is really the key feature in Lightastic! and satisfying to all the aspiring Scorsese’s out there.

Lightastic! offers you a short but useful list of options and tools in order to create/erase, save, and export your work. There’s even a whole settings button dedicated to turning off the program sounds so it won’t interfere with your iPod music (yes, you can listen to the Grateful Dead while pegging away hypnotically). Lightastic! could, again, benefit from adding various board resolution sizes, especially when it comes to the animation aspect of the program. A few more colors would be greatly received as well.

At the time of review, Lightastic! cost $3.99, however, their app page in iTunes states, and I quote, “** Special Introductory Price! **”. Do they intend to charge more? In terms of comparison to the other Lite-Brite programs, Lightastic! is the most expensive, yet rightly so with its animation feature. The only deterrent to this high (or possibly higher) price tag is the fact that you cannot export your movies! If FoggyNoggin could in some way add this feature, then I would say yes to the $3.99 price tag. As it stands, $3.99 is a bit pricey, but the animation feature just may sway you to buy it. It’s a helluva lot cheaper than film school!

Tags: $3.99, animate, classic, good for kids, lightbright, lightwork

Santa Wings: Rudolph’s Christmas Flight

Michael (Admin) | Dec 13, 2008 Games

User rating: (3 votes, average: 4.33 out of 5)

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Gotta hand it to Bottle Rocket… they know how to build a quality iPhone app. Santa Wings: Rudolph’s Christmas Flight puts you in the driver’s seat of Santa’s sleigh on a midnight joyride through a snowy moonlit mountain range.

The 3D rendering of the landscape is great, but it’s the little things that make this a pretty kickass holiday iPhone experience. While you’re flying around with your team of reindeer you can listen to four different Christmas tunes, fly with reindeer or without, and switch between “flying” (more responsive movement) and “floating” (less responsive).

The slider on the right of the screen adjusts flying speed, and the little Christmas tree air freshener at the top of the screen tells you how much you’re tilting since it’s easy to get disoriented if you’re hotdogging it on the accelerometer controls. If the air freshener is completely gone from view that means you’re flying upside down! Crashing into the mountains will splatter snowflakes around your field of vision and it also pisses off Santa who registers his displeasure with some unintelligible grunts if it happens too often.

Bottle Rocket even took the time to build an angle adjustment into the iPhone’s settings menu so that you can fly your sleigh from any posture, and if you feel like rockin’ the iPod during flight there’s a toggle switch for shutting off Santa Wings’ built-in music.

There’s no “end game” in Santa Wings… it’s built to fly, not land. With that said, grownups may be briefly mesmerized by this Christmas flight simulator but not for very long. Children, on the other hand, would likely get a lot more out of this app and I kind of get the feeling it was built with them in mind anyway.

Is Santa Wings: Rudolph’s Christmas Flight worth a dollar? Well, that depends. Would you pay a buck to get your kids to leave you alone for 10 minutes? Hell yeah you would! You really can’t put a pricetag on peace and quiet and goodwill towards Mommy and Daddy.

Bottle Rocket also makes a non-themed version of this app, Wings 2: Flight Simulator Experience.

Edit: Tap on Rudolph for a little surprise. Plus, there’s a secret North Pole to be found! I didn’t know this until reading some App Store reviews, but I found it. Can you?

Tags: $.99, 3D, Christmas, good for kids

PopMath

Michael (Admin) | Dec 11, 2008 Education

User rating: (3 votes, average: 4.33 out of 5)

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I typically don’t review apps that are targeted directly towards children, and I especially despise apps that require me to actually “think”, but I felt the need to prove to myself that I can still do PopMath’s elementary equations without turning to my iPhone’s space-age calculator. It’s a good idea to do things like this once in a while just to see how bad your age-induced stupidity has gotten.

The idea behind PopMath is simple: tap matching bubbles in succession so that the first bubble tapped is the mathematical equivalent of the second bubble. Of course I make it sound hard, but if you tap a bubble that says “4″, the next bubble you tap should say something like “2+2″ or maybe “5-1″.

Even after exterminating most of my brain cells with years of crazy binge drinking I was able to make it through 35 levels before getting distracted by a beer commercial, so that’s a pretty good indicator that an 8-year-old should be able to have a similar level of success. And if the kid fails miserably, well… no big deal! There are no timers in PopMath, no scoreboards to make you feel like a loser, and no in-game messages calling you a dumbass when you get something wrong. The bubbles float around to make things a little more game-like, but outside of that the game is super gentle on the ego.

I confess that I haven’t seen an actual child’s reaction to PopSoft’s math game, but if you’re a parent you might as well just fork over the dollar. You already believe that your child is some kind of mega-genius and your neighbors secretly think the kid’s dumb as a post (trust me, they do), so this is your big chance to prove them wrong!

Tags: $.99, good for kids

MonstAr Maker

Michael (Admin) | Dec 2, 2008 Entertainment

User rating: (3 votes, average: 3.00 out of 5)

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I’ve reviewed maybe 150 apps on this site and so far I think MonstAr Maker is the first real “iPhone art project” that’s been submitted to me for review.

The idea is simple enough: shake your iPhone to create a character that’s composed of three different pieces of art produced by a group of diverse but obviously talented artists. It works like a slot machine with the character’s head, torso, and legs being randomly spun on three reels that move horizontally when you shake, and it’s all about showcasing different brands of creativity as you “create” something entirely new on your own.

Each artist’s work is distinctly different and you can come up with some pretty screwy combos… you’re not just mixing artistic genres, you’re also mixing skinny necks with fat torsos and all kinds of other goofy crap. When you see an element you like, you can lock it into place and keep spinning the other body parts.

I like what Escape Plan B is doing here, but right now the variety of artwork feels kind of small. Don’t get me wrong, the artwork that IS there is awesome and would probably sell for a small fortune in a gallery, but after about 5 minutes of spinning I felt like I’d seen just about all there was to see. Luckily MonstAr Maker’s creators are actively seeking new artists to contribute, so if you’d like to see your own creatures included in this app just go to monstarmaker.com.

In the end, I think this app is totally worth $.99 to anyone who likes and wants to support “the arts”. It also has potential as a kids’ toy, so consider that an added bonus. If you’re simply curious about MonstAr Maker but aren’t sure whether it’s for you, my advice is to pay the buck and think of it as a donation to the art community! That way you’ll be satisfied with your purchase no matter what you think of the app itself.

Tags: $.99, artistic, good for kids

You Shake iLaugh

Michael (Admin) | Dec 2, 2008 Entertainment

User rating: (2 votes, average: 1.00 out of 5)

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You Shake iLaugh… well, I guess you know what this app does already! Shake it and an illustrated mouth will either laugh at you or with you, depending on how you choose to see it.

According to the iTunes App Store description, “the harder you shake it the harder it will laugh, until it reaches an uncontrollable eye-watering hysterical laugh!” Now I’m not calling Roman Reyhani a liar, but the distance between a mild chuckle and “eye-watering” laughter is pretty short, and I shook the crap out of my iPhone! The most I heard was some good, robust laughter but I wouldn’t rate it anywhere near “hysterical”.

You can choose between a laughing man or a laughing woman and both are kind of funny to listen to, but the truth is this app feels like a slightly fancier version of Wooo Button. The big difference is that Wooo Button is free and You Shake iLaugh costs a buck.

Laughter really can be contagious and if you’re always feeling like you need to choke the shit out of someone then maybe this app could serve as some cheap therapy. Otherwise, you might want to temper your expectations here and only spend the buck if you’re really in need of a quick chuckle. It’s definitely worth an actual laugh or two, but prepare for it to be short-lived.

Tags: $.99, funny, good for kids, useless

3D Fireworks

Michael (Admin) | Nov 19, 2008 Entertainment

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

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3D Fireworks is a pretty cool visual show that’s probably best suited for desk jockeys and frequent fliers on Air Bud. The bored office slave with a recharging cradle could let it run all day like a screensaver, and the bored stoner could just stare at it nonstop until the pizza guy finally shows up.

This app has one character flaw that I’ll harp on in a bit, but it does come with some nice viewing options. You get to control the color of the sky to simulate three different times of night while random fireworks get launched upwards, there’s a pause button in case you just can’t bear to miss a single explosion, and you can also move around the sky while the bombs are bursting in air.

The best feature, of course, is the ability to produce your own fireworks displays by tapping around the screen… and this is where The Flaw starts to become apparent. As far as I can tell, tapping is the only way to ensure that you get a great show. When the fireworks are just launching on their own they don’t come anywhere close to filling the screen and almost always seem to be off-center. It’s possible to position yourself for a “good view” and then lock the camera in place, but that view never lasts long. It’s like the self-launching rockets are absolutely determined to put on a half-assed show.

In most ways I think KDR Software did a nice job on 3D Fireworks. The sound is limited which I like, the graphics are great, and the ability to play while the iPod is running is key.

It lacks an oooohh-aaaaahh sound option which I think would be hilarious to add in, but first on my wishlist would be adjusting the auto-play to produce spectacular, screen-filling shows… or at least incorporate some options to control the size and frequency of the auto-rockets. 3D Fireworks is already a pretty good app for tapping out a show, but a smarter autoplay engine would make it great.

A “lite” version that provides a limited fireworks show is also available.

Tags: $.99, good for kids, lite version, strictly visual

Beatbox

Michael (Admin) | Nov 19, 2008 Entertainment

User rating: (4 votes, average: 3.75 out of 5)

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In case you’re too old (or too white!) to know what beatboxing is, it’s the art of literally using your mouth as a musical instrument. Beatboxers are known for doing a lot of percussion and record-scratching turntable noises, but the great ones can make sounds that mortal humans just shouldn’t be able to produce.

Razorcom LLC’s Beatbox app is basically a beatboxing keyboard laid out in grid format. Push a key and get a weird noise, and if you’ve already fired up the iPod you can beatbox along with the music.

Beatbox is a super-simple app so there’s not much to say about how it works… again, push a key and get a weird noise… but if I were to add an imaginary feature aside from the obvious “record a track” request, it would be the ability to record your own beatbox sounds and assign them to keys for playback. The 16 sounds that come with the app all sound good to my untrained ear, but if your heroes are named Blake Lewis and Butterscotch then you’re probably dying for someone to make this possible.

In the meantime, you’ll just have to accept Beatbox for the fun beatboxing toy that it is.

Tags: $.99, good for kids

Singing Pumpkins

Michael (Admin) | Oct 28, 2008 Entertainment

User rating: (1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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Singing Pumpkins is probably the best Halloween app I’ve reviewed yet! It shows a collection of very cute cartoon pumpkins that you can tap to make your own melodies or sound effects.

Each pumpkin has its own way of singing a note and occasionally yells something out of character just for fun, and if you actually possess some musical talent you might be able to cobble together a tune.

If you’d prefer Halloween sound effects over music, tap the music note in the bottom left corner and the pumpkins will drop the singing and switch to making spooky noises and saying things like “I vant to bite your neeeck” in a thick Transylvanian accent.

If you have or know any children, get this free app right now! I guarantee they will enjoy the hell out of it and some single non-parental adults (like me) probably will, too. I’m even thinking about incorporating this app into my Halloween costume if I can figure out how to waterproof my iPhone from the inevitable beer spills it’ll have to endure.

RAMDreams, the maker of Singing Pumpkins, doesn’t appear to have any other apps in the App Store right now but I’m already looking forward to whatever they come up with next.

Tags: free, good for kids, halloween, simple

Free Hangman

Michael (Admin) | Oct 28, 2008 Games

User rating: (1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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I’ve only tried one other hangman app (Hangman by JamSoft) and MobilityWare’s Free Hangman is definitely superior in just about every way.

In single-player mode you get to choose from a bunch of themed word lists, one of which is Halloween of course, and in two-player mode one of the “players” can type in their own word for the other player to guess.

In keeping with the wildly popular Halloween theme of publicly executing people who look different from you, Free Hangman’s victim is a spooky little pumpkin-headed scarecrow guy who is accompanied by a buff Chippendale dancer wearing an executioner’s hood. 

If the hanging Mr. Pumpkinhead creeps you out, there’s an option to change him to an innocuous stick figure. The Chippendale executioner stays, though.

When you’ve solved your word, you even get to see the definition by tapping a big blue question mark icon which opens an in-app Dictionary.com query to display the word’s meaning. Cool! Kudos to MobilityWare for thinking of everything.

Free Hangman is ad-supported but that shouldn’t scare you away from installing it. If ads bug you, just pay $.99 for the ad-free version. MobilityWare also makes a ton of other apps, most of which are either free or cost just $.99.

Tags: free, good for kids, halloween, traditional

Ghost Pop

Michael (Admin) | Oct 28, 2008 Games

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

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Ghost Pop is a Halloween-themed finger-tapper similar to games like Alien Invasion, Dactyl, and Plasma.

Ghosts that look suspiciously similar to the ones first seen 18 years ago in Super Mario World fly around in front of Halloween backdrops and your job is to tap them all away before the timer runs out. It’s actually harder than it sounds because the ghosts don’t fly off-screen… they bounce around like they’re in a rubber room and that makes the ghost movements hard to predict.

The game includes some good sound effects and difficulty can be adjusted by changing the ghost size which is a nice feature. As you advance in this game the ghosts move progressively faster and increase in numbers, so if your kids are going to play you might want to make the little spirits nice and big in the Settings screen.

As usual, Jirbo, Inc. is earning ad revenue from this free game (fine) and they also put plenty of effort into recruiting you into the Jirbo Army (not so fine). I’ve already ragged on them for this in my review of MonsterMatch, their other free Halloween app, so I’ll just reiterate that it’s annoying and leave it at that.

Despite my general disdain for some of Jirbo’s development decisions I can’t deny that they do a good job where it counts. Ghost Pop’s graphics and sound are nice, the gameplay is good, and the option to adjust the size of the ghosts is a great idea that makes the game playable for all ages. It’s also free so it’s definitely worth trying in this week leading up to Halloween.

Tags: arcade, free, good for kids, halloween