iPhone App Reviews

Crash Landing

Michael (Admin) | Aug 19, 2008 Games

User rating: (5 votes, average: 3.60 out of 5)

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Note: After writing this review, Jeremy Curcio very kindly pointed out that Crash Landing was made by Apple, not by MarketWall.com (see his comment below). Dammit, this is what I get for not reading the app description.

In the App Store, MarketWall says in the THIRD paragraph that “this application was provided as sample code for iPhone developers… I take absolutely no credit for it… I just think it’s cool enough that it should be distributed for free.”  That’s nice, but it’s still deceiving for MarketWall to put their name on the app. And on top of that I look dumber than usual! Screw you MarketWall. Jeremy, thanks for the heads up. Good luck with your Art of Light contest.

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The first thing I can say about Crash Landing is that it’s way better than Apache Lander!

Crash Landing is difficult without being so difficult you want to reach out and punch someone. Just like Apache, you control your vessel by tilting left, tilting right, and tilting towards you to hit the gas. The only visible difference in controls is that with this game you need to hold your iPhone pretty flat… holding it vertically will cause your lander to burn fuel nonstop. When you do need to propel yourself away from the alien surface, though, the tilt response is sensitive enough to know when you’re overdoing it and when you’re not.

The first time I played Crash Landing I didn’t quite get that the thing at the bottom of the screen is supposed to be a landing pad. To me it just looks like a skateboard with way too many wheels. And something I still don’t get is how the game determines your score… I’ve had some pretty quick landings that didn’t get me nearly as many points as other landings that took longer.

My best guess is that the Crash Landing score is calculated based on amount of fuel used, time required to land, and the softness of the landing. Or maybe it’s way simpler than that? Hopefully the folks at MarketWall.com Apple are reading this and can fill us in on the big secret!

If you’re having trouble landing, try keeping an eye on the green/red dot indicators at the top of the game. It’s hard to watch them and your lander at the same time, but they might give you some guidance on what you’re doing right or wrong. Green dot means you’re good in that particular category, such as speed, and red dot means you need to make an adjustment or die.

If you like landing things on your iPhone, Crash Landing is a good game (especially if Apache Lander pisses you off). It would still be nice to see more than one level of difficulty and maybe a landing pad that moves, but overall the graphics are pretty good, the sound effects are minimal enough that they’re not annoying, and it’s actually possible to land if you’re very, very careful.

Tags: free, simple

Boleas

Michael (Admin) | Aug 14, 2008 Games

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

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I’ve reviewed some pretty bad applications but I’ve never said what I’m about to say about this “game” by JRP App AZ:

BOLEAS IS REEEEEETAAAAAAARDED

You’ve been warned. Install at your own risk.

Tap. Bounce. Tap. Bounce. Snore.

Tags: free, simple, useless

PapiJump

Michael (Admin) | Aug 13, 2008 Games

User rating: (6 votes, average: 4.33 out of 5)

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Mr. Papi just loves getting high! Vertically, that is. He’s always smiling, always bouncing. Your job is to keep him from falling to an unceremonious death by tilting your iPhone left and right so that he continues to bounce further and further up by way of a series of green ledges. The higher you go, the fewer green things there are to bounce on.

PapiJump belongs to that family of super-simple games that take only a few seconds to learn, but it’s pretty fun and can be really addicting if you like this type of game. At first you’ll be frustrated by the lack of boundaries that causes “red ball guy” to bounce off the left side of the screen and come back in from the right, but if you play enough you’ll learn to use that to your advantage and, if you get really awesome at bouncing, you can submit your score to be featured in the high score rankings on Sunflat’s website.

You might even enjoy it when poor Mr. Papi runs out of green and does the high dive… and if you’re paying close attention, it’s possible to feel a spit-second falling motion yourself! Call me crazy, but I felt it which was pretty cool. Kudos to Sunflat for putting in the tiled background that helps suggest the downward motion.

While the gameplay is solid, the graphics are very 80s (which I suppose is part of its charm) and PapiJump could definitely benefit from some music. However, the only thing about this game that actually bugs me is the need to tap back to the title screen in order to play again. When Mr. Papi eats it, you should be able to tap once to get back to the bounce. There’s also no pause button which a lot of App Store reviewers are screaming for, but personally I think games in this genre are better without that… it makes hitting the highest of high scores that much bigger of an accomplishment.

I don’t know that PapiJump deserves all the 5-star ratings that it’s getting in the App Store, but it’s a fun little challenge that’s apparently becoming an obsession with a certain segment of mobile gamers.

Tags: free, good for kids, simple