iPhone App Reviews

Perfetto

Jacob Jones | Apr 17, 2010 Education, Games

User rating: (7 votes, average: 3.00 out of 5)

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Exercise your brain and raise your stress levels at the same time!!

Welcome to Perfetto! Chances are you’ve probably played this game in your childhood as it is a direct copy of  the legendary game Perfection by Milton Bradley. The object of this game is to place all the yellow pieces into their respective slots before the red timer runs out. As a kid, playing perfection was five times more scary than it was fun. I’d always freak out and jump when the timer ran out and the pieces all flew out. After a week of messing around with it I shoved into my closet and never touched the thing again until I was in middle school. Luckily, when your minute runs out it doesn’t pop up into your face like the original game did. Instead, the pieces float up magically and the board resets itself.

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Tags: $.99, Games, good for kids, Jacob Jones, puzzle, traditional

Q&F: Tic Tac Toe and Tiles Classic

Michael (Admin) | Aug 17, 2009 Games, Quick & Free

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

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These games from GameStudio9 aren’t the most exciting things you’ll ever see, but they’re old classics and they’re free and they’re well done.

Tic Tac Toe allows you to play vs. another iPhone via bluetooth and it comes with easy/hard skill settings. Yes, it’s tic tac freakin’ toe, how much can the AI change between easy and hard? I dunno, just shut up and play!

Tiles Classic comes with 24 photos to unscramble, and you can set the difficulty from 3×3 up to 5×5. It’ll give you a “hint” by showing you where the tiles belong for a quick second, but other than that you’re on your own. Sorry, you can’t import  your own pics but when the price is zero there shall be no complaining!

GameStudio9 did a good job on both these ad-supported games and it’ll be interesting to see what they come up with when they actually want to make some moolah.

iTunes Link – Tic Tac Toe: GS9
iTunes Link – Tiles Classic: GS9
Version 1.0 (for both)
Reviewed on iPhone 3G OS3.0.1

Tags: traditional

Hooters Calendar Girls Crazy Eights

Michael (Admin) | Mar 2, 2009 Games

User rating: (7 votes, average: 4.14 out of 5)

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I’m too old and too jaded to get all giddy over pics of girls in bikinis… don’t get me wrong, I definitely don’t mind them! …but when Oasys Mobile posted their demo video on iPhone App Index, I knew I had to give it a try. I’ve reviewed apps that fart, vomit, and pop zits, so there’s no way my inner adolescent would let me get away with NOT reviewing this one. :P

My memories of playing Crazy Eights when I was little are pretty vague so it was nice to see that this app comes with instructions on how the game is played. It’s not rocket science, but even with simple card games it’s always helpful to have some idea of what you’re supposed to do. The basic idea of the game is to get rid of your cards before other players do, and you get rid of them by laying down cards that match the rank or suit of whatever’s on top of the pile of cards in the middle, and of course eights are Crazy and can be laid down anytime. First one to dump all of his cards is awarded points equal to the total of the other players’ cards, and in traditional gameplay you keep going until someone hits 200.

Hooters Crazy Eights is easy to play… to drop a card in the middle, just swipe your finger upwards and the card flies onto the stack. Each card has a different Hooters Girl on it, and if you haven’t already committed each of the oiled-up, surgically-enhanced ladies to memory, you can tap the card in the middle to get a good, close look at her in all her near-naked glory. This can be done regardless of whether the last card was laid down by you or your computerized opponents.

If you’re short on time there are a couple of game variants called Quick Play and Time Attack to help move things along, and there’s also a card options screen where you can mix things up by changing a few of the rules.

Overall this is a pretty slick app and it’s clear that Oasys Mobile takes their craft seriously. The graphics and sound quality are both really good, card animation is smooth, and generally speaking Hooters is a complete package. And yes, the girls featured on the cards are mostly hot! The majority seem to be blonde cheerleader-types and nearly all of them look like they’re sporting plastic floatation devices where their boobs used to be, but if you’re like most guys and don’t give a crap then the models definitely won’t disappoint.

As usual, though, I do have a few minor grievances to air. For starters, the high score board is local only. I know Crazy Eights isn’t exactly the stuff that global competitions are made of, but I’ve come to believe that nearly every iPhone game should have a global scoreboard. Also, the in-game scoreboard… the one that tells you how many points each player has scored in between rounds… is a little hard to decipher, meaning that if you’re not paying close attention you may not know which score is yours and how far you are from being crowned Crazy Eights Champ.

Two-player or multi-player ability would also be nice to see, but if you’re playing solely for the purpose of enjoying the company of some Hooters Girls you probably won’t care about competing with other humans. The app also crashed on me twice during my three or four games… it was nice enough to let me resume where I left off, but the folks at Oasys might want to look into that.

So is $2.99 a fair asking price? Ehh… I’d say it’s pretty close. Apps that come with this kind of gloss usually don’t sell for a buck, and in most respects it really is a well-done card game. Aforementioned gripes aside, my other Big Idea for Oasys to consider is the release of a man-meat version for the ladies! See that, girls? I’m not just here to ogle. I’m looking out for you, too.

BTW… I know the YouTube videos overlap on the new javascript image galleries. Don’t worry, you can just scroll the video out of the way! The images will stay in place while the rest of the page moves.

Tags: $2.99, card games, mature, traditional

Chess Pro and Chess Lite

Michael (Admin) | Feb 20, 2009 Games

User rating: (2 votes, average: 3.50 out of 5)

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Chess is one of those games that, software development-wise, can only get so good… no matter what platform you’re playing on, chess is chess and the game doesn’t change much. This means that what separates great chess games from average chess games is in the Bells & Whistles department, and Chess Pro totally rules in that area. Chess Lite not so much, but that’s why it’s called Lite and costs 1/4 of the Pro pricetag.

99Games went all out on Chess Pro and it shows. It comes with two different 3D-ish boards, wood and metallic, and if the 3D view is just too hot for you to handle there’s the option of going with the same 2D view that’s found in Chess Lite.

Like any good chess game there are varying difficulty levels and the Easy mode is so easy that even *I* can beat it! It’s almost like the Easy computer player wants you to win. I can’t really speak to whether or not the Medium and Hard levels are sufficiently Medium and Hard… all I can say is they kicked my amateur ass… but you won’t see the computer making the same suicidal moves that you’re treated to in Easy mode.

Chess Pro is also equipped with options galore… choose to play as White or Black, play in Two Player mode vs. another human, watch the computer play with itself… I mean… against itself in Demo mode, and you can also get hints on possible moves during the game if you’re hopelessly screwed.

Unfortunately neither of these apps is equipped to teach a complete novice how to play the game, but by default both Pro and Lite will show the legal moves that each piece can make when you select them in the heat of battle. It’s not exactly a clinic, but it’s definitely a good start for those who want to learn how to play the game.

The thing I like most is that Chess Pro (but not Chess Lite) includes two chess variants: Suicide and Losers. In these games the object is to lose your pieces before the other player does! Sweet, definitely my kinda game.

In terms of value, Chess Lite is pretty frakkin’ lite and I’d probably be inclined to try out one of the many free chess apps that are out there before laying down my buck. The board is nothing to get excited about and it doesn’t offer multiple  difficulty levels. It does show legal moves and it allows two-player mode but that’s about all it has going for it.

However… if you’re a total chess nerd and have posters of Bobby Fischer on your bedroom wall, Chess Pro is easily worth $3.99! It has all the features you’d expect in a premium app, the chess boards and pieces will win just about any beauty contest, and the Suicide and Loser variants are awesome bonuses for when you get tired of chasing kings. In other words, if you’re going to pay for a chess app you can’t go wrong with this one.

Tags: $3.99, chess, puzzles, traditional

Lose Your Marbles

Michael (Admin) | Jan 6, 2009 Games

User rating: (3 votes, average: 3.33 out of 5)

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Lose Your Marbles is one of those games where you start off with a board that has one empty spot and you have to jump pieces over each other to remove them until there’s only one piece remaining. If that didn’t make any sense, here’s another way to say it: it’s a slightly fancier and way more difficult version of PegJump.

According to Mark Fitzpatrick’s iTunes description this game has been around for a good 300+ years, and Lose Your Marbles is set up in such a way that it just might take you that long to master it. Games like PegJump simply require that you jump around the board until only one piece remains, but this game wants you to jump marbles over each other until only one remains in a specific spot on the board. Ouch! And therein lies the reason it’s called Lose Your Marbles. I don’t have too many marbles to begin with, so suffice it to say that I didn’t even come close to completing a single puzzle.

Unlike more traditional versions of the game, this app lets you undo your moves which is great but it’s still really freakin’ hard. It also lets you watch a replay of your game when you’re done and, since the game is completely devoid of any sound effects, there’s zero chance of it interfering with your iPod music. Aside from undo, the game’s best feature is probably the four different game boards that are included. If one kicks your ass, move on to another! And if they all kick your ass (like they did mine), then I guess you’ll just have to accept that you’re just too stupid for this kind of puzzle.

Overall I’m fairly underwhelmed by the production values in this game… no sound and the graphics are very *blah*… but none of that should matter much to hardcore puzzle freaks who would happily fork over a buck for the chance to conquer Lose Your Marbles. Everyone else, though, might want to try the free PegJump to see how much you like this kind of game before paying for a more sadistic version of it.

Tags: $.99, puzzle, traditional

Jigsawed Jigsaw Puzzle

Michael (Admin) | Nov 25, 2008 Games

User rating: (9 votes, average: 3.78 out of 5)

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Wow. Ephemeron Industries doesn’t screw around! They set out to make a kickass puzzle app, and that’s exactly what they did with Jigsawed. Anyone who thinks they can make a better jigsaw app should just give up because they can’t, and for once in my life I’m not trying to be a total smartass.

I reviewed Puzzoodle (Halloween) which is a really good jigsaw puzzle app in its own right, but Jigsawed Jigsaw Puzzle does it all. You can adjust the number of puzzle pieces from 9 (great for toddlers) to 144 (great for inmates), piece rotation can be toggled on/off, start blind if you’re hardcore and don’t want to see the completed puzzle first, and you even get to adjust how sensitive the pieces are to snapping in place.

As expected, Jigsawed provides help if you want it… peek at the image, solve some of the puzzle, or solve all of it if you’re a quitter. This application’s greatest feature, though, is how it gives you tons of ways to find photos for puzzling. From within the app you can choose from:

• 80 built-in puzzles
• Take a picture
• Camera Roll/Photo Library
• Flickr feeds
• National Geographic photo of the day
• NASA picture of the day

National Geographic and NASA photos aren’t just today’s photos… between the two categories there are about 170 images, plus there’s the 80 built-in puzzles, plus whatever’s on your camera roll, plus the endless pictures you can browse or search for in Flickr. Jigsawed can keep you busy forever. Literally.

Other features include the ability to select a random photo from a collection and the option to read whatever captions or text accompany the photo you’re piecing together.

If you’re jigsaw-crazy, Jigsawed is the app to get! Don’t question me. Just pay the dollar and be glad they’re not charging more.

Tags: $.99, puzzle, traditional

Puzzoodle Halloween

Michael (Admin) | Oct 28, 2008 Games

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

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I was expecting Puzzoodle Halloween to be a total waste of time because the title screen is ass ugly, but it’s really a pretty impressive jigsaw puzzle app.

This free Halloween version of Fulltilt Interactive’s non-themed $2.99 Puzzoodle Jigsaw contains 20 jigsaw puzzles that, when completed, form the pieces of a bigger Halloween puzzle. As you work on each puzzle, just double-tap the individual puzzle pieces to rotate them and drag them to wherever you think they should go.

If you ever get stuck and can’t solve a puzzle, you can take a peek at what the finished product should look like or you can just throw in the towel and tell the app to solve the puzzle for you.

The thing that I found most surprising about Puzzoodle Halloween is the production quality. The graphics are top-notch, and even the options and help menus are super cool. I’m a major arachnophobic so all the little tarantulas decorating this app kind of freaked me out at first, but they weren’t so bad when covered with puzzle pieces.

These Puzzoodles aren’t exactly “easy”, so there’s a lot of playtime here that can definitely extend past Halloween. Older kids, like maybe ages 10 and up, could probably handle the workload but I’d bet that younger children would lose interest fast.

Fulltilt Interactive did a really nice job of using the Halloween season to show off what they’re capable of producing. Puzzoodle Halloween is free so you’ve got nothing to lose by trying it out, and if you love it to death you might actually decide to pay for the non-themed Puzzoodle Jigsaw which lets you make jigsaw puzzles out of your own pictures.

Tags: free, halloween, puzzle, traditional

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

Squaresville

Michael (Admin) | Oct 21, 2008 Games

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

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Squaresville is an iPhone-worthy version of that annoying sliding-number-tile game we’ve all played and gotten pissed off at some time in the distant past. You know exactly what I’m talking about… that thing where you have to arrange numbers 1-8 in sequence by sliding the tiles around inside a grid, and you inevitably wind up with one number that’s way out of place.

Rusty Ross took that old concept and substituted photos for numbers, and instead of eight tiles there are eleven. Using photos in a puzzle like this makes it more engaging for sure, but it also makes it a lot harder! When you’re dealing with numbers, you know where things are supposed to go… but that isn’t always the case with scrambled photos.

Squaresville is really simple in that the only functions are Change Picture and Solve Puzzle, and there’s also a shuffle button in case you want to re-play a puzzle or make it a little harder to solve. When (if) you finally solve your puzzle, you’re rewarded with some funny popping noises and a boingggg! sound which is a nice payoff.

This is a nice, simple, well-done application that will provide some amusement (and frustration) for puzzle fans. It’s only a buck, so if you liked this kind of puzzle with numbers you should definitely like it with photos from your camera roll instead.

Tags: $.99, good for kids, puzzle, traditional

Tangrams

Michael (Admin) | Aug 20, 2008 Games

User rating: (20 votes, average: 3.05 out of 5)

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The Tangram has been around for at least a couple hundred years. Chinese people invented it to piss off iPhone users with spare time for puzzling!

If you like puzzles you’ll probably like Tangrams a lot, especially if you’ve never tried to solve one before.  This traditional puzzle looks easy and, at first, it might seem easy. Play long enough and you will hit a wall, guaranteed. Seven pieces may not seem like a lot, but when you have to use them all to create a specific shape without any of them overlapping it can be pretty tough while still being fun.

Tangrams does a nice job of letting you select your pieces, position them, and put them back if needed. Just tap on a shape at the bottom of the screen (the numbers tell you how many are available) and it’ll appear in the left corner, and you can tap to rotate it. Drag it around with your finger or drag it back to the bottom of the screen to hide it from view until you want it again.

If you find yourself totally stumped because you’re a giant tard, you can always go back to the menu screen and get a hint which will show you where one of the pieces of the puzzle goes. Society teaches us that cheating is bad, but that’s obviously not true. Cheating is awesome when you’re too stupid to go any further, and I’m very glad Tangrams has this feature.

As it is, Tangrams literally does everything right. For the future, though, there are two things that I would really like to see implemented:

• Divide puzzles by level. Difficulty level is probably hard to classify because people come in varying levels of stupid, but I’m sure it can be done.
• Develop some kind of head-to-head play. Either incorporate a timer that disables cheats and repeats the same puzzle for Player 2, or make up some kind of wifi-based 1-on-1 thing where two people on different iPhones can race to solve the same puzzle.

Tangrams doesn’t need these improvements, but they’d really help extend the game’s already-great playability.

Brian Wurster has done a great job with this app and I honestly can’t find anything truly wrong with it… it’s clean and polished, very easy to use, and it includes over 400 puzzles. I guess all that’s left to say is that it’s well worth buying, and for only $2.99 you definitely need this app if you’re a puzzle person.

Tags: $2.99, puzzle, traditional

Hanoi

Michael (Admin) | Aug 11, 2008 Games

User rating: (5 votes, average: 3.80 out of 5)

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Hanoi is Ian Marsh’s iPhone adaptation of an old game called The Towers of Hanoi. The object is to move discs of varying sizes from left to right with the only catch being that you can’t put a larger disc on top of a smaller one. That doesn’t sound too hard, right?

This game has survived since its invention in 1883 because it’s fun despite being incredibly simple. The gameplay does get kind of stale as the difficulty increases, but if you like the nice photographic backdrops that each new level is set against that might be enough to motivate you to soldier on and keep solving the puzzles. If it’s not then you can always choose to continue the game later.

With all the crappy games in the App Store, many of which cost money, Hanoi is definitely worth trying out. It might not keep you occupied for hours on end but it’s engaging and some of the background scenery alone is worth the download.

Tags: free, puzzle, traditional

Tic Tac Toe (JamSoft)

Michael (Admin) | Aug 8, 2008 Games

User rating: (1 votes, average: 3.00 out of 5)

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If you don’t feel like paying $2.99 for a game that literally dates back to 1300 B.C., try JamSoft’s stripped-down version. It doesn’t track wins and losses and it’s far from fancy, but it’s Tic Tac Freakin-Toe. How fancy do you really need it to be?

Tags: free, traditional