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Thursday, November 10, 2011

Evertales Review

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Evertales Review

By
on November 10th, 2011
Our Rating: ★★★½☆ :: FRACTURED FAIRY TALE
Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad

Evertales is a platformer with graphics enhanced for the latest iOS devices, and a 3-character mechanic, each with their own attributes and attacks.

 

Developer: Thunder Game Works
Price: $0.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0
Device Reviewed On: iPad 1, iPad 2

Graphics / Sound Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Game Controls Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Gameplay Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Replay Value Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Overall Rating: 3.63 out of 5 stars

Evertales, developed by is a comical platformer that satirizes fantasy genre tropes in a 2.5D platformer. Players control a trio of misfit adventurers as they try to defeat the aptly-named Dark Lord of Darkness. Sir Jorgin is a slow, beefy, powerful melee type. Arwick is an elf who uses primarily ranged weapons and has a double-jump to help navigate environments. Taragorn is an old, slightly senile wizard who can float to the ground and cast projectile spells. Each of the 3 characters can be switched between at will, which is often necessary to clear certain obstacles in levels.

Evertales has a good sense of humor to it; the narrator is very farcical and referential in his dialog, and all the characters play as comically exaggerated versions of fantasy archetypes. Plus, the hearts are actual hearts, which is a touch that symbolizes the mood of the whole game. A5 device owners will notice the game takes advantage of the powerful hardware with faster frame rates, normal mapping, and bloom lighting! In fact, the bloom lighting on the iPad 2 was turned up to 11. Everything is so blooming blooming! It’s a bit much, but I paid good money for this iPad 2. I want everything to have bloom lighting!

The game is fairly short; the 12 levels can be beaten in a couple of hours, and with unlimited lives, there’s really no risk of failure. The boss fights are nothing to iMessage home about, most of them just require knowing when to jump, and which character’s attack to spam in order to kill the boss. The three character design feels very woefully underused. See, Arwick, the double-jumping elf, is the most useful character because of his agility, which makes it easier to advance through the levels and collect coins. Taragorn, the wizard, is useful because of his spells and floating jump, but he’s still way less used than Arwick was for me. Jorgin was practically useless; he is good against most enemies, but he takes a lot of damage because of being up close, and playing as him through most sections means a lot of missed coins since he can barely jump. It just all feels improperly balanced when one character feels like a vestigial organ on this whole system.

Evertales is beautiful, and the multiple character design is novel, but it never feels quite properly used here, and the length at launch gives me pause. For $0.99, it’s worth the risk, and updates could certainly flesh out the game and the character usage. There’s potential in the concepts here, but execution still needs some work.



Apps mentioned in this post: Evertales


About: Evertales Review is a post from 148Apps

Carter Dotson 11 Nov, 2011


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Source: http://www.148apps.com/reviews/evertales-review/
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Powerful Name Memory Tool Namerick Out Now

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Able to remember names in a personal or professional setting? Yeah, neither can I. I’ve said it time and time again that I’m horrible at remembering names. There is nothing more awkward than trying to introduce someone I just met and then drawing a blank when trying to say their name. Apparently, I’m not alone. Namerick, ideated by Jeremy Van Fleet, just launched in the App Store and it’s free for three days.

Jeremy, who was part of the three-day app building contest hosted by BeMyApp, was first inspired to create the app because he needed to remember his girlfriend’s overwhelmingly large extended family. After completing the app over the weekend with a group of colleagues, the app is expected to do more than just remember family names. It might be one of the most powerful networking tools professionals can bring to a mixer.

As Dale Carnegie pointed out in his book “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” remembering a person’s name is the most important thing one could do to win them over. Namerick is an iPhone app that improves memory of people’s names using repetition and mnemonics modeled from memory professionals and studies of the human memory.

Basically, it helps with the “three R’s of memory” including recording notes, dates and categories, retaining new names and reminders and lastly, retrieving names, keywords and notes. The app will even send you notifications on a specific schedule to help you remember the names of people you just met. The name memory app is available now for free during its initial three days, then moves to $.99 thereafter.



Apps mentioned in this post: Namerick - Remember Names


About: Powerful Name Memory Tool Namerick Out Now is a post from 148Apps

Greg Dawson 11 Nov, 2011


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Source: http://www.148apps.com/news/powerful-memory-tool-namerick-november-9/
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There’s no Safari like a Fantasy Safari

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Create and customize a wildlife reserve. Manage various park minutiae. Upgrade facilities and inhabitants in order to bring in the big bucks. It sounds fairly typical of a good number of freemium park sims, but Fantasy Safari twists it up a bit. By adding fantasy creatures, naturally.

Dragons, frozen wolves, phoenixes and more. It’s a bit of a departure from the usual fare, to say the least. Now, thanks to EA Mobile, we can all try our hand at running our own zoo full of non-existent animals. 40 different non-existent animals, at that. 40 non-existent animals that can learn new abilities (i.e. fire breathing) as savvy players futz with their enclosures.

Anyone looking to try their hand at managing a theme park/zoo with a bit more… “flavor” can do so right now. Fantasy Safari is already on the App Store and, like most (read: all) free-to-play titles it doesn’t require any money to get started.





Apps mentioned in this post: Fantasy Safari


About: There’s no Safari like a Fantasy Safari is a post from 148Apps

Rob Rich 11 Nov, 2011


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Source: http://www.148apps.com/news/safari-fantasy-safari/
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Sunshine – Here Comes The Sun Review

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Sunshine – Here Comes The Sun Review

By
on November 10th, 2011
Our Rating: ★★★★☆ :: CUTE FUN
iPad Only App - Designed for the iPad

A lighthearted shooter that’s bound to put a smile on anyone’s face.

 

Developer: Quantum Sheep
Price: $1.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0
Device Reviewed On: iPad 2

Graphics / Sound Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Game Controls Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Gameplay Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Replay Value Rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars

Overall Rating: 3.94 out of 5 stars

It’s raining outside. Winter is well and truly here. In Britain that means it’ll rain from now until March. It doesn’t make for the most cheerful of times of year. What better way than to boost a mood than by shooting clouds with sun rays? That’s precisely what Sunshine – Here comes the Sun aims to provide and it does so with pretty enjoyable results.

Players take the role of the Sun in its lofty bid to vanquish sadness. 8 worlds are on offer, each with their own theme and original elements. Following a historical theme, the player starts out in the prehistoric era then works their way up to the future, with enjoyable detours to Ancient Egypt, Medieval England and a US city in 1977, amongst other places. Each of these worlds have four levels within them, provided as seasons in the year. The graphics within each world changes accordingly with the season which is a lovely touch.

Fundamentally though, the gameplay remains the same and it’s a fun one. Players must shoot fireballs at the dark and grumpy clouds coming their way. In turn, the world’s happiness is increased. Shoot anything else such as a humble dinosaur or bird minding its own business and another score increases: the sadness score. Ensure that the happiness score is higher at the end of the level and progress to the next stage.

It’s simple but excellent fun. A few different cloud types exist such as a slow and lumbering huge cloud that requires many shots, while tiny and fast clouds only need one fireball. These little clouds, in particular, are pesky things and sometimes it’s bordering on annoying to hit them. At times they also appear on screen just as the sun is rising or setting which makes it near impossible to hit without also taking out a poor unsuspecting tree.

Minor niggles aside and Sunshine – Here comes the Sun is a very pleasant game to play. Everything seems like it’s been designed to invoke a smile, right down to the collection of hats that can be found and then worn by the Sun. They don’t affect anything but they’re cute. It’s those subtle touches that make Sunshine – Here comes the Sun a cut above the rest and an ideal game for all the family.




Apps mentioned in this post: Sunshine HD - Here comes the Sun


About: Sunshine – Here Comes The Sun Review is a post from 148Apps

Jennifer Allen 11 Nov, 2011


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Source: http://www.148apps.com/reviews/sunshine-sun-review/
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Get the Inside Scoop And An Exclusive Fruit Ninja Chapter from Buttonless

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Buttonless: Incredible iPhone and iPad Games and the Stories Behind Them is coming out December 21 (and available for pre-order now) to bookstores and online retailers everywhere. It’s a book about iOS games and their stories by Ryan Rigney, a freelance journalist who has covered the video-game industry from every angle for publications and sites including Gamasutra, PC Gamer and GamePro. We managed to talk with him for a bit about the inspirations for the book, among other things. Click through to the post for the interview AND an exclusive chapter from the upcoming book, all about Fruit Ninja.

Why iPhone games? How long have you been a gamer, and what attracts you to the platform/genre?
I’ve been playing video games my entire life, and I’ve always loved mobile games. I bought a 3rd generation iPod Touch towards the end of 2009, and I immediately fell in love with it. It quickly became my main portable game machine, and I’ve been closely following the iPhone gaming scene ever since. These games are inexpensive, innovative, and always in my pocket. It’s the perfect mobile compliment to my Xbox and gaming PC.

How does writing about iPhone games and apps affect your gameplay? Do you have more fun, less fun, different fun?
Whenever I wrote my weekly column/regular reviews for GamePro, I was playing between 6-10 iPhone and iPad games every week. Those were the ones I actually downloaded; I probably checked out three times that many within the same time frame. The result is that I have very little patience with new iOS games. Whenever a big batch of new games hits and I get done syncing them to my devices, I’m like a kid after Halloween, digging through my candy bucket and tossing aside things that don’t interest me. I tend to judge whether a game is worth my time within the first 60 seconds of playing it, and I don’t think that’s how most consumers approach iOS titles.

But whenever I find a really great iOS game like Dungeon Raid or Mos Speedrun, I really have a blast with it. I go all out, playing for hours. Seeing all of the crap that the App Store has to offer really gives you a better appreciation for the games that have been created by talented developers. So do I have more or less fun? Probably a mixture of both.

Tell us more about your own process in writing the book – does it parallel any of the stories in the book?
That’s an interesting question. Like most writers, the hardest part of the process for me is forcing myself to sit down and just write. I had never attempted a writing project as massive as this before “Buttonless,” so there were a lot of nights that I worried about deadlines and my own ability to stay focused. Especially by the end, I was really getting worn out, but my publisher was gracious enough to allow me an extension.

There are definitely a few stories in the book of developers going through similar trials. I really identified with Brandon Williamson, the guy behind the excellent Forget-Me-Not. Like him, I sort of began to lose perspective on whether or not the thing I was creating was any good. It wasn’t until I started showing it to people and getting really positive feedback and criticism that I became confident that the book would be something that people would really enjoy.

If you had to choose your top 3 favorite iOS games, which would they be? Why?
Oh man. I never know how to answer this question, because there are just so many that I love. Here goes (in no particular order):

1) Super Stickman Golf – Brilliant level design, snappy yet fantastic physics-based gameplay, and a perfect control scheme make this one of the best golf games ever made (even if it’s not actually anything like real golf).
2) Jet Car Stunts – This game is perfect for iOS. It’s a lot like Super Stickman Golf in that levels are incredibly challenging, but are also designed in a way that gives players freedom to take shortcuts and pull off fun things with the physics system. I really wish True Axis would update it to support the Retina Display, because it’s already a gorgeous game.
3) Battle for Wesnoth HD – I love everything about this game. I love the way the game was created, how beautifully it works across platforms, and––most of all––the sweet strategy gameplay. Many of my all-time favorite games are in the turn-based strategy RPG genre (Shining Force, Military Madness, and Advance Wars come to mind), and BfW is like a super-sized smoothie made from those games. There’s so much fantastic content in this one game that it by itself is almost worth buying an iPad for.

A big thank you to Ryan for taking time out of a busy schedule to talk with us. And now, what we’ve all been waiting for — an exclusive chapter preview from Ryan’s new book Buttonless: Incredible iPhone and iPad Games and the Stories Behind Them. This one is all about Fruit Ninja.

Fruit Ninja

Platform: iPhone/iPod Touch (iPad version available separately) 

Price: $.99

Developer: Halfbrick Studios

Release date: April 20, 2010

What Is It?
In its original form, Fruit Ninja was as casual as casual games can get. Fruit shoots up, you slash it with your finger. If three fruits fall or you accidentally touch a bomb, you get a strike. Three strikes and it's game over.

As time has gone on, the game has retained its casual quality while at the same time evolving into something with a lot more depth. Now there are weapons to unlock and different modes, including the fantastic arcade mode, which is a timed version of the basic, endless mode.


Halfbrick has also changed the fundamental mechanics of the game over time. Now, if you manage to cut three fruits in a single swipe you'll get bonus points. The change lends a risk-reward element to the game that encourages players to wait whenever they see a fruit appear, in case more fruit pops up and allows for a juicy, well-timed strike that will award additional points. Meanwhile, the addition of unlockable skins and achievements contributes to the "one more game" fever that the game has always been so good at inspiring.
Fruit Ninja is a parent's best friend. It includes a special casual mode in which it's impossible to fail, which is perfect for kids. Both kids and adults will also learn a few things about fruit thanks to the sensei character, who pops up to share random fun facts about fruit after each game.
Because of its simplicity, Fruit Ninja manages to appeal to a ridiculously wide audience. I've seen people age 2 and 52 play and love Fruit Ninja, something that few games achieve. There's something intrinsically fun about Fruit Ninja's juicy, squishy physicality.

Behind the Game
Before creating Fruit Ninja, Halfbrick game designer Luke Muscat was working on another game, a racing title for the Xbox Live Indie Games Channel and PSP called Rocket Racing (now called Aero Racer because of a legal issue). Rocket Racing began as a side project for a few members of Halfbrick's team but it eventually grew into something much bigger, and the company had high hopes for it. Unfortunately, the game flopped in a big way. According to Muscat, the game was received well enough critically, but it was a commercial disaster. "We were so invested in it, so we were excited about it," says Muscat. "And when it came out it didn't do much for us and it was really disappointing, because we were proud of the game." Muscat believes that it was the hardcore, technical nature of the game that made it such a failure. "Clearly making a hardcore racing game for PSP minis didn't work out, so I figured lets do the exact opposite of that," says Muscat. "So my new goal was to make a really casual, easy to play, kind of literal game."

Around this time Halfbrick held a round of "Halfbrick Fridays," days on which studio employees got a chance to stand up and pitch a game idea to their peers. Traditionally the studio had focused mainly on doing contract work, so Halfbrick Fridays were a chance for its team to do something truly original. Muscat wanted to participate in the upcoming round of pitches, so he tried to think up a game that would work well on the iPhone.

For this particular Halfbrick Friday, Halfbrick CEO Shainiel Deo had laid down a ground rule—each game had to exist completely within a single screen. That meant no scrolling, zooming out, or anything of that sort. For Muscat, this limitation worked perfectly.

Muscat sat down at his desk with a blank sheet of paper and pretended that it was an iPhone. He began dragging his finger over the "screen" in a variety of gestures and shapes, trying to imagine different ways that players would interact with the device. "I had done quite a bit of work on DS games," he says. "I worked on Avatar: Enter the Inferno and Marvel Superhero Squad so I was fairly familiar with what works and doesn't work on touch screens."
It was at this point that Muscat suddenly remembered an old infomercial he'd seen for the Miracle Blade World Class Knife. In the ad, the excitable Chef Tony throws a pineapple up into the air and cuts it to show how sharp his crazy knife is. Muscat had purchased a set of knives for himself, and now he began thinking about ways to fit a fruit-slicing mechanic into a game. "The thing that was sort of exciting to me about it was that it was really kind of simple, but had this G-rated gore about it that I liked the idea of," says Muscat. "All our first concepts were of watermelons just because they seem to have that sort of good, hardish shell and are quite soft and juicy on the inside. I really wanted it to be kinda splattery and gory yet G-rated. Very viscerally satisfying to do."

Friday arrived, and Muscat was ready with his pitch. He tells me that the company had limited pitches to five minutes because entire days were being lost to drawn-out presentations by overly excited employees.

When it was Muscat's turn to speak, he got up and showed a PowerPoint presentation with only five slides. On the first screen were the words "Ninjas hate fruit, slice them with your finger." He explained the game's three-strike mechanic and walked off stage. The whole thing took fewer than 40 seconds. A few people showed interest in the game, but the prevailing reaction from others in the company was "wait, that's it?" Two people agreed to work with Muscat on the game, but they both left the company soon after, leaving Muscat with a game idea and nothing else. Subsequently Muscat and his team had to start looking for contracts in order to keep the company afloat, but the games industry in Australia wasn't doing well and the team wasn't able to find a contract worth a reasonable amount of money. "We were just kinda sitting in our little areas like, hmmm . . . this is looking dire," laughs Muscat. "We just lost a bunch of money on Rocket Racing and there's no contracts, so at that point we're like, okay, what if we try some iPhone games?" 
Muscat and a peer named Joe Gatling drew up a plan to create two complete iPhone games in six weeks apiece. They came up with more than a dozen game ideas and began knocking out prototypes using Adobe Flash, never spending more than a single day on one prototype.

After creating a good number of these prototypes, Muscat and Gatling picked half a dozen of their favorites and emailed them out to every employee in the company. One of these prototypes was Fruit Ninja. The email asked their fellow Halfbrickers to play the games and rank them.

Fruit Ninja came out on top overwhelmingly. Muscat and two other Halfbrick employees began working on the game almost immediately, and within just six weeks the first version of Fruit Ninja was released on the App Store. After about a week the game was doing quite well in Australia (it was in the top five), thanks to aggressive advertising and timely reviews from gaming sites. The game wasn't topping charts in other countries, but the team was stoked with the game's performance, so they stayed late one Friday night to drink beers and celebrate. "We were scanning the charts, watching the game move up or down by one spot," says Muscat. "It's kinda this weird spectator sport. Like if you'd trained a horse and then watched it race."

By 11:30 p.m. most members of the team had gone home to sleep, while the remaining few who were still in the office were "fairly well drunk." Muscat was getting ready to walk out the door when Deo came out of his office with what Muscat describes as a stunned look on his face. "I've got this email sitting in my inbox, and it's from Apple," Deo said. "It says 'urgent: we need some key artwork to use for Fruit Ninja for the App Store.'"

The email didn't explicitly state that Fruit Ninja was going 
to be featured by Apple, but that was the message being sent. It
 was a scenario that the team had hoped and prepared for, but 
they had no idea that the call from Apple might come at such 
an inconvenient hour. Panicking, the still-inebriated Halfbrick 
employees called both Fruit Ninja's artist and head marketing guy and got them to come back into the office to create a banner that Apple could use to promote the game. That took until 1:00 in the morning, but it was well worth the time.

The next week Apple featured Fruit Ninja, and sales exploded. The game was propelled into the top ten on almost every country's chart and became just as much of a staple in the top ten as Angry Birds. For Halfbrick, Fruit Ninja is more than just a commercial success. It's a game that the team's family members can actually get into. "It's really hard," says Muscat. "We made this hardcore racing game [Rocket Racing], and Shainiel takes it home to his kids and they're going to play it for all of 30 seconds before they realize that they can't figure it out."

Things are different for Fruit Ninja. Muscat says that he gave the game to his grandmother, who had never even seen an iPhone before. She played the game for a bit and loved it, managing a score of 45 in classic mode on her first attempt. "One of the most exciting things about Fruit Ninja is having the people that we're close to invested and excited about the stuff we're making," Muscat says. "In the end, they're the support group. They're the people who keep us going and keep us working."

Fruit Ninja's effect on Halfbrick has been incredibly positive as well. The company no longer has to do work-for-hire projects; this is something that Muscat is particularly pleased with, as contract work can often be grueling and unfulfilling. "A lot of the guys here are the same guys who'd work on our early licensed titles," he says. "And they'd get slammed in reviews, but we'd get rushed to push out a game in six months and meet ridiculous publisher expectations and change things at the last minute for them. So then you work for six-and-a-half months, and then the game comes out and it gets reviewed terribly and no one particularly likes the game, and these guys who are extremely talented are going through that. That's tough to go through."
Thanks to Fruit Ninja, Halfbrick has risen to superstar status in the iOS world. They've become A-class developers with the ability to do what they want, when they want, without reliance on publishers. With just the tiniest hint of pride in his voice, Muscat says that things have changed for the better. "Now I feel like the games we're making are Halfbrick games, whereas before they were just games that Halfbrick worked on."

Fun facts:
- The infamous first trailer for Fruit Ninja was filmed on a $20 budget. The guy in the ninja costume is Stephen Last, the game's programmer.
- The instructions written in the game's "about" screen are actually a haiku written by Muscat. He says that a grand total of zero people have noticed.
- Fruit Ninja's achievements include several references to quotes from The Simpsons.

Statistics:
• Development time to get fruit splatters working: 2.5 weeks
• Development time for Arcade mode: 3.5 months
• Times downloaded (all versions across all platforms): Over 60 million



About: Get the Inside Scoop And An Exclusive Fruit Ninja Chapter from Buttonless is a post from 148Apps

Rob LeFebvre 11 Nov, 2011


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Source: http://www.148apps.com/news/scoop-exclusive-ifruit-ninjai-chapter-ibuttonlessi/
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Junk Jack Review

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Junk Jack Review

By
on November 10th, 2011
Our Rating: ★★★★½ :: SO NOT JUNK
iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad

Junk Jack is another sandbox game with rather obvious “inspirations,” but to simplify it as such would be doing the game (and fans of this somewhat new-ish genre) a HUGE disservice.

 

Developer: pixbits
Price: $2.99
Version: 1.0
App Reviewed on: iPhone 3GS
Graphics / Sound Rating: 4.75 out of 5 stars
User Interface Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Gameplay Rating: 4.75 out of 5 stars
Re-use / Replay Value Rating: 4.75 out of 5 stars

Overall Rating: 4.69 out of 5 stars

Nipping at the heels of Crafted – this week’s earlier Minecraft “homage” – is Junk Jack; a similar 2D spin on one of the industry’s most well known indie games. I could spend the entire review comparing the two, but that would be futile. The short version: One offers comfort and familiarity with some slight changes, while the other provides a more unique take on a familiar concept.

Much like its compatriots, Junk Jack tosses players into the middle of a randomly generated world and tasks them with doing whatever the heck they want. Typically it’s best to start punching trees and using the wood they provide to create tools to aid in further resource gathering and exploration. Once a base of operations has been established they’re free to mess around with searching for loot, mine for precious metals and more. They can do all of this from the get-go, but it’s much easier with a few preparations. Plus lots of mean things come out in the dark so it’s not exactly safe to go wandering around in the open at night time.

Junk Jack is a great-looking and great-playing game, with some delightful retro/cartoony (think 16-bit era) visuals and smartly designed gesture-based controls. However, the most impressive stuff (for a veteran crafter such as myself, anyway) are all the little changes that seem simple yet so freaking brilliant it’s amazing no one’s implemented them sooner. Finding hidden caches of tools and random components encourages exploration. Locating pages full of tips and how-to instructions (which can be added to a player-made book to save inventory space) is another great idea. Players can even carry their inventory data from world-to-world (i.e. start fresh with a workbench, oven, etc… in-hand). But most of all, the way Jack will automatically jump up and place a block underneath himself (via tapping on a space he’s occupying) is stupefyingly amazing. The concept completely removes the need to quickly place a block while jumping, doing both with a single tap instead. Genius.

Of course, some of these brilliant ideas could use a little refinement. As much as I love the Crafting Guide, I’m disappointed new pages don’t automatically pop up on screen once the book is possessed despite the fact that they do before it’s crafted. Having to manually add pages to the book also seems like a completely pointless step. Minecraft veterans should also be aware that Junk Jack uses a similar but overall different crafting system. It’s still perfectly manageable, but it takes some adjustment.

Suffice it to say, Junk Jack is a hands-down, no questions asked must-own for any and all iOS users who love sandbox crafting games. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want even more stuff to mess around with, but that’s just the greed talking. Plus there’s always the possibility of future updates.



Apps mentioned in this post: Junk Jack


About: Junk Jack Review is a post from 148Apps

Rob Rich 11 Nov, 2011


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Source: http://www.148apps.com/reviews/junk-jack-review/
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Princess Punt Kicks Fantasy Monsters in the Face. With Flying Knights.

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Some princesses are content to sit around and wait to be rescued. They don’t mind sitting in their tower/castle/fancy chair until a prince shows up to rescue them or sweep them off their feet. Princess Punt isn’t that type of girl. She goes out and does the looking for herself.

Trajectory-based games are nothing new to iOS devices, be they medieval, automotive or avian in nature. The practice of knocking down ramshackle structures with an odd assortment of objects is a popular one, but not many of them involve giving armored soldiers the boot. Much less booting them into all manner of large (and vicious) beasts. Different “weapons” have different effects that can be triggered when the screen is tapped, while shot placement (trajectory, strength, point of impact, etc.) can mean the difference between “teh phat lewtz” and utter failure. It’s a weird concept that seems just insane enough to be awesome.

But don’t take my word for it. Anyone looking to dropkick noblemen into scaly monstrosities can check out Princess Punt in the App Store right now for absolutely free.





Apps mentioned in this post: Princess Punt


About: Princess Punt Kicks Fantasy Monsters in the Face. With Flying Knights. is a post from 148Apps

Rob Rich 11 Nov, 2011


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Source: http://www.148apps.com/news/princess-punt-kicks-fantasy-monsters-face-flying-knights/
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Battle Group Review

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Battle Group Review

By
on November 10th, 2011
Our Rating: ★★★★☆ :: MOSTLY UNSINKABLE
Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad

Forget random number guesses, blast enemies from a battleship using only touch in Battle Group.

 

Developer: Bane Games
Price: $1.99
Version Reviewed: 1.02
Device Reviewed On: iPad 2

Graphics / Sound Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Game Controls Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Gameplay Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Replay Value Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Overall Rating: 3.88 out of 5 stars


Battle Group is a mostly great game. It looks sharp, has pretty high production values and gives the player plenty to do in between its action-packed missions. In fact, these surrounding elements are so good that they effectively cover up how simplistic the actual gameplay is – an impressive feat.

The game casts players as the captain of a battleship with the goal of blasting nefarious pirates out of the sea. It isn't an amazing story but the well-drawn character portraits and professional voice acting sell it in a way most other games on the App Store do not. The visuals of the game itself may not quite match its menus, cutscenes or surprisingly epic music but the way in which it resembles a more detailed version of arcade shooters like Xevious gives it a different sort of charm. Plus, there's a filter over everything, making the screen look like a military monitor, which is a nice touch.

Battle Group is essentially an on-rails shooter. The ship moves along a set path and the player's job is to tap the screen to launch missiles and take out enemies. The mission objectives may change from "harass the enemy" to "defend friendly units" but it usually boils down to the same strategic tapping. Ammo is unlimited but must occasionally recharge.

There's some added depth thanks to the ability to level up ships with experience gained from completed missions. This can give ships new abilities like "expanded missile area of effect range." Pretty early in the game players will also be able to use a support ship complete with its own special guns that must be manually aimed. Earning medals through skillful play unlocks more flagships and support ships. Despite all of these flourishes though, eventually tapping on pirates to blow them up gets old after a while. Luckily missions never last long enough for fatigue to set in too deeply.

As far as cheap shooters on the App Store go, just the amount of care given to Battle Group makes it worth checking out. In all honesty, it's pretty shallow at its core but at least it's shallow with some effort put into it.




Apps mentioned in this post: Battle Group


About: Battle Group Review is a post from 148Apps

Jordan Minor 11 Nov, 2011


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Source: http://www.148apps.com/reviews/battle-group-review/
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Umami Brings the Second Screen to the iPad

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The idea of the “second screen” during TV viewing has arisen recently, as TV watchers increasingly use their phones and now tablets while watching TV. An app called Umami is now available that allows users to interact with their TV shows as they’re on. Users can see social feeds from the general public and show cast members, browse information on recent episodes, and more. Some shows offer interactive elements such as polls for users to share their opinions, along with Twitter and Facebook support. The app uses audio fingerprinting recognition to detect what show is currently being watched, and to automatically pull up the correct show and episode information. This doesn’t just work with live TV; recorded shows that have recently aired can also be matched by the app. Shows can also be manually pulled up by users if they want to look up another show while not watching TV or watching something else. Umami is available now for free from the App Store.



Apps mentioned in this post: Umami for iPad - Your TV Companion


About: Umami Brings the Second Screen to the iPad is a post from 148Apps

Carter Dotson 11 Nov, 2011


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Source: http://www.148apps.com/news/umami-brings-screen-ipad/
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