Thursday, March 17, 2011

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Gunner Galaxies Review

Posted: 16 Mar 2011 12:45 PM PDT

Gunner Galaxies Review

By Jennifer Allen on March 16th, 2011
Our Rating: ★★★½☆ :: ADDICTIVE
iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad

Gunner Galaxies is a simple yet addictive shoot em up that likes to provide instant gratification.

 

Developer: Fluik
Price: FREE (with in app purchases available)
Version Reviewed: 1.2
Device Reviewed On: iPhone 4

Graphics / Sound Rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars
Game Controls Rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars
Gameplay Rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars
Replay Value Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Overall Rating: 3.69 out of 5 stars

Gunner Galaxies is an intriguing concept. It’s a fast paced shoot em up but it also has some great social elements and a few other bits and pieces to keep it feeling fresh and fun.

It’s a free download but one that’s supplemented by in app purchases. These purchases aren’t essential though, they just speed things along. It’s a good way of doing things as you can still have a very enjoyable shoot em up for free if you feel like it or you can contribute a small sum and unlock things faster.

With 25 missions in all across 4 different galaxies (levels to you and me), there’s a fair chunk to do here once you unlock it all through an in app game purchase or by gradually acruing more credits through various means. There’s even more to do when you throw in the huge wealth of upgrades that you can install to your ship. Gunner Galaxies loves to reward you frequently whether it’s with temporary powerups such as rapid fire or power shot or with achievements and extra crystals which can then be used to buy permanent upgrades. It’s immensely satisfying as it feels like you’re rewarded after each wave of attack. There’s over 140 achievements in all so it’ll take a long while to get the lot, plus as you progress, so does your ranking. Ranking follows the theme of naval promotions such as ensign and so forth.

Besides the progression system, Gunner Galaxies is simply excellent fun. It’s easy to control with your left hand controlling direction and your right hand controlling firing. Each attack wave doesn’t take long to play through, making it ideal to drop into for quick sessions. It’s frantic but never unfairly so. The upgrade system in particular really helps you if you plan purchases carefully. You can also form squadrons with friends to earn more crystals to use to buy things. It’s a great touch but one that, like the in app purchases, you’re not forced to resort to but you can if you choose to. In saying that, do feel free to join my squadron Halycopter (YF8G) as the more the merrier!

Gunner Galaxies is a great little title simply put. Simple to get into yet very satisfying to play. The addition of in app purchases is there if you so feel like it (and considering the game is free anyhow, it’s worth doing) but you don’t have to. You can still have fun without or you can download other apps that reward you with extra galactic credits. Give it a whirl, you won’t be disappointed.

[ Gunner Galaxies Review is a post from 148Apps ]


Gunner Galaxies


iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Buy Now: FREE
Our Rating: ★★★½☆ :: ADDICTIVE
Read Our Full Review >>
Released: 2011-03-10 :: Category: Games / Action

Apps mentioned in this post: Gunner Galaxies

Trigonon Review

Posted: 16 Mar 2011 09:04 AM PDT

Trigonon Review

By Jennifer Allen on March 16th, 2011
Our Rating: ★★★½☆ :: INTERESTING
iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad

It’s got some lofty ideas but ultimately, Trigonon is a fairly standard yet challenging and satisfying puzzle game.

 

Developer: Just Funny Games
Price: $0.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0.0
Device Reviewed On: iPhone 4

Graphics / Sound Rating: 3.75 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: 3.44 out of 5 stars

Trigonon is a curious puzzle game. Covering similar ground to many other titles, the focus is placed on a complex web of descriptions that makes you think Trigonon is more complicated than it actually is. It’s not very complicated but it is a fairly enjoyable yet standard puzzler.

First of all, take a look at the App store description: ‘Trigonon is a puzzle game which leads you into an amazing journey inside your mind’. A lofty ambition, right? It’s not really. The entire concept of the game is that you direct your ‘thoughts’ by moving them with barriers in order for them to be captured by ‘positive energy fields’. In reality, you bounce the marbles around the screen with the barriers until they land into the energy thing that you’ve activated by tapping on it. Trigonon would do well to accept that sometimes it’s not cool to make things sound excessively clever. It’s a similar tale with the descriptions of each level which could do with a simpler sentence structure.

Despite this, admittedly fairly shallow complaint, Trigonon offers a quite enjoyable yet immediately challenging puzzle experience. At first it seems simple. You can just place the barrier in the relevant place and watch the marble bounce its way to the energy field. The problem is that the barriers aren’t keen to move in an obvious manner. Once they’re placed, all you can do is destroy them rather than move them. Precision is absolutely key to success. It gets tough and fast. In later stages, connections are needed to help you traverse areas, thus making the game even more challenging.

That’s without mentioning the strict time limit that you have to keep a close eye on if you have any plans on progressing to the next level. Miss that bronze level time and you need to start over. To achieve a gold medal, you’ll have to have lightening fast reactions as well as a bit of luck on your side too. Don’t count on attaining many of these, even during early stages.

There are 40 levels in all to Trigonon. I’m going to admit now that I didn’t manage to complete them all. It really is a tough title. It is a quite enjoyable title though. It doesn’t stand out from the crowd enough to be unmissable but nor is it a game to avoid. It’s just very standard fare with aspirations to be something really special thanks to some cool presentational aspects. It gets close to special at least though.

Oh and just a heads up, I had to restart my iPhone for this to work after installation so don’t panic if you just get a black screen at first. It all worked fine once I rebooted.


[ Trigonon Review is a post from 148Apps ]


Trigonon


iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Buy Now: $0.99
Our Rating: ★★★½☆ :: INTERESTING
Read Our Full Review >>
Released: 2011-03-03 :: Category: Games / Strategy

Apps mentioned in this post: Trigonon

Nexon Races onto iOS in KartRider Rush

Posted: 16 Mar 2011 08:30 AM PDT

Going back through the annals of video game history, it is hard to remember a time where racing titles were not dominating the landscape.  Franchises like Gran Turismo, Mario Kart and even NASCAR have gone on to sell tens of millions of copies worldwide, but what if that were just the tip of the proverbial iceberg?  Though you may not be familiar with the franchise if you are not living in Asia, Nexon has a driving franchise that scoffs at the idea of tens of millions of participants, instead opting to set their sights on hundreds of millions of players.

To date, their CrazyRacing KartRider series has managed to snag the attention of at least thirty percent of the South Korean population at one time or another, and over 230 million gamers to date.  With a track record like that it is a wonder that they have not found a way to make the KartRider franchise show up on the iOS.  However, this issue was recently remedied with their release of KartRider Rush, which hit the App Store late this week.

KartRider Rush will be following Nexon’s traditional development strategy of freemium game design.  Your base game download will be absolutely free, but in order to get the entire game experience players will need to shell out $1.99 for each add-on pack which consists of a new car, playable character, and two new tracks.  Nexon calls these downloads “gameplay enhancements,” but ultimately the decision to purchase this additional content is left to the consumer.

It will be interesting to see whether this grand experiment works out for the publisher, given their extensive back library of freemium releases just waiting to be tapped into, but if you are a fan of free games, there is plenty to be excited about.  So take it out for a test spin and let us know what you think of it in the comments.


KartRider Rush


iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Buy Now: FREE
Released: 2011-03-12 :: Category: Games / Sports

[ Nexon Races onto iOS in KartRider Rush is a post from 148Apps ]

Apps mentioned in this post: KartRider Rush

Musix Review

Posted: 16 Mar 2011 08:04 AM PDT

Musix Review

By Jason Fanguy on March 16th, 2011
Our Rating: ★★★★☆ :: A-MAJOR
Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad

Musix provides its users with an intuitive, easy-to-learn graphical user interface which makes it surprisingly easy and rewarding to learn (or just play) music, appealing to music lovers at every level. Considering what you get for the price, this is one music app that deserves its own spot within your app library.

 

Developer: Shiverware Interactive Software Developments Inc.

Price: $4.99
Version Reviewed: 1.1

iPhone Integration Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
User Interface Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Re-use / Replay Value Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Remember when you first discovered you could play simple songs, like “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” on your telephone? I don’t, because my family insisted on clinging to rotary-style technology until they were forced to replace it with pulse/touch-tone dialing.

Now, however, I can relive the tone-deaf days of my youth via Musix: A customizable, isomorphic musical keyboard for the iDevice. Before I forget continue, it should be noted that not only is Musix MUCH easier to use on the iPad, it’s practically a completely separate experience apart from the iPhone altogether: Its large screen allows users to manipulate Musix’ keyboard using multiple fingers, whereas real estate on the iPhone/iTouch, while still playable, is crowded. Unless you have hands like a ring-tailed lemur, you’ll want to own or access an iPad to receive the full array of benefits Musix has to offer.

Musix’ main screen consists of a scalable (depending on your settings) honey-hive of color-coded, hexagonal-shaped notes. Each hexagon on the screen represents a note and surrounding hexagons are harmonically related. Users can touch individual or multiple notes to play/compose music (single notes or chords). Chords are played by touching three (or more) notes at a time, e.g. pressing three hexagons in a triangular pattern emits Major/Minor chords, depending on whether the triangle points up (for Major notes) or down (for Minor notes).

In addition to customizing the screen-layout (size, type, etc.), users can choose their output from a list of different musical instruments and even send their music to midi-devices or programs, in real-time.

For the musically-challenged, Musix contains a comprehensive, built-in user tutorial, explaining everything from each layout and its attributes to instructional videos on playing chords and scales. That said, Musix was clearly developed for the music lover in us all: Its intuitive graphical user interface not only makes it surprisingly easy and rewarding to learn (or just play) music, it appeals to music lovers at every level, from novices wanting to learn and/or play music, to songwriters looking to discover new melodies and musicalrelationships.

Anyone who loves music, regardless of skill level, owes it to themselves to experience Musix. Simply exploring the app will open musical doors you never knew existed. It certainly did for me.

[ Musix Review is a post from 148Apps ]


Musix


Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Buy Now: $4.99
Our Rating: ★★★★☆ :: A-MAJOR
Read Our Full Review >>
Released: 2010-09-01 :: Category: Music

Apps mentioned in this post: Musix

FastBall 2 Review

Posted: 16 Mar 2011 07:04 AM PDT

FastBall 2 Review

By Jennifer Allen on March 16th, 2011
Our Rating: ★★★★☆ :: ADDICTIVE
iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad

FastBall 2 dispenses with the parts of platforming games that are usually frivolous filler (the story), focusing instead on the action within.

 

Developer: Klik! Games
Price: $0.99 (usually $1.99)
Version Reviewed: 1.3
Device Reviewed On: iPhone 4

Graphics / Sound Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Game Controls Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Gameplay Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars
Replay Value Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Overall Rating: 4.06 out of 5 stars

Remember Sonic the Hedgehog and Super Mario Bros back in the day when we didn’t really care about their motivation? When we simply wanted to hop across platforms as quickly as possible and simply beat the increasingly tough levels? Then that damn storyline kept encroaching on the territory and distracting us from simply leaping around. To an extent FastBall 2 returns to those early days. It’s not as pretty to look at as either Sonic or Mario but it does hark back to those joyful days of simply leaping.

You control a rolling red ball as it glides across each level. Your sole input is via tapping the screen in order to jump over the many, many obstacles in your way. Hit anything and it’s back to the start of the level you go. Fortunately each level is very brief so you’ll never be too frustrated. It’s excellent fun too. As the game progresses, you come across blocks that make you fly into the air and direction signs that affect which way you roll. Stars can be collected as you roll in order to boost your high score. It’s tremendously addictive as FastBall 2 is so easy to drop into for a few minutes at a time. Except it won’t just be for a few minutes, you’ll find 30 minutes are gone before you know it. If you check out the video below, you’ll see just how fast paced it is (which explains the lack of good screenshots unfortunately).

If you do truly get stuck on a level, you can use a token (collected after completing 5 levels) to skip the level so it’s never too frustrating. There are three difficulty modes available too with easy being suitably easy and hard making you want to tear your hair out. It’s satisfying though so you’ll give it a whirl despite your better judgement. There’s also the addition of two graphical themes – Cartoon and Futuristic which affect the music as well as the look of the game. A small but neat touch.

With 105 levels in all, FastBall 2 is a heck of a lot of fun. Simple yet devilishly addictive, it’s the kind of game that deserves to stick around on your iOS device for a while to come. If you’ve got plenty of friends on OpenFeint, there’s the added delight of getting competitive over each other’s scores too. Here’s hoping that the developers continue to support FastBall 2 as there’s a real chance of this game being a big hit.


[ FastBall 2 Review is a post from 148Apps ]


FastBall 2


iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Buy Now: $0.99 $1.99
Our Rating: ★★★★☆ :: ADDICTIVE
Read Our Full Review >>
Released: 2010-06-13 :: Category: Games / Arcade

Apps mentioned in this post: FastBall 2

ChatTime Makes Calls to Japan Free Until End of March to Help Tsunami Relief Effort

Posted: 16 Mar 2011 06:04 AM PDT

To contribute to the Japan Tsunami relief effort, ChatTime has announced that it is temporally making all calls to Japan free until the end of March. Both AT&T and Verizon have announced that they are also allowing free calls to the country, but ChatTime is an app that can be used not only by people in the U.S. but people in countries all over the world.

For those unfamiliar with the app, ChatTime is a third-party calling app for the iPhone that allows you to call international numbers at a considerably cheaper rate. Rather than using VoIP, the app uses carrier networks, providing connection quality on par with your own carrier.

“[Our app] does this by making a local call instead of an international one, and then passing it through a private high speed network to the country of origin, where it makes another local call,” the company told 148Apps in an e-mail. “In countries that incoming calls are free, the outbound call can be converted to an incoming one in order to prevent minute usage.”

It’s definitely nice to see more people reaching out to help Japan right now.

[ ChatTime Makes Calls to Japan Free Until End of March to Help Tsunami Relief Effort is a post from 148Apps ]
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