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11 votes, average: 4.00 out of 511 votes, average: 4.00 out of 511 votes, average: 4.00 out of 511 votes, average: 4.00 out of 511 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5

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Developer: Michael Lee
Price: $0.99
Get it on iTunes
Beer 99 Bottles Review

Jan 12th, 2010
by Jim.

Good: Quite entertaining, and it’s informational too

Bad: Not really something you’re going to use more than a few times after you’ve discovered it all

Bottom Line: Good for a laugh, fun to show off, worth the $.99

99 Bottles is a hilarious new app from Michael Lee.  It’s pretty similar to what you’d expect from an app version of the popular song “99 bottles of beer on the wall” but with a bit of a twist.  Depending on how much time you’re looking to pass (that’s what the song is for, in case you didn’t know), you can “take down and pass around” nearly *any* number of bottles of beer.  Want to start with 10?  You got it.  5 million?  No problem.  100 billion?  They’re all yours.  The possibilities are endless.  You can take down and pass around enough bottles of beer to get the entire world’s population drunk every day for the next million millenia.  And not only do you get to take ‘em down, you get to hear the “99 Bottles Men’s Choir” sing about it.  Yes, that’s the truth, and yes, it’s hilarious.

99 Bottles has several other features as well, but the developers asked me not to disclose all of them.  I will say this, though:  99 Bottles is as feature-packed as you can get with a song that’s so simple.   You can easily find out how long it’ll take for the Men’s Choir (LOL) to sing the song for x bottles.  You can even tap the bottles on the screen as they’re singing, and they will shatter, effectively speeding the song along one at a time.  One other thing I really found particularly interesting is a table of some *very* large numbers and their names (bigger numbers than you have ever imagined, literally!).

Unfortunately, as amusing as 99 Bottles is, it isn’t an app that you’ll use all the time.  After you’ve discovered all there is to discover, you’ll use it like you use Lightsaber or Koi Pond – to amuse some people for a few minutes every so often, and that’s about it.  But for $.99, how could you possibly go wrong?  The novelty of 99 Bottles is definitely worth the small asking price.

The app is funny, interesting, and surprisingly informational.  I mean, who knew that 10^60 is called a Novemdecillion?

Get this one.

The Men's Choir, lol
The Men's Choir, lol
Sneak peak at numbers list
Sneak peak at numbers list
Some bottles punched out
Some bottles punched out

Slider 1/3 the way over
Slider 1/3 the way over
Beer 99 Bottles

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3 votes, average: 5.00 out of 53 votes, average: 5.00 out of 53 votes, average: 5.00 out of 53 votes, average: 5.00 out of 53 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5

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Developer: Okdub
Price: $0.99
Get it on iTunes
My Sports Picks Review

Oct 20th, 2009
by Jim.

Good: Easy to use, easy to share predictions with friends.  Useful near-real-time scoreboard.

Bad: No explanation of betting terms.

Bottom line: Even if you’re not a big gambler, this app is quite useful and makes following your teams and bets a breeze.

My Sports Picks is an excellent app for football fans who are looking for a way to keep track of their picks.  …Err, let me try that again. It’s an excellent app for sports fans looking to keep track of their picks.  …Hmm, still not quite it… My Sports Picks is an excellent app for sports fans.  …There, much better.

My Sports Picks is a small suite of apps that includes everything you need to keep track of your favorite football, baseball, and (soon) basketball teams.   And not only does it help you keep track of them, it helps you keep track of the bets you place on them from game to game.  I’ve only had the chance to play around with the Football app, so I’ll mainly be discussing that here.  However, the dev’s have informed me that the other apps include ALL the same functionality.

My Sports Picks – Football ‘09 lets you make picks on the football games that interest you, including both the NFL and the NCAA.  You can make as few or as many picks as you like, on as many things as you like (over/under, line, etc), as the unlimited in-game money doesn’t amount to anything in the real world.  What it can amount to in real life, however, is bragging rights with your buddies.  What good is betting if you aren’t betting against anyone, right?  Well this app has several features that let you prove to your friends that you are the supreme sports-pick-guy.  For example, with the “Reports” tab of the app, you can see your “Season earnings”, “Career earnings”, as well as a list of the finished games you’ve bet on with their results.  Useful, for obvious reasons.  There’s also an “email my picks” button that lets you do exactly what it says – you can send your your picks to whoever you want.  This app really makes it easy to make your picks and rub them in your buddy’s face when you win.

But lets say you’re not that into betting – is this app still useful?  You bet it is.  My Sports Picks has a near real-time scoreboard that lets you see the score, the possession, the game clock, and several other things for every game that’s playing.  So even if you don’t care about picks, odds, or lines, this is a good an app for a scoreboard as any out there.  You can make any sort of pick on a game, and the game will be pulled to the front page.  Let’s say there are 3 games going on that you care about, you can pick something from each game, and those games will show up on your front page.  There is no more searching through lists of games to find the ones you’re interested in.  The entries change colors to tell you if you’re winning (green) or losing (red) that bet.   After choosing my teams, all it takes is a very quick glance at my front page to see everything I could want to know about every game I care about.  Awesome.

One feature I would have liked to see in this app, however, is a sort of global leaderboard.  Maybe some centralized way to keep track of you and your buddies bets would be useful – so you could have real-time standings of who’s making the best picks in the office pool, etc.   If My Sports Picks could add something like this, I could really see this app taking off, as it’d be similar to picking your NCAA March Madness brackets, just with several sports and all year round.  Right now, everyone in the office has to email their picks to one person, and he has to sort through these to build a master list of who picked what teams.  It’s a bit difficult (for that one person), but it’s still an improvement over how we used to do it.

Anyways, even with only the features I’ve discussed, this app would have replaced my old scoreboard app.  There are, however, even more features I haven’t had the chance to mention (like the ability to adjust the odds for a game, the ability to ask several ‘experts’ for their picks, and more!).   You should definitely take a look at this one, it’s extremely useful regardless of whether you’re into betting or not.

iphoniddly 025
splash
Make a new pick

Reports
Live Scoreboard
Winning!


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4 votes, average: 5.00 out of 54 votes, average: 5.00 out of 54 votes, average: 5.00 out of 54 votes, average: 5.00 out of 54 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5

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Developer: Dicework Games
Price: $0.99
Get it on iTunes
Diceworks Review

Aug 21st, 2009
by Jim.

Good: Excellent presentation (graphics, sound effects), fun gameplay

Bad: Can’t think of anything worth mentioning…

Bottom line: Fresh new look at a favorite old puzzler.  Get it.

Diceworks is an exciting new look at the old Bubble Breaker/Same Game/etc type game with a few interesting twists.  In those old games you select groups of like colors to make them disappear.  The more you can pop at a time, the better your score.  Diceworks is quite similar, only with numbered tiles instead of colored balls.  Using numbers really opens the door for so many new and exciting possibilities.

Valid groups of numbers in this game extend not only to pairs/triples/etc, but also to straights, reverse straights, two pairs, and so forth.  If you have a row that includes the numbers 2 2 6 6 6, you can select all five tiles at once and get a significantly higher score than if you selected the 2 2 and 6 6 6 separately.  This not only allows you to get some crazy scores, but it speeds things up a bit, too.

The graphics in Diceworks are pretty excellent – as excellent as a tile-game’s graphics can be.  There are some really cool animations of gears and things turning in the background and some steam blowing around here and there.  The sound effects leave nothing to be desired either – playing this game makes me feel like I’m in some sort of giant machine, with things clicking and ticking, wheels turning, steam escaping.  The presentation of this game is truly a treat.

At the time of this writing there is only one tiny, tiny complaint I have.  After waiting a few seconds without selecting a group, the game goes ahead and points one out for you.  Now, this can be really helpful when you’re in a jam and you need a group fast (in timed mode), but in the play-until-there-are-no-groups-left mode I find it completely unnecessary.  Sometimes I want to focus and plan out what I’m going to do to get the next mega-huge combo, and I don’t need the two 5’s on the top row lighting up for me.  This is really only a very minor inconvenience (if even that), and it’s nothing the addition of a “Help on/off” button couldn’t fix.

Really though, that’s my only issue with Diceworks.  And if a tiny, tiny not-even-problem problem is all I can come up with, I think that really says a lot.  This game is definitely worth buying if you like puzzle games, and if you’re fond of games like Bubble Breaker, etc, Diceworks is a must have.

One other cool thing I forgot to mention is that the developers promise an in-browser version to be released on their website in the near future.  So with this title, you can try before you buy!

diceworks
Menu
Howto

Suggested 3-2-1
2-3-4-5-6 Major points.
+72!


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10 votes, average: 4.00 out of 510 votes, average: 4.00 out of 510 votes, average: 4.00 out of 510 votes, average: 4.00 out of 510 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5

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Developer: Ginetix Games
Price: $1.99
Get it on iTunes
Orb Review

Aug 19th, 2009
by Jim.


Good: Challenging but not impossible, great idea for a game

Bad: Levels can be played a long time only to mess up at the very end

Bottom line: Addicting puzzler that you HAVE to keep playing because you got SO close on the last orb.

Orb is an exciting new puzzle game by Ginetix Games that keeps you wanting more.  Though not as similar to the Rubik’s cube as claimed, it is still a tricky puzzler that requires some thought.

When I first looked at screenshots of Orb, I thought it would be VERY similar to the Rubik’s cube, with rotating slices.  Turns out, that’s not the case at all.  The triangular pieces swap positions with their neighbors, and you need to align several of the same color to make them disappear.  When you clear the orb of 96% of the pieces, the next level is unlocked.  It would seem that this could be extremely difficult requiring much planning. but it’s really not that bad.

One thing that really surprised me, and that I really enjoy, is that you can move several pieces together before they all disappear.   For example, if I have RED, BLUE, RED, BLUE, RED, I can swap the first red and blue AND the last red and blue, before all the middle reds disappear!  This is really cool, and the extra second before matching neighbors disappear can get you some crazy combos (and score multipliers).

That being said, one thing you do NOT want to do, which I did waaaay too much, was neglecting to notice when pieces will be stranded.  The last thing you want is after playing for 5 minutes to not realize that this combo you’re coming up with is going to strand this blue piece and make 100% impossible for this orb.  (Getting 100% unlocks some “secrets of the orb”)  Once you figure out that not-stranding-pieces is the name of the game, clearing 100% of the orb is really quite a manageable task.

Like I said before- this is a game that’s hard to put down.  I got 99% on the first orb, and I really think I could have gotten 100%.   I saw it, but I made a silly mistake towards the end.  Just a little frustrating – but not so bad that I didn’t want to try it again right away.

All in all this game is fun – it can take a little long to beat an orb, but there are a lot of cool things to look forward to.  There are exploding tiles, bugs running around, orbs with thousands of tiles, among other cool things.  It’s worth picking up – it’ll surely be taking up quite a bit of my on-the-train time.

Orb
Colors everywhere
Big combo

What not to do
99%!
Orb Bug


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1 vote, average: 5.00 out of 51 vote, average: 5.00 out of 51 vote, average: 5.00 out of 51 vote, average: 5.00 out of 51 vote, average: 5.00 out of 5

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Developer: Anthropophagy
Price: $1.99
Get it on iTunes
Stay Review

Aug 19th, 2009
by Jim.


Good: Great gameplay, really excellent art, simple concept and easy to get into.

Bad: Each phase is *significantly* more difficult than the previous phase.

Bottom line: This game is a lot of fun and definitely worth looking into.

Stay is a new physics-based arcade game by Anthropophagy that requires you to stack blocks to prevent your “friend” blocks from falling off the platform.  Sounds easy, right?  Well, it is…. at first.  This game is a lot like Topple, only on a see-saw and with some crazy blocks thrown in to mix it up a bit.

The first “phase” of the game requires you to stack the blocks to keep the red triangle block on the platform.  There are normal blocks, blocks that expand, and blocks that shrink.  Like Tetris, you are shown which type of block will be coming next.  Phase 1 is really pretty simple, as it’s meant to teach you a bit about balance and control.

Now if you’re like me, you might be thinking, “I’ll just put a block on the left side, a block on the right side to balance it out, and wait for phase 2″.  Wrong answer.  After not making a move for 10 or so seconds, a 3-second countdown begins and you get an advanced block dropped on the platform.  This can be anything from a really heavy block, to an exploding block, to a magnet block, to I don’t even know what else.  These blocks really create a lot of chaos, and it can be *very* difficult to recover from.

Moving into later phases, these blocks are fed to you just as the normal blocks are, and this is my only beef with Stay.  Learning to deal with these crazy blocks in phase 2 is difficult, and you will play through phase 1 quite a bit before being able to know what to do with them.  Similarly, phase 3 introduces even MORE craziness, and you’ll play phases 1 and 2 A LOT before being able to even consider learning how to deal with additions in phase 3 (and 4 and 5!).

However, this just means you’ve gotta spend a bit more time playing this game – which isn’t a bad thing at all.  The art is very well done, and the music isn’t half bad either!   The game is quite addictive, and I find myself wanting to pick it up and play right after I just set it down.  I don’t have any real complaints about the game – just that it gets difficult quickly.  If you enjoy games like Topple, you will enjoy this one so much more.

Stay
Stay Title Screen
Friends

Balanced
Beginning Phase 2
Exploding Box

Getting Overwhelming
Game over

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10 votes, average: 5.00 out of 510 votes, average: 5.00 out of 510 votes, average: 5.00 out of 510 votes, average: 5.00 out of 510 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5

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Developer: J-Squared Software
Price: $0.99
Get it on iTunes
LunarModule3D Review

Jul 17th, 2009
by Jim.


Good: Beautiful graphics, awesome soundtrack, addictive gameplay

Bad: A bit difficult to get the hang of the controls at first

Bottom line: This is an incredible app and puts all other Lunar Lander games to shame. Buy it!

Lunar Module 3D is a new arcade Lunar Lander style game release by J-Squared software. The game is a refreshing change from the slew of cheap lunar lander games that have been released on the app store, many of which have been copied directly from the crash landing sample app. The game offers some very polished, high quality graphics and a surprising amount of gameplay.

The game takes you through 9 missions that require you to land on various landing sites that have been spread around each map, all the while making sure to conserve fuel. Some of the missions also require refueling along the way. According to the app description, all of the missions have been generated from actual photos of the moon. This is not hard to believe as all of the 3D environments look incredibly realistic. It’s a bit tricky to fly the Lunar Module at first, but you should be able to get the hang of it in about 5 or 10 minutes. Once you do, the game is quite a joy to play. The first 3 or 4 missions are fairly easy and allow you to get used to the controls. After that, however, the game becomes quite a challenge and requires a decent amount of strategy and planning.

One thing I must highlight about this game is that the sound is excellent. It seems that a good amount of effort was put into both the music and the sound effects. There is even real mission audio from the original Apollo missions. The music that plays during the missions fits perfectly with the gameplay, and it really helps make this game very enjoyable.

Quite frankly this is one of the best games I have played for the iPhone in quite a while and for $0.99 it is an absolute steal. Do not hesitate to give this one a try.

LunarModule3D App Store
LunarModule3D Screenshot 1
LunarModule3D Screenshot 2

LunarModule3D Screenshot 3
LunarModule3D Screenshot 4
LunarModule3D Screenshot 5


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1 vote, average: 3.00 out of 51 vote, average: 3.00 out of 51 vote, average: 3.00 out of 51 vote, average: 3.00 out of 51 vote, average: 3.00 out of 5

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Developer: Tractus Design
Price: $0.99
Get it on iTunes
iBox Review

Apr 24th, 2009
by Jim.


Good: Surprisingly fun, sound effects make punches very satisfying

Bad: One trick pony, no real interactivity

Bottom line: At $0.99, might be worth it for closet shadowboxers

Tractus Design has released a new iPhone boxing game called iBox.  It makes heavy use of the accelerometer, and is designed to be held in the user’s hand while shadowboxing.  The app detects punch strength and plays sound effects at varying volume levels.

Shadowboxing for a few minutes with cartoonish sound effects should be amusing for some users.  As is often the case with iPhone apps, the novelty wears off quickly.  Hopefully in future versions the developers work the app’s capabilities into an actual game where you compete against a computer opponent.  If they tie it into a web service, it could even potentially be used to compete against a human opponent.

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1 vote, average: 4.00 out of 51 vote, average: 4.00 out of 51 vote, average: 4.00 out of 51 vote, average: 4.00 out of 51 vote, average: 4.00 out of 5

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Developer: Roger von Oech
Price: $4.99
Get it on iTunes
Creative Whack Pack Review

Mar 31st, 2009
by Jim.


Good: Slick interface, sound advice, impressive artwork

Bad: No audio, $4.99 is steeper than most apps

Bottom line: If the original card deck version appealed to you,  the app probably will too

Roger von Oech has, with the help of developer Phil Dhingra, created a new iPhone application called Creative Whack Pack.  The app is essentially a collection of advice and stories designed to motivate and inspire users.  It has the same content as a previously released card deck.

To get to a “whack”, a user just launches the app and touches the “Give Me A Whack” button.  A unique image appears, and when touched a scrollable text area with advice replaces it.  A lot of the advice is common sense, but it can still be useful to be reminded with these “whacks”.

At $4.99 is in the premium app price range.  The original card deck version sells for $16, so if it appealed to you the application is definitely worth considering.  With 64 unique “whacks”, the application can be used many different times without running into a repeat.

Creative Whack Pack Screenshot 11
Creative Whack Pack Screenshot 10
Creative Whack Pack Screenshot 9

Creative Whack Pack Screenshot 8
Creative Whack Pack Screenshot 7
Creative Whack Pack Screenshot 6

Creative Whack Pack Screenshot 5
Creative Whack Pack Screenshot 4
Creative Whack Pack Screenshot 3

Creative Whack Pack Screenshot 2
Creative Whack Pack Screenshot 1
Creative Whack Pack (App Store)


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5 votes, average: 5.00 out of 55 votes, average: 5.00 out of 55 votes, average: 5.00 out of 55 votes, average: 5.00 out of 55 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5

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Developer: id Software
Price: $4.99
Get it on iTunes
Wolfenstein 3D Classic Review

Mar 24th, 2009
by Jim.


Good: Gorgeous graphics, good controls, nostalgia up the wazoo

Bad: Frame rate is less than ideal

Bottom line: Great app, if you have any interest in games on your iPhone buy Wolfenstein

id Software has released a port of the classic Wolfenstein FPS shooter to the iPhone.  Some of the coding was done by John Carmack himself, who also used original code combined with new code from Wolf3D Redux.  The original code was open sourced years ago and enthusiasts have been updating it, which made the port considerably easier for id.  You can read the design notes after the jump.

The game is $4.99, which is a great price that will probably cement the game as one of the must-have premium apps for the iPhone.  If you are an iPhone developer, the code is open source (download here) so you can actually test it out on the simulator or your iPhone for free.  When I tried to run it in the iPhone Simulator I got a couple errors (something about _GLimp_Shutdown referenced from _R_Shtudown and _GLimp_AppActivate referenced from _R_AppActivate in opengl_main.o).  Eventually I got it to run by commenting out some lines with functions references in the errors (366 and 405 in opengl_main.o if you have the SDK).

I’m not sure what I broke but it works well enough to run when I switched to the 3.0 OS instead of the 2.0 default. It’s not that much fun in the simulator since it isn’t designed for use with one input.When I tried to run it on my iPhone I kept on getting a “code signing identity” error with “John Carmack” or “Cass Everitt” mentioned. I spent a while messing around and eventually found Project -> Edit Project Settings, where I changed “Any iPhone OS Device” to the settings for my device, for each configuration setting.

Once I got it running I had a ton of fun reliving old memories from around 16 years ago.  The frame rate is my only complaint — it’s slightly lower than ideal.  The controls work surprisingly well.  Your left thumb controls movement with a virtual thumbpad and you tap the lower right area with your right thumb to fire.

The iPhone version has the addition of a map, a simplified interface, and auto-saving.  If you want, you can change the control positions or switch to tilt based turning or moving.

This is by far the best FPS to come out for the iPhone so far.  It’s no surprise, since it was a ton of fun when it first came out, and for the most parts the FPS formula has stayed the same since then.  If you are at all interested in gaming on the iPhone, it is well with the $4.99 price tag.

Wolfenstein 3D Classic Screenshot 8
Wolfenstein 3D Classic Screenshot 7
Wolfenstein 3D Classic Screenshot 6

Wolfenstein 3D Classic Screenshot 5
Wolfenstein 3D Classic Screenshot 4
Wolfenstein 3D Classic Screenshot 3

Wolfenstein 3D Classic Screenshot 2
Wolfenstein 3D Classic Screenshot 1
Wolfenstein 3D Classic (App Store)


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1 vote, average: 3.00 out of 51 vote, average: 3.00 out of 51 vote, average: 3.00 out of 51 vote, average: 3.00 out of 51 vote, average: 3.00 out of 5

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Developer: Spazzles
Price: $3.99
Get it on iTunes
Silly Songz Review

Mar 5th, 2009
by Jim.


Good: Simple, fun, fast

Bad: Price is steep

Bottom line: Good app if you like these sorts of things

Spazzles has released a new paid app called Silly Songz.  It generates a song with a voice recording and sends a link to it through the iPhone’s e-mail interface.

Some people really like online greeting cards, and for them this application is a great package for doing that on an iPhone.  For people who aren’t interested in things like that, Silly Songz is useless.

Silly Songz is easy to use and has a good selection of songs.  At $3.99 the app isn’t a steal, and for an app like this a lower price point would probably be a good idea.

If you already use similar online services and have an iPhone, Silly Songz is worth considering.

Silly Songz Screenshot 5
Silly Songz Screenshot 4
Silly Songz Screenshot 3

Silly Songz Screenshot 2
Silly Songz Screenshot 1
Silly Songz (App Store)


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3 comments  |  Posted in: Greeting Card   |  Tagged: · · ·

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