The Asphalt series 
rarely brings something new to driving games, but it’s never patently bad. This installment is a fun, but flawed, arcade racing game that leans a bit more to the action side of the scale with ridiculously high speeds and overdramatized wrecks. If you’re looking for a Burnout-style game for the 3DS, this isn’t a bad choice. There’s a good variety of tracks, and gearheads will enjoy the collection of licensed real world cars. Just don’t expect any sort of realism when you fire the game up.
Category Archives: Common Sense Media
App Review: DrawRace 2 HD
DrawRace 2 HD 
isn’t your typical racing game — and that’s what makes it so refreshing. Rather than tiling your iPad back and forth to clumsily control an onscreen car, you lay out the path for the driver to take with your finger before the race, then see if your plan worked (aiding drivers along occasionally with a turbo boost). It’s unique, addicting and is a game that will last you a long, long time. The in-app purchases are front and center, but not shoved down your throat (and are mainly shortcuts for players who don’t have the patience to unlock tracks and cars themselves). And the game is simply fun. It’s a great choice for race fans who are tired of the hundreds of “me-too” apps currently available.
Game Review: Rabbids Travel in Time 3D
The Raving Rabbids 
series is one of the more reliable funny franchises in gaming, but that’s largely due to the off-the-wall mini-games developers come up with. In Rabbids Travel in Time 3D, the bug-eyed bunnies abandon that for a straight platform game and it isn’t a great fit. The game’s certainly not difficult and as a platform game itself, it’s not bad (though hardly spectacular). But by so severely restricting the Rabbids and their environment, it takes a lot of fun out of the franchise. 3D effects are used well in the game, and thankfully sparingly, but it’s not enough to make a fair game into a good or great one.
App Review: VidRhythm
One of the most 
charming things about VidRhythm is being completely surprised by what the game produces. So, without giving away too much, let’s say the videos that result from the collection of six sounds you’re asked to make will make you smile and mine your creative energies to come up with something truly unique. What’s impressive is how easy the app makes it for you to create videos that look professionally polished. Too many apps take themselves seriously. VidRhythm is one of the few that will let you laugh at yourself — again and again and again.
Game Review: F1 2011
If you’re a F1 enthusiast, 
you will be squarely in your element with F1 2011. If you’re not overly familiar with genre (or with any sort of hard core racing sim), you will be downright baffled about what’s going on. The game is a fantastic simulation of the popular racing sport, but it throws players immediately into the deep end and lets them sink or swim. The amount of information presented to you at the beginning is nearly overwhelming, but it gets even harder once you’re out on the track, where the Artificial Intellegence used for controlling the other racers is ruthless, speeding past you whenever it spots an opening. All of this said, the game is beautiful and handles as precisely as you would expect. Fans will be incredibly happy with what developer Codemasters has put together.
App review: NCAA Football by EA SPORTS
Given that NCAA 
Football BY EA Sports is a year old, we’re willing to give it a few breaks, but the number of problems with this game are so overwhelming that it’s impossible to write them off. The frame rate is so choppy that players seem to be staggering on screen. The controls are frustrating and imprecise. The graphics are sub-par for what the iPhone and iPod Touch are capable of. And because of that, the game ultimately just isn’t much fun. The playbook is fine, though, and if you’re a die-hard NCAA fan, you may find something to like here. Just don’t get your hopes too high.
App Review: Crimson: Steam Pirates
Naval battles, for 
the most part, really haven’t been done well on the iPad, but Crimson: Steam Pirates is a wonderful exception to that rule, offering one of the most polished, surprising adventures to hit the app store in a long time. The game deftly balances story and gameplay and throws in a number of surprises to keep players engaged.
Taking a page from Sid Meier’s Pirates (the only other stellar pirate game app), the game uses a top-down view of the sea battles, but also folds in ship boardings and a local multiplayer mode. It’s the story that’s the real surprise, though. Instead of being an afterthought that’s not worth your time, it’s funny and thrilling. Having to pay for extra chapters is a bit frustrating, as it feels like there could be two versions of this game — a free a la carte one and a premium one with all content unlocked — but that’s quibbling. Crimson has become the must-have app for strategy fans, assuming they’re not too young.
App Review: Get Outta My Galaxy! HD
Get Outta My Galaxy! 
is a game that certainly earns points for style. It’s beautiful and, once you progress past the early overly simplistic levels, it’s laid out extremely well. Ultimately, though, it’s a game that tends to be a bit repetitive. (Occasionally sluggish controls work against it as well.) Still, there’s an undeniable fun factor that comes with being a grumpy protagonist who wallops perky aliens, and the short levels make it a great choice for when you only have a few minutes to play.
App Review: Machinarium
Machinarium is unlike 
anything you’ve played in the app store. Its minimalist interface and hand-drawn graphics might catch your eye, but its clever story and sly humor make it unforgettable. It’s a point-and-click adventure/puzzle game — and those puzzles can be real brain stumpers — but it’s one with heart and emotion that’s communicated through subtle, understated means, a rarity in this over-the-top gaming world. The game, originally released on PC, won several awards from respected industry sites — and it makes a wonderfully smooth transition to iOS devices.
App Review: Doodle Jump for iPad
Doodle Jump is one 
of the members of the app store royal family — and justifiably so. The title is, as advertised, insanely addictive, and achieves this with simple, but never simplistic, gameplay. The iPad version, which was long in coming, doesn’t really add to the experience, though. There’s an extra theme, which is nice, but that’s about it. And tilting the iPad (even with the lighter iPad 2) is much more tiring than playing the game on a handheld device.
Admittedly, that extra theme — a race-themed multiplayer — is a blast, though, and the game hasn’t gotten any less fun. If you don’t own a smartphone or iPod touch, this is an obvious choice. If you do, though, there’s not much incentive to pay $3 for another copy of essentially the same game.
Chris Morris: Journalist 