Burn it All – Journey to the Sun strives to 
follow in the footsteps of Cut the Rope, with a cute hero and a collection of unique puzzles, and it almost hits the mark. The game is certainly fun and increases difficulty at a very gradual and forgiving pace. And when players aren’t able to complete a level, it doesn’t mean they’re finished, as the game smartly includes the ability to skip areas that are proving too challenging. The controls, however, aren’t quite right, and the constant pressure to share your scores is a bit grating after a while. Still, for the price, this is a great way for puzzle fans to waste a few hours.
Tag Archives: app review
App Review: TallyTots
TallyTots makes learning fun for toddlers. Rather than making 
counting a chore, it walks them through the process, then rewards them with fun, interactive activities that reinforce the number. For example, if the number is 7, kids are encouraged to make a sandwich with seven layers. Kids may want to play it again and again — but it’s not perfect. Once an activity is completed, the app waits for you to pick another number, which requires selecting one from the top or bottom of the screen, then pressing it for 3-4 seconds. That’s nothing for adults, but kids may lose interest in having to touch the screen in a single spot for that long. It would be nice to see an option to advance to the next number once the interactive element had been completed (or after a period of inactivity). That’s a quibble, though. For parents looking to teach their toddlers how to count, this is a fine tool.
App Review: ZombieSmash HD
While its excessive use of cartoon gore makes 
ZombieSmash HD a poor choice for young players, older players may be charmed by the game. It’s a slightly different take on the reliable tower defense genre, where waves upon waves of enemies rush your stronghold, but flicking them away is fun. The game also requires a bit of strategy in determining when best to use the weapons in your reserve. (There’s something satisfying about flattening zombies with wrecking balls.) It’s frenetic action that doesn’t get boring — and the game offers several different modes (campaign, endless siege, and sandbox), that offer a good bit of variety.
App Review: SplitApple
Archery sims are fairly rare beasts in the gaming world, 
but when they’re done right, they can be a lot of fun. SplitApple has that essence of fun, but it lacks many features that seem natural to the genre, ultimately making it fall short. There’s no GameCenter integration at the time of this review, and the tournament mode feels stunted (taking place in just one location). Moving targets would also seem a natural part of the game. Thankfully, developer MKO Games recognizes this and is promising an update in the future. The graphics are quite smooth, though, and aiming your bow is just challenging enough to stay interesting, but not frustrating. Right now, this is an overpriced app, but if developers follow through on their promises to add more game modes and target types, it might be worth a look.
App Review: Asphalt 6: Adrenaline HD
There are plenty of racing games in the iTunes 
App Store, but the Asphalt series has always been near the top. Asphalt 6: Adrenaline HD is another winning installment, offering a fun, fast-paced experience with plenty of tracks, cars, and detailing options. It’s also a long game that lets users feel they really got their money’s worth from the app’s reasonably high cost at the time of this review. The problem is, this sixth version of the series is pretty close to the fifth. Aside from the ability to get an acceleration boost by collecting nitro symbols on the track and the elimination of unlocking “girls,” it’s a virtual clone, in fact. And the multiplayer is so-so at best. That puts the series at risk — and developer Gameloft will need to shake things up if it wants the inevitable Asphalt 7 to stand out from the crowd.
App Review: Facebook for iPad with Chat – Pica HD
Facebook for iPad with Chat – Pica HD is, basically, a 
customized version of Facebook’s rather anemic touch site. Sure, you can navigate between your news feed, profiles, and inbox easily enough — and even choose a custom theme — but the shortcuts taken by the developer are quickly apparent. Chat, for instance, doesn’t stick with your chosen theme, and scrolling through your available friends list is not an intuitive process. Search was also hit and miss (mostly miss) during our testing. In addition, some links and buttons have issues with unresponsiveness. If they aren’t tapped in just the right spot, the action won’t register. And the inability to pinch and zoom photos is glaringly obvious. It is, at best, a so-so app that shows little to no ambition in moving Facebook forward on iDevices.
App Review: Dungeon Hunter 2
Diablo has spawned some really, really bad clones. Thankfully, Gameloft 
(which has made a business of cloning well-known titles for the app world) dodges that bullet with Dungeon Hunter 2. While it’s nowhere as good as its source material, the game is less graphic. It is an enjoyable action/RPG with a fairly lengthy campaign, which you can play with others over local and online co-op. The game has an open world design, letting players travel and quest where they want, but suffers from some basic errors — like the main character often gets stuck while walking about, the graphics are sub-par, and the price is really too high compared to other apps. It’s far from perfect, but for RPG fans looking for an app alternative with a little depth, this one’s worth the try – especially if it’s on sale.
App Review: Stupidness 2 PRO
It would be easy to accuse Stupidness 2 PRO of 
living up to its name, but that would be lazy and misleading. The app does include some good brain-teasers — and it smartly includes hints for people who can’t figure out a solution (at the cost of IQ points). However, many of the puzzle solutions are random and seem meant only to showcase the iDevice’s abilities (like the gyroscope or multitouch). Additionally, it’s a very short app. Some users can breeze through it in 10-15 minutes, which makes the price tag — even at 99 cents — questionable. Unless you’re hopelessly addicted to these sorts of puzzles, the free version should suffice just fine.
App review: The Civil War Today
Leave it to The History Channel to make 
any other history-oriented app seem paltry. The Civil War Today is a breathtaking undertaking, crammed with fascinating data and presented in such a way that it never overwhelms the user. Daily updates mirror the events of 150 years ago, with newspaper reports and summary information, but the app also underlines the growing tragedy of the war with casualty counts on both sides, letters and diaries from soliders (again, on both sides), photos, quotes of the day, maps, and an interactive quiz. History buffs will be in heaven, but even students who have a moderate interest in the Civil War will find themselves anxiously awaiting updates every day.
App Review: Air Penguin
The key to success in the app store, it seems, is to include birds in 
your game. Air Penguin features another flightless fowl bouncing from point to point. That’s much like Tiny Wings, but this game uses the iDevice’s tilt function rather than gravity to move the bird around. And that requires the controls to be perfect. Unfortunately, they’re not in this app. As you advance through the 100 levels, the obstacles increase, which makes the control problems more noticeable. And while it’s a decision that was obviously made for gameplay, it’s odd that the game ends when your penguin hero falls in the water. Last we checked, penguins could swim….
The push to earn fish, the in-game currency, by downloading and playing other apps (some of which cost money) is a bit annoying. Parents might want to talk to their kids about this kind of marketing. Since you can earn fish by simply playing the game, it isn’t necessary to downloading other apps. On the whole, this app is entertaining, and is the very definition of bite-sized gaming.
Chris Morris: Journalist 