Tag Archives: app store

Apple Declares War on Nintendo, Sony Over Video Games

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Apple might have shined its spotlight Wednesday on Apple TV and the new iPods, but at the same time, it had a clear message for the video game industry: We’re coming for you—and it’s going to be an ugly fight.

Over the course of the past three years, Apple has stumbled into a powerful position in the gaming world. The iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad were never designed as gaming platforms, but the app explosion that followed opened up the world of mobile gaming —and now the Cupertino-based company seems ready to capitalize on that.

Read more at CNBC.com

App review: Chaos Rings for iPad

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Square Enix, the company behind RPG giants like the Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts franchises, knows a lot about the role-playing genre — and with Chaos Rings, it shows that it can transfer its knowledge into the mobile market too. The game is playable in bite-sized chunks, which is hard to pull off in this sort of title. The pace is quick, but steady, never significantly penalizing players for mistakes, keeping them engaged.

Read more at Common Sense Media

App review: Diner Dash: Grilling Green

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The Diner Dash franchise has been a hit among casual gamers for years – and for good reason. It’s an upbeat, enjoyable strategy game that makes you smile. Diner Dash: Grilling Green follows in those footsteps, keeping you on your toes, but never overwhelming you completely. The game, which was developed specifically for the iPad, takes advantage of the hardware’s capabilities, with a real focus on multitouch. As you enter the middle and later stages of the game, you’ll need to use both hands to keep up with demanding customers and help cook the food. A multiplayer mode lets you share the workload with a friend, though — one seating the customers and handling orders, while the other assists with food preparation. It’s something that wouldn’t be possible on the iPhone, but that works wonderfully on the iPad. The only disappointment is the game’s length — 20 levels instead of the 50 that came with Diner Dash on the iPhone — but they’re all masterfully done.

Read more at Common Sense Media


App review: Vacation Mogul HD

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Building simulations often run the risk of becoming repetitive, but Vacation Mogul HDavoids this by peppering in a decent story and a pair of mini-games that are woven well into the story. The game holds players’ hands through the early stages to make sure you grasp play concepts, but not in an annoying manner. Novice players won’t feel any pressure to hurry – and there’s no “losing” a round, since there are no time limits. Veteran players of the genre, though, will enjoy the challenge of winning gold cup rewards for finishing within a time limit.

Read more at Common Sense Media

App review: Can You Find It?

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Can You Find It? doesn’t offer a lot of innovations in the hidden object puzzle genre, but it doesn’t need to. The game uses a smart hint system, eye-popping photos, and a local high score board to keep players captivated and challenged. Fans of Where’s Waldo and Little Things will feel right at home, looking for a hypothetical needle in a haystack. It will take a while to figure out all the puzzles, but once you do, there’s not a lot to keep players engaged. Until that happens, though, it’s a great diversion.

Read more at Common Sense Media


App review: Textfree Unlimited

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Today’s phones are often used more for texting than calling — and the costs of those SMS messages can add up quickly. TextFree Unlimited lets people text as much as they want without causing a spike in their phone bill. The reliability of the app is pretty solid. We didn’t encounter any “dark” periods when testing, regardless of time. Receivers always got their messages promptly and their replies were just as speedy. The volume of ads is annoying, though — and tacking on a recurring annual fee to a free app feels a bit iffy. (The app used to carry a one-time charge of $5.99 for no ads.) Parents will still need to monitor who their kids are texting and what’s being said, but for the budget conscious, this is a good alternative.

Read more at Common Sense Media

App review: Mother Goose Interactive Nursery Rhymes

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Mother Goose Interactive Nursery Rhymes strives hard to bring the joy and magic of the classic children’s tales to life, but misfires on a few key points. While the art and illustration are gorgeous, the app only tackles a small number of nursery rhymes — certainly not enough to justify the price. Worse, the narration of the rhymes often doesn’t match the words onscreen, which will be unhelpful to kids who are trying to learn to read via the app. (For example, in “Three Blind Mice,” the text reads “they all ran after the farmer’s wife, who cut off their tails with a carving knife,” but the narrator skips the word “off”.) The extras — a puzzle and a freeform art pad — are fine, but are done better elsewhere for less.

Read more at Common Sense Media