Following its charming PopOut! The 
Tale of Peter Rabbit, Loud Crow Interactive turns its talents on this Christmas standard in terrific fashion. Besides being a good story, PopOut! The Tale of Peter Rabbit is also a good learning tool. And the pop-up elements are wonderful additions to the story, using sound and movement in terrific fashion. Each page has several interactive elements that encourage poking the screen or tilting the iPad. Finding them is half the fun. The narration and music are festively appropriate and calming (which isn’t a bad thing at this time of year). This is one of the best holiday apps this season.
Tag Archives: apps
The best of iTunes: 2010
Apple has put together its list of
the top apps and downloads for 2010 – giving an interesting look at how its user base is using its various products.
Games rule supreme for iPhone owners, who pushed them to the top of the paid program charts, but for iPad users, business software beat out everything else.
App review: Spirits for iPad
There’s something downright charming about 
Spirits for iPad that’s hard to describe. Maybe it’s the unique and gorgeous hand-painted levels. Maybe it’s the cute, whimsical spirits floating in the air. Or, maybe, it’s the soundtrack — that sticks with you long after you play. Whatever it is, this is an app that takes the Lemmings formula (guide a series of creatures who follow in each other’s footprints) and alters it just enough that it seems unique. The game won the Best Aesthetics award at IndieCade — an international juried festival of independent video games — and it’s sure to win your heart too.
Read more at Common Sense Media
App review: Trucks and Skulls HD
It would be easy to write off Trucks and Skulls HD 
as a clone of Angry Birds, but that would be doing this app a disservice. While the physics-based puzzles are in the same vein — an enemy hides under wood, stone, and other obstacles that you destroy by flinging objects — there’s just enough of a difference that it remains enjoyable. The game is, quite simply, fun. Beating the puzzles gives players a rush, while losing only makes them want to try again (rather than frustrating them). The addition of a level creator is a nice touch that encourages creativity, but sharing the levels you create is a slightly difficult process. (You have to email them to friends, who then must upload them into the game.) Scores can be shared with friends via the iPad’s Game Center functionality.
Read more at Common Sense Media
App review: Let’s Golf! HD
There aren’t a lot of golf 
gaming options on the iPhone or iPad yet — and Let’s Golf is one of the better ones. It’s good, but not great, and often seems to lift elements directly from Sony’s popular Hot Shots series, rather than taking any chances of its own. It offers plenty of options, though, and will keep casual fans of the greens happy. If you’ve got the iPod/iPhone version of the game, there’s no reason to upgrade, but if not, you won’t regret the $5 spent here.
App Review: Scene It? Harry Potter HD
Even if you’ve seen all of the Harry Potter films and have
a good knowledge of the series’ mythology, you’re bound to stumble across some head-scratchers in Scene It? Harry Potter HD. The app is a fun trivia challenge that will likely make you want to watch the films or read the books again and illustrates just how vibrant and rich a world J. K. Rowling has created. The use of local multiplayer is a fun one, as playing in the same room increases the intensity of playing against someone (versus an anonymous online interaction). The app’s in-your-face marketing of other products, though, along with occasional lock-up problems during film clips detracts from the fun — and starts to make the $4.99 price tag seem a bit high.
App Review: Talking Rex the Dinosaur
There’s really nothing in Talking Rex 
the Dinosaur that Outfit7 hasn’t done in any of its six other “Talking Friends” apps. The main purpose of the series is for an animated on-screen character to repeat what you say to it in an altered voice. It’s a fun diversion, with a few features thrown in on the side — like feeding your dino a steak or playing a bit of catch with it — but it’s a one-trick pony that eventually does get old (generally much faster for adults than for kids). Still, the fierce T. Rex is bound to catch the eye of young dinosaur enthusiasts. The intensity of the animations might be a bit too much for the very young ones, though.
App Review: Jack and the Beanstalk 3D
Jack and the Beanstalk 3D is a fresh take on
a classic children’s tale, with bells and whistles aplenty. And what it does, it does quite well. The animations are beautiful. The control given to users over how fast or slow those animations run is engaging. And the background music, from Richard M. Sherman (composer of “It’s a Small World”), is charming. We only wish that the story itself was given a little more prominence and the learning potential of the app was better exploited.
App Review: Ragdoll Blaster 2 HD
With more than 200 levels, Ragdoll Blaster 2 
HD never gets old. What players may not realize is that much like Angry Birds, the longer they play, the more they learn about physics. There’s an undeniable visceral fun in shooting the ragdoll dummies out of a cannon, but the player’s focus quickly shifts to puzzle solving and how to hit the target — and the app never gives you an easy way out. The setup for the app is simple, but mastering it takes a long while, which are the key ingredients in a fun game.
App review: FIFA 11
FIFA 11 is about as authentic a soccer 
experience as you’re going to find, short of stepping onto the pitch yourself. It’s a loving tribute to the game of soccer (or “football” as it’s called outside of America) and the enthusiasm can carry through to the player. The game is visually gorgeous, but its controls are average at best and can cause a fair bit of frustration.
Chris Morris: Journalist 