1st Impressions

Smartphones have revolutionized the way we live. Now we can use our phones to access the internet, write articles and emails using their word processing capabilities, take photos and a whole host of other functionalities . They have become personal digital information hold-alls, they can also improve our brain power.

Many of us like playing games on our smart phones. Angry Birds is probably our first thought when it comes to whiling away a few minutes using a mobile phone, but there are lots of other games that people love to play from racing games like Real Racing to gaming apps like Foxy Bingo. There are also some games that are said to work on your mind and improve your brain power. Here we give you an example of the top brain boosting apps.

Sudoku
Any brain-bender has to start with sudoku. The puzzle has been credited with warding off mental illness, memory loss and Alzheimer’s disease all the while strengthening reasoning and logical skills, according to studies by a variety of universities. One of the most popular is the Electronic Arts sudoku, but look around and find one that suits you.

General knowledge apps
Test your trivia and the breadth of your knowledge base with a general knowledge quiz. The quiz by Obaid inc is a recommended one. A broad general knowledge is a great base for creativity, the more you can see the links between things, the easier ideas will flow. It is also associated by greater openness to experience and fluid intelligence.

Physics games
Physics games help you learn the laws of physics and use your brain at the same time. One of the best ones is Newton which uses a powerful physics engine.

Catch all puzzles
Puzzles are still a fine way to give your head a little work out and the PuzzleManiak is a grab bag of some fiendishly inventive ones. It’s available at a reasonable price and should keep you occupied for all those long journeys and long mornings in the dentist’s waiting room.

3D Twist and Match is a $0.99 arcade game for those folks that are good at thinking in 3D space.  You know the ones I’m talking about.  It was those folks that got those wooden 3D puzzles for Christmas and thought someone must really love them instead of wondering what they had done to deserve that. LOL

The game consists of a couple of hundred different objects that are displayed in ten different themes.  As each item is displayed, there is a black “shadow” behind it.  Your task is to rotate the item on all three axis in order have it fit the shape of the shadow behind it.  In order to really comprehend the concept, you need to see it in action.  Luckily, there is a YouTube video that will help give you the feel for the game.

This task can be a bit of a challenge.  You only have a few seconds with each piece before the piece changes to the next one.  The game does offer a practice mode though, along with a Rush and Challenge mode.  Three different difficulty levels are also available.

All in all, while timed games like this generally cause me more stress than relaxation, I found myself coming back to this title.  It was refreshing to play something that was new and different and not yet another clone of other popular titles in the App Store.  While the game doesn’t make my Must-Have list, it is well done and tickles a different part of my brain from other games on my iPhone and is worthy of checking out.

Food Processing is a new slicing, dicing arcade game from Chillingo.  The game is priced at $0.99 (a dollar more for the iPad version) and a free lite version is available.

The game mechanics are simple.  As objects come down the conveyor belt, you must appropriately open the good food and ignore any bad food.  Sounds simple.  But it is anything but simple.  Depending on what kind of food it is, it needs to be “processed” in different ways.  One must slice it or tap it or move it (without tapping) in some combination of ways particular to that particular type of food.  An eggplant, for example, must have it’s top cut off precisely.  A walnut, on the other hand, has to be cracked with a tap.  Three taps in rapid succession is required for peas, while slices are required to divide an ear of corn into three equal pieces.

As you play the game, the conveyor belt speeds up.  You also have the option to achieve bonuses for certain combinations and precise cuts.  You can even unlock a Hell’s Kitchen  area for those that relish in the insanely difficult.  And, in case competing against the machine and your own high scores is not enough challenge for you, there are also leader boards where you can compare your scores with other slicers and dicers.

All in all, this is a very fun game.  It’s definitely worth a buck.  I encourage you to at least give the free lite version a try.  I think you will really like this casual arcade game.

Romance of Rome is a soon-to-be-released hidden object game from G5 Entertainment.  Both an iPhone and iPad version are expected to go live on the App Store later this week.

As with other hidden object titles from G5, this one has a nice story line.  Your goal is to help Marcus on an adventure of exploration that ultimately ends with claiming the hand of the beautiful daughter of the emperor.

The game consists of seven different adventure episodes that take place over 17 different locations around ancient Rome and total 30 different levels.  As you progress through the different levels, you earn money that can be used to purchase different items and are also given the opportunity to do favors for different people. These things combine to increase your standing in the community and your acceptability as a suitor to the emperor’s daughter.

At it’s core though, this is a hidden object game.  Objects in the location are very well hidden.  They may, for example, be seen from a slightly different angle in the location than what they are displayed in your table of items to find.  And, as with other G5 games of this genre, some objects can act upon other objects.  And some objects that you locate in one location can be used to act on an object in a different location.

All in all, the game plays well and meets the quality expectations of a G5 release.  The graphics are really nice on the iPhone 4 retina display, and the romantic angle of the story line is a nice addition.  I’m not sure what the price point will be, but I’d recommend this title to any fan of this genre of game.

I have to admit that I have been tied up for a while and have, to my chagrin, neglected this little jewel. It is by far one of the most in-depth RPGs that I have seen.

Pantheon Cycle is a first and foremost a turn based RPG that will bring you back to the old days of the solitary multiplayer games.

By that I mean that you are controlling different characters although having to rely totally on yourself – your friend with the WIFI connection is not coming to your aid.

I haven’t had time to spend more than just a few minutes with the game (which touts more than 30 hours of gameplay focussed more on fighting than dungeon crawling. My personal preference is to dungeon crawling, not fighting. I guess that comes from being beat up by my big brother growing up while I hid in actual tunnels we had under the eves of the house…LOL).

The game not only offers great music and art, but is possibly one of the most feature rich RPGs that i have encountered on my iPhone. Including multiple characters to control (each with their own skills and weapons) maps, and more NPCs than you could shake a stick at, this game seems to have it all for anyone sitting in a cubicle with the urge to gather up his “friends” and wreck dime bedlam during his lunch hour.

I wouldn’t wait too long to grab this up, however. For a very limited time the game is only $4.99 but that price will soon increase – possibly once it becomes universal and playable on the iPad as well.

As soon as the opening sound tract for this game started playing, I knew I was in for a good time.  I was not disappointed.  iCannon Hellfire is a new $0.99 release from BulkyPix.  As the story line goes, a comet has crashed on your planet and you are defending the energy source it provides from those that want to take it.  But it is pretty much an excuse to just blow things up.

The controls are very easy to grasp.  Tilt your iPhone to move the bullseye to a selected target and use one of your thumbs to then fire at it.  You have both a machine gun to shoot down troops, and a cannon to fire are armored things like tanks.

The game progresses over 20 different campaigns, but can also be played in mode.  As the game progresses, you can gain additional weapons and fortify your defenses.  With enough skill, you can even obtain invincibility.  My only suggestion for the game is the ability to adjust sound settings so that you had sound effects with less or no background music.  While I loved the sound tract and it reminded me of Fieldrunners or the A-Team, at times I found it distracting me from the quick reflexes needed to defend your position.

As a simple game, this one just works.  There is nothing complex about it and it’s use of the iPhone’s tilt and touch capabilities are a perfect fit for this platform.  The screen shots don’t do the game justice as it is difficult to fire with your thumbs while simultaneously hitting the home and power buttons to grab the image.

In Exclusion Zone – Anti Air Warfare, your goal is to defend your airport from incoming enemy planes and helicopters by launching missiles at them.  It is an easy goal, but not quite so easy to accomplish.  The incoming aircraft are moving at different speeds and coming in from different directions.  Getting the missiles launched in the right directions to that they intercept the aircraft that will be getting to your base first is a challenge.

The game controls are very simple and intuitive.  All you have to do is swipe from your missile launcher in the trajectory you want the missile to follow.  And this doesn’t have to be a perfectly straight line.

All told, there are six different types of aircraft ranging in both size and speed.  The battle takes place over 5 different maps.  As the game progresses, you move from a single launcher capable of one missile in the air at a time, to having bonus weapons of Electro-Magnetic Pulse devices and homing missiles.

This title is very addictive as a casual game and only cost $0.99.

In short, nobody does hidden object games like G5 Entertainment, and Treasure Seekers 2 truly exemplifies their standing as a leader in this field.  As a sequel to Treasure Seekers, this title does not disappoint.

Game play reminds me a lot of the aspects of The Mystery Of The Secret Portal 2 that I reviewed a while back.  Instead of having a list of things to find on a screen and then going on to the next screen once that is complete, this title uses a collection of objects to interact with other objects in a way that makes the game a lot more immersive.  For example, in the opening sequence, you find objects that are displayed on a wheel around a lock for a gate.  But finding those objects and dragging them to the lock, the lock is opened and you get access to the tower.

The game has a lot to offer.  There are both a relaxed/casual game mode and a more advanced and challenging mode.  The game encompasses fifty different scenes and mini-games in stunning retina quality.  All this takes place in 6 different canvasses to explore.  The iPhone version is priced at $4.99, and the iPad version is $6.99.

The only suggestions that I have for the game is that as the story line unfolds, text is displayed on the screen.  This text automatically fades as the story line continues with additional text.  There were times when this fading happened before my old eyes got all of the text read.  I wish the delay on each screen lasted a little while longer and would take a finger-tap to move on to the next screen.  And, with the price point of this item, I wish there was  a free lite version with the first couple of scenes in it so that folks could see first-hand how great the graphics and game play is.  I think once folks tried it, they’d be a lot more likely to purchase the title.

To celebrate the release of this title, the developers are having a contest.  All you have to do is go to the link on Facebook and follow the instructions there.  On the 20th, five different winners will receive a copy of the title.  Winning a free copy of the game is even better than a free lite version!

All in all, this title is a great example of what happens when great ideas are incorporated with great graphics.  If you ever played a hidden object game in a kids magazine and enjoyed it, I’d suggest check out this title.

Fragger is a keeper in my book.  Unlike others games that try to carve out a bit of the success of games like Angry Birds, this one truly succeeds in a way that has all the charm and addictive nature of Angry Birds combined with the successful theme of military weapons.  In this case, you are launching/throwing grenades to try to take out enemies that are hiding on, behind, and beneath different obstacles.

At a very reasonable price of $0.99, this game comes with 160 levels over five different worlds.  The latest world is actually a holiday theme that has just been released.  There is also a very simple tutorial that will assist in case you have never played something like Angry Birds.  Nothing more complex is necessary as the game controls are very easy to learn.

The game also comes with Game Center leader boards and achievements with both local and global high scores.  Two features that I really like is that, similar to Gravity Guy, another recent title from the same developer, this game has downloadable retina graphics and game music that automatically silences if you are playing something else from your iPod library. 

If you would like a nice take on the projectile games for your iPhone, this one is a great one to add to your library.  Some of the levels get quite creative in how they are laid out and it promises (and delivers) a lot of entertianment at a very reasonable price.  Other than possibly more levels or a trial lite version, there isn’t a whole lot to recommend for this title.  It’s practically perfect in every way.

Artillery Brigade surprised me.  I’d heard it was coming.  I’d received announcements that it was finally here.  And I expected something that was going to not live up to the hype.  Boy, was I wrong!

The thing that impressed me so much about this game wasn’t just its feature set.  I was surprised at how immersive this game is.  I didn’t feel like I was playing a game on a phone.  I felt like I was in war.  This aspect alone, and at a $0.99 price point to boot, propels this title into the Must Have list for me.

In this game war, you man an artillery post against enemy troops, planes, and tanks.  You have three different types of guns at your disposal, full 360-degree view with panning up and down and zooming in and out, a radar showing you where your enemies are coming from, and a button that keeps all of this from becoming total overwhelming because it swings you around to be pointing in the general area of your closest threat.

While I generally avoid dual-stick shooters that require a lot of activity with my left hand (something that us old fogies that didn’t grow up in the Nintendo generation have an issue with), the requirements for your left thumb are not only simple, but rather intuitive,  You select you gun and fire with it.  Your right hand can handle your navigation/direction and zooming in and out.  This layout and balance made this title the most enjoyable dual-stick kind of game that I’ve ever played.

This title offers both OpenFeint and Game Center support, six different environments, a nice tutorial to get you started, both day and night missions, and different weapons that you can unlock in the categories of anti-aircraft guns, machine guns (great against troops), and rocket launchers.  And, after you complete each mission area, a survival mode opens up for endless play.  And, if you ever do get bored, switching from touch controls to accelerometer controls to gyroscope controls will give you all new types of game play to conquer

This game is very intense with its graphics and all that is going on.  While it plays great on the iPhone 4 (unless I was downloading a large app in the background), I’m not sure how it would perform on older devices.  At it’s current $0.99 sale price point though, it’s worth getting now before the price goes up.