1st Impressions

I love utility apps and camera apps on the iPhone.  ToonCamera is the latest that I’ve tried out.  It is an app for not only taking photos using the back-facing camera or front-facing camera and video, but also allows you to select items from your photo library.  It then takes these images and “cartoonifies” them.  I realize that isn’t a real word, but by decreasing the colors in the image, it ultimately turns the image into something that looks like a cartoon.

I really like the effects of this program.  By adjusting the brightness, contrast, and line thickness, you can produce up to nine different versions of the image.  Examples of there are in the second image in the review here.  The end results are really nice.  And, if you combine them with an app like Colorize, you could really make some nice results that would really help to make your images pop out of the background.  Combining it with AutoStitch could also provide some interesting results.  I also used PerfectPhoto, another $0.99 app that I to remove some of the noise artifacts from my “cartoon” image.

The front-facing camera is a nice option as it allows you to take some great images for use as an avatar on Facebook or something.  The live video recording with these effects is also cool to see.  It is these options and the ability to view all this live that sets this app apart from things like the “pencil paint” and “posterize” options of apps of other apps.  Once you get an image or video that you’d like to keep, you can save it to your camera roll, share it on FaceBook or Twitter, or email it to one of your contacts.

At only $0.99, I’d highly recommend this app for any photgrapher.  It makes my Must-Have list and will remain on my iPhone.  I would like make two suggestions to the developer though.  It would be nice if you could either zoom or crop images.  I’d also love to see where the effects were more in the way of sliders rather than presets so that finer control could be accomplished.

XT is a $0.99 space shooter.  The graphics are really sharp, but I could have seriously used a tutorial on the controls.  Frankly, I got lost fairly quickly.

The game premise is that of avoiding mines while collecting all the green and red gems on a level.  There are a total of 30 levels to play.  As you play, your earnings can be spent upgrading your ship’s weapons, defense, engines, and life.

With a good tutorial, the graphics alone on this game would make it worth recommending.  But it may be one of those games that for you, like me, has you moving on to something that brings enjoyment a bit quicker.

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.

Monster Feed is a Tower Defense game with a bit of magic thrown in.  It is priced at $1.99 (a dollar more for the iPad version), and a free light version is available for trial purposes. 

Where this game departs from other in the TD genre is its use of “spells” in your attacks.  You are not just limited to the towers you place to keep the invading monsters from reaching the yummy deer, but you also shoot spells at them.  Different heroes have different spells.  But your monsters have added powers as well.  For example, spiders can jump parts of the path.

In a way, it seems as if this added complexity tries to take the traditional tower defense game to a new level in the same way that something like Defender Chronicles would.  But I believe it fails in that it has changed the popular TD formula to the degree that it has becomes something different and a bit cumbersome.  At half the price, I think Defender Chronicles does a much better job of mixing new ideas into the TD genre.  It might work better though if you approach this game as an RPG with TD elements as opposed to a TD game with RPG elements.  In its current implementation and price point though, it is hard for me to give this title high marks.  But, that may just be a personal preference thing as the game does have a 5-star rating (albeit with low numbers) in the app store.  It seems to be one of those titles that folks either really love, or don’t care for at all.  So, if you like Tower Defense and/0r RPG games, I’d suggest grabbing the lite version and taking this one for a spin.

A while back, I did a review of AutoStitch, a program that could be used to combine a series of photos into a nice panorama.  I have a similar program for the PC.  360 Panorama takes that concept a step forward.  In effect, you use your phone like a video recorder to shoot your entire surroundings and the program creates a seemless panorama from it.  It is much like the capability of a recent digital camera I saw, but this is a better implementation of that.  The grid lines really help, in real time, to see your completed result and what still needs to be captured.

The advantages of this implementation are obvious in the end result.  First, you end up with better brightness/contrast level across all the of panorama.  When you take individual photos, you often get different exposure settings on the camera.  Second, and just as important, you end up with seeing where you need to “cover” more area in order to complete the image.  No more taking a couple of dozen images only to find, when stitching them together, that you missed an area.

The 360 panorama app is currently on sale for $0.99 and is a must-have for anyone that is a heavy user of their iPhone camera.  It is super easy to use.  Choose an area to start “filming” and press the “Start Capture” button.  As you pan around and up and down, your progress is mapped out on a grid.  You can create just a part of your surroundings, or even do a full 360-degrees.  Once you finish, tap the “Done” button.  If you are in a low-light situation, the process even lets you know so that you can go more slowly in the creation of the image.

After you take the image, you are given a choice of eithe white or black background or the choice of a 360 view or a Stereographic view.  I’d suggest experimenting with both of these as they produce different results that are both interesting in their own right. 

The results come out real well, and there are several things you can do with them.  You can save the completed image to your photo library, email the full image to someone as a flat image, or email the interactive 360-degree panorama to someone.  This file, with a .360 extension is roughly the same size of the flat JPG image, but your iPhone mail app will open it in your 360 Panorama app.  This allows you to use your iPhone gyroscope to pan around in the image or, if you would rather, you can pan around with intuitive finger swipes.  You are also given the option to upload the image to either TwitPic or yFrog for posting on Twitter and are given an option to enable or disable location tagging on the image.

My only real suggestion for the app would be to allow uploads to Facebook and Picasa as well.  Facebook uploads could always be done from the Camera Roll, but having it built in would be nice. 

I am attaching the finished product from the trial photo I took from the deck of my house.  There are some “glitches” in some places, but that is due to a lot of camera movement on my part.  In order to take  the best possible images, you shouldn’t turn around or walk around with the camera, but keep the camera lens in as stationary of a position as you can and rotate it around.  With a bit of practice, you can come up with some really sharp and clear images.  If you would like to see the full 4096×1011 size image, click here.

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.

A Moon For The Sky is a new game release by BulkyPix.  In a way, it kinda reminds me of the opposite of Cut The Rope.  Instead of “slashing” across the screen to cut things and let a piece of candy fall, you are basically drawing a line that acts like flippers on a pinball game.  These new lines, as you draw them, bounce you higher and higher.  If you fall below the level of the screen, that round is over.

The goal of bouncing your new moon as high as possible sounds easy.  But, like pinball, you can easily bounce off of something.  If your moon bounced right back at you, you may not have enough time to respond.  Luckily, there is a feature in the game that lets you earn “bucks” that you can spend on “hearts” which can be used on restoring your moon to the highest position that it obtained.  Also, as you reach certain achievements, you gain access to new moons and new levels to explore.  If I had one suggestion, it would be that the collection of stars in the game somehow be incorporated into the scoring mechanism.  I wasn’t quite sure what the purpose of that was.

The game offers both an endless mode as well as different levels that you can progress through.  If you are just picking up the game for a few minutes to combat boredom, I’d suggest the endless mode.  Otherwise, the levels are great for the competitor in you.

At $0.99, the game is well priced.  The iPad version cost a buck more.  If you are looking for a casual game, this one might be just what you are looking for.

Gravity Guy is a platform jumper with a twist.  Instead of just jumping from one platform to the next, you jump from floor to ceiling and back to the floor.  This changes the way you recognize obstacles and creates a game play experience that is worth checking out.  If the $0.99 price tag is more than you want to gamble on, there is a free lite version as well as a YouTube video that might help sway you in your purchase.

The game offers 30 different levels across three different worlds, both a story mode and a practice mode, and even multi-player mode with up to four folks.  Another nice feature of this game is that it automatically detects if you already have background music playing and will not start playing the internal game music if you are already listening to something from your library.

With the combination of both obstacles to jump over and gaps to jump over, the pace can get hectic.  If you are a fan of arcade games that have a challenging objective with simple controls that don’t get in the way, I’d suggest checking out this title.  It is sure to privide you with a great deal of challenge and game play for the money.

I know this isn’t a traditional review, but I can’t get to one of those right now and wanted to post this because the the game is going to be on sale tomorrow, for one day, for $0.99.  If you are into 3D space shooter games, you should check out these specs.

About the game:
Battlestar Commander is an action packed, multi-player tabletop sci -fi shooter. The games makes amazing use of iPhone’s and iPad’s multitouch feature – allowing you to navigate your ships and shoot at the enemy with a flick of a finger. It can sometimes be an exercise in dexterity, but the task is all the more fun as you see things explode on the screen.

STORY LINE:

The state of humanity is in peril. The dying sun, Earth depleted of resources, our galaxy is no longer capable of sustaining life. Deep in the little-explored regions of space, luckily we have found a world that could be our saving grace. Battle the opposing forces for control of this uninhabited world. In Battlestar Commander you act as a defender of your base. Using an array of ships at your disposal you must destroy as many planes of your enemy as possible and eventually the base itself as well.

THE GAME:

Points are scored for each plane that you bring down and eventually destroy the base. The longer the distance at which you bring down a plane is, the more points are scored. In its turn, the enemy will be attacking your base decreasing the protection and viability of the structure.

Enjoy the game with a friend! In multiplayer more challenge your friends to a battle of skill and strategy as you battle each other each with your own arsenal of ships.

·       Amazing 3D graphics and an a realistic AI – physics model

·       A fantastic turn based game that tests your tactical and strategic skills

·       An epic campaign mode, with more than 20 planets and more than 50 missions

·       In game currency that enables you to further upgrade your BattleStar and your fleet of ship to maximize your striking power.

·       One versus one mode offering numerous combinations of play, offering hours of gameplay, always different and entertaining

When I was first given the opportunity to review Penguin x Run by Yeti Sports I was ecstatic. You see, I can remember the hours and hours spent online as a Yeti and using a club to knock an endless supply of unsuspecting penguins this way or that depending on the game being played.

On any given day the online version is still played by over 100,000 – but, if that is what you are looking for when purchasing this title then you will be as mistaken as I was. That game, still developed by Yeti Sports, is called Yetisports 1 indicating that there is possibly more to come.

Penguins x Run is a totally different game. It is accelerometer based to control the movements of anywhere from a single penguin at a time up to an entire group at a time as you attempt to beat the clock and maneuver all of them (they can be controlled individually or in groups as large or small as you like) through a labyrinth that includes all sorts of obstacles up to and including land mines.

There are a total of 25 island mazes that you must conquer and, if the first few are any indication, it will provide hours of fun.

If I could make one suggestion to the developer it would be to allow for game play at different angles by providing the option to set the play angle at the beginning of game play. The game costs $0.99 in the App Store, although there is a free trial version if you want to kick the tires and take it for a test drive.