1st Impressions

So…. earlier this week I did a little fishing with my dad and youngest son. Between my son and myself we caught almost 70 “keepers.” While my son beat me in the quantity area (catching probably 45-50 of those), the fish I caught were much bigger so I beat him in the quality department.

That is what came to mind when I began taking a closer look at Appzilla. while it boasts the fact that it contains over 50 apps (51 to be exact) in one, the fishing situation immediatly jumped into my head.

You see, while Appzilla is long in the quantity deaprtment, it falls short in the quality department. Although you get 51 apps for the low price of $0.99, I found that there were only a couple that I would ever use and none of them impressed me that much.

it’s not that the apps were useless but it was like my son’s fish – there just wasn’t that much meat on them. while there is something to be said for numbers, what good are they if you only have a practicle use for a few of them?

I hate giving negative reviews but I just wasn’t that impressed with this application. If you have a need for a voodoo doll or a fake lighter flame (to use waving in the air at your next concert) then this app is for you. Otherwise I would spend $0.99 (it they werent free to begin with) on each of the few apps that you would actually use.

Car Mania actually surprised me. I am normally not a big fan of arcade style games because they tend to run too fast for a my fat fingers to play on a small screen.

Car Mania sneaks up on you in more ways than one. first of all you can play in Survival mode and play for as long as you can before you run out of “lives” . The game starts out slow and gradually speeds up until you can’t keep up any longer.

More importantly, however, is the fact that how much you like the game will creep up on you like a cheeta stalking a gazelle. Before you know it you will find yourself absolutely in love with it.

The game consept is simple. In each of the 3 modes of play you are presented with beautifully drawn maps with vehicles moving down the streets. Using your finger to “draw” a path for them to follow, your objective is to stay alive for as long as possible (the Survival mode that we just discussed) or to gain as many points as you can before the time runs out in the Time Attack mode.

As you do your best to direct the traffic flow you will be faced not only by a variety of vehicles that travel at different speeds but also other obsticles such as road construction and the road rage that ultimately develops following the inevitable crashes that occur.

And that is where the cheeta springs into a full sprint when it cones to how much I enjoyed the game. You see, the game also features a Road Rage mode in which you drive like my son and crash as many vehicles as you can. It is a wonderful (and much safer) way to blow off some steam after facing a stressful commute to or from work.

Car Mania is available in the iTunes store for $0.99. I really enjoyed it and think you will as well.

A while back my brother reviewed an iPhone game called Nurikabr Vault. If you would like to read it, it can be found at http://www.1stImpressions.mobi/2010/03/20/nurikabe-vault/.

Even though I really enjoy similar games such as PixPath, for some reason it took me several attempts before something “clicked” in my brain and I suddenly “got it” and was able to begin solving the puzzles.

The rules are fairly simple. The object of the game is to create a path through the game board in such a way isolate clusters of squares determined by a numbered square within that cluster.

The object of Antsumari is much the same but the rules as well as the difficulty have changed to accomodate the fact that, instead of using squares, Antsulari uses hexagons to form each cell.

Another difference that I really liked is the fact that the 125 different levels included in the $0.99 version come with
beautiful natural backgrounds. It also allows you to listen to either the game’s musical track or music of your choice from your play lists.

If you like these type puzzle games than you won’t be dissapointed with this one. While it isn’t perfect (I would, for example, like to the option to solve each cluster without having to select each cell within the cluster to first mark it as black and then select it a second time to turn it white) there is plenty to like and it is well worth the $0.99 price tag.

I have to admit that the first time I saw Cablink I thought, “Oh God, yet another connect the pipe together game!!”. It didn’t take long for me to realize that nothing could be further from the truth.

Yes, at it’s core you do have to manuver each piece so that the ends connect into one long connected string – but the options that you have with this game brings it to an entirely new level.

Not only are each puzzle randomly generated based on the options you have selected but each option is designed to make the game more and more challenging.

One option, for example, blacks out the entire board and only displayed the next price once it has been connected to the power source. Another option enables a “wrapping” feature which allows the “power” to flow off one side of the puzzle and connect to an open piece on the opposite side. If those weren’t enough, you can enable the hexigonal board and give each piece 2 additional directions to link to.

Not only have the developers provided enough options to challenge Stephen Hawking but they have further enhanced the game play by not only including leader boards via Open Fient but also allowing you to compete on the same puzzle with your friends via a WIFI connection in Face Off Mode.

Cablink is one of those games that is easy to learn and then hard to put down. All the options make it that much more challenging. With a price of only $0.99 I wouldn’t waste my time with the free Lite version – just go ahead and buy it. You won’t be dissapointed…

I have never been a big fan of Sudoku (preferring games that require less miental concentration) but folks that like that style game will love Kakurox.


Each puzzle provides you with a grid of squares. The grid is not necessarily square – it can be as complex as the squares on a crossword puzzle. There are numbers located on two sides of the grid and the object is to fill the grid with numbers in such a way that the ones in each row or column add up to the numbers indicated on the outside.


With options that allow you to choose between 3 difficulty levels and 5 different puzzle sizes (from 4×4 to 9×9) the game will always provide a challange. With the puzzles being generated prior to each game you will never run out of puzzles to challenge your mental capabilities.

As with many games there is a free lite version available in iTunes but, if you like number puzzles such as these, you can’t go wrong by purchasing the full app for only $0.99.

Nintaii 2 is a classic puzzle game in which you move a rectangular block of wood around one of 100 levels in an attempt to stand it on it’s end on top of a marked square.

While the premise is simple, implimentation of the concept is more than just a tad more difficult due to extra interactive tiles on the game board. For example it doesn’t take but a couple of levels before the challenge is doubled by requiring you to lower the target tile by first landing on a second tile to activate the sequence.

Movement of the piece is done by either swiping your finger across the piece (in the direction you wish it to move) or, if you want to make the game even more challenging, turn on the accelerometer and move the block by tilting your iPhone. I personally found this option very difficult.

During the course if playing each level you can move the board around simply by using 2 fingers instead of one. Speaking of the board, the graphics in this game are stunning. That makes the solving of each level even more enjoyable.

While you are not racing against a clock to solve each level, you do want to try to solve it in as few moves as possible. As with many other games, Nintaii 2 utilizes Open Fient to keep track of your position on the online leader board.

While there is a free Lite version I don’t think you will wait too long before snapping up the full version considering the very reasonable price of $0.99.

A while back I wrote an article about the perfect alarm clock. I had tried several alarm clock apps and they all fell short of my needs.

Since that time the developers over at Fishbone Development took an already great application, Alarm Clock 4.0, and made it even better.

In case you aren’t familiar with Alarm Clock 4.0, one of the things that made it stand out from the other clock apps I have tried is the fact that it utilizes Push technology to ensure that your alarms go off as scheduled regardless of whether the application is running or what other app you might be engaged in at the time.

With the update and name change to Clock Pro, the developers have added a pluthra (I always liked that word…) of new features. As tempting as it is to go into detail with every feature, that would result in almost a dozen full length reviews and would go on for pages so I will just list the major features:

Alarm Clock with Push technology
Analog Clock
Chess Clock
World Clock
Stop Watch
Nature Tunes (Sunrirs, sunset, etc.)
Sleep Timer
Egg Timer
Metronome
Count Down Clock
Project Clock

The price for this wonderful app has just dropped to $0.99 in the iTunes store and I would recommend it whole heartedly to anyone that needs a clock app for their iPhone.

Nurikabe Vault is, in short, a must-have iPhone application for those that like logic puzzles.  The concept, according to Wikipedia, was invented by the same guys that came up with Soduko.  It’s more graphical and less numerical though.  If you like PathPix, you are going to feel right at home with this $2.99 title.  Like PathPix, your game level starts out with some numbers.  Your goal is to connect “blocks” or “boxes” that total up to the number.  These connected boxes can only connect vertically and horizontally.  But there is an interesting twist that sets these 500 levels apart from games like PathPix.  Your collections of squares have to be divided by a “path” that is no more than a single square wide.  And it too has to connect in a single unbroken line that doesn’t break or try to go diagonal.  Two different collections of squares can touch diagonally, but that doesn’t “count” as a connection.

The game interface is incredible.  A lot of thought went into it, and it shows.  What you can’t see in the screen shot to the left is that those background graphics that look like green gears actually rotate or move slowly.  The initial menu also uses this gears-type theme.  In it, you have an inner wheel and an outer wheel that you rotate to get to the level number that you wish to play.  A status message at the bottom of the screen tells you if the level has been completed or in progress.  If you have completed it, it tells you the best time you have for reaching the solution.

Once you get into a game level,  touching a gray square and dragging your finger will add adjoining gray squares.  You can do the same if you are adding to the “path”.  Tapping any square (except for the ones with the numbers on them) will rotate though the options of a “block”, a “path”, or neither.  Once you finish a level, the button on the bottom of the screen to undo a “move” changes to to one that takes you to the next unsolved level.  The levels also auto-complete once there is only one choice left and that choice solves the level.  I wish this was an optional thing though as sometimes, as I neared completion, it completed it for me before I had that “Aha!” moment and realized that I had solved it.  It almost made me feel cheated because I had not fully figured out that I had figured it out.

Like I said, the game comes with 500 different levels, each with a unique solution.  The levels are divided over five different “worlds”.   Puzzle sizes range from the simple 6×6 grids like what I’ve displayed here, but go up to 9×11…basically three times the size of the small ones.  In order to get from one “world” to another, you need to swipe horizontally on the main menu screen.  This is not as obvious as it could be, but takes you to the larger levels with the different graphical themes associated with that “world”.

The game graphics are incredible, but the minimalistic “clicking” sound effects are perfect for listening to your own music or, like me, an audiobook while you play.  One future enhancement that I would love to see would be the ability to start the titles or playlist from within the game so that you can also stop it when things get hairy and you need to concentrate, but don’t want to just mute the sound and loose your place in the book.

Nurikabe Vault also includes OpenFeint support for leader boards.  You can also challenge your friends.  Other game features are not quite as obvious though.  If, for example, you split up your “path” so that it isn’t continuous, it will “tremble” or “shake” a bit to get your attention.  Same goes with a collection of the “boxes” or “blocks”.  If you don’t have enough in the collection, it will “twitch” a bit.

While the game costs $2.99, I think it is well worth it.  A free version with 20 levels is available if you would like to try it out.  You can also become a fan of their Facebook page where occasional promo codes or news is announced.  I’d highly recommend the Wiki page as well.  Not only does it do a great job of laying out the rules and some strategy tips, but when you look at the graphics there, it really shows you how far Nurikabe Vault goes in setting itself apart with an an incredible implementation of a classic logic game.

When I was asked to review Bio Sub I couldn’t wait. Not having even read the description I was looking forward to playing the part of Dennis Quaid as he piloted a miniaturized sub as he mad his way through Martin Short’s innerds. While that would made for a great game, this wasn’t it.

Instead I experienced a very unique puzzle game in which, using the accelerometer or optional touch controls, you pilot your mini sub through 70 levels of increasing difficulty.

In order to clear each level you play “bumper car” to knock like coloured canisters into each which causes them to dissapear. Once they have all been cleared away you can proceed to the next level

If I were allowed to make one suggestion to the developers it would be to allow you to calibrate the accelerometer so that you could use those controles in positions other than perfectly level. Since I spend most of my day laying down or reclining back, trying to use the accelerometer in this position simply steers it constantly from the top of the screen to the bottom.

Bio Sub is available from iTunes for the reasonable price if $0.99.

As guys grow up they are more than likely going to accumulate an entire black book full of contact info on all their old girlfriends. When they get into a bind they will often pull a name out of their book for an emergency date (to a wedding for example) and discover that they really like the girl after all and finds himself at the beginning of a long and happy relationship.

That is exactly the same kind of situation I found myself in a couple of days ago – but with iPhone apps and not old girlfriends. In this case I dusted off an application I hadn’t used in some time (not that I ever “used” any if my girlfriends) and found that it fit my needs even better now then when I first purchased it. That application was Easy Relax Ultimate.

If any of you read my article on The Perfect Alarm Clock then you will know that I was getting frustrated with my ability to listen to soothing music at night, have a clock on my nightstand, and then wake up to an alarm that is louder than the music I slept to. This problem was made worse when my phone began having difficulty properly repeating the music tracts I used to sleep to.

Unlike many other apps in the same genre, Easy Relax Ultimate not only gives you a set number (in this case 16) different sound collections but will also let you use any one of 22 different base sounds and add up to 3 different intermittant sounds as well an one binaural tones to create your own perfect melodic collection.

Let me give you an example. The top selection on the screen shot was one I created myself. I began with the sounds of gentle lapping of some soft ocean waves. I then added a healthy dose of a breeze blowing through trees and the occasional cricket chirp and distant melody of a wind chime. Each of these intermuttant sounds are customizable not only by controlling their individual volume but also their interval, randomness, and speed.

I completed the masterpiece by adding a barely audible binaural tune designed to assist in deep dreamless sleep. The end result was magical. If it wasn’t for the lack of sand on my feet, the smell of sea air, and no strings in my back than all I have to do is close my eyes and I an transported to a hammock on the beach with a breeze softly blowing through the palms and sea grass and with the faint sound of the wind chimes across the dune from me.

While I love the app it, just like the girls in that black book, could use some added features or upgrades. I would not only like to have the option to download new sounds but also switch between a timer with an alarm at the end and instead just be able to set the alarm for a specific time. I also wish that changes to the color and brightness clock were saved so that it wasn’t just bright green each time it started.

In the past I have tried several apps of this type but always find myself returning to this one. At $2.99 it might cost a tad more than some of its competitors but I think it is worth it.