There’s no shortage of puzzle games on any electronic device that has the ability to play video games. The genre is practically more ingrained than loading screens at this point. This inundation of head-scratchers is hardly a bad thing, however, as a good many of these titles are very enjoyable. Of course, this also means that a puzzle game that’s merely “good” or even “great” can easily get lost in the shuffle. So what’s the best way to decide if one of these things is special enough to stand out? I simply ask myself: “Do I see more of these puzzles when I close my eyes or when I’m drifting off to sleep?

I asked myself this very question after my first ten minutes with Async Corp. became two hours, and the answer was definitely in the affirmative.

It may look like a dull piece of office paperwork, but that’s because it’s supposed to. Async Corp.‘s presentation is intended to make players feel somewhat like a cross between an office worker and a digital postal employee as they view emails, send “packets” and gain promotions. It’s a concept that’s been used before, but it fits quite well with the style and concept here. Gameplay is split between the left and right sides of the screen, requiring players to swap tiles from one side to the other. When four or more like-colored tiles are arranged properly (i.e. two-by-two, two-by-three, etc… boxes) they’ll merge to create a packet. Tapping a packet will send it off, but depending on the game type it might be better to try and increase its size (via adding another row or column) first.

A warning to potential purchasers regarding Async Corp.: it’s horrifically addictive. I’m not sure if it’s the crisp visuals, the simple joys of packet wrangling or the super-perky music that won’t get out of my head. No matter the reason, it’s incredibly tough to put down once a game is started. Heck, even when I’m not playing it I’m usually thinking about playing it. With four game types (the timed Quota, the leisurely Async, speed-based Zoning and relaxing Free Play modes) there’s bound to be something for everyone to enjoy. And while many games limit progression to just one or two modes, gaining ranks is tracked by the total amount of packets sent, so even messing around in the less hectic modes will eventually earn promotions and new skins to use.

The only complaint I can really make (aside from an inconsequential one about disproportionately loud music) is that it doesn’t support multitasking. The current game mode will be remembered, but the actual placement is random each time. It can be “put to sleep” successfully as long as the Home button isn’t pressed, but it’s an unfortunate oversight nonetheless.

Make no mistake, Async Corp. is a top-quality puzzle game. It nails everything a fantastic puzzler should: simplicity, addictiveness, catchy music and overall polish. Aside from the lack of proper multitasking the only other serious issue with it is the whole “devouring free time” thing. And I’ve yet to meet a developer, publisher or even gamer who’s ever seen that as a bad thing.

Async Corp.

iPhone App – Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Buy Now: $0.99

Our Rating: :: GREAT CLEAN FUN
Read Our Full Review >>

Released: 2011-06-28 :: Category: Games

Apps mentioned in this post: Async Corp.


About: Async Corp. Review is a post from 148Apps

Piclings is a novel technological concept – instead of levels being explicitly designed with specific artwork, levels in this game can be created through user-imported photographs that serve as the background and form platforms that can be navigated on. The player character, a creature named Picazzo can fly through the levels via a joystick placed anywhere on the screen with a finger. Picazzo navigates the levels collecting coins and avoiding enemies who can kill each other if the player can entice them into killing each other, or by way of a powerup that lets Picazzo kill enemies by touching them. Levels are completed when all the coins are collected, with bonuses given for killing extra enemies and completing the level in under the given time.

Piclings makes level creation easy – when a photo is imported, the platforms and other elements are automatically generated. However, it is easy to go in and edit levels and create platforms in any place, in a very user-friendly way. Any photo that is a minimum of 480×480 can be imported – shots of landscapes or urban architecture work best. It is also possible to take a photo straight from the app for use with the game. The game is a universal app. There are Game Center leaderboards and achievements, as well, although there is only one collective leaderboard for custom levels.

Unfortunately, by basing levels on real photos, errors do occasionally happen, as platforms can be in weird places. The editor can edit platform locations, but item and enemy locations are still randomly generated. There isn’t much in the way of actual gameplay progression – there’s only high scoring, and level creation.

Piclings doesn’t have a lot to meat to it, but it does have a unique concept that works well, and makes for an interesting technological concept. It needs some more work to be a fully-fledged game, but it is a fun curiosity.

[ Piclings Review is a post from 148Apps ]

Piclings

Buy Now: $0.99

Our Rating: :: PICTURE THIS
Read Our Full Review >>

Released: 2011-05-05 :: Category: Games

Apps mentioned in this post:

Developer/Publisher: OrientMaple
Genre: Tower Defense
Price: $.99
Acquired: Promo code provided
Review Platform: iPhone 4 with iOS4
Verdict: Easy to play and understand with an interesting idea for a Tower defense game. Doesnt deliver anything truly creative visually that holds your interest.

Pros: Interesting topic for a Tower Defense
Cons: Not enough visually to keep it interesting

The abstract appearance of the icon caught my eye. I thought it looked like a Chinese silkscreen, which I found interesting (Its actually outlines of tiny bugs). Visually thats about where the joy ends. You start setting up your defenses, in this case little human immunity cells on a honeycomb shaped board. These defenses shoot at the bacteria and virus that are coming to take away your protein in tiny chunks. Your goal is to stop them from reaching the protein and taking it back to the bacterias origin point. If you shoot the bacteria carrying the protein, it will be released and float back to the protein container. This becomes tricky because passing by bacteria can pick it up and continue to take it away. The game controls well and mechanics seem to work fine, as any other standard tower defense type game. Its pretty easy to set your defenses up and the game gives you good feedback as to where items can be placed or not.

Continue reading Cell TD Review at The Portable Gamer »

[ Cell TD Review is a post from 148Apps ]

How could I resist reviewing a game with the less-than-glamorous title of SteamBalls HD? Contrary to what you might think, this game has absolutely nothing to do with Turkish baths. In fact, it’s another variation of the classic match three game, this time with a decidedly steampunk flavor.

You’ve heard this before. Match three items of the same color in order to clear them off the screen. However, SteamBalls HD (I never tire of that title) does add several new mechanics into the mix, making it worth a second look. The balls in question (which best resemble billiard balls) are distinguished not only by their color but also by their number. Numbers in this case indicate the relative weight of the ball – thus, a ball with the number five on it is heavier than one with the number one. At the bottom of the screen is a series of four balancing scales. Players must guide the balls at the top of the screen to the appropriate side of each scale in order to get three of the same color in a horizontal row. The addition of weight as a factor changes the nature of this type of game tremendously. Getting three in a row – only horizontally – means carefully balancing the scales with the appropriate weights and colors simultaneously, a task not always easy to accomplish.

Visually, the game attempts to channel steampunk mythos and imagery, and is reasonably successful at doing so. The steampunk motif is present, as the game presents itself as a “futuristic” game from a penny arcade circa the late Victorian era, but other than theme and window dressing, the concept does little to nothing to enhance the basic gameplay.

Controls work well, and the developers have stayed true to the steampunk idea by making all controls knobs and buttons you manipulate virtually on screen. While this works from a thematic point of view, it doesn’t make as much use of the iPad’s touch screen as it could, and it would have been nice if the balls and scales could be moved and adjusted using fingers rather than virtual controls.

Sound in the game is generally utilitarian, though there is music. The music that plays when you first open the game has a vaguely Victorian feel to it, but what plays during the game itself seems anachronistic. All told, the concept behind SteamBalls HD is clever, but it simply doesn’t seem as fully realized as it could be.

If you are looking for a new spin on the old match three genre, Steam Balls HD might be up your alley. However, there’s a limit to how many games can be produced from this already worn concept. It’s time for developers to give us something truly new.

Those without a Mac may not have heard of Apples iMovie editing software nor the rocky reception the latest desktop version received. The free application comes as part of Apples iLife suite and is included with every new Mac, allowing users to quickly import video, slap on some themes, transitions and music and then upload to YouTube or email to friends. Its this very basic interface and editing process that had Mac users up in arms when Apple replaced the well-featured iMovie HD with this slim line model, but its also what makes it perfect for the iPhone.

When youre working on a small screen, you need everything to be quick and easy to access and thats exactly what you get with iMovie. Whether in portrait or landscape mode, you pick your theme, you choose the music and you add your clips, its that simple. Whether you work with pre-existing shots from your Camera Roll (which is the easiest method) or record directly onto your blank canvas, iMovie lets you do it in the most natural way via the Multi-Touch interface. Youre not limited to just video either; stored snaps or freshly taken pictures can be dropped into your project at any point. Each of the five available themes (who wants to bet more will be available as an In-App Purchase soon?) has its own soundtrack but you can quickly turn it off and add any song from your iPod as backing instead.

Once you have your media assembled, more fine-tuning is available. If you havent already, youre free to trim down movie clips to more succinct segments using a pinch and drag method which normally works but has the tendency to be hit and miss with clips that run to more than a minute or so. Photos can also be tweaked by adding a Ken Burns effect (the panning across an image technique you see in documentaries) that can be adjusted by setting the start and end points for the movement.

iMovie does its best to help you out as you go and adds transitions between your clips and photos where it thinks you want them. It appears, however, that transitions are limited to a cross dissolve as standard or one that fits with your chosen theme, which is a bit disappointing. Transition style and timing can be customized as you require with a simple double tap bringing up the options screen. In fact, nearly anything on your timeline can be adjusted using the double tap method. You can add new titles to a clip, bring up your videos audio (which then causes the theme music to duck to a quieter level) or you can include a location. The location feature is a neat trick that uses metadata from the video to automatically include the name of the place it was shot as part of the movie theme and, with when using the Travel theme, even includes a map as part of the opening titles.

Once youre done editing you can watch your movie back within the app and then export it at 360, 540 or 720p size with a copy of the finished movie sent to your iPhones Camera Roll ready for syncing back to your computer. You can also send a finished movie to YouTube and Apple’s MobileMe service, via email or by MMS direct from your Camera Roll, although we would certainly advise a Wi-Fi connection for larger web uploads unless you have a lot of time on your hands. That said, this on-the-fly editing and publishing is quite remarkable, especially given the quality of the footage, and also opens up many possibilities for bloggers, indie directors and broadcasters to make use of. Firing out quick updates from the road or shooting in locations where a traditional video camera can’t go are just a couple possible uses for the iPhone 4 and iMovie.

iMovie for iPhone really is impressive and easy enough to use that you forget that you are editing HD footage on a mobile phone. We did find a few areas where improvement is required, however. As we mentioned before, more themes would have been nice but well no doubt see them in a future update, whether we have to pay for the privilege remains to be seen. We also discovered an odd glitch that caused the movies soundtrack to end before the video when exported, even when the timeline suggested otherwise. Finally, as we eluded to earlier, trimming down a clip on the timeline can become a bit of a pain if you want to be precise about your cuts, but then thats not what iMovie for iPhone is about. Most people will use it and love the way they can throw in all their memories and quickly receive some suitably Apple-esque video output. Those aiming to be the next Tarantino may need to work a little harder to achieve the results they want.

Below is a video we put together in just under ten minutes using the iMovie app on an iPhone 4.

[ iMovie for iPhone 4 Review is a post from 148Apps ]