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Best of Smartphone Experts, 5 Sept 2010

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Sunday, September 5th, 2010 iPhone Hacks, Tips and Tricks No Comments

The Creeps! Free on 9/5

$1.99→FREE

The Creeps is back for free again! This time with iOS 4 support and bonus levels. Play one of the best tower defense games in the App Store. Toy blasters, flashlights, glue bottles and boomerangs are your weapons. You can even summon giant spiders or UFO’s slow the enemies in their run. Tons of levels and hours of gameplay should have you hooked for days!

App Store Score: 4-stars with 12250 Votes

The Creeps! Free on 9/5 is a post by App Chronicles

Sunday, September 5th, 2010 iPhone Hacks, Tips and Tricks No Comments

AcChen HD 1.0 – An Addicting, Find the Matching Tile, Board Game

Flensburg, Germany – Stefan Preuss today is pleased to announce the release and immediate availability of AcChen for Apple’s revolutionary iPad device. AcChen HD is a simple to learn, arcade style ‘find the matching tile’ type of game. The easy rules and the ‘hot seat’ mode makes AcChen a great game for all ages and the whole family. Play 60 different maps and 12 bonus level. Play in a single player campaign or compete with a friend in Battle Mode. Battle Mode is a 3 minute ‘hot seat’ multi player game mode.

Some of the features of AcChen are:
* Fast arcade style ‘find the matching tile’ game
* Multi player ‘hot seat’ mode
* 60 levels
* 12 bonus maps (fill the board in 3 minutes instead of clearing it)
* Various bonus items
* Multitouch support (use two fingers to improve your speed)
* Global high score list
* Eight unlock-able achievements

Device Requirements:
* Compatible with iPad
* Requires iPhone OS 3.2 or later
* 12.1 MB

Pricing and Availability:
AcChen for iPad 1.0 is only $1.99 USD (or equivalent amount in other currencies) and available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Games category.

Miscstuff Development
AcChen for iPad 1.0
Purchase and Download
Screenshot 1
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App Icon

Stefan Preuss started coding games back in 1987. After developing on many different platforms including Atari 800, Atari ST, Commodore Amiga, Nintendo DS, the Web. The current focus is on iOS devices. Copyright (C) 2010 Stefan Preuss. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, iPod and iPad are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.

Sunday, September 5th, 2010 iPhone Hacks, Tips and Tricks No Comments

NFL 2011 Review: Second String

It’s football season, and App Store heavyweight Gameloft has released NFL 2011, the update to last year’s popular title. While the game shows improvements over last year’s already playable app, NFL 2011 is still the lesser of the Football apps out there.

As is typical for Gameloft, production values are high. The players move realistically; uniforms are authentic; the turf is nicely textured; menu and selection screens are slick and blue. The audio track is pretty standard, with the expected grunts and whistles and a generic – very generic – announcer. One thing I really liked about the audio was the ability to play songs from your iPod without switching off incidental sounds, something the other big NFL game on the iPhone, Madden 11, lacked.

In practice, it’s a decently playable game. On offense, you generally do one of three things: choose a receiver, control the receiver, or run the ball. Like in most football games nowadays, you can choose a call from the playbook or create your own original hot routes before play. Throwing the ball is a simple tap gesture, and receivers, in keeping with other football games, are coded red, yellow, or green to indicate how open they are. There’s nothing here that you won’t find on Madden 11.

As is common with these sorts of games, defense is a mixed bag. You have control over tackle strength, but oddly, no ability to control pass blocking. It’s really far easier to just let the computer control defense. Call a play, then sit back and watch it unfold. This isn’t terrible, but after experiencing some of the things that Madden 11 offered – things like the Total Control feature, or even a button for pass blocking — it feels a bit underdeveloped.

If it seems like I’m mentioning Madden 11 a lot, that’s because it’s impossible to ignore that title when reviewing this one. They’re so similar in so many ways. Heck, it’s Gameloft’s stock in trade – creating ciphers for popular console games. Unfortunately for them, EA has successfully brought Madden to the iPhone, so the lesser nature of the Gameloft imitation really glares here. It lacks the depth of control and play that Madden 11 offers. Last year, when Gameloft’s NFL 2010 was the only game in town, that wasn’t a big deal. Now that we’ve seen such features implemented on the iPhone, it’s hard not to notice.

I do think it’s the more causal footballer’s game, however, because the game is very easy to play. Even on harder levels, you’ll be playing games with scores in the 40s and 50s, on both sides of the gridiron. While I love scoring as much as the next guy, sometimes I wish these games played out a little more like real football. Sometimes, games DO get decided by a score of 3-0! But here, If you can connect a pass or break your runner off the line, there’s a very good chance you’re going all the way. And the AI always seems to make the impossible play when they need to to keep the score close. Can you say “rubber band”?

In the end, NFL 2011 is playable enough, but true football fans are going to go for Madden 11 first. They’ll recognize the name, and in the end they’ll get more football bang for their buck. That leaves NFL 2011 as the choice for those who don’t want to pay that premium price, those who want a ridiculously easy play experience, and those who, for whatever reason, don’t like the Madden franchise. And that doesn’t strike me as a very large audience.

Our Score: 3/5