Android – Iphone – Applications

A sequel to the first Fantastic Contraption, itself a conversion from a flash based online game, Fantastic Contraption is a bit of a mind bender for those who haven’t tried it before. It’s a physics based puzzler but one that offers a whole wealth of choice. It’s almost overwhelmingly so in fact.

The aim of each level is to create a machine to transport an object from the blue zone to the pink zone on the screen. To do this, well, it’s entirely up to you how you want to do it – within reason. You’re given an array of different objects to do this, you can add extra wheels, connecting rods and all manners of other bits and pieces. Press the Start button and the object takes off, hopefully following the plan you had in mind. Sometimes it’s pretty obvious what needs to be done and will only take seconds, other times though it feels extraordinarily convoluted and complex. That’s the beauty to Fantastic Contraption 2 though, it’s really quite cerebral in nature. You just have to persevere through the mind boggling part until it all begins to click in your head.

It’s refreshing to not have a ’set’ way of finishing a level. All 66 levels are unlocked from the start so if you’re truly stumped on one level, you can always switch to another. And believe me, you’re going to be stumped. I was scratching my head many a time while playing through it.

Besides those levels, there’s also a level editor facility which is rather satisfying to mess around with and there’s also online level play functionality which helps extend longevity.

Controls are slightly fiddly at times requiring accurate touches of the screen, but once you get around this, Fantastic Contraption 2 is quite a thought provoking puzzler – one that requires a lot of concentration and a bit of patience too.

[ Fantastic Contraption 2 Review is a post from 148Apps ]

written by jdkjdj

With “Black Friday” well in the past, this is that magical time of year when developers start looking towards the upcoming rush of new holiday iOS device purchasers and ready themselves with some of their premier releases.  Gameloft is no exception to rule, letting slip three of their exciting new titles, which include a couple of sequels and one newly premiering franchise.  So without further ado, lets dig into the details, shall we?

NOVA 2

Acting as a direct sequel to last year’s Near Orbital Vanguard Alliance, or NOVA for short, NOVA 2 takes place six years after the original’s events.  Humankind is now in the midst of an extreme civil war, which as you can imagine leads to the introduction of interesting new alliances being made and several new factions emerging.  They have released several new pieces of concept art that can be seen in the gallery below.  These can help give players a glimpse at what they can expect to see when the game releases at some point in December.

Shadow Guardian

Obviously following in the footstep of the tremendously successful PlayStation 3 release Uncharted, Shadow Guardian places players directly into a treasure hunt of the historical variety, looking for a centuries old relic that has been lost for over one thousand years.  Players will be running, jumping, shooting and exploring their way through a wide variety of different stages, all of which look absolutely stunning in the screen shots and trailer that you can see below.  You can look forward to this bad boy landing in the App Store “very soon.”

Asphalt 6: Adrenaline

What would a holiday season be without a trip back to the well of racing games on iOS?  Marking their sixth (yes, that was not a typo) entry in the Asphalt series, Gameloft has gone out and licensed some of the biggest names in automobiles, to help better flesh out their vehicle roster.  More information on that lineup should be coming very soon, but in the meantime, why not check out the teaser trailer and screen shots in the gallery?  This should be burning rubber soon, with a release date set for sometime in December.

[ Gameloft Debuts Upcoming Lineup is a post from 148Apps ]

written by iqu

I suppose it had to happen. There’s a tower defense game to suit just about everyone’s taste and preference these days, so it’s little wonder that a Lord of the Rings tower defense game was developed for the iPhone. Surprisingly, though, this is one tower defense game that stands well on its own and that incorporates its theme well.

If you are used to traditional tower defense games, you expect a few things: a large, open playing area, a reasonable selection of units, and the freedom to place those units wherever you wish. LOTR: Middle-earth Defense doesn’t use ANY of those traditional mechanics. While this may disturb some, it actually made the game a refreshing change of pace from the slew of also-rans out there.

There is a large playing area for each level, sure, but it’s not what I’d call open. You are shown the playing area and the path that enemy forces will use for entrance and exit. It’s your job, as is the case with all tower defense games, to stop that flow of enemies. To do this, you may call on the powers and defenses of key characters from the book/movie series. At the outset, I was afraid this meant that you could have six Aragorns running around doing your bidding. I was relieved to discover that you only have one of each character to use, and the characters available are severely limited. Early on, for example, you will only have Aragorn and Frodo, but later levels expand your rosters sizably, provided you have enough resources to summon them.

Character placement is also limited. When you select a character, you are shown specific spots on the map where that character may be placed. Sometimes, there are many options; sometimes not. Other than characters you may also choose to place barriers to route your enemies in a specific direction. Some of these barriers are basic, but others also provide defensive weapons like floor spikes, for example..

Characters have several attributes that can be upgraded as you play, though each time you start a new level these upgrades are strangely reduced back to their original position. You can also choose to spend resources adding a special power to many of your characters that can help you clear enemies a bit faster.

Graphics are rendered in 3D and can easily be zoomed in and out using the standard pinch genture. Occasionally I had trouble getting a click/touch to be recognized, but it wasn’t often enough to become a serious impediment to gameplay. The special power commands, however, were unclear and needlessly muddy. I was never sure what to do with the contextual special powers menu, or how to direct those powers against my enemies.

Taken as a whole, the game is fun to play and it carries with it a strong sense of its license. Images and written dialogue are used from the films, though it did seem a little overdone at times. I mean, if you’re playing this game, don’t you already know the story? Do we really need to read minutes of dialogue between characters? That said, it’s a fun Apple Gamecenter-compatible game that trades in tower defense conventions for something more suited to the game’s chosen theme. Real care and love for the LOTR franchise can be seen throughout the app, and that translates into a fun experience overall.

[ The Lord of the Rings: Middle-earth Defense Review is a post from 148Apps ]

written by pmwalters

Most vocabulary-building games use either tight time limits to create a sense of urgency or only provide big scores for extremely long words even dictionary editors don’t know. Four Letter Words drops all that pretense, instead presenting a straightforward game with a generous time limit that never forces you to rush ahead to cram in as many words as possible. This is a mellow, laid-back approach which works out extremely well.

Each round starts with two four letter words side-by-side and you have to figure out how to get from one to the other by changing one letter at a time. The game will keep track of every move you make and as you move closer to the intended word your farther away the speech bubbles will also drift closer or further from the target. It’s a cool representation that lets you know exactly where you stand and how close you are to nailing the correct word. Each round is timed but the timer rarely comes into play, and points are ultimately awarded based on how quickly and efficiently you managed to get from one target word to another. It’s all an incredibly simple concept, but one which is also executed very well.

The only real fault you can claim for Four Letter Words is that it’s nearly too laid back and slow-paced. While the change of pace is nice at first it can start to drag, and the ability to change any letter in a word at any given time removes a lot of the challenge. Then again, no one said games like this had to essentially be difficult, and there will likely be a number of folks who enjoy breezing through stages and quickly blazing from one level to the next. It ultimately comes down to a matter of taste.

Ultimately Four Letter Words is a groovy app which takes a different approach to word games, with a mostly positive result. While some players may be turned off by the slow pace and simplistic mechanics, others will likely enjoy the fact that the game encourages them to simply sit back and enjoy the experience. Twitch gamers need not apply, but others might just end up having quite a bit of fun.

[ Four Letter Words Review is a post from 148Apps ]

written by

The promise of iOS 4.2 for the iPad has largely been fulfilled, yet there are still gaps remaining. The ability to print to any printer via AirPrint has yet to materialize, and until Apple releases another update there is only a select (read: infinitesimally small) number of HP printers that will work.

Don’t despair. As usual, an enterprising third-party application developer has solved a seemingly insurmountable problem. That solution is Printopia, a small addition to the preference panel in OSX (it works even with 10.5) that allows you to print to any printer connected to your Mac. Not only that, Printopia also serves as a virtual printer, allowing you to save your files as PDFs or JPGs directly to your Dropbox or to your Mac.

I’m currently trying out the 7 day demo (after that, the software costs $9.95 – a meager sum to print from your iPad TODAY instead of some unknown time in the foreseeable future) and can attest that Printopia works as advertised, even exceeding my expectations in its simplicity and ease of use. Once installed, all you have to do is pull up the print menu (note that the app has to be compatible with iOS 4.2 and have a print menu enabled) and your printer will appear. No, it isn’t realizing the promise of driverless printing – yet – but it’s better than any other stopgap measure I could imagine.

A few caveats: first, you need a Mac for this (sorry Windows users), and second, your Mac has to be running in order for you to access printer resources (this includes saving to your Dropbox account or your Mac as well). Still, it’s simple, elegant and affordable. It just works.

Read more about Printopia and download the demo here.

[ Printopia for Mac Cures Your AirPrint Blues is a post from 148Apps ]

written by Mz.MaLi