Developer: NUAGE TOUCH
Price: $0.99
Version Reviewed: 1.1
Device Reviewed On: iPhone
iPhone Integration Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
User Interface Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Re-use Value Rating: 4 out of 5 stars Overall Rating: 3.67 out of 5 stars
If you’ve ever gotten stuck somewhere, unable to locate your car in a crowded, nondescript parking lot, then you know $0.99 is a small price to pay for peace of mind. .Parking (yes, the “.” before the title is intentional) is a simple, but elegant and effective way of tracking your parking place so you won’t wind up in a bind again.
The basic interface of .Parking is incredibly easy to navigate. Once you’ve parked, just tap on the app’s icon and you are immediately located via the GPS in the iPhone. From there, you simply have to save your location. You can even take a photo (if you need some visual cue as to your location) or make a note (say, “Goofy 75″) so you can remember exactly where you left your vehicle. When you are ready to find your car again, just open the app and choose from two options. The first option pulls up a map with directions highlighted (a la the built-in Google Maps function) that adjusts based on your body’s position. The second option is more interesting, however, as it turns on your iPhone’s camera and uses enhanced reality to superimpose an arrow on your screen that will direct you straight to your car. It was a little difficult to figure out how to turn on the enhanced reality mode (tapping the compass icon twice did the trick, but I only figured that out through trial and error) but once it was on it worked quite well.
There are certain situations .Parking cannot help you with, such as parking in a parking deck (where, I will admit, I am far more likely to get lost like in that famous Seinfeld episode). .Parking does not know what to do with a multi-level parking lot, so you might want to use the app’s notes function to help you remember where you parked.
That said, .Parking is a comprehensive parking solution for most situations. It even includes a timer so you can know if your parking meter is about to run out. If you are given to losing your way in today’s parking monstrosities, .Parking can help you.
Developer: ELECTRONIC ARTS
Price: $1.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0.1
Device Reviewed On: iPhone
Graphics / Sound Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Game Controls Rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars
Gameplay Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Replay Value Rating: 3 out of 5 stars Overall Rating: 3.44 out of 5 stars
Pictureka! is one loud app. I mean loud. Loud in every sense of the word (hence the exclamation point in the title). It’s easily the noisiest game I’ve ever played on the iPhone. There’s a sound effect for every action that takes place on the screen, so buyer beware if you intend to play this game in public. You’re sure to get some odd looks from those wondering where all of the springy, sprockety blips and twangs are coming from.
If you’re at all familiar with the board game of the same name, you have a pretty good idea of what to expect from Pictureka! You’re given a time limit to locate a pre-established number of particular objects from a scrollable screen of many, many items. Find them, and you move on to the next round or level. If you don’t….you crash and burn. It’s fun, simple and very basic, which may explain why the designers felt the need to pep up the proceedings with so many audio fireworks and quirky visuals. In the end, it seems unnecessary, as Pictureka! is a good, solid, though unoriginal find-an-object game.
Kids are sure to enjoy the game with all of its oddball sounds and strange characters, but adults may find the game more than a bit grating. Given that another find-an-object game such as Little Things has such a zen-like, calming effect during gameplay, it seems unlikely that many adults would gravitate to the more jarring sensory overload of Pictureka!
The game is identical on both the iPhone and the iPad, but there’s a $3.00 difference in price between the two versions. This is a continuing insult to iPhone and iPad users, since the game could have easily been designed as a universal app. If there were significant differences in content I might understand a price difference, but this is just money grubbing, plain and simple. If this is a game you’re interested in, I recommend just purchasing the $1.99 iPhone version since you get the same content. A bigger screen and HD visuals just aren’t going to make a huge difference in a game like this.
Carter and Whitaker discuss his first full-fledged game soundtrack with the upcoming Super Stick Golf and other projects, including the new track in the upcoming Tilt to Live Update. As well, they discuss his recent efforts at jumping into iOS game development for himself, starting from scratch.
Developer: BIG BAD BRUSH
Price: $0.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0
Graphics / Sound Rating: 4.35 out of 5 stars
Game Controls Rating: 3.2 out of 5 stars
Gameplay Rating: 2.25 out of 5 stars
Re-use / Replay Value Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Overall Rating: 3.2 out of 5 stars
It’s the Christmas season, so there are inevitably going to be a number of Christmas themed games and updates that will hit over the next few weeks, but very few will match the bizarreness of Big Bad Brush’s new app, Kung Fu Santa.
Like any good Santa based action game (what?), Kung Fu Santa starts with a simple note, telling you (Santa) that ninjas have stolen all the Christmas presents. The game then starts with you in an endless high score game trying to recover your missing presents while killing the evil ninjas that are trying to ruin Christmas.
The gameplay in Kung Fu Santa feels like strange play on Ninjump, except that there are three poles to jump between instead of the sides of two buildings. As the game progresses, presents fall down the poles while evil ninjas, gaps in the poles, and poison goop all try to stop your quest. In the end, there’s no way for Santa to ‘win”, as gaining a new high score is the only satisfaction you’ll get.
What really sets Kung Fu Santa apart from Ninjump are the controls, but not in a good way. Instead of simply tapping the screen to jump across, you have to watch for your position on the polls. For example, if you are hanging from the right side of the center pole, you have to tap the screen twice to get to the left pole, once to hang off the left side and another to jump over. With things falling from the sky at random intervals, the inclusion of body placement does add some difficulty, but it comes off as slightly annoying. Killing the enemies is also a bit of a struggle. To kill an enemy in Kung Fu Santa, you either have to jump into him of slide down on his head. On paper this sounds fine, but at times you’ll jump across to kick a ninja off, only to unexpectedly die for no reason. All I can come up with is that the ninja was hanging off the far side of the pole and was unhittable at the time, but there really isn’t a good way of telling which side of the pole the ninjas are on. As a rule, I just did my best to avoid the ninjas, which destroyed my plans of defeating the evil ninja thieves.
In fact, after a few minutes of play the whole game seems fairly pointless. Unlike Ninjump, the closest competition to Kung Fu Santa, the controls are frustrating, the concept of jumping on to and from poles is a bit boring, and there’s really nothing to keep you playing time and time again. Sure, the graphics and the sound are alright, but the game is definitely lacking in the likability department. In a game with a great set up plot, more should’ve been done to cultivate the ninjas vs. Santa story.
Tis the season to both give and receive. iOS developer Smule seems to understand that better than anyone else, and accordingly, are ready to announce a special holiday giveaway. Starting at 1pm on Tuesday December 7th, their critically acclaimed program Ocarina will be absolutely free. The only catch is that it is only for a limited time.
Looking back in time through the magic 148Apps.com crystal ball, we can see that not only has the app been well received by numerous junkets, but our very own Jeff Scott gave the then fledgling software a perfect five star rating. Trust us on this, we were not the only place that told you it was the best around, either. Word of mouth spread so quickly that it went on to garner over 2.8 million downloads since the original release in November of 2008.
Now boasting an impressive online community of digital ocarina composers, this is where the true appeal of the app lies. This is so much the case that the online library of composed pieces has reached an astounding sixty million playbacks. Here is what our own review had to say about it, way back in the day:
“Overall Ocarina, while not the most exciting musical instrument on the iPhone, does use the network connection on the iPhone to it’s fullest to create a fantastic social application. It’s a lot of fun.” — Jeff Scott
The fact that Smule is willing to give one of their marque titles away, even if it is only for a limited time, is commendable and another reminder that sometimes it is better to give than to receive. In this case though, we will happily take part in the receiving as well! Be sure to head to the App Store and pick it up before the promotion ends on December 10th at 1PM. When an app manages to gain our five star approval, it would be a crime to let this opportunity slip by.
If you’ve ever gotten stuck somewhere, unable to locate your car in a crowded, nondescript parking lot, then you know $0.99 is a small price to pay for peace of mind. .Parking (yes, the “.” before the title is intentional) is a simple, but elegant and effective way of tracking your parking place so you won’t wind up in a bind again. 
Pictureka! is one loud app. I mean loud. Loud in every sense of the word (hence the exclamation point in the title). It’s easily the noisiest game I’ve ever played on the iPhone. There’s a sound effect for every action that takes place on the screen, so buyer beware if you intend to play this game in public. You’re sure to get some odd looks from those wondering where all of the springy, sprockety blips and twangs are coming from.
The game is identical on both the iPhone and the iPad, but there’s a $3.00 difference in price between the two versions. This is a continuing insult to iPhone and iPad users, since the game could have easily been designed as a universal app. If there were significant differences in content I might understand a price difference, but this is just money grubbing, plain and simple. If this is a game you’re interested in, I recommend just purchasing the $1.99 iPhone version since you get the same content. A bigger screen and HD visuals just aren’t going to make a huge difference in a game like this.
:: RIDICULOUSLY ADDICTIVE
:: IMMENSELY ADDICTIVE
Like any good Santa based action game (what?), Kung Fu Santa starts with a simple note, telling you (Santa) that ninjas have stolen all the Christmas presents. The game then starts with you in an endless high score game trying to recover your missing presents while killing the evil ninjas that are trying to ruin Christmas.
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