Fun With Death is a game that builds upon the hugely successful Angry Birds title whilst simultaneously failing to create an identity of its own. Sure, there’s a variety of environmental triggers that the Rovio team haven’t put into their game, and the concept of saving good souls and destroying bad souls is fairly neat, but really it’s just Angry Birds with angels and devils; lacking the polish and yet lifting much of what we love about the bestseller.

Get off me!

For instance, the menu system is very similar, with levels unlocked one by one from a main level group. There are three level groups in total and on each level you collect halos, up to three of them depending on how well you did. One thing that can be annoying is that every time you load a level you are forced to read a screen telling you something about how to play the game, and then you have to tap to continue. The delay is aggravating, especially on level restarts, because loading times aren’t really an issue with Rovio’s title.

Somewhat familiar looking…

Next up is the object placement, which sounds like it would be a neat addition to the genre, but in reality it’s like designing a level whilst playing someone else’s; in other words, a chore. Players place ramps, balls or TNT in specially marked zones and the less of these that they use the more points they will score come the end of the round. It’s a poor attempt to try and recreate some of the one shot set pieces that work amazingly well for Angry Birds and ultimately disturbs the flow of firing imps at bad souls; especially as the controls aren’t brilliant, with objects sometimes ending up where they shouldn’t be.

Similarly, the firing mechanism is fiddly as both power and angle are controlled by a finger, and small movements easily affect the power meter. Happily though, players don’t have a pre-set order of imps to complete a level, they can choose which imp to fire and select another one at any point. This starts to come alive once the shield imps are unlocked; little blue fuzz balls that fashion a shield around their target, rendering the being impervious to all but falling off the screen.

The game sports some nice visuals but doesn’t quite have the charm of Trucks & Skulls, itself an Angry Birds derivative that is far more confident in its design and overall theme, and really doesn’t offer a great deal more. Yet it’s priced at $4.99, making it as expensive as Angry Birds HD.

Fun With Death has some good ideas but these aren’t enough to set it apart from the competition. The way the game is presented and designed ultimately serves to remind players of Angry Birds, so why not just go pick that one up instead?

[ Fun With Death HD Review is a post from 148Apps ]

Though chess has been around for centuries, it actually was not used to determine the winner of the Crusades. However, in the world according to Checkmate that injustice is not allowed to stand, as the game allows players to to lead the armies of King Richard to reclaim the Holy Land in the form of bishops, rooks and knights rather than archers, catapults and, well, knights. This is a title which will likely be greatly enjoyed by chess aficionados, as the solid AI and top-notch presentation makes for a very impressive app.

Checkmate is clearly aimed at the hardcore chess players of the world, as the game throws you straight into the action without any real crash course on the basics of how to play or strategies for victory. Once you move past the introductory screen you’re immediately thrust into your first match, and while the difficulty claims to be set to easy this still isn’t a game for novices. The AI will effectively counter most known chess strategies, and will aggressively seek to move your king into a checkmate. If you’re not the type of person used to thinking several moves ahead then this game isn’t for you.

It’s this unforgiving nature that makes the game, while excellent, hard to recommend for everyone. There’s no tutorial to teach you how to play if you don’t already know, and the lack of any sort of hint or tip system in-game means that you’re totally on your own in this particular “battlefield.” I suppose this is one Crusade which you’ll have to tackle on your own.

It’s a shame that the game isn’t more newcomer friendly though, as it’s visually stunning and could easily stand as the last chess app you need on the iPad if it made life a little easier on beginners. Everything, from the pieces to the background to the board itself is richly detailed, and the included Vs mode makes this a great option for playing with friends when you’re bored or busting it out in the car during road trips.

If you’re an iPad owner who happens to know the pros and cons of the Queen’s Gambit and are well-versed in exactly when to castle then this app is perfect for you. If that previous sentence didn’t make any sense and you’ve never heard the world castle used as a verb then you should probably steer towards a more beginner-friendly app. Once you’ve learned to ropes though be sure to come back to Checkmate, it’s very impressive.

[ Checkmate Review is a post from 148Apps ]

Davey and Goliath is a storybook app based on an episode from a television series produced by the Lutheran Church in the 1950’s and 60’s. The app itself is a cute retelling of the story, in which Davey’s father explains what he means when he says “God willing.”

Like many other picture books on the App Store, the app is a StoryChimes app, meaning that its storybook features are a good match for the iPhone’s screen. Readers can choose to have the recorded audio “read” the book aloud, and follow along; or more advanced readers can read the story at their own pace. Flipping through pages is easy, and the app lets you leave a bookmark where you left off. However, some parts are a little lacking—adapting the TV episode to book format means that there are some awkward parts, like pages that feature only still screenshots, with no audio or text.

The story itself is simplistic, with a heavy Christian influence: young Davey hears his father use the expression “God willing,” and asks what it means. Davey’s father goes on to explain that God cares about us and what we do, using a metaphor of the cave guide who found Davey and his dog, Goliath, when they got lost in a cave. The story feels a little abrupt, since it’s both out of context of the TV series as a whole and focuses on imparting a lesson rather than the plot itself. Still, it’s a nice story, and an interesting way to discuss God, if you identify as a Christian, at least.

Its appeal is probably limited, but if you liked the Davey and Goliath television show “back in the day” or if you just want a Christian storybook for your kids, Davey and Goliath is a cute picture book and the app works just fine. Check it out in the App Store for $0.99.

$0.99

Davey and Goliath – Lost In A Cave StoryChimes

+ Universal App – Designed for iPhone and iPad

Our Rating: :: SIMPLE STORY
Read Our Full Review >>

Released: 2010-10-30 :: Category: Books

[ Davey and Goliath Review is a post from 148Apps ]

PhotoFilter promises more than 50 professional digital image filters and effects. It keeps its promise, too: there’s certainly lots to do here. It truly feels as if you’ve got as many filter options as you would from a ‘proper’ PC based photography application.

Without meaning to rattle off a list of things, PhotoFilter enables you to do pretty much anything you can think of. From setting the contrast of an image automatically to reducing noise, sharpening the photo, blurring it, adjusting the colours. The list goes on. Besides such corrective measures, you can also add various effects such as charcoal, embossing and colour tinting. You can also add pop art effects or a poster style look.

It’s all really quite fun and satisfying to implement. In some cases it improves the look of the photo too, particularly in the case of the corrective filters. You can also crop, resize and rotate the images which is great if the photo you took isn’t quite perfectly aligned to start with.

Once you’ve finished with the image, you can save it to your album, email it or you can post it to Twitter or Facebook. All very useful options indeed.

PhotoFilter is a handy little app. Its only real flaw is that it doesn’t really offer anything extra compared to many other apps that do similar roles. It’d be nice if it also had basic camera facilities built in like other Photography apps but it’s still pretty respectable and the filters are certainly useful here.

[ PhotoFilter Review is a post from 148Apps ]

Rage HD is an ambitious  iOS title. Not only is it a look at where iOS games are going, but it is released on this mobile platform long before it lands on consoles and on PC. id Software brings a lot of respect to this game and to this platform, and many promises to what these devices are capable of doing for the player on the go. The big question here is if this game is just smoke and mirrors, or if id has truly delivered the next big innovation in gaming for iOS.

If you are a fan of on-rail shooters, this game will fill your need for something new. You are essentially in what can only be described as one horrible television show of death and murder. You are guided down a set path with the objective being to survive until the end. Mutants will be the foe wanting to stop you from attaining this simple goal. Along the way, you will try to shoot targets, collect money and ammo, and blow everything that comes in your way back into the ninth level of hell from which it came.

Read the rest of the review at The Portable Gamer.

[ Rage HD Review is a post from 148Apps ]